Month: March 2009

Vaginas, Maple Magic and Climate Wars

One stop shopping for Brandeis activist related events  for the rest of the week:

Thursday:

“Climate Wars,” a lecture presented by Prof. Harald Welzer – from 12-2pm in the Faculty Lounge

Lunchtime Immigration Seminar – 12:15-1:45, Heller Rm. 163

International Women’s Day Celebration at Brandeis – 5:30-6:30pm in Rapaporte

Monsters, Messiahs, or Something Else? Representations of Mixed-Race in Science Fiction Movies – 7-8pm in Schwartz

Moolade, a movie showing on Female Genital Mutilation – 7-9pm in Shiffman 219

He Said, She Said: A Discussion of Gender Relations between Men and Women of Color – 8-9pm in ICC

Weekly meetings of Student Peace Alliance, Students for a Democratic Society, Trisk, Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, and Radical Film Night.

Friday:

Vigil for Peace – Noon

Ethical Eating Night – 8-9pm in Lurias

Vagina Monologues – 8pm in Shapiro Theater

Saturday:

Maple Magic Day!!! – Learn to make maple syrup 8:30am-3pm in Natick

Vagina Monologues – 2pm and 8pm in Shapiro Theater

For more information about all events see the Brandeis Activist Calendar to your right. To have your event posted, email events@innermostparts.org.

Party in Pittsburgh – Let’s all go to NN this summer

There’s one progressive conference that we all have to go to this year: Netroots Nation.

One badass conference/party
One badass conference/party

Netroots Nation is a four-day conference for progressive activists, with a focus on the internet side of things. Tons of speakss, workshops, etc. So many cool people to meet. Such good parties at night.

It cost me about 500 dollars to go last year and it was so worth it.

This year we can all get in for fifty.

That’s right. Fifty dollars for a student registration. And if we register as a group, we get additional discounts.

August 13-16, in Pittsburgh. You in? Leave a comment or email me at

Netroots Nation 2009

The fourth annual gathering of the Netroots (formerly known as the YearlyKos Convention) will be held August 13-16 at the David L. Lawrence convention center in Pittsburgh, PA. Netroots Nation 2009 will include panels led by national and international experts; identity, issue and regional caucuses; prominent political, issue and policy-oriented speakers; a progressive film screening series; and the most concentrated gathering of progressive bloggers to date.

Students! We want you at Netroots Nation 2009

Time magazine calls 2008 “the year of the youth vote.” At Netroots Nation, we hope to make every year about successful youth organizing.

Because we aim to continually bring new voices into the progressive movement, for the first time ever, we are offering a special student rate for those enrolled at least half-time at a high school, community college, trade school or university.

For just $50, you can participate in four days of insightful panels, training sessions and networking opportunities at the grassroots event of the year–the annual Netroots Nation convention to be held in Pittsburgh August 13–16.

Radical exhibit, man.

From the archives:

Radical!

Materials Drawn from the Hall-Hoag Collection of Extremist Literature in the United States

Come take a look at newspapers, pamphlets, fliers, and broadsides from
some of the most divisive right- and left-wing organizations from the
postwar period. The approximately 5,000 publications in the Hall-Hoag
collection range from the late 1940s through 1983, and they represent an
effort to document the wide spectrum of political and religious dissent
literature from the post–World War II period through the Reagan Era.
Collected by Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag, this invaluable collection
includes subjects such as the Black Panther Party, the American Nazi
Party, the Weathermen, Three Mile Island, McCarthyism, and the Equal
Rights Amendment.

Drop in between 11:00 and 1:30 on March 5 and see the one-day exhibit,
curated by Katie Hargrave, graduate student in Cultural Production.

*Radical! Materials Drawn from the Hall-Hoag Collection of Extremist
Literature in the United States*
An LTS Show & Tell Event
Archives & Special Collections (Level 2 of Goldfarb Library)
Thursday, March 5th
Between 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
All are welcome!

“Clean Coal” info event – hosted by SEA

Tomorrow:

SEA is hosting a panel discussion about the pros and cons about the future of CLEAN COAL — a major energy buzzword this political season. Want to learn more about this hot topic? Then please come out to:

Clean Coal: Solution to the Energy Crisis?
Wednesday, March 5th, 5pm
Geller Conference Room, Upper Sherman

World coal consumption is about 6.2 billion tons annually. Ninety percent of America’s electricity comes from coal. “Clean coal” is on the tip of every politician’s tongues– does the answer to our climate change crisis lie in this new technology? What could make burning coal “clean,” and is this an appropriate solution?

Come hear and participate in a discussion between Michael Brune, Director of the Rainforest Action Network, and Adam Zemel, Analyst at the Breakthrough Institute (and Brandeis student) about the future of clean coal.

Need some context? Check out:
http://ran.org/issues/energy/
or http://thebreakthrough.org/blog/adam-zemel/

Hope to see you there!

Involve Alumni too!

I saw the headline of a Hoot editorial: “Once a Student, Always a Stakeholder”, and I was kinda excited.

It’s only an accident of history that I get to be on the Brandeis campus during this inflection point in its history. But will I be any less attached to Brandeis the day after graduation? Will I not still believe in its ideals, and push for the fulfillment of its potential? Then why should my voice count any less?

There is a shameful lack of Alumni participation in Brandeis affairs. Alumni were once students. Like it or not, they are tied once to Brandeis’ success or failure through their degrees, and many times over through the heart. Not all alumni feel way, of course, but many do. These people are Brandeis citizens as much as I am, and deserve to have the same power to influence decisions as I do.

Ideally, Alumni should have just as much access as students do. They should have seats on CARS subcommittees and be able to access forums and propose ideas to the Board of Trustees. I thought the Hoot editorial was responding to that situation. Instead they wrote some vague tract on how students should be more involved, etc. Which is correct, but something else entirely.

Today is your last day to nominate Wayne Marshall for a teaching award!

Per the campus-wide Student Union email:

“Today is your last chance to nominate a member of the Brandeis faculty for a Teaching Award! If you have a professor who you think deserves recognition for outstanding teaching, please send an e-mail with a paragraph describing why a professor deserves an award to ewong@brandeis.edu.

Nominations are due by the end of the day, Monday, March 2, 2009.”

Of course, you can nominate whoever you like, but may I suggest a particular Music and AAAS professor whose job might hang in the balance? I speak of course, of Wayne Marshall, who absolutely deserves a teaching award. A flood of nominations for him could also serve as an important reminder to Brandeis that he matters to our school. Please, take five minutes of your time and send an email to ewong@brandeis.edu.

Also, don’t forget to email savewayne@gmail.com to sign the Save Wayne petition.

Will changes to Mass Law save the Rose?

So the University is part of an effort to change Massachusetts Law so that it can draw more money out of its endowment. Currently the law doesn’t allow Brandeis (and other Universities) to draw the principal out of its endowment, only the interest. Brandeis is a young University, founded in 1948, so we have a lot of principal compared to interest, and are therefore badly hurt by the current law.

For a good primer and analysis of the current situation, check out Loki’s previous post on the subject or this Portfolio blog post.

Bernstein-Marcus (aka the Brandeis Administration) has presented the need to close the Rose as driven by Mass. Law that didn’t allow them to draw from the endowment. However, they’ve lately said that even if UPMIFA was passed (and they could draw from the principal of the endowment) they might still close the Rose.

In other words, Brandeis said that they were forced to close the Rose due to Mass Law, but refuses to say that they’ll save the Rose if that law were changed according to their needs.

Now that Brandeis is trying to change the law, Jehuda must put out a public statement saying that if the effort is successful, we’ll save the Rose. To do otherwise would be to say that a temporary dip in the endowment is worse than permanently closing an essential part of the Brandeis character.

From Peace-combatants in Israel to Activism in Thailand

A summary of events happening on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week:

Monday:

Israeli and Palestinian Combatants For Peace at Brandeis – 5:30pm in Shapiro Art Gallery

Weekly meeting of Students Organized Against Racism at 8pm in the ICC and FRESH Water Coalition at 9:30 in the library.

Tuesday:

A new event in the tradition of Tuesdays with Morrie, Tuesdays with Father Walter Cuenin, from 4-5pm in Shapiro Art Gallery.

The first in the Disabilities Series of March Events – a lecture by Valerie Leiter, Brandeis ’01 PhD, author of Youth with Disabilities Entering Adulthood, in Pollack Auditorium at 6:30pm

Weekly meetings of Sex and Sexualities Symposium, Brandeis Labor Coalition, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, Democracy for America, STAND.

Wednesday:

Celebrate first generation college students at I am the First, from 3:30-6pm in the International Lounge.

Community Activism in Thailand: Working with “Scavenger” Communities and the Urban Poor, in Rapaporte Treasure Hall from 4:30-6pm.

Activism and Community Organizing in the U.S. and in Thailand: An Open Exchange with Mr. Kovit Boonjear, in ICC at 8pm. There will be ice cream.

Positive Foundations Coffeehouse from 9-11pm in Chums.

Weekly meetings of AHORA!, Student Global AIDS Campaign, MLK and Friends, Students for Environmental Action and Students for a Democratic Society.

For more information about all events, refer to the Activist Calendar to your right. To have your social justice related event posted, email events@innermostparts.org.

Social Justice != internships

I’m reading an article in the Hoot about the proposed Justice Brandeis Semesters.

I really wish we knew more about them.

I’m also really confused by this quote:

Despite its monetary origins, Jaffe said that the JBS is not motivated solely by the university’s financial crisis.

“What this is doing is giving us the opportunity to make Brandeis stand out and expand upon things we are already doing, like experiential learning,” he said. “The JBS resonates with the basic themes of the university like social justice.”

What exactly does Brandeis forcing me to give up a semester of academics for a semester interning for some liberal group have to do with Social Justice? Now, I’ve been in talks with some of the ideas originators, and they do have some good ideas on how to make this work. However, I’m very worried by the proposal as currently proposed. It’s vague, it could turn out really horribly (why should I pay 20,000$ for a semester’s unpaid labor at the SEIU, however glorified?).

The Justice Brandeis Semester has other facets than internships, of course, but that’s how its been most strongly described to me, and how the Social Justice angle is going to be done.

I don’t think the faculty senate should vote on the JBS proposal right now. As currently formulated, they have a lot of potential, but currently don’t sound so hot to me. This definitely needs more discussion.

Kudos to the Justice

So did you catch the latest Justice? This issue is one of the good ones.

I particularly like the article “Semantics over substance: Shifting language confuses Rose decision” by Hannah Kirsch and Mike Prada.

But while the language of the initial decision may have changed, the University’s intentions have remained the same. The Rose will still transition from a public museum to a teaching space for the school, and the University will still sell the art if necessary in order to help alleviate its financial troubles. The confusion that has permeated the Rose situation lies in the University’s words, not its intended actions.

This is perhaps the strongest stand the Justice has taken in calling out Berstein-Marcus in my memory. The rest of the article mostly catalogs the contradictory public statements and the existence of public forums throughout the Rose art debacle.

This article also has a neat info-graphic:

Way to call it like you see it.
Way to call it like you see it.

The Justice also has an informative article on what the CARS committee is up to, as well as how the University is trying to change Massachussetts policy so that it can draw more money out of the endowment.