VOL. LXXVI, NO. 17
WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
MARCH 19, 2024
Prof. Douglas Smith helps combat Massachusetts migrant crisis The Brandeis Food Pantry finds a new home in the Shapiro Campus Center
■ The Brandeis Food Pantry, formerly known as the FRESH food pantry, has moved to the SCC — but what difference has it made? The Brandeis Food Pantry, formerly known as the FRESH Food Pantry, was founded in June 2018. JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Though its doors are open to any member of the Brandeis community facing food insecurity, the pantry was originally oriented toward graduate students. Since its founding, the BFP has moved from the Office of Graduate Affairs, to the Usdan Game Room and finally, to room 316 in the Shapiro Campus Center. Additionally, the BFP partnered with Healthy Waltham, a local food pantry from which it receives donations, shortly after its founding. In a March 13 interview with The Justice, Vice President of Student Affairs Andrea Dine commented on some of the reasons for the switch. According to Dine, the Fall 2023 construction of Usdan Student Center both prompted the move from the Usdan Game Room and allowed the BFP to find a more suitable location. Dine specified some of the assets of the new pantry location, commenting “[The BFP] was literally in the game room. So it was super public, super open. And so it was very visible who was coming in, taking things or not because it’s a glass wall there.” Dine hopes that the new location in the SCC will be at once more “private and accessible.” Dine also noted that for the first time in its history, the BFP has a refrigerator, though they are not yet distributing perishable items. The Vice President of Student Affairs added that moving the BPF to the SCC did not change the number of students receiving food. According to her, the number of students picking up food in the BPF usually fluctuates from 40 to 60, resting somewhere around the fifties. In fact, around half of the students who are currently registered for food from the BPF do not pick it up. “We’re getting food for 44 students at the moment and 24 actually picked it up,” she noted. Dine expressed her concern for the graduate student population in particular. According to a recent study, 17% of graduate students and 13% of postdoctoral trainees experience food insecurity compared to a national average of 12% of U.S. citizens. Food insecurity, as Dine puts it, is a “complex web of financial need.” It is just a piece in a balance between housing needs, transportation needs, familial needs and more. In the future, she hopes to create more holistic financial resources for graduate students and take more of these elements into consideration. Olivia Leland ’24, a fourth year graduate student, also discussed the greater issue of financial insecurity for graduate students. Though she does not currently use the BFP, Leland explained that she used various food pantries through her undergraduate experience and is connected to current users of the BFP. Leland explained during a March 15 interview with The Justice, “A lot of [graduate] students do not make a lot of money,” also mentioning that from what she has seen, humanities students tend to use the BFP more often SKYE ENTWOOD/The Justice than STEM students due to having generally lower RESOURCE: The pantry helps any member of stipends. the Brandeis community facing food insecurity. For Leland, however, a different change was much more impactful in the BFP’s functioning: the switch to its current system of food distribution. Since October 2023, the BFP has required that recipients register via an online form to receive pre-assembled bags of non-perishables. An email that Leland received from the Office of GraduOn March 14, Brandeis students, faculty and ate Affairs on Oct. 11, 2023 attributes the need for staff received a joint email from University this system to the “overwhelming presence at the President Ronald Liebowitz, Provost Carol Fipantry open house” — a puzzling statement conerke and Executive Vice President for Finance sidering that, according to Dine, participation in and Administration Stewart Uretsky on the the pantry has remained somewhat stable. While University’s response to its “short and longDine commented that the form to receive food is term financial shortfall.” designed to be as simple and accessible as possible, The email began by acknowledging the state Leland articulated simply “that was a switch that of academia and the “profound transformawas harmful to grad students, ultimately because tion” it is undergoing due to various factors there’s rationing. [You] can’t just go get food.” such as changing demographics, the rise of onLeland also mentioned the role of food inseculine education options and a decline in public rity in the graduate student unionization process. opinion about higher education. These factors Though the graduate student body was already in have contributed to enrollment decline for the process of unionizing when the BFP’s food disinstitutions in Boston and around the countribution system changed, Leland explained “that try, including master’s degree programs at system came out right before our election and I Brandeis. The joint email described Brandeis’ think for a lot of people it solidified ‘yeah, we need “forward-looking decisions to address current to do this’ … We’ve already had so many issues and anticipated budget deficits, brought on by with food insecurity and that was the icing on the declines in enrollment in our master’s degree cake.” Additionally, according to her, a lot of gradprograms, and rapidly-growing expenses due uate students are probably seeking healthier, more to inflation and other changes in the econo“cookable” options from the pantry. Like Dine, she my.” hopes that the pantry might be able to use its new The University has asked deans and vice fridge to distribute produce in the future. presidents to develop strategies for their respective departments, with the goals to advance the University’s long-term academic reputation, financial stability and student experience. Additionally, the University’s efforts to reduce costs at the institutional level will include postponing the annual staff performance reviews, as well as any consideration of merit and faculty merit increases until October 1, 2024. According to the March 14 email, faculty members have been asked by the University to continue to complete Faculty Activity Reports, and any merit increases for unionized employees will be determined in accordance with collective bargaining agreements.
By ZOE ZACHARY
■ Massachussetts navigates temporary solutions to housing influx of migrants.
Prof. Smith has been committed to the cause for several years now.
Massachusetts has reportedly right to federal benefits.” reached its maximum capacity of Unfortunately, the same is By BRIANNA EARLE migrant influx. However, the issue not true for others seeking asyJUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER may not be the volume of people lum.“It’s a problem of the govarriving — instead, it may be the ernment’s own making because local housing crisis. they won’t let people work,” Smith said. “It’s a long Earlier this year, migrants from South Ameriprocess that isn’t open to everyone — it isn’t a line ca, Haiti and other regions of the world were left to you get in like people talk about. You have to fit sleep on the floor of Boston’s Logan International into very narrow categories. Unless you can make Airport as the state found migration centers and a claim for asylum, have a relative in the U.S. or … shelters to place them. As migrants continue to win the diversity lottery for a visa, you can’t apply arrive each day, most shelters in the state are at for a work permit.” full capacity. Massachusetts is the only Right-to-Shelter state, The resettlement process for immigrant families meaning that they — by law — have to provide is lengthy. Prof. Douglas Smith (LGLS) is working housing for migrant families in desperate need. to provide migrant families with the opportunity The Massachusetts law is unique because it guarto receive asylum. antees housing for entire families, but does not The Right to Immigration Institute is an organiprotect homeless individuals. zation that was founded in 2016 by Smith alongside When families arrive in the state they’re giva few Brandeis undergraduates. The institute proen housing at places like hotels and recreational vides migrants with legal representation during centers until they are able to handle these things the process of seeking asylum in the state. Services on their own. However, due to issues like lack of provided include legal representation in immigraspace for them and a slow process to begin work, tion courts, necessary assistance in finding housthese shelters end up housing migrants for much ing, schooling and protecting them against public longer than they initially intended to. harassment on the basis of immigrant status. According to Smith, the problem with finding In a March 15 interview with The Justice, Smith migrants housing is that there is not a specific explained, “At the institute, we train college stunumber of migrants that the state accepts, and dents as well as migrants and refugees to become there isn’t anywhere to house them. “It’s an existaccredited department of justice representatives ing problem here [in Massachusetts] that there is that can do anything I can do as a lawyer in the not enough housing and it’s becoming increasingimmigration system.” He said, “We are the only ly more expensive,” said Smith. “The real commitplace in the United States that does this, we were ment would be to let people work. They would fill the first place to do this and we still remain the jobs and could afford their own houses. If they are only place that does this.” able to do that, they wouldn’t be in shelters.” Smith suggested that Massachusetts’ problem As shelters continue to fill up, Smith’s institute may not be the volume of migrants, but rather remains dedicated to resettling migrant families the fact that there is nowhere to house them long as soon as possible. enough to get them on their feet. These shelters — Editor’s Note: Justice Arts & Culture Editor are meant to be temporary, but it takes at least six Nemma Kalra ’26 is associated with The Right to months for most migrants to get work authorizaImmigration Institute and was not consulted, did tion — thus making them an ineffective solution not contribute to, nor edit any parts of this article. to a larger issue. Most recently, the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex in Roxbury has been converted into an emergency shelter for migrant families while Massachusetts government officials figure out a better, long term solution for the migration influx. According to Alex Ruotolo, the community engagement director at the Refugee and Immigrant Center of Boston, not all migrants arrive in the U.S. with the same status. In a March 12 interview with The Justice, Ruotolo explained, “Many of the immigrants who have just arrived are from Haiti. Most of them are here on what is called a parolee status that grants them the right to work and the
BRIEF
Brandeis admin share plans to address financial challenges
SKYE ENTWOOD/The Justice
The email outlined additional steps the University is taking to address its financial challenges, beginning with seeking a temporary increase in spending rate from its endowment. The Board of Trustees would need to approve the request. Additionally, candidates for faculty and staff positions, not well funded through grants and contracts, will be considered with “even greater rigor.” Construction of the Science Center expansion process, called Science 2A, was expected to begin in late 2023 and cost about $145 million. The approximately 100,000 square feet expansion of new and renovated space would have included the addition of an engineering science program at Brandeis. However, there will be a pause to the process, according to the email. In response to on-campus housing challenges in recent years and in an effort to enhance “the student experience,” constructing new residence halls will be prioritized, as the University is aware that it “is vital to student life … as competition for students grows more intense.” The signatories of the email concluded that they remain “optimistic that these actions will help to reduce the University’s overall deficit and serve as an effective first step to help manage additional cuts that will need to be made in order to balance the budget.” They acknowledge that the steps addressed in the email “won’t be easy” but are confident the financial decisions will allow for the University to pursue its academic mission.
— Lin Lin Hutchinson
CECI XILEI CHEN/The Justice
The first issue of The Justice was published in March of 1949, only one semester after the University was founded. For the past seven decades, generations of student journalists have covered key and groundbreaking stories, ranging from the Ford Hall protests to national elections. Without the work of these students, there would be little to no record of the big and small parts of Brandeis history — both the good and the bad — that make this University what it is. This week’s front page is modeled after the first edition, old logo and all. The intention of the anniversary edition is to commemorate the past 75 years of reporting, editing and dedication, without which our editors and staff wouldn’t be publishing at all. Thank you to Justices past — I hope we’ve made you proud. — Isabel Roseth, Editor In Chief