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Justice
Volume LXVIII, Number 10
www.thejustice.org
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Crime
FIGHTING INJUSTICES
Student data taken in theft ■ Two computers stolen
from the Registrar's office last month contained students' personal information. By Abby patkin JUSTICE editor
Two Apple desktop computers containing academic and personal information for all students enrolled or taking a course at the University from the summer of 2012 to the present were stolen from the University Registrar, according to a Nov. 12 email sent by Marianne Cwalina, the senior vice president for finance and treasurer. The computers were stolen at some point over the weekend of Oct. 24 to Oct. 25. One of the stolen computers
MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice
HUNDREDS STRONG: Demonstrators walked from the Rabb Steps to the Shapiro Campus Center atrium in a show of support.
Community marches in solidarity with UMissouri
■ Brandeisians studying
abroad tell about their experiences and reflect on Friday's terrorist attacks.
By MAX MORAN JUSTICE EditoR
By JAIME KAISER JUSTICE EditoR
On Friday evening, terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State attacked Paris, France, launching a coordinated attack on four different locations in central Paris and causing the deaths of 129 people, according to a Nov. 15 New York Times article. The Brandeis University Facebook page wrote on Saturday, “We have been in touch with our students studying in France, we have confirmed that all are safe, and we will continue to monitor the events. Our thoughts are with people of Paris and everyone affected.” The article stated that 19 people died at La Belle Equipe in the Rue de Charonne, a cafe that was targeted in the attacks. Leslie Camel ’16, an Undergraduate Departmental Representative for French and Francophone Studies and a
MORGAN BRILL/the Justice
TRUTH TO POWER: Student Union President Nyah Macklin '16 delivered a speech to the demonstrators assembled on the Rabb Steps before the march last Wednesday. Heller who helped lead the event, told the Justice in an interview after the demonstration ended that the main focus of the march was to state that “this is not okay, that the issues that we’re seeing at Mizzou is everyone’s story. It’s the narrative across the board, and sure, it manifested itself in a certain way at a certain time in a certain school, but we deal with silent oppression, silent racism every single day at Brandeis and at large.” The demonstration comes after stu-
See RALLY, 7 ☛
Health: Science, Society and Policy Program double major currently enrolled in her second semester of study abroad in the French capital, currently lives about .8 kilometers from that site. Camel also lives very close to a hospital and witnessed flashing ambulances shuttling victims of the attack back and forth until 3 a.m. “It is incredibly tragic that this happened,” Camel said in an interview with the Justice held via video chat, adding, “It [violent attacks] can happen, these things happen. I don’t think it diminishes the beauty or the elegance of this city. I think it is something that has happened, and it will become a part of its history.” Camel had been on her way to meet friends in the Fifth Arrondissement in Place Monge when she received a message from a student in her Boston University study abroad program on Facebook. “Someone sent me a message saying, ‘You need to turn on your news and look at what’s going on.’ And I, of course, had no idea, ’cause it was just a regular Friday night — Friday night is very busy — people
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Digital exhibition
Keep advancing
"Spotlight"
Brandeis and Wellesley collaborate to make Civil War letters accessible to the public.
The men's soccer team continued its run in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Tournament.
Past and present members of the Globe's Spotlight team discussed their 2001 investigation on Tuesday.
FEATURES 8 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org
See THEFT, 7 ☛
Students in Paris safe after attacks stun city
administrators demonstrated their support of student protests at Yale University and the University of Missouri.
that don’t apply here.” Lynch called upon the University to recruit a more diverse student body, faculty and staff as well as creating an inclusive campus with diverse pedagogy. She implied that the office and position of the VP for Diversity and Inclusion — which the University has been developing since last semester — would create institutional metrics to keep the University accountable to these promises. However, Shayna Jones, a first-year Master of Public Policy student at
contained students’ “names, birth dates, permanent and email addresses, phone numbers, courses, and grades,” according to Cwalina’s email, which went out to students, faculty and staff. “It is also possible that this device contained some Social Security numbers,” according to the email. However, she added, the computers contained no financial or medical information for students, nor did they contain any faculty or staff employment files. The email went on to note that “to date, our investigators have no evidence to suggest that any personal information has actually been accessed, nor are we aware of any reports of identity fraud resulting from this theft.” Cwalina could not be reached for comment by press time. In an interview with the Justice, Executive Director for Integrated
Study abroad
■ Students, faculty,
Hundreds of students, faculty and administrators marched from the Rabb Steps to the Shapiro Campus Center atrium last Thursday to demonstrate solidarity with student activists at the University of Missouri, Yale University and other universities currently protesting institutional racism in higher education. The march was organized the night before by both graduate students and undergraduates, including members of the Brandeis Black Students Organization and Heller School programs. As part of the demonstration, organizers demanded that the University publicly voice its opposition to racist attacks made against black students on campuses nationwide. Interim President Lisa Lynch wrote in an email to the community the following day that she supported the demonstration, stating, “University campuses such as ours should be at the center of our national dialogue about race and should not sit passively on the sidelines pretending these are issues
Waltham, Mass.
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INDEX
SPORTS 16
ARTS SPORTS
17 13
EDITORIAL FEATURES
10 9
OPINION POLICE LOG
10 2
News 3
COPYRIGHT 2015 FREE AT BRANDEIS.
2
TUESDAY, November 17, 2015
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THE JUSTICE
NEWS SENATE LOG Senate recognizes two clubs and discusses potential changes to BranVan driver policy in meeting The Senate convened on Sunday night to charter a club and to sanction the proposal for the Midnight Buffet this semester. The Senate began by recognizing and chartering Brandeis Prostheses, a club dedicated to developing and researching prosthetic limbs. Next, a representative for Students for Accuracy about Israeli and Palestinian Affairs approached the Senate for recognition and chartering. The students told the Senate that the club has held on-campus events this past semester, largely funded with donations from other organizations. The students asked for chartering in order to be able to host more events next semester as well. The students argued that their club was distinct from other Israel-focused clubs on campus because the club would provide an inclusive space for all opinions and would focus more on accuracy, education and outreach than on political stances. After a brief discussion, the Senate unanimously voted not to charter the club. Following the vote, Student Union Vice President Dennis Hermida-Gonzalez ’17 discussed the Allocations Board election, which was held on Monday. He also noted that more extensive voting on A-board members would occur in the spring semester. The Senate then moved on to the executive officer reports. Junior Representative to the Board of Trustees Emily Conrad ’17 gave a brief talk about the restoration work on Usen Castle and the Student Union’s efforts to improve on-campus accessibility for students with disabilities. The meeting then transitioned to committee chair reports. Class of 2018 Senator Skye Golann stated that the Dining Services Committee was working to improve choices of meat products in Usdan dining hall, assuring that vegetarian and vegan options would not be affected by this action. Executive Senator David Herbstritt ’17 also discussed changes that will occur due to the recently passed A-Board bylaw amendment, which will affect the way clubs seek chartering and funding. A senator added that he led bystander training for club leaders in an attempt to extend training to the majority of the student body. East Quad Senator Callahan Cox ’18 claimed that she was attempting to improve laundry service of washing machines and BranVan shuttle service. Class of 2018 Senator Paul Sindberg then opened a discussion on the Midnight Buffet, an annual event that seeks to alleviate student stress toward the end of the semester. Sindberg noted that the Student Union is able to feed about 1,500 students this semester, and via advertising on t-shirts, they have already obtained 1,000 interested participants. The Senators voted unanimously in favor of passing the proposal. Herbstritt then moved the meeting to individual senator reports. Charles River/567 Senator Valarie Timms ’16 brought up the issue of on-campus smoking and suggested the campus should be a smokefree place. Racial Minority Senator Bethlehem Seifu Belaineh ’16 then addressed minority representation on campus. Belaineh noted that, as an individual, she was not able to represent all students of color on campus, and suggested that the Student Union find ways to promote diversity amongst club leaders on campus. The Senate also discussed the BranVan and the Joseph’s Boston/Cambridge Shuttle. Several senators claimed that some bus drivers had driven questionably on more than one occasion, and some mentioned hearing word of drivers making racist comments. Rosenthal Quad Senator Will Jones ’18 stated that he had heard that some BranVan drivers were suspected of drinking alcohol before driving, and the senators briefly discussed the possibility of a breathalyzer test for BranVan drivers before they begin their shifts.
POLICE LOG Medical Emergency
Nov. 9—A party in East Quad stated their friend was feeling ill. BEMCo staff treated the party on the scene and University Police transported the party to Urgent Care for further treatment. Nov. 9—A party in Ziv Quad reported not feeling well and University Police called BEMCo for assistance. BEMCo staff treated the party on the scene with a signed refusal for further care. Nov. 10—A caller reported to the University Police dispatch that a student in North Quad had a high fever. University Police dispatched BEMCo to the scene and BEMCo responded and requested Cataldo ambulance.
Cataldo ambulance transported the student to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care. University Police assisted the transport. Nov. 12—A party in the Usdan Student Center forgot to take their blood pressure medication and reported not feeling well. University Police and BEMCo staff assisted the party on the scene. BEMCo staff treated the party on the scene with a signed refusal for further care. Nov. 13—A party in Ridgewood Quad reported having abdominal pain and requested the assistance of BEMCo staff. BEMCo staff treated the party on the scene with a signed refusal for further care.
Disturbance
Nov. 10—A caller near the Rose Art Museum reported three parties in front of the museum talking loudly and using vulgarities. The caller reported being concerned about statements being made by the three parties that seemed harmful. University Police checked the area and found that the three parties were rehearsing for a play and allowed them to continue.
Larceny
Nov. 11—A staff member in Kutz Hall reported a stolen MacBook computer. The laptop was later recovered on Nov. 12. Nov. 13—University Police compiled a report on two Mac
REMEMBERING THE FALLEN
n A News article’s headline read “Adjunct faculty file for union.” In fact, as the article mentions, both adjunct and contract faculty members filed paperwork for a union. (Nov. 10, page 1).
GRACE KWON /the Justice
The Reverend Matthew Carriker, the University’s Protestant chaplain, spoke at a vigil on Monday night outside of the Shapiro Campus Center in memory of those killed in recent terrorist attacks around the world.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Email editor@ thejustice.org.
Matt Kupfer ’12 presents: Ukraine 2015
Justice
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Nov. 14—University Police in the Stoneman building compiled a report of harassment. The Area Coordinator on Call was advised of the incident.
Other
Nov. 15—A party came to Stoneman building to report being struck in a domestic situation. The party reported that the incident occurred on the previous day at approximately 2 p.m. University Police compiled a report on the incident. —compiled by Avi Gold.
Special Allocations Board elections held Monday to fill two new positions created by ammendment
n An Arts article’s text did not end. (Nov. 10, page 18).
the
Harassment
BRIEF
—Daisy Chen
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
keyboards which were missing from the region of Spingold Theater.
What is really going on in the embattled Eastern Ukraine today? Is Ukraine divided or united? What is “Ukrainian national identity” today? This talk will present field research on understandings of Ukrainian national identity among civilian volunteers and the wider public in Kharkiv and Odessa, two Russian-speaking cities in southeastern Ukraine traditionally thought of as “pro-Russian.” Today from 6 to 7 p.m. in Mandel Center for the Humanities Reading Room 303.
The Future of the Jews “The Future of the Jews” is a round table discussion following the publication of “Strategic Directions for Jewish Life: A Call to Action,” which garnered 74 signatories, 4 of which were from Brandeis University. Qualifying statements and differing viewpoints were also published, setting the stage for this public conversation.
Six opinions will be shared by Professor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Professor Jonathan D. Sarna, Professor Jon Levisohn, Michelle Shain, David Manchester, and Nathan Vaughan. The discussion will be moderated by David Ellenson, Acting Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and livestreamed. Today from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the Goldfarb Library Rapaporte Treasure Hall.
Diwali, the Festival of Lights
Diwali, or the festival of lights, is an annual community celebration originating from India. It primarily celebrates the good and light within everyone and is a very joyful occasion for family and friends. This celebration is open to everyone and includes food, music, crafts, and cultural/ religious activities. A free, traditional Indian vegetarian
The Student Union held a special election from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. yesterday to fill two open seats on the Allocations Board, as announced in an email from Student Union Secretary Shuying Liu ’16 to the student body when voting opened on Sunday night. The election was held to fill one threesemester A-Board position to start immediately, and one one-semester ABoard position to start in Spring 2016. James Porkola ’19, Alex Feldman ’19 and Jeremy Koob ’17 ran for the three semester position. In a statement posted to the Student Union Facebook group, Porkola wrote, “My goals on the Allocations Board are to bring a greater sense of fairness and efficiency to the Allocations process, while also honoring the wants of the Brandeis student body, and keeping their best interest in mind.” In a statement also posted to the SU Facebook group, Feldman wrote, “I want to support the best events and, for me, deciding on funding is the most meaningful way to do that.” Koob did not have a statement posted. Jennifer Wu ’18 and Arlenys Reyes ’19 ran for the one-semester position. In a statement posted to the SU Facebook group, Wu explained that she “hopes that by joining A-board, she can create clear and concise semesterschedules, as well as simplify communication throughout. She strongly believes in listening to the needs of Brandeis clubs so that every club can flourish and accomplish its goals.” Reyes wrote in a statement posted to the Facebook group that “being part of the Allocations board would not only allow me to grow in the business field, which I’m interested in, but also make fair decisions that the overall Brandeis community can benefit from.” These elections come after an amendment to the Student Union Constitution passed in a vote on Saturday Nov. 14, expanding the size of A-Board from seven members to 11 members. According to a Nov. 10 Justice article, the vote passed with 243 votes in favor of the amendment, or 81 percent of 301 total votes. —Hannah Wulkan
Meal will be served during the celebration. Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Ridgewood A Commons.
Industry Night: Biotech, Health & Science
This two-part event provides Brandeis’ community of students, faculty and staff in the sciences, and members of our larger community, exciting insights into emerging research and employment trends in biotech, pharmaceutical, healthcare and science research institutes. The event begins with a case competition led by esteemed experts from industry, nonprofit and academic institutes. After a case competition, panelists and additional industry guests will network with students providing insights about their careers, academic backgrounds and organizations. Wednesday from 4 to 8:30 p.m. in the Hassenfeld Conference Center.
THE JUSTICE
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TUESDAY, November 17, 2015
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Panel
Globe’s “Spotlight” reporters discuss investigation ■ Members of the “Spotlight”
team discussed the recent film and the greater effects of investigative journalism. By Abby Patkin JUSTICE editor
On Tuesday, the day after a special on-campus screening of the new film “Spotlight,” the former members of the Boston Globe’s investigative Spotlight team on whom the film was based sat down for a panel discussion about how they reported the Massachusetts clergy sex abuse scandal. As the film depicts, in 2001, the Spotlight unit investigated and exposed that the Boston Archdiocese was aware of and complicit in the molestation of children throughout Massachusetts for decades. As part of its investigation, the Globe sued the church to obtain access to incriminating documents from prior lawsuits that had been sealed from the public record. The Spotlight reporters conducted hundreds of interviews with survivors. From January 2002 on, the Globe published over 200 articles on the scandal, exposing both its scope and its institutional nature. The investigation garnered international attention and a Pulitzer prize, and it helped uncover a global epidemic of sexual abuse in the Church. The panelists last Wednesday included former Globe editor and current Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron; Globe editor Ben Bradlee, Jr., who oversaw the Spotlight team during its investigation; former Spotlight editor Walter Robinson and reporters Sacha Pfeiffer, Matt Carroll and Michael Rezendes, who is still on the current unit; and attorney for the Globe Jon Albano. “Spotlight” screenwriter Josh Singer and Prof. Eileen McNamara (JOUR), a former Globe columnist who wrote an op-ed that inspired the Globe’s coverage of the scandal, moderated the panel. Singer began the discussion by asking the panelists what their thoughts were when they found out that their story was going to be turned into a
movie. Bradlee, who, in the film, is portrayed by John Slattery, responded that none of the individuals involved believed the movie would make it to production, given the difficult and time-consuming process of financing and casting a film. “These two producers came and asked if we’d be interested [in having a movie made about the investigation], and we were sort of wary, and it’s so hard to get a movie made anyway,” Bradlee said. “And they disappeared for three or four years trying to put the financing together and returned with Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy, and we began telling them about how we got the story and came to trust them more and more, which was an important, key factor. And all of a sudden there’s this A-list cast, and here it is.” McNamara then asked Albano to talk about the importance of legal action to the investigation. Albano, who is portrayed by David Frasier in the film, noted first that the case depicted in the film — in which the Globe was able to obtain key documents showing the Church’s complicity — was unique because of how the presiding judge opened the documents not only to those in the courtroom but to the whole public. Albano answered, “I’ll always think that one of the most extraordinary things that Judge Sweeney did, that opened up God knows how many records and depositions, was to say, ‘Not only am I lifting this confidentiality order, but it’s all getting filed here so anybody can read that.’” When prompted by Singer, McNamara, who is portrayed by Maureen Keiller in the film, then transitioned into a discussion on how the Spotlight investigation into the church’s complicity came to be. “People actually had been writing about this [clergy sex abuse], some of us up here, for a long time,” she noted. “We’d all cracked off pieces of it. The piece that I cracked off … was that the Cardinal knew. Or if the Cardinal didn’t know, it would be an extraordinary thing that he didn’t know. And when you look back, none of this was really new.”
DAISY CHEN/the Justice
GETTING THE STORY: The “Spotlight” panelists discussed the many facets of their team’s 2001 investigation into the clergy. Robinson, portrayed by Michael Keaton in the film, added that the investigation into these cases differed from earlier coverage because of the cultural-historical context in which the investigation occurred. “I think what’s different about this case is when we got on it, the Internet age had begun. And when our stories were published in 2002, they went viral. But we also got lucky and we cracked the code, that it wasn’t just one priest; it was scores. And then it turns out it was hundreds of priests, and when you think about it, the most iconic institution in almost any city, that it would not only countenance but enable and then cover up the sexual abuse of thousands of children by hundreds of priests to most of us would be unimaginable. So we finally got it.” Using Robinson’s statement as a jumping-off point, Baron, who is portrayed by Liev Schreiber in the film, explained the questions the team considered upon entering the investigation. “What we really needed to look for was ‘Okay, well what did the church do when it found out about those priests? … Did it simply reassign them to another place where they could abuse again without any notification to parishioners there?’” Baron explained. “An institution like the
church, which has the responsibility to protect children in its care, would reassign priests where they could abuse again and never alert anyone to the prospect of danger. I wanted to get at the institutional failure and the institutional horror, really. And that, I thought, was the bigger story rather than just ‘there’s a lot of priests who are abusing kids.’ I didn’t think that that would be nearly [as big].” Singer later asked whether the panelists thought the story would still be broken today, over a decade down the line. Baron noted that, while the press is “under an enormous amount of pressure” from diminished financial resources, the Globe’s continued dedication to investigative journalism ensures that the story would likely still be broken today. At one point during the event, Singer discussed his decision to forgo flashback scenes of the abuse from the survivors’ perspective. An early draft of the script, according to Singer, included brief flashes of imagery that survivors recall from when they were abused as they talk to the reporters; for one, an ice cream cone dribbling down his arm, and for another, a mobile hanging on the wall. However, he and McCarthy removed the flashbacks to uphold their own diligence as reporters of the investi-
gation’s story, and because, as Schreiber states in the film when editing an article, “We didn’t need another adjective,” according to Singer. Bradlee praised this screenwriting decision, pointing out, “You don’t want to see actual abuse going on. So it was a great call to leave that out and have that piece be told by the victims so eloquently.” Responding to Bradlee, Singer argued, “None of us want to see that, but we have to look at it. Like, I think that’s important. We need to look at this. Because when we don’t look at it, then it happens again and again.” The discussion then moved into a question-and-answer session. When asked about the emotional toll of investigative journalism, Rezendes — played by Mark Ruffalo in the film — responded, “I like to say that I’m a skeptic, but I’m not a pessimist. I think investigative reporting makes the world a better place, and I’m proud to be a part of it, so I don’t feel that it’s made me jaded — if that’s the suggestion — at all. It makes me hopeful that we can all find ways to play a part to make the world a better place, and for us, it’s investigative reporting.” —Max Moran contributed reporting.
Campus speaker
Bacigalupo reviews shamanism ■ Ana Mariella Bacigalupo
delivered the annual Saler lecture on Friday. By Abby Patkin JUSTICE Editor
A society’s collective historical consciousness is greatly influenced by how it values literacy, argued Ana Mariella Bacigalupo in her presentation, “The Potency of Mapuche Indigenous ‘Bibles’ and Biographies,” on Friday. The presentation was delivered as the 15th annual Saler Lecture in Religious Studies, named for Prof. Benson Saler (ANTH), a Professor Emeritus who was in attendance. Bacigalupo, an associate professor of anthropology at SUNY Buffalo, spoke about her research and life experiences while writing her most recent book, “Thunder Shaman: Making History with Mapuche Spirits in Chile and Patagonia,” which is to be released in May 2016. The book centers on Francisca Kolpi, a shaman with the Mapuche, a group of people indigenous to Chile and Argentina. Kolpi adopted Bacigalupo as a “granddaughter” and as a spiritual helper in the 1980s and 1990s, and charged Bacigalupo with writing her “Bible” upon her death so that she might find immortality in Mapuche culture. Kolpi, Bacigalupo noted, did not dream of a “celestial Bible” — which would make her something of a godlike figure — but instead wanted her shamanic legacy to be remembered on Earth after her death. Bacigalupo also spoke about how Kolpi appropriated both the Bible’s name and physical text for her legacy and her work. “This shamanic appropriation of text challenges some influential theories about oral cultures and the written word,” Bacigalupo noted, adding that even before the conquistadores brought the Spanish language to the Americas, “the indigenous people wrote, using their own systems of inscription and visual communication, in which alphabetic signs stood for reference,
ABBY GRINGBERG/the Justice
COMPARING CULTURES: Bacigalupo discussed the uniqueness of shamanism. rather than sounds.” Using Kolbi’s Bible and religious texts as a segue into a discussion on literacy and language, Bacigalupo asked the audience: “what counts as … literacy for indigenous people without their own systems of alphabetic writing, and why do shamanics’ subversive temporalities and literacies develop from a reaction against official documents and Bibles? I argue that official documents represent what Mapuche and their Shamans are up against: the Bible and the canonical power of the Church, the documentary power of the state, and Chilean national perceptions of positive historiography,” she proposed. The Mapuche, she continued, view alphabetic languages — languages that use letters from the alphabet — as “designs with force,” and they distinguish between “Chilka La,” which are “dead” text without power — including gossip and advertisements — and “Chilka Newen,” which are “living” texts with power — like the Bible. “Writing then became a source of legitimacy for indigenous people, given the cultural and political power in allowing them to use official texts in un-
intended and adversarial ways.” Bacigalupo then posited that the divination between traditional western religion and shamanic faith differs most in their treatment of the past and of the dead. She contrasted the representation of angels in Western religion and shamanic faith, noting that Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin’s version of the angel is described as “looking back” on a ruined past while the Mapuche angel’s past “is not in ruins, and the dead are not absent.” She added that the dead and their legacies are incorporated and condensed into a larger shamanic narrative, which she argued expresses the ideological changes in the community’s identity over time. “The future takes the form of the past, [incorporating] transformations in these new meanings of expressions and utopia dreamed of in the present,” she said. “So the way Francisca is being remembered and reintegrated into the community transcends both her life and her death, and illuminates how people … illuminate and reimagine the past and the present for future generations.”
BRIEF University announces ticket lottery for 100th celebration, featuring Justice Ginsburg As part of the upcoming celebration of the 100th anniversary of Louis D. Brandeis’s appointment to the Supreme Court, the University is hosting a panel discussion called “Louis D. Brandeis, the Supreme Court and American Democracy.” The panel will feature Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among other renowned speakers. Due to an anticipated high demand for tickets, there will be a lottery held from Dec. 1 to 8 in order to fairly distribute tickets, according to an email Interim President Lisa Lynch sent to the student body on Friday. Executive Director of Integrated Media Bill Schaller wrote in an email to the Justice that the University expects to have between 1,200 and 1,300 tickets to the event. He wrote that the lottery will be open to students, faculty, staff and alumni, and that the largest number of tickets will be allotted for students, with another portion reserved for faculty and staff and a small allotment of tickets “for our board, and elected and civic officials, and other dignitaries.” In her email, Lynch also announced that the event would feature opening remarks by Ginsburg, followed by a panel discussion with Ralph D. Gants, a chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; Philippa Strum ’59, senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars, a presidential memorial and think tank; Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer at The New Yorker and Mark Wolf, senior judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Former University President Frederick Lawrence, now a senior research scholar at Yale Law School, will moderate the panel. “Long before I ever imagined becoming President of Brandeis University, Louis Brandeis was a hero of mine, who influenced my work as a practicing lawyer and as a legal scholar. After I came to Brandeis, I delighted in weaving Justice Brandeis’s words and legacy into so many occasions on campus,” Lawrence wrote in an email to the Justice. He went on to outline three aspects of Justice Brandeis that he views as remarkable: “Louis Brandeis understood that theory and practice do not pull in opposite directions. … Louis Brandeis understood that social justice is not just one field of a career. It is a way of life. It infuses everything we do. … Louis Brandeis was an exemplar of moral courage,” Lawrence wrote. The celebration, called “Louis D. Brandeis 100: Then and Now,” will include a series of lectures and events throughout the spring semester and will begin on Thursday, Jan. 28 with the panel. —Hannah Wulkan
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how yoga as a religious and spiritual practice has become politicized. By Matthew Schattner MORGAN BRILL/the Justice
DEGREES OF SEPARATION: Prof. Jonathan Krasner (NEJS) and Idit Klein note the various degrees of gender that Jewish law covers.
Gender and sexuality in Jewish texts addressed LGBT inclusion organization, discussed the way Jewish law treats gender and sexuality. By Morgan brill JUSTICE editor
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender inclusion in society is ethically mandated by Jewish textual tradition that exists in “a constant state of dialogue of reflection, of interpretation and reinterpretation,” argued Idit Klein, who serves as the executive director of Keshet, an organization that works toward LGBT inclusion in all aspects of Jewish life. Last night, Klein spoke to the Jewish community’s interpretation of biblical texts regarding the LGBT community alongside Prof. Jonathan Krasner (NEJS) ’88, Ph.D ’02, who cofounded Keshet in 2001. The discussion was organized by Prof. Bernadette Brooten (NEJS) in conjunction with her class “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Jews and Christians: Sources and Interpretations.” Klein and Krasner both credited their upbringings in Orthodox Jewish day schools for allowing them the opportunity to engage with Jewish texts and hold the belief that their interpretations mattered. They both agreed that their upbringings in religious communities helped them create a vibrant and accepting
Klein explained that these texts are rarely treated as part of the discussion and that the prohibition on crossdressing expressed in Deuteronomy is treated as the counterargument to acceptance of those who are different than what is deemed to be the sexual norm. This argument, however, was denounced by Rashi, a Medieval Jewish commentator, who, according to Klein, “Understood the prohibition to be about sexual betrayal and infidelity and not about cross dressing per se. A modern reading allows us to see this text as prohibiting hurtful treatment of one another, not as prohibiting gender nonconforming behavior.” Krasner then elaborated on Keshet’s role in more adequately representing the transgender community in the greater context of the Jewish community. He and his cofounder “set about trying to create an organization that wasn’t a religious organization. … We wanted to be unapologetic about who we were and we felt like we had a role to play in terms of educating ourselves and in educating the community at large.” Since its founding, Keshet has spent time approaching synagogues and other institutions in the Jewish community, highlighting a rhetoric of continuity and inclusion. The event was sponsored by the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department, the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project and the Religious Studies Program.
Campus speaker
Writer discusses legacy of Shidduch ■ Mirjam Zadoff discussed
how Jewish matchmaking has continued on into the 21st century. By Rachel Moore JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
A “Shidduch,” traditional Jewish matchmaking, is less of a commandment and more of a cultural custom, argued Jewish and historical scholar Mirjam Zadoff in a lecture on Tuesday. The talk, titled “Mapping Affections: Shiduchim, Networks, and Love Stories in Modern Judaism,” was part of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry’s annual colloquium. Zadoff, an associate professor of Jewish Studies and History and the Alvin H. Rosenfeld Chair in Jewish Studies at Indiana University, is currently in the process of writing a book on Jewish romance, tentatively titled “Jews on the Move, Jews in Love: Cultural Practices of ‘Courtship’ and ‘Dating’ in Modern Jewish Studies.” She noted in her lecture that the central theme of her work, shidduch, “has always been a very important aspect of Jewish life, and funnily still is.” She added that her goal for her work was “not to write a comprehensive study but to try to catch this phenomenon. The plan is to trace the shidduchim, … the whole custom, from the late 18th century as the moment where it’s still there in its most traditional form, but when it starts to change, and starts to be under the influence of modernity. And then practically up until today.” In researching how modernization, assimilation and secularization influenced the shidduch, Zadoff learned
that “the shidduch has been regarded as a good deed … but it’s not a commandment; … it’s more of a cultural custom,” which, she argued, makes the custom’s persistence into the current century all the more intriguing. She also discussed how her research methods have focused on “tracing continuities and change” and how her writing structure will use “eclectic stories that give insights into moments of change.” The first chapter of her projected six-chapter book starts with one of these stories, taken from a letter written to Fromet Gugenheim from Moses Mendelssohn in 1761. The two had met by chance, fallen in love and decided to marry. “Getting married in 18th century Germany usually looked very different. The usual pattern was arranged marriage,” Zadoff noted, adding that “the shidduch reflects social standing of a person, social standing in the community, economic and moral value of a person, future potential of the marriage candidate; in fact, it includes every aspect of a person.” She discussed the concept of “arranged meetings,” during which families would “accidentally” run into each other in hotels or parks so that the young men and women could meet and feel as if they had some choice in the matter. Zadoff also noted a shift in the mentality toward arranged marriage, particularly among women and those at university, coinciding with the Russian Revolution of 1905, when, as Zadoff notes, “there is an exceptionally high number of Jewish women involved [in the revolution], and they are promoting this new life, and revolution … enters and influences partnership. This becomes a general
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Scholar speaks on politics in yoga ■ Christian Novetzke noted
place in which the LGBT community can feel comfortable engaging with Judaism. Klein acknowledged that opinions and viewpoints that contradict this interpretation of inclusion can and do exist, which she said instilled in her a “sense of security and strength” in her identity as a “Jew and in Jewish tradition.” She noted that she grew up understanding that these texts were hers to study and interpret, and that she could find her own place in them. In her studies, Klein identified six different categories or terms used to identify different genders in Jewish sacred texts. The terms “Zachar” and “Nekevah” are used to identify traditional male and female genders, respectively. “Androgynous” is the term used to identify an individual with both “male” and “female” sexual characteristics, while “Tumtum” is the term used to describe someone whose sexual identification is indeterminate. Additionally, Klein explained that the “Ay’lonit” is someone who is identified as female but develops male characteristics during puberty, while the “Saris” is someone who is identified as male but develops female characteristics throughout life. Klein also emphasized that these terms are referenced in both the “Mishna,” the first redaction of Jewish oral tradition, as well as the “Talmud,” Rabbinical conversations and disagreements about the Mishna in the first century C.E.
TUESDAY, November 17, 2015
Campus speaker
DECONSTRUCTING THE LAW
■ The founders of Keshet, an
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trope all over Europe.” She added that the changing ideology was reflected in Yiddish literature, which tried to “combine the traditional world and the modern world of romantic love. ... [There were] stories about shidduch … that brings real happiness; although it was arranged, it still follows the whole idea of romantic love.” Next, Zadoff described the transition of matchmaking from Europe to the United States, where even in the post-war era, intermarriage between people of different religions was still contested and anti-Semitism pervaded the country. Zadoff described how the traditions, like arranged meetings, evolved to fit the new generation, thus contributing to the rise of vacation destinations like the Catskills as places to meet eligible partners. Traditional Judaic culture also pervaded mainstream American culture during this time, as the “American public embraced movies or Broadway shows,” — such as “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Yentl” and “Hello Dolly,” — that “played with the tension of the freedom of falling in love and the constriction of the traditional matchmaking,” Zadoff argued. Finally, Zadoff pointed to dating websites like JDate and Jretro Match that allow Jewish singles from all over the world to meet and spark relationships. Though the practice of shidduch has changed over the centuries, Zadoff noted that it still exists today, continuing to thrive in Jewish culture for those who wish to incorporate tradition into their modern lives. The event was sponsored by the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry and the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
JUSTICE editorial assistant
Far more than a style of clothing fashion or an abundance of fitness studios, yoga holds a long-standing global intersection with the fields of law, political identity, governance and rights, according to Professor Christian Novetzke in a lecture delivered at the University on Wednesday. “We have to take yoga to be a political thing,” emphasized Novetzke, an associate professor at the University of Washington in his lecture, which was titled, “The Political Theology of Modern Yoga.” Novetzke began by recounting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Sept. 27, 2014, speech to the United Nations General Assembly, in which Modi pressed for a UN resolution to name an international yoga day. The rationale behind Modi’s argument, he explained, was that the practice of yoga is “an invaluable gift of our ancient tradition that can help us deal with climate change.” Novetzke stressed that Modi’s speech must be understood in the international political context of India’s role in climate change efforts, in which the country has argued that economically developing nations should be allowed to remain outside of the binding constraints of the Kyoto Protocol, as “the predicament of climate change is the result of the West’s long use of carbon fuels to propel industrial growth.” He further explained Modi’s argument, clarifying that if the West has given the world industrial technology, then “India has given the world the possibility of spiritual, and even climatic transformation, through a technology of self-control — yoga.” Novetzke then discussed the concept of political theology, which he defined as “the idea that formerly theological concepts find new life as secularized, modernized principles, and they are usually formed in relation to the modern liberal state.” He explained that traditional views of political theology, such as those popularized by 20th century German political philosopher Carl Schmitt, are limited by conceiving of theology as purely Christian and Western. Expanding on this view, Novetzke argued, allows for an examination of yoga as occupying a position that is “both theological and secular.” In order to develop his argument on the secular and theological nature of yoga, Novetzke described the origins of the concept of yoga, stating that “the first use of the word ‘yoga’ in Sanskrit, around 1500 BCE, was in a context referring to the yoking of an animal, and usually the yoking of a war horse to a chariot.” Of how this original use of the term relays an ideal of commitment and personal discipline, Novetzke added, “In this sense, yoga also meant being committed to one’s actions — the warrior was himself referred to as in a state of yoga, that is yoked to yoga,
yoked to war, and to the possibility of a violent death.” Through this historical examination, he argued, yoga can be seen as possessing a distinct political value. Novetzke then recounted the first writing that explicitly described yoga as a spiritual and salvational tool as we know it today, which was included as part of the “Katha Unipanishad,” a Hindu philosophical text composed around the fifth century B.C.E. This text includes a parable in which a young boy earns a wish from the god of death. The boy requests that Death “teach him how to escape the cycle of transmigration — of death birth, and death again.” Novetzke confirmed that this teaching is referred to in the parable as “yoga.” In emphasizing the political aspect of yoga, Novetzke first turned his focus to the medieval period, during which “yoga served as a focal point for the negations of culture and religious diversity in India, and also as a way to express culture politics.” Muslims, in addition to Hindus, adapted the practice of yoga in this period as a means of political and cultural synchronization. Building on this point of the value of yoga in governance, Novetzke invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts in securing Indian independence. Novetzke stated that Gandhi had “mastered the yoga of public politics” in operating under a “yoga of non-violent political mobilization.” According to Novetzke, Gandhi’s success is emblematic of how principles of yoga have always been interwoven with power and politics. Novetzke added that the United States is now the center of global yoga, both financially and as the home of the practice’s key leaders and central figures. He expressed that examining the American legal system can indicate the current state of the political theology of modern yoga. In order to do so, Novetzke studied a series of court cases in Encinitas, Calif., from 2013 to 2015, where it was assessed whether teaching yoga in the Encinitas public school system violated the constitution of California and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which both forbid the establishment of a state religion through a show favoritism toward one religion over others. The court ultimately found that “the yoga exercises did not violate the First Amendment’s protections as the yoga exercise presentation did not advance any religious ideas or concepts.” At the same time, Novetzke, explained, the court paradoxically posed that while the public school’s practice of yoga was not religious, yoga itself was in fact religious. Novetzke concluded his lecture by declaring that this court decision had occurred in order to “avoid the establishment of religion and to allow the free exercise of it.” The existence of yoga in the United States as a practice both religious and not, he argued, enables it to “correctly and skillfully manage diversity as a political force.” “Yoga in a secular democracy is a way to experience secularism as an embrace of diversity.”
HEATHER SCHILLER/the Justice
LAYING DOWN THE LAW: Novetzke reflected on the legal precedence of yoga while arguing that it has become entangled with power and global politics.
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A fossil fuel divestment banner hung above Rabb steps.
THEFT: School offers credit monitoring Media Bill Schaller stated that the University collects social security numbers from all students receiving federal loans or who work on campus. The University requests the social security numbers of all students, as parents commonly cite tuition costs as a tax deduction and the Internal Revenue Service requests that the University verify this. The University has mailed information to the home addresses of students affected by the theft informing them of what information may have been taken from them. According to the email, University staff members first noticed that the two computers and projection equipment were missing from the Registrar’s Office on Oct. 26. In her email, Cwalina also linked students to a frequently asked questions page on the theft, which added that the University believes that the thieves entered the building through a window. Additionally, the FAQ noted that, while the University has “an ongoing effort to centralize the management, backup and encryption of all staff computers, including computers and workstations, these computers had not gone through the process yet.” The FAQ also states that students were not initially informed because “the university could not notify possibly affected students while our investigation was ongoing.” In a statement to the Justice, Vice Provost, Chief Information Officer and University Librarian John Unsworth said that the computers that were stolen were password protected, but the data stored on them was not and could be accessed by anyone with the password to the computers. The FAQ added that the University is presently “not aware of any reports of identity fraud, theft or other harmful activity resulting from this incident, or that any personal information has actually been accessed or misused,” but wanted to make the community aware of the incident and of services available to protect those affected from identity theft. Schaller told the Justice in a phone interview that the University was not required under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to disclose the breach to the community, as there is no evidence that the information stored on the computers was accessed. However, he noted in a phone interview with the Justice that the University — working with third party experts on forensic methods — has alerted affected students in accordance with each student’s home state data breach laws. He added that the broadcast email to all students, faculty and staff was the most efficient way to reach the community and noted that the University believed
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RALLY: Students occupy SCC in march for justice
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that alerting everyone — regardless of whether they had been affected — was “the right thing to do.” Since realizing the theft, the University has had an open investigation into the matter, with administrators working with University Police and the Waltham Police Department. In a statement to the Justice, Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan noted that it is standard for the University Police to work with Waltham PD on cases, and this case is no exception. Unsworth added that the University has also been in touch with Apple and is tracking the serial numbers on the computers, which will allow the computers to be identified if they are ever brought in to a store. Schaller stated in a follow-up interview that Kutz Hall, where the Registrar is located, does have a closedcircuit camera on sight. However, the video footage captured by the camera has not been useful for the investigation. Schaller would not go into detail about where the camera is located or what it films, so as not to jeopardize the security system. In the wake of the announcement, the University has opened up various channels to aid students and families that may have been affected by the breach. Cwalina’s email noted that the University has additionally offered free credit monitoring services and provided a Call Center number for individuals to call with further questions. According to Cwalina, the Call Center will open at 9 a.m. on Nov. 13, but it cannot enroll all callers in the credit monitoring service mentioned in the email. To enroll in the service, individuals must use a code and specific activation instructions detailed in the letter sent to their permanent address. The FAQ additionally advises those affected to place a fraud alert on their credit files and review their financial account statements for fraudulent activity on a regular basis. Identity thieves commonly use social security numbers to, among other things, open credit card accounts file fraudulent tax returns and put misdemeanors on a target’s record, according to a Feb. 17, 2015 article on Credit.com. Cwalina ended her email by noting that the University is “committed to maintaining the privacy of our students’ information and have taken many precautions to safeguard it. … As always, everyone in the Brandeis community is encouraged to remain vigilant, review your account statements on a regular basis to look for any unusual activity, and monitor your credit reports. We will continue to share any additional information we learn.” —Max Moran contributed reporting.
dent protestors ousted University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe from his position due to inadequate responses to racist incidents and racism in general on that campus. Several shooting and death threats against the Mizzou demonstrators were posted online last Tuesday, which prompted the demonstration of solidarity at Brandeis. Students at Yale University have similarly protested after an email from an associate master of a residential college criticized a separate email sent by Yale administrators that urged students to be culturally sensitive when selecting Halloween costumes. In an interview with the Justice, Heller student Christian Perry M.B.A./M.P.P. ’16 said he helped organize the event after receiving a text message from a friend showing a call to action from Mizzou students, which asked universities nationwide to show support for their actions on Wednesday and Thursday last week. Maryse Pearce, M.B.A. ’17 told the Justice after the rally that the event was organized mainly between the hours of 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. the previous night as a collaboration between undergraduate and graduate students. Student Union President Nyah Macklin ’16 followed up in an email to the Justice saying, “There was no single head. It was something everyone had been planning.” Also critical to the organization process was Racial Minority Senator Bethlehem Seifu Belaineh ’16, who created a Facebook event for the rally titled “BLACKOUT: In Solidarity with Mizzou,” and encouraged attendees to wear black and “stand in solidarity and allyship.” The demonstration began at 1 p.m. on the Rabb steps as demonstrators joined together and chanted. Several students then stepped forward and gave unplanned speeches about their personal experiences with racism and white supremacy. Macklin then delivered a prepared speech, reading, “When did race become a concept that can and should only be talked about in Black spaces? When did race become a Black prob-
lem, and not a national problem? … To those who are against us: we are not afraid of your words. We are not even afraid of your guns. You can shoot Martin. You can kill Malcolm. You can even murder Mike. And you can shut down the students at Mizzou. But you cannot silence us all. Because we are moving our people towards a liberation that has long been denied. And we cannot stand it anymore. The world is watching. Make your move.” At this point, the demonstrators clustered together — filling the entirety of the Rabb Steps — and recorded video footage of their show of solidarity to send to students at the University of Missouri. Many demonstrators voiced their support and encouragement for the Mizzou students in the video. As students began marching from the Rabb steps to the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium, they chanted, “Racism is nothing new, we stand with Mizzou” and “Hey hey! Ho ho! White supremacy has got to go!” among other chants. The crowd was large enough that it had to stop several times to wait for the rest of the group to catch up. Several students were deeply affected by the event, leaving or stepping aside temporarily to compose themselves. As the group gradually filled the whole of the Atrium, several students tabling for Kindness Day, which was the same day, were forced to withdraw or move their tables to the side to accommodate the size of the rally. Among other administrators, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel and Dean of Students Jamele Adams observed the event from the edge of the cluster at the SCC. When the demonstrators had settled in the SCC, Interim Director of the Intercultural Center Janae Johnson voiced her support for the demonstrators' actions. While occupying the SCC Atrium, event organizers encouraged students to stand up and share their stories of experiences with racism and discrimination. Common themes among speakers included that being an African American student at a university is being part of a historically exclusionary institution and calls for generating more discourse on the issues
black students face and discussions outside of the African and Afro-American Studies department. One of many speakers, Khadijah Lynch ’16 spoke about receiving online rape and death threats in January after her tweet that she had “no sympathy” for two New York Police Department officers killed in Dec. 2014 was published on the conservative news website Truth Revolt by Daniel Mael ’15. “Now when I come to school, every single day is agony,” Lynch said. She clarified that the University did not do enough to make her feel safe and protect her after the incident, particularly stating that “the administrators did nothing to reach out to me. Andrew Flagel didn’t reach out to me, no one reached out to me.” Lynch was an undergraduate department representative for the African and AfroAmerican Studies department at the time of the tweets. Adams addressed the group as well, saying that he was grateful for the opportunity to speak and proud of the students for demonstrating, adding that “it’s not easy to hear this. … It’s not easy to not want to sometimes wreck something.” Adams said that the diversity within the crowd itself was “the most beautiful part of this moment,” and encouraged students to continue holding him, and the rest of the University administration, accountable. Though some demonstrators began to disperse from the SCC Atrium at 2:30 p.m., the speakers asserted that they would hold the space as long as possible, eventually ending the demonstration entirely at around 3:30 with a promise for future actions. Macklin wrote in her email to the Justice that the Student Union stands with the demonstrators, noting that many Union members are themselves students of color. Pearce added in her interview, “I think it also sort of helps in creating a space to talk about how these issues are also very much alive on Brandeis’s campus, and how this isn’t something that just happens. This isn’t something that happens in the South, the Midwest, that we’re not immune from it.” —Editor’s Note: Several Justice staff members participated in the rally.
PARIS: Community holds vigil for victims of attacks in France CONTINUED FROM 1 are out in the streets or at bars,” she said. Camel immediately called her host mother to confirm that she was safe but did not check the news. She instead asked her host mother to explain briefly what was happening. According to Camel, her host mother said, “‘Leslie, there’s been an attack, we’re okay, our house is safe, please come home.’ So I said ‘Okay, I’m coming home.’” Camel then called her parents to reassure them of her safety but continued not to check the news until at home, in order to stay calm. Camel walked from Place Monge to the 12th Arrondissement in the Northeast. She walked, as opposed to taking the trains, because she deemed it the safer choice if the city was experiencing an attack. “At night it’s perfectly safe and it’s well-lit, there were people on the street, and there wasn’t a sense of panic,” she said. “No one was freaking out, but you could hear sirens. I heard sirens — in Paris there’s a different sound for the police sirens and the ambulances, and they’re just different. So I could hear both of them.” According to Camel, friends and family began instantly contacting her to make sure that she was safe. “I think I had at least 40 Brandeis friends message me in the course of an hour,” Camel said. “At certain points, it felt like Brandeis or the US knew more about what was happening than we
did,” Camel said. “Because I think the US media was predicting things, saying things, more than the French news was saying. I think ’cause it was happening here, everyone was trying to stay calm. At a certain point, I remember the US media was saying a hundred deaths, and here in France, we were saying 30, and I didn’t really know.” When she finally began reading the news at home, Camel described the experience as “surreal.” Despite the chaos the previous night, Camel found the streets surprisingly calm — if emptier than usual — on her Saturday routine, which included buying groceries, though she spent most of the day indoors with her host family. She told the Justice that on Saturday, she “saw about three military transport trucks that were carrying about 20 to 30 military personnel in each truck,” she said. “And I think they were part of the reinforcements that [French President] François Hollande called up.” Another Brandeis student, Tara Gordon ’16, was at Chabad, a Jewish organization that hosts weekly Shabbat dinners among other activities, when she heard of the attacks. “I had my phone off during dinner, and when I heard the news, I turned it on to find dozens of messages from friends and family,” she said in an email to the Justice. She started walking home with friends before her host father picked her up and spent the next day indoors. Two Brandeis students who were
visiting Gordon at the time and who are also studying abroad in Europe were able to book earlier flights and fly to their respective countries; despite increased border and street security, air travel in and out of the country has remained unaffected. In the aftermath of the fatalities, French President François Hollande issued a state of emergency and authorities are currently on a manhunt for possible suspects, although some have already been apprehended in Belgium. Addressing Parliament, Hollande called the violence induced by the militants “an act of war.” The New York Times described the Paris attacks as the “worst terrorist attack in Europe in 11 years,” in terms of number of injuries and fatalities in a Nov. 14 article. Responses from the international community have been robust, with nearly all major international cities commemorating the tragedy by lighting their major landmarks in the colors of the French flag, among other forms of tribute. The Brandeis community responded by holding a vigil at 6 p.m. on the Great Lawn on Monday. Approximately 50 students were in attendance, and the vigil featured the recitation of songs and Biblical verses. The vigil was hosted by the Brandeis French and Francophone Club and the French Business and Lifestyle Club. —Max Moran contributed reporting.
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TUESDAY, November 17, 2015 ● THE JUSTICE
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VERBATIM | ANDRÉ GIDE Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.
ON THIS DAY…
FUN FACT
In 1980, John Lennon releases “The Double Fantasy” album in the UK.
The inventor of the Super Soaker squirt gun was a NASA scientist.
Writings from battle Brandeis and Wellesley work together to digitize Civil War letters By YUNI HAHN AND BRIANNA MAJSIAK JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER AND JUSTICE EDITOR
On Veterans Day, students and faculty packed into the Rapaporte Treasure Hall in Goldfarb Library to commemorate the launch of the Civil War Letters Project, a joint exhibition website created with Wellesley College. Brandeis professors Abigail Cooper (HIST) and John Burt (ENG) and Associate Curator of Special Collections at Wellesley College Mariana Oller spoke about the importance of these letters and their significance to the documentation of the Civil War and the preservation of history. This intercollegiate collaboration was created in order to launch a joint digital exhibition of both schools’s collections of Civil War Letters that have been digitized and transcribed for the public. This Civil War Letters Project was funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Sesquicentennial Commission of the American Civil War in order to give easy access to primary documents to further educate the public. Brandeis’s collection of Civil War Letters consists of fifty-seven letters written by Union fighter Michael Lally. Lally was an Irish immigrant and union fighter who served in the Civil War with the Company C, 11th Regt. Mass. Volunteer Infantry. The letters were written between July 16, 1861 and June 6, 1865 to his wife, Bridgett, and their four children back home in Roxbury, Mass. Wellesley College’s collection of letters were written by soldier Luther Bruen to his wife Augusta between the mid-1850s and the earlier part of the 20th century. Brandeis and Wellesley’s inter-institutional team created an archival resource so that anybody can have access to them and can engage in historical exploration. Cooper and Burt each gave their account on their approaches to Civil War research and the importance of primary documents. Cooper approached the stand, saluting the crowd with a “Happy Veterans Day” then quickly corrected her statement to “Veterans Day observances to you” to acknowledge that this holiday is at risk of becoming “like a sales event like Columbus Day or Presidents
Day, where you don’t even remember what it’s supposed to stand for.” Cooper then states that people turn important holidays like Veterans Day into mainstream “sales events” not because they do not want to remember and honor those who serve, but because, like war, it is “an interruption to our everyday lives.” As a social historian, Cooper explained to the crowd that it was never “lost on me that it took widespread systematic destruction and war in order to (produce) an exquisite archive.” In an interview with the Justice, Cooper discussed what it was like to study the letters and gain firsthand knowledge of an individual’s experiences during the Civil War. “I think something that’s overwhelming about the Civil War is it is so full of rich sources that sometimes you can almost drown in it. It almost feels like, ‘What could be said, that hasn’t already been said?’” Cooper questioned. She then explained that Lally’s letters provide insight, “which would be the bird’s eye view, but there’s so much texture to it that I found it to be such a useful way in.” During the commemoration, Burt explained the historical context behind Lally’s letters. As a member of 11th Regt, Mass. Volunteer Infantry, Lally trained at Reedville camp and Fort Warren. The regiment was involved in heavy fighting in the First Battle of Bull Run, although Lally does not mention that in his letters. Burt recognizes that Lally gave a detailed account of the battle of Williamstown, but he never mentioned to his wife, through the letters, that he was wounded in this battle. Burt claims that this was because Lally wanted to spare his wife’s anxiety, even though his relationship with her was not very strong. Burt, who spent nearly 26 years researching and writing about the Civil War era in order to write “Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism,” explained in an interview with the Justice that Mally felt a great deal of patriotism to the unity of his country. “You get a sense that Mally is proud of his work. He doesn’t say it specifically, but it’s clear from his decision to reenlist and from his description of, ‘I signed to be a soldier, I’m going to be a soldier,’ that he’s very proud of his discipline,
of his loyalty — the other thing that strikes me is that you do not feel any decay in his attachment to his regiment, and you do feel that in other [soldiers’] accounts,” Burt said. Lally’s letters provide insight into several crucial battles from the Civil War, in addition to his own familial experience. In one letter, written to his wife after the battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862, Lally writes about being grateful for his survival and about his excitement of the war being almost over so that he can soon “have the pleasure of seeing my little ones.” However, he was oblivious to the fact that there would be three more years of intense warfare. While studying the letters, Burt was particularly fascinated by Lally’s perspective in his writing and the idea of not knowing how the war would turn out. “The perspective of a letter writer, the pathos of it is, they’re only seeing things as they happen, but they don’t have a sense of a larger story of which it’s a part. They don’t know how the story ends,” Burt elaborated in an interview with the Justice. During the presentation, Oller discussed the process of preserving these letters and spoke of Wellesley College’s own collection of Catherine Mitchell’s pre-Civil War and Civil War era letters. Oller also explained the conservation of these letters as a technical process that involves humidifying the letters, dabbing them with sponges and then arranging them on a platform with 15 to 20 per batch. The letters are then sealed under a lid for about 24 hours and then put between blotting papers. Oller explained that this process takes more than a year, but it is all for the sake of making these documents visible and useable so that people can observe and study these primary documents. In an interview with the Justice, Surella E. Seelig, the Brandeis Archives and Special Collections outreach librarian, explained that the letters are all kept in acid-free folders and acid-free boxes to ensure that there’s no further damage to them. The boxes are then kept away from light and dust and are stored in a temperature-controlled environment. “What we love to do in archives is make our material accessible. It’s
The Civil War Letters LECTURING ON LETTERS: (left to right) Prof. Abigail Cooper (HIS), Prof. John Burt (ENG) and Mariana Oller, the Associate Curator of Special Collections at Wellesley College, spoke about the importance of primary resources on Wednesday.
ROBERT D. FARBER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
LETTERS OF WAR: Michael Lally wrote this letter to his wife and children on Feb. 13, 1862, in which he explained the status of the Rebel forces in the South.
not just about hoarding fancy fun old things — it’s about keeping them safe so that people can come in and use them; researchers, students; anybody who’s interested. So one of the things about this website is it makes it much more widely available to anybody with an internet connection. It’s free, you don’t have to be in school to use it; you don’t have to be an academic to use it,” Seelig said. Seelig described the collaboration between Brandeis and Wellesley College as “fantastic.” She explained that Wellesley worked on the technical aspects and created a timeline and a map in correlation to the letters and the battles. Due to the faint handwriting of many of the letters, Brandeis and Wellesley decided to both transcribe their letters in addition to scanning them in order to make them
even more accessible to the public. Brandeis’s Archives and Special Collections department is in the process of creating audio recordings of the letters so that people who are visually impaired can also access them. The department has also created lesson plans by a certified Massachusetts teacher that incorporate the Civil War and the archival letters for sixth-grade, seventh-grade and undergraduate levels. “It’s a great way to introduce young people to primary resources, and that’s really what [Brandeis Archives and Special Collections] is all about — how great primary resources are and to get people to use them,” Seelig said.
— Max Moran and Brianna Majsiak contributed reporting.
of wellesley college and brandeis university
MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice
digital exhibition kickoff event november 11, 2015 | noon rapaporte treasure hall | goldfarb library brandeis university
speakers john burt
professor of english brandeis university
free and open to the public lunch will be provided To view the exhibition, visit omeka.wellesley.edu/civilwarletters
sponsors
ROBERT D. FARBER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
A Civil War Preservation Grant from the Massachusetts Sesquicentennial Commission of the American Civil War; Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections
THE JUSTICE
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TUESDAY, november 17, 2015
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM: Prof. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow (CLAS) with her students from Daily Life in Ancient Rome at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on a field trip. ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANN OLGA KOLOSKI-OSTROW
AOK-O gets an A plus Prof. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow (CLAS) wins Excellence in Teaching Award By KIRBY KOCHANOWSKI JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
“The themes — the human pain, suffering, passions and desires that we have in our world — are the very same ones that the ancient Greek and Romans had,” Professor Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow (CLAS) explained in an interview with the Justice. As the chair of the Classical Studies Department at Brandeis, where she has worked for over 30 years, KoloskiOstrow’s passion for the subject runs deep. She believes that there is a lot to be learned from examining the ancient world and encourages her students to engage in open discourse when learning about the past. On Jan. 6, Koloski-Ostrow, known fondly by her students as Professor AOK-O, will travel to San Francisco to accept the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award from the
archaeology. The award that Koloski-Ostrow will receive is partially determined through nomination; students and professionals of archaeology can submit dossiers in support of professors. “It is definitely an award that goes to Brandeis as much as to me,” Koloski-Ostrow asserted. “I was surprised, and I love surprises, so, like any wonderful surprise — I’m humbled and shocked … There’s something about Brandeis and our community and the way we care about each other here that just is right for me and makes me happy to be here.” Koloski-Ostrow grew up in a small town in the Berkshires, where going to college was something most of her neighbors and peers weren’t thinking about, yet she chose to continue her education, and she found her passion in the study of ancient civilizations. Within her work, Koloski-
All SMILES: Koloski-Ostrow (back) with (left to right) Stephen Guerriero M.A. ’15 and Hannah Lents M.A. ’15 at an Archaeological Institute of America workshop. Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). The AIA is an organization dedicated to the study of archaeology and the advancement of knowledge of the past. At the AIA’s annual meeting, awards are presented to outstanding scholars in the field of
Ostrow focuses heavily on the daily lives of Roman citizens, as well as ancient urban infrastructure. She claims that her childhood experiences with two of her uncles sparked this interest. Her Uncle Ted worked as a plumb-
er in Boston. “When I visited Uncle Ted, he would take me under the beautiful Victorian homes around Boston, and we’d climb in the cellars, and I’d see the copper pipes and how it all fit together,” Koloski-Ostrow explained. “It was fascinating to me how a big house connected to the public sewer system, and when I started studying archaeology, I remembered my lessons from Uncle Ted and wondered, How did Romans make cities function?” Her other uncle lived in New York City, where he worked as a garbage collector. Koloski-Ostrow recalled driving around in his truck, collecting garbage from Radio City Music Hall, Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s. “So we would go under the guts [of the city]. I knew a side of New York that nobody else knew,” KoloskiOstrow explained. “I think Uncle Nick and Uncle Ted in their way, influenced my trajectory [within the archaeological field].” Her interest in cities and the infrastructure behind them has focused her research a great deal, and she has published several books analyzing Roman cities, including “Water Use and Hydraulics in the Roman City” and “The Sarno Bath Complex at Pompeii.” “We all want to study the great works of the classical world … but what about how people lived in everyday life? Where did they sleep? Where did they go to the bathroom? What did they eat? Why did they die so young?” Koloski-Ostrow asked. She is currently working on what will be her fourth book, “Pompeii and Herculaneum: Daily Life in the Shadow of Vesuvius.” This book will focus on the daily lives of Roman citizens and address important questions about Roman entertainment, rituals and gender parity. “My research and my teaching often go very close in hand. I use my classes to try out ideas, to pursue ideas, to get ideas from students. So it’ll be fun to use some unpublished parts of my new book on Roman daily life in Pompeii and Herculaneum … [in] class,” Koloski-Ostrow said. This semester, she is teaching “Greece, Rome, Myth, and the Movies” as well as “Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Greek and Roman Art and Text.” Both courses are crosslisted in other departments, some-
A PASSIONATE PROFESSOR: Koloski-Ostrow (CLAS) is a professor and Chair of the Classical Studies Department and is known commonly to her students as AOK-O. thing that Koloski-Ostrow believes is crucial. “I feel that every one of you needs a least one course in classical studies before you graduate. It’s part of what a liberal arts education is all about. So I’ve spent my 30+ years at Brandeis trying to convince the administration that the department of classical studies needs to be here, and needs to be strong, and needs to be interconnected with pretty much every other department on campus,” she explained. From her time in the field, during which she has traveled to sites throughout Northern Africa and the Mediterranean, Koloski-Ostrow has been able to see firsthand the massive influential impact ancient civilizations have had on the world. She believes that by studying these civilizations, students will be able to achieve a firmer grasp on the modern world. “I know I sound like a broken record of passion for classical studies, but I just feel my reason for being is to bring my excitement for classical studies to all students no matter what your major is,” Koloski-Ostrow said. “I will find something for you to do in a class of mine that feeds into your own passion. I’m not trying to
turn you all into classical studies majors. I just want you to experience them and realize that you can be a doctor, but you will be a better doctor if you know something about the classical world. You can be a lawyer, but if you know Roman law, you’re going to be a better lawyer.” In her classes, Koloski-Ostrow keeps a strict attendance policy. She believes students owe it to themselves to fully engage in classes. “You’re paying so much to go to this school, it’s criminal to you not to be there,” Koloski-Ostrow said. “I mean, I hope that … [students realize] something is going to happen in that hour and 20 minutes of class that is worth [their] time. And that’s why I stay up way too late, no matter how many times I’ve taught the course, to be sure that there’ll be something in that hour and 20 minutes that makes it worth your while.” Koloski-Ostrow believes fully that her students are responsible for cultivating her passion for teaching. “They just really make it happy for me to get up in the morning and come here to go to work. I don’t get up and say, ‘Oh God, I have to teach today’. I get up and say, ‘I’m teaching today! This is a good day. Let’s get there and let’s get started.’”
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10 TUESDAY, nOVEMBER 17, 2015 ● THE JUSTICE
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Max Moran, Editor in Chief Avi Gold, Managing Editor Hannah Wulkan, Deputy Editor Morgan Brill, Production Editor 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
EDITORIALS
Condemn University’s lack of security
Last Wednesday, the University announced that two desktop computers stolen from the Registrar’s office on Oct. 20 contained personal information about Brandeis students enrolled since the summer of 2012, including names, addresses and, potentially, social security numbers. According to Executive Director for Integrated Media Bill Schaller, students receiving federal loans and working on campus are particularly at risk for having their social security numbers taken, constituting the first serious student data breach the University has faced in recent memory. While the computers had basic password protection, the program storing the actual data was protected by neither passwords nor encryption, meaning a thief able to circumvent the initial security could easily access this information. While it is some comfort that there is no current evidence of the security breach being used for identity theft, neither University police nor the Waltham police department have any leads as to who the thief might be, now almost a full month after the initial robbery. This board urges the University to see these thefts as a serious call to action in improving campus security, both digital and physical. Social security numbers are among the most valuable and most commonly stolen pieces of information taken by identity thieves. Using a social security number, one can, among other things, open a credit card in another’s name, receive medical treatment for which another will have to pay, receive another’s tax refunds and have criminal misdemeanors placed on another’s record. Though never designed to serve this purpose, social security numbers are now one of the government’s principal forms of identification, and stolen numbers are sold frequently on the dark web according to Adam Levin, founder of Credit.com, in an April 19 column for ABC. It is not impossible that the thieves from the Registrar simply did not know what they got away with — some projector equipment was also stolen. But contrast this theft with the other piece of information technology news from the University in recent weeks. According to a Nov. 4 email from Chief Information and Security Privacy Officer Michael Corn, the University is reviewing and updating security standards for the Eduroam wireless network; this includes encrypting information that users transmit online, such as credit card or social security numbers, so that other users on the same network cannot easily access that information. This is a logical and adequate booster to the University’s information security. But it is also a very public one; all wifi users on campus are familiar with eduroam and enjoy a sensation of safety and security upon hearing these new precautions. IT issues less directly in the public eye apparently receive no encryption, no data tracking, and apparently, no locked windows. As Senior Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Marianne Cwalina stated in her email informing the campus about the seriousness of this theft, the University has kept an ongoing effort to centralize the management, backup and encryption of all staff computers. This cannot come soon enough, particularly given that the students most at risk from the data breach are those on federal financial loans, already a financially vulnerable party. When asked by the Justice for clarification, though, Schaller could not provide clear examples of measures the University has taken in recent weeks to follow through on Cwalina’s promises. This centralization effort may well be underway, but clearly more resources and communication across the University administration must be devot-
Install surveillance cameras ed to it if a spokesperson cannot provide a single clear example of measures the University has taken, even after a major data breach has rocked the campus. At the very least, universal standards for data protection must be put in place across all University departments immediately. To the University’s credit, it has been relatively transparent about the information gathered during the investigation and the extent of the data breach thus far in order to be compliant with federal law. Community members were not initially informed about the data breach due to understandable concerns that thieves who might have not realized what they had gotten away with would come to discover this after the information was widely distributed. But transparency and clarity after the fact does not excuse negligence before it. Deeply sensitive information being stored without any additional protection constitutes a startling naivete about the dangers of the digital world, and apparently, of the physical one as well. If, as Schaller told the Justice in a phone interview, video footage from an on-site closed circuit camera did not capture any footage useful to the investigation, it appears the University’s cameras are not sufficient to help stem security problems. Schaller did not disclose where the camera itself is located in order to avoid compromising an apparently already poor system. Yet the fact that University police and administrators cannot be more specific about when the thefts occurred than to say that it was vaguely sometime between Oct. 24 and 25 — the thefts were only discovered the Monday morning when registrar workers returned to work — seems to show that, at the very least, the cameras are not actually recording footage of where and when the thefts took place. This board believes that if security cameras aren’t fully monitoring the facility, the University must see this recent theft as evidence of a need to implement measures that better investigate crimes and deter future attacks. This theft must be seen by the University as a call to investigate installing more security cameras across campus. Residents of Ziv 127 were required to pay a $23 fee in damages for each resident after the wires to the Accessible Electronic Door were cut on both doors and the opening arm of the door was broken, according to a Nov. 12 email sent by Director of Community Living Tim Touchette to the Ziv 127 occupants. While this editorial board realizes the scale of this incident does not compare to the aforementioned security breach, it provides an example of how the University should prioritize security campus-wide. If security cameras were more widely used across campus, especially near entrances to residence buildings, this problem could have easily been investigated. There is even greater precedent for this installation following the vandalization of the Muslim Student Association suite. The MSA put up a security camera in the hallway outside the suite in response to the vandalism. This board maintains that more closed-circuit television cameras should be installed to better track and punish those who commit crimes campuswide in order to foster the protection of privacy. If the University cannot honestly state that thieves are on camera and key information is safe, a serious review of security systems is necessary. This alarming breach of security requires the University to be more wary of protecting data in the future and heed the call to prioritize student privacy. Certain information should never be shared with the public, and this incident may have allowed just that.
GRACE KWON/the Justice
Views the News on
Last week, graduate students at the University of Missouri at Columbia protested President Tim Wolfe’s poor handling of racism and racial issues on campus. The University’s football team hosted a sit-in, and a student went on a hunger strike until the President and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin chose to resign. On Wednesday, a student at the University of Missouri at Rolla posted a threat on the social media app Yik Yak. On Oct. 28, Yale University’s Intercultural Affairs Council urged students not to dress in offensive Halloween costumes, and in an email, Prof. Erika Christakis expressed that it was inappropriate for the University to censor students costume choices. How do you react to the events at the University of Missouri and Yale University, and how do you think universities across the country should foster a more inclusive environment for minority students?
Prof. Chad Williams (AAAS)
It is not enough for college presidents and administrators, however genuine they may be, to simply profess a commitment to diversity or inclusivity. Creating campus environments that are conducive to productive learning and healthy social experiences for underrepresented students requires acknowledging historical legacies of exclusion and persistent structural inequalities that are reinforced on a daily basis, in and outside of the classroom. In particular, students of color are often treated as a monolithic “problem” that must be addressed, usually through the development of a diversity strategic plan, task force or long-term study. Such approaches become more about process and public relations than genuine efforts to understand the complexity of students’ lives and their full humanity. Without a sense of immediacy and moral urgency on the part of university leaders, issues of social inclusion, physical safety and cultural respect for underrepresented students will continue to persist. Prof. Chad Williams (AAAS) is an associate professor of African and Afro-American studies and chair of the department.
Cynthia Jackson ’16
The recent events at the University of Missouri and Yale University make it obvious that American universities have not done all they can to provide welcoming environments for their students of color. Millions before now have pushed for the American public to want diversity and their actions laid the foundation for real change. So why have we not seen it from our colleges, places that are usually the driving forces behind cultural revolutions? Universities claim they want diversity in all its forms, but their actions fall short of their words. If universities want to achieve a safe environment for all students, they should give more support to cultural organizations and boards already established on their campuses. University presidents, deans, and other faculty should take the time to attend events and meetings organized by their students of color, and they should use the information they learn to improve policies campus-wide. Cynthia Jackson ’16 is an undergraduate departmental representative for the education department.
Alex Montgomery HS ’17
The events at University of Missouri, Yale, and Ithaca College are just recent developments in a long history of oppression that permeates academia. Students of color consistently experience aggression and discrimination at colleges around the country: Bigoted faculty and administration. Offensive Halloween costumes. Racial slurs. Assault. These instances are rarely covered by media and often go unpunished. Students are afraid to report them and when we do, we are often ignored, silenced, or threatened. Instead of collegiate camaraderie, we are met with hostility and resentment. This is how racism perpetuates on college campuses. Racism is entrenched in academia, and the culture must be completely restructured in order to affect change. Institutions must prioritize diversity in the student body, among faculty and within pedagogy, curriculum and research. They must re-examine student recruitment and how institutions can actively support students, faculty and staff. They must provide culturally-competent sensitivity training for campus communities and install institutional structures that will support, track and hold accountable promises made. We must demand this from our institutions. Alex Montgomery HS’17 was one of the organizers of “BLACKOUT: In Solidarity with Mizzou.”
Prof. Derron Wallace (ED, SOC)
We are witnessing a crisis of leadership in US higher education. Given the current political zeitgeist, leadership challenges in relation to diversity and inclusion are not easily concealed. The organized protests at Missouri and Yale are informed, at least in part, by the #BlackLivesMatter movement, as students note the relationship between racial violence in our society and racial animus in our schools. Better, more inclusive leadership is needed at elite colleges and universities, and students are proposing the terms: countering curricular limitations by infusing issues of diversity throughout the curriculum rather than delegating them to a select few departments; advocating for greater institutional accountability for the recruitment and retention of minority faculty; and recruiting leaders of color trained deeply in institutional transformation not only as vice presidents for Diversity and Inclusion, but as university presidents and for multiple senior management team posts. It is time for increased representational and substantive diversity at predominantly white institutions, recognizing that diversity should not be reduced to an act, an event or a moment, but understood as an everevolving process necessary for academic and leadership excellence in the 21st century. Prof. Derron Wallace (ED, SOC) is an assistant professor of education and sociology.
THE JUSTICE
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015
Chastise Texas’ disingenuous female medical practices
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Catherine
ROSCH Cynical idealist
Forty-two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled, in a 7-2 decision, that blanket bans on abortion violated the implied right to privacy guaranteed in the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause in the landmark case of Roe v. Wade (1972). The Court reaffirmed the constitutional right to abortion in its 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling, although a plurality of the judges also ruled that some “commonsense” limits, like 24-hour waiting periods and informed consent, did not violate the right to abortion. On Friday, Nov. 13, the Supreme Court announced that it will hear arguments Whole Women’s Health v. Cole this year. A decision is expected in June 2016. Whole Women’s Health deals with Texas’s contentious House Bill 2, which first came to prominence in June 2013, when then State Senator Wendy Davis filibustered legislation for 11 hours to temporarily block the legislation from passing. HB2, which passed during an emergency session called only to debate the bill, would require abortion clinics to have the same building regulations as ambulatory surgical centers, and that any doctor who may perform abortions have admitting privileges to at least one hospital in a thirty-mile radius. Any clinics that did not comply would be shut down. Prior to HB2’s passage, there were 40 abortion clinics in Texas; if the restrictions are allowed to go fully into effect, there will only be 7 clinics in a nearly 300,000 square mile state, about the same size as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Switzerland and Austria combined. There would be no clinics west of San Antonio, a city smack in the state’s center, nothing north of Dallas or south of Houston. On first glance, these restrictions — waiting periods, informed and parental consent laws, mandatory counseling, strict building regulations and admitting privileges — seem reasonable. However, upon further examination, these regulations do not actually do anything to further protect women’s safety but are just burdensome impositions that make it harder for women, especially low-income and rural women — 42 percent of women who receive abortions live below the poverty line, according to the Guttmacher Institute — to receive
SABRINA SUNG/the Justice
the medical care that they might need. Over two million Texans can be classified as “rural” according to a 2014 Texas Monthly article about demographic shifts in the state. In reality, states that have passed mandatory counseling and waiting period laws often present women with biased information from religious-affiliated and non-medically regulated crisis pregnancy centers — or even information that is medically inaccurate. Arizona, despite unified protest from the medical community, recently passed a law that would require doctors to tell women that medical abortions can be reversed, something that is patently false. There is not even evidence to show that women, whether they receive mandated counseling or not, regret their decision to end a pregnancy. A study carried out by the University of San Francisco’s School of Medicine found that in a group of nearly 700 women from all ethnic groups, education levels and income brackets, many of whom did have strong emotions in the process of deciding to get an abortion, over 95 percent of those surveyed did not ultimately regret the decision to have an abortion. The new onerous restrictions from Texas are not in the interest of women’s safety but an excuse to shut down as many clinics as possible without having the courts rule against them. This desire to prevent women from accessing a constitutional right to abortion is purely ideological, with no basis in medical
facts. But some judges have already seen the law for what it is: an attempt to end abortion access in the state of Texas. Federal judge Lee Yeakel, who struck down parts of HB 2 in August, pointed out that “there is no rational relationship between improved patient outcomes and hospital admitting privileges” and that in a large state like Texas, some clinics simply do not have a hospital within a 30-mile radius of them. Judge Yeakel effectively ruled that Texas cannot make abortion inaccessible to large geographical areas in the state and that doing so would violate Roe, which ruled that states cannot prevent women from accessing abortion. Requiring abortion clinics to meet the same architecture standards as ambulatory surgical centers is equally ridiculous. In Texas, before HB2 went into effect, around a quarter of clinics offered surgical abortions, according to Fund Texas Choice, but any clinics, even the ones that did not even offer surgery as an option, would be required to meet surgical standards that did not even apply to them. Yerkel pointed out that closing down clinics that only offer medical abortions simply because they do not have full surgical facilities — which they would have no use for — would actually be more detrimental to women’s health, because women would have to wait longer to receive the care that they need. If the Supreme Court does rule to uphold HB2, it will set a dangerous precedent. It would
become acceptable to pass stringent and medically unnecessary laws that make abortion out of reach for women who are poor, women who live in rural areas, women who cannot afford to travel for hours or take enough time off work to abide by strict waiting periods. When questioned about most of western and southern Texas not having any available clinics, the state pointed out that women could just travel to New Mexico or Arizona to obtain abortions. Upholding HB2 would create a new precedent where it is acceptable for states to make it next to impossible for a woman to receive abortion care in her home state without banning the practice outright, a precedent that would penalize women based simply on where they might live. I believe in protecting women’s safety. I also believe that abortion should be accessible to anyone who may need it, no questions asked, no justification needed. I do not believe that laws like HB2 keep women safe; after all, if they did, the medical community would be in support of them, which is not the case — no good doctor would be excited to be required to tell patients things that are not true — like that medical abortions are reversible or that abortion can cause cancer, something that is simply not true. Rather, I see these laws, laws that the Supreme Court will most likely uphold, as nothing more than thinly-veiled attempts to return back to the pre-Roe era, and I do not want to go back to that.
Support student fossil fuel divestment efforts at University level By Prof. Sabine Von Mering (GECS) Special to the Justice
“Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben.” [Whoever arrives late is punished by life]. Former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev supposedly said this to East German leader Erich Honecker after the pompous fortieth anniversary celebrations of the communist German Democratic Republic in October 1989. Less than a month later, the Berlin Wall had fallen, and less than a year later, East Germany had disappeared into the unified Federal Republic of Germany. Shortly thereafter, Honecker himself fled to the Chilean embassy in Moscow to escape prosecution. He died in Chilean exile in 1994. As we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of German unification this year I am reminded again and again of that period that so dramatically changed Germany and eventually the entire map of Europe. The rapidity of that change took everybody by surprise, but it is still baffling to me today that Honecker and his government, with a far more extensive secret police apparatus at their command than the Nazis, would be so ignorant of their own swiftly approaching doom. To me, there is only one explanation: they simply lacked the imagination. Again today, we find ourselves in a moment where imagination is in surprisingly short supply. Many of those in power are unable or unwilling to imagine the different future that could already be around the corner. We are desperately attempting to cling to a fossil fuelpowered economy when the alternatives are
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already available. This lack of imagination is particularly painful in view of the overwhelming evidence that climate scientists have painstakingly assembled over decades about upcoming climate disruptions. In fact, the 2014 “Climate Change Synthesis Report,” published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, found that following the pre-industrial age, economic and population growth have contributed to the emission of greenhouse gases and are “extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of global warming since the mid-20th century.” And it is even more painful in view of the fact that these disruptions are affecting the poorest communities first.
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If we are serious about social justice Brandeis must do all it can to reduce its carbon footprint, and it must divest... It is also, as it was 25 years ago, very much a generational problem; while the 77-year-old Honecker still had the illusion he could send tanks to Leipzig to stop everything just as the Soviets had done in Prague in 1968, the young people poured out into the streets of East Germany in ever-growing numbers throughout October 1989, demonstrating peacefully after
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prayer services in churches every Monday, reminding their leaders “We are the people!” It was the older generation that could not imagine a different future. Their children certainly could. Societies cannot afford to make the same mistake today because so much more is at stake. We must change our economies just as dramatically and swiftly as Germany did 25 years ago. We must replace fossil fuels with wind and solar energy wherever possible. We must reduce our greenhouse gas emissions wherever we can. And we must stop trying to profit from the fossil fuel industry. The technology for this switch is available and affordable. Delaying it will decrease the cost dramatically by an estimated $1.8 trillion by 2040, as a recent study by Citibank confirms. Just imagine a discussion with your children’s greatgrandchildren, who will be living with the consequences of our actions. We cannot afford to ignore the young people who are gathering in the streets and here on campus and on campuses around the world, demanding that we pay attention to their right for a future, demanding fossil fuel divestment. We cannot afford to ignore the obvious signs — such as when Exxon Mobil and other fossil fuel companies are being investigated for deceiving their investors and the public about the risks of climate change or when the Rockefeller family believes it is unwise to stay invested in fossil fuel stocks or when large religious congregations collectively decide to take their money out of an industry that wrecks the planet. Are we really going to say “but we need those profits?” Are we really that short
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of imagination? Some argue that Brandeis can simply not afford to divest from fossil fuels. But investment also has to do with imagining the future. Anyone with an interest in long-term financial health and our students’ future must consider the risk of a carbon bubble. The oil price slump has already cost oil-producing countries trillions. As Pope Francis beautifully argues in his Encyclical Laudato Si, climate change is the social justice issue of our time, and there is good reason to believe that some form of carbon pricing will eventually become a necessity. Many have shown that a prudent approach to fossil fuel divestment does not negatively affect a portfolio’s long-term performance. It is hard to imagine today that even after the Berlin Wall fell, German unification was initially not high on anybody’s agenda — neither in nor around Germany. The signs of a new era only become obvious in retrospect. The global fossil fuel divestment movement has grown so fast in part because more and more people are beginning to realize that in order to protect a habitable planet, the fossil fuel era must come to an end. If we are serious about social justice, Brandeis must do all it can to reduce its carbon footprint, and it must divest its endowment from fossil fuels now so it can become the leader it claims to be. Just imagine! —Sabine von Mering is Professor of German and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Director of the Center for German and European Studies. She is also a co-founder of Faculty Against the Climate Threat (FACT).
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TUESDAY, November 17, 2015
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THE JUSTICE
FORUM POINT/COUNTER-POINT
Recognize student groups’ First Amendment rights Aaron
DVORKIN THE PLIGHt of reason “The fog of fascism is descending quickly over many American universities.” The preceding statement was made by prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz on Fox News recently. It was not made in response to the multiple incidents of swastikas being drawn around the University of Missouri campus, or the death threats made online against black students at the same school. He was not deriding the insinuation from the dean of Claremont McKenna College that certain minority groups do not fit the mold of their student body, nor was he maligning the exclusion of black students from a fraternity party at Yale University. Rather, he was referring to attempts by students to hold their school administrations accountable for failing to appropriately address these types of incidents. Students across the country are taking part in demonstrations to protest school administrations for failing to control racism on campus. At the University of Missouri at Columbia, students demanded that former President Tim Wolfe implement policies to deal with a slew of racist incidents. The pressure from the student body ultimately led to Wolfe’s resignation. A large push back has occurred in response to these movements, with many decrying the spread of of “PC culture” and accusing recently resigned administrators of being “spineless.” Incidents in which students have called for the ousting of professors and school administrators for racially insensitive comments have led many critics to claim that the movement is inconsistent with the First Amendment. Although there have been incidents in which protestors have overstepped boundaries themselves, their right to organize and advocate for change is both protected by our country’s laws and consistent with its most important values. Much of this criticism is derived from an unfortunate incident at the University of Missouri in which student protesters and professors prevented media from reporting on a demonstration taking place in a public space. A YouTube video showing protesters shoving a student photographer and a professor of communications calling for “muscle” to remove another went viral. The actions of the students and fac-
BEN JARRETT/The Justice
ulty during this incident were unacceptable for various reasons. Their claim that others do not have the same rights as they do in public spaces is inconsistent with the message of their own movement. Fortunately, the episode turned out to be a relatively minor case of frustration clouding the judgement of a small group of protestors. The next day, the movement welcomed media back into the space where the demonstration was occurring. The professor involved apologized and was rightfully removed herself from her supervisory position at the school newspaper. Other demonstrators at campuses across the country, including at Brandeis, have embraced the media. Yet still, the incident at the University of Missouri became the impetus for backlash against all movements advocating for an end to racism on college campuses. Many have begun portraying the movements’ participants as whiners who want to be shielded from any opinions with which they disagree. Jonah Goldberg of the National Review recently claimed that the true goal of the movements is to create “little moving zones of political absolutism, where their worldview and, yes, their privilege, are unquestioned and celebrated.” Alan Dershowitz stated that students “want mommy and daddy dean to please give them a safe place, to protect them from ideas that maybe are insensitive, maybe will make them think.” The purpose of racism on college campuses is not to make people think. Its purpose is to marginalize and intimidate.
Such sentiments cannot be accepted in a place where students are supposed to be able to better themselves and realize their full potential. In a recent article in the New York Times, black students from the University of Missouri describe how repeated incidents of racism deter them from leaving their rooms in the morning. When death threats were made on Yik Yak recently, some classes were canceled and many black students chose not to go to class. When a group of students is discriminated against, they are less likely to participate in open discussions which university settings are also supposed to provide. Thus, racism has the effect of undermining the goal of free and open discourse rather than being evidence of it as critics such as Dershowitz and Goldberg claim. Of course, other groups seeking an end to discrimination on campus have not faced nearly the same backlash as current movements catalyzed by black students. The Anti-Defamation League has argued that legality of free speech for all does not make discrimination against Jewish students acceptable. Their webpage dedicated to snti-Semitism explains the causes of the discrimination thusly: “Among America’s students are many who grew up with little or no contact with Jews and who have a limited personal background to fall back upon when professional anti-Semites come to campus. For instance, young adults with little knowledge of the Holocaust might cast an uncritical look at a campus newspaper advertisement or scholarly-
looking text claiming to prove that the murder of 6 million Jews is an historical hoax.” Many of the demands of protesters now involve the implementation of diversity programs on campus to mitigate the type of factors described by the ADL. Both anti-racism movements on college campuses and the ADL have identified lack of interaction between groups as a main cause of prejudice. Given the parallels between the two, it should be questioned why there is such outrage over movements headed by black students and no outrage to speak of when the same sentiments are echoed by other groups. The argument that the movement belies the values of the First Amendment is self-defeating. There is nothing un-American about a marginalized group putting pressure on their superiors in order to create change in their communities. In fact, that is exactly how our country came into existence. Furthermore, the same amendment that guarantees the right to free speech also affirms the right to peaceably assemble and jointly defend commonly held ideals. The purpose of the movements across the country is to create environments in which all groups are able to fully participate in college life. Ironically, the claim that the movements taking place on campuses across the country are inconsistent with classical American values is just as hypocritical as a communications professor believing that only certain people are protected by the First Amendment.
Academic freedom of speech threatened by campus protests Mark
GIMELSTEIN GIVE ME LIBERTY
In the past, I’ve written about the insatiable mob at universities around this country that manufactures crises in an attempt to silence free speech and academic freedom on college campuses. But what happens when the mob actually starts making headway in its pursuit for academic totalitarianism? In a nutshell, you have the cases involving the University of Missouri and Yale University. Earlier this semester at Missouri, the university was caught in a firestorm, facing incidents involving a swastika made of feces scrawled in a residential hall bathroom and reports of Ku Klux Klan rallies on campus. There were also two separate accusations of racial slurs and threats hurled at black students, one of whom is the student body president. Since the initial explosion of anger and tension prompted by these cases at the university, we’ve learned that there never were any KKK rallies on campus, as per local police. Just as important, we have neither learned who made the swastika out of feces nor who was behind these racial attacks against the black students, why the person or persons did it or any other evidence or details. Yet Concerned Students 1950, an on-campus group named in commemoration of the first year that blacks were able to be admitted to the university, quickly began protesting and demanding that something be done in response to these cases. They would eventually demand that, among other things, the president of the university, Tim Wolfe, apologize and resign from his post. Why? For not responding to the aforementioned
incidents in a way students deemed adequate, leading to the perception that he was not, according to Concerned Student 1950, “‘completely aware’ of systemic racism, sexism, and patriarchy on campus.” In other words, for not necessarily agreeing that one can just generalize and condemn an entire school, with over 35,000 students and over 4,500 staff members, from a handful of incidents. Nevertheless, the far-left student-faculty populace at Missouri and their “allies” across the country know, just know, that these cases have to represent what they claim is “systemic racism.” Social media went ablaze. A graduate student, Jonathan Butler, went on a hunger strike in protest of all the racism he saw. The raucous protests on campus were coupled with the Missouri football team threatening to boycott all football-related activities until the Concerned Students 1950 demands were met. The powder keg of rushing to judgment, assumption and scapegoating was about to blow. Finally, Wolfe capitulated to the demands and pathetically resigned from his position in an attempt to placate the Missouri mob. Wolfe’s resignation was the first of many demands on their chopping block. Effectively, they now run the school. And their predictable solution to these unsubstantiated, nebulous incidents, committed by unknown people for unclear reasons, is to silence anyone who threatens their “safe space.” Student photographer Tim Tai understands this firsthand, because after trying to cover a protest on campus soon after Wolfe’s resignation, he was bullied and harassed by a mob of students and by Melissa Click, a communications professor. Professor Dale Brigham understands this firsthand because, after he told students that he was still holding a scheduled exam amid the commotion on campus, students ridiculously cried that taking the test would make them feel unsafe, leading to his resignation. Soon, all Missouri students will understand this firsthand. Indeed, when the other demands
of Concerned Students 1950 are inevitably agreed to and enforced, including things like a mandatory “comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion curriculum,” the University of Missouri will become the testing ground for all other far-left movements that will unquestionably follow, emulate and expand their reach into student and faculty life. As such, you can expect to see microaggressions such as “America is a melting pot” banned at a campus near you very, very soon. What about Yale? In a nice summary by Roger Kimball in the Wall Street Journal, “the insanity began over Halloween costumes. Erika Christakis, associate master of a residential college at Yale, courted outrage by announcing that ‘free speech and the ability to tolerate offense are the hallmarks of a free and open society’ and it was not her business to police Halloween costumes.” Hysterical Yale students responded by calling for the removal of Christakis and her husband, who was also a master at Yale, for not creating “a place of comfort, a home.” What comes next at Yale is still uncertain, but is likely to include resignations, serious restrictions placed on free expression or both. From these two examples, and many more similar scenarios at Ithaca College, Amherst College and elsewhere, a striking pattern can be seen. Unlike previous fads in higher education like disinvitation season, an annual tradition where universities invite speakers and honorary degree recipients like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Condoleeza Rice and Christine Lagarde only to disinvite them when leftist students begin their usual shtick of squealing about how they disagree with them, this trend we’re now seeing is different. This is a new movement, one that sees farleft students leave their protest gear at home in favor of aiming to unilaterally overthrow their superiors in the classroom and in administrative positions to, in effect, dictate school policy. The difference is key. Often, the commencement speakers that were disinvited were con-
servative, libertarian or contrarian, which meant that, in some way, they opposed the groupthink on college campuses. Aside from advocating for a modicum of free speech for their opponents, the victims of far-left intolerance now are far-left people who are far-left in every major way. The indoctrination of intolerance towards dissent and free speech from the professoriate at-large has finally turned on the very people who promulgated these ideas. The chickens have finally come home to roost. The bedrock of higher education, the right to think and speak freely, to learn from others, to understand and argue with people who may think differently, to have a conscience, dies a little more each and every day. Brandeis Interim President Lisa Lynch, in response to a protest on campus in support of the students at Missouri, wrote in an email that she “express[ed] [her] support and solidarity with those who demonstrated on our campus” and wished to “move beyond aspirations for a safe and inclusive environment, where community members respect and value the perspectives and contributions of all others, to the actualization of this vision.” When you subsidize something, you get more of it. Contrary to Lynch’s quixotic idea that somehow agreeing that we need a “safe and inclusive environment” on campus can satisfy the mob, such statements will only embolden them to push onward and extract more concessions. There may come a time where articles such as this will be deemed “unsafe” for those who wish to stem the tide of “racism.” My hope is that I’m wrong. But judging by the trends seen at other schools, it’s becoming increasingly clear that it is not exaggeration to say that freedom of speech and academic freedom are now endangered in ways that pale in comparison to the disinvitations, free speech zones and speech codes we’ve seen before. Because when the mob writes the rules, “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
THE JUSTICE
CONTINUED FROM 16 who won the midfield battle to set up the game-winner. Midfielder Cidney Moscovitch ’17 sprung McDaniel loose with a good through ball, and the forward slid it past the keeper, handing Moscovitch her third assist of the 2015 campaign. Grossman made four saves in the second half and got some help when defender Hannah Maatallah ’19 needed to clear a ball off the line in the 66th minute. The Judges managed 27 shots in the victory and took 18 on target, dominating large spells of possession throughout the course of the close game. The team also earned six cor-
JOYCE YU/the Justice
HARD CUTS: Forward Josh Ocel '17 moves past a Thomas College defender in a home 2-1 victory this past Saturday.
MSOC: Jastremski nets third game-winner of the season Conor Lanahan '16 but could not convert a one-on-one chance with the keeper. The Judges outshot RPI 23-9 for the contest, while Woodhouse only had to make one save. No. 3 Judges 2, Thomas 1 The team found themselves down early in a game for one of the first times all season. Sophomore midfielder Willie Clemons was able to track down a through ball and put it past Woodhouse to give the Terriers the 1-0 lead in the 14th minute. The Judges were able to compose themselves and responded in the 24th minute when midfielder Josh Handler
’19 sent a cross from the right side that found the head of Flahive. Flahive was able to find the back of the net for another important first half goal. The team controlled the rest of the game but could not add another goal until late. It was not without its opportunities as they out-shot Thomas 33-5 and recorded 15 corner kicks as opposed to Thomas’s three. With a one-man advantage, as Clemons was given a red card in the 32nd minute, Lanahan sent a free kick with under a minute left up to Ocel. The midfielder was able to rocket the ball from 35 yards out past the Thomas goalkeeper to give the Judges the lead with just 42 seconds left in regulation.
TUESDAY, november 17, 2015
13
WSOC: Women win first round on early goal
POINT-BLANK FOCUS
CONTINUED FROM 16
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The contest marked only the second time that the squad had come from behind for a victory on the season. The Judges will have to regain their focus after two exciting games that showcased late winning goals, in addition to wild celebrations between the players and the large crowd in attendance at Gordon Field. The team will continue with its impressive season on the line against Trinity University during the weekend. Trinity defeated the Judges 2-0 when they squared off at Trinity on Sep. 5. The game is scheduled to take place this Saturday at Amherst College, with a time to be announced tomorrow afternoon.
ners, while three different players took four shots. Moscovitch led the way for the Judges with four shots — two on target — and dished out the only assist of the game. The Judges will meet No. 3 William Smith College in the Sweet 16 this Saturday morning, beginning at 11 a.m. Brandeis and William Smith have two common opponents, Emory University and the University of Rochester. The Judges managed a 0-0 tie at Emory on Oct. 30 and followed that with a 1-1 tie on Nov. 1 during University Athletic Association play. William Smith took down Emory 1-0 on Sept. 5 and topped Rochester 1-0 later that month in non-conference play.
MBBALL: Smith dishes out team-high four assists in home opener CONTINUED FROM 16 Curry never gained more than a two-point lead. However, the Judges were able to erase their own 17 turnovers by forcing 17 turnovers from Curry. The Judges had a great showing in their first game of the season, dismantling Curry and improving their record against the Colonels to 15-0. Aside from their 17 turnovers, the Judges seemed to have found a bright spot in both their defensive and offensive abilities. With three players scoring in double digits, the Judges have a solid foundation upon which to build. Including the solid bench performance, the Judges have much to look forward to in the coming weeks. However, it is vital that the Judges not be too confident as they were last year, leading to a dismal and disappointing season. An important fact to note was
the Judges’ ability to play every player on the team. Although this may seem unimportant, it gives the first-years the on-court experience they need without any of the pressure. In establishing this in the first game of the season, the Judges will hopefully be able to more heavily rely on less-timid and nervous first-years in the future. With a tough in-state battle next week against University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, the Judges look to continue their hot start and avenge last year’s narrow homeopener loss against the Corsairs. The Judges will also face earlyseason tests from Rhode Island College on Nov. 21 and Lassell College on Nov. 24, when both come to visit the team. Brandeis dropped a 66-60 contest to Rhode Island College last year and a 64-60 game to Lassell, despite 18 points from Cooper in 20 minutes in that contest.
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Tuesday, November 17, 2015
15
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS Men’s BASKETBALL UAA STANDINGS
TEAM STATS
Points Per Game
Not including Monday’s games
Robinson Vilmont ’17 leads the UAA Conference Overall squad with 17.0 points per game. W L W L Pct. Player PPG JUDGES 0 0 1 0 1.000 Robinson Vilmont 17.0 Emory 0 0 1 0 1.000 Jordan Coooper 14.0 WashU 0 0 1 0 1.000 John Powell 13.0 Case 0 0 1 1 .500 Tim Reale 8.0 Carnegie 0 0 0 0 .000 Rebounds Per Game NYU 0 0 0 0 .000 Rochester 0 0 0 0 .000 Jordan Cooper ’18 leads the team Chicago 0 0 0 1 .000 with 6.0 rebounds per game. Player RPG Jordan Cooper 6.0 UPCOMING GAMES: Colby Smith 6.0 Tomorrow at UMass-Dartmouth Carlin Haymon 5.0 Saturday vs. Rhode Island College Aaron Liberman 5.0 Nov. 24 vs. Lasell
WOMen’s basketball UAA STANDINGS
TEAM STATS
Not including Monday’s games UAA Conference W L W JUDGES 0 0 2 Carnegie 0 0 1 Case 0 0 1 WashU 0 0 1 Emory 0 0 0 NYU 0 0 0 Rochester 0 0 0 Case 0 0 0
Points Per Game
Overall L Pct. 0 .1000 0 .1000 0 .1000 0 .1000 0 .000 0 .000 0 .000 1 .000
UPCOMING GAMES: Tonight at Roger Williams Saturday vs. Tufts Nov. 24 at Emmanuel
Niki Laskaris ’16 leads the team with 12.0 points per game. Player PPG Niki Laskaris 11.5 Heather Cain 10.0 Paris Hodges 10.0 Sydney Sodline 9.5
Rebounds Per Game Sydney Sodine ’17 leads with 6.8 rebounds per game. Player RPG Kyla Gabriel 7.5 Paris Hodges 7.0 Maria Jackson 6.0 Neffie Lockley 4.0
Cross country Results from the NCAA New England Regionals on Nov. 15.
TOP FINISHERS (Men’s) 8-Kilometer Run
TOP FINISHERS (Women’s) 6-Kilometer Run
RUNNER TIME Mitchel Hutton 5:10.8 Liam Garvey 5:15.7 5:18.4 Roger LaCroix Brian Sheppard 5:21.8
RUNNER TIME Emily Bryson 5:54.9 Madie Dolins 5:58.3 Julia Bryson 6:11.0 Ashley Piccirillo-Horan 6:11.3
JOYCE YU/the Justice
QUICK SPRINT: Guard Kyla Gabriel ’17 (right) dribbles the ball against Mount Holyoke College at home this past Friday night.
Squad finishes up top at tournament at home ■ Head Coach Carol Simon won her 400th career game this past Saturday against Eastern Nazarene College . By noah hessdorf Justice editor
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Judges will conclude their outdoor season at the NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday.
SWIMMING AND DIVING Results from a meet at Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Nov. 8
TOP FINISHERS (Men’s) 1000-yard freestyle
SWIMMER Zach Diamond Sam Scudere-Weiss Andrew Baker
TOP FINISHERS (Women’s) TIME 10:08.78 11:40.94 12:32.41
50-yard freestyle
SWIMMER TIME Sabrina Greer 1:10.89 Abby Damsky 1: 11.22 Fay Laborio 1: 11.71
UPCOMING MEETS:
Friday at Bentley Dec. 4 at WPI Invitational Dec. 5 at WPI Invitational
The women’s basketball team captured the Brandeis Tip-Off Tournament, presented by the Park Lodge Hotel Group, to help head coach Carol Simon earn her 400th career victory. To win the title, the Judges defeated Eastern Nazarene College 70-54 on Saturday afternoon and was victorious by a score 81-38 over Mount Holyoke College. The title was the team’s third in four years. Judges 70, Eastern Nazarene 54 In Saturday’s contests, the squad was able to jump out to a quick lead and never look back. The Judges ended the first quarter with a dominating 17-point lead that included a crucial three-pointer from guard Niki Laskaris ’16. The Judges were up 21 points going into halftime and coasted for the rest of the contest. Laskaris was the high-scorer on the squad, netting 17 points for the contest.
Forward Sydney Sodine ’17 scored 16 points, while guard Paris Hodges ’17 contributed 12. Forward Maria Jackson ’17 was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after recording a dominant all-around game that included eight rebounds, six assists, four steals, three blocks and six points. Joining Jackson on the All-Tournament team were Laskaris, Hodges and Sodine. The win marked the 400th victory of Coach Carol Simon’s 29-year career. Simon can now add another notch on her remarkable resume to go along with three Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference championships and four consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Tournament appearances from 2005 to 2009. The most impressive of these appearances came in the 2008 to 2009 season, in which the squad went all the way to the NCAA Elite Eight. Simon is 31st among career victories for active Division III head coaches. Judges 81, Mount Holyoke 38 The Judges dominated the entire contest against Mount Holyoke. The squad scored 13 consecutive points in the first quarter to take a
lead that it would never relinquish. In the second quarter, things got even tougher for Mount Holyoke, which got outscored by a margin of 31-7. The team was up at halftime by a score of 50-18. The team was once again led by Jackson, who scored 12 points, while guard Frankie Pinto ’17 contributed 11 points. Captain and guard Heather Cain ’16 also chipped in 11 points and two big steals. Another standout performer for the day was transfer guard Neffie Lockley ’18, who added 10 points, seven of which came in the second quarter. Guard Kyla Gabriel ’17 had a big game on the glass, pulling down both a game-high and career-high nine rebounds in the contest. Gabriel also added four assists, two steals and six points on the day. Lockley and Hodges both contributed seven boards in a contest in which the Judges outrebounded the Lyons 58-39. The squad was also able to lead the Lyons into turning over the ball 31 times while only committing 7 turnovers of their own. The team converted those Mount Holyoke turnovers into 30 total points. The Judges will next play tonight on the road at Roger Williams University at 7:00 p.m.
cross country Teams both run strong at NCAA Division III New England Regional Championships on Saturday ■ Emily Bryson ’19 earned a bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Cross Country Championships. By avi gold Justice editor
The men and women’s cross country team turned in strong performances at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III New England Regional Championships on Saturday as University Athletic Association champion Emily Bryson ’19 led the way with a 13th-place finish. The women took home eighth-place overall, scoring 242 points, while the men earned a
14th-place finish with 433 points. Women’s Squad (8th place- 242 points) Bryson took 13th out of 390 runners at the event, earning her All-New England honors, which qualified her for a berth to the prestigious NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships. Bryson will make an NCAA Championship appearance in her first season, an impressive feat. Bryson finished the race in 22 minutes and 3.01 seconds, the same time that won the UAA championship on Oct. 31. Bryson’s 13th-place finish over the six-kilometer race was the best by a first-year Brandeis runner since Heather Davidson ’01 took 12th in 1998. Maddie Dolins ’17 also earned All-
New England Honors for the second time in her collegiate career with a top-30 finish. Her 22:16.1 race was good for 29th overall and second on the Judges. Brandeis’s next two competitors finished in quick succession, as Julia Bryson ’19 and Ashley PiccirilloHoran ’17 both crossed the finish line just after the 23-minute mark. Julia Bryson stopped the timer at the 23:02.2 mark while PiccirilloHoran ended the race at 23:04. The Judges’ final scorer was Lydia McCaleb ’17, whose 23:13.0 finish was 73rd overall and a four-place improvement on last year’s race. Kate Farrell ’17 and Kelsey Whitaker ’16 rounded out the Judges at the race, taking home 23:16.3 and 23:07.65 finishes, respectively. The Judges’ eighth-place finish
was 35 behind Amherst College and only 107 out of a top-five finish. Men’s squad (14th place- 433 points) The men’s squad took 14th place, just 138 points out of a top-10 finish. Mitchell Hutton ’17 was the Judges’ top runner on the day, taking 41stoverall with a 25:45.2 race over the eight-kilometer course. Liam Garvey ’18 took second on the team with a 26:09.4 finish, turning in a 78th-place finish out of 380 competitors. Roger LaCroix ’18 turned in a 26:22.8 finish to earn an 89th-place finish while Brian Sheppard ’18 was able to cross the line at the 26:41.1 mark of the race. Quinton Hoey ’17 finished the race in an even 27:00.0 time, while
Matt Doran ’17 and Eli Waxler ’19 rounded out the Judges’ competition. Doran raced to a 27:13.0 finish while Waxler turned in a time of 27:27.5 timing. Waxler cracked the top 150 in his first race at the regional championships, earning 147th place overall. Bryson will be sent to the NCAA Championships this weekend in Oshkosh, Wisconsin before the indoor season begins on Dec. 5. Last season, the squads only sent one competitor to the met, Kelsey Whitaker ’16. Whitaker finished in 210th place at the invitational out of 280 total competitors that ran. The NCAA berth was Whitaker’s third overall, but that run looks to be jeopardy after a weak season from the senior.
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OFF TO THE RACES Emily Bryson ’19 earned a berth to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Cross Country Championships, p. 15.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Waltham, Mass.
mEN’S sOCCER
STELLAR DEFENSE
2 OT winning goal propels team past RPI in tight game ■ Midfielder Patrick Flahive
’18 scored two goals in two matches during the Division III Tournament. By Noah Hessdorf JUSTICE editor
The men’s soccer team advanced to the Sweet 16 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Tournament on Sunday, improving to 18-2-1 on the season. With the victories, the squad advanced to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year. The squad defeated Rensselear Polytechnic Institute 2-1 in double overtime on Sunday after squeaking out another 2-1 victory over Thomas College on Saturday. No. 3 Judges 2, RPI 1 (2 OT) Midfielder Patrick Flahive ’18 started the game strong by heading the ball home off of a free kick by midfielder Josh Ocel ’17 in the 8th minute. The goal was Flahive’s fourth of the year and the second contest in a row in which he scored. For Ocel, the assist was his tenth of the year — the 15th player in school history who has reached the mark — which is good enough for the team lead. For most of the rest of regulation
the Judges were able to control the ball without much of a counter-attack from RPI. It lasted all the way until the final minute of the contest when RPI was able to tie up the game at one apiece. Goalkeeper Ben Woodhouse ’18 came out of the goal to attempt to punch away the ball, but it was directed at RPI junior midfielder Andrew Gondek who took a shot on goal. The ball was redirected by the Judges’ defense, but senior defender Paul Lentine was able to slam the rebound back in the goal and send the game to an overtime period. The first overtime passed without much excitement, and the score remained deadlocked at one. In the second overtime, Ocel took a free kick from the left side, where forward Evan Jastremski ’17 collected the ball and took a shot at the goalkeeper. Though the shot was saved, Jastremski took the rebound and was resilient enough to put it in for his third goal of the year. All three of Jastremski’s goals this season have been game-winners. The goal was a slight redemption for Jastremski as well, as he nearly doubled the Judges' lead late in the first half. In the 28th minute, shortly after first entering the game as a substitution, Jastremski was sent on net by a good through ball from defender
See MSOC, 13 ☛
MEN’S Basketball
MIHIR KHANNA/Justice File Photo
LOOKING DOWN-FIELD: Forward Cidney Moscovitch ’17 attempts a laser pass against New York University at home on Nov. 7.
Judges advance to Sweet 16 with two wins ■ Forward Lea McDaniel
’17 scored two goals in two games played over the weekend at Amherst College. By avi gold JUSTICE editor
The No. 11 women’s soccer team took down Western Connecticut State University and No. 16 Amherst College in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Tournament over the weekend, advancing to the Sweet 16 round of the tournament for the first time since the 2012 to 2013 season. The Judges topped Amherst in penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie on Sunday and opened the postseason with a 1-0 on Saturday afternoon. The Judges move to 15-2-4 on the season with the victories. No. 11 Judges 1 No. 16 Amherst 1 (3-2 PKs) Goalkeeper Alexis Grossman ’17 proved to be the hero for the Judges in the team’s second-round win,
stopping seven of the eight shots on target during the 110 minutes of open play and three of the five penalty kicks. Grossman made two crucial saves on the second and third penalty kicks, allowing the squad to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead. It took the visiting Judges less than five minutes to grab a lead, when forward Lea McDaniel ’17 netted her second goal in as many days. McDaniel collected a cross inside the 18-yard box and slotted it into the bottom corner of the net, following a failed clearance by the Amherst defense. Amherst nearly tied the game following the ensuing kickoff, but Grossman stood tall in her net to deflect the ball away. Though the Judges controlled most of the play in the second half, it was host Amherst who found the back of the net. Amherst senior forward Megan Kim equalized in the 76th minute, taking a loose ball inside the 18yard box after a corner and blasting it past Grossman for the goal. The two sides played a relatively
quiet overtime session, and once the game reached penalty kicks, Grossman stood up to the test. McDaniel’s first shot missed wide of the net after Kim had given the hosts a 1-0 lead, but midfielder Holly Szafran ’16, defender Maddie Marx ’19 and defender Michaela Friedman ’16 all netted goals for the Judges. Amherst sophomore defender Sarah Zuckerman sent her fifthround attempt wide of the net, advancing the Judges to the Sweet 16 for the first time in three years. No. 11 Judges 1, Western Connecticut State 0 On Saturday, the Judges opened the tournament with Grossman’s 11th shutout of the year, a school record for individual shutouts on a year. McDaniel handed the Judges the only lead they would need, converting a 25th minute chance into her seventh goal of the year. McDaniel’s goal was the result of good build-up play by the Judges,
See WSOC, 13 ☛
Men win big in first game of the season ■ Guard Robinson Vilmont
’17 scores 17 as the Judges cruise past Curry College at their home opener. By JERRY MILLER JUSTICE Editorial Assistant
The men’s basketball team debuted their regular season with an 88-60 victory over Curry College this past Friday, looking to rebound from their sub-par 2014 to 2015 season. While last year’s matchup against the Colonels skyrocketed the Judges’ confidence, as they perpetuated their four-game win streak in a blowout 75-46 win, the rest of the season did not pan out quite as well. The Judges lost their next eight of 10, culminating in a disappointing 9-16 final record. However, the Judges hope to reverse their luck this year with some key additions. With newly introduced center Aaron Liberman ’17 and forward Brandon Lagos ’19, the Judges are on the right track, disposing of the Colonels in similar fashion. While pulverizing the Colonels, the Judges began their 2015 to 2016 regular season campaign on a high note with the victory. The Judges came out strong, scoring 37 points in the first half alone to go up 37-20. Despite a 6-0 run to start the game, the Colonels came back to tie it 15-15. Yet with
help from center John Powell ’17 and his eleven first-half points, the squad was able to go on a 12-0 tear, never looking back for the rest of the contest. Liberman added to the demolition of the Colonels with a firsthalf team-high four rebounds in just eight minutes. The major focal point of the first half, though, was the Judges’ 75 percent free throw percentage, generating a third of their first half points. In the second half, forward Jordan Cooper ’18 and guard Robinson Vilmot ’17 lit up the court. The two combined for 21 points while playing just seven and 13 minutes, respectively. Lone senior point guard Colby Smith ’16 displayed his magnanimous passing abilities, dishing out a team-high four assists. Leading by 36, the Judges pulled back and surrendered a 16-0 run by the Colonels. Cooper was able to crush the Colonel’s hopes with a transition slam to end the run. The Judges compiled an impressive score sheet against Curry, racking up a total of 43 rebounds and 16 assists. Forward Latye Workman ’18 worked in eight points and five monstrous blocks off the bench to add to the Judges’ impressive 28 bench points. Defensively, the Judges allowed a mere 35.2 shooting percentage as
See MBBALL, 13 ☛
Vol. LXVIII #10
November 17, 2015
just ARTS
ADAGIO :
EV O LU T IO N of D A NC E ÂťP.18
Waltham, MA.
Images: Bri Mussman/the Justice, Creative Commons. Design: Michelle Banayan/the Justice.
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THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015
DANCE
BRI MUSSMAN/the Justice
MERGING GENRES: Choreographed by Adagio’s Hannah Brooks ’16, Lori Shapiro ’17 and Julie Joseph ’18, “Gibberish” incorporated hip hop, jazz and tap elements into one number.
“Evolution of Dance” covers all genres By JAIME KAISER JUSTICE EDITOR
The room hummed with excitement as performers lined the overhead balconies practicing their choreography, and spectators packed into Levin Ballroom on Thursday evening for the annual Fall Adagio Dance Company show, titled “Evolution Of Dance.” Adagio is the largest organization at the University dedicated to dance and is entirely student-run. The show is its largest event of the semester, but Adagio hosts another eclectic mix of student talents in the spring, as well as Dance Marathon, an annual fundraiser for the Boston Children’s Hospital. Adagio was described by co-presidents Arnold Barbeiro ’16 and Eunice Choe ’17 in the program as a place where all Brandeis students “show their passion, or find a new one, in a supportive environment while fostering a sense of dedication, perseverance, and creativity.” The event showcased a whopping 27 performances, including performances from Brandeis companies other than Adagio, and dance troupes from Simmons College and Bentley University. The show was dominated by modern dance, but tap, jazz, ballet and hip hop numbers also peppered the line-up. After some witty commentary from emcees Harris Cohen ’16 and Dan Rozel ’16, the Adagio Dance Ensemble opened the show with a low-key yet intense number choreographed by Julie Joseph ’18 to Marian Hill’s “Got It.” The group closed the show with “Heart Cry,” featuring soft flowing movements punctuated by limbs snapping into
place dramatically in time with the music, choreographed by Lori Shapiro ’17 and Emma Hanselman ’18. Though the show traversed multiple genres, “Gibberish” was eclectic in and of itself — jazz, tap and hip hop numbers rolled into one. It’s hard to imagine such different genres cohering together in one performance, but the group impressively performed all three genres in a single song and managed to strikingly tie the three together. Many of the dances broke the mold of Adagio’s traditional modern styles. “Madonna” incorporated the creative use of vogue magazines covers into their dance, and “What I Want” added international flair to the set with a toe-tapping French song called “Je Veux” by Zaz. Appearances from other dance groups were some of the most exciting of the night. Kaos Kids, a Brandeis hip hop dance troupe, evoked whistles and cheers from the audience with their dynamic, blast-from-the-past mix of Missy Elliot, Destiny’s Child and Trevor Jackson, among others. A favored troupe among Brandeisians, everyone expects the Kaos Kids to bring their all, and Thursday night was no exception. Hooked On Tap put out an especially high-energy performance to the song, “Move a Little Faster.” Choreographed by Emily Cohen ’17 and Lori Shapiro ’17, all of the dancers were smiling ear-to-ear throughout the entire routine. The newly created Brandeis Ballet Company also performed, in a number choreographed by Michelle Dennis ’18 that fit no particular theme, but acted as an empty page for audience interpretation.
Brandeis’s Israeli Dance group B’yachad also made an appearance in what were by leaps and bounds the best costumes of the night — red and gold silk outfits circling about the stage as the dancers clapped to the rhythm of the music and their formations filled the stage. The biggest surprise of the night came in the performance “Randamonium” by the Stop Motion Dance Crew, a hip hop group started in 2013 by four students who were first-years at the time. After performing together as a group in Culture X, “we realized our potential to work together as crew members and strived to become an established group that would reach out to fellow students with a similar passion,” said Yoon Jae Lee ’17, one of the group’s current members, in an email to the Justice. The group popped locked, and “bbjoyed” in sync with their own flavor of hiphop that took a “beat-based and lyrical approach,” according to Lee. For Barbiero, the theme of the show accurately described the performances of the night. “‘Evolution’ connotes personal growth. I believe a lot of the stories told through the dances in this semester’s show spoke a lot to development of character,” he explained in an email to the Justice. “Some dances focused on aspects of confidence and others on uncertainty, but, all in all, I believe the search for the courage to let the true self shine through was at the root of each of these dances.”
BALANCING FEAT: Julie Joseph ’18 and Vivian Li ’18 hold up between them Lori Shapiro ’17 in a split during “Got It” performed by the Dance Ensemble during “Evolution of Dance.” BRI MUSSMAN/the Justice
—Editor’s Note: Dancer Rebecca Lanter ’16 is a Justice editor, and choreographer and dancer Brooke Granovsky ‘18 and dancer Anna Stern ‘18 are Justice staff writers.
THEATER
“Collision” looks at social issues through experiences By BROOKE GRANOVSKY JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
As the Frank Ocean song went silent and the house lights dimmed, a voiceover began to play. “This is a story about alcohol … about church ... about race … about oceans … about returning and leaving … this is a story about you.” According to its program, “Collision” was “a collaborative, artistic effort to enact social change through personal narrative.” Director Kesi Kmt ’16 said that the cast rehearsed for about three weeks before presenting “Collision.” Kmt, along with Sophie Warren ’18, Ashani Peterkins ’16, Sarah McCarty ’16 and Shakeria Hicks, who does not attend Brandeis, wrote the show’s script. Brandeis’s Queer People of Color Coalition, Triskelion and a grant from the Brandeis Pluralism Alliance sponsored the show. The
engaging show played twice over the weekend in the Merrick Theater at the Spingold Theater Center. Kmt’s biography in the program stated that she is “committed to the preservation of marginalized communities and the work of social transformation through art.” “Collision” held true to these themes by examining the social issues playing out in each of six unnamed characters’ lives. The play focused on their personal histories, detailing them over the course of three acts. When the lights were still up, Kmt prefaced the show by noting that it blended improvisation, theater and collaboration. She said that “Collision” was inspired by the film “Pariah” (2011), an art and drama film directed by Dee Rees about a black teenager who discovers her identity as a lesbian. The first scene saw the six actors stand onstage and look into mir-
rors propped up on the backdrop behind them. The unnamed characters explained that upon arriving at Brandeis, their identities — or rather, their relations to them or perceptions of them — changed. The next few scenes served to ambiguously detail how and in what ways their identities shifted. One character, played by Molly Gimbel ’17, spoke about gender policing and how gender is not a rigid binary. Gimbel noted that identifying between male and female complicated formerly simple parts of their life (like going to the bathroom) in ways that cisgender people are unlikely to experience. Gimbel lamented that “they [society] don’t make bathrooms for the in between.” Another character, played by Dennis Hermida ’16, started his monologue with a song written by Kmt titled “Edge of the Moon”. He sang about being at “the edge of the moon/
[with] nothing to gain/ and nothing to lose.” Hermida slipped into the melody in between describing a relationship with another man who was not yet open about his sexuality. Hermida’s rendition was smooth, captivating and emotional. As his story heightened in intensity, Hermida followed his retelling by singing in a more strained tone. When his story was more uplifting, he sang with more breathiness and ease. In this way, Hermida’s singing adjusted to match the emotion of each part of the story as he told it. In addition to poetry, song and monologues, Brontë Velez’s ’16 character used dance to tell her story. Dancing to a Nina Simone cover of “I Put a Spell on You,” Velez performed an emotive and technically challenging solo. With the lights dimmed, Simone sang, “I’ll put a spell on you/ because you’re mine.” Velez shifted smoothly between tempos during the
dance. At times, she paused to bend and reach towards the audience, and at other times, she turned and jumped quickly so that all that the audience could see was her trailing silhouette. At one point in the dance, Velez, lying on her back, slid from the back of the stage to the front while holding eye contact with an audience member. At the end of her dance, the audience seemed unsure whether to snap, as if in agreement with what she conveyed, or clap in appreciation of the performance. In the last scene, Kmt delivered a spoken-word poem. She talked about feeling outcast, about mercy in religion and about being “afraid of death the way books are afraid to burn.” Referencing the film, she mentioned feeling like a “pariah among pieces of herself.”After her poem, the cast came on stage and bowed to the crowd, which had already jumped to its feet in a standing ovation.
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THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, november 17, 2015
theater
‘Contest’ highlights family dysfunction By catherine Rosch justice editor
A young woman sits at a piano while her mother rapidly types the words she sings. It seems like the set-up of a sweet domestic scene, but it is anything but. That was the general theme of “The Contest,” Hillel Theater Group’s fall semester show, which was put on in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater this past weekend. “The Contest,” Shirley Lauro’s 2000 play, follows the Greens during World War II. The Greens are a Midwestern, Jewish family that is struggling to get by. The family’s matriarch, Lily (Abby Kirshbaum ’16), is desperate to move up in social status. However, her immigrant husband Joe (Alex Peters ’18) works a dead-end job that he hates in a munitions factory. Meanwhile, Lily’s sister Gert (Laura Goemann ’19) and her husband Louie (Eli Esrig ’19) are very wealthy — wealthy enough that they can pursue membership at the “goy” (non-Jewish) country club. In hopes of making some easy money, Lily obsessively enters contests on cereal boxes and candy bar wrappers, eventually enlisting her teenage piano-playing daughter Bev (Emma Cyr ’19) to help her write a Mounds candy bar jingle to win a national contest. Bev, tired of her mother’s obsessions and more focused on her dream of joining the
school’s chamber orchestra, reluctantly agrees to help Lily. But Bev finds herself pulled into a tangled mess of lies and aspirations as Lily becomes obsessed with the impossible dream of winning the jingle contest. But director Emily Galloway’s ’18 vision goes beyond just a story of family dysfunction. In her director’s note, Galloway focused on the darker themes of the show — themes of domestic abuse and physical violence, anti-Semitism and discrimination, the slow descent into madness and possibly undiagnosed mental illness. Galloway, and the rest of the production, did not shy away from depicting some more upsetting content. When Joe finds out that his wife squandered his paycheck and the money for Bev’s dental care in order to buy enough entries to a contest, he grabs and shakes Kirshbaum, his hands moving dangerously close to her neck. It was shocking and upsetting, but that moment added to the production’s realism. In another scene, Bev’s good friend Imra Jean (Elana Kellner ’19) seems untroubled by the fact that Bev might not be able to attend a dance at the country club because she goes to “Jew church,” while Lily is clearly not thrilled that her daughter’s closest friend is a “WASP.” Kirschbaum, the star of the show, also carefully portrayed a woman who experiences
wild highs of joy and excitement as well as deep crashes of exhaustion and depression, successfully treating the fact that Lily may not be mentally stable with humor and thoughtfulness. Many other details brought the audience into the Green family’s parlor and sitting room. The set, designed by Gabi Scheinthal ’16, was built in such a way that it seemed like there were two distinct rooms, even though the stage physically was not split into two separate entities. The small set pieces, like an old-fashioned radio and phone and a large, unwieldy vacuum cleaner, only added to the sense of realism. Fiona Merullo’s ’16 costuming, although relatively simple, provided context to the time period. Even small details like the Green family wearing regular coats while the wealthy Gert wore a luscious fur coat, added to the overall feel. However, one of the most impressive parts of the production was the use of sound. Music is a major theme in the show; Bev is trying to become a famous piano player and dreams of attending a conservatory in the East, and the titular contest is to design a musical jingle for a candy bar company. Elena Israel ’18 and Julia Goldberg ’17, the sound designer and executive sound designers respectively, mix period music and radio broadcasting into scenes and set changes in a way that reinforced the war-
DAISY CHEN/the Justice
SEEKING STATUS: Lily (Abby Kirschbaum ’16) and Joe (Alex Peters ’18) are Jewish Midwesterners living during WWII. Bev wishes to raise their social status. time setting. Every recording, be it a piano duet that Bev plays for her extended family or the stumbling attempts at writing the jingle or even the buzz of the vacuum cleaner, was perfectly synced to what the actors were doing and felt natural, like something an audience member would hear in his or her own house.
“The Contest” did have a few weak moments. Joe’s actual country of origin is never stated, so Peters’ accent was a bit all over the map. It was also not clear until halfway through the show how old Bev is actually supposed to be. But the show produced a poignant portrayal of family life, ambition and how something as innocent as en-
DAISY CHEN/the Justice
FAMILIAL LOVE: Bev (Emma Cyr ’19, R) is driven crazy by her mother Lily (Kirschbaum) but ultimately helps her when she is set on winning a contest for creating a candy jingle.
performance
Improv Collective creates musical spontaneity By Linda Maleh justice STAFF WRITER
On Sunday night in the Slosberg Music Center, the Brandeis Improvisation Collective’s fall concert made people tap their feet, nod their heads and laugh to the music. Brandeis Improv Collective is an undergraduate group that plays completely improvised music. In short, they make it up as they go along. The group that performed on Sunday night included fifteen musicians — guitarists, bassists, drummers, pianists, a flutist, a saxophonist and more. The collective is actually a class taught by Professor Thomas Hall (MUS), who introduced the concert and its different acts.
Hall began the event by saying that, “as humans, we are improvisers.” He went on to talk about how there’s a process of improvisation that we go through in every aspect of our lives, and this process, though used for different situations, is the same every time. He said that in the collective, they are “using music to explore that process of improvisation.” The night started with solos, and the group of musicians on stage grew consecutively bigger every two acts, such that after two solo acts, there were two duets, and so on until there were septets. After the septets, the night ended with all fifteen musicians on stage playing music together. The pieces got steadily more disjointed as the group of musicians grew.
The first few pieces, the solos and the duets, hardly sounded improvised but rather sounded like fully formed pieces. The first piece, played on the piano, was beautiful, and the performers of the first duet, two pianists, were so in sync that they made me wonder if the two pianists were reading each other’s minds. However, this did not mean that the pieces played by bigger groups were any less enjoyable. In these pieces, it often happened that the musicians looked to one person to start before joining in. Some of the groupings seemed planned, but others seemed to be arbitrarily chosen by Hall. One of my favorite groups was the drummer quartet, composed of every drummer in the collective. The drummers quickly started a
really good beat and soon had the audience clapping along. In one of the sextets, Hall called up former members of the collective onto the stage to perform as part of the sextet. Despite not having their own instruments, they each found something to play, and one student did not play any instrument but rather stomped her boots on the ground and tapped on any surface she could find to add to the beat. This was one of the more lively performances, the old mixing with the new, and everyone really just having fun up there on stage. Hall said after this particular performance that he allows anything to be played within the group, even if it’s not even an instrument. He gave an anecdote of one student who would come and play objects
found on the street. While some pieces remained disjointed and aimless, others came together and really got into a groove. Even the fifteen-person group at the end seemed to really begin to jive as they played. Hall said that normally he doesn’t let the collective perform in groups as big as septets, as they did that night. However, he found that this particular group of students seemed, more than other past groups, to enjoying playing constantly and all together. He said, “If I let them, they would all just play together for the entire three-hour class period.” The concert was fun, full of surprises, laughter and music that ensured nobody on stage or in the audience went home bored.
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TUESDAY, november 17, 2015 | THE JUSTIce
Brandeis TALKS
INTERVIEW
If you could have anyone be Brandeis’s next president, who would you choose and why?
Lina Nurhussien ’16
Nurhussien talks “Afrocentricity” MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice
This week, justArts spoke with Lina Nurhussien ’16, president of Brandeis African Students Organization, about their 5th annual Night for Africa. This year’s theme was Afrocentricity.
Devon Kennedy ’17
“I would choose Bob Dylan, because I think he’s a very insightful man who has a lot to say about life. And he also performed at Brandeis in the ’60s.”
justArts: Will you tell me about how the theme for the event was chosen and what the inspiration was?
“Perspective” Christina Torrijos ’18
“I think it should be Albert Einstein, because he was a founder of Brandeis and I think it would be nice to have him.”
ALI SANTANA/the Justice
CROSSWORD
Lina Nurhussien: It was actually our [Intercultural Center] Representative [who] came up with that idea [Jason Bideu ’17, Intercultural Center Representative]. … So my first year, we had “54 Shades of Gold,” kind of playing off “50 Shades of Grey.” Last year was “The Beauty Within.” This year was “Afrocentricity,” which is meant to, like, encompass African cultures and also cultures that were part of the African Diaspora. So it would include Afro-Latinos, Afro-Arabs — just saying that Africa is multifaceted and we felt that including that word “Afro” in Afrocentricity would best, I guess, display that. JA: Was there anything different that you did this year compared to previous years?
Anna Stern ‘18
LN: Well, we tried to include more off-campus acts. So, usually, it’s [Boston University] that comes, and Northeastern [University], and this year we had [Boston College] that came in addition to BU and Northeastern, as well as Wellesley. We wanted to collaborate with other ASOs — that stands for African Student Organizations, or alliances or unions or however they want to define themselves on campus. And we wanted to create that network just because we are located near the Boston area, and there are so many campuses around. ... So we did that this year — going to their events, [them] attending our events, just in order to make that connection.
“Hillary Clinton, because she is an incredible source of wisdom for all that is good in the world, and she’s tolerant.”
Divanna Eckels ’18
“Michelle Obama because she’s very poised and active, and is really good at staying connected to people.
JA: Was there a particular number that you think stuck out?
—Compiled and photographed by Michelle Banayan /the Justice.
LN: I could get glimpses of [the show], but I never really got down to sit down and watch everything. So I can’t really say, like, a certain act stood out to me, just because when you’re backstage, you’re just trying to make sure everything is running smoothly.
STAFF’S Top Ten
JA: Was there a specific message or a few messages you wanted the audience to take away from the event?
Childhood TV Shows By jerry miller
justice EDITORial assistant
As a child, my whole day was sandwiched between the two power channels, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Cramming in a few episodes of “Spongebob “before school set my day off to a great start. Then, coming home to unwind from a grueling lower school day, I cracked open a cool juice box and kicked back to a “Kids Next Door” marathon. Here are my top ten childhood shows: 1. “Spongebob Squarepants” 2. “Rugrats” 3. “Codename: Kids Next Door” 4. “The Fairly Oddparents” 5. “The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” 6. “Scooby Doo” 7. “Ed, Edd, and Eddy” 8. “The Sweet Life of Zack and Cody” 9. “Hey Arnold!” 10. “Tom and Jerry”
CROSSWORD COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN
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.
Solution to last issue’s sudoku
Sudoku Copyright 2014 Tribune News Service, Inc.
LN: Well, I guess that could be answered by analyzing the program. The way we did the program is we kind of wanted to start out traditional, if that makes sense, or more serious, I guess you could say, and then kind of delve into modern themes. So the first act opened with poetry, for example, and then the second act opened with “We Stand With Mizzou” which was kind of a last-minute decision because that’s a recent thing that happened. And then afterwards, we would delve into fairy tales … like “Snow Black” and things like that that we had this year — modern Afro-Caribbean Dancing, or just contemporary dancing, singing, rapping, spoken word. So we sort of had that traditional and modernity—just saying that those two can overlap. It doesn’t have to be just one thing or the other because that is kind of the reality right now for most African nations, kind of figuring out how you’re going to exist. —Emily Wishingrad
BASKETBALL PREVIEW SPECIAL
NOVEMBER 17, 2015
just
Sports
Lighting Up The Scoreboard Photos: Mihir Khanna/Justice File Photos.
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TUESDAY, november 17, 2015
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THE JUSTICE
TEAMS HUNGR Judges set up for strong year ■ The men’s basketball squad
possesses a core group of sophomores and juniors who will attempt to earn the UAA title after a shaky conference year. By elan kane JUSTICE Staff writer
MIHIR KHANNA/Justice File Photo
REACHING FOR THE HOOP: Forward Samuel Dowden ’17 attempts the layup during the 2014 to 2015 season in which he averaged 4.7 points per game.
Last season, injuries doomed the men’s basketball team. “Anything that could have gone wrong went wrong,” said coach Brian Meehan, who is returning for his 13th season at Brandeis. Guard Colby Smith ’16 missed the entire preseason last year with an illness, guard Robinson Vilmont ’17 missed the first four games of the season with a thigh injury, and forward Latye Workman ’18 missed the entire season after sustaining an orbital bone fracture in the preseason. Many first-years were forced into larger roles as a result of those injuries. Forward Jordan Cooper ’18 played an average of 22.9 minutes-per-game his freshman year, scoring an average of 12.4 points-per-game, and Nate Meehan ’18 averaged 18.4 minutes-pergame, scoring 5.3 points-per-game. The Judges finished last season with a 9-16 overall record and a 4-10 University Athletic Association Record. They scored an average of 62.5 points-pergame and allowed an average of 70.4 pointsper-game. Meehan views this forced additional playing experience as a positive note for the youthful Brandeis squad.
“The fact that guys got to play last year because of injuries and they were all freshmen and sophomores, now we’re hoping that it will be a benefit to us what happened last year as they gained some experience and we’re a little further ahead than we would have hoped to have been,” Meehan explained confidently. The biggest strength for Brandeis is their depth. The Judges return nearly their entire team from last year. Smith and Robinson make up the team’s core of returning guards, along with guards Tim Reale ’17 and Carlin Haymon ’18. Also back for Brandeis this season is center John Powell ’17 and Workman. Workman in particular should be a key contributor this year. After missing last season, he played well in his debut last Friday, scoring eight points in 18 minutes on 3-of-7 shooting. “We’re fully expecting [Workman] to be a guy that is going to contribute. He didn’t get to gain any experience last year, so there’s a learning curve, but we’re really excited about what he’s going to contribute,” Meehan said. One key newcomer for the Judges this season is transfer and 6-foot-10-inches center Aaron Liberman ’17. Liberman previously played first for Northwestern University and then for Tulane University but transferred to Brandeis as he felt he could more easily practice Orthodox Judaism. Meehan noted that Liberman’s size and athleticism would help the team defensively and in rebounding. “It gives us a guy with his size and length and his ability to move. He’s very athletic for a kid his size that fits into our style re-
ally well,” Meehan noted. Defensively, “he allows us to do a lot of the things that we really want to do, which is pressure and trap teams and get turnovers and rebounds.” One of the question marks early on for Brandeis will be how they respond to their tough schedule. The Judges face the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Rhode Island College, Lasell College and Becker College, all teams that defeated Brandeis at the beginning of last year’s season. Meehan knows that the team’s play in the early part of the season will not be indicative of the team’s overall play. “It’s just a matter of, can you do well enough in the first few tough games to win knowing that when we hit January we’re going to be a very, very formidable team,” Meehan clarified. The Judges’ season will ultimately come down to their depth. “We feel like we’ve got an entire group of guys that we can play from top to bottom,” Meehan stated. “Yes, some of the first-year are a little inexperienced, but from a talent standpoint, this has been our most talented group we’ve had here in 6 years or so, so we’re really excited about that.” The Judges will need to power past a few of their most difficult opponents from last year’s season. In the month of January alone the Judges face Emory University, New York University, and Case Western Reserve University, each of whom demolished Brandeis by double-digits. Yet, despite these losses, the Judges are confident in their abilities this year and look to turn the tide around.
YOUR GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION: Men’s Basketball Brandeis University 2014-15 record: 9-16 (4-10 vs. UAA) What to watch for: After falling in three of their last
four games, the Judges will look to finish stronger this season. That’s a significant possibility, as the team returns UAA Rookie of the Year forward Jordan Cooper ’18 alongside fellow standouts forward John Powell ’17 and guard Robinson Vilmont ’17. The squad will also look to key transfer center Aaron Liberman ’17 for a dominant inside game. The Judges will need to improve upon their 4-10 record in conference play from the 2014 to 2015 season. Key statistic: Brandeis finished with an impressive 3.5 blocks a game, second only to New York University on the season in the conference.
Carnegie Mellon University 2014-15 record: 14-11 (5-9 vs. UAA) What to watch for: Junior forward Jack Serbin, a
Second Team All-UAA selection, should lead Carnegie’s offense again this year. Last season he averaged a team-high 17.8 points per contest. Carnegie graduated its other top player, guard Seth Cordts, who will look to be replaced by junior guard Matt Hillman. Hillman will finally get a chance to run the show alongside Serbin and improve upon a meager 3.5 points per game from a year ago. Carnegie will also rely upon its big men, most notably junior center Chris Shkil and senior center Blake Chasen. Key statistic: The Tartans were second in the conference in free-throw percentage, making 71.5 percent of their attempts from the stripe.
Case Western Reserve University 2014-15 record: 15-10 (6-8 vs. UAA) What to watch for: Case graduated its top two scor-
ers from last season in forward Dane McLoughlin and guard Julien Person. The team will look for sophomore forward Eric Black to replace the graduates and add more than his 9.6 points per game from last season. With Person moving on beyond school, senior guard Jimmy Holman will be forced to make plays with the ball placed more in his hands. In the 2014 to 2015 season, Holman led the team with 4.9
assists a game, while also adding just over seven points. The key for Case will be attempting to replace the scoring void with their top two scoring players graduating. Key statistic: Case was second in the conference in three-pointers scored and three-pointer percentage.
University of Chicago 2014-15 record: 16-9 (8-6 vs. UAA) What to watch for: The Maroons are in great posi-
tion to begin the 2015 to 2016 season, in which they return the entire starting lineup from the previous season. The lineup includes all veteran players, with three seniors and two juniors. Those top five players include First Team All-UAA senior guard Jordan Smith and Second Team All-UAA senior forward Alex Voss. Junior forward Waller Perez averaged 10.0 points per game and 4.1 rebounds per contest. The team was able to finish with a record of 10-2 at home, an impressive feat that the Chicago hopes to duplicate. Key statistic: Chicago had the second-stingiest defense in the conference, allowing 66.8 points per game to the opposition.
Emory University 2014-15 record: 22-6 (10-4 vs UAA) What to watch for: The Eagles will look to repeat
as conference champions after a successful 2014 to 2015 season in which they went to the NCAA Division III Tournament. Emory was one of only two teams with two players on the All-UAA First Team: guard Michael Florin and forward Alex Foster, both of whom graduated. The Eagles will look to replace those players with senior forward and All-UAA Second Team Will Trawick and junior guard and AllUAA honorable mention Jonathan Terry. Key statistic: Emory led the conference with 79.7 points per game in the 2014 to 2015 season.
New York University 2014-15 record: 19-9 (8-6 vs. UAA) What to watch for: Like Emory, NYU featured two
members on the All-UAA First Team last season, but both of those players will be returning on the court. Senior guard Hakeem Harris and senior forward Evan Kupferberh will once again be trusted with the reins of the NYU attack. The Violets will also turn to Co-UAA Rookie of the Year, freshman guard Ross Udine, to take on a furthered role on both sides of the ball. Key statistic: NYU was dominant on the board last season, leading the conference with 41.3 rebounds per game.
University of Rochester 2014-15 record: 10-15 (6-8 vs. UAA) What to watch for: Rochester will be led by Second
Team All-UAA junior guard Sam Borst-Smith, who averaged 15.1 points per game. Senior forward Jared Seltzer will take his 11.3 points per game to the paint, alongside junior guard Mack Montague who scored 11.2 points per contest. The YellowJackets will try to improve upon their non-conference record from 2014 to 2015 season. Key statistic: Rochester converted free-throws at a 73.5 percent, which was good enough for second best in the conference.
Washington University in St. Louis 2014-15 record: 20-6 (9-5 vs. UAA) What to watch for: The Bears were runner-ups in
the UAA conference last season and will have a difficult time duplicating that result. WashU graduated its three top scorers, First Team All-UAA guard David Fatoki and will struggle to fill their productivity. The Bears will lean on senior guard Luke Silverman-Lloyd who averaged 10.0 points per game last season. A lot of weight will also be put on the shoulders of senior forward Mitch Styczynski who averaged 4.5 rebounds a game in the 2014 to 2015 season. Key statistic: WashU was second in the conference in offense, averaging 79.5 points per game last season, falling just shy of the top mark in the UAA. — compiled by Noah Hessdorf.
MIHIR KHANNA/Justice File Photo
HANDS UP: Forward Jordan Cooper ’18 hopes to help the Judges finish strong in the UAA standings this season.
THE JUSTICE
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YOUR GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION: Women’s Basketball Brandeis University 2014-15 record: 16-12 (5-9 vs. UAA) What to watch for: The Judges are led by guard Paris Hodges ’17 and forward Maria Jackson ’17, who led the team in scoring the previous season. The entire roster — minus guard Hannah Cain ’15 — will return to the squad that captured the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship. Also vital for the Judges will be the continued strong play of guard Sydney Sodine ’17, who averaged 6.9 rebounds per game last season. Key statistic: The Judges attempted 441 freethrows last season, the most in the entire UAA conference.
MIHIR KHANNA/Justice File Photo
DRIVING FORWARD: Guard Sydney Sodine ’17 (left) was central to the Judges’ ball control last year, pulling down a team-high 6.9 rebounds per game.
Squad returns core of ECAC title team ■ The team brings back almost its
entire roster for a run at earning a berth to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament. By noah hessdorf JUSTICE editor
The women’s basketball team looks to improve upon the 2014 to 2015 season, in which it had an overall record of 16-12 en route to an Eastern Collegiate Athletic Association Championship title. The squad returns most of its firepower from last season, only losing starting guard Hannah Cain ’15 to graduation. This season will feature a veteran focused team led by a trio of captains. Guard Heather Cain ’16 will be joined in the leadership role by guard Paris Hodges ’17 and forward Maria Jackson ’17. Hodges and Jackson were the dominant scorers for the squad last season, leading the team with outputs of 8.6 and 8.4 points per game, respectively. Jackson also was big on the glass, grabbing 6.2 rebounds per game, while Hodges dished out 1.4 assists per contest. The Judges also received major contributions from guard Niki Laskaris ’16 and guard Sydney Sodine ’17. Laskaris added 8.3 points per game while also dishing out 1.4 assists per game. The team will look to the senior to continue to be productive in the coming campaign. Sodine was an aggressive rebounder through the year, averaging team high 6.9 boards per contest, three of which on average were offensive. The squad will look to her to contribute precious points and improve upon her 6.1 points per game. Also important for the Judges last season were guard Frankie Pinto ’17 and center Olivia Shaw ’18. Pinto contributed 8.1 points per game, while Shaw added 6.5 points per game and 4.6 rebounds. The team, under head coach Carol Simon, was able to implement the players accordingly to have a productive season. The season featured big victories, including essential wins over University Athletic Association conference competition. The squad
won some hard earned victories over Carnegie Mellon University, Emory University, the University of Rochester and Case Western Reserve University. The team struggled overall in conference play though, going a weak 5-9. It will look to improve upon its UAA record from last season in the coming year. The Judges ended the year on a high note, winning their last three contests to capture the ECAC crown. The team handled its opening round easily against Roger Williams University 63-44 and was able to hold off Emmanuel College 91-78 in the semifinals. The championship game featured the most thrilling contest of the Judges’ season. In the title bout, the squad went up against regional foe Westfield State University. In a game that saw eight ties and 10 lead changes, the Judges were able to pull out an impressive overtime victory to close out the regular season. This year, the team will strive to make the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Tournament for the first time since the 2008 to 2009 season. Getting there will not be easy, as the Judges face a loaded schedule of tough opponents in both the region and conference play. Key dates on the team’s schedule include matchups with the No. 3 Tufts University — scheduled to take place this Saturday — a team in which the Judges lost to by over 20 points last year. The Jumbos made it all the way to the Final Four last season and have the talent to make another run. The Judges will also look to avenge last -year’s losses to Babson College and to the University of Massachusetts Boston. UAA conference play also has the possibility of revealing the true form of the team, as the conference is stacked with high ranked teams. It will have to face off against No. 5 New York University and No. 9 Washington University in St. Louis. Last season the squad also fell to the University of Chicago and Emory University during the 2014 to 2015 campaign. With the squad returning almost its entire roster in addition to five new first-years, it has a great chance of improving upon last year’s record and competing for a conference title and NCAA tournament berth.
Carnegie Mellon University 2014-15 record: 12-13 (3-11 vs. UAA) What to watch for: Junior forward Lisa Murphy returns after a year in which she averaged 20.2 points per game and was named to the All-UAA First Team. Carnegie will also bring back key offensive players in junior guard Jackie Hudepohl and senior guard Lindsay Poss. Hudepohl and Poss averaged 12.8 and 12.2 points per game, respectively. The trio was also big on the glass, all averaging more than eight boards a game, but will need more production from the rest of the roster to have a succesful season. Key statistic: Carnegie had the second-best defensive rebound average in the UAA, averaging 29.8 per game. Case Western Reserve University 2014-15 record: 9-16 (3-11 vs. UAA) What to watch for: Case was led last year by guard Brooke Orcutt, a Second Team All-UAA selection who scored 11.1 points per game. The Spartans will likely struggle offensively due to her graduation, and will look to senior forward Laura Mummey to step up her 10.6 points-per-game average. With the departure of Orcutt, the ball will be placed in the hands of junior guard Jessica McCoy who scored 9.0 points per contest while dishing out 2.0 assists. The team will need its younger players to shine, as three members of the starting lineup graduated. Key statistic: Case led the UAA three-point defensive percentage, limiting opponents to 26.0 percent from behind the arc.
assists per contest in the UAA conference, averaging 15.8 dishes per game. University of Rochester 2014-15: 15-10 (7-7 vs. UAA) What to watch for: The YellowJackets’ season will rest upon UAA Rookie of the Year and First Team All-UAA forward Alexandra Leslie. Leslie averaged 15.2 points per game last season, almost double the amount of her closest teammate. Leslie also grabbed an impressive 9.2 rebounds per contest. Complementing Leslie will be sophomore guard Lauren Deming, who will be trusted with the ball after only starting seven games last season. Senior guard Kelsey Hurley will look to become the veteran leader of the team while also improving upon her 6.0 points per game average. Key statistic: Rochester grabbed the second most rebounds in the UAA conference last season, averaging 43.9 a game. Washington University in ST. Louis 2012-13: 25-3 (12-2 vs. UAA) What to watch for: WashU looks to defend its UAA title in a season in which it begins ranked No. 9 in all of Division III. Washington graduated its top three players in First Team All-UAA and UAA Player of the Year Melissa Gilkey and Second Team All-UAA players guard Alyssa Johanson and guard Maddy Scheppers. While it will be hard to replace the departing talent, the Bears will look to senior guard Jordan Thompson and senior guard Kaytbeth Biewen. Both players earned UAA Honorable Mentions last season. Sophomore guard Natalie Orr will claim the role of the team’s sharpshooter after a three-point percentage of .435 last season. Key statistic: The Bears led the conference in total defense, only allowing 56.1 points per game during the 2014 to 2015 season. — compiled by Noah Hessdorf.
University of Chicago 2014-15: 18-7 (12-2 vs. UAA) What to watch for: The Maroons graduated their top player from last season’s team in First Team All-UAA guard Claire Devaney. Second Team All-UAA guard Morgan Donovan also graduated, which will force Chicago to look to its younger talent. Sophomore guard Elizabeth Nye will find herself with the ball after a season in which she averaged 8.3 points per game and 2.0 assists. Unless Nye becomes a top guard in the league, the Maroons will find it difficult to duplicate their second place finish in the UAA last season. Key statistic: Chicago scored the second-highest points per game in the conference last season with exactly 71 points. Emory University 2014-15 : 12-13 (4-10 vs. UAA) What to watch for: The Eagles return their top player in senior guard and UAA Defensive Player of the Year Khadijah Sayyid. Sayyid was also on the First Team All-UAA roster behind her team high 14.6 points per game and 7.6 rebounds. Emory also brings back junior guard Shellie Kaniut who averaged 9.2 points per contest to go with 3 rebounds. Sayyid will need to stay among the top players in the conference for Emory to have even a small chance to compete. Key statistic: Emory was second in the conference in causing turnovers, taking the ball away 20.2 times a game. New York University 2014-15: 22-5 (10-4 vs. UAA) What to watch for: NYU was the only team last season to feature two players on the First Team All-UAA roster, both of which are returning this season. Senior forward Megan Dawe and junior guard Kaityln Read will look to better upon the Violet’s third-place finish in the UAA standings. Dawe and Read averaged 12.7 and 11.7 points per game, respetively, to go along with over five rebounds apiece. Key statistic: NYU recorded the second-most
MIHIR KHANNA/Justice File Photo
UP AND OVER: Forward Maria Jackson ’17 (left) will be a major part of the Judges offense after putting up 8.6 points per game last year.
Design by REBECCA LANTNER, AVI GOLD/the Justice
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TUESDAY, November 17, 2015
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THE JUSTICE
Bringing Division I experience onto the Gosman hardwood Liberman starts anew at Brandeis By Elan kane justice staff writer
MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice
GAME SCHEDULE
FLOATER: Liberman attempts a close-range shot over a Curry College defender in team’s matchup last Friday evening.
After scoring three points and grabbing five rebounds Friday evening in 15 minutes of play during the men’s basketball team’s season opener, 6-foot10-inch center Aaron Liberman ’17 swapped his basketball jersey for a black suit — after all he was heading to eat Sabbath dinner at the Chabad house near campus. Liberman, an Orthodox Jew, is used to this challenge by now. He’s had to balance playing basketball with observing his faith for a few years. Liberman transferred to Brandeis this year after having played basketball first at Northwestern University and then at Tulane University. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Liberman attended the Orthodox Jewish Valley Torah High School. He started playing basketball after ninth grade — fairly late for a typical college basketball player. At that point, playing college basketball was not something Liberman could envision himself doing. “When I was in ninth grade, I literally didn’t know that people in college could dunk,” Liberman said. “I didn’t watch a single college game until I actually got to college. It wasn’t ever really on my radar to make it there.” Then Liberman met former Los Angeles Clipper Josh Moore, who told him he would have a decent chance at playing basketball in college. “[Moore] started making me realize you can get to places with sports, so that’s when I started training for it,” Liberman said. In 2011, Liberman led his high school team to a conference title, averaging 18 points, 11 rebounds and nearly nine blocks per-game on the season. Initially, Liberman, who plays with a custommade yarmulke, simply wanted to use basketball to help him get into an academically high-level school, like Princeton University. He soon realized he would not be able to play at Princeton because they, like other Ivy League schools, travel on the Sabbath. As time went on, Liberman’s love of basketball grew. He started training six to eight hours per day his senior year in high school. As his skills improved, he realized he might be able to play for a Division I team. After taking a gap year studying at a yeshiva in Israel, he decided to play at Northwestern. “It was a high academic school, it was away from home, [and] Chicago has a great Jewish community, which was one of my focuses. It was a perfect fit from all around, and I really loved it there from an academic standpoint and from a religious standpoint,” Liberman said. It’s a constant challenge for Liberman to playbasketball while observing his faith. At Northwestern, Liberman met with then-coach Bill Carmody months before the season began to discuss his special arrangements. Liberman would walk to the gym when he had games or practices that conflicted with the Sabbath and sometimes brought his own kosher food with him on road trips. But then Northwestern changed coaches. Coach Bill Carmody was out and Chris Collins was in. Liberman had a rocky relationship with Collins, and it became clear to Liberman that if he wanted to further pursue a college basketball career, it would have to be elsewhere. Liberman decided to transfer to Tulane, where he had similar Sabbath arrange
MEN Nov. 13 Curry 4:00 p.m. Nov. 18 at UMass Dartmouth 1:00 p.m Nov. 21 Rhode Island College 6:00 p.m. Nov. 24 Lasell 7:00 p.m. Dec. 1 Becker 7:00 p.m. Dec. 5 Babson 1:00 p.m. Dec. 6 Salem State/Tufts TBA Dec. 8 Amherst 7:00 p.m. Dec. 30 Fitchburg St. 6:00 p.m. Jan. 2 Bates 5:00 p.m. Jan. 3 Springfield/Husson 5:00 p.m. Jan. 9 at NYU 3:00 p.m. Jan. 15 Rochester 8:00 p.m. Jan. 17 Emory 12:00 p.m. Jan. 22 at Washington U. 8:00 p.m. Jan. 24 at Chicago 12:00 p.m. Jan. 29 Case 8:00 p.m. Jan. 31 Carnegie Mellon 12:00 p.m. Feb. 5 at Case 8:00 p.m. Feb. 7 at Carnegie Mellon 12:00 p.m. Feb. 12 at Rochester 8:00 p.m. Feb. 14 at Emory 12:00 p.m. Feb. 19 Washington U. 9:00 p.m. Feb. 21 Chicago 1:00 p.m. Feb. 27 NYU 4:00 p.m.
WOMEN
MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice
DRIVING HARD: Center Aaron Liberman ‘17 dribbles towards the basket against Curry College at home this past Friday night in a 88-60 victory over the Colonials.
ments set up. The whole process became exhausting, though, and Liberman began to feel like the only Orthodox Jew at Tulane. He found himself eating at the same kosher restaurant daily. “I had come from Los Angeles; it’s a huge Jewish community. My whole life I had been surrounded by huge Jewish communities. Chicago is a huge Jewish community there, and it was just like nothing at Tulane,” Liberman said. “I think on my street, where I lived in Chicago, there was maybe like three times as many [Orthodox] Jews just in that one street [than at Tulane].” Liberman faced the same religious challenge that he had always faced. “I had to make a choice, whether I wanted to keep pursuing basketball or if I wanted to be happy from a religious perspective, and that’s why I had to leave Tulane,” he said. Wanting to play right away, Liberman decided to look at Division III schools, and Brandeis, because of its Jewish history and large Jewish population, was at the top of his list. He has similar Sabbath arrangements as he had at Northwestern and Tulane, and he hopes his passion for basketball, which he admits has waned throughout the years, will be reinvigorated at Brandeis. Basketball has given him a lot of opportunities but also presented him with many religious obstacles — just ask him about it after the game at Sabbath dinner.
Nov. 13 Mount Holyoke 6:00 p.m. Nov. 14 Lasell or E. Nazarene 1:00 or 3:00 p.m. Nov. 17 at Roger Williams 6:00 p.m. Nov. 21 Tufts 1:00 p.m. Nov. 24 at Emmanuel 5:00 p.m. Dec. 1 Simmons 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5 at Johnson & Wales 1:00 p.m. Dec. 9 Babson 7:00 p.m. Dec. 31 Husson 1:00 p.m. Jan. 2 Endicott 1:00 p.m. Jan. 5 Mass.-Boston 5:30 p.m. Jan. 9 at NYU 2:00 p.m. Jan. 15 Rochester 6:00 p.m. Jan. 17 Emory 1:00 p.m. Jan. 22 at Washington U. 7:00 p.m. Jan. 24 at Chicago 2:00 p.m. Jan. 29 Case 6:00 p.m. Jan. 31 Carnegie Mellon 2:00 p.m. Feb. 5 at Case 6:00 p.m. Feb. 7 at Carnegie Mellon 2:00 p.m. Feb. 12 at Rochester 6:00 p.m. Feb. 14 at Emory 2:00 p.m. Feb. 19 Washington U. 6:00 p.m. Feb. 21 Chicago 2:00 p.m. Feb. 27 NYU 1:00 p.m.