Month: March 2010

Last night I was feeling pretty frustrated. Weren’t you? I felt powerless to do anything about the Muslim Student Association vandalism, and I felt angry at newspapers irresponsibly playing up the whole “Brandeis is a university of the Jooz there must be religious strife on campus” thing.

That uncool move of vandalizing the MSA suite did not and does not reflect the values of the Brandeis community. I know it and you know it. Meanwhile I was still looking for a positive way to deal with the whole deal.

So last night I whipped up an open letter to the Muslim community from the rest of the Brandeis community:

We, the students, faculty, and staff of Brandeis University, love and support our dear Muslim friends and family.

We are deeply saddened by the recent vandalism of your student association suite and the theft of Imam Eid’s Koran.

This is unacceptable. We reject this hateful and juvenile act. It deserves to be roundly condemned and is an embarrassment to this community. We fully support and stand by you in this troubled time.

Know this – the vandalism does not reflect the sentiments of the Brandeis community or our values.

We students, faculty, staff all want you to know that you have our friendship and loyalty.

Do you agree? You can sign the open letter here.

I put up a facebook event advertising the open letter at around 2am last night. 8 hours later, there are 187 confirmed guests and 134 co-signers of the letter.

300 people is about 10% of the student body on campus. If we reach that amount I will personally print out the petition and hand deliver it to Imam Eid, as well as sending it to the Boston Globe.

This is the most positive way I can think of to deal with what’s going on. Sign here.

So the Activist Resource Center secretly rocks. At a training/meeting/retreat in DC through ARC, we listened to a speech by Angus(?) Johnson, a professor of student activism at CUNY. Apparently he’s really cool – at least his speech was.

He had this to say, and I found it really insightful: “When I tell people that I’m a researcher into student movements,” he said, “unfailingly the first question that comes out of their mouths is this: Why is there such a lack student activism today? Well, activism is all around you, but you just don’t recognize it. In 1967 there were very few womens resource centers, queer studies departments, or black student unions*. If you don’t think that there’s activism going on in your campus you’re not lookingin the right places”

That rings true, at Brandeis especially. The institutionalized (non-club) activism surrounds us – in various academic departments, in the ethics center, SSIS, farmers market, QRC, various organs of Hillel, admissions, and in other parts of “Official Brandeis”. I’m sure I’m missing some.

It’s nice to remember that sometimes.

* I might have misheard this last part. Maybe it was “black studies departments”

10 minutes ago the entire campus received this email:

All people of good will and conscience at Brandeis University – the President, the Interfaith Chaplaincy, students, faculty, staff, the Provost’s Steering Committee on Diversity, and the Division of Students and Enrollment – stand together in condemning the vandalism to the Muslim Prayer Space and Lounge.

We unite in solidarity with all our Muslim students and assure them that this kind of action will not be tolerated at Brandeis. Any act of vandalism, especially those that target a particular religious or cultural community, is deplorable. This is particularly true here at Brandeis where we place the utmost value on being a community of inclusion and religious pluralism.

This affront to our community will not disrupt or destroy the spirit of our University family. We join together to denounce the acts of the individual or individuals who are responsible.

The Chaplains, and other Brandeis staff, are available to any and all in need of counsel and comfort in this difficult time. The University is committed to the full investigation of this incident. Anyone with information relevant to the investigation is asked to contact Ed Callahan, Director of Public Safety at 781-736-4240.

This is a sad moment for our Brandeis family but we will emerge from this time with a renewed spirit of understanding and cooperation.

President Jehuda Reinharz
Rev. Walter Cuenin, Catholic Chaplain
Imam Talal Eid, Muslim Chaplain
Alexander Levering Kern, Protestant Chaplain
Rabbi Elyse Winick, Jewish Chaplain
Jamele Adams, Associate Dean of Student Life

Agreed. I’m glad they sent out this email, I think it strikes the right tone, and I look forward to seeing the steps the community can take together in the future.

Update: I got an email from Neda Eid right before this email was sent out. She was planning on organizing something on Friday, and this is what she said:

So I met with several people about initiating a form of response to the vandalism and i’ve decided to delay the protest this Friday and work with the Brandeis faculty, club leaders and their organizations, the chaplaincy, the dean of student life, the general student body, and outside MSAs to address the larger issue of hate on university campuses and the need to actively respond. Considering that the administration hasn’t yet officially spoken about the MSA vandalism, i feel it’s important to give the campus time to react and through inclusive organizing, properly respond.

Thanks Sahar for covering the incident and i’ll keep you updated on the efforts.

Hello folks, new blogger here. My name’s Hyder, class of 2012. I’m planning on majoring in bio and IMES, and I’m also interested in politics, activism, Islam in the modern world, South Asia, the list goes on.

I’m a member of the MSA. I first heard about this incident late last week, I think after Friday prayers. As I was sitting in the MSA lounge, talking to people after lunch, I couldn’t bring myself to feel terribly angry or hurt. Because when I had heard “vandalism,” I thought things had been broken, tables upturned, the room terribly defaced, blood on the walls, apocalyptic quotes, broken windows, the whole nine yards; instead we got damage to a wall, unplugged lamps, bent cooking utensils, and a stolen copy of the Qur’an. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that’s okay either, that it should be fine for people to walk into a place for Muslim gathering and worship and do whatever childish immature things strike their fancy. And I’m really glad to see the kind of reaction people have had, because  I’ve seen nothing but support for the Muslims on campus and outrage that something like this could happen at Brandeis.

But I don’t think we can label this a hate crime quite yet. As far as I know, no one knows who did this, or why, or when, or what happened afterwards. Sahar put it well, saying  “stealing (and presumably desecrating) a Koran is a big deal” – because it is –  except I’m not sure we can presume desecration right off the bat. That copy has yet to be found, and may well be returned – who knows? This isn’t like finding a noose hanging in a library, this is more like teenagers TPing a house ’cause they’re bored and want to raise a ruckus.

In the Justice article, Neda was quoted as saying “”No matter what the suspected motivations are, I believe this vandalism should be treated like a hate crime by the Brandeis community and Police department.” I completely disagree. I think this should be treated as immature, juvenile, disrespectful, outrageous…the list goes on, because this incident is all those things (and more) to very many people aside from the Muslims on campus. And if it ends up being something malicious and intolerant and hurtful, I’ll be the first to shout for swift justice and strong action. But before we can assume “hatred” of the Muslim presence at Brandeis, we should have clear proof that it exists; labeling it a “hate crime” when we have so little information is jumping to a conclusion that may not be useful or true, but may end up unnecessarily staining the Brandeis campus and community.

What if someone broke into Berlin chapel and stole (and presumably slashed or burned up) the Torahs there. What do you think would happen? A fucking uproar, that’s what would happen.

Well, someone broke into the Muslim Student Association Lounge last Friday, hacked at the wall, and then stole a Koran. That’s a hate crime. There has been a hate crime on campus. Stealing (and presumably desecrating) a Koran is a big deal.

Where is the uproar? When a noose was found hanging in the UC San Diego library less than a month ago, there were protests and sit ins and sympathy strikes at other colleges. Here – what? There should be some big anti-bigot rally, or a big gathering in support of the islamic students on campus, or something. What are we going to do about all this? Is anything planned?

Update – I hear that there are early plans for some sort of solidarity meeting on Friday. I’m told: “Stay tuned”

Liquid Latex is happening this Thursday, 8pm, in Levin. It is really cool!

Brandeis students will be painted in latex paint, and then dance or parade on stage. The surface point is that the paint looks really cool. The real point that is matters is this: Liquid Latex is a demonstration for real Brandeis School Spirit.

Sometimes, especially in discussions in a union or administrative setting, people will say something to me like “we need sports because Brandeis needs school spirit”. Now, the problems with the idea of sports as a cure for all our ills aside, this statements really rubs me raw.

Brandeis has tons of school spirit! We love our school, and we affirm each other and valuethe community we’re creating – we just always show it by cheering on our (atmiddtedly impressive) basketball team.

Did you go to Musica Rox last weekend? There were hundreds of students, cheering on and affirming their friends on stage. Before each performance, a student would get up and introduce the next act, and then you’d hear things like “wooo kaamilah” and “we love you guys” as teh performers got ready.I felt like i was in high school again, where everyone knew everyone else and the bond of community was strong.

That’s school spirit!

Liquid Latex, the Vagina Monologues, MELA – these too are ways in which you can see a real face of our unique and strong Brandeis Spirit. It’s there – some people only think to look for it in the narrow confines of Gosman.

You know, I miss sophomore year. I miss Castle explorations, crazy mustache parties, hanging out in the Sky Dungeon and on the Roof. I miss bonfires in the woods and the lucky accident that gave me two beds in my dorm.

Dear Brandeis Diaspora, Juniors abroad across the world – I miss you!

I miss my freshman year. The excitement. I was in college, wow! I miss tea parties in my room, the people down the hall playing Rock Band, the fierce ambition I had when I joined clubs and created Innermost Parts. I miss the feeling that I had this whole vista of opportunity.

I am pretty sure I’ll miss my Junior year, too. And my senior year as well. In a year from now, will I have nostalgia for the mundanities of right now, nostalgia for furious typing on my netbook and an open window overlooking Ziv Quad?

Why not take that nostalgia I’ll have a year from now and shift it towards the present – a pre-nostalgia? Today, walking up the stairs to my dorm, I had this thought (not as fully formed, of course), and thought “will I miss these stairs? Better enjoy them now!

Ever since then, I’ve tried to look at life a different way. It’s hard to explain how. The made-up word “prenostalgia” comes closest. I know that I’ll be nostalgic for this moment in the future, so I appreciate it even more right now!

Perhaps this is the essence of how all life should be approached, or something unique to college, or maybe I’m just happy because it’s a beautiful day out. Still, I wanted to share.

Dear person or persons unknown who vandalized the Muslim Student Association Lounge:

Fuck you, you bastard.

one third of the homeless men in this country are veterans/ and we have the nerve to Support Our Troops/ with pretty yellow ribbons/ while giving nothing but dirty looks to their outstretched hands… no senators’ sons are being sent out to slaughter/ no presidents’ daughters are licking ashes from their lips… our eyes are closed, america/ there are souls in the boots of soldiers, america/ fuck your yellow ribbon/ you wanna support our troops/ bring them home/ and hold them tight when they get here. -Andrea Gibson

Andrea Gibson’s visit on Friday and VOCAL the Friday before, reminds one, as it reminded Oveous Maximus, that “the power of words is still very much alive.”

The way artful words can inspire the activist out of me is something that I can never quite explain, but always bear witness to. On stage, these poets weren’t being ‘balanced,’ ‘objective,’ or ‘politically correct,’ yet their honesty was enlightening in a way that lectures from important historians can’t quite achieve. The audience was testament to this: their applause and enthusiasm at lighthearted wordplay, their complete silence at heartbreaking revelations, and the sincerity with which they listened. Not everyone agreed with some  of their sentiments, but the earnestness with which they performed resonated with everyone.

It’s easy for activists to get discouraged when they delve into the intricacies of actually creating the change they aspire to create. They run into logistical, political and financial problems.  Clubs with enthusiastic and sincere mission statements end up being swallowed by procedural crap like filling out grant applications, finding enough people to help out, advertising everywhere in order to make the cause/event known and other stuff like that. While those types of things are certainly means to an end, they can be obnoxious and unnecessary obstacles to your awesome activisty envisioned hopes and dreams.

When that happens, watch some spoken word. Getcho powa back on.

A big thank you to VOCAL, Rachel McKibbens, Anis Mojgani, Phil Kaye, Oveous Maximus, Simone Beaubien (Brandeis alum!) , Regie Cabico as well as Jason, Usman, Jordan, Kass and Rachel for sharing such power with our campus.

Marty Krauss, the Provost, just sent out an email detailing her response to the Brandeis 2020 committee’s recommendations. In short: she’s approved all of them (with a minor change regarding anthropology).

You can read her response here.

You can read the original report here.

More analysis later (when I get out of class etc :-P)

After months of meeting behind closed doors, the Constitutional Review Committee has released its final report.

In a previous post, I discussed how critical it was to change the Union to make it a less self-important body. While the changes recommended the Constitutional Review Committee fall short of where I’d like – they certainly do take some interesting and important steps forward.

Some highlights:

Continue reading “Constitutional Review Committee Releases Final Report”