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Justice www.thejustice.org
The Independent Student Newspaper Volume LXXII, Number 11
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B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GOLDFARB!
Waltham, Mass.
CAMPUS PROTESTS
Univ. makes changes to student protest policies ■ Provost Lisa Lynch
announced updates to Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook on Aug. 29. By CHAIEL SCHAFFEL and ARI ALBERTSON JUSTICE STAFF WRITERS
SARAH KATZ/the Justice
The Goldfarb Library celebrated its 60th annivesary on Tuesday, Nov. 12. Read more about the anniversary festivities and the library’s history and resources on Page 3.
RESEARCH
University releases 2019 Campus Climate Survey ■ The survey asked about
topics surrounding sexual misconduct and is a follow-up to a survey from 2015. By NATALIA WIATER JUSTICE EDITOR
The 2019 Campus Climate survey found that students with marginalized identities reported experiences with sexual violence and misconduct at higher rates than their peers. The report details students’ experiences with and attitudes toward sexual misconduct, reporting procedures and prevention resources on campus. University President Ron Liebowitz released the survey on Thursday in a campus-wide email, calling the results “disturbing and deeply troubling.” This survey, conducted in March, is a follow-up to the 2015 Campus Climate Survey, but according to the 2019 report, a comparison between the two reports cannot be reliably used to determine whether or not the University has improved in certain areas, due to the fact that the responses to each survey were provided by different people under different circumstances and at different times between 2015 and 2019. 22% of students participated in this year’s survey — compared to the 34% who participated in the 2015 survey — though neither set of results can be used to represent the Brandeis popu-
lation as a whole, but rather solely the people who participated in the survey. “I don’t need this to be a representative sample to know I have a problem,” Provost Lisa Lynch said in a joint interview with the Justice and The Hoot on Wednesday. Sexual violence and misconduct are problems all members of the community have to “engage in and be part of the solution,” she said. “I want people to be angry reading this report.” Liebowitz wrote in the email that “the results remind us that preventing sexual assault and supporting survivors requires the focused work of all of us, not just those of us who are designated by job title to grapple with these issues.” He explained that students are unable to focus on their education when they fear for their safety. Though the Association of American Universities conducted a separate, similar survey of 33 institutions, with a similarly low response rate of 21.9%, Brandeis chose to conduct its own survey. “We wanted control over a survey about our community and [that] reflected our values,” Lynch explained. The AAU survey was also shorter in some areas, and did not ask where certain incidents happened, unlike the Brandeis survey. The AAU survey used different gender categories than the 2019 CCS: man; woman; transgender woman, transgender man, non-binary or genderqueer; not listed or decline to state. The Brandeis survey used man, woman and gender non-con-
forming, with additional options to self-disclose whether the respondent considered themselves transgender, intersex, non-binary or an identity not listed as an option. Throughout the 2019 Campus Climate report, the survey data is broken down by different population categories, such as undergraduate and graduate students, and by gender, including gender non-conforming and transgender. In addition, race, ethnicity and international status, affiliation with Greek Life and affiliation with varsity or club-level athletics are also included in the breakdown.
Addressing gender discrepancies
2% of undergraduate men participants and 6% of undergraduate women participants reported instances of rape, the majority of which happened in on-campus residence halls (65%) and were perpetrated by Brandeis students (58%). The number of gender non-conforming participants who reported rapes was not included; the minimum threshold to include results is five students, as reporting any number smaller than that may make the individuals identifiable within the Brandeis community, according to the report. 10% of men, 21% of women and 36% of gender non-conforming participants reported having experienced sexual violence, while 10% of women graduate student respondents reported such experiences. The 2015 survey found that students identifying as
See SURVEY, 7 ☛
The University administration made changes to the student handbook this semester to mandate the administration’s prior approval of protest demonstrations by student groups. The changes to Section 7.1 of the Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook makes campus demonstrations more difficult, according to a student activist group that spoke with the Justice. The language in 7.1 is identical to a section in the Princeton University handbook, but Brandeis applies it differently. The changes were announced by University Provost Lisa Lynch on Aug. 29 in an email to the Brandeis community detailing the administration’s response to issues raised by #StillConcernedStudents last spring. The changes read, “In asking groups and individuals to seek prior approval for schedule and location, the University’s goal is not to restrict free speech or peaceable assembly.
Rather, it is to give the University the opportunity to provide space that accommodates the reasonable needs of both the University community and those engaged in acts of speech or protest.” The language change is followed by a note to see Section 6.2 for the University’s sign-posting policies, which were also changed this semester. This change came in response to allegations of unequal reactions by the administration to protests by Brandeis Climate Justice and #StillConcernedStudents. Both groups held protests that involved hanging banners during the 20182019 academic year, but the groups’ banners were dealt with differently by the administration. In an Aug. 29 email to the community, Lynch wrote that the administration had “Not followed our protocols on banners and that, therefore, students were not treated in an equitable manner.” She wrote that the removal of banners hung by #StillConcernedStudents had been “mishandled.” In an email to the Justice on Friday, Assistant Dean of Student Rights and Community Standards Alexandra Rossett said that the punishment for not having a protest approved would be meted out on a “case-by-case” basis and did not
See R&R, 7 ☛
BRIEF Kendal Chapman ’22 wins Student Union vice presidential seat unopposed in special election Student Union Director of Outreach Kendal Chapman ’22 won the special election for Union vice president with 120 votes, Union Secretary Taylor Fu wrote in an email to the Justice on Sunday. Although she ran unopposed, Chapman won the election by just four votes, with ten abstentions, 36 votes of no confidence and 70 write-in “other” votes against her, according to Fu. The full election results will be released on Tuesday. Chapman told the Justice she will address structural issues within the Senate to promote accountability for individual senators. The line between serving as a senator and a senator for a specific constituency can be blurred, she said, and she wants senators to recognize that they have a representative role and must work on projects that explicitly serve their constituents. During the candidates’ debate last Tuesday, Chapman said she wants the community to perceive the Union as a resource rather than a barrier and that she will work to change the Union’s image by clarifying the structure and conducting outreach instead of being too internally focused. She said one method of outreach will involve creating a public document
explaining the functions of all the Union positions. “It’s not that people don’t know the Union exists, it’s that they don’t know what we’re doing and how we can help them,” she said during the debate. Chapman said she also wants to change how senators communicate their senator reports during the Senate’s meetings by eliminating the option to pass. She also wants to further distinguish between committee chair and senator reports. The special election for vice president came after former Student Union Vice President Guillermo Caballero ’20 resigned abruptly during the Oct. 27 Senate meeting, partly because of a Judiciary case which found him and Student Union President Simran Tatuskar ’21 in violation of the Union constitution and bylaws. Caballero was a complainant in the case. When asked if she could ensure she would not resign from the job, she said, “I know the time, I know the commitment and I’ve been around to see those past three VPs be here, so I actually know what I’m getting into. I know who I’m working with, so I have a better understanding of what the job is before I’m getting into it.” —Emily Blumenthal
How does recycling and compost work on campus?
Kindness Week
Adagio
The Justice took an in-depth look at Brandeis' nicest event of the year.
The Adagio Dance Company presented their annual fall showcase.
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By HUILIN LI
By SAMANTHA GOLDMAN
NEWS 3
Settling the ‘Ok, Boomer’ debate By GABRIEL FRANK
FORUM 11
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ARTS AND CULTURE 19
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COPYRIGHT 2019 FREE AT BRANDEIS.
SPORTS 15
2
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019
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NEWS
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THE JUSTICE
NEWS SENATE LOG
Senate swears in new vice president, discusses racial minority senator special election and buying cooking supplies At its weekly meeting on Sunday, the Senate swore in newly-elected Student Union Vice President Kendal Chapman ’22 and discussed controversy surrounding the special election of the racial minority senator. They also passed a Senate Money Resolution to purchase cooking equipment for Polaris Lounge. Interim Student Union Vice President Jake Rong ’21 swore in Chapman with the Union Oath of Office.
Racial Minority Senator
The Senate went into Executive Session to discuss the special election for the racial minority senator, which has not yet happened. Former Union Vice President Guillermo Caballero ’20 dismissed former Racial Minority Senator Rajan Vohra ’21 during the Oct. 6 Senate meeting for missing multiple Senate meetings. After its Executive Session, the Senate voted on whether to recommend that the special election take place during the current semester or to wait until next semester. Class of 2022 Senator Joseph Coles read a resolution which said that the Union was in violation of its own constitution in not holding a special election to fill the position within the required 15-day period. After Coles read the resolution, the Senate voted by roll call to pass the reso-
lution recommending that the election be held as soon as possible. During Open Forum, Coles told senators about a write-in vote on the most recent special election ballot which said that the Union was racist for not holding a special election for the racial minority senator position in a timely manner. Instead of focusing only on the problems with the special election, Coles said that the Union needed to address its “holistic reputation” and pursue an “anti-racist” agenda. Coles wrote an apology on behalf of the Union about the special election, which he presented to the E-Board. He also made suggestions during the EBoard’s meeting about how the Union can be more “anti-racist,” including creating Google forms and holding forums where Student Union members can hear concerns. Chapman added that the Board is launching several projects to combat racism within the Union, the details of which she said cannot yet be disclosed.
Executive Officer Reports
260 people used the Lyft subsidy, and it will be expanded into next semester, Coles said. Details will be forthcoming.
Senate Committee Chair Reports
Coles, also the chair of the Club Support Committee, reported that two
WALTHAM BRIEF
Two restaurants to open on Moody Street
clubs are preparing to present to the Senate for probationary status. He has also been working on the Club Consultant Bylaw, which he said has been “misunderstood.” He will be speaking with club leaders with questions about the bylaw during his office hours to clear up misconceptions. Dining Committee Chair Nancy Zhai ’22 reported that the Usdan online menu is being edited to reflect what is actually being served in the dining hall. Zhai said that she attended a Request for Proposals committee meeting on Thursday, where attendees discussed allergy awareness, food quality and catering management and coordination. The committee will begin drafting the RFP next week. Rules Committee Chair Scott Halper ’20 reported that the committee has been working with Charles River Senator Oliver Price ’20 on his amendment to make secured clubs wage-eligible. Social Justice and Diversity Committee Chair Joyce Huang ’22 reported that the committee will be creating a library display case with books by authors of color within the next few weeks. Health and Safety Committee Chair Josh Hoffman ’21 reported that the committee will be printing posters with information about “how many shots it would take until your liver begins maintaining permanent
damage” to be posted in the first-year residence halls. The committee is also reaching out to the Department of Community Living about students allegedly sickened by mold in Deroy Hall, as well as broken gym equipment that has “lawsuit potential” if injuries occur, Hoffman said. Halper said he is trying to set up a meeting about the alleged mold problem in Deroy, and is in contact with athletics staff to determine the safety of each piece of athletic equipment. Facilities and Housing Committee Chair Trevor Filseth ’20 reported that East Quad Senator Priyata Bhatta ’22 and Rosenthal and Skyline Quad Senator Leah Fernandez ’22 had given him a “big list of complaints” from students about issues in their quads, which he intends to bring to Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Tim Touchette. Facilities has been going to the incorrect rooms when responding to work orders, Filseth said. Filseth offered to work with Hoffman and the Health and Safety Committee on the alleged mold problem in Deroy.
Cooking Supplies SMR
North Quad Senator Krupa Sourirajan ’23 proposed an SMR to order cooking supplies for Polaris Lounge, which she said are lacking. Potential items include a hand mixer, cookie
‘THE OTHER IRANIAN ARMY’
sheets, pots and pans. The SMR would cost $220, and DCL has agreed to pay for supplemental items, she said. Several senators brought up the potential problem of the equipment being stolen. If the equipment were to be bolted or somehow attached to the wall to avoid theft, the order would have to be placed months in advance because of the extra cost with workers, Fernandez said. Sourirajan added language to the SMR to make the purchase of the equipment contingent on her meeting with Touchette this week. If Touchette were to express legitimate concerns about the purchase, the equipment would not be purchased. The Senate voted by roll call to suspend the rules and pass Sourirajan’s SMR.
Senator Reports
Halper announced that Union President Simran Tatuskar ’21 has apologized to Rong and Caballero, and will be speaking with Zhai next week. She has also sent out emailed apologies to the community, Judiciary and the Senate. Bhatta reported that she set up an anonymous form for students to report issues in East Quad. “Not surprisingly, there are a lot of issues,” Bhatta said. —Emily Blumenthal
Do you have a nose for news?
Two restaurants, RoyalTea and Penang, are looking to open new franchises on Moody Street, according to two Nov. Waltham Patch articles. One is a chain bubble tea shop called RoyalTea, according to the Nov. 14 Waltham Patch article. According to the RoyalTea website, the shop has “more than 130 franchise locations in China.” The Nov. 14 Waltham Patch article reported that this RoyalTea is owned by Yukit Wu, who opened a RoyalTea in Boston’s Chinatown. The article said that Wu would like to open the Moody Street location by February and that the shop will be next to Bonchon, a Korean barbecue chain on Moody St. RoyalTea’s menu includes cheese mousse tea, which may sound strange to some, but Wu was quoted by Patch as saying, “A lot of people question cheese, but when they try it they love it. Cheese tea is like a cream cheese that’s specially blended. It doesn’t taste like cream cheese; it’s a little bit salty with a sweet finish that complements the tea.” Prices for the tea are around four to five dollars, though customers can select additional toppings for an increased price, according to the menu. The other restaurant looking to move in is a Malaysian restaurant called Penang, per the Nov. 12 Waltham Patch article. Penang already has a location in Boston, according to its website. The Nov. 12 Patch article reported that the restaurant is looking to open at 569 Moody Street, which was previously occupied by Tiki House. Penang’s owner, Puah Hoon NG, applied for a liquor license at the location in September. Penang’s Boston menu includes a variety of items, with most rice and noodle dishes ranging in price from around eight to 11 dollars. —Jason Frank
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS n A News article incorrectly said that Makayla Richards’ graduation year was 2019. It was corrected to 2020. (Nov. 12, Page 3) n An Arts article misspelled the name of the visual artist. It is corrected to “Chang-Jin Lee”. The gender pronoun in the photo caption was corrected to “her.” The article incorrectly stated the location Eissenberg met gamin. It was corrected to the US. The article incorrectly stated that part of the concert is composed by students. It is corrected with additional information. (Nov. 12, Page 18) The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Send an email to editor@thejustice.org.
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LAUREN BERK/the Justice
Maryam Alemzadeh spoke on Wednesday about the impact of the Iran-Iraq War on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at an event sponsored by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies program.
Contact Emily Blumenthal and Gilda Geist at news@thejustice.org
POLICE LOG MEDICAL EMERGENCY Nov. 12 — BEMCo treated a party in the Charles River Apartments with a sore throat and headache with a signed refusal for further care. Nov. 13 — A party in Rosenthal Residence Quad reported a head laceration. BEMCo treated with a signed refusal for further care. Nov. 13 — BEMCo responded to a party in the Pomerantz Residence Hall with a forehead injury. The Area Coordinator on call was notified. The party was treated by Cataldo Ambulance with a signed refusal for further care. Nov. 14 — In the Usdan Student Center, a party reported another party who burnt his hand on something electrical. BEMCo treated the party with a signed refusal for further care. Nov. 15 — An employee at Slosberg Music Center fell and had a hand injury. BEMCo treated the patient, who was transported to Urgent Care by University Police for further care.
Nov. 16 — A caller in Village Quad stated a party had a self-inflicted minor leg wound. The Area Coordinator on call was notified and on scene with University Police. Brandeis Counseling Center staff spoke with the party. The Department of Community Living and BCC staff followed up, and no further action was taken by University Police. DISTURBANCE Nov. 12 — In the Charles River Apartments there was a call received for yelling in the stairwell. Upon University Police arrival there were residents talking loudly. They were asked to quiet down and they complied. Nov. 12 — There was a call received for a fight in progress in the Charles River Apartments. Upon University Police arrival, the Area Coordinator on call was on scene with the two parties, both Brandeis students. No physical assault took place, only a verbal argument. The parties were advised to stay out of contact for the night.
The Area Coordinator on call escorted one party back to her residence hall. University Police compiled a report on the incident. Nov. 15 — University Police responded to Hassenfeld Residence Hall to investigate a report of students listening to music and talking loudly. Upon arrival, the students were spoken to and advised to lower the music. The occupants complied without incident. Nov. 15 — University Police responded to a party in Hassenfeld Residence hall for a call of a noise complaint. Occupants were talking loudly upon arrival. Occupants were advised to lower their voices and complied. MISCELLANEOUS Nov. 11 — A party reported a suspicious document attached to her online travel forms in the Shapiro Admissions Center. University Police compiled a report on the incident. —Compiled by Jen Geller
THE JUSTICE
GOLDFARB TURNS 60
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NEWS
By ARI ALBERTSON JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
SARAH KATZ/the Justice
A LOOK INTO HISTORY: The Archives & Special Collections are one of many resources Goldfarb has to offer. University Archivist Maggie McNeely said they collect “anything by, for and about Brandeis,” such as records and information about Middlesex University, the school that operated on Brandeis’ campus prior to the University’s founding in 1948.
Univ. celebrates Goldfarb Library’s 60th anniversary since Goldfarb’s opening, the Library staff held a commemorative event. By HANNAH TAYLOR JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
The Goldfarb Library celebrated its 60th anniversary on Nov. 12. Library staff held an event that day in its honor that included speeches, a display of photographs of the library’s history, singing “Happy Birthday” and a birthday cake. Matthew Sheehy, the head Brandeis Librarian, began the celebration by introducing the speakers — Prof. Steve Whitfield, Professor emeritus of American Civilization Max Richter and Senior Facilities Coordinator Martha Barry. Whitfield said that “the story [of Goldfarb Library] really has two sets of heroes: one champion and one villain.” He said that the champions in Goldfarb’s history included Jacob and Bertha Goldfarb, the philanthropists who, in the 1950s, provided the funds to build the library. Whitfield said the library is “a tribute to their generosity,” which he described as “an extraordinary act of self-restraint,” since they said they were willing to have their names removed from the building if the University found a more generous donor. The members of the Brandeis University National Women’s Committee, now known as the Brandeis National Committee, were also heroes in the story of the library’s founding, Whitfield said. The committee was the largest volunteer group and supporter of those who worked to build the library at the time. He said that “their only interest, their only loyalty, was really to build up the library,” despite the members of the committee having “no particular affiliation to Brandeis” as most of them had not been students or faculty of the University. Additionally, Barry recognized the work of the National Committee in Goldfarb Library’s history. She said, “I, too, want to thank the National Committee for the whole 60 years that the library’s been in existence. I’ve been able to work with them over the years, and they’re an amazing group.” She said that the National Committee traveled to collect books in its “book mobile” before holding a book sale to raise money for the library. Barry explained that the money raised by
3
Expert shares findings on education research conclusions she drew from her research about about racial equity in education.
the committee was used for “mostly special things we really needed and were not able to fund ourselves.” The villain of the story was Bella Chagall, wife of the French painter Marc Chagall, Whitfield said. He explained that her husband had been given a tour of the library in the 1960s and was interested in painting a mural on the wall of what is now Rapaporte Treasure Hall. However, Whitfield said, Bella Chagall “reminded [Marc Chagall] that he had other priorities, like the ceiling of the Paris Opera House.” Whitfield joked that had Marc Chagall painted a mural for Goldfarb, the University could charge admission for entry. Barry said that having worked at the library for four decades, she has “appreciated meeting all the patrons, the faculty and especially the student staff.” Barry said that the Goldfarb Library has changed over the years from being a traditional library with card catalogs to being technologically advanced. She also described past students’ awareness of the Goldfarbs’ relationship to the library. She said that students used to dress up the statues of the Goldfarbs in “seasonal clothing,” and that they were “very conscious of them as their friends and buddies because [the statues] were right there and you could see them everyday when you came in and out of the building.” Barry reminisced about the old names for some of the rooms in Goldfarb. For instance, she said that what is now known as the “Green Room” was called the “Edith Michaels Room,” and used to be a smoking room. She also said that students’ favorite places to study were the Judaica Reading Room, Phillips Science Hall (now the Goldfarb Computer Classroom) and the Leonardo da Vinci Room (now the Brandeis University Press Room). Barry then spoke of Dr. Abram Sachar, the University’s founding president, saying that he would often sit in the library and converse with the students “about whatever was the topic of the day.” In a Nov. 12 interview with the Justice, several library staff members spoke about what the library means to them. Associate University Librarian for Research and Instruction Laura Hibbler said, “I think just working with students like yourselves is really rewarding, and everyone is really passionate about what they’re studying and I always learn new things every day.” She said she sees the
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019
RESEARCH
■ Prof. Susan Eaton discussed
■ In recognition of 60 years
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library “as a kind of campus center” where students can go for a variety of reasons, including technology, research, databases or a quiet study space. Hibbler added that she “love[s] these stories about the founders of the University and how dedicated they were to this library and creating a fast-budding university so quickly.” Sarah Hartman, the metadata coordinator, said that working in cataloguing lets her see “a lot of random stuff we have,” such as items the University purchased in the 1950s but probably would not have purchased today. She said there are also interesting books in the stacks such as 1950s Soviet science fiction and French literature. University Archivist Maggie McNeely said she “deal[s] with a lot of materials that tell the history of Brandeis,” and works to “collect anything that Brandeis produced, or anything by, for and about Brandeis University.” McNeely said one of the most interesting collections is for Middlesex University, the institution that operated until 1947 on the University’s campus before the University’s founding. She explained that Middlesex had been “a very progressive university” and that “it’s very interesting to see that and see the progression to it becoming Brandeis University,” information she said can be seen among the University’s founding documents. Sheehy said “the services the library provides” mean the most to him. He said that it is important that the library supports the missions of the University and the goals and experiences of the students. Sheehy said he also appreciates the community aspect of the library: “The community that we build I think is really important, and also having the faculty come around us and having a central gathering place where we can all come together and think … vertically across the campus of faculty and students, but also crossdisciplinarily.” Sheehy added that having all disciplines recognized in the library is a reason for his enthusiasm surrounding the addition of labs, such as the fabrication and automation labs, designed for technology innovation such as 3D printing and robotics, respectively. He said this is “because I want to make sure everyone finds a resource and finds what they want.” For Sheehy, “The library is such a democratization of information … [and] it cures the digital divide that is a huge part of our country.”
Prof. Susan Eaton (Heller) spoke on Thursday about her research on efforts to promote racial and ethnic equity and inclusion in U.S. K-12 schools in a keynote lecture entitled “Getting to ‘We’: Educators as a Counterforce to Othering in a Polarized Nation.” Eaton began her presentation with a look at the “two-way immersion” programs created in Heber City, UT to promote bilingual education among Latinx and white students. While many language programs focus on teaching English to Spanishspeaking Latinx students, two-way immersion programs, also known as dual-language programs, are uniquely strong in Utah and seek to create a bilateral exchange of language and literacy skills so that English-speaking students learn Spanish as well. Gregg Roberts, a dual language specialist for the Utah State Board of Education and the “architect” of two-way immersion programs, quoted by Eaton, said that the programs change the narrative around English language learning. “It’s not this crazy idea anymore of ‘them’ needing to adapt to ‘us’,” Roberts said. Instead, both groups can learn from each other. Eaton also discussed her research on the Hazleton One Community Center in Hazleton, PA, which was created in response to a law permitting anti-immigrant discrimination for housing and employment passed in the small former coal town in 2006. Though the law was struck down by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010, many in the community still harbored resentment against Latinx immigrants whom they believed were the cause of the town’s economic struggles. The community center is part of the Hazleton Integration Project, an organization whose goal is to “repair some of what has been damaged here by building bridges” between people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, according to executive director Ben Medina, quoted by Eaton. The project was sponsored by the Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon, who was concerned by the racial division he noticed in his hometown of Hazleton. Another effort that Eaten researched is based in New York City, which is home to some of the most racially segregated schools in the nation, according to the ACLU. Through the organization Integrate NYC, students in the city are helping to shape school integration projects and research. These students “have identified what real integration is, as opposed to mere desegregation,” Eaton said. According to the organization, integration can be understood through “five Rs:” race and enrollment, resources, relationships between groups, restorative justice
and representation within school faculty. In particular, restorative justice is a response to a consensus among social scientists that punitive measures, as Eaton put it, “one, don’t work; two, are prone to racism and all sorts of -isms; and that they don’t lend themselves to cultures of belonging.” Instead, restorative justice measures strive to retain the offending student as a member of the school community, allowing the student to work to repair the harm they caused to the school community. Some educators who attended the event pointed out that these success stories are not fully representative of the status of diversity and inclusion in education, and Eaton agreed. Jamel Sharif, a philosophy professor at Merrimack College and a former principal, asked Eaton to “illuminate the Native American perspective” on the two-way immersion language program in Utah. Eaton said that when program proponents were asked about any language initiatives for Native students, many of them simply said, “I don’t know,” indicating they were not aware of nor promoting any such programs. Maria Rivera Maulucci, a professor of education at Barnard College, said that two-way immersion programs in New York City often have unequal effects, with white students benefiting more from bilingual education then Latinx students. Eaton acknowledged that “there’s still a lot of things that need to be tended to before it’s a truly equitable system,” particularly given that American organizations working toward social justice are necessarily built on the foundations of a “white-supremacist, racist society,” she said. Nonetheless, Eaton emphasized the importance of being “intentionally hopeful” when working to enact change in what can seem like a hopeless situation. Eaton’s lecture was presented as part of an annual two-day conference for the Consortium for Excellence in Teacher Education, hosted this year by Brandeis. The conference seeks to improve teacher education through “roundtable discussions about problems and practice in teaching,” presentations of research and panel discussions, according to Rachel Kramer Theodorou, a senior lecturer in the Brandeis Education department. Theodorou noted that there are many courses focused on social justice available in both the undergraduate and graduate education programs, including a class on using diverse literature to teach understanding among elementary school students. Eaton is a professor of Practice in Social Policy and the director of the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. The presentation Eaton gave was derived from research she conducted for her book, “Integration Nation: Immigrants, Refugees, and America at Its Best,” which focuses on efforts to welcome immigrants into American communities, as well as her storytelling project, “One Nation Indivisible,” which chronicles the stories of people working toward equity and inclusion in education.
LEARNING FROM ONE ANOTHER
NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice
A NEW WAY TO LEARN: Prof. Susan Eaton spoke about two-way language immersion programs, which promote bilingual education among Latinx and white students.
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A GUIDE TO STUDENT RESOURCES
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NEWS
By SAMANTHA GOLDMAN JUSTICE EDITOR
SARAH KATZ/the Justice
THE GENDER AND SEXUALITY CENTER: The GSC provides support for LGBTQ+ students. Interim Director of the GSC Cristina Dones ’14 (left) is joined by Chief Diversity Officer Mark Brimhall-Vargas and University Ombuds Don Greenstein.
Students have access to many different resources on campus. What are they? the various student support resources available on campus. By IVY TROCCO JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The University has a plethora of resources to offer support to different groups and individuals on campus that were created to ensure that Brandeis community members feel safe and know their rights. These resources include the Student Sexuality Information Service, the Gender and Sexuality Center, 6TALK, Students Talking About Relationships, The Prevention, Advocacy & Resource Center, the Office of Equal Opportunity and the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. SSIS, a student-run service that advocates for the sexual health of members of the Brandeis community, has trained student-volunteer counselors who confidentially advise their peers about issues regarding sex and sexuality. An extensive library of books about sexuality is available to students for both academic and personal use. According to the SSIS website, they also sell sex and sexual health products such as contraceptives, pregnancy tests, sex toys and alternative menstruation products. SSIS is located on the third floor of the Shapiro Campus Center. STAR offers peer counseling on a plethora of topics and experiences that individuals at the University face. Like other peer counseling programs at the University, the counselors at STAR are all professionally trained on topics such as both domestic and dating violence, rape, alcohol, drugs, eating disorders, LGBTQ+ topics, mental health, suicide and self-harm. STAR’s office is located on the third floor of the SCC. 6TALK is the University’s latenight confidential and anonymous rape and counseling hotline, comprised of students who
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University makes gradual changes toward sustainability recyling and compost work on campus since the University made changes to its Climate Action Plan.
have undergone training and testing to make sure they are prepared to take on the responsibility of peer counseling. Students can call 6TALK if they are struggling with suicidal thoughts or relationship trouble, if they need academic support, if they want advice about how to help other students or if they want help with other issues they may be facing. PARC gives support related to sexual assault, harassment and domestic violence. The center’s goal is to contribute to conversations about consent, healthy relationships and anti-violence, and supports this effort by hosting events about promoting healthy relationships and dealing with stress. The organization also seeks to educate the Brandeis community on how to be an upstander — positively intervening in negative situations — by supporting friends and having open and honest communication involving consent. Executive board members of campus clubs are required by PARC to take part in bystander training. The center has two full-time staff members that can help with more in-depth support, and they host trainings and workshops for the Brandeis community. Its office is located on the ground floor of the Winer building in the Usdan Student Center. The ODEI is an umbrella organization which includes a network of offices to help support the Brandeis community such as The Reporting Office, the Intercultural Center, the OEO, the GSC and the University Ombuds. The ODEI’s office is located on the first floor of the Gryzmish Center. The OEO, an organization under the ODEI that includes the Title IX office, helps the University regarding laws surrounding sexual harassment, misconduct and discrimination. These laws include Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act Section 504. Title VI states that no person will be excluded from participating in any
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019
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program that is federally funded based on race, color or national origin, Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against their employess based on race, color, religon, sex or nation orignin. Title IX states that no person shall be excluded from any federally funded program or activity, be the subject of discrimation or denied benefits regarding education based on their sex. The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits any discrimination against people with disabilities in the workplace, public life, school and transportation. The Rehabilitation Act Section 504 prohibits prejudice against people with disabilities in programs that receive money from the federal government. The OEO handles the legal aspects of misconduct on campus. Through this office, a person can file a report on issues with harassment or misconduct. The GSC offers support to the Brandeis LBGTQ+ community and helps promote an inclusive campus. The center hosts events to promote awareness of LGBTQ+-related topics and to help support LGBTQ+ community members. “The GSC is a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies to come hang out with friends, do work or even take a nap. We have weekly movie nights where we show queer movies as well as other events throughout the semester. We also have a rack of clothes that people are welcome to come in and try on,” GSC employee Sammi Cohen ’22 said in a Nov. 14 interview with the Justice. The rack of clothes offers students a way to express themselves who do not have the means to do so with their own clothing. They have a chance to come in and trade what they have for different articles of clothing that fit more with their gender expression. The GSC was created in 2014 and operates under the ODEI. It is located in the Winer Building in the Usdan Student Center.
Since 2016, Brandeis has slowly been transitioning to increasing recycling and composting around campus. The University rewrote its Climate Action Plan in 2015 and implemented it in 2016. The Climate Action Plan aimed to reduce emissions by 10% by 2018 and 15% by 2020, according to the Office of Sustainability’s website. The Office of Sustainability said on their website that the University completed its short-term goal and has reduced emissions by 12.6% since 2015. The Office of Sustainability also said that it has a short-term goal to “increase our recycling rate to at least 40% of our waste stream,” as well as to expand composting. In 2015, before Brandeis began these initiatives, researchers concluded as part of the Climate Action Plan that “Brandeis [used] approximately 25% more energy per gross square foot than our peers.” Brandeis’ energy usage was compared to 16 New England research institutions, 40 private New England schools, and eight comparable schools nationwide. The Office of Sustainability’s website said it aims to increase composting and recycling by working with Sustainable Brandeis, the Facilities Services Team and Sodexo. All of the
food scraps “both in the kitchen during meal prep and plate scrapings from meals, are composted in Lower Usdan and Sherman,” according to the Office of Sustainability’s website. However, sustainability goes beyond dining and is also taken into account with Brandeis Catering Services. The website for the Office of Sustainability said that, starting in January 2019, Brandeis Catering Services would be switching to all-compostable tableware from the tableware made from number six plastic it had previously used. This switch would come at no additional cost to the customer. Number six plastic is also known as polystyrene and not typically recycled, according to the Sea Studios Foundation. According to Sodexo’s website, “pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste from our kitchen and the dish room is all collected by an off-site waste management vendor to be composted.” Sodexo also said on its website that the paper napkins and plates used in Sherman Dining Hall’s Kosher dining section are composted. At “Let’s Talk Trash,” an event held in January by Sustainability Programs Manager Mary Fischer, Fischer said that the University partnered with Black Earth Compost to manage its composting and recycling services. Black Earth Compost also works with Wegmans and the New England Aquarium and uses compostable bags to collect compost, according to the company’s website. The Office of Sustainability’s website said that the rules of thumb for recycling include “when in doubt, throw it out,” “keep recycling clean” and “no plastic bags or plastic film, except in grocery store collection boxes.”
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SURVEY: University follows up on R&R: Univ. updates 2015 survey on sexual misconduct protest policies
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“trans*/other” also reported sexual assault at higher rates: 35% of these students reported these experiences compared to 5% of men and 22% of women. The gender categories were changed in 2019 from the sex categories of male, female and trans*/other used in the 2015 report. In order to combat these reported gender discrepancies, the University has been augmenting the Gender and Sexuality Center’s resources, according to Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mark BrimhallVargas, who participated in the joint interview. This includes making the GSC a distinct center from the International Cultural Center, which it was previously a part of, increasing staffing, appointing a permanent director and evaluating the hours the center is open. In addition, the GSC already has a partnership with the Brandeis Counseling Center, with an embedded counseling service, Brimhall-Vargas said. His office has also distributed about $10,000 of its funds to the GSC, adding to the Center’s own, separate budget.
Greek life
The report also found that there is a “strong correlation” between contact with Greek life — which is not recognized by the University — and increased reports of sexual assault. The survey broke down respondents by whether they were members of Greek life, were best friends with a member of Greek life, attended Greek life-sponsored parties or were not affiliated with Greek life. 9% of members of Greek life and 11% of participants with best friends who were members of Greek life reported experiencing rape, compared to 4% of non-affiliated participants. 24% of members of Greek life and 37% of participants with best friends who were members of Greek life reported experiencing sexual assault, compared to 19% of non-affiliated participants. At the joint interview, Vice Provost of Student Affairs Raymond Ou said that all students should have the same access to resources regardless of affiliation status, but there can be a dissonance between perception and reality in terms of resource accessibility. He provided the example that because Greek organizations cannot reserve spaces on campus, affiliated students may assume they may also not have the same access to prevention resources. To tackle this problem, Ou said he has been attending Greek Awareness Council meetings, during which members have been discussing mandating their members to participate in bystander trainings. By attending GAC meetings, “I hope I am conveying we have a targeted interest” in providing that access to affiliated students, Ou said. Prevention, Advocacy & Resource Center Director Sarah Berg, who was also present at the interview, added that some members of Greek life have already reached out to PARC and that all Greek life organizations have chosen to have their pledges go through bystander training before completing the pledging process. Some have also been contemplating making all members participate in training on an annual basis.
Affiliation with athletics
For the most part, members of athletic varsity teams and club sports reported higher rates of experiencing and witnessing harassing behaviors than students with no athletic affiliation, but varsity athletes reported lower rates of sexual assault (16%) than club sports members (26%) and members of the Brandeis community not affiliated with either (22%). Varsity athlete participants were most likely to report that they would know where to go on campus if they or a friend were sexually assaulted, at 94%. At the same time, however, they are the least likely to do so, with 27% of varsity athlete participants reporting such cases through official channels, compared to 71% of participants affiliated with club sports and 56% of participants with no affiliation. The report hypothesized that varsity athletes’ knowledge of reporting
procedures may stem from those students being required to undertake PARC or OEO training annually, a sentiment that Berg echoed in the interview. At the interview, both Berg and Director of the OEO Sonia Jurado expressed interest in expanding trainings to more groups on campus, but said that there are barriers to doing so. It is easier to train groups or clubs, according to Jurado, but reaching individual students is harder. In addition, the logistics of expanding bystander training outside of Orientation can be complicated, Berg said. “We’d want student buy-in,” she continued, saying that sitting through a training is less effective when you are forced to attend and could interfere with the training’s impact for other students.
Knowing where to report
There was a 26% increase since 2015 among graduate student participants who said they knew where to go to find resources and where to report an assault. In the interview, Lynch said it was “horrifying to see” the 2015 results, when only 50% of graduate students reported that they knew where to find these resources. Since then, the University revamped the graduate Orientation structure, moving it away from a “one-time inoculation” process to one of continued support, Lynch explained. Jurado said she attended several graduate Orientations this year and that they received a positive response. In addition, she said she hopes that knowledge of where to report will go up as a result of the creation of the OEO last spring. The OEO includes the Title IX office and acts as a “simpler” central reporting location for any concerns of discrimination, harassment and sexual misconduct. The centralization of this office creates a more “robust response” and makes it “less complicated to report and seek resources,” according to Jurado. The OEO is also holding trainings for a variety of groups on campus, part of the collaborative series, “Doing Better at Brandeis: Understanding & Addressing Violence, Discrimination, and Implicit Bias in our community.” This series is held in conjunction with PARC and the ODEI. Since the start of the series, over 2,000 students, 400 staff members, 300 Teaching Assistants and almost 100 faculty received training, according to Jurado.
Increasing response
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Through the OEO, the process of reporting anonymously has become clearer and easier to use, Jurado explained. The old anonymous process could “be a dead-end,” Jurado said, because there was not enough information to reach out to the reporter and give them resources, nor for the University to take action on the report. The new anonymous reporting system, on the other hand, prompts the reporter to create a password through which they can log onto the reporting site later. This way, the OEO can ask questions, submit resources and even start a live chat, all while maintaining the reporter’s anonymity, Jurado said. Jurado is also working with PARC to educate people on the reporting process and to remove the “mysticism” from it. Individuals having good experiences with the process and sharing these experiences with others will help with this, she added. Berg added that it is necessary for everyone “to stress the importance of believing people when they come forward and being compassionate.” This way, when people feel comfortable reporting, they will want to do so, Berg said. “What builds confidence is consistency,” Brimhall-Vargas added. There has been a lot of transitioning recently, he said, with the creation of new offices and restructuring of old ones, so it will take time to see the effects of these changes. “As students see a consistent response, that will create the kind of change in perception we would like to see,” he said.
Harassment
Though 78% of gender non-comforming participants agreed with the
statement, “I can get what I need in this campus community,” the highest of any gender category, the lowest positive response rates for that question came from Black and Latinx participants. Brimhall-Vargas said that it is not enough to provide targeted intervention for populations who need support, but that it is necessary to educate the entire population about harassment and microaggressions. Brimhall-Vargas added that the University has increased support and resources for students of color with programs including the Intercultural Center providing leadership trainings to people of color and the ODEI partnering with Orientation to provide conflict resolution training. In two years, all current students will have gone through the training when entering Brandeis. Ou added that it is important to make it safe and accessible for students, especially those with marginalized identities, to go to the OEO to report instances of harassment or discrimination. Through the OEO and advancements in anonymous reporting, there is “potential to identify hot spots regarding power dynamics,” Lynch said, referring to cases such as that of a former men’s basketball coach’s discriminatory behavior. “The more confidence people have in resources, the more headway we can make,” she added.
Listening session
In his email on Thursday, Liebowitz announced that the University would hold two listening sessions for community members to ask questions about the survey’s results, one held last Friday and the other the following Sunday. At the forum held on Sunday, Brimhall-Vargas said that he was most concerned by the fact that students in the LGBTQ+ community experience higher rates of sexual violence than the overall Brandeis population. Despite the University’s stated values of social justice, campus culture is unfortunately still “a reflection of our larger society,” he said. Students expressed concern at the Sunday forum about how information about resources is distributed and referenced a possible overload of information. Students also brainstormed ideas to make these resources more emotionally safe and accessible so that students would be more willing to seek help if they needed it, and to help build a sense of community around resources such as the OEO.
Future surveys
The Massachusetts State Legislature has introduced Bill S.736, which, if passed, would require colleges to conduct campus climate surveys every two years. However, the University is careful about how often these surveys are sent out in order to prevent survey fatigue and potentially subjecting the community to trauma, Lynch said. In addition, some community members may not believe that responses to “personal and sensitive” questions could truly be anonymous, which may lead to lower response rates, Lynch said. Berg and Senior Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Kim Godsoe compiled the report, which was released to coincide with Kindness Day. “Kindness Day is a good reminder to us that the micro affirmations can be a wonderful [antidote] to the microaggressions members in our community experience,” Lynch said. In 2015, survey participants were offered a $5 Amazon gift card, but for the 2019 survey, Godsoe introduced the option to donate $5 to either REACH Against Domestic Violence, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center or the Violence Recovery Project at Fenway Health. Godsoe spearheaded the donation initiative The report, as well as its 2015 counterparts, can be found on the Office of the Provost’s website. Unlike in 2015, when survey results were released in waves, the 2019 report is available in full. The University decided to do this in order to minimize concerns regarding which populations were analyzed first, according to Lynch. —Ari Albertson contributed reporting.
CONTINUED FROM 1 specify the severity of those consequences. She noted that the Student Conduct Process in general “is meant to be educational and to help ensure our students understand what our behavioral expectations are.” Rossett wrote that students should reach out to the Dean of Students’ Office by email to begin the approval process prior to the event taking place, and that a meeting would take place to “get an understanding of the event, provide guidance on expectations, answer student questions, and solidify schedule and location approval for the event.” Rossett said that the prior approval process was in place to “make sure there is safety first, support for our students, and to make sure appropriate awareness occurs for campus partners as to prevent unintended interruption of the protest.” In an Aug. 29 joint interview with the Justice, University President Ron Liebowitz, Lynch and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Stewart Uretsky said that they had not consulted with the #StillConcernedStudents about the final changes in language featured in this year’s Rights and Responsibilities handbook. Unlike at Princeton University, there does not seem to have been an attempt by the administration to gather other students’ input on the new rules or to have student representatives look at the rules before putting them into this year’s handbook. The revisions stand in contrast to the University’s Principles of Free Speech and Free Expression, adopted in Sept. 2018, which says that introducing prior restraint would have a “chilling effect on speech and exchange of views on campus.” The policy requiring prior approval introduces the potential for administrative prior restraint by defining spaces where protest speech can or cannot take place. Speaking on behalf of IfNotNow Brandeis, an activist group on campus, Miranda Sullivan ’22 said that the new regulations adversely affect her group. Sullivan faced the student conduct process over the summer for violating a student handbook section on posting signs, a process she said was arbitrary and “extremely painful,” she wrote in an email to the Justice on Friday. “We can not be fully-effective activists if we must get approval before every action. If a group wants to protest the university it seems like they have to get university approval in order to do so- this is absurd!” she wrote. Sullivan said that the introduction of the new sections to Rights and Responsibilities on protest approval was indicative of a problem with the University as a whole: “If people are protesting at the university so much that this clause has to be added, maybe Brandeis should change its institutional practices, not its handbook,” she wrote. Sullivan also commented that the lack of specificity of the punishment
a student could receive if they violate the new rules is concerning. “We could see this really hurting activist groups down the line. The ambiguity could potentially allow administrators to come down harder on certain activist groups than others, depending on how much they agree with their actions and demands,” she wrote. Sullivan says her group will continue to protest as they had before. “We are going to keep advocating for what we see is right. We know that the organizing community here is strong and I hope people are not scared by the new restrictions,” she wrote. “I’m certainly not.” Representatives from Brandeis Climate Justice and #StillConcernedStudents did not respond to requests for comment as of press time. While the new policy language is taken from Princeton University’s current handbook, Brandeis applies the policy more strictly by making it a requirement. The language in Section 7.1 that requires the “prior approval for schedule and location” is a verbatim repetition of language in Princeton University’s Rights, Rules and Responsibilities, section 1.2.3. The sourcing went unannounced in Lynch’s original email. A note in Section 7 of the Brandeis Rights and Responsibilities handbook reads, “Some language in this policy was originally crafted and published by Princeton University,” but does not specify which language. In an email to the Justice on Thursday, Princeton University Deputy Spokesman Michael Hotchkiss said that the “prior approval” was not mandatory for Princeton students wanting to protest. Princeton’s administration only “encourages” students to obtain approval “to ensure their planned location is available and help them avoid any inadvertent violations of other University policies,” Hotchkiss said. According to Hotchkiss, the language sourced from Princeton’s handbook that also appears in Brandeis’ handbook was approved at Princeton by a vote of the Council of the Princeton University Community. According to its website, the CPUC’s members include “faculty, students, staff and alumni representatives.” Those who are alleged to have violated the Princeton handbook policy on protest are also adjudicated by the CPUC’s judicial committee, Hotchkiss wrote. In contrast, Brandeis’ application of the same language requires, rather than just encourages, approval. This language was approved by a small group of Brandeis administrators, without any evidence of student input, and does not specify a particular punishment for violations. —Editor’s Note: Ari Albertson is a member of IfNotNow and did not write or edit the section on IfNotNow. —Editor’s Note: News Editor Gilda Geist and Acting Photos Editor Sarah Katz are members of IfNotNow and did not edit the section on IfNotNow.
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019 | THE JUSTICE
just
features
BRANDE VERA SHANG/the Justice
HELP YOURSELF: Snacks and pantry care boxes were left in the Intercultural Center for students to take throughout the week.
NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice
MAIN EVENT: Tables were set up in the SCC Atrium on Friday. Students were able to take roses, make dog toys and chat with the deans over a cup of coffee or hot cocoa.
THU LE/the Justice
CHEESY: Players couldn’t help but smile with the cheesy puns and jokes shared by the CAB volunteers before every Bingo round.
Bo-be Kind
CAB celebrated Kindness Day with ‘Bingo and Boba.’ By SOFIA GONZALEZ JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
On Thursday, Nov. 13, the Campus Activities Board held “Bingo and Boba” in celebration of Kindness Day. The event, which took place in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium, began at 8 p.m. with upbeat music, puns and jokes from two CAB members. As people continued to arrive, filling the tables and contributing to the exciting atmosphere, volunteers made sure to provide players with Bingo sheets, ink dabbers, cupcakes and other snacks. Soon, the callers began drawing and announcing the numbers, creating a competitive yet friendly environment. The first round was standard: Players were asked to create a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line with five of the numbers called. One participant quickly completed the line and approached the table. The callers reviewed her card and encouraged future winners to loudly yell, “Bingo,” when they had finished filling out the given pattern. The rounds became more difficult each time as callers began asking players to make complicated shapes and diagrams with the numbers. In the third round, the callers told the participants to create a heart as a symbol of Kindness Day. The winner of this challenge took home a large Brandeis blanket, ideal for the current weather. At about 9 p.m., the volunteers began setting up a table filled with several kinds of Boba tea for attendees. The organizers called for a break,
and participants could choose from the available Boba flavors: matcha, black milk tea, passion fruit and taro. Once everyone had their preferred tea in hand, the game started again with a standard round of Bingo. Afterward, the callers asked the students to create a rectangle along the entire border of the large sheet, meaning they had to fill out 45 numbers before yelling out, “Bingo.” After what seemed like an eternity, one person called out the magic word, followed by ten other people who claimed to have completed the shape. The callers opted to pick a number from one to a hundred, and awarded the prize to the person whose number was closest to the one they had chosen. The excitement remained until the very end of the game. The winners left with unique prizes, including wireless headphones, a Hydro Flask, a Brandeis mug and some Amazon gift cards. All participants received a reusable straw from CAB as part of the Kindness Day quest to avoid using plastic.
VERA SHANG/the Justice
SNACK TIME: KIND bars, bananas, apples and other sweet snacks were available for students at several campus locations.
CELEBRATING FRIENDSHIP: Stations were se around campus to encourage students to wri THU LE/the Justice
“BINGO!”: Bingo winners received a variety of prices, including Amazon gift cards, a Hydro Flask and Brandeis gear.
Design: Yael Hanadari-Levyt/the Justice
THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019
EIS’ KIND OF KINDNESS Behind the Scenes
Peek inside Brandeis’ tenth annual Kindness Day. By JOSH ALDWINCKLE-POVEY JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice
BUTTON MAKING: The Fashion Design Club set up a button maker machine that allowed students to make custom buttons for themselves and their friends.
LAUREN BERK/the Justice
SELF-CARE: Toward the end of the day, students were able to relax by coloring, making self-care kits and participating in a yoga session in the Usdan Student Center.
The 10th annual Kindness Day brought kindness cards, posters, snacks and dog time aplenty last Thursday. Kindness may be something that many find intuitive and can do without thinking about it too much, but Kindness Day is far from simple and doesn’t happen at the drop of a hat. Spearheading the operation are co-coordinators Miriam Berra Krugman ’20 and Emma Forster ’22. In an interview, Forster told the Justice that Kindness Day was started to “celebrate the kindness that goes on here on campus. ... My interpretation of it is that even though kindness is such a big part of Brandeis culture, the other thing that’s a big part of Brandeis culture is this rushed, super busy atmosphere. It fits in to give people a time to pause and really take the time to recognise and appreciate the kindness that goes on on campus at the moment.” Krugman added that Kindness Day offers the Brandeis community a chance to “highlight what’s already here, to make space and time to highlight what already exists but what we don’t always have time to remember.” Krugman became involved in Kindness Day during her first year at Brandeis, she said, and has been a coordinator for three years. Forster has also been involved since her first year, and served as coordinator for the first time this year. To pull off such an event, an entire team has to be involved, Krugman explained, saying, “There’s the two coordinators, and we run a student committee. Within that we have coordinating positions that work with clubs and faculty. We also have a staff committee that our coordinators meet with, this year with staff from all across campus. ... That’s a way we can get events happening through those avenues. We also have an advisor, Katie McNamara. We meet with her several times a week to help get stuff happening. We also have the Kindness Catch-
ers, volunteers who start meeting about a month and a half beforehand, and they make thank-you posters that go up around campus and lots of little things like that.” The event has changed a lot in 10 years, and this year saw a new, three-pronged approach to kindness: kindness to others, kindness to the environment and kindness to yourself. This new approach was reflected in the brand new events, including the introduction of the Be Kind To Yourself Fair and the Kindness Festival, where passersby were able to play games, enjoy pizza and pack backpacks for the Prospect Hill Kids Club. Explaining the fair’s role in the day, Krugman said, “A lot about Kindness Day is being kind to others, and being kind to other people, but this fair [was] really about being kind to you, checking in with your mental health.” Perhaps inevitably, the event has become uniquely personal to both co-coordinators of the event. Forster explained, “My hope is to see Kindness Day and kindness happen all around campus, to see engagement with the activities and things that we have planned, realizing it’s Kindness Day and talking about it and enjoying it. We want to continue to grow each year, continue to keep it visible on campus and to spread the word off campus too. Positive news, knowing that an event like this is happening, could be used in lots of avenues.” As for Krugman, perhaps this year’s event is bittersweet. “This is my last Kindness Day on campus, so I’m really looking forward to seeing everything culminate. I’ve been involved all four years, and seeing how it’s grown alongside me as a student is really cool. I’m excited to just be present in the moment and seeing how it affects people’s days,” she said. There are plenty of ways to show kindness, and Forster recommends recognizing the power of empathy when looking to be kind, saying, “I like to show kindness by being empathetic, being able to listen and be able to tell what someone needs and could use in that moment.” She calls it “consciously and constantly being there for people,” she added. Krugman agrees with the power of listening: “In general, I love to show kindness by being an active listener, by being there for people and by being a good friend.” Beyond Kindness Day, there is always a need for kind behavior. How can one do that best? For the answer, Krugman pointed to the event’s sticker from last year, which said ‘Be kind today and every day.’ “Of course this is Kindness Day,” she said, “but this is really a way of life. I think a lot of the things we do, even though they’re activities you do once, show people that there are things that you can do every day. You can write a note on Kindness Day, but you could also send a text to someone on another day. You don’t need a Kindness Card.” So heed their lesson: kindness isn’t just for Kindness Day, Brandeis.
LAUREN BERK/the Justice
THERAPAW: Harley Quinn, a therapy dog in training, visited the Self Care Fair and helped students end the week on a paw-sitive note.
NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice
et up in several places ite Kindness Day cards.
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Brandeis University
Jocelyn Gould, Editor in Chief Jen Geller, Managing Editor Avraham Penso and Natalia Wiater, Senior Editors Andrew Baxter, Hannah Kressel, Yvette Sei, Lily Schmidt-Swartz, Judah Weinerman and Maya Zanger-Nadis, Associate Editors Emily Blumenthal and Gilda Geist, News Editors Eliana Padwa, Interim Features Editor Gabriel Frank, Forum Editor, Megan Geller, Sports Editor Luke Liu, Arts & Culture Editor, Noah Zeitlin, Photography Editor, Sarah Katz, Acting Photography Editor Yael Hanadari-Levy, Layout Editor River Hayes, Copy Editor, Hannah O’Koon, Interim Copy Editor Frances Hoffen and Yona Splaver, Acting Ads Editors Samantha Goldman, Acting Online Editor
EDITORIALS Campus WiFi outages need urgent fixing Throughout the last week or so, internet access through eduroam on campus has been intermittent. The spotty WiFi on campus has been an ongoing issue affecting students, faculty and staff. This has been a noticeable problem on campus for a while, but connection has been particularly unreliable as of late. Brandeis Information Technology Services had acknowledged the “intermittent connectivity issues” as early as the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 12, but this problem has persisted. These connectivity issues coincide with the completion of scheduled maintenance to the campus wireless network which ended on Nov. 12. As of the time of this issue’s publication, no campus-wide communication about these internet lapses has been sent. As access to quick, reliable internet connection is important for students, faculty and staff on campus on a daily basis, this board calls on the University and ITS to address the ongoing connectivity issues and to implement change that will avoid future outages or problems. For students, the ability to access the internet is important, as a lot of a student’s academic tasks are conducted online, including sending emails, accessing databases for research or even utilizing online resources such as Google Drive and LATTE for class work and assignment submission. Additionally, this board recognizes that not every student comes to Brandeis with the same financial resources, and although some students have unlimited data and can use hot-spots to get by during outages, others are unable to do so. As the internet has become such an integral part of the student experience, this board urges the University to address these WiFi issues
Spotty network coverage swiftly to ensure accessibility and equity on campus. This board acknowledges the fact that it can be difficult to provide fast and consistent internet connection to so many wireless users across campus and understands that sometimes unexpected issues can arise, but when future interferences to connectivity do occur, this board urges ITS and the University to communicate these problems more effectively to the campus community. Now, the most prominent communication is a small notice on the Brandeis Shibboleth login page alerting the campus community to the internet issues. This system poses some other problems, considering internet access is required to see these notices. A more direct communication would allow students and faculty to conduct their work accordingly and would assuage the panic that can come when internet issues cause unforeseen challenges, such as being unable to submit an important assignment through LATTE or being unable to send an email to a professor, teaching assistant or supervisor. Currently, community members can subscribe to email updates from ITS, but these are no substitute for communitywide updates that ensure faculty, staff and students all know about and have record of any connectivity issues.As consistent access to reliable internet connection is an important student concern, this board calls on the University and ITS to invest time and resources in resolving the ongoing connectivity issues and to make the necessary changes to ensure that students, faculty and staff are able to have consistent access to the internet.
Commending improvements to course registration
On Nov. 7, the Spring 2020 semester course registration reopened and will remain open through Jan. 27. Registration opened over a month earlier than it had in previous years and also opened earlier than it was initially planned for this year. This board commends the University for making these changes that help make it easier for students to plan out their future semester schedules.This change not only gives students more time to adjust their schedules accordingly, but also greatly simplifies the demand list process. Students will no longer be removed from demand lists between registration periods, so they no longer need to put themselves back on the demand list when regular registration starts. Additionally, students do not need to contact the Office of the Registrar in order to get off demand lists. Each department will also have a better idea of class enrollment and will be able to inform professors and graduate teaching assistants if any scheduling changes needed to be made earlier. At the same time, this board encourages the administration to further improve upon the schedule of classes and registration system to reduce the confusion and inconvenience. Starting this fall semester, a series of six-week Physical Education courses
Other changes still needed
were rolled out, replacing the previous system of semester-long PE courses. However, many of these courses happen during times that conflict with popular academic class blocks, making it difficult for students to sign up for any of them if they are not available for those periods. The current class search systems can also cause inconvenience for the students. Classes from certain overlapping programs, such as the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department and the Hebrew department, sometimes show up separately on the websites. Clarifying the labels of the courses can greatly help students, especially ones who are not yet familiar with the system, to find classes that are similar but may be categorized separately and to plan out their academic schedule effectively. Each course registration can be very stressful for students because it directly affects one eighth of their college experience. The University is commendable for making the registration process more transparent and efficient for both the students and departments. At the same time, this board hopes to see more efforts in improving the schedule of classes and registration system.
SARAH KATZ/ the Justice
Views the News on
On Sunday, Evo Morales resigned as Bolivia’s president, following an increasingly violent uprising, coupled with the country’s military pulling its support for his government. The conflict arose due to an alleged manipulation of votes in the most recent election, in which Morales declared victory. Morales has since been granted asylum by Mexico, while officials in Bolivia have a warrant out for his arrest. What do you think the consequences of Morales’ resignation will be for the country, as well as the international community?
Prof. Fernando Rosenberg (HISP) The coup against Bolivian president Evo Morales, the first indigenous president in a country with a historically excluded indigenous majority, constitutes the latest episode in a sad record of coup-d’état against progressive, socially reformist, democratically elected presidents in Latin America. With tacit or manifested strategic backing from Washington, a trend of civilian coups that started in 2009 to end Manuel Zalaya’s presidency in Honduras and was followed in 2012 in Paraguay to depose social-democrat Fernando Lugo, represents a continuation for the 21st century of the military coups that crippled the region throughout the Cold War. In the cases of Honduras and Paraguay, the force behind the coups was the white elite that have always monopolized most of the countries’ resources, which have historically perpetuated themselves in power by resorting to military violence against the rest of the population. What followed in both cases was brutal repression of dissidence and popular organizations. The recipe was repeated in 2016 against president Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, who was subsequently replaced by a series of presidents deeply entrenched in corruption schemes, but in alliance with the elite’s economic interests. New articulation of state-power include landowning and other economic elites, now infused in some cases with narco-money (particularly in Central America) and blessed by the popular appeal of evangelists (in Brazil) and Catholic fundamentalism (in Bolivia). In Bolivia, the right-wing elite whose power grip had been contested by now deposed president Evo Morales, allied with the military, mobilized whatever discontent had been accumulating in order to legitimize the overthrow of a democratic leader. They voiced the values of white colonial privilege against indigenous usurpers, and the values of patriarchal family against the rights gained by women and minorities. It should be noted that as soon as the results of the election giving Morales another term were put into question, Morales called for a second election, but to no avail. The gains that the historically dispossessed indigenous and mestizo majority achieved under Morales’ leadership are significant. They include the recognition of Bolivia as a pluri-national, multilingual state, and the constitutional protection of natural resources as a fundamental right and a public good. What might be seen as environmental protection is key to understanding what is at stake in Bolivia, as policies promoted as “market-friendly” that Morales’ party opposed and that are increasingly implemented through dispossession and disenfranchisement, entail unsustainable exploitation of natural resources for the benefit of the old elite and transnational corporations. At stake is one of the largest lithium reserves on the planet, a material that has proved fundamental in powering digital devices, and by extension the technological revolution central to the global economy. Whether this economy continues expanding the breach between the rich and the poor, and whether it continues its path of planetary devastation, is something that is being decided also in Bolivia. Prof. Fernando Rosenberg is the chair of the Romance Studies department.
Judah Weinerman ’20 A CIA-supported military coup ousts a leftist politician attempting to nationalize a key resource, replacing them with a far-right government with a license to oppress. Gee, where have I heard this one before? Evo Morales’ work in Bolivia, taking the once dirt-poor and mismanaged country into good hands and lifting thousands out of poverty. Bolivia’s right wing, particularly its evangelical Christian and antiindigenous elements, will waste no time returning the country to its former squalid state. I commend those few international politicians like Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn who are brave enough to call the current situation in Bolivia what it is: a military coup. Squabble about Morales’ term limits all you want, but attempting to arrest the man and making his party illegal are clear abuses of power led by the most extreme right-wing element of the country. If this really was some democratic sentiment come to life, then why has interim president Jeanine Áñez given the military express permission to kill protesters and arrest any political opponents at will? This is a coup, plain and simple, and the military must give up power and hold new elections — with Morales and his MAS party included — or face the wrath of the Bolivian people. Judah Weinerman ’20 is an Associate editor for the Justice majoring in History and Sociology. Photos: Noah Zeitlin/the Justice; Brandeis University
THE JUSTICE ● FORUM ● TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019
Settling the ‘Ok, Boomer’ debate once and for all Gabriel FRANK
IN RETROSPECT
On Nov. 7, Chlöe Swarbrick, a 25-year-old lawmaker, was delivering a speech in front of the New Zealand Parliament in favor of the Zero Carbon Bill, a piece of legislation designed to set a target for the country to be at zero carbon emissions by 2050. During her speech, Swarbrick was heckled by an unidentified older member of Parliament, whereupon she nonchalantly responded with the phrase “Ok, Boomer,” seeming to acknowledge, but parry the attacking verbiage of her detractor. Swarbrick’s choice of words here could be perceived as quite intriguing, as she was clearly referencing a viral meme referring to baby boomers, a generation of Americans and Western Europeans born in the two decades of economic prosperity and abundance following the Second World War. The meme itself refers to the act of simply hearing what the “Boomer” has to say, and dismissing it as trite, uninsightful and outdated due to the perception of this generation being out of touch with current trends, facts of life and ways of thinking. Additionally, it portrays them as being responsible for the wastefulness that has exacerbated the current climate crisis, as well as a host of other economic and social problems. Since its inception, the meme has grown to refer to a response to something someone says that may seem old-fashioned or insensitive to the struggles of current generations. Understandably, the saying has drawn a list of critics, with many actual baby boomers seeing the phrase itself as an insensitive, ageist assumption based solely on the generation someone was born in. Others see it as an insulting, distortive ad-hominem attack against perfectly valid political, economic or social arguments. Out of the many memes to emerge in the ever turbulent year of 2019, “Ok, Boomer” is the one which I am most on the fence about. To me, it represents a series of succeeding generations that is becoming increasingly exasperated by an older group’s perceived incompetence and indifference towards pressing issues. However, I also see it as an unfair classification of one’s beliefs and character, magnified by the broad stereotype of seeing anyone over the age of 50 as not contributing in any meaningful way to
modern political discourse. My position on said ideological fence acknowledges both sides of the Ok Boomer debate, but to simply exist in this equilibrium of ambivalence does no good for anyone, much less does it appropriately classify the nature of the meme itself. We must understand why exactly the meme exists in the first place, why it was able to make its way into a Parliamentary debate and why responding with these words has, to some, become a viable alternative to actually refuting the other side’s arguments. The phrase itself is often uttered with an apathetic tone, as if one were acknowledging what someone else was saying, and simply proceeding to ascribe to it little argumentative or intellectual virtue. In this vein, the word “Boomer” is used to invalidate entirely the words of another without taking into account what the world actually are. To many, such a response to what could potentially be a well-thought-out mode of thinking, or at least an attempt to meaningfully contribute to a conversation of some importance, is disrespectful and spiteful at best, and bigoted at worst. The above is how the average Baby Boomer would most likely feel if their arguments were shut down in such a way. However, the person actually saying it feels the opposite way, and it might not be motivated by ageism but instead by a deeper, intergenerational rift, where one side’s perspective may be irreconcilable with that of another. The Baby Boomers, objectively speaking, were born into a society of unprecedented wealth, opportunity and prosperity, brought about after decades of hardship and one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history. This generation may see America, and by extension, the world, as a place where stoic commitment and hard work are the keys to success and prosperity. Growing up, this generation was unaffected by the ticking time bomb that is climate change, not worrying at all about natural resources or consequential economic choices. On the other hand, this generation grew up during the Civil Rights Movement, witnessed the horrors of the Vietnam War and Cambodian Genocide, as well as the unparalleled destructiveness of nuclear weapons and the consequences of a war fought with them. Knowing this, I think it’s inappropriate and unfair to use the words Ok Boomer to highlight someone’s unawareness of pressing issues such as race relations or the ethics of war. Conversely, since a majority of Baby Boomers grew up in a time where economic hardship and inequality were far less visible, there is a tendency for them to adopt the misguided worldview that hard work alone and determination, regardless of one’s
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NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice, CREATIVE COMMONS
background, is the key to success in life, and that to state otherwise would be a poor excuse for one’s own shortcomings. This worldview tragically ignores the harsh reality many Americans, a majority of which are minorities, face. However, the phrase itself isn’t entirely without merit. To understand why, one needs to only look at the above example when it was actually used during a New Zealand Parliamentary hearing. Swarbrick’s manner of speaking, and her tone, despite having her speech rudely hecked, was calm and collected. Like how many perceive a majority of the Baby Boomers’ worldview to be outdated and ignoring many harsh realities people across the world face, so too was Swarbrick’s address to the heckler an
acute representation of how my generation in particular feels about this debate. There is a a high degree of resentment, disdain and anger towards the way Baby Boomers view the world in spite of the historic and revolutionary moments in history they have lived through. Above all, however, there is an element of frustration, a lingering aura of disappointment and upset at an older generation that has the potential to teach mine a great deal about the way the world works, and is instead attempting to hinder progress. It is precisely this frustration that has led not to anger and direct confrontation but a dry, lifeless nonchalance; the acknowledgement of “Ok,” followed by the stereotypical yet seething classification of “Boomer.”
Debunking Trump’s ‘Quid Pro Joe’ conspiracy theory Trevor FILSETH
SANITY President Donald Trump has been extremely successful at turning attacks on him into attacks on his opponents. Take, for instance, the term “fake news.” The concept originated in 2016 as a description of shocking but false stories designed to circulate faster than they could be debunked. Many of these stories benefited Trump in some way, so the term was seen as hostile to him and implicitly critical of his own cavalier relationship with the truth. But Trump co-opted the label, applying it to any news organization he disliked; the mainstream media is now labeled the “fake news media” by his adherents. A similar process is already underway with the term “quid pro quo.” The three-word phrase, meaning “this for that” in Latin, implies a situation in which two people do something to benefit each other. A quid pro quo is the essence of a deal — if you give me something, I give you something — and, in that sense, it isn’t necessarily pejorative. But if the deal involves bribing a foreign national for dirt on your political opponent, as Trump stands accused of doing, then naturally consequences follow. Those consequences have thus far taken the form of an impeachment hearing, which formally began last week. The Democratic argument, now
supported by several ambassadors and White House officials, suggests that Trump offered Ukraine a classic quid pro quo: he froze their military aid, then offered to unfreeze it if the Ukrainian government launched an investigation of Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President and current Democratic front-runner Joe Biden. This would almost certainly count as soliciting foreign interference in an election; even Fox News admits that if true, it would justify Trump’s impeachment. Trump’s response to this serious accusation has been characteristically Trumpian. In between offering loud, vague denials and smearing the witnesses against him, he’s invented an alternative theory about Ukraine, one in which the real “quid pro quo” was between the Ukrainian government, Vice President Biden and Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company on whose board of directors Hunter Biden served. In this version of events, Burisma paid a bribe to Biden in the form of hiring his son. In exchange, Burisma’s executives had Biden’s ear and were able to influence his policy decisions. The case against Burisma and Biden is fairly complicated, but at its core is a former Ukrainian prosecutor named Viktor Shokin. In 2015, Shokin was appointed Ukraine’s chief prosecutor; one of the cases he took over was an investigation of Burisma and its leader, Mykola Zlochevsky. However, Shokin quickly earned a reputation for corruption. He reportedly refused to investigate members of Ukraine’s elite, and some of his staff were later found with diamonds and cash presumably obtained through bribery. This behavior concerned leaders in the United States and Europe, who pressured Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to replace Shokin. Vice
President Biden recalled that when he met with Poroshenko in 2015, he threatened to withhold American aid if Shokin was not fired. Poroshenko dismissed Shokin three months later, with overwhelming support in Ukraine’s parliament. Shokin later alleged that Poroshenko had fired him because he refused to end his investigation into Burisma. From this, it’s easy to construct a plausible conspiracy theory: Biden used his position to have his son hired at Burisma, then, in a “quid pro quo,” coerced Poroshenko into firing the prosecutor in charge of the investigation against them in exchange for American aid. Under a moderate level of scrutiny, this theory falls apart. Fundamentally, Shokin’s contention that he was fired because he insisted on investigating Burisma is false. Shokin was fired because he refused to investigate Zlochevsky, not because he insisted on it. The investigation against Burisma lay dormant for the entirety of Shokin’s term as prosecutor; it was revived after he was replaced, and concluded in 2017 with no finding of wrongdoing. Finally, according to Shokin’s deputy, the investigation only concerned Burisma’s actions between 2010 and 2012. This period ended two years before Hunter Biden joined Burisma’s board of directors; hence, there was never any accusation of wrongdoing against Biden or his father in the first place. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter if Trump’s “Quid Pro Joe” story is true or not. It provides a screen for those who insist on Trump’s innocence, an alternative set of facts for someone to believe in if they dislike the ones being discussed in the impeachment hearing. One might think it would be relatively easy for Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the head of the
impeachment hearing, to bring up the facts of the Hunter Biden case and explain them. However, Schiff has refused to do this. His laudable reasoning is that the impeachment process should be focused on Trump’s actions, and that allowing the questioning of Hunter Biden during the hearing gives credence to the conspiracy theory that the president has concocted. I, a cynic, would suggest a third reason — Democrats want to avoid talking about Hunter Biden because his employment with Burisma raises awkward questions. What the heck was Biden doing on the board of directors of a Ukrainian gas company? What relevant experience did he have? Why did Burisma hire him? The answer should be clear: Hunter Biden received the position at least partially because his father was vice president. This isn’t good, but it isn’t illegal, either; family connections are an unfortunate fact of life. To give an example, across town right now, Malia Obama is attending Harvard. I’m sure she had excellent grades and test scores in high school, but anyone who thinks that her parentage had absolutely nothing to do with the decision to admit her is kidding themselves. However, does that put President Obama in the same camp as Lori Loughlin, who secured her daughter’s admission to USC through outright bribery? Most of us would probably say no. By the same logic, the fact that Hunter Biden traded on his last name shouldn’t make Joe Biden a criminal. Finally, above all, it’s profoundly hypocritical for Trump to accuse Biden of nepotism, given the roles he’s assigned to his own children. Of course, profound hypocrisy from the White House is sort of a given by now.
The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.
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Editorial Assistants Features: Sofia Gonzalez
Forum: John Chen, Abigail Cumberbatch, Harrison Paek*,
Forum: Abigail Cumberbatch
Trevor Filseth*, Angela Self, Vandita Malviya Wilson, Mehmet
Online: Ana Hatfield
Zorluoglu
Copy: Cameron Cushing
Sports: Jonah White, Jonathan Sochaczevski
Production Assistant Features: Victor Feldman Photography: Thu Le Staff News: Ari Albertson, Leeza Barstein, Jason Frank, Chaiel Schaffel, Maya Rubin-Wish, Ella Russell, Hannah Taylor, Jackie Tokayer Features: Haven Dai, Josh Aldwinckle-Povey, Talia Zitner
Arts:
Vicente Cayuela, Brianna Cummings, Shoshana Finkel,
Caylie Jeruchimowitz, Huilin Li, Rachel Sterling, Mendel Weintraub, Jacqueline Wang Photography: Lauren Berk, Zoe Brodsky, Ivy Daal, Haven Dai Vera Shang, Zach Katz Copy: Jane Flautt, Lizzy Freeman, Sara Fulton, Sofia Gonzalez, Ellie Hulan, Ora Rogovin, Emily Shen Layout: Sara Fulton, Shinji Rho, Grace Sun * denotes a senior staff member.
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE
FORUM
Apple Card gender discrimination may reflect hidden biases By VANDITA MALVIYA WILSON JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
As if I don’t have enough student loan debt, Apple came out with a credit card just before the start of this semester. According to their press release, it’s “built on simplicity, transparency and privacy” with cash back, no fees and an easy user interface that allows one to view their spending along with enhanced security. Sure, once I’m employed maybe I can apply for one and add another Apple product to my tech ecosystem. And it’s a credit card by Apple, not a bank. But if you read the small print, the card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, United States of America, based in Utah. It seemed cool anyway, given its all white titanium exterior, with only the bearer’s name laser etched on it. To get the actual card number, when not using Apple Pay or the Apple Wallet, you have to actually open the wallet app and verify your ID to access that information; the digital card number is different than the actual physical card number, which enhances the card’s security. After doing that tiny bit of research, I forgot all about the Apple Card until early last week, when I saw a story about the Apple Card possibly having sexist algorithms for determining credit worthiness. In a series of tweets that went viral, David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and co-founder of BaseCamp, alleged that the algorithm behind the Apple Card was sexist because he got a credit limit that was twenty times as much as his wife’s. He further wrote that both he and his wife file joint tax returns, live in a community property state (where any property acquired by either member of a couple during a marriage is considered jointly owned by both) and pay off their bills in full every month. Then it got interesting. Co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak tweeted in response that he and his wife, who had similar life circumstances to David Hansson and his wife, also had the same thing happen to them, except that in their case, Wozniak only received ten times the limit his wife got on the Apple Card. Again, the algorithm was blamed. Hansson further tweeted that he had some difficulties dealing with customer support, and because of his status in the tech community, his customer service complaint was escalated, and eventually Hansson’s wife received the same amount of credit. Still, the service representative could not explain the logic behind the algorithm. The card itself is fairly simple to apply for, if you have an Apple phone with the latest iOS, use two factor authentication and are signed into iCould with your Apple ID. It knows your name already, and then you enter your date of birth, your address, your income from all sources and provide the front and back of your identification card. But as Hansson was waiting to hear back from support, he was tweeting up a storm, and he further clarified his and his wife’s credit worthiness: His wife makes more money, he has more in assets, she has a higher credit score than he does and all of their credit cards are joint accounts, as are their other financial accounts.
JEN GELLER/ the Justice
They own their home together as well. Hansson pointed out that the credit card was launched as “an innovative, new kind of credit card” and that he expected better from Apple. A lot of responses agreed with Hansson, that the algorithm must be to blame. But a lot more than that is at work behind the scenes, and it may not be only a cut and dried issue like gender bias. A FICO score (FICO is a data analytics company formerly known as Fair Isaac Corporation that issues a three digit number known as your credit score) depends upon your payment history, the amount you owe, length of credit history, type of credit used and new credit. There are three credit reporting agencies that could each have slightly different scores for the same individual. The bank issuing the credit card then takes that information, along with identity verification and your stated income from all sources to approve or disapprove of your credit card, to determine the amount of credit and its interest rate. In the case of the Apple Card, TransUnion is the credit agency used. I do not believe there is gender bias at work in Mr. Hansson’s example. However, there
could perhaps be a systemic or institutional bias that is to blame for the initial amount of credit allocated to Mr. Hansson, and separately, to Mrs. Hansson. Women in many households tend to make a majority of the household purchases. This means that they are spending more than their male counterparts. If women are spending more, they might have more of that spending on a credit card, which would mean that their credit utilization rates are also higher. Women might not be the primary credit card holder; as the secondary account on a card, they are accorded less credit-worthiness by the reporting agencies. Finally, if Mrs. Hansson reported a lower income than her husband, she could have inadvertently triggered less access to credit for herself for quite some time. And perhaps there is some unintentional bias that is still worth reviewing. Historically, for the most part, women have made less money than men. Women have had to pay more for certain things than men. This would mean that women have had to use more of their credit over time just to make up the salary differential that has existed. It’s also important to note that Apple advertised
this card as a card by Apple, not a bank. But way down at the bottom of the screen, Apple states that they have partnered with Goldman Sachs and that this is their first consumer credit card, which would make them more open to doing things differently. Why all the outcry now? I would surmise that it’s because of David Hansson’s specific problem; because he felt betrayed by Apple when they marketed the Apple Card as being different, while the reality was that it was just another software algorithm, designed by human beings with access to a lot of data. Hansson was treated the way that anyone would get treated by the world’s most valuable company. The truth is that the algorithms do need to get better. There’s too much faith placed in big data alone, without human oversight. In the meantime, all that has happened is that Mr. Hansson generated a lot of press for the Apple Card, and probably a lot of people probably signed up for the Apple Card. Eventually, this could mean that more people start using Apple Pay as their preferred form of mobile payment, which was what Apple wanted all along.
Offering an unorthodox opinion on the Hong Kong protests By JOHN CHEN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Recently, a friend of mine studying at a university in Hong Kong told me that she is considering leaving her school and transferring to one in the United Kingdom or somewhere else. “It’s starting to get a bit difficult here…” she texted. “I want to either leave this place for a semester or so or just transfer somewhere else.” She is one of my most apolitical friends, and certainly in no way an admirer of the mainland regime. In fact, both of us, despite being mainlanders, hold a considerably critical attitude towards our government and “great leader.” Yet my friend is starting to feel veritably unsafe at her university in Hong Kong — and so do many other mainland students. As far as I have been able to gather, it seems that exposing oneself as a mainlander on the streets of Hong Kong — which is inevitable for most of us because of accent differences — has become truly dangerous. In mainland media, news is circulating about a man being beaten on the streets of Hong Kong while talking to his wife on the phone in a distinct mainland accent. While he did indeed shout out nationalistic slogans after being called out for his accent, it is a curious fact in itself that he was called out for the way he spoke in the first place. I admit that the intricacies of this incident do warrant further investigation, but the kind of reality it captures is telling. As a mainlander myself, and having been to Hong Kong many times, I am certainly not alien to the customary animosity towards mainlanders that can so easily spring from ordinary Hong Kong citizen’s speeches and actions. Yet what is happening
recently seems to take this kind of animosity to a new level. Don’t get me wrong. I’m in no way endorsing the mainland narrative regarding the current protests, nor am I condemning the Hong Kong people’s more than legitimate appeals. What I am trying to say is that animosity toward mainlanders cannot help Hong Kong’s cause and may even harm it. I may be wrong, but I do have the feeling that amongst the people of Hong Kong there is a tendency to equate mainlanders with the mainland regime, and to oppose the Chinese Communist Party by opposing “Chineseness,” whatever that is. In my opinion, this is counterproductive to say the least.
“
I admit that the intricacies of this incident do warrant further investigation, but the kind of reality it captures is telling. This is counterproductive because it directly plays into the mainland narrative that the Chinese Communist Party is the Chinese State and that the party directly represents the Chinese People and the Chinese nation, and by extension, all of China, which is not actually true. By equating mainlanders with the mainland regime,
by identifying the mainland with “China” and by categorizing Hong Kong as something apart from “China,” the Hong Kong people effectively alienate almost all mainlanders, and certainly all proud Chinese, and therefore do themselves and their cause tremendous harm. For example, most mainlanders who ardently rally around the world against the Hong Kong protestors are doing so because they believe that the latter are “traitorous separatists,” not because they want to implement a more autocratic rule in Hong Kong. The important thing to know about most counterprotestors is that their passion comes not so much from a will to defend an autocracy than it does a desire to “protect the integrity of the motherland.” In short, by unnecessarily binding their pursuit for freedom with “independence from China” (which should not but is unfortunately equated with the People’s Republic), the people of Hong Kong have actually added an entire layer of unnecessary political burden to their cause and successfully removed the hope of gaining any kind of widespread support from within the mainland populace. Then there is also the problem of violence. Most mainland Chinese media either deny these allegations altogether or exaggerate them to the extent of drawing similarities to the Cultural Revolution. Both are not acceptable. While it is indeed important to acknowledge the legitimacy of this movement, we must also admit and address its evident excesses. To my limited knowledge, a civilian man who confronted some protestors on a bridge recently seems to have been immediately set ablaze via a bucket of gasoline by the latter group. Again, I’m not condemning the Hong Kong people or their appeals, I just feel it necessary to
The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.
point out that supporting their cause should not be done in a naïve way, because that will only result in counter-productivity. You don’t oppose a totalitarian regime with active violence unless it is of a military nature, because as a totalitarian regime it can always wield more of that force against you. Of course, there is much to be said about the chauvinistic and jingoistic nature of the official mainland narrative regarding Hong Kong. Most mainlanders do, unfortunately, hold a combined attitude of cynical apolitical distancing and radical nationalistic fervor towards problems pertaining to Hong Kong (and also Taiwan, for that matter). It is, however, problematic (to say the least) to equate this attitude with any sort of active support for autocratic communist rule. What the people of Hong Kong want is the preservation and furtherance of their democracy, and what the people of the mainland want is “the territorial integrity of the Chinese state.” In my view, these are not, despite rhetoric from both sides, goals that are diametrically opposed to each other. We can have both, and we have indeed enjoyed both for the past 20 years under the Two-Systems framework, which despite its many insincerities and imperfections, is still the most politically and economically viable option we have. By falling into the linguistic and ideological trap of the Communist Party, well-meaning Hong Kong citizens risk alienating themselves from their greatest potential ally in their pursuit for democracy: the Chinese people. They also risk pushing a historically ruthless regime to the point of employing violence, which as we saw 30 years ago, will not in any way help their cause.
THE JUSTICE ● SPORTS ● TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019
NAILED IT
WBBALL: Team starts season victorious CONTINUED FROM 16 of quickfire threes by Petrie and Camila Casanueva ’21 put the Judges up by seven. The margin was 11 by halftime as the home team took a 36–25 lead into the break. The Rams brought it back to 44–41 in the final minute of the third quarter before Puda hit an important three with five seconds left. It was still within striking distance two minutes into the fourth when Petrie connected from downtown to make it 52–43. A pair of triples from Lauren Rubinstein ’20, coming on either side of one by Petrie, comprised another 9–0 run
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for the Judges, who at this point led 61–45. Brandeis could see the game out comfortably from there. The Judges shot 14 of 30 from three, accounting for over half of their points in the game, while attempting 72 shots and holding their opponents to 57. Casanueva, transfer Courtney Thrun ’21, Petrie, and Puda all scored double digits while Rubinstein had five assists. Casanueva, Puda, Nicholson and Thrun all had at least seven rebounds while all twelve available players saw action. It was a successful opening to the season for the Judges, who next face Roger Williams University away on Tuesday.
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SET: Brandeis volleyball’s Marissa Borgert ’20 sets the ball over the net in a game against Emory University on Sept. 21.
VOLLEYBALL: Women end season 4–23 overall CONTINUED FROM 16 top-ranked Emory University, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Rochester. This tournament determined the team’s eighth-place finish in the UAA, as they fell in the deciding seventhplace match to the University of Rochester. Although the team finished in eighth place in the UAA, several players had outstanding seasons and were subsequently awarded
with All-UAA honors for the 2019 season. Bartlett, the team’s lone senior, was named to the secondteam All-UAA squad. For the second year in a row, Bartlett was awarded All-UAA honors, playing in every match this season while leading the team with 2.88 kills per set and 0.89 blocks per set. Bartlett concludes her stellar Brandeis athletic career with 987 kills, tenth on Brandeis’ all-time list, 303 blocks, sixth all-time, along with a .204 hitting percentage. Honorable mentions were awarded to Marissa Borgert ’21 and Kaitlyn
Oh ’22. Borgert excelled offensively while Oh, after overcoming injuries early in the season, led the team defensively. In fact, it was Oh who was featured on ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 earlier in the season, earning accolades for her excellent defensive play. Looking towards the 2020 season, the team will lose its only senior, Emma Bartlett, from their starting squad, and the rest of the team will return. The Judges look to regain momentum and return to the form that earned them fifth place in UAA play in 2018.
PRO: Sports rivalries in hockey and football fans continue to cause tension CONTINUED FROM 16 of this rivalry. The two teams both have a history of excellence. The Packers have won the most championships in the history of the National Football League with twelve, and the Bears come in second with nine. Between the two teams, fiftytwo of their players have earned entry into the Professional Football Hall of Fame, including historically great players such as Bronco Nagurski, Red Grange, Sid Luckman, Bart Starr, Gayle
Sayers, Dick Butkus, Ray Nitchke and the more recent stars Walter Payton and Brett Favre. Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs This intense hockey rivalry is explained in toronto-maple-leafs. fandom.com. Part of the rivalry is exacerbated by the competition that exists between the two large Canadian cities that have major cultural differences. Toronto is the largest Canadian city and the “heart of English Canada,” while Montreal is the second-largest Canadian city and the “heart of
French Canada.” The teams have been well matched; they have played each other 730 times, with the Canadiens winning 342 times, the Maple Leafs winning 300 times and the teams tying 88 times. Both teams have been highly successful in their 102-year histories, with the Canadiens appearing in the playoffs 83 times and winning 25 Stanley Cup Championships and the Maple Leafs appearing in the playoffs 68 times and winning 13 Championships. Of the 14 times the teams have opposed each other in the playoffs, the Canadiens have
won eight times and the Maple Leafs have won six times. As stated in ourhistory. canadiens.com, the rivalry began in 2017 when the Maple Leafs franchise entered the NHL, and the rivalry has been intensified by all-time great players switching between teams during their careers, tantamount to treason in the eyes of the fans of the teams. Superstar players who have been guilty of this transgression since 1920 include Sprague Cleghorn, Dick Duff, George Hainsworth, Frank Mahovlich, Dickie Moore, Bert Olmstead, and Jacques Plante.
Perhaps the “most unkindest cut of all” was when superstar goalie Ken Dryden, who had led the Canadiens to six Stanley Cup Championships in the 1970s, accepted the position of president of the Maple Leafs. The ingredients necessary for a storied rivalry in professional sports include successful teams with great traditions, teams who share a degree of animosity and perhaps cities that have natural rivalries. These rivalries add to the fans’ enjoyment of the sport as long as we do not take all this too seriously. After all, it’s just a game.
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THE JUSTICE
● SPORTS ●
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19 , 2019
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WOMEN’S SOCCER
JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS MEN’S SOCCER TEAM STATS
UAA STANDINGS Chicago Rochester JUDGES NYU Emory WashU Carnegie Case
Goals
UAA Conf. W L D 7 0 0 3 3 1 3 3 1 3 3 1 2 2 3 3 4 0 3 4 0 0 5 2
Overall W L D 11 1 5 11 5 1 10 5 4 7 6 1 9 5 4 8 7 1 7 8 1 6 8 4
Will DeNight ’23 leads the team with seven goals. Pct. .794 Player Goals 7 .676 Will DeNight 6 .632 Max Breiter 4 .500 Noah Gans 2 .611 Dylan Hennessy .531 Assists .469 .444 Dylan Hennesy ’20 leads the team with five assists. Player Assists Dylan Hennesy 5 Noah Gans 4 Jared Panson 2
UPCOMING GAMES: Season has concluded.
WOMEN’S SOCCER UAA STANDINGS
TEAM STATS Overall W L D 15 1 2 13 4 0 12 2 3 11 5 1 13 5 0 11 7 0 11 7 0 9 6 2
UAA Conf. W L D WashU 6 0 1 NYU 5 2 0 Chicago 4 2 0 Carnegie 4 3 0 Case 2 5 0 JUDGES 2 5 0 NYU 2 5 0 Rochester 1 5 1
Goals Pct. .889 .765 .794 .676 .722 .611 .611 .588
UPCOMING GAMES: Season has concluded.
Juliette Carreiro ’22 leads the team with eight goals. Player Goals Juliette Carreiro 8 Makenna Hunt 7 Daria Bakhtiarti 6 Jessica Herman 3
Assists Juliette Carreiro ’22 and Caroline Swan ’23 lead with five assists. Player Assists Juliette Carreiro 5 Caroline Swan 5 Makenna Hunt 4
VOLLEYBALL TEAM STATS
UAA STANDINGS Emory Chicago WashU Carnegie Case NYU Rochester JUDGES
W L 6 1 7 0 5 2 4 3 2 5 3 4 0 7 1 6
Kills
Overall
UAA Conf.
W 29 26 24 22 13 25 12 4
L 2 3 8 7 16 8 20 23
Pct. .935 .897 .750 .759 .448 .758 .375 .148
UPCOMING GAMES: Season has concluded.
Emma Bartlett ’20 leads the team with 282 kills. Player Kills Emma Bartlett 282 Belle Scott 241 Amelia Oppenheimer 183 Kaisa Newberg 48
Digs Kaitlyn Oh ’22 leads the team with 294 digs. Player Digs Kaitlyn Oh 294 Belle Scott 227 Amelia Oppenheimer 214
CROSS COUNTRY Results from the Keene State lnvitational on Oct. 3.
TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)
TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)
5-Kilometer Run RUNNER TIME Danielle Bertaux 18:38.0 Erin Magill 18:44.4 Andrea Bolduc 19:09.6
5-Mile Run RUNNER TIME Mark Murdy 26:04.4 Mathew Dribben 26:08.3 Dan Curley 26:52.1
UPCOMING GAMES: Nov. 23 at NCAA Championships
Data Courtesy of THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS ASSOCIATION and the BRANDEIS ATHLETICS WEBSITE; Images Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS.
THU LE/Justice File Photo
HUSTLE: Brandeis’ Emma Spector ’20 skillfully outpaces her opponent in a game against New York University on Nov. 9.
Women’s soccer team concludes 2019 season ■ The Brandeis women’s soccer team ended their season with a win, improving their record to 11–7. By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR
With the conclusion of the women’s soccer season comes the end the team’s seven seniors’ collegiate careers: Sierra Dana, Katie Hayes, Amanda Fernbach, Kerin Miller, Victoria Richardson, Emma Specter and Zoe Ballas. The Judges ended with a season overall record of 11–7 and 2–5 in the University Athletic Association. In an Oct. 27 email to the Justice, Miller complimented the team, calling the group a “perfect combination of hardwork and talent. We always fight until the final whistle blows and I think the character of the team is what has made us so successful this season.” The Judges opened their season with a loss to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The game was a real upset, as the women lost by a score of 4–0. The Engineers scored three points in the first half and one in the second half in the game on their own home turf. These were with Richardson on goal; three of the ten attempted shots made in this game were made by Juliet Carreiro ’22. However, the team came back from this loss and won their next two games. They were both shutouts, with the first being against Bridgewater State University with a score of 3–0 and the second being against Johnson and Wales University with a score of 7–0. The Judges’ victory over Johnson
and Wales was remarkable. MaKenna Hunt ’22 scored the first point just over five minutes into the game. Carreiro scored the next two game points followed by one from Lauren Mastandrea ’22 to close out the first half. In the second half, Spector and Hunt scored points at 53:15 and 83:46, respectively. The game concluded with a point by Willa Molho ’21 at 86:58. As of Sept. 21, the Judges had a 5–2 start to their season. The Judges suffered a loss against the Tufts University Jumbos on Sept. 17 with a score of 2–0. However, in a matchup against the Lasell College Lasers, the Judges returned to their winning ways. To round out September, the Judges beat Wellesley College 5–0 and Emmanuel College 1–0. To kick off October, the Judges split their first two games. The Judges began their month with a victory against Lesley College, which was the fourth straight game in which the Judges did not allow the other team to score any points. The game concluded with a score of 2–0, with goals by Caroline Swan ’23 and Carreiro. However, the Judges lost to the Carnegie Mellon University Tartans in their homecoming game with the only point scored for the day going to their opponent. Their game against the Tartans was the Judges’ UAA opener. For the Judges’ ninth win of the season, the team faced Case Western Reserve University. The Judges scored two points and the Spartans scored none. The points were scored by Carreiro in the 13th minute and three minutes later. However, the Judges dropped the ball during their next two games. First, the team fell to the University
of Chicago’s Maroons by a score of 1–2. This game against the Maroons was only the third game this season in which the Judges allowed the opponent team to score more than one point against them. Each team had six attempts at goal in the first half, but neither team was successful. The 35th minute of play was when the first game point was scored, as the Maroons’ Katie Jasminski scored her seventh goal of the season. After the Maroons scored one more point, Bakhiari scored a point, but Chicago held their lead. The Judges then lost to the Washington University in Saint Louis Bears by a score of 0–1. The Judges broke from their slump in a match against the Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors at the start of November. The Judges claimed the game’s two points, scored by Hayes in the first half and Carreiro in the second half, assisted by Hayes. The Judges then lost their next two games against the Emory University Eagles and the University of Rochester Yellowjackets, two UAA rivals, bringing the team’s record to 10–7 overall. In rounding out the regular season, the Judges were victorious against the New York University Violets on the Judges’ Senior Day. They won by claiming the game’s only point, scored in the 62th minute of play by Bakhtiari. With that, the Judges ended their season with a 11–7 record. This is only slightly worse than the Judges’ 2018 season record of 12–5. Looking ahead to the 2020 season, the Judges will have big shoes to fill after the seven seniors graduate. However, with plenty of talent in the underclassmen, the Judges will adapt and come into their next season fresh.
PRO SPORTS BRIEF
The National Basketball Association ‘spices’ up the 2019 season Spicy P is his name, and getting buckets is his game! Pascal Siakam has taken over where Kawhi Leonardi left off and is absolutely dominating for the Toronto Raptors, ultimately making a more legitimate MVP case than his aforementioned ex-teammate had. As of Nov. 15, Pascal Siakam is fifth on NBA. com’s MVP ladder, higher than Leonardi had been at any point last year. Over 11 games, Cameroon’s finest averages 27.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.5 blocks a game on 49.1/37.3/84.2 shooting splits. Though the stats are impressive, the most shocking thing about Siakam is his growth; just two years ago he averaged
seven points, five rebounds and two assists, and only eight years ago he was not even playing basketball. Siakam had wanted to be a priest before attending a Basketball Without Borders camp hosted by the legendary African prince and NBA player Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. The Raptors currently sit at 8–3, tied for second in the NBA and boasting one of the best defenses in the league, which has held Lebron James to 13 points, Kawhi Leonard to 12 points and Damian Lillard to nine points in three consecutive games, and it all started with Pascal Siakam’s hustle and energy. The Raptors’ new superstar isn’t alone, with teammates OG Anunoby
and fellow late-bloomer Fred VanVleet blossoming in their newly enlarged roles. Montreal native Chris “Le Bloc Québécois” Boucher, Rondae “Rich Homie” Jefferson and newcomer Terrence Davis have brought hustle, energy and an insane defense to every single game, changing the course of games for the Raptors. I wrote this entire paragraph just so I could use Chris Boucher’s new nickname — got to support local talent. Next up, lightning round: What’s going on around the NBA? Carmelo Anthony joins the Portland Trailblazers. Very exciting; let’s go! One of the greatest scorers of all time gets a well-
deserved break. The Dallas Mavericks lost to the New York Knicks. Andrew “Maple Jordan” Wiggins is getting wiggy with it, averaging 25.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists on 47.8/36.1/73.6 splits. Wiggins is leading the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 7–4 record, good for the 6th seed in the West. The Phoenix Suns are going crazy! With one of the hardest schedules in the NBA, they currently have a 7–4 record, good for the fifth seed in the Western Conference, and they are doing all of this without their star player DeAndre Ayton. Big shoutout to, Aron Baynes, who has been balling 15 points, 5.5 rebounds
and 2.9 rebounds. The Utah Jazz has it figured out, currently at a record of 8–3, good for fourth in the west. Very good to see, though Mike Conley is still struggling. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers by one point. They are officially on implosion watch. The Los Angeles Clippers lost to the New Orleans Pelicans without the benefit of Zion Williamson, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Jahlil Okafor and Brandon Ingram. The Golden State Warriors are at the bottom of the NBA standings. —Jonathan Sochaczevski
just Sports Page 16
THE NBA GETS A LITTLE SPICY Pascal Siakam has taken over where Kawhi Leonardi left off and is dominating for the Toronto Raptors, p. 15. Waltham, Mass.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
VOLLEYBALL
REACHING FOR THE STARS
Volleyball season concludes, team looks to next year ■ Brandeis’ volleyball team concludes a tough season, finishing eighth at the UAA tournament in Chicago against fierce competitors. By HANNAH O'KOON JUSTICE EDITOR
The Brandeis volleyball team concluded its season last week, finishing with a 4–23 overall record and a 1–6 record in University Athletic Association play. Finishing with a meager .148 winning percentage, perhaps the highlight of the Judges’ season was gaining recognition on ESPN SportsCenter Top 10. Ultimately, the Judges’ season featured season-defining injuries and several long losing streaks, concluding with the departure of team leader Emma Bartlett ’20 and three Judges being awarded UAA honors. At first glance, the Judges’ 4–23 record seems substandard. However, several players were lost early in the season due to injury, and the Judges were never able to recover. Ultimately, in 27 matches this
season, the team finished with 9.95 kills per match, 9.31 assists per match, 14.19 digs per set and a hitting percentage of .120. Offensively, Bartlett led the team 282 kills and 364 total points, with Marissa Borgert ’21 lead the team with 617 assists. Kaitlyn Oh ’22 led the team defensively with 294 digs. The season started out promising for the team, as they won their first match against Westfield State University, finishing with a score of 3–0. However, after their first win, the Judges faced a sixgame losing streak early in the season, falling to several teams outside of the UAA. As the season progressed, the team failed to win more than one game in a row, finishing the season with a ghastly 13-game losing streak. Racking up only four wins all season, the Judges successfully conquered Westfield State University, Worcester State University, the University of Rochester and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, with their final win of the season coming on Oct. 3. At the end of the season, the Judges attended the UAA tournament in Chicago, IL, facing
See VOLLEYBALL, 13
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PRO SPORTS BRIEF
Top sports rivalries: Bears vs. Green Bay and Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs ■ Some of the best rivalries in professional sports include the Chicago Bears vs. the Green Bay Packers and Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs. By MEGAN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR
In last week’s issue, I reviewed two of the top professional sports rivalries, as judged by thetoptens. com, consisting of the great New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox baseball rivalry and the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics basketball rivalry were. This week, the volatile Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers football rivalry and the Montreal Canadiens-Toronto Maple Leafs hockey rivalry will be explored. Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers In bleacherreport.com, Jersey Al Bracco chronicles the mystique and history of this great football rivalry, which began nearly 100 years ago in 1921 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL, where the
first game was played. These two teams, whose home cities both sit on the shores of Lake Michigan, are separated by only 200 miles. Yet their home cities are a world apart. Chicago is a cosmopolitan city, the second largest in the country in 1921, and Green Bay was a “blue-collar paper mill town with a population of 31,00 people.” Both franchises have always been cold weather teams, playing in open-air stadiums with grass fields. Their head coaches at the outset were the legendary Packers coach Curley Lambeau and the great Bears coach George Halas. As history of great malevolence between the teams began with the first game in 1921, which featured a sucker punch thrown by Tarzan Taylor of the Bears that broke the nose of Packer Howard Buck. In 1924, Bear Frank Hanny and Packer Walter Vos became the first two players to be ejected from a game for fighting. However, mutual animosity alone is only part of the story
See PRO, 13 ☛
JEN GELLER/the Justice
JUMP: Brandeis’ Jillian Petrie ’21 gets great height jumping in a game against Framingham State on Saturday.
Women’s basketball wins at tip-off tournament ■ Brandeis’ women’s basketball team started their season off strong with two wins last weekend. By JONAH WHITE JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
The women’s basketball team defeated Nichols College and Framingham State University to win their season-opening tip-off tournament. Brandeis also hosted Eastern Nazarene College at the Red Auerbach Arena over the two day tournament, which featured giveaways and promotions for students in attendance at Friday evening’s season opener. Judges 71, Nichols 45 The Judges began their season with a dominant 26-point victory over the Nichols College Bison, outscoring their opponents in all four quarters. Nichols led by three after a few minutes, but the Judges pulled in front for good on a jump shot by Emma Reavis ’23 just over
five minutes in. That was part of an 8–0 scoring run which put Brandeis up 12–7 with two minutes left in the first quarter. After the Bison pulled within one, the hosts went on another 8–0 run spanning the first and second quarters, leading 20–11 a minute past the timeout. A Jillian Petrie ’21 three pointer made it 23–11 before Nichols broke the scoring streak with a free throw. Nichols were able to enter halftime down 32–21 but the Judges scored the first nine points of the third quarter, including a triple by Kat Puda ’21. Another 9–0 run later in the third quarter put Brandeis up 53–25, making the victory no longer in question at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Bison attempted 76 field goals in the game to 64 for the Judges, but Nichols shot just 22% from the field, going three for 31 from three point range. Brandeis had 11 different players score and each available player spent at least 10 minutes on the court. Petrie, Reavis and Samira Abdelrehim ’21 all scored double figures. Abdelrehim and Hannah Nicholson ’20 paced the team with
eight rebounds each. Petrie and debuti Francesca Marchese ’23 each had two of the Judges’ eight threepointers in the convincing win. Judges 72, Framingham State 54 On Saturday, the Judges took on the Framingham State University Rams, who had defeated Eastern Nazarene on Friday 59–51. The teams took the court after the Lions beat Nichols in an exciting consolation game ending 66–63. There was less drama in the championship as the hosts took home the trophy, thanks to a fantastic afternoon from behind the arc. After the Judges got on the board first, Framingham State went on an early 7–0 run to take a four point lead with three and a half minutes remaining in the opening quarter. Brandeis answered immediately with eights straight points of their own before exiting the quarter with a 15–12 advantage. It was back and forth at the beginning of the second quarter before a pair
See WBBALL, 13
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Vol. LXXII #11
just & s Art
Waltham, Mass.
November 19, 2019
e r u t l u C
Images: Jen Geller /the Justice; Design: Sarah Katz /the Justice
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TUESDAY, THE JUSTICE NOVEMBER | ARTS 19, | TUESDAY, 2019 I ARTS JANUARY & CULTURE 31, 2017 I THE JUSTICE
LECTURE
THE MYSTIC LIGHT IN POETRY By SHOSHI FINKEL JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Most Hebrew speakers around the world are familiar with the work of Chaim Nachman Bialik, whether they realize it or not. Lauded as the father of modern Hebrew poetry, he has also been named the national poet of Israel, though he died before the founding of the modern State of Israel. His works span genres and languages: over the course of his life he wrote epic poems, love songs, religious verse and children’s nursery rhymes in Hebrew and Yiddish. I first became familiar with Bialik when I learned that many Israeli songs I loved were actually his poems set to music. So when I saw that there was going to be a lecture on campus about his works, I knew I had to go. The eponymous Simon Rawidowicz lectures are named for a renowned twentieth-century Jewish philosopher and scholar. Rawidowicz served as a member of the Brandeis faculty in the early years of the University, including as chair of the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department. The annual lecture series is hosted by the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry and the NEJS department. Every year, the prestigious lecture is given by a prominent scholar of Jewish studies. This year, the Tauber Institute hosted Michael Fishbane Ph.D, ’71, the Nathan Cummings Distinguished Service Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago, to deliver a lecture titled “Natural Supernaturalism: Themes of Mystic Light and Despair
in the Poetry of Chaim Nachman Bialik.” Fishbane spoke briefly about his time as a student at Brandeis in the 1960s, where he earned his Ph.D in 1971, and how Radwidowicz’s influence on the early years of the NEJS department gave the University a similar air to the old European institutions of higher learning where Rawidowicz began his career. His discussion of Bialik mainly focused on Bialik’s religious poetry, which Fishbane considers the embodiment of the transformation of traditional Jewish sources into modern spirituality and art. Bialik, as he explained, takes the wording and themes of traditional Jewish texts, especially mystical ones, and applies them to more concrete themes of nature and the human condition. For example, Bialik uses “the light of God,” a supernatural phenomenon in Jewish texts, to refer to feelings of nostalgia. Words for mystical creatures are used in his poetry to describe natural phenomena. Hebrew is unique as a language because for nearly two millennia, it was used only as a religious language, and not in conversation. With a rise in Zionist sentiment among European Jewry in the nineteenth century, there became a push to use Hebrew as a language for conversation and secular art. A leader in this movement, Bialik had the chance to take familiar religious phrases and make them part of his humanistic poetry. This influenced many Hebrew poets to follow in his footsteps. Fishbane led the audience in a close reading of Bialik’s 1902 poem, “Lo Zakhiti Ba’Or Min Ha’Hefker” (“I Did Not Acquire Light from Abandoned Things”). This poem speaks to the hard work an artist puts into the development of his craft, and how sending his works out into the world can feel like extinguishing the flame of one’s creativity. He uses mystical language like “hidden light” and the power of words to speak of tiresome human emo-
NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice
NATURAL SUPERNATURALISM: Michael Fishbane gave the Simon Rawidowicz lecture this year, allowing the community to learn about the poetry of Chaim Nachman Bialik. tion, blending religious words of ancient Hebrew with modern language and the secular experience. In Fishbane’s words, Bialik was not a traditional Jewish mystic, but a “mystic of nature” — using supernatural language to describe both the world of nature and science and the human experience. Listening to Fishbane’s lecture gave me a new appreciation for Bialik as an artist and visionary. There was some time for audience questions at the end, and one attendee asked about how the many wars that Bialik lived through influenced his writing. Fishbane first explained that Bialik rarely ever alluded to historical events in his poetry, but after witnessing World War I and the Russian Revolution, he stopped writing lofty poems and switched to composing simple children’s rhymes for the rest of his life. Fishbane’s theory for this is that after Bialik’s long career trying to regain the wonder of youth through eso-
teric poetry, he learned that the best way to return to the imagination of childhood was to view the world through the eyes of the child. This event exceeded my expectations of a biographic lecture on a wellloved poet, and enlightened me on the many layers of religious history and spiritual exploration in Bialik’s poetry. It inspired me to brush up on my Hebrew and spend more time reading his poems, and I’m glad the Tauber Institute and NEJS department brought Fishbane back to Brandeis for the day to share his expertise on this important Jewish writer.
THEATER REVIEW
Interactive show proves ‘brilliant’ CAYLIE JERUCHIMOWITZ JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Theater is my life. Seeing a play gives me the chance to step into someone else’s story as I sit in the audience and watch the events unfold. However, the play I saw this weekend, “Every Brilliant Thing,” was a little different. Rather than just sitting and watching the play, I became a part of it. This play tells the story of a girl as she grows up, starting with when she is seven. Throughout her journey, she writes a list of all the good things she finds in life. Some things on the list are simple, like ice cream or chocolate.
Others represent specific happy moments, like a song that she and her partner enjoy or messages of love. This play was unique because it was interactive. Upon arrival, audience members were given notecards, which listed a number and a phrase, such as “bed”, representing items on the girl’s list. Throughout the play, the actresses called out these numbers and the audience member would read what was written on the card with the corresponding number. This kept everyone on his or her toes and let the audience be a part of the story. Three actresses, Amy Ollove ’21,
Ashley Friedman ’22 and Kat Potts ’23, all shared the role of the protagonist. In the director’s note, Emily Pollack ’21 explained that normally only one actress plays this role but she decided to cast three actresses to represent the different sides of the character’s personality. Other roles in the show, such as the vet, the girlfriend or the dad, were played by audience members. The performers guided the audience members on what to say and do to move the story along. This means that the performance will be different every night, based on who is selected to play each role. With all the joy reflected in the SARAH KATZ/the Justice
IN BETWEEN THE AUDIENCES: An important feature of the show is how it interacted with the audience, who were guided to participate in the play.
play, there were actually some pretty dark themes. This play shared important information about suicide and suicide prevention, like how TV shows that detail suicide can affect people. For example, I learned that making a particular suicide method sound easy and quick can be problematic for the audiances. The story centered around the fact that the girl’s mom attempted and eventually completed suicide and the ways that that affected the protagonist. The reason she started writing the list was to help her mom see the good things in life. Ollove, Friedman and Potts did a fantastic job of balancing the fun and happy moments of the show while also portraying the heavier parts in a serious manner. This can be very difficult to do, so applause to the cast for being able to play these very different emotions so easily. I also think that director Pollack put in a lot of effort to stage the play in a way that incorporated the audience. The play took place in a lecture hall
THREE IN ONE: The show features three actresses, who each portray different personalities of the same person.
Design: Yael Hanadari-Levy/the Justice
in Lown, so the actresses were able to move easily from the stage to the audience. At some points, Pollack blocked the actresses to sit in the audience, which was an interesting and creative way to use the space to its full potential. The space’s decoration had an instrumental connection to the story. At one point in the play, it is mentioned that the girl left post-its around the house of things on her list for her mom to read. For the performance, post-its were displayed across the walls of all the wonderful things on the list. This was a nice way to pull the audience into the environment of the story without having a lot of set and technical elements. Overall, I enjoyed this play. It was entertaining and fun, yet thought -provoking at the same time. It had many of the key elements you want to see in a performance and creating a space for the audience to interact with the performers made it that much more exciting.
THE JUSTICE I ARTS & CULTURE I TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019
DANCE SHOW
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Deis can ‘Dance to Dream’
HULIN LI
JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Dancers of the Adagio Dance Company created a beautiful, fantastic dreamworld for audience last Thursday. This was the first time I attended a Brandeis dance show, but this show impressed me more than I would have ever imagined. More than 30 dancers and 100 audience members gathered in the Levin Ballroom room to enjoy a tremendous night of fantastic performances. In an interview after the show, attendee Jiayan Tu ’23 told the Justice how much she enjoyed the event, saying, “I never knew a dance showcase can include such a variety of dance styles.” Tu is not the only audience member that was surprised by the variety of this dance performance. As the largest student-run dance group at Brandeis, the Adagio Dance Company has welcomed students of all dance backgrounds since its founding. Adagio members also practice different dance styles: jazz, contemporary, hip hop, lyrical, modern, ballet and many more. Thanks to the diversity of the Adagio Dance Company, the audience of this fall showcase had the chance to enjoy all these styles of dancing. As the largest dancing showcase of the semester, most of the audience members
The most elegant dance was “Marzipan,” by the Ballet Club. The performers tied their hair up delicately, but showed strength when dancing in a smooth, graceful and confident manner. Every time their bodies moved with the music, they shined under the lights like goddesses
Photos by JEN GELLER/the Justice
The most powerful moment would be this one. Everyone held their breath when they saw those dancers lifting the girl up during “First Burn.” At the same moment, as the background music stopped, the dancers carried the girl on top of their heads. The long-lasting applause at the end of this dance was well-deserved.
were watching for some of their friends to dance on stage. The first show was a modern dance called “Running With the Wolves.” I was impressed by the perfect synchronization of their dance steps. Even more exciting was that this showcase also featured “Kaliente with a K” from Northeastern University, the university’s only Latinx dance team. The exhilaration of this showcase was kept through the whole performance. As more dancers appeared on stage, the audience also became more and more enthusiastic. When the dancers of the ballet club were performing their dance, “Marzipan,” I could see how much the people who were sitting next to me admired what they were seeing. I was also influenced by the atmosphere — I held my breath every time when I saw those dancers hold each other up. I was surprised by the difficult choreography of “All That Jazz” and “Bury a Friend,” stunned by the synchronization of “No Sleep” and “Easy” and astonished by the energy of “HOT Damn!” and UMass Lowell’s Protohype, another invited team that performed at the showcase. During the intermission, the Adagio Dance Company provided all sorts of snacks and drinks for the audience. None of the people around me left during the intermission; almost every audience
In a series performed by Kaliente with a K from Northeastern University, the women wore elegant salsa-style red dresses, while the men wore black suits with matching red collars. They performed three short dances, and all of them were powerful.
member stayed for the entire show, which demonstrates how well liked it was. The harmony of the showcase’s stage effects, music and dance was extraordinary. As the stage lights changed with the rhythm, the audience’s emotions were also tightly connected with the dancers movements. You can always hear loud cheering and clapping through the whole night. By the time the event was over, I saw many dancers hugging
their parents. The showcase this year was absolutely amazing, and Adagio Dance Company members deserve their due credit. “We’ve been prepared for the show since two and a half months ago,” one of the dancers, Rachel Lese ’21, told me after the performance. Thank you, Adagio Dance Company, for offering Brandeis another perfect dance showcase! The most memorable dance moment would be this one. As the song “Oh No!!!” played to its climax, one of the Adagio dancers jumped into the sky on the stage. Though she was wearing simple yoga clothes, the concentrating way that she was gazing at the audience made her outstanding.
CULTURE EVENT
Students take a ‘trip’ to Bangkok
By RACHEL STERLING JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
On Nov. 16, the Southeast Asia Club hosted its event “Nightlife in Bangkok” in the Intercultural Center. The event was created and organized by the club’s first year representatives, Amy Schoder ’23 and Long Nguyen ’23, who were inspired to show off the vibrant nightlife of the city of Bangkok,Thailand, with games and authentic dishes from the country. The ICC lounge was decorated with multicolored flashing lights to emphasize the “nightlife” theme, which was executed beautifully. The glow of the room, from both the lights and the people, created a fun and warm atmosphere. To provide some context for the event, the e-board members of the club began the evening by presenting a slideshow discussing the history of Bangkok with fun facts to engage and interact with the audience. Facts such as, “The full name of the city [Bangkok] is actually the longest city name in the world,” and that “Bangkok is the world’s hottest city,” captivated the audience members. After they were finished with this portion of the night, the games began. To motivate the audience members to participate in the activities, a glow stick was awarded to those who successfully won a game. These glow sticks, then, were traded in for food. The menu included chicken Pad Thai, vegetarian Pad Thai, Tom Yum Soup with shrimp, chicken Satay and Thai Tea. There were three games at the event.
The first was “Takro,” a game involving a ball made out of straw in which the player has to kick the ball three times into the air in order to successfully complete the game. The second game, “Pin the Tail on the Elephant,” is the Thai version of the widely popularized game, “Pin the Tail on the Donkey,” in which players are blindfolded and attempt to accurately pin the elephant tail on an image of an elephant. The third and final game was “Dern Ka La”, or “Walk on Coconut Shells,” in which a player has to walk on coconut shells towards the finish line without falling off of the shells. However, in this case, the club used buckets instead of coconut shells. Laughter and shouts filled the room as every attendee was assigned a corner of the room where a game was being held. In an interview with the Justice, Zoe Patterson ’21 said “the games were fun and creative. What made the experience even better was the fact that we were able to collect glow sticks after we won a mini-game, thus leaving with a glowing crown of our winnings.” The darkened room quickly filled with brightly lit glow sticks that showcased each individual’s achievements. The glow sticks were a well-thoughtout addition to fully capture and immerse the audience in the brilliance of Bangkok’s nightlife. At the end of the night, the club had a special surprise for everyone: a Spicy Tom Yum Challenge! SEAC asked four volunteers to participate and challenge themselves to a bowl of Tom Yum soup filled with ghost pepper flakes. The goal was to try to drink the most of
NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice
HOT ONES: In order to enjoy the delicious food, one has to participate in the games and win glow sticks.
the soup without reaching for drinks, and whoever was crowned the winner would be the first in line for food. The challenge was a success as members of the audience enthusiastically scrambled to try the spicy soup. In an interview with the Justice, president of SEAC Jonah Nguyen ’21 said, “I am very proud of my freshman representatives for hosting this event. I was happy with how everything went because the games were really fun, a lot of newcomers showed up, and the
environment was friendly so people got to talk and hangout. It was a great event to end SEAC’s fall semester, and we can’t wait to see you all next semester.” SEAC’s “Nightlife in Bangkok” was succeeded at bringing Brandeis students from different countries together to experience and indulge in the culture of Thailand. SEAC remains an important aspect to our student life by hosting events which are dedicated to showcase Southeast Asian culture and its beautiful traditions.
Design: Shinji Rho/the Justice
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THE JUSTICE I ARTS & CULTURE I TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019
INTERVIEW
JUSTARTS SPOTLIGHT ON THE FACULTY/STAFF ART EXHIBITION 2019
By Luke Liu JUSTICE EDITOR
While I was walking around the JustArts Faculty and Staff exhibition during its Oct. 24 opening reception day, I saw a table in the middle of the gallery with dozens of figures made out of metal wire. Some of them were animals like birds, dogs and giraffes, while some of them were human faces. While I was observing the pieces, a man standing next to the table told me to poke one of them. I followed his instructions. Guess what? The wire puppy started nodding at me! After playing with the figures for a while, I turned to the person next to the table. His name is Sheldon Gilden, an engineer, a staff member at the Louis’ Deli and a master in the art of making wire figures — or what he calls the “Kinetic Mobile Arts.” The idea is to use a single strand of metal wire to create sculptures that can both stand firmly on a surface and move like a spring. The more I looked at the pieces, the more I was amazed by the complexity of these little sculptures. Imagine trying to draw a bird on paper with just one stroke. Sound difficult? Try to do the same thing with one piece of wire and make the bird a three-dimensional figure. For the wire not to tangle, the creator needs to have a clear idea of every step they would take to eventually form the figure before they makes their first move. At the same time, it is just as important to have a sense of the weight of the figure to make sure that it can stand on a surface without support. In addition to that, making it move like a spring is a whole other level of technique that I still don’t fully understand. Gilden told me that he has been making wire sculptures for over ten years now. When his friends are celebrating their birthdays, weddings or other events, instead of buying something from a store, Gilden makes them sculptures as gifts. It’s more personal and special. At the end of the conversation, right before I moved on, he offered me a blue bird that moves up and down like it’s flying, which he made during our fifteen minutes of conversation.
Anna Cass ’21 Photo Courtesy of ANNA CASS
Sheldon Gilden, Kinetic Mobile Arts. NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice
This week, justArts&Culture spoke with Anna Cass ’21, a member of the TBA Improv and Sketch Comedy, about the “Judges vs. Owls: TBA and Bad Grammar’s 4th Annual Joint Show” on Nov. 13. JustArts&Culture: Tell me about how you get into improv. Anna Cass: I am a member of TBA. I got into TBA during my second semester of my first year at Brandeis. I learned improv by auditioning during my first semester for all the improv groups and learning the games. I was interested in it and I have always been a silly person. I have never done improv before, but I did a capella in high school, and I felt like I have done the singing thing and I wanted to do something else. Improv seemed really interesting to me. I tried out and did not get in but I had so much fun in auditions. I met a lot of my great friends through auditioning with them. None of us got in, but I made a lot of friends as a first year that way. And then second semester, I saw flyers and I was like ‘I didn’t get last time but that was really fun so I will give it another go.’ And then I got into TBA and it’s my favorite thing to do. JAC: What is it like to collaborate with another improv group? AC: It’s a tradition to do our competition show with Bad Grammer. We basically try to challenge ourselves by embodying different tropes. … We mixed it all up so we can work with different people, which is really really fun. And then the team competes against each other, but they have to stick to certain tropes. One group will try to be pensive and another group will try to be sillier.
VICENTE CAYUELA/the Justice
JAC: Is it hard to work with a different group when you are not familiar with their improv style? AC: So for my experience with TBA, I know we work really hard to work together within our team. … We work really hard to learn to read each other and be able to bounce off each other’s ideas and support each other, so you are not just out there in the middle of the scene. … We can apply the skills when working with other people. It’s always really cool to see how those skills translate. I know within TBA, I kind of can predict how different members will think or make decisions because we work together so often. But to do it with a new person you kind of have to be on your toes a little bit more. So to do it in the structure of a competition is really fun because it raises the stake just a little bit. JAC: How was the turnout this year?
STAFF’S Top Ten To be continued... EMILY RIORDAN/the Justice
SUDOKU NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice
AC: I would say we filled Pollock! ... I was really proud that so many people came and there were a lot of people in the audience that I didn’t recognize. … Bad Grammer took a few new members and we took one new member, so it’s really cool to see first years coming out to the shows and getting involved in what their friends are doing. I remember when I was a first year it was so fun. My hall would come to my show. My friends would come. … When you are getting into it at the beginning, it’s really fun to have your friends there to support you. JAC: Anything else you would like to tell the readers?
Top 10 Taylor Swift Songs
AC: We have Brandeis Improv Society on Mondays at eight in the classroom in Schwartz. … It is hard to get into comedy especially because there are techniques to learn and different things like that. There’s no comedy group that does everything, so if people want to try it out, or just want to play the improv game, or get feedback on standup or write a sketch together, they can come. We usually have a plan or lesson, but we are willing to do whatever people want. So it’s basically an open club, where you don’t have to perform but you can try it out. ... The audience was awesome at the show. I am really pleased with everyone’s enthuthiasm. They made it really fun. Ellis and I were hosting. It’s always difficult to manage so many people but I think this year went really well. … The performers did a really good job... We love Bad Grammer. It’s really cool to work with them. They are really awesome people.
By Cameron Cushing JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Get ready to sing loud with the windows down. 1. You Belong With Me 2. New Romantics 3. Wonderland 4. Mine 5. Getaway Car 6. Cruel Summer 7. Blank Space 8. All Too Well 9. The Man 10. Hey Stephen
— Luke Liu Sudoku Courtesy of OPENSKY SUDOKU GENERATOR
Solution Courtesy of OPENSKY SUDOKU GENERATOR