Month: February 2009

What you missed at the town hall

Members of the CARS committee Wednesday answered questions about three academic restructuring plans. Adam Jaffe, Dean of the Arts and Sciences and CARS chair, said the following changes are being planned: new general requirements starting for the class of 2014, a new Business Major, a new Media, Communications, and Society Major, and the “Justice Brandeis Semester”. Some highlights of the responses they gave for each program are after the cut.

Continue reading “What you missed at the town hall”

Louis Brandeis’ Great-Niece Speaks Out

Louis Brandeis’s ex-niece has sent out an open letter to Jehuda and the administration. She quotes Louis Brandeis to show that in his work building the University of Louisville, he absolutely considered an art museum essential.

Second. The beginning of an art collection. Living among things of beauty is a help toward culture and the life worthwhile. But the function of a university in respect to the fine arts is not limited to promoting understanding and appreciation. It should strive to awaken the slumbering creative instinct, to encourage its exercise and development, to stimulate production. …

Here’s Michael Rush reading out the whole of her letter:

The conclusion:

I hope the above makes apparent, by assessing the art collection as merely a disposable financial asset rather than as the culturally and intellectually valuable ensemble that it is, your university’s trustees and your administration have proposed to act not only without full appreciation of core objectives of any university, but against those that Justice Brandeis himself most actively fostered. I therefore urge you to abandon any plans of selling any portion whatsoever of the art collection of the Rose Museum, or of diminishing its role.

Louis Brandeis would be ashamed of any University selling art in his name. What a sad sight.

Continue reading “Louis Brandeis’ Great-Niece Speaks Out”

Brandeis Students Could Serve a Semester to Society

The latest idea to emerge from the CARS committees is a proposal for a required semester of Service to Society (STS). The proposal originates from the problem that Brandeis will face over the next five years as it increases enrollment from 3,200 to 3,700. Brandeis will have to figure where these students will live and where they will eat, on a campus that already has overcrowded dorms and long lines at dining halls.

This proposed solution would require every Brandeis student to spend one of his or her eight semesters off-campus engaging in some sort of public service. For many students this will mean an internship at a non-profit somewhere, for others it could mean intensive scientific research. During this semester students would earn the course credit equivalent to taking two or three courses, and pay tuition at a reduced rate (perhaps to the tune of 60%). The STS semester could be completed during summer vacation, enabling students to graduate in three and a half years. Or it could be taken during the regular academic school year, ensuring a normal four-year graduation time.

Continue reading “Brandeis Students Could Serve a Semester to Society”

Building a Wider Donor Base

It’s no secret that Brandeis’s fundraising is much too slow right now and that the Madoff scheme is a big reason why.  The failing economy would be a huge handicap on it’s own, but dealing with the greatest theft in history targeted mostly toward our greatest donor base has made our situation critical.  We know that the University already has an excellent fundraising department — it was only last August that we were hearing about the record amounts of money we were taking in.  Yet the obvious questions are being asked.  Is Brandeis too reliant on the wealthy Jewish community for fundraising, and if so, how can we diversify our base of support?

Jewish sponsorship has always been fundamental to Brandeis’s identity.  It is one of our four pillars, and it connects us to the Jewish community in a way that I deeply appreciate, even as someone with no Jewish background.  Thus, any steps we would take to diversification should never come at the expense of our Jewish connection.  Indeed, it is just as important to ask ourselves how we can ensure this connection stays strong.  I’ve heard that many more conservative Jewish groups have grown somewhat suspicious of Brandeis for various reasons (most notably for Jimmy Carter’s visit), and we cannot afford to lose them as supporters and donors.  Obviously, we have to balance our Jewish sponsorship with our non-sectarianism, and I’m certainly not suggesting that Carter should not have been allowed to come.  However, we must always be clear that our goal is to expand and not to replace our current base of support.

Honestly, all of these questions are far beyond my level of expertise, and I assume that any suggestions I could offer have already been thoroughly explored.  In fact, I think it’s very possible that we’re doing everything we can to expand and that the only way to grow a larger donor base is through the passage of time.  As the University matures, more families and organizations will develop personal connections with Brandeis through our alumni.  Targeted campaigns might draw donations for people or groups who want to further specific missions, but overall I imagine that it’s difficult to find communities willing to donate to a college to which they have no personal connections.

The biggest immediate concern might be the waves of negative press coming from the Rose decision.  Many alumni seem to have rallied for the Rose, and let’s hope that they still view us as worth their donations.  Still, if you subscribe to the view that any publicity is good publicity, perhaps we can use this as an opportunity in a very public forum to ask for help from donors.  We don’t want to scare off new recruits by appearing too desperate (if it’s not too late for that already), but hopefully the Rose will prove to potential donors that the stakes we are facing are very high.  I don’t think we can construct a fundraising campaign around the Rose without looking bad; people won’t like the idea of art used as cajolery any more than art used as a slush fund.  Still, it’s not every day that Brandeis draws so much national attention, and if we can use it to point out all that we have worth giving to, perhaps we can find a silver lining.

What can blog do for you?

I’m in Washington, D.C. at the moment, at the fabulous YP4 National Summit, surrounded by well over a hundred brilliant, accomplished progressive youth leaders from across the country. It’s pretty humbling.

I’ve actually explained Brandeis’ situation to most of them. I said that due to financial worries, we have to restructure the university, and we figured we might as well go whole-hog and make other changes as well. The faculty have expressed an interest in integrating our Social Justice values into the curriculum, but no real concrete details have emerged.

I’m going to ask these passionate social justice students this: “What’s your vision for a Socially Just campus? Academically, with admissions, in terms of internal democracy, whatever,” and report back what I heard.

But hey! Do you back home have anything else you want me to ask? These are the sort of people who started nonprofits, who have accomplished much already on their campuses or in their communities, or done some other outstanding thing. The real cream of the crop. These are the sorts of people who have Social Justice on the brain. What would you like to ask them?

Money, and Why Your Club Isn’t Getting Any

In the wake of the Finance Board’s marathon decisions, a lot of clubs have been wondering why they got so little money compared to previous semesters.  It’s not the budget situation — the Union Activities Fee is fixed and thus divorced from the budget cuts.  So why is everyone getting less than usual?  Here’s the situation to the best of my understanding (all info courtesy of the Student Union Constitution.  If I’m wrong at any point, feel free to call me out in the comments).

The Union Activities Fee is divided into three separate funds:

  • The Union Government Fund goes to the government, providing the E-Board discretionary, the Senate discretionary, and several other small projects.  From here, we get the newspapers, the bikes, the Midnight Buffet, and a bunch of other government projects.
  • The Justice Printing Expenses Fund goes to the Justice.  To maintain separation between the press and the government, the Justice doesn’t have to go through the F-Board for money.
  • The Finance Board Allocations Fund is by far the largest fund, and it’s the one we’re interested in here.  This is the money that goes to Chartered Union Organizations, which are all chartered clubs.

In the past, the Union Activities Fee has been fixed at 1% of the total tuition.  This meant that inflation wouldn’t affect the Fee, because it would increase along with tuition.  However, that changed as of this year.  The substantial roll-over money that the F-Board had accrued convinced the administration that the Union was getting too much money, and part of the requirements they set for allowing us to keep the roll-over and build the new weight room was that a cap was to be placed on the UAF.  Thus, when tuition increased over last summer, the UAF stayed where it was last year.

Unfortunately, the economy didn’t.  As the cost of living has gone up, exacerbated by the recession, the money that the F-Board has to allocate isn’t going as far as it used to.  It’s my understanding that the F-Board allocated money as they usually would during the fall semester, which is why no great changes were felt.  However, that has left them with a smaller pot than ever before for the spring.  Hence, across the board, activities that deserve to be funded have not gotten the money they deserve.

Solving the problem is as simple as convincing the administration to remove the cap on the UAF.  The budget crisis may complicate that, but the increase would be a relative drop in the bucket to the shortfall we’re facing.  More importantly, we need to assure them that the roll-over won’t happen again.  Responsibility for the roll-over is somewhat complex and is shared between past F-Boards and clubs that didn’t spend all their allocations.  However, last year’s treasurer Choon Woo Ha instituted several reforms to ensure that the problem wouldn’t repeat itself; I’m very hazy as to what exactly they are, but thetreasurer.org probably has more information if you’re interested.

In short, the problem isn’t with the current F-Board or the current Treasurer, Max Wallach (who I know from personal experience to be very thorough and good at his job).  Let’s hope that the UAF cap is removed, and clubs will once again be able to get the funding they deserve.

Our Financial Model — The Past and the Future

As details of our financial situation have come out, it has become apparent that Brandeis is in worse shape than many other universities.  There are several well-known reasons for this.  Our relative youth means our endowment is much smaller than most institutions of similar standing.  The Madoff scandal affected our donor base much more heavily than most schools.  However, some of the blame has to go to the financial model that Brandeis has been working under for the past few years.  For those unfamiliar with Brandeis’s spending patterns, this post is the most comprehensive explanation I’ve seen and is definitely a must-read.  Basically, even as we were receiving record fundraising totals, our spending was so aggressive that we took on an incredible amount of debt, and the market failure has left us with obligations we can no longer come close to meeting.

For what I gather, aggressive spending has been a common feature of Brandeis’s recent history, and though recent circumstances make it tempting to view this as a complete mistake, we must also recognize the good that has come of it.  Simply put, I doubt that there is another university in the nation that has done so much with so little.  Flawed as they are, the US News and World Report rankings provide good perspective on where our reputation stands.  Brandeis is number 31 among national universities, an amazingly high position considering we are only 61 years old.  Plus, we are much smaller than every other school in our league; the only smaller school above us is the much less diverse CalTech, and the next school with an enrollment below our 5,333 is WPI at number 71.  And while the numbers obviously don’t mean everything, I think every Brandeis student realizes that we are incredibly lucky to be attending this school.  Our faculty is excellent and very well respected, our facilities have been constantly improving, and we’ve enjoyed visits from the top names in almost every field of study.  This kind of success doesn’t come cheap, and it’s safe to say that without our aggressive spending patterns, our meteoric rise to the upper echelon of academia could not have happened.

Yet this success was also gamble, as we see now.  Yes, we had an emergency fund, but it was obviously too small for a crisis of this magnitude.  And while the combination of horrible recession and Madoff could not have been predicted, I’ve seen no evidence that there was any kind of emergency plan in place for disaster, something I imagine would be elementary.  Is it possible that selling the Rose was always going to be the backup plan?  I doubt it.  If so, it would have been carried out much better.  Even if it was, it’s obviously not a very appetizing one, even if you ignore the (very convincing) arguments against using art as an ATM.

So how are we to judge the university’s past financial model?  The answer will come in how Brandeis weathers the current crisis.  If we emerge bruised but largely intact, then the failure of emergency planning is a mistake that will not come close to eclipsing what should be recognized as one of the greatest feats of university management in history — the development of a leading national school in just over half a century.  If our reputation and standing are permanently damaged, then Brandeis has gambled away its future and made all of our degrees that much less valuable.  The stakes are incredibly high.

I consider myself very lucky to be connected with a school as great as Brandeis, and I’ll view a few years of relative stagnation as a small price to pay for all the great things that Brandeis has to offer.  However, if the Brandeis I leave is fundamentally weaker than the Brandeis I decided to attend, I’ll feel cheated and used.  In short, my recommendation for the financial model of the future is one that is still very aggressive; in fact, as aggressive as possible while still providing a plan to help us survive lean years.  However, I can also understand why some people will want to see much more caution in the future.

Let’s start this discussion in the comments.  What do you think Brandeis’s long-term financial model should look like?

UP my MIFA: the only viable way to save the Rose?

Regardless of your feelings on the Rose (in)decision, its obvious that the ridiculous fashion by which it was made was, in Reinharz’s own words, “screwed up.” But when you start talking about the actual idea of selling art to close our budget deficit, things get a bit murkier. We need to find $79 million fast, and no matter how you spin it, that ain’t too easy.

Some say this shortfall was unavoidable. But even given the current recession and the Madoff scandal, the University should not be in as tough a spot as it now is. Our assets were overextended before the crash – we took out long-term debt in the middle of a fundraising campaign, over-relied on gifts, and added operating expenses to our budget faster than we could devise sustainable ways to pay for them. Like many institutions, our endowment investments were in funds that gave good returns but were overly risky in retrospect; our swift losses are a testament to that.

In short, the Administration’s financial strategy was ambitious at the expense of prudence, and now the shit’s hit the fan. They need to own up to that, and hopefully learn from it in the future. But enough pointing fingers – what do we do now, if not sell the Rose?

Most alternatives are completely infeasible. We aren’t going to cut need-based aid. We aren’t going to drastically hike tuition. We aren’t going to cut 200 hundred more staff, or 275 additional faculty. We aren’t going to close half the buildings on campus. Our student services have been cut to the bone.

In my mind, the only feasible alternative would be to draw from the principle of the University endowment. If we were to so choose, we could make up our budget deficit this way, completely. However, such a decision would not be without consequence. The effects of the current shortfall would linger for longer. It would take several more years for our endowment to grow back to its previous levels. Its unlikely that we’d be able to begin hiring faculty again for some time. The primary financial vision of the current Brandeis Administration – to expand and improve the University by growing the endowment as quickly as possible – would suffer a major setback.

But, we could avoid selling any of the Rose’s collection – a decision many find immoral, unprincipled, and in flagrant disregard of the ethical agreements the University entered into with donors and the American Association of Museums.

However, right now, such a path is impossible. Massachussets law follows the provisions of UMIFA, the Universal Management of Institutional Funds Act. This law prohibits charitable institutions from dipping into the endowment below “the historic dollar value of the [endowment] fund.” Since Brandeis’ endowment has been recently built, most of it is composed of original gifts, not interest on those gifts reinvested into the endowment (this is often the case at older, richer universities). Because of the sudden depreciation in our investments, we have already fallen below the level where we are legally allowed to draw from the endowment.

But, an updated version of the act, UPMIFA (the P stands for prudent), was drafted after the dot com bubble burst tied the hands of charities whose investments had suddenly dropped. UPMIFA allows charitable institutions greater flexibility in their expenditures, and permits them to draw below the principal of their endowment. Since its introduction 2 years ago, UPMIFA has been ratified in 26 states, and has been recently introduced in the Massachussets legislature by a coalition spearheaded by the Massachussets Audobon Society, which lost 26% of its endowment last year. (see the Wall Street Journal article for more details). COO French, in a letter to the Justice quoted in their recent editorial, stated,

UPMIFA … establishes a sounder and more unified basis for management of charitable funds.

But so far, Brandeis has not joined the coalition pushing for the new law. Reinharz and French have also failed to pursue other means of accessing the endowment principle. Charity Governance Consulting provides a primer on these alternative avenues. Essentially, the University could petition the Attorney General’s office to use the doctrine of cy pres to grant the University an exemption from spending restrictions. In fact, this path is explicitly endorsed as a possiblity in current Massachussets law –

If the [Attorney General] finds that the restriction is obsolete, inappropriate, or impracticable, it may by order release the restriction in whole or in part.

Which leads to an intriguing question: If the Administration supposedly endorses the premise of UPMIFA, why has it neither joined the coalition lobbying for its passage nor petitioned the Attorney General’s office to allow us to draw additional funds from our endowment?

Through either path, we’d be released from a financial bind. We’d have more options. But through inaction, the Administration is able to force our hand. Without being able to draw from the endowment, there are no other available options but to sell the Rose’s art, as soon as possible. Since this is the path settled on by the higher-ups in the Administration, it is against their strategic interest to open up viable alternatives.

Now, some would have us believe that drawing from the endowment would threaten the future stability of Brandeis. In the recent student press conference, President Reinharz said something to this effect, via goofy metaphor:

“You can eat your corn seed today. But somebody’s going to suffer in the future. You and I will not be here.”

But in the event that we are suffering an undue amount in the future due to any hypothetical increased endowment draw, the same possibility of selling art still exists. Actually, the pieces will even be worth more, as art markets continue to recover. The only difference is that our crisis mentality will have settled down. It will be even more difficult to sell the idea to the Brandeis community when we aren’t freaking out quite as much. But if we are to make such a permanent and momentous decision, we shouldn’t be shock-doctrined into doing it hastily in crisis mode.

In short – Drawing from the endowment gives us a good alternative and still allows the possibility of selling art (at a probable higher price) if the University is still in desperate need of money. So if you want a solid argument to keep the Rose, start lobbying the Massachussets legislature to review and pass the UPMIFA legislation. Pressure the University Administration to go to the Attorney General and ask if cy pres can be implemented. There is little incentive for the University to act on this without significant pressure. Very soon, I expect a coordinated campaign on campus and among concerned alumni to this effect. Its the obvious next step.

Student Senate in a Nutshell

This Sunday’s meeting has a brief summary:

Provost Marty Krauss mentioned possible Gerstenzang Library cuts, according to a report by Adam Ross, Chair of the Provost’s Advisory Committee. Ross recently spoke to Krauss about her goals for the CARS committee. Jenna Rubin, chair of the Dining Services Committee, also spoke, mentioning plans to purchase a 24-hour kosher vending machine.

Directly after President Jason Gray encouraged the Senate to embrace transparency since senators demand the same from the administration, the Senate voted 9-10 in favor of an executive session, which requires all press and non-senator observers to leave the room until the session is over. It was implied that impeachment charges were discussed during this session.

Outside of this private session, new senators were sworn in, the Senate recognized/chartered a few clubs, and individual senators gave their Senate reports for the week. Details after the cut. Continue reading “Student Senate in a Nutshell”

Quick and Easy

A really simple way to offer your advice to the committee considering the Business major.

Hello,
My name is Murat Kemahlioglu, I am a junior at Brandeis, and am 
representing the student body in the academic restructuring 
sub-committee for the Business Major. 

I would like to remind you all that nothing is off the table and any 
creative comment you may give will make a difference. Therefore, 
please participate by completing this survey; 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=zX9ND8Mnvs5MnEYzBnOsJQ_3d_3d 

Thank you, and have a good week.
Murat Kemahlioglu

Town Halls

There will be two Town Halls and a Forum this coming week for you to learn what is going on, ask any questions you may have about academic restructuring, and to provide suggestions, input, or commentary.

The first Town Hall is today at 430PM. The second Town Hall is Thursday, February 12th at 430PM. Both of these are in Upper Sherman (in Hassenfeld Conference Center). The discussion will focus on Degree
Requirements and Advising, Curricular Innovation, and the Third Semester (a summer semester or an experiential semester to that would be incorporated into the curriculum for incoming classes). For the sake of everyone who can’t go and to let the administration know that we will be a valuable part of this process, get involved, and make your voice heard.

A Forum will be held at 7:30 pm on Tuesday February 10th in Geller Auditorium (back of Sherman) to discuss the possibility of a Business major. Come with questions, concerns, ideas for the curriculum, etc.

Questions to consider might include: How does this affect the liberal arts environment at Brandeis University? What classes will be offered? How will this affect the financial situation in general? Will they hire new professors to teach this major? Is this going to affect the current IBS program?

The forum will be moderated by the Brandeis Business Club. All questions will be fielded by the Undergraduate representative to the Business Major Drafting Committee, who will take your concerns and suggestions directly to the committee itself.

We’ll let you know about more events like these as we hear about them.

Liberal + Arts = Brandeis?

Ever since the announcement of the closing of the Rose, there has been a lot of speculation (and anger) about how much Brandeis values the arts on campus (or doesn’t). I have never really had any evidence one way or the other, although I surely hope Brandeis doesn’t cut back on their arts programs since I am a Theater major, and we have one of the best Acting MFA programs around.

However, Jehuda and Shula have recently led me to believe that Brandeis will not rush to make cuts to the arts program. At a party after Saturday night’s performance, Andrew Neiman (not a Brandeis student), the lead actor in Brandeis Theatre Company’s Siddhartha, told me that Jehuda and Shula, who were in the audience that night, approached him after the show ended to congratulate him on his performance. (If the couple needs to be convinced to support the arts we may be in luck because Jehuda was apparently very endeared when Andy broke out his Hebrew skills.) In addition, the Women’s Studies Research Center of which Shula is the Director, frequently features art exhibits, like their show which will begin this April, Cairns.

The President and his wife’s personal support of the arts are an encouraging sign to me that during the current economic crisis, the arts will not be cut without hesitation as they often are during hard times. But we’ll have to wait and see in order to find out for sure.

This Week at Brandeis (UPDATED)

It’s the last week before winter break but don’t give up yet! There are a few really interesting events this week to distract you from studying for your first round of midterms, if you are like me and lucky enough to have any.

First, you should stop by Polaris Lounge in North Quad tomorrow night at 6:15 to learn how to make hummus at the Home-made Hummus Party, hosted by NaturaLiving Club. You’ll be able to learn how to make your own hummus, and then eat it!! There will be HUMMUS (of course) and chips and veggies for dipping too. Feel free to bring your dinner with you, too, and eat it with the hummus.

Later, at 7:30 SEA and BOO are co-hosting TO BE GREEN: An Environmental and Tu B’shvat Celebration, an event which will voice student perspectives from each club about how we can protect and preserve our environment, decorate canvass tote bags to use instead of plastic ones, and plant seeds in homemade planters to keep in your dorm rooms! Delicious foods will be provided and bring your own mug/cup/used plastic bottle to use as a planter***

Also tomorrow, the Sociology Department will be showing Babel at 8pm in Golding Auditorium. Snacks will be served and immediately after the film there will be a brief discussion of the film to delve into its sociological implications.

If you’re not interested in seeing Babel, you could also go to the ICC at 8:30 to watch Rice and Potatoes, a documentary co-sponsored by Brandeis Asian-American Student Alliance and Trisk, that explores gay Asian/Caucasian relationships. Following the movie, there will be a discussion.

At 9pm on Monday, Mixed Heritage Club is hosting a Valentine’s Day Interracial Dating Event. There will be a discussion of interracial, inter-ethnic and multicultural dating and relationships and pink lemonade and Valentine’s Day treats will be served!

You may have never heard of the club FRESH at Brandeis, but you should go to their meeting this week on Monday at 9:30 because they are dedicated to helping areas affected by issues of unclean water, an issue that could use a lot more attention than it gets.

On Tuesday, there aren’t many events happening, but you can be a part of a lot of planning of future activism by going to Sex and Sexualities Symposium from 2-3pm, Brandeis Labor Coalition 8-9pm, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy 8-9pm, Brandeis Open Mic Series 9-10pm, and Democracy for America 9-10:30.

There is no lack of meetings on Wednesday with an informational meeting about hiking Israel’s National Trail at 6pm in Shapiro 315, and AHORA! General Meeting and MLK and Friends meetings from 8-9pm and SEA and Students for a Democratic Society from 9-10pm.

On Thursday morning at 10:30am, Women’s and Gender Studies presents Gender at the End of Life: Dying, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia with keynote speaker Susan M. Wolf. Later in the day at 3:30pm in Usdan International Lounge, Dr. Brian Williams an Epidemiologist working for the World Health Organization, will give the keynote address of Fighting AIDS in Africa: Public Health vs. Human Rights. In his address, Dr. Williams will attempt to reconcile the disparate views of public-health experts and human-rights advocates to explore how policymakers, donors, scientists, and service providers can work together more effectively. Also on Thursday will be Student Peace Alliance Meeting 8-9pm, FMLA 8:30-9:30pm and Radical Film Night 9-10pm. Brandeis Theater Company’s production of Siddhartha which opened on Friday night, will continue for the second and final weekend starting on Thursday  at 8pm, and continuing on Friday and Saturday at 8pm, as well as Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.

If your club is doing an event that is not on this calendar or you have heard about one, please email us at events@innermostparts.org.

Louis Brandeis on the national financial crisis

As interpreted by one of the leading Brandeis biographers of any age, Melvin Urofsky:

Read it in full in the New York Times. A snippet:

For Brandeis, regulation was not supposed to be a restraint on innovation or the entrepreneurial spirit, but rather a check on unbridled greed. He believed in a free market, but one in which the government enforced rules of fair competition so that the most talented could succeed. Clear rules would help ensure that business was conducted fairly and openly.

“Other People’s Money” can help us navigate the new era of regulation that we are likely to enter. It would be wise for Mr. Obama to heed Brandeis’s advice before imposing stricter rules on banking and the stock market. For these plans to be effective, Brandeis would caution, they must be more than cosmetic. Government should oppose banks’ purchases of stock brokerages, for example, to avoid the problems that Brandeis exposed. Furthermore, new rules won’t accomplish much without effective watchdog agencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, seems to have abandoned its oversight responsibilities during the Bush years, and now, we are paying the price.

As we reel from the financial crisis, “Other People’s Money” and similar indictments of immoral banking behavior will likely find a new audience. Some of the trouble-making bankers will, perhaps, be temporarily chastened. But before we know it, they will once again be complaining about regulation’s “interference” with the market. Don’t listen to them. Good regulation will keep us from losing sight of the importance of those same principles that Brandeis emphasized so many years ago — honesty, openness and a fair playing field.

And Now For Some Humor!

In an attempt to distract myself from actual work, I came across this forum called Mass Cops – Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network. On it, they decided to post the Justice article relating to the closed-door faculty meeting and demonstration. The comments are absolutely HILARIOUS and I highly recommend that you take a look and laugh a little. I swear, laughter is more fun that you last remember.

Enjoy.

A real chance for the Rose, or is it all PR spin?

Yesterday, we were greeted with a suite of niceties – a student press conference, an email assuring us the Rose would remain open, an open forum with Pres. Reinharz, 10% pay cuts for Pres. Reinharz and COO French, and a spiffy new website for The Steering Committee. In terms of process, these measures are a long-overdue move towards transparency and community inv0lvement. The message the Administration wants to send is clear – we made a big mistake to ostracize everyone, but hey, better late than never. As Pres. Reinharz wrote yesterday in his email to the Brandeis community,

“To quote President Obama, ‘I screwed up.’ “

These are clear reversals from the earlier policy of last week, when Pres. Reinharz and others told us, with finality, that the Rose Museum would be closed. His initial email stated

The Board of Trustees met today and voted to close the Rose Art Museum.

Yesterday, 9 days later, Pres. Reinharz sent another email, stating,

The Museum will remain open.

He tells us this new idea is a clarifying correction to the earlier stance, and that the Board resolution’s real mandate merely gave the President the authority to conduct “an orderly sale or other disposition of works from the university’s collection.”

Disregarding this mandate’s parallel to the Iraq War Resolution, the initial Administrative position was nonetheless clear: The University had been authorized to sell the Rose’s artwork, and fully planned to close the museum and do so (at least the Warhols, Lichtensteins, Rauschenbergs, and other really valuable pieces).

Now, we have some softer, vaguer language. Today’s email said,

“The University may have the option, subject to applicable legal requirements and procedures, to sell some artworks if necessary, but I assure you that other options will also be considered.” (emphasis on vague-ifying words added by me).

But as was pointed out in a comment on an earlier post, nothing concrete has really changed. Even if the building is still called the Rose and remains open to the public, the museum will be turned from a museum into a teaching space. The Rose’s staff had been given leave of notice for June, and there is no indication that plan has been altered. As the Rose is financially self-sufficient, there is no reason for the museum to be closed this summer unless the Administration is planning on dismantling the “museum” part of the Rose museum.

I wish we could trust Pres. Reinharz at face value. If he says “I’m not closing the Rose,” I’d like to believe that without reading behind his words. But such trust has to be earned, and until a few days ago the modus operandi of the University administration had been to make big decisions behind closed doors and try to slip them past the community with little discussion and no fuss. I hope the University administration really has turned over a new leaf, but we cannot be naive enough to be placated so easily. For now, this new reframing of the decision looks like little substance and a lot of PR spin concocted by our new friends at Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

New website for CARS!

As mentioned in Adam Jaffe’s recent e-mail, CARS has a brand-new, beautiful website. We can now see the membership of every committee, a summery of what each committee is working towards, a timeline of the entire process (including scheduled open forums!) and a document from the provost listing five pages worth of ideas. Take a look. I for one think it’s pretty impressive.

JuicyCampus to Shut Down, Will Not Matter

Today is the last day to access JuicyCampus, the controversial college gossip website created by greedy Duke alum Matt Ivester. In related news, today is also the last day of “JuicyCampus: to ban or not to ban?” debate at Brandeis. That’s killing two annoyances with one collapse. It’s a good day for everyone! Except Ivester!

Ivester explained his reasons for terminating the site on the JuicyCampus blog: “JuicyCampus’ exponential growth outpaced our ability to muster the resources needed to survive this economic downturn, and as a result, we are closing down the site as of Feb. 5, 2009,” he wrote. In the same post, Ivester pretended he doesn’t know anonymity and exposure cause people to start spouting normally unacceptable sentiments.

“While there are parts of JuicyCampus that none of us will miss – the mean-spirited posts and personal attacks – it has also been a place for the fun, lighthearted gossip of college life. I hope that is how it is remembered,” Ivester wrote.

All Juicy Campus posts will disappear once it shuts down, IPs will remain private, and Ivester is planning his “next big website”, according to a post in the JuicyCampus blog titled “Shutdown FAQs”. I wonder if this new website of his will include a virtual ruler, so visitors can actually measure their own egos as opposed to merely massaging them.

Inevitably, a small number of students will initially believe this occurrence is worse than the week we thought the Rose would die. I also predict these students won’t be too vocal about it. They will have one stupid, burning question: “Where can inquiring students gather what they must know about the world? Who is or isn’t gay, a dominatrix, ugly, or endowed with a spectacular ass? Come on, Ivester, think of the drunk freshmen. This weekend, thanks to you, they will add their salty tears to the vomit in their frat’s toilets. NOBODY wants to clean that shit up. ”

Their despair cannot last long, since there’s a JuicyCampus copy lurking around the corner. All traffic to JuicyCampus will be redirected to College ACB (Anonymous Confession Board), according to the “Shutdown FAQs”. College ACB does not currently have any posts on its Brandeis page. This is likely to change rapidly.

Breaking: Reinharz backs waaay off from Rose decision

It seems the Brandeis Administration has turned full-circle from its original, seemingly set-in-stone decision to liquidate the Rose Art Museum (though its still a possiblity).

During his student press conference today, President Reinharz began by firmly stating that the Board of Trustees Resolution did not call for the closing of the Rose, nor did it mandate the selling of the collection. This had been a misunderstanding, continued Reinharz, precipitated by a hastily worded and somewhat innacurate press release. This original press release said,

“Brandeis University’s Board of Trustees today voted unanimously to close the Rose Art Museum.”

 But this morning, Pres. Reinharz told us that was an error. Instead, he went on to state,

“I’m not closing the Rose… had I said that originally, that would have saved us a lot of pain, aggravation, and the rest. I take full responsibility.”

“The arts have always been one of the four schools at Brandeis. They have been as important as the sciences or the social sciences or the humanities. We have always been supporters of the Rose. I have raised most of the money for the Rose… So I want you to understand, this decision has been painful. It has been very painful to everyone – to the trustees, to the administrators, to the faculty, to the students, and it has not been taken lightly.” 

“I take responsibility for at least two things. One is the way [the decision] has been communicated, and the other is the process that led up to that vote of the Board of Trustees. If I could turn the clock back, I would do it differently.” 

Earlier, the Administration had hedged on when and how much art would be sold. But to my knowledge, this is the first time that the University has backed off its decision to actually close the Museum. Such a move is almost certainly a reaction to the bad press, student protest, and alumni shock following the announcement that the Museum would be closed. Indeed, Pres. Reinharz seems to have entirely accepted the request in the faculty letter sent yesterday to his office. That letter asked Reinharz,

We would like to ask you to consider suspending any final decision about the fate  of the Rose Art Museum, pending a full airing of possible alternatives by the Brandeis community.

Today, Reinharz will hold a discussion with faculty, students, and other community members whose fates intertwine with that of the museum. And, in the press conference, he told us,

“We have a faculty committee thinking right now on what and how the Rose should function on this campus.” 

This is great news. Our outcries have worked. It should have been done earlier, but the unilateral Administrative decision has been reversed.

More to come.

update:  (Sahar here) Jehuda just sent an email to the University Community. Full text:

Continue reading “Breaking: Reinharz backs waaay off from Rose decision”

Reinharz and French both take a 10% pay cut!

So I just got back from a student press conference with Pres. Reinharz and the chief administrators, and am still digesting all the information. Look for more posts later today on news, analysis, and speculation.

Today, both Pres. Reinharz and COO French have announced they are taking a 10% pay cut, presumably starting this fiscal year. This was hidden away in the Boston Globe this morning – 

Reinharz will give up $50,000, French $40,000.

Such a step is something we’ve been thinking about for a while, and which I brought up with COO French at the first student forum. He originally referred me to the sticky wage theory, an economics term describing the difficulty of lowering wages even when market conditions dictate they should go down. Well, it seems the University’s new PR firm, Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, is slick enough to overcome its chief officers’ stickiness – the move came two days after the firm’s hiring by the University. Didn’t take a genius to figure out the PR benefits of that one, however.

But regardless of PR motivation, the results are what counts. Such a move is commendable and illustrates a new sensitivity of the Administration to the mood of the community. If we are letting go 10% of our faculty, it seems pretty fair to cut 10% of the half-million dollar salary of our President. Thank you, President Reinharz.

Faculty ask Reinharz to hold off on Rose decision

Some 70 faculty members have signed and sent a letter to President Reinharz, asking him to “consider suspending any final decision about the fate of the Rose Art Museum, pending a full airing of possible alternatives by the Brandeis community.”

The letter comes as a welcom show of support from the faculty for more community involvement in decisions, and serves as a rebuke to the Administration for acting in such a secretive matter. 

Perhaps one thing that could be considered is the possibility of drawing from the endowment principle, which seems to me to be the best feasible fiscal alternative that would leave the University intact. I plan on talking more about this in a future post.

The full letter is below…

 

An open letter from the Faculty to Pres. Reinharz

February 4, 2009 

Dear President Reinharz,  

Continue reading “Faculty ask Reinharz to hold off on Rose decision”

Madoff Investor List released (Brandeis is sort of on it)

A former editor of the Justice pointed this out to us:

A list of investors and interested parties in the Bernie Madoff bankruptcy case has been released. Brandeis University, along with important donors like the Shapiros, are on the list.

At first glance, this would seem to indicate that the University did indeed invest with Madoff, contrary to claims by Pres. Reinharz to the contrary. But all listed parties might not have been directly affected. According to NY Times Dealbook,

The list includes anyone who responded to advertisements placed by the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of the firm. Not every name on the list is necessarily a victim of Mr. Madoff’s reputed $50 billion Ponzi scheme, but the list includes “everyone who might have an interest in the bankruptcy case,” according to a person briefed on the document.

Probably, Brandeis is one of those who “might have an interest in the bankruptcy case,” for the obvious reason that the richest members of our donor base were severely affected. But I’d like to have that verified, to clarify again that we were not directly invested with Madoff.

The Future of Financial Transparency

In the past few weeks, the Brandeis administration has become much more transparent about the financial situation that the University is facing.  This has been both frightening and relieving; frightening, because the picture is quite bleak, and relieving, because at least we know what the picture looks like.  Overall, however, the result has been very positive for the level of the campus dialogue.  We can speak of the challenges facing us in terms of dollars and cents and know that our conversations have some basis in reality.

Yet changes can occur in the financial world quickly and with little warning.  Our future may look much more dire or more secure several months from now, and there is no guarantee that we’ll get the same level of information that we have been given so far.  We can hope that the administration continues at this increased level of transparency, but they may not feel the same pressure to do so.  While it would be nice to believe that the current wave of student activism will not break, there are any number of things that could find the student body becoming less vocal — summer vacation, a lull after the major cuts for 2009-2010 are finalized, just plain activist exhaustion.

Our best hope is that the administration has reached the same conclusion I have: that financial transparency benefits all of us.  As we’ve been working on the same page, the unproductive paradigm of students versus administrators is giving way to a circling of the wagons founded on the understanding that we’re all in this together.  Of course, there’s still room for debate — Rose Art Museum, anyone? — but the administrators have, to their credit, open pathways of involvement for students in decision-making, and the students have, to their credit, contributed in thoughtful, substantive ways.

Therefore, I think it is time for the students to ask for a promise of continued financial transparency, and I propose the following as a part of this:  Every month, Brandeis should release a short document to the entire community updating all of our major financial statistics and putting them in an easily understandable context. This does not have to be a time-consuming task.  The numbers already exist, and I’m sure that they’re tracked very carefully.  In fact, they are guaranteed to come out sooner or later; why not make it as they’re relevant and let us use them for more than just finger-pointing in hindsight?  This practice should continue beyond the current budget crisis; when Brandeis reenters the land of plenty, why shouldn’t we all celebrate together?

This is our University, and we all have a stake in it beyond the very relevant fact that it’s our tuition money that’s being used.  All we’re asking for is an idea of its financial health and the ability to make our contributions to the discussions of its future as well-informed as possible.

Fundraising Success

Remember the Combating Hate Fundraiser? We were raising money to help rebuild a black church that was burned down on the eve of Obama’s electoral victory.

Well, the fundraiser was so successful that the organizers had to turn away people from the door. At a fundraiser! Mad kudos to Andy Hogan for working tirelessly on this, and the whole community for donating money / showing up to the event.

We raised $2,000 from straight-up donations as well as from the fundraising event itself.

Continue reading “Fundraising Success”

Let your voice be heard!

bumped ~sahar

A message from Steven Karel on mybrandeis: 

After a torrent of e-mails over the weekend (1/31/09-2/1/09) with lots of interesting comments, there has not been a single comment today. Please take a look at the other bulletin boards from the CARS subcommittees and weigh in. There are a number of posted questions with absolutely no student responses. If you don’t make yourself heard now, you will be hard-pressed to complain later about not having been consulted.

I hate to say it, but it’s true. We have all these resources. As Sahar said below, we have a voice. We have the power to use that voice. We wanted open communication, right? But communication has to go both ways. Give and take. We’ve been given the opportunity; please, take it. There are 4,000 people on this campus. There is no reason why the discussion should be stalling.

Events: Budget Presentation, Black Identity, Arts Festival, and Benefit Dinner

Tomorrow afternoon from 5-6:30 in Levin Ballroom there will be another Budget Presentation and Q&A held by senior administrators including Jehuda, COO Peter French and Provost Marty Krauss. A presentation on the University’s budget and fiscal situation will be given, after which the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions. Afterward, from 6:30-8pm in Levin, there will be an Open Student Forum led by Jason Gray. This open forum is a chance for students to have their voices heard and their questions answered.

Tomorrow night at 7pm in Swig Lounge, ICC there will be an interesting informal roundtable discussion on Black Identity (pre and post Civil Rights) with various professors and staff members such as Prof. Wayne Marshall, Jamele Adams, and Ashley Rondini. It sounds like a very interesting dialogue to be a part of, no matter your race/racial identity.

On Sunday from 5-10pm the second Expressions Arts Festival will happen at Biagio Ristorante and Bar (on Moody St. in Waltham). The festival will include live performances and paintings, crafts and jewelry, and it provides a great opportunity to network with other artists. The event will be MC’ed by Jason Henry Simon-Bierenbaum, and will include performances and art by Molly Haas-Hooven (’09) and Allison Vanouse (’09), Josh Mervis (’08) and Samson Kohanski (’08), Brandeis Saxophone Quartet, Northeastern’s Kathryn Hansis, Emerson’s The Gringo Choir, FRIT and Brandeis’ VoiceMale. After 10pm, there will an after party with DJ and Dancing. The Arts Festival will benefit Expressions, a new not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing grants for programs globally that empower and develop individuals and the societies in which they live through the arts. Check out ExpressionsInternational.org for more details!

At 7pm on Sunday there will be a Benefit Dinner brought to you by local restaurants (including Milk Street Cafe) in the Multipurpose Room in SCC, to benefit, Baet Cham Le’Naara, a home for at-risk girls in Nahariyah, Israel. The participants of Hillel’s trip to Israel this winter break are sponsoring this fundraiser. The cost will be $10 for the dinner, plus there will be a silent auction and entertainment!

The Budget Crisis and how you can help

On the right hand side of Innermost Parts you can see a little box saying “The Budget Crisis – How to Help”. On it are links to all the official forums where committee-members will be reading and interacting.

Man, has this been been a crazy semester so far or what?

I don’t have much time – classes! breakfast! teethbrushing! – but I do want to say a few words about where we are now, and where to go from here.

We, the students of Brandeis, should be proud of ourselves.
Two weeks ago, we knew nothing. We relied on leaks in The Justice and vague emails from Jehuda for our information. (Of course, those in the know used Innermost Parts. 😛 )The faculty were having secret meetings and a Dean called the cops to keep those meetings secret.

“Shut up, sit down, eat your oatmeal. The Grown-Ups are in charge.”

We’ve progressed since then. Due to our organized outrage, our eloquent pieces in the Hoot, Justice (and yes, Innermost Parts), thanks to our demonstrations, our countless meetings with faculty and staff, we’ve been given a say in the academic plans at Brandeis.

A say, a voice, but no power.

Still, thanks to our organizing and Jason Gray’s mediation and leadership, there now exist official channels for our voices to be heard.
But is anyone speaking up?

I know we are. The backroom conversations, the chatter at club meetings, the worried introspection before bedtime – all that is real.
But we’re not channeling our passion and our love for Brandeis correctly.

Right now, there are committees (with student representation) meeting to decide the fate of Brandeis. Do you want a part in all that? Write, discuss, argue and vent in the places they’re listening.

On the right hand side of Innermost Parts you can see a little box saying “The Budget Crisis – How to Help”. On it are links to all the official forums where committee-members will be reading and interacting.

Look, no one is happy. We’re not happy with our representation, with the fact that these committees report to the Faculty, Administration, and Board of Trustees, but not to us. We’re unhappy with the hurried way this is all being done. We’re unhappy that it took concerted student pressure to get told anything, to be put on any committee. These things should have been the status quo already.

Still, for now, let’s start using these hard-fought lines of communication.

Official Lines of Communication:
Official Study Abroad Discussion

Add ideas to the Wiki

Official Recruiting and Admissions Forum

Official
Curricular Innovation and Restructuring Forum

Official Summer Semester Forum

Official Degree Requirements and Advising Forum

Two Important Forums Tomorrow

At last week’s open forum, President Reinharz promised that the dialogue between the administration and the students was just beginning, and tomorrow at 5 in the Levin Ballroom, he will keep his word.  The main complaint that most students had with the first forum was the inconvenient timing; 11 o’clock on a Wednesday is impossible for many students to make.  Thankfully, it looks like that was just a necessity of the schedule rather than an attempt to minimize turnout.  In fact, by holding a similar forum shortly afterwards, President Reinharz is proving that he wants to engage as many of us as possible.

The forum will be structured the same way as the last one, with the same presentation being shown for those who haven’t had a chance to see it yet.  However, the forum should still be productive for those who have, since this will be the first opportunity to ask the administration about the sustained bad press from the Rose Art Museum and about the reexamining of the study abroad decisions.  Provost Marty Krauss will probably have a lot to say about the new Committee on Academic Restructuring (CARS).

The follow-up forum, to be held at 6:30 in the Shaprio Campus Center, should prove to be just as interesting.  Jason Gray has put it together explicitly for the students, and it should help pull in students beyond those currently involved in BBCC, whose core is still weighted towards the established campus activists.  The entire student body faces the threat of deep cuts, and now is a great time to involve underrepresented members of the campus community.  In the e-mail announcing these forums, Jason made it clear that he hopes to encourage activism on the community level, saying “Our greatness lies in a Student Body that speaks up to be heard in the process of determining the future of our University… As Union President, it gives me great joy to speak for you, but even greater joy to speak with you.”  I expect many new ideas for action moving forward to come out of this meeting,

One other interesting statement from the e-mail promises that the forum “will be the predecessor to a series of academic forums that will be held for the entire Brandeis community to discuss proposed curriculum changes.”  From what I hear, these forums will actually be held by the subcommittees of CARS.  That means they will be far more than just Q&A sessions.  Instead, they represent a real opportunity to influence the decision-making bodies that will determine Brandeis’s academic future.  We have moved beyond merely asking for transparency.  Instead of just listening, we will be listened to.

Jason’s e-mail from Monday is below the fold.

Continue reading “Two Important Forums Tomorrow”

Dust off the Tie and Tails, and Let’s Help the Homeless

The Faculty Club is hosting a fundraising event this Saturday at 8pm for hopeFound, a homeless shelter in the greater Boston area, and from what I hear it’s going to be a mightily impressive event.  Just for comparison, last weekend’s very successful (I’ll post the figures when I get them) Union fundraiser for the Macedonia Church of God in Christ was organized in a few weeks.  This event has taken two years.

The planning has been a labor of love for Aaron Mitchell Finegold, a senior and current Ridgewood Quad Senate candidate, who has spared no expense in making the event as ornate as possible.  It’s structured as a very formal cocktail reception and silent auction, and though I imagine the auction items will be outside the typical college student’s budget, Aaron has promised that the event will be spectacular enough to interest  everyone.  It will provide a great networking opportunity with alumni and area businesspeople, and the Faculty Club is providing the catering.  At the very least, there will be alcohol (open bar from 8-9; of course, they will be ID’ing).

It’s nice that student activism is impacting the greater Boston community, particularly a charitable organization; when the economy heads south, charity is one of the hardest hit.  The high-society nature of the whole thing may seem at odds with the humble mission, but Aaron’s really done his homework, and he knows what brings the money to these events.  I’m sure all the excess will turn some people off, but if you like this kind of atmosphere and have $15 to part with at the door for a good cause,  Aaron has made sure you’ll get your money’s worth.

Student Reps to the CARS (Budget Cut) Sub-Committees

The following are the student representatives to the Budget Cut subcommittees; click to email each representative.

Central Academic Restructuring Steering Committee: Jason Gray ’10

Third Semester/Experiential Learning: Lydia Flier ’11, Lev Hirschhorn ’11

Degree Requirements and Advising: Matthew Shear ’11, Ron Kendler ’09, Ryan McElhaney ’10

Admissions and Recruiting: Mariel Gruszko ’10, Jamie Fleishman ’11, Justin Sulsky ’09

Business Major: Murat Kemahlioglu ’10, Matthew Wright ’09

Study Abroad: Alex Melman, Hanna Rosenthal-Fuller, Anum Irfan Khan

Climate Change Solutions Day Tomorrow

As part of the National Climate Change Solutions Day taking place on hundreds of college campuses tomorrow, the Campus Sustainability Initiative will be hosting a series of really cool events tomorrow.  If you think this weird “environment” thing that the young’uns keep going on about is important, then you’ll probably find something interesting in their program schedule.

The Shapiro Campus Center will host the Sustainability Solutions Showcase, a forum and educational display focusing on simple ways to green yourself on the Brandeis campus.  It features a webcast with several experts on the actions they foresee from the Obama administration and a live video conference with none other than our own US Representative Ed Markey, one of the true Congressional leaders on environmental issues.  Tours will also be held of Ridgewood and the Science Complex with an emphasis on their state-of-the-art green technologies.

Follow this link for more information on times and locations and for RSVP information for the tours (space is apparently limited).

Thoughts on the Study Abroad Advisory Committee

The creation of the Study Abroad Advisory Committee was announced on Friday, and it represents a clear commitment on the part of the administration to rectify the mistakes they made in planning and announcing the changes to study abroad.  It is composed of three administrators, three faculty members, and three students, all chosen for their expertise and influence on the study abroad program.  True to the spirit of community involvement in which it was created, the committee has launched an open my Brandeis forum to allow everyone to share their thoughts (check it out if you haven’t yet).

It’s important to note that Brandeis is going to see significant changes to the study abroad program next year.  While taking away merit aid that was promised for study abroad was a bad way of cutting costs, the decision represents the fundamental truth that the current system is set up with luxuries that Brandeis can no longer afford.  Kim Godsoe, the Dean of Academic Services, warned the student body in the e-mail introducing the committee that

There will need to be significant changes to the current study abroad policies to ensure fiscal viability for the program and the university.  Possible changes could include limiting the number and type of study abroad programs in which students may participate, limiting student participation in the study abroad experience, and/or restricting the use of all financial aid for students who wish to study abroad.  None of these choices is the kind that we want to make, but potentially painful choices will be necessary to ensure the program remains within budget.

The necessity of restructuring the program makes it all the more important that students take advantage of the opportunity to share their views on the my Brandeis board.  There is no other way to ensure that another flawed policy does not go into effect.

It is not the adminstration’s fault that changes will occur, and they have shown their dedication to the study abroad program by running it at a loss to give students as many options as possible.  Indeed, they deserve great credit for creating this committee, a tacit admission that they made a mistake with the merit aid (a policy I’m almost certain will be overturned) and a sign that they intend to learn from it and that they have always kept the students’ best interests in mind.  Credit also goes to the students behind the creation of the committee.  Committee member Alex Melman took action on the merit aid issue as a Senator from the  beginning and has refused to let it go away, as shown by his constant updates on its progress on Innermost Parts.  Jason Gray, who always seems to come through for us, collected stories of students that the decision affected and lobbied directly for a policy change.  Many students e-mailed and talked directly to administrators, turning their dissatisfaction into positive action.

I believe the most important element of study abroad is to keep it open in some form to as many students as possible.  Consequently, it might be best to start by cutting down the number of available programs and preserving only the most popular and cost-effective.  However, I would be suprised if there were no new limitations on who can go abroad.  At the very least, I’m heartened to know that a collection of strong, committed minds is working on the problems with the voices of the whole Brandeis community involved.

Polls Open for Winter Elections

The polls are open now for the Winter Round of Union elections.  Everyone is eligible to vote in at least one race, so make sure to take the time to cast your ballot.  Time after time I have seen how just one Senator can start the ball rolling on a project that benefits the entire Brandeis community; every race can be important.

We got 100% participation in our first election questionnaire, and I hope you find it useful in making your decisions.  Below is a full list of candidates along with links to their questionnaires:

Vote here.  We’ll have the results posted as soon as we receive them on Wednesday morning.

More Ways to Join the Brandeis Discussion

BrandeisPlans was a great step forward in the process of empowering students in changing Brandeis.  The idea of a forum open equally to every member of the Brandeis community was simple but brilliant, and it really hadn’t existed in any shape before.  However, the wiki format makes it more suited to collecting and sharing broad ideas than for detailed discussion, so the ability for collaboration among students, faculty, staff, and administration was still far from complete.

Thankfully, BrandeisPlans was only the first step.  The Committee on Academic Restructuring has proven to be just as open as we could have hoped, and they have introduced a new series of online forums hosted by My Brandeis and covering the most discussed ideas for curricular improvement.  Four of the forums correlate to the current subcommittees of CARS: Third Semester Plan, Degree Requirements and Advising, Business Major, and Recruiting and Admissions.  The fifth correlates to the steering committee itself and can presumably be used to discuss issues other than the aforementioned.

The third semester and degree requirement boards have gotten by far the most activity, but I hope that all five will soon see robust debate.  The forums are incredibly important.  Now, every single member of the Brandeis community is part of the academic discussion.  Cutting significant costs while maintaining or even improving our world-class academics is an enormous challenge, but with the intellect of the entire Brandeis community working in tandem, I am confident that it can be done.

Human Rights, Climate Change, Microfinancing, Siddhartha… and more!

This week is LOADED with events.  The highlights are a series of events about the memorialization of Guantanamo on Monday and Tuesday, a Microfinance Symposium and building tours showcasing what Brandeis has done to increase sustainability on campus, both on Wednesday, and the Brandeis Theater Company’s production of Siddhartha beginning on Thursday.  See the Innermost Parts Activist Calendar for more information on all events. Some events require an RSVP.

Monday:

On Monday you can start out by going to Jehuda’s office hours from 3-4:30 to let him know what you think about the closing of the Rose.  But, make sure you don’t stay too long because from 4-5pm you won’t want to miss the panel discussion Memorializing Guantanamo: Part I (in Feldberg Lounge, Hassenfeld Conference Center), moderated by Anthropology professor Mark Auslander. A couple hours later at 7pm, you’ll be able to continue the discussion by attending Michael Ratner’s (’66) speech Beyond the Shadows of Guantanamo: Restoring the Rule of Law in the Post-Bush Era (in the Zinner Forum, Heller School). Ratner was part of the small group of lawyers that first took on representation of the Guantánamo detainees.

Tuesday:

The series of events about Guantanamo continues on Tuesday beginning with Memorializing Guantanamo: Part II from 12:10-1, followed by various exhibitions and discussions until 4:30 in the afternoon (all events in the International Lounge, Usdan). If you can’t get enough of Ratner, who spoke on Monday, go to the Old State House in Boston at 8pm for the Brandeis University Spotlight on Our Constitutional Rights moderated by Director of the Ethics Center Dan Terris.  Student group and club meetings on Monday include Sexualities Discussion Group (2-3, ICC Lounge), Brandeis Labor Coalition (8-9:30pm, Shapiro 313), Democracy for  America (9-10:30, Pearlman Lounge) and Brandeis Open Mike Series (9-10pm)

Wednesday:

On Wednesday morning, check out Democracy and Peacebuilding: Rethinking the Conventional Wisdom,” with Dr. Howard Wolpe (in the Alumni Lounge in Usdan from 11-2:30). Also, go to Shapiro Atrium between 12-3 to learn methods to save money and cut carbon at the Sustainability Solutions Showcase. To get a tour of the newest buildings on campus and learn what Brandeis did to make them sustainable, go to Ridgewood at 11, and Shapiro Science Building at 4pm, and take part in the National Climate Change Solutions Day Building Tour of each location. From 6:30-8pm in the SCC Art Gallery you can hear speakers from faculty at IBS and leading microfinance organizations talk about microfinancing solutions at the Microfinance Symposium. Also on Wednesday are the AHORA! General Meeting (8-9pm in Swig Lounge, ICC) and the SEA meeting (9-10pm in the SEA office in SCC).

Thursday:

Pardon the shameless plug but on Thursday you won’t want to miss the preview performance of Brandeis Theater Company’s production of Siddhartha, based on the book by Hermann Hesse, at 8pm in the Laurie Theater in Spingold. Student Peace Alliance (8-9 in Pearlman Lounge),  Trisk (8-9, Trisk Lounge, 3rd floor SCC), and FMLA (8:30-9:30 in the Women’s Resource Center in SCC) also have meetings on Thursday.

Friday:

Siddhartha opening night!

Saturday:

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with a performance exhibiting various aspects of Chinese culture and the Chinese New Year traditions followed by dinner and a night market. Also, two more performances of Siddhartha at 2pm and 8pm!