(04/29/14 4:00am)
President of Rwanda Paul Kagame joined Brandeis University for a talk and roundtable discussion among faculty, students and policy officials on April 23 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the end of the genocide in Rwanda. "This is a time of remembrance as well as serious reflection," Kagame said in a video recording of the event posted online. Kagame, who became Rwanda's president in 2000, "shared the lessons learned during and following the Rwandan genocide" and "spoke about the challenge of rebuilding Rwanda," according to an April 25 BrandeisNOW article. "There is no template for putting a country back together after such a major tragedy," Kagame said. "Everything was a priority. Almost everything of value had been destroyed in Rwanda. We had to make decisions without any comfort of adequate time or resources." The Gosman Sports and Convocation Center was shut down for the day of Kagame's visit, according to an email sent to the club sports leaders. Several protesters stood across South Street with signs that read "Shame on you Brandeis." Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan wrote in an email to the Justice that the group was "allowed to protest away from the Gosman Center." He said he did not believe the protesters were members of the Brandeis community. Kagame has spoken at other universities including Tufts University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University in the past few weeks. According to accounts in the Tufts Daily, Kagame's appearance at their school was a ticketed event open to the community, and he spoke before a packed auditorium. Editorial pages at each of these universities' campus newspapers were critical of the Rwandan president's visit. An op-ed by Stanford's STAND, a student-led movement against genocide and mass atrocity, called for the organizers of the talk to "actively address the Rwandan president's unambiguous record of human rights violations, his consistent oppression of political opposition and his prominent role in the violence and political instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo." The event at Brandeis was invitation-only with no publicity within the general Brandeis community. The event also had tight security restrictions. "I have been told that there were a number of security restrictions around his visit and that everyone in attendance had to be submitted to the security detail several days in advance," wrote Senior Vice President for Communications Ellen De Graffenreid in an email to the Justice. The Heller School for Social Policy and Management Sustainable International Development program and Coexistence and Conflict program sponsored Kagame's visit. Prof. Alain Lempereur (Heller) moderated the roundtable discussion that followed Kagame's opening remarks. -Marissa Ditkowsky contributed reporting.
(04/01/14 4:00am)
A revised list of proposed changes to the Student Union Constitution will go to the student body for a vote in the coming weeks, following the constitutional changes that received the signatures of more than 10 senators Sunday night. The revised Constitutional Review Task Force proposal tempers the initial expansion of authority for the Senate over the allocation of funds from the Student Activities fee. It no longer grants the Senate approval power over decisions made by the Finance Board, which will be renamed the Allocations Board. The proposal, however, still places a Senate representative on the A-Board and requires the A-Board to publish its allocation decisions within one week of the distribution of the funds to clubs. As exists in the current constitution, the president holds veto power over the A-Board. After consultation with various groups on campus, Student Union President Ricky Rosen '14 and Vice President Charlotte Franco '15-both members of the Constitutional Review Task Force-presented a revised list of proposed changes to the constitution at the Senate meeting on Sunday night. Franco said in her presentation that she hoped the new constitution would bring the "clean start we so desperately need." CEEF The proposal calls for the Capital Expenditures fund-which is currently reserved for "finance emergencies or capital expenditure projects"-to be renamed the Community Enhancement and Emergency Fund. The CEEF would hold $250,000 as opposed to CapEx's current $200,000 amount. Of the CEEF, $200,000 would be reserved for allocation for community enhancement projects and $50,000 would be reserved for emergencies. The proposal established a CEEF Board, to which students can apply to receive funding for their projects. The CEEF Board would consist of two senators, one executive board member and one A-Board member. In the original constitutional review proposal, distribution of the CEEF funds would fall on the newly minted A-Board (previously F-Board). However, Rosen expressed at the Senate meeting that the additional responsibility would place too much strain on the workload of A-board members: "Their workload is too high for them to take on another responsibility like this," he said. F-Board Member Aliza Kahn '15 said the proposal was a positive step because it takes the burden off of A-Board members, but allows for an A-Board perspective with one member on the CEEF board. "I think the CEEF in general is a great idea because it allows individuals who are not necessarily affiliated with a certain club to get their ideas out and get funding," said Kahn in an interview with the Justice. The proposal to add money to the CEEF for community enhancement projects emerged from the fact that there is often a large amount of Student Activities fee money leftover after the allocation periods end. The SAF creates a pool of about $1.5 million for allocations each year he said. A-Board would be responsible for inputting the CEEF information into Student Union Management System while getting feedback from the other branches of the Union. "It's more inclusive because you get representative bodies in on that conversation in addition to [the] Finance Board," said Rosen. Allocations Board The current Finance Board will be renamed the Allocations Board, according to the proposal. The proposal also requires the A-Board to publish a report of its allocations after the marathon period for inspection by students and the Senate, said Rosen. The original proposal gave the Senate the authority to confirm all A-Board decisions. However, Rosen said that individuals objected to the change, as it would be "adding unnecessary layers of bureaucracy to the process." The new proposal does not give the Senate approval authority. Kahn said it is an improvement that the Senate no longer has approval power over the A-board, and that students should trust the elected representatives on the A-board. "It would take a tremendous amount of time for the Senate to go through all of the allocations without really enough prior knowledge of how it works and why certain allocations were allocated," she said. As stipulated in the original proposal, the Senate will appoint a senator to serve on the A-Board. That senator will go through all the same training as other A-Board members. Secured Clubs Under the new proposal, funding for secured clubs would be set within a certain range of funds for each secured club. The range was determined using current club funding as a benchmark. For example, Student Events can receive between $200,000 and $250,000, according to the proposed change. WBRS can receive between $55,000 and $65,000. The original constitutional review proposal had set allocations for each secured club in a percentage range. For example, Student Events would have received 12 to 15 percent of the SAF. The percentage option was disavowed because it would mean increasing funding for each club each year. The SAF amount is currently equal to one percent of tuition, so setting club funding as a percent of a percent would mean that funding will increase as long as tuition increases. Other minor changes to the constitution include mandatory intra-Union meetings, a reduction in the document's word count, removing the petitions section and moving the definitions of clubs from the Senate bylaws to the constitution. More than the required 10 senators signed on to constitutional changes, allowing them to be put to a vote before the student body. The date for the vote is April 7, according to a campus-wide email from Union Secretary Sneha Walia '15 sent on March 31. The Constitutional Review Task Force-composed of Rosen, Franco, Chief of Staff David Clements '14, Class of 2014 Senator Andre Tran, North Quad Senator Brian Hough '17 and former senator Ben Beutel '12, an alumnus-was formed to address changes that need to be made to the constitution last fall.
(03/25/14 4:00am)
In accord with a Student Judiciary ruling earlier this month, the Brandeis Libertarian Conservative Union proposed to change its name to the Brandeis Union For Liberty. The Judiciary, however, rejected the new name as inconsistent with the requirements of the justices' earlier decision. BLCU President Joshua Nass '14 strongly objected to the decision in interviews with the Justice. He said the decision represents "a blatant abuse" of the Judiciary's power. The case first made its way to the Judiciary after the Brandeis Libertarians, formerly known as Young Americans for Liberty, contested the validity of the BLCU using the term "libertarian" in its name. BL members said that BLCU misrepresented libertarianism. The Judiciary decided on March 9 that BLCU would be required to change its name so as to "better represent the wide range of political views that BLCU portrayed to espouse during the trial." The original decision specifically forbade the word "libertarian," but said that using "liberty" would be allowed. "That runs contrary to what libertarianism and conservatism is all about, which is allowing competition," said Nass of the claim that BLCU should not be allowed to have "libertarian" in their club name. In its most recent decision not to allow the BLCU to change its name to Brandeis Union for Liberty, the Judiciary wrote in an email decision that "the name Brandeis Union for Liberty does not represent a wide range of political views." The justices proposed other names such as "Brandeis Multi-Political Union" or "Brandeis Multi-Political Union for Liberty." In an interview with the Justice, Chief Justice Claire Sinai '15 said the name Brandeis Union for Liberty does not comport with the earlier decision because the name did not demonstrate "multi-political views." Student Union President Ricky Rosen '14 insisted on being present for Sinai's interview with the Justice. When asked to expand on how the name Brandeis Union for Liberty does not represent a range of political views, she said that "[i]t doesn't implicate politics in general. It just says 'Brandeis Union for Liberty.' I guess it shows libertarianism but we didn't believe at the time that it demonstrated that it has any other political views." Although "liberty" may be acceptable in the name, in this case the word liberty "made it seem like it was more of a libertarian club and it didn't have an equal balance of political parties," said Sinai. When asked why she thinks liberty means libertarian, she said, "I'm not the person to ask about this. We said that they could use the word liberty because you can be for liberty and have many different views. But libertarianism is a specific, set view." Nass fervently disagreed with the Judiciary's decision. "Nobody can tell you with a straight face what that means because it makes no sense. Does that make any sense to anybody?" said Nass of the Judiciary's decision. Associate Justice Luky Guigui '14, in an interview with the Justice, said of the case "The number one part of the case is that both clubs are at fault ... they both were not prepared for the trial like they were supposed to be." Associate Justice Maris Ryger-Wasserman '16 did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
(03/11/14 4:00am)
The Student Judiciary issued a decision Sunday night in a rare instance of a case going to trial; the justices ruled the Brandeis Libertarian Conservative Union must change its name "to better reflect the objectives of the club." The decision followed a trial on March 6, during which two clubs disputed which one could use the word "libertarian" in its club name. The Brandeis Libertarians argued "libertarian" should be dropped from the name of the Brandeis Libertarian Conservative Union. According to the Judiciary's decision, the name BLCU misrepresents the club's activities on campus, and therefore the club must change its name. The new name also cannot include the word "libertarian," although it can include "liberty," wrote the Judiciary. The decision also requires both clubs to alter their constitutions to "reflect the objectives" of each club, according to the decision. In response to the decision, BLCU President Joshua Nass '14 wrote the club is "thankful to the justices for affording our club the opportunity to incorporate the word liberty into our club's name. "We are and will continue to be the premiere club on campus for those students looking to defend and preserve liberty," wrote Nass in an email to the Justice. "We look forward to continue experiencing unparalleled amounts of success in all respects and to remaining the largest coalition of conservatives and libertarians on campus." BL President Nelson Gilliat '14 said that "BL is obviously pleased with the court's ruling. "BLCU was an attempt to lump in libertarianism with conservatism, which obviously can't work and therefore failed miserably." At the trial, the Brandeis Libertarians, represented by club Vice President Aaron Fried '14 and Gilliat, questioned the libertarian bona fides of the BLCU. Fried said the problem is that BLCU is a "conservative club marketing themselves as a libertarian club and this interferes with our mission." Fried and Gilliat said something that is conservative by definition cannot be libertarian and that two competing ideologies cannot exist in one coalition. The BLCU defended the use of "libertarian" in its name and said it did not have a problem with the existence of the Brandeis Libertarians as a separate organization. Nass, representing the BLCU, fervently rejected Fried's claims that the BLCU is a strictly Republican or conservative group, pointing to members of the BLCU who have interned on libertarian campaigns. "We are a coalition of libertarians and conservatives," said Nass. The Brandeis Libertarians-until December 2013 called the Young Americans for Liberty-first petitioned the Senate to require the BLCU's name change. The Senate, however, rejected the change. BL then appealed to the Judiciary. BLCU was called the Brandeis Republicans until its name change in spring 2010. Judiciary members presiding over the trial were Chief Justice Claire Sinai '15, and Associate Justices Luky Guigui '14 and Maris Ryger-Wasserman '16. Associate Justice Sarah Park '14 recused herself. Jane Taschman '14 served as clerk of the court. Editor's note: Aaron Fried '14 is a columnist for the Justice.
(01/28/14 5:00am)
All residential students at Brandeis University will be required to purchase a meal plan starting in fall 2016, according to an unsigned campus-wide email from "Campus Operations." Currently, students living in apartment-style residences equipped with kitchens, such as the Foster Mods and Ridgewood Quad, are not required to be on a meal plan. Sodexo will also begin to implement other changes such as a renovation of Usdan Cafe and the elimination of meal equivalencies next year. Lower Usdan will become a second unlimited-dining location in the 2014 to 2015 academic year. Also in 2014-15, unlimited and flexible meal plan programs will be implemented and point-equivalency programs will be eliminated. Einstein Bros. Bagels will also expand that year. Survey results collected by the Student Union suggest that the residential meal plan requirement could prove to be an unpopular change among students. However, of the students currently on campus, the new policy will only affect those in the Class of 2017. In interviews with the Justice, Student Union leaders said they were concerned about the meal plan requirement, particularly because it may force cash-strapped students to move off campus and they felt the process lacked sufficient student input. Student Union President Ricky Rosen '14 said he worried the University prioritized administrative concerns over student well-being. "The decisions we make have to have students' interests in mind, and with this decision in particular, I'm not entirely sure that the best interests of students were the driving force behind the changes," he said. Student Union Vice President Charlotte Franco '15 said she is "disappointed" with the way the decision to implement mandatory meal plans was made and the way it was communicated to the student body. Franco said that the new structure of meal plans, such as the elimination of meal equivalencies and the renovation of Lower Usdan, is a significant improvement. Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel wrote in an email to the Justice that "all of the plan models include much larger portions of flexible funds that can be used at any retail (non dining hall) location, or to purchase additional 'meals' for those who do not opt for the unlimited plan." In 2015 to 2016, residential students who enrolled in fall 2013 or later will be required to purchase a meal plan. By the following year, the requirement will apply to all residential students. The apartment plan option, according to the email, will be priced similarly to the current Village plan, which currently costs about $2,000 per semester. Regarding exact pricing of the plans, Flagel wrote the Board of Trustees will set tuition, fees and housing costs at its March board meeting. Franco said the Student Union is advocating for less expensive meal plans so as not to add a prohibitive cost to students' bills. According to the email from Campus Operations, "both dining-services vendor finalists" in the bidding process that Brandeis undertook last year before hiring Sodexo "agreed that a residential requirement was essential if the university wanted to expand its offerings and bring in new franchises such as Dunkin' Donuts." Students responding to a December 2013 Student Union survey were largely critical of mandatory meal plans. In all, the survey garnered 877 responses. Franco said the survey results have not yet been shared with either University administrators or Sodexo staff. The majority of students surveyed responded that mandatory meal plans would affect their decision to live on campus. In response to the question, "If meal plans were required for all on campus living (with or without a kitchen), how would that affect your decision to live on campus?" 28 percent of respondents said, "I would choose to live off campus and not be on a meal plan," while 36 percent said, "I would choose to live where it was most affordable to me." Forty-three percent of students said mandatory meal plans would not affect their housing decision. Rosen said affordability should be a top concern for the administration: "If we have mandatory, required meal plans for all on-campus housing ... we want to make sure that all of these options are affordable for students. I think that that needs to be the number one concern going forward." According to the survey, 47 percent of respondents were satisfied with their meal plan, while 53 percent were not. In a space reserved for additional anonymous comments, students overwhelmingly criticized the notion of mandatory meal plans. "I think it would be an absolute disgrace if the university decided to coerce all students living on campus to get meal plans," wrote one student. "Right now people choose to live in certain places because they literally cannot afford to purchase a meal plan or do not wish to take on additional debt for one. Going to this system would exacerbate class issues already at play at Brandeis." "I am extremely unhappy that the university is considering making everyone living in on campus housing get a meal plan," wrote another student. "I don't need one and I don't want to pay for one." The Campus Operations email indicated that administrators were aware of concerns having been raised, and pointed to the fact that "the new requirement would phase in over four years." Rosen said Sodexo and University administrators presented some elements of their proposal to alter the meal plan structure to student representatives in a November meeting. However, Rosen said, by the time the administration sought student input, decisions had already been made. "I have gotten the sense that this has been the trajectory for the last few years. ... When we reached the point when we were in the room with them, to discuss the changes, a lot of the changes had been made already, which was a little worrisome." Franco said she, Rosen, Class of 2017 Senator David Heaton and Danny Novak '15, met with Sodexo representatives, Flagel and Director of Strategic Procurement John Storti in the middle of last semester. That meeting consisted of discussions about the structure of meal plans, but the administrators did not provide a definite answer about mandatory meal plans. The meeting "danced around" the topic of a meal plan mandate, said Franco. While Rosen regularly met with Flagel, that group never met again. Regarding the email from Campus Operations announcing the meal plan changes, "When they're referring to students I find it very ambiguous," said Franco. "If they're talking about students in the context of Ricky, or myself, or the four people, we were in that one meeting and then never again." "Our conversations, I would label as limited," said Franco. "Not that we weren't willing to have them, but it's just that were weren't involved." In an email to the Justice, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel wrote, "Discussions about these models began with the Student Union and Senate Dining Board when I arrived, and continued through the past 2 1/2 years, including the subject coming up at nearly every strategic planning town hall meeting." Storti wrote in an email to the Justice: "An effect of planning for construction, implementing dining venues and programming meal plan structures is that many decisions are made in consultation with students a year or more in advance of implementation of many efforts, which can often give students the false impression that this is a top down process." Flagel declined to provide the Justice with specifics on how much revenue would be raised by the new requirement. "The contract with Sodexo has confidentiality components, but I can share that the expanded participation that will be phased in over the next three years was included in the model for investment in dining facilities and expanded dining venues," he wrote. -Phil Gallagher contributed reporting.
(01/14/14 5:00am)
Brandeis room selection will be conducted online for the first time this March. Students will select rooms for the 2014 to 2015 academic year using MyHousing, online software run by Adirondack Solutions, a college software provider. The overall process for room selection will remain similar to that of years past, but without the trip to Sherman Function Hall, said DCL Assistant Director for Operations Sarah Hogan-Crowley in an interview with the Justice. Students will have to opt into room selection, as in previous years, by submitting an online application, or "checking the box," on the Department of Community Living website. DCL will distribute lottery numbers over February break with room selection at its usual time in March. The new online system will require students who want to room together to create friend groups in the system. Students will be able to request one another, and accepting a request will create a matched group. The number of people in a friend group will determine what housing options that group can select. A group of two, for example, would only be able to see doubles available and not housing options with a different number of rooms. Anyone in a friend group can select housing for that group and toggle which student is in which room in suites. Hogan-Crowley said DCL will update its website and social media during room selection with the number and types of rooms remaining. That way, students can alter the size of their groups in the system to select the most desirable housing options. The online system will also allow students to create profiles and then search for other students. Profiles can also be set to private, said Hogan-Crowley. Following room selection, the system will send instantaneous emails to students with confirmation. Hogan-Crowley said DCL started the process of moving the system online a couple years ago, and the process of implementing the Adirondack Solutions software began last spring, with much work being done over the summer. The system went live for DCL in November 2013. DCL ran a test of the system last week in which "everything went great," according to Hogan-Crowley. DCL plans for a "larger test" of the system in the next few weeks. In response to concerns about the system crashing, Hogan-Crowley said Adirondack Solutions, which provides housing software to several other universities, has backups to its system. During the initial rollout of the selection process, DCL will always be open while room selection is running, said Hogan-Crowley. Adirondack Solutions will also be available 24/7 for technological support.
(01/14/14 5:00am)
Clarification appended
(12/10/13 5:00am)
After a botched rollout of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the federal exchanges, where many will sign up for health insurance, are showing signs of improvement. Through these exchanges, millions of Americans will qualify for subsidized health insurance. Millions more of the lowest income Americans will benefit from the expansion of Medicaid in those states that choose to expand their programs. While President Barack Obama's signature legislation is a monumental first step in addressing the problem of the uninsured and unaffordable health care in the United States, the effort to reform the health system cannot stop at the ACA. A recent series in the New York Times, "Paying Till it Hurts," highlights the untenable cost of health care in the U.S. from prescription drugs to hospital stitches. While the ACA will help Americans afford care, the high costs may be passed on to insurers. It may also still be paid by individuals through out-of-pocket costs such as co-payments, coinsurance and deductibles. The price of drugs used to treat cancer patients in the U.S., for example, has risen by about 21 percent in 2012 for Medicare patients, according to the 2013 Drug Trend Report published by Express Scripts. Some patients' out-of-pocket costs can be so high that patients are discouraged from continuing life-saving treatment because they are forced to choose between the most effective treatment and putting food on the table. Patients with cancer are two-and-a-half times more likely than the general population to declare bankruptcy, according to a study by Scott Ramsey of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Compared to the rest of the world, U.S. drug prices are exorbitant, in part because the U.S. largely foots the bill for innovation and research into new products. Given the costs of prescription medications, and particularly the rise in the cost of cancer medications, the ACA alone is not enough to fix our health care system. We must look to controlling costs, while maintaining incentives for innovation, as the next big reform of health care in the United States. Recent decisions by the private sector indicate a shift toward rejecting the high cost of drugs that do not prove to be relatively more effective than other comparable drugs already on the market. Last year, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center decided not to include Zaltrap, a new treatment for patients with advanced colon cancer, on its list of medications offered to patients. The decision was heralded in New York Magazine as "the first physician-initiated revolt in anyone's memory against the skyrocketing cost of cancer drugs." The cost of Zaltrap ($11,000 a month) is more than double that of Avastin ($5,000 a month), another FDA-approved cancer drug with comparable effectiveness already on the market, according to New York Magazine. As a result of its price, Sloan-Kettering's Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee decided not to offer Zaltrap to its patients. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Peter Bach, the director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Sloan-Kettering, and his colleagues explained their decision: "Ignoring the cost of care, though, is no longer tenable. Soaring spending has presented the medical community with a new obligation. When choosing treatments for a patient, we have to consider the financial strains they may cause alongside the benefits they might deliver." Following Sloan-Kettering's decision, Sanofi, the drug company that manufactures Zaltrap, effectively cut the drug's price in half by offering discounts to hospitals and providers. In another private sector move against the rising cost of cancer care, two major insurers recently decided to stop coverage for a new proton-beam therapy for prostate cancer, which did not prove comparably more effective than other treatments on the market. One way to help control costs with minimal impact on research incentives would be to use comparative effectiveness research, which evaluates the relative efficacy of two or more drugs, in a holistic approach to decisions about pricing and reimbursement. In the 2009 Recovery Act and in the 2010 ACA, Congress allocated substantial funds to comparative effectiveness research. The ACA, for example, established the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a nonprofit corporation that is tasked with developing national research priorities and a research project agenda. The Institute is supported by a government trust fund, and it will contract with private companies and government agencies to promote comparative effectiveness research. However, the Institute has substantial limitations on its application to cost-effectiveness decisions made by the federal government. The private sector will thus have to take the lead on making cost-effectiveness decisions, albeit based on research conducted through the Research Institute. A major issue with any change to the prices of treatment in the U.S. is a fear of disincentivizing expensive research and development of new drugs. The outcomes-based approach to reimbursement could be used in such a way that it promotes investments in the most innovative new products by reimbursing more for better effectiveness and less for those drugs that are as effective as others on the market. However, safeguards would have to be built into the system to allow for incremental innovation. Moreover, comparative effectiveness research should be only one step toward a more cost-effective system. Other payment reforms such as episode-based payments, which move away from the fee-for-service model, are also crucial. *
(11/19/13 5:00am)
A front-page article in the Nov. 18 Sunday Boston Globe highlighted the salary and benefits packages afforded to former University presidents, with a focus on President Emeritus Jehuda Reinharz. Students and faculty reacted, voicing their concern about Reinharz's compensation but noting that excessive executive compensation is not an issue unique to Brandeis. Reinharz's salary and benefits, as reported by the Justice in a Sept. 24 article, totaled about $627,000 in 2011. In 2009, his penultimate year as University president, Reinharz made about $1.5 million in salary, benefits and other compensation. Reinharz served as University president from 1994 until University President Frederick Lawrence took over on Jan. 1, 2011, making him the second-longest serving president of the University. According to University administrators, Reinharz's post-presidency salary has declined from its high in 2011. Reinharz's total compensation is approximately $300,000 each year from 2012 through 2014. In 2014, Reinharz will be compensated as president emeritus until June at the same rate as 2012 and 2013, with a total compensation that year of about $160,000. After June 2014, Reinharz's annual salary will be $180,000 as a half-time professor. The Globe article questioned Reinharz's current role on campus, stating that he does fulfill the usual roles of a History professor, as he does not teach classes nor does he supervise graduate students. "The chairwoman for Near Eastern and Judaic Studies said she did not even know whether he was officially a member of her department," wrote the Globe. Prof. Sylvia Barack Fishman (NEJS), the chairwoman of NEJS, however, wrote in an email to the Justice that "[t]he comments that the Globe reporter attributed to me were not accurate." She stated that Reinharz is a member of the NEJS faculty. "On a regular, ongoing basis, he is generous as a mentor and guide for graduate students and faculty members, and in donor stewardship and development. Professor Reinharz devotes considerable time and service to Brandeis University and to his research and publications," wrote Fishman. In an email to the Justice, Senior Vice President for Communications Ellen de Graffenreid listed Reinharz's duties, which she said included helping with the presidential transition, cultivating and introducing Lawrence to donors, overseeing the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry and pursuing academic research. According to the Globe, Reinharz was "noncommittal about how much time he devotes to Brandeis." "I've never worked at Brandeis by the hour," Reinharz told the Globe in an interview. Lawrence "asks for advice. I give it. And I don't look at my watch." According to the Globe, Reinharz spent the first year of Lawrence's presidency on sabbatical. Reinharz told the Globe that he is currently co-writing a book on the history of the donkey in literature. "There are smart donkeys, stupid donkeys, evil donkeys, etc., and no one has ever contemplated this on a large scale," Reinharz told the Globe. "It's probably the most ambitious topic I have ever contemplated." In an email to the Justice, Reinharz called the article "incomplete in its analysis." "Given all the time that I spent with the reporter as well as getting him answers and details on every question he asked, I thought he would have been more fair and balanced in his reporting," he said. "I am committed to fulfilling my duties as President Emeritus and I intend to do just that." In response to the article in the Globe, members of the Brandeis community have expressed concern about the amount of compensation received by Reinharz. On Sunday, many students and alumni reposted the article to Facebook. Junior Representative to the Board of Trustees Alex Thomson '15 wrote in an email to the Justice that he would bring "the serious concerns students have with this to the Board of Trustees." "The Boston Globe piece sheds light on an issue that is not unique to Brandeis, as many universities across the country have similar agreements with their past presidents," wrote Thomson. "That being said, I am very concerned with the idea of raising tuition each year while we continue to pay Reinharz's compensation." Chair of the Faculty Senate Prof. Eric Chasalow (MUS) said faculty reaction to the article has been "mixed," with "some anger and frustration." In an email to the Justice, Prof. Sabine Von Mering (GRALL) wrote that "[l]ike elsewhere we now have some administrators who earn ten times what some faculty earn. And faculty are privileged compared for example to our cafeteria workers. That's simply wrong and out of balance. "Our alumni and our Board of Trustees should be national leaders in fighting this trend of growing income disparity. ... We must practice what we preach. This includes our former President Reinharz. There is a donkey in one of the brothers Grimm's fairy tales that shits gold. President Reinharz should know better than to treat Brandeis like a donkey that shits gold." Chasalow wrote in an email to the Justice that "faculty are very concerned about all kinds of financially driven issues that Brandeis shares with all universities." "So naturally, out of context, the payments to Dr. Reinharz seem to be in competition with our goals," wrote Chasalow. "But context does matter, and as president, Dr. Reinharz raised $1.2 billion, adding desperately needed endowed faculty chairs, sorely needed facilities, and significant student scholarship funds, more than quadrupling the endowment. In his role at the Mandel Foundation, he continues to make a significant contribution to the financial future of Brandeis." Prof. Mary Baine Campbell (ENG) drew attention to the reader comments on the online version of the article. "They don't bode well for Brandeis fundraising or recruitment," she wrote in an email to the Justice. "The interview seems an unfortunate lapse of judgment on the part of our former president, though the facts of the compensation stand by themselves as a bad advertisement. "Maybe this will, at least inside Brandeis, lead to some soul searching and some changes," said Campbell. "It's wrong to pay people so much for doing so little when many other people at Brandeis are being paid less than a living wage for doing a lot," wrote Campbell in an email to the Justice. Several hours after the release of the Globe story, the University published a response on BrandeisNOW. "The decision by the Board of Trustees in 2009 to retain Jehuda Reinharz as President Emeritus was fully consistent with best practices for leadership succession planning," read the statement. "According to an independent compensation review, his president emeritus compensation (which ends in July 2014) was just slightly above the median amount paid to retired presidents at peer institutions." In an email to the Justice, Reinharz responded to the Globe article by emphasizing his record at the University. "I am very proud of my record and hope to continue to be of service to Brandeis for many years to come," he wrote. *
(11/12/13 5:00am)
The University raised $54.7 million in cash gifts in fiscal year 2013, an almost six million dollar decline from the previous year's $61 million total. While the Office of Development attributes this decline to a lack of major ongoing construction projects, it is still looking to alumni to increase its base of alumni contributors.crease its base of alumni contributors. According to a statement from the Office of Development, "[t]he change reflects the fulfillment by donors of major capital and endowment pledges made during the recently completed Campaign for Brandeis." The Campaign for Brandeis was the last major capital campaign, which stretched from 2001 until the beginning of University President Frederick Lawrence's presidency in 2011. In an interview with the Justice, Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement Nancy Winship attributed the decline to the fact that there are no new facilities currently being built. "When you're building-we're not building any buildings right now-that makes a huge difference in the numbers you report because if you're building the [Shapiro] Campus Center, if you're building the Mandel Center [for the Humanities] or the [Shapiro] Science Center, there's all this money coming in for those projects." Donations for buildings are generally multi-year pledges, some of which are still being paid off by the donors, said Winship. The University will also soon launch a new capital campaign, which will focus less on constructing physical facilities and instead emphasize gifts for student scholarships and fellowships, endowed faculty chairs and funding for the strategic plan. "We're working on what the gift opportunities will be out of the strategic plan," said Winship. "What we need to do, and it's most important, it's a work in progress, is decide with the provost and trustee input, faculty input 'what are the priorities that we want to raise money for.'" By the end of this year, Winship said the administration will have a refined gifts opportunities list, which will include endowed chairs and financial aid, among more specific options. The Board of Trustees approved the final version of the strategic plan in May 2013. Winship said once the capital campaign is launched, fundraising numbers "will start going up." "I see us five years from now raising $90 million a year," she said. The "quiet phase" of the campaign, which is when the University approaches its closest alumni and friends but does not publicize the campaign, will likely start in spring 2014, according to Winship. As a broader trend, the University is shifting from being supported mostly by friends, who are nonaffiliated supporters of the University, to focusing on the potential of alumni giving. "Alumni fundraising is going exceptionally well and I give the credit to [Lawrence]," said Winship. "We are in a transition from being supported mostly by friends, remember there were times when ... 65 percent of our money came from friends," she said. "[Lawrence] is talking to a number of donors who are interested in making very large gifts to the University," said Winship. In fiscal 2013, 21.6 percent of funds raised came from alumni, as compared to 15.8 percent in 2009, said Winship. That same year, 27 percent of alumni made a gift to the University, which is up one percent from the previous year and beats the average of the top 50 national universities in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, according to Director of Development Communications David Nathan. The Office of Development said it is particularly emphasizing giving by young alumni. The Bold: Brandeisians of the Last Decade campaign has increased giving from 13 percent in fiscal 2011 to 17 percent in fiscal 2013. "I would say that's a long-term investment. We invest in Bold. We do not expect that Bold alumni are going to be making large gifts. But what we care about is what percentage of them give gifts," said Winship. "It's all about looking into the future and making sure what we do here now, with the president and in development, prepares the way for future larger and larger campaigns." The University also recently hired Patricia Fisher as the new vice president of alumni and university relations. Fisher previously worked in development at Dartmouth College for 25 years.
(11/05/13 5:00am)
A commissioned administrative review of health services at Brandeis University released by the Office of Students and Enrollment on Nov. 4 criticized aspects of the Health Center and Psychological Counseling Center and recommended organizational adjustments and insurance billing changes, among other modifications to University health services. According to Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel, the University selected Hodgkins Beckley Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in higher education health care management, after a Request for Proposals to "review administrative systems for our Health and Psychological Counseling Centers." Hodgkins Beckley Consulting staff conducted the review by making several visits to campus and conducting follow-up interviews with leadership and staff over the summer. The final draft of the report is dated Oct. 14. The report issued five major recommendations that involve changing the organizational structure of the University's health systems, hiring a new executive director to oversee a more comprehensive health system, conducting an RFP process for the Health Center contract, expanding access and eligibility for graduate students at the Health Center and PCC and implementing an insurance billing structure. The University announced yesterday to staff under the Division of Students and Enrollment that it is making some structural changes recommended by the report. Director of Athletics Sheryl Sousa '90 has been promoted to assistant vice president for health and wellness and a new division of Health and Wellness has been created under her supervision. (See accompanying article for more.) There is also a search for an executive director underway. When asked about the impetus behind soliciting HBC's review and making the recent changes, Flagel connected it to the strategic plan and the University's image. In feedback sessions and surveys surrounding the plan, he said, "a strong concern about the University's image," or "how well known we were, especially in other areas of the country," came up repeatedly. "There [were] ... concerns that were raised at different points about our health apparatus, lots of concerns expressed ... in the student feedback sessions," he said. "The talent of the individuals involved wasn't a question; it was really structural questions." In the strategic plan, the mention of health and wellness services is listed under Strategic Goal 4 ("Build the Engaged Lifelong Community") Objective B ("Make sustainability an integral part of the Brandeis experience") and Action 3: "Facilitate healthy living through a community health approach that integrates health and recreation services and organizations across campus." Health Center Assessment The assessment by Hodgkins Beckley provides sobering criticisms of the Health Center and PCC. A recurring analysis in the report is that there is poor communication and a lack of adherence to best practices in terms of technology and community outreach across the Health Center and PCC. Both also lack mission statements and clear, accessible policies delineated on their websites. The Health Center, which is operated by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, "has favorable relationships with the key departments within the Students and Enrollment Division," according to the report. However, the report states that the Health Center does not use an electronic management system, nor does it produce annual reports or utilization reports for the University. There is also a difference in graduate students' ability to access the Health Center. While the student health fee, which supports the University's health services, is mandatory for undergraduates, it is optional for graduate students. In terms of staffing and the cost of running the Health Center, the report states: "Compared to ACHA [American College Health Association] medians for private universities, the [Health Center] clinical staffing is high and productivity is low. ... Costs are also higher than would be expected for a health center that is outsourced to a local health care provider." In an interview with the Justice, Medical Director of the Health Center Debra Poaster said that she is excited about working with Sousa, but that in her view, the report is not perfect. "I don't want to speak for the whole organization I work for, BIDMC, but I think that we felt that there were some things that were very positive ... [but] that there were some distortions and some misinformation in the report," said Poaster. PCC Assessment The report also notes key flaws in the PCC. Similar to the Health Center, the report noted that the PCC does not produce regular administrative or utilization reports. The report states there are barriers to access for students, and students are not necessarily seen within one week of requesting an appointment: "In HBC's opinion, the PCC [Psychological Counseling Center] data showing that 80 percent of students are seen within one week of requesting an intake appointment are not credible." The assessment also states that "wait times for intake appointments can be a serious concern." The PCC also does not provide training to other University departments, conduct outreach efforts, nor is it involved with student support groups. In comparison, the report states that most peer institutions have dedicated staff to oversee outreach coordination. Another major criticism from the report is the PCC's policy of providing 12 free visits to the counseling center for undergraduate students. While the student health fee covers a student's first 12 counseling visits, "there is no mention of the 12 visit maximum on the PCC website." Moreover, the PCC's Psychotherapist-Patient Services Agreement is inconsistent with the official policy, "by stating that after two consecutive years, the student can continue with the therapist on a private basis or be referred out," according to the report. Access to the PCC for graduate students is also a concern, according to the report. "There may also be substantial number of graduate students who are underserved for counseling services. ... All ... peer institutions automatically provide eligibility for counseling services to graduate students," the report said. Currently, the health fee is optional; however, if graduate students do not ay the fee, then they will be charged for the first 12 counseling visits, but graduate students not paying the fee are often not charged for the visits, according to the report's analysis: "The eligibility and fee policies are inconsistent, confusing, and may be arbitrarily applied." The report also criticizes the staffing model of the PCC. Currently, "the PCC is staffed by over 20 part-time psychologists and social workers, three half-time psychiatrists, and six unpaid interns." The use of a large number of part-time staff has significant drawbacks, including a lack of coordination and integration, and more difficulty with quality assurance, according to the report. "The administrative burden and cost is high. There is no justifiable reason the [sic] keep this system. Counseling positions in a university setting are very desirable, especially at a university as prestigious as Brandeis. Brandeis would have no problem in recruiting excellent full-time staff for the PCC." The report also states that the PCC has "insufficient administrative staff" and its physical facility is "lacking in a number of ways," including a lack of handicap access and a generally unwelcoming and outdated facility. Senior Director of the PCC Robert Berlin declined to comment and referred all questions to Flagel. When asked to comment on the assessment by phone, Berlin said he had been instructed not to respond to questions from the Justice. Recommendations The report's major recommendations include the creation of a "comprehensive health system" with several new staff positions, including an executive director, a student health insurance plan coordinator, a case manager and an additional administrator for the counseling center. The comprehensive system would "consolidate all health-related services and benefits under a single department." The report also recommends that the University transition the PCC away from long-term care, referring to students who are visiting the PCC more than 10 or 12 times. For example, the report recommends that the University "limit availability of PCC services to eight to twelve visits per year and refer students to community resources for care." "[S]urveys report that the average number of visits per student user is between five and six. The average number of visits per student at the PCC is over nine, or 49 to 82 percent greater than benchmark," the report reads. "All of the UAA peer institutions and the selected Boston area colleges and universities, with the possible exception of Harvard University, are providing short-term counseling services." While the report notes that "there could be strong resistance to this change among current PCC staff, students, and Students and Enrollment Division stakeholders," it argues that the recommendation "appropriately emphasizes key organizational objectives and facilitates compliance with best practices for the operation of college counseling centers." The report also recommends that the University conduct an RFP process for the Health Center contract. "Concomitant with this RFP process should be consideration of returning the [Health Center] to an internal department of the University." Regarding graduate students, the report notes differences in the treatment of graduates and undergraduates. The report recommends that the same services be available to graduates as are available to undergraduates. Currently, the health fee, which funds health services on campus, is mandatory for undergraduates and optional for graduate students. "This would mean discontinuing the optional health fee and could include assessing a health fee to all students and/or initiating charges to graduate students and their insurers for services." According to the Health Center website, "All undergraduate students have unlimited access to the on-campus resources at Brandeis Health Center." Graduate students, however, only have access to immunization services unless they purchase access to the Health Center. Insurance Billing The final aspect of the proposal recommends implementing an insurance billing structure. Currently, students' health insurance plans are not billed when they go to the Health Center. All undergraduates pay a mandatory health services fee, which covers visits to the Health Center and some counseling services. According to its website, "The Health Center does not offer fee-for-service medical care nor does it bill insurers for services. Access to the Health Center is not to be confused with the Qualifying Student Health Insurance Plan (QSHIP). This is the student health insurance plan offered by the University to meet state regulations mandating insurance coverage for all full and 3/4 time students." The report recommends two new models for insurance billing: a "secondary [payer] system" and the other is a "longer term three tier system." "Both offer significant revenue and/or savings potential, potentially as soon as the next fiscal year," according to the report. Under the secondary payer system, the Health Center would bill students' insurance, but the University would use Health Center fees to cover students' out-of-pocket costs such as copays and deductibles. "Following the passage of the ACA [Affordable Care Act], the question is increasingly asked as to why health fees and other institutional funding allocations should continue to pay for or subsidize services and supplies that are covered at 100 percent, regardless of the deductible, under the new preventive care benefits," the report states. The report also recommends considering a "Triple Option Program." The three options would be insurance through personal platinum, gold or silver plans or Medicaid, insurance through a Bronze plan with purchase of a health fee or enrollment in the Comprehensive Student Health Insurance Program. "The key difference between a Triple Option Program and the strategic option for secondary payer status is that the health fee at Brandeis would be reduced to funding health education and wellness programs, which cannot be effectively funded from insurance reimbursements, and an overall subsidy for the availability of services when there are almost no students on the campus and the facilities have to remain open," according to the report. Implementation "The first order of business will be getting an executive director on board," Sousa said in an interview. The first steps of consolidating health services and hiring an executive director are already underway. The other recommendations will be evaluated once a director is in place, according to Sousa. "You don't immediately leap into changes that could put what's best about our structures at risk," said Flagel in an interview with the Justice. -Tate Herbert, Marissa Ditkowsky and Sam Mintz contributed reporting
(10/15/13 4:00am)
The University hired Lisa Boes as the new dean of Academic Services on Oct. 10, after Kim Godsoe was promoted to be the assistant provost for academic affairs over the summer. Boes will assume her position on Nov. 4. Boes previously served as the Allston Burr resident dean for Pforzheimer House at Harvard University since 2007. Godsoe, now the assistant provost for academic affairs, had served as dean of Academic Services since 2006. The dean of Academic Services oversees the University's undergraduate advising programs and other important academic support services, including first-year faculty advising, Brandeis Undergraduate Group Study and the Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program. "I had been looking for a position that focused on advising at a small liberal arts institution," wrote Boes in an email to the Justice. "Brandeis' social justice mission makes this feel like a particularly good fit for me," Boes added. "I am looking forward to bringing my student development background to looking across them as well as my experiences with collaborating with administrative staff and faculty," said Boes. "I'm very excited about Lisa [Boes]. I think she brings a wonderful range of experiences, particularly in academic advising, but she also has significant work in pre-health advising, disability advising and fellowship services," said Godsoe in an interview with the Justice. Godsoe called Boes "creative" and "collaborative" in an interview with the Justice, referring to her work developing a sophomore advising program at Harvard University. Boes has a bachelor's degree in botany and a master's degree in student personnel from Miami University in Ohio. She received a Ph.D. in learning and teaching from Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Godsoe said the position has changed slightly since she held it. The Office of Study Abroad and International Students and Scholars Office are now under the purview of the provost. In an email announcement to the faculty, Godsoe thanked Profs. Charles McClendon (FA), Wendy Cadge (SOC), Ellen Wright (PSYC), Hollie Harder (ROMS), Susan Parker (MATH) and James Morris (BIOL) for their assistance with the search.
(10/01/13 4:00am)
With the crisis in Syria dominating the news, the Crown Center for Middle East Studies hosted its kick-off event for the year to discuss Syria. The panel, moderated by Judy and Sidney Swartz Director of the Crown Center Prof. Shai Feldman (POL), touched on all aspects of the crisis including American interests in Syria, the patronage of Iran and Russia to Syria and the ethical implications of an American military strike. The event, titled "Syrian Catastrophe: Regional Implications," was the first of the Crown Center's kick-off events to focus exclusively on a particular crisis in the Middle East, according to Feldman. Feldman opened the discussion by asking the panelists about their views on the current state of affairs in Syria. The panelists uniformly painted a grim picture of human suffering in Syria and warned of the conflict's spillover into neighboring countries. Mona Yacoubian, a senior adviser on the Middle East at the Stimson Center, said that "there are no winners right now in Syria." Yacoubian emphasized the number of refugees created by the conflict. At the moment, she said, about one third of Syria's population has been displaced, and that number is expected to rise. "It is a conflict that is no longer contained to Syria but has had adverse effects [on] basically just about all of Syria's neighbors," said Yacoubian. "Today I would characterize the situation in Syria as being one of a sectarian civil war." Yacoubian called the situation a "protracted military stalemate," as neither the Syrian regime nor the rebels can prevail. Frederic Hof, a former State Department official and now a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, said the "most salient aspect of war in Syria today is the [Bashar al-] Assad regime using artillery, aircraft, rockets and missiles against civilian populations in areas that it does not occupy." "This in my view is the main obstacle to any kind of a political, negotiated way forward," he said. Joseph Bahout, a professor of Middle Eastern Politics at Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris, a Parisian university commonly known as Sciences Po, agreed with Yacoubian and Hof's assessment of the situation but added that it is "asymmetric warfare," and that the rebels' guerilla warfare is more successful than is usually portrayed in the Western press. Bahout warned that if the situation continues as it is, Syria could become permanently fragmented and partitioned. The panelists differed in some respects in their assessments of the interests of the United States in the conflict. Hof said that the United States has national security interests in Syria, as the chaos there has the potential to spill over into surrounding countries and harm U.S. allies in the region. Moreover, Hof said that "there's the specter of Syria just becoming frankly what it may have already become, a total failed state-a carcass," that al-Qaeda and terrorist groups can feed on. "Syria can become to its neighbors what Somalia has become to Kenya," he said. Hof also raised the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect as a potential U.S. interest: "How does the U.S. react to incidents of mass murder in faraway places?" Prof. Eva Bellin (POL) focused on the moral dimension of intervention: "America's intervention should not be limited to just when our national interests are threatened. I think we have a moral obligation to step in when there are huge moral outrages like genocide ... however we are not omnipotent," and cannot always respond to incidences of moral outrage, said Bellin. She proposed a two-pronged test to help guide decisions on intervention. First, there must be a reasonable chance of success, and second, the operation cannot be unreasonably costly. Yacoubian responded with an outline of what she views as three core interests that may draw a response from the United States: Syria's geostrategic importance, the presence of chemical weapons in Syria and the burgeoning arena for jihadists in Syria. Yacoubian said her concern regarding intervention is whether U.S. action would "help to protect Syrian civilians or ... further endanger Syrian civilians." The discussion then turned to Russia, a major international player whose president, Vladimir Putin, helped pursue a diplomatic solution as President Barack Obama was pushing for the use of force in Syria. Hof said he thinks Putin is interested in the survival of the Assad regime so that Putin can show the strength of Russia when it stands by its allies. Yacoubian had a slightly different view, and questioned whether Assad's use of chemical weapons could have been "beyond the pale" for Russia. In this respect, Yacoubian said the U.S. and Russia have shared interests in preventing the spread of chemical weapons and the spread of jihadists. On Iran, Yacoubian similarly said that Assad's use of chemical weapons might have crossed a line for Iran. Overall, the panelists painted a dire picture of Syria, but Bellin said she was more optimistic after the discussion than she had been previously because she sees possibilities for encouraging Russia to step away from supporting Assad. *
(05/20/13 4:00am)
On Saturday, Prof. Charles McClendon (FA) told the new inductees to Brandeis' chapter of Phi Beta Kappa to always "question and probe beyond what you are taught," and to continually benefit from the work of one's predecessors. The Mu Chapter of Massachusetts Phi Beta Kappa inducted 77 new members from the Class of 2013 and seven from the Class of 2014, representing the top students of those classes by virtue of their academic standing, variety of courses taken and recommendations from faculty. McClendon, the Sidney and Ellen Wien Professor in the History of Art, spoke about the discipline of art history and its relevance to today's undergraduates in his Phi Beta Kappa address. McClendon wove together the narratives of Richard Krautheimer, an art historian who mentored McClendon, and Justice Louis Brandeis. According to McClendon, Krautheimer procured the funds for the first art history library at the University of Louisville, a feat Louis Brandeis had previously supported as vital to a liberal arts education. "We are all part of the broader phenomenon, connected in a great intellectual, social and cultural endeavor," explained McClendon of academic interactions. McClendon emphasized the importance of the past and the role it can play in influencing the future. "We should all relate to this notion of building on the achievements of the past to provide direction for the future," he said, referring to the history of the stained glass windows in the Cathedral of Chartres in Central France. He also used works of medieval art like the Alfred Jewel and Fuller Brooch to encourage students to "remember you are part of a long tradition and process of inquiry." He further advised students to engage with the world using all their senses. "Look closely and carefully. Ask questions of yourself and others. Learn from the past. Both distant and more recent; and build on it and with it," he said. "Only by being fully engaged both visually and mentally can we strive for an understanding of where we have been and where we are going and only then can we hope for a better world." University President Frederick Lawrence welcomed and congratulated the new inductees in his opening remarks. "To have come to Brandeis itself is an accomplishment, to be graduating itself is an accomplishment, but to be graduating Phi Beta Kappa is an extraordinary accomplishment."
(05/20/13 4:00am)
As members of the Brandeis community marched in the 2013 Brandeis Take Back the Night rally, an annual march against sexual violence, they encountered several shouts from first-year residence halls seemingly intended to taunt the participants. Take Back the Night is an annual march through campus beginning on the Rabb Steps. The marchers stop in certain quads and hear survivors' accounts of sexual assault. The Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, the Queer Resource Center and Students Talking About Relationships co-hosted this year's event, which took place April 29 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Coordinator of STAR Jonathan Rabner '14 attended the march and said he heard several male voices shout "Yeah ZBT" and "Wanna get fucked?" from Cable Hall while the marchers were walking through North Quad. Former FMLA Vice President Julia Dougherty '15 said she also heard "Yeah ZBT" and "Men's rights." The shouts referred to Zeta Beta Tau, a fraternity with a chapter at Brandeis. A recent case of sexual assault adjudicated this semester has been associated with a ZBT-affiliated student. "I think this proves, most of all, the need for more events like Take Back the Night and facilitation of more open conversation about issues like sexual assault because rape culture does exist at Brandeis," said Dougherty of the disruption. On the "Overheard at Brandeis" Facebook group, one student posted that the same remarks Dougherty had heard were yelled at Take Back the Night. The post erupted, receiving 218 comments that at first condemned the remarks, but then turned into a debate about free speech and rape apologists. "As a member of the Brandeis community there should be a baseline of respect," Rabner said in an interview with the Justice. "That's why these comments were very upsetting to me." Rabner said he doesn't want people to "feel uncomfortable speaking about their survival experiences." Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel attended the march and sent a campus-wide email May 3 condemning the "offensive and hurtful language" used by those shouting at the marchers. "While there are surely appropriate settings for discourse, there is no justification for hurling insults at one another, and we will not accept actions that support a culture that in any way empowers those who would commit sexual violence, or who believe that consent can be assumed," wrote Flagel in the email. In an interview with the Justice, Flagel called the exploitive and offensive shouts from the residence halls windows an act of "cowardice." Dougherty said she was happy that Flagel sent the email but that more can be done. "I think further steps can be taken to facilitate discussion about how prevalent this issue is and to further provide clear resources for survivors," Dougherty said. "Sexual assault is not just a women's issue. It is an issue of an entire community that needs to be discussed more openly and not hidden and silenced," she added.
(04/23/13 4:00am)
The student body elected Executive Senator Ricky Rosen '14 to be the Union's next president last week. Rosen defeated challengers Student Union Treasurer David Clements '14 and Char;es River/567 Senator Daniel Schwab '14, who received 30 percent and 18 percent of the vote respectively. Rosen won with 635 votes, coming in at 41 percent of voters. "I am privileged that the student body has placed its trust in me to represent them. But at the end of the day, it's not about me or the other newly-elected officials-it is about the 3600 students that we represent, and we cannot lose sight of that next year," wrote President-Elect Rosen in an email to the Justice. Rosen wrote that he plans to transform the way that the Union communicates with students. In addition, he has already begun to communicate with administration and next year's E-Board members. "I intend to spend the next two weeks meeting with administrators and newly-elected Union members to make sure they know what to expect from me and what I expect from them," he wrote. Senator at Large Charlotte Franco '15 was elected Student Union vice president with 35 percent of the vote. "Winning this election means a lot to me," said Franco in an interview with the Justice "I've put in a lot of work over the past two years to get to this point, and it is very humbling to know that the student body believes in me to fill this position." Franco said she plans on meeting with Rosen to establish "a structure for how the next year is going to go," and decide "what our main initiatives will be, and how we plan on delegating them and bringing them to fruition." She also said she would meet with current and future Executive Board members as well as senators to share ideas and perspectives. "I can't wait until next year," said Franco. "I am confident that myself, the rest of the newly elected E-Board and soon to be elected Senate will continue to uphold the Brandeis mission and strengthen the union so that we are able to serve the student body to the best of our abilities." Senator Sneha Walia '15 won the position of secretary with 47 percent of the vote. "I'm really excited, very happy," said Walia in an interview with the Justice. "A lot of hard work paid off, and I'm really excited. I know I'm going to be working with a lot of great people." She said her first goal would be to start working on the Union's social media outreach. Sunny Aidasani '14, the off-campus senator and former assistant treasurer, was elected to the position of Union treasurer with 36 percent of the vote. "The Treasurer has a lot of responsibilities and I feel honored that the student body has entrusted me with these responsibilities," wrote Aidasani in an email to the Justice. "It is my duty, in return, to serve the student body to the best of my abilities, and I have already begun working on a couple of things." Aidasani said he has been in touch with Clements, the outgoing treasurer, and the newly elected Finance Board members to discuss the duties and responsibilities of the position. Class of 2015 Senator Daniel Novak won the position of junior representative to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. "I plan to establish a very strong relationship with the deans of arts and sciences and the rest of the academic deans to ensure that all of the students voices are heard," said Novak in an interview with the Justice. "I will reach out to different students in different majors and see what they would like to see changed within their majors." Alex Thomson '15 was elected junior representative to the Board of Trustees. Thompson said he would begin to meet with Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees Jack Hait '14 and administrators to "make sure that the student voice is heard at the administration level as well as the board level." He said his most important goal would be transparency in the process of tuition increases. Flora Wang '15 and Joseph Robinow '14 were elected to serve as Brandeis Sustainability Fund Representatives. Wang had previously served in the position. "I hope to continue working on the projects in progress and see them through into the next year as well as reach out to students who have spoken to me about their potential proposals," said Wang. Mohamed Ali '14, Teresa Fong '15, Bronia Goldman '14 and Aliza Kahn '15 were elected to the four open seats on the finance board. Xiaoyue Sun '16 was elected Racial Minority F-Board Member. The second round of elections will take place from midnight to midnight on Thursday, and will include the following positions and candidates: Claire Sinai '15, Sarah Park '14, Maris Ryger-Wasserman '16, Michael Abrams '15, Michael DeFeo '15, Jordan Schwartz '16 and Zakaria Hussein '15 for Associate Justice; Andre Ve Tran, Annie Chen and Owen Voelker for Class of 2014 Senator; Caiwei Zheng and Anna Bessendorf for Class of 2015 Senator; Andrew Chang, Jonathan Jacob, Zack Weaver and Kathy Nguyen for Class of 2016 Senator; Biana Gotlibovsky '15, James Polite '15 and Daniel Schwab '14 for Senator at Large; and Ari Azani '15, Naomi DePina '16 and Khadijah Lynch '15 for Racial Minorty Senator. There are two seats available for each class and for Senator at Large, five seats for Associate Justice and one seat for Racial Minority Senator.
(04/16/13 4:00am)
Two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon around 2:50 p.m. yesterday. As of press time, Boston.com reported three dead and at least 144 injured. Several members of the Brandeis community had attended the marathon, and members of Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps had been volunteering. No members of the Brandeis community were reported injured. Around 5 p.m. yesterday, University President Frederick Lawrence posted on his Facebook page: "We have just heard that all BEMCo students volunteering are safe and accounted for. Law enforcement has asked that people text instead of calling, to preserve bandwidth. We are asking Brandeis students to please let their families know where they are and their current status." "[Director of Public Safety] Ed Callahan and his team are monitoring the situation closely, as they do in all crisis situations," said Senior Vice President for Communications Ellen de Graffenreid in an email to the Justice yesterday afternoon. Three members of BEMCo attended the Boston Marathon this year, according to BEMCo Director and Clinical Supervisor Hannah Goldberg '13. She said that BEMCo traditionally sends several members to the event to help medically assess runners after the race. Yedidya Ben-Avie '15, who was working as a medical volunteer, said he was about 100 feet away from the blast when it went off. "I was working as a medical volunteer there and I was in the middle of performing an assessment when two explosions went off about 100 feet away from me," he said in an interview with the Justice. Ben-Avie said at first he didn't believe it was an explosion. "It's probably nothing. ... Probably everything's fine," he said he thought. "But then it kind of sunk in when people were just running away. There must have been 200 people around me, mostly runners at that time, and they just all started running away." He described a scene of mass panic, with a fast response by the Boston medical team. "As soon as people were more or less out of the area, I went to ground zero. I went to the scene, and by the time I got there they were already more or less cleared out," he said. "It was really quick. ... So even the medical volunteers they were sending away to try to back up so that they could look for other explosives." Rocky Reichman '13, who was also volunteering at the Marathon when the bombs went off, said he was the BEMCo member furthest from the scene of the blast. At the time of the explosion, he was scanning his zone to quickly evaluate runners' medical conditions. "We were originally charged with only assessing runners medically, but soon found ourselves simultaneously giving psychological first aid and keeping family members from being run over by news vans and emergency vehicles," he wrote in an email to the Justice. "One man passed by emotionally intact yet covered in blood save for his face. When I assessed and queried him to see if he was okay, however, he nodded assuringly and said 'it's not my blood' and did not agree to go receive medical care." Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer was also at the marathon today and watched his daughter cross the finish line about an hour before the explosion. "We were walking up Beacon St. by Cheers when we heard the blasts," Sawyer wrote in an email to the Justice. "All the way over there it was a remarkable sound, and we knew something was wrong. Then we were frantic trying to get cell service to see if our friends were okay. I finally talked with them nearly two hours later." President Barack Obama addressed the nation at about 6 p.m. yesterday and said: "Boston is a tough and resilient town. So are its people. I'm supremely confident that Bostonians will pull together, take care of each other, and move forward as one proud city. And as they do, the American people will be with them every single step of the way." "But make no mistake," he said, "we will get to the bottom of this. And we will find out who did this; we'll find out why they did this. Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice." According to the marathon website, 45 Waltham residents took part in the race. According to the Waltham Patch, Waltham City Councillor Kenneth Doucette finished the race and crossed the finish line moments prior to the explosion.
(03/12/13 4:00am)
The first detailed draft of the strategic plan-a centerpiece of University President Frederick Lawrence's administration since its start-was released last week, and it drew criticism for what some perceived as its focus on the sciences and graduate schools, while ignoring the humanities and social sciences. The draft-which administrators have stressed is a "work in progress," requiring more feedback-focuses on the academy and ways to improve education in areas such as the sciences, graduate schools and research, and indicates a desire to invest in hiring new, young faculty. The draft frames Brandeis as "a small university, bringing together the virtues of a liberal arts college and a research institution." In this way, the draft states, Brandeis is distinctive among its peers. Embedded in the draft is the tension between all that the University seeks to achieve and its finite financial means. It states, "we cannot afford to invest equally in every field, and so we must make strategic judgments about where we are able to attain and sustain national prominence." Among its concrete initiatives, the draft promises to quadruple the budget for renewal of campus facilities to $10 million and create an updated campus master plan, two areas particularly relevant to student life on campus. But the focus of the draft is the educational experience. It calls for the University to "grow and nurture key academic programs" and "strengthen selected departments," although it does not specify which departments or programs will benefit from these "strategic investments." At the faculty meeting last Thursday, some faculty expressed general approval and appreciation for the development of the plan, but also addressed concerns about the draft's coherence and focus on graduate schools and sciences. Prof. Peter Conrad (SOC) said at the faculty meeting that there was little mention of the humanities and social sciences in the draft and that, "this volume, as it's written now, attaches the future of Brandeis to the two professional schools and the sciences." "I think we need to rethink, do we really mean it that we're going to be led by the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and [International Business School] and the sciences and everybody else is subservient or tied to that, or do we have a larger vision?" Conrad said. Some faculty present at the meeting, including Chair of the Faculty Senate Prof. Eric Chasalow (MUS) seemed to agree that the document didn't necessarily capture the social sciences. "I agree with what you're saying here. In fact, it occurred to me also, meaning the part about the sciences, that we think of all the work we do here as changing the world and that that document doesn't really capture that," said Chasalow. Prof. Len Saxe (Heller) said, "The first transformation of fundamental scientific discovery, if I'm remembering correctly, could be transformative, but why limit it to-I'll call it-the hard sciences, the biological sciences; how about the social sciences? The social sciences are more at Brandeis than global integration. Rebuilding the physical space of the social science quad is only part of the social science story at Brandeis." Saxe added that the draft lacks coherence. "The way in which it forms the mosaic that we are and what we want to be didn't come through to me, and I think the next step in the process is 'how do we develop the coherence of the story?'" In an email to the Justice following the meeting, Lawrence said the University's dedication to liberal arts and social sciences is sometimes taken as a given. "As we move forward toward the final stages of the planning process, it is important that these commitments do not go without saying; we should explicitly state our commitment to the humanities and social sciences, which with the creative arts are the core of a liberal arts education," wrote Lawrence. Alumni, and their potential to function as a base of fiscal support, also play a part in the draft. "Our alumni are essential to the future of Brandeis. We must look to them not only for reliable and robust financial support. We must also draw upon them as a vital resource for recruiting students, for providing entr?(c)e to internships and employment, for making connections between Brandeis and the worlds of business, government, and the professions - in short, for extending the reach of Brandeis, nationally and internationally," states the draft. Another goal is to "strengthen graduate education at Brandeis" - a theme prevalent throughout the plan, with proposals in later pages to strengthen the postdoctoral programs, build an additional complex for the IBS, and continue sustenance and repositioning of the Heller School. The draft also wants to make Brandeis a first-choice destination for students. Among the actions that would affect the admissions process is an effort to decrease the acceptance rate. "Gradually decrease admission rate while steadily increasing yield (number of students accepting offers of admission), raising students' academic qualifications and expanding student diversity," for example, is an action item. Student Union President Todd Kirkland '13, who is on the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, said he thinks the draft is "very well done." "In terms of student participation, I believe student input has been an essential component of this process from the start," wrote Kirkland in an email to the Justice. "Although no students wrote the document, it is evident to me that administration understands and plans to help relieve many issues facing the student body." Executive Senator Ricky Rosen '14 wrote in an email to the Justice, "I think that the Strategic Plan succeeds in outlining Brandeis' transformation over the next decade into a world-class academic institution." Provost Steve Goldstein '78 said in an interview with the Justice following the faculty meeting that he welcomed the feedback. "I think the feedback is exciting. ... I love the way they process, I love the way they analyze it because they're such broad thinkers," he said. This week, the administration planned three discussion sessions open to the entire community. One took place yesterday and the next two will be tomorrow from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the Rapaporte Treasure Hall and Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in Levin Ballroom. The planning process began in fall 2011, when Lawrence appointed Goldstein to head the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. The initial timetable was to have a plan framework announced by the end of the 2011-2012 academic year and a final draft of the plan distributed by December 2012, according to Lawrence at an October 2011 faculty meeting. The process was then delayed several times to allow more time for discussions to take place. Now, the draft of the plan will be discussed at the March Board of Trustees meeting and approved as a final version at the May Board meeting. Brandeis has retained Elaine C. Kuttner of Cambridge Concord Associates, a consulting firm, to help with the strategic plan. -Tate Herbert contributed reporting
(12/11/12 5:00am)
Bill Burger, associate vice president for communications, is leaving Brandeis at the end of December to begin work as Middlebury College's new vice president for communications. Burger-who has been running the Office of Communications since the departure of Senior Vice President for Communications and External Affairs Andrew Gully in June-will begin at Middlebury on Jan. 1. A search is currently nearing its end for a new senior vice president, but it is still unclear who will be handling the daily operations of the Brandeis Office of Communications in the interim. "It's very much to be determined," said Burger in an interview with the Justice. University President Frederick Lawrence announced at this month's faculty meeting that he has interviewed the final two candidates and a decision is expected in the next few weeks. "It just felt like a good fit," Burger said of Middlebury. "A great group of people and a terrific institution so it just felt like the right move, the right career move." Burger will manage and develop communication strategy for Middlebury and for the Monterey Institute of International Studies, a graduate school of Middlebury College in Monterey, Calif. Burger said that his portfolio at Middlebury would be similar to his roles at Brandeis, including directing news, publications and crisis management, "but with a real emphasis on brand and identity." Middlebury President Ronald D. Liebowitz said in a press release: "Bill's primary charge as vice president will be to develop and implement an integrated communications strategy that meets the needs of the college and each of its individual schools and programs, clarifies our internal communication processes, and enables the institution to represent its collective identity to the wider world." Burger began working at Brandeis in March 2010. It was his first position in higher education. Burger said he is most proud of improvements in Brandeis' Web presence while he has been at the University. These include improving BrandeisNOW, revamping the undergraduate admissions site and redesigning Brandeis magazine with a website. "I've worked with a lot of really terrific people and people who care deeply about the place and so I think it's been good preparation for Middlebury and I have nothing but good feelings about [Brandeis] and I wish everyone [at Brandeis] all the best." Burger worked for 14 years as an editor and writer for Newsweek and has since worked in telecommunications, online publishing and information services, before moving to Brandeis. "We're working on a transition plan for how the department will be organized and operate during from the time I leave until the new person is hired and so I'm working with [Chief of Staff] David Bunis '83 and people in our department about creating that transition plan," said Burger.
(12/11/12 5:00am)
Last week, a Brandeis University student was diagnosed with an active case of tuberculosis, causing at least 250 students, staff and faculty to be interviewed, and if necessary, tested for the illness. No other members of the community tested positive for the active disease as of Monday afternoon. In an email announcing the health concern on Thursday, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel said the student has been isolated and is responding to treatment. "At this point there is no reason to believe that this issue will impact the day-to-day operations of the university," said Flagel. University officials paid special attention to several students who had close ties to the student with TB, according to Bill Burger, associate vice president for communications. Burger declined to provide the location or any additional details about the student with TB, citing privacy concerns. Noone has tested postive for the disease, according to Diana Denning, the nurse manager at the health center. University health workers have been in close contact with state public health officials, who have commended the University for its response, according to Denning. In an interview with the Justice, Denning said that "the school was very proactive and immediately started thinking about the best way to inform [the community]. They made a choice to broadly inform the entire community." "The more information people have, the more we could help support their concerns. I feel like things were handled pretty well," she continued. TB is a bacterial infectious disease that usually affects the lungs but can spread to other parts of the body, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website. A person with the active disease can spread TB through the air. Not everyone with TB becomes sick and the bacteria can live in an individual's body without showing symptoms, according to the CDC. Fourty percent of the world carries this form of the disease, called "latent tuberculosis." A person with latent TB cannot spread the bacteria to others. TB cannot be spread through shaking hands, sharing food or drink, touching bed linens or toilet seats, sharing toothbrushes or kissing, according to the CDC. Symptoms of active TB disease include a bad cough that lasts three weeks or longer, pain in the chest, coughing up blood or sputum, weakness or fatigue, weight loss, no appetite, chills, fever and sweating at night. According to Denning, the health center screens all incoming students for TB at matriculation, which is helpful in the case of an active diagnosis such as the one last week. -Sam Mintz contributed reporting.
