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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 LXXVIII, Number 17
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
SPRINGFEST ANNOUNCEMENT
Waltham, Mass.
COMMENCEMENT CONTROVERSY
Students call for Sheryl Sandberg's removal as commencement speaker
Students have raised concerns
about Sandberg's tenure at Meta, as well as past allegations of misconduct. By NAWAL IRFANI
JUSTICE DEPUTY EDITOR Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual harrassment.
Photo courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS.
CONCERT: Springfest headliner Zara Larsson performs at a concert.
Campus Activities Board announces Zara Larsson will be Springfest headliner The annual music festival is taking
place on Sunday, April 26 with Massachusetts-based artist Notebook P to perform as the opening act. By SOPHIA DE LISI
JUSTICE EDITOR IN CHIEF
The University’s annual Springfest performance is one of the most well-known events in the community. Every spring, students gather on Chapels Field to enjoy musical performances and unwind before final exams begin. In an April 14 Instagram post, the Campus Activities Board announced that this year’s headliner will be Swedish singer and songwriter, Zara Larsson. Larsson is at the center of pop culture’s current zeitgeist. Viral moments, including her “Midnight Sun” tour, Billboard Hot 100 song, “Lush Life” and her remix of PinkPantheress’ “Stateside,” fueled her rise into mainstream media. The student body’s anticipation was palpable as students expressed their excitement and gratitude for CAB’s efforts on social media. Performing at Brandeis, Larsson joins a lineage of rising stars who have headlined Springfest, including Doechii and Kendrick Lamar, continuing Brandeis’ tradition of spotlighting emerging artists. The Justice spoke to CAB’s concert committee on March 9 and the organization’s Executive Board on March 30 to discuss the logistics behind planning the event. “Springfest is a tradition on campus,” said Kaitlyn Huang ’28, an event coordinator, during the March 30 interview. “I feel like Brandeis specifically doesn’t have that many traditions. … I know when they do admission tours, that’s something they talk about, and people look forward to the hype.” She said that part of this tradition is the community’s anticipation surrounding the headliner announcement. Through laughter, several members of the E-board reflected on the fun of hiding the surprise. “Springfest is a time [students] can enjoy saying that [they] go to Brandeis,” CAB’s president, Samuel Hadego ’27 affirmed in the same interview. “It’s a grind for us on the E-board, but I think it’s really fulfilling, because we get to see the whole campus have fun.” “We have a really big role in defining what campus
life is like and that aspect of Brandeis community and culture,” Elizabeth Josiah ’28 said in the March 30 interview. Josiah serves as one of CAB’s events coordinators. “That’s a big part of what we do — trying to plan events that are going to align with that mission of creating space for building community and friendships.” “This year, we only sent out one [request] for a headliner — which is really, I would say, unheard of,” Naomi Ihueze ’28, CAB’s concert chair, explained on March 9. “I didn’t expect it to go at least that smoothly, but we sent out our first offer right before winter break, and then we were able to hear back and adjust.” Ihueze mentioned that there have been times where the organization has had to navigate price changes, among other contract complications. In a previous year, an artist increased their price significantly between the point CAB received their initial quote and when they were working to finalize their contract. She shared that CAB requests an artist to perform through Pretty Polly, a talent agency and event production house. CAB sends Pretty Polly a list of potential Springfest acts and the agency provides projected costs. The concert committee then reviews which estimates are most feasible. CAB has partnered with Pretty Polly for the last decade to coordinate the festival. The committee stressed that planning Springfest starts at the beginning of the fall semester. The organization circulates a form to students to suggest a headliner and gauge the student body’s music preferences. Last semester, the form received 132 responses. Although many students named artists — such as Ariana Grande — who are too prominent within the music industry to perform in a university setting, at least six students named Larsson. “There were quite a few throwbacks, which I thought were fun, and people were really going for the pop girls,” Zoey Cardinal ’28 recalled on March 9. She serves as the committee’s volunteer coordinator. “I feel like it’ll go over well. [Larsson] has a good amount of mass appeal, so I feel like a lot of people will be happy about it, even if [she] wasn't their initial pick,” she predicted. CAB’s form also surveyed students' requests for opening acts. “I thought it was fun to see people suggest headliners, but they also suggested openers. [The responses] would be tons of people I never heard of,” Cardinal said. She mentioned that some requests included local artists from Boston and greater Massachusetts.
In a Feb. 12 email to the Brandeis community, University President Arthur Levine ’70 announced that Sheryl Sandberg will be this year’s undergraduate commencement speaker, as well as an honorary degree recipient. In the weeks that followed, many members of the Brandeis community, including alumni, students and faculty, expressed concern over Sandberg’s qualifications and character as the University’s choice of example and leadership for its graduates. On March 23, Nora Herndon-Lazerwith ’26 and Elena Giacoletti ’26 started circulating a petition calling for the removal of Sandberg as commencement speaker that has garnered 116 signatures as of press time. Sandberg, who Levine described as a “philanthropist, author, filmmaker and former technol-
ogy executive” in his email, has been notably controversial for a number of scandals during her time as the Chief Operating Officer of Meta from 2008 to 2022, including the reportedly “unfeminist” atmosphere at Facebook under Sandberg alleged by former employee Sarah Wynn-Williams in her book “Careless People,” which details her experience among executives at Facebook. Additionally, Sandberg’s book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” has been critiqued by feminist scholars such as bell hooks for neglecting to address issues of race and class. Herndon-Lazerwith, who had previously published an op-ed in The Justice stating why she feels Sandberg is an “inappropriate choice to provide advice and encouragement to the class of 2026,” and Giacoletti had conceived of the petition together to act on their disappointment with the decision. A few weeks after President Levine’s announcement, Herndon-Lazerwith and Giacoletti asked themselves, “What could we do about this? Is there anything we can do?” and the petition was born. The response from students was swift and passionate, and within a week of the petition’s circulation, it had amassed over 80 signatures. “I think [students] were really happy to find that other people felt the same way [about Sandberg] and that this was a fairly easy way for them to be
See COMMENCEMENT, 5
April faculty meeting focuses on career development programming
The meeting focused on the
University's new microcredentials, and included the presentation of several teaching awards. By ZOE ZACHARY
JUSTICE DEPUTY EDITOR
On April 17, Brandeis faculty convened in Rapaporte Treasure Hall for their monthly meeting, which was called to order at 2:00 p.m. The meeting began with brief remarks by President Arthur Levine ’70, who outlined pertinent issues that the administration plans on addressing. These include evaluating the faculty retention plan, figuring out how to deal with declining enrollment in Master’s programs and concluding the capital campaign. Additionally, Levine announced that the “longdelayed” presidential search will be announced sometime after this year’s commencement. Levine opened the floor for questions. Prof. Sabine von Mering (CGES, WGS) mentioned Wesleyan University’s Democracy Summer 2026 program, which calls on other colleges to join their mission to train students to protect the upcoming November elections. Levine responded that he believes the midterm elections will be the most important thing to happen this calendar year, but he will need to review the program before approving Brandeis to join. Following Levine’s remarks, Lewis Brooks ’80, the founder of the Center for Careers and Applied Liberal Arts, gave an update on Brandeis’ careerfocused changes. He started by reviewing the results of the five pilot microcredentials that were offered this spring. According to his presentation, 156 students registered for the five available microcredentials. 64 of whom are seniors, and 44 of them are qualified to be assessed in order to receive the microcredential. For next semester, 25 microcredential proposals were submitted, with around
25% of them being returned for follow-up. Brooks stated that he hopes for five or more classroombased microcredentials to be added in fall 2026, which represent the University’s four schools and may be multi-departmental if possible. Additionally, Brooks spoke about the addition of a second transcript meant to reflect a student’s career-adjacent experiences and accomplishments. According to his presentation, the second transcript will complement the traditional academic transcript and will include microcredentials, experiential learning opportunities such as research, internships and more. It will be available when students request an academic transcript and will also be on the Suitable app. Students who qualify for microcredentials this semester will have them reflected on their secondary academic transcript. The last topic Brooks covered was the consolidation of all four career centers on campus. This change is to provide standardized service to undergraduate students, graduate students, undecided students, alumni and learners from the Rabb School of Continuing Studies. As a part of this consolidation, he anticipates hiring around a dozen career counselors, but those plans are not finalized yet. Deputy Chief Information Officer and Associate Vice President of Information Technology Services Anne Marando spoke on the upcoming accreditation process. The University will be evaluated by the New England Commission of Higher Education in October 2026. Accreditation by NECHE is what makes the University eligible for federal funding, including Title IV federal funding and federal research grants. The University hopes to take advantage of the upcoming accreditation process to self-evaluate and make improvements where they are needed. Detailed timelines of this process can be found on the Brandeis website, and participants were encouraged to email accreditation@brandeis.edu with any questions. The remainder of the meeting was devoted to presenting faculty teaching and service awards. Many of the nominations for these awards came directly from student voting, and each award was
See SPRINGFEST, 5
Gallery Interview
Warmer Weather
An interveiw with Eric Neudel about his new exhibit "Only Us: Photographs."
A look into how seasonal changes affect campus life at Brandeis.
By MIKEY TERRENZI
By ALYSSA WU
SKYE ENTWOOD/The Justice.
FEATURES 6 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org
See FACULTY, 5
Photo courtesy of ERIC NEUDEL.
By ALLISON KETTLE AND CHAVA THIELL
Location data should be private By SHYANN RAMPAUL
ARTS AND CULTURE 14
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SEA passes landmark resolution
Rory McIlroy repeats By ASHHWIKA SONI
COPYRIGHT 2026 FREE AT BRANDEIS.
NEWS 2 FORUM 9 SPORTS 12