(12/09/08 5:00am)
The Senate elected Ziv Quad Senator Andrew Brooks '09 as Executive Senator after a two-hour executive session with 11 votes in an instant runoff. The other candidates were Senator-at-Large Justin Sulsky '09, who received three first-choice votes, North Quad Senator Andrew Hogan '11, who received three first-choice votes, and Senator for the Transitional Year Program Terrence Johnson, who received two first-choice votes. Brooks received eight first-choice votes. The second-choice votes for Johnson went to Hogan, and the second-choice votes for Sulsky went to Brooks. Union Director of Communications Jamie Ansorge '09 reported that a forum on the Mumbai tragedy will be held Tuesday afternoon. He also reported that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), a former speechwriter to President John F. Kennedy, would be coming to Brandeis Jan. 14 and 15 and that an official invitation had been extended to Governor Deval Patrick to speak on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Union President Jason Gray '10 reported that he had a meeting with administrators about meal plans and discussed students having the choice to buy multiple meals in a meal period, meal plan structure and point-dollar parity. He reported that Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer would look into different ways to direct money from late fees for bicycles back into the planned bicycle program. He reported that he had emphasized to administrators that Adagio must have "equally suitable space" for rehearsals after the installation of the new weight room. He reported that the Union had received a report back from Health Center officials about the Health Center review. Points included establishing a better feedback processes, including Beth Israel Hospital members on the advisory committee meetings and customer service. Union Vice President Adam Hughes '11 announced that Senator for the Class of 2011 Alex Melman, Daniel Millenson '09, Stefan Nikolic '09, Sahar Massachi '11, Liza Behrendt '11, Carly Greenberg '11 and graduate students Nery Rivera and Toni Schwarzenbach would serve on the Committee on Endowment Ethics and Responsibility. The Senate tabled discussion of chartering the Swimming Club. Daniel Sternberg '11 said few students attended events this semester. The Senate passed a resolution in support of the Brandeis University Swimming and Diving Team. Senator for the Class of 2009 Eric Alterman reported that Dean of Academic Services Kim Godsoe is considering an overhaul of the advising program so that staff would focus on first year advising instead of faculty.
(12/09/08 5:00am)
Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer urged students last Wednesday to speak out against the gossip Web site JuicyCampus.com in response to student requests for the administration to take action against the site and potentially ban it from campus computers.Posts related to Brandeis started appearing on the site in early and mid-October. Some of the most popular threads are "Campuswide Biggest Slut?" and "Ugliest Person Ever." Over Thanksgiving break, Damien Lehfeldt '09 created a Facebook group called "Shut Down Juicy Campus at Brandeis," which by Dec. 6 had 402 members. Lehfeldt said he started the initiative because he believed the Web site was threatening the Brandeis values of social justice and truth, and he was disturbed by insults written about his friends. "This is cowardice, and it is not protected by free speech," he said. He explained that since he began his campaign, negative posts have criticized his religion and have misrepresented his sexual orientation. The administration was supportive in response to student concerns while carefully reviewing its options, Lehfeldt said. "I wish at this point the administration would put a ban on the Web site," which would convey that the University does not tolerate such behavior among the student body, he said. He also said that he believes there are a number of legal precedents that would justify removing the site for libel or defamatory speech. "We're really empathetic; . I've had students sitting on my couch really upset and a little bit traumatized," Sawyer said, also noting many concerns expressed by friends and parents. "We're really disappointed . that I guess we do have some students on this campus who take advantage of the ability to be anonymous." Sawyer stated the Department of Student Life believed it would be "more appropriate for students to be outraged" than for the administration to intervene. He said he encouraged the Student Union to work with Lehfeldt to establish a wider campus movement by this week and suggested conducting a student body survey. "I would hope that the students who have been to that site and posted bad things would be embarrassed about it, and I don't think they would be as embarrassed if I were to scold them," Sawyer said.In an e-mail to the Justice, Union Director of Communications Jamie Ansorge '09 wrote that the Union Executive Board was unhappy about campus press coverage of JuicyCampus. "The Student Union does not believe that Juicy Campus should receive any additional press or attention. It should be spammed and ignored. That is what we are doing," he wrote. "That is what we have advised the administration and campus leaders to do." Senator-at-Large Justin Sulsky '09 said that Senior Vice President for Communications Lorna Miles asked the opinion of students on the University Communications Advisory Committee of the Web site. After discussions with Union President Jason Gray '10 and other Union members, the committee came to a consensus to recommend that the site should not be shut down. "I think that instead, what needs to happen is a discussion about why people are saying such hurtful things on the [Brandeis JuicyCampus forum]," he said. Last Tuesday, Lehfeldt organized an event to discuss the issue after he met with Sawyer and Chief Information Security Officer in Library and Technology Services Dennis Devlin. At the meeting Erica Lubitz '12 said the site had affected her and many of her friends. "What bothered me the most was that my first and last name are on there, and I just didn't feel like I had enough privacy at that point," she said. She said that she hoped that students could use the site in a positive way to get advice about classes and professors, adding that she was against censorship. Omefe Ogbeide '12 said she responded to criticism of Lubitz, her friend, on the site and encouraged the posters to express their comments face-to-face. She said she did not think students took the site very seriously and suggested that Dean Sawyer should send a letter to the community condemning it instead of censoring it. "I kind of saw how it was becoming this stupid Mean Girls phenomenon, where people get off on making other people feel little," Ogbeide said. Brendan Fradkin '12, who did not attend the meeting, said he posted on the site to make fun of both the insulting and critical comments. While he said he disapproved of the insults and called it an "awful Web site," he also does not believe in censorship. "If anything, I think it's better that people are aware of the gossip that's spreading about them so they can fight it better," he said. "I've been made fun of once or twice; . I don't take it seriously." Five hundred schools have JuicyCampus profiles. JuicyCampus, which was created last year by a Duke University graduate, has faced criticism on many campuses. Tennessee State University was the first public university to ban the site when it blocked access on Nov. 12, and Hampton University in Virginia blocked the site last month. "Blocking their access is on the table," Sawyer said, adding that blocking a site for the first time would open up complaints about sites considered objectionable by community members. Sawyer said that seeing more comparable schools limiting access would influence Brandeis' decision. "The principled part of me would do it in a heartbeat; the pragmatic part of me . understands that it's a Pandora's box," he said, noting the large amount of distracting media attention Brandeis would receive nationally and on campus. "When you're a top 50 research university, you're not supposed to be weak-kneed in the face of confronting material," he said. He added that if a poster could be identified with some certainty, he or she could likely face Brandeis judicial action.In an e-mail to the Justice, Devlin from LTS wrote that when visits to the site were surveyed by LTS one week in mid-November, the high point was under 200 visits per day, a number that has been declining over time. LTS currently blocks a few Web sites to protect against viruses, he stated.
(12/09/08 5:00am)
The Brandeis Labor Coalition is working on an initiative to urge club leaders to amend their club constitutions to include a pledge to buy only sweatshop-free apparel. The BLC has been meeting with individual club leaders to successfully fulfill this initiative, explained BLC member Kaitlin Schofield '08. The initiative to focus on raising awareness about sweatshops began two years ago. The BLC made a club packet explaining what sweatshops are and why the BLC is working to eliminate them, Schofield explained. The BLC's sweatshop information packet now has several definitions for sweatshop. The first definition is "an employer that violates more than one federal or state labor law regarding minimum wage and overtime, child labor, industrial homework, occupational safety and health, workers' compensation or industry regulation." In addition, it also defines sweatshops as factories often associated with mass-produced items in developing countries, sometimes characterized by instances of sexual harassment and violence against workers who try to unionize. Schofield said the BLC tried many ways to keep apparel made in sweatshops from being bought and sold on campus before deciding to focus on working with other clubs to limit the amount of merchandise those clubs purchase that is made in sweatshops.Schofield said the BLC originally focused on working with the Brandeis bookstore to carry sweatshop-free clothing by United Students Against Sweatshops. She said this proved difficult because the store is run by Barnes and Noble, a national chain, and it would be difficult to get them to change the distributor from which they buy apparel.She said the group then "decided to attack it at a different angle by talking to our peers in clubs and making sure that the clothing and apparel they bought is sweatshop-free," Schofield said.She explained that because clubs are not run by a giant organization, they can decide individually where they buy their apparel, which helps people realize their own purchasing power.So far the Mixed Heritage Club, the Activist Resource Center, Students for a Democratic Society, Students for Environmental Action, Aikido and the Student Union have vowed to buy only sweatshop-free apparel. Waltham Group, Reslife, Student Sexuality Information Service and Adagio have also pledged to buy only sweatshop-free apparel, although they do not have constitutions. SEA's constitution states that the club will only buy organic apparel in addition to sweatshop-free apparel. SEA President Stephanie Sofer '09 explained that the club constitution now states that "In accordance with SEA's mission, it is official SEA policy to only purchase SEA clothing that is certified to be sweat-free and organic."In addition to talking with clubs about changing their constitution, BLC member Claire Charny '09 said the BLC wants a general awareness-raising campaign on campus about the issue."We have a big campaign plan for next semester, so I think it's really going to get off the ground. We have a lot of movie showings, and we're bringing speakers to campus. We're having a forum all around the issue of sweatshops, and hopefully that ... will kind of go into a more broader, longer sense of people [understanding] where we're coming from," Charny said. However, the BLC had to go about a step-by-step process to get its plans off the ground. First it had to figure out what exactly they wanted to define as "sweatshop-free," Schofield explained."At the beginning we just went over what we defined as sweatshop-free, which is still kind of in the works. ... Is it made in a union? Or not? And what constitutes as ethical apparel?" Schofield said. Charny said the BLC started with a "top-down" approach talking to the administration before they spoke with individual clubs. Some of these administrators included Assistant Dean of Student Life Maggie Balch."First we tried to see if this would be a campuswide thing. We tried to go to the administration to see if they could pass a mandate that said that everything should be sweat-free, but that's really an impossibility. That's when we turned to clubs, and we turned to an individual department like Reslife, because they [make] all of their [Community Advisor] and some of the orientation T-shirts," Charny said. Charny added that after talks with Reslife, they got them to sign on. "A big win was the following year, all their T-shirts [were] made by a company called No Sweat Apparel, which is all union-made clothing," she said. Although the BLC has not met much resistance, Charny explained that some people have been more enthusiastic than others about their initiative."Most clubs have been pretty receptive, and it's not like clubs would refuse [to change their constitutions]. They would just be like, 'I don't understand why this is important,' and not necessarily take the time to do it. [While] changing the constitution takes two minutes, changing someone's views takes a lot longer," Charny said.
(11/25/08 5:00am)
An article in Forum last week incorrectly spelled the surname in the byline. The writer's name is Zachary Matusheski, not Zachary Matushuesky. (Nov. 18, p. 12).The Arts cover last week incorrectly identified the event featured in the bottom two photos. The people in the photo were performing at Testrogen, not at the BOO coffeehouse. (Nov. 18, p. 17).A photo credit in Arts last week incorrectly spelled the photographer's name. His name is Max Breitstein Matza, not Max Bretstein Matza. (Nov. 18, p. 20).The photo spread in Arts last week failed to identify the nature in which the photos were taken. The photos should have been identified as photo illustrations. (Nov. 18, p. 20).
(11/25/08 5:00am)
A student budget advisory committee that will attempt to assist administrators regarding cuts in the budget that could affect students has been selected, but details of what the committee will discuss have yet to be released.Student Union President Jason Gray '10 announced in his state of the union address on Nov. 17 that "the University is heading the call to involve the community in the process [of deciding how to deal with the budget shortfall]." He said Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Peter French convened the committee of students that will advise them on decisions regarding the budget. In an e-mail to the Justice, Director of Communications for the Student Union Jamie Ansorge '09 wrote, "The Union hopes that the administration will incorporate student opinion into this process at every juncture. We have requested that top administrators engage constructively with the student body through public forums or e-mails about the budget crises. The Union is pushing for students' voices to be heard and for the student body to be informed of decisions when they are made."Gray told the Justice that a statement may be released that would address "the purpose and the Constitution and what we [the Budget Advisory Committee] are going to be discussing."In an e-mail to the Justice Eddy wrote, "the University has been working to identify areas where budgets could be reduced and savings realized. Some of those areas may affect the day-to-day lives of students on this campus. It's important, and it is our practice to have student input as we consider our choices."In his address Gray said, "This is a period of financial uncertainty, and the financial collapse on Wall Street has impacted us here on South Street. We have an endowment that is barely growing, more students are deciding to graduate early, and costs are rising. This has led to a $10 million budget shortfall for the University, and depending on the state of the economy, a similar situation in the year ahead." In addition to Gray, the students on the Budget Advisory Committee are Jessica Blumberg '09, Daniel Acheampong '11, Emily Moignard '09, Bryan Wexler '09, Max Wallach '09 and Noam Shouster '11. Ansorge explained in his e-mail that the students on the committee are connected to many different aspects of campus life and "all have experience dealing with the University administration.". Gray said he selected the students with consultation from the executive board of the Student Union. Shouster wrote to the Justice in an e-mail, "I'm honored and thrilled to be a part of this, and I think as a senator at large I'm really aware [of] what the student body will prefer to do in this situation and I'm there to represent that and to verbalize the will of the students in front of the administration.
(11/25/08 5:00am)
Tuesday night, marketing consultant Allen Adamson spoke to a group of students in Golding Auditorium on the topic of online marketing. Director for the New York office of the brand design and consulting firm Landor, Adamson is currently touring New England in support of his most recent book, BrandDigital, a guide to building and sustaining a commercial brand in the digital age. Aided by PowerPoint and video clips, Adamson described for the audience the current marketing landscape. Though the digital sector has not yet become the dominant one, it has become increasingly important. He described the current situation, in which economic conditions necessitate heavy budget cuts, forcing suffering marketing departments to develop new, more efficient ways of developing and pushing products. Fortunately, the Internet has provided a venue in which there have been very efficient returns on marketing investments. The Internet, Adamson told the audience, has allowed for the development of a forum in which customers communicate their complaints and compliments on a given product in massive numbers. "One of the things digital allows you to do is be a fly on the wall," he said, describing the new consumer culture. Adamson called this phenomenon a "backyard fence mentality," in which products are marketed by word of mouth alone, almost free from any outside influence. "The Internet," Adamson added, "is a huge digital fence." Adamson went on to describe the various effects the Internet has had throughout the marketing and branding industry. Though the Internet is a powerful new tool, it can also sink a product as fast as it promotes it. Whereas once companies performed surveys on their products as little as once a year, the current environment, one in which word of a defective product can spread ever faster, calls for round-the-clock vigilance to ensure that no complaints go unnoticed and untreated. In the digital age, he continued, it's more important for companies to listen to and learn from customers, said Adamson, adding that corporations have realized this and have begun to explore the vast possibilities of social networking tools modeled after phenomena like YouTube and Facebook. One story described in the lecture detailed the online exploits of Ameriprise, an offshoot of American Express. Realizing the value of a forum in which their customers could voice their opinions, Ameriprise set up a site in which customers were encouraged to share their dreams for the future from a financial perspective. The result was twofold. Not only did the company develop its own forum for customer opinion, but they created a community. However, some companies Adamson described did not share the same foresight and suffered as a result. He offered the audience the example of the Kryptonite bike lock, a product promoted as completely secure and with a $50 price tag. Shortly after the product launch, a video surfaced on the Internet of a man opening the lock by inserting the end of a pen into the keyhole. The product was a bust. "Nothing spreads faster than when you make a promise and don't keep it," Adamson warned. He also gave the example of Cablevision, the self-proclaimed champions of customer service, embarrassed when an Internet video surfaced of one of their repairmen taking a nap on the couch of a customer. Adamson also warned that even great products are vulnerable to decline if they don't keep pace with the technology. To illustrate the point, Adamson told the story of Shreddies, a staple cereal in Canada, which was declining but was revived by viral video campaigns. The company that owned Shreddies spread on the Internet videos of test subjects sampling between the original Shreddies and the "new" Diamond Shreddies, the same square-shaped cereal simply rotated into a diamond shape on the box. There was no actual change being made to the product, but customers were nonetheless thinking about the cereal in a new way. The lecture also touched on the new need for corporations to market themselves, as well. Thanks to the wide range of information available on the Internet, customers can now track all of a corporation's products and activities. Not only must products stand for something, but also now must corporations. Adamson described the recent fuss made over the company Unilever, which makes and promotes Dove soap products, and the related "True Beauty" campaign, as well as Axe products, a line often derided as being sexist. The lecture concluded as Adamson reminded the audience that the basic principles of branding and marketing remain the same, but with the digital market comes a need for a more complete customer experience, one which "who you are becomes much more important." A product still needs to distinguish itself. "You still need to stand for something different," he said.
(11/25/08 5:00am)
The Advocates, a newly chartered club, conducted its first student workshop, called the Search and Seizure Workshop for On and Off Campus Housing, during which a panel composed of members of Brandeis Public Safety, Student Development and Conduct and Residence Life, the Waltham Police and various Brandeis clubs discussed issues germane to student search and seizure rights.The event, which took place last Wednesday, was also hosted by the Social Justice Committee and the Office of Students' Rights Advocacy and it was co-sponsored by Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and Peers Education about Responsible Choices.According to the event's press release, The Advocates is a newly chartered club that was "formed early last semester with the goal of arming students with specific, practical knowledge of their rights and responsibilities as students of Brandeis University and residents of Waltham, Mass."Approximately 25 students attended the workshop, which was moderated by The Advocates founder Seth Shapiro '09. The forum was divided into two sections of similar length, one dealing with rights of students on campus and another dealing with the rights of off-campus students. The event was divided as such since "Brandeis is its own institution: It can create its own rules" that differ from Waltham and U.S. law within the bounds of its campus, said Shapiro. Students were handed information detailing their specific rights in regards to search and seizure, both on and off campus. In addition, Shapiro took time to convey to the gathered audience some advice for students from an American Civil Liberties Union attorney with whom he had spoken earlier in the day. This advice emphasized the right to remain silent, to be aware that detention or any kind of temporary custody requires reasonable suspicion and that a recording of a specific noise complaint in most cases must be relinquished by the police within 10 days (i.e. If a student believes that the police fabricated a noise complaint, the student can ask the police to produce the evidence).A theme frequently repeated, both by Associate Dean of Student Life Maggie Balch and Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan, was that the safety of all members of the University is paramount and that the rules and regulations set and enforced by the University are in place in order to maintain the safest environment possible. "The University's main goal or main issue is to provide a safe campus," Callahan said.Members of the panel were willing to accept that, in some ways, the issues of search and seizure are nuanced problems. In addressing her discomfort with invading students' privacy without serious reason, Balch said, "We have lots of things we need to wrestle with." However, other members of the panel were adamant that in some areas of law enforcement, the facts are very cut-and-dried. In particular, SergeantBrian Lambert, the Waltham Police Department liaison to colleges, said that although he didn't think that a minimum drinking age of 21 was necessary, he would continue to prohibit underage drinking as long as the law remained in effect.In the off-campus rights discussion, Jerry Kaufman of the community services division of the Waltham Police Department said that in regard to college parties causing conflict and disruption within the community, "things have gotten much, much better." Detective Lieutenant Steve Champion "agreed with much of what" Kaufman said in regards to the generally improved relations between college students and the Waltham community.Champion was also explicit in telling students that the Waltham Police Department does not go out of its way to interfere with the lives of college students. When the police break up a party, he said it is typically in response to a loud noise complaint, he said. However, that is not to say that a party will be broken up just because the police receive a loud noise complaint. Champion said that the police will make their own assessment of the situation, and if they judge that the neighbor making the complaint is being unreasonable, they will clearly take this into account. He did articulate, however, that if multiple complaints were received, the party would almost certainly be broken up.Other issues discussed throughout the course of the forum included the covering of smoke detectors in dorm rooms. Callahan disparaged what he referred to as "the cavalier attitude among the population" toward covering up smoke detectors with plastic bags and warned that people can die as a result of such actions.Proper conduct when dealing with a police officer was also discussed. While Champion acknowledged that in general, students do not have to grant a police officer access to their houses unless the officer has a signed warrant, he also made a point of reminding students that there are other lawful ways of disrupting parties, such as arresting each person who leaves for noise disturbances. Shapiro mentioned that student rights do not include the right to disrespect a police officer. The panel also addressed the recent decriminalization of marijuana under Question 2, as voted upon by the Massachusetts electorate. Callahan emphasized that just because marijuana has been decriminalized does not mean that it has become legal.
(11/11/08 5:00am)
To the Editor:In lieu of the recent feature on the ever-growing campus gossip Web site ("Gossipers go wild: Brandeis edition," Nov. 4 issue), I'd like to say that while well-intentioned, the article may elicit unnecessary additional attention to the Web site. How can students be advised not to visit this site when there is that much detail revealed about it? Because of our inquisitive nature, it is nearly inevitable that someone who reads that article will visit the site. As it has spread to Brandeis quite recently, it is still premature to forecast the size or degree of the site's impact on the campus. Perhaps on a campus as socially conscious-driven as Brandeis strives to be, students and administration together, the opinion has begun to form that it is a vile Web site. Indeed it may harbor those tendencies, and so we must be aware of its potential effects. The chief information officer of Pepperdine University described it as "a virtual bathroom wall for abusive, degrading, and hateful speech." The best remedy we have at the moment is to reduce the attention given to this site and simultaneously educate each other about the potential harm that can occur to someone who may not be able to simply disregard false or defamatory information posted in an anonymous, online forum. Though, hopefully enough, people will consider that, at times, as Rebecca Blady wrote well, it is necessary to "curb free speech for the sake of our classmates' emotional well-being."-Matthew Kessler '10
(11/04/08 5:00am)
Before you read this article, which discusses the issues surrounding the notorious Internet gossip forum JuicyCampus.com, I must beg of you one favor:Do not visit the Web site.It's tempting. The site divulges all of the behind-the-scenes activities of campus social life. You can find the best party spots, the easiest girls and the most absurd rumors. Some of the information is true. Most of it is concocted by bored first-years. Either way, information is there, often posing potential harm to students. And I promise that your lives will undoubtedly continue without a visit to this notorious Web page.As much as this seems like a high school-age endeavor, a 1995 Duke graduate created this Web site, where students can discuss, at length, such vulgar topics on their individual college's page with the comfort of total anonymity. As long as visitors to the site confirm that they are 18 years old, they are free to explore the often fabricated and mean-spirited gossip that abounds on JuicyCampus.And posts get read. For example, approximately 2,300 views have accumulated under one single discussion topic debating the reputations of various female Brandeis students that was started on Oct. 21 on Brandeis' page. Posts on JuicyCampus are explicit and merciless. They target our classmates by full name and often divulge more information than one would deem appropriate for public knowledge.But since JuicyCampus guarantees the anonymity of its posts' authors, students slam their classmates' reputations without thinking twice. Thought you left this nonsense behind when you graduated high school?Well, you thought wrong. JuicyCampus and its defenders successfully rebutt your criticisms with that quintessential university value: free speech.The International Herald Tribune conducted an interview with Michael Fertik, a graduate of Harvard Law School and the founder of reputationdefender.com, a service that helps clients remove defamatory material about themselves from the Internet. "Legally, JuicyCampus is fully, absolutely immune, no matter what it runs on its site from users, just like AOL is not responsible for nasty comments in its AOL chat rooms," said Fertik. Fertik explained that while victims could sue individual posters for libelous or defamatory remarks, the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects the Web site's owner from lawsuit. And finding those individuals responsible for particularly vulgar posts is nearly impossible.It's important to question whether our First Amendment rights should trump our morality. We've fought for these rights, and we value them, but where do we draw the line?At this time in our lives, we encroach upon the gate to the "real world." Real jobs and real reputations are at stake. JuicyCampus contains information about students' sexual history, drug habits and other illicit and immoral activity. Students are justifiably paranoid about their names being published.A recently posted story concerning some illicit activity by members the first-year class sparked significant anger when one student's name and room number were published on the Web site. Although most of the posts responding to the initial discussion about what really happened were not factual, the scene described and the information pertaining to this student were true.The student contacted JuicyCampus to argue for the removal of the name from the site, fearing a tarnished reputation and the possible loss of the scholarship Brandeis had granted her. After several days, JuicyCampus responded affirmatively and erased the post. However, the student reported that the Web site was not easy to work with."I looked at their information about how to remove stuff. Unless [a post] threatens someone's safety, is a proven, illegal lie or includes your personal address, e-mail or phone number, you have to go through a whole process," this student said. "They say you shouldn't write lies because that's libel, and that's illegal, but then they don't do anything about it. Even if people do lie, [the victims] aren't protected, and then it is still libel."The student further pointed out that at JuicyCampus, "they only think about personal safety. They don't think about emotional safety. People can just use it to their own benefit and don't really think about how much it could damage other people, even if it is just a silly Web site."Perhaps we should take a moment to assess the goals we had when we entered this institution of higher learning. Four years of schooling have potential to enrich our understanding of how we should structure the society we live in.Although college students created JuicyCampus, the Web site does not embody the goals and needs of students within a university setting. Free speech should not be taken for granted. In a society in which this right is considered an absolute, we must consider its limitations. We are obliged to curb free speech for the sake of our classmates' emotional well-being. Four years of college grant us the opportunity to take advantage of the various media that advance this right. We don't need to take it out on our peers.As college students who claim to positively influence our society, we should encourage free speech. But not in this twisted, libelous manner. Channel your first amendment right into a more productive form, not the profane gossip forums of JuicyCampus.
(10/28/08 4:00am)
To the Editor:Give Matt Lawrence credit in his recent vicious attack on Brandeis' policy of not having classes on selected Jewish holidays ("High holidays shouldn't dictate our schedule," Oct. 21 issue). Since he starts off by warning the reader that his opinion is "potentially unpopular," he at least seems to understand that his position is bigoted and offensive.Lawrence writes of his suspicion that "too many people at this institution of higher learning believe that religious beliefs are automatically worthy of my respect." Instead of simply disagreeing with the premise of organized religion, Lawrence feels the need to assault it. Matt: if you are a decent person, you can respect someone's beliefs even though you disagree with him. How would you feel if I told you I didn't respect your atheism?In calling the holidays of Sukkot and Shimini Atzeret "obscure," Lawrence again has the courtesy to warn the reader that "many people reading this will object to the word obscure." Yes Matt, I do object. Thanks for predicting which part of your column would insult me. It doesn't lessen the blow of your slap in the face to the Jewish community. Finally, Lawrence declares that "education is a higher and more important value than religious observance." Speak for yourself, Matt. Religiously observant individuals around the world may disagree with you, as long as you can respect that their opinions exist.There seems to be a perception at Brandeis that it is OK to say harmful things about the Jewish community just because the campus has a Jewish majority, and the majority can handle abuse like Lawrence's tirade. I don't understand this. Intolerance is what it is, no matter what group it is directed at.Between this column, an editorial last spring objecting to the University giving off for Passover instead of a "normal" spring break and the 30-percent Jewish quota proposed in columns by former Forum editor Matt Brown a few years ago, the Justice has gotten into the habit of taking opinions that are harmful to the Jewish community. Lawrence's column is by far the most offensive among these, and there is no excuse for a savvy group of editors to approve this type of content. Just because someone has an opinion doesn't mean it is worthy of publication. Bigotry has no place in any newspaper. I expect more out of the paper I used to edit.-Jacob Kamaras '08Jacob Kamaras is a former editor in chief of the Justice.
(10/28/08 4:00am)
The Brandeis Open Mic Series will provide Brandeis students with a chance to share their poetry, music or performance pieces with their peers. This showcasing of new and original work by the Brandeis community, as well as known slam poets, is a weekly event hosted by Jason Henry Simon-Bierenbaum '11, Kaamila Mohamed '11 and Zamira Castro '11. From 9 to 10 p.m. there are 12 five-minute time slots for which students can sign up to give a performance. However, from 10 to 11 p.m. a nationally touring or Boston-area featured poet will give a performance or host a poetry workshop. This week's featured poet is Associate Dean of Student LifeJamele Adams, and the forthcoming B.O.M.S. sessions will feature poets George Watsky and Jared Paul. It is worth mentioning for those interested in creative expression but not keen on poetry that the workshops will not focus solely on that particular medium. For instance, Jared Paul's workshop will be on the different types of tools available to activists. The workshops will also be hosted by different social and cultural clubs from the Brandeis community; B.O.M.S. seeks to become a place where different clubs can speak out together and learn from each other.After the featured poet each week, there will be a poetry slam competition. The competition consists of three rounds of three-minute poems written and performed by any students who choose to participate, and the winning student will be chosen by the audience. The winners will then compete to become part of the first-ever Brandeis intercollegiate poetry slam team.As VOCAL, a student-run organization that hosted a spoken-word concert at Brandeis in January 2008, showed us, there is a large audience on campus for spoken word poetry. The Boston area and New England, in general, have a very active and diverse spoken-word scene. One of B.O.M.S.' goals is to bring the two together. Another goal of B.O.M.S. is, after having established the aforementioned intercollegiate poetry slam team, to send that team to the collegiate nationals in the spring. Other universities who compete in these spoken word events include Emerson College and Boston University. An additional aspiration of B.O.M.S. is to create an outlet for students to perform in a casual environment. This program seeks to become "a continuing weekly option for expression that can grow as its own community within the Brandeis community," said Simon-Bierenbaum. And, although B.O.M.S. places special emphasis on spoken-word performance, other types of art are welcome. On Nov. 3, Brandeis comedians are set to perform, and B.O.M.S. will become a forum for anyone who has a desire to participate in open mic nights but may have been too nervous to do so before. B.O.M.S presents itself as a safe space for artistic expression, and so even if you have never done spoken word before (actually, especially if you have never done spoken word before) you might want check out B.O.M.S. to perform, enjoy and learn about slam poetry; you might even find yourself on the first-ever Brandeis slam poetry team.The Brandeis Open Mic Series will commence today, Oct. 28. B.O.M.S will take place every Tuesday night from 9 p.m. to midnight in the Castle Commons.
(10/28/08 4:00am)
It's a riddle that might never be solved, but when the Brandeis Humanists met Chabad at Brandeis Oct. 6 for a public debate, they discussed one of the most disputed questions in the modern world: Does God exist?The Humanists, represented by Jonah Cohen '10 and Max Lewis '09, and Chabad, represented by Alex Flyax Ph.D. '13 and Rabbi Peretz Chein, debated before an eager audience of students and faculty in Rapaporte Treasure Hall.Chein opened the discussion by asking the audience to abandon their traditional modes of sensory perception in order to explore a "more complex" definition of "existence." His arguments centered on the concept of God as the "first cause," the action for which there is no antecedent.Everything we know about the world is a "joke," Flyax added, if a first cause is not the reason behind the creation of life. "Complex things," he said, "are the result of an organizing force."Although Flyax acknowledged the roles of evolution and natural selection in human geneology, in an interview after the debate, he described evolution as a result of God.While they didn't dispute the necessity of a first cause, the Humanists rejected the concept of an omnipotent God, asserting that the Big Bang was the first cause and the beginning of the universe.Surprisingly, perhaps, Cohen didn't entirely reject the idea that God might have caused the Big Bang. Cohen said he's "willing to wait" for concrete evidence of God's activity.The Humanists did point out the impossibility of a coherent definition of God in light of the multiple conceptions of God that exist among world religions.Yet Chein countered that Judaism espouses a more general view of God."God is the first cause of all creation who is engaged and responsive to all existence," he said in an interview after the debate. God has all "positive and good qualities" imaginable, he said.Throughout the debate, however, Lewis remained skeptical, pointing out flaws in what he saw as Chein's idealistic notion of God.If God is in such a perfect state, he argued, then it would seem impossible for anything, even prayer, to bend his will.Lewis suggested that if God is responsible for creating mankind and shaping human nature, then God, not free will, is to blame for tragedies, citing in particular the events of Sept. 11, 2001.Lewis declared that he will "gladly" believe in God if someone proves his existence. Religion is grounded in faith rather than certainty, he said, and faith is not evidence enough for the existence of God."You can't have faith without evidence," Lewis said, and proceeded to draw a distinction between religious and personal faith. Belief in human relationships, such as that between husband and wife, he explained, is based on the proof of fidelity.The individual who believes in personal faith can therefore be "happy and accomplished without religion," Lewis said, by turning to the "beautiful" universe around him instead.In response to a question from an audience member on the relationship between religion and morality, Flyax said that although atheists and religious individuals alike can practice morality, a belief in some higher power allows people to regard morality as a "personal responsibility" as opposed to a "social benefit" or optional performance.Cohen insisted that people should not feel obligated to act morally, but Flyax answered that the individual option to act according to moral standards is not enough to sustain the well-being of society in general.Religion, Flyax said, is necessary to implement morality in certain societies.The Humanists said that religion is especially meaningless when it is inherited rather than attained through knowledge. Religion should not be forced upon an individual, Lewis said in an interview after the debate.When an audience member asked the Chabad representatives how they would perceive religion had they not been raised as Jews, Flyax responded that he was raised as an atheist but remained "objective to the environment." Later, he discovered a personal connection with Judaism and converted, he said.Some students in the audience were impressed by the persuasiveness of the cases for and against the existence of God.The topic of the debate was "very well-tackled," said Matthew Lawrence '10, noting that he was particularly "surprised" by Chabad's strong arguments.Other students, however, felt that both sides of the debate lacked the passion they would have liked to see.Tara Metal '10 was "disappointed," as she expected a more heated and controversial debate, she said.Flyax admitted that the topic of God's existence was "too general" for the participants to engage in more detailed discussion. Instead, the aim of the debate was to provide the audience with the incentive to think and respect other schools of thought, he said in an interview.The debate, Cohen said, was designed to "promote dialogue."Editor's note: Matthew Lawrence '10 is a writer for the Forum section of the Justice.
(10/28/08 4:00am)
The voices of hundreds of people in Harvard's packed Paine Hall echoed loudly and clearly the pledge to take action against global poverty:"Campaigners world-wide will stand up and take action to push their governments for more and better aid, debt cancellation, education for all boys and girls, health care, trade justice, gender equality and public accountability!"With these words, a group of enthused college students and recent college graduates initiated the Stand Up and Take Action Against Poverty Rally, held Oct. 17. The conference was part of the Stand Up and Take Action movement, an international initiative in which over 100 million people in more than 100 countries registered to fight poverty at a variety of events focused on the Millennium Development Goals, which are eight goals for international development that the United Nations hopes to achieve by 2015, including decreased child mortality, improved maternal health and the elimination of extreme poverty and hunger. The Oct. 17 rally featured an idea bank contest, in which attendees submitted their ideas to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The event was hosted by the Youth Alliance for Leadership and Development in Africa at Harvard, one of the founding organizations of Millennium Campus Network's, a college student-led organization that aims to eliminate world poverty.MCN combines the efforts of 11 anti-poverty student groups at seven universities across the country. Sam Vaghar '08 and Seth Werfel '10 created the organization in August 2007, along with students from Brandeis and other Boston-area universities. Will Herberich, a Tufts University junior, is currently MCN's executive director and president.A variety of student leaders spoke at the event, including members of Circle of Women, a group that seeks to improve girls' formal education in underprivileged areas, and Black Men's Forum.The conference made a significant impact on at least one of its student attendees."Parts of [the conference] I thought were also shocking, as far as how many people there are in the world impoverished," Madeline Barr '12 said. "One of the statistics was one out of [about] seven people . are malnourished." For MCN organizers, the conference served to strengthen their belief in students' ability to fight poverty."You look around at all these talented teens and you think, 'This is something that could really happen,'" Herberich said.Before founding MCN, Vaghar and Werfel were very active in Positive Foundations, a Brandeis anti-poverty organization. Vaghar described the moment when he realized that ending poverty would be an attainable goal for the future if people were given the proper resources and tools."I read this book called The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs. It didn't just talk about what our problems are, but it talked about real solutions," he said. "So, I basically decided that [helping to eradicate extreme poverty] is my passion, and I want to keep doing this."Herberich became involved with MCN through his friendship with Vaghar and his involvement in a grassroots organization at Tufts devoted to ending extreme poverty.MCN's overarching goal is to "bring as many student groups together who are devoted to ending poverty," Herberich said. "[MCN] wants these groups to share resources with each other, and [the Network] wants to share resources with them from connections with the non-profit world and other funding sources."MCN now has nine directors and several associate directors. The organization held its first conference last April at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where about 1000 students showed up.The conference featured guest speakers and anti-poverty advocates such as Paul Farmer, Jeffrey Sachs, Senator John Edwards D.-Illinois, John Legend and Ira Magaziner. Conference attendees discussed plans for a new global health movement.According to Gabe Verzino '10, a member of MCN, in the future, MCN plans to organize student groups from different universities into regions all over the country, including New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area."The main problem we've seen is that there are students on every single campus that want to tackle global poverty and global disease but they don't have the resources," Vaghar said. "Oftentimes other student groups are doing very similar work, but they're not talking to each other and we want to help fill in those gaps."Herberich described MCN's extreme passion for fighting world poverty, even at the expense of the members' academic records."You have to believe that the sacrifices [you make for the organization] are maybe worth taking a couple of points off your GPA," he said. "If you really want to dive into creating social change, you've got to dive in headfirst; you can't just sort of dip your toes in."Herberich said he was optimistic about the future of MCN."I think five to 10 years from now, when people think of students that are active participants in ending extreme poverty . they will think of MCN." Editor's note: Gabriel Verzino '10 is a contributing writer.
(10/28/08 4:00am)
The Sports teaser "Conference Play" incorrectly identified the UAA as the USAA. (Oct. 21, p. 1)The News story "Review to be conducted on Health Center" states that Alex Davidson '10 wrote an e-mail to the Justice, but he actually wrote a Facebook message. (Oct. 21, p. 1)The announcement for "Ethics Center Student Fellows" should have stated that for more information, students should e-mail ethics@brandeis.edu. (Oct. 21, p. 2)The Features article "The genetics of gender" did not end. It should have said, "It was really cool to get to hear her in person." (Oct. 21, p. 12)The Associated Press photographer who provided the photo for the Features article "The road not taken" was not identified as Chitose Suzuki. (Oct. 21, p.14)The Forum article "High holidays shouldn't dictate our schedule" incorrectly stated that Brandeis did not give students holidays off before 2003. (Oct. 21, p. 16)The Athlete of the Week photo incorrectly stated that it was taken by David Sheppard-Brick. It was taken by Julian Agin-Liebes. (Oct. 21, p. 23)The Showtimes at the Embassy incorrectly stated that the showtimes listed were for the week of Oct. 10 through Oct. 17. They were actually for the week of Oct.17 through Oct. 24. (Oct. 21, p. 32)The Sports story "Rosman closes fall with big win" stated, "Lamanna said Miller will not be on the team during the spring season, but declined to elaborate further." It should have stated, "Lamanna said Miller is not currently playing or practicing with the team, and his status for next season and beyond has yet to be determined." (Oct. 21, p. 22)The News graph "Partial results from 2007 Health Center survey" presented the numbers of students who responded to the surveys, not percentages of student responses. (Oct. 21, p. 11)The Letter to the Editor attributed to? enna Brofsky was posted online as anonymous. The Justice regrets this error. (Oct. 21, p. 17)The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. E-mail abergman@brandeis.edu.
(10/28/08 4:00am)
As college students, procrastinating, slacking and activities of that ilk come naturally. But what about dawdling or idling? Do these terms strike a different note than the ones listed above? For Mark Kingwell and Joshua Glenn, not only does slacking have little to do with idling, but idling is distinct enough to warrant its own book. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Kingwell, a leading Canadian social critic and popular philosopher, and Joshua Glenn, a prominent Boston-based editor. They are writers of the recently released Idler's Glossary, a self proclaimed "Devil's Dictionary for do-nothings" in which I discovered the nuances of idling.JustArts: When I first picked up The Idler's Glossary, I thought I was opening up a book form of the Urban Dictionary and other amusing texts of the like. But, after reading the introduction, it almost seemed like you had made a philosophical manifesto out of idling-equipped with a glossary! What was your intention in creating this book?G: You're right-the book is not a manifesto equipped with a glossary. In fact, The Idler's Glossary doesn't support any text, unless you agree with a very flattering, hyperbolic line in Mark's introduction, where he suggests that "the ur-text for which this glossary is definitive must be, in the end, life itself." My intention in writing the Glossary was two-fold. I wanted to make a contribution but without working too hard at it, to the obscure but age-old tradition of defending "idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognized in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class," as Robert Louis Stevenson once put it. And I also wanted to distinguish between the slacker-a person who is failing to work, or who ought to be at work but isn't-and the idler, who somehow transcends the imperatives of work (e.g., the idler demands free time; the slacker settles for mere leisure time. The idler dreams; the slacker daydreams. The idler naps; the slacker dozes at his desk). Writing a glossary seemed to me an undemanding, non-didactic way to draw such sharp distinctions. And like all aphoristic writing, the form encourages the reader to dawdle, to meander, to drift from entry to entry. Don't you think?K: Absolutely. I say in my introduction that the glossary form, meandering and always incomplete, structured only by the contingency of the alphabet, is the [idlest] of texts. Any glossary is a kind of amble of words, and so a glossary seemed the perfect form for an investigation of idling. Like Josh, I've always been drawn to the persistence of the aphorism in philosophical thought: the tiny idea-bomb, timed to go off at any moment. But the intro itself posed a problem. If it became too manifesto-like, it would self-defeat; that would make idling a demand. Even to treat the intro as an essay-a word rooted in trying and effort-would sail close to self-contradiction. So, I made it a loose and playful philosophical defense of the idling life as the best life, mixing uncontroversial claims with some deliberately provocative ones. One blog entry about the book said my intro moves from erudite to evangelical. I'm not sure about the evangelical part, but there is a subversive political and personal message here: You must change your life! But, you know, no pressure.JA: Josh, I know you're a blogger for the Boston Globe, and having mentioned Urban Dictionary [a viral forum for most college-aged idlers of the 21st century], I was wondering what your thoughts were on the Internet's influence on idling. Has the Internet provided a community for idlers or has it reduced the art form that you have taken great pains in describing?G: Good question! But I should point out that I quit blogging for the Boston Globe this past summer. Idlers see quitting as a creative, life-affirming act. Idling is a solitary practice and art form, yet idlers do enjoy communing with one another, forming a nation-within-a-nation of sorts. They don't want to live together, or even spend too much time together, but they [do] want to stay in touch. In his early book Daybreak, Nietzsche compares the "company of thinkers" that he hopes to participate in forming to "birds of passage" meeting on an island in the middle of the ocean and enjoying "a precarious minute of knowing and divining, amid joyful beating of wings and chirping with one another" before going their separate ways again. This is a perfect description of an idler's community. Now, nothing can replace a face-to-face get-together, but I should note that Nietzsche never managed to convene his company of thinkers. Perhaps if the Internet had existed then, he'd at least have been able to commune with like-minded contemporaries. So, two cheers for the Internet.K: One of the great things about this book is that Josh and I did not meet face to face until after it was completed. In fact, our launch event in Toronto was only the second time we'd met, and the one in New York will be the third. Our intellectual friendship was entirely facilitated by the Internet. True, we could have been old-fashioned hardcopy correspondents instead and achieved the same end. But then, no hot links to stuff we know the other will like, no connections to his wide range of interesting friends (artists, cultural journalists, writers, musicians). I get far more out of this complex connection than anything from, say, my departmental colleagues at the University of Toronto. To answer the question more directly: Creating a thought-stroll by clicking on interesting stuff, following your mind's nose is certainly idling in the best sense. It doesn't replace sequential thought and argument, but the great thing is that it doesn't have to.JA: Also, in the same vein as the last question, I think most people would consider idling a more recent phenomenon given the slew of technological distractions we have these days, but with references to the work of Oscar Wilde, Bertrand Russell, Kafka, and Aristotle, it seems quite the opposite. What has time done to the idler--how has he changed over the years?G: You may be confusing dawdling with dilly-dallying. The idler dawdles-she's often late to appointments, because she has stopped to smell the roses, for example, or chat with a charming stranger. The slacker dilly-dallies-that is to say, he's late to appointments because he's acted with trifling vacillation or indecision. Alas, all too often, I spend my mornings dilly-dallying, not dawdling. And, it's true that technological distractions can exacerbate dilly-dallying! But dilly-dallying is nothing new. According to Aristotle, Socrates was invariably late (atopos). It's been suggested that the sort of philosophy that Socrates demonstrated-endlessly curious, unsettled and unsettling-goes hand-in-hand with dawdling. But Mark is the philosopher, not me- what do you think of this proposition, Mark?K: The more time I spend with the ancient philosophers, the more convinced I become that everything they wrote was really about idling. Socrates strolling in the agora, Aristotle's peripatesis, Lao Tzu's walking along old tracks-they're all trying to tell us something. And that is: all this striving we go in for, all the achieving and getting ahead will not succeed in making us happy. Desire is a kind of booby-trap, sprung to catch us even as we imagine we escape it in satisfaction. I tried to capture this insight in a book I wrote about happiness ten years ago, but it still exercises me and needs more saying. It's hard wisdom to follow.JA: Co-authors are in general a bit of an odd concept, but especially with a book that would suggest that neither person wanted to particularly work. How did you two collaborate over this piece? Did one indulge in a stint of idling while the other studiously gathered the inspiration from the idler in question?G: We wrote the two parts of the book -- my glossary, his introduction -- separately. But I've been reading Mark's brilliant essays for years; there's no one with whom I'd rather collaborate. We know each other, I think, because I wrote him a fan letter about eight years ago. Then I sent him a magazine that I was publishing called Hermenau, and he bought one of our T-shirts. So I knew he was the coolest philosopher ever.K: See, this is why I like to work with Josh! Really, the best collaborations are like happy chance meetings, in a bar or along the road. I should add that, once the text was done, we invited the artist Seth to join us in illustrating and designing the book. I had worked with Seth before, and I think he's a genius. The beauty of the final product, and much of the whimsy, are largely owing to his presence.JA: Finally, is The Idler's Glossary the culmination of your best idling moments or is it a departure from your mutual talent in idling in order to showcase it to the world?G: Well, creating the book didn't feel like labor, if that answers your question. Idling is a mode of life and a state of mind that I've found compelling at least since I was an undergraduate, if not my entire life -- so when the opportunity arose, thanks originally to a British magazine called The Idler, and more recently to the book's publisher, Biblioasis, the ideas just flowed. However, I should conclude by stating forcefully that I'm not a bona fide idler! The idler is an ideal type to which I aspire. If my glossary and Mark's introduction encourage others to aspire to the same difficult ideal, then I'm sure we'd both be thrilled.K: I agree there was no labor involved! I say in my bio note that years of graduate [school] made me proficient at a form of idling for which I could get paid. I'm a very lucky guy. Idling is analogous to Aristotle's idea of virtue in that it needs luck as well as personal cultivation to produce the best outcomes. We don't always have opportunities to idle, especially if we remain mired in work-slack cycles. The basic idea of the glossary is simple: when an idle moment comes your way, seize it and make the most of it. As Nietzsche said, live your life as a work of art!
(10/21/08 4:00am)
The Brandeis Coalition for Food Service Reform had its first meeting on Oct. 6 during which it developed a list of dining services grievances to present to Aramark when the University's contract with Aramark is considered for renewal in 2009, according to Committee Chair of the Coalition Danielle Hollenbeck-Pringle '10.The Coalition discussed a variety of issues, including dining services labor and safety, healthy food options, dietary restrictions, dining hours and meal-point equivalency.When asked to comment on whether Aramark is aware of such rising student dissatisfaction, Director of Dining Services Mike Newmark wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he was "sure" that Aramark's student dining satisfaction scores continue to "increase semester after semester." Newmark also wrote that online surveys are assessed by university administration and the Student Dining Committee "to ensure that student concerns are addressed and that we continue to raise satisfaction scores." He wrote that Aramark "absolutely" encourages and welcomes student feedback.In the meeting, Labor Coordinator Nathan Ross '11 said that a primary demand is that campus workers retain their jobs, benefits and union protection during the transition of contracts. Ross also addressed understaffing, which he considers to be a key problem. In an e-mail to the Justice, he clarified, "Understaffing means that workers have to do much more than eight hours worth of work within the right hours they're paid for, and this is not safe; nor it is fair." In his e-mail Ross clarified that the labor demands were compiled with the help of "many people's work and involvement" and the approval of the Brandeis Labor Coalition. He wrote, "Our dining workers have served us thousands of meals and are a part of the community on campus." The Coalition plans to ask that Aramark collaborate with the dining workers' union. Szkilnik Tolan '11, a Stein employee, also drew attention to the sporadic break times at her workplace and emphasized that employees must be allocated a more solidified and coherent schedule. The Coalition questioned the safety aspects of working in an environment in which safety instructions are denoted in English while a significant number of staff members do not have a strong grasp on the English language. Considering that the languages spoken include among others, Creole, Spanish and Mandarin, the Coalition is proposing that Brandeis engage in a "translational program to make instructional material in the workplace available in the commonly used primary languages of employees," Ross wrote. In an e-mail to the Justice, Health, Availability and Dietary Restrictions Coordinator Liza Behrendt '11 wrote, "We want to make sure that all students have access to healthy food, and the information necessary to make healthy choices." The Coalition addressed the problem of the lack of nutrition information available in Usdan, Sherman and the Stein. Behrendt stressed, suggesting that the information needs to be available in the dining halls so students can have access to it while they get their food.Behrendt noted that as a vegan "who complained quite a lot last year," she is "very satisfied" with this year's vegan options. The Coalition is now pushing for other dietary options such as halal, a preparation of food permissible under the Muslim law, and gluten-free foods, according to Behrendt. She wrote in her e-mail that she does not believe that is it "fair" for students who do not have these options because of dietary restrictions to "be required to purchase the same meal plans as everyone else, and then not have the same access to meal options." Acknowledging the large Muslim community on campus, the Coalition also considered whether there should be flexibility in dining hours during the month of Ramadan.Behrendt believes that a change in the weekend dining hours will "encourage healthier eating because a lack of access to meals forces students to eat unhealthy food in their rooms, or not eat when they are hungry." The Student Dining Services Advisory Committee is also pushing for a change in dining hours, according to Jenna Brofsky '10, the co-chair of this committee. In an e-mail to the Justice, Brofsky wrote, "We are looking at ways to increase Einstein hours on weekends and to make breakfast at Usdan start earlier on weekends." Newmark, on the other hand, wrote that he believes that dining hours are the subject of "increased" student satisfaction due to the recently extended hours at Einstein's, added brunch hours at Usdan and extended lunch hours at Usdan. Issues related to increased access to fresh fruits and vegetables, reduction in the usage of grease and food coloring and the availability of hormone-free milk and meat were raised in the meeting. Giselle Casillas Gonzalez '11, the Coalition's Sustainable Practices Coordinator, elaborated in the meeting that the Coalition is pressing for more biodegradable dishware and utensils in the dining halls. The possibility of composting in Usdan was also discussed.According to Innermostparts.org, a student-run blog about Brandeis issues, the Coalition's Fair Price Coordinator, Lev Hirschhorn '11, calculated that if students on the 21 Meal Plan ate every meal at Sherman Dining Hall in a semester, it would cost the equivalent of 2808.4 points. This comes out to about 0.85 cents per point spent on each of the three meals used in a day. Each point is equivalent to a dollar."We don't know where this extra money is going," Hirschhorn wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. The Coalition wants to "ensure that students get what they pay for." The Coalition is also in the process of settling on a date to host a forum to spread awareness about the Coalition and its list of demands for all Brandeis students.
(10/07/08 4:00am)
About one hundred and fifty students attended the "Financial Crises at Home and Abroad-Imagining the next President's agenda" forum to discuss the current state of the United States economy on Sept. 24, according to Student Union Director of Communications Jamie Ansorge '09.The event, sponsored by the Student Union and the Office of Communications, featured Dean Bruce Magid of the Brandeis International Business School and Dean Lisa Lynch of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management as they discussed the current state of the United States economy as part of the Brandeis University "Spotlight on Economic Distress." The goal of the hour-and-a-half forum was to have a better-informed student body by providing insight into the origins of the economic crisis by discussing how the crisis will affect the United States domestically and abroad in the future and addressing the challenges the next president of the United States will face in order to facilitate the economic recovery. In an e-mail to the Justice, Daniel Acheampong '10 wrote, "[The session] was really informative and appropriate, especially at a time when the economic situation is highly affecting everyone in some regard. [The panelists] provided an in-depth analysis to explain why the economy is in a downfall, the future of the economy, and the long/short-term benefits and consequences of government intervention."Lynch, currently chair of the Board of Directors of the Boston Federal Reserve and former chief economist at the Department of Labor under the Clinton administration, explained that the significant signs of the economic crisis emerged in February and March of 2007. At this point in time, the prices of homes began to decrease dramatically. Additionally, as a result of the price decrease in homes the default rate of sub-prime mortgages increased. Lynch also discussed the Bush administration's proposed $700 billion rescue plan. She explained that there would be "opportunity cost" associated with spending that amount of money to assist with the economic recovery because spending that much money will have an impact on the next president's financial plans.Additionally, Lynch said, "I identified the significant constraints that either candidate would face in light of what was currently being proposed. The $700 billion rescue packet is going to impose a significant budget constraint on whoever is the next president." Lynch said that "additional issues will arise for the next president, including worse conditions in the labor market to our exports weakening and loss of investments. All of this will shape the economic climate and affect the revenues that are available to a president to spend on programs." Magid, the former managing director and senior vice president at Bank of America, compared the economy to a "house of cards," explaining that the economy is based on credit. Magid said this is the "worst financial crisis since the [Great] Depression."In his presentation, Magid explained that if foreign nations lose interest in the American dollar, it will exacerbate the current economic crisis. He stressed the importance of the United States' improving its relationship with emerging countries, since the U.S. is "no longer a superpower" and that the U.S. is going to have to "change its diplomatic tone." David Warsh, an economic journalist, led the question-and-answer portion of the program. Warsh posed the question to the deans regarding the impact of the economic crisis on Massachusetts and the nation as a whole. Dean Lynch said that Massachusetts has not been heavily affected by the economic crisis because of the state's investment in higher education and in the life sciences. The forum concluded with another question-and-answer session involving the students in the audience.
(10/07/08 4:00am)
The Student Union's Student Health Advisory Committee has been looking to administer some basic changes in the University's Health Center. Now, inspired by the upcoming renewal opportunity for Brandeis' contract with Beth Israel Hospital, the Union is calling for a large-scale review of the Center. Although students have been complaining about the complex, there isn't enough justification to invest Union time in a review.For one thing, the last time we saw a progress report from Health Advisory Committee coordinator Jessica Blumberg '09 was March 16. Blumberg announced a forum to "discuss how to better the Health Center," then noted that she "flyered, mailbox stuffed, etc." The only other word from this committee since then is when then-Senator-at-Large Andrew Brooks '09 noted March 26 that he attended Blumberg's forum.Blumberg wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that her findings are based on her hour-long forum and the results of an unsuccessful initiative two semesters ago to give outpatient surveys to students treated by the Health Center. The Union's drive is well-intentioned but not supported enough to justify a complete overhaul of the system.Many of the problems Blumberg's research uncovered, listed in another e-mail, can't be fixed without more doctors or an expanded health center - "difficulty in obtaining a timely appointment with a doctor"; "lackluster customer service"; and "lack of privacy" being just a few. Blumberg's other grievances are mostly to do with the quality of care - things like misdiagnoses, lost prescriptions and poor elucidation of money and health issues.Also, these are all problems people can expect to find at any doctor's office, within reason, and most of them are relatively minor. Our health center is inconvenient and frustrating, sure, but not cataclysmic. A review won't solve these problems, nor will it tell us anything we don't already know. The need for more doctors and a bigger building goes without saying.It's worth noting also that our hours are better than most small schools in our area. We have 15 weekday hours on Lesley University and five on Wellesley College, and our weekend hours are some of the best in our area.As is, Blumberg has no reform ideas that aren't to do with upsizing. She wants to "[address] all of the issues that have come up in whatever way is most appropriate and feasible."Given all this, it doesn't make sense for the Union to invest time in a review. Their advocacy is impressive, but their time could be better spent.
(09/23/08 4:00am)
The original meaning and significance of our national holidays are quickly forgotten by the American public. We appreciate holidays because they afford us a day off from work; advertising agencies love them because they provide wonderful marketing opportunities. The holidays or anniversaries of key historic events are rarely taken seriously by most people.Is Sept. 11 slowly being forgotten, trivialized and commercialized as well? The first few years after the attacks, we had elaborate commemorative ceremonies at my middle school followed by lengthy classroom discussions. Once I entered high school, we dedicated less and less time to it. Last year, the principal asked for a moment of silence. When it ended, my teacher wryly observed, "Have you noticed that each year the moment of silence gets shorter?"Adam Cohen of The New York Times describes how Memorial Day has evolved and lost its original meaning. It was first observed in 1865, during the last year of the Civil War, according to Yale historian David Blight. Hundreds of Union soldiers had died in a Confederate prison in Charleston, Va. and were buried in unmarked graves without coffins. When the city fell to the armies from the North, the black citizens of Charleston, at great personal risk, reburied all the dead soldiers in a new cemetery they built for them and honored them as heroes who had died fighting slavery.In the years after 1865, a shift in emphasis became apparent at Memorial Day ceremonies. It became a day to remember all the soldiers who had died in the Civil War, and was no longer celebrated as a victory for racial equality. Even later, it was redefined again and became a generic holiday to commemorate all dead soldiers from every American war. Today, says The New York Times, "Memorial Day is little more than the start of summer, a time for barbecues and department store sales."This first Memorial Day was a unique, transient moment in history, just like Sept. 11. Americans were able to cross cultural and racial barriers to unite for a common cause. In 1865, black and white people were able to come together to honor the dead who had fallen in the fight for equality. In 2001, firemen, policemen and civilians from every background completely forgot their differences and struggled together to save the victims of the terrorist attacks. These events were both tests of our nation. We must not forget that at these most difficult of times the people worked together as equals, with shovels to rebury the dead, with buckets to scrape at the debris of the fallen towers.A frank, open discussion of landmarks in our nation's history is important, not only out of respect for the dead, but to help us understand and draw lessons from the past. Had we not forgotten the lessons of Memorial Day so readily, we might not have needed a Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. It is likewise important to come to an understanding of what took place on Sept. 11. It was a traumatic moment in American history; we need to discuss its meaning and how we ought to react to it. The forum attended by eight Brandeis students on Sept. 11 to discuss what happened seven years ago was a noble effort; as a nation, we need to do the same on a much greater scale if we are to properly commemorate those who died.
(09/23/08 4:00am)
The Student Union and the Office of Communications will hold a forum on Wednesday night as part of Brandeis Votes to discuss the current state of the economy and how the presidential candidates may handle these issues.The forum will feature Dean of the Heller School Lisa Lynch and Dean of the Brandeis International Business School Bruce Magid. Lynch is currently chair of the board of directors of the Boston Federal Reserve and is a former chief economist at the Department of Labor under the Clinton administration. Magid is a former managing director and senior vice president at Bank of America. According to the Student Union Web site's press release, the forum will be "facilitated and moderated by economic journalist David Warsh."According to the press release on the Student Union Web site, "The forum is an installment of the Brandeis University 'Spotlight on Economic Distress' series. The subject of the forum will be 'Financial Crises at Home and Abroad-Imagining the next president's agenda.'"According to Director of Communications for the Student Union Jamie Ansorge '09, the program was created to "actively engage the community in the electoral process in a nonpartisan, apolitical way while increasing voter engagement with the issues in play."Ansorge said, "The goal of the forum is to be a very insightful, in-depth and cross-cutting discussion on the state of the United States economy and what that might mean for our next president."In an e-mail to the Justice, Magid wrote, "I hope to provide members of the Brandeis community with a unique perspective on the current financial crisis: What are the lessons learned and how will it impact the U.S. and global economies? How will it influence the economic and social policy decision making of the next president?"Magid also explained why he believes he was chosen to speak at this event. He wrote, "As a former chief international economist at Bank of America and a leader of an overseas corporate finance banking unit, I believe I will provide both a practitioner perspective on the current crisis as well as an analytical framework to understand the recent historic events in the U.S. financial system."Student Union President Jason Gray '10 said that Lynch and Magid are "the best people to talk about the topic." Gray expressed his hopes for the forum by saying that "the experts [will be] given the opportunity to provide insight into the important issues.
