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On April 5 the Prevention, Advocacy and Resource Center at Brandeis University hosted their annual Take Back the Night event to raise awareness about sexual violence during National Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
On Friday, March 29, the Student Union sent an email revealing that their proposed constitutional amendments, including consolidating several seats, removing several identity-based seats, such as racial minority and midyear, and reducing elections was rejected by the undergraduate student body. The changes would have required a two-thirds majority vote to pass, but only 64% of voters were in favor of the changes.
A little over four miles away from Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts, sits the 180+ acre campus of the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center. Originally established in 1848 as the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded by Samuel Gridley Howe in South Boston, the center’s inception marked a pivotal moment in the history of disability care in the United States.
On March 31, the Brandeis Asian American Student Association held its second event to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. This year's theme of “Reflection” aims to “celebrate the efforts by our predecessors to create an hospitable and safe environment for AAPI,” an Instagram caption from BAASA’s account states. Sunday’s event included a screening of “Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story,” followed by a question and answer session with director Jennifer Takaki.
After securing the requisite number of delegates from their respective parties, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are officially the presidential nominees for the 2024 election. Trump’s eight-month election campaign, according to The New York Times, is “one of the longest in modern American history.” This presidential rematch will be the first of its kind in 70 years.
Aiming to bring a diverse group of educators and community leaders together in conversation, CARE, the Carceral Awareness, Reform and Education club at Brandeis, hosted “Health in Prison: A Panel Discussion,” which took place at the Heller School for Policy and Management on Monday, April 1. The panel included Sashi James, the director of Re-Imagining Communities at the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, which is an organization working towards the abolition of the American carceral system. Also contributing her voice and experience was Angelina Jefferson, who provides education services and support to formerly incarcerated people through the Partakers Empowerment Program and the Brandeis Educational Justice Initiative. Rounding out the profuse assembly of perspectives was Stuart Grassian, M.D., who advocates for solitary confinement reform, and Brandeis Prof. Sanaullah Khan (ANTH).
Over Brandeis University’s winter break, Chillbox, a Greek frozen yogurt store in the Charlesbank Shopping Center, announced that it would be closing for renovations over the winter and reopening in the spring. Chillbox was first established in 2012 in Patra, Greece. From Patra it expanded to other parts of Greece as well as the United States and the United Kingdom. Chillbox opened its Waltham location in 2017, replacing a former auto repair shop.
On the morning of March 27, a press release titled “After Months of Scandals, Waltham City Council to Hold Community Hearing on the Fernald Developmental Center” was distributed by Jonathan Paz, a founding member of “The People’s Fernald Working Group” and former Waltham City Councilor. Paz publicized this announcement before the citizen input hearing on March 27 regarding “the future of the former Walter E. Fernald Development Center property,” hosted by the Waltham City Council.
MEDICAL EMERGENCY
On March 28, President Ronald Liebowitz sent an email to the Brandeis community about the creation of ‘The Presidential Task Force on Free Expression.” The group, led by the chair Prof. Kate Moran (PHIL), consists of faculty, staff, students and trustees.
On Thursday, March 14, students received an email from University President Ronald Liebowitz which detailed the recent financial situation that Brandeis has found itself in. Liebowitz, along with Provost Carol Fierke and Vice President of Finance and Administration Stew Uretsky wrote that Brandeis is facing short and long term financial shortfall, so they must address the unanticipated budget cuts. The University is making four specific changes: temporarily increasing spending from Brandeis’ endowment, delaying merit increases until Fall 2024, pausing Science 2A construction to build a new dormitory, and more carefully considering filling staff and faculty positions that are not externally funded. Deans and Vice Presidents are making their academic decisions based on the financial updates.
On March 25, Student Union Secretary Carol S. Kornworcel ’26 sent an email to the Brandeis undergraduate student body to announce the upcoming Student Union constitutional review, a process that only occurs once every three years. The Student Union evaluated their current constitution and bylaws to “make changes to reflect the current needs of Brandeis students,” Kornworcel wrote. Last week, the Student Union voted to approve proposed updates to the Constitution. On Wednesday, March 27, all Brandeis undergraduate students will receive a ballot in their email to vote on the proposed changes.
Tiziana Dearing lent her unique perspective as a former professor, non-profit executive and current radio host to the Brandeis community on Wednesday, March 20 in an event sponsored by the Women's Studies Research Center. She was joined in discussion by Prof. Harleen Singh (WGS), a Brandeis professor of Literature and Women’s, Gender, and Sexality Studies as well as the Director of the Women Studies Research Center. Singh introduced Dearing as a “public voice for good” and a “lifelong student” of the world, while Dearing jokingly described her own career path as “Forrest Gumping” her way through life. Their discussion, while structured as a profile on Dearing’s professional career, found substance in evaluating the role of religious faith in her work and assessing the current climate of the American education system.
On March 22, the University welcomed Chris Suh, an assistant professor of history at Emory University, to give a talk about his research and findings for his 2023 book: "The Allure of Empire: American Encounters with Asians in the Age of Transpacific Expansion and Exclusion.” The lecture was called “Between the ‘American Century’ and the ‘Asian Century’: Toward a New Paradigm for Understanding Racial Inequality,” with Jenny Factor and Sungkyung Cho co-hosting the meeting on Zoom. Factor and Cho are both candidates for doctorates in philosophy at Brandeis.
On March 25, Meredith Morgan and Matthew Sheehy, the chairs of the undergraduate and graduate student speaker selection committee, announced the selection of the class of 2024 student commencement speakers. The undergraduate student chosen is Ianna Gilbert ’24, and the graduate student chosen is Peter Thabet ’24.
SUSPICIOUS MOTOR VEHICLE
On March 24, the Senate heard four club proposals for probationary status during its Sunday meeting, a continuation of last week's meeting. All four were passed and now have probationary status.
Content warning: This article includes mentions of sexual assault and harassment.
What role does international law play in how states conduct themselves in times of war? Is international law respected or even an authentic reflection of human morality? Questions like these were discussed in the fourth installment of the Dialogue & Action series, titled War, Law, and Civilians. The talk was hosted by Northeastern University and took place virtually on March 13. Dialogue & Action is a series made to model constructive dialogue and is a collaboration between nine universities including Brandeis.
On March 22 at 4:00 p.m., the de-chartered Brandeis chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Revolutionary Student Organization rallied on campus. According to a collaborative post on the SJP and RSO Instagram profiles, the rally’s main goals were to call on Brandeis to: “1. Request that the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office drop all charges against the seven people arrested while dispersing from the Nov. 10 rally,” “2. Provide financial transparency on all its expenditures and investments” and “3. Stop supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people by engaging with the Zionist occupation’s economy and institutions, and representing dissent on campus.” Additionally, during the rally, members of the organizations presented a “Petition to End Brandeis University’s Attacks on Free Speech.”