As students enter the 10th week of the semester, many are just coming out of the long and arduous midterm season. This board requests that the Brandeis administration require a wellness day in March and incorporate it within the academic calendar moving forward.
No matter where you are on campus, if you’re not sure how to navigate a particular aspect of in-person college, listening to, observing, and communicating with your fellow Brandeisians are all great ways to help foster a more cohesive and conscientious community.
Students, faculty, and staff have thus far made great progress in our fight against COVID-19. We are simply asking the administration to act with mindfulness and caution while we transition to a new normal in the age of COVID-19.
The board calls on Brandeis to continue facilitating conversations about Black and POC work at the University that often goes unrecognized. Pauli Murray’s crucial contributions, that have secured the protections of many, have almost been erased from our historical narrative. Many Black and POC faculty at Brandeis are putting forth valuable research which should be uplifted and celebrated before they leave this earth.
This board is also concerned with the pace at which these reforms are happening. “Next year, we will begin a comprehensive strategic planning process that entails community input toward achieving consensus on the role, mission, vision and values for campus safety,” Rushton wrote. This has already been a multi-year process. We believe that the University’s efforts to reform Public Safety and make students feel safer on campus have been insufficient. The pace at which reforms are taking place is not proportional to the urgency of the situation — student safety must be a priority.
This board appreciates all that Brandeis has been doing to keep students safe with the surge of Omicron. However, we also ask that Brandeis take into consideration students’ concerns about keeping themselves and others safe.
We recognize that the University and its staff are certainly committed to creating a safe and enjoyable environment for students to live, work, and learn. However, issues with the Bite app have been ongoing since we started using it in fall 2020, and this board hopes to see a solution soon.
Last Saturday, a powerful winter storm hit the east coast, leaving Boston with its seventh highest snowfall in recorded history. Blizzard warnings, power outages, and dangerous travel conditions were widespread throughout the area, and the Brandeis campus was closed, with all classes and public activities cancelled for the day. This board would like to commend the University for its handling of the storm and thank all of the staff who worked hard to keep us safe.
Especially since some students did not return to campus until the weekend before in-person classes began, this board is concerned that students’ option to delay their return to campus might cause a surge in COVID-19 rates just as we all return to in-person activities. To avoid the increased risk of COVID-19 spreading after many students travel back to campus for in -person classes, the University should have required students to return with enough time to isolate if need be. The rationale behind this system that allowed a delayed return is unclear, and this board requests better communication from Brandeis administration about why certain COVID-19 policies such as this are adopted moving forward.
A new year and a new semester have begun, and already we are facing questions about how the University will function under yet another COVID-19 surge. What seems like the inescapable grasp of COVID-19 has altered another semester, and students are forced to once again navigate changes to dining.
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