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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.
MEDICAL EMERGENCY
The Brandeis Interdepartmental Program in Italian Studies hosted a talk featuring Shaul Bassi, a professor of English Literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, to virtually present his work about the Jewish Venician Ghetto on Mar. 3. Brandeis Prof. Paola Servino (ITAL) and Prof. Ramie Targoff (ENG) introduced Bassi and his influential work for Italian Jewry.
The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies hosted a Zoom conversation on Feb. 28 with Israeli judo world champion Sagi Muki. With Keren Schneidinger ’22 moderating the event, Muki talked about his career as a judo player, or judoka, with particular emphasis on how his experiences shaped his commitment toward using sports to promote empathy between countries with fractious relationships.
Virtual Commencement
Simon Maxwell, a renowned international development economist, spoke to the Brandeis community about climate change and development on Wednesday, Feb. 24 at a virtual event titled “Next Steps in Climate Compatible Development.” This discussion was hosted by the Center for Global Development and Sustainability at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
No clubs were chartered, de-chartered or recognized at the Feb. 28 Student Union Senate meeting. Vice President Krupa Sourirajan ’23 was unable to attend, so Executive Sen. Joseph Coles ’22 ran the meeting.
MEDICAL EMERGENCY
Lunar New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is a two-week celebration of the first new moon of the year in the traditional lunar calendar of many East Asian countries. Members of the Asian American community at Brandeis usually hold celebrations for the holiday, but due to COVID-19 they have had to alter their typical events.
Past recipients of the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize and the Richman Distinguished Fellowship in Public Life discussed the potential directions of the Black Lives Matter movement at this pivotal moment in our nation’s history, speculating on what is to come as we transition from a Trump administration to a Biden administration. Brandeis community members gathered over Zoom Wednesday, Feb. 17, to hear the insights of panelists including 2014 Richman Fellow and founder in residence of PolicyLink Angela Glover Blackwell, 2017 Richman Fellow and founder of Rebuilding Every Community Around Peace Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown and 2018 Gittler Recipient and president emerita of Spelman College Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum.
Academic travel largely stopped with the pandemic, and new remote meeting formats have increased accessibility and opened opportunities for worldwide collaboration in ways that were once impossible. As travel and in-person events start to become options again, scholars are questioning if returning to pre-pandemic 'normalcy' is the best choice.
Brandeis community members gathered over Zoom on Friday, Feb. 19 to discuss the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, white nationalism and white supremacy. “Let’s Talk About… White Supremacy” debuted as the Sociology department’s first anti-racism event of the semester. This discussion is part of a new series aimed at creating informal spaces outside of the classroom to talk about world events in an academic setting.
Sen. Joseph Coles ’22 announced at the Feb. 21 Union Senate meeting that the Brandeis Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance planned to split off from its national parent organization and rebrand itself as the Intersectional Feminist Coalition.
Dr. Carol Fierke Ph.D. ’84 has been named the next Provost of Brandeis University, according to a Nov. 30 email from University President Ron Liebowitz. Fierke, who began as provost at the start of 2021, succeeded Lisa Lynch, who announced her intention to step down from being provost at the end of the spring 2020 semester. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lynch remained provost for an extra semester — fall 2020 — before taking a position as the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
MEDICAL EMERGENCY
The Baker-Polito administration announced changes to Massachusetts’ COVID-19 guidelines on Feb. 8. The changes were made following an overall decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the state. In November, when the state implemented stricter guidelines to slow the spread of the virus, Massachusetts had a positive test average of approximately 5.94% for a data collection period of seven days. As of Feb. 18, the rate of weekly positive cases was 2.13% in Massachusetts and 1.18% in Waltham. The number of active cases, hospitalizations and deaths has also declined over the past weeks.
On Saturday, Feb. 13, the U.S. Senate acquitted former President Donald J. Trump in his second impeachment trial for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The final vote was 57 guilty to 43 not guilty, which was just 10 votes short of the total 67 guilty votes needed to convict Trump. Unlike his first impeachment trial where only one Republican Senator, Mitt Romney (R-Utah), found Trump guilty, seven Republicans voted to convict Trump this time. Do you think that Trump was exercising his constitutional right to free speech or inciting violence and violating the law? What do you make of seven Republican senators voting to convict Trump, and what consequences might these senators face in the future?