ARTS Page 18
SPORTS Women win two straight 16
“LAST FIVE YEARS”
FORUM Support Apple in guarding privacy 11
the
Justice
Volume LXVIII, Number 21
www.thejustice.org
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
ADMINISTRATION
B.SASV response points to current campus assets
■ In response to B.SASV's sexual assault report, administrators offered clarifications about oncampus resources. By CARMI ROTHBERG JUSTICE EDITOR
The University will launch an aggressive campaign to address sexual violence on campus, according to a University email sent out to the student body Monday evening. The initiative will include efforts to change campus culture regarding sexual violence, will “work across campus to continue improving the quality and quantity of training” and will “explore the best technology solutions available to support our community in reporting and access to support and services information.” The email also contained several points of clarification about campus resources as part of a continuing effort to ensure that survivors are informed of their options. The email came in response to the March 14 Progress Report from Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence, a student group that advocates for sexual assault prevention and awareness. This report is the second to be delivered by B.SASV, following the first in November of 2014. While the report acknowledged that the University has made progress in addressing the points of the 2014 report, the authors claim that it is still necessary “to drastically improve the ways in which sexual violence is handled at Brandeis,” that “there is more to be done” and that “it must be done quickly.” The new report describes
CLOSE-UP: SEXUAL ASSAULT DATA BY RACE AND ETHNICITY White Black
22.7
13.3
Latino
23.4
19.5
Asian-American
9.8
Other Minorities 10.6 0%
formally reported the experience. Only white students reported.
Interpreting the Data
16.9
Percent of students who experienced sexual misconduct and assault.
26.9
18.8
International
3.9%
15.4
11.4
Of those who experienced sexual assault, percent of students who told someone about their experience.
18.5 20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Design by Rebecca Lantner and Mira Mellman/the Justice
SILENT MINORITIES: The survey results showed that white students were the only respondents to formally report their experiences of sexual assault.
New data from Task Force highlights race and ethnicity ■ The second wave of data
from the survey shows great disparities between different ethnic groups. By MAX MORAN JUSTICE EDITOR
White student respondents to a 2015 survey were the only ethnic group on campus who formally reported their experiences of sexual assault on campus, according to the University’s second wave of data from the 2015 Campus Climate Sur-
vey on Sexual Misconduct last Friday, which disclosed data about how race, ethnicity and international status intersect and interact with sexual misconduct on campus. The information came in an email to the community from Interim President Lisa Lynch and was co-signed by the entire Task Force for Sexual Assault Response, Services and Prevention, which includes administrators, faculty and students. The report displays data from the 2015 survey, which asked students about their experiences with sexual harassment and assault, as well
as their knowledge of and faith in University processes to address the issue. Friday’s report shows how students of different races and ethnicities responded differently to the survey’s questions, allowing readers to see how sexual misconduct varies between ethnic groups. Lynch called the results “deeply troubling” in her email but said “we will not shrink from the self-examination and action they demand. We must use this information to improve.” The majority of undergraduate respondents to the survey — which
had a 34.5 percent response rate among the student body at large — were white: 763 white students responded, constituting 42 percent of white students who received the survey. The lowest response rate came from international students, of whom 66 students (11 percent of international students who were asked) responded. The group with the lowest number of respondents, though, was “Other Minority” students, defined as any student who identified as Native American, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native or Pa-
See CLIMATE, 7 ☛
ADMINISTRATION
DCL survey shows large opposition to changes ■ DCL instituted minor
unanimously to make no changes to the room selection process.” According to statistics on the poll provided by Director of Community Living Timothy Touchette, while the vote was not unanimous, it was a moderate majority. The poll asked students to respond to two proposals for potential changes to the housing selection process that were first released in an email to the student body on Feb. 5 by DCL and the Student Union collaboratively. According to a Justice article dated
Feb. 8, the first proposal would allow for sophomores, juniors and seniors to all live together, termed “Pooled Upperclassmen Housing.” Massell and North Quad would be exclusively for first years, while upperclassmen would be able to live in East Quad, Rosenthal Quad, Usen Castle, the Charles River Apartments, Ziv Quad, 567 South Street, Ridgewood A and Village A. Seniors would have access to “senior only housing” in the Foster Mods, as well as Ridgewoods B and C.
Book launch
Strike three, you're out!
Herbstritt victorious
Authors of the new book "Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families" discussed the evolution of the Jewish family.
The baseball team's offense could not get it going against a solid Clark defense.
Current Student Union Vice President David Herbstritt '17 won the presidency by two votes.
See B.SASV ☛
changes to facilitate housing selection after its large overhauls failed to pass. By MIHIR KHANNA JUSTICE EDITOR
The Department of Community Living gauged the student body’s interest in changing the current housing system via a Feb. 9 poll, the details of which revealed that a majority of the
voting students voted against any major changes to the current system. Still, DCL made some minor alterations to this year’s room selection timeline unrelated to the proposals listed in the poll. Specifically, “upperclass room selection will now choose different housing configurations on different days,” according to the Room Selection page of DCL’s website. Their webpage states that “while we [DCL] thought the proposals put forth to the student body would have been beneficial, the students voted
FEATURES 9
For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org
Waltham, Mass.
Let your voice be heard! Submit letters to the editor online at www.thejustice.org
INDEX
SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS
17 13
EDITORIAL FEATURES
10
OPINION 9 POLICE LOG
10 2
See DCL, 7 ☛
News 3
COPYRIGHT 2016 FREE AT BRANDEIS.
2
TUESDAY, March 22, 2016
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the justice
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news
NEWS SENATE LOG
POLICE LOG
Senators discuss accountability and executive sessions in weekly meeting The Senate met on Sunday to discuss forming a committee to look into space allocation on campus and electing a new representative to the Community Enhancement and Emergency Fund. After student and administrative communications, the Senate moved into Executive Officer Reports, hearing from Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees Grady Ward ’16, President-elect David Herbstritt ’17 and Executive Senator Paul Sindberg ’18. The senators then voted unanimously to pass a resolution on Indigenous People’s Day. In the resolution, the Senate recommends that the University refer to Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day to foster inclusivity on campus. As part of its new business section, the Senate considered a proposal for a Senate Money Request that would allow the Senate to purchase supplies to be used among the clubs for various fundraisers and events. In a discussion on the SMR, Sindberg mentioned a potential three day limit for clubs borrowing supplies, which might include tablecloths and other reusable items. He added that the supplies would last through the semester and could be replenished if they prove popular with clubs. Herbstritt then discussed the CEEF representative election. Current Chief of Staff Will Jones ’18 has been interacting with CEEF, and Charles River/567 Senator Valerie Timms ’16 has been active in CEEF, but the Senate wished to elect another CEEF member, per their bylaws. Herbstritt mentioned the possibility of emailing the Student Union Listserv to solicit candidates, but Ridgewood Senator Mitchell Beers ’17 raised the concern that doing so would delay committees’ ability to seek a CEEF grant. After a brief discussion, the senators agreed that they would vote for a CEEF representative over email to speed up the process. Next, Herbstritt told the Senate that the Student Union is looking to form a committee to look into how student spaces are used on campus. He added that he is looking for five senators to join and work with Executive Board members to look into space allocation for clubs and groups. These three items of new business will be voted on in the next meeting, per the Senate’s bylaws. The Senate then moved into individual senator reports, highlights of which included a possible bylaw about considering club duality at the chartering phase, examining inactive clubs, hosting an end-ofthe-year quad event and finalizing the sign for the planned meadow with help from an illustrator who works with the Walt Disney Company. Class of 2019 Senator Nathan Greess then asked Herbstritt about a potential audit on the Student Union. Herbstritt answered that the audit — which would be self-conducted — is still in its infancy and is the result of the Student Union wanting to get a better handle on its finances. In the open forum session, the Brandeis Hoot Features Editor and Representative-elect to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee Jacob Edelman ’18 asked the senators why they regularly go into executive session and what topics they discuss. He requested that any senator with a topic to discuss in executive session give a vague explanation of their topic for the public record. Most senators responded to Edelman’s request with confusion, wondering how they could comply without breaking the Senate’s bylaws. Herbstritt argued that doing so would be unnecessary, given that everything the Senate discusses in executive session becomes public knowledge eventually. However, the senators did eventually agree to keep an unofficial record of their discussion as means of holding themselves accountable. —Abby Patkin
Medical Emergency
Mar. 13—A party in the Usen Castle with a nut allergy was suffering from an allergic reaction and used their EpiPen. BEMCo and University Police responded and treated the party on the scene. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to NewtonWellesley Hospital. Mar. 13—A party in Massell Quad reported their roommate was having a panic attack. The party was transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital. Mar. 14—A party in North Quad complained of stomach pains and was treated by BEMCo staff with a signed refusal for further care. Mar. 15—A party came to Stoneman and reported they had struck their head on a bedpost earlier that day. The party reported experiencing a headache, minor dizziness and irritability. The party was treated on the scene by BEMCo staff with a signed refusal for further care. Mar. 15—A caller from the Usdan Student Center reported a party was feeling ill. BEMCo
responded, and University Police transported the party to the Health Center for further care. Mar. 15—A party in Rosenthal Quad reported someone fell and possibly broke their ankle. The injured party was treated on the scene and transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital. Mar. 18—Police received a report of an intoxicated party in North Quad who was a guest of a student. BEMCo staff treated the party on the scene and requested Cataldo Ambulance to transport the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. Police compiled a report on the incident and filed a Community Standards Report for the host responsible for their guest’s actions. Mar. 20—Police received a report of a party on the floor inside a stall of a women’s bathroom in the Shapiro Campus Center. Police found the party intoxicated but conscious and alert. BEMCo and Cataldo Ambulance responded, and medics on the scene treated the party with a signed refusal for further care.
Larceny
Mar. 13—A party reported someone removed the license plate from their car, which was parked outside of the Epstein Building. University Police compiled a report on the incident. Mar. 18—The Building Manager in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center reported a break-in to a locker in the building with currency missing. Police compiled a report on the incident and reviewed closed circuit television of the area.
Drugs
Mar. 17—A Department of Community Living staff member found what appeared to be marijuana during a health and safety inspection of North Quad. University Police confiscated the contraband and compiled a report on the incident. DCL staff filed a Community Standards Report on the incident. Mar. 17—The Area Coordinator of the Charles River Apartments requested University Police to confiscate marijuana. Police secured the contraband
LENDING A HAND
n An Arts article misspelled Remony Perlman’s ’19 last name (March 15, page 18). The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Email editor@ thejustice.org.
Justice
the
www.thejustice.org
The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods. Editor News Forum Features Sports Arts Ads Photos Managing Copy Layout
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The Justice Brandeis University Mailstop 214 P.O. Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Phone: (781) 736-3750
Mar. 19—Police received a noise complaint for loud music in the Charles River Apartments. University Police advised residents to lower the music. Mar. 20—Police received a report of someone talking loudly on the second floor of a building in the Ziv Quad. University Police responded and found all quiet upon arrival. Mar. 20—A Community Adviser reported sounds that appeared like fireworks going off near the dumpsters. University Police responded but found nothing showing upon arrival.
Assault
Mar. 15—A caller from the Usdan Student Center reported two people had been in a fist fight. Police searched the area but the combatants were gone prior to the arrival of the police. — Compiled by Avi Gold.
BRIEF
n A News article mislabeled Waltham as a town, instead of a city (March 15, page 1).
n A Sports article included a photo of Epeeist Sonya Glickman ’16. Glickman no longer attends the University (March 15, page 15).
Disturbance
South Miami chapter of Brandeis National Committee holds used book sale outside Publix to benefit the University
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS n A story title misidentified Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence as a club (March 15, page 1).
and filed a report on the incident. The Area Coordinator filed a Community Standards Report.
HEATHER SCHILLER/the Justice
A student holds up a 3-D printed prosthetic hand at the Brandeis Prosthesis Club’s “Scanning Hands” event on Friday. The event featured a discussion and demonstration of the 3-D printing process.
On Mar. 6, a group of volunteers staged a used book sale in front of a Publix Supermarket to benefit Brandeis University Libraries, Scholarships and Research, according to a Miami’s Community Newspapers article. The annual sale featured thousands of donated books and was hosted by the South Miami Chapter of the Brandeis National Committee. According to its website, the BNC — which was founded in 1948 — is “dedicated to providing philanthropic support to Brandeis University” and has over 25,000 members nationwide. The website also states that the group has contributed over $131 million to the University. “The Brandeis National Committee is not made up of Brandeis members. One of the reasons the book sale is as popular as it is is that all of the used books are sold to raise money to buy new books for the library,” Linda Zahler, one of the Mar. 6 organizers, was quoted in the article as saying. The BNC first began holding used book sales to raise money for the University library in 1958, calling the initiative “New Books for Old.” The group’s website notes that all books are donated, and all proceeds help “replenish the Brandeis library shelves.” There are two permanent BNC bookstores, including one operated by the Tucson chapter via Amazon. The BNC recently raised $2 million to benefit scientific research on campus. $1 million of that donation went to naming a neurodegenerative disease research laboratory in the Carl J. Shapiro Science Center, and the other $1 million helped create the Endowed Medical Science Journal Fund, according to the BNC website. —Abby Patkin
ANNOUNCEMENTS Janet Mock and Jasmine Johnson
Our 21st annual Tillie K. Lubin Symposium will be a conversation between Professor Jasmine Johnson (African and Afro-American Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) and writer, cultural commentator, advocate for trans women’s rights and the New York Times bestselling author of “Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More” Janet Mock. Today from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Sherman Function Hall.
Consent in the Purim Story
Join Hillel at Brandeis, Prof. Bernadette Brooten (NEJS) and V Club for a discussion about feminist sexual ethics in the Purim story. Kosher food will be served. Today from 7 to 8 p.m. in The Mandel Center for the Humanities room G11.
Negotiating Your First Job Salary
Over the term of her life, a woman will
earn $1 million less than a man simply because she is a woman. This session is open to any student who will be negotiating their job salaries and is interested in earning their true potential, as these early decisions will have lifelong consequences. Tomorrow from 12 to 1:30 p.m. in the Kutz first floor conference room.
A Cursory Sermon on Art and the City
Theaster Gates will deliver the Richman Distinguished Fellowship in Public Life Lecture on March 23 at 4 p.m. An award-winning artist, urbanist and facilitator, Gates creates projects that act as catalysts for social engagement that lead to political and spatial change. The Fellowship Award will be presented by Interim President Lisa Lynch. The event is free and open to the public. Tomorrow from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Wasserman Cinematheque.
BMAX Workout Event
Brandeis Dining Services is hosting trainer Andy Berler for a free workout session in celebration of National Nutrition Month. There will also be a smoothie bar and numerous raffle prizes, including two Coca-Cola mountain bikes. The group, team or organization with the most attendees will win a free group training session with Berler. Tomorrow from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Sherman Function Hall.
APAHM Comedy Night
To mark the end of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Brandeis Asian American Student Association will be celebrating through the art of comedy. There will be an improv performance and a special guest. This is a ticketed event. Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Levin Ballroom.
news
Campus event
Chaplaincy discussed religion at Brandeis. By Max moran JUSTICE editor
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the University’s chapels, which were founded in 1955, the Multifaith Chaplaincy hosted a panel discussion on Thursday titled “The State of Religion at Brandeis and its Future.” Four of the University chaplains — Protestant Chaplain Rev. Matthew Carriker, Pastoral Associate for Catholic and Spiritual Life Allison Cornelisse, Interim Muslim Chaplain Maryam Sharrieff and Jewish Chaplain Rabbi Elyse Winick ’86 — spoke to about 25 students and faculty members. Winick began by presenting a brief history of the three chapels — Berlin Chapel, a Jewish synagogue; Bethlehem Chapel, a Catholic church; and Harlan Chapel, a Protestant church. Winick argued that the most significant change to the University’s religious life since its founding is its increased diversity. When the chapels were built, she said, the University’s founders could have safely assumed that most students coming to Brandeis would have been either Jewish, Protestant or Catholic, but as America has grown more diverse and the University has increased its international student population, Muslim and Dharmic faith students have grown in number, necessitating the creation of new prayer spaces on campus. Currently, the Muslim Students Association and other Muslim community members gather in a Muslim Prayer Suite in the basement of the Usdan Student Center, and Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu and Jain students share a Dharmic prayer center in the Shapiro Campus Center. Winick said that even since her time as an undergraduate, the University has experienced changes, such as an increase in its undergraduate population by around 600 students, growth in diversity — by her estimate, around 85 percent of the campus was Jewish when she was an undergraduate — and a larger percentage of the observant Jewish population at Brandeis now coming from more orthodox sects. She called the annual Yom Kippur Break the Fast event established by former Uni-versity President Frederick Lawrence “a banner of the University’s Jewish identity, even as it tries to figure out what its Jewish identity actually is.” Cornelisse, who assumed the chaplaincy last April after the departure of interim priest Father Dan Moloney, who was himself filling in after Father Walther Cuenin left the University last January for unspecified health concerns, spoke next. She described her presence as “an experiment,” since the Catholic chaplaincy has always been held by a priest, and
she said that finding a new priest has been difficult, due in part to a shortage of priests currently in the Catholic church. She said that she’s been able to bring priests from Boston College to campus in the interim and noted that the University’s Catholic community includes people from the Waltham area not affiliated with the University, which creates a broader sense of community. “The Catholic church has been in a time of transition as it is, in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis and the priest shortage,” she said. “That, I’ve noticed, has been an influence on the conversations that we’ve had this year.” Sharrieff then spoke, describing herself as “the new kid on the block” and saying that while she ostensibly serves the undergraduate Muslim Students Association primarily, faculty, staff and an overwhelming number of graduate students come to Muslim prayer services and events. By Sharrieff’s estimate, around 200 graduate students and 50 undergraduates attend regularly. Sharrieff’s uncle attended the University and was part of “Ford Hall one,” in her words, and she said that she hoped more interfaith collaboration would be possible in the future, saying that “there’s so many wrongs going on in the United States right now, and I just feel like Brandeis needs to be a place that’s at the forefront of making a change.” Last to speak was Carriker. He emphasized the importance of interfaith dialogue as an important positive for the community. At Brandeis, Protestant students are a minority, which Carriker said causes some students to need to explain their faith to others, often for the first time. Carriker said that the broader Christian world is going through a “seismic shift” that tends to happen every 500 years, in part due to decreased church attendance, saying “people are increasingly interested in ‘spirituality,’ and ‘religion’ is a bad word.” He pointed to interest in the regular mindfulness retreats he runs as evidence. The talk then opened to attendants. A student asked the chaplaincy on their thoughts about space allocation on campus, to which Winick responded by saying that the community had to recognize a difference between what they’d like and what is likely to happen. “As a team, we are not comfortable with the fact that [the placement of] all of the worship spaces… give a sense of hierarchical prioritization.” She cited the placement of the Muslim prayer suite in the Usdan basement and the separation of the Dharmic prayer center from the three chapels as evidence, saying she often needs to direct students who were unaware the Muslim suite even existed. “It feels wrong for the other sacred spaces to be elsewhere. … That, I think, is a much larger challenge than the University is going to be equipped to grapple with, and probably not at the top of the University’s priorities to resolve.”
MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice
CHECKING IN: Interim Muslim Chaplain Maryam Sharrieff (left), Jewish Chaplain Rabbi Elyse Winick ’86 (center) and Protestant Chaplain Rev. Matthew Carriker (right) discussed the University’s state of religion on Thursday.
the justice
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TUESDAY, March 22, 2016
3
PRESIDENT-ELECT
Chaplains host State of Religion ■ The Multifaith
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MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice
PLATFORM GOALS: Current Vice President David Herbstritt ’17 argued for his platform at Thursday’s Student Union debate.
Herbstritt wins Student Union presidency by two votes in high turnout ■ David Herbstritt ’17
won the Student Union presidency in a close race with Christian Nunez ’18. By abby patkin JUSTICE editoR
In the highly contended race for Student Union president, current Student Union Vice President David Herbstritt ’17 came out on top, narrowly edging out Ford Hall 2015 activist Christian Nunez ’18 by two votes. Seven Student Union positions were filled in Thursday’s first round of spring elections. According to an elections statistics document provided by Student Union Secretary Shuying Liu ’16, Herbstritt won 479 votes in the election while Nunez earned 477. Additionally, 80 voters selected the “abstain” option — meaning they did not view either candidate as viable — while 17 voters wrote in other candidates’ names, including six votes for “Luis” and one vote for Bernie Sanders. Ultimately, there were 1,053 votes cast for the presidential race. In a pre-election debate on Wednesday night, Herbstritt reflected on his time in the Student Union, explaining how he will draw upon his Union experiences to help him achieve his platform goals, which he described as being based on addressing student concerns and pushing for more bystander training, greater dialogue on sexual assault and better sustainability on campus. In the same debate, Nunez argued that he would draw upon his Ford Hall 2015 experiences to better enrich the community. “I got to think about the prejudices inside myself and see what was happening in the community,” Nunez said of the sitin. “I’ve been to too many funerals. I’ve seen too many people fail. …
But this isn’t a sob story. … I can now go back to my community and say, ‘But wait! There’s a way.’” Current Executive Senator Paul Sindberg ’18 won the vice presidency with 450 of the 1,008 votes cast in his race. His opponent, Antoine Malfroy-Camine ’17, garnered 363 votes. At the debate, Sindberg addressed the audience with an anecdote, recalling one Christmas tap dancing show in which he, as Santa, had forgotten suspenders and, after having his pants fall down, had had to complete his performance while holding his pants up. The moral of the story is, he said, that “I am a person who is willing to and going to fight.” In his address, Malfroy-Camine voiced his support for fossil fuel divestment and faculty unionization and called for expansion of the Rape Crisis Center, which he called “overtaxed.” Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program Senator Gabriela Gonzalez Anavisca ’19 was elected the next Secretary, with 807 of the 1,008 votes cast in her race. “As secretary, I just want to be a link between the students [and the Student Union],” she said at the debate. Ziyang Chen ’18, a current Allocations Board member, won the race for Student Union Treasurer with 822 of the 1,022 votes cast in her race. At the debate, she explained how she will draw upon her A-Board experience while in office and noted that she wants to improve efficiency and transparency in the allocations process. Will Jones ’18 was elected the junior representative to the Board of Trustees, garnering 860 of the 1,018 votes cast in his race. Jones, the current Student Union chief of staff and a former senator for Rosenthal Quad, told the audience at the debate that he is looking to strengthen the relationship between the student body and the Board of
Trustees. “There’s a problem that nobody here actually knows [who is on the Board],” he said. In the race for the open seat on the Brandeis Sustainability Fund, current Class of 2018 Senator Cassie Cain edged out Mingyue (Daisy) Chen ’18 with a final tally of 403 to 323 votes of the 989 cast in their race. At the debate, Cain cited her childhood in rural Maine as her reason for wanting to serve, while Chen spoke of experience growing up in a city with air pollution as her motivation to improve the environment. Chen also suggested a bike-sharing program on campus, which she argued would decrease BranVan use and, by default, the University’s carbon footprint. Finally, Jacob Edelman ’18 won the race for the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee seat, garnering 456 votes over opponent Brooke Granovsky’s ’18 353. In the debate, Edelman discussed a wish to establish a set midterm week to lessen student stress; expand the Environmental Studies, African and AfroAmerican Studies and Women and Gender Studies programs; and allow participation in club sports to count for physical education credit. Granovsky’s platform included broadening the nonwestern courses available, improving the quality of University Writing Seminar courses and allowing participation in the Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps to count for physical education credit. The next round of elections will take place next week. In this upcoming round, the student body will vote on 14 open positions: two senators-at-large, two class senators from each non-graduating class, one senator for racial minority students and five associate justices of the Student Union judiciary. There will be a meeting for potential candidates in the Student Union office tomorrow night.
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TUESDAY, March 22, 2016
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THE JUSTICE
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news
Campus speaker
Greenberg discusses history of spin machine in US presidencies and politics ■ Political commentator
David Greenberg traced the history of the White House spin machine on Thursday. By Abby Patkin JUSTICE editor
“Spin” — the public relations technique of manipulating the delivery of information — is not simply one-dimensional, argued David Greenberg, journalist and Rutgers University professor of history and of journalism and media studies in a lecture on Thursday. The lecture, titled “The Spinning of the President: The Politics of Image from the Bully Pulpit to the Permanent Campaign,” was sponsored by the American Studies Program. Greenberg drew upon his 2003 book, “Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image” to discuss the major themes of manipulation presented in his most recent book, “Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency.” He told the audience that the seeds of “Republic of Spin” came out of his previous work, noting of Nixon, there was a “sense of phoniness about him. … [That he was] not only someone who was constructing his image, but someone who seemed to be constructing his image.” In his lecture, Greenberg explained that spin differs from propaganda because spin implies that a game is going on, that readers understand the inherent manipulation. He explained that he examined the roots and application of the “White House Spin Machine” in his book, focusing on three “strands” of political actors: the presidents, from Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama; the spin doctors, who “work on crafting the messages”; and the writers, who cover and critique spin. The story of spin, he said, begins with Roosevelt, as no similar machine existed before his presidency. Historically, the presidency “was not an office where people planned to do big things,” especially with
the media, but Roosevelt saw in the press a potential to disseminate his reforms. Thus, Greenberg said, Roosevelt created the first “public presidency” by touring widely, giving speeches from the Bully Pulpit — authority figures’ platform of power — and setting the precedent of the president using his platform to speak to the public. Some examples of his finest manipulations of the press, Greenberg continued, include his appointing press liaisons, his publicity stunts — Greenberg cited one instance where Roosevelt took a ride in a submarine to call for building the navy — and his early press conferences with groups of five or six reporters. Greenberg added that the presidents who followed Roosevelt also used spin in their own ways, including Woodrow Wilson’s in-person delivery of his State of the Union addresses, Hoover’s campaign film “Master of Emergencies” (1928), Lyndon Johnson’s packaging of the Vietnam War and Obama’s use of a White House Twitter feed and a videographer. He then transitioned to a discussion on the second strand of spin actors, including officials who contribute to the packaging and dissemination of the message — he used George W. Bush’s senior advisor and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove’s spinning the Iraq War as an example. He also included examples like the first presidential speechwriter, Judson Welliver, whom he credited with fixing Harding’s reputation as a public speaker. Greenberg also mentioned Eisenhower’s television coach, Robert Montgomery, who helped him fully harness the power of the new medium through wardrobe and body language changes. Pollsters also fall into this category, Greenberg continued, explaining how the first presidential pollster, Emil Hurja, changed the way public opinion is gauged and utilized in the 1930s. Hurja, a former geologist and miner, became a Wall Street data analyst and used his experiences in statistical analysis to
ABBY GRINBERG/the Justice
BULLY PULPIT: Greenberg argued in his lecture that the concept of “spin” began with President Theodore Roosevelt. reform polling systems. He was the first to realize “you can’t just ask random people, you need to have a true sample that accurately reflects the American public,” Greenberg explained, adding that Hurja’s work gained credibility after he correctly predicted both Franklin Roosevelt’s first election and the Democratic win in the midterm elections of 1934. Greenberg drew comparisons between Hurja and modern political statistician Nate Silver, explaining how both have been “described as no biases, just like a machine.” Finally, for the third strand — the writers and reporters — Greenberg noted that there is “a rolling argument … about what the implications [of spin] are” in journalism and pub-
lic discourse. He explained that there are different types of writers and critics who examine spin, noting that the realists — those who are critical of spin but understand it to be an integral and sometimes even beneficial part of politics — are the “silent heroes” of his book. As an example of a critical approach to spin, Greenberg cited journalist and scholar Vance Packard’s work “The Hidden Persuaders,” which looks at television advertising in the late 1950s and examines the similarities between product advertisement and political advertisement. He concluded his lecture by discussing what he learned throughout the research process for his book.
Spin itself is not new, he told the audience, noting that the ancient Greeks discussed the application of rhetoric in a very similar manner. Moreover, “spin is not all powerful,” he added. “What is much more striking … is the limits of presidential persuasion, how difficult it is for presidents or other politicians to change our minds.” Lastly, he emphasized, spin is “not all bad” and can be especially useful when used to advocate for a cause. “The answer is not to just deplore spin and somehow declare our democracy bankrupt,” he said. “But to try to help us understand how it works, to expose the fictions, to see how it plays on us and how we can better understand it.”
Interested in journalism? Tired of wondering what’s going on? Want to be the first to know the facts?
Be a reporter for theJustice! Contact Abby Patkin at news@thejustice.org for more information
THE JUSTICE
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News
Salem Award for her work with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. By MATTHEW SCHATTNER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
RACHEL MOORE/the Justice
MEMORABLE LIFE: In her lecture, Ann Caldwell explained that Shouse rose to power in political, business and philanthropic circles.
Scholar celebrates life of Catherine Shouse as an example of a unique and powerful woman. By Rachel Moore JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Philanthropist Catherine Filene Shouse was the only woman who could claim to have met every U.S. president from Calvin Coolidge to Bill Clinton and document friendships with Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt and Edna St. Vincent Millay. She was also the subject of Ann W. Caldwell’s lecture at Brandeis on Thursday. Caldwell is President Emerita of the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions and is currently working on a biography of Shouse’s remarkable life. Throughout Shouse’s life, from 1896 to 1994, “there were not many years in which she did not do something significant,” Caldwell noted. “The first platform she created while still an undergraduate … was an Intercollegiate Conference on Careers for Women,” followed by a publication of her book, “Careers for Women.” Shouse, who went by “Kay” in her adult life, would go on to become widely involved in philanthropy and social programs, including a German Youth program to de-Nazify children after World War II and the donation of her country estate, Wolf Trap Farm, as a national park. “I think I’m drawn to Kay Shouse’s life first because I knew her” — the two had met through Wheaton College’s alumni network — “but also because the subject of women in power interests me,” Caldwell shared, noting, “Power is too often prescribed to women in the pejorative.” She added that Shouse’s power was expressed in numerous ways, including her agency and independence with money and property. “Wolf Trap was all Kay’s, her idea and her stage, though she often publicly demurred,” and her “CEO-like approach, backed by her financial support” made her unique, Caldwell added. Furthermore, “she was never reluctant to exercise power, nor was she hesitant to use her family’s powerful name and fortune”; Shouse’s father, Lincoln Filene, was the head of the Filene Department Store company.
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the Treasury. He is known to have “led the Liberty League in opposition to the New Deal and FDR.” She exemplified this nonpartisanship in her shifting public belief in feminism. In the 1920s, “Kay did not consider herself a feminist. She publicly disavowed that label. … She [later] mused that perhaps she had been a feminist after all, but simply did not realize it at the time.” On another front, “Kay never identified with her Jewish heritage, and the Filenes were highly assimilated. As one person said of the German Jews who immigrated at the end of the 19th century, ‘They were Americans first, Germans second, and Jews third, if at all.’ … Kay identified herself as Episcopalian when she enrolled at Wheaton College, and married twice, both times to Protestants, in Christian ceremonies.” Following the line of Shouse’s carefully constructed identity, Caldwell called even the nature of Shouse’s independence and agency into question. Staying true to her rebellious character, “[Shouse] managed her own assets, and ignored her father’s more conservative advice,” and told her acquaintances in D.C. that she was “disowned” as a result of their ideological differences, though this was ultimately not true. Instead, she continued to freely spend her father’s money, whether on herself or on her philanthropic interests. “She never experienced the family’s struggles in poverty that her father did in the decades before her birth,” and Lincoln Filene never forced his daughter through that experience, despite any differences in opinion they might have had. This is not to say that her personality was not, indeed, strong: “Kay took flying lessons at Amelia Earhart’s urging. … She liked flying almost as much as fast cars.” Kay had a chauffeur, but Caldwell noted that one could often see the “chauffeur riding as a passenger.” Armed with the knowledge of all that Shouse did with her life, the admirable and the not-so-admirable deeds, Caldwell told the audience that she continues to have difficulty deciding how she feels about the legendary woman. “There are some days I can’t stand her, and some days I find her remarkable,” she said.
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Driscoll awarded for work with Innocence Project ■ Anne Driscoll received the
Even as a young girl, Shouse was accustomed to high-brow social connections, including “Louis Brandeis, … a good friend and the family lawyer.” Caldwell stressed, however, that “Kay’s relationship to power was not merely derivative or associative; she was ambitious herself.” Shouse was born in Boston and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1918. Caldwell asserted that D.C. was fitting for Shouse, since it was “a place where power was distributed and redistributed freely.” As a result, “her power was magnetized there in a way it might never have been had she remained in Boston. Her family expectations, the well-known Filene name and the tightly structured nature of Boston’s society could have constrained her to a more conventional life.” What Shouse brought from Boston, though, was patriotism and New England pragmatism, according to Caldwell. Aside from her work to benefit the German youth and her donation of Wolf Trap, Caldwell attributes Shouse’s “simple belief that if you were invited to the White House, no matter what the circumstance, you went. In a word, when the president asks, you say yes.” As to her pragmatism, Caldwell cited that “she once exhibited that when she drove herself, dressed in a long, elegant evening dress from Wolf Trap to a Washington embassy in a pick-up truck because it was the only transportation available at Wolf Trap.” One additional trait of Shouse’s, Caldwell shared, was her “unconscious affinity for the privileges and prerogative of the wealth; some would call it entitlement.” Shouse put a lot of work into creating an identity for herself. Caldwell identified the results of Shouse’s selfconstruction: “She thought of herself as a rebel, and in some sense, she was. … She loved fast cars, airplanes, smoking, cocktails and sexual freedom, but she never strayed all that far from the establishment in either Boston or Washington.” Caldwell hypothesized that Shouse was “strategically nonpartisan” in order to maintain her influence and centrality, though her second husband, Jouett Shouse, was a conservative Democrat who served as a U.S. Congressman and Assistant Secretary of
TUESDAY, March 22, 2016
Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism
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■ Ann Caldwell cited Shouse
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Anne Driscoll, senior reporter for the Justice Brandeis Innocence Project at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, was awarded the annual Salem Award on March 20. The award promotes “awareness, understanding and empathy in support of human rights, tolerance and social justice,” according to the Salem Award Foundation website. Driscoll joined the Justice Brandeis Innocence Project in 2006. The project utilizes investigative journalism techniques to inspect and overturn wrongful convictions, often in cases where DNA evidence is not obtainable, according to the project’s website. Last May, Driscoll and the JBIP’s efforts culminated in the successful overturning of the wrongful conviction of Angel Echavarria, after he had served 21 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Driscoll worked on the project for nearly 10 years and Echavarria was the JBIP’s first wrongful conviction investigation. “Anne was our primary ‘shoe leather reporter’ who worked, often with a translator, to find and interview possible witnesses and others in the Lynn Massachusetts area, where the murder occurred,” stated Schuster Institute founding director Florence Graves in an email to the Justice. Graves added of Driscoll’s work ethic, “She was tireless and relentless in tracking down every possible lead.” A 2013 Fulbright Scholarship saw Driscoll relocate to Dublin, Ireland, where she instructed students in in-
vestigative journalism techniques as the Journalist Project Manager of the Irish Innocence Project, one of only two Innocence Projects worldwide that combine both journalism and law in order to investigate wrongful convictions. Graves is an ardent supporter of expanding the use of journalism practices in enacting legal change, as she wrote that overturning wrongful convictions is “an area where investigative journalism can really make an impact: by doing comprehensive, in-depth investigations into cases other journalists or lawyers aren’t going to take on, and shining a light on injustices that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by the public and policymakers.” Driscoll holds an expansive resume in journalism, having written for publications such as the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, People and the Boston Globe. Her 2004 People magazine piece “Juiced Up” detailed the use of steroids by teenage boys. According to Driscoll’s biography on the Schuster Institute’s webpage, the article was one of People magazine’s top-five most-read articles in 2004. In addition, Driscoll is a licensed social worker in Massachusetts. Driscoll received the Salem Award on Sunday at a ceremony in Salem, Mass. The award is named after the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Graves believes that the hysteria involved in accusations of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials are analogous to modern miscarriages of justice, citing, in the case of many wrongful convictions, firmly held beliefs in the “infallibility of eyewitness identification and police investigative methods.” Graves expanded on the value of Driscoll receiving the award, concluding, “The Salem Award in this case is shining a light not just on Anne’s or the Justice Brandeis Law Project’s work--but on the tragic issue of wrongful convictions.”
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Prof. Mihaela Papa (HS) lectured on the Paris Climate Talks in a lecture on Tuesday. The event was sponsored by the Center for German and European Studies.
B.SASV: Activist group not satisfied with response improvement in — though not ideal resolution of — most areas of concern regarding sexual violence, although the assessment of the Psychological Counseling Center’s sexual trauma, violence and assault staff has dropped from a “B+” to a “D-,” as the PCC’s previous trauma specialist Kristin Huang left at the end of the last academic year, and the evaluation of the campus’s effort to combat rape culture remains an “F.” In an emailed response to B.SASV that was provided to the Justice regarding the Progress Report, the University emphasized the seriousness of sexual violence and the “tremendous amount of work that needs to be done,” explaining that the University will continue in its efforts to develop campus resources and improve campus culture. The Task Force for Sexual Assault Response, Services and Prevention will lead these efforts to combat sexual violence starting in 2014 and will be “charged with reviewing the university’s policies and practices regarding sexual misconduct” and “making recommendations to improve the university’s response, policies, prevention education, and training protocols,” according to the
email. The email went on to describe the “several initiatives currently underway to address sexual violence at Brandeis,” which include clarifying information on websites, posters and signage regarding how to access counseling and assistance resources; continuing to improve OL and CA trainings; translating sections 3 and 22 of Rights and Responsibilities — which deal with Sexual Misconduct and Interpersonal Violence and the Special Examiner’s Process, respectively — into Spanish, Mandarin and Korean; providing each incoming first-year student with a printed copy of Rights and Responsibilities — as well as the appended Resource Guide for Sexual Assault Survivors, a guide to counseling and assistance resources — and continuing to conduct qualitative research relative to the Provost Office’s climate survey data on race, ethnicity and international status. The email also provided a timeline clarifying how the University was addressing each issue and which administrator was responsible for each initiative. As many of B.SASV’s concerns are similar to those raised earlier by the Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Misconduct, several of the initiatives are already nearing completion
— though, as the University noted in its email to the student body, “a much larger effort is needed and will be made.” In spite of the University’s efforts, however, B.SASV is less than satisfied with the response to the Progress report. In an email to the Justice, B.SASV expressed that “the administration's response is appreciated” but that it continues to call on the University “to fully address the issues of university handling of sexual violence.” The initiatives described in the response to the Progress Report were insufficient, B.SASV explained, as they did not suitably address the adequacy of the resources themselves — and their existence “in a fully-funded and accessible manner” — but instead focused too much on “misinformation [that] will inhibit survivors from seeking [those] resources”. The email from the administration was signed by Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Irving R. Epstein, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Kim Godsoe and Senior Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Sheryl Sousa ’90.
DCL: Room selection process now separated by housing type CONTINUED FROM 1 The second proposal, a “Housing Loyalty Program,” would prioritize students who have to lived on-campus throughout their time at Brandeis in the housing lottery. Students who apply for on-campus housing after living off campus would, in turn, receive lower numbers. Of the 1,183 students who voted, only 38 percent voted in favor of the “Pooled Upperclassman Housing” proposal, and 37 percent voted in favor of the “Housing Loyalty Program” proposal. 56 percent of students voted against the first proposal and 53 percent of students voted against the second proposal. The remainder of votes, in both cases, fall into the neutral column. In addition to asking students to vote on the two proposals, DCL asked students to provide any suggestions that they might have with regards to the housing selection process. The detailed report of the poll describes this section of the poll as “an open ended question to solicit feedback and gener-
al suggestion about the Housing Selection and Placement process.” The report goes on to state that “the themes of the reply messages were centered in the following 3 areas: building more housing, leaving the system alone, and creating a merit based (conduct/GPA) rating system.” Aside from the plans surrounding the future of Usen Castle, DCL currently has no plans to build more housing. According to Interim President Lisa Lynch’s statement to the Waltham Historical Commission on March 14, the University plans to demolish all but towers A and B of the Castle and erect a new dorm with an additional 60 beds in its place. In response to the suggestion for a meritbased housing structure, Touchette wrote in an email to the Justice that “DCL is not actively looking into any further options (including merit based housing) until we reconnect with the Union and look at the next steps for next year.” The only change to the room selection process this year was attributed to remedying one challenge faced by students in the past, “adjusting their
TUESDAY, March 22, 2016
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CLIMATE: Univ. to institute trainings to improve climate
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roommate group when one type of housing ran out,” according DCL’s website. By changing the timeline, DCL allows for students to reconfigure their roommate groups overnight if a certain type of configuration runs out. Consequently, selections for 6-person Ridgewoods and 6-person Foster Mods will take place on April 11, followed by selections for 4-person Ridgewoods and 4-person Foster Mods on April 12, 3 and 5-person Charles River apartments and efficiencies on April 13 and Ziv suites and 2-person Charles River apartments on April 14. “All selections will remain open until 5:00pm on April 15 or until there is no more housing available in that category,” according to the Room Selection page. The report states that “DCL will continue to adjust schedules and communication with students to try and improve the process, and to work with the Student Union as [they] enter the Fall Semester to consider future changes,” and they encourage students to reach out with any feedback or suggestions they may have on the room selection process.
cific Islander or was biracial with at least one race being an underrepresented minority, such as a partially Native American or Native Hawaiian student. This group had only 40 respondents, constituting 40 percent of those asked. Among Latinos, 70 responded (28 percent), and 180 Asian-American students responded (34 percent), as well as 44 Black students (24 percent) and 317 students whose race was unknown (123 percent — only 257 students were registered as “race unknown” in the University’s system when the survey was distributed). Those students’ data was not factored into this recent report. Black students reported hearing the most racist comments in social settings, with 84.1 percent of respondents saying that they had. By comparison, only 53 percent of international students said they had heard racist remarks, constituting the lower boundary. Black students were also the most likely to report hearing, in social settings, sexist comments against women (79.5 percent), the term “that’s so gay” used in a derogatory context (65.9 percent), inappropriate comments about transgender or genderqueer students (56.8 percent), crude sexual comments (43.2 percent), and inappropriate comments about individual’s bodies (79.5 percent). “Other Minority” students were the least likely to hear sexist comments against women (53.8 percent) and “that’s so gay” used negatively (50 percent); International students were least likely to hear offensive comments about transgender or gender-queer people (25.8 percent), inappropriate comments about people’s bodies (57.6 percent) and crude sexual comments (28.8 percent). Respondents were also asked to answer questions about their views on appropriate sexual behavior by responding on a 5-point Likert scale, where responding “5” means that one deeply agrees with the statement while responding “1” means that one deeply disagrees. Data in these questions was mostly similar across ethnic groups, with a few variances. Most students deeply disagreed with the statement “It is not necessary to ask for consent to sexual activity if you are in a relationship with your partner,” with a range of 1.88 from international students to 1.46 from “Other Minority” students. Across ethnic groups, students also agreed that consent is necessary before any sexual activity, with Latino students being slightly the most likely to agree (4.63) and “Other Minority” students being slightly the least likely to agree (4.31). International students, while widely disagreeing with the sentiment, were most likely to believe that sexual assault usually comes from the survivor not being clear in how they said “no:” they responded to the statement with an average of 2.06, while Black and “Other Minority” students labeled dissent to it at 1.58. International students had the least confidence in their ability to judge whether someone is too intoxicated to give consent, with an average of 3.46, while “Other Minority” students had the most confidence in their ability at a 4.15 average. The report also includes data about undergraduates’ personal experiences with sexual misconduct. Students in the “Other Minority” category were most likely to report experience with stalkers or repeated emails and text messages,
with 23.1 percent of respondents reporting they had experienced this. Latino students reported the most unwanted sexual harassment due to gender identity or sexual orientation (18.5 percent) while Black students reported the most sexual harassment due to their race (50 percent). No “Other Minority” students responded to questions about unwanted sexual experiences. The only form of sexual assault that respondents from all other ethnic groups had experienced was unwanted attempted penetration: someone trying, but not necessarily succeeding, in inserting their finger, penis or an object into the respondent’s vagina or anus when the respondent did not want them to. Black student respondents had had the most experiences of unwanted attempted penetration with 18.4 percent of respondents reporting they’d experienced it, while 9.1 percent of international students had experienced this form of assault, making the data's lower boundary. Among respondents who had experienced sexual misconduct, a majority in all ethnic groups told somebody — white students were most likely to tell someone with 74.1 percent doing so, while international students were least likely, with 57.1 percent doing so. However, only white students were willing to formally report their experiences to the University. Even then, only 10 students — 3.9 percent of the total who had experienced assault — formally reported. This is in line with data on students’ perceptions of the University which, though middling across all ethnic groups, were most positive among white students and most negative among Black and “Other Minority” students in almost every category. On a Likert scale, white students responded with an average assent of 3.83 that the campus helps fulfill their needs, with an average of 3.75 responding that they feel connected to the campus community, and with an average of 4.09 that they have good bonds with others in the community. Black students responded with averages of 3.30, 3.09 and 3.73 to the same questions, respectively. International students were most likely to believe University officials would handle crises in a fair and responsible manner, while “Other Minority” students had the least faith in University officials, responding with averages of 3.03 and 2.42, respectively. Lynch announced several new actions that University bodies were taking in response to the data found in the survey. Title IX trainings will now include information about “populations more vulnerable to instances of sexual misconduct,” according to the email. Title IX Coordinator Linda Shinomoto could not be reached by press time for comment. Additionally, the Office of Prevention Services is coordinating conversations with students of color about race’s intersection with sexual assault and coordinating with the Office of Study Abroad on improving pre-trip training about sexual assault and discrimination. Sheila McMahon, the sexual assault services and prevention specialist, could not be reached by press time. The Offices of the Provost and of Planning and Institutional Research are also developing a climate survey on race, according to the email. Community members will be able to discuss the findings today at a gathering in Sherman Function Hall.
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TUESDAY, MARch 22, 2016 ● Features ● The Justice
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VERBATIM | ABRAHAM LINCOLN In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
ON THIS DAY…
FUN FACT
In 1733, carbonated water was invented by Joseph Priestly in Leeds, England.
Though green is associated with the day, the actual Saint Patrick wore blue.
BRIGHT SMILES: Ethan Stone ’19 (left) and Divanna Eckels ’19 (right) traveled to Ghana as a part of the organization Brandeis Bridges. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF ETHAN STONE
Bridging the Gap Two students from Brandeis Bridges reflected on their trip to Ghana By PICHYA NIMIT JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
“Brandeis Bridges is an oncampus organization that was founded a few years ago that seeks to create dialogue between the Black and Jewish students on campus. It’s just kind of a way to create connections between people and to form friendships,” said Divanna Eckels ’18. Eckels, double majoring in History and African and Afro-American Studies with a minor in Sexuality and Queer Studies, heard about Brandeis Bridges last year as a firstyear. Ethan Stone ’19, who plans on majoring in Hispanic Studies, agreed with Eckels and described the program as “giving us a way to make friends in a way that we wouldn’t have before, and bringing that back to our own friendships in our own communities.” Eckels shared her story of how she got involved. “I heard about it pretty early, and it’s something that really interested me, because Brandeis being an institution that’s founded on Jewish values, I wanted to kind of be more connected to that … I felt kind of a divide between Jewish students and Black students on campus,” Eckels said. “There wasn’t a lot of interaction [among Black and Jewish students]. Something I noticed, like, immediately upon entering Brandeis. So I kind of wanted to form more connections, so I decided that joining Brandeis Bridges would be a good way. Also to make friends since I was so new as well.” This past February break, Eckels and Stone traveled to Ghana along with twelve other students. Accompanying them was Rabbi Elyse Winick ’86 and Prof. Joseph
Assan (HS). Winick has been going on the Brandeis Bridges trips for the past three years, and Assan, originally from Ghana, was chosen to go on the trip by the coordinators. “Since he’s at the Heller School, the trip coordinators thought it
which are villages known for making certain forms of art like kente cloth or adinkra symbols. Kente cloth is a type of fabric made of silk or cotton that originated in the Akan ethnic group. Adinkra symbols, established by the Ashanti, are used to decorate, as
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF ETHAN STONE
CULTURAL CONNECTIONS: Divanna Eckels (right) stands with Jade Eckels ’19 (left) and Kwabena (center), a member of Sefwi Wiawso, a Ghanaian Jewish community. would be a great idea if he came along, and he served as a really, really great resource for us throughout the trip, being able to explain different societal concepts to us,” Stone said. Eckels confirmed and chimed in, “Rabbi Winick is always [on our trips] but usually there is a different professor, a different faculty member every year depending on what the trip is, where we’re going, and what the focus is.” Eckels and Stone traveled to many different villages. They specifically went to “craft villages,”
well as to convey messages and proverbs. While on the trip, the group traveled to different cities, experienced the country’s culture and got a taste of the lifestyle. “We went to a village called Sefwi Wiawso, … and it is a Jewish community in Ghana. It’s a community of Jews who, until a few decades ago, didn’t realize their traditions were Jewish, … and a large portion of the community are made of people that were not raised Jewish but learned about Judaism, learned about this village, and came to learn more about Judaism,
and I think that, for a lot of us, [it] was one of the favorite parts of the trip because it allowed us to put together both pieces of the group,” said Stone. In Ghana, they had the opportunity to visit the village of Nzulezo, a tourist village in the center of a lake. Nzulezo is a stilted village, but because of the dry season, the river the group should have canoed down was not as full as it should have been. Instead, they walked a portion of the trip before arriving at the village. The trip itself forced the group to confront their ideas about tourism and what it means to be a tourist. “Tourists go here all the time. You walk down the main road … and people are just living out their lives right there, which, for us, felt very uncomfortable a lot of the time,” Stone said. “It felt really intrusive,” Eckels said of her own experience. “The way that it’s treated in Ghana and the way we saw them promote ‘sustainable tourism’, was the word for it, for me really recontextualized what tourism can be,” Stone explained. Toward the end of their trip, the group visited Elmina and Cape Coast Castle: two old slave castles. “We went to both of them on the same day, which I think was really jarring for a lot of people, particularly for the Black students on the tour,” Eckels said. “I distinctly remember us getting back on the bus after we left Elmina castle and it just being dead quiet on the bus. Everyone was just so somber, and I think that was a part of the trip that the Black fellows were all really anticipating … like a direct location where we felt like we could possibly trace our roots
back.” Afterwards, the group attended Chabad in the city of Accra and spent the evening exploring Ghanaian nightlife. Stone compared the separate emotional experiences, explaining that “spending a day at a place based in history and based in suffering and exploitation and then finishing the day at a place where people go to have fun, go to feel free, I suppose … I found that very striking, and then just being a part of contemporary Ghana I thought was very important to me and my understanding of the society.” “I felt like being together for those nine days, all the time, forged an incredible bond between us because we had such difficult and hard conversations with each other,” Eckels said. Both students offered insight on the importance of Black-Jewish student relations and the future of Brandeis Bridges. “We’re currently in a state of re-understanding what the club is. We’re asking ourselves tough questions about what the club should be, what our goals are, what our mission is, and we’re finding that we don’t really know what those answers are,” Stone said when he was describing the current state of Brandeis Bridges. On the significance of Black Jewish relations and the program, Eckels said, “I just feel like it’s so important to create conversation between these two groups on campus because I feel like there’s just this huge disconnect in terms of understanding each other, or kind of a desire, maybe, to understand each other’s experiences or create those connections. “So I think Brandeis Bridges is doing really important work.”
the justice ● Features ● TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016
Evolving Families Hadassah-Brandeis Institute members discussed their new book
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TEAM OF AUTHORS: Five panelists and editor Prof. Sylvia Barack Fishman (NEJS) discussed the changing landscape of Jewish family structures.
By KIRBY KOCHANOWSKI JUSTICE EDITOR
In 1998, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute created its 26-word mission statement: “The mission of the HBI is to develop fresh ideas about Jews and gender worldwide by producing and promoting scholarly research, artistic projects, and public engagement.” They’ve yet to make any changes, “which means we’re either stuck in the mud, or we came up with a good one,” said Prof. Shulamit Reinharz (SOC), laughing as she addressed the crowded Rapaporte Treasure Hall on Sunday night. The book, “Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families: Paradoxes of a Social Revolution,” was contributed to and edited by Prof. Sylvia Barack Fishman (NEJS). The book itself is a collaboration of 15 authors, half of whom wrote from a North American perspective and half of whom wrote from an Israeli perspective. The book focuses on the changing structure of the Jewish family and how social changes in the world influence and affect Judaism, particularly within these family units. The book is part of the HBI’s series on Jewish women and features chapter contributions from many Brandeis-affiliated authors. Reinharz gave a short introduction, and then Fishman introduced the book’s premise. “When we think about ourselves, our decisions about sex, love, marriage, kids and families — all of these things seem intensely personal. ... This new book that we are all so proud to have brought to life … shows the way that younger Jews in the United States and Israel think differently and act
differently concerning personal choices,” she said. The social changes Fishman speaks of range from LGBTQ issues to issues regarding divorce and the law. Compared to conventional Jewish homes from the 1950s (a time often glorified for its embodiment of the marriage ideal), modern Jewish families are very different. Perhaps one of the most noticeable changes comes from the changed social trend regarding marriage. According to Fishman, “Today in the United States, almost three-quarters of American Jewish men and 43 percent of American Jewish women between the ages of 25 to 34 are not married.” There has also been a drastic decrease in the number of children in Jewish homes. In the 1950s, each family had an average of 2.8 children, while today that number is closer to 1.7. These aren’t the only changes facing Jewish families today. The diversity within Jewish families is increasing, as the number of interfaith, LGBTQ and adoptive families has grown over the past several decades. In the book, various scholars address these issues through their research and through interviews with people of the Jewish faith. Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, associate director of the HBI and author of the chapter “Negotiating Divorce at the Intersection of Jewish and Civil Law in North America,” spoke after Fishman about challenges faced in the context of Jewish divorce. Specifically, she discussed the challenges in communicating and coordinating the goals and processes of rabbinical court with those of civil court. In rabbinical court, for a couple to
divorce, the process must be initiated and then agreed to by the husband. While in the past, this was a challenge for women whose husbands were either missing or didn’t have the mental faculties necessary to make such a decision, the issue today is much more complex. Many men will use this rule as a form of power to coerce their wives into granting them more allowances when the divorce is brought to civil court. In terms of finding a balance between these two courts, Joffe explained, “There may be this imperfect understanding, but nevertheless, civil courts are willing to enforce prenups, postnups, divorce agreements and separation agreements. Rabbis, despite their objections or theoretical concerns, are willing to accept [these,] for the most part.” Prof. Jonathan Krasner (AMST) also spoke about potential objections within Jewish communities, but instead in regards to LGBTQ Jews. “People would be surprised at how typical family life is regardless [of sexuality],” Krasner said, quoting a man he interviewed for his chapter, “We All Still Have to Potty Train: Same-Sex Couple Families and the American Jewish Community.” Krasner gave several examples of LGBTQ Jewish families attempting to navigate their role within the religion and within religious communities. He ended his speech by stressing the importance of inclusion. “Being welcoming really plays a role in whether or not these individuals — these families — feel like they’re going to make their future in the Jewish community or whether they’re going to be
outside. ... A welcoming embrace from a synagogue or a school or a family member can make a real difference in their lives,” Krasner said. Michelle Shain, a research assistant at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, also spoke on the changing ideas regarding family formation. In her research, Shain, who authored the chapter “Dreams and Realities: American Jewish Young Adults’ Decisions about Fertility,” interviewed young Jewish adults regarding their thoughts on family formation. She noticed several contradictions in her respondents’ thoughts. Though most desired to have a traditional family and wanted to have children, almost none of those surveyed had concrete plans to start a family and many were scared of the emotional, financial and logistical strain of children. Outside of these more internal contradictions, Shain discussed how many respondents noted their desire to exist within an egalitarian family where traditional gender roles are essentially non-existent, but that these young adults have a lack of role models and support in actualizing this goal. Rachel Bernstein, a graduate research assistant at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, who co-authored the chapter “Judaism as the ‘Third Shift’: Jewish Families Negotiating Work, Family, and Religious Lives” with Fishman, also spoke on the increased desire for an egalitarian family structure. She discussed what she refers to as the “Third Shift” within a family. She identified the first
shift as paid work, while the second shift is unpaid work, like driving kids to soccer practice or going grocery shopping. While many families only delegate between these two shifts, Jewish families who wish to have an active religious life take on a third shift of work. This can make finding an egalitarian balance between spouses even more challenging. Daniel Parmer, a research associate at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the author of the chapter “What’s Love Got to Do with It? Marriage and Non-Marriage among Younger American Jews” was the last speaker. Despite all the challenges that come from family formation, many of the individuals he interviewed felt there was an important distinction between a couple living together unmarried and a married couple. They felt that marriage was preferable. When Parmer asked them, “What does marriage mean?” there was an overwhelming response that marriage constituted a partnership. “The way that Jewish young adults understand and give meaning to marriage has a profound impact in the way that they are searching for a spouse,” Parmer said. “Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families: Paradoxes of a Social Revolution” is being printed by the Brandeis University Press and is available as one of the 55 titles in the HBI’s series on Jewish women. “If you want to be educated in Jewish Women’s Studies, or Jews and Gender, just read our books,” said Reinharz. “It’ll take you a little while, but go for it.”
ATTENTIVE AUDIENCE: The Rapaporte Treasure Hall was crowded Sunday night for the book launch. ETHAN SAAL/the Justice
ETHAN SAAL/the Justice
JEWISH SCHOLAR: Fishman introduced the book by speaking about the choices individuals make and the optics surrounding them.
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EDITORIALS
Continue to actively participate in campus elections This Thursday, the Brandeis student body voted on candidates for various positions in the Student Union, including the position of the president of the union. David Herbstritt ’17 beat Christian Nunez ’18 by two votes for the seat and will subsequently serve as the president of the union through the 2016-2017 academic year. Winning by a mere 0.19 percent of the votes cast, a majority of student voters actually voted against Herbstritt; he just received the largest total percentage of voters. This election highlighted the extent to which every individual voice can make an impact on our campus. In this situation, one person’s vote quite literally could have swayed an entire election. Around 1000 votes were cast for each of the elected positions. Last year, 890 votes were cast in the presidential election while 1053 votes were cast in this year’s contest. While this Board has been critical of the student body for their apathy in regards to the Student Union, notably less indifference was shown in the results of this election. This Board applauds the student body for doing their due diligence and voting on their elected representatives. A higher voter turnout could be due to a number of factors. The presidential competition between an experienced “insider,” Herbstritt, and the insurgent “outsider” candidate from the Ford Hall 2015 movement, Nunez, undoubtedly drew interest and excitement to the election. This election featured candidates who had been exposed to most of the student body through their experiences
Recognize political efficacy and were not simply names on the ballot. Additionally, both Herbstritt and Nunez were strong candidates with effective ideas who were able to campaign effectively. Both were able to use the Student Union debate to successfully lay out the differences between their platforms. Clearly, the novelty and excitement surrounding the presidential election encouraged not only strong voter turnout for the position but a high voter count overall for the secondary positions as well. While future elections might not feature similarly higher profile candidates who excite the student body, every election is important and requires substantial voter participation. It is imperative that students continue to turn out in higher numbers than previous elections, which can be swayed by a single vote. Many students complain about the inefficiency of the Student Union, but elections serve as the primary outlet to express this discontent. There is no better way to advocate for an enhanced Student Union then to help elect officials. The Student Union has the potential to implement change only when large margins of voter turnout lend them legitimacy as representatives of the student body. In order to properly represent students, the student body must be proactive in determining which candidates to select. High voter turnout will help lead to a Student Union that more accurately represents the Student Body.
Encourage increased Union outreach and transparency Due to his small margin of victory, this board believes that if David Herbstritt is to fulfill his duty as the incoming president, there are several steps he — along with the rest of the union — must take in the upcoming year to effectively maximize student representation. First, the Union should establish a senate position that represents the international student population at Brandeis. While there is an existing position for a racial minority senator, currently no existing senate positions are designed specifically for the questions and needs of international students, causing this vulnerable student group with unique concerns to lack a voice in University politics. International and minority students have different interests, and the racial minority senator should be able to focus on their area of concern. It is likewise unreasonable to expect any of the existing senate positions to specifically represent the unique challenges faced by the international student body. The cultural and acclimatization challenges faced by international students are unlike those faced by any other community on campus, and they deserve a dedicated senator addressing these concerns. Equally, if not more critical, is the clarification and refinement of the Union’s Constitution and bylaws. There are multiple cases in which an ambiguity in the governing laws of this body has caused opposing or inefficient approaches to a situation, such as the current ambiguity around the role of the presidency itself. Both candidates this year stressed the importance of the president being a neutral facilitator between the student body and the administration, as did this board in its Dec. 8 editorial. However, during the Ford Hall 2015 movement, incumbent president Nyah Macklin ’16 compromised her neutrality by adopting the role of student activist as a leading negotiator for Ford Hall 2015. Macklin was
Clarify president’s role technically not at fault, as the constitution does not outline the necessary neutrality of the role, nor does it in any clear language discuss the detailed role of the president. The Union must also proactively reach out to members of the student body to identify their concerns. In his campaign, Nunez strongly advocated for the president to sit down with club leaders on a one-on-one basis to get an in-depth sampling of student concerns across various demographics. In the same vein, more widely publicizing presidential office hours would enhance outreach. Although published on the Union’s website, the president’s office hours could be further displayed through inclusion in the president’s email signature, for example. Further, as of press time, the most recent minutes available on the Union website from any activity dates to Oct. 9, 2015. This file, along with the six other made available, is inaccessible. The Union’s news page, updating constituents of their representatives’ work, hasn’t been updated since Jan. 22 of this year. These factors, along with others such as the lack of a public record of each representative’s senate vote, fails to achieve transparency. While the union has made other efforts to further this goal in the current year, there is still a long way to go, and this board encourages the Union, under Herbstritt, to commit to publishing prominent and up-to-date voting records for each Senator so students can accurately judge representatives’ capacity in voicing their interests. While this board would like to congratulate Herbstritt on his victory, we hope that he will lead his new Student Union in a direction that will enhance representation of various communities of the Brandeis student body in a clear and transparent manner.
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Last Monday, as the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Syrian Civil War approached, President Vladimir Putin declared that he would withdraw a significant portion of Russian forces from Syria after five months of supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime with military assistance. This announcement coincided with the continuation of UN-facilitated peace talks in Geneva that had been suspended in early February. What do you think of Putin’s withdrawal of his armed forces, and what do you think this will mean for Syria?
Zach Goulet ’16 Putin’s decision to withdraw “the main part” of Russia’s forces makes sense in light of his original aim: demonstrating Russia’s power as a global player. Putin needed to affirm his long-standing commitment to Syria without a costly conflict. With the price tag on Russian operations nearing $500,000,000 and with the Geneva peace talks looming, the stars aligned for Putin. By withdrawing now, Putin hopes to put pressure on Assad (who remains committed to a military victory) to negotiate with the opposition, and gracefully avoid a quagmire. The withdrawal leaves Assad in a slightly better position but still entrenched in a stalemate. We can expect Russian support to continue short of major ground operations. With a permanent naval installation and air base to remain behind, Russia stands ready to rebalance in favor of Assad at a moment’s notice. Zach Goulet ’16 is the Middle East section editor of the Brandeis International Journal.
Jessica Star ’17 As David Swanson states in his work “War Is a Lie,” “War causes more suffering and death than anything war can be used to combat.” Putin is withdrawing forces because he believe that the purpose of the 6 month intervention had been achieved, which if that purpose was to kill innocent individuals, then he succeeded. Although I see it as positive that Putin decided to withdraw Russian forces, the fact that they were even sent in the first place is problematic. Just about a quarter of a million individuals lost their lives or were severely injured for an unnecessary war, which in my opinion is repetitive. The idea that this coincided with the UN peace talks in Geneva is not all too surprising. Putin’s decision came out of virtually nowhere, so it fits almost too perfectly that it would occur at the same time as the peace talks. From an optimistic standpoint, I am thrilled that Putin is moving in a direction towards peace, but at the same time, I am skeptical to see if he will actually remove all the Russian forces in Syria. Jessica Star ’17 is a sociology undergraduate departmental representative.
Vardges Tserunyan ’17 Putin’s decision to terminate the Russian campaign in Syria was as unexpected as its launch earlier in October. Despite the risk of a stalemate, which was widely quoted by western leaders, Russian airstrikes dramatically improved the situation in Assad’s favor. Given Russia’s painful experience with Islamic extremism (Chechnya war in 1990s), ISIS was the primary target, which ended up losing 20 percent of its territory (including profitable oil fields) under Russian air strikes. Along with strengthening his ally and damaging an enemy, Putin improved his public image by posing himself in the eyes of Syrians as someone, who came, did the job and then left after initiating peace talks, in contrast with the West, which is ‘stuck’ in the region for a decade. The bottom line is that Putin and Assad strengthened their positions while Syria remains in chaos, torn between the pro-Russian government, pro-Western rebels, Kurdish forces and ISIS. Vardges Tserunyan ’17 is a Wien International Scholar.
Ravi Simon ’19 Putin’s intervention has been swift, decisive and stunningly effective. Five months ago, the Assad regime was on the ropes. ISIS was gaining ground rapidly and government offensives had largely stalled. Putin moved Russian air power into the country and began bombing rebel forces. Banking on the political will of the United States and its allies to continue to bomb ISIS, Putin claimed he would help drive back radical jihadists while bombing moderate rebels. In this way, Putin has stabilized the Assad regime’s position, let the U.S. do most of the work bombing ISIS and received relatively little diplomatic condemnation for bombing the few groups which might have been able to form a legitimate, workable government in the country. Putin is now content to withdraw, with Assad’s government now in the position of power for talks in Geneva. I think the U.S. might learn from Russia’s example on how to conduct interventions in the Middle East. Ravi Simon ’19 is a member of the Brandeis Academic Debate and Speech Society. He also writes for the Brandeis International Journal.
THE JUSTICE ● fORUM ● TUESDAY, mARCH 22, 2016
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Support Apple’s resistance to FBI’s demands to unlock phone By nia lyn JUSTICE Contributing WRITER
Today’s society has become so dependent on technology that our phones store everything from our credit card information to our home address and several other pieces of incriminating information. With this in mind, personal technology could also be used as a powerful tool in law enforcement. In the case of the San Bernardino shooting on Dec. 3, 2015, Apple has refused to release the iPhone data of suspect Syed Rizwan Farook. According to a Feb. 17 Washington Post article discussing the battle between the tech giant and the government, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “The U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.” Apple has been justified in its resistance to the FBI’s requests, but that does not mean that Farook’s phone should be left untouched. According to a March 21 New York Times article, the FBI might have found a way to unlock the phone without Apple’s help, and if that ends up being ineffective, the better — and less risky — option than Apple creating a backdoor is for the National Security Agency to get involved. This way, Apple is not putting its customers at risk, and the FBI still gets their desired information. The FBI is looking for access to Farook’s phone “in the hopes of gaining crucial evidence,” as stated by the Justice Department or in hopes of finding “relevant, critical communications and data,” according to a Feb. 16 Washington Post article. Alas, the only way for the average person to access his phone would be to manually enter the password. With newer iPhones, the password is encrypted into the phone, and without the password, it is nearly impossible to manually access the phone. Due to this updated technology, the user has ultimate control of the phone and its ease of access. According to a Feb. 17 Washington Post article, U.S. Magistrate Sheri Pym requested that Apple generate a software that can be used only to access the phone at the center of the case, but this is something that Apple views as unethical. In a March 17 interview with TIME, Cook agreed that this case is similar to one that had previously occurred in which Apple was able to extract data from a man’s phone. The case involved a Brooklyn drug dealer, and when the court reached out to Apple to retrieve data from
the man’s phone, they agreed to do so. The difference now, however, is that Apple feels that this case is not in concordance with the All Writs Act, which essentially grants the government the right to use all resources needed to make a judiciary decision. In U.S. v. New York Telephone Company in 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the implementation of a “tap and track” service to catch wanted gamblers. Apple is using this ruling as justification for their refusal to comply with the FBI’s requests: As Cook said, “we’ve never been asked to do what we’ve been asked to do now … we don’t think the government has the authority to do this.” Now, this does not mean that Apple did not attempt to aid the FBI in any way; some of Apple’s engineers had been sent over to see if there was any way to access the phone’s information without creating a backdoor — but to no avail. The issue arose when a court order demanded that Apple create a “Government OS” that lacks security features. In the same TIME interview, Cook said, “From a customer point of view it wasn’t good, because it would wind up putting millions of customers at risk, making them more vulnerable. In addition, we felt like it trampled on civil liberties.” This is where the real conflict arises. Should Apple release a security-free operating system that can be used for cases like this, or should they withhold such information to protect the civil rights of their customers? If Apple were to generate such a software, it could be used with malicious intent by people other than the U.S. government and lead to massive breaches. Beyond that, there needs to be some sort of confidentiality between the company and their customers. If all user information is released, who is to say that our every move cannot be tracked by Apple or that they will not automatically access iPhone cameras at any moment they feel it is necessary? With conspiracy theories galore, some may argue that Apple might already do this, but even if they do, the threat will become even more viable if they publicly breach the trust built with customers. If the line is not drawn somewhere, the possibilities are limitless. According to Tim Cook, “No one should have a key that turns a billion locks.” However, even if the FBI cannot access this phone, the government already has the power to access this phone and many others. According to a March 17 Forbes Article, the NSA could supply their “zero-day” exploit services to the
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FBI, but they do not deem it necessary. In this same article, a former NSA computer scientist is quoted as saying, “The NSA might not want to burn its exploits on that iPhone.” The zeroday exploit service essentially entails the NSA manipulating any weaknesses within Apple’s programing as soon as it was discovered — hence the name zero day. They would search for any weakness in the initial code which ran when the iPhone was first turned on. If a weakness was found there, the code could be altered, thus granting access to the phone. Sadly, the NSA believes that their limited resources should not be used on an operation to hack into an iPhone. Since there actually is a means of accessing the content of Farook’s phone, there is no prob-
lem with doing so. There is no way of knowing whether he was in contact with anyone else or if the intent behind his attack would be revealed. If the FBI cannot open the phone without outside help, seeking aid from the NSA seems like a far better option than Apple compromising the security of its company and all of its customers through generating a security-free operating system. Apple standing by its convictions is worthwhile because if they just succumbed to the government, the outcome could be far worse than the situation at hand. Millions of iPhone users could be at risk through the creation of a security-free operating system. Granted, this will not be the one issued to the public, but anyone could get access to it and misuse it.
Reject propagation of “politics of resentment” by Sanders and Trump By andrew jacobson JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Ridicule and immaturity have been the defining characteristics of this year’s presidential race. Candidates’ tweets, debate speeches and campaign ads — they’ve all been rife with shameless “politics of resentment.” Two striking figures, in particular, have dominated the political and media landscape. They have won the hearts and minds of millions across a multitude of demographics. Age, gender, education and ethnicity all seem to be blind to these two candidates. They ostensibly come from opposite sides of the aisle, and yet, they are remarkably similar. They are Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. First of all, neither has been a member of the political party whose nomination they hope to receive for long. For most of his life, Trump was a Democrat. Yuval Levin, the founding editor of National Affairs, has dubbed him the “least conservative Republican presidential aspirant in living memory.” Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, is an Independent — the longest serving one in U.S. Congressional history. Though only one calls for “political revolution,” both exploit people’s indignation with the political establishment by pandering to their crass emotions. Rather than attracting voters solely with their principles or ideas, Trump and Sanders predominantly allure voters with their supposed non-politically correct authenticity. This has been enabled in part by the nature of their campaign financing; more than 66 percent of Trump’s has been self-funded, according to PolitiFact, and over three-fourths of Sanders’ donations have been amounts under $200, according to a March 17 BBC article. In comparison, only about 17 percent of Hillary Clinton’s funding has been of that type. Both
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candidates, in their presumed independence from crony politicians and wealthy bankers, have earned the trust of many. According to a Feb. 17 Quinnipiac University poll, 87 percent of American Democrats regard Sanders as “honest and trustworthy,” and 60 percent of American Republicans believe those same qualities describe Trump. Trump’s rhetoric is spontaneous, candid and unfiltered whereas the enduring Sanders machine, unchanging throughout his political career, is refined and consistent. Trump is reactionary; Sanders repeats simple points. Sanders is predictable where Trump isn’t, but both use their unique style to portray themselves as genuine, disruptive and anti-establishment candidates who understand the socalled common cause and claim to speak for the “silenced majority.” Even the way they assign blame is comparable, though the object of such blame differs. Trump, the insolent demagogue, is most known for his xenophobic insults and disposition to blame fringe groups. According to an Aug. 25, 2015 Huffington Post article, he condemns Mexicans for “export[ing] crime and poverty,” as well as raising the cost of healthcare and education. While these claims may have some legitimacy, the causation Trump posits is dubious at best. He scapegoats these groups and vilifies them accordingly. Trump’s professed concern with America’s security has driven him to call for the building of a “great, great wall on [the United States’] southern border” and a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” according to a Dec. 7 Washington Post article. His hyperbolic policy prescriptions are impractical, and yet as entertainment, they have earned him a disproportionate amount of media coverage. Regardless of how praiseful or critical, most
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of this attention has served only to strengthen his campaign and augment his appeal. Sanders also generalizes heavily in his claims. In speeches and campaign material, he maintains that America’s most affluent population is responsible for the sizable disparity in wealth and income inequality pervading the United States. Regarding employment, Sanders calls for increased Wall Street tax reform and an enormous redistribution of wealth through the public programs he intends to establish, such as universal singlepayer health care and “free” education. Both characters play on the intrinsic human desire to evade personal responsibility by pinning the blame for issues — mostly those related to the economy — on largely unseen groups. Blaming certain groups is well-received by Americans because it relinquishes them of individual accountability and offers them the possibility that their given issue is the fault of someone else. While some people may at first embrace this freedom from accountability, in the end, this is insulting, belittling and antithetical to the idea of the “American Dream” our country has embraced since its founding. For Trump, the object of blame is the more than 200 “people, places, and things” — counted by a Jan. 28 New York Times article — he has insulted during his campaign, most notably Mexicans and Muslims. For Sanders, it is Wall Street and the one percent. This phenomenon is not new. For the Populist Party of the late 19th and early 20th century, it was the Jews. Huey Long, an early 20th-century politician from Louisiana, was perhaps one of the most well-known politicians of the Populist Party. He was also strikingly similar to Trump and Sanders. As a populist, Long appealed to the — often crass — base emotions of his constituency. Emerging as a significant contender to Frank-
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lin D. Roosevelt in 1936, Long played on the fears and exasperation of the people to garner an inordinate amount of media attention. He accepted only cash donations and was, thus, like Trump and Sanders, unbound by any traditional benefactors. Long’s “Share Our Wealth” program was his most famous, which he first announced in 1934 as then-governor of Louisiana. Predicated on wealth distribution, Long’s program sought to dignify each American family household by providing them with a $5,000 grant accumulated from taxes on the rich. What Trump, Sanders and Long all have in common is that they are or were visionaries whose one-size-fits-all philosophy beguiled the American people. Their means may be different, but their goals are very similar. The American people have grown to expect Trump to actually “Make America Great Again,” as if this slogan entails some thoughtful policy that’s actually proven its efficacy in practice. Sanders’ vows to tax the “millionaires and billionaires” have all but brought other Americans to fall head-over-heels for his policies. I am not entirely equating Trump and Sanders, merely drawing attention to their striking similarities. Ultimately, America needs a president who champions more than “politics of resentment,” which, as Marco Rubio said in his March 15 concession speech, would “leave us a fractured nation.” America needs a president who embodies “intellectual depth and philosophical consistency, respect for ideas and elevated rhetoric, [and] civility and person grace,” as Peter Wehner put in a March 21 TIME magazine article. Our presidential candidates must renounce “politics of resentment” and behave like the sensible, polished statesman they are campaigning to become.
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TUESDAY, March 22, 2016 ● forum ● THE JUSTICE
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Resist perpetuation of xenophobic policies in the US Amber
Miles Anonymous Kraken
Rather than sticking to a stubborn and futile refusal to allow refugees entry, some states have recently taken to following Republican front runner Donald Trump’s lead in calling for a special registry. Such is the case with South Carolina and New York. Both states have proposed state bills requiring refugees originating from places the United States deems state sponsors of terrorism — specifically Syria, Sudan and Iran — to enter into registries, according to a March 20 MSNBC article. The proclaimed purpose of these bills is to help ensure national security in the wake of an influx of refugees from the countries in question — a total of 6,369 people from Syria, Sudan and Iran in Fiscal Year 2015, according to the Department of State. Proponents of the bills seek to make it clear that American security is their first priority. Despite this, the supporters of these bills would never want Americans to view them as lacking compassion. No; in fact, sponsoring state senator Kevin Bryant of South Carolina remarked, “Why should we bring one refugee here when we could spend the same money and help 10 in their part of the world?” This statement seeks to garner support for the bill by attempting to project a humanitarian motive, but with this, Bryant propagates ignorance on a few levels. First of all, throwing money at every problem does not always magically solve it. Many issues that these refugees have will take more than mere American dollars; they require changes in leadership, more power to the people and especially, time. In the interim, these refugees are not safe, and a wad of American dollars will not stop a bullet or a bomb. Boiling the situation down to dollar signs woefully misrepresents the facts and circumstances faced by the refugees South Carolina and New York seek to place on registries. Beyond that, however, even if this did not oversimplify the problem, Bryant would still be wrong; the inaccuracy of his math would be laughable if not for its potential to destroy people’s lives. According to a Nov. 20, 2015 U.S. News and World Report article, the only money the U.S. government gives refugees that it does not expect them to pay back as soon as they find work is a $1,000 stipend. Other expenses — primarily airfare to get to the U.S. — are loans. Bryant clearly has a poor understanding of money, as $1,000 would not go a long way toward helping 10 refugees in “their
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part of the world.” Regardless, many would still support these bills with the justification of saving American lives because politicians prioritize the lives of their constituents — as they should. The trouble is, however, that the threat of these refugees is based more on conjecture and fear than on actual fact. Between 9/11 and October of last year, foreign terrorists claimed 26 lives on American soil, compared to the 48 claimed by domestic terrorists, according to an Oct. 15, 2015 Washington Post article. While any loss of life is too much, the disproportionate fear of refugees vilifies one group and ignores the other. Americans can try to hide behind fallible logic and platforms of national security, but really, proponents of policies like these care little for truth or facts. The likelihood of politicians proposing these policies with an intent to increase the number of refugees they could help is slim to none, and they either do not care enough to pay attention to the statistics, or they willfully ignore them. The bottom line is that, in America, the masses are terrified of immigrants regardless of their background, and these policies demonstrate that the fear is the only thing that matters to these particular politicians. In the mid-19th century, Americans — particularly those affiliated with the Know-Nothing
Party — greeted Irish immigrants with resentment and fear of the job competition. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act sought to curb Chinese immigration. In the 1940s, people of Japanese, Italian and German descent posed such an imaginary threat that President Franklin D. Roosevelt grossly overstepped his powers as president and used Executive Order 9066 to arrest or intern tens of thousands of Japanese-, Italian- and German-Americans — including first- and second-generation immigrants. In the decades following during the Cold War, Americans feared immigrants of Russian and Eastern European origin who may have been infected with the plague of communism, resulting in the second Red Scare. To those who claim that the current refugee situation is entirely unprecedented and therefore incomparable to any past event, consider undeniable parallels. Take, for example, comments about building walls to keep immigrants out; as early as the 1750s, one politician remarked, “We should build a wall of brass around the country.” Then, it was John Jay, the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court talking about Catholics; now, it is GOP frontrunner Donald Trump talking about Mexicans. Nearly three centuries later, nativist sentiment has not changed. History has shown that immigrants’ place of origin is arbitrary; if they try to cross the bor-
der from any angle, they are scary. Speaking against the bill in South Carolina, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ibrahim Hooper, declared, “If it is not illegal, it is at least un-American.” Though Hooper means well with his strategic appeal to opponents’ patriotism, he could not be more wrong. In theory, America propagates freedom and opportunity for all. In reality, xenophobia is more American than apple pie and baseball. Americans have consistently met every mass immigration to the United States with fear and resentment, regardless of specific circumstances. A pattern has emerged, and change will only come with a drastic change of heart by the American people. First, Americans must reject xenophobic policies proposed by their states, like these two bills in South Carolina and New York. Then, beyond the state level, as Americans watch the presidential race progress, they must consider history. America has let its fear drive it to wrongfully imprison or exclude thousands — walls and registries are not actually that far-fetched. The winner in November will undoubtedly shape history — just as each president has before — and if America elects someone who spews xenophobic, nativist propaganda, it has chosen to repeat history rather than shape it.
Recognize the financial repercussions of entering the field of law By somar hadid JUSTICE contributing WRITER
Anna Alaburda, a 2007 law graduate from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, just recently got her first day in court. However, unlike what many would expect, she was not working but was rather suing her law school with the claim that it inflated the employment data for its graduates as a way of attracting new students to enroll, according to a March 7 New York Times article. Now, Alaburda, 37, has more than $170,000 of student-loan debt without a full-time salaried job as a lawyer. Unfortunately, this scenario of debt-ridden law graduates being unable to find steady work is all too common nowadays. According to an April 27, 2015 New York Times article, every year, tens of thousands of students — lured by prestige and a high salary — apply to law schools all over the country. After a long process which consists of application essays, on-campus interviews and standardized tests, many students attend law school to get their Juris Doctor or their Master of Law Degree. However, recent undergraduates may misunderstand that attending such schools after graduation will lead to a career of their choice with high wages. This scenario is far from the truth. Students with a predisposed mindset of a guaranteed high salary in an affluent field should not apply to law school, because in reality, few law graduates end up with prosperous careers. According to the National Association for Law Placement, the national unemployment rate for law graduates has grown to 15.5 percent in 2015. This, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is about three times the national unemployment rate for all careers. Even worse, according to the American Bar
Association, in 2013, only 57 percent of law graduates were employed in long-term, fulltime positions that require a law degree. These statistics include all jobs for lawyers, public and private. This means that almost half of all law graduates cannot even find full-time employment or wages in their field of study. Consequently, students wishing to secure long-term employment with suitable prospects and reasonable wages should pursue other, more assured careers, like engineering, finance and medicine — all of which are fields that, according to a Nov. 7 Wall Street Journal article, are expected to grow faster than average over the next decade.
“
If you think that becoming a lawyer will come with guaranteed financial rewards, then you are highly mistaken. According to an Oct. 10, 2014 Wall Street Journal article, the average salary for a public lawyer is about $50,000, which is substantially less than that of one working for a top corporation, which can range from about $110,000 to $160,000 at top firms, depending on location. If it is already very difficult to find any job as a lawyer, then it is even harder to find one at a well-paying firm. Due to an oversaturation of lawyers in the market ever since the 1990s, as well as legal outsourcing, the job market for lawyers has become more competitive than ever, so college graduates wishing to pursue affluent ca-
reers should not go into law. In the U.S., the availability of law-related employment is dwindling because of the substantial increase in law school enrollment over the past 20 years. According to BLS, the average salary for lawyers working in elite law firms increased from about $60,000 in the mid 1970s to over $100,000 today. Not surprisingly, when people first began learning the value and opulence of a law degree, law-school enrollment increased substantially. According to the ABA, law school enrollment in 1970 was less than 70,000 students every year. However, in the 1990s and early 2000s, annual law-school enrollment exceeded 130,000 students — nearly double from 20 years prior. This substantial increase in enrollment is one of the main reasons why job prospects for law graduates have taken a turn for the worse. Many journalists like Marc Koba of CNBC blame the economy and the economic recession of 2008 for the decline in jobs, including the decline in availability of those in the field of law. However, according to the ABA, total U.S. law firm employment began decreasing in 2004, nearly four year before the recession — so other factors must be involved. The other main reason for the recent decline in law-related jobs is a highly criticized business initiative called legal outsourcing. Legal outsourcing — officially known as legal process outsourcing — is when a law firm or corporation seeks legal aid outside the original company, often from other countries. This initiative is devastating for U.S. law graduates because it literally sucks jobs right out of the U.S. to another country. According to Valuentos, a consulting firm in India, the number of legal outsourcing companies in India has skyrocketed from 40 in 2005 to 140 by 2010. As more American
firms begin using legal outsourcing, more jobs are being transferred out of Americans to foreign workers. But why would U.S. law firms hire foreign workers instead of Americans? Although legal processing outsourcing has a terrible effect for U.S. law graduates, businesses continue to use it because these firms can pay foreign workers a lot less than American ones, ultimately saving the company money. According to the ABA, an Indian law graduate earns about $6,000 to $7,000 a year. In comparison, a U.S. law graduate from a prestigious school working in the private sector makes that much money in about a month. U.S. law firms should reduce use of this business initiative, as it is killing the current labor market, but due to its financial rewards, the ABA predicts that legal outsourcing will continue to grow around the world, especially in countries like India, China and Pakistan. Consequently, the financial incentive to attend expensive law schools will only decrease in the near future as job opportunities are being shipped overseas. If you think that becoming a lawyer will come with guaranteed financial rewards, then you are highly mistaken. In contrast to law graduates in the 1990s and early 2000s, law graduates in today’s struggling economy cannot be sure of whether or not they will even find full-time employment, let alone well-paying employment at a high-end corporation. This is exactly what happened to Anna Alaburda, who, after 10 years, still cannot find full-time employment in the field of law. If you are looking for a guaranteed and prosperous career with a high salary, then do not become a lawyer, as you are likely to find yourself either unemployed or unable to find full-time work like Alaburda and thousands of others just like her.
THE JUSTICE ● Sports ● Tuesday, March 22, 2016
PRO SPORTS:
13
SPLIT-FINGER TOSS
Analysts berate foolish play CONTINUED FROM 16 ESPN that Bautista, specifically, is a “disgrace to the game.” He expressed his complete disgust at both bat flipping and “acting like a fool.” Former pitcher and current ESPN analyst Curt Schilling noted that Bautista should be prepared to receive retribution for an over-the-top bat flip celebration that occurred during the American League Division series last year between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers. This archaic view of a punitive system for celebrations needs to be revised. Gossage and others are stuck in the past, holding tight to the glory days of baseball and what they strictly maintain is the only proper way to play it. It is time for these self-righteous veterans of the game to wake up and celebrate the players who try to make baseball enjoyable for teammates and fans alike. Baseball has long been chastised
for being too long and boring, unable to capture the short attention span of the younger generations. This dull reputation is certainly not extinguished by those in the game who wish to silence the entertainment and excitement value brought by some players such as Bautista and Cespedes. In a time when baseball is competing with the more exciting and fast-paced sports of basketball and football, now it is more important than ever for baseball to let go of its stranglehold over fun. Let Bautista flip his bat after another crushing dinger. Allow Cespedes to wear his cap backwards and gloat after throwing a runner out at home. Refrain from criticizing Harper when he shows his emotion on the field. Maybe the sport, which Harper referred to as “tired” in an ESPN interview, will realize why it was once called “our national pastime”: because it is a game.
SOFTBALL: Power surge fuels close team win CONTINUED FROM 16 After a pair of hits by Shapiro and Lehtonen, Shore provided the heroics with a sharp single to right field that scored Shapiro and handed the Judges their 10th win of the regular season. The hosts recorded 13 hits on the day, including six in the final frame, while Soleimani recorded the win in relief. The Judges return to action on March 30, when they host Wellesley College in a doubleheader, beginning at 3 p.m. The Judges continue with the doubleheader theme, playing at Worcester State University on April 1. The Judges did not perform well last season against Wellesley, losing both games, albeit by small margins. The first game fell just out of reach of the women, losing 3-2 in a close battle. The second game proved more challenging, with the Judges al-
lowing seven runs in a 7-4 loss on rival territory. However, the Judges were able to split their games against Worcester during last year's regular season campaign. The Judges faltered in the first game, losing by a mere one run in a 4-3 battle. Yet the Judges clawed back to shut out the Worcester offense in a 2-0 win during the second game of the day. With over 20 games remaining in the season, the Judges seem poised to surpass their 21-14 overall record from the 2014-15 season. Standing in third place, directly under Washington University and Emory University, the Judges have a shot to prove their dominance and true power. The Judges sit a smidge below their previous season's .600 record, with a .588 winning percentage, but can surpass that mark with key wins over the next week.
MORGAN BRILL/Justice File Photo
HIGH AND INSIDE: Pitcher Sean O'Neill ’18 hurls an off-speed pitch to strike out a batter at home against Trinity College on April 26.
BASEBALL: Lacking offense plagues men CONTINUED FROM 16 Pitcher Nolan Murray ’18 is the only pitcher on the team yet to give up an earned run, closely followed by pitcher Anthony Nomakeo ’17 who has an ERA of 2.38 in 11.1 innings pitched. Coming up for the Judges on their schedule will be a matchup at Western New England University this afternoon, as well as a contest on the
road against Worcester Polytechnic Institute tomorrow. This weekend, the team will travel to Boston for a game against the University of Massachusetts Boston on Friday afternoon. Last season, both games against New England and WPI were canceled due to extenuating circumstances. This season, the Judges will be able to take a fresh look at both teams and will look to turn their of-
fense around. The Judges will need these games to prove their abilities and confidence going forward. At 5-8 overall, the men can significantly improve their record with three wins over the week and level out their sub-par record. With late-season games against New York University, the Judges need any wins they can get to land them above NYU in the standings.
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THE JUSTICE ● Sports ● Tuesday, March 22, 2016
15
TENNIS
jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS baseball TEAM STATS
UAA STANDINGS Not including Monday’s games. Overall UAA Conference W L W L Pct. WashU 6 2 13 8 .619 Emory 5 3 17 6 .739 Case 5 3 8 9 .471 Rochester 4 4 4 4 .500 JUDGES 2 6 5 8 .385 NYU 2 6 4 10 .286 Chicago 0 0 3 3 .500
UPCOMING GAMES: Today at Western New England Tomorrow at Worcester Friday at Mass-Boston
Greg Heineman ’16 leads the team with 10 RBIs. Player RBI Greg Heineman 10 Rob Trenk 7 Connor Doyle 6 Jay Schaff 5
Strikeouts
Sam Miller ’16 leads all pitchers with 15 strikeouts. Player Ks Sam Miller 15 Sean O’Neill 12 Bradley Bousquet 11 Elio Fernandez 10
SOFTBALL UAA STANDINGS
TEAM STATS
Not including Monday’s games.
Runs Batted In
UAA Conference W L Emory 10 0 WashU 6 4 JUDGES 6 4 NYU 4 6 Case 2 8 Rochester 2 8
W 25 20 10 7 9 4
Madison Sullivan ’16 leads the squad with 18 RBIs. Player RBI Madison Sullivan 18 Madison Hunter 14 Keri Lehtonen 10 Liana Moss 8
Overall L Pct. 1 .961 4 .833 7 .588 9 .436 13 .409 10 .286
Strikeouts Sadie-Rose Apfel ’18 leads all pitchers with 20 strikeouts. Player Ks Sadie-Rose Apfel 20 Melissa Soleimani 20 Sarah Petrides 3
UPCOMING GAMES: Mar. 30 vs. Wellesley (DH) Apr. 1 at Worcester St. (DH) Apr. 5 at Framingham (DH) *DH = Double Header
track & Field Results from the men’s Last Chance Meet at Tufts and the women’s Eastern College Athletic Conference meet.
TOP PERFORMERS (Men’s)
TOP PERFORMERS (Women’s)
3000-Meter Run
One-Mile Run
RUNNER TIME Ryan Stender 8:21.36 Mitchell Hutton 8:51.55
RUNNER TIME Kelsey Whitaker 5:11.19 Maggie Hensel 5:13.51 Kyra Shreeve 5:17.92
UPCOMING MEETS:
Judges sweep singles courts to take key win
■ Olivia Leavitt ’19 took down her singles opponent in a double bagel to help the Judges cruise past Rochester. By Jerry miller justice editor
The men and women’s tennis team took on the University of Rochester on their home turf on Saturday in a crucial matchup for both sides, topping the Yellowjackets in both University Athletic Association contests.
Saturday at Bridgewater State University Apr. 2 at Tufts University Apr. 9 at Amherst College
TENNIS Updated season results.
TOP PERFORMERS (Men’s)
AMANDA NGUYEN/the Justice
POWER STROKES: Haley Cohen ’18 goes for the backhand shot down the line for a winner against the University of Rochester.
TOP PERFORMERS (Women’s)
MEN’S SINGLES Michael Arguello
RECORD 3-3
WOMEN’S SINGLES Haley Cohen
RECORD 2-5
MEN’S DOUBLES Arguello/Cherkin
RECORD 4-2
WOMEN’S DOUBLES Cohen/Leavitt
RECORD 3-4
UPCOMING MEETS:
Friday men vs. Wheaton (Mass.) Saturday men at Coast Guard Apr. 1 women at Nor’Easter Bowl
Men — Judges 7, Rochester 2 The men entered the day at a below average 2-3 mark, hoping to level out their record and take home a win. The team had some added pressure from the home crowd with the matches being held in the Gosman Athletic Center. The Judges began the day strong with a win in the number one doubles’ slot, taking an 8-6 victory over Rochester’s number one team. Jeff Cherkin ’17 and Michael Arguello ’17 battled it out indoors to take home the win, but the Judges dropped off in the next two matches. Tyler Ng ’19 and Ryan Bunis ’17 fell in tough matchup against a
well-rounded Rochester squad. The duo forced an extra game to extend their chances, but were ultimately defeated 9-7. The singles matches swapped venues for the Reiger Tennis Courts, showcasing an undeterred Brandeis singles team. The Judges showed no mercy, taking all six of the event’s matches in swift fashion. Brian Granoff ’17 won in straight sets, followed by Arguello, Ng and Danny Lubarsky ’16. Bunis, who played in the number one slot, handled his opponent smoothly, winning 6-1, 7-6. On the opposite side, Zach Cihlar ’19 came out victorious in a close battle, posting a 1-6, 7-6, 6-3 win. Cihlar sealed the deal for the Judges and gave them the clear 7-2 overall victory. The men also evened out their record with the win, posting a solid 3-3 record in the regular season books. After the match, Ng spoke about the impact of the team’s win, saying, “Expanding our record serves as my motivation, as I believe that our team can go deep into the national rankings. I don’t feel much pressure during home matches. Rather ,I feel fired up wanting to represent Brandeis tennis in our own courts.”
Women — Judges 5, Rochester 1 The Judges came into this match sorely needing a win. The pressure seemed to kick in and fuel the squad’s effort as they came out on top of a weary Rochester team. The women shot out of the gates, winning two of the first three matches on the doubles courts. Sophia He ’19 and Charlotte Aaron ’18 eased through their match, beating the number two Rochester duo 8-5. Emily Eska ’16 and Maya Esker ’16 improved upon their teammates ‘record, sealing an 8-2 victory over the number three squad. The momentum did not carry over into the top match, where Haley Cohen ’17 and Olivia Leavitt ’16 lost in a disappointing 8-3 match to a formidable Rochester squad. The team bounced back in the singles event, sweeping a dumbfounded Rochester squad without dropping a single set. Cohen avenged her doubles loss, winning 6-3, 6-3, while Leavitt posted an unforgiving double bagel against her opponent. Keren Khromenchko ’19 rallied for a 6-1, 6-1 win, giving the Judges a welldeserved win for the day. The men will continue next weekend against Wheaton College at home, while the women will follow up their win at the Nor’Easter Bowl on April 1.
pro sports BRIEF San Francisco 49ers experience extreme turbulence on path to bottom of the National Football League Star quarterback to washed-up backup. Impenetrable defense to slumping line. Throne to hot seat. Top to rock bottom. As the San Francisco 49ers entered the offseason, they looked to ship what is the last remnant of a once formidable dynasty — quarterback Colin Kaepernick. With the April 1 deadline approaching and a looming $11.9 million dollars in guaranteed money set to kick in, the 49ers are doing all they can to purge themselves of the pure disaster that has taken place since their loss in Super Bowl XLVII. At the time, the 49ers were at the peak of their new regime. Coach Jim Harbaugh had elevated the team out of the deep abyss, from the joke of the league to one of the most respected and formidable defenses in
the NFL. In his first year as coach, Harbaugh led the team to a surprising 13-3 record and the first playoff appearance since 2002. The defense, led by three All-Pro veterans and newly minted linebacker Aldon Smith, had been transformed, ranking second-best in points allowed per game. Their success only grew the next season, with an electric and young quarterback in Kaepernick at the helm. In 2012, the 49ers cruised to the playoffs with an 11-4-1 record, upsetting the favorite Green Bay Packers. Kaeprnick reached the pinnacle of his running game, rushing for a record 181 yards. Finally, after years of agony and failure, the Niners reached America’s most anticipated game of the
year — the Super Bowl. In a nail-biting contest between a veteran-led Baltimore Ravens’ defense, the Niners crumbled after what seemed to be a final comeback. The defeat, although not seemingly debilitating at the time, lingered with the organization over the ensuing seasons, plaguing them with a string of losses. After that season, the Niners seemed to fall flat, never again reaching the coveted Super Bowl. The 2013 season held promise, with the Niners advancing all the way to the conference championships, only to have their division rival Seattle Seahawks dethrone them in crushing fashion. In 2014, the team held a potential playoff spot but was knocked out by a late-season collapse. The Niners
lost four of their last five games to finish with a measly 8-8 record. Upper management had enough, and after four seasons, Harbaugh was a Niner no longer. Smith, a once rising star with nearly unlimited potential, served a nine-game suspension that same season, adding to the implosion of the once great defense. The 49ers had no choice but to hack away at the cancerous cells that were debilitating their team, and with that, Smith was released. After two years of misery, the conclusion of the 2015 season brought an end to the era of greatness and only new pangs of disappointment. The Niners in a quizzical, headturning move hired Jim Tomsula, interim coach of the 2010 49ers’ team. Justin Smith, an All-Pro de-
fensive end, retired after a 14-year career. Kaepernick was benched in place for quarterback bust Blaine Gabbert. The Niners fell back into the deep abyss, warranting a near league-worst 29th ranked defense. Since then, Tomsula has been fired and replaced by ex-Eagles coach Chip Kelly. Questions still linger as to what caused the Niner’s incredible demise. Could it have been reliance on a frenetic, run-reliant quarterback? A system run by a controversial and excitable head coach? These questions may take time to be answered, but one thing is certain: The collapse of the 49ers has been the most unpredictable and most franchiseshattering in recent league history. —Jerry Miller
just
Sports
Page 16
BACKHAND SLICE The men and women’s tennis team managed a win in front of a home crowd in a rout of the University of Rochester, p. 15.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Waltham, Mass.
baseball
DIGGING IN
Squad falters in doubleheader ■ Pitcher Sam Miller ’16
held Clark to one run in an eventual weekend loss on rival territory. By NOAH HESSDORF JUSTICE EDITOR
MORGAN BRILL/Justice File Photo
BAT TO BALL: Infielder Madison Sullivan ’16 keeps her eye on the ball and looks for a hit against Suffolk University on May 9.
Women come out on top in pair of games ■ Pitcher Melissa Soleimani
’17 controlled the tempo and let up just one run in relief during a close win over Clark University. By Avi gold JUSTICE EDITOR
The women’s softball team slugged its way to wins in their home opener on Marcus Field last Saturday, putting up 10 runs in a doubleheader win over Clark College en route to their ninth and 10th wins this year. The squad sits at 10-7 overall for the year and has won an incredible five of their last six games, including the University Athletic Tournament earlier in the regular season. Judges 10, Clark 7 The Judges kicked off the doubleheader with a 10-7 win over the Cougars, overcoming four homers by the visitors in the victory. Clark got on the board in the top of the first inning when Clark junior right fielder Lauren Mackey smacked an RBI double down the left field line. The Judges answered with a run of their own when utility player Keri Lehtonen ’19 scored on an egregious error in the bottom of the frame. Third baseman Madison Sullivan ’16 added a two-run double in the bottom of the third inning, scoring Lehtonen and catcher Danielle Novotny ’16. Sullivan came around to
score on the next batter, when second baseman Madison Gagnon ’16 smacked an RBI single. The Judges exploded for six runs in the fourth inning to put the game out of reach, using a pair of two-run doubles to pull away from the Cougars offense. Sullivan started the scoring for the Judges by coming through in the clutch with a two-out RBI. Sullivan drove home a pair of runs on a double to deep left-center field that scored Lehtonen and shortstop Liana Moss ’17. After adding a third run on a wild pitch, the Judges brought in another run when center fielder Madison Hunter ’16 reached first on a passed ball after striking out and Sullivan crossed the plate. First baseman Jordan Buscetto ’16 redeemed her leadoff strikeout with an RBI double, scoring Gagnon and Hunter before Moss grounded out to third to end the inning. The hosts pounded out six runs and five hits during the frame, batting around and chasing the Cougars’ sophomore pitcher Sami West from the game. Pitcher Melissa Soleimani ’17 earned the win by going 6.1 innings, allowing five runs and a walk and striking out six batters in the process. Pitcher Sarah Petrides ’19 closed out the final frame, allowing a pair of hits in the process. Judges 10, Clark 9 Right fielder Amanda Shore ’18 was the hero for the home team, notching a walk-off RBI single in
the bottom of the seventh inning to cap a four-run rally. The Judges were quickly in a hole after surrendering three runs in the top of the first inning, but got two back on RBIs from Moss and left fielder Leah Shapiro ’17 in the second inning. Pitcher Sadie-Rose Apfel ’18 allowed a deflating three-run homer in the top of the third inning but was bailed out by the late heroics of the squad. The Judges used a four-run fifth inning to tie the game at six with RBIs from Sullivan, Gagnon and Shapiro and an unearned run scored on a Clark error. Soleimani, who entered in relief in the top of the sixth inning, was immediately tagged for three runs when she threw a wild pitch, an RBI sacrifice fly and a solo homer, setting the stage for the Judges’ heroics. Soleimani had to work around trouble in the top of the seventh, allowing a leadoff walk to advance to third base before stranding the runner by inducing an inning-ending fly out. In the bottom of the seventh, Gagagnon started the comeback with a double to left field before being replaced by pinch runner Marysa Massoia ’19. Massoia was chased home on an RBI double by first baseman Allison Hecht ’17 to cut the deficit to 9-7. Moss followed Hecht by tying the game with one swing of the bat, homering to straightaway center field.
See SOFTBALL, 13 ☛
The baseball team dropped both games of a doubleheader at Clark University on Sunday afternoon. The team fell in the first game by a score of 2-1 and lost in their second game 6-2 to bring their record to 5-8. Judges 2, Clark 6 In the second game of the afternoon, the Judges gave up a barrage of big hits and crucial runs early in the contest. Pitcher Ryan Pocock ’18 gave up eight hits and six earned runs in his four innings of work. He was only able to strike out one batter while walking three. The team was able to keep Clark off the scoreboard for the rest of the game, but it was not enough as they struggled to produce runs. The Judges got on the scoreboard early in the top of the first inning with a single from infielder Greg Heineman ’16 that plated infielder Benjamin Bavly ’19. The squad added another run in the top of the third inning when Heineman contributed another RBI by singling in Bavly. While Heineman and Bavly rose to the occasion with two RBIs and two runs scored, respectively, the rest of the team failed to show up. Outfielder Liam O’Connor ’16 had two hits of his own, but the rest of the lineup outside of those three only had one total hit, coming from outfielder Cam Shaw ’16. Clark was able to tie up the game
in the first inning with a run of its own. It went ahead for good in the bottom of the third inning, when the team exploded for four runs off of three hits. It added an insurance run in the bottom of the fourth inning to ice the game and sweep the afternoon against a depleted Judges' offense. Judges 1, Clark 2 In the first game of Sunday’s competition, a pitchers' duel resulted in a one-run contest. Pitcher Sam Miller ’16 went the distance for the complete game loss. Miller pitched six innings while giving up five hits and two runs. He was able to significantly lower his season ERA to 6.43 after the strong outing on the day. However, he was outpitched by Clark’s staff, who only allowed one earned run. The Judges only scored their run in the top of the sixth inning, when they already trailed by two runs and were struggling to remain in the game. Miller had allowed runs in both the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings. A commendable pitching performance from the senior was overshadowed by a lackluster offensive performance from the rest of his squad. The Judges had a disappointing total of four hits during the game, three of which came off the bat of infielder Jay Schaff ’17. The other base hit came from outfielder Max Hart ’16, who doubled in the top of the fifth. For the season, Heineman has been the focal point of the offense with a total of 12 RBIs and a batting average of .392. Infielder Rob Trenk ’16 has contributed seven RBIs of his own out of forty total at bats.
See BASEBALL, 13 ☛
PRO SPORTS COLUMN
League’s harsh stance alienates viewers ■ Former star pitcher Goose
Gossage spoke out against the way the game is played by the new generation of baseball players. By NOAH HESSDORF JUSTICE EDITOR
Last Tuesday, Adam LaRoche abruptly retired from Major League Baseball and walked away from $13 million with the Chicago White Sox. Sparking much controversy, the White Sox had told LaRoche that he must drastically cut down the time his son, Drake LaRoche, spent in the team clubhouse. The White Sox organization and others have tried to justify the new policy by arguing that playing baseball is a job and that in no other occupation would this sort of behavior be tolerated. While this is true, it ignores the fact that baseball — like all sports — is first and foremost a game. Baseball has repeatedly sacrificed the inherent fun of the game for old school traditions. Whether or not it is permissible for LaRoche’s son to participate with a professional team for so much time, it is difficult to disagree with the assertion that Major
League Baseball takes pride in being a “serious” sport. Time and time again it has taken itself too seriously, with LaRoche as the most recent example. While this circumstance was an off-the-field incident, most controversies surround the on-field behaviors of the athletes. Players, coaches and the media have attacked stars such as Jose Bautista, Yoenis Cespedes and Bryce Harper for their bat flipping and showmanship by claiming that these types of behaviors are immature and disrespectful. According to the old unspoken rules of baseball, pitchers should respond to these types of showboating by throwing at the batter’s head. Fascinating, that celebrating success is seen as juvenile while endangering someone’s health by throwing close to their head is seen as a prudent measure to enforce a secret rule book. It is the old-timers of the game who are the most vocal about what they see as disrespect toward the tradition of the game. Most recently, former star pitcher Goose Gossage ranted about the way the game is played by a new generation of ballplayers. Gossage told
See PRO SPORTS, 13 ☛
just
Vol. LXVIII #21 March 22, 2016
"The Last Five Years” »p.18
Waltham, MA.
Images: Daisy Chen/the Justice, Creative Commons. Design: Amanda Nguyen/the Justice , Abby Grinberg/the Justice.
18
THE JUSTICE | Arts i TUESDAY, March 22, 2016
theater
“Last Five Years” tells timeless story
ALL PHOTOS BY DAISY CHEN/the Justice
PARK PROPOSAL: Jamie (Derek Scullin ’18) proposes to Cathy (Becca Myers ’18) while they sit on a park bench.
By anna Stern justice Staff writer
Tympanium Euphorium’s production of “The Last Five Years” was not a conventional musical. Written by regarded composer Jason Robert Brown, this show depicts a relationship that progresses over the course of five years from two different perspectives. Cathy (Becca Myers ’18) tells the story from the end of the relationship and moves backward in time, while Jamie (Derek Scullin ’18) tells the story in chronological order. Though they sing about shared moments, Cathy and Jamie perform their songs alone and mime the other one’s presence. The only time the two of them sing together or even touch is when they meet in the middle of their narratives — their engagement and also the wedding. Director Lilly Hecht ’18 did an incredible job creating a visual timeline of sorts, using the sides of the stage as representations of the dark and light in their relationship. The right side of the stage represented the darker side of the relationship. Cathy begins the show there, singing about a note in which Jaime says goodbye. The show begins on a melancholy note and then seamlessly transitions to the hilarious song “Shiksa Goddess” where Jamie, on the left of the stage, expresses to Cathy how happy he is that he is finally dating a non-Jewish girl. The two meet in the middle of the stage on a park bench during the song “The Next Ten Minutes,” in which he proposes to her. At the end of the song, the two switch places — Jamie moves to the darker side and Cathy moves to the lighter one. Myers and Scullin made their characters their own. Scullin’s best number was “The Schmuel Song,” in which he sings a story he has written to Cathy on their first Christmas together. The song is about an old tailor named Schmuel asking for more time to complete a dress for a girl that he likes. At the end of the song, Jamie gives Cathy a watch to show her that he will always devote time for her to pursue her acting dreams. Scullin nailed the Eastern-European impression and switched back and forth between
narrating the story and becoming the character of Schmuel. His enthusiasm and joy made the audience smile and see the love between Jamie and Cathy. What also made this song unique was its use of klezmer music fused with a Motown funk refrain. Brown writes in a variety of styles and Scullin could keep up with each one. Whether a ballad, a gospel song filled with soul, falling madly in love or finally letting go of all of his anger, Scullin’s acting was effortless, and his emotions were evident. Myers’ best song was “A Summer in Ohio” — a cry for help as she spends a summer doing regional theater in the middle-of-nowhere. Cathy complains about the eccentric people she meets there and the horrors she goes through in order to pursue her dream. Myers was able to switch back and forth between a variety of characters and accents. Like Scullin, Myers could also switch between emotions. Another highlight for Myers was “When You Come Home to Me.” Cathy sings this song during an audition for a show. However, the song also contains Cathy’s inner monologue surrounding her complicated emotions about the audition process. Myers’ distinction between her onstage and backstage personas was thrilling and humorous. As she starts the show depressed and upset, Myers’ ascension into head-over-heels euphoric love was fascinating to watch. The minimal set pieces were all on stage during every scene, and stagehands moved them during the song transitions. I enjoyed this stage layout because the show was more of a cabaret than a traditional musical. While the set pieces established the scene, they did not add to the plot — Jamie and Cathy’s words alone painted vivid pictures of their memories together. The show ends with an ecstatic Cathy on the left side of the stage saying goodbye to Jamie after their first date. Brown’s brilliant decision to begin and end the show with goodbye sequences shows that one decision in life can change an entire trajectory. In “The Last Five Years,” the audience is able to see this sequence of events, and that even if one element changed, the inevitable can be prevented.
THE END: Jamie leaves a note to Cathy explaining why he is leaving her, along with his wedding ring.
THE LAST GOOD BYE: Jamie officially ends his relationship with Cathy.
THE JUSTICE i arts i TUESDAY, march 22, 2016
19
Culture
Clubs earn laughs in “Comedy Bunch” By Lizzie grossman justice editor
On Friday night, the Golding Auditorium was packed with excited students, waiting for Brandeis’ five comedy groups to make an entrance. Organized by Julia Green ’18, this event was titled “The Comedy Bunch” and featured all of Brandeis’ improv groups — Bad Grammer, Crowd Control, TBA and False Advertising — as well as the sketch comedy group Boris’ Kitchen. The combined humor and entertainment from all the groups had the audience engaged and laughing for the whole show. The show opened with a game in which TBA’s Dan Hirshfield ’16 was sent out of the room while the audience came up with a crime that Hirshfield committed, which he would then have to guess per humor-
ous questions from other comedy group members what he was guilty of. The audience decided that Hirshfield had murdered Donald Trump at Planned Parenthood with Paris Hilton. Hirshfield was able to guess the exact scenario impressively quickly, with the aid of several of the other comedy members’ hilarious questions. The groups played several other games throughout the night that caused many laughs among the audience. A popular game, which was played twice during the course of the show, involved several members from all the groups. Participants lined up and, two at a time, had to act out a short scene based on just one word that Matt Guerra ’18 from Bad Grammer gave to them. After everyone had gone, Guerra gave the words to groups of two again, and the pairs
had to act out a much shorter version of the skit that had been portrayed with that word previously. Many participants had trouble thinking of ways to act out the scenes in such a short time,and would sometimes end up running out of the performance area, to the audience’s delight. The troupes also played a game called “Good, Bad and Worse,” which is a popular improv game played at many of the Brandeis improv troupes’ shows. In the game, an audience member describes to the troupe a “problem” that they are having, and the troupe will give them (humorous) good, bad and even worse advice on how to solve the problem. For this game, the four improv troupes played together, with each of the individual groups answering an audience member’s question one at a time. With every new question, the groups switched
places and then had to give them advice from the perspective of the group that was originally in that place. Seeing troupe members try to impersonate members of other troupes was very comedic and entertaining. Another extremely entertaining game involved five pairs of participants, each with a different relationship or conflict. They were thrown a scenario that they had to act out based on their conflict, and when they were called to stop, another one of the pairs had to start a scene with the last line of the previous pair’s scene and relate it to their own scenario. The pairs did a great job of incorporating the humorous sentences from the other pairs to fit their scenarios. Additionally, it was extremely impressive how they could come up with such funny conflicts on the
spot. The last game, which was played by all members of all the troupes, is a popular one that is commonly played at several of the comedy group’s individual shows. The crowd would yell out an object, and members would run to a chair in the middle and say “I once dated a [object from the crowd], but…” and insert a pun related to the object. For example, when the word was corn, one member shouted, “I once dated a corn, but it kept stalking me!” The show was delightful and hilarious to watch. All the comedy groups working together succeeded at multiplying the humor of each group while also allowing each of the groups to show off their individual differences. The show provided much-needed comic relief for the Brandeis community during the stressful midterms period.
Design by MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice
UTC reduces number of shows next semester By Emily wishingrad justice editor
On Monday, March 14, The Undergraduate Theater Collective voted unanimously in favor of a shortterm measure that will change the number of theater performances that the collective will put on next year. For the 2016 to 2017 theater season, the collective will put on two shows per semester in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater. This does not include the annual 24-Hour Musical, “Quickies” and “Brandeis Cares.” In the email to the UTC Listserv, communications director for the collective, Gabby Lamm ’17, noted that the change is due to the collective’s “current shortage of resources and feelings of exclusivity between clubs.” Next fall will see shows from Tympanium Euphorium and Brandeis Ensemble Theater on the SCC stage,
and the spring will see shows from Brandeis Players and Hillel Theater Group. With this plan, every group that is part of the UTC will have a main stage production. Groups will still be able to put on as many “second-stage productions” — productions not on the Shapiro Campus Center stage — as they want. “During their off-semesters, each group will strive to sponsor shows in alternative spaces on campus that are conducive to creative theatrical productions,” Gabby Lamm ’17 wrote in an email to the UTC listserv, explaining the plan for next year. “Several of these spaces have already been reserved for the next two semesters to ensure guaranteed performance spaces.” In an interview with the Justice, Talya Shatzky ’19, secretary of Behind the Scenes and one of the members who voted on the measure, says that the collective has been talking
for a while about restructuring the group. She noted that the change is a result of a recent shortage of tech staff and the toll it takes when staffers have to work multiple shows back to back. “Basically, the amount of techies per show or per UTC season has dramatically decreased in the past few semesters,” she said. “So we have people working on all four shows all in a row, which they just sacrifice so much to help. And they love doing what they’re doing, but it just kind of kills them.” Shatzky comes to the issue from a tech perspective — Behind the Scenes is a new group that offers its services to any UTC group that needs technical help. The club was formed last semester. She believes that having fewer shows will allow more time for students to learn the basics of theater tech. With fewer productions, groups will be able to
have longer tech weeks — shows will not be back-to-back — and students new to theater tech will have more time to learn on the job. She also believes that the new plan will benefit the quality of second-stage productions. She believes that “not enough concern has been made toward making those secondstage productions the best that they can be.” There were a few proposals in discussion — one of which was to dissolve the individual clubs in the UTC and combine them under a large umbrella organization. Both Shatzky and Madeline Lenchner ’17, Secretary of Brandeis Players, said that there was some resistance to this proposal — members are very connected and committed to their respective clubs within the collective. Lenchner says that the long-term solution may in fact reflect this vi-
sion, and she is in favor of it. “Hopefully in the future it would just transition into being just a nice, big [conglomerate] theater group,” she said. But what happens with the shortterm plan remains to be seen. “We’ll see — maybe we’ll decide that it’s too few shows because, on the tech side of things, the last-minute getting stuff together is always like the big fun rush,” said Lenchner. Lamm, UTC Coordinator Noah Suchoff ’16, Hillel Theater Group e-board member Jess Plante ’16 and Tympanium Euphorim e-board member Tres Fimmano ’18 refused to comment. UTC club e-board members Harry Furer ’17, Sarai Warsoff ’16, Emily Galloway ’18, Zach Marlin ’16, Carly Chernomorets ’16, Gabi Scheinthal ’16, Sivan Ertel ’18, Jason Kasman ’16, Courtney Comart ’16 and Zak Kolar ’18 did not respond by press time.
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TUESDAY, march 22, 2016 | Arts | THE JUSTIce
Brandeis TALKS
INTERVIEW
What song do you want to hear T-Pain play at Springfest?
Lilly Hecht ’18 PHOTO COURTESY OF LILLY HECHT
Deborah Fataki ’19
This week, justArts spoke with Lilly Hecht ’18, director of the Tympanium Euphorium production “The Last Five Years.”
“Bartender.”
justArts: How did you choose to direct this show?
ILLUSTRATION BY ALI SANTANA/the Justice.
Elana Kellner ’19 “Buy You A Drank.”
Justus Davis ’19 “Buy You A Drank.”
Leah Sherin ’19 “Five O’Clock.”
—Compiled and photographed by Amanda Nguyen/the Justice.
STAFF’S Top Ten
Hans Zimmer Scores By AVI GOLD
CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Like Alejandro Iñárritu 7 Hayworth of film 11 Guano producer 14 1996 Schwarzenegger thriller 15 Make some changes to 16 Texter’s qualifier 17 Leave without paying 19 Like some gardens 20 Cupid counterpart 21 Defeatist cry 23 Tricorn, for example 26 Blue-green 29 Fat day? 30 “Thanks, _____!” 33 RBI, e.g. 35 Christopher of architectural acclaim 36 Conspiratorial groups 38 Greek god of war 40 Keats poem 41 Make a break for it 44 One C in CDC, for short 47 Descriptor of mortals, to gods 48 One who dislikes 30-Across, perhaps 52 Entranced 54 Be aware of, as a gap 56 Rapper with the lyric “Started from the bottom, now we’re here” 57 Dusty old books 59 Resident of 64-Down 61 Seattle falls under it (abbr.) 62 Word on olde currency 63 Bad grades 66 Label on some cords 67 It’s necessary for compromise 74 Letters following 4G 75 Etats-_____ 76 Scorched, as skin 77 It’s associated with Timothy Leary 78 Barely manages, as a victory 79 Where _____ Fear to Tread DOWN 1 Type of light 2 Gold in “Entourage” 3 Like someone who’s spent time in bed? 4 “Ah, that makes sense.” 5 Close to 6 “Ready _____ ...” 7 Communist 8 Ore-____ 9 Caroler’s word 10 “Let me ____!” 11 Comic by Dan Piraro 12 Made some changes to 13 Pact in which the last person to die gets the money 18 Nintendo prods. 22 Crow sound 23 Ad ____ 24 Lawyers’ org.
JA: The show is only a two-person cast. What has it been like working with such a small cast? LH: It’s been the butt of many jokes. What’s great about it is that you really get to focus, you get to know these people as humans and then channel their humanity into the humanities of the characters in a very focused way. It’s funny, because the cast rep is fifty percent of the cast, so really, it’s only helped in terms of getting to the depths of characters, because you get to create real friendships, which foster productivity, which foster growth.
CROSSWORD COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN
25 Amount owed 27 Ancient history 28 Cooking fat 31 Non-PC? 32 Reunion participant, for short 34 Guano producer 37 Classification of careers (abbr.) 39 Was litigious 42 Diva’s delivery 43 Word rarely seen without its counterpart 44 Form of unwelcome attention 45 Bad thing to have at the bottom of the 9th, or a hint to 17-, 41- and 67-Across 46 Changed up, as a song 49 Trade’s partner 50 Gives the go-ahead 51 One of two in a court 53 Dragon locale 55 Post-WWI art movement 58 Smooth transition 60 Organization of intelligentsia 64 See 59-Across 65 One way to go to a party 68 Tattoos, slangily 69 Jockey (for) 70 Type of curve 71 You ___ Here (marker on a mall map) 72 Kenan’s costar in “Good Burger” 73 Sullivan and Markey
JA: What has been your favorite part of directing the show? LH: It’s a spectacular show within itself, so it’s just an honor to be able to be included in any way. But it’s probably mostly getting to know people at a way more gratifying level, [They’re] just really great people — Derek [Scullin ’18] and Becca [Myers ’18,] and Jake [Hurwitz ’16], the music director, and Yennie [Mock ’16] — they’re just spectacular. Just making new friends. JA: What’s been the biggest challenge in directing the show?
SOLUTION COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN
justice EDITOR
Hans Zimmer is one of the most influential composers of the modern movie era, if not the most popular. From “Rain Man” to “The Dark Knight,” he crosses through every popular genre of movie and has produced some of the best scores ever. Here’s my list of the 10 best Zimmer scores: 1. “Lion King” 2. “Interstellar” 3. “Batman Begins” 4. “Frost/Nixon” 5. “Pearl Harbor” 6. “Mission: Impossible II” 7. “Driving Miss Daisy” 8. “Pirates of the Caribbean” 9. “The Prince of Egypt” 10. “Inception”
Lilly Hecht: It was proposed, and I had been listening to it all summer before it was proposed, so I had been obsessed with it for a while. I voted for it, then heard it was being done and so I had to be involved somehow! Then, people said that there was actually a possibility of me being chosen if I were to apply, and I worked hard and I applied and it was great, and I’m really humbled.
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LH: From the many, many challenges, I’d say it was learning how to adjust my own style of communication and adjusting that to the actors’ needs, because I have very strong visions. First of all, I really wanted to include the actors’ [styles] in it, so constantly trying to make a compromise was a big element of it with every decision we made. But also just knowing how to make what’s [in their heads] turn into what’s on their faces and [in] their movements and learning that it’s not as easy as you wanted it to be. JA: Is there anything you hope the audience takes away from the show? LH: I guess what I told the actors is that I really want the audience loving these characters the way you love your best friends. Your friends are flawed — very, very flawed — but you still love them. So even when they’re making their mistakes, they’re going out there, you know, tripping all over the place — you’re rooting for them, and you want the best for them. You feel their pain when they’re in pain, you feel their happiness when they’re happy, and if anything, I hope people fall in love with the characters enough to see them as their own friends.