The Justice, January 31, 2012 issue

ARTS PAGE 16

EDITORIAL Recognize Greek life 8

CELEBRATE TURKEY

SPORTS Women’s basketball wins UAA game 12 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 LXIV, Number 18

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

STUDENT LIFE

ALUMNI

PROUD TO BE GREEK

Faculty student ratio rises to 10-to-1

Haarde ’73 to face trial in Iceland ■ The Justice spoke with

the former prime minister about his view on the charges against him.

By SARA DEJENE JUSTICE EDITOR

■ The increase in the

student-faculty ratio results from the larger size of the Class of 2015.

By ALANA ABRAMSON JUSTICE EDITOR

The student-faculty ratio rose from 9-to-1 to 10-to-1 for fall 2011 from the previous year, according to data provided to the Justice by the University Registrar.

While this increase is not drastic, both Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel and Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren have acknowledged the potential impact the increased size of the student body will have both on class sizes and the student-faculty ratio and are planning on taking measures to ensure close student-faculty interaction.

The issue of an increase in the potentially enlarged studentfaculty ratio stems from the University’s decision in 2009 to increase the incoming first-year class in order to raise revenues, an increase that has been most noticeable with this year’s firstyear class.

According to the 2011-2012 Common Data Set, the Class of 2015 consists of approximately 858 students. In an Sept. 12, 2011 email to the Justice, Vice President of Students and Enrollment Keenyn McFarlane wrote that 108 midyears would enroll in January, bringing the size of the Class to 966 students.

By contrast, 690 students enrolled for the Class of 2014 in the

See CLASS, 5 ☛

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

ON CAMPUS: Members of the fraternity Alpha Delta Phi wear their letters for the first time this semester as part of Rush Week.

Nine percent of student body involved in Greek life ■ Although the University

does not officially recognize fraternities and sororities, they still influence social life.

By SAM MINTZ JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

During the first few weekend nights in September, crowds of students make the brisk walk down South Street toward Brandeis’ version of frat row. For some of the first-years among these students, the crowded rush parties are their first experiences with Greek life as well as their entry into social life at Brandeis.

The influence that fraternities and sororities have on the social lives of Brandeis students is undeniable. Approximately nine percent of students are part of a Greek organization, according to membership statistics provided to the Justice by representatives from the organizations and their national affiliates. The number of students that attend parties thrown by fraternities and sororities is undoubtedly larger.

These organizations, however, are not recognized or regulated by the University, which has declined to recognize Greek organizations since its inception. According to the 20112012 Rights and Responsibilities Student Handbook, in 1988 the Board of Trustees approved a resolution that

prohibits fraternities and sororities.

The resolution reads, “The Board of Trustees reaffirms University policy of recognizing only those student organizations which are open to all students on the basis of competency or interests. Exclusive or secret societies are inconsistent with the principles of openness to which the University is committed. Therefore, social fraternities and sororities, in particular, are neither recognized nor permitted to hold activities on campus or use University facilities.”

The approximate number of current fraternity members stands at 178, while there are 151 sorority members.

These numbers combined stand at

See GREEK, 5 ☛

Former Prime Minister of Iceland and University alum Geir Haarde ’73 awaits his March 5 trial as he faces criminal charges for neglecting to protect Iceland from the 2008 financial crisis.

The indictment, filed by Iceland’s Parliament, Alþingi, claims that Haarde showed “serious malfeasance of his duties as prime minister in the face of major danger looming over Icelandic financial institutions and the state treasury, a danger that he knew of or should have known of,” according to a Sept. 4, 2011 New York Times article.

Haarde, who graduated from Brandeis with a degree in Economics, is the first world leader to face criminal charges relating to the global financial crisis.

Haarde was elected prime minister of Iceland in 2006, served during the financial crisis which struck Iceland in 2008 and ultimately resigned from his position in 2009. According to a Jan 18. Washington Post article, the meltdown of Iceland’s banks and currency caused Icelndic citizens to protest. Haarde claimed that he did nothing wrong during his term in office or that he neglected his obligations as prime minister.

“Let me just say that the whole trial is ludicrous,” wrote Haarde in an email to the Justice. “It is a highly political affair where political opponents are trying to use the court room to settle political differences. Criminalizing politics in this way makes no sense and has no place in a modern democracy.”

Haarde wrote in his email to the Justice that if his case goes to trial, he expects it to end sometime in April and that he feels “very confident” that he will not be found guilty.

According to Haarde, the Parliament could withdraw the charges before the trial begins. He origi-

See TRIAL, 5 ☛

Event collaboration

Men extend streak

Diversity at Heller

Students create a website to share events on and off campus with peers.

The men's basketball team defeated another two UAA opponents, stretching its conference streak to three games.

Dean Lisa Lynch formed a steering committee based on the school’s strategic plan.

FEATURES For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org

Waltham, Mass.

Let your voice be heard!

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

7

INDEX

SPORTS 12

ARTS SPORTS

13 10

EDITORIAL FEATURES

8 6

OPINION POLICE LOG

8 2

NEWS 3 COPYRIGHT 2012 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Email managing@thejustice.org for home delivery.

2

TUESDAY, january 31, 2012

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS SENATE LOG

POLICE LOG

Senate decharters Bollywood Club

Medical Emergency

The Senate chartered two clubs, dechartered one and passed a Senate Money Resolution for a Super Bowl party in the Castle Commons at its meeting on Sunday night.

The Neuroscience Club, which was recognized last semester, asked to be chartered in order to gain small-scale funding to put on events. The club was chartered by a vote of 16 for and one opposed, with one abstention.

Brandeis DJs and Producers also gained recognition and charter by a vote of 17 for and none opposed, with one abstention. The club sought to branch off from B-DEIS Records and focus on providing disc jockey lessons and organizing DJ-related events.

The Bollywood Club was dechartered at a request from its president, Nipun Marwaha ’12, who was not present at the meeting. According to Executive Senator Missy Skolnik ’12, “it seems he might be the only active member” based on his communication with the Senate. The measure was passed with 17 senators for and one abstaining.

The study abroad magazine Wander also came before the Senate, requesting $461 from “Union discretionary funds” as it struggles to find the funding necessary to publish an issue this semester. Wander publishes students’ accounts of their time abroad, paying $50 per article. Jake Laband ’12, the magazine’s founder and editor in chief, claimed to have increasing interest from alumni and emphasized the importance of the availability of personal study abroad information to the student body.

Several senators agreed with aiding the magazine. “If [we] can spend $300 on pizza, I think we can spend $400 to keep this magazine around,” said Senator for the Class of 2014 Shekeyla Caldwell. However, Union funding of the project was generally agreed to be “not sustainable,” in Skolnik’s words.

After establishing that the funds Laband requested did not exist as named, the senators voted to defer the issue until the next meeting. During the weeklong gap between meetings, the Club Support Committee and the Finance Board will work with Laband to charter the magazine and obtain funding for it. “The only money we have discretion over is the Senate money,” said Skolnik at the meeting.

However, the Senate did pass an SMR sponsored by Castle Senator Kelsey Dean ’14 for a Castle Commons Super Bowl party. The SMR granted $189 for food, cups, plates and napkins. Dean noted the need for options other than Student Events’ Super Bowl party.

Skolnik also announced at the meeting that Charles River Senator Deena Horowitz ’13 resigned last week.

Elections to fill her position will take place the week of Feb. 6.

Other ongoing projects were mentioned, including a suicide prevention event, which Union Vice President Gloria Park ’13 is planning for February 15. “It was a coincidence,” said Park of the closeness of the event to Valentine’s Day.

Jan. 26—A student at the main entrance reported having head and neck discomfort. BEMCo treated the student, and the student signed a refusal for further care.

Jan. 26—A student in Usen Residence Hall reported feeling dizzy and nauseous. BEMCo and University Police responded, and the party was treated on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Jan. 27—A reporting party stated that a female in Shapiro Residence Hall had suffered a head injury while playing Frisbee. BEMCo and University Police responded, and the party was treated on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Jan. 28—A caller reported an intoxicated female at a bus stop on Loop Road. BEMCo and University Police responded, and the party was transported to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Jan. 28—A reporting party stated a 22-year-old male was in-

toxicated and conscious but not alert near the Shapiro Science Center. University Police and BEMCo responded, and the party was transported to the NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

Jan. 29—A caller said that she was the on-duty community advisor and that one of her residents may have a broken nose. BEMCo responded and treated the party on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Traffic

Jan. 24—There was an accident reported at a crosswalk off campus; the parties involved exchanged paperwork. University Police assisted both parties, and no further action by the police was taken.

Jan. 24—A party reported damage to a University vehicle at the Joseph M. Linsey Sports Center. University Police compiled a report on the damage.

Disturbance Jan.

26—University

Police

received a noise complaint in Ridgewood C; they responded and dispersed an unauthorized party taking place. The community development coordinator on call was to handle University Judicial charges. The police compiled a report on the incident.

Jan. 26—There was a report of a loud party in the Foster Mods.

University Police dispersed the party without incident.

Jan. 28—A caller reported a fight in progress in Ziv Quad.

University Police responded, but there was no fight in progress upon their arrival. One of the parties was stopped and said that the other person had stolen something from his friend’s apartment the previous night.

There had been a verbal confrontation. The police compiled a report and took no further action.

Jan. 29—There was a registered party taking place after 1 a.m. in the Foster Mods. University Police responded and broke up the party without incident.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

nA background photo in Arts failed to credit a photographer. It should have been attributed to Robyn Spector.

(Jan. 17, p. 21) The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Email editor@ thejustice.org.

Justice

the

www.thejustice.org

The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods. Editor in chief office hours are held Mondays from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Justice office.

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Jan. 23—An alumnus had called and harassed the University President’s office several times. The matter is under investigation.

Jan. 24—A student in Village C reported smelling marijuana in the building. University Police checked the area and were unable to locate the perpetrators.

Jan. 28—A caller in the Usen Castle reported letting a suspicious male party into the Castle B tower. The party was described as a heavy-set male with brown hair and pale skin in his mid-tolate 20s smelling strongly of cologne. University Police checked the area but did not find the man.

—compiled by Marielle Temkin

According to a campuswide email from Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan, an extra 12-passenger BranVan will be added to the rotation Monday through Friday from 4:15 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. on 30-minute time intervals, effective as of last night.

According to an email to the Justice from Head Escort Safety Coordinator Shirel Guez ’12, a coordinated effort between herself, Callahan and the Escort Management staff resulted in the implementation of an additional van due to “an increased demand for our service over the last few months.” “[W]e believed adding an additional van to our service would better our service and positively affect the Brandeis community,” she wrote. Guez added that there is “sufficient funding” to support the new van.

According to Guez, the Escort Management staff believes that the increase in demand for BranVans is a result of an “increase in students as well as [BranVan’s] involvement in Orientation programs and other aspects of Student Life.”

Krasner’s book nominated for prize

nA caption in Arts incorrectly stated that a character named Scotty visits Hawaii in The Descendants. The caption should have said that the character’s name is Matt, and that he lives in Hawaii. (Jan. 24, p. 21)

Miscellaneous

BranVan added to fleet

BRIEF

—Jonathan Epstein

Jan. 26—A physics staff member reported that someone had entered his unlocked office and stolen his passport, checkbook and green card. University Police compiled a report on the theft.

BRIEF

—Tate Herbert

Jonathan Krasner’s ’88 Ph.D. ’02 book, The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education, was one of five nominated for the 2012 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. The Jewish Book Council sponsors the award, which recognizes “works of scholarship, written by emerging authors who seek to add to our knowledge and understanding of Jewish history and culture,” according to a press release.

Each year the Rohr Prize alternates between consideration of fiction and non-fiction; works of non-fiction were eligible for the 2012 prize.

The $100,000 award is one of the largest awarded for a literary work, according to an article from the New York Times published online on Jan. 26. A $25,000 prize is awarded for second place in the competition. The results will be announced on Feb. 15.

The judges’ citation hailed The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education as “The best book on the history of Jewish education in the United States to have appeared in several decades.”

This is the second honor The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education has received from the Jewish Book Council this month. On Jan. 10, it received the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in the field of American Jewish Studies.

Larceny

—Fiona Lockyer

AP BRIEF PETA challenges CU lab

Grieving naturally

JON EDELSTEIN/the Justice

Phyllis Silverman Ph.D. ’69, scholar-in-residence at the Women’s Studies Research Center, spoke in the Epstein Lecture Hall on Thursday. The event, titled “On a Slippery Slope: the Medicalization of Grief,” addressed grief and society’s changing response to it. See page 3 for details.

DENVER—People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has filed complaints with federal officials seeking fines and the revocation of federal grants awarded to the University of Colorado Denver, which it accuses of animal-welfare violations.

PETA has told the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health that, in the past few years, some animals in CU labs underwent surgery without pain relief, and one worker broke a rabbit’s back while restraining it but still used it in an experiment before it died.

CU spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery tells The Denver Post the school has addressed problems and reported the incidents to the proper oversight committee or government agency.

Scientists at CU say they’ve worked to minimize animal use in their research.

ANNOUNCEMENTS Senior syllabus: job search strategies

This class will teach you the most effective strategies for finding a job. Job search skills and strategies that will be addressed include job and organization research, networking, writing résumés and cover letters and interviewing. After taking a class you can schedule a one-on-one appointment.

Today from noon to 1 p.m. in the Usdan Student Center International Lounge.

JBS info session: ethnographic fieldwork

Prof. Elizabeth Ferry (ANTH) will provide an overview of the JBS summer 2012 session Ethnographic Fieldwork and answer questions about the program.

Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. in Brown 225.

resources, databases, and online tools to aid you in your search. All class years are welcome. RSVP on Hiatt’s B.hired website.

Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Hiatt Career Center.

Medical Anthropology speaker: Bianca Dahl

Learn more about the summer and spring Brandeis in The Hague programs. Learn what makes these two unique opportunities different.

Today from noon to 1:10 p.m. in the Usdan Student Center Alumni Lounge.

The Study Abroad information sessions provide an overview of the off-campus study process at Brandeis, including tips for researching programs and destinations, the application process, getting credit for your work off campus, financial aid and the resources and services our office provides.

Wednesday from noon to 1:10 p.m. in the Usdan Student Center International Lounge.

Bianca Dahl is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Anthropology, population studies and the international humanities at Brown University, having received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Dahl’s research focuses on the social consequences of humanitarian intervention in response to Botswana’s AIDS epidemic, particularly focusing on orphans and HIV-positive children.

Thursday from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Mandel Center for the Humanities 303.

JBS info session: environmental fieldwork

How to find an internship

University of Haifa information session

Brandeis in The Hague programs

Join Prof. Brian Donahue (AMST) and Program Manager Alyssa Grinberg to learn more about the fall 2012 JBS Environmental Health and Justice Program.

Today from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center 313.

Study Abroad info session

This workshop will provide an overview of the internship search process, help you reflect upon your interests and skills to discover which internships might best suit you, determine appropriate strategies to find or create your own internship and learn about

Come hear about the exciting study abroad options at the University of Haifa and hear more about the application process.

Thursday from 1 to 2 p.m. in the Usdan Student Center Community Living Conference Room.

THE JUSTICE

formed based on the recommendation of the school’s strategic plan.

By Andrew Wingens JUSTICE editor

JON EDELSTEIN/the Justice

STRATEGIC PLAN: Jeremy Fineberg ’12, a member of the Student Advisory Committee, gets input from a first-year student.

SAC holds meetings to begin planning process most of the committee’s outreach efforts will take place over the next two weeks.

By Tate Herbert JUSTICE editorial assistant

The Strategic Planning Steering Committee and the Student Advisory Committee hosted a series of town hall-style meetings with students at various locations across campus on Wednesday and Thursday nights, seeking student input as they form a vision for the university’s next five to 20 years. These were the first meetings open to the entire student body since the start of the strategic planning process in November.

Thoughts and suggestions from both these sessions and meetings with faculty, alumni and trustees will be reviewed by the Steering Committee on Feb. 1 and 12. Surveying and information gathering will continue until the end of the strategic planning process,

tee did not expect these sessions to be particularly well-attended, she and the other members have obtained a lot of feedback independently. “People have strong opinions,” said Young in an interview with the Justice.

Some common themes have emerged from the sessions and student input in general. According to Rosen, students have frequently brought up “a need to improve campuswide communication” and facilities and housing concerns, especially for the Goldfarb Library, the Castle and East Quad. Also, “many agree that Brandeis has school spirit, but they want to see that grow,” Rosen added.

“We are on schedule,” said Provost Steve Goldstein ’78, chair of the Steering Committee, in an email to the Justice. “The information coming from the strategic planning input sessions … has been thoughtful, rich with creative energy and filled with possibility.”

Editor’s Note: Naomi Volk ‘14 is a columnist for the Justice.

Campus speaker

Prof speaks on grief as an illness ■ Prof. Phyllis Silverman

spoke about the recent trend of diagnosing grief and treating it with medication.

By Shani abramowitz JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The Women’s Studies Research Center hosted an event titled “On a Slippery Slope: The Medicalization of Grief” this past Thursday in the Epstein Lecture Hall featuring Dr. Phyllis Silverman ’69.

Silverman, an author, teacher and researcher, received her Masters degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health and Smith College: School for Social Work.

She also received a Ph.D. from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management here at Brandeis.

Silverman is currently a scholarin-residence at the WSRC, and an associate in social welfare in the Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Silverman’s talk focused primarily on the movement currently taking place in the United States to transform the natural life cycle experience of “grief following a death”

into a psychiatric illness, a process with which she disagrees. This development is part of the larger phenomenon of the “medicalization of the human experience,” as quoted on the event’s webpage.

Clinicians are trying to include broader criteria of symptoms for grief materializing into a depressive disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The current criteria for prolonged grief disorder given by the DSM-IV requires bereavement and expressions of grief for a period lasting in excess of three to six months, according to a report from the DSM-IV. Silverman discussed how grieving individuals are currently categorized under several umbrella terms of psychiatric or psychological disorder.

“Grief is inevitable, complex, individual and normal,” Silverman said in her speech.

Silverman then went on to discuss the medicalization of grief and the significance of drugs for the purpose of “remedying” grief.

The medicalization of grief has had significant implications for pharmaceutical companies. Certain drugs, especially those used

3

Heller School forms committee to raise diversity ■ The committee was

with the Student Advisory Committee continuing to meet with students and each other to discuss plans.

“Given the business of students’ schedules, we didn’t expect a blow-out audience [at the information-gathering sessions],” wrote Student Union President Herbie Rosen ’12 in an email to the Justice. However, the committee will continue to encourage student input throughout the year.

The bulk of the committee’s student outreach efforts will take place over the next two weeks, according to Rosen. In an email that he sent out to the student body on Monday, Rosen announced that members of the Student Advisory Committee would be stationed in the dining halls, Shapiro Campus Center and residence halls to meet with students. Committee representatives also plan to meet with clubs over the next two weeks.

Thursday night in Shapiro Lounge, Student Advisory Committee members A.J. Varon ’15, Naomi Volk ’14 and Jess Young ’15 held a session that two midyear students attended.

Young said that while the commit-

TUESDAY, january 31, 2012

administration

A PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

■ Herbie Rosen said that

●

for depressive disorders, create dependence, which in turn creates increased use. This contributes to financial gains for the drug companies and clinicians.

The Association for Death Education and Counseling, for which Silverman sits on the board, is an international group that convenes every 18 months to discuss pertinent issues regarding death and bereavement.

The ADEC recently has been focusing primarily on building resilient communities through education and awareness. Making communities aware that outreach resources are available to them is a significant step toward understanding their own experiences with death and grief.

“If grief is something that is medicalized, it will no longer be considered a natural part of the life cycle and a natural cycle that people need to go through in order to continue on with life,” said Alli Cohen ’12, who partnered with Silverman through the Student-Scholar Partnership program of the WSRC, in an interview with the Justice.

“It’ll be looked at as an illness instead. ... Our society should recognize that grief is a natural process,” Cohen concluded.

Lisa Lynch, dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, formed a Diversity Steering Committee this month to address issues of diversity at the Heller School after the school’s strategic plan, completed over summer 2011, recommended that the committee be formed.

The committee comprises students, staff, faculty and alumni, with Prof.

Anita Hill (Heller) serving as its chair.

The objective, according to the strategic plan, is in part to “recruit a more diverse faculty, research staff, and administration to match its student body, its programs and its mission.”

In order to accomplish this and further enhance the school’s focus on diversity, the plan recommends that the committee be formed to “develop programs, policies and procedures that will permanently embed equity, inclusion, and diversity in the fabric of Heller’s academic and work environment.”

Hill said in an interview with the Justice that she would look at the broadest definition of diversity available. The strategic plan and an email from Lynch to the Heller community indicate that diversity includes “racial, gender, sexual orientation and identity, national origin, ethnic, socioeconomic and intellectual” factors.

“One of the things that was absolutely clear was that our work on social policy and management needed to take on the issue of how we develop policy, how we do our research and how we prepare our students to interact with the issues of a diverse population,” said Hill.

Hill stressed the broad scope of the word “diversity” and its relation to

the Heller School.

She said the committee plans “to study diversity in terms of not only in the makeup of our student body, faculty and staff but also to look at diversity in terms of our research and teaching.”

Dr. Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson ’80 M.A ’06 Ph.D. ’06, who will serve on the committee, said “My sense is that we will be focusing on a number of different areas, which would include student and faculty diversity as well as faculty development in reference to equity and diversity, curriculum review and development as well.”

Jessika Zimmerer, a second-year master’s student in social policy and women’s and gender studies at Heller, stressed that students have been organizing for at least the past five years to discuss issues of diversity of students, faculty and curriculum. Last year, she helped form an ad-hoc student diversity working group.

“It was our intent to push for more integrated discussions about the intersection of race, class, gender, religion—all of those—in each of our classes,” she said.

Diversity is “not ever going to be finished,” said Zimmerer. “The bigger issue to me is in terms of curriculum, there is not a lot of focus on diversity.”

Both Hill and Lynch said that, though this committee specifically focuses on diversity within the Heller School, it is not entirely separate from the University as a whole. Lynch said the committee could be helpful in a University-wide discussion of diversity.

Hill also chairs the Provost’s Steering Committee on Campus Diversity Issues and is a senior adviser to Goldstein.

“I do have a variety of roles, and I’m involved in the strategic plan of the University. I think that all of those things work together. We are not looking at diversity as something that is separate and apart from anything else that we do. It is part of who we are,” said Hill.

ADMINISTRATION

Magid to join NEIBC Board of Directors

■ Brandeis’ International

Business School has hosted the NEIBC’s annual business summit for four years and has other ties to the council.

By Sam mintz JUSTICE editorial assistant

Dean of the International Business School Bruce Magid has been named to the Board of Directors of the New England-Israel Business Council, according to a Jan. 26 press release from the IBS. “I am very excited to join NEIBC’s board to help further its mission of strengthening bonds between local and Israeli companies,” said Magid in the press release.

“My involvement with NEIBC reflects our school’s commitment to building bridges and creating an academic atmosphere characterized by cooperation and collaboration.”

According to the NEIBC’s website, the council aims to bolster academic collaborations between New England and Israel and to “increase economic development in Israel and New England by fostering cooperation, investment opportunities and business relationships through business exchanges and educational events.”

IBS is listed as an event sponsor on the front page of the NEIBC’s website; the press release said that both the business school and Magid himself have strong ties to the council. Brandeis has hosted the annual NEIBC business summit for four years.

This announcement comes on the heels of Magid’s participation in two trade missions with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick last year, the first to Israel and the U.K., and the second to Brazil. Magid spoke on three panels during the delegation’s time in Israel. He also spoke with government officials in Israel about the “benefits of international trade and investments.”

Patrick spoke at the NEIBC’s annual summit at Brandeis in November and stressed the importance of the relationship between Massachusetts and Israel. He said that he is looking to “create opportunities both here in Massachusetts and in Israel.”

University President Frederick Lawrence commented at that event that the “strategic partnership” between the United States and Israel “has never been more obvious.”

He added that “to those who are aware of the challenges in the global economy and the global political economy today, to have a strong ally based on a democratic system and based on a market system makes it an obvious partnership.”

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THE JUSTICE

GREEK: Leaders and Univ face disagreements CONTINUED FROM 1

329, or approximately 9.3 percent of the total undergraduate student body which consisted of 3,504 students in fall 2011. Spring rush is currently ongoing, meaning that these numbers will probably increase in the near future.

Quick growth

Several of the more popular organizations have recently shown that they are successful in recruiting new members.

The sorority Sigma Delta Tau has doubled in size over the past three to five years, according to statistics from the organization. The fraternity Phi Kappa Psi has grown similarly, more than doubling in the last six years. And Kappa Beta Gamma, a sorority established only one year ago, has expanded from 25 to 42 members in the space of that year.

There have also been two new organizations brought to Brandeis in recent years. In addition to the introduction of Kappa Beta Gamma last year, the fraternity Alpha Delta Phi was formed in 2006. However, Brandeis also lost a Greek organization this year, as Alpha Epsilon Pi lost its charter from its national affiliate and was forced to disband, according the national Executive Director of Alpha Epsilon Pi Andrew Borans, who said in a December email to the Justice, “There is no AEPi recognized Chapter at Brandeis.”

High visibility

Many people connected to the organizations think that fraternities and sororities have an undeniable influence on life at Brandeis.

“Every Greek organization is working together trying to establish ourselves to the best of our ability on campus by taking part in philanthropy and doing what we can to add ourselves in a positive way to the scope of the Brandeis community,” said Kappa Beta Gamma President Hayley Browdy ’13.

“There are few facets of Brandeisian life that a Greek has not, in some way, influenced,” said Max Keilson ’13, president of Alpha Delta Phi.

Increasing impact

According to Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer, “the University is not interested, philosophically or functionally, in recognizing student organizations that are selective socially.”

The fact that many of the organizations include service activities and philanthropy among their purposes and goals has created some friction between those organizations and the University.

One example of such a situation occurred in the fall 2011 semester.

Phi Kappa Psi hosted an event called

“Invisible Children,” which featured a speaker and a film about child soldiers in Uganda and the Congo. The fraternity requested permission to “put their letters” on the event, or, in other words, be official sponsors.

However, the University denied their request, and Phi Psi was forced to defer sponsorship of the event to the International Club and the Brandeis African Students Organization.

Leaders of Greek organizations initiated two meetings with Sawyer and Assistant Dean of Student Life Maggie Balch last year to open lines of communication between the Greek organizations and the University administration, according to a Justice article from March 2011.

Uncertain future

Sawyer was quoted in last year’s article as saying that the Division of Student Life was working “to explore appropriate ways for [the Greek organizations] to develop more visibility and more involvement with the campus community within the current limitations regarding chartering and recognition.”

However, it is unclear whether the meetings had any lasting effects on the status of Greek organizations and the relationship between them and the University.

According to Sawyer, the University has “on a couple of occasions permitted a fraternity or sorority to co-sponsor or be participants in an event when I’m convinced that the event itself is primarily being produced and created by a recognized student organization.”

Sawyer also qualified the disagreement between Greek organizations and the University. “This is more of a philosophical and theoretical difference of opinion than it is a moment of antagonism or friction,” he said.

“This is Brandeis, this is the philosophy, this is the underpinnings, this is what we are, and currently the traditional Greek formula is just not connectable … to the Brandeis way.”

“It’s an ever-improving working relationship,” wrote President of Sigma Delta Tau Morgan Fine ’13 in an email to the Justice on the relationship between Greek life organizations and the University. “We understand their concerns and are working toward a positive relationship.”

Sawyer added that the University might be open to some alternative versions of Greek organizations.

“When a Greek-like organization steps forward, untethered to a national organization, and wants to present a concept about an open, inclusive Greek-like organization that bleeds Brandeis blue, I think there would be people willing to listen to that and work with those students to see how we could create our own sort of Greek-like experience on campus,” he said.

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OPPORTUNITIES ABROAD

JOSH HOROWITZ/the Justice

Analyzing options Students learn about opportunities at the Study Abroad Mini Fair, which took place in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium last Thursday. Representatives offered information on study abroad and Justice Brandeis Semester programs.

CLASS: Class sizes will not be greatly affected CONTINUED FROM 1

fall, according to the 2010-2011 Common Data Set. McFarlane wrote in his email that 108 students enrolled in January, for a total of 798 students.

Dean of Admissions Mark Spencer explained in a Sept. 12 phone interview with the Justice that the University would maintain this goal of enrolling 855 students for the Class of 2016.

According to interviews with both Birren and Flagel, the increased number of students will inevitably impact the number of students in classes, but they do not believe it will do so drastically, and said that close student-faculty interaction will remain a top priority.

“While I expect that changes in class sizes will be small, we don’t have all of those numbers yet. Our goal of maintaining a close relationship between our students and the faculty will require continuing thought and a commitment to ongoing planning,” said Birren in September.

The numbers from the CDS seem to corroborate Birren’s claim. According to the data, there are 14 classes with over 100 students enrolled, 38 classes with 40 to 49 students, 47 classes with 30 to 39 students, 109 classes with 20 to 29 students, 278 classes with 10 to 19 students and 111 classes with 2 to 9 students. These numbers are largely in line with those of the previous

year.

University President Frederick Lawrence emphasized in an interview with the Justice that this issue should be prioritized.

“If the size of the class gets a little bigger and the size of the faculty gets a little smaller, your studentto-faculty ratio obviously is going to increase. And that’s a concern. I would say that if we’re talking about something that goes from something in the nines to something in the 10s that’s a concern because it’s increasing, but it still is better than the vast majority of research universities in the country.” he said.

Flagel said that this issue would be incorporated into the University’s Strategic Planning Committee, which is being led by Provost Steve Goldstein ‘78 over the course of 18 months.

“In the midst of [the Strategic Planning Report] you will see a lot of talk about where the institution really ought to be and a very big sense of trajectories. In the long term, one of the questions that we have to wrestle with is how much growth would make sense for Brandeis, given where we want Brandeis to be for faculty and students and what [that means] for space,” he said.

“In the short term, what we have been looking at is a faculty really thoughtful and considerate in their planning about interactions with students, and one of the things we need to work towards is preserving

that atmosphere,” he said.

Flagel also remarked that there is little physical space for classes to massively expand, presenting another incentive to maintain the low student-faculty ratio.

“If we wanted a lot of large classes, we would have built a lot of large classrooms. In order to utilize our space effectively, we would need to maintain class sizes,” he explained.

In regard to methods of preserving the atmosphere, Birren said that the administration had acknowledged this dynamic as an issue, although they had not been having specific conversations about it yet and said there would be discussions about the different mechanisms that could be used to maintain small classes.

“I would say that we are committed to maintaining the Brandeis tradition of meaningful small group interactions between students and faculty and that there are many scenarios for making sure that happens including providing opportunities for students to take small classes. We are in the early stages of assessing the impact of having more students on campus and in designing mechanisms to make sure that all students can get to know their professors,” she said.

Neither Flagel nor Birren said that they had spoken with professors about this particular topic.

—Andrew Wingens contributed reporting.

TRIAL: Parliament may drop charges CONTINUED FROM 1

MICHELLE WANG/the Justice

RISING NUMBERS: Phi Kappa Psi has more than doubled in the past six years.

nally faced six charges, but in October, two of them were dropped, according to an Oct. 6 article from IceNews. The judges of Iceland’s Landsdomur High Court decided not to charge Haarde with “gross neglect of duty” while the banks were facing danger of failing because the wording of the charge was too vague to try Haarde. The other charge, failure to “conduct an in-depth analysis of the risks posed to financial institutions,” was dropped because they deemed it not an illegal crime.

According to the IceNews article, the remaining charges include not taking action to reduce the “size of the bloated banks” and failing to protect Landsbank’s Icesave accounts by not dividing them among “subsidiary companies” in the United King-

dom and the Netherlands.

Haarde’s crime is that he did nothing to prevent the damage Iceland’s economy suffered, according to Atili Gislason in the New York Times article. Gislason, a member of Parliament, led the commission that prepared the case against Haarde.

On Jan. 20, the Parliament voted 31-29 against dismissing a resolution on whether to drop the charges against Haarde, according to a Jan. 23 article from the Iceland Review.

The Parliament’s Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs Committee will review and discuss the rejected proposal.

Not all believe that Haarde should be held criminally responsible. Expert on Iceland at the London School of Economics Jon Danielsson in the New York Times article called Haarde’s trial a “political prosecu-

tion” and a “major mistake.” According to the same article, several believe that David Oddsson, who served as prime minister from 1991 to 2004, should be held responsible.

Oddsson, who “oversaw the privatization of Iceland’s banks,” was identified by Time Magazine as one of the 25 people responsible for the international economic crisis, according to the Washington Post article.

In addition, Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson recently announced his opposition to Haarde’s charges, which he had previously supported. That decision upset fellow members of the Left-Green Movement, including one who suggested Jónasson should resign since “he, as minister of judicial affairs, finds it all right to stop a court case which has already opened,” according to a Jan. 19 Iceland Review article.

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THE JUSTICE

VERBATIM | AUDREY HEPBURN I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

The first McDonald’s in the Soviet Union opened in Moscow.

An average lead pencil will draw a 35-mile line or write about 50,000 English words.

WORKING TOGETHER: Donahue oils hemlock timbers with Jamie Pottern ’09 (left) and his son Liam (right).

Environmental PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRIAN DONAHUE

ambition

BUILDING DREAMS: Prof. Donahue places a wooden beam into the frame of the farmhouse in Gill, Mass.

Prof. Donahue ’82 promotes land and forest preservation

By SELENE CAMPION JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

While some professors decide to spend their sabbaticals in a lab conducting research or in a library surrounded by books, Prof. Brian Donahue ’82 (AMST) prefers to be directly in the field. Specifically, on a 170-acre farm that he and his family purchased in the town of Gill, Mass. Since Donahue has been on sabbatical from the University, he has continued to pursue his lifelong passion of environmental conservation and protection through buying the farm, which he learned about through friends.

“For a long time, my wife and I and our family were interested in finding a place that was further out in the countryside to eventually live. It’s taken longer than we thought, I mean it’s taken 35 years to find this but that’s the way it goes sometimes,” Donahue said in an interview with the Justice. According to Donahue, the town in Massachusetts protected the farm through their agricultural preservation restriction program. The state buys the development rights to the land so that it remains in the agriculture sector and cannot be developed but is still available to purchase.

Donahue left Brandeis to start a different project, Land’s Sake, a community farm in Weston, Mass., which he subsequently directed for 12 years. According to the mis-

sion statement its goal is to “connect people to the land.” He then returned to Brandeis to finish his undergraduate education while he was “also running this crazy community farm in Weston. I was kind of a busy guy, and I took a long time to finish it all up,” Donahue said. He then went on to get his master’s in 1993 and his subsequent Ph.D. in 1995 from Brandeis while working with Prof. David Hackett Fisher (HIST) and Prof. Emeritus Don Worster (HIST).

Today he is applying his knowledge to his new project in Gill. “I had a chance with a couple friends of ours, actually, to buy this nice little farm out there four years ago, which we did, and now we’ve got this farm which is two hours away,” Donahue said. It’s [a] little bit difficult logistically, but it’s a great place, and we’re sort of working to bring it back into good shape.

We’ve repaired the barn and it has a lot of good hay and grassland.”

Happy to be in his natural element, Donahue said, “It’s fun [to] have a new farm to look after again since we’ve been here for so long in Weston.” However, Donahue has not shirked his responsibilities close to home. His wife is still a part of the Land’s Sake board, and he remains an active member of the conservation commission that owns the land.

Besides establishing a farm, he is also in the process of building a house on the land using timber from the woods on his new

property. He describes the construction as a “very enjoyable project,” designing a house that makes use of his cherry trees and hemlocks. “I wanted to do a project that demonstrated local use of wood which is comparable to trying to produce more food locally. … We have a lot of forest here in New England and Massachusetts that we don’t really utilize very much and it could be used sustainably. It’s a good way to make connections with the land,” Donahue said.

His official sabbatical project, however, is often overlooked in the shadow of his recent land purchase. While constructing his house, he is working on a book about the Eastern Forest, a series of woodlands that runs between New England and Mississippi. His focus is on its history, ecology and future conservation. This project relates to his work with Harvard Forest, an organization that “for the last 10 years or [Harvard Forest] has been putting forth proposals to protect forest land on a very large scale in the state of Massachusetts and all six New England states.”

Donahue’s goal is ambitious: he “hope[s] over the next 50 years, 70 percent of New England should be in permanently protected forest, most of that sustainably harvested and some of it in wild reserves.” He will then set his sights on protecting the entire Eastern United States, all 500-million acres.

His house “exemplifies that kind of relationship with the forest.”

He then raises the issue of managing both teaching and his work on the farm, “We’ll keep working away the way we all do. Teaching does take time.” His philosophy about farming is to “set it up so you’re not all out there on your lonesome. … No one farmed that way back if you look at colonial New England. ... You’d be a real fool to farm by yourself. … This idea that it’s just me and my individual farm out their on the frontier gets pretty lonely,” he adds.

“The point for us is to identify what kind of land might be available and what would be those things that we could produce locally or within the region from which we would get the greatest environmental and social benefits. ... Growing everything locally is not an option and not a good idea.

It’s a very bad idea, but to grow some things locally is a good idea. ... We just need figure out which is which,” he said.

The outcome of this ambitious project is unknown: “We’ve been casting it as a vision. There are plenty of people working away on trying to get it to happen and that’s of course what needs to be done but I’m unable to predict whether or not we’ll succeed.” Despite the uncertainty, Donahue believes “the point of this work is to put out a reasonable goal that may be very ambitious but is actually achievable and isn’t that fantasy. You put out a goal to protect 70 percent of New England and its forests—that’s pretty ambitious.”

THE JUSTICE

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ALEX MARGOLIS/the Justice

SAVE THE DATE: Along with Dan Wertman, Jafferji ’12 (left) and Sebag ’13 (right) launched a website available to Brandeis and University of Pennsylvania students that compiles events on campuses in one place.

A web of events Students create an online social network of upcoming events By marielle temkin JUSTICE editor

With over 50 colleges and universities in metropolitan Boston, it seems impossible that any student who goes to school in the area would have trouble finding a party or concert or performance to attend on any given day. But we’ve all been there— the Friday-afternoon realization that “there’s nothing to do,” even though, given the aforementioned fact, that’s probably not true. This common predicament stems from the fact that, more often than not, Brandeis students are not aware of what’s happening on our campus, let alone what’s going on at other campuses.

This is where CampusBash.com comes into play. Created by Murtaza Jafferji ’12, Yoni Sebag ’13 and Dan Wertman, a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, CampusBash is a user-driven, eventsbased website that aims to connect the social experiences of different campuses to a “central hub,” according to Murtaza. In the three weeks since the site has gone live, it has logged over 19,000 hits and accrued over 800 Brandeis members and over 1,100 UPenn members.

During spring 2011, Sebag, a Business and English double major, realized there was a “need for finding out what’s happening at other schools. … It would be nice [to know my options], because Boston has so many schools, to find out what’s going on at their campuses without having to call a friend to see what’s going on or be invited,” he said.

His brother, the site’s co-founder Wertman, attends school at UPenn. Through trying to coordinate visits on eventful weekends, Wertman and Sebag realized there was no site just for events. Sebag said that plans when his brother visited consisted of them saying, “Let’s go to Harvard for the night and see if we can crash a party.”

The brothers realized that they would need to find a programmer

COURTESY OF CAMPUSBASH.COM

PERSONALIZED PAGES: Students keep track of attended events on profiles that include names, majors and graduation years. capable of reproducing a social networking site before they could continue with their plans.

Sebag sent out an email to the University’s Computer Science listserv with a job description, and Jafferji responded. He interviewed with Sebag and Wertman and quickly became a part of the close-knit team as CampusBash’s sole programmer.

Jafferji, a Computer Science and Math double major who has designed six other websites “just for fun,” started programming CampusBash.com on Nov. 1, 2011. “I probably was at the computer coding, actually working, for 12 hours a day, every day,” until the site went live three weeks ago, he said.

He said he “owes a lot” to the summer 2010 Justice Brandeis Semester “Web Services and Mobile Applications,” taught by Prof. Tim Hickey (COSI). “I had done nothing like this before the JBS, and our project for the JBS was to design a website,” Jafferji said.

With their new site, vague, last-minute plans will be a thing of the past. Though CampusBash currently only has pages for two schools—Brandeis and UPenn—up and running, Sebag and Murtaza both agree that it will not be long before more schools go live.

Students from over 30 other schools have begun to pre-register, and once 20 percent of the student body at each school signs up, that school’s CampusBash site will go live. As Murtaza said, the next school to be live on the site will be “the school that wants it the most.”

The amount of work Murtaza put into coding is evident when you visit the site. The homepage’s background changes depending on which school you attend—Brandeisians get a picture of Usen Castle.

On each user’s profile, there is a mockup of an ID card (which looks like your school’s actual ID) onto which you can upload a profile picture and put in your major, birth-

day, graduation year, relationship status and anything about yourself.

Also found on your profile is what the creators called a BashCal. This is where users can see a visual representation of all the events they said they would be attending, which makes planning busy weekends easier. Users can also view their friends’ BashCals, allowing them to coordinate plans with minimal effort.

Jafferji, Sebag and Wertman have also come up with a way of helping users figure out which events will be worth attending.

Sebag said that about a month ago, the team came up with the idea of grading events.

Any person who attended an event or is currently at the event can grade it, and then the host of that event gets a GPA. Hosts with good GPAs get put on the dean’s list, which any user can view.

This way, you can check out a past host’s event record to see if his or

her upcoming party will be worth attending.

On CampusBash, events are filtered through a choice of three privacy settings: friends, campus or intercampus. So if you are hosting an event that you only want your friends to see, you can select that privacy setting, and it will only be visible to your friends.

On the other hand, if you are hosting an event to which you want as many people as possible to come, you can set the event at intercampus, and everyone on the site with access to Brandeis events can see it and attend if they wish.

Sebag used the example of theater groups on campus that are “always looking for a larger audience to share their hard work with.”

The way that users get access to other school’s events is with a “Bash pass.” Every user has a pass to the school they attend, and you receive passes to other schools by having just one friend who goes there.

So while you still have to have a connection in order to get invites to other campuses’ events, you only need a single connection and you get access to every intercampus event anyone at the school hosts.

The Brandeisian members of the team said that the community here has been very supportive of their venture into social networking.

Jafferji said that one of his professors sent an email asking students to “attend the event on CampusBash so they knew how many pizzas to order.”

Sebag added that his friends on Student Events have said that the site is definitely something the group would use for advertising.

But when everything else is stripped away, the site’s purpose is to meet the trio’s goal of “trying to get you out of your room, making new friends, going to new events, experiencing new things, just basically realizing the potential you could have in college,” as Sebag put it. “We’re trying to broaden your whole social life,” added Jafferji.

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Justice Justice

the the

Established 1949, Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Established 1949

Emily Kraus, Editor in Chief Nashrah Rahman, Managing Editor Brian N. Blumenthal, Production Editor Andrew Wingens, Deputy Editor Alana Abramson, Rebecca Blady, Hillel Buechler, Eitan Cooper, Bryan Flatt, Rebecca Klein, Asher Krell, Fiona Lockyer, Tess Raser and Robyn Spector, Associate Editors Sara Dejene, News Editor Dafna Fine, Features Editor Shafaq Hasan, Forum Editor Adam Rabinowitz, Sports Editor Ariel Kay, Arts Editor Emily Salloway, Acting Arts Editor Jenny Cheng and Joshua Linton, Acting Photography Editors Nan Pang, Layout Editor Marielle Temkin, Copy Editor David Wolkoff, Acting Advertising Editor

Recognize Greek life It’s Rush Week. Whether or not Brandeis recognizes Greek life on campus, fraternities and sororities are undeniably a part of student life here. And whether or not we think that Greek life is a positive influence on student life as a whole, the University has a responsibility to take a more active role in regulating those groups. It is counterintuitive for the University to assert that Greek organizations go against Brandeis values because of their exclusive nature; regulation of those groups by the University could make those groups become more inclusive. Because of the significant number of students involved in fraternities and sororities— 9.3 percent of students—and those groups’ increasing visibility on campus, the University needs to recognize Greek life.

Going against our history It is obvious that the University has long been firmly opposed to Greek life and, in fact, has pledged to never recognize those groups: In 1988, the Board of Trustees passed a resolution reaffirming that “Exclusive or secret societies are inconsistent with the principles of openness to which the University is committed. Therefore, social fraternities and sororities, in particular, are neither recognized nor permitted to hold activities on campus or use University facilities.”

However, even though Brandeis is committed to making all student groups nonexclusive, the fact remains that there are groups within our community— even if they do not officially exist on our campus—that exclude students. Some students who want bids will not receive them at the end of rush this year; however, under a system regulated by the University, that would not necessarily be the case. For example, at Tufts University, which has school-regulated Greek life, “Eligible students who participate in the entire recruitment process as directed by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life are generally assured a bid from at least one of the chapters,” according to that school’s Fraternity and Sorority View Book. Brandeis should take steps toward establishing a similar system because, with the growing number of students on campus, the numbers of students who want to join sororities and fraternities and the number of students excluded will necessarily rise as well. The way to curb this trend and bring these groups more into line with Brandeis values is clear: University recognition and, with it, regulation.

University can impose regulations Currently, 9.3 percent of students are members of a fraternity or a sorority.

But even more students are affected: Greek organizations work with on-campus groups to cosponsor activities, and students who aren’t members of fraternities and sororities still attend the offcampus parties that those groups hold on the weekends. But all of this takes place without any direct involvement from administrators: There is no regulation, no way to enforce rules about alcohol or to prevent hazing. While the national organizations for the Greek chapters can play that regulatory role

Regulate campus presence to an extent, the University must try to find a way to have a more direct impact on those groups.

If there was some sort of Greek life council on campus overseen by the Division of Student Life, the University could address many of the substantive problems related to Greek Life. The way rush works currently, it is difficult for a student to rush more than one organization, and if he or she is not invited to join—which is the case for a growing number of students—then he or she is out of luck and simply cannot become a member of any group that semester. Fraternities and sororities may be reluctant to undertake these kinds of changes, but if the University recognizes Greek life, national organizations would require that those groups abide by Brandeis’s rules in order to maintain their membership. And there would be benefits for those groups, too, even if they don’t like all of the specific policies: They would finally be an official part of student life and would enjoy the status and the logistical perks that recognized groups have.

Align Greek life closer with values Those who are opposed to recognizing fraternities and sororities here have valid points: Recognition could change the fabric of the University, and we would no longer be able to advertise that Brandeis has no recognized Greek life could attract different students than the ones who currently make up our student body.

Critics must acknowledge that recognizing Greek life won’t introduce it to campus: It’s already here, and we as a community are failing to adequately deal with it. The fact that Brandeis tells prospective students that there is no recognized Greek life on campus is already misleading; students who come here with that expectation are inevitably surprised to find that not only do fraternities and sororities exist, but that a substantial amount of first-years attend their parties as they are introduced to Brandeis social life. Even if advertising that there is Greek life on campus takes away one of Brandeis’ selling points on admissions brochures, that point should no longer be there anyway—just because the University doesn’t recognize those groups does not change the facts about their presence here.

This page, speaking on behalf of the student body, is not passing judgment on whether or not Greek life is good or bad for this campus. But we are acknowledging that it is here, and with recognition, Brandeis would be able to shape a system of Greek life that aligns more closely with our values as a University. Higher academic standards could be imposed on chapters; the system could be changed to be more inclusive; initiation could be better overseen; potential hazing could be prevented. Yes, recognizing Greek life would be a big change for Brandeis.

But by taking the opportunity to make Greek life an official part of our community that shares all of our standards and principles, the University could ensure that it would be a change for the better.

SARA WEININGER/the Justice

Politicians should play to our emotions Eitan COOPER

DOWN TO BUSINESS

Who is a politician? These days, it would be wonderful if it was just someone who practices politics. Someone who has his constituents’ interests in mind, who cares more about getting things done than retaining political capital. Simply put, it would be beneficial to everyone if our politicians came across as genuine, emotional and sensitive people.

This past week, we may have seen just that. There was a glimmer of hope on the floor of the house as Representative Gabrielle Giffords resigned her seat. A little more than a year ago, Giffords was shot in the head at a public meeting in Tuscon, Ariz..

Since then, she has had a difficult road toward rehabilitation— to say the least—and has managed to overcome tremendous challenges. Sadly, though, she reached the decision last week that she would not be able to capably serve her constituents.

The glimmer of hope did not come from the unfortunate resignation, but in the service accompanying it. In a moving ceremony, numerous members of Congress delivered emotional speeches.

Perhaps the most poignant moment came when Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in tears, stumbled as she read Giffords’ resignation letter aloud. This was followed by Speaker of the House John Boehner’s acceptance of Giffords’ letter. As she was slowly helped up the stairs to hand her letter to the crying speaker, the chamber was overcome with applause and emotion.

For once, our leaders seemed like people. The moving ceremony and the many tears that accompanied it made it hard to feel anything but pride. Here was a body of leaders who not only legislate (or at least attempt to) but are also deeply sensitive.

One couldn’t help but respect our politicians.

Sadly, this reality frequently eludes us. Our leaders are often corrupt, angry, overly ambitious and sometimes downright nutty (a presidential candidate recently suggested we build a moon colony and that it should apply for statehood after reaching 13,000 residents). President Barack Obama outlined the problem quite convincingly in his State of the Union address, “I bet most Americans are thinking the same thing right about now: ‘Nothing will get done in Washington this year, or next year or maybe even the year after that because Washington is broken.’ Can you blame them for feeling a little cynical?” Most Americans agree with the president on this one. Statistics show that Congress, and, even the president, have devastatingly low approval ratings. Across the country, approval ratings have decreased sharply. This especially holds true for one demographic: college students. According to the Harvard University Institute of Politics, only 46 percent of those between 18 and 29 approve of the president (down from 55 percent a year ago; the lowest approval rating yet for Obama). Just 33 percent approve of Democrats in Congress (down from 45 percent) and 24 percent approve of Republicans (down from 30 percent).

How can our leaders get us back? Emotion.

Obama won the election with our demographic. And most people will tell you that he did it through inspiring rallies and emotional speeches. College students voted largely in his favor, and this may have been because his energy was a game-changer (with the added factor that watching paint dry was more entertaining than watching speeches given by Senator John McCain).

In the current Republican primaries, emotion has played a decisive role. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (the guy who wants the moon colony) won South Carolina through an impressive and passionate ripping of CNN at a debate. But emotion doesn’t always have to involve a face turning darker shades of red as candidates yell at each other or at the moderator of the debate.

The solution also lies, perhaps, in the sensitivity and passion displayed at Giffords’ ceremony.

Take last week’s Republican debate in Florida as an example: A woman from the audience told the candidates that she was out of a job and did not have health care. She asked the men running for president what they could do for her. And instead of first looking in this woman’s eyes and expressing sensitivity, most of the candidates proceeded to debate the merits of “Obamacare” and “Romneycare.”

To be clear, emotion always needs to be accompanied by a change. A show of sensitivity or a passionate speech is nothing without decisive action. We need our leaders to step off their high horses and figure out a way to accomplish something.

OP-BOX Quote of the Week “The point of this work is to put out a reasonable goal that may be very ambitious but is actually achievable and isn’t fantasy.”

— Prof. Brian Donahue ‘82

on his recently purchased farm (See Features, pg. 6).

Brandeis Talks Back What do you think about the size of your classes?

Michael Sapp ’13 “I’m happy with my class sizes. Some should be a bit smaller, but for what I’m in right now, it’s doable.”

Rachel Pitman ’13 “They’re pretty good.”

Dan Flores ’12 “Very satisfied. They’re usually less than 20 students.”

Allison Clears ’14 “Good. Satisfied.”

—Compiled by Rebecca Klein Photos by Tess Raser/ the Justice

THE JUSTICE

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Refocus media to benefit the public Diego MEDRANO

MISSING LINK

As Americans, like to pride ourselves in our knowledge. We assume that we can find out anything at any time about any subject, so we consistently demand information.

Whether we consume television news, radio broadcasts, newspapers, blogs or other online sources, we demand instant gratification in our search for the full story. With such a wide array of sources, the truth can’t possibly hide. Right? Wrong. Yet we still assume that our nation’s press is constantly working for the greater good and is free from the influence of our government. Unfortunately, the recent wave of arrests of journalists and an increasingly capitalistic system of journalism have led to some shortcomings in reporting.

The United States recently fell 27 places in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index to land at 47th place this year. The reason for the fall? The arrests of journalists at the Occupy Wall Street protests. Regardless of where our press ranks, the shortcomings of the media are both government and selfimposed.

Lately, the detainment of journalists has been a troubling issue. A quick Google search about police apprehending journalists and private citizens filming police officers on duty turns up plenty of results. Over-zealous police officers have been much too quick to arrest reporters who turn the camera on the officers despite the fact that those journalists pose no immediate threat. Rather, the police are worried about potential harm to their public image.

This is especially true of the journalists arrested at Occupy Wall Street protests. In an age where just about everyone has a decent camera or video camera on their phone, there is extensive footage available in these sorts of situations.

More so, news outlets like CNN and MSNBC are giving this footage a place on their network. The opportunistic citizens know that compelling footage can make the news—and so do the police. As such, they’ll do whatever they can to try to stop negative footage from getting out to the public. Granted, if the police officers were doing nothing wrong, there shouldn’t be an issue. Regardless, you can understand what is causing the crackdown on journalists.

The United States likes to set the example for the rest of the world in terms of civic involvement and opportunity, but our police officers are setting the example that Americans are at odds with the institution, and that in-

SAINT HUCK/Flickr Creative Commons

OCCUPY THE MEDIA: An onlooker records the Occupy Wall Street protest and demonstration on his phone while in the Financial District in New York on Nov. 21. stitution will do anything possible to silence the truth. Occupy Wall Street conveyed as much an image of unity as it did of discord and disconnect. The common American, and especially the young American, seemed more at odds with the government and police forces than with corporations.

Police officers and the government threaten the freedom of our press, but journalists are limiting themselves as well. Looking at the relationship between news outlets and the government, so much of what dictates that relationship is access.

The government is in constant public relations mode and is careful about who they disseminate information to and under what circumstances. Certain officials may not be willing to speak to certain organizations, so when they do, the journalists involved may be overly careful to not destroy the delicate relationship.

Take the July 2003 press conference in which then-President George W. Bush announced the Iraq War. The questions were staged, pre-screened and served to convey the message of the administration. The jour-

nalists who participated knew that if the administration was to cooperate in the future, they couldn’t oppose them. When a politician knows they can interact with the public through like-minded sources—a conservative can safely interview on Fox News or a liberal on MSNBC—they don’t need to interact with journalists who may put their feet to the fire.

This leaves many news organizations acting overly cautious to maintain the relationships they need to succeed.

With news organizations competitive for profits, those who have access to the most important figures have the greatest chance of luring the largest audiences. Some questions they’re asking are scripted, barely pressing or better serving of the government than the people; just about every news organization will take viewers over journalistic integrity.

Sure, grilling a member of government about an issue will lead to an audience in the short term, but the viewers will be less likely to come back later when those guests choose to give their story to other networks. It’s a catch-22 that every major news source has to deal with, but with profits becoming a larger

factor in the news we receive, self-censorship has become the norm.

What journalists and government officials need to remember is that they serve the people, not the other way around. If every news source held the government to a certain standard, there would be no issue. The government can’t simply avoid all media, and it wouldn’t only interact with certain sources if each source maintained a certain level of journalistic integrity.

Instead, profits and competition ensure that the people will be kept in the dark when the government says so. The press is considered the “fourth estate” for a reason, and the importance of their job isn’t to be overlooked.

They are the protectors of a free society and vital to the success of a democracy.

What I see in our current state of journalism is an army of talented people who know what the right thing to do is but are being led astray by stockholders. The result is a press that appears to be more afraid than empowered. Police arresting journalists is bad enough, but journalists censoring themselves for revenue is even worse.

Introduce annotated versions of e-textbooks Naomi

volk et cetera

It might just be the avid reader in me, but I cannot adjust to the new trend of reading textbooks online. Although I understand the financial reasons for buying e-textbooks and that classes are requiring more and more use of technology, I cannot help but feel like students are losing part of the fundamental experience of learning.

Apple recently announced a new line of textbooks for the iPad that is designed to be “interactive” by including videos and pop-ups to help enhance the textbook experience. Call me old-fashioned, but I think interacting with a textbook is more than watching a supplementary video. To truly get a sense of what the text

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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.

is saying, you have to highlight, underline and annotate. And while with many resources you can digitally add these tools, some students lose comprehension when not physically working with the material. It’s the same and the difference between taking handwritten notes as taking notes on a computer—those that are handwritten stick in the brain better.

However, while many professors complain about the use of e-textbooks because they are not usually the best versions of the work, technology is constantly being integrated into lecture plans and class discussions. Brandeis is ahead of the curve in some ways. Brandeis’ LATTE site allows professors to post reading materials online rather than forcing us to buy a whole book when we are going to only read a section of it.

In this way, e-books not only only save us money, but also prove to be an important step in the age of going digital. While I may prefer to use a physical copy of the work we’re discussing in class, it does seem as if it would be convenient to use the e-textbook version.

Fine Print

The opinions stated in the editorial(s) under the masthead on the opposing page represent the opinion of a majority of the voting members of the editorial board; all other articles, columns, comics and advertisements do not necessarily. For the Brandeis Talks Back feature on the opposite page, staff interview four randomly selected students each week and print only those four answers.

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E-books may be useful for different types of classes and different reading materials merit different approaches to reading. A textbook for an introductory course in the natural sciences requires less interaction than a novel for an upper-level English class.

The student taking the class in natural sciences might actually benefit from a 30-second supplementary video, whereas the student taking a class on Shakespeare may need written annotations to make sense of the literature.

But who says the natural science student could not benefit from annotating in the same way that the literature student could benefit from a supplementary video to make sense of what he or she is reading?

But if this is indeed where our education is headed, what really needs to happen is a complete overhaul of the e-textbook system. If we are going to proceed into the future with only our iPads and laptops and use e-books instead of real books, then we must have full online versions of books readily available, complete with the academic resources, such as foot-

The Staff

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

notes, that are already included in textbooks.

I understand that I may be in the minority with this old-fashioned-stereotypical-Englishmajor-annotation philosophy. Just because I am a kinesthetic learner does not mean that the rest of the campus is. In fact, some people learn better by seeing a visual representation of what they are supposed to be learning, and therefore e-books may be a useful learning tool for them.

As we as a community move into a digital future, we’re realizing that we have to incorporate all styles of learning, even those who learn best by highlighting and underlining. Given the growing importance and significance of technology within the classroom, we do need to support and continue to grow with technology and embrace digital textbooks, while still finding ways for people with old-fashioned ways of reading to learn.

But in the end, I know I cannot be the only one who still prints out the LATTE documents so I can read and highlight physical pieces of papers, rather than staring at a screen.

Editorial Assistants Copy: Maya Riser-Kositsky Features: Celine Hacobian News: Tate Herbert, Sam Mintz Staff Senior Writers: Josh Asen, Aaron Berke, Wei Huan-Chen, Shelly Shore Senior Illustrator: Sara Weininger Senior Photographer: Alex Margolis News: Shani Abramowitz, Tyler Belanga, Jonathan Epstein, Danielle Gross, Luke Hayslip Features: Claire Gohorel, Rachel Miller, Jessie Miller Forum: Aaron Fried, Philip Gallagher, Tien Le, Diego Medrano, Sara Shahanaghi, Naomi Volk Sports: Julian Cardillo, Jacob Elder, Henry Loughlin, Jacob Lurie,

Jacob Moskowitz, Becca Elwin Arts: Alex DeSilva, Olivia Leiter, Amy Melser, Leanne Ortbals, Louis Polisson, Mara Sassoon, Ayan Sanyal, Viet Tran, Dan Willey Photography: Jon Edelstein, Lydia Emmanouilidou, Nathaniel Freedman, Yifan He, Josh Horowitz, Davida Judelson, Josh Spriro, Madeleine Stix, Diana Wang, David Yun Copy: Aliza Braverman, Jennie Bromberg, Patricia Greene, Max Holzman, Eunice Ko, Megan Paris, Christine Phan, Mailinh Phan-Nguyen, Amanda Winn Layout: Rachel Burkhoff, Jassen Lu, Denny Poliferno, Michelle Yi Illustrations: Mara Sassoon, Arielle Shorr, Tziporah Thompson

THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, January 31, 2012

10

SPORTS

TRACK: Teams continue to impress collegiate rivals at the BU Classic CONTINUED FROM 12 Asante, serving as a dual threat for the squad, also managed to break the top 50 in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.89.

For the women, in the 5000-meter run, Kate Warwick ’12 continued her notable individual performances even amid a very strong field of runners, placing 21st with a time of 17:20.96. This time proved to be the fastest in the UAA for the event and fifth among all Division III runners.

Ali Kirsch ’14 in the 800-meter run also stood out in the women’s field

for the Judges, finishing in 41st place with a time of 2:23.55. In the 1000-meter race, Kristi Pisarik ’15 finished in 11th place with a time of 3:02.61. Erin Bisceglia ’12 finished close behind her at 24th place at 3:11.18. In the women’s high jump, Lily Parenteau ’14 ranked 11th with a height of 5.03 feet, preserving her 16th place national ranking.

Asante is happy with the squads’ progress this season, indicating that they are improving from where they started last December.

“We’re definitely picking up heat,” said Asante. “We’re develop-

ing day by day. ... There has been mental progress and we are only going up and up and up.”

Brown agreed with Asante, stating there are many runners on both Brandeis squads that can make a statement as the scoring meets quickly approach.

“We have a bunch of guys running really fast and are in really good shape to run fast in a few weeks when the races start to get more important.”

Both track squads will compete at the Tufts Invitational at Tufts University this Saturday.

SIDE ATTACK

FENCING

Squads fail to stand out in their D1 meet ■ Both fencing squads

fought for crucial victories against their Division I rivals last Saturday.

By HENRY LOUGHLIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

ALEX MARGOLIS/the Justice

OPEN FLOOR: Guard Morgan Kendrew ’12 surges down the lane to the basket in a 67-56 win over Carnegie Mellon last Sunday.

With a lack of University Athletic Association competition during the season, the fencing squads have to use other top schools to see how they stack up against the rest of the nation.

It turns out they’re doing all right.

The men’s and women’s squads each earned three victories at Saturday’s Northeast Conference Meet at Boston College. The men bested Dartmouth College, Tufts University and Vassar College by scores of 14-13, 21-6 and 17-10, but fell to Brown University 14-13 and BC 16-11.

Similarly, the women defeated Dartmouth and Tufts, while their third victim was Smith College. However, they were defeated handily by Boston College 21-6, Brown 24-3 and Vassar 19-8.

Additionally, the women beat Wellesley College in a thrilling affair last Wednesday, taking the competition, 14-13. The women responded well in a situation where they needed to win against a huge rival, especially as last weekend’s meet approached.

Men’s sabreist Ben Schmidt ’14 stated the team is currently trying to address recurring problems they see in the meets and work toward improving them for later in the season.

“At the moment, we are working on tactical decisions and general technique,” said Schmidt.

“We are personally working on frequent issues that occur during practice bouts. We are analyzing the issues that we have to deal with.”

Sabreist Deborah Rothbard ’14 also noted the members of the team are constantly trying to find ways to improve on their performances and reach their full potential.

“We are always finding ways to transcend our comfort levels regarding endurance, technique and creativity,” she said.

“With a sport such as fencing, the athlete always has to be on his or her toes to respond to a new challenge the competitor may present.”

The men featured two top performers, as Julian Cardillo ’14 and Noah Berman ’15 each dominated the foil competition. Cardillo went 8-2 on the day while Berman compiled a record of 9-3. Two first-year members of the sabreist squad stood out at the meet, indicating a bright future for the sa-

breists as Jess Ochs-Willard ’15 and Adam Mandel ’15 emerged victorious in eight matches apiece.

On the women’s side, épeéist Leah Mack ’14 went 12-6 on the day to lead the squad in victories. Fellow épeéist Eliza Powell ’15 also earned an impressive mark at just her first major meet, winning six of her nine matches.

Though the Wellesley Blue won the foil part of the competition 9-0, Brandeis made up for its deficit in that section by winning épée 8-1 and sabre by a margin of 6-3.

In addition to winning three matches, sabreist Zoe Messinger ’13 scored the decisive point to win the competition for Brandeis. Her teammate Emmily Smith ’13 also chipped in with victories of her own to counteract wins from opposing sophomore Dania Wright, senior Zsofia Schwerger and junior Mariami Bekauri.

While the Judges’ superiority was evident in sabre, the épeé yielded an absolute goldmine of success for Brandeis, winning all but one point against the Blue. Emily Mandel ’12 and Leah Mack ’14 were perfect in the competition, winning all three of their matches. While Kristin Ha ’14 lost in a heated battle against junior Elise Dong, she had the last laugh, winning in her other two competitions.

With a good idea of where they stand, the Judges head into next Saturday’s home competition, the Eric Sollee Invitational, against an array of top-tier opponents including: Haverford and Hunter Colleges, Johns Hopkins University, New York University and the University of Pennsylvania.

As Schmidt says, home matches— especially against NYU—always prove a good test of character.

“NYU is our biggest rival for sure,” Schmidt said, adding that the significance of the rivalry is increased by the fact that both teams are in the UAA. “Being home provides us with an advantage of being able to have more people cheering for us, which is pretty unusual for us. We always look forward to it.”

Rothbard agreed, stating the home environment will be an asset, but the team should not get too comfortable.

“Being home does have comfort value, which can be helpful to us and intimidating for the visiting teams who have to adapt to new surroundings,” said Rothbard.

“Also, being home is great because our fans have easy access to the competition and will be able to cheer for us on the sidelines.”

WBBALL: Women notch first UAA win in a difficult month MBBALL: Men CONTINUED FROM 12 gate to enter the second half, as Cain fired a jumper, grabbed her own rebound and laid the ball in for a score, extending Brandeis’ lead to 10 points.

On the next play, Hassan quickly nabbed the inbound pass, where Kendrew was able to score two more points, extending the lead to 12 points.

The Tartans, while battling to stay in the game with the Judges, ultimately could not fight any longer as the home team cruised to a win.

Kendrew led the Judges in scoring during the game with 22 points, tying Cain with four assists. During the game, Cincotta hit the 100th three-pointer of her career, only the sixth Judge ever to do so.

Two days before facing Carnegie Mellon, the Judges hosted Case Western Reserve, ultimately losing the contest 61-54.

Brandeis managed to keep the game close against the Spartans, only entering halftime with a slim 29-26 deficit. The first half featured three lead changes, and save for a 9-0 Case scoring spurt to end the half, the Judges maintained complete control of the game and a shot at their first conference victory. Despite another three lead changes,the Judges were outscored 32-28 in the second half.

Six minutes into the half, the Judges would prove unable to recapture the lead for the remainder of the game.

Kendrew led the Judges in scoring with 13 points, while Cain led the team with five assists. Forward Samantha Anderson ’13 had a team-

high 11 rebounds, eight of which were on the defensive end.

While the team will undoubtedly enjoy the victory against Carnegie, Simon noted that the team still had a lot of work to do, especially on the offensive end of the court.

“I feel this past weekend, we were a more disciplined team on the offensive end,” she said.

“We did not force things. ... We have been working on keeping things simple. We continue to work on all aspects of the game and our goal is to get better every day.”

Brandeis will seek to avenge its loss to Case Western this Friday in a road game, at 6 p.m.

On Sunday afternoon, the Judges will play Carnegie Mellon once more in an attempt to sweep the season series.

dominate rivals CONTINUED FROM 12

With 3:23 remaining in the overtime period, Case led 66-65. Retos hit a jumper, and from that point, Brandeis led the rest of the way.

The Judges would eventually proceed to take the game by a 78-74 margin.

Brandeis’ balanced attack led the way, as five players shared the offensive success.

Bartoldus led the team with 14 points and three steals, scoring all his points in the second half. Retos scored 13 but shot just 1-7 from downtown.

Dascy scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Forward Alex Stoyle ’14 tied a career-high by scoring 12 points off the bench.

Hughes scored six points and dished out seven assists, while Kriskus also scored 11, again all in the second half.

Brandeis will continue their UAA schedule on the road against the Case Western Reserve University Spartans this Friday.

The Judges will then travel to Pittsburgh to square off against Carnegie Mellon this upcoming Sunday.

THE JUSTICE

jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS TEAM STATS

Points Per Game

Not including Monday’s games UAA Conference Overall

W L W L Pct. WashU 6 1 14 4 .778 NYU 5 2 15 2 .882 JUDGES 5 2 11 7 .611 Emory 4 3 15 3 .833 Chicago 4 3 11 7 .611 Rochester 2 5 11 7 .611 Carnegie 2 5 7 11 .389 Case 0 7 8 10 .444

UPCOMING GAMES Friday at Case Sunday at Carnegie Friday, Feb. 10 at Rochester

TUESDAY, January 31, 2012

11

CLUB SPORT

Men’s BASKETBALL UAA STANDINGS

●

Ben Bartoldus ’14 leads the team with 12.3 points per game.

Player PPG Ben Bartoldus 12.3 Derek Retos 12.2 Vytas Kriskus 11.4 Youri Dascy 10.1

Ski teams catch a lift to Regionals tournament

Rebonds Per Game Youri Dascy ’14 leads the team with 7.3 rebounds per game.

Player RPG Youri Dascy 7.3 Vytas Kriskus 5.4 Alex Stoyle 3.2 Alex Schmidt 3.2

WOMen’s basketball UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS

Not including Monday’s games

Points Per Game

UAA Conference Overall

W L W L Pct. Chicago 7 0 18 0 .1000 Rochester 6 1 17 1 .944 WashU 5 2 15 3 .833 Emory 4 3 13 5 .722 Case 3 4 10 8 .556 NYU 1 6 9 9 .500 JUDGES 1 6 8 10 .444 Carnegie 1 6 7 11 .389

Morgan Kendrew ’12 leads the team with 11.9 points per game.

Player PPG Morgan Kendrew 11.9 Dianna Cincotta 9.6 Hannah Cain 7.2 Shannon Hassan 4.8

UPCOMING GAMES Friday at Case Sunday at Carnegie Friday, Feb.10 at Rochester

Rebounds Per Game Samantha Anderson ’13 leads with 6.8 rebounds per game.

Player RPG Samantha Anderson 6.8 Hannah Cain 5.8 Kelly Ethier 3.7 Courtney Ness 3.6

FENCING Results from the second Northeast Conference Meet last Saturday

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

SABER RECORD Jess Ochs-Willard 8-2

FOIL Abigail Hirsch

RECORD 7-2

SABER Adam Mandel

RECORD 8-2

ÉPÉE Eliza Powell

RECORD 6-3

RECORD 9-3

ÉPÉE Leah Mack

RECORD 12-6

FOIL Noah Berman

PHOTO COURTESY OF LAURAN O’ NEAL

UPCOMING MEET: The men’s and women’s teams will next compete at the Eric Sollee Invitational at home this upcoming Saturday.

■ The Brandeis ski team has

had an impressive transition year, advancing to its fourth consecutive Regionals event.

By ADAM RABINOWITZ

TRACK AND FIELD

JUSTICE EDITOR

Results from the Boston University Terrier Classic last Saturday

NOTABLE FINISHES (Men’s)

NOTABLE FINISHES (Women’s)

60-YARD DASH Vincent Asante MILE RUN Chris Brown 3,000 METER RUN Alex Kramer

5,000-METER RUN Kate Warwick 800 METER RUN Ali Kirsch HIGH JUMP Lili Parenteau

TIME 7.16 TIME 4:10.34 TIME 8:40.96

FAMILY PHOTO: The Brandeis ski team is pictured here at its latest meet , held at Magic Mountain Ski Area in Londonderry, Vt.

TIME 17:20.96 TIME 2:23.55 DISTANCE 5.03

UPCOMING MEET: The men’s and women’s track teams will next compete at the Tufts Invitational this upcoming Saturday.

After the upperclassmen that built the foundation of the men’s and women’s ski team graduated last year, the current leaders of the squad expected this year to be one of transition.

However, resting at the midpoint of the season, both teams are not only exceeding expectations but are slated to advance to the United States Collegiate Ski Association Regional Competition on Feb. 25-26 at Sugar Loaf Mountain in Maine.

The men’s team currently sits at second in its division, while the women rest in third place.

Coach Lauran O’Neal is pleased with the progress the club has

made in her three years of coaching.

“We have definitely exceeded all expectations,” she said.

“Our boys’ squad is second in our division, and while we’re thin, we’re doing an impressive job in spite of that.”

Captain Jesse Manning ’13 has also been impressed with the performance of both squads this season. He especially praises the new members for the many adjustments they have had to make.

“We had a lot of turnover at the top, particularly for the girls’ team,” he said.

“A lot of kids who raced before graduated, and now, there is a lot of new blood on the team, but these new skiers have definitely stepped up in the spots that we needed them to fill.”

The Brandeis ski team currently competes in a division that boasts Yale University, the University of Rhode Island, Marist College, Wellesley College, and Wesleyan

University. These schools make up an assortment of Division I and Division III schools.

While schools such as Yale and URI may pose challenges to Brandeis’ Division III team, Manning is confident in the squads’ ability to succeed.

“Our division got a little weaker this year, which is beneficial to us,” he said.

“Also, though, our squads are only getting better, and we have a really young, exciting group of skiers.”

O’Neal explained, however, that the key to bulding up the team further lies in attracting more members to the team.

“Our main goal simply is to raise awareness,” she said.

“We need to get out to the school that this team is not just for racers, but for those who have never raced and just want to have a good time.”

Both squads will next compete this Saturday at the Pico Mountain meet in Killington, Vermont.

soccer brief United States national soccer teams breeze past Latin American rivals en route to Olympics Although the attention of many American sports fans has been directed toward the upcoming Super Bowl, the United States’ Men’s and Women’s National Soccer teams made a bold statement to fans last week, defeating Panama and Costa Rica respectively.

The men’s team beat Panama’s national team 1-0 last Wednesday for its third straight win, improving to 4-4-1 on the year. This was the U.S. team’s first road match in the journey to the 2012 Olympics, taking place in London this July and August.

Eight minutes into the game, midfielder Graham Zusi, in just his second appearance for the U.S. National team, gave the Americans the only goal they would need.

He capitalized on a crossed ball that ricocheted to the top-right corner of the box, drilling it past the Panama-

nian goalie, Luis Mejia, to the back corner of the net.

U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who replaced Bob Bradley last summer, saw this as an opportunity to get the backup players some exposure and playing time.

“Our goal with these two games was very simple,” he said. “We wanted to introduce the players to those difficult games in different environments, especially away from home outside of their comfort zone. We wanted them to come here and experience this atmosphere and a different way of doing things. I think they did very well with all that.”

Despite being a man short for the majority of the second half, the B-team held strong against Panama’s aggressive offense. Without a full squad on the field and only up by one goal, the

U.S. team then slowed the pace of the game, tightly packing its defense to prevent Panama from taking advantage of the one-man shortage.

With the win, the national team helps its cause in qualifying for its seventh-consecutive Olympics. The squad will get an opportunity to seal its spot in the CONCACAF tournament, which will be held in Nashville, Tenn. from March 22 to 26.

Although the men never won a medal at the Olympics, Klinsmann has high hopes for his team to develop its talent and experience for the 2014 World Cup, taking place in Brazil.

The U.S. women’s national team, on the other hand, cruised past the Costa Rican national team in a 3-0 win last Friday in the semifinal match of the CONCACAF women’s Olympic soccer tournament. The women cemented

their spot in the Olympics with the victory.

Midfielder Tobin Heath sank a rebound past the Costa Rican goalie, Erika Miranda, in the 16th minute to put the U.S. ahead 1-0. Although the U.S. entered the game as the clear favorites, the squad did not seal their win against the persistent Costa Rican team until the very end of the second half. In the 72nd minute, midfielder Carli Lloyd scored from the top of the penalty area. Shortly after, in the 89th minute, an explosive goal by secondhalf substitute Alex Morgan put the women ahead 3-0 to topple the Costa Ricans.

Despite the loss, Costa Rican coach Karla Aleman emphasized her pride in her players.

“For Costa Rica, it has been a great honor of playing against the best team

in the world,” she said. “At the moment, these kinds of experiences are the ones that we need for Costa Rica to get better and grow.”

Since women’s soccer was added to the official Olympic program in 1996, the U.S. women’s national team has qualified for all five Olympic tournaments. In those five tournaments, the team won gold medals in 1996, 2004 and 2008.

The men’s soccer squad next competes on Feb. 29 at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium in Genoa, Italy against the Italian national squad, a four-time world cup champion.

The women’s national team will square off against New Zealand’s national team, on Feb. 11, at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco, Tex.

— Madeleine Stix

just

Sports

Page 12

HITTING THE SLOPES The Brandeis ski team has defied expectations in a transition year, besting division rivals such as Yale and Wesleyan, p. 11.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Waltham, Mass.

women’s basketball

SKY HIGH

Team notches an elusive UAA win against Carnegie ■ The women’s basketball

team earned its first UAA victory against Carnegie Mellon last Sunday.

By jacob lurie JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

ALEX MARGOLIS/the Justice

FREE BASKET: Forward Alex Stoyle ’14 prepares to drain a shot over a Carnegie Mellon defender in last Sunday’s 80-67 victory.

Men surge ahead of conference opponents ■ The men’s basketball

team earned another two conference wins against Case and Carnegie Mellon.

By JACOB MOSKOWITZ JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The Brandeis men’s basketball team continues to surge up the University Athletic Association standings, making its 2-5 start a distant memory.

With their two wins this weekend at home, the Judges move to third place in the conference.

While the Judges had to fight off the Carnegie Mellon Tartans last Sunday, barely avoiding a monumental collapse, they held on for a 80-67 win.

Last Friday, Brandeis notched its second consecutive overtime win, besting Case Western Reserve 7874. The Judges move to 11-7 overall and 5-2 in the UAA. Brandeis played a very strong first half in Sunday’s game, jumping out to a 21-9 lead just eight minutes into the game.

After the Tartans cut the lead to 28-19, Brandeis went on an 18-2 run, entering the second half with a 25 point lead.

After just six turnovers in the first half, the next half proved to be a different story for Brandeis.

Carnegie began to press Brandeis full-court, and the Judges were unable to break the press.

This led to 12 Brandeis turnovers and easy layups for Carnegie, allowing the visiting Tartans to jump

right back into the game, cutting the lead down to nine.

However, Brandeis would escape with its third straight conference victory.

Point guard Tyrone Hughes ’12 indicated the team needed to be more disciplined on defense and avoid those costly miscues.

“We just can’t catch the ball in the corner and allow ourselves to be trapped,” said Hughes.

“We have to discipline ourselves to catch the ball, [with the] free throw line extended, to avoid the trap and we’ll be just fine.”

Brandeis had five players score in double figures for the second game in a row.

Forward Vytas Kriskus ’12 led the team with 17 points, while Hughes scored 13 and dished out six assists.

Guard Derek Retos ’14 had 12 points on 4-5 from three-point range, while center Youri Dascy ’14 had 11 points and six rebounds.

Guard Jay Freeman ’13 contributed 11 points, four assists and four steals off the bench.

Hughes, however, was displeased with the team’s lack of focus in the second half on both sides of the court, which caused a near-collapse against Carnegie.

“We were up so big that as a team, we just took our foot off the gas pedal and just tried to coast our way through the game,” Hughes said.

“We didn’t bring the same energy and intensity that we had in the first half, and in this league, anything is possible. We better do a better job of putting teams away.”

Last Friday, Brandeis pulled off its second straight overtime win, this time against Case.

The Spartans used an 11-rebound edge to keep in the game against Brandeis, but ultimately lost to the Judges’ superior depth and balanced scoring attack.

The first 33 minutes of the game were close, with no lead above five points for either team.

With seven minutes left, there had already been four ties and 14 lead changes in the game.

Brandeis trailed 51-50, but guard Ben Bartoldus ’14 drained a threepointer, which started a 12-2 run and ended with a 63-52 lead for Brandeis with three minutes, 43 seconds left.

The offensive production suddenly disappeared, as Case held the Judges to just one field goal in that span and surged on their own 12-2 run. Case senior guard Tom Summers scored eight of the 12 points in that span, also nabbing three key rebounds in just 90 seconds. After two free throws and a layup, Case was down 64-62 with just 45 seconds remaining in the game.

Hughes was whistled for a reachin foul with 11.6 seconds remaining and Case junior guard Robert Scott capitalized, knocking down both free throws to tie the game at 64 apiece.

Brandeis had a chance to clinch the game in regulation, but Hughes missed a jump shot with a few seconds left. Bartoldus tried to follow, but his miss forced the game into overtime.

See MBBALL, 10 ☛

It has been a long month for the women’s basketball team, which had failed to earn a win since New Year’s Eve, but the team ended it in the best way possible.

With a 67-56 victory against University Athletic Association rival Carnegie Mellon University at Red Auerbach Arena, Brandeis secured its first win in UAA play.

The win improves the team to an 8-10 record overall and 1-6 in conference play.

Coach Carol Simon emphasized that this win was crucial for the team, finally giving them some momentum for the last portion of the season.

“This was a very important victory for the team. ... We needed to get the monkey off our back,” said Simon.

“The team has been working very hard this past week, and it was great for all the players to finally get the outcome we have been working so hard for.”

In the first half against the Tartans, Brandeis jumped ahead to a 5-0 lead after a short jumper from guard Hannah Cain ’15 and a three-pointer from guard Dianna Cincotta ’11, MA ’12.

With just over four minutes played, the Judges were able to extend their lead to eight points, 13-5, as Cain hit guard Morgan Kendrew

’12 in the lane for a lay-up.

Brandeis held onto its lead for the majority of the half but saw the margin slip to within one with just under eight minutes played.

Carnegie freshman guard Gabrielle West passed to junior forward Emily Peel, who was able to sink a mid-range jump shot and narrow the Judges’ lead to 14-13. The game was soon tied, 18-18, after two layups from forward Shannon Hassan ’12.

With Brandeis leading 20-18 and struggling to gain control of the game, Carnegie saw a golden opportunity and ultimately capitalized on it.

West nailed her second threepointer of the game to give her team a one-point advantage over the Judges.

However, on the next play, Cincotta responded with a three-pointer of her own to give Brandeis a two-point lead with just over six minutes left remaining in the half.

The Judges maintained control after the defining Cincotta threepointer for the rest of the half, entering halftime with a 36-28 edge.

While holding a slim lead at halftime, Simon noted that part of her halftime speech emphasized the changes the Judges needed to make to preserve the victory.

“We talked about various adjustments we needed to do and what was working well for us,” she said.

“If we continued to do what was working and improve on the things we knew we needed to do better we would come out with a positive outcome.”

The Judges shot right out of the

See WBBALL, 10 ☛

track and field

Track squads catch their rivals’ attention ■ The men’s and women’s

track teams turned in great performances at the BU Classic last Saturday.

By JACOB ELDER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The men’s and women’s track teams wrapped up yet another successful meet, continuing to grab the attention of their Boston-area rivals. Several Brandeis athletes exhibited strong showings at the non-scoring Boston University Terrier Classic at Boston University last Saturday.

Chris Brown ’12 entered the meet with high expectations after earning the University Athletic Association athlete of the week honors last week. He did not disappoint, placing ninth in the one-mile final with a time of 4:10.34.

With another strong finish, Brown continues to stand out in a field of successful UAA long-distance runners.

Brown stated he was unable to gain a lead for most of the race,

representing mostly a back-andforth affair.

“The race was just really packed,” said Brown. “I went from last to first in the last lap, which goes to show how it could have been anyone’s race.”

However, Brown was still impressed with his finish and is eagerly looking toward continued success at future meets.

“I’m in really good shape, and honestly, I feel as if I’m a little faster than my 4:10 finish would indicate,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to winning another race and putting myself in a position to win Nationals.”

In the same race, Taylor Dundas ’14 finished in 27th place with a time of 4:14.97. Dundas is now ranked 12th among all Division III runners after his impressive onemile finish.

In the 3000-meter race, Alex Kramer ‘13 displayed an impressive showcase, finishing in 8:40.96.

Vincent Asante ’14 also made a statement in the 60-yard dash, finishing 33rd at 7.16 seconds.

See TRACK, 10 ☛

just

January 31, 2012

ARTS

DĂœNYA

raises money for Turkish aid

p. 16 Photos: Anna Yatskar/the Justice and Dalboz17/Flickr Creative Commons. Design: Josh Horowitz and Robyn Spector/the Justice.

14

TUESDAY, january 31, 2012 ● THE JUSTICE

POP CULTURE

INSIDE ON CAMPUS

15-16

■ Nipun Marwaha ’12 profile

15

■ DÜNYA

16

Bollywood is one of the largest film industries in the world, but most Americans don’t know what it’s all about. Nipun Marwaha ’12, however, has firsthand knowledge of this world.

Turkish musician Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol brought his musicians collective to campus on Saturday. DÜNYA concentrates on building connections between people through ethnic music and cultural celebrations.

OFF CAMPUS

17-19

■ ‘Shame’

17

■ ‘War Horse’

17

Michael Fassbender has become a widely known and critically acclaimed actor this year, based on his performance in “Shame,” the NC-17 rated film about a sex addict.

Steven Spielberg’s latest work is the Best Picture nominee “War Horse.” The film takes place during World War I, when a boy and his horse sign up for British army duty.

■ Academy Awards voting

19

■ ‘Temple Run’

19

Just how does the Academy choose who wins a statue? JustArts explains the process and discusses why the Oscars might not be that prestigious after all.

The latest craze in iPhone games is an addictive adventure in which players have to collect coins and watch out for oncoming obstacles using just their fingers to navigate.

CALENDAR

Interview

by Shelly Shore

The Academy Award nominations are out, and Oscar buzz is now in full swing.

In the last few days, we’ve seen the usual flood of conversation about the nominations: the contenders’ reactions, talk show discussions of possible outcomes and the ever-amusing “if Academy Award movie posters told the truth” photo manipulations (always a laugh).

But in a year of big, Oscar-bait movies, it’s not surprising that the biggest topic on everyone’s mind is not who’s going to win, but who was snubbed. Conspicuously missing from the Best Picture category were We Need to Talk About Kevin and Beginners, both movies with brilliant acting and themes far more relevant to current events than, say, The Help. I’m sorry, but “white people fix racism”? Haven’t we done that already?

The nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role have also stirred up some mixed feelings with the absence of Leonardo Dicaprio (J. Edgar) and Michael Fassbender (Shame). Critics lauded both performances as Oscar-worthy, and, if Twitter is any indication, fans of both actors were disappointed to see them passed over. Ryan Gosling was blatantly missing from the Best Supporting Actor category—fans suspected he could have received nods for either Drive or The Ides of March.

On a positive note, Michelle Williams, Gosling’s co-star in last year’s Blue Valentine, picked up her second Best Actress nomination in two years for My Week with Marilyn.

The Best Actress category also included Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady, swooping in with her 17th nomination—a record for any actor or actress in the history of the awards. Missing from the Best Actress category, however, was Tilda Swinton, who gave a brilliant and chilling performance in We Need to Talk about Kevin.

Still, despite the snubs, there were some happily surprising films and roles that made it onto the Academy’s list, most notably Kristen Wiig’s raunchy comedy Bridesmaids. Wiig and Brides-

WBRS hosts thirdannual rave, brings nightlife to campus

 With a crew of student DJs, technicolor lights and a clever name, the WBRS-sponsored rave is a unique on-campus party that consistently attracts students to the Sherman Function Hall.

PHOTO COURTESY OF OSCILLOSCOPE PICTURES

SHUT OUT: Tilda Swinton was not nominated for her “We Need To Talk About Kevin” performance. maids co-writer Annie Mumolo were nominated for Best Screenplay, and Melissa McCarthy received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Considering how rare it is for the Academy to recognize comedies, this was a big win for funny ladies everywhere in a year already marked as “the rise of the comedienne.”

Regardless of whether your favorites received nominations, one thing about this year’s awards is clear: There’s no obvious front-runner for any of the categories. It’s going to be a close race.

And to all the Harry Potter fans on Tumblr disappointed that Deathly Hallows II didn’t get a Best Picture nod, I have one comment: Really?

What’s happening in Arts on campus this semester

ON-CAMPUS EVENTS ‘Moolaadé’ screening

Forced female genital mutilation, or circumcision, is a widespread practice throughout many African countries. Acclaimed African director Ousmane Sembene created Moolaadé to inform the world of the pain these women go through. The documentary follows one woman’s attempts to end these practices in her community.

Thursday from 7 to 9:15 p.m. in Golding 101.

‘An Encounter with Simone Weil’ screening

French philosopher, mystic and social activist Simone Weil led quite an interesting life despite never making it past the age of 34. Filmmaker Julia Haslett will be on campus to discuss her documentary about this historic figure, who influenced such great minds as Albert Camus, Flannery O’Connor and Jean-Luc Godard.

Thursday from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Wasserman Cinematheque in the Sachar International Center.

Craftapalooza

The Eco-Reps will lead a recycled art fair, where students can come and make sculptures and signs out of recycled materials in the hopes of educating the community about recycling and having fun. This event will kick off February as Brandeis Loves Recycling month.

Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

Improv night hosted by TBA

Together with performances by comedy troupes such as Boston University’s Liquid Fun, Princeton University’s Quipfire and Tufts University’s Cheap Sox, Brandeis’ To Be Announced is planning a night full of laughter.

Each group will perform their own individual act and the night will conclude with a joint, long-form sketch featuring all four schools.

Thursday at 8:30 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium. Admission is free.

Relay for Lit

Relay for Life is holding a book sale for which faculty from 20 different departments have donated their favorite books for purchase. The subjects range from academic to non-academic, and all proceeds will go toward Brandeis’ Relay for Life, which raises money toward cancer research every spring.

Friday from 2 to 6 p.m. and Monday, Feb. 6 from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

BC3’s Lunar New Year

One of the biggest cultural celebrations of the semester, Brandeis Chinese Cultural Connection’s Lunar New Year is always an event to remember. This year’s festival features ethnic dances and songs performed by students and outside guests as well as the traditional, highly anticipated lion dance and a Chinese-style dinner following the show.

DIANA WANG/Justice File Photo

YEAR OF THE DRAGON: Brandeis Chinese Cultural Connection will host its yearly Chinese New Year Celebration on Saturday night. The festival will include traditional dances, songs and food.

Saturday from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in the Levin Ballroom.

Lydian String Quartet

Prof. Daniel Stepner (MUS), Prof. Mary Ruth Ray (MUS), Prof. Joshua Gordon (MUS) and Prof. Judith Eissenberg (MUS) will be performing the music of Peter Lieberson Ph.D. ’85, along with a short work by YuHui Chang Ph.D. ’01 composed in honor of University President Frederick Lawrence.

There will also be guest performances by Laura Klugherz on viola and Rhonda Rider on cello.

Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall.

Jehuda Raveharz III: Rise of the Lawdance

WBRS hosts the third-annual on-campus rave, this year with a highlighter party theme. Four student disc jockeys will provide the soundtrack to the party.

Saturday at 10 p.m. in the Sherman Function Hall.

Evan Hirsch piano performance

Evan Hirsch is an accomplished musician and a lecturer in the Music department.

He will give a short piano performance of masterworks from Bartók, Beethoven and Schumann.

Sunday from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall.

Student Events presents AraabMUSIK

AraabMUSIK is the stage name of Sri Lankan hip-hop producer Abraham Orellana. His sound is full of drum machine beats and samples from popular music. AraabMUSIK will be giving a concert in the Levin Ballroom as part of Student Events’ spring 2012 programs.

Sunday Feb. 9 at 8:30 p.m. in the Levin Ballroom. Tickets are $5 at the Brandeis Box Office in the Shapiro Campus Center and $8 if purchased online.

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS

Ladyfest Boston feminism conference

The YMCA in Cambridge will be the venue for several feminism-inspired plays over the course of the weekend.

With workshops, vendors and other special performances, the event hopes to revitalize the cause for gender-based change in our society using art as a tool.

Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Cambridge YMCA, 820 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge.

Jack’s Mannequin concert

In promotion of their new album People and Things, alternative band Jack’s Mannequin will be stopping in Boston on their 2012 national tour. With hit songs like “My Racing Thoughts” and “Release Me,” the band’s latest endeavors appear to be as catchy as their last two albums.

Friday at 7 p.m. at the House of Blues Boston, 15 Landsdowne St., Boston. Ticket prices vary.

Company One presents ‘Green Eyes’

Boston theater troupe Company One will be performing Tennessee Williams’ Green Eyes, its first site-specific show.

Performed in a hotel room with an audience limited to 20, this experimental play portrays the impact of war on a couple honeymooning in New Orleans.

Through Feb. 12 at the Ames Hotel, 1 Court St., Boston. Ticket prices and show times vary.

JustArts spoke with WBRS General Manager Jackie Benowitz ’12 and emailed with Director of Special Productions Ben Schmidt ’14 about the upcoming Jehuda Raveharz III: Rise of the Lawdance rave to be held on Feb. 4 in the Sherman Function Hall at 10 p.m. Benowitz and Schmidt reveal what changes they have made to the organization of the rave and what the community can expect to see and hear at this characteristically wild event.

JustArts: What are some of the events that WBRS puts on in the spring?

Jackie Benowitz: In the spring, we have about two concerts led by our music department, and I think we only have one that is set right now and that is Yacht. We also have SpringFest that we’ve begun discussing, and I can’t really let you guys know other than it’s going to be awesome. And then there’s the rave.

JA: What are your respective positions at WBRS? JB: I am the general manager—I kind of lead everything. Basically, I’m the person who makes sure ... everyone’s doing their job, and we’re not going against any rules, and we have events to offer people. ... It’s basically the presidential position.

Ben Schmidt: I am the director of Special Productions, and I am in charge [and the] supervisor of the non-broadcast programming for WBRS, including the rave and various other events around campus.

JA: What was your role in organizing the rave?

BS: My role in organizing the rave was to ensure that the logistics of location, light show and the booking of [disc jockeys] occurred smoothly in order to put on a great event that is an improvement from last year.

JA: What is the history of Brandeis’ raves?

JB: This is the third-annual rave—it was started by last year’s General Manager JP Wiegand MS ’12 and Aarish Sheikh ’11. ...

They’re both still around [Brandeis].

JA: How did WBRS come up with the name for this year’s rave?

JB: I think we have the most fun ... just mixing our presidential names in this.

JA: What were some of the past raves like?

JB: The first year around, we didn’t really know how to do anything—we had [the DJs] out back, no one saw them. ... It was just Flaky and the Bail, ... which is [Wiegand and Sheikh]. I made this weird video thing that we realize doesn’t work if you have this threeminute video without sound repeated for hours. It gets boring and ... you kind of spaz out after a while because it’s so huge, so we had to stop with that.

JA: What specifically will make this year’s rave better than last year’s?

BS: We are taking what we thought was successful last year—the DJs (several of whom were involved last year) ... and the broad feel of the event—and have improved upon all this by adding a highlighter theme to the event itself, making a fun and exciting atmosphere.

JB: We learned to get professional lights installed rather than buying our own lights. ... We do use our own lights for some of it, but just to fill a room it’s too much. We’ve learned to put the DJs up on the stage.

JA: What makes the rave a unique Brandeis experience?

JB: We should have a great lineup this year of Brandeis DJs, and it’s only Brandeis DJs, which is pretty unique I think, and it’s just a lot of fun. ... I think confetti has been discussed.

BS: Because Raveharz ... is free to the entire Brandeis campus, it is a great opportunity for the entire community to come together.

It truly is an event not to be missed.

JA: Who are the student DJs that will be playing at the event and what kind of music do they play?

BS: The student DJs are Wiegand (Flaky and the Bail), Jesse Vasquez ’13 (Dutch Damage), Gil Jacobs ’14 (Kid Fish), Michael Hwang ’12 (DJ Oktokyu). All four play techno/dubstep type of music but for Raveharz, they given totally free rein to play whatever they want, so I am very excited about this.

JA: What are you most looking forward to about the rave this year?

BS: Watching everyone’s hard work pay off into an amazing and fun evening.

—Emily Salloway

THE JUSTICE

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15

A Bollywood star is born Nipun Marwaha ’12 is an upcoming singing sensation

By ALEX DeSILVA JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

In some ways, Nipun Marwaha ’12 is like a lot of Brandeis students. He was born and raised on Long Island, N.Y., is a fan of the Giants and plays a lot of Skyrim. But he does have one thing that makes him unique among most students: Since he was 14, Marwaha has been immersed in the world of Bollywood music. He has sung in local festivals, entered into talent searches and done all he could to make a name for himself in one of the world’s largest film industries.

It’s safe to say that most Americans are unfamiliar with Bollywood. Despite assumptions to the contrary, the term “Bollywood” refers neither to India’s entire film industry nor a specific genre. Rather, according to Marwaha, it’s a catch-all term for “any mainstream Hindi movie made in Mumbai.” That said, there is one thing that unites almost all Bollywood movies: music. Whether it’s a romantic comedy or a heavy drama, just about every film has to have at least one musical number, if not more. It has become such an integral part of the industry that soundtracks have been known to come out months before the films themselves.

Marwaha’s parents both emigrated from the northern Indian state of Punjab. He grew up in a trilingual household, learning Hindi and Punjabi in addition to English. As a result of his upbringing, he spent his childhood watching Bollywood movies. “I’ve honestly seen far more Bollywood films then American movies,” he admits.

However, Marwaha didn’t actually get involved in any type of performing until he was in his teens. In fact, he only got into it by chance: When he was 13, his mother and sister began taking Indian dance lessons. He happened to go with them one day, and the teacher ended up noticing that he had some talent for dancing and recruited him for her team.

A year later, Marwaha finally began singing. “It just kind of happened,” he recalls, “between the movies and the CDs my parents had, I just transitioned to singing.” From then on, he began formal training in the Hindustani (North Indian) classical style of singing, a 700-year-old style that almost all Bollywood singers are trained in before they start actually performing.

Marwaha’s first performance came when he was 16, at the Nassau County Culture Show, an annual showcase of the county’s different cultures. The crowd numbered over 1,000 people, but he wasn’t scared. “Honestly, I was excited; it got to the point that I had to calm myself down because I was actually shaking, and that was making my voice shake. It’s still something I have to do before ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

LATEST GIG: Marwaha performed at MELA 2011, the variety show put on by the South Asian Students Association.

every show.”

Marwaha’s longest string of shows came during this summer. His sister, who is involved in the Sankara Eye Foundation, a nonprofit that raises money for cataract surgeries in India, got him a spot performing for one of the foundation’s fundraising shows. From there, he was invited to perform for the India Association of Long Island’s annual Culture Show. After that, he was given his biggest break yet—he’s going to be headlining for the 2012 Asian American Fair this June. The fair is a South Asian cultural exposition located in Somerset, N.J. that features numerous singing and dancing talents. Marwaha was originally set to perform in August, but Hurricane Irene put a literal damper on those plans.

Marwaha hasn’t kept himself to local shows either. He’s been active in quite a few talent searches over the years. He entered his first in 2009, competing in the Bollystar online singing contest. He went up against thousands of other entrants from all over the country, and even though he didn’t win, he ended up placing in the top 10. As if to dissipate any notions that this was purely beginner’s luck, he proceeded to do the same in a contest sponsored by the South Asian Audio Visual Network. Marwaha was chosen as one of the final 16 contestants out of thousands and took part in the semifinals, which was broadcast internationally on Sony TV and is still available on Hulu.

With all these under his belt, it’s no wonder that Marwaha’s still been working on making a name for himself in Bollywood, though he does plan to finish his Economics degree at Brandeis before truly pursuing a singing career. But after college, the sky’s the limit: “After graduation, I want to spend a year in either Mumbai or Los Angeles to see if I can get into anything.”

He’s knows that he’s up against pretty stiff competition. Bollywood is, after all, one of the largest film markets in the world in a country that’s home to about a sixth of the world’s population. He’s even started singing some American pop songs as well to make himself stand out from the crowd. Much like the U.S., India is a country that loves its singing competitions, and Marwaha hopes to find a place on one of these shows to get into the spotlight.

Between Indian Idol, India’s Got Talent and a myriad of others, he’s got his work cut out for him.

“I’m not sure exactly how it’ll go; I’m mostly just going to go there and see how I can do,” he says. If his previous record is anything to go by, he has a pretty good shot of making it, but Marwaha’s still looking to build his fanbase.

He even has a Facebook page (facebook.com/ Nipun.Marwaha). Who knows? With any luck, in a couple years, we could all be saying that we knew him before he became a star.

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THE JUSTICE

Musicians support their homeland Saturday’s event combined culture and music for a good cause By fiona lockyer JUSTICE editor

My heart races when I hear musicians tune before a concert. There’s something electric in the air when hearing a performer listen so intently to his instrument, seeking the sound and pitch he wants with unparalleled precision. I love hearing the oboe play an A and feeling the rumble of the rest of the orchestra swell up section by section. I love when the band first walks out on stage for a sound check, the bass drum thumps deep in my chest and my ears perk up as the vocalist checks the microphone levels.

So when I saw DÜNYA, whose goal, according to their website, is “to present a contemporary view of a wide range of Turkish traditions, alone and in interaction with other world traditions, through performance, publication and other educational activities,” play in the Slosberg Recital Hall on Saturday night, you may be able to imagine my confusion—or even surprise—when I saw three men on stage pluck at the strings of instruments resembling harps and lyres and tap a drum-style percussion instrument. It was not like anything I had ever seen during any kind of sound check.

From the audience, the instruments were visibly different from those used in rock or orchestral performances, the delicate strings of two of the instruments shining from the stage. The sounds, even in the tuning, were unlike anything I had ever heard. Everything seemed to be played at a higher pitch—the guitar-like instrument’s tone was slightly elevated, the harp

just perceptively off.

The event, put together by Rozi Levi ’13, Aziz Sohail ’13 and Nusrath Yusuf ’13, was coordinated with the support of Project Nur, the Intercultural Center, the Music department, MusicUnitesUS and the Brandeis Pluralism Alliance. The event was created to raise money for aid organizations working in Turkey on earthquake relief following the Oct. 23 earthquake outside of Van, Turkey in which 600 people died and over 4,000 people were injured. The set seemed to be created to bring the culture of the affected people into our purview so that we understood the culture as much as the natural disaster that had taken place.

Each set, four sets in total, began with an instrumental improvisation session, in the first movement referred to as an Ud Taksim. The improvisation started slowly with a melody played by Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, the president of DÜNYA, on the oud, or lyre: a tentative entry into the program. As I listened, I imagined myself opening up a book for the first time.

The tuning served as the cover, and the improvisation was the introduction. I felt unsure of where the story was going. Then the melody started: changing, turning, moving. Next, the other two members entered. New characters were introduced. A love interest develops; the mingling melodies of the çeng, or harp, and the lyre danced together playfully, yet cautiously, into “Beyati Saz Semaisi,” the first song from the set of urban folk music. I dove into the story.

After the first set, a re-tuning was needed as a result of the performance and the mois-

ture in the air from the New England winter.

Smiles abounded across the stage as the three musicians worked meticulously to bring their instruments back into proper pitch. The second set, “Songs from the Country,” began with “Gurbet elde bir hal geldi basima.” The words and the melody wove together both woeful (“Far from home, I fell into sadness”) and optimistic sentiments (“Do not weep, mine eyes, the Lord is merciful”) by using a slow tempo overall, mixed with the relatively fastpaced repetition of higher notes by the çeng.

The set ended with a deep, rhythmic piece from the trio, waking up ears lulled to sleep from the first and second songs by accenting the offbeat.

There was another short period of retuning, then the instruments again joined back together. The heads of the people in the audience were all tilted at a 45-degree angle, enchanted by the music. The next chapter began, highlighting songs of devotion. The first, a Greek paraliturgical song titled “Christos Anesti Mati Mou,” or “Christ has risen in front of my eyes,” was slow and reverent, led by Sanlikol’s intensely focused performance on the ney, or a reeded instrument resembling a cross between a flute and a recorder. The sound, emanating from the stage so tenuously, shared a mysticism and spirituality with the audience. The songs of devotion based on Christian texts are joined by Sufi and Jewish texts as well, played in similar styles. For example, “Yesha El Hay Tohil” and “Gel Gönül Sabreyle” are adaptations of piyyutim, or devotional poems written in Hebrew, by Israel Najara and adapted by

Sanlikol to the melody for a Bektasi devotional song that fits the meter of the poem. The songs performed together showed the interconnection between the religions of Turkey, which is centered in the middle of religious homelands.

The final section, a piece that links a piece

by Sultan Selim III of the 18th century to Mustafa Sandal, a contemporary musician, is a gutsy, unexpected and impressive move from the group. I found myself blown away by the vocals of the last song, a forceful delivery of acrobatic leaps in tone across Sanlıkol’s baritone range as he sings of falling in love, sentiments shared across two centuries of music.

In an interview with justArts after the event, Sanlikol said that DÜNYA is entering into its ninth year of touring and playing, even though the core members of the ensemble— himself, Robert Labaree and Cem Mutlu, who played at Brandeis for the event—have been playing together for an even longer time. Reflecting on those nine years, he said, “It’s been a true adventure, you know, our researching, and our researching never ends. … We’ve just grown and learned more, and there’s tons of experiences to tell.” And tell, they will. By the end of the performance, I understood why the concerts for DÜNYA are not just concerts, but conversations. This is more than cursory: It is complete, ranging from music of the court, to the country, to the city, to the spiritual, to the romantic.

Editor’s note: Aziz Sohail ’13 is a contributing writer for the Justice.

SOULFUL SINGER: Cem Mutlu sang Arabic music with beautiful, poetic lyrics.

TRADITIONAL MUSICIAN: Robert Labaree played the çeng, a harp-like oldfashioned instrument.

TURKISH ORIGINS: Mehmet Ali Sanlikol is the co-founder and musical director of DÜNYA.

PHOTOS BY ANNA YATSKAR/the Justice

THE JUSTICE

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A NEW PERSPECTIVE

ABBOT GENSER/Fox Searchlight Pictures

DIFFICULT EMOTIONS: Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan excel in their portrayal of the brother-sister pair Brandon and Sissy in director Steve McQueen’s movie about struggling with addiction.

‘Shame’ shows other side of addiction ■ Michael Fassbender’s

everyman Brandon has a secret, and director Steve McQueen lets us in on it.

By shelly shore JUSTICE Senior WRITER

Called “this year’s dirty movie”

by The New York Times, Shame has taken over for last year’s Blue Valentine as the film that makes even the most sexually comfortable viewer a little uncomfortable.

Shame, directed by British artistturned-filmmaker Steve McQueen, tells the story of Brandon (Michael Fassbender), a smooth-talking, handsome sex addict who lives and works in New York. Brandon lives alone in an apartment devoid of characters, spending his days in a male-dominated corporate job and his nights in the arms of a blur of sexual partners. The catalyst for the movie’s plot comes with the arrival of Sissy (Carey Mulligan), Brandon’s younger sister with

a history of self-abuse and drug dependency, who wastes no time before seducing one of Brandon’s co-workers and bringing him back to Brandon’s apartment (and his bed).

Like any movie with a focus on addiction, the film struggles with the portrayal of its characters as people versus sufferers. Unlike other “addiction movies,” however, Shame focuses not on a bottle or a needle but on sex. Society tends to both ignore and shame sex addiction, a condition that is publicly invisible and is regarded more often as an excuse for marital infidelity (Tiger Woods, anyone?) than a legitimate mental and physical addiction. Fassbender’s portrayal of Brandon lends itself brilliantly to the legitimization of sex as an addiction, rather than a mere act of passion or pleasure.

The movie’s many sex scenes are brutal and unromantic, calling to mind images of an alcoholic on a binge or a heroin addict shooting up—Brandon is killing an urge for a fix.

The topic of sex addiction adds another layer of challenge for the filmmaker. As Blue Valentine proved last year, there are a number of rules and conventions that place limits on how explicit onscreen sex can be before the movie is not only limited in its accessibility to viewers by distributors, but also causes excessive discomfort for moviegoers, even in a movie rated NC-17. Yet discomfort seems to be McQueen’s intention. The lighting and cinematography in his sex scenes call to mind eroticism, but Brandon’s facial expressions are almost pained, the quintessential pleasure-pain mix described so often by addicts. While watching an on-screen character take a shot of whiskey or shoot up won’t get a viewer drunk or high, however, explicit on-screen sex can have both physical and psychological effects on many viewers. Considering the myriad social and emotional conceptions around sex, McQueen’s directorial choices regarding the more explicit scenes are brilliantly twisted, provoking confusion, in-

toxication and despair all at once.

If McQueen’s directing was twisted, Fassbender’s performance as Brandon was even more so. This is Fassbender’s second sex-related film of the year; the role of Brandon comes after his portrayal of Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method.

Yet while both characters were men of hefty sexual appetite, Brandon’s addiction to sex is graceless and harsh in comparison to Jung’s more clinical approach. Fassbender has a deep command of his body language, even (or perhaps especially) in sex scenes, and his incredibly expressive face reveals the sort of internal conflict that seems more suited to novels than film.

Complementing Fassbender’s Brandon is Carey Mulligan as Sissy. Her emotional attachment and sloppiness pose a sharp contrast to Brandon’s distance and self-control. The relationship between the two siblings is bitter, angry and sometimes violent, but elegantly portrayed. They seem to be showing opposite reactions to

some implied deep-seated trauma, though what this trauma is is open to interpretation by the audience.

“We’re not bad people,” Sissy says tearfully in a message left on Brandon’s cell phone. “We just come from a bad place.”

Visually, Shame is stunning. McQueen is first and foremost a visual artist, and that shines through brilliantly in the way he portrays not only his actors but the scenery, from Manhattan skylines to dimly lit bedrooms. His cinematography is subtle and complements the actors’ movements and interactions beautifully.

While Shame is clearly a movie about addiction, I hesitate to call it an “addiction movie.” It is much more of a character film—presenting Brandon for our study, titillation, judgment and maybe even envy—but stops short of provoking our sympathy. The film asks whether “shame” is something Brandon feels or just what the audience, in our own conceptions around sex and addiction, projects onto him.

film

Spielberg baffles critics, still deserves praise ■ ‘War Horse’ combines all

the winning aspects of a Spielberg film, but may lose out to films about filmmaking.

By wei-huan chen JUSTICE senior WRITER

Critics can be baffling. They lauded Hugo, Martin Scorcese’s loveletter to classic Hollywood cinema, and voted Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist, a celebration of the golden age of Hollywood, onto the Oscar throne. Like the two films, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse runs off themes of nostalgia and was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, filling out a surprisingly robust roster of past-loving films from 2011. But unlike Hugo and The Artist, War Horse’s initial critical reception was lukewarm, and it

continues to be an underdog in the Oscar race. Eric Melin of Scenestealers.com, a certified critic on RottenTomatoes.com, even called the film “a trite, manipulative soap opera run through the lens of World War I.” He couldn’t be more wrong. War Horse is sometimes a tad too grand, but it’s grand in the sense that it takes your breath away. It makes you believe that larger-than-life characters and landscapes can lift you out of the real world in a way that no other medium can. It reminds you of how you felt seeing your favorite film for the first time.

Unfortunately, Spielberg’s ode to, well, Spielberg, will be a dark horse in the Oscar race, an unlikely contender against The Artist. But if initial doubters saw it twice, like I did, their minds very well could change.

The second time, pieces of the plot fit together more elegantly and the

cinematography seemed more beautiful. I’m not sure if The Artist has that kind of lasting value.

War Horse is about an English country boy and his horse and the way the Great War changes them.

The broodingly dramatic, yet ultimately unspectacular, Jeremy Irvine plays Albert, while 14 different horses were used as the boy’s childhood love, Joey. Albert’s father, a retired soldier-turned-farmer, buys Joey at an auction one day, though the horse is too wild to plow any field. The inevitable bond Joey and Albert form isn’t just in service of the movie—if Albert doesn’t train Joey to turn the family’s rocky pasture, they won’t have a harvest to pay the rent.

Yet before the first act seems to close out, World War I begins. Just like that, the perspective shifts to Joey’s, who is passed from owner to owner. And while the horse’s

almond-colored face can only span so many emotions, through a series of brilliant close-ups we sense his fear, his hope and even his feeling of love when he meets a black mare on the battlegrounds. The browns and bright greens of the English countryside have turned into a grey, hellish landscape—think of the first scene of Saving Private Ryan.

Yet unlike that film, War Horse retains an innocence throughout, artfully censoring the war’s gore and emphasizing the emotional consequences instead. That’s not to say the gravity of World War I, with its yellow poison gas, mud trenches and barbed wire, doesn’t hit the viewer hard in the stomach—a rare feat for a PG-13 movie.

As a war film, is it not ridiculous that the protagonist is a horse?

What about the fact that everyone speaks English, including the German soldiers and the French villag-

ers? True, War Horse isn’t without flaws, but the film’s splendor makes you forget about them. When I saw Schindler’s List for the first time, I was offended that everyone spoke English. But the dramatic oomph of that film quickly overrode my doubts. With War Horse, Spielberg has again crafted a magnificent and larger-than-life film, with John Williams supplying a score that may stay with you even longer than the film’s characters—Williams will no doubt win an Oscar for Best Original Score. Spielberg, on the other hand, has won Best Director at the Oscars twice, one for Schindler’s List and one for Saving Private Ryan. In many ways, War Horse is just like those films—unforgettable, superbly emotional and a film only Spielberg could have made. Despite a declining box office revenue and inevitable Oscar snub, I hope audiences see it as such.

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THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, January 31, 2012

19

INSIDE THE OSCARS

PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES

ALWAYS A ‘BRIDESMAID’: ‘Bridesmaids’ (above) scored an extremely high rating on Rotten Tomatoes but was not nominated for Best Picture. ‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ only scored half as well but was nominated.

Nominations don’t follow critics’ choices ■ The Academy Awards are a

prestitigous affair, but does winning one really mean anything anymore?

By WEI-HUAN CHEN JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

Do the Oscars really matter?

The question has been on my mind ever since the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards, which air Sun., Feb. 26 on ABC, came out last Tuesday. For film buffs, the day the nominees are announced is usually more exciting than the Super Bowl or the Republican primaries. For members of the film industry, it’s a make-or-break opportunity for their career. For other people, it’s simply an award show filled with movies they’ve never seen.

I’ve always seen the Oscars as a chance for me to flush out my “moviesto-see” list. A film gets nominated for Best Picture, and I think, “That must be a good movie, I should go see it.” For casual filmgoers, the Academy Awards serve as a metric of a film’s quality.

Like Rotten Tomatoes, which assigns scores to films based on critics’ ratings, the Oscars is an easy way to see what good movies are out there. According to this year’s voters, the films to see in 2011 were The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse.

But, like Rotten Tomatoes, the Academy Awards uses a highly formulaic system that attempts to reach a consensus of opinion. In that regard, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a flawed goal—how can you weigh the merits of one outstanding film with that of another great, yet extremely different, film? Many people I know will watch the Oscars every year with fervor but never bat an eye at the Golden Globes or the Screen Ac-

tors Guild Awards. Sure, the Oscars are more prestigious, but it’s like any other awards ceremony—a select number of people vote, and films with the most votes win.

Take how films are nominated, for example. Each of the Academy’s 5,783 voting members, most of them actors, directors and writers, list their five favorite movies of the year, and rank them from one to five. However, Entertainment Weekly explains that this system favors love-it-or-hate-it films like The Tree of Life and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. “More than ever before, a voter’s No. 1 selection is the thing that matters,” according to a Jan. 24 EW.com article titled “Best Picture Oscar: So why are there nine nominees?” by John Young. “The only way a ballot’s No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, or No. 5 selection will come into play is if that voter’s No. 1 choice was extremely popular (triggering the surplus rule) or extremely unpopular (receiving less than [one] percent of total vote).”

In other words, films like Bridesmaids and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo most likely received many number three, number four and number five votes, but not enough number one votes to receive a Best Picture nomination. A lot of people might have hated Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, but at least five percent of Academy voters put it as their number one film, which automatically nominates any film for Best Picture—this new percentagebased threshold rule explains why there are nine nominees for Best Picture, and not 10 this year. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close received a score of 46 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. To compare, Mark Walherg’s hohum Contraband scored higher, while Bridesmaids, which was snubbed Best Picture or Best Director nominations, scored 90 percent.

The inconsistency between the Academy Awards and Rotten Tomatoes this year highlights the difficulty

of determining which films are good and which aren’t. And while the Academy Awards set out to honor the greatest films of the year, an already impossible task, it doesn’t usually do its job particularly well. In fact, the only thing the Oscars may be good for is picking the best “Oscar films” of the year.

What do I mean by this? Take last year’s Best Picture winner as an example. The King’s Speech is the perfect example of a film that wasn’t necessarily a fine cinematic achievement, a hugely popular success or an aesthetically—or socially—challenging work of art. What it had was a big story featuring a certain set of traits that appear in most Best Picture nominees: First, the film is based on a significant historical event; second, it’s not a comedy, horror, science fiction or fantasy film; third, and most important, the film’s protagonist is important, yet has a debilitating flaw, and performs a tear-jerking monologue of immense vulnerability about three-fourths of the way into the film—you know, that “Oscar-winning” scene. “Best Picture winners tend to be very popular, more or less traditional, and at least somewhat good,” says Prof. Mark Feeney (AMST), a Pulitzer-winning arts and entertainment critic at the Boston Globe. “The important point is that the Best Picture winner shouldn’t be considered some kind of consensus finest release of the year.”

Of course, whether the Academy Awards are worth watching or not, it nonetheless affects the film industry.

On average, Best Picture nominees’ revenue increases by $20 million, according to research firm IBISWorld.

And there’s no doubt it has made the careers of some of our most beloved actors and directors. Audiences just need to realize that it shouldn’t be taken so seriously.

Says Feeney: “Well, at least the Oscars aren’t as ridiculous as the Grammys.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES

GOLDEN MAN: There will be nine nominees for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars.

video game

‘Temple Run’ app entrances players on the go ■ In Imangi Studios’ ‘Temple

Run,’ gamers have to outmanuever gorillas and avoid flames, all on an Apple device.

By robYn spector JUSTICE Editor

Once you hit the “play” button, all you can do is run. You have, after all, just stolen a golden idol from an ancient Aztec temple, and demonic black-caped gorillas chase you to recapture their treasure.

So with a hint of Grand Theft Auto guilt for those with an aversion to larceny, Temple Run invokes the adventurous spirit of Indiana Jones through Guy Dangerous, your very own khaki-outfitted explorer to lead you through the obstacles of this

new, addicting iPhone game.

The beauty of this game is that you can play in one hand while sipping coffee with the other. But be advised, don’t look up to stir in sugar, because any split-second lull in your play can cause you to fall off course.

The designers at Imangi Studios created the game to ensure that after the 3-2-1 starting count, the player faces a unique and always exciting challenge.

You’re asked to master four simple finger-swiping moves: left, right, up and down. These swipes are used time and time again to turn sharp corners, traverse the tops of narrow walls and dodge flames and roots of ancient trees.

No course is exactly the same, no matter how many times you restart. There’s a thrill in not know-

ing what’s around the corner or how fast you’ll have to react, and this makes the game so hard to put down.

Collecting coins throughout the game allows you to build a bank of gold to use for buying power-ups that boost your play.

Five hundred coins, for example, allows you to resurrect yourself, giving you a second life when you choose to use it.

The further you run without falling off a wall, knocking yourself into a tree or allowing the gorillas to catch you, the more valuable the coins become and the more opportunity you have to score helpful tools like an invisibility token or a coin magnet.

Other avatars available for sale in the game store—“football star” Zack Wonder, Karma Lee “with the fast-

est legs in the Far East” and Barry Bones, “a city cop with an attitude”—offer a break from Guy Dangerous but a brow-raising contrast between their modern and ethnic styles and the ancient aesthetics of their Atlantis-like atmosphere.

The best and worst part? No matter how long you manage to stay on the course, you never seem to win.

The only real goal is to beat your own best score while building your coin bank to purchase more powerups.

There are missions to complete, such as running at least 10,000 meters or collecting over 2,500 coins.

But that said, the missions aren’t endless, and as someone who has completed 30 out of 36, I have a bittersweet suspicion that finishing the missions means mastering the game and receiving my life back.

Similar to the missions, the game store is also not extensive, and as I have bought all of the available avatars, purchased all of the wallpapers, along with all power-ups, I am coming to a point where the exhilaration of the game is fading without new bonuses and surprises opening up as I get better.

Because your explorer speeds up the longer he/she stays alive, the game not only requires technique but stamina as you guide him away from danger.

The inherently fast-paced nature of the game instills in you a sense of urgency that can make you boil over when your fingers get tangled by the various swipes on the screen.

Even the most adamant non-gamers might find that their hands get clammy, their hearts speed up, and they may even spill their coffee.

20

TUESday, January 31, 2012 ● THE JUSTICE

TOP of the

ARTS ON VIEW

TRIVIA TIME

CHARTS

1. U.S. Interstate 10 ends in Los Angeles, but where does it begin on the East Coast?

2. In 1959, physicist Richard Feynman was the first to propose what kind of technology (on a small scale)?

3. What was Ernest Hemingway’s middle name?

4. What American folk-music group is famous for their song “Keep on the Sunny Side”?

5. What is a more common name for the medical condition “pruritus”?

6. Where will the 2014 Olympic Winter Games be held?

7. What famous architect’s residence in Wisconsin was called Taliesin?

8. What are the comparative and superlative forms of the word “little”?

9. In Cast Away, what was the name that marooned actor Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) gave the volleyball that washed ashore?

ANSWERS 1. Jacksonville, Fla. 2. Nanotechnology 3. Miller 4. The Carter Family 5. Itching 6. Sochi, Russia 7. Frank Lloyd Wright 8. “Less” and “least” 9. Wilson

STRANGE BUT TRUE  It was 19th-century German philosopher, composer and poet Friedrich Nietzsche who made the following sage observation: “At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.”  Despite all the cartoons you’ve seen throughout your life, rabbits generally prefer greens to carrots, and mice would rather eat grains and fruit than cheese.  The area that is now the state of California had a population of about 700 in 1854. In 2010, the population had increased to 37,253,956. In the span of just over one and a half centuries, the population increased a whopping 53,000 times.  Rice paper is not made from rice. It’s made from the pith of the rice paper plant.  You may be surprised to learn that, according to the National Sleep Foundation, 33 percent of all preschoolers have a TV in their room, and 20 percent of infants and toddlers have one.  If you ever make a trip to Italy (lucky you!) and visit the town of Modena, be sure to go to the bell tower. There you might see an item that is, to the best of my knowledge, unique in the world: a wooden bucket that started a war. In 1325 a group of soldiers from the then-city-state of Modena raided rival city-state Bologna and returned home with the bucket. Greatly desiring to get the bucket back, Bologna declared war. The war raged on for years, but Bologna never did get its bucket back.  If you’re a schoolteacher in Arkansas, you should be aware of this arcane law: If you bob your hair, you’ll be ineligible for a pay raise.

Top 10s for the week ending January 29 BOX OFFICE

1. The Grey 2. Underworld: Awakening 3. One for the Money 4. Red Tails 5. Man on a Ledge 6. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close 7. The Descendants 8. Contraband 9. Beauty and the Beast 3D 10. Haywire

NYT BESTSELLERS

DIANA WANG/the Justice

CITY LIGHTS: Over winter break, Diana Wang ’13 visited Shanghai, China, and took this photograph of the skyline of Pu Dong, an area settled along the east side of the Huangpu River.

ACROSS 1. Six-pack muscles 4. “Huh?” 8. Slender 12. Speck 13. Ginormous 14. Last few notes 15. Good poker hand 17. Stead 18. Possess 19. Weapon collection 21. San Fernando, for one 24. Melody 25. Have a bug 26. Witnessed 28. Stickum 32. March 15, e.g.

34. Central 36. Bring to a halt 37. Bold 39. Roscoe 41. Regret 42. Conger, e.g.

44. Coy 46. Puts in the wrong place 50. Tatter 51. Help slyly 52. Vigor 56. Paddock papa 57. “My bad” 58. Writer Buscaglia 59. Despot 60. Dalai — 61. Tackle’s teammate DOWN 1. Billboards 2. Automaton, for short 3. Modern-day pram 4. Complains feebly 5. Embrace 6. Ottoman bigwig 7. Aquarium fish 8. Eyeball coats 9. Pork cut 10. Concept 11. Manhandle 16. Piercing tool 20. Taste 21. Futile 22. Staffer

Nonfiction 1. Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America — Mark R. Levin 2. American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History — Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice 3. Steve Jobs ­— Walter Isaacson 4. Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever — Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard 5. Through My Eyes — Tim Tebow with Nathan Whitaker

CROSSWORD

iTUNES

1. Kelly Clarkson — “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” 2. Adele — “Set Fire to the Rain” 3. David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj — “Turn Me On” 4. Flo Rida — “Good Feeling” 5. Jessie J — “Domino”

BILLBOARD

1. Adele — 21 2. Kidz Bop Kids — Kidz Bop 21 3. The Black Keys — El Camino 4. Drake — Take Care 5. Rihanna — Talk that Talk 6. Young Jeezy — TM:103 Husterlz Ambition 7. James Fortune & FIYA — Identity 8. Toby Keith — Clancy’s Tavern 9. Coldplay — Mylo Xyloto 10. Nickelback — Here and Now

23. Sweet potato kin 27. Peruke 29. Fight 30. Go sightseeing 31. Duel tool 33. Less corpulent 35. Old man 38. Verily 40. Singer Brewer 43. Disinfectant brand 45. Chap 46. Spar 47. Wading bird 48. Antitoxins 49. Old portico 53. Spinning stat 54. Coffee break hour 55. Scuttle

Top of the Charts information provided

by Fandango, the New York Times, BillBoard.com and Apple.com.

Solution to last week’s crossword

King Crossword Copyright 2012 King Features Synd, Inc.

STAFF PLAYLIST

“Back to Campus”

By FIONA LOCKYER

Justice ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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.

 Pinocchio is Italian for “pine eye.”  A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

Thought for the Day: “A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.”

— Sir Barnett Cocks

Fiction 1. Private: #1 Subject — James Patterson and Maxine Paetro 2. Death of Kings — Bernard Cornwell 3. Believing the Lie — Elizabeth George 4. Death Comes to Pemberley — P. D. James 5. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest — Stieg Larson

Solution to last week’s sudoku

Sudoku Copyright 2012 King Features Synd, Inc.

After being abroad for three months, its great to be back on campus and back to DJing for WBRS. Here’s a preview from my next show, which is on Wednesdays from noon to 2 p.m. on WBRS 100.1 FM. THE LIST 1. “Down the Line” —José González 2. “Anonanimal” — Andrew Bird 3. “Jesus, etc.” — Wilco 4. “Islands”-— The xx 5. “I Follow Rivers”— Lykke Li 6. “Doing the Wrong Thing” — Kaki King 7. “All My Friends” — LCD Soundsystem 8. “Little Faith” — The National 9. “Atlantic City” — Bruce Springsteen 10. “Postcards from Italy” — Beirut