Use the field below to perform an advanced search of The Justice archives. This will return articles, images, and multimedia relevant to your query.
On Dec. 28, 27 days after the end of the 12-day Ford Hall 2015 sit-in, Student Union President Nyah Macklin ’16 sent an email to the community explaining the significance of her participation in the movement.
The University administration established a Faculty-Student Committee on Asian American Pacific Islander Studies, according to a Dec. 22 email Interim University President Lisa Lynch sent to the community. The decision was made in response to a student protest and several meetings with the student leaders of the Brandeis Asian American Task force.
I have beyond an abiding interest in an amalgamation of true crime, conspiracy theory, and unexplained mysteries — I hesitate to describe it truly as “true crime,” because my interests go beyond the genre, but for the purpose of this article, I will describe this broad passion as true crime, to make things easier. Far too often, I stay up until the early hours of the morning, reading the odd Wikipedia page about an unexplained disappearance or watching documentaries about famous murders. Roughly half the podcasts I listen to fall into this category, and this number increases if you include series like “Serial” or “Radiolab” that are more difficult to classify. Over winter break, I ate up Jon Krakauer’s new quasi-true crime book, “Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town”. So, like any good true crime junkie, I’ve been absolutely fascinated by Netflix’s new documentary series, “Making A Murderer.”
Twelve days after it began, the Ford Hall 2015 protest came to a close last Tuesday, with administrators agreeing to institute several new policies to address racial injustice on campus. Of the original 13 demands the demonstrators made, all but one were addressed in the agreement.
I am standing on the precipice of something great, you say. I am making the right decision, you say. My family won’t miss me, you say. Finally, the pain will go away. Suddenly, you are standing on the precipice of something, but it isn’t great. It is not the dream job or the relationship that will magically reset the clock on all past and failed relationships but instead you are gripping onto the edges of a very tall apartment building, aimed at throwing yourself over the railing and into the grimy abyss.
Upon hearing that Prof. Jillian Powers (AMST) was uncertain whether she would be able to return to the University next year due to being hired on a one-year contract, Alexandra Shapiro ’18 began drafting a letter to administrators and the American Studies faculty chair calling for Powers to receive a tenure-track position. Now that letter, along with several post-script testimonials from Powers’ past students, has been distributed to other faculty and undergraduate departmental representatives. Shapiro will potentially contact the Brandeis Faculty Forward movement as well.
Students began occupying the hallways in the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center leading to the President’s Office in a sit-in on Friday afternoon that has been ongoing since. The students do not plan on leaving the building until Interim President Lisa Lynch and the Board of Trustees develop an action plan for addressing the 13 demands issued by the sit-in’s organizers on Thursday, who call themselves Concerned Students 2015 and are referring to their sit-in as Ford Hall 2015. This title invokes an 11-day occupation held in January 1969 in Ford and Sydeman Halls by black students who presented a list of 10 demands to the administration.
In a special election on Nov. 16, the student body elected two new members to the Allocations Board: Alex Feldman ’19 for a three-semester seat and Arlynes Reyes ’19 for a one-semester seat. The election ran from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.
Ukrainian national identity is a complex notion, containing relationships with Russia, ethnicity and civic duty, according to Carnegie junior fellow Matthew Kupfer ’12, who returned to Brandeis on Tuesday night to share his research findings on what it means to be Ukrainian in the modern era.
As a budding experimental physicist, a question I am often posed is, “Why would one spend so much money studying subatomic realms when one could spend the money …” The suggestions for where the money could or should be directed are endless; starving populations, war-stricken nations, charity, or even Wall Street. Now, before I go any further, I’d like to make it clear that while I am defending the spending of billions on esoteric physics research, I am not condoning the diversion of money from the more humanitarian causes across the planet.
Were the Nov. 13 bombings in Paris a game-changer for the U.S.’s position on the Islamic State? The terrorist attack was highlighted by the U.S. media, and there has been an outpouring of public support for the victims — #prayforparis hashtags, French flags over profile pictures and peace vigils. Many were quick to note the, as Boston Globe columnist Farah Stockman termed it, “terrorist favoritism.” The attacks in Paris considerably overshadowed the suicide bombings in Beirut and Baghdad among others, as well as the downing of a Russian plane over Egypt. There is an explanation for this beyond the fact that the Paris attacks resulted in more casualties. It is one of basic human nature. As trauma specialist Charles Figley said, “The first question we ask ourselves when we hear about a terrorist attack is: Am I in danger?” We live in a world where humanitarian crises are still prioritized according to in-groups, which stems not only from shared commonalities, but from the basic instinct of self-preservation. The Islamic State has demonstrated its willingness and ability to raise the stakes against the West which carries more implications for the U.S.
Last week, a representative of Joe’s Crab Shack announced that tipping is banned in its restaurants. It is the first major restaurant chain to do so, having implemented the ban since August. The decision made by restaurant CEO Raymond Blanchette could revolutionize the industry. In an interview with NPR, Blanchette called the practice of tipping “antiquated” and said that it fosters a hostile work environment. What he did not detail is the systemic racism, sexism and classism that accompany the restaurant business in the form of pay inequities, owed in no small part to tipping.
On Tuesday, the day after a special on-campus screening of the new film “Spotlight,” the former members of the Boston Globe’s investigative Spotlight team on whom the film was based sat down for a panel discussion about how they reported the Massachusetts clergy sex abuse scandal.
“Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben.” [Whoever arrives late is punished by life]. Former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev supposedly said this to East German leader Erich Honecker after the pompous fortieth anniversary celebrations of the communist German Democratic Republic in October 1989.
Interim President Lisa Lynch announced at last Wednesday’s town hall forum that the University will not make a decision on whether to divest its endowment from the fossil fuel industry until after the next University president is selected. She also addressed rumors about the future of Usen Castle, saying that the University will most likely have to take down part of the building, as the renovations required to preserve it for the next 20 years would most likely be prohibitively expensive.
On Oct. 30, President Obama announced plans to deploy around 50 Special Operations forces to Syria — a decision which, according to an Oct. 30 New York Times article, is “the first open-ended mission by United States ground forces in that country.” President Obama has, in the past, expressed aversion at staging military operations for their own sake — so I think it’s safe to assume that their “advisory” capacity isn’t just that. “These forces do not have a combat mission,” assured Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, but given the history of “US advisors” (see: Vietnam War), this claim strains credulity. So are we going to war again? Quite possibly. “Going to war” used to mean actually drafting articles of war on another state or group — a step further than simply authorizing military action — but the last time this was actually done was December 1941, following Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Today, going to war more closely resembles “protracted military involvement.”― Certainly, how we conduct war has changed, but what has changed far more than that is what we are willing to admit is indeed war.
The University’s 9th annual Ann Richards Invitational Roundtable on Gender and the Media focused on the role older individuals play in the work force and how the concept of retirement has evolved in the last few decades. The event took place last Thursday, Nov. 5 at the Women’s Resource Center at Brandeis University.
This weekend’s meet at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute proved to be a tough battle for the men and women’s swimming and diving team.
The Judges got off to a successful start this season at the New England Fall Collegiate Championship, or “the Big One,” at Smith College on Saturday. The fencers took home three medals between the men and women in their first competition of the season. On the women’s side, Caroline Mattos ’16 utterly dominated her competition. In pool play, she only surrendered two touches in six bouts, propelling her to the top seed in the direct elimination round. In that round, she defeated her three opponents by a total combined score of 45-9.
The Board of Trustees considered honorary degree recipients as well as renovations to the Castle and new fundraising initiatives at their annual Fall meeting last Monday and Tuesday, according to Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees Grady Ward ’16.