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As a University that “Considers social justice central to its mission,” according to its Diversity Statement, Brandeis has an obligation to do everything it can to make campus safe and equitable for all members of the Brandeis community.
There was something about being back on campus that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
The fall 2022 semester has finally begun. With it comes many changes to the University’s COVID-19 protocols. This is the first semester since the pandemic began without mandatory, high-frequency testing for students, faculty, and staff. The Campus Passport system has been retired completely. Also, the administration no longer requires faculty to follow certain pandemic-era classroom protocols, such as providing a remote classroom option for students.
Welcome to Brandeis, class of 2026! Congratulations on finishing high school amid the pandemic and joining us here on campus. This board hopes that your first few weeks have been pleasant and would like to provide some tips and tricks for surviving and thriving at this special university.
The past four years have been interesting, to say the least. Having not been on campus for one and a half of them, it was a time that was quickly followed by a senior year that flew by, but was most definitely not without news-worthy, history-altering substance. It was densely packed with a multitude of events worthy of only the most sophisticated of expertise, objective, and subjective writing. To form a valid and educated opinion on everything from the ebb and flow of ever-more contagious COVID strains; the creeping doom of climate change; the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban; to the Russian invasion of Ukraine; to the Supreme Court draft opinion of a determination to overturn Roe v. Wade; to persistent, active challenges to democracy and freedom both at home and abroad is a nigh impossible task. Indeed, every new headline and news item beholds a virtual lifetime of research, inquiry, and reflection that is outside the scope of one individual’s repertoire.
Bidding farewell to our graduating editors is always a bittersweet moment: although we hate to say goodbye after countless late nights spent together, our hearts are filled with pride and hope for all that they will accomplish next. Although it has been a challenging few years, our soon-to-be graduates remained steadfastly dedicated to the Justice, and Brandeis is all the better for their contributions to journalism. Please join us in recognizing the Justice editors in the Class of 2022.
On March 14, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Carol Fierke sent an email to University faculty announcing that, in order to strategically use the University’s resources, she and University President Ron Liebowitz had begun a review of Brandeis doctoral programs. In that email, Fierke mentioned the gathering and sharing of information, which the administration expects will result in “some PhD programs… be[ing] enlarged [with] others be[ing] put on hiatus.” Though this has been the only official, written communication from the University regarding this process, more information including the fact that this plan has been in development for quite some time has been disseminated through other channels.
This week, course registration for the upcoming fall 2022 semester began, and this board would like to bring attention to the University’s lack of communication regarding certain aspects of the registration process. While many rising juniors and seniors have gone through the registration process in the past, there is still confusion amongst them, as well as rising sophomores. To counteract these issues, this board calls for the University to explain in greater detail how the registration system works and to be more proactive in solving the problems that arise during registration week.
Dear President Ron Liebowitz, Provost Carol Fierke, Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration Stewart Uretsky, Vice President Raymond Ou, Assistant Vice President Shelby Harris, Chair of the Board of Trustees Lisa Kranc:
Spring is finally beginning to hit campus, and it’s just in time. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that the student body has been needing a lift, and warmer weather with blooming surroundings certainly doesn’t hurt matters.
Messages of gratitude were plentiful during Community Advisor training at the start of the Fall 2021 semester from administrators, including Vice President Raymond Ou and Assistant Vice President Shelby Harris. For those unaware, Community Advisor, sometimes known as Residential Advisors at other institutions, are a resource for students in residential halls. The gratitude we received for supporting the Brandeis student population was meant to applaud all of our past, current, and continued hard work within residence halls throughout the pandemic.
In light of a recent petition circulating with the hope that the University would begin compensating meal plans for Community Advisors, this board would like to bring attention to the importance of supporting said petition. While the University has already rejected the previous proposal, we would like to bring light to why it should be reconsidered.
As many students are trying to secure on-campus housing for the next academic year, this board would like to offer some suggestions for the Department of Community Living regarding the current student housing system to streamline the user experience and make it less stressful for students.
Dear Brandeis Student Community,
During the time this article was being written, the 22 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were delivering speeches about their positions on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination. It would be a travesty if, as predicted, it will be an 11-11 tie, since no Republican members of the committee appear courageous enough to vote for her.
As documented extensively in our last editorial, the University is currently experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases that is without precedent.
Brandeis University is to be commended for disassociating itself from MESA, the Middle East Studies Association. MESA has voted to embrace Omar Barghoutis antisemitic genocidal BDS movement Barghouti, the founder of BDS, said as early as 2005 that the sole purpose of BDS is the euthanasia of Israel. A student of history, Barghouti knows full well that the Nazi T4 Euthanasia Program was the foundation of the Final Solution of the Jews as enacted in the Wannsee Protocols in January 1942. His use of the word euthanasia leaves no doubt he founded BDS to continue the antisemitic eliminationist mission formalized by Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann at the Wannsee Conference. Further, MESA, by embracing a boycott of the Jewish population of Israel, has emulated Joseph Goebbels and his Brown Shirts’ boycott of the Jewish population of Germany. The Nazis had a word for the antisemitic world that every member of MESA now is committed to: gleichschaltung. Brandeis’ principled decision keeps it far away from the antisemitic muck that MESA is permanently covered with. — Richard Sherman, POB 934853, Margate, FL.
As most students are more than aware of at this point, we are currently experiencing unprecedented levels of COVID-19 cases within our student body. As of press time, Brandeis’ 7-day positivity rate is 2.34%, nearly two and a half times as high as the reported rate for Massachusetts higher education institutions and slightly higher than the overall state positivity rate. The recent spike in cases that has led to the tightening of precautionary guidelines by the administration has come as a disappointing surprise to many of us. We have spent the majority of the past semester-and-a-half enjoying a relatively normal college experience by pre-pandemic standards, thanks to decreased pandemic-related restrictions and a relatively low risk of being exposed to COVID-19 on campus. For many of us, this has made it especially difficult to adjust to the level of caution that must be taken in the midst of the sharp uptick in the positive case rate that is happening now within our community and makes it all the more frustrating when being cautious leads to missing out on the fun and important parts of our everyday lives.
The U.S. and its allies have imposed sanctions on the Russian economy, and many companies have scaled back their operations or withdrawn from business in the country — for a complete list, see the Yale CELI List of Companies that monitors corporate activities in Russia. However, the U.S. and Europe “have held back on their most powerful tool in their arsenal: a total embargo on oil and gas,” per the LA Times.
Brandeis University is in a time of profound change. COVID-19 has fundamentally altered the college experience, and we are just beginning to understand its ramifications. Right now is the time to set a new direction for our University. I want to be my fellow students’ advocate during this time at the Board of Trustees, the most powerful decision-making body of our University. The Board makes the most important choices in the University: who becomes president, how and where money is spent, and the overall direction of the University.