The Brandeis Hoot 10-24-08

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VOL 5, NO. 8

OCTOBER 24, 2008

B R A N D E I S U N I V E R S I T Y ' S C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R

THEHOOT.NET

Union to form endowment Wells emphasizes common origins executive committee BY ALISON CHANNON Editor

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor

The Student Union is expected to announce the formation of a new executive committee next week that would serve as an advisory board to the university’s Office of Investment Management on issues of endowment and shareholder engagement. The formation of the Committee for Endowment Ethics and Responsibility will come just two weeks after Brandeis received a failing grade for endowment transparency on its green report card, issued by the Sustainable Endowment Institute. Class of 2011 senator Alex Melman said that CEER would provide Brandeis community members a jumping off point to start divestment campaigns or allow them to “ensure that we’re invested in a socially responsible way.” Melman said that once students bring forth an issue to CEER, the committee will research the issue and then report their findings to Brandeis Chief Investment Officer Debby Kuenstner, who would then decide whether to bring the issue before the Board of Trustees, who would have to approve of any changes in the endowment’s investment. The exact specifics of the committee’s operations are still under negotiations between Union President Jason Gray ’10 and Kuenstner, Gray said, due to the difficulty in balancing a compromise to involve students in endowment decisions without coming “at the expense of the university portfolio.” “This is a give and take process,” he said, “but it will definitely increase community involvement in university decisions and give

students a say.” The formation of the committee was inspired, in part, by INVEST, a club dedicated to making Brandeis’ endowment transparent founded by Melman last year after he saw Brandeis’ F on endowment transparency on its 2007 green report card. “My college education is paid for by the returns on the endowment, and I don’t want that money to be dirty money,” he explained, “and as a recipient of good from the endowment, I have a responsibility to make sure that the good isn’t coming from laxing moral values.” Melman had hoped that the committee would increase student access to information about the university’s endowment with monthly meetings with Kuenstner. However, at present, Kuenstner has not agreed to monthly meetings. One reason Kuenstner will not meet regularly with the committee is a lack of resources. “The market is crazy right now, and we have a lot going on and not enough hours in the day to deal with it,” she said. “The endowment is getting smaller every day.” She did say, however, that she would be willing to answer any questions the committee has “but if it’s just a question of are we invested in Chevron, that only requires a phone call.” Kuenstner added that the university is not invested in Chevron or “anything that people might find offensive.” “We don’t own the bad guys,” she said. Additionally, Kuenstner said See ENDOWMENT p. 13

National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence, Spencer Wells, discussed his work with the National Geographic Genographic Project last evening in the Faculty Club. Wells, a geneticist and anthropologist, has traveled the world testing the DNA of indigenous and traditional populations in order to determine how man populated the earth. His work is documented in the film The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey and in the book of the same title. Wells began his talk by explaining his motives. “I am a population geneticist by training,” he said. “I want to explain the pattern of human diversity we see… how did we generate these incredible patterns of diversity?” The answer to that question lies in man’s origins. “Do we share a common ancestor?” Wells asked. Charles Darwin, he said, answered the question of common origin – humans evolved from See WELLS p. 12

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

Faculty advisory committee created to consider FY 2010 expenditure reductions BY ALISON CHANNON Editor

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Marty Krauss announced the creation of a special faculty advisory committee to consider possibilities for expenditure reduction in Arts and Sciences for fiscal year 2010 in an e-mail to the faculty sent Monday. The creation of this committee comes nearly three weeks after President Reinharz and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Peter French announced a $10 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2009 at a

Members of the committee include Dean of Arts and Sciences and Fred C. Hecht Professor of Economics Adam Jaffe, who will serve as chair, Physics department chair Prof. Bulbul Chakraborty, Faculty Senate and English department chair Prof. William Flesch, Hispanic studies director Prof. Dian Fox, Sociology department chair Prof. Karen Hanson, Fine Arts department chair Prof. Charles McClendon, Prof. Emeritus Kalpana White (BIOL), and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Prof. Greg Freeze, who will serve as an exSee COMMITTEE p. 13

UCC passes film studies major proposal BY ALISON CHANNON Editor

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

FILM EDITING: Film students can now make use of new editing equipment in the Getz Media Lab in the library.

INSIDE:

faculty meeting Oct. 2. The special advisory committee, Krauss explained, was created after President Reinharz assured the faculty at the Oct. 2 faculty meeting that they would be involved in discussions about expenditure reductions affecting the academy. Additionally, the committee is consistent with provisions in the faculty handbook requiring “a deliberative process” whenever “changes in an academic program are being contemplated,” Krauss said. “This is what I normally do,” Krauss added. “When an issue comes up, I set up a committee.”

A major entitled Film and Visual Media Studies passed the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee Oct. 16., Film Studies Program Chair Prof. Alice Kelikian (HIST) said. Faculty members of the UCC declined to comment on committee proceedings due to the confidentiality of the committee’s deliberations. Chair of the UCC and Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe explained via e-mail that after receiving approval from the UCC, the major must receive the approval of the “full faculty at a faculty meeting.” At present, there is only a minor in film, which was introduced in 1994. Currently, there are 48 film

minors, up from 11 two years ago, the major proposal explained. The proposal also cites growth in the number of faculty and departments offering courses in film from just five departments in 1994 to 12 presently. According to the major proposal submitted to the UCC, the major requires nine courses including Introduction to the Moving Image, currently the core course for the film minor, one course in non-American Cinema, and at least one but no more than three courses in film production. The proposal further explains that the major is not “pre-professional” like film programs at schools such as Emerson College, “but rather a liberal arts field of scholarly inquiry.” As such, “this humanities-driven course of

NAOMI NARRATIVE

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ALOHA

SEXILED

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PROSPECT HILL SMR

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study” will attempt to “provide an informed background in motion picture history and to develop a critical appreciation of the cultural meanings of film.” Along with growing student interest exemplified by the increase in film minors, the SunDeis film festival, and the creation of the filmmaking club Works in Progress, the proposal cited the many film screenings in the Wasserman Cinematheque and filmmakers that Brandeis has hosted. In addition to such documentary filmmakers as Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, “over the course of the next three months, you’re going to see a lot of Hollywood coming to Brandeis,” Kelikian remarked. Actors Richard See FILM p. 13

THIS WEEKEND

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COMICS

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