Founders Day to connect the past with the present, and students

Brandeis Stories

Founders Day to connect the past with the present, and students

By Steve Foskett
October 6, 2026 • General

Activities, contests and games scheduled for Founders Day on Oct. 14 are part of a year-long push to infuse a new sense of tradition, pride, and community into the Brandeis experience, all while revisiting the university's storied history for a new generation of students.

"It's step one in an 'arc of the student experience' project,'" said Eitan Marks '24, special assistant to the president. "We are looking to expand and create more opportunities for students to engage with Brandeis' history and traditions in fun and exciting ways."

Organized by a coalition of on-campus departments, Founders Day is a way to highlight the values rooted in Brandeis' creation by the Jewish community in 1948 while embracing new traditions and reimagining old ones.

"We're really talking about the idea of connecting people to the founding of Brandeis and how special it was, but also the values - that Brandeis was, and is, a welcoming place for people," said Shelby Harris, associate vice president of Student Affairs.

Here's some of what's on tap for Founders Day:

All-day online photo raffle

Participants are encouraged to show their Brandeis pride by wearing university gear and submitting a photo through an online form. Submissions will be entered into a raffle for a chance to win lunch with President Arthur Levine and three friends.

#WeWearBlue and Cultural Crumb Crawl

3 to 5 p.m.

Fellows Garden and Shapiro Campus Center atrium

Students who wear Brandeis swag to the SCC can get a delicious, sweet treat from a variety of cultures in honor of National Dessert Day, courtesy of the ICC and DSE. Treasures from the Brandeis Archives will be on display, and students can learn about opportunities to connect with the worldwide Brandeis alumni network.

Brandeis-themed desserts will also be served at the Table at Sherman, Kosher Table at Sherman, and the Usdan Kitchen.

Ollie's Spirit Rally

6 p.m.

Women's Volleyball vs. Johnson and Wales University

Gosman Sports and Convocation Center

Students are invited to bring their school spirit and friends to Gosman to cheer on the Brandeis Women's Volleyball Team. There will be treats and swag giveaways, and students will be invited to ring the newly re-installed Brandeis victory bell with Ollie the Owl.

Both the victory bell and Ollie are figures from the university's history getting a refresh for the 21st century.

The owl entered Brandeis lore in the early 1950s, and was initially referred to as "The Feathered Sage," Marks said. Ollie, as he's now affectionately known, returned this fall as the official Brandeis mascot.

The bell, which dates back to the 1800s, was used to celebrate sports victories early in Brandeis' history. For its 25th anniversary, the Class of 1980 had the bell restored, in 2005-2006, and it was recently moved from the courtyard in front of the castle to Gosman, where it is again ringing out after athletic wins.

Brandeis Jeopardy

8 p.m.

Sherman Function Hall

A Brandeis-themed Jeopardy game will close out Founders Day, with prizes for teams who can answer the most questions correctly. Abigail Arnold, assistant director of operations and academic administration for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis, has been a contestant on the real game show, and will host the event.

Founding values, new connections

Celebrated sporadically over the years at Brandeis, Founders Day falls near the actual date of the university's opening, on Oct. 11, 1948, on the grounds of the former Middlesex University. There were 107 students and 13 faculty members that year, under the leadership of founding president Abram L. Sachar. Brandeis was established at a time when Jews and other ethnic and racial minorities, and women, faced discrimination in higher education.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis University.

Marks said the founders of the university were looking to "plant a Jewish flag in the American dream and create a university that would be a bountiful garden for the Jewish intellectual intellectual tradition."

They certainly achieved that goal, but today, college students are looking for spaces and traditions that bring them together in new ways as they work toward their degrees. The new effort that Founders Day is part of builds on some success in other areas, Harris said. She noted the more recent First Thursdays series, which includes a variety of activities such as pottery painting, carnivals, mega-trivia nights, and paint-and-sip events, as an example.

"The First Thursday program series has really taken root," Harris said.

Marks said the Covid pandemic and the explosion of social media have had isolating effects on college students.

"They're looking for natural points of connection," Marks said. "Finding things that are joyous, not stressful, and finding things they can share in common is something they're very hungry for."

Founders Day is being organized with support from Student Affairs, the Department of Student Engagement, Alumni Relations, Orientation and First Year Experiences, the Office of the President, the International Cultural Coalition, and Athletics.