The Justice - Inauguration Special Section

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

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SPECIAL INAUGURATION EDITION

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INSIDE: Academic symposia 2 ■ Presidential profile 3 Inauguration ceremony 4-5 ■ Inaugural Ball 6 ■ Arts events 7

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ASHER KRELL/the Justice

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TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

INAUGURAL SYMPOSIA Academic Wisdom FERNANDO ROSENBERG (ROMS) “A diversified ethnic background of our student body, as desirable as it is, doesn’t immediately translate into diversity of social classes, abilities, languages, cultures, ages [or] sexual orientations.”

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT FREDERICK LAWRENCE “What I really hoped to achieve through this was the opportunity to have a coming together ... to reflect on this necessarily general theme of a global liberal arts university.”

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

FACULTY FINDINGS: From left, Profs. Fernando Rosenberg (ROMS), Bernadette Brotten (NEJS) and Ulka Anjaria (ENG) discussed diversity at a global university.

Symposia discuss inaugural themes ■ The panels addressed

the roles of social justice, diversity and business in liberal arts universities.

By ANDREW WINGENS and TYLER BELANGA JUSTICE STAFF WRITERs

Symposia featuring four discussion panels were held last Monday and Tuesday on various topics as part of University President Frederick Lawrence’s inauguration week.

The goal of the symposia, according to Provost Marty Krauss, was to “identify issues facing liberal arts universities that have a global presence and to analyze how those issues are dealt with at Brandeis.”

Day 1: Monday The first panel, titled “The Business of the University and the University as a Business: Issues of Work, Money, and Power and the Liberal Arts University,” included panelists Profs. Benjamin GomesCasseres (IBS) and Jane Kamensky (HIST), as well as Daniel Terris, vice president for Global Affairs.

Profs. Gregory Petsko (BCHM), Robin Feuer Miller (GRALL) and Joseph Wardwell (FA) made up a second panel titled “Sciences, the Creative Instinct, and the Liberal Arts.”

In addition to participating in the discussion, each panelist also wrote a short essay summarizing his or her opinions and thoughts on the topics that they discussed.

Essays were posted on the Brandeis website and are available for anyone to view.

In his opening statement, Terris talked about his extensive experience with Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor.

Terris explained that at every location he visited around the country, the corporation had put into place an extensive series of conversations at every level and that all 150,000 of its employees were involved in the conversation of ethics, values and decisionmaking.

It is interactions such as these that Terris believes would be useful in a university as well as a business setting.

“The sense of engagement was really quite dramatic. … You had that sense of constant engagement in ‘what is it we are all about,’” said Terris, whose essay was titled “Putting Business to Work.”

Kamensky praised Brandeis for the atmosphere that it creates for students and the significance of the close, personal interactions that occur between students and faculty members.

“As the sector of higher education shakes out, the value of the face-to-face ... is something that needs to be articulated again and again,” said Kamensky.

In the second panel, which focused on the importance of both the arts and humanities in addition to the sciences, Petsko emphasized the inseparability of the schools and the importance of including both schools in one’s knowledge base.

Day 2: Tuesday Social justice is defined as helping the “underdog” or the “oppressed,” explained Michael Sandel ’75, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass professor of government at Harvard University and member of the Board of Trustees, as the moderator of Tuesday’s symposium.

The first panel, titled “Diverse Communities and Liberal Arts,” consisted of Profs. Ulka Anjaria (ENG), Bernadette Brooten (NEJS) and Fernando Rosenberg (ROMS).

The second panel, called “Human Values, Global Challenges and the Liberal Arts,” was comprised of Profs. David Cunningham (SOC), Theodore Johnson (Heller) and Kathleen Moran (PHIL). Sandel moderated both panels.

Anjaria noted a dual threat to liberal arts institutions in today’s economy.

Liberal arts academies are threatened “from outside the academy, where we are constantly being asked to justify ourselves—how practical are we, how much are we going to ensure our students economic success in a climate of uncertainty,” said Anjaria.

Additionally, Anjaria said that liberal arts institutions are squeezed “from inside the academy as we use financial language to justify professionalizing ourselves, making ourselves more marketable.”

Brooten said that the University should reutilize existing resources to better teach languages to prepare students for “global leadership.”

This includes the use of language

tables, guest lecturers in foreign languages, open office hours with faculty in foreign languages, use of multiple languages in research papers, support of language faculty and a central-language website.

Rosenberg addressed the role that diversity should play at Brandeis.

“It is by making sure that our community of students, faculty, administrators and trustees is increasingly more diverse in every possible way that we can envision a future in which Brandeis will continue to thrive and be an exciting place that contributes something unique to the world,” said Rosenberg.

However, Rosenberg said that diversity is not based solely on ethnic backgrounds and that it includes socioeconomic, linguistic and cultural diversities.

The second panel focused on the role of social justice at a global liberal arts university.

Moran said that as humans, we must “think of the conditions other people live in and understand the options and choices people have and are faced with.”

Johnson suggested that a process of “deliberative dialogue” could lead to the “discovery of social justice” and the “elusive concept of coexistence.”

One of the final speakers, Cunningham, noted the connection between scholarship, social and political activism and the debate about the “appropriateness of the connection between scholarship and activism, scholarship and politics, [and] facts and values.”

DANIEL TERRIS (ETHICS) “We can learn something from certain forms of corporate enterprise about what it is to be corporate, what it is to be a body engaged in work… a sense of constant conversation… is something we can learn from business while trying to go about pursuing the values that we have.”

BERNADETTE BROOTEN (NEJS) “If you want to meet people on their own terms, you have to cross the language barrier. They will say different things to you. They will communicate different things to you in different ways. … Diversity is not about being comfortable.”

GREGORY PETSKO (BCHM) “The humanities without the objectivity of observation and evidence can easily turn into tyrannical dogma. The sciences without the leavening effect of the humanities can lead to the tyranny of the machine. The best of the arts and the humanities sets the mind free; so does the best of the sciences.”

Graduate students explain research project presentations ■ Graduate students, some

of whom received University awards, presented their research in poster form.

By SARA DEJENE JUSTICE EDITOR

University graduate students presented their research at the fourthannual Graduate Student Poster Research Symposium held over the course of last week leading up to the inauguration of University President Frederick Lawrence.

At the symposium, students presented what they had been researching throughout their time at the University. The symposium featured 12 posters that were displayed in the Art Gallery in the Shapiro Campus Center from master’s and doctorate students throughout the week. In

addition, two receptions were held with the presenters to discuss their research.

The posters, some of which were professionally printed through scholarships made possible by workshops provided by Assistant Provost for Graduate Student Affairs Alwina Bennett, displayed information gathered and research conducted by the students and their findings.

Graduate student Senator Zachary Matusheski, who coordinated the symposium, said in an interview with the Justice that a panel of faculty from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management and the International Business School narrowed down the submissions to 12 presenters. According to Bennett in an interview with the Justice, submissions were chosen based on the overall strength of the presentation.

Four research presentations were given awards based on votes that

were cast by graduate student senators, faculty and staff who viewed the posters, according to Bennett.

Both Bennett and Matusheski said that about 100 people attended the event during the 2 days when the receptions were held.

Matusheski said that the symposium would complement the two faculty symposiums that were also held as a part of the inauguration week.

Bennett, who sat on the Inauguration Planning Committee, worked with the committee to hold the symposium as a part of inauguration week.

According to Bennett, Sara Wooten (GRAD) and Xiaolin Li (GRAD) received provost awards which, according to the inaugural website, were given for “overall excellence.” In addition, Yue Pan (GRAD) and Kristen Sutherland (GRAD) were given Graduate Student Association prizes.

Wooten wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that her poster displayed her

findings of a study she conducted among college and university LGBTQ students in the Boston area and their experiences of sexual violence.

“I am trying to bridge the gap between what we know about campus rape culture and what we know about LGBTQ experiences of harassment and marginalization on their campuses,” wrote Wooten.

According to Wooten, 40.9 percent of participants experienced some form of unwanted sexual harassment during college. One in five participants said that they were sexually assaulted and one in 14 said they were raped.

“My colleagues who participated in the symposium as well are engaged in incredibly exciting and important research, so I really felt in the presence of greatness throughout the event,” wrote Wooten. “This project is something that I am truly passionate about, so to receive this sort of

recognition is incredibly encouraging.”

In an interview with the Justice, Pan said the symposium “was a great chance for the graduate students in different areas to exchange their ideas and to show my work to [people] who are not majoring in science.”

Pan wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that his poster displayed his research on the use of novel nanomaterials for multifunctional anticancer therapy, a way to kill cancer cells and tumors as a type of cancer treatment.

Another presenter, Monica Curca (GRAD), explained in an interview with the Justice that she researched the use of social marketing to promote social action in order to encourage peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

“It was great that they could show research that was more qualitative research as well as quantitative research,” said Curca.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, april 5, 2011

Sitting down with the

president

By Robyn Spector JUSTICE Editor

It’s been a busy week for Uni‑ versity President Frederick Law‑ rence‑—attending academic panels and receptions, participating in board meetings and, of course, the inauguration and ball. While his hands support the back of his head from exhaustion during our Friday afternoon interview, the new presi‑ dent’s eyes swell with tears. “This was one of the greatest weeks of my life,” he said last Friday in the inter‑ view.

That was 3 months to the day since he took over for President Emeritus Jehuda Reinharz. Law‑ rence describes his time at Brandeis so far as “enriching.” He estimates that he’s met over 2,000 alumni, par‑ ents, students and other community members. He said there was some‑ thing “extremely transformative about [Thursday’s] ceremony.”

At the Gosman Sports and Con‑ vocation Center last Thursday, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Malcolm Sherman and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Jonathan S. Jacobson placed a silver ceremo‑ nial chain around Lawrence’s neck, the official invocation of Lawrence as president. When asked after the ceremony if the chain was heavy, Lawrence said, “I know this sounds cliché, but it’s not today.”

It’s traditional at academic pro‑ ceedings for faculty and administra‑ tors to wear gowns that reflect their highest educational degrees, but university presidents get to design their own robes. Rather than wear‑ ing one from Yale University Law School, from which he graduated in 1980, Lawrence designed a royalblue gown trimmed with black and topped by a purple hood that signi‑ fied his Juris doctorate degree.

“It’s what a Brandeis gown might look like if the University offered an equivalent degree,” Lawrence said. Lawrence’s gown also had four black stripes along the sleeve, a trademark reserved only for uni‑ versity presidents.

Lawrence, 55, highlighted one par‑ ticular moment walking into Gos‑ man. “Coming in down the steps, I guess there was a whole group of students who got themselves on the wrong side of the procession, so they had to wait before they could come into the grandstands. … I knew I was supposed to stay in line, but I figured [the people in the pro‑ cession] weren’t going to go without me, so that’s why I wanted to just go over and touch base [with the students], and I did get very choked up just seeing [the student] reaction and knowing how many students wanted to be there.”

In his inaugural address, Law‑ rence spoke about how his mother, a high school English teacher in his hometown of Port Washington, N.Y., often reminded him, “Every student is somebody’s child.” This senti‑ ment, he admitted in our interview, will help shape the relationship he hopes to have with the student body.

Students have multiple names for the new president such as “Fred,” which he says is “fine,” and “Prez Fred,” which he calls “cute.” Law‑ rence laughed and admitted that there are still the occasional few who call him President Lawrence.

Lawrence understands that every student will want to have a different relationship with him. “I just try to make myself accessible to the com‑ munity,” he said.

“I’m still a member of the New York Bar,” Lawrence said with a laugh. “If I didn’t like being with students, there’s a better way to make a living. But being with stu‑ dents is one of the great pluses of this job.”

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

WELCOMING STUDENTS: President Frederick Lawrence addresses new students and parents during new student orientation at the beginning of the fall 2010 semester.

President Lawrence discusses his new position From Washington to Waltham The decision to move to Brandeis was not initially obvious for Law‑ rence. “I really wasn’t looking to leave [Washington, D.C.],” he said.

Since 2005, Lawrence had served as dean and Robert Kramer Research Professor of Law at George Washing‑ ton University Law School. His wife, Kathy Lawrence, also taught courses at GWU, specializing in 19th-century American literature. They had a

“comfortable setup” in the nation’s capital, he said. When Brandeis’ Presidential Search Committee first asked Lawrence in March 2010 if he was interested in Reinharz’s posi‑ tion, he was flattered but declined.

Search Committee Chair and Member of the Board of Trustees Ste‑ phen Kay followed up with Lawrence a few times after the Committee first contacted him. They met in Logan In‑

ternational Airport for an interview during one of Lawrence’s business trips to Boston. Lawrence explained that his interest in the job was “more of a continuum. Interested after the first meeting and more interested af‑ ter the second.” He recalled one mo‑ ment, washing dishes with his wife— “How prosaic a setting is that?”—to the change in his decision. Lawrence described Kathy saying to him, “I

still don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I’m pretty sure [the position] is your destiny.”

The family moved to Boston in 1988 when Lawrence became a faculty member and associate dean of aca‑ demic affairs at Boston University’s School of Law. Now the family lives in Cambridge, anticipating this sum‑ mer’s move into Brandeis’ presiden‑ tial house in Newton, Mass.

for Israeli Leader of the Opposition Tzipi Livni. “They are my sounding board,” Lawrence said of his family.

Judaism, President Lawrence ex‑ plained, “is the faith structure that gives rise to how I think about many things in my own life and in my fam‑ ily.” He predicted that there will continue to be a “close relationship” between the American-Jewish com‑ munity and the University, “at least in my presence here going forward,” he added.

“The roots of this University, just like I think of my own Jewish roots, are not roots that are narrow and parochial, but they are roots that are broad and universal. … It’s hard to

come up with a more universal im‑ pulse than the obligation to repair the world.”

According to Lawrence, his wife is working to improve the Univer‑ sity, most notably serving on Student Life Committee that planned last January’s Battle of the Brandeis DJs event. He credits his wife for roping him into emceeing the evening but stresses that he still owns the brag‑ ging rights to his genuine freestyle rap. Off the cuff is Lawrence’s spe‑ cialty, and even in his inaugural ad‑ dress he admits that he strayed from the written script; “Maybe that’s where the rapping comes from,” Law‑ rence joked.

tled “Punishment and Crime” that, according to its registrar course description, “examines theories jus‑ tifying criminal punishment, and the practice of law enforcement, as a means of understanding our society and its values.”

“If you ask my dad, ‘Why are you teaching a class?’” Noah said, “he will say, ‘I believe it’s the core mis‑ sion of the University, and I’ve got to support it and show that I’m part of it.’ My dad wants to hear everybody’s voice, … which doesn’t mean always saying, ‘That’s correct,’ but it means the fundamental affirmation that ‘you’re here, and I appreciate that, and we’re going to make some prog‑ ress.’”

Lawrence’s legal background— working as a clerk for Judge Amalya L. Kearse of the U.S. Court of Ap‑

peals for the Second Circuit, and later, as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he was appointed chief of the Civil Rights Unit—mirrors the Uni‑ versity’s central emphasis on social justice.

Lawrence’s ideal Brandeis would be a place “where people take their work seriously without taking them‑ selves so seriously. Where people find that they have lots of different ways of connecting to the institution, formal and informal. Where people are engaged with repairing the world, not every second of every day but part of every week. And where people have a sense of what it means to belong and what it means to give back,” President Lawrence said.

Is he nervous about the job ahead?

“Not at all.”

A family man’s priorities Family is a team, as Lawrence sees it. “Spending time with each other is important,” he said about his rela‑ tionship with his wife Kathy, 25-yearold daughter Miriam and 23-year-old son Noah. In childhood, Noah noted, in a separate interview after Thurs‑ day’s inauguration, that his father would play “legal hypotheticals” as a game with his children. “He would put cases to us of different scenarios and ask us who was right and who was wrong; and this to me gets at the core of what it means to be both a par‑ ent and a teacher. That education is fun.”

Additionally, Noah recalled that though his mother left academia to

raise him and his sister when he was around 11, she went back to receive her Ph.D. in American Studies from Boston University. “My dad actually drove carpool during those years. So when he says, ‘The family is a team,’ he means it and he lives by it.”

Miriam, a Williams College gradu‑ ate like her father, received a Mas‑ ter of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan and is now on a fellowship from the Uni‑ versity that is supporting her while she completes her fiction novel.

Noah, who finished his undergradu‑ ate degree at Yale two years ago, now lives in Israel, writing and editing speeches and other English materials

Building an ideal Brandeis The President’s involvement on campus goes unquestioned. Law‑ rence has circulated among academ‑ ic departments, campus faith groups and other organizations, and he greeted first-years and midyears at move-in. He has appeared at athletic events to support the Judges, even when Brandeis plays his alma mater.

During the interview, Lawrence wore a Hoops for Haiti T-shirt, which he had on over his long-sleeve blue button-down from filming a promo‑ tional video for the charity event ear‑ lier that day.

Film and Visual Media Studies is one of the categories Lawrence men‑ tioned as a “potential growth area” for the University. He also spoke of looking into an engineering pro‑ gram. “I think they’re real potential growth areas, as long as we do them

very carefully and really with an eye toward making sure what we’re do‑ ing is embedded in the liberal arts.”

The new president acknowledged that reports of grade inflation and a low intellectual climate on campus in the recent Wabash Study are a fac‑ ulty concern and admitted that these are issues he will have to think more about. The connection between fac‑ ulty and students is also on his mind.

Whenever he asks alumni to tell him a favorite professor story, he mea‑ sures how long it takes them to come up with one and how much “flash” is in their eyes when they tell it. “I have to tell you, overwhelmingly, the story comes up fast and the flash is real.”

Lawrence will have his own chance to connect with students as a faculty member next fall. He will teach a senior-priority seminar ti‑

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TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

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INAUGURATION

Brandeis welcome

Lawrence was invested as the University’s eighth president Thursday

By SARA DEJENE JUSTICE EDITOR

Last Thursday, about 1,500 students, professors, alumni, and members of the University gathered in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center to commemorate the official inauguration of University President Frederick Lawrence.

In his address, Lawrence stated that he would “devote every fiber of [his] being” to “nurture” the University.

“This is not a pledge that I can fulfill alone,” continued Lawrence. “Brandeis has always been about community—the Brandeis family—and now more than ever, we draw together as a family to chart our course in the years ahead.”

“The challenge we face is literally the challenge to justify the liberal arts tradition on which we are founded,” said Lawrence.

Lawrence delivered a “challenge” to members of the University: “Find a mentor who inspires you,” Lawrence said to students. “Be a mentor for others and inspire them.”

Lawrence told students to take classes outside of their “comfort zone,” to “study hard,” to “have fun,” to “care for each other,” to enjoy their time at school and to keep their connections with the University after graduation.

To alumni, he said, “You have rights as a member of this family, but you have responsibilities as well,” said Lawrence. “Remember who you were when you were here and connect with that person and with us.”

To the trustees, Lawrence said, “Dream with me and work with me as we build a greater university and inspire a new generation.”

“Hold fast to that intellectual curiosity that first brought you to the academy,” Lawrence said to faculty members. “Take risks. Inspire each other to take risks.”

“I promise you,” said Lawrence to the audience, “We will listen. We will be open to new ideas. We will encourage open debate. We will lead by example. We will be unafraid to confront the challenges ahead.”

The inauguration ceremony began with the presentation of the procession, announced by Associate Vice President John Hose, followed by an invocation delivered by Rabbi William G. Hamilton of Kehillath Israel of Brookline, Mass., of which Lawrence is a member.

Chair of the Board of Trustees Malcolm Sherman delivered a welcome message, saying that during the search process for the University’s president, Lawrence demonstrated himself as the candidate who “best embodied the personal [and] professional” qualities to serve the University.

Professor and Chair of the Faculty Senate Timothy Hickey (COSI) delivered greetings from the faculty and spoke of the faculty’s anticipation of Lawrence’s term as president.

“For the past several months,” said Hickey, “we’ve enjoyed getting to know you as a respected colleague and an admired leader.” Hickey said that Lawrence’s arrival brought a “renewed sense of well-justified optimism” about the University’s future.

“You have demonstrated an ability to lead by uniting the community behind a common mission,” said Hickey.

Hickey was followed by Student Union President Daniel Acheampong ’11, who said that from his and Lawrence’s first meeting, he knew that Lawrence was the “right man for the job.”

“He wanted to know about student concerns,” said Acheampong. “He was passionate about the student body, and he wanted to get involved im-

PASSING THE TORCH: University President Emeritus Jehuda Reinharz, who now works at the Mandel Foundation, welcomes University President Frederick Lawrence, who wa mediately.”

Acheampong also noted Larwence’s decision to include students on the search committee for a new provost and his participation in the Battle of the Brandeis DJs event.

“I believe in your dream to make Brandeis a global example,” said Acheampong to Lawrence.

“I believe in your dream to push Brandeis to unexplored territories and heights.”

President of the Graduate Student Union Jane Harries also welcomed Lawrence and said that she was enthusiastic about Lawrence’s decision to include students in processes such as searching for provosts and other administrative positions.

President of the Alumni Association Allen Alter ’71 also welcomed Lawrence, calling him the “right fit” for the University and said that the alumni would work with the president to build an “even

Quotes from President Lawrence’s speech “I make this solemn pledge to you today: I dedicate myself with every fiber of my being to guide, support and nurture this great University.”

“Brandeis has always been about community—the Brandeis family—and now more than ever we draw together as a family to chart our course in the years ahead.”

“I promise you we will listen. We will be open to new ideas. We will encourage open debate. We will lead by example. We will be unafraid to confront the challenges ahead.”

“In part, the world looks at us because of our uniqueness. You know, every university in the world claims to be unique, but I say to you that our claim to uniqueness is in fact unique.”

“We are in fact the only non-sectarian non-

religious university of higher learning that is deeply rooted in the Jewish community.

There are roots that do not narrow us but that broaden, and it is from these Jewish roots that we draw our core values of scholarship, and of learning and of social justice.”

“The rock on which Brandeis stands is the dedication to non-discrimination. The rock on which Brandeis stands is the commitment to the liberal arts and sciences. The rock on which Brandeis stands is community and social justice. In other words, as my kids would say, we rock.”

To trustees: “Dream with me and work with me as we build a greater university and inspire a new generation.”

“The challenge we face is literally the challenge to justify the liberal arts tradition on which we are founded.”

better Brandeis.”

President of the Brandeis National Committee Leslie Pearlstein said that all of the committee’s chapters agreed that Lawrence was “down to earth” and “easy to talk to” and that the BNC would look forward to providing financial support to the University.

President of Northwestern University Morton Schapiro said Brandeis is a “special place” because of its establishment as the only non-sectarian and Jewish-sponsored university and that its progress since its founding has been “nothing short of astounding.”

Schapiro noted that Brandeis is a member of the American Association of Universities and its position as a research university with a liberal arts focus. Schapiro told of “witty” comments made by former university presidents and joked that he

was glad the Lawrence was not “scared away” by them.

The ceremony was followed by a reception for attendees of the ceremony.

“Overall, … I thought this was an amazing ceremony,” said Senior Representative to the Alumni Association Sam Fuchs ’11 in an interview with the Justice. “I enjoyed all the speakers. I really liked President Lawrence’s address; it just reaffirms what I already knew was true about him: that he’s the perfect guy for the job.”

“It feels like the University has now been handed to a great leader who is going to do fantastically well, and I look forward to hearing about his great achievements and I will do whatever I can to help him,” said President Emeritus Jehuda Reinharz in an interview with the Justice.

“I thought it was amazing, it was well put-togeth-

Excerpts from the inaugural spe Daniel Acheampong ’11, president of the Student Union “From our first meeting, I knew he was the man for the job.”

“This community has taught me to dream, to dream without limits and to actually turn those dreams into reality. But as we are dreaming, we must always make sure to pull our communities with us. That is what the founders of our universities had to do.”

“So, President Lawrence, I believe in your dream to make Brandeis a global example.

I believe in your dream to push Brandeis to unexplored territories and heights.”

◆ Timothy Hickey, chair of the Faculty Senate To Lawrence: “This is a great day for

Brandeis. Your arrival on campus this year has brought a renewed sense of well-justified optimism about our future, and we are looking forward to helping you make the Lawrence era at Brandeis one the most productive and inspiring chapters in our history.”

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“You have demonstrated an ability to lead by uniting the community behind a common mission,” said Hickey.

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◆ Morton Schapiro, president of Northwestern University To Lawrence: “You will find the job sometimes challenging, but almost always rewarding. You will be inspired and intellectually stimulated as you now stand on the shoulders on the seven presidents who came before you. You will lead this fabulous university to ever greater heights.”

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TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

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INAUGURATION

y afternoon

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

as inaugurated as Brandeis’ eighth president. er, and all the speakers offered encouraging words that really spoke to me and I know really spoke to President Lawrence,” said Stephanie Johnson ‘13 in an interview with the Justice.

“I think this is a fabulous day for the whole campus community and even beyond. I think the energy and excitement and happiness in the room is palpable,” said Provost Marty Krauss in an interview with the Justice. “I think everyone is just very optimistic and happy for him and his family and happy for us.”

Lawrence was appointed as President-elect in May 2010, succeeding Reinharz. Lawrence is the eighth person to serve as University President since the University’s establishment in 1948.

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

—Brian Fromm, Emily Kraus, Fiona Lockyer and Andrew Wingens contributed reporting

eeches

Malcom Sherman, chair of the Board of Trustees

“Today we celebrate a transition at that young and vibrant institution which will forever strive to meet Sachar’s challenge.”

◆ Ralph Gants, associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

“I tell you today, as an associate justice of the supreme judicial court, that our Constitution oves Brandeis University the most.”

“President Lawrence, as you forge a new future or this great university, remember the wisdom and courage of John Adams and Louis Brandeis and that their examples remind you how much here is to cherish about a university education and how the cause of justice is woven into the very name of this university.”

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

WELCOMING COMMITTEE: Staff, faculty, students and educators provided President Lawrence with words of encouragement. Clockwise from top-left: student marshalls; Chairman of the Board of Trustees Malcolm Sherman; Chair of Brandeis University Fellows Paul Zlotoff ’72; Student Union President Daniel Acheampong ’11; President of Northwestern University Morton Schapiro; and Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe and Dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management Lisa Lynch.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

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TUESDAY, april 5, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

THE INAUGURAL BALL

HILARY HEYISON/the Justice

FUN WITH FRIENDS: The night was filled with music and dancing in celebration of President Lawrence’s inauguration.

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

SWINGIN’: The White Heat Swing Orchestra played jazz music for the occasion.

Dancing the night away

The evening of the Inaugural Ball was a success for the whole community By mara sassoon JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Last Saturday night, alumni, faculty and students gathered in the Shapiro Gymnasium in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center for the Inaugural Ball, which was held in celebration of the inauguration of University President Frederick Lawrence. Doors opened at 8:30 p.m., and guests dressed in their finest clothes were greeted by the lively music of Boston’s White Heat Swing Orchestra.

In true Brandeis spirit, the theme of the evening was “Celebrating the Diversity of Brandeis.” Many guests wore the traditional garments of their respective cultures, which displayed the diversity of the Brandeis community. The performances that followed—including a song played by the Brandeis Wind Ensemble, a slam poetry performance and a song performed by several Brandeis a cappella groups— each showcased the University’s talented and unique community.

The gym was transformed for the event, complete with a dance floor, sheer white and blue fabric that was artfully draped from the ceiling, blue globe lights on all of the tables around the room and even intricate ice sculptures. Guests were treated to lemonade that was poured through these ice sculptures and chilled before it hit their glasses. The extravagant evening also boasted a dessert table filled with small pastries and petits fours.

At the start of the evening, the

dance floor was sparse with only a few people dancing, but more guests arrived throughout the night, and the dance floor soon became crowded with people showing off their best swing moves. The orchestra added class and fun to the evening with its energetic and catchy performances.

Around 10 p.m., Student Union President Daniel Acheampong ’11 stepped up to the microphone to introduce the guests of honor for the evening, Lawrence and his wife Kathy. The president was dressed in a sleek tuxedo and Kathy wore a beautiful deep blue gown. Lawrence spoke to the attendees for a few minutes, expressing his thanks. He jokingly compared the evening to President Barack Obama’s own inaugural ball and then injected some characteristic humor and wit by saying, “My date’s prettier,” while smiling at Kathy.

After Lawrence spoke, the Brandeis Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Thomas Souza, performed “Officer Krupke” from West Side Story. People gathered all around the dance floor to hear the performance, which showed off another side of the Brandeis student body’s creativity. For the second performance of the night, Usman Hameedi ’12 gave a short slam poetry performance, depicting more of Brandeis’ talent. The entire evening was truly a representation of what makes Brandeis so unique.

Appropriately, for the next act, the University’s many a cappella groups came together to perform a rendition of Michael Jackson’s “We

Are the World.”

Following these poignant performances, Lawrence and his wife had their official first dance to the music of the White Heat Swing Orchestra. Onlookers gathered around the perimeter of the dance floor to witness this touching moment. After the first dance, members of the Brandeis Swingers gathered on the dance floor to demonstrate various swing steps. The orchestra received a request to play the Cha Cha and the dance floor was once again filled with people dancing energetically to the rousing rendition.

After the orchestra played for a while, Student Union Secretary Herbie Rosen ’12 announced Brandeis’ own DJ Sensation, who provided the music for the rest of the evening. DJ Sensation first played “The Way You Look Tonight” as a dance for the president and his wife, and then proceeded to play some of today’s popular dance hits. For the latter part of the evening, students dominated the dance floor and the atmosphere became even livelier.

The Inaugural Ball culminated the week of events held to usher in this new presidential era at Brandeis. The evening paid homage to everything that makes the University unique and to all of the creativity that characterizes the Brandeis community. Many of those who attended the Inaugural Ball shared the sentiments of pride and optimism—pride for a community that is so diverse and talented, and optimism for a bright future under Brandeis’ new president.

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

OPENING NOTES: Members of Starving Artists Abby Armstrong ’13, Rachel Wolfman ’11 and Jason Dick ’14 sing at the ball.

HILARY HEISYON/the Justice

FIRST COUPLE: Frederick and Kathy Lawrence dance together at the ball.

HILARY HEYISON/the Justice

THE LAWRENCE FAMILY: Noah (left) and Miriam Lawrence enjoyed the party.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, april 5, 2011

A7

MUSIC

Lydian String Quartet honors Lawrence ■ The Lydians performed classical string pieces for their 30th anniversary in the Slosberg Recital Hall.

By OLIVIA lEITER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

On Saturday, March 26, the Lydian String Quartet performed in Slosberg Music Center for the group’s 30th anniversary. The quartet is composed of Profs. Daniel Stepner (MUS) and Judith Eissenberg (MUS) on violin, Prof.

Mary Ruth Ray (MUS) on viola and Prof. Joshua Gordon (MUS) on cello.

Chair of Chamber Music and member of the cello faculty at the Boston Conservatory Rhonda Rider played cello with the quartet at Saturday night’s performace.

The Lydian String Quartet, originally formed in 1980, is an internationally acclaimed music group. The quartet members offered their “thoughts on turning 30” in the concert’s program notes, writing: “This is the Lydian String Quartet’s 30th anniversary at Brandeis, and we want to acknowledge our fortunate situation—that of being a truly resident quartet at a research university.” The quartet explained that they do more than merely perform at Brandeis. “We teach classes, private lessons and chamber groups and do administrative work, from student advising and committee work to chairing the department. The quartet has been involved in MusicUnitesUS, [a program which aims to further the understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures through music], founded and directed by Lydian violinist Prof. Judith Eissenberg (MUS) performing non-traditional quartets from around the world. We have more than twenty-five commercial recordings out, and will soon be issuing our 3-CD box set of the late Beethoven quartets.”

In an interview with justArts, Gordon talked about his experience playing in the quartet: “As in any kind of collaborative team, being in a string quartet is both a commitment and a challenge. As a commitment, we have to be both fully prepared to play our individual parts well and knowledgeable about what role we play at any moment within the full score. As a challenge, how does one create one unified performance out of four strong musical personalities, with ideas that may or may not agree with regard to

JENNY CHENG/the Justice

THE BAND PLAYED ON: Profs. Daniel Stepner (MUS), Judith Eissenberg (MUS), Joshua Gordon (MUS) and Mary Ruth Ray (MUS) celebrated the Lydian Quartet’s 30th anniversary. questions of musical characterization, phrasing, articulation, tone color, tempo—the list could go on and on.”

Gordon notes: “The combination of being with the quartet and [teaching] at Brandeis has been an inspiration to me, and working with all the talented and enthusiastic students over the last 8 years here has been a source of joy.”

Before the concert began, there was a brief pre-concert lecture led by Stepner. In his speech, Stepner explained that the quartet “gives more weight” to its last pieces and makes the first pieces shorter. Stepner went on to provide a background for the concert pieces, explaining that the first piece was composed by Franz Josef Haydn. It is titled “The Joke”

because it contains “musical punch lines.” For example, “the scherzo features a midsection that satirizes playing in bad taste. Haydn gives no verbal instructions to that effect; rather the fingerings he puts in the first violin’s part (something composers rarely do) require a sliding around the fingerboard that projects a sort of unconscious incompetence.”

Stepner went on to talk about American composer Irving Fine. Fine taught at Brandeis, where he became the chairman of the Council of the School of Creative Arts in 1952, and he “put all three creative arts departments on the map.” Stepner quoted Fine as saying that “in the arts, learning is bound up with doing. We wish our students

to have a liberal education, but we should also like to avoid the pitfalls of scholarly dilettantism. Performance by students must be stimulated by the presence of a performing faculty, and if we wish to stimulate musical creativity, we must also give the creators a chance to hear their music.” Stepner then discussed Swiss composer Frank Martin, and lastly, Stepner talked about composer Franz Schubert.

Schubert’s last chamber work, “The Quintet,” was completed a month before his death, and so “the piece is life affirming, but still leaves a sense that our lives are short-lived.”

Then, University President Frederick Lawrence, a music lover and musician himself, gave a speech. Lawrence

explained: “[Brandeis is] not a very large community, but we are not a place of isolated people either. We are a community that engages, challenges, and builds great things. There is no greater symbol of this than the Lydian String Quartet.”

The quartet began playing. They started with Hayden’s “The Joke” and followed with Fine’s “String Quartet.”

After intermission, the quartet played Martin’s “Pavane Couleur du Temps and they ended by playing Schubert’s “Quintet in C Major, Op. 163.” Each piece was beautiful and riveting; the Lydian members are true masters of their art. Last Saturday’s concert emphasized how fortunate we are to have them in our community.

FINE ARTS

Studio Art graduate students share their works and goals ■ Using multimedia outlets

and exploring various themes within their interests, Studio Art graduate students show off their skills in various paintings and sculptures.

By OLIVIA lEITER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Margaret Lee (GRAD) is one of seven students in the University’s graduate Studio Art program who put on an art exhibition in the Spingold Theater Center’s Dreitzer Gallery last Wednesday.

A painter who experiments with the “absurdities in life,” Lee told justArts that she overheard someone saying absurd statements in a bar once and “created [one of her pieces] around it.” Lee said that she deals with “darker subject matter” but leaves the “colors more playful.”

Katherine Spencer (GRAD), another student in the exhibition, focused on painting but explained that her “earlier works were sculptural.” For this show, she noted that she focused on natural scenes, such as “landscapes from imagination,” she said in an interview with justArts.

She went on to explain the unchanging element of the landscape: “I am interested in what life was like when I was a child as well as history and things that have been consistent.”

All of the students who put on the exhibition—Nicole Speciale (GRAD), Alyssa Lewis (GRAD), An-

drea Harris (GRAD), Carolyn Burns (GRAD), Milcah Bassel (GRAD), Spencer and Lee—each expressed a unique and vibrant point of view.

According to the Brandeis website, the University’s “graduate program in Studio Art focuses on painting and sculpture and emphasizes independent work achieved through critical interaction with faculty and visiting artists.” These elements were all present in the show.

Lewis is a midyear and thus had only been in the graduate program for 2 months, yet her works were thought-provoking and exciting.

Lewis explained that she “rests somewhere in between painting and sculpture.”

In one of her mixed-media works, Lewis put an assortment of materials on canvas, including “ripped up drawings” that had been favorably received.

To add order to the chaotic element of the work, Lewis sprayed air freshener over the piece as a final touch. The interesting addition seemed to serve as a unifying scent to the fragmented piece. Lewis went on to talk about how “reproduced works tend to lose individuality.”

Her goal, as she put it, was to “become the machine.” For one of her other works, Lewis laid out Cheerios into a honeycomb design as an example of her meticulously mechanized process.

Overall, the graduate students put on a fantastic show. It was exciting talking to the artists about their work and gaining insight into their creative processes and intended goals. No one artist stood out more than the rest, and I eagerly await their future efforts.

AMY BISAILLON/the Justice

GORGEOUS GALLERY: A pair of students admire one of the works on display in the Spingold Theater Center’s Dreitzer Gallery.

Volume LXIII, Number 25

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