The Justice, February 2, 2016

ARTS Page 19

SPORTS Men's basketball finishes strong 16

“QUICKIES”

FORUM Entertainment industry is exclusionary 11 The Independent Student Newspaper

the

of

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

Justice

Volume LXVIII, Number 16

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

SUPREME THINKING

ADMINISTRATION

Slow diversity uptick falling short of Univ. aspirations ■ Admissions and

enrollment data showed a slight increase in minority students over five years.

By Abby patkin JUSTICE editor

While the percentage of underrepresented minority applicants has increased by over three percent in the last five years, the University still falls short from the ideal, Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel announced in a presentation at the faculty meeting on Friday. A PowerPoint Interim University President Lisa Lynch showed at the same meeting revealed that while on the uptick, the University’s percentage of his-

MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice

LOOKING BACK ON A LEGACY: On the 100th anniversary of Brandeis' nomination to the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg discussed the legal legacy he left behind.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg opens centennial panel ■ In her address, Ginsburg

hypothesized about what Brandeis would say about recent Supreme Court cases.

By MAX MORAN JUSTICE Editor

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg H ’96 spoke to students, faculty, trustees, administrators and alumni last Thursday in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. Ginsburg served as the opening speaker at a panel discussion on the legacy of Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice and the University’s namesake.

The event kicked off the University’s semester-long celebration of the centennial anniversary of Brandeis’ nomination to the Supreme Court.

Ginsburg spoke about her admiration of Brandeis’ legal style and work promoting equal rights in the work place, even as she criticized some of his work's con-

tent as sexist and pseudo-scientific. Ginsburg was followed by a panel of legal experts — including former University President Frederick Lawrence — who discussed Brandeis’ legacy and how it applies to issues today.

An hour and a half before the main event in Gosman — titled “Louis D. Brandeis, The Supreme Court and American Democracy” — a small panel of students sat down with Ginsburg for a question and answer-style discussion.

These included students who had, over the last two semesters, taken or are taking either AMST 188b “Louis Brandeis: Law, Business and Politics” or POL 197a “The Supreme Court Colloquium.” The panel also included students involved in ’DEIS Impact, Student Union President Nyah Macklin ’16 and Graduate Student Association President Stephen Alkins Ph.D. ’17.

In a phone interview with the Justice, Prof. Daniel Terris (PAX), one of the moderators of the Q&A, said students asked

torically underrepresented groups in its undergraduate population is lower than peer schools like Brown University.

Interim University President Lisa Lynch opened the faculty meeting by touching briefly on the “Louis D. Brandeis 100: Then and Now” event that took place last Thursday, discussing how amazed she was by the student turnout to the event. She added that, in a reception for the event’s panelists after the event, Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told her that Thursday’s event was the “best organized, most interesting and most fun” speech she’s delivered at a university.

In her president’s report, Lynch updated the faculty on the Task Force on Sexual Assault and the

See FACULTY, 7 ☛

BRIEF Exposure incident marks fifth flasher case in academic year

about a range of topics including Ginsburg’s style as a justice and obstacles women face in advancing through the legal profession.

Ginsburg emphasized “a strong belief in the democratic process and the need for persistence in working for change,” said Terris.

In discussing the organization of the small panel, Terris said the organizers wanted students for whom “there was a clear and obvious reason for them to be there … we just had to make some call about which groups we were going to invite and we chose those as ones that we felt were most obvious and most natural. We didn't think it was practical to hold a University-wide process.”

Early into the panel, Uday Jain ’17 asked Ginsburg about Brandeis’ history fighting large corporations and asked whether she feels the same checks exist against corporations today, which are far larger than in Brandeis’ time. Ginsburg replied that the United States gov-

An unidentified male exposed himself to a Brandeis student on South Street on Thursday night, according to an email Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan sent out to the student body on Friday. This marks the fifth incident of indecent exposure near South Street within this academic year.

The incident occurred around 10:35 p.m., the email stated. The suspect was listed in the police report as being “a light-skinned Hispanic male, approximately 5 feet 7 tall, thin build with broad shoulders, in his mid-20s, with a thin but well-groomed beard and goatee. He was wearing black pants, a gray long-sleeved shirt, a black hat with a 'B' on the front, and black shoes.”

Four other incidents of indecent exposure occurred near campus this academic year before this one, three of which also took place on South Street, according to Callahan.

See RBG, 7 ☛

The previous suspects have been described similarly, in Callahan’s earlier emails, as being between 5’6” and 5’8”, heavy, having some facial hair and wearing sweatpants and a hat. Suspects are generally described as being Hispanic males in their 30s, though one report in December listed the suspect as white.

Callahan requested that anyone with information relating to these incidents contact the Waltham Police Department and report these and any other safety incidents to the Brandeis Police as well.

Callahan ended his email with a reminder to students to be aware of any suspicious activity. “As always,” he wrote, “be mindful of your surroundings and please report any suspicious incident or activity to the Brandeis Police.”

—Carmi Rothberg

Behind the lens

Inside look

Breaking the story

 Rosemary Rodriguez '83 directed the 10th episode of "Jessica Jones."

 The women's basketball squad lost by a narrow margin to Carnegie Mellon University over the weekend.

A Monday event told how a journalist broke the story of 8 burglars who hoped to whistleblow on the FBI.

FEATURES 9 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org

Waltham, Mass.

Let your voice be heard!

Submit letters to the editor online at www.thejustice.org

INDEX

SPORTS 16

ARTS SPORTS

17 13

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 9

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

News 3

COPYRIGHT 2015 FREE AT BRANDEIS.

2

TUESDAY, February 2, 2016

●

news

●

the justice

NEWS SENATE LOG

Senate weighs attendance policy On Sunday, the Senate met to recognize a new student club — Common Ground — and discuss a new amendment to its bylaws about committee meeting attendance.

The Senate first heard from a student representative from Common Ground, a Muslim-Jewish student dialogue group that sought recognition on Sunday night.

The student said that the group would be unique in its focus on culture and history rather than on politics. In a discussion on whether or not to grant recognition, Village Quad Senator Abhishek Kulkarni ’18 raised the concern that the group overlaps with functions that currently existing religious and cultural clubs already have. Executive Senator Paul Sindberg ’18 disagreed, stating that the potential positive impact of the club outweighs any fear of overlap. Ultimately, the Senate voted to recognize Common Ground.

Student Union Vice President David Herbstritt ’17 then announced that he had misread the Senate bylaws, and thus his planned reappointment of committee chairs would not take place, with the exception of North Quad Senator Hannah Brown ’19, who has become the chair of the Dining Services Committee.

The Senate then moved into executive reports.

Herbstritt stated that former Rosenthal Quad Senator Will Jones ’18 will now be Student Union President Nyah Macklin’s ’16 chief of staff, replacing Justin Carlisle ’13. Committee chairs then gave reports on their committees, the highlights of which included the Services and Outreach Committee’s ongoing attempts to publish bios of each of its members on its Facebook page and the Dining Services Committee’s efforts to create a version of the Hoot Market for the Village.

Macklin then arrived at the meeting to deliver a brief executive officer report, announcing that the Union would be having a meeting on Wednesday night for candidates interested in running for the open Rosenthal Quad Senate seat and the open Student Union Judiciary seat.

In the unfinished business portion of the night, the Senators discussed the Services and Outreach Committee’s Senate Money Request for “Brandeis Bands Together,” an event that would allow the Senate to partner with clubs to sell wristbands for charitable causes. Due to issues involving the constitutionality of the request — there were concerns that Student Union funds would be used to generate funds that would go to an individual club — the Senate voted to postpone the request “indefinitely.”

The Senate then moved on to new business, discussing an amendment that would alter the Senate’s bylaws for committee meetings. Senator At Large Lucy Wen ’18 introduced the amendment, discussing the negative impact senator absences have on the productivity of the committees. She asked that the Senate bylaws be amended to allow three absences from committee meetings as opposed to five. The senators expressed some concerns that senators with legitimate time conflicts that prevented them from attending meetings would be unjustly penalized. Others agreed that there needed to be greater accountability for senators to attend committee meetings but were unsure that the amendment was the right way to fix that. Further discussion will take place next week. The Senate then briefly discussed a money request for an event that will occur later this month. The request will be voted on next week, as is customary with SMRs. After brief individual senator reports, two students presented on “fun bucks.” The students wish to change the name of dining points to fun bucks. According to the students, they have already gained the support of over 25 student clubs and wish to start a petition for student signatures. “Brandeis fun bucks today, Brandeis fun bucks tomorrow, Brandeis fun bucks forever,” they concluded their presentation.

POLICE LOG Medical Emergency

Jan. 26—The custodial supervisor in the Usdan Student Center called to report a custodian having chest pain. They then called BEMCo and Cataldo Ambulance. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Jan. 27—Police received a call of a party that had sustained a head injury as well as a laceration to the head while playing sports in Gosman. The party was conscious and alert at the time of the call. Mass. State Police and Waltham Police notified University Police that an ambulance and the Waltham Fire Department were en route to the call as well. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Jan. 28—A party reported there was a crying female interacting with a male at the loading dock of Usdan. University Police located both a male and a female

party at the main lobby. BEMCo staff was called to the scene and requested Cataldo Ambulance.

Cataldo Ambulance transported the female to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

Jan. 28—A Sodexo employee in Usdan reported suffering from a bloody nose. University Police and BEMCo staff treated the party on the scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Jan. 29—A party in North Quad reported complaining of abdominal pain, chest tightness and anxiety. BEMCo was requested and treated the party on the scene with a University Police assist. Cataldo Ambulance was requested and transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Jan. 29—A party in the Village Quad reported they had high blood sugar and requested BEMCo. BEMCo staff treated the party

on the scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Disturbance

Jan. 25—A Community Advisor reported people yelling profanities outside in the Ziv Quad area. University Police checked the area and found all quiet upon arrival.

Larceny

Jan. 26—A party reported that their laptop was stolen from the Goldfarb Library. Police compiled a report on the theft and notified the Library and Technology Services Department.

Jan. 29—The building manager at Gosman called and reported a past break-in. They stated that a student told them that on the previous Wednesday, their locker had been broken into and $200 was stolen. University Police will compile a report with further details from victim, who had not reported it to police at that time.

JAZZ HANDS

n A News article stated that Cholmondeley’s Coffee House was located in the Castle’s A Tower. It is actually located in the B Tower. (Jan. 26, page 1). n A photo in the Sports section misidentified diver Julia Tartaglia ’19 as Genna Karp ’18 (Jan. 26, page 16).

MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice

n A Sports article stated that the women’s fencing team finished the season with a 9-2 record, but it was actually 11-1. The same article also said the men’s fencing team contributed their own title, when it was a combined title with the women (Jan. 26, page 15).

Students from the Brandeis spirit band performed as part of a ’DEIS Impact introductory party last Wednesday. Wearing glittery costume hats, they played to a crowd of people in the Shapiro Campus Center.

n An Arts article referred to the Brandeis Ensemble Theater as the Brandeis Theater Ensemble (Jan. 26, page 18).

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Justice

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

— Compiled by Avi Gold..

Water main rupture on River Street floods road and causes water outage for local residents

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

the

Jan. 28—A party reported at the University Police station lobby that a Hispanic male exposed himself to them on South Street.

The Waltham Police Department responded, and University Police and Waltham Police checked the South Street area but were unable to locate the suspect. Both police agencies compiled a report on the incident.

Jan. 29—Police received a report from a caller in the Charles River Apartments stating there was an unknown party banging on their door. Police located the suspicious party in stairwell and identified them as a Boston University student. The student claimed to be looking for their friend and confused about the friend’s address. Police located the Brandeis student and confirmed they are friends. University Police took no further action.

BRIEF

—Abby Patkin

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

Other

Deafeating ISIL: A Talk by Colin Kahl

Dr. Kahl, Vice President Biden’s national security advisor, will be giving a lecture on the current state of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and the best strategies for defeating them.

Kahl is on a two-year public service leave from Georgetown University, where he has been an Associate Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service since 2007.

Today from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in Rapaporte Treasure Hall.

’DEIS Impact Keynote with Germaine Ingram

In the ’DEIS Impact keynote address, civil rights lawyer and jazz tap dancer Germaine Ingram will illuminate her lives in the law, arts and culture and the broad civic arena as avenues for advancing fairness, respect, and inclusion.

Tomorrow from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater.

’DEIS Impact College

Sit in on open sessions of courses taught by faculty representing a range of disciplines but one common goal: grounding college students’ passion for changing the world in solid theory.

Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6:20 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Multipurpose Room.

The Business Case for Social Impact This is an opportunity to connect and learn from leaders from industry who have been able to combine their passion for social impact with their careers within the business industry. Listen to the panel presentation and participate in small groupnetworking sessions. This is an opportunity for students to network and learn about potential career paths. This is a ’DEIS Impact event.

Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

The Waltham Police Department shut down several streets last Tuesday after a major water main broke at the intersection of River and Seyon Streets, near Moody Street.

The break caused a brief water outage for many local residents and altered traffic patterns for morning commuters.

The Massachusetts Water Resource Authority — which operated the water main — reported that they had isolated the leak around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

In a press release posted on its website, the MWRA stated, “The water main leak on River Street at Seyon Street in Waltham has been isolated. Water service to customers is not affected; however, traffic has been impacted.”

According to the City of Waltham, Pleasant Street and North Street were closed as crews repaired the main, and the City of Newton closed North Street.

In the intersection where the water main break occurred, gallons of water could be seen flooding from under the pavement and forming pools in the street.

While the water supply had been briefly turned off as crews repaired the pipes, the MWRA was able to reroute water to restore service to customers, according to the Boston Globe.

The Globe also reported that contractors from the MWRA would be fixing the damage the leak caused, which included billowing, or outward swelling, of the concrete.

According to CBS Boston, a National Grid crew was also on the scene due to the possibility of a gas leak, though the Waltham Fire Chief stated that the gas odor could have been caused by some gas leaking from pipe joints when the water main burst. Gas leakage was previously a concern when a construction crew working on Moody Street struck and cracked a natural gas line in September.

—Abby Patkin

Illegible Bodies Between 2009 and 2012, the Pakistani Supreme Court granted rights to a category of gender ambiguous and sexually non-normative citizens now commonly known as khwaja siras. The activities surrounding the Court’s deliberations highlight the term’s complicated journey of being institutionalized for legal and regulatory purposes. This lecture considers the role of various social actors in the production and perpetuation of gender ambiguity.

Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. in Schwartz 103.

Racial Photography as Scientific Evidence

Amos Morris-Reich, director of the Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society, will be discussing how racial photography was used as scientific evidence in Europe between 1876 and 1980.

Friday to Saturday from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

the justice

Panel

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, WSRC scholars spoke on its legacy.

By Max Moran JUSTICE Editor

Seventy-one years ago last Wednesday, Allied soldiers liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp — the most notorious of the Holocaust death camps — in Nazi-occupied Poland. In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On Wednesday, six scholars from the Women’s Studies Research Center commemorated the day by sharing poetry, film, research and monologues about their relationships to and reflections on the Holocaust.

The six women were members of the WSRC’s Holocaust Research Study Group, and each approached the event from different professional and academic backgrounds.

First to present was Prof. Shulamit Reinharz, Ph.D. ’77 (SOC), the WSRC’s founding director and wife of former University President Jehuda Reinharz. A sociologist, Reinharz titled her talk “The Holocaust: A Slippery Concept” and discussed the Holocaust’s lack of universally agreed-upon beginning and ending dates. Reinharz said that, as a Jew, she has “internalized” the Holocaust and thinks about it all the time; when she learned of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., “I instinctively, immediately, tried to imagine what it must have been like for the one and a half million Jewish children who were murdered. What has that enormous loss done to the Jewish people?

Obama cried for the 20. Which Americans cried for the one and a half million?”

Reinharz added that it is difficult to distinguish survivors from victims of the Holocaust, saying that in her view, all Jews are the survivors of the genocide and that “survivors are different from victims only in that survivors were not caught.”

Rachel Munn, a writer and architect, then read three poems responding to the Holocaust. She preceded her reading with an anecdote about telling her sick 11-year-old son to put on socks one morning, when her husband said that his father used to tell him that if one could find socks in the concentration camps, they would live. One of Munn’s poems, told in two voices, contrasted a family wedding in the present with the Holocaust and how the event then informs who the family is now.

Karin Rosenthal, a fine art photographer, then spoke about recovering family photos and searching to find out the identities and lives of her family members who lived and died in the Holocaust. Through family connections, Rosenthal found the names of deceased family members in a photograph and was able to discover old documents about her family. A collaborator on her research is now writing a book about Rosenthal’s family, and she said that her photographic themes have shifted since the

research began to include “impermanence and fragility of life.”

Jutta Lindert then took the stage.

Lindert is a German mental health epidemiologist who spoke about her research on the health impact of the Holocaust on survivors and their children, and she said that though the number of Holocaust survivors has dwindled over the years, the event’s impact on both Jewish and German populations remains massive.

Lindert stated that as the surviving generation ages, the “post-memory generation” has a responsibility to research and remember the Holocaust.

Her research team from Germany, the U.S. and Israel investigated the impact of the Holocaust on the psychopathology of children of Holocaust survivors and found no impact on psychopathology. She explained, “We know that studies are needed which do not only measure psychopathology by resilience, meaning life and social health, such as social relationships and trust. It might be that we missed dimensions of the long-term impacts of the Holocaust such as worldview changes, changes in integral trust and changes in cognitive skills.”

Ornit Barkai then presented a film compiled of footage she took on an August 2002 family trip through Poland to Auschwitz. The first section of the film contrasted the town around Auschwitz preparing for a visit from the Pope with the solemnity of the institution itself, and then followed Barkai’s son as he walked through barracks, showers and ovens. Later, Barkai used audio to juxtapose a girl reading her diary entry about visiting the home of Anne Frank to Frank’s own famous diary about her experiences hiding from the Gestapo. As the two diaries were read by the same young woman, video footage showed the cramped house that hid Frank and the statue of her that now stands outside.

Karen Frostig, an artist and writer, completed the event with a discussion about her family and its legacy with the Holocaust. She said that growing up as the daughter of immigrants, she noticed a contrast between the idealized vision of the American dream she saw around her and her own noisy, tumultuous home life. Her father was arrested by the Gestapo and expelled from Vienna, and her grandparents were subsequently deported and killed. Frostig’s father did not understand how she would react as a young child to the graphic imagery and shocking realities of the Holocaust; according to Frostig, he once pointed to a photograph of a mound of human hair and said, “That’s your grandparents.”

After Frostig inherited letters written by her grandparents in 2004, she traveled to Austria and regained citizenship. In 2009, Frostig began the Vienna Project, a multimedia art project throughout the city that included video projections, performance art and photography. The event culminated in a “Naming Memorial” projection at Josefsplatz at the Hofburg Palace on Oct. 18, 2014. At this event, the names of victims of the genocide were projected onto the palace “to unequivocally communicate that this happened here,” said Frostig.

INTERNALIZED TRAGEDY

MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice

IMAGINING LOSS: Prof. Shulamit Reinharz, Ph.D. ’77 (SOC) spoke about how the impact of the Holocaust affects her current and future thoughts.

news

●

TUESDAY, February 2, 2016

3

BREAKING DOWN A BREAK-IN

Scholars reflect on the Holocaust ■ In commemoration of

●

AARON BIRNBAUM/the Justice

GETTING THE SCOOP: Former Washington Post journalist Betty Medsger (center L) discusses her coverage of the 1971 break-in.

Panel speaks on 1971 burglary of FBI office ■ Speakers discussed how

“1971” marked the precursor to Watergate and others.

RACHEL SHARER JUSTICE EDITOR

On Monday, the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, an independent reporting center dedicated to social justice based at the University, hosted a ’DEIS Impact event titled “Breaking the Story: How Eight Ordinary Citizens Took Down the FBI.” The event included a screening of the documentary “1971” by Johanna Hamilton, which tells the story of the eight citizens who broke into an FBI office in Media, Penn. in 1971 to expose FBI corruption. Afterward, there was a panel discussion with Florence Graves, the founding director of the Schuster Institute; John and Bonnie Raines, two of the original burglars; and Betty Medsger, the former Washington Post reporter who broke the initial stories on the contents of the stolen FBI files.

The film details how the eight citizens broke into the FBI office outside Philadelphia, one of the main cities of political activism and protests against the Vietnam War. The eight citizens, who were activists at the time, included group leader Bill Davidon, Keith Forsyth, Bob Williamson and Bonnie and John Raines. They kept their identities hidden for over forty years, and their names were only publicly revealed in 2014 after Medsger convinced them to come forward. “I wanted to tell the full impact of what

they had done,” Medsger said during the panel. Medsger only learned the identity of the burglars herself in 1989.

The eight people, who called themselves the “Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI,” broke into the office on the night of March 8, 1971, a night picked deliberately because it was the night of the famous fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Fraizer. After successfully stealing every file in the office — over a thousand documents — they anonymously mailed the files to the three major papers in the country — the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post — as well as two congressmen. The Washington Post was the only one to retain and publish the documents, as the other newspapers and the congressmen all returned the documents to the FBI. Bonnie Raines said in the panel that they sent the documents specifically to Medsger at the Post because they “knew her interest in the resistance movement and the anti-war movement.” According to Bonnie Raines, only 40 percent of the stolen documents detailed actual crimes, while sixty percent were political documents. These documents detailed the extensive and illegal surveillance programs conducted by the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover, as well as plans to intimidate and instill fear in anti-war protesters and citizens expressing their First Amendment rights. The surveillance programs mostly targeted anti-war activists, college campuses, women’s groups and many black communities and organizations.

Bonnie Raines added that Hoover was considered “a god … he was either loved or he was feared, but he was the most powerful man in Washington at that time.” John Raines noted that he knew the newspapers or any other organization would not speak out against the FBI and that the surveillance and corruption that many suspected was occurring would never be revealed. The impact of the break-in and discovery and release of the documents had many far-reaching effects.

Medsger noted that one of the biggest impacts of this was that it not only revealed the extent of COINTELPRO, the large counter intelligence program conducted by the FBI, but that it also led to a congressional investigation and the creation of the Church Committee in 1975, which investigated illegal intelligence-gathering and surveillance by the CIA, FBI and NSA. Graves noted that this event both pre-dates and sets the stage for other events of this nature, such as the release of the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate scandal and Deep Throat and, more recently, Edward Snowden and the National Security Administration.

“It had the impact we hoped it would have,” said Bonnie Raines.

John Raines concluded the panel by saying that he sees many similarities between the era of the Vietnam War and the culture of today. At the time, “the country was on fire,” John said.

“There was a culture of resistance, a culture of ‘enough is enough,’” a sentiment he said he feels is coming back.

“We live in a broken world … We are, again, a nation on fire.”

’DEIS IMPACT

Group discusses reproductive justice concerns in the modern age

■ Brandeis Students for

Reproductive Justice held a discussion on reproductive rights for ’DEIS Impact.

By Abby patkin JUSTICE editor

A group of students gathered together on Friday night to eat cupcakes, drink coffee and chat about the inequality in reproductive justice across America. The event, aptly titled “Coffee, Cupcakes, and Condoms: Conversation About Reproductive Justice,” was hosted by Brandeis Students for Reproductive Justice as part of the group’s ’DEIS Impact event.

Club president Lexi Oullette ’18 began by asking attendees what reproductive justice — which according to Berkeley Law School is the “complete … well-being of women and girls, based on the full achievement and protection of women’s human rights” — means to them. One audience member stated that reproductive justice transcends birth control affordability and ready access to abortions and occurs when “all vagina owners are getting what they deserve.”

Oullette agreed, underscoring that having reproductive rights does not always mean having reproductive

justice.

Another audience member stated that “reproductive justice is about the power of choice … — how we interact with one another, i.e. slut shaming.”

She then clarified that reproductive justice should also include freedom from judgment for sexual preferences or body autonomy.

Oullette then transitioned the conversation to discussing inequality of access to resources, stating that “policy does not serve all populations,” so states with only one Planned Parenthood are not providing equal access to their population.

She continued, discussing how her own personal experience has affected her thoughts on reproductive justice, noting that the term “reproductive justice” was created by women of color to describe the lack of access to reproductive rights, even decades after Roe v. Wade.

Audience member Aly Thomas ’18 spoke on how her experiences working with the Black Lives Matter movement helped shape her views of reproductive justice, arguing that the term should extend after conception or birth, as black women should be “able to have children and know that their children aren’t going to be killed.”

Oullette agreed, noting that “reproductive justice doesn’t end with a

fetus” and that “people don’t want to legalize abortion, but they don’t want to pay for you to have a child.”

Ari Keigan ’18, BSRJ’s current events coordinator, then discussed the importance of allyship in reproductive justice and how to ensure allied efforts are actually benefiting the movement.

An audience member noted that allyship — especially in race-related causes — should mean “to not be afraid to be wrong and to not be afraid to be called racist.”

BSRJ Co-Community Service Coordinator Hannah Brock ’19 also spoke about shifting the focus from allies to underserved populations. “It’s very important to recognize that it isn’t about you,” Brock said. “If you’re coming from a place of guilt … that’s just a very selfish way to go about it.”

The audience members also discussed the term “ally” itself, and how it stems from a political definition, which implies that one ally has just as much at stake as the other.

Before the event’s end, the attendees briefly discussed how intersectionality plays a large role in reproductive justice, with many different communities facing a lack of reproductive resources and rights.

“Not all vagina owners are women, and not all women own vaginas,” one attendee pointed out.

Have an opinion to share?

Write a letter to the editor!

Send an email to Jessica Goldstein at

forum@thejustice.org

SPORTS PHOTOS FEATURES COPY

JOIN THE JUSTICE! FORUM NEWS LAYOUT ARTS ADS For more information, contact Max Moran at editor@thejustice.org.

THE JUSTICE

MORE THAN WORDS

●

News

●

TUESDAY, February 2, 2016

5

BRIEF University institutes a new tipping policy for clubs

AARON BIRNBAUM/the Justice

A group of community members and staff from local bookstore More Than Words discussed in a ’DEIS Impact event on Monday how businesses can get involved in their local communities to help teach and nurture underprivileged children.

’DEIS IMPACT

Event seeks to empower women in case of attack

■ The event — titled

“emPOWER” — included a discussion and selfdefense training.

By Rachel moore JUSTICE staff writer

The fifth annual ’DEIS Impact featured an event called “emPOWER: Self-Defense against Sexual Assault” on Sunday. The discussion about sexual violence and ensuing defense-training workshop created an event that was, in event coordinator Allison Goforth’s words, “an attempt to fill the gap at Brandeis between prevention and response by educating students on practical ways to recognize violence in the moment and defend themselves against it.” While press were not allowed access to the event due to the sensitive nature of the topic, the Justice compiled interviews from participants for this report.

The ’DEIS Impact booklet of events for the festival declared the inspiration behind emPOWER to be rooted in harrowing statistics on sexual violence, such as how “half of American women and one out of five American men have experienced

sexual violence. Half of bisexual men and women have been raped.

Women and LGBT individuals are the most at risk for sexual violence.”

The need for this event hits close to home; Goforth — who is also the service leadership development graduate assistant with the Department of Community Service — recalled, in an email to the Justice, the results of the University’s 2015 Sexual Misconduct Survey: “22 percent of female and five percent of male students, and 35 percent of trans* students have experienced sexual assault here on campus.” She also acknowledged the dual importance of the event, saying, “Brandeis students [not only] have the opportunity to learn practical self defense strategies but also … have a responsibility to address the violence that is happening right here on our campus.”

For the 90-minute long workshop, emPOWER employed Public Safety Officer and self-defense trainer Patrick O’Hara to coach participants in physical and psychological techniques to ward off attackers.

One participant, Jaspreet Mahal, a Fulbright scholar from India, described the experience in an email to the Justice as “sensitive but em-

powering training which made me feel that although we have resources around at Brandeis campus, we have to be at our guard. To be alert is the way to avoid mishaps!”

The event paid particular attention to the “issues facing LGBT communities and people of color specifically” within the context of sexual assault at Brandeis and on a national scale, according to Goforth.

“Although this event introduced self-defense techniques to participants, much more is still needed here at Brandeis. This type of training is infinitely more effective when offered with special sensitivity to issues of sexual assault on a regular basis. Unfortunately, at this point Brandeis simply does not offer that resource to students,” she concluded.”

Goforth also stated that she is hoping to take this event further, and develop a Rape Aggression Defense program at the University.

She is currently seeking feedback from undergraduate and graduate students in the form of expressed interest, need or advice. emPOWER was sponsored by Heller Gender Working Group, Heller LGBT Working Group and the Brandeis Rape Crisis Center.

The University has adopted a new tipping policy for clubs tipping vendors for services, according to an email Student Activities Specialist Robbie Steinberg ’13 sent to club leaders last Tuesday. The new policy will limit tip amounts and encourage clubs to avoid services that require tipping.

“This [policy] has come into effect since clubs and organizations spent thousands of dollars on tipping last semester, much of which could have been easily prevented,” Steinberg wrote in the email.

He added that the policy will also institute a new maximum tip amount of 20 percent of the bill or $40 — whichever is lower. “This is the maximum amount that will be allowed to reimburse, and the maximum amount given to you by A-Board without a tip waiver.”

For larger food orders — that

is, orders over $200 — Steinberg also suggested alternative means of picking up the order, including using personal vehicles, campus vehicles, rented ZipCars or taxis — the latter three requiring a pre-request for funding in Allocations Board marathons.

The University’s club funding budget has been notably smaller in the last few months, with only 61 percent of club funding requests met this year, largely due to reduced rollover funds according to an Oct. 27 Justice article.

The A-Board also came under fire for a lack of transparency in its decision-making process, prompting an amendment to be passed. The amendment increased the number of members and instituted a veto process for funding decisions, among other things.

—Abby Patkin

SINGING WITH GLEE

MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice

Students from a cappella group Company B sing at an introductory event for ’DEIS Impact last Wednesday.

Interested in journalism?

Tired of wondering what’s going on?

Want to be the first to know the facts?

Be a reporter for theJustice!

Contact Abby Patkin at news@thejustice.org for more information

let’s eat grandma Let’s eat, Grandma!

Join Copy.

Save lives.

Contact Sabrina Sung at copy@thejustice.org

Are you a JUDGES fan?

Are you a part of the JURY? Be a fan for the Justice!

Write for Sports

Email Jerry Miller at sports@thejustice.org

ADS

THE JUSTICE

●

News

●

TUESDAY, February 2, 2016

RBG: Ginsburg discusses Brandeis’ legacy CONTINUED FROM 1 ernment is also far larger than in Brandeis’ time, but that deregulating corporate entities leads to economic troubles like the 2008 financial crisis. Terris followed up by asking whether the Supreme Court has a particular role in the process of regulation, to which Ginsburg said that, as with all issues, the Court deals with questions of regulation when they are presented to the justices.

“We don’t decide ‘Oh, this year we’re going to deal with same-sex marriage.’ It depends on people bringing the cases to us,” Ginsburg said.

At the main event at 5 p.m., Interim President Lisa Lynch introduced Ginsburg, saying, “Like Brandeis, Ginsburg has used fact-based jurisprudence brilliantly to advance social change, and both have used their opinions and dissents to educate the public about the social conditions that affect people’s lives. …

She is a force of nature. Underestimate her at your peril.”

Ginsburg began her address by discussing the “Brandeis Brief” filed as part of Muller v. Oregon in 1908, in which Brandeis, as a lawyer, argued to uphold Oregon’s restrictions on women working industrial jobs for more than 10 hours a day. It was the first prominent legal brief in U.S. history to rely primarily on scientific data and testimony instead of legal citations and argument — although most of the science in the original Brandeis Brief has now been debunked, including claims that women’s blood has more water than men’s blood.

Ginsburg said that while the Muller decision was “an obstacle” to the Court recognizing gender equality as a Constitutional principle, “the method Brandeis used to prevail in that case was one I admire and copy.”

According to Ginsburg, Brandeis stressed that women needed to work shorter hours “to attend to their family and household responsibilities,” and one of the sources

Brandeis quoted in the brief said that a woman returning from work “should be learning to keep house if her future household is not to be a disorderly failure.” Brandeis’ opponent in the case, on the other hand, argued that most of the disadvantages women face in the workplace are a result of social customs — an argument, Ginsburg noted, that equal rights advocates of her day embrace.

“While equal rights advocates attacked the substance of the Muller decision, they were hugely inspired

by Brandeis’ method,” Ginsburg continued. “The aim of the Brandeis Brief was to educate the judiciary about the real world in which the laws under inspection operated.

That same aim motivated brief writers in the turning-point gender discrimination cases Reed v. Reed decided in 1971 and Fronteiro v. Richardson decided in 1973.”

Ginsburg went on to discuss elements of Brandeis’ time on the Supreme Court that she admired, including his careful wording of decisions, his restraint about when to publish decisions and his willingness to change his mind on important issues. “He cared not only about reaching the right bottom-line judgment; he cared very much about writing opinions that would enlighten other people,” Ginsburg said.

Ginsburg argued that Brandeis only published dissents and concurrences when he felt the public truly needed to hear his separate views, which gave those opinions he did publish a renewed urgency. Ginsburg also pointed out that Brandeis opposed women’s suffrage in the 1880s, but by the 1910s was “an ardent supporter of votes for women.” Brandeis’ willingness to change his mind in response to new information and ways of thinking was an admirable quality, in Ginsburg's opinion.

Finally, Ginsburg concluded by arguing how Brandeis would have responded to recent Supreme Court cases. “Brandeis, I have no doubt, would have agreed with the majority’s decision to salvage, not destroy the Affordable Care Act,” she said of the court’s 2015 decision uphold-

7

100 YEARS LATER

MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice

SOCIAL JUSTICE: In a panel on University namesake Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, current Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg discussed Brandeis' fight to control corporate interests during his tenure on the Court. ing President Obama’s healthcare reform bill. “I venture too that Brandeis would have deplored the court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United against [Federal Election Commission],” Ginsburg added to applause from the audience. The Citizens United decision removed restrictions on how much money corporate entities can donate to political campaigns.

After Ginsburg left the podium to wide applause, the event transitioned into a panel discussion on Brandeis’ legacy with Massachusetts Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants; Philippa Strum ’59, a biographer of Brandeis and senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; staff writer for the New Yorker and senior analyst for CNN Jeffrey Toobin; and senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts Mark L. Wolf.

Lawrence, who resigned as University president last February and is now on sabbatical from Yale Law School, moderated the panel. He said that Brandeis and Ginsburg share many common traits and that were he there that afternoon, Brandeis would have told Ginsburg — herself an honorary doctor of the University — “Welcome home. Indeed, if I may be given a moment of personal privilege, he might say that to both of us tonight.”

Lawrence asked the panelists to give one example of how Brandeis’ work still resonates in American democracy. Gants pointed to Brandeis’ legacy of pro bono work for the sake of social consciousness, while Wolf praised Brandeis’ dedication to using the law to fight municipal and corporate corruption. Strum said that Brandeis was “an implacable democrat” and that “it was necessary for the law in a democracy to

change as societal conditions change and as the people had to adapt themselves to new societal conditions.”

Toobin pointed out that Brandeis was born shortly after the Civil War and died shortly into World War II, arguing that his story is of his response to the changes brought by the industrial revolution in that time.

He said that Brandeis had “an almost pathological fear of bigness” in both government and business and said that due to this libertarian philosophy, Ginsburg was wrong about his opposing Citizens United.

Ginsburg later rejoined the panel and responded to Toobin’s argument by saying that Brandeis constantly fought to control corporate interests.

The event was held 100 years to the day that President Woodrow Wilson nominated Brandeis to the Supreme Court. Brandeis served on the Court for 23 years.

FACULTY: Search for Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion to begin in the coming weeks CONTINUED FROM 1 University’s green initiatives. She said that bystander information training has been ongoing for club leaders and student athletes, also touching briefly on her recent meeting with trustees of Trinity College, who discussed Trinity’s efforts to form a consortium of schools in order to remove the adjudication process — the legal process for resolving a campus dispute, especially a sexual assault one — from Trinity itself.

Lynch noted that this effort was worth keeping in mind as the University considers its own adjudication process and ongoing Title IX training for administrators.

Lynch went on to discuss the University’s campus sustainability initiatives, noting that the University’s utility and plant fuel consumption is slightly down for the year to date, though she stated she wanted to see those numbers drop even more in the coming months.

She added that her Task Force on Sustainability was finishing up a policy for short, medium and longterm goals to lower consumption and expand solar energy use on campus.

There will be several new solar panels installed this summer on top of buildings and in the parking lot by the Foster Mods, which will cover just one percent of annual electricity use, but “what’s important is that it gives us coverage on those peak low days,” she said. Lynch also touched briefly on the University’s plan to install compost bins to lower food waste in dining halls.

Before yielding the podium, Lynch concluded by explaining that

the University is considering bids from various search firms to select the new Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion. Lynch stated that the search will begin soon with input from students and a search committee, much like the recent search for the next University President.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren then addressed the faculty, discussing her initiatives to increase diversity and retain minority students and staff in the School of Arts and Sciences.

According to Birren, the first step is appointing and meeting with diversity representatives from the community, though she noted the process brought up questions like: “How do we define diversity? ...

What is the role of the diversity rep?

Is it simply to increase the pool?”

Interim Provost Irving Epstein then spoke, saying that the search for diversity representatives is still ongoing, though he noted, “We are looking for people who would rise to the top of a national search if we were to do a national search.” This search, he added, “will coincide with other needs we are trying to fill.”

Lynch then briefly mentioned that the University had found someone to fill the vacant Vice President of Human Resources position, though she added that that person backed out at the last moment.

Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel then gave a presentation on applications and underrepresented minorities in the applicant pool.

According to Flagel, applications are up 7.9 percent overall, with over 11,000 applications total. He added that there have been increases in

African-American and Latino applications, with approximately a three percent increase — from 10 percent to 13 percent — in underrepresented minority applications overall since Flagel joined the University in 2011.

While Flagel noted that these figures aren’t ideal, he said the increases are a step in the right direction.

After Flagel’s presentation, Lynch returned to the front of the room to discuss other updates in the University’s attempt to fulfill the agreement signed after Ford Hall 2015.

She noted that the Psychological Counseling Center is searching for more counselors of color and that, as with the Vice President of Human Resources, the University had thought they found someone for the job, but that person dropped out.

In the Hiatt Career Center, she continued, staff members completed training at the end of December to better accommodate minorities’ needs for employment and recruiting help.

She then discussed the percentage of historically underrepresented groups — HUG — and the percentage of international students and women in STEM fields within the University. According to Lynch, the University has 11.9 percent HUG in its undergraduate population and 7.7 percent in its graduate student population — both lower figures than reported at Brown University.

“We’ve made steady progress on the undergraduate level … but in the comparison with Brown, you see where — relative to Brown — we’re below,” Lynch said, though she noted that the University reports more women in STEM fields and more international undergraduate students

than Brown.

In his provost’s report, Epstein discussed how he had received a request for a “rather large volume of information” from the faculty bargaining unit — including data from employment files and record — which was formed after adjunct and non-tenure track faculty voted in December to unionize and be represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 509. “Presumably, once they receive the information, the bargaining will begin in earnest,” Epstein added.

Epstein then discussed his ongoing budget proposals meetings, the last of which will take place today.

Once these meetings are over, he said, he will be putting together a budget to be up for discussion and approval in March, though he noted “things still look pretty tight for next year,” much as they were this year.

He then turned the microphone back over to Lynch, who launched a series of introductions of new faculty members, including Prof. Hannah Weiss Muller (HIST), Prof. W. Benjamin Rogers (PHYS), Prof. Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld (Heller) and Prof. Trevor Luke (CLAS).

Prof. Wendy Cadge (SOC) then gave a brief overview of the most recent Board of Trustees meeting, in which the trustees voted on the future of Usen Castle, deciding to tear down Towers C, D and E and Schwartz Hall in favor of a new housing complex. Renovations on Towers A and B, she said, will be made using borrowed tax exempt credits.

Lynch added that the Board also voted to add names to the list of po-

tential honorary degree recipients for commencement and stated that current Board of Trustees Chair Perry Traquina ’78 will be stepping down as chair in June, once his term ends, though he will remain on the Board.

Traquina was first elected to the Board of Trustees in 2002.

Prof. John Wardle (PHYS), a member of the Faculty Senate Council, then introduced two proposed amendments to the faculty handbook.

The first amendment proposed to strike the clause mandating that faculty meetings take place on Thursday afternoons, as this would allow greater flexibility for scheduling purposes.

The second amendment proposed to strike the “full time” clause in the section on which faculty members could run for and hold Faculty Senate seats.

The amendment suggested “within the tenure structure or on a multi-year contract” as alternative wording for the clause.

The faculty voted almost unanimously in favor of a first round of voting with one abstention. In a discussion on the amendment, one faculty member asked if faculty on single year contracts who have been on campus for many years could be considered for inclusion in the new wording.

In response, another faculty member argued that that decision was not one about Faculty Senate elections but rather contract negotiations.

The motion passed the first round of voting, with a second round to be held in the next faculty meeting.

8

features

TUESDAY, February 2, 2016 ● features ● the justice

just

HEALING AND LABOR: Gabriele Koch, a cultural anthropologist, focuses her work on histories of gender, labor and care in urban Japan.

VERBATIM | RUTH BADER GINSBURG So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1887, the first Groundhog Day was celebrated.

Squirrels plant thousands of new trees each year.

Driving discourse in the classroom

ABBY GRINBERG/the Justice

Gabriele Koch, a postdoctoral fellow from Harvard, examines intimate relations in Tokyo’s sex industry

By CHRISTOF RINDLISBACHER JUSTICE contributing writer

ABBY GRINBERG/the Justice

BRINGING AWARENESS: Koch’s (left) talk examined Tokyo’s mainstream commercial sex industry and the gender roles of urban Japan.

Early on in Gabriele Koch’s research into prostitution, she found that many of her initial beliefs were challenged by what she observed of the lives of Japanese prostitutes. “I started grad school working on human trafficking and anti-trafficking policy,” she told the Justice, “but as I explored more in Tokyo and in Japan what the sex industry was, I realized that many of the women working in the Japanese industry seemed to challenge my assumptions about what sex work was.”

For the forty or so teachers and students gathered in Schwartz 103 on a Friday afternoon, Koch’s talk — titled “Producing Iyashi: Healing and Labor in Tokyo’s Sex Industry” — challenged their assumptions about sex, about prostitution, and about Japan. In what was described as a clear, articulate and accessible style, Koch opened a window into a complex aspect of Japanese culture, one that has important implications for how we understand events in Japanese history.

As Koch explained, sex and prostitution in Japan have different functions and meanings than they do in American culture. When Japanese men visit prostitutes, they generally do so for a very specific reason. One of the sex workers Koch interviewed claimed that her customers “put all of their effort into their work, and when the exhaustion and stress become too much, once in a while they go to the sex industry and refresh themselves.” This concept of “refreshment” that sex workers are believed to provide is known as “iyashi,” or healing, and is essential to understanding the Japanese sex industry.

The key detail from these interviews, Koch explained, is that her Japanese informants believed “there was something that [male workers] need to be successful” in their professional careers. That something is the iyashi that sex workers provide.

Koch argued that the Japanese view iyashi as essential because they believe it “replenishes [male workers’] productive capacities as laborers.”

One of the lines of evidence

Koch used to support her argument is how, in the post World War II Japanese economy, Japanese companies would reward productive employees by sending them on what Koch described as “national sex tours.”

Prostitution was viewed as so essential to male productivity that some corporations would pay for their employees to visit sex workers. Koch characterized this view of prostitution as “the productive control of male energy through controlling male sexuality.”

Prof.

Ellen Schattschneider (ANTH), organized the talk, spoke in glowing terms of Koch’s scholarship. “I happened to meet Gabriele Koch at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard,” she told the Justice, “[and] I was really impressed with her work.”

The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard is where Gabriele Koch works as a postdoctoral fellow. At the institute, she is preparing a manuscript titled “Human Rights in Japan’s Libidinal Economy” for publication. The manuscript focuses on many of the ideas she articulated in her talk at Brandeis. She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan and is also beginning a new manuscript on surveillance and feminism in Japan.

Schattschneider emphasized that Koch’s talk was part of a weekly series of talks about Anthropology — the Brandeis Anthropology Research Seminar (BARS) series — which takes place every Friday at 2 p.m. in Schwartz Hall 103. These talks are free and open to the Brandeis community.

In fact, Schattschneider insisted that “it would be fantastic to get non-anthro students” to attend the talks because they discuss “very contemporary issues” and are relevant even to students who don’t formally study anthropology.

Gabriele Koch herself did not shy away from connecting her analysis of Japanese prostitution to contemporary issues. In particular, her analysis of socalled comfort women in World War II stood out in terms of how Koch’s research can be applied to contemporary issues in today’s news.

Comfort women are what Japanese soldiers called the women they enslaved and forced into prostitution during World War II. Koch views the comfort woman as an extremely violent, historical version of the iyashi concept. Just as post-World War II Japanese corporations believethat having their employees visit sex workers will increase productivity, the Japanese government during World War II provided soldiers with comfort women because they thought it would increase their effectiveness as soldiers.

Another contemporary issue that Koch focused on is the politics of whether sex work is considered “work” and, by extension, whether sex work should be given the political benefits afforded to other professions.

Koch argued that Japanese gender roles play an integral role in ensuring that sex work in Japan isn’t recognized as a profession.

In Japan, Koch observed that the traditional perception of women is that their “very nature, quote unquote, knows how to care for men.”

Prostitution is considered an extension of this traditional gender role: much like the housewives of twentieth-century America were expected to support their husbands, prostitutes in Japan are seen as supporting their male clients. Because prostitution is considered an extension of traditional gender roles, sex work isn’t considered labor for the same reason that being a stay-at-home mother isn’t considered a career.

During Koch’s interview with the Justice, she emphasized the difficulty of talking about sex and prostitution in relation to a foreign country like Japan.

“Often in the media there’s ‘Japan is weird’ stories, ... [and] in a lot of the reporting on Japan, there’s a great deal of orientalization,” Koch elaborated.

“I do work with sex workers; people are going to have assumptions about the work or about them.”

“All I can do,” she said, “is really accurately report and try to show people their realities.”

— Kirby Kochanowski contributed reporting.

THE JUSTICE

●

FEATURES ● TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016

Making a mark behind the lens PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROSEMARY RODRIGUEZ

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Rosemary Rodriguez ’83 has directed many episodes of shows including “The Good Wife,” “Jessica Jones,” Manhattan,” “Castle” and “Rescue Me.”

By pICHYA nIMIT JUSTICE cONTRIBUTING wRITER

Rosemary Rodriguez ’83 has been fascinated with film since childhood, but it wasn’t until her senior year at Brandeis that she realized that she wanted to pursue a career in filmmaking. With two feature films under her belt and numerous episodes of television shows she’s directed, Rosemary Rodriguez reflected in an interview with the Justice, on being a former addict, the challenges of being a female director, working on the set of “Jessica Jones” and her newest projects.

In her last semester at Brandeis, Rodriguez enrolled in her first and only film class. From that point on, her path as an American Studies major took a turning point. On her class curriculum, she recalls, “We would watch “Citizen Kane,” “Battleship Potemkin” — just sort of classic, old movies. We’d watch it twice ... we’d watch it once without the sound and then we’d watch it with the sound. So, that’s really what opened my eyes,” Rodriguez said.

It was not until the professor asked students to take a scene from the assigned text and prepare a treatment of that scene that Rodriguez discovered her creative directing abilities. “We had to take a scene from ‘The Book of Daniel,’ by E.L. Doctorow. We had to take a scene from it and then make a treatment of that scene. You know, like in a movie.” And with that, Rodriguez had a realization. “Just one day, I literally woke up … in the middle of the night. I had seen this whole thing in my head, and I just got up

and wrote it out and that was my whole paper. And that had never happened to me before … So, that class was sort of instrumental to me thinking that, ‘It’s a job that you can do [directing].’ It’s not just watching movies.”

Realizing that she wanted her direction to be in film, was not so sudden a transition for Rodriguez. Her love for the moving image had been brewing since childhood. Growing up during the 70s in New Hampshire, in what she described as “pre-Internet” times, Rodriguez found herself sitting in front of her television everyday after school at 4 o’clock, watching old Hollywood movies and doing homework.

She and her mother frequently went to the movies, and Rodriguez found herself in a trance with classic films.

“She’d bring me to these movies that were pretty disturbing and I loved them. I remember falling asleep [during] “Mary Poppins.”

I hated it as a little kid, going to see that … and then she’d bring me to “Serpico” or something, or “French Connection” or something like that and … I couldn’t stop looking at it. I was so taken in by the reality and the grittiness and the darkness. [I] always gravitated towards the darkness,” Rosemary explained.

These early childhood films were to play a significant part in the creative inspiration of what would become her first feature film. After struggling with drug addiction and homelessness for a period in New York City, Rodriguez found solace in her first feature film, which she directed and wrote: “Acts of Worship.”

ALL ABOUT THE SHOT: In addition to directing television shows, Rodriguez has also written, produced and directed two feature films, “Acts of Worship” and “Silver Skies.”

Rosemary Rodriguez ’83 uses her passion for film to direct television episodes and movies

ON SET: Rodriguez (left) with Marc Anthony (center) and Jada Pinkett Smith (right) on the set of the television show “Hawthorne.”

“I spent quite a few years in a really dark hole. I spent three years being homeless like a cockroach. Just really messed up on heroin and cocaine and just really, really messed up, but at my heart of hearts I had this weird voice, this weird obsession inside me … I had this burning thing inside that told me that if I could just make my movie, I would be okay,” Rosemary said.

Rodriguez not only struggled with substance abuse but also had to put up with the difficulties of being a woman in the industry.

She expressed her desire to defy the gender categories placed in the industry.

“It’s that thing that I really don’t like having the conversation about: women directors. Because I just want to be in the ‘great director’ category versus the ‘women’ category or the ‘female director’ category. I can’t stand that category. That’s the category that I’m put in, though. At the same time, it’s so obvious, that there are opportunities that, as female filmmakers, we don’t get very readily, or very easily, or very often, or at all, that the guys do get. So, I’m very aware of that.”

Her frustration doesn’t end there, but she wants to make a difference in the industry. “ I just try to stay positive and do great work and go through the door that opens. Hopefully with all the conversation that’s out there … hopefully it will make it easier for people … I’m very fortunate in one sense and in the other sense, that reality is always slapping me

in the face.”

In the spring of 2015, Rodriguez directed the tenth episode of “Jessica Jones.” The series follows a severely flawed former superhero, Jessica Jones, as she navigates her own psychological issues while running a private detective agency. The episode Rodriguez directed, called “AKA 1,000 Cuts,” explores the primary antagonist, Kilgrave, and Jessica’s “physicalized psychological dance,” as Rodriguez describes it.

She further describes the episode as “a little out of the box for the series,” and “really [more] like a horror movie, so let’s just make a horror movie out of this particular episode.”

Not only does Rodriguez have the success of “Jessica Jones,” but she also has other projects that are currently in the works. She is working on a series for Showtime with Alan Cumming that is still in development, and which she hopes will be happening soon.

“To create my own series is really important to me … It’s about a restaurant in New York called Florent. It was a great time in the 80s because there were a lot of drugs … and people dying from AIDs, but there was a lot of personal expression and an explosion of spirit and life in the midst of all of that.”

Rodriguez previously worked with Cumming on the set of the “The Good Wife,” for which she has directed a slew of episodes in the past. Other shows to anticipate that Rodriguez has directed are “Sneaky Pete,” a new Amazon

original series, and “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll” on FX. Television and film are not the only thing to look forward to from Rodriguez. She also has an upcoming podcast called “The Director’s Chair” on weplayradio.com. The show is on Wednesdays at 8 p.m.; it’s live and listeners are able to call in. The first guest on her show is going to be Elizabeth Rodriguez, who is well known for her roles in “Orange is the New Black” and “Fear the Walking Dead.”

“It’s going to be about collaborating. Actors, directors, producers, writers collaborating and doing the creative process … I just wanted to have her and talk about her experience with directors,” Rosemary said.

With television being a popular platform of entertainment nowadays, Rodriguez has her own goals in mind as well. “There’s just an explosion of a lot of great TV, so my goal is to get something created on TV. So I’m not just on the treadmill of directing, but [I’m interested in] more creative opportunities and more creative expression. That’s always the goal.”

Rodriguez’s next stop is the Academy Awards. “A couple of years from now, I would place myself at the Academy Awards …

That’s what I’m going to be doing in a couple of years. If I get that far then I can be producing other people’s movies. That’s the point too. The more you get to do, then the more you can reach out to other people and isn’t that just part of the dream? [To] give other people opportunities,” she said.

9

10 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016

●

FORUM

●

THE JUSTICE

the

Justice Established 1949

Brandeis University

Max Moran, Editor in Chief Avi Gold, Managing Editor Carmi Rothberg and Hannah Wulkan, Deputy Editors Noah Hessdorf, Rebecca Lantner, Catherine Rosch, Jaime Kaiser, Grace Kwon and Rachel Sharer, Associate Editors Abby Patkin, News Editor, Brianna Majsiak, Features Editor Jessica Goldstein, Forum Editor, Jerry Miller, Acting Sports Editor Jaime Gropper, Arts Editor Michelle Banayan and Mihir Khanna, Photography Editors Emily Wishingrad, Online Editor Sabrina Sung, Acting Copy Editor Talia Zapinsky, Advertising Editor

EDITORIALS

Celebrate both Ginsburg address and speaker panel On Thursday, as part of the Louis D. Brandeis Centennial Celebration, Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg H ’96 gave remarks about Justice Brandeis’ legacy. In addition, a panel of leading legal experts, moderated by former University President Frederick M. Lawrence, discussed how Justice Brandeis shaped and changed the American legal tradition. Roughly 25 students in classes about Justice Brandeis had the additional privilege of participating in a question and answer session with Justice Ginsburg following the event.

This board commends the University for bringing Ginsburg — who was voted the most popular Supreme Court Justice in a national poll conducted by Public Policy Polling in June 2015 — to campus. She was an especially exciting choice due to her popularity and also a fitting selection to speak about Brandeis as the casework of the two fall into similar themes. Brandeis was famous for his work as a “people’s lawyer” and a defender of the First Amendment while Ginsburg was the founder of the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union and has continually fought for equality. The opportunity to hear from Ginsburg also allowed students on campus to reflect on timely political issues, as a portion of the panel discussion addressed Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission.

However, this board is disappointed that more was not done to show the merit of the panel that followed Justice Ginsburg’s remarks. The panelists, two active judges and two legal scholars, are all impressive

Reflect on Brandeis’ beliefs

in their own rights, but the lack of attention they received gave the impression that they were just an afterthought to Ginsburg. This was especially highlighted by audience attitude. A sizeable portion of the audience left as soon as Ginsburg did, missing out on further commentary she shared and insight from some of the most knowledgeable experts on Brandeis alive today. This sort of behavior, the decision to leave abruptly as soon as one assumes the main speaker is done, is rude and willfully ignorant, and this board expects better of the Brandeis community.

Seeing Ginsburg was a privilege for the University community, but that does not mean the panelists should have been ignored, both in the promotion of the event and by the audience during the event itself.

This board questions the reasons that some audience members decided to come to this panel in the first place; was it to learn more about the legacy of Brandeis or was it to snap a selfie in the same room with Ginsburg to show off on social media? Showing up to an event for the sole purpose of being able to brag about seeing someone famous and then leaving en mass midway through reflects poorly on the University community and its values. This board implores our fellow community members to carefully evaluate why they want to attend in the first place.

While this board encourages the student body to more respectful of these opportunities in the future, we commend the University for a bringing such a distinguished speaker to campus.

Increase safety measures on South Street Thursday night saw the fifth instance this academic year of an unidentified male exposing himself to a Brandeis student in the vicinity of the University’s campus, according to an email Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan sent out to the student body on Friday. The bulk of these incidents transpired on the stretch of South Street from the entrance of the Foster Mods to the Wheelock and Shakespeare Roads.

This board is concerned with the repeated instances of indecent exposure on South Street, especially given the nature of the incident in its inherent potential to escalate from sexual harassment to sexual assault.

While we recognize that there are ongoing investigations into these events — and that the Brandeis Department of Public Safety is working to apprehend the presumed singular suspect in conjunction with the Waltham Police Department — this board urges the University to inform students of all additional safety measures being implemented on the relevant segments of South Street and fund common-sense precautions to deter perpetrators and aid students.

Specifically, we ask the University to consider additional street lighting, safewalk alarms such as blue light emergency call boxes and increased routine patrols of the area by the Brandeis or Waltham police, depending on the jurisdiction. The Brandeis power plant — near which the most recent incident took place, according to Callahan — along with the neighboring wooded area adjacent to the East parking lot are among the most poorly illuminated segments of South Street. The spacing between street lights increases drastically compared to the stretch of South Street between the entrance to the Foster Mods and Old South Street. Installing lighting in the East lot directed at the wooded areas and in the power plant would go a long way toward eliminating the conditions that

Notify students of plans

have accompanied these incidents. While overhead street light installation is under the jurisdiction of the Waltham local government, the University absolutely can increase lighting on its own property.

Comparing the bureaucratic work and funding issues involved in installing lighting to decreased instances of exposure and increased safety around campus should constitute an easy choice; the University installed a street-level crosswalk last year, which has greatly aided safety crossing South Street, so adding lighting to increase student security late at night should easil be considered an even more worthwhile investment. While such bureaucratic work may prolong the wait for new installations, the University can at least publicly acknowledge the issue and inform students of any new plans.

Further, in the event of an incident of this nature occurring again, a blue light in the proximity would aid in accelerating emergency responses, thus increasing the chances of apprehending the suspect and potentially saving a student from a pursuer. Currently, the closest blue light on South Street to the Wheelock Road intersection is more than a fifth of a mile away.

Installing a blue light at the entrance of the power plant would reduce this distance by more than half.

The multiple instances of indecent exposure near Brandeis’ campus in the last few months are troubling, to say the least. In this situation, this board urges the Brandeis University Public Safety Department to — in conjunction with the Waltham Police Department — instate additional security measures in the area of concern, including installing supplemental lighting and a safe walk alarm and increasing police patrols of the area.

ALI SANTANA/the Justice

Views the News on

Last Tuesday, Denmark’s government passed a bill allowing police to search refugees entering Denmark and confiscate their valuables in order to offset the financial burden of an influx of refugees. Originally, the bill allowed refugees to keep belongings totaling 3,000 Danish crowns — nearly 437 U.S. dollars — but after complaints from human rights organizations, Danish Parliament raised the sum to 10,000 crowns — approximately 1,450 U.S. dollars. The bill exempts items of sentimental value. What do you think of this new law, and should the U.S. adopt a similar tactic if it accepts refugees?

Prof. Jytte Klausen (POL) The Danish legislation authorizing confiscation of refugees’ jewelry, cash, and iPads and other valuables has rightly been condemned. The law is ugly — and stupid. Not all of the people streaming into Europe are deserving of asylum. Gangs, terrorists, young men looking to avoid conscription into the Afghan army, and many others who do not qualify as refugees, are known to have followed in the slipstream of the thousands of desperate Syrians. But confiscating jewelry and heirlooms from fleeing families punishes those most deserving of refuge. The ostensible purpose is to make refugees pay for the costs of their dependency on public support. But giving refugees the right to work is a far more effective way of recovering costs. The Danish government and the supporting Social Democratic party are giving in to the basest of instincts by dehumanizing people who have already lost everything. The sad truth is that the real purpose of the law is deterrence: “Don’t come here. We are mean.”

This is not the Denmark I recognize. The country has been torn apart by this act.

Prof. Jytte Klausen (POL) is the Lawrence A. Wien Professor of International Cooperation who specializes in domestic terrorism, Islam in the West, immigration, social cohesion and Europe.

Prof. Mari Fitzduff (POL) Who is to be responsible for refugees’ upkeep in Denmark ? Two factors are important. The first is compassion, and the second is fairness. Refugees will need time to settle in, find housing, learn Danish, retrain, and establish themselves as working citizens. Assets should not be taken into account for at least 6 months, which will give many time to settle. After that they should follow the rules for other citizens/residents as it generally pertains in Europe where savings/assets are considered before payment of living benefits e.g. in the UK if you have $9,000 savings/assets your living benefits decrease accordingly.

Many governments are struggling with right wing groups in their countries who are hostile to the refugees. If the refugees are seen to get more than their citizens, it may make it impossible for the government to keep accepting them.

Also, in many European countries, including Denmark, the state will provide free health, pre-schools, education, housing benefits and a living allowance to those who are unemployed so all basic needs will be taken care of until they find work.

Prof. Mari Fizduff (POL) is a professor in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She specializes in peace processes and public policy on diversity issues.

Prof. George Hall (ECON) This plan is harebrained and cruel. It is a tax rate of 100 percent above 10,000 crowns. You don’t need to be a rabid supply-sider to recognize that the government will not raise much revenue from a 100 percent tax rate. The Danish government is simply encouraging evasion. Further, even if the authorities do succeed in confiscating wealth, it is hard to see why capping the wealth of the most vulnerable members of society is good public policy. These refugees are going to need their own wealth to rebuild their lives and to weather the inevitable bad shocks that are a part of life. Instead of encouraging refugees to become selfsufficient, this policy will simply force them onto the public dole. That is the harebrained part. Kicking people when they are down is cruel.

Prof. George Hall (ECON) is a department chair in economics in the International Business School.

Prof. Kristen Lucken (IGS) With the number of asylees in Denmark tripling since 2013, these policies appear to be a bold circumnavigation of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and a clever attempt to create an invisible border within the Schengen zone. Would-be asylees from Syria, Iraq and North Africa now must turn over assets exceeding 10,000 kroner (approx. $1500) and move to rural refugee centers where pork is now featured on the menu. These policies conjure up scenes from “Oliver Twist” wherein the “Artful Dodger” picks pockets of the poor rather than those of the wealthy. Why the harsh stance towards asylees? Some fear the Danish welfare state will be strained by the deluge of asylum seekers and economic migrants flooding the nation. Meanwhile, past acts of terror on Danish soil — some as recent as Feb. 14, 2015 — have diluted humanitarian goodwill once extended to refugees. Sadly, these new policies exemplify a rampant nativist sentiment spreading across Europe aimed at a growing Muslim population that is increasingly desperate and willing to risk everything for safety and a chance to thrive.

Prof. Kristen Lucken (IGS) is a lecturer in International and Global Studies, Religious Studies and Sociology. She specializes in immigration as well as religious and ethnic identity.

THE JUSTICE

READER COMMENTARY Urge University to seek alternate solutions to preserve inherent charm of Usen Castle In response to your editorial “Commend University decision on Usen Castle” (Feb. 2): I’ve been shocked at how passively people are accepting the University’s decision to remove most of Usen Castle. The year I spent in the Castle was the best I had at Brandeis; it was a place of infinite mystery and adventure, full of unexpected nooks, passageways and staircases. It is magical in addition to iconic, and it embodies the unorthodox, quirky spirit that drew me to Brandeis in the first place. That experience shouldn’t be mine alone; future students should be able to share it.

Anyone who complains about the loss of this historic campus landmark is being met with a seemingly unanswerable defense: it’s falling apart and just not safe. Disagreeing with the decision to remove it is therefore treated as impractical and irresponsible. We Castle-lovers just don’t understand that the administration’s duty is to keep people safe; they insist it gives them no joy to have to take it away.

But it is false to say that this is about safety. If the administration adored the castle but were concerned about its risk, they would be planning to build a new castle or to rebuild the old one in accordance with modern building codes.

Because they have given no indication that they intend to do this, it is clear that they simply do not care very much whether the University has a castle or not. But everyone thinks Brandeis should be a special place, a place with true character and history. The truth is that our administrators simply don’t care about these things very much, or they’d have architects drawing spires and turrets at this very moment.

Brandeis, I beg you, do not let them get away with this. If they care about safety, ask them why we can’t have a new castle. The administration’s response will tell you where its true values lie.

—Nathan J. Robinson, BA ’11, MA ’11

●

FORUM

●

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016

11

Acknowledge hypocrisy in refugee treatment

By AMBER MILES JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISANT

Ever since the attacks in Cologne on New Year’s Eve — or even the attacks in Paris prior to that in November — mainstream media has deliberated on the dangers refugees may or may not pose to Western societies. People — including leading Republican presidential candidates — have thrown around labels like “terrorist” and “rapist” regarding Middle Eastern migrants, but the only label that the West can definitively apply to all of them beyond a shadow of a doubt is “refugee.” In allowing fear and selfishness to dominate the discourse about the refugee crisis, Westerners have effectively missed the main issue: These migrants are refugees for a reason.

According to a Jan. 28 BBC article, “ongoing violence in Afghanistan, abuses in Eritrea, as well as poverty in Kosovo” contribute significantly to the displacement of these men, women and children, but the conflict in Syria continues to produce the greatest number of refugees.

As of August of last year, the Syrian Civil War had resulted in over 250,000 deaths and 12 million displacements, according to an Aug. 17, 2015 report by the United Nations Security Council. As a result of their own civil war, Syrians have endured war crimes, chemical weapons and blocked access to food, water and health services, but to make matters worse, the violent Islamic State has capitalized on unrest in the region, especially in Syria and Iraq, according to a Jan. 27 BBC article.

Merriam-Webster defines a refugee as “a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution.” Considering the situation in Syria and the surrounding region, “danger or persecution” is putting it lightly.

As such, these men, women and children have become increasingly desperate to flee — so desperate, in fact, that they make the journey at their own peril. According to a Jan. 30 New York Times article, a boat accident on Saturday left 37 dead, including at least 10 children. The boat left the Turkish resort

town of Ayvacik on Saturday morning and capsized along the Turkish coast soon thereafter. While passengers included people from Afghanistan and Myanmar, “most of them [were] believed to be Syrians fleeing war and trying to reach European shores,” according to the Times.

This is not the first instance of the Aegean Sea — more dangerous in the winter — claiming refugee lives.

According to a Jan. 29 report by the International Organization for Migration, in just the first 28 days of 2016, at least 218 migrants died at sea while trying to cross the Mediterranean for Greece, and another 26 died on the way to Italy. By contrast, the same report notes that the total deaths on the same routes in the past two years were 12 and 82 for 2014 and 2015, respectively. To put those numbers in perspective, a total of 94 people died crossing the Mediterranean in the past two years while at least 244 died in the first 28 days of this year alone. Note that these figures do not include Saturday’s tragedy.

Despite the well-documented danger of crossing to Greece or Italy, however, refugees still attempted the journey at a rate of nearly 2,000 per day during the first 28 days of 2016.

It seems that many would rather risk dying on the treacherous Aegean Sea than remain in their homelands a moment longer, refusing to even wait for spring.

As such, many refugees must feel insurmountable relief if and when they safely arrive ashore, but even then, their ordeal is far from over.

At best, they face the daunting task of completely starting over with very little to call their own except their lives and unimaginable emotional baggage. At worst — and this is too often the more common scenario — they face cruelty, prejudice and even violence in their new lands.

On Jan. 26, the Danish government passed a law allowing authorities to confiscate the belongings of incoming refugees exceeding 10,000 Danish crowns — or approximately 1,450 U.S. dollars. According to a Jan. 26 Huffington Post article, Denmark originally wanted the limit to be 3,000 crowns but changed

the sum only after human rights organizations objected. Although Denmark charitably conceded in this respect and also allowed refugees to cling to possessions of sentimental value, this callous, self-serving treatment by the Danish government perpetuates the victimization of people who have already endured so much.

Stealing from the refugees is bad enough, but too often, people in Western countries have gone as far as receiving the war-torn refugees with even more violence. Last week, in southwestern Germany, unidentified assailants threw a live hand grenade at a migrant hostel. Thankfully, the grenade failed to detonate, but Justice Minister Heiko Maas referred to it as increasing “hate and violence,” according to a Jan. 29 BBC article.

Last year, such “hate and violence” resulted in at least 1,005 attacks on refugee homes in Germany alone, according to the same article. This marked a 500 percent increase from 2014, and given the ever-growing hostility towards refugees this year, 2016 will likely see even more attacks.

And Germany isn’t alone. On Friday, up to 100 masked men marched through the city center of Stockholm and handed out leaflets in which they threatened to attack “north African street children roaming,” according to a Jan. 30 Washington Post article. The march allegedly came in response to the fatal stabbing of 22-year-old asylum-center worker Alexandra Mezher by an unidentified 15-yearold refugee. Does that warrant the threats against all refugee children? If people answer yes, the human race doesn’t stand a chance — nor should it.

Each side has enacted violence against the other. Consequently, if one subscribes to the belief that all refugees pose a threat to Westerners because some refugees have launched attacks, then he or she must also believe that all Westerners pose a threat to refugees because some Westerners have launched attacks. Otherwise, hypocrisy has reached new extremes.

For months, people in the West have fixated on what refugees might do to them — but it seems refugees have reason to be afraid too.

Demand recognition for non-white actors and actresses in Hollywood Catherine

ROSCH CYNICAL IDEALIST On Saturday night, British actor Idris Elba made history when he became the first actor to win two Screen Actors Guild awards for two different roles in one year. Elba won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries for portraying the titular role in British crime drama “Luther” and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for his brutal performance as rebel military leader Commandant in the Netflix film “Beasts of No Nation.”

Elba’s historic victory comes on the heels of the controversial Academy Award nominees for this year. For the second year in a row, every single acting nominee is white — despite the plethora of talented black, Latino, Asian and other racial-minority actors who dazzled on screen.

Following controversy in 2015 for the lack of racial diversity in the acting nominations, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs claimed that the Academy was “committed to seeking out diversity of voice and opinion” within its nominations, according to a Jan. 17, 2015 Associated Press article; yet, within a year, it seemed to have forgotten its vow.

Once again, it nominated only white actors and actresses.

Both years, the Academy overlooked numerous outstanding performances by nonwhite actors for sometimes mediocre performances by white actors and actresses. “Into The Woods,” for example, generally got weak reviews — at best — and yet Meryl Streep still got a Best Supporting Actress nod, while Carmen Ejogo shone as Coretta Scott King in “Selma” and was not nominated for a single acting award.

I have not seen every single movie that was nominated this year, and I do not mean any disrespect to the twenty actors and actresses

Write to us

The Justice welcomes letters to the editor responding to published material. Please submit letters through our Web site at www.thejustice.org. Anonymous submissions cannot be accepted.

Letters should not exceed 300 words, and may be edited for space, style, grammar, spelling, libel and clarity, and must relate to material published in the Justice. Letters from offcampus sources should include location. The Justice does not print letters to the editor and op-ed submissions that have been submitted to other publications. Op-ed submissions of general interest to the University community­ —that do not respond explicitly to articles printed in the Justice—are also welcome and should be limited to 800 words. All submissions are due Friday at 12 p.m.

who were nominated. However, it is troubling to see, for a second year in a row, that not a single non-white performer is being recognized for their talents and amazing roles.

What is even worse is that this year, a number of films that had strong black performances got nominations for performers, writers or directors who are not black.

“Creed,” a modern-day reboot of the “Rocky” franchise that focuses on Apollo Creed’s son, nabbed a Best Supporting Actor nomination — but it was not for Michael B. Jordan, who blew away reviewers as Donnie Creed, the main character and, hopefully, the new face of the aging franchise. Rather, it was for Sylvester Stallone, who reprised his famous Rocky character.

Stallone was good in the film, but the fact that the only nominee for a film written by, directed by and starring black men was white is troubling at best.

The same thing happened with “Straight Outta Compton,” a biopic about the early years of hip-hop group N.W.A. There were some legitimate criticisms of the film, such as that it revised aspects of the group’s history and ignored Dr. Dre’s history of domestic abuse. However, the actors, especially O’Shea Jackson, Jr. — who brilliantly captured the personality and mannerisms of his father, Ice Cube — made a strong ensemble.

Generally, ensemble-style films do not get acting nominations, but this year, “Spotlight,” an ensemble film, got not one but two acting nominations, as Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams both got nods for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. “Straight Outta Compton” did not get a single one. The only nomination “Straight Outta Compton” received was for screenwriting.

Not surprisingly, both screenwriters are white. Despite the fact that “Straight Outta Compton” celebrates black artists and received wide acclaim, none of the film’s nominees were black.

To further put things in perspective, shortly after the Academy announced this year’s Oscar nominees, Marc Lamont Hill — a professor at Moorehouse College and a cultural critic — pointed out that all the names of ev-

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 Back 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, written, 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.

In addition, the Justice is mailed weekly to paid subscribers and distributed throughout Waltham, Mass. 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.

EMILY WISHINGRAD/the Justice

ery black Oscar winner take up less than 140 characters on Twitter. Just the fact that in 88 years, so few black actors have won an Academy Award that all their names can fit in one tweet is telling in itself.

The film industry’s problems with racial insensitivity goes beyond just who does — or, in this case, does not — get awards. Following the announcement of the Oscar nominees, Sky Arts announced they had cast Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson for an upcoming comedy film, “Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon,” despite one crucial detail: Michael Jackson was black and Joseph Fiennes is not. The filmmakers have defended their casting choice as a “creative liberty” and with comments about Jackson’s complexion near the end of his life, according to a Jan. 28, 2015 Guardian article.

What makes this casting choice even more interesting, to say the least, is that in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Jackson said the idea of a white actor portraying him was “the most ridiculous, horrifying story I’ve ever heard.”

But as Steven W. Thrasher, a cultural commentator for the Guardian, pointed out, all

The Staff

For information on joining the Justice, write to editor@ thejustice.org.

this casting shows is that Hollywood has not learned anything from the #OscarsSoWhite controversies from last year’s and this year’s nominations.

Rather than recognizing black talent, Hollywood seems to be effectively returning to the blackface, yellowface and redface of films like “The Jazz Singer” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” when portraying historical and literary figures. 2015 alone saw “Aloha” and “Pan” cast white actresses to play characters who were Asian, Polynesian or Native American in the source material; even worse, “Stonewall” went so far as to change the historic figures who led the riots from black trans women to white cis men.

The lack of diversity in films that the Academy chooses to laud as award-worthy and the troubling practice of using white actors to portray either fictional characters or historical figures who are not white are twin issues, and both need to be equally addressed by the film industry at large. Until the industry ends — or, at the very least, addresses — these problems, it is hard to claim with a straight face that Hollywood is truly diverse.

Editorial Assistants

Forum: Dor Cohen, Ben Feshbach, Mark Gimelstein,

Ads: Pamela Klhar, Robbie Lurie

Kat Semerau

Layout: Mira Mellman

Sports: Max Byer, Gabriel Goldstein, Elan Kane, Dan Rozel

Features: Kirby Kochanowski

Arts: Brooke Granovsky, Lizzie Grossman, Ilana Kruger,

Forum: Amber Miles

Linda Maleh, Anna Stern

Photgraphy: Abby Grinberg, Amanda Nguyen

Photography: Wenli Bao, Aaron Birnbaum, Tommy Gao, Jacob Kleinberg, Bri Mussman, Ethan Saal,

Staff

Heather Schiller, Yue Shen, Joyce Yu

News: Daisy Chen, Rachel Moore,

Copy: Nicole Wengrofsky

Matthew Schattner, Arianna Unger

Illustrations: Ben Jarrett, Ali Santana

Features: Rachel Lederer, Mira McMahon

12

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016 ● FORUM

●

THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Criticize Sarah Palin’s stance on Planned Parenthood

By NIA LYN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Tina Fey’s spot-on impression of former Governor Sarah Palin on the Jan. 23 episode of “Saturday Night Live” highlighted three main things about Palin. First, she has the potential to be an amazing freestyle rapper if politics doesn’t work out. How brilliant was “right wingin’ bitter clingin’ proud clingers of our guns our God and our religions”? Second, she knows exactly how to stir the American public: mentioning ISIS and promising to kick ass.

Third, she supports defunding Planned Parenthood. This, Palin has made clear multiple times on air and through media, but the instance which sparked the most controversy involved a post on Palin’s official Facebook account: an image posted on July 26, 2015, which juxtaposed the Planned Parenthood logo with the Confederate flag. The caption read, “Which killed 90,000 black babies last year?” and included #DefundPlannedParenthood. Comparing the racist and outdated ideals associated with the Confederate flag to a health organization is bad enough, but Palin went on to further embarrass herself on the “O’Reilly Factor” shortly after on July 29, 2015, when she discussed the image and her full thoughts on the matter: “This outrage over the flag … but where is … the outcry over innocent human life?” Yes, because a hateful symbol does not jeopardize the lives of anyone.

Palin is an avid Trump supporter, or “Trumpeter,” as she likes to call it — and the feeling seems mutual, as Trump has publicly praised her as well. On July 27, 2015, on “Mama Grizzly Radio,” Trump said he would love to have Palin in his cabinet. He later went on to say, “She really is somebody who knows what’s happening and she’s a special person.”

Having expressed his desire to work with Palin, her tasteless comments on Planned Parenthood and race now reflect upon Donald Trump as well, even though he recently recanted his previous stance to defund the organization. Trump defended the organization in an Aug. 11, 2015 interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity: “A lot of women are helped, so we have to look at the positives for Planned Parenthood.” Despite this change of heart, by accepting Sarah Palin and her anti-choice ideals, he is no better than those wanting to defund the organization.

According to an Aug. 4, 2015 Washington Post article, all of the approximate 500 million dollars that Planned Parenthood receives from the government fund everything but abortion services; abortion funds instead come from private donors. For once, Trump is right: Planned Par-

GRACE KWON/the Justice

enthood actually does help women. According to the organization’s mission statement, it provides “comprehensive reproductive and complementary health care services,” as well as “educational programs which enhance understanding … of human sexuality” while promoting “research … in reproductive health care.”

In other words, Planned Parenthood provides basic health services to women who might not otherwise have access to them. According to their 2014 to 2015 annual report, over 600,000 Pap smears and breast exams were performed, and over 2 million birth control services were provided. Many of these services — such as Pap smears and breast exams — are vital to female health. Yes, these are the services that Donald Trump supports, but by standing along with individuals like Palin, his own beliefs are being compromised, and he isn’t trying to sway the opinion of others that the organization is not en-

tirely negative.

Palin and other conservatives that use abortion as justification to defund Planned Parenthood choose to ignore that only about three percent of its services are actually abortions, according to Planned Parenthood’s 2014 to 2015 report.

On the O’Reilly Factor, Palin argued that minorities are being targeted by the growing presence of Planned Parenthood locations in minority neighborhoods. In her words, “Planned Parenthood is in the business of finding targets … 80 percent of Planned Parenthood ‘shops’ are in minority neighborhoods … They have too many people deceived.” In this, Palin tries to argue that minority lives are being threatened because minority women are being “pressured” into having abortions. Rather than viewing it as targeted abortion, however, Palin and others should view this concentration of clinics as

community outreach. By placing more clinics in minority neighborhoods, Planned Parenthood provides women with services they might not have had otherwise due to more limited incomes or opportunities.

Palin’s selective advocacy for minorities is quite ironic; she uses race as a means of trying to condemn Planned Parenthood yet denies that the Confederate flag still qualifies as a symbol of hatred. As she explained on the “O’Reilly Factor,” she reposted the controversial image in order to criticize Americans’ priorities — implying that she believes defunding an organization which performs abortions 3 percent of the time is more important than protecting black lives. Palin considers Planned Parenthood more of a threat to everyone — especially minorities — than institutionalized, deep-rooted racism. This belief defies logic. Maybe Governor Palin should set politics aside and focus on her job as a talk show host.

Oppose reinstatement of University’s Al-Quds partnership

By ANDREW JACOBSON JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Dec. 23, 2015, the Brandeis-Al-Quds Student Dialogue Initiative announced on its Facebook page that this March it will host five Palestinian Al-Quds students, one faculty member and one staff member at Brandeis. On the Initiative’s GoFundMe page, which will cover the remaining expenses, the Al-Quds delegation trip budget noted that the visit will be funded in part by a Karpf-Hahn Grant of $3,250 through the Brandeis Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies (PAX) program.

According to the program’s website, the award is intended to “enhance peace culture” and is bestowed upon applicants who “work toward coexistence.” In theory, any venture promoting dialogue between two contrasting demographics is educative and enlightening in nature. In fact, the partnership between a Jewish-sponsored American institution and a Palestinian institution served for years as an admirable demonstration that academic discourse between peoples harboring largely divergent views is feasible.

As such, the success of the partnership suggested that perhaps the requisite to securing a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict relies on the ability of individuals — rather than governments — to connect and share personal stories.

In 1998, then-president of Brandeis Jehuda Reinharz and then-president of Al-Quds Sari Nusseibeh first formalized the Brandeis-AlQuds partnership. Until severed by Brandeis President Frederick Lawrence in 2013, the partnership had been of great value to both communities. Dialogue, cooperation and mutual understanding were among the mission and principles on which the crucial program had been established.

However, on Nov. 5, 2013, Al-Quds students marched around the main square “in black military gear with fake automatic weapons while waving flags and offering the traditional Nazi salute,” according to a Nov. 19, 2013 Times of Israel article. No visible opposition to this repugnant demonstration seemed to exist. After the frightening Nazi-esque demonstration, Lawrence requested that Nusseibeh issue an unequivocal denunciation of the event.

In a Nov. 17, 2013 statement, however, Nusseibeh dodged responsibility and effectively justified the deplorable incident by blaming the “extremism and violence” to which the Palestinian people are subjected — ostensibly by Israel — and a Jewish conspiracy determined to tarnish the university’s reputation. He continued to belittle the “massacre of the Jewish people in Europe” — by which he meant the Holocaust — by suggesting that the ultimate tragedy was the “enduring Palestinian catastrophe.” Curiously, he failed to mention the demonstration specifically, opting instead to refer to “fist-fighting between students, or some students making a mock military display.” As a result, President Lawrence deemed Nusseibeh’s statement “unacceptable and inflammatory” and suspended the partnership.

“

... Brandeis and Al-Quds must both champion freedom of speech on their respective campuses.

Just four months later, on Mar. 23, 2014, a black-masked group paraded the Al-Quds campus once again. They carried green Hamas flags and replicas of the rockets notoriously used to attack innocent civilians in Israel, according to a Mar. 25, 2014 Times of Israel article. Coincidentally, Nusseibeh resigned three days later.

Also in March of 2014, head of Al-Quds’ American Studies department, Professor Mohammed Dajani, took 27 of his students to Auschwitz to imbue within them “tolerance and empathy [for the Jewish people],” according to a June 10, 2014 Telegraph article.

According to the same article, upon Dajani’s return to Al-Quds, colleagues and students vilified him as a “traitor” and “collaborator.” The Al-Quds Staff Union also voted to fire him. In response to this denigration, Dajani resigned and asserted, “I put my job on the line to expose the double-talk we live. We [Al-Quds Universi-

ty] say we are for democracy and we practice autocracy, we say we are for freedom of speech and academic freedom, yet we deny people to practice it.”

More recent events at Al-Quds are disappointingly consistent with the atmosphere prior to and directly after the severance of the partnership. According to a Jan. 13, 2015 article in Blaze, last January, Al-Quds students produced a video gratuitously depicting the heinous murder of Jews — by what appeared to be Hamas-affiliated Palestinians — in order to incite terror among Jews and Israelis.

Moreover, on Oct. 3, 2015, Muhannad Halabi killed two Israeli men and seriously injured two others in Jerusalem’s old city. Halabi, a law student at Al-Quds, arbitrarily chose these victims just because of their Jewish and Israeli identities. Halabi was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, according to Agence France-Presse, and Hamas praised his attack as a “heroic operation.” According to the Palestinian news agency Donia Al-Watan, Surda-Abu Quash — the municipality where Halabi lived — named a street after the assailant shortly after his fatal stabbing of innocent civilians. Clearly, the Al-Quds culture of exalting terrorism is also reflected in Palestinian society at large.

Further, during this past holiday season, AlQuds University displayed a martyr-themed Christmas tree; most of the photos and ornaments on the tree featured “prominent Palestinian terrorists killed carrying out attacks against Israelis,” according to a Dec. 9, 2015 Times of Israel article. Current Al-Quds President Imad Abu Kishk spoke at the tree’s unveiling, actively honoring “martyrs” — and therefore, by extension, participating in the celebration of terror and condoning the murder of innocent Israeli citizens.

In order for the partnership to be beneficial to both schools, Brandeis and Al-Quds must both champion freedom of speech on their respective campuses. Brandeis is ready for dialogue. Regrettably, according to Dajani and events surrounding the severance of the partnership, Al-Quds is not.

While the Brandeis-Al-Quds Student Dialogue Initiative has positive intentions, the proponents of the Initiative don’t seem to recognize the animosity and sheer abhorrence

for Israelis and Jews that Al-Quds University perhaps breeds and certainly permits. Naturally, not every Al-Quds student fosters these views, but the extent of intolerance in Al-Quds University’s campus culture is alarming. By proposing that Brandeis University once again engage with the intolerant and largely bigoted campus and administration of Al-Quds University, the Initiative is actually antithetical to the PAX grant’s goal to “enhance peace culture.”

Some may argue that the presence of these disturbing realities necessitates even more an Al-Quds partnership with Brandeis. Proponents of this position may contend that the partnership is a valuable tool which may deradicalize certain features of the Al-Quds students and administration. While a genuine dialogue between the two campuses is a worthy goal, advocates of this thinking operate under a naïve, flawed premise that Brandeis students alone can easily solve such a complex conflict.

The students and administration of Brandeis University should not be associated with a university which, at the very least, is intolerant of its Jewish neighbors. Brandeis must retain its integrity and oppose the Brandeis-Al-Quds Student Dialogue Initiative until the Al-Quds administration officially ceases and renounces incitement of terror against Israelis and condemns the bigoted rallies which occurred on its campus. As such, Brandeis must withhold funding for the Initiative and its upcoming trip. Until Al-Quds takes action to combat the anti-Semitism that permeates its campus, Brandeis should not be associated with AlQuds University.

In the case of the Al-Quds campus, the movement towards inclusivity and acceptance of individual differences — predominantly in regard to religion or ethnicity — must come from within the school and within Palestinian society. An effective dialogue can and will occur when Al-Quds renounces glorification of terror and expresses a sincere desire to embrace all peoples — both in theory and practice.

Brandeis University is, however, in a unique position to advance dialogue in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. While the Al-Quds partnership should not be fully reinstated, the University should seek to advance new dialogue initiatives that include Israeli, Palestinian and American students.

THE JUSTICE ● SPORTS ● TUESDAY, February 2, 2016

WBBALL: Team cracks under late pressure

STRONG FINISH

CONTINUED FROM 16 Brandeis shot 6 for 6 from the free throw line in the quarter.

Down by three, Brandeis forward Maria Jackson ’17 hit two free throws to cut the lead to 59-58. After a free throw from Case Western, Hodges hit two foul shots with 14 seconds remaining to tie the game at 60-60.

The overtime period featured four lead changes. After the Spartans tied the game at 66-66 with roughly a minute and a half remaining, Cain converted a threepoint play after getting fouled on a layup with 12 seconds left to take a 69-66 lead. Case tried to tie the game on two 3-point shots but neither would fall.

Gabriel noted how the game was a tale of two halves.

“Friday's game was definitely one of the best games I have ever been a part of. We started out the first half really cold. Case Western's shots were falling, and ours simply were

MHIR KHANNA/the Justice

INTO TRAFFIC: Center John Powell ’17 (middle) took the ball for a fast-break layup against Case Western Reserve University last Friday.

MBBALL: Men’s scoreboard belies concerning statistics CONTINUED FROM 16 proved critical in the squad’s defeat.

The Spartans scored 26 points off of 21 Brandeis turnovers, compared to a mere 15 points off of 18 turnovers for the Judges.

Though the men’s squad finished the game shooting 53.8 from the field — slightly higher than Case Western’s 49.3 — the Spartans bench outscored the Judges’ by a 30-16 margin. Forward John Powell ’17, who totaled 16 points and eight rebounds, led the Judges from the floor.

Vilmont threw in 15 points of his own, scoring in double-digits for the 15th time this season. Cooper and Tim Reale ’17 each finished with 11 points

in the losing effort. Case senior guard Matt Clark and sophomore forward Eric Black led the Spartans with 17 points each. Black also notched 10 rebounds, while Clark dished out six assists on the night.

The box score reveals that Case was able to not only increase its scoring efficiency in the second half of the game, but also to bombard Brandeis with a collection of 11 3-point conversions, as compared to only four from the Judges.

Case used a 15-7 run midway through the second half to create some breathing room. Though the Judges pushed back with a run of their own in the final minutes, they were unable to dig themselves out of the hole cre-

13

ated by a relatively sluggish secondhalf stretch.

In the stats box, Cooper took the lead in rebounds and assists, totaling nine and four, respectively. Although Powell did not take the rebounding crown, he was able to come down with a monstrous four offensive rebounds, leading to a few extra looks for the Judges. Cooper had the next-highest total with three offensive boards for the squad.

Looking ahead, the Judges look to redeem their loss to the Spartans, as they battle Case yet again on Friday.

Later in the weekend, the Judges will again duel with Carnegie Mellon, in the hopes that they can yet again claim a decisive conference victory.

not. We could not buy a basket,” Gabriel explained. “Going into the second half, we knew defense was the only way to get back into the game.

I think putting on our full-court press was the key to our comeback.

We forced turnovers, capitalized on extra opportunities and gained unstoppable momentum.”

The Judges snagged an incredible 50 rebounds, led by a doubledigit rebounding performance by Sodine. More impressive, though, was the team’s total of 25 offensive rebounds, which gave the Judges a plethora of extra opportunities to get another basket.

This was arguably the key to the game, as Case had a slim six offensive rebounds.

Together with only 13 turnovers, the Judges were able to keep the ball for the large majority of play.

Brandeis looks to continue its dominant play next on Friday at Case at 5 p.m. and avenge last Sunday’s loss this coming Sunday against Carnegie at 2 p.m.

TRACK: Both squads earn for four top-ten finishes in meeting CONTINUED FROM 16 vault event, where they were able to record mediocre finishes of 12th and 15th, respectively.

In the shotput, Jordin Carter ’18 recorded a distance of 9.37 meters for 16th place. Carter also finished in 17th place with a fairly average distance of 10.32 meters in the weight throw.

The overall winner of the meet was Stonehill College with 173.50 points.

Wesleyan University, which was the runner up, ended the day with 118 points.

The Judges will return to Tufts this weekend for the Tufts Cupid Challenge on Saturday afternoon.

Last year, the Judges competed at the same event but were only

able to finish in 14th place. Jarret Hannigan ’15 led the team with a second-place finish in the 3000-meter run, but the men will have to look to replace his performance this year.

Quinton Hoey ’17 crossed the finish line in time for ninth place but narrowly missed the cut for the qualifying race. This year, Hoey will need to improve upon his previous time in order to vault the Judges into a top-ten finish.

On the other side, the women fared slightly better, gaining 27 points to place them in eigth place.

Kelsey Whitaker ’16 and Ashley Piccirillo-Harans will need to replicate their stellar performances to launch them into a top-five finsh this year.

Want to get in the game?

Write for Sports!

Contact Jerry Miller at sports@thejustice.org

Everyone has a story.

Help us find it.

Write for the features section of

the

Justice

Contact Brianna Majsiak at features@thejustice.org for more information.

Want to become red carpet famous?

Write for Arts Contact Jaime Gropper at arts@thejustice.org IMAGE COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

THE JUSTICE ● SPORTS ● Tuesday, February 2, 2016

jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

15

SWIMMING

Men’s BASKETBALL TEAM STATS

UAA STANDINGS

Points Per Game

Robinson Vilmont ’17 leads the squad with 15.2 points per game.

Player PPG Robinson Vilmont 15.2 Jordan Cooper 14.6 John Powell 9.8 Tim Reale 7.0

UAA Conference Overall

W L W L Pct. Emory 6 1 13 5 .722 Chicago 5 2 14 4 .778 Rochester 5 2 12 6 .667 NYU 4 3 14 3 .825 JUDGES 3 4 9 9 .500 WashU 2 5 10 8 .556 Case 2 5 9 9 .500 Carnegie 1 6 8 10 .444

Rebounds Per Game John Powell ’17 leads the team with 7.1 rebounds per game.

Player RPG John Powell 7.1 Robinson Vilmont 4.5 Jordan Cooper 4.4 Colby Smith 3.2

UPCOMING GAMES: Friday at Case Sunday at Carnegie Mellon Feb. 12 at Rochester

WOMen’s basketball UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS

UAA Conference Overall

W L W L Pct. NYU 6 1 17 1 .944 WashU 5 1 14 3 .826 Rochester 5 2 15 3 .833 Chicago 4 3 12 6 .667 Carnegie 3 4 14 4 .778 JUDGES 2 5 9 9 .500 Emory 1 5 10 7 .588 Case 1 6 6 12 .333

Sydney Sodine ’17 leads the team with 9.8 points per game.

Player PPG Sydney Sodine 9.8 Paris Hodges 9.5 Heather Cain 9.1 Maria Jackson 8.5

Points Per Game

UPCOMING GAMES: Friday at Case Sunday at Carnegie Mellon Feb. 12 at Rochester

Rebounds Per Game Maria Jackson ’17 leads with 8.3 rebounds per game.

Player RPG Maria Jackson 8.3 Sydney Sodline 6.2 Paris Hodges 4.9 Kyla Gabriel 4.2

track and field Results from the Tufts Stampede at Tufts University on Saturday.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

200-Meter Dash

400-Meter Dash RUNNER TIME Haliana Burhans 59.12 Tove Freeman 1:00.40

RUNNER TIME Henry McDonald 23.03 Regan Charie 22.72

JOYCE YU/the Justice

HEAD ABOVE WATER Kendrick Rubino ’19 flew past the pack in the 200-yard butterfly event versus Clark University on Saturday.

Judges split meet in tough weekend battle ■ Fallon Bushee ’16 clocked in at 1:16.48 to steal the 100-yard backstroke against Clark University.

By AVi gold Justice editor

UPCOMING MEETS: Saturday at Tufts Cupid Challenge Feb. 12 at Valentines Invitational at Boston University Feb. 13 at Valentines Invitational at Boston University

SWIMMING AND DIVING Results from a meet at home against Clark University on Saturday.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s) 200-yard backstroke

SWIMMER Edan Zitelny Taku Harada David Lazarovich

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s) TIME 2:05.19 2:06.34 2:13.07

1000-yard freestyle

SWIMMER TIME Joanna Murphy 11:01.86 Theresa Gaffney 12:11.59 Morgan Kolb 12:17.26

UPCOMING MEETS:

Feb. 17 vs. UAA Championships at University of Rochester Feb. 18 vs. UAA Championships at University of Rochester Feb. 19 vs. UAA Championships at University of Rochester

The men and women’s swimming and diving team split a weekend matchup with Clark University in their final tune-up before the University Athletic Association Championships later this week.

The men took a 160-132 victory while the women fell by a 147-144 defeat at the Senior Day meet.

Fallon Bushee ’16 took home a pair of individual wins for the women in the 100-and 200-yard breaststroke while the men took 10 of the 16 events to claim their secondstraight victory.

Men’s squad (160 points) Edan Zitelny ’17 paced the Judges with three wins in the victory, beginning his day with a six-second victory in the 200-yard butterfly, touching the wall at 2:04.81. Zitelny took the top spot in the 200-yard backstroke as well, during which the Judges swept the podium.

His time of 2:15.19 was just over a

second ahead of Taku Harada ’18 and eight seconds ahead of David Lazarovich ’16, who finished the race in 2:13.07. Zitelny capped his day with a win in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:04.82, the second race of the day the Judges swept. Zach Diamond ’18 grabbed second in 2:05.66, while Lazarovich earned a hard-earned third-place finish in 2:09.28.

The Judges picked up a team victory in the 200-yard medley relay, as the quartet of Eb Weber ’17, Rich Avrutsky ’18, Zitelny and Evan Thom ’18 managed a 1:43.55 finish to claim the win.

Diamond earned a pair of wins on the day in the 1000-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle, swimming to times of 10:18.48 and 51.41 seconds, respectively.

Cameron Braz ’17 and Weber also walked away with multiple victories, as Braz took the 200yard freestyle in 1:48.80 and the 50-yard freestyle in 23.04 seconds.

Weber won the 100-yard freestyle in 56.08 seconds and the 100-yard backstroke in 58.20 seconds.

The men move to an improved 2-8-1 with the victory.

Women’s squad (144 points) Bushee swam to wins in the 100yard and 200-yard breaststroke

races, taking the former in 1:16.48 and the latter in 2:42.54. Her time in the 100-yard breaststroke was a moment ahead of Clark junior Niki Lew, who touched the wall at the 1:16.69 mark, and just a second behind her top time of 1:15.19.

Kylie Herman ’19 and Joanna Murphy ’17 took the top two spots in the 200-yard butterfly, stopping the timer at 2:21.37 and 2:23.76, respectively. Amy Sheinhait ’18 won the 100-yard freestyle race in 57.83 seconds while Sherry Tu ’18 took the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:04.83.

The Judges’ quartet of Sheinhait, Bushee, Tu and Herman claimed a win in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:59.07, 1.69 seconds ahead of the Clark side.

Theresa Gaffney ’16 took third place in the 1000-yard freestyle race, swimming to a time of 12:11.59 in the final home meet of her career, while Murphy set a season-best time in the race by taking second place with an 11:01.86 finish.

The women had a three-match winning streak stopped in the loss, moving them to 4-9 before the UAA Championships commence.

The UAA Championships are set to begin tomorrow and will last through Saturday, hosted by the University of Rochester.

FENCING Women win fourth-straight match to continue dominant tear during the regular season stretch ■ Epeeist Sonya Glickman ’16 led the team with 10 wins and just one loss on the day.

By Dan rozel JUSTICE Staff writer

The fencing team held its Senior Day on Saturday as the men and women hosted several other universities in this year’s edition of the Eric Sollee Invitational. 14 seniors are set to graduate this year from the fencing team, and friends and family honored them in attendance in a special ceremony.

In the meet, the women’s team went 4-1, defeating New Jersey Institute of Technology, Hunter

College, Haverford College and New York University, while only falling to Stevens Institute of Technology in a close 15-12 matchup. The men’s team went 3-2, defeating Stevens, Hunter and Haverford and losing to NJIT and NYU. The matchups against NYU were especially important as they represented the only UAA conference matchup for Brandeis. These results move the women’s team to 18-5 overall while the men move to 15-5.

Women — 4 wins, 1 loss As an overall squad, women’s foil had the most successful day, going 5-0 on the day. Caroline Mattos ’16 posted a 9-1 record for the foil squad with her only loss coming against NYU. Sophomore Zimeng Xue ’18 added her own

7-2 mark to contribute to the foil team’s dominance and help propel the overall team to important wins against NYU and Haverford.

The women’s epee squad had a big day as well, as Sonya Glickman ’16 posted the day’s best winning percentage of any Brandeis fencer at 10-1. She defeated Julia Garcia of NJIT, who was a semifinalist in last year’s NCAA tournament, and posted perfect records against both NJIT and NYU. Gwen Mowell ’16 added nine more wins for the epees. The saberists were led by Laura Broffman ’18 who went 7-1 in three matches and Ashley Jean ’17, who went 8-4 upon her return from injury. This performance comes off the heels of a 19-8 mid-week victory for the women’s team against Wellesley

College on Tuesday.

Broffman and Nina Sayles ’17 posted 3-0 records in that meet for the sabre team to win 8-1 while Glickman and Mowell posted 2-0 records to propel the epeeists to a 6-3 win. Six women fenced for the foil squad as Joanne Carminucci ’19 went 2-0 and seniors Emilia Dwyer ’16, Annie Kim ’16 and Mattos each added one win.

Men — 3 wins, 2 losses On the men’s side, the epee team had the best performance at 3-2 while foil and sabre went 2-3, suffering some close defeats.

Individually, Guillermo Narvaez ’18 posted the best mark of the starters for the men’s team, going 9-4 on foil.

Fellow foilist Toby Gray ’16 did

not lose a bout all day, earning 3-0 marks against Hunter and Haverford. Kyle Berney ’18 also added 10 wins for the Judges, with 2-1 marks against NJIT and Haverford and 3-0 marks against Stevens and Hunter.

For the epeeists, Tom Hearne ’16 racked up six wins on the day, with 2-1 marks against both Stevens and NYU. Ten different fencers contributed to the epee team’s 3-2 record on the day.

The Judges will travel to Duke University next weekend to take on Duke, University of North Carolina, Notre Dame College, Penn State University and Johns Hopkins University in the Duke Invitational. The men have beaten Duke in each of the past two seasons and look to replicate that mark.

just

Sports

Page 16

SWIFT STRIKES The fencing teams cruised to wins on their home turf at the Eric Sollee Invitational, p. 15.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Waltham, Mass.

Men’s basketball

COAST TO COAST

Men suffer rough loss against Case after late foul call ■ Jordan Cooper ’18 scored

a season-high 35 points against Carnegie Mellon University on Sunday.

By GABRIEL GOLDSTIEN JUSTICE Staff writer

The men’s basketball team hit the court Sunday against Carnegie Mellon University and Friday against Case Western Reserve University, splitting its contests with the two conference foes. The Judges claimed an easy victory Sunday, thanks mostly to a stellar second half effort.

On Friday, however, the Judges fell to Case in a close battle that saw five Judges score in double figures. The squad has had a difficult time stringing together consecutive victories to this point in the season, and this past week’s results only exacerbate concerns over the team’s ability to deliver on a night-to-night basis.

Judges 81, Carnegie 67 Despite a lopsided final score of 8167, the Judges matchup against Carnegie Mellon was not as easy as the final tally may indicate. The Judges led by just one point heading into halftime after shooting only 43.3 percent from the field to start the game.

However, the tides quickly turned as the Judges came out firing on all cyl-

inders, connecting on 77.3 percent of their field goals in the second half of regular play.

Taking a closer look at the box score reveals that the Judge’s scoring efficiency was the key to victory on Sunday, as they finished shooting 57.7 percent from the floor, compared to just 36.8 for Carnegie Mellon. Forward Jordan Cooper ’18 had a breakout game for the Judges, totaling 35 points and notching six rebounds on the game. Cooper shot an impressive 11-18 from the field, including 3-7 from the three-point line. Guard Robinson Vilmont ’17 tossed in 12 points of his own to help the Judges and added a team-high seven rebounds to finish the game. Carnegie Mellon was led by freshman forward Jack Serbin, who finished with a team-high 19 points and 10 rebounds in a losing effort.

Freshman forward Patrick Ehland contributed 15 points for the Tartans.

The victory moves the Judges to 9-9 on the season, and 3-4 in UAA play.

Judges 80, Case 84 The Judges found no such good fortune on Friday, as they fell in a close contest to Case Western. Despite five players scoring in double-digits for the Judges, the squad could not claim victory in the back-and-forth battle, as Case Western’s ability to take advantage of the Judges' turnovers

See MBBALL, 13 ☛

track and field

MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice

UP-AND-UNDER: Guard Heather Cain ’16 took the ball to the hole in a deflating loss against Carnegie Mellon University on Sunday.

Judges snag electric overtime win from Case ■ Guard Heather Cain

’16 lifted the Judges over Case with a game-winning three-point play.

By ELAN KANE Justice Staff writer

The women’s basketball team went 1-1 this past weekend, losing to Carnegie Mellon University 6660 on Sunday and defeating Case Western Reserve University 69-66 in overtime on Friday. With the loss on Sunday, the Judges fall to 9-9 overall and 2-5 in University Athletic Association play.

Judges 60, Carnegie 66 Despite coming back from a 10-point deficit in the second half, Brandeis dug itself too deep of a hole in the third quarter.

Brandeis led 16-11 with just over a minute and a half to play in the first quarter after a layup from guard Niki Laskaris ’16. The Tartans came back and tied the game at 16-16 at the end of the quarter on a layup

from Carnegie sophomore forward Jackie Hudepohl.

The Judges fell behind in the second quarter and headed into halftime down 32-27.

In the third quarter, Carnegie outscored Brandeis 19-14. Carnegie led 53-43 with seven minutes to play in the fourth quarter, but the Judges went on a 16-6 run to tie the game at 59-59, highlighted by three 3-point shots from guard Frankie Pinto ’17.

Carnegie went on a 6-0 run and the Judges could only score one more point on a free throw from guard Paris Hodges ’16.

Guard Heather Cain ’17 led the Judges with 16 points to go along with six rebounds and two assists.

Brandeis shot 27.4 percent from the field, while Carnegie shot 44.4 percent. Guard Kyla Gabriel ’17 had four assists and three rebounds. She was disappointed in the team’s performance but said she was excited for the opportunity for revenge against Carnegie next week.

“We lacked the execution and intensity that we had at both ends of the court in Friday's game,” Gabriel said. “We're excited to get a second

chance at them next weekend at their place.”

Judges 69, Case 66 (OT) Brandeis was down by as many as 23 points in the game but still found a way to get the tough victory on Friday night.

The Judges remained fairly even with the Spartans in the first quarter but trailed 14-11 at the end of the period. Case was able to pull away in the second quarter, outscoring Brandeis 25-11.

The Spartans shot 60 percent from the field in the quarter while the Judges shot only 11.8 percent. A free throw from forward Sydney Sodine ’17 cut the deficit to 39-23 midway through the game.

Brandeis started coming back late in the third quarter. The Judges trailed 46-23 with 6:44 to go but went on an 11-0 run highlighted by six points from Sodine. Brandeis trailed by nine points at the end of the third quarter.

The Judges took control in the fourth quarter, converting seven Case turnovers into 11 points.

See WBBALL, 13 ☛

Squads hold their own against top foes ■ Mark Franklin ’17

finished in the top five competitors with a high jump of 1.83 meters.

By NOAH HESSDORF JUSTICE Editor

The men and women’s track and field team went to Tufts University this past Saturday to compete at the Tufts Stampede meet. Both the men and women finished in last place in their respective competitions, with the men running against 13 other squads and the women going against 17 others.

Adam Beckwith ’18 got the Judges started by earning a 40th place finish in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.75 seconds. He followed that up with a 22nd-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a subpar time of 24.25 seconds. He was less than a second and a half off the leading runner.

In the 400-meter run, Brandon Odze ’16 recorded a time of 58.81, which was good enough for a 17thplace finish. Maddox Kay ’19 finished in 18th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:17.20.

The men had three competitors run in the one-mile race, who competed in the middle of the pack. Eli Waxler ’19 ran the best of the pack with a time of 4:44.34, which earned him 17th place. Finishing right behind him was Russel Santos ’18,

with a time of 4:45.03. In 21st place was Christian Castro ’18, who ran to a solid time of 4:49.93.

In the high jump portion of the event, Mark Franklin ’17 finished in fifth, with a leap of 1.83 meters. He was .15 meters away from the top finisher, junior Ben Sattiewhite from Fitchburg State.

In the shotput event, Kevin Trotman ’16 recorded a distance of 9.59, which was good enough for a dissapointing 28th place.

Overall, the hosting Tufts Jumbos won the invitational with a final score of 212.50. Worcester State University came in second with a total of 82 points.

On the women’s side, during the 200-meter dash, Ramani Dayon ’19 ran the race in a time of 28.19 for a 10th-place finish. Dayon also recorded an 11th-place finish in the 400-meter race with a strong time of 1:05.43.

In the 800-meter run, Aubrey Clemens ’19 ran an impressive time of 2:38.47 for a finish of eighth place.

During the one-mile run, Lydie McCaleb ’17 and Christine Minor ’19 finished strong. McCaleb earned a ninth place finish with a time of 5:42.50 while Minor ran the race in a time of 5:50.21, which was good enough for 12th place.

In the high jump, Abby Daniels ’19 recorded a leap of 1.32 meters, while Beth Deffossez’s ’19 jump was not counted. Daniels and Deffossez also competed in the pole

See TRACK, 13 ☛

February 2, 2016

Vol. LXVIII #16

justARTS

“Dimensions 2”

»P.18

Waltham, MA.

Images: Wenli Bao/the Justice. Design: Abby Grinberg, Michelle Banayan/the Justice.

18

THE JUSTICE | ARTS I TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016

EXHIBIT

THEMATIC ART: Several pieces were part of larger styles, such as still lifes (below), campus landscapes, and self-portraits.

WENLI BAO/the Justice

REFLECTIONS: Beginning and Intermediate painting classes created a variety of self-portraits using varying techniques and angles.

STUDENT SHOWCASE: The Dreitzer Gallery in Spingold Theater is currently featuring works from Beginning and Intermediate Drawing and Painting.

Student visual art exhibits range of styles

By LIZZIE GROSSMAN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

If you walk into the Dreitzer Gallery in Spingold Theater, you will see walls covered with a variety of art, from self-portraits to landscapes to still-life paintings and everything in between.

The gallery currently boasts a display of work from Fine Arts classes in drawing, painting and printmaking. The artwork of the exhibition, entitled “Dimensions 2,” will be on display until February 11.

The array of art is absolutely outstanding. There are many common themes among the drawings and paintings. For example, many students in one of the beginning painting classes had created landscapes inspired by various spots on campus.

One painting, by Sarah Chung

’18, depicts a very recognizable view of the stairs leading up to Spingold. This piece exhibits impressive use of color and elements of nature. Chung uses very realistic interpretations of outdoor elements, such as shadows of the trees on the green grass and leaves blowing in the wind, amidst the familiar bold red theater.

Zoila Coc-Chang ’18, painted a beautiful landscape of the area behind the Goldman-Shwartz art studio. The most impressive part of this painting was the artist’s use of shadow. The dark shadows placed among the colorful grass and buildings give a very realistic feel of nature and the Brandeis campus, almost making one feel as if they are actually standing right there behind the studios.

A selection of works are self-

portraits, made by artists from both Beginning Drawing and Beginning Painting. Those created by drawing students were made with charcoal, which allowed for an astonishing amount of detail, considering that the artists were just using black and white.

For the painting class, one of the most notable portraits is created by Tova Weinberger ’18, who represented herself within an art studio, made evident by the easels and paintings on the walls in the background. She included an interpretation of another one of her paintings within the portrait, positioning it behind herself. Her use of colors, details and shadows within her face and hair give the portrait a three-dimensionality.

One of the most outstanding portraits is by Allison Fritz ’19, due to the immense detail put into her long brown hair, the

captivating interpretation of her twinkling eyes and the varying shades of color in her skin.

A notable collection of works from the Intermediate Painting classes are still lifes. A few of the artists created a group of three or four paintings that fit together in one theme. One of these collections is by Alison Simon ’17, who seems to be representing a theme of messes — all four of her paintings portray scenes in which there are an overflow of items in tight spaces. For example, one scene appears to take place in a basement while one is in a bedroom closet. The amount of detail and color that these paintings exhibit display extreme persistence in creating such complex scenes.

Another collection of paintings that really stand out is by Olivia Joy ’18 and focuses on manipulation of yellow paint. All

three paintings include a different shade of yellow background.

One of these is a self-portrait in which she is eating a pear — she used various shades of yellow to highlight her features and included other pears of different shades within the portrait. The pears also seem to be part of another theme, for another one of her pieces displays a still life of pears. Joy notably created intricate paintings with a limited use of color, especially with a striking color that is not always easy to incorporate into work.

The gallery showed many different styles and themes of studio art. The exhibit encompassed the notion that art is a great way to express oneself. Hopefully, the works of this gallery inspired many students to get more involved in the world of art and take some art classes.

ART TALK

Sills discusses photographs of Southern Gardens

By JAIME GROPPER JUSTICE EDITOR

Photographs of gardens filled with seemingly random yet carefully placed objects were presented in the Women’s Studies Research Center on Thursday. In the lecture titled “Places for the Spirit, Traditional African American Gardens,” photographer Vaughn Sills presented images from her new photography book of the same name that showcase the distinct aesthetic of Southern African-American gardens.

The presentation was held in conjunction with the exhibit currently on display in the Women’s Studies Research center, “Tea of Oblivion,” which also has themes of nature.

Sills describes herself as “a fine art and documentary photographer, particularly interested in the relationship between the natural world, culture and the inner life, as well as the experience of the individual in family and their cultural environment,” according to her website.

Sills has been awarded the prestigious Gold Award for Best Photography by the Garden Writers Association at the Media Awards and is currently an associate professor Emerita of Photography at Simmons College.

At the start of her presentation, Sills discussed that when she started her career as a photographer, she was more interested in individuals — as can be seen in her first photography book,

titled “One Family,” which focuses on who we are because of our families.

Her focus shifted as she “noticed that landscape was really a part of the culture and, in some ways, influenced by culture and vice-versa.” The continuity between her different projects existed in how she moved more towards looking at the landscape in the natural world and its intersection with human life and culture.

In 2010, Sill published “Places for the Spirit, Traditional African American Gardens,” which includes over eighty photographs from the Deep South of African-American gardens, as well as some of the people behind them. In Sills’ talk, she presented a selection of these images and elaborated on the process behind capturing the photographs as well as their significance.

Sills explained that there is a distinctive, identifiable aesthetic to these gardens and that the design elements and material objects, have been traced back to being used by slaves in the South and further, from West Africa.

A description of the event by the WSRC described these gardens as representing “a distinctive aesthetic brought to America by African slaves and exhibit a deeply embedded tradition that has survived geographic and social transition, slavery, poverty, and time.”

Most of the photos, all in black and white, were taken by Sills on trips to the South and display vivid scenes of

gardens — lawns of standard houses that are elaborately decorated with an intricate, though seemingly messy, placement of plants, flowers and standard objects.

Sills commented, “all of the objects have meaning … I think the key to understanding this is that there is something beyond what we immediately see.”

In one photo, objects including pots, pails, plastic bottles, pieces of pipe and wood and chains are stacked in three distinct statue-like piles. The objects are broken, dirty and jut out in all angles, and noticeably several of them, such as the pails and even a plastic lawn chair, have been placed upside-down.

Although at face value these piles appear to have been randomly thrown together, it is clear that great care was taken in their creation and that there is an underlying great significance.

Sills commented that it is common to have upside down vessels, often bottles, placed throughout the yard — often on the end of branches — because they capture people’s spirits and are thus a form of protection.

Not all of the photos were of the lawns, however; several were of the owners and creators. These pictures tended to be even more intimate than those of the lawns, as the subjects looked directly into the lens while surrounded by their work. Sills noted that to get these more personal photos, often she would wait to ask to take photos of

the creators until after taking photos of the gardens. The photos of the creators combined with those of the gardens present a comprehensive picture of the

aesthetic significance of the Southern African-American gardens, as well as the personal significance they have to those who create them.

ETHAN SAAL/the Justice

ARTISTIC GARDENS: Vaughn Sills presented photos she took on trips to the South that appear in her book, “Places for the Spirit, Traditional African American Gardens.”

THE JUSTICE i arts i TUESDAY, february 2, 20162

Theater

FANTASY TWIST: After Cinderella (Jason Kaseman ’16) turns into Rapunzel mid-sketch, she climbs down from her tower using a rope.

“Quickies” festival features ten-minute mini-shows

By Jaime kaiser justice editor

FAIRYTALE RETOLD: A fairy godmother provides comic relief in the feminist retelling of Cinderella, “Once Upon a Matriarchy.”

This year’s production of “Quickies” from the Brandeis Ensemble Theatre offered bite-sized entertainment that showcased the original talents of the undergraduate performance community.

Taking place in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater on Sunday, the entire production featured nine pieces, each about 10 to 15 minutes in length. The Quickies festival is an annual tradition — already in its 11th year, the show has cemented itself as a Brandeis theater staple.

“All of our actors, directors, designers and other production staff members all put in so much hard work to make the show a success.

I am so proud of how the event turned out,” said Emily Galloway ’18, one of the show’s three producers in an interview with the Justice.

The show’s major strength was its variety. The production as a whole hardly lagged or dragged on, with doses of comedy and drama interspersed throughout the night, but there were many more opportunities to laugh than cry.

The night’s most daring piece, “The Bagel Angle: A Half-Baked Playgel Based on Engels” kicked off the show. Abbie Goldberg ’16 and Aaron Goodwin’ 17 directed, wrote and scored the entire sketch.

It started as a seemingly benign musical about a bagel store, with

19

YUE SHEN/the Justice

bagels puns punctuating every other line. It soon became obvious, however, that the piece was an incisive parody of the Brandeis administration’s sometimes-tense relationship with student activists.

In the sketch, bagel shop employees direct their cries of “like dough — we will rise!” at tyrannical Bagel shop boss “Brandrew.”

This year’s batch of “Quickies” played heavily with themes of gender and sexuality. “Once Upon A Matriarchy,” by one of the producers, Morgan Winters ’17, stood out. It was a deliberately heavyhanded feminist retelling of classic fairytale “Cinderella,” with Jason Kasman ’16 as Cinderella and featuring a princess instead of a Prince Charming. “Incendiary” by Ben T. Montrym ’19 was the most serious of the plays, dealing complexly with domestic roles in the context of a turbulent marriage.

Plenty of meta-moments made for some of the most creative sketches. “This Literally Happened,” by Ana-Sofia Meneses ’16 and Bethany Greenbaum ’16, was told through a first-person narrator who often broke the fourth wall and referenced the play itself.

“Cogitas Ergo Sum,” by Jacob Regenstein ’17, was self-referential in particularly mind-bending ways. It featured a cast of unnamed characters grappling with the concept of free will — whether they have it or are merely pawns of their author.

“My character likely wishes they had a name, though,” wrote Sarah

“THE BAGEL ANGLE’: A musical set in a bagel store, the sketch commented on the relationship between the Brandeis Administration and student activists.

Kenney ’18 in an email to the Justice.

Kenney gave an especially impressive performance as “Character 3,” in part because her role was so challenging. “[Regenstein] wrote massive, existential paragraphs that could be at least half a page long altogether single-spaced.

I spent a lot of nights repeating them to myself in my room over and over for a few hours on end,” she wrote in an email to the Justice.

Kasman’s exceptional comedic instincts returned at the very end of the night for his piece “Birds.” In it, we meet a boy who’s lovestruck for a girl more interested in birdwatching. The sketch was a unique combination of physical comedy and tender moments that served as a fitting end for the program.

Casting for “Quickies” was done over a period of two days on Jan. 16 and 17. Most groups only had two or three rehearsals, and unlike the 24 hour Musical, another annual theater event, the actors had to go “off-book,” meaning they could not take their scripts with them onstage.

This year’s production was moved from the end of the fall semester to the beginning of the spring semester. “We thought that moving it to the spring would allow more people to get involved, because there are midyears who can participate and people aren’t stressed about finals,” Galloway said.

20

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016 | ARTS | THE JUSTICE

Brandeis TALKS

INTERVIEW

What would be your ideal Superbowl Halftime Show?

Marcelo Brociner ’18 Brociner discusses new album

JAIME GROPPER/theJustice

Joe Vigil ’19

This week justArts spoke with Marcelo Brociner ’18, a student musician.

Brociner recently released a rap album, “L to W,” which had a release party in the Shapiro Campus Center.

“It would be Run the Jewels, Kendrick Lamar and Bernie Sanders all rapping new songs.”

justArts: What kind of music do you like to create? What is your music style?

Michael Harlow ’19

“I would say a performance

by Snarky Puppy because they’re a really good group and really articulate with their performances and movements.”

Jolie Abrams ’16

“The Doors because they’re my favorite band.”

Joana Jankulla ’18

“Taylor Swift because she’s a goddess and knows how to captivate an audience.”

—Compiled and photographed by Amanda Nguyen/the Justice.

STAFF’S Top Ten

Underrated Cute Animals

By AMBER MILES

ILLUSTRATION BY ALI SANTANA/the Justice, CONCEPTUALIZATION COURTESY OF EMMA KAHN

CROSSWORD ACROSS: 1 Death, per Eugene O’Neill 7 Open just a crack 11 It contains ammo 14 It has an Eri, a Fuki and an Obi 15 “Don’t take that _____ with me, mister!”

16 Id counterpart 17 Kids’ programming, often 19 _____ up 20 Detergent brand 21 “Not my first _____” 23 Chemical found in plastic 26 Dirty 28 Color, as hair 29 Popular question-and-answer subreddit 31 Carne _____ 33 Sticks up 37 Available, as beer 39 A big thud 41 Flee 42 Pariah 45 Savings account 46 Said “Cheese”, perhaps 47 Indian instrument 48 “Piece of ____!”

50 _____ Throat 52 TV character with OCD 53 Deeply regret 55 Response to slam poetry 57 Star Wars character 58 Hold tightly to 61 Etats-____ 63 First name in Objectivism 64 11-Down, 17-Across, 18-Down, 23-Down, 36-Down or 58-Across, for example 71 See 60-Down 72 Always 73 Laments the death of 74 Number of people in the universe, according to Solipsism 75 Titular object in 4 Arthur C. Clarke books 76 On a fundamental level

Down: 1 President who said “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can” 2 El _____ 3 Big bird 4 _____ the Hoople 5 “For Want of ______” 6 “Beats me...”

7 Prez dispenser?

8 Coffee 9 ____ Landers, pen name of Ruth Crowley

JA: What would you say are your biggest influences?

JC: As a lyricist and as a musician, I guess overall my biggest influences would be Mostdef, a rapper from the 1990s — he actually just retired from music, which sucks — Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and Wickey from New York City.

JA: What do use to create your music?

At Brandeis, what resources have you used?

CROSSWORD COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN

10 Do-over 11 Combine 12 “A Death in the Family” writer 13 Term used to describe the Seventies 18 NBC evening fare 22 Anthem contraction 23 Common Oscar winner 24 ______ Bread 25 Subway alternative 27 Needle users?

28 Mild expletive 30 Certain batteries 32 It breaks down food in the small intestine 34 Daniel Webster was a great one 35 Lighter ingredient?

36 Like many sarcastic teens 38 Soda 40 War and Peace has about 1,250 (abbr.)

43 Body part involved in an Eskimo Kiss 44 Edge 49 Where you might find EMTs 51 Hat invented in Ecuador, surprisingly 54 _____ hand 56 It can be noir or gris 58 Made man 59 City in France 60 Addition to 71-Across 62 Ticket part 65 Eggs 66 It’s what you need to dream 67 _____-la-la 68 Period 69 Response to a Q 70 Functionality

puppies and kittens — and more recently, teacup pigs. Here are some underrated or relatively unknown animals that I find surprisingly cute.

1. axolotl 2. pygmy marmoset 3. pygmy hippopotamus 4. pygmy goat 5. dugong 6. quokka 7. Japanese dwarf flying squirrel 8. chinchilla 9. tasmanian devil 10. Mountain pygmy-possum

JC: All I need is a piece of paper and a pen. Most rappers nowadays use their phones to write, but I have sixteen journals full of lyrics, so I’m kind of a manic writer. It’s kind of an obsessive thing. Generally the process is that someone will send me beats on Google Drive, and then I’ll write to whatever beats I feel inspired by and then whatever songs are actually songs worthy of sharing with other people, amass them and put them out as a project. That’s a pretty simplified version — hear the beat, write the lyrics, record them. The studio in the library is free, and its pretty good quality considering that it’s free and I don’t have to leave campus ... So I’m either recording in the library or at a home studio for thirty dollars.

JA: What is your latest project?

SOLUTION COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN

JUSTICE EDITOR

When people think of cute animals, they typically think of

Marcelo Brociner: I like to produce very lyrically dense hip-hop music.

Generally, it has an underlying theme.

I put out my fifth album on Saturday — it’s called “L to W,” meaning loss to win, so that kind of embodies what I try to get across with my music. Just, like, very positive, but [it] also makes you think a lot at the same time. I guess it’s closer to, like, 90s hip hop in the sense that it’s conscious lyricism, but the beats and the sounds are pretty smooth and new at the same time, so it’s a cool mix.

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

Solution to last issue’s sudoku

Sudoku Copyright 2014 Tribune News Service, Inc.

JC: My latest project is called “L to W,” which is loss to win. Over the summer, I suffered a heartbreak, you could say 1.5 heartbreaks, and then I lost a friend, like, the next week to overdosing at a party. So I spent that whole summer and the entirety of last semester just kind of doing my thing. I was just like hanging out alone or with a few people.

I was just really focusing on writing, so the tape really is reflective of struggling with that summer, like getting over that summer, but also saying that I struggled but I perservered. The whole point of that “Loss to Win” is like taking a loss and turning it into a win.

It’s definitely my most personal music so far. Up until now, I’ve been slightly self-censored, being conscious of who’s listening and not losing any fans or like when my mom hears my music, like what is she going to think of my music.

But this project’s very unfiltered, it’s very honest, so it felt really good putting that out so people really know where I’ve been at.

—Jaime Gropper