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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 LXXVII, Number 7
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
UNION RALLY
WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT
Parents file wrongful death lawsuit with claims of negligence from campus police ■ Recent lawsuit names the
University and three members of the Brandeis Police Department, stating that they had parts to play in the death of a student last December. By ANNA MARTIN
JUSTICE EDITOR IN CHIEF
Content Warning: This article contains mentions of suicide and death. On Dec. 5, 2023, members of the Brandeis community received an email from Andrea Dine, vice president of Student Affairs, at 11:49 p.m. with the subject line “Sad News.” This email announced the death of Brandeis student Eli Stuart, stating, “This is devastating news for all of us, and I know I speak for our entire community when I say that we share our condolences with Eli’s family and close friends.” Stuart used they/ them pronouns, and The Justice will respect these pronouns moving forwards. In the following weeks, the University administration suggested that students access resources such as the Brandeis Counseling Center, Brandeis Hillel and the Trevor Project hotline. At the request of Stuart’s family, memorial services were live-streamed from their synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel of Austin, Texas. The livestream took place in the Shapiro Campus Center, with a gathering and support for students to follow. On Oct. 31, 2024, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The plaintiffs in this case are Eli’s parents — Alice Stuart and Jason Foley — “individually and together as the Administrators of the Estate of Eli T. Stuart and together as next friends for” Gareth Stuart-Foley. Also Alice Stuart as next friend for Victoria Clark. The defendants are Brandeis University, former Officer Kimberly Carter, Lieutenant Detective Dana Kelley and Officer Thomas Espada. The lawsuit details the events taking place from the evening of Dec. 4 to the night of Dec. 5. According to the lawsuit, that evening and the next morning, Stuart was actively suicidal. Early in the morning of Dec. 5, they took pills and lay “down near a campus building and path where they were visible to bypassers.” At this time Stuart began recording on their phone. A professor who was exiting a nearby campus building caught a glimpse of a person lying
in the woods and called the Brandeis Police Department at approximately 9:08 a.m. to alert them of the situation. Brandeis Police Officer Kimberly Carter answered the phone, responding that “the person [the professor] was observing was likely a homeless person.” The lawsuit states “as though the life of a homeless person somehow did not matter” when referring to this response. Carter was not supposed to be answering the phone in the security office, as she was not trained to do so, but was covering for Brandeis Police Officer Thomas Espada, who had stepped away from the phone to help move a desk in another room. According to the suit, “in direct contravention of proper training, if she had received proper training, Carter did not react quickly or in a timely or effective manner in response to the report she had received from the professor. She delayed responding at all.” An hour after the call had been received, Carter got into her patrol car and drove around the University campus, but “she failed to go to the location where the professor told her he had seen Eli, failed to stop her car, failed to get out of her car, and failed even to look for the person lying on the ground,” court documents say. According to the suit, “At that time, Eli was still alive and would have lived had Officer Carter responded appropriately to the Professor's report.” In addition to failing to promptly respond to the call, Carter did not enter the call into the platform utilized by the department in order to allow all reports to be available to all officers when needed. At 11:59 a.m. on Dec. 5, Alice Stuart called the Brandeis Police Department to report a missing and possibly suicidal child and talked with Espada. She expressed concern due to Stuart’s previous suicide attempts, one resulting in a stay at an intensive care unit and a string of “messages that were very sweet but potentially concerning” that she had received early that morning. Stuart had also turned off their location tracker. The lawsuit cites Espada’s response as “sounding bored and bothered to be receiving the phone call.” According to the lawsuit, Espada did not connect this call to the professor’s report which was never entered into the system, and when Carter was told about the second call, she also failed to link the two. The suit said that Espada responded in a routine manner, calling the Department of Community Living to pull Stuart’s swipe card history, showing that they entered their dorm at 12:15 a.m. This information was labeled as unhelpful, and accord-
See LAWSUIT, 5 ☛
JONAS KAPLIN/The Justice
RALLY: Brandeis employees and community memebers gather in support of unionizing efforts.
Brandeis administrative staff seek to form union, present petition ■ Following an announced
delay in merit increases, University administrative staff work together to form a union. By LIN LIN HUTCHINSON AND ANNA MARTIN
JUSTICE EDITOR AND JUSTICE EDITOR IN CHIEF
Cheers erupted as 11 Brandeis administrative staff exited the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center on Oct. 31. What was the reason for the excitement? The delivery of a photo petition to the Provost’s office reflecting the staff's wish to unionize. The office oversees the academic and administrative governance for Brandeis’ four schools, libraries, Rose Art Museum, research centers and academic support offices. That same day, administrative staff took a stand, formally submitting a petition with the National Labor Relation Board for a formal union election. The decision to file was in response to a string of financial decisions that impacted Brandeis employees. In March of 2024, the University announced that it would delay the merit increase for all staff members. This decision sparked
outrage from many members of the community who had been relying on the increases and were shocked. Such a sudden decision initiated a quick response by frustrated employees. Working in collaboration with Service Employees International Union 888, staff members united and developed a petition “calling on the Brandeis administration to reverse its decision.” The petition received over 300 signatures from undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, facilities employees, alumni and community members. Merit increases were reinstated following demonstration and delivery of the petition to the Board of Trustees at the Wien Faculty Center on April 9. Frustration and outrage continued through the end of the 2023-2024 academic year as administrative members learned of the layoffs of approximately 60 of their colleagues in May of 2024. This “further galvanized our efforts” to form a union, said Lena Webb, an administrator in the Division of Sciences, in an email correspondence with The Justice on Oct. 30. She adds, “After a month of having lots and lots of conversations and having 60% of eligible employees sign authorization cards, we are ready to deliver the petition to the Provost's
17th C. Portraiture
Marvelous Music
Read about four portraits housed in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Brandeis' musicians present Bandapalooza, a concert featuring well-loved bands present on campus.
By LILIANA ASPROMONTE
Photo courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS
Waltham, Mass.
FEATURES 9 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org
REUBEN GARTENBACK/The Justice
See RALLY, 5 ☛
Petition to reinstate sustainability office By LIN LIN HUTCHINSON NEWS 3 Recommendations amidst dropping temperatures By THE JUSTICE EDITORIAL BOARD
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office.” According to Webb, 60% totals to approximately 135 University staff members. The delivery of the Oct. 31 petition was accompanied by a rally taking place over the course of fifteen minutes in front of the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center. Speakers shared the floor, further explaining their mission and uniting the crowd. Academic Administrator of Social Science programs Eileen Kell was the first to share her story, stating “I had attended my first union meeting where I heard stories from staff who don’t enjoy the luxury of delaying paying their monthly rent for childcare, for this year’s 5.5% health insurance increase.” The increase in health insurance came as a surprise to others. “I think a lot of people actually probably don't know that if I'm going to be honest, which is not great,” said Webb during a post rally interview with The Justice, “That's something that should be clear so that people want to choose something different.” Continuing on in response to the summer layoffs Kell stated, “The administrator showed an utter disregard for the contributions of this talented staff,” referring to individuals who have
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