HAIR PRODUCTS
OFFERING : New multicultural hair products on store shelf at the Hoot Market.
Multicultural hair products at the Hoot Market; fight for student equity
■ After decades of products only for straight hair, products for type four, kinky hair are now available in the Hoot Market, thanks to student efforts.
By REBEKAH MARVEL
The most recent additions to the Hoot Market’s hair product inventory reflect equality efforts across campus by including options for students with type four hair. Inspired by the Multicultural Hair, Art, and Empowerment Club, Student Union leadership successfully pushed to get multicultural hair products to be sold in what is colloquially known as the C-store. These hair products work best for students with kinky, type four hair.
In a Nov. 24 interview with The Justice, Student Union President Rani Balakrishna ’25 explained that she’s living by the words of Massachusetts State Representative Manny Cruz in response to a U.S. Representative’s transphobic comments “he has two ears and one mouth, and he needs to use them with that proportion.” This year’s Student Union administration’s “goal is big-picture equity, and we’re doing everything we can,” starting with making hair care accessible to all students on campus.
The initiative started when Vice President Ria Escamilla-Gil ’27 read an article from The Justice by Justice contributing author Eleanor Jones ’27, entitled “Let's get into it: Hair care on campus.” Published on Sep. 19, 2023, the op-ed discusses the lack of hair products for type four hair on campus, pointing out that the closest inclusive beauty supply store is 30 minutes away from campus. Jones stressed the societal and cultural importance of taking care of one’s hair, as well as the expense of monthly trips across town, estimating $225 per semester just in transportation costs.
Sharing similar sentiments, Mirabell Rowland ’25, President of the Multicultural Hair, Art, and Empowerment Club, said in a Nov. 29 email correspondence interview with The Justice, “In a
Young farmer
[Predominately White Institution] like Brandeis and in the small town of Waltham, there is a lack of products for multi-cultural hair and especially places like Beauty salons for [People of Color] communities, so it is amazing to see the products actually in the store.” The senior added, “this is just one step of many we see for our club to support our community and cultivate a sense of belonging.”
As Escamilla-Gil stated in the interview, “it may seem like something small but it’s hair products, and not having that in a school for social justice was a little shocking to me, so that’s when I got the idea to start an initiative to bring those things to campus.” Escamilla-Gil was co-chair of the Student Advocacy Committee (formerly the Social Justice Committee) during the 2023-2024 school year, and introduced the initiative then. At the time, Balakrishna was director of the Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and therefore a member of the committee. The two started working on the project together, and in the spring, decided to test the waters to see if the idea was possible. With some Student Union money left in the budget, Balakrishna and Escamilla-Gil organized a “Pop-Up Shop” of Mielle hair products on April 11, 2024. The two purchased the higher-end products with the extra budget money and had students donate on a sliding scale to buy a product. Those donations went to the Black Woman’s Health and Imperative Fund, “because we knew this was a population of primarily Black students and those with type four kinky hair who we’d be trying to level the playing field for,” said Balakrishna. She adds that the event was “super popular.” They planned to be open for three hours but sold out halfway through.
Bringing this momentum into the fall, they worked alongside the Multicultural Hair, Art, and Empowerment Club to determine which products would be useful in the Hoot Market to Brandeis students with this hair type. They created a form for student input about “hair products, brands, accessibility and more,” said Rowland.
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LUCIA THOMAS
Religious theft at the University
■ An unknown party has targeted a Jewish student twice, first removing their Israeli flag from their residence’s door and 11 days later, stealing their mezuzah, a notable symbol of Jewish heritage.
By SOPHIA DE LISI JUSTICE ASSOCIATE EDITOR
On Nov. 21, a Brandeis University student found their mezuzah and name label removed from their residence’s door, their room label ripped to pieces by the men’s bathroom down the hall and their mezuzah case in the bathroom’s garbage can, according to a Dec. 2 correspondence with a friend of the student. In the same statement, they said that this instance follows the culprit stealing the same student’s Israeli flag on Nov. 10, though at the time, the student’s mezuzah and name label were left untouched.
The affected student declined The Justice’s request for comment.
A mezuzah is a small decorative container that holds a piece of parchment and is typically hung on doorposts.
BRIEF
The scroll of paper, traditionally created with kosher parchment and ink, contains a handwritten prayer from the book of Deuteronomy, the Shema. In the Shema, which is a central part of Jewish services, God commands people to “keep His words constantly in mind and heart” by writing them on the doorposts of their homes. Thus, it is tradition to roll a piece of parchment inside the container and place it on the right side of the doorpost at an angle. In some cases, the parchment is placed in a way that it would leave the first Hebrew character of God’s name visible. However, the Jewish Virtual Library states that it is more common for the mezuzah container to show the Hebrew character instead.
This tradition spans back thousands of years to the biblical period, with the Hebrew name “mezuzah” directly translating to “doorpost” because of its use. Furthermore, the mezuzah symbolizes that Judaism “is not confined to synagogues” and symbolizes protection for the home’s inhabitants.
With this religious and cultural importance in mind, the affected student’s friend explained that their primary objective is to find the lost mezuzah scroll. They were able to find the student’s container — in the trash can
Tuition becomes more affordable for certain community members
On Nov. 20, Brandeis University’s Instagram account announced a new plan to make tuition more affordable to potential students. Titled the "Brandeis Commitment Program," this new initiative covers full tuition for families with a total income range of $75,000 or below and half tuition for families with a total income range of $75,001 to $200,000. As stated on the Office of Student Financial Services website, “The university has made a firm commitment to clarify the amount of aid students will receive — the Brandeis Commitment.” This website also clarifies that in addition to the implementation of this program, Brandeis will continue to “[meet] 100% of demonstrated financial need for families who do not qualify for the Brandeis Commitment program due to income or atypical assets.”
According to the University website, Brandeis’ tuition is currently $67,082, with the total including the most basic meal plan and a double dorm room landing at $87,624. Brandeis defines total income to include “family’s adjusted gross income for the tax year applicable to each academic year (e.g., 2023 for the [2025-2026 academic year]) plus all sources of untaxed income.” The website specifies that a “family” includes both biological and adoptive parents, as well as stepparents in some cases. The Brandeis Commitment program includes a mix of grants and scholarships that include “both need and merit-based gift funds (funds that do not need to be repaid) from Brandeis, as well as federal, state and private sources.” Additionally, the Commitment program takes into account typical asset notation, meaning that if a family has significant assets above
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During the 37th annual Thanksgiving Tea, Dr. Ratzlaff explores questions of ethics and restituion in relation to museums.
By MIKEY TERRENZI
“what is typical for their income level,” they may not qualify for the program but will still qualify for need based aid. Assets can include “cash, savings, investments, home equity, business net worth, other real estate and any other assets.”
In order to be considered for the Brandeis Commitment Program, students need to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, College Scholarship Service and submit the needed tax returns. Students will need to re-apply every year, but families will remain eligible as long as they continue to “meet the total income and asset criteria.”
International students, graduate students and commuter students who live with relatives will not be eligible for this program. International students are able to apply for standard aid throughout the application process and graduate students may be eligible for aid from their respective schools. Students who commute from home do not qualify “due to the much lower cost associated with this housing option.”
This program is not available for any current Brandeis students as it has been added as a part of the application process. However, the website claims that “Because Brandeis meets 100% of demonstrated financial need for all current students, while not eligible for the Brandeis Commitment, current students are already benefiting from similar levels of aid.” The website explains that the purpose of this program is to “mitigate uncertainty for prospective students and their families around the cost of attendance.”
— Anna Martin
ANNA MARTIN
SOPHIA STEWART
POLICE LOG
Medical Emergency
Nov. 15—A party was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Nov. 15—A reporting party stated that their friend was having difficulty breathing. The patient refused further medical treatment.
Nov. 16—There was a call for a party with a cut hand. The patient refused further medical treatment.
Nov. 17—There was a medical emergency for a party with flu-like symptoms. The patient was transported to a nearby hospital for further care.
Nov. 18—There was a medical call for a student who was not feeling well. The patient refused further medical treatment.
Nov. 18—A reporting party stated that their friend had an allergic reaction. The patient was transported to a nearby hospital for further care.
Nov. 19—There was a medical emergency for a party who passed out. The patient refused further medical treatment.
Nov. 19—The Brandeis Counseling Center requested assistance with a section 12 order.
Nov. 20—There was a medical emergency for an unconscious and unresponsive party lying on the ground. The patient was transported to a nearby hospital for further treatment.
Nov. 20—A party called seeking medical assistance.
BRIEF
The patient refused further medical treatment.
Nov. 20—There was a medical emergency for a party reporting uncontrollable shaking. The patient was treated by BEMCo and Armstrong Ambulance and refused further medical treatment.
Nov. 23—There was a medical call for a party who was not feeling well. The patient was transported to a nearby hospital for further care.
Nov. 23—There was a medical call for a student with a head injury. The patient was transported to a nearby hospital for further care.
Nov. 23—There was a call for a party with a nose injury. The patient refused further medical treatment.
Nov. 24—There was a report of a party having a medical issue. Community Living was notified.
Nov. 25—A party was voluntarily transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Nov. 26—A party reported that their roommate had severe stomach pain. The patient was transported to a nearby hospital for further care.
Miscellaneous
Nov. 15—The Waltham Police Department passed on a loud noise complaint from a South Street resident. The resident had complained of students partying and the sound of a female screaming. Community Living was notified.
Student Union passes resolution in support of reopening the Office of Sustainability
On Nov. 24, the Student Union passed a climate-focused resolution. The resolution was co-sponsored by Hercules Zhang ’28, a Multicultural Senator and member of the Internal Operations Committee, and Lukas Gordon, Class of 2026 Senator and Chair of the Internal Operations Committee. The resolution was written to “address climate change harms, promote equity, and re-establish the office of sustainability at Brandeis University.” It first addresses the threat of climate change as well as the minority communities that climate change disproportionately affects. Then, it addresses Brandeis’s role in confronting climate change, mainly through “fostering environmental
awareness and promoting sustainable practices among students.”
It recognizes the importance of the Office of Sustainability and echoes support for the students who petitioned to reinstate it by officially condemning the administration’s dissolution of the department. The final paragraph of the resolution pledges that the Student Union is committed to “advocating for and collaborating with university leadership, faculty, staff, and students to ensure that Brandeis University becomes a leader in environmental stewardship and equity in higher education.”
— Zoe Zachary
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
■ An Arts & Culture article incorrectly quoted Tako Mikhelashvili ’26. The quote was corrected to “it gives them an opportunity to sell their work.” (Oct. 1, page 19).
The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Send an email to editor@thejustice.org.
Nov. 20—A suspicious letter was reported. Investigation to follow.
Nov. 21—There was an investigation for suspicious letters received by the Mail Room.
Nov. 21—There was a motor vehicle accident. The situation was cleared.
Nov. 21—A reporting party had witnessed a car hit another car and requested to speak with an officer.
Nov. 22—A party reported that their door had been vandalized. Investigation to follow.
Nov. 22—A party reported that their car had been hit by a bus. Investigation to follow.
Nov. 25—A student driving around Sachar Road Lot reported he was looking for a bathroom.
Nov. 26—A reporting party stated that their friend might have been followed by a subject who had recently trespassed. The suspect was gone on arrival.
Nov. 26—A party filed a report of suspicious activity. Investigation to follow.
Nov. 29—Officers checked a building to confirm that a party was not on campus.
—
When it comes to voting on college campuses, obstacles deter many, but inspire some
■ At Brandeis University, students and one enterprising librarian have found purpose in supporting stronger voter turnout among young people, irrespective of partisan affiliation.
By DIANE MEYER JUSTICE EDITOR
Maia Lefferman ’25, a senior at Brandeis University, recalls her first time voting four years ago; it was a “life changing” moment.
Voting in her first election changed her life not just because she participated in “the most powerful thing” available to a citizen of the United States, but because the moment became one of unexpected grace granted to her by democracy.
She remembers arriving at the polling place in her precinct and receiving devastating news: she was not registered to vote. “I started freaking out,” she remembered.
Lefferman had spent months campaigning for that very election. She thought that she was registered. At that moment, she believed that she had failed herself by not taking the time to double check her own registration status.
Without an answer as to why her registration had not gone through, Lefferman panicked, realizing “Oh my god,” she was not able to vote.
But, Lefferman remembers, everything changed when “the person at the polling place [said] ‘you can register here.’” Her home state of California allows for same-day voting registration and Lefferman remembers that she “started crying” at the news of this saving grace.
Now living in Massachusetts while she attends Brandeis University, Lefferman is the student leader of VoteDeis. As a student group, VoteDeis has existed and evolved in recent years as a network of young people who are passionate about voter registration. It is motivated by students’ personal commitment to voting and represents a larger commitment to help other students vote as well.
Just this year, the VoteDeis Campus Coalition Steering Committee was founded in cooperation between the Brandeis Dean of Students Office and the Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation at Brandeis, a national nonpartisan initiative based at Brandeis and housed in the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life. The VoteDeis coalition now includes a collective of “students, staff and faculty supporting voter registration and voting.”
David Weinstein, the Assistant Director of ENACT, says that from the start, VoteDeis has been a collaborative effort between students, faculty and staff. While ENACT has expanded nationally as an educational initiative on a departmental level at institutions across the U.S., VoteDeis is a student-driven grassroots organization unique to Brandeis. VoteDeis finds its purpose in fighting for accessibility in voting.
Weinstein observes that the goal of VoteDeis is “for every eligible student and community member at large to register to vote — it’s that simple.”
Lefferman got involved with the group during her freshman year at Brandeis because she identified that confusion had become ingrained in the voting process and was preventing her, as well as other students, from voting while at college.
“I think I saw the [VoteDeis] table at the volunteer fair,” she recalls. “I went and started talking to the person [at the table,] and he didn’t know any of the answers to my questions. And I was like, okay, so I need to get involved.”
Lefferman knows that she only narrowly overcame the confusing voting process thanks to California’s allowance for same-day voter registration.
Acknowledging that not every state has this safety net, she aims to help fellow students cut through the complexity.
She shares that it is “heartbreaking” to inform fellow students that they have missed the registration deadline in Massachusetts, as well as registration deadlines in other states across the country. Unlike California, Massachusetts employs a voting registration deadline 10 days prior to Election Day, making Oct. 26 the deadline to register for this past Presidential Election.
In the current 193rd legislative cycle in Massachusetts, “An Act Establishing Same Day Registration of Voters,” or Bill H.688, failed, dying in committee. It met the same fate as six similar bills before it. Unsuccessful attempts to allow eligible citizens to register to vote on election day in Massachusetts have been made in legislative cycles dating back to 2013. Speaking in conversation on Monday, Nov. 4, Lefferman noted that during the week prior, she had “10 or 15 people” from various states reach out to ask her if it was too late to register. Unfortunately, it was too late by this point. VoteDeis is often able to advise students from out of state to register in Massachusetts if they miss the deadline in their home state, but this was not an option after Oct. 26. In the U.S., 23 states, as well as Washington D.C., allow for same-day registration, while the other 27 states, as well as Puerto Rico, enforce deadlines prior to election day. The deadline by which to register to vote is just one of the stark discrepancies pertaining to voting laws across the country. Additionally, absentee voting can exacerbate confusion as it requires a separate registration process in many states.
44 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico are represented by the undergraduate student body at Brandeis according to the Office of the Brandeis University Registrar.
With such a wide range of states represented, and therefore an equally wide range of rules and guidelines that students must keep up with, a lack of voter education is the greatest obstacle to voting. Not to mention, on college campuses, “students are very, very busy,” states Lefferman. This past Presidential Election and its deadlines came and went, leaving many students behind.
Lefferman says that as a point of contact for VoteDeis, she “gets lots of texts from friends who really want to vote and just don’t know how.”
She further explains that “people want to vote, [and] they want to register. They just don’t have the resources. They don’t know how easy it is. They don’t know that it’s a thing they can do from college.”
Maddie Leventhal ’26, a junior at Brandeis and a fellow member of VoteDeis, offers up her home state of Minnesota as an example of the time sensitive confusion that students can run into. In Minnesota, she says, “when you register … it has to be
processed for a certain amount of days … and then you can actually request an [absentee] ballot — it doesn’t come automatically.”
She understands that “the biggest barrier is people just not knowing how to do it and thinking it’s more complicated than it is, or it [actually] being more complicated and not knowing where to go or having anyone to ask.”
The difference between registering to vote and requesting an absentee ballot can be a significant misconception for some people. It is a logistical obstacle to voting that discourages many students. Leventhal knows people who are registered to vote, but who just failed to understand that there is an entirely separate process required to vote by mail. “They just assume that their ballots are going to come, and they don’t,” she says.
This assumption would not be incorrect in the state of Washington. All Washingtonians who are registered to vote receive a physical ballot sent to their home addresses, regardless of whether or not they request an absentee ballot or are planning to vote in person.
On the flip side, requesting absentee ballots can be “especially tough” for students in states such as Texas. Molly Zimmerman ’25, a senior at Brandeis from Texas, says that she “was really stressed about [voting.]”
Zimmerman describes the arduous process of voting by mail in Texas, explaining that in order to vote, she must “print everything out herself.”
And she means everything — Texas law requires that out-of-state voters print a physical application to receive a ballot by mail and then send their completed application to the Early Voting Clerk. Then, if their applications are accepted, voters can either print out their ballot or count on their ballot to be sent by mail. To throw in a time crunch, votes cast for this year’s Presidential Election were only counted if they were received by an Early Voting Clerk in Texas by Oct. 25.
The voting process also induces unique pains for students from Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina and Oklahoma. These states require ballots to be notarized and, in a rule particular to Minnesota, an absentee ballot must either be notarized or signed by another registered voter of that state.
According to the Office of the Brandeis University Registrar, the Brandeis undergraduate student body includes 22 students from Minnesota, two from Mississippi, 10 from Missouri, 30 from North Carolina and five from Oklahoma. Not only is notarization a process that is often completely unheard of for students, it can cost money.
Postage, which is required, but not prepaid, on return ballots by nineteen states and Washington D.C., will also be an additional unplanned cost for some students.
Weinstein laughs about the need for a stamp. He marvels at that requirement on behalf of students, saying that he does not “know what current undergraduate students still send letters … These days not many people just have stamps.”
Besides VoteDeis, Brandeis is also home to a chapter of Hillel International’s MitzVote organization, of which senior Madeline Bagdade ’25 is a proud member. She finds it a natural fit after working with the League of Women Voters in high school. Similar to VoteDeis, MitzVote focuses on voter registration and fostering civic engagement, but attends to a uniquely niche scope of students across the country as an affiliate group of Hillel, the Foundation for Jewish Student Campus Life.
Bagdade explains that at Brandeis, as a University founded on Jewish principles that still hosts a large population of Jewish students, MitzVote is able to “specifically target Jewish students on campus.” She says that for Jewish students, MitzVote is “a way to really connect to social action,” and an idea in Judaism referred to as “‘tikkun olam,” which translates to “repairing the world.”
Guiding students through the process of not only registering to vote but also figuring out how to receive and complete absentee ballots throughout the fall, VoteDeis and MitzVote both held tabling events on campus about once a week in the lead-up to Election Day.
A student-favorite event hosted by VoteDeis centered around a baby goat named Winston, complete with handcrafted signs for students to pose with declaring: “This goat wants you to vote.” Weinstein estimated that VoteDeis helped register just “5 or 6” students at the “Vote Goat” event. However, he argues that spreading awareness is just as important as tangible action.
A student may see “a post [about the tabling event] on social media or something,” Weinstein explains. Hopefully, that student would feel encouraged to reach out for more information. The reach of VoteDeis is intended to include students who are even “just reminded” to vote.
Both VoteDeis and MitzVote are strictly nonpartisan and Weinstein makes sure to emphasize the significance of this status. Students running tabling events are conscious of keeping questions about the actual issues or candidates on the ballot out of their conversations.
“There’s nothing wrong with people doing [voter registration] work in a partisan context,” Weinstein says. “But it’s just striking to me that there have been students who [are] so committed … to democracy … and to full participation,” regardless of political polarization.
He recognizes that students are “doing this work to really help anybody who’s eligible to vote without any question of how [they] will vote … and without any attempt to influence where they vote.”
Leffereman acknowledges that “everyone feels the urgency in a different way and for a different candidate.” She admits that “navigating that has been challenging” for her sometimes.
Bagdade believes that above all the rife political tension, she can remain loyal to the principle of impartiality. She says that it is imperative to be able to tell other students even “if I don’t agree with you … your vote is important and your voice does matter and you should use it.”
Luke Faberman ’26, a member of both VoteDeis and Brandeis Democrats, balances his nonpartisan and partisan commitments. He reminds himself and others that “at the end of the day, America is a democracy [and] … I don’t think we should be actively depriving anyone of the right to vote by not informing them of their rights.” He has found the capacity to do both nonpartisan and partisan work, finding an important separation between his conviction in protecting the greater ideals of American democracy and his opinions as a member of the Democratic Party.
But there is a gray area when it comes to policy. Faberman personally struggles with the ideological basis for laws requiring voters to have a form of government-issued identification with them when they vote. He believes that unless the cost of applying for and getting an appropriate identification document is free, this requirement “is a form of voter suppression.” A vision of more accessible
voting that is commonly perceived as partisan and left-leaning. The ability to vote without an ID is only available to citizens in 14 U.S. states.
Leventhal connects this back to the trouble she encountered this year while registering students to vote at Brandeis. She notes that she “ran into people who do not have physical state IDs.”
For some states such as New York, it is “actually very hard to register to vote without a state ID,” Leventhal says. This was “surprising” to her, and she explains that without a physical state ID, “you [will] need a passport, but [the registration process] is a little more confusing that way.” She also points out that obtaining the most common form of state ID, a driver’s license, as well as applying for a passport, costs both money and time.
Students have had their work cut out for them when it comes to voting, even with the help of groups such as VoteDeis and MitzVote. The sheer number of states and the daunting complexity of different requirements and deadlines means that even at their tabling events, as Weinstein admits, VoteDeis “can’t just have a stack of forms” applicable for all students. They cannot simply tell people “Use this.”
When the numbers become overwhelming and stakes ascend into stress, Brandeis students can depend on an individual devoted to demystifying voting: Aimee Slater, who chooses to focus on helping others as a “natural fit” for her in the absence of “a dream [democratic] process.”
Slater, Brandeis University’s Government Information and Politics Librarian, prides herself on having a unique understanding of voter registration and voting — “it is in my professional wheelhouse,” she explains.
As a passion project, and in pursuit of the educational purpose she finds as a librarian “to connect people to good information,” she has personally taken on “remov[ing] barriers [to voting] that the state does not.”
Ahead of the 2016 Presidential Election, Slater “really wanted to demystify the voting process” for students by increasing access to credible and authoritative resources about voting laws.” She could not find an adequate resource online so she decided to do it herself.
Slater pitched her idea for creating a comprehensive voting guide for students to the Brandeis Library. In 2016, she spent her summer going through the Secretary of State websites for every state in the country to identify all the possible barriers that could exist for students.
The result of her research was a voting guide made available online to the Brandeis community as well as accessible to the greater public. It includes all the requirements, as well as all the potentially unforeseeable obstacles, that students in every state will need to know in order to vote.
Alphabetized and updated every evenly numbered election year, the guide includes links to necessary applications and highlights deadlines that students may not be aware of.
Slater dates her inspiration back to her first time voting in college, saying that in her “own lived experience [growing up] in Washington state, her dad took her to a firehouse to register to vote.”
She attended college in Pennsylvania and realized that she “didn’t know how to do it” there. She remembers that her first time casting a ballot as a student was “in some guy’s garage” in her small college town.
Slater knows the complexity and depth of her project: “There are 50 different sets of rules and 50 different sets of deadlines.” It is a lot of labor and information for any one person to take on, compile and compress.
At Brandeis, Slater has also advocated for budget requests that have provided stamps, envelopes and printing services free of charge for students. She also became a licensed notary to be a resource for students voting in the five states that require ballots to be notarized. She convinced a handful of other members of the Brandeis faculty and staff to become notaries as well.
Slater estimates that this past year she helped 200-300 students register to vote. The aid she offers to students includes calling their elected officials when their ballots get lost in the mail. “Call them and be annoying,” Slater says. “This is important. [The job of an elected official] is to make sure that you are able to [vote] if you have followed their process.”
Slater seeks to “empower students to have … agency [and] control and be able to… challenge jurisdictions when they’ve done everything right and still don’t have a ballot in hand.”
The most rousing form of civic engagement at Brandeis is not campaigning for a specific candidate. Instead, it is students working together and with the help of supportive faculty and staff to get the collective student body registered to vote. President of the Brandeis Student Union and senior Rani Balakrishna says that “positive peer pressure is really helpful” in this way.
The anticipation many felt for voting this year reached its peak as deadlines passed and Election Day came, leaving in its wake a question: for all the effort, for all the hundreds of students that Slater registered and the campus presence that VoteDeis and MitzVote contributed to, were Brandeis students actually able to vote? And did they?
On Election Day, the collective student sentiment about voting was bittersweet.
“It was pretty easy!” Sophomore Claudia Cummings’ ’27 smooth experience was echoed by many Brandeis students who remembered pre-registering to vote when they got their driver’s licenses, voting early with their parents or who remembered receiving their absentee ballots in the mail and promptly filling them out while still inside the Brandeis Student Mail Center. Some students thanked their friends for helping them register to vote, some recalled holding Winston the “Vote Goat” for a photo-op and some wore their first ever “I Voted” stickers.
A few students utilized a shuttle service provided by Weinstein and VoteDeis and others took advantage of promotional discounts offered by Uber and Lyft that advertised half-price rides to polling stations.
Other students expressed worries that their absentee ballots might not have been postmarked on time. And some students that went unreached by VoteDeis, MitzVote or Slater were left without answers as to why their registration had not gone through or why they had never received their absentee ballots.
Zimmerman is grateful that she had access to a car to drop off her voting application materials and ballot at a United States Postal Service Office instead of entrusting the Brandeis mailroom with making sure her ballot made it to Texas on time.
A few students who are Massachusetts residents did not realize that they were registered to vote in a precinct in their hometown and therefore unable to cast their ballots in Waltham. Some also cited
concerns about how much time voting would take out of their schedule, many saying they “just didn’t have enough time.” Benjamin Lee ’26, a resident of Massachusetts, bluntly brought all the buzz of election day back down to the onerous hum of student life on a college campus: “I have a test today,” he said. His polling place is 35 minutes away and he did not have the time to drive himself there amidst his st dying. Lee is registered to vote but forgot that he could do so early.
Lefferman and Bagdade wish that University classes and exercises had been canceled on Election Day. Affecting more than just college kids, the lack of a federal holiday on Nov. 5 creates a tough situation for people who do not believe they can sacrifice school or work to go vote.
Speaking on Oct. 28 prior to election day, Weinstein said that his sense of VoteDeis’ impact this year was a positive one. He was optimistic about voting momentum on campus. Speaking after election day on Nov. 8, Faberman offered up a straightforward, “We tried our best.”
Bagdade provided a “jaded” personal assessment of the situation: people can be “numb” to voting and civically burnt out. She believes that sometimes it is hard to realize when “we’re preaching to the choir.”
VoteDeis members Lefferman, Leventhal and Faberman, as well as MitzVote member Bagdade, share a common belief. To use some of their own words, the “antiquated,” “confusing” and “inaccessible” processes and requirements for voting registration and voting are forms of voter suppression. Slater agrees.
Slater does not know whether or not “one federated system across all 50 territories,” would be possible, but she does think that it is imperative to “start chiseling away at some of these old processes when we live in a digital age.”
Deadlines are the stickiest part of the process for students. The variety of dates by which to register, request an absentee ballot, and postmark that ballot among other things to be mindful of become the obstacles that stop them in their tracks. Weinstein reflects on the work that VoteDeis has done to support voter registration and voting, admitting that it would be much simpler, “for sure,” if there was “a single voter registration deadline for the entire country.
He says that he does not know what the pros or cons of that legislation would be, or what it would look like, but that “it would definitely be simpler if we were telling everybody like, ‘hey, here’s the deadline’ instead of [having] a whole string of deadlines for different states.”
Weinstein made sure to note that he prioritized the nonpartisan stance that VoteDeis and ENACT take and would not outwardly support any policy. However, Lefferman proudly made her stance clear: “I support same day registration,” she said in conversation.
Slater states that “anytime you put [up] a barrier, whether it’s deliberate or not deliberate, you are making sure [that] a certain number of your populus can’t vote.”
Admittedly, voting is a numbers story — and any analysis of voting in any election will be too. Summaries that will break down the demographics of voter turnout loom as instigators of tired conversations about low voter turnout among young people. Complicating the picture, in isolated communities such as college campuses that often serve as echo chambers, the greater scheme of the numbers game is harder to project. Focusing on communities instead of pie charts, the story of voting in the U.S. becomes one driven primarily by the people that it inspires and their relationships with the people that it discourages.
Bagdade recognizes that for all the people who are passionate about voting, there are many people that feel unexcited about, disillusioned by or excluded from civic engagement. She wishes that MitzVote would do more outreach in the greater Waltham community in order for students to connect more with people outside their bubbles, interest groups and present college commitments.
Lefferman remains committed to the importance of voting as a power that all people should have. Voting “means that I can have a say in the things that will later impact me and the people around me,” she maintains. “It means that I am an involved citizen and that I can create change by electing the people who can create change.” Voting is emotional for her every time, she explains, because she thinks about “all the years [that] people couldn’t vote.”
Rani Balakrishna ’25 decides to take a generational approach as well. She thinks about her parents and the things they must have been thinking about years ago when they were voting as young people. She recognizes that today’s democracy is the one that her parents “inherited [from] their parents … [who] laid [it] out for them and that they voted [in].” She points out that the same cycle of inheritance “will happen to us.” This is hard to think about, Balakrishna admits, “but in 100 years we’re going to be living with the repercussions, with the impact and with the after effects of this election.” Fighting the stigma that some votes don’t matter in the abyss of political turmoil, Slater says, “every vote does count — people say it doesn’t, but I’m going to tell you that it does.”
Slater loves “how empowered students are to help their friends,” and identifies a “ripple effect that goes out that we’ll never be able to count.” She hopes that people realize that “at a certain point [numbers don’t] matter.”
There will always be people who need help navigating the voting process and Slater contends that “empowering [people] to really realize and take … agency over this process and to help each other,” is needed now more than ever. Disqualifying any effort to help students vote, no matter how small, forgets the democratic history and hopeful legacy of America.
Voting on a college campus can be an uphill battle. This election year inspired some individuals to reach out to their communities in the name of civic duty and dedicate themselves to bringing others into the folds of democracy. But its obstacles leave some potential voters behind no matter how hard people try to help, making some wonder why, as Lefferman and others understand it, voting and its obstacles epitomize a “privilege instead of a right.”
— The Justice Managing Editor Eliza Bier ’26 is employed by the Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation and did not contribute to or edit this article.
— The Justice Editor Nemma Kalra ’26 is employed by the Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation and did not contribute to or edit this article.
— The Justice Associate Editor Julia Hardy ’26 is on the executive board for Brandeis Democrats and did not contribute to or edit this article.
Advising head makes a difference; helping the research of students
■ Psychology professor shares her story and expertise with The Justice, providing an inside look into her role at the University.
By ANNA MARTIN JUSTICE EDITOR IN CHIEF
Prof. Ellen Wright (PSYC) has had a meaningful impact on the education of many students through her role as the Undergraduate Advising Head for the Psychology department at Brandeis. Wright’s personal expertise lies in the area of the “intersection between clinical psychology, depression, gender, development, and emotional regulation.” Throughout her time at Brandeis, Wright has played a pivotal role in supporting a variety of honors and masters students, as well as teaching and guiding undergraduate students through the process of declaring and completing psychology majors, which is listed as one of the most popular at the University according to the U.S. News and World Report.
Wright began her educational journey as a first generation college student, she told The Justice in an interview on Dec. 2. She explained that she started out with dreams of pursuing a career as a veterinarian, but “couldn’t stand to euthanize the animals.” Instead, she was encouraged to pursue the path of teaching. However, as a senior about to make the jump to student teaching in a science classroom, Write took a class that changed her life.
“I thought it was too late … but psychology kept grabbing me, so I kept taking classes on the side while I taught biology,” Wright
BRIEF
shared.
This path led her to ultimately pursue a Clinical Psychology program at the University of Iowa, an internship at Franciscan Children’s Hospital and a job teaching at Simmons University and running a depression prevention project while completing a dissertation. After 14 years passed, Prof. Margie Lachman (PSYC) ran an advertisement for a position in the Psychology department at Brandeis, and Wright “took it and fell in love.” Wright told The Justice, “More than 18 years later, here I am still.”
The Brandeis website specifies Wright’s specific area of expertise as “gender and developmental differences in and risks for depression; risk, resiliency and depression prevention; emotional regulation, self-focused attention, rumination and reflection; coping, and development; psychosomatic obstetrics and gynecology and affective disorders (i.e., postpartum depression and premenstrual dysphoric disorder).”
Wright explained to The Justice that she was partially inspired to pursue this line of research due to her dissertation advisor at the University of Iowa, Mike O’Hara. O’Hara’s research “was focused on postpartum depression and [he] was the first one to demonstrate that the postpartum period of time is not a time of greater risk for depression and that the risk wasn’t from hormones.” Additionally, University of Iowa Professor Don Fowles taught experimental psychopathology, and from him, Wright explained she “was learning to ask more comprehensive questions about the phenomena we studied.”
Wright shared that prior to her enrollment in the University of Iowa graduate program, she taught science to junior high students,
and “[has] always had an interest in the developmental area.” She explained that she realized “there was a whole area of mood disorders that people always thought female, when they thought about disorders — depression in the postpartum period, [Premenstrual Syndrome], depression, and often people decided it was because of our hormones.”
This, coupled with the research of O’Hara, inspired Wright to delve deeper with her masters thesis.
Following the completion of the thesis, Wright “realized that none of the explanations for why people generally got depressed … really explained the gender differences, and the few that did, didn’t explain why depression rates are low in childhood but that skyrocketed in adolescence/around puberty.” Around the time of the thesis completion, Yale University Prof. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema proposed a new theory about gender and depression that was centered around the emotional regulation strategy of rumination. According to Wright, Nolen-Hoeksema argued “that none of the traditional explanations for the sex differences in depressive disorders have good evidence — i.e., hormones, genetics, learned helplessness, gender role stereotypes — but that females do tend to be pushed to internalize and mull over things (i.e., rumination).”
At the same time as this theory was proposed, social psychologists Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski “argued that depression could represent a strategy for solving problems when you fail that goes awry.”
This led Wright to come to the conclusion that “self-reflective capacity emerges in adolescence and particularly with puberty,” and this realization resulted in her “[designing] a study where [she] could manipulate the fail -
Brandeis named as one of the most engaged campuses for college student voting
On Nov. 19, VoteDeis announced that Brandeis University had been recognized as one of the most engaged campuses for college student voting by ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
ALL IN is an initiative of Civic Nation and works in collaboration with higher education institutions to achieve its mission of “foster[ing] civic culture and institutionalize democratic engagement activities and programs at colleges and universities, making them a defining feature of campus life.” According to ALL IN’s website, the initiative aims to make participation in local, state and federal elections a “social norm,” increase college students’ voting engagement during and between election seasons and make education engagement on campuses “accepted and expected.”
Brandeis was recognized as one of ALL IN Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting for its efforts in increasing nonpartisan student voter participation. To be considered, Brandeis completed four core actions required by ALL IN including:
• “Participate in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
Share 2022 National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement Reports with cam -
pus voting data with ALL IN.
ure and success and examine whether that process did emerge with puberty and did so differently for males and females.”
When asked to share about a study that she has supervised at Brandeis, Wright detailed the work done by Sophie Brickman ’16. Brickman was an honors student of Wright who “did a 3 follow-up study to folks who were involved around the Boston Marathon bombing and looked for lingering post-traumatic stress and anxiety symptoms, but also for post-traumatic growth and the process that might produce either reaction.” In addition to explaining that this is one of the studies she has supervised that has received the most press attention, Wright stated that “what stood out from that one was Sophie’s emphasis on growth and not just risk and the valuable contributions that can happen when we are faced with the inevitable distress if we learn how to make good choices — and also have good fortune.”
Wright shared that she has “had a tremendous amount of great students that have done a lot of really interesting research and now are professionals in the field and I feel really blessed!” When asked about students who are interested in becoming involved, she advised that they start looking into research now. Wright advised searching department links for how to get involved and looking for local research efforts in the Waltham area as well as student’s hometowns to find internship opportunities. She encouraged “develop a questioning and curious mind — those are the kinds of activities that get one into research.” Wright shared that while her brother would say that she is “nosy and curious,” she sees it as an interest in digging into complex ideas and advised that students who ask questions will thrive in research settings.
• Develop and submit a 2024 nonpartisan democratic engagement action plan with ALL IN by October 1, 2024.
Have a current signatory to ALL IN’s Higher Education Presidents’ Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation.”
Leading up to the November election, student-led groups including VoteDeis, The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation, Brandeis Student Union and Brandeis Democrats held voter education and registration events, assisting students with the democratic process. University departments including Journalism, Legal Studies, American Studies and Politics also play a role with events including watch parties of the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates.
Brandeis joins a group of 471 institutions that was recognized by ALL IN for completing the four core tasks.
— Lin Lin Hutchinson
HAIR: New products aim to make Brandeis a more equitable campus
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Balakrishna and Escamilla-Gil’s biggest concern? “The price and affordability that we know is a big problem among college students, as well as the cost of getting the products, so we made that an emphasis to make sure students would be able to afford the products in the cstore.” This is why they went with brands like Husk, as opposed to expensive ones like Mielle. When asked to comment on the impact of this achievement, Rowland said, “hair politics has been in play for a long time, and the impact of representation is important because it means that your hair matters, and you matter.”
In their role as Student Union President and Vice President, Balakrishna and Escamilla-
Gil envision a more equitable campus. The two frequently read the student newspapers and attend student events and clubs to learn how students are feeling, said Escamilla-Gil. “But it’s also hard when students don’t come to us, because we’re not gonna know if they don’t say anything. So when someone has an idea for a project, if someone has an issue with something, we can always help, but it’s hard to do that if no one says anything,” says Balakrishna. If any student has ideas or problems that the Student Union can help with, Balakrishna emphasizes their suggestion form and her open door policy. The Student Union office is located on the third floor of the Shapiro Campus Center, and Balakrishna says she is always open to hearing suggestions on a walk-in basis.
THEFT: Targeted twice in two weeks
CONTINUED FROM 1
of the men’s bathroom — but they could not locate the scroll.
“I looked [repeatedly] and meticulously through every used tissue, floss and disgusting things in the trash because a kosher scroll is very important, but it really wasn’t there,” the student’s friend wrote. They mentioned that they searched the hallway as well, but to no avail.
A kosher scroll is significant to Jewish culture because it must be handwritten in a particular way by a trained scribe, called a sofer. The ink and quill that the sofer uses to write the Shema on the parchment also has to meet particular standards. The Jewish Virtual Library explains that “mechanically printed scrolls” and mezuzah cases without scrolls do not “fulfill the mitzvah” or the commandment, in other words. These guidelines hinder the student’s ability to find a suitable replacement for their mezuzah’s scroll. The student’s friend stressed that both the previously discarded case and the lost scroll are of “immense personal and religious value.”
On the night of Nov. 21, the affected student and their friend reported both incidents of theft to the Brandeis police. According to a Sidechat comment, campus police officers questioned residents living in the Skyline Residence Hall in an effort to learn more.
The student’s friend expressed that while it is not surprising that someone on campus took issue with the Israeli flag, it was surprising that the party later returned to remove the mezuzah and the student’s name. “The fact that their name was torn and the mezuzah case was in the trash shows to me a level of targeted anger,” they wrote.
Brandeis Hillel addressed these incidents in a Nov. 26 statement on Instagram,
expressing that they should be a “matter of concern for all of us, as they strike at the values of inclusion and respect that Brandeis holds dear.” In response, the Hillel Student Board ordered hundreds of mezuzot for “anyone on campus who wishes to display one [in] their residence hall or office door.”
In a Dec. 2 correspondence with The Justice, Brandeis Hillel Student Board President, Riley Genevieve Miner ’25, said the organization plans to host an event for community members to decorate their mezuzah cases on Thursday, Dec. 5 between 7 and 8 p.m. in the International Lounge. She added that Hillel will also be distributing mezuzot in Upper Usdan on Friday, Dec. 6 in the late morning and early afternoon.
“The Hillel Student Board plays a vital role in creating programming to support the ongoing needs of the Jewish community,” Miner wrote. “We consistently offer a space to be in community when events that impact the Jewish community occur, as it’s important to acknowledge such events.” She added that Hillel’s student board is eager to “[create] moments for Jewish joy” given that statements on social media regarding antisemitic incidents can cause heightened anxiety.
Data collected by Hillel International shows that the number of antisemitic incidents on college campuses in the United States, such as these occurrences, have “reached alarmingly high rates” since October 2023. More specifically, Hillel International found that they have increased by 700% between 2022 and 2023, showing that Brandeis, even with its large population of Jewish students, is not excluded from this national trend.
features
VERBATIM | GILLES DELEUZE
MENA city trANsforMAtioN: rEEM KsEibAti discussEs hEr worK As A rEAl EstAtE strAtEgist iN dubAi
The British-Lebanese real estate consultant and Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate candidate spoke about her career at a MENA Economics club event.
Reem Kseibati is a real estate strategist who spent over ten years working in Dubai and is now a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kseibati — who has lived in London, Beirut and Dubai — came to Brandeis to discuss her passion for real estate, her thoughts on development in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and lessons learned from her work in the region.
When Allan Feldman ’26 founded the Middle East and North Africa Economics club earlier this fall semester, he wanted to organize a group that would provide educational and pre-professional opportunities for students interested in working in economics and business in the MENA region. Asking Kseibati to speak about her decade-long career there was a no-brainer.
“The region really has deployed real estate and infrastructure development as a key driver for their wider economic and social development,” Kseibati shared at the Nov. 20 MENA Economics event.
Kseibati worked with Jones Lang LaSalle, a commercial real estate company, and then moved on to Ernst and Young, a multinational accounting firm. She aided clients in creating large-scale developments in the GCC that are projected to reach over 200,000 jobs, contribute over 50 billion U.S. dollars to the region’s economies and conserve 760 square kilometers of naturally significant sites.
Her key clients consisted of sovereign wealth funds, government ministries like the Ministry of Tourism and regional developers. What Kseibati calls the “bread and butter” of her work was advising on the strategic and financial considerations in deciding what to do with a particular stretch of land. As these land
By GRACE DOH JUSTICE EDITOR
parcels were typically expansive sites over five square kilometers, Kseibati’s impact on local landscapes has been deeply transformative.
Developments in real estate and infrastructure enhance job creation and help diversify the economies of the GCC, Kseibati said. Her job was thinking about the best way this can be done — “What kind of development does the region really need?”
In thinking about these questions, Kseibati said that it’s important to keep in mind that the countries in the GCC are economically incomparable to the Middle Eastern countries outside of the union, emphasizing that it is “a very different beast.” She explained that these nations, while newer, have still had their period of establishing stability. Dubai, for instance, invested in key infrastructure in the 1970s following the oil boom. This was a turning point towards improving the quality of life in the city.
“They’ve had that chance to really lay these foundations for further growth,” she said, whereas other countries, such as Egypt, might not have had the same opportunity for economic stability that would have allowed them to reach their full potential and focus on other sectors such as real estate.
On being a woman working in the region, Kseibati prefaced her reflection by noting her luck in finding a supportive network of women colleagues. “The kind of support that I found was really pertinent to the resilience that I had while working there,” she said. With that said, Kseibati shared that first and foremost, she was regarded as a guest.
“The Middle East really isn’t a monolith.” She elaborated, “There’s such a di -
versity not only in culture but attitudes as well.” Given this complexity, Kseibati felt that she was perceived as an outsider, above any other facet of her identity. Because she was exploring and helping develop remote regions, she felt she needed to be sensitive to local surroundings and culture.
Kseibati did conduct business in some remote areas in which segregation of the sexes was still customary. She recalled one incident when she was trying to negotiate business with someone and was entirely ignored because he would have rather spoken to her male colleague.
“But it’s key to note that in my ten years in the Middle East, that happened once,” she said, recalling that the support and camaraderie she had with her team allowed her to easily brush off the interaction. Other than this, her experience in the region was overall a positive one.
Kseibati would encourage young preprofessionals to consider working in the Middle East. “The education rate is high, the population is high, they’re entrepreneurial, the culture is by nature hospitable,” she said. These characteristics are ones that she believes would resonate with many Americans.
Now working towards a Master of Science and Real Estate Development at MIT, Kseibati is once again plunged into the job market cycles of a foreign country — except now, she is no longer working as a specialist in an emerging real estate market. Despite her breadth of experience, she feels as though her transferable skills tend to be overlooked. “There’s a very hefty line of people with local market knowledge who are just as capable as
I am,” she said. She figures that recruiters would rather hire someone who has experience in the U.S. than dig into an international candidate’s resume.
But Kseibati stands firm in her love for real estate. She spoke about how in college, she was unsure of what she wanted to do with her life until, by chance, she ended up taking a real estate course.
“The puzzles in my head just fell into place,” she said.
Having moved around a great deal growing up, Kseibati says she saw how the built environment frames our realities and the way we see the world.
The year she graduated, JLL had just launched the first cohort of an existing graduate real estate program in the Middle East. After having worked as a consultant with JLL, Kseibati realized that her passion lies more in the strategy side of land development and moved on to work at EY in 2016.
As soon as she got to EY, she was staffed on one of the first major projects that was announced in Saudi Arabia, AMAALA, a luxury tourism destination. She says that the sheer volume of work in this time period gave her a degree of exposure and experience that built up her portfolio.
At EY, Kseibati was problem solving, building knowledge databases and constructing models from scratch. These systems that she and the members of her cohort were streamlining were passed onto newer employees who began joining their team. This trial and error process — which in a matter of a few years will have created hundreds of thousands of jobs — is what Kseibati says is “the most meaningful thing that I ever did.”
Nadine Dyskant-Miller: An aspiring Waltham farmer
A young woman’s labor of love.
By LUCIA THOMAS JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Content warning — This article contains mention of suicide.
Nadine Dyskant-Miller is a soft spoken woman. She wore a drooping sun hat and a kind smile as she walked me through plastic wrapped green houses filled with warmth and tomatoes. The air smelled of autumn and fall hues decorated the treeline. My back to the fields as we chatted, Nadine gazed from my eyes to the crops behind me. The organic farm was sprinkled with barren beds and picked over vegetables waiting to be disked into the earth. The greenhouse tables were without the thousands of sprouting seedlings that once covered their tops, instead there sat crates of old garlic ready to be broken into cloves. The last of the Zinnias were vibrant but pedals dropped to the dry dirt below and soon they will be gone. The farm is transitioning, a transition that resembles a carcass.
Nadine began working at Waltham Fields Community Farm as an assistant grower in 2020. She was lured by their mission statement:
“Waltham Fields Community Farm cultivates sustainable and equitable relationships between people, their food supply, and the land from which it grows. We envision communities with equitable access to the beauty, sanctuary, and food of local, sustainable farms.”
Nadine has remained because this mission rings true.
In the last three years she has taken over as assistant farm manager. In this role Nadine oversees hiring for the farm crew, field crop planning, the spring seedling sale and general maintenance of the operation. “Nadine is a driving force for the farm who ensures that everyone feels welcome,” her coworker Marina Vergara said on Oct. 11. Nadine surprised Marina with freshly baked banana chocolate chip muffins for her first day at the farm. This is not an uncommon occurrence. The farm is an echo chamber of praise for Nadine. No one could say her name without adding that she is, “a fantastic human being and excellent farmer.”
The country needs young, excellent farmers like Nadine. Agriculture in the United States is an aging industry. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s census report, the average age of farmers has been steadily increasing since 1978 when the median age was 50.
The average age today is nearly 60 years old. Agriculture is in need of fresh faces to replenish the crop of farmers. Young people who are eager and bring new perspectives. Young people like Nadine.
Nadine hopes to deliver. She wants to start her own small farm one day. Maybe near the District of Columbia as that is where her family has settled down. A oneacre plot in Virginia that produces herbs and veggies and maybe a few chickens. Her farm would bring the community together and provide fresh produce to those who cannot afford or do not have access to such rich nutrients. I picture her composing sustainable living like music, ebbing and flowing with the land and seasons in harmony.
Nadine’s journey to becoming a farmer will not be an easy one. Many young farmers face back-breaking, soul-aching labor that may leave them with nothing but debt and bitterness.
Young farmers are hard to come by.
Just 9% of farmers were under the age of 35 in 2022’s census. It is exceedingly more difficult for those without a familial background in the industry. Family-owned farms make up 97% of agriculture in the U.S., with 50% of the land those farmers use being passed on from generation to generation. Meaning, those who begin with roots in the industry have an advantage in almost every regard.
Nadine is 33 and spent much of her childhood in the suburbs of western New York. Her family never had a garden, let alone a generational accumulation of land. On Oct. 9, she told me that for most of her life “farming was never something I considered.” She grew up homeschooled with her two older brothers. While her father was away working as an engineer, her mother stayed home and instilled in Nadine a talent and passion for music.
Nadine began playing the flute — among other instruments — and never stopped.
She continued her education at the University of Michigan where she received a Bachelor’s in Music with Honors in 2015. It was a composition professor who turned her onto farming by assigning works by Wendell Berry, a poet, novelist, environmental activist and farmer. Nadine is entering farming with a clean slate which leaves her behind seasoned growers but also gives her fresh perspective.
Young farmers often struggle with buy-
ing or leasing land, especially those with student debt that leaves them unqualified for loans. In a survey taken by over 10,000 aspiring young farmers, access to land was their greatest obstacle with 59% calling the struggle “extremely challenging.” If a farmer is able to get the land and money necessary to be operational, then comes the steep learning curve that even farmers who have been working for decades struggle with. Young people are inexperienced and failure of a crop due to an ignorant mistake can lead to total business failure. These obstacles lead to stress and mental health instability, huge factors in the farming community that are consistently overlooked. Farmers are 3.5 times more likely to commit suicide than the average person. The mind is not the only part of a farmer taking a beating. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks farming the highest risk for occupational injuries with 19.5 deaths per 100,000 farmers. The world is not what it once was and even generational knowledge cannot prepare a farmer for climate change. With the weather unpredictable, so is a farmer’s yield and therefore profit. A study done in 2023 reported that in the last two years, one in six farmers have found that their profit has gone down 25% due to unforeseen climate changes. All these factors considered, starting a farm looks like a pipedream meant to live in the “what ifs” of one’s youth.
Wendell Berry — the man who inspired Nadine — once said about farmers’ perseverance in the face of hardship, “Love. They must do it for love. Farmers farm for the love of farming. They love to watch and nurture the growth of plants. They love to live in the presence of animals. They love to work outdoors. They love the weather, maybe even when it is making them miserable. They love to live where they work and to work where they live.”
Farming is a passion that infiltrated Nadine’s life like a prowling vine. It climbed into her music, travel habits and the way she views the world as a whole. After college she worked on several small herb and vegetable farms throughout the Northeast. She moved to Chicago to make music and art, but ended up working in a garden center and surrounded herself with house plants.
Nadine tells me about spraying struggling plants, “You are walking slowly and staring down at the saddest of the crops and when you are doing that everything is doing terribly. It is heavy. The hard work, the labor, the life in your hands. The produce that is meant to feed households and provide your income is wilting
and hanging low to the dry dirt, visibly ill.” She then says, “But then you look up and no, it’s actually just this one bit. That’s why I’m here, because it’s doing terribly.” The love Wendell Berry speaks of is inherent in Nadine, natural and genuine. She is dirty when she speaks to me — tired after a long morning of harvesting kale and fixing irrigation systems — but she is bright. Bright with a blush of young love which ignites hope. Nadine is not ignorant of the obstacles facing young farmers. She’s watched unforeseen frosts and heat waves wipe out crops. She worries about the economic stability of sustainable agriculture in a society that favors productivity. She knows about the ever increasing cost of land and the overhead that comes with starting a farm. She has a wise amount of caution and tells me, “A lot can be said for working on an already established farm.” But she isn’t deterred. This resilience comes from the communities Nadine has placed herself in. She has been surrounded by young farmers in most of her work. Wonderful people who fill her with enthusiasm and continuously open her eyes to the wonders of growth. She joined coalitions such as the Collaborative Regional Alliances for Farmer Training, which brings local farmers from all backgrounds and specialties to produce a larger swath of knowledge. Nadine went to almost every workshop offered one summer. Discussions on irrigation management, weed prevention, farm budget workshops, high tunnel tomato production and many others. Nadine is proactive, as any good farmer should be. She possesses a growth mindset that prioritizes learning and marvels at the beauty of having a relationship with the land. She says, “I never wonder if what I am doing matters, it is so tangible that the work is important.”
Nadine’s experience speaks to a cohort of small farms that prioritize community involvement and sustainability. Within these atmospheres young people are plentiful, a statistic that does not ring true for the greater agriculture community. Fresh farmers seem to be congregating toward alternative ways of growing food — ways that benefit the communities they inhabit, the environment, youthful interests in farming and the farmers as a whole. One can hope that this younger generation represents the future of agriculture, and that a transition period is in progress — similar to the one on the farm. One that makes the acreage seem ugly and barren but will yield a plentiful new crop come spring.
Anna Martin, Editor in Chief
Eliza Bier, Managing Editor
Isabel Roseth, Senior Editor
Leah Breakstone, Tibria Brown, Lauryn Williams, Deputy Editors
Owen Chan, Sophia De Lisi, Julia Hardy, Dalya Koller, Mina Rowland, Madison Sirois, Associate Editors
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Grace Doh, Features Editor
Ariana Rich, Forum Editor
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Nemma Kalra, Arts & Culture Editor
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EDITORIAL
Relax, reflect, recharge: Make the most of break
As winter break approaches, it’s time to finally take a much-needed break from life as a university student. After a rough and restless semester of daunting deadlines and what feels like endless projects and exams, winter break gives us a rare opportunity to relax, reflect and recharge on all the things life may throw at us. Spend quality time with friends and family and participate in activities that you truly enjoy. Opening Moodle and anxiously checking whether that one professor posted a grade you’ve been anticipating can wait. More importantly than anything else, be kind to yourself and be proud of your accomplishments from this semester, especially after all of the stress the past few months has brought. Try and take away the pressure of “always being productive” and give yourself the very deserved break that you’ve worked tirelessly to reach. Let it serve as a reminder that giving yourself the time you need to relax and recharge is not a sign of laziness, but rather a sign that a rested mind is a sharper one and one more ready to tackle even more in the future.
This is also your time to reflect on the semester. What went well? What could have gone better? Take insight from these questions to plan for what you want to accomplish in the new year and semester. Stay organized with these ideas and track which ones are measurable and reasonable for you to achieve. Of course though, don’t let this reflection overshadow the need for rest and engaging in your favorite hobbies or spending time with loved ones. Channel these ideas into planned actions and possibly a resolution that may flourish in the coming new year.
Feel the nostalgia as you return to your hometown, where every street, building and familiar corner seems to hold a memory. The air carries the scent of simpler days,
and the sights and sounds evoke moments you thought you had forgotten. Recreate the connection with the community you left behind by revisiting the places and people that shaped your journey. Walk the paths you used to wander and visit your old go-to spots.
Use your time with intention. Don’t get sucked into doom scrolling on TikTok — it’s way too easy to waste a day by just entering the app. Instagram Reels are no better and don’t even think about YouTube Shorts. Spend your time with the people you care about and enjoy being around. Even better, take time to think about what you want your life to be, these are rare moments, without stressors, to dive into ideas you don’t usually uncage.
Take the time to research internships that align with your interests and goals. Don’t hesitate to explore opportunities out of state or in new and unfamiliar places — it could be the change you need to grow personally and professionally. If you’ve been procrastinating, now is the perfect moment to write that cover letter you’ve been avoiding. Winter break is one of the few chances to focus on internship and job planning before applications are due.
As the days of winter break unfold, remember that this is the time to nurture your well-being and creativity. Engage in activities that bring you joy and fulfillment, whether that’s picking up a long-neglected hobby, diving into a book you’ve been meaning to read or exploring a new skill just for fun. Let your break be a mixture of relaxation and exploration, where you can rejuvenate your body and mind while also fostering personal growth. This time is about more than just recharging — it’s about rediscovering what inspires and motivates you, so you can step into the new year with a sense of purpose and excitement for what lies ahead.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
To the editor,
With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirming the first child in the United States has tested positive for bird flu, our political leaders should, among other things, consider a massive increase in public funding for cultivatedmeat research. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from livestock cells. Since animals are removed from the process, the risk of zoonotic pandemics would be dramatically reduced. Though the new protein has been approved by the United States Department
of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, it is currently too expensive to mass produce. Further development in the field of cellular agriculture could overcome these cost barriers. Any politician, at either the state or federal level, who cares about preventing future pandemics, should support government funding for cultivated-meat research.
Jon Hochschartner 41 Salmon Brook Street Granby, CT 06035 (703) 901-1011
I am writing in support of Gonny Nir’s thoughtful and well-founded (if somewhat protracted) columns in The Justice regarding the current state of academic life here at Brandeis. Like Gonny, I’ve often felt that the best features of campus life involve what she calls “meaningful experiences” that arise naturally between inquisitive students and caring faculty and staff. I also agree with her that these experiences cannot be forced. But I also believe, with the help of the Department of Student Affairs, that the essence of these experiences can be made a part of what Gonny refers to as the “infrastructure” of our university.
How might this be done? It’s really not so hard. Faculty members profess a certain expertise in their subjects, but we’re interested in all manner of things that never show up on our syllabi (just as students, oddly enough, have interests beyond their class schedules). Why not take advantage of this? What I have in mind is a series of colloquia, fully fun and fully thought-provoking at the same time (in other words, fully like a genuine liberal arts education), in which professors from different departments share their unique perspectives on given topics. And having shared them, they would then open up a discussion between and among students and faculty about what can be learned from the engagement of one perspective with the other.
I thought about calling these colloquia “Gweithgaredd penwhythnos sydd ddim yn ddiflas,” which is Welsh for “non-boring weekend activity,” but I am not wedded to that.
Anyway, as an example of what I have in mind, consider what might be done with the element Silver. A Chemistry professor might begin the colloquium by talking about what an “element” is and what makes Silver chemically distinct. Their presentation might be followed by someone in the liberal arts (me, for example) who would say something about the way Silver would change the world’s economy forever once it was found in great quantities deep within the “Cerro Rico” at Potosi. Back and forth we could
go, sharing insights from chemistry on the one hand and history and economics on the other, groping towards---who knows what? Something about the arbitrariness of value? The way electron arrangements consign us to our destinies? Something else? I don’t know. But that of course is the point. We’d all be thinking of this together, and enjoying ourselves as we do so, seeing where the give and take might lead.
Given the number of programs we have at Brandeis, the permutations that may give rise to such engagements are vast in number, exceeding even the number of possible orders at Starbucks (recently estimated at 300 billion). Consider a colloquium on Charles Ives’ heartbreakingly beautiful “Concord Sonata” presented by people from the Music and Philosophy Departments, or a session on the strange and altogether crucial planet Jupiter, presented by people from Physics and Classics—or maybe a session on the Battle of Waterloo, put on by a historian on the one hand, and on the other by someone with a particular love either for “Vanity Fair,” or “Les Miserables,” or both. What would come of that? I think it would be fun to find out.
I, for one, would enjoy volunteering my time over the weekends for events like this, and I think other faculty members would feel the same way—especially if this is something students would want as part of their experience at Brandeis. There would be no hint of Gonny’s “phony bells and whistles” about these colloquia. Instead, at least at their best, they would be unforced adventures in learning, of the sort that might help Brandeis proclaim once more its uniqueness, and allow it to carry forward the tradition of Marcuse, Fischer—and even Dylan, who really did change the musical world (although contrary to Gonny’s belief, he did it through “Highway 61 Revisited,” not “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”---perhaps a topic for an American Studies and Physics collaboration)?
---Professor Dan Breen
Farwell to our fall grads: Justice mid-years of 2024
As we approach the end of the fall semester, it’s time to turn our attention to the Brandeis mid-year graduates of 2024. These soon-tobe alumni deserve a hearty congratulations for completing their time at Brandeis and preparing to step into the next chapters of their lives.
Graduating during this time of year may not come with all the same festivities that accompany Commencement during the spring. However, the hard work and dedication it took to earn an undergraduate degree is no different. You’ve overcome challenges, balanced the long nights and rigorous coursework, made friends, formed life-long connections and achieved so much during your time at Brandeis. Even if your current plans do not include the cap and gown or walking across the stage, we hope that you find your own way to celebrate this accomplishment, reflecting on everything you’ve done so far and the world of opportunities ahead.
The Justice Editorial Board wishes the fall 2024 graduates all the best as they transition from the classroom to their future pursuits, whatever they may be. Congratulations to the mid-year class of 2024!
Goodbyes are rarely easy. Although The Justice has witnessed numerous generations of editors come and go, saying farewell to the newest group of graduating editors always stirs a complex mix of emotions. As we reflect on the countless production nights spent together — marked by delirious banter, friendship and unwavering dedication to delivering a paper we can take pride in — it’s difficult to imagine a paper without them. Their contributions, both in terms of their commitment to journalism and their unique presence, have been an asset to The Justice and journalism at Brandeis. However, we are also filled with excitement to see what their future post-graduation may hold. While
their absence will undoubtedly be felt, the time they’ve spent here will continue to be cherished by all who got to work alongside them. Please join The Justice editorial board to celebrate the mid-year graduating editors of The Justice, Class of 2024.
Owen Chan ’24 brought such a calming presence to The Justice office. He first joined the paper during his freshman year and became a Photography editor during his sophomore year. During his time as Photography editor he led his team of photographers and promoted his life of lighthouses and landscape photos. After completing his term as a Photography Editor he became an associate editor, where he has continued to play an integral role in supporting Justice operations. We know that Owen will go and do amazing things but will miss his presence in the office!
Madison Sirois ’24 joined The Justice her sophomore year and has been a dedicated, kind and joyful presence in the office ever since. Starting as a copy editor, Madison applied her remarkable work-ethic and attention to detail to every article, caption and photo credit she edited during her time on the paper. After being a Copy editor, she became an associate editor and continued to make invaluable contributions to the paper by taking on most senior reads. Not only have Madison’s editing and writing skills been such assets to The Justice, she also brought so much kindness and warmth to every conversation she had. She always brought a positive attitude, and never failed to offer a helping hand. Madison, this board cannot wait to see what you do next. We will miss your joyful presence in the office, but we wish you all the best after graduation and beyond.
Congratulations to the Class of 2024 Justice editors and contributors! We are excited to see where your talent, passion and work will take you next!
Ignorance and liberation
By GONNY NIR JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
As the semester winds down, I’ve been reflecting on where I was at this time last year. It was the first term of my junior year, and I was preparing to spend the second abroad at another university across an ocean and several time zones. I was terrified, constantly questioning whether I had made the right choice to go abroad.
You see, I did not come to university expecting to study abroad. In fact, I studied abroad for exactly the reason people with straight heads on their shoulders tell you not to; but I’m endowed with what can only be described as the most crooked of heads on my narrow shoulders. So, I went abroad because all my friends were doing it, and I didn’t want to feel socially isolated in the spring. What I did not know then — and what I would only come to realize after the fact — was that going abroad was the most liberating, testing and all-around enthralling experience I could have had at 20 years old.
I chose to go abroad at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Unlike the many other host institutions that students go abroad to, the University of Edinburgh was, in fact, a serious intellectual environment that forced me to put on my thinking cap every now and again. There was “study” involved in my “study abroad” experience, but I will admit that most of the “studying” I did took place outside conventional structures — not at libraries, classrooms or my god-awful dorm room, which really felt more like a ward of an insane asylum than a place that I should have been calling home for four months.
I did my “studying” at my local pub, surrounded by a handful of middle-to-late aged Scottish men who seemingly had nothing better to do every night than drink their weight — which was not negligible, I might add — in beer. I did some solo studying at a dimly lit jazz club in Vienna. Some more in a busy Frankfurt train station, and some more on the beaches of the Grecian island of Naxos. Oh, and among my fondest sessions involved the tiniest bathroom of a local pizzeria in Italy, which comforted me a great deal as I heaved up a noxious combination of Limoncello, pasta con pancetta, cigarette ash and half the bottle of 4-euro wine I drank before dinner.
As you’ve likely surmised by now, I was not merely studying my ordinary curriculum abroad. No, whilst abroad, I sought a survey in cultural studies with a concentration in personal development. Of course, I was still reading Hegel and Arendt; after all, you can take a woman out of the Philosophy Department, but you cannot take the Department’s teachings out of the woman. Classrooms are corporeal, but lessons are eternal. Much the same could be said about experiences abroad: the experiences are momentary, but their impact is everlasting. I was the freest I’ve ever been abroad, and that freedom gave me the kind of room I needed to really grow out of and into myself. Being abroad provided me with the ideal environment to ditch old behaviors and adopt new ones (not all of which I’d nonchalantly preach to the public — I’ll posit this forthrightly now). I was cushioned by certain structures and institutions — think of them as safety nets — such as my home and host institutions, my family, professors from home that checked in on me from time to time and social havens that ensured all my falls would be caught before they became lethal. Consequently, I had the freedom to really try things. I did a lot of things abroad that I couldn’t have imagined doing the semester before I left. Big and small.
Take being stranded in Germany after missing a train because, as it turns out, Frankfurt does a poor job of distinguishing between the south and main terminals from which trains depart. Prior to my going abroad, any teeny-tiny wrench thrown in my travel plans would have sparked the most egregious spell of terror known to man in my psyche. After having been essentially deserted in Frankfurt and still somehow making it to Berlin with all my travel documents and most of my sanity, I can say that I don’t really have “travel anxiety” anymore. I also have neither trouble nor guilt leaving a bloke’s flat at two in the morning to walk back to my hostel in a foreign city. And I find it fun — and not all embarrassing — to sit alone with an afternoon espresso, chair facing the street so that I can watch the commotion on the pavements before me.
I say this all now, having spent most of this semester comparing it to my last, thinking just how good I had it then, whilst seemingly being unaware of the degree of goodness in question. I was grateful abroad, don’t get me wrong. I was very well aware that it is rare to find oneself in a situation wherein one pays 26 pounds (around 30 U.S. dollars) to fly to Austria to prance around museums and eat schnitzel for four uninterrupted days. I wholly recognized how lucky I was to experience all of the things I did abroad. What I didn’t recognize then was just how free to experience those things I was.
For four months, I was unequivocally supported to be, to see, to experience to my heart’s content. I had the real freedom to choose what it was that I wanted to do at most moments, and no one and nothing even tried to stop me. And like nearly everyone else who goes abroad under similar circumstances, I was ignorant of the lack of constraints involved in my experience abroad. And maybe that’s exactly why I felt so free: the very idea of constraints seemed so irrelevant to me at the time. Why even spend mental energy reflecting on such things? Constraints are theoretical, and the complete collection of Egon Schiele’s paintings was actual and literally in front of me. So, as you would guess, I chose to delegate my mental energy to Schiele’s oeuvre. Stunning by the way, a ten out of ten, except for the very inconvenient fact that Schiele was a complete freak. But normal people don’t make great art. C’est la vie, mon chéri.
I write this now not to persuade anyone to go abroad. I don’t think it’s the best choice for everyone. But for me, and for those who wish to expand their horizons, as Nietzsche philosophized, “with a sledgehammer,” I think it’s worthwhile. More importantly, I think that putting yourself in a position where you are unconstrained but still supported by structures that will catch you should you fall — whether it be in a foreign country or in your hometown — that is where real growth takes place.
Ignorance is usually — and rightly — frowned upon, especially in an institution like Brandeis whose task it is to uncover truth and dispel knowledge. But I think that, perhaps counterintuitively, when you are most ignorant of your luck you experience the greatest potential for growth. Because when the idea of constraint doesn’t even enter your mind, it doesn’t affect your decision making. You just act — whether that action constitutes merely being, seeing, existing, tasting, smelling, etc. You experience, and that experience can be of the greatest significance, if you make it so.
Faux lawns, real consequences
By ARIANA RICH JUSTICE EDITOR
We’ve all seen them — at elementary schools, football fields, playgrounds, even right outside our neighbors’ houses. But, location aside, what is it that all artificial lawns have in common? The answer, unfortunately, is the carcinogenic harm posed to both people and the real ecosystems replaced by these plastic excuses for nature. Few people recognize that replacing nature with human-made forgeries is rarely a harmless pursuit; in fact, it wasn’t until my own mother called me, in tears over the artificial lawn installed by our next door neighbors, that I realized the gravity of the situation for myself. Artificial turf symbolizes a shift away from natural, sustainable solutions in favor of synthetic alternatives that often prioritize convenience over environmental health; this choice aligns with a broader pattern of unsustainable consumption and resource extraction, which are both key drivers of the climate crisis.
Synthetic grass was first introduced in 1965 and has steadily infiltrated nearly every corner of modern life: sports fields, residential lawns, commercial spaces, urban landscapes, schools, public parks and entertainment venues. Its appeal stems largely from its polished appearance, perceived durability and the promise of escaping the maintenance of natural grass — no mowing, no irrigation, no herbicides. In drought-prone regions, it’s marketed as a water-saving alternative to “thirsty” grass, but behind this appealing façade lies a far grimmer reality: artificial turf is a wolf in shiny, green clothing, hiding environmental destruction, health risks and long-term costs that far outweigh its so-called benefits. The downsides are plenty, and it’s time we stop ignoring them.
Let’s be clear: the production, installation and maintenance of artificial turf are environmental disasters masquerading as convenience. Turf is largely composed of plastics derived from petroleum, a resource whose extraction and refinement wreak havoc on ecosystems, causing habitat destruction, oil spills and significant greenhouse gas emissions. This process not only perpetuates our dependence on fossil fuels, but also accelerates climate change. To make matters worse, turf typically lasts only 8-10 years, meaning every replacement cycle demands new materials. Its production, reliant on energy-intensive processes, generates massive amounts of carbon emissions.
The damage doesn’t stop there. Throughout its finite lifecycle, turf continues to contribute to the climate crisis. Manufacturing plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene emits large quantities of carbon dioxide and methane, two potent greenhouse gases. And when turf reaches the end of its short lifespan, it is often dumped into landfills, where it degrades and releases methane, or incinerated, adding even more toxic gases to the atmosphere. Despite manufacturers’ claims that turf is recyclable, this is a misconception of epic proportions; turf is not, and has never been, a sustainable or environmentally responsible alternative to natural grass.
On the issue of water, however, artificial turf has its own related drawbacks; unlike natural vegetation, turf doesn’t absorb water.
This increases runoff during storms, which are intensifying due to climate change, and exacerbates urban flooding. But, most sinister, runoff from turf can carry microplastics, heavy metals and other chemicals into waterways, polluting aquatic ecosystems and degrading water quality. Consequently, kidney damage, neurological disorders, infertility, cancers and metabolic disorders can occur in humans, while the effects of runoff ripple through food chains, reduce biodiversity and weaken ecosystem resilience.
It’s obvious that the widespread use of artificial turf has a myriad of negative effects on humans, animals, and the environment. But what can be done about this? Addressing this issue requires a combination of individual action, community advocacy, policy changes and education to promote sustainable alternatives.
Choosing sustainable alternatives is imperative; homeowners can opt for native plants, grasses and wildflowers that are adapted to local climates and require less water and maintenance. Furthermore, to combat the allure of turf as a water-efficient alternative to traditional grass lawns, using drought-resistant grass species can require less water and mowing. Educating others is also important. By sharing information about the environmental and health impacts of artificial turf with neighbors, schools and community groups, the word can begin to be spread about the hidden long-term costs of turf.
On a larger scale, opponents of artificial turf must take bold action to demand change; lobby local governments to prioritize natural landscaping and enact restrictions, or outright bans, on turf, especially in environmentally-sensitive areas like wetlands or near water bodies. Some neighborhoods and municipalities have already succeeded in banning artificial turf — there’s no reason yours can’t do the same. Research the existing precedents, rally your community and draft a well-supported proposal packed with evidence, testimonials and connections to city-wide sustainability goals. Push your local leaders to act! Change will not come overnight, but with persistence and determination, success is possible. Waiting for someone else to step up is no longer an option — our planet doesn’t have that kind of time. Artificial turf isn’t just an environmental nuisance. It’s an assault on our ecosystems, our health and our future. We’re choking our waterways with microplastics, suffocating our soils and polluting our air, all for the sake of a lawn that looks “perfect” all year-round. Perfect for us, perhaps, but not for the wildlife driven from their homes, the fish poisoned by the runoff or the children unknowingly playing on carcinogenic surfaces. This is a glaring example of how short-term fixes can leave long-term destruction in their wake, and it’s time to demand better — of ourselves, our neighbors and of the policymakers who allow this environmental nightmare to persist. The grass on these lawns may be fake, but the harm it poses to our society and our planet is very, very real.
Boston Bruins season preview
■ The Bruins have been off to a slow start as the National Hockey League enters its ninth week of regular season play.
By JEFFREY WANG JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
As of Nov. 29, 2024, the Boston Bruins are the fourth seed in the Atlantic Division, holding a record of 11-11-3. Since winning the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, the Bruins have been trying to recapture their championship glory. Despite strong regular season performances and even setting a National Hockey League record for most regular season wins in the 2022-2023 season, the Bruins have been stumped by mediocrity when it comes to postseason success. Fans might be in for much of the same disappointment as the Bruins’ start to the 2024-2025 season has been subpar.
The Bruins’ front office got to work during the off-season after being knocked out of the second round of the 2024 playoffs by the Florida Panthers.
On July 1, center Elias Lindholm signed with the Bruins on a seven-year, $54.25 million contract. So far, Lindholm has struggled to develop chemistry with the team, recording only nine points over 19 games. While Lindholm has shown steady improvement recently, it raises concerns about whether he will be a long-term fit.
When goalie Linus Ullmark was traded to the Ottawa Senators on June 24, the Bruins’ defensive responsibility shifted full-time to Jeremy Swayman. Swayman, who signed an eight-year
contract worth $66 million in October, currently holds a save percentage of 0.888 across 16 games played. The Bruins will need every bit of Swayman's defensive prowess moving forward if the team wishes to have a chance at winning.
On the offensive end, star wing David Pastrank who regularly scores 40 goals per season is in a slump, having only scored 2 goals in his last 12 games. Team captain Brad Marchand has been a bright spot for the Bruins, notching eight goals and nine assists across 24 games. Joonas Korpialso, who was acquired in the Ullmark trade, has been a surprisingly nice addition for the Bruins. Korpialso currently has a goals against average of 2.45 and an SV% of 0.904 across nine games.
The biggest shakeup to the Bruins’ lineup is not related to the players, but instead to the firing of head coach Jim Montgomery on Nov. 19. Everybody in the organization anticipated the impact of this move: General Manager Don Sweeny said Montgomery’s firing “came from a decision of our team just not performing to the level of expectations that we have grown to appreciate as [fans] of the sporting community here.” Marchand expressed his frustration, saying that “the tough part about this is that if we had done our job in here, he would still be around, so [we] feel terrible as a group.” There is some truth in that statement as Montgomery was the one who led the Bruins to the best single-season record (65-12-5) in the 2022-2023 season. With Montgomery gone, interim head coach Joe Sacco takes up the challenge.
Although one of the most disappointing starts in franchise history, the Bruins still have 57 games to turn things around. The real question is: when will they finally put it all together?
The Bruins play the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 3 at 6 p.m., following a win to the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday, Dec. 1.
JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS
Brandeis: Women, 221-62. Men, 230-54.
STANDOUTS
200-yard freestyle
Chloe Gonzalez '25 with a time of 1:58.63.
100-yard backstroke
Anastasia Bekou '25 with a time of 1:01.87.
Judges in Action: Toby Harris
■ Recognized as a 2024-25 Preseason All-American, Toby Harris of the Brandeis University men’s basketball team reflects on his career at Brandeis and shares his goals for the season.
By DIANE MEYER JUSTICE EDITOR
Toby Harris ’25 comes from a family of basketball players — his sister plays college basketball at Hamilton College and his father, who played college basketball for the University of California, Davis, is a high school coach in his home state of North Carolina. After fifteen years of growing up in and around the sport, Harris easily associates the word “team” with the word “family.”
“I think team is really another word for family,” Harris shares. “My team means everything to me and I would do a lot for every single one of them, so I would describe [a] team as a family all working together for a common goal.”
So far this season, the Brandeis men’s basketball team has been exhibiting this closeness that Harris celebrates as the mark of a true team. With a near perfect 5-1 record that was only just tarnished by a 77-63 loss to Babson College on Dec. 1, the Judges are setting themselves up for an exciting season. Winning the University Ath-
letics Association conference is the ultimate goal at the end of the long winter ahead — a victory the Judges have never before managed to accomplish.
It is Harris’s personal goal to claim the UAA Championship title, and he says that his team is pushing for that this year more than ever. Returning to his emphasis on family, Harris says that the team this year is the closest team that he has ever been on, which bodes well for their postseason aspirations. “We basically do everything together, it’s like a family away from home,” Harris says.
As a senior and a captain on the team, Harris knows that he is following in the footsteps of teammates before him. He says that over his four years at Brandeis, he has “been able to see what seniors on the team have done [as captains]” and has learned leadership skills from them, taking what he has found to be most motivating and supportive and trying to emulate that in his captain position this year. “This year we have a very talented team,” Harris says, “so to be considered a leader and a captain for this team is an honor.”
Harris also notes that it is important to “lead with your actions as well as your voice.” Apart from athletic achievements — which Harris has many of, including a 2023 First Team All-UAA award, as well as many UAA Player of the Week honors prior to his recent distinction as a Pre-Season All-American by D3Hoops.com —
leading with action includes setting an example as a disciplined and competitive athlete.
Harris says he is personally motivated by his own competitiveness. Even as the current scoring leader on the team, he “know[s] that there is always someone better … in life no matter what it be.” Harris reflects that “striving to surpass that person whoever it may be” is what keeps him going.
Harris is also a fan of visualization as a strategy that gets him ready for gametime. “The night before a game I always throw some sort of instrumental music on and visualize how I picture the game going,” he says. Harris missed most of last season due to injury, but not only did he retain his discipline, he has come out on top even more dedicated to his dreams and his “beautiful game” of basketball.
In general, Harris says that he likes to live by many phrases that his father quotes. “A big one is ‘truth over comfort,’” Harris notes. He explains that this means “always holding oneself to a high standard [as the] key [to] being successful.” It is a fitting connection to the University's own motto: truth even unto its innermost parts. Win or lose, Harris and his team strive to learn and improve. Watch the Judges continue their season versus Framingham State University Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. — Harris will be chasing the sound of the basketball swishing through the net, which, although hard to pin down, is his favorite part of the game.
Brandeis 15, Wagner 12
Brandeis 16, Vassar 11
BC 19, Brandeis 8
MIT 18, Brandeis 9
Brandeis 16, Sacred Heart 11
Wayne State 15, Brandeis 12
Brandeis 21. Wheaton 6
4-5 today, 5-6 overall
Brandeis 16, Wagner 11
Brandeis 16, Vassar 11
BC 21, Brandeis 6
MIT 20, Brandeis 7 Tufts 14, Brandeis 13
Denison 14, Brandeis 13
Brandeis 19, Sacred Heart 8
Brandeis 17, Wayne State 10
Brandeis 24. Wheaton 3
Brown 18, Brandeis 9
Wellesley 16, Brandeis 11
Sports just
A recap of Week 13 (Thanksgiving week) of the National Football League
■ Chronicling Week 13 action, as well as commentary on a major coaching change.
By EZEKIEL BLOOM
Week 13 of the National Football League season did not disappoint as Thanksgiving week featured a myriad of high octane matchups and nail biting finishes. Typical of the holiday, games were spread out throughout the week’s entirety for fans to enjoy. This included three matchups on Thursday, Nov. 28 and a game on Friday, Nov. 29 to complement the rest of the games predominantly taking place on Sunday. As a result, fans were able to consistently tune into nonstop NFL action throughout their Thanksgiving break. A distinctive part of this action involved one of the most confounding finishes seen in years. The Chicago Bears lost 23-20 to the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving, but that alone was not an extremely surprising result. The Lions have been utterly dominant during the course of this season and they improved their record to 10-1, while the struggling Bears fell to 4-8. Unfortunately, it was the ridiculous fashion in which the Bears lost this contest that gripped the headlines and ultimately lost their coach his job. The blunder reads as follows: the Bears were deep into Lions’ territory with only thirty seconds remaining in the game. Luckily, they were only down three points, which they could tie with a field goal. Additionally, they did not have to worry about a lack of time remaining in the contest due to the fact that they still retained one of their timeouts. At the very least, it was expected that the Bears would run a play or two and then opt to use their timeout to kick a field goal, sending the game into overtime against an extremely strong opponent. However, the Bears wound up standing idly by for about twenty-five seconds before quarterback Caleb Williams threw a deep pass that fell to the ground — incomplete, as time expired. Shockingly, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus defended the decision to not call a timeout in that situation. Unfortunately
for Eberflus, the Bears front office was not too sympathetic to his reasoning and he was fired after two and a half seasons at the helm. This latest incident has come after a string of gutting losses that the Bears have suffered as part of a six-game losing streak. But all is not doom and gloom for Chicago, as they have a rookie phenom in Williams who assuredly will lead their squad to success in the future.
One team that has overcome all obstacles thrown in their way has been the Pittsburgh Steelers, who improved their record to an impressive 9-3 after dismantling the Cincinnati Bengals in a 44-38 offensive thriller. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has truly worked his magic with veteran quarterback Russell Wilson. The 36-year-old Wilson shined on the field, throwing for 414 yards and three touchdowns in the victory. One element of their victory, which will come as an extremely hopeful sign for their fans, was their fantastic offensive execution. Traditionally a defensive powerhouse, the Steelers are again hanging their cap on that end, holding opposing teams to the 7th fewest yards of offense per game in the NFL. On the other hand, they rank around the middle of the pack — 14th — in terms of yards per game gained offensively. If Wilson can continue to elevate his play to propel the Steelers into the upper echelon of NFL offensive efficiency, then the Steelers will be a major contender during this upcoming postseason.
With the conclusion of Week 13’s action, there are only a mere five weeks remaining in this NFL regular season! With the wild card rounds of the playoffs soon upon us, the anticipation only continues to build. Stay tuned during these upcoming weeks to see how the top teams finish in the playoff standings, as well as how the league’s bottom dwellers attempt to vie for the best position in the NFL draft this upcoming April.
Games to watch: Green Bay Packers vs. Detroit Lions, 8:15 P.M. E.T. on Dec. 5, 2024 Seattle Seahawks vs. Arizona Cardinals, 4:05 P.M. E.T. on Dec. 8, 2024
JUDGES IN ACTION
The Justice Editor Diane Meyer '26 profiles Toby Harris '25 of the men's basketball team, p. 11.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Fourth quarters define the past three games for Brandeis women’s basketball
■ The Brandeis University women’s basketball team has suffered two near losses since their late-in-the-game victory against Rivier University on Nov. 19.
By DIANE MEYER JUSTICE EDITOR
Coming back after the Thanksgiving break, the Brandeis women’s basketball team is 3-4. Their last three games were decided in dramatic fourth quarters, clueing audiences into the fact that this determined team is still working out its kinks.
Against Rivier University on Wednesday, Nov. 19, the Judges only scored 35 points in the first three quarters of the game. At the time, their record was 2-2, and the women were fighting for a winning record. But the fourth quarter saw an inspired and dynamic team come alive. Thanks in large part to Lulu Ohm ’25, who scored 19 points in the last quarter, the Judges went on a 17-point run, denying the Raiders any points on the board for just over five minutes.
Jessica Maina ’28 and Saviah Shabazz ’28 contributed key plays for the Judges. In what ultimately became the defining two buckets of the game, Shabazz nailed a threepointer with 6:08 left on the clock and Maina sealed the victory with another three-pointer on the next possession.
It was a stellar fourth quarter from the Judges as they held the Raiders to 4-17 while improving to 11-14 themselves. Following her individual performances during this game, Ohm was named the New
England Women’s Basketball Association Player of the Week.
But after what should have been a confidence-boosting come-back, the Judges have faltered in their most recent two games against The University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and Babson College — puzzling for a team that cemented one of their best performances of the season so far in the final 10 minutes of the game just prior.
Against the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on Nov. 23, the Judges held their own for much of the game and there were 11 lead changes as the two squads went shot for shot. Ohm and Maina were leaders on the court again, scoring 10 and nine points respectively in the first half of the game. Heading into the third quarter, the Judges were up one point after Maina connected for a three-pointer scrounged off a rebound from a shot from Shabazz.
The Judges floundered after failing to score on their opening possession of the fourth and panic seemed to set in after they went just over six minutes without scoring. They missed 11 shots while UMD scored 11 points. Maina got the Judges within 10 with a threepointer that made that score 70-63, but the Judges were unable to find their footing. The game ended in a loss that made their record 3-3.
On Nov. 26, the Judges found some of the late-game enthusiasm that they had so expertly converted into success against Rivier, but still struggled to close out the game. This time, the Babson Beavers led the entire game, despite a second quarter bucket from Katherine Vaughn ’25 that made the score 1716. The Judges were unable to capitalize on this momentum, and the Beavers scored eight of the next 10 points going into halftime.
There was a similar inability to capture and keep momentum in the
second half of the game During the third quarter, the Judges went on a 10-3 run to get them only one point away from Babson, but failed to get on top as the quarter ended with a 9-2 run favoring Babson.
The Judges kept fighting — the women pulled off a six point run to keep the game within ten points after the Beavers made the score 4232 to open the fourth quarter. But Babson discouraged the Brandeis offense and even after Ohm reeled it in to 44-40 with just under six minutes left, the Judges were unable to get the game within two possessions. The game ended 63-52. Consider it a fluke or consider it a sign of a team that’s still figuring out their strength under new head coach Jessica Prichett, but these two losses put the Judges at a crossroads in their season. Looking closely at the final ten minutes of both games against UMass and Babson, the final scores do not speak to the grit that this team displays. When they can convert this grit into points, as they managed to do against Rivier, the fourth quarter should be where the Judges rise above.
The new talent on the team illustrates the Judges’ potential. Despite the losses, Maina was recognized by the University Athletics Association as a NEWBA Rookie of the Week. Ohm, disciplined as ever under pressure, was also named to the NEWBA Weekly Honor Roll.
The Brandeis women’s basketball team will be back at home for their Dec. 3 game versus the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 6 p.m. They will not face a University Athletics Association rival until the new year when they will travel to New York City to play New York University. With a month to prepare for the true test of their season — UAA competition — the Judges will have the next four games to continue working on their record.
R eflections on R estitution :
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R s A tion with D R . A lex A n DRA R A tzl A ff
On Nov. 24, the 37th annual Brandeis University Thanksgiving Tea was held in London. This event highlights the endurance of the Brandeis community and is the longest-running Alumni Association event held in the World. Current Brandeis students studying abroad are invited to attend, learn and meet alumni in Great Britain, forging the connections between their pasts and our futures. Sharon Rosenberg ’00, Senior Director of Alumni Relations, spearheaded this event with a passion felt by all students and alumni present.
The main event of the Tea was not the delicious food or the lively conversations reminiscing on times in the New York City Boroughs or Miami neighborhoods, but rather the inspiring speech delivered by Prof. Alexandra Ratzlaff (CLAS).
Ratzlaff graduated in 2003 from George Washington University’s Archaeology, Classical Studies and Anthropology Program. She then went on to complete a Postbaccalaureate Ph.D. at Boston University’s Department of Archaeology in 2012. The Justice had the incredible opportunity to attend this talk and discuss it with her afterward one-on-one.
These conversations often can be tricky to follow, specifically for the general public who are often left out of the intricacies of a museum’s legal relations with foreign bodies. It is for this reason that restitution, or the return of cultural objects to their original community, creator, culture or descendants of such, is often a source of contention in the public sphere. Any of those groups connected to the cultural heritage of an object can submit a restitution claim against the entity that holds the object, known as a steward. Restitution claims can be denied, accepted, negotiated and ignored, essentially halting the process of restitution. This is a huge problem, as it completely freezes out the agreed upon international law from enacting its purpose. There are countless examples of museums, public and private, refusing, accepting or ignoring restitution claims, all of which cause a litany of arguments and problems ranging from foreign relations, economics, artistic restoration and overflowing storerooms which produce no scholarship. All of these are problems that exist hand in hand with restitution, oftentimes not seen by a public that desires to see repatriation through their screens without understanding the legal ramifications of the process. Ratzlaff tackled and explained these problems in her speech last month.
Ratzlaff’s presentation was entitled, “Antiquities, Museums, and Monuments: The Future of The Past,” which concerned the history and future of tangible items of cultural heritage, currently housed in museums. This talk took a scholarly lens to the controversy and challenge that collections face today — highlighting restitution as a major problem. As a case study in restitution Ratzlaff used the Parthenon Marbles, parts of which are currently conserved in the British Museum. Greece has submitted numerous restitution claims for these works and all have fallen on deaf ears.
To define cultural heritage, Ratzlaff took a global perspective, discussing the tangible, intangible, movable and immovable. She also discussed the history of museums and collections, from the Neo-Babylonian Museum of Ennigaldi-Nanna to the encyclopedic museums of today.
Discussing the question of the Parthenon Marbles, Ratzlaff examined the past to determine the validity of the restitution claim, the restitution claim itself, the arguments posed by Greece and Britain and the ramifications of repatriation, setting a
By MIKEY TERRENZI
THE JUSTICE OVERSEAS STAFF WRITER
precedent for other works. Unfortunately, no set conclusion has been realized for the problems with restitution, instead Ratzlaff invites us to ponder the potential future of these artifacts. Finally, Ratzlaff left us with the resting global question. How will restitution exist in the future, and what will its consequences be?
Following her talk, The Justice interviewed Ratzlaff to discuss some of the problems concerning repatriation and her opinions on some of the pressing ethical issues facing museums today.
It is important to clarify a certain time period we will be discussing. In 1954, the Hague Convention was the first international law convention that discussed how art was taken in World War II. Since then, repatriation has been an ongoing project. Ratzlaff shared, “Much of it the results of the Monuments Men and Jewish families especially, coming forward and asking for repatriation and putting the work in … And that I think inspired a lot of different groups, and it did set precedent, it set precedent around the world, especially legal precedent.” Now as repatriation has grown to encompass not just art taken during war, but art taken during colonialism, “then wartime in a lens sort of morphed into colonialism. People saw parallels.” It is important to note, however, that not all art exchanged during periods of conflict and struggle was necessarily through illegal transfer, some were bought, traded or taken through legal means. This form of ownership, and subsequent proprietorship, known as Good Faith Stewardship, refers to the supposed legal ownership and responsibility of an artifact, which typically expands to a moral responsibility.
On the subject of Good Faith Stewardship, Ratzlaff had much to say. “It [Good Faith Stewardship] exists in intent and practice. I do think many of the museums who are being challenged do have intent in mind and they do understand the brevity of the position they are put in; that they have a responsibility to the public, to their patrons, to the country they’re in.” She also stressed the importance of idealism and realism in certain circumstances as well, “At the same time, it is not always realistic to be the kind of steward that is expected of them, especially in some of these high-profile situations such as the Parthenon Marbles … there is also an immense amount of logistics behind some of these controversies, it is not a straightforward answer.” This idealist and realist compromise has been a frustrating part of restitution for the public who wish to see the Parthenon Marbles reunited in Athens. Yet the ramifications of restitution are still left private, not shown to the public. “The complete ramifications of either holding onto artifacts or repatriation isn’t always explained to the public, and I think that is something that needs to be brought more attention to.” As a result, the negative reactions to museums have been felt and a skewed perception of museums has formed in the public’s mind. “Museums who are being decent stewards of the majority of their artifacts, and they have one controversial piece that is under fire, [the public] abandons the fact they do have a good experience … Some of these controversies can overshadow the benefits of these museums and what they do bring to the public.”
Controversy often follows difficult questions of culture, such as who owns culture, whether culture changed, and if culture has developed. Because of the mutability of culture over time, and the difficulty in its definition, The Justice hoped to discuss how heritage can impact the discussions
of restitution with Ratzlaff. We explored the question of cultural heritage’s impact on a claim to an object given how culture has changed, and political borders have shifted over time. Ratzlaff had this to say:
“Who do we repatriate to [when] certain groups don’t exist anymore? The issue of empire, we get angry about imperialism and decolonization but from a modern perspective you are making the assumption that everybody from a former empire is still this homogeneous group and it’s not.”
This discussion opened up even more, as we shared our own preconceptions. “It’s an important question because it also brings into privy the idea of unintended cultural biases. You cannot separate the knowledge you have now from the conversation. We understand modern borders have changed; we understand that some of the people involved are not the same group as in antiquity. There are more nuances involved in it.” These sorts of problems explain why repatriation isn’t always perfect because “Cultural Heritage and repatriation is something that has to be addressed on such an individual basis. We can’t ‘empty out all the museums and return [artifacts] all to their rightful owners.’ Statements like that are so loaded with misconceptions, and it is not possible because you have to consider things like the imperial past and colonization.”
One specific case of restitution that has been at least partially fulfilled is the Benin Bronzes. These sculptures are personal items, looted by the British occupying powers from the Palace of Benin in the late 19th century. These bronzes have a rich history depicting the Oba, or the kings of the Benin Kingdoms. A number of these bronzes are currently conserved at the British Museum. Recently a restitution of two of these bronzes occurred, not to the state of Nigeria, the previous receiving party of such restitutions, but to the court of Edo, the seat of power of the Benin Kingdom situated in Nigeria.
This complication of who these artifacts belong to has been criticized and praised in the past. But it also raises the question of who is consuming the artifacts. Who is dictating the restitution? Ratzlaff adeptly explained, “If you have cultural groups that can still be represented and that these objects can be directly traced back to, those are the groups that should be dictating the nuanced return. Not all artifacts are meant to be consumed by the public, although we can appreciate them for their beauty and their artistic contribution to society and culture, you have to consider their original intent and representation of that culture.”
She went on to describe a hopeful future given the present for these artifacts, “I think that what has been happening with the Benin Bronzes and their repatriation has been, while fraught with problems, a good example of museums, private groups, collectors, and cultural representatives working together and at least having conversations, because there is a dialogue there. There is a complete lack of dialogue in other situations.”
From here, it is useful to turn to the future and examine our place in this tangled, complex conversation. Coming together at this presentation as members of the Brandeis community, across the Atlantic, a certain sentiment lingers. Highlighted by the message of Ratzlaff’s insightful work, I felt that the possibility for a future lies in the past. For the alumni present, it was a look back on their past, and for the students and recent graduates, Brandeis remains a part of our future. The inquisitive skills we learn as students at Brandeis clearly
do not diminish as hands shot up for the Question and Answer section. That isn’t to say Brandeis students don’t change after graduation, but it is clear that our education is not something we experience, but something that resides within us long after the moment we cross the stage at graduation. There seemed to be a desire for the future within these alumni, a motivation for compromise, change and development, despite the slow, long, arduous process that lay ahead. For young people, however, this problem of repatriation still looks so long and complex, but they are motivated by their anger at injustice, hope for compromise or revolutionaries for restitution. So where does that leave us? Ratzlaff had some advice for the audience, “On a sort of sliding scale of what can be done I think repatriation is often at Z. A to Y there’s a lot that can be done and I think that changing the situation as it is now, and change should happen, I am in agreement, but we can work on education, we can work on having a multiplicity of voices represented, thinking about who is consuming this art and archaeology, who is consuming the past.” She continued to say that there are ways for the younger generation to get involved, “As we have a next generation of professionals coming into the field, thinking about how material is displayed who’s consuming it and making that obligation more a priority. Museums are supposed to be for everyone, even the most elite museums in the world can be appealing … That opening these things up, having digital archives, having virtual reality exhibits, having things that immerse yourself in more senses because that’s what people will come to expect.”
As history moves forward, the next generation will naturally take up the mantle of archaeologists, art historians, classicists, writers, curators and conservators, and we are coming up to our crowning moments. It is now our responsibility to present the past with the criticisms of the past. This is already happening, as the newer generations’ demands are being listened to, Ratzlaff explains, “I think that some museums, and I will speak freely, the British Museum did an excellent job recently on the Roman Army exhibit because it had interactive parts to it, it was geared at families, at older people, at people in wheelchairs that might be disabled, you didn’t have to stand up and sort of see an exhibit showcase, and I think that’s important.” It is possible for us to continue this movement, to work within the system, while also making efforts to change it. We cannot throw out the encyclopedic museum as a concept or group, but we can hold them to a higher standard.
There are hundreds of artifacts still housed in encyclopedic museums that have been requested back by their countries, cultures, and peoples of origin. The work that these groups have done for restitution is a shining beacon to the future, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for their resilience and strength. Their works are still taken, cached away and oftentimes held hostage in economic negotiations. I want to remind us of our power in numbers, in demanding justice, but also in demanding equity, education, accessibility and research.
— The Justice overseas staff writer Mikey Terrenzi ’26 was a Classical Artifacts Research Collection Fellow for the 2023-2024 academic year and did contribute to this article.
ADAGIO
By NEMMA KALRA JUSTICE EDITOR
Top Ten STAFF’S
Top 10 Sentence Fillers
By MARINA ROSENTHAL JUSTICE EDITOR
This is a list of my top ten sentence fillers to make your story more dramatic.
1. “Lo and behold...”
2. “Mind you...”
3. “Stay with me now...”
4. “Come to find out...”
5. “Need I remind you...”
6. “Unbeknownst to me...”
7. “Cut to...”
8. “Here’s the kicker...”
9. “Need I say more...”
10. “Contrary to popular belief...”
CINEMA COMMENTARY
By DAHLIA RAMIREZ JUSTICE STAFF ARTIST
‘Clueless’: The quinTessenTial Teen romanTiC Comedy
By LAUREN GOODMAN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Everyone seems to have a teen romantic comedy that holds a special place in their heart. For most, these films evoke a strong level of nostalgia, like the fond memories of watching “Mean Girls” for the first time at a middle school sleepover. Upon rewatching, however, these films tend to be a mixed bag. While some — like “Ten Things I Hate About You” — are able to remain on their pedestal, others fall flat when examined with a scrutinizing, grown-up eye — as seen with “The Kissing Booth.” For me, Amy Heckerling’s “Clueless” is perhaps the most nostalgic teen rom-com of all time. I first watched the film at 14 years old, and it’s been imprinted on my mind ever since. But, as time passes and our once juvenile tastes grow more sophisticated, does this film still hold up? For the most part, yes. With privileged, yet unconventionally wise female characters, eternally quotable dialogue and an escapist setting that borders on fantasy, “Clueless” is the quintessential teen rom-com to be enjoyed by viewers of any age.
Films geared toward teenage girls often have a habit of villainizing or demeaning their target audience. Many of the young female characters in these films, especially the “girly” characters, are either portrayed as stuck-up, vindictive popular girls or vapid, air-headed blondes. If a female character does have depth, it is generally because she is “not like the other girls” and does not have traditionally feminine interests. As the main character of “Clueless,” Cher Horowitz subverts these expectations in a way that is unusual for a teen rom-com of the 1990s. She appears to fit the classic popular girl stereotype: a wealthy shopaholic obsessed with makeup, weight loss and fashion. However, while Cher is often naive and self-centered due to her economic privilege, she is never presented as unintelligent.
In fact, Cher is quite the opposite. She is confident and savvy, with enough charisma and social acumen to successfully negotiate higher grades for her report card and propel Tai Frasier, the outcast-bound new girl, into the popular crowd. Cher is a master of persuasion — with a few choice words and actions, she is able to make her teachers fall in love and turn Tai’s attention from Travis Birkenstock, a stoner who would ruin her reputation, to Elton Tiscia, one of the few acceptable high school boys to date. Cher also has a surprising amount of academic knowledge, which she shows off when she corrects her ex-stepbrother’s female friend when she misquotes Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” She is generally not unkind, at least not intentionally. Though Cher gives Tai a makeover partly for her own entertainment, she also genuinely believes that she is helping Tai navigate her new school. She cares deeply about her friends and family, supporting Tai when Elton breaks her heart and constantly making sure her father eats healthy. Cher is a smart, refreshing take on the classic teen rom-com popular girl, ensuring that “Clueless” never talks down to its primary audience.
Many criticize teen movies for not being realistic enough to the average high school experience. Directors cast gorgeous 27-year-old actors to play high school sophomores who should, by all accounts, be suffering from crippling acne and palpable awkwardness. While I agree that there is a considerable gap in the market of genuinely relatable teen films, I believe that “Clueless” does the unrealistic high school setting right. The world of rich, carefree teenagers living in Beverly Hills is already an unrelatable environment to many viewers. As such, the film leans into its fantastical elements, displaying a universe in which everyone has exceptional fashion sense, endless time for shopping and parties and a computerized closet that chooses outfits for its user. This universe has a language all its own, creating dialogue that continues to be quoted decades after the film’s release. Cher is not disappointed when she realizes her crush, Christian Stovitz, is gay; instead, she is “totally buggin’.” Cher’s frenemy Amber Mariens is not poorly dressed; she is either a “fashion victim” or “ensemble-y challenged.” No one can forget Cher’s iconic expression of disgust — “Ugh, as if!” — though I prefer to quote Tai’s brutal jab at Cher: “You’re a virgin who can’t drive.” Way harsh, indeed. Since it is so far removed from reality, “Clueless’” setting is one in which viewers can escape and indulge themselves without deeply examining its incongruence to the real world. One criticism I have of the film is that the romantic side of its plot is “a full-on Monet: from far away, it’s okay, but up close, it’s a big old mess.” The choice of having Cher’s love interest be her ex-stepbrother is questionable at best and unsettling at worst. According to Cher, Josh Lucas’ mother was “barely married” to her father, and the two of them have not been step-siblings for several years. While it is technically fine for them to be together, it does not make this aspect of their relationship less odd. Additionally, though Josh and Cher are only two years apart in age, a college student romantically pursuing a high schooler is a plot point that becomes more distracting as the years pass. Their witty, argumentative banter throughout the film is charming to watch. But the dynamic between Cher and Josh for the bulk of the film reads as that of a brother and sister to me, further exacerbating the strangeness of their inevitable union. However, if one can look past these admittedly glaring issues, the positive effect that Josh has on Cher is rather sweet. Josh’s social consciousness is what drives Cher to give herself a makeover of the soul, participating in charitable work and finding a deeper appreciation for her friends and peers of different social statuses. Cher does this not necessarily to win Josh’s affection, but because Josh inspires her to better herself for herself and those around her. Overall, though the “rom” half of this teen romcom has its issues, “Clueless” is still a film that surpasses most of its contemporaries, whether the viewer feels nostalgia for it or not.
Volleyball Sports: Fall recap
By DIANE MEYER JUSTICE EDITOR
The Brandeis women’s volleyball team finished the season with a 16-14 record -- their first winning season since 2017. Highlights include Lara Verstovsek ’25 being named an American Volleyball Coaches All-American Honorable Mention and making 455 kills, the sixth-highest single season total in Brandeis history and good enough to leave the University Athletics Association. Anna Ertischek ’26, as well as Verstovsek, was named to the AVCA All-Region team, and was second on the tea m in kills and set a school single-match hitting percentage record this season when she hit .750 against Skidmore College on Sept. 6.
By DIANE MEYER JUSTICE EDITOR
The Brandeis men’s soccer team finished the 2024 season with their best record since 2019: 9-5-2. They fnished second in the University Athletics Assciation Conference, only one point behind Emory University. Six Judges were named to the 2024 All-University Athletic Association team; they were Nico Benida ’25, Andres Gonzalez
SOCCER
By DIANE MEYER JUSTICE EDITOR
The Brandeis women’s soccer team finished the 2024 season with a winning 9-7-1 record. They were nationally ranked in the top 25 in Division III for the majoirty of the season, and three Judges were named 2024 All-University Athletic Association team; they are Ali Panella ’27, Rachel Watler ’25 and Rachel Ross MA ’25.
SOCCER
By DIANE MEYER JUSTICE EDITOR
Scoring the most goals this season was Tanvi Raju ’27 with seven and Rachel Watler ’25 was second on the team with six. Watler ’27 was first on the team for assists with eight and Laurene Cretau ’28 was second with five. Goalkeeper Rachel Ross MA’25 made 60 saves for a 0.769 save percentage.
Men’s & Women’s Cross Country
By DIANE MEYER JUSTICE EDITOR
The Brandeis men’s and women’s cross country teams finished their seasons at the Division III East Region Championships. The women finished 9th out of 30 teams and the men finished 11th out of 33. Many personal records were set this season: on the men’s side T.J. Carelo ’26 and Henry Nguyen ’25 both broke 26 minutes for the first time during the University Athletics Association Championship hosted by the Judges on Nov. 2. Their times were 25:51.2 and 25:59.2, respectively. On the women’s side, notable PRs for Anna Batelli ’25 and Kayla DiBenedetto ’25 came at the Connecticut College Invite on Oct. 19 as Batelli ran for 23:10.3 and DiBenedetto ran for 23:20.5.