The Justice, February 14, 2023

PROTESTS ON CAMPUS

Pro-Palestine protest garners national media attention

■ The protest sparked a counter-protest, and tensions between both groups were high.

By SOPHIA DE LISI AND NATALIE KAHN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER AND JUSTICE EDITOR

A pro-Palestine protest, organized by Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine, received national attention for its chants and rhetoric following the demonstration on Wednesday, Feb. 8, outside the Shapiro Campus Center.

The protest was a joint demonstration between Brandeis SJP and the Brandeis Leftist Union. A BLU member spoke on behalf of WarmUp Boston, a volunteer organization that aids the unhoused community within Massachusetts, and another BLU member spoke on behalf of the Boston chapter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement, an international anti-Israel, pro-Palestine organization. These groups came together in a display of support for the numerous Palestinians who were murdered by Israeli forces from the start of the year. A post that SJP shared on Instagram a week before the protest specifically referenced the killing of 10 Palestinians by Israeli troops in a Jenin refugee camp on Jan. 26.

The president of SJP, a Palestin-

RECORD-LOW COLD

Boston experiences coldest temperatures in decades

■ Brandeis students played in the cold and dealt with the impacts of the freezing temperatures.

By RIVER SIMARD JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

With the weather this week having daily highs in the 50s and even 60s, it’s shocking to imagine that just the Saturday before last, the temperature was minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill of minus 36 degrees. That Saturday was the coldest day in Boston since 1957 and the second coldest wind chill in Boston ever. The conditions brought both joy and frustration to Brandeis students.

Despite the lack of snow, Brandeis students were able to engage in the winter pastime of ice-skating and walking on Massell Pond which had frozen over. “I always thought it would be really cool to go skating on Massell Pond, but I never thought it would be possible,” Aaron Klein ’26 said. At this point in the year ponds and lakes are typically already frozen over; however, due to this year’s unusually high temperatures, this was

HOUSING

ian international student who asked to remain anonymous for safety purposes, spoke on the megaphone multiple times throughout the protest. Early on, she spoke about their high school classmate who was studying for a degree in medicine and was recently killed, along with his brother, by the Israeli military.

A Jewish student also spoke on behalf of the BLU: “The Brandeis Leftist Organization stands totally and completely with Palestine and her martyrs. We recognize that Israel is nothing more than an enlarged military base for the United States and its European allies to meddle in the Middle East. We, therefore, recognize that the liberation of Palestine is not a religious issue but, in fact, an issue of imperialism and injustice.”

The BLU member explained that they were protesting to “stand up for a different yet familiar apartheid — one where religion and ethnicity determine citizenship status, movement, and overall livelihood,” likely referring to policies such as Israel’s Law of Return that grants “every Jew in the world a right to settle in Jerusalem,” according to the Jewish Virtual Library. This right does not extend to any other population of people, such as Palestinians who were forced out or fled their homes in present-day Israel.

Palestinians and their supporters cite this disparity as one of the pri-

By NOAH RISLEY

mary examples of colonialism and racism within Zionist beliefs and policies, with this discrimination perceived as part of a systematic attempt to keep Palestinians out of their homeland and disenfranchise the Palestinians who remain. To clarify, Zionism is the general belief that Judaism is a nationality and a religion and that the Jewish population deserves a state within their ancestral homeland.

At the end of their speech, the BLU representative added, “All power to the people, all glory to the martyrs, and all solidarity with Palestine!”

While these were rallying words to BLU, SJP, and the unaffiliated students who stood in support of these organizations, students watching the protest had strong reactions to the use of the word martyr. Tehilla Oami ’26, one of the students who had come to watch the protest and also filmed part of it, criticized the speakers’ use of “martyrs” as a description for civilian Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and said, “it would be wise to call them victims” instead. She said the term martyr, along with other meanings, can be associated with terrorist attacks.

Another student, who asked to remain anonymous, shared their thoughts on the protestors’ use of the word “martyr,” saying, it’s “the murdering and the taking of Jewish lives, and to [the protesters] it

the first time this school year that the ice was thick enough to stand on let alone ice skate.

Klein, who had grown up playing hockey, went out and skated on the pond with several friends before the Brandeis Police eventually showed up and asked them to get off the ice. Because, according to Klein, parts of the pond were not completely frozen over and water was still running, Brandeis Police couldn’t allow students to be on the ice due to unsafe conditions. While Klein at the time respected the Brandeis Police’s decisions, he went back the next morning at 7 a.m. and skated again. “It was a really liberating, freeing feeling. I was a bit tired in the morning, but just to be out there by yourself,” Klein recalled.

Klein wasn’t the only one on the ice. Throughout the weekend he would be joined by other skaters and students, all of whom shared his same fascination with the typically runoff filled pool. Over the course of the weekend, students threw rocks, sticks and cones on the ice. Some even went as far as to put a table and bench in the middle of the pond.

The cold weather wasn’t all fun See WINTER CHILLS, 5 ☛

Record-high enrollment, overcrowding in firstyear housing

■ The Justice attempted to gain clarity regarding overenrollment rumors.

By NATANIELA ZAVLUN AND DANIELA ZAVLUN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

The current first year class is composed of 1,007 students, a 54 student increase from the 953 students enrolled in the class year between 2021 and 2022. According to Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Timothy Touchette in a Feb. 3 interview with the Justice, only four more lofted triples were filled than in the previous year. But several first-year students shared that triples appear to be a common housing arrangement among their class: ‘‘I'm in a forced triple. Half the floor is forced triples. Half of my friends are in forced triples,” one first-year said.

“Almost everyone I know is in a triple,” reflected another first-year.

In a Feb. 13 email to the Justice,

The need for Black Joy

 The Always Been project uses fine art photography to rethink our history in terms of Blackness.

By MINA ROWLAND

Touchette wrote that he is not able to share the number of students typically housed in lofted triples because this is a dynamic number. In an interview for a 2018 Justice article, Assistant Director of Operations and Community Development Amanda Drapcho shared that 321 beds belonged to lofted triples. This amounts to 107 lofted triples in 2018.

On the Brandeis University Parents Community Facebook page, some parents questioned the practice of housing students in lofted triples in the first place. “Our daughter lives in a Shapiro forced triple, and YES, the housing is over-crowded. The rooms are clearly designed for two people — small with two closets,” one parent said. “We did not expect luxury, but we did expect reasonable living conditions.”

“The first-year doubles look small for two people, and nearly impossible for three,” shared another parent, who preferred to stay anonymous. “I think it is rare that See HOUSING, 2 ☛

Meet the actor: Eric Bogosian

By GRACE DOH

Attendees speak on the Feb. 8 protest

By

PROTEST

ATTENDEES

JACKSON WU

MEDICAL EMERGENCY

Feb. 5—A party cut their hand in Ziv Quad. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and signed a refusal for further care.

Feb. 6—There was a report of an allergic reaction in the Lown Center for Judaica Studies. The party was treated by BEMCo, the Brandeis Police Department, the Waltham Fire Department, and Armstrong Ambulance. The party was transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 8—There was a report of an allergic reaction in East Quad. The party was treated by BEMCo, the Brandeis Police Department, the Waltham Fire Department, and Armstrong Ambulance. The party was transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 8—A party reported feeling sick in Ziv Quad. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and was transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 9—A party twisted their ankle in the Sherman Dining Hall. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and refused further care.

Feb. 9—A party reported an eye injury at the Gosman Athletics Field. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and the Brandeis Police Department and signed a refusal for further care.

Feb. 10—A party reported a finger injury at the Gosman

Athletics Field. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and the Brandeis Police Department and transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 10—There was a report of an allergic reaction off-campus. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and the Brandeis Police Department and signed a refusal for further care.

Feb. 10—A party called to report that they were intoxicated and not feeling well. The party was treated by BEMCo, the Brandeis Police Department, the Waltham Fire Department, and Armstrong Ambulance. The party was transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 10—A student was found intoxicated at the main entrance of campus. The party was treated by BEMCo and Armstrong Ambulance and was transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 11—There was a report of a student with a nosebleed and trouble breathing at Sherman Dining Hall. The party was treated by BEMCo, the Brandeis Police Department, the Waltham Fire Department, and Armstrong Ambulance. The party was transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 11—A party called the station at the request of their primary care doctor for a Lyft ride to a local hospital. BEMCo was notified, but the party de-

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

clined their medical services and took a Lyft to a local hospital.

MISCELLANEOUS

Feb. 5—There was a motor vehicle accident with no injuries in front of the Gosman Sports and Convention Center. A report was composed.

Feb. 5—A party called to state they received a 911 call from a student complaining of another student harassing them and requested units respond. The Brandeis Police Department responded, and peace was restored between the parties.

Feb. 6—A community member reported harassment by email while off campus. An investigation is to follow.

Feb. 6—There was a complaint regarding icy roads by the Stoneman-Golding Building. DFM maintenance was notified.

Feb. 9—There was a report of community members protesting outside the Administration Complex. An investigation is to follow.

— Compiled by Dalya Koller

HOUSING : Students and parents express concern about over-admission and housing

CONTINUED FROM 1

being in a forced triple doesn’t have some negative impact on the first-year experience.”

On the other hand, a different parent pointed out that without lofted triples, the University would have less housing available on campus for upperclassmen and rent in surrounding areas would rise as a result.

Touchette explained that there is a “maximum configuration” in which all bigger rooms are converted into lofted triples, and that the Department of Community Living has never reached that point.

Marina Buziak ’26 suggested that the increasing use of lofted triples may be the result of miscommunication between DCL and the Office of Admissions. Buziak reached out to the Justice about an incident where a midyear student was mistakenly assigned to her double room over the winter break, which already housed two people. Although the student was quickly reassigned to another room when Buziak brought the issue to the attention of DCL, she said that before they realized the mistake, “their response was genuinely that they thought they over-admitted, so they started blaming Admissions.”

Regarding communication between DCL and Admissions, Touchette said, “We are all part of the enrollment steering group that meets weekly, and we share information throughout the admissions and enrollment process.”

Director of Admissions Rebecca Simons added in a Feb. 8 interview with the Justice, “The Office of Admissions works closely with DCL throughout the year to make sure we are on the same page regarding the number of students we are enrolling, and that we can accommodate those students.”

Additionally, students and parents have complained that DCL is not always aware of available housing and does not place students accordingly. Buziak shared that she knew of a student who had re-

quested a single as a part of their medical accommodations but was placed in a lofted triple instead. She also knew of two other students that lived in a natural triple and did not have a third roommate.

Parent Amber Blanton shared in the Brandeis University Parents Community Facebook group that her son had been placed in a single that he did not request. She said, “I find it odd that there are so many forced triples while other kids get singles without needing or asking for one.”

Touchette explained that DCL uses a software called “the Housing Director,” which allows them to keep track of where there are rooms available. “We take a look at all the inventory all over campus and see if there are pockets of spaces available so that students aren’t all by themselves,” he said. “There’s always enough space.”

Touchette went on to clarify that DCL often houses older first-year students in East Quad when there isn’t enough space in the quads typically designated for first-years, Massell Quad and North Quad. In 2018, DCL reported that 65 first-year students were housed in East Quad to accommodate what was then the highest enrollment the University had seen, with a first-year class of 922 students.

Touchette said that the number of students placed in East Quad this year is “almost exactly the same” as last year.

For the upcoming 2023-2024 housing cycle, Touchette said, “There aren’t any significant changes this year that we’re anticipating.”

Editor’s note: Editor Cameron Cushing ’23 is employed by they Department of Community Living as a Community Advisor. He did not contribute to or edit this article.

www.thejustice.org

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.

Editor News Forum Features

Sports Arts Ads Photos Managing Copy Graphic Design Online

editor@thejustice.org news@thejustice.org forum@thejustice.org features@thejustice.org sports@thejustice.org arts@thejustice.org ads@thejustice.org photos@thejustice.org managing@thejustice.org copy@thejustice.org layout@thejustice.org online@thejustice.org

The Justice Brandeis University Mailstop 214 P.O. Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110

Phone: (781) 736-3750

The Managing Editor holds office hours on Mondays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Creating a legacy of student activists

MICHAELA McCORMAK ’23 has been a student activist ever since high school. As an activist, they advocated for reproductive rights-related legislations in Massachusetts. In addition, as a member of the Brandeis Leftist Union, they helped Brandeis’ dining worker union — Boston Local 26, to continue to be recognized by the new dining provider in 2022 as the University underwent a dining provider selection process.

“I don’t refer to myself as an activist, a word that other people use as a static state of being. You achive as opposed to organizing which is a process. For me, organizing is about radical empathy.” —Michaela

McCormack

SONALI ANDERSON MA’24 was a vital part of creating the Black Action Plan, a list of demands to the University with the goal of addressing institutional racism through structural changes.

“Activism on campus is still largely fueled by Black and Brown students on campus. Until activism, equity, and justice is embodied by admin the responses or solutions that are created and implemented by admin will always be felt as a force to appease vs. simply doing what is right.” —Sonali

CAMERON SAMUELS ’26 organized a student-led movement against censorship in Texas while in high school, in response to the blocking of LGBTQ+ websites and removal of library books. On campus, he is continuing to organize from afar.

“Politics happen whether we are at the table or not. Officials in Texas have been using their power to oppress young and marginalized people, and I could not stand idly by when officials were stealing my rights as a person who is queer, disabled, and Jewish. Mental health, freedom of expression, and other fundamental rights are lacking among our youth, and it’s because of our state officials. I organize because I am privileged to have the courage and dedication to do so. Who will fight for us if we are silent?”

— Cameron Samuels

Anderson

LOTEM SAGI ’24 is active in Brandeis Climate Justice and has done a lot with advocating for students through the Student Union regarding housing, food, and transportation issues, and environmental work with Brandeis Sustainability Ambassadors.

“Activism is essential to community advocacy and making sure that people’s voices are heard. Students have the unique perspective of understanding what it is like to live on campus and what those challenges entail, so it’s important to have student perspective in decision-making.” —Lotem

Sagi

Design: Anna Martin and Eliza Bier/the Justice

JACK YUANWEI CHENG/the Justice

SMILEY HUYNH/the Justice

SMILEY HUYNH/the Justice

Photo courtesy of LOTEM SAGI

By ANNA MARTIN, SMILEY HUYNH, AND JACK YUANWEI CHENG JUSTICE EDITORS

PROTEST: Brandeis SJP, BLU collaborate to organize pro-Palestine demonstration

CONTINUED FROM 1

doesn’t matter because the Jewish [people in Israel are] ‘colonizers’ and it is fighting back against that, so it’s a difference in perspective.

To [the protesters], that’s martyrdom, that’s freedom, and to us, [the Jewish community], you’re murdering us, you’re taking our lives.”

A group of around a dozen students came to observe the protest from afar, after hearing about it from friends or on social media, and various passersby stopped to watch the events taking place. A small group of students holding Israeli flags held a counter demonstration across from the protest, and some occasionally shouted at the student speakers on the proPalestinian side.

In the days following the protest, popular Jewish Zionist social media accounts posted about the protest, condemning the protesters for being antisemitic and demanding that the Brandeis administration do the same. These are some of the chants used by pro-Palestine protesters that drew backlash from these accounts’ followers:

“From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free!”

“There is only one solution, intifada revolution!”

“Netanyahu is the new Hitler!”

Members of the Jewish community, who reacted both in-person at the protest and online, said these chants incite violence toward the Jewish population in Israel. The first quote references the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which surrounds Israel. The second chant references two series of Palestinian uprisings and demonstrations that aimed to end Israel’s occupation of the land in the 1980s and the early 2000s, referred to as the First and Second Intifadas. While Britannica defines intifada as “shaking off” in this case, it is also used in the context of “uprising” to which some perceive as a call to violence against the Jewish population specifically.

A student bystander at the Feb. 8 protest explained the controversy of the term intifada.

“The point that [the pro-Palestine protesters] are making is that the whole area must be cleansed of the Jewish people and must be cleansed of the land [of] Israel, which is inherently a Jewish state ... They’re saying the whole area needs to be free of Jewish views,” a perspective that incites violence toward the Jewish community. They described how the word intifada insinuates a “call to murder” to a broader Jewish audience, as opposed to the intended “uprising.”

However, the president of SJP explained in an interview with the Justice after the protest that this definition of the word is inaccurate and that it is not a call for violence or hate against Jewish people. Instead, she defined it as a revolution against the Israeli government.

“‘Intifada’ in Arabic, it means revolution. Basically, we are just resisting against the Israeli occupation. The revolution is against the Israeli occupation. That’s just what it means,” she said.

The same student also addressed the SJP’s comparison of Netanyahu to Hitler. They explained: “Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the current Prime Minister of Israel, who many don’t like, rightfully so. … for the Jewish students to hear that … My grandmother was in Auschwitz. My grandmother was in seven concentration camps.”

Concerned alumni, students, and others flocked to one of Brandeis’ most recent Instagram reels, demanding the University make a statement to condemn the protest as antisemitic. On Feb. 13, University President Ron Liebowitz emailed a statement addressed to students, faculty, and staff in which he stated that both the SJP protest and counter protest groups “followed the proper protocols for scheduling a protest on campus,” and University staff was on site to maintain student safety, which was the priority.

He proceeded to say that freedom of expression is protected and valued at Brandeis. “However, the protections of speech will not shield from criticism those who evoke the horrors of the Holocaust in a disgraceful manner,

seek to promote violence, or call for the eradication of a country,” he continued.

Liebowitz stated that protesters included “members of non-Brandeis groups known to be antisemitic.” However, a spokesperson for BLU told the Justice on Feb. 13 that while Brandeis students read statements sent in by outside organizations, including Jewish Voice for Peace and BDS Boston, only two non-students were present at the pro-Palestine protest and that these individuals were “unaffiliated” with any organization, calling them “just friends and sympathizers.”

The concerns voiced in Liebowitz’s email were at the heart of the counter protest that formed across from the SJP and BLU protest. The pro-Israel protesters were a group of five to eight individuals, holding large Israel flags, a sharp contrast to the pro-Palestine group’s Palestine flag.

Unlike the pro-Palestine group, these counter protesters did not belong to any particular organization or group. Instead, they were a group of individuals who organized the counter demonstration to represent the opposite side of the same conflict: the Israeli claim to the land. There were also two individuals who have been confirmed to be representatives of the Israeli-American Council New England, though it is unclear which organization or individuals organized the counter demonstration.

Speaking to the Justice, this non-student, who asked to remain anonymous, said he has gone to other small-scale protests like this one and said that his work is “educating people about what Israel is, Holocaust Awareness, and [emphasizing] the fact that Israel is very much not an apartheid state. There aren’t two different laws for anybody in Israel. Everybody has the same rules … There is no such thing as apartheid in Israel.” He suggested that those who are curious about Israel should go see the country for themselves to form an opinion about the conflict, rather than listen to his or anyone else’s opinion.

As a part of the pro-Israel counter protest, Zachary Moskovits ’26 explained, “I view Brandeis University as a refuge from an antisemitic culture.” He considered the SJP protest a threat to that protection from antisemitism and felt he had to “stand up” in defense of it.

Jack Granahan ’26 said that the group both supported and wanted to defend Israel, because they “believe that [SJP’s] rhetoric is very dangerous, although some of [the pro-Palestine protesters] may be well-intended, well-meaning … the rhetoric that they spout is based on misinformation regarding Palestinian-Islamic Jihad” and that it is “often based [on] antisemitic tropes and the belief that Jews are not entitled to self-determination, and [the pro-Israel protesters] believe that as a campus with Jewish history and Jewish character, [they] should be standing up for Jews.” The Palestinian-Islamic Jihad is a terrorist and paramilitary group, secondary to the Hamas political and militant organization which has been designated a terrorist group by at least seven national governments including the United States. Both groups intend to overthrow the Israeli government and occupation and aim to install a Palestinian government in its place.

When asked about the counter-demonstrators, a Palestinian student and SJP member in attendance at the protest said, “we [Palestinians] want to live like they [Israelis] do.” He said he was protesting for the dozens of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of this year, including “friends of [his] friends.” The SJP president also spoke to the Justice about Palestinians who have been killed recently, including her own friends and family members. “Last week, 10 people were killed for absolutely no crime. And five people two days ago were also killed for absolutely no crime just because they’re Palestinians. As well as my friends who died … their own lives [were] taken away from me, from my family, my friends, from my community, and my people for absolutely no reason,” she said.

The conflict that these groups are protesting for is a land dispute, among other disagree-

ments, that comes down to two populations — the Israelis and the Palestinians — each wanting to possess the same land and decide the manner that it’s controlled. Both groups have long standing claims to the land that date back thousands of years each, hundreds of thousands of Jewish people moved from Europe to British-controlled Palestine between 1896-1948 as a result of rising antisemitism within European countries. Although this population immigrated to Palestine in search of establishing a safe space for Jewish people, the existing Palestinian Arab population that was already settled in the land saw the move as the first step toward total colonialism and the destruction of Palestinian society, this destruction referred to as “nakba,” which means catastrophe in Arabic. During the year-and-a-half long 1948 Palestine war, about half of Palestinian’s Arab population were expelled or fled from their homes. Since then, there have been numerous lethal demonstrations and wars instigated by both sides and even attempts at finding a compromise — but to no avail.

Both Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs have experienced a large number of fatalities as a result of the conflict; although the number of fatalities has been significantly higher among Palestinians, with the fatality ratios of Palestinians to Israelis being slightly more than 3-to-1 during both the intifadas. However, a number of Palestinian casualties are the result of Hamas intentionally situating their headquarters in civilian schools and hospitals, leading to Palestinian civilians being killed when Israeli Defense Forces carry out attacks against Hamas terrorists.

SJP and BLU were protesting very recent examples of violence against Palestinian people, notably the Palestinians killed in Jenin and Jericho.

The Washington Post refers to the Israeli raid in Jenin as “one of the deadliest West Bank incidents in years.” It resulted in the deaths of 10 Palestinians. Israeli officials said at least six of those killed were armed members of Palestinian militant groups. Two unarmed civilians, a man and a 61-year-old woman were among those killed in the raid, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Alongside these fatalities, 20 people were injured.

Less than two weeks later, five Palestinian militants were killed in the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp in Jericho. The BBC reported that Hamas said those killed were its members, while the Israel Defense Forces’ spokesperson, Ran Kochav, said the Israeli forces successfully “neutralized the terrorists,” claiming that some of the murdered were involved in a gun attack near a Jewish settlement from the week prior. No one was killed in the attack reference

Since these incidents, there have also been occurrences of violence toward Israelis. On Jan. 27, seven Israelis were killed and three were wounded in a terrorist attack near a synagogue in Jerusalem. Later, on Feb. 10, three Israelis — a six-year-old boy, an eight-year-old boy, and a 20-year-old man — died in a “car ramming terror attack” in East Jerusalem that left at least five other people injured. The attacker was identified as an Israeli citizen and resident of East Jerusalem. An Israeli official believes the attacker was mentally ill and was only released from a psychiatric hospital days prior to the attack. He was also known to support the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Ziad Nakhaleh.

In an interview with the Justice, the SJP president said they were protesting for the “36 Palestinians that were murdered [in] cold blood by the Israeli Occupation Forces, early January, the first month of the year … and for the lives of my friends and family who were killed.” The president described how members of her family were killed in the Al-Aqsa Mosque while they prayed, emphasizing that her cousin was killed while they were at the funeral for another one of their cousins who was murdered prior. Furthermore, the president added that they were protesting for the houses in East Jerusalem that were facing demolition and the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that would “go homeless, probably this week,” as a result.

The SJP president disregarded the counter protest candidly, stating that “[the pro-Israel group] are just anti-protesting, they’re showing that all they can do is steal. They stole my land, they stole my house, they killed my family, and stole their souls, now they’re stealing our protest. Let them be.”

While the pro-Palestine protesters faced backlash during and after the protest, they wholeheartedly rejected these accusations of antisemitism.

The president of SJP denied that the language the protestors used in their speeches and chants was antisemitic or meant to incite violence against the Jewish people, and she said Jewish people and the State of Israel are not one and the same: “I’m not being antiJewish when I’m saying that I want to revolutionize against Israel. Israel, while it is a state for Jews, it should not represent all the Jews in the world,” she said. She also said she has often been accused of being antisemitic simply because she is Palestinian. “Everything that a Palestinian does, even just existing, is called antisemitic and terrorist. I got called antisemitic so many times just for peacefully existing in this area and on campus.”

The SJP president also said that “people don’t really know what the meaning of antisemitism is,” explaining that Semitic refers to people who are descended from cultural groups who historically spoke Arabic and Hebrew, meaning they consider themself Semitic. “You can’t call me antisemitic when I am a Semitic person,” she said. However, their definition of “Semitic” is considered obsolete, and the modern definition of antisemitism specifically means prejudice or hatred against Jews.

The BLU also responded to accusations of antisemitism. In a public statement on Feb. 10, BLU wrote: “The accusation of antisemitism is on its face ridiculous, as anti-zionism is not antisemitism, and we reject this accusation as politically motivated. In addition, many of the members of the BLU present at the rally are Jewish, including the representative speaker for BLU, and one of our members even announced to the crowd ‘this Jew is an antizionist’ which has conveniently been left out of Zionist sympathetic coverage of the event as they see to make Israeli apartheid a religious rather than moral and political issue.’”

In a separate statement on Instagram released on Feb. 13, the BLU condemned the “racist and … inappropriate” behavior of bystanders and counter protesters, explaining that while members of the protest were recounting traumatic experiences such as their close ties to recent victims of attacks in the West Bank, as well as members of their family murdered in the Nakba, “the predominately white Zionist counter-protestors [laughed], [cheered], and [waved] Israeli flags.”

On Feb. 13, shortly after Liebowitz sent out his statement about the protest, Student Union President Peyton Gillespie ’25 and Brandeis Hillel President Eitan Marks ’23 sent a joint statement to students in response to the protest. They said they were saddened by “some of the hateful language and antisemitic language” used at the protest, “especially references to ‘Intifada’ and the Holocaust.” They also announced they would be hosting a silent demonstration on Tuesday to condemn “all kinds of hate speech.”

Multiple students who spoke to the Justice and expressed support for Israel disagreed with the pro-Israel counter-protest happening behind them. One student bystander, who criticized SJP and BLU’s chants, said, “I don’t condone the [pro-Israel counter protest] either. That’s just antagonizing [the pro-Palestine protesters], it’s just making it worse.” They added that with both sides continuously standing against one another, the tension will only worsen and nothing will be achieved besides mutual disdain and antagonism — much in the same way Israel and Palestine have yet to meet a peaceful solution on the international scale.

One Israeli student who was watching the protest said, “Seeing flags on two sides of the SCC kind of diminishes the possibility of working together towards peace and just encourages polarization that can lead to violence.”

WINTER CHILLS: Students reflect on record-breaking temperatures

CONTINUED FROM 1

and games, though. On Feb. 2, the Department of Community Living sent an email to Brandeis students instructing them to close all windows in order to avoid pipes freezing and bursting. The temperature in buildings was increased and facilities services staff walked throughout the buildings in order to look for problems. Although preventative measures were taken, problems still arose.

On Saturday, Feb. 4 at 2 a.m. a sprinkler head burst in the Feldberg lounge, a room right above the Sherman Dining Hall. In addition to the water that leaked into the dining hall, the water had run through a crawlspace that connected to the Shapiro Residence Hall. Truman Walker ’26 had been first alerted of the burst pipe by his roommate. Eventually, there was a pool of water underneath his bed. A Facilities Service staff member initially tried to help Walker clean up the water, but they were unable to. With the promise of coming back with a bigger vacuum, they left and didn’t return for the rest of the evening. Over the next few nights, Walker found him-

self trying to sleep in his friends’ rooms. “I barely got sleep those three days. I couldn’t really do much work because I was dealing with telling facilities about it [the water in his room],” Walker said.

The following Sunday afternoon, Walker sent an email to DCL asking for a temporary room accommodation until the pipe had been repaired. In the email, Walker stated “it smells almost like sewage, which is giving me concern that I could get sick if I stay in the room. I am concerned for my roommate and my safety if we continue to stay in a room which potentially has sewage, or hazardous water leaking in through the wall.” Walker never received a response from DCL; however, Brandeis Facilities Services staff were able to repair the pipe.

Unfortunately, the Shapiro Basement was not the only Brandeis facility impacted by the cold weather. Around 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4, a HVAC coil burst causing water to leak out of the vents in the entrance to the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. The water had a bright blue color so that it could be monitored, which initially caused beliefs that the liquid was either coolant or antifreeze. Maya Ollagnon ’25 who

was working as a building manager at the time was instructed to report the incident to Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps, who then dispatched Brandeis Facilities Services staff and the Brandeis Police. “I was kind of freaking out a little bit because it was pretty dramatic looking,” Ollagnon said. BEMCO informed Ollagnon that leaks like the one in Gosman were happening across campus.

For the remainder of the day, the main entrance to Gosman was closed. Instead, students, faculty, and visitors entered through the Joseph M. Linsey Sports Center, which is typically used as an exit only. There is still a blue stain in the Gosman entrance, but the leak was fixed by the next day.

“Facilities Services staff did a great job, and if it wasn’t for their detailed preparation and quick response, more problems would have occurred,” Vice President for Campus Planning and Operations Lois Stanley stated in an email to the Justice. Brandeis President Ron Leibowitz emailed the Facilities Services staff and thanked them for their work to help the campus in extreme weather conditions.

features

If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you gonna love somebody else?

ON THIS DAY…

In 2005, YouTube was launched, later becoming the largest video sharing website in the world.

FUN FACT

Saint Valentine’s Day first emerged in Paris on Feb. 14, 1400.

Anonymous sources of joy: Interviews with two iconic Brandeis meme pages

By NOAH RISLEY JUSTICE PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

behind jokes, the faces get the credit; if there is no face, the credit/joy goes towards the greater community.” As an example, they described a situation in which they made a post while at lunch only for a laughing, unaware friend to show it to them a few minutes later.

“I don’t think our content is overly offensive or antagonistic, and [it] pretty much fits our real demeanors,” @ brandeis.chungles said, believing that their anonymity was not the source of their attitude or sense of humor. But anonymity can be the cause of inspiration to post. They mentioned liking to pretend “we’re some sort of Banksy figure evading nosy reporters and the public eye.” The account also told this nosy reporter that fewer than fifteen people know their identities, including those who finished an “end-of-semester scavenger hunt.” This scavenger hunt was administered at the end of the fall 2022 semester, with the top prize being a face reveal.

common on Instagram, highlighting funny and weird things people say out of context in public settings. They exist for cities, like @overheardnewyork, and many other colleges have them as well, like @overheard.yale. Inspired by such pages, @brandeis_overheard said they wouldn’t have started their account if “Brandeis students didn’t say such weird things all the time.” And with almost 1,500 followers, maybe they’re more of a contributor than they realize.

On their website, Sidechat claims to be “your college’s private community.” The app came to the Brandeis campus at the beginning of the fall 2022 semester and quickly took off, with hundreds of upvotes on posts such as “thanks duo mobile. i was so concerned someone was going to log into my latte and do every single one of my assignments” and “going to brandeis made me realize that you can actually walk to class and its uphill both ways.” But the administrators of Brandeis’ ‘meme pages’ have known the pleasure of making similar content anonymously, long before Sidechat dropped at Brandeis.

The Justice spoke to two of these pages, @brandeis_overheard and @brandeis.chungles, to get their opinion on anonymity, campus culture, and — of course — Valentine’s Day. Both interviews were conducted over DM on Instagram.

The Instagram account @brandeis.chungles is devoted to posting humorous or satirical content focused on the Brandeis experience. “‘Greet every man of the human species with joy’ – Beit Shamma.”, reads their bio. Their first post is dated Feb. 17, 2022 (happy almost birthday, Chungles!) and features Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and a caption that reads: “The C-Store employee watching me shake another turd out of my pant leg.” Another meme, posted the next day, depicts characters from the popular mobile game ‘Among Us’ saying, “there is 1 imposter among us,” with text reading, “Non-Jewish kids going over to the kosher side of Sherman” above the image.

When asked about the inspiration behind the page, @ brandeis.chungles said: “We saw a serious lack of positivity on campus, and we had always shared a goal of trying to create more joy on campus. We lead our lives through the words of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov when he says ‘It is a great mitzvah to be happy always.’” The owners of the account also said creating joy is part of whamakes them want to stay anonymous: “If there is a face

This desire to create joy seems antithetical to what might be the tone of many meme pages created by college students today; many modern memes carry a kind of existential weight as they poke at climate change, class, race, and authority. As Ayesha Habib wrote for Nuvo Magazine, “Perhaps the poignancy of meme humour lies in that Gen Z has no other choice but to embrace the absurdity of the future … if you can’t laugh in the face of your existential dread, what else can you do?” Similarly, many more have observed that Millenials and Gen Z seem to be drawn to absurdist humor as a way of laughing in the face of increasing ennui. Thus, it’s heartening to see that even though the account might make a post or two poking-fun at a specific group —– like acapella groups at the Winter Involvement Fair — their motivation is to spread joy over cynicism. If @brandeis.chungles can cause even one person to view Brandeis more positively or have a laugh, then their job is done. They also said that running the page has only made them love and appreciate the Brandeis community more.

In contrast to @brandeis.chungles, @brandeis_overheard sees themselves as an outgrowth of Brandeis’s campus culture, rather than an active participant in it. The concept of an “overheard” page is not new; they’re

One thing @brandeis.chungles and @brandeis_overheard emphatically agree on, is that Sidechat doesn’t steal their thunder. @brandeis.chungles said their content is unique and niche enough to stand out from Sidechat posts, while @brandeis_overheard said that because they can forget to post, Sidechat takes some pressure off of them. @brandeis_overheard and @brandeis. chungles also agreed on their motivation to stay anonymous. @brandeis_overheard said that posting is more fun “this way.” That being said, @brandeis_overheard does not ultimately seem as concerned with anonymity as @brandeis.chungles does. They said that probably around 20 people know who runs the account, and that sometimes friends loudly discuss it in the dining halls. @ brandeis.chungles claims they will announce their identity when they reach 1,000 followers. Their account is currently hovering at just above 700. For now, Brandeis students will continue to engage with the two accounts’ anonymous content.

Both accounts were also asked about their Valentine’s Day plans. @brandeis_overheard said they don’t ever plan themed posts but might as a result of this question. They also said their valentine was every follower of their account, including this nosy reporter. @brandeis.chungles agreed that all of their followers were their valentine but so was a mysterious figure named Mrs. Chungles who is “1000% a real person, but she goes to a different school so no one would know who she is.”

The Instagram accounts @brandeis.chungles and @brandeis_overheard spoke candidly with the Justice.

THE HOOT MARKET: @brandeis.chungles pokes fun at Brandeis snack options

THE DINING HALL: @brandeis.chungles calls out the soda at the dining hall.

The best (and worst) people on the internet still use Omegle

By CAYENN LANDAU JUSTICE EDITOR

Content warning: This article contains content pertaining to sexual abuse.

When I was eight or nine, I had this neighbor, G, whose house I’d run over to whenever I was bored. She was a few years older than me and I thought she was extremely cool, partly because she had this little compartment under her bed that you could crawl into, but mostly because she had unmonitored access to the Internet. In the dark, warm crawl space under her bed, G introduced me to 2010’s online north star: online chat sites, but specifically Omegle. G became Parisian; her hidey-hole a mansion in the Alps, G became Stefania or Alecia or Coco, she was a model, an actress, G was rich and famous and definitely not eleven. I was kind of just there. Sometimes she’d turn away and hide her screen and laugh, and I would want to know what she was typing out or looking at so badly I wanted to throw up. Usually I settled for poking her in the back of the neck until she turned towards me again.

Omegle is an online chat and video-calling site that has been active since 2009. It has both a chat feature (monitored) and a video chat feature (unmonitored) that allows users to connect with strangers across the world, either at random or by matching common interests through “tags.”

“It’s from within the era when the internet was so new,” Julia Plaisted ’23 said about online chat sites, including Omegle, in a Feb. 12 interview. “Like when there weren’t restrictions on things … like early YouTube. Crazy shit was on YouTube. I saw police reports on early YouTube.”

In recent years, Omegle has made a surprising resurgence. According to Mel Magazine, “interest in the site peaked in 2013 then dipped to its lowest in 2018. Once quarantine began in 2020, though, interest steadily grew once more. After October, Omegle saw a sharp increase in traffic, growing to nearly twice the popularity of 2013. Currently, that popularity continues.” As of now, HelpLama reports an active average of 139,880 users on Omegle every hour.

But as book-banning increases in severity in conservative states, MySpace falls, and Tumblr flip-flops on its nudity ban, content moderation — especially when minors are perceived to be involved — is as divisive as ever. Parents tend to associate the site with online grooming; it’s faced heavy criticism for providing a platform for predators to connect with minors. For many of my peers — G included — it played a significant role in early adolescence. The implementation of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act in 2018 under the Trump administration, along with related legislation, played a large role in the controversy. SESTA/FOSTA led to a mass purge of sexual material and sites that platformed it across the Internet, something that sex workers and allies felt has pushed them underground and away from their own autonomy. “Internet censorship tends to be based on loose perception and opinion rather than fact. SESTA/FOSTA allows state and federal law enforcement the discretion to judge what is and isn’t ‘appropriate,’” reads a statement from the organization Decriminalize Sex Work’s website. Omegle has had lawsuits pertaining to the facilitation of child abuse in which SESTA/FOSTA has come into play, but the site has ultimately emerged unscathed.

Plaisted described how she and her friends used the site as young teenagers. “We’d pretend to be adult women,” she said. “We’d give guys fake numbers. We pretended to work at cafes, like ‘oh, I work at a cafe by Penn Station’…I thought it was a prank. We thought they were looking for other adults. We didn’t realize that they were looking for thirteen year olds.”

But not everyone remembers Omegle as being sketchy. “I remember it had always been this goofy, “ifI’m-bored-I’ll-hop-on-Omegle thing,’” Sam Richards ’24 said about his experiences as a young teenager on the site. “I think it’s an interesting concept. I thought it was sweet … talking to a complete stranger.”

With a backdrop of controversy, a newfound postpandemic resurgence, and in the context of modern content moderation, I decided to return to Omegle to see how it played into its own lore. Who was still using it? What kinds of connections were people making with each other?

***

Aiden, a round-faced 13-year-old on a sleepover with his friends Connor and Oscar in Derry, Ireland, said in a Feb. 12 Omegle interview that they were on the site purely because they were bored. “If I told them now, they’d be pissed,” he said when I asked if his parents knew what they were up to. “But if I told them in a few years, that’d be fine.” Somewhere behind Aiden, Oscar hit a vape. Tyler, a 16-year old from Melbourne, Australia, said that he had been using Omegle for two weeks and had frequent encounters with “dudes getting mad cuz I’m not a girl.” When this happened, he said “I troll them. I tell them I’m a girl first … and [then] I just scream loud.” Despite this, he said he had made a decent amount of friends from the site to play Xbox with. Salena, a 20-year-old from New York who described using Omegle since she was fourteen, said that she also encountered harassment from men on the site. “I’m into piercings and tattoos, and I’m on those tags a lot. And once I saw a guy with his 4 or 2 gauge Prince Albert [phallic piercing] out. I immediately skipped it …but

it’s Omegle. You expect to see shit like this,” she said. Still, Salena said she appreciated the site for the love it had brought into her life. “I met one of my best friends here a year and a half ago. Me and her are like sisters now,” she said. She’d met a boyfriend on the site too, an Australian, but they broke up after a few months because of the distance. “We’re still friends. I still occasionally talk to him,” she said. Not everyone agreed that it was possible to make meaningful connections on the site. “It’s not possible to find love on Omegle … love is a feeling, not an attraction,” said Shreyens, a computer science student in India who said he was on Omegle in an attempt to figure out how its algorithm worked. “It’s an energy and emotion. People are here [on Omegle] for attraction.” Shreyens later told me he was also on the site in an attempt to “find out abusers,” though he did not elaborate on what that meant or if he had had any success.

Juan Felipe, a young adult from Columbia, took a minute to think before talking about his experiences with connecting with strangers through Omegle. “It’s weird finding love by [way of] a screen,” he finally wrote in the Omegle chat. “But maybe I can find curious people, and in that way, yeah, also love.”

***

Ultimately, I was surprised by the few-dozen people I talked to –- many were eager and open, all hailing from different parts of the world. Nobody seemed to be pretending to be different; several people acknowledged that they often used Omegle because they were lonely and didn’t have anyone to talk to in their day-today lives. The younger teenagers I spoke with seemed incredibly jaded, but also at peace with their choices.

“I saw people flash, but not very often in the last few hours. Only once,” Aiden said cheerfully.

“It’s roulette,” Salena said. “It’s what you make of it.”

The online chat and video site, active since 2009, surged in popularity over the pandemic and is reportedly still peaking. What do we think about the website, and who still uses it?

CAYENN LANDAU/the Justice

MODERATION: Omegle has age restrictions but does not verify them.

CAYENN LANDAU/the Justice

NEW CHAT: This is a chatbox to the right of the streaming video.

Brandeis is failing to accommodate students

Jen Crystal, Editor in Chief

Jane Flautt, Managing Editor

Cameron Cushing and Sofia Gonzalez, Senior Editors

Lauryn Williams, Deputy Editor

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

Dalya Koller, Leah Breakstone, News Editors

Cayenn Landau, Features Editor

Tibria Brown, Acting Forum Editor

Aiden Guthro, Sports Editor

Smiley Huynh, Owen Chan, Photography Editors

Isabel roseth, Copy Editor

Julia Hardy, Acting Copy Editor

Anna Martin, Layout Editor

Zachary Goldstein, Eden Osiason, Online Editors

EDITORIALS

Campus life is becoming increasingly unaccommodating for students

Housing applications for the 2023-2024 academic year recently went live on the Brandeis MyHousing portal. We would like to remind students to fill out the application before the March 15 deadline and wish them good luck. The editorial board would like to urge Brandeis to be more transparent about the housing selection process for current first-year students that have never experienced it and feel uninformed as far as the next steps.

Brandeis has been accepting more students each year, resulting in the class of 2026 being the largest in Brandeis’ history. To accommodate the student population this academic year, much of the housing process was changed, including the creation of more forced triples and changes to the requirements for different quads, such as Ridgewood and Foster Mods, which in the past have been senior-only housing. Despite the increasing number of students with a need for a space to live, Brandeis has been slow to build new housing. The Justice reported on University plans to update housing on campus before COVID-19. This board recognizes that these plans were delayed due to COVID-19; however, this board believes these plans should be revisited to accommodate our ever-growing student body if they have not been already. Students and community members would appreciate updates on the status of plans to construct and renovate campus housing. We have also critiqued this failure in University communication in a November 2022 editorial.

Brandeis offers guaranteed housing for students’ first four consecutive semesters; with more underclassmen than ever, there is less space available for junior and senior students who are not guaranteed on-campus housing. Despite this growing problem, the Department of Community Living claims to accommodate everyone who applies for housing, including students who are put on the housing waitlist. However, this statistic does not represent the common occurrence of students taking themselves off the waitlist seeking out off-campus housing to ensure they have a place to live during the next academic year. The editorial board would like to urge Brandeis to build more housing options to accommodate more of the student body.

We would like to acknowledge the further impact that the Brandeis housing crisis is having on the surrounding Waltham community. The lack of options available for Brandeis students as the student body continues to grow in size is increasing the demand for off-campus housing, which when mixed with Bently University causes increased demand for rentals in the town of Waltham. This negatively impacts nonBrandeis Waltham residents and makes the town less accessible to community members. This also means that housing for students that opt for off-campus housing, whether by choice or out of necessity financial burden, as the school reduces aid to students that live off campus.

It is also worth noting living off campus means students are not required to pay for

meal plans. Though off campus rentals can cost more, they are also the cheaper option.

In addition, the editorial board would like to acknowledge the fact that since there is not enough on-campus housing and students are forced to live off-campus, the number of students who rely on University transportation to successfully make it to campus will only continue to increase. We would like to address problems with University transportation on and off the Brandeis campus. Although it was just announced that the Boston/Cambridge shuttle will begin service again starting Feb. 17, the decrease in days that the shuttle is running — from ThursdaySunday to Friday-Sunday — will casue inconveniences to students, making Boston and its resources less accessible. We would like to urge the University to reconsider the reduction in the days of the week that it is available, as students should not be further negatively impacted by the tragic events of the fall semester.

The BranVan’s lack of reliability causes stress for students and can often leave them with limited or no options. Many students rely on University transportation in their day-to-day lives, and it is especially crucial for those with mobility issues and disabilities. There are often unexpected changes, or gaps in BranVan service, which are not communicated to students, leaving students without a convenient way to get to, from, or around campus. We urge the University to improve realtime communication surrounding its transportation services. Also, we would like to advise the University to offer additional options for ways to attend class, such as over Zoom if the BranVan is canceled, as it is a vital aspect of the academic ventures of students on and off this campus.

For the comfort and accessibility of students at this university, serious updates need to be made to the housing selection process and options, as well as University transportation. Every student deserves to live comfortably and conveniently.

—Editor’s note: Editor Cameron Cushing ’23 is employed by the Department of Community Living as a Community Advisor. He did not contribute to or edit this article.

As the University continues to transition back to its pre-COVID-19 status quo, professors’ willingness to comply with their students’ academic accommodations has continued to decrease. During the pandemic, professors were encouraged to be more lenient with extensions and absences, but lately, that has not been the case for many students.

Students can receive academic accommodation letters after talking to Student Accessibility Support, usually after providing proof of a documented disability. These letters instruct professors to accommodate the needs of students, which can include giving them extensions, extra time on tests, or leniency with absences, among other things. However, according to board members’ experiences, several professors resist, or flat-out refuse, to accept accommodations, leaving students to struggle as though they never received accommodation letters in the first place. Accommodations are not handed out excessively and are designed to allow students to do their best work while dealing with health issues, learning disabilities, and other circumstances. Professors refusing to recognize these needs makes it difficult to foster a healthy learning environment and sends the message that they do not care about any complications in the lives of their students.

Professors are seemingly required to provide accommodations to students with letters, but this does not appear to be enforced. A member of this board has had professors refuse to accept their accommodations under any circumstances and has had to argue with others despite, entering the University and having already received a letter from SAS. Needing accommodations does not make anyone lesser than others, but the stigma against learning disabilities, or anything else that prevents students from doing their best academically, persists regardless.

Professors are particularly difficult when it comes to extensions on assignments. Although many are flexible or willing to accommodate the needs of students, there are enough that are resistant to doing so, which is a problem. It has come to the attention of this board that at the beginning of the semester, SAS instructed department heads that if they give an entire class an extension on assignments, students with accommodations should not expect any further extensions and would need to make a case as to why they should receive one. This new guideline renders accommodations functionally useless;

if a professor extends the due date of an assignment by a day or two but a student with accommodations for extensions requires more time, there is nothing they can do, despite their already existing accommodations. Although this guideline comes from SAS, it enables professors already unwilling to give extensions to say no to doing so, without breaking any rules, despite SAS claiming to provide “an added support, the removal of a barrier, an adjustment to a policy, or other modification of materials, practices, and spaces” for students.

Difficulties within the Academic Advising division of Academic Services also exacerbate challenges that students face when planning their course load or pivoting when circumstances dictate. Turnover has been high in recent years, leaving groups of students without a dedicated advisor and increasing wait times for all as the caseload was redistributed. While all students interact with Advising to various degrees, a minimum level of service delivery is expected. Similarly, downstairs at the Hiatt Career Center, excellent advising can come from dedicated advisors for pre-law and pre-health tracks, as well as industry experts in business and natural sciences. Students with majors and interests outside of these are directed to more “one-size-fitsall” solutions that vary in helpfulness.

Coursework can get heavy, and while that is expected of universities such as Brandeis, that does not mean students should be left on their own to balance personal struggles with their schoolwork. SAS was created to accommodate students with physical or mental disabilities that complicate their ability to reach their full academic potential, but it has yet to truly commit to doing so.

Moreover, the critiques of this board are not new; the Justice has reported extensively on the failure of SAS to truly accommodate students. These new policy changes are simply a new iteration of SAS’s incompetencies. Even so, professors’ ability to understand and accommodate is not reliant on Academic Services, and this board calls on professors to have more patience with their students. Most students take four to five courses and have personal lives that will occasionally conflict with their capacity to perform to the best of their ability. It is the responsibility of a professor to teach, and they should foster environments where their students can learn, rather than punish them for circumstances out of their control.

Asking for a friend

If you are interested in submitting advice for the upcoming column, follow our Instagram: @thejusticenewspaper. Q:

A:

What

is one tip you would give students to practice self-love this Valentine’s Day?

Maybe

compassionate and loving to talk to yourself the way you might talk to a small child. You can say things like “oh, you little cutie” or “ok, sweetheart, now it is time for your nap.”

— Caren Irr | WGS Department Faculty

For part of my self love, I do a fair amount of fitness - practice yoga, workout on an indoor rowing machine and do lots of walking. Walking provides solitude, problem solving and podcast listening time. I often walk with friends so it’s also an opportunity to catch up with our lives.

—

Victoria Felson | Heller School Sr. Administrative HR Liaison

it sounds silly, but I find that sometimes it is

Dear Editor,

On Jan. 26, Israeli forces conducted a raid on the Jenin refugee camp that resulted in the massacre of 10 Palestinians. Throughout January alone, 36 Palestinian were killed. Later on Feb. 6, five Palestinians were killed by the occupation forces in Jericho. This was the context in which the Brandeis chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) called for a protest in remembrance of the lives that were ended prematurely.

As students who were present at the protest held on Wednesday, Feb. 8 in support of Palestine, we have been reflecting on our experiences and the behavior of the Zionist counter-protestors.

Students at the protest with SJP were met with racist behavior from the predominantly white Zionist counter-protesters. The inappropriate responses of counter-protesters included laughing, cheering, and waving Israeli flags while a Palestinian student recounted having their travel documents taken and subsequently being made stateless, how a large number of people in their family were murdered in the 1948 Nakba, and how one of the recent victims of the aforementioned massacres was a high school classmate of theirs. Counter-protestors also reacted similarly when a Black student tearfully spoke about the connection between the police brutality in the United States which recently took the lives of Tyre Nichols in Memphis and Arif Faisal in Cambridge and the occupation that has killed untold numbers of people in Palestine.

This racist behavior indicates a complete disregard for the lives of oppressed people. While Zionist sympathetic organizations attempted to portray these counter-protestors as onlookers, this obfuscates the fact that they arrived in a coordinated fashion before the SJP protest which was held in remembrance of the 36 Palestinian martyrs killed by the occupation in January alone. The Zionist counter-protestors subsequently antagonized those of us at the protest and

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

laughed at the mention of atrocities committed by the Israeli occupation and American police forces described above.

In the days since the protest, those among the antiPalestinian opposition have been equating support of Palestine with antisemitism. This comes from the assertion that criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic. To this we say, those that oppose Israel based on their hatred of Jewish people do exist and should be condemned. Members of SJP and its supporters are well aware of the dangers of antisemitism, with many being Jewish or members of other minority groups familiar with the bigotry that plagues our nation. Many organizations dedicated to the liberation of Palestine are diverse coalitions that oppose Zionism based on its colonial aspirations, as well as its apartheid system that grants different rights based on one’s birth.

We reject the assertion that support for Palestine is a form of antisemitism. Resistance to colonialism by oppressed peoples is always just, regardless of whether or not the colonizing force is composed of members of an oppressed group. This fact was upheld by the United Nations in General Assembly resolution 37/42, which “reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity, and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.” We hold Israel to the same standards as any other country, including the nation in which we currently reside. We believe in a just solution — a unified Palestine that guarantees equal rights, representation, and justice for all its citizens, regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity, as has been called for by many members of the Palestinian resistance for some time.

The behavior of counter-protestors is made more concerning by the fact that many present hold positions of power in university-sanctioned organizations including the Student Union, Brandeis Hillel, and the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee (BIPAC).

One of these students was recorded at a prior event also expressing their support of the Israeli occupation. The video in question shows an event in New York Penn Station which we believe to have been hosted by the Palestinian solidarity organization Within Our Lifetime. In the video, the student can be seen and heard chanting “Nakba Nakba Nakba” while waving an Israeli flag, in praise of the horrific ethnic cleansing enacted by Israeli militias in 1948 which killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including the family of the organizer of the protest on Wednesday.

We call on the student organizations empowering these students to condemn their racist behavior and remove them from their positions. We call on the Brandeis administration to take seriously the racism faced by Palestinian and Black students on campus by investigating the individuals perpetuating this racism.

In particular, we call on the University administration and Student Union to investigate and hold accountable the individual of whom there is video evidence praising the Nakba. The engagement of this individual in multiple public displays of bigoted acts up to and including the praise of ethnic cleansing demonstrates that this student is a danger to oppressed people at Brandeis, and therefore must at a bare minimum be removed from leadership positions and prevented from further harassing people of oppressed groups.

We additionally call on the student body to unite in the name of rooting out bigotry on campus by petitioning for the removal of bigoted students from positions of power and protecting oppressed members of our community from bigots and reactionaries who wish them harm.

Sincerely, Attendants of the 2/8 SJP protest

CONTROVERSIAL STUDENT PROTEST: Wednesday afternoon, the Brandeis Leftist Union and Students for Justice in Palestine began a protest in support of Palestine. A group of so-called affiliated students began a counter protest. This volatile situation garnered national attention.

Photos by ELIZA BIER/the Justice

By TIBRIA BROWN JUSTICE EDITOR

Okay, I know this may be a wild take to some, but Valentine’s Day is unironically my favorite holiday.

The immediate reaction I typically get is “Well, it’s because you’re in a relationship.” Though that may be a contributing factor at the moment, I’ve loved Valentine’s Day since I was a child.

For an even wilder hot take, I’d say my love of Valentine’s Day is directly tied to my relationship with Blackness.

The holiday gets a lot of flack for being cringy because of the couples, or because it was manufactured by companies to make more sales. But all holidays are like that. Holidays have the meaning we attribute to them, even if those new meanings contradict the circumstances in which they were created (i.e. Thanksgiving).

Thanksgiving’s origin was created as indigenous people across the United States were losing their land and lives to colonizers. Thanksgiving, whether intentionally or not, functionally sanitized the disturbing context for the holiday. However, though there are still moral issues with the way Thanksgiving is celebrated and discussed, the holiday represents coming together with family and friends across great distances to reconnect and keep strong bonds with one another.

In recent years — though belatedly — it seems that people also use the day to actively respect and support Indigenous communities. This is particularly necessary as some view Thanksgiving as a day of mourning.

For me, Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to shamelessly show affection for the

people around me, whether that be platonically or romantically.

As a member of the Black community in the United States, there are a lot of stigmas tied to our emotional responses to things. Expressing anxiety, anger, or unabashed love is quite difficult for a lot of Black people in America. For me, expressing any of these emotions was often met with hostility, and it was potentially dangerous—the reaction to the “angry Black person” stereotype comes to mind.

There is a lot of debate around why people across the African diaspora have issues expressing emotions on such a large scale,;however, it’s generally agreed upon that our compulsive stoicism can be traced back to colonialism.

With the concept of “Black Joy” being more widely discussed, I feel as though there’s room for more conversations around the importance of Valentine’s Day happening during Black History Month.

My compulsion to not emote created my love for Valentine’s Day. As a society, I think we see Valentine’s Day as inherently romantic, mostly because it is promoted that way. However, in my life, it has functioned more as a familial or platonic holiday.

Valentine’s Day became particularly

significant for me the first time I spent it with my mother. She is a Jamaican immigrant and a single mother of two children. She spent the majority of my early childhood working to provide for my sister and me. Because of this, we didn’t have a deeply emotional or openly affectionate relationship for a while.

When I began middle school, she randomly decided to take me out to celebrate the holiday. We spent the day shopping and hanging out at the mall just talking and laughing. This was one of the first times I can remember seeing my mother with an open and smiling face, free of stress or fatigue.

It felt like something clicked in our relationship — at that moment I saw her as another human being, and I think she saw me the same way. She ended the day by getting me a pink, strawberry-scented Build-a-Bear elephant plush. At Build-a-Bear stores, there’s a tradition where you receive a small fabric heart to place inside the bear. You’re supposed to wish for something before the worker sews the heart inside. I found out years later that she wished for me to have a happy life surrounded by people that care for me and for my safety. To this day, I have held onto it because

it reminds me of how much my mother cares — even though she still has trouble showing that from time to time. That day was the first time I ever saw my mother as emotionally vulnerable, and it permitted me to be a more openly loving person going forward.

That Valentine’s Day I spent with my mom was an opportunity to break the cycle of an emotional disconnect that has affected the Black community for centuries. That day marks important emotional growth for my mother and me.

Because the holiday falls within Black History Month, I think there is potential for a wider discussion regarding how we show love to each other throughout the Black diaspora. Though I’m putting particular emphasis on the importance of expressing familial affection, this thought process can apply to several ways we show love to each other within the Black community.

I sympathize with the difficulty of expressing love for the people we care about, and it’s something I believe a lot of people are still working on. This is why Valentine’s Day can serve as a holiday in which we can permit ourselves to unabashedly show love for each other. In this way, Valentine’s Day can be an aid for the Black community — it can help us surpass the stigma surrounding our emotional vulnerability.

This year I’ll be using the holiday as an excuse to spend time with people I love and care about. I’ll also indulge in the candies, flowers, and cute plushies that have been produced in excess for this lovely time of year. I strongly recommend taking this holiday as an opportunity to show the people around you that you care, especially your family and friends.

ANNA MARTIN/the Justice

Black History Month: A celebration of Black Joy

By MIRABELL ROWLAND JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

When I was a child, I was always immersed in Black history. My mama always wanted me to know the women and men who sacrificed so much to make changes in society. Learning about Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Madame C. J. Walker, Frederick Douglass, and W. E. B. Du Bois was the tip of the iceberg. I vividly recall hours spent browsing encyclopedias and writing about these incredible people. The pages of Maya Angelou’s poetry have become ingrained in my memory, and I was always trying to memorize them as a child. I would listen to her read them and try to pause when she paused and inflect when she did. Learning and reading poetry from people like Paul Laurence Dunbar and Phillis Wheatley inspired me to write my own. You see, Black history for my mother was not reserved for one month but rather was celebrated throughout the entire year. Unfortunately, as I have become older I lost touch with my roots and all the knowledge I once had. Thus, this Black History Month I wanted to reflect upon and discover the history behind the month as well as shed light on some amazing people.

There has been ongoing discourse on the importance of African-American history and the need for celebration. It all began around 1915 when historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson responded to African-Americans’ lack of knowledge about their history. He became the founder of an organization now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. A decade after its founding, this organization initiated the first Black History Week in February 1926. If you always wondered why February was chosen as the month, the reason is that Frederick Douglass and

Abraham Lincoln, two influential figures in African-American history, had their birthdays in February.

Eventually, in 1976 this week-long event was extended to the full month of February when U.S. President Gerald Ford issued a message on the observance of this month. In 1986, Congress passed a law that declared February as the official month to celebrate Black and Afro-American History, and every February since this has been celebrated in the United States. I also discovered that Black History Month is celebrated in Ireland, the Netherlands, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.

Between slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and Black Lives Matter, many of the continual struggles of the Black community are highlighted and talked about in schools whenever the curriculum does, though seldom focus on Black history. In contrast to the typical focus on Black Americans’ pain and struggles throughout U.S. history, today I am focusing on Black joy. I have learned about a lot of amazing, up-and-coming activists, artists, philanthropists, and poets. I wanted to recognize incredible Black people whose names might not be well known.

Vee Kativhu

Only 24 years old, Kativhu is an education activist and the founder of Empowered By Vee, an organization dedicated to academic empowerment for students of color at the university level. Kativhu uses her platform to share tips and advice to help underprivileged and underrepresented people from across the world recognize their own talent and potential. An Oxford University and Harvard University graduate, Kativhu has been named a Rare Rising Star, Future Leader, Diversity Champion, and LinkedIn Changemaker.

Yelitsa Jean-Charles

Founder of Healthy Roots Dolls, a multicultural children’s toy company, Jean-Charles began this business because she grew up never having a doll that looked like her. Aiming to teach young Black girls to love their natural hair, her company designs beautiful Black girl dolls with real curly hair that can be styled the same way as Black hair! Jean-Charles graduated from the Rhode Island School Of Design with a BFA in Illustration and a concentration in Race and Gender, and she started her company with a grant from Brown University.

Sidney Keys III

Keys is a 17-year-old scholar, entrepreneur, and activist. He began his own organization at just 10 years old. His organization Books N Bros is a youth-led book club for young African-American boys to explore stories curated just for them. Currently, Books N Bros has two chapters based in St. Louis, Missouri and Atlanta, Georgia. Keys wanted to spread his love for African-American literature and released “Books N Bros: 44 Inspiring Books for Black Boys,” a book with his reviews of the best books he has read, at just 16.

Maya Penn

Penn is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, animator, artist, and the CEO of her ecofriendly fashion company Maya’s Ideas. Founded in 2008, Maya’s Ideas is an awardwinning slow fashion brand creating sustainable, artisan—crafted accessories and clothing made from organic, recycled, and vintage materials. Her focus on environmental sustainability shows through her TED Talk and can be seen in every aspect of her work.

Clint Smith III

A writer, poet, and scholar, Smith is also the host of the “Crash Course Black American History” YouTube series.

Through 51 episodes, he goes through very important issues relevant to the Black community, and while highlighting our struggle, he also highlights our achievements as a people. You can find his many brilliant poems that focus on topics such as poverty, education, equality, and accessibility on YouTube and through TED Talks. He is also a staff writer for The Atlantic, and I would recommend checking out his articles; one I read recently was “The Joy Of Morocco,” where he talks about a beautiful moment in which one player dances with his mother on the field.

These are just some of the countless, amazingly talented, intellectual, and unique Black creators and changemakers. Black history happens every day and should not be limited to just a few weeks in the year, but, rather, it should be celebrated through a lifelong journey of learning. I wish y’all an amazing Black history-filled year!

LEBRON: James cements his legacy

who comes close to breaking it next, although that probably will not occur for a while. James and the Lakers will celebrate this moment,

but they have tougher roads ahead as they look to the upcoming playoffs in a rough 13th place position in the Western Conference.

SUPER BOWL: Eagles head back to Philly angry and upset

CONTINUED FROM 16

with a one-yard touchdown from running back Isiah Pacheco.

Following another Elliot field goal from the Eagles, the Chiefs responded with touchdowns from Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore to take a 3527 lead with less than 10 minutes left on the clock. Hurts had a little more magic left in the tank to get his team in the end zone, along with a two-point conversion to level the scoreline.

Following the two-minute warning, the Chiefs were deep into Eagles territory. On a crucial third down, Chiefs wide receiver, JuJu Smith-Schuster, tried to get around Eagles cornerback James Bradberry. Mahomes sailed the ball past Smith-Schuster, and the pass was incomplete. Before Eagles fans could celebrate, a yellow flag ruined their party. Bradberry was called for defensive holding and the Chiefs were given an automatic first down. Mahomes ran down the clock, and

gave kicker Harrison Butker an easy game-winning field goal.

After an amazing battle between two of football's best talents, fans might have felt like they were cheated out of a storybook ending. The holding call was controversial, but Bradberry even confirmed the validity of the penalty himself. No matter the final score, both these teams, and both of these cities, should be proud of the season they have each had.

As confetti rained down, and Mahomes lifted the Super Bowl MVP trophy, Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce, Eagles center, shared a moment on the field. After battling for 60 minutes, the brothers embraced one another. Although the game was unbelievable, this moment was what the game was all about. Football is family. The players are part of a brotherhood, and every player can appreciate the work and effort it takes to reach football’s biggest stage.

MAN CITY: Mansour and club facing possible league explusion

CONTINUED FROM 16

four FA Cups and two league cups. That’s when the tides changed.

On Sep. 1, 2008, they were bought by Sheikh Mansour, the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. Mansour’s net worth, though disputed, is reportedly $30 billion. This takeover changed the game in soccer, leading to a trend of nation-states owning clubs and a new era of sportswashing. Sportswashing is when regimes use sports as propaganda to improve their reputations and deflect from human rights violations. This idea isn’t new — it was used during the 1934 World Cup in Mussolini’s Italy, the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany, and the 1978 World Cup in Videla’s Argentina. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticized Manchester City’s “close relationship with a country that relies on exploited migrant labour and locks up peaceful critics and human rights defenders.”

The UAE’s sportswashing techniques have certainly been successful. Emirates sponsors massive soccer clubs including Real Madrid, AC Milan, Arsenal, Benfica Olympique Lyon and Olympiacos, as well as the English FA Cup. It also sponsors other notable sports such as F1, rugby, tennis, horse racing, golf, cricket, cycling, and more. Today, people overlook the human

rights violations, and Dubai is one of the most popular and sought after vacation destinations in the world.

This technique has also been successful in growing Manchester City as a club. Since the takeover, they have won six Premier League titles, six League cups, two FA Cups, and reached the UEFA Champions League Final. In Sheikh Mansour’s first season, 2008-09, the club’s total revenue between matchday, broadcasting, and commercial accumulated around €102 million ($140 million). In the 2021-21 season, that number was reportedly €731 million ($783 million). Clearly, they have grown as a club under Mansour, but now they face controversy over their honesty and integrity with regards to FFP and Premier League laws.

In short, clubs cannot spend more money than they earn through these revenue sources. With the unfathomable net worth of their owners, it was very possible to pump in more money than they have earned to sign the biggest stars. Allegedly, they have lied about the amount they have earned in order to invest more under the table and therefore spend more.

This is not the first time Manchester City has been subject to investigation over these matters. In 2020, UEFA banned them from all

European international competition for two years over similar violations of FFP. This decision was appealed and ultimately overturned. However, UEFA’s former Chief Investigator, Yves Leterme, is convinced the Premier League has a stronger case against the club than UEFA did in 2020. He cited many reasons for this accusation — “the Premier League does not have to adhere to the same strict limitation periods as we do.” UEFA could only operate in a five year time period, while the Premier League has no limit and can use all evidence it has dating back to 2009. The Premier League began its investigation of Manchester City in 2018. If found guilty, the club could face a wide range of sanctions. The sanctions could span anywhere from a transfer window ban, to heavy fines, to a strip of past league titles, to a points deduction during this year’s heated title race, to even an expulsion from the Premier League. If the latter were to happen, though highly unlikely, they could be sent as low as the fifth tier semi-professional level, as the three EFL leagues below “would have no obligation to accept a demoted City.” Manchester City has some serious work ahead, and the soccer world will be keeping a close eye on them throughout it all.

GOAT: LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 38,387 career points.

DISGRACEFUL: Manchester City is facing multiple sanctions from the Premier League following extensive investigations.

JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

SENIOR DAY

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

■ The Brandeis Judges Men’s Basketball outlasted the University of Chicago Maroons while Women’s Basketball fell short on senior day.

By JACKSON WU JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

SWIMMING AND DIVING

58-52

Men

Troubled by the injury of star guard Ethan Edwards ̕26, the Brandeis Men’s Basketball team looked to finish their season strong. On Feb. 12, the Judges played their last home game — hosting the University of Chicago Maroons — seeking to stand their ground in the senior-day contest.

Defense had been the main theme for the Judges basketball this weekend as both teams struggled to connect on their shots early. Waltham native Ryan Power̕ ’24 spotted up for a three and sank it off an assist from Griffin Walbridge ̕’25, which closed the gap to one with about 13 minutes left in the first half. Observing that the Maroons had been throwing some long passes, Power was able to time it perfectly and come up with a couple of steals to give the Judges some momentum. As center, Quron Zene ’26, hit a jumper with nine minutes until halftime, the Judges took their first lead of the game. However, Chicago responded through corner threes after some drive-and-kick action.

Two trifectas from sophomore standout Toby Harris, combined with a beautiful finish from Walbridge, put the Judges up by four. The Maroons made another three-pointer to cut the lead and make the game close heading into halftime, Judges 26-25 Maroons.

The Maroons came out of the break with ambition, forcing a Judges turnover and sinking two trifectas until the Judges’ Coach, Jean Bain, called a full timeout to make some substitutions. After the adjustment, the Judges drove hard into the paint and found wide-open attempts as the Maroons’ defense collapsed, but Sam Adusei ̕’24 failed to connect from distance. They did not struggle for long as Walbridge cashed in another second-chance bucket off his own offensive rebound and Harris pulled up and splashed another miraculous three to put the Judges back on top. Both teams went back

and forth from this point on and remained tied at 46 until there were only three minutes left on the clock. A crucial steal from Adusei followed by an over-the-head bounce pass from Power to Jake Bender ’26 gave the Judges some momentum as Bender finished the and-one layup. Although Chicago soon answered the call with their own three-point play, Harris lifted the Judges up once again with his signature three-point jumpshot. The Maroons seemingly panicked, committing two lethal turnovers in a row, which resulted in another three-point cushion for the Judges down the stretch. The Judges survived the free-throw battle and caused another two Chicago turnovers as time ran out. Brandeis won, 58-52 Chicago.

The seniors, Terrell Brown ’23, Dylan Lien ’23, and Darret Justice ’23, celebrated their last home victory despite quiet performances. Harris led the Judges with a double-double of 21 points and ten rebounds. Bender, Power, and Walbridge provided great help off the bench. Bender collected career-highs of seven points and four rebounds. Power totaled four steals, giving the Judges a wellneeded boost on defense, and eight points. Walbridge hustled and filled his sheet with three offensive rebounds, six points, and two steals. The Judges’ stellar defense resulted in 20 turnovers from the Maroons and led to a gamechanging 16-3 advantage in points off turnovers. Brandeis snapped their six-game losing streak as they look forward to their last road trip of the season starting next weekend.

Women 60-79

The second game of the senior day featured a women’s basketball matchup between the Brandeis Judges and the #13 University of Chicago Maroons. Red Auerbach Arena saw a big crowd of family and friends cheering the Judges on in the final home game of the season.

The Judges scored the first basket of the game with a steal from co-captain Emma Reavis ’23 to her fellow captain Francesca Marchese ’23. The Maroons soon responded with some three-point bombs and mid-range shots to take an early lead. Shots refused to fall after an early timeout called by Head Coach Carol Simon. This was until cocaptain Tathiana Pierre ’23 and first-year shooter Abby Kennedy ’26

finally connected from downtown and propelled a 9-5 Judges run to conclude the opening quarter, 15-24 Chicago. Pierre and Reavis kicked off the second period for the Judges with a layup and a three-pointer respectively, closing the gap to just four until the Maroons responded with another three. Three-point efforts from Kennedy and guard Mollie Obar ’25 tried to keep the Judges in the game, but Chicago continued to fight for offensive rebounds and remained aggressive in the paint, resulting in foul troubles for the Judges and some Maroons’ free throws. The Judges entered halftime trailing by 13. 3447 Maroons.

Starting off the second half, both teams traded buckets from downtown as Marchese made two three-pointers in only three minutes. The Maroons maintained a 15-point lead with five minutes left in the third quarter. Selenya Gonzalez ’24 refused to give in, attacked the basket, and scored five points off free throws and a layup. The Judges tied the period and entered the final ten minutes with a 13-point deficit. Sophomore, Caitlin Gresko ’25, looked to close the gap by taking advantage of the Maroons’ defensive set-up to force mismatches and easy baskets, but the Judges could not refrain from foul calls for the majority of the game and awarded the Maroons bonus points off the charity stripe. As Reavis fouled out, Coach Simon eventually waved the white flag and gradually took all the seniors out of the game under the loud applause in Auerbach Arena for the final time.

Reavis pulled off another wellrounded performance, totaling 11 points, six rebounds, and seven assists — team-highs in all categories. Her co-captains, Marchese and Pierre, each chipped in eight points, while veteran center, Shannon Smally M.A. ’23, collected five rebounds. Gresko added another nine points and four assists. The Judges stayed around the ten-point margin until the Maroons pulled away in the late fourth quarter, putting up a wellfought battle for their last matchup at home this season.

With three conference games left, the Judges will visit the University of Rochester, Emory University, and conclude their season at New York University. Tune in the upcoming games online to witness the final college basketball actions of your Brandeis senior Judges!

SENIOR SEND OFF: Brandeis Men’s and Women’s basketball squared off against University of Chicago for senior day.

Sports just

Mahomes and Chiefs secure Lombardi trophy

■ Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs topped the Philadelphia Eagles in a close Super Bowl match-up at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

By AIDEN GUTHRO JUSTICE EDITOR

From the first kick-off, football fans knew that Super Bowl LVII was going to be packed with action and excitement. Headlining two of the best teams in the NFL — the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs — fans saw an offensive shoot-out for the ages.

After receiving the ball to start the game, quarterback Jalen Hurts and the Eagles thundered down the field to get on the board early.

Hurts, who was an MVP finalist for this past season, looked like he was ready for the big stage. However, it wasn’t long before quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs answered the call by scoring on the very next drive. Mahomes was able to find his best friend and best target Travis Kelce for an 18-yard touchdown reception to get the Chiefs’ offense rolling.

A majority of the first half was dominated by the Eagles. On the opening play of the second quarter, Hurts threw up a deep ball and found

his number one target, wide receiver A.J. Brown, for a 45-yard touchdown. At this point in the game, the Eagles’ offense looked unstoppable. However, on their next drive, Hurts stumbled and fumbled, which gave Nick Bolton of the Chiefs an easy scoop-and-score touchdown to even the game at 14-14.

Hurts didn’t let the mistake hang over his head too long, as he marched his team down the field to score with under three minutes left in the first half. With time winding down in the second quarter, Mahomes scrambled out of the pocket before being taken down by an Eagles defender. A hush went over the crowd as Mahomes limped off the field with an apparent leg injury.

In the Chiefs’ early playoff matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain, which he has played with throughout their entire playoff run. Football fans feared the worst as they watched the recently named MVP writhe in pain on the sidelines at the end of the second quarter. Eagles kicker Jake Elliot notched a 35-yard field goal to enter half with a lead of 24-14.

The Chiefs’ athletic trainer must have done something special during the Rihanna halftime show, because Mahomes looked like a man on a mission when he left the locker room at the start of the second half. Wasting no time, the Chiefs stomped their way down the field and ended their drive

Man City scrutinized over various finacial fair play breaches

■ European powerhouse Manchester City faces the possibility of Premier League expulsion after being charged with over 100 counts of fraud.

By JOSH GANS JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Monday, Feb. 6, the Premier League made an official statement announcing serious allegations of rule breaches from powerhouse Manchester City, from 2009 until today. The English Football Association could choose a wide range of sanctions for these alleged breaches, spanning anywhere from a fine to relegation from the division. In the statement, they were charged with five categories of breaches in over one hundred incidents: In every season from 2009-2018, they have been charged with a failure to provide accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club’s financial position,

BASKETBALL CELEBRATES SENIORS

The Brandeis Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams celebrated their senior day by squaring off against the University of Chicago, pg. 15.

LeBron James passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for all-time scorer

with respect to its revenue.

From 2009 until 2016, they were charged with a failure to provide full details of manager and player contracts.

From 2013 until 2018, they were charged with a failure to comply with the club licensing and Financial Fair Play laws of the Union of European Football Associations, Europe’s governing body.

From 2015 until 2018, they were charged with breaches of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability laws.

Since the alleged breaches ceased in 2018, they have allegedly failed to cooperate with the Premier League in investigations, including providing adequate documents and information.

In recent years, Manchester City has become one of the world’s most dominant soccer clubs. Over the course of their club’s history, the Citizens have been in the shadow of cross-town rivals Manchester United, who are widely acknowledged as the biggest club in England. In Manchester City’s 128 years prior to 2008, they had only two league titles,

By PRATEEK KANMADIKAR JUSTICE WRITER

On Feb. 7, the Los Angeles Lakers faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder in a regular season matchup. James, who has been averaging around 30.3 points per game this season, was projected to break the all-time scoring record around the February mark of the 2023 regular season. James ended up scoring 38 points against the Thunder to finally surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabaar’s record of 38,387 points. A record that had not been close to being broken in over 39 years — a record that many NBA fans and analysts thought would never be broken.

James was able to break the record in fewer games than Abdul-Jabaar — only taking the Akron native 1,408 games to complete the feat. Former

record holder, Abdul-Jabaar, was also sitting courtside during the Lakers-Thunder game where James was projected to pass him. James hit a fadeaway jumper to seal the record, and the referees officiating the game paused the match-up momentarily to pay tribute to James, allowing him to rejoice with his family and friends. James’ pride was evident as he keeled over after making the shot with tears of joy and appreciation for the career he has had.

After the momentous event, social media went into a frenzy, with almost every well-known celebrity congratulating James and wishing him well for doing something that nobody thought would ever be done. Magic Johnson, Laker legend and the man responsible for bringing James to Los Angeles, congratulated his friend on a remarkable career and incredible landmark. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued congratulations to the superstar over Twitter and in person after the game. Along with the Lakers, the two previous organizations that James has been a part of — the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers — also joined in on giving kudos to their former superstar.

James has been able to remain a consistent superstar for the past 20 seasons. His longevity, and high performance, has cemented his talents among basketbal;’s most elite. This record will only add to the extensive and impressive trophy case James currently bolsters. With so much already accomplished, James still finds ways to motivate himself to do more — a serious example of an elite work ethic.

Many fans are now saying that James has secured the title of being “the greatest player of all time,” which is a debate that has been going on for years now. Fans and fanatics of the sport have always debated: Lebron or Jordan? As a spectator, it is quite humorous to see how many times this has been argued and how frequently it keeps coming up. Regardless of who everyone says is the best basketball player of all time, it is very clear that James has cemented his greatness and legacy with all basketball fans across the world. James breaking the record that nobody thought would be broken is truly something special. With so much fantastic young talent in the NBA, I guess we will have to see

■ James rewrites history to become the all-time leading scorer by passing Kareem Abdul-Jabaar for the most points scored in NBA history.

RED KINGDOM: Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs outlasted the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.

Photo: Eliza Bier/the Justice. Design: Smiley Huynh/the Justice. Waltham, Mass.

‘Little Queer Library’: Waltham’s gay awareness initiative vandalized

By JACK YUANWEI CHENG JUSTICE EDITOR

Editor’s note—Reporting for this story was originally completed in the fall 2022 semester for a JOUR 89A class project called “Smells Like Zine Spirit.” The article has been edited to include recent updates to this developing story.

If you drive by Katie Cohen and Krys Petrie’s house on Trapelo Street in Waltham, you will simply look for the house with the biggest “gay energy.” You will find a rainbow flag in their front yard, and their door is also painted in rainbow colors. Most importantly, you will have seen a little bookshelf in the shape of a house on the sidewalk in front of their house. The bookshelf is one of 150,000 Little Free Libraries that are

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

scattered around the world, according to the organization’s website. Locally, Cohen and Petrie’s library goes by a different name: the Little Queer Library. Now, however, the library is shutdown due to repeated vandalism.

Cohen is a self-described bookworm. “I will have read 24 books by the end of [2022],” Cohen said. Petrie, on the other hand, is obsessed with woodworking. In combination with their love for books and crafts and the desire to find something to kill the time during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Little Queer Library was born in November 2020 as a birthday gift from Petrie to Cohen. When she got the little free library, Cohen saw an opportunity to feature “[books] that encompass the LGBT experience.” On a typical day, there are around 60 books in the library.

“I have always been an advocate of reading diverse books. I think it is important for everyone to read something about

somebody that’s different than themselves,” Cohen said. For her, there is more of a personal motivation to operate the library as well. “Having those books out there and giving kids the ability to read about those types of things, so that they don’t feel alone in how they personally identify — I think that’s really awesome, and I wish that me and my friends growing up had that,” Cohen explained.

According to many local reports, the library was vandalized multiple times in 2022, and many of the books were stolen. These incidents took place when LGBT-related books were being banned across schools in the country, but it did not stop Cohen and Petrie from running the library. “I am a stubborn person,” Cohen said. She saw maintaining the library despite the vandalism as a way to stand up not only for herself, but other queer people in the Waltham community.

After the news about vandalism broke out, Cohen said that

the support from the Waltham community became a refuge, allowing them to continue the project. “A middle schooler wrote us a handwritten letter about two pages, just to explain that they were really happy that we were there, and they hope that we kept going,” Cohen described. Apart from the youth, many other community members reached out to them to donate books and give funding to support the library. Cohen and Petrie also branched out their effort to spread diverse voices in Waltham public schools. “We did our first delivery of books [to public schools] last September, and the librarians have loved them. Kids also have put together book displays with the ones they received,” Cohen said.

However, the challenges facing the Little Queer Library are not over yet. On Jan. 24, 2023, the library was forced to close its doors again due to repeated vandalism and threats. “It hurts my heart to do this, but

we will open back up as soon as possible,” the couple said via their Facebook page. In the meantime, readers can acquire books from the library’s collection by contacting Petrie and Cohen directly via their Facebook page, Little Queer Library Waltham.

The importance of Black joy

By MINA

“Always Been is a celebration of Black humanity and joy and lies in contrary to the American historical record and its in relationship to Blackness,”

— Parker Thompson

Globe, BrandeisNOW, Brandeis University’s Youtube video and LenScratch. I sat down with Thompson on Feb. 8 to ask about his love for photography, his project and exhibition, as well as his own identity.

Like me, Thompson expressed he was always drawn to art and photography from a young age. He grew up with a single Black mother and was immersed in a film environment as his mother was finishing film school. He explains that he is “mostly selftaught” as he learned how to use the camera through Youtube and the internet.

“I can’t imagine growing up without [the internet]” Thompson adds, though he attributes his foundation to his mother. Throughout high school, he had been invested in fine art photography and he distinctly remembers going to his local college library to look at their photography collection.

pulls photographs from archives across the country. Thompson realized how many people would be interested in and benefit from an account that is a collection. His reaction to having an exhibition was shock and gratitude. It was a Brandeis student doing an internship at the Griffin Museum of Photography who suggested Thompson contact them. A year ago, he did not expect anything to come out of the meeting. Fast forward to today where not only does he have an exhibition, but he has received positive media attention and heard peoples reactions to his work.

are you building connections and friendships but spreading the word.” His last piece of advice is to take advantage of all the grants and money Brandeis has available for students; it can alleviate the financial aspect so artists can focus on their art.

During this interview I was astounded by Thompson’s experience and his passion. The work he is doing is so important to change not only the way the Black community is seen now but shift the way we see our history and past. I also found myself nodding along to his reflections on his childhood as I have lived them.

Similarly, I grew up with a mother who was talented in the arts — though more focused on drawing and painting — and I owe her for my passion for drawing and storytelling. I am also a Black artist who is primarily selftaught through Youtube and the internet.

Listening to Thompson share his story and the intersections of how his personal life and identity informs his work using photography as an art form was powerful. I hope he can inspire all of us as much as he has inspired me.

I have always felt privileged as a child growing up immersed in the fine arts. Seeing “Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh was a powerful point in my childhood. From museums to student exhibitions, art has always been a part of my life, so when I had the opportunity to interview Parker Thompson ’24 about his “Always Been” collection, I was humbled. Thompson is not only a photographer and full-time student majoring in History, but also a researcher and collector. He is the curator behind the Instagram account and project “Always Been” which serves as an archive of Black vernacular photos that focus on Black joy, love, and life. Thompson’s work was recognized earlier in the year, and the Griffin Museum of Photography offered a space for an exhibition, which opened Jan. 12 and is running until Feb. 26. Since the start of Black History month, Thompson has been garnering attention to his project, which he appreciates, as more people learn about the importance of this project and celebrate alongside him. He has been mentioned in the Boston

Thompson has been collecting photographs for fun as a personal project and exploration of what it means to be Black. He would go to antique stores,and junk shops to purchase old photographs. The project “Always Been” would grow out of an examination of the photos. On a closer look, he realized how rare it was to find photos of Black people that showcased people simply living life, rather than constantly fighting for their rights or being in a position where enjoying life was seemingly impossible.

He wondered why photos that celebrated Black life were absent in his own life as well as the larger photographic community. He decided to create a community to share his collection with.

His process for finding the photographs includes buying in-person, but most often using saved searches on eBay where he’ll get notifications about new listings for words or phrases like “black americana” or “african-american” under vintage snapshot photography category. Thompson has been able to maintain the Instagram account through grants and fellowships from Brandeis and other institutions. He draws inspiration from an Instagram account called Black Archives run by Renata Cherlise, which

Thompson is influenced by several artists and historians; he was most inspired by his friend Jacob Klanke — a nonBrandeis student — who he met through Instagram; a fellow collector mainly of Native American photographs. Klink runs a project of his own called “Discovering Lost Souls” that bears resemblance to the “Always Been” project.

Thompson also mentioned that an essay by bell hooks titled, “In our Glory”: Photography and Black Life is the underpinning for everything that informs his work and the project as well as Debra Willis who spearheaded the study of Black Photography. He shared that one thing he would want to change is to find a platform that provides a more meaningful engagement. Between Instagram and meeting individuals inperson, there is a bit of disconnect with various audiences who are not on Instagram or not able to go in person to the exhibition.

“In the future, I look forward to developing methods to find the space,” Thompson said. As far as his future is concerned, he already has plans. Thompson plans on working in a curatorial position at a museum, and he is very interested in continuing his collection and finding a safe archival space for the images currently in his possession. His advice to creators and artists of color is to “just talk about [your art and work].”

Talking about the work you make, and making your passion known is so important for people to find your work. Another important nugget of advice is to cold email as much as possible, as “not only

ROWLAND JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Photo courtesy of PARKER THOMPSON

Photo courtesy of ALWAYS BEEN

JACK YUANWEI CHENG/the Justice

ALWAYS BEEN: This is one of the many found photographs that make up Thompson’s collection Always Been.

‘SHADES OF BLACKNESS’ BRANDEIS BLACK STUDENT ORGANIZATION

By MINA ROWLAND & MEGAN LIAO JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT & EDITOR

The Brandeis Black Student Organization hosted their “Shades of Blackness” show Feb. 12. The event showcased Black excellence and the talent of Black students from Brandeis and nearby colleges.

COORDINATE: Toombs and other members of Platinum STEP

finish their performance. ELIZA BIER/the Justice

BSO: Levin Ballroom was packed with students celebrating Black Hisotry Month.

DANCE: Dancers from Rebelle Dance team performed.

STEP: Madeline Toombs peforms STEP with the Platinum STEP team.

STAFF’S Top Ten

By ZACHARY GOLDSTEIN JUSTICE EDITOR

Top 10 worst objects

If you know Rihanna you know that she just performed at the Super Bowl, but you won’t catch me with an umbrella, ella, ella.

SUDOKU

JACK YUANWEI CHENG/the Justice