Innermost Parts
Wiens Are Family
Next spring, Shranutha Reddy ’09 of India will finally get to meet members of the extended “family” she has heard so much about.
Her opportunity will come when the worldwide family of Wien Scholars gathers at Brandeis April 11 to 13, 2008, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the pioneering Wien International Scholarship Program.
“Meeting all the Wien alumni—hearing about what they did in school or what they are doing now—will be an incredible experience,” said Reddy, who hails from Bangalore. “It will be a highlight of my time at Brandeis.”
Dozens of Wien Scholars from both near (Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.) and far (Japan, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Iceland) are planning to attend the three-day event, which will include panel discussions with current and past Wien Scholars, a meet-and-greet with faculty, and opening and closing gala dinners.
Reddy is well-versed in the rich history of the Wien program and knows about the impressive roster of world leaders it has produced.
“It was an honor to be chosen to be a Wien Scholar and join this group of inspiring people,” said Reddy, who is majoring in both biology and economics. “When you become a Wien Scholar, you have the sense that you are part of something very special.”
In addition to Wien Scholars past and present, many members of program founders Lawrence and Mae Wien’s family will be on hand to bask in the reflected glory of a program that has helped both its participants and the world at large.
“I think they would be absolutely thrilled (with the program),” said Lester Morse, a son-in-law of the Wiens. “You can’t help but be impressed when you see some of the names and positions of responsibility that Wien Scholars now hold—whether it’s prime minister of Iceland or Turkish ambassador to the United States or a delegate to the United Nations—in part because of the education they received at Brandeis. They would be pleased that so many Wien Scholars have had such a significant impact upon their countries.”
For more information about the Wien fiftieth anniversary celebration, visit brandeis.edu/wien or contact Karen Rogol ’98, associate director of alumni and university relations, at 212-472-1501, ext. 235, or krogol@brandeis.edu.
Call to Arms
The university has announced that it will begin arming its public safety officers as part of a larger campus safety plan aimed at combatting tragedies such as the shooting attacks that occurred at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University last spring.
The plan was backed by the police union and a special committee convened by President Reinharz to study the issue.
“We all feel the pressure to provide a safer environment as quickly as possible for our university,” the committee, chaired by Executive Vice President Peter French, wrote in its recommendation to Reinharz.
Until now, campus police have been equipped only with clubs and mace. Committee members said firearms would give safety officers “an important tool to respond to crisis situations” and put Brandeis on a par with the overwhelming number of institutions in the Association of American Universities.
Before being armed, all Brandeis officers will undergo extensive training, testing, and certification, university officials said.
In the meantime, Brandeis recently added several new tools to its emergency preparedness process, including an outdoor siren system, broadcast e-mail alerts, and voice and text messaging for office phones and personal cell phones.
In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, the university also has updated its emergency preparedness master plan to address a wide range of crises, whether man-made or natural.
Grad Wins "Genius" Award
Deborah Bial ’87, whose pioneering Posse Foundation has helped nearly two thousand students attend college, was named one of twenty-four winners of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant.
Bial, forty-two, who received the Brandeis Alumni Achievement Award in May, will
receive a $500,000 fellowship to use as she wishes. The latest MacArthur Fellows were named by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which has been awarding the grants since 1981.
“It’s an incredible gift," Bial said. “It will change my life, and I hope it will change Posse’s life.”
Bial founded and serves as president of the Posse Foundation, which identifies, recruits, and trains student leaders from public high schools to form multicultural teams called “posses,” and then prepares the students to enroll at top-tier universities, including Brandeis.
An English and American literature major at Brandeis, Bial started Posse in New York twenty years ago after watching talented inner-city students drop out of college at alarming rates. She remembered one student saying that if he had had his “posse”— his group of friends—with him, he would not have left school.
Three members of the Brandeis faculty have been named MacArthur Fellows in recent years: biology professor Gina Turrigiano, in 2000; Jacqueline Jones, the Truman Professor of
American Civilization, in 1999; and Bernadette Brooten, the Myra and Robert Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Professor of Christian Studies, in 1998.
Brains and Brawn
Striking the appropriate balance between student and athlete in the student-athlete equation is a problematic endeavor at many institutions. Not at Brandeis.
Brandeis was named the 2007 Jostens Institution of the Year by the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference for exemplifying the highest standards of collegiate academic and athletic performance.
“We are proud of the accomplishments of our student-athletes, both on the field of play and in the classroom,” said Brandeis Director of Athletics Sheryl Sousa ’90. “To be recognized for our success is a tribute to our dedicated staff of coaches and administrators."
The ECAC comprises 318 institutions from Maine to Georgia and west to Illinois.
In its third year of Sousa’s leadership, Brandeis enjoyed one of the most successful athletic campaigns in school history. Four Brandeis teams reached the semifinals of ECAC tournaments, and the volleyball and men’s soccer captured titles. Additionally, the fencing team excelled at the ECAC-affiliated Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships and the men’s and women’s basketball teams qualified for NCAA play.
In the classroom, 156 Brandeis student-athletes were named to the University Athletic Association All-Academic team and three were selected to the College Sports Information Directors Association/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District teams.
Environmentally Sound
In response to growing interest among students to study critical environmental issues facing the world today, Brandeis undergraduates can now major in environmental studies.
“The students were clamoring for it,” said biology professor Dan Perlman, chair of the environmental studies program. “One of the hallmarks of Brandeis is students who are deeply involved in social action of one type or another, and that’s absolutely true of those in our program.”
Environmental studies majors are required to take thirteen courses in a variety of related disciplines—environmental science, social science, humanities, economics, law, and history.
In addition to coursework, environmental studies majors are encouraged to pursue field study through a semester-abroad program or the pioneering Environmental Field Semester (EFS).
The EFS uses local communities as living laboratories to give students experience in the conservation and stewardship of the land.
“Students need to get hands-on experience and see things in all their complexity,” Perlman said. “Addressing real-world problems and learning from practicioners in different fields gives the students a far richer education than any classroom experience could.”
Degree of Success
President Reinharz this month was awarded an honorary doctor of philosophy degree from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Reinharz is a leading historian of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel and founder of the science institute.