Volume 13 Issue 2
“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.” www.brandeishoot.com
Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.
January 22, 2016
Service day embodies spirit of MLK By Hannah Stewart Staff
Brandeis University honored the famous civil rights activist and reverend this past Monday by hosting the sixth annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Interfaith Service. The day began with brief introductions from Rabbi David Finkelstein of Temple Beth Israel and Padre Ángel Marrero of Santuario Luterano. Joel Burt Miller ’16 performed a spoken word piece. Co-sponsored by Brandeis’ Multifaith Chaplaincy, the Waltham Group and Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries (CMM), the day was designed to focus on three things: service, interfaith and Dr. King. CMM is Boston’s oldest interfaith action network. Created during the Civil Rights Movement, this year will be the 50th anniversary of the organization’s
founding. The word interfaith is meant to call to mind the relations between various religions, whether through dialogue, service, peacemaking or prayer. The feature event of the day was the packaging of the meals. Coordinated by Outreach Inc., 300 participants, including about 50 Brandeis students, collaborated to package nutritious macaroni and cheese meals that will be distributed to food shelters in the Greater Boston area. According to Community Service Specialist Brian Quigley, “Many of the rest [of the participants] were high school students who were members of local youth groups.” This is the fourth consecutive year that Brandeis has packaged meals. In the first year, about 6,000 meals were prepared; in the second, 11,000; last year produced 12,000 meals. This year, not only were there record-breaking See MLK, page 3
the divestment report
Faculty and students discuss divestment from fossil fuels
Panelists discuss complexity of divestment By Ryan Spencer Staff
The issue of universities divesting from fossil fuels has become a major issue on college campuses around the country, with students urging their administrations to stop investing in fossil fuel companies that contribute to global warming. However, there is debate over whether divestment is feasible or a productive way to combat climate change. A panel-led discussion explored the complexity involved with divestment and what it would mean for Brandeis University to divest from fossil fuels. As part of a series of discussions on sustainability at Brandeis, the panelists covered issues of climate change awareness, the recent Paris Agreement that resulted in 196 countries agreeing to limit the increase in global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, the purpose of divestment and the challenges the Brandeis divestment campaign faces. The discussion, which is part of an series on sustainability at Brandeis, was led by four panelists: Senior Lecturer at the Brandeis International Business
Inside this issue:
School John Ballantine, Jr., Senior Lecturer the Heller School for Social Policy and Management Eric Olson, Aneil Tripathy, a Brandeis graduate student studying Anthropology and Michael Abrams ’15, a staff legal researcher at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. The panelists provided context on the current state of climate change and climate change awareness. “Climate change is real,” said panelist John Ballantine, Jr. He recognized that the Paris COP21 Agreement is a significant step towards addressing climate change on the part of the global community. However, the agreement was just that—an agreement—and does not bind countries to their word, Ballantine said. He also recognized that despite the Paris Agreement and scientific evidence, not everyone believes in human-caused climate change. Seventy percent of Americans believe humans are responsible for climate change, according to a Yale University poll. Panelist Eric Olson equates the low belief in climate change to a “deliberate effort to discombobulate Americans.” Olson cited a recent Forbes article that headlined “2015 Was Not Even Close
News: BPA accepts grant applications Opinion: Worklaod is too heavy Arts: MLK memorial stars student performers Features: Students take service trip to Belize Editorial: Union survey fosters inclusion
To Hottest Year On Record” as evidence of deliberate discombobulation. He contrasted this article with The New York Times headline that claimed the opposite, saying 2015 was “The Hottest Year on Record.“ The evidence in the Forbes article intentionally misled readers, said Olson, by using temperatures from a specific slice of the atmosphere rather than from the surface, where temperatures are usually recorded. Olson also cited an article by Brulle which found that nearly $1 billion were spent to “maintain public confusion” on the topic of climate change. On the subject of divestment, Olson reminded the Brandeis community that “divestment is not aiming at harming companies directly,” by declining to purchase their stock. If you sell off holdings in a company, someone else will buy them, Olson explained. Instead, divestment constitutes a political statement from a university “trying to hold onto some moral high ground,” he said. Panelist Aneil Tripathy used a quote from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis as evidence for why he believes Brandeis Uni See DIVESTMENT, page 4
Germaine Ingram Page 3 Ingram selected as ‘DEIS Page 12 Impact Keynote speaker. Page 15 NEWS: Page 2 Page 5 Page 10
photo by daniel kang/the hoot
Pronouns and pronunciation survey increases awareness By Elianna Spitzer Editor
A seven question survey concerning the use of gender pronouns and pronunciation guides in the classroom circulated on Jan. 14th. The survey questions included, “Do you support the addition of gender pronouns on class rosters and/or other documents (where possible)?” and “Do you support the addition of a pronunciation guide to your name on class rosters and/or other documents (where possible)?”. Lucy Wen, Social Justice and Diversity Committee Chair, prefaced the survey in her email. “The promotion of the recognition and acceptance of transgender and genderqueer people has been in a long-existing topic. Although many changes have already been made, there is still a long way to go to create a truly inclusive and safe environment for this group of people.” The survey focused on increasing policies of inclusion towards members of the genderqueer, transgender and gender-variant society. It also addressed name
Improvboston
Non-profit group brings job of comedy to campus.
News: Page 16
pronunciation issues for international students. According to Wen, the survey had two main purposes: raising awareness and influencing change. It was the first step of many that the Social Justice and Diversity Committee hopes to take in order to positively impact elements of campus life. The idea for the survey began when committee members met with Felix Tunador, Head of the Gender and Sexuality Center. “We tried to reach out to campus organizations such as RCC and other LGBTQ groups and also the gender and sexuality center. Felix Tunador, the head of the gender and sexuality center… brought up this idea of updating the systems to have people’s preferred name and preferred pronouns. We started working together. He designed the whole survey and we helped spread [the word] out,” said Wen. The percentage of the student body that responded to the survey is larger than expected. “It’s about 20% of the student body including the grad students. I mean, that’s great… normally the See PRONOUNS, page 2