University administration hosted a “Free Expression Listening Session” on Thursday, Sept. 19 encouraging students to help examine “our current principles of free expression at Brandeis” and review “the protocols that the university uses to apply these principles.” Only a handful of students attended the session, which is in part symptomatic of students’ lack of trust in the University administration’s ability to make meaningful change. Many students feel as though their voices will not be heard by the University bigwigs sitting inside the now-locked Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center, so they do not even try. 

It is a waste to host dozens of “listening sessions” that students ultimately will not attend. Not only is there a lack of trust, but most students do not care quite enough to go out of their way to attend meetings they think are useless. Administration picks inconvenient times for inconvenient events that have been proven to go nowhere. They do not think about students in their planning — only their public perception. Covering their bases is a band-aid over a bullet wound; it is purely performative. 

Progress at the University is, unfortunately, a two-way street. It is nearly impossible to enact meaningful and substantive change through only student activism or administrative proactiveness. While it is the University’s responsibility to care for their students and improve upon campus life at an adequate pace, Brandeis has proven time and time again that they will resist doing so unless pressured by the student population. Students then ultimately face a choice: either they accept their fate or fight against it.

While it is not infrequent that members of the Brandeis administration put off enacting change as long as possible, student activism has been successful in the past. In the spring of 2023, the housing selection process left many upperclassmen students without any on-campus housing — more so than in previous years. In response, students led a protest during University President Ronald Liebowitz’s presidential address. Since then, the University announced their intentions to build a new dormitory in the Theater Lot and paused their project of building a new engineering center. 

It is true that such instances are few and far between. That said, the University cannot know what students are unhappy with if they stay silent. The Brandeis community has a tendency to express valid complaints in a manner that will not reach administration. Protests are not the only alternative either. This board urges students to reach out to administration when they have something to say, but for that to be truly useful, administration also needs to be willing to listen. 

Admin office hours are largely ineffective and hardly anything results from such meetings. This could be seen during Executive Vice President of Finance & Administration, Stewart Uresky’s, office hours on Sept. 19. Members of the Brandeis Graduate Student Union attended these hours hoping for meaningful conversations regarding their upcoming contract negotiations and were met with apathy and non-responsive admin. 

If the University desires a better reputation, they must be willing to meet their student body at least halfway. Such a request is embarrassing to have to ask for, but it is the bare minimum for anything else to change.