In peace,
Phil LaCombe (’10)

The Brandeis administration’s choice of Michael Oren as this year’s commencement speaker has brought division to what should be a unifying event.  If you are upset about this choice and would like an opportunity to voice your opinion, come to a demonstration against campus division tomorrow beginning at 4:45 p.m between Spingold and the Rose near Pollack.  The demonstration will coincide with the opening ceremony of the Festival of the Arts, but is not intended to disrupt the event.

The Source/ReSource project was created by artist in residence Michael Dowling in order to speak to “the continuing cycle of generations who come to Brandeis– the source– and return to the world as a resource for vision, justice, creativity, and social change.”  Dowling realizes the unity of the Brandeis community and its beauty.  Unfortunately, our administration has chosen to divide our community through its selection of Michael Oren as the speaker for our most sacred ceremony–commencement.

This demonstration is not against Michael Oren as a speaker or individual; it is against the administration’s choice to bring him to commencement and fuel the deep political divisions of the community.

In the event of rain, we will be meeting at the same time in the atrium of Shapiro Campus Center.

Sahar co-founded the Committee on Endowment Ethics and Responsibility to ensure the endowment is invested responsibly.

During the 2008 election, Sahar helped run the Brandeis Votes challenge that mobilized our clubs to register students to vote.

When Brandeis was in crisis as a result of the budget cuts Spring 2009, Sahar successfully organized a student movement to oppose the administration’s unilateral decision-making.  The budget cut coalition worked to inform students, contact the media, create a proposal for transparency and student participation, and place a student on the CARS Committee.

On the Constitutional Review Committee as an at-large member, Sahar fought for successful reforms: instant runoff voting in Student Union elections and public defenders in the Union Judiciary.

After the Muslim Students’ Association Lounge was vandalized, Sahar brought together students of Muslim, Jewish, other faiths and no faith to stand up for the Muslim community and our values of tolerance and coexistence.  Sahar created an open letter to the Brandeis Muslim community that gathered 600 signatures and arranged a peace rally that attracted 80 people and widespread media attention.  Sahar knows the true character of our university and our community, and will speak for it when it comes under threat.

Vote Sahar Massachi for Student Union President April 15th.

Want to learn more? Check out our website or facebook.

Dr. Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont, presidential candidate and chair of the Democratic National Committee will be coming to campus on April 15th to talk to the Brandeis community about his career, current political debates, and youth participation in the political process. The event will consist of a speech followed by an extensive conversation with the audience via Q and A.

The event is open to members of the Brandeis community only.

Seating is first come first serve, Doors open 7:15pm and Brandeis ID is Required.

SPA has a cool event tonight.  They’re screening the film “Soldiers of Peace.” Member Etta King was kind enough to send along this blurb:

Movie starts @: 7:30 in Pearlman Lounge! Bring snacks/dinner and friends!

“We assume that war is human nature. That there’s an epidemic of war and it’s only getting worse. That it’s too profitable for some businesses to be stopped. And too effective for some governments to give up. That war will be with us forever. None of these things is true. The world is changing. We are changing.”

Join Student Peace Alliance for a FREE movie screening of the documentary Soldiers of Peace. Afterward we will share our reactions to the movie and discuss some new, awesome initiatives SPA is working on to effectively address youth violence in the United States. This movie chronicles stories from 14 countries around the world where ordinary people are doing what is necessary to end war and violence in their communities. AND the movie is narrated by Michael Douglas!

You can watch the trailer here: http://www.soldiersofpeacemovie.com/movie-trailer/movie.php

Howard Dean, a physician and former Governor of Vermont, is well-known for his run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.  He built significant opposition to the Iraq War and other policies of the Bush presidency, as well as created a very successful model for internet fundraising.  From 2005-2009 he served as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, where he created the “50 State Strategy” that made Democrats competitive in normally “solid red” Republican districts, which led to the Democrats taking back Congress in 2006.  Since leaving the DNC, Dean has been working on pushing for healthcare reform, especially for a public option to private insurance plans.

The MBTA has recently created a new map that has the familiar “T” subway (red, blue, orange), light rail (green, M-line red), and bus rapid transit lines (silver) and adds 12 key bus routes.

You can find it here in a nice printable PDF.

Print it out and put it in your backpack or purse.  When you know that special way to get someplace, all your friends will be wildly impressed.

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.

Demolition of the Friedland Life Science Building

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.

Friedland Life Science Building. Architects: Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott. Built 1956-58.

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.

Winter Sun Sets Over Friedland

This past Friday evening I participated in an event called Critical Mass, with the purpose to celebrate cycling and assert cyclists’ right to the road.  In Boston, bicyclists hold a ride on a last Friday of every month, starting at Copley Square in the Back Bay.  There are no organizers.  I heard about the event from some fellow Brandeisians through Facebook.  I’d never done any real urban riding before, so naturally I felt anxious as I sat with my Schwinn on the Commuter Rail, waiting to arrive in Boston.  Since I work at WalkBoston Fridays, I rode the bike over to Old City Hall and locked it up outside the office.  Making it from North Station without incident felt like quite an accomplishment!

After work when it came time to ride over to Copley, I realized how disoriented I felt bicycling rather than walking around the city.  Suddenly I had to deal with a bunch of one-way streets and I lacked the time to think about my direction at each intersection.  When I arrived at Copley Square there were already a number of cyclists, many with single-gear or fixie bikes, others with modified road cycles, and a whole bunch of people in costume for Halloween.  I felt silly with my mountain bike.  I ran into a fellow I met at the HONK!Fest and we chatted for a bit.  Again, no one was in charge, so we just had to wait until someone started riding and then follow.

With over 100 cyclists, we took over the streets of downtown Boston.  It was simply amazing and brought a huge grin to my face.  Instead of being pushed to the margins, we owned the road.  Collective action gave us the right to ride in freedom.  Instead of thinking about the car behind me or the intersection ahead, I could actually take in the sights and lights of the city.  And the pavement–so smooth!  The automobiles have it so good.  We blew through the red lights, with people physically blocking the cars along the way.  It was brilliant, and sooo satisfying to stick it to the faceless, polluting cars.  Still, the whole thing was rather self-indulgent.  We made it nearly impossible for pedestrians to cross the streets, and that brought on a little guilt.  While it’s not right to act as the automobile drivers do and selfishly take up the entire street, I don’t think it really hurts anyone to do it for an hour or two once a month.  I’ll be sure to participate again.

We’re not there yet, but this is a significant step towards the 15% reduction in emissions over the next five years targeted by the University’s new climate plan. We’ll need to do a lot more to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, but when combined with Pres. Reinharz’ suggestion at the event to seed the campus with Vespas, solar panels could go a long way.

How will we pay for all this silicon, you ask? Simply put, we won’t, because we won’t actually be buying the solar array. Rather, we’ve signed a 20-year contract with EOS ventures. They’ll provide the upfront cost of the array, and have contracted with the Boston firm Alteris Renewables to build the array and prepare the roof. In return, we’ll be buying the electricity produced every year at a predetermined rate which rises slowly each year. Initially, this solar energy will start off as more expensive than conventional fossil fuel energy purchased through the ordinary power utility. But if fossil fuel costs rise at projected rates (one assumes the projections used are those of EOS), the solar energy will quickly become cheaper. I was told by an EOS representative that after 20 years, we will hopefully have saved $820,000 in energy costs.

A good deal of credit for this venture goes to Janna Cohen-Rosenthal, the sustainability coordinator of the University. Though some were initially skeptical of allowing a private firm to own equipment on the Gosman roof, the projected energy savings and environmental good were enough to win over the skeptics. Long-term creative payment schemes like this are the future of renewable energy, and Brandeis is leading the way.

Adds Phil:

The placement of the panels on Gosman was a smart choice, not only for its solar orientation but for visibility.  Unlike most buildings on campus, Gosman has a pitched roof, so people on and passing through campus will be well aware of the panels.  They will be visible from both South St (inbound to Waltham) and the Commuter Rail.  Our committment to sustainability won’t go unnoticed.

My oldest memory is of a controversy surrounding a display of Palestinian art on campus.  It was before I arrived as a student on campus, but it was still fresh on the minds of many in the community when I arrived in the fall of 2006.  The exhibit was called ‘Voices of Palestine’ and featured drawings and paintings by Palestinian teenagers living in a refugee camp near Bethlehem.  After four days on display, his administration removed the pieces of artwork.  Coming to Brandeis as a non-Jew, this was slightly worrying.  I wanted to live and study in an environment where people could express their views, even if they were disliked by strong supporters of Israel.

In the fall of 2007, my second semester at Brandeis, Reinharz sought to prevent President Carter from visiting campus and giving a lecture to the community.  The issue was over Carter’s book, entitled “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”.  Reinharz was worried about the potential reactions of the wealthy Jewish donors that sponsor our university.  It was the second big battle I witnessed concerning one Brandeis pillar versus the other, with Jewish sponsorship on one side and social justice on the other.  Some motivated students pushed hard to get Carter to come, offering to put on the event themselves.  Reinharz tried to force Carter to change the event from a lecture to a debate with lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a staunch defender of Israel’s political and military policy.  The issue created some bad press for the university, mostly through the Boston Globe, who brought it to the nation’s attention.  In the end Carter was allowed to come, with an optional Dershowitz event afterward.  As I remember, Reinharz did not attend the former president’s lecture.

President Reinharz’s decision that impacted me most was to allow the campus police to carry guns.  He composed a committee in the summer of 2007 to advise him on the issue following the Virginia Tech tragedy.  The two students serving on the committee were hand picked by the administration with no input from the greater student body.  I still stand by the opinion that our campus is better off without the deadly weapons that are firearms.  Someday we’re going to have an issue with one of the guns wielded or fired improperly.  I helped organize a group called SODA, Students Opposing the Decision to Arm, which collected over 800 student signatures for our cause.  We delivered the signatures to President Reinharz and spoke with him for around 30 minutes with at least 20 students.  He didn’t really care about student opinion, he was moving ahead with his decision regardless, and he wasn’t going to open up debate on the issue on campus.

Most recently, Reinharz has become mired in controversy over the closure of the Rose Art Museum and the sale of its works of art.  I’ve only visited the museum a couple of times while at Brandeis, but I’ve always believed that it adds something special to our community.  His decision was never clear.  He equivocated over the closure and the sale under the pressure, only bringing the university more bad press.  I praised my friends’ posting of a large sign on the front of the Rose reading “ATM”.  While I was abroad, my peers went to work debating with the administration over budget cuts.  The financial crisis hit our university hard.  Reinharz should be praised for raising record amounts of money, but criticized for overspending.  I love all of the new buildings, upgrades, and programs, but our expansion just wasn’t sustainable.

President Reinharz made me proud when he signed the University Presidents’ Climate Commitment to tackle global warming, and when he advocated for the elimination of water bottles from the dining halls.  Reinharz is a business man.  Late in his tenure he realized that Brandeis was going to have to “go green” in order to attract today’s students.  For him, sustainability is part of the marketing strategy.  That’s fine, I care less about the motivations than the actions.  Next week’s big sustainability announcement may not come from him, but I can say with reasonable certainty that it will have to do with some of his behind-the-scenes efforts.

Earlier tonight I broke the news of Reinharz’s resignation to one of my friends.  He replied jokingly, ” Do you think there will be looting?”  I laughed, but his comment made recall the name of the building where President Reinharz’s office resides–The Irving Presidential Enclave.  How indicative of the way he ran the university’s administration, so close to the hub of students’ activity, but so distant in its decision-making.

• Changes in ownership structure – issue stock to employees, even if they don’t want it.
• Corporate bylaws – change responsibility to shareholders to responsibility to all stakeholders, including labor and the environment.
• Corporate charters – in order to receive permission to operate as a business, you must meet certain standards (e.g. issue a corporate responsibility report).
• Full cost accounting – include all externalities in the prices of goods so that the better goods cost less.
• Doing good – currently, our idea of doing good is doing less bad (e.g. 100% recycled, non-chlorine bleached paper towels).  Tonight’s event is an example of doing good.  In becoming the first company to use sustainably harvested palm oil, they’re doing good.
• Quality over quantity – we just plain consume too much stuff, need to consume less.
• Education – teach the systemic thinking, the connections between things, from the very youngest ages.
• Capital availability – small businesses are starved of money, even though they create the most jobs.  Also see the point on sustainable growth.
• Working less – people don’t have enough time to participate in their democracies.  You’re not necessarily more productive working 60 hours a work, so employees that work less should still be able to compete.
• Family businesses – they more often do the right thing.  Johnson & Johnson were the first to give employees paid vacation.
• Long-term thinking – businesses have a very hard time thinking long-term.  Immediately when things go bad, they lay people off, even though it’s expensive.
• Day trading – these types of investors offer nothing to companies.  We need extremely high capital gains taxes to discourage these types of behavior.  Long-term investing should have no capital gains tax.
• Mortgage deductions – these tax incentives benefit the people who need it least, like people who own two homes.
• Charitable giving – the poorer you are, the more you give away as a percentage of your income.
• Salary limitations – place limits on how many times more the highest-paid employee can make in relation to the lowest-paid employee.  If you pay someone over $500,000 a year, you shouldn’t be able to deduct it as a business expense.
• Seventh Generation – the name comes from the Iroquois principle that in every deliberation, we need to consider its impact on the next seven generations.
• Failure – Seventh Generation employees work too much, are too stressed out, but a month ago he finished a book about working less and hope to make changes.  They chose palm oil instinctively over petroleum, but really it turned out to be worse.
• Habit – humans generally replicate the same patterns over and over.  At Seventh Generation, they make an effort to be more conscious about their actions.
• Sustainable growth – complicated, because capital often isn’t available for those who want sustainable growth.  One bank in the Netherlands believes 20% is destructive and their companies who grow more slowly have done better in the financial crisis.  He’s still somewhat obsessed with growth because he gets more influence and shows more proof his model works.
• Political advocacy – you can’t necessarily publicly endorse a political candidate as the company that provides someone’s toilet paper.  You need to lay the proper groundwork for communicating with your customers before you do that.
• Charity – thinking about the circulation of money is important.  Oftentimes when money is given away, it’s gone forever.  Social entrepreneurship benefits immensely from the support behind it today, with micro-lending, awareness, etc.
• Starting Seventh Generation – when they started small their products were twice as expensive and half as good.  It was a bad fomula.
• Target – the store has helped Seventh Generation become their best-selling dish liquid because they priced Seventh Generation’s product at parity with Palmolive, Dawn, etc.

Thanks to the Brandeis Sustainability Initiative and Net Impact for helping bring Jeffrey to campus!

On a side note, a big announcement is coming for campus sustainability.  Janna Cohen-Rosenthal, our campus sustainability coordinator, was grinning as she told me about next Wednesday’s event (Shapiro Science Center, 5:30pm).  She looked like she could hardly contain the secret, so it must be big!

Philip,
Thank you for your comments relative to pedestrian safety and vehicles on campus. We do try to balance all of the needs of pedestrians and vehicle operators who traverse our campus roads on a daily basis.
I must say that from a Public Safety perspective on a good day it is a daunting task. One which is compounded by illegally parked student vehicles which accrue hundreds of dollars in parking citations per year.

I would also like to see a car free campus at some point. A campus which is served by a multi level garage structure which would alleviate a good percentage of cars from the Main campus. Perhaps you would like to discuss this point and the long term North Academic Quad matter with Daniel Feldman, Vice President of Capital Projects.

Please understand that vehicular traffic at the Rabb intersection is also a concern which often creates traffic problems all the way down the length of the East Quad Road. We do balance both needs and attempt to expedite vehicle movement which sometimes impacts the response of Emergency vehicles to our campus. In addition a good percentage of the vehicles in question are operated by Faculty who are arriving to teach class, students both undergrads and grad who drive onto campus as well as Bran vans and buses which are deployed to transport students to class.

As a long term employee and Director of the Department of Public Safety I share your safety related concerns.

Best Regards,
Edward M. Callahan
Director of Public Safety

It’s great to hear that Ed Callahan supports a car-free campus.  I intend to further pursue this issue with Daniel Feldman, as he suggests.

To be continued…

Dear Chief Callahan,

I am writing you in response to an observation I made recently where an officer was giving priority to automobiles over pedestrians at Rabb Steps.  I believe strongly that the presence of automobiles negatively effects the quality of life on campus, and a policy of prioritizing vehicle traffic before pedestrians contributes to this problem.  Making driving on campus more convenient encourages more students to use their automobiles rather than walk and bike, which are much healthier options.  I have also observed police vehicles idling in the area at Rabb Steps, which with passing and idling vehicle traffic emit harmful emissions in an area with a high volume of pedestrian traffic.  I would like to remind you that unnecessary idling over five minutes is prohibited by Massachusetts law and by MassDEP regulations.

The current Brandeis Master Plan, established in 2001, calls for reduced vehicular traffic.  The document defining the plan’s scope lists “Reduction of vehicular encroachment into pedestrian areas” and “Separation of pedestrian and vehicular circulation” as major goals and objectives.  The plan itself envisions closing the area between Usdan and the North (Mandel) Academic Quad to vehicular thru traffic.  While the University has improved conditions for pedestrians on South Campus with a new link in the Brandeis Walk, policies toward traffic at Rabb Steps work against the goals of a healthier, more beautiful, and more sustainable campus.  I urge you to put people first, supporting safe and efficient traffic flow at Rabb Steps by prioritizing pedestrian traffic when an officer is present in the short-term and advocating for pedestrianization of the Brandeis Loop at Rabb steps in the mid- to long-term.

I appreciate your attention in this matter.

Most Sincerely,

Philip LaCombe

I can understand why the police have set up camp there.  Traffic can get backed up pretty far during the 10 minutes between classes.  There’s even a lot of idling caused because of it.  Really, neither the status quo nor the traffic direction works.  Both are harmful for the environment.  The thing is, we shouldn’t be encouraging more driving.  It’s bad enough that we have so many cars on campus, and that some people drive to class even with the inconvenience at that crossing.  What’s the alternative?  Pedestrianization.  Cut the loop road so that the furthest you can get is to the parking lot behind North Quad.  Here’s a drawing from the campus master plan of what it might look like:

Nice, huh?  Imagine the possibilities…  that portion of the loop road could become a plaza for all sorts of activities.  Hanging out, tabling, eating, people-watching…  it would be a great public space, free of pollution and cars.  Emergency vehicles would still be able to get through, but it would be a place for people, not cars.

In light of my representatives’ inaction, I have created my own gas tax. For every gallon of gasoline I buy, I will contribute 50 cents–nearly doubling the taxes I currently pay–to an organization that promotes more sustainable transportation options. I haven’t chosen the group yet, but I am thinking of Reconnecting America, the National Complete Streets Coalition, and the LivableStreets Alliance. I invite you to join me in my small effort towards creating a more sustainable and liveable America.