10 TUESDAY, march 4, 2014 ● THE JUSTICE
Justice Justice
the the
Established 1949, Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Established 1949
Tate Herbert, Editor in Chief Andrew Wingens, Senior Editor Adam Rabinowitz, Managing Editor Phil Gallagher and Rachel Hughes, Deputy Editors Rachel Burkhoff, Glen Chagi Chesir, Sara Dejene, Shafaq Hasan, Joshua Linton, Jessie Miller and Olivia Pobiel Associate Editors Marissa Ditkowsky, News Editor Jaime Kaiser, Features Editor Max Moran, Acting Forum Editor Avi Gold, Sports Editor Emily Wishingrad, Arts Editor Josh Horowitz and Morgan Brill, Photography Editors Rebecca Lantner, Layout Editor Celine Hacobian, Online Editor Brittany Joyce, Copy Editor Schuyler Brass, Advertising Editor
OLIVE POBIEL /the Justice
Support South Sudanese alumnus Mangok Bol, the program administrator for the Mandel Center for the Humanities and the International and Global Studies program, has come a long way since growing up in South Sudan during its civil war. However, Bol’s latest challenge has been locating his four nieces and nephews, who were abducted from their village in South Sudan after both of their parents were murdered. Since then, there has been an outpouring of support from the Brandeis community, including nearly $30,000 that has been raised to help Bol travel to Africa to find the children and then resettle them with family. After arriving in the U.S. through a refugee program for Sudan’s Lost Boys, Bol found Brandeis where he later worked as an administrator and also enrolled in the International Business School. We commend the University and our community for supporting Bol in his actions to find his nieces and nephews. In addition, multiple members of the Brandeis community have assisted Bol by reaching out to their own contacts, resulting in an immense amount of support both here at home and on the ground in Africa. University President Frederick Lawrence’s office even paid for Bol’s travel expenses. While it can be easy to sit behind a computer and donate money, our community has gone a step further, helping by
Aid in search for lost family reaching out to State Department officials and contacting local non-governmental organizations. Prof. Ellen Schattschneider (ANTH) also organized an event that took place yesterday to discuss the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan. Bol’s journey is just one of many similar situations, and events like this serve to educate the community on important issues, empowering more people to make a difference in the world. From its very inception, Brandeis has built itself around values of social justice and events like this are reminders of our commitment to morality. Bol’s story represents one of the integral aspects of the University community—we are compassionate and supportive. We must continue to uphold our values of social justice and responsibility, as well as continuing to support Bol and his family. After seeing the support he has already received, Bol will always have a place in the community and we intend to welcome his nieces and nephews with the same spirit. With tragedy, we often see the true spirit of people, and Bol’s commitment to his family is truly something to be admired. This board applauds our community’s support for Bol and looks forward to continuing support in the future.
Increase University minimum wage In recent weeks, students, faculty and staff have assembled to promote fair pay among University employees. The group, called the Brandeis Fair Pay Coalition, aims to implement its larger mission by way of a specific goal—to raise the minimum wage payable to University employees to $15 per hour. This board commends the efforts of the coalition, recognizing that paying University employees a wage substantial enough for them to live on is essential. This initiative should be integrated into the University’s annual cash expenditures. The living wage itself is calculated by the independent Crittenton Women’s Union, which allows the coalition to determine an objective figure for which to strive. Recently, the University Budget Committee sanctioned an investigation to look into the entire issue of fair pay across the Brandeis community, including part-time, temporary and fulltime employees, as well as those employed by sub-contracted companies, such as Sodexo. The investigation was assigned by Provost Steve Goldstein ’78 and headed by Chair of the University Budget Committee Prof. Carol Osler (IBS). We are pleased that the University has recognized the need for the issuing of fair wages to its employees and has instituted a timely and necessary exercise of self-examination. As the investigation progresses, we compel the University to proceed with aggressiveness and transparency to ensure the most comprehensive investigation. If the University finds that there are employees who are not earning the requisite $15 per hour, we expect the issue will
Raise pay for Sodexo workers be addressed and the affected employees will begin to be compensated—at the very least—at a basic living wage standard. The issue of fair pay on campus extends to non-Brandeis employees as well, such as Sodexo workers. After initiating the fair pay campaign along with Gordon Fellman (SOC), Bernadette Brooten (NEJS) met with representatives from Sodexo and reported at the Nov. 1 faculty meeting that newlyhired counter workers who are not students are earning $12.51, far below the $15 living wage. These Sodexo employees will not reach the union-negotiated rate of $16.68 until they have been a contracted employee with Sodexo for five years. In an email to the Brandeis Fair Pay Coalition, Brooten wrote that she hopes that the University’s implementation of a $15 per hour minimum wage would make the lower pay practices of Sodexo an outlier figure. We urge Sodexo to follow the University’s example and start taking the steps to make sure that all of their workers are being paid a living wage of at least $15 per hour. With the help of Brooten, Fellman and the entire Fair Pay Coalition, the University should actively engage in talks with Sodexo to encourage them to follow the University’s lead. The University might not have administrative authority over the wages and contracts that Sodexo and other sub-contracted companies sign with their employees, as the contract is confidential and therefore unable to verify, the administration should nonetheless advocate on behalf of all those who work on our campus.
A few words our
from
ombudsman Maura Jane Farrelly Dear Readers: The editors of the Justice have decided not to follow the lead of the Washington Post, and I think their decision is a good one. This Friday (Feb. 28) marks the oneyear anniversary of Patrick Pexton’s last column as the Post’s ombudsman—and the end of a 43-year-old tradition at the paper. Although the Post has continued to field questions from its readers through one of its blogs, the practice of having a regular column devoted to readers’ concerns and written by an independent critic has not been continued. In contrast, the editors of the Justice have decided to revive the tradition of an ombudsman at their newspaper, and they have asked for my help. An ombudsman is essentially a readers’ advocate. Because the term is a little cumbersome, some papers (such as the New York Times) use the term “public editor” instead. An ombudsman receives complaints from her newspaper’s readers about the accuracy, fairness or tastefulness of the paper’s coverage. She investigates how and why the coverage came to be and reports back to the readers in a column, outlining the nature of the initial complaint and recommending appropriate remedies. Sometimes an ombudsman finds herself schooling her colleagues—that is, the reporters and editorial staff who are responsible for the coverage. Other times she finds herself schooling the readers, who aren’t always familiar with the tactical factors that influence coverage and are responsible for the decisions that readers perceive as sloppy or partisan in nature. The Washington Post’s first ombudsman, Richard Harwood, convinced his colleagues to stop using the name “Cassius Clay” when writing about the boxer Muhammed Ali, who consciously rejected his given name, because he saw it as a relic of
slavery. When Harwood was appointed in 1970, he exhorted reporters to recognize that the word “hippie” was pejorative and should not be used except when it was part of a quote. He suggested that the young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein be taken off the “Watergate” beat, because they were too inexperienced to handle the story (Harwood later wrote that he was glad that the Post’s executive editor, Ben Bradlee, had not adopted that recommendation). He also got the Post to publish a front-page apology to President Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell, because Harwood’s investigation concluded that the paper had misquoted Mitchell in an earlier story. Newspapers have ombudsmen primarily for two reasons: They want to monitor and improve their coverage, and they want to educate their readers about the factors that shape the craft of journalism. This raises the natural question of what the Washington Post’s priorities are, now that it has softened its commitment to the ombudsman tradition. But it also points to a positive development in the priorities of the current editorial staff of the Justice. The students who create that paper each week recognize that they don’t always get it right, and they want to improve. To do that, they have asked for my help—and I, in turn, am asking for yours. I have agreed to write a semi-regular ombudsman column for the paper, provided that the Justice’s readers ask me to investigate decisions that are made by the reporters and editorial staff. If you write to me about the paper’s coverage, in other words, I will launch an investigation and write a column. If you don’t, I won’t. It’s that simple. I will not be serving as the paper’s adviser; I will be serving as your advocate. The editors at the Justice will be free to take my advice or not. The paper has always been an independent publication, and I will not review any articles before they are printed. I will, however, continue to field informal questions from students about the stories they are working on, as I and my colleagues in the Journalism Program have always done, not just for reporters at the Justice, but for people who write for all of the University’s publications. We are, after all, teachers first. I look forward to this partnership between and among myself, the readers of the Justice, and the dedicated students who volunteer their time and their talent to produce this paper. Yours, Maura Jane Farrelly Associate Professor of American Studies farrelly@brandeis.edu