The Peace Monument, located between Usdan Student Center, Goldfarb Library and Schwartz, was rededicated by members of the Sociology of Empowerment (SOC 153a) class on Wednesday April 30. Made up of bricks engraved with the word "Peace" in every language spoken at Brandeis, the Monument is intended to reflect the diversity of the campus and to act as a symbol of world peace. The ceremony, which was attended by about 35 people, was held to celebrate the addition of the word "Peace" in 19 languages previously not reflected on the monument, and to mark the addition of bricks engraved with 11 symbols of peace from around the world. Sarah Crane '03, a member of the current SOC 153a class, opened the ceremony. "I was thinking about what the peace monument actually was, and I went, the peace what?" Crane said. She went on to say that her 12 person class, taught by Gordon "Gordie" Fellman (SOC), chair of the Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies program, discussed what empowerment means and how peace is important for both local communities and the world. Regarding the monument itself, Crane said that the monument "is a dialogue in and of itself ... no word or image is higher or more important than the other," Crane said about the monument's symbols and words.

Next to take the microphone was supposed to be former SOC 153a students Cindy Lin (2002) and Kaitlin Nichols (2002). In a surprise showing, the entire class from Spring 2002 came up to discuss how they had conceived of and accomplished the building of the monument. "We thought, how can you reject a concept of peace?" one member of the class said. The class alumni talked about how they had built upon the previous classes' ideas, finally getting permission from the administration to actually build the monument.

Elaine Wong, associate dean of Arts and Sciences, spoke next. Wong is a member of the Hewitt Pluralism Alliance, one of the monument's first sources of funding. Pleased to see how many people had turned out for the rededication, she said, "Kudos to everybody who was apart of this. I wouldn't be surprised if I came back to more dedication ceremonies."

Elise Boulding , one of the founders of the academic study of peace and a former Dartmouth sociology professor, spoke next: "We are witnessing the flowering of peace ... we all know where peace begins, but we don't know where it ends because peace doesn't end," Boulding said in her remarks. She said that she was very pleased with the hope that she saw in the people around her for a promising future of peace.

After that, Lew Randa, founder and director of The Peace Abby in Sherborn, Mass., spoke briefly about how glad he was to see a monument dedicated to peace. Randa contrasted this against, what he sees as, the proliferation of monuments dedicated to war. He was also pleased that the monument was located at Brandeis, commenting few schools have peace monuments. "They don't have anything like this at Penn State!" he said.

Fellman ended the ceremony by speaking about the classes that had worked for the building and expansion of the monument and by describing the process he and his classes had gone through to get its building approved by the school.

To close the ceremony, a letter was read from Jay Mandel, the primary benefactor of the monument, who was unable to attend the rededication. To the small right before the ribbon was cut, the letter read, "We need to renew our commitment to peace ... we need to all cherish our children and our future.