The Justice, October 13, 2015

ARTS Page 23

FORUM Criticize Trevor Noah's Trump joke 12

CINEMA HISTORY

SPORTS Cross Country runs against D1 teams 16 The Independent Student Newspaper

the

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 LXVIII, Number 5

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

lABOR COALITION

SEXUAL ASSAULT CLIMATE SURVEY

Dems, BLC back Faculty Forward

3.7%

54.5%

formally reported the experience

told someone about their experience

Waltham, Mass.

■ Both clubs have

declared their support for the movement to form a faculty union.

By MAX MORAN JUSTICE EDITOR

study areas. These spaces are supposed to be reserved exclusively for residential students as referenced by the [Rights and Responsibilities] policy.”

Touchette elaborated, “Regulating non-residential students’ access to the halls is part of our commitment to

Brandeis Democrats and the Brandeis Labor Coalition have openly declared their support for adjunct and non-tenure track faculty members moving to create a union. The two clubs have hosted events on campus and worked to raise awareness of Brandeis Faculty Forward, the faculty group working toward unionization.

Both clubs have posted and distributed flyers made by Faculty Forward and worked to earn signatures for an online petition of support on the Brandeis Faculty Forward website.

BLC hosted a teach-in event last March to educate about the union effort and has been tabling in the Shapiro Campus Center to raise support, while Brandeis Democrats hosted a teach-in last Wednesday with Prof. Steven Plunkett (ENG) and Marcelle Grair, a community organizer for the Service Employees International Union Local 509. SEIU Local 509 is the union that will represent Brandeis faculty if a union is formed.

Plunkett wrote in an email to the Justice saying, “Most students I’ve met seem to appreciate the fact that teaching conditions are learning conditions — that their own education suffers as a result of their professors’ lack of employment security. The general response is one of surprise and concern for themselves, their professors, and the future of the university.”

In an interview with the Justice, BLC members Tamar Lyssy ’16 and Aaron Goodwin ’18 said that BLC first found out about the faculty union movement last winter from an email by Prof.

Gordon Fellman (SOC). Lyssy said that BLC supports Brandeis Faculty Forward because the club supports faculty and staff in whatever they choose to do, adding that they are “here to show

See SWIPE, 7☛

See UNION, 7 ☛

Design by REBECCA LANTNER/the Justice

BY THE NUMBERS: The results from the sexual assault climate survey revealed that only a small fraction of sexual assault cases that occur on campus are actually reported.

Survey results detail sexual assault climate at Brandeis ■ 6 percent of women and

1 percent of men reported being raped in the survey.

By mAX MORAN JUSTICE EDITOR

Last Thursday, the University released the first wave of results from April’s sexual assault climate survey.

The survey, which had a 34.5 percent response rate, detailed “information about community experiences, percep-

tions, knowledge and attitudes related to the problem of sexual assault and misconduct,” according to the email with the survey results that Interim President Lisa Lynch sent to the community on Thursday.

The University plans to release more information from the survey later this year as the results continue to be analyzed. According to the information released on Thursday, 22 percent of women, five percent of men and 35 percent of students who identi-

fied as “trans* and other” students, in the survey’s terms, indicated they had experienced sexual assault, defined as “including inappropriate sexual touching, fondling, grabbing and groping.” Six percent of women and one percent of men indicated they had experienced rape, defined as "non-consensual penetration."

Additionally, 54.5 percent of undergraduates who experienced any form of sexual harassment or assault told someone about it, 3.7 percent formally

reported to the University, and only 38.2 percent said that they knew where to go to report sexual assault.

“The results of the survey are deeply troubling,” Lynch wrote to the University community. “I take no comfort in the fact that our numbers are similar to recently reported data on sexual misconduct from other universities. It is clear from all of these surveys that far too many on our campuses experience harassment and sexual assault.

See SURVEY, 7 ☛

RESIDENCE LIFE

Commuters denied access to dorms ■ Off-campus students

will now be required to be accompanied by a host in all residence halls.

By Max Moran JUSTICE EDITOR

Students living off-campus will no longer be able to access campus dormitories and residence halls via their student IDs, under a new policy from the Department of Community Living. Off-campus students will now follow the same rules as “Visitors and Guests” under the Rights and Responsibilities handbook, meaning they

must be accompanied by a host at all times while in residence halls.

In an email to the Justice, Director of DCL Tim Touchette wrote “The residents who pay to live on campus have started to raise concerns that students who do not live in the halls spend a lot of time in the buildings, using common spaces, lounges and

Digging up history

Battle for the ball

Speech for Sanders

Prof. Travis Parno (ANTH) leads a dig searching for evidence of past settlers in Concord, Mass.

 The men's soccer team won on the road against a tough conference opponent.

 Student Lexi Ouellette '17 was one of four speakers at a Springfield Bernie Sanders rally.

FEATURES 8 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org

Let your voice be heard!

Submit letters to the editor online at www.thejustice.org

INDEX

SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS

17 13

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 9

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

News 4

COPYRIGHT 2015 FREE AT BRANDEIS.

2

TUESDAY, October 13, 2015

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS SENATE LOG

Senate charters two new clubs and discusses recording policy On Sunday, the Senate met to recognize clubs and discuss a proposed amendment to its bylaws that would require the recording of all Senate votes.

Student Union President Nyah Macklin began the meeting by swearing in recently elected Rosenthal Quad Senator William Jones ’18.

The Senate then heard from two clubs seeking recognition and charter. Representatives from Behind the Scenes — a technical theater group — told the Senate that their goal for the club would be to allow theater “techies” to utilize a better training system and to “be part of a community.” After asking the representatives a few questions, the Senate began a private debate and voted unanimously in favor of recognizing the club. The representatives then asked the Senate for chartering, arguing that while they had some limited access to funds through the Undergraduate Theatre Collection, having a charter would allow them to bring theater professionals in for workshops. After a brief private debate and three abstentions, the Senate voted to charter to club.

Student representatives from Spoon University — an online food publication for students — then approached the Senate to ask for recognition and chartering. The students said they wanted to show students different ways to utilize food options on campus and locally.

One senator asked about the group’s link with the national Spoon University organization, and a representative answered that they have a close relation with the community advisor for the chapter but that that link is mostly for guidelines and stylistic streamlining. After a brief private debate, the Senate voted unanimously in favor of recognizing the club.

The students then asked the Senate for chartering, stating that the national organization requires its chapters to put on monthly events, and the University chapter would like to have money to purchase food and supplies for the events, in addition to funding for group bonding activities. The representatives also acknowledged that there was no penalty for not hosting events.

After a lengthy private discussion, the Senate voted 8-8 with 3 abstentions, and the charter did not pass.

The Senate then moved on to executive officer reports. The senators briefly discussed an upcoming “storytelling” event for professors and senators, which would be taking place during the first week of November.

Macklin, filling in for Student Union Vice President Dennis Hermida-Gonzalez ’17, then gave an executive report, announcing the creation of a Student Union WBRS show on Thursdays at 8:30 p.m.

Next, the Senate moved on to committee chair reports, and the Senate discussed ongoing issues and initiatives, including ensuring that all clubs have constitutions, improving campus awareness of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Questioning equality and pronouns, issuing students University ID cards with their preferred name, reducing the University’s energy intake, inclusion of more options for meal swipes at the Stein, organizing the Turkey Shuttle and ensuring that all clubs have submitted the proper anti-hazing forms.

Senator at Large Lorenzo Finamore ’18 added that there are currently 92 clubs that have not submitted anti-hazing paperwork, including the Student Union.

Executive Senator David Herbstritt ’17 noted that the large number of clubs that have failed to submit the paperwork was “indicative of a systemic problem that clubs don’t know they have to do this.”

After briefly mentioning that appointments to the Allocations Board and other positions would be completed in the following week, Herbstritt transitioned the meeting into a discussion of new business, specifically a new constitutional provision that would require the Senate to record its votes.

Class of 2018 Senator Skye Golann ’18 asked whether this provision would mandate the recording of votes.

Herbstritt replied that the clerk of the senate would automatically record votes for, against or abstaining from legislation, but a senator could motion to not record the vote, and if that motion received enough votes in favor, then the vote would not be recorded.

Several senators argued against recorded votes — especially those that would be available to the public — stating that they would hinder efficiency and invite lobbying. Additionally, many senators worried that public voting records would negatively impact personal relationships with constituents. After a lengthy discussion, Herbstritt motioned to cap the discussion and continue it at a later time before the Senate moved into executive session.

POLICE LOG Medical Emergency

Oct. 4—University Police received a report requesting BEMCo assistance for a party with a prior ankle injury. BEMCo staff treated the party with a signed refusal for further care.

Oct. 4—A Community Advisor reported an intoxicated party in the outside area of the Foster Mods. University Police and BEMCo staff responded, and an ambulance was notified. The patient was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and the Area Coordinator on Call was notified about the incident.

Oct. 5—Police received a report of a party in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center who rolled their ankle playing basketball. BEMCo treated the party on the scene, and University Police transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 5—Police received a report of a party in Massell Quad having a problem with food allergies. BEMCo treated the par-

ty on the scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Oct. 5—Police received a report of a party in the Usdan Student Center who was not feeling well. BEMCo responded and the party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 6—A party in the Village Quad complained of back pains. BEMCo responded and requested Cataldo ambulance.

The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 6—Police received a report of a party in the Usdan Student Center who was feeling ill. BEMCo responded and treated the party on the scene and Police transported the party to Urgent Care for further aid.

Oct. 6—A party in Massell Quad reported their roommate’s foot had cramped up.

BEMCo treated the party on the scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Oct. 7—Police received a report requesting BEMCo as-

sistance in Massell Quad for a party who injured their neck at cheerleading practice. BEMCo requested Cataldo ambulance assistance, and Waltham Fire Department responded.

The party was transported by Cataldo ambulance to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 7—Police received a report of a party in the Usen Castle with a rib injury. BEMCo treated the party on the scene and University Police transported the party to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 9—Police received a call from athletic staff concerning a party who was hit in the face by a softball and requested ambulance transport. The party was treated by Catalado ambulance and transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

Oct. 9—Police received a call from a Community Advisor in the Village Quad reporting a party suffering from a panic attack. BEMCo treated the party

HABITAT FOR BIRDMANITY

n The Justice had no corrections or clarifications to reort this week.

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

Justice

the

www.thejustice.org

The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods.

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Larceny

Oct. 5—Police compiled a report on larceny of a tripod and camera from the GoldmanSchwartz Building.

Disturbance

Oct. 9—Police received a complaint of a motor vehicle parked within Ziv Quad playing a loud radio. Police checked the area but the vehicle departed prior to the arrival of police.

Oct. 9—Police received a report of two people arguing outside 567 South Street. The responding officer reported a verbal argument between two parties and that all was subsequently in order. Police compiled a report on the incident.

Oct. 10—Police received a report of a past disturbance involving an escort van driver from the day before. Police compiled a report on the incident.

—Compiled by Avi Gold

BRIEF Second round of Student Union elections fills final four seats on Senate

—Abby Patkin

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

on the scene with a signed refusal for further care.

JOYCE YU/the Justice

A student builds a birdhouse at “Habitat for Birdmanity,” an event put on by the Habitat for Humanity on the Great Lawn on Saturday to build birdhouses and educate students about the affordable housing crisis.

The Student Union held its second round of elections on Friday Oct. 2 to fill four seats that were left vacant in the first round of elections on Friday Sept. 11. Max Byer ’19 was elected as Massell Quad Senator, William Jones ’18 was elected as Rosenthal Quad Senator, Kenyon Fraser ’16 was elected to the position of Mods Quad Senator and Valarie Timms ’16 was elected to fill the position of Charles River/567 Senator.

The Massell Quad Senator position was left empty in the first round of elections because no one from Massell Quad voted for any of the candidates.

The other seats were left open because no candidate got more votes than the “abstain” option.

Timms wrote in an email to the Justice that she decided to run to give back to Brandeis, as she feels she has gotten a lot out of her last three years on campus. “I really wanted Charles River and 567 residents to be well represented and to make our quads [as] great as they can be,” Timms wrote in an email to the Justice about her goals for the position.

“I didn’t enter into the position with my own agenda. My only goal is to listen to my constituents to find out what their needs and concerns are and do my best to address them,” she added.

Timms also said that she is honored to have been elected and that it means a lot to her that her peers trust and believe in her to represent them.

Jones was sworn in at the Senate meeting on Sunday night and was the last of the new Senators from this election cycle to be sworn in. Byer, Jones and Fraser did not respond to request for comment by press time.

The first election in September filled the positions of Class of 2019 Senators, North Quad Senator, Transitional Year Program Senator, East Quad Senator, Ziv Quad Senator, Castle Quad Senator, Village Quad Senator, Ridgewood Quad Senator, Off-Campus Senator and the Representative to the Brandeis Sustainability Fund, meaning that all Senate seats are now filled.

—Hannah Wulkan. (Editor’s note: Max Byer ’19 is a Sports writer for the Justice).

ANNOUNCEMENTS #Ask4More Event: Lunch with Yvonne Garcia Join for a conversation with Ms. Yvonne Garcia, the senior vice president, investment manager services at State Street & chairwoman for the largest Latino Professional organization in the country as a kick off to Brandeis’s #Ask4More series.

Ms. Garcia will speak with students about her impressive professional career, as well as about the important work she has done for women and the Latino community.

Today from 12 to 1:30 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Multipurose Room.

Ally Activism: Processes and Tensions

How best to confront the challenges facing allies of many social causes? The panel of presenters includes recognized scholars Nicola Curtin PhD, from Clark and the Brandeis WSRC; Max A. Greenberg Ph.D, from Boston University; along with Brandeis undergraduate Ariana Keigan ’18, Campus Organizer for Students for

NARAL. Presentations will address the tensions that may confront the ally role and highlight the ways to serve most effectively. Moderator for the panel and discussion is Phoebe K. Schnitzer Ph.D, Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center.

Today from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Epstein Lecture Hall.

ibility of LGBTQIA+ students, staff and faculty on campus.

Come enjoy refreshments and visit the GSC to learn more about its goals and resources that are available for the whole Brandeis community.

Wednesday from 4:30 to 7 p.m. in the Winer Lobby in Usdan.

Entrepreneurs Forum: Steve Karp

Re: Joyce: Women Changing the World

Steve Karp, Chairman & CEO of New England Development, will speak about entrepreneurship as part of the series.

Today from 5 to 6 p.m. in Lee Hal in the Lemberg Academic Center.

Gender and Sexuality Center Grand Opening

The Gender and Sexuality Center will be holding an official opening reception.

It will be celebrating the one year anniversary of the office’s establishment and Coming Out Week. The GSC is committed to advocacy, education and increasing vis-

Re: Joyce: Women Changing the World is a 2-day conference in honor of Prof.

Joyce Antler ’63 (AMST) that will feature more than 20 speakers.

Antler is the Samuel B. Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Culture and Women’s and Gender Studies and will be retiring in 2016 after more than 30 years of teaching students at Brandeis University.

Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Mandel Center for the Humanities room G03.

THE JUSTICE

Group advised several changes to the chaplaincy in a letter.

By Abby Patkin JUSTICE Editor

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

CLASSICAL MASTERS: The classical string quartet “Haydn Seek” continued their performance of the complete string quartets of Franz Joseph Haydn in a performance presented by Prof. Isaac Krauss (CHEM) and the Haydn Enthusiasts throughout Monday.

Board of Trustee reps run financial aid survey data on how students perceive whether tuition costs impacts their future opportunities.

By Morgan Brill JUSTICE editor

In a Sept. 22 email to the student body, Student Representatives to the Board of Trustees Grady Ward ’16 and Emily Conrad ’17, sent out a survey on financial aid in an effort to gather information on the “noneconomic costs of financial aid and its impact on students’ future decisions.”

Conrad stated in an interview with the Justice that non-economic costs include “decisions students have to make, such as what major they’re going to pursue, what profession they want to go into after college, the anxiety that it might cause or familial stress that the economic issue with Brandeis kind of puts on them.” The representatives, she noted, also hope to get individualized responses so that they can further address them on a more individualized basis.

According to the original email, the findings of the survey will be

3

Chaplaincy weighs changes ■ The Chaplaincy Working

presented to the Board of Trustees in order to reinforce the impact financial aid can have on the student experience.

With this goal in mind, the survey, Conrad and Ward noted, hopes to answer questions that have not been researched up to this point, such as what percentage of the student body has an off-campus job, the number of hours a student might work a week or even how consistently students maintain on-campus work.

Ward acknowledged in an interview with the Justice that they recognize that the people who responded tend to be “the most passionate about these issues and are going to be the people who are most underserved by this University,” but he also noted that there were 772 respondents to the survey—three of whom were graduate students and were not counted in their analysis of the data—and while that number makes up only 20.8 percent of the undergraduate population, that number is still too large to ignore.

Ward added that, “it seems like Brandeis does a relatively good job for the majority of students here, but the ones who are struggling are really struggling, and I think that it seems like there’s a wide range of experiences.” Additionally, he noted

TUESDAY, OCTOber 13, 2015

Student life

NOTHING TO HAYDN

■ The survey gathered

●

that it was evident from the survey responses that “the overwhelming majority of students said that their interactions with Brandeis’ financial system — in one way or another — has negatively impacted their overall relationship with Brandeis.”

Conrad reiterated that they hoped to provide the Board of Trustees with more data on students’ perception of their realities in terms of financial aid and debt. Ward also noted the general sense of non-ownership in education and stated his concern that students often feel they are “not getting an economic deal out of their education.”

Ward and Conrad will be presenting the findings to the Board of Trustees during the Board meeting on Oct. 26 and 27. They plan to make a version of their findings public in order to keep the student body abreast of these issues. Ward also noted that they hope that the results can “inform the administration’s decisions in a way that makes it better for students…[and] to raise the profile of this issue for trustees, because I think this is something that is not actively discussed at the board level.”

—Abby Patkin Contributed reporting

On Sept. 29, the Chaplaincy Working Group released its report on the University’s chaplain services, recommending many changes to the current Interfaith Chaplaincy structure, including its leadership and system of reporting.

The release of the report was announced via an email Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel sent to the student body on the same day. Senior Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Sheryl Sousa and Dean of Students Jamele Adams were also cosignatory on the email.

“Last spring we formed a working group to look at the structure and roles of our Chaplaincy services,” Flagel wrote in the email. “It was an appropriate time to do so, since we have several transitions in our chaplaincy.”

The group was chaired by Prof.

Wendy Cadge (SOC) and included Prof. Jonathan Sarna (NEJS), Jewish Chaplain Rabbi Elyse Winick ’86, Protestant Chaplain Rev. Matthew Carriker and students Elena Insley ’15, Ethan Stein ’15 and Shruti Vaidyanathan ’16.

The group’s first recommendation, as stated in the report, is that the University hire a Director of Spiritual and Religious Life, who could coordinate the chaplaincy and act as a voice for all the different chaplaincies at the University.

“The current part-time chaplains are not administratively positioned to weigh in on issues that effect the university as a whole and to make changes and corrections to their work and vision as needed to serve the full university,” the report reads.

“Hiring a director who serves simultaneously as a chaplain will elevate the chaplaincy by letting the campus community know who to go to first and who is in charge of the chaplaincy.”

This potential director would be a chaplain as well, Cadge wrote in an email to the Justice.

A second recommendation in the report suggests that the Interfaith Chaplaincy change its name to the Department of Spiritual and Religious Life and change its reporting structure so as to have a “dotted line relationship” between the Provost and the Dean of Students with

its reports, reporting to the Dean of Students. Cadge wrote that the “dotted line means the person would still have a relationship to the Dean of Students but would not formally be supervised by that person.”

Stein added in an interview with the Justice that the thought process behind the latter suggestion “was more of ‘we’ll have a new director, who will report to the Provost and then the Dean of Students.’”

“That [new measure] will, again, have more visibility for the students about what the chaplaincy does,” he added.

Cadge also noted that reporting directly to the Provost “would help the Chaplaincy relate formally to a broader sector of the university population.”

Another suggestion in the report included the creation of an “affiliate” position for religious leaders active in the community but not currently labeled “chaplains” in campus religious life.

Stein cited the leaders of the Brandeis Chabad in particular, noting that while they open their doors to approximately 200 students every week for Shabbat services and dinner, they are not called chaplains.

This lack of intermediate position “puts them in a very interesting place because they have none of the freedoms of being part of the Brandeis community, but they have restrictions.”

The report concluded with recommendations for leadership changes within the Catholic chaplaincy and the suggestion that the University gather data on students’ spiritual identities and backgrounds so as to get a better understanding of the community’s religious needs.

“A significant number of students on campus are students of faith, and it’s very important to have a structure for people to practice freely and have the necessary religious figureheads who they can talk to, who can provide support, provide anything we possibly need, whether it’s service times, whatever,” Stein said. “So I think students need to know more about the chaplaincy personally.”

In the wake of the release, Cadge wrote that she has not heard much from the chaplains on the suggestions listed in the report. “Overall, [the] reaction has been muted,” she wrote in the email.

Stein also noted that the report is a necessary component in bettering the Interfaith Chaplaincy at the University, but it is still just the first in many actions. “It’s a big step moving forward with the chaplaincy at Brandeis,” he said, “but there’s still a lot to be done.”

AWARDS

President and Provost celebrate Hill’s University Professor title ■ Hill spoke about how

Supreme Court decisions impact prejudice and inclusivity.

By NIKKI NIKOVA JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Prof. Anita Hill (Heller) was appointed a Brandeis University Professor — the highest honor a professor can receive from the University — on March 26. On Thursday, Sept.

24, the Offices of the President and Provost hosted an event to honor Hill’s appointment as a University Professor.

Interim University President Lisa Lynch was the first to speak, briefly explaining the significance of the title “University Professor.”

She emphasized that “this is an appointment that does not happen very often at the University.” According to the University’s website, there are currently only two University Professors at Brandeis — Hill and Prof. David Hackett Fisher (HIST).

Lynch added that the title is “conferred on someone who has achieved exceptional scholarly or academic achievement, ... whose achieve-

ments transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries … [and] whose appointment will enhance the reputation and prestige of the University.”

Following Lynch’s speech, Hill was formally introduced by Interim Provost Irving Epstein. Epstein spoke of how Hill originally came to Brandeis as a visiting professor 17 years ago, describing her as “bring[ing] to her work a powerful, eloquent voice that commands our attention and engages both the heart and the mind” and possessing “the poise, the grace and the courage to say what must be said to whomever must hear it.” Epstein welcomed Hill on stage by stating that, “at a university named after Louis Brandeis, no one could be more worthy of the title of University Professor than Anita Hill.”

Hill began her lecture by thanking her colleagues and recognizing how significant her time at Brandeis has been in enhancing her scholarship. She then turned her attention to the topic of her lecture: inclusive communities. Hill spoke of how, “as a lawyer, [she] wait[s] for the last month of the Supreme Court’s term, … every year waiting [for] something that will help speak to the is-

sues that [she] work[s] on; racism, sexism, homophobia and biases of all kind.” While she waits, she said, she asks herself: “will this year’s opinion bring us together or will it exacerbate the disparities that we know exist?” Hill asserted that this year “the Supreme Court did not disappoint,” citing the court’s legalization of same sex marriage.

The main focus of Hill’s lecture was a Supreme Court decision Hill called “an incredible victory which moves us forward as a nation,” and yet she acknowledged it is one that most people have not heard of. The case she named, Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v.

The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., centered on low-income house credits and affordable housing.

Hill explained how departments of housing allocate tax credits to builders who wish to build low-income affordable housing. However, in Texas, the Department of Housing distributed far more of these tax credits to builders constructing in innercity, predominantly black neighborhoods than to those building in suburban areas. This meant that fewer affordable homes were available in suburban areas. According to Hill, the Inclusive Communities

Project argued that this distribution of tax credits “promot[ed] segregation” and was discriminatory, but the Department disagreed, claiming that “discrimination must be proven through a show of intent to discriminate” and that since their policy was not motivated by “racism, sexism etc.,” even if the effects of the policy were discriminatory, the policy itself was not.

Hill argued in her speech that the Texas Department of Housing’s case followed traditional law, which requires proof of intent and prejudicial motivation. Yet despite this lack of solid proof, the Supreme Court decided 5-4 in favor of The Inclusive Communities Project. Hill praised this ruling as “open[ing] the door for addressing institutional bias and implicit prejudice.” She further claimed that in this ruling, “the Court invites rights advocates to pursue inclusive communities as a value in our work places, academic places … and cities.”

Additionally, Hill stated that universities, such as Brandeis, play a very important “dual role” in promoting inclusive communities.

She described these roles as “first to model inclusion and second to inform and better understand how

bias is imbedded in … rules and culture, even unconsciously.” Hill said that her role as a professor was “to encourage critical and analytical questioning that challenges assumptions underlying polices that disproportionally harm those that have been historically oppressed.” She concluded her speech by explaining how she was “so pleased to have committed [her] entire career to the academy” and noting that at the University, she has the opportunity to move toward inclusive communities as she “lives [the] motto ‘Truth even unto its innermost parts.’”

A short question-and-answer session followed Hill’s speech. During the session, Hill was asked to further reflect upon “intent” in discrimination law, which she said she views as a problem in law and society.

She told the audience that she believes that “intent” focuses on one “evil” person when “in fact, … all the people who are committing act of bigotry and discrimination are not even bad people; they are just people who haven’t even really thought about what they are doing.” Hill also argued that “intent” creates a tension in the way society thinks – and talks – about biases and yet does nothing to solve them.

4

TUESDAY, october 13, 2015

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THE JUSTICE

faculty

FIGHT FOR THE WHITE HOUSE

Faculty discuss survey results ■ Lynch also informed

faculty on sustainability and safety issues at the meeting on Friday.

By abby patkin JUSTICE editor

JACOB KLEINBERG/the Justice

BRINGING OUT VOTERS: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign selected Lexi Oullette ’18 to speak a recent rally.

Student speaks at Bernie Sanders rally in Springfield ■ Lexi Oullette ’18

addressed a crowd of 6,000 in support of the presidential candidate.

By Matthew Schattner JUSTICE contributing WRITER

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — a Democratic presidential nominee hopeful — was introduced by three individuals at his rally at the MassMutual Center on Oct. 3: standing alongside esteemed environmentalist author Bill McKibben and co-president of National Nurses United Karen Higgens was Lexi Oullette ’18.

“I think it shows that the campaign is very in touch with the fact that they are trying to project people’s voices and people who are engaged,” Oullette said of the speaking opportunity in an interview with the Justice.

Oullette is involved with the national organization College Students for Bernie as well as the University-centered student group Brandeis for Bernie. She is a social media chair for College Students for Bernie and was offered the chance to introduce the candidate when a Sanders’ campaign staffer reached out to the coordinator of the Brandeis chapter of the nationwide organization.

Oullette says the campaign was looking for “a student who is in the area or either from the area, who’s kind of already engaged with the campaign in some way, who would be comfortable and able to talk about student conditions in the country” and that she was ultimately chosen for the speaking position after conferring with a few people involved in the campaign.

Oullette’s speech at the rally focused on the challenges of student debt facing many young Americans. She said in the interview that she feels drawn to the Sanders’ campaign largely due to Sanders’

history of supporting legislation to combat student debt and how the Sanders’ campaign presented a policy plan on the issue early on.

“I would definitely say that not only is it an important issue to me and basically everyone I’m friends with, but also anyone under 30, because they are probably experiencing some type of debt,” Oullette said of the broadly resonating message of Sanders’ policy.

The MassMutual Center’s crowd of approximately 6,000 people, according to an Oct. 3 MassLive article, marked the largest group Oullette had ever spoken in front of—her previous record was an audience of 300.

“I think that probably the best part of the experience was to see that 6,000 people on a rainy Saturday wanted to come out and do this and engage,” she said of the high attendance rate.

Oullete arrived early to the event, giving her time to engage with campaign staffers and converse with speakers Higgens and McKibben before taking the stage.

Speaking specifically of Higgens’ connection to the local crowd, Oullette explained, “Karen…works in Massachusetts. She’s not somebody they fly in from the nurses’ union in California to talk. She’s here, she understands why people here feel that these are relevant issues.” Oullette is a Massachusetts native herself and points to this emphasis on local constituencies as a strength of the Sanders’ campaign movement.

Additionally, Oullette said she is aware that Sanders is considered an “alternative” candidate in Massachusetts, pointing to the state’s support for current Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary.

Still, she argues that the large crowds, such as drawing over 20,000 people for a rally on that same night in Boston, as well as the campaign’s claim of over one million individual contributors, indicate high levels of support

for the Sanders campaign. Oullette attributes the success of nontraditional candidates — such as Sanders on the Democratic side and Trump on the Republican side — to the public’s frustration with the political mainstream and the Washington status-quo, stating, “I think it speaks a lot to the ways that people necessarily don’t feel like they are being represented by current political systems right now.”

Speaking on Sanders’ appeal, Oullette elaborated, “It might just be that not a lot of people feel right now that mainstream, I guess ‘corporate’ you could even say, politics are representing them and in that case, it’s very easy for people to immediately look to that next person that it feels like offers an alternative while staying inside of the system, and that’s kind of Bernie right now.”

She added that while she believes that Sanders’ campaign has done well in attracting grassroots support, she thinks that the campaign could do a better job with matters such as criminal justice reform and racial justice. “They’ve done okay responding to the Black Lives Matter movement, but there could be more engagement on those issues,” she said.

In the wake of speaking at the Springfield rally, Oullette said she believes that the next steps for the Brandeis for Bernie and College Students for Bernie groups should involve sending representatives to the important primary state of New Hampshire to aid in canvassing, phone-banking and voter registration drives.

In addition to recruiting volunteers, Oullette emphasized the importance of helping people find political representation, stating, “A next step for all of us who are involved is to bring in more people, to help people engage in different levels and maybe even if Bernie’s not their person, where they can best go to feel like they have a voice.”

In the coming months, the University will be focusing on the results of the recent sexual assault climate survey, energy efficiency initiatives and changes to public safety procedures, Interim University President Lisa Lynch announced at Friday’s faculty meeting.

Lynch began her president’s report by discussing the sexual assault climate survey and its results, mentioning the Town Hall meeting about the survey that took place the previous night. Lynch noted that there will be another town hall on sexual assault at the beginning of November and told the faculty that these actions are “just the beginning. … This is a continuation of a lot of work and resources that have addressed this issue over the last few years.”

Lynch also discussed how representative the survey is of the whole undergraduate population, as only 34 percent of students responded.

She noted that the administration is unsure of whether students who have been assaulted will be more or less likely to respond to the survey.

Of the 34 percent who responded, Lynch said, “over 200 of those respondents reported that they were sexually assaulted. Over fifty of those respondents said they were raped.”

Additionally, 45 percent of students who said they were assaulted said that they have not shared that information with anyone, she added.

“We have a lot of people carrying that burden all by themselves,” Lynch told the faculty. “We’re Brandeis. We have to do better.”

Lynch also touched on the University’s divestment and energy initiatives, noting that sustainability as a whole is “such an important issue,” and the University’s next president “needs to take up this issue.”

“One of the categories that will receive higher priority … for funding will be proposals that advance our pedagogy and teaching about climate change and our research on the science, so that we’re informing the public discourse on that.”

She also stated that she will be formally announcing the establishment of a president’s task force on sustainability with respect to greenhouse gasses later this week.

In 2009, Lynch noted, former University President Jehuda Reinharz announced initiatives to make the University “carbon neutral by 2050 and to reduce greenhouse gasses by 15% by 2015, using 2008 as a base year.

Well, we’re … mighty close to the end of 2015, and we are now consuming 1% more greenhouse gases than we were in our base year.”

“There were a lot of other schools that announced this commitment [around the same time], and we’re an outlier in a bad way,” she added.

“Quite frankly, I think a serious discussion … with respect to divestment, will require us to show our own ability to step up and take action on this front.”

She noted that the new task force would make recommendations by January and would also address the issues of overheating buildings in the winter and overcooling them in the summer.

Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Irving Epstein then delivered his Provost’s report, touching briefly on his meetings with the integrated budget and planning committee and their discussions about how to do business more effectively at the University.

He also noted that he has seen presentations from Vice Provost, Chief Information Officer and University Librarian John Unsworth, Senior Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Marianna Cwalina and Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel.

Epstein also said that the Diversity

Steering Committee has discussed “a couple of upcoming conferences and set an agenda for the coming year, breaking things up into five areas: discussion of the proposed position of a vice president or vice provost for diversity and inclusion, issues on staff hiring, faculty hiring, programing for the year and curriculum.”

He also added that he has been setting up a series of lunches with junior faculty members to get to know them and to get “a different view of what faculty life is like in the trenches.”

He concluded his Provost’s report by congratulating faculty members and departments that have recently received awards, grants or honors.

Lynch then addressed the faculty again, noting that there had been two campus shootings on Friday at Northern Arizona University and Texas Southern University. She used this news as a segue into a brief discussion on increased campus safety procedures, mentioning specifically the recently updated emergency notification system, BENS, which she said is “so important. …If, God forbid, we have a situation where we have a campus lockdown, I want everyone to know what’s going on as soon as possible.”

Senate Chair Prof. Susan Curnan (Heller), then gave a brief PowerPoint introducing the faculty to their representatives and discussing ongoing initiatives, including revisiting the no-tipping policy at the Faculty Club and investigating the possibility of offering part-time faculty members lowinterest faculty loans.

The faculty then transitioned into a discussion of ongoing faculty unionization efforts. Lynch described the process of voting on unionization that faculty members could expect to see in the coming months and noted that the University has not yet received a petition for voting from the Service Employees International Union Local 509, the group leading the unionization efforts on camps.

Curnan stated that unionization is “not a hypothetical issue … it’s a fast moving train,” adding that she expects the SEIU to file a petition for a vote sometime this semester.

After a brief discussion about unionization efforts at similar universities, the meeting transitioned to a presentation from Flagel on student enrollment trends from 2007 to 2015.

According to his presentation, the overall number of students enrolled at the University has risen from 5,333 in 2007 to 5,764 in 2015. In terms of undergraduate population, enrollment has risen from 3,233 to 3,627.

According to the presentation, the University received 10,528 undergraduate applications last year, admitting 3,591 applicants, or roughly 34.11 percent, as compared to 2,886 acceptances out of 6,766 applications—42.65 percent—in 2009. Flagel noted that these figures are “keeping us on track in relation to our peers,” as universities are having to admit more students in order to get the right yield rate.

Flagel also noted that the University’s accepted SAT and ACT range has stayed consistent, and, in its second cycle of the test optional policy — a policy that allows applicants to submit AP or IB scores or a graded portfolio in place of SAT or ACT scores — the University has seen a rise in the number of underrepresented minority applicants who choose to forego submitting SAT or ACT scores. Specifically, Flagel noted, 35 percent of the test-optional applicant pool were underrepresented minorities, while only 12 percent of the regular applicant pool were underrepresented minorities.

Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Kim Godsoe then gave a brief presentation on the Faculty Work Life survey, which went out to 626 University faculty members in November of 2014, according to the Brandeis website. Godsoe noted that 80 percent of respondents noted that they were satisfied working at the University, yet 56.3 percent said their workload was too heavy. Still, Godsoe noted, the area of greatest satisfaction among faculty members was the equality of the undergraduate students.

THE JUSTICE

AMANDA NGUYEN/the Justice

DISCUSSING VIOLENCE: WSRC Scholar Linda Bond spoke about her artwork exploring the American conflicts in the Middle East.

WSRC artists explore war research and life experiences that led to their art.

By TZLIL LEVY JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

On Oct. 8, the Women’s Studies Research Center held a panel discussion on “Collateral Damage: Civil Society in War.” Through their research and artwork, the three panelists — WSRC scholars Mary Hamill and Linda Bond and senior lecturer at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston Bonnie Donohue — discussed how society changes both during and after war.

Director of the Women’s Studies Research Center Prof. Shulamit Reinharz Ph.D. ’77 (SOC) welcomed the audience and introduced the Curator and Director of the Arts at the Women’s Studies Research Center, Susan Metrican, who works with a committee in bringing exhibitions to the Kniznick Gallery.

Metrican then introduced the moderator, Prof. Pamela Allara (FA), and the panelists. Allara noted that the United States’ economy has been based on continuous war since 2001. “We think of war as occurring elsewhere.

There, innocent people are massacred.

Here, we have been kept safe,” Allara said. The panelists’ artwork “lets us understand that like the innocent victims abroad, we are also collateral damage,” she added. The artists “give voice to people living in a war zone, who otherwise would not be heard.”

Next, Hamill discussed her experiences as an artist, telling the audience of one particular experience working with alum Seth Bernstein ’06 on a project in the 1990s, loaning cameras

to Boston’s homeless to narrate their life stories. The exhibit, “regarddisregard,” which was installed at the Museum of Fine Arts, featured the photographs and recordings of the homeless.

Hamill also described visiting Vietnam and Cambodia with John Neil to deliver healthcare to the people there.

She told the audience about delivering medical care to thousands of people and the effect those experiences had on her work. Her artwork in Cambodia showcased a struggling mother and her two sons, and she told the audience that she altered the photographs to dolls, placing the little dolls in a large armchair which she said represents her observations.

Hamill also noted the significance of the Khmer Rouge — the Communist Party of Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge removed Cambodians from their homes and forced them into labor camps, Hamill said. “More than two million people, one-third of the nation, virtually the entire middle class and more, were killed by starvation, execution or the like,” she added.

She also mentioned that the survivors of the Khmer Rouge violence lived in poverty and were neglected, and their grandchildren were hungry, illiterate and unemployed.

Donohue, a photographer and video artist who has studied in Puerto Rico, described researching the sugar-producing Puerto Rican island Vieques for over a decade, showing the audience a before and after map photo of the declining population after the U.S. navy took over to build bunkers to protect inventory of weapons and ammunitions in 1941. The island was the focus of Donahue’s 2006 exhibit, “Vieques: A Long Way Home,” which showcases photos of the bunkers.

Donohue also addressed the aftermath of the United States’ involvement in the region, stating that though the U.S. navy left Vieques in 2003, it left behind high poverty and cancer rates and damage to infrastructure.

Next, Bond spoke about the warlike conditions that followed the Sept.

11 attacks on the New York World Trade Center. According to Bond, 9/11 changed the world and in effect, changed her work as well. Due to the subsequent war, Bond said, “I felt everyone was a victim.” After Sept. 11, she responded to the event by making smoke drawings of New York and Afghanistan, including the latter because “in October [the United States] went to Afghanistan and bombed the same number of civilians [that had died in the 9/11 attacks].”

In retaliating, Bond said, “we become the enemy, and [it is hard to determine] who is evil here.”

Bond used images from newspaper s as a reference for her work and larger drawings, also incorporating gunpowder into the drawings. By using gunpowder, Bond stated that she is able to express herself and deliver a message that is more “in touch with the humanity.”

She also noted that she uses her work to quantify, often involving numbers in her pieces. To represent the 150,000 deaths, Bond made 150,000 gunpowder fingerprints in one installation. “Unfortunately, I am still adding to it,” Bond said, alluding to the ongoing conflict. She also represented the 190,000 lost weapons the U.S. brought to Iraq by showcasing 190,000 inventory cards for an installation. Additionally, she created 250 drawings for her project on “Shadow War” to signify the 400 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004.

STudent life

PCC clarifies free session changes

■ The Psychological

Counseling Center still offers 12 free sessions.

By RACHEL MOORE JUSTICE Contributing WRITER

The Psychological Counseling Center will be adjusting its policies on students’ 12 guaranteed free therapy sessions to include more group therapy options for students, Senior Associate Director and Clinical Director of the center Dr. Joy von Steiger said in an interview with the Justice.

The PCC will continue to offer students 12 free one-on-one therapy sessions, von Steiger said, noting that what is changing instead is the “language of thinking of therapy as twelve free sessions.” The PCC’s goal is to transform the community’s mentality toward therapy: the 12 sessions should be seen as an evaluative process during which a long-term plan is developed, not as a limit to a student’s access to therapy. In fact, she added, there is now “more thorough of an evaluation, [plus] recommendations for treatment, often individual therapy and a group.”

She added that the free sessions should be used to tailor a treatment that is unique to each person’s needs — these initial sessions are “no longer

just a place for individual therapy,” von Steiger said. “The way to think about therapy is [to go in asking yourself] ‘What do I need to accomplish?’”

Von Steiger explained that the rebranding of the 12 free sessions is because “students often have been concerned whether the PCC can offer them what they need — students ought to be concerned that they’re getting services that are relevant to what they need.”

Thus, she explained, in response to the perceived and evaluated needs of students, the PCC is “trying to gather more opportunities” and emphasizing that “there are lots of opportunities — the [12 sessions] are not the only opportunity” for the assistance that students seek. As part of the adjusted dynamic of the free therapy sessions, the PCC has increased the number of group therapy options — there are now twenty-two available — in an effort to cater to the wide range of students’ needs.

When responding to a question about changes to the 12 free sessions at Thursday’s Town Hall meeting, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Sheryl Sousa said, “We have no plans to change our billing model at the counseling center. We will not deny anyone access to counseling because of fiscal constraints. In particular, any [sexual assault] survivors who are looking to gain access to the coun-

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015

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STudent activism

REFLECTING ON CONFLICT

■ The panelists discussed

●

seling center, that service is unlimited for you.”

In addition to the PCC’s therapy options is the creation of Wellness Workshops, which are available to all students. According to von Steiger, there is now a “menu of workshops” available, including Noel Coakley’s “Mindfulness and Meditation” workshop and the “Drop-In Meditation” session with Dr. Jennifer Brown.

Other workshop topics range from school stress and self-esteem to sexual assault, von Steiger said.

The workshops are held not only at the PCC, but across campus, including residence halls. Von Steiger added that workshops can also be created “at the request of student clubs” and noted that the University’s Active Minds Club has already taken advantage of this opportunity, co-hosting with the PCC a screening of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and a subsequent panel discussion on Friday. All in all, von Steiger noted, outreach and progress are at the heart of all the changes coming to the PCC this year.

Von Steiger added that she’s witnessed “people grow in lots of wonderful ways from being therapy. Therapy can also help somebody to learn the skills to stay in school. For some people, it really is a lifeline. We’re committed to offering both of those things.”

Doctoral candidate builds science program with Waltham High

■ Vivek Vimal Ph.D. ’16 has led programs partnering Brandeis with Waltham High School students.

By DAISY CHEN JUSTICE contributing writer

On Oct. 11, Neuroscience Ph.D. candidate Vivek Vimal ’16 and Department of Community Service Specialist Brian Quigley led a discussion about Vimal’s work to build a partnership between science programs at the University and students attending Waltham High School. The talk touched on Vimal’s own life experience and transitioned into an open discussion about science and community service.

Vimal opened with remarks about his life’s journey, discussing his transformation from a person who thought that he “would not be able to accomplish anything at all,” to someone who believes he “can do some sort of change.”

As an undergraduate, Vimal majored in physics and minored in computer science, for the reason that he “wanted a subject that will fundamentally change the way [he] looked at the world.” After graduating from Boston University, Vimal became a physics teacher at Waltham High School. Although he said that the first two years were challenging, Vimal said he did well in his role, noting that he was aware that “if you are always searching for opportunities, those opportunities become a way for you to develop.”

During his time as a teacher, Vimal took free courses about neuroscience over the summer at Brandeis and earned good grades.

After the summer semester, he left Waltham High School and began working for a nongovernmental organization in India, where his family is from originally. The initial stage of his job transition, he said, was a struggle, since he was just “sitting there and did nothing.”

However, he noted that once he said “he is going to do something, people started to listen to him,” and he subsequently received resources from the NGO and made documentary films on climate change and children’s life in semi-urban areas, and attended a United Nations climate change conference. Based on his personal experience, Vimal said he believes that “the more opportunity pieces you have, the better, because then when you go to construct your destiny, you can start layering them and see where it brings you.”

The presentation then transitioned to Vimal’s community service work. Vimal began the Waltham High School Summer Research Program, in which high school students were paired with graduate students at Brandeis for research. This year, Vimal also cooperated with the University’s chemistry department to provide a bio-chemistry 3D printing course for high school students. Vimal’s programs also featured abundant dialogue between University and high school students. One of the scientific dialogue events is called “Pizza Talk,” when scientists from Brandeis shared their life experiences and latest study with high school students. Currently, Vimal is also teaching a two-credit practicum course, Global Perspective at

Brandeis, which would aim to bring community members of all ages together for a Deis Impact event with a social justice component to it.

A brief discussion followed Vimal’s presentation. The first several questions from attendees dealt with the beginning stages of Vimal’s programs. Marci McPhee, director of campus programs at the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, asked what suggestions Vimal would offer for people without access to funds of a program. “If your object is working with people, you should find people that are passionate with it,” he answered, also discussing the importance of partnership and open-mindedness.

Vice Provost for Research Ed Hackett then asked how Vimal’s practicum program will work going forward. Vimal said that he believes all his programs will be sustainable, adding that “in terms of creating a real partnership between Brandeis and Waltham High ... if we could create a course that will give undergraduates actual credits and graduate students actual credits for doing outreach, then we can create a real program where they go after school and do this to get academic credits, and this partnership will last beyond me and beyond anyone else, because that course exists, and someone is teaching [it].” He also mentioned that he was attempting to gain “umbrella funding” for a student mentorship program to attract not only neuroscience major students but also students majoring in other scientific subjects.

Sarah Lipitz ’17 followed up the concern about the program’s sustainability by asking how Vimal plans to make the program accessible for students who are currently not interested in science, as well as how he will deal with issues of purchasing expensive lab equipment for high school students.

Vimal stated that there were two ways of attracting high school students: the Pizza Talk, which is open to everyone and held every month, and fun scientific events that interest even those not normally inclined toward the sciences. In addition, Vimal noted that high school students might do more observation, given a limited budget for expensive lab equipment.

Another attendee asked Vimal how he planned to include individuals from different fields of study into his program. “Here is a dream: what I wanted to do is go horizontal across all fields, not just science,” he answered. “When you try to market something small, using 3D printing, then why not add an art component on it, because if you are going to design 3D printing, that will require art skills. So now you are taking abundant students from different clubs with different interests, [and including] them in one project that includes everything.”

McPhee then addressed the importance of programs like Vimal’s, noting that his programs pay attention to “students who do not have resources for the science, who usually come from backgrounds where their parents may or may not be educated and be able to help that.” She also pointed out that “these [programs] need to go beyond this room.”

The lecture and subsequent discussion was sponsored by the Department of Community Service.

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TUESDAY, October 13, 2015

THE JUSTICE

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Panel

CONNECTING CULTURES

Scholars speak on improving women’s lives worldwide ■ Scholars from the WSRC

brought in life experience to discuss ongoing research projects on women.

DAISY CHEN/the Justice

TWO CULTURES, ONE PEOPLE: Qiang describes the novel’s portrayal of the differences between American and European Jewry.

Qiang addresses differences in types of Jewish identity ■ A visiting speaker from

Shanghai discussed Jewish representation in “The Bellarosa Connection.”

By arianna unger JUSTICE senior WRITER

Dr. Qiao Guo Qiang brought together two distant cultures — American and Eastern European Judaism — in his lecture, “The Jewish Identity Bifurcated in the Connection and Disconnection: A Talk on Saul Bellow’s ‘The Bellarosa Connection’ on Oct. 1.

Prof. Sylvia Barak Fishman (NEJS) invited Qiang, a professor of English literature and language at Shanghai International Studies University, to the University and urged the students in her Sociology of American Jewish Identity class to attend the lecture. Fishman’s students had read “Eli the Fanatic”

by American Jewish author Phillip Roth, and she felt that Dr. Qiang’s lecture would help illustrate how the sociology of the American Jewish community is portrayed in different literary works of the 20th century.

Qiang began the lecture by praising Bellow, a 20th century American Jewish writer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature (three times) and the National

Medal of Arts. He regarded Bellow as “one of the first authors to put forth a major output after the long political silence about the Jewish Holocaust and to relieve the tension.”

“This novella is the first time that Bellow explicitly expresses his views about the Holocaust,” Qiang noted in his lecture.

The Bellarosa Connection, Bellow’s novella published in 1989, is written from the perspective of an anonymous narrator who relates his memories of A Jewish couple — Harry and Sorella Fonstein. The narrator’s father had introduced him to the couple in the hope that they would teach him about true suffering.

The narrator describes how, as a teenager, Harry Fonstein had fled from the Nazis and was subsequently imprisoned in an Italian jail.

Harry had escaped prison through an organized mission contrived by Hollywood impresario Billy Rose.

Upon immigrating to the U.S., Harry married Sorella, an American woman, and accumulated a fortune of wealth. A wealthy businessman, married to the love of his life and the father of a prodigy son, Harry had a nearly perfect life, hindered only by the fact that he never had the opportunity to thank Rose. The remainder of the book deals with Harry’s ceaseless attempts to formally meet with and thank Rose, as well as his wife’s attempts to intervene on his behalf.

In his lecture, Qiang identified numerous instances of miscommunication between Harry and his wife. He attributed this miscommunication to their contrasting worldviews — Harry being a Holocaust survivor and Sorella being a native-born American Jew. Qiang also pointed out Harry’s overall difficulty in adapting to the American lifestyle.

“The novel deals directly with the relationship and interaction between the Holocaust survivor and the American Jew,” stated Qiang when commenting on the novella.

When the floor was opened up for questions, Fishman asked Qiang how he initially became interested in American Jewish literature. “I once read a history written by Abba Eban, the former minister of Israel’s ministry of education and a book written by Spinoza: ‘The Ethic,’” Qiang responded. “I liked these two books, so I started my research on Jewish culture, Jewish religion and Jewish literature.”

“I like the Jewish people,” he added. “I simply admire and highly respect their history and their culture. The Chinese people share a lot [with the Jews]: the values in their culture, their unity and their love of family. Like the Jews, the Chinese people pay a lot of attention to family life, a lot of attention to the education of their children and a lot of attention to the friendship between people, loyalty and faithfulness.”

By emma curnin JUSTICE contributing writer

Over the past two years, four scholars in the Women Studies Resource Center have explored gender, culture and politics across India, Cuba, El Salvador and Indonesia. On Sept. 24th, these scholars — Mary Berg, Rajashree Ghosh, Siti Nurjanah and Ellen Rovner — spoke about their research and hands-on efforts toward the betterment of women’s lives worldwide.

The event was called “Hand in Hand: Helping to Transform Women’s Lives.”

Linda Bond, an artist in residence, moderated the event, opening the discussion by telling the audience that she was “so happy to be around a group of varied scholars.”

First, Ghosh discussed her project, which raises key issues related to land tenure in informal urban settlements in India. Ghosh focused particularly on Delhi’s urban “slums,” an overpopulated, urban area inhabited by people with no land rights. Ghosh’s project seeks to provide “an opportunity for urban justice,” she said.

She described working with the Consult for Women and Land Rights — which increases resources for disadvantaged women — and developing a sanja chulha, a community kitchen for women, in one of the slums.

Next, Berg presented on her experiences working in Cuba. Berg focuses on Latin-American writers as part of her work and is a part of the Cuba Exchange Delegation.

Her current project, which she described in her presentation, focuses on the re-editing and critical commentary of 19th century Latin American women’s texts.

One of the books that Berg specifically mentioned in her presen-

tation was “Open Your Eyes and Soar,” a collection of writings from Cuban women. “Women have very specific voices, and Cuba has encouraged community participation and individualization,” Berg said of the book.

Rovner then addressed the audience, discussing her experiences discovering the culture and history of El Salvador.

Rovner is a cultural anthropologist who studies the intersection of gender, class, food and ethnicity, and she is currently an adjunct professor at Boston University, teaching in the Masters in Liberal Arts and Gastronomy program.

Her current project, she told the audience, is exploring cooking as a feminist action to empower women and make meaningful change in society.

She said she was offered the opportunity to visit El Salvador while she was doing research on the cultural integration of immigrant communities in Chelsea, Mass.

Of her experiences working with immigrants, Rovner said, “I feel particularly committed to newer immigrants coming in,” citing her own ancestors’ experiences immigrating to the United States as inspiration.

“I had this real desire for stories … stories of immigrants that migrate.”

Nurjanah then concluded with her presentation on family planning in Indonesia. Nurjanah’s current project, she told the audience, focuses on the obstacles women’s representation movements face from the status quo.

The dominant political parties as well as the other democratic institutions in Indonesia, she argued, are stubborn and resistant to major change.

Nora Owens ’16, an arts assistant for the WSRC who was in the audience for the discussion touched on the important of sharing these types of international experiences.“It was good to hear from four other scholars and their works around the world,” she said in an interview with the Justice.

Research

Group led by Brandeis professor makes new claims about nature of black holes and gravitational waves ■ In a recent study, Prof.

Roberts (PHYS) concluded that binary black holes occur less often than predicted.

By Jaime kaiser JUSTICE editor

A recently published study led

by Prof. David Roberts (PHYS), the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Astrophysics at Brandeis, as well as researchers at the Raman Research Institute in India, offers new insights into the implications of gravitational waves predicted in Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, concluding that the prevalence of these waves is much smaller than Einstein had originally predicted.

According to Roberts, the single largest source of gravitational waves in the universe is understood to be pairs of supermassive black holes spi-

raling toward each other until they eventually coalesce.

Roberts described these gravitational waves as the “holy grails of astrophysics at the moment,” partly because it has been difficult to study them and partly because understanding how they work would be a great scientific achievement.

These types of waves have never been directly detected, Roberts said in an interview with the Justice, but the team’s research found only 20 percent as many binary black holes as had previously been estimated using the same technique, meaning that the strength of the gravitational waves emitted would be weaker.

Roberts said that the beginnings of the project came during a sabbatical he took to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico in 2012, where he met two astronomers from India — Lakshmi Saripalli and Ravi Subrahmanyan — who would

eventually become his collaborators.

The idea for the recently completed study was originally his Raman collaborators’, but a previous request for the necessary time with the type of telescope they needed was rejected.

Roberts said, “We decided we would do the next best thing which was take data that had already existed and work with those,” a practice he said is common in his field.

With the help of undergraduate students Jake Cohen ’15 and Jing Lu — who has since transferred to a different university — Roberts processed 52 of the 100 objects from the large sample of data derived from the Karl G. Jansky VLA radio telescope, which is housed in the National Science Foundation in New Mexico. From this fragmentary data, Roberts said, the group was able to generate more detailed images.

Roberts emphasized the role of undergraduate work in completing the project. “To me, the most significant

part of this is that the bulk of the work was done by Brandeis undergraduates,” he said.

“They received training from me on how to do the technical part of the experiments, and they became quite experts on it.” Although Lu transferred after one year on the project, Cohen stayed on for a second year, and the research eventually became his honor’s thesis, Roberts noted.

On Nov. 1, Roberts will begin taking a more in-depth look at the more likely of the 52 objects to contain binary black holes, observing them in highresolution using a technique know as VLVI, which stands for very long baseline interferometry.

“There we’re looking for actual binary evidence of black holes when the black holes are very close together, and there’s no direct observational evidence of that yet. So if that succeeds and we’re lucky — that would require us to be very lucky — that could even

be more exciting than the other work,” said Roberts.

A proposal to observe all 100 of the objects with the VLA telescope in New Mexico is currently being processed by the committee tasked with deciding who can use the telescope and when.

“The way you get time to use the instruments is that you write a proposal that is refereed competitively with the other proposals. Our proposal would be one of hundreds to use the telescope.”

Roberts and his colleagues will be notified whether their latest proposal has been accepted in approximately six weeks.

The committee accepts proposals on a biannual basis and does not discriminate against projects like Roberts’ that would require longer use of the telescope.

—Abby Patkin contributed reporting.

THE JUSTICE

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MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

Students gather to hold a moment of silence during a candlelight vigil on Monday night in the Fellows' Garden. The purpose of the vigil was to commemorate the victims of terror attacks that have occurred throughout Israel in recent weeks.

SWIPE: Off-campus students lack access to Beit Midrash providing a safe and secure living environment for our residential students...This is a fairly common practice at most institutions and is one that will increase the security of our residential facilities.”

Off-campus students were not formally informed of this policy change.

Talia Holtzman ’17 only found about the change after she was denied a Shabbat key from DCL, due to living off-campus. “I’ve lived off-campus since Sophomore year and never had any trouble getting a Shabbat key from DCL,” she wrote in an email to the Justice. “I told the woman working at the desk that I was able to swipe into residence halls with my card, and she told me that off-campus students are not supposed to have card access to the residence halls ei-

ther.”

Touchette did not respond by press time to requests for comment about when the changes went into effect and what the decision-making process was.

“I absolutely feel the policy is unjust,” Holtzman wrote. “Students who live on-campus are able to swipe into all the residence halls, not just the ones they live in. There are also common spaces in many of the residence halls that can be reserved and used by all Brandeis students, but with this new policy off-campus students cannot access these common spaces. ... It feels as though we’re being discriminated against or punished by the university because we’re not paying an extra $10,000 a year.”

According to Holtzman, off-campus students still had card access to dorms at the beginning of the year.

TUESDAY, October 13, 2015

7

SURVEY: Lynch leads panel

SILENT TRIBUTE

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She estimates that swipe access was taken away at the beginning of October. “Every other student that I’ve spoken to, both off-campus and oncampus, are frustrated by this policy,” Holtzman wrote. “On-campus students are also frustrated because they now have to let off-campus ‘guests’ into the residence halls while we were previously able to come and go as we pleased, just as every other student is able to do.”

“The beit midrash” — a Jewish house of study, located in the Shapiro Residence Hall — “especially is an important space for the Jewish community, and off-campus students are being denied access since it is located inside a residence hall,” she added.

Sam Krystal ’17, the senator to the off-campus community in the Student Union, could not be reached for comment by press time.

While this is an issue facing our society as a whole, as institutions of higher education we have a special responsibility to set the standard for responding to and supporting those who have experienced sexual misconduct.”

In total, 44.4 percent of female undergraduates and 22.7 percent of female graduate students responded, while 33 percent of male undergraduates and 20 percent of male graduate students responded. There were 18 undergraduate and 9 graduate student respondents who identified as trans* or other, but because the University does not know how many total students identify as trans* or other, it cannot determine a percentage of total respondents.

Students, faculty and staff were invited to a town hall-style meeting that night at the end of the email, in which a panel of administrators answered questions and requests from the audience in response to the survey.

Lynch began the Town Hall by addressing whether the 34.5 percent response rate may have impacted the data, saying “Some people say that the people who respond to these surveys are more likely to have experience with sexual misconduct and sexual assault, and our reported numbers are an overestimate of where the jury stands on this problem on campus. And other people have pointed out that if you have experienced this, probably the number one thing you want to do is not participate in a survey and relive that experience through a survey.”

“No one gets a pass on this,” Lynch said. “You don’t get a pass if you’re at a party, and you see somebody who’s falling down drunk, and you go ‘I’m going home. They’ll find some way of getting home.’ You don’t get a pass on that. We don’t get a pass as administrators when we say we’re putting in place programs for first-years at orientation and just think ‘okay, we did an online training, okay, we did something at orientation, tick those boxes.’

This team is not in that place, and it’s not what we’re doing.”

While 87 percent of all survey respondents strongly agreed that consent is necessary before any sexual activity, 51 percent strongly disagreed with the statement “When someone is raped or sexually assaulted, it is usually because the person was unclear in the way they said ‘no.’”

In addition, 14 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “sexual assault and rape happen because men get carried away in sexual situations once they get started.” 58 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed, and 27 percent neither agreed nor disagreed.

Students had varying opinions on the relationship between alcohol and sexual assault. 41 percent of undergraduates agreed or strongly agreed

that sexual assault can happen unintentionally, especially when under the influence, while 28 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed and 22 percent neither agreed nor disagreed.

On the topic of reporting sexual assault, 39.6 percent of female undergraduate respondents and 60.8 percent of male undergraduate respondents said that they had not told anyone about their experience of an “unwanted sexual activity.” Among students who had told someone about the experience, 91 percent of female undergraduates and 67 percent of male undergraduates reported that the person they told “responded in a way that made [them] feel supported.”

However, only 14 percent of female undergraduates and 9 percent of male undergraduates indicated on the survey that their peers then “helped you gather information or find resources and services.”

At the town hall, one student asked how many sexual assault cases in the last two years had resulted in expulsions from campus.

Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel said that out of six total cases where the respondent was found guilty under the Special Examiner’s Process, five had led to expulsion.

Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees Grady Ward ’16 asked about what the University plans to do about the elevated rates of sexual harassment and violence for students who don’t identify with the gender binary.

Sexual assault services and prevention specialist Sheila McMahon responded that while there is little research on transgender college students and sexual assault, it is necessary to recognize that some students are more likely to experience more forms of different types of harassment. She suggested working with campus groups such as the Queer Resource Center to gather more data and to increase education on being a pro-social bystander across campus.

Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Eric Chasalow responded to a graduate student’s inquiry about University support for the graduate student population, saying that he has been working with McMahon and Director of Graduate Student Affairs Jessica Basile, stating, “We’re adapting programs that we’ve already been using with undergraduates ... it’s a different kind of community, it’s not an entirely residential community, so we need to respond that as well, but we’re taking this very seriously.”

Sheryl Sousa, the Senior Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, responded to a question about how the University planned to increase confidence in the sexual assault reporting process: “I would encourage anyone who cares to share with us about the process, and work with us to make it better, please talk to me privately. I want to make it better."

UNION: University’s adjunct faculty paid approximately a quarter to a third of tenured faculty salaries annually CONTINUED FROM 1 student support and to get students more involved in [the unionization issue], because it’s easier for other students to talk to students.”

Annie Averill ’17, the public relations director for Brandeis Democrats, wrote in an email to the Justice that “Dems has formally declared support for adjunct faculty unionization on campus and we are excited to help in these efforts. ...

We believe it is their right to unionize to receive fair pay and benefits for their work.”

While neither club will have speakers at the Speak Out on Tuesday, both will be attending and have declared their support for the event.

Fellman, a tenured professor, wrote in an email to the Justice, “I think it is powerfully immoral that 70% of faculty in the US now are ad-

junct. They get paid roughly what McDonalds and Walmart workers get paid and usually have no pension or health benefits.” Though Brandeis does offer adjuncts health benefits, according to Fellman, they are paid roughly a quarter to a third of what tenured professors are paid.

Executive Director for Integrated Media Bill Schaller did not respond to requests for information on the average pay grades of adjunct and tenured faculty by press time, though he did say, “We believe in the rights of employees to decide for themselves in a secret ballot election as to whether or not they wish to be represented by a union.”

The American Association of University Professors reports that tenured faculty receive an average salary of $84,303 while NPR reports that adjunct faculty typically earn between $20,000 and $25,000 annu-

ally.

At the Brandeis Democrats’s teach-in on Wednesday, Plunkett said that he was paid $4,800 per section of the UWS courses he taught as a graduate student, and he usually taught two sections. “There’s sort of short-term hiring without a lot of certainty, and so that’s the reason I’ve been involved in the contract faculty organizing here....It’s very hard to plan for a future being an academic when you’re not sure if you’re going to have work the following semester.”

Plunkett also noted that while more and more universities are hiring only contract or adjunct faculty, this is not necessarily meant to be malicious, only “because that’s an easy way to save money.” He added that adjunct faculty cannot participate in the University’s decisionmaking process due to concerns

about job security, noting that “it is a consequence in a democratic system … [that] if there’s a party that’s not able to participate in the discussion that determines how the institution is set up, that’s the party that might bear an undue burden.”

Grair, an SEIU organizer, urged students at the Teach-In to organize letter-writing campaigns and rallies and to talk to Boston media organizations about the unionization efforts and said that it is critical for students to maintain pressure on a University administration for union contract talks to be successful.

“You are the voices that the University listens to,” Plunkett elaborated. “Where we’re considered an expense ... they’re very interested in keeping students satisfied with the educations you receive. You ensure their continued existence as a

university.”

If a union is formed, it will represent both adjunct professors, who are hired by the individual courses they teach, and contract professors, who sign on to a single or multisemester contracts with no offer of tenure or job security after the contract ends.

Plunkett said at the Teach-In that he believes graduate students hired at a flat rate to teach a course will also be eligible, though final decision on eligibility will come from the National Labor Relations Board.

A majority vote of 50 percent plus one of those eligible is necessary to form a union, after at least 30 percent of those who would be in the bargaining unit sign union authorization cards to bring the issue to the NLRB’s attention.

Brandeis Faculty Forward has not brought the issue to a vote yet.

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features

TUESDAY, October 13, 2015 ● THE JUSTICE

just

VERBATIM | MARGARET MEAD Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1792, the cornerstone of the White House was laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.

The Arctic Tern journeys about 11,000 miles each way for its annual migration.

Using research to change disability policy Study finds more pregnancy complications among women with developmental disabilities

By Lizzie GROSSMAN JUSTICE Contributing writer

Women with intellectual and developmental disabilities are a very marginalized population in the world. Many U.S. states in the early 20th century prohibited women with IDD from marrying and procreating. Although they have had the legal right to reproduce since the 1970’s, there is still very little information known about mothers living with IDD or their children in the United States. This information is from a nationwide study conducted by researchers at Brandeis University and University of Massachusetts Medical School this fall.

The study, “Pregnancy Outcomes Among U.S. Women With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities,” found that women with developmental and intellectual disabilities have higher rates of pregnancy complications. The study was published in September by the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and was co-authored by Prof.

Susan Parish (Heller) and Monika Mitra, a professor from UMass medical school who will be starting at Brandeis as a faculty member on Dec. 1.

“We got interested in this work because almost nothing is known

about pregnancy outcomes for women who have developmental disabilities — intellectual disabilities,” Parish said in an interview with the Justice.

Parish is the Nancy Lurie Marks professor of disability policy, director of the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy and associate dean for research at the Heller School.

Her research focuses on promoting the wellbeing of children and adults with disabilities. She began working in the disability field when she was in high school and became interested in disability policy after college. She explained that after college, she worked in both New York and New Jersey, running residential programs for children and adults with developmental disabilities. She was struck by the vast differences in services that were available to families in the two states.

In this study, Parish and Mitra found that there were many more pregnancy complications among women with developmental and intellectual disabilities than women who did not suffer from them.

According to Parish, very little is known about these pregnancy outcomes for women living with disabilities.

The study was also conducted by Alex Bonardi, from the Human Ser-

vices Research Institute (HSRI), and Leah Igdalsky ’14, a research associate from the Lurie Institute and a Brandeis alumni.

“Women with developmental disabilities are one of the most marginalized populations in the world, and we are absolutely dedicated in our passion to make their lives better. And I think this study has a great home at Brandeis; it fits right in,” Parish explained. “We think it’s very important, as these women are living in the community, and they’re having, you know, regular lives, and they are getting married and having partners — we want to understand how they’re doing, and are they having good health care access, do they get the services that they need when they need them?”

In order to complete this study, Parish and her team analyzed hospitalization data for women across the United States, and they learned that women with developmental disabilities tended to have much worse outcomes than women who do not have developmental disabilities. “They were more likely to have severe complications, and the cost of their stays were more expensive, and across the things that we looked at, we found really poor outcomes.”

Parish believes that this prob-

Photos Courtesy of Susan Parish

lem can be solved through some changes in policy and health care.

“What we think is that we need better policies and health care for these women to promote good prenatal care, good pregnancy delivery outcomes for them and their children, and then we also need good postpartum care,” she said.

Parish explained that her interest in this specific study stems from her long-standing interest in reproductive rights and her own personal commitment to social justice. “I view reproductive health care as a fundamental human right, and it is not always available to women with developmental disabilities,” explains Parish.

Parish has also participated in a similar study, a study in which they looked at pregnancy outcomes for women living in Massachusetts.

“We used birth certificate data and hospitalization data, and similarly found really terrible outcomes,” she said. “We also completed a study a couple years ago that looked at screening for cervical cancer and mammography for women with developmental disabilities, which is again related to my interest in reproductive health care and reproductive rights.”

When asked what she thought the next steps for this study were, Parish said that they have secured a New Hampshire grant to better understand the poor outcomes that they are seeing. They began the project in January, and the funding is for a five-year project.

According to Parish, “part of that study involves interviewing women with developmental disabilities and getting their perspective on the health care they receive, [and] part of it involves interviewing obstetricians and gynecologists to find out what they sense are the barriers to high-quality care for these women.” They are also doing some large scale data analysis and their ultimate goal is to develop practice recommendations for the American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians.

RESEARCH READY: Parish coauthored the study focusing on women with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

Parish feels that her position at Brandeis has influenced her research, and given her great opportunities to collaborate with many scholars. “I think that the Heller School’s reputation, and Brandeis’s reputation facilitates that kind of work,” she said.

Parish teaches an undergraduate course in the Health: Science, Society, and Policy (HSSP) program, entitled “Disability Policy.”

The course is focused on improving the lives of children and adults with disabilities. It was developed by a grant from the Ruderman Family Foundation, an organization that is committed to the inclusion of people with disabilities.

“The foundation has supported the development and teaching of this course as a way to help build leaders in … the disability world, not just the policy world, and so I’m really excited. I love the class, and I love the students.”

Parish said that she would like her team to develop clinical practice guidelines in order to impact disability policy and the community. She explained that she would love to see their work influence practitioners and clinicians who deliver obstetric care to women with developmental disabilities.

She also anticipates that there will be health insurance that could advocate for changes to health insurance systems.

“Most of the women with developmental disabilities who give birth in the United States have public health insurance, meaning Medicare or Medicaid, which is paid for by taxpayers,” Parish explained. “And so, it’s in taxpayers’ best interest to support high-quality healthcare for these women so that we don’t have to pay for terrible health consequences when they don’t receive good quality care.”

FOUR LEADING FIGURES: Prof. Susan Parish (Heller) (far left) and Jay Ruderman (far right) stand beside the two former Rhuderman Social Justice in Disability Scholars, Danielle Sackstein ’14 (middle left) and Ruth Zeilicovich ’14 (middle right).

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, October 13, 2015

THE HOLE STORY: Brandeis students excavate the historic McGrath farm in Concord, in search of artifacts from several different time periods.

PHOTOS BY MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice

Digging up Concord Students excavate a historic farm site in Concord in search of evidence of Native American and prisoner-of-war activity

By Amber Miles and BRIANNA MAJSIAK justice contributing writer and JUSTicE EDITOR

If you happen to drive down Barretts Mill Road in Concord on a Friday afternoon you’re likely to see Brandeis students hovering over holes in the ground or shaking dirt through a sieve. These students are part of two classes at Brandeis that are working together this fall to dig up the untold story of a historic site known as McGrath farm.

The courses, Archaeological Methods with Prof. Travis Parno (ANTH) and Materials and Methods in Archaeological Chemistry with Prof. Andrew Koh (CLAS) work in conjunction to both excavate and scientifically analyze artifacts from the site. Prof. Parno and Prof. Koh codirect the dig with fifteen undergraduate students, two graduate students and one teaching assistant.

Parno has been a professor in the anthropology department since 2013 and has done archaeological work in Virginia, Bermuda and Massachusetts. He also has experience excavating a farm site in Dedham, Mass.

To prepare his class for their first excavation work, he discussed with them what they should be looking for and what they should expect to find.

“A lot of people don’t realize that once you start digging below the grass, it’s not simply brown dirt all the way down. Soil forms in layers… and we have to be observant … to learn about historical time periods,” Parno explained in an interview with the Justice. “The thing about archaeological work is that you can’t teach it from a book, you really have to get out and experience it — once you’ve

done that, it becomes a lot easier to comprehend; it all comes alive.”

McGrath farm was previously owned by the Barrett family for nearly two hundred years. Colonel James Barrett was a primary figure in sparking the conflict in the battle of Lexington and Concord. “There’s thought that Colonel James had hid weapons and ammunition on his property, which is actually just across the street from our site,” Parno said.

The Barrett family sold the farm in 1905 to first-generation Irish immigrants — the McGrath family.

According to Parno, in addition to learning about immigration in this period, they hope to find artifacts from several different time periods, ranging from Native American activity to German prisoners-of-war.

“There are people in town who remember seeing German prisonersof-war, probably from nearby Fort Devens — [a] prisoner of war camp during World War II— actually being out at the McGrath farm working the fields, apparently harvesting potatoes, under the watchful eye of military guards. We’re hoping we might possibly find evidence of their presence on the site,” Parno said.

One excavation site in particular on the property is in search of evidence of a building rumored to be the bunker for the prisoners of war.

“We’re hoping to find evidence of this building that’s no longer there and at least determine more about what it was, look at any artifacts that we find in it’s vicinity and see what it can tell us about 18th, 19th or 20th century life on the site,” Parno said.

In the four weeks that they have dug at the site, Prof. Koh’s and Prof.

Parno’s classes have found railroad spikes, charcoal and a milk-bottle fragment “that could date from

GUIDING AND DIGGING: Prof. Parno, a co-director of the dig, talks to students about finding ash in the soil at operation 1 and how it could indicate that something had burned there, such as a building.

around 1910 to 1947,” placing it during the McGrath era. The milk-bottle fragment, in particular, has the potential to link to either the freed slaves or the German prisoners of war. “We have yet to find any highdensity concentrations of artifacts [or] architecture — [but] I think that those sorts of things are definitely in our future,” Parno said.

Artifacts that are found at the site are the property of Concord and are part of a unique formal agreement between the town of Concord and Brandeis University. Prof. Koh, an assistant professor of Classical Studies with a background of archaeological research in the Mediterranean, is co-director of the dig and a Concord resident. He serves as the chair of the Archaeology Advisory for Concord.

Concord originally asked Koh to produce an archaeology sensitivity map of the town. At the time, students could only map the findings of other archaeologists, but when Con-

SOIL SEARCHING: Students from the two courses work together to shake the soil through a sieve and search for pieces of artifacts or fragments.

cord purchased McGrath Farm, Prof.

Koh proposed a dig to the Historical Committee, the Board of Selectmen and the Town Manager. “They loved the idea,” Koh told the Justice. With the town’s support, Prof. Koh, Prof.

Parno and their team applied to Community Preservation Act Funds and received a generous grant to finance their research.

“Archaeology is wonderful because it gives us the chance to study … this unreported history of the everyday person … as humans ourselves, we are interested in how our ancestors or forbearers lived in the past.” Koh prefers to work in areas where he can make the biggest contribution, and he has found that calling in this historic, previously unstudied plot of farmland.

Professor Koh, Prof. Parno and their students have turned to archaeology and chemistry to find proof to corroborate oral histories and photographs. Referring to the freed slaves, Koh points out, “They’re not in the deeds … so they’re somewhat invisible unless you can get some kind of death certificate or something like that. So we’re hoping through archaeology we can find concrete proof.”

For concrete proof, Koh told the Justice, “The key is what we call diagnostic artifacts.” The hope for Prof.

Koh, Prof. Parno and their students is that “between what we dig up and then everything else, [they] can reconstruct what happened.”

For generations, standard archaeology has traditionally involved observation-based description, but Prof. Koh’s specialty “is to take that a step further to reveal more about an artifact,” said Koh. Through analytical techniques like organic residue analysis or material analysis, archaeologists and chemists can now acquire as much data as possible from a given artifact.

“This is absolutely critical … because in this day and age, with time constraints, financial constraints, we’re viewing archaeology as this nonre-

newable resource, because … archaeology is destruction … The problem with archaeology is that your data is a one-shot deal. Once you dig it, it’s done. You can’t go back and dig up the same thing again,” Koh said.

Acknowledging that students’ goals vary and that not all students will necessarily become archaeologists, Prof. Koh hopes they will bring this dig’s lessons to whatever career they choose.

“At the minimum, we hope that they gain appreciation of the past, because, in this day and age, I think that’s kind of being lost. I think everything’s about technology and the future, but I think it’s very important for us to always look at the past, to see where we’ve come from — we can always learn something from the past,” Koh said.

A student with a strong appreciation for the past, Erik Howden ’16 is enrolled in both courses and gets to see the excavation process in addition to the scientific analysis process.

“I really like the idea of taking both so that I can get a more well rounded sense of the dig … getting to take it out of the ground and then bring it to the tester … and see where it’s coming from. I think it kind of gives you that dream — the full experience of what it’s like being an archaeologist,” Howden said.

Students are currently in an initial field session creating an archaeology survey. An archaeological survey tries to cover a significant amount of area by digging small amounts in a large area in order to gain an understanding of the archaeological features. Parno hopes that after locating important features they can come back in future seasons to expand the excavation of McGrath farm.

With so much to learn and so much to find, Prof. Koh says that they could dig at McGrath Farm “foreseeably for generations.” “As long as there are research questions and a willingness on the part of Brandeis and Concord for work to be done there, we’ll work there,” Koh said.

9

10 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015 ● THE JUSTICE

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Max Moran, Editor in Chief Avi Gold, Managing Editor Hannah Wulkan Deputy Editor Morgan Brill, Rebecca Lantner, Catherine Rosch, Jaime Kaiser and Grace Kwon, Associate Editors Abby Patkin, News Editor, Brianna Majsiak, Features Editor Jessica Goldstein, Forum Editor, Noah Hessdorf, Sports Editor Jaime Gropper, Arts Editor Michelle Banayan and Mihir Khanna, Photography Editors Emily Wishingrad, Online Editor Carmi Rothberg, Copy Editor Talia Zapinsky, Advertising Editor

EDITORIALS

Evaluate University Campus Climate Survey The first results of the Brandeis Climate Survey on sexual misconduct were released last week. The findings are based on the responses of over 1,500 graduate and undergraduate students and provide insight into the scope of sexual misconduct among members of the community, as well as identify areas for the community’s concern and improvement.

And indeed, many of the survey’s conclusions are more than unsettling. It’s striking how few students are aware of on-campus resources: 38.2 percent of undergraduate students and 46.4 percent of graduate students disagree or strongly disagree with the statement, “If a friend or I were sexually assaulted, I know where to go to make a report of sexual assault.” Additionally, the results revealed a shockingly low reporting rate for incidences of sexual assault: only 3.7 percent.

While this board is pleased with the University’s initiative in completing the indepth climate report, this data should be supplemented with the publicized release of University statistics about how many total cases the University has investigated, and how many of those led to convictions.

A clear need exists for the University to release these figures. The University cannot expect students to confidently rely on the system to handle their case fairly if they do not substantiate that system with evidence of its worth. At last week’s town hall, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel identified the number of convicted students expelled due to sexual misconduct only when directly asked and while it’s acceptable that this information was offered up verbally in a public forum, we’d like to see the University publish such information alongside the total number of cases brought before the University formally. This is necessary to put the information about conviction rates in proper context and help students fully understand the system. Transparency is the key to building confidence.

Sexual misconduct on college campuses

Improve resource awareness

is a vast issue, and in terms of offering up concrete solutions based on the survey data, this board cannot pretend to have all the answers. Yet despite the complexities of this problem, certain areas of weakness reflected in the survey could be addressed by the University in some form through new, common-sense avenues.

This board proposes that the University increases the consistency of boards in campus dorms displaying which hotline phone numbers to call for emergency assistance or to report an incidence of sexual misconduct. While this information is available to first-years through their Community Advisors and is posted in some residence halls, the effort seems to be driven by individual discretion rather than administrative mandate. Postings across the board that clearly outline the appropriate numbers would be a straightforward, easy-to-implement avenue for addressing the low awareness of campus resources. While there is no way to know if this will directly increase the reporting rate, it can do nothing but increase the number of students who at least know where to call.

Speakers at the Town Hall emphasized the role CAs play in offering these resources. Administrators spoke of CA events as the primary means of informing students about campus resources, but this board questions whether CAs should be considered the main medium between students and the resources they need. Not everyone is comfortable going to their CAs for help, and many who opt out of hall events barely know their CAs, much less feel comfortable enough with them to divulge sensitive, personal information.

The survey is a huge step forward in an ongoing community effort to fight sexual misconduct. This board only hopes that community data will be substantiated in future installments of University statistics, and that at the very least the survey leads to some new approaches to a dire issue.

Criticize exclusionary University ID card policy

In the first few weeks of the school year, students who live off-campus have been unpleasantly surprised to find out that their ID cards no longer allow them access to dorms and other campus housing spaces due to a change in the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. In an email to the Justice, Director of Community Living Tim Touchette explained, “The residents who pay to live on campus have started to raise concerns that students who do not live in the halls spend a lot of time in the buildings, using common spaces, lounges and study areas. These spaces are supposed to be reserved exclusively for residential students as referenced by the [Rights and Responsibilities] policy.”

This board finds this change to be troubling for several reasons. Students were never formally informed of this change, and some had access to campus dorms longer than others. More importantly, not allowing undergraduate students who choose to live off — campus to access dorms and their common spaces in them creates a double standard and a hierarchy of students based on if they pay for access for certain shared spaces or not. Students who are not on a meal plan are still allowed to sit in dining halls across campus even if they do not buy anything. Not paying for a certain service should not exclude a student from access to certain shared spaces.

Many clubs meet in common areas in dorms, such as Ridgewood Commons, the

Prevent student hierarchy dance studio and common rooms in the Village. In addition, those spaces are available for students to use to study and congregate.

When card access to these shared spaces within dorms is not available to students who choose to live off-campus, it is harder for them to participate in clubs, events and other important facets of campus life that make them feel included.

In his email, Touchette said, “Regulating non-residential students’ access to the halls is part of our commitment to providing a safe and secure living environment for our residential students ... This is a fairly common practice at most institutions and is one that will increase the security of our residential facilities.” If there are valid public safety concerns, it is important for the school to address them. However, it does seem unlikely that only blocking access to students who live off-campus are cause for those concerns. Rather, if the school is going to take the route of blocking access to some students, they should limit access to dorms only to those who live within those facilities.

There is nothing wrong with changing policies in the name of true public safety, but when an access policy changes in a way that effects a significant population of students, it should at the very least be announced in a public manner and should be applied in a more uniform way.

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

Views the News on

Last Tuesday, the U.S. military took responsibility for airstrikes on an Afghan hospital, run by Doctors Without Borders, in the city of Kunduz. According to the New York Times, 22 patients and hospital staff members died in the attack. Afghan forces had requested American air support to fight the Taliban in Kunduz. Army General John Campbell said that the attack was the result of an error in the chain of army command. Some Republicans who attended the Senate Armed Services Committee last Tuesday believe the Afghan government is too reliant on the remaining United States forces: currently, 10,000 American troops serve a training role for Afghan soldiers. According to a testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Campbell expressed the desire to withdraw almost all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year. Médecins Sans Frontières is calling for a war crimes investigation into the U.S. bombing of the city of Kunduz. How do you react to the U.S.’s airstrike on the Afghan hospital, and do you support a decreased military presence in the region?

Prof. Jytte Klausen (POL) The strike against the hospital was a tragic mistake. It is clear that the U.S. command called in the strike but feel that they received misleading information from the Afghan troops. The U.S. command has acknowledged responsibility which is the chain of command. So much is evident.

In effect,General John Campbell is saying: “It is their fight [meaning the Afghans].” The U.S. Army cannot win this war through proxy fighting, and no one is willing to take on a new war in Afghanistan except perhaps Sen. John McCain. The recommendation to scale back to 1,000 embassy troops implies a withdrawal from Afghanistan. I suspect the U.S. Army forecasts more liabilities from a partnership down the road. It is worth remembering that this incident comes on the back of reports of sexual abuse of minors by top Afghan leaders, and the inability of U.S. military personnel to stop it.

Prof. Jytte Klausen (POL) is the Lawrence A. Wien Professor of International Cooperation.

Prof. Gordon Fellman (SOC) I believe a war crimes charge against our foreign-policy-inept government is in order. The U.S. has now destroyed Iraq as a country and murdered tens of thousands of people. We helped destroy Libya and create sustained chaos there and in Afghanistan. If we involve ourselves in Syria, too, it will see even more disasters than have been tragically visited upon it already.Imagine what Iraq would be if the US had spent a trillion dollars building hospitals, schools, housing, infrastructure, etc. instead of on destruction. War is a business, and its U.S. investors thrive on all this, just as gun merchants in the U.S. thrive on mass killings, after still more guns are sold. The U.S. should pull out of its 800 to 1,000 military bases around the world, and also end its disastrous actions in the Middle East. It should define the well-being of all people and our planet itself as more important than corporate profits and manipulations of U.S. policies.

Prof. Gordon Fellman (SOC) is the chair of the Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies program.

Dr. Daniel Terris (PAX) The bombing of the hospital in Kunduz provides an important test of the willingness of the United States government to cooperate with an international fact-finding organization in order to establish the truth about this tragic incident. Doctors Without Borders has called for the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to undertake an inquiry. The IHFFC was set up under the Geneva Conventions, of which the United States is a signatory, but it can conduct an investigation into a specific situation only if it has the consent of the country or countries involved. No doubt the U.S. government will undertake its own analysis into what went wrong in Kunduz. Nevertheless, American cooperation with the IHFFC (which only finds facts, and has no power beyond that) would send a signal that the U.S. believes in the principle that an independent investigation is more likely to produce a complete and credible account than an internal inquiry.

Dr. Daniel Terris is the director for the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life.

Prof. Andreas Teuber (PHIL) As deeply disturbing as the American bombing of the hospital in Kunduz has been, it’s a reminder that human rights are not merely fictions, floating independently of the world, but the property of real people who have aims and interests, too, and lives that matter. In her call for an independent investigation last week, Dr. Joanne Liu, president of Doctors Without Borders, 22 of whose staff members and patients were killed in the attack, not only condemned the action as a potential war crime but seized the moment as a teaching opportunity, ending her remarks with a single, short, declarative sentence, delivering it without great fuss, simply, so: “Even war has rules.” It’s a lesson worth teaching. Carl von Clausewitz, who wrote the book “On War,” thought otherwise: “War is an act of force which . . . theoretically can have no limits.” Many agree. We still do not know exactly what happened in Kunduz, but Dr. Liu made the case against Clausewitz, against “realism,” against the convenient view that in war “anything goes.” There are rules; there are limits. Or as she put it most simply: “Enough.”

Prof. Andreas Teuber (PHIL) is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and teaches the “Human Rights” course this semester.

THE JUSTICE

READER COMMENTARY Refocus student learning on faculty rights In response to your editorial (Sept. 8), “Inform Students of Unionization Plans:”Justice editors rightfully called attention to an important organizing effort underway among our faculty at Brandeis. While the editorial did a wonderful job of explaining the transparent and collaborative approach educators have taken in this process, it missed the mark slightly in stating that students are “indirectly affected” by the results of faculty unionization.

The truth is, faculty working conditions are students’ learning conditions — and we are all directly impacted by the outcome.

Here’s the deal: a significant portion of our classes are taught by non-tenure-track faculty (sometimes called “adjuncts” or “contract faculty”). In many ways, they’re the backbone of the educational experience at Brandeis from intro courses to the Transitional Year Program. We’d never know which professors are tenured, on the tenure track or not on the tenure track. Our tuition is the same, no matter which technical classification applies. But whether we realize it or not, non-tenure track faculty deal with significant challenges that affect us every day.

For example, many educators work on semester-to-semester contracts, with incredibly uncertain and unpredictable schedules.

That makes it almost impossible to serve as student advisors, provide guidance on a senior thesis or oversee an independent study.

They frequently have to work multiple jobs at several different universities to make ends meet, which can make office hours and other student assistance outside the classroom difficult to schedule. Even those who hold longerterm contracts have little to no say in decisions made by University administrators that could affect student opportunities on campus. And these issues don’t even cover the challenges presented by low compensation or inadequate benefits among non-tenure-track faculty. As the Brandeis Labor Coalition stated in our article published in the Justice last semester, a union would allow non-tenure-track faculty to have a greater voice in their teaching conditions and would elevate their role in campus governance and the decisions that affect us all.

Students understand that the core mission and strength of our University is in the classroom.

And with the strong voice that faculty will win through unionization, we have a real opportunity to ensure our tuition dollars are prioritized to reflect that reality. That’s why our coalition has been so outspoken in our support for the Brandeis Faculty Organizing Committee — because students have a real, direct stake in the outcome of this effort. ―—Divanna Eckels ’18, Aaron Goodwin ’18, Tamar Lyssy ’16 and Mitchell Mankin ’16 are members of Brandeis Labor Coalition.

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TUESDAY, OCTOber 13, 2015

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Criticize harmful media bias in Israel reporting Dor

COHEN The Elephant in the Room Over the past two weeks, there has been a colossal wave of terrorist attacks in Israel. In Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and virtually all parts of Israel, there have been over 150 terror attacks, including stabbings, shootings, stones thrown, vehicular rammings and suicide bombings, according to an Oct. 8 Jewish Telegraphic Agency article.

No, you read that right. Why haven’t you heard about it, you ask? That’s because news outlets across the world have reported on a minuscule amount of them.

Yet, unfortunately, the dearth of reports on the killings is not even the most tragic mistake made by the media during this heinous terror wave. When they have reported on the attacks, news organizations have gone so far as to twist the facts and manipulate reality in order to portray the Israeli victims as the aggressors and remove the humanity of those who were attacked.

At the same time, these reports highlight the human characteristics of their Palestinian attackers.

Take, for instance, an attack that occurred on Oct. 3. Muhannad Halabi, 19, stabbed and killed two Israelis, Nehemia Lavi, 41—a rabbi and father of seven—and Aharon Benita-Bennett, 22, in Jerusalem, and injured two others, before being shot and killed by police.

At first glance, the situation seems quite clear: two innocent people were murdered in cold blood for the simple crime of existing in their nation’s capital, where they live, because they were Jewish.

Interestingly enough, the media thought differently. The BBC, one of the first to report on the attack, published a headline that read, “Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two.”

The headline makes it seem as if the tragedy is that the Palestinian was shot dead. That there was a clash between two equal parties that left people on both sides dead. That somehow these deaths are morally equal. It highlights the death of the Palestinian terrorist shot by police after fatally stabbing two Israelis, rather than the attack itself. It refers to the true Israeli victims of the incident using the passive voice, and it leaves out that the Palestinian man who was killed was a terrorist rather than merely a tragic victim of an unjustified attack.

Al-Jazeera came under fire for publishing a similarly misleading headline on social media to its story of the stabbing. The news agency

tweeted a headline that stated, “Palestinian shot dead after fatal stabbing in Jerusalem; 2 Israeli victims also killed.”

According to Al-Jazeera, the item of importance in the stabbing is that the Palestinian attacker was killed; the Israeli victims are simply afterthoughts who were “also” killed. Not only that, but the tweet’s wording makes it seem as if the Israeli and Palestinian victims were all killed by the same perpetrator.

Poor headlining, either purposeful or not, constitutes an even greater problem in the age of social media. Millenials frequently only read snippets of information or only focus their attention on a brief title before moving on to the next story. With so much information available at such a fast pace, the body of an article has become far less important than the headline, even though that should not be the case. Thus, misleading headlining hurts the Israeli public and the Israeli cause to a greater extent than other forms of anti-Israel bias. Headlines such as the ones mentioned above prevent readers from knowing the full story of the events that transpired and leave them with a view about Israel and the conflict that is one sided and inaccurate.

“

Poor headlining, either purposeful or not, constitutes an even greater problem in the age of social media.

To their credit, Al-Jazeera apologized for the incident, though one can wonder about the sincerity and whether they would have apologized without the backlash. The BBC did not.

Next on the list is the New York Times. The first attack of the current terror wave took place Oct. 1, when Eitam and Na’ama Henkin were brutally killed while driving back home, with their now-orphaned four children still in the backseat. The New York Times was noticeably quiet after the attack. No mention of the murder was on the front page. Instead, there was a small headline 16th down the list of world news, right after the news of the passing of a historian through natural causes. Yes, I checked.

This in and of itself isn’t necessarily egregious reporting. Yet it is a far cry from how the New York Times reported on the murder of a Palestinian family by Israeli extremists on July 31. Then, the attack was front page news for a week, the Times featured pieces on the rise and prevalence of Jewish extremism and coverage of the attack

continued for a month. Why the discrepancy?

Further, instead of discussing the attacks, the New York Times instead felt that a story about Israelis trying to “seize” the Golan Heights (never mind that Israel already annexed it after the Six Day War) was more noteworthy and they featured it on their Twitter page. It also published a headline declaring that Israel restricted Palestinian access to the Old City, without mentioning the crucial reason why.

On Oct. 6, the New York Times published an article, “Israel says 5 from Hamas Confess to Israeli Couple’s Killing.” According to the article, “four Israelis and four Palestinians have been killed in the last five days.” Devoid from the paragraph is the understanding of the difference between Israel defending its citizens and Palestinian terrorists who are murdering innocent Israeli civilians. The authors fail to qualify whether those killed are civilians or combatants, and the deaths of the victims and their killers are not morally equitable.

The New York Times is not new to controversial headlines regarding Israel. On Sept. 14, a Palestinian rock-throwing attack led to the death of Alexander Levlovitz, 64, as he lost control of his car and drove into a ditch. The attack took place in the East Talpiot neighborhood of southeast Jerusalem, within the city’s municipal boundaries. The New York Times’ headline?

“Jewish Man Dies as Rocks Pelt His Car.” As was reported by the media watchdog group HonestReporting, “the headline removes all Palestinian liability for the attack by virtue of its passive language. The Jewish man did not simply “die” and rocks did not “pelt his car” of their own accord. Palestinian attackers were responsible for hurling those rocks at the car.”

Things were not any better in the body of the article, which stated that “the man, Alexander Levlovitz, 64, died of his injuries after the accident on the first day of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, on Sept. 13.” Let’s be clear, there was nothing accidental about this incident.

Last, but most definitely not least, comes the Independent. A headline published on Oct. 10 read, “Israeli Security Forces Kill Boy, 16, After Stabbings in Jerusalem as Violence Continues.”

The headline portrays the boy as the victim and only vaguely references some connection to stabbings in Jerusalem. In fact, the 16-yearold had just stabbed two elderly religious Jews on their way home from Shabbat prayers at the Western Wall.

For those who follow the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, media bias against Israel is not a foreign concept. During the past few weeks, however, it has been taken to a new, horrifying level. At this point, there isn’t much expectation for the disturbing trend to abate. I hope news organizations worldwide take a look at their handiwork and feel ashamed. They should.

Remodel dysfunctional United States government political system Catherine

ROSCH Cynical idealist The American government, for all intents and purposes, is melting down.

For those of you who do not obsessively follow everything that happens in Washington, DC, a brief summary. On Sept. 25, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) announced he would be resigning his leadership and Congressional seat on October 30. On October 8, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the front-runner for the Speaker position, announced that he would no longer be seeking the seat either — most politics nerds agree it was because he did not have enough support in the Republican Party, but there is also a chance that he had an affair with another member of Congress. Of the 247 Republicans, roughly 40 or 50 are members of the so-called Freedom Caucus, a quasi-Tea Party group within the Republican Party formed in 2015 that refuses to support any Speaker candidate who may negotiate with President Obama.

It is not in the Democrats’ interest to help elect a moderate Republican speaker. The only candidate that all Republicans like, Paul Ryan (R-WI), has made it very clear that he will not run. Until a new Speaker is elected, John Boehner cannot legally step down. The United States is approaching a government shutdown at the end of October and is very close to hitting the debt ceiling in November.

Even though I love American politics, I think the way Congress is structured is deeply

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flawed, and the issues within its organization actually lead to the dysfunction we are facing right now. There are four key problems with how American government functions that I believe need to be changed: the system of firstpast-the-post elections, the relative power of the two houses of Congress, the set election cycle and the dominance of two political parties due to the first-past-the-post electoral system.

In the United States, we use a first-past-thepost system. Whoever gets the most votes in a district wins everything, and the proportion of one party to another in the House or Senate does not have to match the proportion of the overall support for the party in the state or country. Using a more proportional system would be an easy fix, as the ideological makeup of Congress would more closely match that of the American people, at both the national and state level. Congresspeople would run to represent the whole state but have many congresspeople per state, or, in larger states, certain diverse regions of the state.

Very few democratic states with two legislative houses give equal weight to both houses. For example, in Ireland, the Dail — the Irish version of the House of Representatives — is a proportional house that creates legislation while the Seanad — the Irish version of the Senate — is made up of people nominated by the universities and specialists in various fields and institutions and only has the power to delay legislation. The two houses have distinct, different roles and functions; one legislates and the other, the body made up of specialists and experts, advise. They are not in competition with each other in the same way that the House and Senate are.

I believe we should also get rid of the set election cycle. I am calling not for ending democratic elections but rather for looking at the British model. In the United Kingdom, there can be no

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more than five years between two elections, but elections can happen more frequently for example, if the majority party implodes or has a leadership crisis.

That way, the people have the opportunity to elect new leaders who they believe are more efficient or, if they like their representative to reelect them and keep faith in the majority. Campaigns are shorter and less expensive, so elected officials do not have to spend as much time fundraising and can be more focused on governance.

While British government is not as polarized as American government, the ideological difference between Tories and Labour has been steadily widening, and the UK has very right-wing groups like the United Kingdom Independence Party and the British National Party.

Estimates place between thirty to forty percent of the American people as independents, or that they do not support either major party. Within parties, there is further fracturing, as we can see in the Republican Party right now. It is, frankly,

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ridiculous to expect people to condense their multi-faceted identities and ideologies to fit into a single, broad party, but it is also very hard for third parties to gain any prominence. Restructuring electoral systems to make it easier for third -party candidates to get elected could help. A single transferable vote system, like Ireland has, would help.

Voters would rank their candidates by preference. If their first-choice candidate hit a certain vote threshold before their vote was counted, their vote would be transferred to their second choice candidate, and so forth. Smaller parties have an opportunity to gain more supporters and have a better chance of winning a seat or some representation.

Obviously, the United States is a large and complicated country, and no single fix would be easy to implement or would even work. However, I do believe that these reforms could make a difference how Congress works or, as it is right now, doesn’t work.

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TUESDAY, oCTOBER 13, 2015

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THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Reassess Putin’s interests in Syrian military intervention

By Nicole mazurova

JUSTICE contributing writer

Why is Russia intervening in Syria? After the backlash Russia faced due to its actions in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, one would think that getting involved in another major crisis would be far down on the agenda. The war effort in Syria puts further strains on a Russian economy that is already in recession due to low energy prices and Western sanctions. Lives of Russian soldiers are jeopardized, and political tensions between Russia and the West will likely only be aggravated.

As an autocracy, Russia’s agenda is ultimately President Putin’s agenda. So the better question to ask is: What is motivating Putin to intervene in Syria? It is above all political interest, followed by geostrategic power and definitely not moral imperatives that are driving the Russian president.

In March 2011, Syrian activists took to the streets demanding more economic, political and civil freedoms. They were met with a violent crackdown on the part of President Bashar alAssad’s government, leading to the nationwide uprising and the formation of opposition groups, moderate, like the Free Syrian Army, and increased activity of extremists like Al-Nusra and the Islamic State. Recent government retaliation has included the use of chemical weapons against the civilian population. The region is devolving into a gory, sectarian mess with everyone fighting for the future they envision for Syria.

The international community expressed outrage though treaded lightly, with the U.S. and Western allies imposing economic sanctions and calling for Assad to step down. As the situation escalated, geopolitical consequences, destabilization of the Middle East and a refugee crisis ―called for more decisive action. The Obama administration has announced intentions to confront the Islamic State and has done so by providing the Free Syrian Army with humanitarian aid, training and intelligence, as well as carrying out air strikes over Islamic State-controlled areas.

Russia is not new to the Syrian crisis. Putin played a key role in Syria’s chemical demilitarization back in 2013. However, early September saw Russia building up its naval base in the Syrian port city of Latakia and requesting to fly military cargo over neighboring countries. When its intentions were questioned, Russia announced that they were joining the fight against the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda and proposed to form a global coalition against terrorism. This has left the West wary but with no choice but to open up negotiations.

Thus, Syria has been Putin’s golden ticket back into the international dialogue after the diplomatic freeze-out Russia faced due to its actions in Ukraine and Crimea. Though by no means are Putin’s actions forgiven, the U.S. benefited from entertaining hopes that Russia could have influence over Assad’s regime, allowing the U.S. to stall in taking any extreme military measures.

The same goes for Europe; Putin estimated that by contributing to the effort against the Islamic state, especially if Russia managed to stabilize the region and ease the refugee crisis, Europe might lift the sanctions against the Kremlin.

However, as the crisis unfolds, it is becoming clear that Russia is propping up Assad’s regime which is, at least outwardly, a deal breaker for the U.S. As Putin said in his General Assembly speech to the United Nations, “We think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the Syrian government and its armed forces, who are

BEN JARRETT/the Justice

valiantly fighting terrorism face to face.” Putin also alluded to the power vacuum in the Middle East created by “policies based on self-conceit and belief in one’s exceptionality and impunity,” leaving little doubt who he was referencing — the United States. Another important statement had to do with sovereignty, which Putin defined as the “freedom and the right to choose freely one’s own future for every person, nation and state.”

Moral rhetoric aside, Putin supports Assad because Russia has a longstanding relationship with Syria, and it is the only country through which Russia can extend its influence to the Middle East. More important is the fact that the U.S. opposes Assad. Putin is not really looking to fight the Islamic State in collaboration with the U.S. The Turkish Anadolu news agency reports of Russian air strike patterns proves this: only 3.5 percent of Russia’s airstrikes targeted the Islamic State, most hitting areas where moderate opposition is located. These actions could be attributed to either a calculated provocation of the U.S.-led coalition or operation on deliberately inaccurate information provided by the Assad regime whose main enemy is the FSA. The former carries the most weight, as Russia has repeatedly cited a need to protect its sovereignty and safeguard against supposed threats from the West. However, the situation is more nuanced than that.

Putin’s definition of sovereignty and condemnation of the U.S. is very revealing. As Lilia Shevtsova of the Brookings Institute said, “Pu-

tin is proposing a cozy world of relativism, in which all sides are free to act as intermediaries in various conflicts and to pursue their interests unburdened by values.” The main issue with this proposal is that Putin is operating on an outdated model of power. According to Western standards, power is measured in terms of economic strength and connections. Russia’s economy cannot compete, and realistically, Putin has only two bargaining chips: Russia’s raw materials and military power. Now that the revenue from oil has gone down, he is turning to the use and threat of force. However, it is not just a flexing of missile capability but a marketing campaign. Russia is demonstrating its readiness to supply arms, and not just to Assad’s government. Regardless, a Russian show of anti-Islamic State actions should be expected as a way of keeping up appearances or even as a way to curry favor with both sides if Putin suddenly sees the opportunity to spin everything into his personal solving of the Syrian crisis.

Much of what is happening is pure political theater. Putin is doing everything he can to perpetuate this great power and absolute ruler image as a way of fashioning a legacy (a repeated motif in Imperial and then Soviet Russia). Now that Russia’s economy is plummeting, Putin has resorted to the trusty method of military conquest.

Syria, like Ukraine, has done wonders for Putin’s domestic popularity – many perceive him as a leader who is beating the U.S. at its own game,

bolstering Russian national identity. Russia’s next election is in March 2018 and Putin is laying the foundation for re-election.

One hope to hold on to is that, as mentioned above, Russia’s actions are Putin’s actions, which are not necessarily representative of Russian opinion as a whole. There is intellectual opposition to Putin’s government, though it is fragmented and suppressed. Putin’s power is also checked by the Russian elite, who are invested in their relationship with the West, often on a very personal level.

As for the U.S., the only thing left to do is to take the higher ground. This could involve acquiescing, at least partially, to Putin’s General Assembly demands: turning a blind eye, not supporting, but also not preventing Russia from pursuing its interests. At this point, responding to Russia’s provocations would deter from solving the Syrian conflict. Ironically, this approach is the one that will frustrate Putin most: it sends the message that the U.S. is simply not interested and that Russia does not measure up as a worthy opponent. The downside is that, on the one hand, as a leader, Putin has shown willingness to raise the stakes in the face of probable failure, and on the other, he is a faithful follower of the Soviet tradition of creating and supporting rogue terrorist states in Africa, South America and Middle East.

Boosting the Assad regime and its allies (Hezbollah and Iran) is likely to escalate the Syrian crisis to a full blown regional war.

Reevaluate comedy bit’s flawed depiction of African rulers Jessica

Goldstein Ubuntu

Donald Trump could very well be America’s next president. Or “America’s First African President.” At least, that is what Trevor Noah, the host who has taken the seat of our beloved Jon Stewart, has to say. In an Oct. 1 bit, the 31 year old South African host revealed how he became truly at home when Donald Trump entered the political arena his summer. While those in the mainstream media pellet Trump with criticism, citing an inability to stand among his peers on the stage, Noah takes a different approach, mocking “that stage is unfit for Trump. There’s no marble, there’s no gold. Where are the women in bikinis? And how would he even get there?

There’s no escalator.”

Mocking the image of the typical African political leader does not require one to be an intellectual giant, and Trump does not make it so challenging either. In his sketch, Noah points out the stark similarities in the words expelled from the mouths of these African leaders and Trump himself. Beginning with one of Trump’s egregious statements regarding immigration, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.” Noah is quick

to jump to conclusions, comparing Trump’s statements to those of South African President Jacob Zuma who, in reference to immigrants, expressed, “It is also true that not all foreign nationals are involved in criminal activities. There are some who are, but not all of them.” This becomes a common theme in the sketch’s banter, pitting Trump’s statements head-to-head with those of the African leader.

While I am the first to poke fun at your average, friendly despot, the way this goes about it misses the mark in a big way. Yes, in this case both leaders are assuming that bringing in foreign nationals to their countries will incite increased criminal activities. However, both leaders are likely attempting to appeal to the electorate, and in a matter of time pitting two people side-by-side like this will only lead to greater tunnel vision. Noah even admits this to himself on air, as he begins noticing the similarities everywhere.

With this reasoning, any time Trump praises himself, he is also set alongside the likes of former Ugandan President Idi Amin and current Zimbabwaen President Robert Mugabe. When Trump says, “People love me. Everybody loves me,” he is suddenly the perfect image for the “African” presidency. One can suppose these statements sound a bit similar to the words of Amin when he latter says, “The people like me very much. I am very popular. I am very powerful,” or when Mugabe states, “My people have great praise for me.” However, these arguments fall on deaf ears due to their simplicity, generalizing African leaders to a fault.

Leaders like Zuma, Amin and Mugabe, aren’t

all fun and games. Chiding jokes can never fully explain the brutality of these leaders. Generalizing their actions to a few funny sound bytes is at the very least harmful to the people they represent. Unlike Trump, these leaders were not just all talk; they helped contribute to everything from small scale inequalities to widespread atrocities. Words are meaningless in the light of action.

On June 15, during an African Union Summit, Jacob Zuma allowed the only sitting head of state wanted for the crime of genocide by the International Criminal Court, Omar al-Bashir, to exit his country after the Pretoria court issued an order barring Bashir from exiting the country on June 14. Zuma’s statements regarding immigration really mean nothing compared to allowing an international fugitive to exit his country, possibly violating his own constitution in the process. As if it couldn’t get worse for international justice and legitimacy of the Court, Zuma’s party recently has decided to remove the state from the Court.

In Amin’s first year of presidency, he slaughtered 10,000 people with the help of the Ugandan Military Police, according to Human Rights Watch. A report by the New York City’s Bar Association on Human Rights estimated the number of victims to be between 100,000 and 500,000 during Amin’s reign of terror. The leader also exiled 70,000 of the country’s Ugandans of Asian origin in 1972. In his sketch, Noah makes only a small reference to the leader’s brutality.

During the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe, supporters of Morgan Tsvangirai’s party were victims of widespread violence at the hands

of Mugabe. Rights groups like Human Rights Watch even cite the existence of “torture camps” for the opposition. Eventually, Mugabe was coerced into a power sharing deal with Tsvangirai.

These leaders shouldn’t be mocked merely for the misguided statements they make, and while I will never be a fan of Trump, I would hate to see him paired with the likes of these guys. This is not to suggest that comedy should manifest itsel in a unitary way, but rather political comedy should be used in a pointed manner. It should encourage us to have discussions and well, to laugh.

In a Nov. 2012 “Key & Peele” sketch titled “Killing an African Warlord,” when a base is being taken over by the opposition force, a commander hopes to do everything in his power to not be taken by opposition forces and is subsequently tortured. While the sketch is largely characterized by slapstick comedy, it has one redeeming quality. At the beginning, the commander makes one final request, “I want you, my most trusted soldier over the age of eight, to take my life,” commenting on the use of child soldiers in combat. UNICEF estimates that some 300,000 children are involved in 30 conflicts worldwide today. This provides a productive commentary on an issue while at the same time mocking the behavior of these warlords.

For an instant, it may seem charming to describe the platforms of Trump and the African ruler’s he’s been thrown into the bag with as “xenophobia with just a dash of diplomacy,” but soon the novelty fades away. When we begin discussing comedy, we need to understand where to draw the line on what is funny and what is not.

THE JUSTICE

WSOCCER: Szafran nets goal and assist to lead Judges against rivals CONTINUED FROM 16 Nazerene defenders, and Szafran one-touched the ball into the goal.

Szafran was quick to credit Maatallah for setting up the shot that ultimately led to her goal. “[Maatallah] dribbled it up the middle and cut in and found me running across the inside of the box and I one touched it in the corner. It was a great lead up and a great run by Hannah. She did all the work for that goal,” Szafran wrote in an email to the Justice.

Forward Cidney Moscovitch ’17 scored again for the Judges in the 16th minute off a pass from Melissa Darling ’16 from the left sideline. It was Moscovitch’s 10th career goal.

Brandeis tallied 34 total shots, 19 of which were on goal. They limited Eastern Nazerene to just one shot, not on goal.

The Judges were coming off their first loss of the season the game before to Carnegie Mellon. Szafran said the loss actually helped the team in their mentality. “[The loss] was basically a solid wake up call and we knew we had to change our mentality because teams are going to go at us and know our weaknesses from the loss,” Szafran commented. “We worked a lot on shots the practice after and it showed in the Eastern Nazerene game.”

Szafran said she is excited for what the future holds for the team.

“We're doing amazing and need to keep a positive mentality and we'll

go really far this year,” she said.

The squad is looking to build off of a succesful 2014 to 2015 season.

Last year, the team finished with an overall record of 13-5-2, in which most of the struggle came from conference play.

This season, the Judges’ lone defeat came at the hands of conference foe Carnegie Mellon University 2-0 on Oct. 3 at home.

The team will look to improve upon the three losses that it accumulated in last season’s UAA conference play.

The Judges return home for more UAA games during Homecoming weekend, playing the University of Chicago at 4 pm on Friday and welcoming the No. 7 team in Washington University in St. Louis on Sunday afternoon.

Chicago has put together the start of a successful season, as it has gone 8-4 up to this point while splitting its first two games in conference play.

Chicago's UAA loss was due to a 1-0 defeat to the University of Rochester on Saturday.

WashU, on the other hand, has dominated the competition on its schedule in the first twelve contests of the long season.

It has won its first two UAA games to record an overall record of 11-1.

The Judges will need to win both of these difficult matches if it hopes to leap over WashU and Carnegie to move into first place in the UAA standings.

TENNIS BRIEF Men finish fall exhibition season The men’s tennis team started the weekend at Bates College in the Wallach Invitational. Going into this tournament, they looked to revive their lackluster season and make a serious run into the later rounds.

The Judges got off to a slow start this season, making a small impact in the first tournament of the year at the Middlebury Invitational. Brian Granoff ’17 pulled the majority of the weight, going all the way to the finals of flight A. Granoff disappointingly lost in straight sets, but he was able to set the stage for the rest of his season.

Ryan Bunis ’17 was also placed in the A flight but was unable to get out of the first round, also falling in two straight sets. The B and C flights did not see much improvement, with only Ethan Saal ’18 making it past the second round in the C flight. However, Bunis and Saal paired up in the flight A doubles, battling all the way to the semi-finals. While the tournament definitely set a low bench-mark for the rest of the season, it gave the Judges a lot of room to improve in the following tournaments.Yet the Judges were unable to exceed their sub-par marks as the team headed into the United States Tennis Association /Intercollegiate Tennis Association New England Regional Tournament. Granoff’s stellar performance in the previous tournament earned him the eighth seed in the New England Regional.

Granoff took this respectable seed in stride, advancing to the quarterfinals and tying Steven Milo’s ’13 record-best performance. Bunis looked poised to exceed his previous performance but had to withdraw from the tournament after a promising first-round win against Bowdoin's Gil Roddy. The rest of the team failed to impress, leaving Granoff as the sole leader on the team. With Bunis out, the Judges lost a vital part of their team and their emerging potential.

The Wallach Invitational seemed to be a final heave for the team as they tried to stay afloat in their season. While Granoff earned the third seed, improving from his previous eighth seed, he was unable to carry the team this time. In a huge upset, Granoff dropped two straight sets to Ben Rosen of Bates.

Saal had a solid showing in Flight B, advancing the second round and pushing the last set to a tie-breaker against Bowdoin’s Kyle Wolfe.

Brandeis did not have much more to brag about, as they were unable to make it out of the first round in any of the remaining single flights.

The team can regroup and start a fresh slate as they enter the winter break before the season resumes in February.

The answers will come at the Redlands on Feb. 19th as the Judges return to the court.

—Jerry Miller

●

october 13 , 2015

13

SWEET VICTORY

TOMMY GAO/the Justice

OFFENSIVE SURGE: Forward Zach Viera ’17 (right) celebrates a goal at home against Carnegie Mellon University on Oct. 3.

MSOCCER: Judges finish with scoreless draw against MIT on backs of strong defense CONTINUED FROM 16 dropped them to 9-2-1 overall and 1-1-0 in UAA play.

No. 6 Judges 0, MIT 0 (2 OT) On Tuesday, the Judges saw their match with rival MIT end in a frustrating 0-0 draw.

The squad was unable to capitalize on an advantage in shots (16-14), shots on goal (6-4) and corner kicks (6-4).

Bradley spoke about the frustrating tie: “The draw against MIT was disappointing. I felt the general read of the team was that we let ourselves down. The MIT game provided us with quality scoring opportunities but it was just a night that lacked a little sharpness in the final third.”

The Judges’ best scoring opportunity came in the 98th minute, when midfielder Christian Hernandez ’18 blasted a strike that sailed just wide

of the left goalpost.

For MIT, their best scoring opportunity came in the 79th minute, when midfielder senior Austin Freel’s 30-yard rocket grazed the crossbar before deflecting out-ofbounds. Goalkeeper Ben Woodhouse ’18 had four saves on the day.

The Judges’ inability to score against MIT reflects a bigger problem for the team this season, as their offensive struggles have proven increasingly troublesome, necessitating dramatic finishes more often than not. Unfortunately, the Judges had no drama in store on Tuesday evening and may soon find that without a consistent and balanced offensive attack, their season could — despite the mounting hype — end in bitter disappointment.

The draw brought the Judges to 9-1-1 overall and 6-0-2 in overtime matches in the last two seasons.

Despite their offensive shortcom-

ings, the Judges’ relatively impressive overall play and decisively impressive record has them ranked No. 3 overall by D3soccer.com and No. 6 by the NSCAA for men’s Division III soccer.

Looking ahead, the Judges have a non-conference match against Massachusetts Maritime Academy tonight at 7:00 p.m.

They then take on the University of Chicago on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and No. 17 Washington University in St. Louis Sunday at 11:00 a.m. as part of a UAA homecoming weekend.

Bradley is optimistic looking ahead for the rest of the season.

He commented, “I think we have definitely started to find our groove, and it’s great to see production from six different forwards rather than just three.” The Judges will continue to require an offensive surge from their forwards in addition to tough defense.

CROSS COUNTRY: Stender leads the Judges for third straight week CONTINUED FROM 16 Most impressive about this meet was the fact that the Judges were able to hold their own against Division I competitors from around the New England area.

These teams included Boston University, the University of Maine and Dartmouth College.

Both squads will travel to Connecticut College this weekend for the Connecticut College Invitational, where the men took eighth place and the women finished in sixth during last year’s meet.

The Judges will then take a break before hosting the University Athletic

Association Championships on Oct. 31 in Franklin Park.

At that meet will be all eight of the member schools that make up the UAA conference.

Brandeis will be joined at the competition by Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, Emory University, New York University, the University of Chicago, the University of Rochester and Washington University in St. Louis.

Last year, the conference championship took place at WashU. The Judges ended up finishing in last place as the hometown Bears took home the crown.

The squad will be up to a tough task

to defend its homefield advantage against defending champion WashU, as well as top teams Carnegie, Chicago and NYU. In the race last year, Stender was able to obtain a 35th-place finish out of 78 competitors to lead the Judges.

Hutton earned a 47th place finish while Garvey finished in 67th.

Stender will need strong finishes in the UAA meet and the rest of the season as a whole as he attempts to make the National Division III Cross Country Championship.

No member of the men’s team qualified last year as they struggled through a difficult season. Whitaker earned a spot for the women’s side.

The 12th Annual Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue

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THE JUSTICE

jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS aMen’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS UAA Conf.

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

Tuesday, October 13 , 2015

15

VOLLEYBALL

TEAM STATS Goals

2015-2016 Statistics

JUDGES Emory Case Carnegie Rochester WashU Chicago NYU

●

Overall W L D 10 1 1 7 3 1 9 2 1 8 2 1 4 2 4 7 2 3 7 3 2 4 7 0

Pct. .833 .636 .750 .727 .400 .583 .583 .363

Jake Picard ’16 leads the team with three goals.

Player Goals Jake Picard 3 Josh Berg 2 Josh Ocel 2

Assists Josh Ocel ’17 leads the team with six assists.

Player Assists Josh Ocel 6 Patrick Flahive 2 Stephen DePietto 1

UPCOMING GAMES: Saturday vs. Mass. Maritime Friday vs. Chicago Sunday vs. WashU

WOMen’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS

2015-2016 Statistics

Goals

Carnegie WashU JUDGES Case NYU Emory Chicago Rochester

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

Overall W L D 11 0 1 11 1 0 11 1 1 9 2 0 8 4 0 5 4 1 7 3 2 7 5 0

Pct. .917 .917 .846 .818 .667 .500 .583 .583

UPCOMING GAMES: Friday vs. Chicago Sunday vs. WashU Wednesday, Oct. 21 vs. Westfield

Lea McDaniel ’17 leads the team with six goals.

Player Goals Lea McDaniel 6 Holly Szafran 4 Haliana Burhans 3

Assists Samantha Schwartz ’18 leads the team with three assists.

Player Assists Samantha Schwartz 3 Holly Szafran 3 Hannah Maatallah 2

VOLLEYBALL UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Kills

2014-2015 Statistics UAA Conf. Overall

W L W L Pct. WashU 3 0 22 1 .957 Emory 3 0 20 2 .909 Case 2 1 18 3 .857 Chicago 2 1 14 5 .737 Carnegie 1 2 19 4 .826 Rochester 1 2 11 9 .550 NYU 0 3 9 10 .473 JUDGES 0 3 3 16 .158

UPCOMING GAMES: Saturday vs. Rochester Saturday vs. WashU Sunday vs. Chicago

Grace Krumpack ’19 leads the team with 102 kills.

Player Kills Grace Krumpack 102 Maddie Engeler 96 Jessie Moore 70 Shea Decker-Jacoby 65

Digs Yvette Cho ’19 leads the team with 265 digs.

Player Digs Yvette Cho 265 Grace Krumpack 185 Leah Perlman 110 Allison Harmsworth 100

cross cOuntry Results from the Open New England Championship this past Saturday.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

5-Mile Run RUNNER TIME Ryan Stender 25:56.8 Matt Doran 26:32.4 Liam Garvey 26:34.2 Roger Lacroix 26:43.9

5-Kilometer Run RUNNER TIME Emily Bryson 18:22.6 Maddie Dollins 18:30.4 Kelsey Whitaker 19:05.7 Lydia McCaleb 19:19.9

UPCOMING MEET: The teams will continue their seasons at the Connecticut College Invitational on Oct. 17.

CAROLINE GAO/Justice File Photo

SERVING HARD: Setter Allison Harmsworth ’19 serves the ball at home against regional foe Wellesley College on Sept. 4.

Squad loses two tough matches on Saturday ■ Libero Yvette Cho ’19 served five straight points, winning two with service aces against Colby College.

By max byer JUSTICE staff writer

It was a tough week for the women’s volleyball team as they visited Medford, Mass. for a trimatch with Tufts University and Colby College. The squad fell to Colby before being shutout by the Jumbos.

Judges 0, Tufts 3 The Judges suffered a 3-0 match shutout to Tufts as the Jumbos dominated on their home court, winning 25-4, 25-20, 25-20. After an early exchange of points in the opening set, the Jumbos gained a 14-2 lead, largely due to a thirteen point-long streak. The streak ended, but the set did not get much better for the Judges, as they lost it 25-4. The second set was closer, with many lead changes.

In fact, the score was tied ten different times. Unfortunately, when the score was tied at 20, the Judges committed two unforced errors, which paved the way for the 25-20 set win

by the Jumbos. The third and final set was a blend between the first two; the Judges were unable to tie the score, yet they kept the pressure on and the set close, staying within six throughout the set’s duration.

Judges 1, Colby 3 In their earlier match, the Judges fell to the Colby Mules 3-1 by a score of 22-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-17. The Judges got off to a fast start, keeping the momentum for a 25-21 firstset win. Tied at 21-all, the Judges took a lead thanks to two errors from Colby. Kills from outside hitter Jessie Moore ’18 and middle blocker Maddie Engeler ’16 sealed the deal. The second set opened up similarly to the first set. Libero Yvette Cho ’19 served five straight points, winning two with service aces, to give the Judges a 10-9 lead.

The score remained close throughout the set. The Mules’ powerful kills proved to be too much as they took the second set 25-23. The third set opened up with the Judges leading 13-8, with middle hitter Zara Platt ’19 setting the tempo with an impressive kill. After a timeout, the Mules took control, tying it up. The set went back and forth before the Mules went on a 9-2 run to win 2520. In the fourth set, the Mules capitalized on their strong finish in the

prior set, winning 25-17; they held a significant lead for much of the set.

Statistically, Brandeis was dominated almost across the board by both Tufts and Colby. The Judges had significantly lower hitting percentages in both matches, even having a -.045 percent against Tufts.

They were also outdone defensively. Tufts had 9.0 blocks compared to the Judges’ 2.0; Colby had 10.0 blocks, while the Judges had 4.0.

On the bright side, both the Judges and the Jumbos had 5 aces, but the Judges actually led the Mules in aces 6-5.

The standings have not been kind to the Judges, but their potential shines through. With strong play and bright moments from first-years, including outside hitter Grace Krumpack ’19, setter Marlee Nork ’19 and middle hitter Kirsten Frauens ’19, this midseason experience should be instrumental in the building of a new era of Brandeis volleyball.Looking ahead, the Judges (3-15, 0-3) will travel to Cleveland for more University Athletic Association action. They will look to improve on the past week in the season’s second UAA Round Robin, squaring off against the University of Rochester, No. 1 Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Chicago.

PRO SPORTS BRIEF Patrick Kane investigation hangs over Chicago Blackhawks during pursuit of second-straight title The National Hockey League season opened on Wednesday as the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks took on the New York Rangers and lifted their championship banner.

The Blackhawks ended up losing in a tight game but came to the Barclays Center as the New York Islanders opened their new venue.

The end result was another home opener spoiled as the defending champions beat the Islanders for their first win of the season.

Despite these early results, the Blackhawks have a bigger controversy on their hands that transcends the NHL and extends into all sports.

Superstar forward Patrick Kane is under investigation for an incident that occurred in his

Buffalo, NY home Aug. 2.

The investigation has taken many strange turns, and Kane has apologized for bringing drama to the Blackhawks and the NHL. However, it is still unclear as to what transpired that day, as each subsequent development has only blurred the case further.

The alleged victim’s rape kit revealed Kane’s DNA underneath her fingernails and on her shoulders but not in her genital area, although there was foreign DNA in the area. The case became more complicated on Sept. 23 as the victim’s mother stated that she found the evidence bag of the victim’s rape kit torn open on her front step.

The Erie County police department immediately rebuffed

this claim, and the alleged victim’s lawyer, Thomas Eoannou, resigned from the case on the suspicion that the victim’s mother had contradicted her own story.

The Erie County district attorney dismissed this move as an “elaborate hoax” by the victim’s mother, and the first grand jury hearing for this case was postponed, as it was believed that Kane and the victim were attempting to reach an outside settlement.

Through training camp, Kane’s presence was controversial, but the Blackhawks fans applauded him every time he came onto the ice or scored a goal during the preseason.

Neither Commissioner Gary Bettman nor the Blackhawks

have suspended Kane pending the results of the ongoing investigation.

However, this case comes on the heels of two domestic and sexual abuse incidents in the NHL as recently as last year.

The two players accused were former Los Angeles Kings player Slava Voynov (now back in the Kontinental Hockey League) and current Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov.

Both players were suspended by their teams last year, and Voynov was denied a visa to stay and work in the United States The two players were mired in the scandal for months.

Between this and an alleged cocaine problem among NHL players, Bettman has several

important decisions to make and investigations to launch as more and more of these incidents get reported. For now, Kane continues to play in the Blackhawks’ lineup as the investigation continues.

The Blackhawks hope this situation is resolved quickly, as there are other top teams in the league ready to snag the title away from Chicago.

The runner-ups from last year’s Stanley Cup, the Tampa Bay Lighting look poised to make it back to the championship game come playoff time.

With a key core returning, the Lighting look to overcome last year and become Stanley Cup Champions in June.

—Dan Rozel

just

Sports

Page 16

GOING FOR THE KILL The women’s volleyball team lost tough matches against regional opponents Tufts University and Colby College, p. 15.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

POSSESSIVE ATTACK

Waltham, Mass.

Men’s soccer

Judges defeat Case during UAA contest ■ Midfielder Josh Ocel ’17

recorded two assists to lead the squad to a 2-1 victory over Case Western Reserve University on Sunday.

By GABRIEL GOLDSTEIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

It was a week of frustration and elation for the No. 6 men’s soccer team, as disappointment came in the form of a 0-0 draw against rival Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Tuesday.

However, the squad finished the week strong with an exciting 2-1 victory over conference foe Case Western Reserve University.

Despite the Tuesday draw, the Judges used this past week to continue building momentum in what has thus far been a wildly successful season.

No. 6 Judges 2, No. 16 Case Western 1 On Sunday, the Judges hit the road for a conference matchup with Case Western Reserve. Brandeis opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, when forward Josh Berg ’17 took advantage of a well-placed

corner from midfielder Josh Ocel ’17 to net the game’s first goal. After Case Western tied things up at 1-1 in the 56th minute, Brandeis took the lead for good when forward Chris Bradley ’16 used another beautiful corner set-up from Ocel, heading it home for the first game-winner of his career.

With Ocel’s second assist of the day, he is now tied for the UAA assists lead.

Bradley remarked on his mindset following the crucial goal, saying “It’s always great to get a goal and leave your mark on the game.

Netting a decisive goal was a good feeling. I hadn't scored in a while, so it was really important to end that drought and get things going again.

More importantly, this game was a crucial one for us, and it had a great deal of significance relative to our goal of winning the conference.”

At a closer glance, the Judges’ 14 shots (eight on goal), compared to Case Western’s nine shots (five on goal) proved pivotal in the squad’s tough victory.

The win brought the Judges to an impressive 10-1-1 overall and 2-0-0 in UAA play.

For Case Western, the loss

See MSOCCER, 13 ☛

CROSS COUNTRY

Teams finish strong during regional meet ■ Emily Bryson ’19 led the

MIHIR KHANNA/Justice File Photo

BALL CONTROL: Midfielder Holly Szafran ’16 holds the ball during a 1-0 victory over the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Squad wins two games 2-0 with timely goals ■Midfielder Alec Spivack ’15 netted her second goal of the season against Case Western Reserve University on the road Sunday afternoon.

By elan kane JUSTICE staff writer

The women’s soccer team posted a 2-0 record this week, defeating Case Western Reserve University 2-0 on Sunday and Eastern Nazerene 2-0 last Tuesday.

With the victory on Sunday, the Judges, ranked no. 11 in the nation by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, improve to 11-1-1 overall and 1-1 in University Athletic Association play.

Judges 2, Case Western 0 The Judges earned their first UAA victory of the season Sunday in visiting Case Western. Mid-

fielder Alec Spivack ’15 netted her second goal of the season just six minutes into the contest. Forward Samantha Schwartz ’18 passed the ball to Spivack just outside the 18yard box and Spivack sent the ball to the back of the net.

Forward Lea McDaniel ’17 scored on the team’s second shot of the game in the 18th minute on a header off a corner kick from midfielder Holly Szafran ’16.

On the goal, McDaniel remarked that “Holly served a great ball into the box where I just headed it towards goal. Haley [Schacter] then screened the goalie and flicked it over her head into the back of the net. It was our first goal scored off a corner, and we were able to successfully execute what we have been working on at practices.”

It was Szafran’s 16th career assist, as she is now tied for seventh overall in assists in Brandeis women’s soccer history.

McDaniel now ranks second in

the UAA with six goals scored and is tied for the lead in points with a total of 14.

The Judges had seven shots on goal and did not allow Case Western a shot on goal until the 89th minute of the contest.

It was the ninth shutout of the season for Brandeis.

Though Brandeis won the game, Szafran said in an email to the Justice that the team still has areas where they can improve.

“We did really well on set pieces so we just have to continue to grow and work on the final ball, and finishing the chances we have,” Szafran said.

Judges 2, Eastern Nazerene 0 Szafran scored the game winner in the seventh minute in a game hosted by Brandeis when she received a through-ball pass from back Hannah Maatallah ’19. The pass went through a few Eastern

See WSOCCER, 13 ☛

Judges to a third place finish for Division III competitors at the meet on Saturday afternoon in Boston.

By avi gold JUSTICE editor

On Saturday the men and women’s cross country teams turned in strong showings at the Open New England Championships in Franklin Park, located in downtown Boston, competing against runners from across all three NCAA Divisions.

The 22nd-ranked women’s squad earned their first ranking in the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll since the beginning of the 2014 season before the race, and responded with a third-place finish among Division III schools at the meet, good for 17th out of the 39 teams overall. The men’s squad, ranked ninth regionally, finished seventh from DIII schools and 28th out of 38 total teams.

Women’s squad (428 points- 17th overall) The women raced to a third-place finish among all DIII schools Saturday on the back of a 27th-place finish for Emily Bryson ’19, who covered the five-kilometer course in 18 minutes, 22.6 seconds.

Saturday marked the third-straight race Bryson has paced the Judges, and turned in Brandeis’s best finish since Grayce Selig ’11 took seventh in 2010.

Maddie Dolins ’17 crossed the line at the 18:30.4 mark, good for 39th overall out of 265 runners and sixth out of DIII competitors.

Kelsey Whitaker ’16 took 17th of DIII runners with a 19:05.7 run, while Lydia McCaleb ’16 earned 22nd

among DIII competitors by stopping the clock at the 19.19.9.

Julia Bryson ’19 and Molly Paris ’17 rounded out the Judges’ competitors, clocking in at 19:31.9 and 21:34.3, respectively, for the team.

Brandeis finished third to a pair of top-10 DIII programs as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ranked No. 4, took first, while the No. 7 Middlebury College finished in second place.

The Judges managed to outpace both No. 15 Amherst College and No. 31 Wellesley College with its times.

Men’s squad (689 points- 28th overall) Ryan Stender ’18, who traversed the eight-kilometer course in 25:56.8, once again paced the Judges, his third-straight week finishing first for the squad.

Stender’s time placed him 89th out of 252 runners and 22nd among all DIII runners at the meet.

He was followed by Matt Doran ’17, whose time of 26:32.4 earned him a 33rd-place finish among DIII runners.

Liam Gar-vey ’18 took 35th-place of DIII runners, clocking in at 26:34.2, his first top-five finish among the squad this season.

Roger Lacroix ’18 was a step behind Garvey, stopping the clock at the 26:43.9 mark, while Brian Sheppard ’18 ran the course in 26:47.3. The Judges also saw Brad Payne ’17 race to a 28:38.1 finish and Russell Santos ’18 earn a 28.51.4 finish.

Once again a group of sophomores led the Judges.

On Sep. 19 Stender, Hutton and Sheppard all finished in the top 30.

At that meet at the University of Massachusetts, Stender took fourth overall while Hutton and Sheppard finished in 13th and 26th, respectively, for the squad.

See CROSS COUNTY, 13 ☛

Vol. LXVIII #5

October 13, 2015

just ARTS

The Mowgli’s P. 21

Waltham, MA.

Images: Mihir Khanna/the Justice. Design: Mihir Khanna/the Justice.

18

justARTS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015 | THE JUSTICE

CALENDAR

INTERVIEW

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus this summer

ON-CAMPUS EVENTS ‘Film screening: Dokudrama’

Deutschlandspiel-

This documentary film screening, third in a film series sponsored by the German Embassy in Washington D.C., marks the 25th anniversary of German Unification.

The film, called Deutchlandspeil, is a two part German TV movie highlighting German perspectives from both East and West Germany at the time of reunification.

The film combines film footage, reenactments, and interviews of Mikhail Gorbachev, George H. W. Bush, and Margaret Thatcher.

Today from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Mandel G03. The event is organized by the Center for German and European Studies and will extend through the end of the month. The event is free and open to the public.

LaShawn Simmons ’18

Close Looking: “Ruth” by Marisol’

In a series highlighting some of the university’s greatest treasures from the library’s special collections, Todd Pavlisko and Cameron Anderson will discuss “Ruth,” a sculpture by Marisol. The Close Looking sessions take place on three Wednesdays a month and are meant to foster thoughtprovoking conversation in a collaborative environment.

Wednesday from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Rose Art Museum. The event is sponsored by the Mandel Center of the Humanities, the Rose Art Museum, and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department. This event is free and open to the public.

Simmons discusses poetry zine ‘Ebony Axis’ JAIME GROPPER/ the Justice

This week justArts spoke with LaShawn Simmons ’18 about Ebony Axis, a zine for Brandeis black women created with a grant from the Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation program.

justArts: Can you give a background of Ebony Axis?

LaShawn Simmons: Ebony Axis—I call it a zine because it’s not just poetry, we have some ilustrations, but it’s more an anthology of black women’s poetry here on campus. I tried to open it to anyone, any female, who identifies as black. … I wanted people who were Afro-Latina, AfroAmerican, to feel welcome to contribute to the Zine ... [people who] identify themselves as black, so its our poetry.

That’s including also graduate students, alumnae, and maybe next time we can include faculty, but I just wanted to have a broad range. In a nutshell, it’s black women’s poetry here on campus.

‘School of Night Presents: A Reading by Kirun Kapur’ Kirun Kapur, winner of the Arts & Letters Rumi Prize in Poetry and the Antivenom Poetry Award for her book “Visiting Indira Gandhi’s Palmist,” will be reading her work aloud Wednesday afternoon. Kapur, who serves as the poetry editor at The Drum Literary Magazine, will be teaching the Directed Writing: Poetry Course this semester.

Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the

JA: What triggered the creation of Ebony Axis?

LS: I was very shy at first when I got to Brandeis about writing. ... I was always a poet, I always self-identified as a poet, but that was never visible in the mainstream or in the public sphere. However, I think the turning point for me was when I participated in the “for colored girls who consider suicide / when the rainbow is enuf” production here at Brandeis last year, last semester. It came about during that time. What happened was that I was so excited about us as black women having a space, like an actual physical space to be able to freely express ourselves, and I basically wanted to keep the momentum going. It was during rehearsal, and “For Colored Girls” is a choreopoem, so it kind of bounced of that. Long story short, I had this idea in practice, ‘what if I have a book of some sort and put everybody’s poetry in it,’ ... being in For Colored girls with them, I was like, this could be a thing, we could put all this poetry together. … so when I participated in the CAST, Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation, the new minor, they had opened a grant for people to apply their any social justice project that deals with the arts, and I said what better way than that to do it ... so words cannot describe how happy I am that it turned out.

JA: Are there certain poetry pieces that you look to include in the Zine?

LS: It’s more general, I feel like as a black woman, a lot of times we are emotionally censored in a way, we are kind of like told how to feel about things, it’s a fine line between being passionate and angry. So I think about those boundaries and emotional boundaries such as those, like giving black women the opportunity to say what they want and be human, like the poetry humanizes us and shows us that we are complex and that we deserve complexity. I feel like the poetry gave us a space to be complex and have mixed emotions, we don’t always have to be strong, there are times when we want to feel vulnerable and there’s also times when we feel like we can’t connect with our community. ... I think the best part is that even people who weren’t poets, there were a lot of submissions where people were like ‘I don’t write, I’m not a poet,’ ... [and] they just submitted something and I was like this is beautiful. You never know whose story, you never know how your story may impact someone ... I had no interest in policing their creativity, I wanted them to be as creative as possible and to let them know that their story matters. Even if you don’t like what you just wrote, you never know who may pick this up and be like ‘wow, this resonated with me.’ Really, I just wanted to set that atmosphere and get rid of as many boundaries as possible.

—Jaime Gropper

Pearlman Lounge. The event is sponsored by the Department of English. This event is free and open to the public.

‘‘Russian Contemporary Film Festival’

This film screening, hosted by Brandeis Russian Studies Program and Eurochannel, will be fifth in the series dedicated to Russian contemporary films. The Russian Studies Program will be showing the 2012 film, “Thirst,” which is about a man suffering from physical injuries incurred on the battlefield in Chechnya whose friend inextricably disappears.

Thursday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in room G12 in the Mandel Center for the Humanities.

The event is free and open to the public.

‘Songs for a New World’

“Songs for a New World” is a series of sixteen separate stories told entirely through song. The musical, written by Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown, explores such relatable themes as fighting for your dreams, fulfilling responsibilities and losing love. Directed by Rachel Liff ’16, the abstract musical is connected by the theme “the moment of decision.”

Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday matinees from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Mainstage Theater in Spingold Theater Center. General Admission is $20, but admission for the Brandeis Community is $15, admission for seniors is $15, and admission for students is $5.

Lydian String Quartet

The Lydian String Quartet returns to Brandeis on Saturday, playing three pieces in honor of Robert Koff, the late musician, scholar and Brandeis University professor.

They will be playing Harold Meltzer’s “Aqua,” Brahms’s “String Quartet No. 1 in C minor,” “op. 51 no. 1” and Richard Wernick’s “String Quartet no. 5” with Tony Arnold, a soprano and a Brandeis Creative Arts Award.

Saturday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Recital Hall at Slosberg Music Center. The event will be sponsored by the Department of Music. General Admission will be $20, but admission for the Brandeis Community and seniors will be $15 and admission for students is $5.

‘Contemporary with Classic, Music with Flute, Clarinet and Piano’

Brandeis flute instructor Jill Dreeben will perform works from the past and present with pianist Elizabeth Skavish and clarinetist Todd Brunel. They will be playing Sergei Prokofiev’s “Sonota Op. 94,” Libby Larsen’s “Barn Dances” for flute, clarinet and piano, John Armstrong’s “Child’s Play” for solo flute, John Kusaik’s “Trio” for flute, clarinet and piano.

Sunday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Recital Hall at the Slosberg Music Center. The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Music.

General Admission is $20, admission for seniors is $10, and students are admitted for free.

‘Writing for Fun and Profit with Josh Gondelman ’07

Josh Gondelman ’07, recently nominated for an Emmy for his work writing on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, will answer students’ questions and discuss his writing and his career. Kosher Chinese food will be served.

Monday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in The Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium. The event is sponsored by the Film, Television and Interactive Media Program.

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS ‘Art on the Marquee Opening Event’ Following up on the successful ‘Lawn on D’ instillation, Boston Cyberarts and the Boston Convention Center Authority now present Art on the Marquee, a state-of-theart LED screen and digital canvas in South Boston. The screen, which stands more than 80 feet tall, shares digital displays and videos with local pedestrians and motorists.

Visible from nearly a half mile away, this innovative new art form is expected to reach over 100,000 people as it integrates commercial and informational content with art.

This exhibit opens on Wednesday at 8:30pm at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in South Boston. The event is free and open to the public. The RSVP can be found at artonthemarquee.com. It is $10, and students are admitted for free.

POP CULTURE n !

By Ilana Kruger

ww

With hosts coming to, leaving and switching networks, the late night comedy scene has been shifting.

Whether you get your comedy fix from specialty cable networks such as Comedy Central, or basic broadcast networks, there is more variety than ever.

In today’s digital world, these shows are no longer confined to their late slots and can be watched later online. Even so, viewers tend to stick to one host or show to loyally follow. With several shakeups in the lineup, ratings will indicate which moves have been successful as the season goes on.

Longtime host Jon Stewart signed off on “The Daily Show” on Aug. 6 after hosting the Comedy Central staple since 1999.

Under Stewart’s reign as host, writer and executive producer, the show became a politically focused, sharpwitted news satire.

Trevor Noah has taken over the show’s hosting duties since Sep. 28. The South African comedian has extensive experience hosting radio shows as well as performing stand-up comedy and has made successful appearances on “The Tonight Show” and the “Late Show with David Letterman.”

The “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” recently premiered on CBS, with Colbert making his broadcast debut after “The Colbert Report” wrapped on Comedy Central last year. Colbert made a name for himself as a “The Daily Show” correspondent, developing the fictional persona that lived on “The Colbert Report” for nine years. Now, presumably as himself this time, Colbert is stepping into David Letterman’s “Late Show” shoes. The show is a more traditional late-night talk-show format, not a satire, so Colbert might have to work to earn his audience.

Jimmy Fallon continues to host the “Tonight Show” on NBC, which he has hosted since taking over for Jay Leno in 2014.

The show has a variety-show style, mixing in successful segments such

CREATIVE COMMONS

FUNNY MAN: Stephen Colbert moved to the “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS as “Lip-sync Battles” with celebrity interviews. The host lends a feel-good atmosphere to the show, and everyone seems to be visibly enjoying themselves.

Fallon may be Colbert’s biggest competitor, as the “Tonight Show” is pulling ahead of Colbert in ratings, but Fallon still made a surprise guest appearance on the “Late Show”’s debut.

The established hosts already have their niche audiences and will continue attracting viewers across various platforms.

The real question is whether or not Colbert will find his footing in his new role, but he is already off to a promising start. All eyes are also on Trevor Noah to see if he can continue the success of the Daily Show, as he has some pretty big

shoes to fill.

While in a slightly different market than the nightly comedy shows, no discussion about late-night comedy is complete without mentioning “Saturday Night Live.”

The long-running NBC program has become an institution. After all, the program concluded it’s 40th season in May. The new season premiered on October 3rd, with last season’s successful cast of players returning, including Cecily Strong, Taran Killam, Jay Pharaoh and Kenan Thompson. Miley Cyrus hosted the first show, and Amy Schumer and former “SNL” player Tracey Morgan round out the all-star hosts for the following episodes.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015 | THE JUSTICE

19

READING

Antrim performs in ‘School of Night’ reading

By JAIME KAISER JUSTICE EDITOR

He worked in publishing for a couple years in New York in the ’80s, and his boss was always calling him into his office about something. One day, after he referred to someone whose book they were planning on publishing as a novelist, his boss said, ‘“Come in here! he’s not a novelist. ... a novelist is someone who has dedicated his or her life to the pursuit of this artform.’ At the time I thought that was curmudgeonly and old-school, but now I see the wisdom in it,” said Donald Antrim.

On Thursday, Oct. 6, best-selling author and MacArthur fellow Antrim reflected on his career, spoke about other related topics and read his short story at an event hosted by the School of Night and the University’s Creative Writing Department. It was an intimate affair that featured a strong contingent of undergraduate students among others from the community. The reading was held in Pearlman Lounge and is part of a series hosted by the School Of Night, dedicated to bringing prolific writers on campus.

Before the reading, Prof. Dawn Skorczewski (ENG) offered a brief introduction to the author’s career. Antrim received a McArthur fellowship for his work in 2013, a milestone in a rich literary career. He has authored three novels, “Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World,” “The Hundred Brothers” and “The Verificationist,” as well a memoir about his mother titled “The Afterlife.” He received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1981 and currently teaches graduate students in the MFA program at Columbia University.

Antrim decided to read the title story from his collection of short stories, “The Emerald Light In The Air,” published in 2014. The New Yorker has published each of the stories included in the collection between 1999 and 2014. His manner of reading impressively contributes drama without taking an overly grandiose tone. The effect mirrors the plot nicely —a mournful and strange tale of one Billy French driving into the woods to throw away murals painted by a lost love.

The narrative flips between his adventures down a creek muddy in the aftermath of a storm and flashbacks to conversations with loved ones. Although the story sharply hones in one man’s experience, the listener cannot help but feel that something big is in the works. Part of this comes from the generational aspect of the protagonist. The author evokes the significance of thi legacy in one important way—using small details about his family. He drinks his mother’s drink, for example, and he drives his grandfather’s car. The weather also adds suspense, the slow way another storm creeps up on him one raindrop at a time.

The story takes a surreal turn when French crosses paths with a boy in the woods about ten minutes into the story, dredging him out of his nostalgia and more fully into his immediate experience. Antrim put on a rural accent while voicing the parts of the boy.

Overall, the story rang authentic with its no-nonsense prose and carefully selected details that bring the story from a place of utter loss to something close to redemption.

After the reading, audience members were invited to enter into conversation about his work. One the first questions involved whether the clouds in Antrim’s story had metaphoric value and whether the metaphor was intentional. “I’m not really concerned so much with whatever the story means coming through my intentionality,” Antrim responded. “I’m engaged in trying to build a concrete world rather than make ideational connections. ... That’s how I’ve come to think of symbolic meaning — something that exists in spite of the writer and can be managed by the writer but is not necessarily interpreted by the writer.”

Toward the end of the event, Antrim reflected on his evolution from the kind of writer who anxiously anticipates his finished products to one more preoccupied with the process itself. He said “I got to a point — and I hope you get to this point — a point at which it wasn’t something anymore for me to finish or resolve or get rid of or wrap up or pull double all-nighters with. It was something to live in and it was making my life better.”

JAIME GROPPER/ The Justice

FREE WRITER: MacArthur fellow Donald Antrim read and discussed his book of short stories “The Emerald Light in the Air” as part of the School of Night Series.

20

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015 | THE JUSTICE

EXHIBIT

Rose satellite gallery comes to the corner of Main and Moody

By EMILY WISHINGRAD JUSTICE EDITOR

The Rose Art Museum has expanded into Waltham. Rosebud, the new satellite gallery of the museum, which sits on the corner of Moody and Main Street, is a gallery focused on the Rose’s growing video collection.

Chris Bedford, Henry and Lois Foster director of the museum, says that the expansion comes with the intent of broadening the Rose’s scope to become more of a museum for the Waltham community. “We imagine ourselves, increasingly, in the coming years, becoming more of a civic museum for Waltham,” said Bedford.

But he says that the Rose is also looking ahead—hoping a familiarity with the institution will bring an increased flow of Waltham citizens to the museum on campus in the future. Bedford says that he hopes the Waltham community will gain a “familiarity with who the Rose is and what we do on the basis that we went to them — into their community — rather than asking them to come to us, three or four years from now.”

The gallery will always exhibit a video installation, drawn either from the Rose’s collection or from students’ and professors’ works. It will also exhibit works in the front of the gallery, viewable from the street.

There are no pieces currently on display, but Bedford says they will be open to proposals from University faculty, staff and students but also from Waltham community members.

Bedford attributed the gallery’s focus on the medium of the video to the museum’s growing video collection. In recent years, the Rose has seen more video installations with

Bedford’s Rose Video initiative — bringing a rotating flow of video art to the Rose Video Gallery. But Bedford also says he feels that the medium of the video is an ideal one for the Waltham public. “We collectively feel that the moving image has a particularly strong address to a broad constituency,” he said.

Currently, William Kentridge’s “Tide Table” (2013) is on view—a work that portrays a stream of images through a sketched aesthetic. “I think the idea was to show the intensity of the formal inventiveness that takes place within video today through the lens of one of the medium’s foremost practitioners,” said Bedford when asked about how the video was selected. Bedford says that the videos may rotate more frequently than the exhibits at the Rose.

As for the management of the gallery, all curatorial decisions will remain under the Rose’s jurisdiction, and Rose staff will rotate between the two galleries. The funding for the gallery was provided from the Sun Hill Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation to which Jennifer Combs, one of the board members of the museum, is connected.

As for museum attendance, Bedford says that the museum seems to be faring well in the community. “Atmospherically, it seems to me that it’s been met with a really resounding vote of approval, particularly from the self-selecting interested arts public in Waltham who, I think, have been hungry for something like this and are grateful that something like the Rose was an institution that took up the challenge,” he said.

The gallery is open select hours on Thursday through Saturday. “Tide Table” will be on view through November.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NINA BERGER

VIDEO ART: Rosebud will feature videos from the Rose’s growing video collection. Currently on display is “Tide Table” by William Kentridge.

SATELLITE OF ART: Rosebud is a satellite gallery of the Rose Art Musuem. It hopes to build a greater connection to Waltham residents.

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015

21

CONCERT PHOTOS BY MIHIR KHANNA/The Justice

ROCKING OUT: Alternative-rock band The Mowgli’s performed at Student Events’ annual fall concert and played their hits, including “San Fransisco,” “Say It, Just Say It” and “I’m Good.”

‘The Mowgli’s’ perform at Fall Concert

By LINDA MALEH JUSTICE STAFF

BIG BAND: Members include Katie Jayne Earl (above), Dave Appelbaum, Colin Louis Dieden, Josh Hogan, Matthew Di Panni, Spencer Trent and Andy Warren.

FLY GUY: Marcelo Brociner ’18 performed original rap as the second opener. For one song, Mack came back onstage to perform alongside Brociner.

“Well, I’m in love with love,” begins The Mowgli’s’ hit song “San Francisco.” Well, Saturday night, Brandeis was in love with The Mowgli’s.

A large crowd of students gathered in Levin Ballroom for the annual Fall Concert run by Student Events. The alternative-rock band The Mowgli’s headlined after two student openers: duo Remy Pontes ’16 and Makalani Mack ’16 and solo act Marcelo Brociner ’18.

Pontes and Mack performed a duet for the first act. They took turns singing, while Pontes played the guitar.

Their songs were purely acoustic and slow, and they produced a soulful sound. They sang a mix of covers and originals, and at one point, to the audience’s delight, Mack rapped.

The second act was student rapper Brociner, and the audience chanted his name in anticipation of his act. A heavy bass was the undertone of all of Brociner’s songs, and the audiences nodded their heads to the beat of it. Brociner had the audience chant “turn up” in between each song to keep energy

levels high. In a surprise twist, Mack reappeared on stage to rap with Brociner for a song.

When Brociner left the stage to a cheering crowd, a buzz of excitement set in — it was finally time to start the count down to The Mowgli’s.

While the whole night had been a success up to this point — each of the Brandeis openers had been well-received and were cheered for after each song — the excitement of the crowd grew as The Mowgli’s began to play. When they came on stage, the audience surged forward, packing themselves as tight as they could in front of the stage.

They opened with their song, “Say It, Just Say It” which was the perfect song to take the stage with, having high energy and a catchy tune. In response, students started dancing and immediately held up their phones to take photos and videos of the band.

The spirited mood of the crowd was infectious as students jumped, danced and sang to the lyrics at the top of their lungs.

Danny Lauer ’17 said, “As soon as The Mowgli’s got on stage, they captivated the

ACOUSTIC AND RAP: Remy Pontes ’16 (left) and Makalani Mack ’16 (right) performed a mix of covers and original songs as the first openers.

crowd and kept them entertained. It was amazing to hear the deafening roar of the crowd after each song.” And yet, when the band rounded off their set with their two biggest hits, “I’m Good” and “San Francisco,” the energy of the students somehow managed to at least double.

When they played those last two songs, students sang out every word.

This was helped by the fact that in the second verse of “San Francisco,” the lead singer, Colin Louis Dieden, held out his microphone over the crowd to hear them sing it on their own.

The audience did not disappoint, but proudly sang every word as loud as they could.

The Mowgli’s songs about love and happiness left the audience feeling elated at the end of the concert.

As students streamed out of Levin and across campus, many of them could be heard continuing to sing their favorite songs that the band performed, seeming to not want the concert to end even after they had already left the venue.

Needless to say, Student Events’ secure of The Mowgli’s for the Fall Concert was a success.

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THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015

23

LECTURE

Nehme speaks on film and Hollywood history

By CATHERINE ROSCH JUSTICE EDITOR

It is safe to say that most people love movies.

But there are some people whose love for movies is something deeper, something that truly transforms their lives. Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post film critic, blogger and novelist, would call these people “cinephiles,” and she certainly identifies as one, as she explained to those who attended her lecture “Hollywood History, Hollywood Fiction” last Wednesday in the International Lounge.

Nehme’s journey from casual movie-viewer to cinephile is an interesting one, and a major focus of her lecture on the history of Hollywood and its realities. She grew up in Alabama, where the local television station would play movies on the public access channels. Sometimes, the movies would be great classics; other times, they were, well, terrible. But they had one thing in common: the movies shown on local television in Alabama several decades ago were all old, because that was what was cheap and a way to fill the air. Nehme described how she fell in love with old movies of all genres — the gorgeously choreographed musicals of Busby Berkeley, the early Technicolor melodramas she sobbed over with her mother and the classic Westerns she and her father watched together. Nehme became a cinephile, but her true passion was for old movies. When asked, however, Nehme could not quite put her love of old movies into words. She tried to explain: “There’s a part of me that thinks, ‘This is how movies are supposed to look.’”

There was something, Nehme said, about the classical studio aesthetic of black and white and of gorgeous, full-frame shots that just feel elegant and timeless. According to her, what we consider “good” film to look like is always adapting and changing, but there is a reason that certain movies, especially older movies, are always considered to be excellent, regardless of what year they may be. However, some of these classic movies are not in good shape, and that is what interests Nehme even more than classic cinematography, or the

TALKING SILENT FILMS: During her lecture “Hollywood History, Hollywood Fiction,” writer and cinephile Farran Smith Nemhe discussed her appreciation for old films.

MICHELLE BANAYAN/The Justice

noir aesthetic that so many other cinephiles and film buffs might spend all their time talking about.

Rather, it is preserving and “saving” some of these old films, many of which are already in bad quality or may have become lost before anyone cared.

Nehme has a theory as to why so many old movies were left to fall into such poor quality: When cinema first took off in the early twentieth century, it was seen simply as a form of entertainment rather than an actual art, and people did not necessarily care about preserving movies for future viewers.

By the time people started caring about film history, it was too late for some movies, and others that were still watchable were not good quality. Nehme does not let that bother her, however, because, as she believes, even an old film in bad shape is still a good movie, and it is important to see films in their original state. Just because technology was not as good or a film is not in perfect condition does not mean it is not worthy of viewing.

The concept of rediscovering previously lost movies actually drove Nehme to write her debut novel “Missing Reels,” a semi-autobiographical tale of a young woman on the hunt for a forgotten silent film. The novel combined her two passions: silent film and Hollywood history, a field that is actually very hard to research because, as Nehme put it, “Hollywood people are in the business of telling stories,” and it can often be hard to tell fact from fiction, even in an interview. Making up a movie and stars allowed her to be imaginative while still relying on historical research that might not be as reliable. More importantly, “Missing Reels” allowed her to explore the world of the silent movie, “the red-headed stepchild” of cinema, as Nehme described it.

Perhaps a line from “Missing Reels” that Nehme shared with the audience sums up her talk best. “We need lost movies. They fortify our love of cinema.” This is true, if Nehme’s passion is anything to go off of. Without the history of Hollywood and old films, even the ones that might not exist anymore, we cannot appreciate the movies we watch today.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015 | THE JUSTICE

TOPof the

PHOTOS CORNER

Brandeis TALKS

CHARTS for the week ending October 11 BOX OFFICE

Quote of the week “We have a lot of people carrying that burden [of sexual assault] all by themselves. We’re Brandeis. We have to do better.”

1. The Martian 2. Hotel Transylvania 2 3. Pan 4. The Intern 5. Sicario 6. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials 7. The Walk 8. Black Mass 9. Everest 10. The Visit

—-- Interim President Lisa Lynch.

(News pg. 3 )

NYT BESTSELLERS

What’s one thing you want to do before winter comes?

MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice

ONCE IN A BLOOD MOON: This photo of the Blood Moon was taken by Mihir Khanna ’18 on Sunday, Sep. 28. Khanna went to the roof of Usen Castle in order to get a picture of this rare celestial occurence.

Lilah Kleban ’17

“Get a full night of sleep.”

FEATURING CREATIVE PHOTOS FROM OUR STAFF This feature showcases our photographers’ work capturing small moments around campus

Fiction 1. The Murder House—James Patterson and David Ellis 2. The Girl in the Spider’s Web— David Lagercrantz 3. After You—Jojo Moyes 4. Make Me—Lee Child 5. The Aeronaut’s Windlass—Jim Butcher Nonfiction 1. Killing Reagan—Bill O’Reilly and Martin 2. Why Not Me?—Mindy Kaling 3. Furiously Happy—Jenny Lawson 4. Between the World and Me—TaNehisi Coates 5. Being Mortal—Atul Gawande

CROSSWORD

Micah Margolis ’17

“I want to go kayaking in the Charles River.”

Marvin Gomez ’18 “I definitely want to go apple picking.”

Phoebe Bain ’19 “I want to go the reservoir by the railroad tracks. Apparently there’s rocks you can jump off.”

ACROSS 1 1961 Jerry Lewis film, with “The” 10 In its entirety 15 Peach variety 16 Indiana state flower 17 Availability indicators 18 Certain candle 19 Activist gp. with a clenched fist in its logo 20 Super Bowl highlight, for many 21 Heavy-duty soap brand 22 Open court hearing, in law 23 Monk music 24 Certain NCO 25 Pacer and Medallion 28 1963 Top 10 hit for Paul Petersen 30 Function opening?

31 Speculator of a sort 33 Early business language 35 “Define your world” online reference 37 ’50s-’60s civil rights activist 38 Saturn, for one 39 Sched. maker 40 Eyelashes 41 ID’ed 42 Org. chaired by Reince Priebus 43 Scribble 44 Year Columbus began his fourth voyage 46 Corresponds 48 Bandy words 49 Mint 52 Tanks, so to speak 53 Distinct 55 “So Much in Love” pop group, with “The” 56 Non-profit whose corporate sponsors include Purina 27 Phishing, e.g.

57 Words often evoking 29 Modeling accessory 58 Across 30 French address 32 Shot providers, briefly DOWN 33 S.A. country 1 Boundaries 34 Suffix with electro36 Tweetbot 2 Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy and GoodReader 3 Colortrak TVs, e.g.

40 Nasdaq listings 4 SSTs flew over it 42 They may be rubber 5 Smart 43 Aaron’s “Breaking Bad” role 6 Annoyed big time 45 Steamed 7 Bit 47 B or C, but not A or D 8 Linear, briefly 48 Faction 9 “Roundabout” band 49 View from behind?

10 In the brain, to a Brit 50 Nice summers 11 In proximity 51 Moistens 12 Competitor of NYC’s Latin Quarter 53 Brooklynese pronoun 13 Like much of the Mariana Trench 54 Appeared in print 14 Innsbruck’s state 21 Hunk’s asset 22 Very hot celestial orbs 23 Male cartoon character voiced by Nancy Cartwright Solution to last issue’s crossword 25 Together, musically 26 Posthumous 1987 Rock and Crossword Copyright 2014 Tribune News Service, Roll Hall of Fame

BILLBOARD

1. Fetty Wap—Fetty Wap 2. Drake and Future—What A Time To Be Alive 3. Don Henley—Cass County 4. George Strait—Cold Beer Conversation 5. The Weeknd—Beauty Behind the Madness 6. Thomas Rhett—Tangled Up 7. Tayor Swift—1989 8. CHVRCHES—Every Open Eye 9. Disclosure—Caracal 10. Dodge and Burn— The Dead Weather

Top of the Charts information provided by Fandango, the New York Times, Billboard. com and Apple.com.

STAFF’S Top Ten

Halloween Costumes for Lazy People

By MORGAN BRILL JUSTICE EDITOR

Inc.

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.

Halloween, like everything else I do, is an exercise in active procrastination. I only ever realize about three days before Halloween that I have yet to find a costume. For everyone who is about as lazy as I am, this is a list which should help you pull together a last minute costume in no time!

1) Nudist on strike 2) Moody teenager 3) Where’s Waldo 4) Risky Business 5) Regina George 6) Freudian Slip 7) Debbie Downer 8) Opera Man 9) Tourist 10) Stefon from Weekend Update

Madie Lefkowitz ’19 “I want to go hiking in the area because I’m interested in seeing the Massachusetts trails.”

—Compiled and photographed by Michelle Banayan/the Justice.

iTUNES

1.Drake—“Hotline Bling” 2. Taylor Swift—“Wildest Dreams” 3. Justin Bieber—“What Do You Mean?”

4. Shawn Mendes—“Stitches” 5. Ellle King—“Ex’s & Oh’s”

Solution to last issue’s sudoku

Sudoku Copyright 2014 Tribune News Service, Inc.