The Justice, February 15, 2022

BLOOD DRIVE

Waltham Group hosts “Sweetheart Drive”

■ The drive occurred at a crucial time with America experiencing a national blood shortage.

By LEAH BREAKSTONE JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

The American Red Cross is currently facing its worst national blood shortage in more than a decade, according to their website. On Monday, Feb. 7 and Wednesday, Feb. 9, Blood Drive, under the Waltham Group, hosted one of their triannual blood drives.

The “Sweetheart Drive” collected

JEOPARDY

Univ. student chosen for "Jeopardy!"

The “Wheel of Fortune” stage was just like another room to us. When we got, there everyone was all wide-eyed, but once we started going on-stage, it helped me get more comfortable.

TJ: Were your parents there for the filming?

55 units of blood, “which is on par with our usual amount collected. This has the potential to save 165 lives nationwide,” Hanna Aronovich ’22, a coordinator for Blood Drive, wrote in a Feb. 10 email to the Justice.

The shortage occurred alongside the pandemic; “The American Red Cross shared with us that there has been a 10% decline in donations since the beginning of the pandemic,” Aronovich wrote. In addition to patients not receiving the blood products they need, “Lifealtering choices need to be made by healthcare providers for who gets the blood products and who does not when supplies are limited,” she added.

Work-Study Struggles

Additionally, because of the ongoing pandemic, many college and high school blood drives have been canceled. This is problematic because, as Aronovich wrote, “According to the American Red Cross website, high school and college blood drives used to make up about 25% of donations before the pandemic, and now that number has dropped to about 10%.” Aronovich stressed that safety of the donors is the top priority during the drives. The Red Cross nurses “take a health history and mini physical before you donate to make sure you meet all the requirements and are healthy enough

By ARIELLA WEISS JUSTICE EDITOR

The Justice: I read in BrandeisNow that the competition started today; have you already gone on today? Are you doing it from Athens? How does that work?

Joey Kornman: It actually started airing yesterday: it wasn’t filmed live. We filmed it in Culver City, California from Nov. 19 to 24.

TJ: So you’re seven hours ahead — that would be — 3 a.m. right?

JK: Right. My episode is tonight at 3:30 a.m. Athens time but 8:30 p.m. EST.

TJ: So you're going to watch it at 3 a.m.?!

JK: I'm not going to stay up to watch it. Hopefully I'll be asleep; I already know what happens –– I also have a roommate.

TJ: What was it like being with other college students?

JK: There were 36 of us. It was really nice, and we were all getting friendly for a few days before we started playing. That was tough because you don't wanna compete against people you like, but then you're also more comfortable with them on stage.

TJ: Did you know anything about the topics beforehand? Like is there any way for you to prepare? Or is it just based on the knowledge you already have?

JK: I only crammed one subject, which was novels and authors. I wasn't gonna try to cram sports or pop culture which I know nothing about. You can actually psych yourself out by doing that.

The biggest thing is being comfortable on stage. It's more about being on stage than knowing trivia, if you study too much you could psych yourself out. In a lot of the games the person who knew the most wasn't the winner. My dad knows a lot of trivia, but he doesn’t think he could be [on] Jeopardy.

TJ: Do you see yourself as someone who’s comfortable being in the spotlight?

JK: Nothing prepares you for being on national TV. I saw Mayim Bialik come out, who’s a legitimate celebrity! And I had done local live [trivia] shows in high school. [For Jeopardy,] We had shot promos in the days before so I had already been on the stage.

APAHM Celebration

 BAASA kicked off their celebration of APAHM with their annual culture show, themed "Ride with the Waves."

By LYNN HAN

By MIRABELL ROWLAND

JACK YUANWEI CHENG/the Justice

JK: The only people that went were the contestants because of COVID. You were allowed to tell people that would have come with you to film if it wasn't COVID, so my mom knows the results. My dad doesn't want to know. He can't keep a secret!

TJ: So you’re in Athens for study abroad right, for a classics major: has that come up as a topic at all for the questions?

JK: I can't say any of the topics. I signed so many NDAs. I don't even remember a ton of [what was asked]; there was so much adrenaline while we were playing that I don’t remember specifics, so I'm also excited to watch it.

It's a known fact that I'm in one episode, but I can't confirm or deny anything beyond that.

TJ: Did you watch "Jeopardy!" a lot as a kid? Who or what gave you the push to apply to be on it?

JK: A lot of the people there have life-long attachments. My parents went to a filming there in the 80s; some had met Alex Trebek while he was still alive and promised him they’d be back. I don't have that deep connection. It's the pinnacle of trivia on TV in the mainstream; if you really are wanting to watch the highest level trivia, that’d be college level Quiz Bowl. With "Jeopardy!", everyone and their grandma knows it.

TJ: What was the application and interview process like to get on?

JK: I applied on a whim: you take a quiz, then another quiz, and then go on to the interviews … I know others from Brandeis and my high school quiz bowl team that got to the interview stage too. That was in January 2021, they got back to me in September. I had totally forgotten about it because I treated it like a joke. It’s super low commitment to do the quiz: it's like 50 questions. I did it my freshman year too. I don't know what was so alluring about my application [specifically].

TJ: Where were you when you got accepted? Was what that like?

JK: They literally text you. The text said there's a chance you can get on if you pass background checks, but nothing’s guaranteed yet. I was worried they'd be filming while I was in Athens. They asked if the dates in the fall [Nov. 19 to 24] worked for me and I was like ‘yeah, I guess!’ My mom

Senate swore in two new senators

By MAX FEIGELSON

Editorial board and COVID-19 protocol transparency

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Recap of Brian Flores controversy

By AIDEN GUTHRO

 Work-Study is meant to help afford tuition through working but for some, this proves challenging.

■ Ariella Weiss from the Justic e spoke with Kornman about his experience playing on "Jeopardy! National College Championship".

Photo Courtesy of HANNA ARONOVICH

Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

WALTHAM GROUP : Students from Waltham Group welcomed blood donors with Valentine's Day themed decorations. See

POLICE LOG

MEDICAL EMERGENCY

Feb. 7—There was a medical emergency in the Usdan Student Center. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 7—There was a medical emergency in East Quad. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 8—There was a medical emergency in the Usdan Student Center. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 9—There was a medical emergency in Massell Quad. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 9—There was a medical emergency at the Charles River Apartments. The party was

SENATE LOG

treated by BEMCo staff and transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

Feb. 9—There was a medical emergency in the Humanities Quad. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and refused further care.

Feb. 10—There was a medical emergency in the Science Complex. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and refused further care.

Feb. 11—There was a medical emergency at the Brown Social Science Center. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and refused further care.

Feb. 12—There was a report of an intoxicated community member at Ziv Quad. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and transported to a local hospital via ambulance. The dispatcher notified the area coordinator on call.

Feb. 13—There was a report of an intoxicated community member in the Shapiro Campus

Center. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and transported to a local hospital via ambulance. The dispatcher notified the area coordinator on call.

TRAFFIC INCIDENT

Feb. 9—A community member reported that their car was struck by an unknown person in Theater Lot. A report of the incident was composed.

HARASSMENT

Feb. 8—A community member reported receiving an unwanted piece of mail. A report of the incident was composed.

Feb. 1o—A community member in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management reported receiving harassment via email. A report of the incident was composed.

Feb. 11—An individual reported being harassed by a Brandeis community member. A report of the incident was to be composed by University Police.

MISCELLANEOUS

Feb. 7—A community member reported hearing loud banging outside of East Quad. University police checked the area and all was quiet and in order.

Feb. 12—A Community Advisor in North Quad reported that a student was drinking in the lounge. The area coordinator on call was notified.

Feb. 13—There were multiple calls about a loud party in Ridgewood Quad. The area coordinator on call was notified.

Senate charters new club and swears in two new senators

The Student Union Senate held its third meeting of the semester on Feb. 13, at which members chose its internal leaders in an executive session.

The Senate voted to make Ashna Kelkar ’24 the new executive senator, replacing Sen. Joseph Coles ’22, who is stepping down. Camaron Johnson ’25 was re-elected as the Senate representative to the Community Enhancement and Engagement Fund. Gonzalo Palafox ’25 was re-elected as a Senate representative to the Allocations Board.

Emily McKerrow ’24 came to the meeting to request that the Senate charter her club, Crafts and Conversations. McKerrow described the organization as “a collaborative space for people to do crafts.” She said that the club is a place where people interested in a variety of crafts, including crochet and knitting, can come to

learn and practice their skills.

McKerrow said that the club would need about $300 for supplies such as yarn and floss.

The Senate chartered Crafts and Conversation by acclamation.

Vice President Courtney Thrun ’22 swore in the two new senators at the start of the meeting, marking the official start to the terms of North Quad

Sen. James Brosgol ’25 and Midyear Sen. Sherry Tao ’25. Brosgol and Tao were elected in the recent round of winter elections earlier this semester.

This week, the Senate meeting was held in the afternoon, rather than the evening, to prevent overlap with the Super Bowl. The Senate will not meet next week because of the February recess.

—Max Feigelson

The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Send an email to editor@ thejustice.org.

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BLOOD DRIVE: the Justice speaks to blood drive coordinator

CONTINUED FROM 1

she wrote. The actual blood donation process only takes about 10 to 15 minutes, and “you feel so good afterwards because you did a great deed,” she added. A few days following their donation, donors also learn their blood type via an email from the American Red Cross.

After donors’ blood is collected, “it gets tested to make sure it is safe to be transfused, and then it actually gets split into components,” Aronovich wrote. “They separate the blood into its red blood cells, platelets, and plasma, and these can be sent to all different locations,” including hospitals and other medical centers.

For students who do not want to

donate but still want to be involved, there are many volunteer opportunities to assist with the blood drives.

“We have over 90 volunteers per drive, and would not be able to be so successful without all of their hard work,” Aronovich wrote. Leading up to the drive, volunteers table to recruit donors on campus. On the day of the drive, volunteers greet and register donors and work in the post-donation area where donors have snacks and recover before they leave, she explained Group Blood drive hopes to “mitigate the decline [in drives and blood donations] by staying consistent with hosting blood drives even as restrictions change,” Aronovich concluded. Students can look forward to the next drive on April 11 and 13.

JEOPARDY: Joey Kornman chosen as one of 35 contestants from over 20,000 applicants

CONTINUED FROM 1

asked if the dates in the fall [Nov. 19 to 24] worked for me, and I was like, ‘yeah, I guess!’

My mom thought it was a scam up until I was on the plane to California. I couldn't tell anyone except my parents for months. We got the go-ahead to tell people like a month and a week ago. Mayim Bialik put a promo that I was in.

TJ: Since it’s come out that you’ve been on the show, what have people’s reactions been?

JK: I’ve been getting messages from people I haven’t spoken to in years, like my third grade English teacher and my gym coach. It's so nice to see people coming out of the woodwork. I’m not from NYC or anything. I'm from West Hartford, CT. I did an interview with the Waltham Tribune and the local paper West Hartford, so it's nice to represent Waltham and my town. I hope I represented them well!

TJ: What’s been the craziest thing that’s happened while you were live?

JK: They run a tight ship. There's no sensational stuff that happened. There were some technical difficulties, nothing too crazy. If there was something technically wrong, they’d send a text to Mayim Bialik.

TJ: Was there a question where you were really stumped? What was going through your head while playing?

JK: That’s another thing I can't really specify: there are a lot of questions that no one gets right, called triple stumpers. I will say the "final Jeopardy!" is stressful with the music –– that's live, they don't put that in after –– so it’s stressful when you have 26 seconds to answer and that’s on while you're trying to think.

TJ: What’s it like doing "Jeopardy!" while doing school - did you miss much?

JK: It was the Friday to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I got back to CT the day before Thanksgiving so I missed like three days; a Friday, Monday, and a Tuesday, and then Wednesday we had off for break. With Zoom classes and stuff you're not supposed to use it unless you're sick, but if I needed to I could have Zoomed from my hotel room. Two of my professors made me tell why I needed that, and they both didn't really know how to respond when I said why. It's not like my family is going to Aruba for vacation. They were kind of blindsided. I don’t think they were expecting me to say that [I was going to be "on Jeopardy!".]

TJ: Overall, what’s been the best and hardest part of this experience?

JK: The toughest part was keeping it a secret: that I couldn't tell anyone was very difficult. We'd be at a dinner with family friends and "Jeopardy!" would be on, and someone would say, ‘Joey, you'd be so good at that!’ and my parents would just look at each other.

"Jeopardy!" seemed to come up more times in that one month when I couldn't tell anyone.

The best part? The whole experience was amazing. I met great people. And I was up there thinking, like, ‘This is "Jeopardy!" I have a fun fact for the rest of my life. At the time it felt like a slog, but it actually went by way too quickly and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's kind of indescribable.

I also didn't know hair and makeup were different people. I sat down in the makeup chair and she’d cake on a pound of makeup because I’m so fair, so my face would be like orange: a different color than my neck. I was in the chair for longer than anyone else, even the girls who had eyeshadow and stuff. She kept saying “you're too fair for TV,” and “it's always the boys who get the good eyelashes,” but I couldn't even respond because we weren't allowed to open our mouths when we were getting makeup done for COVID reasons. They were really strict about that.

TJ: So were you able to eat with other contestants, or did you have to do that in your rooms?

JK: We could eat with other contestants. There were benches outside where it was two people to a table, but they were super strict about it.

TJ: So then it’s good you were in Cali, right? At least it was warm!

JK: It was actually super cold! When we were filming, it was cold in there [the studio] -

they gave us sweatshirts but we couldn't wear any layers under them.

TJ: Jeopardy sweatshirts? Or school sweatshirts?

JK: No they bought me two Brandeis sweatshirts — they like, were steaming them because they thought it would make it look more professional. I already had the same one that I had bought myself and they made me wear theirs anyway. Onstage the strings were uneven so they also cut the strings off with scissors because they didn't like how they looked.

TJ: What other kinds of things did they have you do?

JK: To ensure fairness they’d draw balls out of a jar to see who’d go on stage in what order. There's a lot of less high-tech, little things you wouldn't expect about the whole process. But it was also still, like, TV. There was an ‘applause’ sign and stuff.

TJ: So I guess tonight we’ll see the results!?

JK: Yeah! I’m excited for the watch party tonight, even though I'll be asleep. I'm expecting to wake up to many texts!

Note – "Jeopardy! College Championship" aired beginning Feb. 8 on ABC and is now available for streaming on Hulu.

AMERICAN RED CROSS : The February 2022 blood drive was very succesful, collecting 55 units of blood.

Photo Courtesy of HANNA ARONOVICH

Photo Courtesy of JEOPARDY

INC. NATIONAL TV: Joey Kornman competed in "Jeopardy! College Championship," which was filmed at the end of November 2021 and aired on Feb. 9, 2022.

features

You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.

ON THIS DAY…

On Feb. 15, 1903, the Teddy Bear, made by Morris and Rose Michtom, was introduced in America.

FUN FACT

A 1995 study suggests that we are more attracted to people with immune systems that differ from our own.

Work-Study, but no work?

The Justice spoke to students on both sides of the application and hiring process for on-campus jobs to find out more about the challenges that students who have WorkStudy encounter when attempting to utilize the program and get jobs on campus.

By MIRABELL ROWLAND JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When she first arrived on campus after the break, Assia Hamana ’25 hoped to have employment in the new year. However, to her surprise, most employers had fulfilled their quota. “Everyone else was getting jobs and it felt like I was getting left behind,” she told the Justice on Feb. 11. Hamana explained that in high school, she wasn’t planning on working in college. She wanted to enjoy her time, especially as a first-year, exploring her interests in various activities. It was not until her senior year of high school that she learned about Work-Study.

Hamana is one of the more than 560,000 students in the U.S. who are granted Federal Work-Study awards in their financial aid package as a way to pay for education or the expenses that are not covered by scholarships. “It wasn’t until I learned more about Work-Study that I realized that working was probably going to be inevitable,” Hamana said.

So what exactly is Work-Study? According to the Federal Student Aid, Work-Study is a federally-funded program with the goal of helping students who have financial needs afford college with income earned through part-time jobs on campus. Students who demonstrate a certain level of financial need based on their information in FAFSA are considered for Work-Study.

The FAQ section on the Brandeis Student Employment website explains another benefit of Work-Study for those who qualify: “It is important to note that wages earned through [Federal Work-Study] will not be included in total income when determining financial aid eligibility for the following year. However, wages earned by all other employees will be included.” However, as many students discover once they arrive at Brandeis, just because one qualifies for student Work-Study does not mean they are guaranteed an on-campus job.

Hamana explained that by the time she started college, it seemed as if she could not afford not to work. She began her relentless search on Workday. Scrolling through teaching assistant positions, tutoring jobs, research opportunities, and the jobs that did not fit her schedule, she would put in her application and wait. “The application process was not even the difficult part,” Hamana said. She explained that all the jobs she did find would eventually respond and tell her that the positions were all full. “The sad part for me was that I could not even be considered for the position. I have never even had an interview for any of the jobs I

have applied for.”

Rubaiya Nasim ’23 experienced a similar struggle when she tried to get a campus job to redeem the Work-Study award that was included in her financial aid package. In a message to the Justice through Instagram on Feb. 12, she wrote, “Work-Study jobs are somehow way more competitive than I thought they would be. Sometimes you’d receive a letter rejecting you, but at times some departments didn’t even send a notice.” Nasim also had trouble finding a job that fit her well.

She explained that as an underclassman without proper qualifications for many of the jobs available at Brandeis, employment options on campus were limited. “You definitely can’t be a TA or research assistant right off the bat, so that leaves mainly office jobs or jobs that require you to be more outgoing, like tour guides or student callers, which I think puts some students at a disadvantage if they don’t have the personality for it.”

During her first-year and sophomore years, finding work was a struggle for Nasim. Now, in her junior year, she has finally been able to reap the benefits of WorkStudy: “I somehow was fortunate enough to get two jobs this semester.”

Nasim and Hamana’s struggle to get hired for a Work-Study job raises the question, does Work-Study truly help offset the financial burden of a college education for the students who have financial need, if Nasim, Hamana, and students like them are not able to get a job until as late as their junior year?

According to the Brandeis Student Employment policies, the process of searching for and applying to jobs on campus is almost entirely the same for students who have Work-Study and for those who do not. The only difference is that students with Work-Study and University employment are given the chance to apply for jobs at Brandeis during the first month of the semester, while students who do not have Work-Study have to wait until October to apply to on-campus jobs. This means that until Oct. 1 of any given school year, students with Work-Study can apply to as many jobs as needed without competing with applicants without Work-Study.

This system is designed so that students with Work-Study have a greater chance of finding a job; however, the experiences of the students the Justice interviewed illustrated that even when only competing with

other students who have Work-Study, there is by no means a guarantee that these students will find employment.

According to the Brandeis Student Employment FAQ page, “While some departments can hire only students who have Federal Work-Study, [there are] many others that are able to hire students who do not have FWS.” When it comes to the jobs at Brandeis that can hire students with or without Work-Study, whether an applicant has Work-Study is not always considered during the hiring process, meaning that those with Work-Study do not necessarily have a significant advantage over those without, other than the opportunity to apply a month early.

Diana Epstein ’22 is a supervisor for Brandeis Phonathon, one of the University’s fundraising programs. During a Feb. 12 Zoom interview, she spoke about the process of hiring students as shift supervisors for Brandeis Phonathon. “I don’t think Work-Study applies really at all within the interview process. It’s not really something I consider when thinking about who to hire,” said Epstein, explaining that she focuses on why applicants want the job and what qualities they can bring to the position.

She said that Phonathon’s hiring process is unique: “Most jobs don’t have a student interviewing and in charge of hiring ... maybe they look at whether or not people have Work-Study; in all honesty, they probably don’t. It’s not something that is really taken into account.”

Epstein received Federal Work-Study during some of her years at Brandeis. When she was a first-year she had Work-Study and, like Nasim and Hamana, she did not hear back from many of the jobs she applied to until she eventually heard about Phonathon and applied.

“Work-Study is not only helping me with finances but also helping me pursue what I really want to do with my summers,” she said. Epstein spends her summers as a camp counselor, a job that she loves but doesn’t make her much money. This is something she says wouldn’t be possible without her oncampus jobs: “I work during the school year

to pay the expenses so I can do what I love during the summer.”

Epstein explained that she was fortunate that she did not depend on needing an oncampus job.

“My parents were like, ‘You need to find a job eventually … but it does not need to be tomorrow.’ So I had the liberty of being more selective of where I wanted to apply that I am aware not everyone has,” she said, adding, “There can be quite a lot of stress and pressure [from] this idea that you are not just a student but you also must be making a certain amount of income to cover your costs.”

Epstein said that she doesn’t think she would have applied for Phonathon if she didn’t have Work-Study: “Because I had that opportunity to apply, it was one of those jobs that I found and I was like ‘Okay let’s try it out.’ But it has really honestly shaped my life as to where I am today.”

She spoke about how Work-Study jobs can help students explore their interests and discover new ones. “Work-Study helps students not only in the present but also helps you explore things for the future.”

In fact, Epstein’s own on-campus job led her down the career path that she is currently pursuing. “Working at Phonathon, the sales experience and non-profit development leadership that you get here is amazing. That is something that I am actually heading into now [and] after college, and that is not something that I would have been exposed to or thought about without the experience from Phonathon.”

While there are students like Epstein that are able to use Work-Study to help them discover their interests and serve as a form of financial aid to provide a greater degree of financial stability during college, these benefits are non-existent if one cannot find a job.

Photo Courtesy of DIANA EPSTEIN PHONATHON: Diana Epstein ’22, a training supervisor for Brandeis’ Phonathon fundraising program, sits outside of the Phonathon office.

Established 1949

Sofia Gonzalez Rodriguez, Editor in Chief

Cameron Cushing, Managing Editor

Gilda Geist, Senior Editor River Hayes, Deputy Editor

Leeza Barstein, Jen Crystal, Jane Flautt, Gabriel Frank, Megan Geller, Hannah O’Koon, Noah Zeitlin, Associate Editors

Jacklyn Golobordsky, Hannah Taylor, News Editors

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Ariella Weiss, Lynn Han, Copy Editors

Samantha Goldman, Online Editor

EDITORIALS

The lack of transparency in COVID-19 protocols put students at risk

Since late 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has defined a close contact as someone who has been within six feet of a person who has COVID-19 for 15 minutes over a span of 24 hours. Brandeis has stated on their COVID-19 dashboard that they follow these protocols as. However, the University also stated in a Jan. 7 email that each positive test is dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

According to Michelle Hart, lead administrator of the Brandeis Community Tracing Program, “The protocols currently in place are created and approved by the Clinical Director at the Brandeis Health Center, BCTP, and the members of the Brandeis Steering Committee with input from the [Local Board of Health], [Massachusetts Department of Public Health], and current CDC guidelines. Data is reviewed daily to ensure the protocols in place are reflective of the current COVID dynamics at Brandeis.”

However, despite this seemingly wellinformed protocol, the BCTP refused to touch base with one member of this editorial board who fit the CDCdefinition of a close contact. This took place despite another close contact giving the board member’s name to the BCTP from the beginning. This member took between a week and a week-anda-half to test positive, during which they were still not contacted by BCTP.

According to Hart, “Any student who has questions about exposure to COVID should reach out to … bctp@brandeis. edu.”

This board understands that both Brandeis and the BCTP are adhering to CDC protocols to determine whether a student quarantines or goes into isolation. However, there is no protocol for students who wish to stay safe and quarantine if they feel they could test positive in the near future.

If a student has not tested positive, is asymptomatic, or has been in contact with someone who has COVID-19 for less than 15 minutes but still wants to quarantine or isolate to keep others safe, there is no guidance for that student. If that student does end up testing positive, they will have put people at risk for the days leading up to their result against their will.

We ask that the Brandeis Community Tracing Program clarify what to do in these situations, as well as listen to students’ concerns and work with them to give the student an option that makes them feel safe.

In addition to the confusing guidelines for what students should be doing to prevent spreading COVID-19 in some circumstances, the Brandeis Health Center has tried to block some students from taking their own precautions when they had health concerns. A different member of this editorial board was told by a nurse at the Health Center that they were “irresponsible” for having their vaccinated parents bring them home after they tested positive for COVID-19. This board member was clear with the nurse that their parents understood

the risks of COVID-19 and that the alternative to going home — isolation housing at 567 South Street — would not be sufficient for accommodating the board member’s medical needs. The board member was still urged to stay on campus, even if it would endanger their own health.

This board asks that the Health Center takes into account the disabilities and medical needs of students who test positive. If 567 cannot accommodate the student and the student makes their own arrangements, they should not be told they’re being “irresponsible.” Additionally, for students who are unable to accommodate their disabilities on their own, there needs to be communication as to how that student can both stay safe and be accommodated through the duration of their illness.

A third member of this board had someone on their floor in a hall-style building test positive for COVID-19. However, that person was not moved into isolation. No one on the floor was identified as a close contact, despite sharing a bathroom, or contacted that there was someone in the vicinity with COVID-19. The student also asked to be moved into isolation but this request was not granted. At the time, there were only 15 students in isolation, far fewer than 567’s capacity.

This board questions why the person who had tested positive was not moved into the isolation dorm and why those on the floor were not contacted that someone had tested positive. With the living style, those on that floor could be sharing a bathroom with the person and be unaware of it. This is especially concerning because there are areas in which it would be hard to keep a mask on, such as the showers.

The CDC recommends waiting as long as possible (ideally hours) before entering a space in which someone with COVID-19 has been as well as increasing ventilation. This is very difficult to do with community bathrooms. CDC recommendations for proper ventilation are hard to control for the entire building, and solutions such as opening the windows aren’t recommended in the colder weather.

The board reached out to BCTP to ask why a student might be asked to isolate in place when they share a bathroom with many other students and the COVID-19 dashboard shows that there is plenty of room in 567. Hart wrote back in an email, “Our protocols currently allow for students who are asymptomatic and living in a single to stay in the comfort of their room during isolation … Typically, when a student has a communal bathroom setting, we will do our best to utilize on campus isolation as long as it is available.”

Given this protocol, the board is unsure as to why this student wasn’t moved to 567.

This board asks that the BCTP either give students solutions as to how to handle community style living when living on the same floor as someone

with COVID-19 or remove that student (per their wishes) into isolation.

This board appreciates all that Brandeis has been doing to keep students safe with

the surge of Omicron. However, we also ask that Brandeis take into consideration students’ concerns about keeping themselves and others safe.

ViewsonNews the

President Joe Biden’s promise to appoint a Black woman as a Supreme Court Justice during his presidency has been met with criticism despite the Supreme Court historically being devoid of racial and gender balance. As Ketanji Brown Jackson stands as the front runner for the SCOTUS post, how does that impact the future of the Supreme Court? Will her decision making in the future empower those who are marginalized? What is gained when there is diversity amongst our politicians and judges?

Haley Brown ’22

While Joe Biden’s promise to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court is a much-needed first step towards rectifying the lack of diversity that has been and is currently present on the Supreme Court, we need to be careful not to conflate one’s race or gender with one’s political or legal decision-making. As we’ve seen with multiple female picks in the past, just because a woman is on the Supreme Court does not necessarily mean that her decisions will “favor” women (or the wishes of the majority of women). While I cannot claim to know whether Ketanji Brown Jackson’s legal decision-making will empower those who are marginalized, I do imagine that her mere presence on the Bench may serve as inspiration to those who have not seen themselves represented in such high positions. This country desperately needs more diversity in its judicial makeup, or there will never be change.

Haley Brown is senior a majoring in American studies film, television, & interactive media and minoring in, legal studies, English, creative writing. She is the co-general manager

of WBRS.

Photo: Haley Brown

Among the many persisting struggles for freedom in the world, there are two simultaneous struggles that strike a contrast like no other. Across the northeastern border between the United States and Canada, there are a series of not new, albeit far larger in scale, protests by truck drivers against vaccine mandates and other pandemic restrictions across the country. The truckers have, over the past several weeks, turned what was a series of loosely organized protests in the city into what is essentially an active blockade and campaign of general intimidation, threatening other drivers and pedestrians, as well as a significant portion of trade occurring between Canada and the U.S. in the process. Protesters, described by observers in Ottawa as being “highly determined and volatile,” see their cause as a justified defiance against what they perceive to be tyranny on part of the state, with vaccine requirements constituting a gross violation of their bodily autonomy and choices.

Many outside observers, mostly those on the political right, have related to this cause, seeing it as worthy, just, and a rebellion against the overstepping vaccine mandates that they believe have jeopardized their freedom. Independent of what one may think of vaccine requirements and other pandemic-related restrictions, the

protests, at their core, are representative of a particular idealization of freedom, which serves as a vision of the state compelling inoculation against a deadly virus, and seeing this coercion or really any sort of state-enforced personal task as a violation of one’s right to self-determination in an otherwise democratic country.

On the other side of the world, Ukrainians from all walks of life are engaging in a slightly different form of struggle for their perception of freedom. Many, gearing up for a likely large-scale Russian invasion of their territory, have taken to learning basic military training and tactics over the past several months, preparing to potentially defend their cities and neighborhoods block by block from a vastly superior, more destructive, and significantly more brutal invasion force. Vladimir Putin, the president and de facto Tsar of the Russian Federation, believes the fellow Slavic nation, one whom Russia has over a thousand years of kinship with, who would dare have a democratically elected government, and whose citizens want more and more to associate with the West, to be the greatest threat to his iron-fisted rule. Putin sees Ukraine as drifting ever further away from Russia’s sphere of influence, and as a result is taking the military option of likely trying to either overthrow Ukraine’s government by way of utter numerical decimation or trying to force the country to become a failed state, further solidifying Russia’s wall of authoritarian clients. To do this, Putin is willing to wage the slaughter of potentially tens of thousands of Ukranians, as well as an untold number of his own soldiers, becoming even more of a pariah on the international stage, and likely causing severe economic pain that the West

More clubs

By TASHA EPSTEIN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Last week, Brandeis hosted an involvement fair, where representatives from dozens of student organizations and clubs gathered to invite students to join. Clubs employed various methods to help draw students in, from free candy scattered on tables to extroverted and outspoken student representatives volunteering a friendly spiel. However, many students joined clubs more willingly and enthusiastically than free candies could account for; students also joined clubs based on their interests and passions.

The question is if students can manage to balance all the activities they may have on their plates, while still making sure to relax and recharge — most Brandeisians seem unable to turn down an opportunity.

Most students are enrolled in four courses that each meet for a few hours a week, some with additional recitation or lab periods. The majority of courses are four credits each, giving most students 16 credits per semester. Some students (myself included) are enrolled in five or more, as Brandeis allows students to take up to 22 course credits, or five and a half courses, per semester.

While taking five and a half courses may already sound like a heavy load, students often choose to join multiple clubs and activities — it’s important to note that Brandeis doesn’t impose limits on how many clubs and activities any one student can participate in. Thus, students often have a kid-in-a-candy-shop type of experience as they first sign up

will inflict by way of sanctions. All this is in the name of stomping on a threat far greater than any potential (if very unlikely) NATO membership for Ukraine: freedom.

But Ukraine isn’t going down without a fight. In the name of independence, autonomy, and liberty in a far more concrete form than the Canadian truck drivers claim to be representing, ordinary people both within and outside Ukraine’s armed forces, whether they are volunteering for a weapons or communication course or willfully staying amidst a potentially chaotic Russian assault, vow to protect their homeland and freedom at the cost of their lives.

Thus, the two battling interpretations of what it means to have true selfdetermination and fundamental natural rights considerably muddy the meaning of liberty but also give it a more abstract notion of privilege. The Canadian truckers, while angry about a violation of their interpretation of freedom, truly don’t know how good they have it.

They can vote to choose their leaders in free and fair elections and can have the very protests they are staging with little to no consequences. There are no dictators with whom they share a land border with who are willing to wage war to take away their right to do this, and there are no immediate threats to their lives that exist as a suppression of this very concept.

In Ukraine, however, this struggle does exist, and it does not have the luxury of subjective interpretation. What is at stake is not a series of temporary and only slightly inconvenient yet entirely inconsequential restrictions, but instead the end of freedom and the right for the citizens of a country

to determine the course of its future. Freedom, as it exists both theoretically and tangibly in our twenty-first century world, is undergoing a serious and possibly fatal identity crisis. Such vastly different interpretations, one born of spoiled, selfrighteous entitlement to a vague, hastily thought-out abstract concept, and the other the product of a life-or-death struggle to simply exist, cannot possibly co-exist in the same world, yet they do.

What can change things, however, is the recognition of this fact: that freedom, while it might mean different things to different people in different places at different times, is very much a matter of degree and also one of privilege.

These struggles are not even remotely of the same degree of importance and vary immensely on scales of gravity. In a time where the world seems to be trending more and more in the direction of authoritarianism, quantifying the meaning of freedom directly, as it applies to conflicts where thousands, if not millions of lives and livelihoods hang in the balance, as opposed to minor inconvenience, is a matter of prudent necessity.

To recognize this fact is to give freedom and autonomy, some of the most fundamental of human rights, a semblance of their identity back. This is what people like Putin fear the most; not crippling sanctions, weapons, or military alliances, but a redefined, tangible, and struggled-for liberty that emerges triumphant from the ashes of physical and ideological strife.

Its fate, the legacy of keeping this identity-struggling flame burning lies with those as brave and convicted as the people of Ukraine.

the Brandeisian struggle for balance

for clubs. It seems to really embody the Brandeisian drive and ambitious spirit that folks may sign up for a half-dozen clubs while still attempting to start or apply to several more.

However, there are only so many hours in the day, and due to the unfortunate fact of linear time, there’s usually not just one event or class occurring at any given moment. Club meetings and classes often conflict with each other, forcing students to choose, despite their best efforts to participate in both.

There’s simply too many worthy topics and causes for most students to participate in everything that catches their attention.

Aside from the time constraint, students each have a limited amount of energy. Most courses demand at least a couple hours of studying and homework following each class.

Multiply that by the number of courses one is enrolled in, and things can get out of hand quickly. Even if one has stellar time management skills and incredible focus, there’s only so much work one can get done. Students are forced, even if they’d rather not, to prioritize what they can and can’t partake in.

Various forms of pressure can play a role in this prioritization process, be it social, parental, or career-based. Students may want to be in a club many of their friends are in, or that helps out a needy cause, while parents may want students to pick clubs that advance their children’s career prospects or that follow in their own footsteps.

While students (and/or their friends and parents) might be disappointed to cut some activities from their schedule,

it allows them to put more effort into the ones they keep. A student can make much more of a difference in one or two organizations than they can trying to stretch themselves across five or six. How one chooses to prioritize their time and arrange their schedule, of course, depends on the student themselves. Maybe you’d prefer to dedicate yourself to charitable organizations, while some of your friends may decide to go for schoolsponsored activities, and even other classmates just pick ones they think will be fun. There’s no right or wrong way to pick clubs—they’re all a great time, as long as one can dedicate the proper

time and effort to them. Students need to be able to rest and recuperate; nobody should be running between buildings and trying to submit assignments all the time. Speaking from experience, trying to do everything is a recipe for burnout; so even if you pride yourself on accolades, take pity on yourself and your sleep schedule and show some restraint. Plus, to take some pressure off, remember there are no good or bad clubs or organizations, so students really can’t go wrong with their choices. Except for the Justice ... that’s definitely a good club.

than is fair:

GABRIEL FRANK IN RETROSPECT

JACK YUANWEI CHENG /the Justice

SKATING: Chen wins gold

CONTINUED FROM 12

The Beijing Winter Olympic games provided this young athlete with an opportunity to earn the gold medal that he knew was rightfully Chen was able to propel team USA into second place in the team event

He excited and invigorated the American public, foreshadowing a breathtaking performance in the individual competition.

On Thursday night, judgment was last to go due to his exciting short program. Before him, two Japanese skaters Yuma Kagiyama, 18, and Shoma Uno, 24, put forth high intensity performances with but both failed to land their tricks

cleanly without mistakes.

As Chen stepped on the ice, everyone watching at home buzzed with anticipation of a glorious performance. “Rocket Man” by Elton John rang through the speakers as Chen began his bid for jumps, a series of artistic spins, and intense choreography, it was evident that he would be taking the known for not portraying much

Chen had a gigantic grin on his face as he ended his long program. with a total point value of 332.60. He blew away the competition, scoring much higher than the silver medalist Kagiyama with a score of 310.05 and bronze medalist Uno

Chen had completed the Olympic redemption arc of the century.

BASKETBALL: Women's basketball beat

Case Western University Spartans

CONTINUED FROM 12

Casanueva opened up the game for the Judges off an elegant backdoor cut assisted by Reavis. A 3-point bucket from captain Francesca Marchese ’23 gave the Judges an early 7-2 lead, but the Spartans closed the gap with two 3’s of their own. Tathiana Pierre ’23 regained the lead with two consecutive baskets, and a corner 3 from Casanueva pulled the Judges away. Bacon also went on a 4-0 run on her own, followed by a Reavis bomb from distance and her defensive effort to close out the quarter, Judges leading 21-12.

Case Western became more aggressive on defense in the second quarter and went on an 8-0 run was ended by a layup from Tanke. First-year Mollie Obar joined the 3-point party with 4:40 left in the quarter and was found open before the buzzer but could not make the shot. The Spartans took advantage of the shots given by the Judges’ 2-3 zone defense and took over the lead, 31-28.

Starting off the second half,

Casanueva tied the game with her trifecta. Marchese built onto the effort, sank from distance, and stole the ball defensively, and Tanke stepped through the Spartans shield wall, drew the foul, and took back the lead from the line. As foul trouble sent Casanueva off the court, Reavis took over with her 3-point shot, collected the defensive rebound, and found Pierre off the break. Defensively, Bacon locked the Spartans’ leading scorer down effectively. Another 3-pointer from Marchese gave the Judges a double-digit lead with 1:40 left in the third quarter, but the Spartans responded with a 4-0 period with an eight-point lead, 52-44.

The Spartans cashed off another 5-0 run to start off their fourth-quarter action, which was, again, ended by Tanke. While the Spartans threw in double teams and forced some turnovers off the stayed calm, dialed in from the 3, and forced a CWRU timeout. After the break, the Spartans implemented a full-court press that did not work out well. A Reavis steal combined with a long-rebound by Gresko down

the stretch seemingly secured the Judges win, but a frustrating foul and some funny turnovers gave the Spartans some chances to tie the game up. However, crucial help defense from Pierre stripped the ball in the lane and crushed the Spartans’ last hope. The Judges took care of business defensively and closed the game out, celebrating the weekend with a 61-58 win.

Gresko led the team with 12 points. Marchese made three out of nine attempts from distance and cashed off nine points. Reavis was on triple-double watch as she contributed another all-around performance of nine points, nine rebounds, and nine assists. Pierre came up big off the bench and scored eight. Casanueva, who left the game after a rightankle injury, also chimed in eight points. The Judges carried out a balanced offense with a spectacular 43.5% shooting from downtown and mixed up their defense with a 2-3 zone from time to time.

The Judges will host the University of Chicago Maroons this Friday and will feature another against the Washington University Bears on our very own Senior Sunday.

ON THE ICE: Nathan Chen at the Internationaux de France .

Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

POINT GOD: Camila Casanueva'22 calls the shots on offense.

THOMAS TIANCHENG ZHENG/Justice File Photo

THOMAS TIANCHENG ZHENG/Justice File Photo

FREE POINTS: Guard Camila Casanueva '22 brings the ball up for the Judges.

THOMAS TIANCHENG ZHENG/Justice File Photo

DRIBBLE ON A BEAT: I gotta keep an eye out for Selenya (Gonzalez) .

JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

TEAM STATS

team with 16.1 points per game.

UPCOMING GAMES:

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Rebounds Per Game

TEAM STATS

Emma Reavis

SWIMMING AND DIVING

By AIDEN GUTHRO JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is advocating for more inclusive workplace practices within the National Football League. Flores is currently suing the NFL and three of its teams on allegations of racist hiring practices and wrongful termination.

In mid January, Flores was fired by the Dolphins after becoming the first head coach in 18 years to capture two winning seasons in a row for the organization. His firing was a shock to the whole NFL community who had been thoroughly impressed by Flores’ ability to turn around a struggling team. He posted a 3-1 record against their rivals, the New England Patriots, which impressed many Dolphin fans. Needless to say, there were many questions surrounding the choice of a sudden coaching change. Dolphins owner Stephen Ross stated that the decision to release Flores was based on issues with collaboration between ownership and coaching. Flores, however, denied these claims and stated that Ross wanted the team

to tank the 2019 season in order to receive the number one pick.

Flores alleges that Ross offered him $100,000 per loss, but Flores denied the money. This upset Ross and ultimately led him to releasing Flores of his coaching duties. Following the firing of Flores, many analysts assumed that he would be highly sought after by the nine teams in need of a replacement coach. Supposedly, the New York Giants was one of the teams interested in Flores and scheduled a meeting with him to interview for the position. Yet, before Flores could even interview, he received a text message from the Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick congratulating him on receiving the position. This, of course, was rather odd. It turned out that Belichick had texted the wrong Brian. He thought he was texting Brian Dabul, the offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills who was ultimately announced as the new Giants head coach.

Flores thanked Bill for the text message because it revealed more than just a missed opportunity. It showed him that the Giants were giving him a “sham” interview just to comply with the Rooney rule. The Rooney rule states that every organization must seriously interview at least one person of color for every major position: general manager, coach, and director of football operations.

Flores was being used by the Giants and the text messages with

Belichick was enough evidence to pursue a lawsuit.

In an interview with ESPN, Flores had one major message to the NFL: “we need change.” Flores has risked his NFL coaching career in order to bring these issues to light. Bill Rhoden, a columnist for ESPN’s The Undefeated, compared Flores to former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kapernick who was black-balled from the NFL after speaking out about systemic racism in the United States. Flores, just like Kapernick, is working for something more than just the game of football.

Despite

57.5% of NFL players being Black, there have only been 24 Black head coaches in the history of the NFL. With the recent hiring of Houston Texans head coach Lovie Smith, the new percentage of Black head coaches in the NFL is an abysmal 6.3%. The Flores case aside, the numbers don’t lie. Black NFL players make up more than half the player population, but the representation lacks in those who coach them.

Many former players of Flores have stepped up in support; in a Twitter post, Patriots safety Devin McCourty referred to Flores as a “special individual” and commended him for “calling out what we all already know.” Flores has the support of the players, but it will be interesting to see how other management deals with the lawsuit and whether or not they address the obvious issue at hand.

■ Former head coach Brian Flores brought a lawsuit to the NFL alleging a wrongful firing from the Miami Dolphins.

Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

Sports just BRIAN FLORES ACCUSES NFL OF RACIST HIRING PRACTICES

The latest controversy in the NFL, p.11

RAMS WIN CHAMPIONSHIP PRO

Nathan Chen and the gold he knew he deserved

■ Despite failure in his first Olympic Winter Games, Nathan Chen returns and emerges the victor of the men’s singles ice skating event.

By Liz Pal JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Wednesday, Feb. 9, the USA was sitting in tenth place in the overall medal count for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. By Thursday, the USA was able to pick up an additional three gold medals which propelled them into fourth overall. The most notable of these gold medals was the one earned in the men's single free skating York Times.

old born in Salt Lake City, Utah, redemption arc. He was provided the opportunity to prove that he is the best in the world at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. He did not disappoint, earning the U.S. its third gold medal in the games.

The 2022 Winter Olympics

skating. In 2018, Chen attended the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games and was able to secure a bronze medal in the team event

short program section. His debut Olympics took a turn for the worse when he performed poorly in the short program in the men’s individual event. His mistakes landed him in 17th place after the short program but he was able

olympics to attempt six quads — quad is when a skater launches off the ice, completing at least four revolutions in the air and landing on one foot. Chen obtained the highest free skate score in Olympic history with a score of 215.08 based on two categories worth of points, technical and component. Although he had a fantastic performance, the dreams of earning a gold medal were squashed due to his earlier

his name in Olympic skating history, he left empty handed in individual competition.

a three time world champion in 2018, 2019, and 2021. He was also the champion at the 2017 Four Continents Figure Skating Championship and a three time Grand Prix Final champion in 2017, 2018, and 2019. He has also won the U.S. national championship for six consecutive years since 2017.

See SKATING, 10 ☛

Women’s basketball win their second UAA game on the road

■ Brandeis’ women’s basketball fell to the Carnegie Mellon University’s Tartans but won against Case Western Reserve University

By JACKSON WU JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Judges 51, Carnegie Mellon

66

the season strongly, the Brandeis Judges visited the Carnegie Mellon University Tartans on Friday. In this University Athletics Association matchup, the Judges suffered a 6-21 second-quarter run and lost to the Tartans, 51-66. quarter, led by two early layups from center Kerry Tanke ’22. A 3-pointer followed by another midrange jumper from captain Camila Casanueva ’22 closed the gap and by two. The Judges went cold in the second quarter and gifted the Tartans a 21-6 run propelled by their consistency from the 3-point

Rams Win Super Bowl LVI

Rams defense combined for seven sacks, and defensive tackle Aaron Donalds and outside linebacker Von Miller were able to knock down Bengals quarterback, Joe Burrow twice.

By EMMA GHALILI JUSTICE SENIOR STAFF WRTER

The Los Angeles Rams have won Super Bowl LVI against the Cincinnati Bengals. This is the second Super Bowl win in franchise history after they won the Super Bowl XXXIV against the Tennessee titans in 1999, reported CBS news.

score 20–23.

line. The Judges attempted to get back into the game and closed the game out with their own 11-0 run, but that was not enough for the comeback.

Casanueva led the team with 12 points. Sophomore Christina scoring performance off the bench, contributing 11 points in just nine minutes with seven of eight shooting from the foul line. the sheet with eight points, seven Judges could not connect from distance and struggled collecting defensive rebounds, giving the Tartans a 10-point advantage off second-chance points.

Judges 61, Case Western 58 Spending their Super Bowl Sunday in Cleveland, Ohio, the Judges faced off the Case Western Reserve University Spartans. The Judges balanced their offense, spiced up their defensive plan, and celebrated the night with a 6158 win.

See BASKETBALL, 10 ☛

Matthew Stafford, the Rams quarterback, completed 26 of 40 passes for a total of 283 yards. Cooper Kupp, wide receiver for the Rams, caught eight passes for 92 yards and scored two out of the three touchdowns for the Rams.

The third touchdown was caught by Odell Beckham Jr., another wide receiver for the Rams. Even though he played well, Beckham Jr. left the game after the second quarter due to a non-contact knee injury.

The Rams offense was not the defense also played very well. The

The Rams controlled a majority sport, with receivers Beckham touchdowns of the day. The Bengals then came back late in the second quarter with a trick play that led to an interception by safety Jessie Bates III.

Burrow was able to complete 22 of 23 passes for a total of 263 yards and a touchdown. Cincinnati running back Joe Moxon also tossed one touchdown pass. Out of halftime, Burrow was able to throw the ball to Higgins for a 75-yard touchdown pass. This play caused controversy as the replay showed that Higgins grabbed hold of cornerback Jalen Ramsey’s face mask, and no penalty was called.

Despte the controversy, the play put Cincinnati in the lead 17–13. The Bengals then increased their

The Rams were able to gain control of the game when Cincinnati fell short in the 4th down when Rams lineman, Aaron Donald, pressured attempt causing him to fall onto the turf. This play turned the ball back over to the Rams giving them their 20–23 victory.

Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp was named the game’s MVP. Kupp was the player who caught the game winning touchdown for the Rams with fewer than two minutes on the clock. Kupp had eight receptions for 92 yards and two touchdowns. Kupp grabbed the game sealing touchdown with a 1-yard reception in the end zone from quarterback Stafford with a minute and a half left on the clock.

This is also a historic win for Rams coach Sean McVay. McVay is now the youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl, having turned 36 years old on Jan. 24th. He took the record from the Steelers coach who was 36 years, 10 months and 18 days old when he won Super Bowl XLIII in 2009.

■ A 1-yard touchdown secures the Super bowl for the Rams.

MEGAN GELLER/

BATTLE AT SOFI: The LA Rams and Cincinatti Bengals faced off at the SoFi arena in Los Angeles.

just arts & culture

Images: Jack Yuanwei Cheng/the Justice. Design: Jack Yuanwei Cheng/the Justice.

Waltham, Mass.

APAHM “OPENING”

By LYNN HAN JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis Asian American Student Association kicked off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with their opening event this past Saturday, Feb. 12. APAHM is an annual show celebrating the diverse cultures and histories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. BAASA began their monthlong celebrations with a night of performances, showcased by student performers and their headliner, Taiwanese pop singer Jason Chen.

Judy Ye ’24, APAHM’s creative showcase coordinator, explained how APAHM is the biggest event that BAASA holds: “It consists of three events — Opening, Creative Showcase, and Closing. Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is usually during the month of May, but May is Brandeis’ fi -

nals season, so BAASA holds events throughout the semester to celebrate APAHM.”

This year’s theme of APAHM is “Ride With the Waves,” said Ye. “It’s a metaphor for mental health. Waves come and go, and sometimes times can get rough; but with the right support, the wave will eventually pass, and you’ll sail to calmer waters.”

Maggie Chang ’23, APAHM’s Opening and Closing co-coordinator, further explained the importance of focusing on mental health, especially in relation to uplifting minority voices: “Mental health and its treatment have long been a stigmatized wedge splintering generational bonds in Asian families and preventing individuals from seeking help.

Too often, Asians with mental illness are marginalized, isolated, and discriminated against because their conditions are misunderstood. [Like

Judy said,] Mental health acts like waves. It ebbs and flows, and even crashes down on us without warning. When waves start to become rough, we feel like we might sink at any moment, but with the right support, we can learn to ride them out to calmer waters. Through our APAHM events, we aim to raise the voices of people in the Asian community with lived experiences.”

The thoughtful theme of this year’s APAHM, paired with the exciting performances resulted in an enjoyable experience. Both Ye and Chang agreed that watching Jason Chen and “Rice Paddies,” the e-board’s dance, was the best part of the night. Though both performances played important roles in the success of this unforgettable event, they would like to thank the rest of the BAASA e-board for all of their help and support in getting APAHM off to a

strong start.

If you missed the first APAHM event, not to worry: APAHM is a month-long celebration, so you can expect to see the second event, “Closing,” on March 31, when a panel will talk about

destigmatizing mental health in the AAPI community. Their last event, “SKIN Fashion Show,” will be held April 2, where they will showcase Asian Americans in the fashion world. Make sure to check these out!

Design: Megan Liao/the Justice

APAHM: BAASA members, from left to right, Maggie Chang ’23, Liz Gong ’23, Kelly Zheng ’22, and Erin Choi ’23 introduced the theme of the culture show, “Ride with the Waves.”

DIABOLO: Nova Diabolo, a Massachusetts-based Chinese Yoyo performance group, was invited to perform at the culture show.

JACK YUANWEI CHENG/the Justice

DANCE: Dance Revelasian is a Chinese folk dance promoting group fostering the ethnic culture in the practice of dance.

DANCE: The XL Girls Dance Group is a Brandeis hip-hop group performing to mainly Asian pop music.

Ugly cousin to The Oscars: necessary steps for The Razzies!

By JASON FRANK JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The Razzies! nominations came out last Monday, February 8, leaving me with an impossible question: why should I care about The Razzies!?

The Golden Raspberry Awards, better known as The Razzies!, are an annual parody awards show, where, instead of awarding the best movies of the year, they award the worst movies of the year. Categories include Worst Picture, Worst Remake, Sequel, or Rip-Off, and Worst Screen Couple, as well as the occasional special award, like this year, where the category Worst Performance was awarded to Bruce Willis in one of his 2021 movies.

The awards were started in 1980, when John Wilson, a copy writer and publicist, saw a double-feature of “Can’t Stop the Music” and “Xanadu” and was so disgusted that he began holding an awards ceremony for the worst films of the year in his apartment. By the time that the fourth ceremony arrived, CNN was covering it. These days, The Razzies! have become an established phenomenon.

At the time, this was one of the only ways someone like Wilson

could respond to the Hollywood system. He managed to get some press for his awards, and Hollywood took notice. Bill Cosby was the first star to actually ask for his award in 1988. Halle Berry showed up to collect her Razzie in 2004, Oscar in hand as an extra joke, as did Sandra Bullock in 2010, who collected her award for “All About Steve” the day before she won the Oscar for “The Blindside.”

Yet, despite their established nature, these days The Razzies! feel less like a fun way of getting back at the Hollywood system for their bad moviemaking, and more like an event in place solely to kick projects that were already down.

The most nominated movie this year was the filmed version of a musical about Princess Diana that aired on Netflix, aptly called “Diana the Musical.” “Diana the Musical” was bad—I have and am still willing to acknowledge that—but the film was there largely to promote the Broadway show, which is now regarded as a critical and financial failure.

What is the fun in nominating a project for nine “worst” awards that has already failed in every way possible? It’s not fun or funny to say that something that was

universally regarded as bad was bad. It’s stating the obvious.

Half of the issue stems from social media, which gives people the ability to make fun of projects like “Diana the Musical” right when they come out. By the time The Razzies! get to the film it’s already been thoroughly trounced. The Razzies! don’t add anything to the conversation and are made less funny because social media users have been making better and smarter jokes for months.

The other issue is that The Razzies! don’t have much to say anyway. There are always going to be awards and nominees that age poorly (Shelley Duvall’s nomination for Worst Actress for her work in “The Shining,” and “The Blair Witch Project” winning Worst Picture stand out in the history of The Razzies!), but if you’re going to parody, you should at least have something to say about what you’re parodying. For example, in recent years, two separate far-right political films have won Worst Picture: “Absolute Proof” in 2020 and “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party” in 2016. These wins don’t say anything other than “there are bad movies made by misinformed farright extremists, and I’m smarter

than them.” Which, sure. But if the sum total of your parody boils down to “I’m smart and this person is dumb,” then you probably don’t have much to say.

Additionally, putting these dangerous, extremist “documentaries” on the same level as something like a failed filmed production of “Diana the Musical” shows a lack of perspective on the process. These films are not similar to each other, and the reasons for failure span entirely different categories—that inconsistency ruins any chance of the joke landing. Furthermore, simply saying these films are bad has no interesting critique of Hollywood, Broadway, or politics. It feels like a personification of middle school boy humor, point-

ing and laughing because “thing bad and dumb.”

Parodying Hollywood and award show pomp and circumstance is not a dry well for humor or critique. Hollywood is still cranking out bad, rote movies that are nothing more than paint-by-numbers money makers with no real thought (four Marvel movies all following the exact same structure came out this year alone), and The Oscars, which The Razzies! are supposed to be the evil twin of, have been critiqued for their pretentiousness, racism, and out-of-touch nature. But if The Razzies! want to progress beyond “thing bad” level critique, they’re going to have to gain a point of view.

“Ozark” and “Inventing Anna”: Julia Garner as a Con Artist

By MELLO WILSTED JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

I had never seen Julia Garner in any show until I watched “Ozark,” and I was completely blown away by her performance. So, when I was told the same actress was playing the title character in “Inventing Anna,” a Netflix show about real-life con artist

Anna Delvey, I knew I had to watch it. Before starring in “Ozark” and “Inventing Anna,” Garner played Susan in the movie “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” She is Jewish and describes herself as being “half-Israeli,” as she has relatives from Israel whom she visits often. And, fun fact, she is married to singer Mark Foster from the band Foster

the People.

While the two roles she plays in “Ozark” and “Inventing Anna” are very different, they have more in common than you might initially think.

In “Ozark,” Garner plays the character Ruth Langmore, a role which earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards in 2019 and 2020 for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series, along with a Golden Globe nomination in 2020. Ruth comes from poverty, but uses her tremendous intelligence to first get involved in crime, but then to start her own businesses. Her personality is impressive and intimidating, and she is good at adapting to new situations and problems. As this character is fictional, Julia Garner had more creative freedom to shape the character she was playing.

In the new show “Inventing Anna,” Garner plays the adaptation of Anna Delvey, a smart fake heiress who

dresses glamorously, but was imprisoned for stealing money and not paying off her debts. She presented herself as a different person to everyone she spoke to, and this was adapted very well into the show. This character, of course, is based on the real person Anna Sorokin, and the show was adapted from the article, “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People” by Jessica Pressler, published by The Cut.

While one show is pure fiction and the other is based on real facts, Julia Garner is able to fully embody both roles. It makes me curious if it was a deliberate casting choice due to the similarities in the characters she was portraying. Both characters are intelligent, adaptable, and money-driven criminals trying to make a name for themselves in a world they have very little experience with. In addition Garner’s

characters are tremendously charismatic. At some points it is hard not to root for them as they make a better life for themselves, even as the means to such a life are deplorable.

Scams like the one at the center of “Inventing Anna” are clearly in the public consciousness. Indeed, in the era of the popular show “Tinder Swindler” on Netflix, it seems like people are more and more fascinated by these tales of high -profile crimes where the extremely wealthy are taken advantage of. It is fascinating to see the comparisons between these female scammers like Delvey and male scammers on shows like “Tinder Swindler,” and to also examine the differences between stories of scammers in the real world and the completely fictional scammers on TV. The question that remains is: why are we so captivated by these stories of glamorized scams?

Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

WORST DIRECTOR: The 29th Razzie Awards Worst Director was given to Uwe Boll.

Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS JULIA GARNER: The “Ozark” star takes on a similar role as a scammer in “Inventing Anna.”

STAFF’S Top Ten

JACK YUANWEI CHENG/the Justice

Top 10 Ways to Have a More Successful Semester at Brandeis

By Leah Breakstone JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

In honor of it being (sort of) the start of the semester, here are a few foolproof ways to make these next few months better.

HOROSCOPES

By MADDY DULONG JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A bit of advice for everyone, no matter your sign: the moon is in Cancer, which can lead to amplified emotions and potentially the want to distance yourself from others — be aware of this and look for ways to connect with others emotionally this week. Use this Cancer energy to do something creative, and let yourself be more comfortable in your emotions.

Aries

As the cardinal fire sign of the zodiac and the first sign of the zodiac year, you are full of life and energy! However, don’t use this energy to rush into things you may regret later. Take the time this week to think before you act, and use your energy on things that will benefit you. There is an advantage to taking the slow path (sometimes!), so utilize your energy where it is most needed and don’t waste it on things that aren’t worth your time.

Taurus

Since the full moon in Leo is coming up on Feb. 16, remember who you are! The Cancer energy right now might make you want to retreat into your shell, but the Leo energy coming out on the 16th will remind you of your worth! Don’t accept less than you deserve this week!

Gemini

We are in Aquarius season! You may have felt slightly more spiritual or philosophical this past month, but with the sun moving into Pisces (and your 10th house of career) at the end of the week, you will likely shift your focus towards more career/ambitious goals for the next month! Make sure to take advantage of the energy of this week, though, as Geminis have a tendency to procrastinate and burn themselves out doing work; keep an eye out for those habits this week!

Cancer

Since the moon is in Cancer until the 16th, take advantage of this energy as it will likely benefit you. Allow yourself to feel your emotions, whether good or bad, and let yourself enjoy this upcoming Valentine’s Day! On Feb. 14, mercury will enter Aquarius and into your eighth house, which could lead to intense emotions. Don’t let that stop you from having a good time! Be on the lookout for random emotional outbursts or moody behaviors this week. Try to combat them with a little extra self-care. Be extra kind to yourself this week!

Leo The only full moon in Leo in 2022 is happening this Wednesday, Feb. 16! Take this time to use the energy for yourself! Get yourself a box of chocolates — don’t wait around for someone else! Commit yourself to healthy self-care habits this week, and maybe take it easy on Valentine’s Day so you can really go all-out during the full moon on Wednesday!

Scorpio Mercury, planet of communication, enters Aquarius this week and as a result lands in your fourth house which rules domesticity. You might feel like more of a homebody during this transit, and you should embrace that! Especially during the last major month of winter, it’s always nice to stay inside and watch the snow from the warmth of your room. Take Valentine’s Day to spend time with the people who mean the most to you, even if you aren’t in a romantic relationship, spending quality time with friends is never a bad idea!

Sagittarius

This year’s only full moon in Leo could bring some long-distance friendships into light this week. This full moon will land in your ninth house of perspective and travel; this might mean that people from around the world might reach out to you, or this could also be the perfect time to share a project or message with the world. Keep in mind, however, that at this time Venus and Mars are meeting in Capricorn in your second house of value and money. You should use that energy to consider your worth and if you’re getting what you deserve out of jobs/opportunities.

Capricorn

The communication planet Mercury is falling into Aquarius in your second house of value and money this week. Consider who you are spending your time and energy with and if it is worth it in the long run for you. The moon in Cancer might have you wanting to stay in this year and watch movies instead of going out for dinner. The full moon in Leo falls into your eighth house of sexuality and resurrection on Wednesday, Feb. 16. That might mean an invitation for extended Valentine’s Day celebration, or simply clearing the air with someone you have had bad blood with.

Aquarius

Not only will this week have the sun in Aquarius, but Mercury is moving into Aquarius as well! This is good news for any Aquarian, as this represents a communication refresh. There were facets of your life where you have struggled to communicate. This week, you might find it easier to look on the bright side. Your “freespirit” tendencies will come into play as well; embrace them this Valentine’s Day. Make fun plans with someone this week, be spontaneous, take a day for yourself, or make plans for the upcoming February vacation next week!

Libra Mercury enters Aquarius in your fifth house this week, which is perfect for sparking a little extra love in your relationships this Valentine’s Day! This will last until March, but it is the perfect start to Valentine’s Day and setting the mood in your romantic relationships for the next month. The full moon in Leo on Wednesday, Feb. 16 will enhance your ability to see the roles that other people play in your life. Think about these roles and really try to take note of what roles play a good part in your life and who needs to be cut out of the script.

Virgo Mercury is entering Aquarius this week and right into your sixth house. Be on the lookout for anything that might send you over the edge. Don’t force yourself to do anything you don’t want to. Take the time to prepare ahead for the fun you’ll have this week: do face masks with friends or take a day to rest and recharge before the February break next week! The full moon in Leo on Wednesday in your 12th house might lead you to surrender some of the control you have over aspects of your life. Letting go might be a relief, but don’t let someone overshadow you during this time either.

Pisces

This week is very eventful for a Pisces, especially in the career aspect of your life! The full moon in Leo on Feb. 16 could bring a burst into your self-confidence regarding your career or aspirations. That, coupled with the Mars and Venus transit in Capricorn will have you feeling motivated and ready to tackle anything life throws at you. Wednesday is the day to let your voice be heard and make significant strides in your work life. Pisces season begins at the end of the week on Friday, Feb. 18, so make sure to celebrate the beginning of February vacation and the beginning of Pisces season by spending quality time with friends!

Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS