The Justice, May 20, 2014 Issue

ARTS PageS 23

FORUM Trustee speaks out on Hirsi Ali 11

SUMMER READS

SPORTS Granoff, Cooke headed to NCAAs 13 The Independent Student Newspaper

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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 LXVI, Number 27

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

ADMINISTRATION

IGS unaware of University plan for ceremony speaker ■ The University rescinded

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's honorary degree before the program chairs could be consulted.

By HANNAH WULKAN JUSTICE editorIAL ASSISTANT

On Sunday, May 4, students majoring in International and Global Studies received an email from the program's chair, Prof. Chandler Rosenberger (IGS) to clarify that the IGS program had not been consulted by University administration as to whether Ayaan Hirsi

Waltham, Mass.

63RD COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES

Ali was to speak at the IGS diploma ceremony.

The email also affirmed that plans for Hirsi Ali to speak at the ceremony had not actually been finalized.

In interview with the Justice, Rosenberger said that he sent this email in response to an April 29 Justice article, titled “Vetting process raises questions,” which stated that Hirsi Ali was slated to speak at the IGS diploma ceremony.

He wanted to make it clear that the IGS program had not been consulted about that decision. The

See IGS, 5 ☛ MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

STAFF

University employees opt into retirement ■ About 150 staff members

were eligible for a new voluntary retirement package, with 80 accepting the offer.

By TATE HERBERT JUSTICE EDITOR

Approximately 80 staff members who received an early retirement incentive package that was announced early this semester will leave Brandeis at the end of this month.

The deal, which was announced via an email from Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Steven Manos and Provost Steven Goldstein to an undisclosed list of recipients on Jan. 28, was open to staff on the Brandeis payroll who were 60 years or older and had worked at the University for at least 10 years as of April 1—a total of about 150 people.

The email stated that the purpose of the incentive was to address the school’s budget deficit and to “provide opportunities for reorganization, streamlined business processes, and more consistent workloads.”

Senior Vice President for Com-

munications Ellen de Graffenreid told the Justice that there was no specific target number of staff members expected to leave under the program.

While some who opted into the program claim that many more women than men were eligible, de Graffenreid said that she did not know the ratio of men to women who were eligible or had taken the offer.

Statements that most of the eligible recipients were women could not be independently confirmed.

One employee interviewed by the Justice speculated that at a recent retirement planning meeting, eight out of nine people were women.

“I do feel that most of us, with the possible exception of the Facilities people, are women,” said another employee. However, she said, “I don’t really feel that we were targeted. I just feel that there’s a lot of women that work here.”

Some staff are retiring with the package—12 months severance at their regular pay and a $15,000 “transition allowance.” They say that while it is generous, they sensed that they might have had to leave Brandeis whether they took it or not.

See RETIREMENT, 5 ☛

A PROMISING FUTURE: Dr. Geoffrey Canada addresses the graduating class at the 2014 Commencement ceremony.

Canada speaks on the sacrifices for change ■ The University awarded

850 bachelor's degrees at its 63rd commencement ceremony on Sunday.

By MARISSA DITKOWSKY JUSTICE EDITOR

Family, friends, fellow students, faculty and administrators gathered in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center on Sunday morning in anticipation of the 63rd annual commencement ceremony, where 832 students were awarded bachelor’s degrees, 741 were awarded master’s degrees and 97 were awarded doctoral degrees, University Registrar Mark Hewitt confirmed in an email to the Justice.

Vice Provost, Chief Information Officer and University Librarian John Unsworth, who acted as the announcer for commencement exercises, initiated the ceremony by introducing groups of individuals as they entered the Red Auerbach

Arena for the ceremony. The grand marshals, president’s councilors and fellows were the first to enter. Then, the degree candidates began their procession into the arena.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences candidates entered first.

The International Business School degree candidates then entered with a bang—quite literally, as those in front carried a gong down the aisle and struck it as the group walked.

Next, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management candidates entered, followed by the Rabb for Continuing Studies candidates. The faculty then proceeded into the arena.

The undergraduate Class of 2014 finally initiated its procession, carrying its class banner proudly toward the stage. Finally, the Board of Trustees members, honorary degree recipients and members of the president’s party entered the ceremony.

Rachel Benjamin ’14 initiated the exercises with her rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

After announcing the winners of

See COMMENCEMENT, 8

☛

Competitive case study

Power pitch

UltraViolet ads

 Business students worked in teams to plan for the future of a pig farm in Kenya.

 The women’s softball team ended their season with a loss in the ECAC Tournament.

 Organization targets Brandeis on sexual assault issues and prevention.

FEATURES 7 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org

several teaching awards and that the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Mick Watson, will be stepping down this summer, Chair of the Board of Trustees Perry Traquina ’78 addressed the Class of 2014.

This was Traquina’s first address as the chair at a commencement ceremony.

University President Frederick Lawrence then delivered his speech to the Class of 2014. Although Lawrence said that he, as president, cannot pick favorite classes, he said to the Class of 2014 that “[y]ou will always be my first, and you always remember your first,” triggering laughs from the audience. Lawrence continued on to say that, as he started at Brandeis in January 2011, he considers himself to be a "midyear" of the Class of 2014.

Lawrence recalled experiences that the Class of 2014 shared during its time at Brandeis—like Hurricane Sandy, the Boston Marathon bombings, but also sweet memories such as the re-opening of the pool in the

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INDEX

SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 8

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

READER COMMENTARY

News 3 11

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

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TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2014

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS BRIEF

Fulbright grant winners announced

The University announced on May 13 in a BrandeisNOW article that nine Brandeis undergraduates, graduates and recent alumni have been awarded grants from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The article also acknowledged that a Brandeis student was named a Goldwater Scholar and yet another was selected as the University’s second-ever Gates Cambridge Scholar.

The honorees include Anwar Abdul-Wahab ’11, Dan Boyle ’14, Doreen El-Roiey ’12, Kara Faktor ’14, April French Ph.D. ’16, Anna Khandros ’11 and Johan Seligman ’10, according to the BrandeisNOW article. Although the article states that Abigail Simon ’14 and Dina Kapengut ’14 were also offered grants from the program, they declined the award for other pursuits.

Simon will be working with Chicago’s Schuler Scholar Program where she will act as an AmeriCorps scholar coach to help hardworking, underserved students succeed in their competitive colleges, while Kapengut is enrolling in a Ph.D. program at Columbia University in school psychology.

According to Seligman in an email to the Justice, the application consisted of a lengthy process which involved “scores of revisions,” as well as an interview with a panel of Brandeis faculty.

Seligman wrote that he is planning to use the grant to go abroad to Malaysia to teach English to students in schools there. He has spent the past four years teaching in New Orleans and jumped at the opportunity to “teach in a wholly new setting and context.”

French wrote in an email to the Justice that she had already been planning to study in Russia, where she had already intended to complete her research when she applied for her Fulbright grant. She is planning to write her dissertation on “women’s religious activism among Evangelicals in late Soviet Siberia” and is excited to “[dig] into the historical archives,” as well as interview Evangelicals in order to gain firsthand knowledge.

Abdul-Wahab wrote that he is excited to “learn more about Thai culture and Thai history.” He wrote in an email to the Justice that he applied for the grant in order to “share [his] passion for teaching,” which started at a young age. After immigrating from Mali, he would help his younger siblings with their homework.

Abdul-Wahab also participated in a five-week immersion program where he stayed with a host family in a village in Chiang Mai, a province in Thailand. It was then that he “fell in love” with the Southeast Asian country.

Faktor wrote in an email to the Justice that she plans to do public health research in Honduras. As the founder and current co-president of the Brandeis chapter of Global Medical Brigades, Faktor has led several medical brigade trips to Honduras in the past three years.

In the coming year, with the assistance of the Fulbright grant, Faktor will continue to work with Global Brigades and conduct research on a “qualitative study of local perceptions of the effectiveness of short-term medical volunteer work.”

In the coming year, Boyle will be found in Milan, Italy performing research at the Italian Institute of Technology, he wrote in an email to the Justice. He will be joining a project concerned with developing new dyes for bioimaging.

“This institution is still young,” Boyle wrote in the email. “[The] Italian government has populated it with the boldest and most innovative scientists it can find. ...

[I]t’s going to be an interesting forum for cultural and scientific exchange.”

Brandeis also announced that Noam Saper ’15 was selected to be a Goldwater Scholar and Sophie Rosenberg ’10 was honored as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, according to the BrandeisNOW article. The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program is a scholarship designed to encourage studies in the mathematics and sciences, while the Gates Cambridge Scholarships are awards for students from outside of the United Kingdom to pursue a postgraduate degree in Cambridge.

Saper plans to pursue studies in organometallic chemistry. In an email to the Justice, he wrote that he is currently working in Prof. Christine Thomas’ (CHEM) organometallic research lab where they study the “fundamental interactions between metals on the periodic table.” He wrote that he is thrilled to be honored by this national award and to continue studying the relationships between metals and other molecules.

“I love research, and I am passionate about chemistry,” Saper wrote. “The fact that there was a scholarship involved is secondary in my mind.”

—Kathryn Brody

POLICE LOG Medical Emergency

May 6—University Police and BEMCo responded to a report of an injured party who fell down the stairs at the Rabb Graduate Center. BEMCo treated the party and Police transported him to Golding Health Center.

May 8—University Police received a report of a college-aged male who fell off his chair and struck his head. The party was conscious and semi-alert. BEMCo was requested, and staff treated the man on scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Assault

April 30—Student reported that he was assaulted on Sunday, Apr. 27 on Chapel’s Field during Springfest. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

May 12—Jane Doe reported a past incident of assault and battery. University Police compiled a report on the incident and issued a no trespass letter to a Boston University student.

Traffic

April 28—The head custodian reported striking a light pole near the Admissions lot, with no injuries. Upon arrival at the scene, University Police found the operator and truck missing, and the light pole and debris in the walkway. The operator of the vehicle was advised to come to the University Police station, and a report was compiled.

Harassment

May 2—A party in the Shapiro Life Sciences building reported being harassed by email and in person by a former employee. University Police compiled a report on the incident, with a trespass notice to be sent to the harassing party.

May 7—A student reported that he was receiving harassing text messages from an unknown party. University Police complied a report and advised the reporting party to block the number.

May 15—A party stated that a

Northeastern University professor was harassing him by phone.

University Police compiled a report on the incident.

Trespassing

May 3—University Police attended to a vehicle that had repeatedly been driving the wrong way down a one way street on Loop Road, from Usdan Student Center to the Tower Lot. The driver was placed under arrest for trespassing and transported to the Waltham Police Department for processing. The party’s vehicle was towed.

May 6 —University Police sent a student on leave a trespass letter restricting him from entering the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center.

Vandalism

May 13—University Police discovered vandalism to the security box for the CCTV camera system in the Foster Mods, and compiled a report on the damage.

LAST DANCE

Justice

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 2 to 3 p.m. in the Justice office.

Editor News Forum Features Sports Arts Ads Photos Managing Copy Layout

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

—compiled by Tate Herbert

Construction to take place for Lemberg and Schwartz On May 8, Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan sent out an email to the student body informing about parking restrictions over the summer as Schwartz Hall and Lemberg Hall are renovated.

The email said that the construction will start on May 19 and will run through October.

According to the Assistant Project Manager at Facilities Services Casey Russo in an email to the Justice, the construction will be restricted to the two halls and will not extend to the Brown Social Science Center.

Russo also wrote that neither construction project will interfere with fall classes, as the renovation of Schwartz Hall will end before the first day of classes on Aug. 28, significantly ahead of the general date given on the original email.

The construction of office space at Lemberg Hall would have no impact on classes regardless, according to Russo, due to its peripheral location on campus. The completion of the renovated Lemberg Hall is anticipated to be in October, as the original email stated.

Russo’s email also stated that the Lemberg Children’s Center will move into its new building on June 7, and will open on June 10.

The later dates for the renovations to Lemberg Hall are due to the fact that the construction will wait until the children’s center has moved out.

Once Lemberg Hall is completed, the Crown Center for Middle East Studies will move into the office space. Although the hall is expected to be completed in October, the center is planning to host its open house for the department on Sept. 4.

—Kathryn Brody

GRACE KWON/the Justice

GrooveBoston, a company that specializes in hosting concert events on college campuses, held an event last Tuesday as a part of the senior week activities. The show consisted of three disc jockeys and a light show.

NOTE TO READERS

the

www.thejustice.org

May 1—A party stated that a suspicious male was sleeping in a car at the Linsey Pool. Police reported seeing no one in the vehicle, only a blanket in the front seat.

May 13—A black duffel bag was found unattended in the men’s bathroom of the Shapiro Campus Center. The bag, which contained scarves and bracelets, was placed in the SCC lost and found.

May 14— A temporary restraining order was placed on file regarding a faculty member. The order was issued on May 12, and expires on May 21.

May 15—University Police received a call reporting a suspicious black male wearing a purple jacket and baseball hat, walking in and out of apartments in the Foster Mods. Police found the suspect, who was then placed in protective custody. Officers transported the party to the Waltham Police Department for booking.

BRIEF

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

Miscellaneous

The Justice is on hiatus for the summer. Our next issue will be published on August 26.

Check www.thejustice.org for updates and breaking news over the summer.

BRIEF Department of Community Living left with no director Since former Senior Director of the Department of Community Living Jeremy Leiferman’s departure from the University in the beginning of the spring 2014 semester, his position remains unfilled.

In an email to the Justice, Dean of Students Jamele Adams wrote that the search to fill the position is currently ongoing, and, aside from that, there is no new information available regarding it.

Although Adams wrote that the search is in its beginning stages, the hope is to have a new director in place for the fall 2014 semester.

Leiferman, who took a job as the director of housing and residence life at the University of Minnesota Duluth, had been senior director since 2009, and began his Brandeis career as a community development coordinator in East Quad in 2003.

Leiferman said to the Justice for a Jan. 14 article that the job is similar to his position at Brandeis, but has greater depth and responsibility.

—Marissa Ditkowsky

THE JUSTICE

SEXUAL ASSAULT

Ads target University ■ An online campaign has attacked Brandeis, as well as other universities, about sexual assault policies.

By MARISSA DITKOWSKY JUSTICE EDITOR

Brandeis is one of several schools being targeted by UltraViolet, an organization described on its website as a “community of women and men across the U.S. mobilized to fight sexism and expand women’s rights,” in its nationwide campaign to address issues with handling sexual assault on college campuses.

The organization has been sponsoring online advertisements targeting admitted students that read “Accepted to Brandeis? You should know about its rape problem,” and toward alumni that read, “This makes me ashamed to be a Brandeis alum. Learn more now.”

According to Communications Director for UltraViolet Karin Roland, these ads have been placed on websites such as YouTube and Facebook, search engines such as Google and in various website banners.

The online advertisement currently links to a campaign on UltraViolet’s website, which was launched on April 28, aimed at improving conditions at American University, Brandeis University, Florida State University, Harvard University, Occidental College, University of Michigan, University of California, Berkley and Dartmouth College. Although the advertisement initially linked to a campaign regarding Yale University’s handling of a December 2012 sexual assault case, in which the student who attempted to sexually assault a fellow student was punished with a one-day suspension, Roland said that this “glitch” has been addressed and that “most people didn’t see that.”

According to Roland, these particular schools were chosen for the campaign because they either have active sexual assault controversies, ongoing federal investigations in regard to their handling of sexual assault or active student organizations against sexual assault on campus. Roland said active student organizing was the case for Brandeis. “[W]e saw [this campaign] as an opportunity to take a school that is being pressured into considering to change their policies and push them over the top to take a positive action on this sort of issue,” Roland said.

The goal of the advertisements is “to make sure that parents and students who are considering Brandeis know that there’s more that the administration should be doing to prevent and address sexual assault, and also to make sure that the administration knows that they need to take this issue seriously and they can’t hide from it, and that the days of sweeping it under the rug are over,” Roland said.

Roland explained that the advertisements are targeted at those who had been considering attending Brandeis, in addition to those who are searching Brandeis admissions information. In regard to advertisements targeted toward alumni, Roland noted alumni’s “specific power to influence the administration.” She said that there are “a combination of different factors that give us a pool of people who are likely to be considering or already affiliated with Brandeis.”

UltraViolet believes that several improvements can be made at Brandeis, Roland noted, including a need for clearer and more accessible reporting options, improved bystander training, training of school employees and safety networks and support for survivors of sexual assault. “We particularly put Brandeis on the list because of the effective student organizing that had been going on, and that’s different from a lot of these other schools,” Roland said. “But our position is that any sexual assault and any failure on the part of the campus to address it is unacceptable and needs to be changed.”

The University’s Sexual Assault Services and Prevention Coordinator, Sheila McMahon, wrote in an email to the Justice that she is aware of the campaign, but was not contacted by the organization. When asked if the organization was in touch with University administration, Roland said that the organization has been “following” what the administration has been doing in response to sexual assault.

In response to concerns regarding sexual assault, the University hired McMahon to the position of sexual assault services and prevention coordinator, which she officially filled on Nov. 1, 2013. The University also created a conduct process for sexual assault and harassment “that uses a preponderance of the evidence standard and employs a special examiner” and initiated new orientation sessions from Speak About It, according to an April 30 email to the Brandeis community from Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel. The University has also taken steps to provide bystander training for staff, faculty and students. Flagel did not specify what these steps were in the email.

In the same email, Flagel announced that the University had released the Brandeis Resource Guide for Sexual Assault Survivors to the Brandeis community, along with a list of resources for students who are victims of sexual assault. Flagel also wrote that the University will release a full response to the proposal, with its accompanying petition, drafted

by Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence to improve sexual assault prevention on campus.

Upon being asked why Brandeis was targeted in the ad campaign, despite the recent efforts of its students and administration to address and prevent sexual assault, Roland said that “[w]e have been watching what the administration has done in response, and we’ve been encouraged that they’re taking it seriously.” UltraViolet is aware that the University has proposed several new policies and added new resources, according to Roland, and she said that although UltraViolet is “very encouraged,” Brandeis has “a long way to go.”

When asked, Roland did not point to a particular case that the University could have handled better, but continued to list improvements that the University could make and noted the presence of student activism to attempt to effect these changes.

According to Roland, UltraViolet has been acting independently from the student organizations on campus, and said that “we’re not coordinating directly with them.”

Roland clarified that the only group at the University that UltraViolet has been in contact with is Brandeis Stu-

dents Against Sexual Violence, which is a self-titled group of students that gathered independently this spring, and said that the group had reached out to UltraViolet to inform the organization of its April 7 petition to the University administration. UltraViolet is also “monitoring” the activities of other groups on campus, but has not been in direct contact with them, according to Roland. She did not specify which groups were being followed when asked, but said that UltraViolet is following campus media.

In an April 30 BrandeisNOW press release, Flagel wrote in regard to UltraViolet’s campaign that “[w]e applaud efforts to raise awareness about this widespread problem. We need a culture change in order to break the stigma and silence that places blame on survivors, and creates an unsafe environment.”

Flagel wrote in an email to the Justice that there was a “robust online discussion of the ads on Facebook.”

In response to concerns regarding how the advertisement could impact student enrollment decisions, Flagel wrote that he supports “any effort that increases awareness of this national issue.”

The discussion regarding the Facebook advertisements was initiated when James Conlon ’16 posted to Facebook group “Overseen at Brandeis,” a page used by Brandeis students, the advertisement that he saw on YouTube targeting admitted students.

“There’s no reason to scare prospective students from a university which is completely filled with caring students and administrators who work to end the issue of rape culture and sexual assault,” Conlon wrote in an email to the Justice.

Students raised concerns on the Facebook group regarding UltraViolet’s tactics in the discussion, but many students maintained that sexual assault remains an issue that needs to be addressed at Brandeis and other universities nationwide. “[S]exual assault is at epidemic levels on college campuses. One in four women will be sexually assaulted or raped before she graduates and that something has to change and, you know, our campaign is really about bringing attention to that and bringing pressure on college administrations to address this problem because it’s truly at crisis levels,” Roland said.

In addition to the recent release of the First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault in April, on May 1, the U.S. Department of Education released a comprehensive list of 55 colleges and universities under Title IX investigation for the first time.

Among local colleges on the list are Boston University and Harvard University. Brandeis and American were the only universities in UltraViolet’s initial set that were not listed by the U.S. Department of Education. “[O]ur ad is aimed at this set of schools at the moment, but it goes far beyond that. UltraViolet members, our 5,000 members across the country, have been working to hold schools accountable for sexual assault on their campuses for over a year now, and they’ll continue to work on that ... and we’re definitely looking at, given the White House’s release of a set of recommendations for college campuses and universities on how to address this,” Roland said. “[R]eally, Brandeis and the set of schools is just a start.”

BRIEF University works to improve sexual assault policy On April 30, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel informed the Brandeis community in an email of the steps that the Brandeis administration is taking in addressing sexual assault prevention on campus.

These steps include the provision of bystander training for staff, faculty and students, as well as the creation of the Brandeis Resource Guide for Sexual Assault Survivors.

“Sexual violence is an injustice we at Brandeis will not tolerate,” Flagel wrote in the email. He went on to acknowledge an online petition on change.org created by the group Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence, which formed this spring.

The petition was created on April 7 and has garnered 2,631 signatures in support of the group’s specific demands of the University’s administration.

The online petition calls for the administration to make available resources about sexual assault and for the reporting of incidents, for a psychologist specializing in sexual trauma to be made available for long term counseling at the Psychological Counseling Center and for a permanent rape crisis center to be created on campus.

Flagel wrote in an email to the Justice that the University is in the process of drafting its response to the petition. Once the draft is complete, the University will work with

the students involved with the petition to finalize it.

The April 30 announcement to the Brandeis community continues on to say that the University is “in the midst of developing a new website” designed around providing access to sexual assault services and prevention.

Flagel wrote to the Justice that the website should be up and running in late August, although students, staff and faculty can expect communications about it over the summer in order to ensure that the entire Brandeis community is involved and to “ensure [that] the launch meets students needs.”

—Kathryn Brody

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TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2014

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SENTIMENTAL FAREWELL

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

University President Frederick Lawrence speaks to the Class of 2014 in the Shapiro Campus Center on Friday about the importance of giving back to Brandeis in the future.

Lawrence speaks about honorary degree issue ■ Administrators also

discussed statistics about the incoming Class of 2018.

By AVI GOLD JUSTICE EDITOR

At the final faculty meeting of the academic year on Thursday, University President Fredrick Lawrence announced the winner of the Wellington Prize and University Registrar Mark Hewitt disclosed some statistics about the Class of 2014.

The meeting began with a tribute to Prof. Michael T. Gilmore (ENG), which was delivered by Prof. John Burt (ENG). Gilmore, known as Timo by friends and colleagues, passed away at the age of 72 on March 3. Burt highlighted Gilmore’s ability to help students “find what they had to say … and coming to understand that they had something to say at all.” Burt closed by calling Gilmore a role model, a support and a fantastic colleague.

Lawrence began his president’s report with a discussion of the then upcoming commencement exercises, noting that the University has “lived through a tough month as a community.” Lawrence said that much of the reaction to the rescinded degree of Ayan Hirsi Ali was negative, but taught an important lesson in the process.

“The easiest lesson … and therefore most painful, is to have substantially revamped the vetting process,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence continued his discussion of commencement by announcing former executive editor of the New York Times Jill Abramson’s decision to skip the ceremonies, but ended on a more positive note—saying that he was “delighted” with commencement speaker Geoffrey Canada.

The discussion then moved into a report on the incoming Class of 2018, about which Lawrence remarked “all arrows … are pointing in a better and good direction.” Lawrence explained that for the first time in recent history, the University will not need to accept applicants from the

waitlist since it has “overaccepted” applicants. Lawrence cited figures of more than 10,000 applicants and a projection that median SAT scores of accepted students were higher than previous years. He also noted that although the criteria for international applicants had risen, it had not deterred more international students from applying.

Prof. Eric Chasalow (MUS) next took the podium and briefly mentioned that a subcommittee on operations, which will be in contact with Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Manos, will be established within the Faculty Senate.

Hewitt then presented statistics on the Class of 2014. He noted that there were 833 bachelor’s degrees awarded to the class, with 142 departmental honors and nine who received the honors in more than one major.

Hewitt noted that those figures comprised 17 percent of the class, a figure down two percent from last year.

Hewitt noted that both Latin Honors and departmental honors were “trending downward,” and that double majors declined while triple majors rose in numbers.

Hewitt then went through the voting process to approve the degrees, which was unanimously conferred.

Lawrence continued the meeting with a second reading of a proposal to introduce an English Literature program with a minor in Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation.

With no discussion at the meeting, the motion passed. The program will be introduced starting in the fall for a period of five years before being reviewed, though Lawrence did not specify who would review the program.

Lawrence closed the meeting by announcing that Prof. Ana Villalobos (SOC) was the winner of the Wellington Prize. The prize, created by an anonymous donor, is given to a professor drawn at random and carries a $2,000 stipend that cannot be used for standard scholarly advancement. Villalobos will present a full account of her use of the funds in the fall.

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TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2014

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THE JUSTICE

BRIEF Adjuncts considered for full time The University is trying to coordinate to make adjuncts full-time faculty members where possible, Provost Steve Goldstein ’78 affirmed in an email to the Justice.

Goldstein wrote that Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren has been “making an effort … to coordinate the College of Arts and Sciences’ need for adjunct faculty to teach courses across different areas in order to package these courses into full-time contract faculty positions starting in the fall of 2014.”

Birren could not yet specify the number of adjuncts that would become full-time faculty, or in which areas they would teach. “We are still in the process of hiring for next year, so I don’t have any numbers yet,” Birren wrote in an email to the Justice, adding that the University “should have a better idea later in May.” Adjuncts set to become full-

time faculty members would be eligible for benefits, just like contracted faculty who teach two or more courses per year, according to Goldstein.

Goldstein commented on the benefits of making adjuncts fulltime faculty members, “This is good for students because full time faculty are members of the community who come to know more students and develop deeper educational relationships from teaching some students in more than one course,” Goldstein wrote.

He added that they would also be able to oversee independent studies and to serve as advisers and mentors. “A full time position also allows faculty to become more fully engaged in the life of the university since Brandeis becomes their sole professional home for teaching and scholarship,” he wrote.

—Marissa Ditkowsky

THE ROAD TO SUCCESS

JOSH HOROWITZ/the Justice

OVER LUNCH: Slated American Bar Association President Paulette Brown visited Brandeis.

Brown addresses race issues in the workforce ■ Future American Bar

Association president spoke about her personal experiences as a lawyer.

By Glen CHAGI CHESIR JUSTICE EDITOR

On Tuesday, April 29, the Student Union Senate Social Justice and Diversity Committee hosted Paulette Brown “to discuss and gain advice regarding social justice and diversity in the law industry,” according to Senator-at-Large Naomi DePina ’16 during her introduction of the program. Brown is slated to be the first African-American woman to become resident of the American Bar Association, if approved by the association’s House of Delegates this summer.

The program began with an invite-only lunch with Brown, fostering table discussions about entering the law industry—and the greater workforce in general—as a woman or minority.

The program then moved to a formal speech delivered by Brown about her professional road to becoming the ABA’s president, and concluded with a robust questionand-answer session.

Brown, who has been a lawyer for over 38 years, is now a partner at the New Jersey law firm Edwards Wildman Palmer, specializing in labor and employment law and commercial litigation. Brown is a certified mediator for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and, earlier in her career, was a former municipal court judge in Plainfield, N.J. She earned her law degree at Seton Hall University

School of Law and her bachelor’s degree at Howard University.

Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff and Chief Legal Officer David Bunis ’83 introduced Brown, saying that “she has been recognized by almost every award imaginable for lawyers, including being one of the 50 most influential lawyers in the United States.”

Brown began her speech by discussing her childhood and education, and the complete lack of racial understanding she experienced.

“When I was growing up, there were only two races, white and black. If you weren’t white, you were black.”

Brown even recalled a story of a woman who told her that “she shouldn’t feel bad if she flunks out of law school,” as if it was expected.

Brown then turned her speech then turned toward the inherent biases that people have, ones that they may not even be aware of, she said.

She called the students in the room to action, saying that “it’s up to you guys, especially the women in the room, to expose to people the biases they may have in the workplace.

We, as a society, still have a ways to go, even with all the progress we’ve made.”

The program concluded with a question-and-answer session. “How do you get across to your own community the need to branch out and embrace diversity of other? People aren’t always going to be able to stay within the bubble of their own community, how do we show our peers this?” asked DePina of Brown.

Brown responded by first explaining that everyone is different. “But most people don’t like to be told what to do. Instead of forcing their hand, try asking them if ‘they’ve considered’ doing or thinking differently,” she said.

University questions Cholmondeley’s past interview practices ■ Students have come forward

about inappropriate interviews they underwent when applying for positions at Chum’s.

By Lydia Emmanouilidou JUSTICE contributing WRITER

Multiple students who interviewed for positions at Cholmondeley’s came forward during the fall 2013 semester with allegations of inappropriate practices in the hiring process.

According to two students who were interviewed by Chum’s student staff for positions at Chum’s prior to the fall 2013 semester, questions during the interviews— which were conducted—included: “Who would you f*ck/marry/kill in this room?” and “If you could have sex with an animal what animal would it be, and why?”

In an email to the Justice, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Activities Stephanie Grimes wrote that the Student Activities department—which oversees Chum’s—was “notified last fall [2013] about inappropriate interview questions being asked during the … Coffeehouse interview process. Members of the [Student Activities] staff investigated the situation and discovered concerns with the process.”

The Justice spoke with the two students who came forward about their interview experiences in the fall. One student was interviewed for a position at Chum’s during the 2010 to 2011 academic year, while the second was interviewed during the fall 2012 semester. Both students have asked to remain anonymous. According to both of their accounts, during the Chum’s interview process, student members of Chum’s staff asked questions pertaining to sexual preferences, as well as other personal details that the interviewees who spoke to the Justice deemed irrelevant to the prospective position.

The student who underwent the Chum’s interview process during the 2010 to 2011 academic year, and asked for anonymity out of privacy concerns, recalls being asked, “Who would you f*ck/marry/ kill in this room?” and said that there were about five members of Chum’s student staff interviewing her for the position.

Under Massachusetts law on pre-employment inquiries, or the

interviewing process, employers are prohibited from asking about a job applicant’s “race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, genetic information, age (40 and older), ancestry, or disability” unless such questions relate directly to the job. Appropriate pre-employment inquiries include “questions about previous work experience, job-related education and training, relevant personal characteristics, job-related military service and authorization to work in the United States.”

“I remember very few questions actually relating to the job. I don’t think there was any reference to any of my previous job experience. It felt like they were weeding out the right kinds of personality. It felt like they were trying to find someone to include into their friend group who would feel comfortable answering questions like [who would you f*ck/marry/kill in this room]?,” the student who was interviewed during the 2010 to 2011 academic year said.

She added that the five student interviewers were sitting in a semicircle, and described the process as somewhat “intimidating.” “I hesitated a lot,” she said. “I answered but I really didn’t want to. I was thinking about how I’m clearly not the kind of person who they would want for this job… because I wasn’t comfortable answering that,” she said.

This student said she felt particularly uncomfortable seeing the students whom she had pointed out after being asked whom, among the interviewers, she would “f*ck/marry/kill.” She said that this question could be particularly problematic for students who do not feel comfortable revealing their sexual orientation.

Although this student was interviewed by Chum’s staff during the 2010 to 2011 academic year, these types of questions were part of the interview process the following year, as well, another student stated.

A student who was interviewed for a position at Chum’s during fall 2012, and asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, said in an interview with the Justice that among the questions asked during the Chum’s interview were: “If you could have sex with an animal which animal would it be and why?” and “Who would you f*ck/ marry/kill in this room?” The student recounted being interviewed

by seven members of the staff.

The Justice reached out to Chum’s current general manager for comment on the allegations.

However, Chum’s staff gave a unified response to the request through the business’ Facebook account, which is listed under the name “Cholmondeley’s Coffee House.” Their response read: “We find Chum’s to be a truly unique space at Brandeis and an asset to the community… We constantly seek to cultivate this unique and judgment free zone that feels safe and open to all students.

Actualizing these values is a process that requires constant growth and reflection. …We have worked hard amongst ourselves to address our shortcomings and are thankful for the support from the Brandeis administration and student body in doing so in this ongoing process.”

Chum’s staff members did not respond to multiple requests for comment to clarify the nature of the addressed “shortcomings.”

According to Grimes, the two anonymous students who interviewed for positions at Chum’s reported the interview tactics in fall 2013.

Following the reports of the incidents, Chum’s was shut down for a few days “in order to … ensure appropriate action,” Grimes said.

The department of Student Activities “worked with the student staff to educate them on appropriate employment processes and other training from which … they would benefit,” as well as the “current student employees to amend their search process and a member of Student Activities sat on the interviewing team,” wrote Grimes.

One of the students who spoke with the Justice about the Chum’s interview process said she believes this case should have been treated as a sexual harassment case.

In an interview with the Justice, Dean of Students Jamele Adams said that the Special Examiner’s Process—which is used in University cases involving sexual harassment, as mandated by the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook—was not used in this case.

Although Grimes did not respond to repeated requests to specify what the re-training process entailed and if other measures were taken following the incident, she initially wrote that the department of Student Activities “will continue to work with the employment process of Chumley’s (sic.) and all other student businesses to ensure that appropriate and professional environments are provided to our community.”

BRIEF University fills incoming class early, will not draw from waitlist The incoming Class of 2018 was filled by May 1—marking the first time an incoming class has been filled by this date since the fall 2000 entering class— according to Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel in an email to the Justice.

Flagel wrote that it is “exceptionally rare” for an institution to fill its incoming class by May 1, and that universities expect to accept a certain amount of students from the waitlist each year.

According to Flagel, the target for the incoming class was 820 to 830 first-year students, which was “intended to maintain the current overall size of the undergraduate enrollment, assuming that our retention and graduation rates remain near our three year average,” he wrote.

Although Flagel wrote that the admissions office faced

its largest applicant pool in Brandeis’ history this year with just over 10,000 applicants, which is a five percent increase from last year’s application pool, the University admitted fewer students than last year.

The University had anticipated its typical practice of making some offers for admission to students placed on the waitlist, according to Flagel. However, he wrote that “[b]ecause of the exceptionally strong response to our admission offers, at this point it is unlikely that we will be able to offer any wait-listed or late applicants space in the fall.”

Flagel also added that there is generally a decrease in the number of students who will attend in the fall due to a combination of family circumstances, requests to defer for a semester or year or other issues that arise. Due to these circumstances, Flagel wrote that the Univer-

sity will not have a definitive number of enrolled students for the Class of 2018 until classes begin.

“That being said, based on past patterns, retention indicators, and the exceptionally strong May 1 deposits, I am comfortable predicting that we are likely to exceed our incoming class size target and see moderate growth in undergraduate enrollment,” Flagel wrote.

He wrote, however, that there is no plan currently in place to increase undergraduate enrollment.

The University can provide a demographic breakdown analysis of the incoming class in the fall, Flagel wrote, “when we have a better sense of our final enrollment,” and he added that the University expects between 90 and 100 new first-year students in the midyear class.

—Marissa Ditkowsky

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2014

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IGS: Program did

HONORING ACHIEVEMENT

not invite Ali to speak at ceremony CONTINUED FROM 1 degree had been rescinded before the program's chair could be consulted, according to Senior Vice President for Communications Ellen de Graffenreid in an email to the Justice.

Speakers for the diploma ceremonies are generally determined by each department's chairs, according to Rosenberger, adding that, for the IGS ceremony, speakers are usually faculty members within the program.

As the chair of the IGS program, Rosenberger said that he had not been aware of the invitation to Hirsi Ali to speak at the IGS ceremony until after the degree had been rescinded, but added that he is “very grateful the administration thought of us, I think it’s a nice idea to give honorary degree recipients a chance to speak.”

Rosenberger clarified that he did not believe it was any fault of the administration that IGS had not been consulted about having her as the diploma ceremony speaker, but suggested that the process had simply

not been completed due to the fact that her degree was rescinded before the program could be consulted.

According to de Graffenreid, Hirsi Ali had been offered the chance to speak at the IGS diploma ceremony as well as at the Alumni Fellows breakfast.

De Graffenreid wrote in an email to the Justice that “[t]he Office of the President often makes arrangements for honorary degree recipients to speak while on campus.

They are then discussed with the departments when the honorary degree recipient›s availability is confirmed.

In this case, that process was not completed prior to the withdrawal of the invitation.”

Rosenberger would not speak to the responses he had gotten from other members of the IGS program, and would not say whether he had an opinion on the matter.

However, he did say that he wanted to clarify the involvement of IGS with Hirsi Ali. He said, “I wanted it to be clear that as far as I knew, IGS had never invited Ayaan Hirsi Ali to speak.”

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

Prof. Joyce Antler (AMST) delivered the keynote address to newly selected members of Phi Beta Kappa at the induction ceremony on Saturday afternoon in Spingold Theater.

RETIREMENT: Staff members take early buyout settlements CONTINUED FROM 1 “It’s a package that you can’t refuse,” said one employee— who asked to remain anonymous since she will be at Brandeis through the end of the month— of why she accepted the package, in an interview with the Justice.

“The other reason I took it was because the feeling among us retirees was that if we don’t retire, we’re going to get laid off at some point,” she said.

When asked where the feeling stems from, the employee said that the people covered under the package are “old blood."

“We’re old, because we’re over 60 and that’s, I guess, not a good thing nowadays, and we’ve also been here for a long time, and that’s sort of ‘old school’ Brandeis, when things are changing,” she said.

She said she had been at the University for about 20 years.

“It tells you that the landscape is going to change pretty dramatically,” said another employee, who asked to remain anonymous, in a separate interview with the Justice.

The first, who is leaving May 30, said she will be working part-time at a job she has held for several years and plans to search for fulltime work at the end of the summer.

Until then, however, she said she was looking forward to “just relaxing, regrouping and enjoying the time off.

“I have grandchildren, so I’m hoping to spend time with them, and maybe do some trips,” she added.

The second employee, whose last day of work was Sunday, said that she is not sure what she is doing, but that she would be looking for another job. She added that she had been her family’s sole “breadwinner” for many years.

Both employees, who opted in to the “voluntary early retirement

incentive program” said they had not planned on leaving Brandeis so soon—nor did they intend to retire.

The second interviewee also spoke to the Justice for a Feb. 4 article about the initial announcement of the early retirement package.

“I really do not want to [leave],” she said at the time. In the most recent interview, she described her supervisors as “stunned” that she ultimately took the deal.

The first, who was not interviewed for the Feb. 4 article, said that “I do have some feelings of resentment, because I was not planning on retiring right now. I was hoping to have two, maybe even three more years here. I wanted to retire on my own terms, when I was ready, not when they wanted me to go.”

Scot Bemis, vice president for human resources, did not respond to requests for an interview with the Justice.

JOIN

BRIEF Justice welcomes new leader Rachel Hughes ’15 was elected the next editor in chief of the Justice at a staff-wide meeting on April 30. The editorial board met immediately afterward and confirmed the vote.

Hughes gave a speech to the assembled staff and proceeded to answer questions about her experience and her plans to improve the newspaper over the course of the coming year.

During her tenure as deputy editor, spanning the spring semester, Hughes said she had gained valuable insight into the workings of the paper as a whole as well as within each individual section.

Initially joining the Justice as a staff writer for Arts in the fall semester of her sophomore year, Hughes has covered everything from exhibits at the Rose Art Museum to film screenings. She oversaw the section as an editor for just under a year.

“The Justice has become like a home to me on this campus,” said Hughes. “I really enjoyed interacting with all our staff and editors, and I found that I can learn something new from everyone here.”

the Justice

H u g h e s said at the meeting that she hopes to update the Justice’s constitution, establish a written code of ethics for the paper Hughes and initiate writing and training workshops. She said she also looks forward to completing development of a new website during her term.

“I’m looking forward to a year of pushing ourselves to do the best that we can do,” said Hughes, who added that she hopes to “continue the legacy that the editors before us have set for the paper.”

Tate Herbert ’15, senior editor and former editor-inchief, said that she “really enjoyed working with Rachel as arts editor and deputy [editor].

“She loves the Justice, she loves the work and the people we work with, and I think that’s going to help her raise the paper to a new standard,” Herbert said.

CONTACT RACHEL HUGHES AT EDITOR@ THEJUSTICE.ORG

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THE JUSTICE

VERBATIM | FRIDA KAHLO Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1983, the earliest reports declaring the discovery of HIV that causes AIDS were published.

The term “toasting” comes from the ancient Roman practice of dipping toast in wine.

WAR HISTORIAN: Alan Taylor Ph.D. ’83 received his second Pulitzer Prize in history for his work on slaves who defected to British forces during the War of 1812.

Deepening

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALAN TAYLOR

American history

By ROSE GITTELL JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

By ROSE GITTELL JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

History is subjective—we learn what we do about our country’s past because someone else, some nebulous authoritative force, decided it was worth recording and knowing.

Who gets to make these highly political decisions about our collective national memory? Part of the answer is found in the work of historians like Alan Taylor Ph.D. ’86, who devote their lives to bringing light to what actually might have happened in our nation’s history.

This April, Taylor was awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for his book The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832. The citation of the Pulitzer committee acclaims Internal Enemy as “a meticulous and insightful account of why runaway slaves in the American colonial era were drawn to the British side as potential liberators.”

Taylor is one of the nation’s most distinguished historians in the era of Colonial America, the American Revolution and the early U.S. republic. Taylor has taught for 20 years in the history department of the University of California, Davis. In August, Taylor will begin teaching at the University of Virginia as the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor Chair in History.

Taylor’s book tells the story of 3,000

Alan Taylor Ph.D. ’86 wins his second Pulitzer Prize for an expansive study of war participation of Virginia slaves

slaves in the Chesapeake Bay region who exploited wartime disorder to escape to freedom by fleeing and joining the British to fight against Americans in the War of 1812.

In Internal Enemy, Taylor sets the stage for a little-known footnote of history by describing what was an especially tragic time for enslaved African-Americans. Masses of common white men slowly began to gain property, which eventually led to the breaking up of the largest plots of land and large concentrations of enslaved people.

“Slavery in Virginia became much more dispersed, and well-established communities of enslaved people were broken up. This is putting great pressure on their families and their communities,” Taylor said. In 1996, Taylor received his first Pulitzer Prize for his book William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic. Cooper’s Town tells the story of William Cooper, who was a judge and the founder of Cooperstown in a then-forested area of New York.

The history of this small community continues with the life of Cooper’s son, David Fenmore Cooper. “David Fenmore Cooper pioneered the writing of American historical fiction with a frontier setting. He did so by drawing on memories of the Cooper’s Town of his childhood and of his father’s generation,” Taylor said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALAN TAYLOR

SLAVE NARRATIVE: Internal Enemy, focuses on African-American slaves who fled to the British side during the War of 1812.

Taylor’s historical research consistently focuses on “microhistories,” preferring to narrate subtle dynamics between individuals and small groups that are typically passed over by historians. Taylor recognizes their crucial influence on the larger political and social systems of the day. He stresses the importance of integrating these individual stories with macro-historical narratives, moving between the individual and the society on an ascending and descending scale within every chapter.

Taylor continuously zooms in and out between the individual and the larger societal structures.

“You must see that the political ideals of slave owners and political leaders have consequences for ordinary people. And that the behavior and ideas of ordinary people also have an influence over their leaders,” Taylor said.

The research for Cooper’s Town and Internal Enemy was manifested differently. For Cooper’s, Taylor drew primarily from the extensive documentation that both William Cooper and his son left behind. For Internal Enemy, the experience was quite different; Taylor drew from a unique, untapped source.

After the Revolutionary War, the newly-formed U.S. government established a claims commission so masters could document their slaves that had escaped and fled to

the British, and be compensated for their loss of property. “Slave owners would throw in any document that they thought would help them be compensated,” said Taylor. “There are some extraordinary descriptions of escapes, and even letters written by slaves after the war back to their former masters. No other historian has used these documents, so it was a great opportunity for me to address this challenge.”

Internal Enemy is unique because it tells the histories of marginalized people without property. Voices of landed people are historically better represented due to the extensive records they leave behind. People with property are well-convinced of their historical worth—they are confident that their lives are worthy of documentation, of interest to future generations and that their actions will have permanence after they die.

“It’s much harder to capture the lives of the enslaved people. Societies were arranged in a way that discouraged enslaved people from putting their thoughts on paper. That challenge is what drew me to telling this story,” Taylor said.

Taylor’s interest in early American history has been a strong force in his life since childhood, inspiring him to eventually pursue a doctorate at Brandeis in American History.

“It goes back to when I was a kid,” Taylor said, “I was very interested in

stories about Colonial America, the American revolution and the early U.S. republic.”

A common conclusion between Internal Enemy and Cooper’s Town, and of analytical historical writing in general, is the incredible importance of property within a society. According to Taylor, in Cooper’s Town, the primary tension comes from disputes over the legal ownership and distribution of land, and in Internal Enemy, it comes from the political consequences of a system that allowed human beings to be owned as property. In both cases the question becomes this—who owns property and who derives the political power that comes from owning property.

“We are certainly living in a society that has inherited social dilemmas that are derived from the property systems of the past, which redistributed land in an unequal fashion and which has treated thousands of people as property,” Taylor said.

Taylor believes that Americans questioning existing inequalities in society should consult the past in order to understand how modern structures came to be. “We live in a society where there is increasing attention to the inequality of income. And many people have questions about how that came to be. Well … there is a very long history of inequality in our country,” Taylor said.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

SELDOM-TOLD STORIES: Internal Enemy seeks to delve into lesser-known aspects of historical events such as the pivotal bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, during which the Chesapeake Bay campaign of the British Navy was successfully thwarted by American forces.

THE JUSTICE

BUSINESS BUFF: Prof. William Oliver (IBS) was an assisting faculty member to the Kenya Challenge competition for business students.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF OHAD ELHELO

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TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2014

Consulting

put into practice Business students team up to design a fiscal plan for a Kenyan farm By jaime kaiser JUSTICE editor

SMART FARM: Eunice Atieno, a Kenyan woman, will implement the winning student business strategy to grow her family pig farm.

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK: Team C’s plan supported Atieno’s farm, but suggested she put her efforts into one pig house before building a second one.

When the chance to compete in a real-life consulting scenario involved in growing a Kenyan pig farm presented itself, business students from Brandeis and Babson College enthusiastically embraced the task. But the daunting nature of the problem quickly became evident: how can a group of university students in America devise a business model for farmers living thousands of miles away in a country most of them have never visited?

This past semester amid final exams and other end-of-semester responsibilities, four teams of Brandeis undergraduate and graduate Business students, as well as a team of undergraduate students from Babson, competed to produce a business model for a woman named Eunice Atieno. Participants were given under a month to complete their plan—April 5 to May 1 for Brandeis students and from April 15 to May 5 for Babson students.

Atieno is a Kenyan woman living in Miami and has been saving her earnings for over two years in order to build a pig farm in Kisumu, Kenya with her family.

“The Kenya Challenge” or “Project Eunice,” as it is interchangeably termed, was judged by Alex Oliver, founder of a prominent international management consulting firm called Oliver Wyman.

Prof. Carol Osler (IBS) and Prof.

William Oliver (IBS) and Professor Amy Blitz from Babson served as assisting faculty to the project.

Ohad Elhelo ’16 oversaw the project as its student director.

The idea for the competition formed when Alex Oliver learned of Atieno’s aspiration to build a successful farm and rejoin her family in Kenya. Although she was dedicated to the project and had already put $20,000 out of her own pocket toward the initiative, she did not have a clear business plan. He wanted to help and realized that students, as well as Eunice’s family, could benefit from her predicament by putting their theoretical consulting knowledge into practice. Oliver decided that the students would compete to offer the best business solution, and Atieno could implement the best plan.

The Kenya Challenge was a special and rare opportunity. “Usually students do not work on reallife business cases. They practice business cases about things that have already happened.” Elhelo said in an interview with the Justice. “Here is a rare opportunity to partake in an initiative that has implications in reality. ... For the students it was great opportunity to practice consulting. Most of them want to do this in the future,” Elhelo said.

Better yet, the project has wider implications beyond those directly involved. “Once this farm is working it will be a model for other community members,” Elhelo said.

Additionally, the chance to work with someone as successful as Alex Oliver is, as Elhelo stated, a “huge privilege.”

The approach teams took during the research portion of their project varied. Many teams attempted to assess the future profitability of

the pork industry in Kenya. Some teams contracted with Farmer’s Choice, a butchery based in Kenya that At plans to sell her pigs to about their standards and contract requirements. Others reached out to Eunice about her relatives’ farming skill sets.

The students also regularly corresponded with William Oliver on the project and submitted various components of their findings in stages.

By combining their research, both qualitative and quantitative, the groups then analyzed their findings to provide Atieno with a financial model that would maximize earnings and prevent future debt.

Team C, consisting of team leader Benjamin Sirois M.A. ’15 and team members Levan Mzhavia ’15, Justin Chu ’16 and Daniel Brog ’14 was selected by Alex Oliver as the winning team.

A first-year Master’s student and copresident of the Consulting Club at IBS, Sirois was intrigued by the concept of the project and excited to put consulting to work. Sirois added that “it was a good experience to meet with people from the other side of campus.”

Sirois said that his team’s initial approach was to get a grasp of what it takes to raise pigs in Kenya. According to their calculations, it is most strategic for Atieno to focus on one pig house initially before building a second one. “In our model, we predicted that it would take two and a half to three years before she had enough profit on her own to build a second building,” Sirois said.

The four other teams that competed were Team A, led by Radina Arnaudova M.A. ’14 and composed of members Linh Nguyen M.A. ’14 and David Maher ’16; Team B, composed of team leader Lingfeng Zhang M.A. ’15 and members Caojingjing Qu M.A. ’15 and Pokuaa Adu ’14; Team D, consisting of Babson business students Tamerlan Bakhtiozin, the leader, and members Yana Bliznakova and Elizabeth Holmes; and Team E, with members Tian Lan ’14 and Bowen Li ’14.

In the coming months, Atieno and her family hope to incorporate the suggestions of Team C. Elhelo indicated that he has been in touch with StarTau, the Tel Aviv University Entrepreneurship Center, about the possibility of making Atieno’s farm the subject of a case study in a six-week course titled “Doing Business in Emerging Markets.”

These students would pick up where Brandeis and Babson students left off by providing support in the implementation of Atieno’s pig farm.

Atieno is hopeful about the future of her farm. In her words of thanks to the project participants, she expressed her positive outlook on the future of her business and community.

“You might not know it, but you are already changing the lives in some small village in rural Kenya.

So far, you have made a few people in that neck of the woods sleep easy. There certainly is nothing as invigorating as hope, and because I am extremely hopeful now, they are too.”

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THE JUSTICE

COMMENCEMENT 2014

“

Those kids are so smart. They were so talented.

They were the best we have. ... They graduated from Brandeis and they promised. ... I think they might be the greatest generation yet.

OLIVIA POBIEL/the Justice

CAPTURING THE MOMENT: The Class of 2014 celebrated after all members of the graduating class were confirmed at the ceremony.

GEOFFREY CANADA

COMMENCEMENT: Cana graduating Class of 201 CONTINUED FROM 1

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

CLASS PRIDE: Andre Tran ’14 and Annie Chen ’14 had the honor of carrying the Class of 2014 banner into the Red Auerbach Arena.

“

If protons were just 0.2 percent more massive, atoms wouldn’t exist and neither would life. ...

In that way, we are the one percent.

ARIANA BOLTAX ’14

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

LIFE IS AWE-FUL: Ariana Boltax ’14 was the selected undergraduate student speaker at this year’s commencement ceremony.

Linsey Sports Center and the party that ensued, to name a few.

Lawrence remarked on the impressive amount of community service Brandeis students have logged, topping 55,000 hours this year.

He extolled the amount of good that University students have done for the community, and explained that being a student at Brandeis is “preparation” for taking on “the role of global citizen.”

Dialogue and civil discourse was Lawrence’s next talking point, as he explained, “The essence of civil discourse is to challenge without attacking, to question without threatening; it is to critique without delegitimizing another’s point of view.” He emphasized Brandeisians’ “passionate, yet respectful dialogue.” Specifically, Lawrence pointed to this year’s ’Deis Impact keynote address, at which Nelson Mandela’s grandsons Kweku Mandela-Amuah and Ndaba Mandela spoke, and organizations such as Brandeis Visions for Israel in an Evolving World, as examples of this respectful dialogue.

Lawrence went on to praise the Brandeisian “action in the face of tragedy,” and how the community has embraced staff members like Mangok Bol MS ’13.

He added that he believed all members of the Class of 2014 had, at one point or another, stood up for causes that they believe in and had gone beyond their comfort zones, saying: “The truth is there aren’t any greater risks in this society than the sheer risk of daring to be yourself.” He concluded by stating that the class would move on to do “amazing things” and emphasized that the graduates will be alumni for the rest of their lives.

Next, honorary degrees were awarded to candidates Geoffrey Canada, the president and chief executive officer of the Harlem Children’s Zone; Eric Lander, the founding director and president at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University; and Malcolm L. Sherman, who served on the

Brandeis University Board of Trustees for the past 33 years, six of them as its chair, before stepping down last year.

Jill Abramson, the first female executive editor of the New York Times, elected to miss the commencement exercises after being fired from her position on May 14. Lawrence announced Abramson’s decision at a May 15 faculty meeting. Abramson, therefore, did not receive an honorary degree at this ceremony, but remains a potential candidate for future commencement ceremonies.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born women’s rights activist who was initially selected to receive an honorary degree at the ceremony, had her invitation rescinded, as announced in an April 8 BrandeisNOW statement, after an outcry from some members of the Brandeis community regarding statements against Islam she had made previously.

Canada proceeded to deliver the commencement address. Before his prepared remarks, Canada said that “there is nothing that would’ve stopped me from addressing this commencement today.”

He discussed his own experiences and explained his hopes growing up that his generation would be better than the previous generation. He shared how he had encountered so many individuals that were “not just financially poor, but poor without spirit and without hope.

“I love the idea of America even while grappling with its imperfect reality,” he said. He continued on to explain how the world that he grew up in “needed changing.” Individuals had given up everything they had so that one day, people like Canada could get a quality education, have a nice home and even hold a comfortable occupation, he said. “People with everything to lose … lost it all for the ideals that this country stood for.”

Canada went on to describe the failings of his generation, namely that “we have also left [your generation] a mess.” He said that his generation left issues such as staggering child poverty rates

and the burden of glo said that his generatio Canada received appl the problem of “specia such that “weak” gun ing the Sandy Hook E ings could not even pas Although Canada a tion made improvemen that not all issues had said that “someone w work.” He explained th be left to do what Canad was to “make this a b left to me.”

Canada said that alt from Harlem Children years, in the future, ev several years, he will b my children will be sa tion will finish the wo complete.

“Those kids are so sm ed. They’re the best we … They graduated fr and they promised. … greatest generation yet Next, the Rabb Scho Heller School for Socia International Busines School of Arts and Sci confirmed, one school dergraduate Class of 20 was met with thundero Ariana Boltax ’14 th as the student-selected Her speech focused on awe-ful responsibility o world outside of Brand “If protons were ju sive, atoms wouldn’t ex Of the five to 50,000,00 existed, only five to 50, that way, we are the o She described the wor

Farewell, Clas

THE JUSTICE

though he will be retiring n’s Zone in June after 31 ven after not working for be content “because I know afe,” and that this generaork his generation did not

mart. They were so talente have. And they promised. rom Brandeis University I think they might be the t,” Canada concluded. ool for Continuing Studies, al Policy and Management, ss School and Graduate iences candidates were all at a time. Finally, the un014 was confirmed, which ous applause. hen delivered her speech d commencement speaker. n the “encounter with this of time,” and entering the deis. ust 0.2 percent more masxist and neither would life.

000 species that have ever ,000,000 are alive today. In one percent,” Boltax said. rld that graduates will go

TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2014

COMMENCEMENT 2014

2014

DESIGN BY REBECCA LANTNER

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

OUT WITH A BANG: The International Business School degree candidates proceeded into the ceremony while playing a gong.

HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS

ada addresses 14 at exercises

obal warming, which he on had previously denied. lause when he described al interest” in government control legislation followElementary School shootss through Congress. admitted that his generaents in civil rights, he said d been eliminated. Canada will have to finish this hat this generation would ada had aimed to do, which better country than it was

●

into as “most certainly full of awe.”

Boltax suggested looking at life and situations with another frame of mind or of reference, and said that Brandeis has taught the Class of 2014 that “the frame can be just as beautiful as the picture.”

Although she described what she and her classmates learned at Brandeis in overturning injustices and observing subtleties, she said that “this is no longer our house, but it will always be our home,” and added that she “can’t wait to see what we all continue to accomplish.”

Eugene Kogan Ph.D. ’13 then delivered the graduate student speech. Kogan told the story of his grandmother coming to America, and said that for millions of individuals coming to America to make a better life, “[t]he American dream was just that: it was a dream.” Kogan reminded audience members that someone at some point took a chance on each and every one of them, saying that those individuals had the “courage to believe in your dreams.” Kogan said that each graduate should, one day, take a chance on someone else, “just like someone took a chance on you.”

The ceremony concluded with the graduates being welcomed into the alumni association, a benediction given by the four interfaith chaplains and a performance of the alma mater by a cappella group VoiceMale.

Families and friends gathered outside after the ceremony to take pictures and reminisce. “I feel pretty excited. It’s sort of surreal but it feels good. It’s exciting to move on, but also sad that we won’t be coming back,” Eli Siegel ’14 said in an interview with the Justice.

Some graduates, like David Benger ’14, discussed their next steps after commencement.

“I’m spending the summer TAing for the Brandeis in the Hague summer program. And then I want to work for a couple of years and do a joint Ph.D. in International Relations and a law degree. That’s the goal,” he said in an interview with the Justice.

—Kathryn Brody contributed reporting

GLEN CHAGI CHESIR/the Justice

WAITING FOR THE BIG MOMENT: Diploma candidates of the Class of 2014 await the beginning of the commencement ceremony.

ss of 2014!

GEOFFREY CANADA Canada is the president and chief executive officer of the Harlem Children’s Zone, an organization dedicated to assisting the struggling families of Harlem, N.Y. He has been with the organization since 1990 and, in his time there, it has grown from offering a parttime community center to serving more than 10,000 children and 7,400 adults. The organization works to create a safer neighborhood through educational, social and medical services and covers more than 100 blocks.

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

ERIC LANDER Eric Lander is the founding director and president at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Lander has devoted his career to research in utilizing the human genome for medicine.

He is currently co-chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and is also a professor of biology at MIT.

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

MALCOLM L. SHERMAN Malcolm L. Sherman is a business leader and philanthropist who served on the Brandeis University Board of Trustees for the past 33 years, six of them as its chair, before stepping down last year. In the past, he has also acted as the chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Museum of Science and Tufts Medical Center among other organizations. Sherman also is an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and most recently suggested the partnership between Brandeis and the Museum of Science for the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition.

OLIVIA POBIEL/the Justice

BRIEF Antler delivers Phi Beta Kappa keynote address A portion of the graduating class, as well as a few members of the junior class, were inducted in to the Phi Beta Kappa society on Saturday as part of the Mu chapter of Massachusetts. Approximately 10 percent of the graduating class and one percent of the class of 2015 receive this honor each year, recognizing their outstanding academic achievements.

The ceremony began with a brief introduction by the master of ceremonies, Prof. Kathryn Graddy (ECON), followed by an address from University President Frederick Lawrence. In speaking to the inductees, Lawrence said that to be Phi Beta Kappa means “to have challenged yourselves at the highest level, and then to achieve at that high level.”

Lawrence went on to give the recipients a piece of advice that he said had stuck with him since his French horn teacher told it to

him when he was younger. “Teach yourself to be your own harshest critic—your mother will always say it sounds good,” he said.

Then, Prof. Craig Blocker (PHYS) gave a brief history of Phi Beta Kappa. He explained that only about 10 percent of schools in the United States have chapters, making Phi Beta Kappa membership a unique honor, and told the inductees that they were joining the ranks of over half a million members including several former presidents.

After Blocker told of the history of Phi Beta Kappa, the graduates were inducted into the society, with Prof. Alice Kelikian (HIST) reading the names of the students honored.

Each student walked across the stage to receive the traditional Phi Beta Kappa key as well as to shake hands with Lawrence.

After all of the new members had been initiated, Prof. Joyce Antler (AMST) delivered the keynote ad-

dress. She spoke about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous Phi Beta Kappa address at the Harvard College ceremony in 1837 titled “The American Scholar,” which encouraged students to engage with the world and their academic endeavors actively, rather than simply being “bookworms.” She also spoke about Margaret Fuller in response to the sexism in “The American Scholar,” and suggested that there is a lot to be learned from her feminist academic pursuits.

She finished by telling the graduates to “[s]eek to find the balance between all the varied aspects of your lives, only in so doing can you be truly nourished.”

The ceremony finished with closing remarks from Graddy, and the ceremony was followed by a reception for the honored students and their families.

—Hannah Wulkan

9

10 TUESDAY, may 20, 2014 ● THE JUSTICE

the

Justice

Brandeis University

Established 1949

Rachel Hughes, Editor in Chief Tate Herbert, Senior Editor Glen Chagi Chesir, Managing Editor Jessie Miller and Olivia Pobiel,

Associate Editors

Marissa Ditkowsky, News Editor Jaime Kaiser, Features Editor Max Moran, Forum Editor Avi Gold, Sports Editor Emily Wishingrad, Arts Editor Morgan Brill, Photography Editor Rebecca Lantner, Layout Editor Brittany Joyce, Copy Editor

Farewell to the Justice alumni With the 2014 commencement ceremony now behind us, this board would like to express sincere gratitude to the newest alumni of the Justice, who have each contributed to the paper immensely over the past few years. We wish you all tremendous success in the future and look forward to covering your future accomplishments.

Schuyler Brass served as the ads editor for the Justice for a year. He thrived in the position, making immense strides in the continued development of the ads section. The office will surely miss his efficiency and his smile.

As former layout editor and associate editor Rachel Burkoff leaves our office, our InDesign maven’s contributions to the paper will not. Rachel’s expertise in computer science, Wall Street and multi-page spreads were second to none. Yet above all, her constant ability to have fun, as well as her bubbly personality, will surely be missed in the office.

Though Jenny Cheng’s demeanor was calm and quiet, it could not mask the toil and long hours she consistently worked throughout the week. Jenny was a stabilizing force in the office.

While others ran amok, she consistently soldiered on through the tasks of photography editor, which are sometimes tedious and always numerous. Jenny was a superb mentor to the younger generation of photographers and her instructions were clear and easy to grasp, leaving a tangible legacy as new photographers carry on her work.

Despite her quiet personality, Sara Dejene was a true leader throughout her time working on the Justice. As news editor, online editor and associate editor, she continually exemplified the ethical, high-quality journalism that the Justice strives for. Her final contribution to the paper was a series of thoroughly-researched investigative articles that raised the quality of News this past semester.

Phil Gallagher was one of the most versatile editors the Justice has seen grace its office. Starting as both a Copy staff member and Forum writer simultaneously, Phil was originally delighted to be granted a column with a focus in on-campus news. He later was selected to be an editor of the Arts section, and after spending a semester abroad and returning to the staff, was promoted to deputy editor. His wide range of experience and sardonic sense of humor will surely be missed.

Shafaq Hasan’s no-nonsense attitude and natural confidence as a leader made her a brilliant forum editor and associate editor. She was willing to spend long hours honing every individual piece of an op-ed or editorial article until it was exactly right, and her insightful comments and quick wit irrevocably improved the quality of the Justice’s opinion section. She was someone you could always trust to be entirely honest, always in your corner and pushing you to improve the paper to be the best it could be.

Celine Hacobian made her way into the Justice office as a Copy staff member but quickly found a home in the Features section during her sophomore year. After her excellent work as features editor, Celine’s dedication to perfection and welcoming personality were a consistent boon during her time as associate editor and online editor.

You will all be missed We salute Josh Horowitz for all that he has done. Josh thrived as photography editor for the duration of not one regular term, but close to two. He went above and beyond as an editor, serving as a stablizing and thoughtful force when his critical and complex section needed it most. Josh taught his peers by example how to be a proactive, not reactive, contributor—even in the face of last-minute challenges under the wire.

He could always be counted on for a laugh, a great story or a late-night food run. His legacy as the man who brought the Justice sweatshirts to fruition will surely live on in our office.

Joshua Linton’s skills have significantly altered the trajectory of the paper moving forward for the better. Besides his world class photography skills, which he displayed as photography editor, Josh improved the technology of the office exponentially. We wholeheartedly thank him for all the hours he has put into improving our office.

Few people can bring the combination of laid back and headstrong that Henry Loughlin brings to a room. From sports staff writer as a sophomore all the way to the section editor, Henry kept everyone from getting too serious and reminded the office to just have a good time.

Adam Rabinowitz has certainly left his mark on the paper. Starting as a sports writer, quickly moving through the ranks to become a first-class sports editor, he eventually culminated his Justice experience as managing editor. His ability to so effectively manage his work, no matter how abundant that work may be, is something to be commended.

With her laser accuracy, attention to detail and keen intelligence, Maya Riser-Kositsky no doubt caught many potential grammar and spelling mistakes during her time as copy editor. From her inimitable copy editing to her help with layout, she always was sure to be accurate and thorough in all her work.

Her focus and knowledge will surely be missed.

Andrew Wingens left a lasting impact not only on the three generations of news editors whom he helped mold into leaders and investigators after his own term, but also as the Justice’s Editor-in-Chief during the 2012 to 2013 academic year. Always passionate about the paper and full of innovative ideas, he made huge undertakings like the November 2012 election edition exciting, fun and successful. His sense of humor and grounding presence will be missed.

We would also like to thank our senior writers, columnists and cartoonists for all of their contributions to the paper.

We wish Lilah Zohar, Aaron Fried, Jacob Moskowitz, Tziporah Thompson and Mara Sassoon the best of luck in the future.

All of the Justice’s new alumni made immesurable contributions to the paper; indeed, this board would not even know how to do our jobs without the wonderful people who taught us. We wish our graduates the very best of luck. The work ethic, curiosity, eloquence and amiability that each and every one of these men and women have shown will serve them well in whatever field they choose to enter. We hope they’ll remember their time at the Justice fondly.

GABRIELA YESHUA/the Justice

Views the News on

As the Class of 2014 takes off their caps and gowns, each member of the graduating class leaves the school with unique experiences and personal understandings of what it means to be a Brandeis student. It is important and meaningful to hear from individuals about what truly characterizes the university. In your own words, what is unique about a Brandeis education that cannot be found anywhere else?

Andre Tran ’14 After talking to friends from other colleges, I realize that one unique aspect of my Brandeis education is that it’s so easy to become familiar with our faculty. Many professors, even those who teach large classes, want to know their students and all it takes is the courage to introduce one’s self. Whether it’s taking them out for lunch, going to office hours, or talking to them after class if your professor has time they are more than happy to have a chat or discussion. This ease of creating a relationship can also lead to opportunities such as working in their lab or becoming their teaching assistant. I was lucky enough to experience this myself becoming a Biology Lab Teaching Assistant for Dr. Kosinski-Collins. Really, your Brandeis education is what you make of it and I made the most of it.

Andre Tran ’14 was a Class of 2014 Senator in the Student Union.

Emma Lieberman ’14 The thing that’s so special about a Brandeis education is the way that all of the faculty care so much about what they’re teaching, at every level.

Obviously, professors who teach to advanced students will care about what they’re discussing with people they know are dedicated. But even in introductory courses, I’ve never had an instructor who was bored and couldn’t be bothered to deal with the class. Every teacher has “geeked out” about their field of study to us, and it’s a big part of what draws us in and makes us care about it as well. It’s what really makes the liberal arts education work here, because as we’re taught a wide variety of subjects by world-class professors, we’re also taught why they’re so important and why we ought to study them, even if they’re not what we plan to pursue in our post-collegiate life.

Emma Lieberman ’14 is a Theater Arts major who wrote, produced and starred in the one-woman play My Morning in March.

Jack Hait ’14 What is unique about Brandeis? Brandeis is the place where each individual can grow into his or her own-self, and be recognized and appreciated for exactly that. Brandeis is certainly a small school, but it is only small in the best of senses: your professors are your mentors, your hands are in most of the extracurriculars events that create the campus culture and your classmates are your residence mates who are also your friends.

It is a school whose intimate and powerful relationships empower each student to do great things—and a school that recognizes those great things and appreciates the students who accomplished them.

Jack Hait was a senior student representative on the Board of Trustees.

Phil Gallagher ’14 As a Jewish student, I always valued the strength and diversity of Jewish life at Brandeis. Few other schools have established clubs representing each of the four main denominations of American Judaism: Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, and Orthodox. We have a Hillel and a Chabad, both extraordinarily active. Furthermore, Brandeis is host to Kehillat Sha’ar, a new egalitarian prayer group created and operated entirely by students, demonstrating the drive that Brandeis students have to take ownership of their own Jewish experiences. Having this diversity matters because it gives Jewish students the opportunity to contextualize their own religious upbringing within the larger mosaic of American Judaism and find a religious practice that is right for them. I’ve met students who enter Brandeis with little Jewish background and decide to practice Orthodox Judaism, while some traditional students find that egalitarian services better suit their interests. Brandeis offers a comprehensive experience to Jewish students who seek to understand the varieties of their religion, and it often results in tremendous personal growth.

Phil Gallagher ’14 was the deputy editor of the Justice.

THE JUSTICE

READER COMMENTARY Controversial honorees are a boon In response to your article “Vetting process raises questions” (4/29): This is essentially a non-article; it simply repeats the administration’s capitulation to a group of students and faculty. You do not mention that the University’s decision was criticized by other publications, such as The Washington Post. I, for one, did write to the Alumni office and said that I was deeply disappointed in the University’s decision to revoke an invitation to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. At my own son’s graduation, Tony Kushner spoke, and [al]though his views were upsetting to me, it was with great pride that I credited Brandeis for creating a space in which people with different opinions could come together and learn from each other. It was with that same spirit of generosity that I was inspired to donate to Brandeis every year since my son’s graduation. Hearing the decision to exclude an honorary degree recipient who does not conform to Brandeis’ political criteria is unconscionable and does a disservice to the mission of any University whose goal is to expose students to different opinions; encouraging them to arrive at their own conclusions. Therefore, it is with real sadness that I will no longer contribute to Brandeis.

—Isabel Margolin P ’06 is an academic department coordinator at Amherst College.

Respect Hirsi Ali’s accomplishments An open letter to President Lawrence— I’m writing to express my disappointment with Brandeis University for revoking its honorary degree award to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. When the honorary degree was first announced, it unsurprisingly created controversy. Alina Cheema ’15, co-president of the Muslim Students Association, asked “Are they saying we don’t belong on campus?” Prof. Joseph Lumbard (NEJS), chairman of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, stated “This makes Muslim students feel very uneasy. They feel unwelcome here.” Unfortunately, by reversing course, presumably out of concern for such sentiment, you’ve put your university in an unfortunate catch-22 situation. Does the Brandeis community also consist of nonreligious people? Or people raised Muslim who have since rejected the religion of their parents? How does your shameful capitulation make them feel? Where is the concern for them?

In a letter to the Justice (“Ayaan Hirsi Ali degree is an insult to Muslim students”), Cheema and Yasmin Yousof ’15 wrote of the initial decision to present the honorary degree: “It is also important to consider how this will affect Brandeis Muslim chaplain Imam Talal Eid’s presence at commencement as well. Brandeis has unapologetically disregarded the extremely uncomfortable position that Eid would be placed in sharing a ceremony with Hirsi Ali.” They also said they described the decision as “a personal attack.” Forgive me, but I don’t consider sharing a stage with someone with whom you disagree to be an “extremely uncomfortable situation” I think an “extremely uncomfortable situation.” would be having your friend murdered and receiving death threats, all due to a film that was made. “A personal attack” is being driven from your adopted homeland due to character assassination.

Hirsi Ali has experienced the horror of female genital mutilation firsthand. She knows the terror of being shipped off to a foreign country to be forced into a marriage with an older man. She fights tirelessly to make sure future generations of girls have unfettered access to education, and don’t go through what she has gone through. To attempt to turn the tables and make her into the aggressor due to her words, rather than the victim that she is, is despicable.

Now you’re attempting to find a happy medium (and kick the controversy down the road) by inviting Hirsi Ali to “join us on campus in the future to engage in a dialogue.” Well forgive my cynicism, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Now that the forces of intimidation and censorship have been rewarded for their efforts, are you really so naïve as to believe they won’t redouble those efforts if and when Ms. Hirsi Ali is invited to speak at Brandeis at some future date? Is anyone really convinced your university will suddenly grow a spine then?

Shame on you sir, and shame on Brandeis.

And in broader terms, shame on our system of higher education, which has gone off the rails and turned its back on the ideals upon which secular, liberal democracies were founded.

—Andrew Walko, Springfield V.A.

Write to us

The Justice welcomes letters to the editor responding to published material. Please submit letters through our Web site at www.thejustice.org. Anonymous submissions cannot be accepted.

Letters should not exceed 300 words, and may be edited for space, style, grammar, spelling, libel and clarity, and must relate to material published in the Justice. Letters from off-campus sources should include location. The Justice does not print letters to the editor and oped submissions that have been submitted to other publications.

Op-ed submissions of general interest to the University community­—that do not respond explicitly to articles printed in the Justice—are also welcome and should be limited to 800 words. All submissions are due Friday at 12 p.m.

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TUESDAY, may 20, 2014

11

Acknowledge the dangers of white privilege Kahlil

Oppenheimer Unedited Justice

I recently stumbled across an article from The Princeton Tory (republished in Time Magazine) called “Why I’ll Never Apologize for My White Male Privilege,” written by Princeton University freshman student Tal Fortgang. In it, Fortgang vehemently protests the idea that all of his success in life (including his admission to Princeton) can be credited to his race or sex, and offers instead that to call someone privileged “[assumes] they’ve benefitted from ‘power systems’ or other conspiratorial imaginary institutions [and] denies them credit for all they’ve done.”

Before going forward, it’s important to note that I am a white, heterosexual male. This, of course, means that I’m writing with a particular bias based on living with those dispositions.

That being said, I observed two assumptions Fortgang makes in his article. The first is that hard work yields success, which to Fortgang, seems to denote financial and political power.

The second is that we live in a society that allows everyone to work hard, and thus be successful.

I agree, in part, with Fortgang’s first assumption. For many, if not most people, working hard is necessary to become successful. Fortgang’s grandparents, for instance, who escaped the Holocaust to start a “humble whicker basket” business in the United States, would not have been successful had they not worked hard.

However, I disagree with his second assumption. There are countless people who work hard, just as hard as any wealthy or influential person, and some even more, who are not successful.

Fortgang concedes that “white males seem to pull most of the strings in the world,” but does not think this is significant. Mr. Fortgang, why do you suppose white males are in these powerful positions? Is it pure coincidence? Luck?

In Fortgang’s worldview, if we live in a society that “ultimately allowed [Fortgang’s grandparents] to flourish” because it “cares not about religion or race, but the content of your character,” what are we saying about the characters of everyone who is not white and not male? Are women earning 80 cents for every dollar that men earn because women routinely don’t work as hard or are not as competent? Are African-American men being excessively stopped by police because they’re routinely more dangerous?

Fortgang’s worldview, namely that we live

MARISA RUBEL/the Justice

in a meritocracy—an entirely just society—implies that those who are not successful are solely unsuccessful because of their own failings. The idea of a meritocracy is extremely convenient for those who are successful—who could condemn the hard work that a majority of wealthy and successful people exert? But this same idea promotes faulty assumptions and prejudice on the foundations of race, gender, sexuality or whatever else we can construct to divide ourselves.

Fortgang’s belief that our society is post-racial is also known as a racial color-blind attitude.

That is to say that race should not and does not matter in our society. The first part of this statement seems admirable, but the second part, that we live in a society that is post-racial, is not only false, but also incredibly dangerous.

The popular television channel MTV worked with pollsters to generate a nationally representative sample of people ages 14 to 24 to measure how young people are “experiencing, affected by, and responding to issues associated with bias.” A majority of participants believe that we are post racial as a society, with 67 percent believing that Barack Obama being president proves that race is not a “barrier to achievements.” Seventy percent of participants believe that racial preferences (like race-based affirmative action) are unfair, regardless of historical inequities.

Another study run by Brendeshca M. Tynes, professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, found a strong correlation between racial color-blind attitudes and racial discrimination on social media. In other words, those who believe we are post-racial tend to have less opposition toward stereotypical images online (i.e. “gangsta parties” that feature white actors in blackface).

Curious by these results, I ran my own small study on a sample of Brandeis’ student body. I had 64 students view two videos featured on the social platform Vine that had each been critiqued

as racist in one study and two newspaper articles.

Students then wrote a three word response to describe their reactions to the video and filled out a version of the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale.

The CoBRAS was designed by psychologists and social scientists to measure racial color-blind attitudes, with assertions such as “Racism is a major problem in the U.S.” with which participants rate their agreement.

I analyzed the three word responses using a composite analysis between what is described in Tynes’s study and what is described Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s, a Duke professor of sociology, study “The Linguistics of Color Blind Racism: How to Talk Nasty about Blacks without Sounding ‘Racist.’” I found a statistically significant correlation between students’ CoBRAS scores and how “racist” their language was.

If racially color-blind attitudes can provoke prejudice, why do we harbor them? Fortgang fears that if we acknowledge that society is not just, and that it does indeed divide on race, then “everything I’ve done with my life can be credited to the racist patriarchy holding my hand.”

But our efforts and success need not be completely diminished nor completely attributed to ourselves. We must acknowledge some edge, albeit not all-encompassing. Of course no such edge could be responsible for all, or even most of Fortgang’s achievements. But to deny that any bias exists is naïve and dangerous—it allows us to continue on comfortably without addressing and changing the prejudices we all still harbor.

Fortgang, you need not feel your achievements are undermined—I’m sure that if you or your family had not worked as hard as they did, you would not be where you are today, and that is something to be proud of. You need not apologize to anyone—no one is asking you to. But you simply do need to recognize that structural racism does exist in our society, and that its effects are far too important to be ignored.

Faculty outrage at Hirsi Ali degree is overblown

By MARTIN GROSS Letter to the Editor

When I graduated from Brandeis in 1972, where I majored in Philosophy, I immediately knew that I owed Brandeis a great debt. And so, over the past two decades I have been, at times, an adjunct lecturer at the Brandeis International Business School, served on the Board of Trustees of IBS, and the Board of the University itself.

With gratitude I have contributed significant sums to my alma mater, including a chair in financial markets and Institutions to IBS. It was at Brandeis that I was introduced to the pre-Socratic philosophers and was fascinated with how they struggled to find ways to explain the world around them, and how their ideas influenced Plato, Aristotle and others who succeeded them. It was at Brandeis that I was introduced to the thought of Immanuel Kant, and the other giants of Western thought, as well as the thought of other cultures. It was at Brandeis that I came to understand that in intellectual dialogue all ideas are on the table, that everyone is entitled to his point of view and that public scrutiny of ideas is the best way to assess their worth. It was at Brandeis that I was taught how controversy served as an impetus to critical thinking, and that it is often the very people who are condemned for expressing ideas, like Spinoza and Galileo, who are later considered the great minds of Western thought. And it was this foundation that I relied upon when I next studied philosophy and politics at Oxford University and then law at the University of Chicago.

I must now confess to having serious concerns about the spirit of free inquiry at my alma mater when it rescinds an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a woman who champions women’s rights in the Muslim world. A woman honored in

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Denmark, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. A woman who received the Moral Courage Award from the American Jewish Committee and was voted Woman of the Year for 2006 by the European editors of Readers Digest magazine. And I thought it regrettable that upon learning that Hirsi Ali was offered an honorary degree 87 Brandeis faculty members were so “filled with shame” that they presented University President Frederick Lawrence with a letter urging him to “rescind immediately the invitation to Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali for an honorary doctorate” based on her “virulently anti-Muslim public statements.”

These faculty members said that “the selection of Ms. Hirsi Ali further suggests to the public that violence toward girls and women is particular to Islam or the Two-Thirds World, thereby obscuring such violence in our midst among non-Muslims, including on our own campus.” And they also could not “accept Ms. Hirsi Ali’s triumphalist narrative of western civilization, rooted in a core belief of the cultural backwardness of nonwestern peoples.”

For the sake of argument, let’s stipulate that some of her comments may be provocative and controversial. But that is what intellectual inquiry is all about. For decades serious scholars have examined in all major religions the use of force, the role of violence and compulsion, male dominance over women, the role of honor killings, etc.

Since when have these topics become off-limits to scholars?

It is hard for me to imagine that these faculty members seriously think that violence against women on the Brandeis campus is in any way comparable to the violence against young women in a single Nigerian village. When was the last time a Brandeis student was sold into slavery?

What is worthy of note is that Hirsi Ali’s views

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

do not come from an ivory tower but from the concrete reality of her personal experiences as a woman. She was genitally mutilated as a child, fled a forced marriage at age 12 and lives under constant threat of death by the very people who proudly wear the ideology she condemns. Who are we to judge that her conclusions are beyond the pale? Surely we would not condemn a Christian or Jew at the time of the bloody Crusades who said similar things about Christianity.

When Tony Kushner said that the very creation of Israel itself was a mistake, this did not disqualify him from receiving an honorary degree from Brandeis University.

And how preposterous is their issue with her Western triumphalism, especially when she fled to the West from the very ideology that is trying to kill her. Is not the belief in American exceptionalism triumphalist in nature? Just last September, President Barack Obama himself celebrated the idea of American exceptionalism before the UN General Assembly. Would this disqualify him from an honorary degree?

I am profoundly perplexed that there is no counter letter submitted by any faculty member to Lawrence. Is there not a single woman faculty member in the Women and Gender Studies program who can find the compassion to defend her?

Is the majority of the faculty too intimidated to speak out against this new tyranny for fear of being ostracized?

The only acceptable response to bona fide controversy is robust dialogue. It now appears that Brandeis’ motto of “truth unto its innermost parts” has been replaced by the eleventh commandment of political correctness—“Thou shalt not offend.”

—Martin Gross is a member of the Brandeis Board of Trustees.

Editorial Assistants

Photography: Zach Anziska, Shayna Hertz, Annie Kim, Abby

News: Kathryn Brody and Hannah Wulkan

Knecht, Bri Mussman, Leah Newman, Chelsea Polaniecki,

Features: Rose Gitell

Abigail Rothstein, Olivia Wang, Xiaoyu Yang

Photos: Grace Kwon

Copy: Kathleen Guy, Melanie Cytron, Angie Howes, Grace Lim,

Copy: Catherine Rosch

Mara Nussbaum Layout: Shayna Hertz, Ricky Miller, Abigail Pearlman, Maya

Staff

Riser-Kositsky, Lilah Zohar

News: Jay Feinstein, Ilana Kruger, Samantha Topper

Illustrations: Hannah Kober, Marisa Rubel, Gabriela Yeshua

Features: Rose Gittell, Rebecca Heller, Elior Moskowitz, Casey Pearlman, Aditi Shah Forum: Jennie Bromberg, Jessica Goldstein, Kahlil Oppenheimer, Jassen Lu Sports: Elan Kane, Daniel Kanovich, Dan Rozel Arts: Carly Chernomorets, Kiran Gill, Rachel Liff, Mara Sassoon, Nate Shaffer

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TUESDAY, May 20, 2014

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THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Be proud of unpopular opinions on Brandeis campus Aaron

Fried Free thought

I have occasionally been asked about how I ended up at Brandeis. The people who ask me seem to find it counterintuitive that an outspoken, Ayn Rand-reading individualist who vehemently supports capitalism would have chosen this school, and then enjoyed being here. After all, Brandeis is a school based on the principle of “social justice”—which I vehemently oppose— and has a deep rooted culture of left-wing activism, advocacy for causes I disagree with and is made up mostly of people who find my views repugnant. To them, my presence here may be bizarre; to me, Brandeis University and I were a perfect match, as it was the ideal learning environment for me for several reasons.

The first is obviously the faculty. Brandeis’ professors are world-renowned for their knowledge and loved by students for the genuine care they display in their students’ learning. Wherever formal education was concerned, this razorsharp team of academics would, for the most part, offer clear instruction, stimulate thinking and encourage discussion. Every Brandeis student can remember at least one professor who he or she spent many hours with, chewing ideas that he or she found fascinating, being pushed to learn new ones and being taught to grow as a person and as a thinker.

We are fortunate enough to have professors here who are willing to give students a chance— even when we are not always sure we deserve it—to prove ourselves time and time again, and help us to raise our understanding to the highest standards.

Despite the tremendous value of our formal education at Brandeis, however, my most valuable learning experience here has been from my peers and my closest friends. In fact, these are the people who I would say have been my greatest teachers.

When I arrived at Brandeis in August 2010, and over the following four years here, I’ve met a few people who fascinate me. They are the type of people whose curiosity never rests, who consider “I don’t know” to be a call to action and not a permanent state of mind. In essence, these people are thinkers.

This motley group of thinkers spanned the ideological spectrum from atheist to orthodox religious and from socialist to laissez-faire capitalist. Not one of us shared the same set of ideas and ideals, but we were united by our constant will to discuss, question, revise and rebuild our own philosophies.

The fact that we disagreed on nearly every crucial existential, moral and political question of our age was inconsequential in terms of friendship; such differences could only provide us with

lively conversation and intellectual stimulation.

Now, as a graduate, these thinkers have grown with me into my beloved lifelong friends, and I want to share the most important lesson I ever learned from them: how to critically examine my own views and have honest debates about them without collapsing into dishonest argumentation and misdirection. I learned that in an honest debate, there are only two possible results, and both are positive. In one case, you convince a person of the truth; in the other, you learn a truth that you had previously not known or overlooked. In both cases, you hone your argumentative technique and bring your mind closer to someone who deserves your respect by virtue of their honesty.

“

Look for those people... who blaze trails toward the truth, even if universal condemnation is the price.

This is the attitude two disagreeing parties must bring with their ideas to face one another if they are to have rational opposition.

During my four years at Brandeis, I have watched in confused frustration as this idea was flouted by many of my peers. Since I publicly espouse views which are diametrically opposed to those of the majority of the student body, I have experienced much irrational opposition in which my views were fanatically demonized.

I have also seen students who share my views, but fear this irrational opposition, so they keep quiet.

I have a message for those people: speak your mind. Anyone who looks down upon you, who sneers that you must be immoral for believing what you believe, who attempts to coerce your agreement by declaring that your views express some unspecified and nonexistent hatred, is only revealing their intellectual bankruptcy.

They have no argument against you, and merely seek to make you feel guilty for posing your own; unapologetically stand your ground and do not blink. You will find that they rely solely on your self-doubt, and if you starve them of this lifeblood, then their façade of scornful bravado will disintegrate, and their naked intellectual vampirism will be on full display. For those who seek to better understand this phenomenon, I would recommend reading a brief essay by Ayn Rand, entitled “The Argument from Intimidation.”

Such people are not worth anyone’s time, and are not worthy of an honest thinker’s friendship.

Instead, look for those people whose minds shine with the light of independent thought, those who do not look for approval at any price, but rather those who blaze trails toward the truth, even if

HANNAH KOBER/the Justice

universal disapproval is the price.

The University is intended to be an incubator for growing minds. A growing, independent mind is easy to spot; when you see a person inexorably cutting a straight line through life, unflinchingly pursuing a goal regardless of whomever may try to impede them, you will have

found your quarry.

These men and women of the mind are the best people on earth; surround yourself with these wonderful thinkers. I was fortunate enough to have found some at Brandeis University, and my life will be forever better as a result. I wish the same to you.

End trickle-down tax policies to reduce American wealth gap

By AARON DVORKIN Justice Contributing Writer

The American Dream is the ability for any American, regardless of socioeconomic background, to achieve success. Today, economic inequality threatens to undermine the goal of equal opportunity. For the past 30 years, the gap between the rich and the poor has grown to the point where economic mobility for many lowincome Americans is becoming increasingly unrealistic.

Before this current era of inequality, the United States experienced a rare period of economic prosperity which saw both the growth of the middle class and the reduction of wealth inequality from 1950 to 1980. It was made possible by government reforms instituted in the wake of the Great Depression and World War II which created the modern welfare state (policies which benefit the poor) and broke up old concentrations of wealth, many of which dated back to the Gilded Age of the late 1800s. Economic inequality was mitigated and the country was moving toward equal opportunity, but, like any period of economic or social improvement, it did not last forever.

From 1979 until 2007, the incomes of the wealthiest one percent grew 10 times faster than the incomes of the other 99 percent of the workforce according to the Economic Policy Institute. This is due in large part to “supply-side” or “trickle-down” economics, a modern-day conservative approach to government tax policy predicated on the idea that lower taxes encourage the rich to spend and invest more which, in turn, would increase economic growth. This ideology was the driving force behind the economic policies of the George W. Bush administration, such as the Bush tax cuts which significantly lowered capital gains and marginal tax rates for the wealthiest Americans. This increased the share of income collected by top income earners which, in turn, increased the gap

between the rich and the poor. However, a series of studies conducted by the Federal Reserve from 2005 to 2010 show that the tax cuts ended up having little effect on economic growth.

There is nothing wrong with the rich getting richer, but when the rich add to their wealth at a much higher rate than the rest of the nation, problematic inequality arises.

President Barack Obama has extended the Bush tax cuts twice during his presidency as parts of compromises with Republicans, and, as a result, economic inequality is still one of the most important issues in our country today. As the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen, it becomes harder and harder for future generations to undo the damage. When wealth disproportionately flows to the wealthiest individuals it becomes easier for those individuals to ensure that their children will have the opportunity to succeed, but lower-income families end up with fewer resources available to help their children succeed.

According to a White House study published in January of this year, rising inequality in educational attainment in recent decades is a result of income inequality. The fraction of high-income students completing college rose from 36 percent in the early 1980s to 54 percent in the late 1990s. The fraction of low-income students completing college during the same time periods only rose from five percent to nine percent.

As a result of this disparity, the goal of achieving equal opportunity for all Americans has been undermined.

New findings in a New York Times article titled “Who Gets to Graduate?” by Paul Tough show that economic inequality has seriously disadvantaged many American college students from low-income families. The article states that there is a significantly higher graduation rate among students from well-off families than among students from low-income families enrolled in the same college, even if the students

have similar abilities. For example, students with SAT scores in the range of 1,200-1,600 who come from families in the bottom income quartile have a 44 percent chance to graduate by the age of 24, while students with the same scores from families in the top income quartile have an 82 percent chance. In other words, smart students from poorer families are dropping out of college more and more frequently.

The article explains that students from lowincome families face crushing pressures to succeed because they feel the need to elevate their families socioeconomic status. In addition, some of them have trouble adjusting to college environments which may be very different than schools in their neighborhoods. In essence, students who could benefit the most from college degrees are becoming less and less likely to earn them. Since a college degree is the best tool for economic mobility, this issue undermines the ability for many young citizens from low-income families to achieve the American Dream.

In his new book Capital in the 21st Century, economist Thomas Piketty argues that if we allow income inequality to continue rising at its current rate, it may usher in a period when the wealthiest citizens attain their wealth from their families rather than business ventures. In other words, the richest Americans in the country will make their money by being born into it. His calculations show that capital income has risen relative to national income at a rate not seen since before 1929. This could mean that the United States is headed back to the extreme wealth disparities of the 1920s which, in turn, led to the Great Depression.

The nation is clearly moving in a bad direction, a direction which threatens the ability of many Americans to achieve the American Dream. The question then becomes, what can we do to stop the tide of inequality? Surely there must be options that don’t include starting another war or causing another depression. Pik-

etty proposes the long-term solution of a global tax on capital which would serve to lessen the automatic advantage that the wealthiest families have by simply reducing their income. Instituting such a tax at the international level is unrealistic. However, on the national level, the Obama administration has made a goal of instituting a similar tax on the wealthy. His efforts have been stymied by partisan gridlock in Washington D.C., which is unfortunate because such a tax would go a long way in reversing the tide of inequality in this country. The tax would help close the gap between the richest and poorest citizens as well as giving the government more money to invest which, in turn, increases Gross Domestic Product (the overall rate of economic growth).

The most simple, albeit not the easiest, solution is to increase the overall rate of economic growth. Both liberals and conservatives have proposed endless solutions to increase gross domestic product. One of the simpler approaches to increasing the economic growth rate is to increase the population growth rate. As the population grows, it can be expected that some of the new members of society will produce output, bring new skills and ideas into the workforce, and inevitably start businesses of their own. One way the government can increase the population is immigration reform which has received a rare amount of bipartisan support in Congress recently. At this point, it might be the only solution that both parties can agree on to stymie the ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor.

The success of the American Dream is measured by the ability of citizens from adverse economic backgrounds to make a better future for themselves. If we do not work to fix the issue of economic inequality soon, it threatens to undermine the very ideals which have separated the United States from the rest of the world for centuries.

THE JUSTICE

SOFTBALL: Late rally falls short against WPI CONTINUED FROM 16 said. “I think the team could do extremely well if we all set our minds to it and work hard next year. We should go to NCAA's with the talent we have.”

Hunter echoed Genovese’s sentiment, noting that the team’s chemistry played a large role in the team’s overall success.

“I thought that we had a decent season and that the team got along really well as a whole,” she said.

“I think that the reason we did decently well this season is that we all knew each other really well and respected each other on and off the field and I can't wait to see what we do next season.”

Joining Genovese as first-team All-New England selections is Kamber, who appeared in every game this season, had a .420 batting average and led the team in hits, doubles and RBI’s.

Infielders Liana Moss ’17 and Madison Sullivan ’16 were also selected as third-team All-New England players. Moss led the Judges with seven home runs and 19 extra base hits and was also named UAA rookie of the year. Sullivan batted .383 overall and .407 in conference play. She also had nine doubles and 44 hits this season.

The Judges are off until next year, when they will look to build off of this year’s success with another postseason push.

13

Although their season ended in the opening round of the Eastern College Athletic Association Championships, the softball team had four players named to various conference and regional honors.

Utility player Amanda Genovese ’15 and third baseman Anya Kamber ’15 were selected to the All-New England first team by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association on May 10, according to a press release by Brandeis Athletics on May 12.

Second baseman Liana Moss ’17 and infielder Madison Sullivan ’16 were given third team honors by the NFCA. The four selections to the AllNew England team were the most for the team since the 2011 to 2012 season, while the two first team selections were the first time the Judges had multiple players on the first team since the 2009 to 2010 season.

Earlier this month, Moss was named University Athletic Association Rookie of the Year and named to the All-UAA first team in a press release on May 1. She was one of three Judges to take home honors.

Genovese was also named to the first team, while Kamber was named to the second team.

Genovese was the offensive leader for the Judges from the leadoff spot in the lineup, posting a team-leading .452 batting average on the year, a .514 on base percentage and a third-best .548 slugging percentage.

Genovese recorded 29 steals during the season, including her 100th career stolen base in a 9-4 victory over Endicott College on April 3.

Kamber’s selection to the AllUAA second team was the first UAA honor of her career, leading the Judges with 58 hits, 11 doubles and 38 RBI. She was the only member of the team to appear in all 39 games for the Judges.

Kamber lead the team in total bases with 85, eight more than the next member of the team. She finished second to Genovese on the team with a .420 batting average.

Sullivan led all underclassmen with 44 hits, second only to Kamber on the team. She appeared in 37 of the Judges 39 games, hitting at a .383 average on the year, a .432 on base percentage and a .548 on

base percentage.

Sullivan had 20 RBI on the season, including a three-RBI game against Lasell College in a 14-1 victory for Brandeis. She hit a pair of home runs and was one of only four Judges to record a triple. Sullivan had 11 walks on the year, tied for second most on the team.

In her first season on the team, Moss hit a team-high seven home runs in 32 games en route to UAA Rookie of the Year.

Moss led the team with a .726 slugging percentage thanks to a team-high 19 extra base hits— nine doubles, three triples and seven home runs. She led the team in both triples and home runs.

Moss finished second overall on the team in RBI, recording 28 RBI in 32 games played. She batted at a .387 average and a .431 on base percentage on the year. She scored 30 runs overall, tied for third-most on the team.

The Judges finished the year with a 21-18 overall record, 3-5 in UAA conference play and lost in the qualification round of the ECAC Championships.

—Avi Gold

JUST FOR KICKS

1988 National Championship.

Granoff’s two losses at the No. 1 court came at the hands of Division I opponent Bryant University sophomore Dana Parziale on April 9 and UAA opponent Washington University in St. Louis junior Ross Putterman on April 24.

Cooke will return to the tournament with an 8-0 record in UAA play for her career, including a 3-0 record this year.

She posted a 14-5 record overall, all from the number one court and went 3-0 against nationally ranked opponents from New England.

Cooke was also named to the All-UAA second team earlier this month for singles play.

The 2014 NCAA Division III Individual Tennis Championships will be hosted by the Claremont-MuddScripps Colleges and will be held beginning on Thursday and lasting through Saturday. Full stats will be available on the NCAA website.

—Avi Gold

BASEBALL BRIEF Brenner and McCarthy given All-UAA second team honors On May 13, baseball utility player Kyle Brenner ’15 and infielder Tom McCarthy ’15 were named to the All-University Athletic Association second team for their outstanding seasons this year in conference play.

Brenner, a co-captain of the team, divided his year between pitcher and first base.

As a pitcher, Brenner finished the year with four wins and an ERA of 2.98, both team highs.

Brenner led the UAA with 81.2 innings pitched, 58 strikeouts and seven complete games, putting him in the top-10 among all Division III pitchers.

Also, impressively, as a righthanded pitcher, he led the UAA in pickoffs at first base with five, which is the highest mark for Brandeis since 2006.

Brenner also had a .286 batting average at the plate, leading the team with eight doubles, and ended second in the UAA with a .990 fielding percentage.

McCarthy was chosen to the team as an infielder after batting .304 and being one of three players to play in all of the Judges’ 33 games this season.

McCarthy led the Judges with

may 20, 2014

SOFTBALL BRIEF Four Judges honored with end-of-year awards on both All-New England and All-UAA teams

TENNIS BRIEF Granoff and Cooke to play at NCAA Championships this week For the first time in 20 years, a member of the men’s tennis team will be competing at the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Brian Granoff ’17 was selected to compete at the tournament, according to a press release by Brandeis Athletics on May 7. He will be joined by Carley Cooke ’15, who will make her third trip in as many years.

Granoff spent most of his year at the number one court, taking the reins from Steven Milo ’13 and splitting time at the No. 1 spot with classmate Michael Arguello ’17.

Granoff went 8-2 on the No. 1 court as part of a 14-8 record overall.

He had a 2-1 record in singles play against opponents from the University Athletic Association and a 2-0 record against ranked regional opponents.

His selection to the NCAA Championships is the first since Ryan Rothenberg ’95 went to the tournament as a junior and the second since Noel Occomy ’89 won the

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35 hits and 19 RBIs. McCarthy's on base percentage of .352 was the highest among all qualifying players and supplanted these numbers with a selection to the UAA AllTournament Team in March after batting .448 in eight conference games.

During UAA play McCarthy was top-five in the conference batting average, hits, total bases, on-base percentage and slugging percentage as well.

These players join outfielder Ryan Healy ’16 in UAA honors.

Healy was named UAA athlete of the week after a 3-4 performance in the Judges’ season-ending loss to Worcester Polytechnic Institute on April 29.

Healy scored both of the Judges’ runs in the loss to WPI and added a double as support, going 3-4 from the plate for the Judges.

Brenner and McCarthy helped lead the Judges to a 5-3 home record and a 5-7 Florida tournament record, which was unfortunately marred by the Judges’ 3-10 mark on the road and 13-20 record overall.

—Dan Rozel

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

During Senior Week, 26 teams competed for the title of Intramural Senior Week Kickball champion. Team Kick Me Maybe? defeated Hammer Time 9-7 in the finals.

TRACK: Runners gain bids to NCAA Championships CONTINUED FROM 16 previous personal record. Her time was the 21st best time in Division III, earning her a bid to the NCAA Championships. Lundkvist will have the 11th slot for the 1500-meter race. “[Lundkvist has] had a great senior year, and the fact that she’s made it to nationals [with her injury] is a great achievement,” Delahunty Evans said.

“She’s a joy to coach and she’ll be missed, both by her teammates and the coaching staff.”

Whitaker finished not far behind her teammate, taking fifth place in 4:36.57. Though Whitaker was the only member of the Judges in the distance race to not set a new personal best, she held the 38th best time in Division III on the year.

Whitaker's time was just 22 hundreths of a second behind the final accepted bid to the NCAAs. The Judges had another competitor finish within the top 10. Sanford shaved more than two seconds off her previous personal record, timing in at 4:40.07 and finishing in ninth place.

Pisarik, who finished in 4:48.60, rounded out the 1500-meter run for the Judges.

Her 14th-place finish at the meet was six seconds faster than her previous personal best and just the third time she has run the meet in her collegiate career.

Grady Ward ’16 finished the men’s race in 13th place, covering the course in a new personal record 4:02.70.

He was joined by Quinton Hoey ’17, whose time of 4:05.36 put him in 17th place and bettered his previous personal record by a few seconds.

Jarret Harrigan ’15 also ran at the New Balance Twilight Meet, taking eighth place in the 3000-meter run with a time of 9:06:64. “[Harrigan has been] steadily improving; he ran a good 3K and he’s bringing his times down to where they were last year,” Delahunty Evans said.

The NCAA Championships will be held in Delaware, Ohio this upcoming Thursday to Saturday.

The meet will be hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University, with stats available on the NCAA website.

Everyone has a story.

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THE JUSTICE

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Tuesday, may 20, 2014

15

INTRAMURAL SPORTS

jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS baseball TEAM STATS

UAA STANDINGS

Runs Batted In

Final UAA Standings.

UAA Conference

W L Case 6 2 Emory 6 2 WashU 4 4 Rochester 2 6 JUDGES 2 6 Chicago 0 0

W 31 30 28 25 13 10

Overall L Pct. 10 .756 10 .750 16 .636 16 .610 20 .394 27 .270

EDITOR’S NOTE: The men concluded their season on April 29th with a 3-2 loss to Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Tom McCarthy ’15 led the team with 19 RBIs. Player RBIs Tom McCarthy 19 Connor Doyle 15 Brian Ing 15 Greg Heineman 14

Strikeouts Kyle Brenner ’15 led all pitchers with 58 strikeouts.

Player Ks Kyle Brenner 58 Elio Fernandez 21 Colin Markel 15 Liam Coughlin 12

SOFTBALL UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS

Final UAA Standings.

Runs Batted In

UAA Conference

W L Emory 5 3 WashU 5 3 Case 5 3 JUDGES 3 5 Rochester 2 6 Chicago 0 0

W 39 31 25 21 31 25

Overall L Pct. 7 .848 17 .646 15 .625 18 .538 12 .721 10 .714

Anya Kamber ’15 led the squad with 38 RBIs. Player RBIs Anya Kamber 38 Liana Moss 28 Cori Coleman 23 Madison Gagnon 22

Strikeouts Melissa Nolan ’14 led all pitchers with 69 strikeouts.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM RAND

CHAMPIONSHIP POSE: Members of the Grout Bullies pose with their new t-shirts following a 17-10 win in the championship game.

TOP PERFORMERS (Men’s)

TOP PERFORMERS (Women’s)

Intramural softball ends in two one-sided games

1500-METER RUN TIME Grady Ward 4:02.70 Quinton Hoey 4:05.36

1500-METER RUN Amelia Lundkvist Kelsey Whitaker Victoria Sanford Kristi Pisarik

■ Grout Bullies and BWB took home the men’s and women’s intramural softball championships, respectively.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The women concluded their season with a loss to Worcester Polytechnic Instutitue in the ECAC Tournament.

Player Melissa Nolan Nikki Cote Samantha Wroblewski Emma Krulick

Ks 69 54 25 21

TRACK AND FIELD Results from the New Balance Twilight Meet hosted by Bentley University.

3000-METER RUN TIME Jarret Harrigan 4:40.07

TIME 4:34.07 4:36.57 4:40.07 4:48.60

By tom rand special to the Justice

EDITOR’S NOTE:

The men’s and women’s track and field teams concluded their seasons at the New Blanace Twilight Meet.

TENNIS Final season results.

TOP PERFORMERS (Men’s)

TOP PERFORMERS (Women’s)

MEN’S SINGLES Brian Granoff

RECORD 14-8

WOMEN’S SINGLES Carley Cooke

RECORD 14-5

MEN’S DOUBLES Granoff/Secular

RECORD 10-6

WOMEN’S DOUBLES Bernstein/Lazar

RECORD 12-11

EDITOR’S NOTE: The men’s and women’s tennis teams both concluded their seasons at the UAA Championships, while Brian Granoff ‘17 and Carley Cooke ‘15 both qualifyed for the NCAA Tournament.

An exciting intramural softball season came to an end earlier this month with two one-sided championship games in the men’s and women’s playoffs.

On April 30, top-seeded BWB defeated second seeded Got Gloves? by a score of 16-7 to win the women’s division championship.

It was the third-straight intramural championship for BWB. The second-seeded Got Gloves? defeated the third-seeded Flyballers in a 12-0 rout just one day prior to reach the championship, and began the game with the same offensive power.

Got Gloves? jumped out to an early lead with two runs in the top of the first inning and were still ahead 6-3 after batting in their half of the fourth inning.

Coming into the championship game, the BWB pitching staff had let up just six runs the entire year.

BWB, who earned a bye to the

championship by virtue of their top seed, scored four runs in the bottom half of the fourth inning, however, and never looked back.

Senior captain Nicolina Vitale ’14, Kasey Dean ’14, Leah Sax ’14 and Maria Jackson ’17 all homered for the champions.

Michaela Friedman ’17 scored two runs for Got Gloves?

The men’s division also saw a three-peat champion as “Grout Bullies” avenged their only regular season loss by defeating top-ranked Team Coven 13-3 on May 1.

The Grout Bullies finished the year in third place following a 17-10 loss to Team Coven on the final day of the regular season.

The team earned a first round bye with their seeding, and came out swinging in the two games leading up to the championship.

In the quarterfinals, the Grout Bullies rolled over the number sixth seed Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen 15-2. The team carried its offense into the semifinals, where it defeated the seventh-seeded Hit The Jumbotron 20-3 to earn a spot in the championship.

The Grout Bullies finished the regular season with a league-leading +53 run differential.

The Bullies used a balanced attack to score runs in six different

innings in the championship game.

Every player had at least two hits, the biggest being a bases clearing triple by Jack Fay ’17 to highlight a five-run seventh inning that broke open a close game.

Captain Derek Retos ’14, Zach Malis ’12 (STAFF) and Alex Bernstein ’14 all had two RBIs apiece for the champions, while Connor Arnold ’14 led the team with five hits.

The Grout Bullies also played a stellar defensive game including a fantastic diving catch by Malis in center field.

Captain Joe Graffy ’15 and Tyler Savonen ’15 each had four hits for Team Coven, with Savonen also chipping in two RBIs in the loss.

Team Coven earned their spot in the championship with a perfect 5-0 regular season and a +49 run differential, en route to a first round bye in the playoffs.

The team rolled to a 21-3 victory in the quarterfinals and closed out a close 7-5 victory over the fourth seed Powerhouse in the semifinal round to set up the championship game against the Bullies.

The intramural softball season concluded intramural sports for the year.

Intramural sports will return next fall, beginning with the outdoor soccer season.

PRO SPORTS BRIEF Premier League season ends with second championship for Manchester City in the last three years The English Premier League season peaked a little early this year.

On May 5, league leaders Liverpool traveled to Selhurst Park to play Crystal Palace in a game that had the potential to define a stunning season. Instead, it ultimately proved a final example of the Reds’ inconsistency. Liverpool went up 3-0, including goals from forwards Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, and looked to have the game—and possibly the league title—sewn up.

Suarez led all players with 31 goals in Premier League contests, while Sturridge was second in the Premier League with 21 goals.

Instead, they allowed Crystal Palace to rush back, tie the game at three, end their title hopes, and give Manchester City a cakewalk to the league championship.

It was the Citizens second title in the past three years, and the third in a row by either of the teams from the city of Manchester.

Throughout the season, Manchester City displayed a potent attack led by forward Sergio Aguero, a sturdy midfield anchored by Yaya Toure, and an effective defense featuring the always-entertaining Martin Demichelis.

While their rise to success has not been the most inspiring story, they were worthy winners and played attractive football.

Manchester United was more of a grim tale this season, and the tide appears to be flowing the other way.

United, the defending champions, had a miserable season which ended with a seventh-place finish, their lowest in decades.

David Moyes, the appointed replacement to the legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, stumbled along and was fired before season’s end by Manchester United, with club legend Ryan Giggs, a midfielder, suiting up on the touchline for the last few games.

Though criticized throughout the season, forward Wayne Rooney led Manchester United with 17 goals.

They will be an enigma coming into next season. Will the Red Devils reclaim their position at the top of the table, or sink further into mid-table ignominy?

Rounding out the top four to go along with Manchester City and Liverpool were the London clubs, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Both looked like they might sustain a run for the title at various

points in the season, but could not keep up the form.

Arsenal especially impressed early in the season, and while they ultimately fell short, their prowess was rewarded as they lifted the FA Cup trophy on Saturday, ending a seven-year trophy drought that had become the stuff of stand-up comics and schoolyard insults.

An impressive Everton, resurgent under new manager David Moyes, and Tottenham Hotspur, who struggled to make an impact between various manager controversies, rounded out the top six teams in the table. Both teams will be playing in the Europa League next season.

At the bottom of the table, only one newly promoted club fell back down to the Football League Championship, as Cardiff City were un-

able to overcome a controversial color change and the antics of their owner and were relegated.

Fulham fell down to the second division after 13 successful years in the top flight, and look to be favorites to bounce right back up.

Norwich City had an unspectacular season and rounded out the bottom three.

In the middle of the table, the only surprise was Crystal Palace, who besides their stunning comeback draw against Liverpool, had a surprisingly successful season under Premier League Manager of the Year Tony Pulis.

Come August, the drama looks to pick right back up with another year in the Premier League.

—Sam Mintz

just

Sports

Page 16

POSTSEASON POWER The intramural softball seasons concluded with two teams earning their third consecutive championship, p. 15.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Waltham, Mass.

Track and Field

SWINGING AWAY

Judges close year with strong meets ■ Mohamed Sidique ’15

and Amelia Lundkvist ’14 both qualified for this week's NCAA Championships.

By Avi gold JUSTICE editor

The men’s and women’s track and field teams closed their seasons with strong performances at various meets over the past week and a half, with two competitors earning a bid to next weekend’s NCAA Championships and a third falling just short of a bid.

Mohamed Sidique ’15 and Amelia Lundkvist ’14 both earned bids to the NCAA Championships with strong weekends, while other runners finished their years with strong races.

Kelsey Whitaker ’16 fell just short of a bid to the national meet for the 1500-meter run.

The men and women both split their runners between two regional events on May 9 and 10 to close their respective season.

Sidique and Maddie Dolins ’17 ran at the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association Outdoor Championship at Westfield State University. The meet featured regional opponents from all three collegiate divisions.

Sidique finished fifth in the triple jump with a distance of 14.43 meters, earning himself All-New England honors in the process.

Sidique's distance of 14.57 meters from the New England DIII Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 1 is tied for 10th in Division III and earned a bid to this week's NCAA Championships with the

JOSH HOROWITZ/the Justice

DOWN THE MIDDLE: Infielder Anya Kamber ’15 makes contact during a loss to Smith College on May 10 in the ECAC Tournament.

Women fall to top seed in ECAC Tournament ■ The Judges had 12 hits

in the game, including six starters with multiple hits, but ultimately fell to WPI.

By Elan kane JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The second-seeded softball squad ended its season on May 10, losing 7-4 to the first-seeded Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the elimination round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament.

The Judges had just come off a 3-0 loss to the number three seed Smith College earlier in the day. With the losses, the Judges finish their season sporting a 21-18 overall record.

In the WPI game, Brandeis fell behind early when the Engineers scored one run in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI single by WPI senior catcher Juliana Fekete. The Judges tied the game in the fourth inning when a single by designated hitter Madison Hunter ’17 scored pinch runner Natasha Quiroz ’15.

Hunter went two-for-four on the day, and said that though the game was an elimination game she approached her hitting the same way she would any other game.

“I knew that the first pitcher had a great drop ball and would be throwing that a lot, so I knew that I needed to be in the front of the box to be able to hit the pitch before it broke,” she said. “Other than that, I approached it the same way I always do; I look for a pitch that I can hit so that I can be productive for the team.”

WPI broke the game open in the bottom of the fourth, scoring five runs on four hits, but Brandeis responded with three runs of their own in the fifth. Catcher Cori Coleman ’15 collected a pair of RBIs in the inning and right fielder Anya Kamber ’15 added one as well. The Engineers added another insurance run in the sixth, though, and the Judges were unable to produce any more runs and lost 7-4.

The game against Smith saw less offensive production from Brandeis. The Judges had only two

hits in the game, compared to 13 hits for the Pioneers.

Smith scored one run in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings.

The best scoring opportunity for Brandeis came in the bottom of the second inning. Coleman and designated player Danielle Novotny ’16 both reach base on two-out singles, but the Judges were not able to bring either of them home.

Though Smith collected 13 hits, the Brandeis pitching, led by starter Melissa Nolan ’14, kept the damage to a minimum, stranding 13 runners throughout the game. Nolan pitched 3.1 innings, surrendering two earned runs and collecting three strikeouts.

Utility player Amanda Genovese ’15, who earned first-team All-New England honors with a .452 batting average and 29 stolen bases on the season, said she thought the softball team had a solid season and that she is already excited for next year’s team.

“Overall, I thought there was a lot of untapped potential,” she

See SOFTBALL, 13 ☛

jump. He will enter the triple jump at the NCAA Championships in the 11th slot. “[Sidique] has a new coach this year, who has worked with him, building him up and getting him stronger,” explained coach Sinead Delahunty Evans.

“It’s just really a matter of getting stronger; I don’t know if he’s changed anything since the indoor season as opposed to just progress. His confidence is building … and I think he’ll have a great NCAAs.” Dolins concluded her season in the 5000-meter run, besting her previous personal record by nearly nine seconds. Her time of 17 minutes, 53.18 seconds in the race was good for 16th place overall.

Four distance runners traveled to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for the Eastern College Athletic Championships on Saturday.

Lundkvist took fourth in the 1500-meter run in 4:43.00. She was followed by Whitaker, who took sixth place in 4:44.09. In the final race of her career, Victoria Sanford '14 finished the course in 4:46.95, taking 10th place overall. Kirsti Pisarik '15 rounded out the field for the Judges, running the course in 5:11.26 for a 26th-place finish overall.

Seven competitors from both squads traveled across Waltham to Bentley University for the New Balance Twilight Meet on May 10.

Five of the six members of the distance runners set personal records in the 1500-meter run, and all six competitors finished the race within the top 20 spots.

Lundkvist crossed the finish line in third place, covering the course in 4:34.07, more than one second off her

See TRACK, 13 ☛

BRIEF Kim leaves volleyball team for job as assistant athletic director Women’s volleyball coach Michelle Kim was promoted to assistant athletic director on May 1, a move announced by Assistant Vice President for Health and Wellness and Director of Athletics and Recreation Sheryl Sousa ’90 in a press release by Brandeis Athletics later the same day.

Kim stepped down as the team’s coach in conjunction with her promotion according to the release, and a search for her replacement began immediately.

Kim joins Jim Zotz as assistant athletic director, who will enter his 35th year at the University in the fall.

The Judges had a 10-25 overall record in Kim’s final season, including a 1-6 record in University Athletic Association competition and a season-ending five-game losing streak.

In her new job as assistant athletic director, Kim will focus on the business aspect of the Athletics department, having also served as the business manager for the department under Sousa for the past 15 years.

According to the press release, Kim will also serve as coordinator for the department’s information technology as well as oversee the department’s institutional reporting to both the NCAA and the Department of Education.

Additionally, Kim will oversee special projects within the Athletics department according to the press release.

Kim finishes her 10-year career as coach of the volleyball team just below the .500 winning percentage mark with a 172-177 record, good for a .492 winning percentage.

During Kim’s tenure as head coach, the Judges made the postseason four times, most recently earning a second-place finish in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships in the 2011 to 2012 season.

The squad also won back-toback ECAC titles under Kim in the 2005 to 2006 and 2006 to 2007 seasons, respectively.

The Judges hosted this year’s UAA Championships this past February. The team finished in eighth place in the tournament, dropping a five-set match to the University of Rochester in the seventh-place match.

The University of Chicago won the tournament with a 3-1 victory over Emory University.

The University has not announced any information concerning the search for Kim's replacement as head coach of the volleyball team since the press release earlier this month.

—Avi Gold

JustArts Volume LXVI, Number 27

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

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Waltham, Mass.

YEAR in

REVIEW

Campus arts look forward to changes with new people, programs and academics » 22

INSIDE

‘Neighbors’ Frat comedy succeeds in both humor and plot depth » 23

Boston Calling Summer music festival brings changes for performances next weekend » 22

Editors’ Pick Editors share their favorite summer reads » 23

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justARTS

TUESDAY, May 20, 2014 | THE JUSTICE

CALENDAR

INTERVIEW

$

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

ON-CAMPUS EVENTS

Jeanne Williamson: ‘Under Color’

As the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute artist-in-residence, Jeanne Williamson worked on-site to create a series of Jewish wedding canopies.

Using common construction fencing as her template, Williamson draws inspiration from this material and its grid-like patterns.

Visually and conceptually linking the “protected area” of an urban building site with the symbolic protection of the wedding canopy, the chuppot offer a new interpretation of our relationship to our surroundings and the ritual of marriage.

On view Tuesday through Thursday at 9 a.m. in the Women’s Studies Research Center. This event is free and open to the public.

Sabrina Dieudonne ’14

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS

Creator of Boston Marathon Memorial

Boston Pops: At the Corner of Broadway and Soul

Billy Porter electrified Broadway audiences last year, winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance in the hit Kinky Boots.

He has been described as “a force of nature.” In addition to his Broadway roles in Grease, Smokey Joe’s Cafe and Miss Saigon, he is also a recording artist, songwriter and director.

His talents are a combination of Broadway and soul, and he belts a Broadway ballad as expertly as his voice soars on a rhythm-driven beat.

Join the Pops for an unforgettable evening featuring Broadway’s most dynamic new talent.

Tuesday and Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Symphony Hall in Boston. Tickets range from $24 to $94.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SABRINA DIEUDONNE

This week, justArts spoke with Sabrina Dieudonne ’14 who created a memorial monument devoted to the Boston Marathon Bombing. The statue currently stands in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

JustArts: Can you describe your project?

Sabrina Dieudonne: I was taking a class on campus its called “3D Design” and the professor was [Prof.]

Christopher Frost [(FA)]. It was a final project and we were required to make something that is interacting with the campus, … and when he was explaining the project to us, he showed us … the ducks in the Boston Common. That was kind of my inspiration.

My original inspiration, though, was two firefighters who recently died in Boston in a big fire. I am from Boston—born and raised—so I have a lot of Boston pride.

So originally I was thinking of making a firefighter hat with a similar material that the ducks were made out of. But then it was also around the time that the oneyear anniversary came up, so I decided to do the Boston Bombing memorial. I still wanted to do a similar color to the ducks—I know it’s not the exact color—but I was going for that bronze-gold type of color.

JA: Why did you choose this design?

SD: I wanted to make it like a monument. So the sneakers are actually my sneakers. I spray painted [them] along with the monument. And [for] the monument, I casted it. And we casted it using wood and then we filled it up with plaster and after that we let it set and dry, set and dry. After that, we painted it—gave it a few coats.

I really wanted to put sneakers on there … to give back in some sort of way—it being my pair of sneakers—and also to show that we’ll keep running. So the movement of the sneakers (I have it like in motion) to show that what happened a year ago won’t stop us and we’ll keep running no matter what, despite the affliction that we faced.

JA: How do you hope the monument will affect people as they walk past it?

SD: I just want us not to forget what happened. [But] though I don’t want us to forget what happened, that doesn’t mean I want to make us sad. I just want us to remember what happened. And I want us to remember [that] despite whatever obstacles you face, you can still keep going. So I don’t want it to have a negative connotation to it but rather a more positive [one]. That’s why the text says “Together we run for Boston” instead of saying something more sad like “in memory of…” I wanted to turn a negative into a positive.

JA: Why did you choose the Shapiro Campus Center?

What significance does that have for you?

SD: Originally I really wanted it to stay outside for good—forever. But because of the weather I didn’t think it would be a good option. I was debating on where to put it, to be honest, but I know that there are a lot of people coming in and out, so I thought that it would be a good option to put it in there ... I’m hoping to encase it in some kind of glass to protect it because it’s just sitting there and I want to put it in something.

JA: Are you planning on doing something like this again in the future?

SD: So at that time, while I was doing that [monument] I wanted to do a second one—the same exact one, but just put it in upper campus. But as of now, I don’t have any specific plans of making another one. But you never know. It’s possible.

I’m a Psychology major and Legal Studies minor, so I was really proud of myself for doing this because I didn’t think I had it in me to do this because I had no experience in art or anything. I took this class and I actually appreciate art much more to be honest, after taking a few classes here. But I’m not sure if I have any plans for doing anything in art but I definitely appreciate it more.

—Emily Wishingrad

Dave Mason’s Traffic Jam

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, songwriter and legendary guitarist Dave Mason has been making music since the age of 18 when he teamed

up with fellow England-native Steve Winwood to form the band Traffic.

Since then he has penned dozens of hits, and has been linked with numerous other members of rock and roll elite, including Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills.

Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Wilbur Theater in Boston. Tickets range from $30 to $60.

Boston Ballet presents ‘Jewels’

George Balanchine’s Jewels is a vibrant yet elegant tour de force, demonstrating the history of classical dance in three parts—Emeralds conjures the opulence of 19th century France, Rubies is sharp and jazzy, depicting Balanchine’s neoclassical take on the art form and Diamonds captures Russia’s imperial style through its classical choreography.

Thursday, May 22 through Thursday, May 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Boston Opera House. Tickets range from $29 to $137.

Happily Ever After

The story of A Far Cry’s season comes to a glorious climax in this concert of extremes. Desolation and the danger of isolation give way to reconciliation and finally exuberance in community. This concert features a large orchestra for Aaron Copland’s beloved Appalachian Spring and new arrangements of JPP’s spectacular Finnish fiddling.

Friday at 8 p.m. at the New England Conservatory in Boston. The performance is in Jordan Hall and tickets range from $10 to $40.

Boston Pops: Out of This World With Leonard Nimoy

Guest conductor Sarah Hicks, principal pops conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, makes her Boston Pops debut leading an “out of this world” program featuring music

inspired by outer space, hosted by the legendary original Mr. Spock, Leonard Nimoy. Music will include Gustav Holst’s The Planets (performed alongside a film by astronomer Jose Francisco Salgado, featuring NASA visuals), the theme from Star Trek, the classical works (Also Sprach Zarathustra and Blue Danube Waltz) popularized in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and John Williams’ intergalactic music from Star Wars, E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Symphony Hall in Boston. Tickets range from $24 to $94.

Pianist Sean Chen Boston Debut

Crystal Award Winner of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, Sean Chen debuts at Jordan Hall on Sat. 5/24 at 8 with works by Bach, Debussy, Copland, Scriabin, Chopin, and his arrangement of Ravel’s La Valse.

Acclaimed as “massive yet with enormous delicacy” he was the Christel DeHaan Fellow, and the Paul-Daisy Soros Fellow. Appeared with conductors Leonard Slatkin, Gerard Schwartz, and Fort Worth, Indianapolis, and The Juilliard School orchestras. Received his BA from Juilliard and Artist Diploma from Yale University.

Saturday at 8 p.m. at the New England Conservatory in Boston. The performance is in Jordan Hall and tickets range from $15 to $50.

MFA Memorial Day Open House

Celebrate a “Season of Color in the Americas” and visit the museum for a fun-filled day of vibrant activities your whole family will enjoy.

Dance along (or learn how to dance) to Latin American music in the Shapiro Family Courtyard. Make art or make music, watch a Technicolor film and join a tour or talk in the galleries.

Monday, May 26 from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. at the Musuem of Fine Arts in Boston. This event is free and open to

Pop Culture n !

ww Welcome to summer. The weather is hotter, the drinks colder and you have a lot more free time. In pop culture land, this means blockbuster movie franchises, music festivals and often mediocre television.

Every summer we get the deluge of super-hero epics, many of which are often sequels. This year, we’ve already had Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider Man 2, the latter of which is currently second at the box office, behind the frat-house comedy Neighbors. Later in May, there will be X-Men: Days of Future Past and in June Transformers: Age of Extinction, although I’m only excited for the former. Other sequels include the animated Viking tale How to Train Your Dragon 2 and 22 Jump Street, the follow-up to 2012’s police comedy 21 Jump Street. One non-franchise film that is neither sequel nor super-hero is The Fault in Our Stars. Based on the bestselling John Green novel of the same name, the film, out June 6, is already poised to be a hit.

If summer is prime movie season, the same doesn’t apply to television.

Apparently we all want to get out of our houses and head to the movie theater instead of sitting inside watching TV. That must be why most of this year’s mega hit series have finished their current seasons. Never fear, many of these shows can be added to your Netflix binge-watch list. If you’ve somehow never watched Breaking Bad or Orange is the New Black, then the internet is your perfect TV watching medium for this summer. But, if you enjoy watching weekly TV as it airs, the summer can be lacking in choices. Reality fare such as America’s Got Talent or anything on Bravo gets tedious after a while. This is why, somehow, I’ve turned to unlikely networks MTV and ABC Family for my summer guilty pleasures. Newcomer Faking It joins MTV’s small roster of original scripted shows and is a surprising early standout. With its seemingly trite plot that revolves around a pair of high school best

By Ilana Kruger

CREATIVE COMMONS

COMING SOON: Netflix original Orange is the New Black will return for season two on June 6. friends who pretend to be lesbians in order to gain popularity, the show has a surprising amount of humor and heart that most teenage comedies are lacking. ABC Family’s The Fosters, last summer’s hit about a blended family, is returning this summer for its second season, bringing the same drama and twists while still feeling like a comforting escape.

If you get bored of watching things on screens and want some live entertainment, summer is the prime time for music festivals. Depending on where you are in the country, there are tons of choices. From Boston Calling, with Jack Johnson and Death Cab for Cutie included in the lineup, to The

Governer’s Ball in New York City which features Outkast, Vampire Weekend and Phoenix, the east coast will definitely be rocking. If you are near Chicago, the city has both Pitchfork and Lollapalooza to choose from. There’s also Bonnaroo in Tennessee, which boasts the odd range from Kanye West to Elton John, and Austin City Limits, with Eminem, Foster the People and Pearl Jam among others.

So get your pop culture and entertainment fixes while you can because school will start again soon enough. Get out and enjoy the weather, superheroes, festival music and whatever else is on your pop culture radar.

ARTS COVER IMAGES: OLIVIA POBIEL, JOSHUA LINTON, SHEYNA HERTZ, RAFAELLA SCHOR and MORGAN BRILL/the Justice, DESIGN: OLIVIA POBIEL/the Justice.

ON CAMPUS

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, may 20, 2014

19

arts news

Arts promises changes for upcoming year By eMILY WISHINGRAD justice EDITOR

Sound Icon will be music residency for next year As every year, the Brandeis Concert Series sponsors musical residencies to highlight during the school year. Residencies are diverse and demonstrate the range of possibilities within the musical realm. Residencies last several days and include multiple events—some private, some public.

This past year, for example, Trio Da Kali brought the music of Mali to campus for its residency in late February.

Next year will feature the Boston-based group Sound Icon, which plans contemporary music from the past few decades, as part of the series’ residency program. According to Sound Icon’s website, each Sound Icon concert features music not typically heard in the United States—music that is usually not familiar to their American audiences.

The group is conducted and directed by Jeffrey Means, who leads many Boston-based ensembles that focus on new music, including the Firebird Ensemble, Ludovico Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Dinosaur Annex and the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble.

In an Oct. 23, 2013 article, The Boston Globe noted, “the music is both generously vibrant and oppressively implacable: a slow-building chain of melting-wax scales; a thumping, pizzicato-and-drone cortège glacially rotating about itself; a final berceuse, singing civilization to sleep with crystalline formality.”

Sound Icon consists of 20 musicians playing 14 different instruments, including winds, percussion and stringed instruments. The group’s website explains that “a key facet of Sound Icon’s identity is our commitment to this groundbreaking repertoire that requires the color and precision of a sinfonietta-sized ensemble.”

At Brandeis, Sound Icon will facilitate reading sessions, which will act as workshops for both undergraduate and graduate student composers to compose works for large ensembles, as well as workshop pieces, in progress. Sound Icon will also host open rehearsals and perform a concert.

Lydian String Quartet welcomes new member

New minor in the arts is approved for next fall

The Lydian String Quartet will be welcoming a new member for their upcoming season. Violist Prof. Mark Berger Ph.D. ’11 (MUS) will join first violist, Profs. Daniel Stepner (MUS), second violinist, Judith Eissenberg (MUS) and cellist Joshua Gordon (MUS).

The quartet is an institution that has lasted over 30 years and has played at the Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall, Jordan Hall, the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center. Abroad, they have performed in England, France, Italy, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Russia.

A composer and esteemed musician, Berger has performed alongside some of the most prestigious and widely-acclaimed music orchestras and ensembles, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Emmanuel Music, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Musica Viva and the Worcester Chamber Music Society.

In addition to playing with these acclaimed groups, he has also taught at various local schools and summer festivals and earned a doctorate in composition from Brandeis.

“I am thrilled that my future includes the opportunity to make music at the highest level with such esteemed colleagues as the Lydian String Quartet … The opportunity to commune on a regular basis with the greatest works of the classical chamber music canon while at the same time pushing boundaries through new works with cutting edge composers via the [Lydian String Quartet] Commission Prize is a dream come true,” Berger said in an May 13 BrandeisNow article.

Berger will begin his work as an associate professor in the Music department in July and will begin playing with the Lydian String Quartet in the fall when their new season premieres.

The quartet’s repertoire for the upcoming year will feature composers such as Haydn, Philip Glass, Elliott Carter, Ben Johnston, Charles Ives and Evan Ziporyn (Sulvasutra for string quartet, pipa and tabla, with guests Yihan Chen and Sandeep Das), according to its website.

Brandeis gleaned a new minor for the upcoming academic year when Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation was approved at the faculty meeting on Thursday, May 15.

The minor was largely spearheaded by Cynthia Cohen, the director of the program in Peacebuilding and the Arts for the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life. Cohen also received input on creating the new minor from her students who had taken her course, ‘The Arts of Building Peace,” as well as other faculty in the arts.

Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation will focus on art as a way of creating societal change. “Creative and artistic approaches to social transformation involve people as creators, performers, producers, participants, audience members, witnesses and critics. Some initiatives operate in single neighborhoods; some are international in scope. Some are one-time events, others create institutions and processes that last for decades. Some are highly effective, some less so,” Cohen said in her proposal.

Cohen also described the cross-curricular intrigue of the minor. “It will be of special interest to students in the arts who have a passion for social change, and to students in the social sciences and humanities who want to learn about creative approaches to a more just, less violent world,” she wrote in an email to the Justice.

Students will be required to take an introductory course taught by Cohen and possibly other professors and four classes from an approved list in departments including English, Fine Arts, Theater, English, African and AfroAmerican Studies, History and Sociology. There will also be four electives required (one of which must be a capstone or experiential learning course). The capstone requirement can be fulfilled through options such as an internship, a portfolio or a course that links theory and practice.

In her proposal, Cohen noted that students will interact with a wide range of art forms including music, literature, theater, visual arts, storytelling, digital art and broadcast media, architecture, conceptual art and folk art in their classes.

theater

FALL 2014

Brandeis Theater Company 2014-2015 preview ‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’

By Sarah Ruhl Directed by Prof. Adrianne Krstansky (THA)

Laurie Theater: October 9 to 12, 2014

SPRING 2015

‘The Conference of the Birds’

‘Here, There and Everywhere & Stop the Clocks’

By Peter Brook & Jean-Claude Carriere Based on the poem by Farid ud-Din Attar Directed by Hafiz Karmali

Created by Prof. Susan Dibble (THA) and ensemble Directed by Susan Dibble

Laurie Theater: November 20 to 23, 2014

Mainstage Theater: January 30 to February 1, 2015

‘The Way of Water’

By Caridad Svich Directed by Prof. Robert Walsh (THA)

Laurie Theater: March 12 to 15, 2015

Senior Festival Laurie Theater: March/April 2015

‘A Night on the Clowns’ Presentation coordinated by Kenny Raskin

Mainstage Theater: April 24 to 25, 2015

PHOTO COURTESY OF FLICKR USER SHEHAL JOSEPH

RING RING: Award-winning play, Dead Man’s Cell Phone (2007) will be the first of the Brandeis Theater Company’s performances for the upcoming season.

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TUESDAY, may 20, 2014 | THE JUSTICE

justArts 2013-2014

0

YEAR IN REVIEW ABBY KNECHT/the Justice

SEPT.

24-Hour Musical Curtains went up on Sunday, Sept.

22 for the annual 24-Hour Musical, this year titled: Beauty and the Beast: Tale as Old as Torah. As is tradition, the directors released the show title to the public as well as to its cast at the same time—exactly a day before opening. During a period of 24 hours, costumes were made, scripts were rehearsed, songs and staging were practiced and sound was tested.

At 8 p.m. on that Sunday, students crowded the Shapiro Campus Center Theater as well as outside in the SCC

JAN.

part of the show had the crowd swaying in their seats as the cast sand and danced to classics such as “Gaston” and “Be Our Guest.”

Through very few fumbles and some skipped lines, the musical turned out to be an impressively polished performance, given that they only had only 24 hours to prepare. And in the spirit of the 24-Hour Musical, the audience laughed and cheered through slip-ups and successes alike.

—Emily Wishingrad

Honoring MLK For almost ten years, Brandeis has been honoring the memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through an annual performance.

This year, MLK & Friends Club partnered with Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams and the African and Afro-American Studies department to present “For the Love of a Dream!” on Jan. 20. This memorial program was designed as a celebratory event that would facilitate dialogue on King’s work. The night was hosted by Prof. Chad Williams (AAAS), who commented on King’s legacy and introduced the series of performers. In addition, MLK & Friends Club also hosted a day-long service project working with middle and high school aged children.

The program began with a slam poem by Adams that discusses racism in society. Other performances included the Boston Tap Company, a company that seeks to spread peace through dance and has performed at previous memorials, and Brandeis Bridges Makalani Mack’s ’16 vocal rendition of “A Change is Gonna Come.” Keynote speaker civil rights activist Jane Sapp’s, piano and vocal performance, however, was one of the highlights of the night—she performed songs that were sung at King’s protests and rallies. The Brandeis Bridges Fellows delivered stories about their trip to Israel to promote interfaith dialogue between black and Jewish students. Once again, several groups at Brandeis honored the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

During this year’s Fall Fest, students and guests had the opportunity to hear stand-up comedy from the self-titled “world champion” himself, Judah Friedlander. Topics ranged from potential Olympic sports to 30 Rock, the hit show where he played the goofy character of Frank, to his presidential platform for the 2016 election.

While the crowd was quite large, the show had a very intimate quality. The material was funny and off-the-cuff and showed a mix of improvisation, prepared jokes and monologues. Friedlander was casual and conversational and would call on members of the audience.

Perhaps what made the show so amazing was Friedlander’s charm.

He seemed like an overgrown college student himself, with his unshaven face and ubiquitous trucker hat.

Even though he is a veteran actor, he brought an unpretentious approach to his performance.

There were moments when he would make a mistake or fumble for a joke, and he and the audience would just laugh it off.

The location had poor acoustics, making it hard to hear the audience, but Friedlander was able to smoothly go with the flow.

With a mix of deadpan humor, casual attitude and eagerness to interact with everyone present, Friedlander had the crowd practically crying with laughter for most of his routine.

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

0

ABBY KNECHT/the Justice

Atrium in order to view the show on a projector.

As has become Brandeis 24-hour tradition, the show took on a Jewish cultural spin. The story’s traditional candelabra was replaced by a menorah, Belle made a kippah for her father and Belle’s rations for her first night in captivity turn out to be challah and water.

What really stood out, though, were the lively musical numbers, many of which included the entire cast—over 150 students. The musical

Friedlander

—Jessie Miller

FEB.

—Catherine Rosch

OCT.

ANNIE FORTNOW/the Justice

Slam Poetry Featuring the work of over a dozen performers, the Student Union Social Justice and Diversity Committee’s slam poetry night at Cholmondeley’s used slam poetry, song and comedy to address personal stories of social justice. Dean of Students Jamele Adams opened the night with yet another powerful and emotional slam poem that he has come to be known for, challenging students to open their minds. He also referenced role models in the world of social justice, such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and delivered powerful lines such as “Silence is violence and screaming is proverb.”

Original pieces were performed by students Sequan Spigner (TYP), Asisa Isack ’17, LaQuasia Cherry (TYP), Risa Dunbar ’17 and Shannon Simpson ’17. The poems all explored emotional experiences with diversity.

“Love song to self when I forget the struggle is long and messy,” written and read by Alia Abdulahi ’17, illustrated her inner struggle to assimilate American culture with her family’s cultural heritage. During the song they performed, Joel Burt-Miller ’16 and Erica Barnett ’17 even interacted with the audience as they yelled back echoes in their original performance.

The performances, in their emotional power, raised questions of diversity and what social justice means—two issues that have a large presence on Brandeis’ campus.

—Jessie Miller

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, May 20, 2014

{

The past year has been a whirlwind of arts events.

From comedy shows to romantic plays to slam poetry, this is a reflection of the 2013 to 2014 academic year in Brandeis arts.

‘Almost, Maine’

During the very last weekend of October and the beginning of November, the Undergraduate Theater Collective and Brandeis Ensemble Theater presented Almost, Maine: A New Romantic Comedy, a play that follows the relationships of eight different couples.

Directed by Bethany Greenbaum ’14, Almost, Maine successfully embodied comedy and romance due to the witty script and balanced acting. The montage format of the play made the show fly by as the characters were introduced, with each actor playing three or four characters in different scenes.

Each of the vignettes explored the relationship between the characters in the scene, progressively building the theme of the different aspects of love.

The small crew working behind the

DEC.

scenes proved slightly problematic when attempting quick set changes between scenes. However, the minimalist set designs matched perfectly with the performance. A plain wooden bench with “snow” below it stood out for its clean simplicity. As for the actors, the cast consisted of only six people: Ryan Millis ’15, Rachel Liff ’16, Joseph Tinianow ’17, Jamie Semel ’17, Yuval Yossefy ’17 and Emily Duggan ’15. Between their skilled acting and emotionally charged roles, the actors all delivered solid performances that captured Almost, Maine’s snapshots of love.

Editor’s Note: Rachel Liff is a staff writer at the Justice.

—Jessie Miller

21

}

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID COSTA

‘365 Days/365 Plays’

ABBY KNECHT/the Justice

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

creation was distinctive and tapped into his or her unique talents.

There was an impressive range of shows. Kosek, Lieberman and Fosler wrote and either starred in or directed original plays about issues they deeply care about. Benway directed Eve Ensler’s touching play about female Bosnian refugees, Necessary Targets.

Dick starred in the upbeat song cycle Make Me a Song. Squier devised MICHAEL BROKOWSKI, a hilarious

play about childhood and change developed using the personal stories of his cast for inspiration.

Watching the senior theses, it was thrilling to see what years of hard work can produce, and just what Brandeis students are capable of. I was absolutely moved by the heartfelt collection of work that wrapped up a four-year journey for these six students.

—Rachel Liff

MAR.

Each actor was required to use physical movement, such as rolling on the floor, to express emotions including happiness, harm and disillusionment. It was clear that the actors had to push themselves—literally and figuratively—to meet the demands of Parks’ text.

The entire cast and crew of the 365 Days/365 Plays excelled in creating a unique and experimental piece of theater that left me thinking about the production for days afterward.

—Rachel Liff

APR.

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

Senior Thesis Festival The Department of Theater Arts Senior Festival is always one of the most exciting theatrical events of the year, but not every group of students excels in creating such a polished collection of work as this year’s senior class did. The festival showcased the works of Lizzy Benway ’14, Jason Dick ’14, Justy Kosek ’14, Emma Lieberman ’14, Grace Fosler ’14 and Levi Squier ’14, and featured dozens of other student actors, directors and technical producers. Each senior’s

inventive blocking, impressive lighting design and an incredible use of projections.

A series of somewhat intra-connected scenes told the stories of different groups of people: families torn apart by war, prisoners, lovers and even the Lincoln family. All of the actors had to rely on their bodies to tell these stories. From fast-paced soliloquies that lasted a few minutes each, to indiscernible metaphors, the cast had the responsibility of communicating the abstract with the audience.

0

NOV.

365 Days/365 Plays was perhaps one of the most memorable pieces of theater to come to campus this year.

Even though it was one of the more obscure plays of the year, it succeeded because of the ingenuity and originality of the project.

Written by Pulitzer-Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks and directed by visiting director Akiba Abaka, the audience development manager at Emerson College, 365/365 created a world without the boundaries of time and space. The production employed

Springfest This year’s Springfest concert on April 27 brought in some gloomy weather—ironically clashing with its theme: beach party. Despite cold temperatures, disk jockey RJD2, rapper Atmosphere, alternative band American Authors and duo Icona Pop took the stage on Chapels Field—filled with beach blankets and students sipping on smoothies.

Director of Concerts for Student Events, Stefani Godspinova ’14, commented on Icona Pop as a headliner in an interview with the Justice on April 1, when the names of the performers were first released. “We didn’t want a hip-

hop artist because we’ve done that a lot in the past … and we knew we wanted a female headliner,” she said.

All performances were well attended, but Icona Pop got the luck of the day as the sky cleared just in time for their set list. Even in the damp and muddy grass, Brandeis students gathered in hoards— pushing their way to the front to see the two Swedish singers and DJs perform.

As they ended their set with their hit “I Love It,” the crowd cheered and sang along, dancing and jumping to the beat.

—Emily Wishingrad

Design by REBECCA LANTNER/the Justice

22

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, may 20, 2014

CONCERT

Boston Calling to bring positive changes

PHOTOS COURTESY OF Los Angeles Times/MCT, Creative Commons, and Creative Commons (from left to right).

TAKING THE STAGE: (From left) Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Jack Johnson and Death Cab for Cutie are just three of the groups that are slated to perform at this summer’s Boston Calling music festival.

By DOUGLAS Levine justice contributing writer

This weekend, Boston Calling, a music festival right in the heart of the city, returns to Boston’s City Hall Plaza. After another successful festival this past fall, Boston Calling cofounders Brian Appel and Mike Snow have made some distinct changes to the festival in order to expand the excitement. This spring’s Boston Calling will be held from Friday, May 23 through Sunday, May 25.

The festival will feature an all-star lineup of bands ranging across many genre—including performers like Jack Johnson, Death Cab for Cutie, Bastille, The Decemberists and Modest Mouse.

Local bands will also be highlighted, as Boston Calling looks to keep some of the acts local and make the festival truly integrated with Boston’s culture.

Even if local acts aren’t your

usual favorite, look forward to seeing Brandeis’ own former student Gabe Goodman at this spring’s festival, as he recently took over as bassist for local band Magic Man. Goodman opened Brandeis’ Springfest 2013 for Kendrick Lamar and since this past semester has been touring full time with Magic Man. Magic Man, who has just announced its first album will be released on July 8, will open the second day of the festival on Saturday, May 24, and are sure to set the day off right with their blend of rock, pop and electronic music.

Headlining Saturday night will be Death Cab for Cutie, while Sunday will be closed off by Modest Mouse. Death Cab for Cutie, who are best known for their 2005 album Plans and more recently their album Codes and Keys will not only end Saturday with a bang, but leave fans with high ex-

pectations for Sunday.

Luckily, they won’t be disappointed, as Sunday’s lineup easily matches the talent in Saturdays.

Bands to watch for Sunday will be Bastille, whose hit single “Pompeii” has become two-times platinum in the U.S. in a little over a year, and veteran indie rockers Modest Mouse, who will close out the last day.

While this past fall’s Boston Calling featured two days with different themes, with a more electronic dance music and disc jockey based second day, capped

by Passion Pit, this weekend’s festival will feature a more mixed lineup.

Appel described the lineup in an interview with the Justice, saying, “This festival has a much better blend than our September festival. What we found in September was that we really had two different crowds that were there, one on each day. This time

we tried to really blend the days together so they were more cohesive with each other.”

Another change this spring will be the festival’s new three-day span after having previously been only two days.

The inaugural Friday performance will be headlined by Jack Johnson and will also feature a set by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

When the Justice asked about the additional day, Appel stated, “We had a good year in 2013 and felt really comfortable with the execution of the event and running it properly but wanted to expand the festival.

“We were fortunate that Jack Johnson was available and was interested, because he’s great to work with and can really carry a festival night on his own, but has some great support playing with him.”

While tickets for this week-

Do you enjoy museums, music, theater or movies?

Write for Arts!

Contact Emily Wishingrad at arts@thejustice.org

end’s festival are nearly sold out, with only Friday passes, weekend and individual day V.I.P passes remaining, tickets are now available for this fall’s Boston Calling, which will be held September 5 through 7.

The fall installation is already promising to be another exciting weekend. Performers already lined up for the fall include Lorde, Childish Gambino, The 1975, Spoon and Nas with The Roots.

Regardless of which festival you attend, whether it be this weekend, this fall, or both, you can expect a great time featuring some of the best young bands currently touring, as well as some of Boston’s best homegrown music.

Boston Calling is a great opportunity to get into Boston while also experiencing one of the best music festivals currently functioning in New England, and this weekend is guaranteed to be full of excitement.

23

TUESDAY, may 20, 2014 | THE JUSTICE

film

Comedic fraternity movie retains depth By jessie miller justice editor

Universal Pictures/MCT

POWER COUPLE: Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) Radner balance parenting and partying.

Between the drug references and sex jokes, the newly released film Neighbors somehow manages to address serious issues of reaching adulthood and the responsibilities that come with it. Neighbors stars young couple Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) who have just moved into their dream home with newborn daughter Stella. However, the Radners quickly watch their charming game of house crumble as a rowdy fraternity, led

by Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron), moves in next door.

At first, Mac and Kelly try to play it cool as the “young couple next door.” Their act results in the highlight of the film—a house party scene. With trippy graphic editing, the audience feels like they too are partying with the Delta Psi fraternity, and the friendship between Mac and Teddy is surprisingly touching as they bond over drugs and phallic jokes. Mac and Kelly also promise to talk to Teddy before they call the police if a party gets too loud.

However, one night, they call the cops after trying to call Teddy several times. With their drunken pact broken Teddy and the brothers vow to get re-

venge.

Thus ensues entertaining back-and-forth pranks as the Radners attempt to get Delta Psi kicked out of the neighborhood. One of the Radners’ first attempts is breaking a main water line, which promptly floods the fraternity’s basement. Faced with a huge price tag to fix the damage, the brothers decide to make and sell sex toys molded from their own genitals. The Radners watch from next door as the boys easily cover their costs—and have enough left over to build a giant hot tub. Things take a turn in the Radners’ favor when they discover the university’s threestrike policy—Delta Psi already has two, and is on probation.

The Radners hatch a plan to get the fraternity disbanded.

This is just one of the many ridiculous, yet entertaining moments in the film, and I found myself laughing at every turn. Efron’s first scene in the film as the fraternity president is, of course, shirtless showing off his toned abs and biceps.

However, Efron has come a long way from his High School Musical days and I found myself pleasantly surprised by his performance. Dave Franco plays Teddy’s best friend Pete Regazolli, who, unlike Teddy, realizes there is more to life

than the crazy college parties.

Teddy’s goal for the year was to throw the most epic party that would earn him a coveted spot on the Hall of Fame alongside the brothers who created beer pong (the Workaholics trio) and the toga party (Andy Samberg and the Lonely Island).

Much of the humor results from the cast, led by the comedic genius Rogen, who always delivers boundary-pushing performances. Byrne also emerges as a comedic front-runner and it was interesting to see her character not fall into the “nagging wife” type, as often happens when paired with a leading funny man. Instead, Byrne was just as verbally crude and immature at Rogen, something that continuously highlighted young people’s challenges in adjusting to marriage and parenthood. Beyond the comedy, Neighbors addresses these heavier themes of responsibility and what happens when you are not the party-hard college kids from a few years before.

Neighbors is a great opener to the summer movie season with its use of comedy to address the more serious theme of adjusting to adult lifestyles.

Neighbors contains plenty of R-rated jokes to keep viewers laughing, while avoiding the perils of comedies that lack real

Books

Editors’ Pick: favorite books for summer reads

CREATIVE COMMONS

For me, the summer is a chance to read the books that I didn’t have time to get to during the busy school year. At the top of my list this summer is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, the acclaimed author’s 2013 bestseller. The New York Times called Americanah one of the best books of the year, and a paperback version came out this March.

I became interested in Adichie this semester when I watched part of her TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” in a comparative literature class. In her TED Talk, Adichie discusses the problems with only considering single aspects of a person’s identity, and the harm this can bring them as an individual. Adichie’s nuanced views and articulate expression made me want to hear more from her, leading me to look toward Americanah for more of Adichie’s thought-provoking words. Americanah seems to deal with similar themes, as her characters face what it means to be black once they leave Nigeria for the West—a similar phenomenon to what Adichie herself went through when she came to America for college, as she described in her TED Talk.

Ifemelu and Obinze, the main characters, are a young couple in love. Ifemelu goes to college in America, while Obinze hopes to join her later. Both lovers face challenges during their time apart, but never lose sight of the love they shared.

The Los Angeles Times calls Americanah “part love story, part social critique, and one of the best [novels] you’ll read this year,” and this layered nature of the novel is what makes me excited to read it. A novel about identity and love, Americanah should keep you busy in these months away from schoolwork.

—Brittany Joyce

MARINER BOOKS

In Tim O’Brien’s gripping novel The Things They Carried, he recounts several semi-autobiographical stories about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Tim, the narrator of the book, who is distinguished as a separate individual from O’Brien, discusses his own experiences, war stories and relationships. O’Brien explores concepts such as love and war in a way that will surely impact your perspective. You will never look at war the same.

These stories are so powerful that you will most definitely need to take a break and reflect after each chapter.

My predominant thought throughout the entire book was, “Wow. Did I really read that?” You might want to just take a second to breathe and sit in silence as everything you believe to be true is shattered, which is way this book is best reserved for summer break. O’Brien also looks at the concept of truth in a way that blurs the distinction between reality and fabrication. Somehow, the question of whether or not the war stories are true has no impact on the powerful effect of these stories; the connection you feel with Tim’s character is not compromised. O’Brien makes a point that the truth behind the story is not nearly as important as the point the story is trying to get across.

Sometimes, the “story-truth,” or something that is fabricated to tell the story, can seem just as real as what actually occurred, or the “happening-truth.”

Tim narrates a different story describing his own life and experiences in each chapter. He also goes into depth about the lives of members of his platoon.

O’Brien’s stories can, admittedly, be somewhat gory. However, what’s a war story without destruction or battle wounds?

—Marissa Ditkowsky

CREATIVE COMMONS

PHOTO COURTESY OF FLICKR USER STEPHEN BOISVERT

As someone who has been working on a summer reading list since fall semester, I am looking forward to finally making a dent in it. While this list is extensive, I find it hard to believe that I will find a book that lives up to my favorite from last summer: Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City.

This piece of non fiction, set in 1893 Chicago, is a beautifully written account intertwining the lives of two extraordinary men: Daniel H. Burnham, head architect of the World’s Fair, and Herman Webster Mudgett, otherwise known as Dr. H. H. Holmes, a prolific serial killer who was charged with killing as many as 200 people during the fair.

A New York Times review of the book charges Larson with fusing “history and entertainment … [giving] this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel.” I found that the more I read, the more interested I became. Larson’s language and storylines were captivating and I had a hard time putting the book down as I delved into Chicago at the turn of the century.

As someone who is immensely interested in history and also adores a good read, Larson’s book satisfies both inclinations. The book reads like a novel, or rather like a series of interesting anecdotes, which just so happen to be about either gruesome murders or building blueprints. While the topic might initially seem daunting, it is, in fact, a relatively fast read even as it clocks in at about 500 pages. The Chicago Tribune calls the novel “exceedingly well-documented, exhaustive without being excessive, and utterly fascinating.”

Although it might not be the traditional summer fiction, in this case, the true story of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair is absolutely unbelievable and entirely enthralling. much more so than the fiction could ever be.

—Morgan Brill

The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is not a great book but it is a very enjoyable read and really, that is the one and only requisite characteristic of a summer read. The novel is set in Barcelona after the Spanish Civil War and follows the curiosity of Daniel Sempere, the 10-year old son of a librarian. However, the novel quickly splinters into several magically dark plotlines when Daniel comes across a rare piece of literature by an obscure writer named Julian Carax in a secret library called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. As I became helplessly addicted to the fate of the characters, Daniel became engulfed in multiple narratives as he matures into a young man.

His life begins to parallel Carax’s until unraveling the mystery of the author’s life also becomes important to understanding his own existence. The picturesque setting in Barcelona adds to the mystique and old power of the mystery and makes the slowpaced portions of the book just as enthralling as the more exciting, tense bits.

This novel will not shed light on your existential crises and at just under 500 pages, you won’t be able to get thought the entire novel in one afternoon at the beach. Yet every page teams with erotic desire, tragic loss, true love and stories within stories within stories, all of which are well worth your attention. The Shadow of the Wind is not without its flaws: Zafón’s writing style is hindered by unnecessary adjectives and the melodramatic plot twists are sometimes reminiscent of a cheesy daytime soap opera.

However, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to fall in love with reading again; the novel contains many love stories, but none more potent than the amorous affair between books and the people who read them.

—Jaime Kaiser

24

TUESDAY, may 20, 2014 | THE JUSTICE

TOPof the

ARTS ON VIEW

Brandeis TALKS

CHARTS

Quote of the week

for the week ending May 18

“The easiest lesson … , and therefore most painful, is to have substantially revamped the vetting process.”

BOX OFFICE

1. Godzilla (2014) 2. Neighbors 3. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 4. Million Dollar Arm 5. The Other Woman (2014) 6. Heaven Is For Real 7. Rio 2 8. Captain America: The Winter Soldier 9. Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Reunion 10. Moms’ Night Out

—President Fred Lawrence on the honorary degree selection process at Thursday’s faculty meeting(News, p. 3)

What are you most looking forward to when you come back next year?

NYT BESTSELLERS

MARISSA DITKOWSKY/the Justice

HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH: Justice editor Marissa Ditkowsky ’16 took this photograph of Cinderella’s Castle lit up for the holidays at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom on a family vacation this January.

Elane Pu M.S. ’15 “I look forward to working on real science topics next semester.”

the justice wants to see your original artwork!

Keep us updated on your artwork over the summer for a chance to be featured in our first issue of the fall 2014 semester! Send works to photos@thejustice.org.

CROSSWORD

Andrew Savage ’16 “I’m going abroad in the spring, so I have to jam two semesters’ worth of fun into one.”

Jonathan Jacob ’16 “I’m looking forward to coming back right away and seeing all my friends.”

Alana Coleman ’15 “My senior honors thesis!”

ACROSS 1 Scale on which diamond is assigned a “10” 5 Owl’s question?

8 “Music __ charms ...”

12 The Sego Lily is its state flower 13 Map out 15 Nymph rejected by Narcissus 16 Actress Elisabeth 17 Deck opening 18 Work on jerky 19 WWII aircraft carrier plane 21 Iowa native 23 Tax-sheltered nest egg 25 Hippy dance 28 1963 Newman film 29 Ousted Iranian 33 Arctic “snowshoe” critters 34 Quizzical sounds 35 Bears owner/coach who won eight NFL titles in four different decades 37 Singer Piaf 38 Soup base 39 Luxury craft 40 Quiet “Quiet!”

43 “Ulysses” actor Milo 44 Quaint pronoun 45 “Isn’t __ bit like you and me?”: Beatles lyric 46 Solvers’ cries 47 Tremulous glow 50 Except 54 Beeline 59 “Hava Nagila” dance 60 Different 62 Worker welfare org.

63 Progress slowly 64 Organ with chambers 65 Son of Odin 66 Sinister chuckles 67 “Revenge is __ best served cold” 68 Seven: Pref.

DOWN 1 Soft stuff 2 Will-wisp link 3 Truck 4 Poet Silverstein 5 Words said with a double take 6 Fez, e.g.

7 Corsage flowers 8 “Consarn it!”

9 Motrin target 10 Those folks 11 Suffragette Julia Ward __ 13 Former Labor secretary Elaine 14 Where she blows 20 Vehicle safety measure 22 Jug band percussion instrument 24 “Say what?”

25 Tackled

Nonfiction

1. Capital in the Twenty-First Century—Thomas Piketty 2. Finding Me—Michelle Knight and Michelle Burford 3. The Closer—Mario Rivera and Wayne Coffey 4. Everybody’s Got Something— Robin Roberts with Veronica Chambers 5. A Fighting Chance—Elizabeth Warren

iTUNES

1. Ariana Grande—“Problem (feat.

Iggy Azaela)” 2. John Legend—“All Of Me” 3. Miranda Lambert—”Somethin’ Bad” 4. DJ Snake & Lil Jon—“Turn Down For What” 5. Nico & Vinz—“Am I Wrong”

BILLBOARD

1. Various Artists—Now 50 2. Soundtrack—Frozen 3. Hunter Hayes—Storyline 4. Sarah McLachlan—Shine On 5. Tech N9ne Collabos— Strangeulation

6. Pharrell Williams—GIRL 7. Luke Bryan—Crash My Party 8. Atmosphere—Southsiders 9. Santana—Corazon 10. Lorde—Pure Heroine Top of the Charts information provided by Fandango, the New York Times, Billboard. com and Apple.com.

26 “Vega$” actor 27 Mythical river of forgetfulness30 30 Grating 31 “Hello, wahine!”

32 Can’t stand 33 “You, there!”

36 Doo-wop syllable 40 Went from first to second, say 41 Jeans bottom 42 Pounds 48 Ado 49 Mars neighbor 50 __ Tzu 51 Fine-tune 52 B’way seating area 53 Sounds from the stands 55 Shakespearean verb 56 1975 Wimbledon winner 57 Hit the mall 58 Antlered deer 61 Ginza greeting

STAFF’S Top Ten

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

SUDOKU INSTRUCTIONS: Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Malka Forman ’17 “I’m looking forward to living in East [Quad] with all my friends.

And all the Chum’s parties!”

—Compiled by Rachel Hughes and photographed by Morgan Brill/the Justice

Fiction 1. Unlucky 13—James Patterson and Maxine Paetro 2. Field of Prey—John Sandford 3. Walking on Water—Richard Paul Evans 4. The Target—David Baldacci 5. The Goldfinch—Donna Tartt

Solution to last issue’s sudoku

Sudoku Copyright 2013 MCT Campus, Inc.

By tate herbert justice editor

Last summer, my roommates and I adopted an adorable little hedgehog named Boris.

He’s notoriously grumpy, but over the past year he bonded with all eight of us and even the cat. Now, I’m dreaming of the next addition to the family. I wonder if our landlord or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would let us have any of these?

1. African pygmy hedgehog 2. Pygmy marmoset (a.k.a. “finger monkey”) 3. Fennec fox 4. Bengal cat 5. Spotted Genet 6. Chinchilla 7. Green iguana 8. Wolfdog (wolf-dog hybrid) 9. Kinkajou 10. Pot-bellied pig