Jordan Rothman Must Recuse

On August 29, 2008, in a column entitled “Celebrating Racial Diversity is Pointless” Jordan Rothman, Justice of the Union Judiciary wrote in the Hoot:

Celebrating racial diversity does not accomplish its stated mission of bringing greater perspectives and experiences to intellectual discourse. One way in which it fails is that not all members of racial minority groups have different backgrounds simply due to their race. Blacks as well as Whites can come from the inner city, just as members of all races can hail from differing walks of life. It is therefore unfair and inaccurate to believe that minorities have a different perspective simply due to ethnicity. Furthermore, even if an increased perspective was present, I have no idea how it would benefit the community. It is not like open debate on monumental issues occurs regularly in the classroom or around campus. Nor is it as if cultural values and perspectives make an impression upon our intellects through osmosis. I fail to recognize any benefits from interacting with people of different racial backgrounds, as I have little to gain and do not see how this benefit can be conveyed.

I think he’s wrong, but that’s beside the point. As a Justice, Jordan will have the power to cast a deciding vote on the issue of whether or not the positions of Racial Minority Senator and F-Board representative can exist. Though I cannot find any public comment from Jordan on the positions themselves, his Hoot columns clearly show that he believes ‘racial diversity is pointless.’ He has already made his beliefs obvious and public and thus should recuse himself from the case.

Injustice to Racial Minorities

For those who saw the announcement, Ryan McElhaney and Gideon Klionsky are suing the Elections Commission for prohibiting white students from participating in the election of the Racial Minority Senator and Racial Minority member of F-Board. Astonishingly, the Union Judiciary has agreed to hear the case against the Elections Commission.

This is problematic on so many levels. Whatever you feel about the position of the Racial Minority Senator the fact that the UJ, a body comprised of five white individuals, can dismantle the position without any input from the student body is outrageous. To make it worse, the parties most affected by the potential ruling, racial minority students, have absolutely no say in the process. The named respondent in the case is the Elections Commission, which probably doesn’t give a damn about the position to begin with. This case is subverting the Democratic process and allowing five white justices to decide the fate of representation of racial minority students.
Continue reading “Injustice to Racial Minorities”

A Challenge to the Racial Minorty Senator and F-Boarder

bumped -Sahar

Woah. I don’t have time to comment on this just yet.

But breaking news, the UJ has agreed to hear a case on whether or not the positions of Senator for Racial Minority Students and F-Board Representative for Racial Minority Students are inherently discriminatory.

A fascinating case. I’ll offer my full commentary when I’m not writing a paper. The full text of the order granting cert is below.

Continue reading “A Challenge to the Racial Minorty Senator and F-Boarder”

Will Brandeis Get a Mystery Gift?

Colleges across the country are getting mysterious donations numbering in the millions of dollars from secret donors.

NPR:

A mystery is unfolding in the world of college fundraising: During the past few weeks, at least eight universities have received gifts totaling nearly $45 million, and the schools had to promise not to try to find out the giver’s identity.

Now, while I definitely wish that Brandeis would receive some anonymous angel donation, I appreciate that the money is going to colleges such as Norfolk State University, University of Iowa, University of Southern Mississippi, and so on.

I don’t have the time to round up smart people pithily making this point, but I think it’s pretty obvious that a 4 million dollar donation to a State University is significantly better for society than paying Harvard 4 million dollars to name a building after you. It’s great that schools who actually need the help the most are getting it.

Which reminds me:
An angel concerned about funding higher education where it needs help should consider the Washington Monthly College Rankings:

this guide asks not what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country. It’s a guide for all Americans who are concerned about our institutions of higher learning. Are our colleges making good use of our tax dollars? Are they producing graduates who can keep our nation competitive in a changing world? Are they, in short, doing well by doing good? This is the guide that tells you.

The most recent rankings I could find are from 2007. In terms of the social benefit it produces, Brandeis is a measly 98

Anyways, kudos to these colleges. Hopefully Brandeis is next in receiving “miracle savior money.” We need it, after all.

The Midnight Buffet — Is It Worth It?

At their last meeting, the Union Senate passed SMR S09-14, which provided funding for this semester’s Midnight Buffet, which will be held on April 29th.  The resolution called for $3650.10, and that total was apparently amended upwards to $3750 during the meeting.

The resolution itself is noteworthy for being over a thousand dollars lower than the traditional $5000 granted from the Senate’s operating budget for the Midnight Buffet.  The decrease was made in deference to the cap on the Union Activities Fee, and I’m pretty sure the additional money was or will be transferred to the F-Board to distribute to clubs during emergency request meetings.  This is a good gesture on the Union’s part to ease the substantial decrease in programming forced upon many clubs, but it’s still less than many people wanted.  While $1250 helps a little bit, the full $5000 would have helped even more.  Should the Midnight Buffet have been canceled in light of the F-Board’s decreased funds?

Those who have argued for cancellation point not only to the SAF but also to the economy in general, claiming that it’s irresponsible to spend so much money on a frivolous event (the Justice editorial page endorsed this perspective).  Clubs could use the money for more substantial events than what North Quad Senator Alex Norris calls the Union’s “Bread and Circus” event.  Giving the whole $5000 to the F-Board would open more of the SAF to the entire student body and take away from the amount that only the Senate has discretion over.

Proponents of the Midnight Buffet point to the event’s universal appeal and long tradition as a campus-wide celebration before finals.  Students deserve a reward after a semester’s worth of work and need something to alleviate the stress of finals.  I’ve heard many people describe the Midnight Buffet as one of their favorite events at Brandeis, and it always draws a huge crowd.  $3750 wouldn’t amount to much money when you consider how many clubs would be asking for a piece of it.   In addition, the Midnight Buffet is mandated by the Union bylaws, and changing the bylaw would make canceling the event a more complicated process than merely not funding it.

While I’ve always enjoyed the Midnight Buffet in the past, I think sacrificing it would be a small price to pay for the benefits of opening more money to the cash-starved clubs.  However, I accept that mine may be the minority opinion, and I ultimately think the event should be funded at the discretion of the student body as a whole.  In the future, I’d like to see the Midnight Buffet removed as a requirement from the bylaw; instead, I think the Senate should engage in more outreach and polling to determine on a semester-by-semester basis if the event is something the community truly wants.  The money being used comes from everyone — it’s only fair that everyone should have a voice.

An Update on the Clubs in Service Program

With all the press the Union government has received for its work in securing a student voice in budgetary committees, some of its other triumphs have flown below the radar.  The Clubs in Service program is one of my favorite Union initiatives this year, and its great intentions and success are unfortunately under-recognized.

Jason Gray first announced and described the program in November during last semester’s State of the Union:

The University’s Department of Community Service has the resources and connections for all clubs to be able to partner with Waltham and provide services to the community.

For example, the debate team could teach public speaking at a local school. An a capella group could sing at a local shelter. Your club can play chess or knit at a nursing home, shoot hoops at the Boys and Girls Club, cook a holiday meal for those in need, or organize a talent show at the YMCA. The opportunities are endless.

Every club could have a community-service component to it.

Today we challenge every club and organization to engage the community in service, and we commit ourselves to helping this challenge succeed.

The Hoot’s article on the speech included my very positive first impression of the idea.  And yes, I am about to blockquote myself:

Student Union Vice President Adam Hughes ’11 said after the address that while the Union’s executive board has yet to discuss how it will specifically aid clubs in adding a community service component, he hopes to make it as easy as possible for clubs to meet Gray’s “audacious call to action.”

Hughes said he imagines that the Union would “spend a significant amount of time next semester” helping to connect clubs with Waltham organizations.

“We don’t want this to be a huge ordeal for any club,” Hughes said. “This is a great actualization of Brandeis goals, and we want to make it as easy as possible for clubs to achieve.”

Here on Innermost Parts, Loki was more to the point:

Ideologically, I was most struck by  the point near the end of the speech when Jason challenged every single club to get involved in the surrounding community. This. is. a. fucking. great. idea.

I was involved in some of the early planning discussions when the program itself began to take shape.  The Union government would do the publicity, reaching out to clubs by e-mail and in person to get them on board.  They would send the clubs to the Waltham Group, who already had a great list of contacts and potential programs for clubs to be involved in.  The Waltham Group would work with the club leaders to plan a service event that would incorporate each club’s unique focus and to work out all the logistics.  In the end, we would be left with the perfect synergy of student resources to take advantage of our ability and desire to improve the Waltham community.

The program was launched in early February.  Class of 2012 Senator Akash Vadalia led the Union side of the program, and his great outreach laid the groundwork for success.  His goal was to get 15 clubs to participate in this, the program’s first semester, which would lay the groundwork for expanding it in the future.

Did we get there?  Just ask Jason:

This semester, some 31 clubs have signed up to participate and involve their clubs in community service.

Jason and Akash deserve tons of credit for leading the program to success beyond anyone’s expectations, and the Waltham Group worked tirelessly to accommodate every club sent their way.  And though Clubs in Service has already done amazing work in the community, its future is even brighter.  The program has a friend in a very high place: Union President-Elect Andy Hogan.  Andy made the expansion and institutionalization of Clubs in Service one of his foremost campaign platforms, and with his strong track record of planning successful community service projects (the Combating Hate fundraiser, the Rwandan rape victim fundraiser, past involvement in Clubs in Service), I’m confident that he’ll make the program even stronger.

If you’re involved with a club that hasn’t participated in Clubs in Service yet, you should definitely try to get it involved.  I’m not sure if the program is still active this semester, but it’s worth finding out.  At the very least, it’s never too early to start planning for next year.  Contact Jason (jgray@brandeis.edu), Akash (akashv@brandeis.edu), or Andy (alhogan@brandeis.edu) for more information (I’m not sure who would be best right now, but I’m sure any of them could point you in the right direction).  Community service is such a great way to make a difference in so many people’s lives, and I’m proud that Brandeis has proven itself a leader yet again.

An Interfaith Success Story

If you could sum up successful interfaith dialogue in three words, what would they be?

How about “Homies in Harmony”?

If those aren’t quite the words you had in mind, then you clearly weren’t one of the organizers of last week’s Jews and Muslims Session: Homies in Harmony III.  I wish that I had been able to make the event, because it seems like it was just as successful and entertaining as its name.  Check out this story in the Justice for a full overview of the event, but the basic premise was to create an interfaith conversation that would both allow for discussion of personal, controversial feelings and maintain a level of respect that would encourage participants to form friendships with people from unfamiliar faith tradition.  My good friend Neda Eid helped to organize the event, and she told me after the fact that she was very excited by how well it turned out.  Judging by the quotes from the article, it seems most of the participants felt the same way.

Last year marked a low point for interfaith dialogue at Brandeis.  It seemed that every few weeks introduced another controversy that played itself out in the papers and left a lot of hurt feelings.  The charter of Students for Justice in Palestine, the Israel 60th birthday resolution, aspects of the Mamoon Darwish saga and of the Senator-at-Large election and Judiciary case — I’m sure most of you still have sour memories of all of these events.  Even the Boston Globe took note of the firestorm the campus had become.  It’s counterproductive to go back and assign blame for everything that happened (I certainly don’t claim to be innocent myself), but I think it was clear to everyone that something had to change.

And something did change.  To the credit of the entire Brandeis community, this year has been almost completely free of the public battles that marred ’07-’08.  It’s hard to say exactly what did it; perhaps everyone just got tired of seeing so much bad blood.  Regardless, everyone at Brandeis should be proud that the interfaith dialogue on campus has improved so substantially over last year.

However, this clearly doesn’t mean that anger and bitterness don’t still exist.  Tension among religious groups has existed as long as humans have; should we really expect it to disappear overnight from our campus?  And just because it isn’t spilled out over the front pages of the Hoot and the Justice doesn’t mean that it has no effect and that we are best off ignoring it.  JAM Session should serve as a model for how to deal with these tensions productively and turn them into tools for strengthening our community.  It seems that plans are already in place to develop a more frequent series of conversations, and I encourage everyone to get involved with this in some way.  The elephant in the room is the Israeli-Palestinian tension, the biggest source of interfaith conflict on campus.  JAM Session wisely kept the focus on more general interfaith issues (though Israel/Palestine wasn’t explicitly excluded), but eventually that discussion needs to be had.  We should look at JAM Session as a model for approaching these issues in a way that allows respectful disagreement and productive action.  Brandeis has come a long way since last year, and though we may not be there yet, I have great confidence that we’ll eventually be able to engage even the thorniest of issues and remain homies in harmony.

Future of the Rose Town Hall

A message sent to the Brandeis community – reprinted here

Dear Members of the Brandeis Community,

As the chair of the Future of the Rose Committee I am writing to invite you to participate in a town hall meeting on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009, from 4:30 -6:00 p.m.. The meeting will take place in the Olin-Sang auditorium and is open to members of the Brandeis Community.

As the Committee gathers information and explores possible options for the future of the Rose, we would like to hear your ideas.   Please come having considered the following questions:

•    In your view, who are the principal constituencies of the Rose?  Who should be?

•    In your view, what are the priority activities at the Rose?  What should be?

•    Are there ways to continue to enhance the Rose’s interaction with our students and our curriculum?

•    Given any knowledge you may have of how other institutions of higher education successfully integrate their art museums into the life of those institutions, what suggestions do you have for Brandeis and the Rose?

If you are unable to attend the town hall meeting, we invite you to submit your ideas for the future of the Rose to the Committee via email at rosefuture@brandeis.edu, or through our online forum at http://my.brandeis.edu/bboard/q-and-a?topic_id=3213&topic=Future%20of%20the%20Rose.  (This is a private forum open to members of the Brandeis community only.  Simply login using your Brandeis username and password.)

We look forward to your input and thank you in advance for your willingness to share your ideas with us.

Regards,

Jerry Samet, Chair
The Future of the Rose Committee

Want to learn community organizing this summer?

An exciting opportunity to learn/practice community organizing, and get paid!

SOUL Summer School
June 15th to August 6th 2009
San Francisco Bay Area

SOUL Summer School is an intensive 8-week introduction to community organizing and social change, designed for young activists who have been involved with social justice organizing for at least one year. SOUL is dedicated to building the skills of young women, young people of color, working class, and queer people as the next generation of leaders in the social justice movement.

SOUL Summer School provides a structured time to work full-time to develop your grassroots organizing skills and your political analysis. SOUL Summer School has three components:

ORGANIZING INTERNSHIPS with local organizations that work within working class communities and communities of color, fighting alongside people for their rights. Through these internships, you’ll get on-the-ground experience with the work it takes to build community power.

ORGANIZING SKILLS TRAINING so you can learn the concrete tools you’ll need to organize for power in our communities. The trainings provide space to build the skills you will use in your internships. SOUL’s trainings will develop skills like outreach & recruitment, action planning, and facilitation.

POLITICAL EDUCATION to think more deeply about the current political and economic context, especially the issues impacting working-class communities of color.  We’ll also look at local and global fights to win justice for our people, to help develop a strategic vision for building our movement today.

The summer program is eight weeks long, starting on June 15th and ending with a closing celebration on August 6th. SOUL Summer School is a full-time commitment for the whole eight weeks. You will not have time for another job or for summer classes. You’ll spend at least 30 hours a week in your organizing internship and 10 hours in our political education & skills training sessions. SOUL provides need-based stipends— up to $2000— for your living costs during the summer. Applications for SOUL Summer School 2009 are due by April 17th. If you have any questions about SOUL Summer School, please email us at soul@schoolofunityandliberation.org or call 510. 451. 5466 x 300.

SOUL School Of Unity & Liberation
287 17th Street, Suite 225
Oakland, CA 94612
www.schoolofunityandliberation.org

Need-something.

I had a talk with Professor Hickey the other day. We talked about need-blindness and other similar considerations. He had an idea: what if Brandeis was 90% need-blind, or something like that? The gist of it is that Brandeis normally admits about, what, 750 or so students per year? (I honestly do not know the number). Why don’t we accept that number of students need-blind like usual, but for the extra one hundred or so students that we have to take on due to financial consideration, let’s be need aware.

There’s a certain honesty and elegance to the idea. We’re admitting these extra students because we need the money. So let’s be up front about it and take money into consideration when admitting them, but only for the extra amount of students we normally wouldn’t take anyways?

What do you think of the idea? Suggested reading – “Paying in Full as the Ticket Into Colleges”

Facing fallen endowments and needier students, many colleges are looking more favorably on wealthier applicants as they make their admissions decisions this year.

Institutions that have pledged to admit students regardless of need are finding ways to increase the number of those who pay the full cost in ways that allow the colleges to maintain the claim of being need-blind — taking more students from the transfer or waiting lists, for instance, or admitting more foreign students who pay full tuition.

[snip]

Brandeis University, which is need-blind except for international, wait-listed and transfer students, accepted 10 percent more international students than usual this year, and Gil Villanueva, the dean of admissions, said he expected that the university would take more wait-listed and transfer students, as well.

Why not just be honest?

The Justice today was a PR misstep

Let’s take a look at the front page of today’s The Justice, shall we?

Some selected articles:
Forum: “Not exactly need blind”
“Acceptance rate up 8 percent”
“Golf team raises funds to continue program”

Now, the Justice has a mission to report the facts as soon as they can, but can we all awknowledge that it was a possibly bad circumstance for this all to be printed on the newspapers on accepted students day? This is a situation where no one was at fault, I suppose. I mean, transparency and honesty is a good thing. Still.

PR Fail.

Prof. William Ayers will speak at Brandeis

Democracy for America, Students for a Democratic Society, the Social Justice Committee and four academic Departments (PAX, History, Education, SJSP) will be bringing Bill Ayers to campus on Thursday April 30. He will be speaking in the Shapiro Campus Theater at 9 PM, doors will open at 8:30. He will be speaking about social justice, activism and his experiences in the Weather Underground. This will include a Q&A session afterward. During the preceding week we will hold educational events about the speaker.

Tickets will go on sale after spring break, the price will be $5 and will be available on a first come, first serve basis with a Brandeis ID. 230 tickets will be available for sale. This event is limited to members of the Brandeis Community only.

Contact Lev at levh7@brandeis.edu or Liza at lizaveta@brandeis.edu for questions!

Elections Final Round Results

Board of Trustees
Number of voters: 566 · Electorate size: 3254 · Percentage voted: 17.39
Ranked by votes
Rank         Candidate         Votes        %
1         Heddy Ben-Atar         274        48.41
2         Sahar Massachi         267        47.17
3         ABSTAIN         25        4.42

Alumni Association
Number of voters: 416 · Electorate size: 3254 · Percentage voted: 12.78
Ranked by votes
Rank         Candidate         Votes        %
1         Samuel Fuchs         170        40.87
2         Jourdan Cohen         152        36.54
3         ABSTAIN         94        22.60

Eh… you win some, you lose some, I guess. But anyway, I, and I’m pretty sure I speak for Sahar as well, want to thank everyone who voted, flyered, or dormstormed. It was a really close race, and I appreciate all the work that people put in.

Help me change Brandeis – vote today

So, as you may know, I’m running for Junior Representative to the Board of Trustees. The first round of elections was on Thursday, and it ended in a runoff. Voting starts (and ends) today.

If you’ve been following my work at Innermost Parts, and think I would be a good face for the student body to the Board of Trustees, or if you like the projects I’ll pursue with that position, please vote for me now. Any current Brandeis undergraduate student (midyears to Seniors) can vote.

You can learn more about what I’m about and what I’m running on by checking out my elections website (here).

The quick synopsis:

Why Sahar Massachi?

What he’s done:
Disappointed by the lack of appropriate media outlets for student voices, Sahar founded InnermostParts.org in his first year. An authentic student voice focused on building the Brandeis community and serving as a modern “town square,” it has provided social justice-oriented content for the entire community – students, faculty, alumni, and staff. During the months prior to the presidential election, he served on the Brandeis Votes Union Task Force that facilitated the effort to register Brandeis students to vote through many diverse clubs. Currently, Sahar coordinates our endowment strategy with other colleges through the Committee on Endowment Ethics and Responsibility.

What he believes:
Brandeis has always been on the forefront of social change. Our first task was to use competition to force other Universities to end their bigoted admissions and hiring policies. Our task today is to empower each other to draw upon our undergraduate experiences to improve the world in which we live. A Brandeis graduate should have more than just a liberal arts education, we should have all the tools and knowledge that we need to be a citizen – in the most expansive sense of the term.

What he’ll do
“I pledge to use electronic or other means to contact the student body before all Board meetings, as well as to inform them of the happenings therein. I believe that if students are treated as partners, we will act like partners. We deserve to be approached as stakeholders who love Brandeis, and not as transients. We need to pro-actively build the Brandeis community and uphold Brandeis’ most cherished values, and I will bring that spirit and that orientation to the Board of Trustees. With your vote, I promise to be transformative and visionary, not just competent.”

Thanks for your support.

Updated Elections Results

Well, you all protested the lack of Pigasus results, and the powers-that-be have listened.  Tia Chatterjee sent out an e-mail to the candidates today with the full election results including votes for ineligible candidates.  Pigasus wound up with 17 votes for President (22 if you include the various misspellings).  My favorite protest vote, however, has to be the person who voted Donald Rumsfeld for Vice President.

The complete e-mail is below the fold.

Continue reading “Updated Elections Results”

Iowa Court Legalizes Same Sex Marriage!

I know we don’t like posting non-Brandeis related news on innermostparts usually, but I felt compelled to post this article.

The jist: At the end of this month, gay and lesbian couples in Iowa will be able to legally marry. A sure victory for the gay rights movement. Iowa joins the likes of Massachusetts and Connecticut in allowing same-sex marriage. Iowa is also an important victory as it is the first non-coastal state to legalize it. Iowa may be a blue state, but it is still middle-America.

Here at Brandeis we fought Proposition 8, and will fight next year to repeal it, in the name of civil rights for all. This is a victory for the movement, with work we can bring the entire nation to legalize same sex marriage by 2020.

Elections Results

Here they are:

Congrats to Andy for President, Amanda for VP, Daniel for Treasurer, Diana for Secretary, Akash, Julia, Makelensky and Gabriel and Lisa for Fiance Board (all positions), and Nicole for UCC.

There will be a final round for Junior Rep to the Board of Trustees. It will include Heddy and Sahar.

There will also be a final round for Junior Rep to the Alumni Association. Jourdan and Sam.

The polls for the final round open at 12:01 AM on Sunday April 5th. They will be open until 11:59.

Continue reading “Elections Results”

Save Wayne Campaign in the Boston Phoenix

The Boston Phoenix has a short piece on the Save Wayne campaign. Perhaps administrators will start to listen now!

Check it out: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/79369-Will-Brandeis-lose-its-swagger/

“Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz unleashed a torrent of negative publicity for his university when, with zero transparency, he announced that the school would shut down its vaunted campus-based Rose Art Museum… Condemnation from all corners of the art world was swift. Now, ethnomusicologically invigorated Brandeis students and alumni are hoping for a similar outburst of criticism for the probable downsizing of Wayne Marshall, who, since 2007, has taught urban music and African-American studies as the school’s Florence Levy Kay fellow.”

I’d like to quickly mention one important point about Wayne Marshall’s leaving which I do not believe has been stressed enough: how much of a loss his departure will be to the African and Afro-American Studies department. With Professor Mapps away in the fall, and Professors Smith, Joseph, and Sundiata away currently, an already small department will have to continue offering limited class selections. Although the faculty and classes we do have are excellent, AAAS majors like myself have few choices in which classes to take to satisfy our major requirements. Wayne Marshall’s loss is therefore extremely frustrating, because he added a greater diversity of subjects for AAAS students to pursue.

So, yes, Marshall’s departure is terrible in so many ways. Remember to sign the petition at savewayne.com, and to join the Facebook group!

Debate over the National Popular Vote Compact Today in Waltham

Looks interesting:

Today at 7-9 PM in the Lecture Room of the Waltham Public Library: should the popular vote determine the outcome of national elections? Pam Wilmot, Executive Director of Common Cause, and Dr. Alexander Belenky, a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals at MIT’s Engineering Systems Division, will be debating over whether Massachusetts should join the National Popular Vote Compact.

Elections Today: Pigasus for Dictator!

In case you didn’t get the Email from Tia, or the facebook messages from every candidate on the planet, or otherwise live under a rock….

Elections are today!

DFA endorsed the following slate of candidates:

Andy Hogan – President
Nathan Robinson – Vice President
Diana Aronin – Secretary
Daniel Acheampong – Treasurer
Sahar Massachi – Representative to the Board of Trustees
Jourdan Cohen – Representative to the Alumni Association
Maia Gallagher-Siudzinski [WRITE-IN] – Representative to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

I, on the other hand, wrote in Pigasus for President.

Vote wisely. These people are going to have a lot of power and will determine the fate of the University. Just kidding, April Fools.

“Away With All Gods!”

A message from the Brandeis Humanists

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=66078575985

Brandeis Humanists is proud to present revolutionary Sunsara Taylor as part of her national speaking tour about the book “Away With All Gods! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World” by Bob Avakian, who is chairman of the United States Revolutionary Communist Party. Sunsara has given speeches across the country about topics such as the Iraq war, torture, assaults on women, gays and science, and the criminal treatment of Black people during Katrina and by police 24/7, and was also co-founder of “World Can’t Wait — Drive Out the Bush Regime.” She is now turning her energy to theocracy in America.

She has appeared on the O’Reilly Factor, been thrown out of one of Rick Warren’s talks at Ebenezer Baptist Church for getting up and yelling “Rick Warren is a Bigot! No ‘Common Ground’ for Bigot Rick Warren!”, and recently has been part of a Morality Without Gods series at New York University.

Please come, bring your friends, and get ready for some radical atheist discourse!

Thursday, April 2, 2009
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Pollack Auditorium (next to Rose Art Museum)

The Arts at Brandeis

It’s been two weeks since Jason Gray made this call to the Brandeis community:

[T]oday, I challenge the University administration to engage the arts community in order to find tangible ways to invest in the long-term future of the arts at Brandeis. I call for a series of meetings between administrators and members of our artistic community to discuss ways to ensure that Brandeis remains a fertile ground for artistic creativity even amidst the financial situation.

I haven’t heard about any progress being made on this issue since the State of the Union, but I hope the Union (or some other party) is following up on it.  This is a tough time for everyone at Brandeis, but the art community has been particularly hard hit.  The closing of the Rose Art Museum is the most obvious reason, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.  Just as important is the way in which the decision was made and announced, the current uncertainty about the Rose’s exact status, and the various other cuts that the art department has faced.  Jason made the historical importance of the arts to the university very clear in his speech, and I know that there are many professors and students who need reassurance from the administration that they remain a priority.

The cuts outside of the Rose have not gotten nearly as much general publicity, but they have contributed to the sense that the arts just aren’t as important anymore.  One of Brandeis’s true jewels, the Lydian String Quartet, has been reduced to part-time status for next year, a move that violinist Daniel Stepner says may force a decreased concert schedule for next year.  The Hoot has more on the importance of the group and the effect of the reduction:

The quartet, founded in 1980, is an internationally acclaimed chamber ensemble dedicated to reinvigorating works from the classical canon while exploring contemporary pieces. The group has won ensemble prizes at important festivals in France, England, Canada and the United States, given performances in prestigious American and European concert halls, and released more than twenty musical recordings. Yet despite their worldly ambitions, the quartet feels most at home at Brandeis University, where all the members are part of the teaching faculty and regularly give performances.

Before the program began, the quartet announced that the university would be cutting back its position to half time for the following year, but that the ensemble would figure out a way to continue offering concerts to the Brandeis community and broader listening public. At a time when cutting back on the arts appears to define the university’s modus operandi, the announcement came as more troubling than shocking.*

It’s sad to see another world-renowned art institution handicapped by the budget crisis.  In addition, the Music Department has lost and not replaced three full professors in the past few years, and the graduate program suffered cuts even before the budget crisis hit.

Of course, the Rose has been the focal point for controversy this semester.  The official statement released by the Fine Arts Faculty shows how deep their surprise and disappointment at the initial announcement was:

In addition to despairing at the Trustees’ action, we wish to make clear that at no point in the decision making process was the Department of Fine Arts faculty consulted. Neither was there any communication regarding the decision with the Rose Board of Overseers on which a member of the faculty sits. Nor was any reference made to the museum at the university-wide faculty meeting last Thursday (January 22) when strategies to confront the current fiscal crisis were discussed.

The department faculty wishes to express our profound sadness at the consequences of this abrupt action for the liberal arts mission, cultural life, and intellectual legacy of the university…

As to the proposed future of the museum building, at no time before or after notification of the decision, have members of the Fine Arts Department expressed a desire to change the function of the Rose or reuse the building. There is no academic advantage to be salvaged from closing the museum and selling our art. It is a sad response to the current fiscal crisis that treasures left in trust for current and future students are now being sacrificed. The department remains committed to continuing the legacy of the intellectual and artistic practice here. We are losing an irreplaceable tool to fulfill that goal.

Since then, we’ve had a series of backtracking and vague, contradictory statements about what exactly will happen to the Rose, and its future remains very uncertain.  What we do know is that the Rose contains one of the best collections of modern art in the world, and it now appears very likely that we’re going to lose at least some of its masterpieces.

I know that many of these cuts may be necessary due to the state of our budget, and I think the administration has done a much better job of handling these situations in the past few months.  However, we cannot allow the arts community to feel marginalized and irrelevant in the decision-making process or in campus life.  Jason was absolutely right to call for meetings to remove these feelings and to plan a solid future for the arts at Brandeis, and I hope we can see his goal realized soon.

*The article I quoted was written by Max Price, the Diverse City editor and a great writer and good friend of mine.  His piece “Arts resources at Brandeis: Use them or lose them” is the best statement I’ve read on the importance of the arts in general and at Brandeis.  I highly recommend you check it out.

Some thoughts on Senate Money Requests

I’ve never written a post for Innermost Parts before, and I’m not sure why I am now. Mostly it is because I did not get a chance to air out my ideas at the Senate meeting last night, and I think that a good number of people who care about Brandeis read this blog, either to compliment or to critique. The bylaw to change the way the Senate gives SMRs was defeated by a wide margin, in part due to the impassioned defenses of Rachel Graham Kagan and Andrew Brooks, who were there under the system as it stood before the constitutional changes in how the SAF was apportioned. And they were right to warn us away from that path, because it sounded like utter chaos. However, the fact that those who supported the bylaw change were swayed by those arguments is a confirmation to me that I had a fundamentally different view of this bill from my co-sponsors. So I write this to ask this community of people who care, do you think that the system as it stands is the best it can be? Because I don’t, and I think that if that bylaw amendment was not the best way to go about reform, we need to find a way that is.

Continue reading “Some thoughts on Senate Money Requests”

Send a Good Dem to Congress Tonight!

(A message from the Democrats and DFA)

Progressive Democrat Scott Murphy is standing toe-to-toe with a powerful republican in a historically republican district. With your help tonight, Scott will be a member of US Congress TOMORROW!

Please join other campus progressives as we make GOTV calls to democrats in New York’s 20th Congressional District (upstate NY) reminding them when and where to vote!!!

We will be making calls from **Village TV Lounge between 5:00 and 7:00 PM**

In a close race like this, your help could make all the difference.

During the last Congressional cycle, DFA-Brandeis made calls that helped Joe Courtney of Connecticut win a Congressional seat by just an 83-vote margin. These races can be very close!

Please come a help tonight! It will be fun and you WILL make a difference!

Student Senate in a Nutshell: Everything but the SMR Amendment and the Unificationist Club Recognition

Most notable occurrence behind the cut: the proposed amendment which would prevent candidates from providing political incentives to their supporters, and the five-minute Executive Session surrounding its discussion. Also included: SAF uncapped, Jason Gray defends his actions regarding the current election.

Continue reading “Student Senate in a Nutshell: Everything but the SMR Amendment and the Unificationist Club Recognition”

SU Senate votes to recognize Unificationist club – good or bad idea?

Today, the SU Senate voted to recognize a club that essentially is a college-level chapter of the Unification Church movement.

The Unification Church is a new age religion, called a cult by some, founded by a man named Sun Myung Moon in 1954. He claims to have seen Jesus Christ in a vision, who charged Moon with completing his work and unifying all sects of Christianity into a single moral force. The Church’s primary goal is this unification, and the promotion of heterosexual family units through arranged marriage.

In very large part, the Unification Church is driven by Moon, who is revered with near-prophetic worship by the Church’s members (those outside the organization often call its members Moonies for this reason). Moon is a very incendiary figure, a megalomaniac who somehow managed to book a Senate office building on Capitol Hill to crown himself the Messiah. He has stated,

“Emperors, kings and presidents . . . have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity’s Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent.”

Continue reading “SU Senate votes to recognize Unificationist club – good or bad idea?”

Respect

I just got around to reading the Justice’s article about the State of the Union today, and one thing in particular really jumped out at me:

“I think his speech was one of the most outstanding you can imagine from a student leader,” said Rena Olshansky ’56, a member of the Board of Trustees’ Students and Enrollment Committee, who said that it was her first State of the Union address. Commenting on the Union Rena said, “I think the [students] set their agenda, and that’s important.”

University Provost Marty Krauss, who attended the speech, said in an interview with the Justice, “[Gray] has a tremendous amount of respect among the members of the administration because he’s a mature person; he’s diplomatic; he thinks about the perspectives of many constituencies; he’s smart; and he makes really good recommendations, and he gets things done.”

Senior Vice President of Communications Lorna Miles, who also attended, added that Gray “has been incredibly vital; his legacy is having created a consciousness in the University among the administration and the faculty that students are part of the day-to-day governance of this community.”

That’s an incredible amount of respect for Jason Gray coming from the administrators and trustees who attended the speech.  We’ve already heard the great praise that Jason gets from the student body, and it’s really satisfying to know that the other members of the Brandeis community feel the same way.

This kind of universal acclaim is impressive enough on its own, but I find it even more impressive when viewed in the context of the content of Jason’s address.  The speech was not tailor-made to draw praise from the administrators.  Several times, Jason challenged the University to meet goals that he set, and he wasn’t afraid to call the administration out on several mistakes.  Most notably, he directly stated, “[T]here is no doubt that the Rose Art Museum has become a case study in what not to do procedurally.”  Isn’t that hard-hitting?

So what does all this mean?  First, it says something very positive about our administrators.  By praising the speech so effusively, they’re letting us know that student participation is not incumbent on our complete deference to their decisions.  They are willing to have a dialogue with us, allow our disagreement, and even to admit mistakes and work towards changing them.

But it also says so much about Jason himself.  He has the rare ability to say exactly what needs to be said while striking the right chord for every party involved.  This didn’t just happen overnight; it is the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work, determined advocacy, and appreciation for everyone’s point of view, and it shows what big shoes our next Union leaders will have to fill.  Ultimately, Jason’s greatest success might be that he was able to treat every single Brandeisian with respect, and it should be no suprise that he has received so much respect in return.

SAVE THE WAYNE

Salam,

I’m writing to you today with a special request.

Those of you that may know me might know that i tend to be rather critical of the academia in general and Brandeis specifically. Last semester though, i encountered an unusual class called “Reggae Representation,” taught by Professor Wayne Marshall. This class, (which was overloaded with reading, and was strictly graded) challenged my intellect in such a way that no other class has ever done before. We talked about gender, class and race representation in Jamaica through the lens of Reggae. It has inspired me so much that i decided to spend my up coming summer in Jamaica, taking my class-work to the field (with an internship Prof. Marshall has helped me get).

This class, is one of many examples of how i think Prof. Wayne Marshall contributes to the academia in general and this campus specifically. He doesn’t only do it in the class room though, for example just recently was involved in bringing an amazing and unique music group called “Nettle” all the way from Barcelona. And i couldn’t help but ask… Who would have done it otherwise?

Unfortunately, no one will, since his 2-year contract is coming to an end this semester. Brandeis will loose an important and unique asset in many different levels.

Basically, what i’m asking you to do is to promote this student initiative called www.savewayne.com. all you need to do is sign this petition http://www.savewayne.com/The_Save_Wayne_Campaign/Sign_the_Petition.html and spread the word around, telling people how much i, and other students care about keeping Prof. Marshall here!

you can read more about Prof. Marshall here:
http://thehoot.net/articles/6016

and his blog:
http://wayneandwax.com/

Thank you for your time,

Lisa H.

“Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act.” Albert Einstein

The Fight for Workers’ Rights and Justice

If you haven’t heard about it yet, you should definitely come to Rapaporte at 7pm tonight to see a speech by Kim Bobo, on her new book, Wage Theft in America. A reception and book signing will follow.

Kim will speak to students and other members of the Brandeis community about her life’s work in organizing and mobilizing people of all backgrounds to work together to effect social change. She firmly believes in the value of cross-cultural and interreligious communication. Kim’s words will be inspiring to all who attend the event, and participants will have time to ask her questions after her remarks.

Kim Bobo is the founder of Interfaith Worker Justice, in Chicago, Illinois. She leads this network of people in educating, organizing, and mobilizing the religious communities in the United States to improve wages, benefits, and conditions for workers, and give voice to workers in low-wage jobs. Her recent book, “Wage Theft in America: How Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid – And What We Can Do About It,” is the first and only book to document the wage theft crisis in the nation and propose practical solutions for addressing it.

Please contact Anne Blackstock-Bernstein at annebb@brandeis.edu with any questions.

Full disclosure: I have been helping to organize this event for the last couple months so, yes, I have a vested interest in your attendance.

Also, if you don’t come tonight, baby seals will die because of you.

Social Justice should be more than an empty phrase

I’m thinking a lot about the role of the University in society lately, and long-term Social Justice infrastructure, etc.

Brandeis talks a good game about Social Justice, but really neither defines it well or empowers its students to foster it. Even the committed activist clubs on campus are stuck in a paradigm of community service, instinctive protest, or the vague idea of “raising awareness”. We can do so much more than that.

Brandeis Alumni are among the best in the field in terms of community organizing or social entrepreneurship. I know of 6 non-profit ventures founded in the past 3 years here on campus. Furthermore, in the field of Online Organizing and New Media / Social Network utilization, Brandeis grads are outstanding. There is a raw talent here that needs to be trained and untapped.

On a societal level, youth are being used by the political sphere are warm bodies or an extra pair of hands. All “real” experience in creating change either takes place in summer internships or after college. That is a shame.

I often speak of the idea that Brandeis is not even a University, but rather a two-stage experiment in social entrepreneurship that uses the legal and institutional structure of University to interface with society. In the first stage, the Jewish community opposed discriminatory quotas in higher education by creating a new top-flight academy that would reject quotas and use competition to force other universities to follow suit. That mission has been successful. The second stage is a work in progress.

Now that we’ve eliminated University quotas, the Brandeis experiment can move on to a broader goal: training and equipping the next generation of social entrepreneurs and change agents.

Why Brandeis? Brandeis has the history, credibility, and resources to make this vision of “an academy for Social Justice” possible. Infused with the spirit of Tikkun Olam, Brandeis has a mandate to take this mission seriously. The University setting allows for a sustained, true, and thorough process of educating young leaders in the principles of leadership, values, and social action.

Theatre Arts at Brandeis

And the debate over the future of the arts at Brandeis rages on:

Through a generous gift from the Laurie Foundation, the Brandeis University Hiatt Career Center will administer the Hiatt Theater Arts Fellows Program, a competitive application process to provide $3,000 individual awards to support 7-8 undergraduate students in unpaid theater-related training and internships during summer, 2009. Internships must be undertaken through: a theater-related training program, theater-related organization in the private or public sector, or Brandeis faculty-led theater-related experiential curriculum.

I think the Hiatt WoW scholarships and Justice Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice grants have been a great development over the past few years.  Establishing something similar within the theater department is especially important because paying jobs in theaters, especially for college students, are so rare.

Have there been other subject-specific grants established?

A History Lesson from J-Gray

For a speech with a theme of “Looking Forward”, Jason Gray’s State of the Union went pretty far back to the past — all the way to 1946, in fact, to the University’s founding.  Of course, this isn’t a criticism; the past is our best (and maybe our only) tool for predicting the future, and Jason effectively used several anecdotes to guide our approach to the next few years, both in attitude and in deed.  They were among my favorite parts of the speech, and they put some of our current struggles into context.  I’d like to quickly examine these passages, but first I want to encourage anyone who has a story about Brandeis’s past that they find particularly revealing or just plain interesting to share it through the comments or by e-mail to czar@innermostparts.org.  I’d like to explore more of Brandeis history, and anything we receive will be researched and incorporated into a post at some point.

I’ve heard several times in relation to the financial crisis that Brandeis has gone through worse struggles before.  However, overall I think the campus discussion has been surprisingly sparse on any actual details of historical parallels.  I think it would be a great relief to many people if we could point to specific situations where Brandeis has handled difficult finances before and come out fundamentally intact.

Can we find guidance in the University’s founding?  Jason think so:

In 1946, even before Brandeis became Brandeis, a group surveyed the campus.  They found it badly run down.  Walks were eroded.  A Castle had been built, yet built without an architect.

When Abe Sachar was approached to be the first University President, he was warned by a friend that the Brandeis project would be “a great disaster” and “nothing but pain.”

But the promise of what Brandeis could be was so much greater than any of the potential challenges.

The castle was improved, cafeterias built, faculty recruited, and students matriculated.  By early 1949, the same friend who had warned Sachar against accepting the job, visited the campus.  Standing under the arch of the Castle, he said “I thought it could not be done, but…  it had been.”

In a specific sense, I don’t think they University’s founding has much to tell us about our current situation.  Yes, Brandeis’s founding was not without significant challenges, but they seem to be more infrastructural and administrative than financial (I’m basing this mostly on Jason’s speech and Wikipedia.  Any corrections would be greatly appreciated).  Regardless, the methods for funding a fledgling university in 1946 and for rescuing an established university in 2009 are quite different.  Jason’s point is more general: Brandeis has shown the ability to overcome the odds in the past, and the ideas that helped us then still exist today.  If nothing else, the passion of the entire community to come together and help the University shows that we all still believe that the promise of Brandeis remains so much greater than the challenges.  If that philosophy was enough to set Brandeis in motion, it will be our greatest ally in keeping it strong.

The other key passage is much more specific:

At our founding, our curriculum was informed by a Harvard general education report from 1946. It recommended studies in a core curriculum, humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences.

Brandeis, however, was not satisfied. We added another area to our curriculum: the study of music, theater, and the fine arts.  This commitment is one from our founding, and one we must continue.

Jason’s comments on the arts deserve broader discussion and action than this post allows, so I’ll hold most of my thoughts for later.  For now, I’ll just say that this provides the perfect framing for discussing the arts at Brandeis.  Art was deliberately included as one of the building blocks of our curriculum, and it must remain there, or we will be betraying the ideas this university was founded upon.

Our history is indeed very interesting and bears much more attention than it often gets.  If you’re interested in exploring it further, I recommend the very comprehensive “Brandeis University: A People’s History” hosted off the official Brandeis homepage and Phil LaCombe’s excellent series of posts from last year: Blunders of Brandeis (here, here, and here) and The Castles of Brandeis (here, here, and here).  Again, we’d love to hear your own stories, so post and send away!

Our Great Swim Team

I’m still on the Brandeis Athletics press release e-mail list from my time as the Hoot’s sports editor, and I still read the e-mails and keep up with how the teams are doing.  Today’s release about the NCAA D-III Swimming and Diving Championships was particularly impressive:

Brandeis University rookie swimmer Marc Eder (Princeton, N.J./Lawenceville School)  had a pair of lifetime-best performances, including a school record, in two optional events at the NCAA Division III Men’s Swimming and Diving championships at the University of Minnesota… On the first day of competition, Eder improved his time by nearly five seconds in the 200-yard individual medley… [In the 100-yard breast stroke] Eder improved 16 places… missing All-America honors… by 1.04 seconds.

Wow!  A rookie swimmer breaks a school record and exceeds expectations at the NCAA Championships!  If anyone knows Mark, be sure to congratulate him on this incredible performance.

However, it becomes a real shame when you realize that Eder has only one year left to swim at Brandeis before funding issues and the lack of a pool will probably force the swim team to disband.  And he’s not the only great freshman talent that we won’t get to see mature fully.  Angela Chui broke two Brandeis records in her very first meet and came very close to making the NCAA Championships herself.  Now, both Marc and Angela will have to decide whether to stay at Brandeis and not swim or to transfer to another school.  I’m not sure what I’d advise for them.  On the one hand, I passionately love Brandeis and believe it’s the best place in the world to get the particular education and experience it offers.  On the other hand, Marc and Angela both came to school expecting to swim, and it would be difficult to see their tremendous potential go unfulfilled.

I have a close friend on the swim team, and I’ve seen first-hand the hard work and dedication the swimmers put into their sport and the disappointment they will feel if they can continue competing.  Our budget may not allow for a swim team beyond next year, but these athletes deserve the chance to keep doing us proud in the water.  Lindsey Pool should have been renovated long before it’s problems reached the critical point, and though I understand that reality that’s facing the administrators and appreciate the difficult position that they’re in, I still hope we can find away to keep Brandeis Swimming and Diving alive into the future.

To read more about the the team and to find out how you can help, visit www.supportbusdt.com.

Sports Information Director Adam Levine’s full press release is below the fold.

Continue reading “Our Great Swim Team”

Complete State of the Union Text

If you couldn’t make Jason Gray’s final State of the Union on Tuesday, then you missed out on a very good speech.  Thankfully, Innermost Parts is here for you again (Have we ever let you down before?  Don’t answer that…).  Below the fold is the complete text of the speech, titled “Looking Forward: Student Involvement, Student Rights, and Student Advocacy”.  I’ll have more thoughts on the speech itself and several key points from it in the next few days, but for now, I encourage even those who already saw it to peruse it again and get an idea of what the Union has done this semester and what is still ahead.

Continue reading “Complete State of the Union Text”

Brandeis Labor Coalition: Can Economics Work for Workers?

A really important event is happening tonight at 7pm and is hosted by Brandeis Labor Coalition:

Can Economics Work for Workers?

Are sweatshops needed to strengthen developing economies? Or is there a “race to the bottom” in workers’ wages? What are the right corporate and government policies?

On March 19th at 7:00pm in Rapaporte Treasure Hall the Brandeis Labor Coalition and the Business Club will be hosting a forum of different perspectives on international labor practices, including professors from the Brandeis Economics department and International Business School. Come hear scholarly opinions on the ethical and economic ramifications of globalization on workers and get your questions answered! Refreshments will be served following the forum.

Speakers will include
Featured UMass-Boston Professor Gerald Friedman.
Brandeis’ economics department chair Rachel McCulloch,
International Business School’s Michael Appell,

The event will be moderated by Professor John Ballantine of IBS.

(Made possible by the SJSP Brenda Meehan Social Justice-in-Action Grant)