Month: December 2009

This post is part of a series that addresses the physical aspects of our campus, specifically the history and the current state of Brandeis University architecture and planning.

One of society’s ongoing problems is what to do with old buildings.  Do we demolish them and build something new?  Do we renovate and re-purpose them?  If they’re particularly special, we might even restore them to their original state.  Brandeis is no more immune to this problem than any city or town.  In fact, college campuses may feel the pressures to demolish old buildings stronger than any other communities.  Colleges depend on large donors to renew their facilities, and large donors want their names on fashionable new buildings.

For several weeks now, crews have been working at demolishing the Friedland Life Science building and the Kalman Pre-Medical Building.  To my best knowledge, no one has made a fuss.  I’m not a science student, but I’ve visited both of these buildings.  Friedland was actually pretty quirky and interesting, with large white panels covering much of the exterior and short windows at the top of each floor, creating glass divisions between its five stories.  I believe it was designed by firm of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott, which had some very famous founders.

Should we really treat buildings such as Friedland as disposable?  I don’t think so.  Sure, they’re not very much in style today, but someday we may come to regret losing them.  Harvard’s now-loved Memorial Hall once faced the wrecking ball because 50-or-so years late it had fallen out of style.  Sure, Friedland isn’t so grand, nor was it probably constructed so well, but it’s so… well, modern.  It was of the era of the Space Race, and in my opinion it showed it.

Friedland isn’t the only building with a funky, modern style.  Goldman-Schwartz?  East?  Spingold?  Schwartz and Brown?  All of these buildings have been deeply neglected over the years.  Under the right conditions, any of these buildings could receive its death sentence.  At Brandeis, we take the attitude that after a building goes up, it’s okay to leave it to decay forever.  I urge Brandeis to treat its buildings with greater respect.

If you need reinforcement for what our ’50s and ’60s-era buildings could look like, visit the lobby of Gryzmish across from the campus center.  Without  daily wear from students, the interior has stayed fairly well preserved.  Really, take a look.  Once the examples of that style are destroyed, they will never come back in quite the same form.

So students at Rutgers kickstarted a campaign to overthrow the incumbent local Democratic machine and as a result are really shaking things up.

These students created a legitimate organization that is composed of residents across the city. They do community organizing by day, electioneering by night, and (electorally) they’ve been remarkably successful.

Rutgers site:

A group of Rutgers University students and graduates have brought their brand of social-justice activism off campus and into the streets of New Brunswick, winning seats on a key political committee and starting a movement to change the way city elections are held.

“We’re community organizers,” said Charles Kratovil, a 2009 graduate. “We think it’s the best way to effect real change – just like when Barack Obama got out of college, he became a community organizer.”

Kratovil and his fellow students are members of Empower Our Neighborhoods – a group that performs a range of social-justice projects and also spawned an offshoot organization, Democrats for Change to mount a direct challenge to the established Democratic Party that dominates New Brunswick politics.

And they won!

Democrats for Change, a coalition of moderate, progressive, and revolutionary democrats inspired by Obama’s campaign, shocked the political establishment in New Jersey’s recent primary election winning twenty-five out of fifty-six Democratic Party committee seats against New Brunswick’s entrenched Daleyesque political machine.

The election marks the first time New Brunswick’s conservative Democratic Party machine suffered a defeat at the polls. “For far too long the administration has heard only the voices of commercial developers and business,” said life-long New Brunswick resident Charlie Renda, “Yesterday’s vote signals the beginning of a renewal of democracy in New Brunswick” he added.

For many organizers this is the beginning of a larger political project. “It is time for progressives and radicals to get out of protest mode and to start taking power at the local level. It can be done. We are proving it,” said Keith Joseph a campaign organizer, “we hope to start uniting with progressives who are struggling for political power in other cities” he added.

We should do something like this here at Brandeis!

Random Thoughts:
This is really cool, and Social Justice is our thing, you know? I firmly believe that a sustainable organization of Brandeis grads and students working for positive change in Waltham/Boston would be good for students, a great place to work after you graduate, and, most of all, great for the community.

More than Words and the various Waltham Group projects are arguably a good place to start. They already have ties to the community and Brandeis proper.

We don’t have to /copy/ the Rutgers crew, but the point is that we can and probably should get involved in our community more, and in an organizing sort of way, not just a service sort of way.

I am a member of the Waltham City Democratic Committee. On one hand, the current committee isn’t very fearsome or entrenched. On the other hand, they don’t seem corrupt either. They’re just normal, decent, people, you know?

This is my point. We have so much opportunity to do good. Let’s not forget that. Also, compare and contrast that with Student Union shitshow. Which is more worth praise and attention?

In the comments, “George” calls me out: (He writes “Innermost Parts” instead of” Sahar Massachi” but I speak only for myself here)

It’s amazing how innermostparts would freak out when student leaders last year and the year before did minuscule things you disagreed with, yet now you don’t care to hold any of the current leadership accountable? Please do us all a favor and either admit that you are a hypocrite or that you were wrong in the past for writing incessantly about “meaningless bullshit” and demonizing past leaders.

Yo George, that’s the thing.

Last year, I cared *so much* about these sorts of things. Now, I can’t summon the enthusiasm to even write about this sort of stuff, most of the time.

I don’t really know why; I guess I’m going through a personal journey of sorts, and you’re watching it in real time.

Does Diana deserve to be impeached? Would be better off if she was? Maybe. In fact, I’m even sympathetic to the pro-impeachment side of things. Intellectually, I do feel these sorts of struggles are important, that proper running of the Union is important, that the Senate has the power and responsibility to do such things.

Still, I just can’t summon the energy to cover it, or to try to affect the outcome at all.

We’re all just students here, ok? Andy and Diana messed up, but they weren’t mendacious. They’re just kids. We’re all just kids. (In my mind, 20-ish is still a “kid”. You can replace “kid” with “young adult” if you want) They work hard, or don’t, doesn’t really matter. They were intimidated by the voting system and kept putting it off, then forgot about the whole matter. Rather than remind them, the Senate freaked out and impeached Diana.

Or maybe that’s not what happened at all. If that’s the case, we’ll find out at the trial.

Look, Innermost Parts was founded to uphold Brandeis values and uphold Social Justice. I want to get back to that vision of what we’re supposed to be. The internal power struggles of the Student Union, however much they matter to those inside the Union, look so boring now.

By focusing so closely on the Union for the past I-don’t-know-how-long, Innermost Parts hasn’t been able to grow in scope. We should be talking about funding decisions for the University, Board of Trustees affairs, about Dining and Aramark. We should be boosting worthy clubs and events, and we should help keep Social Justice a meaningful thing, not just a phrase that everyone bandies about.

That’s what I’m talking about.

Before anything else, we’re fellow students here. Sometimes I feel we act out these roles – blogger, journalist, “senator”, whatever, and forget that fact. Let’s just take a step back and remember that, come on, let’s not take ourselves so seriously here.

You know what really matters?

Many of my friends and acquaintances here at Brandeis right now are struggling to find a way to pay for college. They might graduate early, they might drop out. Some have already taken a semester or two off, and might not be able to return.

What the fuck?

I just talked to an absolutely cool prospective student I met last year. She was certain she wanted to come to Brandeis, but it turned out that she couldn’t pay and had to settle for for a different (inferior) school.

Why?

Not only are my friends being forced out of Brandeis due to its astronomical tuition, but many of us will be saddled with huge debt once we graduate, and face an even greater challenge paying for grad school.

I’m really frustrated because this is all happening in front of my very eyes, and I can see things get worse every month. I don’t know what to do about this. Please, anyone, if you are listening, help us!

A little while back the Student Union senate voted to impeach Diana Aronin, Union Secretary, and censure president Andy Hogan. Why? The Senate voted on an amendment to add a midyear Senator position to the constitution, and Diana/Andy didn’t put it up for a vote. You can read the Hoot if you want more information.

A year ago I would have been really interested in covering this.

Honestly? This is all meaningless bullshit. I really don’t much care anymore. The only thing worse than a powerless, meaningless senate is one that tries to flex its muscles in an unproductive, petty way.

This latest development, however, puts a smile on my face:

Petitioner Name: Deena Glucksman
Party against whom the case is being brought: Jenna Rubin, Executive
Senator of Student Union
Complaint: As of December 6, 2009, Student Union Secretary Diana
Aronin ’11, was impeached by the Senate for “willfully corrupting and
violating the duties set forth to her in the Union Constitution.”
According to the Union Constitution, Article X, Section 2, “A
two-thirds vote of the Senate is required to impeach an elected Union
Government official.” According to the Senate Resolution F09-3, 11
senators voted to impeach Secretary Aronin. There are currently 20
Senators seated on the Senate out of a possible 24. Neither an 11 out
of 20 nor an 11 out of 23 vote is greater than or equal to a
two-thirds vote. As a result, the impeachment was voted upon and
enacted unconstitutionally.

If this is true, Jenna Rubin comes out looking really dumb.

Update: Nope. Ms. Glucksman’s got it wrong. I’ve got many emails last night regarding this post. I love it when that happens. It turns out that 14 people voted for impeachment, but 11 people signed the articles of impeachment, and you need 2/3 of senators present when you have a quorum, rather than 2/3 of all total senators who are seated. I wrote this post in haste last night. Normally I’d do my due diligence on this. Thanks for keeping me honest.