The Justice, March 26, 2019

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Justice www.thejustice.org

The Independent Student Newspaper Volume LXXI, Number 21

of

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

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

ADVOCACY THROUGH ART

Waltham, Mass.

STUDENT UNION

Union election results announced ■ Students elected a new

president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and representatives.

By NATALIA WIATER JUSTICE EDITOR

After a tight race last Thursday, the student body voted to instate Simran Tatuskar ’21 as President of the Student Union. 14 students ran for a variety of positions on the Executive Board, as well as two positions on the Brandeis Sustainability Fund. Out of an undergraduate population of 3,369, only 27.45 percent of students voted.

President

SARAH KATZ/the Justice

ADVANCING SOCIAL JUSTICE: Univ. President Ron Liebowitz gave actress, educator and playwright Anna Deavere Smith the Richman Distinguished Fellow in Public Life award Thursday. She has written 15 plays about community, race, education and more.

Playwright and actress receives activism award ■ Anna Deavere Smith

receives the sixth annual Richman Distinguished Fellow in Public Life award.

By GILDA GEIST JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

University President Ron Liebowitz presented actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith with the sixth annual Richman Distinguished Fellow in Public Life award on Thursday. Smith has appeared on television shows such as “The West Wing” and “Black-ish,” and over the past few years she has devoted much of her time to writing onewoman shows based on her interviews with over 250 people. In her plays, she delivers monologues from the point of view of the people she interviews as a way to discuss themes of equality, race relations, education and more.

Carol Richman Saivetz ’69 and her children Michael Saivetz ’97 and Aliza Saivetz Glasser ’01 created the Richman Fellow award six years ago in honor of Richman Saivetz’s parents, Fred and Rita, Liebowitz said. The Richman Fellow award is given to “individuals active in public life whose contributions have had a significant impact on improving American society, strengthening democratic institutions [or] advancing social justice,” according to the Richman Fellow website.

Explaining why Smith received the award, Liebowitz extolled her accomplishments. “For several decades, she has used her singular brand of the-

ater to explore issues of community, character and diversity in America,” he said. Smith is also the founder and director of the arts education program Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University, according to the Richman Fellow website.

Harry S. Levitan Director of Teacher Education and Professor of the Practice of Education Marya Levenson introduced Smith. “We are very fortunate to welcome this skilled, talented and powerful performer and woman who is able to bring us the voices of the people who are not so powerful,” Levenson said.

After the introduction, Smith delivered her acceptance speech, which included performances from interviews she had conducted for her plays.

Smith spoke about how the topic of race is often considered taboo and rarely brought up in mainstream American conversation. “There are very small windows where we care about race,” she said. She cited the national reaction to the 2015 murder of Freddie Gray by police as an example of one of these windows.

In 2015, during the riots following Gray’s murder, Smith spoke to Kevin Moore, the man who took a video of the confrontation between Gray and the police on his phone. Using direct quotes from his interview, Smith performed a monologue from Moore’s perspective. As Moore, she talked about his reaction to what happened to Gray. “Come on. A crushed larynx?

Can you do that to yourself? Three cracked vertebrae? Can you do that to yourself? Can you sever 80 percent of your own spinal cord?” she asked.

She also quoted Moore as saying, “The camera’s the only thing we have that can protect us.”

Smith recalled another video documenting police brutality, this time taking place at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina. Sixteenyear-old Shakara was placed into a chokehold and handcuffed by a school officer for refusing to put her cellphone away in class. Her classmate, Niya Kenny, was arrested for speaking up and filming the confrontation.

After telling Shakara’s story by performing as Kenny, Smith explained how Kenny was implicated in the conflict. According to Smith, the officer told Kenny to “shut up,” but Kenny continued to protest until he eventually handcuffed her. “The problem that girls have is if you run your mouth … and to me, that’s what she [Kenny] paid for,” Smith said.

Next, Smith talked about interviewing a fifth-grade teacher named Sari Muhonen in Helsinki, Finland. Smith recalled showing Muhonen the video that Kenny took of Shakara. Performing as Muhonen responding to the video, Smith said, “I have never seen like this in Finland. … I cannot find a situation that would need handcuffs.”

Smith said she asked Muhonen how discipline works in schools in Finland. Performing as Muhonen again, she said that while she couldn’t identify one overarching form of discipline, she would tell her students, “I see you and you are really welcome here,” as a preventative measure against acting up in class.

For Smith’s final performance, she

See RICHMAN FELLOW, 7 ☛

Tatuskar currently serves as the Union’s secretary, a position she was voted into at the end of last semester.

She also sat on the Rules and Dining committees, and previously served as co-chair of the Health and Safety Committee. Tatuskar first ran for Union office as a first-year for the position of Class of 2021 Senator, but she lost.

During her time as secretary, Tatuskar worked as the liaison between the accessibility movement and the administration and maintained a line of communication between the

Vice President

Guillermo Caballero ’20, who ran against Trevor Filseth ’20, was elected as Vice President by a wide margin of 538 to 199. This was Cabellero’s second attempt at the vice presidency: he first faced current Vice President Aaron Finkel ’19 in a close race and lost by just 34 votes. Caballero does not have much previous experience with the Union except for his service on the Club Support Committee.

In his candidate bio, Caballero wrote that his primary goal as vice president is to “make the branches of the student union more cohesive and united.” Like Tatuskar, commu-

See ELECTION, 7 ☛

INTERVIEW

Univ. tech services discuss DUO software ■ Information Techonology

Services addresses concerns about the new two-factor authentication software.

By EMILY BLUMENTHAL JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Over the past year, the University’s Information Technology Services has been rolling out the two-factor authentication software DUO to faculty, staff and students. Seeking to dispel misconceptions about the software, University Chief Information Officer Jim La Creta, Director of Networks, Systems and Security David Albrecht and Communications and Change Management Specialist Christine Jacinto met with the Justice on Wednesday for an interview.

Albrecht explained that DUO is “a way to better protect user identities,” which requires a password and a “form of authentication:” either a push notification from the DUO app, a text, a phone call or a hardware token.

The tokens are small devices, he said, that “spit out pseudo-random numbers that would correspond to numbers that would pop up on the app that you would type in for the second fac-

tor of authentication.” Albrecht said that 300 people have requested the token for several reasons — “they don’t have a phone, or they have a phone but want a token, or they don’t want to use any of their own devices whatsoever.” The easiest method of authentication, he said, is using DUO’s mobile app.

Albrecht said that “Brandeis holds a significant amount of … personallyidentifiable information,” and under laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects educational records, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which concerns financial information, the University is required “to maintain and protect that information.” Additionally, DUO can aid in protecting one’s own personal information, Albrecht said. He explained that for student workers, this includes W-2 forms and direct deposit information.

DUO also protects against phishing, Albrecht said. There have been “malicious emails that have come through that have caused people to enter their password credentials unknowingly to a third party,” he continued, which compromised the accounts. La Creta added that DUO is “part of a larger security program”

See DUO, 7 ☛

Finding her passion

Black Effect

'Brandeis in The Hague' program canceled

By EMILY BLUMENTHAL

 Simran Tatuskar '21 follows her own path.

 Brandeis Black Student Organization hosted its second annual showcase of Shades of Blackness.

By JOCELYN GOULD

By ELLIE WHISENANT Photo Courtesy of SIMRAN TATUSKAR

student body and the Brandeis Counseling Center, per a March 19 Justice article.

As president, Tatuskar plans to tackle a variety of issues, many of them involving improving communication between various institutions on campus, according to her campaign website. Some of these changes include writing weekly reports to the community, improving lines of communication with activist groups, creating a working relationship with the Graduate Student Association and increasing transparency surrounding the Board of Trustees.

FEATURES 8 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org

CLARA ALEXANDER/the Justice

Make your voice heard!

Submit letters to the editor to letters@thejustice.org

NEWS 5

Admissions scandal reveals false meritocracy

By VIOLET FEARON

FORUM 11

Men's Ultimate Frisbee, a.k.a. TRON

ARTS 18

By MEGAN GELLER

COPYRIGHT 2019 FREE AT BRANDEIS.

SPORTS 16

2

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019

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NEWS

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS LEGACY AND LEARNING FAIR

POLICE LOG MEDICAL EMERGENCY March 19—A request was made for police and Area Coordinator on call presence at Reitman Hall.

The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital in a Cataldo Ambulance with Section #12 paperwork.

March 20—A party in Ziv Quad reported that a friend was having an allergic reaction. BEMCo staff treated the party, who signed a refusal for further care.

March 20—BEMCo staff treated a party feeling ill at Renfield hall. A Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

March 20—Brandeis Counseling Center staff reported a party attempting self-harm and requested a Cataldo Ambulance to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for evaluation. The Area Coordinator on call was notified and Section #12 paperwork was given to the ambulance staff.

March 20—University police assisted Brandeis Counseling Center staff with a party needing Cataldo Ambulance transport to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for a psychological evaluation. Section #12 paperwork was given to the ambulance staff.

March 20—University Police and BEMCo staff responded to a report of an ankle injury in the Intercultural Center. BEMCo staff evaluated the injury, and University Police transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

March 21—BEMCo staff treated an intoxicated party in Ziv 127. The party signed a refusal for further care.

March 22—A party felt sick in Goldfarb Library and requested BEMCo assistance. BEMCo staff treated the party, who was then transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital by Cataldo Ambulance for further care.

March 22—BEMCo staff treated a party experiencing an allergic reaction in Renfield Hall. The party had used an epipen on themself. BEMCo staff administered a second epipen shot to the party, who was then transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital in a Cataldo Ambulance for further care. The Area Coordinator on call was notified.

March 23—A BEMCo staff member on standby treated a party with a broken finger in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. BEMCo requested an ambulance, and the Waltham Fire Department was notified. The party signed a refusal for further care.

March 24—BEMCo staff treated an intoxicated party in the Village and requested an ambulance.

The party signed a refusal for further care.

March 24—BEMCo staff treated an intoxicated party in the Village. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital by Cataldo Ambulance for further care, and the Area Coordinator on call was notified.

LARCENY March 19–Brandeis Police compiled a report on a potential computer-hacking scam in Stoneman Infirmary and Public Safety. An investigation will ensue.

HARASSMENT March 20–Reports of harassment in Scheffres Hall are being compiled by University Police, to be followed by an investigation.

March 20–University Police compiled a report of a spam email sent to a staff member in Spingold Theater Center.

March 20–A staff member received a “concerning” email and reported it to the University Police, who compiled a report of the issue.

March 22–Brandeis Police compiled a report of “concerning” emails sent to the Admissions office.

DISTURBANCE/NOISE COMPLAINT March 19–Brandeis Police asked two parties on the loading dock of Pomerantz Hall to quiet down.

March 23–University Police received a complaint about loud music at the Charles River Apartments.

Parties involved complied without incident.

March 24–Loud music was reported coming from Mod 2. Upon University Police investigation, noise was found to be coming from Mod 4, which was having a University-approved event until 1 a.m. The parties involved turned down their music regardless.

—Compiled by Sam Stockbridge and Mia Rubinstein

Justice

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CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS n Photos of “Love, Formosa” were incorrectly credited to Thu Le. These photos were taken by Yuran Shi (March 19, page 18). n Photos of “Brandeis by Night” were incorrectly credited to Thu Le. These photos were taken

by Clara Alexander (March 19, page 18). n An Arts teaser incorrectly labeled a photo as being from “Love, Formosa” and the photo was incorrectly credited to Thu Le. The photo was from “Brandeis by Night” and was taken by Clara Alexander (March 19, page 1). n A features article contained several factual errors about the Berlin Chapel (March 19, page 8). n A news article incorrectly referred to OffCampus Senator Jacob Diaz as Village Quad Senator Jake Rong’s replacement for chair of the rules committee. He is actually his interim co-chair (March 19, page 2).

The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Send an email to editor@thejustice.org.

Image Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

Everyone has a story.

Help us find it.

ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

The Boston-Area Jewish Education Program held an open house in the Mandel Atrium on Sunday. Sixth-grade students showcased their family legacies through family stories, recipes and pictures.

Join

Contact Sammy Park at features@thejustice.org

Features!

SENATE LOG Senators discuss new amendments, faculty lunch SMR, club advisors EXECUTIVE SENATOR REPORTS

Vice President Aaron Finkel ’19 reported that the executive board is “really excited” about Presence, a new website that the University will begin using.

COMMITTEE CHAIR REPORTS

Senators had no major news to report in their committee chair reports.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

The Senate voted on two Bylaw amendments from last week’s meeting and a Senate Money Resolution.

The first Bylaws amendment, “Amendment Clarifying Allocations Board Policy,” would add the following clause to the Bylaws: “The Allocations Board’s Funding Scope shall include the criteria for the rejection of Marathon appeals.” Marathon is the formal time period during which club leaders request funding for club activities. Chartered clubs request funding on a semesterly basis, while secured clubs only request funding during Spring marathon for the upcoming fiscal year. The amendment passed in a vote of acclamation.

The second amendment, “Amendment Regarding Union Senate Committee Outreach,” was proposed last week by Class of 2022 Senator Nancy Zhai. The version of the amendment proposed at last week’s meeting would require committee chairs to spend time each week doing social media outreach. Zhai said she valued the “input” of other senators at that meeting and modified the amendment to make the social media outreach “optional” as each committee chair sees fit. Zhai said the amendment, “will not put any pressure on any of the committee chairs,” responding to concerns from Class of 2021 Senator Nakul Srinivas that the social media outreach would be a waste of time for the committee chairs.

The Senate voted on the motion by roll call. The total was 10 for, seven opposed. With less than a two-thirds majority, the Bylaws amendment failed to pass.

Next, the Senate discussed “A Senate Money Resolution Relating to Student and Faculty Kickback,” which would allo-

cate more than $500 for an April 8 event that would give minority students a chance to interact with faculty members with whom they might not otherwise have the chance to do so. Racial Minority Senator Geraldine Bogard ’20 said the event would be open for 20 to 30 students. Bogard explained that a survey was sent to a number of students to assess interest in the event, and that 16 students indicated interest in the event.

Off-Campus Senator Jacob Diaz ’20 was skeptical of the quantity of food that would be purchased for the event: Three 100-piece trays of chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks and mini egg rolls with sweet and sour sauce, costing $75, $65, and $60, respectively, and a garden salad that would serve 25 and would cost $45. Diaz said less food would be needed. “When I’m hungry… I can eat maybe five chicken tenders,” he said. Bogard concurred and removed the mozzarella sticks from the SMR. Senator-at-Large Noah Nguyen ’21 said the goal of the event was already fulfilled by the “take your professor to lunch” program the university offers. Bogard defended the SMR, saying the lunch program did not connect students with a “stranger” faculty member.

The Senate voted on the SMR by roll call. The SMR was passed, with 16 senators supporting the resolution, and two opposition votes from Diaz and Village Quad Senator Jake Rong ’21.

NEW BUSINESS

Finkel announced that he wants to formally appoint committee chairs for the current semester. “In the future, this will hopefully be done at the beginning of every semester,” he said.

His appointments passed by a vote of acclamation. Ridgewood Quad Senator Leigh Salomon ’19 introduced an amendment to formalize the requirement that Senators serve on two committees. Finkel delayed the vote to next week.

Finkel introduced an amendment which would eliminate an article of the Bylaws concerning “Special Union Programs,” which “includes an award that

we’re technically supposed to give out as a Senate,” but has not been given out for years. The article also contains a clause requiring the Senate to create a course evaluation guide, which is obsolete because the University now publishes it. In addition, the amendment proposes to eliminate the Office of Student Rights and Advocacy, an institution which Finkel says is “redundant.” He added that the current OSRA chair is in favor of eliminating the office. Finkel encouraged Senators to consider their position and announced that the Senate would be voting on the amendment next week.

Finkel introduced another amendment called “Amendment Repealing Executive Officer Override Power.” Salomon elaborated on the amendment, saying that senators absent from meetings could request to submit a proxy vote on motions. If the vice president approves the proxy vote, the amendment would allow the request to be overridden by a two-thirds vote in the Senate rather than just by the executive senator. The Senate will vote on this amendment next week.

Finkel then turned to the Club Consultant amendment, which requires all secured clubs to have an advisor. The amendment has been met with mixed reception, with the most common misconception, Finkel said, being that club advisors would make club decisions. Having an advisor will “help things run more smoothly,” he said. Srinivas asked if clubs would be sanctioned for failing to find an advisor, to which Finkel replied that every club would be able to have an advisor.

Srinivas also inquired about the status of controversial political clubs, which may not be able to find a faculty member comfortable with advising them. Finkel and Nguyen replied that the club could consult with a staff member, and Zhai suggested that these clubs could consult the Department of Student Activities if no faculty or staff member was comfortable advising them.

Bogard and Rong asked if the amendment document is available to the public. Finkel replied that the document is not avail-

able to the public, but anyone who desired to read it could request it.

SENATOR REPORTS

Bogard reported that she and Racial Minority Senator Denezia Fahie ’22 have been working with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on a proposed new training for clubs who put on events on sensitive topics like racism and mental health.

Class of 2019 Senator Vidit Dhawan, who also serves on the Allocations Board, announced that Marathon decisions would be out next Monday.

During his report, Diaz said that he was “disappointed” that the Union spent time arguing about policies when Senators did not prepare in advance for the discussion, referencing earlier arguments about the SMR and the club advisor amendment.

Finkel implored Senators to read his emails about the agenda before the meeting.

Zhai reported that many of the laptop charging cables in Goldfarb do not work and requested that East Quad Senator and Campus Operations Committee chair Taylor Fu ’21 address the issue.

Massell Quad Senator Kendal Chapman ’22 reported that she was working with senior Community Advisors to put on a flea market event for departing seniors to sell their old school items. Additionally, the event will allow underclassmen to donate their items or sell them, with the money from sales going to charity. Chapman expressed her disappointment with senators who did not go to the “Meet the Union” event, stating that she had reminded the Senate about it for several weeks. She and Srinivas also emphasized that the Senate had chosen the time based on everyone’s schedules.

Senate meetings are held Sundays at 7 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center, room 313. They are open to the public.

—Sam Stockbridge and Emily Blumenthal —Editor’s Note: Nancy Zhai and Nakul Srinivas are News writers for the Justice.

THE JUSTICE

MOVIE MARKETING

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NEWS

By ELLA RUSSELL JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

A WINDING CAREER PATH: Bill Imada founded the advertising company that contributed to ‘Crazy Rich Asians’’ box office success almost 30 years later. At his talk, he discussed his personal career journey, Asian American stereotypes in the media and more.

Chairman of marketing group talks about ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ his experience leading the marketing group that propelled ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ to success.

By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

The last film with an Asian and Asian-American ensemble cast was “The Joy Luck Club,” which came out in 1993 — until “Crazy Rich Asians” premiered in 2018. When Warner Brothers told Bill Imada that he was expected to launch a marketing campaign that would result in an opening weekend of 19 million viewers, his whole team was stressed out. 35 million people turned out to see the film in its opening weekend, making it the most successful romantic comedy in almost a decade.

At an event sponsored by Hiatt Career Center and the Business Program and National Millennial Community & Gen Z Council on Thursday, Imada explained his personal journey toward founding the minority-owned IW Group in 1990, which now works with a number of top companies in the U.S., including HBO, Lexus and McDonald’s.

He discussed how far the portrayal of Asian Americans in the media has come in the past several decades, as well as how his company works to break down stereotypes, including his successful promotion of “Crazy Rich Asians.”

Coming out of college, Imada had his sights set on working for McCann, an American global advertising agency network, then known as McCann Erickson, but he did not get a position. Imada then turned to human resources, politics and executive search, but hated all of them.

Now, the president of McCann sits on the IW Group’s Board of Directors.

After failing to obtain a position at McCann and trying out other positions, Imada took a salary cut to go back to marketing and advertising at a company he declined to name. From that point on, he stuck to marketing and advertising. “If you have a passion or interest,” he said, “keep your eye on that passion or that goal, because someday you are going to get to that point.”

As a temp at the marketing agency, Imada’s job was to promote tobacco and its use as well as deny its health detriments, despite the fact that he was morally opposed to what he was doing. He told the president of the company that he

would only work on the account if he could “say what [he] want[ed] to say.” Imada refused to write press releases for the client, such as ones that said “Tobacco is not addictive and it doesn’t affect an unborn fetus,” and “Secondhand smoke does not kill.”

The client told Imada they would get him fired for not writing the press releases. Ultimately, the executive from Tobacco Institute told Imada, ““Bill, tell me you wrote the press release. Say you pitched it to the New York Times and the New York Times said no.” Although this was a lie, Imada followed through and never did any advertising or marketing for the Tobacco Institute.

The company Anheuser-Busch reached out to the firm Imada worked for at the time and said they would give them $500,000 to reach Asian Americans. With only a day and a half to come up with a marketing strategy to pitch, the team rushed to pull together a proposal, which found its way onto napkins — the only materials they had available. Even though Imada was accused of offending AnheuserBusch with such a display, he successfully won their business, even though the company Imada was working for already represented Heineken — another brewing company — and expected Imada to fail.

When Imada called AnheuserBusch to tell them he could not represent them, Busch’s vice president presented him with another option: Imada should start his own company. After the vice president paid Imada’s $80,000 college debt with a note that said “Get your ass in gear,” Imada quit his job and started his own company, the IW Group.

In an interview with the Justice, Imada called that experience a defining moment for his career, but also said that same executive created “pain points” for him. One day, Imada called up the executive asking for “20 minutes of his time” to expand his business. After exactly 20 minutes, the vice president threw Imada out of his office to prove a point. “For some reason there are a lot of Asians who don’t ask for what they want, and I wish you would just ask for what you want. Ask for two hours next time.

I might not give it to you, but you asked for 20 minutes and I’m giving you 20 minutes,” the vice president told Imada.

Imada also discussed the evolution of Asian American portrayal in the media. The first example he showed was a 1959 Jell-O advertisement that perpetuated stereotypes

3

Expert discusses views on Iran nuclear capability East Studies hosted a talk with Former State Dept. official Robert Einhorn.

■ Bill Imada discusses

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019

CAMPUS EVENT

■ The Crown Center for Middle

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with music and accents. Imada said the tropes used in the advertisement made Asian Americans seem like foreigners in their own country.

Other advertisements were when Asian Americans were struggling in the job market, many turned to doing laundry because, Imada said, Americans did not want to clean their clothing. A 1970s ad for Calgon showed that their cleaning product was an “Asian Chinese secret” — Imada explained that this notion is problematic as it portrays Chinese people as “deceitful” and “corrupt,” and gives the impression that “the only thing that Chinese people really can do is keep your clothes clean,” he said.

Despite the challenges Asian Americans have faced because of advertising, Imada said that companies are trying to improve how Asian Americans are portrayed in the media. He showed one Subaru advertisement showing an Asian American couple preparing their home for their expected newborn, just like white couples are often portrayed. He shared that Target and AT&T have also been making strides in the right direction. Now, however, there is a recurrence of stereotypes in some ads that show Asians as pharmacists and sexual symbols, Imada said.

After walking through a Case Study of how Metlife improved their outreach to different populations, Imada presented his “Crazy Rich Asians” case study. Warner Brothers put pressure on IW Group to make the film a blockbuster, so between July 2017 and August 2018, the team worked and “garner[ed] the support of Asian American key opinion leaders, influencers and organizations, celebrate[d] Asian American cultural tentpoles, leverage[d] national conversation about diversity and explore[d] potential impact[s] of [the] film’s success.”

Through researching their target audiences, networking with other communities and their leaders and more, the team saw results, as the movie eventually made a total of $172 million in the United States and 238.5 million worldwide.

One of the projects the IW Group is currently working on is Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan, which will be released in 2020. They aim to portray the heroine as a warrior who is loyal to her family, not as a princess, as well as emphasize that she does not need to be subservient — a stereotype previously used in advertisements featuring Asian American women.

Former State Department official Robert Einhorn discussed his view on whether Iran can be stopped from acquiring nuclear capability during a talk last Thursday called “Can Iran Be Stopped from Getting the Bomb?”

As a special advisor to Hillary Clinton from 2009 to 2013, Einhorn was a key figure in laying the groundwork for the Iran Nuclear Deal, in which Iran promised to halt all nuclear research and hobble its existing program in exchange for sanctions relief. He discussed his perspective with Gary Samore, director of the Crown Center for Middle Eastern Studies. From 2009 to 2013, Samore served as the White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The discussion began with a brief overview of United States efforts to prevent Iran from getting the bomb.

Einhorn said that the Iran Nuclear Deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was adopted in 2015 after years of careful planning. President Donald Trump, a longtime critic of the deal, withdrew in May 2018 and resumed economic sanctions.

According to Einhorn, one possible intention of the Trump administration was to pressure Iran to accept a more “comprehensive new deal.” The deal would extend well beyond the JCPOA to constrain Iran’s regional activities and other elements of its weapons development.

Einhorn explained, however, that many experts believe it is doubtful that the Trump administration was ever interested in negotiating specific elements of Iran’s behavior. Instead, he said, the administration believes that “the problem with Iran … is the nature of the regime … To get Iran to stop doing these bad things, you [have to] get rid of the regime.”

Einhorn argued that while economic sanctions are heavily damaging the Iranian economy, it is unlikely that the United States will get Iran “either to capitulate or collapse.” The U.S. no longer has international support for its efforts, a stark contrast to their position during the JCPOA negotiations, when support was almost unanimous.

In addition, Einhorn said that the Trump administration’s uncompromising position and their hints at a desire for regime change “have convinced the Iranian government that there’s nothing to gain from negotiating with Trump. They need to resist and hang on as long as they can.” Having survived under harsh economic sanctions for decades, the regime has become “very resilient [and] very resourceful,” Einhorn said.

Samore asked what Einhorn thought of Iran continuing to follow the rules of the nuclear deal despite U.S. withdrawal. Einhorn said that like many, he did not expect Iran to do this, especially since the Iranian government itself had stated that they would withdraw if the United States did as well. He suggested a variety of reasons as to why Iran might have not withdrawn. First, he said that Iran likely enjoys being on the moral high ground, isolating the United States from its allies. Likely due to Iran’s continued compliance with the deal, even the Europeans are making efforts to preserve trade with Iran despite U.S. sanctions, Einhorn said. Iran knows that as bad as their economic situation is now, “it could get a lot worse” if they were more belligerent. Also, aside from the Europeans, Iran has strong ties with China, India and Russia.

China and India are major importers of Iranian oil, and according to Einhorn, there are reports that Russia is laundering Iranian oil through

Russian territory.

Einhorn argued that Iran is probably willing to hold out for at least another two years in the hope that a Democratic administration will replace Trump. Samore asked what advice Einhorn would give to that potential administration. He responded that he would advise the government not to immediately return to the deal because Trump’s decision to withdraw gave the United States a measure of leverage over Iran that would be foolish to give up.

He explained that the United States does have the potential to negotiate a stronger deal, just not under the Trump administration. To emphasize their distance from the Trump administration, Einhorn argued that the Democrats need to explicitly disavow regime change and take a more flexible bargaining standpoint.

For example, they need to offer increased positives for Iran such as more rigorous sanctions relief.

Samore brought up Trump’s tendency for “incredible about-faces,” such as his relationship with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jongun. He asked Einhorn about the chances of a similar occurrence with Iran, who said that a similar occurrence was almost unimaginable.

In the first place, the United States has several allies in the Middle East including Israel and Saudi Arabia, both of whom are “dead-set against reconciliation.” By contrast, U.S. ally South Korea is actively promoting stronger links with North Korea.

The American public also sees North Korea and Iran very differently, Einhorn said. He remarked that many Americans hold a neutral view of North Korea, seeing it as an odd “hermit country” but holding no real enmity against it. North Korea is not particularly aggressive toward its neighbor countries, generally restricting its human rights atrocities to its own citizens, Einhorn said.

By contrast, the American public first became aware of U.S. tensions with Iran when they took American diplomats hostage in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution, “and we’ve never forgotten that,” Einhorn said.

Nevertheless, he suggested that Iran must notice Trump’s surprisingly warm reception of North Korea and wonder if there is a way to bring Trump around to their side.

Before Samore and Einhorn turned to the audience for questions, they discussed the specifics of Iran’s current level of nuclear capability. In 2018, Israel managed to seize an Iranian nuclear archive.

The archive revealed that Iran has advanced significantly along the path to nuclear capability. However, it suspended its research after the Bush administration invaded Iraq in 2003, possibly out of a fear that Bush would next invade Iran and discover the extent of its program.

Iran has not discarded its program altogether, however, putting its compliance with JCPOA in doubt.

In the following Q&A, an audience member asked Einhorn to predict the United States’ response to clear evidence of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Einhorn responded that the United States, even under the more flexible and diplomatic Obama administration, would certainly respond with force. He explained that this was a major reason for Iranian caution in developing its weapons.

Einhorn argued that Iran’s excessive caution in developing nuclear weapons hints that its government could be persuaded away from developing nuclear capability, and so the goal for the United States is to get Iran to “defer the decision far into the future” in the hopes that it will lose interest.

Ultimately, Einhorn reaffirmed his belief that the United States and Iran will only be able to overcome their animosity with a change in the administration. “If Trump is replaced, the American public made a mistake. If he is re-elected, then there is something fundamentally wrong with American society,” he said.

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THE JUSTICE

EXAMINING THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION

●

NEWS

By EMILY BLUMENTHAL JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice

HUMAN RIGHTS DEBACLE: Visiting professor Roham Alvandi talked about how the Shah and anti-regime revolutionaries used human rights to legitimize themselves and oppose one another before and during the 1979 revolution in Iran.

Scholar discusses human rights, Iranian Revolution how groups in favor of and opposing the Shah dealt with human rights during the Iranian Revolution.

By ECE ESIKARA JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Roham Alvandi, a Columbia University history and political science professor, gave a talk at at the University on Wednesday about human rights issues relating to the Iranian revolution of 1979. The talk, “Human Rights and the Global History of the Iranian Revolution,” was sponsored by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, the International and Global Studies program and the History and Politics Departments.

Alvandi is the director of the IDEAS Cold War Studies Project at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

While Iranian opposition to the monarchy sided with Western human rights organizations during the revolution, the state embraced a non-Western narrative of human rights and prioritized the state sovereignty, according to Alvandi. In his talk, Alvandi examined “how both the Shah and his opponents sought to instrumentalize human rights in the international struggle that sparked the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79,” according to the event description.

The talk started with Alvandi’s

explanation of the historiography of the revolution. In 1976, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, started to lose public support and control over the government, and the Pahlavi family tried to address human rights issues because of the tremendous international pressure on Iran from various human rights organizations. As Pahlavi was vulnerable to pressure due to a growing national and global spotlight on his human rights abuses, he wanted to improve human rights as an instrument to increase his legitimacy. In the meantime, the opposition also called for the improvement of human rights issues. Alvandi said, however, that the opposition used human rights as an instrument to oppose Pahlavi’s regime but in no way internalized human rights and liberal values.

Alvandi also spoke about the Shah’s visit to West Germany and the huge demonstrations by German students against the Shah. According to Alvadi, these demonstrations introduced a new narrative to the German agenda, which was only pro-Shah before the international support to the Iranian opposition.

“The narrative up until this point in the German press had really been one of the Shah is the great modernizer as the sort of westernizing modern monarch of Iran. And with these protests, that narrative begins to change critically in public sphere,” he said. Alvandi claimed that the international climate, including the German protests, was a factor that led to the revolution.

Alvadi said that the discourse alone was enough to weaken the Shah’s regime.

Several audience members critiqued Alvandi’s presentation for generalizing many factors of the opposition into one. Prof. Naghmeh Sohrabi (HIST) said, “I’m trying to kind of map out the argument that you’ve been making and I wonder if some of the problems … have to do with the fact that you collapse everything into the term ‘opposition,’ when these are very distinct groups operating with different audiences and are doing different kinds of work.” Prof. Nader Habibi (ECON) added, “I think I’m the only one who was in Iran in 1977-78 as a high school student. What I observed based on interactions with various groups, especially young groups, is that it seems to me that many people sincerely wanted human rights, but within the utopian vision of what they thought the future would look like.”

Alvandi responded to Sohrabi’s comments by saying that the opposition groups were different in many ways including “their tactics and different utopias they are subscribed to,” but “you’re hardpressed to find by late, late 1960 early 1970s, anyone whose advocating for the idea that reforming the Pahlavi state is possible.” The discussion went on back and forth, and Alvandi and Sohrabi could not agree on whether the whole opposition could be viewed as one group that is advocating for the overthrow of the monarchy.

WALTHAM BRIEF New recreational pot dispensary opens in Brookline The first walk-in retail pot shop in greater Boston opened over the weekend. The Brookline branch of New England Treatment Access sells recreational marijuana products and officially opened for business beginning this past Saturday. NETA had caused a stir with the opening of its first store in Northampton, where lines stretched around the block and wait times exceeded two and a half hours on the first day of business in November, according to a Boston.com article from Nov. 20, 2018. The Brookline location opening did not yield the same kind of disruption this past Saturday, Boston.com reported on Mar. 23. The store’s opening day was smooth, according to the same

article, despite serving 2,515 customers — around 500 more than the Northampton branch opening.

The first customer was Brookline Selectman Neil Wishinsky.

Wishinsky could hardly hear what the cashier was saying over the cheering of NETA employees in a video from the Saturday opening on Boston.com. He told CBS Boston at the event that he hoped the store would mean “additional tax revenue and hopefully additional business for some of the surrounding merchants.”

The next customer was James Jenner, 38, of Salem, according to a Wicked Local Brookline article from Mar. 24. Jenner has diabetes, nerve pain and anxiety, which he uses marijuana to treat, accord-

ing to the same article. “The accessibility is going to open this up to a lot of people who are in my situation, who need this kind of thing in their life just to lead a normal life, so it’s a great day.

It’s historic, and I’m happy to be a part of it,” Jenner said.

This is the 13th dispensary to open for recreational sales in Massachusetts, according to a Mar. 23 article from WCVB. Another recreational store, Alternative Therapies Group, opened in Salem on Dec. 15, but has suspended sales indefinitely due to an issue with its inventory since Feb. 20, according to Boston.com. That store does not accept walk-ins.

5

‘Brandeis in The Hague’ study abroad program canceled in 2018, the program was officially canceled due to financial aid difficulties.

■ A professor discussed

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019

STUDY ABROAD

■ After being suspended

●

—Chaiel Schaffel

The “Brandeis in The Hague” study abroad program has been officially canceled, according to Associate Dean of Study Abroad J Scott Van Der Meid. While initially only the semester-long program had been canceled last year, its summer iteration will also come to an end after a final session this year. The program was a collaboration with Leiden University’s Grotius Centre for Legal Studies, which specializes in international law.

In an email to the Justice, Van Der Meid stressed that canceling the program “was not a decision that was taken lightly,” emphasizing the “excellent collaboration” with Leiden University. The decision to cancel the program was “based on shifting academic priorities at Leiden University, limited student housing and the continued lack of U.S. Federal Financial Aid portability,” he continued.

Per the program’s website, participants would “explore first-hand how international courts confront a range of global problems,” using institutions including the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, while conducting their own research on “a variety of global issues” such as “ethnic violence” and “economic development.”

Prof. Richard Gaskins (LGLS), who helped to design the program’s curricula and was a faculty member for several semesters and summers, wrote in an email to the Justice that the emphasis of the research was on “analyzing problems from a broad perspective [and] using case studies to explore the global problem of social transitions.” Gaskins described the classes as “small, seminar-style and highly participatory,” and in addition to the “regular visits to international courts,” students met with “judges and human rights experts.”

The semester program included “an 8-week practicum placement in one of the courts or human rights organizations,” he added.

Many students chose to do the program to complete major or minor requirements in International & Global Studies, Politics or Legal Studies, Van Der Meid wrote in the same email.

Katie Mok ’20, who participated in the program in the summer of 2018, did so because it completed requirements for her Legal Studies minor and because she wanted to study abroad while staying on track to graduate a semester early, she wrote in an email to the Justice.

Mok said that during the first weeks of the program, participants took classes together about “the history and politics of international governance and international law.” During the last two weeks, they “joined 30+ international students to focus more on international criminal law,” learning from guest lecturers and getting “much more breadth in exposure to the field.”

In addition, Mok said, they had a “moot court debate” at the end of the program, which “simulat[ed] real-

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world issues like cross-border drone strikes and asylum-seeking criminals.” The program’s direct work with legal institutions helped her academically, she wrote, adding that “having such friendly and enthusiastic professionals talk so candidly to us encouraged me to consider practicing law one day.”

Sam Cohen ’20 had planned to spend this semester in The Hague as part of the program, which he said would have been a “perfect fit” because he wants to pursue a career in international law, he wrote in an email to the Justice. The practicum in a legal setting was particularly attractive to him, and he believed it would have been “a fantastic opportunity.”

Cohen had known “since freshman year that [he] wanted to study abroad in Europe,” and decided on The Hague because it fulfilled requirements in his IGS and Politics majors and he would not have to seek department approval for his courses, Cohen wrote in the same email.

On Aug. 6, 2018, Cohen’s and many others’ study abroad plans came to a halt when they received an email from the Office of Study Abroad saying the program was suspended. In the email, which Cohen provided to the Justice, Van Der Meid referenced the financial aid difficulties the program faced. “We have worked with Leiden over the past year with the hopes that this problem could be resolved in time for the Spring 2019 Hague Program, but to date, there has been no indication of a resolution,” Van Der Meid wrote. In the email, he listed several options Cohen could pursue, including acceptance into the summer 2019 program and alternative study abroad programs.

Cohen felt “a bit betrayed” when he received the email and was “struck” by “how blunt and unexpected the email was.” Additionally, he wrote, “no where [sic] in the email did they offer an apology or specified course of action,” and “because the program would not let us apply to any other abroad programs … none of us had any back up plans.” While the Office of Study Abroad did help him find a new program, Cohen wrote, he was “essentially … starting over from square one” because he “had to go through many of the same application processes again.”

This semester, Cohen is studying in Geneva, Switzerland with Boston University, and said that he is “quite satisfied” with the program. The program is structured similarly to “Brandeis in The Hague,” he said, and includes the same internship component which drew him to study in The Hague. The Geneva program also has more people and has given him “the opportunity to branch out and meet students from other schools,” he wrote in the email. The drawback, he maintained, is that he “still [has] to get [his] courses approved in order for them to count towards [his] major.”

When Mok found out the program was canceled, she wrote, she was “surprised, considering how strong Brandeis’ legal studies department is and how distinguished Louis Brandeis’ legacy is.” She added that the program was “a significant reason why [she] picked this university in the first place.” Mok said she “felt really lucky to have been in the program at all,” declaring that the program’s end was “a real loss.”

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UNION: Election DUO: Univ. technology services winners declared CONTINUED FROM 1

CONTINUED FROM 1

nication is a common thread in his campaign proposals. For example, Caballero wants to work on a stronger relationship between the Union and the Prevention Advocacy Resource Center, per his bio. In addition, he wants to make sure all members of the community are heard, citing his own ties to the LGBTQ+, Latinx and indigenous communities on campus.

Secretary

Taylor Fu ’21, the only candidate for Secretary, won with 64.71 percent of the votes. Fu is currently the East Quad senator and has served on three committees during her time in the Senate, including the Rules and Health and Safety committees. She has also served as Campus Operations chair. Fu has worked on a variety of initiatives during her time in the Union, such as improving its communication with the Brandeis Counseling Center, improving East Quad lounge areas and organizing an appreciation day for facilities and Sodexo workers, according to her candidate bio and remarks during the Student Union candidates’ debate on March 18. At the debate, Fu said she wants “to go above and beyond” as secretary by continuing to serve on committees.

Treasurer

Yona Steinman ’20 won the election for treasurer unopposed, campaigning from abroad. He has previously served as deputy treasurer for three semesters, according to his candidate bio, and wants to continue the policies his predecessors put in place of simplifying and streamlining the treasury process.

Junior Rep. to the Board of Trustees

Zoë Fort ’21 was elected as the Junior Representative to the Board of Trustees in a decisive victory over her opponent, Jake Rong ’21, 487 to 165. “With this backdrop, I believe my next service mission is to share our collective concerns, passions, and dreams with the board of trustees,” Fort wrote in her candidate bio.

Fort, currently the Union’s Diversity and Inclusion Officer, has also

served on a task force and working group as part of University President Ron Liebowitz’s “Framework for the Future.” In those roles, Fort “explore[d] how our founding values might guide our present day commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and examined the differences between the University’s concept of justice at its founding and today, per her bio. In addition, Fort worked on an executive task force that studied relations between students and campus police.

Junior Rep. to the Alumni Board

As the only candidate for Junior Representative to the Alumni Board, Gabi Burkholz ’21 won handily, with 64.84 percent of the vote. According to her candidate bio, she is the incoming director of the Brandeis National Committee Student Ambassador Program. The BNC is a philanthropic organization that raises money for Brandeis libraries, sciences and scholarships, according to its website. As junior representative, Burkholz wants to increase lunches and networking opportunities for current students and host events that connect past and present Brandeis students.

Representative to the Brandeis Sustainability Fund

Isaiah Freedman ’20 and Ben Silver ’20 filled the two open seats for representative to the Brandeis Sustainability Fund. Freedman is currently a double major in Biology and Environmental Studies and has been active in the SaveOhno competition, an event funded by the BSF this year.

At the debate, he said he wants to connect social justice issues with sustainability, as he believes “social justice cannot be taken apart from the environment.”

Silver, too, is majoring in Environmental Studies, in addition to International and Global Studies with a minor in Legal Studies. According to his candidate bio, Silver plans to work closely with the chair and members of the Sustainability Committee to tackle initiatives that reduce the University’s carbon footprint and make the campus more sustainable.

Further data from the results are shown below.

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that includes the ProofPoint software to notify ITS of malicious emails. With DUO, “there’s that second step of verification that makes it a lot harder for an attacker to get through,” La Creta said, as a hacker would need to have much more information. “It’s almost like putting in a second password,” he explained.

Currently, Albrecht said, “over 4,000 people [at the University] … are using two-factor authentication,” including all faculty, staff and “2000 plus student workers.” The rollout began “a little over a year ago,” starting with senior management and ITS staff, then moving on to other departments like the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, the Rabb School of Continuing Studies and the International Business School.

In December 2018, ITS started working with faculty to get them on board with DUO. Many faculty have been resistant to DUO, and Albrecht stressed that education has been important in changing their minds. For many, he said, DUO disrupts a routine, and the extra step of authentication is inconvenient. La Creta acknowledged that using two-factor in the classroom could be “stressful” because of the extra time necessary to log in to Latte.

La Creta said that the slow rollout was “very purposeful,” because they wanted each group to give its thoughts about the software’s implementation.

With its implementation, La Creta said, “the calls to the Help Desk on

this have been minimal,” though ITS is still looking for ways to educate the community about DUO and better “reach the masses.” He also invited feedback from the community.

Sam Stern ’20, a teaching assistant in the Computer Science department, said he thinks that ITS could have used a better method of two-factor authentication than DUO. “Phone apps are terrible, ridiculously inconvenient and the DUO user interface … is not that great,” he said. In regards to the small checkbox that says “remember me for thirty days” — reducing the number of times a user has to go through the second step of authentication — he said it is not easy to find. The biggest problem he has seen with DUO’s rollout has been people like him who do not want to install the app, which include many in his department.

One misconception that Albrecht and La Creta addressed was a stigma around using a token which could indicate that someone does not have a smartphone. Albrecht said that as DUO is rolled out to the entire community, tokens will become commonplace around campus. “To me, there’s not really a stigma of having a token.

People are just using for whatever is best for them,” he said. Stern said that “hardware tokens are slightly more inconvenient because you have to press a button and enter a code, but I use one, because I’m not installing that app on my phone.” If someone forgets their device, the Help Desk can also issue one-time passwords, Albrecht said.

7

Albrecht said that many people may not understand why the University needs DUO. “I don’t think a large part of the community understands the laws and regulations that we have to comply with as an institution,” he said.

Two-factor authentication, he continued, is the “de facto standard” and the “least disruptive” form of cybersecurity. Other programs require “constant password changes,” he said. Additionally, if the software crashed, “DUO is quick to resolve the issues,” and crashes happen very rarely, Albrecht said.

“In a year, we’ve had two incidents” of software errors, he added.

Stern also thinks DUO will improve cybersecurity. As a teaching assistant, he has access to “legally-protected information,” he said. “It’s the school’s obligation, and it’s our obligation as people responsible for this data to protect it … as best we can.”

Though many may think that DUO could infringe on their privacy, Albrecht stressed that DUO does not collect data, though ITS is able to see “if someone malicious tries to log in as you.” ITS purges their log records regularly, and staff do not look at the log records unless someone reports a problem.

La Creta emphasized that two-factor authentication is part of daily life at many other companies and institutions, with several banks and Amazon opting in recently. He emphasized the importance of improving security measures. “We get attacked all the time. We just don’t publicize it to the community,” he said.

RICHMAN FELLOW: Actress and educator wins award CONTINUED FROM 1

reenacted her interview with Bryan Stevenson, founding director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit that aims to promote racial justice by providing legal representation to those who were deprived of proper representation or a fair trial. Stevenson is also known for his role in the making of the lynching museum and memorial that opened recently in Montgomery, Alabama.

As Stevenson, Smith told the story of a case he worked on where a man received the death penalty. Shortly before his execution date, Stevenson found out that the man had an “intellectual disability,” making it against the law for him to be sentenced to death. Courts on every level up to the Supreme Court told him they could not stop the execution because it was “too late.”

Still speaking as Stevenson, Smith recalled the moment that he had to call his client an hour before the execution to tell him that he couldn’t stop it. “The man did the thing that I fear most in my work,” she said as Stevenson. “He started to cry.” She continued as Stevenson, saying that his client said, “Please don’t hang up, there’s something important I have to say to you.” Smith said that the man stuttered when he became nervous, and he struggled to keep speaking. “He was trying so hard to get his words out, but he couldn’t,” Smith said, adding that Stevenson said that was when he also started to cry.

Finally, the man was able to get the words out. Smith said that Stevenson recalled him saying, “Mr. Stevenson, I want to thank you for representing me. I want to thank you for fighting for me.”

“The last thing he said to me,” Smith recounted as Stevenson, was, “Mr. Stevenson, I love you for trying to save my life.”

Continuing as Stevenson, Smith said, “He hung up the phone. They pulled him away. The strapped him to a gurney and they executed him. …

There was something about that that just shattered me.”

Smith quoted Stevenson as saying, “I was thinking about how broken he was, I just couldn’t understand, why do we want to kill broken people?” Stevenson spiraled, questioning his career and why he does the work that he does. Eventually, according to Smith, he came to the conclusion, “I do what I do because I’m broken, too.”

Still performing as Stevenson, Smith told a story from his childhood where he had to get a polio vaccine.

He saw the white children were being treated well by the nurses, who gave them sugar cubes to distract them from the pain of the shot. By the time the nurses got to the black children, their patience was worn and there were no more sugar cubes.

After watching the black children being treated so badly, Stevenson’s mother began breaking glass beakers in protest, Smith said as Stevenson.

“She was screaming, ‘This is not right! This is not right!’” Stevenson

remembered. A doctor threatened to call the police, but two black ministers who were present at the clinic convinced them not to, but not before one of them “fell to his knees, begging, ‘Please, please, please don’t call the police. Please give the other kids their shots.’”

Smith quoted Stevenson as saying, “You can’t have a memory like that without it creating a kind of injury, a kind of consciousness of wrongfulness, a consciousness of hurt. That’s what I mean when I say I’m broken.”

Smith’s performance of Stevenson ended with a final quote: “A lot of us were taught that you just have to find a way to … silently live with your brokenness. … I’m looking for ways to not be silent.”

The event culminated with a Q&A moderated by Levenson. Smith talked about the process of interviewing a subject and using her theatrical training to turn their words into a performance, saying that she was “interested in the relationship of language and humanity.” She said that when she does interviews, she’s always listening for “special moments,” and gave Stevenson’s story about the polio vaccine as an example.

One audience member asked Smith what it was like to perform as and interview subjects whose values and ideologies she disagrees with. Smith said that an important part of her project was going “where people are different.” She added, “One of my favorite characters is a radically conservative rodeo cowboy.”

8

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TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019 ● FEATURES ● THE JUSTICE

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The TED in TEDx stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.

FINDING HER PASSION Newly elected Student Union President Simran Tatuskar ’21 follows her own path.

Photo Courtesy of SIMRAN TATUSKAR

AN INTEREST IN POLICY: Tatuskar views her time with the Student Union as a “good complement” to her Legal Studies minor.

By JOCELYN GOULD JUSTICE EDITOR

From her pun-filled emails to her presence at Student Union events, Simran Tatuskar ’21 has become the face of the Union this semester. Next year she will be even more visible, as she was elected Union president on Thursday. Yet Tatuskar’s journey to becoming so involved in the Union has not been as straightforward as some may assume.

This will be Tatuskar’s second position on the Union’s Executive Board. She has served as secretary this semester and as co-chair of the Senate’s Health and Wellness committee since the beginning of fall semester.

Although she only joined the Union her sophomore year, she ran for Class of 2021 senator at the beginning of her first year.

“I’m kind of grateful that I lost, because if I hadn’t, I would not have joined GirlUp,” Tatuskar reflected in an interview with the Justice.

In fall 2017, Tatuskar joined the Brandeis chapter of GirlUp, a United Nations Foundation campaign that “aims to unite girls to change the world,” per their website. Her first role was events coordinator, which put her in a unique position to connect with different corners of the Brandeis community.

Over the last two years of organizing events, first as events coordinator and now as the club’s president, she has worked with 50 to 60 clubs and over 50 professors on campus.

One of her most important GirlUp experiences came the spring of her first year when she helped plan a forum that asked “to what extent has Brandeis failed women and genderqueer people?”

“Hearing all the flaws in the system … made me realize that any bit I could do to help the system, I would like to do,” Tatuskar said, reflecting that the experience pushed her to join the Union next semester.

“I realized pretty early on, that I really respected the Union, and I liked the work that they were doing, and any part of it that I can be involved in, I was,” Tatuskar said.

For Tatuskar, that meant serving on five Senate committees in addition to her role as secretary. Recently, she has also served as the accessibility movement’s liaison with the University’s administration.

Reflecting on what drew her to the Health and Wellness Committee and then to working with the accessibility movement, Tatuskar attributed it to the fact that when she came to college, she was a pre-med student. “In realizing that there were health issues and safety issues … and accessibility issues on this campus, it really drew me to it, because that’s what I’ve been focused on for six years,” Tatuskar said.

Tatuskar went to a high school in New Jersey that specialized in biotechnology, which exposed her to a variety of complex biology classes and internships before even attending Brandeis. “My life

was science,” she said, adding that it felt “natural” for her to pursue science in college.

Yet, Tatuskar’s high school experience was also marked by her heavy involvement in debate competitions through the Junior State of America.

Being involved in competitive debate helped her realize she was also interested in law and policy.

“At a certain point [at Brandeis], I hit the realization that as much as I love science, it’s not my passion,” Tatuskar said. “And I think my passion really is being able to help people more on the policy side.”

in the world of law and policy.

“When I came to Brandeis, all the academic stuff I was going to let the professors teach me, but when it came to life, I didn’t want to learn that in a classroom,” Tatuskar said.

She said that she is able to tell that she “made the right call” double majoring in Philosophy and Business because she is “genuinely enjoying going to class.” She described the Union as “a good complement” to her new focus on policy.

Besides finding her passion for policy, Tatuskar’s time at Brandeis has also been defined by figuring out how to navigate different aspects of her identity as an Indian American woman.

Simran described how she feels that she “falls in this hazy in-between” at Brandeis, where she is “not Indian enough” for international Indian students while she is also clearly not white.

Tatuskar’s early experiences at Brandeis were also, she felt, defined by the attention she pays to her appearance. “When I first got to Brandeis, anytime I met someone, I was like, ‘Hi, SIMRAN TATUSKAR I’m Simran,’ and they’d be like, ‘Yeah, I know, I follow you on Thus, Tatuskar, who started Instagram,’” Tatuskar said, Brandeis as a pre-med Chemical adding later, “There have been Biology major with an Health: times where I feel like if I want Science, Society and Policy to be taken seriously, I can’t minor, is now a Philosophy and look the way I want to look.”

Business double major, with She described how she thinks a Legal Studies minor and a people viewed her as a “pretty potential minor in Chemistry. party girl,” saying, “There’s a She explained that she does not lot more to me than that, and want to entirely abandon her I’m happy that has finally been science experience, but rather expressed.” wants to draw on her science Tatuskar said that she has background as she gets involved experienced sexism and racism

“

A lot of people think that if you’re president of something that you can’t stay true to who you are. And that’s not true at all.

on the Brandeis campus, but that she learned from her high school debate team how to pick her battles. “Knowing when you can actually convince someone to change their perspective” is important to Tatuskar and a skill that she thinks will serve her well as president.

Tatuskar also sees her ability to stay true to her herself as something that will be important to her presidency.

“I feel like a lot of people think that if you’re president of something that you can’t stay true to who you are. And that’s not true at all,” Tatuskar said.

Things like including puns in the weekly emails she sends out as secretary make sure that her personality and voice are not lost, even as she interacts with the entire student body.

Even with all of her commitments on campus, Tatuskar makes time for herself, making sure she gets off campus and reads a book each week. “Do I have time for it? No. Do I make myself have time for it? Yes,” she said. As of Friday, she was reading the first Game of Thrones novel and “Crazy Rich Asians.”

Tatuskar has traveled widely in her life, moving around frequently in her childhood for her father’s work in pharmaceuticals. Experiencing different cultures across the world has taught Tatuskar how vast the world is and how insignificant individuals are.

“In the real world, whatever actions you take are very miniscule, unless you choose to make them impactful,” she reflected.

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THE JUSTICE ● FEATURES ● TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019

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Behind the scenes The TEDxBrandeisUniversity planning team is preparing for its annual event.

By HUINING XIA JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

On April 4, Brandeis will present its third TEDx event at the Shapiro Campus Center Theater. According to TEDxBrandeisUniversity’s website, “A TEDx event is a local gathering where live TED-like talks and videos previously recorded at TED conferences are shared with the community.

TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.” The content of all the TED talks will be different and independent of one another and will provide fresh perspectives on various topics.

In an effort to expand on different ways of thinking, this year’s theme is “past perspectives, future minds.” This year’s speakers include Abeer Pamuk M.A.’22, Ben Greene ’21, Nakul Srinivas ’21, Shaquan McDowell ’18 and R Matthews ’19.

Though most of the audience will only see the two-hour presentation on stage, the event has taken months to plan. Reika Oshima ’21, an organizer for the event, spoke to the Justice about the planning process. “We have a great team of 13 people working on it — social media director, artistic director, outreach coordinators, secretary, treasurer, two speaker coaches, me and my co-president, Vincent Dong ’20. Everyone in our team is really passionate about TEDx and sharing ideas of the Brandeis community, especially excited that we have so many speakers this year who are undergraduates and recent graduates,” Oshima said.

Oshima told the Justice how the team pinpointed the theme “past perspectives, future minds.”

First, they decided to use a video application to select the candidate speakers. Each prospective speaker sent the team a one-minute long video about their ideas and aspirations for the event.

Oshima was delighted to find out that so many undergraduates had applied to participate. In partic-

ular she felt “all our speakers point out perspectives that are old or that are very common. Our speakers, however, take those perspectives and turn it on their heads. We feel that these speakers represent the future way of thinking, a new way to view the world and ourselves.” She also explained to the Justice that “the most important part of the preparation is working with the speakers. We meet with them, in individual and group meetings...almost every week since January. Individual meetings are to work on script writing, rehearsing, and giving public speaking advice.

We feel it’s extremely important for the speakers to hear each other’s ideas and to inspire one another, and build a smaller sense of community within our speakers.”

TEDxBrandeisUniversity was first held on April 22, 2017. It was originally designed as a three-hour presentation, consisting of three Brandeis faculty members: Professor Andy Molinsky of the International Business School, Professor Chandler Rosenberger of the department of International and Global Studies And Florence Graves, resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center. One year later, the event took place again in 2018 on April 21, titled “Illuminations Within.” Among the speakers were two Brandeis students, Ethan Saal ’19 and Sierra Dakin Kuiper M.A. ’18 and two Brandeis alumni, Ryan Collins Ph.D. ’16 and Joel Burt-Miller ’16.

Storyteller Naya Stevens and entrepreneur Ami Kassar also spoke.

“TEDxBrandeisUniversity has grown so much, and we hope to continue growing and giving more and more students a platform to share their ideas worth sharing,” Oshima concluded, hoping the event will be successful.

—Editor’s Note: Nakul Srivinas ’21 is a Justice staff writer.

Design: Leah Samantha Chanen/the Justice, Sammy Park/the Justice; Ilustrations: Leah Samantha Chanen/the Justice; Photos Courtesy of TEDxBrandeisUniversity

10 TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019 ● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE

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Avraham Penso, Editor in Chief Natalia Wiater, Managing Editor Amber Miles, Senior Editor Jen Geller, Jocelyn Gould, Deputy Editors Nia Lyn, Eliana Padwa, Associate Editors Sam Stockbridge, News Editor Sammy Park, Features Editor Gabriel Frank, Forum Editor, Megan Geller, Sports Editor Maya Zanger-Nadis, Arts Editor Andrew Baxter, Photography Editor Morgan Mayback, Interim Layout Editor Liat Fischer and Devo Meyers, Ads Editors River Hayes, Copy Editor, Mia Rubinstein, Acting Copy Editor

EDITORIALS

Free laundry is a win for the Brandeis community

When the Department of Community Living posted housing lottery numbers, it advertised a plan to make laundry “free” starting next school year, based on the results of its SkyFactor survey.

On March 13, each student enrolled in the housing lottery received an email informing them that their number had been posted and that use of the laundry facilities would be free from Fall 2019 on, an initiative this board commends.

Paying for laundry on campus has been a hassle for many students. Often, campus card readers are broken, as students unplug them and plug them back in in an attempt to get free laundry cycles. This also poses a safety hazard and can lead to the machines catching on fire. Students often arrive at the laundry room assuming the machines are working only to discover that they are not. If this happens, they must either return to their dorm to get quarters — or, they must always keep quarters on them when they need to do their laundry. According to Managing Director of Auxiliary and Campus Card Services Gino Galutera in an interview with the Justice, the University will not require students to use cards or quarters to complete laundry washer or dryer cycles.

In addition to convenience, a “free” laundry system decreases the risk of fire due to students attempting to lower the cost of their laundry by unplugging and replugging in laundry machines. While

Reduces both risks and costs this practice lowers the price of laundry, it poses a serious fire hazard. If students are not forced to pay each time they do their laundry, the fire risk will decrease.

One remaining fire hazard, however, is students neglecting to take the lint out of the lint trap before starting a dry cycle.

According to an Oct. 25, 2019 email from Maira Pantoja, the North Quad Area Coordinator, there was a significant amount of smoke in the Cable Hall laundry room one night as a result of such neglect. Students were forced to evacuate the building as a result.

In order to make this initiative a reality, Galutera said that to his knowledge, laundry will be included in student room and board fees and only paid by students who live on campus, although the total effect this will have on room and board costs has not been determined.

Although this is a positive step for the Brandeis campus in terms of student convenience, this board encourages to the University to look at potential consequences of this free laundry initiative, including off-campus students washing their clothing on campus free of charge.

On the whole, the free laundry initiative is beneficial, and this board commends the University for taking the SkyFactor survey results seriously and acting quickly.

Speaking events need to prioritize students One of the wonderful things about going to a university like Brandeis is being able to hear intellectual leaders, change-makers and industry powerhouses speak about their work.

Clubs, organizations, institutes and departments all work to bring important individuals to campus so that members of the Brandeis community can learn directly from their personal experiences and scholarship. Recently, the University has hosted a wide range of influential speakers. This board commends the University departments, clubs and organizations that have worked to bring these influential speakers to Brandeis, providing students from all across campus with opportunities to learn directly from leaders in their fields.

Yet as important and interesting as these events are, they are often scheduled in ways that make them inaccessible to students.

Events are often timed around lunchtime, which is convenient for off-campus guests who attend these lectures and panels for a combination of a light lunch and intellectually stimulating conversation. However, this timing is incredibly inconvenient for Brandeis students.

Brandeis classes, especially those of humanities and social sciences, tend to cluster around the middle of the day, falling into a few key blocks of time.

Popular class times are 11 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. or 12:30 to 2 p.m., as well as onehour classes that take place sometime between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. These class times are favored by students who do not want to wake up for 9 a.m. classes, attend classes later in the day or have

Classes conflict with interests to work, but they directly conflict with a substantial number of the speaker events that are held on campus.

To compound this issue, events are often scheduled at times that do not align with common Brandeis class blocks. For instance, an event held from noon to 1:30 p.m. may seem like an ideal lunch event, but it conflicts with three of the different class blocks listed above. A similar dynamic occurs for events that start at 3 p.m., as 2 to 3:20 p.m. and 3:30 to 5 p.m. classes — or lab classes that fill the entire afternoon — are much more common than classes that start or end at 3 p.m., once again increasing the likelihood that classes conflict with events.

While classes will always conflict with events, it is possible to minimize conflicts by being aware of popular class times. When scheduling events, departments should consider these times, and work to find times that conflict with as few time blocks as possible. Putting events within popular class blocks has two advantages — it minimizes the number of blocks that they conflict with, and it also makes it easier for professors, should they choose and should the timing align, to bring their students to relevant events.

Additionally, few Brandeis classes occur after 5 p.m., making that a good start time for events.

We urge departments to consider and prioritize students when scheduling events, because we recognize how important and inspiring these events can be and we want to maximize their accessibility and benefit.

MARA KHAYTER/the Justice

Views the News on

On March 12, federal prosecutors released the names of dozens of celebrities and social media influencers who illegally arranged to have their children admitted to several elite colleges and universities. Many commentators have pointed to this scandal as evidence of a false meritocracy, and that college admissions is more of a pay-to-play system than one based on hard work. Do you think the college admissions system should be reformed, and how do you think this scandal reflects on college admissions as a whole?

Prof. Mari Fitzduff (Heller)

Fraudulent admissions set up problems for students, a university and society. Students who do not qualify on standards will find themselves at a huge disadvantage when trying to complete their course work — and may be tempted to use nefarious ways to conduct their assignments.

In addition, the capacity of a university to ensure intellectual and/ or professional quality will also be damaged if it becomes known that such admissions or assignment dishonesty (by students or faculty) has been detected as part of their work. Given the extra tuition benefits that accrue to those who are wealthier in our society, it is incumbent upon us all to ensure that the benefits of extra tuition and extra exam preparation skills, as well as first generation scholar schemes, should be made freely available to all of those whose capacity indicates that they, and society, will benefit from an opportunity and the resources for them to avail of third-level education.

Mari Fitzduff is a professor at the Heller School, specializing in peace process and public policy on diversity issues.

Prof. Susan Curnan (Heller)

Code-named “Operation Varsity Blues,” the biggest bribery scheme in college admissions prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice, exposes the simple, historic truth that money matters. Not right but no surprise either. This is an area where universities can, and must, do more to guard against any such measures that undermine fairness, transparency and integrity. Many of the defendants heading to court this week will promise action to improve audits of their admissions and athletic departments. That’s necessary but not sufficient. The scandal reflects a bigger, deeper problem in our society. As Justice Louis D. Brandeis wrote, “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” This particular scandal shines a light on the growing inequalities in this country and the misuse of wealth, power and privilege by parents of under-qualified students. Inequities in access, opportunity and outcomes in post-secondary education further deepens the social and economic divide among the haves and have-nots and has lifetime effects on quality of life. This kind of “rigging of the system” is, most of all, a terrible disservice to students — both those who get in through a “side door” but are not equipped to succeed, and those who were locked out, or had to struggle greatly to get in, due to inequities throughout our education system.

Susan Curnan is an associate professor at the Heller School and the director of the Center for Youth and Communities.

Prof. Theodore Johnson (Heller)

A reported false meritocracy in some college admission practices troubles me. It sends a message that entry into some elite colleges is evidence more of financial rather than intellectual capital. However, some wealthy families — concerned more about image and bragging rights — are spending large sums of money to bend the rules toward admitting their sons and daughters into certain choice institutions. As I looked through various mission statements of many top-rated U.S. Colleges and Universities, many have noble objectives such as: “mind enrichment,” “developing broad and critical thinking,” “intellectual transformation.” Loosely summarized, these fit neatly into an honorable and shared set of values with a moral center of learning and striving toward self and institutional improvement. But what values are taught in a practice of “pay to admit”? Good societies rely on a shared moral culture that rewards honesty, integrity and transparency. Years ago, as a TA, I was once asked to consider compromising those values and to reward a student with an undeserved grade simply because the parents were large contributors to the institution. I refused. Once that downward slope begins, there is no end. Such a compromising practice should never start by holding the line on honesty from the beginning — especially in the admission process. In that instance, universities will maintain the integrity which makes them attractive from the outset.

Theodore Johnson is an associate professor of the Practice at the Heller School, specializing in conflict resolution and coexistence studies.

Prof. Susan Eaton (Heller) The admissions scandal that dominated much of the news last week is not so much an exception but an extreme, but not terribly unsurprising, example of the way the wealthy and privileged have been able game the system of college admissions for decades. It is easy and perhaps even fun to cast judgement on these overly entitled celebrity families and then move on to the next juicy scandal. It is more difficult and more important to our democracy for us to use this scandal as an opportunity to precisely identify the tangle of rules, norms, structures and socially-constructed hierarchies that privilege the white, the wealthy, the famous, the connected and which permit, even encourage, them to hoard opportunities that are increasingly vital for economic stability and mobility in a highly stratified society. It is no secret that money, fame, connections and white identity confer great advantages in securing educational opportunity, whether this comes in the form of the fanciest, most exclusive private school money can buy or a mother making a big donation to her alma mater in the hope of getting her son in. The series of racial and class-related injustices that families face on the road toward college admissions has been documented time and time again by academic research, through journalism and within the lived experiences of so many young people who must struggle, scrimp and sacrifice to get into and get through college. It’s long past time to look beyond the celebrity scandal and call out the myth of meritocracy that’s allowed too many elected officials, educators and privileged families themselves to overlook these everyday injustices.

Susan Eaton is a professor of the Practice and the director of Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy atthe Heller School.

Photos: Susan Curnan,Theodore Johnson; the Justice

THE JUSTICE ● FORUM ● TUESDAY, MARCH 26 , 2019

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College admissions isn’t meritocratic, but it still matters

By VIOLET FEARON JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Here are some interesting statistics: according to NPR, the regular admission rate to Harvard University is 5.9 percent. If one of your parents went to Harvard, it’s nearly 34 percent. In 2017, one-third of incoming class members were children of alumni.

I don’t mean to pick on Harvard. This is merely one example of legacy admissions, the above-board, totally legal process of giving an admissions boost to children of alumni. Almost half of private universities in the United States consider legacy a factor in their admissions decisions, including Brandeis, and though it is far less common, some public universities also consider it.

Here’s something else that’s worthy of your attention: Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, was not a remarkable student in high school. In Daniel Golden’s 2006 book “The Price of Admission,” an official at his high school said: “There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard. His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to happen. Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted. It was a little bit disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought should really get in on the merits, and they did not.”

Kushner was not the child of alumni; he was something much better. His father donated $2.5 million to Harvard, thereby securing his son a spot. Students like the young Kushner are called “development cases,” a euphemism for institutionalized bribery benefitting the mega-rich. Again, it is not a practice unique to Harvard, and it is practiced at many elite universities. While exact numbers are hard to come by for most colleges, Dartmouth reported in 2014 that donations were a factor in 4 to 5 percent of applicants’ acceptances, on top of legacy admits. In the early 2000s, Duke reported that about 100 students were development cases.

This is not an article about abolishing legacy admissions or development cases. The argument for that is pretty straightforward and would take about four sentences: in an ideal world, personal accomplishments would matter more than your lineage or your family wealth. This is an article about how, despite all the evidence to the contrary, many Americans still seem to view elite college admissions as a meritocratic process, and our society as a whole still places a huge emphasis on university prestige.

Last week, a scandal broke: the Federal Bureau of Investigation charged dozens of wealthy parents for falsifying applications and

NIA LYN/the Justice

bribing admissions officials in order to get their children into elite universities, both private and public. The incident received a huge amount of news coverage, and widespread anger was directed at those involved.

Don’t get me wrong, this sort of corruption is mind-bogglingly unethical and pathetic. But the parents facing criminal charges are not facing prosecution because they used their wealth to rig the system in favor of their unremarkable children; rather, they went about rigging the system in an unusually direct way. Had people like Felicity Huffman provided funds to construct a new building on campus rather than resorting to bribing admissions officials, no one would’ve minded.

The shock over the FBI bust is important: it reveals that most Americans are still fundamentally unaware that the college admissions system is not meritocratic. It’s not about top colleges simply choosing the best and brightest of America’s youth. It’s a complex formula balancing merit with other factors: alumni donations, legacy, getting the right number of tennis stars and oboe players and, of course, celebrity status.

If this is the system we have, we’d be better off openly acknowledging it, rather than continuing to pretend that the college you attend is some kind of objective statement about your

accomplishments.

However, simply throwing your hands up and accepting that the college admissions system is unmeritocratic is a hard pill to swallow, and for good reason. Here’s another fact: every single Supreme Court Justice attended either Harvard or Yale Law School. Of the nine, only one attended a non Ivy League undergraduate school, and none attended a public university.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren remains the only tenured Harvard law professor to attend an American public law school. Try googling the educational histories of prominent judges, academics, investment bankers, journalists, politicians — even latenight comedy writers! You’ll find prestigious universities vastly overrepresented, far past the point where it could be argued that it is a natural result of meritocracy.

This is not just relevant to aspiring Supreme Court justices or Wall Street billionaires.

In the New York Times’ article “Six Myths About Choosing a College Major,” reporters analyzed data and came to the conclusion that when it comes to earning potential, college choice matters more than major choice: “the better the college, the better the professional network opportunities, through alumni, parents of classmates and eventually classmates themselves.”

This is the underlying issue: if university prestige weren’t such a potent agent of class division, perhaps the obvious injustices in the college admissions process — not to mention the many other barriers after admission, like paying for college — wouldn’t bother us so much.

I don’t mean to suggest that people from less elite universities can’t be wildly successful, or that going to an elite school is a guarantee of a great career. Life is much more complicated than that.

But college choice is far from inconsequential.

The benefits of attending an elite university are particularly pronounced for low-income students. When the Jared Kushners of the world enroll at these universities, they are taking a spot away from a more promising student for whom an elite education could have been lifechanging. The stakes are high.

In the wake of the FBI scandal, some have questioned the principles behind legacy and development practices, as well as other ways that money helps in the college admissions game, such as those raised by the New York Times’ article on the college consultant business.

But far fewer have approached the question from this angle: what if, in addition to trying to make the system fairer, we tried to make the system matter less? Unfortunately, dismantling America’s obsession with symbols of prestige will take much more than an FBI bust.

Searchable databases should be ubiquitous in ending illegal gun ownership

By JULIANNA SCIONTI JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Law enforcement recovered a stockpile of 15 firearms and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition from Coast Guard Lieutenant Christopher Hanson’s home on Feb. 15. He was allegedly planning a terrorist attack. We shouldn’t worry, though. According to Hanson’s attorney, his collection is “modest at best” in a country with an estimated 363 million guns.

His attorney’s statements distract from the real issue — Handson’s firearm and ammunition stockpile was not the reason law enforcement found him. There is no way for law enforcement to know if someone’s firearm collection is growing from “modest” to whatever amount is big enough to be concerning.

Ignore what television crime dramas show you; there is no digital database in the United States for law enforcement to search the serial number of a gun. The technology to do so has existed since 1982, but to this day, the data stored by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lacks this feature.

The ATF is a federal agency tasked with regulating violent crime and the firearm industry. They help both domestic and international law enforcement agencies by tracing the origins of firearms recovered in criminal investigations.

The 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act bars the ATF from establishing “any system of registration of firearms, firearm owners, or firearm transactions.” The bill was lobbied through a Democratic Congress by the National

Rifle Association. It passed due to this lobbying and the addition of the Hughes Amendment, which banned civilian ownership of automatic weapons produced after the passage of the bill.

Thanks to the 1986 bill, the ATF cannot legally have a database which connects guns with their owners. When law enforcement is looking to track the serial number of a gun found at a crime scene, that work is done manually by ATF staff.

They call manufacturers to track down who bought the gun. They also used to have to search through the ATF warehouse documents.

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Making ATF documents searchable is an issue of safety and efficiency, not politics.

In recent years, the ATF has begun to scan the documents from its warehouse. Digital copies of these documents sound like a database, but do not be mistaken. All of these digital files are “non-searchable”; ATF cannot use keywords to filter the information. This means they cannot sort the records by date, name, alphabetical order, serial number or other digital identifiers.

Instead of leafing through papers in a warehouse, ATF employees can stare at their computer screens clicking through PDFs until they find the serial number they need.

Fenway Park could be filled almost to capacity with the annual average of people killed by guns in the United States, 36,383. Over 100,000 Americans are injured by gun violence every year. Seventy-six percent of injuries are due to assaults. Plus, 44 percent of Americans say that they know someone who has been shot.

Given these statistics, the ATF should be one of the largest federal agencies, but it is crippled by legislative regulations and opposition from the NRA. Since the founding of the ATF in 1973, the NRA has used its extensive supply of money and power to keep the ATF too small to be meaningful. In 1978, the ATF attempted to get quarterly reports of sales from gun dealers.

The reporting requirement was ultimately killed with heavy lobbying from the NRA. In retaliation, the NRA also lobbied to cut the ATF’s budget by five million dollars and won.

That money was requested by the agency to update their computer system. The NRA has also been barrier between the ATF and a director for the agency.

President Trump has yet to nominate a director to the ATF. The agency has not had a director for nine of the last thirteen years.

Former ATF agent and president of the ATF Association told the New York Times, “Most people in law enforcement know why A.T.F. can’t get a director. It’s not because of the people. It’s because of the politics.” The ATF is the biggest threat to the NRA because with proper leadership and enforcement power, they would be able to curtail the firearm industry in the United States.

Making ATF documents searchable is an

issue of safety and efficiency, not politics. The ATF processed 408,000 trace requests in 2017.

Trace requests have been steadily increasing for all the years that the ATF has published statistics for. In 2015 the average trace request took four-to-seven business days. Although traces may not always solve a crime, they usually spark leads for law enforcement.

The loudest and most powerful critic of the ATF, the NRA, argues that allowing for the consolidation and sharing of information would lead to guns being taken away from law abiding citizens. There are no logical grounds for this argument. It is a fear driven narrative used by the NRA to mobilize their base. Even if the ATF were allowed to collect this data digitally, they still would not be able to share its statistics with states, cities, researchers or litigants thanks to the Tiahrt Amendments, which amended the 2003 appropriations bill for the agency. The amendments, it should not surprise you, came with support from the NRA. In reality, creating a searchable database would decrease human error and allow law enforcement and gun dealers to take preventative measures to stop gun violence.

This data can also help gun dealers recognize patterns in gun purchases used in crimes and adjust their merchandise accordingly. It could help law enforcement identify gun trafficking and people ammassing gun stockpiles.

Law enforcement, gun violence prevention groups and researchers should come together to lobby for change. Creating a sharable law enforcement database of ATF statistics is common sense.

The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.

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Editorial Assistants

Sports: Albert Gutierrez, Brian Inker, Zach Kaufman*, Ellie

News: Emily Blumenthal, Gilda Geist

Whisenant

Arts: Luke Liu

Arts: Addison Antonoff, Kent Dinlenc*, Evan Mahnken*, Ella

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Russell, Mendel Weintraub

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* denotes a senior staff member.

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TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Environmental deregulation is harmful to all Maddox

KAY GLOBAL WARNING Modern-day voters may have trouble believing that a Republican president signed the suite of environmental regulations that we rely on today into law. “Clean air, clean water, open spaces. These should be the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be,” declared President Richard Nixon in his January 1970 State of the Union address.

And act he did, by approving and funding the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. President Nixon approved the implementation of more stringent emissions standards with the Clean Air Act that same year, as well as regulations concerning watershed pollution with the Clean Water Act in 1972. Finally, among other bills, he signed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, which has since protected not only threatened animals but also the habitats they occupy.

These pieces of legislation are back in the news this week as the Trump administration puts pressure on the EPA to strip the Clean Water Act of considerable power and efficacy.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler introduced a comprehensively revised version of the “Waters of the United States” rule, limiting its scope, according to a March 20 CNN report.

The amended rule redefines the concept of the “Waters of the United States” to classify fewer small waterways as under federal regulation, according to a March 1 NPR article. This has the effect of limiting the Clean Water Act standards’ applicability and thereby rolling back stream and watershed protection. The proposed rule is open to public commentary until April 15, though what the EPA will do to address feedback is unclear.

The previous, more expansive definition of “Waters of the United States” was approved by the Obama administration in 2015. Brandeis Legal Studies department students may be familiar with it from the case of John Rapanos, a real estate developer who challenged the federal government’s jurisdiction to protect small waterways on his property.

The outcome of the case was unclear, and so the authors of the 2015 Clean Water rule sought to clarify the definition of, and in turn broadly protect, U.S. waterways. Since the EPA repealed the 2015 rule last August, the documents detailing it have been deleted from the EPA and the House of Representatives’ websites.

According to Ron Klataske, a rancher and head of the Kansas Audubon Society, who gave comment for the NPR story, the redefinition represents “the greatest rollback of conservation and protection of ecological resources that has occurred ever.” In

HARRISON PAEK/ the Justice

contrast, farmers and large agribusinesses are mostly enthusiastic about the proposal.

Administrators and legislators often struggle to strike a balance between environmental protection and economic concerns. However, it is curious that an EPA Administrator who has cited clean-water access as his number-one concern would move to decrease regulations on water pollution. (In his opinion, climate change is still 50-75 years out, but that is a topic for another column.)

“

In different ways, the 116th Congress and the American people have affirmed that environmental deregulation is not what they want.

Two years ago, I wrote about the Republicancontrolled Congress and President Donald Trump’s use of the Congressional Review Act

and the bicameral Republican majority to repeal Obama-era environmental legislation.

The news that the Trump administration is once again trying to dismantle decades of environmental reforms is unsurprising. This rollback is “necessary,” apparently, in order to reinstate a form of laissez-faire capitalism that creates far fewer winners than losers. Not only is economic (especially environmental) deregulation backwards, the administration’s moves are proving unlawful. According to a March 19 Washington Post article, federal courts have ruled against the administration at least 63 times. The administration has not acted within the letter or the spirit of the law when designing environmental policy.

In different ways, the 116th Congress and the American people have affirmed that environmental deregulation is not what they want.

Both houses of Congress voted to expand the Wilderness Act, according to a Feb. 26 National Geographic article. This move was significant because it affirmed a commitment to the conservation of specific natural areas.

“Communities across the country have never stopped caring about public lands,” applauded a conservationist in the article.

However, wilderness preservation alone is not enough to solve environmental issues.

As noted environmental historian William Cronon argued in his 1995 essay, “The

Trouble With Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” viewing environmental conservation solely as a matter protecting pristine wilderness ignores the fact that nature is everywhere. Conservationists view National Parks, monuments and other protected recreational areas as instrumental to fostering a successful environmental movement because their beauty inspires people’s enthusiasm for nature and thus, conservation.

However, according to Cronon, they also cause Americans to view nature as distinct from everyday life; a place only for recreation and not for work or day-to-day life. This is despite the fact that bacteria and pollution pay these boundaries no mind as they travel the earth.

While it is important to protect special areas, treating them as separate from the places we live and work lessens our awareness of the environment’s role in our everyday lives.

The Clean Air and Clean Water Acts are essential to the protection of this country’s environment because they apply everywhere and not just in a few designated areas. They regulate pollution that has far-reaching effects beyond the immediate area of emission.

Gutting them while ramping up protections for wilderness areas further removes us from nature and tells us that the quality of everyday life is not important.

Venezuela crisis should raise awareness of infrastructure collapse

By GABRIEL FRANK JUSTICE EDITOR

In the discussion that occurs within the United States over the tragic humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, recent talk has been about whether the United States will intervene militarily and overthrow the dictator Nicolas Maduro, whose reign has contributed more than anything to the widespread starvation, thirst and disease being most Venezuelans are experiencing. When considering the plight of the Venezuelan people, who have been deprived of many things people in bordering countries deem commonplace, an interesting scenario arises. One can ask, what would happen if the people in another country, say the United States, were deprived of this vital infrastructure?

For any person, a lack of basic life-sustaining necessities could make life significantly more difficult. Such a deprivation on a large scale is unlikely to occur in countries with stable democracies, but for the sake of argument, we can think of a scenario where, for a period of time, the U.S., an otherwise modern, industrialized nation, experiences an electricity blackout that extends from coast to coast. Over a period of a few days, refrigerated food begins to spoil and gas stations, unable to pump fuel, are unable to deliver to trucks and cars which quickly run out of gas, immobilizing millions. Hospitals are unable to power the life support systems many patients rely on and emergency response services experience difficulty communicating and responding to the chaos that would likely ensue after America is plunged into darkness. The country would then begin to strongly resemble Venezuela, with many Americans lacking in any basic necessities for long-term survival. Like the nation currently experiencing a famine and in drastic need of humanitarian aid, the United States too would be

plunged into a deadly predicament.

The above scenario seems like post-apocalyptic fiction. It is also possible for such a large-scale power outage and the subsequent chaos to occur.

A country’s electricity-related infrastructure, the U.S. in particular, is vulnerable to a number of threats, both natural and man-made. However, the United States has the ability and resources to prevent such an event from occuring and mitigate its effects if it does. To gain some insight into the nature of this threat, we need to contextualize it and understand where it originates from and how to best deal with it.

While life on earth would be impossible without it, the sun can wreak havoc on the electric grid, which is comprised of generation plants, transformers and thousands of miles of transmission lines.

The sun is constantly emitting massive bursts of energy from its outer layer called coronal-mass ejections, many of which collide with the earth and interact with its magnetic field to produce the beautiful aurora borealis, commonly referred to as the “northern lights.” Every 150 years or so, the sun emits a particularly large CME whose effects can spread across the globe, and whose magnitude can interfere with or even destroy many vital parts of the electricity grid, capable of producing the blackout described above. The last one of these events to occur happened in 1859, where British astronomer Richard Carrington observed several large black spots on the sun. Several days later, the auroras were so bright that miners in Colorado mistook the light for a sunrise and began to make breakfast. More importantly, the magnetic interference caused a large-scale disruption of telegraph lines to the point where it gave operators electric shocks and allowed those who switched their lines off to communicate without an outside source of electricity. Fortunately, for those living in the 19th century, there was no complex electricity grid to interfere with. No doubt, if such

an event happened today, it would have disastrous consequences, as a CME of this magnitude could very well cause a great deal of widespread destruction of infrastructure, causing the U.S. to resemble Venezuela in its current state. There is no doubt that this is a gloomy scenario, one which America, and by extension, all of humanity should seek to avoid.

Additionally, our electrical infrastructure is vulnerable to terrorism and foreign interference.

In the 21st century, if an adversary truly wished to deal crippling damage to an enemy, it would likely not even have to fire any bullets. In 2018, the Department of Homeland Security reported that Russian hackers digitally infiltrated American critical infrastructure systems including water treatment plants and nuclear power plants, and, while the hackers did not seek to do any damage, their probing of the system could set up a future attack. The battlefield of the future might not even be a physical place; enemies could simply inflict long lasting damage on both civilian and military populations though the sabotage of infrastructure.

Taking into account Venezuela’s current state, such a method of attack would be highly effective.

However, all is not doom and gloom. NASA, for one, takes the threat from the sun seriously, and has the DSCOVR and Parker Solar Probe satellites revolving around and continuously monitoring the sun, which could provide a warning in case of a catastrophic solar storm. With advance knowledge, precautions can be taken to protect key parts of the electric grid and other critical infrastructures. In terms of defending against attacks from foreign adversaries, deterrence, resilience and protection of critical infrastructure should be of the highest priority. If an adversary knew that the United States anticipates a sabotage of the electric grid as a declaration of war, the enemy would be far less inclined to act. Moreover, numerous parts of the electric grid can be protected or made to

The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.

recover easily from sabotage, with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developing and testing a system capable of restarting an electric grid that has been paralyzed by a foreign assailant, and numerous private sector companies investing in technology capable of protecting parts of critical infrastructure systems from magnetic interference. Exploiting and utilizing these technologies can do wonders to ensure the survivability of critical infrastructure systems nationwide.

In response to what appears to a lot be fearmongering above, one might ask, “I’m just one person, what say do I have in preventing this kind of scenario from occurring, and mitigating its impact if it does?” Individual citizens and communities, above all else, can take steps to ensure their survival in the event of a long-term collapse of critical infrastructure. Even something as simple as developing a civil defense plan for a small town or city or having a two-week supply of food and water and a transistor radio could do wonders in weathering out such a disaster.

One can contact a local representative or senator and encourage legislation that protects infrastructure and takes power outages into account. Currently, the Department of Homeland Security is developing a plan on a national scale that deals with responding to and developing protections from the effects of long-term power outages and damage to critical infrastructure.

Part of this plan involves communication with smaller communities and developing a greater culture of preparedness, which can only be done if a collective group of people choose to act as a community.

With the ideas of preparedness and resilience in mind, we cannot only assist countries such as Venezuela who are being impacted by the effects of economic collapse and infrastructure failure, but prevent them from affecting our own lives.

THE JUSTICE ● SPORTS ● TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019

TRACK: Judges finish 2019 indoor season at championship CONTINUED FROM 16 in the 3000 meter. In the 4x400 relay, Leinni Valdez ’21, Lisbeth Valdez ’21, Doyin Ogundiran ’19 and Hiltunen, finished third with a time of 4:02.01. Seniors Julia Bryson, Maya Bliss, Emily Bryson, and Ogundiran had reason to celebrate as they claimed gold with a 12:08.81 run.

As the Judges gear up for the 2019 outdoor season, these are the competitors to keep an eye on as we anticipate a similarly successful season.

In an interview with the Justice, Guerra explained, "There are so many people who make up the

13

FIERY FOCUS

success of this team. Through the Bryson sisters setting the bar for excellence, Meaghan Barry being a source of guidance, Andrea Bolduc, Danielle Berteaux and Niamh Kenney helping the rookies navigate through freshman year, to first years Erika Karlin and Natalie Hattan being superstar fans despite being injured." In addition, Guerra elaborated, "I'm very excited for outdoor track, because I believe that I was able to build a lot of confidence this season, as well as [during] cross country. I no longer feel like I'm new to this program and to collegiate running, so I'd like to start finding what barriers I can surpass with my running."

Want to be more than just a spectator?

Write for Sports!

Contact Megan Geller at sports@thejustice.org

NATALIA WIATER/Justice File Photo

SCORE: Brandeis' Scottie Todd '20 is up at bat and ready to run in a game against Suffolk College on March 14, 2018.

SOFTBALL: Team looks to continue eight-game streak CONTINUED FROM 16 strong innings of work. She fanned one and allowed just four hits.

Judges 9, Sharks 6 The weather could not hold back the Judges as Brandeis moved its game to Simmons College, but still came out on top in dramatic fashion.

In game one of the double header against Simmons College, the Judges won in walk off fashion after a long nine innings. The Judges fell behind 9–7 in the ninth inning on a homer in the top half of the ninth, but the Judges got those runs back quick.

Fujita kicked off the inning with a triple that brought the Judges within two. Todd singled between first and second to plate Fujita. Marley Felder ’22 then belted a homer to notch the victory, the first of her career.

Besides Felder’s monster shot, the

offense was led by shortstop Fujita who went 3–5, with four runs batted in and a homer shy of the cycle. Todd earned her fourth win of the year by pitching six innings in relief. She allowed seven hits and three earned runs, two strikeouts and no walks.

Judges 11, Sharks 9 Game two of the doubleheader was another strong come from behind win, but in less dramatic fashion.

The Judges took the lead early with a single by Todd that played the first run of the game.

Following a few errors from the Judges, the Sharks were able to answer back and take a two run lead in the third inning. The Judges responded by getting three runs on their own in the bottom half of the third. Felder doubled home a pair of runs. A sacrifice fly by Ross put the Judges ahead 4-3, and a single by rookie hurler Goldman made it 5–3.

After Todd and Fujita hit a pair of doubles, the game opened up 7–3.

The Sharks tried rallying back in the fourth when they scored on a hit after a pair of walks to make it 7–4.

However, Briana Ureña ’20 drove in another run to make it 9–4.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Sharks had a rally going after four walks by Goldman, but the hurler was able to work out of it and strand the runners and leave the game 9–6.

The offense was led by Fujita, Todd and Felder who went 8–11 and drove in four runs. Goldman notched her fourth win and allowed eight hits and three earned runs in seven innings of work.

The Brandeis softball team improved to 8–0 this year, a record it has never seen before, according to Brandeis Athletics. The team will try to continue its hot streak on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at home against Suffolk University.

TRON: Fun-filled and competitive atmosphere surrounding TRON CONTINUED FROM 16 marker in order to get them out. When your target is eliminated, you get your victim’s target. This game has a twist; each day there is a “safety.” This can vary from being untouchable when holding a banana to your ear like a phone to flossing your teeth or singing at the top of your lungs. This is a way for the team to bond and welcome new first years to the team.

Ultimate frisbee is a game in which seven players on the field try to score

more goals than the opposing team. A goal is counted if the frisbee is thrown from one teammate to another who is standing in the opposing team's end zone. Running with the disk and stalling, holding the frisbee for more than 10 seconds, result in the frisbee being turned over to the opposing team.

For a Division III team playing Division I opponents, TRON truly had a successful run in this year's tournament in Virginia Beach, a team favorite event of the season. The team got off to a slow start against the University of

Westchester, but secured the win in the end. The team defeated Princeton University in 25-mile-per-hour winds in the semifinal round.

In the final round the team facing Liberty University and experianced injuries, a game which ended in a struggle for both sides. In an interview with the Justice, Andrew Marshall ’21 explained, “The game itself was tight, with many long points due to the strong wind. After getting scored on multiple points in a row twice in the first half, we were able to rebound both times,

scoring three or four points in a row.

Our second comeback ended when we took half, which happens when a team reaches seven points. This was a big deal, as Liberty agreed to play to eight, due to a really long first half.” This decision required the Judges to score the next points in order to win the tournament. However, both teams put up a fight for the last points, knowing that acquiring them would result in winning the tournament. Because their opponents played the same individuals for most of the game, a victory for the

Judges looked promising; however, with a disk turnover and some short passes, the game ultimately resulted in defeat. Marshall explained the loss saying, “falling just short means TRON has unfinished business to take care of in later tournaments.” However the season is not over yet.

All in all, the team looks forward to more matches and practices in the rest of the season. The players look at every practice as an opportunity to hang out with friends and play the sport that brought them together.

Everyone has a story.

Help us find it.

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Contact Sammy Park at features@thejustice.org for more information.

Illustration by MORGAN MAYBACK/the JUSTICE; Photos by ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice, ADAM PANN/the Justice, CLEMENTS PARK/the Justice, MORGAN BRILL/the Justice; NADIA ALAWA, IRA BORNSTEIN, CREATIVE COMMONS.

! s t r A r o f e t i r W

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Illustration by MORGAN MAYBACK/the Justice; Photos by YVETTE SEI/the Justice, CHELSEA MADERA/the Justice, NATALIA WIATER/the Justice, ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice, HEATHER SCHILLER/the Justice, SARAH KATZ/the Justice.

THE JUSTICE

● SPORTS ●

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019

15

BASEBALL

JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS BASEBALL TEAM STATS

UAA STANDINGS

Runs Batted In

UAA Conference

WashU

NYU Case JUDGES Emory

W 0 0 0 0 0

L 0 0 0 0 0

W 12 10 12 8 7

Overall L Pct. 3 .781 3 .769 6 .667 4 .667 9 .438

UPCOMING GAMES: March 26 at Amherst College March 29 at Emory University

Dan Frey ’21 leads the team with 19 runs batted in.

Player RBI Dan Frey 19 Luke Hall 17 Mike Khoury 16 Alex Parrott 13

Innings Pitched Greg Tobin ’21 leads all pitchers with 7.0 innings pitched.

Player IP Greg Tobin 19.2 Albert Gutierrez 14.0 Marc Maestri 14.0 Mason Newman 10.2

SOFTBALL UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Runs Batted In

UAA Conference

W L W JUDGES 0 0 8 Emory 0 0 12 NYU 0 0 7 Case 0 0 9 WashU 0 0 7 Carnegie 0 0 4

Overall L Pct. 0 1.000 4 .750 3 .700 5 .643 7 .500 6 .400

UPCOMING GAMES: March 26 vs. Suffolk University March 29 at Washington University

Scottie Todd ’20 has a teamhigh with 5 runs batted in.

Player RBI Scottie Todd 5 Marley Felder 5 Keri Lehtonen 5 Jolie Fujita 4

Innings Pitched Sydney Goldman ’22 has a team-high with 9 innings pitched.

Player Ks Sydney Goldman 25.0 Scottie Todd 22.0 Amidori Anderson 7.0

TRACK AND FIELD Results from the UAA championships on Feb. 23.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s) 200-meter dash

RUNNER Regan Charie Lorenzo Maddox Jamie O’Neil

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s) TIME 22.64 23.43 23.87

200-meter dash

RUNNER TIME Devin Hiltunen 26.33 Anna Touituo 27.43 Kanya Brown 27.76

March 30 at Snowflake Classic April 6 at Amherst Invitational

TENNIS Results from the meet on Mar. 23.

TOP PERFORMERS (Men’s) RECORD 6–1, 6–2

MEN’S DOUBLES Cheng/Tzeng

RECORD 8–3

UPCOMING MEETS:

Baseball team loses two games this week ■ The Judges meet up and are defeated by the Salem State Vikings and Suffolk College Rams.

By ZACH KAUFMAN JUSTICE SENIOR STAFF

The Brandeis baseball team has lost two of its three games over the past week of play. On Thursday, the team lost at home to Suffolk University, and on Saturday, the squad split a doubleheader with Salem State University. Here’s the breakdown for each of these contests explained by Brandeis Athletics.

UPCOMING MEETS:

MEN’S SINGLES David Aizenberg

YURAN SHI/the Justice

SWINGING INTO ACTION: Brandeis’ Isaac Fossas ’21 is up at bat in a game against Suffolk College on Thursday.

TOP PERFORMERS (Women’s) WOMEN’S SINGLES RECORD Ana Hatfield 6–2, 6–2 WOMEN’S DOUBLES RECORD Leavitt/Bertsch 8–0

Men: Wednesday vs Babson College Women: Friday vs Babson College

Judges 11, Vikings 7 Luke Hall ’21 drove in six runs on Saturday to help the Judges overcome two straight losses, including one earlier in the day. Isaac Fossas ’21 helped the Judges strike first, getting the first run in on his sacrifice fly.

Hall followed that up with a single to right to score another, putting Brandeis up two after inning one. In the third inning with a runner-on, shortstop Mike Khoury ’21 knocked in the run with a run-batted-in double. Hall followed this up with two more RBIs of his own, putting the Judges up a commanding five early.

Salem State attempted to get back in

the game, loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the third. One runner scored on an RBI single, but an overeager Salem State baserunner was gunned down at the plate trying to score on the same play. Following this defensive effort, Cam Roberts ’22 held his ground, retiring the last two batters he faced, limiting Salem to just the one run on the inning. In the fourth, Brandeis added four more runs to their lead, two of them batted in again by Hall. In the bottom half of the fifth, Salem State made some noise with a two-run homer, but Brandeis equaled those runs in the top half of the sixth, including another RBI by Hall. With an 11–3 lead going into the final frame, the Judges were looking to retire the side and go home, but after a little more excitement than they were hoping for, the team ended up victorious by a score of 11–7.

Judges 4, Vikings 11 The first game of the doubleheader was not so pretty for the Judges.

Salem State broke the ice by putting up one run in the bottom half of the first. Brandeis responded with a run of its own in the next half inning, but that was the beginning of the end for the Judges. Salem broke open the game in the next half inning, scoring four runs including three unearned off sloppy errors by Brandeis. A Fossas RBI brought the score to 5–2,

but the Vikings added two more in the bottom of that inning. Brandeis scored two more runs off of errors from Salem State, but it was not enough, and the team eventually lost 11–4.

Judges 3, Rams 7 Brandeis scored their three runs early in the contest. Fossas singled home the first run of the game in the bottom half of the first inning. Scott Zeigler ’21 followed this up with an RBI double in the second. Their third run would come on a wild pitch later that inning. Suffolk scored single runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings, two of those coming without a hit in the inning. In the top of the seventh, with the score tied at four, Suffolk broke it open, scoring four runs to put the game out of reach.

After a successful start to their season, this was a rough week for Brandeis baseball. While their ability to come together as a team is admirable, this week’s games proved they still have some kinks to work out. Thursday’s game shows the Judges have had some trouble defending their home turf. Saturday’s split shows that when the Judges are the first to score, it usually pays off, so they should not rely on their opponents to swing first. Catch the Judges next when they take on Springfield on today at 3:30 p.m.

PRO SPORTS BRIEF

Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki finishes a magnificent Major League Baseball career in Japan Baseball legend and Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki formally retired after a 27-year professional baseball career, following the Mariner’s win over the Oakland Athletics in a game played Thursday at the Tokyo Dome in his native Japan as stated by Mike Chiari in the Bleacher Report.

Suzuki, who was most often identified simply by his first name, Ichiro, and whose uniform was labeled with his first name, began his remarkable professional career in his native Japan. As reported in a Baseball Reference article, Ichiro is a 5’11”, 185-pound, right-handthrowing, left-hand-batting right fielder. He played his first nine professional seasons, beginning in 1992 at age 18, with the Orix Blue Wave

of the Japan Pacific League. Over his career in Japan, Ichiro earned a .353 cumulative batting average, playing in 951 games with 1278 hits and 529 RBIs. According to Gritdaily, Ichiro became a young superstar in his Japanese career, winning three straight Pacific League MVP awards and seven Golden Gloves.

In 2000, Ichiro was recruited by the Seattle Mariners where he began his Major League Baseball career. As referenced in Baseball Reference, from 2001 through the 2018 season, Ichiro played 19 years of MLB in the United States, mostly with the Seattle Mariners, with whom he re-signed for the 2019 season and from whom he fittingly retired. His outstanding career statistics include playing in 2651 games, posting a cumulative

0.311 batting average, hitting 3089 singles, 362 doubles, 96 triples and 111 home runs, as well as stealing 509 bases, reflecting his great speed.

Ichiro played in ten MLB All-Star games and won countless baseball awards, including the 2001 MLB MVP award, AL Rookie of the Year, ten Gold Gloves and three Silver Slugger awards. His extreme durability and physical strength were demonstrated by his having played in all 162 regular season games in 2005, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Ichiro’s dominance as a baseball player was no accident. From his earliest days, his father worked to ensure Ichiro’s athletic success. As recounted in Notable Biographies, Ichiro, meaning “first boy,” got his name despite being the second

son born to the family. His father, Nobuyuki, correctly believed that Ichiro possessed natural talent for baseball, and the young Ichiro began practicing at age three in his backyard with a tiny bat and ball.

In elementary school, Nobuyuki, a former high school baseball player, put Ichiro through four hours of batting drills each day. Despite the time spent on his baseball training, Ichiro also excelled in high school.

Ichiro married Yumiko Fukushima in 1999 in California according to Players Wiki. The couple does not as yet have children but they do have a pet dog named Ikkyu. Ichiro is generous in helping people in need, having donated $1.25 million in 2011 to the Japanese Red Cross to help tsunami and earthquake victims. He

is an honored chairman of the Ichiro Cup, a six-month boys baseball tournament composed of over 200 teams in Japan. Since 1996, the game has been held held in his hometown and he attends every championship game and awards ceremony.

The career and life of Ichiro Suzuki can teach us that the path to success is not really a secret. As stated by the legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi, “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the task at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” Ichiro’s life personifies this philosophy.

—Megan Geller

just Sports Page 16

ICHIRO FINISHES CAREER IN JAPAN Ichiro Suzuki finishes a magificent MLB career in Japan after 27 years, p. 15.

SOFTBALL

WE’RE SOARIN’, FLYIN’

After eight wins, Judges continue an undefeated season ■ The Judge’s winning streak

continues after defeating the Lions of Eastern Nazarene and the Sharks of Simmons.

By ALBERT GUTIERREZ JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The Brandeis softball team continues its dominant year as they win four more games, improving to 8–0 overall for the first time in program history.

Judges 8, Lions 1 The Judges improved to 5 – 0 as they defeated Eastern Nazarene College by a score of 8–1. In the first game of the doubleheader on Marcus Field, offense took over as the Judges scored eight runs. ENC scored first in the top half of the first by singling home a run, but were unable to do any more. The Judges responded as a single and an error put them ahead 2–1, but it would not end there. They tacked on two more runs in the third inning through a run batted in double by Keri Lehtonen ’19 and a single by Prue Ross ’20. In the fifth inning, the Judges belted their first homers

Waltham, Mass.

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

of the day as Scottie Todd ’20 hit the third homer of her career while Melissa Rothenberg ’21 hit her first.

Todd added another RBI in the sixth with a single.

Todd earned the win in game one going seven strong innings, allowing five hits and one run and striking out eight. She also only walked one. She improved to 3–0 on the year.

Judges 9, Lions 1 In game two of the doubleheader, it was a similar story as ENC scored first in the contest on a sacrifice fly, but kept silent the remainder of the game. The Judges kept quiet until the fourth inning when Ross doubled home Marissa Del Laurentis ‘19 to tie the game at one.

Rookie pitcher Sydney Goldman ’22 singled home Ross to take the lead and help her cause on the mound. A sacrifice fly in the fifth inning made it 3–1 and Goldman then hit her first career homer to make it 5–1. The Judges scored four more runs in the sixth as Jolie Fujita ’21 hit her first career homer and a game ending double by Rothenberg.

On the mound, Goldman earned her third win of the season in six

See SOFTBALL, 13

☛

TRACK AND FIELD

Recap: UAA Indoor Championship ■ 2019 indoor season has

had many successes for both men’s and women’s teams.

By ELLIE WHISENANT JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

As the new outdoor track and field season approaches, let’s take a look back on how the Judges finished their 2019 indoor season.

For the men’s team, the first years dominated the indoor University Athletic Association Championships.

Dion MorrisEvans ’22 carried the team in the 60-meter hurdles, coming in fourth place with a time of 8.71.

Jack Allan ’21 was right behind him in fifth place, with a time only .03 seconds slower. In the 4x400 relay, first-years Aaron Portman, Jamie O’Neil and Morris-Evans ran three of the four legs. Portman shot out of the gate followed by rookies O’Neil and Morris-Evans, while Churchill Perry ’20, brought up the rear. They finished sixth place with a time of 3:27.37, only one second behind Case Western.

Senior Scott Grote ’19 ended his final indoor season successfully, placing sixth in shot put with a final distance of 12.72 meters and claiming the bronze in weight throw with a distance of 14.84 meters. Charlie Regan ’19 was equally successful, winning the bronze with a time of 7.11 seconds in the 60 meter dash and coming in

fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.80 seconds. Perry, after four attempts and one foul, went on to place fourth in the triple jump, narrowly missing third place with a jump of 13.78 meters.

The men’s track and field team finished fourth out of seven with a score of 55, only five points ahead of New York University and Case Western Reserve University.

The women’s team also finished fourth overall with 67 points, narrowly beating out Case Western, which finished with 66 points.

Rookies Devin Hiltunen ’22 and Sonali Anderson ’22 both finished out their first indoor season strong. Hiltunen came in fifth place in the 200-meter dash and eighth in the 400 meters with times 26.35 seconds — only nine one hundredths of a second slower than fourth place — and 1:00.69, respectively.

In the 60-meter hurdles, Anderson finished sixth with a time of 9.34 seconds.

In the mile, the Judges had a clean sweep, claiming first, second and third places. Jac Guerra ’22 took third with a time of 5:06.61, barely missing the silver, which was claimed by senior Julia Bryson ’19 with a time of 5:06.19.

Emily Bryson ’19 swept in with the gold, running a 5:02.74 mile.

Overall, the women dominated the distance races. Bryson took first place with a time of 9:48.13

See TRACK AND FIELD, 13

☛

ANDREW BAXTER/The Justice

AIRBORNE: Brandeis player catches the frisbee mid-air during an insence ultimate frisbee game this weekend.

TRON seeks to compete at national level after successful season ■ TRON is a fun-filled and

competative activity for many students on campus.

By MEGAN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis men’s ultimate frisbee team — known commonly around campus as TRON — has two primary goals. The first is to be a close-knit and fun escape that promotes a team atmosphere. The second goal is to have a competitive and intense environment for those who desire it. This team advertises that it welcomes all skill levels allowing improvement in technique.

“A-side” team members go on a trip to Virginia Beach,where the team participates in the Oak Street Challenge tournament, practices, reviews footage of plays and just hangs out together. All in all, the team hopes to become

competitive enough to compete at a national level.

The team works hard to achieve unity as a group on the field and as a family. The team gives each member nicknames. TRON nicknames are a secret tradition that binds the team together.

In an interview with the Justice, Micah Alexander ’22 remarked, “While our work on the field does help us achieve unity, it’s the work off the field that really solidifies it. Beyond just playing the same sport, TRON is a community, a true brotherhood, that gives full support to each one of its members with absolutely anything.

Our unity on the field comes from the fact that we all trust each other, not just with the disc, but to be there for anything.” Although it is a large team divided between the more and less competitive groups, the team is still unified as one large family.

The team’s ultimate goal, deter-

mined at a TRON A-side meeting, is to make it to nationals this year. ll members who attended the meeting voted unanimously for this goal. In an interview with the Justice, Nick Simonetti ’22 explained, “We hope to strengthen our team chemistry by encouraging each other through intense competition on the field with the overall goal to compete at the highest level at nationals.”

Additionally, every fall semester the team has a tradition of playing its annual game of assasins with the women’s ultimate frisbee team, Banshee.

Each member of the teams retreat from class to the corner of the library in order to avoid being assasinated in the game. This game is a fun bonding event to strengthen the relationship between the teams. The rules are simple; everyone has a secret target and must mark that person's skin with a

See TRON, 13

☛

Vol. LXIX #21

March 26, 2019

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ARTS

Waltham, MA.

Images: Clara Alexander/the Justice. Design: Sarah Katz/the Justice.

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TUESDAY, THE JUSTICE MARCH |26, ARTS 2019 | TUESDAY, I ARTS I JANUARY THE JUSTICE 31, 2017

FILM REVIEW

Not Too Marvel-ous

By KENT DINLENC JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Image Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

FIRST OF THE UNIVERSE: Starring in the Marvel Studio’s first female-lead superhero film, Brie Larson’s performance was well-received.

The latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was released last week to roaring box office success.

“Captain Marvel” follows the story of a young warrior from an alien planet suffering from amnesia — she can’t remember anything before five years ago. When a mission takes her to Earth in 1995, she must combat invading shapeshifters, called Skrulls, and stop them from acquiring a massive light speed generator.

Now you might think, “that synopsis sounds like nonsense!” — as they usually do for all MCU films. I cut these films a lot of slack because the MCU is an ambitious feat that should be praised for its efforts, but it’s not high art. However, Captain Marvel fell flat for me.

There wasn’t much signature charm brought by the lead actor — like a Robert Downey, Jr. or a Chris Hemsworth.

Don’t get me wrong, Brie Larson was good in the movie.

She has good comedic timing and great chemistry with almost everyone on screen.

However, a lot of this movie’s criticism revolves around her and the controversy surrounding her feminist

remarks. The controversy in and of itself is ludicrous.

If you’re not aware, Larson made comments on how a majority of film criticism for the highest grossing movies comes from white men and she demanded more representation in the community.

This statement not only condescends and stereotypes the critics who still laud diverse films, but also gives radicals online a reason to boycott the film or intentionally review it negatively, thus proving her point. Now I’m here to tell you that the film is bad, but for legitimate reasons involving the filmmaking.

Captain Marvel may be the fastest-paced film in the MCU, and I don’t mean this in a good way. The movie jumps back and forth between characters whose names I don’t even know. Who were her friends traveling halfway across the galaxy to reach her? Thanks to Samuel L. Jackson’s appearances in eight previous installments and the title of the movie, I can give you the names of two characters.

The rest are a mystery to me.

The first fifteen minutes are incomprehensible and boring. It’s full of the Marvel tropes that we always look over as being bad, but at least there’s a build up to it. One example is “fight-sposition,” where a mentor delivers

heavy-handed exposition while fighting or training.

This happens in the opening scene, and this start does not inspire optimism. How about the trope where the hero gets back up dramatically after being knocked down? The directors intercut six shots of her at different ages standing up in the climax. This is the blunt display of her overpowering strength that was inside her the entire time. You even see that edit in the trailer, and even then I rolled my eyes at how uninspiring it was.

Also, if we’re to believe that everything she remembers is just from the past five years on an alien planet, then how come she assimilates so well on Earth? There are absolutely no fish-out-of-water elements in this film. At least Wonder Woman got that right and made it amusing, while all Captain Marvel did was ask for directions to a RadioShack. She was unphased by all other interactions with people and technology.

This film feels like there were outsider filmmakers trying to replicate the cookie-cutter Marvel formula.

If you’re going to stick to the standard format and have little creative input, at least commit to it and do it right. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who are mostly known for the 2006

indie film Half Nelson, were given the responsibility of kicking off the next phase of the MCU after Avengers: Endgame. Maybe producer Kevin Feige wanted to replicate the success of the Russo Brothers with another duo of directors helming a film about an original Avenger who is also a captain with the help of Nick Fury.

I have very few good things to say about this film. It mostly concerns the acting. Ben Mendelsohn is an intriguing villain with good motivations (too bad I can’t remember his name). I could do my research and look it up for this review, but that would just undercut my point that I actually need to do that.

Annette Bening is always great, but she was wasted on this script. Larson and Jackson had great chemistry in the portion of the movie that was a buddy-cop film.

Once again, the politicization of popular movies has proven that we can’t have nice things and just watch a fun movie. Captain Marvel hits all the Marvel beats, but that isn’t hard: undercut a dramatic moment with a joke here, throw in an Easter Egg there and mixix in serviceable special effects. This is a Marvel film in a nutshell. This is definitely one of the worst films of the pack. I give it a C-.

CULTURE SHOW

Shades of Blackness brings audience to its feet

By ELLIE WHISENANT JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend Brandeis Black Student Organization’s second “Shade of Blackness” event, which was held in the International Cultural Center. As I come from a predominantly white and rural town, it was an amazing chance to see this event.

The topic of this year was the “Black Effect,” or as stated in the advertisement, the “influence that Black students have [on] Brandeis.”

The event featured several different mediums of student art, including song, poetry and dance.

Each performance explored topics that are personal to the artists in hopes of creating an open dialogue about what it means to be Black at Brandeis. However, what makes this showcase so exceptional and effective is that it goes further than simply being a series of performances. The artists used their works to not only connect with the audience through shared experiences, but also to interact and include them in the dialogue.

The executive board of the BBSO, who organized the showcase, began by introducing themselves and then asked the audience to do the same by shouting out where they’re from. This lasted a few minutes as everyone tried to out-yell their friends to prove their city was the superior. This showed the diversity of the audience, with people from Atlanta, New York City and even one woman from Cairo, Egypt attending “Shade of Blackness.”

Before the intermission, the au-

dience was asked to take part in an impromptu fashion show. The host invited anybody who felt “that they look good tonight” up to the front.

The audience would then vote for their favorite by yelling out compliments and clapping the loudest.

The prize was being first in line for food that would be provided during intermission, which was more of a dinner than a break in performances. The showcase continued with more singing and poetry, followed by amazing dancing.

The A-lister of the night had to be Trizzy Tré, or Tré Warner ’22, a well-known rapper on campus.

His songs were like a form of confessional poetry. Though there was no microphone, he performed with such incredible enthusiasm and energy that the entire audience easily heard him. He tackled subjects like poverty and being Black at a school with a large majority of white students. His songs got the audience to their feet as they took part in the performance by singing the chorus in a call-and-response style. Trizzy Tré will also be opening for this year’s Springfest.

The event was an incredible display of honesty and empowerment.

It was a conversation between artist and audience where breaking the fourth wall was encouraged.

The atmosphere was electric and the audience could barely sit still with each performance that celebrated individuality. “Shades of Black: Black Effect” provided supporters of the BBSO the opportunity to relate to common experiences and promote solidarity.

CLARA ALEXANDER/the Justice

CONNECT WITH THE CROWD: The performers and organizers work hard to interact with the audiances.

CLARA ALEXANDER/the Justice

STARTING A CONVERSATION: Many performances were presented, many were related to the performers’ personal experience.

Design: Morgan Mayback/the Justice

THE JUSTICE I ARTS I TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019

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LIQUID LATEX

EveryBODY loved Liquid Latex 2019

By NIA LYN JUSTICE EDITOR

Brandeis Liquid Latex held its 19th annual celebration of body positivity last Tuesday. This year’s event “Thank u, Latex” took inspiration from Ariana Grande’s hit song “thank u, next,” and each performance was an homage to pop culture.

The first act of the night,“It’s Latex, Bitch,” was an amazing opener. The choreography and costume design — thanks to Ricki Levitus ’20 — were impressive, and it felt like attending an actual Britney Spears concert. With each routine, the audience experienced a blast from the past as the dancers portrayed different eras of Britney Spears’ career. My personal favorite was Sara Getzoff’s ’21 performance of 2007 Britney — umbrella in hand.

The second dance sequence was “Planetarium Expedition,” featuring songs like “Space Jam” by Quad City DJ’s and “Alien” by Katy Perry. Designed by Gemma Curnin ’19 and choreographed by Haley Director ’20, the performance featured cosmic costumes that were truly out of this world. Just like the celestial bodies this performance was based on, each individual’s different design and personality contributed to making it the hit that it was.

Then, Brandeis met Broadway during “Latex the Musical,” which took inspira-

tion from some of the most popular Broadway musicals to grace the stage. Designed

by Darcy Howell ’21 and choreographed by Meghana Reddy ’21, it featured students dancing to songs from classic musicals like “Wicked,” “Hamilton” and “The Lion King,” impressing everyone in the audience. Even someone as unfamiliar with Broadway as myself could appreciate the work that went into this performance and instantly recognize the characters that were portrayed.

Following the Broadway tribute was “Kitt’s Angels,” a moving celebration of the work of Eartha Kitt. Using a mix of spoken word and song, the performers demonstrated the importance of, in Kitt’s words, “falling in love with yourself and sharing that love with someone who appreciates you.” This work was designed by Al Colon ’21 and choreographed by Colon and Lissa Sangree-Calabrese ’21. The graceful movements displayed really conveyed the emotion behind Kitt’s words and “Kitt’s Angels” was a successful tribute to a Black female icon.

The last act before intermission was titled “Mt. Ωlympus,” designed by Samantha Jean ’19 and choreographed by both Aviva Davis ’21 and Andie Watson ’21. It started off with extremely high energy as each performer commanded the stage, each representing a figure from Greek mythology.

Dancing to the song “Bossy” by Kelis, there was no better choice to set the mood. The

performance ended with “God is a woman”

by Ariana Grande, and was a great way to get the audience excited for the acts to follow intermission.

After the intermission, students were reintroduced to the lively world of Liquid Latex. The performance to reconvene the show was titled “It’s Good to be Bad” and was designed and choreographed by Rebecca Kahn ’19, the president of Liquid Latex. The routine channeled the inner Disney villain within all of us and the theme was highlighted by the great costume design, choreography and stage presence of the students. The group even danced to “King’s Dead” by Kendrick Lamar, a comedic nod to the villainous theme, and ended with Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation,” reminding us that one can enjoy being bad.

The next act, titled “Celebrating Originality,” was choreographed and designed by Brianna Silverman ’19. As the title suggests, it was a celebration of what makes everyone unique. Each participant had a unique costume design and song, yet they all meshed well, just as in real life, as our differences are what make us unique.

The next piece, “Ferris Bueller’s Clothes Off,” designed by Casper L’EsperanceKerckhoff ’19 and choreographed by Shoshanah Weinreich ’20, took inspiration from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Mean Girls” and “Dirty Dancing.” Featuring Ferris Bueller portrayed by Bradley Kaplan ’21 and four Santas, the routine utilized a

fan favorite — the performance of “Jingle Bell Rock” from “Mean Girls”. It was practically Christmas in March.

The next (and possibly the funniest) performance was “Magic Mike.” It was designed by Max Michel ’19 and Claire Kiewra ’21 and choreographed by Michel, Kalunda Anthony ’20 and Kahn. The group used a mashup of “Crank Dat,” “Bedrock” and “Cotton Eyed Joe” to entertain the crowd, and it was successful; there wasn’t a dull moment.

The final act of the night was the sweetest of them all. “Candy Land” was designed and choreographed by Lily Feinson ’19, and featured candy-related songs ranging from 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop” to “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies.

The night ended as the performers and the executive board of Liquid Latex congregated on stage for their final praise and presented Kahn with a bouquet to thank her for all of her hard work reviving the club within the past two years.

Overall, Liquid Latex was an enjoyable evening for both performers and attendees. During the entire show, students were reaffirmed that “EveryBODY Is Built For Latex.” Acting as a platform for creativity and expression, it is one of the most special Brandeis traditions that I have experienced and one that should not be missed — if you didn’t go this year, there’s always the next.

Editor’s Note: Liquid Latex photos are not posted online due to their sensitive nature.

Design: Yael Hanadari-Levy/the Justice

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TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019 | ARTS | THE JUSTICE

INTERVIEW

JUSTARTS SPOTLIGHT ON THE ROSE

By LUKE LIU JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSITANT

While there’s an infinite number of artistic styles that vary based on the creator, one can generally categorize them into two kinds.

One kind seeks beauty in order and formality, while the other glorifies the natural state of the subject, which is often emotional and chaotic. In Howardena Pindell’s “1-6031 with Additions, Corrections, and Coffee,” the two forms of artistic styles are combined into an amazing hybrid that is unique and powerful.

Jennifer Okewunmi ’21 Adina Scheinberg ’21 THU LE/the Justice

This week, justArts spoke with Jennifer Okewunmi ’21 amd Adina Scheinberg ’21 who hosted the Black Jew Dialogues: Comedy Show

ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

JustArts: Tell me a bit about yourselves?

In her work, Pindell drew down numbers from one to six thousand and thirty one in numerical order. However, the numbers were intentionally kept in order, causing the columns to shape forms of waves as they moved from top to bottom.

On the other hand, Pindell wrote down the beginning and ending time she spent on this work, giving the number a sense of history as it progressed. To me, the most fascinating part of this piece is the usage of graph paper. By intentionally not following the spacing of the paper, the work presents the contrast between structure and disorder without using words or color just numerical symbols.

Jennifer Okewunmi: My name is Jennifer Okewunmi. I am a sophomore. I am major in HSSP and biology. On campus, I am part of the wonderful Brandeis Bridges Cohort. Aside from that, I am a CA in Skyline. I am a biology TA … I am on the E-board of the Brandeis African Student Organization.

The inspirations for this work were the ledge books of Pindell’s father, who was both a teacher and a mathematician. By writing down the numbers, Pindell constructed her personal memorial. The contrast between rationality and disarrangement reflected her relationship with her memory of her father. The coffee stain over the thousands of numbers, as well as the occasional corrections, gave emotion to the lines of numbers.

JO: [L]ast year’s e-board decided what our cohort would like to put on, so it was their idea to have a Black Jewish comedy group coming to campus … I really got into it because I like to laugh ... A lot of people would rather come to something that is comedy and laugh than come to a lecture.

The more I thought about the numbers, the less organized and separated they became. Each set of numbers is like a second of her life, adding up to minutes, hours and days. Behind each second is a piece of memory, merging into ideas, stories and a life.

STAFF’S Top Ten

Justice file photo

Top 10 Unique YouTube Channels

By Morgan Mayback JUSTICE EDITOR

After watching YouTube for so many years, there are certain channels that just stand out to me. Here is a list of my some of my favorites which you may not be familiar with, ranging from educational, to creative, to comical.

1. Li Ziqi 2. Primitive Technology 3. Jun’s Kitchen 4. Gobelins 5. Goodnight Moon 6. Seth Everman 7. emmymadeinjapan 8. Chris Fleming 9. Brian David Gilbert 10. Studio C

Adina Scheinberg: My name is Adina Scheinberg. I am a sophomore. I am majoring in American Studies and minoring in Legal Studies and NEJS, which is Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. In addition to Bridges, I am involved in Common Ground, which is a JewishMuslim dialogue group. I am involved in the Conservative minyan on campus. I am in a Jewish a cappella group called Ba’note. I do general tutoring with Waltham group.

JA: What inspired you to organize a comedy show?

MEGAN GELLER/the Justice

AS: Yeah, I think these topics can be really heavy and it’s important not to make a joke out of them, obviously. ... I think that once you can see through different lenses, one of which being humor, you are really able to grapple with it … And I also think that comedy makes difficult subjects more accessible sometimes.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Like Alejandro Iñárritu 7 Hayworth of film 11 Guano producer 14 1996 Schwarzenegger thriller 15 Make some changes to 16 Texter’s qualifier 17 Leave without paying 19 Like some gardens 20 Cupid counterpart 21 Defeatist cry 23 Tricorn, for example 26 Blue-green 29 Fat day?

30 “Thanks, _____!”

33 RBI, e.g.

35 Christopher of architectural acclaim 36 Conspiratorial groups 38 Greek god of war 40 Keats poem 41 Make a break for it 44 One C in CDC, for short 47 Descriptor of mortals, to gods 48 One who dislikes 30-Across, perhaps 52 Entranced 54 Be aware of, as a gap 56 Rapper with the lyric “Started from the bottom, now we’re here” 57 Dusty old books 59 Resident of 64-Down 61 Seattle falls under it (abbr.)

62 Word on olde currency 63 Bad grades 66 Label on some cords 67 It’s necessary for compromise 74 Letters following 4G 75 Etats-_____ 76 Scorched, as skin 77 It’s associated with Timothy Leary 78 Barely manages, as a victory 79 Where _____ Fear to Tread DOWN 1 Type of light 2 Gold in “Entourage” 3 Like someone who’s spent time in bed?

4 “Ah, that makes sense.”

5 Close to 6 “Ready _____ ...”

7 Communist 8 Ore-____ 9 Caroler’s word 10 “Let me ____!”

11 Comic by Dan Piraro 12 Made some changes to 13 Pact in which the last person to die gets the money 18 Nintendo prods.

22 Crow sound 23 Ad ____ 24 Lawyers’ org.

25 Amount owed 27 Ancient history 28 Cooking fat

JA: The mission of your organization is to help build close relationships between the Jewish and Black communities. Do you see the potential of your organization expanding in the future to also bridge the gap between the Jewish community and other minority groups?

Crossword Courtesy of EVAN MAHNKEN

31 Non-PC? 32 Reunion participant, for short 34 Guano producer 37 Classification of careers (abbr.)

39 Was litigious 42 Diva’s delivery 43 Word rarely seen without its counterpart 44 Form of unwelcome attention 45 Bad thing to have at the bottom of the 9th, or a hint to 17-, 41- and 67-Across 46 Changed up, as a song 49 Trade’s partner 50 Gives the go-ahead 51 One of two in a court 53 Dragon locale 55 Post-WWI art movement 58 Smooth transition 60 Organization of intelligentsia 64 See 59-Across 65 One way to go to a party 68 Tattoos, slangily 69 Jockey (for) 70 Type of curve 71 You ___ Here (marker on a mall map) 72 Kenan’s costar in “Good Burger” 73 Sullivan and Markey

AS: While obviously we don’t represent everyone in the club, [these are] just our personal opinions, I do think there is a history of certain tension between the Black and Jewish communities. So I think this club is serving that specific purpose… I think by keeping it specific, we are really able to target certain specific issues that only arise between these two communities. … With that being said, I totally think there should be more inter-culture dialogue on campus in general, and I would love to see more groups similar to Bridges pop up or even [for] Bridges to collaborate on something having to do with a larger initiative to bring people together.

JO: Brandeis is founded on a lot of Jewish morals and pillars, and I believe that’s a huge component why the Jewish and Black communities are involved in Bridges… Like Adina said, we had our good times and bad times, but there’s so few Black students on campus, so it is important to salvage the relationship.

JA: Anything you want to add or say to our readers?

JO: If you’re reading this, and you identify [as] Jewish or Black, please apply!

You will not regret it. I learned so much and made so many friends thanks to Bridges.

AS: Even if the fellowship is not for you, we really trying to create a lot of opportunities for people to get involved on campus… everyone is welcome.

Solution Courtesy of EVAN MAHNKEN

—Luke Liu