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Brandeis students come from everywhere around the globe, including Houston, Texas, one of the areas most devastated by Hurricane Harvey, which caused 82 confirmed deaths and produced damages of approximately $200 billion, according to a Sept. 14 Washington Post article.
A May 2017 survey conducted by The Harris Poll revealed that most Americans reported being happier than they may actually be. Of the 5,300 people interviewed, 80 percent reported to be generally happy with their life; however, a 2016 World Happiness Report also discovered that the United State’s level of happiness has decreased since 2008, when the surveys began. The happiness index, the percentage of Americans generally happy or content with their lives, has decreased from 35 to 31 within eight years. The findings of these surveys are surprising because of the importance that Americans themselves place on happiness. A 2014 Pew Research Center study revealed that Americans are more likely to describe their day as “particularly good” more than any of the other 43 countries surveyed. It’s also the idea that these values are perceived — by foreigners — as a reflection of how happy Americans are. For example, there exist Reddit forums that ask for signs revealing American-ness. One that came up is that Americans like smiling to strangers a lot — in particular, “big, toothy grins.” Why does this country place such an emphasis on being happy and cheerful in public? Moreover, why have ideas like smiling and partaking in small talk with strangers become the norm when, on average, we are actually less happy than we are pretending to be? Does this mean American happiness is disingenuous?
Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, better known by his stage name XXXTentacion, is a rising star in the music world. Riding a wave of underground buzz from his single “Look At Me,” the 19-year old rapper hailing from Florida’s Broward County shot to stardom nearly overnight in 2017. His debut album “17” hit No. 2 on the Billboard charts, he was named to XXL Magazine’s freshman class of 2017 and soon began collaborating with some of hip-hop’s biggest stars. D.R.A.M brought XXXTentacion out for a guest song in front of a sold-out crowd at the Staples Center on August 10th, and the astoundingly popular Kendrick Lamar used one of his few tweets to promote “17”, urging his more than nine million Twitter followers to “listen to this album if you feel anything,” in an Aug. 25 post.
According to a Sept. 13 article from CNN, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) proposed a new health care bill that would give Americans free access to doctor visits, hospital stays, reproductive care and other comprehensive health services. It would also eliminate premiums on private insurance, deductibles and copays; however, some may still have to pay up to $250 on prescription medication. The plan would cost nearly $1.4 trillion annually, resulting in a 2.2 percent tax increase on Americans. What do you think of Sanders's plan, and is it feasible?
Over the past weekend, students in sophomore residence halls found Lobster Wok flyers in not only their hallways but also their suites, prompting some to call the Department of Public Safety. This board urges students and public safety officials alike to recognize the safety implications of this situation and respond accordingly.
As the Student Union determines its priorities for this academic year, this board would like to offer suggestions for how Union leaders may better serve the Brandeis community.
According to a recent study from Pew Research Center, 67 percent of Americans revealed that they get at least some of their news from social media. Of this 67 percent, 74 percent of individuals receive their news from Twitter — a value that has significantly increased since the election of President Donald Trump. In the era of "fake news," does there need to be more scrutiny on what news sources are trusted, or is social media just a convenient way to receive updates?
President Donald Trump announced last Tuesday his decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Although the screens in Goldfarb Library report that the printing system is now up and running, this board urges the University to examine what went wrong, particularly poor planning and a lack of communication.
A brooding and overcast national atmosphere hangs over Brandeis. In the past couple of weeks, Brandeis students have confronted the prospect that their friends and family may face deportation, in addition to the threat of nuclear war with North Korea. The events in Charlottesville, Virginia, in particular, have charged the environment. The sight of Confederate flags, white, pointed hoods and swastikas openly and proudly displayed was terrifying. So, too, were the videos of ordinary-looking men, dressed in polos and khakis, chanting, “blood and soil” and, “Jews will not replace us” at the University of Virginia — as well as a president who fails to adequately condemn them. As the semester gets underway, we must all rise to the challenge of supporting one another, furthering meaningful conversation and seeking to expel ignorance and hate from our University.
In 2017, who is a person? Our online persona, rather than public records, define our identities, and the internet is an unregulated space where people falsify their identities for their own nefarious purposes. A Sept. 7 New York Times article exposed new details of the Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election — specifically, how Russians created several hundred inauthentic Facebook and Twitter accounts which “spread anti-Clinton messages and promoted the hacked material leaked.” These accounts posed as individuals and “friended” real people in hopes of influencing them with these shared posts. According to a Sept. 6 New York Times article, these fake accounts also purchased over $100,000 in ads targeting divisive social issues such as immigration and gay rights. They did all this under aliases such as “Melvin Redick,” which did not exist in the public records of their states.
From a young age, we are taught to trust people in positions of authority. However, there have been countless occasions in which the people that need help the most were only further hurt by those meant to help them. With the recent hurricanes plaguing the southern United States, I was reminded of those with more deadly outcomes. With the recent Hurricane Harvey, some hospitals had to be evacuated, yet the patients were well accounted for, according to an Aug. 30 Washington Post article. The same, however, cannot be said of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina.
In President Donald Trump’s more than 230 days in the White House, he has enacted policies with which I have aggressively disagreed; from its stance on the American Health Care Act to climate change, this administration has rolled back Obama-era policies that would have positively affected this nation in the long-term. However, there has been no policy as inhumane, unjust and unfair as Trump’s decision on Sept. 5 to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that has shielded 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came here as children, from deportation, according to a Sept. 5 New York Times article. The program also enabled them, after strict background checks, to receive a two-year work authorization card that provided for thousands not only the ability to work but also the ability to apply for driver’s licenses and mortgages and, for many, the ability to purchase a car for the first time.