We have the opportunity to completely revamp the way dining works at Brandeis, and I will make dining reform one of my main focuses as President.
Every student has a complaint about dining, and we always hear promises for reforming the way dining works at Brandeis. Yet the changes we see are always minor, and the big issues everyone shares are never addressed. I will take a new approach to working with the administration on dining reform, starting from scratch to rebuild our dining experience from the bottom up. The status quo has been unacceptable for too long now, and it's time for some real changes:
I will work to expand what can be covered on a meal, establish parity between dollars and points, and create more flexibility in choosing meal plans.
Right now, our meal plans are expensive, and the value we get from them doesn't match the cost. For instance, the all-points plan costs $2,473 per semester, but you only get $1,400 worth of points. Using meals instead of points is supposed to be a convenience, but instead it limits us on what we can order. Moreover, meal plans are clearly a rip-off: if we weren't forced to buy them, no one would, because if you paid cash for all your meals you'd save hundreds of dollars. I will make sure that we have some real transparency in dining, so we all know exactly what we're paying for and we have as many options as possible.
If Aramark will not answers our concerns as students, I will research other dining companies until I find one that will.
We have a contract with Aramark to provide food for us that expires at the end of every year. Instead of simply resigning to them yet again, I will push the administration to put out a Request For Proposal, allowing any interested company to submit a bid to supply us. If we force companies to compete for our business, we're far more likely to find one that will meet all of our needs. If Aramark continues to ignore our complaints, we shouldn't be stuck with them any longer.
I will work to increase the amount of food that is local/community-based, fair, ecologically-sound, and humane.
Aramark currently does not display ingredients lists or share the origins of our food with students. Given Brandeis' commitment to social action, we have the responsibility to be a proactive player in the global food economy. Whoever our dining services provider may be, I will push for just and sustainable food to be written into the contract. Specifically, I will advocate for dining services to spend 20% of their budget on Real Food by 2020, including local fruits and vegetables, local milk and dairy, cage-free eggs, and grass-fed meat.
I will work with the administration to renovate all of our outdated residence halls.
In March, a section of the roof in Schwartz Hall collapsed into a student's dorm room. Later that month, heavy rains caused flooding in parts of the Castle, Massell, Rosenthal, East, and Ziv. It is absolutely unacceptable that Brandeis students should live in unsafe or unsanitary conditions, and the administration needs to plan to refurbish all of these buildings. Parts of North, Massell, and Grad have gotten renovated in recent years; I will work to expand this trend to every building that needs it.
Each spring it's a new story, a new trial and effort quest to find the best housing selection process, but it doesn't have to be this hard. With the suggestions and research help from all of YOU, we can study the nuanced "math" of the housing selection process and how other universities with similar space and financial constraints make it work. I will work with the Department of Community Living and invite your suggestions on how to improve the system so that it ACTUALLY works!
Imagine a website attached to the Student Union page on which you can publicly and EASILY share your ideas about how to improve Brandeis on an open list, simply and clearly, with the entire community. It sounds simple but it doesn't exist yet. Thanks to Andy, the page coming online soon, but I'll take it a step further: I'll make a committee - a people friendly, anti-bureaucratic committee - dedicated especially to Idea-List oversight that can then help YOU to organize in effort to realize that change.
I will advocate for the creation of a Student Bill of Rights to ensure every student's rights are formally protected in Rights and Responsibilities.
In the Spring 2008 semester, almost 90% of the students who voted in a Union referendum supported the creation of a Student Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, the administration did not support the document we created, and the Union government has not pursued working with them to fix it. I think it's important that our fundamental freedoms are codified in an official document, and I will engage the administration until we can come to an agreement on a Bill of Rights for the good of every student.
I will make sure that every Brandeis committee has as many student voices as possible.
In a recent report, Provost Marty Krauss listed five committees that Brandeis had created to explore solutions to the budget crisis. Among these committees, there was a total of one undergraduate student representative. Students can offer a unique, important perspective on every aspect of the university, and we deserve to have our voices heard on issues that affect us. There are so many talented, intelligent students at Brandeis, and I believe that as many as possible should get the opportunity to influence decision-making on the highest levels. I will include as many students as possible on every committee that the administration creates.
I will offer students as much direct access as possible with the highest level decision-makers of the university.
Last year, students called for increased input in the budget process, and the administration responded by holding a series of open forums that addressed student concerns and strengthened the campus community in the face of widespread worry about the university's future. Dialogue between students and administrators is beneficial for everyone, and I'm glad that President Reinharz has committed himself to continuing this conversation by holding another open forum on April 12th. I will schedule more of these forums to increase the student-administrator connection.
I will help to keep Brandeis' dedication to the arts strong and reaffirm our commitment despite recent cuts.
The Brandeis arts community has been hit hard by the budget crisis in recent years. Among other cuts, they've had to suffer through the Rose Art museum debacle, the scaling back of the Lydian String Quartet, and the widely-opposed elimination of the Graduate Theater Design program. Some members of the community have interpreted these cuts as a sign that Brandeis is abandoning the arts, and I believe that the administration needs to address these concerns head on. I will arrange an open dialogue between administrators and leaders in the arts community to bring these issues into the open and develop a solid plan for the future of the arts at Brandeis.