Category: Uncategorized

So, I wrote an article in the currently released edition of the Justice on Buddhism and activism (specifically tied to the peace movement).*  My goal in writing this letter to the editor was to correct a misinterpretation of Buddhism as “passive withdrawal from the world”.  In devoting so much time to thinking about engaged Buddhism, I had a few revelations.

1) I realized exactly how much the teachings and philosophy of Buddhism promote being active in the world we live in, in many varying ways.

2) On a deeper level, I realized that my contact with Buddhism and how I live my life through a Buddhist lens has made any activist issue (that promotes the genuine happiness and well-being of all sentient beings) is a deeply personal and spiritual issue for me.

3) I want to read more books.

So, in discovering just to what extent my Buddhist practice goes hand in hand with my drive for progressive activism and being the Religious Studies UDR that I am… I am wondering if other people have similar experiences where their religious/spiritual affiliations or views affect their personal experiences with and perspectives on activism.

So take a little time… while you’re walking to class, when you’re mind is racing before you go to bed, when you’re in the shower… and think about where your activist drive comes from and what reinforces it.  Be it religious or not, I really am truly curious!  So please, please, please post your thoughts!  Or you can stalk me and we can have lunch and talk about it 🙂

*The Justice had to do some light editing for issues of space, so you can read my letter in its full, unadulterated form after the jump

Continue reading “Activism and Religion”

I drive the Branvan. Some of you may know that, having suffered through a ride with me before. Others may have forgotten their Branvan experiences with me due to the state of inebriation they were experiencing at the time. Whatever your encounters with the Branvan have been, though, it is likely that you are upset with certain aspects of our service. I know this because someone came up to me the other day and said “Hey, don’t you drive the Branvan?” and when I responded in the affirmative, he informed me in an upset tone that he disliked me and everything I stood for.

Listen, though, friends: you have every right to complain. Branvans tend to be late and cramped. The vans themselves are on the verge of collapse. Sometimes we miss your stop. Sometimes we accidentally forget about you and leave you stranded in Waltham. I’ve heard the complaints, and as a regular rider of the van, I know that they are mostly justified.

But we try, we really do. Remember that Branvan drivers are hardworking, decent Americans with families to feed. Some of them look just like you or me (mostly me). We like you. And it’s our sworn mission to safely transport you wherever your heart may desire, be it Hannaford or Walgreens or the sketchy adult novelty store on Moody St.

We do make mistakes. The last time I drove the Branvan into Waltham, I accidentally dropped some poor girl at Moody and High instead of Main and Moody. She seemed very upset. I had misheard her request. To whoever you are, Anonymous Irritated Passenger-Girl, I am sorry. I let you, and my fellow members of that noble breed known as Branvan drivers, down. Will you forgive me?

Here’s some happy news, though. Every day we’re trying pretty hard to make our service bearable! In fact, we even bought a brand new van at the beginning of this year. It’s called Van 60. It’s gorgeous. And new. And it smells like a new Branvan should. And it’s not bumpy or filthy or falling-apart. You’ll love it.

We are trying our best to get you to your class or your frat party or whatever with the minimum amount of massive inconvenience. Sometimes we fail. But even when we fail, know that we love you. And we hope someday that you can love us too.

Got this in my email. Van Jones! For free. Check it out. Send emails/questions/RSVPs to this guy.

Hey everyone,
Just reminding you about the upcoming Bioneers by the Bay kick off even on October 23rd. Bioneers by the Bay 2008 is an awesome environmental conference which is being held this year in New Bedford, MA. The opening night kick-off event is completely FREE, and we have reserved transportation to take everyone who is interested! The kick-off event features the amazing speakers and activists Majora Carter, Van Jones, and Simran Sethi. Check out the details at: http://www.connectingforchange.org/kickoff-info.html. So if you’re interested in going, send me an email, we are trying to organize the transportation and need somewhat of a head count. So check it out, let me know
Thanks
James Bartolacci

The Coalition for Food Service Reform has their first public meeting tonight in Pearlman Lounge at 10 PM. They plan on unveiling a draft of their list of proposals.

Everyone who is interested in Aramark’s environmental, labor, financial, social practices should show up. It should be very interesting.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about campus architecture.  You might remember my short series entitled “Blunders of Brandeis” about the buildings and planning of Brandeis University.  This time I’m not so cynical.  I’d like to share with you some of the ways in which our most beloved building, Usen Castle, has influenced the modern pieces of architecture on campus.  Since I keep discovering more as I investigate the campus, this will be the first piece in a mini-series.

The first building I’d like to feature is Spingold Theater.  It has at least three castle-like characteristics.  Let’s start with the entrance, which reminds me of an open castle gate.  The large canopy above the doors is about the same size as the entrance, making it appear like it has been lifted up to welcome visitors.

Continue reading “The Castles of Brandeis: Part I – Spingold Theater”

As an active member of the Student Union and a writer for innermostparts.org the article in “The Hoot,” by Ariel Wittenberg, about the blog disturbed me. The premise of the article was based on one post by Phil Lacombe ’10, who tried to claim that a Brandeis Progressive Party had been formed and was gaining power in the Student Union. This claim is simply false; to my knowledge there is no Progressive Party, and if it exists it has no members in the Brandeis Student Union. Unfortunately, Wittenberg chose to portray the ‘party’ as though it were a debate. She writes, “The issue of whether or not Innermost Parts constitutes a Political Party is one that neither the writers of the blog nor other Student Union members agree upon.” Having spoken with the other alleged members of this ‘party,’ I know that there is no debate; there simply is no party, no question about it.

So why then are writers and members of the innermostparts.org community running for positions in the Student Union? I would think it is rather obvious; we are people who are concerned with issues on Brandeis and want to be able to do something about them. That’s why we write for innermostparts.org and that’s why we work in the Student Union. We have no unified agenda other than the same agenda that all members of the Student Union share; we want to make Brandeis better. By portraying us as a political party, Wittenberg simply creates more divides than necessary in the Student Union; we need to be able to work with our colleagues without them thinking we have a hidden agenda. I was simply amazed that Wittenberg failed to interview any of the members of the Senate she and Lacombe accused of being a part of this ‘party,’ perhaps then she would have understood that there is no debate; there simply is no party.

Ben Brandzel ’03 created the Social Justice Committee with the purpose of allowing the Brandeis Student Union to take on social justice projects; to make Brandeis and the community around us better. This semester we started off great with a meeting this last Thursday. Though we have not yet decided on a project to take on this semester, we came up with a rough list of ideas for where to begin:

–    Something with the Ethics Center
–    The Prospect Hill Community Center
–    Gender Neutral Housing
–    Social Justice Event with the College of Arts and Sciences
–    Know Your Rights trainings
–    Admissions/Financial Aid/TYP
–    Sweatshop-Free
–    Endowment Transparency

At our next meeting, on October 16 at 9 PM, we’ll narrow this list down, decide on a mission statement, and decide on the non-Senate chair of the committee. I was elected Senator because people wanted me to take on social justice projects, and this is the best outlet for us to take advantage of the resources provided by the Student Union to create change.

First and foremost, if you have not yet cast your opinion in the Brandeis Water Bottle survey, I highly suggest that you do such right now. Thank you.

For those of you who have voted, you were greeted with the following question to which you casted a vote:

Recognizing the social, environmental and economic implications of bottled water, should Brandeis University reduce the sale and distribution of bottled water on campus?

It is difficult to deny that this question is biased in its wording. To me, the phrasing of “Recognizing… implications” prior to the question at hand suggests that whoever wrote it was angling for more “yes” responses. Personally, I support a reduction, if not elimination, of the sale and distribution of bottled water on campus. Still, I was more than a little dismayed by the bias that this question exhibits.

Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinhartz has sent out a campus-wide email talking about the state of the University budget – it’s not too great.

Donations, Endowment, and so on are all down.

I’ve heard people ask: “Yet, aren’t colleges supposed to thrive during recessions?”

Here’s my take:
We know that Brandeis is very secretive about the endowment, and (I think) they have some contractual obligations that prevent them for disclosing where our money is invested. This probably means that there’s a lot of money in “complex financial instruments”. This credit crunch could really have taken a chunk out of the endowment, I bet.

Colleges can thrive during recessions due to tuition costs. Yet Brandeis is famous for giving lots of financial aid.

Also, I don’t think that colleges do thrive through recessions. Demand for college goes up, yes, as the cost of college stays kinda constant but the returns of working decrease (decreasing the opportunity cost of college). That said, colleges don’t really get all their income from tuition, can’t adjust tuition to supply and demand like a market-oriented actor (and they shouldn’t!) and lastly people’s ability to pay goes down.

I’ll bet there are some Brandeis students, either newly-accepted freshmen or upperclassmen, who will have a very hard time paying for college this year, as tuition has already been fixed for this semester, and college loans just got a lot harder to obtain…

I hope there are no cuts to student aid, work-study, or (god forbid) TYP. We need to double or triple the size of TYP and offer more class-based affirmative action, especially now.

Anyways, you can find the full email in the extended entry.
Continue reading “Economic Downturn hits Brandeis”

Not Brandeis or Student Union related in the slightest bit! Not even social justice-y.

Google is now letting people search as thought its 2001. This is a super nifty tool, try searching for Sarah Palin! It doesn’t work! Explore.

Hi there, readers of The Brandeis Hoot.

Welcome to our humble publication. We know there’s a big news story about us today. Explore our archives yourself and see what we’re about. I hope you like what you find. Check out the “Brandeis Activist Calendar” on our sidebar. Pretty handy, eh?

As to the article, well, I think the Hoot is a bit too hung up on this “political party” nonsense but that’s their prerogative. We’re about much more than elections or the Student Union and frankly you’re missing out if you just look at us through that lens. I certainly hope we’re a positive source for change on campus, though, and I hope you’ll stick around, write down your thoughts and reactions in the comments of posts, and generally have a great time.

That’s right, the Social Justice Committee will meet tonight at 8 PM in the Student Union Office (3rd floor of Shapiro). Want to know your rights? Want gender-neutral housing? Solar Panels? Want something else at Brandeis social justice related?

Come to the meeting!

Thank you to Tim for posting on Brandeis dining, specifically Aramark’s waning contract.

The good news? A Brandeis student campaign has already begun to seize this opportunity and reform our food services. There has been much discussion about switching providers, presumably to a rival corporation such as Sodexo or Compass Group. However, as Tim mentioned Aramark’s ties to Brandeis will be extremely difficult to sever. This is not necessarily a bad thing: Aramark has already made positive changes at Brandeis, such as compost, and has gone even further at other universities. John Hopkins, NYU, Baylor, Penn State, and Vassar, for example, have sustainable dining programs that we can demand as well. Aramark, with its record of health, labor, and environmental violations, is actually rumored to be quite receptive to student demands. I have confidence that a well-organized group of campus activists can succeed in a series of reforms.

And so I introduce…Brandeis Coalition for Food Service Reform

View the categories we plan on addressing after the jump.

Continue reading “Change Aramark Now: Coalition for Food Service Reform”

The City of Waltham sent a representative to the Career fair last Thursday.

They want you. They want you to join the government of the city of Waltham, Massachussetts.

All you have to do is send in a one-page application and attach your resume.

I know what you’re thinking. “Holy crap! What’s the fine print?”

As far as I can tell, nothing. You apply for a position in a city commission and then the Mayor will hopefully appoint you. If enough people express interest (by commenting on this post, for example), I’ll try to set up a meeting for us with a representative from Waltham who can explain it more.

Let me emphasize this – Waltham is begging for students to join the actual legit waltham government.

Some commissions you could apply to join –
– Ambulance Service Review Committee
– BOard of Cemetery Commissioner
– Board of Health
– Board of Library Trustees
– Board of Registrars of Voters
– Board of Survey adn Planning
– Cable Advisory Board
– Commissioners of Trust Funds
– Conservation Commission
– COuncil on Aging
– Handicapped Serices COmmission
– LIcense Comission
– Municipal Awards Program Comittee
– Park and Recreation Board
– Waltham Cable Advisory Board
– Waltham Community Access Corporation Board
– Waltham Cultural Council
– Waltham Historical Comission
– Waltham HOusing AUthority
– Waltham Retirement Board
– Zoning Board of Appeals

I have a bunch of applications. I’ll set up a meeting soon where everyone can get a copy and we can all apply together or something. For now – get pumped! Also, find out more info on the specific commission you want to join on the waltham city gov’t website – http://www.city.waltham.ma.us/

Debate watching party 9pm in shapiro multi-purpose room. with free food (100 wings!)

Stephen Robinson vs Elections commission will not go to trial.

POYA manifesto in the hoot. Here’s my contribution:

I’m a shy person. I don’t like talking about politics. I really am. Throughout middle school and high school I gained a reputation as a composed, thoughtful person who didn’t pipe up much during political debates. I relished my role, listening to my friends debate politics, knowing that when I chose to speak, people would listen. They knew that I took the time to think both sides through. They trusted my judgment.

So much for that. Is it really a neutral act to refuse to rebel at the presence of evil? The America depicted in high school history texts is very different from the America we live in today. The genesis of this society was predicated on the genocide of the red man. The riches of this country were grown with the blood of the black man. And the woman? Don’t even get me started. We were promised an America embodying the realization of the Enlightenment, a land of tolerance. A land of freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from want. Freedom of expression. Instead we got Empire. Instead, we’re handed a kleptocracy.

Fuck. That. Shit. I don’t want to be an activist. I want to be an academic. I want to tinker with computers and curl up with a book in front of the fire. I don’t want to be painted as one-sided, angry, or needlessly didactic. Yet what choice do I have, when one political party systematically destroys America and the other is too cowardly to stop them? No choice. No time to waste.

It doesn’t take a math genius to see that students on the all points plan are paying a hell of a lot more than $1400 for 1400 points. It does however take a little bit of numbers crunching to see exactly how much each meal plan is really worth. Therefore I present the product of a few minutes of labor calculating the worth of every meal plan Aramark and ResLife have to offer.

Before I show the numbers, I have to explain my methodology. Firstly, I assumed that there were 17 weeks in a semester and 119 days. I did not include vacations. Secondly, when calculating the value of meals, I assumed that everyone eats at Sherman (the most expensive dining institution at Brandeis); when possible they eat there for dinner ($10.05 a meal) first and then lunch ($7.95 a meal). I did not include Kosher dining in these numbers. All numbers are calculated per semester.

Want to see the worth of your meal plan? Numbers after the jump!

Continue reading “How Much is Your Meal Plan Really Worth?”

Sorry we’re running behind schedule, but here they are!

Senator for the Transitional Year Program
> Rank Candidate Votes %
> 1 Terrence Johnson 3 75.00
> 2 ABSTAIN 1 25.00
>
> Senator for Massell Quad
> Rank Candidate Votes %
> 1 Nipun Marwaha 75 49.67
> 2 Narayan Wong 68 45.03
> 3 ABSTAIN 8 5.30
>
> Senator for East Quad
> Rank Candidate Votes %
> 1 Sara Enan 78 55.32
> 2 Edward J. Tanenbaum 59 41.84
> 3 ABSTAIN 4 2.84
>
> Senator for Castle Quad
> Rank Candidate Votes %
> 1 Nathan Robinson 23 50.00
> 2 Sahar Massachi 20 43.48
> 3 ABSTAIN 3 6.52
>
> Senator for Charles River
> Rank Candidate Votes %
> 1 Chenchao Lu 22 78.57
> 2 ABSTAIN 6 21.43

There are so many things going on today. Community Service Fair, Career fair, Student Funding Info Session, etc.

After so many events (the info for which you can find on the Brandeis Activist Calendar to your right) why not unwind with Drinking Liberally / whoever you choose? We’re taking a field trip today to the Museum of Fine Arts!

There shall be two free concerts by indie singer St. Vincent at 7pm and 8:30, among other wondrous things.

Yo Drinking Liberally, tomorrow night (Thursday) we are going on a “field trip” of sorts to College Night at the MFA, there will be lots of live music, raffles, cool people, and ART. So come chill and be liberal with us.

We’ll be catching the Brandeis Cambridge/Boston shuttle that leaves Rabb @ 6:30. From there we’ll get off at the Beacon/Mass Ave stop, and take the green E line to the MFA stop. Tell your clubs, tell your friends, bring your COLLEGE ID, and be there or be lame.

Formerly. UJ to hear case re: Rosenthal Elections

This just in:

Stephen D. Robinson is going to sue the Student Union Election Commission in the Union Judiciary in regards to the recent election for Rosenthal Quad Senator, which Philips Loh officially won. Steven believes he’s been treated unfairly by the EC.

That’s all I know so far. We’ll update you with more information as we learn more.

Got an email just now from Jehuda. Seems like Brandeis is giving out a $25,000 yearly award for “outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic and/or religious relations.” Cool. I don’t know much about this year’s winner – Kwame Anthony Appiah, but I hope that we get to learn more about this guy during the process of giving out the scholarship. This confirms an earlier trend of innovation by Brandeis – since we lost our comparative advantage regarding financial aid, it seems that the University is trying other ways to stand out – fellowships, a community service freshman floor, huge fellowships for academics, etc. Great ideas!

Here’s another idea. The Ethics Center is great and has a lot of potential. It’s also an institutional embodiment of the values that Brandeis was explicitly founded on. Let’s integrate them more tightly into undergrad life. They should sponsor classes, bring in guest lecturers, and reach out to students wanting to promote the cause of good throughout the world. Don’t get me wrong – the Ethics Center Fellowship is great. Let’s build on that more, instead spending energy on silly pictures of Einstein holding a bagel.

Continue reading “Good for Brandeis, Good for the community”

**Please note, the following post should NOT serve as an endorsement of any kind. Thank you. -Carrie

For those of us who walked around the Massell Quad on Tuesday, it was hard to miss the words written on the walkways with masking tape – “Vote Narayan.” A creative use of Union materials, no doubt, that could arguably be the reason he pulled up one extra vote over Savannah Pearlman which led him into the final round against Nipun Marwaha.

Narayan is a curious creature among the Massell Quad candidates as his fliers and facebook group do not dictate a platform. In fact, when speaking with him last night, he was open in admitting that he had no platform to his candidacy. While I would imagine this fact may deter others from voting for him, I find this stance to be oddly refreshing and a welcomed change of pace. Granted, specified platforms are the only items that stand in the way of turning Student Union elections into popularity contests. Still I cannot resist a qwirky, irrelevent poster which brings a sense of playfulness to the baseless tension and drama that these elections cause.

Continue reading “What’s with Narayan?”

Well another primary-round election has come and gone. Here’s the interesting things I see from the results:

– Shocker of the night: Sara Enan, a write-in candidate, managed to get more votes than Edward Tanenbaum, who was officially running unopposed. Impressive.

– Congrats to Andy Hogan, new senator for North Quad. Andy is a sophomore living in scheffries so this is kind of an upset. Andy was also the campaign manager (and secret weapon) for Adam Hughes.

– Andrew Brooks is back in the Senate as the New Senator from Ziv Quad. Congrats to Andrew.

– Nathan J Robinson and I are tied for votes (and move into the final round opposing each other) in the race for Castle Quad senator. No matter which one of us wins, I’m glad that the Castle will have a great Senator this year.

– There were very many uncompetitive races this year. No official candidates for TYP. Turnout of 17 people in Charles River. One official candidate for both East and Rosenthal Quads. One candidate for both mods and off-campus each. One official candidate in both Mods and East. Two candidates for Rosenthal and Off-Campus. No official candidate in Grad. No official candidates – or qualifying write-ins – in the Village.

In each of the elections Innermost Parts has focused on – F-Board, Senator-at -Large, President, Vice-President, and Special-Election-Vice-President, there have been fiercely contested races. Not so this time. Weird.

– Castle Quad is the exception. Nathan and I are in a tight race where every vote does count. I will crush him.

– Lastly, Adam makes a good point in the comments:

The race that really interests me now is the Class of 2012 Senate race. Section 9c of the official election rules (the section which governs winning multi-seat elections) states “In the event that a primary ballot would be identical to the final round ballot, except for the ability to write in candidates, the primary round shall count as the final round. The candidates with the most votes shall be declared the winners.” The only three candidates on the primary round ballot were Supreetha Gubbala, Akash Vadalia, and Joseph Sloman; thus, unless I’m hugely mistaken, Supreetha and Akash should be declared the winners. I think the commissioners got this one wrong.

So tomorrow promises to be fun.

First off, from 12-4 there’s thing thing called “rock the vote” hosted by Brandeis votes. The description says:

Come get registered to vote and learn about prevalent issues in this upcoming election.

There will be 16 on-campus clubs stationed around the Great Lawn ready with information regarding how both the Democrats and Republicans view their club’s issue.

Enjoy music throughout the event and performances by on and off campus artists!

Eat a free lunch! (while supplies lasts)

Ride the mechanical bull!

Come learn what is happening politically and socially in the country. Become truly educated in what the next president supports and VOTE!

I mean, that’s kinda vague but it seems that there’ll be free food and music and so on as well as info about political issues and ways to register to vote there as well. Worth checking out, especially if you haven’t requested an absentee ballot or registered to vote yet.

Also, at the Rock the Vote thing the Student Union will announce the winner of their Brandeis Votes competition, in which every club had the opportunity to compete to register new voters. The clubs who registered the most new voters will received cash prizes. So that’s cool.

Secondly, tomorrow there will be the famed Brandeis Economic Forum which we previously covered but can be basically summed up as Smart People From Brandeis Talking about the Financial Meltdown.. 7 – 8:30pm . you really should go.

Bonus event: This hasn’t been officially announced yet, but Drinking Liberally will be taking a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts for their big college fest this Thursday so clear your schedules.

I just read something and it really struck me:

I just watched the BBC News. It appears that at their party conference in the UK, Labour is once gain calling for the nationalization of industries, openly rejecting Blair-ism are the abandonment of Clause IV. Meanwhile, back here in America, conservatives are blaming the financial meltdown on minorities and diversity. In the midst of it all, an African-American leads the campaign for President and, after previously nationalizing the mortgage sector, Congress now openly talks of nationalizing an additional 5% of the national economy. Republicans, by contrast, just want to hand over more money to corporate executives. Oh yeah–and there are no more investment banks.

We’re in the middle of two wars, we find stories of runaway executive power boring and passe. We’re in the midst of the second internet boom (with the attendant rise in the pseudo-economic “network thinking”). Wars and shit are going on all around us. Israel-Hezbollah. Georgia. The congo, darfur, and who knows what else. These last few years have seen a pretty uniform political shift, where states that had left-leaning governments at the turn of the century (germany, france, uk) elect conservative governments, and right-leaning states (US, Japan, Australia) are shifting leftwards. The internet has led to decentralized political and economic innovation the world over. First outsourcing is the hot new trend/bogeyman, but now the rise in cost of shipping has effectively raised our barriers to trade to pre-NAFTA /WTO levels.

Truly, we live in interesting times.

Due to elections (I’m running!) and massive amounts of work, expect a lighter posting schedule until mid-to-late week. Sorry. -Sahar

I’ve been assured that this’ll be the biggest thing on campus for at least this week.
This event features the Deans of both Heller and IBS, talking about the mortgage mess and so forth.

Jason Gray tells me that it’ll be big. That’s good enough for me.

Make sure you go, dudes.

Date:
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Time:
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Location:
Brandeis Rapaporte Treasure Hall in the Library

Brandeis University Forum on U.S. Economic Policy
The U.S. Financial Crises and What the Next President Might Do About It

This forum is an installment of the Brandeis University “Spotlight on Economic Distress” series.

***Financial Crisis at Home and Abroad – Imagining the next President’s agenda***

The Collapse of the subprime mortgage market has shaken U.S. and global financial markets. Iconic corporations are mired in bankruptcies and bailouts. Economic growth is down sharply, with no sign yet of recovery. In this program, leading Brandeis experts explore the downturn’s impact and consider how to make matters better.

Featured speakers:

Lisa M. Lynch: Dean and Professor of Economics at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Lynch is currently chair of the Board of Directors of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, and she is a former chief economist at the Department of Labor (Under President Clinton).

Bruce R. Magid: Dean of the Brandeis International Business School and holder of the Martin and Ahuva Gross Chair in Financial Markets and Institutions. Magid is a former managing director and senior vice president at Bank of America.

Moderated by: David Warsh, economic journalist and proprietor of EconomicPrincipals.com. Former writer for the Boston Globe for 22 years.

This event is free and open to the public. Reservations not required.

Food and Beverages will be served.

Congratulations Mr. Hughes.

In honor of Nas’ concert tonight:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yydpWtjqa8[/youtube]

Alternative video

Here’s the info:

Tickets bought at the door are $25.00.

In addition, if you have already bought your ticket, please be aware that doors open at 7 pm. The openers will be DJ Raj, Jon Hope, and the Green Lantern.  The following restrictions will be in place for the venue:
No bags allowed
No food/beverages allowed (including the Brandeis water bottle)
No video cameras or other recording devices
Metal Detectors will be in use

I have a piece published in The Hoot this week, although you wouldn’t know it by looking at The Hoot. This is because instead of “By Nathan Robinson,” Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper decided that it would rather print “By Maxwell Price” in the byline. No, I don’t know why they did this.

The story (it’s short, don’t worry) goes like this: On Wednesday, Sept. 17^th at approximately 2:07 p.m. I received an email from one Maxwell Price. The email said this:

Hey Nathan,

My name is Max Price and I am the new editor of the culture/arts section of the Hoot. I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your insightful piece about the Hoffman autobiography and also to let you know that it will be published this week. See the attachment with a few small changes I made.

Also, if you’re interested in helping to carry on Hoffman’s tradition, come to Pom 502 at 11pm tonight for a meeting of P.O.Y.A. (Pissed off Youth of America), an organization I recently founded. For more info you can contact me or just show up tonight. Thanks!

-Max

Well, I didn’t go to his club. Not that I’m not a pissed off youth, which I am, though whether I am “of America” is debatable. But 11pm is past my bedtime, and besides, I try to avoid ever venturing into East Quad. I hear it has house centipedes, and those things are horrifying.

I think, though, that I may have made Max Price hate me. I did not mean to do this. From his email, he sounds like a very nice man. It’s bubbly and warm. Maybe he and I can still be friends someday. I hope so. If he gives me a hug and a high-five next time I see him, we’ll pretend nothing happened. And he and I can start a revolution together, or maybe go out for a sandwich.

Anyway, my point is this. Go and read the article. It can be found here.

Continue reading “I am Slightly Annoyed with The Hoot (But You Should Read It Anyway!)”

Rivka made a great point in the comments that I think everyone should read, so I hadher rpeost i tto the front page: –Sahar

As for whether or not the last Union was “progressive”… it feels really, really weird to apply that term to the Union/Brandeis Senators, but for lack of a better one, I understand it to mean the following:

A progressive Union is one that seeks to use what limited power they have to actively improve student life at Brandeis, with an emphasis on the institution’s historic commitment to social justice and an awareness that the school is part of the outside world.

Last year Phil and I sat and watched incredulously as several Senators spoke against and voted against a simple measure to inform the administration that the students of Brandeis would like to be more actively involved in important decisions (such as, but not limited to, the arming of the public safety officers) and feel that setting up an ad-hoc summer committee with two appointed students is not adequate involvement. 850 students signed their names to this resolution– almost exactly as many as voted in the last election. But the Senate voted it down. One Senator gave pedantic and condescending musings about the dangers of “too much democracy,” comparing the students telling the administration “gee, it would be nice if we had just a little more input” to the election of generals in Athenian democracy and the early Continental Army. (WTF?!?!) Another Senator told Phil and me that our collecting 850 student signatures voicing frustration over the administration’s procedures was “disgraceful” and that we should “just focus on our homework.” One Senator actually told us that he could not support the resolution because “what about all the students that DONT want their voices heard by the administration? What about THEM??” Finally, a Senator informed us that passing a polite, toothless resolution that expressed a student desire for more comprehensive student input in certain decisions was simply beyond the power of the Union.

…As I already mentioned, I know the use of the term “progressive” to describe the Union/Brandeis Senators is loaded and awkward. But I think that the incident described above shows that whatever the Union was… it was absolutely ridiculous and embarrassing.

I look forward this year to a Union full of Senators that dont use their positions as personal ego-boosters but who understand that they DO have some power– and they use that power to improve Student life at Brandeis and to preserve Brandeis’ reputation for a commitment to social justice both on campus and in the world.

Have you ever wanted your club to get more help putting on bigger and better events? Have you always wanted to find different groups to partner with, but didn’t know where to start?

The CCB will provide a forum for club leaders to more easily co-sponsor and program joint-events. By promoting cooperation between clubs on an equal basis — especially clubs that don’t traditionally work together — we can all create programming that is more creative and larger in scale.

For the CCB to succeed, we need your help in finalizing its organization.

If you’re interested in learning more, have suggestions, or just want to participate, please come to the first meeting on Thursday, September 25th at 5PM in the Student Union Office on the third floor of the Shapiro Campus Center.

At this meeting, we will work together to create a structure and organization for the CCB to succeed.

If you have any questions, please contact Alex Braver at alexb@ or Ryan McElhaney at ryanm@

Sounds like a good idea for a thing to do…

For those of you who are club leaders, you are probably well aware that this semester the Finance Board decided that they would not be paying for Coffeehouse fees at Chums. For those unaware, now you know.

To host a coffeehouse at Chums, an independent student run business, clubs and outside groups are required to pay Chums $50 to use the space. In this last semester, FBoard was willing to pay this price so that clubs could hold these events that promote their club and their activities. This semester FBoard is demanding that clubs find an alternative source of funding. One option is to collect money at the door; though Chums prohibits clubs from charging money for entry, clubs are allowed to ask for ‘suggested donations.’ In my previous experience with this method, the money collected via donations is far less than the money needed to pay the $50 fee.

Continue reading “The Coffeehouse Problem”

In stream-of-consciousness form.

Wow, what an increase in turnout. About 600 people voted in the primary round; 913 voted in the final round. That’s about a 52% increase in turnout to about 30% (assuming we have 3200 undergrad students).

Is 30% turnout something to celebrate? Well, the last “all-campus” election (Senator at Large) had a turnout of 895 students, which is pretty comparable to the 913 that voted this time.

How Adam did it – an army of volunteers who had polling stations in Usdan and Sherman at all times, as well as those who canvassed almost every dorm on campus. He also had us rooting for him too. Hopefully that meant something.

Well well now. So I ended up endorsing the current Student Union President, Vice President, and Three Senators, one of whom is the head of the Social Justice commitee, and one of whom co-founded Innermost Parts. Hell, the new VP is practically the second-in-command here on the blog as well. So – we’ve got good people in the right places. There’s no reason not to expect great things from them. Time to shift from a tone of “the nebulous student union should do this” to “dude I have a great idea let’s run with it!”

So yeah. Time to start laying out even more positive agenda items, etc. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t call out the Student Union if they act badly, however.

The runoff came down to two candidates, both running on activist platforms. I think this reflects a real desire from the students at Brandeis to bring back the “social justice spirit”, to rise over the balkanization of clubs and have a more unified campus. In other words, we students really take this whole “Brandeis Values” thing seriously. We all try to realize that through the lens of different clubs – DFA, SEA, SPA, etc. I think there’s a hunger for a more over-arching sense of campus solidarity.

I’m really impressed by Adam and his rapid ascent. Word up.

OK then. Now what mandate does the new VP have, based on the issues he ran on?
Continue reading “Post-Election Thoughts”

It’s a great day for the Progressive Party (if you can call it that).  Adam Hughes will be in charge of setting the tone and moderating the debate in the Senate, which is great.  We’ll also have him to participate and report on executive board happenings.  Personally, there are two operational reforms I think the Senate needs.  First, in debate there should not be any “neutral” speakers allowed.  In my time testifying before the Senate, I witnessed a number of senators take unfair advantage of the rule that speakers for, neutral, and against all receive equal speaking time in turn.  Senators against a proposal in principle spoke as “neutral” and used negative language to destroy the proposal in question.   Secondly, there should not be closed-doors executive board meetings.   Of all the Student Union meetings held, the ones with only the executive board are often the most important, and the student body needs to be informed of their discussion.

By my count, the Progressive Party holds five of the nine Senate seats currently occupied.  We have Noam as Senator-at-Large, Paul as Senator for the Class of 2010, Alex and Lev for the Class of 2011, and Kamerin for Racial Minority Students.  Add Adam to that and I’d say we’re doing pretty well!  Also, I can’t go without mentioning Jason Gray.  He’s with the progressive agenda, but unlike some of our other candidates who unfortunately caused greater divides in their campaigns, Jason is a real consensus President.

A good Progressive is always looking ahead.  Even though we can celebrate Adam’s victory tonight, we must remember that the regularly-scheduled fall elections are still to come, and that those seats will determine control of the Senate.

Adam wins!

update:
Rank    Candidate              Votes    %
1          Adam T. Hughes   524       57.39
2          Andrew Brooks      360       39.43
3          ABSTAIN                29         3.18