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T h e I n d e p e n d e n t S t u d e n t N e w s p a p e r o f B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9 Volume LXXVI, Number 3
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
WALTHAM POLITICS
Waltham, Mass.
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
Brandeis attends march in New York City to protest fossil fuel use ■ Students and faculty
connected with other climate activists and joined the demonstration. By HEDY YANG
JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
MESHULAM UNGAR/the Justice
CAMPAIGN: State senator James B. Eldridge speaks on behalf of mayoral candidate Jonathan Paz in front of a crowd at a local
bar in downtown Waltham.
McCarthy vs. Paz: Waltham mayoral election heats up ■ Paz rallies supporters to
"turn the chapter" on 19year incumbent Jeanette A. McCarthy. By MESHULAM UNGAR JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Speaking to a crowd of a few dozen supporters at a bar in downtown Waltham on Sept. 28, Ward 9 City Councilor Jonathan Paz argued his case for Waltham mayor, marking the beginning of his general election campaign. On Sept. 12, Waltham voted in a preliminary election, with Paz and fellow Democrat Jeanette A. McCarthy advancing to the general election on Nov. 7. McCarthy has been mayor of Waltham since 2004 and is running for a record sixth term; she holds an 18% lead based on last month’s results. If elected, Paz will be the first Latino mayor in Waltham. At the opening event, Paz framed the race as his “rainbow coalition,” consisting of Waltham’s cultural and ethnic diversity, versus McCarthy’s “old Waltham.” Paz declared that his “campaign … will make an upset of the status quo possible,”
and contrasted his “inclusive, transparent, [and] collaborat[ive]” style to McCarthy’s “way of keeping the insiders inside, and leaving the public shut out.” In a Waltham Community Access Channel candidate forum hosted in August 2023, McCarthy laid out her key priorities: addressing the Eversource power surges, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority work around Lexington Street, a growing rat infestation in the city, and a new high school opening planned for August 2024. McCarthy made her appeal for reelection without mentioning Paz in her nearly 13-minute remarks. Instead, she highlighted her extensive conversations with local and state officials about putting pressure on Eversource to fix its three power stations in Waltham and the calls she received from local residents on Moody Street regarding trash pick up. McCarthy focused on municipal issues and reiterated that her policy and management experience put her above the normal campaign fray. McCarthy addressed Paz in a city-wide mailer that criticized his record as a city councilor. In the letter, McCarthy points out that Paz abstained on two votes during a June 15, 2020 Waltham Special City Council meeting over Waltham
Police Department funding, saying that “Mayoral Candidate Paz now says he supports the police … that is not factual.” Paz reiterated this claim during an interview with the Justice on Sept. 28. According to the minutes of that meeting, the City Council had a disagreement over the combined $69,500 of police expenditures, which became a debate over how Waltham should react to the murder of George Floyd and whether cuts should be made to the police budget. The meeting minutes indicate that Paz did not take a strong position on the matter, but did abstain from the vote to withdraw police funding. The final result was 13 against, one for, and one abstain. The mailer also critiqued Paz’s choice to abstain on the municipal and school budget votes in 2022. It then highlighted Paz’s vote against the municipal budget in 2023 — all city services except schools — pointing to his alleged inconsistency and defunding of essential services if the budget did not pass. In Paz’s approximately five minute remarks at the WCAC candidate forum in August 2023, he touched on many of the same issues that he addressed at the Sept. 28 event.
See ELECTION, 5 ☛
Angel Tea
FEATURES 6
Brandeis's U.S. News and World Report ranking drops 16 spots ■ First-year international
students expressed their reaction to the University’s ranking drop. By MINJUE KIM
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
On Sept. 18, the U.S. News and World Report released its annual college ranking which revealed drastic shifts on the previous rankings due to a change in the metrics used to determine the rankings of colleges. As a result, Brandeis University dropped 16 spots on the list from 44 to 60. In the Sept. 18 email sent to the Brandeis students, faculty, and staff, President Ron Liebowitz elaborated that the change in methodology was not favorable to private institutions like Brandeis. According to Liebowitz, the new methodology reduced the significance of faculty salaries and the weight of the financial resources per student and eliminated metrics that favored private institu-
This review is a beautiful ode to the feminists works from the Italian Renaissance.
By CAYENN LANDAU
Photo courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS
For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org
tions such as class size, which he pointed out as a significant factor of Brandeis' dropped ranking, as well as the number of faculty with a terminal degrees, alumni-donations, and high school standings. Liebowitz also pointed out that valuing “expected graduation rates” rather than “actual graduation rates” favored large public institutions, yet he expressed his pride in the Brandeis' high graduation rates despite its influence on the ranking. “When the metrics align with our strategic priorities as a university, we will work to enhance them,” said Jarret Bencks, senior content and marketing communications specialist at Brandeis in a Sept. 20 email to the Justice. “For example, we want the work of faculty to be properly attributed. That is an area of interest that we were working on, before it became more important in the rankings, that we will continue to work on,” he elaborated. “The University is focused on the priorities Presi-
New COVID-19 protocol By River Simard
See RANKINGS, 5 ☛
NEWS 3
Devil's Advocate: Filibuster By Jack Granahan and Stephen Gaughan
By MIKEY TERRENZI
Damian Lillard
ARTS AND CULTURE 14
By Jackson Wu
Make your voice heard! Submit letters to the editor to forum@thejustice.org
See PROTEST, 5 ☛
NATIONAL STANDING
Strong women in Renaissance Italy
Angel Zhao '25's boba tea shop lights up Moody Street.
Photo courtesy of ANGEL ZHAO
On Sunday, Sept. 17, about 50 Brandeis students and faculty took to the streets of New York City to demand an end to the expansion of fossil fuels. The March to End Fossil Fuels, organized by a broad base of NYC grassroots organizations, was the largest climate action since the start of the pandemic; event organizers estimate that 75,000 people were in attendance. The intent of the protest was to place pressure on President Joe Biden ahead of Climate Week NYC and the United Nations 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Summit, which took place in New York City on Sept. 17-24 and Sept. 18-19, respectively. The event organizers called for Biden to ban the usage of fossil fuels and protect communi-
ties’ rights to a clean and healthy environment by “stopping oil and gas projects, phasing down drilling, and declaring a climate emergency.” Prof. Sabine von Mering (WGS) first proposed the idea of chartering a bus to bring Brandeis students to the march in mid-August. In an email correspondence to the Justice on Sept. 20, Prof. von Mering stated that she had heard about the march through various climate action groups she is a part of, and felt that it was a great opportunity for students to witness and participate in climate action at such a significant scale. “It always recharges my own activist batteries to be in a crowd like this of like-minded people who all feel the urgency about the climate emergency,” she said. “I wanted students to feel that, too.” From there, the initiative became a collaboration between Prof. von Mering, Prof. Sally Warner (ENVS), and Prof. Charlie Chester (ENVS) to coordinate student in-
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FORUM 9 SPORTS 12