Jehuda Reinharz, president of Brandeis University, co-authored an anti-intimidation pledge signed by other university presidents and published in the New York Times. It was written mainly in response to events at Concordia University and SFSU where Jewish students were harrassed and attacked by pro-Palestinian protestors. The student newspaper here published an interview with him on the subject this week.

It's really disappointing that what started out as being a wonderful opportunity to educate the student body about events happening across the country (how many people here really know what happened at Concordia? 2 our of 6 people I ate dinner with last night I can tell you) ended up with Reinharz backtracking and becoming defensive. The subject of some anti-Arab flyers put up around campus was brought up and Reinharz advocates throwing these students off campus? Putting up fliers around campus, however biased the opinions on them are, is nothing like having mobs of students yell anti-Semetic comments and vandalize school property. It encourages discussion, it doesn't stifle it. If Reinharz could make his position consistent I'd be a lot prouder to have him as my unveristy president.

As a hard-core Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan I really wanted to check out Joss Whedon's new creation Firefly. I've only been able to see 2 episodes due to the extremely bad time slot the show has (Friday nights at 8 on Fox), but what is really interesting is the official website for the show. Normally network websites are quite low on content and you have to go to fan-run sites for all the fun, juicey details like spoilers and epiosde recaps. But Firefly has the most in-depth network website I've ever seen. There's the obligatory message boards, but also a spoiler sections with pages from next week's script, interviews with the cast and crew, and even a blog by a production assistant on the set. Dig around and you can even find coveted footage of everyone's hero Joss Whedon. It's almost more fun than the show itself!