Brandeis needs designated smoking areas
Every day, when walking across campus, I invariably walk through at least one cloud of cigarette smoke. Despite official rules requiring students to move more than 30 feet away from buildings before lighting up, because of the convenience of lighting up right outside the door, people regularly smoke right outside of most buildings on campus. […]
Reality TV matters
Reality TV is trashy, right? Many people think it plays to our basest desires, giving us cheap, stupid entertainment without forcing us to have any of those pesky thoughts or feelings related to actual art. Reality TV is the modern circus, the opiate of the masses that religion once was. It holds no true value […]
LTS surpasses previous expectations
While waiting on help for a laptop issue this week at the technology help desk, I was reminded of my past interactions with technological help here at Brandeis. Two years ago, I wrote an opinion piece for The Brandeis Hoot about my experience working with Library and Technology (LTS) services to fix a technical issue […]
Student Union club process needs reform
The beginning of the academic year brings with it new enthusiasm and excitement among our students, and nothing is more representative of Brandeis student life than our club system. With over 250 organizations on campus, student organizations are the primary mechanism for students to get involved on campus and in the community. For many students, […]
From the Hoot Archives: University budget woefully non-transparent
Over the next two weeks, I plan on writing two pieces regarding the operating budget of the university, since most students don’t know where their tuition goes, how it’s used or anything related to the university’s financial system. When I first set out to write this article, I assumed that this fact was mostly due […]
From The Hoot Archives: Unite stakeholders
“We founded The Hoot because we believe that what Brandeis needs is a community newspaper. A newspaper written about, by and for members of the Brandeis campus … We shall be neither intimidated by controversy, but neither shall we sink to the level of merely titillating our readership, our mission is to inform, to bring […]
Sodexo must label ingredients in food
Our campus is known for many things: rolling hills, distinctive faculty, an active student population and terrible food. Sure, it might be common for college students to focus so much on their terrible food options, but this issue is especially true of Brandeis. I’m not going to be commenting—or complaining—about food quality again in this […]
University must expand housing to accommodate students
We have a lot of people here at Brandeis. Well, perhaps not compared to Ohio State or Penn State or some other 60,000-student monstrosity. For Brandeis, however, we’ve been steadily growing over the last couple years and that growth is beginning to show. My graduating class—the class of 2018—is the largest we’ve ever had, just […]
Student feedback surveys valuable but not always well-intentioned
This past week, I got a student survey in my inbox from Sodexo. As someone with quite a few opinions about our dining halls, I was more than excited to get started. Though I’ll admit that by the fifth page of endless bubbles I was getting frustrated, by the time I finished I was positively […]
Room selection resembles something out of Panem
Next week the Number Games begin. Soon, across our dining halls and classrooms, from Shapiro to Shapiro to Shapiro our students will duke it out to conquer that resource so valuable men would lie, cheat and (hopefully not) kill to acquire it: housing. Some of you have been planning for ages, ruthlessly studying floor plans […]
Technology assistance should be more accessible
I’m not much of a technology person. I mean, I’m not the kind of person who has to search out each key on the keyboard in order to type, and I never use AltaVista in an attempt to find my email account. I’ve never shoved a floppy disk into my CD drive, but I can’t […]
Univ. should reform BranVan reservation system
The nice part of a new semester, besides all the new classes, professors and general excitement, is all the free time. Though most professors start off right away with homework, there aren’t papers, tests or exams to stress about for now. Every semester, students take advantage of these benefits by traveling into Waltham, Boston and […]
Univ. should invest more in snow removal
Though global warming continues to worsen and our climate is becoming more and more unstable, no one should be surprised that every year around this time it becomes incredibly cold. Our roads and walkways become icy, and maintenance shifts from mulching gardens and trimming plants to making sure our roadways are cleared and safe. While […]
Univ. should do more to integrate midyear class
As we stream back to Brandeis this winter, happy with memories of home, life is breathed back into our lovely campus. For almost a month now, Brandeis students have been enjoying family meals, fun vacations or simply the relaxation of having nothing to prepare for or worry about. Well, most of us. The beginning of […]
