Month: March 2009

The Arts at Brandeis

It’s been two weeks since Jason Gray made this call to the Brandeis community:

[T]oday, I challenge the University administration to engage the arts community in order to find tangible ways to invest in the long-term future of the arts at Brandeis. I call for a series of meetings between administrators and members of our artistic community to discuss ways to ensure that Brandeis remains a fertile ground for artistic creativity even amidst the financial situation.

I haven’t heard about any progress being made on this issue since the State of the Union, but I hope the Union (or some other party) is following up on it.  This is a tough time for everyone at Brandeis, but the art community has been particularly hard hit.  The closing of the Rose Art Museum is the most obvious reason, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.  Just as important is the way in which the decision was made and announced, the current uncertainty about the Rose’s exact status, and the various other cuts that the art department has faced.  Jason made the historical importance of the arts to the university very clear in his speech, and I know that there are many professors and students who need reassurance from the administration that they remain a priority.

The cuts outside of the Rose have not gotten nearly as much general publicity, but they have contributed to the sense that the arts just aren’t as important anymore.  One of Brandeis’s true jewels, the Lydian String Quartet, has been reduced to part-time status for next year, a move that violinist Daniel Stepner says may force a decreased concert schedule for next year.  The Hoot has more on the importance of the group and the effect of the reduction:

The quartet, founded in 1980, is an internationally acclaimed chamber ensemble dedicated to reinvigorating works from the classical canon while exploring contemporary pieces. The group has won ensemble prizes at important festivals in France, England, Canada and the United States, given performances in prestigious American and European concert halls, and released more than twenty musical recordings. Yet despite their worldly ambitions, the quartet feels most at home at Brandeis University, where all the members are part of the teaching faculty and regularly give performances.

Before the program began, the quartet announced that the university would be cutting back its position to half time for the following year, but that the ensemble would figure out a way to continue offering concerts to the Brandeis community and broader listening public. At a time when cutting back on the arts appears to define the university’s modus operandi, the announcement came as more troubling than shocking.*

It’s sad to see another world-renowned art institution handicapped by the budget crisis.  In addition, the Music Department has lost and not replaced three full professors in the past few years, and the graduate program suffered cuts even before the budget crisis hit.

Of course, the Rose has been the focal point for controversy this semester.  The official statement released by the Fine Arts Faculty shows how deep their surprise and disappointment at the initial announcement was:

In addition to despairing at the Trustees’ action, we wish to make clear that at no point in the decision making process was the Department of Fine Arts faculty consulted. Neither was there any communication regarding the decision with the Rose Board of Overseers on which a member of the faculty sits. Nor was any reference made to the museum at the university-wide faculty meeting last Thursday (January 22) when strategies to confront the current fiscal crisis were discussed.

The department faculty wishes to express our profound sadness at the consequences of this abrupt action for the liberal arts mission, cultural life, and intellectual legacy of the university…

As to the proposed future of the museum building, at no time before or after notification of the decision, have members of the Fine Arts Department expressed a desire to change the function of the Rose or reuse the building. There is no academic advantage to be salvaged from closing the museum and selling our art. It is a sad response to the current fiscal crisis that treasures left in trust for current and future students are now being sacrificed. The department remains committed to continuing the legacy of the intellectual and artistic practice here. We are losing an irreplaceable tool to fulfill that goal.

Since then, we’ve had a series of backtracking and vague, contradictory statements about what exactly will happen to the Rose, and its future remains very uncertain.  What we do know is that the Rose contains one of the best collections of modern art in the world, and it now appears very likely that we’re going to lose at least some of its masterpieces.

I know that many of these cuts may be necessary due to the state of our budget, and I think the administration has done a much better job of handling these situations in the past few months.  However, we cannot allow the arts community to feel marginalized and irrelevant in the decision-making process or in campus life.  Jason was absolutely right to call for meetings to remove these feelings and to plan a solid future for the arts at Brandeis, and I hope we can see his goal realized soon.

*The article I quoted was written by Max Price, the Diverse City editor and a great writer and good friend of mine.  His piece “Arts resources at Brandeis: Use them or lose them” is the best statement I’ve read on the importance of the arts in general and at Brandeis.  I highly recommend you check it out.

Some thoughts on Senate Money Requests

I’ve never written a post for Innermost Parts before, and I’m not sure why I am now. Mostly it is because I did not get a chance to air out my ideas at the Senate meeting last night, and I think that a good number of people who care about Brandeis read this blog, either to compliment or to critique. The bylaw to change the way the Senate gives SMRs was defeated by a wide margin, in part due to the impassioned defenses of Rachel Graham Kagan and Andrew Brooks, who were there under the system as it stood before the constitutional changes in how the SAF was apportioned. And they were right to warn us away from that path, because it sounded like utter chaos. However, the fact that those who supported the bylaw change were swayed by those arguments is a confirmation to me that I had a fundamentally different view of this bill from my co-sponsors. So I write this to ask this community of people who care, do you think that the system as it stands is the best it can be? Because I don’t, and I think that if that bylaw amendment was not the best way to go about reform, we need to find a way that is.

Continue reading “Some thoughts on Senate Money Requests”

Send a Good Dem to Congress Tonight!

(A message from the Democrats and DFA)

Progressive Democrat Scott Murphy is standing toe-to-toe with a powerful republican in a historically republican district. With your help tonight, Scott will be a member of US Congress TOMORROW!

Please join other campus progressives as we make GOTV calls to democrats in New York’s 20th Congressional District (upstate NY) reminding them when and where to vote!!!

We will be making calls from **Village TV Lounge between 5:00 and 7:00 PM**

In a close race like this, your help could make all the difference.

During the last Congressional cycle, DFA-Brandeis made calls that helped Joe Courtney of Connecticut win a Congressional seat by just an 83-vote margin. These races can be very close!

Please come a help tonight! It will be fun and you WILL make a difference!

Student Senate in a Nutshell: Everything but the SMR Amendment and the Unificationist Club Recognition

Most notable occurrence behind the cut: the proposed amendment which would prevent candidates from providing political incentives to their supporters, and the five-minute Executive Session surrounding its discussion. Also included: SAF uncapped, Jason Gray defends his actions regarding the current election.

Continue reading “Student Senate in a Nutshell: Everything but the SMR Amendment and the Unificationist Club Recognition”

SU Senate votes to recognize Unificationist club – good or bad idea?

Today, the SU Senate voted to recognize a club that essentially is a college-level chapter of the Unification Church movement.

The Unification Church is a new age religion, called a cult by some, founded by a man named Sun Myung Moon in 1954. He claims to have seen Jesus Christ in a vision, who charged Moon with completing his work and unifying all sects of Christianity into a single moral force. The Church’s primary goal is this unification, and the promotion of heterosexual family units through arranged marriage.

In very large part, the Unification Church is driven by Moon, who is revered with near-prophetic worship by the Church’s members (those outside the organization often call its members Moonies for this reason). Moon is a very incendiary figure, a megalomaniac who somehow managed to book a Senate office building on Capitol Hill to crown himself the Messiah. He has stated,

“Emperors, kings and presidents . . . have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity’s Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent.”

Continue reading “SU Senate votes to recognize Unificationist club – good or bad idea?”

Respect

I just got around to reading the Justice’s article about the State of the Union today, and one thing in particular really jumped out at me:

“I think his speech was one of the most outstanding you can imagine from a student leader,” said Rena Olshansky ’56, a member of the Board of Trustees’ Students and Enrollment Committee, who said that it was her first State of the Union address. Commenting on the Union Rena said, “I think the [students] set their agenda, and that’s important.”

University Provost Marty Krauss, who attended the speech, said in an interview with the Justice, “[Gray] has a tremendous amount of respect among the members of the administration because he’s a mature person; he’s diplomatic; he thinks about the perspectives of many constituencies; he’s smart; and he makes really good recommendations, and he gets things done.”

Senior Vice President of Communications Lorna Miles, who also attended, added that Gray “has been incredibly vital; his legacy is having created a consciousness in the University among the administration and the faculty that students are part of the day-to-day governance of this community.”

That’s an incredible amount of respect for Jason Gray coming from the administrators and trustees who attended the speech.  We’ve already heard the great praise that Jason gets from the student body, and it’s really satisfying to know that the other members of the Brandeis community feel the same way.

This kind of universal acclaim is impressive enough on its own, but I find it even more impressive when viewed in the context of the content of Jason’s address.  The speech was not tailor-made to draw praise from the administrators.  Several times, Jason challenged the University to meet goals that he set, and he wasn’t afraid to call the administration out on several mistakes.  Most notably, he directly stated, “[T]here is no doubt that the Rose Art Museum has become a case study in what not to do procedurally.”  Isn’t that hard-hitting?

So what does all this mean?  First, it says something very positive about our administrators.  By praising the speech so effusively, they’re letting us know that student participation is not incumbent on our complete deference to their decisions.  They are willing to have a dialogue with us, allow our disagreement, and even to admit mistakes and work towards changing them.

But it also says so much about Jason himself.  He has the rare ability to say exactly what needs to be said while striking the right chord for every party involved.  This didn’t just happen overnight; it is the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work, determined advocacy, and appreciation for everyone’s point of view, and it shows what big shoes our next Union leaders will have to fill.  Ultimately, Jason’s greatest success might be that he was able to treat every single Brandeisian with respect, and it should be no suprise that he has received so much respect in return.

SAVE THE WAYNE

Salam,

I’m writing to you today with a special request.

Those of you that may know me might know that i tend to be rather critical of the academia in general and Brandeis specifically. Last semester though, i encountered an unusual class called “Reggae Representation,” taught by Professor Wayne Marshall. This class, (which was overloaded with reading, and was strictly graded) challenged my intellect in such a way that no other class has ever done before. We talked about gender, class and race representation in Jamaica through the lens of Reggae. It has inspired me so much that i decided to spend my up coming summer in Jamaica, taking my class-work to the field (with an internship Prof. Marshall has helped me get).

This class, is one of many examples of how i think Prof. Wayne Marshall contributes to the academia in general and this campus specifically. He doesn’t only do it in the class room though, for example just recently was involved in bringing an amazing and unique music group called “Nettle” all the way from Barcelona. And i couldn’t help but ask… Who would have done it otherwise?

Unfortunately, no one will, since his 2-year contract is coming to an end this semester. Brandeis will loose an important and unique asset in many different levels.

Basically, what i’m asking you to do is to promote this student initiative called www.savewayne.com. all you need to do is sign this petition http://www.savewayne.com/The_Save_Wayne_Campaign/Sign_the_Petition.html and spread the word around, telling people how much i, and other students care about keeping Prof. Marshall here!

you can read more about Prof. Marshall here:
http://thehoot.net/articles/6016

and his blog:
http://wayneandwax.com/

Thank you for your time,

Lisa H.

“Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act.” Albert Einstein

The Fight for Workers’ Rights and Justice

If you haven’t heard about it yet, you should definitely come to Rapaporte at 7pm tonight to see a speech by Kim Bobo, on her new book, Wage Theft in America. A reception and book signing will follow.

Kim will speak to students and other members of the Brandeis community about her life’s work in organizing and mobilizing people of all backgrounds to work together to effect social change. She firmly believes in the value of cross-cultural and interreligious communication. Kim’s words will be inspiring to all who attend the event, and participants will have time to ask her questions after her remarks.

Kim Bobo is the founder of Interfaith Worker Justice, in Chicago, Illinois. She leads this network of people in educating, organizing, and mobilizing the religious communities in the United States to improve wages, benefits, and conditions for workers, and give voice to workers in low-wage jobs. Her recent book, “Wage Theft in America: How Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid – And What We Can Do About It,” is the first and only book to document the wage theft crisis in the nation and propose practical solutions for addressing it.

Please contact Anne Blackstock-Bernstein at annebb@brandeis.edu with any questions.

Full disclosure: I have been helping to organize this event for the last couple months so, yes, I have a vested interest in your attendance.

Also, if you don’t come tonight, baby seals will die because of you.

Social Justice should be more than an empty phrase

I’m thinking a lot about the role of the University in society lately, and long-term Social Justice infrastructure, etc.

Brandeis talks a good game about Social Justice, but really neither defines it well or empowers its students to foster it. Even the committed activist clubs on campus are stuck in a paradigm of community service, instinctive protest, or the vague idea of “raising awareness”. We can do so much more than that.

Brandeis Alumni are among the best in the field in terms of community organizing or social entrepreneurship. I know of 6 non-profit ventures founded in the past 3 years here on campus. Furthermore, in the field of Online Organizing and New Media / Social Network utilization, Brandeis grads are outstanding. There is a raw talent here that needs to be trained and untapped.

On a societal level, youth are being used by the political sphere are warm bodies or an extra pair of hands. All “real” experience in creating change either takes place in summer internships or after college. That is a shame.

I often speak of the idea that Brandeis is not even a University, but rather a two-stage experiment in social entrepreneurship that uses the legal and institutional structure of University to interface with society. In the first stage, the Jewish community opposed discriminatory quotas in higher education by creating a new top-flight academy that would reject quotas and use competition to force other universities to follow suit. That mission has been successful. The second stage is a work in progress.

Now that we’ve eliminated University quotas, the Brandeis experiment can move on to a broader goal: training and equipping the next generation of social entrepreneurs and change agents.

Why Brandeis? Brandeis has the history, credibility, and resources to make this vision of “an academy for Social Justice” possible. Infused with the spirit of Tikkun Olam, Brandeis has a mandate to take this mission seriously. The University setting allows for a sustained, true, and thorough process of educating young leaders in the principles of leadership, values, and social action.

Theatre Arts at Brandeis

And the debate over the future of the arts at Brandeis rages on:

Through a generous gift from the Laurie Foundation, the Brandeis University Hiatt Career Center will administer the Hiatt Theater Arts Fellows Program, a competitive application process to provide $3,000 individual awards to support 7-8 undergraduate students in unpaid theater-related training and internships during summer, 2009. Internships must be undertaken through: a theater-related training program, theater-related organization in the private or public sector, or Brandeis faculty-led theater-related experiential curriculum.

I think the Hiatt WoW scholarships and Justice Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice grants have been a great development over the past few years.  Establishing something similar within the theater department is especially important because paying jobs in theaters, especially for college students, are so rare.

Have there been other subject-specific grants established?

A History Lesson from J-Gray

For a speech with a theme of “Looking Forward”, Jason Gray’s State of the Union went pretty far back to the past — all the way to 1946, in fact, to the University’s founding.  Of course, this isn’t a criticism; the past is our best (and maybe our only) tool for predicting the future, and Jason effectively used several anecdotes to guide our approach to the next few years, both in attitude and in deed.  They were among my favorite parts of the speech, and they put some of our current struggles into context.  I’d like to quickly examine these passages, but first I want to encourage anyone who has a story about Brandeis’s past that they find particularly revealing or just plain interesting to share it through the comments or by e-mail to czar@innermostparts.org.  I’d like to explore more of Brandeis history, and anything we receive will be researched and incorporated into a post at some point.

I’ve heard several times in relation to the financial crisis that Brandeis has gone through worse struggles before.  However, overall I think the campus discussion has been surprisingly sparse on any actual details of historical parallels.  I think it would be a great relief to many people if we could point to specific situations where Brandeis has handled difficult finances before and come out fundamentally intact.

Can we find guidance in the University’s founding?  Jason think so:

In 1946, even before Brandeis became Brandeis, a group surveyed the campus.  They found it badly run down.  Walks were eroded.  A Castle had been built, yet built without an architect.

When Abe Sachar was approached to be the first University President, he was warned by a friend that the Brandeis project would be “a great disaster” and “nothing but pain.”

But the promise of what Brandeis could be was so much greater than any of the potential challenges.

The castle was improved, cafeterias built, faculty recruited, and students matriculated.  By early 1949, the same friend who had warned Sachar against accepting the job, visited the campus.  Standing under the arch of the Castle, he said “I thought it could not be done, but…  it had been.”

In a specific sense, I don’t think they University’s founding has much to tell us about our current situation.  Yes, Brandeis’s founding was not without significant challenges, but they seem to be more infrastructural and administrative than financial (I’m basing this mostly on Jason’s speech and Wikipedia.  Any corrections would be greatly appreciated).  Regardless, the methods for funding a fledgling university in 1946 and for rescuing an established university in 2009 are quite different.  Jason’s point is more general: Brandeis has shown the ability to overcome the odds in the past, and the ideas that helped us then still exist today.  If nothing else, the passion of the entire community to come together and help the University shows that we all still believe that the promise of Brandeis remains so much greater than the challenges.  If that philosophy was enough to set Brandeis in motion, it will be our greatest ally in keeping it strong.

The other key passage is much more specific:

At our founding, our curriculum was informed by a Harvard general education report from 1946. It recommended studies in a core curriculum, humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences.

Brandeis, however, was not satisfied. We added another area to our curriculum: the study of music, theater, and the fine arts.  This commitment is one from our founding, and one we must continue.

Jason’s comments on the arts deserve broader discussion and action than this post allows, so I’ll hold most of my thoughts for later.  For now, I’ll just say that this provides the perfect framing for discussing the arts at Brandeis.  Art was deliberately included as one of the building blocks of our curriculum, and it must remain there, or we will be betraying the ideas this university was founded upon.

Our history is indeed very interesting and bears much more attention than it often gets.  If you’re interested in exploring it further, I recommend the very comprehensive “Brandeis University: A People’s History” hosted off the official Brandeis homepage and Phil LaCombe’s excellent series of posts from last year: Blunders of Brandeis (here, here, and here) and The Castles of Brandeis (here, here, and here).  Again, we’d love to hear your own stories, so post and send away!

Our Great Swim Team

I’m still on the Brandeis Athletics press release e-mail list from my time as the Hoot’s sports editor, and I still read the e-mails and keep up with how the teams are doing.  Today’s release about the NCAA D-III Swimming and Diving Championships was particularly impressive:

Brandeis University rookie swimmer Marc Eder (Princeton, N.J./Lawenceville School)  had a pair of lifetime-best performances, including a school record, in two optional events at the NCAA Division III Men’s Swimming and Diving championships at the University of Minnesota… On the first day of competition, Eder improved his time by nearly five seconds in the 200-yard individual medley… [In the 100-yard breast stroke] Eder improved 16 places… missing All-America honors… by 1.04 seconds.

Wow!  A rookie swimmer breaks a school record and exceeds expectations at the NCAA Championships!  If anyone knows Mark, be sure to congratulate him on this incredible performance.

However, it becomes a real shame when you realize that Eder has only one year left to swim at Brandeis before funding issues and the lack of a pool will probably force the swim team to disband.  And he’s not the only great freshman talent that we won’t get to see mature fully.  Angela Chui broke two Brandeis records in her very first meet and came very close to making the NCAA Championships herself.  Now, both Marc and Angela will have to decide whether to stay at Brandeis and not swim or to transfer to another school.  I’m not sure what I’d advise for them.  On the one hand, I passionately love Brandeis and believe it’s the best place in the world to get the particular education and experience it offers.  On the other hand, Marc and Angela both came to school expecting to swim, and it would be difficult to see their tremendous potential go unfulfilled.

I have a close friend on the swim team, and I’ve seen first-hand the hard work and dedication the swimmers put into their sport and the disappointment they will feel if they can continue competing.  Our budget may not allow for a swim team beyond next year, but these athletes deserve the chance to keep doing us proud in the water.  Lindsey Pool should have been renovated long before it’s problems reached the critical point, and though I understand that reality that’s facing the administrators and appreciate the difficult position that they’re in, I still hope we can find away to keep Brandeis Swimming and Diving alive into the future.

To read more about the the team and to find out how you can help, visit www.supportbusdt.com.

Sports Information Director Adam Levine’s full press release is below the fold.

Continue reading “Our Great Swim Team”

Complete State of the Union Text

If you couldn’t make Jason Gray’s final State of the Union on Tuesday, then you missed out on a very good speech.  Thankfully, Innermost Parts is here for you again (Have we ever let you down before?  Don’t answer that…).  Below the fold is the complete text of the speech, titled “Looking Forward: Student Involvement, Student Rights, and Student Advocacy”.  I’ll have more thoughts on the speech itself and several key points from it in the next few days, but for now, I encourage even those who already saw it to peruse it again and get an idea of what the Union has done this semester and what is still ahead.

Continue reading “Complete State of the Union Text”

Brandeis Labor Coalition: Can Economics Work for Workers?

A really important event is happening tonight at 7pm and is hosted by Brandeis Labor Coalition:

Can Economics Work for Workers?

Are sweatshops needed to strengthen developing economies? Or is there a “race to the bottom” in workers’ wages? What are the right corporate and government policies?

On March 19th at 7:00pm in Rapaporte Treasure Hall the Brandeis Labor Coalition and the Business Club will be hosting a forum of different perspectives on international labor practices, including professors from the Brandeis Economics department and International Business School. Come hear scholarly opinions on the ethical and economic ramifications of globalization on workers and get your questions answered! Refreshments will be served following the forum.

Speakers will include
Featured UMass-Boston Professor Gerald Friedman.
Brandeis’ economics department chair Rachel McCulloch,
International Business School’s Michael Appell,

The event will be moderated by Professor John Ballantine of IBS.

(Made possible by the SJSP Brenda Meehan Social Justice-in-Action Grant)

Nettle

This weekend MusicUnitesUS presents this really cool group called Nettle, which is a collaboration between four artists from different backgrounds, who combine their skills to create original and unique music. On campus through the weekend, they will be in classes on a variety of subjects and giving concerts for a variety of audiences.

From 4-5pm this afternoon, they will be performing an Informal Concert: Imagining a Common Place in the Shapiro atrium.

Tomorrow from 9-10:30am in Slosberg, they will be in hosting open class on Colling Traditions: The Nu World (Dis)Order, following which they will be in another class in Slosberg which anybody is free to attend, called Fixing Friction, from 12-1:30pm.

Since I only have time to go to one of these events, I am very excited to go to an Improvisation Workshop with Nettle tomorrow from 4-5:30pm. Contact eissenbe@brandeis.edu for more info.

On Saturday, before their big concert Nettle will host a Preconcert Talk: Nettles, Neighbors and Nu World Music at 7pm in the Rose Art Museum.

At 8pm in Slosberg, Nettle will will give the biggest concert of the weekend, Nettle – Music for a Nu World. This will definitely be an awesome and rocking concert.  See go.brandeis.edu/tickets for ticket prices.

The Save Wayne campaign has an awesome website

Check this out: www.savewayne.com

Leor just sent me the link to the AMAZING website for the Save Wayne campaign. We’re really going to step up the efforts to save Wayne Marshall, the best reggae professor at Brandeis.

Remember, if Wayne Marshall departs, we lose 20% of our already-small African-American Studies faculty.

Sign the petition now! And send it to your friends! Student support is the only way we’ll save Prof. Marshall. Remember, alumni, faculty, staff, and parents are welcome to sign the petition as well! Let’s get as many people as possible!

Cell Phones? In Usdan?!?!

Here’s Andy Hogan, the Union’s Director of Community Advocacy, discussing the new cell phone amplifier in lower Usdan.  Andy was the driving force behind the project and secured funding for it from the Office of Facilities Services.:

As of Monday morning, you can now use your cell phones in lower Usdan.  The amplifier that was installed takes reception from outside and projects it into the building.  If your phone has bad reception normally, than this is not too much of an improvement for you (sorry T-mobile users).  However, if your phone gets normal reception outside, you will now be able to use it while eating in lower.  As for the range of the amplifier, the stairs between upper and lower still has poor reception but I have been able to get service from Home Zone to the C-store.  If you want to look for it, its installed on one of the walls of the skylight in the middle of lower.

As I was dormstorming during my campaign for North Quad Senator, one of the main issues people had was cell phone reception on campus.  Many people’s phones did not even work in their dorm but mainly people complained about lower Usdan.  At first, I looked for improving reception on the whole campus.  When this proved too expensive and difficult to coordinate with the companies I looked specifically for lower Usdan.  I found this amplifier and spoke to facilities about installing it.    There have been many complaints about this project as a waste of funds in a time of cutting down, as a luxury.  This is a useful project because even though we are cutting back it is important to always improve our campus.  We should not just shut down in a time of crisis, we should fight for improvement and even luxuries.  When I went around to my constituents, they gave me a way to improve the campus and as a student government representative I wanted to fulfill their suggestion.

HopeFound aftermath

We described it as “a labor of love for Aaron Mitchell Finegold”,
He quotes Nathaniel Hawthorne: “generosity is the flower of justice”.
Jordan Rothman memorably referred to it as “the fifteen dollar booze event”

Whatever it was, the HopeFound fundraiser was a financial success. We raised $4000 for a homeless shelter, and looked mighty fine doing it.

Aaron had this to say:
Continue reading “HopeFound aftermath”

Student Senate in a Nutshell: A Smattering of SMRs

1. Changing Members, New Bylaw

Before Jason Gray’ announced his decision not to run for president next term, he swore newly elected East Quad senator Jenna Rubin ’11 and North Quad senator Alex Norris ’11 into office.

Senator for the Transitional Year Program, Terrence Johnson, is withdrawing from Brandeis University since he has recieved a full scholarship from Clark Atlanta University.

“My leadership skills have grown… it has been a great honor,” said Johnson of his experience in the Senate. Johnson worked with COWGEE, the Social Justice Committee, and DFA. “This is something that will impact my life.”

Giselle Casillas, a prominent member of the Pluralism Alliance, was confirmed as the non-senate chair of the Diversity Committee.

Andrew Brooks introduced a bylaw requiring the Chief of Elections to provide due notification to students for each election, in response to the belated press for the recent emergency election for North and East Quads.

2. Club stuff

The Academic Leadership Alliance was provisionally recognized after a brief debate over whether or not they had a duality of purpose.

The Senate also debated circumstances surrounding a standard procedure for dechartering inactive clubs.  This semester, clubs were added to the dechartering list due to failure to answer Senator for the Class of 2009 Sung Lo Yoon’s e-mail asking why their club did not need funds this semester.

“They didn’t respond to my fucking e-mail,” Yoon said, describing his decision to add the Turkish Student Association and other otherwise active clubs to the list of clubs to be dechartered. “Sorry for swearing, I’m tired.”

Throughout the debate, several senators said clubs can be re-chartered easily. Senator for Castle Quad Nathan Robinson expressed concern that certain clubs, who are active but have not responded to Yoon’s e-mails, will be de-chartered without their imput.

The motions surrounding this vote were indecipherable: Senators couldn’t determine whether they were voting for moving the previous question or actually moving the previous question or suspending the rules to de-charter all clubs at once or blah blah blah. The motion was tabled due to disagreement and, presumably, confusion.

3. SMRs

Four Senate Money Resolutions were significantly discussed this meeting, and three were passed:

A. A SMR granted $141.50 toward 1500 door hangers indented to inform undergraduate students about methods to increase their involvement with the Student Union. This was an Emergency SMR.

B. A SMR granted $205 toward food for a “Meet the Senators ‘DeisBikes Launch Event”. This was an Emergency SMR.

C. A SMR granted $136 toward a lockbox intended to store helmets for the ‘DeisBikes program. Senator for Village Quad Andrew Rhodes’s attempt to add $5 to the SMR failed. This was an Emergency SMR.

D.  Senator for the Class of 2010 Amanda Hecker proposed an SMR which would grant $720 toward a 5K Charity Run co-sponsored by the Student Union, Waltham Group, and the Running Club.  Hecker said each participant will pay two dollars, and the money will go to about three charities. Hecker said Waltham Group needed this money immediately. Several senators expressed their concern with the similarity of the event to the now unconstitutional Ayers/King SMR: Hecker is speaking alone for a club she was involved in before joining Senate, and she attempted to network through clubs and the Union since F-Board did not grant Waltham Group enough money for this event.  The Senate voted against giving the SMR Emergency status, before it was tabled until next meeting. Straw polls taken to measure the future vote were mostly undecided.

4. Reports

Treasurer Max Wallach said the $900 from the Ayers-King SMR is back in the discresionary account.

Director of Community Advocacy Andy Hogan says he’s working on the take your professor to lunch program, which will happen after break. He also said the improved cellphone reception in lower Usdan is “going to happen”, and that “the guy said sometime next week”. Hogan is also planning an outreach for disconnected freshmen in Polaris, to get freshmen’s voices heard.

Senator for the Class of 2012 Akash Vadalia reported that the Midnight Buffet should cost $3308.01.

Jason Gray Will Not Run Again

Current Student Union President Jason Gray is not running for re-election this term.

“My stomach is in a knot right now,” Gray said at this week’s Senate meeting, where he first announced his decision. “For me this year serving as the Union president has been an honor. I’ve been reminded this year how important it is for… all of us to be engaged in the process of this university.”

Gray said he felt the Union has moved toward meeting his campaign goals, which included increasing Union involvement and improving services on campus. “I’m confident in the future of this Student Union,” he said.

Several senators complimented Gray before moving on.

“It’s been an honor to serve with you, ” said the Senator for the Transitional Year Program, Terrence Johnson. “I couldn’t ask for a better president.”

Gray said he will continue to be a presence in the Union next year, as a mentor and source of advice. “We still have work to do,” he said.

Brandeis Labor Coalition: Made in L.A.

Tonight, Brandeis Labor Coalition is hosting Radical Film Night with the movie “Made in L.A.” in Pearlman Lounge at 8pm.

It’s a great movie and very relevant today because unions are even more vital during hard economic times like these. Also, the Senate is very close to voting on the Employee Free Choice Act (read about it here) a very important piece of legislation that would make unionizing easier so that workers like the women in this movie don’t have to struggle for three years just to gain their most basic rights.

“Made in L.A.” is an Emmy award-winning feature documentary (70 min) that follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from trendy clothing retailer Forever 21. In intimate observational style, “Made in L.A.” reveals the impact of the struggle on each woman’s life as they are gradually transformed by the experience. Compelling, humorous, deeply human, “Made in L.A.” is a story about immigration, the power of unity, and the courage it takes to find your voice.

For more information about the event or the movie, contact Tom Charging Hawk at 781-296-6053.

Recusal shenanigans

Something that came up during the case and in a recent Justice editirial was the decision by Lev and I not to recuse ourselves from the vote on the Bill Ayers / Robert King Senate Money Resolution. The Justice editorial stated,

We also take issue with the fact that Senators for the Class of 2011 Lev Hirschhorn and Alex Melman voted on the resolution even though they are members of Democracy for America, one of the organizations sponsored by the Senate’s $900. This is a conflict of interest, and the senators should have recused themselves.

I said this in the trial, but I want to repeat it here: No goddamn way. This would be true if we had a true “picuniary interest” in the vote; ie if we were set to personally make a lot of money because of it. Thats not true in the least; the SMR would have merely granted money towards an event that one of the clubs we were in was helping to plan. Unlike F-board, an organization with closed meetings that is supposed to remain unbiased and grant money in the most equitable way possible, the Senate is supposed to have opinions on its vote. This is reinforced by the ability of clubs to endorse candidates for Senate; F-board candidates are supposed to remain impartial and can receive no endorsements. To ask us to recuse ourselves from the vote is akin to asking every Senator who planned any project from recusing him or herself from the vote on whether to grant money to that project. This is not what the Senate has done in the past nor is it what the Senate should do in the future.

I said all this at the Senate meeting after careful consideration of the idea of recusal, suggested at the last minute by Treasurer Max Wallach. It is also important to note that every sophomore in the room (our constituency) urged us to vote on the issue lest they not be represented. To recuse ourselves would have been the irresponsible thing to do.

UJ finds for Alterman

In a landmark ruling severely curtailing the Senate’s authority over its discretionary budget, the Union Judiciary has unanimously ruled in favor of Eric Alterman in the case of Alterman v. Senate.

Ruling that “[t]he presentation of past SMR-assisted events merely solidified this court’s belief that the Senate has not always adhered to the bylaw in question,” the Court essentially ensured that in the future, the Senate will no longer be allowed to co-sponsor pre-planned events. The implications of today’s decision are wide-ranging. In the past, money has been distributed to events such as:

-The Brandeis Open Mic Series presentation of activist poet Jason Paul

-The Prospect Hill barbecue

-The Advocates student rights workshop

-The Winter Gala in support of HopeFound

From the precedent set by the Court today, none of these events would have been possible. In the future, events struggling for money will have to seek out other sources of sponsorship.

On the plus side, however, we now have plenty of money left for Midnight Buffet!

Full text of the decision follows (with concurrences!):

Continue reading “UJ finds for Alterman”

After the Crossing: US Immigration Policy

Tomorrow at 7pm in Heller School, there will be a very interesting debate about US immigration policy. The event, hosted by Heller’s Immigration Working Group, will include Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies and Rinku Sen, Executive Director of The Applied Research Center.

Fairly innocuos organizations, right? Wrong.

According to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (if you are interested in reading the report, email me), the Center for Immigration Studies was founded by a white supremacist named John Tanton, who also founded NumbersUSA and Federation for American Immigration Reform, in order to crank out reports and statistics that blame immigration and immigrants for America’s problems. Tanton is not just another a right-wing nutcase like Rush Limbaugh or Newt Gingrich.  This guy has been associating himself with Holocaust deniers and members of the KKK for a long time. CIS calls itself independent but it is not. It is a think tank of the nativist lobby in the US.

Should Steven Camarota and others from groups like the CIS be allowed to come speak at Brandeis? Yes. Should they be allowed to leave without being forced to explain their words and writings? No.

Rest assured, Camarota will come here tomorrow night not about to say anything even slightly racist, because he knows his audience. He’s coming in the hope that he will be able to make the extremist, nativist point of view sound knowledgable and intellectual. Luckily, as Brandeis students, we know better than to accept his bullshit.

Come to this debate of US immigration policy, tomorrow, Wednesday night at 7pm in Heller School’s Zinner Forum, but first do your research so you can ask Camarota to explain his xenophobic and racist writings, and make him rethink his anti-immigrant stance.

Immigration, orthodoxy and homosexuality

Full Disclosure: As part of Heller School’s Immigration Working Group, I helped organize one of Wednesday’s events.

Tuesday:

As usual, we have the Sex and Sexuality Symposium, Brandeis Labor Coalition, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and Democracy for America weekly meetings, as well as Brandeis Open Mic Series.

Wednesday:

One of many events this month in the Disabilities Series of March Events, at 6:30pm Dr. Ticchi of Legal Sea Foods will speak about the social and professional treatment of people with disabilities.

At 7pm in Heller will be, After the Crossing: Implications of Alternative Policy Responses to Illegal Immigration, a debate between Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies and Rinku Sen of the Applied Research Center, moderated by Paul Solman of WGBH.

From 9-12, Students Organized Against Racism will hold their Second Annual Racism Arts Project in Chums.

AHORA!, MLK and Friends, Student Global AIDS Campaign, and Students for Environmental Action weekly meetings.

Thursday:

At 3pm, Affecting the Political: An Assessment of the ‘Emotional Turn’ in the Study of Social Movements will happen in Pearlman Lounge.

At 7pm the Democratic State Committee will hold a Platform Committee Hearing in Waltham at 119 School St.

There will be a special Radical Film Night this week, at 8pm, when Brandeis Labor Coalition will present Made in L.A., a film about worker’s fighting for their rights in the garment sweatshops of Los Angeles.

Also, Student Peace Action, Triskelion and Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance meetings.

Friday:

At noon, Peace Vigil, outside of Usdan.

At 8:30, the first of four events this weekend called, A Unique Perspective on Judaism and Homosexuality: A weekend with Rabbi Steven Greenberg. At this one, Rabbi Greenberg will share his personal life story of being the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi.

Saturday:

Rabbi Greenberg’s second event, at 1:30, will be a colloquium on homosexuality in religious tradition with Rabbi Greenberg, Father Walter Cuenin (Catholic chaplain) and Professor James Mandrell (of WGS).

Later in the afternoon at 4:30pm, you will have the opportunity to study with Rabbi Greenberg to see his perspective on what Jewish texts have to say about homosexuality.

Finally, at 8:30pm, Rabbi Greenberg will screen the movie Trembling Before G-d, a film about Judaism and homosexuality, which features Rabbi Greenberg. The film screening will be followed by an open discussion.

PACHANGA!

Liveblog snark edition

We’re liveblogging the trial now – snark edition.

Livebloggers – Alex Norris, Matt Kupfer, Jon Muchin, and myself. We’ll be blogging in the comments.

This is a project unaffiliated with the petitioners, defense, judges, or whatever. We’re just providing an alternative, hopefully more hilarious liveblog here.

Check out Emily Dunning’s liveblog below for the “official Innermost Parts take”.

—
OK, so the petitioners (UJ-speak for prosecution) keep bringing up this claim that Lev and Alex didn’t recuse themselves when they brought up the SMR, and that its wrong, since they happen to be members of DFA. This line of reasoning is wrong. Lev and Alex are the Senators of the class of 2011 and represent the entire class. They were elected on a platform of, in part, supporting such events, and their votes are public. The Ayers event is open to the entire campus, and it’s entirely appropriate for the Senators representing Twenty Five Percent of the student body to have a say in that event.

Asking Lev or Alex to recuse themselves in these sorts of votes is like asking Ted Kennedy to recuse himself on Universal Healthcare votes because he has cancer.

Liveblogging Alterman v. Student Senate, Hirschhorn, and Melman

I (Emily) am sitting outside Shiffman 122 right now, waiting for the Union Judiciary to finish their pre-trial motions for today’s big lawsuit. If you haven’t heard, Class of 2009 Senator Eric Alterman has charged Class of 2011 Senators Lev Hirschhorn and Alex Melman for possibly violating an article of the Student Union bylaws that states that all Senate Money Resolutions must  be allocated towards Student Union projects with the SMR meant to bring Bill Ayers to campus. The SMR granted $900 for the event, which is sponsored by DFA and SDS.

Members of Alterman’s council are Senator for Massell Quad Nipun Marwaha and Union Director of Communications Jamie Ansorge. Hirschhorn and Melman’s council consists of Senator for Castle Quad Nathan Robinson and previous Director of Community Advocacy Ryan McElhaney.

Several members of Innermost Parts are debating at the moment whether to let Sahar have his own snarky liveblog, in addition to my “straight” post. I’m not sure whether that will happen or not. Hirschhorn is saying, “We have relationships to maintain.” UPDATE: It’s happening, in comment form. Check it out.

The following paragraph is very tentative: according to DFA member Carrie Mills, the security costs for the event are so excessive (over $3,000), Ayers will not be able to speak at campus, the event possibly relocating to Back Pages Books or another off-campus location. If this is the case, the Senate money will be used for renting transport to the off-campus location, according to Mills. Hopefully this will be cleared up during the trial. UPDATE: Carrie cleared this up in a comment to this post, which says “the exact costs are $8,560 for security and we won’t be moving the event off campus as we aren’t sure whether or not F-Board funds can go to off-campus events.”

Now for the trial.

Continue reading “Liveblogging Alterman v. Student Senate, Hirschhorn, and Melman”

Protesting Protesting Protesting

Jordan Rothman’s latest “Hoot” column protests protesting! I normally wouldn’t critique his columns since he’s already in the minority, but this week’s is worth addressing, given the amount of energy Brandeis students have put into activism in the past few months. I’ve supported many of the recent demonstrations on campus, and writers at Innermost Parts have publicly encouraged, organized, and covered protests.

I like to think Rothman and Innermost Parts happen to reserve public complaining for different things. Innermost Parts typically directs its frustration towards unnecessary wars, lack of financial transparency, and what its writers feel are questionable administrative decisions. Rothman prefers tackling the peace room, drunk environmentalists, and excessive protesting. We’re just different, right?

Rothman is too flippant about the impact of the administration’s decisions on Brandeis’s environment. Students are organizing for meaningful causes, including the preservation of the Rose Art Museum, an influential institution, and access to information concerning where our money is going and how administrative decisions will affect our lives. It’s not like we place “SEITAN NOW!” signs all around Usdan once we’ve realized fake meat options on campus have been reduced.

Rothman also binds protesting to the 1960’s as if activism is some tired anachronism. I’m pretty sure protesting has occurred in pretty much every decade. They serve a particular purpose petitions and meetings can’t imitate. Effective demonstrations help the administration match names on a petition with a mass of frustrated people. The “sexy photos” of protests published in the newspaper generate media attention and spread the word. Protests are publicity, and they’re effective. If they weren’t, Rothman wouldn’t have been bothered enough to write a word about them.

Lastly, Rothman made a factual mistake worth correcting: I know Lev Hirschhorn, Alex Melman, and Nathan Robinson all voted against the Executive Session last month. They were also the senators I remember organizing/attending the staff meeting protest. I doubt hypocrisy can be exposed with this protest and these senators, but something can definitely be said about the discourse between the entire Senate and the administration.

The Trial Of The Century

The frivolous lawsuit that Eric Alterman has launched against Alex Melman, Lev Hirschhorn, and the Union Senate is set to take place Saturday at 5pm. Location is TBD, witness lists and evidence are due by Friday at 5pm.

Below is the text of Chief Justice Rachel Graham Kagan’s email:

Having received a case for review from petitioner Eric Alterman against the Student Union Senate and specifically Class of 2011 Senators Lev Hirschhorn and Alex Melman, the Union Judiciary has unanimously decided to grant certiorari, and thus has agreed to hear the case.

Continue reading “The Trial Of The Century”

Jehuda still keeping secrets from Students, Faculty

There’s a lot to take away from this news article by Hannah Kirsch, Donation goes to Rose.

Most importantly, we see that Jehuda is still hiding information from Students and Faculty.

A donor has provided funds to help pay the Rose Art Museum’s operating budget for the remainder of this fiscal year, according to a Feb. 26 “frequently asked questions” briefing e-mail to Brandeis alumni sent by University President Jehuda Reinharz and forwarded to the Justice by several alumni.

…

Scott said that she heard of the donation news from an alumnus approached her at a conference, [sic] but she dismissed it as a rumor after she did not receive any official notification. “To my knowledge, no other faculty had been told about this,” she said.

This mad obsession with secrecy accomplishes nothing but make Jehuda look bad. And, like it or not, right now he’s the face of the University. Why does all big news come in the form of leaks to the Justice? Why are different people being told different things, and why the hell are people still confused over the Rose? What else don’t we know? Did Sheldon Adelson just buy the Heller School? At this point, anything is possible.

Secondly, we see that an anonymous donor gave a fair chunk of change to the Rose’s endowment. Great, but no amount money given to the Rose’s endowment will save it. Why? Because the Rose is financially healthy – by selling it, Jehuda is trying to cannabilize it, not cut off a loss.

Last, we see that we’re still locked in the paradigm of the benevolent mega-donor. This model is outmoded for the modern age. Brandeis should be much more friendly to targeted micro-donations from small donors than it is now. That was the secret to success of campaigning in recent times(Barack Obama, yes, but yes as well to hundreds of congressional Candidates, Hillary’s bounce back after NH, etc), as well as the foundation of support for Jewish Federations throughout history (up until the 20-year anomaly of the Jewish Mega-donor from the 1980’s-2000).

Would a business major change Brandeis’ character?

The Justice makes a fairly strong case:

Not only is business far from a liberal art, but also some think the establishment of a Business major would attract a different group of students than those Brandeis usually admits. Brandeis is absolutely thought of by its community as a liberal arts school; it’s heavily marketed as such to prospective students and is frequently described as such by students and professors. However, Brandeis’ liberal arts identity begs questioning.

…

What is problematic is a continuing rhetoric of “supporting the liberal arts” when the University’s recent actions indicate that the liberal arts have been on the back burner for some time. A Brandeis where ancient Greek, linguistics, music composition, the various Ph.D. candidates who won’t be admitted next year and the University’s legacy in the form of an irreplaceable collection of midcentury masterpieces are in danger of falling off the map is not a liberal arts school.

A main tenet of business is that one cannot do many things well. Brandeis cannot support the liberal arts to the level they deserve while maintaining world-class research facilities and initiatives like the Business major.

I don’t think that this will change any decisions but we should take a clear-eyed look at the consequences of our actions here.

What’s more interesting is that this is a fairly radical position, considering it came from The Justice. Opposing a likely decision made by the school? That’s a fairly big step for them.

I do hope that these concerns are taken into account when designing the Business Major. My take: it should teach social entrepreneurship, not capitalist entrepreneurship. That’s where the future is in any case.