The Justice, May 3, 2011 issue

ARTS Page 19

SPORTS Softball wins finale 16

LIQUID LATEX

FORUM Reacting to Bin Laden's death 10 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 LXIII, Number 27

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

STUDENT UNION

ADMISSIONS

ART AROUND CAMPUS

State of the Union details plans

More students accepted for 2015 ■ The acceptance rate for the Class of 2015 rose by about 3 percent from the previous year.

By ANDREW WINGENS JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

2011-2012 are: Charles River $60.00, Commuter $120.00 and Residence $250.00.” These rates, however, increased from 2009-2010 to 2010-2011, according to the April 2010 Justice article.

Collins said that this year, there are 2,299 parking spaces on campus. Collins added that 260 sophomores currently have parking permits.

When asked if there is a problem with overcrowding parking lots, Collins replied, “Sometimes there is; we have lots that sometimes are full.”

Collins believes that the only longterm solution to the parking problem on campus would be a parking garage.

Sophomore parking, however, is not likely to return in the short term because although it is a goal of the Uni-

The University admissions acceptance rate for the Class of 2015 was 38.58 percent, an increase of 3.16 percent from the Class of 2014, according to Vice President for Students and Enrollment Keenyn McFarlane in an interview with the Justice.

For the Class of 2015, 8,917 students applied to the University, out of which 3,440 students were accepted, resulting in a 38.58-percent acceptance rate.

Between the Class of 2013 and the Class of 2014, however, the acceptance rate dropped 5.02 percent, according to McFarlane.

For the Class of 2014, there were 7,753 applicants with 2,746 acceptances, resulting in an acceptance rate of 35.42 percent. For the Class of 2013, there were 6,815 applicants and 2,756 acceptances, resulting in an acceptance rate of 40.44 percent, according to McFarlane.

In 2009, the Curricular and Academic Restructuring Steering Committee recommended that the University increase its enrollment by 400 over 5 years.

The goal is to between 800 and 900 students in the Class of 2015 said McFarlane.

In an interview with the Justice, Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams said that the increase in students will “affect everything … from class size in the classrooms to the availability of human resources, to the line at the Stein, the line at Sherman [Dining Hall], [the] Usdan [Student Center], it will affect availability during the housing lottery, it will affect parking.”

McFarlane said, “There are certainly concerns about ensuring the quality of life for our students. We don’t anticipate there being any radical changes in housing, particularly because we had the lower in-

See PARKING, 7 ☛

See ADMIT, 7 ☛

■ Former Student

Union President Daniel Acheampong ’11 said a student will sit on the Governance Committee.

By ALLYSON CARTTER

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Former Student Union President Daniel Acheampong ’11 announced details about Brandeis’ new financial aid policy, arrangements for a student representative on the Governance Committee of the Board of Trustees next fall and plans for the Social Life Committee in the semiannual State of the Union Address last Thursday in Rapaporte Treasure Hall.

Acheampong spoke about students’ involvement in the University’s administrative decisionmaking process. He noted the Student Union Student Advisory Committee, which was formed last fall and presented information to the Administrative Structure Advisory Committee to evaluate the duties of the Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment and the Provost after Jean Eddy and Marty Krauss, respectively, announced their resignations from those positions. According to a Dec. 7 Justice article, the Administrative Structure Advisory Committee recommendations, which included clarifications of these job descriptions, were accepted by then-University President Jehuda Reinharz in December.

Additionally, student represen-

See UNION, 7 ☛

Ensemble of the Arts Brass Ensemble What Cheer? Brigade marched across campus during the annual Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. The theme of the weekend was "Art is All Around" and included installations and performances. See Arts, page 20.

STUDENT LIFE

Univ eliminates sophomore parking ■ Sophomores will no longer

be able to receive parking permits from the Department of Public Safety.

By ANDREW WINGENS JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Sophomore resident students will no longer be able to obtain parking permits from the Department of Public Safety to park on campus starting fall 2011, according to an April 29 campuswide e-mail from Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan.

Callahan announced in the e-mail that “First year and sophomore students are not allowed to have cars on campus unless they are a commuter.”

The decision to eliminate sopho-

more parking permits will first be applied for the 2011-2012 school year and was decided “a couple of years ago,” according to Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins in an interview with the Justice.

The decision to eliminate sophomore parking for 2011-2012 was first announced in April 2010, according to a Justice article published that month.

Collins said, “There was a finite number of parking spaces on the campus.” He attributed the change in policy to an increased number of students on campus and the fact there is not enough space for the University to build a new parking lot without destroying green spaces.

Parking prices for 2011-2012 are expected to remain the same as 2010-2011, according to the e-mail. “The permit fees for the upcoming academic year

Fight for power

Baseball splits week

New minor passes

 Brandeis Students advocated change at the Power Shift conference in Washington, D.C.

 The baseball team dropped three of its final four games last week, ending its five-game winning streak.

 A proposed Sexuality and Queer Studies minor passed its first faculty reading.

FEATURES 8 For tips or info e-mail editor@thejustice.org

Waltham, Mass.

Let your voice be heard!

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

INDEX

SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 7

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

COMMENTARY

11

News 3 COPYRIGHT 2011 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Email managing@thejustice.org for home delivery.

2

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS AP BRIEF

POLICE LOG

United States forces kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan

Medical Emergency

WASHINGTON—Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the deadly Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that led the United States to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, was killed in an operation led by the United States, President Barack Obama said Sunday.

A small team of Americans killed Bin Laden in a firefight on Sunday at a compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the capital Islamabad, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

The team took custody of his remains and American officials said they were being handled in accordance with Islamic tradition.

The stunning end to the world’s most widely watched manhunt came just months before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers and Pentagon, orchestrated by bin Laden’s al-Qaida organization, that killed more than 3,000 people.

Former President George W. Bush, who was in office on the day of the attacks, issued a written statement hailing Bin Laden’s death as a momentous achievement.

“The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done,” Bush said.

Obama said he ordered the operation after receiving undisclosed intelligence information. Senior administration officials said the terrorist mastermind was found inside a custom-built compound with two security gates. They said it appeared to have been constructed to harbor one high-value target and that for undisclosed reasons, officials became sure that the hideout was Bin Laden’s.

Officials also said they believe the death puts al-Qaida on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse, but there was no word on the whereabouts of bin Laden’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The attacks a decade ago seemed to come out of nowhere, even though al-Qaida had previously damaged American targets overseas.

The terrorists hijacked planes, flew one of them into one of Manhattan’s Twin Towers—and, moments later, into the other one. Both buildings collapsed, trapping thousands inside and claiming the lives of firefighters and others who had rushed to help them.

A senior administration official says Obama gave the final order for U.S. officials to go after Bin Laden on Friday. The official added that a small team found its quarry hiding in a large home in a city north of Islamabad.

The raid occurred in the early morning hours Sunday.

Administration officials offered some details of the operation.

Based on statements given by U.S. detainees, intelligence officials have known for years that Bin Laden trusted one al-Qaida courier in particular and they believed he might be living with him in hiding. In November, intelligence officials found out where he was living, a huge fortified compound. It was surrounded by walls as high as 18 feet (5.5 meters), topped with barbed wire. There were two security gates and no phone or Internet running into the house.

Intelligence officials believed the $1-million home was custom-built to harbor a major terrorist. CIA experts analyzed whether it could be anyone else, but time and again, they decided it was almost certainly Bin Laden.

Three adult males were also killed in Sunday’s raid, including one of Bin Laden’s sons, whom officials did not name. One of Bin Laden’s sons, Hamza, is a senior member of al-Qaida.

Obama spoke with Bush and former President Bill Clinton on Sunday night to inform them of the developments.

Moments after he spoke, American officials cautioned that the events could lead to heightened threats against the United States.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS n An article in News “Patrick speaks on economy” was attributed to the incorrect staff writer. Erica Cooperberg wrote the article, not Allyson Cartter. (April 12. pg. 1) n An article in News “Leaders discuss UK-Israel trade mission” was attributed to the incorrect staff writer. Allyson Cartter wrote the article, not Erica Cooperberg.

(April 12. pg. 1) n An article in Arts misstated the title of an event. The event was titled Boris’ Kitchen: Armed & Legged, not Boris’ Kitchen: Cooking Up Trouble.

The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. E-mail editor@ thejustice.org.

Justice

the

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

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

Apr. 28—A party in Ridgewood Quad reported that she fell and struck her head. BEMCo treated the party on-scene and transported her to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Apr. 28—A party on the athletic fields reported possibly pulling a hamstring. The party was treated on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Apr. 29—A 20-year-old female in Ziv Quad reported that she was having an allergic reaction to food she ate. The student was treated on-scene by BEMCo and was transported to the NewtonWellesley Hospital.

Apr. 29—BEMCo requested an ambulance to the Shapiro Campus Center for an 18-year-old intoxicated female, as well as a 20-year-old female; they had been attending the Foam Party on the Great Lawn. Both patients were taken in the same ambulance.

The ambulance hit the gate by the science complex; the gate went down after a University Police car passed through.

Apr. 29—University Police received a report of an intoxicated female on the Great Lawn.

She was treated by BEMCo and transported by ambulance to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Apr. 29—An intoxicated 19-year-old male on the Great Lawn was treated by BEMCo and transported by ambulance to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Apr. 30—A party reported an intoxicated 22-year-old female in Ridgewood Quad. BEMCo arrived to find the female unconscious. BEMCo treated her onscene, and she was transported by ambulance to the NewtonWellesley Hospital.

Apr. 30—University Police received a report of an intoxicated, semi-conscious 29-yearold male in the Shapiro Campus

Center. The individual was not a Brandeis student. An ambulance transported him to the Mount Auburn Hospital.

Apr. 30—An elderly female tripped and fell in the Spingold Theater Center. BEMCo treated the patient on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

crashed into a concrete pylon near the tennis courts. Assistance was requested from the Waltham Police Department. The driver, a Brandeis student, was arrested for driving under the influence, and the community development coordinator on call was notified.

There were no injuries.

Disturbance

Miscellaneous

Apr. 29—A Waltham resident complained of loud music coming from the area of the Charles River Apartments. The music was actually coming from an event at the Shapiro Campus Center. The music was turned down.

Apr. 30—A caller reported the smell of something burning, as well as smoke and sparks, coming from an elevator in Ziv Quad.

The building’s fire alarm was pulled, and the Waltham Fire Department, University Police and the Office of Facilities Services responded. The CDC on call was notified as well. An electrician shut off power to the elevator.

The fire department departed, and University Police cleared the scene.

Traffic

Apr. 26—A faculty member reported that his vehicle in Athletics Lot was struck by a foul ball.

A report was compiled.

Apr. 29—A University Police officer observed what appeared to be a motor vehicle that had

—compiled by Brian Fromm

SENATE LOG

Acheampong swears in Rosen as president At the final Senate meeting of the semester, the Student Union members elected on April 14 were inaugurated.

13 out of 22 senators attended the meeting, one of whom arrived 20 minutes late.

The Economics Club, represented

by Joshua Hoffman-Senn ’13, requested that its name be changed to the Brandeis Economics Society.

The Senate unanimously approved the name change. The Senate unanimously recognized and chartered the Guitar Club. The Senate also unanimously recognized and chartered the Graphic Design Alliance. The Health and Fitness Club approached the Senate for charter. Senator for the Class of 2014 Mitchell Schwartz argued that there was duality of purpose between the Health and Fitness Club and the Weightlifting Club. Executive Senator and Senator for the Class of 2011 Abraham Berin proposed that the club add a line to its constitution that clarifies the purpose of the club to include recruitment at both the first-year and midyear orientations.The Senate agreed and chartered the club pending a meeting with the Club Support Committee.

The Senate discussed an amendment to Section 2, Article 8 of the Senate bylaws that was submitted at the previous Senate meeting. The Senate unanimously approved the bylaw amendment, but agreed to alter it by adding “at the discretion of the Senate” to the end of the amendment.The final bylaw reads, “No club can sanction an activity or event that violates the rights and responsibilities handbook at the discretion of the Senate.”

—Andrew Wingens

NOTE TO READERS:

Influential women

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

Judge Margaret Marshall, an honorary degree recipient from Brandeis, discussed civil rights with Prof. Anita Hill (Heller) on April 13 in the Faculty Club. For more information visit www.thejustice.org.

The Justice is on hiatus until our next issue, which will be published on May 24, 2011.

Check our website, www.thejustice.org, periodically for updates.

ANNOUNCEMENTS Massell Quad barbecue

Celebrate the near end of a wonderful year! There will be free food and music with both kosher and vegetarian options available. Other activities include live musical performances by fellow students, RC boat races across our beloved Massell Pond, as well as many other surprises, courtesy of the Department of Community Living. This event is open to all members of the Brandeis Community. Senator of Massell Quad Rosby Kome-Mensah ’14, Community Development Director Caitlin Capozzi and the community advisors of Massell Quad will sponsor the event. Today from 2 to 5 p.m. in Massell Quad.

Ruth First Annual Memorial Lecture

This talk will think about apartheid as historical catastrophe and wonder about a politics of truth telling, testimony and witnessing as adequate politics that works through this form of trauma. The speaker, Professor Anthony Bogues, is Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Brown University and he is associate editor of the journal Small Axe. Sponsored by African and Afro-American Studies. Tomorrow from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Mandel Center for Humanities Atrium.

Senator Charles Schumer lectures

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York, a leading voice for common-sense government in his three decades in Washington, D.C., will deliver the inaugural Saul G. Cohen Memorial Lecture. He will conduct a question-and-answer session following his 30-minute talk. A reception will be held beginning at 4:15 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center’s public atrium. Light refreshments will be served. Co-sponsored by College Democrats, Democrats for America, the Department of Community Service, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Hiatt Career Center, Waltham Group and the Gordon Center for American Public Policy. Friday from 3 to 4:15 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater.

Senior class Shabbat dinner

Enjoy your last Shabbat dinner at Brandeis. There will be a complimentary meat meal and vegetarian options are available upon request. RSVP needed by Tuesday, May 10 at noon to brandeishillel@gmail.com.

Sponsored by Hillel at Brandeis. Friday, May 13 at 8 p.m. in Sherman Dining Hall.

The sixth-annual Mods cookout

There will be grills, meat, and other snacks, and you bring the beverage. This is a great time to catch up with each other and enjoy being outside. Kosher food will be available.

Co-sponsored by the Student Union. Thursday, May 19 from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Upper Mods.

Presidential reception

Seniors and their families are invited to this reception hosted by University President Frederick Lawrence and the Board of Trustees. Enjoy food, wine, and beer and kick off the weekend of graduation! Dress code is casual dressy attire. Friday, May 20 at 5 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

Give + Go

Give + Go is a community wide effort to reduce waste and donate tons of needed goods to the local community. They keep some stuff to resell for students in the fall—to help reduce even more waste—and this sale funds the big collection operation. Give items in good condition and place neatly in labeled locations. Give + Go is coordinated by the Waltham Group, Community Living, S.E.A., Facilities, and EcoReps. Begins May 5.

THE JUSTICE

academics

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TUESDAY, may 3, 2011

3

academics

New minor passes first Latin honors sent to UCC for review round of faculty voting ■ The proposal to raise

honors standards will not be revised until next year.

■ The proposal for the

Sexuality and Queer Studies minor will go through a second round of voting at the May 19 faculty meeting.

By Jillian wagner JUSTICE editor

The proposal for a new interdisciplinary Sexuality and Queer Studies minor was approved by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and went through the first of two faculty votes, Prof. Thomas King (ENG), a member of the UCC and of the program faculty for the new minor, said in an interview with the Justice.

The idea behind the minor, which will be offered within the Women and Gender Studies department, has been a topic of discussion since the 2002-2003 academic year and originated as a response to and in support of student activism to increase lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer visibility both on campus and in the Brandeis curriculum, said King, who is also a member of the WGS faculty.

Though the proposal still needs a second vote of approval at the May 19 faculty meeting, King said he is “almost certain” the minor will be approved in the second reading, which would mean the minor would be available to students starting next fall.

According to the proposal, “Students in the program critically consider the relationships among sex, gender, and sexual orientation, desire and identification, and erotic and affectional behavior, as these intersect with other cultural formations including gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, and class.”

King wrote in a follow-up e-mail to the Justice that if the proposal is approved, Brandeis will be the first university in Massachusetts to offer a minor specifically in Sexuality and Queer Studies, though Harvard University offers a concentration in

a similar field.

“In the New England area, Brandeis joins Bowdoin [College], which offers a Gay and Lesbian Studies minor and the University of New Hampshire which offers a Queer Studies minor,” King wrote. “Smith [College] offers a track within its major in the Study of Women and Gender.”

Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe said in an interview with the Justice, “I think that we pride ourselves as a campus that is open and welcoming to LGBTQ students, and I think having the minor is not the main thing that matters in that regard, but it’s one aspect of showing that this is a campus that is open to all kinds of students.”

Tommy Arnott ’11, a member of Triskelion, an LGBTQ community group on campus and one of the students who has been involved in the efforts to create the minor, said that he is very excited about the progress of the minor and believes that it will be an effective way to “increase visibility of sexuality and queer studies on campus.”

An initial version of the proposal was brought to the UCC in February 2004 but did not pass due to a lack of courses in the social sciences and an “inability to guarantee faculty resources from across the curriculum to teach in the program,” King wrote in a follow-up e-mail to the Justice.

King said in an interview that most of the courses in the new program have always been available across various departments, but that as a result of the “downsizing of the University, it has been difficult to staff the curriculum within the departments and programs that we already have.”

Since 2004, additional faculty members, some of whom teach in the social sciences, have joined the effort in support of the minor, which has “really allowed the program to take off,” King said. Two such professors, Sarah Lamb and Ellen Schattschneider (ANTH) will be teaching a new course next spring called Queer Anthropology, according to King.

Usman Hameedi ’12, a student representative on the UCC, was very impressed by the proposal. “This was a reflection of the [professors] listening to the students and wanting to give them actual foundations to their activism, and that was beautiful,” he said in an interview with the Justice.

King said, “In my own teaching, I value enormously the intersection between theory and practice, so what I’m most excited about with this curriculum is [that] it actually is responding to practice and changes that are coming from the students as well as from the world outside of Brandeis.”

Prof. Bernadette Brooten (NEJS), who, like King, is a member of the UCC and WGS faculty as well as the program faculty for the new minor, said in an interview with the Justice that what she is “excited about is how studying sexual orientation and gender expression and gender fluidity helps us to understand sexuality as a whole and gender as a whole.”

Brooten believes that the minor “is an important opportunity to look at important institutions like marriage and sexuality within society and family, and think, ‘Why are they this way, and could they be another way?’”

King and Brooten emphasized that the administration has been very supportive of the minor.

Senior Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong, who has been involved with the minor since 2003, said in an interview with the Justice, “This is one of the things I really wanted to have happen at Brandeis because … we actually have faculty who are intellectual leaders in the United States, … and [the minor will be] in touch with Brandeis’ cutting edge intellectual leadership in this field.”

Jaffe said that the reception of the minor has been positive. “I think the faculty working on the proposal have been working on it for some time and they did a good job. They showed that … there was significant student interest in it, so I think people in general thought it was a good proposal.”

By Sara Dejene JUSTICE editor

The faculty voted to send a proposal to raise the standards of Latin honors back to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee for revision during the April 14 faculty meeting, according to Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe in an interview with the Justice. The vote to send the proposal back to the committee followed discussions in which concerns about increased competition among students were expressed as well as a proposal to hold a discussion about grading methods and grade inflation.

Jaffe said that during the meeting, the discussion partially revolved around the method of raising the standards.

The proposal originally stated that the top 30 percent of the graduating class would receive Latin honors, according to a March 22 Justice article.

During the faculty meeting, Andy Hogan ’11 and Jenna Rubin ’11, who opposed the method of using a cut-off percentage, said that awarding honors based on percentages would foster competition among students. A higher cutoff GPA of 3.7 was suggested in place of a percentage, but was not passed in a vote.

Currently, students must earn a 3.5 GPA to be awarded Latin honors, and graduate cum laude, according to the March 22 Justice article. Students with a 3.7 GPA graduate magna cum laude, and students who achieve a 3.8 GPA and departmental honors graduate summa cum laude.

Hogan, who voiced his concerns about the proposal during the faculty meeting, said in an interview with the Justice that although he agrees the standards of distributing Latin honors should change, a cutoff percentage is not the correct method.

Hogan said that the percentage method would “pit students against each other,” which he said is “not the reason students come to Brandeis.”

According to Jaffe, having a percentage cutoff would not lead to competition among students.“You would have no [way] of knowing [that] some-

one who was taking one of your classes was the person who would be just above you [in the ranking]” said Jaffe.

In an interview with the Justice, Dean of Academic Services Kim Godsoe also said that she did not see a change in the Latin honors system increasing competition among students. “We’re so steeped in the values of community [and] helping each other, that to me, Latin honors don’t, in any form, encourage competition between students,” said Godsoe.

Another point of discussion, according to Jaffe, was an underlying issue of grade inflation. Jaffe said that because many professors distribute high grades to students, it is difficult to distinguish students who have performed well compared to their classmates. Additionally, Jaffe said that there is grade inflation in some departments, so students who major in sciences, or other subjects, where distributed grades tend to be lower, are at a disadvantage.

Prof. Ray Knight (PSYC) said at the meeting that professors need to reevaluate the way that they distribute grades to students.

Hogan also said that grade distribution and grade inflation are issues that need to be examined. He added that students should be a part of the discussion in moving forward. “It’s always good to have discussions about what our practices are. ... I think those kind of discussions are just healthy for an institution to have,” Godsoe agreed.

Jaffe said that the proposal to raise Latin honors standards will be looked at; however, he also said that faculty at the meeting concurred that a discussion about grade inflation needs to take place before discussing the proposal. Jaffe said that the proposal would most likely be reviewed in the fall or later during the next academic year, after a discussion has taken place.

According to Jaffe, the Faculty Senate Council, which represents the Senate in discussions with the University president and Academic deans according to Professor and Chair of the Faculty Senate Timothy Hickey (COSI) in an e-mail to the Justice, will speak with the Faculty Senate about organizing a discussion, but a date for a meeting has not been scheduled yet.

awards

Faculty members recognized for mentoring contributions ■ Six faculty members, who

were nominated by students, were offered awards.

By erica cooperbErg JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe presented the Michael L. Walzer ’56 Award for Teaching, the Louis Dembitz Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching and the Lerman-Neubauer ’69 and Joseph Neubauer Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring at the April 12 faculty meeting. The awards were given to Profs. Tory Fair (FA), Eileen McNamara (AMST) and Richard Gaskins (LGLS), respectively.

The award recipients were “nominated by students, and then committees of students, faculty and staff review[ed] the nominations and made recommendations to me,” Jaffe wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. Based on these recommendations, Jaffe continued, he then selected the specific winners.

The Michael L. Walzer ’56 Award for Teaching is “given every year to a tenure-track faculty member who combines superlative scholarship with inspired teaching,” Jaffe said at the award presentation. Fair, who joined the Brandeis faculty in 1997, was the 29th recipient of the award. She has served on the Provost’s Advisory Committee for the Creative Arts, among others, and is also an adviser to firstyear and post-baccalaureate students.

Jaffe provided the Justice with a compilation of student nominations for the professors who received awards.

Students who nominated Fair wrote, “Not only has Professor Fair guided

JOSHUA LINTON/the Justice

DESERVING REWARD: Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe congratulates Prof. Michael Willrich (HIST) on his award. my project ideas but she is the best at getting creativity out of students,” and “She brought her passion about art and sculpting into the class and ignited interest in the subject that some students may not have known they had.”

In an e-mail to the Justice, Fair wrote that she is “very fortunate to be recognized as a part of a team … of very talented colleagues.” She added that she believes teaching is “an adventure [where] … the students make my job easy and incredibly rewarding.”

Jaffe explained during the presentation that the Lerman-Neubauer Prize

“requires its recipient to be not just an exceptional teacher, but also one who has had a significant impact on students’ lives as a mentor, adviser, and friend.” Gaskins is currently the director of the Legal Studies Program and a member of committees that oversee the Environmental Studies, History of Ideas and Business programs.

One student who nominated Gaskins focused on his role as a teacher and wrote, “You know you will emerge from the class not only a more adept writer but a better thinker.” Another student discussed his role as a mentor,

writing, “I can honestly say that no professor has shaped the course of my future development more than Professor Gaskins.”

In an interview the Justice, Gaskins said that he enjoys “teaching law … [to] students about everyday problems that can be analyzed from a liberal arts point of view.”

McNamara is the 25th recipient of the Louis Dembitz Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching. One student who nominated her for the prize wrote that “What separates Professor McNamara from the rest of the faculty is

that she forces you to learn the lessons of great writing and journalism ethics through your own experiences. … She will continue providing constructive criticism until you really understand the point behind her advice.”

In addition to these awards, Prof.

Michael Willrich (HIST) was given the Dean’s Mentoring Award for Outstanding Mentoring of Students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

His expertise lies in United States social and political history, and he is currently researching the ways that ordinary Americans apply the law to the social intervention of college government.

One student who nominated Willrich wrote that he “was my fiercest critic and my greatest champion. ” Faculty from both the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and the International Business School, Profs. Susan Holcombe and Susan Parish (Heller) and Profs. Brenda Anderson and Michael McKay (IBS), were also recognized for their impacts in teaching and mentoring.

Dean of IBS Bruce Magid wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that the IBS faculty who received awards “help to create a unique environment at the school which is innovative, intimate and inspirational.” He wrote that Anderson is a “great motivator [who is] completely devoted to her students,” and praised McKay’s “ability to make complex theories clear and interesting.” Prof. Charles Brooks (Rabb) was also recognized for his classroom efforts and was given the Award for Outstanding Teaching.

—-Andrew Wingens contributed reporting.

4

TUESDAY, May 03, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

administration

commencement

Search committee for David Brooks of director of LTS formed NYT to speak at ■ The next vice president

and vice provost for Libraries and Information Technology will replace Perry Hanson.

By fiona lockyer JUSTICE editor

Provost Marty Krauss announced the formation of a search committee for the next director of Library and Technology Services in an April 13 campuswide e-mail.

According to the Co-chair of the committee and Vice President for Planning and Institutional Research Dan Feldman, even though Krauss’ e-mail specified the position as being the director of Library and Technology Services, the open position is for vice president and vice provost for Libraries and Information Technology, the same position Perry Hanson currently holds.

The formation of this committee follows Hanson’s announcement of his retirement last fall, according to a Feb. 15 e-mail to the Justice.

In a Feb. 10 campuswide e-mail, University President Frederick Lawrence announced that the Library and Technology Services Advisory Committee submitted recommendations to himself, Krauss and Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins, in which they suggested that the next LTS leader should report to the provost and a national search should be conducted for the next LTS lead-

er, both of which were suggestions accepted by the president.

In a Feb. 14 interview with the Justice, Hanson said that he would not be involved in the selection of his successor.

In addition to Feldman, the committee consists of Co-chair of the committee Prof. Ann Koloski-Ostrow (CLAS), Prof. Eric Chasalow (MUS), Director of Development Planning and Operations Michael Gilbreath, Associate Vice President of Communications Bill Burger, Prof. George Hall (ECON), University Registrar Mark Hewitt, Chair of the Faculty Senate Prof. Tim Hickey (COSI), Senior Research and Technology Specialist in the Division of Science Steve Karel, Senior Scientist and Lecturer of the Heller School and Deputy Director of the Institute for Behavioral Health Sharon Reif, Director for Networks and Systems of LTS John Turner, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and the Rabb School Michaele Whelan, Associate Director for E-Research of LTS Lois Widmer, Assistant Vice President of the Office of Budget and Financial Planning David Woodward, Jodie Lynn Austin-Cypert (GRAD) and Sahar Massachi ’11.

Krauss’ e-mail also stated that the search firm Issacson, Miller would assist the search committee.

According to an e-mail from Feldman, Issacson, Miller “assisted Brandeis in the successful searches that brought to Brandeis Dean Lisa Lynch of The Heller School [for So-

cial Policy and Management] and Fran Drolette, the University’s Senior Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer. He wrote that Krauss, Collins and the President’s Chief of Staff David Bunis were responsible for selecting Issacson, Miller.

In an e-mail to the Justice, Feldman wrote that the committee will be identifying criteria as it proceeds with the search.

In an interview with the Justice, Feldman said that he and KoloskiOstrow will be having their first meeting later this week with Vivian Brocard of Issacson, Miller.

“We’re going to be developing the time line very shortly,” Feldman said. “We’re really at the starting point for this.”

“We want to make sure we get somebody who we feel confident is going to be a superb leader of Library and Technology Services for Brandeis,” he said.

While one undergraduate and one graduate student will serve on the committee, no students currently involved in campus jobs under the LTS umbrella, including Media Technology Services and the Getz Media Lab, will be included.

Concerning the makeup of the committee members, Feldman said, “We need to make sure that the members of the committee are bringing to the table the full range of needs and viewpoints that ought to be at the table. … LTS affects just about everything we do at the University.”

CONTROVERSIAL CLAIMS

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

HIS STORY: Wakefield retold his investigation linking vaccinations to autism and voiced his concerns about vaccinating children.

Wakefield speaks on vaccinations ■ Wakefield was stripped

of his medical license after being accused of committing fraud in a medical journal.

By marielle temkin JUSTICE editor

Andrew Wakefield, the man at the center of the vaccine/autism debate, spoke about his side of the issue at the Rapaporte Treasure Hall on Wednesday, April 13 at an event sponsored by the Age of Autism, the daily Web newsletter that deals with autism-related issues.

Wakefield was stripped of his medical license after allegations that he committed fraud in a report he wrote that was published in and later retracted from The Lancet, a medical journal in England.

The charges stemmed from an in-

vestigation conducted by journalist Brian Deer, who claimed that Wakefield “manually altered test results from his study.”

Wakefield explained that the reason Deer thinks this alteration of results exists is because he and Deer used different records in their respective investigations.

According to Wakefield, Professor [John] Walker-Smith and his team at the Royal Free Hospital conducted weekly reviews of the hospital’s bowel biopsies with a routine pathologist.

Although that pathologist did not see anything worth noting, Dr. Amar Dhillon, the senior intestinal pathologist who was referred to the cases by Walker-Smith, found “severe” inflammation.

Wakefield insisted that he did not commit fraud and said that the ordeal “demonstrates that the process of diligence at a tertiary center is highly vulnerable to this kind of allegation

because what [Deer] did was to take the reports of the routine pathologist and say they are different from what is reported in the Lancet and [call it] fraud.”

He also spoke about his concerns for the safety of the vaccine schedule, saying that some vaccinations should not be given at the same time because certain viruses could interfere with each other. Toward the end of his lecture, Wakefield stressed the importance of engaging in a serious dialogue about how to solve this problem. “Dialogue on a high level would help,” he said.

In an interview with the Justice, Jake Crosby ’11, an intern with the Age of Autism who was in charge of the event, said that he wanted to bring Wakefield to Brandeis because he felt that Wakefield rarely has a chance to tell his side of the story. “[The link between vaccine and autism] is a very pressing issue and one that people need to talk about openly,” he said.

commencement ■ Cellist Yo-Yo Ma will

perform and be awarded an honorary degree, along with Brooks and others.

By andrew wingens JUSTICE editorial assistant

David Brooks, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, will be the keynote speaker at Brandeis’ 60th commencement ceremony Sunday, May 22, according to a campuswide e-mail from University President Frederick Lawrence.

Honorary degrees will be awarded to Grammy Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Thomas Buergenthal, former member of the International Court of Justice; federal judge Nancy Gertner; Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris; and University President Emeritus Jehuda Reinharz in addition to Brooks.

In an April 15 interview with the Justice, Senior Vice President for Communications and External Affairs Andrew Gully said that Ma will perform at the ceremony.

Brooks began as a columnist at The New York Times in 2003 and has been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard and a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly, according to The New York Times.

In an interview with the Justice, Lawrence said, “I think [Brooks] is an extraordinary, thoughtful public intellectual.

Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes I don’t, but I always find him interesting and thoughtprovoking.”

Gully wrote in an e-mail to the Justice: “Any members of the university community can nominate a candidate for honorary degrees.

A committee of faculty, trustees and staff review all nominations and submits a narrowed list to the Board of Trustees for review and approval.”

According to Gully, the president selects the commencement speaker from that narrowed list.

Brooks is also currently a commentator on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NPR’s All Things Considered and The Diane Rehm Show.

Brooks has authored several books, of which the most recent, The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, was published in March.

Ma is “strongly committed to educational programs that bring young audiences into contact with music and go beyond that by allowing them to participate in its creation,” according to BrandeisNOW. According to The New York Times, Ma is “one of the preeminent classical musicians in the world” and has made more than 75 albums and won 15 Grammy Awards.

Following the announcement regarding the commencement honorees, Andy Hogan ‘11 created a Facebook event titled “Let’s Ask Yo-Yo Ma to Play at Graduation.”

Last year, musician and honorary degree recipient Paul Simon played at commencement after a similar student-led effort.

According to Gully, University officials had already discussed the possibility of a performance with Ma before the Facebook group was formed.

However, Gully said that Ma “would be glad” that students were looking forward to his performance.

Buergenthal “is considered one of the world’s leading international human rights experts,” according to BrandeisNOW. He survived the Holocaust and authored or co-authored over a dozen books, according to the George Washington University Law School website.

He served on the International Court of Justice in The Hague from 2000 to 2010.

Buergenthal served as Dean of Washington College of Law at American University and held endowed professorships at the University of Texas and Emory University.

There, he was also the director of the Human Rights Program of the Carter Center, according to the GWU website.

Gertner, a federal judge since 1994, will retire from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in September.

He will then become a professor at Harvard Law School, according to BrandeisNOW. She has previously taught at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, Boston College Law School and the Boston University Law School.

Morris “is widely recognized as one of the world’s best and most innovative filmmakers,” according to BrandeisNOW. He won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for The Fog of War. The film is a profile of former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara.

Morris has screened his films at the University in years past; last semester, he spoke and held a preview screening for his documentary, Tabloid.

Reinharz was the seventh president of the University and is a scholar in the field of Jewish history.

He received his Ph.D. in modern Jewish history from Brandeis in 1972 and established the program in Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.

Reinharz served on the Brandeis faculty from 1982 until he became the provost in 1991.

He was named president of the University in 1994 and served in that capacity until Lawrence succeeded him on Jan. 1, 2011.

According to BrandeisNOW, “Reinharz has awarded more honorary Brandeis degrees to other people than anyone in University history save founding President Abram L. Sachar.”

—Sara Dejene and Emily Kraus contributed reporting.

Want to know more about the rest of the events that happened the week of April 19? Read about them online!

Visit thejustice.org for more information.

THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, may 3, 2011

5

STUDENT UNION SPRING ELECTIONS

Student body elects Second round of elections begin Rosen next President ■ Seats open for election

■ Herbie Rosen ’12 was

elected Union president and Gloria Park ’13 was elected vice president.

By FIONA LOCKYER JUSTICE EDITOR

Student Union Secretary Herbie Rosen ’12 was elected to serve as the Student Union president for the 2011 to 2012 academic year after running against Student Union Treasurer Akash Vadalia ’12 and Amber Kornreich ’12. Rosen won with 958 votes, while Vadalia had 345 and Kornreich had 180, according to an e-mail to the Justice from former Student Union Vice President Shirel Guez ’12.

In an interview with the Justice, Rosen said “[Vadalia and Kornreich] ran great campaigns and ... their effort should definitely be recognized and they had some great ideas. I am hoping that I can find a happy medium to satisfy the groups that did vote for them and not me.”

“I have so much confidence in Herbie,” said former Student Union President Daniel Acheampong ’11 in an interview with the Justice. “It is exciting to have so many students participate; ... the turnout of the student body was incredible.”

Gloria Park ’13 was elected as the next Union vice president after winning with 483 votes. Senator for North Quad Shekeyla Caldwell ’14

was the runner-up with 414 votes, followed by Union Director of Communications Andrea Ortega ’13 with 236.

“I’m very happy. I feel very privileged to serve as next year’s vice president. It’s unreal,” Park said in an interview with the Justice. She explained that she plans to have one-on-one meetings with the current senators to get to know them better for next year.

Todd Kirkland ’13 was elected as Student Union secretary with 473 votes, defeating Elizabeth Fields ’13, who received 455 votes.

Dan Lee ’12 won the election for Union treasurer with 572 votes over Finance Board Member Sidak Pannu ’12, who had 435 votes.

Senator-at-Large Beneva Davies ’13 defeated Eleazar Jacobs ’13 for the junior representative to the Board of Trustees position, gaining 516 votes over Jacobs’ 385.

This was the second Union election in which candidates were elected through instant runoff voting. Under this system, students rank candidates in order of preference, and if no candidate wins a majority of votes after the first count, students whose first-choice candidate received the fewest votes have their second-place choice counted instead. Voting counts continue in this fashion until a majority winner is obtained. According to Article IX, Section 6 of the Student Union constitution, if “abstain” receives the greatest number of votes during a final election,

then there will be a vacancy in the office until the next election.

This was the case for the Finance Board positions. Jacob Agi ’12, Gabriel Weingrod-Nemzow ’12 and Donghae Choi ’12 were all elected to the F-Board, while one position on the board remains unfilled. Additionally, the junior representative to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee position and the junior representative to the Alumni Association positions remain unfilled.

The remaining positions will be filled during the next round of elections as per the Union constitution, when students vote for the senators for the Class of 2012, senators for the Class of 2013, senators for the Class of 2014, senators-atlarge, racial minority senator and associate justices for the Student Judiciary.

According to Guez’s e-mail, 44.16 percent of undergraduates voted in the presidential election, 34.20 percent in the vice presidential election, 34.39 percent in the treasurer election, 33.02 in the junior representative to the board of trustees election, 22.23 percent in the junior representative to the UCC election, 23.15 percent in the junior representative to the alumni association election and 25.57 percent in the F-Board elections. 29.97 percent of students voted in the racial minority F-Board position election.

—Brian Fromm and Andrew Wingens contributed reporting.

JANEY ZITOMER/the Justice

CHANGING OF THE GUARD: Daniel Acheampong ’11 swore in Herbie Rosen ’12 as Student Union president on Sunday.

include Student Judiciary members and senators.

By BRIAN FROMM JUSTICE EDITOR

The second round of Student Union elections, in which students vote for class senators and members of the Student Judiciary, among other positions, is currently under way and will last through midnight tonight.

In this round of elections, which opened last night at midnight, students are casting their ballots for SJ members, the representatives to the Brandeis Sustainability Fund Board, senators-at-large, the racial minority senator and senators for the classes of 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Also up for election are the junior representative to the Alumni Association, junior representative to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, one seat on the Finance Board and the racial minority F-Board seat. These seats were not filled during the first round of elections because no candidate received more votes than the number of student abstentions.

The candidates for SJ are Jesse Koklas ’14, former Union Vice President Shirel Guez ’12, John Fonte ’12, Kate Townley ’13 and Omoefe Ogbeide ’12. Neither of the current nongraduating SJ members is running for re-election.

Koklas said in an interview with the Justice that she would like the SJ to hold regular meetings and that she wants to make the SJ a more recognized part of the community. “I want to treat cases seriously,” she said. “I want to use legal principles, not politics, to make decisions.”

Guez said in an interview with the Justice that she is very interested in “looking at the reworking of the [Union] Constitution. … [It’s] something I’m passionate about, because I had worked in the Senate, and you have to know the constitution, and … the constitution has to be repaired.”

The other candidates did not respond to requests for comment.

The candidates for BSF Board representative are Abigail Kagan ’13 and Rohan Bhatia ’14. According to an email to the Justice from the elections commissioner, former Union Secretary and Union President Herbie Rosen ’12 wrote, “There are two positions [available on the BSF Board].

The inaugural election for this position was first semester. … [The Union] Constitution and its related supplements call for the election to be at the end of this semester.”

The candidates for senator-at-large are North Quad Senator Shekeyla Caldwell ’14 and Pill Hung Chun ’13.

Caldwell, who lost the first-round election for Union vice president, said in an interview with the Justice, “I know that not only do I want to continue being the senator of my constituents in North Quad, but I want to expand and be able to help a wider community, which is all of Brandeis’ campus.” She said she has worked to improve campus dining and intends to continue to do so.

Chun did not respond to requests for comment. The candidates for senator for the Class of 2012 are Kimberly Falana and former senator Missy Skolnik, who is studying abroad this semester. Skolnik, who has previously served as senator for both East

Quad and the Village, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that she wishes to remain active in the Union. “Earning the role of Senator for the Class of 2012 will allow me to represent the varying needs and desires of not only the rising senior class of 2012, but also the best interests of Brandeis’ future senior classes to come.”

The candidates for Senator for the Class of 2014 are Ricky Rosen, Massell Quad Senator Rosby Kome-Mensah, Brandon Frank and Jimena Vasquez.

Rosen said in an interview with the Justice, “There’s a lot that we all agree that can be improved, but I think that the problem is that everyone’s complacent about it, … and I think that what we need is a fresh set of expectations, … [and] a dynamic presence that’s willing to push some change through the Union.” He said he wishes to work to improve dining and library hours, improve communications between the students and Union and hold more class events.

Kome-Mensah said in an interview with the Justice that his experience on the Senate is one of his main strong points because it allows him to set realistic goals. He said, “I want to be able to continue doing what I’m doing right now, which is strong student advocacy and taking initiative on certain issues.”

Frank said in an interview with the Justice that his campaign has a focus on dining, hoping to improve the variety of nutritional and healthy options available in campus dining.

He also said he wants to have dishes’ nutritional information on display in dining halls.

Vasquez did not respond to requests for comment.

Running for the junior representative to the UCC are Suzanne Rothman ’13, who according to the first-round election results e-mailed to the Justice by Guez, came in first in the firstround election with 419 votes; Julie Yiu ’13; who came in second with 302; and James En Wai Chin ’14, who did not run in the first round. The firstround vote had 660 abstentions.

Running for the junior representative to the Alumni Association are Joshua Kaye ’13, who came in first in the first round with 407 votes; Nathan Koskella ’13, who came in second with 351; and Emily Kane ’13, who did not run in the first round. The first-round vote had 610 abstentions.

Running for the racial minority F-Board seat are current Senator for the Class of 2014 Dillon Harvey, who came in first in the first round with 175 votes; and Huiwen Ma ’13, who did not run in the first round. Gabriela Castellanos ’13, who came in second in the first round with 161 votes, is not running again. The first-round vote had 184 abstentions.

Running for the single vacant elected seat on the F-Board are Kim Bouchard-Chaimowiz ’13, Jenna Schlags ‘12, Isaac Rabbani ’14, David Kratzer ’13 and current F-Board member Sidak Pannu ’12. In the first round, Jacob Agi ’12, current F-Board member Gabriel Weingrod-Nemzow ’12 and Donghae Choi ’12 were all elected to the F-Board in the first round with 204, 170 and 168 votes, respectively. Kratzer came in fifth with 100 votes, and Schlags came in sixth with 65. Sunny Aidasani ’14, who came in fourth in the first round with 128 votes, is not running again.

No candidates are officially running for the racial minority senator or the two Class of 2013 senator seats.

STUDENT LIFE

Participation in the senior class gift reaches 35 percent ■ The Senior Class Gift

Committee organized events such as a bar night in order to raise funds for the gift.

By SARA DEJENE JUSTICE EDITOR

Thirty-five percent of the Class of 2011 has participated in the senior class gift fundraising so far, a record percentage for this time of year, according to Senior Class Gift Committee Co-chairs Aaron Louison ’11 and Jennifer Shapiro ’11.

The committee, which collects donations from seniors every year in

recognition of faculty members to be used for clubs, departments, scholarships and the annual fund, has raised about $7,000 so far this year, according to Louison.

“It’s not so much about the money as it is about the participation,” said Shapiro. The record for participation in fundraising is 68 percent from the Class of 2008. Louison and Shapiro said that they are aiming for 75 percent participation from the Class of 2011.

According to the committee’s website, the highest amount of money raised by the senior class since 1990 was $15,895.64 from the Class of 2007, with 64-percent participation. The Class of 2010 raised $12,238 with 56-per-

cent participation.

University President Frederick Lawrence said at an April 13 donor reception he would personally match the total amount of funds raised for the senior class gift, according to Shapiro and Louison. Lawrence and his wife, Kathy, hosted the reception for students who donated $20.11.

Shapiro and Louison said that Lawrence’s decision to match the senior gift was “so generous.”

“He’s been supportive 100 percent of the way,” said Shapiro.

Louison said that he and Shapiro met with Lawrence in the fall during his transition into his role as University President and that Lawrence was supportive of a “strong sense of com-

munity.”

Shapiro and Louison said that they organized several events to raise funds for the senior class gift, such as bar nights; “When We Were Seniors,” where then-President Jehuda Reinharz and President-elect Lawrence spoke about their experiences as college seniors; the “100 Days Until Graduation” party hosted at the Stein; and the B-Seniors week, which Shapiro said provided opportunities for seniors to “look back and look forward” and receive pins in recognition of their contribution to the class gift.

Louison spoke on the importance of the pins, saying “there’s no real recognition that students get on their gowns at graduation ... so this will be really

standing out and showing that alumni, students and parents are all giving back to the University.”

Seniors can continue to donate through the committee’s website, according to Louison. Shapiro said that the committee is distributing pledge cards at different activities and events.

Donations will be collected throughout Senior Sign Out and Senior Week, and historically most of the donations are received during this time, according to Louison.

“It’s been a really exciting year,” Louison said.

Louison added that he hopes this will set a new standard for senior gifts so that the Class of 2012 can aspire to give back even more.

6

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2011

●

THE JUSTICE

ACADEMICS

Faculty alters requirements for pass/fail ■ The pass/fail proposal

allows students to take University-required courses, such as the foreign language requirement, pass/fail.

By TYLER BELANGA JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Beginning in fall 2011, the minimum grade required for a student taking a class pass/fail to receive a “P” will be changed from a D- to a C-, according to Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe at the faculty meeting.

In addition to the proposal to change the minimum required grade, the faculty also approved a proposal to allow certain University required courses to be taken pass/fail.

Both proposals were voted on and approved for the required second time at the April 14 faculty meeting, according to Jaffe.

As reported in a March 15 Justice article, students will be allowed to take classes pass/fail that satisfy non-Western, quantitative reasoning, foreign language and school distribution requirements.

However, they cannot take classes satisfying oral communication and writing intensive requirements pass/fail.

According to Jaffe, this was part of a compromise between the students and the University to make changes that both parties wanted.

“It was a package deal: The students wanted to be able to use pass/fail for University requirements; faculty were concerned that someone could satisfy a University requirement by getting a D- in the course. The deal was, we will raise the minimum [pass/fail] grade and allow it to be used for University requirements,” said Jaffe.

Usman Hameedi ’12, junior representative to the Undergraduate

Curriculum Committee, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice, “The issue was that faculty were not comfortable with the D- passing because they felt that a D- does not reflect a legitimate understanding of the material and should not be considered a ‘pass.’”

On the other hand, Hameedi explained, students wanted an opportunity to use pass/fail more to explore new areas of knowledge without worrying about how it will affect one’s GPA. Thus, both proposals were passed, bumping the grade requirement up to a C- at the wishes of the faculty and allowing pass/fail to be used to satisfy University requirements as the students requested.

The number of classes a student can take pass/fail will not change.

The proposals brought to the UCC for changes to pass/fail originally came last year from then-Union Director of Academics Danielle Wolfson ’11 and then in a slightly revised version from other subcommittee members this fall, according to Hameedi.

Hameedi wrote that he is excited about what these policy changes will bring to the Brandeis community.

“The student/faculty compromise is fantastic for both parties.

Now students are able to delve into areas they normally won’t, and teachers don’t have to worry about students not respecting the course work and still providing satisfactory work,” wrote Hameedi.

Jaffe said that the success of the two changes to the pass/fail system, and whether they should remain modified in the proposed manner, will be evaluated a few years down the road.

“The UCC will look at who is taking classes pass/fail, what courses they are taking, and who is using them for requirements and then assess whether the new measures are appropriate,” said Jaffe.

FACULTY

IBS Prof Preeta Banerjee receives Fulbright award ■ The Fulbright Scholar

Program sends 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad every year.

By SHANI ABRAMOWITZ JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Assistant Professor of Strategy at the Brandeis International Business School Preeta Banerjee has received a Fulbright award to research the development of technology entrepreneurship in firms operating in Kolkata, India, according to BrandeisNOW. The award, co-sponsored by the Indian government, will allow Banerjee to lecture at the University of Calcutta’s Asutosh College during the spring 2012 semester. She will explore how entrepreneurs assemble resources in a scarce environment, particularly those lacking in adequate finances and other vital business resources, and the role that intellectual property rights play in facilitating entrepreneurial activity, as reported by BrandeisNOW. In an e-mail to the Justice, IBS Dean Bruce Magid wrote, “We are immensely proud Preeta Banerjee

received this award from the Fulbright Program. She has demonstrated outstanding passion for advancing understanding of entrepreneurship both inside and outside our classrooms.”

“We look forward to learning from her research in Kolkata,” Magid wrote.

In an interview with the Justice, Banerjee expressed what she hopes to accomplish through her research, “I definitely want to get my hands in understanding how people are running their businesses and what the different contexts of business are because India is an emerging market and Kolkata is just burgeoning, whereas Boston is a very developed market; and so the types of technologies and the way they’re developed, it will be very interesting for me to get my hands into that and see it firsthand.”

The Fulbright program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries” according to the Fulbright Program’s website.

“With this goal as a starting point, the Fulbright Program has provided almost 300,000 participants—chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential — with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns,” according to the website.

According to its website, The Core Fulbright Scholar Program, under which Banerjee’s research falls, sends 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad each year. Recipients lecture and conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.

According to BrandeisNOW, recipients of the Fulbright award are chosen on the basis of academic and professional achievement, as well as a demonstrated capability of leadership potential in their particular fields.

Banerjee’s curriculum will include programs directed at recommending the potential ways in which university programs can train students how to leverage available resources—from networks, to money, to people—to further implement productive business ideas, according to BrandeisNOW.

DISCUSSION OF POLITICS

inside the justice

Kraus elected to be Justice editor in chief

■ Former Copy Editor Emily

Kraus was elected to be the editor in chief of the Justice on April 12.

Following an election on April 12, Emily Kraus ’12 became the new editor in chief of the Justice. The staff of the Justice voted with a majority of the votes in favor of electing Kraus with one vote for another candidate and one abstention. The editorial board confirmed Kraus unanimously.

“I have loved my time at the Justice for the past few years,” she said, noting that she joined the Justice soon after arriving at Brandeis as a first-year.

Kraus explained that even though she has worked primarily with the Copy section for 3 years, first as a member of the Copy staff, then as editor of the Copy section, she has also “enjoyed reporting and getting to know all of the different facets of Brandeis.”

Kraus has also been active writing News articles and has contributed to the Forum section. She began her career at the Justice working on the Photography staff. Kraus said that she enjoyed all of her roles on the paper but was particularly fond

of her time on the Copy staff under the leadership of then-Copy editor Hannah Kirsch ’10. Kraus then rose through the ranks of the Justice, becoming assistant Copy editor in SeptemKraus ber 2009 and then Copy editor in February 2010.

“I’ve been on the Justice for a long time, and I’ve gotten to see all of the different sections of the paper and how everything all works together, and I think my experience has prepared me really well for moving forward next year,” she said.

Kraus said she plans to expand readership by increasing subscriptions as well as improving the Justice’s website.

Senior Editor and former Editor in Chief Brian Fromm ’11 said, “I’ve been working with [Kraus] for 2 years. She was my assistant Copy editor when I was Copy editor, so I’ve had the opportunity to train her for two positions.”

“She rose to the position and stepped up,” Fromm said. “Due to Emily’s experience and enthusiasm, the Justice will have a very successful year under her leadership.”

MAYA SHEMTOV/the Justice

Speaking out on BDS Palestinian commentator and human rights activist Omar Barghouti spoke at Brandeis in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement in Israel at an event cohosted by the Jewish Voice for Peace and Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine.

THE JUSTICE

UNION: Acheampong discusses financial aid in Union address CONTINUED FROM 1

tatives will participate in the search committees for these two positions, said Acheampong.

He announced that, next fall, the Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees will have a seat on the Governance Committee, which screens potential nominees for the Board. Adam Hughes ’12 will hold the position next fall.

“The student body is the backbone and the foundation of this University, and students should be equal partners in generating ideas, providing feedback and in making decisions,” Acheampong said.

Concerning the University’s new financial aid policy, Acheampong announced that Brandeis will continue to “admit students on a needblind basis until all available financial aid funds are exhausted,” after which it will admit students on a need-sensitive basis as necessary.

The University adopted this admissions policy in September 2010 based on the recommendation of Undergraduate Admissions and the Financial Aid Committee. Previously, all prospective students were admitted without regard to their financial situation. Under the new policy, once the funds allotted

to need-blind admittance have been used, the financial need of remaining applicants may be taken into consideration, according to a Sept. 7 article in the Justice. Students of the Class of 2015 are therefore the first to be affected by this change.

All students in the Class of 2015 were accepted on a need-blind basis, Acheampong said. While a positive development, “this financial aid system is far from ideal, and we must be prepared and ready to make changes when we are financially capable,” he continued.

Acheampong also said that the Student Union’s Social Life Committee will present recommendations to the administration about improving social life on campus. The committee, he explained, is comprised of student leaders and staff members and was formed to generate ideas and consolidate resources to improve parties and events on campus.

Addressing clubs’ accomplishments over the year, Acheampong acknowledged fundraising and volunteer efforts, including Colleges Against Cancer’s Relay for Life, which raised over $66,000 for cancer research; the Waltham Group, which logged approximately 28,000 hours of service from roughly 600 volunteers; and the International

Women’s Day dinner hosted by Positive Foundations and the Girl Effect, which raised over $400 for a women’s and children’s refugee camp and hospital in Somalia.

He also cited athletic successes such as the men’s basketball team’s Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III New England title and the Men’s Volleyball Club’s thirdplace ranking in the Division I Regionals.

Acheampong then recognized the Student Union’s accomplishments, touching upon the new Provisions on Demand Market in the Village, the reopening of the Linsey Pool in early 2012, the altered pass/fail system and the expanded Take Your Professor to Lunch Program.

Acheampong also addressed challenges that the University faced this year, including the Westboro Baptist Church’s protest in December and the death of Kat Sommers ’14 in February.

“Our walk through this semester was not exactly on paved streets,” he said, but the University’s responses illustrate that the school is based in “the fundamental belief and truth that ‘I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper,’” he continued.

Student Union President Herbie Rosen ’12 then spoke about his plans

for next year, stating that he intends to continue “strengthening the connection between the Union and the campus.” He hopes to implement a Department of Community Living liaison for students living off-campus, to work toward renovations of residence halls, to instate more student representatives on administrative committees, and to have students more involved in decisions about dining services, Rosen said.

Rosen encouraged students to vote in the second round of Student Union elections today. Forty-four percent of students voted in the first round of elections held on April 14, he said, and Rosen hopes that at least 75 percent of the student body will vote in this election.

Jonathan Lopez ’11 said in an interview with the Justice that he felt the event “was a great overview of the successes and all the accomplishments that the Student Union has made to better … student life on campus and to advocate for our voice.”

Former Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 said in an interview with the Justice that he believed the event went “beautifully.”

“I’m very proud of what Daniel has done and the promise that Herbie shows,” he said.

CAMPUS SPEAKER

Justice League hosts several alumni activists ■ The Justice League brought alumni speakers to discuss social activism and meet with current students.

By SARA DEJENE JUSTICE EDITOR

The Justice League held three events from April 28 to April 30 hosting Brandeis alumni Andrew Slack ’02, Aaron Voldman ’09, Sam Vaghar ’08, Joshua Kahn Russell ’06 and Jay Mandel ’80, all of whom spoke about activism and met with and greeted current students.

According to its website, the Justice League is a campus group of activist students “standing up for our rights, standing up for Social Justice, standing up for the Brandeis that inspires us.”

Thursday night, the Justice League brought Slack who is the creator, cofounder, and executive director of the Harry Potter Alliance, a nonprofit organization, that according to its website, advocates human rights and equality. According to Justice League members and event coordinators Jenny Lau ’14 and Liz Soolkin ’14, Slack spoke in the Castle Commons about his organization, his time at Brandeis and about the Justice League itself.

According to Soolkin, about 15 people attended Thursday’s event, many of whom, said Lau, were first-years.

“It was a very intimate event,” said Soolkin. Lau said that Slack also connected with students who were interested in internships with HPA. According to Soolkin and Lau, Friday’s event featured Executive Director of the Student Peace Alliance Aaron Voldman ’09 and Managing Director of the Millennium Campus

JANEY ZITOMER/the Justice

ACTIVE JUSTICE: Alumnus Jay Mandel ’8O (right) shakes hands with Father Walter Cuenin in the Peace Circle on Saturday.

Network Sam Vaghar ’08, who spoke on their experiences and their current work. According to Soolkin and Lau, fewer people attended Friday’s event, but Soolkin said that “it was definitely not quiet.”

On Saturday, Russell, who according to Soolkin is very involved in climate issues, and Mandel, who is involved in the Peace Circle and the Peace Room according to Sahar Massachi ’11 of the Justice League, spoke

on their experiences at Brandeis and their current work. According to Soolkin and Lau, about 15 people attended that event as well.

“It was really interesting to see the difference in their Brandeis experiences,” said Soolkin. Lau said it was great to see activists of different generations speak together.

Soolkin also said that all the events were very inspirational and that it was great to see alumni interacting

with students and each other.

“It taught me how to become a better activist,” said Lau. Soolkin and Lau said that Massachi had told them about the alumni and had already been in contact with them, and contacted one alumnus but later decided to expand the event into a weekend of events. According to Soolkin and Lau, the alumni all wanted to return to the University to speak with current students.

PARKING: Public Safety allows for fewer permits CONTINUED FROM 1

versity, it must be assessed relative to other University goals, said Collins.

When asked about plans to increase University transportation to compensate for the elimination of parking spaces, Collins said, “We are looking at options to see what we can do. ... We’re flexible in terms of looking at [transportation] options, but we need to assess what its gonna cost to do, what’s the wish list. I can’t make a lot of commitments on that end until I get a sense of the need.” He added, “I understand

why everyone would want a car here, [and] I’m stuck with the reality of the number of spots to be able to provide juniors and seniors with parking.”

Senator for the Class of 2014 Mitchell Schwartz said in an interview with the Justice that, although he was not planning to bring a car to campus next semester, he knows that “a lot of sophomores will be upset about this.”

He noted that this might cause “a huge issue next year with sophomore parking” because sophomores “are still going to find a way to bring a car

up to campus because it was something they were expecting to have.”

This will cause traditional off-campus parking spots such as Old South Street and Nipper Maher Park to fill up, said Schwartz. These spaces are unaffiliated with the University.

Collins noted that students parking on the streets of Waltham “could turn into a very ugly and very expensive proposition.”

“I am personally worried to see what will happen in terms of sophomores who are going to bring their cars re-

gardless of the fact that they cannot have a permit to keep it on campus,” he said. Schwartz added, however, that he understands the reasoning behind the decision.

“The issue is that when I am going to be a junior and senior, I would like to know that there will be a parking spot on campus that I wouldn’t be competing with sophomores [for] as well. I feel like it is just a fairness of seniority.”

-—Robyn Spector contributed reporting.

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TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2011

7

ADMIT: Students admitted rise for third year CONTINUED FROM 1 coming class last year, but certainly the additional students would add to the fabric of Brandeis.”

“Application numbers increased this past year and it’s a positive sign for Brandeis' but one in which we know is tempered by the fact that online applications and common applications make it easier for students to apply to multiple schools,” said McFarlane.

McFarlane attributed the 3.16-percent increase in the acceptance rate between the Classes of 2014 and 2015 to “a conscious decision to accept more students this year in order to yield a class size that we are hoping to yield, which is slightly more than we enrolled last year.”

“An increase in the acceptance rate from this year to next year is not out of line with the historic acceptance rate at Brandeis,” he added. McFarlane noted that the acceptance rate is typically in the high 30-percent or 40-percent range.

According to recommendations from the Curricular and Academic Restructuring Steering in 2009, the University planned to increase the class size of each class, starting with the Class of 2013, by 100 students. The University followed these guidelines for the Class of 2013, when it enrolled 781 students.

The number of matriculated students for the Class of 2014, however, did not meet the CARS standards.

According to McFarlane, 735 students matriculated in the Class of 2014.

In 2014, “we did not get the number of students to matriculate that we hoped for,” said McFarlane. Reasons for the low matriculation rate included a “competitive environment” as well as economic issues, described McFarlane.

In fact, for the Class of 2014, McFarlane said, a larger number of students were admitted off the waitlist than had been in previous years.

“Our competitiveness as [it] relates to other institutions relative to financial aid is a factor as well,” said McFarlane.

The University adopted a new financial aid policy in September 2010. Based on the recommendation of the Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Committee, the new policy would continue to admit students on a need-blind basis and fully meet that need until all available funds are exhausted and then continue to admit students, if necessary, on a need-sensitive basis.

“We hope that the new financial aid policy has a positive effect on the matriculation rate. Certainly if you are saying to a student ‘We will meet your full need,’ we think that that’s a way to let them know that we want them here,” said McFarlane.

McFarlane added that the new financial aid policy did impact admissions decisions.

“We certainly factored in an increase in the yield on the students we accepted but we will have to wait and see whether those assumptions hold true,” he said.

According to McFarlane, admissions standards were not affected by this change. Adams added, “I believe that the University will do its best to make sure that we are as prepared as possible to meet the needs and necessities required to successfully and warmly extend our Brandeis family.”

Dean of Admissions Mark Spencer referred all questions to McFarlane.

8

features

TUESDAY, may 3, 2011

just

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THE JUSTICE

VERBATIM | HELEN GURLEY BROWN The only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren’t is the willingness to work very, very hard.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1921, The Fantasticks opened, eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time.

The world’s longest game of Monopoly lasted more than 660 hours.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HARRISON GOLDSPIEL

PASSIONATE PROTEST: Students gather in the Washington Convention Center before rallying in the streets.

Environmentalists

empowered in

Washington, DC Brandeis students fight against climate change at Power Shift

By TALI SMOOKLER justice editor

Many were happily heading home, looking forward to break, prepping for the final few weeks of school. However, 16 Brandeis students were heading toward a very different experience before break at an event called Power Shift, at which they would learn, discuss and even—in some cases—get arrested.

Power Shift is a national conference that took place from April 15 to 18 organized by Energy Action Coalition, a nonprofit organization of youth-led environmental and social justice groups working together to build the movement to fight climate change.

Roughly 10,000 students from across the nation came together in Washington, D.C. to discuss and take action on climate change and other environmental issues. The conference included trainings, workshops and wellknown keynote speakers.

Four Brandeis students from the Justice League, a student organization devoted to social change and empowering student voices, attended along with 12 members from Students for Environmental Action.

“These past 2 years, I’ve really become more of an environmental activist, … and I thought [Power Shift] was perfect for me to learn more about climate change and to learn more about how to be involved,” said Harrison Goldspiel ’13, vice president of SEA and one of the students who attended the conference.

The opening night of the conference began with keynote speakers including former Vice President Al Gore and Green for All Co-founder Van Jones.

“Being able to hear Al Gore talk was amazing, … and the passion just rolling off of his tongue with every word, it was really an incredible experience,” said Kate Alexander ’12, executive director of the Justice League.

Other keynote speakers from the conference included Lisa Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator; Bill McKibben, leading climate activist; and Tim DeChristopher, a leading environmental activist who is currently facing up to 10 years in jail for taking non-violent action to protect land.

Dorian Williams ’13, regional coordinator for SEA and the co-campaign coordinator for Students for a Just and Stable Future, said it was particularly interesting to hear Jackson, who represented the government and spoke about its environmental efforts.

“The general impression I’m getting is [that the government is] trying, … but it’s not nearly enough. … There was a tone that we, the youth, have to really start pushing harder,” Williams said.

“We’re going to see huge shifts and real, real disasters,” Williams said about the future of the environment.

“Not only do we need to take a stand, but considering the ramifications it can have on our entire social system, we really need to set the stage for staying with our brothers and sisters in other countries and our own country and building a movement that is going to continue to have a positive effect on this country even as things get really tough,” she said.

Both Saturday and Sunday of the conference consisted of workshops, panels, trainings and breakout discussions. Dena Ayzikovich ’13, the Brandeis Power Shift coordinator, said the attendees discussed “issues such as agriculture, how to initiate goals on campus, women in the sustainability world [and] how social justice relates to the environment.”

Monday, the last day of the conference, was devoted to giving students time to put their training to use and to engage in direct action.

While some lobbied with representatives and congressmen, others took direct action at the Department of the Interior, where Williams was arrested.

Williams has become passionate about the issue of climate change during her time at Brandeis and has come to understand “simple information about how devastating [climate change is] going to be.”

She described how she learned that it takes just a 5-degree Celsius shift to start an ice age and that the Earth is already experiencing an almost 1-degree shift. “So the idea of us increasing something like that can be absolutely unimaginable. [This] might really quickly lead us to huge ramifications of food supply and water supply,” she said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CECE WATKINS

RALLY FOR CHANGE: David Ronn ’11 (right) supports a speaker outside BP’s lobbying headquarters in D.C. Williams participated in direct non-violent action, which led to her arrest. Participants chose to rally at the DOI since it is responsible for resource and fossil fuel management domestically. They just gave permits for the first tar sands project in the U.S. in Wyoming, which involves extracting tar sands from the ground and could harm the environment.

Therefore, 75 people rushed the doors of the DOI, filled the lobby with singing and chanting, while a crowd of 500 others cheered for them outside the building.

The guards of the DOI called the police and warned the protestors repeatedly that they would face arrest. At each warning, more people trickled outside to join the cheering crowd. Eventually, 21 people remained—seven men and 14 women—ranging from students to adults, and including Williams.

“I didn’t realize I was going to do it until I did it,” Williams said. “There was a moment where I really decided to stay. ... A week before, I wouldn’t really have thought of getting arrested, … but I guess a lot of the events at Power Shift, a lot of the conversations I had during those couple days before the event, really impacted my decision.”

Williams commented that “it was a crazy moment [where] you’re deciding, ‘What are my personal values?’ … I’ve never really been that much of an activist, … but [with] the state of how things are, I think it needs to be done.

If I can’t stand up about this, who’s left?” she said. “[What] the youth really need to think about now is what our future is worth and what everyone else’s future is worth, … and that really drove me to say [that] I can afford to spend a couple hours in jail.”

The police arrived, and after arresting one person and giving the others a chance to reconsider, proceeded to arrest all 21 of the protesters. Williams was handcuffed and brought to a room to get patted down. She described how she even had a nice conversation with one police officers. “[One of the police officers] went to school in Berkeley in California, and he had a bunch of family who went there, and I think he was secretly very supportive. We were talking about

activism inadvertently, and it was a really cool moment.”

Williams was brought outside the back of the building, where the supporters were waiting. “They swarmed back there, … and they started cheering and were really supportive, and it was amazing,” Williams recalled.

The 21 protesters were put into trucks and brought to the prison, where they stayed for 7 hours. Williams said they were brought to one of the nicer jails and were the only people in their section. “We just had the place to ourselves and literally just sang the whole time and talked and shared stories.”

Williams will appear in court in Washington, D.C. on May 10 facing charges of a misdemeanor for unlawful entry. Rising Tides, climate activism organization, has assigned a lawyer to the case, to whom Williams plans on talking. Though she doesn’t know the worstcase scenario, she believes those who were arrested will most likely be fined.

“I consider myself a fairly reasonable person, fairly rational, and I think people in my life know that about me. And to see someone you know who is not terribly out there start doing things that are a little unconventional sets a different tone that that’s what’s necessary, and I hope it inspires other people to think about what their role is in the [environmental] movement,” Williams said.

“I’m hoping that [the] sit-in at the DOI will become a part of a series of youth—and not even just youth—everybody, standing up, and [I] hope the atmosphere starts changing,” she said.

From trainings to networking, workshops to arrests, the Brandeisians who attended Power Shift have all each take something out of attending.

“Everyone came out with some good ideas, more knowledge [about] how to organize people and important things to create that change,” Ayzikovich said.

“I think the best thing that it did was to empower the people who were there. … We’re the ones who have the time and energy to fight this battle. Our children [and] grandchildren will see the effects. But if we act now, we can sustain life on earth,” she said.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, may 3, 2011

9

WORLDVIEW: MOROCCO

Multiculturalism

in Morocco

OVERLOOKING MOROCCO: The city of Chefchaouen, situated in northwest Morocco, serves as a popular tourist destination where visitors can look out on the different local homes as well as the beautiful Rif mountains.

Students enjoy a unique Passover experience abroad in Rabat

By WAJIDA SYED SPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE

It was Monday, April 18, the time was 6:30 p.m., and the busy downtown of Rabat, Morocco was proving to be even more difficult to navigate than usual. As I sidestepped businessmen in suits, mothers with large shopping bags and a jarring number of cats, I wondered why the city always has an uncanny knack of being impossible to navigate on the most important of days. Hurdling over cars in a traffic jam that would put New York City to shame, I weaved through the swishy, colorful jellabas (traditional robes) on Avenue de la Resistance in order to arrive at Label Vie, the Moroccan equivalent of the Hannaford supermarket.

Once inside, I cornered the first worker I saw and asked in Darija, the Moroccan Arabic dialect, “Do you guys have matzo?”

“Ici,” he replied, pointing to an aisle of crackers and other cookies. To my disappointment, the rqeeqa, as matzo is called in Darija, was nowhere to be found, and to my further disappointment, it wasn’t available at the Acima supermarket either.

It was Passover. The matzo hunt was part of the mission to help Hila Landau ’12, who is also studying abroad in Morocco, prepare a Passover meal which we would attend. Assisting with the seder preparations were Nathaniel Chase, a fellow student in our program, and Olivia Batker-Pritzker ’12, a Paris study abroad student who had come to visit for the week.

Hila had wanted to make a seder as she usually did back in the United States, and we were all on a mission to make it happen. In our lastminute planning, we were unable to find or cook everything necessary for the meal.

It was nearly sunset and we had no candles, matzo, horseradish, charoset (a fruit-and-nut mixture) or main course—only an odd, orange soup slowly cooking on the stove that consisted of a scarce 5 percent of the vegetables needed for its recipe.

Olivia and I returned to Nate’s house with an unspoken sense of defeat because we were unable to find any of the items we were supposed to. This outcome was odd and unexpected, since all of the items we needed could usually be found in Rabat, but luck and timing were not on our side that day. We sat down for the meal on the rooftop, the table set with the weird soup; a Moroccan-style chicken; potato chips substituted for matzo; apricots for charoset; a watery grape juice for wine; spicy Moroccan mustard as horseradish; and a single, symbolic vanilla-scented candle.

And then, the adhan (call) for the last prayer of the day sounded over the old medina. As we looked out over the balcony at the beautiful, twinkling city, every minaret for miles around joined forces to harmonize a call to prayer unlike any other.

It was then, in the echoes of the adhan, in the light nighttime breeze, in the company of three

ON THE WATER: Tourists can take boats around the Merdja Zerga, a lagoon located in Moulay Bousselham.

MOROCCAN DANCE: Wajida Syed ’12 dances with her host brother, Mamoune Bennis, at a wedding in Fez. close friends, that Hila had a moment of epiphany. Having a Passover seder for which we had run around an entire foreign city, speaking a language we had little command of, attempting to cook without ingredients on a questionable

gas stove and ultimately having to resort to creative strategies is infinitely better than being able to buy everything at a grocery store.

This, she said, is what it’s all about.

There is a place in the human soul that we

enter when we are entirely soaked in the experience of the present. And at that moment, reeling from the whole-hearted effort to make a Jewish seder happen, I realized—as a Muslim—that this is what it’s all about.

I’ve had quite the experience in Morocco.

I went around a lagoon in a boat in the town Moulay Bousselham to watch flamingos. I sat for hours in the gorgeous al-Qarawiyyin mosque in Fez, a city that boasts the oldest university in the world. I trekked on a dromedary for 2 1/2 days in the endless dunes of the Sahara desert, where the nighttime sky revealed every single star in the sky.

I played in the snow near a lonely little restaurant in a random valley of the Middle Atlas mountains. I made mashed potatoes and steak in a 450-year-old house in the holiest city in Morocco, Moulay Idriss, right before going to the roof to watch the sun set over the Roman ruins of Volubilis.

After stuffing myself with delicious almond cookies and mint tea, I’ve danced with the bridesmaids at an incredible wedding in Fez. And I’ve certainly gotten my fair share of stomach infections, parasites and intestinal rebellions.

Experiences like these and the smaller moments within them have filled me with a strange sense of Understanding, with a capital U, that can’t be proved, explained or artificially contrived.

After scouring the entire roof for the afikoman, the little piece of matzo that is customarily hidden for children to find, we finally found it and were rewarded by Hila with little toy zoo animals. Sitting on that rooftop that night, playing with plastic rhinoceroses, we all had a moment of Understanding. We weren’t theologians, we weren’t historians and being juniors in college, we certainly weren’t experts on anything.

There were 1,001 incomplete ways to describe us, the attendees of a Jewish Passover seder on a rooftop in the old medina of Rabat, Morocco. A Protestant, a Muslim and two Jews. Three women and a man. Four Americans. An Israeli, two European medleys and an Indian.

Between us we spoke six languages: French, Spanish, English, Arabic, Hebrew and Malayalam.

But in reality, we were just four friends, four human beings who, for the night, had scraped off the insecurities of life, ignored our perfectionist proclivities and simply learned to appreciate a raw, authentic night that celebrated Understanding.

Our understanding didn’t come from knowledge; it came from a vulnerable, trying and ultimately beautiful experience. Sometimes we forget that: that to find is really to rediscover, that to learn is really to reflect on that which you already know. And to travel abroad is to return with an ounce more of the familiarity of the human experience.

♦ Photos courtesy of Wajida Syed

10

TUESDAY, May 3, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

Justice Justice

the the

Established 1949, Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Established 1949

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

Take caution with class size According to statistics obtained from Vice President for Students and Enrollment Keenyn McFarlane, the University’s acceptance rate rose to 38.58 percent for the incoming first-year class. The rise in the amount of students accepted was part of “a conscious decision to accept more students this year in order to yield a class size … slightly more than we enrolled last year.” The increased yield is expected because the University has committed to meeting all of the financial needs of its applicants.

The higher admissions rate for the Class of 2015 shows that the administration still intends to meet its goal of increasing every incoming class by 100 students, for a total of 400 students over 4 years. While this board understands the University still has a financial incentive to accept more students, we are nonetheless worried that our university is not equipped to handle the increased number of students. Moreover, this board is concerned that the character of the University as a small liberal arts institution is at risk of changing as a result of the greater enrollment.

In an interview with the Justice, Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams said that the increase in students will “affect everything … from class size in the classrooms to the availability of human resources to the line at the Stein, the line at Sherman [Dining Hall] and [the] Usdan [Student Center], it will affect availability during the housing lottery, it will affect parking.”

While it is unclear at this point what the actual result of the increased acceptance rate will be, Mr. Adams’ words are troubling. Especially now, an in-

Character of school at stake

crease in class size promises to worsen the overcrowding that has plagued our campus dining halls and residence halls in recent years. It does not seem that the University possesses the infrastructure necessary to accommodate the needs of so many more students.

This board has already noted the extreme overcrowding in the cafeterias in Usdan. In addition to this issue, living areas also present a problem. While the University has taken steps to renovate some campus residence halls, specifically the Charles River Apartments, there is an ever-present on-campus housing shortage and a growing off-campus housing shortage.

But more importantly, a rise in the number of students may threaten the character of our university. A larger first-year class this coming year and in the future may mean that the overall quality of life for students is hurt. Class sizes may increase, and the University may lose its communal, intimate feeling.

Many students and prospective students value Brandeis’ commitment to being a small university. The size of our student population is critical, and an additional 400 students is incredibly significant.

There are no obvious solutions to this problem; this board recognizes that the administration is not going to reverse the decision it made 2 years ago to increase class sizes. That being said, in the future we urge the administration to consider the limitations of our physical space and strive to maintain the small, intimate character of the University.

Union judiciary plan successful In his State of the Union address last Thursday, Student Union President Daniel Acheampong ’11 noted that “the Student Judiciary has not seen a trial all year.” This academic year is the first trial-free year as long as current students can remember.

We applaud the Student Judiciary for, as Mr. Acheampong said, having “effectively avoided the contentious atmosphere” that we feel has been nearly synonymous with Union judicial cases in recent years. In the same vein, we encourage the winners of today’s SJ election to work to continue the trend of avoiding unnecessary trials.

Although the Union’s constitutional review last spring introduced an option for the judiciary to mediate conflicts rather than bring them directly to trial, and Mr. Acheampong’s speech attributed the lack of trials to this mediation option, Chief Justice of the SJ Matthew Kriegsman ’11 said in an interview with the Justice that the process was not actually used this year. Rather, no case was formally filed with the SJ this year, and the SJ instead avoided cases largely by working more closely with the other branches of the Union. Mr. Kriegsman cited the example of this past fall’s election for the senator for the Village in which a candidate who was ineligible to be listed on the ballot won via a writein campaign. Mr. Kriegsman said that he met with members of the executive

Avoiding trials is beneficial board, and they were together able to resolve the issue in that setting.

This editorial board feels that this reveals a commendable new mindset within the SJ. While we certainly do not assume that all of the trials of the past few years could have been avoided through unofficial meetings, we believe that a united goal among SJ members of avoiding unnecessary trials could have reduced the number of official cases.

However, not all of the success of this year’s SJ in avoiding cases can be attributed to this united mindset. In all of this year’s potential cases—approximately three, according to Mr. Kriegsman—the involved parties were satisfied within the results of the meeting.

When the official mediation option was introduced into the Union Constitution in March 2010, the SJ, under the leadership of then-Chief Justice Judah Marans ’11, utilized that option to settle an official case only days later. This tendency to look to mediation as an option before a trial carried over to this year. Today’s election, though, will yield a completely new SJ bench, and this page encourages all the winners of the SJ election to follow this new precedent by working more closely with the other branches of the Union and by seeking to avoid the frustration of an unnecessary trial through meetings and mediation.

NASHRAH RAHMAN/the Justice

Celebrate ideals, not Bin Laden’s death Avi

Snyder Voice of Reason

At 10:54 p.m. last Sunday night, one of my best friends from home sent me a short text message telling me that Osama bin Laden had been killed. A little taken aback, and admittedly a bit credulous, I quickly sent him a reply and began searching the Internet for any news I could find. As I browsed through story after story, my friend sent me another message: He wrote, “I’m tearing up over here.”

I have no idea if he was exaggerating or if he really was overcome with patriotic emotion. But when I read those words, I realized that I was feeling a surprising lack of feeling about the incredible news I had just received. I consider myself a thoroughly patriotic, America-first, conservative Republican. Yet the news of the mastermind of 9/11’s death left me without much of an emotional reaction. On Monday morning, as I watched the footage of the jubilant celebrations across New York City and Washington, D.C., I was still unable to share the elation of the celebrants waving American flags and chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A.!”

I simply feel that it’s a bit shallow to celebrate the death of this arch-terrorist. Not because I’m any sort of pacifist or object to feeling happiness at even the death of those who are evil, but because I can’t help but dwell on the cynical yet fundamentally true fact that Osama bin Laden’s death hardly changes a thing.

It is surely symbolic; however, the West’s war with fundamentalist Islam and global terrorism remains just as difficult as it was before. Al-Qaida still exists on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Iran continues to grow in strength and regional clout. Hamas and Hezbollah remain strong and well-armed.

So I think it’s worth wondering whether or not bin Laden’s death really warrants celebration at all. What, then, should we be celebrating? I believe that some sort of celebration is called for, but not a celebration over Osama bin Laden’s destruction.

Rather, we ought to all be celebrating what Osama bin Laden and those of his ilk tried, and have failed, to destroy.

What bin Laden failed to destroy were the ideals of America.

For unlike many of the other nations of the world, America was not founded on the basis of its inhabitants’ shared ethnicity or religious identity. It was founded upon a set of ideas, upon a conviction that human beings have a set of natural rights that their governments and their fellow citizens are bound to protect.

In that regard, the American experiment has been a phenomenal success. Though it has very often come up short, for well over 200 years our country has, by and large, protected the fundamental human rights of its citizens.

This is a fact, I believe, that is far too often taken for granted and overlooked, especially in places like college campuses. After all, we college students live in a bubble of sorts. We live in an activist environment where we are so used to being able to speak our minds, speak out against our government and vote for our representatives that, in the heat of all our protests, we forget that the very fact that we are allowed to protest is a blessing that billions of people across the world don’t enjoy.

So let’s take this historic moment, here at Brandeis and hopefully in the entire country, not to simply celebrate the death of on arch-terrorist, but to appreciate and celebrate the rights and freedoms we enjoy here in the United States. Let’s celebrate that in the United States, each of us can worship God as we choose or not worship at all, because we believe that both faith and the state will be stronger if they are kept separate. Let’s appreciate that in the United States we protect the speech of all our citizens, even those whose speech is vile and offensive, because in this country, we don’t fear the free exchange of ideas. Let’s be infinitely grateful that in the United States we can burn our own country’s flag in protest, because the freedoms our flag represents are far more important that the flag itself.

In the United States, the police cannot search your home without a warrant; you have an absolute right to the counsel of lawyer when you stand trial; and you will always be presumed innocent when charged with a criminal offense.

These rights are in short supply in the world. These are rights that thousands of activists across the Middle East, North Africa and China continue to risk their lives to gain. And these are rights that each and everyone one of us enjoy in this magnificent country of ours. Osama bin Laden could not destroy our thriving liberal democracy; he could not destroy our robust notion of individual rights, nor he could he destroy the spirit of freedom in our country or across the world.

I think that is something worth celebrating.

OP-BOX

Quote of the Week “I’ve never really been that much of an activist, … but [with] the state of how things are, I think it needs to be done.”

—Dorian Williams ’13 on her experience getting arrested while protesting for the environment (See Features, page 8).

Brandeis Talks Back What are your thoughts on the killing of Osama bin Laden?

Kelsey Strouse ’13 “I think that the world is definitely a better place, and it’s a great sense of closure for families of the victims of 9/11.”

Dani Gurfinkel ’13 “I think the whole world is going to be pretty happy.”

Steven Nieman ’11 “I think it’s another step forward for bringing America together and achieving our nationalistic goals.”

Rachel Berman Vaporis ’11 “I’m glad he’s no longer a threat to the U.S., but I’m disappointed that people are celebrating his death.”

—Compiled by Eitan Cooper Photos by Yosef Schaffel / the Justice

THE JUSTICE

READER COMMENTARY Counseling center is unhelpful In response to your article “Creating a safety net on campus” (Features, May 3): Oh lord. To gauge the efficacy of the counseling center on campus by the number of students who have visited it once is to gauge the effectiveness of a doctor by the number of patients they have consulted once.

From my personal experience, the counseling center on campus is understaffed with often-dismissive administrators and ineffective counseling times. In the fall semester, when I visited in October, they told me they didn’t have any slots for about a month and that I would need to sit through intake appointments before they could even consider assigning me a counselor. By that point, I was suffering incredible anxiety and panic attacks but I couldn’t see anyone for 5 weeks.

And by that point, the counselor that I finally did manage to see blamed me for not going to see him sooner.

The counseling center is available as a resource, but it is not a particularly helpful one. While there are nice counselors, there are more than a few who are unhelpful in times of emotional crises at best and, at worst, push you emotionally in the opposite direction. The appointments are difficult to secure.

While I have never used SSIS counseling, I’m sure they make themselves more available than the counseling center. In a time of poor mental health, it’s difficult to manage to slog out of bed or to do even the most minute of tasks, and securing a counseling center appointment makes you jump through more hoops than even the registrar’s office requires.

—Anonymous

Showcase Jewish diversity In response to your article “Campus Jewish life is misrepresented” (Forum, April 12): Although I understand and sympathize with your frustrations, I think this “issue” is in fact a gift. American Jewry looks at Brandeis because students here are involved. They care about Israel, our connection to the land, and the politics that surround it. We should be proud that Brandeis is regarded as a microcosm to what Jewish college students believe. We should rise to the challenge and display beliefs and agendas that showcase how diverse our community really is. I realize that this takes effort. The New York Times is not going to come out with an article titled “Brandeis still boasts a committed Jewish community.”

We must do something to be worthy of headline news. And it’s important, like you mentioned, that the news cover all opinions, not just radical ones.

That is why I urge all Israel advocacy groups on campus to make sure (in a respectful, meaningful manner) that the news about Brandeis really represent who we are.

—Michal Pearl ’11

Brandeis Jews in unique position

In response to your article “Campus Jewish life is misrepresented” (Forum, April 12): I, too, dislike being held up to some kind of fantasized expectation about “Brandeis” as if we should provide reinforcement to every conventional line of thinking in the Jewish establishment. As a student body we would love to coalesce over issues such as Middle East conflict, but it’s clear that the problems are not that straightforward. Gone are the days of Civil Rights and Vietnam: the question of what is best for the Jewish people and for Israel is inherently divisive. If anything, it should be appreciated that we are earnestly conflicted, and if anything our voices should be taken seriously as indication that there is turmoil and doubt within our own community, not just from secular Liberalism. Brandeis students are at the vanguard of a generation balanced with both acknowledgement of an eternal tradition, and progressive outlook toward religion, politics, and social justice.

—Nathan Hakimi ’11

News story was biased

In response to your article “Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace present three generations of Palestinian refugees” (News, April 12): It is one thing to write a report about an event that takes place by informing readers of the main purpose of the gathering and of the primary message that the organizers of it wish to convey.

However, it quite another thing altogether, when a journalist uncritically regurgitates a highly contested version of history. A journalist should never allow her story to serve—for all practical purposes—as a press release for one side in a highly charged, controversial issue. Almost every “fact” reported in this “news” story is presented in a distorted and totally one-sided manner. Readers of the Justice deserve better—on this and any other controversial issue.

—Ken Brociner Somerville, Mass.

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

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TUESDAY, May 3, 2011

11

Drilling on campus isn’t absurd

By Aaron fried JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The current economic climate has taken its toll on businesses and families alike, and many among us have become all too familiar with the general atmosphere of saving rather than spending. It seems that everywhere we look, companies are cutting salaries and laying off workers.

At home, many are choosing to forgo luxuries and buy generics rather than name brands to protect their savings. With such an air of austerity, it is not surprising that universities have also fallen on hard times and considered taking active measures to balance their budgets.

Here at Brandeis, as most of you know, we have already experienced this. Controversially, a few years ago, the University attempted to sell donated artwork to deal with budget issues. Last year, some academic programs were forced to consolidate for the same reason. As a result, I am not particularly surprised to see that other schools are adopting measures to help keep their finances afloat, but the methods that have been proposed have been quite unique, to say the least.

Among the multitude of universities with budgetary issues are the Pennsylvania state colleges. At a meeting of the Pennsylvania Association of Councils of Trustees, freshman Governor Tom Corbett advised that the state colleges should drill for oil on their campuses. He argues that since the six of the state college campuses lie on a shale formation that is currently being used for natural gas, they may as well utilize it. At first, like many of you, I thought that this idea was nothing short of preposterous—imagine having a drilling facility on the Great Lawn or an oil rig in Massell Pond! Even disregarding the environmentalist groups on campus, it is obvious that the majority of the student body and faculty would balk at such a prospect.

After some real consideration, however, I have since changed my mind. Such seemingly extreme measures can offer some rare opportunities for students and valuable lessons for society as a whole. Imagine being a mechanical engineering major at a campus that is actively drilling for oil. You would be able to work with and learn about heavy machinery on campus, all the while keeping tuition costs from rising for your peers. There would also be a constant need to minimize the ecological effects of such an operation, as the prospect of having grassy quads replaced with oil fields is quite the motivator to keep campus oil drilling environmentally conscious with plenty of fail-safe mechanisms.

The real beauty of this idea is not the fact that people will be drilling for oil on campuses. That is in no way beautiful in an age in which we are pursuing alternative energy sources. Rather, it represents a new kind of campus sustainability.

The idea that college campuses could have the

ability to generate their own income outside of sporting events is a much-needed levee to combat ever-rising tuition prices.

Obviously, colleges cannot turn into giant lumber yards, factories or mines of some sort, and the proposition in Pennsylvania is undoubtedly an extreme case. While most campuses do not sit over oil, many do have a plethora of untapped resources.

Universities in Florida and southern California could set up citrus groves on their campuses. They would be aesthetically pleasing and would reduce the amount of money spent on fresh fruit for dining services. Any surplus oranges or grapefruits could be sold locally. The overhead cost of such an effort could be easily mitigated with the help of student volunteers or even a lab requirement for agricultural science students. Campuses with an abundance of maple trees might consider making syrup. The creative solutions are vast. Even if financially challenged universities are not actively creating a product and selling it, they should be taking

MARA SASSOON/the Justice

new measures to cut costs.

Fortunately, Brandeis is moving in this direction. Solar panels, like those on the roof of The Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, are a common and easy way to cut energy bills and ought to be used more widely. Schools near the shore or other windy regions should construct wind farms to harness the energy that flows through their campuses constantly.

While all of these things would represent some very costly investments, they have the potential to keep the price of running a college campus manageable. As America’s higher education system evolves into a state in which admission rates shrink while tuition rises, it becomes increasingly obvious that a new approach is necessary. As lamentable as it may be, it seems that colleges will have to start acting even more like businesses to alleviate these strains. Before we scream in protest, though, we would be wise to remember how much we value having a higher education. Some sacrifices will be necessary to preserve it.

Humanities can help the workforce Naomi

Volk Et Cetera

The worst thing about being an English major is the inevitable question: “So what are you going to do with your degree?” According to the social powers that be, apparently the only two things a person can do with an English major are become an academic or an English teacher.

But this will soon be no more. The American Council of Learned Societies has recently created a program that will give fellowships to eight people with Ph.D.s in the humanities.

According to Inside Higher Ed, the fellowships will be paid positions in government or nonprofits for the duration of 2 years. The jobs the fellows will hold include a policy analyst for the Association of American Universities, a cultural communications specialist for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and two positions in the U.S. Department of State. The point? The website says it is “to demonstrate that the capacities developed in the advanced study of the humanities have wide application, both within and beyond the academy.”

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Subscription rate: $35 per semester, $55 per year.

This mission makes a ton of sense—and not just because I’m pursuing a major in a field of the humanities. This program aims to show that learning how to read, write and think analytically can be helpful outside of the world of academia. And in reality, what job doesn’t involve some level of critical analysis and writing? Being an efficient writer is an important skill in the workforce.

But even more than that, the grant encourages learning for learning’s sake. If people interested in the humanities will no longer have to worry about the ever-looming question of post-graduation plans, then they will be more willing to study in the fields they are truly passionate about.

This way, colleges too will not have to worry about catering to a job market after graduation—humanities departments as well as science departments will have a potential path for life after graduation. Now, I’m not trying to exaggerate the scale of this program—it’s true that only eight people with Ph.D.s will receive the grant a year—but it is a step in the right direction.

Why is it that there is such a stigma against those interested in the humanities? It seems as though the fact that it is not part of a track with a “pre” in front of it diminishes its credibility.

But it doesn’t have to. Being a humanities major will help for a wide variety of potential job options, not just those deemed “the only thing

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you can do with a humanities major.”

Obviously, others have noticed the possible benefits of being a humanities major, because these fellows will be placed in government agencies and nonprofits—two extremely important fields that impact the lives of so many around them. With the country looking the way it is, I for one am glad that there are going to be some critical thinkers on board. This isn’t to diminish the importance of academia or teaching. Both are fantastic professions that can be extremely rewarding to those interested to such a deep extent in the humanities.

However, they aren’t the only options; English majors aren’t barreling down a path that splits into a fork without any possibility for a third option.

In fact, the American Council of Learned Societies specifies that it is seeking “applications from recent Ph.D.s who wish to begin careers in administration, management, and public service by choice rather than circumstance.”

The ACLS is acknowledging the possibility that a humanities major would be interested in a life beyond college that doesn’t necessarily have to be directly related to the humanities.

This undertaking doesn’t have to be an anomaly. It’s not such a radical idea to think that learning how to read and write properly can help in the work force. Obviously, government agencies and nonprofits realize it. Now maybe it’s time for the rest of the world.

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TUESDAY, May 3, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Campus antiwar movement needs revival Diego

MEdrano Missing Link

Our eggs no longer come from caged chickens, our pool will no longer be a useless multi-milliondollar hole, and our art won’t be sold to anyone willing to pay, yet people our age are still dying every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why aren’t we outraged? Where has the antiwar movement gone?

It’s easy to forget about the outside world when living in the “Brandeis Bubble.” It often seems as if Aramark is our Halliburton and our issues and goals are local and attainable. So much of our effort is exhausted in the attempt to better our community and our experience at Brandeis. The people with the ability to make positive changes are an e-mail away. Their offices are a short stroll from our dorms and apartments. They have faces—faces not only seen on TV. Campus activism proves our power as a student body to make real, tangible changes.

What else are we supposed to do?

Should we march in the streets to theoretically stop a war, knowing full well that even when hundreds of thousands of activists marched, nothing changed?

The sad fact of the matter is we’ve been let down. In the 2008 elections, every Democratic candidate stood against the war. We knew that to whoever was elected, ending the war would be of utmost importance.

When President Barack Obama was elected, an end to the war was all but a sure thing. He had taken a stronger stance against the war than the other Democrats. Even as a senator, he was at the front of the antiwar movement. However, when the champion of the cause is elected to the exact position needed to be able to stop the war, and 3 years later we’re still searching for an end, it’s hard to not lose hope.

Additionally, talking about “the war” at Brandeis can mean any number of things—Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel all have a claim to the title. They are all equally complex in terms of solutions, and with three significant wars for a campus to worry about, along with a fourth with Libya possibly on the horizon, it’s tough to amass one solid movement. It may not be possible to have one unified movement against a single war, and opposing all war may

SARA WEININGER/the Justice

seem too broad to be useful.

This is not to say that Brandeis students haven’t taken on great international causes. There are constantly film screenings and lectures shedding light on international situations. Groups all around campus came out in full support of Haiti and Japan in the aftermath of their respective disasters. We aren’t heartless.

On the contrary, we care about modern issues as much as, if not more than, other universities. With so many meaningful contributions being made all over campus, is there also space for a strong antiwar movement? We shouldn’t just throw our hands in the air and give up. War is war. There is no other way to describe it. While we can’t expect everyone to agree on what

to do to end the wars, many would agree that each war has exhausted both sides and resulted in both physical and emotional collateral damage. I propose that those jaded by the ineffectiveness of the antiwar movement rejoin by switching to a post-war responsiveness. There are organizations dedicated to helping veterans returning home who are coping with their experiences.

Their various ways of helping can include assisting those disabled by war or post-traumatic stress disorder or even just raising awareness about the horrors that these soldiers faced. By amassing a response to the most detrimental effects of war, the antiwar movement is in full effect. Better yet, it can attract those who worry about the stigma of the antiwar movement by allowing

them to be patriotic in their support of soldiers. Positive, substantial action makes the movement more effective. A common complaint is that protests don’t actually “do anything.” By showing the world tangible achievements, the movement grows stronger.

The best course of action for the antiwar movement is the prevention of future wars. This can be accomplished by assisting with the needs of returning soldiers and raising awareness to just how detrimental their experiences were.

Shedding light on the countless horrors they witnessed can be just as effective as marching in the streets.

I may be naïve, but I think that if more people were aware of just how damaging war can be, even to those who return “healthy,” the resis-

tance to future wars would be even greater.

But action must start locally to eventually become powerful nationally. One person complaining about his or her food in the Usdan Student Center won’t do a whole lot, but when an entire campus complains, change is possible. One school responding to war may not prevent future wars or right the wrongs of current wars, but it may begin a chain of involvement to other schools.

We are young and have the benefit of idealism. It’s too easy to become jaded, and we have proven as a university that we can stand generally unified on certain issues. It’s important to not forget about the most obvious of them. The antiwar movement doesn’t have to die—it needs to be revived.

Work to combat Wakefield’s glaring falsehoods Elizabeth

Stoker Brevity

Autism is a hazy, blurry diagnosis. It’s a spectrum disorder, which means that nonverbal, barely functional individuals share the same diagnosis as people who just seem a bit unusual. It does not always feature identical or even similar symptoms.

Some children may have gastrointestinal issues, while others have none—yet they may be equally autistic. Questionnaires, calls to teachers and sit-downs with psychiatrists and pediatricians, along with hours of behavioral observation, are often necessary to begin to close in on the possibility of a diagnosis of autism.

Parents are left to wonder if something terrible could be going on in their child’s brain or if he or she is just going through a rough patch.

Even worse, the treatments for autism remain scattered, difficult and time-consuming as well. There is no pill for autism, no shot, no surgery—only scores of time, money

and effort. Years of therapy involving a variety of different professionals are often suggested, including in the child’s home and school environment. The processes of diagnosis and treatment of autism are painful, difficult and uncertain. For Andrew Wakefield, a former United Kingdom physician who spoke at Brandeis on April 13, this wealth of human anguish has been a wellspring of money.

There is never a shortage of individuals willing to peddle snake oil to profit from the suffering of others. Drug dealers bank on addiction to line their pockets, mediums who salivate over grief and prophets of the apocalypse are often the beneficiaries of terrified individuals discarding their life’s wealth. In my opinion, Wakefield is just another such predator savvy to the willingness of hurt, frightened people to open their wallets. Under normal circumstances, I would only be moderately disgusted by that sort of behavior, but Wakefield’s claims have made him an enemy of public health far more insidious than the childhood diseases of yesteryear: You may know him as the individual who first “linked” the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to autism.

I use the term “linked” cautiously because, as was later proven, there is no link. In January 2010, the British General Medical Council conducted an investigation into Wakefield’s 1998 study demonstrating a causative relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism. They concluded that Wakefield was guilty of numerous counts of dishonesty and the outright falsification of information in his study, as well as the highly unethical abuse of children.

The study was subsequently fully retracted by The Lancet, the journal originally responsible for its publication. Ten of Wakefield’s 12 coauthors retracted their support of the conclusion that MMR vaccines are linked to autism, citing insufficient evidence and major public health implications. There have been no studies since replicating Wakefield’s findings.

That is not the only ugly side of Wakefield’s “science.” In 2006, Brian Deer, a journalist for Britain’s Sunday Times, discovered payments of huge sums made to Wakefield by a group of lawyers pursuing a suit against MMR vaccine manufacturers 2 years before his study was published. Wakefield has done his best to chalk all of these findings up to a conspiracy against him per-

sonally, as though the monolithic group consisting of “everyone else” has decided to make an example of him and anyone else who fakes studies, abuses children and accepts bribes.

Unsurprisingly, many professors and medical professionals refuse to debate Wakefield, even at his latest speaking engagement on campus.

His work has already been discredited, his medical registry revoked and study placed rightly in the dustbin of history, so one might consider the work of any opponent already done—yet two problems remain.

Firstly, arguing with him at this point only legitimizes what is a nonscientific claim that shifts even now as further research is produced to the contrary. Debating Wakefield has the added drawback of strengthening his conspiracy theory; just as staunch believers in extra-terrestrials cite NASA’s denial of their existence as more proof of a cover-up, challengers of Wakefield become yet more evidence that the pharmaceutical companies are brainwashing the masses against him.

Secondly, because Wakefield preys on fears of autism and the pain of parents with diagnosed children, his messages still find acceptance among some individuals. For

those looking for answers where real research is still slim, Wakefield offers false hope, which is, for the weary and hurting, often very tempting.

Therefore, the most important measure anyone can take against Wakefield is to appear whenever he speaks and at every turn to present the facts of his “science” and its monetary legacy. If we fail to remind every audience who hears Wakefield of the fraud he is guilty of committing, we risk revisitation of earlier times where potentially lethal and disfiguring childhood diseases, like measles, mumps, and rubella, routinely take and destroy lives. After all, every parent who chooses not to vaccinate out of fears about autism places not only their child at risk but also immunocompromised individuals and children too young for their own vaccinations.

Wakefield’s theories are no substitute for real science, and his claims are dangerous—possibly fatal. It is my sincere wish that anyone who was momentarily swayed

by Wakefield’s claims has now rethought their true basis and will place their hopes for the future where they belong: in real, hard science.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, May 3, 2011

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SPORTS TENNIS

Men’s tennis falters in finale ■ The men’s tennis team

dropped to the Tufts Jumbos in its season finale to finish a historic season at 10-11.

By jonathan steinberg JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Last Tuesday, the men’s tennis team played its final match of the 2010-2011 campaign at home against the Tufts Jumbos. Despite Senior Day festivities, the Judges were not able to overcome the stifling rackets of the Jumbos and fell 6-3. The Judges end the season with a 10-11 record. As of April 19, they were No. 22 in the country.

The Judges were forced to play without top player Simon Miller ’11. Coach Ben Lamanna reported that Miller partially tore his posterior cruciate ligament in the match against Trinity College on April 10.

Without the co-captain leading the way, the Judges were unable to win a pair of close games in singles play and maintain leads they had established in first and second doubles.

In singles action, Nick White ’11 fell behind in first singles but managed to recover and earn the win in three sets with scores of 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Dave Yovanoff ’13 fell in three sets at second singles, as did Steven Nieman ’11, both of whom lost the second and third sets after taking the first. Ezra Bernstein ’11 lost in two sets at third singles 6-3, 6-1. Josh Jordan ’13 and Adam Brown ’14 recorded the only other two wins for the Judges. Jordan took a three-set win at fourth singles, while Brown’s opponent retired in the second set.

In doubles play, the Judges had trouble closing out matches. Despite Brandeis holding leads in first and second doubles, the Jumbos were able to sweep all three matches. At first doubles, Yovanoff and Bernstein held an early lead, but their opponents managed to take the game to an 8-8 tie and won the game in the tiebreaker. White and Nieman also held a lead in the second doubles match but were defeated 8-6.

Jordan and Michael Defeo ’14 fell at the third slot 8-4.

“Anytime you get swept at doubles, it is not good,” said Lamanna.

“We were up on number 1 and number 2, but we couldn’t close them out.”

Aside from the loss, Senior Day marked the final matches for five seniors who have been invaluable to the Judges for the past 4 years. Lamanna said that saying goodbye to these five athletes will be difficult.

“The five seniors took the program a long way. These guys have been amazing and helped to change the culture of the program.”

Bernstein, who transferred in his junior year, ends his career with a solid 51.5-percent record at doubles and showed a large increase in playing time his senior year.

Mayur Kassetty ’11, though he hasn’t played as much as the other seniors in recent years, went 3-5 this past season.

Although not as successful this year, Nieman, who started all 4 years at Brandeis, finished with a 50-percent record in singles play.

Miller, perhaps the strongest of the seniors, has been a starter all 4 years and has recorded over 100 wins in his career. He will finish with 50-percent winning records in

both singles and doubles. “I feel sad to be leaving the team, especially since these last 2 years have been the best 2 years the team has had since 1989,” said Miller. “But I feel like all the graduating seniors believe that we are leaving the team in a better position then when we came onto it, so there really is not much to be sad about.”

White, who also transferred his junior year, was a starter both years on the team and recorded a solid 50-percent winning percentage in singles play. “I feel very grateful and proud that I got to play for Brandeis for these last 2 years,” said White. “My Senior Day gave me an opportunity to look back on my college career and appreciate my journey.”

Lamanna knows next year will be a difficult year without these seniors, who helped secure the Judges’ first national ranking since 1989.

“We’ll have no seniors next season,” said Lamanna. “We are a seniorheavy team, so we are going to have to have some guys some step up. We will sort of have to start over and bring the team together quickly.”

BASEBALL: Team goes 3-4 on final week CONTINUED FROM 16 inning. With a 5-4 Springfield lead in the sixth inning, outfielder Nick Cortese ’13 belted a two-run homer and catcher Kenny Destremps ’12 added another RBI double to give the Judges a 7-4 lead. However, Brandeis couldn’t protect the lead in the top of the seventh inning and eventually lost by a score of 11-8.

Last Thursday, the Judges looked to extend their five-game winning streak against No. 4 Keene State University. However, the Judges faltered and lost 8-2 in a game shortened by rain. Colin Markel ’14 was tagged with the loss, giving up five runs in four innings of work.

Keene State pounced early on Markel, bringing in three runs in the first inning. Brandeis was able to cut the lead to 3-2 by the fourth inning with an RBI double by Nicholson and an RBI single by catcher

Chris Ferro ’13. However, the Judges’ pitching ceded five more runs to Keene, and the team’s bats went quiet for the rest of the game.

Last Wednesday, Brandeis pulled off an exhilarating 8-7 victory in extra innings over Bowdoin College.

Dylan Britton ’13 pitched seven innings, giving up four earned runs.

Alex Tynan ’12 earned his third win of the season, by pitching two scoreless innings to close out the game.

Down 4-0 in the sixth inning, the Judges found their offensive groove and knocked in seven runs over the next two innings. Deshler began the onslaught with a two-run homer. In the next inning, O’Hare pulled through with a huge grand slam to put the Judges up 6-4.

Deshler came through again with an RBI single to increase the lead to 7-4 and seemingly put the game

out of reach. However, Brandeis could not close it out, and Bowdoin tied the game in the ninth inning with two more runs. Destremps provided the biggest homer of all, breaking the game open in the 11th with a solo shot to seal the game at 8-7.

The Judges started out the week last Tuesday with a 4-3 win over Endicott College. Swerdloff pitched six solid innings, allowing only one earned run. Markel earned his second win of the season and Ing his second save. By the bottom of the seventh inning and facing a 3-0 deficit, O’Hare broke through with a two-run triple and then scored home on a wild pitch to tie the game at three runs apiece. Ferro executed a sacrifice bunt perfectly in the next inning to give the Judges the lead and ultimately the game at 4-3.

Whether or not the team will make the playoffs is unclear, but Schwartz said that, in any case, the team was happy with how the season went.

“Despite this weekend, I think we’ve had a great season thus far,” he said. “We started off a little slow but then started finding ways to win games. I think we’ve proven we can compete and give a lot of trouble to any team out there.”

Schwartz also felt very positive about the team’s prospects for next season.

“I think the future is bright for our team; we have a lot of talented players even with our departing seniors,” he said. “However, the rest of the year is what we need to focus on.”

Brandeis will play its final game of the season at Amherst College today at 3:00 p.m.

SOFTBALL: Team wins one of two on last day CONTINUED FROM 16 elle Lavallee ’11. Two batters later, second baseman Caroline Miller ’12 homered to place Brandeis one run on top of Bowdoin. Brandeis showed more flashes of offense during this inning, with Schmand and Grimm both singling but with nothing ultimately coming to fruition.

In the fifth inning, Brandeis added four more runs to put the game away.

Kelley led off the inning with a single.

After a Nolan sacrifice bunt to advance Kelley to second base, Gajewski doubled to center field, knocking in Kelley for the RBI. Lavallee then singled and second baseman Megan DeNubila ’12 walked, loading the bases for Miller, who reached on an error by the Bowdoin catcher. That error scored Lavallee, though Gajewski was thrown out at home. On the next play, Specker singled to left field, knocking in Miller and DeNubila for two more RBIs. In the top of the seventh, Bowdoin almost rallied back to tie the game.

The Polar Bears entered the inning down by four runs, and managed to score three to give Brandeis a scare right at the end. But with two outs in the inning and a runner on third, Nolan struck out the hitter to end the game and give the Judges a win to end their season.

The warm weather and large crowd of 175 helped contribute to the remarkable energy at Brandeis’ Marcus Field. “The energy was really good the whole day just because it was Senior Day,” Ducinski said.

The team had numbers 5, 11, 12 and 24 on the outfield wall for the two games, honoring the team’s four seniors: Lavallee; second baseman Melisa Cagar ’11, who has been injured all season; Kelley; and Schmand. Cagar started the team’s first game against Bowdoin, standing at second base for one pitch before being pulled to a standing ovation.

BRIEFS

Track excels at Brown University The Judges rested many of their top runners at last Sunday’s Brown University Springtime Classic in anticipation of the New England Division III championships, which will be held on Saturday.

Marie Lemay ’11 did not run because of a foot injury. Vincent Asante ’14 was resting after a strong performance at the University Athletic Association meet 2 weeks ago at Emory University.

Paul Norton ’11 also did not run.

Kate Warwick ’12 won the women’s 3,000-meter run with a time of 10 minutes, 30.12 seconds.

In the 400-meter dash, Kristen Nichols ’12 finished in 1:05.25, good for 19th.

Victoria Sanford ’14 came in first in her heat but 14th overall in the 1,500-meter run, finishing with a time of 4:52.46.

In the field, Lucia Capano ’11 earned second in the triple jump, with a distance of 11.64 meters. She was 0.30 meters behind University of Connecticut sophomore Brittany Power. Capano placed fifth in the long jump with a distance of 5.15 meters, 0.96 meters behind the winner.

In the men’s 1,500-meter run, Chris Brown ’12 placed tenth with a time of 4:03.12. Immediately behind him was Marc Boutin ’12, who crossed the line just 0.29 seconds later. Devon Holgate ’12 came in 14th in 4:05.16.

The New England Division III Championships will be held in Cambridge, Mass. this weekend. The NCAA Division III Championships are May 27 in Delaware, Ohio.

—Jonathan Epstein

Edhance College Day is a real hit

ALEX MARGOLIS/the Justice

Wiffleball for a Cure Sarah Azarchi ’13 swings at a pitch during the First Annual Backyard Wiffleball Tournament, which was held last Saturday on the Great Lawn. All proceeds from the event were donated to Relay for Life to raise money for cancer research.

By showing their college identifications at Gate B at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, college students were able to attend Edhance Inc.’s first annual College Day on April 20.

The event was held to celebrate the 99th anniversary of the first game played at Fenway Park, which saw the Red Sox defeat the New York Highlanders, who are now called the New York Yankees, 7-6 in 11 innings.

Fenway Park is the oldest stadium in Major League Baseball.

On April 28, Red Sox management announced The Fenway Park 100th Anniversary Brick Program, which allows fans to inscribe a message into a brick that will be placed in either

the Gate B or Gate C concourse.

Guided tours of the Red Sox ballpark were given to students for a reduced cost. Attendees learned about the stadium’s history and new features, such as the seats above the Green Monster, which have been recently added to Fenway Park.

The first 100 people who arrived to the event were also granted access to hit in the batting cages that Red Sox players practice in.

Edhance Inc. is a student rewards company founded in Cambridge, MA in 2007 that provides college students discounts on a variety of food and other product-based companies.

—Josh Asen

BU SUMMER‘11 • 700 undergraduate and graduate courses in over 70 subjects • Faculty of leading scientists, authors, and scholars • 60 courses in 17 foreign languages • Summer internships in Boston organizations

Summer 1: May 24–July 1 Summer 2: July 5–August 12

bu.edu/summer

An equal opportunity, affirmative action institution.

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If so, WBRS wants to see it!

Check the current schedule at wbrs.org.

E-mail join@wbrs.org for more information and be sure to listen in at 100.1 FM or wbrs.org.

THE JUSTICE

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK Marianne Specker ’12

1

st-place finish for Kate Warwick ’12 in the 3,000-meter run at the Brown University Springtime Classic last weekend.

JOSHUA LINTON/Justice File Photo

Johnson already asks juniors to play a significant leadership role on the team, she said that she and the team’s other current juniors would need to step up next year.

“We’re losing a lot of seniors next

year, so it will be interesting having to step up and take a leadership role, but I have confidence that we can step into the role,” she said. ­—Jeffrey Boxer

UAA STANDINGS Baseball

Softball

UAA Conference Overall

W L W L Pct. Emory 5 1 26 17 .605 Case 4 2 30 13 .698 WashU 3 3 29 17 .630 JUDGES 2 4 24 17 .585 Rochester 1 5 13 19 .406 Chicago 0 0 14 10 .583

UAA Conference

W L Emory 8 0 WashU 6 2 Rochester 3 5 JUDGES 3 5 Chicago 0 0 Case 0 8

Not including Monday’s games

54 20 19 9

hits for shortstop Dominic Schwartz ’14 in games the baseball team won this year, compared to just 5 during games that the team lost. He hit .308 and .161 in the two categories, respectively.

extra-base hits for first baseman Eric Rosenberg ’11, which led the baseball team.

wins for rookie softball pitcher Melissa Nolan ’14, which led the team.

Not including Monday’s games Overall W L T Pct. 40 2 1 .942 29 10 1 .738 23 13 0 .639 18 17 0 .514 22 11 0 .667 19 25 0 .432

Baseball (batting average)

Softball (batting average)

Nick Cortese ’13 leads the team with a .375 batting average.

Marianne Specker ’12 leads the team with a .384 batting average.

Player AVG Nick Cortese .375 Kenny Destremps .366 Pat Nicholson .361 Tony Deshler .340 Chris Ferro .328 Eric Rosenberg .322 Sean O’Hare .284

Player AVG Marianne Specker .384 Brittany Grimm .331 Courtney Kelley .310 Melissa Nolan .296 Maxie Hirschler .288 Samantha Gajewski .267 Carly Schmand .262

Baseball (earned run average)

Softball (runs batted in)

Pat Nicholson ’11 leads the team with a 3.18 ERA this season.

Courtney Kelley ’11 leads the team with 22 RBIs this season.

Player ERA Pat Nicholson 3.18 Mike Swerdloff 3.68 John McGrath 3.98 Alex Tynan 5.70 Dylan Britton 6.18 Colin Markel 6.75

Player RBIs Courtney Kelley 22 Brittany Grimm 19 Marianne Specker 17 Samantha Gajewski 14 Maxie Hirschler 12 Carly Schmand 12

UPCOMING GAMES TO WATCH Track and Field Division III New Englands The men’s and women’s track teams will compete in New Englands Saturday.

The men’s and women’s track and field team’s will continue their outdoor season this weekend with the New England Division III Championships this weekend in Cambridge.

Last year at New Englands, the Judges had three runners medal.

The team was led by Grayce Selig ’11,

HOUSTON—A few of the Houston Texans worked out at nearby Rice Stadium as they awaited developments in the NFL’s labor impasse.

Whenever training camp begins, one of the Owls will join them on their regular practice field.

Rice University defensive end Cheta Ozougwu is this year’s Mr. Irrelevant after the Texans took him with the 254th and final pick of the NFL draft Saturday. The “irrelevant” moniker is traditionally given to the last pick.

“It’s a big relief,” Ozougwu said. “I’m blessed to have this opportunity. No matter what was going to be the outcome, whether it’s free agency or being the last pick or being a fifth-round pick, I just wanted the opportunity to play the game.”

Last year’s Mr. Irrelevant was Weber State receiver Tim Toone, who went to Detroit.

Now, it’s Ozougwu’s turn to enjoy a week’s worth of festivities that accompany the honor. Since 1976, the player and his family have been invited to southern California in the offseason to take in “Irrelevant Week,” which includes a golf tournament, regatta and a ceremony where he is awarded a trophy depicting a player fumbling a ball.

“I don’t know too much about it,” Ozougwu said. “It’s funny; one of my teammates, about 2 weeks ago was like, ‘Hey man, if you get drafted in the seventh round, like the last pick, you get called something like ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ or things of that nature, and all these things they do.’

“I had no idea it’d be me,” he said, “but I’m definitely thankful for it.”

A few Mr. Irrelevants have done just fine in the pros.

Ryan Succop (2009) converted 25 of 29 field-goal attempts as a rookie for Kansas City and is No. 1 on the depth chart, and linebacker David Vobora (2008) started five games last season for St. Louis.

If the pro football career doesn’t pan out, Ozougwu has a solid backup plan: he’ll graduate from prestigious Rice in May with an economics degree.

The 6-foot-2, 255-pound Ozougwu is the second Rice player drafted by the Texans. He’ll join tight end James Casey on the Houston roster. Casey played sparingly at fullback and tight end as a rookie, then took a more prominent role in the offense in 2010, starting four games.

Houston coach Gary Kubiak said Ozougwu will work at linebacker and has a chance to contribute next season.

“He can rush the passer,” Kubiak said. “He’ll play four different positions for us on defense and be a heck of a special teams player. He has a big football IQ and a high motor, and we think he’ll find a way to make it in this league. It’s kind of nice that he ended up being right down the street.”

Grizzlies defeat the Spurs to finish off major first-round upset

TEAM LEADERS total bases this season for utility player Brittany Grimm ’12, which led the softball team this season.

15

Rice University defensive end Cheta Ozougwu is Mr. Irrelevant

in three hits and two RBIs in the team’s finale, helping the Judges stay above .500 and qualify for postseason play.

Judging numbers

TUESDAY, May 3, 2011

AP BRiefs

■ The junior utility player pitched

The softball team headed into last Sunday’s season finale with a record of 17-17 and after just having been shut out in the first game of a doubleheader against Bowdoin College. The team needed to win the game to finish the season above .500 and be eligible to compete in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships. Led by a three-hit, two-RBI performance from utility player Marianne Specker ’12, the Judges won the game 8-7 to end the season on a positive note and give themselves a chance to play in postseason play.

“It was really important,” Specker said of the win. “It was kind of a makeor-break game; we really didn’t want to get swept on Senior Day, so it was great to pull it out.”

Specker, who was named the University Athletic Association player of the week for softball, also said that it was great to end the season with a strong performance.

“I was pretty happy to end on a good note,” she said. “I had two RBIs in my last at-bat, so it was nice to finish strong.”

Specker has played a huge role for the team all season long. Her .384 batting average and .483 on-base percentage lead the Judges, and she is third on the squad with 17 RBIs. Perhaps the best indicator of her value to the team is that she batted .491 in the team’s 18 wins this season and hit just .238 in its losses.

Though she said that coach Jessica

●

who broke the school record for the 1,500-meter run and grabbed first place in the process.

Also medaling for the Judges last year were Suzanne Bernier ’10, who finished second in the high jump, and Alyssa Pisarik ’12, who was third in the 5,000-meter race.

MEMPHIS, Tenn.—These Memphis Grizzlies just keep making NBA history and believers.

Forward Zach Randolph had 31 points and 11 rebounds, and the Grizzlies advanced to their first Western Conference semifinals and made NBA history in knocking off the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs 99-91 last Friday night.

Memphis had been the franchise best known for empty seats and the unenviable NBA mark for playoff futility at 0-12 after being swept in its first three appearances. This time, a third straight sellout crowd cheered every basket with a couple of signs begging the Grizzlies to “Finish Them” in a town desperately needing a hero.

The Grizzlies needed 10 seasons in Memphis, but they have become just that as only the second No. 8 seed to upset a No. 1 seed since the NBA expanded the opening series to a best-of-seven series.

Now Memphis coach Lionel Hollins sees a great opportunity for the Grizzlies to do something really special.

“Not a lot of people knew about us coming in, but we certainly have made some noise and turned some heads and got some attention that probably wouldn’t have been given to us if we’d lost this series,” Hollins said. “We’d just be another [No. 8] seed losing to the No. 1 seed.”

Center Marc Gasol had 12 points and 13 rebounds for Memphis. Guard Tony Allen added 11 points, and rookie guard Greivis Vasquez had 11 off the bench.

Guard Tony Parker led San Antonio with 23 points, guard Manu Ginobili had 16, forward Tim Duncan had 12 and forward Antonio McDyess, 10.

The Spurs led only twice at 2-0 and again at 80-79 when McDyess hit a 15-footer with 4:41 left.

That’s when Randolph, the man cast off and unwanted before he arrived in Memphis in the summer of 2009, took over and scored 17 of the Grizzlies’ 29 points in the fourth quarter.

“From a pick-me-up perspective, we just got on his back, and we rode him like he was an English warhorse,” Hollins said. “He was really carrying us, we were just hanging on.”

Randolph scored 10 of the next 14 points for Memphis, with his hook putting Memphis ahead to stay at 81-80. Guard Michael Conley added a jumper, then Randolph hit a fallaway jumper, two free throws and another fallaway jumper for an 89-82 lead with 1 minute, 55 seconds left. Randolph went to the bench to a huge cheer with 3.4 seconds left.

“Emotion is high, not just for the Memphis Grizzlies but for the whole city of Memphis and the fans,” Randolph said.

“It’s something. It’s a great accomplishment. We’ve got to be happy. We should be happy. But it’s a quick turnaround.

We’ve got a game Sunday, and we have to get ready.”

Forward Shane Battier called it a perfect team effort by the Grizzlies against a Spurs team that never quit.

“Those guys are like vampires. We’re trying to kill them, but they kept getting up. We kept missing the heart,” Battier said. “When [forward Matt] Bonner is hitting bank [3-pointers] and Ginobili is hitting a half-court shot at halftime, you’re saying, ‘Gosh, go away. Please go away.’”

It just wasn’t enough for a team that couldn’t beat the Grizzlies in Memphis during the regular season or the postseason. The Spurs ended this season dropping nine of the last 10 on the road and 16 of the last 19 in the postseason away from San Antonio.

Asked if this was a big upset, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich defended the strength of the Western Conference.

“It doesn’t matter what your seeding is in the West. As has been evidenced year after year, we all know that everybody’s basically as good as everybody else,” Popovich said.

just

Sports

Page 16

CURTAINS DOWN

The men’s tennis team wrapped up its season and said goodbye to five seniors with a loss to Tufts, p. 13.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Waltham, Mass.

softball

OUT AT SECOND

Softball wins, qualifies for the playoffs ■ After dropping the first

game of a doubleheader, the softball team won its finale to finish 18-17 on the year.

By jacob lurie JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

JOSHUA LINTON/Justice File Photo

GETTING THE FORCEOUT: Middle infielder Sean O’Hare ’12 touches second base to get the unassisted final out of the inning during a Brandeis win last month.

Judges falter down the stretch ■ The Judges stretched their

winning streak to five games before dropping three of their last four contests.

By adam rabinowitz JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

In a hectic week to wrap up the regular season, the baseball team went 3-4 to close the season out at 27-14. Brandeis managed to win two of its first three games during the week but could not get it done during the final weekend of play, dropping three out of four games in back-to-back doubleheaders against Trinity College and Springfield College.

Shortstop Dominic Schwartz ’14 noted that the difficulties the team

encountered were ones that had plagued the players all season.

“The problem is we are just inconsistent,” he said. “Some games it’s our hitting that shines, others it’s our pitching. We haven’t been able to put the two together, and that is how you win ball games.”

In the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader, Brandeis fought hard but lost to Trinity 4-3. Coach Pete Varney used six different pitchers during the game, but Rephael Stern ’11 was charged with the loss after giving up an RBI single that gave Trinity the lead and ultimately the game. Brandeis broke out of its offensive funk with a three-run first inning on an RBI single by first baseman Eric Rosenberg ’11 and an RBI double from second baseman Sean O’Hare ’12.

Unfortunately, Trinity put up four

runs in the next two innings and the Judges’ bats went quiet for the rest of the game.

Earlier in the day, despite a complete game from pitcher Michael Swerdloff ’13, the Judges could not pull off the win, losing 5-2. Swerdloff was charged with the loss but only allowed three earned runs to go along with seven strikeouts.

After Trinity jumped out to a 2-0 lead, the Judges tied the game by the third inning with a sacrifice fly by third baseman Brian Ing ’14 and an RBI groundout by first baseman Pat Nicholson ’11. However, Brandeis’ bats again fell quiet for the rest of the game, and Trinity got to Swerdloff for three more runs to win the game.

Nicholson was dominant in the second half of an afternoon doubleheader against Springfield

on Saturday, going the distance for the Judges in a 4-0 victory. He scattered five hits throughout the game, not surrendering a single run. Nicholson broke through on the offensive side as well, bringing in a runner on a double play in the first inning and later contributing an RBI single. An RBI double by Ing sealed Springfield’s fate.

In the first game, the Judges fought hard but could not overcome a big seventh inning by Springfield, losing 11-8. John McGrath ’11 pitched six innings, giving up six runs and striking out four, but did not earn a decision in the game.

Brandeis broke open the game with three RBI doubles by Nicholson, Schwartz and centerfielder Tony Deshler ’11 in a four-run second

See BASEBALL, 13 ☛

BRIEF

Brandeis Hall of Famer Roger Morgan ’55 passes away at age 77 Roger Morgan ’55, a Brandeis basketball and baseball Hall of Famer, passed away this past week at the age of 55.

At Coyle Cassidy High School in Fall River, Mass., Morgan starred on the baseball and basketball teams and led the baseball team to the Bristol County League championships in 1951.

At Brandeis, Morgan started all 4 years for the Judges on both the baseball and basketball teams.

After graduation, he was signed to the Eau Claire Braves, a minor league affiliate of the Milwaukee Braves, now known as the Brewers. Former MLB third baseman and legendary Hall of Famer Joe Torre also made his debut on the

Braves in 1960 and was Morgan’s teammate. Braves outfielder and Hall of Famer Henry “Hank” Aaron also played for Eau Claire, missing playing with Morgan by just a few years.

After his baseball career, Morgan taught eighth-grade English at Somerset Middle School in Somerset, Mass. and went to work

for Traveler’s Insurance Company. Morgan returned to school to earn his law degree from Suffolk Law School in 1972 and served as an attorney for 38 years.

He is survived by his wife Patricia and his daughter Ann Roach.

—Jonathan Steinberg

Last Saturday, the softball team lost its first game before winning the nightcap of a doubleheader against Bowdoin College. The two games were Brandeis’ final outings of the season. With the win in the final game, the Judges ended their season with a winning record of 18-17.

In the first game of the doubleheader, Brandeis was unable to find any sort of hitting rhythm and lost 4-0. The Judges accumulated just four hits in the contest, while Brandeis’ pitching allowed nine hits.

Bowdoin pulled ahead in the third inning. Sophomore shortstop Toni DaCampo belted a home run with two runners on base to put the Polar Bears up 3-0. Bowdoin was able to tack on another run in the fourth inning, when junior third baseman Caroline Dewar singled to allow junior centerfielder Hillary Smyth to score.

Pitcher Casey Ducinski ’13 fell to 8-4 on the season, but it was poor pitching, not hitting, that did the Judges in.

“The pitching was pretty good,” she said of the outing.

In the second game, Brandeis was able to find an offensive groove and pull out a win against Bowdoin by a score of 8-7 to move back above .500.

Ducinski said that the team put the loss in the first game behind them and just wanted to win the second game.

“Everybody had a really good attitude, and going into the second game, nobody was really down,” she said.

Brandeis began the scoring in the first inning. Second baseman Marianne Specker ’12 led off the inning with a single to left, and a couple of batters later, first baseman Courtney Kelley ’11 singled to the right, allowing Specker to score.

“The hitting came along a lot better in the second game,” said Ducinski.

“It was a good back-and-forth the entire game.”

In the bottom of the third inning, Brandeis cut a two-run deficit in half.

The offense began just as it did in the first, with Specker singling to begin the inning. Outfielder Carly Schmand ’11 then reached base on an error, allowing Specker to advance to second base. The next batter, shortstop Brittany Grimm ’12, which loaded the bases. With two outs in the inning, centerfielder Samantha Gajewski ’12 singled to right field, which brought in Schmand for the score.

In the next inning, Brandeis took the lead for good. The inning began with a walk by third baseman Dani-

See SOFTBALL, 13 ☛

just

May 3, 2011

ARTS

Bodies bared at Liquid Latex p. 19

Photos: Alex Margolis, Tali Smookler, Janey Zitomer, Robyn Spector/the Justice. Design: Robyn Spector/the Justice.

18

TUESDAY, may 3, 2011 ● THE JUSTICE

POP CULTURE

INSIDE ON CAMPUS

19-21

■ Liquid Latex

19

Students stripped down and covered themselves with liquid latex in this evocative performance on April 14.

■ Boris’ Kitchen spring show

19

Titled “Armed & Legged,” the student sketch comedy troupe performed on subjects such as bathroom humor and old lady rap.

■ SpringFest and Arts Festival 20

Of Montreal, Far East Movement, Guy Mendilow and various performance artists graced the campus during the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts.

■ BWO plays Mahler

22

■ ‘Dog Sees God’ review

21

Conducted by Prof. Neal Hampton (MUS), the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra performed works by Gustav Mahler.

The Brandeis Theater Company’s production of Bert V. Royal’s Peanuts parody captured the spirit of Charles Schulz’s classic comic.

■ Lydian String Quartet

22

OFF CAMPUS

23

■ Wayne Shorter concert

23

Brandeis’ renowned resident string quartet closed the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts last Sunday.

Jazz legend Wayne Shorter gave an awe-inspiring concert featuring student musicians at the Berklee College of Music a few weeks ago.

CALENDAR

Interview

VOS spring show has soul

by Shelly Shore

What sort of pop culture writer would I be if I didn’t talk about the royal wedding?

Perhaps the biggest event since the last royal wedding—Charles to Diana, before some of us were even born—the wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William on April 29 was a high-class, star-studded affair full of celebrities, royalty and fancy hats.

For those of us who didn’t get up at four in the morning (our time) to watch the wedding, here’s what you missed: The bride wore a gorgeous wedding gown designed by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen and was escorted into Westminster Abbey by her father.

Her sister Pippa followed behind her, holding up the end of her 8-foot, 10-inch train.

Following the nuptials, William and Kate headed up to the balcony for a very public first kiss—cameras caught Kate’s shocked “Oh, wow!” as she saw the waiting crowds.

The couple then took an even more public open-carriage ride to Buckingham Palace for what this writer can only assume was a pretty rocking party, even if there was no hard alcohol to be found.

Queen Elizabeth II bestowed the new couple with the titles of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Celebrities in attendance to the wedding included Elton John and his partner, David and Victoria Beckham, Joss Stone, Guy Ritchie (you know—Madonna’s ex) and a slew of royals, both foreign and British. The Craziest Hat Award, in my humble opinion, goes to Princess Beatrice of York, whose pink hat looked like something Lady Gaga might wear out to a casual dinner—ridiculous, but still somehow tasteful, in a weird, crooked sort of way.

Stories from the reception have been trickling in from various news sources, including Charles’ wedding toast (featuring what I’ve heard was an adorable story about Prince William crashing a pedal car), Prince Harry

 JustArts recently e-mailed with Voices of Soul President Geraldine Rothschild ’12, who shared the inside scoop of the a cappella group’s rehearsals, selection process and unique musical vibe.

UK_REPSOME/Flickr Creative Commons

ROYAL WEDDING: Kate Middleton and Prince William married last Friday under the public eye.

playing tour guide to a busload of wedding guests and the couple taking their first dance to “Your Song,” performed by Elton John himself.

The highlight of the night came when the disc jockey played the Beatles hit, “All You Need is Love,” and Prince Harry led the guests in a chant of “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,” much to the surprise of William and Kate. Tears and hugs abounded.

It was a fairy tale affair, and Kate—now Her Royal Highness Princess William of Wales—now becomes one of the mostwatched women in the world. For the rest us, though—well, there’s always Harry!

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus

ON-CAMPUS EVENTS

‘True Colors’ theater performance

This queer Boston inner-city youth theater troupe brings its educational and moving original pieces to Brandeis. The appearance is sponsored by Triskelion.

Tonight from 6 to 9 p.m. in the South Campus Commons. Admission is free and open to the public.

BIC Blowout

The Brandeis Improv Collective will perform unrehearsed and on-the-fly musical numbers in its final show of the semester. The BIC creates songs of various styles and genres and features many instruments including saxophones, guitars, violins and percussion.

Tonight from 8 to 11 p.m. in Cholmondeley’s.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Rather Be Giraffes spring semester show

The co-ed a cappella group will peform its final show of the year. The performance will feature fun, popular music and a surprise theme.

Tomorrow from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the South Campus Commons. Admission is free and open to the public.

Voices of Soul semester show

These a cappella performers present both classic and new R & B and soul music at their end of the semester show.

Tomorrow from 7:30 to 10 p.m. in the South Campus Commons. Admission is free and open to the public.

Creative Writing senior thesis readings

Four seniors in the Brandeis School of Night creative writing program will read from their original manuscripts, which they have worked on throughout the semester.

Featuring both poetry and fiction, the reading is an opportunity for these students to showcase all of their hard work.

Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Women’s Studies Research Center. Admission is free and open to the public.

Silent Rave

Brandeisians can take a break from studying for finals by participating in this dance party. Everyone brings their own listening devices and playlists and rocks out to their own music.

Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. on the Great Lawn.

Admission is free.

Hit Me It’s Holi 2011

Namaskar, the Brandeis association for Hindus, Jains and Sikhs presents this festive celebration of Holi, the Southeast Asian holiday of color. Traditionally, particpants dress in white and throw powdered dyes at each other. This event also includes Indian food, kite flying and music.

Saturday from 12 to 3 p.m. on Chapels Field.

Tickets will be sold through May 4 in the Usdan Student Center and the Shapiro Campus Center. A shirt, powder and food costs $7, and powder and food alone costs $5.

ASHER KRELL/Justice File Photo

LONG-NECKED INCLINATIONS: Student a cappella group Rather Be Giraffes will feature a surprise theme at its spring semester show tomorrow from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the South Campus Commons.

Brandeis Readathon

Students will read from their favorite books for 12 hours to raise money for Families Reading Together, a Brandeis-founded literacy organization that donates books to Haiti. The books can be voted for on the event’s Facebook page.

At the Readathon, participants will take turns reading aloud. For each page read, volunteers will recieve one raffle ticket, the winner of which will be announced at the end of the night.

Saturday from noon to midnight in Cholmondeley’s.

TestFest 2011

VoiceMale, the award-winning, all-male a cappella group, will present its final appearance of the semester. The group performs a mix of oldies and current music.

Saturday from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater. Admission is free and open to the public.

New Music Brandeis

Brandeis graduate students will conduct and play their original musical pieces at this premiere event.

Saturday from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.

Company Bedtime

Company B, Brandeis’ oldest a cappella group, will be hosting a pajama party, complete with pillow forts, bedtime stories and musical performances.

The group will perform classic hits, in addition to music from a variety of genres.

Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Mandel Center for the Humanities G3. Admission is $4 in advance and $5 at the door.

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS ‘Breaking the Code’

Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, a science theater partnership between Underground Railway Theater and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tells the story of mathematician Alan Turing. A brave man who refused to deny his homosexuality, he is the genius who broke the Nazi’s Enigma Code.

Through May 8 Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. Ticket prices and showtimes vary.

Big Apple Circus

Fun for the whole family, this nonprofit touring show features animal acts, clowns and acrobatics. The arena provides an intimate encounter of the amazement of the circus—every seat allows for a great view. This year’s production is directed by Eric Michael Gillett and choreographed by Peter Pucci.

Through May 15 at City Hall Plaza, 1 City Hall Plaza, Boston. Ticket prices and showtimes vary.

Emerging America Festival

The American Repertory Theater, Huntington Theatre Company and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston present a weekend in Cambridge that brings together the most groundbreaking new artists in writing, acting and directing. With a schedule full of shows, lectures and special events (like a photo scavenger hunt), this year’s festival will energize the arts of Boston.

May 13 to 15 at The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 100 Northern Avenue, Boston; Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston; and Club Oberon, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge. For more details, visit the Festival’s website at www.emergingamericafestival.com.

On Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the South Campus Commons, co-ed a cappella group Voices of Soul will perform its spring semester show.

Geraldine Rothschild ’12, who joined Voices of Soul her first year and worked her way up to the position of president, wrote about the social and professional atmosphere of the group that originally attracted her during auditions.

Because she sang in different venues before attending college, joining an a cappella group was one of Rothschild’s top priorities upon entering Brandeis. The group she chose, which has members with many additional interests outside of music, is known in particular for its lively performances of R & B and soul numbers as well as for its unique arrangements of popular songs.

JustArts: What is unique about Voices of Soul?

Geraldine Rothschild: Voices of Soul is the most diverse group on campus, not just with our song selections, but also with our members. Our members come from all different walks of life, but we all unite around music.

Voices of Soul also boasts some of the greatest vocal talent at Brandeis.

This is reflected in VOS members participating on the Brandeis stage (Rent—Darlene Zephyrine ’12 and Stephanie Johnson ’13) and a couple members having great followings on YouTube (Josh Kahane ’12 and [me]).

JA: How many times a week does the group rehearse? What are rehearsals like?

GR: We rehearse twice a week for 2 hours.

Rehearsals start with warm-ups, followed by a fun song to get everyone excited. Then, most of rehearsal is spent learning and perfecting new and old songs.

We usually end with a “jam session,” where we pick a song and everyone can be musically creative and invent a part for it.

JA: How does the group choose its songs and soloists?

GR: Our song-selection process usually happens at the end of each semester. Each member is allowed to propose three songs that they think fits the group. We then choose around 3 to 4 songs by popular vote and group members arrange over the breaks for the following semester.

In addition, if a member feels passionate about a song, he or she can arrange it and we will add that to our repertoire. What’s really cool is that all members of the group are given the opportunity to compose a song, with the help of our Musical Director Joe Recabo ’13.

In addition, Voices of Soul has a strong alumni connection and we still have alumni composing songs for us, such as “F— You,” which was composed by alumn[us] Soohan Song ’08.

JA: Can you talk about the history of the group at Brandeis?

GR: Voices of Soul was created in 2001 by three Brandeis students who were interested in starting an R & B and Soul a cappella group.

The group has blazed a trail here ever since.

JA: When did you join and what interested you about Voices of Soul in particular?

GR: I joined Voices of Soul my first semester here. I tried out for many groups and got a lot of callbacks and acceptances, but Voices of Soul’s callback stood out the most in my mind and that’s why I decided to join VOS. The group seemed to have the best balance between fun and hard work.

Also, unlike other a cappella groups where a couple members led and the rest followed, VOS seemed to respect all its members equally and give each the opportunity to be a leader within the group. For instance, when I auditioned, the president was a sophomore and the musical director was a junior.

JA: How long have you been singing for?

Did you sing before coming to Brandeis?

GR: I can’t exactly remember when I started singing, but my parents have always encouraged music in the house. My sisters play the harp and violin and I started piano lessons early on—all these instruments can be found in our living room!

Singing has been a huge part of my life. I always sang in school and synagogue chorus in elementary and middle school. Then, my high school was very big with music. Everyone either sang or played in orchestra or band.

So, I was a member of the chorus and also a select all-girl’s singing group. I knew I wanted to continue singing by joining an a cappella group when I got to college!

JA: What is special about this week’s performance that might influence people to come see it?

GR: People should definitely come to our semester show because it will be entertaining and fun. Unlike other groups, VOS shows are free, and you know what they say, the best things in life are free.

—Emily Salloway

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, may 3, 2011

19

ON CAMPUS performance

Students push boundaries with bodies, art ■ This year’s Liquid Latex

performance exemplified the creativity, talent and diversity of the community.

By wei-huan chen JUSTICE editor

One of the reasons why the annual Liquid Latex show is one of the most popular events in the Levin Ballroom is that students get to see their friends covered in extravagant body art and dancing around in nothing but thongs.

Another reason is that it’s simply one of the most creative things to happen on the Brandeis campus. Where else but college can people get naked and get painted as Hansel, the American flag or cybernetic androids?

This year’s coordinators Alex Hulse ’12 and Shayna Medley ’12 have continued the 11-year tradition of blending art, dance and modeling in an outstanding show titled “Art is Only Skin Deep.”

I suppose art doesn’t need to go any deeper than the skin if the painters and choreographers can create imaginative worlds like Charlotte Oswald’s ’12 recreation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Students painted as fairies, donkeys and royalty acted out the disorienting plot of “Magic at Midsummer.” Nati Peleg ’13 garnered cheers when he brandished two glowing Poi orbs and spun colors in the dark, showing that skill and creativity were the main tests of the show.

I’ve only seen this once-in-a-lifetime experience from the audience, but something tells me that the true appeal of Liquid Latex lies in the creative process of recreating the model’s exterior.

All of the dancers and painters of Liquid Latex assembled at noon to begin the bodily transformations necessary for the show. Students spent the day in these new skins dancing, sweating, posing for photographs and socializing.

Each of the 10 dances and the fashion show featured a distinctive interpretation of the Liquid Latex perfor-

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

LIQUID COURAGE: Students bravely took to the stage in the Levin Ballroom to interpret and showcase artists’ painted designs that utilized bodies as moving canvases. mance. In April Kolb’s ’12 “Decadent Despair,” the painted dancers splashed red paint while on stage. I could whiff the raw, plastic smell of it from the floor onto a girl’s dress, representing her blood and sin. Ariel Bernstein ’11 threw Snickers and 3 Musketeers bars into the crowd during designers Diana Flatto ’12 and Allie Joseph ’12 and choreographer Rachel Klein’s ’12 Hanseland-Gretel-themed “Sweet Tooth.”

Designer George Falk ’11 and choreographer Mei-Ling Caldera’s ’12 “Techno Genesis” included students dressed as gigantic fast food items with womanly legs who were later violently attacked by robots wielding Usdan Café utensils. Don’t ask.

If the performances were to be judged on dance alone, then Alejandra Castellanos ’12, Nicole Cordero ’11 and Carly

Greenberg’s ’11 “Global Exposure” certainly stole the show. Marc Eder ’12 and Daniel Lee ’12 struck confident poses as the United States of America and South Korea, respectively, while Hulse captivated the stage with Parkour-style athletics, jumping on and off the runway and into the audience.

Claire Cooper ’11, Elizabeth Watson ’12 and Greenberg also stunned the crowd as they celebrated the piece’s exuberant world music.

If Liquid Latex was purely a visual art show, then the stage design team behind “A Place Like No Place on Earth” would take the prize for its dazzling Alice in Wonderland-inspired creations.

Jordan Warsoff’s ’11 Mad Hatter costume displayed devious blacks and purples that contrasted with the light blue and white of Shayna Medley’s ’12

Alice costume, while every other character sported effective patterns as well.

I must give kudos to the painters for using such bright, noticeable colors. The props—two large playing cards and the iconic rose bush—completed the Wonderland picture.

Finally, I must comment on Rachel Gillette ’11, Emily Nhaissi ’11, Julia Korn ’11 and Amy Stricoff’s ’11 “Lady Marmalade” dance. When the announcer first introduced Liquid Latex as a show “meant for mature audiences only,” she meant it. The four girls’ provocative energy struck the audience instantly as they twisted their bodies on top of chairs, couches and tables.

Like the Wonderland piece, the props used here were elaborately designed— they even included a dresser complete with a mirror—and I’m impressed at

how quickly the stage crew moved the set pieces between the acts.

Within 10 minutes of the show’s end—around 9:40 p.m.—everyone had disposed of their sticky exoskeletons.

“It feels like pulling duct tape from your body,” remarked Travis Chui ’12.

“It’s especially painful behind your arms and on the inside of your thighs.”

The students were no longer Harley Quinn, or a pirate, or Lady Gaga, or Gretel or a biomechanical hybrid wishing to eat food. They were now students again, normal people just like you and me, wearing merely human skin until the next year’s Liquid Latex.

☛ Visit www.thejustice.org for video of Liquid Latex

comedy

Boris’ Kitchen appeals to a variety of tastes

■ Boris’ Kitchen utilized

multimedia and a wide range of subjects to put together its spring semester show.

By elly kalfus JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Into bizarre alternate realities? Enjoy over-the-top caricatures? Then Boris’ Kitchen may well be the comedy group for you.

Boris’ Kitchen premiered “Armed and Legged,” its annual spring show of all-original student-written sketch comedy this weekend, as part of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. BK, founded in 1987, is the only live-action sketch comedy group on campus. Each semester, the group conducts a series of meetings in which anyone can participate, brainstorm and critique one another’s ideas until about a month and a half before the show. At that point everyone submits their sketches and the directors and writing coordinators choose pieces to perform in the spring show.

This year’s show was comprised of 25 separate and unrelated sketches and involved more video shorts than in previous years, demonstrating the group’s strong cinematographic and film-editing abilities. Some of the highlights of the show were Paul Gale’s ’12 video sketch “Old Men’s Room” and Co-director Amy Thompson’s ’11 video sketch “Lint.”

In “Old Men’s Room,” Charlie Kivolowitz ’11 plays an old man who lives with his wife, played by Briana Bensenouci ’12, in a bathroom stall, conveniently filmed in the Mandel Center for the Humanities men’s bathroom. When Peter Charland ’14 enters the bathroom and tries to use the toilet, Kivolowitz treats him like

an intruder and tells him to go away.

When Charland persists, Kivolowitz pulls him into the stall, dunking his head in the toilet several times. Much of the humor in the show was derived from repetition: In this scene, Charland emerges from the toilet with a different gross and mysterious-looking material stuck to his face each time.

In the final repetition, he has a piece of paper with the word “poop” written on it stuck to his face. The ridiculousness of the situation and the actors’ spot-on, committed acting contributed to the success of this sketch, as did Kivolowitz’s old man costume.

In “Lint,” Tricia Miller ’12 and Christopher Knight ’14 play an odd couple.

Knight’s character has an obsessive personality, but Miller’s character is completely oblivious to Knight’s crazy antics. All this is inferred from Knight’s terrific acting and creative cinematography due to very little dialogue in the sketch. Instead, most of the shots are of Knight devising different ways in which to pick up a piece of lint he has dropped upon Miller’s posterior by accident. With epic music reminiscent of parts of the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack and fast cuts between scenes, this sketch worked extremely well and took full advantage of the film medium.

Despite technical difficulties during Friday night’s performance, on Saturday the sound and lighting worked perfectly thanks to the talented crew including lighting designer Robbie Steinberg ’13, sound designer Jen Schiller ’14 and projectionist Rachel Huvard ’14. In addition, the costumes, designed by Jessica Rasp ’13; the props, designed by Bryan Prywes ’11; as well as the producer, stage manager and their assistants all contributed a great deal to the show’s smooth execution, assisting in putting together a captivating performance with few lags or

ALEX MARGOLIS/the Justice

BEAUTY AND THE BEAT: Benjamin ’14 and Thompson ’11 portray proper ladies. awkward pauses. Another highlight of Boris’ Kitchen’s shows are the transition music, compiled by cast and crew members, which wowed the audience as always.

Of the sketches enacted onstage, perhaps my favorite was another by Thompson, co-written by Stephanie Cohen. In this sketch, entitled “Pee,” Gale and Yoni Bronstein ’13 play two friends eating together. The audience is left in the dark for a bit while Gale

tells Bronstein about something he needs to do but can’t, and Bronstein echoes everything Gale says, in reference to his own struggle. Through a combination of witty dialogue and wonderful comedic physicality, the audience learns that Gale has to use the bathroom and is afraid that Bronstein will eat his sandwich while he is gone.

Thompson enters the scene at this point as a waitress, pouring water agonizingly slowly in contrast to Gale’s

hyperactive squirminess and evident pain, a relatable emotion for anyone who has ever had to hold it. The melodrama of the scene was heightened by the simplistic set and costumes, and the result was very funny.

One common thread throughout the sketches was how they ended. Much like the illustrious and brilliant sketch group The Whitest Kids U Know, Boris’ Kitchen’s sketches usually extend a bit past the punch line. In “Armed and Legged,” many of the sketches ended uncomfortably, either leaving the audience unsure as to what had just happened or beating the joke to death by continuing the scene for a few lines too many. Although punch lines worked well in a few cases, oftentimes the last lines of various sketches were unrelated to the rest of the sketch, thrown in for lack of a better way to end a scene.

Boris’ Kitchen has its own unique brand of humor. Although the cast of writers and performers changes year to year, with brand-new material presented each semester, the annual show always feels somewhat familiar, with a mainstay of “bathroom” sketches, scenes about children and a few “meta” pieces about comedy itself.

“Armed and Legged”—which was co-directed by Thompson and Jordan Warsoff ’11, and was the seniors’ final show—stayed true to this standard, showcasing a variety of sketches that ranged from proper ladies making rap references to angels and demons escorting the deceased to their respective dwellings. While some sketches soared and others fell flat, the acting and video production skills were of an incredibly high caliber and definitely elicited applause, as well as laughter of course. The abundance and variety of material left me impressed, if not inspired to write a few more sketches of my own.

ART ENLIVEN

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

IN HARMONY: Proscenium sings musical theater hits as part of A Cappella Fest, a celebration of vocal performance.

ROBYN SPECTOR/t

GAME FACE: A young attendee of the Festival of the Creative Arts shows off his face paint, designed by stu

Bands roc Far East Movement, of Montreal and Dom sizzle at SpringFest By ariel kay JUSTICE editorial assistant

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

TURN UP THE VOLUME: From left, Dom, Far East Movement and of Montreal played theatrical sets to a cheering crowd at SpringFest on Sunday. The bands provided a hip soundtrack to a warm spring day.

Before I left my dorm to head out to SpringFest on Sunday afternoon, I could hear the thumping bass and energetic cheers from the crowd of hundreds of students that gathered on Chapels Field.

The perimeter of the area was dotted with various clubs’ and organizations’ tables which were laden with everything from sex toys courtesy of Student Sexuality Information Service’s Sex Olympics to free pizza and face paint. The stage at the far end of the field dominated the scene, and music played continuously from around 2 p.m. until nearly 6 p.m.

Students, obviously glad that spring had finally arrived, milled around in bright outfits and painted faces or sunned themselves on blankets at the far end of the field. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits, nodding their heads in time with the music and generally enjoying themselves.

The three bands hired to play SpringFest— Dom, of Montreal and Far East Movement—were the stars of the event. Dom, a self-proclaimed garage/glam band from Worcester, Mass., appeared on stage first. The eponymous lead singer had a unique voice, lazily singing catchy lyrics in an unexpected falsetto and bopping about to drummer Bobby K.’s rhythms. Their show was a great beginning to what became a warm and carefree spring day.

After Dom performed, of Montreal, a band from Athens, Ga., took the stage. Of Montreal turned out to have the opposite of Dom’s easygoing manner.

The band’s show felt like a performance art exhibit, featuring several individuals who danced and performed other generally silly acts with the band as part of their show. These acts included a stylized wrestling reenactment during one instrumental

song, in which two costumed men pretended to beat one another to win a title belt. Another featured people in skin-tight pink body suits complete with gigantic plastic breasts and shiny blue capes.

I wasn’t sure what to make of all of this at first.

In the age of Lady Gaga, performance art and traditional concerts are becoming more blended than ever before. I decided that this wacky band’s music is a fun spectacle without necessarily the substance of a real story or narrative to back it up. Most of its music seemed based around these silly gimmicks instead of the other way around.

The final performer of the afternoon, Far East Movement, was certainly the most well-known of the three bands. Unlike the other bands, whose members showed up in more eclectic and casual styles, the band members entered the stage wearing bow ties, suit jackets and suspenders. Despite their buttoned-down attire, the band immediately began pumping up the audience, commanding calland-repeat chants and jumping up and down.

The band’s music has a strong electronica dimension, and most of the members’ singing is obscured by Auto-Tune and synthesizers. Much of the Far East Movement’s performance consisted of remixed versions of classic hip-hop and dance music, such as the Beastie Boys song they opened with. Of their original lyrical content, three themes seem to preside: partying, girls and drinking. Lead singer Kev Nish continually shouted out words of encouragement to the dancing crowd in front of him, such as “Put your hands in the air!” and “Let me hear you scream!” Those in attendance were happy to comply.

Overall, the afternoon was an enjoyable diversion from the last few weeks of school. Although the performers may not have been particularly memorable, the event certainly was.

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

JAMMING: Four members of Sax Appeal, an all-saxophone ensemble, collaborate to make funky music on the grass near the Shapiro Campus Center.

PUT YOUR HANDS UP: Students sing and dance as the performers o

NS CAMPUS Reflections on the Festival of the Creative Arts For 4 days this week, the Brandeis campus was transformed from a typical university into an artist’s playground. True to this year’s theme, art was all around, from the Mandel Center for the Humanities, to Chapels Field, to the Rose Art Museum.

No form of expression was left unexplored. Students presented their original films, plays, music and works of art. The amount of talent within the student body lit up the campus and ushered in the beginning of spring and an end to the winter months.

the Justice

udents.

We also shared our campus with many outside guest artists who told stories; performed folk, classical and popular music; and captured the imagination of our community.

The Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts is an annual celebration that is much anticipated each coming spring.

Due to the success of this year’s festival, we are very excited to see what next year will bring for the arts at Brandeis.

—Ariel Kay and Emily Salloway

JANEY ZITOMER/the Justice

SWINGIN’ SENIOR: The beautiful weather put students and community members alike in a dancing mood.

ck Brandeis

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Jusice

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

of SpringFest play their hit songs.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

YOSEF SCHAFFEL/the Justice

EASTERN MOVEMENT: Brandeis Belly Dance Ensemble shows off the art of hip shaking.

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

BIG BRASS BAND: The What Cheer? Brigade traveled around campus, leaving music in their wake.

22

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

THEATER

FROM CLASSIC TO MODERN

Student’s theater dreams come true ■ JustArts e-mailed with

Elana Friedland ’13, whose theatrical tour of the campus, ‘As if in a Dream,’ will take place next week.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE LOVETT

‘PEANUTS’ PARTY: Robert St. Lawrence ’11, Meg Evans ’12, Leila Stricker ’13 and Dan Katz ’12 (from left) let loose in a scene from BTC’s performance of ‘Dog Sees God.’

‘Dog Sees God’ riffs on ‘Peanuts’ ■ Brandeis Theater

Company’s ‘Dog Sees God’ enriched the Festival of the Creative Arts last weekend.

By EMILY SALLOWAY JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

“When my dog died, that was when the rain cloud came back and everything went to hell.” Good grief. Not the most uplifting opening to a spoof on Charles Schulz’s beloved Peanuts characters, but so starts the chain of events that make up Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead.

The play, which was performed by the Brandeis Theater Company last weekend, is not the heartwarming and silly cartoon we all know and love from childhood.

But, true to the je ne sais quoi that keeps my mother watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown year after year, there is something nostalgic and wonderful about meeting the Peanuts gang again as teenagers.

This is the genius move on the part of Bert V. Royal, the playwright behind this unauthorized parody of the classic comic strip.

The names of the characters have all been changed or abbreviated or purposely omitted so that the show

does not infringe upon any copyright rules. Still, various allusions clarify who is meant to be whom. The play is propelled by a series of titled dialogues that touch upon topics such as homosexuality, teen suicide, underage drinking, sex and changing relationships. Each line is deliberate and addresses the important issues without sounding preachy. Every character has his or her own voice, opinions and desires, which BTC’s cast truly understood and internalized. Whether playing the merely confused bigot or the jocular mental patient or the stoic, hesitant homosexual whose childhood friends won’t leave him alone, each actor in Dog Sees God just got it right.

CB, played with the right mixture of innocence and humility by Dan Katz ’12, is left with a myriad of questions after the passing of his pet dog (implied to be Snoopy). Where do we go after we die? Is there a place in heaven for animals? His dog, after contracting rabies, killed a yellow bird (Woodstock) with which he often had played. Will God punish the dog for his crime? CB’s friends don’t know the answers. In fact, they are too self-absorbed with partying, bullying others and abusing drugs to even attend the makeshift funeral CB holds for his dog in his backyard.

Katz was rightfully cast as the lead

of the show for his dramatic range as well as his everyman interpretation of Charlie Brown.

Stephen Badras ’13 garnered many laughs with his portrayal of the Linus character, Van, a pothead who relates to CB’s loss through the loss of his distinctive blanket, which CB and Van’s sister (the unnamed Lucy character) are said to have burned.

Badras’ Van was easygoing and natural, perfectly capturing the dreamer who, in his childhood, insisted upon the existence of the aforementioned Great Pumpkin, a Santa Claus-like figure who came to visit children on Halloween.

Matt, the now-germaphobic adolescent version of Pig-Pen, was a character who had several layers.

On the outside, there was the sexually charged, immature jock who picked on other kids at school. Underneath that was the young man who wanted to forget about his childhood nickname emphasizing his lack of hygiene. And inside, there was a boy who cared deeply about his best friend, CB, possibly to the point of having romantic feelings for him.

Robert St. Lawrence ’11, who played the part, impressively revealed each trait at exactly the right moments, creating a realistic and complex character.

Another noteworthy performance

came from Rebecca Miller ’13, who, although she was only in one scene, was extremely memorable. Miller, who played Van’s pyromaniac sister, did a great job of portraying the crazy and the sweet sides of her character, reflecting the ever-changing nature of Schulz’s feisty Lucy. Miller’s portrayal added a lighthearted quality to an unfortunate situation, and her interactions with CB contained a delicate blend of compassion and sarcasm.

BTC’s lighting and set choices complemented the comic strip feel of the play. The scene titles were projected in the characteristic Peanuts font on a sliding glass door overlooked Snoopy’s red doghouse and a green grassless hill. Properties moved onstage and offstage seamlessly, and each conversation started with interest and ended with a sense of finality, which kept the pace moving quickly.

Overall, Dog Sees God is satisfying for those who recognize the quirky dance moves of Charlie Brown and friends as well as for those merely interested in theater that discusses modern teen issues. The play makes clear that we all have to grow up sometime but that it’s important to remember the things and people you loved when you were just a blockhead of a kid.

MUSIC

BWO masters pieces by Gustav Mahler

■ The Brandeis-Wellesley

Orchestra gave an expressive and innovative concert in the Slosberg Recital Hall a few days before break.

By SUJIN SHIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

There is a common excuse that one might hear from those who hold an unfavorable opinion of classical music. It is: “I can’t understand it.

It’s boring.” And true, even to those who love or have studied classical music, there are pieces that are melodically or thematically incomprehensible and are hard to fully appreciate. But to anyone who attended the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony, Titan, on April 14 in the Slosberg Recital Hall, would feel neither unenlightened nor underwhelmed. The orchestra’s meticulous preparation of the difficult piece, Prof. Neal Hampton’s (MUS) passionate and emotive conducting

and the foreword on the composer’s vision by Prof. Eric Chafe (MUS) made this masterpiece of early Mahler impossible not to enjoy.

Before the performance, Chafe shared his extensive knowledge on the history and musical themes behind the symphony. Mahler was a late-Romantic composer whose stunning harmonies and modernist tendencies garnered him recognition during his own time as well as into the 21st century. He was a composer who was heavily inspired by songs, and his affinity for simpler, more recognizable melodies could be felt throughout the symphony.

Chafe, with the help of Hampton and the orchestra, played these common strands of melody that would be repeated throughout the movement so the audience would recognize the theme when heard in full later on.

Though composers work primarily with pitches, melodies and harmonies, Mahler could also be considered a visual artist. Evoking a visual scene is not an easy thing to do with music, but Mahler easily manipulated this by using a unique feature

of string instruments. Strings, in order to create a pure tone, must be pressed against a hard surface and vibrated. But they follow the laws of harmonics—when a string is lightly touched at a certain point and bowed, it makes an eerie, raspy tone one octave above the pure tone.

Mahler employed the soft, murmuring ring in the first movement of his symphony to evoke the image of early morning mist rising gently from the ground. It was an interesting and refreshing sound, a contrast to the simple and hummable melodies that would soon follow.

One such recognizable melody was the popular children’s nursery song “Frère Jacques,” albeit worked into such a slow, heavy march that it could be played at a funeral dirge for Frère Jacques himself. Though Mahler’s affinity was for songs, he also wrote strains of soaring triumph and melodies of pure emotional flight and grandeur that pushed the body into the seat with sheer power. And, again drawing from Romantic inspiration, he also worked coy and flirtatious melodies into his

third movement.

Mahler is a very difficult composer to play, as his melodies stretch all across the board, from gloomy marches to joyous waltzes to triumphant elevation. But it was clear that the orchestra itself connected deeply with the music; each member played each measure with an electric passion. Especially commendable were the strings. During the slow and ponderous second movement, the cellos and basses showcased the emotive power of their warm sound.

And the violins and violas played with the vigor of professionals. This passionate connection to Mahler’s music was especially noticeable in the more static parts of the melodies which could have been dangerously boring if not played the way they were.

This interpretation of Mahler’s symphony was easily one of the finest concerts that Brandeis has seen this year, and if the BrandeisWellesley Orchestra maintains this passion, many more excellent nights are sure to come to the Slosberg Recital Hall.

May 6 and 7 mark a theater event from Free Play Theater Cooperative that is unlike any other this semester. Starting at 9 p.m. in front of the Spingold Theater Center, Elana Friedland ’13 will take viewers on a tour of the University, narrating students’ stories about what various locations on campus mean to them.

Friedland won’t share too many details about the piece, titled ‘As if in a Dream,’ but she did explain the story behind the formation of the event. Email elafri@brandeis.edu to RSVP or RSVP via the Facebook event in order to attend.

JustArts: Where did you come up with the idea for As if in a Dream?

Elana Friedland: A class of mine took place in a different building from usual at a different time to accommodate a visiting artist. I stepped out of the building, noticed a light hitting a bench that I had never paid attention to and said to myself: “I want other people to see this.” And that’s where this started.

I’ve also been investigating various forms of performance since a class I took in fall of junior year [of high school]—the conceptual roots of this piece actually came from the work I did in it for the Mapping Brandeis Project [a web-based artistic exploration of the University campus in which participants add their own photos of locations on campus to a collective map of Brandeis].

JA: Who is performing in and leading the tour/show?

EF: I’ll be leading the tour. I don’t want to give away any surprises, so I won’t tell you who else will be performing, but I will say that I’m trying to cover various areas of the creative arts.

JA: Where/how did you acquire the student experiences that you mention in the Facebook event?

EF: I conducted interviews with other students, ranging from firstyears to seniors; I sought people from a variety of backgrounds [and] with differing interests. I also did a bit of archival research about the campus, so I’m looking forward to being able to share the experiences of earlier Brandeisians as well.

JA: What are you most excited for people to see/hear?

EF: I’m most excited for people to see the campus in a different light.

And very eager to bring all of these stories to life.

JA: If I were to go on the tour, what would I be doing?

EF: Again, I don’t want to give away too much, but if you came on the tour, firstly, you’d be walking along with me. Ideally, you’d do a bit of talking too—I’m aiming for this to be an interactive experience and one where people can connect with each other.

JA: What are the benefits/ unique aspects of experimental theater pieces like this one?

EF: This kind of theater really reinforces the fact that it’s a live event. I feel like in some ways this kind of theater is more accessible, even if its methodologies might be a bit out there, because it’s taking place in spaces that are readily available to everyone.

Creating this sort of experimental theater emphasizes the integral relationship between audience and performer; even in traditional plays, actors feed off the energy of spectators. This just makes that [idea] a bit more apparent.

—Emily Salloway

THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, May 3, 2011

23

MUSIC

Lydians inspire as Festival’s capstone ■ The Lydian String Quartet

concluded the Leonard Bernstein Festival for the Creative Arts last Sunday.

By Felicia Kuperwaser JUSTICE contributing WRITER

The Lydian String Quartet’s concert on Sunday night provided a perfect capstone to Brandeis’ annual Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. The concert was also the Lydian’s 30th anniversary performance. The Quartet undertook a largely contemporary and unconventional program, a choice that stayed true to their reputation and was fitting for the festival’s theme: “Art is All Around.” All four pieces they performed were unique in musical construct and style, and the Lydians made each selection relatable, stimulating and beautiful.

Lydian violinist Prof. Judith Eissenberg (MUS) commented in an e-mail interview with justArts, “Every day we sit together and try to come to some agreement on how to express ideas in sound, ... how to ar-

ticulate them in a way that will connect and move our fellow humans.

It is at times an excruciating process, but worth it—for the moments of deep joy that we share with each other and for those who listen with us.”

Besides Eissenberg, the Lydian String Quartet is comprised of Prof.

Daniel Stepner (MUS) on violin, Prof. Mary Ruth Ray (MUS) on viola and Prof. Joshua Gordon (MUS) on cello, with guest pianist Geoffrey Burleson.

Eissenberg wrote, “We wanted a special program as it is part of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Arts, ... a diverse program with a sense of exploration.”

The Lydians opened with Leonard Bernstein’s “Agathon” from Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium.” Bernstein was instrumental in creating the first Festival of the Creative Arts at Brandeis, and he composed the Serenade during his time here as a professor in the Music department. It is a work based on Plato’s Symposium, in which the various characters discuss different facets of love at a party.

The piece was written as a violin

concerto, and Stepner transcribed it for a string quartet. It lends itself to this more intimate presentation, as each instrument’s voice plays a clear role in telling part of the narrative. The varied textures, rhythms and harmonies combined to create a dramatic exploration of the concept of love. Despite the piece’s complexity, each musical component served specifically to tell a story and convey these deep emotions. With their precise technique and elegant control, the Lydians seamlessly moved from moments of mounting tension to tranquil beauty. Like love itself, each aspect of this exploration was vital and compelling.

Vincent Persichetti’s “Quintet for Piano and Strings, Op. 66” concluded the first half. Though written as a single movement, the piece comprises four sections, each like its own movement. When the strings played alone, they were often at odds with each other through playful, deliberate staccato notes, or with a darker, more ghostly sound. When the piano joined in, the strings would suddenly coalesce, and the quartet’s unity and combined strength helped create a formidable opponent for the

piano’s distinct and highly rhythmic themes. Each bout of tension built upon the last until a final moment of turmoil, punctuated by the cello’s incisive gestures, gradually dissolved into silence.

After the Persichetti piece, Mohammed Fairouz’s “Lamentation and Satire,” completed in 2008, was performed. Fairouz attended the concert to hear his piece. The lamentation was somber, delicate and contemplative, and the satire that followed was fiercer and more violent.

Fairouz created a raw sound, exploring each instrument’s capacity to produce a wide range of tones and timbres. The Lydians approached each part, from delicate vibrato to a distinctly Eastern-sounding sawing noise, with an interest and wonder that allowed the audience to appreciate the piece in full. Once the final low cello note dissipated, Gordon’s arms fell from his cello in a dramatic sigh-like gesture, and a silence lingered as the piece’s final sound.

Claude Debussy’s “String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10” provided harmonious relief to the audience after the previous piece’s more austere quality. Debussy was a French Impres-

sionist composer whose rich harmonies and elegant lyricism permeate every measure of the performance.

Eissenberg described it as “a piece with a sensuous and soulful center that ultimately bursts into flame in the last movement.” If the first three pieces showcased the power of the individual instrument’s voice, this piece was a celebration of the sheer beauty instruments create in the compilation. The piece’s character varied from vigorous and animated to expressive and full of yearning. It culminated, four movements later, in a crisp, succinct two-note cadence that brought the piece to a powerful close. The Lydians maintained a full, resonant sound throughout.

The quartet played with vigor, tending as carefully to each note as to each larger narrative. In this concluding event of the Festival of the Creative Arts, the Lydians used great care and proficiency to create beauty in each of these unconventional works. In keeping with the theme of the festival, they truly explored artistic possibilities in their own medium of expression, creating provocative, inspiring and simply beautiful art.

OFF CAMPUS MUSIC

A living jazz legend leaves footprints at Berklee ■ Wayne Shorter, best known

for his work as part of Art Blakey’s and Miles Davis’ groups, played at the Berklee Performance Center April 25.

By Wei-huan chen JUSTICE editor

The audience rose instantly when the 78-year-old man walked onstage.

He shuffled over cords and past amps, as if the deafening cheers hindered his step. His eyes, barely visible in the dim purple light, darted between the stool in front of him and a sheet of music he held in his left hand. In his right hand, a soprano saxophone gleamed in the spotlight that rolled onto him.

Now that he and his instrument were illuminated, the fans applauded even louder. They had loved his compositions and records for years.

They continued to clap, if not for his arrival, then for his contributions to a musical idiom that they—as fans, students, educators—are now responsible for keeping alive. It was as if they were thanking the man with their applause, thanking him for “Footprints”; for “Speak No Evil”; for his fiery hard-bop improvisations as part of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers; for composing countless standards; and for taking jazz into the modern realm with Miles Davis’ second great quintet and with his own jazz fusion group, Weather Report. Wayne Shorter’s presence, in a night dedicated to Wayne Shorter, could only have been met with this type of explosive enthusiasm.

The members of the rhythm section behind him, all successful musicians, laid down their instruments to clap for the pear-shaped gentleman, who wore a navy-blue button-down, pleated black dress pants and black loafers. They, along with students, had already played an hour and a half’s worth of Shorter’s compositions before this moment. Now, they were to share the stage with the man as a final tribute to the living jazz legend.

The audience members finally sat down, upright with eager postures.

They waited for him quietly as he adjusted the music and microphone stands. He shuffled his feet some more. He decided to put the sheet music on the stool—OK. Finally, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington broke the silence with a funk groove for “Footprints,” a tune composed by Shorter in 1966 that most jazz musicians know by heart. The drummer closed her eyes as she played, as if to focus on transferring rhythmic

PHOTO COURTESY OF BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC

SPEAK NO EVIL: Wayne Shorter is generally acknowledged to be jazz’s greatest living composer, according to The New York Times. energy from the core of her body to her arms and legs, then jolting it into the ride cymbal and snare. Each emphasized hit was deliberate but on subtle, unexpected beats. Bassist John Patitucci—always phenomenal performing live—had the squinted eyes and scowl that said, “Ow! That’s hot!” David Gilmore smiled at Shorter as he strummed his electric guitar. Pianist Danilo Perez, who had introduced the night’s guest of honor, alternated between bending his head down in concentration at his instrument and lifting it in reverence toward Shorter. Saxophonists George Garzone and Joe Lovano stood with their instruments to their sides as they waited for Shorter’s entrance.

The moments before Shorter played his first note were uncertain and tense. It was not clear when his melody would begin. The audience did not know what he would sound like. Would his tone be filled with youthful bounce, like in his earlier

recordings? Or would it be raspy, indicating an aging embouchure?

The people in the hall loved him too much to see Shorter be anything less than spectacular. They had, unavoidably, placed the highest of expectations upon him.

The first note pierced the hall with its bright clarity. A hint of hoarseness rode underneath the high, glossy tone until it emerged to the surface—the raspy sound of air and reed. Surprised by how loud his sound was, the audience leaned back in unison. Shorter’s tone was raw, bright and, most notably, young. The 1,200-plus fans in the hall dropped their shoulders in relief. The way he moved from note to note was methodical yet sporadic, causing his back to arch as he sped through the registers of his instrument.

The concert was the Berklee College of Music’s “The Footprints of a Mysterious Traveler: Berklee Global Jazz Institute First Anniversary Concert Celebrates Wayne Shorter,”

held at the Berklee Performance Center in downtown Boston on Monday, April 25. The National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Masters Live—a fund that will be discontinued after 2012—helped fund Shorter’s stay at Berklee. Instead of awarding a modest sum to the living legends that have shaped jazz, often called the only American art form, the federal grant will now award a modest sum to one group or performer in the categories of Performing Arts and Visual Arts, which contains too broad a spectrum for the award to retain significant meaning. Shorter was officially appointed NEA Jazz Master— the highest honor the United States bestows upon jazz musicians—in 1998. His performance represented one of the last opportunities students have to hear from a leading jazz musician in this type of academic program.

There were a few empty seats during the first act of the concert. However, at intermission, the owners of

these seats arrived in swarms for Shorter’s performance. Yet, when the faculty combo began playing at the start of the second act, the man of the hour still had not arrived. He would not come onstage until the concert was almost over. His presence was a rare treat for the patient audience, and his departure felt like it came too soon. He had offered the hungry crowd sparse notes in his solos, leaving the John-Coltranesheets-of-sound style of the ’50s and ’60s behind. He did not show off. He did not command the crowd—he had won them over years ago, as a young tenor saxophonist in Art Blakey’s quintet and later in Miles Davis’ second great quintet. Shorter hardly made eye contact with his listeners throughout the night. When the audience members rose again at the end, yelling out their collective love for him, he did not bow or nod. Shorter instead smiled appreciatively at the conductor and pointed to the orchestra, as if to deflect the applause to the musicians behind him. He then walked off the stage, slowly, treading through the same molasses of modesty as he did when he entered.

The facial expressions of the performers said much about the concert. BGJI artistic director Perez struggled to find satisfactory words to introduce Shorter, but he maintained his buoyant smile as he spoke. He held the confident face of a well-recognized performer. Yet when the billowy-blue jazz legend emerged from stage right, Perez’s smirk disappeared. A wide, reverent smile took its place. Perez’s eyes, which were intense and calm before, seemed to widen then dissolve in front of the man. No, the jazz combo didn’t bow its head to him, but it might as well have. Gilmore helped Shorter with his sheet music and beamed when the man patted him on the back. These accomplished musicians joined the audience in its humble appreciation of his presence.

Wayne Shorter always had a sound that no contemporary could imitate, and he stands out as a ceaselessly innovating performer and composer.

When Shorter first joined Davis’ second great quintet in 1964, the renowned trumpet player instantly recognized the man’s gift.

“He understood that freedom in music was the ability to know the rules in order to bend them to your own satisfaction and taste,” Davis wrote in his autobiography about Shorter. “Wayne was out there on his own plane, orbiting around his own planet.” He summed, “Getting Wayne made me feel good, because with him I just knew some great music was going to happen. And it did; it happened real soon.”

24

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2011 ● THE JUSTICE

TOP of the

ARTS ON VIEW

TRIVIA TIME 1. The Geneva Convention, agreements that define international treatment of prisoners of war, were updated in what year?

2. What are the nine patron goddesses of the arts called?

3. The Pyrenees Mountains lie between France and which other country?

4. Stomatitis is inflammation of what?

5. Mother Cabrini was the first U.S. citizen to become what?

6. Who was the 14th president of the United States?

7. What genus do human beings belong to?

8. In what century did Dante complete The Divine Comedy?

9. On the animated children’s show Arthur, what kind of animal is the main character?

10. What is the square root of 64?

1. 1949 2. The Muses 3. Spain 4. The mouth 5. A saint 6. Franklin Pierce 7. Homo 8. 14th century 9. Aardvark 10. 8

SHOWTIMES 5/6 – 5/12 Water for Elephants Fri-Sun: 1:10, 3:50, 6:40, 9:20 Mon-Thurs: 2:10, 4:50, 7:40 The Conspirator Fri-Sun: 1:00, 3:40, 6:30, 9:15 Mon-Thurs: 2:00, 4:50, 7:30 Limitless Fri-Sun: 1:40, 4:20, 7:10, 9:35 Mon-Thurs: 2:40, 5:10, 8:10 Hanna Fri-Sun: 1:20, 4:00, 6:50, 9:25 Mon-Thurs: 2:20, 5:00, 7:50 Thor Fri-Sun: 1:30, 4:10, 7:00, 9:30 Mon-Thurs: 2:30, 5:00, 8:00 Source Code Fri-Sun: 1:50, 4:30, 7:20, 9:40 Mon-Thurs: 2:50, 5:10, 8:20 Coming Soon: Hesher 5/13 Bridesmaid 5/13

The Embassy is located at 18 Pine Street in Waltham

CHARTS Top 10s for the week ending May 1 BOX OFFICE

1. Rio 2. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family 3. Water for Elephants 4. Hop 5. Scream 4 6. African Cats 7. Soul Surfer 8. Hanna 9. Insidious 10. Source Code

NYT BESTSELLERS

NAN PANG/the Justice

ONE WISH: Justice Layout Editor Nan Pang ’13 took this photo of some of the 2,500 cranes that the University is sending to the Million Crane Project, which aims to show U.S. support of Japan.

ACROSS 1. It’s a long story 5. The Talk network 8. Make over 12. Demographic of a sort 14. Still 15. Implode 16. “The—on the Floss” 17. Away from WSW 18. With unfriendliness 20. Beg 23. Writer Vonnegut 24. Injure 25. Institution of higher learning 28. Use a shovel 29. Impressive formation 30. Legislation 32. Miner, perhaps 34. Leaning Tower city 35. Ninth Greek letter 36. Thread 37. Asian sultanate 40. Conger, e.g.

41. Ireland 42. Conversation 47. Plankton component 48. Framework 49. Antelope’s playmate 50. Zodiac sign 51. Without (Fr.) DOWN 1. Pouch 2. Past 3. Solidify 4. Glistening 5. Manage somehow 6. Ralph Kramden’s carrier 7. Mirrorlike 8. Distant 9. Satan’s specialty 10. “The Farmer in the—” 11. Having no siblings 13. McNally partner 19. Paris airport 20. Third degree?

21. Nonclerical 22. Therefore 23. M*A*S*H locale 25. At a turning point 26. Smooth-talking 27. Facility

CROSSWORD

Fiction 1. The Sixth Man – David Baldacci 2. The Land of Painted Caves – Jean M. Auel 3. The Fifth Witness – Michael Connelly 4. Chasing Fire – Nora Roberts 5. I’ll Walk Alone – Mary Higgins

Nonfiction 1. Bossypants – Tina Fey 2. Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand 3. Liberty Defined – Ron Paul 4. She Walks in Beauty – Caroline Kennedy 5. I’m Over All That – Shirley MacLaine

iTUNES

1. Adele – “Rolling in the Deep” 2. Katy Perry feat. Kanye West – “E.T.” 3. Bruno Mars – “The Lazy Song” 4. Britney Spears feat. Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha – “Till the World Ends (the Femme Fatale Remix)” 5. The Black Eyed Peas – “Just Can’t Get Enough” 6. Pitbull feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer – “Give Me Everything” 7. Ke$ha – “Blow” 8. Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull – “On the Floor” 9. Jeremih and 50 Cent – “Down on Me” 10. Rihanna – “S&M”

BILLBOARD

1. Adele – 21 2. Glee Soundtrack – Glee: the Music Presents: The Warblers 3. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light 4. Soundtrack – Lemonade Mouth 5. Britney Spears – Femme Fatale 6. Alison Krauss + Union Station– Paper Airplane 7. Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More 8. Paul Simon -- So Beautiful or So What 9. Chris Brown – F.A.M.E. 10. Justin Bieber -- Never Say Never: The Remixes

29. Burn remedy 31. “—and Peace” 33. Straight 34. Airline employees 36. 2009 Broadway musical set in Nigeria 37. Abacus component 38. Anger 39. Incite 40. Ticklish Muppet 43. Raw rock 44. Sine - non 45. Coffee vessel 46. Affirmative

Solution to last week’s crossword

Album information provided by Billboard Magazine. Box office information provided

by Fandango. iTunes top sellers provided by Apple.com. Bestellers list provided by The New York Times.

STAFF PLAYLIST

“Study Abroad” King Crossword Copyright 2011 King Features Synd, Inc.

STRANGE BUT TRUE  It was the multitalented Pierre Beaumarchais—born in the 18th century, he was a revolutionary in both France and America, as well as a watchmaker, diplomat, musician, spy, inventor, publisher and arms dealer—who made the following sage observation: “It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.”  If you live in Florida, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that there are more than 3,000 different species of mosquitoes.  The experts claim that roses don’t really have thorns.

Botanically speaking, thorns are considered to be modified branches and are difficult to break off the stem.

What roses have are known as prickles, which are just outgrowths of the stem’s outer skin—and they are, fortunately, much easier to break off.  Statistics show that after having her first child, a woman’s driving sees a measurable improvement.  The name of the great state of Missouri comes from a

Native American word meaning “town of large canoes.”  A man named Henry Budd, before his death in 1862, directed in his will that if his sons, William and Edward, grew mustaches they would receive nothing from his estate. In further discrimination against facial hair, one Mr. Fleming, a British upholsterer, left five pounds in his will to each of his mustached employees, but double that to those who were clean-shaven.  Those who study such things say that the Atlantic Ocean is getting 1.2 inches wider every year.  If you enjoy apricots, be sure you don’t accidentally swallow the pits—they contain substances called cyanogenetic glycosides, which are converted to cyanide once they reach the digestive tract.

Thought for the Day: “Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them.” ­—Dr. Martin Henry Fischer

By ALLYSON CARTTER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

When I’m studying, I sometimes listen to songs that aren’t in English so that I’m less likely to be distracted by the words. Here are a few of my go-to songs for finals: THE LIST 1. “Sucedáneos” – The New Raemon 2. “Rien de rien” – Edith Piaf 3. “Ringa Ringa” – A.R. Rahman feat. Alka Yagnik and Ila Arun 4. “Hay Amores” – Shakira 5. “Gopala” – John McDowell 6. “Cremé de la cremé” – Xenia Kriisin et K-Boyz 7. “Ella Es Bonita” – Natalia LaFourcade 8. “Dounia” – Vieux Farka Touré 9. “Huellas” – Ximena Sariñana 10. “Danza Kuduro” – Don Omar feat. Lucenzo