the
Justice www.thejustice.org
The Independent Student Newspaper Volume LXXII, Number 2
of
B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
MEET THE CANDIDATES
ACCESSIBILITY
Beth Rodgers-Kay to retire by end of month ■ Director of Student
Accessibility Services Beth Rodgers-Kay's retirement is sudden, student says. By GILDA GEIST JUSTICE EDITOR
Director of Student Accessibility Support Beth Rodgers-Kay is retiring after 14 years at Brandeis, Dean of Academic Services Erika Smith wrote in a Sept. 6 email to the Justice. Rodgers-Kay’s last day “will be around the middle of this month,” per the email. The news has not been announced publicly to the student body. Rodgers-Kay’s role as director of SAS was to meet with students with disabilities to determine the accommodations and services that would help them succeed at Brandeis. Elijah Harrison ’21 told the Justice he had been meeting with Rodgers-Kay since last semester as he reintegrated into the school after a two-year medical leave for depres-
sion and post-traumatic stress disorder. Harrison said that when he came back to the University again this fall, he tried to make an appointment with Rodgers-Kay to discuss his accommodations but was told she was out of office for the week. He scheduled the appointment for Sept. 2, but when he arrived at the SAS office that day, he was told by the receptionist that Rodgers-Kay was out for the day. Harrison said he was not told beforehand that his appointment had been cancelled. Accessibility Specialist for Graduate Students Scott Lapinski took Harrison’s meeting shortly after and told him that he would be taking over Harrison's case and that Rodgers-Kay had retired. “It seemed very sudden,” Harrison said, explaining that he got that impression from his difficulty scheduling an appointment with SAS and from Lapinski’s account. Harrison said that Lapinski told him that the SAS office was surprised by and unprepared for Rodgers-Kay’s retirement.
See RETIREMENT, 7 ☛
BRIEF Anti-Semitic discussion thread taken down An anti-Semitic discussion thread that included the names and photographs of Brandeis community members has been taken down from Vanguard News Network, a white supremacist website, as of last Tuesday, The Daily Beast reported in a Sept. 4 article. The Justice found photos and names of nearly a dozen current and former Brandeis students, faculty and staff in the thread. The Commentator, the student newspaper for Yeshiva University, a Modern Orthodox Jewish university, found photos of hundreds of their current and former students and faculty members in the same thread. Public Safety officials at both schools reported that the discussion thread posed “no direct threat” to the individuals. After Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan alerted the Brandeis community to the situation, a second discussion thread began on the forum which mocked and disparaged Brandeis for investigating the original posts. This second thread contained the text of news coverage on the incident,
photos of more Brandeis community members — including Callahan himself — and anti-Semitic and racist attacks and slurs. As of Thursday, this thread had also been removed from the forum. Callahan did not comment on whether Public Safety was aware of this other thread. In the same Sept. 4 article, The Daily Beast reported that Yeshiva University had filed a complaint with the FBI regarding the original thread, which has been passed on to the St. Louis field office. That office would have jurisdiction over an investigation into Alex Linder, a Missouri resident and prominent white nationalist figure who runs Vanguard News Network. An FBI spokeswoman, however, “would not confirm or deny if it is investigating Linder or VNN,” the article explained. Public Safety is “continuing to cooperate with law enforcement, including the FBI, to monitor this situation,” Callahan wrote in an email to the Justice on Friday. —Jocelyn Gould
Waltham, Mass.
THU LE/the Justice
STUDENT POLITICIANS: (From left to right) Jason Walter ’23, Emma Fiesinger ’23, Helen Lin ’23 and Hannah Taylor ’23 attended the Student Union's Meet the Candidates event to share their platforms with the Brandeis community.
Thirty candidates compete for Student Union positions ■ The 30 candidates are vying for 17 seats in the Student Union's fall election on Sept. 11.
maintain communication between the Student Union and the greater student body.”
Senator for Massell Quad (1 seat)
Lucian Dobroszycki’s ’23 campaign slogan is “Get LIT, vote Lucian,” in which LIT stands for love, inclusion and trust, all things he hopes to engender among Massell Quad community members, he said in his candidate biography. Dobroszycki sent the Justice a detailed outline of his proposed initiatives, which include a quad-wide tshirt designing competition, laundry detergent vending machines, movie nights, additional hooks in the showers, arts and crafts activities during finals week and a bake sale to raise money for quad activities. Dariel Jimenez ’23 is “passionate about making Massell Quad feel more like a home,” according to his candidate biography. His goals if elected are to add more shelving in the showers and make the communal kitchens “more sanitary to encourage people to use [them] more,” he said in an interview with the Justice. He also wants to propose a clean up of Massell Pond. His main goal, he said, is “making it easier to communicate with everyone.” Helen Lin ’23 wants to be Massell Quad senator to help make the living experience of her fellow first-years “as comfortable as possible,” as she wrote in her candidate biography. If elected, her main goals are to help fel-
By EMILY BLUMENTHAL, MAYA RUBIN-WISH, ELLA RUSSELL AND JACKIE TOKAYER JUSTICE EDITOR, STAFF WRITERS AND CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Senator for Class of 2023 (2 seats)
In to her candidate biography, Janice Huang cited her upbringing in a diverse environment as preparation for interacting with the Brandeis community. If elected, she will work to improve facilities in Massell and North quads and to encourage collaboration and friendship among her peers. Huang did not respond to the Justice’s request for comment. Skye Liu feels the first-year class is “underrepresented,” according to her candidate biography. Liu told the Justice in an email that if elected, she will focus on improving campus dining and printing. She also said she wants to send out a survey that will enable all members of the class of 2023 to voice their concerns to the Union. Hannah Taylor told the Justice in an email that she “want[s] to have a positive impact on Brandeis and help make it the best place it can be.” If elected, Taylor said she promises to “work hard to represent our class and
Senator for North Quad (1 seat)
Tyler Carruth ’23 has been “strolling around the North Quad and talking to [his] peers about what they find important,” he wrote in his candidate biography. Carruth wishes to install communal laundry baskets for the clean laundry that otherwise gets moved around the laundry room by students looking for an open machine. He also said in an interview with the Justice that he wants to hold a communal movie night for people to relax after a stressful week. Krupa Sourirajan ’23 is excited to try new things and implement fun activities as potential North Quad
See UNION, 7 ☛
Vote Gen Z
24 hours of fun
Univ. to consider new dining services after contract ends
The Justice spoke with Angel Henriquez ’22 about his hopes for the younger generation.
In 24 hours, a whole musical was put together and performed on stage.
Campus landscaping needs an upgrade
By NOAH ZEITLIN
By ELIANA PADWA Photo Courtesy of ANGEL HENRIQUEZ
low residents understand the resources available to them and to strengthen the Massell community through social gatherings and more engaging common areas. If elected, Jason Walter ’23 wants to focus on “making life in the dorms easier,” he told the Justice via email. Some of his initiatives include improving the kitchens, adding fans to the common rooms, providing fast wired internet access via ethernet cables and supplying communal laundry baskets “so if someone’s laundry is done it won’t just get thrown on the floor,” he said. He also expressed that the Student Union should be publicized more to first-years. “Many still don’t know what the Union can do and how it can help them,” he said.
NEWS 3
By EMILY BLUMENTHAL
FORUM 12
By VANDITA WILSON
Red Sox remember stellar 2018 season
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ARTS 19
By NOAH GANS
COPYRIGHT 2019 FREE AT BRANDEIS.
SPORTS 16