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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 LXXV, Number 14

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Waltham, Mass.

RECORD-LOW COLD

PROTESTS ON CAMPUS

Boston experiences coldest temperatures in decades ■ Brandeis students played

in the cold and dealt with the impacts of the freezing temperatures. By RIVER SIMARD

JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

RIVER SIMARD/the Justice

CONFLICT: Tensions ran high between the original group of protestors and the counter-protestors who gathered in response.

With the weather this week having daily highs in the 50s and even 60s, it’s shocking to imagine that just the Saturday before last, the temperature was minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill of minus 36 degrees. That Saturday was the coldest day in Boston since 1957 and the second coldest wind chill in Boston ever. The conditions brought both joy and frustration to Brandeis students. Despite the lack of snow, Brandeis students were able to engage in the winter pastime of ice-skating and walking on Massell Pond which had frozen over. “I always thought it would be really cool to go skating on Massell Pond, but I never thought it would be possible,” Aaron Klein ’26 said. At this point in the year ponds and lakes are typically already frozen over; however, due to this year’s unusually high temperatures, this was

the first time this school year that the ice was thick enough to stand on let alone ice skate. Klein, who had grown up playing hockey, went out and skated on the pond with several friends before the Brandeis Police eventually showed up and asked them to get off the ice. Because, according to Klein, parts of the pond were not completely frozen over and water was still running, Brandeis Police couldn’t allow students to be on the ice due to unsafe conditions. While Klein at the time respected the Brandeis Police’s decisions, he went back the next morning at 7 a.m. and skated again. “It was a really liberating, freeing feeling. I was a bit tired in the morning, but just to be out there by yourself,” Klein recalled. Klein wasn’t the only one on the ice. Throughout the weekend he would be joined by other skaters and students, all of whom shared his same fascination with the typically runoff filled pool. Over the course of the weekend, students threw rocks, sticks and cones on the ice. Some even went as far as to put a table and bench in the middle of the pond. The cold weather wasn’t all fun

See WINTER CHILLS, 5 ☛

Pro-Palestine protest garners Record-high enrollment, national media attention HOUSING

■ The protest sparked a

counter-protest, and tensions between both groups were high. By SOPHIA DE LISI AND NATALIE KAHN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER AND JUSTICE EDITOR

A pro-Palestine protest, organized by Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine, received national attention for its chants and rhetoric following the demonstration on Wednesday, Feb. 8, outside the Shapiro Campus Center. The protest was a joint demonstration between Brandeis SJP and the Brandeis Leftist Union. A BLU member spoke on behalf of WarmUp Boston, a volunteer organization that aids the unhoused community within Massachusetts, and another BLU member spoke on behalf of the Boston chapter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement, an international anti-Israel, pro-Palestine organization. These groups came together in a display of support for the numerous Palestinians who were murdered by Israeli forces from the start of the year. A post that SJP shared on Instagram a week before the protest specifically referenced the killing of 10 Palestinians by Israeli troops in a Jenin refugee camp on Jan. 26. The president of SJP, a Palestin-

ian international student who asked to remain anonymous for safety purposes, spoke on the megaphone multiple times throughout the protest. Early on, she spoke about their high school classmate who was studying for a degree in medicine and was recently killed, along with his brother, by the Israeli military. A Jewish student also spoke on behalf of the BLU: “The Brandeis Leftist Organization stands totally and completely with Palestine and her martyrs. We recognize that Israel is nothing more than an enlarged military base for the United States and its European allies to meddle in the Middle East. We, therefore, recognize that the liberation of Palestine is not a religious issue but, in fact, an issue of imperialism and injustice.” The BLU member explained that they were protesting to “stand up for a different yet familiar apartheid — one where religion and ethnicity determine citizenship status, movement, and overall livelihood,” likely referring to policies such as Israel’s Law of Return that grants “every Jew in the world a right to settle in Jerusalem,” according to the Jewish Virtual Library. This right does not extend to any other population of people, such as Palestinians who were forced out or fled their homes in present-day Israel. Palestinians and their supporters cite this disparity as one of the pri-

mary examples of colonialism and racism within Zionist beliefs and policies, with this discrimination perceived as part of a systematic attempt to keep Palestinians out of their homeland and disenfranchise the Palestinians who remain. To clarify, Zionism is the general belief that Judaism is a nationality and a religion and that the Jewish population deserves a state within their ancestral homeland. At the end of their speech, the BLU representative added, “All power to the people, all glory to the martyrs, and all solidarity with Palestine!” While these were rallying words to BLU, SJP, and the unaffiliated students who stood in support of these organizations, students watching the protest had strong reactions to the use of the word martyr. Tehilla Oami ’26, one of the students who had come to watch the protest and also filmed part of it, criticized the speakers’ use of “martyrs” as a description for civilian Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and said, “it would be wise to call them victims” instead. She said the term martyr, along with other meanings, can be associated with terrorist attacks. Another student, who asked to remain anonymous, shared their thoughts on the protestors’ use of the word “martyr,” saying, it’s “the murdering and the taking of Jewish lives, and to [the protesters] it

See PROTEST, 5 ☛

overcrowding in firstyear housing ■ The Justice attempted to

gain clarity regarding overenrollment rumors. By NATANIELA ZAVLUN AND DANIELA ZAVLUN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

The current first year class is composed of 1,007 students, a 54 student increase from the 953 students enrolled in the class year between 2021 and 2022. According to Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Timothy Touchette in a Feb. 3 interview with the Justice, only four more lofted triples were filled than in the previous year. But several first-year students shared that triples appear to be a common housing arrangement among their class: ‘‘I'm in a forced triple. Half the floor is forced triples. Half of my friends are in forced triples,” one first-year said. “Almost everyone I know is in a triple,” reflected another first-year. In a Feb. 13 email to the Justice,

Brandeis Meme Pages

The need for Black Joy

Meet the actor: Eric Bogosian

 Hear from the voices behind @brandeis.chungles and @brandeis_overheard.

 The Always Been project uses fine art photography to rethink our history in terms of Blackness.

By GRACE DOH

By NOAH RISLEY

By MINA ROWLAND Photo courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

Touchette wrote that he is not able to share the number of students typically housed in lofted triples because this is a dynamic number. In an interview for a 2018 Justice article, Assistant Director of Operations and Community Development Amanda Drapcho shared that 321 beds belonged to lofted triples. This amounts to 107 lofted triples in 2018. On the Brandeis University Parents Community Facebook page, some parents questioned the practice of housing students in lofted triples in the first place. “Our daughter lives in a Shapiro forced triple, and YES, the housing is over-crowded. The rooms are clearly designed for two people — small with two closets,” one parent said. “We did not expect luxury, but we did expect reasonable living conditions.” “The first-year doubles look small for two people, and nearly impossible for three,” shared another parent, who preferred to stay anonymous. “I think it is rare that

FEATURES 8

Photo courtesy of PARKER THOMPSON

For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org

ARTS AND CULTURE 18

Make your voice heard! Submit letters to the editor to forum@thejustice.org

See HOUSING, 2 ☛

NEWS 3

Attendees speak on the Feb. 8 protest

FORUM 11 Men and Women Basketball split senior day By JACKSON WU SPORTS 15 By PROTEST ATTENDEES