Pets on College Campuses

When new freshmen leave home to attend college for the first time, they tend to pack up anything and everything meaningful in their home. I know this from personal experience; when I came to Brandeis, I loaded my car with instruments, movies, clothing, books, posters, anything and everything that I thought I would need at any given time. In reality, however, I was actually packing anything which I thought would help ease the impending homesickness in an attempt to mold my new dorm room into a carbon copy of my house. Most, if not all, feel some feelings of separation when they are away from home, and a recent New York Times article discusses some of these emotions in the context of a new solution: It profiles Stephens College, in Columbia, Missouri, which is joining the ranks of colleges around the country who permit pets in their dorm rooms.

As the owner of three dogs, my first instinct is to say something like: This is the best thing ever!!!! At least a dozen colleges around the country, including locally at MIT (although they only allow cats), are changing their residential living policies to have explicit rules allowing pets. Some schools even take this to an extreme, including Eckerd College in South Florida which allows snakes as long as they are “less than six feet long and nonvenomous.” As extreme as this might seem to some, it still outlines the fact that having pets of any species in a dorm room is one more way to help a student adjust to their time away from home.

At the same time, however, there are obvious drawbacks. From a psychological perspective, having a pet around gives a new student an excuse to stay in their room and be antisocial, and as child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz notes, it could serve as a “Band-Aid” to cover up more serious emotional issues in students who are coping with more than nerves and the adjustment to a new location.

Then there are a long list of issues concerning cleanliness in the dorm, and personal responsibility on the part of the owner. It is difficult enough for a student to take between 4 and 5.5 classes per semester while maintaining a grade point average, holding down a job, and making time for a social life and involvement in a few clubs and extracurricular activities. The presence of another life for which to care in addition to your own may prove too challenging for some, causing a decrease in the aforementioned activities, or possibly worse, negligence of any kind toward a pet.

In the end, I would love to see Brandeis reexamine its community living policy and consider adopting pet rules in the hopes of allowing students to feel a closer connection to home. Personally, I think that there is an additional benefit to the community; animals can often inspire positive moods in most situations simply by being around, and seeing a larger pet presence on the walk to classes every day would hopefully maintain high spirits all over campus. Yet even though I support it, I’m realistic enough to know that were such a policy enacted, I would have to opt out due to a lack of time to properly care for a pet.

Something Legendary

Netroots Nation is the big convention for lefty online activists every year. It happens to be in Las Vegas this year, and it will be legendary. I need to be there. I need your help to get a scholarship to help pay for it.

The people who get the top three votes get to go.

Yesterday, I was in the top 3. Today I’m 5 votes behind, tied for 4th

The competition is neck-and-neck. Could you please take one minute and vote for me to go?
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/netroots_nation_scholarships/759-sahar-massachi

Why I need to go:
NN is awesome. I meet heroes of mine; learn from them by day, party with them by night. It’s the biggest event of the year for me. You’ve heard my stories of epic hanging out with the Brandeis Mafia, DFA people, Zack Exley – they all happened here. My plan this year: 1. go meet people, learn skills, and bring them back to Brandeis. 2. I’m graduating in a year. It’d be nice to, you know, have a career and this is the place to meet people who can help me find my dream job.

How you can help:
It’s very simple. Click the link (http://www.democracyforamerica.com/netroots_nation_scholarships/759-sahar-massachi) and vote for me. If I am in the top 3 vote-getters, I go. If not, the more votes I get the better my chances.

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/netroots_nation_scholarships/759-sahar-massachi

So, please? It means a super-lot to me and it only takes a few clicks to vote.

~Sahar

Did a dangerous reliance on illiquid assets cause Brandeis’ financial woes?

A think tank has released a report on the model of endowment investing that Brandeis, among other colleges, uses, and it cites us by name. We also get the best report so far on Brandeis’ infamously opaque endowment holdings.

What does the report teach us?

A lot of the report is concerned with models of endowment investment and worker compensation – important insights that I hope the administration looks at, but I’m going to let the Chronicle of Higher Education summarize:

The prevailing endowment investment approach among wealthy universities is “broken,” according the report, which attempts to detail the “cost of the corrosive influence of Wall Street culture on higher-education finance.” […]

Over the last 20 years, those universities and many others moved away from traditional endowment holdings in domestic stocks and bonds, placing more money into illiquid, riskier asset classes, such as private equity, hedge funds, real estate, timberland, oil, and other commodities.

“By giving academic credibility and capital to these risky investment strategies,” the report says, “endowments have been as much contributors to the financial crisis as they were victims of it.”

What else?

Remember when the administration told anyone who would listen that they were trying to sell off the Rose because Massachusetts law? Well, Massachusetts changed the law and Brandeis is still claiming it can sell off whatever it wants. The report points out:

Works of art are hardly liquid assets. They have to be auctioned or  privately sold, so the decision to sell them provides an indication of just how tight a liquidity squeeze Brandeis was in. At the time Brandeis officials repeatedly invoked legal restrictions against spending from endowment principal as a rationale for liquidating the Rose collection, though none mentioned the illiquidity of the endowment’s investments. […]

The case of Brandeis highlights how vulnerable a university’s nonprofit cultural and educational mission can be when constrained by the Endowment Model’s imperative of investment illiquidity.

I remember when I was on the Student Union’s newly-formed Committee on Endowment Ethics and Responsibility we kept getting stonewalled on endowment transparency. The line was that the University endowment was invested in assets so secret that the existence of the investment was not allowed to be known. I didn’t realize the extent of that reality:

what our endowment is made of
The levels of asset type go from liquid/known value (Type I) to illiquid assets (Type III). Note that Brandeis has a big heaping ton of Type III assets.
The endowment is secret, untouchable, and therefore we don’t have a say in how Brandeis votes with its shares of stock or invests or anything like that. Hopefully the new CEER will change that, but for now – opacity. We’ve seen how that turned out.
So, was it debt that created Brandeis financial woes? Or was it an over-reliance on liquid assets that couldn’t be cashed in when it mattered the most? Or both?
We don’t know – we can’t know. Over a year ago Jehuda told two Brandeis students that he would put the entire budget online. He still hasn’t done that, much less embraced endowment transparency.  What we can do is ask the administration to read the report. At the very least they can fix the problems it identifies.

Who Shall We Choose as NEXT Year’s Commencement Speaker?

So the class of 2010 has gone forth into the world, and the Michael Oren issue is now moot. But we should immediately begin discussing next year’s commencement. Supposedly the administration considers nominations for commencement speaker from the class. I suggest we take them up on this, and come up with a few speakers we’d like to see.

I’ve put together a list of living people I wouldn’t mind having give the address for my class. I think we should have a little chat about them. Submit your own suggestions!

–Germaine Greer
–Harold Koh
–Barbara Smith
–Eleanor Holmes Norton
–Robert Coover
–Dave Andrews
–Uri Gordon
–Ed Sanders
–Anthony Romero
–Gore Vidal
–bell hooks
–Cornel West
–John Barth
–Janet Biehl
–Duncan Kennedy
–Slavoj Žižek
–Angela Davis
–Nadine Strossen
–Pete Seeger
–Tariq Ali
–Mark Green
–George Galloway

Of course, if we think the selection of Michael Oren means that we should be as extremely politically controversial as possible, we could lobby for Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and Noam Chomsky.

But my personal absolute favorites from the list are Germaine Greer and Cornel West. I definitely want someone colorful and fiery. Anyway, we really need to get on this, or else the administration will give us someone insipid like George Stephanopoulos or Wolf Blitzer. Or maybe they’ll stick their finger in our eye again and bring Alan Dershowitz.

Break!

With the passing of commencement, Innermost Parts is officially on break. What does this mean for you?

– We no longer strive to put up at least a post a day.
– We’re no longer bound by the news cycle.

Happily, this means we can branch out into new types of posts. I’m excited about the opportunities that time to think and no homework provide. I’m thinking of writing about:

  • Analysis of long-term trends at the University
  • What sort of Brandeis do we want to see, anyways?
  • Summaries of what’s happened so far while I’ve been here at Brandeis
  • Looking back at good old posts – have they stood the test of time? Plus relative newcomers can be exposed to the brilliance wisdom of people who have since depareted Brandeis/Innermost Parts
  • Bringing a social movement perspective to happenings at Brandeis
  • A look into inspirational figures:
    • There have been alumni/professors etc at Brandeis that are cool and you should know about!
    • I’m looking at a short biography of Malcolm Moos, regarded as a great and wise man (and gov’t official) as well as University President. He had a big hand in writing Eisenhower’s famous last address (the military industrial complex one) and then was famous for being President of the Univeristy of Minnesota during the sixties. Instead of antagonizing the activists at the school, he embraced them, and therefore great things happened under his tenure. I can write more about him and other great models for University decisionmakers.
    • One thing that I wish happened at Brandeis was more/any classes on, well, Louis Brandeis. I got Urofsky’s killer book, and if i have time I’d like to blog about interesting points made so that we can all learn more about our namesake.
  • Adam wrote an absolutely spot-on take on how the student union’s relationship with activists can either be poisonous or productive. I’d like to do some more thinking out loud about what a productive relationship would like like, and what exactly do we went
  • In general, there’s probably going to be more posts like this, with introspection, talking about Innermost Parts and activism at Brandeis, asking you for ideas, offering up positive ideas about what I’m for (as opposed to what I’m against) etc. I’ve done a lot of searching and a lot of thinking about Innermsot Parts, activism, student power, etc in the last year, but you guys haven’t seen most of it – I didn’t necessarily know whether you’d be interested in that sort of thing. Now that we’ve hit the summer I can be looser and vary my topics more.
  • I want to write more about activism – how to do it, theory, examples, great articles I’ve found on the subject, etc. A founding idea of Innermost Parts was to be (among other things) a teaching tool for students about how to get things done. We haven’t yet really fulfilled that goal and I’m excited to try.
  • Over the course of the last year I’ve met a bunch of Brandeis alumni, specifically alumni that have been activists on campus. If I have the time (I probably won’t) I’d like to interview them and get the story of what sort of stuff went on during their time at Brandeis, any messages they want to share with us, etc. If someone else wanted to take on this project I think it’d be really cool.
  • In general I want to be more introspective,  take a step back and talk about trends, big-picture, long-term stuff. That and also whatever crosses my mind.
  • I’m sure the others on Innermost Parts have their own plans for what they’ll write about that are different than mine, too, and I’m looking forward to reading that.

So, do any of these ideas excite you?
Anything you particularly want me to write about?
Anything that you yourself want to write about?

Enjoy the break.

Justice Archives Online!

Good news folks! Want to learn stuff about Brandeis dating back to 1949, a year after it was established? Want to see what students cared about back in the day?

Now, due to Brandeis’ involvement in the Open Content Alliance’s Digitization project, you can access the Justice archives, microfilm of the Justice newspaper from May 1949 to September 2004. (Yeah transparency!) You can also read web issues of the Justice from April 2002 to the present, which are updated each time an issue is published.

For more information, check out http://brandeis.libguides.com/content.php?pid=11478&sid=687507.

Anti-Oren Letter Slipped in with Graduation Programs

Commencement for the Class of 2010 occurred today at 10:30 at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center.  (Congrats!) We’ve received word that students protesting the choice of Oren as commencement speaker snuck copies of this letter in with the graduation programs, articulating their reasons against Oren speaking. However, a volunteer and Brandeis student says that students helping out with the ceremony were told to go through each program and remove the material.

For more information on the Oren controversy, browse our InnermostParts archives for posts with the tag “Michael Oren,” dating back to this first post. Read the letter, signed “Concerned Student” below:

“The selection of Michael Oren as Brandeis commencement speaker is both inappropriate and offensive. In spite of programming and literature that describes the University as a non-partisan forum, the invitation of Ambassador Oren to a ceremony that celebrates the values of the institution stands as a pointedly partisan act that alienates a minority of students. The Brandeis administration’s invitation for Ambassador Oren to bestow wisdom as a ceremonial figurehead represents a political endorsement contrary to the values of a secular, non-denominational liberal arts university.

Were Ambassador Oren speaking at any other venue on campus, his visit would present the opportunity for a discussion in the spirit of academic integrity that the Brandeis community expects. When in 2007 President Carter spoke regarding his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Brandeis students invited Professor Alan Dershowitz to rebut his points. Last year, Justice Richard Goldstone was only allowed to speak at Brandeis on the condition that he share the stage with former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold. Unfortunately, in our time at Brandeis, this standard of necessary dialogue regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict is only upheld for speakers critical of the state of Israel.

Regardless of Brandeis’ traditional relationship with the Jewish community, our university remains a non-sectarian institution built on academic excellence, inquiry, and dialogue. As a sitting ambassador, Michael Oren holds the political role of spokesperson and supporter of the Israeli government. Inviting Ambassador Oren to a venue which allows no formal discussion implicitly binds the Brandeis community in unqualified support of Oren’s political position and the government he represents. Brandeis’ traditional association with the Jewish community does not require a wholesale endorsement of either the current Israeli government or its policies.”

24 hour quiet hours; a lot of noise

Wouldn’t be nice if there were a break in the noise? It sure is 24 quiet hours,  but there is a lot of noise. There is a lot of noise in everything, in the universe and in literature.  Maybe it is quiet, maybe it is not loud, but all I hear is a lot of noise.  There is noise everywhere distracting me and talking and thinking.  It is much too difficult to study to live in this society that creates noise.  It is always trying to talk to me and enslave me.  It is too difficult to continue without trying hard.  That is how we have to do it

The Bronx Knows: HIV testing

We can always use more STI-testing, no?

As part of an initiative to increase HIV and AIDS awareness, the Bronx has started The Bronx Knows, a program to provide Bronx residents with safe, accessible, confidential HIV and AIDS testing in an effort to counter the HIV epidemic that has hit all of NYC but especially the Bronx. The program targets people aged 18 to 64, but provides people of all ages with the opportunity to get tested, stressing the importance of knowing your health in order to decrease the risk of transmitting the disease.

The group hopes to test 200,000 people, and is currently in the 150,000 range. Find out more about this program, which hopes to create an example other towns can model themselves after in terms of making testing accessible and increasing awareness and sexual education. The project sounds wonderful, and I’m surprised I am just now hearing about it, though it has been going on since June 2008.

Notably, people under the age of 18 do not need parental permission to receive testing, a measure which I fully support. It also sounds like the program doesn’t shove information down your throat, or try to tell you what you should be doing with your body, but rather is more concerned with getting people tested at over 60 community sites, and then offering opportunities for advice-seeking, etc. if people choose to take them up on it.

Brandeis research institute says government must merge racial wealth gap

The Institute of Assets and Social Policy, a research institute at Brandeis’ Heller School, conducted a study which found that the wealth gap between African-American and white families has been increasing since the 1980’s, and recommended ways to deal with this disparity.

The wealth gap between white and African-American families increased more than four times between 1984-2007, and middle-income white households now own far more wealth than high-income African Americans, according to an analysis released by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP) at Brandeis University….

Notably, IASP’s analysis found that by 2007, the average middle-income white household had accumulated $74,000 in wealth, an increase of $55,000 over the 23-year period, while the average high-income African-American family owned $18,000, a drop of $7,000. That resulted in a wealth gap of $56,000 for an African-American family that earned more than $50,000 in 1984 compared to a white family earning about $30,000 that same year.

These results are both shocking and disturbing in today’s day and age, when we have an African-American president and laws on the books supposedly protecting against racism in the workforce, and something has to be done to correct the flaws in the system which are allowing this gap to increase.

Those figures, IASP said, make it clear that higher income alone will not lead to increased wealth, security and economic mobility for African Americans. Consumers of color face a gauntlet of barriers — in credit, housing and taxes — that dramatically reduce the chances of economic mobility, it said.

The institute came to the conclusion that the government has to take action to correct this problem through large-scale efforts to reform the obstacles facing African-Americans in economic mobility, especially reforming the credit and loaning systems. 

“The data suggests we need renewed attention to public policies that provide real opportunities for advancement by reducing barriers to mobility inherent in our tax system and increasing transparency, regulation and access in our housing and credit markets,” said Laura Sullivan, another co-author.

How do you think our government can solve these problems?

You have 10 hours

I apologize. I’ve known about this amazing opportunity for a while, but the stress of finals prevented me from letting you know about it until right now.

In 10 hours, the application deadline for the Young People For Fellowship. You should apply – I did last year, it was a wonderful experience.

Young People For (YP4) is a strategic long-term leadership development program that identifies, engages and empowers the newest generation of progressive leaders to create lasting change in their communities.Through out the fellowship fellows will gain valuable resources, financial assistance with their projects and meet other progressive young people from their region and around the United States

I could tell you more but I am being kicked off the computer. You get to go to an all-expenses paid convention and meet kickass people, get really thorough training, and for a year you get mentorship and money for your projects.

The application is really short -if they like you, then they do a more thorough interview process etc.

Apply now! You have until midnight! Trust me!

http://www.youngpeoplefor.org/programs/fellowship/apply

An Introduction

Hello Innermost Parts readers,

As you might see, I’m new around here. My name is Jesse Vasquez and I am a new member of the Innermost Parts community.

So why would an inner-city New York kid, a self-described mutt of Peurto Rican, British, Dutch and Indonesian decent, want to join the Brandeis activist community and become a part of InnermostParts.org? To be honest, I don’t entirely know. But then again, I have no idea what major I want to choose or what my favorite cheese is either. Ok, well, regardless of that fact, I know that I want to see more change in the Brandeis community and that Innermost Parts is the best way to get my voice out and be a voice for the rest of the community.

As a Racial Minority and Posse Scholar at Brandeis, I identify with a different type of people then the average Brandeis student. I hope to bring a few good things to the table of Innermost Parts, such as a new view and voice and I also look forward to doing something that has been quite lacking in recent years. That is, bringing the activist community to the Student Union. I am fortunate enough to know some great people on the Student Union, and I am also fortunate enough to know some great activists on campus and members of the Innermost Parts community. I know both the Student Union and the activist network are a determined, dedicated and generally passionate group of people and when they come together I do not doubt that great things can happen at Brandeis for the people here and everywhere around the world.

As a new member, I anticipate bringing people together, causing a little controversy and generally trying to help out Innermost Parts as much as I can. Oh, also, I plan on writing quite a bit about racial and religious issues at Brandeis.

Save the Libraries

Got this e-mail from The New York Public Library, think it’s worth a read. Libraries are important!

Don’t Close the Book on Libraries – Act Now

The New York Public Library is facing a potential $37 million cut in City funding. This is the harshest cut in our history and comes at a time when more New Yorkers than ever are using the Library, many with no alternative for the services we offer. We are preparing for the possibility of closing 10 library branches, a reduction of staff by 36% percent, 25,300 fewer programs and classes for kids and adults, and a cut of 6-day service to 4 days across the NYPL system.

Here is how you can help right now:

We appreciate your support and will keep you informed about the status of Library funding in the next few weeks.

Wifi all the way baby. Also – switch to Gmail!

For those people who use Oracle Calendar (apparently there are 500 of you on campus, wow) or Bmail – you should know: the decision is official; we’re switching to Gmail – with no ads!

Enjoy. Here’s a couple articles previewing the change, and here’s the official announcement after the jump.

Oh and also btw the campus is probably going to switch to super-wifi soon. This will be really cool. One problem – no more ethernet, and no more fancy phones.

I’d like to take this opportunity to proudly point out that we reported this all-wifi plan back in September 2009. Our campus technology infrastructure is uncommonly good and the LTS staff farsighted. It’s nice to take a moment to savor that.

Continue reading “Wifi all the way baby. Also – switch to Gmail!”

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 read some of it, and it’s actually pretty interesting — more discussion to come over the summer.

Judah Marans’s complete (but slightly dated) press release is below the fold.

Continue reading “Law Journal Update — Sold Out! But You Can Still Get One”

New Student Sculpture Garden…?

The Kalman and Friedlan buildings are being replaced with a sand volleyball court, a four-season garden, or a hybrid of the two–there was an e-mail and a student vote about it, a while back. Sahar talked about it in a previous blog post. In addition to these options, there will also definitely by space for young tree saplings to mature, and a loop road that the Waltham Fire Department requires as a precaution.

Now, though, there has been a new, student proposal for what to do with the space. Aimy Tsao, a Fine Arts UDR, and the others want to incorporate a permanent sculpture garden into the spot, where Brandeis students can exhibit their artwork.

It is an alternative to Goldman Schwartz or an inside location, where some work is now shown. Unfortunately, though, larger work often doesn’t fit in these places, and it can sometimes get in the way. The new space, on the other hand, would provide a spot for even the biggest sculptures, and would allow students from all departments (not just art!) to examine student artwork.

So far, the push to make this happen is totally by the students, particularly the Fine Arts UDR’s. They have created a Facebook event and a petition to advocate for the idea. Next year, administration from the art department and elsewhere may get involved, but Aimy says she wants the effort to come from the students, first and foremost.

This seems like a great idea. We need more outlets to display student art on this campus, and this is a perfect opportunity. It’s low-cost, which is a major priority of the University. Plus, it’s awesome that the push is coming entirely from Brandeis students.

Make sure to check out the Facebook event (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123615614315950&ref=ts) and sign the petition (http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/deissculpturegarden) if you’re interested!

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 — it means more free time for me next year, and I have no problem with the idea that someone else might have simply been more qualified.  However, the interview process itself gave me reason for worry, not because of what it means for me, but because of what it means for the future of activist goals in next year’s Student Union.

In my interview, I found that most of the questions I was asked tended to be about the same issues: I had written for Innermost Parts, I had written for the Hoot, and I had a reputation for being outspoken when it comes to activist causes on campus.  The impression I got is that these were significant, and possibly even disqualifying, black marks against my application, not only for what I had actually said and done, but also for the associations I had.  And it wasn’t only me who felt that way.  A friend of mine also got telling questions on his connection with Innermost Parts, and another friend was grilled on her involvement with Brandeis DFA.  As I’ve mentioned before, I have a ton of respect for Daniel Acheampong, and I think he’ll make a great Union President.  However, I also want to warn him against the misconception that the Union cannot be both activist-friendly and effective at the same time.

During Jason Gray’s presidency, the Union was full of outspoken campus activists who made no secret of the fact that they intended to pursue an activist agenda as Union officers.  In addition, Jason Gray himself was very friendly to activist causes and made them some of the centerpieces of his tenure.  As a result of these factors, the laundry-list of successful projects is quite extensive and impressive.  The Committee for Endowment Ethics and Responsibility was formed to pursue greater endowment transparency.  The DeisBikes program was formed to encourage green forms of transportation.  The Senate Social Justice Committee held several excellent forums on educating students about their rights in search and seizure situations.  The advising process for students accused of Rights and Responsibilities violations was reorganized and strengthened.  The Clubs in Service program was started to connect Brandeis students with the Waltham community.  There are more examples; these just come off the top of my head.

There are three important points to keep in mind when considering these activist achievements:

  1. Even though these policies realized some goals of the activist community, they do not benefit only those from activist backgrounds, nor were they designed and implemented solely by self-identified activists.  Lots of people use and love Deis Bikes.  Lots of clubs have participated in Clubs in Service.  Anyone can be falsely accused of a violation and enjoy the protection of a strengthened review process.
  2. Pursuing these policies did not keep the Union from making tangible improvements on more day-to-day issues.  The daily newspaper program was started to give out free papers in the Campus Center.  Significant dining reforms were implemented.  The Health Center and the Career Center both received thorough evaluations and reforms.  The bread-and-butter Union events — the shuttle services and the Midnight Buffets — were executed as well as ever.  The Union has been very successful in this area in subsequent years, but Gray’s Union proved that working on activist issues did not distract student focus or administrator attention from them.
  3. The greatest coups for student authority — the open forums, student involvement in committees, and generally increased transparency from the administration in the wake of the budget crisis — succeeded in spite of, and even because of, the activist-friendly nature of the Union.  The large-scale student protests and demands for involvement gave Jason the leverage he needed to persuade the administrators to meet student concerns; we could not have gained so many concessions if it weren’t for the activist presence that was felt both outside and inside the Union.  Though I’ve heard people share concerns that an outspoken, activist agenda from the Student Union would only drive the administration away from working with the Union, I think we proved the opposite is true.  The administration knows it is part of their job to keep students satisfied, and it is beneficial on all levels to express our dissatisfaction clearly.  As long as we refrain from being disrespectful, there’s no reason to stifle our message in service to a counterproductive notion of propriety.

Unfortunately, the Union has backtracked from their aggressive and productive work on activist goals.  It’s very hard to point out any projects originating from the Union in the past year that match the scope of those I mentioned earlier, and I fear that our new Union could continue on the same path.  The stakes are high; like it or not, the structures of the Union still remain the easiest way to get the ear of the administration and create positive change on campus, and activist causes will be severely handicapped without at least some measure of institutionalized Union support.  I urge the Union to keep the example of Jason Gray in mind; part of the reason he was so highly regarded as Union President was his success in so many areas that both benefited the entire campus community and actualized our founding principles of commitment to social justice.

Thinking about Lee Tusman

So, Lee Tusman. He’s a Brandeis alum, and a cool one to boot. He came to Brandeis last Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday during class, he talked about the sort of cultural-space activism he does. On Wednesday night, we met to plan a secret anarchist (though he never used that word) artist activist event for Thursday. On Thursday, we put our plan into action.

We threw a party. Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that. See, Lee’s big idea was that there are many “unactivated public/private spaces” that are theoretically and perhaps legally public or semi-public land and open to everyone, but in fact are unused by the community and in a sense empty and wasted.  We threw a party on an unactivated space; the plaza in front of the library.

So that was fun. We had students simply having fun doing the sorts of things in their comfort zone: playing foursquare, flip-bucket, bucket-pong, music, dancing, creating chalk art, frolicking, and taking cell-phone pics.

It was great, it was joyous. Everyone had a lot of fun, but almost in a self-consciously zany way. There were people in costume – one person ran around asking people if they wanted their picture taken with a cow.

The event itself ended, on schedule, after exactly an hour, and the only thing left of this rollicking party at 1:05 was the chalk on the walls and plaza of the library and the memories (digital and personal).

So that was the event. But the happenings of the event aren’t the interesting parts. The real question we must ask ourselves is not “What happened?” (the answer is here) but instead, “what was accomplished?”

Especially during Wednesday, I had several conversations with my peers on the same topic: “what’s the point?” Lee does this sort of stuff all the time, but it’s alien to our ideas of good activism. His lifestyle of arts/cultural activism: Is it scalable? Is it goal-oriented? Is it sustainable? We didn’t have the time to really discuss these questions with Lee (and he kept ducking our offers of lunch) so we never have a real dialog with him to address these concerns. Absent that, the consensus seemed to be that it was none of these

It took me a while to understand the point of Lee Tusman and what he represents. I think I can give it a shot now, though.

Lee Tusman keeps our soul alive.

We on the left long ago decided that there are two effective paths to doing good in the world. One path involves putting on a suit and working for a nonprofit or government and trying to use the levers of power to address policy. The other path means gritty community organizing and many one-on-one conversations and overwork with little pay. There are good reasons for this collective decision.

Lee is there to remind us of the spirit we have, of the joy inherent in the movement, perhaps of the reason we started in the first place. Lee is here to prefigure right now the society we hope to see in the far future.

Lee is relentless about documenting his actions. We had a whole team with the sole purpose of documenting our 1-hour party with different sorts of media. In class, later, we were asked to write instructions, tips, and lessons learned for a zine he’d distribute about what we’d done. His presentation to class on Wednesday was based off showing different examples of previous projects. This is no accident.

Lee’s purpose is not to have prefigured the great society in any given place – his purpose is to generate and spread the myth of this action/event/art/prefiguration. The broad social movement (if it can even be considered one) of the left is disparate, balkanized, inchoate. Lee generates the unifying myth, the tales that we can all draw inspiration from.

The class had the pleasure of meeting another great alum who goes by the name of Andrew Slack. Andrew Slack is the founder and executive director the Harry Potter Alliance.

I try to explain the HPA through a monologue that goes something like this: “In the Harry Potter books, when Voldemort is coming back and the Daily Prophet was studiously ignoring it or outright denying it, weren’t you confused? Didn’t you ask “what, these Wizards only have one paper?” That was a problem and we can do something to stop it in real life. Stop Voldemedia! The HPA partnered with Free Press to promote media diversification. What if we were members of a Dumbledore’s Army for the real world? We’d do things like stop genocide – it was wrong in the books and it’s wrong here, and that’s why the HPA working on Darfur issues. The HPA works with fan communities for the Harry Potter series that have hundreds of thousdands of hits per day, and activates them to do good as a Dumbledore’s Army for the real world. So yeah, cool right?”

People often miss the significance of the Harry Potter Alliance; the HPA is so special because it takes people who do not identify with political or social causes and activates them. Whereas the model of many DC-focused groups is one where you must gather the attention and loyalty of as many progressive activists as you can, the HPA is so special because it expands the number of activated progressives around, unlike, say MoveOn.org which seeks to organize already-existing citizens more effectively. In other words, the HPA has found a way to take cultural energy and turn it into political energy.

Lee Tusman and people like him take  “potential energy” found in any community and turn it into cultural energy.

So far we’ve established that Lee’s purpose is to propagate a vision for the society we wish to live in, to motivate and energize the movement, to bring back the zest and spirit of a left that has signed a pact with the nonprofit industrial complex.

Lee’s visit had one more positive effect not discussed yet, one that can be found by examining the planning session before, and the unstructured discussion after the event. During the Wednesday night planning session, the way the session itself was structured showed us a new model of collaborate leadership. Lee definitely was in charge – he shot down ideas if he didn’t like them, he set the agenda, he set the questions. To be clear, we are still dealing with a variation on the old hierarchical model. Lee seized command of the conversation right away, and didn’t relinquish it. In this way, his leadership style is more authoritarian than one might find on any club on campus. However, with that control, Lee vigorously pursued the opinions, ideas, and possibilities presented by all students in class, especially the meekest. In this way, the meeting was more open and pluralistic than most found on campus.

Robin Dash, a professor who was guest-lecturing along with Lee, tried to take this a step further. By sitting where she wanted, interrupting, and forcefully advocating for her point of view, Professor Dash tried to induce all to enter a new world of more free and spirited discourse. I consider this initiative a failure. Very few or no Brandeis students emulated that style, so that her leadership by example came across badly when contrasted by the decorum and politeness that students were not swayed from.

Lee, I think, tried (but not too hard) to open up a new model of social interaction to the students in the class, and that failed. However, in a broader view, his visit did affect students in a way that is more durable than chalk on the walls of the Library. As soon as he left, a few students talked about replicating the “party in an unactivated space” model again in school once he was gone. A questionnaire passed around class asking “want to do something like this AGAIN?” gathered about 10 signatures of would-be organizers for the next event. In this sense, the memory and myth of the party at the library will perhaps grow to the point where it serves as a cultural touchstone and inspiration to this generation of Brandeis activists.

Oren Strategy

The competing claims on what Michael Oren represents, and over the appropriate way to handle his invitation to be Commencement speaker, fascinate me. How effective is the framing of different competing claims? Is their activism strategic and are their tactics well-thought-out?

I find this stuff fascinating. Here’s what I think is going on:

The competing claims

Regarding Oren, there are multiple groups struggling to define him and what his visit means, not just two.

On the general “pro-Oren” side:

–  enthusiastic self-identified Zionists / pro-Israel students
–  political conservatives and “anti-hippies”
–  the mostly apathetic annoyed by all this drama
–  the mostly apathetic that have a status-quo pro-administration bias

On the general “Pro-Unity” side:

–  those identifying as the pro-Palestinian / anti-Israel side
–  those identifying as the left on campus
–  those who don’t want to deal with the drama and want a unified commencement
– those who don’t have a deep personal stake in all this but respect their friends’  feelings and desire a unified commencement

And then there’s everyone else.

Now, these groups overlap and I’m not saying that they’re organized discrete units or anything, but they are separate.

What’s happened so far:

In response to the Oren decision, there was a lot of grumbling among students. I overheard people I’ve never spoken to before talking about how they were sad about how they felt forced to skip commencement. This was a real thing.

For a while, no one organized. On Sunday, Jon, a self-identified member of the left on campus decided to borrow some Innermost Parts online activism tools to create an “anti-Oren petition”. (Disclosure – I consulted on this) While it was conceptually initially conceived as such, the evolution of the framing and text of the open letter is interesting.

First off, it went from being a petition to an open letter. I think this was a valid and good strategic choice. Calling it an open letter makes sense – petitions demand change, letters express a viewpoint. The open letter didn’t make any demands, but instead was a venue for students to say “Hey, we’re thinking of skipping commencement because we feel so strongly about this.”

But the framing and the implied alliances are even more interesting. Instead of writing a fiery open letter talking about the “outrage” at the “unacceptable” choice of commencement speaker, (which would’ve appealed solely to the left and anti-Israel/pro-Palestine elements on campus), Jon chose a different frame. Instead, he made an implicit alliance with the third “those who don’t want to deal with the drama and want a unified commencement” group in order to make a more open coalition and vie for the support of the “are annoyed by controversy and division” masses.

This was a good move, I think. If you read the open letter (and allied facebook group) you’ll see language like this:

Commencement was supposed to be about us.
However, with the selection of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, commencement has been hijacked to serve as part of a debate about Middle Eastern politics. Whether this was the intention is not important: in our eyes and the eyes of the world, Brandeis commencement is a stage for partisan politics, not a celebration of graduating seniors.

We, students, faculty, staff, friends and family of Brandeis University, respectfully believe that the choice of Ambassador Michael Oren as commencement speaker is inappropriate. His far-right views are divisive and do not reflect the diversity of opinion on campus, and moreover politicize what should be an uncontroversial, inclusive role.

This language was clearly meant to both oppose the choice of Oren and appeal to the broadest possible audience. Activism always tends to annoy people – the gambit was to use that annoyance and, judo-style, turn it towards those disturbances to campus unity.

This challenge went up online, and then a few days later a competing facebook group went up: Those who are in favor/don’t have anything against Michael Oren. This, too, was a strong attempt to attract the “apathetic/easily annoyed”  masses.  Soon after that, a stronger “A Letter in Support of President Reinharz and Ambassador Oren” with accompanying petition started gathering support.

While this was happening, a separate anti-Oren group was coalescing. Instead of building off the list names of open letter cosigners and facebook-group members, this new group was starting from scratch. They decided to build off the energy of the Source/ReSource event and use it as an occasion to protest. Soon before the event, there were more sophisticated second thoughts: (reprinted from an email with permission):

  • Michael Dowling is an activist himself, and he realizes that Brandeis is a broken community, especially in the wake of the Rose Art scandal.
  • The Source/ReSource event, in the view of its creators, is not a tool of the administration to say that the Rose is fixed.  Instead it’s supposed to bring people from all aspects of the community to unite around this place of contention, and if anything it’s a message of dissent directed at the administration.
  • Instead of occupying this space and effectively claiming it before the event occurs, perhaps we should use the message of the event and relate it to ours after it’s finished.  People should be coming away from this ceremony with a sense of campus unity, and that’s the very thing we feel was disrupted by the choice of Oren as commencement speaker.
  • By taking over the space before this event, we could potentially alienate or make enemies of people who should be our allies.
  • In the messages we display and literature we hand out we should connect the Source/ReSource idea to the conflict.  We could say something like, (these are my words) “Brandeis students are a great Source and ReSource of peace, justice and coexistence in the world.  Commencement is the ultimate ceremony signifying our transition from Source to ReSource.  Bringing Oren to our campus to speak about this issue at this event is both unnecessary and inappropriate.”

Therefore at the hastily-planned Source/ReSource art event, the pro-unity group taped fliers stating their position on buckets and participated in the event. The symbolism was good, but what was the strategic impact? The action got written up in the Justice, but the Justice was sure to mention the low numbers of protesters.

Later,  similarly, the pro-unity side staged a protest outside Bernstein-Marcus on Friday. It was a more explicitly “anti-oren” sort of thing and they did go to Jehuda’s office hours. Again, I think it may have done more harm than good – highlighting their small numbers. A nice tactic is to have all 10 or 20 protesters go into office hours with Jehuda and speak to him at once. I don’t think they did that.

How did the small core of pro-unity activists spread their message? They fliered a bit about the protest on Wednesday, they sent a facebook mail to members of their group once announcing each of the two demonstrations, and they posted sometimes on Innermost Parts.

State of play right now

In this time, the pro-oren side had spread their petition to right-wing blogs and gained a lot of signatures. Now, many of these petition signers are generic right-wingers or random panicked Jews. So the “pro-oren” petition doesn’t have too many actual Brandeisians in it, and a  petition is easier to sign than an open letter that says “I am seriously considering not going to commencement”. Still, I worry that these fine distinctions will be lost.

Speaking of distinctions, the distinction between the “anti-Oren” and “pro-Union” groups that hasn’t really been fleshed out yet. That has been deliberate – the anti-Oren faction really doesn’t want to alienate campus and is therefore subsuming their very specific, yet polarizing critiques under the more vague “we believe in campus unity, Oren is a divisive figure” message. The problem comes up when people say “Well, why is Oren so divisive?” They cannot respond because they do not know what they can allow themselves to say.

The pro-Unity position is also hampered by the fact that it anticipated ugly attacks at the anti-Oren (or possibly from the anti-Oren) group and tried to preempt them by pointing at the attacks/division as a reason why the Oren selection for Commencement speaker was an unwise choice. The problem, of course, is that the anti-Oren group decided to subsume itself into the “pro-Unity” coalition, such that the pro-Unity folks were attacked on grounds of creating the division themselves. If they didn’t run around claiming that Oren was divisive, the “reasoning” went, then Oren wouldn’t be divisive.

Now, clearly this is bullshit. People would be hurt and upset by the Oren selection in the absence of any organized activity. Still, the pro-Unity coalition tried to strike a “sensible middle ground” but has been hampered by the fact that there’s no one out there (except Professor Mairson) making the case as to why exactly Oren is a bad choice on the merits, and why exactly he makes students feel alienated from their own commencement.

I’m not sure what the “pro-Oren” side has been up to. I’d be very intrigued indeed to hear what sort of decisions, planning, and actions they’ve taken behind-the scenes. I’m genuinely curious – once this is all over, if someone would like to give me that side of the story I’d be much obliged.

So this is the situation. If I could advise group of students meeting and planning the unified “pro-Unity” coalition, this is what I’d say:

Advice for future action on the pro-Unity front:

You have several advantages. Use them. Firstly, you have meetings and are making plans. That’s great. You have made the choice to spend your time trying to make a change, and that gives you power. You have access to 247 students opposed to Michael Oren as commencement speaker, and 135 students have signed a letter saying that they’re so upset they are considering skipping out of commencement.  Use them.

You have access to all these potential allies and volunteers and organizers. Email them, use them.

Your actions have some merit. Symbolically joining the Source/ReSource ceremony, going to Jehuda’s office hours, that was nice. It made sure that you got into the papers. Fine. Still, it shows your weakness. You held a protest and 15 people showed up. Don’t make that mistake again. If you hold a protest, you damn well better be sure that enough people will show up not to embarrass you.

It takes time and effort, and I’m sorry, but you have to organize. Knock on doors, talk to people in Usdan. Put a flier under every door with a link to your open letter. That’s how you grow your organization and get new supporters.

Remember that famous Alinsky quote:

For an elementary illustration of tactics, take parts of your face as the point of reference; your eyes, your ears, and your nose. First the eyes; if you have organized a vast, mass-based people’s organization, you can parade it visibly before the enemy and openly show your power. Second the ears; if your organization is small in numbers, then do what Gideon did: conceal the members in the dark but raise a din and clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more than it does. Third, the nose; if your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place.

Ok, now strategy.

You need an anti-Oren foil. You need someone out there loudly making the case for why Oren is so offensive after all, and why they are hurt by him. Now, it has to be a separate organization from you guys. You might not even agree with what this new group will have to say – but as they grow in power and influence, you will too. You will be seen as the “reasonable middle” that you are.

You also need a demand. I know, I know. Up till now you’ve strategically not made any explicit demands on the administration. There was sound reasoning behind this – you know and I know that Jehuda isn’t going to un-invite Oren. Even if he magically agreed with us, he’d feel too embarrassed to back out now. You decided not to make a demand until you got a lay of the land and saw what was possible and thought up a think that could happen to “cancel out” the Oren invitation. Well, you’ve waited long enough. Time to start organizing around a specific change. You have options. Let me suggest a two:

1. More student speakers at commencement. One graduating senior every year gives a speech at commencement. Would-be speakers submit drafts online, seniors vote for the top few best drafts, and then a committee of “adults” picks the final speaker. Don’t settle for this. We want a united community, not a divided one, right? To cancel out Oren’s divisiveness, why not have 3 student speakers, not just one. I know that the finalists this year are all inspiring brilliant people with great speeches. Who better to unite around than our beloved fellow classmates?

2. A more open process for choosing commencement speakers. Michael Oren was a bad choice. We can prevent more bad choices in the future by creating a better decision-making process, one that empowers and respects students and recognizes our legitimate claim that we should have some power over choosing commencement speakers and honorary degree-holders. I know this lacks the emotional satisfaction that you might be looking for (and honestly won’t help you at all), but it would be a nicer senior gift than any money could buy.

This is the state of play on the Michael-Oren-at-Brandeis related front as best as I understand or can articulate it.  As for predictions for the future – the pro-Unity group really needs to step up its community organizing game, and it needs to also start activating all those potential leaders and volunteers found in its facebook group and petition-signers. However, we are entering finals – there’s not enough free time to make this happen. Therefore I’m pessimistic. The best hope is to adopt one of those two proposals (more student speakers or reformed commencement speaker selection process) and see if it can go viral.

Rules of Conduct; Play Nice

Recently the level of personal attacks in the comments has increased. This is a bad thing. For those of you who are new, please check the rules. In light of recent events we’ve decided to start enforcing them more.

Commenting – We at Innermost Parts want to foster a community, not give assholes a platform to attack others. We believe that if you have something meaningful to say, you should be proud to say it openly.

Commenters  are heavily encouraged to use their Brandeis email addresses (which will not be publicly displayed) and real names when posting. We reserve the right to moderate comments, especially anonymous ones.

At the very least, commenters must provide valid email addresses and post under a name that is not something silly or hurtful.

We realize that sometimes there is a real need for anonymity. Remember, we’re a small community here. If you choose to comment anonymously know that  you will be held to a stricter standard of common decency.

We further encourage you to register an account with us to make sure your comment doesn’t accidentally get caught in the spam filters.

In short, use a real name and use a real email address. If you don’t, you better behave yourself.

If you do post anonymously (and you should only do so if you’ll play nice) we renew our pledge to keep your identity secret.

Innermost Parts will not become the means for an individual to bully another. Remember, we are all students here and we should all treat each other with respect. Identifying yourself in your comments reflects the choices you’ve made to be a decent and honorable person. This trust is essential to our community, please do not abuse it or pervert it.

Facebook

Remember when you could use plain text on Facebook in order to express yourself? Now, in yet another update to their loosening privacy settings, all of the text on your profile will be linked to a respective page devoted to your interests/current city/activities/etc.

Cool, right? Well, not really. An article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation looks at this problem in greater depth. In their article about the change, Facebook argues that this will usher in a new age of networking, and uses cooking as a main example. Before, friends could just read your profile to see that you liked cooking. Now, your information is posted on the cooking page, along with the tens of thousands of other users who list cooking as an interest. As the EFF article notes, however, while cooking is a relatively harmless example, your listed interests in causes such as abortion, gay rights, legalization of marijuana, or any other hotbed issues are prone to be linked to their respective pages, putting you in a virtual database for anyone who wishes to view this information. If you start receiving unwanted friend requests, it is likely that they have come as a result of the ability to see you through such a database.

There are a few options to combat this: You can delete your account, and reregister as a minor, as Facebook’s policy regarding users under 18 halts these profile links. You could also quit Facebook entirely.  Yet it seems that the best move is not to shy away from these changes, but to combat them head on.  There are likely going to be several protest groups and pages which intend to lobby against these changes, and here is a link to one of them, via campusprogress.org.  With a strong following, it is likely that Facebook would take such groups seriously.  As Brandeis students, we should do our part to make sure that our ideals are upheld, especially when Facebook is jeopardizing our our ability and choice to keep those ideals private and personal.

Brandeis is hurting

I’ve been hurt many times this year at Brandeis.

And I’ve thought by now, I’d be somewhat numb to all its happenings. Yet, everything I continue to come across shocks me, gives me another reason to feel no longer a part of a university I’ve come to see as a second home. And coming to this acknowledgement has hurt most of all.

If you don’t know me—or you’ve likely seen me around campus (one would say, I’m a little obvious here), during the past three years, I’ve worked on many projects with various student leaders and clubs, faculty, served on the student judiciary, performed many of my Spoken Word pieces at various coffeehouses and events, but most of all—I’ve formed beautiful and rare friendships that I will forever be in debt to Brandeis for. In this way, I will always know Brandeis, especially when we part ways this time next year.

I’ve been really strong, trying so very hard to stay strong, be a part of and have faith in the leadership this place has and truly needs. I’m unsure if what I see now has always been there, but either way, there was too much love around to let it affect my perception of Brandeis.

I’m disappointed, quite simply. I’ve seen more hate, more people trying to silence one another, more disrespect, more miscommunication, more polarizing decisions, this year than any other. To the point where I made the impulsive decision to study abroad next semester; the accumulation of Brandeis and student politics has suffocated me so much that I cannot feel anything but unhappiness here.

I am waiting, waiting to see Brandeis be the place I’ve always loved but lately the hate hurts, takes so much more as the days go by.

As a Muslim student at Brandeis, it isn’t easy, but it also isn’t much different from what I deal with outside of it. My personal, religious choices have been the only thing to give me a deep piece of mind during a disturbing, conflicting time in our world.

I come from a 12-year public school background, and I came to Brandeis anticipating an acceptance of alternative lifestyles and opinions because of its Jewish, secular status. Who would understand more about social and political underrepresentation than a strong minority group in America? I came here knowing my religious observance would be of no surprise because every Jewish sect is known and accommodated. At the same time, half of the student body is not Jewish, culturally or religiously—and they encompass different races, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and gender identities. This is reality; and the statistics shouldn’t be ignored.

I’ve heard more and more students and alumni express their anger about how Brandeis has been “un-Jewified.” These statements are hateful, they create second-class citizenship on our campus, and devalue the vast contributions non-Jewish students have done to improve Brandeis’ social life and class dynamics.

So, yes, this is a place for Jewish identity. But Brandeis represents more than that– it’s an institution originally created to give minority people a safe-haven, a shelter from outside hate, a time to solidify and progress through scholarship. Brandeis symbolizes endurance of difference and embraces strength through productive, respectful means.

I’m here. I’ve been here. But I didn’t feel this when the Muslims’ Student Association’s suite was vandalized and continue to not when I see all these Michael Oren Facebook groups, campus flyers, petitions, the Hoot and Justice articles, and Innermost Parts posts and comments.

If I am hurting, Brandeis is hurting; and I need, want so badly, for there to be more love than hate here. Remembering as the semester concludes, that with every difficult moment, there comes an easeful one to help heal it…

Why does the “pro-Oren” petition have so many signatures?

So people have been excitedly pointing to the pro-Jehuda pro-Oren petition circulating around. The number of petition signers is huge – over 3000. In fact, it’s over the entire student population at Brandeis. What’s going on?

Well, it turns out that Adam Ross’s petition got the attention of one of the largest right-wing blogs in the country, with traffic in the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of hits per day. These are the sorts of people who signed a letter “supporting” Brandeis.  Brandeis students: do you feel supported?

Don’t let the criminals at your institution disturb a friend of American from speaking.

in the 30’s the goons(a/k/a brown shirts) were able to shout down opposing views. don’t let it happen here.

Do not tolerate Anticemitism!

guess these days Brandeis (btw, who was the school named for?) is the school of self-hating Sonderkommando helpful idiot jews….like Jackie Saffir.

As the Leftists and jihadists march hand in hand China and Riussia chuckle while they annihilate Muslims at will.

The pro-terrorist crowd becomes more and more dangerous every day.

Radical politics inherently is anti-Semitic—and will require Jewish adherents to be self-hating. This really should not shock anyone in the least.”

Those kids belong in reform school … not the University.

When will you people stop with this Politcally Correct Nazism and remember that this is America.

I am shoocked by the close minded, anti-semitic reaction of the students at Brandeis.

The Arabs lost multiple wars trying to exterminate the Jews. They lost some land, too. Get over it.

THOSE STUPID LIBERALS WERE ALSO THE FIRST TO SAY THAT HITLAER IS A PASSING FQAD ANDMEANS NOTHING .

to protest this statemen’s speech is simply nothing more than good old fashioned anti Semitism.

don’t give in to neo-antisemites!

Please do not allow antisemitism to grow in our institutions of higher education.

Brandeis is a Jewish university, as witnessed by the fact that it does not hold classes on major Jewish holidays. If some students dislike that aspect of the school’s philosophy then let them transfer to another school, preferably in an Arab country.

america is surely on the decline and we can look forward to jidhadists and leftists and rightist all vying for a slice of our totalitarian government and institutions.

The hateful propaganda espoused by the Palestinian student body is regretable and truly threatens our Democracy

So the petition is stuffed with right-wing outsiders and shouldn’t be taken seriously, fine. But a lot of those signers were clearly Jews. They claim to be embarrassed by my friends – I am embarrassed by these outsiders. I’m a patriotic Israeli citizen, practicing Jew, keep shabbat, keep kosher, etc. These people are calling me a nazi, anti-semite, “pro-terrorist”. My cousin was almost killed by terrorists. That’s hurtful.

So the “anti-Oren” group here at Brandeis worked very hard to articulate their position as not “anti-Oren” but instead “pro-Unity”. Read the open letter, read the facebook group. No matter what they say, no matter how carefully they make the case that the decision to bring Oren as Commencement speaker is troubling due to the special nature of commencement, these panicked defenders of gung-ho right-wing Jewry think of them as anti-semitic Palestinian radicals running amok and “violating free speech”.

The real frustration throughout all this is how the “pro-Oren” side seems to be willfully both vilifying and ignoring the actual stance of the “pro-Unity” side. I knew this would happen. That’s part of why inviting Oren to be a commencement speaker was a unwise move in the first place.

Kent State and Student Activism

So as a lot of our readership might know, a few days ago was the 40th anniversary of the shootings at Kent State University. As a lot of our readership also knows, this blog and the authors who write on it are also concerned with issues relating to student activism, and are frequently disillusioned by the common perceptions that students these days, overwhelmingly, are too lazy (or preoccupied) to deal with the pressing issues of their day.

This article at Salon, while similarly lambasting the current state of affairs, got me thinking about our notions of activism and the past, especially around the time of the Vietnam War. You often hear about people saying that “back then,” students stood up for things, often in the face of guns and popular disdain (we heard much of that at the Remembering Ford Hall event). And they did stand up in response to the shootings, to the tune of a national student strike and a huge rally in Washington, DC. But, apparently, right after the initial buzz, people were just as content then to sit around in the sun or play frisbee as we are now to sit around watching reality TV and talking about how much the situation sucks.

Quick Edit: I sound like I’m saying a national student strike, involving 4 million students and campuses across the country, is no big deal. Which I’m not. But I am saying that after the initial strong start, people started to lose their sense of urgency and went back to their daily lives (which, after all, is only to be expected, right?)

Arizona Students

In a new letter released by the President of the University of Arizona, he states that a number of out-of-state honors students are planning on transferring as a result of SB 1070, the new Arizona Immigration Enforcement Law:

We have already begun to feel an impact from SB1070. The families of a number of out-of-state students (to date all of them honors students) have told us that they are changing their plans and will be sending their children to universities in other states. This should sadden anyone who cares about attracting the best and brightest students to Arizona.

You can find the link to President’s letter in full here.

I for one would love to see these students attend Brandeis. We could always use more students who are willing to alter their future to bring their education in line with their social justice values.  In addition, it speaks volumes to the ability of college students to voice their opinion to unjust laws. While making a drastic change such as transferring may not be for everyone, it’s certainly inspires a need for everyone to protest this law in his or her own way, even if that just means writing a letter to Governor Brewer to protest.  On that note, you can find her contact information here.

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 means that we can trust him to run an effective, conflict-free Student Union.

But I’d be doing Daniel (and the Brandeis student body) a disservice to attribute his victory simply to his personality.  I’d also be wrong, particularly in light of how commanding his vote total was.  I’ve never seen anything like the most recent Union election; getting over 50% turnout for the presidential race was far more than I ever thought would be possible, and it speaks to the strength of all four candidates that they were able to motivate so many students to support them.  Daniel’s total, however, was particularly impressive.  Jason Gray and Andy Hogan each won with around 600 votes, but Daniel was able to get over 900.  That has to be some kind of Union record, and you don’t get that kind of campus-wide respect simply because people think you’re nice.

You get it because you took on the most difficult and important job in the Union, the position of Treasurer, and you successfully managed the finances for the entire campus.  You get it because you helped to start Live Campus 2009, a nationwide series of concerts with the proceeds going to eliminating poverty.  You get it because you somehow managed to find the time to serve as a Roosevelt Fellow as well, going through a difficult application process to serve as a peer academic adviser.  Daniel has proven himself a leader in many different areas of the campus community, and his stunning electoral victory is a testament to his diverse, impressive resume.

While I voted and worked for Sahar Massachi in the election, I always had a strong respect for Daniel, and I look forward to working with him to accomplish our shared goals for the campus.  The student body provided him with a strong mandate to work for his agenda, and I’m sure he’s eager to jump into action.  Congratulations again to Daniel on his swearing in, and good luck on guiding the Union to a successful year.

It’s not Michael Oren’s fault

So this whole Michael Oren thing – the line is that Oren divides Brandeis. People don’t seem to understand how that is true. But Oren divides me! Please understand, I’m a patriotic Israeli citizen. I love my country. I’m also a proud “left-ish,” and people on the left tend to be pretty harsh on Israel. This contradiction has torn my heart for years already.

Michael Oren brings this anguished internal monologue to the fore. He’s my ambassador. Much of the criticism leveled at him focused on his stint in the Israeli military. I feel pride in the Israeli military; right now I have leave from being drafted (seeing as how I’ve lived in the United States for so long) but I intend to go back to Israel and serve.  Still, just as I could love America during the Bush years but still be staunchly opposed to torture, invading Iraq, and everything else, I can love Israel and still support rule of law, human rights, and democratic pluralism.

I disagree with the Israeli government – but I love my country. Do you understand how hard this is on me? People in the states seem to be divided into two camps – “Israel is awesome and any criticism of their policies is motivated by either ignorance or hatred” or “Israel is evil and they are an oppressor and gleefully cackle as they pursue war crimes”. Sure that’s a caricature but that’s the state of our discourse, more or less. Is there room for me?

Is there room for people who think: “Israel is a great country and my family is from there. I was born there and my family left Israel because Saddam Hussein kept sending missiles during the Gulf War. My mom was freaking out because I was playing around in biohazard tents because no one knew if those missiles had biological or chemical weapons or not. If my cousin had gone to a disco 10 minutes earlier this one time he would’ve been dead due to suicide bomber in line. So I get the Israeli mentality, I think. I get how they have a legitimate case that the deck is stacked against them, and how the UN unfairly focuses on them. But I also keep reading reports on how the Israeli government has a file of all this Arab land that was illegally stolen but doesn’t do anything about it and I totally believe in the idea that “occupation corrupts”.  It does. And no matter how we got to this shitty situation and no matter how unfair it is that Israel gets saddled with this horrible image and “refugees” that by all rights should be Jordanian or Egyptian citizens, the clear problem is that Israel can’t be both a  democracy and a Jewish state and have all the territory it has now. And like, human rights abuses are wrong but they don’t define a whole country. ”

Is there room for people who sometimes criticize, sometimes defend Israel? Is there room for people who come from a position of love and anguish?

Oren divides. You know how I know? Because we’ve seen in the last week or so some ugly comments coming from members of the Brandeis community addressed to other members of the Brandeis community:

Shame on you. Don’t you liberal lemmings always cry “FREEDOM OF SPEECH”? Aha, only when it serves your self-hating, anti-Jewish purpose.

This group is an embarrassment

Do yourselves a favor and don’t embarrass Brandeis anymore than you already are.

Shutup, and deal with it.

You believe yourselves to be open minded citizens, but you are merely bigoted. Get your facts straight before you make your biased remarks. You obviously have done zero research into the UN or what Michael Oren stands for..and probably know nothing about Israel’s position in general for that matter.

I just hope that none of my money went to providing you with an education.

Wow lets all listen to ms radical mariel, shes really got a point. or not. get over it, hes coming just stop being dramatic about every little aspect of life when its in regards to israeli politics.

stop whining about people who bring on their own problems and think of gilad shalit: a far more worthy subject of social justice than the half baked a…holes for whom you attempt to seek justice. when you grow up and stop your self loathing jews will be better off.

It’s not Ambassador Oren’s fault, but there are assholes on campus. I appreciate Brandeis because we seem to have a lot less than other places, but they do exist. It is sad that his visit has exposed them.

There are people on campus who are legitimately hurt by this selection. There are people on campus who are legitimately outraged. There are also people who don’t want to relive these interminable battles of Israel, who want to enjoy a commencement in peace, who don’t want to worry about Brandeis’ foreign policy. Then there are people who aren’t even Jewish. What about them?

What about the people who aren’t Jewish, but now have to hear over and over again that  Brandeis is a Jewish school, that their presence here for the last 4 years is now somehow less legitimate?

Bringing Oren was a bad decision – a divisive decision. Theoretically, the selection process works like this: students (and others) nominate honorary degree-holders, the Board of Trustees narrows these nominations down and decides who gets a degree each year, and Jehuda chooses which of these becomes commencement speaker.

In practice, the process works like this: only one student nominated anyone for an honorary degree this last year. Students don’t know how and don’t know when to submit nominations.

We need a better process. We need more aggressive publicity for our power to nominate, and we need a more open process of choosing honorary degree holders. More students should have a say on who gets honorary degrees; perhaps there could be a more open/democratic process even for choosing commencement speakers.

To a real extent, this whole Oren thing reflects two ongoing stories at Brandeis. One is of course our tensions regarding Middle East politics. The other : students feel disrespected by the administration, and the administration doesn’t have a culture yet of valuing student input. Over and over again we see instances where more democracy, more respect and openness to students would have led to better policy. If the administration had spent time talking to students about the Rose, about Oren, about Budget cuts, then student energy would be spent working with and defending the administration, not opposing it’s autocratic decisions. I bet if we had a real campus conversation over the Oren decision, if students felt respected and included in the decision, we wouldn’t see nearly as much anger and betrayal as we see today.

We’ve seen a lot of ugliness lately, and I don’t like that at all. The decision to bring Oren does intensify fault lines at Brandeis, instead of uniting us in celebration. You can’t argue with that.

Springfest

Hi! I’m Becca Carden, a freshman, and this is my first post for Innermost Parts.

This weekend was my first Springfest experience at Brandeis. It was really fun and beautiful, and very interactive.

But, as I am not an artist, I don’t get the opportunity to see student art very often during the school year. I do go to coffee houses, and I was impressed by the very cool cactus sculptures in the SCC earlier this semester. But can’t we have more? It would be great to have different art projects on display all over campus all year round.

Part of the reason Springfest/Festival of the Arts was so empowering for me was the general feeling of creativity that surrounded it, and I think Brandeis has the potential to promote this inspirational environment all the time. This weekend was great, but can we set up a stage on Chapel’s Field and have student music groups perform on some weekend when it’s not too cold? Or, could we put more visual art on display? Couldn’t we have a cappella in the SCC in the afternoons sometimes, or a surprise skit in the Usdan in the middle of the lunchtime rush?

Springfest is an awesome tradition, and I really enjoyed it. But maybe we can incorporate the art that it celebrates into the everyday Brandeis experience.

Get Real. Food.

Last October, despite frozen ground, numb fingers, and dripping hats, a group of passionate students started a community garden behind Massell. After just seven months, we now have delicious veggies growing in over 100 square feet. You probably didn’t know a community garden even existed here, did you? Well, now is your chance to get involved – tomorrow afternoon from 1-3 we’re having a Real Food Eat-Out!  You can do some garden work, eat real food, and discuss the role we play in the food system.  We’ll also have a taste test with milk from a local farm!

As a child, I never realized how privileged I was to walk out my front door, meander barefoot across the dandelion-laden grass into the steaming greenhouse to pick a tomato (and eat it, of course).  I did similarly with peas, carrots, beans, lettuce, chives, plums, strawberries, apples…the list goes on.  I can still feel the dirt rising between my toes as I reached for that plump, sugar-snap pea taunting me from the top of the trellis.

I never refuted my friends when they called me a hippie-child, but I’ve grown to firmly disagree. My parents have invested in the land and experimented for over a decade now, each year pushing the boundaries of how much zucchini will fit in the fridge and how many apples will fit in the dehydrator. They were never discouraged by clay-like dirt or the multitude of aphids, slugs, rabbits, and deer who treated our garden as if it were Sherman. I, too, reaped the benefits of the garden quite often – despite my parents’ pleas, a few mint leaves or a sprig of fennel became an almost routine snack on my way to school.

I grew fond of the joy and pleasure from eating fresh, local, organic produce. I can’t even remember a time when I wasn’t in love with the taste of a fresh-picked tomato. I adore the sweet tang of the skin, juice and seeds bursting out of each pocket into my welcoming mouth.

Most consumers experience just this – we eat food, and are aware of what our taste buds prefer and the relative price. On the Brandeis campus, many share a vague idea that terms such as “organic,” “natural,” and “cage-free” are somehow better. However, we’re still infinitely detached from our food.

If you’re fed up (no pun intended) with any aspect of the food system, join us in the Patchwork Garden community between the Chapels and Massell Quad.

You’re always free to meander barefoot across the mowed grass to admire the fruits (and veggies!) of our labor, but tomorrow we’re having a special garden bash. You can water, weed, construct raised beds, beautify the shed, plant seedlings, eat real food and witness our garden and community grow! We’ll be feasting on stir-fried swiss chard, salad, and fresh-baked bread. We welcome any contributions from point surplus – try to bring real food items such as local SoCo ice cream!

If you want to fight for honest labels and transparency, want to know the ingredients in our food, or don’t want to deal with the intricacies of corporate labels, join us.

If you long for that perfectly crisp and tangy apple, the indulgent whiff of a tomato vine, sweet peach juice dribbling down your chin, or a candy-sweet crunchy carrot from a farm down the road, join us.

If you want to push Brandeis to follow through with our climate commitment and reduce carbon emissions, join us.

If you wish to consume products from animals who were treated ethically, choose to not eat animal products at all, or are concerned about corporate consolidation, join us.

If you want to help workers earn a living wage, join us.

Although as a child I didn’t realize the weight of my actions, I’ve come to greatly appreciate the values my parents exposed me to. If you share some of these values, please join our community. We don’t bite, except into delicious food.

A Few Thoughts About the Aquapocalypse

On Saturday night, I was killing time and decided to buy a soda at Hannaford’s.  While I was waiting in line, I took notice of the crowds which were mobbing the various check-out aisles.  What every single person had in common was a harried look in their eyes, and what separated the crowd into two chunks was water; there were those who had amassed a shopping-cart’s worth of bottles and crates of water, and those who hadn’t arrived in time.  In the twenty minutes which it took me to get to the front of the line, a time which was frequently punctuated by the shouts for the manager demanding more water, I began to realize that were I not on campus, I would be in the same position, unsure whether or not I would have any access to clean water for an indeterminate amount of time.

As the weekend wore on, I started feeling thirsty at all hours of the day.  This may have been due in part to the heat, as well as the amount of time I spent at Springfest, but I began to wonder if other people felt the same way.  Was my desire for water influenced by my recognition that I could not have a constant flow in my water bottle at any time of the day? This is to say nothing of the fact that 1/8th of the world’s population has no access to clean drinking water, but this made me realize that as a student at Brandeis, I was given access to essential resources when they were sorely needed by the community.

Yesterday morning, the entire campus woke up to great news when we were told that the crisis was over.  I admit that that this was a relief for me, but I considered some of the people who were “suffering” more than I was.  For example, I don’t drink coffee, but I overheard a student at Einstein’s complaining about how they had to drive thirty minutes into Cambridge in order to find an open coffee shop.  When I actually considered the troubles that plague people around the world, however, it made me realize how trivial this is.

Sea-Food anyone?

Several minutes after the SEA Banquet ended, this exhange took place amongst some of my friends who had attended it with me.  The following conversation has been paraphrased, and names have been changed to protect the innocent:

Fiat: I have something to say but I don’t want to offend you.

Adom:  Just say it!

Fiat: You know you’re eating…. (gasp) chicken!

It’s times like these when I question whether I truly support the environmental and animal rights movements. Of course if you ask anyone, s/he will say that if given the choice between torturing and killing animals or not, s/he would prefer not to (HOPEFULLY), but if the question is framed as a choice between eating meat and saving animals, it becomes a much more contraversial issue. Many people don’t want to give up their meat-eating, fast-food loving ways, and I am one of them. I don’t feel bad for eating chicken, although I myself have experimented with vegetarianism and understand the argument for it. Even suggesting that a friend turn vegan can develop into a heated and accusatory debate.

However, despite my lack of motivation to address these problems, I attended the semesterly SEA banquet with my friends this afternoon, mostly for the free food, and got the benefit of listening to senior Max Fischlowitz-Roberts, Prof. Brian Donahue and Brown-student/Real Food coordinator David Schwartz present their cases for environmental justice, arguing in favor of sustainability and animal rights.

After a meal of tasty, “Real” (local, organic, vegan or fair) food prepared by SEA-ers, each of the 3 members of the panel spoke for 5-10 minutes, and then took questions from the diners.

Fischlowitz-Roberts focused on animal rights, characterizing the way many meat-producers treat their animals as animal cruelty, and opining the lack of laws to protect against such behavior, as well as the high incidence of worker injuries in these factories.  Donahue spoke on the importance of students going out and experiencing farming firsthand, and the ability for students to make a difference in the food industry. Lastly, Schwartz discussed the Real Food Challenge, and the way the fast food industries have corrupted our perception of what a healthy diet is.

While I still find it hard to relate to issues of environmentalism and animal rights when there are people suffering whose lives I feel I can have an impact on more directly, when I hear about the small ways people can help, such as reducing the amount of industrial food they consume and replacing it with organically-grown or local food, it is hard to come up with a reason why I shouldn’t do my part to help, other than pure laziness. In fact, Brandeis has made somewhat of an environmentalist out of me, as evidenced by the fact that I now know what compostable means, and actually hold onto my recyclable garbage until I can find the appropriate bin for it. I found the panel intriguing and enlightening, though not necessarily inspiring, and learned more about what “Real” food is defined as.

I suggest you all come to the Eat Out this Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the garden in Massell Quad (behind Renfield) to eat veggies grown by Brandeis students on that very patch of land, and enjoy the company of your friends! It’s a cool site to see, I swear.

Judah Marans has done it

Many people didn’t think it would happen. They thought it was crazy. But it’s real. We have a Brandeis Undergraduate Law Journal, and it’s here because of the undeniable hard work and tenacity of Judah Marans. Innermost Parts contributor Nathan Robinson wrote a thing for it, and so did respected Professor Gaskin, among others.

The details (in an email I got):

The Brandeis Law Journal is happy to announce the release of its inaugural issue this Wednesday, May 5th. One of the few undergraduate law publications in the country, the journal will include an introduction by University President Jehuda Reinharz, a foreword from renowned Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, a piece by Professor Richard Gaskins, and numerous contributions from the students, faculty, and staff at Brandeis. The issue is free for Brandeis students; to reserve a copy e-mail subscriptions@brandeislawjournal.com.

Have a great week!

Best, Judah

They’ll be handing out copies outside Usdan tomorrow morning.

FREE FOOD

Running out of points? Don’t feel like spending a meal? Come enjoy a free organic and local dinner!

Students for Environmental Action is hosting an entirely free, made-from-scratch organic and local meal in Sherman Function Hall (Upper Sherman) at 6:00 pm.

There will also be a panel discussion titled “Food, the Environment and Social Justice.”

Come for the discussion, for the free food and for a really awesome time.

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, and everything seems fresher and more appetizing.  All of a sudden, Sherman seems like less of a joke and more of a decent place to enjoy a meal.  And while credit should go to the Brandeis administration and Dining Services for their responsiveness to the community’s complaints, we should also remember what helped get the ball rolling on the path to large-scale dining reform: the advocacy and hard work of former Union President Andy Hogan.

I’m living in the Charles River apartments next year, as I’m sure many of you are.  If someone had told me before this semester that I’d wind up in Grad, I’d have been sorely disappointed; visions of leaky buildings and broken appliances would have crossed my mind.  However, I’m now excited for next year.  Grad is receiving a thorough renovation, and I’ll be one of the first to inhabit the fresh new living space.  Once again, I, along with the rest of the student body, owe a thank you to Andy Hogan for making this happen.

I feel that Andy often received an undeserved bad rap during his time in office.  He was censured by the Union Senate over the insignificant midyear senator amendment, and though he avoided the impeachment that Diana Aronin suffered, she at least got a public validation through her decisive reelection.  Despite the fact that he did everything he could to minimize the issue and keep it from becoming a distraction, he bore the brunt of the bad press the Union received in the wake of the impeachment fiasco.  The nadir came in the February 5th Hoot, which featured an editorial cartoon cruelly depicting the Student Union as a beheaded chicken.  The symbolism was tacky and completely uncalled for, particularly as the “head” of the Union continued succeeding in his advocacy projects and improving campus life.

Adding additional BranVan service during high traffic times?  Thanks, Andy.  Working to eliminate wasted energy by shutting off after-hours lights?  Thanks, Andy.  Expanding the awesome Clubs in Service project?  Thanks, Andy.  Getting a student voice on the powerful Presidential Search Committee?  Thanks, Andy.  The Union’s focus on student surveys this year allowed it to keep a finger on the pulse of the Brandeis community, and it used that knowledge for tangible results in many small but tangible ways, improving everything from our dining to our bathrooms.

Jason Gray definitely left some massive shoes to fill as Union President, and I can’t pretend I agree with every decision Andy has made over the past year.  But his term in office was punctuated with success on a number of levels, and I hope that the student body recognizes that.  Despite the manufactured controversy, a lot of us were looking only for results, and I think that Andy Hogan delivered.  I hope Andy knows that his hard work didn’t occur in a vacuum; I, at least, was watching, and I appreciate what he was able to do.

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 receive community funding; the least they can do is try to meet the community’s needs.

Go ahead and take it.  It’s only eight questions and shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes.

Water main break

ATTENTION: AQUAPOCALYPSE

Massachusetts has declared a state of emergency due to a break in a water main which brings water to 48 communities in the Boston area. 31 communities have been put on “boil water” order, including Waltham and Boston, meaning if you live in those areas you have been advised to boil your faucet water before drinking or bathing in it.

According to an article in the Boston Globe, “The break is in a 10-foot-diameter pipe on Recreation Road in Weston, where the MWRA’s MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel meets the City Tunnel”, which is located about 2 miles from our very own Brandeis University. Due to the leak, 8 million gallons of water are rushing into the Charles River each hour, and has been ongoing since sometime between 10 and 11 a.m. this morning, when the break occurred.

Be careful, and use your water responsibly!