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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 9
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Waltham, Mass.
EMAIL PETITION
ALUMNI EMAIL PETITION
Waltham Boys and Girls Club; funding for improvements ■ Last week, Waltham City
Council granted $6 million to the community center to address issues related to The Americans with Disabilities Act. By LIN LIN HUTCHINSON JUSTICE EDITOR
On Nov. 12, 2024, the Waltham City Council voted in favor of allocating $6 million from the City’s Community Preservation Act fund to help the Waltham Boys and Girls Club with a building improvement. The funding from the city is a fraction of the $25,310,000 total cost of the proposed project. The property, which stands at 20 Exchange Street, opened its doors to the community in November of 1952, 14 years after when the clubs first opened at, what was at the time, Asbury Temple Building at 686 Main Street. According to application filing with the city, WBGC creates programs for over 1,200 children and teens that emphasize character and leadership development, education and career support, health and life skills, cultural arts, sports and recreation. However, the 501(c)(3) corporation, sees the building's historical condition as a step back to its ability to work towards its mission of “inspir[ing] and enabl[ing] all young people, especially those who need us most, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.” According to the CPA funding application, the “aging building” does not meet modern safety and accessibility standards. In a Long Term Debt & Capital Planning Committee meeting on Monday, Nov. 4, the Executive Director of the Waltham Boys and Girls Club, Erica Young, said the building does not meet the Americans with Disabilities Act and fire safety standards. Additionally, as mentioned in the club’s finding application, the original window glass is “cracking and shedding glass” in the build-
ing, creating a safety hazard. Young shared instances of club attendees having trouble accessing different rooms and then not being able to access other rooms without assistance, due to the lack of an elevator in a multi-level building. “Our entire mission is to serve all young people who need us and right now we are not able to do that,” Young said, adding "It's absolutely heartbreaking to watch and that should not happen in this day and age in our community.” The renovation plan for the building includes a set of improvements designed to restore original building features while enhancing accessibility, energy efficiency and safety. According to the CPA funding application, the main entrance facing Exchange Street was last modified in 1982, with changes to the interior lobby and the addition of an exterior ramp. The proposed project aims to restore some of the original design elements of the entrance while providing “significantly easier universal access to the building” by introducing an elevator in the lobby. The improvements would also involve removing previous alterations and installing a new triple-glazed aluminum curtain wall, as well as recoating the existing cast-in-place concrete landings. The original brick walls will be repainted where necessary using appropriate and compatible new mortar to preserve their historic integrity. Additionally, the renovation plan calls for replacing the existing non-historic fiberglass windows with new aluminum-clad, double-glazed windows. These new windows will replicate the design and configuration of the original windows as closely as possible, restoring the building’s aesthetic while improving energy efficiency. The roof, which currently features nonhistoric rubber membrane materials dating from 2002, 2006 and 2020, will be replaced with new insulated polyvinyl chloride roofing in a lighter color, creating a "cool roof" to reduce heat transfer into the building.
See FUNDING, 7 ☛
JONAS KAPLIN/The Justice
EMAIL: a student checks his email.
Alumni circulate petition to keep official Brandeis emails ■ After it was announced that Brandeis
emails would be discontinued for alunni effective Jan. 2025, a petition has circulated to keep them. By LIN LIN HUTCHINSON and HANNAH SHAPIRO JUSTICE EDITOR AND JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
BRIEF Student Union continues collaboration with Waltham Kung Fu Tea On Nov. 17, Brandeis Student Union announced on its Instagram page that it is continuing its partnership with Waltham Kung Fu Tea, a boba shop on Moody Street. The partnership originally began in September of 2023 and has been renewed, providing Brandeis students 10% off purchases when a student identification card is presented. Last year, SU partnered not only with Waltham’s Kung Fu Tea, but with the historic Waltham Embassy Theater — located at 16 Pine Street in Waltham — which was also converted into a rhythmic gymnastic dance stu-
dio in Feb. 2023. The collaboration was an effort to bring back the Waltham landmark that had closed in Sept. 2022, after nearly a century of operation. The discount is only available at the 246 Moody Street location. Students can take a 15-minute ride on the Brandeis Waltham shuttle into town and be dropped off at a shuttle stop directly in front of the shop for a sweet treat.
— Lin Lin Hutchinson
Student filmmakers
Photo courtesy of BROOKE LOBER
On April 18, 2024 Brandeis alumni received emails from Brandeis Alumni Relations, notifying recipients that the University will be eliminating former students’ official Brandeis emails, effective Jan. 7, 2025. This news was paired with the announcement of the University's launch of My Brandeis Gateway, an online platform designed to help alumni to stay connected to the Brandeis community. In response to the University’s decision, alumni have been circulating a petition to keep their official Brandeis emails. According to the Brandeis Alumni Community Support website, “the university did not make this decision lightly,” and had considered alternative steps. The University cites that the decision to end lifetime emails for alumni was to better align with “industry best practices and improve email security.” According to the University, Over 75% or 33,000 of existing Alumni accounts are “not regularly used” and “represent the primary source of recent security breaches.” The inactive emails, according to the University, are “especially vulnerable to cyber threats and increase the risk to the integrity and
Three students discuss their experience as filmmakers and their favorite projects.
Daria Pugachova, artist and activist from Rivne, Ukraine discusses her work and experiences through the war.
By GRACE DOH
By NEMMA KALRA
FEATURES 9
For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org
By BRIANNA EARLE
NEWS 3
Debating pardons for President-elect Trump By JACK GRANAHAN and STEPHEN GAUGHAN
FORUM 8
Getting to know Brandeis Fencing
ARTS AND CULTURE 18
Make your voice heard! Submit letters to the editor to forum@thejustice.org
See PETITION, 7 ☛
How Waltham voted in 2024
Arts Activism
Photo courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS
privacy of all Brandeis systems and data.” The elimination of official Brandeis email would impact all services that use Brandeis credentials including Google Suite — email, calendar, contacts, and drive — as well as Box. Any social media or other accounts that utilize the emails will also be disabled. Alumni have been advised to connect such accounts to their personal emails. Following the April 18 email, alumni received an email on July 10 Chief Information Officer, Jim La Creta and Vice President of Alumni Relations, Patricia Fisher. Their email detailed the steps alumni needed to address regarding their Gmail, Google Drive and Box.com data. During the“grace period,” recipients of the email were recommended to establish an alternative nonBrandeis personal email account, notify contacts of the new personal email, update all counts with brandeis.edu email to nonrandeis emails and to download any needed files before the accounts are deactivated. They were also advised to refer to support website that the university has created to aid alumni during the transition. The University’s decision to discontinue all alumni emails has been met with pushback. On Oct. 11, Jeremy Koob '17, MS '17 sent a petition on behalf of co-signed alumni and future alumni, to University President Emaritus, Ronald D. Liebowitz, Provost Carol Fierke and Meredith Ainbinder. The petition advocates for alumni to be able to maintain their Brandeis email addresses for six core reasons: Brandeis pride, utility, Brandeis memories, status quo, to
By SOPHIA STEWART
COPYRIGHT 2024 FREE AT BRANDEIS.
SPORTS 16