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Brandeis University COVID-19 Statistics: Week of Apr. 3

Brandeis University COVID-19 Statistics: Week of Mar. 27

Christie wins in Basel

Following promptly after the All England Championship was the last tournament of the Badminton World Federation (BFW) World Tour’s European leg, the Swiss Open. In the Yonex Swiss Open 2022, which began  March 22 and ended March 27, there were multiple big names missing, particularly from Asia, including Kento Momota, Chou Tien Chen, Lee Zii Jia, and All England runner-up Lakshya Sen, most likely forfeiting one European tournament in preparation for the tournaments in Asia. Viktor Axelsen fans may also have been disappointed by Axelsen’s retirement in his game on day two due to fatigue. 

Brandeis Tennis team serves up a strong season.

Brandeis University COVID-19 Statistics: Week of Mar. 20

As COVID-19 cases rise, students and faculty need to take action

As most students are more than aware of at this point, we are currently experiencing unprecedented levels of COVID-19 cases within our student body. As of press time, Brandeis’ 7-day positivity rate is 2.34%, nearly two and a half times as high as the reported rate for Massachusetts higher education institutions and slightly higher than the overall state positivity rate. The recent spike in cases that has led to the tightening of precautionary guidelines by the administration has come as a disappointing surprise to many of us. We have spent the majority of the past semester-and-a-half enjoying a relatively normal college experience by pre-pandemic standards, thanks to decreased pandemic-related restrictions and a relatively low risk of being exposed to COVID-19 on campus. For many of us, this has made it especially difficult to adjust to the level of caution that must be taken in the midst of the sharp uptick in the positive case rate that is happening now within our community and makes it all the more frustrating when being cautious leads to missing out on the fun and important parts of our everyday lives. 

Axelsen wins in Birmingham

The Yonex All England Open is the fifth tournament in the 2022 Badminton World Federation World Tour and the oldest badminton tournament. The champions of the tournament will earn 12,000 points counted towards World Rankings, as well as gain eligibility for the World Championship and the Paris Summer Olympics 2024.

The Disabled Students’ Network: Creating a community for all

The Disabled Students’ Network, run by Luca Swinford ’22 and Zoe Pringle ’22, got its start in April 2021, a year after Swinford and Pringle met in the course “Disability Policy” taught by Prof. Monika Mitra (Heller) in spring 2020. It was during this class that they discovered that there wasn’t a space for the disabled community at Brandeis, and this inspired them to create one themselves. Unfortunately, these plans were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, it was during this time that Swinford and Pringle realized there needed to be a community more than ever. According to Swinford, “It was because of the conditions of COVID, how isolating it was, that we sort of realized, like, there's no better time than to start this club right now. And so, in one way [the pandemic] delayed it, but it also kind of reinvigorated the idea for us to start a club like this.” Thus, the Disabled Students’ Network was created in April 2021 and officially chartered in December of 2021. 

University changes COVID-19 policies due to rise in cases

On March 16, Andrea Dine, assistant vice president of student affairs, sent out an email to the Brandeis community with a subject line of “Important update: Increase in Testing Frequency for Students.” The email announced that as of March 17, the required testing frequency was once again every 96 hours. Students must submit on-campus PCR tests roughly twice a week, a quick turnaround from the previously announced relaxation of requirements that reduced testing to once a week. The email specified that the update in the testing policy was due to an increase in positivity and quarantine rates on campus. It also stated that as of that Thursday, they expected the University to “have the highest number of students in isolation or quarantine since the pandemic began.” 

Brandeis University COVID-19 Statistics: Week of Mar. 13

Rally, sit-in held on campus in support of dining workers: ‘We want Brandeis to listen to our voice, that’s it’

On Friday, March 11, following a student sit-in, workers and students gathered for a student-organized rally to push Brandeis to agree to the demands of the Brandeis Leftist Union’s “Petition to Support Union Dining Workers” ahead of the upcoming dining vendor bid decision.

Police log 8-15-22

MEDICAL EMERGENCY

The Justice interviews President Liebowitz about Russia-Ukraine War

Prior to entering the field of higher education administration, University President Ron Liebowitz was deeply entrenched in the study of the former Soviet Union. His grandfather emigrated to the U.S. right before the Russian Revolution and “instilled in my brother and me a fascination with the history,” said Liebowitz in a March 7 interview with the Justice.

Brandeis University COVID-19 Statistics: Week of March 6

University must be mindful as COVID-19 protocols ease

On March 7, the University  amended its COVID-19 health and safety regulations as cases and hospitalization waned in the state of Massachusetts. As a part of the new rules, Brandeis now requires students only to be tested once a week, given they are fully vaccinated, and faculty and staff are no longer required to be tested. 

COVID-19 cases surge pre-break

Seventy-six students and 15 faculty and staff members tested positive for COVID-19 in the weeks leading up to and throughout the February break. Dozens of students were placed in quarantine and isolation, but cases dwindled towards the end of break.

Five dining vendors compete for Univ. bid

Brandeis undergraduate students pay, on average, $7,070 on meal plans per year, according to the Office of Student Financial Services. Since 2013, students have paid this price for Sodexo as stated by the Food Service Director website. Sodexo’s contract was meant to end in 2020; however, due to the pandemic, they received a two year extension, which is set to end in June 2022, the Office of the Executive Vice President, Finance, and Administration said.

The University relaxes COVID-19 policies

With the recent reduction in positive rates on campus, the University has implemented changes to COVID-19 regulations on campus, including making masks not mandatory in many locations and reducing testing frequency.  

Brandeis University COVID-19 Statistics: week of Feb. 27

What the heck is in the woods behind ‘Grad’? An architectural mystery, solved

While looking at a map will tell you that the wooded area just beyond the southeast edge of campus is Fox Park, most Brandeis students probably know it as simply the woods by “Grad,” the colloquial name for Charles River Apartment student residences. The woods — a two-minute walk from “Grad” and a twenty-minute walk from central campus — contain about a half-mile worth of public trails. With swampy inlets surrounding the forest on one side and campus housing on the other, the forest is mostly contained to a small strip of land that extends out from Mt. Feake cemetery.