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(10/28/08 4:00am)
Within the next few weeks, the Student Union hopes to create a formalized body through which students can voice their opinions about the companies in which the University invests its endowment, which could alter Brandeis' financial review process, said Student Union President Jason Gray '10. Gray explained that currently the University Board of Trustees decides where the University's $750 million endowment is invested.Students can make recommendations about the endowment through "access points," including the Student Union, the Graduate Students Association, the Faculty Senate and through President Reinharz, Gray said. He said the University's investment department or an appropriate committee within the Board of Trustees makes decisions based on recommendations presented to them. "I want to take the access points through the Student Union . and formalize [the process] so that there's a channel for students to be involved in making recommendations regarding investment levels and initiating shareholder resolutions pertaining to social and ethical issues," Gray said.Senator for the Class of 2011 Alex Melman said that last year his group, Independent Voices for Endowment Sustainability and Transparency, started an initiative to push the University to invest only in companies that share the University's values and to have a transparent endowment. He said the idea for the student board developed out of this initiative and may include representation from the faculty senate and the Graduate Students Association. Melman said, "Investments should reflect our social and environmental values." He added that the University is resistant to making its investment holdings public, so the group will additionally lobby for investment transparency."The University shouldn't be hiding its investments . . We're a community-based University." The formalized student committee would report to Deborah Kuenstner, the University's chief investment officer for guidance. "I'm responsible for the big job of investing and monitoring managers and figuring out: What does it mean that we're having a market meltdown and do we need to do something different? . I can provide information to the student group, and I think that the student group potentially could include faculty members," Kuenstner said.Kuenstner said there is already a process in which all community members could get their voices heard in the financial review process through recommendations about the endowment.Additionally, she said, there is a "long-standing [socially conscious] policy in place, so that's always kind of an over-arching consideration when we make investment decisions."Gray explained that in the 1980s, students launched a successful campaign to divest from companies doing business in South Africa as a response to the apartheid taking place there. Several years ago, upon students' requests, the University agreed to never invest in companies doing business in Sudan to financially prevent the Sudanese government from being able to commit genocide in Darfur. Still, Kuenstner is skeptical about the necessity of a student committee, as the University has never had one in the past."Certainly people who have felt strongly about issues have had their voices heard. . There's been a lot of student discussion about process, and not a lot of student discussion about issues. I think if there are issues that we want to hear about, we've shown ourselves to be willing to listen and flexible about taking the community's views into account," Kuenstner said. She explained that students can ask her about specific investments for which they are concerned and she can tell them whether it is realistic to adjust the University's financial portfolio. "Not a single issue, not one issue, has come to me, even in all these conversations. ... So we need some issues to talk about," Kuenstner said.Gray responded to Kuenstner and said, "The committee hasn't brought up specific issues yet because the committee does not exist yet. . We are working to make what we will create as effective as possible.
(10/21/08 4:00am)
The Writing Center, a one-on-one tutorial service designed to help students improve their writing skills, moved this year to an office suite in the new Library Technical Services Information Commons and expanded its services to offer more help in areas such as grammar and English as a Second Language tutoring. The Writing Center's move to its new space on the first floor of the Goldfarb Library has changed the format of its basic operations, Director of the Writing Center Ryan Wempler said. "In the old location, all of the tutors shared one large room. In our new location, each tutor has an individual office, which enhances the one-on-one experience that the Writing Center strives to provide," Wempler said.Rebecca Schlangel '10 explained that the new format of the center makes the services of the Writing Center more personalized. The new writing center has a common room, as well as several offices for instructors to tutor students. "Now there's an official office [for each instructor] which is nice because before it was kind of just a central room. I think the changes are for the better because it's more private and you get more instruction," she said. Stephen Gray '10, who used the Writing Center before the changes, said, "I thought the experience was pretty similar, except now it's more personalized."However, the recent relocation of the Writing Center has also posed some problems. Wempler said that as part of the LTS Information Commons, "The Writing Center no longer functions as an isolated unit, but instead must coordinate some of its services with the other programs in the Information Commons." One facet of the increased collaboration is a grammar tutorial the Writing Center provides in conjunction with the ESL program, Wempler said. Chalk wrote in an e-mail, "We have made changes to maximize productivity in our sessions, including . grammar tutorials for those shaky on conventions. We have also launched initiatives to become more involved in various programs across campus that have a major writing component; these programs range from pre-med and the Heller School to ESL and of course, [The University Writing Seminar]."The Writing Center also hopes to reformat its Web site to make it easier for students to sign-up for a 45-minute session. "The new [Web site] format will be easier to navigate and will include more information about our various services. For the time being, the online sign-up system will remain the same, but we are hoping to adjust this in the future in order to collect data on the time slots that are in the highest and lowest demand in order to better serve the needs of students by creating more scheduling flexibility," Wempler said.
(10/07/08 4:00am)
Club leaders encouraged students to vote by providing information about where the presidential candidates stand on issues pertaining to their club's mission during Rock the Vote, an event held on the Great Lawn last Wednesday, Sept. 23 that marked the end of the Student Union's club voter registration contest. About 50 students registered to vote at Rock the Vote, according to an e-mail to the Justice from Elise Diamond '09, assistant director for Student Events and Rock the Vote coordinator.In an e-mail to the Justice, Student Union President Jason Gray '10 wrote, "There were 102 voter registration forms collected through the clubs for the Brandeis Votes competition. . The majority of voter registration forms were for the Massachusetts area." He wrote, "It is fewer than we hoped for, which was disappointing, but still important that we were able to register new voters and bring more people into the political process."The Citizenship Week event was planned by Student Events in conjunction with the Student Union's Brandeis Votes initiative. The event is associated with the national Rock the Vote organization that tries to motivate young people to become politically active and aware.`"It is a voter registration drive. [The purpose is to] help educate students to be informed voters and therefore better citizens with a solid knowledge of the issues in this election, such as healthcare, relations with Israel, and renewable energy sources," said Diamond.Students for Environmental Action, STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, Brandeis Democrats, the Brandeis Labor Coalition, Positive Foundations and 11 other clubs presented information about the candidates' stance on their issues at the event.Caitlin Smith '10, a member of the Brandeis Labor Coalition explained, "We show what [Barack Obama's and John McCain's] past history has been on labor issues. For instance, Barack Obama advocates raising the minimum wage, and in the past he has opposed the United States Dominican Central America Free Trade Agreement. Also, he's an opponent of [North American Free Trade Agreement], and in the past John McCain has supported NAFTA and the United States Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement."Rock the Vote was a bipartisan event, in which clubs did not align with any one candidate. "We're trying to be really bipartisan; we are not taking a stand, we're just providing information for people to make their own informed choices," Smith said. "We are trying to give solid information for each candidate unbiased," said Danielle Meyers '12, a member of STAND. "We have a little bit of information about their legislative history, like what bills they've co-sponsored and whatnot. Basically each candidate supports ending genocide in Darfur, but the problem is they haven't taken much action. So we basically compare what action they've each individually taken." She said John McCain has voted for several initiatives to promote progress in Darfur and has co-sponsored one bill enforcing a no-fly zone in the region. Obama has co-sponsored six bills that enforce goals like civilian protection and divestment from companies that do business in Sudan.Rebecca Hine '09, a member of SEA, explained, "We're here just because we want students to know about each candidate and what they stand for. Both candidates are more environmentally conscious than past candidates, so no matter what, there's going to be an improvement." At the event, there was free pizza and T-shirt giveaways for registering students. There was live music, as well as a mechanical bull and a Democrat-versus-Republican jousting match on inflatable toys. In an e-mail to the Justice, Diamond wrote, "The event was a success in our opinion since not only did we get students (and a few staff members) registered, but we gave students a good time, some free food and some basic education on the issues of this election.
(09/16/08 4:00am)
Prof. Oleg Ozerov (CHEM) has been working on a study that aims to help decrease the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment by lessening the harmful effects of carbon-fluorine bonds found in many commercially used products. Ozerov first gained recognition for this study, which is funded through a grant from the Department of Energy, last August after publishing his findings in Science. "What we're trying to do is see if we can find new ways to activate carbon-fluorine bonds," Ozerov said. "Carbon-fluorine bonds are commonly used as refrigerants, propellants, lubricants and repellants, but they have damaging effects to the environment and are harmful to the ozone layer."Ozerov continued, "Carbon-fluorine bonds are among the more inert functionalities in chemistry. A lot of compounds that contain multiple carbon-fluorine bonds are also environmental pollutants. All these compounds with multiple fluorines in them are very potent greenhouse gases."Activating the carbon-fluorine bon can convert them into carbon-hydrogen bonds, which are less harmful to the environment, according to Ozerov. Ozerov said the possibility of helping to repair the environment through his research is highly motivating. "[I have] motivation for doing C-F activation because basically what we're trying to achieve is perhaps a remediation method for something that is a known environmental pollutant." Ozerov's research has contributed extensively to the study's progress. "We now can convert carbon-fluorine bonds to carbon-hydrogen bonds at room temperature and compounds that contain multiple carbon-fluorine bonds," he said. Others besides Ozerov have also enjoyed watching the study grow. Graduate student Claudia Fafard has contributed to the study as well."[The study has been] hard but fun and interesting. I've been here the longest [out of the other undergraduate and graduate students], so you just get to work on at least eight different projects," she said. Fafard continued, "There's always a theme that kind of connects everything, but you also get to learn about other people's projects, so you always know what's going on." Ozerov said he was motivated to research something that hadn't been tested before."At some point I guess it occurred to me that [researching carbon-fluorine bonds] hasn't been done, and I thought that I sort of had an interesting solution that I wanted to try," Ozerov said. In addition to his research on carbon-fluorine bonds, Ozerov has been getting involved with other projects that attempt to repair the environment. "Recently I became involved in [the Powering the Planet Center, sponsored by the National Science Foundation] that combines multiple investigators from several universities." Ozerov said he did not know from a young age what he wanted to do when he was older but made decisions gradually as he progressed through life. He advised students to follow their passions. "I think it's important for everyone to do what they like to do [so] they can be the best at it, instead of doing what they think they should be doing," he said. "It takes more effort to be as good [at something you don't enjoy], as opposed to doing something that you like.
