The Justice, March 8, 2011 issue

ARTS Page 22

FORUM Atheists on campus 11

TOPHER GRACE

SPORTS Men win ECAC Tournament 16 The Independent Student Newspaper

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of

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

Justice

Volume LXIII, Number 21

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

ADMINISTRATION

Abrams’ position to change

HOUSING

Waltham, Mass.

OBITUARY

Community grieves after loss of firstyear student

EVOLUTION

Changing values have altered the face of Brandeis’ campus housing

■ As the new associate

■ After an apparent suicide

provost for innovation, Abrams will work closely with the sciences and industry.

on Feb. 15, community members took time to reflect on the late Kat Sommers.

By emily kraus JUSTICE editor

By nashrah rahman

Irene Abrams, who has directed the Office of Technology Licensing since 2006, was appointed associate provost for innovation and began serving in that role Feb. 28, according to a Feb. 28 campuswide e-mail from Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Marty Krauss.

According to Krauss’ e-mail, Abrams “will be focused on expanding Brandeis’ interactions with industry in the sciences by building relationships to attract sponsored research” in her new role. Krauss also wrote that Abrams will continue directing the Office of Technology Licensing and that part of her new role will include launching the Virtual Incubator. Krauss described this in her e-mail to the Brandeis community as “a program to help foster entrepreneurial students and faculty in the sciences by providing mentorship, education

JUSTICE editor

Katherine “Kat” Sommers ’14 died on campus Feb. 15 due to what appeared to be a suicide, according to an e-mail sent that night to the Brandeis community by Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer.

In an interview with the Justice, Tiffany Smith, Sommers’ older sister who described having a close relationship with Sommers, said that Sommers had always been “very happy, very cheerful.”

Smith, who lives in Newton, Mass. and is married to a Brandeis graduate student, said that she had not seen any indication that something may have been wrong. “[Sommers] was so happy to be up at Brandeis. I mean, we saw her regularly and she always had a big smile on her face, so she was pretty good at hiding [what was bothering her]. ... It’s really sad,” she said.

In an interview with the Justice, Katharine Glanbock ’14, who said that Sommers had been one of her best friends at Brandeis, described Sommers as “unconditionally loving” and a “wonderful listener.”

By ROBYN SPECTOR

M

JUSTICE EDITOR

eet Babushka Brown ’57. A fictionalized character used in the University’s Student Handbook from 1953 to 1954, Babushka was the perennial first-year who “herald[ed] the honor system” and helped the administration impart the school’s parietal rules to her peers, at the same time reminding “those upperclassmen suffering from ‘convenient amnesia’” how to behave.

In her 18 years before Brandeis, Babushka had developed a “staggering amount of ‘savoir faire,’” according to the Handbook description. Her philosophical attitude, offset by a pair of Levi’s and lipstick, was reflected in her allergy to rules and regulations; she was “a firm believer in the sacred natural rights of the individual.” But Babushka complied with the “lenient laws of Brandeis U.”

See HOUSING, 8 ☛

See PROVOST, 6☛

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ROBERT D. FARBER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

PROPOSING PLANS: In 1950, University President Abram Sachar (left) reviewed the plans to expand the housing options on campus. Top, an aerial view of Massell Quad (then known as Hamilton Quad).

BRIEF

See SOMMERS, 6 ☛

POLITICO: Daniel Shapiro ’91 to become US ambassador to Israel The Obama administration plans to appoint Brandeis alumnus Daniel Shapiro ’91 to be the next United States ambassador to Israel, according to POLITICO, a multimedia political news source.

According to POLITICO, Shapiro is currently the National Security Council’s Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa. The Alumni Association Directory on B Connect shows that he majored in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis.

Shapiro transferred to Brandeis after his freshman year at Washington University in St. Louis, noted POLITICO. He then attended Harvard University for graduate school, where he earned a Master’s degree

in Middle Eastern Politics in 1993, according to the Washington Post.

Shapiro began his career in politics as a staff member for the House Foreign Relations Committee, and he served for 2 years on the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. He then became the deputy chief of staff for Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), according to The Washington Post.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Shapiro was appointed as a senior policy adviser and Jewish outreach coordinator for the Obama campaign in 2008.

Shapiro is currently considered the Obama administration’s central liaison to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he has

close relations with Netanyahu and his advisors, according to Israeli news source Haaretz.

Shapiro married Julie Fisher ’90 a few years after graduating from Brandeis, and many of their Brandeis friends attended the wedding, said Associate Director of Leadership Gifts of Development and Alumni Relations Julie SmithBartoloni ’90 in an interview with the Justice.

Smith-Bartoloni said that she was a good friend of Fisher’s and they lived off campus together at 169 South St. in 1989 and 1990 while Fisher was dating Shapiro. She called Shapiro “a great student” and a “great person.” She recalled that his interests in college included Hebrew,

Arabic and the Middle East.

“I never really thought about him in the political arena, but it makes a lot of sense because he is … a person who can really find a point in common with anyone that he meets,” said Smith-Bartoloni. “I definitely thought that he would either be something like a rabbi, a university professor, definitely some kind of profession where learning and teaching and communicating was an integral part of his profession.”

Smith-Bartoloni said that when she visits Shapiro and Fisher, “It still feels very much like going back into 169 South St.” PHOTO COURTESY OF TIFFANY SMITH

—Andrew Wingens

When in Rome

The Justice to ESPN

New grant sources

Students traveled to Italy over break to explore religion and faith.

 Jason Sobel ’97 has become one of the pre-eminent golf writers for ESPN.

 Two new sources of funding are now available for undergraduate research.

FEATURES 7 For tips or info call (781) 736-6397

COMMUNITY SHAKEN: Following her death, members of the community held a vigil in Sommers' memory.

Let your voice be heard!

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

INDEX

SPORTS 13 ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 7

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

COMMENTARY

11

News 5 COPYRIGHT 2011 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Email managing@thejustice.org for home delivery.

2

TUESDAY, March 8, 2011

●

THE JUSTICE

NEWS POLICE LOG

SENATE LOG

Senate approves emergency SMR On Feb. 27, the Senate passed an emergency Senate Money Resolution that provided the Senate with $40 to order pizza for the March 6 Senate meeting.

Student Union Treasurer Akash Vadalia ’12 reported to the Senate that there are many new clubs on campus and funding the clubs may become problematic for the Student Union if there is not enough money. Vadalia said that he, along with Executive Senator Abraham Berin ’11, Student Union Secretary Herbie Rosen ’12 and Director of Executive Affairs Ryan Fanning ’11 have considered revising the process of approving clubs.

Berin also reported that he ordered carabiners and pens in order to promote the GPS tracking website for Crystal Shuttles, which is currently undergoing beta testing.

—Andrew Wingens

Senate conditionally recognizes the Greek Awareness Council On March 6, the Senate recognized the Greek Awareness Council on the condition that the GAC amend its constitution to allow students who are not members of Greek life to vote in the GAC by a vote of 15 in favor and one abstention.

The GAC is composed of “students of Brandeis University” who “desire to foster the intellectual, cultural, moral and social advancement of [their] peers, to deal with issues and concerns relating to the Greek system, and to serve as a liaison between the Greek system and the Brandeis community,” according to the GAC constitution.

The organizations that are members of the GAC are Alpha Epsilon Pi, Zeta Beta Tau, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Alpha Mu, Alpha Delta Phi, Sigma Delta Tau, Delta Phi Epsilon and Kappa Beta Gamma.

Co-president of the GAC and member of Delta Phi Epsilon Leah Finkelman ’13 said that she would approach the GAC about the constitutional amendment. If an amendment is approved by the GAC, the revised constitution would be submitted to the Club Support Committee for approval. The CSC is chaired by Senator for North Quad Shekeyla Caldwell ’14 and Senator for Rosenthal Quad Elizabeth Fields ’13.

The GAC had been recognized by the Student Union as the Greek Life Council in 2003, and the Senate rescinded its recognition last semester because the GLC failed to sign a non-hazing agreement said Finkelman.

Executive Senator Abraham Berin ‘11 voiced concern that the GAC may be a “roundabout way for fraternities or sororities to get on campus” and gain access to Brandeis facilities. Berin added that the Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook states—by a vote of the Board of Trustees—“social fraternities and sororities, in particular, are neither recognized nor permitted to hold activities on campus or use University facilities.”

A speakers list was formed. Caldwell, Senator for the Class of 2014 Mitchell Schwartz, Senator for the Class of 2012 Liya Kahan and Senator for Ridgewood Quad Lisa Melmed ’12 spoke in favor of recognizing the GAC as it was presented to the Senate.

Schwartz is a member of Phi Kappa Psi and Kahan is a member of Sigma Delta Tau, according to each group’s rosters.

Berin and Senator for East Quad Andrew Hayes ’13 spoke neither in favor of nor against recognition of the GAC. Hayes suggested that the GAC allow nonGreek members to vote as part of the GAC and Berin agreed.

Union Vice President Shirel Guez ’12 added that the GAC is “probably one of the best resources on campus in terms of reaching out to the Greek life and Greek community.”

The Senate also unanimously approved a Senate Money Resolution that allocated $142 for a Transitional Year Program Inspirational Night, an event to honor the TYP senior class and showcase the talents of other TYP students, which will be held on March 15.

As of March 6, the Senate has $11,887 remaining in its budget.

—Andrew Wingens

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS nAn article in News did not include the name of a contributing reporter. Andrew Wingens contributed reporting for “Study defined drug measures.” (Feb. 15, pg. 4) The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. E-mail editor@ thejustice.org.

Justice

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

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The Justice Brandeis University Mailstop 214 P.O. Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Phone: (781) 736-3750

Medical Emergency

Feb. 28—A female in the Charles River Apartments reported that her heart was beating too fast. BEMCo treated the party on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Feb. 28—A nurse requested an ambulance for a student having an allergic reaction in the Health Center.

Mar. 1—A male party reported that he injured his back in the weight room of the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center.

The party was transported to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Mar. 3—A party reported that a 50-year-old female fell and may have struck her head in the Usdan Student Center.

Mar. 5—A party reported that a 19-year-old male was intoxicated in Village C. The party was transported to the NewtonWellesley Hospital.

Mar. 6—A party reported a

20-year-old female intoxicated in the Usdan Student Center.

BEMCo responded and the party was transported to the NewtonWellesley Hospital.

Mar. 6—A party reported that an intoxicated 20-year-old female locked herself in her room in Usen Castle.

Mar. 6—A party reported a party with flu-like symptoms and BEMCo responded.

Mar. 6—A party reported that a party fainted in Shapiro Residence Hall. BEMCo responded and the party was transported to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Mar. 6—A party injured her shoulder while throwing a stick into a trash bin.

Traffic

Mar. 2—A party reported that a staff member from the Fine Arts department struck a parked vehicle in the Epstein Lot with a university vehicle. No injuries

were reported.

Mar. 4—A party reported that a shuttle van hit a parked vehicle in front of Rabb Graduate School.

Larceny

Mar. 4—A party reported her wallet was stolen from the Village Gym. Mar. 5—A party reported that about $10 was stolen from her purse in the Usdan Student Center.

Miscellaneous

Mar. 2—A party reported a car parked in the Theater Lot that contained various power tools.

University Police checked the area and found the car belonged to students who were working on the set for a play in the Spingold Theater Center.

Mar. 2—A party reported smoke coming from ashtrays on the Volen Center patio. Uni-

versity Police responded and addressed the issue.

Mar. 2—A party reported an odor of people smoking at the entrance of the Charles River Apartments. University Police responded but were unable to locate the smell.

Mar. 3—A party reported a raccoon in the closet of Cholmondeley’s. Pest control was notified.

Mar. 3—A party reported a suspicious male walking around in the Shapiro Campus Center.

Mar. 5—Two 15-year-old males were running on the grass behind the Stoneman building and on the roof of the building.

Mar. 6—A party reported the smell of marijuana at the Charles River Apartments. University Police found a student smoking with a smoke detector covered. Charges will be filed.

—compiled by Andrew Wingens

BRIEF

Student reflect on trips to conflict territories

JANEY ZITOMER/the Justice

Asian-Americans celebrate heritage

Anita Kao ’14 performs at the CelebrAsian event, which was held on Sunday evening and was hosted by the Brandeis Asian-American Student Association as part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

The 2010 fellows of Students Crossing Boundaries reflected on their summer internship experiences in the Israel/Palestinian territories and the United States/Mexico border this past Wednesday in the South Campus Commons, presenting highlights from personal and political events that affected them in their explorations of these two conflict-ridden regions.

Students Crossing Boundaries began in 2008 as a response to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s challenge to students at Brandeis to witness the Israeli-Palestinian conflict firsthand.

The program, which originally was an 11-day trip to Israel and the West Bank, has developed into a year-long, student-driven fellowship program.

Kaamila Mohamed ’11, a staff member for SCB, introduced the event with a brief description of the organization and praised the fellows for the personal and intellectual growth they achieved over the past year.

The fellows presented verbal snapshots of events from their respective summers.

Dimple Patel ’12, Laura Aguirre ’12 and Sarah Van Buren ’13 shared stories from their experiences working along the U.S./Mexico border.

Anushka Aqil ’12, Shirel Guez ’12 and Jordan Klebanow ’12 spoke about their experiences in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Wajida Syed ’12 also interned in the Israeli/Palestinian territories but was not present at the event because she is studying abroad for the semester.

The fellows also summarized their experiences in written essays, compiled in pamphlets and distributed to those who attended the event.

“As a staff member of the program, I have to say that I am so proud with how the event turned out,” Mohamed said in an interview with the Justice.

“I think the fellows really took this on as a project all their own. They did an amazing job, and I just feel honored to have been a part of this process with them because they’ve all really grown a lot on this journey.”

—Rebecca Blady

ANNOUNCEMENTS Résumé writing workshop

Put your best foot forward. Writing a résumé may feel daunting, but with the right preparation and expert feedback, you can stand out in the crowd. Come to this workshop and learn how to organize and present your experience to employers in the best possible light. Tomorrow from noon to 1 p.m. in the Usdan Student Center.

Perlmutter Science Forum

Princeton University Prof. Coleen Murphy, whose pioneering research suggests that aging is a regulated process rather than the result of cumulative cellular damage, will be the featured speaker at the Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Science Forum at Brandeis. Following the lecture, a reception with refreshments is scheduled. Tomorrow from 4 to 5 p.m. in Gerstenzang 121.

How to Work the Spring Career Fair

Join the Hiatt Career Center for this fun and informative workshop and learn how you can get the most out of your interactions with alumni and employers at the Spring 2011 Career Fair, which is scheduled

for this Thursday from noon to 3 p.m. in Sherman Function Hall. Students will get tips on how to introduce themselves with purpose, engage in meaningful conversations and use their experience post-career fair to stand out as an applicant. Tomorrow from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Usdan Student Center.

limitations and future developments of this cutting-edge imaging approach, and present exemplary applications from collaborations with different Brandeis laboratories.

Thursday 5 to 6 p.m. in Abselon-Bass-Yalem 333.

Conquering the LSAT

Please join us for a stimulating panel discussion with hands-on experts in microfinance presented by the Gender and International Development Initiative at the Women’s Studies Research Center. Thursday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management G1.

Come hear from students who just recently took the LSAT and learn their strategies for preparing. They will share information on how much time they put into studying and the materials they used to help them. Refreshments will be served.

Tomorrow from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Usdan Student Center.

Physics seminar

Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy is a relatively new technique that aims at correlating and integrating the data acquired by light microscopyand transmission electron microscopy. CLEM is used in just a few labs in the world and is still under development. Postdoctoral Research Associate Cristina Berciu will introduce the principles, advantages, current

Microfinance: Does it Work?

Online forum with Frederick Lawrence

New Brandeis President Frederick Lawrence will participate in an online conversation through the Alumni Association’s Faculty Lecture Forum. Through a live online simulcast, Lawrence will discuss his first days as Brandeis’ eighth president.

Following the lecture, viewers can participate in an interactive question-and-answer session. Visit the Brandeis Univeristy Alumni Association website for more information. Thursday from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

THE JUSTICE

academics

■ The program is jointly sponsored by the University and Middlebury College for students who wish to study in Israel entirely in Hebrew.

JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The Office of Study Abroad announced on March 1 that it will offer a new program in Israel starting in spring 2012.

The program is designed for students who are advanced in their Hebrew language studies and want an environment in which they will speak only Hebrew with their peers and in their studies.

This program marks the second joint program between Brandeis and Middlebury College, the first being a joint summer program that started in 2008, called the Brandeis University-Middlebury School of Hebrew that took place at Middlebury’s campus in Vermont, dedicated to the study of Hebrew language.

Students who participate in the program will study in the city of Beer-Sheva at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

In an interview with the Justice, Director of the Hebrew Language Program Prof. Vardit Ringvald (NEJS) said that the program is meant to enrich Brandeis’ study abroad program options in Israel.

This is the first program that Brandeis has sponsored in Israel.

Students accepted into the program will be directly enrolled in classes at BGU and all classes and all assignments will be completed in Hebrew.

This study abroad program will be worth 16 credits.

The program will cost students regular tuition plus a room and board fee that is slightly different from Brandeis’ on-campus fee.

When asked why the program is at BGU, Ringvald said that BGU has a different environment compared to that of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem or the Technion in Haifa, where other study abraod programs take place.

Middlebury has a language pledge for students in its language programs that forces students to speak only the language they are studying.

In order to be consistent with Middlebury’s pledge, Ringvald said that BGU is the ideal location for the program because in programs other places, “There is an environment where students are not forced to speak solely in Hebrew.”

Michael Geisler, vice president of Middlebury’s language programs, said in a previous press release for BrandeisNOW that BGU is an ideal partner for the program because “since the university is well integrated with the town of Beer-Sheva, students will find it easier than in many other cities in Israel to gain access to the community.”

Ringvald said that the program is expected to have 10 to 15 students participate from both schools.

In an interview with the Justice, Assistant Dean of Academic Services and Director of Study Abroad J. Scott Van Der Meid of the Office of Study Abroad said, “The departments of Hebrew, Study Abroad and Global Affairs all worked together to help create this opportunity for Brandeis students.”

Van Der Meid views this program as the next logical step from Brandeis and Middlebury’s past joint venture, he said.

TUESDAY, march 8, 2011

3

MIDDLE EAST DISCUSSION

University to offer abroad program in Israel By daniel heinrich

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JENNY CHENG/the Justice

Negotiating peace Daniel Levy (left), a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Taba negotiations in 2001; and Amjad Atallah (right), a Palestinian negotiator, spoke at a J Street U-sponsored event titled “Achieving Peace: Both Sides of the Negotiating Table” on Feb. 17.

STUDENT LIFE

Shuttle GPS undergoes beta testing

■ The new system would

allow students to track the Crystal Shuttle’s location in real time.

By allyson carter JUSTICE contributing WRITER

The Department of Public Safety is completing beta testing for a website that will provide the routes and locations of the Daytime Campus, Daytime Waltham and Boston/Cambridge Crystal Shuttles in real time and will be available for public use within 2 weeks, according to Head Coordinator of Operations for the Department of Public Safety’s Escort Safety Service and Executive Senator for the Student Union Abraham Berin ’11.

The website utilizes data from GPS tracking units that have been installed in the shuttles over the past few months. This process follows individual quality assurance testing to ensure that each of the tracking units functions properly, and it is the final step before the system will be available for public use.

Once the testing is complete, students will have access to a website

that displays the location of the Crystal Shuttles in real time. The website will provide the estimated time of arrival at the shuttles’ next stops and students can choose to have this information sent to them via text mes-sage.

The installation process began in fall 2010 after the Student Union discussed it the year before. “This was an idea brought up in the [Student] Union last year continually, and funds were an issue. … As a result, [the project] never got off the ground,” said Berin in an interview with the Justice.

The project was picked up after the Campus Sustainability Initiative became involved as a part of the Climate Change Action Plan in an effort headed by Sustainability Coordinator Janna Cohen-Rosenthal ’03, who said in an interview with the Justice that she drew upon a similar model from the University of Vermont. An arrangement was then made with Blirp It, an online bus tracking system, and was coordinated by Cohen-Rosenthal, Director of Public Safety Edward Callahan and Director of Univeristy Services Dianne Qualter.

Two key goals of the project, Berin said, are student safety and convenience. “The whole foundation of the

program, the whole execution of the program was fulfilled with the benefit of the students in mind,” he said. Because of the various channels through which one can receive information about the shuttles’ progress, students will be able to utilize it whether they are waiting in Boston, in Waltham or on campus. The program hopes to allow students to “feel safer and … feel like they have a little more control over their time, since they’ll see exactly where the bus is [at any given moment],” Berin continued.

Another principal aim is environmental sustainability. As part of the Climate Change Action Plan that the University adopted in fall 2009, the Campus Sustainability Initiative has worked to promote public transportation and to reduce the number of students parking on campus, CohenRosenthal said; the installation of the GPS tracking units and the launch of the website will make using the shuttle “easier, more convenient [and] more reliable,” she continued.

“Sustainability is not just about giving things up. It’s also about making things better and easier,” she said.

The beta-testing process “ranges from the most basic things such as ensuring that the GPS functions proper-

ly to the more complex things such as dealing with the programming aspect [of the website],” Callahan wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

“The aim of this is to “[figure] out all the problems before the community does,” said Berin. “As with any new project, you have kinks that need to be worked out, especially on computerbased projects.”

Following beta testing, the program will enter its advertising and promotion phase, which “will be run in a joint collaboration between the Department of Public Safety, Department of University Services and the Undergraduate Student Union,” wrote Callahan, and will include giveaways of promotional items with the website name.

The website is currently available only to the individuals working on it, and once any glitches have been fixed, a campuswide e-mail will link students to the web address.

“No matter how effective a program is, it’s only as successful as the amount of people that get use out of it,” Berin said. “So in order to make the most out this program, we’d like as many students—both grads and undergrads—to use the GPS service.”

faculty

Heller School appoints affiliated faculty members ■ Dean Lisa Lynch is looking

to include faculty from other University schools at Heller.

By sara dejene JUSTICE editorial assistant

The Heller School for Social Policy and Management is currently implementing a policy to have faculty from the Undergraduate School of Arts and Sciences affiliate with the Heller School, according to Dean of the Heller School Lisa Lynch in an interview with the Justice.

These affiliates, according to Lynch, would be able to teach or coteach courses, give guest lectures, serve as resources to students in doctoral programs at Heller or collaborate in research at any of the centers or institutes.

According to an Aug. 9, 2010 proposal titled “Policy on Affiliated Faculty” outlining the details of the policy, nominees must hold a primary position in one of the University’s other schools and be sponsored by a member of the Heller faculty. Nominations would be due

by April 1, before the April Heller School faculty meeting.

Sponsors for the nominees—scientists, fellows or other faculty members—will complete and submit a rationale, along with specific activities during the affiliate’s term.

The nominee would then have to be approved by Heller faculty, Lynch and the chair of the department with which the nominee would be affiliated.

The nominee would then serve a 3-year term as an affiliate, which could be renewed.

During his or her term, an affiliate is listed as Heller faculty but is ineligible to vote in Heller faculty meetings.

According to the proposal, the goal of affiliation is to “recognize and facilitate the involvement in The Heller School of faculty from other parts of the University.”

Lynch said that faculty from the Heller School have been affiliated with Arts and Sciences in the past, such as Prof. Anita Hill (Heller), who is affiliated with the Women’s and Gender Studies program; Prof.

Tom Shapiro (Heller), who is affiliated with the Sociology department; and Senior Lecturer Joan Kaufman (Heller), who is affiliated with the East Asian Studies Program.

“We’ve had the affiliations happening, and they’re becoming more robust,” said Lynch.

The goal, says Lynch, is to have a concrete process for appointing affiliates to Heller. Lynch said that the affiliation policy was based off of a model proposed by Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe last fall.

The model Jaffe proposed was designed for faculty who would be affiliated with Arts and Sciences.

The model was adjusted to accommodate for the lower number of courses taught at Heller and the increased demand of theses by students at Heller than at Arts and Sciences.

Lynch said that Jaffe and Arts and Sciences department chairs approved nine new faculty members to Heller.

Eight are from Arts and Sciences and one is from the International Business School. The affiliates were approved last month. The proposal itself was approved by the Heller faculty last fall. Lynch said that the department chairs were all very enthusiastic about the affiliation program.

“This is a wonderful way of integrating the University and sharing resources,” said Lynch.

“This is an intellectual community that is coming together,” she later continued. “Barriers are coming down, and we’re trying to promote vibrant exchange of ideas to the benefit of our students and to the benefit of our faculty and researchers.”

According to Lynch, having affiliates among the schools would provide students with a larger amount of resources and creates more possibilities for organizing a course as well as more opportunities for student research.

Lynch said that there is no fixed number of affiliates that Heller aims to approve, but each nominee for affiliation will be reviewed by faculty to examine if the affiliation will be beneficial for the department or the school.

According to Lynch, the biggest obstacle with appointing affiliates is personal time constraints of faculty.

“There are so many other competing demands for [one’s] time,” said Lynch. “All parties are agreeing to set aside their scarce time to really make an investment to get to know this particular department or school or group of faculty members better [to work with them].”

“ecStaSy” —The Detroit Times

MusicUnitesUS

World Music concert and intercultural residency series spring 2011

expanding tHe legacy of arab Music

Simon Shaheen Heritage Without Boundaries Saturday, March 12, 2011 “Simon Shaheen’s success in combining characteristics of Middle

slosberg Music center preconcert talk by ethnomusicologist Virginia danielson

Eastern music, Western classical music, jazz and Latin rhythms into a gorgeous tapestry can be traced

World MUSic concert 8:00 PM

to his capacity to find their common threads.”

slosberg Music center

—Los Angeles Times

photo by Henry leutwyler

Preconcert talk 7:00 PM

Brandeis tickets 781-736-3400 tickets are $5–$25 for more information, call the brandeis concert line at 781-736-3331 or visit www.musicunitesus.info/ schedule-spring2011.html.

cOSPONSOrS brandeis arts council / international center for ethics, Justice and public life / project nur

Office of Communications ©2011 Brandeis University, B114b

THE JUSTICE

International business school

Magid joins trade mission ■ International Business

School Dean Bruce Magid will discuss opportunities for economic growth abroad.

By sara dejene JUSTICE editorial assistant

Dean of the International Business School Bruce Magid is part of a delegation accompanying Governor Deval Patrick on the Massachusetts Innovation Economy Partnership Mission 2011 to Israel and the United Kingdom, according to a Feb. 9 press release from the governor’s office.

According to the press release, the delegation arrived in Israel yesterday and will leave the U.K. March 17. At these meetings, the delegation holds panels and speaks with both government and business leaders about ways to expand the Massachusetts economy through investments, job growth and partnerships.

In a phone interview with the Justice, Magid said that the purpose of the mission is to attract foreign investments to Massachusetts and to create employment and economic growth.

Magid will participate in three panels during the delegation’s time in Israel and will speak about partnership opportunities between Massachusetts and Israeli businesses as well as the contribution of higher education.

One panel Magid will speak on will discuss life sciences and information, another will be about about information technology, and the third will be on the characteristics of economies and opportunities for collaboration between them.

Brandeis is one of two educational institutions represented in the delegation, joined by the University of Massachusetts, which will be represented by its incoming president, Robert Caret. “[Patrick] wanted to include high-

er education as well as public and private officials specifically because he views that education plays a number of roles” in strengthening economies, said Magid.

One of those roles, according to Magid, is providing an academic setting to exchange ideas between innovators. Magid also said that a collaboration with institutes of higher education also encourages research in those schools that can be utilized by industry leaders to apply to business models and make informed decisions. Additionally, he stated that universities such as Brandeis can benefit by creating study abroad opportunities for both Israeli students in Massachusetts and Massachusetts students looking to study in Israel.

Magid said that he will also be available to speak with government officials and reporters in Israel about the “benefits of international trade and investments.”

In addition, Magid will also participate in a panel while the delegation is in the U.K., though he does not yet know the details of that discussion.

Magid said that he was informally approached to be a part of the delegation by one of Patrick’s top aides on the evening of Patrick’s most recent inauguration, Jan. 6, 2011. Magid then received a phone call in early February of this year inviting the University to participate in the delegation.

According to Magid, it was originally planned that both he and University President Frederick Lawrence would serve on the delegation.

However, Lawrence was not able to attend the mission due to previously scheduled commitments.

“I’m happy to have [Magid] joining our great coalition of leaders on this trade mission,” said Patrick in a statement provided by Matthew Parillo, the director of marketing and communications at IBS. “Bruce is at the forefront of our innovation economy, and we know his expertise will

go a long way towards forging lasting economic ties and partnerships between Massachusetts and Israel.”

In addition to serving as the Dean of the International Business School, Magid is also a member of the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment, which, according to Magid, is responsible for “promoting international trade and investment” in the state. He will serve on the official business delegation that will accompany an official government delegation to Israel and the U.K. Magid said that the purpose of having both a government delegation and a business delegation is to create a bond between the public sector, or government officials, and the private sector, or business executives.

“You want the public and private sector to be working jointly and in collaboration to identify opportunities for trade and job creation,” said Magid. “It’s really when you get collaborative partnership between the public sector and the private sector that you can really both not only come up with policy but create the action steps to promote growth and create employment.”

Employment creation and economic growth and expansion, Magid said, is one of the potential benefits for Massachusetts, Israel and the U.K. as a result of this trade mission.

“These types of missions ... are a win-win for all of the economies involved,” said Magid. “[The mission] will create more jobs. It will lead to faster economic growth, which results in the ability for the government to fund new initiatives.”

Magid said that the mission could serve as an opportunity to promote the capacity of science research at the University as well as students who want to apply for internships for Israeli and U.K. companies.

“We’re very excited about this opportunity for Brandeis University and the Brandeis International Business School,” said Magid.

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research

Academic services to offer research grants ■ The programs will provide

funding for students to conduct research during the summer and the school year.

By daniel heinrich JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

This year, the Department of Academic Services will be offering two opportunities for research fellowships for undergraduate students. The Undergraduate Research Program and the Jerome A. Schiff Undergraduate Fellows Program provide funding for students looking to do innovative pedagogical research.

Each program pairs a student with a faculty adviser, and students can either choose their adviser or faculty members can choose which student they want to advise.

In an interview with the Justice, Academic Services Coordinator of Fellowships Michelle Monaghan said that the URP provides funding for summer research to students.

The funding is meant to pay for summer housing while students conduct their research along with their adviser.

This past summer there were nine recipients of funding for the URP. Most of the students are juniors and seniors with the exception of one sophomore, and they studied various subjects such as Biology, Mathematics, English and Neuroscience.

Students are expected to conduct their research during the summer and then present it at the end.

Monaghan also said that Schiff Fellows do work similar to that

of URP participants. For this academic year, there are 10 Schiff Fellows researching a wide range of subjects.

All Fellows are either juniors or seniors studying subjects from French and Economics to Neuroscience and the Health: Science, Society and Policy program.

Students can receive up to $2,000 to conduct their research, their advisers can receive up to $500.

The money can be used for traveling to conferences or buying books for their research.

Monaghan said that the Schiff Program is meant to “encourage undergraduate research and … to foster that faculty-student mentoring relationship.”

This relationship is very important to the Schiff family, which provides the funding for the program.

The Schiff family, according to Monaghan, started the program approximately 10 years ago.

The URP receives funding where it can, said Monaghan. Since the URP does not have a direct source, it works within the budget and from people who donate to the program privately.

Applicants submit essays proposing potential research opportunities to the Department of Academic Services.

The recipients of the funding are chosen by a committee of faculty members including Monaghan, Senior Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong and faculty members from different academic apartments, said Monaghan.

The due date for applications for the Schiff Fellowship has been postponed from yesterday to Monday, March 14. Applications for the URP are due Wednesday March 16.

campus speaker

Nobel prize winner discusses global warming effects, solutions ■ Tufts University Professor

William Moomaw presented how humans can reduce their carbon footprints.

By erica cooperberg JUSTICE contributing WRITER

Nobel prize winner and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chapter Leader Professor William Moomaw discussed climate change, policy options and humans’ effects on the atmosphere last Tuesday at the International Business School’s Lemberg Academic Center, where he was featured as a guest lecturer.

Moomaw, of the International Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, was invited to speak by Prof. John Ballantine (IBS) during his course, “Investing in Energy.” “[He] brings a down-to-earth approach to the science, extensive political experience as an IPCC climate scientist and a passion about the practical everyday things we can do to reduce our carbon footprints,” Ballantine wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

Moomaw has been working closely with the United States government in regards to climate change due to his involvement in the IPCC for over a decade. In 2007, IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Al Gore, for its “efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change,” according to the Nobel Prize’s website.

The IPCC was created in the 1980s during the former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s administration when scientists began pushing the reality of climate change, Moomaw said. The prevailing thought shifted from considering climate change as a “theoretical possibility” to actually “see[ing] signs that it may be happening.” Global warming, too, became a serious issue: “There are all these positive feedback loops that, as it gets warmer, more things

will happen to make it warmer still.”

All scientists working on the IPCC are government appointed, Prof.

Moomaw said. “Every 5 or 6 years, governments are asked to nominate scientists from their country to serve on the [panel].” He also listed the home countries of many of his colleagues, including Japan and Kenya.

He attributed the multiculturalism of the team to the IPCC’s desire to have a wide range of scientific backgrounds. This is further exemplified by the team leadership, as the chairs of each chapter consist of “one [person] from a developed [country] and one from a developing [country]” which, in Moomaw’s case, are he and his Zambian colleague.

Moomaw said that climate change and global warming are a reality and cited 2010 as a year of prime examples. Not only did the first 11 months of 2010 set record temperature highs, which led to crop devastation in Moscow, he said, but the year was characterized by heavy rainfall in Pakistan, China and India as well. Moomaw noted that finally this international issue is being acknowledged, referring to Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s statement that “climate change is here and it’s hurting us.”

This was particularly important because it was the “first time a major political leader” publicly recognized the matter.

“With the future, … oil prices going up, [which] immediately reflects what’s going on with clean air energy and climate change, [this is an important issue],” said Avidor Varuch, a graudate student attending IBS, in an interview with the Justice. As a member of the Investment Club, specifically covering its energy sector, Varuch said that “[attending the lecture] and learning about what’s going on in the world … has given [him] more infomation on [his] future investments in the industry.”

Devender Sandhu, also a graduate student attending IBS, said in an interview with the Justice that Moomaw’s lecture was valuable to attain a “clear picture [about cli-

mate change] from a person who has written reports and who has actually studied [the subject] so much.”

Moomaw’s presentation included “before and after” pictures on a slide show depicting environmental changes—such as now-grassy, former snow-capped mountaintops— over the past 40 years, which he defines as the amount of time standard for determining climate. “The rate of sea level rise has doubled since 1993 … due to melting glaciers of ice gaps … and thermal warming expansion,” he said. “[We] may not want to believe in global warming,” he said, “but [these changes are] not due to global cooling.”

We can conclude, he continued, that “most of the observed increases in global average temperature … is very likely due to the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations,” a determination carefully phrased by the IPCC. He added that this does not mean humans are not to blame.

Turning to the greenhouse effect, Moomaw said that humans contribute to its negative effects. He said that “not all sunlight is absorbed by the earth—some is reflected and radiates heat back into space.” About “240 watts per square meter get bounced back into space,” Moomaw said, “and humans have added 1.6 watts [into] the atmosphere. …

[While this] doesn’t seem like a lot, … just that little bit of extra heat [is enough to cause a change].”

Humans also contribute to additional carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Moomaw said. While carbon dioxide is present in the atmosphere, oceans and plants, humans are “putting extra [carbon dioxide] into the atmosphere faster than we, or oceans or trees can take it out.”

He supported widespread theories about helping the atmosphere, noting that “while [carbon dio-xide] concentrations continue to increase, planting trees would help climate change.” He also suggested that we focus on what we can do as individuals to reduce our own carbon footprints, which can be as simple as

JENNY CHENG/the Justice

HEAVY BURDEN: Moomaw said humans put 1.6 watts of heat into the atmostphere. “driving less.”

Moomaw concluded that we should not turn a blind eye to climate change, and Ballantine echoed his sentiments, writing in his e-mail that understanding the details of cli-

mate change is “particularly critical to the ongoing climate debate in this country and the rest of the world.”

Moomaw agreed: “[It is] not something about the future; … it’s not something theoretical. … It’s here.”

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THE JUSTICE

panel

Profs discuss uprisings in North Africa

■ Both members of the

panel shared similar beliefs on the future of the region.

By andrew wingens JUSTICE editorial assistant

Prof. Eva Bellin (POL) and University of Utah Prof. Ibrahim Karawan agreed that there is reason to be optimistic that the Egyptian military will not remain the governing force in Egypt during a Feb. 15 panel discussion titled “Furor in the Arab Street: Tunisia, Egypt and Beyond.”

Prof. Shai Feldman (POL), the Judith and Sidney Swartz director’s chair of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies moderated the event, which was hosted in Rapaporte Treasure Hall by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies.

Bellin began the discussion by speaking about the January uprising in Tunisia, known as the Jasmine Revolution, and she argued that, in addition to corruption, repression and economic difficulties of the North African and Middle Eastern nations, outrage and impunity were two major factors that combined to cause the uprising in Tunisia.

“Outrage was the trigger, the spark that set alight the underlying tinder of long-term grievances about unemployment, corruption and oppression,” she said.

“Once people believed that the military would not shoot, the risk of [their] protesting declined precipitously, … and this sense of impunity decreased the sense of threat and fueled massive participation in the protests,” she said.

Bellin warned, however, that “just because you have successfully demolished an authoritarian regime doesn’t mean that a democratic regime will necessarily take its place,”

and that the more common historical scenario “is for one authoritarian regime to be replaced by another authoritarian regime.”

She said, “I am not optimistic overall that the Jasmine Revolution will spark democratic contagion throughout the region. … I hope, I really hope my analysis and the conclusions I draw from this are absolutely wrong.”

Karawan spoke about the Egyptian case and agreed with Bellin on the importance of the military’s role in a successful uprising.

“It’s a conscription army, and from the beginning it was clear that they would not shoot at their own people,” Karawan said.

He noted that the military would likely hand over power as long as the privileges of the army, such as officer insulation against hardships, were to remain in place.

He added that the Muslim Brotherhood is a “relevant force, but not decisive” and that he, like Bellin, is also not optimistic that other repressive regimes will fall to protests in the region.

David Makovsky, the director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Project on the Middle East Peace Process, also participated in the panel discussion and spoke about United States President Barack Obama’s response to the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.

Makovsky said that Obama “did not seek out this crisis” and that he sees himself both as a pragmatist and a bridge to the Arab and Muslim world.

Makovsky said that it is still uncertain how hard the United States will push the Egyptian military to transition and that the uprising in Egypt might give the administration more leverage in pushing reform in other countries, such as Iran.

SOMMERS: Late student is remembered fondly CONTINUED FROM 1 “If there was any one person I could’ve asked to make my transition into college as smooth as it could’ve been, she was the person to have been there.” Glanbock said.

Glanbock said that Sommers had always put others before herself. “I was always so appreciative of how caring and maternal she was that I never realized how burdened she'd been. ... There’s only so much you can do when someone is selfless to the point of not expressing everything they’re feeling,” she said.

Glanbock also said that, “[Sommers] had gone through a terrible year and she dealt with it so stoically that I thought it sprang from her strength and her maturity.” Glanbock did not specify what had been bothering Sommers.

In an interview with the Justice, Simon Cramer ’13, who had started dating Sommers this semester, described her as stoic, funny and sarcastic.” However, Cramer also said that he “didn’t know [Sommers] that well” because they had just started dating. “[Sommers] always seemed like she was dealing with a lot of stuff in the background, but … she was coping and doing pretty well with it, just like, ‘Oh okay, yeah I’m doing this, this and this. You didn’t need to worry about it, I’m fine,’ and she really seemed fine, not tense at all or anything,” Cramer said.

Glanbock said that Sommers had been a History major, with a special interest in colonial American history. “I remember her telling me how excited she was because she had re-

HELLER SPEAKER ADDRESSES STUDENTS

ally hit it off with the History department. … She was doing well in her History classes,” she said.

Smith said that Sommers had considered pursuing a master’s degree in History but didn’t have any concrete future plans.

Sommers had been taking ENG 10b, “Poetry: A Basic Course” with Prof. Laura Quinney (ENG). In an interview with the Justice, Quinney said, “I was very shocked because [Sommers] seemed so bright and full of life.”

Various departments and groups within the Brandeis community, including the Department of Community Living, the Interfaith Chaplaincy and the Student Union held events in Sommers’ memory. Additionally, resources on campus, such as the Brandeis Counseling and Rape Crisis Hotline, offered services to affected students.

Smith said that she was contacted by University administrators after Sommers’ death. “Everyone there was very concerned, offering their condolences. Their response couldn’t have been better,” she said.

Cramer said that he was “really awed by the length to which the community went to make sure that everyone would pull through.”

The Student Union organized a memorial walk followed by a vigil in Sherman Function Hall Feb. 17.

The event was attended by numerous students, administrators and faculty.

—Fiona Lockyer contributed reporting.

JANEY ZITOMER/the Justice

Ruminations on race Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson, Ph.D. ’06, senior scientist and senior lecturer at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, addressed students at her talk, titled “The Intersections of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Health Research and Policy.”

PROVOST: Abrams assumes new assistant provost role CONTINUED FROM 1 and small seed grants to help them move inventions from the lab to the marketplace.”

Krauss wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that Abrams was appointed after Krauss consulted with the administration and senior science faculty. Abrams’ position is the second associate provost position created this semester; Prof. Dan Perlman (BIOL) began serving as associate provost for the assessment of student learning March 1, according to a Feb. 8 Justice article.

Krauss noted that the creation of multiple associate provost positions is unusual, writing that while Perlman’s position was created, in part, to encourage faculty to take on positions of administrative responsibility,“This type of position is also increasingly important as part of our on-going efforts to meet the standards of our regional accreditation commission.”

“Ms. Abrams’ position is due in part from the extensive review we have been conducting of our scientific infrastructure, and from advice received from the Brandeis University Science Advisory Council,” added Krauss.

In an e-mail to the Justice, Abrams wrote, “My goal is to work

closely with faculty on ways to approach industry in a more strategic manner. I hope to launch programs to bring industry folks to campus more often to interact with our faculty, and to also spend more time visiting companies and working to find the right matches between Brandeis’ strengths and industry needs.”

The Virtual Incubator program, Abrams wrote, “will [educate] students and faculty about entrepreneurship and increase the amount of technology moving from Brandeis labs into the market, for the public good.”

It will do so, she wrote, by helping students and faculty connect with other people in industry as well as by providing grants that “help fund proof-of-concept studies that make university-stage technology more attractive to licensees and funders.”

The first grants, small seed grants that Abrams referred to as “Sprout Grants,” will be made available to “entrepreneurial students and faculty in the sciences who have an invention or a business idea they are interested in commercializing” this spring, according to Abrams.

She also wrote that the Virtual Incubator program will be holding

events this semester for interested students and faculty and will have a formal education component.

The benefits of encouraging innovation and entrepreneurialism among students and faculty have been recognized “from a number of corners at Brandeis,” Abrams wrote. She added that, while programs like the Virtual Incubator have not been implemented at research institutions similar to Brandeis in size, they have been “very successful” at large research institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, San Diego.

Krauss wrote in an e-mail to the Justice, “We have long wanted to have deeper and more extensive relationships with industry and corporations who have interests in the kinds of science that we conduct at Brandeis. Many research active universities have specific programs to stimulate entrepreneurship, and Ms. Abrams has direct knowledge of such programs.”

Abrams wrote, “What I hope to do in this role is to contribute to creating structures within Brandeis that will support our students and faculty in their interactions with industry for Brandeis’ benefit.”

just

features

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, March 8, 2011

VERBATIM | WINSTON CHURCHILL A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1978, the first radio episode of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was transmitted on BBC Radio 4.

There are 336 dimples on a regulation American golf ball.

When in Rome Students traveled to Italy to explore religion and faith

BY Pinky Polack justice Contributing writer

While many of us were parked on our couches watching reruns of House or Sex in the City over February break, 17 Brandeis students embarked on a journey to explore religion and culture in beautiful Rome. Led by the Rev. Walter Cuenin, the Catholic chaplain on campus, the students traveled all the way to Italy to visit marvelous sights ranging from antiquity to present day.

The idea for the 7-day voyage came from Cuenin when he arrived at Brandeis, and the trip has taken place each February for the past four years. It is open for all students to apply during the fall, and participants are chosen by Cuenin on the basis of having an equal number of men and women and students of different ages.

The lucky chosen ones receive the coveted ticket to Rome.

“The trip is centered around Rome, the center of Catholic origins,” explained participant Janette Mynette ’13.

“In a way, it’s like Birthright,” Mynette said. Birthright, a Jewish foundation funded by philanthropists and the State of Israel, sends young Jews on a 10-day trip to Israel for free in order to solidify their Jewish identities and explore their Jewish roots.

“This is my Birthright-Catholicism type trip,” Cuenin said. “For the Catholic students, I wanted them to see the roots of their faith. For everyone [on the trip], I wanted them to see the great influence of Greco-Roman culture [on the world].”

“For me, this was a great opportunity,” Mynette said. “At Brandeis, I always question my faith. This gave me an opportunity to pray and meditate and recharged my spiritual life.”

To help fund the expensive trip, Cuenin raised money from local parishioners and donors. The students also had to pay $600, a relatively small sum for such a trip, which included food costs and room and board.

The group stayed at the iQ in Rome, a four-star hotel complete with vending machines stocked with bottles of wine for a small cost of 5 euros.

The group toured a variety of places from Rome, the holy city of Catholicism, to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis and the Franciscan Religious Order.

In Rome, the travellers saw great ancient ruins including the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon and more.

They then toured Vatican City, where they experienced an explosion of history and culture: St. Peter’s Square and Basilica, the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.

Despite the Catholic theme of the trip, the group included two Jewish students.

“I did it as a trial run; I want to expand the trip to include more people,” Cuenin

GUIDED TOUR: The Rev. Walter Cuenin taught the group of students about religion and culture while standing outisde the Pantheon on their Rome trip. explained. “When you are with someone from another faith, you learn you are connected, even though you are different,” he said.

David Azer ’11, one of the two Jewish students involved in the trip, chose the trip after being approached by Cuenin and seeing the irresistable itinerary and unbelievably low price.

“I’m really glad I went. As a Jewish person, I felt really comfortable. People were very willing to answer questions. I could definitely sense the spiritual energy of the place.”

The group was fortunate enough to receive a blessing from the Pope during Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, which aired on live television.

“I’m not sure how many people there were; maybe 1,000,” Azer said.

“People speaking all kinds of languages: people from the English-speaking world,

Spanish-speaking countries and Chinesespeaking people.”

“There was an awareness that, although we came from different countries, we’re all connected by our faith,” described Cuenin. “To be with so many different people is amazing.”

The group also discovered the diversity within Catholicism—the different strata within the sect.

“A lot of people don’t understand that there are different dimensions to Catholicism,” Mynette said.

“Within the Catholic Church, there are so many different orders of Catholicism—that was enlightening to me,” Azer remarked.

The trip did not answer all questions, but it allowed students to ponder their religious identities and begin to explore different issues of religion and faith.

“I still have questions, but I did take time

to be connected with God,” said Mynette.

“When you are away from school, away from family, away from home, it allows you to investigate life from a very different perspective.”

It seems, however, that what the participants on the trip most appreciated was the incredible bonding that took place.

“Most of us did not know each other before. But now, we feel like a community,” Mynette said.

“I think I took with myself the relationships I made on the trip more than Rome itself,” Azer said.

Though the trip is over, the group has returned with new relationships and panoramic views that will hopefully continue to impact them.

“I’m going to tell people about it and encourage people at Mass to go,” assures Mynette. “It was more incredible than I could handle.”

Photos by Fiona Lockyer ♦ the Justice

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8

TUESDAY, march 8, 2011 ● THE JUSTICE

HOUSING: Options continue to CONTINUED FROM 1 It was the age of in loco parentis, when the school-mandated curfews required female students to sign in and out with their resident counselors and prohibited men—including fathers, brothers and uncles—from entering women’s dormitories at all times.

A Human Relations major, Babushka found “dormitory life an excellent laboratory experiment in democratic living.”

Today, students are huddling to discuss their housing options for next year, conspiring in the plentiful crevices of the modern 235-acre campus. Housing in 2011 is a far cry from the days of Babushka. New buildings have sprouted, including the Village and Ziv Quad; and some no longer stand, including the Cottages, a series of Victorian houses that lined the lower campus up until the 1980s. The first picks for housing this year will begin on March 15, and those with lucky numbers will have the privilege of choosing between a suite or a hall, a double or a single, living with the same gender or with a mix.

The options to overlook gender as a factor in choosing with whom to live—even in a double-occupancy room—became a reality in fall 2009 when Brandeis offered gender-neutral housing for the first time in its history.

For the students who spent years advocating its necessity to the Department of Community Living, the option could not have come soon enough. But in Babushka’s world, this freedom to choose was unfathomable.

The University was not alone in its separation of men and women in 1948. The majority of America’s private Eastern institutions at the time, including all of the Ivy League Universities except Cornell, were for men only.

The machismo identities of Harvard University and Columbia University had the affiliation of sister schools Radcliffe College and Barnard College. According to the Crimson archive, Harvard did not accept female undergraduate students until 1977; Columbia, the last Ivy League school to become co-educational, did not officially convert until 1983.

According to a 2008 america.gov article

by Jeffrey Thomas, the number of single-sex colleges for women in the country dropped from over 300 in 1960 to fewer than 60 at the time of publication. He wrote, “Of the 250 all-male colleges in the mid-1960s, only four remain entirely male today.”

Prof. Jacob Cohen (AMST), who teaches the course AMST 163b “The Sixties: Continuity and Change in American Culture,” attributes the progression to co-ed universities, and at Brandeis to coeducational dorms, to the “sexual revolution” and “the tremendous influence of youth culture in the 60s.”

“Birth control became possible, and the danger of unwanted pregnancy was dramatically reduced,” he explains. Cohen recalls how, during the “Sanctuary” movement at Brandeis in which students protested Viet-

MAPPING OUT HOUSING OPTIONS: A member of the Board of Trustees (left) discusses a map of the proposed plans for new campus housin nam, “the most radical students tore down gendered bathroom signs and stall walls because they felt it was an artificial separation between the sexes.”

At the time, it was called the “whorehouse on the hill” by some Waltham locals at the time, with liberal college students living in their traditional, working-class neighborhoods.

The records in the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections are somewhat murky on how the University progressed to co-ed dormitories, though equality between men and women soon came from the elimination of the price differences in room rates. In 1951, men were charged fees ranging from $175 to $285 while women paid between $150 and $290. Today, the prices dif-

fer on the basis of how many people live with you and where you live.

In 1963, Brandeis founder and then-President Abraham Sachar proposed a new plan to loosen restrictions on single-sex housing.

East Quad, then the first suite-style living option on campus, was developed that year with student input on the design. Several parents fumed at the thought of sons and daughters living in closer quarters, and so began the student outcry to dismantle the rules of Brandeis’ beginnings.

To assuage parents, the presumed payers of tuition, Sachar instated an open-door policy on March 2, 1964 requiring men and women to leave their dorm room doors ajar during co-ed visiting hours. “All dorms may, upon the approval of the majority of their

residents and in consultation w dence staff and the residence offi their own policy on local closin coeducational visiting hours,” a the 1970 to 1972 Student Handboo In a letter to parents regardin tice of the open-door policy, Stud President Steven Mora ’65 wro just say that Brandeis students w stantly told of their scholastic ex asked to deal with the most di lems of science and the liberal ar ficult to understand that they ar of making decisions about the pr confront them in their personal l As Brandeis students joined t picketing Senator McCarthy’s witch-hunt, the laws of Jim Crow

In 1947, Brandeis delays its opening as a result of a lack of housing. The solution is two imported war barracks used to house females.

In 1963, East Quad is built. Men and women live in the same suite-style housing complex for the first time.

In 1 den aga ope poli req doo ope co-e hou

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT D. FARBER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

In 1948, the University opens. The first incoming class consists of 107 students.

According to the 1950-1951 handbook, maid or porter service is provided for dormitory rooms, as well as bed linens and towels, which are renewed weekly.

In 1952, Massell Quad is built. Three of the four current buildings are erected.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT D. FA

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

progress from Brandeis’ beginning

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT D. FARBER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

ng with Eero Saarinen, the first campus master planner (right).

with the resiice establish ng hours and according to ok. ng the injusdent Council ote, “Let me who are conxcellence and ifficult probrts find it difre incapable roblems that lives.” the nation in communist w and, not to

mention, the draft of the Vietnam War, they voiced similar concerns about the authority of the University to determine what students would do behind closed doors, ultimately leading to the removal of the open-door policy.

Curfews were debunked around the time of the open-door policy, according to the University Archives. The 1969 to 1970 Student Handbook was the last mention of these types of rules at Brandeis; it was up until this year that women needed to get permission to leave campus on weekends. No one was allowed to exit the dormitory after 11:30 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends and had to remain in the living quarters until 7 a.m. If the clocks in the dorms were not synchronized, Babushka warns her peers, they

1964, stunts protest ainst the en-door icy, which quires room ors to remain en during ed visiting urs.

“better find out which time is official.”

To further Brandeis’ progression, the University created Shapiro Residence Hall in 1970 to house 72 women and 72 men, the first co-ed dormitory on campus. Students lived in rooms with same-sex peers but now could share a hall with the opposite gender.

The parental concerns regarding mixedgender floors then mirror those regarding mixed-gender rooms today. Some parents worry that their children who opt to live with the opposite gender, “are going to fall in love and everything’s going to fall apart.”

Kelsey Strouse ’13 recounts that particular reaction of her mom to her living in a double-occupancy room with a close male friend.

Strouse notes that her mom has since grown used to the idea.

But members of Triskelion, Brandeis’ primary LGBTQ student group, fought to overturn the parents’ and administration’s assumptions that sexual attraction was inherently linked to gender.

Zachary Spence ’11 was involved in the gender-neutral housing negotiations with the Department of Community Living in 2008 as a self-described “impassioned” member of Trisk and is now the Chairperson of TransBrandeis, the on-campus group for transgender students. He recalls in an interview with the Justice the “difficult and long process” to get to today’s gender-neutral options.

When Spence was a first-year, the DCL staff member “helping [Trisk]”–he emphasizes the quotation marks with his fingers– create a plan for gender-neutral housing stressed the importance of keeping the initiative “a secret until it’s ready to be unveiled, revealed.” Spence sighs, pressing his hand to his bang-covered brow; “Every year, genderneutral housing just didn’t happen,” he says.

Spence feels that DCL’s primary hesitation in its negotiations with Trisk, that gender-neutral accommodations would simply lead to men and women using the option to tumble in bed, is an “extremely heteronormative” assumption. “We’re not going to have an orgy in our rooms.”

Spence understands firsthand the importance of gender-neutral accommodations.

He began his Brandeis career registered as female. “When I was applying to Brandeis, I didn’t know the first thing about gender.” He remembers sitting down with his first-year roommate, admitting to her, “I really wish that I was a boy.” Her response of “Well, why don’t you be one?” surprised Spence and gave him the support necessary to begin to transition.

“Sometimes people confuse me for a woman, and I’ll have a day where people have referred to me with all of the wrong pronouns,” he laments, plopping his arms on the rests of his loveseat.

Despite the adversity, Spence’s petite build radiates the sturdiness and self-assuredness

In 1968, students protesting Vietnam tear down bathroom signs and stall walls protesting the “artificial separation between the sexes.”

ARBER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

of a humble football quarterback. At our interview, he sports a charcoal v-neck sweater; black jeans; and white, fur-trimmed snow boots. The pensive, nonabrasive nature of his voice speaks loudly to personal experience.

On the difficult role of being a public advocate for an issue as personal as gender, he secures his black-rimmed spectacles to the bridge of his nose and pauses to think before speaking.

Spence has not needed to use gender-neutral housing at Brandeis because, when he decided to room with his female-bodied firstyear roommate again for sophomore year, he was still registered with DCL as female. Now in his senior year, Spence lives in a single in a Ridgewood suite, so he once again does not have to worry about defining his gender for DCL. But true to the word of DCL, Spence admits, gender-neutral housing began his junior year, just 1 year after he became a part of the initiative. He praises DCL for its effort to explain the initiative to the campus and parent community. “They fielded all of the concerns they were getting from parents and then created a webpage where they posted [the concerns] and addressed them. They were really good at explaining what needed to be said.”

As Brandeis announced its new genderblind options for fall 2009, Spence spent the year studying abroad in Japan and clashed with the administration of his program over his transgender identity. On his program’s field trip to an isle inn, Spence was assigned to a six-occupant women’s bedroom. When he approached the administrative assistant about the rooming mistake, “She looked at me and said ‘You look like a woman so you are going to be in a woman’s room.’ I was like ‘hmm,’” Spence reenacts, shaking his head at the “unbelievably rude” statement.

The people on his program rallied together and eventually got a gender-neutral room, but this experience gave Spence a newfound appreciation for the progress that had been made thus far at Brandeis.

“In an ideal society, there is a lot that can be done. One of the things that I would like to happen that I feel won’t happen, at least not anytime soon, is for first-years to have a gender-neutral housing option.” At this point, Spence describes, first-years basically have to out themselves to Community Living in order to receive a single because of their gender identity.

Degenderizing bathrooms is also on Spence’s agenda. “Really, bathrooms don’t need to be gendered. Okay, that’s me,” he pauses to personalize the belief. But he continues to discuss the inconvenience of randomly located single-sex bathrooms where there is no opposite-sex accommodation in sight. Right now, he is working with other members of

Trisk to change the bathroom door signs across campus so that, he states, “we stop sending this message that bathrooms are heavily gendered according to a binary.”

In buildings like East, now converted to dorm-style halls, there are often three bathrooms per floor: one female, one male and one gender-neutral.

However, the luxury of three bathrooms is not consistent throughout campus, especially on single-sex floors.

Today, there are still students who opt to live on a hall with only people of their gender. Allie Saran ’13 chose to live on an all-girls floor ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF UNIVESITY for her first year ARCHIVES at Brandeis, and CARTOONING CURFEW: unlike many of Old University handher hallmates books used cartoons as who chose the a method to stress the floor because of importance of returning to religious, cultural or parental the dorms on time. influences, she admits that, “I thought it would be weird to see naked guys walking down the hall.”

Senior Director of Community Living Jeremy Leiferman said in an interview that “As we were exploring gender-neutral housing, we talked a lot about the dichotomy of needs and interests of our population … both for gender-neutral options and for singlesex options. And I think we’ve done it fairly successfully by trying to maintain both aspects.”

It’s about balancing the needs of the different students on campus.

Brandeis was one of only a little more than 30 colleges nationwide working to offer gender-neutral housing in 2008 according to a Boston Globe article titled “Just Roommates” by Peter Schworm.

That’s pretty progressive for 63 years of existing.

What would Babushka say?

In 1977, Harvard accepts female undergraduates for the first time.

In 1987, Ziv Quad is built.

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF EMILY SMIZER

In 2009, gender-neutral options become available at Brandeis.

GENDER-NEUTRAL PRIDE: Emily Smizer ’11, a Queer Resource Center coordinator, drew this graphic as a simplistic representation of gender-neutral housing options at Brandeis. The image is adapted from the “I support gender-neutral housing at Brandeis” Facebook group.

DESIGN BY DEBRA FRIEDMANN

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THE JUSTICE

Justice Justice

the the

Established 1949, Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Established 1949

Brian Fromm, Editor in Chief Rebecca Blady, Managing Editor Brian N. Blumenthal, Production Editor Emily Kraus, Deputy Editor Ian Cutler, Asher Krell, Nashrah Rahman, Robyn Spector and Jillian Wagner, Associate Editors Fiona Lockyer, News Editor Dafna Fine, Features Editor Eitan Cooper, Forum Editor Jeffrey Boxer, Sports Editor Wei-Huan Chen, Arts Editor Yosef Schaffel and Tali Smookler, Acting Photography Editors Debra Friedmann, Layout Editor Marielle Temkin, Copy Editor Cody Yudkoff, Advertising Editor

New abroad choices promising On March 1, the Office of Study Abroad announced that the University is co-sponsoring a study abroad program in Israel with Middlebury College beginning in spring 2012. Earlier this semester, the office announced that the Brandeis in The Hague program will become a semester-long study abroad option next year as well. This board commends the Office of Study Abroad for implementing these new programs and hopes that Brandeis continues creating its own study abroad programs in the future.

Sponsoring study abroad programs enhances Brandeis’ reputation internationally as a global university. Students and faculty have opportunities through these programs to foster relationships with others around the world, and the University’s brand name will benefit from the additional exposure.

From the students’ perspectives, Brandeis-sponsored programs make the study abroad application process easier and far more streamlined. This board has already noted in the past that this process is problematic. As the system currently stands, students must apply twice: to Brandeis and to their study abroad programs. If the programs are contained within Brandeis, the application process is significantly shorter. In the same vein, having University staff resources available in case problems or questions about the applications arise, would be invaluable to students who currently need to contact representatives from programs in other countries.

Minimizing the amount of required paperwork can act as an incentive for students who feel the current application process is unnecessarily tedious and en-

School’s reputation enhanced courage more undergraduates to study abroad.

This board hopes that the Office of Study Abroad will continue pursuing similar programs in other countries.

One potential resource could be the Brandeis-India Initiative. Since the University already encourages students to pursue internships and study abroad programs in India, perhaps it could take advantage of existing relationships and begin sponsoring its own endeavor there.

Faculty were able to propose ideas for Justice Brandeis Semester courses when the program began; this page encourages undertaking a similar method for conceiving of new study abroad programs.

University professors have a variety of interests and passions, and their existing relationships with other academics across the world could benefit students and the University as a whole. Professors should have knowledge of existing university resources, and they also are in close enough contact with students to know which programs have a chance of succeeding. The Office of Study Abroad would do well to utilize their insights in considering ideas for future undertakings.

Overall, this board is excited about the potential that the two Brandeis-sponsored programs hold for the University.

Both students and faculty will benefit if Brandeis increases its presence abroad by sponsoring additional programs and providing unique opportunities for members of this community, and we hope that the Office of Study Abroad continues to work toward that end.

GPS tracking benefits student life This board wishes to express its excitement at the new GPS tracking system that has been installed in the Crystal Shuttles and is currently undergoing beta testing. This system, once launched, will allow students to monitor the location of the buses on their computers or Internet-connected mobile phones on a map in real time. Students without Internet access on their mobile phones will be able to send a text message to the service and receive an automated response with the time of the next anticipated bus arrival. Considering that students will be able to access the tracking system while away from their computers, the system will prove very useful for anyone who is currently frustrated with waiting outside in the cold for a bus. This board believes the benefits of this system should also be extended to include the BranVans.

Many students, whether returning from a night at Harvard Square or just trying to get to their morning class, find themselves either showing up at the shuttle stop a few minutes late and wondering whether the bus has already come or rushing to make a bus that ultimately arrives behind schedule. Once the tracking system is in place, students will simply be able to check their phones or computers and know when to leave for the bus stop at an appropriate time.

This board is surely in favor of this new system, but we also recommend

System will lessen wait time that it be implemented in all BranVans as well. Because of the 1 1/2-hour cycle time of the Boston Crystal Shuttle, lateness has not been as large of an issue for those buses as it has for the campus and Waltham BranVans, which are often under a greater time pressure and are frequently late. Furthermore, when students call for a BranVan pickup, they are told the time that the van departs from the Main Gate instead of the time that the van will reach their stop, leaving students to guess what time the van will arrive. If Public Safety installs the GPS tracking system in BranVans, students can simply check the tracking system to correct their prediction of the van’s arrival time.

We recognize that the cost may be prohibitive to install the system in BranVans in addition to the Crystal Shuttles at this time, so this board is not opposed to Public Safety using the rest of this semester as a trial period with a plan to add the system to BranVans in the near future.

The new GPS tracking system, once launched, will provide an important service to students that has been missing until now. We are excited to reap the benefits of the system; however, Public Safety should take the next step as soon it is financially feasible and install GPS trackers in the BranVans as well.

A. ELI TUKACHINSKY/the Justice

Embrace new Auschwitz exhibit Rebecca

BLADY mAelström

OP-BOX Quote of the Week “We’re not going to have an orgy in our rooms.”

—Zachary Spence ’11 on gender-neutral housing options (See Features page 9).

Brandeis Talks Back What was your reaction when you got your housing number?

It’s hard to imagine good news coming from Auschwitz, the infamous site of the deaths of more than 1.1 million men, women and children during the Holocaust. But in the middle of last month, some heartening news materialized from the ashes that lie on the camp’s grounds. On Feb. 18, The New York Times reported that those responsible for preserving Auschwitz, a crucial piece of evidence in the history of global genocide, are redesigning the exhibition at the camp.

In the aftermath of World War II, Auschwitz was transformed into a museum with exhibitions and memorial sites that attract 600,000 tourists each year, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel. For nearly 60 years, those tourists have experienced Auschwitz in a raw form, as the landscape, barracks, gateway and other structures have remained mostly untouched in order to showcase the utter pain and evil the Nazis created for their victims.

In a sense, this method works. I had the opportunity to visit the camp when I spent a week in Poland on a trip called March of the Living several years ago, and walking into the camp beneath the notorious, glaring sign, which reads Arbeit Macht Frei—“work makes one free”—did have a significant effect. The sign, a public symbol in contemporary discourse on Auschwitz, is heavy on the eyes. I recall experiencing a sinking sensation, a deepening fear of seeing the evidence with my own eyes. Did I really want to keep walking into Auschwitz?

But my experience in Auschwitz cannot speak for all—nor should it. Everyone should take time and think seriously about how to connect with this episode of mass murder on a personal level. Sixty years later, however, time and distance from the tragic events have obscured the alarmingly personal effect that even just the idea of Auschwitz and Birkenau has on people.

While some people like myself have natural connections to the Holocaust, most people today—especially our generation—are too far removed from the trauma to properly commemorate it.

Piotr Cywiski, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, said that the revamped exhibition at Auschwitz would explain step-by-step to visitors the process of extermination, describing in detail what concentration camp victims experienced. The exhibit would add a very human element to one’s visit to Auschwitz. Cywiski said, “Our role is to show the human acts and decisions that took place in extreme situations here ... So, we may pose the question, should a mother give a child to the grandmother and go to selection alone, or take the child with her? This was a real choice, without a good solution, but at Auschwitz, you had to make the choice.”

This won’t have the same jarring effect that seeing the inside of a barrack which my grandmother slept had on me; I would never expect the average visitor to experience the same mental tumult. But the prospect of making these frightening choices takes the entire visit to Auschwitz to a new level. It’s not merely a museum exhibition, complete with the original wooden barracks and gas chamber parts. Haunting as those may be, Auschwitz will now invite everyone to deliberate over the same intense moral decisions that prisoners faced.

And this seems to me like a prime destination for students like us. Brandeis students are known to be globally conscious.

Undoubtedly, we all have various places in mind we’d like to visit, different things we’d like to learn and a wide range of cultures we’d like to encounter—all, of course, while we’re still young and curious and ready make a difference. For sophomores, the study abroad deadline has just passed; many juniors and seniors have already studied abroad or have otherwise gotten a taste of traveling. I would encourage everyone to add Auschwitz to your list, regardless of where you are in your studies and regardless of your career path and life plans. You won’t take the same kinds of happy photos as you would near the Eiffel Tower or the Vatican. But Auschwitz has an aesthetic value all its own.

Auschwitz is a place that makes you think. Fear your journey there, but plan it anyway. Moving forward into the future, it is vital that students approach World War II history with the same interest as they traditionally give the rest of Western Europe. The museum’s directors understand this; they want you to come. They want to give you an experience. Let them, for there are few places on our planet where you can experience this type of catharsis.

Julie Bauer ’14 “I was good with my number. But my friend’s number was better.”

Sivan Levine ’13 “Oh my God, I cried.”

Sam Porter ’14 “I was pretty indifferent. ”

Elliot Lustig ’13 “Looks like I’m getting pulled in by a friend of mine.”

—Compiled by Eitan Cooper Photos by Tali Smookler/ the Justice

THE JUSTICE

READER COMMENTARY Pachanga decision was correct In response to your article “Next Pachanga to take place in spring 2012” (News, Feb. 15): Seeing a situation from another’s viewpoint is part of the quality of empathy, which is a quality that U.S. President Barack Obama often mentions. Only seeing a situation from one’s viewpoint may not give one the most mature and considered judgment of a situation.

The Pachanga event, and like events that take place every day in every city in the world, bring out the potentially worst in good people—students, police and administrators. And it leaves good people with serious consequences, including danger to life and limb, that need to be dealt with. Everyone in the Brandeis community wants to do good. So many have contributed and sacrificed since 1948. So much has been accomplished since 1948, and the challenges facing today’s Brandeis student are perhaps greater than ever. But I am confident that with mature and disciplined behavior, all challenges can be met.

All Brandeis students, past and present, have been given much by Brandeis’ founders, administrators, and faculty. But there is another side to the coin. I understand that students (past, present and future) like to party. Most people do. But there is plenty of opportunity for wild parties “on your own dime.”

By creating a volatile and almost impossible situation for yourself, the police and administration, you are hurting the whole Brandeis University community, past and present. This event creates such a waste of precious resources that could be used to truly help Brandeis students in various aspects. We have freedom in this country to take responsible and irresponsible actions, but one does not have the right to put another in the position of bearing the consequences of one’s own irresponsible actions.

—Jordan E. Bublick, ’79 P’12

Editorial comments disappointing In response to your editorial “Pachanga hiatus disappointing” (Feb. 15): I am a little disappointed in the editorial comments. As an alum who threw parties during my tenure at Brandeis in an effort to increase the social outlets, it is unfortunate that Brandeis still faces the same issues as when I was a student.

Students for sure need to learn their limits, however shutting down parties is not the way to address it. Brandeis has a long-standing reputation as a great academic institution that has no social life. It’s really a shame, because I believe it hurts our rankings, alumni connection to the school and quality of students we attract. The administration should really look hard at this issue and address it at its core. Shutting down events is one way to handle it, but others are putting controls in place in order to allow for on campus social events.

At the end of the day, though, it is the responsibility of the students to look out for one another and make sure no one is overly intoxicated to the point of serious bodily harm. Drinking and drugs happen regardless of whether a party exists or not. Address the core issue and teach students about the effects of drinking and how to handle situations.

—Chris O’Connor ’02

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Atheists on campus require support Shafaq

Hasan Into the Fire

I am an atheist. No, I am not morally askew because I don’t follow a religion. I’m not in need of guidance. And I’m not interested in dissuading anyone from his or her own beliefs. However, I am becoming more and more aware of the isolation other members of this minority must feel on the Brandeis campus where the presence of religion is so strongly stated.

Contrary to what is commonly perceived by outsiders, Brandeis is religiously diverse and the University attends to all of these religions graciously. With an interfaith chaplaincy, it would be difficult to make the argument that Brandeis doesn’t make every effort to welcome every faith. However, my issue isn’t with the actual presence of religion on campus. Rather, my issue is with the lack of community for the nonreligious.

Nearly a year ago when I discovered I had been accepted to Brandeis, I gave little thought to the school’s large Jewish population. I never anticipated that I would regret the absence of a community when surrounded by individuals who habitually come together to participate in their faith. Arguably, this strong presence of religion is inconsequential if the nonreligious had a community of their own to retreat to.

However, as of right now, this society doesn’t exist.

What makes the Jewish population on this campus so overwhelming is the united community these individuals have and the numerous organizations that have sprouted from this community, including the Brandeis Orthodox Organization and the Brandeis Reconstructionist Organization. Similarly, other religions have the Muslim Student Association, and Catholic Student Organization.

Atheists on campus do have the Brandeis Humanists club, a club which contends that students can lead “fulfilling and meaningful lives without the influence of religion.” Given that, theoretically, we have the potential of a community, what is preventing atheists from finding their niche on this campus?

Perhaps it’s the stigma and judgment still associated with atheism in our society that prevents people from openly acknowledging their beliefs. When taking into account the ever-increasing religiosity of our country, especially apparent in political issues, atheists are some of the most distrusted members of society, as corroborated by a 2003 study by the University of Minnesota. In a corresponding 2006 study, also conducted by the University of Minnesota of 2,000 random candidates, 39.5 percent believe atheists do not share their idea of the American society. Understandably, atheists negate the core religious structure of our country—they marginalize themselves. Even now, the Boy

MARA SASSOON/the Justice

Scouts of America have barred atheists or agnostics from becoming members or leaders in their organization.

In a similar case of discrimination, the nowretired Chief of the National Guard Bureau Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum openly condoned the disparagement of atheist soldiers because, as they have no religion, they don’t have freedom of religion. The presence of a strong secular community can help individuals cope with the discrimination and difficulties of living as an atheist. With the inability to come together in a mosque, temple or church, atheists forego the social aspects that are found in religious congregations.

While atheists don’t need the texts, traditions and customs of a religion, the community sense of religion is a feature that is both desirable and recommended for the nonreligious. As creatures that naturally search for belonging, atheists can benefit from the psychological support and comfort of a community. But is it even possible to unite people on the basis of non-belief?

The recent increase of secular groups on college campuses demonstrates that it is. According to the Secular Student Alliance, secular organizations have increased by 43 percent from 2009 to 2010. Moreover, the number of SSA—affiliated groups on campuses has risen from 159 to 225 in a year with chapters at prominent col-

leges, such as Stanford University, Yale University, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and Harvard University.

Whether there simply are more nonreligious college students or because more are coming forth and partaking in these secular organizations, this increase indicates that students are forming communities to support each other and their shared beliefs. It is just as important for students on this campus to showcase their non-belief as it is for the Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus or Buddhists to declare their belief systems.

While the Brandeis Humanists club exists, it seems to lack a significant presence on campus. The isolation of this minority is only felt if there is no support system or community in place. Certainly, the current membership of this organization does not reflect how many individuals on campus consider themselves nonreligious.

However, this group is just a platform for coming together and discussing our beliefs and non-beliefs. Our essential task is to vocalize our doubts and ideas in an intellectual forum because there is strength in numbers. Congregating under a common identity where we can each affirm that we are not the only atheists or agnostics on campus is the start of a successful secular community.

Israeli-Palestinian advocacy a failure at Boston University Elizabeth

Stoker Brevity

Last Monday, I came across a link on a news site that intrigued me. The headline read, “Students For Justice in Palestine at Boston University Need Your Help!” Being a helpful person, I looked into the story, and found a blog post belonging to the Students for Justice in Palestine at Boston University, which detailed an email exchange between their organization and a group they described as “campus Zionists.”

“Below,” read the post, “is a threatening e-mail that BU SJP received and its response.”

“To Whom It May Concern,” began the supposedly threatening letter, “It has come to the attention of the Boston University Students for Israel (BUSI) that next week is Israeli Apartheid Week and that in recognition of this Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) will be constructing a mock ‘wall’ on campus. It is our concern that such a demonstration will only

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serve to sensationalize and simplify a most complex, nuanced, and profoundly serious situation. This will only inflame emotions, and incite hatred.”

So far, I didn’t feel particularly threatened.

I wondered what BUSI had in mind, if not the construction of a mock wall, to bring the conflict between Israel and Palestine to the attention of Boston University students. My question was answered soon enough: “It is our suggestion that SJP refrain from constructing such a structure and from sensationalizing the ArabIsraeli conflict. In place of this mock wall BUSI suggests that members of SJP and BUSI stand side-by-side next week to promote an organized forum for discourse between all parties!”

The suggestion put forth by BUSI seemed more than reasonable to me. After all, while demonstrations certainly have their place in any social movement, I believe that debate and discussion are far more constructive and have a perfect place in an academic setting. Yet, the BU SJP did not agree with BUSI or their perspective on the construction of the mock wall.

In fact, they responded a little less graciously.

“To BU Students For Israel,” their response began, “Our original plan for Israel Apartheid Week did not include building a replica of the

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Apartheid Wall. But after receiving an email threat and hearing that members of BUSI complained to [the Student Activities Office] about a wall we had not discussed, we decided to construct one.” I recalled, upon reading that, the realization that Isaac Babel had upon witnessing a pogrom in Czarist Russia: “My world is small and ugly.”

It disturbs me deeply that the conflict between Israel and Palestine has been reduced to a war of spite here in the United States, especially on college campuses, which should be hotbeds for intellectual discussion and debate.

What SJP decided to do was disappointing, but not unprecedented—Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue, once sent roast beef sandwiches to members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who protested the practice of wearing fur, for example. Yet, having reduced what should be a very involved consideration of a multifaceted issue to a hateful, spiteful competition is to reduce the import of the issue to that of a catfight between animal lovers and fashion designers. The sheer volume of lost human life and prolonged human suffering due to the conflict between Israel and Palestine should be evidence enough that it deserves well thought out discussion.

The Staff

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

A remaining point of concern is the fact that SJP felt comfortable categorizing the profoundly polite and sensible correspondence from BUSI as “threatening,” despite the inclusion of this line in the original BUSI letter: “We would like to emphasize that we are not demanding that SJP refrain from expressing the substance of your opinions. In fact, we are demanding nothing! We recognize your right to freedom of speech, and to express your beliefs by any peaceful means that you determine to be appropriate.” Calling them “campus Zionists” is perhaps the kindest action SJP took toward BUSI—though it can be expected that pointing this out will only result in false accusations of “crying anti-Semitism.”

If the discourse surrounding Israel and Palestine has degenerated into immaturity and spite in the academic institutions of the United States, I shudder to think of what the situation must be in states nearer to the conflict. It seems that any disagreement can now be branded a threat, and any objections to various methods of protesting labeled as attacks. Rarely do I maintain optimism when it comes to the affairs of states, but in this circumstance—here, in this country, in this region, in the world of academia—I really did think we could do better.

Editorial Assistants News: Sara Dejene, Andrew Wingens Arts: Emily Salloway Staff Senior Writer: Josh Asen Senior Illustrators: Rishika Assomull, A. Eli Tukachinsky News: Tyler Belanga, Daniel Heinrich Features: Dave Benger, Rocky Reichman, Deborah Salmon Forum: Hannah Goldberg, Shafaq Hasan, Rebecca Kellogg, Ethan Mermelstein, Liz Posner, Sara Shahanaghi Leah Smith, Avi Snyder, Elizabeth Stoker, Naomi Volk Sports: Julian Cardillo, Jonathan Epstein, Max Goldstein, Sam Liang, Jacob Lurie, Adam Rabinowitz, Natalie Shushan, Jonathan Steinberg Arts: Taylor Baker, Aaron Berke, Eric Chow, Alex DeSilva,

Leah Igdalsky Elly Kalfus, Morgan Manley, Amy Melser, Douglas Moore, Alex Pagan, Bryan Prywes, Sujin Shin, Shelly Shore Photography: Genevieve Armstrong, Amy Bissaillon, Lydia Emmanouilidou, Nathan Feldman, Morgan Fine, Nathaniel Freedman, Rachel Gordon, Hilary Heyison, Davida Judelson, Joshua Linton, Mansi Luo, Alex Margolis, Maya Shemtov, Diana Wang, Jonathan Wexler, David Yun, Janey Zitomer Copy: Taylor Baker, Rebecca Brooks, Allyson Cartter, Jacob Chatinover, Hilary Cheney, Erica Cooperberg, Philip Gallagher, Ariel Glickman, Patricia Greene, Celine Hacobian, Rachel Herman, Liana Johnson, Mailinh PhanNguyen, Maya Riser-Kositsky, Mara Sassoon, Dan Willey, Amanda Winn Layout: Nadav Havivi, Nan Pang, Denny Poliferno

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FORUM

Switch to Northeastern’s housing system Hannah

Goldberg Everything Illuminated

While desperately perusing this year’s online Unofficial Brandeis Housing Lottery Registry, I took comfort in my own number as I stumbled upon others’ dismay. Here are a just a few excerpts of what I came across—2089: “Bahahahahahahaha. Useless. Pull me in, someone beautiful” 1997: “A good year, but not such a great housing number. Ideally I’d love something with a kitchen, but will gladly live anywhere with walls and a roof.” 1705: “Would like to be pulled into a ziv or ridgewood if possible. I can clean, cook, and do tons of stuff.

Contact me on Facebook or by email.”

Then there were those who posted their numbers with an air of doomed humor—1983: “On one of my ID cards it says I was born in this year,” or 2200: “At least I got a round number,” or 2396: “Wish I could switch this with my SAT score lol!”

You might say that the Brandeis housing lottery is the only Brandeis tradition that degrades students’ dignity more than Pachanga.

For students who want to hold onto the “college experience” of on-campus dorm living for the last year or two of their college career, the knowledge that the last suite in Ziv ran out around lottery number 1200 last year is quite a cause for panic. This means that only about 12 percent of students may be above the fray of begging their friends to pull them in.

While I write this in only the grimmest of jest, it is important to recognize that where one decides to live will have a large impact on one’s happiness and lifestyle for the entirety of the coming school year.

While there are many students who may take pleasure in the kitchens, tranquility and separation from campus available to those who live in the Charles River Apartments, many prefer to thrive on the possibilities presented by living in a noisy, energetic and convenient location directly on the main campus.

Terrified of ending up separated from friends in a dorm that is not conducive to students’ lifestyles, year after year, the imminent doom of rooming selection inspires a cascade of alliances and agreements. These are followed by pity, broken promises, severed friendships, hurt feelings and drama, all taking place for the unnecessarily drawn-out timespan of a month.

The amount of frustration, anger and stress that accumulates over the course of this process makes it evident that this system is clearly flawed, and as such, an effort should be made to improve it.

There is no doubt that all of this drama is brought on by the shortage of on-campus housing. However, forcing an already small student population to negotiate with each other to fill the limited housing resources does nothing but exacerbate the stress of the situa-

RISHIKA ASSOMULL/the Justice

tion. It would be wise of Brandeis to consider devising a new approach to the situation.

Perhaps the University could institute a solution similar to the one utilized at Northeastern University. The Department of Community Living could request that students complete a form listing a group of friends who would like to live together and rank the available housing choices based on their preferences.

While this system would certainly still leave room for the drama involved in selecting groups, the month of foreboding uncertainty as well as the burden placed on students who receive better lottery numbers to pull in the multitude of friends and acquaintances who grovel for mercy by way of a pull-in would be

eliminated.

Though this alteration does not solve the problem of the lack of on-campus housing, it does alleviate the month of stress and deceit inherent in the current system. Students who still do not receive housing can be notified earlier than the end-of-March room selection dates and begin their independent searches for off-campus housing earlier.

Though it is impossible to expect the housing lottery system to be adjusted for this year, there are ways that the DCL could inform those in possession of lower numbers how many rising juniors or seniors have lottery numbers beneath theirs, in order to aid the planning of arranging living spaces available

exclusively to rising seniors.

If mostly juniors were issued the numbers between 1001 and 1100, seniors with high numbers can expect to select a Foster Mod. Additionally, the DCL should publish historical statistics of the number at which each type of housing ran out.

For example, should a rising senior with number 1169 plan on getting a Mod? If so, do four-person Mods or six-person Mods historically fill up quicker?

By the way, I’m definitely not above the fray: If anyone wants to pull me into Ridgewood Quad, let me know. I can provide a full set of silverware, pots and pans and perhaps maid service? I’ll pay you … ?

A proposal for a new Brandeis core curriculum Avi

snyder Voice of Reason

In the last issue of the Justice, I promised that I would use my next column to detail what I believe an ideal Brandeis core curriculum would look like. This week, I intend to do just that.

I believe that the educational goals of a Brandeis core curriculum ought to be fivefold.

The first goal should be providing every student with a basic understanding of Western philosophy and literature. Although the United States is certainly a multicultural society—it was built on a distinctly Western European set of ideas and cultural norms. As such, I believe that a truly well-educated Brandeis student ought to take a series of classes that teach the foundational texts of Western civilization. Each and every student in the University should be required to take Hum 10a, “The Western Canon.”

This class studies texts such as the Bible and the works of Virgil, Homer and Dante and requires students to think critically about the literary texts that have shaped the Western world for millennia. In addition, every Brandeis student should be required to take a class in West-

ern philosophy or political thought, in addition to a class that focuses on English Literature.

Our University must also focus on producing graduates who can be effective leaders in their communities and workplaces, and there are at least two skills vital to achieving such leadership ability: writing and speaking skills.

Brandeis already requires all students to take a University Writing Seminar, and that should not change. We also have a Writing Intensive requirement, which ought to remain in place, although with serious changes.

As our curriculum stands now, many writing intensive classes require about as much writing as many classes that don’t fulfill that requirement. In order to qualify as a writing intensive class, a class should require weekly short, analytical writing assignments. In addition, the class ought to require at least two long essays, and allow, as they already do, at least one revision on both papers.

Additionally, no foreign language classes ought to fulfill this writing requirement.

Brandeis does have an Oral Communication requirement; however, students may elect to take a second writing intensive class instead. That should not be permitted. Oral communication skills are a vitally important part of learning to be an effective leader, and thus, of a serious liberal arts education.

A good core curriculum emphasizes not only ideas and social consciousness, but also focuses on the technical knowledge that is required to bring about meaningful change in the modern

world. Thus, providing students with a working knowledge of the social, physical and natural sciences ought to be a goal of a Brandeis core curriculum.

To achieve that end, I believe that Brandeis ought to leave its School of Social Science requirement intact. However, our School of Science and Quantitative Reasoning requirements require modification. In place of a School of Science requirement, each student ought to have to take a class in the natural or physical sciences, whether it is chemistry, physics or biology. It is crucial that a liberal arts education includes a component that teaches students about the science which has led to such phenomenal social progress in the last centuries of human history.

Clearly, this would most likely require offering separate tracks for hard science classes because not every student can be expected to take “General Chemistry.” The University could offer separate classes in Chemistry for pre-med students, Chemistry majors and other sceince majors. Furthermore, every student should have to take a class in mathematics or formal logic, which will provide our students with invaluable analytical skills.

A good core curriculum will also teach students the value of cultural enrichment and the fine arts. I believe Brandeis already does a relatively good job at achieving this goal with our School of Creative Arts requirement. However, the criteria of what counts for a creative arts class ought to be tightened. For example, classes such as “Public Speaking,” which do not

expose students to the cultural arts, ought not fulfill this requirement. Rather, this requirement should focus on giving students a serious appreciation for theater, music and the fine arts.

Finally, any 21st-century university must provide its students with a global consciousness. Again, Brandeis is probably currently best at achieving this goal.

Our foreign language requirement should remain in place; however, students should not be allowed to place out of the requirement by using Advanced Placement test or SAT II scores alone. Only a test administered by Brandeis should allow students to place out of the language requirement. Furthermore, the Non-Western requirement should remain in place but become more focused. Every student should have to take one class that focuses on non-Western politics, philosophy or history and one class that focuses on non-Western literature or culture.

This core curriculum is certainly hefty, and no cross-listing would be allowed. However, our time as undergraduates ought to cultivate in us not only an expertise in one or several areas of study, but a working and broad-based knowledge of the world at large.

Brandeis is not only a research university but also a liberal arts university; we believe in giving our students a well-rounded education for education’s sake. I believe my core will achieve that goal and that our graduates will be better off for it.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

13

SPORTS

From the fairway to the

newsdesk IN GOOD COMPANY: ESPN golf columnist Jason Sobel ’97 sits down for an interview with Tiger Woods. “Tiger is remarkably unremarkable. ... He’s a normal guy,” Sobel said of his interactions with the world-famous golfer.

Jason Sobel ’97 has become a leading golf writer for ESPN.com By josh asen JUSTICE senior WRITER

During his sophomore year at Brandeis, Jason Sobel ’97 applied for a 50-hour-per-week job at the Metro section of the Boston Globe. The job was intended for students at Northeastern University, which helps place its undergraduates in full-time internships for a semester in its cooperative education program rather than taking classes, but the Globe still told Sobel to come for an interview.

Sobel wanted the job, even if it meant managing his classes and commuting into Boston during the week. As Sobel talked about his experiences at Brandeis and why he wanted the position, the interviewer sensed that Sobel wanted to write for the sports section rather than for news. He introduced Sobel to Don Skwar, the sports editor for the Globe, who gave Sobel a job on the spot that allowed him to work two to three nights per week.

Sobel’s start at the Globe, as well as his work for the Justice and the Middlesex News, launched him into the world of sports journalism, the field he has worked in since graduating from Brandeis as an American Studies major.

After beginning as a production assistant at ESPN, where he helped produce highlights for shows such as SportsCenter, Sobel is now the leading golf writer and blogger for ESPN.com.

He has conducted 21 consecutive live blogs during the four major championships that are played each year on the PGA tour.

“In my estimation, [golf is] by far the best beat to cover of any sport,” Sobel said. “You’re going to Pebble Beach [Calif.] or Augusta National [in Ga.] to watch the greatest guys in the world play golf, and your job is to be as close to them as possible.”

Sobel’s interest in golf began when he started playing at the Robert Moses State Park Golf Course in Babylon, N.Y. during the summer before his junior year at Brandeis. When he returned to campus that fall, Sobel asked Bob Brannum, the Brandeis golf coach at the time and a former Boston Celtics forward, if he could join the team. Brannum watched Sobel hit 10 balls into a net and told Sobel that he was not particularly talented. However, Sobel had something else to offer the team: a car. After telling Brannum that he would be willing to drive the team to practices, Sobel was given a spot on the team.

While on the golf team, Sobel did little beyond driving his teammates to and from practice each day. During his junior year, Sobel played in his only collegiate tournament at the New Seabury Country Club on Cape Cod after multiple Brandeis golfers fell ill or were unable to compete because of midterms. He finished in last place.

Despite his lack of success in playing, Sobel’s knowledge and passion for golf, as well as his

writing background, helped him become the golf editor for ESPN.com in 2004 when the website began covering golf online. While editing articles, he also wrote many of his own.

“At the time, we didn’t have any staff writers for our golf coverage,” Sobel said. “There was no content coming in because nobody was regularly writing for us. … I went to my boss and asked him if I could write something. I wrote a feature, and they liked it. Two days later, I asked if I could write something else. Literally for 4 years, it turned into two jobs. I was the editor of the section and also a full-time writer.”

Sobel typically spends 16 to 18 weeks every year traveling the country and other parts of the world covering golf tournaments. He typically arrives at the golf course at 6 a.m. and does not leave until 10 or 11 p.m. He used to follow the players around and watch the action live on the course, but now he often spends his time in the media room conducting his own live blog. He updates the blog every few minutes for people who are unable to watch the tournament or want to hear his own opinions on the day’s events.

Over the course of his career, Sobel has interviewed many of the world’s top players, including Tiger Woods. In 2008, Sobel spent the day with Woods while he promoted his video game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08. Despite talking with a celebrity as famous as the former No. 1 golfer in the world, Sobel found him to be a fairly average individual. “[Woods] is remarkably unremarkable,” Sobel said. “We sat next to each other on a bus in New York City and talked about the weather and the Yankee game the night before. We talked about going to the gym in the morning. He’s a normal guy. He’s a guy that likes sports and likes going out to games having a regular conversation with people.”

While Sobel’s successes at ESPN are evident, he believes that his experience as a writer for the Justice helped him understand how to develop his own tone and style for his stories. Sobel originally wrote for the News section and covered Student Union meetings but then decided to join the Sports section, which he thought he would enjoy more. Sobel wrote features and covered the men’s basketball team, giving players report cards on how well they played.

“I wanted to give people a taste of what I saw and what I really thought about it,” Sobel said.

“I incorporate what I did back then covering the basketball team with what I do now covering golf. I learned a lot about what I liked and how to develop my voice in writing those pieces for the Justice back then.” From interviewing for a news position at the Globe, Sobel is now living his dream as a sportswriter. You never know where opportunities may lie, Sobel said in conclusion. “Leave no stone unturned. Try everything. You never know. ... It might turn into something else.”

A FACE FOR NEWS: Sobel, pictured at a press conference, joined ESPN right after graduating from Brandeis.

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL: Sobel’s job involves him spending a lot of time on the fairways talking to golfers.

 Photos courtesy of Jason Sobel

14

TUESDAY, March 8, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

SPORTS

MBBALL: Judges win ECACs CONTINUED FROM 16 32.3-percent shooting in the first half.

The Trailblazers came out in the second half with full-court pressure, and stifled the Judges early on. The Trailblazers rallied off 13 straight points, and outscored the Judges 21-5 through the 12:24 mark. Trailing 51-45, the Judges found their rhythm and went on an 11-4 run to reclaim the lead with 9:23 left in the game. With the game tied at 63 apiece with just 4:32 remaining, forward Christian Yemga ‘11 fired a pass to Bartoldus who drained a 3-pointer to put Brandeis up for good. The Judges would hold the Trailblazers to just 3 points down the stretch on 0-of-9 shooting from the field. The Judges sank 5 of their final 6 shots.

Dascy and Bartoldus led all scorers with 20 points apiece, and combined for an impressive 64-percent shooting from the field. Dascy added a game-high nine rebounds, and Bartoldus matched a career high by shooting 80 percent from 3-point land. Yemga and guard Tyrone Hughes ’12 tied for a game-high five assists, and Hughes chipped in 6 points, five rebounds and four steals as well.

On Wednesday night, the Judges opened the tournament with a quarterfinals bout at third-seeded Keene State.

The Judges blanked the Owls down the stretch, scoring the game’s final 14

points and erasing a 7-point deficit in the process to win 84-77.

The Judges failed to find their stride in the first half, trailing the Owls 3930 going into halftime. 4 minutes into the second half with his team trailing by 11 points, Meehan called a crucial 30-second timeout to regroup. Meehan reminded the guys to keep taking good shots and not let Keene State run away with it.

“We just needed to stay composed and take good shots,” said Meehan.

“When you have guys taking good shots and they don’t go in, at least you’re giving yourself a chance to win games. We gave ourselves a chance to win that day.”

Meehan’s advice appeared to re-energize the Judges, as they rallied off 14 straight points to erase the deficit and take a 50-47 lead thanks to a 3-pointer from forward Vytas Kriskus ’12 with 12 minutes left in the game.

The Owls fought back to tie the game at 54 apiece 3 minutes later and subsequently took a 65-59 lead with 6:10 left.

With just over 3 minutes remaining in the game and the Owls holding a 5-point lead, Bartoldus was called for his fifth foul, and Meehan, clearly unhappy with the call, earned himself a technical, awarding the Owls a total of four free throws. The Owls would make just two of the four, with a miss coming

from Division III free throw percentage leader Ryan Martin, only his fourth miss in 103 attempts.

Over the next 59 seconds, Kriskus made his presence known, singlehandedly bringing the Judges back. Kriskus hit a 3-pointer, a trifecta of free throws and a layup, running off 8 straight points to permanently regain the lead for the Judges. Brandeis would add 6 more points to win 84-77.

“We took good shots, and when you have good shooters like Vytas [Kriskus] taking them, there is a chance things work out in the end,” said Meehan.

The Judges shot an astounding 81 percent from the field in the second half, missing just 4 of their 21 shots.

The Judges led the Owls in bench points, rebounds and held an impressive 40-18 advantage in points in the paint. Kriskus shot 6-of-8 from the field, going 4-for-6 from downtown and sevenof-seven from the foul line. Dascy added 24 points, and Hughes contributed 13 points and 5 steals.

“It’s a good feeling,” said Meehan. “It is basically a consolation tournament, and the only worthwhile thing is trying to deal with some of the problems you had in the regular season. We didn’t do a good job winning on the road, but by playing on the road three more times gives us some good momentum for next year.”

TRACK: Asante breaks record at ECACs CONTINUED FROM 16

with a length of 10.72 meters.

Capano also finished 21st in the long jump, jumping 4.85 meters.

Overall, the women placed 40th out of 45 competing teams.

Lemay was satisfied with the team’s overall performance. “This

was not a meet that everyone qualified for,” she explained. “Some people ran really well, such as [Sinjour], and others had off days. We just have to build upon these performances heading into Nationals next weekend.”

She also said that the team was very excited for Nationals. “We’re

really pumped,” she said. “It should be a great meet and we can definitely build upon some solid performances from ECAC’s.”

Both teams are set for their final indoor track meet of the season, the NCAA Division III Championships, at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.

FEBRUARY BREAK ACTION

ALEX MARGOLIS/Justice File Photo

MEMORABLE FINALE: Guard Mia DePalo ’11 (No. 20) and forward Amber Strodthoff (No. 44) played in their final games for Brandeis over February break.

Women’s basketball wins finale In their final game as members of the women’s basketball team, forward Amber Strodthoff ’11 and guard Mia DePalo ’11 combined for 32 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Judges past New York University 57-54 on Feb. 26 in the team’s regular season finale. The Judges finished the year 12-13 overall, 4-10 in the University Athletic Association.

“It was really a great way to end it,” Strodthoff said. “I couldn’t have asked more from my teammates because it was our championship game in essence. It was good to feel that success again.”

Strodthoff, an All-UAA honorable mention selection, led the team with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while DePalo recorded a team-high eight rebounds. Forward Courtney Ness ’13 contributed 8 points and seven rebounds in the win, and guard Morgan Kendrew ’12, a second-team All-UAA selection, finished with 8 points and two steals.

The Judges jumped out to a 17-7 lead in the first 5 minutes of the game, but NYU bounced back to cut the lead to 3 points with 8 minutes and 27 seconds left in the first half. However, the Judges went on an 11-0 run that lasted for 6:23, and they went into the half leading by

a score of 37-25.

At the start of the second half, the Violets scored the first 8 points and took the lead with two free throws by freshman forward Kelly Loughney. Despite the swing in momentum, DePalo hit a 3-point shot 15 seconds later to give the Judges a 2-point lead.

The Judges held the lead for the rest of the game, but led by just 2 points with 24 seconds left. A free throw from Ness extended the lead to 3, and a missed 3-point shot from NYU sophomore guard Maggie Ely snapped the Judges’ three-game losing streak.

“I feel like we went out and took control of the game ourselves,” Strodthoff said. “We went out with a goal to have fun and play hard, and we achieved that.”

The Judges will lose their second- and third-leading scorers in Strodthoff and DePalo next year, but they will retain Kendrew— who led the team with 12.9 points per game—and a young roster that consisted of seven first-years and three sophomores.

“I think [the team] learned a lot this year,” Strodthoff said. “I think they’re going to come back just as strong next year.”

—Josh Asen

Baseball starts the season 3-3 After a slow start to the season, the baseball team won its last three games in its yearly Florida swing, moving its record to 3-3 on the year. The squad lost twice to Davenport University and once to Augustana College over February break before defeating Farmingdale State College once and Grove City College twice. The Judges had five hitters bat over .300 on the trip. Utility Pat Nicholson ’11 hit .429 in his two games, while outfielder Nick Cortese ’13 and catcher/outfielder Kenny Destremps ’12 both started all six games and hit at .381 clips. Catcher Chris Ferro ’13 hit .368 on the trip and tied for the team lead with five runs with Destremps and shortstop/ outfielder Tony Deshler ’11. First baseman Eric Rosenberg ’11 hit .313 and also knocked in the gamewinning runs in the team’s first two games. A two-run Deschler single plated the tying and winning runs in the last game.

On the pitching side, Nicholson started twice, allowing just one run in eight innings of work. Mike Swerdloff ’13 threw a complete game in his only start and left Florida with a 1.74 ERA. Rookie Colin Markel ’14 was the team’s top relief pitcher, throwing five

shutout innings in three appearances.

Outfielder Zach Malis ’12 said that the team was excited about the results in Florida, as well as the team’s chances for the rest of the season.

“Although we did not start off great in the beginning of the week, we really came together and won our last three games,” he said.

“We are hoping to take that momentum and the camaraderie we showed into the [University Athletic Association] conference tournament and the rest of the year.

The team is definitely gelling and running on all cylinders in hopes of a successful season. We have great leadership at the top, from the coaches and upperclassmen, and the younger players are embracing the culture that Brandeis baseball tries to exemplify. We think this can be a special season for our team.”

The team is back in Florida this week and will compete in the UAA tournament beginning Thursday against Emory University.

—Jeffrey Boxer Natalie Shushan contributed reporting.

THE JUSTICE

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK Ben Bartoldus ’14

Judging numbers

19 7 6 9 7

years since the men’s basketball team’s last won the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament.

players who averaged 5 or more points per game for the men’s basketball team this season, four of whom were first-year players.

th-place finish for Devon Holgate ’11 in the 1-mile run at the ECACs last weekend. There were 30 competitors in the event.

-point halftime deficit overcome by the men’s basketball team in the semifinals of the ECAC Tournament. The team won the game 76-66.

th-place finish in the 1-mile run for Marie Lemay in the 1-mile run at the ECACs.

TUESDAY, March 8, 2011

15

BOSTON BRUINS BEAT Bruins fight back but fall to the Penguins in OT to snap win streak

■ The first-year guard was named MVP of the ECACs after propelling the Judges to their first postseason tournament championship since 1992.

Led by guard Ben Bartoldus ’14, the men’s basketball team won the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament last Sunday. Bartoldus was named the tournament’s most valuable player for his efforts.

Bartoldus averaged 8.6 points per game on 42.4-percent shooting over the first 21 games of his rookie campaign. At the ECACs, Bartoldus averaged 11.3 points per game and shot 68.4 percent from the field.

Bartoldus has been one of several first years who have contributed this year. The 6-foot-2 guard attended Proctor Academy in Andover, N.H. where he was a candidate for All-American honors in his senior year.

“It was a very competitive league and required very good performances night in and night out,” he said. “Proctor was great for me, I had a great coaching staff and was surrounded by great people. My high school basketball experiences were great and unforgettable.”

He also ran cross country and played baseball at Proctor, but basketball was always his favorite sport.

“My family is a big basketball family, and I don’t remember a time when a basketball wasn’t in my hand,” he said.

Although the team did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament, Bartoldus said that he has enjoyed his first year at Brandeis.

“I love Brandeis so far,” he said. “I am surrounded by the best teammates anyone could ever ask for. Our team chemistry on and off the floor is great; I love it. Our coaching staff is great too, couldn’t ask for

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COURTESY OF EASTERN CONNECTICUT UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

a better coaching staff; they are serious when it comes game time but can relax and joke around with you during downtime.”

With the team’s season now finished, Bartoldus said that he is optimistic about

next year.

“I am looking forward to next season and ready to put in a lot of off-season work this summer,” Bartoldus said. ­—Jonathan Epstein

UAA STANDINGS Men’s Basketball

Women’s Basketball

UAA Conference Overall

W L W L Pct. Rochester 12 2 22 5 .815 Emory 11 3 20 5 .800 WashU 7 7 13 12 .520 Chicago 7 7 10 15 .400 JUDGES 6 8 19 9 .679 Case 5 9 9 16 .360 NYU 4 10 16 11 .593 Carnegie 4 10 7 17 .292

UAA Conference Overall

W L W L Pct. Chicago 14 0 24 3 .889 WashU 11 3 22 5 .815 Rochester 10 4 21 6 .778 Case 7 7 13 12 .520 NYU 6 8 12 13 .480 JUDGES 4 10 12 13 .480 Emory 4 10 11 14 .440 Carnegie 0 14 2 23 .080

Not including Monday’s games

Not including Monday’s games

FINAL TEAM LEADERS Men’s BBall (points per game)

Women’s BBall (points per game)

Youri Dascy ’14 led the team with a 10.7 points-per-game average.

Morgan Kendrew ’12 led the team with a 12.9 points-per-game average.

Player PPG Youri Dascy 10.7 Vytas Kriskus 9.7 Ben Bartoldus 8.6 Tyrone Hughes 8.6 Derek Retos 7.1

Player PPG Morgan Kendrew 12.9 Amber Strodthoff 9.0 Mia DePalo 7.5 Kelly Ethier 5.2 Kasey Dean 4.0

Men’s BBall (rebounds per game)

Women’s BBall (rebounds per game)

Christian Yemga ’11 led the team with 5.5 rebounds per game.

Amber Strodthoff ’11 led the team with 6.0 rebounds per game.

Player RPG Christian Yemga 5.5 Youri Dascy 5.0 Vytas Kriskus 4.2 Tyrone Hughes 3.4 Alex Schmidt 2.9

Player RPG Amber Strodthoff 6.0 Samantha Anderson 4.7 Mia DePalo 4.2 Kasey Dean 3.3 two tied with 3.2

UPCOMING GAME TO WATCH Baseball and softball at UAA Tournament The baseball and softball teams will be in Florida to compete against UAA foes.

The baseball and softball teams both travel to Florida this weekend to compete in the University Athletic Association Tournament.

The baseball team was in Florida over February break, earning a 3-3 record.

The softball team has yet to compete this season. At the UAA Tournament last

season, the baseball team went 1-4. The softball team finished with a 5-3 record on its way to being nationally ranked and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.

The baseball team is slated to play six games this weekend, beginning Thursday. The softball team will play seven.

For the 2010 to 2011 season, justSports has been given a press pass to attend Boston Bruins home games. We will cover these games periodically throughout the year.

Outside of the locker room before the game, the Boston Bruins played soccer and hacky sack, confident and calm, with the air of a team riding a seven-game winning streak.

But, the locker room at the end of the game had a very different tone, as the depleted Pittsburgh Penguins, playing their second game in as many days, outplayed the Bruins and ended their streak in a hard-fought, 3-2 overtime win.

“They outskated us,” Bruins goalie Tim Thomas said.

“They didn’t look like they played back-to-back games. They were playing playoff style of hockey. They were getting the puck in deep, forechecking and getting the puck in our zone.

That is why we had so much trouble with them. We were fortunate to get the 1 point.”

The Bruins came into last Saturday’s game riding a seven-game winning streak that solidified their position on top of the Northeast division and second in the Eastern Conference with 83 points. The Penguins had lost stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for the season because of injury and had played the night before. All signs pointed to a tired and shorthanded Penguin team. However, it was the Bruins who came out flat.

“I thought that we didn’t have our best game, that’s for sure,” Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara said “We had heavy legs, we didn’t skate well, we didn’t move the puck well. On the other side, Pittsburgh played extremely well. They put a lot of pressure on us. They took away space and time and we couldn’t create much. … It almost felt like we were the team who played last night.”

The first period of play was hard-nosed, grind-it-out hockey, as neither team could find the back of the net. The Penguins outshot the Bruins 14 to 9, but neither team could get a foothold during an evenly played period. Bruins forward Shawn Thornton and Penguins center Michael Rupp each received 5-minute majors for fighting just 2 minutes, 59 seconds into the period, and Bruins forward Nathan Horton and Penguins forward Craig Adams fought 18:31 into the period, earning them each 5 minutes in the box. Otherwise, it was an uneventful first period of play.

The Bruins came out of the locker room at the start of the second period on the attack, and eventually found the back of the net with a goal by Chara, his 11th of the year, and his first goal since his Jan. 17 hat trick against the Carolina Hurricanes. Bruins center David Krejci found Chara streaking down the middle of the Penguins zone unopposed.

Chara handled the pass and fired into the top shelf past Pens goalie Marc Andre-Fleury 7:26 into the second period. The goal was Krejci’s 40th assist of the season. Wingman Milan Lucic also earned his 20th assist of the year on the goal.

The Bruins did not hang on to their lead for long, and began to fade before a Penguin offensive assault. It was only a matter of time before Penguins center Jordan Staal converted. Penguins forward Tyler Kennedy and Staal broke out on a two-on-one after Bruins defenseman Jonny Boychuk skated too far into the Penguins zone. Staal and Kennedy raced up ice, opposed by only Chara. Kennedy took Thomas out of position with a quick pass to Staal, who scored on the virtually empty net. The goal came 10:09 into the period and was Staal’s seventh of the year.

The goal did not end the Penguins’ intensity, as they continued to outskate the Bruins, and a minute later the Penguins took a 2-1 lead on a goal from forward Dustin Jeffrey. Penguins center Maxime Talbot passed to defenseman Zbynek Michalek for a one-timer, but Michalek’s shot was partially blocked. The puck landed in front of forward Dustin Jeffrey, who rifled the puck past Thomas for his sixth of the year at 11:19.

“Well, I think it was mostly us. We weren’t moving our feet at all,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “We were second to the puck if anything. At the same time you couldn’t establish a physical game because you never got there on time. So they were on the puck and we were doing a lot of watching. … They just took the game away from us at that point.”

An open third period saw the Bruins wake up, as they piled up numerous chances. But they seemed unable to score on Andre-Fleury, who finished with 29 saves, 11 of them coming in the third. The Penguins had their share of opportunities, but Thomas was also impressive with seven saves in the period.

The Bruins’ winning streak seemed all but over with 1 minute to go. Thomas was pulled, and Penguins forward Matt Cooke found the puck in the Bruins’ zone with a chance for an empty netter. However, he hesitated, and his shot was blocked by defenseman Tomas Kaberle. The Bruins took control of the puck, and raced down the ice. Krejci was left wide open in the middle, where forward Nathan Horton found him. Krejci fired a slap shot past Fleury to tie the game with just 37 seconds remaining. It was Krejci’s 11th goal of the year.

“There were a lot of things that happened,” Krejci said.

“All I know is that [Recchi] was the extra shooter and did a good job going to the goal. They went hard after the puck.

We tried to get a quick shot. I tried to pick the corner and it worked.”

The Bruins, could not capitalize in the overtime period as Jeffrey scored again for the Penguins to win the game. Bruins defensemen Dennis Seidenberg tried to pass to forward Michael Ryder, but the pass was intercepted by Jeffrey, who broke away from the defense and put the puck past Thomas.

“I made a very nice pass to the wrong guy. … They battled back, and I gave the puck away and got caught flat-footed, and they scored. It’s not fun,” Seidenberg said.

The Penguins improved to 38-21-8, with 84 points; and the Bruins fell to 38-19-8, but earned a point in the overtime loss and now have 84.

The Penguins have found wins hard to come by since losing Crosby and Malkin and have not won a game in regulation since a Feb. 4 3-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres.

“We’ve had a couple of overtimes we’ve lost at the end of a game, Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “[We] had to play back-to-back games. Just to get the reward from playing a hard-fought game on both sides of the ledger. To get two is a big statement from us.”

Both teams are in action tonight as the Bruins face the Canadiens in Montreal and the Penguins face the Sabres.

—Max Goldstein

just

Sports

Page 16

TEEING OFF

Jason Sobel ’97, a former Brandeis golfer and Justice writer, has made a career as a golf writer for ESPN, p. 13.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Waltham, Mass.

CHAMPIONSHIP BANNER

TRACK AND FIELD

Judges battle against top foes ■ The track and field team

had several top finishes at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships last weekend at NYU.

By ADAM RABINOWITZ JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF EASTERN CONNECTICUT UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

TITLE TOWN: With three straight victories, the men’s basketball team won the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament for the first time since the 1992 season.

Men battle back to win ECACs ■ The men’s basketball

team came from behind in dramatic fashion in two games to win the ECACs.

By JONATHAN STEINBERG JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Just one year before the 20th anniversary of its last Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III New England Men’s Basketball Championship, the sixth-seeded Judges upset top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors 65-50 last Sunday to bring the title back to Brandeis for the first time since 1992. Overcoming second-half deficits to Keene State College in the quarterfinals and the

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in the semis, the men’s basketball squad won its third ECAC title in school history.

Rookie guard Ben Bartoldus ’14 was named the tournament Most Valuable Player. Bartoldus finished the tournament with 34 total points in the three games, to go along with nine rebounds and five assists. He also shot 68.4 percent from the field, including five-ofeight from beyond the arc.

Coach Brian Meehan praised both Bartoldus and fellow rookie Youri Dascy ’14 as the top performers in the tourney.

“I look at them as co-MVPs,” Meehan said. “I think it’s certainly something that should motivate those guys.

They are both good players and with some more work, they can lead the

team to some more wins and more success.”

In the championship game against ECSU, the Warriors hit the first bucket of the game. However, it would be their only lead, as Brandeis responded with 10-straight points, to take a 10-2 lead. After a 10-3 comeback run by the Warriors brought them within one point with 9:29 left in the half, the Judges answered with a 9-2 run of their own to take a 22-14 lead with 6:07 remaining. The Judges defense would hold ECSU to just two baskets over the final 6 minutes and enter halftime with a 10-point lead. The Judges held the Warriors to just 38.1 percent shooting the first half.

The Judges came out of the locker room a little sluggish, allowing ECSU to score 6 of the half’s first 9 points.

However, the Judges regained their strength and went on a 6-2 run to reestablish an 11-point lead, and held at least a 9-point advantage for the rest of the game.

Guard Anthony Trapasso ’12 led the Judges in the second half, scoring all 12 of his points in the half, shooting 80 percent from the field and 3-for-4 from downtown.

In semifinals action, the Judges faced the Mass. College of Liberal Arts on ECSU’s home court. Facing a late second-half deficit for the secondconsecutive time, the Judges rallied to defeat the Trailblazers 76-66.

Leading the Trailblazers 40-31 at halftime, the Judges seemed to be in control, holding their opponent to just

See MBBALL, 14 ☛

AWARDS BRIEFS

Julian Cardillo ’14 named Northeast Conference Fencer of the Year Foil Julian Cardillo ’14 was named Fencer of the Year for the Northeast Conference. Cardillo’s record of 24-1 this season was best in a conference of 24 teams and nearly 400 fencers.

“It’s definitely an honor,” Cardillo said. “I had a pretty good season. I’m very happy with it. In the end, I just kind of fenced my game and I had some pretty good days. It was good to see Brandeis do well, and I was glad to be able to help the team.” Cardillo has been an asset to the Brandeis fencing team since coming out of St. John’s Preparatory School last year.

He said that the transition between programs has been smooth.

“High school fencing and college fencing are fenced the exact same way when it comes to format,” he said. “The pace of the college game is a lot quicker and more physically demanding. The range of opponents is a lot bigger because in high school, you only really fence guys from one specific state, whereas in college, the Northeast Conference itself is already all of New England. Brandeis itself fences really big schools in the fencing world like Penn State [University] and Duke [University] and [New York University].”

Cardillo was recently been with another accolade—the Joseph E.

Pechinsky Award for Sportsmanship and Achievement.

“Joe Pechinsky was an Olympic Coach. I think he has the record for the most Olympians on the American fencing team. A lot of the guys inlayed on the trophy are celebrated fencers. … It’s supposed to go to a New England fencer, and it’s an honor,” Cardillo said.

Cardillo was also selected as the University Athletic Association Athlete of the Week for the week ending Feb. 27. The women’s team has also excelled this season. Saber Anna Hanley ’11 and foil Vikki Nunley ’13 were both selected as NFC All-Stars.

Hanley finished the season with a 31-3 record, while Nunley fenced to a 27-7 mark. “[Nunley and Hanley] both had really solid years,” Cardillo said. “[Nunley] took home a national medal in October and [Hanley] has probably been the main backbone of the women’s saber team this season. She’s battled through injuries, and she’s been there every time, and she’s been very reliable,” he added.

—Jacob Lurie Editor’s note: Julian Cardillo ’14 is a Sports staff writer for the Justice.

Vincent Asante ’14 honored as UAA Indoor Track Rookie of the Year Rookie sprinter Vincent Asante ’14 was named the University Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Rookie of the Year for 2011. Asante was selected after winning the 55-meter dash at UAAs, and earning a second all-UAA honor by finishing third in the 200-meter race.

“I was really surprised,” Asante

said of winning the award. “It shows how I wanted to start off my career as a track athlete at Brandeis. It was rewarding.”

Asante also set the Brandeis record in the 55-meter dash last weekend at the Eastern College Athletic Conference meet. Asante finished in 6.48 seconds, beating the previous

school record by 0.07 seconds.

“I was really surprised because I was thinking that I wasn’t going to get it this year because I’d been running the same times [all season],” Asante said.

After a stellar rookie season, Asante is confident that he can improve on his results next season.

“This was my first year, and I didn’t really know how college worked,” he said. “Next year is when I need to take it to the next level. I’m staying [on campus] over the summer to work on my stamina, so next year I should improve.”

—Jeffrey Boxer

A week before the NCAA Championships next weekend, the men’s and women’s track teams faced their stiffest competition to date this season, facing teams from across the East Coast in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships at New York University last weekend. Competing against over 50 teams whose athletes qualified for the event, both squads had strong personal times despite disappointing overall results.

On the men’s side, Devon Holgate ’11 finished an impressive sixth out of 30 competitors in the 1-mile run with a time of 4 minutes, 14 seconds.

It was the men’s team’s only 3 points in the meet. In the 3,000-meter run, Ed Colvin ’14 notably placed 14th with a time of 9:00.69. Dan Anastos ’11 finished 7 seconds behind Colvin, good for 16th place.

Vincent Asante ’14, recently named University Athletic Association Rookie of the Year, notched a school record in the men’s 55-meter dash with a time of 6.48 seconds. The finish earned him 10th place in the event. Asante also placed 32nd in the 200-meter dash, while Charlie Pino ’12 finished the 200 in 30th place.

Distance runner Chris Brown ’12 was extremely impressed with Asante and Pino’s efforts. “They all were amazing, notching personal bests or tying school records,” he said. “We could really use those types of performances next weekend at Nationals.”

In the distance medley, Brown, Brian Foley ’13, Mik Kern ’13 and Mingkai Lin ’12 pieced together a 10:09.50 finish, good for ninth out of 21 teams. The men’s team overall earned 44th place out of 51 teams.

Brown was proud of his team’s efforts last weekend.

“We’ve worked toward this all season. A lot of us are tired, but we’re heading to our final competition next weekend, and we just have to keep putting forth our best effort like we did at NYU,” he said.

The women had their fair share of success as well last weekend. Marie Lemay ’11 notched a seventh-place finish in the 1-mile run, with a time of 5:03.92. She received 2 points in the event for her accomplishment.

Annifreed Sinjour ’13 ran the 400-meter dash in 59.75 seconds, a personal best for her, and good for 16th place in the event. In the 1,000-meter run, Victoria Sanford placed 25th, finishing in 3:07.33.

In other events, Lily Parenteau ’12 finished 10th in the high jump, reaching 1.58 meters. Lucia Capano ’11 landed 17th in the triple jump at 10.79 meters. Kim Farrington ’13 was not far behind Capano, grabbing 21st

See TRACK, 14 ☛

just

March 8, 2011

ARTS

e v o l g n i d n i w e R in t s a L e h ‘T ’ s r a e Y e Fiv p. 20

Photos: Asher Krell/the Justice. Design: Lenny Schnier and Robyn Spector/the Justice.

18

TUESDAY, march 8, 2011 ● THE JUSTICE

POP CULTURE

INSIDE ON CAMPUS

19-20

■ ‘Close Looking’ series

19

Profs. Ramie Targoff (ENG) and Adrienne Krstansky (THA) spoke about Shakespeare’s 1623 folio in the Rapaporte Treasure Hall on Wednesday.

■ Korean musical guests

19

Ethnomusicologist Ju-Yung Ha brought a group of five musicians from South Korea to perform classical and folk music at the Slosberg Recital Hall last Friday.

■ ‘The Last Five Years’ review 20 Julie Stein’s ’11 senior thesis musical tells the story of a doomed relationship from both sides’ perspectives.

■ ‘Little Monsters’ review

20

Brandeis Theater Company’s spring show, a workshop-style production about a mother and daughter who want to find love and look to the Internet for help, is a touching experience.

OFF CAMPUS

21-23

■ ‘Metropolis’

21

■ Topher Grace interview

22

The Alloy Orchestra provided the live soundtrack to a newly-restored version of the classic film.

JustArts sat down with That 70s Show alum and star of the new ’80s-inspired comedy Take Me Home Tonight.

■ ‘I Am Number Four’ review 23

Aliens try to avoid being captured by the American government in this action-packed science fiction release.

CALENDAR

Interview

Producing ‘Picasso’

by Shelly Shore

In a week full of pop music craziness— Christina’s arrest, Britney’s marketing binge, GaGa in general—and big-name award shows, one celebrity is topping every gossip blog headline: good ol’ Charlie Sheen.

Charlie’s been in the news a lot lately, thanks to his well-known partying habits and addiction struggles, but this week took the cake.

In the wake of his nasty divorce from Brooke Mueller and the custody battle of their two kids (twins Bob and Max, who will turn 2 later this month), continued demands for higher pay and erratic behavior on set, CBS declared that Sheen’s sitcom Two and a Half Men would go on hiatus and that the current season, presently set to film the last four episodes, would be canceled.

Since that announcement, Sheen’s personal life has been popping up all over the Internet.

Child services removed Bob and Max from Charlie’s apartment on Tuesday at Brooke’s demands, and he has temporarily lost custody of them due to his over-partying, though he has taken four clean drug tests in as many days.

Sheen is currently taking legal action to restart the custody battle for the twins, and he even sent a heartfelt message to them from The Today Show: “Bob, Max, it’s Dada—I’ll see you very soon.”

Say what you want about his lifestyle habits, but no one seems to doubt that he’s a guy who cares about his kids.

Charlie’s two live-in girlfriends, ex-porn star Bree Olsen and model Natalie Kenly, have also become the topic of gossip, namely about whether their unorthodox relationship is in any way healthy. Sheen, who calls the girls his “goddesses,” has said that the three of them have a “great, healthy sex life”—a sentiment that both Olsen and Kenly seem to share—and that the girls are great

 JustArts recently spoke with Lydia Flier ’11 and Tess Suchoff ’13 who produced and directed, respectively, Brandeis Players’ most recent show, ‘Picasso at the Lapin Agile.’

OF_THREES/Flickr Creative Commons

YOU’RE A BAD MAN, CHARLIE SHEEN: His love for partying caused him to lose custody of his sons.

with his kids.

While Charlie’s ex-wife Brooke insists that the girls also get regularly tested for drugs as long as they’re around the twins, what’s more interesting is that such a nonnormative relationship is not only getting attention in the public eye but is also being considered as an acceptable “alternative lifestyle.”

What do you think, Brandeis? Are Charlie and his “goddesses” paving the way for acceptable polyamorous relationships everywhere, or are his partying ways and potty mouth just setting another bad Hollywood example?

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus

ON-CAMPUS EVENTS “Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter”

“Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter,” which chronicles a West African immigrant who settles in Pennsylvania in order to protect her 2-year-old daughter from the horrors of genital mutilation, will premiere in Boston tonight, followed by a panel discussion about genital mutilation and political asylum.

Tonight at 5:30 in Mandel Humanities Center for Humanities G03.

ActiveStills art exhibition

This photography installation, created

by Israeli and international documentary photographers, will be showing at Brandeis for a limited time. The exhibition, which includes work illustrating both Palestinian and Bedouin struggles for civil rights in Israel, depicts daily life for Palestinians and Bedouins under siege of the Israeli government, as well as resistance to destruction of their homes.

The purpose of this exhibition is to unite ideas as one statement, rather than individual protests to the conflict in the Middle East.

The exhibition will run from March 4 to 25 in the Shapiro Campus Center Art Gallery.

JEWISHFILM.2011

There will be screenings all week, sponsored by the National Center for Jewish Film, which is housed on Brandeis’ campus.

Films include Grace Paley, Precious Life, The Human Resources Manager, Gainsbourg, Cabaret Berlin: the Wild Scene, Liquid of Life and Mahler on the Couch.

Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sunday at 1:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., respectively, in the Mandel Center for Humanities G03.

SASA Bollywood Dance Hour

The South Asian Students Association has invited Kunal Dharia, a graduate student from the International Business School, to teach some Bollywood moves to anyone who ever wanted to learn.

Thursday at 5 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

Musika Rox: Rhythms of the Middle East

Musika Rox is the spring performance for B’yachad, Brandeis’ Israeli dance troupe. All of the numbers include original choreography that reflects both modern and traditional Israeli dance. Additionally, guest acts will perform music and poetry.

Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Levin Ballroom.

Tickets will be free with Brandeis ID at the door, $5 otherwise.

The Vagina Monologues 2011

The annual performance of the Vagina Monologues, an award-winning play based on the playwright’s interview with 200 women, will this year spotlight the struggles of women and girls in Haiti. Ticket sales will benefit two causes: V-Day, an organization created by the play’s writer Eve Ensler, and the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.

Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and

ASHER KRELL/Justice File Photo

MUSIKA ROX: The second annual night of Israeli dancing, music and spoken word will be held on Thursday night. The evening is being sponsored by B’yachad, Brandeis’ Israeli dance troupe.

Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater. Tickets are $5 in advance for students, $7 for non-students and $7 at the door.

Brandaroo

Cholmondeley’s presents: Brandaroo, a concert featuring Big Fuzzy and Olivia Buntaine, two local musical groups.

According to the event description on Facebook, there will be “beauty, war, tango, mandolin and so much soul.”

Saturday at 9 p.m. in Cholmondeley’s.

Intercultural Shaheen

Residency

Series:

Simon

Beginning Thursday, Brandeis is opening its doors to a weekend of learning about the intricacies of Arab art. Simon Shaheen, Palestinian composer, oud player and violinist will perform traditional Arabinfluenced music with a modern twist. He will also be holding a workshop in Arabic music the day before.

Concert Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall. Tickets are $20, $10 for Brandeis community, $5 for students. Workshop Friday at 4:30 in Slosberg. RSVP to Judith Eissenberg.

BAASA’s Skins Fashion Show

Brandeis Asian American Students’ Association presents the annual Skin Fashion Show. The latest Asian-American designers’ clothing and accessories will be displayed on the runway by student models.

Friday, March 18 at 7 p.m. in the Levin Ballroom.

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS Lady GaGa Concert

Lady GaGa is coming to Boston on her

“Monster Ball” tour. With hit after hit and a wild fashion sense, the pop wonder’s show is sure to be entertainment at its finest. Performing her new songs, such as Top 40 single “Born This Way” along with her beloved repertoire, GaGa’s show will make fans crazy.

Tonight at 7:30 p.m. at TD Garden, 100 Legends Way, Boston. Tickets start at $25 and are available from ticketmaster.com.

‘Mary Poppins’

Broadway Across America is bringing the hit show to Boston. The musical follows the story of the classic Disney film, with additional songs and theatrical magic. The story follows the Banks family and its new nanny, who brings fun and joy to the Banks’ daily routine.

Through Sunday, March 20 at the Boston Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston.

Ticket prices and times vary.

‘Ajax’ at American Repertory Theatre

Based on Sophocles’ classic story, Ajax, a Greek soldier faces the pressures of war, struggling with injury and psychological aftermath. Directed by Sara Benson, the show incorporates the voice of the modern Boston community in its depiction of war, loss and coping with disaster.

Until March 13 at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge. Ticket prices and showtimes vary.

College Fashionista Campus Tour Boston

Juicy Couture teamed up with College Fashionista, a website that shows the latest styles on college campuses across the country, to sponsor a night of discounted shopping in Boston.

Thursday, March 24 at Juicy Couture, 12 Newbury St., Boston.

Brandeis Players put on ‘Picasso at the Lapin Agile’ last weekend in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater. The show, written by Steve Martin, features the characters of Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein in a humorous encounter at a bar in Paris called the Lapin Agile. Both men are about to have the idea that defined their careers; for Picasso, his painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, and for Einstein, his theory of relativity. The two men discuss the merits of talent and genius and interact with a bizarre cast of characters, including a barkeep and assorted lovers.

JustArts: How did the Undergraduate Theatre Collective decide to perform Picasso? What are the great aspects of the play?

Lydia Flier: Tess and Bryan [Prywes ’11 who designed the set as part of his senior thesis project] picked the play after several discussions relating to what type of set Bryan wanted to design for his thesis and what type of play Tess wanted most to direct. The play is great because it is by Steve Martin, who is able to use comedy to discuss some really interesting topics—such as genius, art and the 20th century. The characters are all fully developed individuals with a lot of personality, and it was fun watching everyone develop them and make them their own.

Tess Suchoff: Bryan Prywes came to me last semester and asked if I would direct his senior thesis. When I asked what show, he said he hadn’t picked one because he wanted the director to pick so that they would be just as invested in the show as he. With that, I immediately suggested Picasso at the Lapin Agile after being introduced to it in my sophomore year of high school. The show discusses the great purpose of genius versus talent, relationships of men and women, and who will change the world.

JA: How did casting work for the show?

What was the process?

TS: Brandeis Players takes part in common casting, which means we, along with the other UTC clubs, audition students together and then make our own lists to discuss together and ask the actors if they would accept the parts being offered to them. Because I am a big believer that the entire process of a show is a team effort, I involved my stage manager and assistant stage manager, Cathy Messier ’12 and Nora Mitnick ’12 respectively, help create the lists for both call backs and casting.

JA: What was the experience of directing and producing the show like?

LF: Producers do a lot of things —we reserve the rooms and help secure the rights, hold weekly production staff meetings with those people designing the set, lights, sound, costume, etc., design the advertising and the program, and various other things. Delegation is pretty important—especially with so little time to put up the show—in order to make sure everything is done well and on time.

TS: Directing Picasso was one of the most fun challenges I have ever experienced. Directing a show is easy when you have as amazing of a cast as I had, but, as with any show, you grow as a ‘show family’ and learn from each other. One of the most rewarding parts was truly working and growing with the actors themselves. I got to watch the character breakthrough the exterior of the actor and come to life on stage, filling the vision I had created for the show. I also directed shorts in An Adult Evening with Shel Silverstein, and assisted in high school.

JA: What makes this performance of Picasso at Brandeis unique?

LF: I think we brought a particularly close and united cast, that made the chemistry on stage come alive. We really became very close over the short rehearsal period, and I think that was visible to the audience. Also, Brandesians love geeky jokes, so the play was right up our alley. Even after becoming so familiar with the show, we still enjoyed coming to rehearsal or tech week and doing it all over again­—which can be rare, but I think speaks highly to the quality of Steve Martin’s writing.

TS: This performance is so unique because of our actors and prod staff. Our actors are so talented and have poured their hearts and souls into the characters to make our performance come alive. They all used different techniques to encompass their characters and it was so wonderful to watch as our production came alive. Our prod staff created such a fantastic set, beautiful costumes, amazing lights, and fun sound effects which became the glue to our show.

—Emily Salloway Editor’s note: Bryan Prywes ’11 is an Arts staff writer for the Justice.

THE JUSTICE

ON CAMPUS

●

TUESDAY, march 8, 2011

19

fine arts

Folio explored by actress and scholar ■ The first event of the

interdisciplinary “Close Looking” series discussed William Shakespeare’s first book composed of solely theatrical works.

By olivia leiter JUSTICE contributing WRITER

Wednesday, Feb. 16, marked the beginning of “Close Looking,” a series of interdisciplinary events offering in-depth discussion of some of Brandeis’ greatest treasures. The series is being sponsored by the Mandel Center for the Humanities, the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections.

A sizeable group gathered in the Rapaporte Treasure Hall on Wednesday to discuss Shakespeare’s 1623 folio. The event was led by Jehuda Reinharz Director of the Mandel Center for the Humanities Prof. Ramie Targoff (ENG) and Prof. Adrianne Krstansky (THA).

Targoff started off by explaining that the essential purpose of the “Close Looking” series is to encourage the community to “focus on something that we have at Brandeis and have people talk about it from different perspectives.” According to Targoff, more people will “think about the relationship between artifacts and manuscripts and the work we do in the humanities.”

Sarah Shoemaker, the special collections librarian at Brandeis, also spoke during the event. Shoemaker explained that Brandeis houses over 10,000 rare books and tens of thousands of manuscripts.

Among these works exists a very rich Shakespeare collection. In 1961, Allan Bluestein, a member of the Brandeis Bibliophiles­ —a group of donors and book collectors who wanted to create a first -rate book collection—donated the copy of Shakespeare’s first folio to Brandeis.

Following Shoemaker’s speech, Targoff offered a brief history of the actual folio and what it meant to the literary world for Shakespeare’s works to be published. Targoff defined a folio as a specific page size in a manuscript. Another term that designates page size, quarto, refers to a sheet of paper folded in half and then in half again, creating four quarterly sections. Shakespeare’s 1623 folio is the first published collection of 36 of Shakespeare’s plays, 18 of which had never been printed before—including well-known plays like Macbeth, Julius Caesar and The Tempest. The folio was assembled in 1616, 7 years after Shakespeare’s death, by John Heminges and Henry Condell. Before the folio was created, all of Shakespeare’s plays that had been published had been print-

ed in quarto editions. These editions were unauthorized and corrupt, sometimes compiled by members of Shakespeare’s audiences. Plays were not considered serious works of literature in Shakespeare’s time, and so the creation of the folio, a book composed of theatrical works exclusively, was a huge leap in literary history.

Additionally, the folio had a picture of Shakespeare engraved on the cover. This was the first time that Shakespeare’s image had been used, which resulted in his rise in becoming a historical figure. Targoff made it clear that, although the folio’s construction was a milestone in literary history, the folio itself may not be completely authentic.

The folio was comprised of competing versions of Shakespeare’s plays, Targoff explained, thus “it was anybody’s guess—maybe it’s a marketing claim that the folio is the original.” Targoff went on to explain that the prologue to Romeo and Juliet is missing in the folio, for example, because the people transcribing the play made a careless error.

Krstansky spoke about the folio from an actor’s perspective. She turned to one of the speeches in Othello and discussed the context critically. She discussed the difference between prose, which generally indicates a conversational tone; and verse, which usually indicates that something is more emotionally heighted.

Krstansky went on to explain that a line of monosyllabic words usually specifies that “Shakespeare is at the heart, the meat of what he is trying to say.” Krstansky ended by saying a few words about iambic pentameter. She explained that this standard meter mirrors the heartbeat: “Since you are able physically to carry iambic pentameter in your body, the language has a visceral effect and it appeals to a guttural place.”

After the lecture ended, members of the audience asked questions and went up to the front to look at the folios for themselves.

I found this event to be rewarding in that the lecture was extremely informative; I felt like I gained greater insight into Shakespeare’s works.

Also, I loved the casual setup of the event because it encouraged audience members to participate and share different perspectives. Most notably, I had the special opportunity to see Shakespeare’s folio, which is often called one of the most significant works in the English language. Later in the year Marsden Hartley’s Musical Theme, Natalie Frank’s The Czech Bride and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 manuscript will be discussed.

Be sure to attend the upcoming “Close Looking” events and take some time to explore Brandeis’ rich collection of rare and unique primary sources.

MARMADUKEPERCY/Wikimedia Commons

SHAKESPEARE REVEALED: Professors discussed the 1623 folio, which includes the first engraving of William Shakespeare.

music

South Korea spreads its culture through music ■ The Republic of Korea

sponsored musicians to tour the East Coast and share folk music with U.S. students.

By sujin shin JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Last Friday, Brandeis had the rare opportunity of being the venue for a tradition of music that has long been fading into the annals of a colorful but dying history. A group of five performers, endorsed and supported by the South Korean government, played a concert in the Slosberg Recital Hall under the guidance of Dr. Ju-Yong Ha, composer and ethnomusicologist for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in the Republic of Korea.

Much of traditional Korean mu-

sic draws its inspiration from the shamanistic religious culture that fueled society before Confucian influences made their way across the Chinese border and into the peninsula.

The pieces that the group chose to perform demonstrated the true flexibility of the instruments’ emotional expression and musical capability. Some had a fast tempo and were danceable, while others were slow and deeply pensive. Some were humorous, while others were heartbreaking.

Instead of being driven by arcs of melodies and harmonies, the emotional range of Korean music stems from the character of the instruments themselves. Rather than being crafted to find the center tone of a pitch and create harmonies using disparate tones like Western instruments, the Korean instruments are

more focused on the timbre and the different textures each timbre brings to the piece of music as a whole.

For example, the transverse flute, the daegum, has a beautiful timbre whose straight tone is pure and sweet but it also has the ability to suddenly cleave the air with a searing rasp. In contrast, the other wind instrument, the piri, is of a singular timbre: brassy and bright while remaining expressive.

The 12-stringed zither, the gayageum, has a pure and strangely liquid resonance. The percussion instruments, the janggo and buk, sound straightforward and round.

These instruments truly express their inherent strengths when they are playing all together in the tradition of sinawi, a type of folk music, with shamanistic influences. Each voice plays on the rising and falling of every strain of melody, while the

texture created by all the different instruments together creates a sort of chaotic harmony.

One instrument that deserves special merit for its performance in traditional Korean music is the human voice. Most expressive and stunning when singing P’ansori and unaccompanied by anything but the rhythms of a buk or janggo, it has a piercing and plaintive sound, almost impossible to contain within the confines of the recital hall.

P’ansori, which means “sound of open spaces,” is the tradition of storytelling, singing, acting, dancing and declaiming for an outdoor audience. There used to be 12 epic tales in the P’ansori tradition, but only five remain from the chronicles of Korean history. Thus, it is rare to hear them outside their native countries.

As the tastes of the times start to

slip away from the heritages of the past, recovery is more and more difficult. But there is hope to be had.

The South Korean government is attempting to spread awareness about this musical culture and endorses artists­ —like the ones that performed at Brandeis—to tour other nations.

Younger and younger generations are starting to gain interest in the art of traditional performance. Additionally, the global atmosphere of cultural music couldn’t be more accepting than it is now.

South Korea is a tenacious country, surviving countless invasions, attacks and struggles for its national identity. Though its fight to preserve its musical culture is ongoing, with the support of dedicated performers, patrons and global citizens, South Korea is bound to come out on top.

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TUESDAY, march 8, 2011 ● THE JUSTICE

theater

Alum and grad students perform in ‘Monsters’ ■ A mother and daughter realize they have more in common than they had first thought in BTC’s production of ‘Little Monsters.’

By Olivia leiter JUSTICE contributing WRITER

The Brandeis Theater Company performed Little Monsters, a new workshop-style production written by Maria Alexandria Beech and directed

by Michelle Bossy.

Although the play is set in Manhattan, it does not focus on the lively, upbeat atmosphere of urban life. Rather, the play begins in the dreary bedroom of Sara, the protagonist, and her mother. Sara, played by Samantha Richert (GRAD), is an aspiring poet who desperately wants to find her match.

Sara’s mother, played by Stephanie Clayman ’81, is a spouseless hypochondriac. Without delay, the audience learns that this mother-daughter relationship is fraught with tension.

Sara’s mother complains that she and Sara never talk anymore, causing her mother to try to initiate conversation.

Sara, however, is caught up in her own technological microcosm, trying to find a boyfriend on an Internet dating site. Sara’s mother persistently nitpicks at her while she prepares for her first date (she criticizes the Indian restaurant that they are going to, the food that they will be eating, etc).

However, these complaints are deeply rooted in the mother’s inability to connect to her daughter on a deeper, more intimate level.

The music changes during the first scene transition, and Sara goes on her first date with Hamad, played by Johnnie L. McQuarley (GRAD). It is at this point that Beech noticeably starts to interlace humor into her play.

Sara, so neurotic that she becomes humorous, researches Hamad on the Internet and plans the date accordingly. She reads that Hamad is from Bangladesh in his online biography, for example, so she falsely assumes that he practices Hinduism and eats Indian food.

Although the date ends on an encouraging note, with Sara and Hamad holding hands and gazing into one an-

MIKE LOVETT/Brandeis University

MODERN DATING: Samantha Richert (GRAD) and Stephanie Clayman ’81 (right) play women of different generations who are both looking for love in all the wrong places. other’s eyes, the scene changes back to Sara’s bedroom, the symbol of her bleak reality. Her mother sits on the bed just as she did in the first scene, exposing the repetitiveness and purposelessness of her existence. Sara’s mother, once again, makes a sincere effort to establish a connection and asks Sara about her date. Sara glosses over the subject, however, and she reads off new and interesting scientific facts that she has learned from a website.

Sara goes on two more restaurant dates with men that she met over the Internet. Both men are so one-dimensional that they almost become mere caricatures. One date is with Pierre (Levi Rion (GRAD)), a French man

who pays more attention to the girl across the room wearing a low-cut shirt than to Sara. Her other date, Sal (Rob McFadyen (GRAD)), is a man whose online biography says he is a lawyer with a six pack. He spots an ex-girlfriend in the restaurant and proceeds to spend the entire night talking about his ex-wife’s psychotic behavior. Each date is another failed endeavor for Sara.

Eventually, even though the scenes switch back and forth between restaurant dates and Sara’s apartment bedroom, the two worlds presented– the external and the internal–seem to overlap and blur into one fluid picture of emptiness and loneliness.

Sara goes on her final date with

Abe, played by Jesse Hinson (GRAD).

Abe is a Jewish man who, unlike the other three men, Sara met in person accidentally. The two seem to hit it off, yet Sara returns to her bedroom once again, no more optimistic about this date than she had been after the others.

The audience finally starts to understand that Sara’s inability to find a perfect date results from her own internal problems. In fact, we learn soon after that Sara’s intimacy problems mirror those of her mother’s. As the mother finally shares her life story with Sara outside a therapist’s office, the two women realize that they are really no different at all, and that they are both searching for the same sense

of human companionship. This scene is remarkably poignant, as the two finally understand one another, finding a long sought-after emotional bond.

After Sara experiences this emotional catharsis, she undergoes a kind of internal metamorphosis, a spiritual rejuvenation of sorts. The play ends on an uplifting note, illustrating the human capacity for reinvention.

Overall, this play explores the universalized aspects of the human experience, such as the search for identity and the need for companionship. The play also brings up the impersonal element of new technology, a relevant issue in today’s society. Ultimately, I found this play touching, relatable, and inspiring.

Theater

Marriage is shown from beginning to end and back again ■ ‘The Last Five Years’ is

a two-person musical that depicts the disintegration of a relationship from the perspectives of both parties.

By KAREN CHAU JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Last Five Years is a one-act musical by Jason Robert Brown that chronicles the journey of a relationship from beginning to end.

It follows Cathy Hyatt and Jamie Wellerstein through their 5-year relationship, moving from dating and engagement to the stress of marriage and its eventual failure. Jamie tells the story from their first date onward, while Cathy starts at the end of their relationship and goes back to the beginning. The characters intersect for one song in the middle, which takes place during their engagement. Cathy and Jamie are the only two characters in the musical and only share the aforementioned number in the middle; other than that, this is a musical carried entirely on individual performances.

Brandeis Ensemble Theater’s production this past weekend succeeded in playing off that individualistic focus and using it to its advantage.

The set design was understated and minimal, but it worked for the production. The backdrop of a mirrored clock face complemented the story’s themes and contributed to the overall show without being distracting.

The two leads—Julie Stein ’11, who presented the musical as her senior thesis project, and Robert St. Laurence ’11—did a fantastic job in their respective roles as Cathy and Jamie. Stein’s performance was the highlight of the show. She

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

TURNING BACK THE CLOCK: Julie Stein ’11 and Robert St. Laurence ’11 play husband and wife in BET’s ‘The Last Five Years.’ managed to move through the emotions in each number seamlessly, and her acting never came off as false or artificial. The excellence of her performance really came down to the details, like the movement and positioning of her hands in the opening number. Given that Cathy is stationary in the first number, it could have dragged. However, Stein’s use of small, subtle move-

ments kicked the emotional angst into another level of intensity and kept the scene from going stale, especially since it was followed by the very active and physically comedic “Shiksa Goddess,” sung by Jamie.

Stein’s performance was very powerful, especially given the emotional heaviness of the beginning and the vocal difficulty of the songs.

St. Laurence gave a solid perfor-

mance as Jamie, with a particular excellence for comedy. His rendition of “Shiksa Goddess” drew many laughs from the audience, and his sense of physicality was impeccable. His movements in that number as well as in “The Schmuel Song” displayed his talents; every movement seemed methodical, precise and like an illumination of character in some way, and each

injected energy into the show. The Last Five Years is not a musical that offers a lot of character background outside of the songs, but St. Laurence succeeded in filling in the blank spaces and making a possibly unsympathetic character somewhat more likable.

Stein and St. Laurence had a great rapport during their very limited time together on stage, and their character interactions worked well.

Their shared performance of “The Next Ten Minutes” was not overdone or melodramatic, and it felt like an intrusion on a personal moment between two lovers.

Perhaps the only weak point of the show was its underusage of costuming to highlight the chronology of the play—but that’s a minor detail. There were costume changes throughout, although they were generally minor and not emphasized.

Overall, the BET production of The Last Five Years did the show justice. A musical as personal and as intimate as The Last Five Years requires subtle and nuanced performances from a solid cast, and in this production, the cast delivered.

The music numbers were on point, engaging and powerful, and despite the fact that there is little unsung dialogue or speech within the show, both actors utilized physicality to their advantage and represented their characters with more developed personalities, making them seem like real people.

The Last Five Years is, at heart, an intimate look at a relationship doomed to fail, which places a great onus on its performers to convey that intimacy without being artificial. In this performance, BET succeeded in making each scene seem fresh and genuine.

THE JUSTICE

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21

OFF CAMPUS film

HAPPY HOSTS

Alloy Orchestra adds dimension to classic film

■ Musicians accompanied

the newly remastered ‘Metropolis’ in a lively performance on Saturday.

By WEI-HUAN CHEN JUSTICE editor

MICHAEL YADA/A.M.P.A.S.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: Hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway called themselves the Academy Awards’ next generation.

83rd Academy Awards held no big surprises ■ ‘The King’s Speech’ won

Oscars for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture.

By KAYLA ALVIDREZ JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

This year’s Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, aired on Jan. 27 and started with a montage of hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco on a trip into the dreams of one of last year’s hosts, Alec Baldwin. Each of Baldwin’s dreams is a scene from one of the nominees for this year’s Best Picture.

After a meeting at a Parisian café with Cobb—the main character in Best Picture nominee Inception— Hathaway and Franco find themselves aboard a plane with Baldwin and Cobb, where we see Baldwin take a large drink out of a juice box of Ambien. In one of the show’s funniest moments, Hathaway and Franco end up in a scene from Black Swan. Hathaway is dressed as a brown duck, dancing around and honking loudly, while Franco stands in the background looking uncomfortable in a white unitard.

This parody set the tone for the entire night, with Hathaway being en-

gaging and fun while Franco stood looking awkward and disinterested.

Franco did, however, manage to bring a few laughs to the audience every now and then.

Another funny moment came when Hathaway came out wearing a suit and made fun of Hugh Jackman by singing a song about him. The lyrics referenced the 2009 Oscars when she joined him on stage from the audience in a seemingly impromptu duet. When Hathaway finished her pseudo-serenade, Franco came out on stage in full make up, wearing a hot pink dress and blonde wig saying, “You got to wear a tuxedo, so I wore this. The weird thing is I just got a text message from Charlie Sheen.”

The whole broadcast was kind of long—it started at around 8:30 p.m. and ended at 11:30 p.m.—but a few well-placed jokes helped the night run smoothly. The awards in the acting categories didn’t bring many surprises for those who have been following the awards season.

Golden Globe winners Natalie Portman and Colin Firth won Best Leading Actress and Actor at the Oscars for their respective roles in Black Swan and The King’s Speech.

Melissa Leo and Christian Bale, both supporting actors in The Fighter, also won both Golden Globes and

Oscars for their performances.

The real fights were for the awards in the Best Director and Best Motion Picture categories. The two main contenders for top film honors were the Golden Globe winner, The Social Network and The King’s Speech. The Social Network, director David Fincher and The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper were also the top picks for Best Director.

In the end, the publicity that Colin Firth’s Golden Globe win for Best Actor brought to The King’s Speech gave the film enough of a push into the spotlight to win the Best Picture Oscar. The first woman to ever win the Best Director honor, Katherine Bigelow, presented the award for Best Director to Tom Hooper.

This year’s Oscars were fun, as always, but the Academy tried to cater to a younger crowd, as Anne Hathaway pointed out at the beginning of the night. When James Franco told her she looked very good, she replied that he looked “very appealing to a younger demographic himself.” I’m not sure if they succeeded in reaching this younger audience, however, because by the end of the night, I found myself wishing they would announce the Best Actor and Actress winners quickly since I had class the next morning.

Fritz Lang’s sprawling vision of a futuristic dystopia driven by underground machines and the oppressed workers who operate them was brilliantly realized in 1927 as Metropolis. When the silent film reached the United States from Berlin, Paramount shortened the film for commercial purposes to a total of 90 minutes. Quickly hailed as a landmark achievement in film, Metropolis was restored in 1984 with color tints and a score composed by the Alloy Orchestra, then again in 1987 with title cards and photographs representing missing scenes, and yet again in 2001.

In 2010, the film received its final restoration after the curator of the Buenos Aires Museo del Cina discovered a 16 millimeter dupe negative of the picture, complete with 25 minutes of lost, though admittedly grainy, footage.

Last Saturday, World Music/ CRASHarts screened Metropolis in its magnificent near-entirety of 150 minutes (it is estimated that the film ran around 153 minutes at its debut in Berlin) at the Somerville Theatre with a live accompaniment from the Alloy Orchestra. The performance brought the picture to life with expertly-timed sound effects and a raw, driving score. Since composing the score for the film in 1984, the three-man orchestra—Roger Miller on the synthesizer, Terry Donahue on percussion and accordion and Ken Winokur on percussion and clarinet—has worked with four different versions of Metropolis.

That night, their performance was longer than ever, playing the entire 150 minutes of the film and providing background themes for the beginning and ending credits.

After the credits finished, the three musicians stood up, stretched their backs and hands and bowed to a sold-out crowd, which was offering the most energetic of standing ovations. Unlike symphony orchestras, the Alloy Orchestra performs without break; the short pauses of sound in the film provide barely any time to turn the page or switch, as Winokur often did on Saturday night, from bass drum to clarinet

to wood-on-metal contraption. I counted three emphatic moments of total silence—an example was when Freder, the son of the city’s architect, opened the menacing entrance of Rotwang’s house in an attempt to save his love, Maria—and for those 2 seconds, Miller wiggled his fingers while Donahue and Winokur, located opposite Miller in a jungle-like station of bells, snares, drums and other percussive tools, arched their backs and move their shoulders in relief.

The Alloy Orchestra’s physical capacity to sustain the music throughout the film seemed an inhuman feat. The musicians’ consistency with each precise sound mirrored that of a carefully-edited soundtrack. But a well-oiled, unexpressive machine it was not; each of the three brought human expression and interpretation to the film score that proved once again the old mantra, “music makes the movie.”

The orchestra followed the momentous black-and-white screen like an ensemble following its conductor; Winokur, hammering on the bells and snares, drove the hopeless workers of Metropolis toward their machines in an unrelenting march, complemented by Miller’s exasperated organ theme and Donahue’s pounding bass drum. In an opening scene, they conveyed the confusing clash of emotions when to the naïve Freder’s astonishment, Maria brought the worker’s children out to the upper-class utopia.

There were a few limitations in last Saturday’s presentation.

There were only four main musical themes in the film—a worker’s march, a jazzy parlor tune to portray sinful partying, a melancholic theme for close-ups and a haunting theme for the catacombs—so they became tiring by the third act of the film. The sound effects—cymbals for crashes and falling objects, a metal box for the creaking of doors and a strange oscillating apparatus for the futuristic laboratory noises—were also predictable. On Lang’s part, the characters’ overacting often incited laughter (even in the serious scenes) and showed that many of the gestures used in the silent era do not age well. Nevertheless, Metropolis remains a timeless staple of science-fiction epics, and the Alloy Orchestra’s performance of the film’s most recent restoration, which took about one year and $840,000 to complete, was a rare treat for film buffs and music lovers alike.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WORMUSIC/CRASHARTS

BIG CITY SOUND: Donahue (left) and Winokur played nonstop for over 2 hours.

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TUESDAY, March 8, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

INSIDE LOOK

No saving Grace for ’80s revival flick ■ ‘Take Me Home,’ the ’80s-inspired comedy starring Topher Grace, is a disappointing venture.

By AARON BERKE JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The 1980s were a time of rock and roll, outlandish hairstyles and a thriving dance scene. These trends were reflected in that decade’s movies—but film naturally progressed as time passed. No one complained, and everyone was perfectly happy to let the 80s rest in peace. Except, apparently, Topher Grace and producer/ co-writer Gordon Kaywin.

In 2011—no less than 30 years after the end of the ’80s—the two decided to resuscitate the era with their film Take Me Home Tonight, a flick Grace proudly refers to as an 80s relic, a movie that should feel as if it was made in the 80s, left in a vault for 30 years and released today.

That would have been a fantastic idea had he and Kaywin presented a story that was relatable and timeless, with a solid plot and believable characters. Unfortunately, Tonight offers absolutely none of these elements.

The plot is paper thin, the characters are uninteresting and obnoxious, and the film’s message is lost in the mess of absurdity that the characters find themselves in.

Tonight, from a story devised by Grace and Kaywin and a script written by That ’70s Show veterans Jeff and Jackie Filgo, revolves around Matt Franklin (Grace). He is a college graduate who has no idea what he wants to do with his life and has ended up working behind the counter of a Suncoast video store. In the midst of his glum life, Franklin’s high school crush, Tori Frederking (Teresa Palmer), winds up in his store and he, in a blind panic, ends up pretending that he’s a high-level banker in order to impress her. Tori, a financial worker herself, reveals that she’s going to a house party that happens to be thrown by Franklin’s sister Wendy’s (Anna Faris) boyfriend. Franklin jumps at the chance to spend time with her and decides to attend the party as well. Franklin recruits his

RON BATZDORFF/Relativity Media

REKINDLING LOVE: Matt Franklin (Topher Grace), a college graduate working at a video store, encounters his high school crush, Tori Frederking, played by Teresa Palmer. best friend Barry (Dan Fogler), a recently fired used-car salesman, and together the two hijack the best-looking car they can find and head out to the party, where crazy shenanigans ensue.

This premise, though potentially a recipe for a fun movie, is quickly ruined by poorly written characters and even more horridly written dialogue.

This dialogue is sometimes meant to be awkward, but often plays out so badly that it’s impossible to look at the characters as normal human beings. Take, for example, the scene where Franklin hesitantly approaches Frederking during the party, entering into her conversation with another guy with an ill-timed laugh, and from there proceeding to make a fool out of himself by referring to

the weather—over and over again.

He manages to beat an already-stale cliché to death—dragging out his awkward weather-related comments with strange pauses and an ungodly slow speech—to the point where not only are the other characters staring at him with a mix of confusion and horror, but so is the audience.

These dialogue bits are just the icing on the (stale) cake. There are moments of unbelievable absurdity in the film, thanks for the most part to the absolutely horrendous character of Barry—a totally obnoxious, overweight blowhard: the character does nothing but run around, scream, snort cocaine, engage in an absurd dance-off and do other stereotypical fat-guy things. He is completely unlikable in every way, and he’s not funny

in the slightest. To outline the character’s errant stupidity, one just has to look at the aforementioned danceoff scene. In this scene, Barry, while high on cocaine, counters his talented competitor by doing some sort of grotesque thrusting movement, hopping around peculiarly and proceeding to kick his competitor in the balls twice before screaming obnoxiously and running away. Did the writers expect us to find this funny? Perhaps if the audience they were looking to attract was kindergarteners.

In the end, Take Me Home Tonight proves to be a disappointing venture back into the ’80s with very little reason to actually exist (although frankly, the movie’s setting has no bearing on the story whatsoever, and it would be equally appalling in any

time period). The plot becomes lost in moments of absolute absurdity, distorting and overwhelming any chance for the movie to deliver a sensible message. There appears to be a message of “finding yourself” somewhere among the mess and the idea that it’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. In fact, the funniest moment in the movie is the end credits, which begin with a fake sequence listing every credited worker’s occupation as “TBA”­—but it was a sequence that should have followed a much funnier movie.

Despite the awful turnout, I believe that Grace and Kaywin had the best of intentions when they came up with the idea for this movie. It’s just a shame that, in this case, those good intentions went so horribly wrong.

JustArts sits down to speak with ‘Tonight’ co-stars Topher Grace and Teresa Palmer Topher Grace and Teresa Palmer recently stopped by the King’s Bowling Alley in Boston to speak to reporters from various college newspapers, including the Justice.

When asked about the concept of the film taking place in one wild night, Grace responded, “Unfortunately, I’ve never had a night like this. I do remember in your early 20s that feeling of, ‘What if tonight is that night?’”

Grace, the film’s writer as well as its star, was very interested in crafting an ensemble piece with young actors. “I, at the time [of writing the story] had thought, I really want to work with my peer group,” he said.

“I love being in movies with big movie stars, hanging out together for like half a year; you learn a lot.

But I thought I really want to do [something more retro]. ... I wish they still made those John Hughes movies where you’re blooming with your peers.”

In developing the idea for the film, Grace and producer Gordon Kaywin thought it would be ideal to set the picture in the ’80s. “Right now all they make are these raunchy movies or romance movies,” said Grace.

“Those John Hughes movies, they were all in one, and they were starring these ensembles of young people. So that was my idea [to focus on that style]. Then my producing partner had the idea [to] make a movie set in an earlier time like Dazed and Confused.”

In crafting an ‘80s flick, Grace

RON BATZDORFF/Relativity Media

FITTING IN: Topher Grace’s character attends a party in Take Me Home Tonight, which he co-wrote with Gordon Kaywin.

wanted it be authentic, which meant taking itself seriously and using the songs, not just as a soundtrack, but as a method of lifestyle.

Grace said that the desire was to make “scenes fit songs, not throwing songs on afterward. [The] music intertwined.” Grace also stressed, “This is the first movie that isn’t a spoof on the ’80s.”

Agreeing on the film’s naturalistic intentions, Palmer noted, “We wanted it to feel like it was a movie that was really made in the 80s.

Like we had put it away in a vault and pulled it out and brushed the

dust off and we just pressed play. It feels vintage, and I think we managed to capture that.”

The shooting of Take Me Home Tonight brought the actors long weeks of work but a lot of fun as well. Palmer said that the shoot lasted for 7 or 8 weeks.

“Even on the weekends we would all have to stay up. So what we did was we hired a party bus and the whole cast—even the directors and the crew [and] executive producers—we’d all go on this party bus and stay up all night.

[We’d] stay up until 7 a.m. and then sleep during the day.”

“We were partying our asses off in our free time,” Grace said.

Grace, who started out his career with a seven season run on That ‘70s Show, is a veteran of both television and film acting.

When asked about the differences between the two formats, Grace coyly responded, “You know, when I was shooting Traffic I asked Michael Douglas that same question. He stared straight at me and said, ‘It’s the same thing, kid’ and walked away.”

In bringing Tonight to the screen, Grace enlisted the help of some old friends from That ‘70s Show,

writers Jeff and Jackie Filgo, who wrote the screenplay. “There’s a real [stereotyping] against sitcom writers, because sitcoms are filmed in sort of a cheesy way.”

Grace commented, “[But Jeff and Jackie] really know my voice and they’re a pleasure to work with.

They wrote the show during the years [in which] I thought it really went [all] out.”

The process of being a writer brought Grace a greater sense of unity with the film’s production and it has encouraged him to write again. “I got to spend a lot of time with [director Michael Dowse] that you just don’t get as an actor. I felt like I arrived with a real knowledge of everything about the film. That would be the reason I’d want to do it again if I did,” he said.

In terms of what the audience should expect to take away from the film, Grace makes note of the timeless nature of the film’s struggles, despite its very specific setting. “It’s tough when structure ends,” he commented.

“You know, [it’s] middle school, then high school, then college, then—no more structure. [You] can do whatever you want. It’s almost weirdly paralyzing that you have so many options. Matt’s so smart that he’s talked himself out of doing anything really. [I say] just roll with it, let go and it’s okay not to know. We set [the film] in the ‘80s, but it’s a much more timeless issue. It might even be more timely now.”

—Aaron Berke

THE JUSTICE

FILM

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TUESDAY, March 8, 2011

23

WILD WEST

‘Number Four’ does not engage viewers ■ Michael Bay’s latest

action flick lacks the plot complexity and character development needed to balance out its loud, booming soundtrack.

By KARLA ALVIDREZ JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I Am Number Four centers on a boy with superhuman powers who is sent to earth from a destroyed alien planet. The boy’s name is Clark Kent—oh, wait—Number Four, also known as John Smith.

The film was directed by J.D. Caruso and based on a novel by Jobie Hughes and James Frey.

It starts with John, who is at this point using the alias Daniel, being discovered as a “freak” when his leg starts glowing while on a beach retreat in Florida with a few of his friends. Daniel and his guardian Henri, a warrior from their home planet, immediately have to move to Paradise, Ohio as part of a convenient getaway and to deal with some unnamed business.

Number Four, now named John Smith, enrolls in high school: Cue the beginning of the cheesy teen movie. In comes the ex-popular girl, Sarah, who finds purpose in her life when she’s kicked out of the “in” crowd, and the geeky boy, Sam, who was never in the “in” crowd.

Trying to live a normal life, John quickly goes through the trials of high school: saving the nerdy boy from the big, bad quarterback; falling for said quarterback’s ex-girlfriend; having dinner at said girl’s house; and seeing all the fun family-type things he is missing out on. Meanwhile, we learn that Mogadorian hunters, the aliens that attacked John’s home planet, are tracking John and Henri in order to kill John and move on to Number Five.

The film’s climax comes when Number Four teams up with Number Six in an epic battle against the Mogadorian hunters at Paradise High School. Each side brings its own supernatural weapons, which include a set of alien killing creatures on the Mogadorian side. These creatures set up a funny scene in which a Mogadorian hunter has to stop at a local grocery store to buy several turkeys to feed the creatures with. It seemed totally random and out of character for these ruthless hunters to be walking down the aisles of the local grocery store and standing in line to buy turkeys in the middle of September.

Produced by Michael Bay and following his typical production style, the film forgoes an attention to plot detail in favor of big bangs and loud crashes. Food-shopping Mogadorians with noses and gills, red laser beams in the bad guys’ guns, blue lasers for the good guys and a serious lack of character development came together to make a film that made me jump every once in a while, but was not exactly engaging. It felt as if one minute John was discovering his powers, and 5 minutes later he was fighting Mogadorian hunters at the end of the movie. It was a good action flick to get your adrenaline going, but it would have been a lot more interesting if more time was spent on character development and plot creativity. The ending of the movie sets up nicely for a sequel, but who knows if it will ever be made.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES

LIVING AS A LIZARD: Rango (left) and Beans adventure to Dirt, a Western town populated with various desert creatures, in Gore Verbinski’s new animated feature, ‘Rango.’

Verbinski speaks about ‘Rango’ ■ The renowned director’s

latest film has a thoughtful plot and features Johnny Depp as a green chameleon.

By aaron berke JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

In a college conference call, director Gore Verbinski (of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Ring fame) spoke to justArts about his career and his new film, Rango. An animated take on the classic Western tale, Rango follows a lonely chameleon of the same name (Johnny Depp), who accidentally wanders into the town of Dirt, a broken-down ruin full of crime and in desperate need of a sheriff—a position that the town natives hope their hapless new arrival can fulfill.

Rango is the fourth collaboration between Verbinski and Depp. Verbinski spoke about his work with the actor, saying “I met him in London in a restaurant, and we just stayed there until like 3 in the morning, just talking.

Certainly with Johnny [and I] doing

so much work together we developed a shorthand—I mean, a lot of times I’ll speak almost in sound effects and nonsensical words; … it’s like we’re finishing each other’s sentences. So, on Rango, there was a tremendous amount of trust. I said [I was going to consider doing] an animated movie about a lizard with an identity crisis and [Depp] just went, ‘Fantastic, let’s do that.’”

“Rango started with [an] idea, which was ‘Western with creatures of the desert’ and ‘animated Western.’ We knew we needed a fish-out-of-water story to kind of bisect that [idea of] ‘man with no name’ and ‘a stranger coming into town.’ [Storyboard artist Anthony Leonardi III] wanted [the character’s appearance] to be slightly absurd, so [he came up with] an aquatic creature in the desert, a chameleon, and then from a chameleon the concept [transformed him into] a thespian.”

Rango’s creation occurred through his development as a character who blends with his environment; this idea meshed well with his thespian alignments. The character development also coincided with Depp’s work; Depp, being a method actor, lives with

his characters, just as a true chameleon lives never as one color. This idea made it easy for Depp to identify with the character. The question ... ‘Who is Rango?’ “was a really great thing to discuss with Johnny because I feel like quite often he’ll refer to himself as [living with] a little bit of Jack Sparrow, a little bit of Ed Wood, a little bit of Scissorhands in there and my response would be, ‘Well, there’s not much room for Johnny Depp.’ [And as for Rango,] with all those characters in there [the question remains]: Who is Rango? So, [that question] was really the origin [of the character].”

In the interview, Verbinski spoke about how the western action hero has always attracted him, “I think there’s something about the silhouette, the desert, the minimalist. … [You’re] always trying to cast the silhouette of the protagonist—all those characters are trying to find out who they are. [There’s a feeling now that] these myths are dying. ... The Western landscape is a great way to get back to a primal [idea of] ‘what is it about the lizard, what is it about this individual?’”

Responding to a question about the

process of changing from a live-action director to an animation director, Verbinski has learned lessons from both experiences. “We brought a tremendous amount of live action to this … animation. ... It’s a lot harder than I ever imagined. ... You had to fabricate every frame from zero. So other times [in live action] when you’re shooting, you’re orchestrating chaos and you’re sort of poised with capturing a moment of truth and [the moment is] giving back. ... There’s no motor [in animation]; you’re just completely generating everything.”

Verbinski, always a proponent of finding new material, stressed the importance of never becoming stuck doing something you no longer can learn from.

“It’s … an intuitive response to material. The reason not to do another pirate film was it didn’t scare me anymore. As soon as you feel like you know how to do it, I think the potential to [make a mistake] is present. You[‘d] better love it. And you better be willing to crawl through broken glass to tell your story. I try to share that [drive] with the team.”

food

The UK’s cask ales are a special treat Doug

MOORE INNERMOST BREW

In this column, I’ve talked about many cultures of brewing. I’ve taken you from the stouts of Ireland to the lagers of Germany. I’ve described the yeasty, wild beers of Belgium and the inventive techniques of microbrewers in America.

There is one final brewing tradition vital to understanding our world of beer, and that is the ale tradition of Britain.

I’ll never forget the story my mother told me as I was going abroad to Ireland about her time in England on her only trip to Europe.

She told me about when she gagged on the warm, flat beer in the pubs, which was not cold and refreshing, as Americans expect. At the time, I was underage and not experienced with beer, so I didn’t know about the heritage and tradition of this style of beer.

British ale usually involves the tradition of being served from a cask, a special type of keg that harkens back to the times when carbon dioxide wasn’t available in tanks.

Today, most brewers pump their beers with artificial carbon dioxide to create that bubbly beverage we all enjoy. In the past, brewers would place a small amount of sugar in the keg, which would be eaten by the yeast and turn into carbon dioxide. This tradition continues in the cask-ale system. Cask beer does not shoot off the keg as forced carbonated beer does—it is much weaker.

To get the beer out, brewers must either use gravity or a special pump to pull the beer.

This is one of the classic aspects of a traditional British pub—you see the big hand pumps next to the tap lines. When someone orders cask ale, the bartenders must use all of their muscles to pull down this lever in order to let out the ale.

Most of this ale will be served near room temperature to bring out all of the distinct flavors of the beer.

This is something my mom found disgusting, but to the beer-loving Brit, it is the only true way to serve ale. I got my own chance to try the

style when I flew from Ireland over to Edinburgh, Scotland. While it is strange, warm and flat, the beer had a unique characteristic to it: malty with a bit of a bitter herbal hop background. I had a few of these ales that night and never felt overly intoxicated—just relaxed, refreshed and thirsty for more.

Most of the beers in the kegs are session beers. These are beers that are below 4 percent alcohol to allow the drinker to have multiple drinks without getting drunk. They originally came out of the fact that the government taxes alcohol based on percentage, and workers needed a drink that would refresh them yet wouldn’t get them drunk on their lunch breaks. So, session beers became the drink of the lower class, but after World War II, as Europe opened up for trade, the standard cold European lagers began to overthrow the cask tradition.

Cask ales were almost lost, but in the 1970s, a group of radical Brits started demanding their cask ales.

Calling their group the Campaign for Real Ale, this group brought the cask back to the British pub.

Members of this group stand by their beer, promoting cask ale as a

true form of ale. The tradition has spread throughout the United Kingdom, with pubs from London to Edinburgh to Belfast, Ireland, proudly displaying their CAMRA seal of approval.

At this point, you are probably asking yourself why I haven’t reviewed or talked about any specific beers. The fact of the matter is that I would love to; however, Americans don’t produce this style well.

We want our beer to usually be above 4 or even 5 percent alcohol.

While some breweries do make cask ale, the British style is still lost on American brewers—they don’t get the subtleties. If you want something close, most of the good beer bars in Boston, including Lord Hobo, Cambridge Brewing Company and Sunset Bar and Grill, have some American craft ale on cask.

You won’t get the full experience, but it will give you a hint of what the British find so appealing. It truly is something you need to try in England for the full experience.

So, if you ever find yourself abroad in Europe, be sure to book a Ryanair flight for 10 pounds to London and get yourself a bit of the bitter, as they would say. Cheers!

24

TUESday, march 8, 2011 ● THE JUSTICE

TOP of the

ARTS ON VIEW

TRIVIA TIME 1. What two nations lie directly north of the Gulf of Oman?

2. Which state’s name is Spanish for “snow clad”?

3. What was the name of the Volkswagen made famous in The Love Bug? 4. Which abolitionist was the first black woman to win a court case against a white man for illegally selling her son as a slave?

5. In which book did the characters Tweedledum and Tweedledee first appear?

6. What’s another word for a plebiscite?

7. How much did the United States pay Russia for the Alaskan territory in 1867?

8. Who wrote “The Theme from Shaft”?

9. Which chess piece looks like a castle tower?

10. What was Harry Truman’s home state?

ANSWERS 1. Iran and Pakistan 2. Nevada 3. Herbie 4. Sojourner Truth 5. Through the Looking-Glass 6. Referendum 7. $7.2 million 8. Isaac Hayes 9. Rook 10. Missouri

SHOWTIMES 3/11–3/18

The Fighter Fri-Sun: 1:10, 3:55, 6:40, 9:20 Mon-Thurs: 2:10, 4:50, 7:40 Cedar Rapids Fri-Sun: 1:40, 4:25, 7:20, 9:35 Mon-Thurs: 2:40, 5:10, 8:10 The Illusionist Fri-Sun: 1:50, 4:35, 7:10, 9:10 Mon-Thurs: 2:50, 5:10, 8:20 Battle: Los Angeles Fri-Sun: 1:20, 4:05, 6:50, 9:25 Mon-Thurs: 2:20, 5:00, 7:50 The King’s Speech Fri-Sun: 1:00, 3:45, 6:30, 9:15 Mon-Thurs: 2:00, 4:50, 7:30 The Adjustment Bureau Fri-Sun: 1:30, 4:15, 7:00, 9:30 Mon-Thurs: 2:30, 5:00, 8:00

The Embassy is located at 18 Pine Street in Waltham

CHARTS Top 10s for the week ending March 6 BOX OFFICE

1. Rango 2. The Adjustment Bureau 3. Beastly 4. Hall Pass 5. Gnomeo and Juliet 6. Unknown 7. The King’s Speech 8. Just Go With It 9. I Am Number Four 10. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never

NYT BESTSELLERS

ALEX MARGOLIS/the Justice

SUMMER NIGHTS: Alex Margolis ’13 took this photo of his fellow Crane Lake Camp senior staff members as they stood side by side enjoying the Fourth of July sunset in West Stockbridge, Mass.

ACROSS 1. Haven’t paid yet 4. Battery measure 8. Sacred bird of Egypt 12. Coop occupant 13. Sandwich treat 14. Staff member?

15. Lots of power?

17. Huffed and puffed 18. First victim 19. Appears ominously 20. Christmas tree topper, often 22. Someone who’s gonna get it?

24. Porter’s “Let’s —” 25. Total abstinence from meat and dairy 29. Curry of NBC News 30. Stogie 31. Old French coin 32. Considered 34. Clay-rich soil 35. Young horse 36. Insurrectionist 37. Distorted 40. Top-notch 41. Actress Perlman 42. Major French airport 46. Layer 47. Oil cartel 48. Meadow 49. Hourglass stuff 50. Lillian of silents 51. Melody DOWN 1. Resistance unit 2. Tiny 3. Attractive 4. Purchase from Pat? 5. Exam format 6. Allow 7. Youngster 8. Natural 9. Philippine knife 10. Particular 11. Stitches 16. Help criminally 19. Tale weaver 20. Hebrew month 21. Zilch

CROSSWORD

Fiction 1. Treachery in Death – J.D. Robb 2. Pale Demon – Kim Harrison 3. Gideon’s Sword – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 4. A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness 5. Tick Tock – James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge Nonfiction 1. Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand 2. Known and Unknown – Donald Rumsfeld 3. Decision Points – George W. Bush 4. Against All Odds – Scott Brown 5. Cleopatra – Stacy Schiff

iTUNES

1. Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull– “On the Floor” 2. Lady GaGa – “Born this Way” 3. Britney Spears – “Til the World Ends” 4. Rihanna – “S&M” 5. Ke$ha – “Blow” 6. Katy Perry feat. Kanye West –“E.T.” 7. Adele – “Rolling in the Deep” 8. Pink –“F**kin’ Perfect” 9. Cee Lo Green –“Forget You” 10. Bruno Mars – “Grenade”

BILLBOARD

22. German philosopher 23. “Zounds!”

25. “Livin’ La - Loca” 26. Columbus’ benefactor 27. Aching 28. Think (over) 30. Singer Sheryl 33. Frightened, in dialect 34. Carte 36. Kitchen pest 37. — and crafts 38. Actor LaBoeuf 39. Acute 40. A very long time 42. Pooch 43. Over (Pref.)

44. Mainlander’s memento 45. Listener

1. Adele – 21 2. Justin Bieber – Never Say Never: The Remixes 3. Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More 4. Various Artists – Now 37 5. Justin Bieber – My World 2.0 6. Bruno Mars – Doo-Wops and Hooligans 7. Eminem – Recovery 8. Rihanna – Loud 9. Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday 10. Lady Antebellum – Need You Now Album information provided by Billboard Magazine. Box office information provided

by Fandango. iTunes top sellers provided by Apple.com. Bestellers list provided by The New York Times.

Solution to last week’s crossword

King Crossword Copyright 2011 King Features Synd, Inc.

STRANGE BUT TRUE  It was 20th-century German-American poet, novelist and short-story writer Charles Bukowski who made the following observation: “The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.”

 At one time, some churches banned the playing of Wagner’s “The Bridal Chorus,” also known as “Here Comes the Bride,” because the music was considered to be vulgar.

 In the 18 months that the Pony Express operated, carrying mail across the Wild West and its myriad hazards and dangers, only one pouch of mail was lost.

 You might not be surprised to learn that editor, lexicographer and textbook pioneer Noah Webster lobbied Congress to make his plan for simplified spelling the law of the land.

Had he been successful, the United States would have been the only country in which incorrect spelling would be legally punishable.

 It takes approximately 10 months for a Las Vegas slot machine to pay for itself.

 Many people claim that Worcestershire sauce does an excellent job of cleaning copper and brass.

 Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator and leader of that country’s National Fascist Party, grew up poor with a blacksmith father who, history indicates, spent most of his meager earnings on his mistress. When Benito was 27 years old, he met a 16-year-old girl named Rachele Guidi—who was the daughter of that same mistress and her deceased husband. Rachele eventually became Mussolini’s second wife.

 In Chicago, if you have a hatpin hidden under a lapel, you are considered to be carrying a concealed weapon.

Thought for the Day: “Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the wellhoused, well-warmed, and well-fed.”

—Herman Melville

STAFF PLAYLIST

“Favorite Things”

By OLIVIA LEITER

Justice contributing WRITER

I usually base my music taste off of what I’m feeling, and so I don’t listen to one genre exclusively. In no particular order, these are some songs that I’ve always enjoyed.

THE LIST 1. “Chicago” – Sufjan Stevens 2. “Dragonfly” – Universal Hall Pass 3. “No Scrubs” – TLC 4. “Rock with You” – Michael Jackson 5. “Hometown Glory” – Adele 6. “Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major” – Johann Pachelbel 7. “Give it Up” – The Format 8. “Sweet Disposition” – The Temper Trap 9. “High and Dry” – Radiohead 10.“Her Morning Elegance” – Oren Lavie