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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 19
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Waltham, Mass.
TOWN HALL
DEMONSTRATION
President Levine's updates and plans to improve the University ■ President Levine addresses student
questions about curriculum changes, budget cuts and housing updates in a follow-up town hall meeting.
By ANNALIESE MERRITT & LIN LIN HUTCHINSON JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER AND JUSTICE EDITOR
On Monday, March 31, Interim President Arthur Levine ’70 held a second town hall for undergraduates students in Rapaporte Treasure Hall, just over a month after the last meeting, to provide updates on the changes to the curriculum and address student concerns surrounding university ranking, immigration law enforcement, new on-campus housing, the cost of attendance and other updates. After noticing that all of the students were seated in the back half of the hall, Levine moved closer to the crowd of about 30 to begin the meeting. After a brief introduction, Levine passed the microphone to Prof. Joel Christensen ’01 (CLAS), Senior Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs who has been, in Levine’s words, “honchoing the curriculum.” Christensen spoke about his work, and stated that he hoped to deliver the final amendments for the Board of Trustees to ratify in their April 28 vote. This would include newly proposed microcredentials, as well as four new academic schools, separate from the current academic schools at Brandeis, both of which Levine described in greater detail at the Feb. 25 town hall. Christensen stated that these new schools would largely be managed by the current Dean of Arts and Sciences, Jeffrey Shoulson. He also announced that he wants to create three new majors in the Brandeis curriculum: an engineering major, a communications major and a combination major of philosophy, politics and economics – currently under the working title PPE. Christensen promised these new changes will not affect the classroom experience of Brandeis students, but he hopes they will result in “enhanced career support” for students as they apply for jobs post-graduation. Following Christensen’s remarks, Levine discussed the new changes, adding that, for him, the biggest surprise was that 88% of the faculty voted in favor of the curricula changes, which is a margin few expected. Additional changes will include alterations to the General Education Core Requirements for all Brandeis students, but which will not apply to anyone already studying at Brandeis, and will only go into effect as new students enroll. Levine explained that there are discussions determining “whether or not it makes more sense to establish the core requirements as skills, knowledge and value, rather than the subject matter you need to study,” he said the goal of revising the core requirements was for general education to equip students for the “global digital knowledge economy.” Another major update to education is an emphasis on careers. “We’re a liberal arts college,” Levine said. “Liberal arts are only effective when they have one foot in the library [and] one on the street.” To fulfill this aspect of education, Levine said “we want internships for every student who wants it.” Beyond real world experiences, Levine’s updates would include the option for students to receive competency certificates. According to the Interim President, competencies are skills, knowledge and value that employers are seeking. This can be accomplished through a “suite of competency aligned with different professions,” as well as demonstrated outside the class with internships. Those who achieve competencies will receive an additional transcript listing the competencies they accomplished. Moving away from academic restructuring, Levine spoke on new housing, which Brandeis is planning to break ground on by summer 2025 and to open fall of 2027. Levine also touched on the University’s capital campaign effort, which aims to raise between $750,000,000 and one billion dollars. During the question and answer portion of the town hall, one student talked about the planned new
housing and new program offerings having the potential of increasing tuition. “Affordability is critical,” Levine, who is a first-generation college student, said in response. He added that he has spoken with an admission consultant, in regard to the impact of lowering tuition in half and eliminating merit aid. According to Levine, the consultant advised against it as it would drive away applicants rather than encourage low-income students to attend. Levine considers this so-called “discount” approach the best way to maintain Brandeis’ status while still offering a way for lowincome students to afford tuition. “We are locked into this price [tuition], but one of the things that we are not locked into is how much we discount it,” Levine said. Another student raised the question of whether Brandeis had plans to instate a permanent dean of The Heller School for Social Policy and Management and shared their concerns over the possibility of the school downsizing or shutting down. Levine’s response was emphatic — he claimed “I don't think Heller has had a greater champion than me in the president’s office, in well over a decade … I really admire Heller.” He added that “Heller is more important than ever,” noting that the school was created in response to social policy changes in the United States and around the world. “This was a wonderful opportunity to influence policies, with our research. Well, now what is happening is that we need Heller because our policies are changing,” Levine said. He also expressed desires for the social sciences at Brandeis to gain the advantage of seeing public policy and social science in action within the Heller School. Levine’s plans for Heller included appointing interim deans within the next couple of years and to eventually appoint a permanent dean. The next student question was regarding the drop in Brandeis’ official U.S. News and World Report ranking, going from 44 to 63 in the past few years. Levine’s response touched both on the reason that Brandeis’ ranking fell in the first place, as well as what current plans are to improve it. He noted the considerations that went into these rankings changed significantly, in ways less favorable to Brandeis’ score. Now, small class size, while a benefit of attending Brandeis, is not counted in the criteria. Levine also pointed to the fact that graduation rates are evaluated relative to expectations. Schools with lower retention rate that graduate more of their students than expected would be rated better than a school with a higher retention rate that maintains a higher graduation rate but graduates students lower than what was projected. As Levine put it, a school with a 40% graduation rate that graduated 60% of its class in one year would see a boost in their score. Whereas if Brandeis is expected to graduate 90% of its students and only 89% of students graduate, they would not receive the same evaluations, despite a materially higher rate of graduation. Levine assured students that although there were aspects of the rankings that couldn’t be controlled, he is working to improve the aspects that can be helped. Levine also sought to reassure students about the quality of the education they are receiving, telling them that he considered Brandeis today to be better than it was when he attended the school. Levine described his experience at Brandeis as being colored by the current events of the time, including the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. The next student asked for Levine’s perspective on the image of Brandeis he wants to project and how he would characterize the University. The student described a shift in the public perception of Brandeis from the time they originally applied, having seen it as more focused on social justice and policy, to the present day perception “with a large emphasis on our Jewish heritage.” Levine’s response consisted of three parts. He described Brandeis as simultaneously an “elite liberal arts college and a world class research university,” a combination which he believes sets Brandeis apart from other schools. Levine also stated that he believes Brandeis has retained the values of its founders, maintaining its reputation for excellence as well as its “abhorrence of exclusion of any
Brandeis Jewish Bund holds afternoon protest to go “All out for Palestine” ■ Protesters take to Brandeis'
front lawn to stand against Israeli and United States policies. By GRACE DOH
JUSTICE ASSOCIATE EDITOR
On Friday, April 4 at 4:00 p.m., the Brandeis Jewish Bund gathered on the Great Lawn for a demonstration and marched through campus in support of Palestine. The gathering aimed to condemn the University’s “complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians,” the Trump administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests/disappearances and the forces of U.S. imperialism, as explained in an April 2 post on the Bund’s Instagram page. The group of demonstrators consisted of at least 100 students, and onlookers ranged from administrative staff and faculty to eventual counter-protesters. In the past, most of the Bund’s events have fo-
The Campus Activites Board announced who will be playing Springfest this year. By BRIANNA EARLE
cused on raising consciousness through vigils, history posts, webinars or “events for Jews that have been alienated by the institutional Zionism of chartered Jewish Life groups (like [Brandeis] Shabbat events),” a Bund representative told The Justice in an April 6 email exchange. With their Friday protest, the Bund’s efforts turned outwards with the first major campus protest for Palestine since the Nov. 10, 2023 rally. On April 3, the day before the protest, Vice President of Student Affairs, Andrea Dine, and Vice President of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, LeManuel Bitsoi, sent out an email entitled “Community and Free Expression” that underlined safety as their primary concern in regard to the upcoming protest. The message urged attendees to be aware of the potential consequences of their actions, how they may affect vulnerable community members and the privacy concerns that could arise from posting photos without the subject’s consent. Dine and Bitsoi encouraged everyone to review the Campus Use of Space Policy, Student Rights and Responsibilities' policies on
See RALLY, 5 ☛
Brandeis member joins U.S. lobbying day for tuberculosis awareness ■ Brandeis' chapter of PIH Engage
travels to the nation's capital to bring tuberculosis back into the spotlight as it continues to take countless lives worldwide. By ANNA MARTIN
JUSTICE EDITOR IN CHIEF
See Q&A, 5☛
Springfest performers
Photo courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS
SKYE ENTWOOD/The Justice
SIGNS: Book inspired artwork is held by protesters facing the University.
When many Americans think of tuberculosis, they imagine a disease of the past — a relic of the Victorian Era, long since relegated to history books. But for the students, professors and activists gathering in Washington, D.C. on April 8 and 9, the tuberculosis disease is a present and pressing global crisis. Among those advocates is a small but passionate delegation from Brandeis, joining what is expected to be the largest tuberculosis-related congressional lobbying event in United States history. The effort, coordinated by the grassroots organization TB Fighters in collaboration with Partners In
Health and Partners in Health Engage, involves over 200 meetings with congressional offices. The mission is clear: secure increased federal funding for tuberculosis programs, protect those programs from budget cuts and change the narrative surrounding a curable disease that continues to kill over one million people each year. “I think one of the things that shocks people is that we’ve had a cure for TB since the 1950s,” explained Hana Miller ’25, co-president of the University’s chapter of PIH Engage in an interview with The Justice on April 4. According to the World Health Organization, in 2023 alone, 10.8 million people contracted tuberculosis and an estimated 1.25 million died. “TB is a disease of poverty,” Miller emphasized. “It has become really clear that it is a choice to share the drugs and the resources that we have for this disease … It is affecting those who don’t have these resources, and that’s really unfair, and that’s also really dangerous in terms of what we know about biosecurity, about global health.” The Brandeis delegation includes Miller, professor and Stop TB USA board chair Dr. Cynthia Scharfenberg Shampel (Heller) and Brandeis
Hayden exhibit
Exploring Mizrahi feminism
Hugh Hayden stopped by the Rose Art Musuem to discuss his current exhibit "Hugh Hayden: Home Work."
By ARIANA AGARWAL
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NEWS 3
Responding to Brandeis' reinvention By GONNY NIR
By NEMMA KALRA
FEATURES 6
See ADVOCACY, 5 ☛
March Madness Final Four By REMI YOUNG
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FORUM 9 SPORTS 10