Framework plan includes campus renovations

UPDATED: 12/11 2:18 p.m. Administrators are beginning to plan updates to the university, expanding upon the President’s Framework for the Future, according to President Ron Liebowitz, who has been having “open discussions” with various groups on campus about status report updates regarding the Framework.  These open discussions are meant to inform the community and gather […]

The Hoot celebrates winter holidays

Hanukkah: Rachel Saal  It would be a lot harder to be a self-hating Jew if Hallmark would make just one Hanukkah movie. Christmas gets all of the good songs and all of the decorations and all of the good traditions. Anytime I’ve heard someone try to come up with a Hanukkah song, the best that […]

Former ambassador Oman discussed country’s future

Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, Oman’s authoritarian leader, is responsible for the success of the country in the past few decades and has been well-respected among the Omanis, according to Gary Grappo, the former United States Ambassador to Oman who spoke in Schwartz on Wednesday. Now, Grappo says that after a year of absence […]

Senate Log 11/17

At the Executive Board meeting, the board discussed having a second racial minority senator. Senator Joseph Coles ’22, who was in attendance at the Executive Board meeting, said that the official complaint will come out in a public report. The Senate entered an executive session to decide whether to recommend if the special election should […]

ITS says campus Wifi issues are resolved

Information Technology Services (ITS) has resolved the source of the issue that was affecting the campus wireless network as of Thursday at 10:35 p.m., according to Information Technology Services’ status updates.  “We did an upgrade configuration over the summer, and, overtime, the configuration kind of faltered,” said Chief Information Officer Jim La Creta in an […]

Student Union president apologizes

Student Union President Simran Tatuskar ’21 issued a mandated apology to the student body on Friday with the subject line “Update.” The Senate voted that Tatuskar issued the apology after a judiciary case found her guilty of ineffectively communicating and unconstitutionally deciding the role of the executive senator, according to the judiciary’s formal opinion.  “Hey […]

In the Senate: 11/10

Senator Skye Liu ’23 is trying to make Lunar New Year more recognized on campus and because it is “the most important holiday for Chinese students,” so Liu and Senator Janice Huang ’23, are looking into enabling the Chinese population to celebrate the Lunar New Year and have assignment extensions for next year.  Senator Scott […]

Climate survey illustrates rape, assault and harassment experiences at Brandeis

Brandeis released the results of its second ever campus climate survey on Thursday, which described respondents’ experiences with rape, sexual assault, harassment, intervention in those situations and reporting.  The survey asked 1,148 students—or about 22 percent of the student body—about their experiences with harassment, sexual misconduct, knowledge of how to report harassment or assault, sense […]

Brandeis’ Hackathon draws national hackers

After months of planning and organizing by seven students, about 170 hackers, both new and experienced, gathered in the Shapiro Science Center on Saturday and Sunday to participate in the sixth year of Codestellation, Brandeis’ annual hackathon. Registrants included hackers from Johns Hopkins and the University of Southern California, according to Lead Organizer Mitchell Dodell […]

North Korean defector tells escape story

As a girl growing up in North Korea, Yeonmi Park didn’t know that the type of freedom that is found in the United States existed. Now a human rights activist and a student studying at Columbia University in New York, Park is realizing that the rest of the world didn’t know about a world like […]

In the Senate 10/27

Former Vice President Guillermo Caballero ’20 began the senate meeting by announcing his resignation.  “I gave a lot of thought on whether I wanted to continue working for the Union to build the body I envisioned. However, my work has been hindered by several obstacles but especially by being under the supervision of people that […]

Student Union Vice President resigns

Student Union Vice President Guillermo Caballero ’20 resigned on Sunday during the Student Union Senate meeting. His resignation was effective as of Tuesday Oct. 29 at 4 p.m. Executive Senator Jake Rong ’21 has taken over as interim vice president and at the Senate meeting, Senator-at-Large Nancy Zhai ’22 was voted to be interim executive […]

Brandeis University donor and entrepreneur dies

Morton Mandel (P’73, H’89) one of the university’s largest donors, died on Oct. 16 at age 98. Mandel and his two brothers used $900 to launch an auto-parts distributor, Premier Industrial Corp., in Cleveland in 1940. They sold it 56 years later for $2.8 billion, according to the Druckers Institute website. The three brothers later […]

Panelists discuss false knowledge

Everything that you know, you have learned through the filter of your senses and your unique experiences, according to panelists on Wednesday in Sherman Function Hall. The panel was a part of the new Brandeis CORE curriculum that requires students to attend at least one of the “Critical Conversations” moderated faculty discussions, according to a […]

Request For Proposals committee searches for dining vendor

Sodexo and the university made a “joint decision” to terminate their existing contract, according to Andy Allen, general manager for Sodexo at Brandeis. Now, the Request For Proposals (RFP) committee is asking multiple vendors, including Sodexo, to issue proposals and is gathering input from different community members around campus. These factors will be weighed against […]

Art professor recognized as distinguished alumni by Boston University

Associate Professor of Painting Joseph Wardwell is one of three Boston University (BU) alumni that has been awarded with the CFA’s Distinguished Alumni Award, “the most prestigious award conferred by the College of Fine Arts at Boston University,” according to BU’s website.  “In everyone’s life you just kind of move forward, and so it was […]

Of the Rachels, by a Rachel and for the Rachels

In a 2012 video titled “Sh*t Brandeis Students Don’t Say,” and its sequel “Sh*t Brandeis Students Don’t Say Part 2,” students act out situations and conversations that they suggest are antithetical to Brandeis culture. The first video has accumulated 81,843 views, and the sequel has accumulated 37,360 views. One of the conversations depicted in the […]

J-CASTE recognizes two scholars, journalist

The editors and international advisors to CASTE: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, or J-CASTE, Brandeis’ journal that assesses “systems in South Asia and beyond and considers the marginalization and inter-generational oppression of religious, racial and cultural minorities throughout the world,” according to its website, recognized three people for their work researching caste systems on […]

Professor and lecturer co-author NYT op-ed on building with sustainably-harvested mass timber

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) has allowed the construction of more wooden buildings and is quickly becoming a competitive building technology in many mid-rise buildings, according to Brian Donahue (AMST/ENVS/HIST), associate professor of American Environmental Studies, in an email to The Brandeis Hoot.  Donahue described the technology and its environmental benefits in a New York Times article, […]

Administrators update community on accessibility

Several student and faculty groups informed the community about the changes in the university’s accessibility in the Shapiro Campus Center on Thursday. Representatives from these groups each spoke for five minutes about the updates and plans that their groups face.  Dean of Academic Service Erika Smith said that on Sept. 16, the university posted a […]