The Justice, October 10, 2017

ARTS Page 19

FORUM Restrict sale of deadly weapons 11 SPORTS Men’s soccer team continues to win 16 The Independent Student Newspaper

the

‘METAMORPHOSIS’ of

B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9

Justice

Volume LXX, Number 5

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Tuesday, October 10, 2017

HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

STUDENT LIFE

Grad start-up goes to competition ■ Wafaa Arbash M.A. ’17

and Jennie Kelly M.A. ’17 will compete in HUBweek's Beantown Throwdown.

By JOCELYN GOULD JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

ADAM PANN/the Justice

HALL OF FAME: The 1989 men's tennis team and Coach Tom Foley recreated the photo from their UAA title in 1989 pictured below.

Athlete alums receive Hall of Fame recognition ■ Five alumni and the 1988 to

1989 men’s tennis team were inducted to the Joseph M. Linsey Athletic Hall of Fame.

By EMILY BLUMENTHAL JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The 1988 to 1989 men’s tennis team and five additional alumni athletes were inducted into the Joseph M. Linsey Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, celebrating the occasion with a nostalgia-filled reception.

The team and five individuals were selected out of a pool of 50 to 75 potential candidates. “We try to get as good a balance to the Hall of Fame as we can, to look for sports or eras that are underrepresented sometimes. That was sort of specifically what we were looking for this year,” Sports Information Director Adam Levin ’94 said in an interview with the Justice.

In interviews with the Justice, the athletes reminisced on their favorite tournament and game memories and discussed their feelings about being inducted into the Hall

of Fame.

John Fobia ’73, a soccer player and striker for the team, said his favorite memory was an away game against Babson College. “Babson had an undefeated season, and we won 1-0 away,” he said. On being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Fobia said, “It’s incredible. I’m very honored for the opportunity and I’m very pleased that the pre-Coven era players were recognized by the Hall of Fame,” referring to former Head Coach Mike Coven, who joined after Fobia graduated.

Other honorees also cited underdog victories as their favorite moments from their collegiate athletic careers. Michael Mayer ’94 M.A. ’95, a fencer, talked about a match in the University Athletic Association competition during his first year. He “came out of nowhere and won it. … It was kind of this amazing moment, where nobody knew who [he] was.”

Mayer said he is “thrilled beyond words to be inducted,” adding that he felt lucky to share the experience with his parents and his children. “For me, this is just wonderful,” he said.

Nostalgia was a running theme

Competing against eleven other Boston area colleges to demonstrate their entrepreneurial talent, two graduates of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management will represent Brandeis at the annual HUBweek Beantown Throwdown on Friday.

Heller graduates Wafaa Arbash M.A. ’17 and Jennie Kelly M.A. ’17 will pitch WorkAround, a startup they created which connects businesses with refugees in need of work. The company won the 2016 Heller StartUp Challenge. In the last year, WorkAround has worked

administrators held an open forum for students to respond to national tragedies.

By GWENDOLYN HARRIS JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

ADAM PANN/the Justice

throughout the evening. Sara “Albe” Albert ’04, a softball player, said, “I remember the last game vividly, because I knew that it would be the last time that I would get to play softball on a team like I had, and I had played with them for four years. … I knew that my time

See ATHLETICS, 7 ☛

See WORKAROUND, 7 ☛

Open forum addresses reactions to current events and disasters ■ A panel of faculty and

TENNIS: The 1989 men's tennis team was the first New England team to earn the NCAA Division III tournament berth.

with a variety of clients, continuing to grow and develop their business to meet the challenges of the modern refugee crisis.

Through research for her thesis for her dual Master’s degree in Sustainable International Development and Coexistence and Conflict, Arbash began to formulate the idea for WorkAround. Looking at the Syrian refugee crisis, Arbash realized that there was a massive population of “talented, educated and highly motivated” people who nevertheless were unable to work because they “don’t have access to the local economy,” she explained in an interview with the Justice.

Looking to solve this problem, Arbash researched the possibilities of connecting them to the digital economy, while simultaneously talking to Boston businesses to see if they would hire refugees to do work online. These ideas be-

COMMUNITY

In response to recent symbolic protests, hate speech and natural disasters, a panel of prominent Brandeis community members gathered with students and faculty on Tuesday to speak with them in an open forum about their reactions.

Sitting in a circle to facilitate conversation, panel members and students alike introduced themselves to the group and gave their reasons for attending. Participants ranged from an international student trying to gain new perspective on the hectic events in America, to faculty members hoping to discern

the effects of the news on both students and staff.

“Like all members of our community, how I function is very much affected by the things I see on television and the events of the day, and I really am interested in understanding how this is impacting students, and how I can be engaged and how I can help,” Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren shared with the group.

The discussion was organized and led by Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Mark Brimhall-Vargas. He began by describing some of the furthest-reaching events in the past nine months, such as the hurricanes and the recent Las Vegas shooting. He asked the panelists for their academic and personal perspectives on the novelty of this volume of crises.

Prof. Carina Ray (AAAS) said that although the concentration of

See COMMUNITY, 7 ☛

Never Again

Dominant Streak

Dialogues

 Can International Justice ever be universal?

 The women’s soccer team has not lost in any of its last 11 games.

 A workshop addressed workplace comfort zones.

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INDEX

SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS

17 13

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 OPINION 8 POLICE LOG

10 2

News 3 COPYRIGHT 2017 FREE AT BRANDEIS.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2017

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NEWS SENATE LOG

Senate discusses holiday shuttles and menstrual product distribution Following last week’s meeting with the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Student Union Vice President Hannah Brown ’19 reported at Sunday’s Senate meeting that the committee has already taken some suggestions to the General Education Requirements proposal into account. The proposals will be brought to the Faculty Senate next week.

In executive officer reports, Brown said the “Meet the Union” event, in which the student body can interact with all the Student Union representatives and committees, will take place in Fellows Garden on Oct. 19 from 5 to 7 p.m.

Brown noted there has been poor attendance at the two Task Force for Free Expression open forums and encouraged senators to attend the last forum, which will take place on Oct. 30.

The Health and Safety committee announced that it is investigating lowering BEMCo ambulance fees after constituents expressed that the expense deters people from calling for help. Another solution is to advertise that Public Safety does offer students free escort to the nearby urgent care facility in Waltham, said Brown.

Club Support Comittee Chair and Class of 2020 Senator Tal Richtman said that the club leadership workshop will take place on Nov. 9 from 7 to 9 p.m. in Mandel Center for the Humanities Room G03, co-hosted

by Student Activities.

Additionally, the committee has an endorsement from Director of Student Activities Steve Pagios to approve the process of getting a faculty advisor for every club on campus, Richtman reported. The committee hopes that by the end of the semester there will be a working bylaw to put club advisors into effect.

Social Justice and Diversity Committee Chair and Rosenthal Quad Senator Lizy Dabanka ’20 reported that the committee will be conducting a two-week poll of the general student body to get feedback on how students feel the school treats diversity and social justice on campus.

Campus Operations and Working Group Chair and Senator-at-Large Shaquan McDowell ’18 reported that the free menstrual product initiative will begin distribution soon. An interest meeting for volunteers to help with the distribution will occur at 10 a.m. on Thursday at the Student Union Office.

With no unfinished business or new business, the Senate moved into individual senator reports. McDowell reported that he has been working with Student Union executives on a statement for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, encouraging the University community to stay aware and engaged to protect its affected students.

Richtman reported constituent complaints that campus and Boston/Cambridge shuttles do not run during the University’s Jewish Holiday closings.

Several other senators agreed that, with a minority of students observing the holidays, shuttles should be offered. Some added personal anecdotes that online information for whether shuttles are running or not on holidays is absent and that no one in office was available to give clear answers on shuttle availability.

“There are no reason why there shouldn’t be shuttles,” said Finkel. Dabanka added that dining halls also have reduced hours on Jewish holidays. “That’s quite frustrating when you’re a student that is not observing,” she said. Brown noted to the group that as senators, “We’re all empowered to reach out to these places,” to fix these frustrations.

POLICE LOG

Medical Emergency Oct. 2—BEMCo staff treated a party who cut their thumb while preparing food in Usdan Student Center.

Oct. 2—A party in the Science Complex reported that they were feeling faint. BEMCo staff treated the party with a signed refusal for further care.

Oct. 2—A party in the Science Complex reported that they were experiencing stomach pains.

BEMCo staff treated the party, who was transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 3—University Police received a report of a party in the Charles River Apartments who was experiencing dizziness and weakness due to a cold. BEMCo staff treated the party, who was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 5—University Police received a report of an intoxicated party in the Charles River Apartments. Cataldo Ambulance staff treated the party with a signed refusal for further care.

Oct. 5—A party in the Brandeis Health Center was treated for an allergic reaction. Cataldo Ambulance staff transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 5—A party in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center reported that they had suffered a knee injury. BEMCo staff treated the party, who was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 6—Brandeis Counseling Center staff requested an ambulance for a psychiatric transport. Cataldo Ambulance staff transported the party to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 6—A party in East Quad reported that they fell and injured their ankle. BEMCo staff treated the party with a signed refusal for further care.

Oct. 7—A party in Rosenthal Quad reported that they were dehydrated and feeling feverish. Cataldo Ambulance staff transported the party to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further

care.

Oct. 7—University Police received a report of an intoxicated party in the Foster Mods. The party was conscious and alert and was transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 8—BEMCo staff treated a party in Rosenthal Quad who was having an allergic reaction. Cataldo Ambulance staff transported the party to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 8—A party in East Quad reported that they were experiencing pain from a leg injury. BEMCo staff treated the party with a signed refusal for further care.

Harassment

Oct. 6—A party in the Sachar International Center reported that they had received suspicious mail. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

Disturbance

Oct. 7—University Police received a report of a verbal altercation in front of Gosman Sports

TASTE OF CHINA

n A Sept. 19 Features article incorrectly identified a photo of Bozhanka Vitanova ’18 as Leana Silverber.

(Sept. 19, pg. 8). n An Oct. 3 Features article, changed “Cheyer and his co-founders ... Cheyer and Gruber met with Jobs” to “Cheyer and his co-founders, Dag Kittlaus and Tom Gruber, ... They met with Jobs.” (Oct 3. pg. 8).

CLEMENTS PARK/the Justice

Students practiced calligraphy, enjoyed desserts and played games at an event hosted by the Brandeis Chinese Cultural Connection club.

n The Oct. 3 crossword puzzle clues were printed incorrectly. An updated version is online. (Oct 3. pg. 20).

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Email editor@ thejustice.org.

Joshua Kahn ’06 Revisits

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The Justice Brandeis University Mailstop 214 P.O. Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Phone: (781) 736-3750 The Managing Editor holds office hours on Mondays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Oct. 6—University Police received a report of a male party who was acting suspiciously in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. University Police questioned the party and could not positively identify him. The party was advised to depart University property or else be subject to arrest for trespassing. The party departed without incident.

—Compiled by Abby Patkin

Waltham Police detectives arrest Newton man for emailing bomb threats and cyberstalking woman

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

n An Oct. 3 Arts article published images of Joan Mitchell’s work, however the images were not correctly credited. “artwork © Estate of Joan Mitchell” has been added to the photo captions online. (Oct 3. pg. 18).

Other

BRIEF

—Michelle Dang

n The Oct. 3 Features article also incorrectly stated “fellow researcher Tom Gruber.” It is corrected to “fellow researcher Phil Cohen.” (Oct 3. pg. 8).

Convocation Center. University Police on scene reported that it was a minor disagreement between friends, and no further action was taken.

Oct. 7—University Police received a noise complaint from a Waltham resident regarding a party in the Foster Mods. University Police dispersed the crowd without further incident.

Oct. 7—An off-campus resident reported a noise complaint for the Fellows Garden. University Police checked the area and found it quiet upon arrival.

X-Lawn

Kahn, former Sorenson-fellow, is a social movement facilitator who has trained thousands of activists across the globe. He has spent the last 17 years as an organizer, campaign strategist and non-violent direct action coordinator. He is a core trainer with The Wildfire Project and facilitator/action-coordinator with the Ruckus Society. Most recently, Kahndirected the Global Training Program at 350.org.

Today from 7 to 9 p.m. at Pearlman Lounge Room 113.

The Campus Activities Board at Brandeis is putting on X-Lawn, an extreme filled day with rock climbing, bungee trampolines and a mechanical bull. A Post Card Photobooth will be present so that guests can take a keepsake from the event.

Blue Ribbon BBQ will be providing free food as a treat after attendees have accomplished these x-treme activities.

Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. on the Great Lawn.

Screening of “Obit” with Vanessa Gould

Latinx Career Panel

Join us for a screening of the well-reviewed documentary film “Obit” followed by a talk with filmmaker Vanessa Gould.

Sponsored by the Flim, Television and Interactive Media Program and the Journalism Program.

Today from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in Wasserman Cinematheque.

This panel is being held in celebration of Latinx Heritage Month. Speakers will lead a discussion and highlight topics around diversity hiring, underrepresented minorities and the recruitment and interviewing process.

Saturday from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Intercultural Center Swig Lounge.

Waltham Police detectives and FBI investigators identified and arrested a suspect in the series of e-mailed bomb threats made in late August against Waltham public schools and city offices, the Waltham Patch reported on Oct 6.

According to the report, 24-year-old Ryan S. Lin of Newton was charged on one count of cyberstalking.

Lin targeted his former roommate, a 24-year-old woman residing in Waltham, in his cyberstalking campaign that began in April 2016. In addition to the bomb threats to institutions in her residential community, Lin also allegedly made false reports directly to law enforcement that the woman had bombs in her household, according to the Patch. He also allegedly created a social media account with the woman’s name, with posts written threatening to “shoot up” a local school, the Patch reported.

Allegedly, he had previously hacked the victim’s online personal accounts, stolen private photos and sensitive information and created fraudulent online profiles with her name and address that solicited violent sexual activities.

Lin appeared in U.S. District Court in Boston on Friday and is being held without bail, pending his upcoming hearing tomorrow. He faces up to five years in prison and three years of supervised release, reported the Patch.

Authorities have not publicly confirmed whether Lin is the sole individual responsible for all the bomb threats that occurred over the past several months, primarily against public schools. More than 80 bomb threats were reported in September alone, with the threats continuing this month, according to the Patch.

On Aug. 23, the University was evacuated following an emailed bomb threat, and on Aug. 31 two dozen bomb threats were sent across the city.

—Michelle Dang

Rose Art Museum Exhibitions Opening

Celebrate the fall 2017 exhibitions at the Rose Art Museum! This season’s exhibitions include: Body Talk, Buckdancer’s Choice: Joe Bradley Selects, Kevork Mourad: Immortal City, Rose Video 11: John Akomfrah, Joe Bradley (opens Oct. 15) and Tony Lewis: Plunder (opens Oct. 15).

Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Rose Art Museum.

deiSic: Sustainability Ideation Challenge

A full-day event centered on improving sustainability. Students meet, brainstorm, exchange ideas, form groups, hear advice from mentors, and write proposals for funding from the Brandeis Sustainability Fund.

Students will pitch their projects to a panel of judges, who will decide which projects are ideal candidates for the BSF. Sunday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Shapiro Campus Center atrium.

the justice

CAMPUS SPEAKERS

Poets share Jewish life anthologies

■ Lenea Newman and Joy

Ladin shared readings from their career works and spoke about their writing processes.

By ELIANA PADWA Justice STAFF WRITER

Focused on Judaism, gender and the confluence between the two, poetry reading “Spiritual Sisters” demonstrated issues close to the values of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute’s heart on Tuesday.

The visiting readers, Lenea Newman and Joy Ladin, are each acclaimed authors and poets.

Newman is best known for the landmark “Heather Has Two Mommies” and has published dozens of other acclaimed titles for children, young adults and adults, with awards ranging from American Library Association Stonewall Honors to the Massachusetts Book Award.

Ladin, a professor of English at Stern College, is a National Jewish Book Award Finalist and Forward Fives Award winner. Her works include “Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between the Genders,” about coming out as a transgender woman, and “Coming to Life.”

Ladin chose to read from her upcoming anthology, “The Future is Trying to Tell Us Something,” as well as from past collections. The themes ranged from dying and growth to love and faith. She explained that she began the book a few summers ago, in the midst of a premonition that she would die that summer. She wasn’t discomforted — she knew her premonitions were always wrong — but she chose to take it as a writing assignment: “What does life look like when you think it’s your last summer?”

The poems Ladin read included “Now and Then,” written on a Subway car in New York, it recounts seeing a man reading from a Gemara (a part of the Talmud) and remembering once being that kippah-clad scholar. The reading also included “Amelioration of A Dream” — a scrambled translation of a post-nightmare prayer — and “Answers to the Name Lucky,” in which she proclaims, “I’m nothing more than a draft of what I’m becoming.” She ended with “Make America Great Again,” a lament to this country and the ways it has needed to heal since long before the election.

Newman read from two books: “I Carry My Mother,” written after her mother’s passing, and “Lovely,” about her childhood.

Among Newman’s readings from “I Carry My Mother” was “A Daughter is a Daughter,” a poem

about having a lifelong relationship with her mother. She explained that the poem was inspired by “a daughter is a daughter for all of her life,” a common saying for girls of her generation.

The title poem, “I Carry My Mother,” is about carrying her mother through their shared features — when Newman looks in the mirror, her mother looks back. She explained that when writing about her mother, she gets to bring her back for a bit, which “gives [me] joy.”

From “Lovely,” Newman read “1955-2001: A Hair Odyssey,” “Ode to a Knish Shop,” and “To Have and To Hold,” a love poem to Massachusetts on the day it declared samesex marriage legal.

Newman’s selections from “Lovely” were generally lighter in tone; “1955-2001: A Hair Odyssey” explores her struggle with her locks, while “Ode to a Knish Shop” is exactly what the title suggests.

During a question-and-answer session, both poets were asked about their writing processes and journeys.

Newman learned from Grace Paley and Allen Ginsberg. Paley once advised Newman to write in her language — English with Yiddish sprinkled in — because that’s what she grew up hearing. Now, Newman thinks of writing as “kvetching on paper.” She explained that she won’t force herself to write, but once the urge gets too strong to resist, she sits down and scribbles words until the poem “comes up from the page.” Her longest period without writing was only three months, after 9/11.

For Ladin, learning to write poetry was about finding a style that worked for her.

Her work has always been “plagued by abstraction” because American poetry is based on the premise that the writer is the narrator. Before coming out, she wasn’t able to write as herself, so she was briefly drawn to Russian poetry.

The style involves several filters of distancing and depersonalization, which were attractive at the time, she explained. Now, however, she’s “trying to get to a self,” rather than trying to destroy one. The journey led to her questioning the purpose of poetry — why we write it the way we do and what assumptions we bring to the process.

“Spiritual Sisters” began as a conversation between Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, interim director of HBI, and Penina Weinberg, president of Congregation Ruach HaYam in Cambridge. The event was sponsored by Ruach HaYam, the Jewish Women’s Archive, HBI, Keshet and the Jewish Feminist Association at Brandeis.

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STEP OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE

HEATHER SCHILLER/the Justice

DIALOGUES: Prof. Molinsky (IBS) spoke to the workshop audience about strategies to build personal confidence in the workplace.

Dialogues encourage students to step out of workplace comfort zone ■ The Dialogues kicked off

the start of the year with a workshop focused on navigating the workplace.

By WILL HODGKINSON Justice CoNTRIBUTING WRITER

How can you succeed after college? A student-born initiative offered an answer to the question on many students’ minds at Wednesday’s “Your Comfort Zone + Your Workplace.”

Some 30 interested onlookers gathered at the Shapiro Campus Center to inaugurate the University’s annual 2017 to 2018 Dialogues program.

This initiative, which began three years ago in order to provide a direct means of engaging with students, aims to encourage interactive discussions around how to empower oneself in a workplace setting through self-advocacy in stressful situations.

Yet its organizers hope not merely to deal with these pressing issues in the abstract. Through conversations about identity, background and personal challenges they intend for the students themselves to apply what The Dialogues taught them in their daily lives, said Caroline O’Shea, assistant director of employee relations at the Hiatt Career Center.

O’Shea, one of the event’s primary organizers, told attendees that she wanted them to leave with some sort of soft-skill to help them in their professional lives, “especially … when they’re out of school and in the workplace.”

O’Shea’s colleague and fellow Dialogues facilitator, Assistant Director of Experiential Learning and Teaching Alyssa Canelli, emphasized the importance of recognizing an individual’s background and the obstacles they may encounter be-

cause of it.

“When you really think about workplace and identity, you know there may be situations in which certain people bear responsibility for stepping outside of their comfort zone more than others,” she said.

Canelli urged participants to consider their own experiences in dealing with stress and taking initiative and to share how they “stepped outside of their comfort zone.”

Prof. Andrew Molinsky (IBS), author of “REACH” — a book designed to provide strategies for developing assertiveness in everyday circumstances — headlined the event.

Molinsky related his own challenges with stress and discomfort in public. “My whole life I’ve always really struggled with stepping outside my comfort zone. When I was in your shoes ... I was in the back of the class,” he said. “I would not say anything. … I was awkward, I was embarrassed,” he confided inthe audience.

Using examples as disparate as Gandhi and Natalie Portman, Molinsky demonstrated the ubiquity of social fear before introducing his research into the topic. Inspired by his own experiences, he investigated common misconceptions related to leaving one’s comfort zone.

Molinsky refuted the prevalent self-help trope that everyone can effortlessly take risks in social settings. He argued instead that such an emotional leap requires far more introspection.

Through scrutiny of a wide gamut of professions, ranging from entrepreneurs to police officers, Molinsky explained that there were “three questions here that I was interested in, which I think are questions that anyone would be interested in when learning how to step outside your comfort zone: Why is it so hard? How do we avoid doing it and what does it take to do it suc-

cessfully?”

He contended that difficulty in stepping outside one’s comfort zone comes from five core challenges: authenticity, likeability, confidence, resentment and morality. According to Molinsky, these factors perpetuate “a vicious cycle of avoidance” that causes one to constantly evade their particular stressor, only to exacerbate it later.

To combat this crippling reluctance, he proposed a focus on three personal tenets: “conviction” (a deep-seated belief in strong principles, both professional and personal); “customization” (applying those beliefs to specific circumstances, employing techniques as basic as posture, verbal and nonverbal communication, and personally significant objects) and “clarity” (a reasoned, “balanced” assessment of what will occur when one ventures outside their comfort zone).

Molinsky believes these methods increase the chances of someone taking a leap.

Facilitators divided the attendees into their own groups to independently explore the insights and recommendations offered by Molinsky.

In keeping with The Dialogues’ organic spirit, each circle ran itself. Hunched around linen-draped folding tables, the spectators became participants. Each person shared their own experiences with anxiety, while those next to them offered their suggestions on how to combat it.

Molinsky said in a brief statement to the Justice that he sees this newfound empowerment as the primary goal of The Dialogues. “What I hope people come away with is the middle-ground approach,” he said.

“Stepping outside of your comfort zone is not rocket science. But it does take some thought, planning, strategy and courage. … It’s absolutely something you can do. ”

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PRISON ABOLITON

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PHILOSOPHY: Tommie Shelby spoke to philosophy students about his research on prisons, race and the state of reform.

Scholar debates philosophy of proposed prison abolition

Contact Michelle Dang at news@thejustice.org

TAIWANESE NIGHT MARKET

■ Visiting scholar Tommie

Shelby of Harvard University spoke about the arguments for and against prison abolition.

By MAURICE WINDLEY Justice STAFF WRITER

The state of the nation’s prison systems has various benefits and drawbacks, and continuous discussions are needed to assess whether or not prisons serve as effective institutions, a Harvard scholar asserted in a symposium on Friday.

A professor of both Philosophy and African and African American Studies, Tommie Shelby has written on topics regarding prisons and punishment in his book “Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform.”

In his lecture, which considered the effectiveness of prison abolition as an emerging social movement, he sought to bring the topic of “prison itself as a punishment” to the forefront of the discussion on incarceration.

A longstanding aspect of this debate revolves around assessing whether or not prisons, both public and private, are essential aspects of American society. While some argue that prisons must be abolished entirely to make way for a new, fair way to correct unlawful citizens, Shelby argued that prison reformation is more ideal, explaining that the sudden abolition of the prison system is undoubtedly rash, as it magnifies the repairable drawbacks while seemingly ignoring the ben-

efits of effective incarceration.

When discussing incarceration and prison as a growing abolitionist movement, Shelby began by offering a critical examination of the ideals of the popular women’s rights activist and Brandeis alumna Angela Davis ’65, particularly her stance on prison abolition as a “morally required, political goal.” He continued by identifying Davis’ principal objections to prisons, how she denotes them as “a legacy of slavery” and also as the representation of an “alliance of state repression and the maximization of corporate profit,” formally known as the Prison Industrial Complex.

To differentiate his stance, Shelby explained that his objection to prison abolition is not dependant on a “reduction of socialism or an embrace of capitalism,” but rather because incarceration may have “legitimate uses,” and pushing for abolition of the prison system may distract society from resisting “related or background injustices,” such as discrimination based on race, class and gender.

Furthermore, he explained the notion that prison abolition may be too vindictive and argued that prison reform is the most beneficial to society. Prisons enable “the removal of the inalienable rights of citizens,” restricting prisoners from having open communication with other citizens at any time and thereby serving as a deterrent to unlawful action. As such, prisons protect society from “serious threats” by containing individuals who “stray from

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moral reason,” Shelby asserted.

This idea serves in contrast to Davis’ point of view, as she recognizes the inert drawback within the United States prison system. “The 13th amendment of the constitution formally abolished slavery for all United states citizens, except those who have convicted of a crime,” Shelby said of Davis’ theory. Davis challenges the 13th amendment, suggesting that a modern day abolitionist movement is necessary to counteract the institutionalized slavery enforced by prisons.

In contrast to her point, Shelby pointed out that prison inmates duly convicted of violent crimes are confined to prevent further harm to others but cannot be “used as collateral.” He added that prisoners are still human beings, criticizing Davis’ inmate-slave comparison.

Shelby continued by saying that, since inmates are still confined by prison grounds, prison labor can be considered a way to enable them to carry out their sentence. He also acknowledged that, although “prison laborers are denied the freedom to choose their occupations” and places of employment, they are able to maintain specific freedoms, such as freedom of religion and freedom from torture or unlawful punishment and therefore cannot be equated to slaves.

“What is needed under current social conditions is not the abolition of prisons, but the remedying of the myriad injustices that often lead to the imprisonment of the oppressed,” Shelby concluded.

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Crowds of students walked through a latern-lit Fellows Garden and enjoyed cuisines served by clubs from the Intercultural Center community on Saturday evening.

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NIGHT MARKET

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Students enjoyed cuisines at Taiwanese Student Association's Night Market on Saturday.

COMMUNITY: Open forum discusses U.S. disasters and political protest CONTINUED FROM 1 events is not necessarily new from a historical perspective, there is some divergence. “There is something about the permission that the Trump presidency has offered for people to express things so openly that does feel different, and yet I think the sentiments have always been there,” she said, adding, “You don’t have to wear your hood anymore.”

Ray also mentioned another shift she’d noticed in a distinctly contrasting area, where more whites are taking responsibility for effecting positive change regarding race issues.

“Where race issues are concerned, I feel like whites are beginning to raise up their voices a little bit more and take up ownership of those issues,” she said, citing the markedly more mixed demography of the Charlottesville protests than previous protests of their kind.

Rabbi Liza Stern, acting director for Religious and Spiritual Life at Hillel, spoke about her own generational perspectives.

Growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust and in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement gave her the impression of constant, if imperfect, national improvement, she said.

Now, however, she feels differently. “This is the first time in my life where I feel a sense of alarm about where we’re going,” she said.

“I think we’re going to have to really do some fighting to get this country back on track.”

As the conversation turned to the subject of protest, Prof. Bernadette Brooten (NEJS) spoke from her experience in Germany with

both Holocaust survivors and Nazi sympathizers. “I think we need to protest while we still can — while we still have that right,” she said.

She also spoke of the community and strength-building benefits of protest, telling the group about a protest at which she met a member of the government who allowed her to connect with a refugee in search of housing.

While faculty attendees agreed that protest had been an energizing tool for them, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel noted that lately, despite Brandeis’ long history of social justice, today’s students do not always share this experience.

Though he has drawn energy from students’ optimism throughout his career, he said he has found this increasingly more difficult in the past three years. “I have … the sense from the students of feeling so much weight and so much exhaustion, and … that we’re just not sure what we can do,” he explained, noting that with the constant barrage of crises such as hate speech and violence, “It feels like it’s daily.”

Brimhall-Vargas agreed, saying he has identified a kind of “paralysis” among the student body when it comes to activism. He also saw a connection between this paralysis and the fact that there is not a consensus on what America is as a nation, noting that on some occasions, “civic engagement … comes with hate attached to it,” preventing initiatives to discuss compromise.

From there, the conversation moved to free speech, and Brooten contrasted the illegality of Nazism in Germany with America’s relative lack of limitation. BrimhallVargas added that even here,

“There’s a distinction between the technical reality of free speech and the lived reality of free speech.”

Ray commented that this variance in free speech is evident in the reaction to the recent NFL National Anthem protests. It’s significant, she said, that “even when you are silent, your right to free speech is circumscribed.”

Speaking on how the realities of the modern world affect students, Ray brought up the volume and importance of the work of prominent activist and academic Angela Davis ’65, who continued to write and protest in spite of the extreme racial tensions she experienced throughout her career.

Birren pointed out that not all students are capable of handling this kind of stress and must learn their limits, and Ray affirmed that “there need not be a value judgement” regarding their individual capacities.

Pulling all of this together, Brimhall-Vargas emphasized just how important these kinds of open conversations are for students and the faculty who mentor them. “When students are thinking about how to be leaders in a world that is clearly right now chaotic and dysfunctional, they are test-driving their skills in activism and protest and free speech,” he said.

After the event, Brooten said she was impressed with the participants’ willingness to listen to each other.

Stern mentioned that she continues to worry about the effects of the outside world on students’ ability to learn and wonders about her responsibility to students in this area, particularly regarding how to balance protection and support.

ATHLETES: Alumni return to accept Linsey Hall of Fame recognition CONTINUED FROM 1 at Brandeis would be up and playing softball here meant so much to me.”

On being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Albert explained that she feels “it’s an honor, because now I am more connected to the Brandeis community and will be forever now.”

Swimmer Marshall Goldman ’03 recalled that, on the day of a race against Bentley University, he “had a 101 degree fever and so did the breaststroker, and we swam the opening medley relay, and we actually ended up winning it, but immediately after, he and I went to the bathroom and threw up for the next 20 minutes.”

Goldman added that it is “surreal” that he is now in the Hall of Fame, and that he is “still getting used to it.”

Track and Field thrower Greg Steelman ’91 echoed this sentiment, saying that “it honestly feels in-

credibly humbling” to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Steelman looked back fondly upon his recordbreaking discus throw at his freshman NCAAs. “I still remember the throw that won at the Division III Nationals.

I went through my technique and I launched the thing and … it just [looked] like it was hanging up in the air,” he recalled. “I knew it was a huge throw but I didn’t know how big it was until they actually measured it and it was like 10 feet further than everyone else.”

Victories are certainly memorable, but the experience of winning is better when it comes as part of a team, tennis player Noel Occamy ’89 said.

His most satisfying memory from his Brandeis athletic career was when the tennis team qualified for NCAAs, he said. Occamy had qualified and won individually, but said the victory “felt empty … when the entire team was not there to share in the experience.”

“It is exciting for the whole team [to be] together,” he added. “The team came for the NCAAs, and now they’re here getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. We’re back together one more time.”

Another player on the tennis team, Mike Gratz ’91, also reflected on the UAAs, where he won his singles and doubles matches. “It was a nailbiter … it was very difficult to concentrate … but we did it,” he said. “It was the first time Brandeis had ever won the UAAs.” On being inducted as a team, Gratz said, “It’s a great honor … we were a special team and we had a real special bond, and I think that’s why we were successful. We just really loved each other.”

Jessica Bergman ’91, the president of the Friends of Brandeis Athletics and a member of the Hall of Fame Committee, captured the spirit of the event when she said, “You represent the best of Brandeis Athletics, and it is truly an honor to induct you all.”

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TUESDAY, October 10, 2017

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WORKAROUND: Heller students create company to aid employment of refugees in need CONTINUED FROM 1 came reality when Arbash formed the WorkAround team with Kelly, Shai Dinnar ’20, and Shadi Sheikhsaraf M.A. ’17 for last year’s Heller StartUp Challenge. WorkAround worked with their first customer in April 2017, and currently has eight client businesses. They officially registered as a company last week.

In an interview with the Justice, Kelly elaborated on the importance of employment, explaining that when refugees are not employed, the divide between citizens and refugees in host countries is only exacerbated.

“If they don’t have any money, they aren’t going to the corner store and meeting new people in this new community and becoming integrated,” Kelly said. “Instead they stay this kind of ‘Other.’” A benefit of WorkAround is that it gives refugees a way to make money they can spend in the community without “taking jobs away,” because anyone can work for the company, Kelly explained.

WorkAround employees do a variety of electronic tasks such as data entry, translation, image tagging and audio or video transcription.

As Kelly explained, when choosing what kind of jobs WorkAround should focus on, the team wanted to ensure the business structure accommodated the unpredictability of refugees’ schedules and living arrangements.

To make the work flexible to suit refugees’ hectic lives, WorkAround created the idea of “microtasks.” Businesses hire WorkAround to complete large projects, which Arbash and Kelly then break down into smaller tasks which can each be accomplished in twenty to thirty minutes online. These microtasks are then given to refugee employees, who can choose if they want to finish one while running other errands or if they want to work for hours on task after task.

While the online employment is currently unregulated, the WorkAround team has worked to make sure they are following both American and international laws. With

international regulations regarding refugees changing every day, the task of establishing legitimate, stable employment for displaced people requires constant research and coordination with foreign governments.

The biggest limitation WorkAround has faced does not come from international laws, however, but from the United States government, according to Kelly. “About 40 percent of people who register [for WorkAround] are Syrians still living in Syria,” she said, “but because the U.S. has sanctions against Syria, we cannot send any money into Syria, so we actually can’t work with [them], which is infuriating.”

One of WorkAround’s goals for the future is to make its work increasingly available for people who have mobile phones but not computers. Arbash said she hopes WorkAround will soon partner with online universities “so [refugees] can improve their skills so they can get better jobs.” Another of her goals is to make WorkAround her full-time job.

Winning the Beantown Throwdown would help Arbash accomplish that goal. The first place prize is $12,500 of legal services from Morse Barnes-Brown & Pendleton, as well as a meeting with public relations firm CHEN PR, according to the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, the competition’s host.

Kelly hopes a large crowd of University students will be there to support their team and to connect with other innovators.

Only Arbash and Kelly will be representing WorkAround at the competition, but they wanted to give credit to the other team members. Dinnar left the company in August to be a full-time student, but Sheikhsaraf is still a member, although she is currently working in Iraq for the U.N. Refugee Agency, according to Arbash.

When asked what her advice was for Brandeis students interested in pursuing innovation and entrepreneurship, Arbash said, “If you see any problem, and this problem keeps you awake at night, it means you need to start finding solutions.”

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2017 ● Features ● The Justice

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VERBATIM | AESCHYLUS There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1991, the U.S. cut off all foreign aid to Haiti.

When hippos become angry, their sweat turns red.

This Land is Your Land...

The Right to Immigration Institute Fights for Refugees PHOTO COURTESEY OF VICTORIA ST. JEAN

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES : TRII aims to provide undergraduates with the accreditation necessary to represent refugees in Boston courts.

By michelle banayan justice editor

Aligning with the values of social justice that lie at the core of the University’s mission, the Student Association for The Right to Immigration Institute is making itself known among the student-run clubs on campus for its commitment to the defense of immigrant rights.

The club, in partnership with the non-profit TRII, seeks to provide undergraduate students with the accreditation necessary to represent refugees in Boston courts and practice immigration law before the Department of Homeland Security.

At the end of 2016, approximately 10,000 cases were pending in the immigration courts of Boston, according to Board Secretary Jonathan Goldman ’19. That same year, Board President Munis Safajou ’16, Board Vice President Victoria St. Jean ’19 and Goldman co-founded TRII, a nonprofit with 501(c)(3) status, alongside Prof. Douglas Smith (LGLS) to help satisfy the demand for more immigrant representation. They are working in collaboration with board member Lauren Gearty, an immigration attorney and a Brandeis University Ph.D. candidate studying legal history.

“Our organization makes it so that people don’t get kicked out of the country simply because they don’t understand a very complicated system, because they’re a child and they can have no way

of knowing what they’re getting themselves into, or because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Goldman said.

By applying for accreditation and recognition through the Office of Legal Access Programs within the Executive Office of Immigration Review, the club is harnessing the talents of local undergraduate students to represent those in need. However, these efforts are not without support from the Davis Grant, a $10,000 reward funded

by Davis Projects for Peace. The grant is for “a grassroots project that could serve as building blocks for sustainable peace,” according to its online description. This reward provided The Student Association for TRII with the catalyst to get their organization running.

“When we finally got this [grant] last spring and we were able to take these next steps forward, it felt like we were able to work toward reaching our larger goals,” Goldman said.

The founding students first started working together after completing Smith’s course, “Immigration and Human Rights.” St. Jean, a former intern for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, and Safajou, a former intern with the United Nations, came together after completing the course in spring of 2016. Goldman, who was interested in public defense, took the course in the fall of 2016. The three decided to work together on their mutual interest in figuring out “how undergraduate students

PHOTO COURTESEY OF VICTORIA ST. JEAN

MONEY FOR PEACE: A $10,000 grant from the Davis Projects for Peace helped TRII obtain the resources necessary to tackle the challenges ahead. could theoretically get involved in immigration law,” St. Jean said.

TRII now has a presence on both Brandeis’ and Suffolk University’s campuses. Goldman and St. Jean founded SAT in 2016 as well. “We made the club so we could connect better with students,” St. Jean said.

Today, the club is thriving. Every Monday night, approximately 15

undergraduates gather as St. Jean and Goldman lead students through training, working toward receiving accreditation to serve as representatives for refugees in Boston courts. At its most recent meeting, SAT discussed the different types of immigrant visas, in addition to the various acronyms relevant to the immigrant process. The total train-

ing process will amount to 30 hours.

“We’re going to help them with their applications for accreditation so that hopefully when we get back to campus in January, they will actually be accredited and able to start taking cases,” St. Jean said.

Training is not all the studentrun organization focuses on.

Throughout its course, the club has prioritized bringing attention to the issues that surround immigration through various forms of community involvement. In spring 2017 it engaged the Brandeis community by hosting Brandeis Citizenship Day, an event focused on connecting Brandeis students and faculty to Boston-area immigration resources that featured a panel with speakers from human rights organizations such as the ACLU and Project Citizenship.

After receiving their accreditation, students will be able to work alongside Smith and Gearty during open hours at the Waltham Public Library, where the TRII attorneys and student volunteers will provide free immigration advice for local residents in need of assistance.

This is achieved through a partnership with Waltham Public Schools.

“Having an immigration attorney, having a representative, is a huge step towards ensuring one is able to stay in this country,” Goldman said.

—Editor’s note: Kirby Kochanowski is a board member for TRII and contributed reporting for this article.

the justice ● Features ● TUESDAY, october 10, 2017

PHOTO COURTESEY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

WHAT JUSTICE LOOKS LIKE: The Nuremberg Trials of 1945 set a precedent for prosecuting war crimes, but progress since then has been slow.

“Never Again” The fight to forge a convention for crimes against humanity By victor feldman justice editor

Would world leaders be less likely to commit crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide if they believed they could be prosecuted by an international court?

The premise of a new 40-minute documentary called “Never Again: Forging A Convention For Crimes Against Humanity” is based on the idea that the creation of such a court could do just that.

On Oct. 4, the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life hosted a screening of the documentary in the Abraham Shapiro Academic Complex. Crowded around a few small tables facing a projector, a group of roughly 10 students attended, many of them politics majors interested in criminal justice. The film began by telling the stories of victims of human rights violations in countries such as Chad and North Korea. In a series of on-camera interviews, the (mostly women) survivors told their gut-wrenching stories of rape, kidnapping and torture. Each story ended the same: Instead of being punished for their crimes, the perpetrators always walked free.

As Fatou Bensouda, the International Criminal Court’s chief criminal prosecutor explains midway through the film, “Less than 1 percent of crimes against humanity are brought to justice.”

Unlike war crimes or genocide, crimes against humanity can be carried out during times of relative peace. Such crimes include slavery, torture and apartheid. One

explanation the film offers for this devastating failure to prosecute crimes of this nature is the lack of jurisdiction that international courts (such as the ICC) hold.

Another issue is that while such courts can prosecute war crimes and genocide, they cannot investigate crimes against humanity due to a difference in legal definition between the two types of crimes.

Fortunately, there are examples of international courts holding leaders accountable for war crimes that can be used as models going forward. The film points to the impact of the 1945 Nuremberg Trials before the International Military Tribunal, which prosecuted leaders of the Third Reich for war crimes committed during the Holocaust. While the Nuremberg Trials resulted in the later formation of the ICC and set a precedent for prosecuting war crimes, the film explained that progress since then has been slow.

Since 1945, over 90 million people have been killed in genocides, and millions of others forcibly removed from their homes. The film showed Auschwitz through photos of Jews being led to gas chambers. The voice of Ben Fairer, a holocaust survivor who is dissatisfied that international justice is not yet universal, spoke as more images flashed across the screen. Fairer proclaimed, “I hope nobody ever has too see the horrors I have. The things I’ve seen, no human should witness.”

How can lawmakers take actions to ensure that Fairer’s wishes become a reality? In 2008, a group of seven professors who are experts

YDALIA COLON/the Justice

TOUGH QUESTIONS: Even if it were to be adopted by the U.N., could a convention for crimes against humanity hold world leaders accountable? in criminal law at the Washington University in St. Louis Law School founded a steering committee and partnered with the Whitney Harris Institute of Law with the goal of drafting a convention for crimes against humanity. Spearheaded by Professor Leila Sadat, a renowned human rights expert, the team drafted a treaty on the punishment and prevention of crimes against humanity, which, according to the University website, “is now available in seven languages and is currently being debated by the U.N. In-

ternational Law Commission and governments around the world.”

While the film ended optimistically, it warned that such a convention is only meaningful if it receives support from the international community. Sadat hopes to see the convention submitted to the U.N. General Assembly by 2020, although she acknowledges that getting it passed would be a long shot.

After the film, the students discussed how the story had impacted their view of international criminal justice. The conversation turned

toward the civil war raging on in Syria as well as the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. While many students expressed concern and dismay regarding the daunting task ahead, the efforts of Sadat and her team were encouraging to them. Ultimately, the convention will be an experiment to test the powers of an international agreement to forcibly hold world leaders accountable. Regardless of the outcome, the question the film raises is a crucial one: Can international justice ever be universal?

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10 TUESDAY, October 10, 2017 ● forum ● THE JUSTICE

the

Justice Established 1949

Brandeis University

Abby Patkin, Editor in Chief Amber Miles, Managing Editor Carmi Rothberg, Senior Editor Kirby Kochanowski and Sabrina Sung, Deputy Editors Michelle Banayan, Abby Grinberg, Lizzie Grossman, Noah Hessdorf, Mihir Khanna, Mira Mellman, Jerry Miller, Associate Editors Michelle Dang, News Editor, Victor Feldman, Acting Features Editor Nia Lyn, Forum Editor, Ben Katcher, Sports Editor Hannah Kressel, Arts Editor Yvette Sei, Acting Photography Editor, Natalia Wiater, Photography Editor Morgan Mayback, Acting Layout Editor, Pamela Klahr and Robbie Lurie, Ads Editors Jen Geller and Avraham Penso, Copy Editors

EDITORIALS

Condemn University response to cell service on campus This year, some residents in the Foster Mods have reported experiencing difficulties with cellular coverage, such as an inability to make calls or send texts. Good cell reception is important for students’ ability to not only communicate with each other but also contact friends, family and employers. As such, this board urges the University to explore possible solutions to this problem.

On Sept. 22, Area Coordinator Amanda Drapcho contacted Foster Mods residents in response to complaints regarding poor cell phone coverage and slow Wi-Fi. To collect more information about these complaints, the Department of Community Living asked residents to fill out online forms that would be sent to Library and Technology Services.

In the email, Drapcho recognized that many residents were experiencing dropped calls and spotty reception and wrote that the forms were the first step in clearly identifying the problem. She added that the DCL would use survey results to take “any possible steps … to improve [your] residential living experience.”

Six days later, Drapcho followed up with an email suggesting residents enable Wi-Fi calling as a way to remedy the lack of cell coverage. This second email included a link to a CNet article titled “Everything you need to know about Wi-Fi calling.”

Last semester, University Chief Information Officer Jim La Creta also suggested this remedy in a March 28 email to the Justice, stating this solution is generally accessible on campus.

However, this suggestion is only a band-aid fix. While Wi-Fi calling may help some residents with newer, highend phones that include the Wi-Fi calling feature, it is not a suitable longterm solution for everyone. Not every

Acknowledge student concerns

resident has a cell phone model capable of Wi-Fi calling.

Beyond that, Wi-Fi in the Foster Mods is unreliable, and students often have problems connecting to the internet.

DCL already knows this, as shown by Drapcho’s initial email. Consequently, even students with phones capable of Wi-Fi calling may not be able to properly send and receive calls as a result of a faulty internet connection.

Since Wi-Fi calling is not generally accessible to the student population, this board urges DCL to look into installing cell repeaters, which would be a long-term solution to many of the problems Foster Mods residents are experiencing.

In the same March 28 email to the Justice, La Creta wrote that some departments have cell repeaters, but that is not a practice all departments employ. Instead, it is done on a department-by-department basis with no connection to LTS. This board implores DCL to work with LTS to explore the possibility of installing cell repeaters in the Foster Mods to improve cell phone coverage.

This could provide all residents with proper cell service, rather than just implementing a band-aid solution that only helps those with phones capable of the Wi-Fi calling feature.

Cell repeaters, such as those sold by the RepeaterStore, range in cost from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on how much area they can cover. For example, there is a cell repeater that can cover up to 50,000 square feet that sells for $3,510.

In the long run, this board believes this to be a worthy investment, as well as the best solution for the lack of cellular coverage in the Foster Mods.

DCL did not respond to request for comment as of press time.

Commend Campus Activities Board for fall performers Last spring, Student Events rebranded and became the Campus Activities Board. Since then, CAB has booked some high-profile entertainers for this semester, and this board commends CAB members for their hard work and success in bringing these performers to campus.

One of the big names is alternative rock band X Ambassadors, which is coming to perform on Oct. 21 for this year’s fall concert. Last year’s concert headliner was AlunaGeorge, an electronic musical duo based in London, England. While the AlunaGeorge concert was a hit among Brandeis students, the duo is not as well known as X Ambassadors. None of AlunaGeorge’s songs have made the mainstream U.S. Billboard charts, with their record album sale being just over 32,000.

Meanwhile, the X Ambassadors’ debut album, which was released just over two years ago, reached a peak position of No. 7 in the U.S. Billboard 200 weekly charts and No.70 in Billboard’s yearend charts. X Ambassadors has also received a gold certification in the U.S., having sold around 500,000 certified

Generate campus excitement albums.

Later this month, “Saturday Night Live” writer and comedian Colin Jost will come to campus for the Fall Fest Variety Show on Oct. 27. According to the Brandeis website, Jost has been writing for SNL since 2005, which means he has been in the spotlight for about 12 years. Throughout the course of his work, Jost has won three Writers’ Guild Awards and a Peabody Award and has been nominated for several Emmy Awards. Overall, Jost has more name recognition than last year’s comedian, Myq Kaplan, whose first public performance was in 2010 on the television competition series “Last Comic Standing.”

X Ambassadors’ and Jost’s scheduled performances on campus this semester signal improvements in efforts to bring more popular acts to the Brandeis community. This board appreciates CAB’s efforts to provide the Brandeis community with high-quality entertainment, and we encourage students to reward those efforts with a high turnout.

BEN JARRETT/the Justice

Views the News on

On Oct. 1, in Las Vegas, one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history occurred, killing 58 people and injuring 500, according to an Oct. 3 article in the New York Times. In response to subsequent talk of gun control, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stated, “It’s particularly inappropriate to politicize an event like this,” according to an Oct. 3 Politico article. Do you agree with McConnell’s statement? Why or why not?

Prof. Paul Jankowski (HIST) Mitch McConnell warning against politicization? Too good to be true. The United States has the highest per capita rate of gun ownership in the world — followed by the failed state of Yemen. To date in 2017, guns have claimed 28,411 lives in non-terrorist acts; terrorism has claimed two. The real political problem is that 74 percent of gun owners in the USA say owning a firearm is essential to their sense of freedom. And half the country believes that it is more important to protect than to control gun ownership. Freedom for them is only the absence of state — a kind of zero-sum game.

Such beliefs limit access to health care and guarantee it to guns, instead of the other way around, and offer other recipes for a failed state. One of their most effective proponents? Mitch McConnell.

Prof. Paul Jankowski (HIST) is the Raymond Ginger professor of History.

Prof. Daniel Breen (LGLS) To say that it is wrong to “politicize” the murders in Las Vegas is not just errant nonsense, it is offensive errant nonsense. The NRA has spent the last thirty years opposing any politician who dares to believe that it is possible to have a free society without a right to possess things that kill people. In 2016, the NRA poured fifty million dollars into the swing states, running ads suggesting that a Clinton presidency would leave people prey to violent home invaders in the middle of the night. They cannot do everything they can to oppose gun control and then demand that supporters of gun control remain silent every time the bloody consequences of NRA lobbying efforts become apparent, as they have yet again, all too predictably, because of the tragedy of Oct. 1. Rather than sanctimoniously cautioning against “politicizing” that tragedy, Mitch McConnell should resign in richly merited disgrace.

Prof. Daniel Breen (LGLS) is a lecturer in Legal Studies.

Anna Stern ’18 I disagree with Senator McConnell. The issue of gun control is a political issue. In fact, gun control laws are the only the way to prevent mass shootings. Though Senators send their “thoughts and prayers” to victims in these situations, each of these shootings could have been avoided through stricter gun regulation. The goal of government is to create a safe environment for all citizens, not eliminate the Second Amendment.

The evidence is clear as gun control laws have proved effective in other countries. Australia passed the National Firearms Agreement in 1996 after a mass shooting that year. Under that law, Australia banned semiautomatic weapons, the weapon of choice of the Vegas shooter, and other types of automatic firearms and instituted licensing requirements.

Since 1996, Australia has seen zero mass shootings while America has seen 273 mass shootings this year. Politicizing gun control is the one way to prevent tragedies like these from ever happening again.

Anna Stern ’18 is an American Studies Undergraduate Departmental Representative.

Zach Kasdin ’18 Are mass shootings inherently political? Both Senator McConnell and many of his conservative colleagues appear to think not. On their view, these events call for our “thoughts and prayers” but nothing more.

And on the surface, this approach seems intuitive: In an era of intense partisanship, Democrats’ swift calls for gun control can easily appear opportunistic — “making politics” out of a tragedy. But on a deeper level, gun violence exists within the public (and thus, preeminently political) realm. After all, while our common laws allowed for the purchase of such destructive weapons in the first place, this particularly grave incident also points to a national trend: According to the Gun Violence Archive, mass shootings now occur nine out of every 10 days — an issue of epidemic proportion. At its root, the practice of politics allows for us to act collectively, thereby grappling with issues of national concern.

In the face of a single E. coli outbreak, let alone nine outbreaks every 10 days, it would remain unthinkable for a Senator to denounce the need for preventative, legislative solutions. Responses to gun violence should be no different.

Zach Kasdin ’18 is a Politics Undergraduate Departmental Representative and co-editor in chief of the Brandeis International Journal.

THE JUSTICE ● fORUM ● TUESDAY, october 10, 2017

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Encourage greater restriction of sale of deadly weapons Nia

lyn purpose

Following the tragic mass shooting in Las Vegas, on Oct. 2, the National Rifle Association has done the unexpected and called for regulation on the sale of bump stocks and guns in the United States. A bump stock is a device added to a rifle that allows it to mimic a rapid fire weapon. According to an Oct. 5 article in the New York Times, the devices are legal, because they do not give rifles full automatic ability. However, audio clips from the Las Vegas shooting prove just how effective bump stocks are. In Las Vegas, about 90 shots were produced in ten seconds; a fully automatic weapon has a rate of 98 shots in seven seconds. This small distinction is the difference that determines the legality of firearm possession. However, according to an Oct. 8 article from The Hill, NRA executive director Chris Cox recently stated, “We don’t believe bans worked on anything,” yet he stated that the organization was open to regulating things differently.

On Oct. 7, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called for more legislation surrounding guns in general, according to an Oct. 8 article in the Washington Post. This is reminiscent of her 2013 bill to ban the sale of semi-automatic guns. Generally, the Democratic party is in favor of gun regulation, and it is surprising to see Republican support on the issue as well. However, on Oct. 5, U.S. Representative Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) announced a plan to draft a bill to ban bump-stock sales and claims that he has received support from dozens of Republicans, according to an Oct. 5 article in the New York Times. Though President Donald Trump is a supporter of gun rights, evidenced by his appearance at the NRA conference earlier in the year, he said he would “look into that” when asked about the ban on bump stocks, per an Oct. 5 CNN article.

However, there needs to be less discussion surrounding the legality of the device when it is merely an issue of splitting hairs.

A rifle with a bump stock is similar to a fully automatic weapon, the difference being

JULIANNA SCIONTI/the Justice

about five shots per second. In addition, bump stocks don’t require a license or any authorization to purchase; they can be bought online with prices ranging from $500 to $1,000.

If fully automatic guns were banned, why not ban devices that give a semi-automatic gun the same capability? Former President Ronald Reagan addressed the regulation of automatic machine guns in 1986 in the Firearm Owners Protection Bill, which limited the public and private sale of machine guns that were registered after the year 1986. Fully automatic guns are still available for sale, but in order to purchase them, one needs to complete a background check, receive written approval from their local police chief and pay a $200 tax, according to a Feb. 4, 2005 Politifact article. In addition, an application must be submitted that includes two recent photographs of the purchaser and a set of fingerprints. All of this attempts to ensure that an individual is held

accountable for their actions if they were to misuse the device in any way. This is not to say that some states do not provide adequate restrictions on gun ownership. For example, both a permit to purchase and one to carry are required in Massachusetts, according to the NRA. The NRA also states that in Nevada, where the recent tragedy took place, gun owners do not need a permit to purchase, license of ownership or registration of the firearm. This, in conjunction with the ease of accessibility of a bump stock, enables anyone to possess a weapon with nearly the same capability as a fully-automatic gun.

Interestingly, since the Las Vegas shooting, bump stock sales have increased tremendously. In an Oct. 5 CNN article, Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works, stated that ever since the shooting was reported, he has received around 50 people a day asking for bump stocks. He

also stated that his distributors have sold out as well. Cargill isn’t alone; several other gun salesmen have given similar accounts regarding the newfound popularity of bump stocks. In the same CNN article, another gun shop owner said that he had five bump stocks that were collecting dust for months, but once the story broke, four of them were sold in one day. Even Slide Fire, a company that has sold bump stocks for the past four years, has suspended their service stating, “We have temporarily suspended new orders to process current orders as quickly as possible.”

In order to create actual change, strict limitations must be placed on the sale and purchase of deadly items; who knows what a potential imitator might try to do. This is not a call to make gun possession illegal or punish gun owners, but it is a suggestion that states increase their regulation of bump stocks and firearms.

Criticize Trump Administration’s new restrictions on abortion

By CATHERINE ROSCH SPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE

The Trump Administration’s war on women continues in strong force this week. President Donald Trump is not just content with naming Neil Gorsuch — who, according to a March 20 NPR article, once told law students that employers should be allowed to ask prospective female employees if they are planning on having children — to the U.S. Supreme Court. Our current administration has signed off on two extremist anti-woman health measures this week.

On Oct. 3, the House of Representatives passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, an act endorsed by the White House that would ban abortion after 20 weeks, with the only exceptions being rape, incest and the danger to the life of the mother. According to the Clerk of the House of Representatives, the vote passed 237 to 189, largely on party lines. This proposed law is abhorrent for a number of reasons, not least because it violates constitutional jurisprudence.

The 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which ruled that abortion is a constitutional right and explicitly rejects the concept that a fetus, in its early stages, is a person with a right to life, did not set a hard and fast week limit on abortion. Rather, it says states can only limit second-trimester abortions in the interest of maternal health and can only consider a fetus’s potential life in the third trimester. In the 1992 decision of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the Supreme Court affirmed that the marker for fetal viability was 24 weeks or near the end of the second trimester. Based on past rulings, banning abortion before 24 weeks for any reason other than maternal health concerns — such as if the

abortion procedure would endanger the mother — therefore violates decades of Supreme Court rulings.

But it is not just the blatant unconstitutionality of this bill that is upsetting. The title itself is deeply misleading. There is no scientific evidence that a fetus is capable of feeling pain at 20 weeks. According to a 2005 study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, fetuses do not even develop the neural networks to feel pain until 23 to 30 weeks of pregnancy, and all evidence shows that fetuses are incapable of perceiving pain until 29 to 30 weeks of pregnancy. This bill’s claims have no basis in accepted scientific fact.

But some might argue that 20 weeks is very late to have an abortion. If one does not want to be pregnant, why not have the abortion in the first trimester before it becomes a two-day procedure?

According to the Guttmacher Institute, around 90 percent of all abortions in the United States occur in the first trimester. Just over one percent of abortions occur after 21 weeks.

Often, it is because severe fetal abnormalities cannot even be diagnosed until past 20 weeks of pregnancy; in a May 2016 Jezebel interview with a woman who had an abortion at 32 weeks, she explained that her ultrasounds were normal until 16 weeks, and only at 31 weeks did the doctor determine that her son would not be able to survive outside of the womb. Under this proposed law, however, this woman would not be able to get her abortion. Even though her son would have an excruciatingly painful, brief life, her own life was not at risk, and therefore, she would have to carry her pregnancy to term.

However, this is not the only anti-woman measure the Trump Administration has backed this week. According to an Oct. 6 article in the

Washington Post, the administration announced that it was rolling back a provision in the Affordable Care Act that required insurance companies to cover all FDA-approved types of birth control. This mandate was controversial, as a number of religious institutions claimed that the requirement would violate their beliefs regarding premarital sex. In response to the controversy, the Obama administration created a waiver system for religious employers — the waiver would still cover birth control, but the government, not the employer, would pay for it.

This waiver was expanded to cover certain nonreligious companies in the 2012 Hobby Lobby v. Burwell decision, according to a Oct. 7 Vox article. However, the Hobby Lobby decision still did require that the government cover birth control for these employers. However, according to a Oct. 6 New York Times article, the new rules set forth by the Trump Administration would further expand the exemption to any employer who has moral issue with birth control and would not require the government to step in and cover the cost of contraception.

I have written on this topic before. In a March 7 article, I pointed out that two-thirds of American women of childbearing age currently use a regular birth control method that requires a prescription or procedure, and that the birth control mandate saved these women over a billion dollars since 2013. According to a Oct. 6 ThinkProgress article, prior to the mandate, around 20 percent of women with insurance through their employer still had to pay out of pocket for their birth control; after the mandate took effect in 2013, that went down to less than five percent. Without insurance coverage, the cost of birth control can be staggering. At Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, where I work, the cost of getting a prescription

and 3-month supply of birth control pills out of pocket is around $150, and the cost of a longacting reversible contraceptive like an IUD or implant can be over $800.

To make the whole thing even more laughable, the Trump Administration’s guidance claims that requiring insurance companies to cover birth control might actually increase unplanned pregnancies and sexual activities among young people. Teen pregnancy rates have actually halved since 2007, according to a Sept. 27 Vox article, even though a recent study in the Journal of Adolescent Health found teens are only slightly less likely to be sexually active.

The rate of consistent contraceptive use among teens has increased by ten points, and in 2012, nearly 90 percent of sexually active teens reported using at least one form of birth control during their last sexual encounter, according to the same Vox article. Access to birth control does not encourage teens to have sex, but it does allow them to have safer sex and reduce their risks for pregnancy.

As Gail Collins pointed out in her Oct. 6 opinion piece for the New York Times, it is impossible to square the circle of limiting abortion access while slashing access to affordable and effective birth control. It is one thing to oppose abortion on moral grounds or to personally not want to use birth control, but it is another thing to force those beliefs on all American women. Access to reproductive health care decisions, including birth control and abortion, are key to making sure women have the right and the ability to live their lives as they see fit. It is needed to thrive in school and in the workplace and to maybe, some day, achieve meaningful equality to Donald Trump and his gray-faced cronies who see us as little more than pussies to be grabbed or walking wombs.

The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.

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TUESDAY, october 10, 2017 ● forum ● THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Acknowledge concerns surrounding new iPhone technology

By SABRINA SUNG JUSTICE editor

“Pay with your face,” declared the Sept. 12 release video for the new iPhone X. With that one statement, Apple Inc. has forced me to step away from the cutting edge.

According to an Oct. 9 article in the Inquirer, the iPhone X is slated for release on Nov. 3, 2017 at a starting price of $999, making it Apple Inc.’s most expensive smartphone to date. Despite its high price point, many technology enthusiasts are already lining up to get their hands on the phone, and looking at it, there is little wonder why: The phone boasts barely there bevels and a gorgeous OLED screen, the first to be used on an Apple product, resulting in a sleek and modern design. It showcases innovative new technology with its 3D facial identification feature (FaceID), promising ease of use and fun little gimmicks like animated emojis. On top of all that, there is a certain thrill that comes with being an early adopter of technology. It makes the awe and anticipation of a new release just that much sweeter, and therein lies the issue.

With every new product comes a new slew of legal and political implications. Every year, society struggles to adapt to innovation, one of the biggest in recent memory being Apple Inc.’s legal battle with the FBI in regards to encrypted smartphone data of the San Bernardino shooter just last year. Technology, undoubtedly, has the power to change the society we live in, and yet the average consumer is not nearly contemplative enough of the industry’s overall direction. The impending release of the iPhone X only serves to highlight this truth.

Though its beautiful design has been wellreceived, the iPhone X’s most boasted feature is undoubtedly its FaceID. According to the official Apple Inc. website, a combination of features known as the TrueDepth camera system will create a “detailed depth map of your face” to identify you, allowing you to unlock your phone.

This system completely replaces the fingerprint scanning TouchID system of the previous models.

Over the past month, Apple Inc. has hurried to address concerns about the FaceID technology, primarily regarding convenience of use and the accuracy of readings, according to a Sept. 13 article from Business Insider. The answers seem to be, respectively, “to be seen” and “very.” In an attempt to put surveillance paranoia to rest before it can start, the company was also quick to explain that Apple Inc. will not have access to the biometric data, which will be stored solely on the phone itself, according to a Sept. 12 Los Angeles Times article.

However, when it comes to the biggest concern with FaceID, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden put it best in a Sept. 12 tweet: “Good: Design ... already has a panic disable.

Bad: Normalizes facial scanning, a tech certain to be abused.” Snowden is best known for his leaks of classified NSA documents in 2013, which exposed several secret government surveillance

MARA KHAYTER/the Justice

tools and initiatives.

While Apple Inc. assures potential consumers that they cannot and will not misuse the facial identification data collected, those same consumers miss the ominous implication that this technology now exists. To adapt to a human’s natural changes over time, FaceID plans to make use of machine learning to ensure accuracy over time. “Put on glasses. Wear a hat.

Grow a beard,” the official Apple Inc. website reads. “Your friends might not recognize you.

But iPhone X will.”

The fact of the matter is, FaceID is a technology that did not need to exist. Although Apple Inc. may insist upon FaceID’s stronger security and better convenience, even in fiction, no realistic dystopia begins with bad intentions. Invention is a slippery slope, and creating technology just because we can, without consideration to longterm implications, can be dangerous. However, the burden of conscience does not lie solely on the shoulders of industry powerhouses like Apple Inc. Technology consumers, especially us early adopters, are easily dazzled by the latest features, and even once the stars clear from our eyes, we rarely see beyond the shiny new product itself. However, though companies may make technology, the measure of what society is ready to accept is determined solely by consumers.

In 2013, consumers, without realizing, hugely influenced the direction of the video game industry by participating in what would end up one of the most one-sided console wars of all time: the PlayStation 4 against the Xbox One. Microsoft’s video game division is still

struggling to recover from the Xbox One’s loss, evidenced in a Feb. 21 Forbes article. The reason for its failure can be attributed to misallocated innovation, specifically regarding its motionsensing Kinect.

Microsoft called it “rocket science level” technology, according to a May 21, 2013 article in the Verge. This Kinect was supposedly able to monitor heartbeats through its camera and identify individual people through its audio processor. Even when your console was off, all you had to say was “Xbox On” to turn the gaming system on. It didn’t take long for people to realize that this meant the device would always be listening. This realization did not go over well, and it was a major contributing factor to the Xbox One’s defeat by the PS4, despite Microsoft’s insistence that it placed great importance on “making privacy a top priority,” according to the same article in the Verge. In doing so, consumers essentially turned game consoles off the path of voice command and motion control. Microsoft eventually removed the Kinect from its console entirely, according to a May 13, 2014 article in the Verge.

This then begs the question: Following the poor reception of Microsoft’s innovative technology, why is Apple Inc.’s new FaceID so well received?

It may be that the idea of 24/7 auditory surveillance represents a more immediate limitation of freedom than the possibility of a detailed facial database. Perhaps we, as a society, have already been desensitized to the idea through the ease of Facebook photo tagging.

Additionally, in an unfortunate overlap with Snowden’s NSA leaks, the concept of global

surveillance was fresh in public awareness during the promotion of the Xbox One, keeping consumers wary and protective of their privacy.

Perhaps it is simply that Apple Inc. seems more trustworthy to some than Microsoft.

However, Apple Inc. does not exist independently of the industry. Apple Inc. has long been considered a trendsetter, and there are already rumors of Android developers seeking to emulate FaceID technology.

According to a June 30 article in the Verge, facial recognition software is already used in various places, including casinos and airports, which may be eager to update its capabilities.

The American Civil Liberties Union explains that facial recognition in a society of existing video surveillance may grow beyond its original purpose and warns that authorities will “find them to be an irresistible expansion of their power.” Meanwhile, technology consumers’ ready acceptance of the iPhone X acts as a gateway for facial recognition technology in other aspects of society.

The iPhone X’s new FaceID may be ushering in a new technological era with wider implications than just smartphone technology, and we, as consumers, are too slow to recognize this. Ultimately, there must be a greater overall awareness of how individual products direct the course of an industry within a culture of rapid technological — and resultant societal — change. We cannot just allow ourselves to be swept up by the newest features, fanciest figures and the slickest marketing campaign. Perhaps it is time to take a step back from the cutting edge before it cuts too deep, and maybe that distance will grant a new perspective.

Recognize recent US success in Iraq compared to prior years By somar hadid Justice staff writer

On Oct. 5, 2017, the Iraqi Army, supported

by Iran-backed military groups and Americanled airstrikes, captured the city of Hawija in northern Iraq, according to BBC and the Guardian. According to an Oct. 5 BBC article, the battle lasted only a few weeks; it was another decisive victory in terms of capturing land and freeing civilians from the Islamic State. This is part of an ongoing trend that the Coalition has seen over the past couple of years of ISIS losing more and more of its major cities across Iraq.

ISIS is also rapidly losing ground in Syria; a June 2017 Information Handling Services Conflict Monitor report showed that, since 2015, ISIS had lost about 60 percent of the area it once controlled in Syria and Iraq, according to a Sept. 21 BBC article.

It is intriguing to look at the evolving U.S. policies in Iraq throughout the past 25 years and why they have been so successful as of late.

According to a March 29 article in CNN, the United States had about 166,000 troops in Iraq during its peak deployment; by contrast, the Obama administration capped Iraq missions at about 5,000 U.S troops.

To understand the recent successes against ISIS, it is helpful to look more closely at past military conflicts in the region.

America’s involvement in the Persian Gulf War, “Operation Desert Storm,” lasted for only five weeks and took place at the beginning of 1991, during a time when Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had the fourth largest army in the world, according to a Nov. 4, 1997 CNN article. There are a few key differences between the invasion ordered by Former President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and the invasion ordered in 2003 by his son Former President George W. Bush. The 1991 invasion

was more widely supported, as the coalition included 39 countries from Egypt to Serbia to Sierra Leone, according to a July 25 CNN article.

In 2003, however, most of the world, including many of the U.S.’s biggest Middle Eastern allies, such as King Abdullah of Jordan and then- Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, were against the U.S. invasion ordered by George W. Bush, according to a Feb. 17, 2003 BBC article.

Nevertheless, George W. Bush went along with his attempt to topple Hussein with a coalition predominantly comprised of U.S. and British troops, according to a March 28, 2003 questionand-answer in the New York Times. The 1991 invasion was also backed by the U.N. Security Council, but there was no resolution authorizing the 2003 invasion. Additionally, George H.W. Bush earnestly tried, but failed, to peacefully allow Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait, according to a Jan. 11, 1991 New York Times article.

Further, George H.W. Bush’s rationale for going to war was more generally accepted.

However, George W. Bush’s initial justification for going to war was largely false. He asserted that Saddam Hussein was harboring chemical and biological weapons. In a 2004 report, the CIA concluded that “no operational or collaborative relationship existed” between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda; Saddam Hussein was not planning to initiate an attack against the U.S., nor did he possess any major stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

Finally, in a Jan. 16, 1991 address to the nation, George H.W. Bush made it clear that his 1991 invasion was not “the conquest of Iraq” but a “liberation of Kuwait,” and that once Kuwait will be freed, “it is our hope that Iraq will live as a peaceful and cooperative member of the family of nations.” For all of the above reasons, George H.W. Bush had broader support, and the operation was a success with relatively few

Coalition and civilian casualties.

Conversely, George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was meant to conquer and defeat Saddam Hussein. According to an Oct. 15, 2013 article in the Huffington Post, this has lead to a death toll of nearly 500,000, including hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and several thousand American casualties. In 2005, the CIA’s National Intelligence Council suggested that Iraq was a haven for terrorists, according to a Jan. 14, 2005 Washington Post article, something that it wasn’t when the secular Saddam Hussein was in power. It should be noted that terrorists still existed in Saddam’s Iraq, but they had little or no influence over the population and controlled no land as Saddam Hussein maintained an iron grip on power. According to the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, suicide bombings increased in 2003 after U.S. intervention.

In addition to the reasons listed above, there are major mistakes that the Coalition Provisional Authority, the temporary U.S. led government of Iraq, made which angered a lot of Iraqis and ultimately made them resentful towards the U.S.’s operations in Iraq. These erroneous decisions made by the American leadership subsequently contributed to the domestic Iraqi opposition towards the U.S. And in any civil war, domestic opposition to an authority eventually turns into an armed insurgency and a rapid deterioration of the situation. First and foremost, Paul Bremer — the leader of the CPA — decided to disband the Iraqi Army and fire hundreds of thousands of Saddam’s B’ath regime linked soldiers, according to a May 28, 2015 Time article. These now unsalaried and armed soldiers were indignant of the new administration and are arguably the most significant part of the insurgency which turned into ISIS. In fact, many of ISIS’s top leaders were former Iraqi Soldiers trained by Hussein, according to a May 28, 2015 Time article.

The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.

The coalition also decided to fire about 11,000 former Ba’ath regime Iraqi schoolteachers.

Furthermore, as the hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties began to accrue, many Iraqis felt that the CPA was indiscriminately attacking civilians, which provided further impetus for the insurgency, according to a February 2016 report from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. These reasons, along with the CPA’s failure to control the sudden power vacuum after Hussein’s fall, further fueled the insurgency and the sectarian violence thereafter.

In June 2014, Obama ordered airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq at the formal request of the Iraqi government, according to the Department of Defense. He also ordered an airdrop of food, water and medical supplies for civilians fleeing ISIS around the Sinjar Mountains, according to an Aug. 7, 2014 ABC News article. In an Aug. 7, 2014 speech, Obama outlined that his airstrikes were meant to protect Americans in Erbil advising Iraqi forces, to prevent a possible genocide by ISIS on Yazidi minorities and give all humans “the desire to live with basic freedom and dignity.” A coalition of dozens of other nations followed suit and in over a span of only a few years, ISIS has lost over 70 percent of the territory it once claimed in Iraq, according to a June 29 article in the Independent. In general, Obama’s intervention had received general international and domestic support, which is one of the main reasons why it has been successful.

U.S. military intervention in Iraq has been far more successful when it has more general support. Conversely, George W. Bush decided to almost unilaterally declare war on Saddam Hussein, which led to disastrous consequences that the world is still attempting to clean up.

This shows that, as President George H.W. Bush stated, “no nation can stand against a world united.”

2017

10 THE JUSTICE ● Sports ● Tuesday, OCTOBER 10, 2017

MSOCCER: Squad will now try to earn its ninth total win CONTINUED FROM 16 another goal just 31 seconds before the end of the first half, when forward Andrew Allen ’19 assisted star midfielder Joshua Handler ’19 for an easy score. The crucial goal was the midfielder’s third of the 2017 season.

After struggling for the majority of the game, MIT finally broke through in the 80th minute when freshman forward Loukas Carayannopolous netted a 20-yard fireball that wowed the crowd and put the Engineers on the board.

The goal was not enough to turn momentum MIT’s way, however,

13

UNSTOPPABLE OFFENSE

as the Judges cruised for the rest of the match to a 3-1 statement win. The Judges outshot MIT 18-8 on the game, with a 7-3 edge in corner kicks. Goalkeeper Greg Irwin ’20 got the victory for the Judges, finishing with four saves in a match that allowed star keeper Woodhouse a night of rest.

The victory brings the Judges to 7-2-0 on the season. The loss drops the Engineers to 4-4-2 for the year.

Looking ahead, the Judges square off against the University of Rochester on Friday. The team then heads to Georgia to battle time-tested foe Emory University on Sunday.

PRO SPORTS: The plans for the New WSOCCER: Club wants to York Jets franchise earn its 10th win on Friday are wildly unclear

NATALIA WIATER/the Justice

SMOOTH MOVES: Forward Samantha Schwartz ’18 muscles past her helpless defender during Homecoming this past Saturday.

CONTINUED FROM 16

CONTINUED FROM 16 secure a high draft pick, it seems very unlikely that they will be bad enough to be in a position to draft a top quarterback. Adding to this is the fact that there are still three teams yet to win a game, and some such as the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers do not seem like they have a chance at winning even one.

This season has certainly been a confusing one for the New York Jets. Tanking seemed to be the

obvious option for the struggling squad, but that now seems to be out of the picture. No one expected the Jets to be tied with the Patriots through the fifth week of the season and no one should expect that to hold up. However, the Jets still seem far from the bottom.

At this point, it is time to accept that the Jets cannot even tank properly. It seems that the tank is not to be for this team and I’m changing my tune; I’m excited to see the Jets just miss out on the playoffs once again.

aggressively and tacked on another eight shots in the second half. With less than a minute to go in the game and the Judges already tasting victory, the Tartans pushed ahead for one last go at a goal. After a tough foul by the Judges, the Tartans were set up in prime position for their first goal. At the 89-minute mark, the squad beat home a wicked dinger to the back of the Judges’ net, tying the game at one apiece.

With two short, 10-minute overtime periods, the Judges were unable to do much. The Tartans continued to dominate the pitch with eight total

shots in the two overtime periods.

Unable to put the ball in the back of the net, the Tartans wasted several opportunities with four shots veering wide of the goal posts. With less than one minute to go in the second overtime, the Tartans got their mojo back, firing away on two consecutive shots on goal, both deftly blocked

by Dana to save the day. With time expiring, the Judges managed to stave off the fireworks show put on by the Tartans, but lost their chance to secure what should have been a 1-0 shutout victory.

Overall, the Tartans dominated the box score, managing 29 overall shots and an incredible 16 shots on goal.

In comparison, the Judges mustered up a mere five overall shots and five shots on goal. Dana clearly was the MVP of the game, saving a whopping 14 shots and keeping the Judges in the match for nearly two hours of play.

The Judges finished the day with a 9-1-2 record, placing one spot above the Tartans in the UAA rankings, as they continue to ward off their tough UAA opponents.

Brandeis will look to move up in the conference rankings this weekend, facing off against UAA foes University of Rochester on Friday and Emory University on Sunday.

The team will try to reach doubledigits in the win column.

SOCCER VOLLEYBALL TENNIS TRACK

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jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

● Sports ●

Tuesday, OCTOBER 10, 2017

15

VOLLEYBALL

Men’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

JUDGES Emory Chicago Carnegie Rochester Case NYU WashU

UAA Conf.

W L D 2 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 2 0

TEAM STATS Goals

Overall W L D 9 2 0 9 2 0 11 1 0 8 2 1 7 2 2 5 5 2 6 3 1 6 3 1

Patrick Flahive ’18 is tied for the team lead with four goals.

Pct. Player Goals .818 Patrick Flahive 4 .818 Mike Lynch 4 .917 Andrew Allen 3 .800 Joshua Handler 3 .778 .500 Assists .667 Josh Ocel ’18 leads the team .667 with six assists.

Player Assists Josh Ocel 6 Max Breiter 4 Noah Gans 2 Jake Warren 2

EDITOR’S NOTE: Friday at University of Rochester Sunday at Emory University Oct. 18 at Clark University

WOMen’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Goals

Chicago WashU JUDGES Carnegie NYU Emory Rochester Case

UAA Conf.

W L D 2 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0

Overall W L D Pct. 12 0 0 1.000 11 0 1 1.000 9 1 2 .900 8 1 2 .889 7 3 1 .700 7 4 0 .636 6 4 1 .600 5 7 0 .417

EDITOR’S NOTE: Friday at University of Rochester Sunday at Emory University Oct. 18 vs. Westfield State

Samantha Schwartz ’18 leads the team with six goals.

Player Goals Samantha Schwartz 6 Sasha Sunday 5 Haliana Burhans 4 Julia Matson 3

Assists Sasha Sunday ’19 leads the team with seven assists.

Player Assists Sasha Sunday 7 Haliana Burhans 3 Katie Hayes 3 Hannah Maatallah 2

VOLLEYBALL UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Kills

Chicago Carnegie Emory WashU Case Rochester JUDGES NYU

UAA Conf.

W L 3 0 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 0 3 0 3

Overall W L 17 3 18 1 17 2 14 6 13 7 11 7 10 6 4 16

Pct. .850 .947 .895 .700 .650 .611 .625 .200

EDITOR’S NOTE: Saturday at Case (in Chicago) Saturday at WashU (in Chicago) Sunday at Carnegie (in Chicago)

Emma Bartlett ’20 leads the team with 122 kills.

Player Kills Emma Bartlett 122 Marissa Borgert 112 Shea Decker-Jacoby 108 Belle Scott 79

Digs Yvette Cho ’19 leads the team with 269 digs.

Player Digs Yvette Cho 223 Shea Decker-Jacoby 125 Marissa Borgert 102 Jillian Haberli 80

cross cOuntry Results from the Keene State College Invitational on Sept. 30.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

5-Mile Run RUNNER TIME Ryan Stender 25:46 Mitchell Hutton 26:03 Luke Ostrander 26:31

5-Kilometer Run RUNNER TIME Emily Bryson 17:38 Julia Bryson 18:51 Niamh Kenney 19:16

EDITOR’S NOTE: Oct. 14 at Connecticut College Invitational Oct. 28 at UAA Championships (New Jersey)

NATALIA WIATER/the Justice

HOMECOMING STUD: Middle hitter Belle Scott ’21 crushes the ball over the net during Homecoming this past Saturday.

Judges have made an amazing turnaround ■ Middle hitter Emma Bartlett ’20 had 15 kills against Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

By BEN KATCHER JUSTICE EDITOR

The women’s volleyball team cruised past Worcester Polytechnic Institute 3-1 on Thursday and did not disappoint at Homecoming on Saturday.

Playing at home, the squad dominated Gordon College and the University of MassachusettsDartmouth with 3-0 shutout victories.

Judges 3, UMass-Dartmouth 0 Brandeis ended its Homecoming performances on Saturday with a commanding 3-0 victory over UMassDartmouth, winning by scores of 2514, 26-24 and 25-10.

Right side hitter Zara Platt ’19 led the way for the Judges offensively with 11 kills.

Right side hitter Marissa Borgert ’21 and outside hitter Clare Meyers ’21 were also key contributors with eight and seven kills, respectively. Team captain and libero Yvette Cho ’19 was the key defensive force for the Judges with 13 digs.

After a disappointing 7-21 season

last year, the Judges look like an entirely different team out on the court in 2017. Cho stated that this year’s success comes from a revised collective approach by the entire squad.

“The biggest difference between the team last year and this year is that everyone is on the same page” she said. “The coaches have worked extremely hard to instill the mentality we need to be successful, and we’ve embraced it. I think that once we all realized that we all had that common goal of wanting to improve every time we stepped onto the court, it got easy, because we started to play for each other to make each other better. The environment is just entirely different this year than in years past, and we all worked really hard to get to this point.”

The new hunger for constant improvement and success has clearly paid off — the Judges already have three more wins this year than last year in 12 fewer matches played.

Judges 3, Gordon 0 Brandeis came into this match earlier on Saturday with an 8-6 record, while Gordon stood at an imposing 11-7 mark. The Judges did not let the differences in records affect them as they blew past Gordon, winning in shutout fashion by scores of 25-15, 25-22 and 25-15.

Borgert once again dominated with a team-high nine kills and added three service aces as well.

Borgert, Meyers and fellow firstyear, middle hitter Belle Scott ’21, have all played huge parts in the Judges’ successful season so far. Cho says that the first-years “have made an enormous impact on our program already. Their positive attitude and drive to always get better constantly motivate the rest of the team to be the best that we can … I don’t think that we could’ve been any happier with this recruiting class.”

Judges 3, WPI 1 Brandeis began its week at home with a hard-fought win over WPI 3-1 by close scores of 27-25, 25-20, 17-25 and 25-22.

Middle hitter Emma Bartlett ’20 stole the show in this one, leading the team with 15 kills. Bartlett was closely followed by outside hitter Shea Decker-Jacoby ’19, who added 14 kills. Borgert was equally menacing on offense with 10 kills of her own.

Defensively, Decker-Jacoby was all over the court with a team-high 25 digs, while Cho recorded 20 of her own to help preserve the victory.

Brandeis will look to earn its fourth straight victory on Saturday against Case Western Reserve University at the University of Chicago.

PRO SPORTS BRIEF With their season on the line, the Boston Red Sox finally come alive for a thrilling game 3 of the ALDS After dismal, and borderline embarrassing, performances in games 1 and 2 of the American League Division Series, the Boston Red Sox exploded for 10 runs on 15 hits Sunday afternoon, avoiding a sweep for the second straight year and forcing a pivotal game 4 at Fenway Park.

After an exciting season filled with a plethora of young talent showing off their stuff, it was a disappointing start to the series for the Sox. Despite some hardships along the way, the team showed that it still stands a chance at a championship in its unfamiliar, post-David Ortiz era. This potential was nowhere to be found through the first two games, though.

Despite home-field advantage, the win came as a surprise to many:

aces Chris Sale and Drew Pomeranz were both roughed up badly by the loaded Houston lineup in games 1 and 2, and shaky veteran Doug Fister was expected to suffer the same fate — and for the most part, he did. Allowing three runs on four hits in 1.1 innings of work, Fister added his name to the long list of terrible postseason starts from Boston pitchers. The Houston Astros were a powerhouse team during the regular season.

On offense as a team, they ranked first in Major League Baseball in batting average at .282. They ranked second in home runs only to the New York Yankees with 238, and they ranked first in RBIs with 854. Furthermore, they led the league in doubles with 346 and runs scored with 896. The bottom line is that the offensive

prowess of this team was well known coming into the playoffs, yet the Red Sox starting pitching staff was not adequately prepared to do anything about it.

However, the Sox bullpen, namely David Price, was at its absolute best — and saved the team from back-to-back first-round sweeps. Joe Kelly relieved Fister in the second inning, allowing two hits and no earned runs. He then handed the ball over to David Price, the under-performing starter banished to the bullpen, who also happens to be by far the highest paid player on the Red Sox. His stint in Boston has been filled with drama and scrutiny — much of it not undeserved. Regardless, Price was painfully aware of the fact that he was in desperate

need of a redeeming performance this postseason to save face and possibly even his career. Sunday afternoon, he delivered. Going four full innings without allowing a run, while holding the Sox’ one-run lead into the seventh inning, Price all but single-handedly kept Boston’s postseason hopes alive.

The team’s bats then erupted for six runs in the seventh inning, securing at least one more day of baseball for the Sox and their fans. The game marked a drastic turning point for the team that had all but given up in game 2, as the team showed a level of intensity that hadn’t been seen in weeks.

For a series that was considered to be over, and for a team that gave almost nothing to hope for, game 3 proved more than anything that

this team is capable of much more than what they have been showing.

It’s the postseason, and the Red Sox are finally starting to play like it. They are more than capable of putting up numbers against the Houston rotation, proving so this regular season against ace Justin Verlander. Whether they rise to the occasion with the passion and intensity of game 3 or fall back to the pitiful effort of games 1 and 2 is still a total mystery; their performances and their capabilities are obviously drastically different.

But game 4 at Fenway Park is a chance for an unlikely team to finally live up to expectation, and give the city of Boston a baseball team to be proud of.

—Donnie Weisse

just

Sports

Page 16

NOT IN OUR HOUSE The women’s volleyball team completely dominated this past Saturday at Homecoming with a pair of shutout victories, p. 15.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

WOMen’S SOCCER

ROCKET LAUNCH

Team refuses to lose to Tartans ■ Goalie Sierra Dana ’20

recorded 14 saves against Carnegie Mellon University en route to a 1-1 tie.

By JERRY MILLER JUSTICE EDITOR

The women’s soccer team has successfully made it through its last 11 games without a loss, increasing its odds for a second National Collegiate Athletic Association playoff berth in two years. The Judges fought ferociously in a 1-1 tie against conference rival Carnegie Mellon University this past Saturday after hosting a shot clinic against Lesley College in a dominant 3-0 thrashing last Tuesday.

Judges 1, Carnegie 1 The Judges came into the game ranked No. 16 in the NCAA rankings and third in the University Athletic Association conference standings.

The squad was up against a tough No. 14 Tartans team, which was placed a smidge below them in the conference listing at fourth overall.

The Tartans got off to an aggressive start, pummelling the Judges for 13

Waltham, Mass.

first-half shots and wearing down the Brandeis defense. Goalie Sierra Dana ’20 was on her toes the entire half, saving the Judges time and again with eight first-half saves.

The last five minutes of the half proved to be the most vital for the Judges. After a searing shot by a Tartans player, the Tartans were given a second chance with a clutch corner kick. Holding down the fort, the Judges were able to defend the kick and push their way back to the other side of the pitch. Midfielder Willa Molho ’21 smacked a shot on goal, which was saved by the Tartan’s goalie and careened off the field for a Brandeis corner kick. With less than a minute to go, forward Maddie Marx ’19 booted one from the corner and placed the ball into the box hoping for a volley into the goal.

Midfielder Katie Hayes ’20 gathered the ball and pitched it inside to midfielder Becca Buchman ’19, who knocked in the first goal of the game and gave the Judges a 1-0 lead.

The second half got a little testy, with the referees handing out two yellow cards to the Tartans. The Tartans, frustrated with their inability to score, continued to play

See WSOCCER, 13 ☛

PRO SPORTS COLUMN

Tanking and resulting criticism are on the rise ■ The art of deliberate

tanking has become a fiery controversy across many of the major sports nationwide.

By NOAH HESSDORF JUSTICE EDITOR

Tanking. The word carries with it much controversy. Some view it as taboo, a despicable strategy that should not even be spoken of out loud, while others view it as the new “normal” in attempting to cobble together a championship roster. Tanking is the art of intentionally building a team of below-average, usually young, players in the hopes that a miserable season will land the team high draft picks in the next season’s amateur draft.

The benefits of tanking are evident now, as seen by the successes of the Houston Astros in Major League Baseball and the resurgence of the Philadelphia 76ers in the National Basketball Association. Both clubs were among the worst in their respective leagues for years, but as the losses piled up, so did the impressive young talent they collected. The Astros are now one of the title contenders in the MLB playoffs, while the 76ers have one of the most remarkable young rosters the NBA has seen in quite some time.

Of course, the underbelly of tanking is not pretty. Years of losing can irk even the most patient fan base. The anguish of watching your team lose game after game, coupled with the fact that management is actively trying to prevent the squad from getting better, eats away at your passion and enthusiasm. At a broader level, critics of tanking bemoan the thought of decreased competition in a sport. There is something

seemingly wrong about some teams consciously attempting to lose, while there are paying fans hoping to watch what is supposed to be the highest level of competition in the entire world.

With all this in mind, the 2017 National Football League season has been a confusing one for me.

As a New York Jets fan, there was little doubt about what the upper brass of Jets management had in mind for this year’s campaign: a full-on tank. The team got rid of almost all of its well-known and veteran players, such as receivers Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker, linebacker David Harris and lineman Nick Mangold.

These moves, and few subsequent transactions meant to adequately replace the departing athletes, demonstrated that the Jets were on a path to a high draft pick.

Additionally, this coming year’s NFL draft class is stocked with talented quarterbacks who are believed to possess the ability to change the direction of an entire franchise. The Jets have arguably not had such a QB since Joe Namath almost 50 years ago, and thus the thinking behind the plan seemed sound. However, there has been a setback in the strategy; the Jets are not that bad. Somehow, the team has survived to the tune of a 3-2 record, even tied with the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills for second place in their division.

Thus begins the dilemma that I face as a fan.

Before the year began I was fully on board with the plan to lose as much as possible in order to secure one of the darling young arms from this year’s draft. However, things are looking bleak for that idea to come to fruition. While the Jets still do have a poor roster and possess the ability to lose many games and

See PRO SPORTS, 13 ☛

NATALIA WIATER/the Justice

CRUSHED KICK: Midfielder Joshua Handler ’19 looks to boot the ball down the field during Homecoming this past Saturday.

Judges have won seven of last eight matches ■ The squad kept up its

winning ways with two more outstanding victories, improving its record to 8-2.

By GABRIEL GOLDSTEIN JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

The men’s soccer team continued to steamroll its way to the postseason this past week, picking up two big wins against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University. The squad opened its week with a 3-1 beat-down of cross-town rival MIT and followed that impressive victory with a Homecoming triumph against No. 11 Carnegie Mellon.

After dropping its first game of the season, the men’s squad is 7-1 in its last eight matches, flexing its muscles in both conference and non-conference play. As the season unfolds and the team gets better, there should be little doubt that the squad is primed for another deep run this postseason. Their talent is undeniable, and it will be exciting for loyal fans to see if the team can

continue to thrive moving forward.

Judges 2, Carnegie Mellon 0 The Judges rounded out the week with a signature win against No. 11-ranked conference foe Carnegie Mellon. The Judges used their characteristically stifling defense to blank the Tartans in a wire-towire victory.

The squad opened scoring in the ninth minute when midfielder Alex Walter ’20 headed home a beautiful set-up from midfielder Dylan Hennessey ’20 to give the Judges a 1-0 lead. The squad added an insurance goal in the 32nd minute when forward Josh Ocel ’17 netted a beautifully angled corner kick for his third goal of the season.

The score is Ocel’s 17th goal in his illustrious Brandeis career.

The Judges would need no other offense beyond Walter’s header, as the squad’s defensive tenacity proved sufficient in blanking Carnegie Mellon. The Tartans could not break through star goalkeeper Ben Woodhouse’s ’18 box, as the respected keeper finished with a career-high 11 saves for the squad.

Of those 11 saves, 10 came during crunch time in the second half of

play. While the Judges were outshot 22-8 by the Tartans, they were able to pull out the victory because of superior offensive execution and suffocating defensive effort.

The victory brings the Judges to 8-2-0 on the season and is sure to result in a leap in national rankings for the squad. The loss drops Carnegie Mellon to 8-2-1 on the year.

Judges 3, MIT 1 The Judges kicked off their week with a match against the MIT Engineers on the home pitch at Gordon Field. The Judges drew first blood in the 39th minute when Hennessy fired a free kick into the Engineers’ box, where it was then headed by an MIT defender into the back of the net for an owngoal. After a slow offensive start, that fortunate break was exactly what the Judges needed to generate momentum and jump-start their offensive attack. The Judges struck again in the 43rd minute when Hennessey netted a beautiful assist from midfielder Bernardo Ponte ’18, this time scoring with intention and gusto. The squad tacked on

See MSOCCER, 13 ☛

Vol. LXX #5 Vol. LXX #2

October 10, 2017 September 12, 2017

Metamorphosis >>pg. 19 >>pg. 19

just

just Arts Waltham, Mass.

Artwork: Sivan Spector. Images: Chelsea Madera/the Justice. Design: Yvette Sei and Natalia Wiater/the Justice.

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THE TUESDAY, JUSTICEOctober | Arts | 10, TUESDAY, 2017 iJanuary Arts i THE 31,JUSTICE 2017

theater review

Photos by HEATHER SCHILLER/the Justice

REFLECTION: Marie (Gabi Nail ’18) admires a new pair of earrings she was gifted, doting on her reflection, played by Sophia Massidda ’20.

PHYSICAL EXAM: Doctor (Ryan Sands ’19) encourages Woyzeck’s (Dan Souza ’19) growing neuroticism and dementia as he gives him a dubious check-up.

‘Woyzeck’ leaves viewers haunted By emily see justice Staff writer

“Woyzeck” was an outstanding show performed in Merrick Theater in Spingold Theater Center. The story followed a man named Woyzeck who was on a strict pea-only diet.

His new diet, along with his wife talking to a drum major, started to cause Woyzeck to lose his mind.

When the audience walked into Merrick Theater, you sat against the wall across from the doors. This was an interesting choice, as theaters are usually set up with chairs at the back and the stage set up in front of the audience, toward the doors. I soon realized it was a strategic choice made by director Raphael Stigliano ’18, as the walkway above the theater was used as an important set space. The audience sat down, not quite knowing what they should expect from the performance.

The play started with Karina Wen ’20 talking to the audience as Woyzeck (Dan Souza ’19) and Marie (Gabi Nail ’18) danced in front of Wen. Wen played multiple roles, and when playing the narrative role, she spoke and engaged

the audience with her words and questions. Once the dance ended, Woyzeck left the stage, and Marie sang a sad song to her baby, echoing the narration at the start of the play.

Even though the song itself was sad, Nail sang it with such beauty that it sounded like a soft and effortless whisper. As Marie left, Woyzeck reappeared.

Woyzeck came off as a slightly deranged yet confused character in the storyline, with the help of an also slightly demented doctor, played by Ryan Sands ’19. Souza used the space of the room well while he expressed this mix of insanity and aloofness, sometimes shaking or seeming to spasm. The captain in the story (Sophia Massidda ’20) says, “He’s stabbing me with his eyes,” and looking at Souza in this scene, the audience may start the believe it. Really getting into the role, Souza did a fantastic job acting out not only Woyzeck’s actions, but also his expressions and his appearance down to the smallest of details.

Fantastic parts of the play varied from the use of the walkway above the set to the sweat dripping off Woyzeck’s face after the fight. Cast members also chattered in the back-

ground to act as voices in Woyzeck’s head. At first, I thought it distracting and confusing. However, as the play went on, it made more sense.

The chatter was not overpowering to the audience, instead adding a sense of jumbled thoughts. Noise in the play, in addition to the excellent use of space, was strategically used so that it added to the performance and how the audience perceived each moment. Drum noises also created effect and added to the drum major character (Ben Astrachan ’19). In the role of the drum major, Astrachan brought in the “cartoonishly sinister” character mentioned in the director’s note. Having a wide-eyed, crazy expression on his face and a look of anticipation, Astrachan ensured that the audience couldn’t wait for what was next. Astrachan took pauses in his motions, which led the audience to look more closely at his approach to the scene.

For instance, as he called to Marie, Astrachan loudly whispered her name and stood with arms wide open yet slightly shaking. Just like Souza, Astrachan portrayed the character’s insecurities and quirks.

Bringing the play full circle, the final scene ended with the baby

IMprovisation

coming back out as in the beginning of the play and Woyzeck not being able to go to it. The audience had chills after Woyzeck kills Marie, left thinking about all of the parts leading up to this point that drove Woyzeck into doing such a deed.

This ending showed how put together “Woyzeck” was and how much time must have gone into the play’s preparation. It had four shows from Friday at 8 p.m. until Sunday at 2 p.m. with free admission. It was definitely worth seeing.

LOVERS’ SPAT: Woyzeck stabs Marie to death intimately, lost to the insanity spurned by suspicions of her faithfulness.

GWEN HARRIS/the Justice

SILLY SKITS: Members of TBA act out a skit, drawing laughs from the audience.

Improvisation group welcomes new member

By Gwendolyn Harris justice contributing writer

Amid the eager buzz of the audience, the merry tune of “Happy Birthday” rose gently from the back of the room. The audience eventually quieted, turning just in time to witness the energetic entrance of improvisation comedy group “To Be Announced” to a makeshift stage as they celebrated the induction of a new member, Lena Burdick ’21.

After a short introduction and an explanation of the name of the event, “TBA has a baby,” the group started with a game called “press conference.” In this exercise, one of the members is sent out of a room and the audience decides a crime he has committed, after which point he re-enters and must try to guess his crime based on questions from his fellow comedians. The audience decided that Seneca Scott ’20 broke a

vape in the gym with his roommate, a scenario Scott guessed relatively quickly. When asking questions, comedians impersonated journalists from such esteemed publications as “Weed Magazine” and “The New York Times.”

The next skit, “Menage a trois,” followed three couples as they encountered some kind of problem.

When one couple froze and the focus shifted to another, the next couple would have to use the final line from the previous couple. The scenes ranged from awkward dates in the woods (a theme which evolved into a running joke throughout the performance) to a gynecologist and a dermatologist (one of whom was jailed), and the skit attracted many laughs.

TBA surprised their new member during their fourth skit, “Ding,” by adding a new component, called “Lena Ding.” In this skit, a set of

events unfold between two people, until one of them is “Dinged” and replaced with another member, who must continue acting out the events as if nothing has happened.

The “Ding” can also be used to make an actor who is already present repeat or change the line they just said. The “Lena Ding,” however, required that the actor in question be replaced by Burdick. The skit in question centered around two roommates whose obsessions with each other might have been considered creepy — if the other didn’t feel the same way. The overacted lesbian tension and ridiculous admissions of the roommates earned the group a number of strong laughs.

Next the group traded monologues, taking a topic from the audience, which happened to be “crocs.” The monologues ranged from childhood memories to the dramas of shoe store clerks. At

some point during the performance, the scenes shifted to contain two, then three, then four members, and their themes began to branch out to contain other jokes that had been made during the monologues or previous skits. Members would tap one or both members out to signify that they wished to shift the scene and would often base part of their new scene on a previous scene or reference a previous joke. These interactions evolved organically, easily unnoticed, and soon enough, three or four members were present in most of the skits. During this portion of the evening, scenarios ranged from a vaguely homicidal Uber driver conversing with his fare to a burrito-centered protest to a paint therapist whose students ate paint to a candy store that didn’t sell candy.

TBA ended the evening with a skit involving taking a word from

the audience and using it to construct sentences such as “Sex with me is like …” or “I used to date …”

Words chosen included “Chinese food,” “glasses” and “eyebrow,” and each one-liner earned the group a roar of laughter from the audience. One of the final quips was delivered by newbie Lena Burdick herself: “A relationship with me is like glasses — no contact.”

After a clamor of applause and a standing ovation, TBA melted into their spirited audience and received the congratulations of their friends and other attendees, identifiable only by their club shirts. According to Scott, (perpetrator of the vape crime in the first skit), the secret to improvisation is clear. “It’s all about the chemistry,” he said of improv as a whole. Given the number of laughs received, the presence of chemistry within TBA can surely be extrapolated.

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THE JUSTICE arts i TUESDAY, January 31, 2017 THE JUSTICE i arts i Tuesday, October 10, 2017

theater review

‘Metamorphosis’ criticizes capitalism By mariah manter justice contributing writer

A dark, minimalistic stage, lit only with a dim greenish hue, set the tone for an ominous “Metamorphosis.” Despite the Free Play Theatre Collective production’s adherence to minimal elements from set to actors to lighting and music, the overall effect was gripping and conveyed a poignant message about how today’s capitalist society does not leave room for humanity toward those who are unable to work.

The play, based off the novella of the same name by Franz Kafka and adapted for the stage by Steven Berkoff, was put on in the Shapiro Campus Center theater. Sivan Spector ’18 directed “Metamorphosis,” her first time directing at Brandeis.

The play follows the trials of the Samsa family after an unexpected transformation leaves Gregor (Norma Stobbe ’20) the sole son and only working member of the family, trapped as a bug and unable to provide income. Spector did not initially aim to address a specific issue, but after rehearsals and conversations with the cast and production team, she chose to comment on the failings of capitalism through her interpretation of the play.

The set for “Metamorphosis,” designed by Aislyn Fair ’19, consisted solely of a raised platform and three stools. The platform is Gregor’s bedroom, which symbolically acts as a cage isolating him after his strange metamorphosis. Fair used crisscrossing ropes to establish the walls of Gregor’s room, which conveyed the sense of a web. This center-stage enclosure added to the play’s motif of entrapment, both within the

Photos by CHELSEA MADERA/the Justice

FAMILY VALUES: The Samsa family crowds around the tenant (Amber Crossman ’21) as Gregor (Norma Stobbe ’20) lurks behind. physical limitations of one’s body, as well as within the expectations of society.

In contrast with the spare set, the physical acting required of protagonist Gregor Samsa was extraordinary and intense, capturing the attention of the audience throughout the play. One morning, Gregor wakes up to find himself in the body of a bug, unable to command his own movements or speak to his family. This random occurrence is made to be a tragedy and the play’s main source of conflict, due to the distorted values of a capitalist society.

Gregor’s parents, Mr. Samsa (Anderson Stinson III ’21) and Mrs. Samsa (Renata Leighton ’21), who had been supported by Gregor’s lu-

crative work ethic, are faced with a tough adjustment to their new lives as the parents of a monstrous burden. Gregor’s younger sister Greta (Maryam Chishti ’20) must also transition into a new role as she becomes the “keeper” of her bug brother. The Samsa family attempts to reconcile their reality with the new Gregor with varying levels of acceptance and compassion, each undergoing a metamorphosis of their own.

Before the family knows of Gregor’s transformation, his absence at work is recognized by the Chief Clerk (Amber Crossman ’21) who comes to investigate. Here, the family defends Gregor’s honor, assuring that their son must have fallen ill, not knowing the severity

or permanence of Gregor’s condition. Later on in the play, the family welcomes a tenant into their home (Amber Crossman ’21), and when faced with his disgust at encountering Gregor, they merely apologize for the pest.

The most prominent change was that of Gregor’s sister, Greta, who struggles to move past her revulsion and accept Gregor. As the only member of the family who will enter Gregor’s room, the role of caretaker falls entirely on her shoulders. Chishti’s skillful range of emotional fits conveyed how the weight of this responsibility affects Greta until she begins to neglect and even resent it. At the conclusion of the play, Greta proclaims that the bug in the room could not possibly have been

Gregor at all, because he would have known his presence was a burden and left. This proclamation brings on Gregor’s death, leaving the family liberated and blissful.

The conclusion highlights the idea that the only worth placed on individuals in this society is their ability to produce. As Spector described it, “Because we live in a capitalist society, as soon as you can’t work you just don’t have value anymore,” which is the harsh mentality that Spector wanted to highlight.

The absurdity of Gregor’s condition exemplifies the indiscriminate hand of chance in determining one’s capabilities and, thus, one’s value to society.

Stobbe’s performance as Gregor was on point, involving distracting and uncomfortable body movements — so much so that no audience member was to forget Gregor’s presence or predicament, even for a moment. She accurately depicted the reality of how a capitalist society feels toward those with debilitating disabilities or mental illnesses.

The acting of those who played Gregor’s family members explored the contradicting emotions involved with a “burdensome” loved one. Occasionally, the emotional turmoil appeared slightly extravagant, but this worked to engage the audience. The somber tone of the play was lightened up with well-timed, refreshing humor such as the ridiculous cacophony produced by Gregor’s dining habits, the relatable cliches of the family dynamic and the intriguing gait of the tenant.

Overall, “Metamorphosis” was a compelling production that forcefully draws attention to the skewed value system in America.

SAMSAS, UNHINGED: Gregor rolls on the floor as his father, Mr. Samsa, (Anderson Stinson III ’21) stands above him, while Mrs. Samsa grasps his arm.

MOTHER AND SON: Gregor Samsa crouches in his web-like bedroom as his mother (Renata Leighton ’21) reaches in.

movie review

Sprint to the theater to see ‘Blade Runner 2049’ By kent dinlenc justice Staff writer

The original “Blade Runner” from 1982 is controversial yet unanimously accepted as a modern scifi classic. The film has been modified into several different cuts over many decades to satisfy either the production executives or director Ridley Scott but never both. Fans detest the narration-riddled theatrical cuts and praise the subtler final cut.

The film explores what it means to be human among near perfect robots used as slaves in a cyberpunk hell-scape — the look of which inspired most future science fiction film and anime classics. We wouldn’t have the iconic looks of “Ghost in the Shell” (1995), the “Matrix” trilogy, “Total Recall” (1990) or any other dystopian films if not for Scott’s vision.

Cinephiles have deemed “Blade Runner” a masterpiece over the years, yet I have never truly accepted it. The film’s pacing is slow enough so I could marvel at the visual splendor but so much so that it diluted my interest in the plot. The film works to raise questions about what makes us all human and what differentiates our real memories from memories implanted in cyber-

netic organisms, known in the film as replicants.

Detective Rick Deckard, played

by Harrison Ford, hunts down defunct replicants in futuristic Los Angeles in 2019 as what is known in this world as a blade runner.

He journeys into a state of mind, pondering what makes us different from robots and whether or not he is one. I respect “Blade Runner” as a pioneer in the sci-fi genre and in modern visual effects, but as a movie, it comes off as a bit boring and one-note. I don’t feel the film completely finished answering all of its pondered questions — or at least did not resonate with me as much as it should. It doesn’t help that I had dozed off twice during my first viewing, but it’s a film worth revisiting just for its sheer ambition.

All that being said, I was surprised to realize that watching the first film is not necessary to enjoy “Blade Runner 2049.” Sure, there might be easter eggs and references that impact your understanding of the plot, but overall, the movie works as a standalone. The more intriguing plot within a 30-year-old world that had initially captivated me convinced me that this film surpasses its predecessor. “Blade Runner 2049” might be one of the greatest sequels of all time.

While that is not a high bar to reach, the most apt comparison appears to be with “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991). Both enhance the best aspects of their predecessor with heightened visual effects, while maintaining a necessary emotional resonance. After a long grace period between releases, the sequels return to explore deeper into their respective worlds and make their characters multifaceted.

I will not reveal anything about the plot. The film is filled with twists and turns, surprising reveals and riveting hooks that are best experienced in the theater.

All I will disclose is Ryan Gosling plays a blade runner who has uncovered a truth about this world’s caste-based society and the future of the relationship between man and replicant. The film returns to the existential questions of its predecessor with further complexity when introducing unexpected layers such as self-aware holograms and uncertainties between what feels emotionally and physically real and what is fabricated.

The pacing, while just as slow if not slower than the first film, seems to naturally fit the story structure.

Some may say the two hour, 44-minute run time is excessive, but I feel

it is a perfect length.

From a technical standpoint, this film is flawless. “2049” features some of the best production design and visual effects I have seen this decade, elevated by the masterful direction of the camera by legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins. The film will most likely win, let alone get nominated, for at least three of these categories. This is why I would prefer you go see the film in a larger theater than our local and beloved Embassy Cinema.

The cinematic experience is worth the venture outside Waltham.

Among all this praise there are some shortcomings, though few and far between. I am wary of Jared Leto. He may have captured our hearts in “Dallas Buyers Club” (2013), but his on- and off-screen shenanigans are affecting his performances. His presence in this film was completely unnecessary. He has intimidating monologues in a couple of scenes, but his evil henchwoman easily could have held her own throughout as she performed most of the menacing actions. I anticipate her actress, Sylvia Hoeks, will get quite a few offers after this.

Ryan Gosling’s B-plot love story, while thematically essential and interesting, meandered quite a bit.

It made for some fascinating visu-

als in a particularly disturbing scene, but could have easily been scrapped. In terms of a nitpick I have, there were certain echoes of past lines earlier in the movie that somewhat beat you over the head with what was being conveyed thematically. The film lost some of its subtlety in these few scenes.

After “Blade Runner 2049,” its director, Denis Villeneuve, should be on every moviegoer’s radar.

Alongside Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, Villeneuve will be part of a group of directors that sells theater tickets with only the mention of his name.

His past hits such as “Enemy,” “Sicario” and “Arrival” are excellent movies to boast about in his filmography, but “2049” beats them all with the exception of “Prisoners,” which gets slight edge above as my favorite.

Though I give “2049” an A-, I have yet to fully digest the film. It makes me wonder if my feeling for this movie was similar to that of audiences walking out of theaters in 1982. Is this the passion and enthusiasm I had glossed over when I finished watching the “Blade Runner?” Until I figure out the answer to this question, “2049” will float around in the latter half of my top five films of 2017.

20

TUESDAY, October 10, 2017 | Arts | THE JUSTIce

Brandeis TALKS

INTERVIEW

wf

If you could associate your childhood with a smell, what would it be?

Sivan Spector ’18 YVETTE SEI/the Justice

Maryam Chishti ’20

This week, justArts spoke with Sivan Spector ’18, who directed Steven Berkoff’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis.”

“Everyone says my house and myself have a certain smell. I would say the Upper West Side of New York. I’m half Indian, half American, so it kind of smells like India, but not all of the way. It smells like comfort and relaxation.”

justArts: Why did you choose “Metamorphosis?”

MORGAN MAYBACK/the Justice

Peter Diamond ’20

“If I had to associate my childhood with a smell, it would be the smell of glue mixed with gatorade, because I remember doing that often.”

Anwesha Ghosh ’18

“Baby Powder.”

Darcy Tocci ’20

“Honestly, the first thing that came to my mind is my grandparent’s kitchen, because my parents worked a lot and I was always sleeping over in the Bronx, with my grandma and grandpa, in their kitchen. It always smelled like Matzah ball soup or pecan chocolate chip muffins.”

--Compiled by Jen Geller/the Justice and photographed by Yvette Sei/ the Justice.

STAFF’S Top Ten

Top 10 Truths

By Natalia Wiater justice EDITOR

As everyone knows, our government is run by the Illuminati and the moon landing was faked. Here are some other facts we all know to definitely be true: 1. Paul McCartney is dead 2. A UFO crashed at Roswell in 1947 3. Global Warning isn’t real 4. Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill JFK 5. George Washington was a Mason 6. Jonestown was a test run of MK-ULTRA 7. The government sprays us with chemicals using planes 8. Tupac is alive 9. Princess Diana was murdered 10. The Earth is 6,000 years old

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Word scrawled by Danny in “The Shining” 7 Killed, to a mobster 11 Many a first Responder 14 “Shark Tank” businessman 15 Initiated, to a mobster 16 Former Red head 17 *Brown v. Board, e.g.

20 Field 21 ____-Tin-Tin 22 “Who’s there?” response 23 A bit blue 25 Atlas abbr.

26 French wine region 27 ____ Baba 28 *Really annoy 31 Gasoline additive 33 Many prosecutors, for short 34 Word before bump or pump 37 Gasoline additive 39 Origin of the phrase “to wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve” 41 Jazz drummer Paul 42 Last name in many a 17-Across 44 Tom Hardy role 45 Got wasted 48 Baseball stat 49 Letters often seen in Utah 50 “Gross!”

51 Invoice abbr.

52 Humans do it close to 29,000 times per day 32 Author whose 55 Twin Peaks character, with principal character was “The” yellow-bellied?

56 John of London?

35 Meat units 57 *It may lead to a deduction 36 Like bad assets 62 Great Society agcy.

38 Head of England?

63 Pop 40 See 25-Down 64 In an emergency 43 Plead with 65 What can be done to the first 46 “How’m I doin’?” mayor word in each of the starred clues 47 Oscar-winning Stone 66 Knee-slapper 51 “Book ’em, _____!”

67 “Ugh, that’s so immature!”

52 Group of voters 53 Stead DOWN 54 Running long, as a football game 1 Big bird 55 First name in folk song 2 It opens late?

3 *”You’re not happy? Too bad!” 56 Tolkien trilogy, for short 58 _____ Fighters 4 Levelled, in London 59 Droop down 5 Major bear?

60 Modern, in Munich 6 “It’s All About Me” singer 61 Measure of nat’l econ.

7 “It’s past my bedtime” 8 Biblical killer 9 Japanese period 10 He often played a mobster 11 Big birds 12 Harm grievously 13 Carry around 18 Saskatchewan tribe 19 Like some pizza crusts 23 Peg (as) 24 Wash out, in chemistry 25 What not to tell 40-Down 26 22-Across, en Français 28 The prez dislikes it 29 _____ Paulo 30 *It might mention a number of stars, in more ways than one

Sivan Spector: I really like the story.

I think it speaks to a lot of themes about labor rights and the oppression of workers and how a [person’s] value is reduced to money and how much they can provide for others. That really attracted me. I love the story so much; I think it is so ridiculous and weird and hilarious and freaky and speaks to so many possible metaphors.

JA: What are some of the challenges of directing an adaptation of such a well-known novella?

SS: It wasn’t really my challenge, I suppose. It was more the writer’s challenge. When I was thinking that this was a story I wanted to direct I looked up different adaptations and I think the one that I used — Steven Berkoff’s — I think he did a really good job of adapting it. The show was also in a really short time period so that was challenging.

JA: Explain a bit about the Free Play Theatre Cooperative and your experience directing a Free Play Theatre Cooperative show.

CROSSWORD COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN

SOLUTION COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN

SS: Free Play is a collective that is outside of the UTC, mostly because we didn’t want to go through the bureaucracy. We mainly put on shows every semester and we aim to do more experimental work. Actually, in the past few years we’ve been doing the same thing as the UTC and there hasn’t really been a point in us being separate from the UTC. So, what we are going to do next semester is a new playwrights’ project which basically means we are going to be taking submissions from the whole Brandeis community, probably choosing two or three plays to be workshopped (not necessarily to be put on in a physical production) and worked out with stage direction, with people on their feet, and to assist the playwright with the hope that the playwright will then take that on to develop in a feature and do a full production. The show that I put on, I suppose, was in the style of experimental theater, but it was still kind of a straight play (the audience comes in and sits down etc.). We also have a troupe called “Playback” in which the audience tells stories and then we act them out.

So we are going to have a show in late November.

JA: What was the most rewarding part of directing “Metamorphosis?”

SUDOKU INSTRUCTIONS: Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

SS: I think the growth I got to experience and the growth I got to watch my actors experience. To be in rehearsal with them and me have to think about, “How do I make the actor understand this.” Just being a leader with all of these creative people and determine the vision.

JA: Did you alter anything in the play to make it more pertinent to 2017?

SS: We’re not really allowed to change things but what made it pertinent to 2017 was that it was done in 2017, all of the actors are people in 2017 and that works into the show.

JA: Any last things to add?

Solution to last issue’s sudoku

Puzzle courtesy of www.sudokuoftheday.com

SS: Yeah, just that everyone should look out for the other stuff that Free Play is doing and that we are really open to bringing people onto our board. Everyone on our board is graduating so we are really trying to bring people in.

—Lizzie Grossman