Senate donates $500 to local community center
The Student Union passed a $500 Senate money resolution to support programs and materials for the community center at Prospect Hill Terrace, a low-income housing development in Waltham, at its Oct. 14 Senate meeting. The resolution "grants $500 of discretionary Union funding to the community development project," Student Union Director of Communications Jamie Ansorge '09 wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.
Prospect Hill, the largest housing development in Waltham, was founded in 1948, the same year as Brandeis. It currently provides subsidized housing for nearly 100 families. Prof. Mark Auslander (ANTH) said Brandeis students have a long history of helping the residents at Prospect Hill. Brandeis' programs have mainly been targeted toward younger children and have only recently expanded to include teenagers.
In January 2008 Brandeis students, in partnership with the tenants association at Prospect Hill, opened a learning center that offers after-school programs and workshops for youth and adults.
Lev Hirschhorn, senator for the Class of 2011 and chair of the Social Justice Committee, said he spoke to Anne Hodges '11, coordinator projects at Prospect Hill, who told Hirschhorn that Prospect Hill does not have money to improve the community center.
Hirschhorn wrote a Senate resolution to help Prospect Hill using money from the Senate's $10,500 discretionary fund and convinced Senator-at-Large Justin Sulsky '09 to sponsor it.
The resolution states that providing this community center "will show that the Brandeis Student Body as a whole is serious about improving Waltham."
"It is critical the relationship between Brandeis and institutions like Prospect Hill be strengthened," Hirschhorn said.
Hirschhorn said the money will "primarily be for the residents of Prospect Hill, it will still benefit Brandeis students because the money will help fund their projects there."
Auslander, one of the main coordinators for community service projects at Prospect Hill, said it is "wonderful that the [student] government is stepping up." He said that some of the Senate money has already been used to plan a barbecue to promote interaction between the teen residents at Prospect Hill and Brandeis students, adding that the Senate money "has really opened the door for new programs at the teen center like music and poetry."
In an e-mail to the Justice, Hirschhorn said he believed the remaining money was used to purchase books and sports equipment.
Hodges said that she thinks the Senate money resolution "validates the idea that Brandeis has a strong presence with the Waltham community and maintains Brandeis' legacy of having it connected with other community organizations. "
Auslander said he thinks Brandeis students' involvement with Prospect Hill is critical because it exposes them to practical issues in social development, like the challenges of social class and gender, and teaches them how to "actively build democracy in a neighborhood.
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