Author: Sahar

I just got more info on the Brandeis Alumni/Activists that are coming tomorrow and Thursday.

Here’s the best way to chill and learn from them: facebook event. With a super surprise at the end!

Paul Adler attended Brandeis from 2000 and 2004, where he studied Politics and was active with Students for a Just Society.  After graduating, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked for MoveOn.org on the 2004 election and then spent two years at Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch engaged on issues of free trade and development.  Paul is currently finishing his third year of the PhD history program at Georgetown University, focusing on the history of economic globalization, transnational activism, and U.S. social movements.

A native of Shaker Heights, Ohio, Jocelyn Berger spent a year in Israel on the Nativ College/Leadership Program before coming of age at Brandeis, through activism in Students for a Just Society, ARC, and the Antiwar and Labor Coalitions. Since graduating in 2004 in Sociology, Politics, and Peace and Conflict Studies, she has worked for antiwar, labor, Jewish community, humanitarian, and international social justice organizations as a fundraiser, event planner, marketer, organizer, and jack of all trades.  A 2002 Ethics and Coexistence Fellow (the predecessor of Brandeis’ Sorensen Fellowships) in Sri Lanka, Jocelyn returned to South Asia in 2007 to volunteer in Mumbai, India with the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Jocelyn now works as a Program Officer with AJWS and AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps in San Francisco, working to spark and sustain social change by building a vibrant community united at the intersection of Jewish values and passion for social justice.

Ben Brandzel, class of 2003, has focused his career on using new technologies and classic organizing strategies to build progressive grassroots political power in the US and around the world. Ben currently serves as the Director of New Media Campaigns and Fundraising for Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee, where he is responsible for the online voice of the President and the direct engagement of more than 20 million supporters to drive forward President Obama’s agenda. Ben has worked on 3 presidential campaigns, and served as Advocacy Director for MoveOn.org through the successful 2006 mid-term elections. He founded the student arm of MoveOn.org, and co-founded Avaaz.org (a 4.2 million member international advocacy network) as well as 38Degrees.org.uk (a grassroots progressive advocacy network in Britain). He has advised international NGO’s such as Greenpeace, Oxfam and Amnesty International, and led grassroots engagement trainings on 5 continents. At Brandeis, Ben was active in Student Union Government, Students for a Just Society and speech and debate. He began online organizing his junior year, by founding the Oxfam America Collegiate Click drive — a project to raise money for micro-credit anti-poverty programs that volunteer Brandeisian leaders continued for many years.

Corey Hope Leaffer attended Brandeis from 2000-2004 where she founded the women’s literary magazine “Free Your Voice” and the Brandeis Labor Coalition, graduating with a degree in women’s studies and sociology. After winning the Giller-Sagan Prize for her thesis, “Teaching Brandeis to Transgress”, Corey spent time traveling as a member of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) building schoolhouses in Ghana. Upon her return, Corey became a Jewish Organizing Initiative Fellow and lead the North Shore Labor Council (a coalition of more than 50 local unions) as Director for two years. Corey now works as the coordinator of Hospital New Organizing for 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East in Massachusetts, where she recently led the largest hospital organizing campaign in Boston history, organizing more than 2,500 workers at Caritas Christi Healthcare facilities in 2009 alone. She is also a lead facilitator at SEIU’s organizer training program, the WAVE, training hundreds of new organizers from across the country on basic union organizing techniques and currently sits on the executive board of The Women’s Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) and the New England Jewish Labor Committee. A native of Denver, Colorado, Corey resides in Jamaica Plain where she gardens and participates in sprint triathlons in her spare time.

Andrew Slack ’02 was a Sociology major at Brandeis who served as a Coexistence Fellow in Northern Ireland, an acting conservatory in London, and participated in David Cunningham’s “Bus Class,” Possibilities for Change in American Communities. Andrew is the creator, co-founder, and executive director of the Harry Potter Alliance where he uses cutting edge new media platforms to educate and mobilize tens of thousands of Harry Potter fans around issues of social justice, personal empowerment, and civic engagement. With a growing network of 60 chapters, 40 volunteer staff, and whose message is syndicated to over one million people the Harry Potter Alliance has leveraged significant media coverage while achieving success on a multitude of issues including creating a coalition of 20 fan communities that raised over $123,000 for Haiti. A former member of the Brandeis-born comedy group the Late Night Players, Andrew has performed for thousands of college students across the US, produced, co-wrote, and co-starred in four videos that have been seen over 9 million times, has written for the LA Times, Huffington Post, In These Times, and appeared on Australia’s Today Show.

Claudia Martinez–bio coming soon

Trying to fill your event calendar for the week? Well, besides the totally amazing bands that will be at Chums, there are two off-campus events you might be interested in:

First, a peace conference. Professor Gordie will give you rides!

There will be a conference–Sun, Earth, Water: War or Community Solutions-this coming Saturday at the Peace Abbey (http://www.peaceabbey.org/) in Sherborn. The workshops (see attachment) look exceptionally vital and important. I urge any of us who can attend to do so. I could pick people up from Brandeis at 9:30 and drive them to and from the Abbey, although I may have to leave a bit before the day’s events end.     The conference is sponsored and organized by the New England Peace Studies Association, of which Brandeis is a member.

Next. “Calling All Hipsters! Fashionisters! Lovers of Boiled Leaves! Sugar! Spots of Cream! Corsets! Petticoats! The 19th Century! Anti-Politics! A-Politics! April 14th. 10am. Boston Commons. Eat Sarah Palin.” — Guy Rossman

We all know that Sarah Palin will be bringing her big hair, tortured syntax, scrawl-covered hands, and legion of racist militia members to Boston this month for a “Tea Party,” but what, if anything are we going to do about it? The members of b0st0n.livejournal have cooked something up: Throw a real tea party!The Real Boston Tea Party already has a Facebook page and a manifesto. Its participants are going to cosplay an actual 19th century tea party on the Boston Common while Palin and her teabaggers scream and yell about Obama’s African American stormtroopers who are forcing their children with cancer to enroll in health insurance for the first time.

And this Wednesday and Thursday night of course it’s “chill with kickass Brandeis Activist Alumni” night

So a little while ago I was confused about what was going on for us students, census-wise. People said that, for those of us who live on campus, we just have to wait for our CA’s to take care of it for us. And now Rick Sawyer, Dean of Student Life, just sent out an email making things even more clear. Here’s the info:

On Wednesday, April 7, officials from the US Census Department will be on-campus and will give census forms to the Department of  Community Living.  DCL will then give the forms to Community Advisors, who will distribute them to their residents.  Surveys are seven questions long and should take about two minutes to complete. Students will give their form to their CA, who will return it to Community Living.   It is very important that every student who lives on-campus completes and hands in their form.  Students who fail to complete the form will be contacted by the Census folks directly for form completion.

Continue reading “Census Confusion No More”

So I’m thinking about running for President of the Student Union. I’m not sure if I should, and I’d like your advice.

This is a very personal, introspective post. I’m not writing it like I would normally write a blog post. Feel free to skip it.
Continue reading “Should I run for President?”

Warning! Here lies blogging about blogging:

Everyone, I’ve reorganized the blogrolls (on the bottom – right of the page). I’ve added more links, taken some out. I spent some good time finding useful and interesting websites that I enjoy and you might find useful or thought-provoking. Check them out.

I hope you enjoyed our April Fools tomfoolery. I feel … disappointed. I had all these great thoughts for Innermost Parts on April fools, but 4/1 snuck up so sneakily I didn’t have time to put them all into action. Well, I guess we’re gonna declare a different day to be “April Fools, Part 2” by fiat, and put them in motion then.

Our categories for posts are a bit outdated and not helpful. I’m thinking of redoing them. I’m thinking… keep the Authors categories, have an “explaining what’s going on” category, keep the “news” and “events” ones. What sort of categories would you like to see added or removed?

Are you in the Boston/Brandeis area today? Go to this event.

Adam Green, Marshall Ganz, and Matthew Yglesias! For free! Do yourself a favor and be there.

How Hard to Push? Progressive Activism in the Age of Obama

When: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Where: Harvard Kennedy School • 79 John F. Kennedy Street • Malkin Penthouse, top floor Littauer Building • Cambridge
Start: 2010 Apr 1 – 6:00pm
End: 2010 Apr 1 – 8:00pm

How Hard to Push?

Progressive Activism in the Age of Obama

All-star panel, with Q&A

Panelists:

Matthew Yglesias: blogger hailed as one of the top 20 left-of-center journalists in America

Medea Benjamin: founder of CODEPINK and Global Exchange; one of the nation’s preeminent grassroots mobilizers

Adam Green: founding chair of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a group working to elect bold progressives

Moderator: MARSHALL GANZ: lecturer in public policy at HKS, all-around organizing guru

Did you know that Brandeis is a 2010 Census on Campus partner? According to the Census Bureau that means that Brandeis has “formally pledged [its] commitment to share the 2010 Census message and mobilize [its] constituents in support of the Census Bureau’s goal of achieving a complete and accurate count.”

Does that explain all the census fliers in Usdan?
The problem with generic fliers in Usdan is this: to students, they look like a scam. I mean obviously the federal government isn’t trying to scam you, but glossy literature that is clearly meant not just for Brandeis sets off my “marketing crap, ignore” alert. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Anyways, some people think that we shouldn’t worry about filling out the Census because our parents are taking care of it. That’s probably not true. I just talked to my folks and they said the Census people specifically told them not to count me with their forms. Also, the Census main site says this:

However, students living away from home will receive their own questionnaires, so to prevent students from being counted twice (or not at all!) in the census, they and their parents need to know this.

So I’m pretty sure I need to fill out a census form. But I never got one. Is this because I have on-campus housing? The Census on Campus website is not helpful.

So here at Innermost Parts I talk a lot about power to the people. You know – students need more say in things. We should have a part of the governing structure of the University, the board of trustees should actually listen to us, some members of administration should make an actual effort to know students (others do it quite well) etc.

Now, in my mind I’ve always known that there are limits to that. Democracy is a good idea but holding incessant elections is a problem. There needs to be space for people to make decisions that aren’t held hostage to votes, counter-votes, committee meetings, etc.

I stumbled upon an account of the troubles of pacifica radio. The themes are interesting. I wonder if this is the sort of horror scenario that the Board of Trustees thinks of when we ask for more say in decisions?

Now, I think that’s silly. There’s a big difference between asking for giving students equal representation on already-existing committees and a takeover of the University by a lunatic fringe. Still, this story is one worth reading about and thinking over.

I wonder what an optimal student union setup would be like? Clearly we can’t “throw democracy” at the problem, but surely we can find better ways of doing things.

Just got an email from Jehuda to all of campus. I’ll let it speak for itself:

Dear Students,

As you prepare to leave campus for spring break, I want to share with you some of the good news from this week’s meetings of the Board of Trustees. It has been a very challenging winter at Brandeis, but the hard work of faculty, students and staff to address our challenges has paid off for the University.

First, the Board approved a $356 million operating budget for fiscal year 2011 that puts Brandeis on a path to a truly balanced operating budget by 2014. This is a great achievement in today’s economic climate, especially when we see many peer institutions facing deep, across-the-board budget cuts, some retrenchment in financial aid commitments, and extensive layoffs.

Brandeis chose a different and far more considered and strategic path.

The Brandeis 2020 Committee, comprised primarily of faculty members and chaired by Dean Adam Jaffe, was asked to take a comprehensive look at the School of Arts and Sciences and develop a plan to better balance the University’s resources with its commitments. In the end, while some programs were eliminated or changed and we will, over the next few years, lose 12 to 14 full- and part-time faculty and staff members, the committee concluded that its recommendations “make us more financially viable, better able to deliver the curriculum we remain committed to, and more flexible in responding to new demands and opportunities.”

Provost Marty Krauss gave thoughtful consideration to the committee’s 18 proposals and, with one exception, approved them. It is important to note that all current undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the incoming Class of 2014, will be able to finish the academic programs they began without any impact on their studies.

In addition to the Brandeis 2020 efforts, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, the Brandeis International Business School and the Rabb School of Continuing Studies found ways to generate more income while maintaining the highest academic standards. The administration identified savings in energy contracts and in the way we deploy technology around the campus. The Board agreed to use cash reserves to cover some operating costs, while the full budget savings and revenue enhancements from all these efforts take effect over the next four years.

We have other long-range financial needs at Brandeis that must be systemically addressed, but my expectation is that we have passed through the most critical hours of our financial challenge, and we can now concentrate on teaching, scholarship and research rather than budgets.

The Board also heard some other good news.

Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy reported that we received 7,738 applications for admission this year — the largest number of applications in the University’s history. This in an increase from 6,815 last year, and tells me that, despite the tough economy and tough headlines Brandeis endured in the last year, potential students and their families recognize the value of the education they can receive here.

There are two other very encouraging facts I want to share with you that bode well for campus diversity in the future. Our international applications increased from 1,211 to 1,599, and applications from students of color increased from 1,706 to 2,111.

On the academic side, while we accepted almost exactly the same number of students, 2,573, our current acceptance rate is 33 percent compared to last year’s 40 percent and the Mean SAT of our accepted students went from 1392 to 1400.

The interests of our applicants remain extremely varied, but it is worth noting that two of our newest offerings, the undergraduate business major and undergraduate Film, TV & Media studies, are greatly in demand.

Applications to the Heller School IBS were also up this spring. Heller saw a 10 percent increase, while IBS reported a 14 percent increase in MSF and MAief applicants.

Continuing on student life issues, the Board approved a much-needed $9 million renovation of Charles River Apartments, which will be ready this fall. Students also told the Board they want to hear more from members of the administration, so when you return from break we’ll hold two campus-wide town meetings — one for undergraduates and one for graduate students. I encourage you to attend to let us know what’s on our mind.

I want to share some other high points: the Men’s Basketball Team charged to the Elite 8 in the NCAA’s Division III tournament, IBS was recognized as one of the top business schools in America by two influential publications, a PhD student once again won the prestigious Allan Nevins Prize awarded to the best-written doctoral dissertation on an American history topic, Heller faculty were recognized as national experts during the historic health care debate and vote in Washington, ground was broken for a large-scale public artwork by Michael Dowling for the Leonard Bernstein Festival of Creative Arts, and students launched creative ways to aid those in need in earthquake ravaged Haiti.

Finally, the presidential search committee reported that it is impressed with the number and quality of candidates interested in the presidency, and the committee will begin interviews later this spring.

These are just a handful of the many great things happening on campus, and they all help to define Brandeis today. As a community, we can all be very proud.

Enjoy a safe, happy and restful holiday break.

Best wishes,

Jehuda Reinharz

In my inbox:

The Brandeis Labor Coalition is pairing up with the Haiti Relief Effort to put together a Haitian Worker Appreciation Luncheon!

The event will take place this Thursday, March 25 from 2:30pm-4:00pm in Feldberg Lounge in Upper Sherman. There will be LOTS of free food!!!!

The event is open to all students and all Haitian workers on campus. Please come support the Haitian workers!

The event is sponsored by the Brenda Meehan Social Justice-in-Action Grant .

Please publicize this event to your list serves and to anyone else who might be interested. Thanks!

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!

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”

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!”

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.

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”

Heads up – we’re gonna have another bank on Moody street. And this one probably won’t have as great a marketing campaign as the last one.

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 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.

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.

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.

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”

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.

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

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?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s nice to remember that sometimes.

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

10 minutes ago the entire campus received this email:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s school spirit!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fuck you, you bastard.

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)

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.