The Justice, May 2, 2023

MEAL PLANS

Harvest Table releases new meal plans for Fall

■ Harvest Table shared information about its new all-access meal plans for fall 2023, which sparked dissatisfaction among many students.

By HEDY YANG JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

On April 26, Harvest Table released new meal plan options for Fall 2023 on its website and in a post on the Brandeis Hospitality Instagram, provoking criticism from students.

Most of the changes affect meal plans for students who live in traditional on-campus residence halls. Rather than selecting from traditional meal plans offering a choice between 10, 12, 15, or 19 meal swipes per week, which are the current options, students will have the choice between two “all-access” meal plans.

According to the Brandeis Hospitality website, the all-access meal plans will eliminate meal periods and allow students to “enter [Brandeis’] residential dining locations as often

PILOT PROGRAM

as [they] want throughout the day.”

The two options for meal plans come with a stark reduction of 250 and 175 points and only allow students 10 or 5 meal exchanges per week, respectively. The new options are priced at $4,180 and $3,829, both more expensive than the current most expensive meal plan, the 19meal plan, which is priced at $3,775.

The only change to other meal plans, such as block plans and meal plans for graduate and commuter students and faculty, is a price increase. For instance, the 80-block plan available to students living on campus in apartment-style housing will increase from $1,355 to $1,415. Other changes made to meal plans at large include the option to use meal swipes at Einstein Bros. Bagels and Starbucks, as well as the ability to add points throughout the semester.

Harvest Table’s decision comes in the wake of a petition that parents of several Brandeis students and alumni addressed to the Brandeis administration on April 5. The petition details complaints of food contamination and unsafe food preparation — referring to several pictures posted to the Brandeis Parents Facebook

See MEAL, 7 ☛

PAD Pilot Program to go unfunded by University

■ The free period product initiative's organizers created a petition to draw attention to administration's lack of willingness to fund their popular program.

By SOPHIA DE LISI AND ANIKA JAIN JUSTICE EDITORS

Since its inception six years ago, Period Activists at ’Deis has had one mission: guarantee menstrual equity on campus by providing free menstrual products to all Brandeis students. After years of planning, advocates in PAD began to see the culmination of their efforts this semester with the implementation of their Pilot Program to install free menstrual products in first-year dorm buildings in North, East, and Massel Quads. Working with the Student Union, they applied for funding for this program from the Community Enhancement and Emergency Fund. While CEEF provided a temporary budget, PAD always intended to secure permanent financial support from the University’s facilities budget by demonstrating a need for a broader free product initiative among students. However, after a

series of exchanges with administration, the leaders of the Pilot Program have newfound doubts about receiving necessary funding to maintain and expand their program.

To attract student and administrative attention to their cause, PAD posted a petition on April 27. In only four days, the petition has garnered 400 signatures in support from a diverse group of undergraduate students, graduate students, and alumni.

“Despite the positive impact of the Pilot Program, endless support for our initiative, and immeasurable hours of unpaid student labor that has been put towards this project, the allocation for this funding has been denied,” the petition reads.

The Justice interviewed the Pilot Program’s organizers, PAD’s President Kyla Speizer ’23; former Student Union President Peyton Gillespie ’25; and Lisa Thorn MPP’23 on April 27.

Thorn explained how it was the students’ responsibility to apply for funding, conduct research to assess student needs for menstrual products — as well as the location of each product dispenser on campus — and refill new dispensers on a biweekly basis.

“The Pilot Program was implemented through student labor, student activism — even meeting with the vendors and the contrac-

See PAD, 2 ☛

Basement living

 16 first years found community in their less-thanideal living space.

By ISABEL ROSETH

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

HOUSING DEMONSTRATION

Students protest lack of available housing during Presidential Address

■ Univ. President Ron Liebowitz presented a reflection on Brandeis' history and future goals in honor of the University's 75th anniversary in the face of a

By ANIKA JAIN JUSTICE EDITOR

“Brandeis was seen as an institution on the leaning edge of higher education — bold and beyond convention,” said University President Ron Liebowitz during the annual Presidential Address. He spoke before an audience of students, faculty, and administration in Sherman Function Hall on the morning of May 1. In the midst of the speech, a group of nearly 40 students protested housing shortages.

As Liebowitz addressed the challenges the University has faced while adjusting to normalcy after the pandemic, he acknowledged concerns that the Brandeis community has raised in recent weeks: “It goes without saying that we live in a difficult time, and it is easy to be consumed by all the social ills that plague us … Those stresses are in addition to our localized and personal difficulties that members of the community face and which we need to address — issues related to accessibility in all its forms, to mental health, to housing, to the cost of living, and more.” He ex-

plained that as the administration determines their priorities, it is important to recognize that addressing issues will require time and funding, but he has a “resounding sense of optimism for the future” because of his faith in the “character and soul of this institution.”

Last week, students held a silent protest in support of 29 students who reportedly received unsuitable housing despite their disability accommodations. Outrage intensified after the upperclassman housing selection, when many students were left without on-campus options. Although the number of combined rising junior and senior students is close to 1700, there were only 665 beds accounted for as of April 24, Samkyu Yaffe ’24, one of the point people for the protest, said in an April 27 interview with the Justice. That leaves nearly 1100 students to find off-campus housing for the 2023-2024 academic year. However, not all upperclassmen requested housing.

According to the U.S. News and World Report, Brandeis has typically been able to house 76 percent of students on campus while 24 percent live off campus. Due to COVID-19, the yield rate has been unprecedentedly high. Since firstyears and sophomores have guaranteed housing per University policy, they receive priority in the selection process.

On their website, “DCL Housing Hell,” student advocates outlined many demands due to the number

Springfest showers

 Jane reviews the 2023 Springfest and highlights Doechii as one of the best performers.

By JANE FLAUTT

of students who are struggling to find options last-minute. In the short-term, they wish for the University to create accessible, emergency housing to accommodate students either on campus or off campus. They also asked for guaranteed adequate accommodations for students with disabilities, full transparency of the Department of Community Living's housing system, and student representative involvement during planning stages going forward. As a long-term resolution, they ask the administration to direct funds to building more housing for the growing student population.

“This is far from an unsolvable problem. It might cost money. It might be inconvenient. [Administration] can do it, and they’re obligated to — if not contractually, then ethically,” said Yaffe. “This was never an issue that was going to be solved by DCL. They do not have enough beds, and that’s not their fault. That’s admin’s fault because admin should have seen this coming approximately eight months ago and bought the housing and made the changes they needed to make, but they didn’t. They have failed."

Minutes prior to the Presidential Address, Vice President of Student Affairs Andrea Dine sent out an email acquiescing to some of the students’ demands, including a new student advisory committee “for diverse student representation in discussions related to the

Allocations Board releases club funding

By CAMERON CUSHING

Students review current housing crisis

By VALERIA AYALA

Brandeis

AIDEN GUTHRO

DEMONSTRATION : Students protest the lack of housing accomodations during the University president's address. Photo courtesy

The Justice has not received a Police Log since April 23, which only included records of incidents reported to Brandeis Police through April 22. These records were published in the Justice on April 25.

PAD: Administration denies funding for PAD’s free product initiative

CONTINUED FROM 1

tration, PAD and the Student Union have also been responsible for the program’s upkeep — filling the 52 dispensers every other week to ensure that they are fully stocked.

effectiveness of this program. We are the customers in this relationship. We pay to attend this university. Our needs and wants should be their priority,” they wrote.

In an April 28 interview with the Justice, PAD Advocacy Chair Grace Lassila shared that support from facilities administration has similarly been lacking. “We could have been doing it really efficiently from the start, but because of facilities … it’s been really frustrating to [accomplish] our mission,” she said. “The only thing facilities has done up to this point to help us with the pilot program is install the dispensers. But even still, in East, there were a couple that were missing,” Lassila said.

To study the Pilot Program’s impact, PAD conducted a survey this semester, comparing the new data with responses from a Fall 2022 survey. In an extensive 27-page report titled, “An update on the status of menstrual product accessibility on Brandeis campus,” PAD published the results of these surveys.

“The change in accessibility, the change in affordability, the change in [class attendance] — everything changed by an astronomical amount between the experiences that students had in those quads in the fall semester and the spring semester,” Speizer described. “The program really impacted students and genuinely changed their experience being a menstruator on campus in a very positive way.”

PAD’s findings from their spring survey more than support Speizer’s claims. While 108 out of 184 respondents, or 58.7%, indicated experiencing difficulties with accessing menstrual products in Fall 2022, only 8 out of 176, or 4.5%, indicated experiencing difficulties in Spring 2023. Similarly, 6.8% reported struggles with affording menstrual products in spring 2023 as opposed to 28.3% in fall 2022. Providing free products in certain dorms on campus has also improved class attendance. Last fall, 11.4% of respondents missed three or more classes per menstrual cycle, but following the implementation of the pilot program, only 2.8% of respondents missed three or more classes. Notably, not a single respondent indicated that they felt less secure as a menstruator after the Pilot Program; instead, 94.7% of respondents said that they do feel more secure as menstruators.

While compiling this information for adminis-

Speizer said that since Jan. 17, teams from PAD and Student Union refill dispensers in North, Massell, and East Quads. She and Lassila estimated that every restock takes between one and two hours for each quad, and that they usually have between two to five volunteers each instance. In addition to providing unpaid labor for these efforts, the students are required to store the pad and tampon refills in the Student Union closet.

Furthermore, Speizer expressed that an ideal refill system is one that would not be the students’ responsibility, at least not without compensation. She said that in the best case, the refill system would be the responsibility of an outside contractor or someone within the facilities department who is held accountable for the work but paid proportionately.

While maintaining the project and collecting data, the organizers have also communicated with Lori Kabel, director of facilities services, and Carol Fierke, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. According to Lassila, PAD contacted Vice President of Student Affairs Andrea Dine to set up a meeting after spring break to share their proposal for facilities to incorporate the $43,000 cost for the free menstrual product program into their budget — an estimate they calculated with the help of Citron, the vendor that currently supplies paid dispensers on campus.

“It just so happened that Kabel had already requested $43,000 in [the facilities] budget,” said Speizer. She also added that Kabel was willing to allocate that money to the Pilot Program. However, on Tuesday April 4, they received an email from Lois Stanley, vice president for Campus Planning and Operations, where she relayed that Brandeis did not have the money to support their program, thus halting the program’s expansion.

This email motivated Speizer, Gillespie, Thorn, and Lassila to contact the Justice. “Essentially, we have to decide what to cut from their budget if we want them to fund menstrual products. This is counterintuitive, because the point of this initiative is that complimentary menstrual products are just as important as anything else,” their press release read.

The student leaders highlighted how they are both the “problem solvers” and the “customers” in the current dynamic of the program. “We, the students, have proven the need, support, and

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

■ Multiple photos in the sports section incorrectly credited the photographer as Thomas Tiancheng Zheng. It was corrected to Tiancheng Zheng. (April 25, Pages 15 and 16).

■ The design for a features article was incorrectly attributed to Eliza Bier. (April 25, Page 9).

The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Send an email to editor@thejustice.org.

They explained that the administration pushes off taking action with the intent of letting it fall out of priority with students graduating before they can make real change. “This is not something that we’re just going to let them push off until it’s no longer something that they care about,” Speizer stated, “despite all the information that we have provided to the administration, based on our Pilot Program, I would hypothesize that no one has read the report that we wrote, or a lot of the resources that we have provided.”

To emphasize the lack of period-related knowledge amongst administration, Speizer shared an anecdote of an administrator suggesting that PAD provide birth control in order to avoid having to purchase period products for the free dispensers.

“The whole system is rigged to keep marginalized voices, marginalized,” Thorn added. “The really frustrating thing is when we talk about equity, it’s about helping marginalized people. It’s about helping minorities. It means that it’s not always going to be a fiscally advantageous decision in the short term. You’re spending a lot of money on a small group of people to make their lives significantly better.”

Lassila and Thorn expressed concern over the University’s tendency to advertise itself as a social justice, or top ten social policy school, while failing to meet students’ wellness needs. “You can’t claim to be a social justice school when you are the main roadblock in a social justice initiative,” Lassila insisted.

Lassila said that regardless of the administration’s decision on whether or not to provide funding, PAD and Student Union plan to continue their collaboration and reapply for the CEEF fund to continue stocking the existing complementary dispensers, even though it was not their original plan.

“CEEF is not, in our minds, a menstrual fund,” Gillsepie explained, “it’s a fund [that] we used appropriately to kick the Pilot Program off to fund it … for the purpose of demonstrating to the administration that this is feasible, this is something that is needed.” He said that CEEF is a budget that comes out of the Student Activities Fee included with students’ tuition, the $250,000 grant coming out of that collective sum of money. The difference between having the PAD program funded by CEEF again versus facilities is that the budget comes out of students’ tuition, rather

than the University. “Ultimately, the responsibility in our minds and in students’ minds falls on the University to carve out a part of the budget to prioritize such an important health service for all menstruators on campus,” Gillespie said.

In a May 1 email interview with the Justice, Andrea Dine shared, “part of the Shapiro Campus Center Enhancement Project includes the relocation of food insecurity resources into the SCC, with which we will make menstrual products and other personal care items available.”

Dine then clarified that these products will be complimentary, and if there is a surplus of products, “[administration] could certainly consider other locations as well.” She did not comment about facilities’ failure to fund PAD’s Pilot Program.

The plans to provide free products in the SCC were not shared with Speizer, Lassila, Gillespie, or Thorn. “I think that any way that we can broaden access to menstrual products on campus is great, so if this program is actually implemented, that’s a good thing and serves our mission,” said Speizer in a May 1 statement to the Justice. “I find it very frustrating that [Dine] did not communicate this information with us.” According to Speizer, there is still inconsistent funding for menstrual products and lack of accountability.

Although the Pilot Program is not going to receive their expected funding, the organizers adamantly expressed that this is not the end of the initiative. Speizer emphasized that all work that PAD and the Student Union have put into the project matters because they have created a space where people are openly talking about period products, whereas PAD struggled to become a club in the past. She recalled that the Student Union Allocations Board fought PAD becoming a club out of concerns that it would be “just like any other feminist club,” Speizer recalled.

“People are now conscious of the work we’re doing, and that in [and] of itself is astronomical and reflects so much on the efforts we put in…” Speizer said. “I would just want to tell every single PAD member that the work that we are doing matters, even if we keep hitting wall, after wall, after wall.”

To Speizer, seeing how well-known and supported PAD and this Pilot Program are shows that the club has already made a significant impact for the community. However, that is not to say that the next PAD and Student Union leaders will abandon the program without a fight. Stanley, Kabel, and Fierke did not respond to the Justice’s request for comment.

The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods.

The Justice

Arts 2 TUESDAY, MAY 2, 2023 ● NEWS ● THE JUSTICE

University Mailstop 214 P.O. Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Phone: (781) 736-3750

Photos

Layout Ads Online

Student Union Allocations Board publicizes Marathon decision, 1.4 million dollars distributed in club funding

■ The Justice spoke to A-board co-chairs and club leaders regarding the process that left clubs across campus less than 60% funded, on average.

By CAMERON CUSHING JUSTICE SENIOR EDITOR

On Tuesday, April 25, the Student Union Allocations Board emailed the Fall 2023 Marathon final report to club leaders and treasurers. Between first round decisions and appeals, clubs across campus requested a little over $2,912,000 of which $1,476,415 was allocated — this puts club funding across campus at approximately 49% of requested funding.

Club funding comes from a pot of money known as the Student Activities Fee, which is supported by 1% of student tuition, as well as rollover funds not spent the prior fiscal year.

When campus life came to a halt in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a substantial amount of unused funds were rolled over to use the following year. Due to COVID-19 restrictions on campus during the 2020-21 academic year, money again went unspent as events were scaled back — if they happened at all. Thus, as campus returned more or less to normal during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years, A-Board had seemingly limitless rollover funding to distribute to clubs, in addition to the normal yearly budgets.

However, the leftover money has dried up, making this semester’s Marathon the first in recent memory with a constrained budget, and clubs are feeling the heat as money they’d previously considered guaranteed went unallocated. Simply, there was substantially less money to go around this funding round than club leaders have experienced during their time here, something that they were by-and-large not aware of until they started receiving decisions. Department of Student Engagement budget analyst Deepa Khatri shared historical data in a May 1 email to the Justice: Compared to this year’s $1,436,374, in spring 2022 $2,173,461 was allocated, $1,789,942 in spring 2021, and $1,670,622 in spring 2020. Khatri added that the SAF is approximately $2.2 million per year.

Turnover in the Department of Student Engagement has also contributed to the delayed communication about the smaller budget. The budget analyst — a full-time staff member responsible for assisting A-Board, Treasury, and secured clubs — turned over in spring 2022, which also coincided with the migration from Presence to CampusGroups for club finance management. For a while, the board was unaware of their total budget, explained A-Board Co-chair Lexi Lazar ’24 in an April 27 interview with the Justice. “We never knew what our budget was; just straight up, no one ever told us. And so, we were previously just like, if something … was an acceptable request per the funding scope, you’re getting funding, because we didn’t know what our upper limits were.”

Khatri said that she provided A-Board a “rough estimate” of the board’s total budget for allocations early in the semester, followed by a more specific projection in early March.

“This approach is consistent with how estimates are used for Student Activity Fee allocations at other institutions, and it better informs A-Board’s decisions,” she added.

Despite the gaps in information, business went along. Lazar explained the Marathon process. First, Khatri determines an appropriate amount to distribute during the first round, reserving an amount for appeals funding. Then, A-Board members comb through requests and deny items that either lack sufficient detail or fall outside of the defined funding scope. For example, clubs are not able to request funding for personal apparel or to spend above designated amounts for giveaway items or to hire independent contractors, such as coaches or speakers.

Rules that are new to this year were also applied in an effort to decrease cost: For example, Lazar said that A-Board no lon -

ger funds Canva Pro subscriptions for clubs, nor allows clubs to purchase boba tea as giveaway items — unless especially relevant to an event or club’s purpose — due to its expense.

A-Board Co-chair Elisha Gordon ’25 explained that these costs add up to between $100,000 and $200,000, a substantial portion of the budget.

After automatically denying these requests, A-Board then considers clubs with budget requests over $10,000, going line by line to apply policy and achieve a projected funding percentage, Gordon explained. The board then addresses secured clubs and smaller organizations. Once initial decisions are released, clubs can appeal denials. If approved, they will be funded by additional money from the reserve.

Explaining the logic behind funding decisions, Lazar said that the board tends to be more willing to allocate larger dollars to newer organizations since they may have one-time expenses as they get set up. Additionally, the board considers “which clubs have the most reach … which need to do things,” said Lazar. The board then enforces a priority system in which clubs indicate the line items most important to them.

Both Lazar and Gordon emphasized that the board tends to deny requests for items that are not accompanied by a detailed storage plan. Gordon suggested that one purpose of the Shapiro Campus Center reimagination currently underway is to provide clubs with more storage spaces.

With Marathon complete, it will now be up to clubs to make their budgets work for the following year. On average, clubs received approximately 59% of the funds that they requested, though there are outliers on both ends of the spectrum.

Nine groups were fully funded: Astronomy Club, Brandeis Chak De!, the Brandeis Journal of Politics, the Brandeis Official Readers’ Guild, the Intersectional Feminist Coalition, Kaos Kids, Proscenium Musical Theatre A Cappella, Starving Artists, and Triskelion. The Journal of Politics and Starving Artists each requested between $1,000 and $1,500, and the other seven requested less than a thousand dollars. Notably, this was the first Marathon for both Starving Artists and Proscenium, following the Student Union Senate’s decision earlier this semester to allow a cappella groups to request and receive funding. Following those fully-funded clubs, nearly 30 others were allocated 75% or more of their requested budgets, all receiving amounts below $5,000.

Seven clubs went unfunded, despite requesting money: the Brandeis Basketball Club, Brandeis German Club, Brandeis Society for International Affairs, Brandeis Taekwondo, Brazilian Student Association, Students Talking About Relationships, and the Archon Yearbook. According to Lazar, the Basketball Club and STAR did not submit requests during Marathon but did submit appeals — an automatic denial. The Brazilian Student Association, Lazar explained, was on probationary status during Marathon and therefore not eligible to request funding. However, they will be eligible to request $1,000 in emergency funding. Lazar also explained that Taekwondo’s initial request was denied and a cheaper estimate requested, which was not submitted. Both the German Club and Society for International Affairs requested funds for a boba giveaway, which was declined under the new funding scope rules — neither submitted appeals.

Archon — a secured organization — proved more complicated, Lazar shared. After failing to respond to outreach from their A-Board representative and submit a budget request by the deadline, the organization ultimately submitted their $65,000 request. However, shortly thereafter, DSE leadership informed A-Board that Archon had no plans for leadership after this academic year and is essentially defunct. This statement was confirmed by Khatri in the same email.

Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps, officially tasked with providing medical care to the Brandeis community, participates in the Marathon process as a secured club. Executive Director Lorrin Stone ’23 explained in an April 28 email to

the Justice that the group did not anticipate funding to be an issue and was “shocked when we saw the significant cut” to their budget. BEMCo requested $70,000 in operating funds for 2023-2024, up from $66,000 for the current year due to “state requirements as well as software fees,” per Stone.

Rose Adelman ’24 — treasurer and soon-to-be executive director — added in an April 28 email to the Justice that the increase also accounts for “inflation in medication and equipment/supplies prices” as well as “a handful of new interventions and medications to our service for the upcoming year, including glucagon which costs $500 per dose for diabetic emergencies, i-gels for cardiac arrests, benadryl, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen.”

Adelman explained that BEMCo also requested $20,000 to outfit a new vehicle — purchased for the group by Public Safety — to be used as an ambulance. Stone stated that their plan is to apply for CEEF funding to configure the truck appropriately.

Both Stone and Adelman expressed that, due to the allocation shortfall, BEMCo may not be able to afford to replace certain medications, particularly pricier ones such as glucagon and epinephrine. Adelman also noted that “call volume has been up this entire year” due to the class of 2026 being larger than any class in the history of Brandeis.

The Student Sexuality and Information Service, another secured club, faced a similar cut. Financial Coordinator Abby Novia ’24 confirmed in an April 29 email to the Justice that the group requested $69,000, of which only $25,000 was initially approved. After appeals, SSIS’s final budget for 2023-2024 is $30,000 — less than the $50,000 that the group was allocated for the current year. Novia explained that the group plans “to make as many cost saving changes as we can with as little impact to the Brandeis community as possible,” such as finding discount and wholesale opportunities from suppliers and cutting non-essential costs. The group is looking into both CEEF and sexual health organization grants.

Novia emphasized that SSIS is planning to keep all current products in stock at their current price, and that “emergency contraception and condoms will always be available both in [our] office and 24/7 in the vending machine.” She also stated that while the group understands that there was less funding to go around overall, it was “particularly difficult” to discover that SSIS was “apparently prioritized lower than the rest of the secured clubs,” due to the group being funded at the lowest rate of the secured clubs.

Novia explained that SSIS has grown over the past four years, evidenced by “the increased number of products we are selling and the increased number of community members who visit [our] office … In particular, we have seen an everincreasing demand for emergency contraception, especially within the past year, which is likely due to a post-Roe political climate. Econtra is one of our most expensive and most in demand products … These details, as well as a full, detailed pricing breakdown of all our costs as an organization were submitted to the Student Union A-Board, so they were fully aware of how critical funding is to SSIS right now when they decided to only allocate us 34% of the funds we requested.”

Lazar explained that the decision to allocate the Campus Activities Board $280,000 — compared to their request of $483,385.00 — was due to poor attendance at relatively expensive events. Lazar said that the board allocated $250,000 for Springfest, but wanted to cut back on the “really costly events that people just simply do not come to … that’s either [funding for] one cruise or 20 a cappella groups.” CAB did not respond to requests for comment.

Though the Allocation Board had difficult decisions to make, given that their total budget for distribution ended up being half of what clubs across campus requested, crucial organizations such as BEMCo and SSIS remain committed to their roles within the Brandeis community.

Clubs located in SCC asked to move amid enhancement project

include Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps, WBRS 100.1 FM, Student Events, and the Student Sexuality Information Service.

In an April 18 email to Gravity Magazine, Director of Student Engagement Matt Galewski explained that the rooms currently used by unsecured clubs will be converted into communal spaces to be shared by multiple clubs.

By RIVER SIMRAD JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

On April 18, the Division of Student Affairs announced their intended enhancement project to the Shapiro Campus Center. One aspect of enhancing the SCC is to allow for more reservable meeting space. In order to achieve this, the Department of Student Engagement will no longer allocate space to unsecured clubs. These clubs include Gravity Magazine, Laurel Moon, Brandeis Television, and the Hoot.

The Department of Student Engagement defines a secured club as “an organization recognized by students as sufficiently important to necessitate annual funding and secured status through the Student Union Constitution.” Secured clubs

The unsecured clubs being asked to relocate have not been given an alternate location for the coming year. Going forward, clubs will need to reserve space in order to hold meetings, production nights, or events. While this makes space available for more clubs on campus, it complicates club activities for those that currently operate in SCC spaces and depend on having a consistent location to meet.

“Focus groups and survey data point to insufficient space available for the majority of clubs on campus. The need for more space for a greater number of organizations is also supported by what we observed at other area campus centers and current space usage levels in the [SCC],” Assistant Vice President of Student Engagement Shelby Harris explained in a May 1 email to the Justice.

“We can theoretically move. But it’s not what we really want,” Gravity Editor-in-Chief Harvey Sugiuchi ’23 said in

a May 1 interview with the Justice. In terms of equipment, Gravity would only need to move a “few boxes of magazines, some swords, and a couple of magazines,” Sugiuchi said. These items are far easier to store and transport than other organizations’ equipment. For instance, Brandeis TV and the Hoot will need to transport the equipment they own and use, such as cameras and desktop computers, in addition to losing their studio and workspace. Galewski said that there will be storage available for clubs that need it.

“Honestly— they’ve been very helpful in response to these emails, I just don’t think the policy was very well thought-out to begin with,” Sugiuchi said in a May 1 email to the Justice. Secured clubs will continue to have a guaranteed space in the SCC. For instance, SSIS will be in a different room in the SCC. The Student Affairs office is working with those clubs to give them a space that allows for their needs. Clubs are currently being asked to pack up their belongings and leave their spaces by May 30.

Representatives for SSIS were unavailable to comment before press time.

6talk and Laurel Moon did not respond to the Justice’s request for comment.

■ Unsecured clubs have been asked to move out of their spaces following recently-announced reimagination plans for the SCC.

Technion’s Yael Alweil explains the role of housing in nation-state building

By SOPHIA STEWART JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

At a lecture about Israel’s housing policies and architectural patterns on Thursday, April 20 in the Carl and Ruth Admissions Center, Prof. Yael Alweil spoke as a part of the Richard Saivetz ’69 Memorial Architecture lecture series. Alweil is an associate professor in the faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. Her lecture, “Homeland Reconsidered: A History of Israel as a Housing Regime,” was about how housing has been Zionism’s key strategy for nation-state building, sovereignty, and expanding beyond borders.

Alweil defined housing as an act, policy, value, typology, real estate community, space, and settlement form. In her research, she focuses on how housing creates towns, communities, and cities from an architectural standpoint. To explain the evolution of housing styles, Alweil showed outlines of various architectural layouts, including maps of Jaffa in 1858 that feature large buildings to fit extended families. Alweil also mentioned the 1925 Geddes Plan for Tel Aviv, which featured a housing-based city with water access. Alweil’s research on the growth of housing demonstrates one constant: Housing construction remains essential for settlement building and nation state building.

In regards to architectural style in the 1860s, an increase in plantation-style individual housing indicated modernization in the Ottoman Empire, which included the territory of Palestine at the time. Zionist settlers built Kibbutzim with various scattered buildings, which indicated the modernization of the land of Palestine as well. Prior to the United Nations partition decision of late 1947 and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel in 1948, Arabs and Jews lived alongside each other in the area of Palestine. Alweil’s research focuses on architecture in Palestine as well as modern day Israel in order to fully explain the story of housing in conjunction with nation state building. Alweil wrote in her research paper, “Plantation: Modern Vernacular Housing and Settlement in Ottoman Palestine,” that plantations were “replacing older land-based identities with a modern model of forprofit production.” Throughout her research, Alweil found that the history of housing is a joint Israeli-Palestinian one, which is a far cry from the modern separation between the two societies.

Alweil described housing as an “object of agonism,” meaning that the capacity to house oneself shapes Israeli political society. Social groups are conflicted over housing because of architectural space in Israel-Palestine today. In the settlement of Palestine in the 1920s, socialist Zionist groups formed tent settlements that later became Kibbutzim. Tents symbolized Zionists’ right to live in the land regarding as well as Palestinians’ right and still claim Palestinian and Israeli identity and rights. As Alweil said in her lecture, housing is an “agonistic conflict which brings them together because it divides them.”

Since the 1920s, tents have become symbols of protest against the Israeli government’s expensive housing policies. In 2011 especially, Israelis took to the streets and set up tents to protest expensive housing prices. According to a National Public Radio article published in 2011, the rising housing prices were not

keeping pace with average wages. Alweil’s research focused on how architecture of housing created settlement patterns that led to the creation of Israel and are still leading to settlements in the West Bank.

During the Q&A, Alweil said that the growth in apartment structures has also increased housing prices. The more expensive Israeli housing prices become, the more financially exclusive it becomes. Not to mention high housing prices impact minority populations within Israel. Alweil said that living in the homeland and housing plans in the West Bank cause tensions reflected in modern housing protests. For instance, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new, right-leaning government has advanced more settlement projects beyond the green line. Alweil said that the Israeli housing ministry’s policies regarding evictions and housing approvals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem cause political tensions.

On a domestic level, Alweil said that expensive housing deteriorates individual political power because minorities are not able to afford it. She expanded upon Israelis’ uproar over it by comparing the architecture of General Yoav Galant’s villa to that of Knesset member Benny Gantz. Galant’s villa is much larger and more extravagant than Gantz’s, which is a portrayal of his position as a general in the Israeli Defense Forces. Gantz’s home speaks to his image as a common citizen as opposed to Galant’s larger one. In general, high housing prices are indicative of Israel’s wealth disparity issues, which Alweil explores throughout her architectural research.

Professor Alweil’s lecture about the history of housing in Israel-Palestine contextualizes modern housing controversies in Israel and the West Bank. Alweil’s research focuses on housing’s importance to communities and socioeconomic groups in IsraelPalestine.

■ Prof. Yael Alweil presented her research on the history of housing in Israel-Palestine to explain housing’s role in nation-state making

Photo courtesy of MANNY COHEN

The Brandeis-Israel Public Affairs Committee (BIPAC) and Brandeis J Street U co-hosted leading Middle East experts David Makovsky and Ghaith al-Omari for an event on Tuesday, April 25th. The speakers touched on how the proposed judicial overhaul by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his allies have hurt Israel’s standing in the Middle East and in the U.S. Makovsky and al-Omari underscored how important it is for Israelis and Palestinians to engage on a human level, and that American college students should engage in dialogue with Palestinians. In his remarks, BIPAC President Manny Cohen ’24 noted that “this event marks the first time in our college careers that BIPAC and Brandeis J Street U are collaborating on a major event,” and that the “fact that we’re all here today is a testament to the idea that individuals of differing perspectives can come together and engage.”

— Meshulam Ungar ’24, Vice President of Brandeis Orthodox Organization

Photo courtesy of MANNY COHEN

Justice

MEAL : Disdain for Harvest Table's new dining plans

CONTINUED FROM 1 page depicting “vermin in food” and “prepared chicken, served to students, with feathers attached” — as well as limited diversity in food choices.

Requests outlined in the petition include allowing students to use meal swipes at any dining location on campus, expanding made-to-order options such as those currently available at La Sabrosa and Greens & Grains, improving the diversity and affordability of food options in the the Hoot Market, and hiring external monitoring bodies to provide inspections and reports on food safety in the dining halls.

The petition also asked that current meal plan options be retained, calling “planned changes which would significantly minimize student access to non-Aramark vendors” unsatisfactory and unacceptable. Harvest Table is an independent division of Aramark. It is unclear how the petitioners learned about the planned changes to the meal plans prior to their official release, and whether the petition factored into Harvest Table’s decisionmaking process. Harvest Table did not respond to the Justice’s request for comment.

Many students were also similarly dissatisfied with the changes, expressing their frustrations in the comments of the Instagram post that revealed the new meal plans.

Some students pointed out the impracticality of the decision and echoed parents’ concerns about food safety and lack of options, particularly for students who have dietary restrictions or follow certain diets.

One student wrote, “this is the most heinous choice you could’ve made when students constantly report food poisoning, maggots in the food, no options for those with dietary restrictions, and lack of space in the dining hall for students.”

Another student expressed their concerns about the reduction of points for the new meal plans and its implications for access to Kosher options. “As a Kosher student, the only places I can eat will be Sherman [and] the deli — both of which have issues with food quality … most of us rely on our points to buy the very, very, very overpriced kosher food at the C-store.”

Other students were frustrated with Harvest Table’s lack of transparency and accountability. In response to several student comments expressing concerns around the new meal plans, the Brandeis Hospitality account appeared to have copied and pasted a message asking students to use the “contact us” page on the Brandeis Hospitality website to share their feedback.

A student wrote, “It’s upsetting to see this copied and pasted response to people who have valid concerns about these new meal plans. You need to be accountable and transparent instead of preaching that you are listening to the students and deflecting issues. Do better, Harvest Table - this is embarrassing.”

The Brandeis Hospitality account also seemed to have copied and pasted a message in response to several student comments that questioned the claim that the change to the meal plans reflect student feedback. The comment describes how a committee that included “representatives from the Provost’s Office, Student Af-

fairs, Finance & Administration, the grad schools, A&S [School of Arts and Sciences], [and] the Student Union” was involved in making the changes. The comment also suggests that the development of the new meal plans was informed by “an inclusive 7-month process with stakeholder interviews … vendor materials posted online, a portal through which we received close to 400 comments (mostly from students), and community presentations attended by hundreds of students, faculty, and staff.”

In response to students’ concerns about the price of the new meal plans, Brandeis Hospitality wrote that the “All Access +5 [meal plan] is priced the same as the current 12 Meal Plan plus the year over year increase. In other words [sic], if the 12 Meal Plan was being carried into next year, it would be priced the same as the All Access + 5 plan.”

For context, the current 12 meal plan costs $3,673, while the All Access + 5 Weekly Meal Exchanges plan will cost $3,829. These prices reflect a $156 cost difference which is a stark contrast from the $30 to $70 year-over-year increases in costs for the meal plans that have not changed. For instance, the 80-block meal plan for students living in apartment-style housing will increase by $60 — from $1,355 to $1,415 — while the 60-block meal plan for commuter and graduate students will increase by $35, from $835 to $870.

The changes to meal plans come at a time where students are increasingly dissatisfied with Brandeis administration. It is unclear how Brandeis Hospitality will move forward in addressing student concerns about quality of dining on campus.

DEMONSTRATION : Housing accomodations protest

CONTINUED FROM 1

The email also assured students that the administration is actively searching for both oncampus and local housing and “will share information as it becomes available.”

Immediately following the email, the protest organizers posted on their Instagram to call off the protest and convert it into a celebratory rally. “The few demands that were not met are not things that the University is capable of granting this quickly, and we understand this,” the post reads.

“This is not us disbanding the group, just [us] choosing not to protest today in exchange for what has been promised thus far. But we still need them to deliver,” explained Yaffe in a May 1 statement to the Justice. “It’s not over. But we’re willing to try working this out across a table as opposed to with megaphones for now.”

However, many students remained unsatisfied with the response and continued with the original plan to protest. “I still felt like I wanted to protest because yes, that email is the next step, but there's no actionable things outlined yet in that email, in terms of what would be the emergency housing,” said Kaela Owitz ’25, one of the protestors, in a May 1 interview with the Justice.

At 11:10 AM, a group of protesters entered Sherman Function Hall silently and sat down as Liebowitz talked about the current political climate in America. “The polarization of American society has led to challenges related to trust, the increased intolerance of different opinions, controversies surrounding free and restricted speech, and the significant loss of confidence in higher education on the part of the general population,” said Liebowitz while the students held up signs one by one. Their posters contained slogans such as:

“Deis Deceives”

“Disability Justice Now”

“Housing is a Human Right”

Liebowitz did not acknowledge the signs and continued with the planned speech. “I want to be very clear: We are not in a financial crisis. We can set a course if we so choose to,” he said, addressing rumors about Brandeis’ ability to financially support new facilities and initiatives. He emphasized that the current administration is dedicated to fixing problems now rather than leaving issues to their successors as well as reclaiming Brandeis’ competitive standing as a top institution.

Ten minutes after the first group of protesters arrived, a second group walked in and stood by the doors holding up signs. The sitting students

then stood up and joined the others a mere five feet away from the podium. Five students held up a large banner which read: “An injury to one is an injury to all.” The students remained unacknowledged by Liebowitz.

At the conclusion of his speech, there was a split second before the audience began applauding where a protester proclaimed, “And what about housing?”

Liebowitz finally addressed the protestors, stating: “We’re committed to solutions.” The protestors directed questions to Liebowitz about how much housing in Waltham would cost.

“I don’t really know exactly how much it would cost; it’s a lot, probably,” Liebowitz replied. “If I were guessing, I’d be off, but I know it’s become more expensive than living on campus, which creates problems, and we are committed to finding solutions to this.”

The students provided him with an estimate of at least $900 a month for apartments that are within walking distance to Brandeis — a cost that many students said they could not afford unless they work part-time jobs along with their full course load. According to real estate sites such as Zillow and Apartments.com, this estimate is credible — the average 5-bedroom apartment in the 02453 area code charges $5,000 in rent per month. Assuming each student pays the rent for one bedroom, they would be paying around $1,000 a month. This rent is slightly more expensive than the costs of living on campus but with added inconveniences such as commute and safety.

Owitz helped illuminate some of these challenges. “This has been incredibly stressful for my friends and I [sic],” she shared. After being promised an apartment by a real estate agent, they lost out on the housing to competition from a more affluent Brandeis parent looking to secure housing for their student. “I'm so overwhelmed as a student because I have finals I have to prepare for and study for right now. But every hour that I'm not spending coordinating with housing agents, I feel like I'm losing out to the competition around me.”

Lack of access to cars is another major concern for Owitz, who feels that walking back home at night is unsafe for her and her roommates. “It's just so difficult, especially when it's going to be raining and snowing.”

Owitz also emphasized the intersectional implications of housing affordability: “It's incredibly discriminatory and scary for lower income students and people of demographics that are just going to have fewer resources during this

process.”

Brandeis is not the only school in the area to face housing struggles in recent years. According to the Boston Globe, Suffolk University bought Ames Hotel for $63.5 million in September 2019 to convert into additional student housing. WHDH reported that Emerson College housed more than 200 students in the W Boston on Stuart Street during the fall semester to de-densify the campus amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This month, Northeastern University became a permanent tenant at the Sheraton Boston Hotel and converted 428 hotel rooms into dorms, according to The Huntington News, the independent newspaper at Northeastern.

Liebowitz included Andrea Dine in the conversation, who reassured students that they will not be required to pay any additional charges if they have not accepted their on-campus housing offers. Liebowitz also promised that there will not be any additional “forced” or lofted triples to accommodate unhoused students.

One protestor asked, “How do you expect students to focus on finals knowing they will be homeless next year?” To that point, Liebowitz encouraged them to attend the upcoming listening sessions to voice complaints in a forum dedicated entirely to housing concerns. The listening sessions were initially announced by Dine and Liebowitz in an April 27 and April 28 email, respectively.

In addition to Dine, Vice Provost Kim Godsoe and Assistant Vice President of Student Financial Services Sherri Avery will be in attendance during office hours on Tuesday, May 2 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm in room 106 in the Gryzmish Center. The three already hosted one listening session on April 28. Liebowitz will be hosting his session on Wednesday, May 3 from 1:30 to 2:30 pm in Rapaporte Treasure Hall. In his email, Liebowitz said that he is “always advocating for the best possible version of Brandeis.”

Another concern raised by student protestors was how Brandeis will ensure that their solution to housing will not affect the larger Waltham community through gentrification and increased real estate costs. Liebowitz agreed to keep the Waltham community in mind.

In response to demands to stop admitting more students than the school can house, Liebowitz said that reducing the student body is not a potential solution. Although he recognized that housing is short, he said that there will be measures to accommodate future classes even if there are no immediate solutions for the current upperclassmen. He emphasized that no one

could anticipate the size and yield of the current first-year class after COVID-19 and shared that admissions will gradually reduce class sizes back to normal. According to Liebowitz, the admissions department cannot implement an immediate reduction because tuition accounts for the majority of Brandeis’ revenue. As such, they need to admit enough students to sustain financial stability for the current student body.

Students also asked Liebowitz why Brandeis has the funds to build a new engineering building to add to the Shapiro Science Complex but not build new housing. Liebowitz responded that Brandeis will rethink the order of their priorities.

“Activism is good for the University,” said Liebowitz, but he stressed that the listening sessions will be a more appropriate forum for students to voice concerns.

After turning over questions to Dine for a second time, Liebowitz left the hall through the back door with his mic still on. The protesters laughed in disbelief as he left the room and then started a “We want housing” chant.

“The fact that [Liebowitz] walked out without ending the conversation is really amazing to me,” said Owitz. “He did say repeatedly, ‘We should continue this in tomorrow's listening session,’ but the fact that he just left without announcing that felt disrespectful. I felt like we were maybe heard up until that point at the end.”

The Justice requested a comment from Dine and Liebowitz following the protest.

“My team is committed to listening to our students and implementing improvements to the housing selection process,” Dine wrote in an email to the Justice.

“As I said to the students following my address, Brandeis encourages respectful discourse and welcomes student input,” wrote Liebowitz in a statement shared with the Justice by Julie Jette, assistant vice president of communications. “We aim to improve the student experience and we understand students have frustrations related to housing.” He re-emphasized that he wishes to hear students at the listening session on Wednesday.

Earlier in his Presidential Address, Liebowitz had said, “Critical thinking, including a willingness to be self-critical, is virtually absent in today’s polarized society where everyone else is to blame for whatever is wrong.” With the uncertainty surrounding housing, students at the protest seem to be waiting for that willingness to reform and sense of accountability from the administration.

Ego loves identity. Drag mocks identity. Ego hates drag.

ON THIS DAY…

In 1536, Anne Boleyn was arrested and taken to the Tower of London.

FUN FACT

Over 60% of basements in existing homes have a moisture problem.

The real freshmen of the Shapiro basement

By ISABEL ROSETH EDITOR IN CHIEF

The walk down from the front doors to the basement floor of Shapiro Residence Hall is surprisingly typical of any dorm in Massell Quad — at least in comparison to the space it leads to. The basement isn’t home to killer clowns or secret passages, but it’s still a basement. In the dim light from the tiny windows that are few and far between, you’ll find blue walls, tile floors, a single bathroom fit for two, and 16 first-year boys lurking in the dark.

When Braedy Guenther ’25 followed his orientation leader down the stairs — below ground — on move-in day in fall 2021, his first reaction was, “Crap, this isn’t going to end well.” His senses weren’t entirely off; he walked in to find pipes everywhere and a puddle of water on the floor. He sent a picture of his tiny basement room to his soonto-be roommate, Jonah Ellis ’25, who up until that point hadn’t realized he was going to be living out his first year at Brandeis in a basement.

Gabriel Abreu ’25 had a similar reaction upon moving in. When his orientation leader opened the door to a pipefilled room with a single, tiny window, he thought, “Okay, it’s like a little submarine. Cool.” He, like Jonah, hadn’t known about the basement housing, either.

First-years enter Brandeis with varying levels of information regarding their housing. Students receive a building, room number, and the name of their roommate, but nothing more, and the Brandeis website provides only a brief overview of what each building includes. Many don’t learn anything more beforehand, such as Jonah and Gabriel, and all Eli Fighter ’25 knew was that his mom, a Brandeis alum, had enjoyed her first-year living experience in the 1980s.

Andres Zalowitz ’26, on the other hand, had learned early on from a Discord server for admitted students what he had in store for basement living. “You just kinda hear things, I guess,” Andres said. “And the general consensus was like, this is $600 less than all the other ones. Why is it $600 less than all the other ones? It must really suck.”

New and better living

Although it’s currently known for its sweltering heat and complete lack of handicap accessibility, Shapiro Residence Hall was not always the infamous dormitory it is now. Completed in January 1952, the $500,000, female-only Hamilton A was the first dormitory built in what was then called the Hamilton Quadrangle as part of a campuswide building initiative. While it may come as a shock to its current residents, the building was considered by the University to be “one of the most modern college dormitory buildings” by the Brandeis Bulletin at the time of its construction, and it was described by the Justice as “new and better living” in comparison to the housing that was already provided by the University. Up until Hamilton’s construction, the University did not have enough housing to house all their students, something which was at least temporarily remedied by the glorious new Hamilton A.

The basement of Hamilton A, with its recreation room, music room, and “fully-equipped laundry,” was deserving of its own paragraph in the April 1952 Brandeis Bulletin, but it wasn’t long before basement residents were facing their fair share of problems. In September 1954, two hurricanes swept the area, and the basements of Hamilton A and B “were flooded to their ceilings.” The basement was also described by one Justice reporter in 1955 as the “dank and unhealthy cinder-block basement of Hamilton A” — a far cry from the “glittering” new dormitory bragged about just three years prior.

In April 1958, Hamilton A was renamed the Shapiro Residence Hall after donors Esther and Morris Shapiro, thus becoming another Shapiro-shaped infinity stone in the campus gauntlet. Over the decades, though, no matter the name, basement dwellers continued to confront flooding, bugs, excess heat, and noise from the pipes. In 1983, the basement rooms were “judged to be in poor condition”

and referred to as “rooms we’d rather not use” by University administration.

Given the number of first-years living there now, however, sometime in the past few decades, Brandeis’ tune changed.

A united front

Think of the Shapiro basement as the University’s Bermuda Triangle. It’s not significantly different from other dormitories, but enough problems happen in this concentrated area for it to be of note. The sheer quantity of the aforementioned pipes in both the common space and the rooms are already enough to beat out other first-year floors, but past and present basement dwellers will tell you that they’re much more than just an eyesore. Most firstyears are not strangers to pipes that, according to Andres, sound as though “someone’s taking a hammer to an anvil,” but there’s a rushing noise from the water pipes, and the heating pipes provide a whole separate issue.

When Andres rolls down his sleeve, you can still see the burn he got from a pipe connected to his radiator a couple months ago. “I was opening up this big window and my hand went slightly lower down than it should have been,” he explained. “There’s no room for error.”

The bathroom itself is its own character. With only half of everything functioning correctly, it’s quite the sight. One sink is fine, but the other is right next to the hand dryer, which as a result is frequently activated by accident. One of the stalls is just a little too small and last year’s “infinite flushing toilet” incident is self-explanatory. The “SSFs” — basement slang for the Shapiro shower flies — reportedly remain an epidemic, and the one bad shower has had a multitude of problems this year alone. First, it had no water pressure. Then, it wouldn’t start. Next, it wouldn’t get hot water, and then the water pressure got

There’s no better joke at Brandeis than its housing. But when 16 first-year boys found themselves living together last year in a retrofitted basement with less than ideal amenities, they found strength in their numbers.

Photo courtesy of ELI FIGHTER

GAME NIGHT: The basement residents often partied.

bad again. When in use, the same shower also makes a very loud noise resembling a marching band. Essentially, if you don’t call dibs on the good shower, you’re out of luck.

Leaks and flooding also run rampant. “It’s very unpleasant when you wake up and you swing your legs over your bed, and you put them on the floor and it’s wet,” Jonah said. The pipes also burst every year, according to Zach Mayer ’25, not to mention that during an extremely cold week this past semester, the boiler burst, flooding into the stairwell and the rooms next to it.

An incident that was especially bad this past semester was when the drinking fountain exploded, resulting in a flooded hallway on a Friday night. While waiting for the general repairman on call, Andres and the other boys all grabbed their trash cans and left them under the foun-

tain until they filled up. Then they’d dump the water in the shower, put the trash cans back, and repeat for about an hour until facilities arrived. “That was actually the moment where the basement rallied together,” Andres said of the incident.

When asked for comment about the series of problems with the Shapiro basement’s facilities, the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Timothy Touchette claimed in an April 18 email to the Justice that besides a water main leaking near Shapiro due to a contractor working near the building, the other problems “did not happen to [his] knowledge.” According to Touchette, “There are no outstanding issues in any residence halls, Shapiro included.”

Basement brotherhood

Although David Merges ’25 said that the basement was probably the worst place they’ll have to live in at Brandeis, he also said it was bearable because of the community that formed within it.

The basement, described as “absolute shit” by Tristan Santiago ’25 and deemed a “bit of a fixer upper” by Jonah, provided different reasons for the boys to band together. The basement set-up would not have functioned if they hadn’t held each other accountable for how their actions — or inactions — affected one another. Due to limited space in the bathrooms, for example, the boys formed a habit of hanging underwear on the pipes, but if they left them there, they started to form a less-thancomfortable living situation. To curb the problem, the boys hung up public service posters, as well as a “days without underwear” counter tracking pairs on the pipes, reminding everyone to clean up after themselves. The consequence for not doing so? “We would shame them to hell,” Gabriel explained. “Like some Scarlet Letter.”

To boot, their “town hall” meetings held every Friday added structure to basement life — it was a platform for announcements, such as those surrounding the underwear. Although over the course of their first year, the meetings transitioned from “cute” town halls held in their lounge to just, “Let’s throw a rager.”

It is universally agreed upon that the common area was what ultimately brought them together. Other basement floors, while of a higher physical quality, are just hallways. Meanwhile, Shapiro basement has its own lounge populated with couches, a TV, a massacred dartboard, a ping-pong table, and a nonfunctional minifridge that appeared out of the blue. It wasn’t only a place to hold town hall meetings; things started with a group chat to organize movies on the basement TV, and it all snowballed from there. Whether it was their early fall semester poker night when Marcus Sutton ’25 was elected president of the basement, the Super Bowl party, or their basement prom and graduation — most of which were organized by the basement’s party planning committee, which was primarily David and Eli — the lounge became the center of basement life.

The couches in the lounge also became a second bedroom for some. For various reasons, not excluding COVID-19 quarantines, there would be basement residents looking for a place to crash, so they’d move a couch into someone’s room or simply set up camp in the lounge and sleep. Ben Lambright ’25 spent around three nights in a row with his sleeping bag on top of two couches put together, and David joked, “Another unifying factor [was] taking pictures of me sleeping.” But something about the basement had to be unique. Students hang out in places like the Shlounge — campus slang for the Shapiro Lounge — and have certainly slept there, but this basement dynamic isn’t found elsewhere on campus. “I think it definitely helped that we were all freshmen, too, because we were all looking to make friends,” Jonah said. Further, the basement’s common area was right off of their rooms, which allowed the boys to socialize in a way they wouldn’t have been able to on other floors. There was always someone in the lounge, either from their floor or another, which had its benefits, although it did get to the point where they hid the HDMI cord to prevent strangers from taking over the aux. Such borderline ridiculous instances ran rampant; there was also Byron, a six-foot-tall metal statue that lived alongside the boys in the basement. “I just woke up one day and he was just standing outside my room,” Shakthi Kodeswaran ’25 remembered. “I was like, ‘Who is this?’” Byron could not be reached for a request for comment. Ultimately, the year had to come to an end, and in some ways, it was a relief to move on. Namely, the poor quality of living wasn’t going to be missed. Losing the basement wasn’t the end of the world — even without poker nights or shower conversations, the relationships they built, while fostered by the basement, didn’t require that shared space. This year, the boys are scattered in other living spaces across campus but say they’ve remained close. “Each of us went through a lot of firsts in the basement,” Eli said. “It was a safe space for all of us to explore college and figure out who we are in college, because it’s a big transition.” The transition from a senior year lost to COVID-19 to the first year of college is intimidating, but as Eli said, it helped that it was an experience they went through together. “With people who are also going through it … it made it feel less isolating.”

A common sentiment on campus regarding first-year housing is, as Tristan put it, “As long as you don’t get the basement, you’re fine.” But for last year’s Shapiro basement boys, the random assignment was the opposite of a curse. “Going into college, I didn’t imagine I would get to know all of [these] guys like that,” Tristan said. “I know we all have our separate friends and stuff. But I know we can always go back to each other if need be.” This support system created in the Shapiro basement might have initially been caused by poor living conditions, but the disasters in the basement proved to form a powerful bond. If they had lived in any other configuration across campus, it may not have happened. Sometimes, you just get lucky.

Photo courtesy of ZACH MAYER

UNDERWEAR COUNTER: Residents held each other accountable for keeping the space tidy.

Photo courtesy of AARON ROSENDORF DISASTER: At one point, the water fountain exploded.

Photo courtesy of ELI FIGHTER BYRON: Byron, pictured, could not be reached for comment.

Isabel Roseth, Editor in Chief

Smiley Huynh, Managing Editor

Jen Crystal, Cameron Cushing, Jane Flautt, Sofia Gonzalez, Senior Editors

Leah Breakstone, Lauryn Williams, Deputy Editors

Juliana Giacone, Samantha Goldman, Megan Liao, Natalie Kahn, Jack Yuanwei Cheng, and Ariella Weiss, Associate Editors

Sophia De Lisi, Dalya Koller, Anika Jain, News Editors

Cayenn Landau, Features Editor

Tibria Brown, Forum Editor

Aiden Guthro, Sports Editor

Mina Rowland, Arts & Culture Editor

Owen Chan, Ceci Xilei Chen, Photography Editors

Julia Hardy, Jenna Lewis, Madison Sirois, Copy Editors

Anna Martin, Layout Editor

Maddy Dulong, Ads Editor

Zachary Goldstein, Eden Osiason, Online Editors

Asking for a friend

If you are interested in submitting advice for this column for this upcoming issue, follow our Instagram: @thejusticenewspaper. How are you, a student, dealing with the housing crisis on campus?

“As a low-income student that struggles to make it by at this already expensive university. I feel it is unjust that now many students have to look for housing themselves because the university cannot adequately provide housing. “

— Ariel Schultz ’25

“I feel like a lack of communication between students and DCL about certain deadlines and details made this year’s housing selection super stressful. I know a lot of students are frustrated and upset about it. Yes, Brandeis cannot guarantee housing for all undergraduates, but having the selection suddenly be so limited is ridiculous, especially when students were not warned to anticipate that.”

— Maeve Coakley ’26

“As someone who currently does not have any housing, I’m scared. I did everything right and on time, but I am still being punished. I know it’s not DCL’s fault, but it affects me because If I don’t have housing, I will not be able to continue at Brandeis next year.”

— Xavier Wilson ’25

EDITORIAL

Brandeis is not doing enough to solve its housing crisis

The housing selection process for the 2023-2024 academic year has been nothing if not disastrous. On-campus housing has been the subject of many editorials written by this board in the past, and students have long been urging the University to focus on improving both the quality and the quantity of housing, but clearly, such pleas have been in vain. This year, the increasing number of admitted students each year and the neverchanging amount of housing provided by the University led to over half of upperclassmen not receiving housing.

This estimate comes from the original pool of 1499 upperclassmen, with only 665 beds offered to them. Because the class of 2026, this year’s first-year class, is the biggest class Brandeis has seen yet — second to which is the class of 2025 — a large amount of housing, mostly in the Charles River Apartments, was given to the rising sophomores, leaving even less housing for the rising upperclassmen, who are already not guaranteed housing. This board understands that the University needs to provide housing to its rising sophomores, but this should not happen at the expense of upperclassmen. Ideally, all students who want on-campus housing should be able to get housing.

As more students move off campus, the Waltham area will become increasingly with college students. According to a 2018 report by real estate listing service RENTCafé published in the magazine Insight Into

Diversity, when private universities expand into urban areas, gentrification often follows, and longtime, low-income residents are often displaced. Brandeis and Bentley University’s expanding student bodies actively push out Waltham locals and drive up rent prices in the area, which leads to either only wealthy students securing housing or creating an unlivable environment where groups of students are cramming themselves into houses and apartments. Due to the high demand for housing this process leaves students vunerable to exploitation be predatory landlords. This is in addition to the existing high cost of living in Waltham, which is 150.3% of the national average.

The University has to invest in expanding housing options because the problem is only going to get worse. If the student body continues to grow but dorm options stay exactly the same, more and more students will be left to scramble to find somewhere to live the next academic year. Moving offcampus is not an option for everyone, as it is expensive, and landlords are raising rent costs in order to take advantage of students who desperately need somewhere to live.

It is clear that the University is willing to construct new buildings, such as the proposed building to accommodate an engineering department, and spend time and resources to renovate the Shapiro Campus Center, but their complete silence on plans to update housing on campus speaks volumes.

This sends a clear message that they hear the complaints of students and simply do not care about fixing what arguably affects their students the most.

Whether they build more housing, convert the office buildings, or buy housing near campus, administration needs to find a solution rather than simply placing students on a waitlist for an undefined amount of time, leaving them to worry about their housing situations as they deal with finals on top of everything else. If this is somehow not possible, we urge the University to get hotel rooms for students or provide more financial aid for students seeking off-campus housing.

The Department of Community Living failed to warn students in advance of this crisis, something which they must have expected — and if no department on campus saw this coming, they are incredibly shortsighted. DCL cannot do anything about how many students are admitted, but communication is key. This was always going to happen, and the lack of transparency on the part of the administration is alarming.

The University often claims that they provide housing to all students who want it, and this claim has always been dubious. In the past, they accommodate students who stay on the waitlist, but many remove themselves in order to avoid the late fee that has thankfully been eliminated this year in response to the uproar. However, if they continue to claim this, it will be a complete

lie rather than them simply bending the truth. This housing crisis shows a complete lack of planning, thoughtfulness, and care for students from the administration, and it is unacceptable.

In an April 28 email sent by University President Ron Liebowitz to Brandeis students, he stated that the University needs adequate funding to create new housing. However, this board is confused as to why the endowment is not being utilized in this moment of crisis. According to the Office of Investment Management, as of June 2022, the University’s endowment had a value of around $1.2 billion and “provided approximately 15% of the university operating budget in fiscal year 2022.”

Ultimately, many students on campus feel like bank accounts to the University as their needs go ignored by the administration. By raising costs and failing to improve campus life, the University is actively harming those they are responsible for caring for. While this is a tale as old as time, the administration must re-evaluate their priorities.

It is not enough to send out an email a couple days after the fact offering up “listening sessions” as consolation. The University has to show that they are committed to solving this problem. No matter how many times they sit down and promise they’re listening to our concerns, the student body will not be heard until steps are actively taken, with transparency, to solve the housing crisis.

ANNA MARTIN/the Justice

Trying to survive housing chaos

By VALERIA AYALA JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Halfway through the spring semester, my friends and I decided we wanted to live together. We realized that one of our best options was to live in Ziv Quad, which has suite-style dorms for six people. The Department of Community Living facilitates the housing process at Brandeis and gives you a lottery number to enter the housing pool — the lower the number, the more likely it is to get your choice in housing.

This spring pool size was 1,499 for upperclassmen, and I had a pretty low number. I believed it was possible to secure my desired housing when I compared the odds of people with the same number in previous years. I thought that even if I wasn’t able to live with my friends, I’d probably be able to get somewhere to live. The chances with my number and another person in my group who had an even better number made all of us feel sure we’d get housing.

This completely changed on housing selection day, Tuesday, April 24. After the first three hours, almost all upperclassmen dorms were gone, and my group had nowhere to live. According to the housing selection index, approximately 1,499 upperclassmen were in the pool for fall selection.

However, according to the live availability form, only 665 beds were being offered to juniors and seniors, meaning at the beginning of housing selection, 834 out of 1,499 students had no shot at living on

campus in the fall. My group and I were screwed. There was nothing left for any of us to even get a double or triple room. We had no plan because we were confident that we had a good shot at securing something for ourselves. Fortunately, two of the people in our group were able to secure a double village with their low numbers. All of this happened in just a few hours, and my group went from being excited to live together next year to anxiously sifting through the expensive Waltham housing market.

Most of the group is split between being forced to live off campus or transferring to universities in our home states. Almost everyone else in my group lives around Atlanta, Georgia but I live in Houston, Texas. If we get split up over this situation, I’d be completely separated from the friends I’ve made in the past two years.

Because I live so far away, I desperately needed to have reliable housing in order to continue going to college — but it was not given to me. I understand that Brandeis has been very clear that housing is only “guaranteed four consecutive semesters,” but the amount of upperclassmen that were left without housing is insane to the point that it’s fair to say that most of them never had a chance of getting housing.

We’ve been looking at apartments, but of course, they are very expensive. During the time I have lived on campus I have had financial aid, which helped me pay for housing, tuition, and meals. But if I’m forced to live off campus, who’s to say my financial

aid will cover each of those things? As I’ve tried to figure out this whole issue with DCL and the financial aid office, they’ve both sent me in circles. The organizations don’t collaborate for individual student’s needs and circumstances, so I keep finding myself pleading my case over and over and still getting no help from anyone.

I’m unsure about what our next steps should be because we don’t have any solid answers. It sucks that the University doesn’t have on-campus housing for all students, but it would be infinitely more helpful if someone in DCL could help us navigate the Waltham housing market instead of leaving us to figure this out on our own — especially as class sizes continue to grow and more students are forced to turn to off-campus housing.

I’ll acknowledge that the University has a lot of resources that can help students who need off-campus housing. However, because of the abounding students suffering and reaching out to DCL for help, there’s no way they’ll be able to help all of us in a reasonable amount of time, especially factoring in that everyone has different advisors, different financial aid, and needs different help. There’s no way they can satisfy everyone, especially with the short time period they have given everyone to make their decision.

At this moment, I’m very frustrated. Initially, this frustration was directed at DCL and their personnel. However, while it’s true DCL had a lot of room for improvement and could have communicated with the

student body sooner about the extremely limited spots for upperclassmen, this issue as a whole extends beyond them.

Brandeis should be working to accommodate their students by finding us housing off campus, being transparent when there is an issue with housing, and actively working toward creating more housing. Brandeis cannot keep subjecting young people to this year after year without significant improvements.

Words matter: Thoughts on code-switching

As a brown-skinned girl, and often the only one in some of my classes, I hardly raise my hand to offer my thoughts in class.

I am the “quiet kid” who is always listening to the lectures and my peers discussing literature we were supposed to have need.

Am I an introvert? Yes, I am. Yet for me, the reason behind not speaking up is because of a fear of not fitting into the standards that seemed to be placed on students like me: students of color.

While everyone around me can eloquently articulate arguments and ideas in class and exude confidence, I question my ability to do the same. I did not have the amazing private, or at least quality public school, experience that most white students had, nor have I been the best at expressing ideas clearly and concisely.

With my background, I am already at a disadvantage compared to my peers, and due to that lack of a sense of belonging, the idea of talking seems, in my mind, as if it would only exacerbate others’ opinions of me.

I have been researching code-switching, which if you don’t know is the “process of shifting from one linguistic code to another, depending on the social context or conversational settings,” per the Encyclopedia Britannica. This can be within a particular language; for example, switching from English to Spanish, or between styles

By MIRABELL ROWLAND JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

of one language, from African-American Vernacular to Standardized English. As one gazes across the educational landscape, one can see how code-switching is normalized for students of color.

Often, for communities of color at a young age, children are taught to leave behind their colloquial ways of talking and writing, especially for the children who are the minority in their school. Children are taught to assimilate into their environment, — in essence, code-switch. I thought about this complex feeling of isolation that can come with being a person of color who has assimilated for survival.

I just saw a TEDx talk about the negative effects of code-switching by Chandra Arthur, and it was quite powerful. She begins her talk with a particularly harrowing anecdote. She talks about a time when a neighbor called law enforcement on her because of “suspicious activity.” Multiple police officers surrounded her front door with guns drawn. “Hands in the air! Hands in the air now!” they yelled.

Arthur, who froze in the moment, talks about how she was eventually able to compose herself and talk with the police calmly, expressing that she is the owner. In the talk, she rhetorically questions her audience, asking, “What if I had not spoken like me? What if the person who opened

the door had not been able to compose themselves in the face of grave danger, confusion, and potentially even death to prove that they have the right to be on that property?”

She uses the entire story to be able to illustrate the roles behavior plays in particular situations and how codeswitching can be a survival tool. She talks about how she moved from her neighborhood school to a suburban school with mostly white students, and the process of eventually assimilating to her peers occurred gradually.

She goes on to explain how when choosing to be authentically yourself, there can be some consequences, from not getting a particular job to being made fun of for wearing a hijab or dismissed because you are talking with an accent.

There is an inherent hierarchy within language, and the most respected and wellconsidered is Standardized English. Often for communities of color, the need to selfregulate can become quite draining and exhausting. As stated by Arthur, to “exist almost simultaneously in two or three different worlds, constantly presenting a slightly edited version of self” is a burden that can create harm to one’s physical and mental well-being.

Arthur brings to light the brand of

diversity only supporting the idea of inclusion of minorities if they act and behave in specific ways. She wants to move her audience past a generic definition of diversity and recognize the importance of celebrating differences. She concludes her talk by asking the audience to imagine one world where everyone is accepted as they are, and she challenges everyone to give others the space to be themselves.

When thinking about a solution, I come across a new word, one I like much more, which is code-meshing. According to Vershawn Ashanti Young, a scholar, writer, and professor, code-meshing is defined as “combining two or more dialects, language systems, and/or communication modes to effectively write and speak within the multiple domains of society.”

While learning words and ideologies like code-switching and code-meshing, or even fully breaking down the meaning of words like diversity and equity, there needs to be more than just words, there needs to be action. Simply raising awareness of this issue is the first step because many people remain unaware of the struggles and barriers marginalized communities face. Only then we can focus on working together to create spaces where everyone is respected no matter how they talk — because our voices matter and so do our words.

ELIZABETH LIU/the Justice

BRUINS: From title favorites to title flops

CONTINUED FROM 16

TD Garden is home to what was the number one team in both basketball and hockey respectively, but with the Bruins off of their pedestal, all eyes and pressure turn

toward the Celtics to get the job done for the city of Boston — because we all know the Patriots and Red Sox don’t seem to be competing anytime soon.

MIAMI: Two-time MVP gets sent home early

CONTINUED FROM 16

Jrue Holiday chase Butler off and leaving the athletic, long-armed Pat Connaughton under the rim. Everything looked right as Butler ran into Connaughton, who put his hand up and made the catch extremely difficult — Butler somehow controlled the ball as he lost balance and fell mid-air, whipped the ball up, and made the game-tying layup. Both teams entered overtime in the crucial game five. While three free throws from the Bucks all-star shooting guard Khris Middleton and an Antetokounmpo layup gave the homecourt fans some hope, a late foul gifted Strus another two points from the charity stripe and made it a fourpoint game again. Milwaukee did have a chance to bring the game to a second overtime or to even win the game with the final 5.1 seconds left, but a sloppy final possession ended the Bucks’ season.

The Heat completed a historical upset as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, eliminating the top-seed Milwaukee Bucks, who also sported the best regular-season record in the NBA. The Miami squad became the sixth NBA team to upset the numberone seed in the first round and did so after nearly losing the play-in game against Chicago to secure the playoff spot — leading critics to name this as the greatest upset in the history.

With Herro injured early in the series, Butler put the Heat up on his shoulders, averaging an unbelievable 37.6 points per game with near-60 shooting percentage. They take on the New York Knicks, led by Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett, in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The South Florida team seeks to continue their quest for another Finals run after failing to take home the trophy in the 2020 season.

RODGERS: Green Bay legend leaves Lambeau for a shot with New York

CONTINUED FROM 16

did just that again as he sat in a pitchblack room for four days called the “darkness retreat” to contemplate whether he was going to retire from the sport completely. It’s said that this adventure allowed Rodgers to clear his mind and gain insight into what he wanted for his future.

This deal marks the end of an era in Green Bay, as Rodgers’ reign at the helm concludes after 18 storybook seasons. While in Green Bay, the star quarterback accomplished a Super Bowl victory in 2011; 475 touchdown passes, the fifth most in NFL history, and 59,055 passing yards ,the ninth most in NFL history. With these accomplishments, Rodgers was able to cement himself as one of the

greatest to perform in Lambeau stadium — in good company, as the stadium has hosted countless Hall of Fame-talent quarterbacks over the years.

It’s a fitting fresh start for Rodgers, following in the footsteps of fellow Packers legend Brett Favre in being traded to the Jets after an illustrious career with the team. Rodgers will hope to lead the Jets into the playoffs, as the team hasn’t made the postseason since the 2010-2011 season. This sad fact gives the Jets the longest active playoff drought streak amongst the big four professional sporting leagues.

For the Packers, the team will look to regain its strength with Love in the

pocket. Their draft capital, received as part of the deal, will look to replenish many of the areas that have been weak over the past years. As the backup for the past three seasons, Love brings a combination of his youthful athleticism and experience to a now young-and-upcoming Packers squad. Unfortunately for Love, he’ll have to face the pressure of being the successor to an all-time great. Fans will be tuning in to Green Bay, seeing if Love was the right answer to the Rodgers woes. Rodgers will be wearing his collegiate number 8 with the team, marking a new chapter in his evolving football career.

WOES IN BEANTOWN: Pegged by many hockey analysts as title favorites, the Boston Bruins had a first round playoff exit.

BIG APPLE: After 18 years with the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers is leaving Wisconsin and heading to the New York Jets.

JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

DOMINATING THE DIAMOND

Softball sets sites on tournament

has won 15 games and recorded 124 strikeouts. On top of that, she has a 2.02 earned run average and pitched a total of 121 innings. In the Judges’ most recent doubleheader versus Lesley University, Kannan recorded seven strikeouts on the road to a dominant 13-0 victory.

By AIDEN GUTHRO JUSTICE EDITOR

This year was not a great one for many Brandeis sports teams. However, in the midst of this landscape, one team has shown to be a national powerhouse — softball. The Brandeis Softball team currently holds a 24-12 record with only two games left on their schedule. With a lot of young talent on the roster, it was unknown how this team would perform. The University Athletic Association is one of the most competitive Division III leagues in the country, and performing well in the conference can be quite difficult for any team on Brandeis’ campus. Last season, the team went 8-12 in conference with a 22-18 overall record — respectable, but not quite NCAA tournament material. This season, the team looks different. Finishing second in the UAA with a 13-7 conference record, the squad is poised for an NCAA tournament bid.

There are many differences between last year’s and this year’s teams. Most notably, the first year talent has been absolutely dominant. Pitcher Ragini Kannan ’26 has been lights out on the mound for the Judges — in her 22 appearances, she

Outside of Kannan, Erin Hunt ’26, Bells Burdenski ’26, and Maddie Manes ’26 have also had great success in their first year in Waltham. Hunt is the leadoff hitter for the team and has proven worthy to carry the title. Batting .388 with a .456 on base percentage, the North Carolina native has been vital to the Judges’ offense. Hunt is also an incredibly effective base runner, stealing 26 bags so far this season. Her defense in center field has been lock-down, with many spectacular catches fit for a highlight reel. Her lefty partner Manes has also been a first-year standout this season. Manes’ sweet swing has notched her 24 RBIs with two home runs. Batting .337, Manes has been a must-start player all season long — her composure at first base has cemented this role as well. Moving from the outfield to shortstop, Burdenski looks like a serious candidate for UAA Defensive Player of the Year. Whether it is a line drive or a weird hopping ball to short, Burdenski is all over it — making even the hardest fielding plays with ease. But don’t be fooled; she isn’t just a defensive specialist. With four home runs and 15 RBIs, the West Coast phenom has been able to do it all on the diamond. Many teams struggle when relying on talent from first-year players, but not these Judges. Without their considerable contributions, the team would not be in the position they are today.

While the first-year talent has

been nothing short of incredible, veteran players Haley Nash ’24 and Alex Cohen ’24 have shown off their experience throughout the season. Third basewomen Nash has been one of the most powerful hitters in the conference. Leading the team with six home runs, Nash has been a great clean-up hitter for Brandeis. Last season, Nash recorded seven home runs, but her extra base hitting this season has made up for the difference. Last, but certainly not least, co-captain Cohen has gotten the job done on the pitching rubber and the batter’s box. As the two-time UAA Pitcher of the Week, Cohen has put fear into every batter she has faced. With 85 strikeouts and a 3.08 ERA, the tandem of Cohen and Kannan has been a doozy for opposing batters.

A .324 batting average accompanied by four home runs, Cohen has been a reliable hitter since she stepped on campus her first year. Awarded AllUAA honors last season, the fierce Floridian will hope to add to her trophy case at the conclusion of this year. Head coach Dani Bishop and the rest of the team still have their work cut out for them; making the tournament is an unbelievable achievement, but the talent on this team could do damage if they can keep advancing. The team returns to action May 2 to face off against the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in their final regular season games. Come support the team and watch them as they try to return to postseason play.

■ After a fantastic year on the diamond, the Brandeis Softball team has placed themselves in exciting postseason territory.

ELIZA BEIR/the Justice

ACE : Brandeis Softball first-year Ragini Kannan has been a dominant force on the mound, pitching 121 innings.

Sports just

Butler and Miami Heat shock the basketball world

■ The eighth-seed Miami Heat won their series over top-seed Milwaukee Bucks, 4–1, behind great performances from Jimmy Butler.

By JACKSON WU JUSTICE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

When Tyler Herro broke his right hand in game one and announced that he would undergo surgery, many National Basketball Association fans, including me, thought that the Miami Heat’s season would soon come to an end. One man, however, refused to give in, extended the series, and eventually led the Heat to win their first-round matchup. His name is Jimmy Butler.

After the Heat took a 2-1 series lead in Miami, the Bucks sought to regain control as the two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo returned to their lineup in game four. The Bucks were seemingly in charge for the bulk of game four, enjoying a 12-point lead with six minutes left in the game, until the Heat woke up and responded with a 13–0 run to force a full timeout from Bucks’ head coach Mike Budenholzer. Both teams traded buckets for a couple minutes after the break before Butler, who scored 22 points in the first quarter, crafted another 7-point run of his own with one tough bucket after another and

RODGERS

closed the game out. Butler totaled a career-high 56 points in the effort — most in the Heat’s franchise history, and also tying for the fourth best scoring record in all NBA playoffs games.

Butler’s epic performance in game four stood out for obvious reasons, but one major reason was his efficiency. He finished the game making 19 of his 28 shots — 68% accuracy from the field. Aside from the 22 points scored in the first quarter, the Miami star also registered 19 points in the final five minutes of the game. It would not be an overstatement to say that Butler single-handedly lifted the Heat over the Bucks. The Butler sensation did not end in game five in Milwaukee. He tallied another 42-point scoring contribution, shooting 52% from the field. The Bucks, like game four, stayed in control for the majority of game five and had a 14-point lead going into the final quarter. Butler stepped up yet again in the final minutes as the Heat inched closer — taking it down to a two-point deficit with 2.1 seconds left on the game clock. The Heat’s head coach Erik Spoelstra used a full timeout and appointed guard Gabe Vincent to execute the throw-in pass. As the official handed Vincent the ball, Butler and Max Strus ran a cross-screen action looking to force a mismatch. The Bucks stuck to their defensive setting, having the agile pick-and-roll defender

See MIAMI, 13 ☛

After 18 seasons with Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers heads to NYC

■ Future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers was traded from the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets.

By ZACHARY GOLDSTEIN JUSTICE EDITOR

After weeks of negotiations between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets, the two sides finally reached an agreement — in blockbuster fashion — for quarterback Aaron Rodgers. As part of the deal, the Packers received a slew of draft picks, including the 13th in the first round, 42nd in the second round, and 207th in the sixth round in the 2023 NFL Draft and a 2024 second-round pick that will become a first-round pick if Rodgers plays 65% of the Jets’ snaps in the upcoming 2023-24 season.

BRANDEIS SOFTBALL STAYS STRONG

The Brandeis Softball team has been one of the most dominant and consistent teams throughout the spring semester, pg. 15.

Florida Panthers upset Boston Bruins in first round of playoffs

Trade rumors regarding Rodgers have been brewing since late 2020, when the Packers surprisingly selected quarterback Jordan Love with their first round pick. The future hall of famer had grown unhappy with the team's willingness to trade for new offensive weapons and felt as if they were wasting his time. Since then, Rodgers went on a tear — winning two league MVP awards and solidifying himself amongst the league’s best in spite of criticism that his game has fallen off. However, this past season was one of Rodgers’ worst to date. He threw for the fewest passing yards in any season in which he played at least the majority of the snaps and had lackluster performances with throwing the football.

Back in mid-March, Rodgers made his traditional appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show,” formally announcing his intent to play for the Jets for the upcoming season. This wasn’t decided lightly, as nearly every offseason dating back to 2018, there were always rumblings regarding Rodgers playing status. In February, Rodgers

See RODGERS, 13 ☛

■ After an amazing regular season campaign, the Boston Bruins lost their first series of the NHL playoffs to the Florida Panthers.

By JOSH GANS JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

When it comes to the National Hockey League playoffs, all bets are off. The regular season is behind us, and now we get to the serious business of a brand new season made of seven-game series. It doesn’t matter how lopsided the teams were in the regular season: If one team, one player, one goaltender gets hot, it’s lights out. Nothing encapsulates that more than what happened The night of Sunday, April 30, when we saw one of the biggest first round upsets in NHL history.

The 2022-23 Boston Bruins were the best regular season team in hockey history, boasting an inconceivable 65-12-5 record. They faced the last-seeded team in the

Eastern Conference, the 42-32-8 Florida Panthers, who narrowly squeaked into the playoffs by a single point after dropping their final two games of the regular season. As the series progressed, it seemed to go the expected route. The Bruins led the series 3-1, capped off by a dominant 6-2 game four victory in Sunrise, Florida, and they needed just one more win to cruise into the next round of the tournament. The odds were stacked against them, but the Panthers had nothing to lose — a dangerous position for an opponent to be in in any sport.

In Boston for game five, the Panthers celebrated a surprise 4-3 overtime victory to bring the series back home. Game six was a 12-goal thriller. It was 3-2 Florida entering the third period, and the Bruins came back from their third deficit and fourth tie to finally take a 5-4 lead with nine minutes, 38 seconds left. This was followed by three unanswered goals from the Panthers, giving the Flordians a 7-5 victory and forcing the all-important game seven. Finally in game seven, the visitors took a stunning 2-0 lead, silencing the Boston crowd. The Bruins saw this as a wake-up

call, scoring three unanswered just as the Panthers had done in game six — capped off by a go-ahead goal from David Pastrnak, the league’s second-highest goalscorer with 61 this season. This lifted the roof off of TD Garden. However, with under a minute to go in regulation, defenseman Brandon Montour tied the game, sending it to overtime before center Carter Verhaeghe won it, eliminating the Bruins and shocking the hockey world.

The Panthers are a resilient bunch who fended off all the doubters. They were led by left-winger Matthew Tkachuk who was the star of the game on three separate occasions, and had 11 points in the series, with five goals and six assists. The two winning goal scorers in game seven, Montour and Verhaeghe, each had eight points during the series.

In the Eastern Conference semifinals, Florida will face the Toronto Maple Leafs, who just won their first playoff series since 2004. The Bruins go home empty handed yet again, now 13 years without a Stanley Cup, despite getting very close and being odds-on favorites on many occasions since then.

UPSET: Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat upset Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2022-23 playoffs.

Photo: Tiancheng Zheng/the Justice. Design: Owen Chan/the Justice.

Waltham, Mass.

SPRINGFEST 2023

LEONARD BERNSTEIN FESTIVAL OF THE CREATIVE ARTS

By JANE FLAUTT JUSTICE EDITOR

Springfest 2023 has officially come and gone, and it has certainly left its audience with mixed feelings. On Sunday, April 30, a smattering of Brandeis students braved the rain and 50-degree weather to shiver on Chapel’s Field, enjoy some free food trucks, and listen to live music. Unfortunately, what typically is the last big celebration of the spring semester before exam season officially begins ended up being a slightly disappointing concert series, mostly because of the horrible weather — thanks, Massachusetts. However, while this year’s Springfest may not have been quite as crowded or popular as previous years, there were some great moments despite the freezing rain and swamp-like conditions on Chapel’s Field.

The lineup this year received mixed reviews and commentary from students when it was announced on Brandeis Campus Activities Board’s Instagram. Chucky73, a rapper from the Dominican Republic whose music has hip hop, Latin, and trap influences, and Nardo Wick, a rapper whose song “Who Want Smoke?” earned platinum status, were announced as the two openers along with a student band called Nectar, who were the winners of Brandeis Got Talent. Doechii, a rapper who has collaborated with SZA and Kodak Black, was the headliner for this year’s Springfest.As a senior experiencing my second and last ever Springfest, I definitely don’t

regret going this year. However, I was disappointed that the artist lineup became mixed up as the event was happening, though it seemed like that was due to Nardo Wick being late more than anything else. The students running the event at Campus Activities Board probably did their best to adjust the schedule as these unforeseen circumstances arose, but it was unfortunate that Doechii wasn’t officially the headliner in the end and that Nardo Wick was the final act of the day. I know a few people who planned to arrive just for Doechii and ended up barely catching the last third of her performance. That being said, Doechii was certainly the highlight of Springfest. Despite the rain and the small crowd, Doechii brought her all — she engaged with the audience and even went into the crowd at one point. There were a few technical difficulties during her performance, but Doechii kept playing off the energy of the crowd and maintained an infectious stage presence. Even for people who weren’t familiar with her music coming into Springfest, Doechii was a stand-out performer and definitely the best artist at Springfest this year.

Ultimately, compared to last year, Springfest 2023 fell a bit flat due to the weather and a slightly disappointing artist lineup. But, Brandeis’ spring concert series remains an entertaining, if chaotic, rite of passage for students, and the people who stayed the course on Chapel’s Field made the best of a dreary day and somewhat disorganized event.

Design: Yael Hanadari-Levy/the Justice. Photos: Tiancheng Zheng/the Justice.

RAINFEST: Students trekked through the rain to enjoy the Brandeis Springfest lineup.

DOECHII: Despite experiencing some technical difficulties, Doechii persevered and even started performing song requests.

HEADLINER: Doechii, a well known rapper and singer who became viral on TikTok, headlined for Springfest in Chapels Field.

RAINY DAYS: Springfest 2022 was bright and sunny unlike Springfest 2023.

MAKES A SPLASH

SOAKED: Students enjoyed music from performers even though it meant getting soaked.

SPRING SHOWERS: Not even rain can stop these students from having a great time.

MAY: The weather did not stop students as they prepared with

CHUCKY73: A Dominican Republic rapper, Chucky73 is a popular rapper who takes inspiration from his Bronx upbringing.

umbrellas and ponchos.

CUTE: Students went all out with their outfits, hair, and make-up.

Design: Yael Hanadari-Levy/the Justice. Photos: Owen Chan/the Justice.

By SOPHIA DE LISI JUSTICE EDITOR

Top 10 Shakespearean insults

William Shakespeare is known for a number of advances in the literary world: writing the tragic tale of “Romeo and Juliet,” making up words to fit iambic pentameter, and most importantly, the colorful insults spread throughout his works.

Here is my compilation of Shakespeare’s best insults to win arguments and confound those around you in the process.

1. “In heaven; send thither to see: if your messenger seek him i’ the other place yourself,” – “Hamlet” (Act 4, Scene 3)

2. “You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe!” – “Henry IV” (Part 2, Act 2, Scene 1)

3. “Thou sodden-witted Lord! Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows,” – “Troilus and Cressida” (Act 2, Scene 1)

4. “I wonder that you will still be talking. Nobody marks you.” – “Much Ado About Nothing” (Act 1, Scene)

5. “Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage.” – “As You Like It” (Act 2, Scene 7)

6. “I do wish thou were a dog, that I might love thee.” – “Timon of Athens” (Act 4, Scene 3)

7. “Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat.” – “Henry V” (Act 4, Scene 4)

8. “Thou concludes like the sanctimonious pirate.” –“Measure for Measure” (Act 1, Scene 2)

9. “Thine face is not worth sunburning.” – “Henry V” (Act 5, Scene 2)

10. “Out of sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.” – “Richard III” (Act 1, Scene 2)

SUDOKU

STUDENT ART SPOTLIGHT

Megan Liao is an illustrator and photographer. She likes birds, flowers, traveling, books, and coffee, which are all frequent motifs in her works. If you can’t find her in the Justice office battling her thesis, she’s probably taking photos in the gym. Her favorite color is cobalt blue.

SOPHIA DE LISI/the Justice

Photos: Ceci Xilei Chen/the Justice. Design: Jack Yuanwei Cheng.

Waltham, Mass.

Vol. LXXV #21

BRANDEIS CAMPUS LEONARD BERNSTEIN FESTIVAL OF THE CREATIVE

By MINA ROWLAND JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis Television club revived SunDeis which is a student-led film festival accepting various forms of video projects including music videos, documentaries and performance videos. The last day to submit was April 8, which allowed for judges to review films and select their top choices. Winners of the festival not only were featured as award winning films but also had a chance to win various prizes. The Festival awards ceremony and screening happened on April

By JULIA HARDY JUSTICE EDITOR

The “Radium Girls” production was presented by Brandeis students in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Shapiro Campus Center on April 20, with a total of four shows. I was lucky enough to be part of the production staff as the props designer. I was asked to help with the props for the show and I was originally hesitant to agree. As every student here can attest to, it can be hard to balance class work, social activities, and clubs, but I ultimately agreed to join the production crew. It was an amazing experience and I’m so glad I was able to be a part of this amazing show. I can’t believe I ever considered turning the position down.

By the time that tech week rolled around, all the major props were bought and sitting in the first floor of the SCC. Because the show was performed in the Multi-Purpose Room on the second floor of the SCC, the production staff and cast had to

carry everything from the first floor to the second. It was a lot to move, and the transportation of curtains, props, and lights added a significant amount of time to rehearsals. Despite this inconvenience, everyone involved with the show took it in stride. It was amazing being a part of a team that worked so hard and with such passion to put on the best show possible. Alyssa Allen ’24, our director, and Phoebe Shapiro ’25, our stage manager, worked to make sure that both cast and crew had a fun, welcoming environment to work in. Whether it was playing an energetic pre-show game, organizing giftgiving among the cast and crew, or sharing inspirational words before a performance, the “Radium Girls” set was such an amazing place to be. Laughing, singing, and dancing was a pivotal part of every rehearsal and show. “Radium Girls” was truly an amazing show to work on. If you’re ever on the fence about participating in a production, don’t hesitate to join. It’s such a wonderful experience and you won’t regret it!

22, 2023 in Skyline Commons. They offered a zoom meeting option; however, that was unfortunately cut short and they proceeded in person only. Emma Stewart ’25 and Isabella Seeman ’26 both presented the screenings and the awards; the ceremony lasted approximately two hours. Several talented students submitted their works including Delaine De la Cruz ’23, Mirabell Rowland ’25, Vimukthi Mawilmada ’24, and Arantxa Ortiz ’24. Works varied from documentaries to music videos and students were really excited to see all the talent Brandeis has to offer. BTV hopes for this festival to be annual.

Design: Anna Martin/the Justice. Photos: Eliza Beir/the Justice.

ALIVE WITH ART CREATIVE ARTS

By MIRABELL ROWLAND JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

On Saturday, April 22, and Sunday, April 23, students came together to sell artwork, jewelry, pottery, photography and so much more. It was a great opportunity for students to showcase their talents and gain exposure to the public, while also helping to contribute to expanding their art. Additionally, it was a great way to build community, as students from all different backgrounds and majors were able to come together, interact,

and show off the amazing work they had been creating. On Saturday, the craft market occurred outside in Fellows Garden and due to the weather, the craft market moved to Hassenfield Conference Center on Sunday. A lot of students, faculty, parents, and residents showed up to support young local artisans. It was an incredible success, with people of all ages admiring the unique and creative works of art. It truly was a great celebration of the talent in our Brandeis community! To all of the underclassmen, definitely consider selling your art or supporting fellow peers at the craft fair!

ADAGIO DANCE COMPANY 2023

GARDEN PARTY

By ISABEL ROSETH EDITOR IN CHIEF

The Adagio Spring Showcase was held in Levin Ballroom on Sunday, April 23. The show was choreographed and performed by choreagraphers and dancers from the Adagio Dance Company and featured two outside guests: Hooked on Tap and the Ballet Club.

Design: Anna Martin/the