Usen Castle: Remembering a once grand edifice
Much of Usen Castle, known colloquially to Brandeis students as “the Castle,” is in a state of disrepair. According to an email sent by Vice President for Campus Operations Jim Gray on Aug. 31, 2015, the building is “showing its age,” making its future very much uncertain. With this uncertainty, it becomes necessary to remember […]
Don’t overstress for finals
Finals season is back, along with its associated sense of panic and worry. To say it is a stressful time would very much be an understatement. It is a period where the sale of caffeinated beverages probably skyrockets as total hours slept dwindles. Although exam and paper preparation can be exhausting, we paradoxically intensify these […]
LTS deserves commendation
Brandeis’ Library and Technology Services (LTS) is a vast and underappreciated service whose hard work is not often enough acknowledged. LTS employees deal with an onslaught of complicated issues each day, be it campus technologies, research or various other student issues. Despite all of the exceptional hard work that the department’s employees—both student and nonstudent—devote […]
Meal equivalencies should be truly equivalent
When in a rush between classes or when strapped for time, some students on a meal plan lack the luxury of being able to sit down in a dining hall and eat. The availability of points is helpful, but they’re only useful until they’re gone. This year, dining services expanded the availability of meal swipes […]
All-too-frequent alarms underscore larger problem
The high-pitched, deafening squeal of Brandeis’ alarms has, much to the dismay of residential students, become a part of everyday life. Alarms blare intermittently around campus, while almost every day you will hear a fire alarm set off in the southern residence quads. Such frequent false alarms from microwaves and cigarettes (excluding the purposeful drills) […]
Community members should take greater role in campus renewal projects
In an email dated Aug. 31, Vice President for Campus Operations Jim Gray briefly mentioned improvements to the Mandel Humanities Quad as part of a five-year refreshing plan. He mentioned the implementation of new fire-safety and window systems in Rabb and Golding, but did not go into detail on what else will be updated in […]
Brandeis’ distinguished faculty: Bernstein and Maslow
Building Brandeis into the world-class institution it is today took time, patience and most important of all, the right people. It was too heavy a task to handle entirely at the management level—it was a task that required the right minds be distributed throughout. While the administration worked tirelessly to stimulate Brandeis’ totally unforeseen growth, […]
Secured club status unfair to other clubs
Secured clubs sit at the pedestal of the club hierarchy at Brandeis, entitled to many amenities to which non-secured clubs do not have access. They are not able to be de-chartered by conventional means, only via constitutional amendment. Secured clubs receive substantial sums of money and benefits, including an appeals process to the Union Allocations […]
Campus services deserve commendation
Last semester, when snowstorm season was in full force, students took shelter in their residence halls and in other campus venues made accessible only through the tireless work of campus services. The snow-clearing crews, Sodexo, facilities and other services did not take shelter, working through the hard times. It took until July for the last […]
Abram Sachar: Brandeis’ first president
In 1948, nobody would have dreamed of the heights Brandeis would hit in its first 20 years. The newborn university had been built from the remnants of the financially embattled Middlesex University. In the beginning, there were just 107 students and 13 faculty. At a time when the future was very much uncertain, one of […]
9/11 memorial inappropriate avenue to express politics
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2015, two members of Brandeis Democrats, three Brandeis Conservatives and other volunteers collaborated to put together a memorial to remember the lives lost on that day in 2001. They placed close to 3,000 flags on the Great Lawn early that morning in what was supposed to be an apolitical […]
Sherman Dining Hall now shell of former self
When I first visited Brandeis as a prospective student in 2013, shiny new buildings were not the first thing on my mind. In fact, what I was shown did not even remotely fit that description. Before the tour took me through Massell Quad and up campus—a walk that today I am still uncomfortable making—we went […]
Add BranVans for efficiencient routes and use
The Escort Safety Service, colloquially known as BranVan, is a campus staple, shuttling students around Brandeis’ campus for 16 hours a day: from the crack of dawn to the early hours of the morning. Its operation is essential to the day-to-day life of many students, some of whom live too far to walk to class. […]
Eleanor Roosevelt’s rich legacy at Brandeis
In 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States. A few years later, she became a founding trustee at Brandeis University, and her legacy here continues to this day. As another academic year begins, it is important for the Brandeis community to remember what Roosevelt did to shape this university and its […]
Make the most of orientation
It is an emotional time when Brandeis students cross South Street for the first time to begin their college careers. The experience is nerve-wracking for parents as well as students, who are moved into their residence halls for the first time. For all first-years, move-in day marks the end of an era and the beginning […]
Tuition hikes should be judicious
On March 30, President Fred Lawrence sent an email to the Brandeis community outlining a 3.7 percent increase in annual billed charges to students for the next school year. With the increase in our tuition will come a new upstairs deck for a fully renovated Sherman, a full repair for Ziv Quad and expanded Einstein’s […]
Univ. needs to clean up Massell Pond
With a harsh winter over and Admitted Students Day just around the corner, the university has been hard at work patching up the grounds to make campus safer and more appealing. The steps by Sherman are on the mend, grounds crews are hard at work refurbishing the campus vegetation and repairs are in short order […]
Campus card system could use a redesign
Campus cards: You can’t really get anywhere at Brandeis without one. They’re the keys to most residence halls, debit cards for WhoCash and golden tickets to all of dining services. They make make laundry and library borrowing possible and are supposed to make campus life much easier. Yet there are so many things left to […]
Sodexo monopoly pushing bad deal on students
A recent email from the Student Union outlining changes in next year’s meal plans has students in an uproar. All of the classes (minus the class of 2016, which was grandfathered out of the changes) must register for a meal plan if they are to get on-campus housing, even if the residence hall has a […]
Social justice, just not for student workers
Many students have noticed that Chum’s has closed. Recently, the staff took to Facebook to tell us what exactly was going on. According to the statement, on March 6, Public Safety shut down Cholmondeley’s Coffee House after its fire alarm was set off and the location was not evacuated properly. Some non-staff students had apparently […]
