In spite of some challenge, tolerance club gets nod

By: Quinn Barbour and Julianna Barrera

Posted: 2/3/04

The Brandeis Coalition for Tolerance (BCT) was chartered during the Union Senate meeting on Jan. 25 after a debate over its similarities with the Senate's own Diversity Committee.

According to Student Union Vice President Kenneth Gantz '04, there are similarities between BCT and the Senate's own Diversity Committee.

But Gantz said the conclusion was reached that "the issue of duality of purpose is only relevant in instances of two chartered clubs overlapping in their purpose."

Gantz said he hopes BCT will work together with other organizations to promote diversity awareness of campus, although they are under no obligation to do so.

Ammad Bahalim '04, a founder of BCT, said he plans to work with all available resources.

"There is no reason why we don't want to work with the Diversity Committee and other groups on campus," Bahalim said.

Bahalim said while there are many cultural clubs on campus, none deal specifically with limiting intolerance.

According to Bahalim, a primary goal of BCT will be to create co-existence programs for community advisers, orientation leaders and discussion groups.

Bahalim also said he plans to show movies dealing with issues of diversity. Bahalim said last semester's diversity issues propelled him to help create BCT, though he said there has always been intolerance during his Brandeis career.

"We want to promote dialogue on campus." Bahalim said. "Discussion is usually swept under the rug and people say there are no problems on campus. But the first step we need to take as a community is to realize these problems are pervasive."

Bahalim said that people should not feel unsafe because of their views and that one goal of his club is to help foster understanding between people with different views.

"This club is open to anyone who feels [like] targets because of their personal identity no matter how that identity is formed," Bahalim said.

The club was also founded by Albert Cahn '07 and Bariza Umar '04.

BCT was formed to "try and unite the elements of campus that have had difficulty uniting and working together over this past semester and years before," Cahn said.

Some debate arose when Senator for Class of 2005 Mitchel Balsam asked Bahalim if he realized he would be responsible for his club's actions.

"I said to him that [did he understand] that throwing papers into the air would make [him] accountable," Balsam said, citing when Bahalim threw some papers into the air toward Daniel Pipes when he spoke on campus. "It would be said this club now is accountable."

According to Gantz, this was an argument between Balsam and Bahalim, focusing on Bahalim's actions while protesting Pipes' visit to campus.

"I think that was an unfair and unwise line of reasoning," Gantz said. "I think the only reason that things got out of hand was because student activities was not prepared to support the march in the way they normally would because they were dealing with the aftermath of Elie's death," referring to the death of Eliezer Schwartz '04 last November.

Bahalim said he has repeatedly apologized for his action, but that students were not comfortable in voicing their opinion during the protest.

"It was a momentary loss of composure," Bahalim said. "However, the real problem was the hissing and booing and the manner in which students were being mistreated for being critical of [this] speaker."

In anticipation of the controversial visit of Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes last semester, BCT staged a pro-tolerance rally through residence halls and protested Pipes' speech on Nov. 18.