The Justice, May 23, 2017

ARTS Page 19

SPORTS Celtics advance in playoffs 16

YEAR IN REVIEW

FORUM Reduce animal consumption 12 The Independent Student Newspaper

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B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9

Justice

Volume LXIX, Number 26

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

LABOR COALITION

66TH COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES

Grad students vote in majority for labor union ■ On May 2, Brandeis

became the first Bostonarea college to have grad student unionization.

By LIAT SHAPIRO JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Brandeis graduate students secured the first graduate student unionization at a Boston-area private institution on May 2.

According to an article published by the Service Employees International Union Local 509 on May 2, “Graduate students at Brandeis University have overwhelmingly voted to form a union, deciding by a two to one margin to join SEIU Lo-

cal 509.”

According to its website, SEIU Local 509 is a chapter representing 20,000 service workers and educators across Massachusetts. Its mission is “to raise living standards for working families while improving the quality and affordability of the services we provide.”

This vote followed an August 2016 declaration by the National Labor Relations Board stating that graduate students in teaching positions at private universities can legally vote to be represented by a union.

In April 2017, University President Ronald Liebowitz wrote an open letter to graduate students and faculty, outlining three main reasons in opposition of graduate

See LABOR UNION, 5 ☛

Faculty

University and parttime faculty agree to three-year contract ■ On May 10, part-time

faculty agreed upon a contract with the University administration.

By Michelle DANG Justice editor

Part-time faculty ratified a labor contract with the University’s administration on May 10, the first of its kind at the University.

Like the University’s graduate students who voted for labor unionization on May 2, the faculty rallied under the support of “Faculty Forward,” a project by the Service Employees International Union Local 509 coalition, a Massachusetts union for human service workers and educators.

BrandeisNOW

reported that the contract will support more than 280 part-time faculty at the University.

The three-year contract features annual pay increases, with the lowest-paid adjunct faculty seeing up to a 25 percent increase by the end of that period, according to a May 10 SEIU press release. Additionally, the contract provides increased job security, allowing part-time faculty to be eligible for multi-year appointments and benefits that are unaffected by unforeseen class cancellations.

For adjunct faculty, the contract increases the longevity of base percourse rates. The University will also establish a $25,000 professional development fund, through which experienced faculty that teach two or more courses may apply for

MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice

FIGHTING INDIFFERENCE: In her remarks, Abella reminded the graduates that “indifference is injustice's incubator.”

Abella tells grads to be attuned to injustices ■ Canadian Supreme

Court Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella gave the commencement address .

By ABBY PAtkin JUSTICE EDITOR

History cannot be taken for granted, especially by those who have felt the pain of injustice, Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella reminded the class of 2017 at Sunday’s commencement exercises.

Abella delivered her address to 904 bachelor degree recipients and 884 graduate degree recipients.

“You see before you a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada who is deeply worried about the state of justice in the world,” she said in her remarks, describing her family’s experience during

and after the Holocaust. “My parents and thousands of other survivors transcended the inhumanity they experienced … to prove to themselves and the world that their spirits weren’t broken.”

After the death of her two-yearold brother in the Holocaust, Abella was born in a displaced persons camp, with her sister following after. “I think it was a way to fix their hearts,” she said of her parents’ decision to have more children. Her father’s unrealized wish to practice law after the family’s move to Canada — he instead became an insurance salesman to provide for his family — inspired her to go to into law, although her father died just a month before her law school graduation.

In her father’s papers, she found letters from American lawyers, prosecutors and judges who had written to her father to recommend him for provisional legal positions in post-war Europe.

In one 1947 letter, an American lawyer had written, “You were battered, but you did not allow yourself to be beaten. You continue to fight for your human rights and for those of your fellows in fate. ” However, even with the Holocaust more than 70 years past, there are still lessons to be gleaned from persecution, Abella said. “It is time to remind ourselves why we develop such a passionate and … unshakable commitment to human rights,” Abella said, adding, “Indifference is injustice’s incubator. It’s not just what you stand for; it’s what you stand up for, and we can never forget how the world looks to those who are vulnerable.”

Abella, an expert in human rights law, touched on the current state of public affairs, urging the graduates to avoid indifference and take notice. “Here

See COMMENCEMENT, 8

☛

See CONTRACT, 5 ☛

Story by story

Season’s end

State of the Union

 Students wrapped up their class by examining the immigration experience.

 The softball team lost to Worcester State in the last game of the year.

 The Student Union transitioned to new leadership on May 3.

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INDEX

Sports 16 ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 6

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

News 3 COPYRIGHT 2017 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Email managing@thejustice.org for home delivery.

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TUESDAY, May 23, 2017

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the justice

NEWS POLICE LOG Medical Emergency

April 30—BEMCo staff treated a party in Rosenthal Quad for a medical emergency. BEMCo staff requested Cataldo Ambulance assistance.

April 30—BEMCo staff treated a party in a bathroom in Usen Hall. BEMCo staff requested Cataldo Ambulance assistance.

April 30—BEMCo staff treated a party on Chapels Field. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

April 30—BEMCo staff treated an intoxicated party who had passed out in the Charles River Apartments.

April 30—Cataldo Ambulance staff transported a party from Chapels Field to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

April 30—Cataldo Ambulance staff treated an intoxicated party on Chapels Field.

April 30—University Police received a report of an intoxicated party in Usen Hall. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

April 30—Cataldo Ambulance staff and BEMCo staff checked an intoxi-

cated party on Chapels Field.

April 30—An intoxicated party was transported from Chapels Field to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care via Cataldo Ambulance.

April 30—Cataldo Ambulance staff transported an intoxicated party from Deroy Hall to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

April 30—A community advisor in Scheffres Hall reported that a party was having trouble with their insulin pump. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

April 30—Two parties were transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital from Chapels Field due to alcohol intoxication.

May 1—A party in East Quad reported that they were not feeling well.

The party was transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

May 4—Brandeis Counseling Center staff requested Cataldo Ambulance assistance for transporting a party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital. University Police assisted without incident.

May 7—University Police received a report of an intoxicated party in Ziv

Quad. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

May 9—University Police received a report of an ill party in Ziv Quad.

The party was treated by BEMCo and Cataldo Ambulance staff with a signed refusal for further care.

May 10—A party in East Quad reported that they were feeling ill. BEMCo staff treated the party, who was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

May 10—A caller in the Volen National Center for Complex Systems reported that a party was feeling ill. The party, who was conscious and alert, was treated by BEMCo staff with a signed refusal for further care.

May 11—A staff member reported that they were having an allergic reaction to food. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

May 12—A party in East Quad reported that they twisted their ankle.

BEMCo staff treated the party with a signed refusal for further care.

May 17—BEMCo staff assessed a party with an ankle injury at the ath-

letic fields. The party refused treatment.

May 18—BEMCo staff treated an intoxicated party in the Foster Mods.

The party was transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

May 20—University Police on detail at an event in the Faculty Club requested aid for a medical emergency.

The party was transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

May 21—University Police requested BEMCo assistance for an intoxicated party at the main entrance. The party was uncooperative with BEMCo staff and University Police.

Larceny

May 1—A party reported that money had been taken from their room in the Foster Mods. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

May 5—A party reported unauthorized withdrawals made using their debit card. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

May 5—A party in Goldfarb Library reported that their laptop was stolen after being left unattended in a common area. University Police compiled

I GOAT YOUR BACK

BRIEF

—Amber Miles

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

Justice

the

editor@thejustice.org news@thejustice.org forum@thejustice.org features@thejustice.org sports@thejustice.org arts@thejustice.org ads@thejustice.org photos@thejustice.org managing@thejustice.org copy@thejustice.org layout@thejustice.org

See POLICE LOG, 4 ☛

NATALIA WIATER/the Justice

The Waltham City Council voted against seizing Stigmatine Fathers and Brothers’ 46-acre property by eminent domain on May 15, according to a Waltham Patch article from the same date. The majority vote was 12-3 against acquisition of the Catholic congregation’s property, favoring the position of Stigmatine trustees. If seized, the property could have been used as the site of a new Waltham high school.

While the property has piqued council interest for a few years already, the Waltham Patch reported that eminent domain has been in serious discussion since February, when Mayor Jeannette McCarthy requested that the council consider use of the land in public interest. This decision followed a Waltham School Committee December statement that the property would be an ideal site for a new high school. The property trustees, however, were never interested in selling and refused to meet the council’s repeated requests for negotiations, reported the Waltham Patch.

Supporters of eminent domain for the property fear that it will, if not claimed for public use, become commercialized, reported the Waltham Patch. However, the report added that a Stigmatine spokesperson stated that the property will not be commercialized to private enterprises or sold to residential developers.

Owned by the Stigmatine Congregation in Rome, the property is valued at $22.7 million by the council, and McCarthy suggested the council pay compensation of $15 million for the property.

The suggested offer would claim all of the land except for two buildings belonging to retired clergy, according to the Waltham Patch. A final vote before the full city council will occur on May 22.

Saadiah McIntosh ’17 (L) and Austin Shanabrook ’17 (R) pet goats at Ridgewood Commons’ visiting petting zoo during senior week.

NOTE TO READERS

www.thejustice.org

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Editor News Forum Features Sports Arts Ads Photos Managing Copy Layout

May 9—University Police observed two parties smoking marijuana outside Shapiro Hall. University Police confiscated the contraband and the area coordinator will handle University judicial charges for the parties.

May 15—An area coordinator in the Charles River Apartments found a Class D substance and contraband.

Waltham City Council votes against seizing property by eminent domain for new school

David Weil, an expert in labor market policy, will become the next dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, the University announced in a Thursday press release. Weil, a faculty member at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, will join Brandeis on Aug. 14.

After completing his undergraduate studies at Cornell University, Weil earned his master’s degree in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he co-founded and co-directed the Transparency Policy Project, according to the press release. The project “seeks to understand and improve disclosure of factual information that protects the public,” such as nutritional labels and car safety ratings, according to the Transparency Policy Project website. Weil, who authored more than 100 articles and five books, also earned a Ph.D. in public policy at Harvard.

As a 2014 appointee at the U.S. Department of Labor under Former President Barack Obama, Weil worked as an administrator for the Wage and Hour Division until January 2017, according to the Brandeis press release.

“I believe that inequality is the central issue of our time,” Weil said, as quoted in the press release, “and addressing it is at the core of Heller’s mission.”

Weil added that his focus will be on how inequality is addressed in the workplace, in healthcare, in education and in other areas of society, such as interpersonal relationships.

Weil will be replacing Marty Krauss, Ph.D. ’81, who served as the interim dean at Heller since 2014.

Krauss will remain at the school as professor emerita.

The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Email editor@ thejustice.org.

Drugs

BRIEF

Former US Department of Labor employee will begin term as new dean of Heller on August 14

n An Arts article about the performance of “Wayward” incorrectly stated that Madi Samus ’17 was the director.

In fact, Ayelet Schrek ’17 was the director. (May 2, page 23).

a report on the incident.

May 10—University Police received a report of a missing banner from the Shapiro Campus Center. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

May 12—A party reported that a Lego-type building kit had been taken after it was left unattended in a common area in Sherman Function Hall.

University Police compiled a report on the incident.

May 18—University Police received a report of a grill that was stolen from outside the Foster Mods. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

The Justice Brandeis University Mailstop 214 P.O. Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Phone: (781) 736-3750 The managing editor holds office hours on Mondays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The Justice is on hiatus for the summer. Our next issue will be published in the Fall Semester.

Check www.thejustice.org for updates and breaking news over the summer.

—Michelle Dang

THE JUSTICE

Faculty talks handbook amendments at last meeting and conferred degrees during their last meeting of the academic year.

By MICHELLE DANG JUSTICE editor

Faculty members convened for the last meeting of this academic year on Friday, conferring graduate and undergraduate degrees and discussing a faculty handbook amendment that focuses on the expectations of the ad hoc committee responsible for tenure appointments.

Provost Lisa Lynch began the meeting by announcing the retirement and transition of faculty to emeriti status at the commencement on Sunday.

With “deepest gratitude and appreciation,” Lynch named Mary Campbell (ENG), Peter Conrad (Heller), Shulamit Reinharz Ph.D. ’77 (SOC), David Roberts (PHYS), Jerry Cohen (AMST), David Hackett Fischer (HIST), Dian Fox (HISP), Walter Leutz (Heller), Rick Parmentier (ANTH), Ilan Troen (NEJS), Alan Berger (PHIL), Allan Keiler (MUS) and Trenery Dolbear (ECON).

University Registrar Mark Hewitt announced the results of degrees awarded to the Class of 2017 graduates. A total of 904 bachelor degrees were awarded — 635 in arts and 269 in sciences. Hewitt noted that 50 percent of the class were double majors, four percent were triple majors and only 16 percent had just one major — a decrease from last year. “Our students are overachieving right now,” he commented. Of the bachelor degrees, 53 percent of the class received Latin honors and 16 percent received departmental honors.

In graduate degrees, a total of 798 master’s and 86 doctorates were awarded. The faculty approved motions to proceed the graduate degrees for Sunday’s commencement.

The faculty then addressed handbook amendments, particularly the one focusing on the the ad hoc tenure committee. Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren reminded faculty that a subcommittee is formed within the standing committee to evaluate candidates’ materials by members belonging to their discipline.

Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees Ann Olga KoloskiOstrow (CLAS) reported a summary of the Board’s semester meetings and actions, such as the tenure and promotion of 12 faculty members. Promoted from tenure track assistant professor to associate with tenure were Stephen

Van Hooser (BIO), Avital Rodal (BIO), Raphael Schoenle (ECON), Olivier Bernardi (MATH), Jennifer Marusik (PHIL), Aparna Baskaran (PHYS), Jeronimo Arrelano (ROM), Xing Hang (HIST) and Anna Scherbina (IBS).

Appointments of associate professor with tenure included Sebastian Kadener (BIOL) and Joel Christiansen (CLAS), and tenure associate to full-time professor was awarded to Albion Lawrence (PHYS).

Additionally, the Board of Trustees approved the budget for fiscal year 2018 — including the tuition increase — and the Board re-elected four trustees, and one trustee stepped down.

The elected trustees are Jeffrey Flier, Martin Gross, Cynthia Shapira and Ronald Kaiserman.

The academic subcommittee of the Board also listened to a report from Emily Conrad ’17 about how students experience and understand financial aid, said Koloski-Ostrow.

For the faculty Senate, five senators were newly elected, with three senators outgoing. Prof. Susan Curnan (Heller) announced that she was re-elected as chair of the Senate for her third term.

University President Ronald Liebowitz delivered a short address that gave summaries on the Board’s progress on issues of concern brought up by the faculty: retirement benefits and divestment from fossil fuels. However, both issues are still in discussion and will be pushed until the fall for development, he said. Additionally, Liebowitz discussed the Task Force on Free Expression and said that the committee presented “a document that contains principles that begin a discussion on how we operationalize and really develop policy on free expression on campus.”

“The discussion was an interesting one,” said Liebowitz, who added that there was not a full consensus coming from the committee itself on all the issues and principles they put forth.

The document will be distributed to faculty and select University groups to gauge the presented principles, though purely for opinion and feedback, as it is still in its early stages, said Liebowitz.

Profs. John Plotz (ENG) and Rajesh Sampath (Heller), faculty members of the Task Force, clarified in followup addresses that the document the Task Force is presenting is mainly intended to create a conversational framework.

“It’s not about governing; … [it’s] more about possibilities,” said Plotz.

“Not a set of rules — just, ‘Here is what Brandeis thinks.’”

3

Edelman sworn in at State of the Union ceremony ■ The May 3 ceremony marked

the end of David Herbstritt’s ’17 term and the beginning of Jacob Edelman’s ’18.

By ABBY PATKIN JUSTICE Editor

Jacob Edelman ’18 took office as Student Union president on Wednesday, May 3 during the annual State of the Union. The event also marked the end of David Herbstritt’s ’17 presidential term.

After updates and announcements from the heads of each of the Union’s branches, Herbstritt took the podium to bid farewell to his constituency.

“In low moments, the Union was there for me, and I doubled down on my obligations,” he said in his speech, a copy of which he provid-

ed to the Justice. “Over the years, I found myself spending nearly as many hours in the Union office upstairs as I did my own room. My colleagues became my friends, and my friends became like a second family,” he said.

Herbstritt also addressed Edelman during his remarks, adding, “You have a talent for spotting problems and a knack for coming up with solutions. You are a workhorse, and you speak in a way that is both subtle and booming. I am confident that you will be excellent, in the Union and beyond.”

After Herbstritt was given a round of applause and a musical send-off — to the tune of “You’ll Be Back” from “Hamilton” — Edelman took the podium to address the audience.

“Brandeis is a place that all of us on the Union love. But it isn’t perfect,” he acknowledged in his

speech, a copy of which he provided to the Justice. “Over the next year, I will make it become the Union’s role to do more active work to bring the community together. It is our responsibility to do what we can.

And doing is the core of how we will move forward. Taking action.

Not just connecting words to problems, but connecting problems to solutions.”

Specifically, Edelman vowed to tackle Union diversity, reduce the practice of free student labor and promote a more transparent Union budget.

“Today, we [have] plans taking form that will help us know what direction to head in the coming months, and over the course of next year,” he concluded. “It will not be about moving one of the levers all of the way up, but all of the levers just a little bit. That is how we will steer the ship.”

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Experiential Learning celebrates grant recipients with luncheon ■ 17 Faculty members

Justice editor

HEATHER SCHILLER/the Justice

TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2017

MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice

By Abby Patkin

Students celebrated Holi on Chapels Field on May 3.

●

TRANSITION: David Herbstritt ’17 (R) passes the Student Union presidency forward to Jacob Edelmen ’18 (L) on May 3.

were award experiential learning grants ranging from $50 to $5,000.

MAKING RAINBOWS

News

STATE OF THE UNION

FACULTY

■ The faculty met on Friday

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The Experiential Learning Committee celebrated the end of its pilot year of experiential learning and teaching grants last Thursday, hearing presentations from some of the faculty recipients.

In the past academic year, 17 recipients were awarded sums between $50 and $5,000 to incorporate experiential learning elements both in and out of the classroom. The grants were awarded on a rolling basis throughout the year, with a twoto four-week turnaround between proposal submission and final decision.

“One of the ideas we saw is that they [the faculty] could apply when needed. … And so we came up with

the grant idea as a way to support them,” said Director of Experiential Learning and Teaching Daniel Langenthal in an interview with the Justice.

According to the Experiential Learning website, the grants are intended to support the four principles of experiential learning in teaching: authenticity, relevancy, connection to future opportunities and active learning.

They also contribute to the three experiential learning student goals: agency, belonging and competency.

The criteria for the grants was deliberately left open in the program’s pilot year, Assistant Director of Experiential Learning and Teaching Alyssa Canelli said in a phone interview with the Justice. “We wanted to spark creativity,” she said, adding, “One of our big criteria was really, ‘How is this going to affect the learning outcomes of students, and how is it connected to the content of the course?’ One of the things we’re trying to avoid or trying to get away from is the idea that

experiential learning is just a field trip or just some experience outside the classroom, because you can have an experience, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll learn from it.”

As the grant enters its second year, the challenge is to keep the classroom change going despite the individual grants being a onetime deal, she said. “Our big goal is to work toward making a lot of these changes in teaching methods, changes in course design, more sustainable,” Canelli said.

Langenthal also noted that there is something to be said for the trial and error that comes with a new program: “It’s an opportunity to encourage faculty members to take risks and try new things in their teaching that they might not try, typically, and support them in that process,” he said.

—Editor’s note: Michelle Dang, the Justice News editor, sits on the Experiential Learning Committee.

She did not take part in the editing of this article.

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TUESDAY, May 23, 2017

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news

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the justice

POLICE LOG CONTINUED FROM 2 University Police confiscated the contraband and compiled a report.

DCL staff with handle University judicial sanctions.

May 15—An area coordinator in Cable Hall found a Class D substance and drug contraband. University Police confiscated the items, and DCL staff will handle University judicial charges.

May 16—The Waltham Police Department sent an ambulance to Ziv Quad for a party who had ingested edible marijuana. The party denied medical treatment with a signed refusal for further care given to Cataldo Ambulance staff.

Disturbance

May 3—A party reported damage to their room and common area in Deroy Hall. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

May 5—A party in the Usdan Student Center reported that there was an altercation between two parties on Loop Road. University Police on

the scene requested an involuntary psychological transport for one of the parties, who was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

May 6—University Police received a complaint of loud music in Ridgewood Quad. The residents were advised to lower the music without incident.

May 7—University Police received a complaint of loud music in the Foster Mods. The residents were advised to shut off the music and complied without incident.

May 15—University Police received a report of a party in the Foster Mods. Upon inspection, the parties were listening to music and getting ready for the senior week kickball tournament. University Police took no further action.

May 20—University Police assisted a community advisor with crowd dispersal at the Foster Mods.

May 20—Bookstore staff reported a possible attempted break-in. The party reported that no items had been removed, but the security

screen had been tampered with.

Based on log entries, no calls from the security company were received to dispatch, and the manager did not receive any calls either.

Harassment

May 1—University Police received a report of an employeeemployee harassment incident.

University Police compiled a report on the incident, with Sodexo management to further investigate the matter.

May 6—A party reported that an unidentified male was aggressively flirting with them as they walked near the Shapiro Campus Center.

University Police located the party and removed them from campus without incident.

May 10—A party in Ziv Quad reported that an unknown party had thrown milk at their door.

A custodian was contacted for help with cleanup, and University Police compiled a report on the incident.

Assault

May 4—A party in Reitman Hall reported that their ex-boyfriend had thrown water on them and had been harassing them. The suspect, a nonstudent, departed the quad in a vehicle. University Police found and arrested the suspect for domestic violence, transporting him to the Waltham Police station for booking.

Other

April 30—Department of Community Living staff requested University Police assistance for an issue with a party in the Foster Mods.

University Police responded and placed a party in protective custody for alcohol intoxication. The party was transported to the Waltham Police station for booking.

April 30—University Police placed one party in protective custody at Springfest due to alcohol intoxication. University Police transported the party to the Waltham Police station for booking.

May 5—University Police re-

ceived a report of a suspicious email received in the Feldberg Computer Center. University Police compiled a report on the incident and will work with Library and Technology Services and Waltham Police to investigate the incident.

May 17—University Police compiled a report of a phone call made to the Student Financial Services office. The caller used foul language.

May 21—University Police received a report that several large, potted plants in the Usdan Student Center had been destroyed, and the soil spread around. Facilities staff was advised of the incident.

May 21—University Police placed a party in protective custody for alcohol intoxication. The party was transported to the Waltham Police Department for booking.

May 21—University Police received a report of graffiti on the dugout area of the baseball field. Facilities staff was advised.

—Compiled by Abby Patkin

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HEATHER SCHILLER/the Justice

Students celebrated the Hindu spring festival Holi on Chapels Field in the last week of the semester.

CONTRACT: Agreement boosts lowest pay by 25 percent grants of up to $2,500, according to the release.

The part-time faculty at the University joined SEIU in December of 2015. The contract is a step toward “ensuring increased participation of part-time faculty in discussions that affect their work,” SEIU stated in the release.

The contract included a joint statement from both the faculty and administration: “The Union and the University value and respect

the role of the Faculty Members covered by this Agreement as essential contributors to a learning community.

Our relationship is characterized by a spirit of professionalism, collegiality, civility and cooperation toward a common objective of providing an exceptional educational experience for the University’s students. … We believe in communication, mutual respect and meaningful involvement of parttime Faculty Members in working towards this common objective.”

The Boston-area Faculty Forward

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TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2017

5

LABOR UNION: Brandeis first to unionize in Boston area

FESTIVAL OF COLOR

CONTINUED FROM 1

News

coalition includes 4,000 partand full-time faculty at Bentley University, Boston University, Lesley University, Northeastern University and Tufts University, according to SEIU’s website. SEIU states that Faculty Forward serves to address a “troubling trend toward a marginalized teaching faculty that endangers our profession.” The group’s ambition is to development improvements in pay, job security, evaluation processes and access to retirement benefits for non-tenurestream faculty.

student unionization. He asserted that unionization would interfere with “individualized graduate student academic programs,” produce a strict “employer/employee relationship between faculty and students” and compromise the “shared governance model” between the University and its graduate students.

“There is no merit to President Liebowitz’s claims,” Diana Filar, a Ph.D. student, was quoted in a May 2 Justice article as saying. “Other schools ... offer proof and testimony against the false claim that somehow unionizing would change the individualized programs or collaboration. In fact, unionizing is based on collaboration and the joining together of voices from across department[s] — something that hasn’t happened very much until some of these unionizing conversations began to happen.”

The Justice article from May 2 quoted several graduate students who disagreed with Liebowitz’s ideas. Among these students was Benjamin Kreider, a Ph.D. candidate from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

Kreider was quoted by the Justice as saying, “A union would give

me a voice — a seat at the table …

Currently, graduate students have virtually no voice on this campus.

Although we have a Graduate Student Association — and I applaud the work they do — graduate students do not have any formal power.

Many decisions are made regarding pay, benefits, transparency, career development and other issues, almost unilaterally.”

After the vote for graduate student unionization, however, this may no longer hold true. Now, with a union to represent them, Filar, Kreider and future graduate students at Brandeis University assert they will have a say in University policies that affect them.

“Given the role that graduate student workers play in teaching at Brandeis, we deserve a seat at the table,” the SEIU press release quoted Filar as saying. “Today’s vote to form a union opens the door to negotiations with the administration to ensure that it focuses on our professional development and training as educators.”

According to an SEIU article, sixteen days after the Brandeis vote, Tufts graduate students also voted to join SEIU Local 509. Tufts now represents the second successful graduate student unionization in the greater Boston area.

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features

TUESDAY, May 23, 2017 ● Features ● The Justice

just

VERBATIM | TREY PARKER Saying goodbye doesn’t mean anything. It’s the time we spent together that matters, not how we left it.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1887, the first transcontinental train completed its journey to Vancouver.

Colonel Sanders founded Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was 65 years old.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAX KEILSON

PARTNERS IN HYDRATION: Max Keilson ’13 (R) and Jonathan Epstein ’14 (L) launched a line of beverages.

Sip on That Max Keilson ’13 and Jonathan Epstein ’14 are bringing energy back in an all new way

By CHRISTINE KIM JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

After picking up a book about coffee, Max Keilson ’13 came across a short paragraph describing how coffee grows inside a fruit on a tree.

Intrigued by the fruit that most people had never heard of, Keilson reached out to a friend who happened to be living on coffee farms in Peru and began the process that would eventually lead Keilson and Jonathan Epstein ’14 to cofound the Nomad Trading Co. Since August 2016, Keilson and Epstein have worked to build a company on a foundation of sustainability, ethics and health, starting with their first line of coffee fruit teas called Cascara.

The Cascara beverages will be the company’s first products, though the pair hopes to include other drinks and snacks in the future.

In their first line, Keilson and Epstein utilize the outer shell of the coffee bean, which is called the coffee fruit or ‘cascara’ in Spanish. Using this part of coffee, the pair is able to produce a drink full of caffeine and antioxidants, as well as improve sustainability.

“Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, with 10 billion pounds a year,” said Epstein.

“Every time you want another cup of coffee, a farmer in Costa Rica will cut down parts of the jungle, rainforest, to plant more coffee trees. … You should use all the pieces of the coffee tree for some beverage. So hopefully if someone who takes two to three cups of coffee a day drinks with coffee fruit, you’re getting the same amount of caffeine, with a lesser amount of coffee tree. And so it slows down deforestation.”

As the name of their company suggests, Keilson and Epstein are nomads who constantly pursue ideas while traveling.

So far, they have traveled to Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Mexico to meet local farmers and learn about water pollution, climate change and labor conditions that affect coffee farms of all sizes. They’ve also been able to taste some amazing coffees, the pair said.

“It’s actually a waste product, lots of people just dump it in the river, [and it] has a lot of negative impact.”

“But it makes a delicious tea, and you would think someone would be doing something with it but no one was,” said Keilson, “And the more I thought about it, it just makes total sense: Using a waste product of the agricultural process,

you could help these people monetize waste products, help farmers in Latin America/north Africa with this waste product and produce an awesome drink for people in the U.S., and also fight the environmental impact that the fruit has.”

And although both Keilson and Epstein always wanted to give back with their careers, neither of them originally planned on pursuing business while at Brandeis.

“I was pretty into the idea of studying [politics] and going into law school. And then last minute decided to take a business class my junior year and loved it,” shared Keilson. Keilson

starting Nomad, he was able to make many of the important decisions and become an independent thinker; things he had been unable to do at his previous job.

However, both Epstein and Keilson admitted that the most difficult part in running a start-up was the uncertainty.

Epstein shared, “The hardest thing was I might spend a year or two years doing this and most startups shut down after a couple of years … So it’s really the unknown, a huge risk factor to your personal career and your lifestyle.

We have been living very frugally since August; we have two of the cheapest rents in New

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAX KEILSON

then continued to study politics with minors in legal studies and business.

And through a professor’s recommendation, he was able to intern with a small company which he would continue to work with for threeand-a-half years before quitting to create his own start up.

Meanwhile, before co-founding the company, Epstein had been working at a private equity firm in D.C., where he specialized in real estate and investing. Epstein shared that through

York, and definitely have the lowest food and going-out budgets of anyone we know in New York. But it’s okay because we love the company and it’s worth the sacrifice.”

And through their start-up Epstein and Keilson have been able to learn many lessons, from how to start a business without outside investments to other little details that come along with starting a company.

“My favorite thing is learning so much, it’s not just the end product. Learning so much

about obscure things you never thought about and also just making decisions every day,” said Epstein.

Keilson also shared, “Every day I get to wake up and work on exactly what I want to work on, and it’s something I really believe in and get to have a lot of fun with. [I’ve probably learned more in the last nine or so months than any period in my life.”

Epstein also revealed that other experiences were key in helping him along the way and growing his interest in sustainability.

“I rowed for a year, and my Brandeis teammates remain the hardest working folks I’ve ever met. When I hit a wall with Nomad I remember 4:45 in the morning outdoor workouts in the dead of Waltham winter — I’ve done this before,” shared Epstein.

“And in summer 2013 I did research with a professor at Oxford … the goal was to innovate a line of business that was both profitable and socially sustainable. … I spent a month in Johannesburg, South Africa, along with a month between London and Oxford ... The takeaway was that there’s myriad opportunities for doing good and making a profit in developing countries.

Both shared how Brandeis offered them the opportunity to experience many different interests and benefited them by exposing them to different methods of thought.

As they both try to live the company mission by leading healthy and active lives, they also shared that an important thing to remember when starting your own company is to not take things too seriously and have a lot of fun.

Keilson advised future entrepreneurs at Brandeis by sharing, “We are by no means experts, we are just people who are trying something new ... I don’t have any great wisdom.

[The] biggest thing is just to try.”

Epstein shared, “Know what you know but most importantly, know what you don’t know.

Be humble … [there is] lots of hubris in start ups where the founders are really smart but make mistakes when they think they know what they don’t know.”

With future hopes to improve the planet around them, with a focus on how people are treated and how people treat their bodies, Epstein and Keilson are working to make Nomad Trading Co. a company that has their desired impact.

The sale of their first line of Cascara beverages began on May 18, 2017.

the justice ● Features ● TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2017

Exploring Immigration Students concluded their practicum exploring immigration in Waltham

By Leigh SALOMON JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The aroma of Guatemalan pastries filled the Multipurpose Room in the Shapiro Campus Center on May 3 as Marci McPhee, director of campus programs at the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, opened this semester’s Immigrant Practicum Presentation with an explanation of its purpose. Each preceding week, Hannah Baker-Lerner ’20, graduate student Olivia Wang and Daniella Cohen ’18 spent three hours in a base class relevant to Anthropology or International and Global Studies, three hours in a community organization supporting immigrants and an hour in “The Immigrant Experience in Waltham: A Service-based Practicum,” a course taught by McPhee. The Immigrant Practicum Presentation concluded these immersive journeys, allowing the students to share what they learned.

McPhee emphasized the co-learning nature of the experience for the instructor and students, given the diversity of pupils, community partners and base courses that participate each semester. She went on to thank the base course instructors, the Office of Experiential Learning and Teaching, the Office of Community Services and the community partners, in particular before turning the podium over to the students.

Baker-Lerner spoke first, posing a simple question to everyone: “What roles do you play in your life?” Audience members gave simple answers, such as “friend,” “uncle” and “international student.” Baker-Lerner wanted everyone to think about the kinds of interactions they have with people and the many different roles the immigrants she met juggled — everything from parent and provider to student and translator. The list could go on.

Baker-Lerner’s base course was “Introduction to the Comparative Study of Human Societies,” and she spent her volunteer time at the Waltham Family School, which reaches out to parents of pre-school-aged children who have minimal education, money or English literacy, or who are immigrants or minorities. She taught in one of the English Speakers of Other Languages classrooms, where immigrants learn self-impowerment through an emphasis on learning functional English, rather than grammar. This includes knowing how to talk to doctors, shop in grocery stores, apply for jobs, read stories to their children and receive help in “whatever areas they may need us there, navigating the United States as immigrants.”

Following her description of the school, Baker-Lerner asked people to write down what they turn to for comfort when put in an uncomfortable or stressful situation. After receiving such answers as “music,” “family” and “cat videos,” she revealed that food was a large source of comfort to the students at the Waltham Family School. Learning the

importance of food to the students marked a cultural revelation for her; while she initially declined some of the food out of politeness, in their culture, refraining implied the opposite.

“And so, I learned from that the next week, because there was food again, and I was like, ‘Yes please. I would love some food.’ … It kind

tored children at Prospect Hill Kids’ Club, which partners with the community center at Prospect Hill Terrace to give the community’s children — some of whom are immigrants — a safe space to come to after school to enjoy snacks and games, do their homework and make new friends. She recalled some moments

JOYCE YU/the Justice

PROUD PROFESSOR: Marci McPhee introduced her students at the Immigrant Practicum Presentation. of switched the roles in the classroom … and I think that this made them more comfortable with the space.”

Reflecting on what she ultimately learned from her participant observation, BakerLerner said she realized that “the immigrant experience really is the human experience,” and that to stereotype these multidimensional people as all living bad lives “reduc[es] who they are and what they’ve lived to something that they wouldn’t want to be.” Instead, she believes that anyone can have good or bad experiences, some perhaps more than others. “This course was called ‘The Immigrant Experience in Waltham,’ but I think I learned to push back against that. Every single person there has a slightly different story.”

Wang spoke next, revealing how she men-

that let her see things from the kids’ perspectives rather than her own.

Wang recalled from her first time at the center that all the kids wore nametags, but one child pulled out the paper from his nametag, and wrote “Jeff” in place of his native name.

When Wang asked him why he changed his name, he said, “I don’t know. I just like to be called Jeff instead of [my] real name.” It reminded Wang of her own situation, when she changed her Chinese name to “Olivia” upon coming to the United States as an international student. She realized how the boy felt, likening his feelings to her desire to feel included and be just like her American friends.

Wang’s experiences with the students tied into her base course, “The Sociology of American Immigration,” where students talked

about second-generation immigration and how it often leads to segmented assimilation (adapting to some aspects of a new culture while holding onto others). Wang realized the powerful influence families can have, reflecting that “everyone was speaking English [at Prospect Hill Kids’ Club], but you can still see that some of the kids … still have connections to the homeland culture of their parents.”

Last but not least, Cohen spoke about her time at the Waltham Alliance To Create Housing amd Community Development Corporation. The center offers a range of services for immigrants of all ages, from help gaining housing to assistance with finances. Cohen worked in the highest-level English classroom, going over grammar and vocabulary while also enjoying general conversation with the 12 students. “The people begin to open up to you because you’re in this relatively small environment and you want to kind of talk to people about your [day-to-day] experiences,” she said.

She then asked everyone to keep in mind the idea of borders and barriers to access before describing two incidents that stood out to her.

Her first story involved a woman from Haiti who desperately wanted to be a nurse and got accepted into a local nurses’ aides training program, which felt like the next best thing to her.

After training for weeks instead of working, and receiving a 99 percent on the certification test, the program administrator “rips up the certification right in front of her,” saying there is no more available space. Cohen stressed the emotionality of this revelation for the hardworking woman, and how her limited English literacy exaggerated her reaction.

Cohen’s second story described a woman who emigrated from Portugal three months earlier and got a job at In A Pickle upon arrival. The prospect of meeting new people while learning English at WATCH CDC excited her.

But when she misheard “can’t” as “can” and wrongly assumed she was allowed into the basement of the restaurant, her boss yelled at her in front of all of her coworkers and put her on probation for her mistake. Once more, Cohen highlighted the barriers immigrants can face while learning a new language, remarking that “these barriers to access are so significant just by not fluently speaking a language, and that people treat you entirely differently.”

Connecting her experiences back to her base course, “Networks of Global Justice,” Cohen mentioned Joseph Carens, a political theorist who argues for the complete elimination of physical borders. Cohen appealed to the more moderate idea of eliminating the conditions that lead to language barriers, so that immigrants “living in [a] country that may not be their home … [can] be somewhere that they can still call home.” She reflected that “these borders, both physical and metaphorical, exist for us in every sense [and] every day of our lives, and we need to kind of work to eliminate them or erase them in the best ways possible.”

JOYCE YU/the Justice

STORIES FROM A SEMESTER: Audience members listened to students discuss their experiences exploring immigration.

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COMMENCEMENT 2017

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HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS

COMMENCEMEN fellow graduates and “making it CONTINUED FROM 1

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University Provost Lisa Lynch serves as the University’s chief academic officer as well as the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy. Lynch previously served as interim University president from July 2015 through June 2016 and prior to that was the dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Outside academia, Lynch worked as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and as the chair of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. As an undergraduate, she studied economics and political science at Wellesley College, and she earned her Master’s degree and Ph.D. in economics at the London School of Economics, according to her profile on the Brandeis website.

LESLIE LAMPORT IR IH M

After studying mathematics and earning two graduate degrees from Brandeis, computer scientist Leslie Lamport MA ’63 Ph.D.’72 became known as “the father of principled distributed computing.” In 2013, Lamport won the A.M. Turing Award for “fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of distributed and concurrent systems,” according to the A.M. Turing website. Lamport also wrote the highly cited research paper titled “Time, Clocks and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System,” which he published in 1978.

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we are in 2017, watching ‘never again’ turn into to ‘again and again,’ and watching that wonderful democratic consensus fragment, shattered by narcissistic populism, an unhealthy tolerance for intolerance, a cavalier indifference to equality, a deliberate amnesia about the instruments and values of democracy, and a shocking disrespect for the borders between power and its independent adjudicators like the press and the courts,” she said.

And yet, she said, “The phoenix that rose from the ashes of Auschwitz was justice.

Beautiful, democratic, tolerant, compassionate justice.”

Staying attuned to injustice was a theme University President Ronald Liebowitz also

touched on in his remarks counted the University’s his sectarian, quota-less school people of all creeds, adding th “must remain a defining c this University.”

In one of the lighter mome mencement exercises, unde dent speaker Mercedes Hall undergraduate career to a b thanking her fellow graduate shot … [and] making it to th game.”

“We play hard every gam a little bit better and with a when we play at home. At hom feated. … We all play for the s said, adding, “There is one pl

Good luck, C

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ROSALIE SILBERMAN ABELLA IR IH M

Rosalie Silberman Abella is a Canadian Supreme Court justice and renowned expert on human-rights law who contributed to the creation of the concept of “employment equity.” After receiving a Bachelor of Law from the University of Toronto, Abella practiced civil and criminal law from 1972 through 1976. She then became a jurist on the Ontario Family Court at age 29, the youngest of anyone appointed to Canada’s judiciary.

Abella was also the first pregnant person appointed to the courts. Later, in 2004, Abella became the first Jewish woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. In addition to her work on the judiciary, Abella has written more than 90 articles and contributed to four books.

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DEVAL PATRICK Deval Patrick is chair of the advisory board of Our Generation Speaks, a fellowship program designed to use entrepreneurship to foster a better rapport between Israelis and Palestinians. The program partners with Brandeis and MassChallenge to work with young Israeli and Palestinian leaders to create jobs and attempt to improve relations between the two communities. Prior to his work at Our Generation Speaks, Patrick was the first African-American governor of Massachusetts and was elected to two terms, serving from 2007 to 2015. Patrick’s education includes Milton Academy, Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

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FINAL GAME: Mercedes Briana Hall ’17 delivered a ball-court-themed student address, congratulating her Class of 2017 teammates.

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BARRY SHRAGE IR IH M

Barry Shrage has served since 1987 as the president of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, which “focuses on developing Jewish education and engaging future generations, [as well as] building connections to Israel,” according to an April 4 Brandeis press release. Under Shrage’s leadership, the organization has invested $1.1 million in the Jewish community not only in Greater Boston but also in the larger world. In response to the 2008 recession, Shrage also contributed to the development of CJP’s Economic Response, which aimed to provide resources “to meet the needs of the Boston area’s most vulnerable,” according to the same press release.

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—Amber Miles CREATIVE COMMONS AND NATALIA WIATER/the Justice

THE JUSTICE

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COMMENCEMENT 2017

NT: Hall congratulates s for “taking the shot” to the championship”

s. Liebowitz restory as a nonthat welcomed hat this openness characteristic of

ents of the comergraduate stu’17 likened her basketball game, es for “taking the he championship

me, but we play a lot more heart me, we are undesame team,” Hall lay that incorpo-

rates a strategy to make us winners any and everywhere we go. This play involves making every game played for our next team a home game. Wherever we go, we carry home with us and make it our new home.”

Addressing the audience after Hall, graduate student speaker Vivekanand Pandey Vimal Ph.D. ’17 pulled out a cup of soil, sprinkling it across the podium. “Dear Mother Earth who has given us all life, … we momentarily rest upon the moving tectonic plates of destiny, where we can smell the freshly pressed and compressed perfume of nostalgia, and where glistening all around us is a constellation of celebration,” he said.

Reflecting on his graduate school experience, Vimal asked the audience, “And how many of you have gone to a human party with

human music and human connections where you have had to explain your thesis? And after stripping away all the jargon and nuance, a party person has always ended up saying, ‘Isn’t your thesis kind of obvious?’ And the only thing you can say is, ‘I’m going home to eat a microwave dinner,’ and … you ask, ‘Why did I ever even do this?’”

The answer, the reason for all the hard work, late nights and occasional failures, he said, is “because we want to live, and we want to dream, and fall in love with something beautiful. We did it because we want to explore the vastness of the universe and give birth to an idea never before seen in the entire history of humanity.”

MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice

EXPRESSIVE CAPS: Some donned artistic, hand-crafted caps, standing out across the sea of graduates.

—Michelle Dang contributed reporting.

Class of 2017!

MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice

BEAMING FACES: Graduates cheered during the addresses at Sunday’s commencement.

BRIEF Mark Samburg ’07 delivers address to 2017 Phi Beta Kappa inductees “The phoenix that rose from the ashes of Auschwitz was justice.

Beautiful, democratic, tolerant, compassionate justice.”

—Rosalie Silberman Abella NATALIA WIATER/the Justice

MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice

GRADUATE STUDENT ADDRESS: “We want to fall in love with something beautiful,” said Vivekanand Pandey Vimal Ph.D. ’17 in his address to his fellow graduates.

The University’s Phi Beta Kappa Mu Chapter of Massachusetts inducted 99 students in a ceremony welcoming family and friends on Saturday.

The graduating Class of 2017 holds 100 PBK members total, including nine students who were elected as juniors. Additionally, eight members of the Class of 2018 were inducted.

In their welcoming addresses, both Mu Chapter President Prof. Alice Kelikian (HIST) and University President Ronald D. Liebowitz drew attention to the fact that 70 percent of the new inductees are women.

“I was the first and only woman of my class of Phi Beta Kappa at Princeton … we live in different times,” said Kelikian, who spoke of the society’s origins as a “drinking and debating all-male society.”

“You capture and symbolize the best of who we are and why Phi Beta Kappa exists — to honor wide scholarly interest and achievement in the arts and civic commitment and strong moral fiber,” said Liebowitz to all the newly-elected members.

Mu Chapter Board Member at Large Prof. George Hall (ECON) delivered a brief history of the honor society.

Established in 1776 at The College of William and Mary, only 10 percent of schools of higher learning have chapters, said Hall. “Nationally, only one percent of all students get in.”

However, keynote speaker Mark Samburg ’07, Acting Counsel to the Associate Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a graduate of Harvard Law School, re-

minded the Class of 2017 to remain humble in the midst of its academic rigor.

“Just as you shouldn’t underestimate what you’ve accomplished here, you also shouldn’t think that those things alone should be enough,” he said. “If you want to excel in your professional life, you’re not going to be able to rely simply on your intelligence and on the training you’ve received here at Brandeis.”

On top of the external stressors of life, Samburg highlighted that “the jobs you choose are going to have an enormous impact on your happiness.”

He quoted Justice Louis Brandeis to drive in one point: “It is, as a rule, far more important how men pursue their occupation than what the occupation is which they select.”

Samburg ended by encouraging the inductees to keep saying yes to opportunities. “If you commit to saying yes to things that fall within your own circle of fun, interesting and important, you can do an awful lot. … I made ‘yes’ my default answer for the past 10 years.”

The University founded its Phi Beta Kappa chapter in 1961 and has since elected 10 percent of each senior class and one percent of each junior class annually. Nominated candidates not only show highest academic records but also demonstrate well-rounded study outside of their major studies and are chosen based on nominating letters from faculty.

—Michelle Dang

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Brandeis University

Abby Patkin, Editor in Chief Amber Miles, Managing Editor Carmi Rothberg, Senior Editor Michelle Banayan, Noah Hessdorf, Mihir Khanna, Jerry Miller and Sabrina Sung, Associate Editors Michelle Dang, News Editor, Kirby Kochanowski, Features Editor Nia Lyn, Acting Forum Editor, Ben Katcher, Sports Editor Hannah Kressel, Arts Editor Natalia Wiater, Photography Editor Mira Mellman, Layout Editor, Pamela Klahr and Robbie Lurie, Ads Editors Jen Geller and Avraham Penso, Copy Editors SABRINA SUNG/the Justice

EDITORIALS Congratulate Class of 2017 Justice graduates Over the years, the Justice has been fortunate to have many dedicated editors, and this year, we must bid farewell to four of the best. These editors have been an invaluable contribution to the paper, and as they leave Brandeis to begin the next chapters of their lives, this board reflects on their time here and commends them on their achievements.

Fierce yet fiercely friendly, Morgan Brill has been an integral part of the Justice during all four of her years at Brandeis. Recognizing her immense potential, then-Photography Editor Josh Horowitz ’14 placed Morgan on the fast track to becoming the Photography editor within mere weeks of her joining the photos staff. From there, she quickly rose to the position of full Photography editor and trained not only her co-editor but also their two successors and even the current Photography editor in later years. After her tenure as the Photography editor, Morgan went on to fill the position of the Justice’s production editor. During her time as the production editor, Morgan worked to improve the office’s workflow efficiency in putting out the paper every week. From there, Morgan rose to the rank of deputy editor while briefly doubling up as the acting Photography editor in order to fill a temporary vacancy. As deputy editor, in addition to advising and guiding the Justice’s leadership, Morgan focused on improving recruitment and retention within the paper. Working closely with section editors, she has been able to bolster the Justice’s recruitment numbers and retention rates this semester. Morgan leaves the Justice to start what promises to be an exciting and challenging life in Washington D.C. While her unique brand of quick wit and cheeky humor will be dearly missed around the office, she leaves behind a legacy of editors with a matching zeal for lighthearted sass.

Jessica Goldstein brought endless joy and patience with her to the roles of Forum editor and associate editor. She began writing for the Justice during her first semester on campus and continued to do so through graduation. Jessica’s political knowledge made her a skilled and informed editor who successfully communicated with her writers while also cultivating a personal connection.

Jessica’s kindness and lighthearted spirit made her a fun addition to Justice meetings. Bouncy balls, bubbles and spray paint are all legacies she may claim. As an associate editor, Jessica was always willing to lend a hand to other sections. Her political and artistic insight helped many editors improve their sections.

Outside of the Justice, Jessica is a fantastic friend and fascinating individual.

Her unwavering commitment to humanity has led her to make tremendous strides in her advocacy work, and as an artist, she has created powerful and moving pieces.

We are immensely proud of Jessica and all she has accomplished while at Brandeis. We will miss her and hope she will come to visit us often. Her generosity of spirit, determination and

Celebrate achievements passion will surely carry her far, and we can’t wait to see what she does.

Throughout his time at the Justice, Max Moran worked tirelessly to ensure that the paper’s content was as accurate and thorough as possible through hands-on leadership and strong relationships with subjects and sources.

Max transitioned seamlessly from the Forum section to editing other sections of the paper as well, quickly mastering News style and channeling his passion for arts and theater into reporting for the Arts section. During his tenure as editor in chief, Max oversaw coverage of the University’s search for a new president and faculty unionization.

Walking into the Justice office at any time of day or night to find Max typing away at a computer or pacing around the room on the phone with a source was a regular occurrence during his time as editor. Max’s strong work ethic and unwavering commitment to journalistic ideals continue to inspire the Justice’s writers and editors.

Max is a passionate journalist, a leader by example and a skillful writer.

Beyond that, however, he is also a great friend who is always willing to lend a hand or provide moral support. We will miss having Max in the office — even his impromptu “Hamilton” serenades — and we look forward to seeing him accomplish great things in the future, starting with his new job at a radio station in Atlanta.

Rachel Sharer has been the resident cool kid, stunning us all with her awesome Instagram posts and social media savvy. Rachel led the News section before returning from abroad and stepping up as online editor this past year. Her writing, editing and reporting skills have been a key feature in the newsroom. Under her guidance, the paper was able to expand its social media presence, and we have been #soblessed to have her manning our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Though she was off living a fabulous life for most of this past semester, her visits to the office were always cherished, and her amazing sense of humor was appreciated. The staff will surely miss her tech skills and witty comments next year as we struggle to find someone as talented as Rachel. We know she will excel in the real world, and we can’t wait to see what she is capable of.

This board will miss these talented individuals dearly, and we thank them for all their time and hard work over the years. We also wish to express gratitude to all of our graduating staff members who have worked in conjunction with our editors to put out the paper every week, and we look forward to hearing about what they do with the adventures ahead of them. This board also recognizes the numerous accomplishments of all the students in the graduating class and applauds their hard work. With Senior Week and commencement festivities now drawing to a close, we congratulate all who graduated with the Class of 2017 and wish them the best.

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With the recent commencement, the Class of 2017 has the opportunity to reflect upon their experiences at Brandeis. What is your fondest memory from your undergraduate career, and what role did this campus play in it?

Iona Feldman ’17 One familiar winter day, in February of 2015, we gathered at the top of the Rabb Steps. Undergraduate and graduate students, alumni and professors. Our black, white and orange banners read “Divest Brandeis” and “No More: Fracking, Drilling, Climate Crisis, In Our Name!” We marched down campus toward Provost Lynch’s office in Bernstein-Marcus to deliver a new faculty petition and an earnest reminder of Brandeis’s institutional complicity in global climate change. This was not the first such action that I was involved in, nor would it be the last one. Unfortunately, in my time as a student here, the Board of Trustees has consistently delayed responding to our campaign, opting to perpetuate Brandeis’s active investment in the fossil fuel industry. For as long as this continues, Brandeis’s superficial commitments to campus sustainability will remain but a cheap public relations façade. Some of us graduate now, but the struggle carries on.

Iona Feldman ’17 was a member of Brandeis Climate Justice and Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine.

Lori Shapiro ’17 My fondest memory at Brandeis is a recurring one from senior year. Every Thursday for the past semester, I would get lunch with six friends that I made on my freshman hall during the first few weeks of school. We would share our highs and lows from the week, reminisce about memories or just chat, often for over two hours at a time. These six friends have been a constant for me throughout my four years at Brandeis; we have watched each other change and grow but still managed to remain extremely close.

Brandeis fosters a community of people unlike anywhere else, and every week, this lunch would remind me how important these friendships and relationships are. While I will miss these weekly lunches immensely, I am beyond thankful to Brandeis for bringing us together.

Lori Shapiro ’17 was a Business Undergraduate Departmental Representative.

Alex Mitchell ’17 While Brandeis has given me many wonderful memories, I think the finest come from discussing papers late at night with my friends. In upper-level paper classes, we would print out a few copies of the papers, grab some snacks and hang out in the Science Center and argue about the paper. People would point out methodological flaws, critique the authors’ logic and crack jokes about the experiments. Meeting up with your peers to talk about the material in any subject will get you more engaged with what you’re learning and probably teach you more than you could have learned on your own. When you get down to it, the point of college academics is to learn from smart people — not just professors but also your fellow students. Brandeis gives you the opportunity to meet these people and to learn from their perspectives.

Alex Mitchell ’17 was a member of the Catholic Student Organization and the interfaith group. He also wrote for the Brandeis Hoot.

Jeremy Koob ’17 It’s hard to pick a single memory from Brandeis, but here are several with a theme. My sophomore year, a friend and I used our excess meal points to take professors to lunch at the faculty club. We asked professors we had taken courses with and professors that we were interested in meeting. Brandeis professors are incredibly open to interactions with students, and these connections shaped my undergraduate career in ways words can’t describe. Other memories that stand out include playing chamber music in the Slosberg recital hall, running the first Brandeis Sustainability Challenge (deiSic) and presenting my Master’s thesis in Biochemistry. These memories have one thing in common: They all reflect interactions between Brandeisians on the Brandeis campus. Truly, the undergraduate experience is about the connections you form and the places they take you — the ephemeral and invisible lines between individuals are the strongest and fondest memories that a person can carry.

Jeremy Koob ’17 was a Chemistry Undergraduate Departmental Representative.

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Reject hypocrisy in conservative criticism of activists By judah weinerman JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

If you have heard the complaint that today’s college students are too sensitive, you are far from alone. It seems the latest moral panic for conservative talking heads is this idea that American colleges have become a hypersensitive hellhole of safe spaces and trigger warnings, utterly delusional and separated from the outside world. These modern-day doomsday prophets warn that anything that dares to so much as resemble objectionable thought is pounced on by a veritable army of critics and silencers. “A movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense,” wrote Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt in “The Coddling of the American Mind,” the September 2015 cover story of The Atlantic. You really do not have to go far to find examples of conservative media outlets trying to make an example out of college activist efforts and the supposedly suffocatingly liberal atmosphere on college campuses. In fact, Brandeis University, known for its social justice pedigree and activist proclivities, manages to find its way into the headlines from time to time. Tucker Carlson, now best known for taking the time slot once held by the disgraced Bill O’Reilly, seemingly made it a point to go after our dear university in his time running the online newsletter, The Daily Caller. In addition to describing the University as “one of America’s foremost lairs of leftism” in its list of the “13 Most Rabidly Leftist Politically Correct Colleges for Dirty Tree Hugging Hippies,” the Daily Caller also found it fit to run headlines like “Fancypants, $60,000-A-Year College Student: ‘No Sympathy’ For Brutally Executed Cops” and “Asian Kids At $60,300-Per-Year College Find Exciting New Ways To Feel Insulted By ‘Microaggressions’” as legitimate news content. This is hardly surprising when you consider that the Daily Caller also claims that “a Brandeis student uncovered a huge listserv used by Brandeis professors containing several scary exchanges bashing conservatives, Jews, Christians, and basically anyone who views America as a force for good,” per the first article. A little tip for Eric Owens, the writer who brought us that last paragraph and whoever wrote all those lovely headlines for him: Brandeis is not a secret “lair” where conservative Christians are tortured night and day, and neither is any other college.

And it is not just Carlson and company; other arch-conservative news outlets feel the need to pile on poor Brandeis, as well. “Three

PERI MEYERS/the Justice

In Four Brandeis Conservatives Are in the Political Closet” reads a distressingly typical headline from Breitbart, which, at the time of that headline, was run by White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. The National Review, not content to be outdone in the contemptuous complaining department, ran with the title “Campus Group Apologizes to Students ‘Triggered’ by Anti-Microaggressions Exhibit.” In any case, you can easily see the narrative being woven here: Brandeis students and their co-conspirators at leftleaning universities across the country are privileged, sensitive stuck-ups who leap into impotent rage at the slightest hint that their precious social justice is at risk; furthermore, being a conservative on a college campus is a harrowing experience far worse than any racial or gender-based discrimination existing today.

While the vast majority of the above narrative is complete nonsense, arguing that colleges do not lean to the left is a fool’s errand.

For every one self-identified right-leaning professor active in academia, there are at least five left-leaning professors, according to a Jan. 11, 2016 article in the Washington Post.

Unfortunately for Carlson, the

predominance of liberals on college campuses is not the root of the oh-so-sensitive identity politics at hand; that would be the work of conservatives. If you are so set on talking about ideology superseding evidence, perhaps you should look elsewhere for examples.

Perhaps consider the science classrooms across the country where the basic facts of the world around us — like evolution and the Big Bang — are being thrown straight into the garbage to satiate hard-line religious leaders, or maybe the government research organizations now barred from the simple act of reporting on the environment because fossil fuel companies provide a useful political ally for our incumbent President.

Further, a couple of college kids getting upset over a poorly coordinated art installation, as written about in the aforementioned National Review article, is small peanuts compared to the inevitable backlash, Twittersphere firestorm and months and months of harassment that ensue. For every over-excited student taking their desire to get hate speech off campus a bit too far, there are about 300 Youtube videos of angry 30-something white men going on hour-long rants about how college students complain too much. In spending all their

time excoriating college students for reacting with outsized emotion to supposedly small factors, conservative pundits and opinionmakers put out far more unwarranted and unnecessary criticism than their targets. The irony has clearly escaped them. And as for cries that this all falls under the nebulous and spooky banner of “censorship” and violates the First Amendment, there is one last thing to note: Our lovely First Amendment only guarantees the right to free expression in the form of not having government censorship or silencing; private citizens and institutions can do whatever they want. Don’t cry censorship whenever the speech you want public is ignored and the opinions you want silenced reach prominence. For example, if you — like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, according to a May 16 CNN article — happen to contend that Tim Allen’s show “Last Man Standing” was taken off the air to spite you for supporting Donald Trump, maybe look at the show’s meandering ratings and failure to impress advertisers before pointing fingers.

Likewise, there is no conspiracy to turn college campuses into hypersensitive warzones.

College students have simply become sick and tired of the prejudice conservatives peddle.

Urge police departments to become representative of communities Nia

lyn purpose

On May 19, a jury in Columbus, Ohio refused to indict Officer Bryan Mason for the Sept. 14, 2016 killing of 13-year-old Tyre King.

During the incident, police were called in response to a robbery in the area involving three Black males. Mason chased King into an alley before opening fire after mistaking the child’s BB gun for a real one. According to a May 19 ABC News article, Mason was only recently appointed to patrol the neighborhood at the time of the incident. This event is also eerily similar to the 2014 shooting of 12-yearold Tamir Rice. Rice was in a park playing with a BB gun when a 911 call was placed, reporting that someone was brandishing a weapon. The individual making the call also mentioned that the person was “probably a juvenile” and that the gun was “probably fake,” according to a March 15 CNN article.

The negligence of the dispatcher to relay the additional comments likely contributed to yet another innocent life lost.

These incidents bring attention to the problematic gun culture in America, for one.

Obtaining a gun in this country requires

one’s name, address, place of birth and the answer to several simple questions along with a brief background check, according to a June 19, 2015 CNN article. It should also be noted that these qualifications vary both federally and statewide; for example, New York requires “character references,” according to the New York state website.

This, compounded with the fascination that Americans seem to have with firearms, has created a society in which individuals are so desensitized that it is somehow conceivable for an adolescent to possess weaponry of their own accord. According to a Jan. 5, 2016 BBC article, over 13,000 Americans were killed by firearms in 2015, and an additional 27,000 were injured. These figures do not account for acts of suicide. Granted, some of these deaths are accidental and were not the result of malicious intent, but the fact that individuals without any real training or knowledge of gun safety can purchase firearms and do as they please with them is an issue. If some form of change is implemented in the way that individuals in this country view weapons, maybe then children with toys will stop being mistaken for hardened criminals.

In addition to this, there lies issue with the police force itself and the placement of officers in neighborhoods where the people do not look like them. Take, for example, the 2014 shooting of Akai Gurley. Rookie New York Police Department officer Peter Liang was in a public housing complex when he shot Gurley in the dimly lit staircase.

According to an April 16, 2016 New York

Times article, Brooklyn judge Danny Chun feels that Liang had entered the situation with good intentions and that the shooting was completely accidental. Though it is likely that Liang did not wish to shoot Gurley, the issue was his placement in that environment in the first place. A scared individual with a gun is not who we need to serve and protect us; that is just asking for another casualty. I grew up in the same part of Brooklyn, and I can attest to the fact that I have almost never seen a Black police officer patrolling the neighborhood. This does not mean that nonBlack officers are not fit to be in areas like mine; it just means that there should be more familiar faces to calm those in the area and prevent uncomfortable encounters. If there was more representation, people might feel less uncomfortable around officers. In turn, better community-police relations might develop and the officers themselves might be less anxious when in these neighborhoods.

Especially within the past few years, a familiar face or two would not be the worst thing for police-community relations.

The inherent racial biases that underlie each of these incidents is evidence of a problem with America as a whole and that is not something that can be easily rectified.

Aside from being wise with assignments to certain neighborhoods and training officers to use alternative detainment methods, there is still much that can be done. According to a July 7, 2016 ABC News article, police officers are trained to shoot to kill and not injure. When an officer pulls out a gun, it is

considered deadly force and the only reason that an officer is taught to do so is to avoid the loss of life of themselves, their partner or a third party. But when does an officer feel that their life is threatened? This may be different for different individuals, and as a result, we get the typical posthumous narrative of the victim; the officer’s claims that “he was resisting” or “it was self defense” can be easily dismissed by those that get to view the situation from an outside perspective. It is not fair that someone has to lose their life simply because an officer felt threatened or because they had a lapse in judgement. Someone who is tasked with protecting the masses should have better instincts and training that prevent such behavior. According to discoverpolicing.org, a website from the International Association of Chiefs of Police, training to become a law enforcement officer in the United States ranges between four to six months and during this time, the most time — 71 hours — is spent on firearms skills while only 21 and 16 hours, respectively, are spent on use of force and non lethal weapons.

While firearms are dangerous and rightly receive the most training, officers need to be trained more in alternate methods to deescalate a situation — a firearm should be a last resort.

The only way to see that innocent lives are no longer lost is to change the way that the social justice system operates; instead of aiming to kill and end a short-term issue, we need to aim to rehabilitate and create a better society.

The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.

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12

TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2017 ● forum ● THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Recognize the negative effects of animal consumption TAMAR LIEBERMAN justice Contributing writer

Though active, the environmentalist movement on this campus has been almost blind to one issue in particular — animal consumption. While it tries arduously to curb electricity usage, encourage recycling and fight for divestment from fossil fuels, it misses the point that mitigating climate change and its effects must include a plan to reduce our reliance on meat, fish and animal products. Brandeis will never be taken seriously as an environmentally friendly campus until the institution, the faculty, the students and the environmental movement on campus start to seriously grapple with the fact that what we put on our plates every day is a large catalyst for climate change.

It is important to note, however, ways in which Brandeis is already addressing the destructive nature of animal agriculture. There are a significant number of vegetarians and vegans on campus; decent food options for them in our dining halls and efforts like Meatless Monday show how many Brandeisians are conscious of the way meat consumption affects our planet.

On a personal note, when I have talked to students, shown videos or handed out leaflets about reducing meat consumption through the Brandeis Veg Club, I received a lot of positive reactions, and many people seem to already understand the issues, furthering my idea of the student body as a particularly knowledgeable group.

Yet our campus is not talking enough about the issue or doing enough to create the urgent changes warranted.

Animal agriculture is one of the biggest causes of climate change today. It accounts for the use of 30 percent of the world’s non-ice surface and one-third of the world’s fresh water, according to a Dec. 16, 2013 Time article. Additionally, in 2006, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that “18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions is directly attributable to livestock production, which is more than the emissions attributable to the entire transportation sector.” In terms of deforestation, the World Bank found that “90 percent of the razing of the Brazilian Amazon” is connected to the production of animal agriculture, according to a 2004 report. Fishing is also an environmental hazard: It is responsible for an estimated 75 percent of the world’s fisheries being exploited or depleted, according to a Nov. 3, 2006 study published in Science magazine.

The case for consuming less meat, fish, dairy and eggs for environmental purposes is very well-founded. According to a Dec. 14, 2005 article in The New Scientist, the switch from a “normal diet” to a vegan diet would prevent 50 percent more emissions than the switch from a “normal car” to a Prius. So why is the image of an environmentalist, on this campus and beyond, still a Prius driver and not a vegan?

Too often it seems that these diet

BEN JARRETT/the Justice

considerations are lost from conversations about environmentalism on campus. Case in point: The Climate Action Plan, a 26-page document written by the President’s Task Force on Campus Sustainability from October 2016, outlines a list of ways that the University can “reduce emissions relatively quickly.” While the plan contains many common sense ideas — both tried-and-true and more innovative ones — the focus was mainly on areas such as transportation, buildings and renewable energy. Day-to-day efforts include increasing recycling and composting rates along with conserving electricity in buildings. What was notably missing from the plan was any mention of reducing our reliance on animal products on campus. The issues inherent in animal agriculture as it exists cannot simply be ignored if we, as a community, want to commit in a serious, meaningful way to environmental protection.

Linked to the Climate Action Plan and the Task Force, the Brandeis Sustainability Fund — now in its second year — has never included a project related directly to Brandeis’ meat consumption, even though a project of that nature could effectively save even more resources.

Another example is that each semester, Brandeis Student Union Dining Committee puts on a “Meatless Monday” in Sherman for dinner where Sodexo makes only dishes without meat or fish. And each semester, while the committee generally receives a lot of positive feedback, there are also a lot of grumbles and angry comments generally regarding the lack of meat for the one meal, dramatized to make it

seem as if a basic necessity has been taken away.

However, meat is not a necessity because it has been shown that among vegetarians and nonvegetarians with similar lifestyles, vegetarians are proven to have a lower risk of heart disease, according to a study from the American Society for Clinical Nutrition.

A final issue surrounding the lack of conversation about factory farming practices is its absence from environmental classes. While I have only taken three Environmental Studies classes at Brandeis, all three at some point dealt with our food system, climate change or animals themselves. However, the classes steered away from addressing animal agriculture in a serious way and were reluctant to discuss the issue head-on in the curriculum.

In general, the only academic interactions that we have with animals are in biology classes where we learn about them in purely scientific, bodily terms. While some larger universities have specific programs for animal behavior or ethology, Brandeis offers one class on the matter each year. While that is understandable for the size of our school and for its academic focuses, it leaves a huge gap in the academic offerings related to animals. Even in my Introduction to Psychology class, the connection between human health, behavior and psychology to those of animals was never explicitly mentioned, even though there are prominent movements now that can connect human health and behavior with that of other animals.

We must therefore wrestle with how our glaring hole in discussing animal agriculture issues can be in part attributed to a glaring hole

in our empathy toward — and conversations revolving around — farm animals and their treatment. After all, people living on campus have limited daily interactions with animals, let alone the sort of animals that would end up on our plates. We do not have access to “farms” that raise meat or slaughterhouses that end their lives, and the only animals that can be found at Brandeis are a few pet fishes, an occasional dog being walked, the rodents used in research and, of course, the meat on our plates.

Like most people, Brandeisians are prone to cuddle the “therapy dogs” and eat a burger right after, not thinking about the cognitive dissonance inherent in that. We have to start the conversation and give some kind of a voice on campus to the creatures in the world. In 2016 alone, 4.6 billion farm animals were killed, according to the Humane Society. This trend seems to be changing as more and more people are understanding that while using reusable cups, reducing air travel or attending climate marches are important steps for reducing environmental degradation, one of the most impactful and bold stands against climate change is simply leaving meat, dairy and eggs off our plates.

Let’s incorporate factory farming of animals into our environmental conversations and initiatives on and off campus. Let’s add empathy and behavioral observation into our conversations about farm animals. And let’s remember that keeping meat, fish, eggs and dairy off our plates is a simple and impactful way to choose compassion and help prevent further climate change.

Take action against racism and acknowledge white privilege By aaron dvorkin special to the justice

On May 1, Adam Jones, a center fielder for the Baltimore Orioles, was subject to racist taunts from a fan during a game at Fenway Park. The story made national headlines, partially due to the fact that this was not an isolated incident. According to a May 2 ESPN article, Jones stated that this was not the first time that he had been the target of such racist abuse during a Boston game, although he has not provided any details about the other incidents. Carsten Charles “CC” Sabathia, a Yankees pitcher and 16-year veteran of Major League Baseball, supplemented Jones’ comments by saying that Boston is known among African-American players for this type of abuse from its fans: “There are 62 of us, and we all know that when you get to Boston, expect it,” he said, according to a May 2 New York Post article.

I grew up in the Greater Boston area in a predominantly white suburb, going to predominantly white private schools. Every year, I would go to one or two Red Sox games with my family, and I was always struck by the sense of unity that the game created among the fans. Juxtaposed with typical American city streets whose inhabitants are generally rushed, unsociable and occasionally rude, Fenway provided a nice reprieve where strangers would act uncharacteristically kindly toward each other simply due to a shared allegiance to a baseball team.

However, recent incidents like that of May 1 have challenged these perceptions. I began to think of how someone of a different race than I may have had a drastically different experience in a place that I have long associated with happiness and camaraderie.

Could my being a white male have shielded

me from such blatant hatred? Could I have overheard evidence of this hostility in more subtle forms but not realized it?

While it is easy to understand that sports can trigger a wide range of emotions, calling someone something as hate-filled as the N-word is something much more severe than what should be expected at a sports game. The fact that these incidents have occurred repeatedly over the years is evidence of a deeper issue — one that results from widespread beliefs in a community rather than just ephemeral, tempestuous reactions to events at a sports game. Perhaps this is most evidenced by the fact that opposing minority players are not the only ones who have been subject to extreme racism at Fenway Park.

In January, Red Sox pitcher David Price said that he had been the victim of racial taunts in Fenway Park during his first season with the team, according to a Jan. 13 Boston Globe article. Former Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford was also subject to racial taunts from members of the fan base in 2012, according to a July 25, 2012 ESPN article.

The question then becomes, why is it that Boston is known among African-American MLB players as a place where they are uniquely susceptible to racism? Is it possible that these incidents are merely aberrations or, as some in Boston have suggested, that they happen just as frequently in other cities but the media likes to sensationalize those that occur here because it plays well among those who hate the local sports teams?

In his book, “Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead,” former white supremacist leaderturned-civil rights activist Frank Meeink attempts to answer the question of how and why hate toward different ethnicities had become such a big part of his past life. For him, the answer could be found in how he

came to question his hateful beliefs. Through a series of relationships with people from groups he thought he hated, he was forced to challenge the stereotypes that he had believed so fervently. The story elucidates the fact that racist beliefs can easily take root in the absence of interaction between groups of different ethnicities.

Perhaps this lesson can be applied to Boston.

According to data reviewed by 24/7 Wall Street in 2015, Boston-Cambridge-Newton is the seventh most segregated area in the United States.

Boston has a well-documented history of racism, such as the busing incident in the late 1970s when the court-ordered desegregation of city public schools was met with fierce opposition from white residents. While some have argued that their outrage and concern was simply for the inconvenience of the children who now had to endure long bus rides to schools outside of their neighborhoods, it became very clear that this was not the only impetus behind the outrage. Buses carrying African-American students from Roxbury into South Boston were pelted with bricks and stones and local whites referred to those students using racial epithets in interviews with reporters, according to a 2014 series on WBUR. However, Meeink’s case provides another reason why Boston has had such an issue with racism. A white Boston resident that does not interact with racial minorities on a regular basis does not have the opportunities to counter the stereotypes that may have become ingrained in their minds from those around them or the media. Thus, the type of hatred seen during the Busing scandal and at Red Sox games can fester, as many Bostonians do not have the types of relationships with racial minorities that preclude them from

The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.

making sweeping generalizations. This does not excuse one from having such beliefs, but it is important to understand how they can be borne out of societal and contextual factors in addition to simply being passed down from family members.

A day before the Adam Jones incident occurred, I was walking to a party with my friends before Springfest. As we walked up to the door, we saw that a group of AfricanAmerican students were being told they could not come in because there was not enough room in the party for them. My friends and I, all white, walked past the host and into the party without issue. I looked back at what was happening and thought about how terrible it was, but then I continued into the event without saying anything. Later, I began to question myself and the extent to which I was a part of the problem. I have always considered myself to be a socially conscious person and have always supported movements advocating for the progress of marginalized groups.

And yet, my instinct in the aforementioned situation was to internalize my feelings and move on without taking action.

Racism and injustice can take many forms and pervade many types of communities.

Even one of the most iconic places in a Democratic stronghold and an institution founded on the principle of inclusion is privy to discriminatory attitudes. Greater efforts must be made to foster relationships between members of different groups and there must be action taken at even the slightest hint of such hatred in our communities. Even small gestures like walking out of the party in the aforementioned situation are important.

Learning about these issues in class, posting on social media or even writing articles about them is simply not enough. The real change occurs when concrete action is taken.

2017

10 THE JUSTICE ● Sports ● Tuesday, MAY 23, 2017

SOFTBALL: Team looks to improve for 2018 season CONTINUED FROM 16 blossoming collegiate career.

However, the team will sorely miss their graduating seniors in trying to grow even more as a unit next spring. Infielder Allison Hecht ’17 batted .319 this year with a home run and 12 RBIs. She finishes her outstanding three-year playing career with a .320 average, five home runs and 26 RBIs. Hecht also put up a .463 career slugging percentage, providing significant power for the Judges over the years.

In addition, outfielder Madison

13

ROLLING DOWN

Hunter ’17 has been a massive run producer for the squad.

Posting a .279 average, including five home runs and 23 doubles, Hunter knocked in 58 RBIs over the course of her four-year playing career. Hecht and Hunter have been significant offensive forces for Brandeis and new, young talent will have to step up in their absences next season. With players like Todd in the system, though, there is no reason not to be optimistic.

Stacked with young talent, the Judges will look to top a .500 record next year for the first time since 2015.

PRO SPORTS: Nats setting the tone BRIEF: Celtics square off for rest of National with Cavs in next round League East teams

MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice

JUST FOR KICKS: Elad Ohayon ’17 gets set to pitch during the Senior Week Intramural Kickball Tournament on May 15.

CONTINUED FROM 16

CONTINUED FROM 16 abundance of superstars.

The Nationals worked their way up to the top over the past few years, even with Zimmerman’s numbers declining. The squad was number one in the NL East last year even with Harper’s relative struggles at the plate. With Murphy producing at the same level, Harper living up to his expected MVP-caliber potential and Zimmerman’s shocking numbers, the team appears to be unstoppable.

The

real question is can Zimmerman once again become the face of the rebuilt franchise?

After years of forgettable seasons and lack of recognition, it appears the slugger wants to make his presence known across the league once again.

The MLB season is still young, but fans should be eager to see if Zimmerman can keep up his ridiculous levels of success at the plate. Either way, the completely transformed Nationals should continue to be thrilling to watch.

court in Game 7 totaling 29 points, two assists and two turnovers after what has been a more-thandifficult playoff series for him.

Following the devastating death of his younger sister after a fatal car accident prior to the start of the playoffs, Thomas has made several cross-country trips to be there with his grieving family but he continued to push on.

His strength and determination even during his rough time truly embodies the spirit of the Celtics as a team.

Thus, even with multiple defenders on Thomas, he was still

able to boost the advantage for Olynyk to come back and make outstanding plays that rattled the Wizards. Throughout the night, as well as the season, the Wizards leaned on their star guards Bradley Beal and John Wall excessively.

They both played the entire second half with a combined 90 minutes. Their strong resistance and plays began to dwindle down as Wall missed his final 11 shots in the fourth quarter as they began to tire.

Although the Wizards are a fantastic team with much motivation and drive when it comes to basketball, Game 7 showed the talent and diligence that the Celtics

have. Together, they embody what it means to be a team and work with each other in order to achieve the amazing victory they accomplished on Monday.

In the meantime, the Celtics will now prepare to take on the favored Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals.

Although they are playing a team that is 8-0 in the postseason and that has had much rest and time to regenerate, with their drive and determination, the Celtics will definitely put up a fight and show the world why they were ranked as the number one seed in their division.

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● Sports ●

Tuesday, MAY 23, 2017

15

TRACK & FIELD

jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS BASEBALL TEAM STATS

UAA STANDINGS

Runs Batted In

UAA Conference

W L WashU 8 2 Case 11 5 Emory 9 7 NYU 4 8 JUDGES 2 12 Chicago 0 4

W 20 22 27 17 5 17

Overall L Pct. 8 .714 15 .595 12 .692 12 .586 20 .200 11 .607

UPCOMING GAMES: The team has concluded its season.

Ryan Tettemer ’17 leads the team with 13 runs batted in.

Player RBI Ryan Tettemer 13 Dan O’Leary 10 Anthony Nomakeo 10 Victor Oppenheimer 6

Strikeouts Sean O’Neill ’18 leads all pitchers with 53 strikeouts.

Player Ks Sean O’Neill 53 Greg Tobin 26 Liam Coughlin 14 Tim Lopez 12

SOFTBALL UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Runs Batted In

UAA Conference

W L W Chicago 7 1 22 WashU 11 5 26 Emory

8 6 25 Case 7 6 20 NYU 5 9 18 JUDGES 4 9 13

Overall L Pct. 11 .667 12 .684 13 .658 17 .541 18 .500 16 .448

UPCOMING GAMES: The team has concluded its season.

Amanda Shore ’18 has a teamhigh 18 runs batted in.

Player RBI Amanda Shore 18 Keri Lehtonen 15 Marissa DeLaurentis 14 Madison Hunter 14

Strikeouts Scottie Todd ’20 has a teamhigh 49 strikeouts on the hill.

Player Ks Scottie Todd 49 Callie MacDonald 23 Sadie-Rose Apfel 6 Melissa Soleimani 1

TRACK AND FIELD Results from the Brown Springtime Invitational on April 30.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

100-meter dash

RUNNER Irie Gourde Churchill Perry Lorenzo Maddox

TIME 11.02 11.15 11.32

200-meter dash

RUNNER TIME Kayla Kurland-Davis 27.22 Courtney Page 27.26 Arial Nieberding 30.07

NATALIA WIATER/Justice File Photo

SPEED THAT KILLS: Samuel Reich ’20 (left) and Dillon Garvey ’20 (right) run during the Reggie Poyau Invitational on Jan. 14.

Judges struggle with meet at Williams ■ Emily Bryson ’19 earned a seventh-place finish in the 1500-meter run at the NEIAAC meet.

By JERRY MILLER JUSTICE EDITOR

UPCOMING MEETS: Thursday at NCAA Championships hosted by Mount Union Friday at NCAA Championships hosted by Mount Union Saturday at NCAA Championships hosted by Mount Union

TENNIS Updated season results.

TOP PERFORMERS (Men’s)

TOP PERFORMERS (Women’s)

MEN’S SINGLES Michael Arguello

RECORD 19-11

WOMEN’S SINGLES RECORD Sabrina Neergaard 18-9

MEN’S DOUBLES Aizenberg/Ng

RECORD 16-12

WOMEN’S DOUBLES RECORD Leavitt/Neergaard 15-12

UPCOMING MEETS:

The men’s and women’s tennis teams have concluded their seasons.

The Judges had a very tough run this past week at the New England Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championship meet hosted by Williams College. The men were able to muster six points to place 25th overall against some of the region’s top competition. The women’s team fell behind by a few points, scoring two total points to land themselves in 36th place.

The men had a recurring theme throughout the meet, falling to second-to-last multiple times during the day.

Regan Charie ’19 started the day for the men in a tough spot, running in the 100-meter preliminary dash.

Charie managed to cross the finish line before last place, but his time of 11.34 placed him in the penultimate 31st place. Charie had been having a stellar season up until this race, falling to the top competitors.

He continued to run despite his 100-meter performance, competing

in the 200-meter dash as well. Charie broke the plane at 22.89 to save himself from the depths of last place.

His time was good for 28th place, one shy of last.

Meanwhile, Irie Gourde ’17 lifted the team’s spirits with a fantastic finish in the 400-meter preliminary dash event. Gourde blew past the competition for a fourth-place finish, clocking in at a speedy 48.59. Gourde’s finish was good enough to propel him into the finals, pitting himself against some of the top runners from Dartmouth College and Rhode Island College. Gourde improved his time by mere fractions of a second, clocking in at 48.27 and scraping a bronze medal in the process.

Jack Allan ’20 performed in the 110-meter hurdles, busting his way to a 16.03 time. Allan survived the pack, easing his way to a 29th-place finish, one place short of last. Churchill Perry ’20 also fell to second-to-last in the men’s triple jump event. Perry projected himself 12.94 meters, good for 16th place. Scott Grote ’20 powered his way into the discus throw, hurling the disc 39.59 meters.

His performance was good for 19th place out of 22.

The women’s team had a rough outing, with only two of the team’s runners placing in any event. Doyin Ogundiran ’19 ran in the 800-meter

dash, managing to cross the finish line with a commendable time of 2:19.89. Ogundiran’s time placed her in 28th out of 29 spots. Emily Bryson ’19 continued her fantastic season, posting a time of 4:34.68 in the 1500-meter run.

Bryson blew past the competition to land herself in seventh place for the day.

Both teams struggled at this competition last year and were unable to improve on those results this year.

Despite the difficult outing, though, they will be looking forward to the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships at Westfield State University. The team will then head to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships beginning next Thursday at the University of Mount Union.

Furthermore, although the men’s team will be losing a key competitor in Gourde, both squads boast a plethora of growing talent, eager to gain even more experience. For the men’s team, Charie has proven himself as a true leader on the track, despite his most recent performance.

For the women’s team, Bryson has become a true superstar for the Judges and will look to continue her incredible career over the next two collegiate years.

PRO SPORTS column Milwaukee Brewers undergo a resurgence as they look to best the Chicago Cubs in Central The Milwaukee Brewers request your attention. Very quietly, they’ve emerged this season as a team on the precipice of playoff contention. As of May 16 they have amassed a 21-18 record, good for second place in the National League Central division and only a game and a half behind the St. Louis Cardinals. It’s been a rough few years for the Brewers. And by years, I mean decades. Overall the team has had only two seasons with more than 90 wins in the last 25 years.

They haven’t finished above third in the division since 2011, when they won 96 games and lost in the National League Championship Series. That team was led by a steroid-taking Ryan Braun, who is the only remaining member of the

Brew Crew.

This season has been different, led by a team-wide offensive explosion.

Their plus 23 run differential is actually the best in the division, and the sixth best in baseball. This differential, which serves as a good predictor of team record, is due in large part to the team’s offense. The Brewers have scored 208 runs so far this season, which is the second most in all of baseball, only behind the Washington Nationals. A quick rundown of their roster may leave you surprised that this is the case.

As the long-time face of the franchise, Braun has been productive this year, but has done so while missing roughly 30 percent of the team’s games. The headlines have been taken by the unlikely emergence of Eric Thames

and his MVP-like numbers, but the Brewers’ offensive output this season goes beyond his eye popping stats. Up and down the roster, players who have seen their first consistent at-bats at the major league level are producing solid numbers. From Keon Broxton to Jesus Aguilar and Manny Pina, players picked up as throw-ins in trades or signed after being waived have hit very well, all displaying an impressive ability to get on base and hit for power.

Last year’s breakout star was infielder Jonathan Villar, who has struggled to start the season but has recently shown signs of life, batting .318 with a .945 OPS in the last seven days. Left fielder Hernan Perez, who solidified his place as a dependable major league player

last season is on pace for an even better year this season.

Since that great 2011 season, the team has undergone a significant rebuilding effort. General manager David Stearns, hired in 2015 as the youngest GM in the league, has retooled the farm system in a big way. Per Baseball Prospectus, the team’s minor league system ranking improved dramatically after Stearn’s hiring, going from number 21 during the 2015 season to number nine for the 2016 season.

Prior to this season the team was bumped up a spot and now ranks eighth in the league. As indicated by the high ranking, these players are still in the minors, and therefore not yet contributing on the major league level. Unlike the Yankees, for example, the story of the

Brewers’ success this season hasn’t been blue chippers making their way up to the majors and mashing at an MVP level (see Judge, Aaron).

Instead, it’s been players without such pedigree finally seeing their first consistent playing time and making the most of it. The continued development of these players plus the rise of those working their way up from below, like Lewis Brinson and Corey Ray, creates a well-defined path for the future of this team. The league-wide expectation is still that the Chicago Cubs will figure things out and retake their spot as the best team in the league, so the playoffs might not be in reach for the Brewers this season. Next year, though, look out.

—Evan Robins

just

Sports

Page 16

THE BREW CREW IS BACK The Milwaukee Brewers have had an unexpected season as their offense has come alive, p. 15.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

pro sports brief

FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS

Celtics advance in NBA playoffs ■ The Boston Celtics

defeated the Washington Wizards in a thrilling seven game series.

By SAMANTHA PROCTOR JUSTICE staff WRITER

As of Monday, May 15, the underdog Boston Celtics pushed their way to a stunning victory over the Washington Wizards in Game 7 of the series. Although the game was close with a score of 115105, the Celtics made some very precise plays that gave them a seat in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2012.

The Celtics started off the series strong, winning the first two games, only for the Wizards to come back and tie the series at three games apiece coming into Game 7. With the Celtics coming off a loss in Game 6, they were determined to make the most of Game 7, regardless of the outcome.

More specifically, Celtics forward Kelly Olynyk had the game of his life, clenching a redemptive performance after he was benched for Game 6.

Waltham, Mass.

With the Wizards trailing behind the Celtics in the fourth quarter, Olynyk made some absolutely brilliant plays. He dropped 14 points off multiple three-pointers in the fourth quarter alone. With a little over a minute left in the game, Olynyk made two fabulous shots and forced a turnover, giving them a six-point lead. Olynyk was not done yet, with another layup and three-pointer in the quarter to give the Celtics the boost that they needed. Overall, he finished with 26 points, five rebounds and four assists in the game, making his stats a career playoff high for him as he helped lead the Celtics to victory against the Wizards.

Although Olynyk played a game for the ages, it was not without the help of many other star players.

All-star point guard Isaiah Thomas played a very significant role in the win as well. With his great outbreak in the beginning of the series with a stellar 53 points in Game 2, the Wizards had been relentless in sending multiple defenders his way to try to curb his plays. However, that did not stop his drive as he took the

See BRIEF, 13 ☛

PRO SPORTS COLUMN

Ryan Zimmerman turns back the clock ■ The Washington Nationals

have dominated with an incredible offensive attack early in the 2017 season.

By ben katcher JUSTICE editor

Stationed in the nation’s capital and playing its beloved pastime, the Washington Nationals have certainly shown off their patriotism in dominating fashion this season.

After topping the National League East standings in 2016 with a 95-67 mark, the Nats are once again leading the pack at 24-13, eight games up on the struggling New York Mets.

Coming off an incredible 2016 season, second baseman Daniel Murphy has continued to mash with a .317 average, six home runs and 30 RBIs. Stud outfielder Bryce Harper, who just inked a record-breaking contract for an arbitration-eligible player, has shown that his down year last season was a fluke. The 24-year-old is hitting .384 with an astounding 12 homers and 34 RBIs. Flame-throwing ace and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer has baffled hitters to the tune of a 2.80 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 70 strikeouts at 11.5 K/9.

Fellow pitcher, southpaw Gio Gonzalez, has been turning back the clocks to his 2012 all-star campaign with a 2.47 ERA and 41 Ks for a 3-1 record early on.

However, Gonzalez is not the only National turning back the clocks this season.

On a team with Harper and Murphy slugging prolific numbers at the plate, and one of the league’s best strikeout machines cruising on the hill, 32-year-old first baseman Ryan Zimmerman has stolen the

spotlight. While Zimmerman has been a solid power bat for the Nationals for over a decade, the one-time all-star has batted over .300 in a season just once in his career. In his all-star campaign, all the way back in 2009, he set career-highs with 33 home runs and 106 RBIs when he was Harper’s age. Zimmerman is coming off a 2016 season where he played just 115 games and hit a meager .218 for 15 home runs and 46 RBIs. 2017 has been an entirely different story, though. Through the Nats’ first 37 games of the season, the veteran first baseman is slashing .385/.430/1.222 (average, OBP, OPS) for 13 home runs and 36 RBIs. To put this into perspective, Zimmerman is hitting at a higher average with more home runs and RBIs than Harper, who is demanding a 400 million dollar contract when he soon becomes a free agent.

With the team now crushing their fellow National League opponents, it is easy to forget what the Nats looked like less than 10 years ago. Zimmerman has been on the team since the start of his career in 2005, and he has endured quite a few tough seasons of baseball as a result. In 2008 the club finished 32.5 games back with a 59-102 record, and followed it up in 2009 with a 59-103 record. However, the then-young Zimmerman, who was a lockdown third baseman at the time, was the face of the franchise. As an all-star in 2009, Zimmerman also picked up Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards for both his defensive and offensive excellence.

Now manning the other, less physically taxing side of the diamond, Zimmerman is easily forgotten on a Nationals team that now dominates the league with an

See PRO SPORTS, 13 ☛

MORGAN BRILL/Justice File Photo

THROWING GAS: Pitcher Melissa Soleimani ’17 goes through her windup at home against New York University on April 16.

Club closes out year on sour note at home ■ Pitcher Scottie Todd ’20

continued her impressive rookie season with over six innings of relief work.

By BEN KATCHER JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis softball team ended their season with a tough loss at home against Worcester State University on May 2.

Judges 5, Worcester 7 After an electrifying first inning that saw a combined total of nine runs put up on the board, the Judges dropped their final game of the season against Worcester State by a score of 7-5.

Starting pitcher Melissa Soleimani ’17 struggled on the hill.

The senior gave up five earned runs, including a home run, while only recording two outs in the top of the first inning.

Scottie Todd ’20 came in to rescue her teammate and did a stellar job through 6.1 innings of work. Todd allowed just two runs off eight hits and struck out three, allowing

her team to get back in the game.

Despite the inspiring effort, the club fell just short at the end of the day.

On offense, catcher Keri Lehtonen ’19 had a monster performance at the plate. The slugger smacked her third home run of the season en route to a three-hit day.

Worcester State did not have an answer for third baseman PJ Ross ’20, who went two for four and knocked in three runs. Center fielder Amanda Shore ’18 produced her 18th RBI of the season and tallied a pair of hits.

Brandeis ends the year with a 1317 overall record. While the team missed out on some games due to unfortunate weather, they tallied five fewer wins than last year. In addition, the 2016 club slugged 25 home runs while sporting an impressive .334 overall team batting average.

However, this year’s team showed a decrease in power with nine dingers, and put up a team average of .288.

Despite the low numbers this year, the team and fans alike have a lot to look forward to thanks to Todd. The rookie standout was

a superstar for the Judges in all regards. At the plate, Todd led the team with a .344 average and smacked in one of the group’s nine homers.

While Todd was a catalyst at the dish, her greatest contributions to the team came on the mound.

The Judges’ ace recorded the best pitching season in school history after posting a 1.41 ERA. With a 9-5 record, Todd struck out 46 batters and tossed a pair of complete-game shutouts.

Todd has been absolutely unhittable in the University Athletic Association conference, and has already cemented herself as the go-to pitcher for the team in just her first season.

Even more importantly for the developing squad, Todd has proven to be a workhorse for Brandeis.

At 94.1 innings pitched, Todd hurled just under half the total innings this season of all pitchers combined on the squad.

Her total dominance did not come from a small sample size, she baffled opponents all season long and will only continue to grow with more experience throughout her

See SOFTBALL, 13 ☛

Vol. LXIX #26

May 23, 2017

2016 - 2017

> > pg. 19

ALUNA GEORGE

AT HOME AT THE ZOO

MYQ KAPLAN

12 ANGRY JURORS

BORIS’ KITCHEN

THE FINAL SLAM

just

ARTS

VAGINA MONOLOGUES

Waltham, Mass.

CULTURE X SPRINGFEST Images: Heather Schiller/the Justice, Natalia Wiater/the Justice, Ydalia Colon/the Justice, Yvette Sei/the Justice, Morgan Brill/the Justice, Aaron Birnbaum/the Justice, Creative Commons; Design: Natalia Wiater/the Justice.

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TUESDAY, may 23, 2017 | THE JUSTICE

Editor’s Pick: Travel The Vatican

Siena, Italy

MIHIR KHANNA/Justice File Photo

Photo Courtesy of Creative Commons

By Natalia wiater JUSTICE EDITOR

After students complete Prof. McClendon’s (FA) St. Peter’s and the Vatican course, they always feel the need to visit the Vatican, whose architecture and history they have been studying for the past semester. Learning about it isn’t enough: Information is fascinating, but the real reward is seeing the architecture come alive before your eyes. Knowing the rich history behind the buildings can only make the visit more appealing; the buildings aren’t just made of marble and bricks, but of history, time, effort and artistic talent.

From the Via della Conciliazione to the Cathedra Petri, the rich history of the Vatican permeates throughout the Borgo, enticing everyone to come closer and take a look.

Orlando, Florida

Photo Courtesy of Creative Commons

By Mihir Khanna

By NIA LYN

JUSTICE EDITOR

JUSTICE EDITOR

Of the countless places I have visited in my life, it can often be hard to pick out my favorite destination.

However, in this post-finals state there is one town that jumps forth: Siena, Italy. Nestled in Italy’s Tuscan region, Siena is a small medieval town that seems to have escaped the clutches of time, preserving most of its historic charm. Bustling with art and architecture, even those disinterested can’t resist stopping and marveling at Siena’s Cathedral- and Renaissance-era art. Of course, no day is complete without an indulgent Italian dinner paired with a glass of wine and a good book on the idyllic cobbled streets.

My dream travel destination is none other than Orlando, Florida. Though it is far from tropical or exotic, I would love to visit Disneyworld and Universal Studios — two places that my childhood dreams centered around. I don’t care about the long lines or loud families, I just want my own pair of Mickey Mouse ears and to drink butterbeer while costume-clad performers greet guests. When that gets tiring, the white sand beaches of Tampa Bay are only two hours away. There I’d have the opportunity to take very Instagram-worthy photos before going to Busch Gardens and once again enjoying food, fun and loud families.

Rose Museum hires new director

NATALIA WIATER/the Justice

Luis A. Croquer will assume the role of Henry and Lois Foster Director of the Rose Art Museum starting on July 14, University President Ronald Liebowitz announced in a May 12 email to the student body.

Croquer currently serves as deputy director of exhibitions, collections and programs at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he oversees the gallery’s major artistic and creative areas and facilitates interactions among the museum’s curatorial, collections and education departments, according to a May 12 BrandeisNOW article.

Croquer’s appointment, said Liebowitz, “strengthens the role of the Rose as a center of excellence on our campus. …

The Rose has undergone a period of rebirth and renewal, and is now poised for even greater artistic prominence. Having a director with Luis’ extraordinary talents is a great gift, for our students and for the international art world.”

Croquer has lived in Austria,

El Salvador, England, Gabon, India, Italy, Lebanon, Switzerland, the U.S. and Venezuela, according to BrandeisNOW. He holds a master’s degree in modern and contemporary art history, theory and criticism from the State University of New York at Purchase. Croquer’s work has earned him Fulbright, Guggenheim Museum and Warhol Foundation fellowships, the article reports.

“I am honored to join the Rose Art Museum and the wonderful and intellectually rich Brandeis community,” Croquer said in an interview with BrandeisNOW. Croquer also noted the role of the Rose in the University community at large — “Museums must be more engaged with the fabric of their communities, to act as places for inclusive dialogue and valiant inquiry,” he said. “I firmly believe that university museums will be the leaders in the next wave of artistic expression in the United States. I want the Rose to be a flagship for that transformation.”

As Henry and Lois Foster Director, Croquer’s duties will include both general museum management and direction of all artistic and programming initiatives at the Rose.

Croquer was selected for the position by a search committee comprised of faculty, students, staff and board members and supported by the search firm Phillips Oppenheim, according to the BrandeisNOW article.

Prior to his work at the Henry, Croquer worked as the director and chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, special projects assistant to the director at the Museo del Barrio in New York, senior curator at the American Federation of Arts in New York, and curator of historical exhibitions at the Drawing Center in New York.

Croquer will replace Interim Director Kristin Parker, who has been holding the position since the departure of former director Christopher Bedford in July 2016.

—Carmi Rothberg

Editor’s Pick: Books ‘Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose’

by Flannery O’Connor

By Hannah Kressel justice editor

When Flannery O’Connor died in 1964 — at the young age of 34 — she left behind stacks of her unpublished essays, criticisms and articles. These works, none of which had been widely circulated, were soon organized and edited by O’Connor’s close friends and compiled into “Mystery and Manners.” Each piece is crisp and bright, laden with prudent analysis of the South, writing and being a woman in O’Connor’s time. O’Connor’s prose is smooth and elegant — perfect for a quick read basking in the summer warmth, maybe while drinking sweet tea as O’Connor did as she wrote each piece of prose we now read.

‘Between the World and Me’ by Ta-Nehisi Coate ‘11/22/63’

by Stephen King

By Abby Patkin justice editor

“You can’t repeat the past,” Nick tells Gatsby, who responds, “Why of course you can!”

This dilemma — whether you can repeat the past and whether you should — is at the heart of Stephen King’s 2011 historical thriller, “11/22/63.” The novel, about a present-day teacher who finds a portal to 1958, examines the JFK assassination in the years leading up to the fateful day.

King’s thick description transports readers back to the late 1950s and early 1960s, interweaving history, murder, love and science fiction all in one. Though not the typical beach read, this is a summer must.

‘Between the World and Me’

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

By Victor Feldman justice editorial assistant

At 179 pages, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” is the perfect summer read. The book is written in the form of a letter addressed to Coates’ son, an African-American boy of 15 years who finds himself lost and horrified as he navigates the racist maze of American society. While each page plunges deeper into Coates’ argument that racist institutions are permanent, his prose has a fluidity and rhythm that distracts from the grimness of the story. This leaves the reader with the impression that the book in his or her hands is one of beautiful poetry and not a cautionary tale.

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, May 23, 2017

19

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE LOVETT

Brandeis Department: ‘Martyr’ This past fall, the Brandeis Theater Arts Department put on “Martyr.” The play, written by German playwright Marius von Mayenburg, follows one boy’s tempestuous journey into the depths of Christian fundamentalism.

The show evaluated the more antiquated beliefs in monotheistic faith and contemporary religious extremism seen in today’s society with finesse, however, packed a lasting punch.

The play’s opening was unnervingly timely — a mere two weeks after Donald Trump’s win in the 2016 presidential election. Presenting fearful truths regarding the all-consuming abilities of religion from a surprisingly unbiased perspective, “Martyr” forces its audience to question where the line between devotion to religion and ideals and dangerous zealotry must be drawn.

While the whole cast performed their parts with intensity — creating a dizzying world holding the audience captive — standouts in the play were Benjamin, a young religious zealot

played by Raphael Stigliano ’18, and his young, determined teacher Erika Roth, played by Jamie Semel ’17. Stigliano embodied a physicality and fervor as Benjamin which left viewers immobile in their seats, unable to shift their eyes from his aggressive movements when he was intimidating and pressuring his classmate, mother, principal and teachers. Similarly, in the play’s culminating scene — the broken Ms. Roth nailing herself to the ground in a form of her own religious radicalism — Semel expertly juggled her character’s confliction as the victim of Benjamin’s fundamentalist extremism, as well as her own idealistic liberalism’s martyr, in an uncomfortably visceral scene.

Overall, “Martyr” was a play the Brandeis community will not soon forget as it set the stage for such pressing issues in today’s world, namely religious ideology and how to deal with it in modern society.

— Hannah Kressel

HEATHER SCHILLER/JUSTICE FILE PHOTO

24 Hour: ‘High School Musical’ A beloved Brandeis University tradition, the 24 Hour Musical takes place every year toward the beginning of the fall semester. Occurring soon after students arrive on campus to begin the new school year, students come together to put together a musical — start to finish — in 24 hours.

This year’s 24 Hour Musical was the production of an audience favorite, High School Musical. Produced by Tympanium Euphorium and Hillel Theater Group, all students, whether in the cast or in the audience, enjoyed the music, the dancing

and the humor that the show offered. Ben LoCascio ’20 and Karina Wen ’20, as Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez, respectively, truly embodied the characters that students hold close to their hearts from their childhood.

What was most enjoyable to students was that it invoked a sense of nostalgia. Because so many students already knew the songs and plot of the story, it was easy for the audience to just enjoy the scenes as they happened and have fun with their friends. They were able to sing along and not worry

about missing an important plot point.

Every year, the 24 Hour Musical impresses the University community. Although comical and sometimes a nostalgic remembrance of childhood favorites, the actors and actresses conduct themselves in a professional manner, given the time constraints.

High School Musical was no exception as the actors and actresses came together to put together an already widely loved story.

— Jen Geller

justArts 2016-2017

YEAR IN REVIEW

justArts looks back at the past year of theater at Brandeis, highlighting some of its standout productions.

Brandeis Department: ‘Leveling Up’ The Brandeis Department of Theater Arts outdid itself back in March with its production of Deborah Zoe Laufer’s “Leveling Up.” The story itself carried a powerful message for an audience of college students preparing to enter the “real world” and touched on the importance of interpersonal relations in society as a whole. The Department began to bring this story to life with an intricately crafted set. With an actual set of stairs, a refrigerator and typical

worn-out couches, the audience was submerged in a remarkably realistic post-college basement. From there, the chilling character development of Ian (Andrew Child ’19) and his gradual departure from reality and loss of humanity kept all audience members locked in as the theater-wide suspense grew.

The Department then took the play to a whole new level, so to speak, with the shocking fight between Ian, Jeannie (Gabi Nail ’18) and Zander (Dan Souza ’19).

With people being thrown into cabinets, punches flying and an abundance of fake blood, these collegiate actors stunned the audience with their terrifyingly convincing performances. This play left its audience members with a lasting impression of fear and heightened consciousness, and the inspired efforts of the entire Department culminated in a spectacular all-around production.

YDALIA COLON/JUSTICE FILE PHOTO

— Ben Katcher

Open Cast: ‘Footloose’

Photo Courtesy of Mike Lovett

The Hillel Theater Group chose Herbert Ross’s “Footloose” for its annual spring open cast musical. Directed by Rachel Josselsohn ’17, the production, which premiered on March 30, starred Adina Jacobson ’20 as Ariel Moore and Justin Chimoff ’20 as Ren McCormack. Set in the small town of Bomont, “Footloose” tells the story of newcomer Ren’s struggle to adjust after moving from Chicago and learning that rock music and dancing have been banned following the tragic deaths of five teenagers (one of whom was Ariel’s older brother) several years earlier. As Ariel clashes with her strict father Rev. Shaw Moore (Bryan McNamara ’19) and abusive boyfriend Chuck (Jose Cas-

tellanos ’18) and Ren finds himself getting into trouble with various authorities for violating the rule against dancing, the two main characters begin to fall for each other.

Although largely following the original “Footloose” script, the production team added a chilling dance number to the beginning of the musical that depicted the previous deaths of the five teenagers. The set designers chose a minimalistic setting consisting of an elevated wooden walkway with stairs on either side, allowing the audience’s focus to remain on the considerable acting talents of the entire cast.

— Avraham Penso

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TUESDAY, May 23, 2017 | Arts | THE JUSTIce

Brandeis TALKS

INTERVIEW

What is one thing you wish you knew before you came to Brandeis?

Morissa Pepose ’17 Photo Courtesy of Morissa Pepose

Allison Marill ’17

This week, justArts spoke with Morissa Pepose ’17, who sang the National Anthem at Commencement. She majored in vocal performance and has been involved with theater and music for the entirety of her Brandeis career. Specifically, Pepose was a member of the musical theater a cappella group Proscenium. She also sang in various recitals through her major.

“I wish I knew how much Brandeis would become a part of me. I didn’t expect to grow so much while here.”

Sabrina Sung/the Justice

Vicky Yang ’17 “I wish I knew to work harder to boost my GPA.”

Lu Bai ’17 “To participate in more activities to meet more friends.”

Ari Givner ’17 “I wish I knew what I was doing with my life.”

Compiled and photographed by Michelle Banayan/the Justice.

STAFF’S Top Ten

Worst Buzzfeed Quizzes

By Amber Miles justice EDITOR

Buzzfeed quizzes are a great way to procrastinate. Here are some of the most ridiculous: 1. “What Is Your Inner Potato?”

2. “Order Your Favorite Secret Drinks at Starbucks and We’ll Guess Your Eye Color” 3. “Order A Day’s Worth Of Food And We’ll Tell You Which Of Rory Gilmore’s Garbage Boyfriends You Are” 4. “What Kind Of Unicorn Horn Would You Have?”

5. “Spend A Bunch Of Money In The Home Section Of Kmart And We’ll Accurately Guess Your Zodiac Sign” 6. “Reply To These Tweets Like Gordon Ramsay And We’ll Guess Your Height And Shoe Size” 7. “It’s Time To Find Out How Many Jake Gyllenhaal Movies You’ve Seen” 8. “Do You Have The Same Font Preferences As Everyone Else?”

9. “Pick Five Of Your Favorite Junk Foods And We’ll Reveal which Snapchat Filter You Are” 10. “Build A Pizza And We’ll Tell You Which Mathematical Graph You Are”

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Some plasma TVs 4 Actress Kendrick 8 Long stories 13 It’s chanted during the Olympics 14 Type of horse 15 South American spitter 16 *Feature of a creative child 19 Dram (of liquor) 20 Baleful look 22 *Obsolescent mathematical instruments 27 Many a Twitter troll 28 With 26-Down, former manager for 35-Down 29 Word that closes many a Trump tweet 30 Something you may get on a home or on life 32 Key that lets you leave?

33 Keister 35 Lay down the lawn 36 *1937 Cary Grant movie 41 Fight (for) 42 Fish that pairs well with Chardonnay 43 Corn unit 45 Sleep-Eazy _____ (Springfield locale) 48 NCAA’s Cougars 49 Word after Go or Mario 50 Comics character with a really 30 Set of fables big nose 31 URL ending 51 *Heraldic crest 33 Fight (against) 54 Spot buyer 34 Petting zoo 57 French seasoning resident 58 Like a bad clue, maybe...or what 35 Cards on scoreboards? the last word in each starred clue 37 First lady? can undergo?

38 Uncouth ruffian 64 “Shut up!”

39 One may well 65 Crawl (with) 40 Cause injury to 66 “Vive le _____” 44 StarCraft genre, for short 67 Some Dutch wheels 45 “Bonjour, ____ amis!”

68 Actress Garr of “Tootsie” 46 Likely (to reach) 69 Act like 47 “Cry me a river, build a bridge and get over it!”

DOWN 48 “Star Trek: The Next 1 Atlanta, for Delta Generation” Klingon 2 It’s around 6,900 Pascals, for 49 Leafy vegetable short 51 Old codgers 3 Hang loosely 52 Blender vendor 4 Hammer of Hollywood 53 Scientist with a namesake 5 Offering in some car paradox commercials 55 In 1492 it sailed the ocean blue 6 Type of horse 56 Sci-fi drug 7 Companion of Artoo 59 ABA member 8 Russians, e.g.

60 “Told ya!”

9 Prefix with -meter, on an aircraft 61 _____-la-la 10 “Passages” author Sheehy 62 Confess (to) 11 Life in a cell?

63 Move speedily 12 Some plasma TVs 17 Mr. Jones, informally 18 Item on Maslow’s pyramid 21 French season 22 Sault ____ Marie 23 Eluded, as a tail 24 Creep (along) 25 Mil. org.

26 See 28-Across

justArts: What was the audition process to sing the National Anthem at commencement?

Morissa Pepose: I sang the National Anthem in Slosberg Recital Hall in front of music faculty and representatives from the Office of the President.

JA: What made you want to audition?

MP: Imagining my family hearing me sing one last time at Brandeis motivated me to audition.

JA: What background do you have as a musician?

MP: My major here at Brandeis is vocal performance! I have spent a long time cultivating my voice, including studying in Germany for two months and Italy for six months. I love music, specifically musical theatre and opera.

CROSSWORD COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN

JA: Why are you excited about singing the National Anthem?

MP: I am excited to represent the Class of 2017 in this final tribute to our time spent here at Brandeis.

JA: Have you performed the National Anthem before in a setting like this/done something similar?

MP: I have never performed the National Anthem. (Not even in the shower!) I am hoping to get the words right; feel free to shout them out.

SOLUTION COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN

SUDOKU INSTRUCTIONS: Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

JA: What other performances have you had on campus this semester?

MP: I gave a full-length solo voice recital in Slosberg this past semester. I sang in English, German, Italian and French! I also was a member of Proscenium, the musical theatre a cappella group on campus, during my years here and performed with them for the last time during exams.

JA: How are you preparing to sing the National Anthem at commencement?

MP: I think this performance is more about calming nerves than anything else!

So I just have been breathing and focusing on an image of everything going well and making the audience feel something during the performance. Plus lots of water!

—Hannah Kressel

Solution to last issue’s sudoku

Puzzle courtesy of www.sudokuoftheday.com