ARTS Page 19
FORUM Expose Hollywood’s predators 11 SPORTS Men’s soccer wins one of two 16 The Independent Student Newspaper
the
ROSE OPENING of
B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9
Justice
Volume LXX, Number 6
www.thejustice.org
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
LEAVING A MARK
sustainability
deiSic fosters green ideas ■ Teams provided potential
green initiatives after a daylong brainstorming challenge for campus sustainability By MAURICE WINDLEY and ELIANA PADWA JUSTICE STAFF WRITERs
While the looming threat of climate change affects this planet, students and faculty at the University sought to make their mark on improving campus sustainability through the second annual Sustainability Ideation Challenge, deiSic. Organized this year by Olivia Zou ’19 and Danielle Davidoff ’19, deiSic is a full-day campus-wide event that challenges participants to brainstorm various ways to better enable sustainability on campus. First started in fall 2016, deiSic returned this year to promote and engage sustainability discussions on campus through collaboration, communication and a competitive setting.
The event broke students and faculty up into teams to discuss what projects can be produced using the Brandeis Sustainability Fund to help the University become more sustainable. “Sustainability intersects with so many groups of different interests, and so deiSic helps bring different people together to discuss how to use the Brandeis Sustainability Fund for greener projects,” Mary Fischer, manager of the Sustainability Programs Office and deiSic mentor, said in an interview with the Justice. She added that, since “Sustainability is at the core of social justice, raising awareness of greener projects and ways to make campus more sustainable is a part of the fabric that makes Brandeis special.” Fischer, whose initiatives helped reduce the University's carbon footprint by 10 percent in 2016, highlighted that as one of few campuses with a Sustainability fund, the University is in a position to become a leader
See SUSTAINABILITY, 7 ☛
STUDENT LIFE
Financial Services launches new platform ■ Student Financial
Services recently launched a new platform aimed at financial literacy. By ABBY PATKIN JUSTICE EDITOR
Loans and budgets can be a source of stress for students trying to navigate their finances for the first time. With the launch of SALT, an online financial literacy resource, the Office of Student Financial Services is looking to put students’ fears to rest. “The topic of money gets people scared, and I would say that probably most of the time, we’re talking to the parents and not the students,” Executive Director of Student Financial Services Sherri Avery ’95 said in an interview with the Justice. Students “don’t know
what to come in and ask because the parents want to do all of it, which is ok, but then you end up leaving college not knowing some things, and SALT can help with that.” SFS previously used a similar online platform, Financial Avenue, which offered a series of courses for students. There were almost 500 students signed up and completing coursework, but that number eventually stagnated, Avery said. “We just found that [Financial Avenue] was limiting, because there were only a certain number of courses, and there wasn’t any new material. It was just you finished the courses and that was pretty much all you could do,” she explained. “And the courses were really good … but once you got through the course, there was nothing more you could do with the product and then you were off on your own.”
See SALT, 7 ☛
NATALIA WIATER/the Justice
HANDS ON: Student volunteers left behind handprints in the graphite dust on the wall surrounding Tony Lewis’ “Plunder” mural.
Students become creators with new Rose installation ■ Student volunteers helped
artist Tony Lewis install his latest work, “Plunder.” By JOCELYN GOULD JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Students took a hands-on approach to fine art last week, helping the 2017 to 2018 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence recipient install his latest creation, “Plunder.” Now on display in the Rose Art Museum, the three-dimensional mural carries the imprints of its student creators, as well as a powerful message about racial tensions in America. Tony Lewis, a Chicago-based artist, created “Plunder,” which is located on the outward-facing wall of the Lois Foster Wing, according to the Rose Art Museum’s press release. Although the mural appears to be an ambiguous swirling line, starkly black against the white wall, the shape of the piece is intentional and symbolic: Lewis used Gregg shorthand notation, a “stenographic script similar to abbreviated cursive,” to create an “abstracted symbol of the word
‘plunder,’ from which the work takes its name,” according to the press release. As the museum’s press release explained, the title of the work comes from a powerful quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book “Between the World and Me” — “The plunder of black life was drilled into this country in its infancy and reinforced across its history, so that plunder has become an heirloom, an intelligence, a sentience, a default setting to which, likely to the end of our days, we must invariably return.” Lewis ‘wrote’ the word across the wall in a mural made of metal screws and graphite-dipped rubber bands. After drawing the symbol on the wall, Lewis drilled the screws directly into the museum’s structure, and University students then stretched the rubber bands between the screws. When the students began work on Oct. 8, most of the screws had been drilled into the wall, but only a small section of rubber bands were applied. The goal for the week was to create a mass of rubber bands in the shape of the symbol such that one could not see the wall through the web of rubber and graphite, said
Orli Swergold ’18, one of the students working with Lewis, in an interview with the Justice. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, a rotating group of students worked with Lewis and his team to accomplish this task. More than 25 pounds of rubber bands were used, said Hannah Kressel ’20, another student involved who was also interviewed by the Justice. Although the work was simple, Lewis encouraged students to get into a “meditative, ritualistic state while putting the rubber bands on,” said Kressel. Even though she was creating someone else’s artistic vision, the fact that she was “getting into the meditative state that Lewis was thinking of when he thought up the piece” made her feel more connected to “Plunder,” Kressel explained. Despite the calming nature of the work, the process of creating “Plunder” was incredibly messy due to the graphite powder in which the rubber bands were dipped, she said. Graphite dust spread around the edges of the symbol itself, but this offered the students a chance to include their own touch in Lewis’ work.
See PLUNDER, 7 ☛
X-Lawn
Tough Luck
Psych in Space
The Campus Activities Board kicked off the year with X-Lawn on Saturday.
The women’s soccer team was plagued by injuries in its loss on Sunday.
Doctor analyzed physiology and psychology linked risk ‘maps’ of future astronauts travelling to Mars.
FEATURES 8 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org
Waltham, Mass.
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INDEX
SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS
17 13
EDITORIAL FEATURES
10 OPINION 8 POLICE LOG
10 2
News 3
COPYRIGHT 2017 FREE AT BRANDEIS.