Month: September 2008

The City of Waltham sent a representative to the Career fair last Thursday.

They want you. They want you to join the government of the city of Waltham, Massachussetts.

All you have to do is send in a one-page application and attach your resume.

I know what you’re thinking. “Holy crap! What’s the fine print?”

As far as I can tell, nothing. You apply for a position in a city commission and then the Mayor will hopefully appoint you. If enough people express interest (by commenting on this post, for example), I’ll try to set up a meeting for us with a representative from Waltham who can explain it more.

Let me emphasize this – Waltham is begging for students to join the actual legit waltham government.

Some commissions you could apply to join –
– Ambulance Service Review Committee
– BOard of Cemetery Commissioner
– Board of Health
– Board of Library Trustees
– Board of Registrars of Voters
– Board of Survey adn Planning
– Cable Advisory Board
– Commissioners of Trust Funds
– Conservation Commission
– COuncil on Aging
– Handicapped Serices COmmission
– LIcense Comission
– Municipal Awards Program Comittee
– Park and Recreation Board
– Waltham Cable Advisory Board
– Waltham Community Access Corporation Board
– Waltham Cultural Council
– Waltham Historical Comission
– Waltham HOusing AUthority
– Waltham Retirement Board
– Zoning Board of Appeals

I have a bunch of applications. I’ll set up a meeting soon where everyone can get a copy and we can all apply together or something. For now – get pumped! Also, find out more info on the specific commission you want to join on the waltham city gov’t website – http://www.city.waltham.ma.us/

Debate watching party 9pm in shapiro multi-purpose room. with free food (100 wings!)

Stephen Robinson vs Elections commission will not go to trial.

POYA manifesto in the hoot. Here’s my contribution:

I’m a shy person. I don’t like talking about politics. I really am. Throughout middle school and high school I gained a reputation as a composed, thoughtful person who didn’t pipe up much during political debates. I relished my role, listening to my friends debate politics, knowing that when I chose to speak, people would listen. They knew that I took the time to think both sides through. They trusted my judgment.

So much for that. Is it really a neutral act to refuse to rebel at the presence of evil? The America depicted in high school history texts is very different from the America we live in today. The genesis of this society was predicated on the genocide of the red man. The riches of this country were grown with the blood of the black man. And the woman? Don’t even get me started. We were promised an America embodying the realization of the Enlightenment, a land of tolerance. A land of freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from want. Freedom of expression. Instead we got Empire. Instead, we’re handed a kleptocracy.

Fuck. That. Shit. I don’t want to be an activist. I want to be an academic. I want to tinker with computers and curl up with a book in front of the fire. I don’t want to be painted as one-sided, angry, or needlessly didactic. Yet what choice do I have, when one political party systematically destroys America and the other is too cowardly to stop them? No choice. No time to waste.

It doesn’t take a math genius to see that students on the all points plan are paying a hell of a lot more than $1400 for 1400 points. It does however take a little bit of numbers crunching to see exactly how much each meal plan is really worth. Therefore I present the product of a few minutes of labor calculating the worth of every meal plan Aramark and ResLife have to offer.

Before I show the numbers, I have to explain my methodology. Firstly, I assumed that there were 17 weeks in a semester and 119 days. I did not include vacations. Secondly, when calculating the value of meals, I assumed that everyone eats at Sherman (the most expensive dining institution at Brandeis); when possible they eat there for dinner ($10.05 a meal) first and then lunch ($7.95 a meal). I did not include Kosher dining in these numbers. All numbers are calculated per semester.

Want to see the worth of your meal plan? Numbers after the jump!

Continue reading “How Much is Your Meal Plan Really Worth?”

Sorry we’re running behind schedule, but here they are!

Senator for the Transitional Year Program
> Rank Candidate Votes %
> 1 Terrence Johnson 3 75.00
> 2 ABSTAIN 1 25.00
>
> Senator for Massell Quad
> Rank Candidate Votes %
> 1 Nipun Marwaha 75 49.67
> 2 Narayan Wong 68 45.03
> 3 ABSTAIN 8 5.30
>
> Senator for East Quad
> Rank Candidate Votes %
> 1 Sara Enan 78 55.32
> 2 Edward J. Tanenbaum 59 41.84
> 3 ABSTAIN 4 2.84
>
> Senator for Castle Quad
> Rank Candidate Votes %
> 1 Nathan Robinson 23 50.00
> 2 Sahar Massachi 20 43.48
> 3 ABSTAIN 3 6.52
>
> Senator for Charles River
> Rank Candidate Votes %
> 1 Chenchao Lu 22 78.57
> 2 ABSTAIN 6 21.43

There are so many things going on today. Community Service Fair, Career fair, Student Funding Info Session, etc.

After so many events (the info for which you can find on the Brandeis Activist Calendar to your right) why not unwind with Drinking Liberally / whoever you choose? We’re taking a field trip today to the Museum of Fine Arts!

There shall be two free concerts by indie singer St. Vincent at 7pm and 8:30, among other wondrous things.

Yo Drinking Liberally, tomorrow night (Thursday) we are going on a “field trip” of sorts to College Night at the MFA, there will be lots of live music, raffles, cool people, and ART. So come chill and be liberal with us.

We’ll be catching the Brandeis Cambridge/Boston shuttle that leaves Rabb @ 6:30. From there we’ll get off at the Beacon/Mass Ave stop, and take the green E line to the MFA stop. Tell your clubs, tell your friends, bring your COLLEGE ID, and be there or be lame.

Formerly. UJ to hear case re: Rosenthal Elections

This just in:

Stephen D. Robinson is going to sue the Student Union Election Commission in the Union Judiciary in regards to the recent election for Rosenthal Quad Senator, which Philips Loh officially won. Steven believes he’s been treated unfairly by the EC.

That’s all I know so far. We’ll update you with more information as we learn more.

Got an email just now from Jehuda. Seems like Brandeis is giving out a $25,000 yearly award for “outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic and/or religious relations.” Cool. I don’t know much about this year’s winner – Kwame Anthony Appiah, but I hope that we get to learn more about this guy during the process of giving out the scholarship. This confirms an earlier trend of innovation by Brandeis – since we lost our comparative advantage regarding financial aid, it seems that the University is trying other ways to stand out – fellowships, a community service freshman floor, huge fellowships for academics, etc. Great ideas!

Here’s another idea. The Ethics Center is great and has a lot of potential. It’s also an institutional embodiment of the values that Brandeis was explicitly founded on. Let’s integrate them more tightly into undergrad life. They should sponsor classes, bring in guest lecturers, and reach out to students wanting to promote the cause of good throughout the world. Don’t get me wrong – the Ethics Center Fellowship is great. Let’s build on that more, instead spending energy on silly pictures of Einstein holding a bagel.

Continue reading “Good for Brandeis, Good for the community”

**Please note, the following post should NOT serve as an endorsement of any kind. Thank you. -Carrie

For those of us who walked around the Massell Quad on Tuesday, it was hard to miss the words written on the walkways with masking tape – “Vote Narayan.” A creative use of Union materials, no doubt, that could arguably be the reason he pulled up one extra vote over Savannah Pearlman which led him into the final round against Nipun Marwaha.

Narayan is a curious creature among the Massell Quad candidates as his fliers and facebook group do not dictate a platform. In fact, when speaking with him last night, he was open in admitting that he had no platform to his candidacy. While I would imagine this fact may deter others from voting for him, I find this stance to be oddly refreshing and a welcomed change of pace. Granted, specified platforms are the only items that stand in the way of turning Student Union elections into popularity contests. Still I cannot resist a qwirky, irrelevent poster which brings a sense of playfulness to the baseless tension and drama that these elections cause.

Continue reading “What’s with Narayan?”

Well another primary-round election has come and gone. Here’s the interesting things I see from the results:

– Shocker of the night: Sara Enan, a write-in candidate, managed to get more votes than Edward Tanenbaum, who was officially running unopposed. Impressive.

– Congrats to Andy Hogan, new senator for North Quad. Andy is a sophomore living in scheffries so this is kind of an upset. Andy was also the campaign manager (and secret weapon) for Adam Hughes.

– Andrew Brooks is back in the Senate as the New Senator from Ziv Quad. Congrats to Andrew.

– Nathan J Robinson and I are tied for votes (and move into the final round opposing each other) in the race for Castle Quad senator. No matter which one of us wins, I’m glad that the Castle will have a great Senator this year.

– There were very many uncompetitive races this year. No official candidates for TYP. Turnout of 17 people in Charles River. One official candidate for both East and Rosenthal Quads. One candidate for both mods and off-campus each. One official candidate in both Mods and East. Two candidates for Rosenthal and Off-Campus. No official candidate in Grad. No official candidates – or qualifying write-ins – in the Village.

In each of the elections Innermost Parts has focused on – F-Board, Senator-at -Large, President, Vice-President, and Special-Election-Vice-President, there have been fiercely contested races. Not so this time. Weird.

– Castle Quad is the exception. Nathan and I are in a tight race where every vote does count. I will crush him.

– Lastly, Adam makes a good point in the comments:

The race that really interests me now is the Class of 2012 Senate race. Section 9c of the official election rules (the section which governs winning multi-seat elections) states “In the event that a primary ballot would be identical to the final round ballot, except for the ability to write in candidates, the primary round shall count as the final round. The candidates with the most votes shall be declared the winners.” The only three candidates on the primary round ballot were Supreetha Gubbala, Akash Vadalia, and Joseph Sloman; thus, unless I’m hugely mistaken, Supreetha and Akash should be declared the winners. I think the commissioners got this one wrong.

So tomorrow promises to be fun.

First off, from 12-4 there’s thing thing called “rock the vote” hosted by Brandeis votes. The description says:

Come get registered to vote and learn about prevalent issues in this upcoming election.

There will be 16 on-campus clubs stationed around the Great Lawn ready with information regarding how both the Democrats and Republicans view their club’s issue.

Enjoy music throughout the event and performances by on and off campus artists!

Eat a free lunch! (while supplies lasts)

Ride the mechanical bull!

Come learn what is happening politically and socially in the country. Become truly educated in what the next president supports and VOTE!

I mean, that’s kinda vague but it seems that there’ll be free food and music and so on as well as info about political issues and ways to register to vote there as well. Worth checking out, especially if you haven’t requested an absentee ballot or registered to vote yet.

Also, at the Rock the Vote thing the Student Union will announce the winner of their Brandeis Votes competition, in which every club had the opportunity to compete to register new voters. The clubs who registered the most new voters will received cash prizes. So that’s cool.

Secondly, tomorrow there will be the famed Brandeis Economic Forum which we previously covered but can be basically summed up as Smart People From Brandeis Talking about the Financial Meltdown.. 7 – 8:30pm . you really should go.

Bonus event: This hasn’t been officially announced yet, but Drinking Liberally will be taking a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts for their big college fest this Thursday so clear your schedules.

I just read something and it really struck me:

I just watched the BBC News. It appears that at their party conference in the UK, Labour is once gain calling for the nationalization of industries, openly rejecting Blair-ism are the abandonment of Clause IV. Meanwhile, back here in America, conservatives are blaming the financial meltdown on minorities and diversity. In the midst of it all, an African-American leads the campaign for President and, after previously nationalizing the mortgage sector, Congress now openly talks of nationalizing an additional 5% of the national economy. Republicans, by contrast, just want to hand over more money to corporate executives. Oh yeah–and there are no more investment banks.

We’re in the middle of two wars, we find stories of runaway executive power boring and passe. We’re in the midst of the second internet boom (with the attendant rise in the pseudo-economic “network thinking”). Wars and shit are going on all around us. Israel-Hezbollah. Georgia. The congo, darfur, and who knows what else. These last few years have seen a pretty uniform political shift, where states that had left-leaning governments at the turn of the century (germany, france, uk) elect conservative governments, and right-leaning states (US, Japan, Australia) are shifting leftwards. The internet has led to decentralized political and economic innovation the world over. First outsourcing is the hot new trend/bogeyman, but now the rise in cost of shipping has effectively raised our barriers to trade to pre-NAFTA /WTO levels.

Truly, we live in interesting times.

Due to elections (I’m running!) and massive amounts of work, expect a lighter posting schedule until mid-to-late week. Sorry. -Sahar

I’ve been assured that this’ll be the biggest thing on campus for at least this week.
This event features the Deans of both Heller and IBS, talking about the mortgage mess and so forth.

Jason Gray tells me that it’ll be big. That’s good enough for me.

Make sure you go, dudes.

Date:
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Time:
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Location:
Brandeis Rapaporte Treasure Hall in the Library

Brandeis University Forum on U.S. Economic Policy
The U.S. Financial Crises and What the Next President Might Do About It

This forum is an installment of the Brandeis University “Spotlight on Economic Distress” series.

***Financial Crisis at Home and Abroad – Imagining the next President’s agenda***

The Collapse of the subprime mortgage market has shaken U.S. and global financial markets. Iconic corporations are mired in bankruptcies and bailouts. Economic growth is down sharply, with no sign yet of recovery. In this program, leading Brandeis experts explore the downturn’s impact and consider how to make matters better.

Featured speakers:

Lisa M. Lynch: Dean and Professor of Economics at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Lynch is currently chair of the Board of Directors of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, and she is a former chief economist at the Department of Labor (Under President Clinton).

Bruce R. Magid: Dean of the Brandeis International Business School and holder of the Martin and Ahuva Gross Chair in Financial Markets and Institutions. Magid is a former managing director and senior vice president at Bank of America.

Moderated by: David Warsh, economic journalist and proprietor of EconomicPrincipals.com. Former writer for the Boston Globe for 22 years.

This event is free and open to the public. Reservations not required.

Food and Beverages will be served.

Congratulations Mr. Hughes.

In honor of Nas’ concert tonight:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yydpWtjqa8[/youtube]

Alternative video

Here’s the info:

Tickets bought at the door are $25.00.

In addition, if you have already bought your ticket, please be aware that doors open at 7 pm. The openers will be DJ Raj, Jon Hope, and the Green Lantern.  The following restrictions will be in place for the venue:
No bags allowed
No food/beverages allowed (including the Brandeis water bottle)
No video cameras or other recording devices
Metal Detectors will be in use

I have a piece published in The Hoot this week, although you wouldn’t know it by looking at The Hoot. This is because instead of “By Nathan Robinson,” Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper decided that it would rather print “By Maxwell Price” in the byline. No, I don’t know why they did this.

The story (it’s short, don’t worry) goes like this: On Wednesday, Sept. 17^th at approximately 2:07 p.m. I received an email from one Maxwell Price. The email said this:

Hey Nathan,

My name is Max Price and I am the new editor of the culture/arts section of the Hoot. I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your insightful piece about the Hoffman autobiography and also to let you know that it will be published this week. See the attachment with a few small changes I made.

Also, if you’re interested in helping to carry on Hoffman’s tradition, come to Pom 502 at 11pm tonight for a meeting of P.O.Y.A. (Pissed off Youth of America), an organization I recently founded. For more info you can contact me or just show up tonight. Thanks!

-Max

Well, I didn’t go to his club. Not that I’m not a pissed off youth, which I am, though whether I am “of America” is debatable. But 11pm is past my bedtime, and besides, I try to avoid ever venturing into East Quad. I hear it has house centipedes, and those things are horrifying.

I think, though, that I may have made Max Price hate me. I did not mean to do this. From his email, he sounds like a very nice man. It’s bubbly and warm. Maybe he and I can still be friends someday. I hope so. If he gives me a hug and a high-five next time I see him, we’ll pretend nothing happened. And he and I can start a revolution together, or maybe go out for a sandwich.

Anyway, my point is this. Go and read the article. It can be found here.

Continue reading “I am Slightly Annoyed with The Hoot (But You Should Read It Anyway!)”

Rivka made a great point in the comments that I think everyone should read, so I hadher rpeost i tto the front page: –Sahar

As for whether or not the last Union was “progressive”… it feels really, really weird to apply that term to the Union/Brandeis Senators, but for lack of a better one, I understand it to mean the following:

A progressive Union is one that seeks to use what limited power they have to actively improve student life at Brandeis, with an emphasis on the institution’s historic commitment to social justice and an awareness that the school is part of the outside world.

Last year Phil and I sat and watched incredulously as several Senators spoke against and voted against a simple measure to inform the administration that the students of Brandeis would like to be more actively involved in important decisions (such as, but not limited to, the arming of the public safety officers) and feel that setting up an ad-hoc summer committee with two appointed students is not adequate involvement. 850 students signed their names to this resolution– almost exactly as many as voted in the last election. But the Senate voted it down. One Senator gave pedantic and condescending musings about the dangers of “too much democracy,” comparing the students telling the administration “gee, it would be nice if we had just a little more input” to the election of generals in Athenian democracy and the early Continental Army. (WTF?!?!) Another Senator told Phil and me that our collecting 850 student signatures voicing frustration over the administration’s procedures was “disgraceful” and that we should “just focus on our homework.” One Senator actually told us that he could not support the resolution because “what about all the students that DONT want their voices heard by the administration? What about THEM??” Finally, a Senator informed us that passing a polite, toothless resolution that expressed a student desire for more comprehensive student input in certain decisions was simply beyond the power of the Union.

…As I already mentioned, I know the use of the term “progressive” to describe the Union/Brandeis Senators is loaded and awkward. But I think that the incident described above shows that whatever the Union was… it was absolutely ridiculous and embarrassing.

I look forward this year to a Union full of Senators that dont use their positions as personal ego-boosters but who understand that they DO have some power– and they use that power to improve Student life at Brandeis and to preserve Brandeis’ reputation for a commitment to social justice both on campus and in the world.

Have you ever wanted your club to get more help putting on bigger and better events? Have you always wanted to find different groups to partner with, but didn’t know where to start?

The CCB will provide a forum for club leaders to more easily co-sponsor and program joint-events. By promoting cooperation between clubs on an equal basis — especially clubs that don’t traditionally work together — we can all create programming that is more creative and larger in scale.

For the CCB to succeed, we need your help in finalizing its organization.

If you’re interested in learning more, have suggestions, or just want to participate, please come to the first meeting on Thursday, September 25th at 5PM in the Student Union Office on the third floor of the Shapiro Campus Center.

At this meeting, we will work together to create a structure and organization for the CCB to succeed.

If you have any questions, please contact Alex Braver at alexb@ or Ryan McElhaney at ryanm@

Sounds like a good idea for a thing to do…

For those of you who are club leaders, you are probably well aware that this semester the Finance Board decided that they would not be paying for Coffeehouse fees at Chums. For those unaware, now you know.

To host a coffeehouse at Chums, an independent student run business, clubs and outside groups are required to pay Chums $50 to use the space. In this last semester, FBoard was willing to pay this price so that clubs could hold these events that promote their club and their activities. This semester FBoard is demanding that clubs find an alternative source of funding. One option is to collect money at the door; though Chums prohibits clubs from charging money for entry, clubs are allowed to ask for ‘suggested donations.’ In my previous experience with this method, the money collected via donations is far less than the money needed to pay the $50 fee.

Continue reading “The Coffeehouse Problem”

In stream-of-consciousness form.

Wow, what an increase in turnout. About 600 people voted in the primary round; 913 voted in the final round. That’s about a 52% increase in turnout to about 30% (assuming we have 3200 undergrad students).

Is 30% turnout something to celebrate? Well, the last “all-campus” election (Senator at Large) had a turnout of 895 students, which is pretty comparable to the 913 that voted this time.

How Adam did it – an army of volunteers who had polling stations in Usdan and Sherman at all times, as well as those who canvassed almost every dorm on campus. He also had us rooting for him too. Hopefully that meant something.

Well well now. So I ended up endorsing the current Student Union President, Vice President, and Three Senators, one of whom is the head of the Social Justice commitee, and one of whom co-founded Innermost Parts. Hell, the new VP is practically the second-in-command here on the blog as well. So – we’ve got good people in the right places. There’s no reason not to expect great things from them. Time to shift from a tone of “the nebulous student union should do this” to “dude I have a great idea let’s run with it!”

So yeah. Time to start laying out even more positive agenda items, etc. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t call out the Student Union if they act badly, however.

The runoff came down to two candidates, both running on activist platforms. I think this reflects a real desire from the students at Brandeis to bring back the “social justice spirit”, to rise over the balkanization of clubs and have a more unified campus. In other words, we students really take this whole “Brandeis Values” thing seriously. We all try to realize that through the lens of different clubs – DFA, SEA, SPA, etc. I think there’s a hunger for a more over-arching sense of campus solidarity.

I’m really impressed by Adam and his rapid ascent. Word up.

OK then. Now what mandate does the new VP have, based on the issues he ran on?
Continue reading “Post-Election Thoughts”

It’s a great day for the Progressive Party (if you can call it that).  Adam Hughes will be in charge of setting the tone and moderating the debate in the Senate, which is great.  We’ll also have him to participate and report on executive board happenings.  Personally, there are two operational reforms I think the Senate needs.  First, in debate there should not be any “neutral” speakers allowed.  In my time testifying before the Senate, I witnessed a number of senators take unfair advantage of the rule that speakers for, neutral, and against all receive equal speaking time in turn.  Senators against a proposal in principle spoke as “neutral” and used negative language to destroy the proposal in question.   Secondly, there should not be closed-doors executive board meetings.   Of all the Student Union meetings held, the ones with only the executive board are often the most important, and the student body needs to be informed of their discussion.

By my count, the Progressive Party holds five of the nine Senate seats currently occupied.  We have Noam as Senator-at-Large, Paul as Senator for the Class of 2010, Alex and Lev for the Class of 2011, and Kamerin for Racial Minority Students.  Add Adam to that and I’d say we’re doing pretty well!  Also, I can’t go without mentioning Jason Gray.  He’s with the progressive agenda, but unlike some of our other candidates who unfortunately caused greater divides in their campaigns, Jason is a real consensus President.

A good Progressive is always looking ahead.  Even though we can celebrate Adam’s victory tonight, we must remember that the regularly-scheduled fall elections are still to come, and that those seats will determine control of the Senate.

Adam wins!

update:
Rank    Candidate              Votes    %
1          Adam T. Hughes   524       57.39
2          Andrew Brooks      360       39.43
3          ABSTAIN                29         3.18

As the title says, there’s less than one hour left to vote in the Student Union Vice President Special Election.

I have to admit, I was skeptical at first of Adam’s run for VP.  I suppose I didn’t really know him that well.  All I knew was that he was Sahar’s friend and he was a big blog junkie.  Lately I’ve come to know Adam in a much different light.  When speaking with him in person, I notice his strong eagerness to serve the student body and continue where the great Mike Kerns left off.   He really cares about making Brandeis a more progressive place.  He’s got the right positions on the top issues: campus sustainability, gun control, and equal housing.   The Vice President of the Union (quite literally) sets the debate by governing parliamentary procedure during Senate meetings.   From what I’ve learned about Adam, he knows in which direction he wants to take this University.   Adam Hughes is the progressive choice.  Adam Hughes is my choice for Student Union Vice President.

You may recall that last year there was considerable talk about a bicycle program for Brandeis students. We would all pay a small fee, and would then get access to bikes, so that we could ride all over town and annoy the Waltham traffic. So what happened? As far as I can tell, there isn’t any bike program. If there was, I’d be riding one right now, instead of sitting on my fat lazy ass in front of the computer.

Maybe this thing was never proposed. Maybe I’m imagining it. But I’m fairly sure it was promised, and yet seems to have somehow sunk to the bottom of the sea. I think it might have been the baby of Michael Kerns, actually, which may be why it never came to fruition. Seems like nothing ever gets done around here without Kerns.

Whatever the explanation, there is no reason why this great program shouldn’t go forward. Hell, this thing has been talked about for years. An editorial in The Hoot back in 2005 proposed turning us all into bike-riding communists:
Continue reading “Bicycles, perhaps?”

Nathan is a new writer for us. Please welcome him to the blog. -Sahar

      Last year, each morning I went up to the Information Booth in the Shapiro Campus Center and obtained a crisp copy of the day’s New York Times. These were free, as part of some sort of program-thingy that Brandeis runs to give newspapers to the masses. They also gave out The Boston Globe and The Financial Times. Nobody wanted those, though, because the Globe is a watery version of the NY Times, and the Financial Times is printed on paper the color of salmon, and salmon is no color for a newspaper. Fish and news should be kept in separate spheres.

      Anyway, this year, the papers are gone. Disappeared! No longer is there a fresh stack of papers lurking in the info-booth. We used to have a sort of secret little club for those who knew how to properly sidle up to the booth, give a knowing look, and flash their ID. That has vanished without notice. The little info-people in the red shirts have all offered me contradictory and unsatisfactory explanations for this mystery.

       “Where have the papers gone?” I ask them. Many do not know. Others offer lies and conjecture.

      “They will be here when the time is right,” one tells me. “They have gone,” another says. Others tell me the Times will return within the week, though some say it could take a matter of months. None have a reason for the phenomenon.

      Meanwhile, I am news-less. My morning coffee-and-paper routine has been halfway destroyed. I am forced to get my news from those damned wretched untrustworthy “blog” things, or from empty-headed cable-news people. I have to substitute Wolf Blitzer for Bob Herbert (and despite having the coolest name on the entire planet, Wolf Blitzer is supremely useless as a source of information).

      So my question for Brandeis is this: WTF? Where did the papers go? Why can’t I grab a Times in the morning? How are we supposed to keep ourselves informed on The Issues Of The Day? By reading The Hoot? Surely not! Perhaps Innermost Parts can equip us with our basic knowledge, but surely the New York Times is a good way to supplement the wisdom of Sahar and the gang.

If you read Innermost Parts, you already know that voting between Adam Hughes and Andrew Brooks for Student Union veep runs from now until 11:59 tonight. Vote now, if you haven’t already.

Checked that box? Submitted your vote? Great. Now spread the word. Though I unabashedly support Adam Hughes as much as the next writer here at Innermost Parts, I don’t care whether you support him or Andrew Brooks: guilt your friends. Notify your hall mates. Yell things at strangers. Go dorm storming if you can spare half an hour.

If you’re not good at guilting or yelling, then just bring it up in casual conversation. A lot of people on campus feel they had little time to choose between candidates they know close to nothing about. A lot of people today might forget about the final runoff. Gently remind those people that they have the opportunity to influence decision-making on campus in a matter of minutes. Tell them what you think of Brooks and Hughes, and point them in the right direction.

608 people voting is a lot, but we can get more. 195 people voting for Adam Hughes isn’t enough, but we should get more. Spread the word this very instant.

This is a bit off our normal beat, but worth marveling at.

With the DOW off over 500 points yesterday, Lehman in bankruptcy, the Fed rescuing A.I.G. tonight, the viability of WaMu and others institutions in doubt, Fannie and Freddie placed in conservatorship, a major money market fund halting redemptions, it might seem like the credit crisis is spiraling out of control.

And there are definitely more problems to come.

So it seems that we just nationalized ourselves some banks by accident. Socialism!

First impression – so the US Government now owns a big chunk of the financial industry, eh? This can only increase the power Chris Dodd. All glory to the Dodd!

Seriously, though. Can anyone more informed than me help explain? This would be a good time for, say, a Brandeis Econ Professor to drop by and teach us what the hell is going on.

This is exciting. Remember when Etta King sent out an email telling everyone about her efforts to create a physical location for the Activist Resource Center?

Remember this?

I have proposed to Jason Gray (Student Union President) the establishment of a physical space tentatively called the Activist Resource Center to serve and support the activist community.

If you are interested in discussing this possibility, if you want to have a say in what a place such as the one proposed would look like or do, OR if you think this is an unecessary effort and would like to discuss why, you are invited to a meeting with Jason and I and anyone else who shows up to begin this process. I have been in countless conversations over the last few years about how to better support the activist community, and I think this is a very possible solution towards building better connections between our groups

It’s going down today.
7pm. Shapiro. Union Office.

(You’d have known this already, by the way, by seeing this event on the “Upcoming Events” widget located on the sidebar to the right of this post)

This is it. The final push. Don’t forget to vote. For Adam..

It’s a runoff. Hughes vs Brooks.

update- The numbers:

1 Andrew Brooks 266 43.75
2 Adam T. Hughes 195 32.07
3 Gustavo Pardo 85 13.98
4 Christina Khemraj 37 6.09
5 ABSTAIN 14 2.30
6 Anthony Rios 2 0.33
6 Alex Trott 2 0.33
8 Nate Porteshawver 1 0.16
8 Frank The Tank 1 0.16
8 Jordan Suchow 1 0.16
8 Roy Rotstein 1 0.16
8 Jordan Rothman 1 0.16
8 William Sipzner 1 0.16
8 Alex Braver 1 0.16
15 Alexander Reed Braver 0 0.00
15 Suahd Iddrissu 0 0.00
15 Chaely T. Marrow 0 0.00

According to my back-of-envelope calculations, Adam needs about 4/5 of the Gustavo/Khemraj vote to win, assuming that all who abstained in the first round continue to do so and everyone else votes the same way as they did before (either for Hughes or Brooks or not voting at all).
Winning 80% of those votes is a pretty tall order.

Mike Kerns, outgoing VP of the Brandeis University Student Union, just made a powerful endorsement of Adam Hughes for the same position. Read it for yourself:

VOTE ADAM!...

I wholeheartedly endorse Adam Hughes to succeed me as Vice President. He is a candidate who can truly represent the ‘deis student body and help to guide our Student Union in progressive, truly constructive directions. I have come to know Adam as a selfless individual who has within him all that a true leader requires. While we often find the work of the Student Union to be distant from us, there are a great many impactful issues that need be addressed, and we need Adam to stand for student rights, we need Adam to stand up to the administration when students are barred from campus unduly with their academic careers on the line…we need Adam. There is no question in my mind that he is up to the job, and I respectfully urge you to VOTE NOW (http://union.brandeis.edu/elections/FA08-3/vp#) for Adam. He is simply the candidate I trust to carry on as guardian of our values, our interests, and our community’s priorities as Brandeis’ next Student Union Vice President!

If you’re looking for the candidate whose platform represents who he truly is and what he truly stands for, Adam Hughes is your only choice. He is the activist who actually does more than pay lip service to our community’s concerns at election time. He portrays himself as the individual he actually is as opposed to the candidate painting himself over and pandering at election time. Adam is the candidate who has actually worked hard on the issues touted now by his primary opponent at election time.

I know because I pioneered many of these issues through the Union last year, including gender-neutral housing, tolerance for individual identity, an environmentally friendly campus-wide initiative, a resolution calling for endowment transparency, etc. And I have experienced our candidates in action. Adam is the one for us.

Respectfully, there is a reason Andrew Brooks was voted out of his senate seat last spring, and there is a reason he was so unsuccessful in his previous bid for VP.

That’s how it’s done y’all.

One and a half hours left before the polls close.

All night I’ve been trying to go to http://union.brandeis.edu/elections and vote for Adam Hughes.

All night the server has been crashed. It’s 2:30 at the time of this writing and things don’t seem to have gotten better. Last year we also had problems on election night. Let’s hope that the results will be announced sooner this semester, at least.

As for the mysterious Justin Sulsky email – he pulled the same sort of thing last election. I don’t know where Justin gets access to all students’ emails so quickly. I doubt he painstakingly copied them out from the brandeis people directory. Shady.

Anyways, there are problems with the election website, we here at IP have endorsed a scrappy candidate who happens to be running in the same race as Andrew Brooks, while Justin Sulsky has access to everyone’s email address. It’s April 2008 all over again!

Very rarely am I ever as upset as I presently am. Just a few minutes ago, I received an introductory e-mail from Senator-At-Large Justin Sulsky. This e-mail was written to all the first-years on campus. After giving a two sentence introduction providing the reader with minimal information, he segways into reminding all first years to vote in the Vice Presidential election. Directly following the link to vote, Sulsky moves into a full endorsement – with bolded text! – of Andrew Brooks.

Anyone with common sense can see that this endorsement was intended to abuse the naivete of first years who are less than familiar with Brooks’ schemes for Senate seats. My favorite line of all:

I support Andrew because he will bring a badly needed fresh perspective to the Student Union.

Apart from being utterly false, the above quote has poor sentence structure. Go below the fold for the entire contents of the e-mail.

Continue reading “Another Senate Seat Scheme”

Half an hour before the primary election, and possibly swayed by my ringing endorsement, Mike Kerns has announced his endorsement of Adam Hughes for Student Union Vice President.

More info as this situation develops…

There’s been a lively debate in the comments over the upcoming Vice-Presidential Special Election, but through the lens of analyzing one candidate, Andrew Brooks. This is the case for Adam Hughes, the insurgent candidate for the post (and a fellow here at IP).

What is the character of Brandeis? Is it found in our entreprenurial and innovative spirit? The way that we find people different than us kickass? (We reserve our tolerance for people like Jordan Rothman.) Is it our crusading spirit to heal the world?

Only one man in the running represents all these facets of our beloved school. Only one man can truly represent all these underlying ideals of this community. That man is Adam Hughes.

Continue reading “The Case for Adam Hughes”

Please welcome Emily, another new writer of ours

EDIT: Please read the recent Justice article on this event, which I found very enlightening, particularly the sophomore that was interviewed who was profoundly personally affected by the September 11th attacks. There is a particular reason for my- and other attendees at this discussion- ignorance to his experience, and I wish he was available to speak earlier in the discussion. I find that this new piece of information, along with my own shift of opinion, gives the forum ground to speak of a tragedy as a tragedy, and not a means for analysis and social productivity. However, I am greatly disappointed that there wasn’t, to my knowledge, any other forum on those latter issues that Thursday, and my argument still stands… just not for this particular forum. Thanks again to McElhaney, Grey, and Father Cuenin; new thanks to Michelle Liberman of the Justice.

Student Union President Jason Grey and Director of Community Development Ryan McElhaney held a sparsely attended open commemorative forum for 9/11 Thursday in order to “commemorate, reflect, and remember the lives lost” seven years ago in New York City. Grey and McElhaney invited Father Walter Cuenin, Catholic chaplain at Brandeis, to moderate the discussion. We attendees sat in a small circle of chairs in the Shapiro art gallery, and many of those chairs were empty. Out of the seventeen people who were there at some point or another, four of us were press.

The lonely space and prolonged silences caused the forum to spend a good deal of time on its own importance. That people should be there. That 9/11 was significant. We talked about the way the attacks changed our perception of the world and the United States’ place in it. We talked about the emotional impact the sudden loss of life can have. We talked about how the attacks brought people together and wondered why the public had decided to stop remembering this year.

My thoughts after the cut. Continue reading “Largely Unattended 9/11 Forum Stifled Productive Discussion”

As a new writer to Innermost Parts and a new student to the Brandeis campus, I see the value in reading through previous posts published on this blog. Granted, I only grasp a quick glimpse into the many dilemmas of the previous year, there is still so much perspective and insight from my fellow writers that I greatly value.

Take a look at the April 18th, 2008 post by Lev. My favorite quote of all:

We need to ensure that candidates who want to take action and transcend petty politics fill these seats.

In my case, I demand a candidate to take action, not just “want to take action.” I demand an activist, not someone who wishes to bring back “an activist spirit.” I demand passion, not politics. I am forced to question the validity of a man’s words when this man disregarded activism in one election and then made it one of his main platform components in another.

I am clearly a Brooks skepticist. But then again, who am I to question the motives of this man?

I am a voter, and that’s my responsibility.