Check Your Mailboxes: Today’s the Day

So our ally the Justice League has been doing a lot of promotion the past few weeks, and it’s all led up to this moment.

The big reveal: Justice League Fix It Campaign: Official Ballot.

You will all be receiving ballots in your student mailboxes today right about now, and there will be loudly obnoxious boxes conveniently located nearby for you to deposit them in. There’s an online picture of the ballot above, and we will be working on sending out a poll which you can fill out online as well. This is my interpretation of the three issues the ballot asks you to vote on:

1. Point-dollar parity. In short, it varies for each meal plan, but Aramark charges Brandeis students on average $1.40 per point you buy on your meal plan. That means that besides the inflated prices of food here, you are literally paying more than you would were you to pay with cash, when using a meal plan. And we are REQUIRED to buy meal plans for most on-campus housing. So, what we are asking for here is for a more fair and equal exchange between a dollar and a point.

2. Transparency in our dining services providers. Each year Aramark’s contract with the school is renewed automatically, meaning that Aramark has little incentive to change the quality or variety of food they offer us, or change their meal plans. Rather than advocating for the removal of Aramark, what we would like is for Brandeis to consider other food providers’ offers so that Aramark has a reason to try to be the best it can, and we can choose which company would be the best fit for our school. The first step to negotiating better terms is to at least consider the competition.

3. Many of our university committees have little to no student representation. The past few have had Student Union representatives, but sometimes these students do not have voting power within the committees, and they are always vastly outnumbered by administrators, faculty and trustees. We would like more student representation, by requiring that each committee has at least two student representatives, each of whom have voting power within the committee. In addition, rather than having the administrators choose which students should serve on committees, why not have students decide who we want to represent us (as we do in most other manners)?

So, what do you think? The plan is to collect as many ballots as we can over the next 1-2 weeks, tally the results and then hand deliver them to President Lawrence. So, if you want your voice heard, fill out a ballot and turn it in! Even better, if you want to get involved, sign up here for the Justice League’s official listserv and tell us why you care.

More updates will follow. For more information check out the facebook page.