Innermost Parts

Author: Adam Hughes

  • Waltham and Brandeis — The Super Friends of Proper Parking

    Today, Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan sent out an all-campus e-mail from the Waltham Police Department sharing the city’s parking regulations. The full text of the e-mail is below the fold. I don’t have a car on campus, but many of my friends do, and I drive with them into Waltham fairly frequently. Clearly, […]

  • Turn the Campus Green — One Room at a Time

    Have you gotten your room Green Certified yet? If not, do it now! The Certified Green Room program is run by the Campus Sustainability Initiative as a way to get more students thinking — and living — in an environmentally conscious manner. To sign up, you simply need to choose 15 green pledges from a […]

  • Bike-Sharing: Not Just for Brandeis

    The ‘DeisBikes program, which started during the spring 2009 semester, provides free bicycle rentals to Brandeis students. If you’ve never used it before, it’s really easy to get started — just present your student ID to the Shapiro Campus Center Information Booth, and you’ve got yourself a bike for the rest of the day. The […]

  • Say No To Marty (And Yes To Brandeis)

    In 2009, Brandeis University awarded Marty Peretz its Alumni Achievement Award. He’s featured in the Alumni Snapshots section of our website, under a heading praising him for “Leading the Intellectual Inquiry”. He’s the editor-in-chief of the New Republic, and we use his name repeatedly to promote the university. So what has he done recently to […]

  • Introducing the Change Agency!

    Welcome to the Change Agency, the new progressive activist group on campus! After a lot of hard work from a lot of talented people, the Change Agency is finally ready to go public and bring activism at Brandeis to new heights. And each and every one of us can bring our talents together and play […]

  • The Schuster Institute: Journalism Superheroes

    In 1972, the young reporting team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein almost single-handedly uncovered the evidence of the political scandal of the century and forced the resignation of a corrupt President.  Thirty years later, another corrupt administration lied the nation into an ongoing war with the complicity of a media that served as cheerleaders […]

  • A New Brandeis Study: Mental Health and Recession

    Treatment of mental health conditions has long been the most underfunded aspect of the American health care system (the other contender is preventive care, but the Affordable Care Act has finally taken steps to address it).  People with mental health disorders are frequently denied not only the funding to seek appropriate treatment but also, all […]

  • More Info on the Rose’s Future: Art for Auction, but Not for Sale (Yet)

    Two days ago, I wrote about the exciting news that the Rose Art Museum was named one of 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts.  That, however, will be cold comfort if the Museum is later disbanded or if its collection is devalued by the sale of some of its major works.  Unfortunately, the latest updates in […]

  • Massachusetts Releases List of Greatest Places, and Brandeis Is Included!

    After a year of accepting submissions, the Massachusetts’ legislature’s 1,000 Great Places Commission has released its report of the best locations in the state.  That’s not exactly an exclusive list considering that Massachusetts has only 351 cities and towns, but it’s still nice to see that one of these Great Places is found on our […]

  • Frederick Lawrence’s Political Contribution History

    Last winter, when Brandeis Trustee Meyer Koplow was nominated to serve as our next President, one of the major objections I heard to his candidacy was his ties to the Republican Party.  As Nathan Robinson wrote in the Hoot, Koplow’s record of political contributions includes several darlings of the right-wing, including the ultraconservative  Jim DeMint […]

  • Brandeis Scientists Fighting the War Against Cancer

    A recent study by a Brandeis biologist and two of his students sheds some light on what causes healthy cells to become cancerous.  Professor James Haber, who was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences last spring, worked with grad student Wade Hicks and 2009 graduate Minlee Kim to research the process of repairing DNA […]

  • Brandeis — Pariah of the Art World

    The American Association of Museums has just entirely revamped their standards for accreditation.  Why did this national organization decide that sweeping changes were needed? The announcement last year that Brandeis University planned to sell its noted, 6,000-piece collection of modern art stunned and angered museum officials around the world. The university said it needed money […]

  • The New Media Meme: “Brandeis Hates Israel!!!”

    Last Wednesday, Jonathan Mark of The Jewish Week published an article striking back at the perception that Israel is, even among Jews, losing the respect of the American people that it has enjoyed for so long.  While I try to avoid injecting myself into Israeli political debates as much as possible, I do find it […]

  • Professor Schwartz

    I’m sure every student has faced the inevitable “Brandeis? Where is that?” after telling someone where you go to school.  For a college of our academic reputation, Brandeis doesn’t have a whole lot of name recognition, and I often find myself having to come up with a quick fact or two to introduce my school.  […]

  • A Preview of the Lawrence Presidency

    I’m really impressed with the all the buzz surrounding future Brandeis President Frederick Lawrence, both from his strong biography and academic record and from the glowing words of praise that everyone seems to have for him.  However, all the accolades in the world can’t predict what we’ll actually get once Lawrence takes office on January […]

  • Law Journal Update — Sold Out! But You Can Still Get One

    It’s been out for less than two weeks, but the Brandeis Law Journal has already been cleaned off the shelves.  Fear not, though, because you can still get one by e-mailing subscriptions@brandeislawjournal.com.  All Brandeis students can get a copy for free, but non-students have to pay $4.95.  Get one!  Read your fellow students’ work!  I’ve […]

  • Activist Goals and the Student Union

    Last month, I applied to be the Director of Community Advocacy on then-Union President-elect Daniel Acheampong’s Executive Board.  The spot ultimately went to someone else; namely, JV Souffrant, who was sworn in several weeks ago and who I’m sure will do a great job with the position.  I’m not too disappointed about losing the spot […]

  • President Daniel Acheampong

    Everyone I know who has met Daniel Acheampong shares the same opinion: Daniel is a really nice guy.  He always has a smile and a handshake whenever you run into him, and he’ll always stop to chat no matter how busy he is.  Basically, to know the guy is to love him, and that alone […]

  • A Tribute to President Andy Hogan

    How many of you have eaten in Sherman since Passover break?  I am right now.  I’ve been eating at Sherman a lot more since the latest round of improvements, and it’s become more crowed than it used to be since word has spread about the changes.  There are more options, more food cooked to order, […]

  • Help Improve the Hoot

    Do any of you read the Hoot (you all should)?  Does anyone have any problems with it? Well, no more will you concerns go unheeded.  The Hoot is currently running a reader survey designed to help it be more responsive to the community.  This is really cool, and more clubs should do it.  They all […]

  • Livebloggin’ the Social Panel for Autism Awareness

    I’m in the Alumni Lounge, waiting for SPECTRUM’s Social Panel on Autism Awareness to begin, and if you’re reading right now, you should definitely try to show up — there are all of 11 people right now waiting to hear from the panelists, and the event ostensibly began five minutes ago.  However, if you can’t […]

  • Bernstein Festival, Day Two (And Some Bonus Events!)

    So the Brandeis Early Music Ensemble concert was pretty awesome; watch for my review of it coming out in tomorrow’s Hoot.  But that’s only day one of the Bernstein Festival, and we’ve got plenty more artsy goodness coming our way today.  I’m a sucker for music, so I’ll be at the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra’s Theme and […]

  • SPRINGFEST — You Heard It Here First!

    Back in January 2009, Innermost Parts was the first news outlet to report that the Board of Trustees had decided to close the Rose Art Museum.  Last September, we were the first to announce that President Reinharz was going to resign.  Both times, we were accused of irresponsibly publishing false rumors, but both times, we […]

  • Livebloggin’ the Right-Wing Radicalism Conference

    I’m in the International Lounge right now, waiting for Right-Wing Radicalism: A Transatlantic Perspective to begin.  The national attention on the conference has caused campus interest to skyrocket, and I know that many people who want to be here can’t, whether because of class or a general lack of space.  So I’ll be liveblogging the […]

  • Bernstein Festival, Day One

    Today is the first day of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, Brandeis’ premier celebration of all that is creative and artistic.  We have access to a incredibly wide range of talent over the next five days, and I encourage everyone to take advantage of it by looking over the festival schedule and […]

  • A Compromise

    I’ve heard from a lot of people offering to compromise on the Brandeis Sustainability Fund by saying that they’d support it as long as they could opt out of paying.  That still seems a little unfair to me, so let me offer a compromise of my own: Anyone can opt out of paying the BSF.  […]

  • Elections Results Are Here!!!

    Unfortunately Sahar didn’t win, but this election featured incredible turnout, including over 50% of the campus population in the presidential race.  Congratulations to all the winners!  Numbers will be posted as soon as I can figure out how to attach them. Dear candidates, The full results are attached to this e-mail. The winners are: President: […]

  • A Closing Case for Sahar Massachi

    We as a student body this year are lucky to have four strong and competent candidates running to fill the Student Union Presidency, probably the most important student position in terms of ability to create change on campus by working with the administration.  JV Souffrant has done great work in raising huge amounts of money […]

  • Union Elections Running on an Awfully Cramped Timeline

    Sign-ups for the first round of spring Student Union elections were just announced about an hour ago, and I can’t help but think that the time-line they chose doesn’t give students much time to think about running.  The mandatory candidates meeting will be held on April 8th, on the second day back from break.  If […]

  • Getting Rid of Robert’s Rules

    One of the biggest arguments in favor of the Union government restructuring proposal was that it would remove the difficult parliamentary procedure of the Senate.  The new Union Assembly would have been a smaller body, free from the obscure minutiae of Robert’s Rules of Order and easier for students to approach and work with. Even […]

  • Lies, Damn Lies, and Cultural Productions

    At today’s meeting, the Board of Trustees will make the final vote on the Brandeis 2020 Committee proposals that Provost Marty Krauss approved earlier this month.  So far, I think the process has gone as well as we could hope for, and I generally approve of the decisions that the Committee made.  However, one program […]

  • 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, […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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, […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Secretary Election Results

    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 votes Rank    Candidate           […]

  • RMS Senator Election Results

    We have them late, but we do have them: Rank Candidate Votes % 1 Jean Souffrant 62 77.50 2 ABSTAIN 12 15.00 3 Martin Luther King Jr 1 1.25 3 Neda Eid 1 1.25 3 Gideon Klionsky 1 1.25 3 Usman Hameedi 1 1.25 3 Dan Ding 1 1.25 3 Jonathan Ringvald 1 1.25 9 […]