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FRAMEWORK: Plan proposes move toward residential college model in dorms

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the creation of smaller communities within the residence halls through the addition of new social spaces and the greater integration of graduate students and faculty into residential life.

Aspects of the residential college model that Liebowitz mentioned include “affiliate programs” that would see graduate students, postdoctoral students and faculty affiliated with these residential communities serving as mentors and engaging with undergraduates and a decentralization of the deans’ offices.

This concept of decentralization would also potentially apply to student support services such as the Brandeis Counseling Center and career services. The University is exploring the possibility of having outposts in residence halls for support services rather than centralized offices. Each service will be evaluated individually to determine the best method for reaching students, whether it be through one central office or in individual residence halls.

During the creation of the Framework, Liebowitz explained during the interview, community members criticized the residence halls as “just a place where students went to sleep, that it wasn’t a place where they built community, where they didn’t really hang out or socialize as much as you might think.”

To further address those concerns, the University will begin a residential project to renovate residence hallsdorms and other buildings, starting with Kutz Hall. Kutz, which currently houses the Office of the University Registrar, Campus Card Office and Kutz Bakery among others, will serve as an “anchor building” that will allow the University to renovate other halls and spaces. It will be converted into a new residence hall with 170 beds and a dining hall. The addition of that space would lead to the next phase of the project, the renovation of North Quad.

The buildings in North Quad will be linked to create more social and study spaces and to improve accessibility, an issue that has sparked considerable discussion on campus in recent months. A number of the University’s buildings were built long before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and their aging skeletons have made upgrades to modernize them a difficult task.

An inventory of the 102 buildings at the University, considering building condition and cost of renovation, showed that North Quad was the first priority. Buildings with “easier solutions” for modernization such as those in North Quad will be renovated first, while those that would involve more complicated construction would be longer-term projects.

“We developed a plan of knocking off as much as we can, choosing the buildings that we can actually modernize to sort of make accessible, and we’ve done a nice job. We’re nowhere near what we need to do, and so that’s part of our physical facilities planning. The new buildings of course will all be ADA-accessible, the question is [in] which of the old ones can we do it, and how quickly,” Liebowitz said.

In another move to help marginalized students, the University will be reexamining how it assesses financial aid, Liebowitz wrote in an email to the Justice on Monday. When assessing need, the University would include travel costs, internships and research opportunities and the transferability of financial aid for study abroad programs.

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FORUM: Attendees suggest ways to take action on climate change

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we still don’t have a required entry level climate course is something I can’t figure out by myself,” she said. Some of the other suggestions included transitioning to self-operated dining, avoiding consumption of non-sustainable resources such as meat, investing in renewable energy sources and committing to going carbon neutral, if not carbon negative.

“There is a sense that we kind of know what needs to be done, but it isn’t yet being done,” von Mering said. “The question is, what does it require for Brandeis to actually do what must be done?”

Many answers from the audience focused on different ways to raise awareness and take action, such as dedicating specific time to campus involvement in climate change as other colleges, such as Smith College and Oberlin College, have done in the past. Furthermore, von Mering noted that it can be challenging to pass climate legislation because of the power dynamic of the sources of influence on Congress. She explained that having a political system reliant on the fossil fuel industry means the fuel companies have more influence than the students. “We need to divest in order to shift the focus,” she said, adding that she believes Brandeis “has a megaphone” in this area.

Ji later said that, in order to combat the climate crisis in general, we need cultural shifts and more awareness as well as financial incentives to help change behavior. Gomes-Casseres also said that the University needs to take responsibility.

“There’s a notion, I feel, that we sometimes have is ‘let students do this,’ ‘let clubs do this,’” he said, “and I don’t think we should let the University off the hook.”

SIPCHIP: Future funding of the initiative is to be determined

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at features@thejustice.org

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Next year’s funding will depend on how many SipChips are used. Berg, Levitus and Tatuskar plan to monitor the amount of SipChips used during the March 4–11 pilot release, observing which locations use the most SipChips and the total amount used. They will not monitor who takes a SipChip; all students will have anonymity.

“We want to see how many chips we might need,” Berg said. “Once we know how many chips our community needs, when these ones run out, then we’ll look into how much funding we’re going to need.”

Berg, Levitus and Tatuskar have also discussed the possibility of student organizations fundraising to buy SipChips for their events, as well as having administrative and financial support from the Union.

“The goal of bringing this product to campus isn’t that we think that we should have to have a fix like this product,” Levitus said. “It’s the idea that we want to use this to raise awareness of the issue, call attention to it, provide something that can be an important safety tool to students and create an environment where drugfaciliatated sexual assault won’t be tolerated anymore.”

Since 7.6% of college students have been drugged — according to Undercover Color’s website — “this is something that is relevant to all cam

puses,” Levitus said. However, this statistic only accounts for reported and verified drugging, so this number could be higher.

“This is happening at Brandeis,” Berg said. “That is a fact.”

Berg said that as a confidential resource, she could not disclose specific stories or statistics within PARC’s jurisdiction but that this issue “came up multiple times” in the Campus Climate Survey.

“I believe in empowering people with any possible tool they choose to use. In some ways, it’s less about the actual testing of the drink and it’s more about being in a community where everyone knows that this is widely available. … In a way, that does a lot of work to challenge the people who think they could do this in the first place,” Berg said. “They’re no longer in a community where they can get away with it.”

“I feel better just knowing I have this on my keychain,” Levitus said.

SipChips will be available at the PARC office, Student Union office, Student Sexuality Information Service office, Health Center, the Stein, Hoot Market, Gender and Sexuality Center, Intercultural Center, Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, all Department of Community Living Quad Offices and at Greek Awareness Club events.

TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020 | THE JUSTICE just

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ON THIS DAY… In 1845, Florida became the 27th state of the United States of America.

FUN FACT Scotland has 421 words for “snow.”

The Justice spoke to the organizers of this new initiative.

By SOFIA GONZALEZ JUSTICE EDITOR

The American Counseling Association defines body image as an “individual’s evaluations and affective experiences re garding their physical attributes.” Body image has become of particular interest over the course of the last few decades, with an increasing number of programs and workshops being implemented as part of high school and college curri cula. The increased focus on promoting positive body image stems from soci etal standards and expectations around physical appearance — standards that deem thinness as more attractive and healthier than other body types. With the mass use of social media among teen agers, such standards have become more widespread, and young individuals are increasingly engaging in unhealthy eat ing habits and excessive exercise in an attempt to acquire certain looks. While issues with body image are more com mon among women — mostly because puberty, menopause and pregnancy are often accompanied by an increase in body fat — it is important to highlight that these issues can affect anyone at any point in time.

When it comes to college students, stud ies have concluded that 85% of women believe that they are either overweight or seriously overweight, even though most of those who report such feelings are at a weight considered healthy for their age and height. While initially shocking, these statistics are not surprising con sidering the changes in lifestyle, stress and expectations that characterize the transition from high school to college. For many, moving to college marks the first time someone is living away from a controlled and monitored environment. While at home, parents typically provide healthy meals and monitor their child’s eating, college students are free to choose when, what and how much to eat. This can easily lead to overeating and indulg ing on desserts available at the dining hall or to skipping meals, both of which are potentially harmful. Additionally, stress from adjusting to a new environ ment can fuel certain eating habits that might trigger weight loss or gain. For first-year students, these issues become real before they arrive on campus, with internet forums, peers and even family members discussing the famous “fresh man 15.” A term that refers to the weight that individuals tend to gain their first year of college, the “freshman 15” has fu eled body dissatisfaction among this cohort, even though multiple studies have found that the average weight gain for first-year students is only 2.7 pounds.

Knowing that body dissatisfaction can lead to low self esteem, higher rates of mental health problems and a propen sity to eating disorders, there have been worldwide efforts to diminish diet cul ture and increase acceptance of different body types. On campus, the Brandeis Counseling Center and Health and Well ness Promotion partnered to create Brandeis Body Positive, a program that “trains staff, faculty, and students to fa cilitate a group curriculum addressing body image, intuitive self-care, and com munity building for various campus audiences,” per the Brandeis website. Their first workshop, “The Words We Say,” took place this past Thursday, and two other events are scheduled for later in the semester. The Justice spoke via email to Leah Berkenwald ’07 and Rachael Puc cillo, the main organizers of this project, to gain insight on the planning process, the community’s response and the future of the program.

Per Puccillo, an eating disorder spe cialist at the BCC, planning for the Body Positive Brandeis began in the spring of 2019. Attempting to bring an inclusive body positivity program to Brandeis and drawing on the experience of Berkenwald at Cornell University, the team agreed to use the Body Positive curriculum as a foundation. The Body Positive, Berken wald explained, “is the first organization to create a body image curriculum that is modern, progressive, weight-neutral, and inclusive of all genders, sexualities and racial/ethnic identities.” Founded by Connie Sobxzak and Elizabeth Scott in 1996, The Body Positive implemented a new online learning platform in 2018 that offers training for individuals looking to become Be Body Positive Facilitators from the comfort of their communities. The Body Positive curriculum focuses on the five core competencies — reclaim health, practice intuitive self care, culti vate self love, declare your own authentic beauty and build community — as stated on their website.

While the initiative at Brandeis is fair ly new, Puccillo noted in an email to the Justice that “several staff members have engaged in building and developing the program. Many of them have suggested that their views on body image have ex panded and that they are more aware of the impacts of sizeism and diet culture than they were prior to doing this work.” Brandeis staff members are not the only ones participating in implementing the program: both graduate and undergradu ate students are welcome to apply to be student facilitators and help with the or ganization of events. Puccillo shared her excitement over student involvement in the program, stating that while it might take some time and guidance, the cur rent leaders would “love to see Brandeis Body Positive become a fully peer led and student sustained organization” in the future.

As for other long-term goals, Puccillo explained the team’s desire for the pro gram to become fully integrated “into the larger social justice mission of the University.” This entails creating a safe space for discussion and fostering “compassion, curiosity and awareness” among students when “body image and sizeism issues occur,” she said. While conversations about these issues might be difficult, there are certainly ways to ensure the dialogue encourages open mindedness and respect. Puccillo rec ommends that individuals “read up on and educate themselves fully about the myths we adhere to around food behav ior and body image.” Doing so has a self-reflective component that can help people identify their own biases in a way that allows them to critically evaluate their own experiences with body image. Because most people rely on the internet or the media to obtain information, it is important to note that such mediums can be both a source of detrimental compari son and false information and a platform to share information and access helpful resources.

Leah Berkenwald ’07 “ While body image is a health issue, it is also a social justice issue.

Apart from educating ourselves and reflecting on our own experiences, it is important to become aware of uninten tional discrimination against certain body types, according to Berkenwald, who highlighted the importance of recog nizing “what it feels like to show up to class or a community event only to find that you literally do not fit.” Identifying such instances and changing our percep tion of discrimination and sizeism as a whole is a community-wide effort. Only as a community, Berkenwald added, can we “make the changes that are necessary for ALL students to feel like they — and their bodies — are valued and welcomed on our campus.

Making changes to our relationships with our bodies at the individual level can also contribute to a more accepting campus. Whether it be by going on a walk with a friend, making a list of things you like about yourself, appreciating all that your body does everyday and/or sur rounding yourself with positive people, we can all improve our perceptions of our body. It can also be helpful, per Berk enwald, to:

“1) Separate ‘health’ from ‘appearance’ or ‘weight.’ A lot of folks conflate these terms, but health is independent of body size and shape. Try to separate in your mind what you are doing to improve your health versus what you are doing to im prove or change your appearance. If you want to change your appearance, that’s okay, but own it. Do not conflate weight, muscularity or beauty with health. To learn more, check out the Health at Ev ery Size movement, a weight-neutral approach to health.

“2) Start paying attention to ‘fat talk,’or the pattern of self-denigrating talk about our bodies and eating and ex ercise habits. Research has proven that hearing this kind of talk — even for just 3 minutes — has a negative, causal, ef fect on your body image. Those who participate in fat talk conversations experience more negative impact than those who listen but do not participate. To protect yourself, avoid participating in these conversations. To protect everyone around you, intervene by changing the subject or asking others to stop.

“3) Expose yourself to images of differ ent body shapes and sizes. Look at these images until you no longer feel uncom fortable. By learning to see the beauty in others’ ‘imperfect’ bodies, you can more easily see it on your own.

“4) Curate your media consumption to include influencers promoting body di versity and acceptance, and avoid those who are promoting a specific body type. Be aware that many ‘wellness’ influenc ers are really selling weight loss, not wellness. Look at their messages with a critical eye.”

Brandeis Body Positive’s next event will take place on March 19. Whether you are someone who currently struggles with body image, know people who do or simply want to learn more about this is sue, participating in Brandeis Body Positive workshops is a great way to obtain accurate information and partake in a welcoming and accepting environment.

If you need to talk to someone immediately, please call one of the following resources: BCC after hours: 781-736-3785 Brandeis 6TALK: 781-736-8255 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255 National Eating Disorders Association Helpline: 800-931-2237 Self-harm Hotline: 800-273-TALK

YOUR BODY IS WELCOME: The Body Positive was the first organization to create an inclusive, progressive and weightneutral curriculum.

Photos by NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice

THE WORKSHOPS: There will be two more Brandeis Body Positive workshops this semester, one on March 19 and another one on April 23.