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The Union Senate met Friday, April 4 to make up for two consecutive weeks of break for the holidays. At the meeting, senators chartered five clubs and discussed facemasks and the upcoming election.
As part of their Trends in Asset Management Series, the Brandeis International Business School invited three alumni who work for multinational organizations to speak about their professional experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. Andrea Dore M.A. ’98 is the Head of Funding at the World Bank, Elida Rico M.A. ’99 is the Governance and Public Administration Officer at the United Nations, and Olaf Unteroberdoerster M.S. ’98, Ph.D. ’98 is Division Chief at the International Monetary Fund.
On Monday, Mar. 29, the Arkansas Senate passed a bill that would prohibit transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming hormone treatments and surgeries. HB 1570, the SAFE Act, would prohibit trans youth from accessing health care and insurance coverage for gender-affirming care. Doctors would be both prohibited from offering gender-affirming care to trans minors and unable to refer minors to other providers for treatment. This bill passed amid a surge of anti-trans legislation that is being considered in state legislatures across the country. On Monday, Apr. 5, Gov. Hutchinson vetoed the bill calling it a “vast government overreach.” However, considering the overwhelming Republican support, his veto is likely to be overturned. Rather than limiting trans youths' access to gender-affirming care, what are the most important protections that state governments should enact for trans people? How may this bill relate to broader discussions of medical rights for marginalized groups?
Student Accessibility Support added “limited extensions” to their list of academic accommodations available to students with disabilities at the start of last semester, per a March 19 email to the Justice from SAS Director Cara Streit.
Alfred Zack-Williams, a published author and an emeritus professor of Sociology at the University of Central Lancaster in the United Kingdom, spoke at “Policing the Crisis: Black Lives and Anti-racist Development,” a March 17 virtual event hosted by the Heller School for Social Policy and Management’s Center for Global Development and Sustainability.
The Brandeis Undergraduate Consulting Club returned to the Union Senate during its March 21 meeting to pitch why it should be recognized as a club. A recognized club is approved for operation by the school, but unlike chartered clubs, does not receive funding.
As of March 22, all Brandeis community members getting tested for COVID-19 on campus must present a photo ID upon submitting their test samples, per a March 19 email to the community from COVID-19 Program Director Morgen Bergman. This email followed another message on COVID-19 safety from Vice President of Student Affairs Raymond Lu-Ming Ou, warning that “Brandeis’ COVID positivity rate is ratcheting upward, with undergraduates representing nearly all new cases.”
University President Ron Liebowitz made headlines on March 15 after the Boston Globe published a leaked letter Liebowitz wrote to the Board of Trustees about a contract dispute. A day after the dispute was published, Liebowitz declined a one-year contract extension in a statement distributed through an independent public relations firm, according to an Inside Higher Ed article.
Resident scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center and retired electrician with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Susan Eisenberg held a collaborative lecture with filmmaker Mallory Newman on March 18 called “Solidarity: How Do Construction Unions Move from Exclusion to Inclusion?” Prof. Harleen Singh (WGS), the new director of the WSRC, introduced Eisenberg.
MEDICAL EMERGENCY
“If you could choose one word to describe how you’re feeling right now, what would it be?” asked a moderator during one of the breakout rooms in the second portion of last Thursday’s event.
On Wednesday, March 10, the House of Representatives approved President Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill. House Democrats passed the bill on the party-line vote of 220-211 with no Republicans voting in favor of the bill. The bill includes direct payments of up to $1400-per-person stimulus payments for most American households, an expansion of the child tax credit of up to $3,600 per child and an extension of $300 weekly unemployment supplement. Dependents 17 and older are now eligible for stimulus payments, which will benefit Brandesians and college students around the country. With the challenges this bill faced in Congress, what was your reaction to the final approval of Biden’s stimulus package? What part of the bill is most important to you and which aspects of the bill should people be most aware of? Why do you think what should have been a bipartisan, common-sense bill became polarized along party lines?
The Senate updated plans regarding this year’s Midnight Buffet, which will be altered to conform to COVID-19 regulations. The Union Senate did not charter, recognize or de-charter any clubs at its March 7 or 14 meetings.
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies co-hosted an event on Mar. 3 with Jaqueline Saper to promote Saper’s book, “From Miniskirt to Hijab: A Girl in Revolutionary Iran.” According to Saper, her debut book — which she had dreamt of writing for over 25 years — is about survival, pre-revolutionary Iran and female empowerment. Award-winning author Farideh Goldin moderated the event.
Dr. Rochelle Ruthchild, a scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center and at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, led a Zoom lecture on Russian feminism pre-Bolshevik Revolution on Mar. 4.
The recent winter storm in Texas left millions without power or water from Presidents Day weekend until the following Friday, according to NBC News. With more than 80 people dead due to hypothermia, the death count of Winter Storm Uri rivaled that of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The storm revealed major problems in Texas’ energy supply and emergency preparedness.
At 108 years old, Carl Shapiro H’03 passed away on March 7. Serving various roles at Brandeis, including benefactor, member of the Board of Trustees and recipient of an honorary degree, Shapiro contributed to the University for over 70 years. “We are grateful for and inspired by the legacy Mr. Shapiro and his family have built here at Brandeis,” President Ron Liebowitz wrote in a March 9 email to the Brandeis community.
The Brandeis Journalism Program and Office of the President sponsored “Science in a Pandemic: A Brandeis Journalism Forum" to discuss the role journalism has had on the public’s understanding of the pandemic and overall view of public health institutions. The virtual event, which took place on March 3, was a part of “Science Journalism, the Pandemic, and Disinformation,” a new course offered by the Journalism Program.