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On Sept. 21, the Creative Writing Program held the first in-person “Creative Writing Reading Series” event since the start of the pandemic, showcasing the poetry of Boston Poet Laureate and current Brandeis Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence, Porsha Olayiwola.
Professor Charles Golden (ANTH) can be found around campus teaching introductory anthropology courses and attending meetings with students and colleagues. Prof. Golden’s responsibilities also include searching to fill in the gaps of human history, and uncovering missing pieces to a historical puzzle.
At Sherman dining hall, there is a black bulletin board adjacent to the entrance. Students can voice their opinions on brown paper napkins and attach them to the board. One comment read “Please bring back skim and 2% milk” with a smiley face. A small yellow sticky note attached on top of the napkin (presumably from a dining worker or Harvest Table employee), read “on the way!” in response. Sure enough, skim and two percent milk were back in the dairy section. A fair amount of the napkins, however, read statements such as “Reinstate Kevintz.” There were no yellow sticky notes attached to these suggestions. Veteran Catering Lead Kevintz Merisier was not back on the job. According to dining worker Lucia Hsiung — who also serves as a Union Steward for Boston Local 26, the union that represents the Brandeis dining and catering team — Director of Hospitality Clayton Hargrove declined to rehire Merisier on Tuesday, Sept. 27.
With the numerous hills, stairs, and limited number of elevators, accessibility — or rather inaccessibility — has long been a point of contention on campus. This rang true for Hana Klempnauer Miller ’25 as she managed the Student Union presidential campaign of Peyton Gillespie ’25 and Lia Bergen ’25. Through personal experience, and testimonies from other students, Miller became increasingly aware of the lack of accessibility at the University. This applied to many areas of campus, but one relatively unexplored need was that of access to medications.
Catering Lead Kevin Merisier showed up to work early on Wednesday, Aug. 31 in a good mood. Though there had been struggles with the transition to Brandeis’ new dining vendor, Harvest Table, Merisier still loved his job. He had worked as a caterer at Brandeis, including two and a half years working for Brandeis through a temp agency, since February 2014. In the eight years Merisier has worked here, he has never been disciplined, according to Michaela McCormack '23. But by the next week, Merisier no longer held his position on the catering team.
On Sept. 9, the University administration sent an email to inform the Brandeis community of the University’s shift from a yellow to a green COVID-19 Status Level. This email was sent by Carol Fierke, Stew Uretsky, and Andrea Dine, who hold the positions of provost and executive vice president of Academic Affairs, executive vice president of Finance and Administration, and interim vice president for Student Affairs, respectively.
Student Union Secretary Ashna Kelkar announced the results of the fall 2022 Union elections on Sept. 17 in an email to Brandeis students. The senate positions open to students in this round were senators for the Classes of 2024, 2025, and 2026, as well as racial minority senator, international student senator, allocations board, North Quad senator, Massell Quad senator, East Quad senator, Skyline/Rosenthal senator, 567/Village senator, off-campus senator, and Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program senator.
A gathering of almost 500 students is still a somewhat surreal site even two years after the pandemic began. This past Friday night, hundreds of students trekked to the Chabad House on Turner Street to participate in Mega Shabbat, an event that started back in 2019.
The dumpsters near Ziv Quad have recently become a topic of contention between students and administration. On Tuesday, Sept. 6, residents of Ziv Quad, Ridgewood Quad, and Village received an email from Montana Epps, area coordinator of 567 South Street, Village, Ziv, and Ridgewood, with the subject reading: “Please Read: Dumpsters & Water Station Survey.” In the email, Epps expressed her frustration that students had left bags of garbage and recycling on the ground around the dumpsters rather than putting them in the dumpsters. “Rain, snow or shine, you are expected to place your trash inside the dumpsters and maintain a healthy living environment for yourself and your community,” she said, after noting that she was “deeply disappointed and frustrated.”
Earlier this month, Martin Baron was named the 2023 Richman Distinguished Fellow in Public Life. Baron is most well known for his positions as executive editor of the Washington Post from 2013 until his retirement in 2021 and editor of the Boston Globe from 2001-2012.
For the first time in more than two years, the Student Union Senate met in person, once again on the third floor of the Shapiro Campus Center. At the first meeting of the semester, the Senate confirmed numerous executive board candidates for their positions and voted to confirm a new executive senator.
MEDICAL EMERGENCY
Caterpillars, puppets, and decarbonization: Brandeis’ 2022-2023 Year of Climate Action is now in full swing, with several events that took place last week and many more events planned for the future.
In April 2022, the Response for Feedback Committee unanimously selected Harvest Table as the new dining vendor on campus after 10 years with Sodexo. Students were asked for feedback during this process, and many were anticipating drastic changes to dining prior to the fall 2022 semester. However, the massive undertaking of transitioning to campus, coupled with the largest first-year class in Brandeis history, has created complications for Harvest Table. The vendor, however, has been working to address these concerns, through “Napkin Talk” in the dining halls, a feedback form titled “Your Feedback Matters,” and the “Contact Us” page on the Hospitality website.
On Sept. 8, Student Union Secretary Ashna Kelkar ’24 announced the candidates for the upcoming fall election. Students will vote on Sept. 14 for senators, associate justices, and an allocations board representative.
Jen Crystal ’23 and Jane Flautt ’23 will lead the Justice during the 2022-23 academic year as editor in chief and managing editor, respectively. They were unanimously elected last spring following Q&A sessions addressing their times at the Justice and goals for the year.
Brandeis University welcomed three new members to its Board of Trustees, President Ron Lebowitz announced in an email to students, faculty, and staff on Aug. 26. Dr. Marjorie H. Hass, Leonard X. Rosenberg ’89, and Jay S. Ruderman ’88 H’18 began their appointment to the Board in early August. Board members oversee all management and policies of the University.
On Wednesday, Sept. 7, the University released its Annual Fire Safety and Security Report for 2022. A formal notice of the report’s publication was emailed to all Brandeis students by University Chief of Public Safety Matthew Rushton. This notice included a link to Brandeis’ Public Safety website, where the full report is currently available.
On Wednesday, Sept. 7, the Crown Center for Middle East Studies hosted their annual kickoff event, titled “Beyond the Headlines: Overlooked Trends in the Middle East.” While mainstream media tends to focus on conflict in the region, the academic panel and Q&A session aimed at showcasing research from Middle Eastern scholars on underappreciated topics.
A recent, unprecedented donation of $16.5 million has the potential to reshape the culture at Brandeis and enrich the academic pursuits of the students and faculty alike. The Brandeis Alumni and Friends Drive collected five separate gifts, four of which have been allocated for support of the African and African American Studies, Mathematics, Israeli Politics and Society, and Business faculty chairs. The fifth and final gift allows for an endowed position to lead an integrated Center for Jewish Studies. According to a Brandeis NOW article, University President Ron Liebowitz said that there is a “growing culture of philanthropy” at Brandeis that will allow the community “to contribute even more meaningfully to [academic] dialogues.”