The Justice, September 2, 2014 issue

ARTS Page 21

FORUM Embrace free market to fix economy 11

ÄHTS FESTIVAL

SPORTS WSoccer gives Dallamora historic win 16 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 LXVII, Number 2

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Waltham, Mass.

aDMINISTRATION

DRAWING A CROWD

Faculty emails draw criticism ■ Emails from the private

“Concerned” listserv were revealed to the public, causing contension.

By MARISSA DITKOWSKY JUSTICE EDITOR

University President Frederick Lawrence responded to the recent publication of controversial comments made by faculty members over a restricted email list, called the “Concerned” listserv. The emails sent to the listserv, which was created in 2003 as a private forum for professors to express their concerns surrounding the Iraq War, and has since evolved to bring attention to other issues in recent years, were exposed by Daniel Mael ’15.

The listserv drew criticism from various news sources as emails from a number of Brandeis professors were

publicized concerning controversial issues such as the war in Iraq and other United States involvement in the Middle East, as well as the University’s original selection of Ayaan Hirsi Ali as a recipient of an honorary degree last semester.

The original article, which Mael posted on Breitbart News Network, an online news source, specifically quoted Profs. Mary Baine Campbell (ENG), Donald Hindley (POL), Bob Lange (PHYS) and Sabine Von Mering (GRALL). Hindley’s remarks were considered particularly inflammatory, one of which, according to the article, read: “Zionist olive trees grow wondrously on Palestinian corpses. In that way, we combine great trees with our own holocaustic ethnic cleansing.”

Although Mael would not comment on how he had access to the listserv, he said in an interview with the Justice that he was able to view all emails

See LISTSERV, 7☛

STUDENT LIFE

Handbook policies undergo changes

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

Mohamed Sidique ’15 addressed students on Friday night at the Brandeis community dinner. The event, which took place on the Great Lawn, was a celebration of pluralism.

■ Dean of Students Jamele

Adams revealed several adjustments on sexual assault policy to the Justice.

DINING SERVICES

Sodexo labor practices in question ■ The company has been

accused of adjusting employee classifications, affecting benefits.

By HANNAH WULKAN JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Last spring, a column in the Boston Globe, as well as other articles targeted at specific local institutions, raised concerns about Sodexo’s labor practices. The University had just switched from Aramark to Sodexo as its provider for all on-campus dining services at the beginning of the 2013 to 2014

academic year.

These articles accused Sodexo of using the Affordable Care Act as an excuse to cut employee benefits and purposefully changing the calculation to determine which employees are considered part-time and fulltime workers in order to cut benefits.

According to a May 22 Boston Globe column by Shirley Leung, Sodexo officials claimed that the company had to change the way it classified employees because of the Affordable Care Act and therefore now calculate full and part time status on a yearly basis rather than quarterly. This means that many employees no longer count as full-

By TATE HERBERT JUSTICE EDITOR

The Rights and Responsibilities handbook, which is usually updated and published by the start of each academic year, has yet to hit the presses due to time-consuming “extensive revisions” to sections addressing sexual misconduct cases and their adjudication, according to Dean of Students Jamele Adams.

Adams announced this to the student body in an Aug. 23 email, adding that it would be sent to them “shortly.”

After asking Adams, as well as Director of Student Rights and Community Standards Dean Gendron and Associate Dean of Student Life Maggie Balch, for more information about the changes to the conduct

time employees and lose many benefits that they had previously received.

This is because employees now have to meet a minimum number of hours per year, rather than per quarter, to qualify as full-time, making it easier to miss the mark by a small number of hours.

These charges were primarily levied at several local universities, including the University of Massachusetts Boston and Suffolk University.

The May 22 Globe column mentioned a 62-year-old baker at Curry College named Chuck Long who worked 1,450 hours in the 2013 to

See SODEXO, 7 ☛

See HANDBOOK, 7 ☛

Novelist debut

Out and about

Dining debacle

 An alumna recently published her first book about young girls living in Afghanistan.

 The men's and women's cross country teams both took home team victories.

 Students are upset about the changes to the meal plan options in the new school year.

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

code and why they were made, the Justice received a more specific email from Adams.

While he wrote that “a number of sections” throughout the code will be the subject of updates, some major changes in the realm of sexual assault and the Special Examiner’s Process are slated to include: a “Survivors’ Bill of Rights,” more specific definitions of types of sexual misconduct and clarification of the available options for sanctioning students found guilty of varying types of sexual misconduct.

“This includes specifying removal for any student found responsible of non-consensual intercourse involving physical force, threat, or purposeful incapacitation,” Adams wrote.

The code’s provisions for student privacy have also been substantially changed and expanded and are intended to protect students, “especially [those] who report sexual assault,” according to Adams.

While he emphasized that this

Let your voice be heard!

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

INDEX

SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 8

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

READER COMMENTARY

News 3 11

COPYRIGHT 2014 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Email managing@thejustice.org for home delivery.

2

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS BRIEF

POLICE LOG

East Quad experiences shower incident

Medical Emergency

On Aug. 27, East Quad residents received an email from Community Development Coordinator Vincent Scarfo detailing another incident of an individual peering into the showers. The incident follows similar occurrences in East Quad last year that led the University to add locks to communal bathroom doors.

On Jan. 28, 2014, Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan sent an email to East Quad residents detailing an incident in which a male party peered at a female resident in the shower.

Two days later, former CDC of East Quad Stephanie Crane emailed residents to assure them that the situation was being handled and that new safety precautions were being looked into, such as issues with shower curtains that did not provide enough coverage.

On Feb. 7, Crane sent out another email to announce that the bathroom doors were all being adapted to be lockable. “If the door is shut and locked you will be able to access the bathrooms using your room key,” she wrote.

According to Scarfo’s email, two residents of East Quad observed a male individual peering into the showers of the fourth floor women’s restroom of Hassenfeld Hall on Aug. 27.

The individual was described in the email as a short, Asian male with spiky, dark hair and was wearing glasses. University Police are working to identify the individual. As of yesterday, the suspect had not been identified. “Your safety is our priority, and we are investigating the incident to determine how the person gained access to the facility,” Scarfo wrote.

Scarfo included a list of precautions to take to avoid future incidents, such as not propping open bathroom and exterior doors, to “ensure that only East Quad residents have access to the facilities” as well as being aware of who students are allowing into the buildings, locking room doors and reporting suspicious activity.

According to Executive Director of Integrated Media William Schaller in an email to the Justice, the University has been checking a number of security features, including the bathroom lock system. “We also have increased our checks of the exterior doors, which are locked and equipped with card readers,” he wrote.

Aug. 24—A party in Deroy Hall with an ankle injury from the previous night requested BEMCo. BEMCo treated the party on scene, and University Police transported the student to Urgent Care for further treatment.

Aug. 24—University Police, BEMCo and Cataldo Ambulance responded to a party reportedly having an allergic reaction to citrus in the sports complex.

The party was treated on-scene by emergency medical technicians and transported to Newton Wellesley hospital for further care.

Aug. 30—A party reported an intoxicated female outside the Foster Mods. BEMCo, the Waltham Fire Department and Cataldo ambulance all responded to the scene, where the party received treatment. Cataldo transported the patient to Newton Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Aug. 31—University Police

and BEMCo responded to a report of an intoxicated, upset female at the Charles River Apartments. BEMCo requested an ambulance after attempting to treat the party, who was uncooperative. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton Wellesley Hospital for further care, and the Community Developement Coordinator on call was advised of the situation.

Sex Crimes

Aug. 27—University Police conferred with the CDC of East Quad regarding a past “peeping tom” incident. A report was compiled on the incident.

Larceny

Aug. 28—University Police received a report of a stolen Blue Brandeis University banner from the top of the information booth at the main entrance to campus. University Police compiled a report on the theft.

Aug. 30—University Police

compiled a report on a stolen painting which had been left unattended on Aug. 24th, from the hallway in Scheffres Hall.

Disturbance

Aug. 24—University Police received a call from a Waltham resident complaining about loud music coming from the Charles River Apartments on Angleside Road. After a check of the area, police found it to be quiet and deduced that the noise was coming from a scheduled sanctioned event with loud music on the Great Lawn. The event was scheduled to end at 11 p.m. No further action was taken by the University Police.

Aug. 27—Following a complaint about loud music in the Foster Mods, University Police responded and observed over 200 people having a party both inside and outside the Mods.

The CDC on call requested to respond as well. Upon arrival of police, the group dispersed without incident.

Aug. 31—University Police received a call that someone had tipped over benches and blocked the doorway to Shapiro Campus Center. Upon arrival, officers moved benches out of the way of the doors. There was no apparent damage to any University property.

Vandalism

Aug. 26—University Police on patrol observed a group of people attempting to lift the gate at the Village entrance to allow a vehicle to pass through. The gate then remained in the “up” position. Police located a student from Boston University who accepted responsibility for the incident and compiled a report.

Aug. 28—Community Living staff in Village A House reported that signs were being torn down in all the bathrooms in the area.

University Police compiled a report on the incident.

—compiled by Tate Herbert

PLANNING THE NEXT STEP

—Marissa Ditkowsky

BRIEF Natural gas construction continues Thursday not only welcomed students into the classroom as the first day of classes, but students also received a view of the ongoing construction project. The construction, which took place outside of the Usdan Student Center, consisted of expanding the natural gas line necessitated by the increased use of gas at the facility.

The university organized some new renovations in Usdan over the summer including the transformation of Usdan Café into an all-you-can-eat facility and the introduction of new stations in the Upper Usdan Food Court.

“The system capacity was expanded because in the new Usdan, we are doing more cooking with gas than before,” wrote Vice President of Operations James Gray in an email to the Justice. “So at peak cooking times, we were at risk of having demand for gas exceed the existing line’s capacity to deliver it.”

Although the Usdan renovations were completed in time for the first day of classes on Thursday, the work on the natural gas line was not. The construction blocked the sidewalk in front of Goldfarb Library while students were traveling to classes.

Students had to walk around the construction site.

The need for the expansion “didn’t become obvious until the project was well along, so there was a delay in scheduling this detail,” according to Gray.

Gray promised that the construction will be completed “very soon.” He could not provide specific dates for the construction project by press time.

—Kathryn Brody

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS GRACE KWON/the Justice

n An editorial titled “Protect professors’ free speech rights” was published without an article in News to corroborate information used in it. A News article detailing the situation discussed in the editorial appears in this issue on page 1. (Aug. 26, pg. 10)

New and returning students took on the inflatable rock wall at Festival of Deis last Tuesday night in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. The carnival-themed event featured bouncy houses and games.

n An article in Sports failed to distinguish Sapir Edalati ’15, Emma Eddy ’15, Michelle Savuto ’15 and Alec Spivack ’15 as co-captains of the Women’s Soccer team. (Aug. 26, pg. 16)

The Justice will be launching a brand new website on Sept. 4.

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

Justice

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Take a peek at www.thejustice.org.

ANNOUNCEMENTS The Grand Re-Opening of the Mods

The Department of Community Living will be hosting a grand re-opening of the Foster Mods to celebrate the start of the year and the renovations. There will be pictures from the start of the Mods 40 years ago and various parties will speak.

Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Foster Mods.

Brandeis Labor Coalition Kick-off Meeting

Join the Brandeis Labor Coalition for their first meeting of the year. Learn about campus issues such as university worker conditions, student debt and how to create a stronger community voice in university affairs.

Wednesday from 7 to 8 p.m. in Cholmondeley’s Coffee House.

’DEIS Impact Launch Party and Info Session

Thinking about planning an event for

’DEIS Impact 2015? The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life is hosting the launch party for ’DEIS Impact where you can learn how to organize and obtain funding for a ’DEIS Impact event and learn about what being a ’DEIS Impacter means.

Thursday at 4 p.m. in the Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium.

Bingo

Start the year off with everyone’s favorite game! You can win back-to-school prizes including a poster shopping spree, a Keurig coffee maker and a vacuum.

Thursday at 9:30 p.m. in The Stein.

Explore Boston

Student Activities has organized an opportunity to visit local attractions such

as Duck Tours and the Museum of Science at discounted prices. Purchase discounted tickets in advance at Brandeis Tickets in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium or at Student Activities, SCC room 203, using cash, check, MasterCard or Visa. Or buy them day-of at the Usdan shuttle stop, cash or check only.

Friday from 3:30 to 5 p.m., leaving from the Usdan shuttle stop.

Mobile Scavenger hunt through Boston

Want to get to know Boston better and win a few prizes? Student Events is hosting a scavenger hunt through Boston where you can team up or play alone. The scavenger hunt is conducted using your phone.

The transportation is not provided.

Saturday noon to 4 p.m. starting at the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

THE JUSTICE

STUDENT UNION

University to review on-campus parking ■ The Student Union

is considering multiple short-term solutions to the University’s limited parking facilities in lieu of a parking garage.

By KATHRYN BRODY JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

In fall 2013, the Student Union and the Graduate Student Associate sent out a survey to Brandeis’ undergraduate and graduate student bodies regarding the parking situation on campus. A total of 1,512 students responded to the survey, and those responses indicated that around 59 percent of student respondents would like Brandeis’ parking to be seen as a top priority for students and staff at the University.

According to data compiled by Jieming Chu ’14, Joseph Bonanno M.A. ’15 , Nam Nguyen M.A. ’15, Yujue Wang M.A. ’15, Hang Zhou M.A. ’15, Ricky Rosen ’14 and Anthony Nguyen M.A. ’14, the University issues 827 more parking permits than spaces available meaning that of the 3,126 students who desire to park their cars on a campus parking lot, only 2,299 can actually park.

Former Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins indicated in an interview with the Justice that there were problems with parking, noting that “[t]here was a finite number of parking spaces on the campus,” according to an article from the Justice published on May 3, 2011. The article continued by saying that the University would eliminate parking privileges for sophomores in 2011.

However, even with half of the undergraduate population unable to obtain parking permits, the survey revealed that 44 percent of responders reported being very unsatisfied with parking conditions at Brandeis and, when asked if they thought that there are enough parking spaces on campus, only 10 percent of responders said yes while 73 percent did not think so.

The Student Union has been working on developing a plan to accommodate the demand for parking and to implement it as soon as viable. Student Union Secretary Charlotte Franco ’15 noted in an interview with the Justice that the Student Union would like to build a parking garage, but that would be a more long-term goal.

“There were a lot of brainstorming and thinking about solutions,” Franco said, but that there is nothing definite as of now.

Parking garages are becoming increasingly common on college and university campuses. According to data collected by the Student Union, when compared to other universities or colleges similarly ranked in the University Athletic Association, including Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University and New York University, Brandeis stands out as the only university lacking a parking garage.

The comparison also revealed that Brandeis also is the only university that institutes free parking for faculty and staff. Furthermore, the Brandeis annual parking fees were found to be significantly cheaper when compared to other similar universities.

Franco did say that there were plans to create a “parking liaison” or a person from the Student Union who would be part of the University’s parking committee. This individual would be an integral part of Brandeis’ parking discussion, she said.

She could not give any dates for when this would be initiated.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

3

DINING SERVICES

Sodexo revises dining options ■ The Student Union Dining

Committee will meet with Sodexo in order to create palatable dining options.

By hannah wulkan JUSTICE editorial assistant

Since coming back to campus, students have noticed many changes to the University’s dining services, including changes in meal plans and how they can be used.

The current policy is that any meal swipe can be used at Usdan Café, Sherman Dining Hall and in exchange forfor three items at the Hoot Market— which must include a sandwich or salad, chips and a drink, explained Executive Director of the Student Union David Heaton ’17 in an interview with the Justice. All other dining locations on campus only take dining points, said Heaton.

He explained that many students have been upset with the various changes to the dining on campus but that the Student Union is working closely with Sodexo and the University administration to address some of these complaints immediately.

The Student Union Dining Committee has scheduled bi-monthly meetings with the administration and Shawn Monaghan, the general manager of Sodexo at Brandeis, in the hopes of creating dining options that meet students’ needs and wants.

Heaton explained that he believes that miscommunication was the main issue in creating the new meal plans.

According to him, the Union was shown a set of meal plan options at the beginning of last school year that were fairly close to what they wanted, involving block meal plans for which people were allotted a certain number of meals per semester along with limited points.

However, he said, the final meal plan options they were shown in the Spring were entirely different from what they had seen before, and Sodexo officials told them that it was too late to change them.

“Basically the problem is that the current meal structure was not agreed upon by the student body; it was done basically behind closed doors, and we had no involvement with it,” Heaton told the Justice.

One concern many students have expressed is that there are no to-go boxes available in Usdan Café, but Student

Union Secretary Charlotte Franco ’15 said in an interview with the Justice that reusable containers should be available within the next few weeks.

Another issue that students have brought up is the lack of meal equivalencies in dining locations other than Usdan Café and Sherman Dining Hall.

Katie Blocklove ’16, posted on the Brandeis University Senate Dining Committee Facebook page, writing that she is “astonished that Upper Usdan was made points only. I’d really like to know the rationale for that as no solid reason could be made for restricting sushi to points-only last year.

And despite that being a huge complaint, even more food options were made points-exclusive?”

In the past, meals were valued at a certain dollar amount and could be used at other dining locations for that dollar amount of food. Last year sushi was changed so it could only be bought with points, and this year all dining locations other than Usdan Café and Sherman Dining Hall were changed so meals could not be used this way.

Franco admitted to flaws in the system, but said, “I think it is important for students to know that we have a very close relationship with Sodexo, we have been working with them

throughout this process. We are going to be continuing to work with them, especially with all these new adjustments. We know it’s a culture shock, and everything is new and different.”

She added that it is important for students not to panic and if they have constructive criticism, the dining committee is open to hearing it in a calm and respectful manner to help them make effective changes.

Heaton said that his priorities for immediate fixes are to eliminate meal periods and to allow meals to roll over from week to week, which he anticipates working on throughout the semester at the bi-monthly meetings.

“We just want to be sure that students have as much flexibility as possible,” he said.

Franco said that she looks forward to dealing with minor fixes in Usdan Café, such as adding to-go boxes and updating The Stein to give it a sports bar atmosphere with Brandeis sports memorabilia.

Heaton said that though he believes the situation was largely an issue of miscommunication, he believes that changes need to be made and student needs must be addressed. “Students are not happy about this, and they will take action if their needs are not met,”

TAKING SHELTER

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

SAFE TRAVELS: A bus shelter outside of the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Admissions Center was added over the summer to provide seating and protection from the weather for students waiting for the BranVan and the Joseph’s Transportation Shuttle.

University updates transport shelters ■ Many other buildings on

campus were renovated over the summer, including Schwartz and Lemberg Halls.

By SAM MINTZ JUSTICE EDITOR

Over the summer, the University installed a bus shelter at the BranVan and Joseph’s Transportation shuttle stop by the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Admissions building and Ridgewood Quad, following a push last year by the Student Union.

According to Student Union President Sneha Walia ’15, the idea was

initiated last year by Class of 2014 Senator Andre Ve Tran, and funded through the Community Enhancement Fund.

The fund, worth $250,000, is designated for spending on studentsubmitted projects to improve campus facilities.

Walia said in an email to the Justice that Tran “wanted to provide students with shelter from the elements while waiting for the BranVan and shuttles.”

Funding was split between the Community Enhancement Fund and the University. The administration found options for designs and pricing, and the Student Union picked a shelter that was “aestheti-

cally pleasing and matched the surrounding area,” according to Walia.

The bus shelter comes along with many other changes and improvements to campus.

These include refurbishments of The Stein and Usdan Student Center, a renovation of Schwartz Auditorium and the addition of a classroom to Schwartz Hall, an ongoing remodeling of Lemberg Hall, which will become the new home of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and a move for the Children’s Center from Lemberg Hall into a brand new building across South Street.

Ziv 129 and 130 and the Foster Mods were also “greatly enhanced”

through renovation, University President Frederick Lawrence wrote in an Aug. 29 email to the Brandeis community.

He wrote that the project included “the replacement of aging furniture and fixtures and the installation of new exteriors and energy efficient windows.”

Student Union Secretary Charlotte Franco ’15 added in an interview with the Justice that in the Mods the carpet and appliances were all replaced, and that in Ziv 129 and 130 the bathrooms were entirely redone.

She said that the second half of Ziv Quad would also be renovated, though she was unsure of when.

POL160a: THE WAR ON GLOBAL TERRORISM Monday and Wednesday, 3:30 to 4:50 Open to all students on campus.

Targeted at juniors and seniors.

Taught by Jytte Klausen, Lawrence A. Wien Professor of International Cooperation Lecture Course Taught every other year.

Location TBA We will explore how 9/11 changed our lives. The course surveys the build-up of Al Qaeda leading up to the 9/11 attacks and ten years of counter terrorism. Students are given an introduction to Jihadist doctrines and Al Qaeda’s structure, as well as the causes of terrorism.

Guest speakers

Feeling inquisitive? investigative?

Join the News team!

Guermantes Lailari is a former US Air Force officer who is now a defense contractor specializing in counterterrorism and irregular warfare. He directed training and courses at the US Air Force Special Operations School and served as a US Air Force AttachĂŠ in the Middle East.

Malise Ruthven is a former scriptwriter with BBC Arabic and World Service, and a consultant on Middle Eastern Affairs. He has written prolifically on Islam and fundamentalism, and is a regular contributor to the New York Review. He has taught at University of Aberdeen, Birkbeck College, University of London, UC-San Diego, Colorado College and Dartmouth College.

Contact Marissa Ditkowsky at news@thejustice.org

Fulfills IGS: Governance, Conflict and Responsibility, Elective Course in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, and SS School of Social Science Distribution Requirement

Join the Justice Photography Staff!

Contact Morgan Brill at photos@thejustice.org

THE JUSTICE

OBITUARY

Annual Fund and scholarships and established a reserve room in the Farber Library.

By JESSIE MILLER JUSTICE EDITOR

Former Brandeis Board of Trustees member Arthur Cohen passed away on Aug. 9 at his home in King’s Point, N.Y. Cohen served on the Board from 1973 to 1988, when he was named trustee emeritus.

According to an Aug. 12 BrandeisNOW article, Cohen and his wife Karen Cohen generously supported Brandeis by “establishing the Arthur and Karen Cohen Reserve Room in Farber Library and making gifts to the Annual Fund and for student scholarships.”

Known for his work in the real estate industry, Cohen founded the Arlen Realty & Development Corporation in 1971, whose first major project was developing Olympic Tower in Midtown Manhattan with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

The Olympic Tower project reimagined zoning regulations in Manhattan by allowing residential, office and shopping space in the same building.

According to an Aug. 15 New York Times on his passing titled “Arthur G. Cohen, Real Estate Developer, Is Dead at 84,” Cohen started his real estate empire by investing $25,000 in tract housing on Long Island. With the creation of Arlen Real Estate & Development Corporation, Cohen

became known as an innovative investor in the real estate world, specifically developing locations in New York City, like Times Square and the old Madison Square GarCohen den site.

The same New York Times article, which referred to Cohen’s real estate career as a “roller coaster,” described his development strategy.

Cohen would “select property with a good chance to increase in value, recruit partners and then borrow the full amount of the development cost,” while contributing his own creativity and “sweat equity.” To Cohen, money was not an obstacle to his success because he started in the business without existing capital.

Cohen often worked outside the limelight, leaving the publicity to his partners. “His behind-the-scenes ability to structure elaborate deals nonetheless dazzled the industry,” according to the New York Times.

Referencing a 1972 Fortune magazine article, Cohen can be described as having an astute focus for slicing “immediately to the heart of intricate problems.”

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Cohen received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami, followed by a law degree from the New York Law School. He was also a long-term member of the New York Bar Association. According to an Aug. 15 article from the New York Times, Co-

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

5

COMMUNITY DINNER

Former Board member passes away at age 84 ■ Arthur Cohen donated to the

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hen was “exposed to the real estate business through shoptalk at the dinner table and summer work assignments” at an early age from his father’s investments in gas stations and apartment buildings.

Aside from real estate, Cohen is remembered for his service to various institutions, including serving as a trustee to the Jewish National Fund, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New York Law School and the John Hancock Mutual Fund. Cohen also received the Man of the Year award from the Anti-Defamation League and City of Hope, and an honorary degree from Long Island University.

Cohen also guest lectured at both Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and also held directorships at Citicorp, Chicago Title Insurance Company and the John Hancock Mutual Fund. According to BrandeisNOW, Cohen worked as “part of the Special Mission to Israel under Prime Minister Golda Meir and serv[ed] as special envoy to aid underprivileged nations under President Lyndon B. Johnson.”

Cohen is survived by Karen, his wife of 60 years, their five daughters, his sister and nine grandchildren.

According to the New York Times, his wife’s father Charles Bassine influenced Cohen’s success with his early support, as well as collaborative financial deals. The New York Times also explained Bassine’s fondness for Cohen with a quote from a board meeting negating claims of nepotism. “I cordially wish you all such a son-in-law,” he said. “He’s a better man than I am.”

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

OBITUARY

Colleagues remember Board member and philanthropist ■ University benefactor Sylvia

Hassenfeld dedicated her time to campaign for funds, which went toward scholarships.

By JESSIE MILLER JUSTICE EDITOR

Board of Trustees member Sylvia Hassenfeld passed on Aug. 15 in Manhattan at the age of 93. Hassenfeld served on the board from 1996 to 2014, including six years as vice chair. Hassenfeld was born in Pennsylvania, graduated from Cedar Crest College with a bachelor’s degree in 1944 and married Merrill Hassenfeld. She is survived by her two children, Alan Hassenfeld and Ellen Hassenfeld Block, as well as three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

According to an Aug. 17 BrandeisNOW article, she was also an “honorary executive chair of the Campaign for Brandeis, which raised nearly one billion dollars for the university,” and her family supported many other campaigns, including the Hassenfeld Foundation Scholarship.

Hassenfeld is known especially for her support of students in the Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program, students from developing countries and “unbiased scholarship of the Middle East” through establishing the Sylvia K. Hassenfeld Chair in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement Nancy Winship explained in an email to the Justice.

In the BrandeisNOW article, University President Frederick Lawrence described Hassenfeld as a “remarkable woman who dedicated her life to improving the human condition by protecting the rights of all and promoting religious freedom,” whose contribution to Brandeis is immeasurable.

Hassenfeld’s dedication to Brandeis extends across her family tree, starting with her father-in-law, Henry, the founder of toy and board game com-

pany Hasbro, Inc. Henry Hassenfeld first donated to Brandeis in 1950 at the very beginning of Brandeis’ initial Master Planning Project to expand the University’s infrastructure.

Hassenfeld Today, Hassenfeld’s children, Alan and Ellen, remain involved with the University.

In an email to the Justice, Winship explained that Alan serves as a cochair of the Board of Overseers at the Brandeis International Business School. He also initiated the Hassenfeld Emerging Markets Business Immersion Program at IBS, which takes students on immersive trips to emerging markets, most recently Cuba. Ellen previously served on the Board of Overseers at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, having also established a fellowship to support Heller students. Winship describes both as dependable leaders who are a reliable source of support to the continuing success of Brandeis.

According to Winship, Hassenfeld will be “remembered for her willingness to use her extensive network of international contacts to help the university” and as someone to whom people could not say “no” when she asked them for support. Winship also describes Hassenfeld as a leader in the University’s fundraising efforts, directly impacting the lives of many students, especially those benefitting from her scholarship programs.

“Those students who benefited directly from her scholarship support will remember Sylvia for taking the time to get to know them personally and being genuinely interested in their endeavors,” explained Winship.

Aside from her work at Brandeis, Hassenfeld also had “leadership positions with the New York University Langone Medical Center, the United

Jewish Appeal, the Jewish Agency, the Israel Museum, the Jerusalem Foundation, the Hasbro Children’s Foundation,” among many others, according to BrandeisNOW. Winship added that Hassenfeld, through her extensive funding raising efforts and personal donation, was “the driving force behind the Hassenfeld Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at NYU Langone Medical Center,” which will open in 2017.

Hassenfeld also served as the first female president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a relief organization that helps persecuted Jews, from 1988 to 1992. During her time at the JDC, Hassenfeld “established the International Development Program, which supports nonsectarian aid in times of crisis,” wrote Winship.

Hassenfeld’s work also included negotiating the resettlement of Soviet Jews, assisting Romanian and Hungarian Jews, rescuing Jews and Muslims from Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzeovina as well as the “1991 airlift to Israel of 14,000 Jews from war-torn Ethiopia,” according to Winship.

The honors Hassenfeld received include being named an honorary citizen of Jerusalem, the Emma Lazarus Statue of Liberty Award and serving on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. Winship explained that she will “remember Sylvia as a woman ahead of her time, with an endless reserve of energy and compassion.”

In an email to the Justice, fellow Board of Trustees member Martin Gross ’72 described Hassenfeld, who he worked closely with: “I knew Sylvia for over 10 years and worked closely with her on The Board of Trustees.

She was a truly remarkable woman.

Being her friend was a real privilege.

She was highly intelligent, soft spoken, deeply committed to the various institutions she served, and always the charming classy lady who led by example. She was a great lady and I will forever miss her.”

Students wait in line at the first ever Brandeis community dinner hosted by both the Orientation and First Year Programs. The non-denominational community dinner was held on Friday evening on the Great Lawn.

TECHNOLOGY

Library and Technology Services updates site ■ The new website replaced

outdated software and increased the usability of the system so that users can easily access the multiple services offered.

By HANNAH WULKAN JUSTICE Editorial Assistant

Over the summer, Library and Technology Services updated its website to give more resources to LTS workers and make it easier for users seeking help.

According to Vice Provost, University Librarian and Chief Information Officer John Unsworth in an email to the Justice, revamping the website had been a goal of his since he came to Brandeis in 2012.

Completing the update, however, largely meant replacing outdated software.

Unsworth wrote that the old software “did not provide us with an easy way to run reports on our helpdesk activities, and that was not very flexible in terms of how things got routed or who could weigh in on a problem.”

He added that while the changing system does not add or subtract any services to the website, it should make the services already offered easier to find.

“The main change is an improvement in the way people can get help, since they’ll only need to go to one central location,” wrote Lindsay Barton, the associate director for LTS policy, planning and analysis, in an email to the Justice.

One large adjustment to the way

the Brandeis community can find help on the site is that the new software, Atlassian Service Desk, allows users to ask for help in a variety of ways.

They are able to pose questions to the Brandeis community at large, privately ask LTS experts for help or search a “knowledgebase”where there are already many answers stored.

“With this system, we’ll have better visibility into the kinds of problems people are having, and more flexible ways of responding. Plus, we can draw on the wisdom of the crowd,” wrote Unsworth.

Barton added that, in the past, if users wanted to ask a question, they would either have to email LTS or fill out one of many different forms.

“That put a big burden on the person requesting help, though, because they either had to remember our email addresses, or because they had to search for one of our forms, which were scattered throughout the LTS website,” she wrote. “With this new system, people no longer need to remember lots of email addresses or go searching for forms—there’s just one place to remember.”

In his email to the Justice, Unsworth expressed his enthusiasm for the new site, and wrote that “I think I’m most excited about the fact that we now have a good way to capture the effort that goes into helping people with new problems, so that when the second or twentysecond person has that problem, they can find help in the knowledgebase.”

The website, http://go.brandeis. edu/help, is currently live.

Peace Corps INFORMATION MEETING Wednesday, September 10 2:00 p.m.

Shapiro Campus Center Room 314 Brandeis University Stop by our information table 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Shaprio Campus Center Atrium

Choose Where You Serve.

Apply in One Hour.

Make a difference overseas as a Peace Corp Volunteer.

peacecorps.gov - 855.855.1961

THE JUSTICE

HANDBOOK: Draft shows changes in privacy policies CONTINUED FROM 1 portion of the revision was “still in draft form,” the current language of the draft specifies that any person may discuss “their own personal experiences that led to the initiation of the conduct process,” but “new information about those facts that is learned in a conduct process is not sharable.” The section Adams provided to the Justice concludes with the statement: “[t]his policy is not intended to discourage a Brandeis student from seeking advice or redress from oversight or judicial entities external to Brandeis.”

Adams added that “it is critical that students reporting violations of the code know that nothing in Rights and Responsibilities precludes them from discussions about their experiences, privately or publicly.”

Adams did not reply to additional

2014 year, which was 100 hours short of the yearly minimum imposed by Sodexo to qualify for fulltime status under the new system.

“From his $32,000 annual salary, he was paying $420 a month for health care coverage through Sodexo. Not cheap, but out on his own his premium rocketed to more than $1,400 a month,” the column read.

While this has been a largely publicized issue at other schools, in a phone interview with the Justice in June, Residential District Manager for Sodexo Jason Laprade said that similar issues were not present at Brandeis.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

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IN WITH A BANG

questions for clarification of the proposed changes late Monday night.

Rights and Responsibilities is reviewed and edited every year by a committee that includes the director of student rights and community standards, the dean of students and “other administrators, faculty and students,” according to the web page of the Department of Student Rights and Community Standards.

Specifically, according to Adams, members of the Student Conduct Board are included in the review process, with input on specific issues sought from relevant student groups.

Rights and Responsibilities will be completed and available online and sent directly to students via email “in the coming weeks,” according to Adams’ emails.

—Rachel Hughes contributed reporting.

SODEXO: Same issues not on University level CONTINUED FROM 1

●

He explained that most employees were unionized under the union that represents most Sodexo workers everywhere, UNITE HERE. “At Brandeis, unionized employees have health benefits through UNITE HERE, which will not change as part of the collective bargaining agreement,” he said.

LaPrade said that the employee contracts will next be renegotiated in June 2016.

LaPrade did not respond to requests for updated comments by press time.

UNITE HERE representatives also did not respond to requests for comment on Sodexo employment practices by press time.

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

Dean of Students Jamele Adams posed for a photograph at the Brandeis community dinner on the Great Lawn on Friday night, where he addressed students.

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

David Alpert ’16 and Melanie Gomes ’16 show off their self-defense skills to incoming students at the Activities Fair on the Great Lawn yesterday afternoon.

LISTSERV: University responds to faculty CONTINUED FROM 1 sent to the listerv. Mael said that he released the emails from the private listserv because he “had an obligation as a student,” and added that students and stakeholders “deserve to know” about these professors’ stances. “I put out the information and other people can decide,” he said. “My intents were in no way negative.”

Prof. Gordon Fellman (SOC), one of the founding members of the listserv, said in an interview with the Justice that there are now about 100 members on the listserv, including faculty, students, alumni and other individuals who might have heard about and requested to be on the listserv.

He noted that not all members post, and that there are also a number of individuals with a variety of differing viewpoints that are a part of the listserv.

Fellman did say that he had previously asked one professor to “tone it down,” Fellman said. “You write within the range of what is tactful … and he didn’t." However, he explained that the articles portraying the listserv “characterize the list as represented by these few postings,” which, he said, is “simply not true.”

Mael, however, explained that he needed to share what these professors were saying, regardless. “There are some very nice, very great professors here. In no means am I attempting to overlook that. But it’s unfortunate that great scholars are potentially grouped with some radicals,” Mael said.

Several national online news sources, including the Washington Free Beacon, the New York Observer, the Daily Caller and the National Review Online, picked up the story and wrote reaction pieces to the emails as reported in the original article.

Lawrence wrote a public letter, which was posted as a community message on the University’s website on July 28, to faculty in response to the listserv and the criticism it garnered.

In the letter, he urges everyone to “repudiate [the] statements” made by the public media. He acknowledged that

some of the remarks included “antiSemitic epithets, personal attacks, denigration of the Catholic faith, and the use of crude and vulgar terms in discussions about Israel,” but emphasized that these statements do not represent Brandeis University as a whole.

He went on to note that “it is necessary for us all to take responsibility for debating and challenging opinions with which we disagree in a full, open, civil and decent manner.”

Lawrence then charged the faculty with condemning “disrespectful, offensive and inflammatory expression when we encounter it,” adding that “this [condemnation] is particularly true when particular statements of a very small number of individuals threaten to mischaracterize our community as a whole.”

However, Lawrence wrote that both he and the University “maintain our staunch support of freedom of expression and academic inquiry.”

Mael thought that Lawrence’s reaction was appropriate in condemning “the ridiculous comments,” saying that what he said was “not a violation of free speech. You’re allowed to say that.” He explained that Lawrence is in a “very tough” position, and attributed much of this to tenure.

Lange, one of the professors who was singled out in the press, expressed concerns about Lawrence’s response in an interview with the Justice.

“I think he’s not very thoughtful about what the real deep issues are and he should not feel the need to separate the University from what was going on,” he said. “I think there was no controversy. Some right-wing Zionist got a hold of some old emails, decided to use them to humiliate some critics of Israel.”

Campbell, another professor who was mentioned in the press, wrote in an email to the Justice that her first reaction upon reading the Lawrence’s letter was “one of sorrow and shock.”

She wrote that in 43 years as a student, professor and research fellow in colleges and universities in the U.S. and Britain, she has not experienced “so direct a challenge to academic freedom issued by a president.”

“A president’s special charge is to preserve and protect the space of free exchange and inquiry that is a university,” she wrote. “[A] university president resists [pressure from the society at large] to protect an institution whose raison d’etre is free inquiry,” Campbell wrote.

Prior to the release of Lawrence’s response, former Senior Vice President for Communications Ellen de Graffenreid provided statements for the press. In a July 16 Free Beacon article, de Graffenreid was quoted as stating that “[t]he opinions expressed by individual faculty members do not reflect the opinions of Brandeis University.”

She proceeded to defend the professors’ freedom of speech. “Brandeis University—like our peer institutions—upholds the principles of free speech and academic freedom for our students and faculty, which means that members of the community may hold many different opinions on a variety of topics and express them in ways that do not reflect the university’s official position on a given issue.”

In a July 23 Breitbart article, de Graffenreid was quoted as stating that “[t]he e-mails are from the archives of a faculty listserv. A number of statements are taken out of context and come from a broad range of periods and times.”

Fellman said in an interview with the Justice that de Graffenreid’s response was “all that needed to be said.”

When asked which comments he believed Lawrence was referring to in his letter, Fellman said that he did not believe Lawrence was upset about any of Fellman’s remarks in particular, but “angry remarks.”

However, he proceeded to defend his colleagues’ freedom of speech. “I don’t like it when people are rude. I don’t think that gets us anywhere. It distracts from education. But if somebody insists on being rude, she has the right to be, I’d just rather she not be,” he said.

—Kathryn Brody contributed reporting.

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features

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THE JUSTICE

VERBATIM | JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER Humans are the only animal that blushes, laughs, has religion, wages war, and kisses with lips. So in a way, the more you kiss with lips, the more human you are.

And the more you wage war.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1945, Vietnam declared its independence, forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

A Dutch artist created bioluminescent trees to be used in place of street lights.

Science majors overseas Physics students travel to India to enrich research, and end up gaining spirituality

By Rose Gittell and max shpilman justice editorial assistant and contributing writer

In February 2013, Jake Cohen ’15 and Alex Cortesi-Gesten ’15 toured a sacred temple outside of Bangalore, India. Overwhelmed by all the experience offered them, they shaved their heads and donned Buddhist monk robes as they bathed in the meditative holy waters of the temple.

After being blessed, they listened to yogis speak about the mechanics of time and space and how that seamlessly meshed with the spirituality inherent in all human beings.

As an American student of physics and mathematics, Cohen was awed by India’s deep commitment to both science and spirituality, concepts often viewed as antithetical in the U.S. Imbued with a new sense of wonder for subjects he has been studying all his life, Cohen credits studying abroad in India with redirecting his previously rigid vision for his future research.

Forrest Webler ’15, Cohen and CortesiGesten enrolled in a study abroad program in India that enhanced their studies and allowed them to gain new cultural experience. Through the Brandeis-India Science Scholars Program, students conduct research and take courses at the India Institute of Science in Bangalore while giving Indian students from the institute the opportunity to partake in classes at Brandeis. Although the program was originally launched in 2011, 2013 was the first year that undergraduate students took part in the exchange.

The program was first brought to Webler’s attention by Prof. Bulbul Chakraborty (PHYS), who has a long-

LEADING RESEARCH: The Indian Institute of Science has been a public-private entity in India since 1899, funded by both the government and private philanthropists.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

standing relationship with the India Institute of Science, a 100-year-old institution which enrolled only graduate students until 2011, when it launched a highly selective, innovative undergraduate program.

“The Institute offers hundreds of science and engineering courses every semester that can complement the courses that our undergraduate students can take at Brandeis,” Chakraborty wrote in an email to the Justice.

Webler, having already traveled to India, looked to this program to broaden his understanding of the country. “I had been to India when I was younger and I wanted to gain an authentic experience of the culture in the South while pursuing my physics major,” said Webler. Bangalore, according to Webler, warrants comparison to Silicon Valley due to its high concentration of technology start-ups and young companies.

Webler noted the peculiarity of a place which is at the forefront of scientific research, yet often lacks funding in basic areas. On their first day, in the midst of 108 degree weather, Webler and Cohen were each given only a bucket with which to shower. In addition, clean drinking water was only available at certain times of the day. “In one of our labs, we had a hot water heater—its sole purpose was to heat up water. Yet it wasn’t waterproof. Equipment would often bite back,” Cohen said.

It took time for the Brandeis scholars to become accustomed to the learning environment.

From Webler’s perspective, although he was familiar with the content of his research, he noticed that the IISc placed more of a focus on independent study, as opposed to the kind of

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAKE COHEN

BEYOND THE LAB: Jake Cohen ’15, a student of physics and mathematics, was blessed by an elephant during his study abroad term in Bangalore, India.

group dynamic he had gotten used to at Brandeis. “The independent structure of the curriculum took some getting used to, but I found my work rewarding. I completed three classes in total: two theory-based and one lab. I also completed an independent research project on the design and implemen-

tation of a Zeeman Slower for ytterbium 171 atoms under the supervision of a professor at the Institute.”

Webler also discovered a higher level of efficiency pursuing independent study.

“The teacher provides a general idea of what you should be studying, and then you essentially teach it to yourself. We had to work so hard, there was no point to study in a group. We had no choice but to be entirely self-focused,” Cohen said.

The culture of intellectualism in India struck Cohen as entirely different from the intellectual environment of U.S. universities. Indian education, according to Cohen, teaches a student from a very young age the discipline of rout memorization and respect for the previous generation of researchers.

What stood out the most to Webler wasn’t his courses, but the additional learning tools available to him.“There was more space, more reading, more research opportunities. Just about more of everything,” Webler said.

He also noted that he could take courses of interest at IISc that aren’t offered at Brandeis: “Brandeis doesn’t have an engineering program, but at Bangalore I had the opportunity to explore an engineering program, and that was something that I really enjoyed,” Webler said.

Committed to their coursework, Webler and Cohen took courses five, sometimes six, days a week. For Webler, his experience within the program was beneficial to his pursuit of physics because he was able to approach the subject from a unique perspective, giving him a well-rounded understanding of his research, the importance of which extends beyond himself. “The future of this program is important because India is a country that is developing so quickly in terms of the number of those who choose to pursue an education or a career in the sciences. Understanding differences in the approach to problem solving is essential for international collaboration.”

Cohen’s research experience abroad disoriented his previously well-defined career goals, leaving him with pleasant, if overwhelming, confusion. “I now know less about what I actually want to do but more about the possibilities of what I could do.”

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

ADAPTABLE TALENT: Nadia Hashimi ’00 is a doctor who recently debuted as an author with her first novel, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell.

AFGHAN NARRATIVES: Hamishi’s new novel documents the lives of two fictional girls living in Afghanistan who engage in the cultural practice of “bacha posh.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NADIA HASHIMI

Novelist makes her debut Nadia Hashimi ’00 publishes her first book, exploring the lives of Afghan women through a gender-bending cultural practice

By JAIME KAISER JUSTICE EDITOR

As a Brandeis undergraduate on the pre-med track, Nadia Hashimi ’00 didn’t imagine her professional life would turn out as it has. Literature was always something she appreciated, but it wasn’t until she’d settled into life as a doctor that she realized she could pursue writing as a second career.

In May, Hashimi debuted her first novel, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell, a book that explores a unique cultural phenomenon that at once sheds light on the particular struggles of Afghan girls while commenting on the universal inequities of women worldwide.

The novel oscillates between the stories of two girls of the same lineage, separated by generations but linked through a relatively common and normalized practice in Afghanistan known as “bacha posh,” in which families without sons will disguise one of their daughters in order to elevate the status of that family

and give the girl an higher degree of personal autonomy.

The novel is focused on a adolescent girl named Rahima, a modern-day, former bacha posh who struggles to adapt to married life as a young adolescent, and Shekiba, Rahima’s great-great grandmother, an orphan living in early 20th century Afghanistan whose life is saved by the same custom.

Although Hashimi has always loved reading fiction and maintained an interest in the Middle East that was reflected in her coursework, her primary career goal while she was a student was to attend medical school.

Hashimi said that the decision to major in Islamic and Middle-Eastern Studies “opened my eyes to literature in that part of the world,” while her second major in Biology allowed her to complete the necessary prerequisite courses for medical school.

As an Afghan American, Hashimi’s family preserved many traditional Afghan customs, including celebrating Ramadan and Nowroze, the first day of spring and the in Afghani-

stan. Yet although she felt connected to her Afghan culture, she did not make her first trip to Afghanistan until after she graduated college. “I wanted to go for myself and see what the country looked like; I wanted to meet some of my extended family members,” said Hashimi.

She went on to graduate from The State University Of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn medical school and complete her pediatric training at New York City hospitals. It wasn’t until she had been practicing medicine for a number of years that she began to consider a second professional life as a novelist.

Hashimi’s first trip to Afghanistan, with her parents in 2002, was unrelated to plans for a future book.

But while her novel did not begin to take form until 2008, the trip would color and shape the story she wanted to tell. She visited local hospitals and schools during her trip, as well as many members of her extended family. “Seeing the young girls and how energized they were and how grate-

ful they were to be going to school, that did influence what I ended up writing about. Those personalities are in the story,” said Hashimi.

In terms of research, Hashimi relied on recollections of her trip to Afghanistan and personal accounts from family members for the modern day sequences. Primary research and textual sources informed the part of her book that took place in the early 20th century.

Her interviews with relatives revealed the modern Afghan stance on bacha posh and emphasized a stark contrast between how it is viewed in the Western world and in the Middle East. “Not everyone will do [bacha posh] but it’s something that everyone knows about,” Hashimi explained. “It’s not really all that secret over there. It’s kind of one of these above ground practices and everyone understands why people do it, so it’s not really questioned and it’s not looked at critically,” she said.

Hashimi’s personal view on the practice is complicated. “If you have to dress a girl as a boy to restore

FAMILY HERITAGE: Hamishi (center) and her relatives in Kabul, Afghanistan, the birth country of her parents and the setting of her debut novel about two Afghan girls.

honor to your family and will allow her the simple liberties of going to school, or going to the market, or having a conversation with someone eye to eye, then clearly you have a huge gender gap and women are devalued in the culture. That being said, the bacha posh tradition has some benefits for a lot of these girls,” Hashimi said.

Hashimi went on to explain that “a lot of [Afghan girls] have gone on to build up that confidence that a boy would have, and they’ve gone on to become professionals, leaders, have roles in politics and government.

Many of these girls refuse to get married because they say they can never go back to a role where they are like basically considered a second class citizen,” Hashimi said.

For Hashimi, the bacha posh tradition was a vehicle for speaking to larger social issues in Afghanistan and beyond.

“For me, the bigger concept is about what it means to be a girl in Afghanistan or any society where there’s a large gender gap,” she said.

The modern portion of The Pearl that Broke Its Shell takes place shortly after the fall of the Taliban regime, where, amid continued fragmentation and corruption, the government is showing semblances of order.

There are signs that the tide might finally begin to turn for women in the country, but old traditions hamper progress.

Hashimi spoke to what she sees as the biggest problem facing equal rights for women in Afghanistan, saying, “It’s a big deal to change the mind-set of the country so that people can accept that women should be in the public forum and that they should be involved in government and that they should have a role outside of their home,” said Hashimi.

In addition to her heritage, Hashimi’s job as a pediatrician may have also influenced her novel. “I look at children, I wonder what they’re thinking sometimes. ... A lot of the challenges I see in pediatric patients here have translated into me writing about how it affected the younger people in the novel.”

Hashimi described her current life in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. as a juggling act.

In addition to her life as a novelist, she is a mother of three, and she maintains part-time work as a pediatrician and helps manage her husband’s medical practice.

She is currently in the process of revising her second novel about the plight of Afghan refugees in Europe.

9

10 TUESDAY, september 2, 2014 ● THE JUSTICE

the

Justice

Brandeis University

Established 1949

Rachel Hughes, Editor in Chief Tate Herbert, Senior Editor Glen Chagi Chesir, Managing Editor Sam Mintz, Deputy Editor Jessie Miller, Associate Editor Marissa Ditkowsky, News Editor Jaime Kaiser, Features Editor Max Moran, Forum Editor Avi Gold, Sports Editor Emily Wishingrad, Arts Editor Morgan Brill, Photography Editor Rebecca Lantner, Layout Editor Brittany Joyce, Copy Editor

Release updated handbook As returning Brandeis students have finished settling back into campus, right away we have started to notice some of the changes that have been made over the summer— like the new Usdan Student Center and other cosmetic fixes around campus.

It is the ongoing changes that can’t be seen, however, that this editorial board is most concerned about as the new term begins.

For the past three academic years, the University administration has had the updated Rights and Responsibilities handbook ready for implementation by the start of the new fall semester. This year though, the publication of the handbook has been delayed, causing a reliance on the previous year’s edition during the interim.

This editorial board is unsettled by the lack of an updated Rights and Responsibilities handbook by the beginning of the academic year.

By now, the Class of 2018 and other new students have completed their orientation programming and are acquainted with our campus, with the rest of our student body and with a sense of what it means to be “Brandeisian.” We believe that sense of belonging and idea of our school’s standards include—from the very start—an understanding of its expectations for conduct.

In an email from Dean of Students Jamele Adams to the Brandeis student body, sent on Aug. 23, less than a week before classes started,

Revision process too slow an explanation for the delay of the revised handbook was given—the revisions in “sections regarding sexual misconduct and the special examiners process” were “so extensive that editing is not yet complete.”

Adams wrote in his email to students that the Rights and Responsibilities handbook is “one of the most important sets of policies and procedures guiding your time at Brandeis.”

So we wonder—if the changes being made to the newest version of the handbook are so extensive that the editing process has delayed its publication significantly, is it some small injustice that students must abide by the 2013 to 2014 edition of the handbook in the time being?

This board wonders what would happen if a case emerged in this interim period that would be more fairly dealt with according to the new edition of the handbook, and because of the delayed publication, must be dealt with according to the dated edition of the handbook.

While this board is genuinely thankful that the administration has taken significant and public efforts to listen to students’ feedback about how the University handles reported sexual assaults and to use the feedback in their new policy, we are disheartened that the new handbook could not be more timely.

Better publicize campus events This past Friday, the University community gathered on the Great Lawn for a campuswide dinner designed to, according to Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel, “teach about the sanctification of time” and the diversity of the campus. While the nature of the dinner was well intended, this board urges future similar events to be better publicized and explained beforehand.

According to an email sent to the student body on Aug. 28 by Flagel, the event was created to explore the University’s “Jewish roots, the wonderful tradition of Friday evening Shabbat dinners, and the wonderful tapestry of cultures and observances that make up our incredibly diverse Brandeis community.”

It is commendable to unite the community as a whole and consider what makes the University unique, but the timing of the email was poor; it was sent out a day before the event itself.

An event intended to affect the entire University population should not be publicized to the student body merely 24 hours before it is scheduled to begin. Although it appeared in the Orientation Pocket Guide, many upperclassmen were unaware of the dinner’s existence

Communicate to students before the Aug. 28th email and few people, if anyone, were aware that all dining halls would be closed for the evening.

Some students later discovered that the Hoot Market and other locations were open during the dinner, a fact that should have been mentioned in the original email— not only on a follow-up post on the Brandeis University Senate Dining Committee’s Facebook page.

The University has a responsibility to better inform its student body of events that affect them and to fully notify its students of the details with an easily accessible, clear and consistent message.

Though the planning of any large event likely undergoes tinkering even until the last minute, this does not excuse leaving the intended audience uninformed of the event’s existence. The delayed sending of an email created confusion that could have easily been avoided by informing the community at an earlier date.

This board hopes the University will keep its students better informed moving forward so that commendable events like this one will be better executed.

GABRIELA YESHUA/the Justice

Views the News on

On Aug. 9, white police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed black 18-yearold Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Wilson allegedly acted in self-defense, though witness reports contain conflicting accounts of who was the aggressor.

Since then, Ferguson residents have gathered in both peaceful and violent protest against the teenager’s killing and what residents call a long pattern of police harassment of the city’s African-American community. Police have responded by instituting curfews, arresting protestors and firing at crowds with rubber bullets and tear gas canisters. Media analysts have drawn parallels to the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Do you see a trend of racial bias in law enforcement violence between these and other cases? If so, what can be done to end this trend?

Terrell Gilkey ’15 The killing of Michael Brown is far bigger than one young black male being killed in one town. This reflects the inherent belief that all black men are potential criminals or are up to no good when walking down the street.

I’m from the St. Louis metropolitan area and am well aware of the inherently unfair treatment of blacks by law enforcement. This is very typical of the area. The parallels made to the case of Trayvon Martin are a bit eerie: young black male shot and killed and then made out to be the bad guy. The protestors, who were mostly peaceful, are treated like animals and provoked by police officers. This is, however, left out in the media. This reinforces the idea that blacks are violent criminals and police have to shoot them before they pull out the weapon they’re never actually carrying when they’re shot down. In order to end this trend of unfair targeting of blacks, America needs change the way its minority citizens are seen in the eyes of the people who are sworn to protect and serve them.

Terrell Gilkey ’15 is a member of the Black Student Organization and Men of Color Alliance. He is from East St. Louis, Ill., about 12 miles from Ferguson.

Noah Coolidge ’15 Yes, of course there’s a trend, a trend that’s older than this country itself.

The historical roots of this problem are very old, going back to the legally-sanctioned mass kidnapping, enslavement and torture of Africans, and of course, the institution of slavery. Since slavery ended, there have been many instances of racial police brutality that were eerily similar to this summer’s events in Ferguson, including notably the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles. During the Civil Rights Movement, Bull Connor authorized Birmingham, Ala. police to use fire hoses, attack dogs and even a tank to attack civil rights protestors. In Mississippi, where I studied civil rights and educational equity as part of a Justice Brandeis Semester this summer, we learned about the deep connection between Southern police departments and the Ku Klux Klan in attacking civil rights workers and anyone who attempted to change the segregated social order.

Noah Coolidge is Vice President of Brandeis Democrats.

Malika Imhotep ’15 This country was built on a trend of racial bias. From chattel slavery to black codes to de jure segregation and the War on Drugs, regulating black bodies has remained a core tenant of American social and economic legislature. On this soil black bodies never wear innocence. Institutional racism legitimizes a pervasive paranoia poorly dressed as “self-defense.” The lives of Tarika Wilson, Aiyana Jones, Shereese Francis, Shantel Davis, Renisha McBride, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, John Crawford, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and all those whose names never broke headlines matter. Black lives matter. Ending this trend requires the proactive engagement with and interrogation of our history in the context of these racialized current events.

I am calling on our campus community to open its eyes, ears and mouths to the work being done by groups like MOCA, WOCA, BBSO and the AAAS department to create substantive change in our campus and global cultures.

Malika Imhotep ’15 is a former president of the Brandeis Black Student Organization.

Khadijah Lynch ’16 The very essence of the United States relies on the social implications of race in which black bodies are deemed as sub-human with little to no access of the rights that are so called applicable to every American citizen.

The American police forces of today descend from a legacy of slave captives and overseers whose job was to protect the property (enslaved black bodies) of rich, slave owning capitalists. We must understand that we are not that far removed from this country’s legacy of slavery and that most of our laws are shaped to uphold a system of white supremacy. The Mike Brown case is only a reflection, a repeat and a reminder that this nation rests on the brutality and criminalization of black people and other nonwhites. Once we as a nation acknowledge and understand these parallels, only then can we heal collectively from the past.

Khadijah Lynch ’16 is an Undergraduate Department Representative in the African and Afro-American Studies Department.

THE JUSTICE

READER COMMENTARY Defend free speech in the University In response to your article “Protect Professors’ Free Speech Rights”(Aug. 26): I have too much to say for one op-ed.

Happily, my colleague Prof. Harry Mairson (COSI) has sent me a copy of his eloquent piece about University President Frederick Lawrence’s peculiar letter, so the most important matter has been articulated. The president’s letter was an attack on academic freedom, based on scandalous, ignorant baiting from the right wing blogosphere; it was notable for its evasion of fact (those it denounced were not named, their offenses neither quoted nor identified), and above all its failure to defend the right of members of a University community to discuss matters of urgent civic import among themselves.

According to Justice Louis Brandeis, this is more than a right; it’s the duty of democratic citizens: “Those who won our independence ... believed that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth; that without free speech and assembly discussion would be futile; that with them, discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine; that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.”

I asked the president to publicly identify the names and offenses of the accused, but he did not respond. He is an expert on defamation; he may be anxious that this could leave him vulnerable to a suit.

But I’m an educator, invested especially in educating students at Brandeis. The editorial in the Justice (surprising coming from journalists to whom, as an interest group, the First Amendment is sacred) made it clear that more education in the purpose, not only of the First Amendment but of the University as a democratic institution protected by it, is in order. I hope the University community will begin to redress this dangerous situation with a teach-in or study day to bring us together in discussion of the nature and importance of free speech and the threats to it currently on the rise in the United States. And I hope it’s generated by faculty and students rather than administrative offices stymied by a conflict of interest: the fear of offending wealthy donors and trustees necessarily puts our administration at odds with the University’s mission, as the president’s letter demonstrates.

We are not alone in that dilemma.

I have been getting hate mail, some of it excruciatingly sadistic, since signing with 87 senior faculty members a letter to President Lawrence asking him not to dignify Ayaan Hirsi Ali with an honorary degree.

She has no academic accomplishments, was stripped of her political position and citizenship by her own ruling party in the Netherlands for lying and is a notorious purveyor of public hate speech herself; I acted, as did my colleagues, in defense of the reputation of the university to which I’ve devoted my career. It was thus gratifying to hear the distinguished author of this year’s first-year book forum, Marilynne Robinson, compliment us Wednesday on our “reputation for intellectual integrity.”

Such a reputation is never a given. It must be struggled for and maintained with courage and effort.

Courage, you ask? Yes, there are costs to be paid for disagreeing with powerful interests or even participating in critique: the job of professors. Galileo paid them, Charles Darwin for decades refused to, sitting on his evolutionary theory till he was about to be scooped. Many professors lost careers during the McCarthy era; this hounding has begun again in earnest in the 21st century. Neither the First Amendment nor the mission statement of the university guarantees a cost-free experience of the pursuit and articulation of critique or novelty. The struggle is to keep it inexpensive enough that it can survive. Without it, the democratic ideal of the university is dead.

Universities will not educate the next generation, they will train it. Something very precious is at stake for every Brandeis student, every untenured member of the faculty, indeed for all who live in this country, itself a work in progress: yours.

—Prof. Mary Baine Campbell (ENG) is a professor in the English department.

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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.

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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.

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TUESDAY, september 2, 2014

A “J’accuse!” lacking who, what and where

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By Harry Mairson letter to the editor

This summer, University President Frederick Lawrence sent a public letter to the faculty which, in the emotive force of its condemnation, evoked Émile Zola’s “J’Accuse…!”, the famous 1898 public letter on the Dreyfus affair. Only Zola was meticulous in writing exactly what he deplored and why.

President Lawrence’s letter was publicly endorsed last week, most unfortunately, by the Justice editorial board. They could not be more wrong.

“Certain statements,” President Lawrence wrote, “were made on a restricted listserv” of the University, and were “reported in the public media.” “I repudiate these statements publicly and I urge you to do the same... Some remarks by an extremely small cohort of Brandeis faculty members are abhorrent … I condemn these statements in no uncertain terms.” The statements were “disrespectful, offensive and inflammatory” and “threaten to mischaracterize our community as a whole.”

Which statements? Which listserv? Which public media? Which faculty? President Lawrence’s letter doesn’t say. This omission bothers me also because I may be one of the accused faculty members.

The Justice went further. It also anonymously accused more than one listserv subscriber of having expressed hate speech.

If you’re going to take serious issue with someone publicly, you have to say precisely who they are, what they said and why you don’t like it. This is an obvious, necessary condition for persuasive writing. That’s what I’m doing here.

The listserv of note is “Concerned,” formed during the second Iraq War in 2003, a discussion group for numerous political issues, with a definite leftward slant. I subscribed for years and wrote many posts. Undergraduates Daniel Mael ’15 and Chloé Valdary, a senior at the University of New Orleans, gained access to the “Concerned” archives this summer and did their best to stir the pot of the rightwing blogosphere (this, the “public media”) with tales of the “secret” (sic!) listserv and its allegedly scurrilous goingson. In their tell-all, one of my postings was both mangled and lambasted. While their best efforts failed at getting access to the Panthéon (Fox News), they were picked up and rebroadcast locally by Charles Jacobs, founder of the David Project, a Zionist hasbara organization with significant ties to Brandeis.

The “small cohort of Brandeis faculty” whose postings to “Concerned” were publicized in rightwing blogs this summer also includes my colleagues Profs. Mary Baine Campbell (ENG), Gordie Fellman (SOC), Donald Hindley (POL), Robert Lange (PHYS) and Sabine von Mering (GRALL). Two of us are past chairs of the faculty senate. Are these the people who—sometimes

ALI SANTANA/the Justice

years later—are being accused of hate speech?

If someone doesn’t like something we said, we deserve engagement on the issues. There’s been none.

It is my colleague Don Hindley who has attracted the most attention. While I certainly wish that he would write with less stridency and bluster with less blister—and many of my colleagues have urged him similarly—he has been spot-on in his criticism: most significantly, of the excessive executive compensation paid to President Emeritus Jehuda Reinharz and of the continuous administrative demonstration of solidarity with Israel, both institutional and academic. Executive compensation remains big news, with the issue of fair wages across the spectrum from university presidents to Sodexo dining workers. And the administration’s Likudnik Zionism repeatedly contravenes the University’s Mission Statement, which asserts Brandeis’ “cherishing its independence from any doctrine or government.” Brandeis doesn’t have a Mission Statement that is logically consistent with its actions. If the mission isn’t going to change, it’s time to change the statement.

Don was the target of very related administration vengeance several years ago, where for discussing the word “wetback” in class, he was forced to have a classroom monitor and ordered to take anti-discrimination training.

This unhappy affair drew public condemnation of Brandeis by the American Civil Liberties Union. It was Don’s comments on “Concerned” about the administration and about Israel, and not in class about language describing Mexicans, which had incurred the administration’s wrath. The indirection of his punishment, then,

is mirrored in the vagueness of accusations being made against him now.

To make accusations and express condemnation without specificity, as President Lawrence did, has an obvious chilling effect on free speech.

“Tolerance” means tolerating the provocative: we get no points for tolerating the well-behaved.

Criticizing political observations as “hurtful” is okay in preschool, but not at a university.

The incessant harping on civility of discourse, reiterated with schoolmarm unctuousness in the academy, may well provoke the exact opposite because it is effectively a civil, administrative tactic for suppressing unwanted political expression. The way that Brandeis can prove its commitment to civility is to facilitate the significant, public dissemination of controversial content.

As Yale University’s former President Kingman Brewster put it in 1964, “Universities should be safe havens, where ruthless examination of realities will not be distorted by the aim to please, or inhibited by the risk of displeasure.”

President Lawrence’s letter makes clear that Brandeis fails to meet Brewster’s standard.

Zola’s famous letter to the French President Felix Fauré began with a mixture of gracious appreciation and unwavering reproach that also expresses my regard for the University, its leadership and the Justice editorial board. Zola wrote: “Permit me, in my gratitude ... to express concern for your well-deserved good name, and observe that your star risks being dimmed by the the most shameful, indelible stains.”

—Prof. Harry Mairson (COSI) is a professor of computer science.

Embracing free market principles truly aids economy

By Mark Gimelstein JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

After almost six grueling years of recession, is our economy finally on the road to recovery?

Supporters of President Barack Obama say that our unemployment rate is at 6.2 percent, Wall Street’s profits have soared and millions of jobs have been created, supposedly bringing opportunity to countless Americans. Unfortunately, these numbers tell us very little about the real economic conditions of the United States.

The first issue of concern is our incredibly misleading unemployment rate. It isn’t lower because of legitimate progress; it’s lower because Americans are not going back to work. They’re instead giving up the search for employment and leaving the workforce entirely, which means they are not counted into the unemployment rate. This can be seen in our 62.9 percent workforce participation rate, which is the lowest it’s been since 1978 under Jimmy Carter. His presidency featured a horrid stagflation crisis that resulted in one of the worst recessions in U.S. history. Today, more than 90 million Americans are completely out of the workforce according to zerohedge.com. If our economy is actually faring as badly as the Carter economy, it’s safe to say that our present-day economic problems are no closer to being solved.

At the same time, our nation is experiencing income inequality; but contrary to public opinion, it’s not because of greedy one-percenters.

Rather, rising taxes and regulatory policies have hurt middle and lower class Americans, the same people Obama promised to help during his two presidential campaigns. The facts on wages are undeniable—according to a 2014 report by the United States Conference of Mayors, jobs lost

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during the Great Recession paid $61,637 while jobs created in our “recovery” pay $47,171 annually. That’s a 23 percent plummet. The organization also found that overall, revenue in lost wages totaled $93 billion. Additionally, the most recent report released by Sentier Research, an organization that reports on income and demographics, shows that U.S. median household income has fallen five percent from the time the recovery officially started in July of 2009 to January 2014. In other words, under the Obama economy, average Americans have become poorer than they were prior to the 2008 recession.

The bad news doesn’t end there. Even more data confirms that increasingly people are earning less and living in poverty. The Washington Post reported that just this past June, the number of people who had part-time jobs rose by 1 million, bringing the total to 27 million people with part-time jobs. Additionally, the number of Americans at or below the poverty line in 2013 hit almost 50 million, a 50-year record, according to the Washington Times. Overall, the poverty rate has stood at 15 percent for three straight years under Obama. Under President George W. Bush in 2007, the poverty rate was 12.5 percent. I thought we had a president whose top priorities were to fight income inequality and help our society’s most vulnerable.

I could rail off more statistics about why our economy is still underperforming and so rife with people falling through the cracks of the official economic narrative propagated by the Obama administration. However, the point is clear: America needs to get back to work.

The only way to accomplish that is through a return to the free market—the same one that helped usher in the wild success of innovative companies like Facebook, Dropbox and Ama-

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zon on the unregulated, low-taxed Internet. This means lowering our corporate tax rate, which is the highest in the industrialized world, and repealing Obamacare, a law that has already increased costs for entrepreneurs and resulted in mass layoffs. Just look at Indiana University Health, a hospital that laid off 900 workers, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which eliminated 1,000 jobs in October 2013 as per USA Today, even though crucially important components of the law have been delayed time and time again. These and other liberal policies have constrained business and made it impossible to hire workers, increase wages and grow our economy.

Whether we like it or not, the U.S. economy is still very much floundering because of big government run amuck. To add insult to injury, in 2013, the Federal Register added over 80,000 pages of new rules and regulations for businesses and entrepreneurs to follow. Our tax code is complex, confusing, overly burdensome, thousands upon thousands of pages long and enforced by an Internal Revenue Service that has targeted political opponents in the past.

Congress and the president seem to care more about corporate welfare for failed green energy companies like Solyndra and taxpayer-funded crony capitalist ventures like the Export-Import Bank—known colloquially as “Boeing’s Bank”— that supports big, politically-connected businesses with armies of lobbyists at the expense of American competitors who don’t have the same connections.

How can we have a sound economy when, for all intents and purposes, our economy is held hostage by liberal, Washington-style politics?

For this we must blame our entrenched, out-oftouch politicians—both Republican and Democrat—and quite simply, vote the bums out.

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Gabriela Yeshua

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TUESDAY, september 2, 2014

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THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Defending Israelis from terror justifies war in Gaza

By MIRIAM FINK AND DAVID SCHWARTZ Special to the Justice

Every sovereign nation has not only the right but also the obligation to defend its citizens. Israel, a sovereign state, invoked this right and obligation in July with Operation Protective Edge, a defensive military campaign with the goal of protecting Israelis who have been pounded by a barrage of rockets fired by the terrorist group Hamas which resides in Gaza and has members propagated all around the Middle East.

There has been much debate on whether or not Israel’s actions were justified because of the skewed civilian causalities on the Israeli and Palestinian sides. It is a shame that civilian casualties are an inevitable part of war, but it was necessary for Israel to initiate Operation Protective Edge; Israel needed to protect its civilians and its sovereignty. Hamas is a terrorist organization recognized by the United States, Canada and the European Union. Hamas explicitly states in its charter a goal of destroying Israel.

Ever since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Southern Israel has faced rocket attacks every year with Hamas acting as the governing force in Gaza. Unfortunately, these attacks escalated during the week of July 8, when 250 rockets were fired within one week, leaving citizens only 15 to 60 seconds to run to shelters. These rockets were also long-range weapons, capable of reaching the three largest cities in Israel: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.

Prior to sending in ground troops, Israel and Hamas agreed to cease-fires brokered by Egypt and the U.S.; however, Hamas broke each and every cease-fire by firing rockets into Israel. Operation Protective Edge came to fruition when Israel finally decided to not accept a cease-fire as it became evident that Hamas would break it, putting both Israeli and Palestinian lives at risk.

Israel began a ground incursion of Gaza on July 17. As a result of Hamas’ absolute unwillingness to stop terrorizing Israelis, Israel was forced to target a wide range of Hamas terror sites, as determined by Israeli Defense Force intelligence, which include buildings and tunnels. Unfortunately, Hamas places its terror sites in civilian buildings such as schools and mosques. Israel does what it can to warn civilians when they are about to invade a building, but Hamas will not let the civilians leave.

They use their civilians as human shields by doing things such as standing on rooftops of terror sites and having Hamas terrorists carry children while they are under attack. Israel recognizes that the use of human shields does not justify killing innocent civilians, so Israel does what it can to avoid them by creating specific targets.

Not only were rockets fired into Israel, but Israeli intelligence also discovered a major network of Hamas terror tunnels that had been constructed deep underground on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

MARISA RUBEL/the Justice

These tunnels were created using the funds that Gaza received from the international community to construct a city, but instead, according to the Washington Post, the concrete was used to design tunnels which allow Hamas to enter Israel with the intent to kidnap and kill Israelis.

“

Israel attempts tirelessly to avoid civilian casualties and protect both Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

Since the beginning of 2014, 4,680 trucks filled with 181,000 tons of gravel, iron, cement and other materials with the purpose to build structures have entered Gaza. Instead, Hamas used these supplies to create terror tunnels.

According to the IDF, one tunnel uses 350 truckloads of building supplies which could have been used to build 86 homes, seven mosques, six schools and 19 medical clinics, and the cost of building a tunnel is 3 million

dollars, and 30 tunnels were found, which equals to $90 million that could have been used to develop the Gazan infrastructure.

Hamas has a network of terror tunnels along the Gaza-Israel boarder and tunnels designed for smuggling weaponry along the Egypt border, but Operation Protective Edge’s goal was to target and eliminate the terror tunnels.

It is undeniable that more Palestinians were killed that Israelis. Every civilian casualty is a tragedy, but the source of these deaths is more complex than simply who pulled the trigger. Israel seems to be the one to blame because they are the ones carrying out the attacks, but they are only doing so because of perpetual Hamas terror which puts both Palestinians and Israelis in danger.

Hamas intentionally fires rockets at Israeli civilian centers from Gazan civilian centers as opposed to creating spare military and launching centers.

They use civilian homes to hide and store weaponry and other military supplies, and force their civilians to stand on rooftops during anticipated airstrikes. Israel is aware that Hamas places its civilians in danger, which makes it difficult for Israel to avoid causalities. This is why Israel has created a system of dropping leaflets and sending text messages to the people in areas of danger.

They also drop warning shots on buildings

to warn the civilians to get out because the next shot will be destructive. This disables the IDF from using the common military tactic of surprise attack. Meanwhile, Hamas targeted civilian population centers with the purpose of killing as many Israelis as possible without any warning.

Israel recognizes that it has a reputation to defend and it cannot do what any other nation would do if they were under similar attack.

Israel does what it can to reduce civilian causalities, so why should they be so ridiculed when any other nation would have the same moral judgment if put into the same position?

It was inevitable that there would be Palestinian causalities as a result of Israel’s military response. The fatality numbers are skewed because Israel has created missile defense systems, such as the Iron Dome, to protect its citizens.

The IDF was able to destroy 32 terror tunnels and 4,762 other terror sides during Operation Protective Edge. Israel attempts tirelessly to avoid civilian casualties and protect both Palestinian and Israeli civilians. Thus, we would like to commend Israel for Operation Protective Edge.

—Miriam Fink ’15 and David Schwartz ’16 are the co-Presidents of the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committe.

Avoid isolationist tactics to enact responsible foreign policy Glen

Chesir chagi’s chop

“Mr. President, could you update us on your latest thinking of where you think things are in Syria, and in particular, whether you envision using U.S. military, if simply for nothing else, the safe keeping of the chemical weapons, and if you’re confident that the chemical weapons are safe?”

“I have, at this point, not ordered military engagement in the situation. But the point that you made about chemical and biological weapons is critical ... We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people.

We have been very clear to the regime of Syrian president Basshar al-Assad, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is if we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.

That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”

The question stated above was posed to President Barack Obama by Chuck Todd, an NBC white house correspondent, on Aug. 20, 2012, approximately two years ago.

On Dec. 23, 2012 reports surfaced of chemical weapons being used on civilians by the Assad regime in Homs, Syria. On March 19, 2013, alleged chemical weapons attacks were reported in Syria’s two main cities, the Khan al-Assel neighborhood of Aleppo and the Da-

mascus suburb of al-Atebeh. And just a few days ago on Aug. 22, 2014, the United Nations put the estimated body count in Syria at 191,000 people. No formal response beyond verbal condemnations has been made by the United States.

On Aug. 10, 2013 more than 70 people were killed in Iraq by the now infamous group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, capping the deadliest year in Iraq since 2008.

According to the nongovernmental organization Iraq Body Count, 9,475 civilians were killed in 2013. According to the United Nations, 5,500 civilians have been killed by ISIS in the first half of 2014 alone, with more than 1.2 million being driven from their homes due to the violence. When Obama finally authorized airstrikes in the region on Aug. 9, he made sure to emphasize, “as commander in chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into another war in Iraq.”

Our foreign policy is increasingly becoming more isolationist. No longer are the problems of the world our own, argue our leaders. “We are not the world’s policeman, nor its judge and jury,” proclaimed Rep. Alan Grayson, a progressive Florida democrat, reciting standard isolationist jargon for “staying out of it.”

“Our own needs in America are great, and they come first,” he added. And despite the global turmoil, these isolationist policies of our government are in fact supported by the people. According to a Pew Research Center study published in 2013, 52 percent of those polled felt that “America should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.” That number represents the largest majority in the 50 years that the question has been asked.

Contrary to the low approval ratings of

Congress and the president, the foreign policy of our country is actually matching what the public wants—which is the most unsettling part.

It is a robust argument in political philosophy as to whether a certain government is responsible for not only sustaining the basic rights of its own citizens, but of the citizens of the world. After all, if a certain right—at its most basic level, for example, the right to life—is in fact a human right, how could it only be a human right for people within arbitrary geographical borders?

“

I wonder when we as a country will realize that—just like every other community— the world needs a policeman.

If we have the capability to prolong life, or even prevent the loss of life, shouldn’t we be obligated to do so?

Alternatively, the United States, like any fiscally-based entity, does have a scarcity of resources. How could we possibly be held responsible for the people of the world, which would surely come at an expense? As Grayson said, “our needs come first.”

How selfishly irresponsible. Imagine if the first-year dorms closed their doors to the sophomores without housing, strictly because they weren’t designated to be there. Imagine if Brandeis refused to offer acceptance to in-

ternational students simply because they weren’t American, because “American students come first.” Imagine if after a natural disaster in a foreign country the rest of the world simply said “not our problem.”

Why, then, is this an acceptable rationale for foreign policy? Why can we turn away our collective eyes if the area in need of help is labeled “war-zone?”

One can respond with a utilitarian approach: look at what we did in Iraq and Afghanistan—our help doesn’t help much at all.

War is costly, both fiscally and in terms of the lives of our soldiers. But if a car is broken, do we try to fix the car or do we swear off driving altogether? Accepting the realization that force is sometimes necessary is not the problem; people can successfully drive—we just need to figure out how to fight properly.

At the end of the day the Obama administration accepted the reality that airstrikes in Iraq were necessary—was fear of repeating past mistakes the only reason for the delay in this inevitable decision?

I wonder how many Kurds or Christians would still be in their homes in Iraq if we had decided to airstrike earlier. I wonder how many more Syrian civilians need to be killed before we, as the dominant world power, decide to take real action.

I wonder how many more people will die as we perpetually run from the mistakes of administrations past. I wonder when we as a country will finally realize that—just like every other community—the world needs a policeman. We have the largest and most advanced military in the world with the power to prevent catastrophe.

We must accept our responsibility to keep the world in order. We must not hide behind “our own problems.”

THE JUSTICE

WSOC: Squad cedes three shots in tight victory

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September 2, 2014

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IN FRONT OF THE CROWD

CONTINUED FROM 16 on Friday evening the Judges were less impressive, and they saw their three-match winningstreak against the Engineers come to an end.

Though the game had an identical 1-0 scoreline to the last two years’ contests—both of which ended in victory for the Judges— it was the visiting Engineers who protected an early 1-0 lead this time around.

A turnover in the defensive zone in the 13th minute led to an early lead for the Engineers.

Following a diving save by goalkeeper Michelle Savuto ’15, the Judges were unsuccessfully able to fully clear the ensuing corner kick and MIT freshman forward Olivia Struckman converted the turnover into the eventual gamewinning goal.

Neither team ever managed to gain any offensive momentum, as both teams finishing with an anemic two shots on goal at the end of the game, but the early goal was enough to give MIT the win.

Schwartz felt that the Judges had a very good chance to win the game.

“After our loss against MIT most people on our team said that it really didn't feel like we lost the game,” she said.

“I think we gave everything that we had on the field and as a team we would not have done it any other way.

“We obviously would have liked a different outcome but we have the whole season ahead of us to focus on, we can't really fixate on that one loss.”

Though the Judges managed just two shots on goal they produced five overall shots and six corner kicks, an indication that the offense would eventually come to life.

Lifeless in Friday’s game, the Judges finally found their form in Sunday’s contest and got their coach her historic victory.

With only two games having gone by in the young season, the Judges will be looking to improve every step of the way.

According to Schwartz, there are a few things that have already come up as focal points.

“I think we really want to focus on our finishing as a team,” Schwartz explained.

“We had a lot of chances today against Clark that were really good but I think as a team we hope to improve on our finishing as a whole.

“So far though the coaching has really pushed us and the chemistry on and off the field has been great so I think everything can just go up from here.”

Brandeis’ next matchup is at home against Lasell College this Saturday afternoon.

GRACE KWON/the Justice

OUT IN FRONT: Maddie Dolins ’17 (front) and Kelsey Whitaker ’16 (left) lead a pack of runners in a home meet versus the University of Southern Maine, a meet won by the Judges.

XC: Judges open respective campaigns with team victories in weekend meets CONTINUED FROM 16

The pair was followed by Ward’s eighth-place finish in 15:46 and Garvey’s ninth-place finish in 15:49.

Stender was impressed with his first race as a member of the Judges squad.

“I’m extremely happy with my performance,” he said. “I went into it a little nervous … but my time was the best I’ve ever done for a five-kilometer [race] and I think that has to do with the training [Coach Evans] set me up with over the summer, and I think the hard work paid off.”

The squad placed two other runners within the top-15, Brian Sheppard ’18 and Matt Doran ’17.

Sheppard took 12th at 16:03 while Doran finished at the 16:07 mark.

Two additional runners rounded out the Judges’ competitors for the meet, Brad Payne ’17 and Russel Santos ’18.

Payne finished 27th out of 98 registered runners in 16:40 and Santos ran the course 16:52.

The Judges finished 22 points ahead of second place Roger Williams with an average time of 15:33.80 to defend their title.

“We are all extremely excited because we all got off to a really good start,” Harrigan said. “After the meet on Saturday, everyone, including the returners, is doubly excited to see what we can do this year.”

Stender said the win was important for the squad moving forward.

“I feel like we have a really strong team and it was important to show oth-

er teams we are a strong side,” he said.

The women’s squad faced off against the University of Southern Maine on Friday afternoon for the two squads’ traditional season-opening meet.

The Judges won the meet—a home event held at Weston High School—by a score of 21-34, with three of the firstfive spots overall and the top-two finishers of the race.

The Judges were led by the duo of Kelsey Whitaker ’16 and Maddie Dolins ’17 who finished the course with identical times of 16:51 for the top-two finishes overall.

The pair was followed a pair of runners from the visiting Huskies, after which a trio of Judges all crossed the finish line in quick succession with good races.

Lydia McCaleb ’17 finished in fifth place at 17:14 after not having ran in the race last year; Ashley PiccirilloHoran ’17 stopped the timer at 17:22 and Kyra Shreeve ’18 ended at 17:22 as well in her first collegiate meet. The trio took fifth, sixth and seventh places, respectively.

Picirillo-Horan improved on last year's race by four positions. Molly Paris ’17 placed ninth in 17:48, while Maggie Hensel ’17 took 11th in 18:06.

Julia Schiantarelli ’17 and Hannah Kilcoyne ’18 rounded out the Judges’ squad, covering the course in 18:55 and 19:20, respectively.

Both the men’s and women’s squads return to action on Sept. 20 at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Shriners Invitational.

MSOC: Men start year with goal-scoring barrage CONTINUED FROM 16 Graffy secured a 5-0 shutout in Saturday’s game behind a strong Judges defense that only allowed for one shot on goal through the entirety of the game.

Miskin said that he did not have much trouble adjusting to the Judges midfield in his first games, even if he was not expecting the opportunity to start for the squad.

“I think it’s pretty cool, I didn’t really know that I was going to step in and play,” he said. “Playing with

Jake [Picard ’16] and [Ocel] in the middle is [great]; we’re getting to know each other.

“Jake’s a great role model especially for how I play—he likes to distribute a lot. I think we’ll have a great midfield this year,” he continued.

On Saturday, after a scoreless first half, the Judges gained momentum and scored five times in the second half. Soboff put the Judges on the scoreboard just after the hour mark, at 60:17. Only a little more than four minutes later, forward Tyler Savonen ’15 added to the Judges’ lead. The pair

of forwards comprised the Judges’ leading goal scorers last year.

Soboff answered not 10 minutes later with his second goal of the game, securing the Judges’ lead over the Hobart side.

“Both of them [Savonen and Soboff] are just great leaders and came in to this year in the best shape,” Ocel said. “They’re the best scorers [the team has] and they’re great role models. I think they’re going to be great captains this year.”

Midfielder Patrick Flahive ’18 scored the Judges’ fourth goal at 77:09

to put the game far out of the reach of Hobart.

“I think we all knew we were outplaying them, and we had our chances we needed to capitalize,” Miskin said. “When we had the first one that Soboff scored we knew the floodgates were going to open.”

The final goal of the game was by midfielder Marcelo Brociner ’18, leaving the Judges with a comfortable 5-0 victory.

The Judges will travel to take on Bridgewater State University Saturday at 4 p.m.

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jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

●

Tuesday, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

15

VOLLEYBALL

Men’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS

Shots on Goal

2014-2015 Statistics UAA Conf.

W L JUDGES 0 0 NYU 0 0 Chicago 0 0 Emory 0 0 Rochester 0 0 WashU 0 0 Case 0 0 Carnegie 0 0

D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

W L 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 2

Overall D Pct. 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 1.000 1 .750 0 .500 0 .500 1 .250 0 .000

Michael Soboff ’15 leads the team with six shots on goal.

Player SOG Michael Soboff 6 Tyler Savonen 5 Marcello Brociner 2 Zach Vieira 2

Points Michael Soboff ’15 leads the team with six points.

Player Points Michael Soboff 6 Josh Ocel 3 Marcelo Brociner 2 Patrick Flahive 2

UPCOMING GAMES: Saturday vs. Bridgewater State Tues., Sept. 9 at Lasell College Sat., Sept. 13 vs. Clark University

WOMen’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS

2014-2015 Statistics

Shots on Goal

UAA Conf.

W L Carnegie 0 0 Chicago 0 0 Rochester 0 0 WashU 0 0 Emory 0 0 JUDGES 0 0 Case 0 0 NYU 0 0

D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

W 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1

L 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1

Overall D Pct. 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 1.000 1 .750 0 .500 0 .500 0 .500

UPCOMING GAMES: Saturday vs. Lasell College Tues., Sept. 9 at Bridgewater Sat., Sept. 13 vs. UMass-Boston

Sapir Edalati ’15 leads the team with five shots on goal.

Player SOG Sapir Edalati 5 Holly Szafran 5 Sara Isaacson 2 Melissa Darling 1

Points Samantha Schwartz ’18 leads the team with two points.

Player Points Samantha Schwartz 2 Sapir Edalati 1

VOLLEYBALL UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Kills

2014-2015 Statistics

Carnegie WashU Emory NYU Case JUDGES Chicago Rochester

UAA Conf.

W L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Overall W L Pct. 4 0 1.000 5 1 .833 3 1 .750 3 1 .750 2 2 .500 1 2 .333 1 3 .250 1 3 .250

UPCOMING GAMES: Friday vs. Coast Guard University Saturday vs. Wesleyan Universiy Saturday at Wellesley College

Maddie Engeler ’16 leads the team in kills with 22.

Player Kills Maddie Engeler 22 Summer Koop 17 Jessie Moore 13 Shemira Pennyman 11

Digs Elsie Bernaiche ’15 leads the team in digs with 62.

Player Digs Elsie Bernaiche 62 Shemira Pennyman 26 Julie Kim 22 Liz Hood 18

cross cOuntry Results from weekend meets in Boston (men) and Waltham (women).

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

RUNNER TIME Jarret Harrigan 15:21.0 Quinton Hoey 15:25.0 Ryan Stender 15:35.0 Mitchell Hutton 15:42.0

RUNNER TIME Kelsey Whitaker 16:51.0 Maddie Dolins 16:51.0 Lydia McCaleb 17:14.0 Ashley Picirillo-Horan 17:22.0

UPCOMING EVENTS: Sept., 20 at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational Oct., 4 at the Keene State Invitational

MORGAN BRILL/Justice File Photo

POWER HITTER: Setter Maggie Swenson ’16 (front) prepares a serve in a match against Colby College last September.

Team tops Mount Ida in three sets for first win ■ In her first game, outside hitter Jessie Moore ’18 recorded 10 kills in Friday’s loss to Rivier University.

By Avi gold Justice editor

The women’s volleyball team opened their season at the Western Connecticut State Invitational this past weekend where the Judges broke a number of personal and school records. Defensive specialist Elsie Bernaiche ’15 set a new school record with 1,608 career digs, amassing 62 over the weekend, while middle blocker Summer Koop ’16 set a career high in both kills and hitting percentage against Mount Ida College on Saturday.

The Judges went 1-2 on the seasonopening weekend tournament, defeating Mount Ida in straight sets and falling to both Rivier University in the season-opener and host Western Connecticut State University.

Middle blocker Maddie Engeler ’16 saw the games as way to focus on what areas the team needs to strengthen.

“We learned more from our losses than from our win,” she said. “We know that we have no lack of passion, fire and will to win. We just need to

clean up some technical aspects and play as a more cohesive team unit.”

The squad struggled against Western Connecticut State on Saturday afternoon, falling in straight sets 9-25, 18-25, 12-25. Though the Judges managed just 15 kills over the threeset loss, the host Colonials recorded 29 kills from seven different players.

Bernaiche had a match-best 24 digs, her highest total of the weekend, and passed Marni Kutok Friedman ’04 in the third set. The game was indicative of the new defensive-minded system coach Alesia Vaccari is trying to implement in her first year, something that stood out to Engeler.

“Our new defensive focus has been noticeable in our first tournament through the amount of digs we have accrued,” she said. “Our back row players are incredible and we have been working hard all preseason make the improvements Coach Vaccari has implemented.”

Earlier on Saturday, the team swept Mount Ida in straight sets, 25-14, 25-18, 25-11. Koop set a career high with nine kills on 13 attempts.

Her .692 hitting percentage was also a career-best for the middle blocker.

Seven members of the Judges recorded a kill in the game.

Engeler paced the squad in the opening game against Rivier, recording 10 kills, three digs and two blocks

in the four-set loss. The Judges fell by a score of 23-25, 12-25, 25-21, 23-25 to Rivier. Engeler, who sat out last season due to injury, said her return to the court was “incredible.”

“After my knee injury last season, my team was unwavering in support and critical in my rehabilitation,” she said. “I feel stronger and better than ever, ready to contribute to an amazing season with my Brandeis volleyball family.”

The Judges also received strong performances from outside hitter Jessie Moore ’18 and Bernaiche. In her first collegiate game, Moore recorded 10 kills and four digs, tied with Engeler for most on the squad. Bernaiche paced the defense with 17 digs.

Even with the pair of losses, Engeler saw plenty of positives.

“After the first tournament, I have no doubts that our team will do great things this season,” she explained.

“While the win/loss column doesn’t show it, we are building the groundwork to dominate New England and excel in the [University Athletic Association].”

The Judges continue their season this weekend hosting the Brandeis Invitational, with games against Coast Guard University, Wellesley College and Wesleyan University. The squad will host Coast Guard on Friday at 6 p.m. to open the tournament.

PRO SPORTS BRIEF Manchester United stumbles out of the gate in both Premier League and League Cup competition After last season’s seventh-place debacle, many Manchester United fans thought that things could not get worse. It was the team’s lowest league table finish in the Premier League era by some margin, and manager David Moyes, pegged as the worthy successor to legendary figure Sir Alex Ferguson, was fired in reputation-ruining disgrace.

Come summer 2014, despite the previous year’s gloom, some United fans felt a sense of revival with the arrival of steely, successful Dutch manager Louis van Gaal.

The tactical and man-managing genius was coming off a successful World Cup managing the Netherlands which included a third-place finish and a rousing 5-1 victory over defending champions Spain.

But so far, those optimistic hopes

have proven quite misplaced. The Red Devils’ start to the season, both in the Premier League and the League Cup, has been disastrous.

It started on Aug. 16, with a 2-1 home loss to Swansaea City F.C. on the opening day of the Premier League season.

While United hasn’t lost in the league again since then, their two following games have been lackluster road draws against two teams that the United of old would have been expected to beat handily.

The latter, a scoreless draw this past Saturday against newly promoted Burnley, was a prime example of what British announcers like to call a “dire” performance, as neither side really showed any signs of offensive creativity.

The nadir of United’s on-field per-

formance came last Tuesday when they lost 4-0 to League One side Milton Keynes Dons F.C., whose entire squad’s yearly value is five times less than United striker Wayne Rooney makes in a single year.

It was close to an all-time low defeat, even for a lineup containing mostly fringe players. As wordsmith and commentator Ian Darke tweeted, “Whatever team Man Utd field , a 0-4 defeat to MK Dons is embarrassing and humiliating. Shambolic defending.”

The supposedly-brilliant van Gaal summed up the season’s start sagely: “When you have two points [out] of [a possible] nine... that is disappointing,” he said.

The club’s transfer policy has been a little less muddled than its results, but still leaves something to

be desired. United picked up two defenders to bolster its unimpressive defense: Luke Shaw and, just last week, Marcos Rojo, an Argentine star who shined at the World Cup. However, Shaw was injured in preseason and the back four remains a troubling issue.

Angel di Maria, a quick, flashy winger formerly of Real Madrid, was brought in near the end of the transfer window, but it is hard to know whether he will be able to make an impact or if he will instead succumb to Ozil syndrome (the Arsenal midfielder made a similar move from Real Madrid to England and has not made anything like the expected impact.)

The squad brought in winger Radamel Falcao on loan from AS Monaco on deadline day, but he missed

the World Cup with a cruciate ligament injury, so it remains to be seen how he will be used.

The schedule-making gods (or computers) have blessed United with a seemingly easy next few games, at home against recently promoted Queens Park Rangers, and away to newly-promoted Leicester City. But if their recent record can be used as evidence, they might still struggle.

Many fans around the world would be thrilled to see just that happen. While United have one of the largest global fan bases in the world, that position also comes with a sizeable share of haters, and they have had much to gloat about so far this year.

— Sam Mintz

just

Sports

Page 16

SERVICE ACE The women’s volleyball team picked up a win during the Western Connecticut State Invitational this past weekend, p. 15.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Cross country

CLOSING IN ON GOAL

Squads race well in season openers ■ Both squads opened their

respective seasons with multiple top-10 finishers and team victories.

By Avi Gold JUSTICE editor

Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams began their season with strong races and earned team victories in the process. The women’s team, ranked 28th in the country, earned a victory in a matchup against the University of Southern Maine while the men’s team placed first out of seven teams in the Emmanuel College Fens Classic.

The men’s squad sent 10 runners to Back Bay Fens in Boston for the Emmanuel Invitational on Saturday, taking the title with 23 points.

The Judges also won last year's meet with a total of 36 points and an average time of 16 minutes, 35 seconds. The squad improved on both points and average time in this year's meet.

Each of the 10 members of the Judges finished within the top 35 places and covered the three-mile course in less than 17 minutes.

Co-captain Jarret Harrigan ’15 took second place at 15:21, just one second behind Roger Williams University freshman Tim McGowan.

Waltham, Mass.

Harrigan matched his second-place finish from last year and finished more than a minute faster than he did last year, and had a positive evaluation of his race.

“I had no idea I was fit enough to run that fast,” he said. “I came into the day with an individual goal of maybe breaking 16:00, and I would have been over the moon with around 15:45. 15:21 is actually faster than I had run 5000 meters on the track, so even though I could not run two seconds faster and get the win, I am happy with my time.”

Ryan Stender ’18 explained that the grouping of Judges was part of their scheme entering the race.

“That was part of the racing strategy [coach Sinead Evans] gave to us; stick to the guys we trained with in practice,” he said.

Stender continued by saying the goal was always to “stick to the guy in front of you.”

Harrigan crossed the line four seconds ahead of teammate Quinton Hoey ’17, whose time of 15:25 was good for third place.

The Judges took six of the top-10 finishes, as Stender, Grady Ward ’16, Mitchell Hutton ’18 and Liam Garvey ’18 all ran well for the squad, finishing with a time under 16 minutes.

Stender placed fifth overall in 15:35 while Hutton took sixth with a time of 15:42.

See XC, 13 ☛

Men’s soccer

Judges flash offensive power in pair of wins ■ The men scored five times

in the second half to blow away Hobart College in their season opener last Saturday.

By Marissa Ditkowsky JUSTICE editor

The 17th-ranked men’s soccer team began its season with a strong start, claiming two wins in its first two games this past weekend.

The men traveled to Keene State College for the annual Keene State Classic, going undefeated at the tournament for their fifth consecutive year. The Judges defeated Hobart College 5-0 on Saturday afternoon and beat tournament host Keene State 2-1 on Sunday.

Midfielder Brandon Miskin ’15, who started in both games for the Judges, saw only positives from the pair of wins.

“I thought it was a great first weekend for the team, getting two wins—especially the hard [game] the second time,” he said. “We battled it out … but we had fun.”

Midfielder Josh Ocel ’17 echoed his teammate’s thoughts on the 2-0 start to the season.

“We really came together as a team,” he said. “The first game we did really well in the second half and in the second showed our heart and grit because we couldn’t score but we kept fighting. It’s good to see [that from the team].”

Forward Michael Soboff ’15, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, started Sunday’s game off with a goal for the Judges at 17:29 of the first half. Forward Mike Lynch ’17 was attributed with the assist. Keene State freshman defen-

seman Cameron Rogers answered less than 15 minutes later to tie the game at 1-1. Rogers finished off a good series by Keene State; his goal followed a strong free kick into the zone and a header that found its way to Rogers In the second half, with only 10 minutes left in the game, Ocel put the Judges ahead with a free kick that bounced all the way through and into the net. Ocel’s free kick from just outside the 18-yard box found its way through a group of players before curling into the net to give the Judges a lead they would not relinquish.

“I purposely crossed it from the corner of the 18-yard box and a bunch of people crossed it in front and it went in the back post,” he explained of the goal.

Ocel also recorded the only assist of Friday’s win, his first points of his collegiate career after missing last year to injury.

The Judges’ midfield depth chart features six upperclassmen to five first-years, and Ocel said he hopes to step up and guide his new teammates this year. “[We’ll need] a lot of communication and we all have to step up and have big roles on the team,” he said.

“You need have big leaders in the center midfield to have a good team; we have a good crowd and I think we can do a lot of good things this year.”

Though the game was close, the Judges led Keene State with six shots on goal to the hosts’ four. The Judges had 14 shots overall, while Keene State managed just six. Goalkeeper Joe Graffy ’15, who was named the defensive player of the tournament, was forced to make just three saves on the afternoon.

See MSOC, 13 ☛

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

LOOKING TO PASS: Forward Haliana Burhans ’18 dribbles the ball down the left flank during Friday’s season-opening loss to MIT.

Dallamora gains 300th career win in triumph ■ The squad responded

to a season-opening 1-0 loss by giving coach Denise Dallamora her 300th win.

By Daniel kanovich JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The women’s soccer team opened up the season with a 1-0 loss at home against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday, but managed to bounce back on Sunday on the road against Clark University 1-0, earning coach Denise Dallamora her 300th win in her 35th season as coach of the team—the program’s only coach in its history.

Dallamora carries a career 300256-58 record and is just the 14th Division III coach to reach the plateau, and one of 35 to reach the mark across all NCAA divisions.

Forward Samantha Schwartz ’18, who scored Sunday’s only goal, shared how it felt to be a part of Dal-

lamora’s 300th win.

“It meant a lot to us; Obviously we were hoping for it to be against our home opener against MIT, but regardless it was great that we knew we were almost giving back to coach Dallamora for all that she's done for us as a team,” she said.

The Judges responded to a poor showing in their first game of the season with a resounding victory against the Clark Cougars.

The Judges put the pressure on from the start, outshooting the home team 15-1 in the first half.

As well as the Judges started the game, Clark junior goalkeeper Gabby Paolini might have played even better, managing to stop all of Brandeis’ shots on goal and keeping the score tied 0-0 at the half.

Her 11 saves at the half would be impressive for an entire game’s worth of work, and she finished with 15 on the day.

The Judges were finally able to take advantage of their continued pressure with a goal in the 60th

minute when midfielder Sapir Edalati ’15 crossed the ball from the right side of the box onto the foot of undefended Schwartz for the goahead goal.

“I saw [Edalati] coming up the end line on the right side and I was trying to get into the box and be back post for her,” Schwartz said.

“She slotted the ball across the top of the six [yard box] and I just touched it in,” she continued.

The goal was the first of Schwartz’s collegiate career and the first of the season for the team following Friday’s shutout.

Edalati led the squad with six shots—five on goal—and eight of the 10 Judges to record a shot had two or more.

The Judges’ defense locked down from that point on and did not allow another shot on net the rest of the way, ending the game with a gaudy 27-3 shot advantage and coming away with the victory.

In their home opener against MIT

See WSOC, 13 ☛

JustArts Volume LXVII, Number 2

Your weekly guide to arts, movies, music and everything cultural at Brandeis and beyond

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Waltham, Mass.

Rose Art Museum Rose exhibits will open on Sept. 10 - p.20

‘The Giver:’ Film adaptation of Lois Lowry’s novel deviates from the original book, pandering to young adult audience » 19

INSIDE

Howl at the Moon Dueling Pianos show comes to campus for a sing-along event in the Shapiro Science Center » 19

Boston Arts Festival Annual festival showcases art vendors and interarctive artwork » 21

New Pop Songs “All About that Bass” and “Anaconda” liberate images of women in popular music » 23

18

justARTS

TUESDAY, september 2, 2014 | THE JUSTICE

CALENDAR

INTERVIEW

$

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus this week

ON-CAMPUS EVENTS

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS

Brandeis Korean Student Association invites you all to join us in celebrating Chuseok this coming week. Chuseok is a Korean event in the Fall that is very similar to Thanksgiving. Come and learn more about this specific holiday that is important in Korea. Korean food traditionally specific to the holiday will be served at the event Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Jehuda Reinharz Residence Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

As the first comprehensive retrospective of artist Jamie Wyeth, this exhibition examines his imaginative approach to realism over the course of six decades.

Works on view span from his earliest childhood drawings and cover various recurring themes inspired by the people, places and objects that populate his world.

Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts and accompanied by an extensively illustrated catalogue, the exhibition will travel to three additional venues.

On view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston through Dec. 28. Admission is free with a Brandeis ID.

BKSA Presents Chuseok

Mobile Scavenger Boston

Writer and Director of ‘Lost Girls’ MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

This week, JustArts spoke with Charlie Madison ’15, who has written his own play, Lost Girls. Madison will direct the play which will be which will be performed by Brandeis Ensemble Theater in November.

24-Hour Musical

Come see this annual Brandeis theater tradition—a musical staged, rehearsed and performed in just 24 hours.

Sunday from 8 to 11 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater.

Presented by Tympanium Euphorium.

This is a Brandeis-only event.

JustArts: Can you tell me a little about your play, Lost Girls?

Charlie Madison: Lost Girls came to fruition out of this running theme of the past two years just noticing the double standards of gender in society ... It’s a about a girl, Danielle— it’s a dream, so it’s a little kooky. She gets dropped in this barren place, a completely black space, and in it exists certain mystical things. Like the wind has this omniscient presence. There’s this light that heals her wounds. Sci-fi sh*t.

While she’s in there, she discovers she’s with these three other women and they are complacent, just sitting there day in and day out. And [Danielle says], ‘No, I want to get out of here, we’re going to find a way out.’ They, through a series of tasks and trials and tribulations, get out of the space.

Indomitable Spirit: Juanita McNeely

The Women’s Studies Research Center presents a survey of works by feminist artist Juanita McNeely that span more than 40 years. Unabashed in her vision of woman that is both sensual and macabre, McNeely portrays her monumental figures with a visceral dexterity.

Showing through Oct. 8 in the Kniznick Gallery of the Women’s Studies Research Center. The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

JA: How long did it take you to write?

JA: Have you started working on the actual production? I know you’re directing it.

CM: Funny you should ask that. Today is the Activities Fair and common audition signups [for the Undergraduate Theater Collective]. I had my first meeting with my main staff—my producer and stage manager. All summer it was sort of me sitting in my room thinking about [Lost Girls] in abstract terms. Now it’s schedules, who’s doing what, the budget. It’s awesome and it’s so exciting—a tiny bit terrifying.

JA: Do you anticipate any problems having written the play, as well as directing it? What do you think that’s going to be like?

CM: I’m not the strongest writer, [I’m] sort of self aware about that. But I do like to think that I have some talent as a writer. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be going up in the theater.

So what I would like to do is make up for the weaknesses in the play through physical direction. Bertolt Brecht had this thing called the Brecht test, where you could look at a play without hearing anything and understand the whole thing just through visuals. That’s just a concept, it’s not an actual litmus test, but I really would like to tell the story just as strongly and if anything make up for some holes in the plot through direction.

JA: What is one message you want people to get out of it?

CM: There’s definitely one message I’ve been thinking about for a while. When you see somebody, and they fit certain characteristics, like they are a sorority girl or they are a math nerd, don’t make assumptions. You don’t know about people’s lives. A lot of negative prevalent situations in our society are a result of assumptions.

JA: Do you plan on doing something like this in the future after you graduate?

CM: I do! For a while I sent out the play to my friends and family asking for edits and revisions and didn’t really get anything cause it was summer. And since I’m writing my thesis, I’m already working on that now, and so straddling the two is so time-consuming that I’ve shifted from wanting to move it forward to a festival, to thinking you have many other stories to tell, and this is kind of a broad story, and there are diverse characters that don’t really fit in the best way, but I was commissioned to write this when I wrote the sample. So while I do value it, I am really looking forward to moving on to something else with a clear vision and editing it.But regardless, I am so excited about Lost Girls, and putting it on its feet.

—Emily Wishingrad

through

Want to get to know Boston better and win a few prizes? Find a team or play alone, and take part in a scavenger hunt through Boston with your phone.

Saturday from 12 to 4 p.m. Starting location: Shapiro Campus Center Atrium. Transportation is not provided.

Charlie Madison ’15

CM: I wrote a seven page sample for [Brandeis Theater Ensemble] voting proposals last April. Then everybody was like, ‘the play’s written right?’ And I was like, ‘Um, well, no.’

And I also have a thesis going up in the spring through the [Senior Arts Theater Festival], so I’m kind of like, ‘what is sleep?’ I wrote [Lost Girls] all summer. I interned at Central Square Theater in Cambridge, and I also work at Citizen’s Bank as a teller part-time, so I would go from one to the other throughout the week. After I would come home, I would be exhausted, but I had to write—so it was through long hours throughout the summer.

Hunt

Exhibition: Jamie Wyeth

‘Stir’ Callithumpian Consort

Overseen by Artistic Director Stephen Drury, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will host Stir: Callithumpian Consort—a night of music and entertainment. The program is titled “Winds,” and it will feature performances by John Zorn, Karlhein Stockhausen, Franco Donatoni and Davide Ianni.

Thursday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Tickets range from $12 to $27 and are available at http://www. gardnermuseum.com/.

‘Finding Neverland’

Performed at the Americ an Repertory Theater, this musical is making its world premiere on the stage. Finding Neverland was written by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy and is based on a book of the same title by James Graham.

The story follows the relationship between playwright J. M. Barrie and the family that inspired the beloved story of Peter Pan. This musical is presented with special permission from the Harvey Weinstein Company.

Playing at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge through Sept. 28. Tickets are $25 and are available online at http://www.

americanrepertorytheater.org/.

The Black Keys

The tour supports the duo’s new album, Turn Blue. Produced by Danger Mouse, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, Turn Blue comprises 11 new tracks, including the first single, “Fever.” Turn Blue was recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles during the summer of 2013 with additional recording done at the Key Club in Benton Harbor, MI and Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound in Nashville in early 2014.

Sunday, Sept. 21 at TD Garden in Boston. Tickets range from $45 to $110 and are available online at http://www. ticketmaster.com/.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Join the Full Body Cast shadow cast troupe for their weekly showing of the cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The group performs along to the film as they show it, making for a unique experience—something no camp enthusiast will want to miss.

Showing every Saturday at midnight at the AMC Theater in Boston Common.

Tickets are $12 and are available through Fandango. This show is a 17 and over event.

Landscape, abstracted

This new installation in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art’s Eunice and Julian Cohen Galleria offers a contemporary spin on landscape art.

Ten works, including sculptures, paintings, installation, and video art, present contemporary art as the latest chapter in the story of landscape art through the ages, as told by the Museum of Fine Arts’ encyclopedic collection.

Works include a number of new acquisitions that have never before been on view, as well as new commissions by Jason Middlebrook and Anne Lindberg.

Showing at the Museum of Fine Arts through July 30, 2017 in the Eunice and Julian Cohen Galleria (Gallery 265).

Members and Brandeis students with a valid ID receive free admission.

Pop Culture n !

ww fall TV time, which means brandIt’s new seasons of returning favorites as well as premieres of hot new series. Some returning shows include comedy smash The Big Bang Theory, as well as the longrunning crime drama Bones and Netflix’s House of Cards.

One especially notable returning show is Lisa Kudrow’s sitcom The Comeback, which was canceled after a 13-episode one-season run in 2005 on HBO. Kudrow, who found fame on Friends, shone as the zany Valerie Cherish as she navigated the world of reality television as a former soap star. The new six-episode season will give the series its much-deserved second chance, as current HBO execs have decided that the network now has the capacity to add the comedy back into its hit-packed lineup.

If you’re looking for something new though, this season should have something for everyone. From superheroes to 18th-century Scotland to singing fairytales, the eclectic roundup should be a major improvement from summer’s slow season.

Fox’s new additions include the Red Band Society and Gotham. The former is an already critically-acclaimed show following the mini-trend of dramas centering around young people with cancer (see John Green’s tearjerker novel-turned-blockbuster The Fault in Our Stars or ABC Family’s Chasing Life). The latter stars The Help’s Octavia Spencer, Brothers and Sisters’ Dave Annable and a slew of fresh young faces playing sick children in a pediatric ward.

Gotham is TV’s latest foray into the world of superheroes, set in Batman’s hometown but focusing on Detective James Gordon (Ben Mckenzie) as he investigates the murders of the future Dark Knight’s parents. The young Bruce Wayne, played by newcomer David Mazouz, as well as the butler Alfred, played by Sean Pertwee, are also prominent characters.

Outlander is an ambitious double period piece airing on Starz. Based on Diana Gabaldon’s epic series of novels, the show is carried by Catriona Balfe

By Ilana Kruger

CREATIVE COMMONS

WHAT A COMEBACK: HBO’s canceled show will be making a comeback—no pun intended. as Claire, a British World War II nurse who is transported to 1743 while on a second honeymoon with her husband in Scotland. The premise sounds confusing, but the sprawling romance is already a hit after its first few episodes.

The History Channel is offering up the two-part scripted miniseries Houdini, starring Adrien Brody as the famous illusionist. The show chronicles Houdini’s rise to infamy through his daring stunts as an escape artist.

Following the success of it’s wildly popular Once Upon a Time, ABC will premiere the ambitious Galavant.

Sharing Once’s fairy-tale plotlines, the show is a new step for the network since it is a musical with original songs written

by Glenn Slater and composed by Alan

Menken. Both contributed to Disney classics such as The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. John Stamos and Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville are already slated to guest star on the series, which follows the titular character on a quest for his “happily ever after.”

Back in present day, CBS’s Madam Secretary and NBC’s State of Affairs are new political dramas featuring female protagonists, following in ABC’s Scandal’s footsteps. Starring Katherine Heigl as a CIA analyst in her first major television since Grey’s Anatomy, State of Affairs also features Alfre Woodard as the first black female President of the United States. Madam Secretary stars Tea Leoni as a Secretary of State balancing her personal and public lives.

ARTS COVER IMAGES: GRACE KWON and JESSIE MILLER/the Justice, CREATIVE COMMONS and the Rose Art Museum.

DESIGN: GRACE KWON/the Justice.

ON CAMPUS concert

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, september 2, 2014

SINGING AS ONE: On Friday night, performers from Howl at the Moon (a national piano bar) came to the Shapiro Science Center for an interactive concert.

GRACE KWON/the Justice

film

‘The Giver’ differs from novel as to attract audience By ilana kruger justice Staff writer

Dueling Pianos concert brings together new and returning students By emily wishingrad JUSTICE editor

“Where else can you go from ‘F You’ to ‘Let it Go’ in one song?” one of the Howl at the Moon performers shouted to the audience while diving into the celebrated song from the recent Disney hit, Frozen. But on Friday night in the Shapiro Science Center, the sudden change from the pop/hiphop song to the lyrical Disney tune seemed absolutely normal and even encouraged by the audience.

The event, called “Dueling Pianos with Howl at the Moon,” featured two musicians who simultaneously sang and played their own accompaniment on the piano. And the audience created the playlist—slips of paper littered the tables on which listeners were invited to write songs they would like to hear. Requests ranged from “Mamma Mia” to “Fancy” to “Dancing Queen” to “Proud Mary”—and everything in between.

Howl at the Moon is actually the name sharred by 11 piano bars around the country at which performers create this same type of dueling piano and sing-along performance. The Howl at the Moon bar in Boston is located in the Financial District. Director of Student Activities Stephanie

Grimes said in an interview with the Justice that the event was the “brain child” of Steve Pagios, the new associate director of student activities, who took the position last spring. Pagios commented in an interview with the Justice on the choice of Howl at the Moon, “A lot of people like music, [so we were thinking] ‘how can we still provide music but do it in a different way?’”

The Science Center Atrium, usually a staid entrance where students study or gather before class, was turned into a cool piano club where two musicians sat at adjacent baby grand pianos as students gathered around tables, singing and chatting with friends.

The concert did not just resemble a playlist of popular and requested songs, however. The duo put their own spin on songs—improvising lyrics, jazzing up songs and spontaneously switching from song to song when two songs had the same chords. At times the two performers would leave out a word or a phrase out of a song for the audience to fill in. The musicians had iPads in front of them for lyrics, but it seemed as though the piano parts were completely improvised.

“We were trying to think of something new that would appeal to both upperclassmen and

underclassmen,” Paigos said, “We wanted something, especially with new people coming on campus but also for returners, as kind of a ‘welcome back, let’s sing together.’”

As it got later, students started dancing in the center of the atrium and the performers adhered to the vibe—changing their songs to group dance numbers such as “Cotton Eyed Joe” and “The Cupid Shuffle.”

Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel made an appearance toward the middle of the show and engaged with students—chatting and partaking in the dancing and singing.

When asked if he would think of doing something like this again, Pagios said, “I always like trying different things because there are so many different things out there, so why repeat?”

But he also reflected that since this event worked so well, he would be interested in making it a tradition. “If something like this worked out and people were really engaged and want to do it again, maybe we [would] try it for the spring semester again,” he said.

In the spirit of orientation, Howl at the Moon with Dueling Pianos brought students together through a new experience.

19

First, there was the internationally best-selling Harry Potter series, a slew of books-turned-films that spurred eight movies and created a new trio of movie stars. Then young adult fiction had its vampire moment, ushered in by the Twilight novels and their subsequent adaptations. Following that was a tiny zombie moment (I’m looking at you, Warm Bodies). And now movie-goers are riding the wave of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction.

The latest film to follow this trend of dystopian novels being turned into Hollywood blockbuster is The Giver, released on Aug. 15, based on Lois Lowry’s 1993 novel.

Jonas, played by Brenton Thwaites, lives in a dystopian society that consists of strictlyregulated communities, with no competition, weather, animals or any differences between people. In this world of “sameness,” Jonas awaits his career assignment at his graduation ceremony, where he is surprised to learn that he has been selected as the new “Receiver of Memory,” to be trained by the former receiver who is now the “giver,” played by Jeff Bridges.

As Jonas learns about the past and the things, both good and bad, that his society lacks, the film cleverly injects footage of weddings, births, deaths and wars from around the globe, including some staged and some real footage. The film starts out colorless but injects pops of color, such as a red apple, as Jonas becomes aware of the different pigments.

Bridges plays the titular character with just the right amount of bitterness and heart. Bridges, who is also a producer on the film, had originally planned for his father, Lloyd Bridges, (who passed away in 1998) to play the Giver. Time had other plans, and Bridges’ performance of the character is the most loyal to the novel.

If I had seen the movie without any prior knowledge from the book, I might have enjoyed it more. The novel is not, in any way, a romance, action or even remotely a young adult novel. It is dystopian fiction aimed at a much younger audience. Jonas, played by 25-year-old Thwaites, is now 16 years old instead of 11 and is presented as the central heartthrob instead of the awkward young boy in the novel.

His childhood friend and potential love interest, Fiona (Odeya Rush),

is given a much larger role in the film in order to play up the romance between them, which is only hinted to in the novel; they’re originally children, after all.

Along with the changes to the main character, the plot of the film has also matured to cater to an audience that read the book as children and are seeing it many years later. It has taken over 20 years for The Giver to be brought to the big screen, but that doesn’t mean that our memories of the novel are so dim that we can’t remember the original plot.

Unlike the Hunger Games or Divergent trilogies, the novel version of The Giver is not the start of a multi-movie run. While the book does have three companion novels set in the same era, the protagonists introduced in the first installment don’t, for the most part, appear in the later novels. This film, therefore, doesn’t seem to be the start of a series of films starring Thwaites.

Any potential sequels adapted from the other novels will feature new characters.

I do wish that Jonas’ age hadn’t been so drastically altered, since the film loses some of the novel’s poignancy. Jonas is still out of place, but his younger age in the novel endears the reader to him and his story even more. But it remains a sort of coming-of-age story nevertheless.

Every movie adaptation requires changes to the book’s original plot and not everything is easily translated from page to screen. In the case of The Giver, however, the long-awaited adaptation seems intentionally altered to attract the same audience as its dystopian predecessors, such as the Hunger Games series.

Adaptations of novels don’t necessarily need to be judges based on their faithfulness to the original. I think that the Harry Potter novels and films are classics in their own right, regardless of differences between the books and movies. In the case of The Giver, though, the changes seem to be for the sole purpose of attracting more people to the box office.

It would have been refreshing to see a film featuring young adults or children finding their place in the world without added romance or eye candy.

In today’s slew of dystopian movies, though, this one does provide an original and thought-provoking premise, along with some captivating performances.

CREATIVE COMMONS

THE BOOK THAT KEEPS ON GIVING : The Giver, based on Lois Lowry’s dystopian novel, is Hollywood’s newest book-to-movie release. Above are the stars of the film.

20

TUESDAY, september 2, 2014 | THE JUSTICE

rose art museum ART HISTORY: The newest addition to the Rose Projects series will feature both work by Magnus Plessen and the historical works to which the artist’s work is tied.

IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ROSE ART MUSEUM

IMAGE COURTESY OF MARK BRADFORD

LINES IN THE SAND: Mark Bradford: Sea Monsters will feature paintings such as the above “No Time To Expand the Sea,” as well as sculptures inspired by 16th and 17th-century maps created by the titular artist.

Rose exhibitions will open on Sept 10 By emily wishingrad justice editor

The Rose Art Museum will open its doors for its highly anticipated opening on Wednesday, Sept. 10.

The opening will encompass the second lighting of the new permanent installation outside the entrance, “Light of Reason,” created by Chris Burden. It will also feature the unveiling of four new exhibits—one video installation, one installment of the Rose Project series, a Collection in Focus (works from the Museum’s permanent collection) and an exhibit featuring works by artist Mark Bradford. Artists Chris Burden, Mark Bradford and Magnus Plessen will be in attendance to view the openings of the exhibits featuring their works.

The new exhibits will open in the early evening followed by the dedication and lighting of the “Light of Reason.” During the

lighting, the Lydian String Quartet will perform. Following the lighting, folk band The Antlers will perform and refreshments will be served from food trucks located near the Rose, according to curatorial assistant at the Rose, Caitlin Rubin.

In an interview with the Justice, Rubin wrote that “Light of Reason” artist Chris Burden will attend and participate in the lighting but did not say which particular role he would have. Rubin mentioned that speakers at the lighting will include President Frederick Lawrence, Chairman of the Brandeis University Board of Trustees Perry Traquina ’78, Chair of the Rose Art Museum’s Board of Advisors Lizbeth Krupp and the Henry and Lois Foster Director of the Rose Art Museum Christopher Bedford.

But the Rose has also extended an invitation to the festivities beyond the Brandeis community.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHERVIN LAINE

DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS: The band The Antlers will perform after the dedication and lighting ceremony of the “Light of Reason” on Wednesday, Sept. 10.

“We’ve extended invitations to members of the broader Boston arts community, including curators and directors at nearby institutions, and expect that they will be in attendance in addition to museum and gallery professionals traveling a greater distance,” Rubin wrote in an email to the Justice. “We’ll also be posting flyers at other nearby schools to generate student interest beyond Brandeis,” she added.

According to Rubin’s email, the choice to invite The Antlers was made thoughtfully, “We consulted with Brandeis students to find a band that would be fitting for the event. We hope that this concert is the first of many events that will take place beneath Burden’s lampposts, taking inspiration from the installation to activate a space that was formerly underutilized,” she wrote in an email to the Justice.

“Rose Video 04” will be on view

in the Rose Video gallery. The website mentions that Alex Hubbard, the artist, “works in a variety of media to explore and break down the arrangement and production of images, playing with the composition and subsequent manipulation of ordinary objects” The exhibit will feature Hubbard’s Annotated Plans for an Evacuation (2009) and a recently completed painting.

Another installation of an ongoing project: Rose Projects will open in the Lower Rose Gallery. Bedford said in an interview with the Justice, published in an article on April 8 that the project strives to “look thematically across the history of art” and focus on the “voice of the curator.”

This installation of the project is called 1914: Magnus Plessen. The exhibit is described on the website as exhibiting “recent work

by Magnus Plessen alongside the historical material to which Pless-

en’s work is tied, documents of the experience and traumatic injuries of WWI.” Mark Bradford: Sea Monsters, located in the Gerald S. and Sandra Feinberg Gallery will show the recent work by artist Mark Bradford. The press release for the exhibit states that it features “major new paintings and sculptures inspired by 16th- and 17th-century decorative sea maps [and]... a monumentally scaled installation created specifically... for the museum’s glass-fronted Lois Foster Wing.”

The hype surrounding the event has been building with the numerous posts on social media over the summer, the looming, unfinished installation that greeted students as they came back to campus and the preview of the lighting during Orientation. But luckily, from the description of the ceremonies, it looks as though the opening will live up to expectations.

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, september 2, 2014

21

arts festival WELCOME TO BOSTON: The Boston Arts Festival transformed the usually tranquil Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, pictured here, into a lively area.

CREATIVE COMMONS

Arts Festival hosts interactive vendors By jessie miller and rachel hughes justice editors

To wrap up the summer and usher in the fall, the City of Boston, in collaboration with the State Street Corporation, produced the eleventh annual Boston Arts Festival—more simply known as “ähts.” The festival took over at the Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, near Boston’s North End, on Saturday, Aug. 30 and Sunday, Aug. 31.

With a view of the harbor on one side and the Rose Kennedy Greenway on the other, the festival’s location was perfect and readily available for both locals and tourists. The open nature of the festival also allowed people to come and go, enjoying both the festival and other attractions in Boston.

According to the event’s Facebook page, the festival showcased “diverse performing arts, educational and interactive art activities, cutting-edge temporary public art, and more than 45 juried local artists selling their work.” The artists—mostly local vendors—were stationed in booths organized into aisles striping through the middle of the greenery, so festival-goers could walk through the park and see all of the wares, works and pieces that were for sale and on view.

One of the interactive exhibits, “Water Graffiti for Peace,” hosted by artists Shaw Pong Liu and Mike Mei, attracted a sizable crowd. The artists set up large posters of Chinese radicals, the fundamentals of the written Chinese language—to

inspire festivalgoers to create their own Chinese characters. Participants used special oversized sidewalk calligraphy brushes to paint their characters for peace onto the pavement directly.

Attracting mostly children, The Fun Factor set up linked fenceshaped panels for people to paint themselves, culminating in an abstract purple, blue and pink design.

The Fun Factor is a Newton-based company that provides, according to their website, “corporate interactive entertainment,” as well as team building events, themed and holiday parties and summer outings, like scavenger hunts, for kids.

Diablo Glass Company demonstrated glass blowing at their installation, explaining the glass-making process as they used a furnace and other equipment to shape the glass. Across the park, adults and children participated in “Sidewalk Chalk with Christian Guerra,” leaving the paved walkway decorated with colorful writing and designs, including a peace dove design.

What looked like a food truck was parked in the middle of the walkway. However, the street art style painted truck was not selling food, rather the work of The UP Truck, “a mobile creative arts lab for community engagement using unconditional ways to engage people in the arts,” according to their website.

Along with live painting demonstrations, The UP Truck artists also explained their ideas and style to eagerly listening festival attendants.

During the entire festival, constant music located on a mainstage

set up just in front of the waterfront, livened up the atmosphere.

Some of the performers included J Hoard and the Greenhouse People, Los Rumberos de Boston, Thalia Zedek Band and Animal Hospital Ensemble.

On Saturday night, the City of Boston and Summer on the Waterfront presented a fireworks show from within the harbor, attracting large crowds along the water.

Despite the cold temperature, the fireworks were an excellent way to end the day, especially since it was Labor Day weekend.

While the performance art and interactive art pieces—like the fence-painting project and UP Truck—stood out to attendees this year, this year’s festival was very different from last year’s festival, and not entirely for the better. At last year’s Festival of the Arts, which was the tenth anniversary of the event, several interactive installation art pieces were staged in the park, and attracted visitors to have a tactile interaction with art.

Having gone to the festival for the past two years, we really missed this aspect of the occasion—seeing families walk through aisles of vendors just wasn’t the same as seeing parents hold their toddlers’ hands as they walked through life-size sculptures and installation pieces.

Overall, though, the “ähts” Festival was a wonderful way to spend a weekend afternoon, and encouraged us to interact with both Boston and the array of art that the city is home to. We’re looking forward to next year.

JESSIE MILLER/the Justice

ON THE FENCE: Festivalgoers of all ages contributed to this colorful fence painting project.

JESSIE MILLER/the Justice

SHAPESHIFTERS: The Diablo Glass Company demonstrated how glass is made in an oven.

PAINT IT UP: A member from The UP Truck, the mobile art initiative, creates a new piece as festivalgoers watch on, just one of their many demonstrations.

JESSIE MILLER/the Justice

JESSIE MILLER/the Justice

LOCALLY GROWN: Along with the other installations, the festival included many art vendors, including these men selling small hand-painted, colorful artwork.

22

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014 | THE JUSTICE

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Contact Emily Wishingrad at arts@thejustice.org

23

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014 | THE JUSTICE

opinion

New pop songs and videos empower women By catherine rosch justice editorial assistant

There are popular tropes in popular music; girl gets boy, boy gets girl, boy lusts after girl, everyone parties and has a good time. There are also political tropes, songs that call out oppression, sexism, racism and homophobia. However, very few popular songs released today discuss the female body in a positive and not overly sexualized manner. Even songs that do not explicitly refer to a woman’s body (most notably One Direction’s hit “What Makes You Beautiful” but arguably even Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”) subtly demean women who are confident in their looks, implying that women only can be attractive if they think they are ugly.

Taylor Swift continues that trend in “You Belong With Me” by dissing the cheerleader who wears short skirts and high heels, in contrast to the narrator’s jeans and casual shirts. Even Sir Mix A Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” a song that celebrates curvy women, does so in an overtly sexual way by only focusing on the idealized female form of a woman who has “an itty-bitty waist/and a round thing in your face,” implying

that curvy women are only pretty or appealing if they are also skinny.

That’s why Meghan Trainor’s debut single “All About That Bass,” released on June 2, and Nicki Minaj’s new song “Anaconda,” released on Aug. 4, are such great breaths of fresh air. Both songs are popular summer hits, easy to sing along and dance to. But to me, a girl whose body does not fall into the conventional standards of beauty, and to any young woman who has felt ashamed of her hips or how broad her shoulders are, these songs represent something more. They are new pop anthems that celebrate untraditional bodies, women with curves, women who aren’t skinny and aren’t a size zero. And these songs celebrate these aspects of real women without turning them into sex objects.

It’s important that these two songs, one with a pop-country bubblegum beat and the other with a more steady, pounding beat, sometimes inappropriate rap piece, came out in the summer. It is important that both these songs, written by young women, have topped the charts and are popular, because these songs encourage women and girls to celebrate their bodies, not

NO TREBLE: Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” portrays a positive view of women who do not embody the traditional image of beauty.

CREATIVE COMMONS

to be ashamed of them. They’ve reached out to a mass audience that has otherwise grown up on One Direction and Sir Mix A Lot’s views of women’s bodies.

“All About That Bass” is clearly a body positivity anthem. With lyrics like “I see the magazine workin’ that Photoshop/that s**t ain’t real/ c’mon now, make it stop” or “I’m here to tell ya/every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top,” Trainor celebrates every type of body, regardless of size, ability or whether a person fits into society’s often narrow standards of beauty. It can even be seen as a commentary on how the media changes women’s bodies to fit a certain, unrealistic ideal. Even the controversial lyric “tell them skinny b*tches” is immediately followed up with Trainor telling the listener that she knows even women who fit into society’s standards are often self-conscious about their weight.

But what makes “All About That Bass” the most revolutionary to me isn’t the lyrics, which I do strongly identify with, or the fun, pop-country beat—it’s the music video. The featured dancer is male, a young black man with a round face, huge smile and a large belly. As he danc-

BREAK FREE: “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj unconventionally places women at the forefront of the action. The amazonian women use the one man in the film as a metephorical prop.

CREATIVE COMMONS

es, swinging his hips and having a good time, his brightly colored shirt rides up, exposing his stomach, his stretch marks and his less-thanperfect body. And it is clear that he is comfortable with this image.

He doesn’t try to cover himself or to tug the shirt down. Obviously, it is a scripted moment, but it speaks volumes, saying that it is possible to love yourself, to dance in a traditionally sexy manner and to also be curvy.

While Trainor’s song is sugary sweet and easy to follow, Nicki Minaj is rougher with her language, her message and her subversion of the male gaze and female sexuality in “Anaconda.” While the general theme of the song, with the refrain of “my anaconda don’t want none unless you got/buns hun” is decidedly sexual and a reference to “Baby Got Back,” it is less clear if Minaj is only referring to women with the traditional definition of beauty Sir Mix A Lot uses.

Later lyrics, most notably “he don’t like ‘em boney, he want something/he can grab,” talk about women who aren’t skinny but have curves and does so in a way that doesn’t shame women who are naturally more slight. She doesn’t mock skinny bodies but says that it is okay to have more flesh, to not be the skin and bones of a fashion model. Like Trainor, Minaj is celebrating diverse, healthy bodies, calling out the use of Photoshop and the idea that only the models we see in magazines can be pretty.

On first glance, the “Anaconda” music video can be seen as quite sexualized, something like the ste-

reotypical rap video. After all, it begins with a woman, Minaj, twerking in time to the pounding lyrics.

But, as the video goes on, there is a difference. Yes, the dancers are all female and are all in various states of undress, but their dancing, while sexual, is also athletic. They do backflips and full splits, and, most notably, you can see their faces.

These women and their bodies are more than just props.

There is no male gaze; the closest thing to a male gaze comes when Minaj slices up a phallic banana and throws it over her shoulder, her lip curling in disgust. The only man in the film, Drake, is used as a prop.

He spends his time in casual clothing, in a chair, the secondary focus as Minaj dances in front of him, tormenting him, before batting his hands away and walking off, confident and curvy.

Neither Meghan Trainor nor Nicki Minaj fit into what society calls “pretty.” Both of them are curvy, both of them have tummies and cellulite, both of them—well, Trainor a bit more than Minaj—look like the girls I know. Their summer songs that are now pop anthems, something you could hear on the radio or at a friend’s house party, are refreshing. They celebrate women like me, women who aren’t perfect, and these two female artists make it clear that it is okay not to be perfect.

Hopefully, this trend of body positive songs does not end with “Anaconda” and “All About That Bass.”

I know I can’t wait to turn on the radio and not be shocked to hear a song that celebrates women’s bodies instead of tearing them down.

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24 “

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014 | THE JUSTICE

TOPof the

ARTS ON VIEW

Brandeis TALKS

CHARTS

Quote of the week

for the week ending August 31

“A president’s special charge is to preserve and protect the space of free exchange and inquiry that is a university,”

BOX OFFICE

1. Guardians of the Gallaxy 2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) 3. If I Stay 4. As Above/So Below 5. Let’s Be Cops 6. The November Man 7. When the Game Stands Tall 8. The Giver 9. The Hundred-Foot Journey 10. The Expendables 3

—Prof. Mary Baine Campbell (ENG) on President Fredrick Lawrence’s response to faculty over a recent listserv controversy.

(News, p. 1)

What activities are you interested in getting involved with?

NYT BESTSELLERS

JESSIE MILLER/the Justice

Ali Sugarman ’18 “3-D printing because I learned how to 3D print over the summer and I’m looking forward to meeting other people who know how to do it.”

ROLLING HILLS: While spending the day in the foothills of Jerusalem, Justice editor Jessie Miller ’15 took this photo of Hadassah Medical Center and Hebrew University overlooking the Jerusalem hills.

the justice wants to see your original artwork!

Send works to photos@thejustice.org for a chance to be featured in next week’s issue.

CROSSWORD

Amy Zhang ’18

“The Global Medical Brigades because it’s something that I’ve always been interested in doing and looking forward to doing in the future.”

Eirian Siegal-Botti ’18 “Probably the feminism club because they’re really involved in the different issues of today and speaking about what everyone in the club cares about.”

Elon Mathieson ’18 “The Boxing Club because it seems like a great way to relieve stress and stay fit.”

1. Taylor Swift—“Shake it Off” 2. Meghan Trainor—“All About That Bass” 3. Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj—”Bang Bang” (feat. Zedd) 4. Ariana Grande—“Break Free” 5. Sam Smith—“Stay With Me”

BILLBOARD

1. Wiz Khalifa—Blacc Hollywood 2. Soundtrack—Guardians Of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 3. Chase Rice—Ignite The Night 4. Various Artists—Now 51 5. Various Artists—Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute To Motley Crue 6. Soundtrack—Frozen 7. Sam Smith—In The Lonely Hour 8. 5 Seconds of Summer—5 Seconds of Summer 9. Ace Frehley—Space Invader 10. Ed Sheeran—X Top of the Charts information provided by Fandango, the New York Times, Billboard. com and Apple.com.

STAFF’S Top Ten

HIDDEN GEMS By hannah wulkan

Solution to last issue’s crossword Crossword Copyright 2013 MCT Campus, Inc.

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.

Matthew Ragsdale ’18 “I’ve signed up for a lot of clubs, but at the moment I’m looking forward to the ultimate frisbee club because it’s something I’ve already been involved in.”

—Compiled and photographed by Grace Kwon/the Justice

Nonfiction

1. One Nation—Ben Carson with Candy Carson 2. The Organized Mind— Daniel J. Levitin 3. America— Dinesh D’Souza 4. In the Kingdom of Ice—Hampton Sides 5. The Way Forward—Paul Ryan

iTUNES

ACROSS 1 Foursome times two 6 “And there you have it!”

11 Barnyard bleat 14 Supercharged engine, for short 15 Like much bar beer 16 Foul up 17 Ice cream headache 19 Theology subj.

20 Of the state, to Sarkozy 21 Fur from a weasel 23 Woolly mama 25 Whistle-blower?

28 Soon, to Shakespeare 29 Dieter’s progress 31 Written permission to skip school 34 Campbell’s line 36 Old Russian leaders 37 Support, as a cause 40 Response provokers 44 Earthy tone 46 Soothes 47 Elmer Fudd, at times 52 Old Nair rival 53 Concert reed 54 Flight school finals 56 “King Kong” studio 57 Proficient in 60 Corn Belt resident 62 Google Earth offering 63 “What a dumb idea!” (or what you might say about the beginning of 17-, 31- or 47-Across) 68 Put away some groceries?

69 Holy ark contents 32 Warmed the bench 70 Citizen under Caesar 33 Albany-to-Buffalo canal 71 Cold War state: Abbr.

35 The like 72 __Sweet: aspartame 38 Moo __ pork30 Vice President Burr 73 Agriculture giant celebrating its 39 White-tailed shorebirds 175th anniversary this year 41 Login requirement 42 Onion’s cousin DOWN 43 Comparison words 1 Gambling letters 45 DDE’s command 2 Unfriendly dog 47 Articles of faith 3 Swaps for a better model 48 German subs 4 “__ Baby”: “Hair” song 49 “The Last of the Mohicans” author 5 No-nos 50 Cuthbert of “24” 6 Whirlpool 51 Aussie bounders 7 Dollar bill 55 Weapon used with a shield, maybe 8 Suburban suffix 58 Memo abbr.

9 Lounge around 59 What you used to be?

10 Simon Says player 61 Mother Nature’s burn balm 11 Sheep prized for its wool 64 Getty display 12 “Am too!” retort 65 Street cover 13 “What’s My Line?” panelist Francis 66 Deface 18 Kismet 67 U-turn from WSW 22 Macho guy 23 End of a vague threat 24 Goes a-courting 26 Pretense 27 Tousle 30 Scared, as horses

Fiction 1. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage—Haruki Murakami 2. Adultery—Paulo Coelho 3. Big Little Lies— Liane Moriarty 4. The Goldfinch—Donna Tartt 5. Mean Streak—Sandra Brown

Solution to last issue’s sudoku

Sudoku Copyright 2013 MCT Campus, Inc.

justice editorial assistant

The activities fair can be very overwhelming and it may be hard to take in every club that exists on the Brandeis campus in a matter of three hours. In case you missed a group at the fair or weren’t able to attend, here are some clubs that you may never have known existed.

1. Brandeis Equestrian Team 2. Brandeis Cupcake Obsession 3. Brandeis 3D printing club 4. Brandeis Anime and Cosplay Association 5. Aikido club 6. Brandeis Firecracker Aerial Pole Dance Club 7. Gymnastics Club 8. Brandeis Initiative for Tech, Machines, Apps and Programming 9. Skydiving and Future Endeavors Club 10. Disney @ Deis