the
Justice www.thejustice.org
The Independent Student Newspaper Volume LXXI, Number 7
of
B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Waltham, Mass.
‘OPEN MINDS AND OPEN DEBATE’
COMMUNITY
Librarians call for ‘fair contract’ ■ Members of the Brandeis Librarians’ Union made their case for improved terms during Family Weekend. By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR
The Brandeis Librarians’ Union expressed frustration over their contract negotiations with the University in a campaign during Family Weekend. The BLU, which is connected to the Service Employees International Union Local 888, have been negotiating with the University administration since June 2018 to collectively bargain for fair contracts for Brandeis librarians, according to a flyer handed out by members of the Union. (University Librarian Matthew Sheehy, a representative for the University in the negotiations, clarified in an email to the Justice that Internet and Technology Services is not a part of this
THU LE/the Justice
‘AGE OF OUTRAGE’: In Wednesday's discussion, Cornel West and Robert George held up their close friendship as an example of how to disagree with someone while respecting their beliefs.
Cornel West, Robert George discuss value of liberal arts ■ The scholars also talked
about how to disagree while respecting “common humanity.” By SAM STOCKBRIDGE JUSTICE EDITOR
Cornel West and Robert George met in the Sherman Function Hall on Wednesday evening to discuss the importance of a liberal arts education in modern political discourse. University President Ron Liebowitz described both men as “public intellectuals.” West is a self-described “radical democrat,” while George is known for his conservative attitudes toward abortion and LGBTQ rights. West is the professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard Divinity School and has written 20 books, according to his personal website. Robert P. George is a McCormick professor of Jurisprudence and has written four books, according to his Princeton University bio. The event, titled “Liberal Learning: Open Minds and Open Debate,” was primarily sponsored by the American Studies program, with additional support from seven other campus groups, including the Schuster Center for Investigative Journalism and the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life. American Studies Chair Maura Farrelly introduced the event, highlighting the generous contributions of Sam Weissman ’73 and Kent Lawrence ’66 that made the event possible.
The two scholars were united in their assessment of the value of a liberal arts education, but each described its importance in different ways. Both agreed, though, that a rigorous liberal arts education is liberating, whether from economic uncertainty for George or from fraught questions about race and justice in the United States for West. George described his philosophical and personal reasons for valuing the liberal arts, while West focused on the social and political importance of a liberal arts education. George described how his upbringing in a poor home in rural West Virginia made him value education. Both of his grandfathers were coal miners, and “education promised socioeconomic advancement” to his family. George’s first encounter with the liberal arts occurred at Swarthmore College, where he took a “kind of Plato-to-NATO” course in political theory. There, he grappled with classical philosophers’ ideas and began to question his everyday assumptions. “[Plato] forced me to think about why I believed what I believed,” he said. George said that in recent years, colleges and universities have lost sight of the true value of skepticism. The widespread failure to recognize this value, he said, is evidence that “we are losing our sense of the real value of liberal arts education.” Currently, people defend the liberal arts by arguing that it teaches students valuable critical thinking skills they can’t develop anywhere else. While George agrees with this view, for
negotiation.) On Oct. 12, Digital Literacy Specialist Ester Brandon ’12, MAT ’14 and Outreach & Special Projects Archivist Surella Seelig MA ’05 distributed flyers outside Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. User Experience Librarian Jen Giordano later joined Brandon and Seelig. Currently, the librarians are working with the SEUI Local 888, according to an op-ed written by the Brandeis Labor Coalition in the Justice. They are working to get a “fair contract” with the University, according to Brandon. She also said that the “library’s union has proposed a pathway toward a fair contract, and Brandeis hasn’t met us halfway.” Surella explained that the librarians’ contract is renewed “every several years.” She said that the last contract negotiation was supposed to come to an end in June or July, but that the librarians “extended” negotiations. To resolve the impasse, the Librarians’ Union mounted a
See UNION, 7 ☛
CAMPUS SPEAKER
IDF veteran recounts violence in West Bank
him, the real value of a liberal arts education is its capacity to cultivate a lifelong desire to pursue the truth. Both George and West agreed that a true liberal arts education should expose students to ideas and perspectives they may find offensive. “The whole point of our being here with you is to unsettle you,” George said. George added that a liberal arts education instills students with “intellectual humility” by serving as a constant reminder of their own fallibility. When we become convinced that our beliefs are correct, he said, we tend to wrap our convictions up in our emotions, and that attachment breeds closed-mindedness and dogmatism. Having a sense of “intellectual humility” forces us to constantly question our beliefs, and it keeps us from getting too complacent with what we know and how we know it. Cornel West quoted Herbert Marcuse, a philosopher and political theorist who taught at Brandeis from 1958 to 1965, on his view of free speech: “Talk about truth all you want, a condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak.” West explained passionately that he believes a good liberal arts education is intimately tied to the ideals of democracy and the free, unrepressed exchange of ideas. “Most of our history has been a history of hatred, of contempt, of domination, of exploitation,” he said. “Democracies are simply these disruptions trying to create spaces in which maybe you can arrest the hatred, arrest the contempt, arrest the domination, arrest the exploitation.”
■ Merphie Bubis described
the conflicts he witnessed during his time in the Israeli civil administration. By GILDA GEIST JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Brandeis’s chapter of J Street U hosted Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli Defense Forces veterans sharing their stories about serving in the West Bank, in a lecture on Monday. Merphie Bubis, an IDF veteran who served in the West Bank from January 2013 to March 2015, was the headlining speaker of the event. Breaking the Silence formed after the Second Intifada in an effort to raise awareness about violence going on in the West Bank, especially abuse against Palestinians. The Second Intifada arose in 2000 from the breakdown of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. By the time the Second Intifada ended in 2005, 3,200 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis had been killed, according to a May 12, 2018, Vox article. According to Bubis, Breaking the Silence strives to share testimonies of Israeli veterans, “even if they’re ugly, even if they’re things we don’t want to face ourselves.”
See DEBATE, 7 ☛
Bubis pointed out, “As Israelis, I think we have a moral duty to speak out against these things that we took part in, and to show that there are Israelis who do believe that we can do without the occupation, and we must.” Bubis served in the Israeli civil administration in the West Bank. The civil administration, or, as Bubis put it, “the government that the Palestinians did not choose,” is the bureaucracy that deals with security, infrastructure, water, electricity, movement permits for Palestinians and other aspects of everyday life in the West Bank. According to Bubis, many soldiers enter the Israeli Defence Force expecting to defend Israeli settlers. “Oftentimes soldiers find themselves in situations where the contrary is happening, where they’re actually trying to defend Palestinians from violence coming from Israeli civilians,” she said. Bubis described her repeated experience involving “price tag attacks,” or terrorist attacks that Israeli settlers commit against Palestinians and IDF soldiers. According to the “Historical Dictionary of the Arab-Israeli Conflict” by P. R. Kumaraswamy, “these attacks are ‘the price’ extracted from the Palestinians and the IDF for working against the development
Get Some Green
New Show
Students take part in health survey
Randy Skolnick has been selling plants at Brandeis for 12 years.
‘Dream a Little Dream’ debuts at Deis.
By JOCELYN GOULD
By MENDEL WEINTRAUB
NEWS 5
Enter the wonderful world of Neil Breen By KENT DINLENC
By LEIGH SALOMON
See ISRAEL, 7 ☛
FORUM 11
Women's soccer defeats Westfield State NATALIA WIATER/the Justice
FEATURES 9 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org
Photo Courtesy of SUSAN DIBBLE
Make your voice heard! Submit letters to the editor to letters@thejustice.org
ARTS 18
By MEGAN GELLER
COPYRIGHT 2018 FREE AT BRANDEIS.
SPORTS 16
2
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018
●
NEWS
●
THE JUSTICE
NEWS SENATE LOG Bike share opens, free condom initiative advances, DCL pulls piano support The Student Union celebrated the implementation of a campus bike share program on Sunday, the result of a joint initiative by the Senate Services and Outreach Committee and the Senate Sustainability Committee. Senate Services and Outreach Committee chair Aaron Finkel ’20 said that selling tickets to the Turkey Shuttle service “went great this year.” Four Turkey Shuttles have completely sold out, with another two nearly sold out, he said. Finkel expressed interest in implementing similar shuttle options for winter break this year, but noted that limited funding and the variability of final exam schedules would make a winter shuttle service difficult. Class of 2019 Senator Kent Dinlenc ’19 proposed winter shuttles for students returning to campus after winter break. “That’s a good idea,” Finkel said. “We can look into that.” Finkel also announced that on Friday, the University officially began its partnership with LimeBike, a California-based bike sharing company. Bikes have been placed near Gosman, the Rabb Graduate Studies Center and the Charles River Apartments and will be available for students to rent for 50 cents per hour. Finkel said students can download a mobile app to use the bikes, and that the bikes do not need to be returned to a kiosk after use. Dinlenc, the chair of the Senate Sustainability Committee, said he wants University President Ron Liebowitz to publicly demonstrate the University’s support for a recent Massachusetts carbon tax bill that was signed into law earlier this summer. Dinlenc noted that other Massachusetts universities have already endorsed the carbon tax, and a public statement of support would reinforce the University’s commitment to the environment. Senate Health and Safety Committee Chair Joshua Hoffman ’21 updated Senators on his initiative to distribute free condoms throughout first-year and sophomore residence hall bathrooms. With a pricing scheme complete, Hoffman said the condom initiative would require about $200 for the purchase of 2,000 condoms. This initial distribution would help assess the feasibility of the initiative and the community’s response. Hoffman said he is in communication with the Community Advisors of the first-year and sophomore areas to help distribute the condoms. He is also discussing a subsidy partnership with the Student Sexuality Information Service to reduce the cost of the condoms. Senators Linfei Yang ’20 and Alex Chang ’22 updated the Senate on the state of their piano initiative for first-year quads. Chang said a woman in the area was willing to donate a baby grand piano and would pay up to $400 to cover the cost of transporting the pianos. On Monday, Chang met with first-year quad area coordinators Maira Pantoja and Peter Budmen to discuss the Department of Community Living’s support for the piano initiative. Pantoja is the area coordinator for North Quad; Budmen is the area coordinator for the Massell and Rosenthal quads. The area coordinators said DCL no longer supported the piano initiative because the first-year lounges are inaccessible for students with disabilities. They also said the Student Union needed to “quantify” demand for the pianos. Yang expressed frustration with the DCL’s requirements: “How quantifiable do they want it to be?” In previous meetings with the senators, DCL representatives said the department would be supportive of the measure. The Union now has less than a month to acquire the piano before the donor moves out of her house. The Senate postponed a proposed amendment to the Student Union constitution by the bylaws committee that would formally define the rules of an executive session. The decision was reached after Senators agreed there was no unanimous understanding of the effects of the proposed amendment. —Sam Stockbridge
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS n A News photo article failed to credit Liat Shapiro for a brief she wrote. (Oct. 16, Page 2) n Last week’s Senate Log misstated the name of a senator working on the piano initiative. His name is Alex Chang, not Alex Cheng. (Oct. 16, Page 2) n A News article incorrectly listed Dalia Wassner’s position. She is the head of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute’s Project in Latin American Jewish and Gender Studies, not a research associate. (Oct. 16, Page 3) The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Send an email to editor@thejustice.org.
Justice
the
www.thejustice.org
The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods. Editor News Forum Features Sports Arts Ads Photos Managing Copy Layout
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
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.
BRIEF
TRAVEL AROUND SOUTHEAST ASIA
Waltham native Caroll Spinney retires after 50 years playing two “Sesame Street” characters
THU LE/the Justice
On Friday night, the Southeast Asian Student Association taught students about a variety of Southeast Asian cultures through activities and food with their Travel Around Southeast Asia event.
Waltham native Caroll Spinney has retired from the children’s program “Sesame Street,” where he portrayed Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, according to an Oct. 17 New York Times article. Thursday was the last time Spinney drove to Astoria, Queens, to produce and record voices for his two alter egos, according to the article. Spinney joined the show nearly 50 years ago in 1969 and is retiring at age 84. The Waltham native began his career in puppetry while attending Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in Acton, Massachusetts. He used his performance earnings to pay for his college tuition at the Art Institute of Boston’s College of Art & Design, according to a Waltham Patch article. The Patch article quoted Spinney saying, “Before I came to Sesame Street, I didn’t feel like what I was doing was very important. Big Bird helped me find my purpose.” Spinney’s job on Sesame Street not only gave him purpose but also garnered him a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award, six other Emmys, two Gold Records and two Grammy honors, per the Patch article. According to the Patch article, Spinney said, “Even as I step down from my roles, I feel I will always be Big Bird. And even Oscar, once in a while!” The role of Big Bird will be taken over by Matt Vogel, Spinney’s apprentice who currently voices Count von Count and Kermit the Frog, according to the Patch article. Eric Jacobson, currently the voice for Grover, Bert, Fozzie Bear, Animal and Miss Piggy, will now perform the role of Oscar the Grouch. Although Spinney will no longer bring to life the compassionate Big Bird, he holds on to some of the loveable character’s spirit. An Oct. 17 New York Times article quotes Spinney saying, “I’ve been playing a 6-year-old for 50 years. And the children bought it.” According to Patch, Spinney plans to enjoy his retirement in Connecticut with his wife, Debra. —Liat Shapiro
POLICE LOG MEDICAL EMERGENCY October 15—BEMCo staff treated a party complaining of a headache at the Charles River Apartments. University Police transported the party to Golding Health Center for further care. October 16—University Police and BEMCo staff responded to report of a party suffering from severe stomach pain in Sheffries Hall. The party declined treatment services. October 16—University Police assisted Cataldo Ambulance in a Section #12 psychological transport upon the Brandeis Counseling Center’s request. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital without incident. October 16—BEMCo staff treated a party feeling dizzy at Stoneman Infirmary and Public Safety. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. October 16—A party came to Public Safety reporting they had closed a car door on their hand. BEMCo staff treated the party, and the party signed a refusal for further care. October 17—BEMCo staff treated a party in Skyline Residence Hall who had throat and ear pain. The party signed a refusal for further care. October 17—Cataldo Ambulance transported a party who was reporting back to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care after BEMCo staff treated the party at Spingold Theater. October 17—A party at Stoneman Infirmary and Public Safety was not feeling well, so BEMCo staff treated the
party and University Police transported them to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care. October 18—A caller reported a party having a seizure. University Police and BEMCo staff responded, and Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. The Area Coordinator on Call was notified. October 18—BEMCo staff treated a party with a twisted ankle at Gosman Sports and Convocation Center who refused further care. October 18—A party with a lacerated hand refused further care after being treated by BEMCo staff at the Charles River Apartments. October 19—BEMCo staff treated an intoxicated party outside Cable Residence Hall. University Police were on scene and the Area Coordinator on Call was notified. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. October 19— BEMCo staff treated a party with a knee injury in Gosman Sports and Convocation Center who then refused further care. October 19—A party lost consciousness after slipping and falling in the shower in Rosenthal East Residence Hall. BEMCo staff treated the party, who Cataldo Ambulance transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care, and the Area Coordinator on Call was notified. October 19—BEMCo staff and University Police re-
sponded to a report of a party with an injured ankle at Cable Residence Hall. The party was treated by BEMCo staff and signed a refusal for further care. October 20—BEMCo staff and University Police received a report of a semi-conscious, intoxicated party at Cable Residence Hall. Waltham Fire Department and the Area Coordinator on Call were notified. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. October 20—BEMCo staff treated a party who was still reporting cloudy vision and a headache after having been hit on the head that afternoon. University Police transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. October 21—University Police responded with BEMCo staff to a report of an intoxicated female in Massel Residence Quad. BEMCo staff treated the party, who refused further care. DISTURBANCE October 19—University Police responded to a complaint of loud noises in Abelson and found authorized contractors working inside the building. October 19—University Police received a report of a male party trying to photograph a party within the restroom area of Shapiro A & B. University Police were unable to locate the male party and compiled a report on the incident. The Area Coordinator on Call was notified and there will be increased University Police foot patrols in the area.
October 19—University Police responded to a noise complaint at Ridgewood B. University Police discovered the noise was from an authorized party and asked the residents to lower the volume, which was done without incident. MISCELLANEOUS SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES October 15—University Police received a report of an unattended briefcase on benches outside Slosberg Music Center. When University Police arrived, the owner had retrieved the briefcase. SERVICE ASSIST TO OTHER POLICE DEPARTMENT October 15—Waltham Police requested University Police’s assistance with a call reporting a larceny at 567 South Street. The situation was a fight between roommates, and University Police requested the Area Coordinator on Call’s assistance. University Police compiled a report, and Department of Community Living staff will handle the incident. DRUGS October 19—While conducting health and safety inspections in Foster Mods, DCL staff discovered a Class D substance, which was confiscated and given to University Police. University Police compiled a report on the incident, and the DCL will submit a CSR. October 19—A Class D substance was found in Foster Mods. —Compiled by Jocelyn Gould
THE JUSTICE
ROOSEVELT LECTURE
●
NEWS
By JOCELYN GOULD JUSTICE EDITOR
YVETTE SEI/the Justice
“SHE KNEW LONG BEFORE OF THE SPACE IN-BETWEEN”: Cuban-born artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons discussed the way her heritage and identity has influenced her art during her Roosevelt Lecture on Thursday evening.
Artist shares historical influences on her work Pons focused on two of her pieces as she explored the healing power of art. By MAURICE WINDLEY JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
This year’s annual Roosevelt Lecture, part of the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecture series dedicated to social justice and women’s history, celebrated the impact of critically acclaimed painter, sculptor, installation artist and videographer Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons. The focus was a display of her video “Rite of Initiation Sacred Bath (1991)” and images of her installation piece “Alchemy of the Soul, Elixir for the Spirits (2015).” The event was sponsored by the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program, the African and Afro-American Studies department, the division of Creative Arts, the department of Fine Arts and the Rose Art Museum. Campos-Pons is the Vanderbilt Cornelius endowed chair of Fine Arts at Vanderbilt University. Her work has been featured at the Rose Art Museum and other prominent galleries such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Introducing the event, Prof. Wendy Cadge (WGS), program chair of the WGS program, explained how influential Campos-Pons’ life was for her own immersion into the arts. Born in Cuba on the sugar plantation of Matanzas, Cuba, Campos-Pons’ work holds true to her
complex ancestry, as she is of Nigerian, Hispanic and Chinese heritage, Cadge said. Prof. Gannit Ankori (FA) explained that Campos-Pons’ art evokes stories of “the transatlantic slave trade, indigo and sugar plantations, oppression and resilience.” She said Campos-Pons’ work “highlights and echoes her complex heritage” by combining diverse media such as photography, performance, painting, film and video to metaphysically represent her experiences. Campos-Pons began her presentation, “She Knew Long Before of the Space In-between,” by explaining her own experiences in the third person: “She knew of the space between freedom and entrapment, between passivity and action.” Campos-Pons used these distinct contrasts to explain her belief that “only through art did she find a voice of loyal cause.” She explained that her goal was to take the audience “captive” as she displayed her first piece, a video called “Rite of Initiation Sacred Bath.” The piece showed a figure grasping a jar filled with water, then meticulously and carefully filling five drinking glasses and using those same glasses to fill a basin to wash her feet. She said that she wanted her piece to show how “the constructional narrative of moving image” can make the audience consider difficult questions. She explained further that “art does not provide answers” but instead serves “to create questions.” Campos-Pons believes that art can “be a material and a territory for healing and transcending reality.”
3
University adopts principles of free speech, expression
to adopt six principles that help guide free expression on campus earlier this semester.
■ Maria Magdalena Campos-
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018
ADMINISTRATION
■ The Board of Trustees voted
●
She showed the audience images of one of her recent projects, “Alchemy of the Soul, Elixir for the Spirit.” The piece is is a multi-stage installation piece installed at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts and is made by using glass, steel, resin, acrylic, silicone, polyvinyl chloride tubing, water and rum to visually represent the remnants of Cuban sugar plantations, sugar mills and rum distilleries. The piece represents art “as a material necessary for healing” because her artworks allow the history of Cuban sugar plantations to be expressed and eternally retold. She connected this piece to her earlier works, such as “Sugar/Bittersweet,” a piece displayed at Smith College, which represents the social and political effect of sugarcane harvesting in Cuba. In an interview with the Justice, Campos-Pons explained that her main focus during the event was her technique of “moving image,” exemplified by “Rite of Initiation Sacred Bath.” She explained that this piece was “a different way to construct narratives on topics that [she is] interested in,” including the history of her own immigration and exile. She added that her work also focuses on “claiming” her history “to propose a new narrative for this reality.” Through art, Campos-Pons said, she “embraces [her] humanity” by creating pieces that evoke discussion not only about Black and cultural issues, but also grounded human issues. Campos-Pons explained that her motivation behind her work lies not within “wanting to be famous,” but instead “to be better.”
After nearly two years spent discussing guidelines for campus speech, the Board of Trustees has voted to adopt six Principles of Free Speech and Free Expression to help guide the Brandeis community in matters of academic freedom and free expression. At an Oct. 17 event, University President Ron Liebowitz said of the principles, “They reflect, in my view, the purpose and historic role of the University as a place where the pursuit of knowledge is paramount and a place where ideas and opinions are freely offered no matter how new, controversial, unpopular or even offensive they may be.” The adoption of these principles was the culmination of a process that began in Nov. 2016, when Liebowitz convened the Presidential Task Force on Free Expression. “In the U.S., we view free expression and academic freedom as fundamental principles,” Liebowitz wrote in a Nov. 22, 2016 statement announcing the task force. “But there is wide debate — among scholars, citizens, University officials, the courts, and the media — about how we define these principles. What do they really mean to us?” The goal of the task force was to help answer these questions by creating “a set of principles that guides free and robust debate and deliberation among all members of the University community,” according to the same statement. The task force, led by Prof. George Hall (ECON), was made up of student representatives, Board members and professors from a range of departments. Task force members considered the University’s historical relationship with free expression and academic freedom and sought commentary from the Brandeis community by holding numerous community-wide meetings, per an Oct. 10, 2018 statement from Liebowitz. By November 2017, the task force had created and released five draft principles, which were then discussed in open meetings with the community. These draft principles became the first five principles laid out in the Oct. 10 statement: “Maximizing Free Speech in a Diverse Community, Developing Skills to Engage in Difficult Conversations, Sharing Responsibility, Rejecting Physical Violence and Distinguishing between Invited Speakers and University Honorees.” The first principle, “Maximizing Free Speech in a Diverse Community, “explicitly” connects the University’s “free speech concerns” and its “desire for a diverse, inclusive community.”
As such, the University has a responsibility to keep conversations from being shut down because of their subject matter and to encourage discussions on “the widest range of political and scholarly opinions.” The second principle acknowledges that being able to have these conversations will entail “an ongoing educational process” and “the intellectual courage to risk discomfort for the sake of greater understanding.” In this principle, “Developing Skills to Engage in Difficult Conversations,” the University highlights the important role that the school’s curriculum will play in exposing the community to a variety of ideas. The third principle stresses the importance of sharing responsibility, as every member of the Brandeis community has a “responsibility to foster a just and inclusive campus culture.” It also states that “the humanity of all involved” must be respected and that community members must “bear the moral responsibility” for both their actions and those actions’ impact on others. Rejecting physical violence is the focus of the fourth principle, which distinguishes between peaceful protest, which is “fully appropriate,” and physical violence or the prevention of speech, which is “unacceptable.” In the fifth principle, the University distinguishes between invited speakers and University honorees. While campus organizations are allowed to bring outside speakers to campus, inviting someone to campus does not mean the University endorses those guests or their organizations. However, granting an honorary degree “constitute[s] an endorsement of some major aspect of their life or work.” Before the Board voted to adopt the principles, Liebowitz added the sixth principle, “Institutional Restrictions,” “which discusses time, place, and manner restrictions” on speech, per the Oct. 10 statement. Under this principle, the University may restrict expression “that violates the law, that falsely defames a specific individual, that constitutes a genuine threat or harassment, that unjustifiably invades substantial privacy or confidentiality interests, or that is otherwise directly incompatible with the functioning of the University.” This sixth principle is comparable to restrictions included in other universities’ free speech guidelines; Liebowitz highlighted Princeton University’s and the University of Chicago’s similar statements in his Oct. 10 announcement to demonstrate the root of this last principle. The University will now review all campus policies related to academic freedom and free expression to ensure that they are consistent with the newly adopted principles. —Sam Stockbridge contributed reporting.
COMMUNITY
Library institutes new policies for fines, payment methods ■ The library has
decreased the cost of some rental fines and launched the new Food for Fines program. By LIAT SHAPIRO JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
The Brandeis Library recently announced four changes regarding borrowing and fines: the new Food for Fines program, general collection, equipment fines and amnesty waivers. The Food for Fines program is the result of a partnership between the Library and the Brandeis Food Pantry that strives to provide students
with access to healthy food options and “raise awareness about resources that are available both at Brandeis and within the greater Waltham community,” according to the Food Pantry’s website. With the Food for Fines program, community members can pay their overdue fines by donating hygiene items or non-perishable food. Each donation erases five dollars of library fines. The program does not apply to SAGE fines and replacement item fees, according to the Food for Fines website. In an interview with the Justice, Brenda Cummings, director of Public Services at Brandeis Library, said, “We’ve wanted to do a Food for Fines program for a while now. The problem with doing Food for Fines before
this was managing how to get [food] donations [to] off-campus [locations].” Cummmings continued, “We were holding off on launching [the program] because the Food Pantry wasn’t launching, but the Food Pantry wasn’t getting any food, so they needed us to launch.” “A lot of libraries do Food for Fines during the holiday season,” Cummings explained. “We really wanted Food for Fines to be a year-long thing. With Brandeis being a school of social justice and the recent health and wellness survey coming back with a statistic [that] like 27 percent of students have insecurity about where their food is coming from, this is important.” General collection items include materials from the stacks, media,
storage, and recreational reading collection, according to the Brandeis Library website. In the past, returning these items late incurred a 25 cent fee, which has since been removed and been replaced with the Food for Fines Program. “We don’t want to be a place of punitive fines,” Cummings said. The Library has also changed its policies on circulating equipment such as chargers, laptops or calculators. Cummings explained, “We’ve had a long battle with equipment fines because it’s balancing having things available for people and ensuring people are not abusing the system.” A fee chart that Cummings provided to the Justice highlights the changes made in the equipment fine policy. A large change is a reduction from $5.00 per hour overdue to $0.50 per hour
overdue for adapters, cables and chargers. Another example is the change from the $5.00/hour fine to $0.25/hour for calculators and headsets. The Library has also implemented a new amnesty model. Previously, the Library permitted borrowers one fine waiver for the entirety of their time at Brandeis. Now, members of the Brandeis community can claim one waiver per semester. Cummings said the revised fines policies were shared with the Student Union and that Union President Hannah Brown ’19 gave feedback. The policies were also reviewed by the Office of the Provost because they affected University revenue brought in by fine payments. According to Cummings, all changes were accepted as originally proposed.
Your backstage pass is waiting.
Email Yvette Sei and Andrew Baxter at photos@thejustice.org
NATALIA WIATER/ the Justice Images Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS
Catching grammar mistakes redhanded since 1949. _ , . ; ( ? ) “� / : !
Join Copy. Contact Eliana Padwa and Lily Swartz at copy@thejustice.org
Want to write crosswords for the Justice? Contact Contact Kressel at MayaHannah Zanger-Nadis arts@thejustice.org at arts@thejustice.org
THE JUSTICE
University takes part in national health survey
administering the survey for the third time to gather data about student health. By JOCELYN GOULD JUSTICE EDITOR
From Oct. 9 to 30, the University is seeking student participation in the National College Health Assessment survey contributing to the University’s “primary source of undergraduate and graduate student health data,” per an Oct. 3 email from the Division of Student Affairs. The American College Health Association creates the NCHA, and colleges and universities pay to administer the NCHA on their campuses. Leah Berkenwald ’07 joined the University in July 2018 as the Wellness Promotion Program Manager at the new Health and Wellness Promotion department, and she is responsible for overseeing this year’s survey at Brandeis. The survey has been given to Brandeis students twice in the past, in 2014 and 2016, and the University plans to conduct it every two years, Berkenwald told the Justice. The NCHA survey was created in 2000. It asks students about a variety of issues, including alcohol, tobacco and drug use, sexual health, weight, nutrition and exercise, mental health, and personal safety and violence, per the ACHANCHA’s website. It is confidential and voluntary, allowing students to skip any questions they are not comfortable answering. This produces “one of the biggest national data sets of college student health data,” according to Berkenwald. Every school that participates is given the same survey questions, and schools can then choose to pay for custom questions to be added to their school’s survey in order to measure other aspects of students’ health. Berkenwald worked with other Student Affairs departments on campus to develop this year’s custom questions, which address “resiliency, belonging, body image and food security” on campus. Berkenwald explained the importance of these questions: “The University is investing a lot in a new food pantry on campus, and so we’re excited to have some baseline data and then be able to every two years measure our impact and our need.” More broadly, the NCHA survey helps “inform decision making around how we allocate resources” on campus and “what types of health and wellness initiatives to try,” she explained. She noted that the survey results can also give campus departments justification for funding requests. For example, the Brandeis Counseling Center used previous surveys’ data to advocate for increased funding for resources that foster a sense of “belonging,” she said. She added that survey results were also “influential in advocating for the new community therapy program.”
Similarly, the Health Center also drew on this data to advocate for expanded sexually transmitted infections testing services and increased access to contraceptive services. Additionally, she explained, after seeing survey results relating to sleep, the Health Center improved and increased their sleep-related resources for students. Berkenwald uses this data “to help correct misperceptions around alcohol and drug use” in the University community. Having the “real data” is important, she explained, because “people typically overestimate the amount of alcohol and drug use that happens on college campuses, which can create an artificial sense of peer pressure.” New Student Orientation is one of the University programs that uses the NCHA data in this way. Berkenwald explained that the University provides the ACHA with a list of student emails and first names to administer the survey. This allows the ACHA to create unique links for each participant to ensure that each student takes the survey once. Although these email addresses are connected to individual responses for a brief period of time, the identifying information is destroyed when the survey is completed. This makes the survey confidential, as the raw data that Brandeis receives “cannot be tied to any particular individual,” she said. Additionally, the University’s Institutional Review Board, an “ethical watchdog” tasked with approving campus research studies, reviewed and approved various aspects of the survey, including its confidentiality, Berkenwald said. The University sent the survey to 5236 students this year, according to Berkenwald. She said her goal for this year’s survey is a 40 percent response rate, or about 2100 students. In 2014, the survey had a 22 percent response rate, while 2016 had a 36 percent response rate. As of Oct. 17, Berkenwald reported they had received 1118 responses, or about halfway to the goal. In order to incentivize students to take the survey, the HAWP is offering 116 prizes, which will be given to participants randomly chosen by the ACHA. Berkenwald worked with the Student Health Advisory Committee to choose prizes that would appeal to a diverse range of students. Different Waltham restaurants and businesses, as well as different departments on campus, made “generous donations” to ensure the University could offer a wide variety of prizes without spending large amounts of money. University Director of Media Relations Julie Jette, who was also present at the interview, stressed the importance of student participation. “The more students who participate, the more actionable this data is,” she said. Students often wonder how resources are allocated on campus, she added. “This is an opportunity to have pretty direct impact on how services are delivered.”
Image Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS
Follow
Justice!
the
@theJustice
NEWS
●
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018
5
MEET THE UNION
CAMPUS HEALTH
■ The University is
●
ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice
On Wednesday, students got a chance to roast marshmallows, eat apple cider donuts and meet with Student Union members at the Meet the Union event on the Great Lawn.
CAMPUS EVENTS
Panelists discuss ways for students to obtain medical experience ■ Erika Tai discussed the
importance of both clinical and research experience before the student panel. By NAKUL SRINIVAS JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Speaking to pre-medical, preveterinary and pre-dental students on Oct. 17, Erika Tai, the program administrator of Brandeis PreHealth Advising, discussed how students can gain useful clinical, research and volunteer experience throughout their undergraduate years. A discussion panel in which pre-health students described their various healthcare experiences so far followed her presentation. Tai’s presentation first focused on the importance of gaining clinical experience. Clinical experience is all about “being in an … environment where you’re interacting with patients or a population with specific healthcare needs,” Tai said during her presentation. Those with specific healthcare needs include geriatrics and the blind or deaf. “Medical schools … want to see that you’ve actually taken the time to solidify that you are interested in the work. That it’s not just a title,” she said. Tai also explained that clinical experience is the best way to understand “a day in the life” of a healthcare professional. “It’s not all Grey’s Anatomy,” she said. “There’s a lot more scut work than most shows would ever show.” Tai said that clinical experience helps students develop teamwork skills, understand patient needs and get students more comfortable working in a healthcare setting. She said Brandeis Pre-Health Advising recommends that undergraduate students get 100 hours of clinical experience across their four years. Some clinical experience opportunities pay student interns. At Scribe for America, students are paid to serve as medical scribes at hospitals. Others are unpaid, like many of the community service programs within the University’s Waltham Group. Shadowing “is a really flexible experience,” Tai said, explaining that this means that students can pursue shadowing even while taking a summer course or at home for winter break. It can also either be a
short-term pursuit or involve longterm relationship-building with a physician. “If you’re ever in a busy time and you still want to feel like you’re doing something productive, shadowing is a fantastic way to do that,” Tai said. She highlighted the Brandeis Summer Shadowing Program, “where we match students with surgeons and directors of programs at area hospitals” in Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York. Tai also explained the “metrics for involvement” that medical schools use to evaluate the efficacy of an internship. It often matters how long your activities last, whether you are demonstrating leadership in those activities and what legacy you leave behind at the places you worked for. Tai recommended keeping a journal to “track your experiences on an indepth level.” Tai also suggested using personal connections to gain health care experience opportunities. She warned students to be cautious about participating in “medical missions trips” and other volunteer efforts that lack sustainability and can “hurt your application.” “If it’s a one-time deal and they’re bringing in foreign folks to an underserved population and then they leave, the sustainability of that program is probably lesser than if they’re using local physicians, local dentists, local folks who are already on the ground and training them.” After Tai’s presentation, a panel of five undergraduates shared their experiences working in health care. For physician shadowing, Matt Cohen ’19 suggested to “start with who you know, if you have any connections,” explaining that he shadowed his friend’s dad, an anesthesiologist. To get additional experience, Cohen also volunteers at Perkins School for the Blind, where he helps visually impaired individuals with physical activities. Felicia Lee ’17 explained that when she first wanted to be a premed student she “really had this desire to go abroad and help out populations in countries that don’t have the resources that a lot of American hospitals do.” After watching a 60 Minutes episode about a mobile health clinic in the Midwest, Felicia realized that “Americans need as much healthcare as people in other areas” and decided to search for mobile health clinics near her. Through
internet research, she found the “Family Van” program, which provides underserved families with free medical screenings, such as blood tests. In the “Family Van,” she got to treat immigrant families who couldn’t speak English. Sami Schnall ’19 was initially unsure about whether to pursue the pre-med or the pre-dental track. She shadowed her own pediatric dentist and an oral surgeon she met by “asking around.” “If you don’t know someone, you might know someone else who might know someone,” Schnall said. “[Doctors] love talking about their job[s], so don’t be too scared.” She also participated in the Northwell Healthcare Exploration program, which involved eight weeks of exposure to various aspects of medicine, including radiology, surgery and pediatrics, and also volunteered in an ambulance in Israel. These experiences made her realize that she did not want to pursue medicine, and she is now a pre-dental student. “You never really know what you want to do until you question what you want to do,” Schnall concluded. Rebecca Albuquerque ‘21 is a coordinator of “Companions to Elders,” a subgroup of the Waltham Group. Students involved in “Companions to Elders” volunteer at the “Memory Cafe,” which welcomes Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, and the Leland Home, where each patient has their own room and a nurse on-call. Her close relationship with her grandparents fueled her interest in geriatrics and helping the elderly. Albuquerque explained that this experience has taught her “to be sensitive towards the patients” and “how to be patient … and how to communicate” with those suffering from Alzheimer’s. The last student panelist, Edwin Zhang ’19, explained that “the main purpose of volunteering isn’t to build up your resume. … You really want to be driven by a passion to help others.” Edwin explained that he sees getting a volunteer opportunity at a hospital as a “shoo-in” as long as you show that you are “willing to prioritize the patients’ needs.” All of the panel members highlighted the importance of pursuing clinical experience out of genuine interest and passion for the healthcare field.
Brandeis Must Lead on Climate and Commit to Divest Earlier this month, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report with dramatic findings: in order to avoid a wide swath of catastrophic impacts, the global community must reduce carbon emissions by 45% compared to 2010 by 2030 and get to zero by 2050. Recent extreme weather events are giving us a clear picture of the conditions we will face if we ignore this report. The drastic emissions reductions required to meet these targets are incompatible with the notion that fossil fuels will return to being the investment “hedge” they used to be for decades. If we want our students to have a livable future (and why would we take their tuition dollars otherwise?), we must join the chorus of countries, cities, universities and faith communities who have publicly declared that they intend to stop profiting from fossil fuels. Global participation in the Paris Agreement—with the USA the only detractor—leaves no doubt that climate change is a major social justice issue. Brandeis cannot claim to be a leader in social justice and continue to profit from fossil fuels. Massachusetts is a perfect example of why a strong statement by leading universities about the fossil fuel industry's corrupting influence is urgently needed: The state's politicians in the House (from both
parties!) caved to the pressure from the fossil fuel industry in July and passed a ridiculously weak energy bill that would not get us to zero emissions until 2090. Rather than such “leadership from the backseat,” Massachusetts should be leading the way like California! As long as the Commonwealth’s politicians persist in their aspirations to profit from fossil fuels, we will not see the legislation we need to stop this problem. We understand and sympathize with the trustees’ concerns over (1) potential financial risk and (2) the ‘slippery slope’ of one divestment decision leading to further divestment demands. However, no policy will ever stop activists from making demands, and no one is demanding that the University instantly divest itself entirely of fossil fuels. The resolution, passed with overwhelming majority by the faculty meeting in October 2017, explicitly states “Recognizing the leadership role Brandeis University can play in modeling civic action and also the responsibility of the Trustees to protect and grow endowment funds, be it resolved that the Trustees are asked to develop and implement a strategy for ending our university’s investments in fossil fuels at the fastest pace that is consistent with our contractual commitments.” What is urgently needed from
the Trustees is a strong public statement in support of climate justice, climate science, and our students’ future that acknowledges the role the fossil fuel industry has played and continues to play by spreading doubt and attacking scientists and by actively preventing us from solving this problem. Such a public statement is entirely compatible with the university’s unique character and fiscal responsibility. President Liebowitz committed Brandeis to implement the standards set forth in the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement includes clear language that fossil fuel divestment is a must - and we now know that action is even more urgent. There is a big difference between having to use fossil fuels because the industry prevents alternatives from becoming widely available and insisting to want to profit from fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. A growing number of prospective students and their parents will evaluate universities on their commitments to solving this problem. What would we want to tell them? That we thought we should profit from fossil fuels as long as possible? That's not leadership. That's defeatism at best, cynicism at worst. We are better than that. We invite all members of the community to join Harvard climate
scientist Jim Anderson for his talk “Climate & Human Consequences of Irreversible Change” on Monday, October 29 at 6:45pm in Schwartz Auditorium. RSVP: www.brandeisfact.org. Members of Faculty Against the Climate Threat (FACT) Sabine von Mering Paul Miller Charlie Chester Thomas A. King Aida Yuen Wong Neil Simister Gina Turrigiano Mari Fitzduff Sarah Lamb Paul Morrisson James Mandrell Larry Wangh David Powelstock Mark Hulliung Brian Donahue David Sherman Carmen Sirianni Joe Cunningham Elizabeth Ferry William Flesch Sophia Malamud Leslie Zebrowitz Ellen Wright Gordie Fellman — Sponsored by Faculty Against the Climate Threat (FACT)
SPORTS PHOTOS COPY FEATURES
JOIN THE JUSTICE! FORUM NEWS ARTS ADS LAYOUT For more information, contact Avraham Penso at editor@thejustice.org.
THE JUSTICE
UNION: Librarians enter fourth month of contract negotiations CONTINUED FROM 1 campaign over Family Weekend to mobilize parents, students and the rest of the Brandeis community to “post pictures with themselves and to contact the Brandeis administration, just saying to please support the library,” Brandon said. They handed out flyers during the event urging the community to call and email University Provost Lisa Lynch. Representatives of the union also held a photo frame for members of the Brandeis community to put their faces through. Brandon said that they encouraged people to tweet with the hashtags, “#SupportDeisLibrary” and “#BrandeisFamilyWeekend.” Surella added, “We just want to let people know what’s going on and let them know that they can support us.” Surella said she believes the library should fulfill the needs of the University, and a fair contract would help fulfill this. Giordano, who works primarily as a research guide, has worked at the library for nine years. She said in her time at Brandeis she has worked to make sure the library meets the needs of students in their academic
endeavors. She believes that the librarians should be recognized for their contributions to students’ academic lives and future careers. Surella told the Justice that for her, this campaign is about Brandeis honoring its values. “Brandeis is a social justice school, and we do our very best to help students to help faculty to help researchers from around the world, and we love it.” She says that the librarians find great joy in their jobs, “but that’s not enough.” Brandon said she feels that Brandeis is a part of her identity; she received her undergraduate and master's degrees from Brandeis, and is now working toward her second master’s degree in the Rabb Graduate Professional Studies program while working for the library. She said a fair contract will ensure librarians “are treated fairly and with the same respect that we give the University.” In an email to the Justice, Director of Media Relations Julie Jette wrote, “Brandeis is negotiating in good faith with the librarians and we hope to reach an agreement soon.”
DEBATE: Scholars seek respectful disagreement CONTINUED FROM 1 Although the event was advertised as a conversation between West and George, only about 15 minutes of the 90 minute event were dedicated to points of disagreement. The duo spoke about the ways in which they disagree on the role of free-market capitalism in modern society. West talked about his time working with the Democratic Socialists of America, and George professed his belief in the free market. They then responded to questions from the two audience members. Roland Blanding ’21 directed his question to Cornel West specifically. Blanding said that in West’s book “Race Matters,” West identified three types of Black leaders: race-identifying protest leaders, race-effacing managerial leaders and race-transcending prophetic leaders. Blanding asked West which type of leader he considers himself, and asked West, “What can I do to become a transcendent leader, not just a transcendent Black leader?” West replied that he
considers himself a “lone ranger” rather than a leader, because leaders are tied to specific organizations, and he is not. He observed that great people who aren’t tied to organizations “don’t allow their popularity to trump their integrity.” West did not directly answer Blanding’s second question. Another student used their question to express skepticism at the claim that civility and humanity should outrank efforts to make change. “As a millennial, I live in a world that is teetering on the brink of fascism,” they said. “It seems very unfair to ask the people at the bottom to be very civil to the [people who are] oppressing them.” West responded that respecting other people is not the same thing as civility. He added that oppressed people are in the best position to extend respect to everyone in their lives. “We are asking all persons, especially those who have been dehumanized, to stay in contact with the humanity of others because they know precisely what it’s like to experience dehumanization.”
●
NEWS
●
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018
7
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS
ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice
A display of purple flags in Fellows Garden represents student victims of domestic violence and reminds Brandeis that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
ISRAEL: J Street U hosts ‘Breaking the Silence’ CONTINUED FROM 1 of settlements.” Bubis said that the fact that the violence was carried out by Israelis made “price tag attacks” difficult to handle. According to Bubis, IDF soldiers are instructed only to enforce the law when Palestinians are breaking it, so when settlers are the perpetrators, there is little that soldiers can do. A testimony on Breaking the Silence’s website from a sergeant stationed in the West Bank in 2014 said, “The instructions we receive are that we’re not supposed to deal with settlers. The police are supposed to, the blue uniforms. [The instruction is that] if there’s friction with settlers, you immediately call the police or the border police sometimes, but we’re not supposed to deal with them. It’s not supposed to happen at all.” Bubis detailed one instance of a “price tag attack,” when after several minutes of waiting for law enforcement, IDF soldiers called in to report that the Israeli perpetrators of the attack had apologized and the soldiers had sent them home
with no further consequences. According to Bubis, had the attackers been Palestinian and not Israeli, they “could easily find themselves … [in] the military court system, and [could] also potentially sit for a few months in military prison.” This was just one of several stories Bubis told about Israeli settlers getting away with violence against Palestinians under the watch of the IDF. “There’s no actual law enforcement [in the West Bank]. There’s no concrete response from the authorities … What [IDF soldiers in the West Bank] know as a fact is that they’re supposed to enforce military law on Palestinians, and not anything else.” Bubis also discussed the means by which the civil administration controlled “every aspect of Palestinians’ daily lives” through bureaucratic permits. She explained, “It’s not that we’re allowing Palestinians to get healthcare. It’s that by default, we don’t allow them to, and only if you submit a request and … go through months of bureaucracy, and if you’re not on any blacklists, which many Palestinians are, then you can get that per-
mit, you can get that basic human or civil right.” Bubis described how she felt when observing how valuable a travel permit was to Palestinians, contrasting with her own ability to move freely around Israel. “This piece of paper for them means so much,” she said of the permits. “Something that you and I could maybe even just forget on a table … but for Palestinians this is gold.” At the end of her talk, Bubis called for policy changes and an end to the occupation. “The occupation is first of all destroying us as a community and as a people, but of course, and perhaps the more important thing, it’s daily oppression over millions of other people who did not choose to be in this situation,” she said. Sivan Ben-Hayun ’19, a Northeast regional co-chair for J Street U, concluded the event with a prepared statement. “As students living in the United States, we have to change the way we talk about Israel and Palestine in order to use our power and our privilege to work towards an end to the occupation,” Ben-Hayun said.
Image Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS
Have Strong Opinions? Write an op-ed for the
Justice!
Contact Judah Weinerman at forum@thejustice.org for more information.
8
features
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018 ● FEATURES ● THE JUSTICE
just
VERBATIM | JOHN STEINBECK Time is the only critic without ambition.
ON THIS DAY…
FUN FACT
In 2001, Apple released the iPod.
The first passengers in a hot air balloon were a sheep, a duck and a rooster.
Photo Illustration by SHINJI RHO/the Justice
Crazy Stupid Trade Panelists talk Trump, trade and German politics By VICTOR FELDMAN JUSTICE EDITOR
What did it mean for Germany when Angela Merkel’s sister party, the Christian Social Union, got clobbered in last month’s Bavarian parliamentary election? Are trade wars good for Americans? And how can the first chapter of an economics textbook help Trump understand global trade? On Thursday, the answers to these questions and many more were debated in a panel discussion billed “Trump, Trade and Transatlantic Relations.” The director for the Center for German and European Studies, Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL), introduced the panelists: Brandeis professors Robert Art (POL) and Peter Petri (IBS), along with Art’s son, David Art, who teaches political science at Tufts. The event was hosted by the Center for German and European studies. Seated before an audience of roughly 50 people, Robert Art kicked off the show with a few jokes to get the crowd warmed up. “This is the first time I’ve been on a panel with my son, but gosh it feels like my whole life has been a panel with him,” he said, grinning. This joke would resurface throughout the afternoon, garnering just as much laughter the fifth time as the first. Clearing his throat, Robert Art continued on a more serious note, addressing Trump’s repeated claim that our NATO allies are “freeloaders” reaping the benefits of U.S.
dollars toward military defense while coming up short on their half of the bargain. He said that while he vehemently disagrees with Trump that multilateral institutions such as the United Nations have harmed the U.S. in any way, “There is actually a legitimate case to be made about whether our allies are paying their fair share or not.” The former secretary of defense under Obama, Robert Gates, famously complained to NATO allies before he left office that the U.S. was carrying too much of the burden and that it was time other countries started paying up. “Trump is actually right here; our allies are not holding up their end of the deal, but that’s very different than saying the entire alliance is, to quote the president, ‘obsolete.’ The biggest problem is the sad state of the German army. The fact that such an economic powerhouse is spending about half of what they should be on defense is what we should focus on. Sorry, Sabine,” Art said, as hands from the audience flew up and attendees peppered him with questions about the NATO alliance. Petri echoed Art’s point about the importance of NATO but also stressed the value of other types of partnerships for which Trump has shown disdain. He said, “Just this morning Australia passed the Trans Pacific Partnership — so as of next January there will actually be a TPP, but it will be without the United States.” Petri noted that the current administration’s strategy of flexing its muscles and starting trade wars wherever possible seemed to be steered by Trump’s
own misunderstanding of how trade works. “The United States has delivered a very confused message that somehow, because China runs a trade surplus with the U.S., they are winning and we are losing,” said Petri. He pointed out that every time somebody eats at a restaurant they run a trade deficit and the restaurant a surplus, but this doesn’t indicate who is “winning” or “losing.” “One of my friends who, is also an economist, turned the first few pages of an economics textbook into an op-ed for the New York Times trying to explain this simple concept to Trump,” he chuckled. While he believes Trump’s feuds with European leaders won’t amount to much, Petri expressed concern about the administration’s antagonistic view of China. “They are on the front burner now,” he said, “and virtually everyone in government who argued for a more productive dialogue with China is gone, leaving only people like John Bolton to make the negotiations. He’s a deeply paranoid person, and now he’s in a position of authority.” At the same time, Petri warned that China has taken a more aggressive response to the U.S. trade, doubled their military presence in the South China Sea and done little to protect intellectual property. He believes that this is just as much a problem for Europe as it is for the U.S. and that the U.S. doesn’t have the leverage to push back on China by itself — it needs allies. Hearing the word allies, David Art broke his silence. He steered the conversation away from trade and into politics, talking
about the recent parliamentary elections in Bavaria, and how the anti-immigrant sentiments that helped carry Trump to victory in 2016 are taking hold in German politics. “For the first time since the Second World War, a radical right wing party will be represented in the federal parliament,” he said, referring to elections in Bavaria earlier this month in which the Alternative für Deutschland party won 12 percent of the vote. He explained how the AfD was founded by a group of economists who didn’t like Angela Merkel’s decision to bail out the Eurozone and wanted lower taxes. “Seeing a decline in the polls, the AfD capitalized on Merkel’s controversial decision to allow over 1 million Syria[n] refugees into Germany. That’s basically when it became the ferocious anti-immigrant party,” he said. Art believes that since then, every single election in Germany at the state level has been a referendum on Merkel’s refugee policy. However, he noted, “The AfD is still not going to be able to have much influence in parliament.” Art remains optimistic that Merkel’s fragile Berlin Coalition will hold and that the German people will resist the type of nativist tendencies Trump peddled on the campaign trail. Art concluded, “Bottom line, Merkel’s experiment of allowing those refugees in has worked out much better than many expected.” A brief round of questions followed the presentations, and as attendees filed out of the room, a group of students could be heard debating the efficacy of Trump’s tariffs as they exited — for them, the conversation was far from over.
THE JUSTICE ● FEATURES ● TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018
9
Planting Happiness Who is the man selling plants in the SCC?
NATALIA WIATER/the Justice
A HAPPY PLACE: Now that June is retired, she often accompanies Randy and helps him sell plants across the Northeast.
By LEIGH SALOMON JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
If you were wondering what an oasis of greenery was doing in the middle of the Shapiro Campus Center on Oct. 17 and 18, or why people were leaving with tiny plants, wonder no longer. It was just Randy Skolnick, Brandeis’s friendly neighborhood plantsman. Only on campus for a couple days a year, and with no clear advertising by the Department of Student Activities, his presence on campus seems evanescent. But Skolnick manages to make an impression anyway, because he is not your average vendor. It’s not just that he grows and sells a wide variety of miniature plants. There is a charisma about him –– an infectious love he has for his life and livelihood, as if they were one and the same. Whatever the appeal, it has
continued to draw people, familiar or new, to his plant sale year after year. Reminiscing on his career in an interview with the Justice, Skolnick confessed that his interest in plants began by accident. He reflected, wistfully at first, on how a girl had broken his heart many years ago. “My neighbor bought me these three plants to console me, and I killed two. And then,” he recalled more fondly, “She gave me my first plant lesson.” It inspired him to put all the energy from his heartbreak into growing plants. By the time Skolnick attended college, his plant hobby had become a part-time job, or as he likes to say, “a hobby that got way out hand.” After graduating, he decided to pursue the hobby full time, realizing, “I was making more money doing this than a job in marketing would have paid me; so I said, why take a 50 per-
cent pay cut to have to put on a suit and go into Manhattan for work?” According to his wife, June Skolnick, a recently retired teacher, Randy became a plant entrepreneur. “I owned a flower shop for 20 years, and I had a flower shop across the street from that for 10 years,” said Randy. “That’s 30 years. But I don’t really consider myself a florist. I owned a florist shop,” he clarified. To this day, he has retailed everything from bonsais and succulents to orchids and folia, and even fish. He transitioned from his shops to college campuses about 18 years ago. “I loved it. I miss it. But I wouldn’t do it again because the marketplace has changed,” he said, citing competition from chain stores such as the Home Depot and supermarkets. “I mean, if someone told me they did what I do, I’d think they
NATALIA WIATER/the Justice
COUPLE GOALS: Now that June is retired she often accompanies Randy and helps him sell plants across the Northeast.
were out of their minds,” he added. Skolnick originally sold his plants at schools close by, like Fordham University, Columbia University and the Fashion Institute of Technology, but eventually expanded to the rest of the Northeast. He has been to universities in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, at one point visiting 40–50 campuses during the season. He also dabbled in the corporate sector, bringing his plants to name brands, such as Aetna Inc., PepsiCo and Sikorsky Aircraft. “And then I used to do all the flower shows,” he said, elaborating, “I would leave, like, on a Tuesday, build my booth, do the show all week, come home Sunday night, sleep Monday and then leave for the next city Tuesday.” He eventually stopped going to the shows, limiting his work travels to universities to be able to spend more time in New York with his family. Skolnick reached Brandeis 12 years ago, initially setting up in the Usdan Student Center. He faced poor sales, however, due to the many exits and entrances, which made it easy for students to walk in and out without ever seeing him. “And then I went outside on that walkway, and I had my best day ever. … And I don’t know why I never did it on the walkway again. I don’t think they [Brandeis administration] were so crazy about it,” he admitted. So he settled down in the Shapiro Campus Center, where he has been ever since. His favorite plant is Rhipsalis, a type of succulent that grows in trees. “It’s a very weird, ugly plant,” he acknowledged, explaining that just because he likes “very odd plants” doesn’t mean they will sell well. Students at Brandeis, he said, tend to like succulents and money trees the most, but not orchids, for some reason. Although Skolnick now considers himself semi-retired, working only five or six months a year, he continues coming to schools like Brandeis, enjoying the energy and enthusiasm of the students. “I don’t think me being Jewish had anything to do with it,” he joked. He also enjoys the campus for
its ease of access compared to universities closer to Boston. At Clark, for example, he had to “go through a parking lot, down to the basement, cross the building, [and] back up in an elevator.” He even once had his truck towed at Tufts. June Skolnick enjoys Brandeis for the sense of appreciation and positive feedback. “We come from New York, so people aren’t so happy generally,” she said with a laugh, adding, “When you’re here in this environment, especially with the students … it’s nice to get people motivated and happy.” Not every college has given Skolnick such a warm welcome, though. He used sell at UMass Amherst but found the environment strict and abusive. The head of operations would tell him how he hated the vendors and New Yorkers, and that Skolnick could not make any more sales after 5:00 p.m. and had to be out of the building by 5:30 p.m. As a result, he has come to realize that those situations are just a “part of life. Not everyone’s going to love you.” He now only visits colleges where “people are nice, and I feel appreciated, and I’m not overly stressed out.” His favorite part of the job now is getting to be with his wife while he works. He added with a grin, “I just love plants. I like ’em better than people. We have a rapport. We understand each other. I give ’em what they need, and they don’t talk back.” When asked if he would be coming back to Brandeis next year, Skolnick teased, “if I’m still alive and capable.” He said that he enjoys coming to colleges the most because hanging out with the students makes him feel young, especially after he received his first social security check. For now, however, Randy and June Skolnick have returned home to New York, where they will be selling orchids until around Thanksgiving (in Manhattan on weekends, and across the street from Macy’s and Herald Square during the week). Assuming they sell all their remaining plants by then, they are looking forward to shutting down the business for the winter to take a much-needed vacation and spend time with their new grandson.
10 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018 ● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE
Justice
the
Established 1949
Brandeis University
Avraham Penso, Editor in Chief Natalia Wiater, Managing Editor Amber Miles, Senior Editor Jen Geller, Deputy Editor Nia Lyn, Morgan Mayback, Associate Editors Jocelyn Gould and Sam Stockbridge, News Editors Victor Feldman, Features Editor Judah Weinerman, Forum Editor, Zach Kaufman, Sports Editor Maya Zanger-Nadis, Arts Editor Yvette Sei and Andrew Baxter, Photography Editors Shinji Rho, Acting Layout Editor Liat Fischer, Ads Editor, Devo Meyers, Acting Ads Editor Eliana Padwa and Lily Swartz, Copy Editors
EDITORIALS Cornel West-Robert George debate not quite as advertised Last Tuesday, the American Studies program, along with several other departments, aided by a donation from Kent Lawrence ’66, brought conservative legal scholar Robert George and democratic socialist political activist Cornel West together for an event titled “Liberal Learning: Open Minds and Open Debate.” George, a Princeton professor and founder of the National Organization for Marriage, and West, Harvard professor and honorary Co-Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. This board applauds University departments for recognizing the need for open political discussion within the Brandeis community. Unfortunately, the event itself was lackluster and failed to provide any real, meaningful debate. Throughout their speeches, both West and George touted the importance of a liberal arts education and of teaching students how to approach debates and disagreements. Both emphasized casting pride aside and considering at all times the possibility that you might be wrong. Without this, they said, debates become about winning and not about learning from one another and broadening our perspectives. Notwithstanding these worthwhile points, the scholars did not take the opportunity to model productive debate themselves. West and George spoke in turns, each for about 40 minutes, taking up a bulk of the hour-and-a-half-long
Little time for questions event. This format kept the interactions between the speakers to a minimum, each patiently waiting as the other addressed the crowd. As the majority of the event was comprised of monologues from West and George, very little time remained for questions from students — only three were taken before the speakers were ushered to a private dinner. Of the hundreds of students in attendance for the event, only about 15 were actually admitted to attend the dinner. The poster for the event promoted it as an “evening conversation” with both scholars, yet students were not able to engage in any sort of conversation with either speaker. West and George have contrasting views that would have made for an engaging debate, and the organizers should have structured the event such that audience members could have had more time to engage both speakers on specific topics. Having two invited speakers simply to talk to the audience is still commendable, and recent events on other college campuses such as Swarthmore featuring West and George have followed the same format. But if the departments involved in organizing last Tuesday’s event intended it to be more a lecture and less a debate, they should have advertised it to students as such.
HARRISON PAEK/the Justice
Views the News on
On Oct. 15, the Supreme Court began to hear arguments in a case filed by advocacy group Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University, in which SFFA alleges that Harvard’s current affirmative action practices discriminate against Asian and Asian American applicants. Supporters of SFFA’s case claim that Harvard’s “holistic” approach to admissions, which takes an applicant’s race and ethnicity in to account, is designed to limit the number of Asian and Asian American students on campus. Opponents claim that SFFA’s case wrongly centers on affirmative action and ignores other discriminatory admissions practices such as legacy admissions and athletic scholarships. Does SFFA’s case have merit, and how could the court’s decision impact admissions policies in the future?
Prof. Faith Smith (AAAS)
The SFAA’s lawsuit, funded by opponents of race-conscious policies in higher education and voter participation, demands that we parse the history and rhetoric of legislation governing housing, movement across borders, as well as access to institutions, and understand how we read each other’s bodies every day as we move through our institutions, deciding who is affable or humorless; assertive or shy; smart; wealthy (striving or entitled); a natural insider or “allowed inside.” Norms of whiteness shape our sense of what a distinguished arena of higher education should look like and render some preferential procedures invisible to us; the transformation of the university by white female senior faculty and administrators is often no longer seen as made possible by affirmative action policies, for instance. The rhetoric of “too many” or “not enough” that pits us against each other requires us to work together for better and more preferential admissions policies, not their removal. Prof. Faith Smith is an Associate Professor of of African and AfroAmerican Studies and English, specializing in Anglophone Caribbean literature and African American Literature.
Prof. Leanne Day (WGS)
The SFFA case does not have merit both through its central evidence of the “personal rating” system as implicitly biased against Asian Americans and by virtue of the case’s architect Edward Blum, a conservative activist, who is effectively leading the charge to abolish race-conscious college admissions. The SFFA case taps into the false myths of both the model minority and that universal access to higher institutions can be based on merit alone. This repurposes the model minority stereotype, where the plaintiffs suggest that their high achievement is now being deployed to restrict access to Harvard, even as this ideology has been weaponized to justify the inability for other ethnic groups to be deemed successful. This case nefariously positions Asian Americans against other minorities. The wider effects of this case will potentially force evaluations and transparency about raceconscious admission policies, where universities may will be limited in how they evaluate applicants. Prof. Leanne Day is a Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Asian American Pacific Islander Studies, specializing in historical examinations of race, empire, labor, gender, class, and sexuality.
Commend librarians’ contributions to the University As the University’s librarians and their union continue to renegotiate their contract with the administration, this board would like to highlight the many essential services that the library offers students. According to the LTS website, the Brandeis Library “houses more than 2 million volumes, both electronic and physical, 45,000 journals and 4,000 films, with a growing collection in the sciences, creative arts, humanities, government documents, Judaica and social sciences — including rare and unique collections.” In addition to these resources, the library provides invaluable personal services to the Brandeis student body. All of those services exist because the librarians are present and available for research assistance, technology help and more. For example, the Interlibrary Loan system “offers free access to materials needed for coursework and scholarly research which are not currently available in the Brandeis Library.” This can be a vital tool for both graduate students and undergraduates who need specific materials not found on campus. Librarians are an integral part of this process; they are the intermediaries through which we use the Interlibrary Loan. The Brandeis Library has more than 250 databases and 30,000 electronic journals covering a wide range of subjects. Library databases search journals, newspapers, magazines, dissertations,
Providing vital services government documents, and other digital content.” Free access to these academic journals and databases, as well as the ability to easily search through all of them through OneSearch, is a critical aspect of student research that allows students to conduct in-depth research with only their laptops from anywhere on- or off-campus. Librarians teach undergraduates how to use these databases, and are available to all who need help using it for scholarly research. In addition, the library offers “workshops and sessions on citation management, research strategies, data analysis and management, presentation tools, quantitative and qualitative software, and discipline and subject-specific resources.” All of these workshops are taught by the librarians themselves. Multiple voter registration events are held at the library on “major election years” and are staffed directly by librarians. As part of an institution that prides itself on the social awareness of its student body, we encourage participation in all major elections and are grateful that the library helps students vote. Our University librarians continue to contribute a great deal to the University, and this board hopes that the administration recognizes this fact during the ongoing contract negotiations.
Kelvin Fang ’21 I think it’s important to correct a common misconception regarding this case. The SFFA’s case only tangentially touches on issues of affirmative action; the actual grounds of suing Harvard University are that the SFFA believes that the prestigious Ivy League school violated statutes in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discriminating against Asians in the admissions process. While I do understand the logic behind filing the lawsuit, I believe that affirmative action is an invaluable process that helps ensure that underprivileged minorities without the same access to tools of success have an equal chance of admission to universities. However, if the SFFA’s claims are true in that Asians are weighted “lower” in the admissions process because of their ethnicity; to me, that is blatant discrimination and an outright injustice. Kelvin Fang ’21 is majoring in European Cultural Studies and Philosophy.
Roland Blanding ’21
This is not a debate over the necessity of affirmative action, instead it is a debate about its purpose. On the one hand if its job is to secure spots corresponding to “mainstream” and “diversity” positions in schools, then it is doing a terrible job of it. First, this means majority groups are always going to encroach on the fairness of a policy that seeks to fight discrimination by discriminating in and of itself, and second this crunches minority groups to reach for the minutia of spots available to them. On these grounds I think that this suit is well founded. On another note, the true goal of affirmative action is not government imposition on the winners and losers of the race towards education, but to provide an equality of opportunity. I think that equality of opportunity ought be offered regardless of where one lies on a paper bag test, and should focus more on socioeconomic backgrounds. Classbased affirmative action more precisely benefits the targets of the initial policy without the hypocrisy of ingrained discrimination. Roland Blanding ’21 is a three-semester representative to the Student Union Allocations Board. Photos: Faith Smith; Leanne Day; the Justice
THE JUSTICE ● FORUM ● TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23 , 2018
11
Give independent filmmakers like Neil Breen a chance By KENT DINLENC JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
I’m sitting here hunched over my laptop with a throbbing headache, because I can only do this review justice in this raw, unabashedly awestricken state. Two weeks ago, the Landmark Cinema at Kendall Square hosted the world premiere of “Twisted Pair,” the latest entry in director Neil Breen’s oeuvre. Breen is best known for his 2016 film “Pass Thru” and his 2005 film “Double Down,” my personal favorite. Now, in a written review, my extraordinary level of sarcasm cannot be conveyed when discussing Breen’s “genius.” To those unfamiliar with his work, his films are by no means good in any sense. Hell, they are barely competent. Breen has amassed a cult following in the shadow of Tommy Wiseau’s mainstream appeal, becoming a champion of the independent filmmaker. Like Breen’s previous feature efforts, “Twisted Pair” is completely incomprehensible. I equate it to a child’s journal written in crayon; filled with poor sentence structure and sloppy handwriting page after page, it remains art nonetheless. The film has a convoluted plot. It has, by far, the worst visual effects I have ever seen. Its egregious actors don’t deserve any other acting roles. At the center of all of this is Neil Breen. He is the writer, director, cinematographer, producer, editor, visual effects artist, sound effects artist, casting head and even craft services provider. The use of his green screen is dizzying and embarrassing merely to watch. There are shots that are paused in the middle of scenes to allow characters to enter the frame. The stock visual and sound effects are horribly incorporated into action scenes. There is no one vision Breen is using when preparing his scene structure. The incompetence this man embodies knows no bounds. The over-elaborate plot is so lazily written that it physically repulses me. Every one of his films involves a protagonist who is some version of himself in real life: an Americaloving stud who can do no wrong and is the best at everything. He has no weaknesses to speak of. In “Twisted Pair,” we have the immense misfortune of having two Neils. Breen plays both of the namesake twins in his film. The only way to distinguish the two is that one is clean cut and always wears a leather jacket and the other has a Party City beard taped to his face while he wears a black hoodie. There are no other discernible differences between the two “characters.”
As horrible as the film may seem, you have to give Breen credit. “Twisted Pair” was completely financed via crowdfunding. Regardless of whether or not the money came entirely from movie nerds who want to generate more memes with the production of this film, he still has a loyal fanbase. I can safely declare that going to this screening was the best theater experience I have ever had. The audience participated in questioning everything that happened on screen. People were yelling jokes and moaning in pain during exceptionally terrible scenes. As I emerged from the theater with a hoarse throat and headache from the constant laughter, I realized there was no point during the movie where I wasn’t entertained. It occurred to me that there have been so many independent films out there that need more of a voice. Putting aside the numerous cinematic universes and sequels that plague our theaters with banality and cookie-cutter templates, there are still independent films that fail to enamor an audience. There are gems that are consistently being pumped out by studios like A24 and Annapurna, but the film community needs to support its poorer producers. Whether or not you enjoy Neil Breen’s work, he represents what the struggling independent film industry is. If you can’t get distribution at a film festival or if studios just won’t support you financially, you’re doomed to fail.
“
I can safely declare that going to this screening was the best theater-going experience I have ever had. We need to take risks in cinema. The movie industry has only recently produced more niche films. Just look at this summer’s “Sorry to Bother You.” It blends social commentary with insane visuals and storytelling techniques. Even though I didn’t enjoy it as much as most other audiences, I can give credit to its director, Boots Riley, for his outstanding vision. And your idea doesn’t have to be quirky! There are young
Photo Courtesy of NEIL BREEN; Photo Ilustration by JUDAH WEINERMAN/the Justice
filmmakers out there who just have an idea. Damien Chazelle comes to mind. After just one feature film and one short, he got financial backing to direct one of my favorite films of all time: “Whiplash.” His success from there led him to “La La Land,” the title of youngest director to win an Oscar for Best Director, and this month’s Neil Armstrong biopic, “First Man.” Some indie directors get promoted after directing just one hit. Colin Trevorrow went from directing a film based on his own script, “Safety Not Guaranteed,” to jumpstarting the horrible “Jurassic World” franchise. After failing to make “The Book of Henry” even remotely interesting, he got fired from directing Star Wars IX and is back to helming Jurassic World III, a much-needed sequel to the film from this summer we already forgot about. Another is Scott Derrickson, who made the moderately successful horror thriller “Sinister.” Using his background in horror and sci-fi, he made “Doctor Strange,” one of the most visually appealing and unique films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
My point is that the Neil Breens out there need to be discovered. They might very well be on our own campus studying film and playing with the free equipment in the library. If we don’t give the little guys a chance, we will only pump out boring sequels. Independent movies are now getting their moment in the sun, but we need to support even more obscure directors. The fact that I can only name three good female directors is a problem. We need more Ava DuVernays and Kathryn Bigelows and Sofia Coppolas. Nobody even knows that “American Psycho,” everyone’s favorite darkly comedic cult classic, was directed by Mary Harron. She hasn’t done anything significant since! Even if directors are bad at their job, there is still a market to see their films. The spectrum of quality versus popularity has a parabolic relationship. The better or worse something is, so long as it strays away from the boring and unoriginal, the more inclined people are to see it. Why do you think we still have Brandeis’ film festival, Sundeis? There are a few gems featured, but we all know the terrible movies are why we go.
#HimToo is a blatant attempt to silence sexual assault survivors By GABRIEL FRANK JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Over the course of the past year or so, we’ve seen the meteoric ascent of the political and cultural phenomenon known as #MeToo, where survivors of sexual assault have come forward with details concerning their experiences with said crime. The allegations put forth have gone far and wide, involving celebrities like Bill Cosby and Kevin Spacey, political figures like Roy Moore and Al Franken, and, most recently, an associate justice of the Supreme Court. While most believe and support the survivors of such a heinous crime, there is a mostly male group of individuals claiming to be vulnerable to false accusations of sexual assault, which in turn is impeding their ability to pursue and remain in committed relationships. The proponents of this #HimToo movement claim that many individuals, mostly men, could potentially have their lives and careers ruined over false accusations of sexual misconduct. Recently, this countermovement of sorts has gained a great deal of traction off the media furor around the Senate Confirmation hearings of now-Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Advocates of #HimToo and supporters of then-Judge Kavanaugh claimed that the numerous allegations of misconduct from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford were nothing more than a smear campaign directed at stopping Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination. On a more comedic note, the mother of 32-year-old Navy Veteran Pieter Hanson tweeted what appeared to be a politically
charged diatribe against the very idea of speaking out about one’s experiences of sexual assault, including with it the hashtag “#HimToo.” The tweet, written in a rather sensationalist manner, reads, “This is MY son. He graduated #1 in boot camp. He was awarded the USO award. He was #1 in A school. He is a gentleman who respects women. He won’t go on solo dates due to the current climate of false sexual accusations by radical feminists with an axe to grind. I VOTE. #HimToo.”
“
We can now understand exactly why supporting this movement is inherently problematic. With the mention of “radical feminists” and the reference to cases of sexual assault as a “climate,” one must wonder: does the #HimToo movement actually exist as something more than a means of defending individuals who have been falsely accused of sexual assault? Do these “counter protests” have legitimate talking points, or do they exist as nothing more than an angry, prejudiced backlash to a prominent social change movement? To best answer these questions, one need only look at other activism movements in this
age of a deeply polarized nation, and their responses, or “counter protests” so to speak. One particularly well-known and understood protest movement is Black Lives Matter, which takes a stand against extrajudicial police killings of African Americans and institutional racism in the United States. While this seemingly benevolent movement has garnered its fair share of praise and support, there is a marginal group of individuals calling the practices and views of BLM misplaced and bigoted in their own right. These people interpret the movement itself to be anti-white and biased against other ethnic and racial groups’ struggles. The battle cry of this counter-movement is the phrase “All Lives Matter,” which eliminates the specificity of “Black Lives Latter,” and from a first glance appears to be a more inclusive version of BLM. However, scrutiny of this phrase shows an underlying, intentional ignorance of the atrocities being committed against many young African Americans. While the phrase “All Lives Matter” technically is more inclusive, it appears to outright ignore these pressing issues. One can imagine the meaning of the phrase “All Lives Matter” in the form of an analogy: imagine that there are two houses standing right next to each other. One of the houses happens to be on fire, and the other one is not. When the one house is engulfed in flames, the appropriate response is to call the fire department and address this potentially lifethreatening issue directly, as opposed to simply sitting idly by with the sentiment that all houses matter.
Obviously the structural integrity of all inhabitable houses is important, but when there is something directly threatening to destroy an entire home, the house on fire must be addressed quickly and directly. Similarly, to support All Lives Matter is to intentionally ignore the aforementioned struggles African Americans face. With this logic in mind, we can directly analyze the real motive behind #HimToo, and understand exactly why supporting this movement is inherently problematic. While being falsely accused of sexual assault and potentially having one’s life and career ruined as a result is indeed a terrible thing to experience and should be addressed, the logic presented by All Lives Matter, shows that #HimToo resides in ignorance. At no point has anyone involved in #HimToo taken the experiences and testimonies of survivors of sexual assault into account. In addition, the number of false allegations of sexual assault that are serious enough to go to trial is exceptionally small. When one is sexually assaulted, they are robbed of all their sense of bodily comfort, dignity and security. To weaponize such feelings and experiences is no easy task at all, and in fact would likely hurt the victim far more than it would the accused. Now, it can be concluded that #HimToo is nothing more then a method of attempting to politicize and pervert the message of #MeToo, a movement devoted to giving those without a voice the ability to speak out about their experiences and hopefully alleviate the trauma associated with being sexually assaulted.
The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.
Write to us
The Justice welcomes reader commentary responding to published material and letters to the editor pertaining to a topic relevant to the University and the campus community. Anonymous submissions will not be accepted. Letters should not exceed 300 words and may be edited for space, style, grammar, spelling, libel and clarity. Submissions from off-campus sources should include location. Op-ed submissions of general interest to the University community are also welcome and should be limited to 1300 words. The Justice does not print letters to the editor and op-ed submissions that have been submitted to other publications. All submissions are due Friday at noon.
Fine Print
The opinions stated in the editorial(s) under the masthead on the opposing page represent the opinion of a majority of the voting members of the editorial board; all other articles, columns, comics and advertisements do not necessarily. For the Brandeis Talks feature on the last page of the newspaper, staff interview four randomly selected students each week and print only those four answers. The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. Operated, produced and published entirely by students, the Justice includes news, features, arts, opinion and sports articles of interest to approximately 3,500 undergraduates, 900 graduate students, 500 faculty and 1,000 administrative staff. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods. Advertising deadlines: All insertion orders and advertising copy must be received by the Justice no later than 5 p.m. on the Thursday preceding the date of publication. All advertising copy is subject to approval of the editor in chief and the managing and advertising editors.
The Staff
For information on joining the Justice, write to editor@ thejustice.org.
Editorial Assistants
Simon*, Tafara Gava, Trevor Filseth
Sports: Megan Geller
Sports: Cahler Fruchtman
Forum: Gabriel Frank
Arts: Kent Dinlenc*, Mendel Weintraub, Luke Liu, Brianna Cummings, Leah Samantha Channen, Ella Russell
Production Assistant
Photography: Ydalia Colon, Thu Le, Clements Park, Yuran
Kirby Kochanowski
Shi Copy: Peri Meyers*, Erica Breyman, Klarissa Hollander,
Staff
River Hayes, Rachel Moore, Emily Shen
News: Will Hodgkinson, Chaiel Schaffel, Liat Shapiro,
Layout: Yael Hanadari-Levi
Mack Schoenfeld, Maurice Windley, Jinyin Chen, Gilda
Illustrations: Mara Khayter, Aaron Marks, Julianna
Geist, Ece Esikara, Nakul Srinivas
Scionti, Harrison Paek
Features: Leigh Salomon*, Christine Kim, Eitan Mager-
* denotes a senior staff member.
Garfield, Michelle Saylor Forum: Andrew Jacobson*, Elias Rosenfeld*, Ravi
12
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018 ● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE
FORUM
U.S. and China lurching ever closer to full-blown trade war By YUCHEN TAN SPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE
While the president and the students are all trying to survive the midterms, the ongoing trade war between China and the United States has just added a touch of pessimism to the national outlook. On Sept. 24, $200 billion worth of United States tariffs on Chinese aircrafts, textiles and computers took effect, and the Chinese reaction was $60 billion worth of tariffs of their own in retaliation. It seems that from the horizon, the trend toward economic globalization in the last century has begun to fall apart. An Oct. 19 CNN article states that China’s Gross Domestic Product growth rate has been falling because of the trade war. This is partially true. The trade war is just one of the reasons to account for China’s falling rates. According to the Federal Reserve, the GDP growth rate of China has been falling annually from 10.6 percent in the early 2010s to 6.9 percent in 2018. The rising pressure on low-cost exports, despite risking the stock markets in China and the U.S is pushing the Chinese economy toward being increasingly internalized. In the Western Hemisphere, the U.S. is also attempting to revive domestic production, trying to quiet discontent among working classes by creating this notion of “external threat” from foreign countries. Both superpowers show signs of internalizing their economic activities, from primary agriculture to manufactured products. Economic globalization has rapidly accelerated since the 1980s. In 1979, Paramount Leader Deng Xiaoping opened up the Chinese market for U.S. investors. Suddenly, tens of thousands of Chinese students were sent to the U.S. to study, and U.S. firms built factories and exported products in China. The following 30 years were crucial for China’s development. Low-cost production strengthened the economic dependence between the U.S. and China. Now, the two superpowers have begun to abase the dependent relationship with one another, reverting into domestic purchasing power and manufacturing. Uncertainty in China depends on whether the country’s firms will march into a more competitive market, or would perceive this free market as stagnating the potential for economic growth. For the U.S., the short-run uncertainty rests upon the midterm election, which might change the domestic fiscal policies and game theory strategies toward other economies. Aggressive nationalism will likely stagnate long-term economic development. This kind of nationalism is surging in both countries, to the extent that it has reduced the necessary
understanding, knowledge and even consensus among huge economic powers. “The Chinese have lived too well for too long” said President Trump at an Oct. 11 rally. This statement would be perfect if it accounted for the two-century internal and external struggle that took place in China, where many people were only lifted out of extreme poverty some 30 years ago. For the U.S., targeting China would be a good thing: a universal enemy could present a distraction for the suffering working class, and could boost domestic production and gradually reduce reliance on the low-cost Chinese products. The Chinese economy is also prepared to stimulate domestic demand and reduce its reliance on U.S. imports by lowering interest rates by 1 percent in July, and reducing non-U.S. import tariffs. The question at hand is this: How can the U.S. and China minimize costs from their trade war? Developed countries used to minimize costs by producing in developing countries and maximize gains from trade by comparative advantages. To reduce the negative impacts from trade war, something that can surpass these notions must emerge — such as technical advances in artificial intelligence and high-tech machineries to reduce labor costs that once incentivized firms to produce in other low-cost developing countries. U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement could be signaling an intention of forming new crossAtlantic trade agreements excluding China.
“
The question at hand is this: How can the U.S. and China minimize costs from their trade war? Under globalization, the rising national debts of many nations pose uncertainty to the creditors and the debtor itself. In the future, we may observe greater fiscal deficits. The trade deficit of goods and services between China and the U.S. has risen by $7.476 billion since May 2018. Since the government responded by providing a surplus to farmers that suffered from the tariffs, the fiscal deficit may continue to grow. Since the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25 percent last month, bonds have
JULIANNA SCIONTI /the Justice
been more competitive as substitutes for stocks. U.S. investors should expect more upcoming volatility on the stock market. Some good news for U.S. industries comes in the form of booming consumer confidence in the third quarter of 2018. The S&P 500 Index of U.S. stock market had gone up by 1.3 percent in September. This economic upturn is traceable, particularly in higher demand for the auto-sale businesses and used cars. This divisive effect of globalization also appears in China, as Beijing responded to the latest trade tariffs by lowering interest rates and trade tariffs on non-U.S. goods. The first possible trait that correlates to a more development-based economy is the decreasing rates of low-income migrant population moving inside China. These rates have been dropping since 2014. This indicates greater urbanization and more developed infrastructure. More people would like to settle down instead of moving toward larger cities. Major cities are overburdened. Less major cities like Shijiazhuang, Changsha, and Hangzhou are saturated. A second factor at
play is the country’s aging population and low birth rates. Children aged zero to 15 are becoming a smaller portion of the total population, yet elderly people aged 65+ are growing, having reached 11.4 percent by 2017. Last but not least, economic profits for the new entrants fall as well as the market becomes more competitive in these industries. Per the data released by Zhongtai Securities Institute, the median of the change in profit margin for Chinese manufacturing industries was 1.1 percent in the last eight years, compared to 3.7 percent from 2000 to 2010. The trade war has just begun; the previous Japan vs. U.S. trade war lasted two decades in 1960s-1980s. Will the mutual dependence between the U.S. and China be torn up? Well, the internalization of economic activities can go either direction. The goals that the two superpowers may pursue are to form new regional trade areas, and to optimize their own economic systems so as to boost domestic innovation and suppress bubbles in stock and real estate markets.
Prager University’s slick production masks deep-seated hatred Judah
WEINERMAN CHATTERBOX
Between the untold amount of Fortnite streamers that secretly love Hitler and “Top 10 Drops of Sweat That Rolled Down LeBron’s Face” YouTube videos, you might encounter advertisements put out by a group called Prager University. Calling them ads is a bit of a stretch, because most of them run in the four minute range. In fact, these ads are the channel’s uncut content, stuck in front of the actual video you were trying to watch. These videos are slickly produced lectures that claim to be short, information-dense overviews of contemporary historical and political issues. As their slogan goes, “Short Videos: Big Ideas.” What’s so terrible about that, you may ask? In the interest of brevity, all pretense of civility is going out the window in this op-ed. To put it bluntly, Prager University is a rightwing intellectual garbage factory created to give right-wing pundits a platform. It features top-notch production values paid for by archconservative oil tycoons Dan and Farris Wilks, as well as a rotating group of the right wing’s finest pundits and grifters. Prager University, also known PragerU by those choosing between paying for rent or nine letters’ worth of ink, bears its creator’s thumbprints. The channel is the brainchild of Los Angeles talk radio host and consummate conservative culture warrior Dennis Prager. Though he self-identifies as Jewish, Prager’s politics render him essentially an evangelical Christian who doesn’t mention Jesus. Given that his own brand of conservatism skews more toward long-winded speeches about how prison reform would somehow make listening
to fancy white-tie recitals of Beethoven and Mozart illegal, Prager had to find a way to move back into a conservative media market that had long since spurned his aristocratic stylings. We’re well past the era of Gila monster-looking Harvard aristocrats like William F. Buckley. In assembling his roster of “professors,” Prager has cleverly selected his speakers from the trendy campus warrior subset of the right-wing pundit sphere. Sure, more traditional spooks like convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza and professional women-exclusionary feminist Christina Hoff Sommers make token appearances, but the real stars of the show are the new stars of the right. These people may be stuck on the hellscape that is the internet and social media for now, but yesterday’s talk radio hollerers now have direct throughlines to the President of the United States. It’s probably worth keeping track of these people. Given its smothering presence on YouTube, PragerU will likely be the infection vector for many of these blowhards into the public at large. If I were straw-chomping New York Times columnist Bari Weiss of “Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web” fame, I would be fawning over myself right now after writing all of these mini biographies. All of these people are awful, and you shouldn’t watch anything they’ve ever made if you can avoid it. Please. I recently spent a great amount of time trying to avoid a PragerU ad featuring Candace Owens in which she complains about the horrors of the “black card.” Candace is best known for being complimented in the Kanye West tweet that directly preceded the one where he said that 400 years of African slavery was a choice. Owens spends much of her time cleverly decrying the use of identity politics, all while claiming that her perspective as a Black conservative woman allows her to see the problems with the contemporary American left. The irony is completely lost on her. Owens’ day job is to serve as communications director for Koch-funded campus morons Turning Point USA, and her ostensible boss
Charlie Kirk is another favorite PragerU lecturer. A “call anything left of Ronald Reagan ‘Venezuela’” type, Kirk is really not the sharpest tool in the shed. In his most recent book, “Campus Battlefield: How Conservatives Can WIN the Battle on Campus and Why It Matters,” he reminisces about one of his many ventures into the college breach, writing, “‘Charlie Kirk is a Jerk! Charlie Kirk is a Jerk!’ cried the students. Nice alliteration, that, but I’ve been called worse.” Yes, this man who got the thumbs up from Trump himself cannot tell the difference between alliteration and rhyming. I would be remiss to leave out everyone’s favorite catcalling yeshiva boy Ben Shapiro, who’s basically the Bizarro version of every single Brandeis student ever. Often starring in his own YouTube videos with titles like “Ben Shapiro DESTROYS Dumb Liberal Cuck With Facts and LOGIC,” Shapiro is a master of the garbage take, and can always be counted on to say things like “Israelis like to build. Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage. This is not a difficult issue. #settlementsrock” and “Renewable energy: dumbest phrase since climate change. See the first law of thermodynamics, dumbass.” Shapiro recently starred in an election special for Fox News, so his idiocy and unhinged racism may be coming to a waiting room near you. Another PragerU favorite is Steven Crowder, former voice actor for “Arthur” and dubiously self-proclaimed comedian. When he’s not busy moaning about why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is basically Fidel Castro, Crowder is serving up pranks to “own the libs.” His comedic repertoire, which includes such classics as pretending to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Hispanic day laborers, screaming in newlyweds’ faces for not being virgins on their wedding night, and poorly dressing up as a woman to harass transgender activists, is about as funny as the Holodomor. And don’t forget about “classical liberal” Dave Rubin, host of the Rubin Report and definitely not just a mainline conservative
The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.
pretending to be something else to obscure his awful opinions. Imagine the dudebro libertarian drivel and rampant misogyny of the Joe Rogan Show, minus the mixed martial arts arguments, ayahuasca and Elon Musk hitting fat blunts. That’s basically Rubin’s entire gimmick right there. Finally, there’s the PragerU talking head I legitimately fear might stick around for awhile, University of Toronto professor and consummate cider hater Dr. Jordan Peterson. Of all the names in this article, Peterson is the only one even remotely close to having any sort of authority on any subject whatsoever. Take his recent bestelling “12 Rules For Life,” a self-help book that combines deep insights like “clean your room, bucko” and “stand up straight with your shoulders back” with reactionary politics and a seething hatred for women. Considering nationally syndicated snake oil salesman Dr. Mehmet Oz claimed that Peterson is “undeniably one of the greatest intellectual phenomenons of our generation,” he might stick around. Get ready for talks about how lobster hierarchies prove that human gender and racial hierarchies are good and how free speech is under attack by Michel Foucault and transgender people. When he runs for prime minister against Justin Trudeau in 2019, you’ll be ready. Other right-wing trolls like Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos have found themselves deprived of their rent-free platforms on Twitter and YouTube, but PragerU is still chugging along, with videos like “Who Needs Feminism?” and “Build the Wall” raking in millions of views. Although Facebook has restricted several of the outlet’s more inflammatory videos, YouTube seemingly has no qualms with PragerU’s current ad blitz and suffocating presence in viewers’ recommended videos. Given the dubiously factual, racist, sexist and homophobic drivel that PragerU pumps out, perhaps YouTube should think twice before giving them a captive audience.
THE JUSTICE ● SPORTS ● TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018
MSOCCER: Judges keep up in crowded UAA conference CONTINUED FROM 16 College took place yesterday, but ended too late to make it into today’s issue. You can read a summary of the game in the men’s soccer article coming out next Tuesday. Looking ahead, the men’s soccer season will end with a University Athletic Association conference road trip. First, they will travel to St. Louis, Missouri to take on Washington University in St. Louis on Friday. The following Sunday, they will pack their bags for Chicago, Illinois to take on the University of Chicago. Finally, the Judges will take on New York University in their season finale on
13
CORNER CRUSH
Nov. 3. Forget all the expectations. Forget the ups and downs. Forget everything you know about this men's soccer campaign: this last stretch of the schedule will define the season. The Judges are currently ranked fourth in the UAA. They have the same 2-1-1 conference record as three other teams in the UAA, but their overall record vaults them from tying for second place to holding sole posession of fourth. One of the remaining games is against the University of Chicago, the conference leader. Only time will tell if these last four games will propel the Judges into the playoffs.
TENNIS: Team will resume their season WSOCCER: Team looks to in February with impress in last four games West Coast trip
CHARLIE CATINO/Justice File Photo
CROSSED UP: Forward Sasha Sunday '19 launches a screaming corner kick in their game against Emory on Oct. 14.
CONTINUED FROM 16
CONTINUED FROM 16 defeated Ng with scores of 6–1, 2–6 and 10–3 and Middlebury College’s Emily Bian with scores of 7–6 (7–4) and 6–2. Keren Khromchenko ’19 also aided the Judges with victories in singles as well. She defeated Middlebury’s Bian and Williams’s Zheng. Sophie He ’19 also beat Skelly, and Ana Hatfield ’22 beat Middlebury’s Nora Dahl. The Judges have now concluded their fall season. Both the men’s
and women’s tennis teams have had impressive seasons so far, performing with great strength in both singles and doubles play. The teams will return in the spring for their next set of matches, where they will vie for more victories and take on University Athletic Association rivals. Upon their return, the Judges have the opportunity to further improve their game. With their current dedication and teamwork, they will be even more of a force to be reckoned with.
the Owls 21–6. For the next several minutes, the teams would trade scoring chances, charging up and down the field only to have their shots run off target or saved by the opposing team’s goalkeeper. This eventually meant victory for Brandeis. Sierra Dana ’20 was the Judges' goalkeeper in the first half and made three saves. Victoria Richardson ’20 took over for Dana in the second half and made one save during her time in goal. The second half of the game involved many substitutions on both sides. The game ended
with a corner kick by Mastrandrea. Throughout the game, the Judges had four fouls, while the Owls had five. The game lasted a total of one hour and 25 minutes. So far, the Judges have 29 goals in the season and an average of 2.23 goals-per-game. The team also has an average of 21.5 shots per game resulting in a shot percent of 10.4 The team has won 11 of the 13 games played so far, two of which were won in overtime. The team’s longest streak lasted eight games, starting on Sept. 1, against Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and ending with the Judges’ defeat by Lesley College on Oct. 2.
This coming week, the Judges will travel to Simmons College on Oct. 23 for the last non-conference game of the season. This will be followed by a game at Washington University in St. Louis on Sunday Oct. 8, followed by the University of Chicago on Sunday Oct. 28 and New York University on Saturday Nov. 2. This last stretch of the schedule is critically important for the Judges. Despite their impressive record, they currently stand in fourth place in the UAA. The teams ahead of them are WashU, UChicago and NYU — the team's only remaining UAA opponents.
SOCCER VOLLEYBALL TENNIS TRACK
Write for Sports! Contact Zach Kaufman at sports@thejustice.org
SOCCER VOLLEYBALL TENNIS TRACK
Everyone has a story. Help us find it.
Write for the features section of
the
Justice
Contact Victor Feldman at features@thejustice.org for more information. ,
Interested in music, theater, film, comedy or museums?
Write for Arts! Contact Maya Zanger-Nadis at arts@thejustice.org
Images: CHELSEA MADERA/the Justice, HEATHER SCHILLER/the Justice, LUCY FRENKEL/the Justice, MORGAN BRILL/the Justice, NATALIA WIATER/the Justice, YDALIA COLON/the Justice, ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice
THE JUSTICE
JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS
● SPORTS ●
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23 , 2018
15
VOLLEYBALL
MEN’S SOCCER UAA STANDINGS Chicago Rochester Case JUDGES WashU NYU Carnegie WashU
TEAM STATS Goals
UAA Conf. W L D 3 1 0 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 0 1 3 0 0 4 0
Overall W L D 12 2 1 11 1 1 12 2 1 7 6 2 6 6 1 11 3 0 9 3 2 9 5 1
Andrew Allen ’19 leads the team with six goals. Pct. Player Goals .833 Andrew Allen 6 .885 Bryant Nardizzi 6 .833 Jake Warren 4 .533 Devan Casey 3 .500 .786 Assists .714 Max Breiter ’20 is tied for the .633 team lead with three assists. Player Assists Max Breiter 3 Jared Panson 3 Bryant Nardizzi 3 AJ Mercer 2
EDITOR’S NOTE: Friday at WashU Sunday at UChicago Nov. 3 at NYU
WOMEN’S SOCCER UAA STANDINGS
TEAM STATS Goals
UAA Conf. W L D WashU 4 0 0 Chicago 4 0 0 NYU 3 0 1 JUDGES 3 1 0 Emory 1 2 1 Carnegie 0 4 0 Rochester 0 4 0 Case 0 4 0
Overall W L D Pct. 14 0 0 1.000 13 1 1 .900 8 4 3 .633 11 2 0 .846 10 4 1 .700 7 6 1 .536 7 6 1 .536 7 7 0 .500
EDITOR’S NOTE: Today at Simmons Friday at WashU Sunday at UChicago
Katie Hayes ’20 leads the team with six goals. Player Goals Katie Hayes 6 Daria Bakhtiari 5 Sasha Sunday 3 Emma Spector 2
Assists Emma Spector ’20 leads the team with three assists. Player Assists Emma Spector 3 Laura Mastandrea 3 Sasha Sunday 2 Julia Matson 2
VOLLEYBALL UAA STANDINGS
TEAM STATS Kills
Chicago Emory WashU Carnegie Case NYU Rochester JUDGES
UAA Conf. W L 6 1 6 1 5 2 5 2 3 4 2 5 1 6 0 7
Overall W L 25 3 18 5 18 5 19 8 17 10 15 12 20 9 11 14
Pct. .893 .783 .783 .704 .630 .556 .690 .440
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thursday at Wellesley Saturday vs. UMass Boston Nov. 2 vs. UAA Tournament
Emma Bartlet ’20 leads the team with 237 kills. Player Kills Emma Bartlett 237 Shea Decker-Jacoby 207 Marissa Borgert 122 Belle Scott 120
Digs Kaitlyn Oh ’22 leads the team with 336 digs. Player Digs Kaitlyn Oh 336 Yvette Cho 300 Grace Krumpack 193 Marlee Nork 117
CROSS COUNTRY Results from the Conn College/UW Oshkosh Invitationals on Oct. 13.
TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)
TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)
8-Kilometer Run RUNNER TIME Josh Lombardo 26:24.6 Matthew Driben 26:37.0 Dan Curley 27:23.2
6-Kilometer Run RUNNER TIME Emily Bryson 21:38.5 Julia Bryson 22:46.2 Danielle Bertaux 23:00.5
EDITOR’S NOTE: Oct. 28 at UAA Championships Nov. 10 at New England DIII Championships
ANDREW BAXTER/Justice File Photo
DOUBLE DEFENSE: Marissa Borgert ’21 and Belle Scott ’21 provide towering defense against Case Western on Sept. 29.
Team wins three in a row in late-season push ■ An 0–7 conference record puts them in the cellar of the UAA, but the team’s motivation hasn’t faded. By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR
The Judges improved this week, breaking their most recent fourgame losing streak. They won the past three matches with an impressive match score of 3–0 against all three opponents. They have improved to 11–14 overall, and looking ahead, the Judges will face Wellesley College on Thursday. Judges 3, Trinity 0 The Judges were victorious for their third straight game with a score of 3–0, improving their record to 11–14 for the season. After their victory against the Pioneers, they entered their match against Trinity College with power as they went on to win with set scores of 25–15, 25–18 and 25–19, according to the Brandeis Athletics website. Once again, Emma Bartlett ’20 was the team’s overwhelming leader. With an impressive 12 kills and no errors in 21 attempts, she set
up the team for a strong finish with her .571 hit percentage. Shea Decker-Jacoby ’19 added 11 kills, and Kaitlyn Oh ’22 totalled 24 digs. Stephanie Borr ’22 had ten digs, and Marissa Borgert ’21 finished with a career-best 43 assists. Judges 3, Smith 0 The Judges pulled off their second match in a row in which won all three sets against Smith College, improving Brandeis to 10– 14 for the season. The set scores that favored the Judges in this match were 25–11, 25–16 and 25–11, proving that the Judges are a force to be reckoned with. Demolishing the Pioneers in every set, the Judges pulled out a total of 33 kills and only 11 errors in a total of 74 attacks. As the team leader for the Judges, Bartlett contributed eight kills, the team high for this match while Borgert and Belle Scott ’21 contributed six kills each. The Judges played an impressive defensive game as well with team leader in defense Oh’s 15 digs and Grace Krumpack’s ’19 12 digs. The Judges played an all-around impressive match with a .297 hit percentage, 7.0 blocks, 45 digs and 11 aces. Judges 3, Worcester State 0
Breaking their four-game losing streak, the Judges pulled off an impressive victory demolishing the Worcester State University Lancers. The Judges improved to 9-14 with this match that had set scores of 25–19, 25–22 and 25–20, according to Brandeis Athletics website. The first set began as a tight match for the two teams, who were tied at a score of 18 before the Judges were able to pull out a 7–1 run to make Brandeis victorious. When faced with the second set, the Judges quickly maintained a lead at 5–1. However, the Lancers tied the score at five, before the Judges fought harder to push ahead and not fall behind again. In the third set, the two teams remained close for the beginning of the set. After a tied score at 11, the Judges scored the set’s next 11 points and ultimately took the set and the match. This match against Worcester State University marked a season best for Borr. She had 11 kills and 12 digs, marking her first doubledouble. Bartlett provided nine kills for the team, and Marlee Nork ’19 provided 23 assists. Borgert dished 16 assists as well. Catch the Judges next when they take on Wellesley College on Thursday at 7 p.m.
PRO SPORTS BRIEF Alabama remains the team to beat as the college football season reaches its midway point At the time of this article’s publishing, the college football regular season is now about halfway over. With seven weeks to go in the regular season, teams are gearing up for the home stretch, ready to make the last push and prove they deserve consideration for the top bowl games and FBS playoffs. SEC: As has been the case for the past few years, many of the top teams in college football hail from the SEC. We of course must begin with Alabama. They are in the middle of one of the most dominant dynasties in all of sports history, winning the SEC for the past six seasons. This year, Nick Saban’s squad is looking for more of the same, posting an 8–0 record and dominating their opponents. Louisiana State University, the University of Georgia, the University
of Florida and upstart Kentucky have all been making noise, but only one of them (if that) will join the University of Alabama in the college football championship. ACC: ACC football has not had the same clout as the SEC over the past decade, but one team has kept the conference on the map of football relevance. The Clemson Tigers have had a fairly easy time leading the division; no real challenger has yet emerged from within the ACC. Usually, teams like Florida State and Louisville will at least keep them honest, but those programs have faltered and Clemson remains unbeaten at the top. If things continue to go as planned, they should make it to the heralded FBS playoffs to represent the ACC. They could prove a worthy challenge to Alabama.
Big Ten: One of the nations most pervasive conferences, the Big Ten is consistently competitive in both football and basketball. Year after year, we can count on the Big Ten to produce top-level talent. Even when some teams have off years, there is enough coaching talent and there are enough name-brand schools to draw top athletes to the conference. This year, the conference runs through Ann Arbor. After an opening week loss to Notre Dame University, the University of Michigan has been on a tear, winning their last seven including a big win last week against crosstown rival Michigan State. Following them in the conference is perhaps their most deep-seated rival, the Ohio State University. The conference has two more teams currently in the top 25, Pennsylvania State University and the University of
Wisconsin, and plenty more peeking over the fence, ready to replace any team that falters. Expect the Big Ten to make some noise in bowl games and the FBS championship. Big 12: The Big 12 conference has also been making some noise this season. They don’t currently have any teams in the top four and will likely miss out on competing for the championship, but they hold a prime position to participate in the some of the higher-profile bowl games. Just like in the Big Ten, the conference’s top two teams are historic football rivals. Both the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma are teetering on greatness and have been consistently ranked in the top 10. They met each other earlier this month in what will stand as one of the defining games of the season; Texas
won the shootout 48–45. West Virginia has also been making some noise in the conference and is currently ranked 14th overall. Honorable Mentions: We cannot talk about this college football season without mentioning Notre Dame, the school without a conference. They have been absolutely dominant and will more than likely have a shot at winning the FBS national championship in January if they continue to play at this level. They are currently ranked third, and it will be very difficult to unseat them. That’s how this season has gone so far in the college football world. The second half should bring just as much if not more excitement, close games and memories. — Zach Kaufman
just Sports Page 16
VOLLEYBALL WINS LAST THREE The Brandeis volleyball team has won all of their games this past week, p. 15. Waltham, Mass.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
WOMEN’S SOCCER
CRAZY LEGS
Judges improve to 11–2 on season ■ The women's soccer
team has four games left to put the finishing touches on a fantastic season. By MEGAN GELLER JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Kicking off another impressive week for the Judges, the women’s soccer team pushed forward and defeated Westfield State University on Wednesday. This game, hosted by Westfield State at Alumni Field, improved the Judges’ record to 11–2 for the season, according to D3Soccer.com. As of Oct. 14, the Judges have a conference standing of 3–1–0, and in addition, as of Oct. 16th the Judges were ranked number 15—tied with Hanover College—by NCAA Women’s DIII. Westfield State 1, Judges 3 The game started off with Sierra Dana ’20 as the goalie for the Judges. One minute into the game, the Westfield State Owls won a corner kick and attempted to score a goal; however, Dana saved it. Four minutes into the game, Julia Matson ’19 kicked the ball across to Sasha Sunday ’19, who then scored
the first goal. This was Sunday’s third goal of the season and 16th in her career. Just eight minutes later, Lauren Mastrandrea ’22 launched a shot past the diving reach of the Owls goalkeeper. The goal came off of yet another assist from Matson. This shot was Mastrandrea’s first of her career and the team’s 15th different player to score a goal this season. Later in the first half, the Owls halved the gap between them and the Judges. Madison Dufries ’22 of Westfield State had the ball near the box in the Judges' half of the field. She sent an arcing chip pass to teammate Ashley Levya, who would slam it home on her first touch. In the 37th minute of play, Katie Hayes ’20 passed the ball to Emma Spector ’20, who brought the Judges to 3–1. This goal was Hayes’ sixth of the season and ninth of her career. In the second half of the game, neither team scored, but it was still eventful. In the first 20 minutes of the half, the Judges would outshoot the Owls 9-0, though no goal would come of it. In fact, throughout the whole game, the Judges outshot
See WSOCCER, 13
☛
TENNIS
Team continues to impress in fall season ■ The Brandeis tennis team
has completed the first half of their season, and will now begin preparing for February. By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR
The men’s and women’s tennis teams both wrapped up their fall seasons with two different matches. The men’s team attended the Tufts-Deis Invitational that was held at both Brandeis and Tufts Universities, and the women’s team attended the Middlebury Hidden Duals at Middlebury College. The teams continue to fight a strong set of matches against their opponents. Tufts-Deis Invitational At the Tufts-Deis Invitational, the Judges prevailed mostly in their doubles matches. According to the Brandeis Athletics website, Jackson Kogan ’19 and Adam Tzeng ’22 worked their way to the semifinals as a result of the ‘A’ doubles draw. Kogan and Tzeng were both top-seeded and conquered players from both the teams from Williams College and Bowdoin College. Afterwards, however, the two fell to Amherst College — the fourth-seeded team — in the semifinals. Anupreeth Coramutla ’21 and Colt Tegtmeier ’21, an unseeded duo, impressively climbed their way to the semifinals as a result of the ‘B’ draw. The pair defeated duos from Williams College and Middlebury College before being beaten in the semifinals by the team of Damien Ruparel and Jesse Levitin of Amherst College. The Judges of the men’s team also played with passion in their singles matches, sending two players to the quarter finals.
Kogan, who was third-seeded, beat Tuft’s Akash Verma and Wesleyan’s Princeton Carter. It was not until the quarterfinals that he fell to Amherst College’s Will Tuchetta. Tyler Ng ’19 defeated the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Arman Dave and Williams College’s Peter Frelinghuysen. Ng lost in the quarterfinals to Amherst Colleges' Damien Ruparel. Additionally, it is important to note that in the ‘A’ draw, three Judges won their first-round matches, but did not advance after these matches. Tzeng and Rajan Vohra ’21 both defeated seeded players of other teams. This resulted in a great upset, as Tzeng conquered Amherst Colleges' Adam Ma, who was fourth-seeded. Vohra beat Middlebury Colleges' Nate Eazor, who was seventhseeded. Coramulta defeated Bowdoin College’s Alan Delmen. Middlebury Hidden Duals At the Middlebury Hidden Duals, the women’s team finished out their exciting fall season playing Williams College and Middlebury College. According to the Brandeis Athletics website, these matches were head-to-head, and the Judges performed very strongly. Lauren Bertsch ’21 was one of the strongest players on the team this weekend, contributing much to the success of the team as a whole. She won a doubles contest and two singles matches. Along with Olivia Leavitt ’21, Bertsch defeated Williams College’s Maxine Ng and Emily Zheng before falling to Middlebury College’s duo of Ann Martin Skelly and Christina Puccinelli. Bertsch and Leavitt defeated Martin Skelly and Puccinelli 8–3 on Saturday and 8–1 on Sunday. In singles, Bertsch
See TENNIS, 13 ☛
THU LE/Justice File Photo
FANCY FOOTWORK: Forward Bryant Nardizzi ’20 dribbles the ball past a Rochester defender during their game on Oct. 12.
Squad ties week’s only game against Clark ■ The team hopes that
their last four games will improve their UAA playoff positioning. By ZACH KAUFMAN JUSTICE EDITOR
The Brandeis men’s soccer team has almost completed their regular season. They had a campaign defined by high expectations and close games. After starting off slow, they picked up as of late and won a few key games. This past week, they faced off against Clark University and Amherst College. Here is how the team fared in those games. Clark 2, Judges 2 Coming off of a week in which they played in a combined three overtime periods, the Judges were tired and looking to get things done during regulation. Unfortunately, this was not the case in their game against Clark University, when they tied for the second time in three games. The first half started off as well as the Judges could have hoped. Just 54 seconds
into the game, Colin Panarra ’20 had a throw-in opportunity from the sideline. He spotted Bryant Nardizzi ’20 in open field and threw the ball his way. The ball was headed into the box by Nardizzi, where Andrew Allen ’19 was in perfect position to score the game’s first goal. Less than 10 minutes of game time later, Allen had yet another opportunity, and ran with the ball deep into his opponent's territory. When he was about 30 yards out of the goal, he launched a screamer into the upper right-hand corner of the goal. Allen’s fifth and sixth goals of the season put Brandeis up 2–0 at halftime. Unfortunately for the Judges, this game was a tale of two halves. Clark would take until the 67th minute of play to get their first goal on the board. Sean Munroe ’20 had control of the ball on the Judges’ side of the field. He quickly spotted Jack Stark ’19 with space in front of him and launched a through-ball his way. Stark received the pass, took a couple of touches to ensure proper control of the ball, and fired a screaming shot past the Brandeis goalkeeper.
For the next few game minutes, it looked like the Judges were back in control and would be able to keep the lid on and escape with a win. With just six minutes remaining in regulation, a Judges win seemed all but guaranteed. However, a last-minute cougar effort changed the course of the game. In the 84th minute of the game, Sam Hartley ’21 had the ball on his own side of the field and was desperate for a chance at a goal. He sent a long ball deep into Judges terrority, hoping a change in field position could spark some sort of opportunity for Westfield State. After landing and bouncing once, it found the foot of a sprinting Munroe, who chipped it over the charging Brandeis goalkeeper to force an overtime period. In the extra 20 minutes, Brandeis had total control over the pace of the game, outshooting Westfield State 7-1, including 4-1 on goal. However, it was for naught, as cougar goalkeeper Melvin Vincent saved all four potential scoring plays and kept the score tied at two apiece. The game against Amherst
See MSOCCER, 13
☛
Vol. #7 Vol. LXXI LXX #2
October 23, September 12,2018 2017
t s e p m e T e h >>pg. 18 T just
just
Arts
Waltham, Mass.
Photos: Yvette Sei/the Justice. Design: Andrew Baxter/the Justice.
18
TUESDAY, THE JUSTICE OCTOBER | ARTS 23, 2018 | TUESDAY, I ARTS JANUARY I THE JUSTICE 31, 2017
THEATER REVIEW
Dibble’s ‘Dream’ come true By MENDEL WEINTRAUB JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Over the weekend, a delightful original piece, “Dream A Little Dream,” premiered at the Laurie Theater in Spingold Theater Center. The ambitious dance performance, conceptualized and directed by our very own Prof. Susan Dibble (THA), is a sensory feast with strong work from all parties involved. “Dream A Little Dream” is
ethereal. Dance numbers do not simply begin and end; they weave in and out of each other, forming a story full of life. The tale told is that of two “Dreamers, “played by Hannah McGowan ’18 and Christian Ford Harrington ’21, whose late-night imaginings are overseen by a “Dream Caster” (Rachael Schindler ’18) and the mysterious “Window Frame Man” (Casper L’Esperance-Kerckhoff ’18). Over the course of the 51-minute show, we are whisked into the
Photo Courtesy of SUSAN DIBBLE
CHOREO CAMEO: Creator and choreographer Prof. Susan Dibble makes an appearance.
worlds of their dreams, accompanied by music featuring vocal talents that range from Julie Andrews to Adele, and even the aria Casta Diva from “Norma.” The very nature of this play allows it to thrive where other stage performances are granted less leeway. The fact that it is supposed to be a dream creates boundless possibilities within the world of the story. Therefore, as would only make sense in fiction, a lovely scene of McGowan’s “Dreamer” fawning and prancing to “I Could Have Danced All Night” can seamlessly flow into a much darker scene featuring the ensemble cocooning their bodies in paper bags around a campfire. In most productions, a tonal transition of this sort would be jarring and inexplicable, but the rules of the world that Dibble has dreamt up for her “Little Dream” compel you to sit back and marvel at the sight. It is enchanting. The staging for this production, designed by lecturer in Theater Arts Jeff Adelberg, could not have been more well suited. The lofted bedrooms of the “Dreamers” bookended the space where the dreams played out. A beautiful wall of flickering
lights served as an appropriate background. Adelberg’s lighting design brought out the features of his captivating set, while also filling in missing details. His work provoked the imagination, as he creatively used light to evoke imagery of campfires and even flight. Combined with Steve Deptula’s attentive sound design, these components made for an immersive experience. Further adding to the ambience was Chelsea Kerl’s dashing costume design. In reviewing a dance performance, one would be remiss to overlook the dancers. In short, they were all in fine form, bringing the story of “Dream a Little Dream” roaring to life. This is a true ensemble piece — each and every person on stage made their own presence known while also supporting the work of their fellow performers. Dibble’s deliberate choreography, much of which brought the entire cast onto the small stage of the Laurie, never once was too busy, miraculously crowding up a space while also creating room to breathe. And while the pieces showcasing the whole cast were wonderful, two soulful solo dances stood out: those of Rachael Schindler ’19
Photo Courtesy of SUSAN DIBBLE
SLEEPWALKING: A performer dons a floral crown, matching perfectly with the set.
and the final solo performed by Dibble. They were transportive, and so effective in accomplishing Dibble’s goal: to portray the “surprise and wonder in dreams.”
Images Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS
THEATER REVIEW
‘The Tempest’ takes ’Deis by storm By LUKE LIU
JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
This weekend, Hold Thy Peace, a student-run group that performs Shakespeare and classic theater on campus, presented “The Tempest,” directed by Kat Lawrence ’20 and produced by Gabi Burkholz ’21. The last play written by William Shakespeare, “The Tempest” is about a banished magician, Prospero, calling a huge storm — a tempest — upon a group of people to punish those who betrayed him. At the same time, he has to take care of his daughter’s future and prevent a demon from overthrowing him as the master of his island. Like the 2010 film adaption of “The Tempest,” this production changes the gender of the main character Prospero to female, renaming her Prospera. One of the outstanding aspects of the show is the costume design. In Brandeis’ production, the forces of nature and magic are brilliantly presented by dancers with intricate costumes. Key elements of the story have to do with wind spirits and, during the first scene, the wind spirits literally grab the characters by their arms and legs and pull them into different directions, showing off the production’s impressive choreography. These spirits play an important role in the story and are well developed, unlike the humans — of which only Ariel’s character is fleshed out. In this production, while staying loyal to the original script, the spirit is presented with much more detail as well as humanlike characteristics, which is a lot of fun to watch. All that said, some of the sets did distract me, particularly the shadow play behind the veil. I was surprised by the idea of showing stories beyond the stage through shadows to create flashbacks. However, the light was so strong that I struggled to look straight at the stage without hurting my eyes. This is a minor flaw, but it did affect the overall experience. Besides the amazing costume designs and choreography, some of the individual performances were remarkable. Leah Nashel ’20, Ariel, showed her versatility and talent by taking on singing, dancing and acting all together. Aaron Young ’22, Caliban, the halfhuman, half-monster creature who can
barely walk straight, gave a very physically demanding performance that was both intimidating and hilarious. Esther Shimkin ’21 as Trincula brought out waves of laughter every time she appeared onstage. On the other hand, the human characters’ performances were relatively weak. Part of the reason for that is the original script: Some of the characters were rather flat in the first place and therefore very hard for actors to work with. However, the main character, Prospera, is a considerably more complicated individual. With the magic she possesses, Prospera is essentially a god among humans in the play, yet she is still troubled by some of her mortal emotions, such as the desire for power and vengeance. In this production, Prospera feels like a narrator, expressing little emotion, which is so much less than what the sorceress is meant to accomplish. “The Tempest” has always been one my favorite plays, and I am glad to see a Brandeis production of it with great choreography and costume designs. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and cannot wait to see another production from Hold Thy Peace.
YVETTE SEI/the Justice
SHAKESPEAREAN ROMANCE: “The Tempest” delights with its comical characters.
YVETTE SEI/the Justice
TEMPESTUOUS TIDINGS: Aaron Young ’22 gives a strong performance as Caliban.
THE JUSTICE I ARTS I TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018
19
DANCE REVIEW
Toxic invites Brandeis to ‘Pick Your Poison’ JEN GELLER/the Justice
THE SPLITS: “Pick Your Poison” was an unqualified success, as this high-jumping athlete can likely attest.
By ELLA RUSSELL JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
This is a historic year for the Toxic Majorette Dance Line. Formed in 2015 under the umbrella of the Brandeis Black Student Organization, this year the team became an independent, University-chartered club. They celebrated this acheivement in Saturday’s enormous showcase “Pick your Poison,” demonstrating not only their skills but also those of a variety of other dance and music groups. Aside from majorette dancing, performances featured Afro-Caribbean, Latin, Bollywood, ballet, tap and modern dance. Music included Ghanaian drumming, a cappella, a pep band performance and a duet by a pianist and a singer who switched halfway through to playing a saxophone. Finally, there was a spoken word piece. As the program for “Pick your Poison” states, and as was clearly shown that night, “The team’s mission is to bring all students with a love of dance together. They strive for inclusivity and promote multiculturalism in order to strengthen team multiculturalism and cultural competence.” Majorette dancing has a style similar to cheerleading, originating in the southern United States and often performed with marching bands at sporting and parade events. As such, it was fitting that they performed in the
Auerbach Arena in Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. Although there were a diverse range of performances, majorette dancing was the main theme of the show. Toxic performed multiple times and, for the last act of the show, joined with Boston majorette group Area 51 to create a massive performance. Due to the undeniable difficulty of organizing the many groups in the showcase, there were some hitches in “Pick your Poison.” The event was scheduled to start at 6 p.m., but actually began 30 minutes late. As we realized once the show started, this may have been due to some of the groups in Act I switching with some of the groups in Act II. The bleachers — not comfortable seats to begin with — became very uncomfortable after two and a half hours. Despite its logistical struggles, the arena was filled with supporters — students coming to cheer on their friends and parents coming to see their children perform. The emcees were great as well, tying everything together through their exaggerated yet respectful awe of each event. At the end, the members of Toxic came onto the stage and gave glowing acknowledgements and flowers to the founding members and to their new coach, who “has pushed us beyond what we thought we could do in practice.” Overall, “Pick your Poison” was a treat to watch. Although the event admittedly had some detracting elements, it blasted through with enthusiasm and flair.
JEN GELLER/the Justice
CASUAL: Unconcerned, one dancer checks her nails with one foot held high above her head.
COMEDY REVIEW
Fresh out of Boris’ Kitchen puns By KENT DINLENC JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Last week, Brandeis’ sketch comedy group, Boris’ Kitchen, held its annual “Shit Show” in Mandel. The show reused sketches that had been performed in previous years and were written by former members, which meant that all of the sketches were at least four years old. Though the director, Claudia Davis ’19, prefaced the show with a warning about some sketches being a little tone deaf, they went over well with the audience. The show started shakily with a sketch about a man marrying his imaginary girlfriend — its quirkiness overstayed its welcome. As the show progressed, the sketches improved. The evening peaked during a sketch in which two children were restricted to playing downstairs with inferior toys by an ominous Stairmaster who has “no relation to the exercise equipment,” portrayed by Perry Letourneau ’20. The skit was filled to the brim with fun jokes and riddles. The two children, Alan Omari ’20 and Davis, had great chemistry and worked well opposite Letourneau’s manic energy. The troop is full of energetic actors such as the aforementioned veterans, as well as newcomer Pierce Robinson ’22. In addition to Letourneau and Omari, who have audiences in the palms of their hands as they relish every moment on
stage, Robinson stole many a scene, Center for The Humanities atrium as Alex Trebek and a meta-discussion BK skits that left the audience and even salvaged some of the poor the audience exited the auditorium. among the entire cast about their bursting with uproarious laughter. sketches. Their monk sketch about I look forward to seeing more of writing process. They even managed Unfortunately, there was also no shortage of mediocre writing. Disregarding the aforementioned monk and Brandeis jock sketches, a two-part skit which took place at an elementary school did not pan out well. The actors onstage all had high society accents that bled into British and Australian. Whether these poor accents were purposefully horrible doesn’t dismiss the fact that my patience with them grew thin almost immediately. While the first half of the sketch provided a mediocre setup, the second half, which we unfortunately returned to 20 minutes later, was an underwhelming, loud and unsatisfying payoff. I might even rope the unmemorable final skit into this category as well. Anderson Stinson III ’21 made a great newborn baby; his emergence from Leoniak was the only funny part of the finale. From a technical standpoint, the group put on a great show. The props were fun, the staging was ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice engaging and the music and lighting COOKING UP A SHOW: The players appropriately set the mood. Davis gathered an audience in Mandel to show did a great job directing the group off their classic comedic stylings. and should be proud of her vision for her final “Shit Show.” The evening by and large was entertaining. I look forward to seeing the other newbies step up and find voices of exaggerated metaphors about life Robinson’s antics in the future. to fit in a few jabs at Brandeis improv their own, as well as to watching and some “Brandeis jock” skits Some other great skits included a groups, saying, “There hasn’t been the veterans improve their craft come to mind. Mumbles regarding revealing episode of Jeopardy starring good improv on campus in 31 years.” with every coming show. BK will his performance filled the Mandel the always-funny Dane Leoniak ’20 as Those were classic, above-average always get my recommendation.
20
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018 | ARTS | THE JUSTICE
INTERVIEW
Brandeis TALKS
What should Einstein’s serve next?
Kat Lawrence ’20 ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice
Atia Butts ’19
This week, justArts spoke with Kat
“I think think they should revamp their drink menu. In terms of cold beverages I think there should be lemonade options ... and also apple cider in the winter.”
Lawrence ’20, the director of Hold Thy Peace’s recent production of “The Tempest.” JustArts: Tell me about your past experience directing.
JEN GELLER/the Justice
Ben Grossman ’21 “I wouldn’t mind a wider selection of bagels. I feel like it’s just the same thing over and over again.”
Christina Alva ’19 “Donuts!”
Jonah Mitchell ’21 “Maybe more variety in smoothies, like a berry smoothie.”
—Compiled by Eliana Padwa/the Justice and photographed by Andrew Baxter/the Justice.
STAFF’S Top Ten
ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice
Top 10 things to do at the library
CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Sports lover 5 They go well with milk 10 Bikini top 13 McGregor of “Trainspotting” 14 Scooter popular in Europe 15 Coveted Thanksgiving morsel 16 What Forrest Gump feels for Jenny 19 Self-diagnosis site 20 Group of parishes 22 White stones 24 Masters topic? 25 Keep mentioning one’s honeydo list, say 26 Oil company known for its toy cars 27 Guitarist Paul 30 Food with a rhyming slogan 31 Dash reading 32 Conquistador who searched for the Fountain of Youth 36 McCain and Flake, for two 37 Way back when 40 Ones spinning at a club 43 Dependable, in commercial names 44 Annoying pest 45 1-Across opposite, stereotypically 46 Seventh Greek letter 47 What the first letter in 47Down stands for 50 Kinda neat 51 Popeye’s creator 53 Get rid of stubble 55 Monopoly property whose rent is $22 59 Video game character with a green diamond on its head 60 _____ wave 61 Gagarin’s home 62 Green prefix 63 Stratosphere gas 64 Jury member, in a sense DOWN 1 Baccarat, e.g. 2 Destroy with a dis, slangily 3 Where an RV owner can clean house? 4 Gets ready to pop the question 5 Cell used for in vitro fertilization 6 “Scrubs” character Elliot 7 Letters before a date, on a storefront 8 Slanted pieces 9 ____ Hawkins dance 10 Voting coalition 11 Motivator in “John Wick” 12 Way back when 17 They might spike during the Super Bowl, for short 18 Deli offering 21 “Ghostbusters” character 22 Unit of resistance 23 Excitement 27 Peter’s wife on “Family Guy” 28 Automaker Ferrari
JA: How was directing at Brandeis different from directing in high school? KL: It was all student-run. I got to work with people who I know and are really wonderful. So that kind of made the process go smoothly in some ways, and a little bit hard in some other ways. JA: What is your relationship with the works of Shakespeare?
Crossword Courtesy of EVAN MAHNKEN
29 Express disbelief (at) 30 Chi-town transports 32 “I don’t mean to ____ ...” 33 Intermediate compound in the Knoevenagel Condensation 34 “Last Call” host Carson 35 Finish 36 Roadside assistance org. 37 ____ fixe 38 Wackadoodle 39 Like extreme measures 40 The U.S. spends roughly $600 billion per year on it 41 Jacuzzi part 42 Vast blue expanse 45 Discouraging subliminal message found in 16-, 32-, 37and 55-Across 47 Grp. that goes clubbing? 48 Ended up costing, as a bill 49 Baseball’s “Big Papi” 50 Sat-____ 52 Saint with a namesake fire 53 Use a self-checkout, say 54 In shape 56 Marriage vow 57 Functionality 58 Make a mistake
Solution Courtesy of EVAN MAHNKEN
KL: What I love about “The Tempest” is all the magic in it. There’s wizards, there’s fairies, there’s all these things going on and I loved the challenge of that and also the creativity that comes from it. I’ve had this dream of the opening sequence of the show for a long time. It is so fantastical, there’s so much you could do with it. JA: What was the most challenging aspect of the whole process for you? KL: Being in a leadership position when I don’t feel like I have superiority… or anything like that. It’s very hard to be in [charge] of your friends and people you want to hang out with.
SUDOKU
“What do you mean you have two papers and a test tomorrow? You said we were going to play hide and seek in the stacks!”
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.
1. Check your phone. 2. Play hide and seek in the stacks. 3. Think about how much you’re going to regret being unproductive. 4. Make a Top 10 list. 5. Read articles from The Onion. 6. Mess around with the number pad on your keyboard. 7. Go to Starbucks but don’t actually order anything. 8. Google random useless info. 9. Sit idly and contemplate your life choices. 10. Look out the window, away from your laptop.
KL: I love Shakespeare. I’ve been in love with it for a long time. I remember my sister … would read plays [to me] and I would do another part with her. Ever since, I’ve just been really in love with it. I think it’s often misunderstood. People tend to think of Shakespeare as … not relevant to today [and] so hard to understand. In my mind, it’s still just as relevant and funny and modern as ever. You just need to have someone who knows what the text is saying. JA: What drew you to “The Tempest” specifically?
By Gabriel Frank
JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Kat Lawrence: I was very fortunate. My high school had a very good theater program. I actually took a directing class in high school.
JA: What is your message to aspiring student directors? KL: It may seem terrifying, but I would recommend it to anyone. Definitely do it, especially if you’re an actor and you love theater. I’m an actress as well. It’s really helped me look at how it works from the other side and it’s so helpful in so many ways. It’s really a unique and wonderful experience.
—Maya Zanger-Nadis
Solution to last issue’s sudoku
Puzzle courtesy of www.sudokuoftheday.com