Year: 2010

Union Restructuring: Why Did It Fail?

Of the changes proposed by the Constitutional Review Committee, none received more discussion than the Union government restructuring — the elimination of the Senate and the creation of a smaller Assembly and a Club Support Board.  It was endorsed as a great way to improve Union government efficiency by a wide range of campus sources, from the Justice editorial board to President Andy Hogan to our own writers.  Despite this, it was one of only three (out of 13) proposals that didn’t get the 2/3 majority of the student vote needed to be added to the Constitution.  So why did it fail, and what can we learn from it to fix the problems in the Union government?

I’ll start by saying that I really didn’t like the restructuring proposal.  I’m not sure that it would have actually solved the problems it tried to address, and there were several consequences of its changes that made me pretty uncomfortable.  It would have taken fewer students to make consequential decisions like de-chartering clubs, it would have raised the electoral barriers of participation higher, and it would have set up some explicit conflicts of interest for Club Support members.

But I doubt that even the small percentage of students who took the time to vote actually looked into the amendment very deeply.  Many of them probably saw the amendment for the first time when they voted, and their priorities were probably on amendments they saw as more directly impacting their lives on campus (SSIS, SEA, etc.).  Still, they chose to support most of the other proposals, even one which only changed a single word.

I think the problem with the restructuring proposal was much more simple: there was no immediately obvious benefit to the changes it offered.  So they wanted to make the Senate smaller and move the club chartering process to another body — why?  There’s a perception that students hate the Union because of its overly formal procedures, but I don’t think that’s true.  After all, how many students have to deal with the Senate on a regular, extended basis?  I think the real concern is what the Union actually does and the apparent disconnect between the Union government and the students, and there’s no reason to think that shrinking or dividing the governing bodies would have made a concrete change.

Thus, to most people, the government restructuring came down to a simple rearrangement of the deck chairs.  When you take out the votes of the CRC, the E-Board, and the Senate (who all actively worked to put the amendment on the ballot), you’re basically left with a coin flip from the voters.  There are definite problems with the way the Union works, but solving them requires a more direct approach than the CRC took toward the review process.

Real Food at Brandeis: We Can Make It Happen!

Last night, the House of Representatives passed the first stage in the most expansive reform of our nation’s health care system since the 1960s. But we all know this didn’t happen overnight: it was a messy, dragged-out, complex, and (for many) unsatisfying experience.

But at least how the political sausage gets made is a public process. The way most of our food gets made is just as gross, just as filthy, and happens on a daily basis – but there is less transparency about what goes into our bodies than what goes on in the halls of Congress.

As consumers, we are shielded from the myriad processes by which our food is made. We don’t get to see the effects our food choices have on the environment, on animals, on workers, and our communities.

But as Brandeis students who purchase food through our dining plan we can collectively choose real food that nourishes every aspect of the food system from production and distribution through consumption and disposal. What we need to do is change our dining system such that it chooses sustainable, ethical food suppliers, uses local and organic ingredients, avoids unnecessary and unhealthful additives and chemicals, and conveniently and cheaply feeds all members of our community, especially dietary niches including vegetarian and vegan, kosher and halal, gluten-free and lactose-intolerant.

To that end, the Real Food 2020 campaign has a ridiculously simple and eminently sane proposal: by 2020, 20% of the food served at Brandeis should be real food. This goal is both achievable and ethically imperative – unless, of course, protecting the profits of food corporations outweighs the needs of our planet, our local farmers, and our bodies.

Although this goal is entirely sensible, it has proven more than a little difficult to work with a giant (and ethically suspect) corporation like Aramark. The few changes they have made (putting “locally grown” signs on the salad bar, including more vegetarian options) are woefully inadequate, and serve more as a cosmetic to divert us from the lack of transparency in our food system. While the campaign is willing to work with Aramark, we demand that our administration seriously consider other dining options.

Real food will reaffirm Brandeis’ commitment to social justice by ensuring that our food choices are sustainable and healthy. Our current dining system gives us very little choice – locked into expensive and unwieldy meal plans, we are forced to eat unsustainable and unhealthy food that harms our bodies and others for Aramark’s profit. Together, we can turn our dining halls into a place that nourishes our planet and ourselves.

Take action to move Brandeis forward by signing this petition!

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6254/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2407

Learn more about real food: http://realfoodchallenge.org/about/realfood 

Woo

Normally I try really hard to only post on Brandeis-related issues on the blog. Still! Health Care Reform passed the House yesterday, Obama is going to sign tomorrow, and life is looking good.

The senate has an anti-filibuster-able vote on the “reconciliation sidecar” of subsidies and other bonuses soon. What you might not know is that the reconciliation sidecar also contains a great reform of student loans. Over 40 billion dollars will go to better Pell Grants, etc. What a great bonus!

Portrait of a Jesus-faced Revolutionary

Interested in some light weekend reading? I wrote you (and Professor Cunningham 😛 ) a longish profile of Guy Rossman, campus radical. You can download it as a pdf if you’d like as well

?

“Capitalism, blast it with piss.”

Guy Rossman, the resident campus long-haired radical, balances on a chair in his suite, chomping on a vegan meal of beans and rice. “Can you make sure to quote that in your paper?”

Continue reading “Portrait of a Jesus-faced Revolutionary”

We got Instant Runoff Voting!

The results are in from the vote on constitutional amendments. Everything passed except:

– Changing the name of the Racial Minority Senator
– Changing the Senate to Assembly + Club Support Board
– Having the Senate/Assembly elect the VP
– Securing SEA

That means that these things did happen:

– Securing SSIS
– Having “at least two” reps to the Board of Trustees instead of just two
– Instant Runoff Voting

Also other, less interesting things.

Full Results:

Continue reading “We got Instant Runoff Voting!”

A Better Vision for Brandeis

I am disappointed in the vision statement the Presidential Search Committee put out for prospective presidents. The things they are looking for – excellent fundraising skills, focusing on academics, etc, – they all call for a technocrat. Don’t get me wrong, I think we do need someone with all those skills in office. But can’t our president also be a visionary? An inspirational, inspired figure? I don’t want Brandeis to steadily claw its way up the ranks to “best small research university in the country”, though that would be excellent. I want Brandeis to transcend these silly rankings and become the most rewarding, spiritually fulfilling, undergraduate experience out there. I want Brandeis to become a hub of social justice activism and scholarship. Brandeis should make a positive change on the world. Educating students slightly better than at rival schools – is that all we can strive for? Brandeis deserves better than such unworthy goals.

Brandeis spirit persists

Op-Ed in The Justice

Certainly no one will deny that at Brandeis, Muslims are socially and administratively underrepresented, and minority status comes with its own set of perpetual problems and need for continual outspokenness and activism. But I’ve met more open-minded people at Brandeis than my mosque in Worcester, my high school in Shrewsbury, my home in India and my communities around the world. Am I glorifying nonexistent comforts or being oblivious to political tensions? Am I just inherently a more relaxed person than an indignant one? No. A typical conversation at Brandeis may certainly mean a polarizing disagreement, an angering comment, a hearty debate or an awkward acknowledgment. But somehow, in spite or because of such diversity in our perspectives and the sincerity with which we engage with others, we are a community continually pushing for progress. At Brandeis, I’m home.

An extra office hour

Heddy Ben-Atar and Jon Kane, the two current representatives to the Board of Trustees, want me to tell you that they are providing you with an hour of their time tomorrow, from 1pm-2pm at the Student Union office, so that you can tell them your thoughts on “student services, budget cuts, adn academic restructuring”.

Normally, I am told, they hold their office hours on Tuesdays from 5-8pm.

Campus Activism, is it worth it?

STAND (A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition) is holding a forum Thursday 8-10pm in the International Lounge (in Usdan) called “What’s the Point?”:

Have questions about the value of your activism? Wonder if it is any use?

Come hear a panel of professors, activist, adn studetns around campus talk about the importance and significance of taking action for causes we care about, especially when what we are fighting for (or against) is miles away.

You should go. It should be good. Also, the speakers are Professor Gordon Fellman, Professor Cunningham, myself, and Evan Green-Lowe. The Professors are talking about whatever, I’m supposed to talk about how activism is fullfilling to me, and Evan is going to talk about how students are frustrated with activism and view activism on campus with suspicion.

I think this event speaks to many people’s experiences with being disillusioned by activism. It should be good, and I’m not only saying that because they are flattering me by asking me to be a panelist. Also – dinner will be provided, I hear.

Let’s talk about the constitution

So on Thursday there’s a big vote on the proposed changes to the constitution that the Constitutional Review Committee wrote up. Now, I was on the Con Review committee, and obviously I don’t agree with all the proposed amendments, but some of them I fought really hard for. So here’s a sort of “insider’s look” at all amendments. It’s rather long, so I’ll skip to the conclusion and you can read the whole report underneath:

Concluding thoughts

In general, the Con Review process was not the best. Many decisions were made without voting. Many members skipped meetings. Some good ideas didn’t come up for a vote. A couple good ideas lost the vote. But here’s one thing I learned – the constitutional review committee actually has no power that you don’t have. Any recommendations it makes have to get 10 senators or 15% of the student body to sign on before they go up for a 2/3 vote of the student body. If you wrote a constitutional amendment and got 10 senators or 15% of the studetn body to sign on, it would go up for a 2/3 vote as well.

The Constitutional Review Committee only has the power we decide to give it as a society. And I don’t mean that in a legal or political abstract sense, I mean it in a “they have absolutely no formal power” sense. Isn’t that interesting?

Are you frustrated with the way the Con Review Committee’s recommendations turned out? Do you think you can do better? Well, write your own amendment and get 10 senators or 15% of the student body to sign on. You have the power.

Continue reading “Let’s talk about the constitution”

Help bring cool alumni to campus

Tomorrow, at 1pm in the faculty club, a bunch of us are meeting Professor David Cunningham. Professor Cunningham is the head of the Social Justice Social Policy program. For his Social Movements class, Cunningham wants to bring kickass activist alumni or possibly just kickass alumni. After they show up, ARC will try and host them for dinner so they can chill with students.

Do you want to have a say on what kickass alumni come to campus? We can choose cool alumni or activist we like, get them to come to campus and teach us, and then we can learn from and chill with them afterward.

Plus, lunch with Cunningham! Do you want to show up? If more than 6 people show up, then we have to make reservations, I think. So email Professor Cunningham and tell him that you’re coming, or email me.

News Roundup

The latest news from the Justice and the Hoot:
Hoot:

  • The Presidential search progresses. As usual, the process might be technically transparent, but really, as a concerned student, I don’t where to startWho do I talk to? if I write a letter to the search committee, what topics should I address? It’s all so disempowering. I’m thinking of writing an open letter to the Presidential Search committee outlining what Brandeis students are feeling and what sort of President they want. Maybe it’ll start with “we want Brandeis to start trying to be Brandeis, and to stop trying to be Harvard?” Would you sign/help write such a letter?
  • President Jehuda has proposed a way for people making under $150,000 at Brandeis to get raises. This is good, yes?
  • Aramark food is legitimately unhealthy and crappy. But of course you already new that. More on this later.
  • The Hoot also talks about our community response to the MSA vandalism, of course.

The Justice:

  • The IBS, Heller, and Rabb school are going to get bigger. As much as I like the idea of Brandeis as a small liberal arts college, I think this could turn out well (beyond the obvious financial benefits). Heller School students are cool people! IBS students are cool people! etc. More cool people on campus would be a good thing. Though a lot of work must be put in to make sure that there’s more integration between graduate and undergraduate students.
  • There’s going to be a new German major perhaps.
  • The Justice also has an article on the community response to the MSA vandalism. Innermost Parts is in it so of course you should check it out.
  • The Presidential Search committee is progressing in its search. More on this later.
  • A commitee thinks it can save maybe 2 million dollars a year through more prudent purchasing and other logistical smartness.

And that’s the news.

Brandeis Has an Amazing History

Did you know that Albert Einstein corresponded with Louis Brandeis about the idea that eventually became Brandeis University? Did you know that Einstein was the one who insisted it be named after Brandeis?

I am reading a report in the Hoot about a lecture given by Professor Stephen Whitfield about the early days of the University and I find it just fascinating:

[Einstein] began corresponding with Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis about creating a Jewish-sponsored institution of higher learning. Einstein’s dream to create a secular university founded on Jewish values led to a 1946 gathering of prominent Jewish businessmen and attorneys to form it. They faced opposition from many who feared assimilation, including Chaim Weizmann.
…
Despite the misgivings of Weizmann and others, Einstein went through with his plan. However, when founders offered to name the university after him, he declined. At that point, he had been in the United States for barely more than a dozen years, had been a citizen for only six years, and still spoke broken English. He wanted the school to be named after “a great Jew who was also a great American.” The obvious choice was to name the school after Justice Brandeis, who had died a few years earlier.

Also, did you know that Brandeis was explicitly founded as a liberal school?

“The name Brandeis,” founding president Abram L. Sachar said, “will combine most felicitously the prophetic ideal of moral principle and the American tradition of political and economic liberalism.”

Also, it seems like Brandeis classes in the early days kicked ass.

The three professors contributed to an active intellectual social life, with professors and their spouses crossing departmental lines to socialize and discuss topics of the day. At the time, lines separating disciplines were blurred both physically, with music practice rooms and labs in the same building, and professionally, with many professors having several specialties.

Whitfield praised Brandeis’ ability to cultivate innovative and esteemed professors and lecturers, including people like Abraham Maslow, author of a book about values and the higher life, Herbert Marcuse, a leftist politics and philosophy professor often named in conjunction to Karl Marx and Mao Zedong, and Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady of the United States.

Brandeis kicks ass! This sort of stuff is part of why I love this place so much. That idea – departments not really mattering, a life of the mind, being taught by people like Herbert Marcuse (the FBI soon forced Brandeis to kick him out) – is so cool! A Brandeis alum recently told me that “Brandeis in the fifties was a different place. You had all these amazing professors, but eventually they retired. They signed up for something revolutionary, but Brandeis stopped trying to Brandeis and started trying to be Harvard”

I can’t wait to read more of Professor Whitfield’s research into this topic. I can’t wait until we* start trying to be Brandeis again.

Continue reading “Brandeis Has an Amazing History”

Peace Vigil Covered in the Daily News Tribune

In light of all the negative coverage of Brandeis that filled the local media last week, it feels particularly good to see something like this in the newspaper:

Standing on the edge of Brandeis University’s Peace Circle, senior Beth Bowman urged the 100-plus students and faculty gathered in support of the campus’ Muslim community to look around and take in the feeling of unity.

In the wake of vandalism and the theft of Imam Talal Eid’s Quran at the Muslim Student Association’s newly renovated suite and prayer space on March 5, students held a peaceful vigil outside of the Usdan Student Center Friday afternoon, some even ditching class to attend.

Some wore white headscarves, some white yarmulkes, and many threw white T-shirts over sweaters, symbolizing peace, in a show of solidarity.

Student Sahar Massachi, the founder and editor of InnermostParts.org, the unofficial school blog, presented Eid with a petition he called “a love letter,” signed by more than 400 Brandeis students and professors.

Eid smiled as student after student handed him a page of the petition, each full of signatures.

Students of different faiths condemned the vandalism, and expressed support for their Muslim peers.

“Look around. This is so moving to me,” said Bowman, who is also on the Muslim Student Association’s executive board.

“The events that happened on March 5 are not the spirit of Brandeis – it’s the spirit right here,” she said, the group clapping.

I’m sitting in the library right now, reading the article over and over and smiling like a fool.  We couldn’t have asked for a nicer, more positive story on the vigil; we really put Brandeis’s best foot forward on Friday.  More importantly, we showed ourselves, hopefully our Muslim brothers and sisters especially, that this entire community felt the pain and fear of the MSA vandalism and that an attack on any of us is an attack on all of us.  We stood together in a way that people recognized.

The vandals must be absolutely furious right now.  They tried to attack a very specific group on campus, but instead they allowed us to prove publicly that we are united on a fundamental level, regardless of religious differences.  However, this can be their gain as well, because in the wise words of Imam Talal Eid, “This person was probably a member of the Brandeis family, and we will not give up a member of the Brandeis family.”  It’s a great feeling to know that you have an entire community willing to stand behind you when you need it the most, and provided you choose to act in accord with this community’s values, you (or anyone) can take comfort in that knowledge as well.

Livebloggin’ the State of the Union

Assuming anyone cares, we’ll being running a live-blog of President Andy Hogan’s State of the Union address, starting 12 minutes ago.  There’s really impressive turnout, not so much among the students (maybe 30-40, depending on how many members of the a cappella group stay), but among the administrators/Trustees/assorted University higher-ups (probably 6-7, at least).  President Reinharz himself is here as well.

5:12 PM (Adam) — Right now Starving Artists is still performing –sounding great, as always.  I like the tradition of a little pre-speech entertainment.

5:17 PM (Adam) — Down to business.  Andy’s being introduced.

5:19 PM (Adam) — He’s opening with Constitutional Review issues, discussing how he thinks the new changes will help.  I think it’s a little too internal and government-y to lead off the speech.

5:21 PM (Adam) — Discussing the new Student Judiciary: We’ll “move away from the show trials we have now” to a more mediation-based approach.  It’s a very thinly veiled shot at the mockery that was the Aronin trial.  I’m glad he said it.

5:24 PM (Adam) — The new Union website sounds great, with a blog and a lot more instant feedback options.  Andy gives a shout out to the “incredibly talented Yale Spector” who designed it.  Good show, Yale.

5:28 PM (Adam) — The Clubs in Service program is still going strong.  Over 30 different clubs have brought their unique talents to service projects in the Waltham community.  If your club hasn’t participated yet, please strongly consider getting involved.

5:30 PM (Adam) — Andy just announced a new Monday and Thursday Waltham BranVan service from 5:45 to 9:45 PM.  The times were chosen based on a survey sent out to the entire community.  This is a really nice piece of small advocacy that will nevertheless be a convenience to the whole campus.  Good work, Andy.

5:33 PM (Adam) — The Union will be working with the administration to cut down on lights left on in buildings after hours, particularly the library.  This will be good for the environment and save Brandeis money, and it is a long overdue effort.

5:36 PM (Adam) — Andy: “There needs to be large scale changes to the dining program.”  He explicitly calls out Aramark on a wide range of dining-related issues and promises a thorough review of dining that is going on even as we speak, through a comprehensive Market Match program.

5:42 PM (Adam) — And that’s a wrap.  Less than a half hour long, which I appreciate.  It was a hard-hitting speech, Andy raised many good points, and he delivered it really well.  The only issue I’d raise is with the construction, but overall, it’s a very strong State of the Union.

One reason I love Brandeis

Brandeis is full of wonderful people, and I don’t just mean students. Over the last few days I have paid a bit more attention to the Brandeis staff – they are so nice!

I was lost in Epstein, and two separate men cheerfully set me own my way. They joked around, and helped me find free toilet paper. They were exceedingly warm.

Later that day, I said good morning to two older gentlemen as I was getting a pancake for breakfast. They asked me how my day was, then started telling me how they were best buddies forever. We had a group hug and I just marveled at this sight of genuine male bonding.

Yesterday, I lost my phone in Usdan, and within 30 minutes I got an email telling me to show up and pick it up.

I understand that I am not conveying my point really well. I guess you had to be there to understand what I’m talking about. But I’m trying to say that the staff here at Brandeis – and I mean cafeteria workers, custodians, the behind-the-scenes people – are really sweet and really nice and it warms my heart.

Islam and Judaism Through the Arts!

Hillel and the MSA are working together to have a night of awesomeness and art. Come join everyone in the Ridgewood B Lounge Monday from 7:00 pm to 8:30 to marvel at the spoken word, music, photography and awesome food (kosher provided). Artists are exploring their identity and faiths through the arts and sharing it with their fellow Brandeisians. And did I mention the refreshments? For more information, feel free to contact Max Fischlowitz-Roberts (mfisch@brandeis.edu) or Wajida Syed (wajida@brandeis.edu). It will be fun and informal, everyone show up.

And, on a side note, while it is admirable and necessary for a campus to point out and decry acts of intolerance within the campus, it is also admirable to recognize and appreciate the far more frequent, beautiful and collaborative efforts of students wishing to share and celebrate their similarities and differences. This is the Brandeis norm, not a Brandeis rarity. National newspapers, you should send a reporter to this, it will be awesome.

The Provost’s Report: Do Student Voices Matter?

Bump! — sahar

In her response to the the Brandeis 2020 Committee proposals, Provost Marty Krauss lists the five groups tasked to work towards healing Brandeis’s long-term financial deficit.  They are:

  • The 23 member Brandeis 2020 Committee, which identified reductions in Arts and Sciences.
  • The professional school revenue committee, composed of 4 administrators and the Office of Budget and Planning.
  • The 18 member Bold Ideas Group, which identifies new revenue streams.
  • The 9 member Administrative Resource Review Committee, which identifies administrative efficiencies.
  • The 7 member ad hoc committee on increasing revenue from the Centers and Institutes.

The most striking thing to me is that of these 61 committee members, exactly one is an undergraduate student (Jason Gray of the Brandeis 2020 Committee).  That means undergraduate students, the university’s primary reason for existing, make up 1.64% of the voices currently working to solve our biggest problems.  We are just as invested in the future of our university as anyone else, and we have unique perspectives that will otherwise go completely unheeded.  Why are we being so thoroughly excluded from these processes?

Marty Krauss has two important questions to answer.  First, do the students deserve a substantial voice in the university’s future?, and second, how will our voices be incorporated as the committees move forward?  However, I’m not confident that she will actually address these questions, and I’m even less confident that her answers will be satisfactory in establishing the student voice as a vital part of the process.  Therefore, the student body is left with a significant question of its own: How do we overcome our lack of direct involvement to make sure we too can help Brandeis succeed?

It’s a tough question, and we should start considering answers now.

Join us

Readers of Innermost Parts, I need your help. Innermost Parts could be great. It could be a beacon of smart, progressive thought. It could be the nerve center of student activism on campus. It could be a sort of town square of thoughts on how to reform the university. It could be a union/media/administration watchdog. It could be the hub for news of stuff going on campus. It could any of these things. I’m not sure that it could be all or even many of these things (at once). Where do you want this thing to go?

That decision could be made by you. Join us.

We’re up to pretty cool things, actually. We’re read by by administration, faculty, alumni, and (of course) engaged students. We’ve broken the news of Jehuda’s retirement, helped to organize the successful resistance to unilateral undemocratic budget cuts in 2009, and most recently we organized the Brandeis community to send a positive love letter to the Muslim community on campus after a tragedy. We can push ideas or stories into the Brandeis consciousness, we can influence the student union to work on the side of good, and more besides.

We’re a chill bunch of guys and girls who don’t take ourselves too seriously. We encourage a lot of personal autonomy and create room for creative growth for bloggers. That is to say, there’s a freedom and joy to blogging that is quite a wonderful thing. We have four open positions: blogger, researcher/reporter, social justice community coordinator, and (my favorite) online organizer.

Still want to blog with us? Fill out this application and send an email to with the subject line “Blogging Application”. We’ll get back to you, arrange an interview, and see if you’re a good fit.

Hey Student! Learn organizing!

Brandeis has a sort of reputation for having great student activism – and it’s deserved! However, Brandeis the institution doesn’t do that great a job teaching students on how to be great activists.

Well, there are ways to try and deal with that (for example, the Activist Resource Center). One great opportunity: the yearly Boston Student Teach-In.

Hey you, student activist! (or would-be activist). You should go to this training to learn how to kick ass and take on the system.

What: Boston Student Teach-In
Where: Northeastern University
When: Sunday March 21, 10am – 4pm.

Do you want to go? Let us know in the comments or email me at . We can carpool or whatever. If enough people sign up we can charter a bran van.

What will you learn at the teach in?

The teach-in is shaping up to be really great. We’re going to be offering a variety of workshops for you all to take part in, ranging from a “Know Your Rights” course put on by the Anarchist Black Cross, to a workshop on “Designing a Meaningful Action” put on by The Action Mill.

Quick Peace Rally Reportback

The last few days have been absolutely exhausting. It was my pleasure to be able to end up such a tumultuous week by meeting with my fellow Brandeisians in the spirit of loving-kindness today.

It was great! I am so proud to go to Brandeis with this wonderful community. I think maybe over 80? people came to a meeting planned less than 24 hours beforehand on facebook. How great it is to be surrounded by the positive energy of all these fellow students? By the end of it I had to tell people “excuse my smile, but I’m really happy to be here and to be inspired and empowered by all you around me.” It felt so great to deliver a pile of signatures for our “love letter” to the muslim community.

We members of the Brandeis went out and showed each other the strength of the bonds between us. High five!

I am in no fit shape to extensively report back. But here’s a taste of what it was like:

There were so many people giving each other hugs it was great.

Continue reading “Quick Peace Rally Reportback”

Further Thoughts

Having further thought about, and discussed at great length, The MSA Incident and the subsequent fallout and reaction, I’d like to offer some clarifications and updates to my earlier post. Firstly, I’m really really proud to see the reaction this campus has had. Sahar’s open letter and the responses to the facebook events clearly indicate the good intentions and open-heartedness of Brandeisians, and I’m proud to call myself one. I’m on a bunch of email threads discussing the next step forward, and while I’m not sure what that should be, the responses by campus leaders and administration folks are awesome.

I’d like to clarify the point of my last post. My point on Wednesday was that while there was a (very high) probability of malicious intent bordering on what we’d call “hate,” we should keep ourselves from summary judgment until the facts present themselves clearly. I also wanted to keep the overall conversation calm and rational, since overreaction can lead to precisely the opposite of the kind of message we want to send. But since then, I’ve talked to people about it, both MSA members and non-, and I just want to update the readership on my thought process. Thanks to those conversations, the interview Imam Eid did with the Daily News Tribune, and some of the comments to that post, I realized that I understated how hurtful an incident like this really is. While the physical, material damage may have been minimal and therefore a bit of a non-issue, the nature of the vandalism itself screams out something far worse than “teenagers TPing a house ’cause they’re bored and want to raise a ruckus.”

Though the sum of the rest of the damage can be seen as such, the stealing of a copy of the Qur’an indicates something more than just a prank or some ultimately-harmless mischief. This is a text that represents the Divine Word of God on earth, and is therefore of immense spiritual value. I think Sahar was essentially right in his post – even not presuming outright desecration of the Scripture, simply walking off with something holy and sacred…? PLUS, there were two years of notes and sermons in there. That’s someone’s hard work. That’s two years of dedication to faith and education and introspection lost. Having really thought about it, this was more than just disrespectful, it was – yes, I’ll say it – a hateful thing to do.

Last thing: Come to the vigil on Friday. Stand up for a good cause. It’s a symbol, but it says a lot.

Actual Last Thing: If anyone’s interested, you’re more than welcome to come to Friday prayer as well. It’s in the International Lounge in Usdan, a little bit past 1, every Friday. There’s a sermon followed by the prayer, and everyone is welcome to stay for either or both.

Show that our love is stronger

24 hours ago, many of us felt angry and helpless. Someone had just committed a disgusting act of vandalism against the Muslim Student Association, and we couldn’t keep quiet about it. We’ve witnessed an amazing show of support from the Brandeis community, with over 450 of us signing a letter affirming our love and support for our Muslim friends. I feel better. I feel hopeful. I hope you feel the same way.

This morning, I promised you that if we reached 300 signatures I would personally hand-deliver our letter to Imam Eid. Well, we beat our goal by over 50 percent in just 12 hours. Please, let me modify that promise. Today, together, let us as a community hand-deliver our letter to the Imam.

Will you skip your 12:00 class today and join me at the Peace Circle outside Usdan to deliver our message of solidarity with Brandeis’s Muslim friends and family?

At noon, let’s wear white and meet at the peace garden near Usdan, and with one voice, let us show everyone that our love is stronger than the hate of one anonymous vandal. Let us show the world a more true picture of Brandeis.

I have a class tomorrow at noon, but I’m going to skip it, because I believe that giving comfort to friends in a time of need is more important.
Please, skip the first half hour of your noon class and meet the rest of us at the peace circle at noon today.

Joyce Kelly, a journalist with the Waltham Daily News Tribune, will join us at the peace and solidarity rally tomorrow. This is our chance to show her the best of Brandeis.

Here’s the facebook event with all the information:

Peace and Solidarity Vigil with the Muslim Student Association
Where: Peace Circle Outside Usdan
When: Noon on Friday
What: Wear white, show up, bring a hug and a smile

If you can’t make it out at noon today, please share the event with your friends on facebook.

We hit 300. Can we hit 600?

In the three hours since I last posted and left for class, we’ve hit our 300 signature goal for 300 students saying YES to love of our muslim friends on campus. Now that we’ve broken out of the facebook ghetto*, faculty are getting interested in signing too.

This could get big. I am overjoyed by the positive response by the Brandeis community so far. Can we get 600 signatures by midnight tonight? I want to email the Boston Globe and say “Hey! There’s this mass outpouring of love and support going on here, why don’t you cover that?”

So – New Goal! Can we get 600 students, faculty, and staff to stand in solidarity with the Muslim community and say that vandalism does not reflect our values? Click here to sign if you haven’t yet.

Continue reading “We hit 300. Can we hit 600?”

Can 300 people say NO to hate and YES to love?

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.

Activism surrounds you

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”

MSA Vandalism Hitting Area News

For a university reeling for a series of PR disasters on a national scale, this can’t be how Brandeis hoped to return to the news.  The vandalism at the Muslim Student Association lounge has been picked up by the Boston Herald, the Boston Globe, WCVB-TV Channel 5 Boston, the Huffington Post, and, for some reason, an obscure newspaper in Louisiana.

I hate seeing Brandeis attracting this kind of attention.  Many of the stories seem to blow a “Muslims vs. Jews” dog-whistle that gives a completely false picture of how things really are at the university.  If I were a Muslim student, I’d definitely reconsider attending Brandeis after hearing this story.

To whomever did this, if you somehow happen to read this, know that I cannot imagine that I’m sharing this campus with as low a form of scum as you.  You’ve stolen and destroyed private property, attacked a minority group, and tarnished Brandeis’s reputation.  I don’t know if you’re actually a student, but I know for sure that you are not a Brandeisian.

I’ll update this post periodically throughout the night with new links if more news stories come to my attention.

Priorities

The front page of this week’s Justice has, as its lead article, a story about the Constitutional Review Committee’s final report.  The article is well-written, comprehensive, and informative, and it’s accompanied by a nice, eye-catching picture.  The problem is that I don’t think anyone cares.

The CRC is one of those topics that’s only interesting to the very small minority of students who follow the Union closely.  Its meetings were held behind closed doors, its mission is basically just a reshuffling of the Union government, and even the best changes it proposes will measurably affect only a small percentage of the campus community.  You don’t have to take my word for it; in same issue’s ‘Brandeis Talks Back’ section, all four of the students they interview express complete apathy to the process.  Yes, the report is significant enough to merit coverage, but does it really deserve its front page status?

Meanwhile, you’d have to turn to page 5 of the paper to learn that a potential hate crime occurred on the Brandeis campus this weekend.  The newly-refurbished Muslim Student Association suite was viciously vandalized on Friday.  The wall in Imam Talal Eid’s office was permanently damaged, and his personal copy of the Quran was stolen.  The nature of the theft makes it hard to view this as anything but an attack against campus Muslims, and it absolutely sickens me to think that such a vile invasion could happen at the school I call home.  But apparently, it’s worth only one-sixth of a page buried in the News section, next to a full page of advertisements.

During Diana Aronin’s impeachment and trial, many people complained about the petty disagreements that the Union officers turned into a public spectacle.  I agree with them, but the campus media need to be held culpable as well for turning what should have been an internal Union affair into a weekly front-page spectacle.  If our Union government suffers from self-importance, it is only because they’re used to getting undue attention for every minor issue.  Meanwhile, the papers will continue to alienate their readers if they glorify topics that are ultimately irrelevant for most students.  I suspect that students are far more interested in uncovering hate on our campus than on how big the Union Senate will be next year, and I think the every campus media outlet needs to reassess what its reporting priorities should be.

“All people of good will and conscience”

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.

Hate Crime for Sure?

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.

Hate Crime On Campus

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 shows our school spirit

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.

Prenostalgia

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.

A Belated Thank You

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.

Thoughts on the Provost’s Decisions

Earlier today, Provost Marty Krauss released her decisions regarding the 18 proposals that the Brandeis 2020 Committe submitted to narrow Brandeis’s projected operating deficit.  With one minor alteration, she chose to accept them all, meaning that they all will go to the Board of Trustees for approval later this month.

I imagine that there are a lot of disappointed students and faculty members at Brandeis today, and I can completely understand why.  If you’ve devoted your life to a specific program, or if your job security is incumbent on a program’s existence, the last thing you want to hear is that the program has been deemed unworthy of the money that Brandeis has put into it.  Each of these 18 cuts will affect some future students or current faculty members in serious ways, and the ramifications could be felt sooner than we might expect.  Can we really trust the administration to properly prioritize departments they’ve already singled out for termination?

Still, I have to say that I support the decision that Provost Krauss released today.  The Committee recommendations are the result of a exhaustively researched and debated process that incorporated a wide range of Brandeis community members.  The Committee took every effort to understand completely the ramifications of each of its proposals.  Yes, all of these cuts hurt, but Brandeis has already cut all of the easy stuff, and we’re truly out of options.  I find it stunning that Brandeis 2020 was able to reach its financial goals while leaving almost the entire undergraduate experience intact and preserving so much that is central to the Brandeis mission.  Faced with a bunch of bad options, I feel that the Committee members did the best job they could possibly do.

The strongest reaction against the Brandeis 2020 recommendations came from the Theater community in protest against the proposed phasing out of the Graduate School Theater Design program.  Their organization was quick and effective, and their Facebook group currently has over 2,000 members.  This decision was much closer to me than most others; I’ve worked on a Department show before, and I had an opportunity to interview two students from the Design program for a Brandeis Hoot podcast.  I think they have some very strong arguments for preserving their program, and it’s sad to think that the resources that led to the amazing design of the recent Funnyhouse of a Negro production will no longer be available.  But I also think that the Committee knew what it was doing when it recommended scaling back on this very expensive program.  One of the signatories of the Brandeis 2020 report is Theater Arts Department Chair Susan Dibble; do you really think she would have put her name on a report that unfairly and irreparably weakened her department?

The members of the Brandeis 2020 Committee should be recognized for work they put in over the past two months.  Every one of them had to bite the bullet on a very personal sacrifice, and they know they face condemnation for the cuts they made but no commendation for the programs they saved.  In the upcoming years, Brandeis will have to tighten its belt to the point of discomfort, but we will be left with a university finally able to see beyond its darkest hour to a future with its core principles firmly intact.