Organizing at Brandeis University
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”
“It’s hard to talk about history, when you’re in it…”
This was easily one of the most profound messages I took away from a recent talk by Angus Johnston, a professor at CUNY and historian of student activism. Speaking to an audience of student organizers from across the US this past Saturday, Johnston explained that the history of student movements that he studies is being written constantly, every day, with the incredible work of youth activists all over the US and all over the world. He sees the movement with the birds-eye view of both a former student organizer and current author of the blog studentactivism.net.
Tomorrow is March 4th. And history is being written.
March 4th has been designated a National Day of Action to Defend Education by student and worker organizations in California and other states. Well over 100 different actions are planned across the country in over 32 states, raising awareness and acting to defend the interests of workers and students from increasing privatization of education and rising tuition.
Continue reading “March 4th”
A collaborative effort of Brandeis clubs including Democracy for America, the College Democrats, the Activist Resource Center, and Gen Ed Now has successfully secured a deal to bring Howard Dean to campus. He will speak on April 15 at 8pm in Levin Ballroom. The event will be open to the Brandeis community.
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.
There’s a cool bit of Brandeis lore I want to share with you. Apologies if you already heard it before.
So, the housing lottery is kinda strange. It’s hard to know who has a good number, what sort of housing your number might net you, to look for others with good numbers you might want to be really nice to very quickly, etc.
Luckily, some students took some initiative a few years ago and set up The Brandeis University Unofficial Housing Registry. .
It’s really simple. You enter your name, number, year, and thoughts on housing. This information becomes public, and you can browse others’ numbers, etc.
It’s also kinda useful, and more useful the more people use it. So give it a try.
Just in case you guys ignore most of the e-mails you get from the Student Union and Provost, here’s a link to the short, 8-page report made by the Brandeis 2020 Curricular and Academic Restructuring Steering (CARS) Committee: http://www.brandeis.edu/provost/adhoc/Brandeis2020_rpt_22Feb2010.pdf
Oh, and the even more succinct summary: http://www.brandeis.edu/now/2010/february/2020report.html
To oversimplify, the report was designed to suggest feasible changes Brandeis could implement over the next decade in order to save money. Many of the 18 suggestions proposed involve immediately, or within the next year, terminating masters and PhD programs. Also, a large portion of money would come from limiting arts programs, particularly the MFA program in theater design, and greatly reducing the Brandeis Theater Company’s budget.
Another point of interest is the proposal that the Hebrew Language and Literature major should no longer be offered, nor the undergraduate minor in Yiddish and East European Jewish Culture. Might this speak to the new direction the University is taking, in terms of our Jewish scholarship?
Budget cuts have to be made, but of course any of us who came to this school hoping to pursure a specific degree are going to be upset to see our department, major, or even passion cut down. I’m not sure yet what I think of the report, what do you all think?
Pres. Reinharz has office hours only about once every month. Today at 9:18am I got an email saying that his office hours which were to be held from 11am-12:30pm were to be canceled “due to unforeseen circumstances”.
Anyway, today is also the day that the University is to release the recommendations of the Brandeis 2020/ CARS II Committee to the student body. While, it’s definitely possible that there are “unforeseen circumstances” that make such a rare date with Jehuda impossible to hold, it simply seems too fortuitous to be simply coincidental. It saddens me that one of the few channels for student access to the administration (and thus access to the decision-makers who affect our lives) was canceled without substantive explanation, particularly on such an important date in a time of crises and distrust.
In a stunning show of support, students overwhelmingly voted for for former- (and now, future-) Union Secretary, Diana Aronin. Diana was impeached by the Senate (and the Judiciary unanimously voted to approve) for some bullshit. The Union Senate (as well as perhaps the Union Judiciary) have just been handed a giant slap in the face by a vote organized by a facebook group called “Vote Diana Aronin and say Screw the Student Union.” She received over 75% of the vote.
Honestly, a week ago I didn’t even consider the possibility of a write-in campaign for Diana – but what brilliance it was! For better or worse, the most visible face of the Student Union is the Senate. Now the Senate is basically a body charged with chartering clubs – but they manage to spend 2-5 hours every week arguing about it. And the excesses of the Senate poison the stature of the rest of the Union – you know, the part that actually gets shit done.
Lev really said it better than I ever could. There is no way you could interpret today’s vote as anything other than a giant “Fuck You” to the Senate, the Union Judiciary, and possibly the rest of the Union Government.
Imagine all those people who played a part in kicking Diana out of office. How will they deal with her in the future? Will they avoid eye contact, and mutter something apologetic as they scurry past? Perhaps they will have no shame. Perhaps they will not change their pattern of behavior, even though the student body, in no uncertain terms, told the Senate and Judiciary that this whole impeachment fuckpile was bullshit?
And now, the results:
Continue reading “WRITE DIANA ARONIN AND SAY SCREW THE STUDENT UNION”
No, really, fuck the Student Union. In this post, I will thoroughly bash the Student Union. I’ll offer my insight as a former Union insider and then conclude with some ideas on how to make it better. This will be a long post, but the jist of it can be summarized in the title. For those who don’t know my experience with the Union, I spent a year in the Senate and another semester (last semester in fact) on the Executive Board.
For those who have not yet seen the news, the results are in from the special election. We’re headed for a run-off election for Secretary… and Diana Aronin is by far the favorite to win. That’s right, in a giant “Screw You” to the Student Union – as the Facebook group dedicated to her write-in campaign proclaims – students overwhelming support reinstating the impeached Secretary.
Here are the results from yesterday’s secretary election:
Candidates,
Below are the election results for the primary round in the Secretary election:
As at Poll close: Wednesday 10 February 2010 00:44 EST
Number of voters: 499 · Group size: 3390 · Percentage voted: 14.72
Ranked by votesRank Candidate Votes %
1 Diana Aronin 220 44.08
2 Abraham J. Wachter 117 23.45
3 Jourdan I. Cohen 82 16.43
4 Michael Margolis 37 7.41
5 Abstain 28 5.61
6 Andrea Fineman 10 2.00
9 Jason Gray 1 0.20
9 Catherine McConnell 1 0.20
9 Patrick Bateman 1 0.20
9 Lara Hirschler 1 0.20
9 Edward L. Langer 1 0.20There will be a final round this Thursday starting at 12:01 AM between Diana Aronin and Abraham Wachter.
Thanks,
Elections Commission
As a member of the elections commission, I will refrain from any commentary, but feel free to add your thoughts in the comments.
As a first-year in the class of 2013, I’m experiencing something unique. Because this first-year class is so large, we don’t fit the stereotypes normally associated with the “typical” Brandeis student. Still, I feel like I had a pretty typical first semester here.
In this past semester I realized exciting things about this campus. Brandeis professors want to help us and students want to get involved. There is an energy in our student population that I haven’t experience before, one that reveals itself in opinionated theological discussions over dinner in Usdan or the in myriad number of student-organized events going on all over campus at any given point in time. And it’s not just the students—this spirit permeates Brandeis faculty and staff in a very similar way.
After only one semester here I’ve come to a few conclusions. First and most immediately recognizable is Brandeis is thankfully a lot more diverse (and a lot less “Jewish”) than the widely published statistics make it sound. Second, (despite my first realization) taking Hebrew at Brandeis is the equivalent of taking a math class at MIT. Third, this place somehow attracts an extremely unique, astonishingly dynamic bunch of people who come together and form the earnest, intellectual, activist-minded fabric of this university.
I was reading back issues of The Justice and I came across this story. It’s really touching – I advise you to read it.
I was reading back issues of The Justice and I came across this story. It’s really touching – I advise you to read it.
Last year, when MJ Rosenberg ’72 attended a conference for the pro-peace, pro-Israel lobby group J Street in Washington, he expected to mingle among upper-middle-class politicians and peacemakers from the United States and diplomatic officials from the Middle East. Instead, Rosenberg spent time with someone who was neither an American nor a diplomatic official. Rosenberg forged a relationship with Yousef Bashir, a 20-year-old Palestinian who had been shot by an Israeli soldier at the age of 15 and was the only person at the conference from Gaza.
“[Bashir looked] like a prosperous, athletic Jewish kid; like any Brandeis student,” thought Rosenberg, who is a writer for Media Matters, “a web based, not-for-profit, progressive research and information center,” according to its Web site.
…
Bashir wanted to go to Brandeis to prove to fellow Palestinians that Jews and Arabs can learn together in peace.“I wanted to be a Palestinian who graduated from a Jewish school to go back and help his own people,” Bashir says.
…Bashir’s was motivated by an interest in politics and his father’s message of peace to interview for a spot at a Seeds of Peace camp in Maine. Seeds of Peace is an organization that, according to the mission statement on its Web site, “[empowers youth] from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence.”
In summer 2005, Bashir attended the camp with 12 other teenagers from Gaza.
The camp houses teens from all over the Middle East, specifically from areas of conflict. The camp also houses American students who are interested in learning about international conflict.
That summer Bashir lived in a cabin with Daniel Acheampong ’11. At the beginning of the summer, Acheampong said that he felt a lot of hatred among his peers in his cabin made up of Israelis, Jordanians, Palestinians and Americans. Bashir’s message of peace immediately transformed the feeling of animosity in his and Acheampong’s cabin.
“Speaking to Yousef and [hearing] his ability to forgive really inspired me,” says Acheampong.
Acheampong and Bashir are still close friends today and see each other often.
Inspiring! Read it!
So it looks like we were hacked by some sort of spam robot thing. All should be normal now, but I’m checking to see if any nasty stuff is left, how this happened, etc/
Polls just closed for the Associate Justice position on the Union Judiciary. Here are the results: Continue reading “Ryan Martin is a new Associate Justice”
In case you weren’t aware, we just had ourselves an election.
The results:
Say hello to your new Senators:
Charles River: Abaham “Abby” Berin
East: Melissa Skolnik
2012: Abby Kulawitz
Village: Albert Feldman
Heading into the run-off for Associate Justice:
Ryan D. Martin and Deena Glucksman.
Full results:
Continue reading “Election Results”
An Anecdote:
On February 5, 1946, Albert Einstein agreed to the establishment of the Albert Einstein Foundation for Higher Learning, Inc., but on June 22, 1947, he ended his association with the institute, and refused the board’s offer to name it after him. Instead, the university was named after Justice Louis D. Brandeis.
In 1953 Brandeis University offered Einstein an honorary degree, but he declined.
….Does anyone know what made Einstein decide to cut his ties with what would later become our near and dear Brandeis University?
Hi readers,
Going to today’s Activist (Dis)Orientation hosted by ARC made me think about why I participate in activist groups, and what I hope to get out of them. There were so many tables, each for a club with a noble cause, that it was hard to choose where to commit, and which ones need your help the most. Beyond that, I realized that the purpose behind activism is to engage people in activities, ideas, fights they feel passionate about, with the goal in mind of making a change. I’m still struggling with the question myself, that’s why I want to know, what causes are important to YOU? If YOU could change one thing at Brandeis, what would it be?
Forget that, if you could change ANYTHING and EVERYTHING about Brandeis, where would you start? I want to write about problems YOU have, tidbits YOU want to hear about, solutions YOU would suggest. So please, let me know what it is you care about.
I’m back in my Social Movements class. We’re talking about collective action problems – if you’re interested in a collective goal, there will be free riders: people who think “if I bother helping out towards this goal, it won’t make much difference, but I will have to sacrifice. Therefore, I can just not join in working towards this goal, and reap the benefits if it is reaped.”
Does that make sense? Ask your econ friends about the free rider problems: that’s what’s going on.
In the context of social movements, however, there have arisen a class of tools that try to deal with this.
One way: “Why don’t Americans litter as much as others?” A foreign student remarked about how she was surprised that in the US there is a lot less littering. Why? The key insight – littering is observable, and tied to morality. You don’t want to litter because its thought of as a morally wrong thing, and you don’t want others to castigate you as a litterer.
Same thing with, say, the Montgomery Bus Boycott. When you ride on the bus, it’s very visible! Your peers will look down on you!
Unions are good at dealing with this: in any given shop, you don’t need 100% of the workers to be part of the union for the union to have bargaining power. If 10% of the workers not in the union get raises as well as the union workers (and they don’t have to pay dues), that’s another example of the free rider problem. Unions deal with this by offering union-only health care plans, cookouts, etc.
In general, the way to deal with a free rider problem is to give selective incentives to those in the “in-group” (of those actually working for teh broader social good). That way, the focus is not on the overriding social goal, but in the intermediate benefits that accrue to the participants. These benefits might be psychic, social, etc, but they are important.
Anyways, I was thinking about voting. Voting is a big example of the free rider problem: your individual vote is very unlikely to be decisive, yet it takes a lot of hassle (and lost work time) to vote. Yet clearly if a bunch of people didn’t vote for this reason, we’d have problems. And this does happen!
Why not make pacts? Take 10 non-votes. Introduce them all (through the internet?) to each other, and perhaps they will make a pact that either all 10 of them vote, or none of them do. Now, in a sense, they’ve each increased their individual voting power by 10.
It’s also harder to explain to your 9 new acquaintences that you’ve let them down re-voting than to feel vaguely guilty about not voting.
Just a thought.
This semester I’m taking a Social Movements course with the esteemed Professor David Cunningham. I’m trying to take insights from his class and apply them to Brandeis.
He’s talking about the Montgomery Bus Boycott and how the participation of churches meant so much. One reason – churches had an established hierarchy with leaders. Instead of organizing and convincing every churchgoer, organizers had to get the organic leaders in the community (the ministers or whatever) on board, and then the congregations, which already liked and trusted those ministers, were much more likely to follow along.
At Brandeis, we have no such similar network. We’re so transient that we have a dearth of established, respected leaders, that people are comfortable following. Every campaign has to start from scratch.
What do you think? Is this analysis true?
Want to participate in the 2nd annual world Pillow Fight day? It’s going down in Boston, on April 3rd. Do you want to go? Let us know in the comments. If enough people are interested we can carpool or whatever.
Info:
Date: Saturday, April 3rd. 2010.
Time: 3:00PM, at the sound of the airhorn (Show up at least 5 minutes early)
Place: TBA on Banditos Website (misteriosos.org) on April 2nd at 11:55PM
I didn’t think they would do it.
The Union Judiciary has just decided to side with the Union Senate in kicking out Union Secretary Diana Aronin from office. You can find our earlier coverage here.
You heard it here first. Here’s the court’s Ruling in re Aronin.
The gist of it is this: Diana really should’ve put the amendment up for a vote. Legally, she had to, and she can’t hide behind Andy Hogan or the fact that the person who gave her the petition graduated soon after.
Unanimous Decision.
Anyways, whatever. Will there be a special election?
Board of Trustees member Meyer Koplow ’72, in conjunction with Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe, announced that academic programs at Brandeis are to be potentially trimmed in order to save long term funds. To clarify, “To be concrete, what we’re talking about are academic programs that would be phased out, ” says Jaffe.
The Aronin case carried on Jan 24th, during which justices of the Union Judiciary heard oral arguments presented for and against the removal of Aronin from office.
Housing options for students planning on studying abroad have expanded to include suites in the Village and Ziv Quad . Entire suites will be occupied by students planning to study abroad in the spring, opening up the previously filled suites to midyear or transfer students arriving at that time.
In a town hall meeting held last Saturday, the Constitutional Review Committee heard a proposal concerning the allocation of Student Union Finance Board funds to chartered University clubs. Those posing the proposal suggested that clubs are not encouraged to fundraise and raise awareness due to the simplicity of being granted funds, and that the Finance board currently exerts excessive control over chartered clubs.
Students applying for a Justice Brandeis Semester were recently informed that on-campus housing will not be provided for them during the duration of their semester program, but that they will be eligible following the completion of the program. For those wondering, a Justice Brandeis Semester is ‘”…an engaging, immersive academic program in which small groups of students explore a thematic topic through inquiry-based courses linked to real-world experiential opportunities.”
The South Street crosswalk near the entrance of campus will now be periodically featuring Waltham police officers , who plan to educate Brandeis students in the usage of walk buttons and crosswalks, as well as to issue speeding cars in the area tickets. The measure is admittedly a reaction to safety hazards, and an attempt to enforce more lawful pedestrian and vehicular habits on the crosswalk.
A growing number of fundraising events aimed at benefitting Haiti are scheduled to be held, including the sale of Valentine’s Grams, the hosting of concerts, vigils and various spectator sports with prices attached.
The US News and World Report, known for its college ranking system, has announced Usen Castle to be one of the eight coolest dorms in the US. The article refers to the structure, not the students within it; that is entirely your call.
The W. M. Keck Foundation has recognized Brandeis as a national leader in the study of active matter, a substance that, despite being non-living, can move independently. The foundation has therefore awarded the University one million dollars to continue conducting research on active matter.
The newly available presidential search website offering ongoing information on the University’s hunt for a new president confirmed that a search firm will be chosen by the end of February. Brandeis alum Meyer Koplow, the current Chair of the search committee and member of the Board of Trustees, informed the Hoot that a presidential search firm will be necessary to take the initiative in the presidential search.
“A Heart Full of Grace”, the MLK event featuring poetry, music and performances recently held at Shapiro campus theater featured not only a reprisal of many of Dr. King’s speeches by various guest speakers, but a plea for social justice, namely engaging in projects aiding Haiti. Brandeis student Shaina Gilbert ’10, a Haitian-American was among the speakers to express the necessity of reaching out to Haiti in this time of need. There is no doubt that this event was enriched by the inclusion of the Haiti’s current needs, the meeting of which is entirely in the spirit of Dr. King’s focus on kindness, social outreach and justice. Brandeis students have been involved with projects concerning Haiti for years ; the recent engagement of further students in outreach, such as the ‘Hope for Haiti’ vigil, is merely an expansion of Haiti’s special place in the Brandeis social consciousness.
Citing a 25$ budget shortfall , Meyer Koplow ’72, a member of the Board of Trustees, has announced that cuts to academic programs at Brandeis must be made. Some of the projected losses include the removal of certain majors, PhD programs and Master’s programs. Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffee has apologized for the imminent cuts, explaining that ‘the Board gave [the administration] no choice.’ Koplow insists that Brandeis will retain the programs that ‘make [Brandeis] special,’ though he failed to elucidate further.
Those following the charges made against Union Secretary Diana Aronin should set aside time this Sunday, as the UJ has announced that the trial will be made public . You can catch the circus at the Lemberg Academic Center starting at 4 p.m.
Lastly, if you haven’t had the H1N1 strain of flu this year or would rather not have it again, the Health Center is offering shots free of charge. Since shortages are still apt to occur, those particularly opposed to spending a week between the bed and bathroom should hurry to the Health Center as soon as possible.
By now, the administration has made it clear that it has to cut something. Several departments – classics and American studies, for example – have been warned that they are on a knife’s edge and may soon face termination. Barring budgetary “necessity” scare-tactics, i.e. under normal financial circumstances, I think most students can agree that it would be nothing short of tragic to lose any single one of these crucial academic programs. How can one convincingly claim to provide a thorough and well-rounded liberal arts education, yet lack a Classics program? How can Brandeis, which once stood at the head of the pack in the field of American studies (“Olin-Sang Center for American Civilization” is a vestige of this past), rid itself of that distinction?
Yes, this is a time of financial hardship, in which difficult – even desperate – budget decisions are essentially inevitable. Yes, other belt-tightening strategies are being pursued in order to reduce the likelihood that these academic treasures be tossed into the garbage as if they were nothing.
But has everything really been considered?
Let me throw an idea out there that some might consider impractical, perhaps even batshit insane. GET RID OF ATHLETICS.
Although it would be nice to hold onto them, what do our sports teams really bring to the table that makes them absolutely essential even in times of dire finances – so much so that academic programs have to be cut in order to sustain them? When explaining the benefit of athletics, defenders often couch their arguments in terms of community-building and school spirit. This is an empty tautology that lacks a shred of evidence. I don’t think any serious person would argue that our sports teams inspire the kind of pride that a real community demands. How many people even follow Brandeis athletics? How well-attended are our basketball games? Far from building a common identity on campus, the athletics program creates its own sealed-off social group within the university, mostly cut off from the rest of the student body. (To be sure, athletes themselves cannot be blamed for this; rather, it’s in the very nature of the athletics program, in that a massive time commitment to their sports draws them away from the campus, thrusts an outside identity upon them, and in every sense puts them at a remove from their fellow students).
Whatever sense of identity and pride Brandeis has is irrelevant to how well the Judges perform. Instead, the bedrock on which any university of quality ought to rest is academic excellence, and I, for one, take immense pride in the knowledge that Brandeis succeeds in this regard. Surely some would argue that Brandeis will attract fewer applicants without an athletics program. I answer that when Brandeis trims its academics, it will necessarily become far less attractive – in fact, quite repellent – to serious students who value inquiry, knowledge, and culture. These core elements constitute the critical purpose and raison d’etre of a liberal arts institution, especially in an economized, efficiency-obsessed society.
By all means, preserve a weight room, have exercise machines, keep the P.E. program. Fitness is not something that should be ignored! Furthermore, intramural sports are a good idea – in fact, I think they can often contribute to a sense of community on campus. But it’s the teams that we should be focusing on.
With academics on the chopping block, questioning our athletics budget should not be taboo. We should inquire: How much money goes into paying for transportation, hotel rooms, coaches, equipment, athletic scholarships? The answer is: a hell of a lot!
And that’s a hell of a lot of money that isn’t going to the features that make a liberal arts institution what it’s supposed to be. What sane administrator could honestly make the study of Plato an endeavor entirely contingent on financial necessity – in order to save the athletics program?
Hard times call for bold decisions. It seems that rather than accept this fact, Brandeis is resigning itself to a rapid and unmistakable decline into a bleak future in which its academic status will match a well-established reputation for athletic mediocrity.
Have you ever felt it difficult to get from Point A to Point B in the Boston area without going through downtown? Say you want to get from Harvard Square to Coolidge Corner in Brookline. You don’t need to go in to Park Street Station on the Red Line and then out again on the Green Line, just take the 66 bus–no transfer. How about if you’re in the Back Bay and want to check out Jamaica Plain (a wicked cool neighborhood)? Just take the 39 bus. What if you were supposed to meet your friend at the Harvard Square shuttle stop but you screwed up and went to Beacon & Mass Ave? Just take the 1 bus.
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.
That’s the news from today’s issue of the Justice, in which Miranda Neubauer reports on Board of Trustees member Meyer Koplow ’72 and Dean of Art and Sciences Adam Jaffe’s recent address to the faculty. Koplow (a New York lawyer whose biggest gig was as lead negotiator for cigarette-maker Phillip Morris in a 1997 national $350 billion tobacco settlement) isn’t just any board member – he’s chair of the Board’s budget and finance committee, a member of the executive committee, and a big Brandeis donor who helped finance the Village dorm. Until today, he was also the chair of the presidential search committee, but stepped down after “learning that a faculty member had nominated him for president.” Koplow seems to be the prime determiner of Brandeis’ budget cut strategies, and may well be the next president of the University (having been chair of the search committee one day can’t hurt when you apply for the job on the next).
In case you had forgotten about the steps University officials are quietly making in preparation to sell art from the Rose, Continue reading “Departments still to be cut, Art still to be sold”
One year ago today (Jan 26th), President Reinharz announced the closing of the Rose Art Museum. While the museum and its collection remain intact, that status is precarious at best. The administration and its PR team have gone to great lengths to lull the Brandeis community into a false sense of security, suppressing those that would speak out and promote awareness regarding the still-critical vulnerability of the Rose. Consequently, a great number of students, faculty and staff are unaware that a problem with the Rose still exists. Please do not count yourself among them. Remain aware by asking critical questions and holding accountable those individuals with the power to make important decisions. Don’t let this day pass silently. Most importantly, show your support of the Rose Art Museum, its spectacular collection, and its remaining staff. Thank you
Student Union Prez Andy Hogan is circulating a survey to students that asks one question: “What do Brandeis students need in dining that we are not getting right now?”
Go fill it out.
Here’s my response, if you find it useful
1. Good, healthy food. What do I mean by good? Simply this: Food made from scratch.
2. The faculty club should be open for longer. I have class from 12-1, or 12-1:30, every day. I love the faculty club – they have the best food on campus, hands down. Can’t there be a way for me to still eat there?
3. Healthy food. See point 1. I don’t mean “health food”, but simply creating food from ingredients, not, for example, heating up pre-made frozen food.
4. It is really hard to keep a good diet at Brandeis when fruit costs over a dollar a piece. Down the road at Hanneford’s it costs roughly that much *per pound*! I need cheaper healthy food.
Hey all. We’re at the much-maligned Union Judiciary trial. The Senate is trying to impeach the Union Secretary, Diana Aronin, because she forgot to put up a constitutional amendment for a vote or something.
Honestly, I approach this trial with mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s bullshit. On the other hand, we should probably cover it. We’ll see if it lasts.
Read on for a running commentary on the trial
You may have noticed that a small squadron of Turkeys has been wandering around Brandeis over the last few months, gobbling at people and generally adding a bit of joy to our lives. I haven’t a clue when or from where the turkeys originated, but they please me endlessly. I have, however, recently heard some of my fellow student suggest that the turkeys be killed and eaten. I find this a barbaric idea. Those who consider it should themselves be eaten. Personally, I find the turkeys adorable, and think they need names. What have your experiences with these gentle beasts been? Do you have any opinion on their continued survival? Do you have any suggestions for names?
I’m typing this post in bed at home on my laptop. Not that big hulking 10-pound thing I bought three years ago, but a slim, stripped-down “netbook” that lasts three times as long and weighs less than half as much. I’m accessing the Internet without the use of any wires – instead, a router connected to my Time-Warner-provided modem is turning the electrical internet signals transmitted by copper wire into radio waves that can travel through the doors and walls of my house.
Just now, I watched a video of Chuck Todd, a decent talking head at MSNBC (a cable channel – but I don’t have cable!) interview Ari Melber, a smart and interesting journalist from the liberal weekly The Nation. On the Internet. Transmitted through radio waves, to my computer, which is tiny, but running an operating system platform built by tens of thousands of volunteer and paid developers but given to me absolutely free.
The video? Free. No lag. Crisp, no stuttering. At the end of the video clip, the embedded player provided me options to watch others. Yes, some of it was the political equivalent of junk food – gossip, rumors, and covering political events with no significance next month. Still, I could watch Elizabeth Warren talk about her role as overseer of the TARP bailout and what she found, or Bill Clinton talking about the economic history of Haiti.
Wow. The future has arrived, ladies and gentlemen, and let’s not turn up our nose at its wonders.
Continue reading “The World Turns”
The announcement:
President Reinharz Holds Student Office Hours – Spring 2010 Schedule
President Jehuda Reinharz will be available to meet with students for approximately 10 minutes per student on a first-come, first-served basis beginning THURSDAY, January 21 – 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. Following is the complete schedule of dates for the Spring 2010 semester:
** Thursday, January 21 – 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.
** Monday, February 22 – 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
** Tuesday, March 16 – 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
** Wednesday, April 7 – 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
** Friday, April 30 – 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.This schedule is posted and updated on the “My Brandeis Campus Calendar” http://my.brandeis.edu/btime/day-view. Please call x63001 on the scheduled date to confirm that no unforeseen changes have been made. The President’s Office is located in Irving 113 (Bernstein Marcus / Gryzmish Administration Bldgs.).
Remember college admissions? Remember how stressful that was?
We passed through that cruel gauntlet, but our brothers and sisters still have to go through it. I want to start talking about how destructive some of the components of the process are.
One famous example – the SAT’s are weighed towards class and race.
Another – Legacy admissions: affirmative action for rich people.
There’s a big op-ed in the Boston Globe today talking about this sort of stuff:
NOW IS the winter of high school seniors’ discontent. But then every winter is one of discontent as seniors file their college applications with a mix of dread and hope – mainly dread. Those applying to the most selective schools have the odds stacked against them no matter how sterling their high school records, though college admissions officers typically offer the cold comfort that rejection is not equivalent to failure and that, as one Yale admissions officer put it, “It matters far less which strong college admits you than it matters what you do with your opportunities once you are there.’’ To which most high school seniors would say, “Hogwash.’’
They know that it does matter where you go to college, if not educationally then in terms of social recognition and opportunity. They know that America, for all its professions of meritocracy, is a virtual oligarchy where the graduates of the Ivies and the other best schools enjoy tremendous advantages in the job market. They know that Harvard or Stanford or MIT is a label in our “designer education’’ not unlike Chanel or Prada in clothes.
So here is another, more realistic comfort to those anxious seniors who will soon be flagellating themselves as unworthy: The admissions system of the so-called “best’’ schools is rigged against you. If you are a middle-class youth or minority from poor circumstances, you have little chance of getting in to one of those schools. Indeed, the system exists not to provide social mobility but to prevent it and to perpetuate the prevailing social order.
Why is college admissions messed up? The op-ed provides these arguments:
- Legacy admissions
- Athletes, who are “primarily wealthy white kids who are adept at lacrosse, rugby, crew and polo.”
- Admissions slots for kids with parents who pledged to donate to the school
- The full quote: Then there is the “well-rounded student body’’ argument, which any parent accompanying his child on the college tour rounds has heard ad nauseam. According to this approach, colleges are not looking for the well-rounded individual student. They are aiming instead for a diverse student body: an exceptional athlete, an exceptional musician, an exceptional scientist, an exceptional poet. Except that exceptionality, as most parents can attest, doesn’t come cheap. Athletes require coaching and often traveling teams; musicians require lessons and instruments; scientists require labs and internships; poets require classes and opportunities for publication. None of these things is readily available to the average middle-class family, to say nothing of the high school student who must work at McDonald’s to earn spending money (even though colleges say they take this into account).
- “Any admissions officer, she said, could tell from your zip code whether you were likely to need aid or not, and students needing aid were much less desirable than those who didn’t need it.”
I’m going to call Brandeis tomorrow and ask what percentage of their admissions is set aside for legacy admissions. My goal: getting it down to 0%. Beyond that, I’d love for someone from Brandeis to reassure us on how they’re aware of these problems, and the extent that Brandeis is working to ameliorate this rigged system.
During the whole Budget-cut craziness of the Spring 2009 semester, I remember Jehuda telling people that he would look into putting the budget (or parts of it) online, and I also remember reports that the SAT would be optional for admissions in the future.
Did “the administration” really say they would do that, or is my memory off? If they did say that, has anything happened on that front?
I’m concerned. Martha Coakley, the Democrat to replace Ted Kennedy, might, incredibly, lose against a Republican challenger in freaking Massachusetts.
The reason? The vote takes place on Jan 19th, on a special election. Special elections are notorious for super-low turnout, which means that the outcome is only in doubt. If Republicans vote and Democrats don’t, then we are kind of screwed.
Up till now, this was a theoretical worry. But now polls are coming out showing that Coakley could lose.
The vote is on the 19th, the first day of school at Brandeis. Someone should organize them all to vote.