The Justice, April 17, 2018

Page 1

ARTS Page 19

FORUM Condemn University racism 11 SPORTS Baseball has lost 12 straight games 16

‘timeless charm’ natalia wiater/the Justice

The Independent Student Newspaper

the

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

Justice

Volume LXX, Number 22

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

in-depth report: ‘more than your racist coach’

BRIEF

University receives letter from DOJ The University has received a letter from the Department of Justice’s antitrust division regarding an investigation into early decision practices, Director of Media Relations Julie Jette confirmed in an email to the Justice. The letter was sent out last week to multiple colleges and universities in an effort to determine whether they are violating antitrust laws by exchanging information about early decision applicants. Amherst College, Middlebury College and Tufts University also received this letter, according to an April 11 Boston Globe article. Colleges and universities that received this letter were asked to preserve all communications with officials at other schools relating to early decision applicants, according to that same article. This includes any agreements that were made to share personal information about applicants, as well as any records that indicate actions were taken as a result of receiving that information. In the email to the Justice, Jette wrote that the University will comply with the requests made in the letter. Early decision applicants are required to sign an agreement that stipulates they will only have one early decision application pending at a time, and if admitted, they “definitely will

yvette sei/the Justice

INSTITUTIONAL ISSUE: A protest at the Rabb steps on Tuesday highlighted widespread problems with racial equality on campus.

Univ. fires basketball coach, citing history of racial bias ■ Former Brandeis men’s

University President Ron Liebowitz announced Meehan’s ouster in an email sent to the Brandeis community on April 5, shortly before the Deadspin article was published.

basketball coach Brian Meehan bullied his players for years, students allege.

‘We must and can do better.’

By abby patkin and jen geller JUSTICE EDITORs

Looking for a place to sit during a practice session, former Brandeis men’s basketball coach Brian Meehan saw an empty seat next to one of the team’s rookie players, a first-year from Africa. “Oh, I don’t want to sit next to him because I’ll get Ebola,” Meehan allegedly said, according to an April 5 Deadspin article. This was one of two incidents in the 2018 season in which Meehan targeted the unnamed player — in the other, according to Deadspin, the coach allegedly threatened: “If you ever talk to me like that again, I’ll ship you back to Africa.” Nearly 13 years after joining the men’s basketball program, Meehan was terminated earlier this month due to his mistreatment of players. Citing the coach’s discriminatory behavior,

Allegations brought to the University last May by three current and former players revealed a pattern of racially biased harassment and discrimination which extended far beyond the aforementioned 2018 incidents; those anecdotes are just a fraction of the larger picture. The complaints were investigated, Liebowitz wrote in the April 5 email, and the University took disciplinary action against Meehan. Although he would not reveal what these disciplinary actions were for reasons of confidentiality, Liebowitz said in an interview with the Justice and The Brandeis Hoot that options could include written warnings, dismissal or corrective action, such as courses and programs. The players filed their complaints in May 2017; their case was not resolved until November 2017, after nearly six months of back-and-forth with administrators in the Athletic Department

Community

and Office of Human Resources. Despite the complaints, Meehan continued to coach the team through the 2018 season, even as his team dwindled to 11 players — two of whom are his sons. The University chose to place Meehan on administrative leave only after another complaint was filed on March 23, before eventually electing to terminate the coach. Meehan could not be reached for comment as of press time. Former Title IX Coordinator Linda Shinomoto, the original human resources representative on the case, left the University suddenly in the middle of the investigation to join the Wentworth Institute of Technology. She was replaced by Vice President of Human Resources Robin Nelson-Bailey. Nelson-Bailey declined to comment for this article, referring the Justice to the Office of Communications. Though he noted that fair investigations “can take time,” Liebowitz wrote in a follow-up email on April 6 that “the process did not work the way it should have for the students who filed complaints. This cannot and should not happen again.” To that end, the University has

See FIRED, 15 ☛

enroll,” per the early decision agreement form available on the Common Application website. If a student applies for, and does not receive, a financial aid package which would allow them to attend the school, they can be released from the agreement. The applicant, their high school counselor and a parent or legal guardian are all required to sign this form. By sharing information about early decision applicants among each other, institutions of higher education could cancel applications or rescind offers of admission if they determine an applicant has been playing the system by applying to more than one school through the early decision process, according to an April 10 New York Times article. If an applicant breaches the contract, colleges and universities may retaliate by limiting the number of students they will admit from that student’s high school. Out of the Brandeis class of 2021, 37 percent of enrolled students had been accepted through early decision, though only 6.7 percent of all applicants used this process, per the University’s Common Data Set for the 2017-2018 academic year. The acceptance rate for early decision applicants (40 percent) was also higher than that for regular decision applicants, which was 34 percent. —Natalia Wiater

Students stand with sexual violence victims ■ Brandeis students

marched across campus to call attention to the problem of sexual assault. By amber miles JUSTICE editor

Community members gathered on the Rabb steps at dusk on Thursday for the annual Take Back the Night march to raise awareness of sexual violence and to call for action, the organizers said. “Take Back the Night is a call for administrators to shift away from and transform their current practices which minimize and disappear the prevalence of sexual violence at this school,” TBTN organizer Kavita Sundaram ’20 told participants, as quoted in a script provided to the Justice af-

ter the event. “It is a call for students to exercise our ability to look, to see these patterns of sweeping sexual violence under the rug. Ultimately, Take Back the Night is a call to the entire Brandeis community, to commit collectively and intentionally to ending violence in all its forms.” TBTN is committed to ending other forms of oppression as well, according to the TBTN organizers. “The work of dismantling rape culture and ending sexual violence is fundamentally tied to the dismantling of racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, and all systems of oppression,” said TBTN organizer Saren McAllister ’18, who added that sexual violence disproportionately affects international students, students of color and transgender students. According to Brandeis’ spring 2015

See TBTN, 7 ☛

Life of a CA

Tennis in Turmoil

Immigration Policy

Two CAs talk about what the job is actually about.

The Brandeis women's tennis team has lost four of its past five games.

Elizabeth Badger detailed the current state of immigration law in America.

yvette sei/the Justice

For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org

Waltham, Mass.

Let your voice be heard! Submit letters to the editor online at www.thejustice.org

FEATURES 9

INDEX

SPORTS 16

Andrew Baxter/the Justice

ARTS SPORTS

17 13

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 OPINION 8 POLICE LOG

10 2

News 3 COPYRIGHT 2018 FREE AT BRANDEIS.


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