The Justice, November 24, 2009

ARTS PAGE 21

FORUM Overhauling the announcements 12

MELA RETURNS

SPORTS Norton ’11 takes seventh at NCAAs 16 THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

the

OF

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY SINCE 1949

Justice www.theJusticeOnline.com

Volume LXII, Number 13

Waltham, Mass.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

EXPANDING DINING OPTIONS

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Sherman appoints Hogan to search committee ■ Student Union President

Andy Hogan ’11 has been appointed as a nonvoting member to the committee.

By NASHRAH RAHMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 announced at last Thursday’s State of the Union Address that he has been appointed as a nonvoting student member to the Presidential Search Committee by Chair of the Board of Trustees Malcolm Sherman.

“I am obviously very happy that [Sherman] and other Board members saw how important it is to include students in the process,” Hogan said in an interview with the Justice. He said that Sherman did not state why he was appointed as a nonvoting member.

“I know [Hogan] was selected because he was … a highly visible student leader. We had put a cap on the number of members the Committee would have, and his choice would have added over and above what the Board had approved,” Sherman said in an interview with the Justice.

Hogan said that he will provide the PSC with student feedback through the help of the Student Advisory Committee, which was created to facilitate student input in the search process. “One of the good things about [the appointment] is that I think I will be able to push for more engagement of the advisory committee.”

Chair of the Faculty Senate Prof.

Sabine von Mering (GRALL) also released the names of the eight candidates who have been selected to the Faculty Advisory Committee, which will provide the Presidential Search Committee with faculty feedback, in an e-mail to the faculty last Friday.

The FAC consists of six faculty members from each of the different University departments and two members-at-large. The six faculty members are Profs. Jonathan Unglaub (FA), Robin F. Miller (GRALL), Irving Epstein (CHEM), David Cunningham (SOC) and Allyala Krishna Nandakumar (Heller). Profs. Anita Hill (Heller) and Aida Wong (FA) are

See SEARCH, 5 ☛

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

OVERCROWDING: The new Upstairs Café, which will open in the spring, aims to alleviate overcrowding at other dining spaces, such as Usdan Café during peak times.

New café will debut in spring ■ The Upstairs Café will be

located in the Gluck Lobby outside Levin Ballroom. It will be a temporary outlet.

By HARRY SHIPPS JUSTICE EDITOR

Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 announced that there are plans to open a new temporary dining

location, the Upstairs Café, at the beginning of next semester. He made the announcement during the annual State of the Union Address last Thursday.

The café will be in the Gluck Lobby outside the Levin Ballroom and is part of an effort to alleviate overcrowding problems in the Usdan Student Center dining facilities, but Hogan stressed that it is only a temporary solution. The eventual goal is to have a permanent dining facility in

the Mandel Center for the Humanities, which is currently under construction.

The café, which will serve cold sandwiches and salads, will open on the first day of classes for spring semester, Hogan said. Both Hogan and Director of Dining Services Michael Newmark indicated that the sandwiches and salads available at the Upstairs Café will be different from those already offered at other campus locations.

Vice President for Campus Operations Mark Collins said, “At the peak periods of lunchtime, we have an issue [with long lines], … so what we are looking for is just to provide another option to the students.”

Collins said that the café is aimed at students who may not have more than 20 minutes or half an hour for lunch and cannot wait in long lines.

With the café, those students will be

See DINING, 5 ☛

ACADEMICS

University reorganizes high school programming ■ The Institute for Informal

Jewish Education will also be renamed to Innovation in Jewish Education.

By MIRANDA NEUBAUER JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

The University is consolidating three high school summer programs at Brandeis—the Genesis Program, the Berkshire Institute for Music and the Arts and Impact Boston—into a new Office of High

School Programs in part of an effort to expand its options for high school students, Provost Marty Krauss said.

As part of that reorganization, the Institute for Informal Jewish Education, which conveys teaching methods used in the high school summer programs to Jewish educators, will be renamed Innovation in Jewish Education, according to an e-mail to faculty and staff from Krauss last Wednesday. IJE will continue as an outreach program of the Office of High School Programs and no longer as an institute,

Krauss wrote in an e-mail to faculty last Wednesday.

“As efforts were being thought about that would expand the number of programs that might be directed towards high school students, we thought it might be useful to have one office to coordinate and oversee and facilitate that,” Krauss said.

“What we feel as a team is it’s time for Brandeis as a university to try to take best advantage of the summer opportunities for high school students both because they’re really good for the students,

but they also bring really excellent potential future Brandeis undergraduates to campus,” Prof. Joseph Reimer (HRNS), director of the IJE, said.

According to their respective Web sites, Genesis, founded in 1997, is a four-week program for high school students to “to pursue intellectual and Jewish exploration.”

BIMA, which moved to Brandeis in 2007, is a four-week program for high school students to develop their “artistic talent and [their]

See PROGRAMS, 5 ☛

Chabad marathon

Judges start 4-0

Revamping options

■ The Chabad Brandeis Marathon Team runs the Cape Cod marathon.

■ The women’s basketball team won three games last week to improve its record to 4-0 on the season.

■ The Student Union Meal Plan Committee will be involved in exploring more meal options.

FEATURES 6 For tips or info call Let your voice be heard!

Submit letters to the editor online (781) 736-6397 at www.thejusticeonline.com

INDEX

SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 6

OPINION POLICE LOG

11 2

COMMENTARY

11

NEWS 3 COPYRIGHT 2009 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Call for home delivery.

2

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS BRIEF

POLICE LOG

Noninventory cleaning product sickens Village residents

Medical Emergency

Larceny

Nov. 17—Staff in Rosenthal Quad called University Police and stated that a student was having an allergic reaction.

BEMCo responded. The party was treated on-scene and transported to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Nov. 18—A party in Massell Quad stated that she had a high fever. The party was treated by BEMCo and transported to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Nov. 18—Staff at the Mailman House stated that a female party was requesting an ambulance for an evaluation. University Police assisted the ambulance with transport without incident.

Nov. 22—A party in the Foster Mods reported that her friend might have alcohol poisoning and had thrown up.

BEMCo and University Police responded. The patient refused medical treatment.

Nov. 17—University Police assisted the Waltham Police Department with a shoplifting incident, which occurred off campus, involving a University community member.

Nov. 19—A party reported that a bicycle had been stolen from the Usdan Student Center.

The party completed a statement, and University Police compiled a report on the theft.

Nov. 19—A party in North Quad reported that she had left her room to use the bathroom and when she returned her laptop was gone. University Police compiled a report on the theft.

A number of students were sickened by bleach in a noninventory cleaning product used in a gender-neutral bathroom on the third floor of the Village A House last Monday afternoon, according to affected students and Director of Facilities Services Peter Baker in an e-mail to the Justice.

Baker wrote that he learned late Tuesday morning that custodial supervision staff had responded to a call on Monday evening “and found an odor of bleach and a non-inventory cleaning product … that contained bleach.” He wrote that Office of Facilities Services does not “purchase or use bleach when cleaning.”

“Not surprisingly, we are seeing more and more noninventory cleaning products and sanitizers around campus as a result of flu concerns,” Baker wrote. “Our custodial staff will be reminded to be aware of these products and that extra care needs to be exercised to prevent the mixing of incompatible cleaning materials, University-supplied or not.”

Amanda Bellmar ’11 said, “I was studying in the common room, and I went into the gender-neutral bathroom to get a tissue, and immediately my eyes started to water, and I held my breath, and I ran out of there because the smell was so strong.” She said that her community advisor went in afterward and subsequently threw up due to the smell. The CA, the community development coordinator and the Director of Residence Life declined to comment.

“The smell was extremely strong. When I went into the bathroom I got all teary eyed and nauseous. I immediately went to find another shower on the floor,” Laura Velez ’11 wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

“I know a lot of us were unable to be out in the common room for a while because we had to prop open the door of the bathroom to let the smell come out because there was no ventilation in there, no window or anything,” Bellmar added.

Bellmar said her CA had difficulty getting in touch with the University administration regarding the incident. “I know that my CA had to be very persistent to her advisers about the situation in order to get a response. …

We didn’t get a response until maybe the next afternoon after the incident occurred, 24 hours later,” she said.

“The incident definitely made me uncomfortable. I really don’t think it was appropriate that they took so long to respond, especially [since] we didn’t know what the chemical was that was causing the nausea. … We didn’t have the adequate resources to deal with the problem ourselves, so all we could do was prop the bathroom door open and try to get the smell to linger out of the bathroom,” Bellmar said.

Vice President for Campus Operations Mark Collins wrote that Facilities Services consulted with Andrew Finn, the University manager of health and safety, about the incident. The students who were interviewed said that they did not go to the Health Center. Finn could not be reached for comment by press time.

Baker wrote that when he first heard about the incident early Tuesday morning, staff visited the location and the custodial supply room and found no products containing bleach.

Disturbance Nov. 19—University Police received a report from a party on Charles River Road that a vehicle was playing loud music for an extended period of time and that people in the area were being loud. University Po-

lice checked the area and found nothing.

Nov. 22—A party in the Foster Mods reported that there was a party in the upper Mods that was not ending. University Police responded and heard loud music coming from Mod 16. It did not appear to be a party, and the residents agreed to turn off the music.

Nov. 22—A party at 150 Charles River Road reported that there was a large group near the common room causing loud noise. University Police responded and dispersed the group.

Miscellaneous Nov. 18—A custodian in the Goldfarb Library reported that the mezzanine area had been vandalized. There was no permanent damage. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

Nov. 18—University Police

Two Union members resign at Senate meeting

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS An article in Features last week misspelled the surname of a student. The student’s name is Tova Ferstenberg, not Tova Fernsteinberg. (Nov. 12, p. 9) The “Players to watch” section in the Sports pullout last week misstated the graduation year of a student.

Diana Cincotta is a junior, not a senior. (Nov. 12, p. 28) A photo credit in News last week misattributed a photo.

The photo is courtesy of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. (Nov. 12, p. 3)

The Arts cover last week misstated the name of a campus group. The group’s name is the Early Music Ensemble, not the Ensemble of Early Music. (Nov. 12, p. 17) The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. E-mail justeditor@ brandeis.edu.

theJustice 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 will be held Friday from 10 a.m. to noon in the Justice office this week. Editor in chief office hours are usually held every Wednesday from 1 to 2 p.m.

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SENATE LOG

—Miranda Neubauer

An article in News last week misstated the committee affiliations of a professor. Prof. Richard Parmentier (ANTH) is a member of the Faculty Workload Committee and the Dean’s Curriculum Committee; he was not a member of the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee. (Nov. 12, p. 5)

received a call from the Goldfarb Library reporting a party who was throwing eggs. University Police checked the area and found nothing.

Nov. 19—Staff in the Goldfarb Library reported vandalism. University Police made contact with the person who had reported the vandalism.

They found cookie wrappers and a cookie on the floor. No further action was taken by University Police.

Nov. 20—University Police received a report of a small group in Massell Quad smoking from a bong. University Police responded and were unable to locate the group.

Nov. 21—A party at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management reported being harassed via e-mail. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

Crossing Boundaries The 10 fellows of the 2008 to 2009 Students Crossing Boundaries Program displayed photographs and other visual reminders of their experiences during last Wednesday’s “If Walls Could Talk” event.

Senator for the Class of 2012 Nipun Marwaha resigned from the Student Union at its Nov. 22 meeting, saying, “I think at the juncture, the Student Union is essentially falling apart.” At the meeting, he said that the executive board was exercising what amounted to arbitrary power and that there are issues that need to be addressed in the Constitutional Review Committee.

Student Union Director of Academic Affairs Supreetha Gubbala ’12 resigned, saying, “I personally have become invested in another passion of my life.” She will be devoting her time to her club and academics.

The Senate derecognized 53 clubs that had not signed forms regarding the antihazing policy. The clubs can be re-recognized after they submit the proper forms.

Before announcing his resignation, Marwaha moved to “suspend the rules and derecognize all clubs [on the list]” without discussing the derecognition measure.

Director of Community Advocacy Jenna Brofsky ’10 announced the Campus Life Committee’s goal to increase the amount of available study space in the Shapiro Campus Center during finals and said that the Art Gallery will be available as study space 24 hours a day during this time period.

The Senate approved a Senate Resolution submitted by Senator for Village Quad Leigh Nusbaum ’11 and Senator for the Class of 2011 Michael Newborn that stated that the Union recognizes a need for a midyear senator and that such a position should be created in the revised Constitution.

The Senate approved a Senate Money Resolution that allocated funds for the Midnight Buffet.

Ben Henig ’12, the chair of the Provost Undergraduate Advisory Committee, discussed the committee and said that one of its goals is increased student involvement.

The Senate chartered Weightlifting Club, Go Figure! and Global Haiti Initiative.

Weightlifting Club seeks to “introduce proper techniques and safety procedure to the Brandeis community.” Go Figure! is a figure drawing club that will bring nude models to campus. Global Haiti Initiative hopes to shed light on the social issues affecting Haiti.

—Emily Kraus

ANNOUNCEMENTS Back to the ’80s Students can relieve the decade of the 1980s, complete with side ponytails, off-theshoulder shirts and crazy colored leggings, during a night of some of the best ’80s movies. Today from 8 to 11 p.m. in the Hillel Lounge in the Usdan Student Center.

Festival of the Arts grants due Grants are available to Brandeis students, staff and faculty to produce new work for the 2010 Festival of the Creative Arts.

Applications are online at www.brandeis.edu/arts/office/festival.

Tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, e-mail ingrids@brandeis.edu.

International Criminal Justice: Developments and Reflections on the Future Justice Hassan Bubacar Jallow, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, will deliver the in-

augural Distinguished Lecture in International Justice and Human Rights, funded by the Planethood Foundation and part of the Social Justice Leadership Series.

The conversation will be moderated by the Honorable Philip Rapoza, chief justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court and former chief international judge on the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor. Monday, Nov. 30 at 5:30 p.m. in the International Lounge.

Learning to Teach Through Discussion: The Art of Turning the Soul Dr. Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon will speak about her work teaching teachers to lead interpretive discussions in their classrooms. To illustrate her approach, she will show video excerpts from data she collected for her latest book in which two novice classroom teachers learn how to engage their fourth-grade students in a series of interpretive discussions.

Haroutunian-Gordon is a professor and director of the Master of Science in Education program at Northwestern University.

She is also the author of the new book Learning to Teach Through Discussion: The Art of Turning the Soul. Monday, Nov. 30 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Room 204 of the Abraham Shapiro Academic Complex.

Presidential Search Town Hall Forum Chair of the Presidential Search Committee Meyer Koplow ’72 will hold a town hall meeting to solicit student input in the search process. Other members of the Presidential Search Committee will also be present at the meeting. Monday, Nov. 30 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Sherman Function Hall.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

3

DINING

Group working on review of meal plans ■ The aim of the review

process is to create more balanced meal plan options in terms of meals and points.

By HARRY SHIPPS JUSTICE EDITOR

Members of the newly formed Student Union Meal Plan Committee and the University Dining Services Committee are working on revamping the meal plan options that are offered to students, according to Michael Weil, senator for the Class of 2010.

Weil was unwilling to discuss any specifics about the possible new plans because he said that nothing had been

finalized yet. He said that the goal of the revised plans, as he saw it, was to provide students with more balanced meal plan options to choose from and to give them more “bang for their buck.” Weil said that they were working to maintain the same number of meal plans in place but to change the options available.

Jenna Rubin, senator for the Class of 2011, said that the students who were working on the project are herself, Senator for the Foster Mods Amy Mandel ’10, Senator for Castle Quad Mark Trilling ’12, Weil and Alex Schneider ’12 and Mairin O’Donnell ’11, members of the Dining Services Committee.

The current meal plans available to students include the $1,400 All-Points plan, the 21-meal plan, the 14-meal

plan, the Combo plan and the Flex plan. The Combo plan gives students 100 meals per semester as well as $650 in dining points. The Flex plan gives students 10 meals per week and $525 in dining points per semester. Students on the 21-meal or 14-meal plan get no points with their meal plan. Meal plan prices range from $2,361 to $2,548 per semester (not including the Village plan, which is open only to residents of the Village).

As a problem with the current meal plan system, Weil cited the lack of balance between meals and points. He said that many students who keep kosher found that they could not use all the points that are included in the Flex plan but still liked the flexibility of having some points. He suggested that a

better option for those students would be a meal plan that costs about the same as the Flex plan, but included “12 or 13 [meals] with 100 or 200 [points].”

Rubin said that a large issue that the committee is working to address is “flexibility in terms of what you can use a meal for, when you can use a meal, how much you’re paying versus how much you’re getting.”

Weil said that his service on the Dining Services Committee last year and the conversations the committee had, as well as student input, led him to realize that an effort needed to be made to reform the meal plan system.

Vice President of Campus Operations Mark Collins was also unwilling to discuss specifics about the proposed plans but said that the several students

involved in the process had made convincing arguments and presented plans that would be beneficial to the student body. Collins said that they are now in the stage of reviewing some of the proposed plans to see if they are financially feasible.

Rubin said that several ideas had been discussed, and they are now waiting to see what plans are actually feasible for the University. She said that she hoped that they would have something concrete to present to the student body by March.

Collins said that any new plans will not take effect until the beginning of fall semester 2010.

—Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.

STUDENT LIFE

Chum’s institutes changes because of series of thefts ■ Cash and equipment

have been stolen from Chum’s, prompting changes in the system for handling money.

By ALANA ABRAMSON JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Cholmondeley’s, the student lounge and eatery, has changed its system of handling cash as a result of a series of thefts, the most recent of which occurred in October, said Tal Zaken ’11, the financial manager of Chum’s.

Alissa Cherry ’10, the events manager for Chum’s, said in an interview that two years ago, the Chum’s staff noticed that people were stealing money out of the safe. The staff changed its system so that money could not be stolen, but she was not at liberty to talk about the details of the changes in the system.

According to Cherry, after they changed the system, a party took place at Chum’s and someone from off campus stole a speaker and monitors.

Daniel Orkin ’10, the president of the Punk, Rock n’ Roll Club, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that there was a party at Chum’s last semester during which the two main speakers, a floor monitor and two speaker stands were stolen. He could not remember the exact date but said it was around April.

“I don’t know exactly where the funding came from, but Chums [sic] replaced the speakers by the time the semester started. Apart from some mild frustration on my part, it did not effect [sic] the punk rock and roll club [sic] very much at all,” Orkin wrote.

Cherry said that the Chum’s staff had to replace the equipment.

“It was a huge cut in our budget, and we don’t get funding from the school,” she said.

Cherry than said that this semester approximately $200 had been stolen out of the register at the beginning of the semester. She could not recall the exact date but said it was approximately three weeks before the Drag Ball, which took place on Oct. 24.

As a result of this theft, the staff changed its system of handling money again.

Zaken said he changed the system of handling cash to ensure that no more thefts occurred. He added that no thefts had occurred since the change.

Zaken explained that under the initial system, a member of the Chum’s staff kept the money made that night in a dorm room overnight and that staff would be responsible for transferring the

money to the Shapiro Campus Center.

“This system was good in the sense that nothing could be robbed from Chum’s, but money was just sitting in the student dorms overnight,” he said.

Once Zaken became financial manager, he said he implemented a new system to check if thefts were occurring.

Under the new system, the money is kept in one location, and he has sole access to it along with General Manager Tim Kane and the Faculty Advisor Sarah Richardson.

“We have a system of accountability—we know where the money is at all times, how much is there and who has access to the money,” said Cherry.

Zaken said that in between the two systems, there was a limited amount of money that all staff members had access to, and it was that limited amount that was stolen.

“I confirmed thefts were occurring at the beginning of this year. I noticed money was missing that should be there,” said Zaken.

Cherry said the money was missing from the cash register, and that Chum’s staff had filed a report with the Department of Public Safety as soon as they learned of the theft, and that Public Safety had investigated but had not found the culprit.

Edward Callahan, the director of Public Safety, said in an interview with the Justice that the Chum’s staff had filed a complaint, and Public Safety had subsequently interviewed people involved with Chum’s. He could not recall the specific names of people interviewed, however, because he did not have the official date the report was filed.

“I remember there was an amount of money stolen, and that the situation dictated that the people working needed to implement more preventive measures so it doesn’t happen again,” said Callahan.

“We don’t want to point fingers.

The only thing we can do is change our system so people on campus don’t know where our money is,” Cherry said. She did not mention any particular suspicions.

Zaken said that while the monetary amount that was stolen was not enormous, it did affect the budget.

“I thought it was small, but when you are talking about a business that operates the way Chum’s does, any amount of money seems large because we don’t make a profit,” he said.

He explained that when the grill had stopped working, the staff had to struggle to find the funds for a new one.

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

Fair Shopping Students looked at goods, such as baskets, available for purchase at the Fair Trade Fair last Wednesday. The Brandeis Labor Coalition sponsored the fair, which was held in the Shapiro Campus Center and offered goods from the non-profit store Ten Thousand Villages.

TECHNOLOGY

Univ making new system for room reservations and event scheduling ■ The new system, Resource

25, will allow organizations and departments to see what spaces are available.

By NASHRAH RAHMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

Resource 25, a new online reservation system for scheduling classes and booking rooms for student organization or University department events, is in the process of being developed, according to University Registrar Mark Hewitt.

Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 explained in his State of the Union address last Thursday that the new system will also enable student organizations and University departments to check online what spaces are available for booking.

“The goal of the system is to ultimately make the booking of all spaces of the University into one reservations system,” Hewitt told the Justice.

Director of Conference and Events Angela Garger explained that her department, the Office of the Registrar, Student Activities and Athletics currently use the software Event Management Systems to reserve

spaces. Other University departments use different software, such as Corporate Calander, Garger said.

Student organizations can attend one of the weekly Jump Start meetings to see what rooms will be available, Hogan told the Justice.

Organizations can also fill out a request form in the Conference and Events Service office or print out the form and fax it to the office, according to the Conference and Events Services Web site.

“Students have no way of knowing if a room is reserved without doing some work. The idea is to allow students to go on a Web site and just see for themselves when a room is available,” Hogan said.

Resource 25 was purchased for approximately $25,000 three years ago, wrote Vice President of Campus Operations Mark Collins in an e-mail to the Justice.

He added that most of the upgrades to the new system are being done in-house by Library and Technology Services and current departments that use EMS. “Resource 25 allows us to have more users on the system as opposed to EMS, which is a bit more restrictive in terms of costs and other reasons,” Garger said. She explained that EMS allows a limited number of users to hold accounts on its system.

Collins wrote in his e-mail that a

uniform reservation system will “be more efficient and provide for better space utilization data across campus.”

“Our current system is outdated both from a technical perspective as well as … use in terms of availability of things like a Web viewer and online advantages,” Garger said.

Resource 25 will have an initial rollout in January for the scheduling of classrooms and some spaces that are booked by Conference and Events, Hewitt said.

Garger added that all the current EMS users will be on Resource 25 in January.

Hewitt said that classes are currently scheduled with the help of sage and PeopleSoft softwares and then entered into EMS. He defined the process as “double data entering.”

Garger said that the rollouts after January will be planned according to the success of the first rollout.

“One of the huge advantages, obviously, would be to have something that would be available online where people could view space and see what’s available themselves.

They wouldn’t necessarily have to call our office but that would be part of another rollout,” she said.

—Alana Abramson contributed reporting.

4

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

STUDENT LIFE

EVENT

Conduct process under review

Ideas on ending homelessness discussed

■ The Campus Conduct

Committee has planned to meet at least through April to conduct their review.

By EMILY KRAUS JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

The Campus Conduct Committee has been formed and will continue to meet for the remainder of the year every other week to review the student conduct process, Director of Student Rights and Community Standards Dean Gendron, who is serving as the co-chairperson of the committee, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

According to Gendron, “[Dean of Student Life Rick] Sawyer charged us with an introspective review of the student conduct process in order to certify that the provisions, largely unamended for more than two decades, continue to appropriately represent the needs of Brandeis’ undergraduate and graduate students.”

The committee meets every other Tuesday from 3 to 5 p.m. and has planned meetings through April. Gendron noted that there is no rush to complete the review process and that he hopes to be thorough and listen to as many constituents as possible before the year’s end.

In the Sept. 1 issue of the Justice, Sawyer recognized that the student conduct process had not been reviewed for more than 25 years and that it would be “professionally and community-wise, remiss not to review it periodically.” The student conduct process involves the steps that are taken in the event that a student violates the rules in the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook and the disciplinary action that occurs to mediate the problem.

Student Union President Andy

Hogan ’11 said that while he does not personally sit on the committee, he was invited to do so.

“The goals, as far as I know, are really to … come up with an easier process for everyone: for the administration, for students, for everyone involved to come up with a process that really works for what Brandeis needs it to do,” Hogan said.

The Committee is comprised of students, staff and faculty. Any student can become a member of the Committee. Any interested student should get in touch with Gendron or Director of Community Living for Juniors and Seniors Erika Lamarre, who is also a co-chairperson of the Committee.

Gendron wrote, “We have begun to identify and populate subcommittees whose topics include Sections 18-23 of Rights and Responsibilities, which are the sections that describe the University’s student conduct process.”

Hogan said that the Union does its best to have a member of the Office of Student Rights and Advocacy on each of the subcommittees to represent students’ interests.

Specific topics of subcommittees include hearings, sanctions, the University Board on Student Conduct and mediated resolution processes. Gendron said, “As the committee hears reports from its subsets, we believe we’ll steer our momentum toward new questions and findings that will produce recommendations to forge a conduct system relevant for 2010 and beyond.” The subcommitees will look into specific aspects of the disciplinary process that need further investigation to report back to the larger committee.

Hogan did not mention specific goals that the Union has for the committee, saying, “I really want the committee to … really look at the whole system and how we can improve anything and everything.”

■ Brandeis Hillel sponsored

the event, which was part of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week in America.

By LIZ POSNER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Three representatives of the National Coalition for the Homeless, including two former homeless individuals, spoke about their experiences with homelessness and their ideas on how homelessness can be eradicated at the “Faces of Homelessness” panel Nov. 19.

The panel discussion was a part of the National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, hosted by Brandeis Hillel. The event was organized by Rebecca Ellis ’10 and Rebecca Sturgis ’11, the coordinators of the Hillel Tzedek Social Justice subcommittee of Hillel. Sturgis interned at the NCH headquarters in Washington over the summer and was responsible for bringing the speakers to Brandeis.

Michael O’Neill, the director of the Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau, a subproject of NCH that works to educate the public about homelessness, also spoke at the event. He told the audience that 3.5 million people experience homelessness each year and that the leading cause of homelessness in the U.S. is the lack of affordable housing.

Two of the speakers, David Pirtle and Terry Snead, shared their personal experiences with homelessness.

Snead, 61, a native of Washington, became homeless in 1996 when he was 48 years old. Snead cited his “depression, bad decisions, low self-esteem and being in the wrong place at the wrong time” as factors that contributed to his homelessness. He was homeless for 10 years before NHC helped him find a job and housing.

“My feet are now firmly planted on the ground because of NCH,” Snead said.

Pirtle, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 21 years

JAXSON DERMER/the Justice

“FACES OF HOMELESSNESS”: Panelists talked about how to end homelessness. old, said that his illness lost him his job and apartment and was the reason he found himself homeless at 29. “It happened so fast; I didn’t even know what was going on,” Pirtle said.

Pirtle ended up “train-hopping around the country” and lived in New York City for six months and Washington for over a year. While living in an abandoned building in New York, Pirtle said he was attacked five times by youth gangs. In Washington, he was arrested for shoplifting and spent time in a mental health facility and in homeless shelters. He met O’Neill while living in a homeless shelter.

Through the NCH, he eventually received city-subsidized housing and currently lives in Washington.

All three speakers addressed the acts of violence committed against the homeless. According to its Web site, NCH has documented 700 unprovoked attacks against homeless people since 1999, 200 of which resulted in deaths.

O’Neill said that 65 percent of these attacks are perpetrated by young people aged 13 to 19.

Sturgis said that attacks against the homeless are motivated primarily by hate. “It’s really just a hate thing and a judgment thing and that’s all there is to it,” she told the Justice. “They see these people sleeping on the street and think it’s fun to hurt them or make them feel powerless.”

Both Pirtle and Snead discussed the

prejudice they experienced while they were homeless. “When you’re deemed homeless, a lot of people deem you as trash,” Snead said.

“Before I became homeless, I didn’t really see homeless folks; they were like part of the scenery,” Pirtle said.

Pirtle said that public attitude toward the homeless does little to alleviate the problem of homelessness. “Instead of trying to help folks, [authorities] try to run them out of town,” he said. Recent laws like Phoenix’s ban against sleeping outdoors do not help the city’s homeless, Pirtle said.

Universal health care and increased housing at low prices would both help alleviate homelessness, O’Neill said. According to O’Neill, 25 percent of homeless people suffer from mental illness, and many cannot afford medical care. Lower-priced or free care could help mentally ill homeless individuals control their symptoms and improve their quality of life.

“It seems to be a striking contrast that we completely overlook these people we think of as third-class citizens when we think of ourselves as belonging to the greatest country in the world,” Ellis told the Justice in an interview after the event.

“The stories the presenters shared were really moving,” said Katlin Freschi ’13. “It was amazing to hear about what they’ve been through.”

STUDENT UNION

Hogan speaks about ways to combat overcrowding ■ In response to the growing

number of students, the Student Union will advocate for more student services.

By ALANA ABRAMSON JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 spoke during his State of the Union address last Thursday about ways to combat the adverse effects of an increased student body and the Student Union’s goals for the spring 2010 semester, one of which is the opening of a new dining facility in Gluck Lobby.

Hogan explained that in response to the University’s decision to increase enrollment by 400 students in an attempt to alleviate its budget crisis, the Union will advocate that the University increase student services, and that in an effort to do so, the Union is currently addressing ways to advocate change in housing, dining and academics.

“Our official position is that with the increase in students must come an increase in student services,” he said.

Hogan said that in regard to housing, the Union is encouraging the administration to renovate the Charles River Apartments to prevent more students from living off campus.

He announced that a temporary new dining facility would open after winter break in Gluck Lobby to mitigate the problems of overcrowding and long lines in the current dining facilities.

Hogan stressed, however, that this facility would only be temporary. He said that the Union hopes to put a permanent facility in the Mandel Center for the Humanities when it opens.

Hogan explained that the expected continued increase in the student body would ultimately result in an average class size of 28.2 students by the fall of 2012 and that the average class size had already increased from 21.8 last fall to 23.4 this fall. “Brandeis academia may have to change, and we need to be cau-

REBECCA NEY/the Justice

PROGRESS REPORT: Student Union President Andy Hogan spoke about what the Union has accomplished and its new initiatives. tious but open to this change,” he said.

He emphasized the Union’s support of the Justice Brandeis Semester, the semester-long experiential learning program.

After Hogan addressed ways in which the Union was handling this

issue of overcrowding, he began to speak about the Union’s accomplishments and upcoming goals. He said that in terms of student finances, the Union Finance Board was able to allocate 70 percent of the total requests made by University clubs and is in a

comfortable position financially. He also said the Union is in the final stages of building the Student Union Management System, which will help clubs manage their finances more efficiently.

All clubs will transfer to SUMS in the beginning of the spring semester.

“SUMS will revolutionize the finance system as it creates the highest level of financial management and transparency,” he said.

In addition to helping clubs and organizations with their finances, Hogan said the Union wants to improve club life by implementing a “clubs in service program” to connect clubs that are not typically community service-oriented with volunteer opportunities. He also mentioned the implementation of Resource 25, an online reservation system that will enable clubs to request and reserve room space online.

Hogan said the Union formed a Committee on Endowment Ethics and Responsibility to help ensure responsible endowment investment choices and was in the midst of a year long process to vet the current conduct process for student rights.

Prior to his conclusion, Hogan spoke about President Jehuda Reinharz’s resignation and the Presidential Search Committee.

He announced that in addition to the Student Advisory Committee organized by the Student Union to assist the Presidential Search Committee, he was appointed to serve as a nonvoting member of the committee a week ago.

“I know that I will do my very best in representing student interest in this process and am happy that the Board of Trustees and other decision makers of this University see the value of student input,” he said.

Hogan concluded by saying, “It is the involvement of students and our influence that makes me proud and honored to serve as your president. So let’s embrace change and tackle 2010. Together we can help Brandeis thrive.”

The Student Union members in attendance at the event were pleased with Hogan’s speech.

“I thought it was a really good speech. I think Andy did a really good job of highlighting the Union’s accomplishment. He was correct that change is the word of 2009,” Jenna Rubin, the executive senator and the senator for the Class of 2011, said.

THE JUSTICE

DINING: New café to open

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

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BEAUTY MEETS CHARITY

CONTINUED FROM 1 able to get food to go, said Collins. He said that students currently have the option of getting food to go from the Provisions on Demand Market but that there were issues of overcrowding there as well.

Hogan said of the café, “I think it’s a really good temporary step. The lines are only bad during peak periods before and after class, and I think this new dining facility is only going to be open for lunch and it will definitely help during the peak periods.” Collins said that the café would probably be open for about a two-hour period during the peak hours that students are eating lunch, from Monday to Friday.

Newmark wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that “the location is currently scheduled to operate Monday through Friday 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.” Students can use “points, dining dollars, cash, credit cards, WhoCash and meal plan equivalency” at the café, wrote Newmark. The café will only operate until a new, more permanent dining location is opened in the Mandel Center, which is scheduled to open before the fall 2010 semester.

The Student Union has been working throughout the semester on issues of overcrowding, which is partly a result of an increase in the size of the student body based on the recommendations of the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee. Hogan and other Union members have conducted surveys of the student body and made presentations to the administration and the Board of Trustees about issues of overcrowding in dining halls, increasing class sizes and a lack of housing options.

PAULA HOEKSTRA/the Justice

Manicure for a Cure Brandeis students and faculty enjoyed manicures from the Paul Mitchell Beauty School in Rhode Island. The event, sponsored by the Brandeis Orthodox Organization, was held last Thursday. All of the proceeds raised at the event will benefit Sharsheret, a support organization for young Jewish women battling breast cancer.

PROGRAMS: Institute to be renamed CONTINUED FROM 1

—Alana Abramson and Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.

SEARCH: Hogan appointed CONTINUED FROM 1 the members-at-large. The Committee will elect its own chair, von Mering wrote.

The PSC, FAC and SAC were created after University President Jehuda Reinharz announced his intention to resign in a Sept. 24 campuswide email. Reinharz will remain president until a new president has been selected or until June 30, 2011, according to a Sept. 24 University press release.

“The charge, as it now stands, is still that [the FAC] will advise the search committee about the goals of the search, will review and have input on the position description, and will also be involved in interviewing the finalists,” wrote von Mering in her e-mail.

“I’m honored that my colleagues thought that I would be a good person to do this job. I’m a little apprehensive [about] the magnitude of the task. …

Choosing the president is a big job. It doesn’t happen very often, and I think it’s going to take us a great deal of time and good judgment to get a good [president],” Epstein said. He added that the Committee’s first meeting may take place within the next 10 days.

The PSC has not yet appointed its ninth trustee member, Sherman said.

Chair of the PSC Meyer Koplow ’72 declined to comment on the specifics of last Monday’s meeting but said that the Committee is reaching out to faculty, students, donors and alumni.

“Listening to the affected constituencies is critical before we actually start moving forward identifying and considering possibilities [for the position of University president]. … [The PSC wants] to make sure that all of the constituencies are heard,” Koplow said.

Jewish identity,” while Impact Boston, a cooperation with the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization that started this year, is a two-week program focused on “social action, community service, and advocacy.”

“The changes are being made at our suggestion, and we’re delighted that the Provost and the President were responsive. … One of the exciting things that has happened that I know most undergraduates are not aware of is how those programs have grown, both grown in size and grown more sophisticated and more international,” Reimer said. He added that the center has students from Israel, Russia and western Europe.

Reimer explained that IJE’s projects are funded by individual grants and that IJE would continue to seek funding from outside foundations.

Krauss appointed Bradley Solmsen, director of Genesis and BIMA, as the new office’s director.

“I think it’s going to be very helpful

for people to know who to call if they have something that they’d like to do that would involve high school kids in the summer,” Krauss said.

With regard to the IJE, Krauss explained that the University has guidelines for what an institute looks like and what funding level they need to have to be called an institute. “[IJE] did not meet some of those criteria,” a fact Reimar was aware of, said Krauss.

Krauss said that the change was not related to the recommendations made with regard to centers and institutes by the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee but was an issue she had discussed with Reimer for some time.

As an example of its work, Reimer said the IJE used case material for the summer programs in training Jewish camp directors.

“When the Foundation for Jewish Camps got interested in starting new summer programs, specialized summer camps, they called upon BIMA as a real important example

for the other camps to learn from.”

Krauss said Solmsen had started discussing some additional ideas for expanding high school programs with Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy.

She added that the University used to have a program for high school students on the weekends focused on science research “and a lot of faculty miss that and think it would be a great thing to restart.”

“We’re obviously looking for lots of ways in which we can increase revenue, whether this is a big strategy or a little strategy or median strategy remains to be seen,” Krauss said. She said the summer programs cover their costs “and over time they may be generating more revenue for the University, but I don’t think that’s a primary goal initially.” After sending out the announcement, she said she received e-mail responses from faculty who expressed interest in programming for high school students.

Solmsen called it an “important signal to the entire University com-

munity that Brandeis cares about learning on the whole set of different levels. Obviously the priority is undergraduate and graduate, but Brandeis also cares about adult learning, retirement learning through the [Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Brandeis] program, and in my case, high school students.” He and Reimer emphasized that the Office of High School Programs would also cooperate with Brandeis summer school programs for high school students.

“Until now, we’ve limited ourselves to Jewish programs, but I think the potential is there to also include programs for other types of high school students, which would be exciting,” Reimer said. “Since the high school programs are a really good example of how Brandeis can maximize its educational advantages during the summer, we thought … perhaps we can be helpful to the University in thinking about how to expand the number of programs that the University runs for high school students during the summer,” he said.

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

just

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THE JUSTICE

features

VERBATIM | Rita Rudner When I meet a man I ask myself, “Is this the man I want my children to spend their weekends with?”

ON THIS DAY...

FUN FACT

In 1936, Life magazine was first published.

The number of left-handed men is double that of lefthanded women.

Testing muscles and minds

PHOTO COURTESY OF PERETZ CHEIN

FLYING TOWARD THE FINISH: Dan Litwok ’10 ran the Cape Cod Marathon Oct. 25 with the Chabad Brandeis Marathon Team. The team included five current students, two alumni and Rabbi Peretz Chein.

Rabbi Peretz Chein organizes the Chabad Marathon Team

By ABBY KULAWITZ JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Peretz Chein seems like a traditional Chabad rabbi—except for the fact that he reads Maimonides teachings from his BlackBerry and runs marathons in his spare time.

On Oct. 25, Rabbi Peretz Chein, the rabbi and director of Chabad at Brandeis, ran the Cape Cod Marathon with the Chabad Brandeis Marathon Team. Five of the team’s members are current Brandeis students: Yoni Cohen ’10, Josh Jick ’12, Meir Krinsky ’11, Dan Litwok ’10 and Justin Meltzer ’11. Two alumni, Michael Kann ’81 and Aaron Voldman ’09, also ran with the team.

Chein, a young rabbi who sports a distinct beard, explained his motivation for running the marathon: “Three years ago, I was taking a walk with my family in New York City, and we bumped into the New York Marathon. And I thought to myself, ‘I think I can do this.’” Despite his wife’s laughter and his friends’ disbelief, Chein was determined to “undertake something that [he] had never even considered doing.” After months of training— “after a lot, a lot, a lot of hard work”—he completed his first marathon.

Chein was determined to get others involved. Litwok says, “Peretz sent out a weekly e-mail chain to the Chabad community asking if people were interested in running the marathon.” After a little coaxing, the team soon started up in the spring of 2009, and with it, a unique mentality emerged.

The Hebrew word ufaratzta, or “break out,” became the team motto.

“Peretz explained the concept of ufaratzta as breaking free,” says Cohen. “That is very much how I

PHOTO COURTESY OF PERETZ CHEIN

PHOTO COURTESY OF PERETZ CHEIN

TEAM TIME: The Chabad Brandeis Marathon Team had the motto of ‘ufaratzta.’

FAMILY SUPPORT: Rabbi Peretz Chein with his two sons at the marathon.

saw it. Running a marathon was very much out of the ordinary for me. It was so far off my radar— never something that I would have even considered.”

Meltzer viewed ufaratzta in a similar light: “I was motivated to test my limits. I wanted to see just how far I could push myself before I broke.”

The Chabad Brandeis Marathon Team tested its limits long before running the actual marathon.

“Training for the marathon felt like a part-time job,” says Jick, who started training in May. Chein took a different approach, running at least two or three times per week until he couldn’t run any longer.

But the training was more than physical. “You need to train mentally for it; you learn to get into the mindset” says Cohen. The runners became extremely familiar with the concept of ufaratzta, pushing their boundaries farther and farther with

people.” He also remembers eating six packets of Craisins after crossing the finishing line—a source of quick energy—and then almost collapsing.

The marathon also left runners with a new kind of self-confidence.

Meltzer describes the experience as “intimate, painful, exhilarating, even cruel on a certain level. The experience is very personal and creates a lot of self-doubt and questioning.” The runners pushed not only their physical limitations but also their mental ones.

Chein could not overemphasize the central role that ufaratzta played in the marathon. “It is a fundamental belief of mine that everyone possesses the ability of ufaratzta—the ability to break out of limitations and inhibitions,” he says. “It is just a matter of taking what you have and bringing it to the fore.”

Chein did not just run the marathon to experience ufaratzta—

each run.

On Oct. 25, months of training boiled down to hours. The strenuousness of the marathon was undeniable. Chein recounts, “The first 19 miles were fun. But it then turned gruesome. At one point I even told myself, ‘I’m never doing [another marathon] again.’”

By the end of the marathon, Kann felt “exhilarated and exhausted simultaneously.”

Litwok says, “I was probably in shock more than anything else. I don’t really remember finishing it.”

Each runner remembers unique moments from the experience. The beginning of the marathon is deeply engrained within Cohen’s mind: “I enjoyed starting the marathon more than anything. There were hundreds of people all cramped in a smaller area. And then the cannon blasted, and the mass of people slowly moved forward from a walk to a jog. The mass unpacked, and soon you were running abreast of 10

he also ran it to observe others undergoing it. “It was more exciting to see everyone else finish than to finish myself,” Chein says. While the runners completed the marathon as individuals, the team experience was valued by all.

Says Jick, “when you run by yourself, it is not nearly as enjoyable. Running with a team makes the whole process a thousand times easier.” For Kann, “it was very inspiring to run with a group 26 years younger than me with whom I share a common bond.” For the runners, completing the marathon with others allowed them to achieve something larger than themselves—something that they could not accomplish alone.

There was a mixed sentiment about running the marathon next year. For Cohen, “the accomplishment is amazing once.” But Chein hopes to make the marathon an annual tradition. He told me, “I invite you to join us.”

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

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SHAEFALI G. SHANDILYA/the Justice

ADVOCATING FOR AWARENESS: Active Minds, which meets on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. in the ICC, advocates for and educates others about mental health awareness. The club has approximately 10 to 15 members.

Promoting Peace of Mind Active Minds seeks to inform students about mental health

By AMANDA WINN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Have you ever wondered if another person is thinking the same thing as you are?

Active Minds, which meets on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. in the Intercultural Center, seeks to learn about and advocate for mental health awareness. Its goal is to make students and staff alike more aware of mental health issues, to diminish negative connotations associated with mental health disorders and to supply information and resources to the student body.

The club is one of 229 chapters of a national organization present on college campuses all over the United States. The Brandeis chapter was founded five years ago by Michelle Schlesinger ’08 and the organization has existed for eight years on an international level.

Active Minds has approximately 10 to 15 members in the club, and about five or six members attend the meetings every week. The club serves to report facts about mental health in order to increase awareness about mental health issues.

For example, according the organization’s Web site, people from 18 to 24 have the highest occurrence of diagnosable forms of mental illness at 27 percent, and suicide is the third leading cause of death among people from 18 to 24 as well as the second leading cause of death for college students.

Additionally, a 2000 study by the American College Health Association in Baltimore, called the National College Health Assessment, showed that 10 percent of all the students who had been surveyed were diagnosed with depression and endured mental health problems.

As I’ve observed the club on those Thursday nights in the ICC lounge, The club members are friendly, warm and work well together. Sitting around at the meeting, all of the members smile often and support each other’s ideas. It is a very relaxed atmosphere. Most of the members sit in comfortable cushioned chairs and couches in a circle, where the atmosphere allows for anyone to speak his or her mind.

The club president, Joanne Qiao ’12, exemplifies the warmth that Active Minds exudes. A smart, open

person, Qiao is full of ideas for the club such as showing documentaries to expose Brandeis students to mental health awareness, and she encourages all club members to be a part of the decision-making process.

She is also on the Student Advisory Committee for Active Minds, which involves an application process. The SAC helps plan the annual conference of all chapters and helps stimulate discussion among other chapters in the area, according to Qiao.

During an interview after the meeting, Qiao, who sports bright pink nail polish and always has a smile on her face, described what makes the club unique for her.

“One thing that’s special about Active Minds is that it covers a wide range of topics, from opening the conversation about serious mental illnesses to how to relieve stress,” Qiao said. The club is not just about mental illness—it’s about mental health, she says.

However, as Qiao described one of the main reasons she is a firm believer in the club’s mission, her face suddenly saddened. Last year, her close friend committed suicide.

“She was, like, my really good friend throughout most of high school, and it’s just seeing her struggle and not really being able to talk about it, that was really inspiring.”

In response to her friend’s suicide, she decided to help increase mental health awareness and tried to start a club with that purpose in high school.

However, as she says, “The administration didn’t really want to deal with it. They thought it was too heavy for a high school to deal with.”

Of her friend, Qiao added, “She talked about [her mental health problems] some, but there wasn’t really a whole lot I could do, and she was somewhat resistant to treatment.

She had been to multiple treatment centers and stuff.”

The club also works as a liaison between the student body and the Counseling Center.

The club is “there to let students know if by working with them, by our dorm raps and stuff, we can establish a better connection with them,” Qiao said.

Dr. Debra Poaster, the medical director of the Brandeis Health Center, commented that the staff at the center consider, “the mental health as-

SHAEFALI G. SHANDILYA/the Justice

CLUB BUSINESS: Leanne Ortbals ’12 and Active Minds President Joanne Qiao ’12 go over plans for future club events. pects of physical illness,” and “the presentations of illnesses which might appear to have an organic basis but are actually manifestations of a psychic disturbance.”

Interestingly, as noted by Dr. Poaster, the Counseling Center and Health Center work together to care for students in many situations.

However, in some instances, the Health Center, “cares for students who have psychiatric emergencies” who come to the Health Center instead of the Counseling Center, says Poaster.

The club is interested in events that scream “come join us,” as stated

by Chris Amstutz ’12, treasurer of the club. “[Active Minds must] constantly keep [its] name out there,” said Secretary of Active Minds Mayur Kasetty ’11.

With the help of the national organization, the club is able to partake in many upcoming events. “We are hoping to hold a stress-reliever activity around finals with different activities, but I’m not sure if we can do

it because of funding issues,” Qiao said.

The club also wants to have dorm raps or skits performed by improvisation groups here at Brandeis. It has even been suggested to have the step team stamp out “stigma.” Working more with other clubs at Brandeis involved in mental health issues such as Students Talking About Relationships, Peers Educating About Responsible Choices and Student Sexuality Information Service, is also a goal of the club. The club is even trying to branch out and network with other Active Minds chapters such as at the one at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Qiao also talked about how mental health issues are and should be discussed on campus.

“The atmosphere is better than 10 years ago. I’m hoping that it is better,” she said.

Prof. Joseph Cunningham (PSYC), the Psychology Undergraduate Advising Head, noted that there are many courses in the Psychology de-

partment that “contribute to mental health awareness, including Abnormal Psychology, Health Psychology, Disorders of Childhood, Schools of Psychotherapy, Emotions and Well Being and the Clinical Psychology Practicum.” He added further that the undergraduate department for Psychology students has representatives who “collaborate with the Psychology Club and Psi Chi to host speakers or film discussions that may address the topic [of mental health awareness]. Professors also may host representatives from community organizations, such as the National Alliance on mental illness, as guest lecturers and discussion leaders in their classes.”

In response to the idea that documented health disorders on campus are being discussed more, Qiao commented that, “I think they’re still kept under the radar, but my hope is that people are seeking help at the Counseling Center. And it’s OK if you don’t talk about it if you’re getting help, but overall, the campus isn’t very open about talking about it.”

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

DEAR SSIS

Alternative forms of birth control

MAX BREITSTEIN MATZA/the Justice

CORNUCOPIA OF CONTRACEPTION: John Fonte ’12, a SSIS educator, displays the various kinds of condoms that the SSIS office has. The SSIS office is located on the third floor of the Shapiro Campus Center.

Dear SSIS, It’s so hard to remember to take the Pill every day! I really hate it. Are there any other hormonal birth control methods out there?

Sincerely, Unsatisfied in Usen Dear Unsatisfied, The Pill isn’t right for everyone, and the great thing about birth control is that if one method isn’t working for you, there are actually several other hormonal birth control methods out there. Determining which option is right for you depends on your personal habits and preferences.

We’ll do a brief overview of the most popular options. All of the methods we discuss are around 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy when used correctly. It’s important to note that none of the following protect against human immunodeficiency virus or other sexually transmitted infections.

You can always add barrier methods such as condoms or dental dams to these birth control methods to help protect against HIV and STIs. The first option is the NuvaRing. It’s a flexible ring that has enough hormones in it to last four weeks. You insert it into the vagina, where it rests near your cervix (so you don’t feel it) ,and take it out after three weeks. During the fourth week, you get your period. Some benefits of the NuvaRing are that you don’t have to remember to take a pill every day and you can leave it in during sex. Don’t worry, most partners say they can’t feel it during penetrative vaginal sex. If you’re uncomfortable with getting up close and personal with your vagina, this may not be the best choice. Depending on where you get it and whether or not your insurance covers it, the Nuva-Ring can cost between $15 to $50 per month.

A second method of birth control is the Ortho Evra Patch. It’s a small, square adhesive patch that releases a steady stream of hormones into your system. You apply a new one every week (on the same day) to a different

Student Sexuality and Information Services weighs in on frequently asked questions

PHOTO COURTESY OF HERFF JONES PHOTOGRAPHY

ENTHUSIASTIC EDUCATORS: SSIS seeks to promote the sexual health of Brandeis students through various services. spot on your body on a rotating basis.

However, there are only four areas of the body where you can put it: your front and back upper torso (excluding breasts), your upper outer arm, your lower stomach and your buttocks. The fourth week, you don’t replace the patch and therefore get your period.

Just like when using the Ring, you don’t have to remember to take a pill every day, but it is less invasive than the Ring. However, it’s more difficult to conceal because it’s on your skin.

Also, it only comes in one color, so if it

doesn’t match your skin tone, it will be even more visible. If you smoke cigarettes, we don’t recommend you use the patch because of higher risk of blood clots, stroke and heart attacks.

The Ortho Evra Patch costs between $15 to $50 per month, depending on the provider and insurance.

Another option is the Depo-Provera Shot. It’s an injection of hormones in the arm administered by a health care provider, that lasts for three months.

Most people don’t get their period while they’re using this method. In

contrast with the pill, patch and NuvaRing, which aren’t fully effective until about a month after you start using them, the shot prevents pregnancy immediately after injection.

You don’t have to remember to do anything for three months, which is highly convenient. However, if you prefer to get your period regularly as reassurance that you’re not pregnant, the shot might not be right for you.

Unfortunately, if you decide you want to get pregnant, it can take nine months or more for the effects of the

shot to fully wear off. The DepoProvera shot costs between $35 and $75 per injection.

You can also consider the Mirena Intrauterine Device. The IUD is small, plastic and T-shaped. This device is inserted into the uterus by a physician.

You can keep the IUD in for five to 12 years but can remove it any time.

There’s also a nonhormonal IUD made of copper called ParaGard that’s just as effective as the Mirena IUD. You still get your period while using the IUD, and unlike the Shot, you can become pregnant quickly after you remove it. Some people may not like this option because the insertion is very invasive. However, it is extremely cost-effective, and you don’t have to think about it for up to five to 12 years.

The IUD costs between $175 and $650 (a one-time payment that depends on your provider and insurance).

Still another option is the Implanon Rod. It is a thin, matchstick-sized plastic rod that is inserted under the skin of the inner upper arm by a health care provider. It can stay in up to three years, but like the IUD, it can be taken out at any time, and you can become pregnant very soon after removal. On the down side, insertion and removal are invasive; removal in particular can be difficult because of scar tissue.

But like many other options above, once the Rod is inserted, you don’t have to remember to take anything for a long time. The Rod costs between $400 and $800 (one-time payment).

If you are interested in any of the options we just talked about, we recommend doing your own research, talking to a health care provider or asking an SSIS counselor. Thanks for writing in, and good luck!

Sincerely, SSIS

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

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ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

EXAMINING PHILOSOPHY: The Soko Gakkai Buddhist Club meets every Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Peace Room to discuss Buddhist philosophy. The club accepts members regardless of their religious affiliation.

Exploring

religion Brandeis provides an open atmosphere for religious groups

By MISSY MANDELL JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

THE POWER OF PRAYER: One week, the club discussed the power of chanting.

ROBYN SPECTOR/Justice File Photo

RELIGIOUS CELEBRATION: Namaskar celebrated Diwali in early November.

When I asked a club leader if I could attend one of the Soko Gakai Buddhist Club meetings, Kathleen Fischman ’10 assured me that the group’s atmosphere was open and welcoming.

The club, she said, did not allow anyone to feel alienated, regardless of his or her religious affiliation or background.

Every Thursday at 7 p.m., the Soko Gakkai Buddhist Club comes together in the Peace Room in Usdan Student Center to discuss Buddhist philosophy. Each week’s discussion is based on a different Buddhist value. At the meeting I attended, the topic was the power of chanting and positive thinking to help maintain an optimistic outlook despite everyday difficulties.

The club members who came that night included Fischman, Jessica Delman ’10, Varun Seth (GRAD), Faith Broderick ’13 and Jackie Zais ’13.

Because there was a large number of first-time attendees that night, the meeting started off with everyone introducing themselves and sharing what made them join the group. Delman was one of the first to explain how she came upon the Soko Gakai Buddhist Club. “I started coming to support a friend who is very into it, and I’ve kept coming back because I enjoy the meetings.” Among those present were individuals who had been practicing Soko Gakai for a significant amount of time, as well as others who heard about it from family members or friends and wanted to see what it was about. I didn’t know very much about Buddhism at all.

Fischman and Seth spoke about the power of chanting, the form of prayer and keeping a positive outlook. Despite our different backgrounds and

levels of knowledge, we were all able to participate in the discussion, relate the values to our everyday lives and each connect with our own story.

At Brandeis, there are 18 spiritual and religious clubs and 58 art and culture clubs present on campus as well as over 100 countries represented in the student body. Although Brandeis, the only nonsectarian, Jewish-sponsored university in the United States, has a large population of Jewish students, other religious groups on campus are active as well.

When asked about the religious atmosphere on campus, students who are active in these groups as well as those who are not involved in any cultural or religious group on campus, felt that the Brandeis community is accessible and open to all groups, minorities and individuals who wish to find their place here.

Beth Bowman ’10, treasurer of the Muslim Students’ Association, described Brandeis as “a place where believing in God and being actively religious is OK and accepted with no regard to which religion you are associating with. For people who wanted to be active in that way, it is easier to function here than other places.”

Even those who do not identify with any group on campus enjoy the openminded feeling at Brandeis. In a discussion with a group of students who are not active in any religious group and are not Jewish, Anne Gregory ’13 observed that Brandeis “is a friendly, welcoming atmosphere where people disregard who you are or where you’re from.” Comparing Brandeis students to those at other universities, Gregory also said, “People are more globally and culturally aware, and they use that to learn about different cultures and religions.”

Stephanie Karol ’12, a board member of the Mixed Heritage Club, said that, “People here are not all of the same opinion. It is diverse, and different people use that to connect and explore and engage in others’ cultures.”

Some members of cultural and religious organizations expressed the feeling that Brandeis is open and accessible to all religions and that they are able to find the religious community they seek. Adhip Sacheti ’13, a member of Namaskar, the association for Hindus, Jains and Sikhs, said that “you can always find people here who are the same religion as you.”

In comparison to communities outside Brandeis, many of the students I talked to said that in the communities where they grew up, there weren’t many Jews, or Jews were never as close to the religious majority as they are at Brandeis. Regardless, many agreed that Brandeis’ Jewish majority is not overwhelming but a positive addition to their college experiences.

Abby Zadina ’13, who described herself as an Agnostic, from Omaha, Neb., said, “Growing up, I was used to a community that did not have a large number of Jews, and my town is primarily protestant. Here, I can tell that there is a majority, but I see it as a positive thing because the atmosphere really is open and friendly.”

Jasnam Sachdev ’12, an administrator of Namaskar, said that because the club comprises three different religions, all members learn about and celebrate each other’s holidays.

Sachdev compared the club’s religious experience to Brandeis as a whole. “Because the Jewish majority is not something that is common outside of Brandeis, I’ve learned more here about Judaism than I have anywhere else and don’t think I could have at any other university.”

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

the Justice Established 1949

Brandeis University

HANNAH L. KIRSCH, Editor in Chief J OANNA SCHORR, Senior Editor ANDREA FINEMAN, Managing Editor ANYA B ERGMAN and SHANA D. LEBOWITZ, Associate Editors NASHRAH RAHMAN, News Editor HARRY SHIPPS, Acting News Editor REBECCA KLEIN, Features Editor REBECCA B LADY, Forum Editor IAN CUTLER, Sports Editor J OSH ASEN, Acting Sports Editor SARAH BAYER, Arts Editor JULIAN AGIN -LIEBES and MAX B REITSTEIN MATZA, Photography Editors B RIAN N. B LUMENTHAL, Layout Editor B RIAN FROMM, Copy Editor B RAD STERN, Advertising Editor

Open committee proceedings The Constitutional Review Committee has been instituted to evaluate the Student Union Constitution and look for ways to improve it on behalf of the student body. But as it stands, we worry that the committee will not fulfill this function to the best of its abilities.

This board questions why committee meetings and discussions must remain confidential. The purpose of appointing representatives to the committee is to ensure that the student body’s voices are heard in the constitutional review process.

Confidentiality ensures that important discussions will be withheld from the student body. By requiring representatives to withhold the content of the committee discussions from their peers, those delegates are no longer serving the function of representatives. Delegates cannot go to their “constituencies” for feedback or suggestions, and without feedback from students, the committee will fail to take into account any issues and objections that the student body takes with the committee’s agenda until the final voting procedure. Ideally, the confidentiality agreement between members of this committee will be lifted for the good of the student body.

This is especially problematic because, as it stands, all proposals to change the Constitution will be voted on as a whole, meaning that if the student body takes issue with one point to be voted on, all changes, including positive ones, will be voted against. If students could actually be consulted on individual proposals, the probability

Students should have a say that problematic proposals will be brought to a vote is lowered.

However, this conflict could also be circumvented if students were given the capability to vote on individual points. The committee will have worked hard to draft proposed changes that should not be defeated on all counts if the student body objects to only one proposed addendum.

We would also like to see the committee involve the student body in a more general way. While an effort was made to invite students into the discussion through a town hall meeting scheduled for last Saturday, the e-mail announcing the meeting at noon was only sent at 4:30 p.m. the day before.

This last-minute e-mail made it virtually impossible for students who already had commitments at that time to reschedule, particularly if they had weekend plans. Additionally, Sabbathobservant students were unable to check their e-mail or to attend the meeting altogether because of the hasty scheduling. Town hall meetings should be properly organized and announced for times during the week that all students have a chance to attend.

But this point is moot if committee members cannot actually share information or discussion points with other students. The continued confidentiality is both an obstruction to effective review of the constitution and a lack of the transparency and good faith that students have been demanding from the University.

New café poorly planned Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 announced during his State of the Union address last Thursday that in an attempt to alleviate overcrowding in dining halls, a temporary new café in the Gluck Lobby in the Usdan Student Center would be open to serve cold sandwiches and similar items.

While we appreciate the Union’s and the University’s attention to the evident problem of overcrowding in the campus dining halls, similar to the decision to allow the Schneider Building café in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management to accept C-meals, the addition of yet another sandwich station on merely a temporary basis is far from the best choice Brandeis had to reduce overcrowding.

The University first opened Ollie’s Eatery in its “temporary” residence in The Stein in January of 2008, stating that problems with the ventilation system prevented the diner from opening in its intended space in the Village. In an interview with the Justice, Vice President for Campus Operations Mark Collins said that because structural issues would be extraordinarily difficult and expensive to resolve, Ollie’s will remain in the Stein, and while he said that there has been talk of moving a facility similar to the Provisions on Demand Market into the space, considerations are “very premature.”

While the University should have resolved this issue months earlier as

Other food space available soon as the prohibitive expense of resolving ventilation problems became clear, now is the perfect time to capitalize on the free space and open a new P.O.D.-style market in the available space to make further progress in solving the overcrowding problem in a different area of campus.

Furthermore, adding a new—and permanent—food venue in that area would certainly decrease the number of students visiting the cafeterias in Usdan without raising concerns about when a temporary venue like Ollie’s Eatery would be removed and would also make use of the space in the Village that currently remains vacant and unused.

The Union might also consider that before devoting effort and money to add a new dining location, the University should first and foremosttake measures to improve Usdan. All registers in Usdan Café and the P.O.D. Market should be open and staffed at all times during peak lunch and dinner hours, and the possibility of adding a new register in Usdan Boulevard or Café should be considered.

Furthermore, some stations in both Usdan Café and Boulevard, as well as Quiznos, run out of supplies long before the dining halls are due to close.

Ensuring that this never happens would enable all stations to stay open to serve more students and decrease lines at the other locations.

A. ELI TUKACHINSKY/the Justice

Revamp weekly e-mails

OP-BOX Quote of the Week

Rebecca

BLADY MAELSTRÖM

I rode on a sudden impulse last week and signed myself up to go ice skating with the Ice Skating Club last Thursday night.

I’m not particularly good at ice skating; in fact, I’ve only done it perhaps three or four times in my life, hanging onto the wall for a good percentage of my time on the rink every single time.

But after hearing friends’ rave reviews of the previous week’s trip, it sounded like a good idea. So I went about figuring out how to register myself—and then I got stuck.

Eventually, after asking my peers some excessively pointed questions about this mysterious sign-up process, I came to realize that the way to inform the relevant authority of my interest in joining this trip was hidden in the weekly Student Union Announcements. After spending several moments scrolling up and down the lengthy message, waiting for the right text to pop out at me and send me on my way, the endless stream of Arial with dotted lines scattered at random intervals did me little good. So I settled on the more efficient route of typing, “ice skating” into the search bar. And there it was—B16!

Ice skating. Bingo. I clicked on the link and signed myself up in a matter of seconds.

Well, the trip itself was a blast, but I still wonder why navigating the Student Union Announcements can be such an aggravating procedure. I’m not quite clear on the difference between “things to know” and “stuff to do.” And though I hate to question the legitimate attempt to organize all of the “things to know” and “stuff to do” into lists of categories A and B, I must confess that these long lists with seemingly arbitrary numerals in my inbox don’t effectively distinguish each announcement and activity. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think I’d call myself an informed Brandeis student simply because I have very little patience to read an extensive display of 10-point Arial font just to educate myself about A11 and B20 aspects of campus life.

All hope is not lost, however. Spreading information at Brandeis has its share of issues, but one specific medium has truly inspired me to consider the possibilities of successful communication: the Stall Street Journal. Gross? At the outset, maybe. Effective? Without a doubt. The Stall Street Journal captures students’ attention at one of the few moments of the day when they must stop completely and leave their senses open to whatever stimulation they can most immediately absorb. The placement of that single sheet of paper on the back of the stall, while perhaps a bit distracting from the matter at hand, ensures that students take in at least a page’s worth of information about campus goings-on.

It’s been awhile since I last saw my favorite synopsis of campus life on the back of a bathroom door. I would love for the Student Union to publish the Stall Street Journal more often— especially as groups like the Constitutional Review Committee and the Student Advisory Committee for the Presidential Search Committee begin the process of making crucial changes to the way our University functions. But in the meantime, while I can’t enjoy the convenience of reading just a few bullet points about campus current events in my toilet stall of choice, it would be nice to see more attractive, easy-to-read announcements from the Student Union.

Here are some suggestions for improvements: In lieu of the uniform typeset that drags on and on down the page, how about trying some funky fonts? Bold, italicized and colored text would also help make the announcements harder to disregard at first glance. Interspersing text with images would also make the reading experience more exciting—a graphic of ice skates, for example, would surely have aided my eyes to more quickly spot B16, the Ice Skating Club’s claim to fame. I also wouldn’t be opposed to the elimination of the “A” lists and “B” lists, whose only ostensible purpose is to distinguish between the nebulous categories of “things to know” and “stuff to do,” which both mesh into the same long list as they stand.

Campus clubs and organizations can even help the Student Union better advertise their events by submitting their own formatted text and images for weekly emails. The only responsibility that would fall on the Union’s shoulders would be copying and pasting everything into one master e-mail that would effectively showcase the full extent of the sheer multitude of diverse activity occurring at Brandeis on any given week.

Perhaps advocating an end to 10-point Arial, event titles boxed between dashed lines and the celebrated distinction between “things to know” and “stuff to do” seems radical. But realistically speaking, the Stall Street Journal, when printed, can’t cover everything. Revamping the announcements guarantees a better-informed Brandeis community.

“If you can get somebody to play that one note and to really truly have it come out as an expression of themselves in that moment, then the ice is broken.”

—Tom Hall, director of the Brandeis Improv Collective (See Arts, page 20).

Brandeis Talks Back What do you think about the plan to put a new cafe in Usdan?

YONI KATZ ’12 “I think anything that involves a new opportunity for food would make me very happy—especially if it’s good food.”

YEHUDA TRETIN ’12 “It’s a nice idea that they’re having more food, but it’s a terrible idea at the same time because of the location.”

CHRISTY KANG ’13 “I would agree—more places for food!”

KATHARINE PENA ’12 “Any place with food is a good call.”

THE JUSTICE

READER COMMENTARY

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

11

JOURNALISM + PHILOSOPHY = ?

STAND makes valid contributions In response to your article “Concentrate less on large-scale campaigns,” (Forum, Nov. 17): I understand where you are coming from, but as the president of my university’s STAND chapter, I would like to explain why I do what I do. I realize what we do probably doesn’t have as much impact as we would like.

And I also realize that we could do good much more easily and efficiently in our own community.

But I believe that genocide is the worst possible crime that can happen, so even raising a little money to help those victims is better than nothing.

It’s not much, but it is something. And I don’t feel like we are taking away from the needy in our own towns.

I would still help them out too, and I do.

But if I were to only focus on my community then the people whose communities can’t help them will have no one.

—Mary Pritchard

Keep up “Save the Rose” activities Regarding your article “Button controversy discussed at meeting” (News, Nov. 10): The controlling presence of the Reinharzes and the trustees at the “Re-Opening of the Rose” rather than the excellent Board of Overseers is evidence enough that the “Save the Rose” movement must remain vigilant.

Closed doors bespeaks of a corrupt purpose, which as long as the current administration remains committed to its position that it has the right to sell off the collection, seems to be the motive of the day.

—Dennis J. Solomon Cambridge, Mass.

Goldstone impeded road to peace In response to your article “The Justice speaks with Dore Gold and Richard Goldstone” (News, Nov. 10): Goldstone has made peace more difficult by encouraging Palestinian intransigence— their continued denial that the Jewish people have any historical connection to or any rights at all to any parts of the land of Israel.

This is the root cause of the conflict. Israel has acted with more restraint and more humanity in defending its citizens from real existential threats than any other army in the world has ever acted.

Look at how many civilians have been killed in Afghanastan, Iraq and many other places by countries (such as the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanastan under President Barack Obama) faced with much less a threat than Israel has faced.

And yet there is no Goldstone commision, no demonization, no slander against those nations. This is pure hypocrisy.

—Larry Bigio ’81

Protest against Gold was justified Regarding your article “Students stage protest during Gold's speech” (News, Nov. 10): You know, some people can stand up and listen at the same time.

It would have been more beneficial for everyone involved to have access to multilateral discussion instead of being handed a right-winger who, from what I can judge based on his comments, did no listening and no engaging in relevant discussion.

—Amanda Hoffman ’11

Wind turbines are disadvantageous In response to your article “Union Senate Goals in Disarray” (Forum, Nov. 3): Although I did not attend Brandeis, whenever I’m in Boston on business, I always make a point of driving out to the Sachar Woods and enjoying the quiet tranquility that it provides.

Knowing how noisy wind turbines are, I’m chagrined to learn that on my next trip, there may be one buzzing in the background.

While Senator Nipun Marwaha’s ’12 goals may be laudable, I hope that some serious consideration is made before imposing the unceasing noise of a wind turbine in that particular locale.

—Roger Sachar Jr. Roger Sachar Jr. is the grandson of Abram Sachar, the founding president of Brandeis University.

Write to us

The Justice welcomes letters to the editor responding to published material. Please submit letters through our Web site at www.thejusticeonline.com. Anonymous submissions cannot be accepted. Letters should not exceed 300 words, and may be edited for space, style, grammar, spelling, libel and clarity, and must relate to material published in the Justice.

Letters from off-campus sources should include location. The Justice does not print letters to the editor and op-ed submissions that have been submitted to other publications. Op-ed submissions of general interest to the University community—that do not respond explicitly to articles printed in the Justice—are also welcome and should be limited to 800 words.

All submissions are due Friday at 5 p.m.

RISHIKA ASSOMULL/the Justice

IN FAVOR

Journalism has roots in philosophy Hannah

GOLDBERG EVERYTHING ILLUMINATED

This week, The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article titled “We Need Philosophy of Journalism” by critic-atlarge Carlin Romano. He takes the innovative first steps toward forging a bond between two disputing disciplines: philosophy and journalism. Previously, philosophers considered journalistic work as, in Romano’s words, “superficial intellectual goods” and believed journalists to be nothing more than “B or even C students,” or “committed to simplistic narratives of the world shorn of nuance and qualification.”

Yes, this may be a result of journalists regarding philosophy professors as “mannered figures, badly informed and out of touch on matters outside their academic competence” as well as “insufficiently quick witted on their feet.” However, the world of journalism has a lot to offer the world of philosophy and vice versa. In fact, I believe that no matter how hard journalism tries, the discipline will always be rooted in philosophy.

Journalism cannot escape the influence of philosophy. Every journalist writes his or her journalistic work with a perspective.

Despite heavy editing, perspective cannot be

eradicated. Even if all literal evidence of opinion is removed from an article, every event or issue reported by a news source is interpreted and analyzed in the mind of the journalist prior to writing. The method by which journalists interpret a story depends upon their previous experience and knowledge.

A complete philosophy involves a culmination of experiences. For this reason, journalists are wonderful philosophers. From week to week, journalists cover different topics, often spending a period of time in a specific region or covering a certain issue in its entirety before moving on to a new project.

The result of all of these snapshots of information is a well thought-out opinion, social viewpoint and understanding of the situation. It is the journalist’s job to look at a situation in a new and novel way and then to translate the findings into a rational piece or argument to allow readers to benefit from a thoroughly developed opinion. This is not only the job of the journalist but also the philosopher, who looks at modern social and ethical dilemmas in order to try to find new and innovative solutions or answers.

In his article, Romano suggests that philosophers fear that facts and figures will taint the purity and originality of their deep and personal epiphanies. However, Romano explains what sparked his interest in philosophy: “a fact-based approach to life that naturally steered me to philosophy. It was precisely all that raw journalistic information,

often contradictory, that I thought stirred me to reason in a philosophical way, asking further questions, noting counterexamples, seeing the implications of the uncertainty of one concept for the uncertainty of others.”

A philosophy that is meaningful as well as practical must embrace facts to function in a real-world situation. Just as an article composed without research serves no real purpose, a philosophy without a base in a modern reality will prove useless for the public. It would benefit both fields to embrace its enemy’s strength as their own. Innovative journalism and thoughtful philosophy create a more analytical intellectual landscape. In the same way that philosophers should be trained to keep away from purely esoteric philosophies by accepting reality, journalists should be taught to develop their biases rather than attempting to remove it entirely.

Within Brandeis’ journalism minor, not only is there no requirement to take a course about the philosophy of journalism, but short of a course on the ethics of journalism, a class concerning the philosophy of journalism is not even offered at Brandeis. A class that instructs students how to develop their inevitable biases, and discusses the position of the fine line between truth, fact and opinion or how theories such as utilitarianism fit into journalism would interest both journalism students and philosophy students. It could even build the relationship and dialogue that would bring an end to the longwinded battle between the two groups.

IN OPPOSITION

Focus on the facts before postulating theory

By REBECCA KELLOGG JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

While journalism is essential to any informed society, philosophy (defined as the formal academic discipline rather than “personal intellectual analysis”) simply isn’t.

This isn’t to say that philosophy isn’t important: Careful thought about our environment is what gives us our unique human properties. And journalism could not survive without journalists, while philosophy could survive without philosophers. Concrete reports do not appear from thin air: Journalists especially are needed to analyze situations.

However, thought does appear freely and without deliberate impetus; humans are, to a point, innately curious and analytical beings.

It seems logical to conclude that broader opinions and a general world philosophy eventually come as one accumulates more knowledge. Yet Carlin Romano, critic-atlarge for The Chronicle of Higher Education, has proposed inverting this condition by positing that developing a philosophical system of thought should precede knowing facts about the world.

In a recent opinion article, Romano proposed a new core course for journalism curricula: “Philosophy of Journalism.” This idea is very intriguing and seems like it would help to heal the gulf that has grown between

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

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Fine Print

the two academic disciplines. However, there is one major flaw with Romano’s course: It begins with a study of philosophy when it should be the other way around. A fundamental understanding of journalism—that is, analysis of the concrete facts of the world around us—is essential before one can even think of beginning to construct an overarching hypothesis about the workings of that world. Any academic worth his or her salt knows that the theory must follow the facts; the “what” must precede the “why.” Many theories prompted by world events of centuries ago are simply not relevant to the events of today. It is not possible to make journalism “fit classic modern theories of the state”: Teaching students that it is acceptable journalistic practice to work backward and force facts to fit a certain ideology will only create a crop of very bad journalists indeed.

Many people would say that whether or not Romano’s idea comes to fruition, journalism is already damaged beyond repair due to the “corrupting” influence that technology in general, and the Internet specifically, has had on dissemination of information. I, on the other hand, couldn’t be more thrilled that technology has caused the status of journalism as a useless, inaccessible field to be in severe danger. As technology has become more and more prevalent, news has become more easily accessible and it’s easier than

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ever for people to share their opinions. Just because journalism has drastically changed form since the technology revolution does not mean that it is dying or even wounded.

Romano’s course proposal can be seen as proof of this. It’s wonderful that people are constantly formulating new hypotheses about and ways of looking at journalism, as no matter how much our world has changed or will change, people will always have to deal with the issues of how to report events.

Still, Romano’s approach to this issue is wrong. Journalism is important because it has the power to bring about fast, concrete change in the world. A family devastated by a trauma in a certain town could receive muchneeded aid if a local journalist informs the community of the family’s plight; a corrupt politician could be taken out of power and face justice if a national journalist does his work. The moving words of a brilliant philosopher might lead readers to change how they see the world, but a good piece of journalism could easily lead readers to bring about concrete change in their community.

This is what lies at the crux of why Romano was incorrect in proposing that a general theory about the world should come before knowing the facts: People need to be aware of what happens in their world, become active participants in it, and then truly hold a valid opinion of its underlying principles.

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS NEWS: Alana Abramson FORUM: Hillel Buechler ARTS: Amy Melser PHOTOS: Asher Krell, Robyn Spector LAYOUT: Debra Friedmann COPY: Emily Kraus ADS: Cody Yudkoff STAFF Senior Writers: Miranda Neubauer, Melissa Siegel Senior Photographer: Rebecca Ney Senior Copy Editor: Joyce Wang Senior Illustrator: A. Eli Tukachinsky

News: Erin Doniger, Ruth Orbach, Liz Posner Features: Tess Raser Forum: Eitan Cooper, Hannah Goldberg, Rebecca Kellogg, Ethan Mermelstein Sports: Jeffrey Boxer, Max Goldstein, Jonathan Steinberg Arts: Wei-Huan Chen, Marianna Faynshteyn, Bryan Flatt, Morgan Manley, Daniel Orkin, Alex Pagan, Bryan Prywes, Justine Root, Ben Serby, Sujin Shin, Shelly Shore Photography: Genevieve Armstrong, Maegan Bautista, Jaxson Dermer, Nathaniel Freedman, Paula Hoekstra, Shaefali Shandilya Copy: Ariel Adams, Danielle Berger, Jacob Chatinover, Jenn Craig, Patricia Greene, Rachel Herman, Liana Johnson, Daniella Kohlhagen, Lauren Paris, Zane Relethford, Jared Stoen, Marielle Temkin Illustrations: Rishika Assomull, Stacy Handler Layout: Nadav Havivi, Karen Hu, Nan Pang

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

13

SPORTS

Floor general makes new call

By MELISSA SIEGEL JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

In March 2006, then-Brandeis guard Amanda DeMartino ’06 celebrated the women’s basketball team’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win over Salem State College in the first round. Three years later she has come full circle, leading a team in the Salem State Tip-Off Tournament last weekend, not playing on the court but coaching from the sideline.

DeMartino has just started her second season as the head coach of the Northwood University women’s basketball team, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school in Florida that is part of the Sun Conference. She joined Northwood as an assistant coach in the women’s team’s first year of existence right after graduating Brandeis in 2006. Since taking over as the head coach last year, DeMartino has worked with the likes of Northwood’s men’s basketball head coach, former NCAA Division I Champion Rollie Massimino.

“I thought it was exciting to be part of building a basketball program and to come and have the opportunity to work under Rollie Massimino. And I just thought it was the neatest thing to be able to build something from the ground up rather than walking into a program, really making it our own and trying to build it to be something special and successful which luckily it has become,” DeMartino said.

Massimino was the men’s basketball head coach for Villanova University in 1985 when the Wildcats became the lowest-seeded team at No. 8 to win the NCAA Championship. He recently put his current team in the spotlight with an upset victory over Division I Florida International University, handing FIU’s new head coach, former NCAA Champion and NBA Hall of Fame player Isiah Thomas, his first loss in the exhibition match-up.

DeMartino was hired by former women’s head coach John Thurston. She helped guide the team to an 18-13 record in its inaugural season,which earned it a trip to the semifinals of the Florida Sun Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament.

DeMartino’s athletic résumé would have been enough to get her a position as a basketball coach. As a player, she set the Judges’ all-time record for assists and served as team captain for a club that reached its first-ever NCAA Tournament in her senior season. She is ranked in

PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHWOOD UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE

NEW CHALLENGE: Amanda DeMartino ’06 coaches her new team at Northwood University, above, and plays for her alma mater in 2006, right.

Amanda DeMartino ’06 is in her second year as head coach of Northwood Univ the top 10 on the Judges’ all-time steals, 3-point shot percentage and 3-point shots made lists and was a member of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship-winning team in her sophomore season while also being named an All-University Athletic Association honoree three times.

“She was a very smart player.

There are certain kids who play basketball, and then there are those who understand the game of it. She was one who understood the game,” Brandeis women’s head coach Carol Simon said. “She was an extension of a coach on the court and was one of the players that got this program to where it’s at right now. … She didn’t have to look over to me to ask what to run she just knew it. She knew other teams’ strengths and weaknesses, what to call, when to call it, and she was talented player.”

But according to DeMartino, the

academic experience she had at Brandeis was just as significant in helping her get the job. “[Thurston] really wanted to run the program like a high academic institution,” DeMartino said.

“We’ve had the highest team GPA in the athletic department the past three years, and so that was a big part in him hiring me was my Brandeis education. And the fact that I was a student athlete, but student first, and he really liked that whole concept of college athletics.”

DeMartino interviewed for the head coaching position after Thurston left to become an assistant coach at Fordham University after his second season. The resignation of her boss was “a shock,” she said, but she was thrilled for the opportunity it presented.

“She had to prove to me that she was ready to do it, and she came across very, very comfortable. Her character to me was terrific,

PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM SPIRAKIS

because in a position like this, becoming a head coach at a very young age, you have to put yourself in a position to be successful, and the things that she said to me, I was obviously very impressed,” Massimino, then-director of basketball operations at Northwood, said of DeMartino during the interview process.

In her first year as head coach last season, DeMartino led the team to a 25-5 record despite the fact that its top two scorers from the previous season had transferred. The squad also earned an appearance in the semifinals of the Sun Conference tournament after capturing the regular-season conference crown for the third straight season. This year she is off to a 2-2 start, losing to Rhode Island College in the finals of the Salem State Tournament last Sunday after defeating Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 68-65 last Saturday to

advance to the final round of the tournament.

But despite her success at Northwood, DeMartino has not forgotten her Brandeis roots. She still keeps in touch with many former teammates and coaches, including a monthly conversation with Simon. In fact, DeMartino says she took some of the techniques she learned from Simon and carried them over to her experience as a head coach, including Simon’s detailed scouting reports.

“I’d like to think since she came from a good program that she has a good team,” Simon said. “As coaches you want to put your players in a [position] to win. We do it through different ways: video scouting, oncourt [instruction] or detailed scouting reports. That’s something I learned from my coach when I played so I guess it’s just something that gets passed down.”

DeMartino still has vivid memories of her playing days at Brandeis, specifically the celebration after her team won the ECAC tournament in her sophomore year.

She said that one of the hardest parts of being a coach is learning that her new role is on the bench and not between the lines.

“I’m such a competitor; I always have been. I always put 110-percent effort into everything that I do, and the biggest thing being a coach is standing on the sidelines. Even today still in practice I want to get in the drills. I want to get there on the court and I want to be playing. I want be competing, running up and down the floor, but obviously it’s not my time,” DeMartino said.

But despite her competitive nature, her goals as a coach go beyond wins and losses.

“My biggest thing in anything that I do really as a coach, and of course I want to win and I’m super competitive, but at the end of the day for me it’s about making sure that [my players] stay on the right path and they do what they need to do during their college years.”

While DeMartino hopes to continue to bring a winning attitude and experience to her new team, she has the full support of an NCAA legend who knows a thing or two about striving for excellence.

“She’s going to be a very successful basketball coach in years to come because she wants to learn,” Massimino said. “Too many times people aren’t interested in that, because they think they know more than they really know, and she’s a happy-go-lucky, friendly young lady.”

—Ian Cutler contributed reporting.

SWIMMING & DIVING

Team dominates and enters poll for the first time ■ The men’s swimming and

diving team won at Bentley University last Tuesday for its fourth consecutive victory but the women’s team fell to Bentley’s women’s squad.

By JONATHAN STEINBERG JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Last season, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams began sharing a pool with Bentley University when the Linsey pool closed on campus. Since then the teams have primarily practiced at Regis College, but in a return to Bentley last Tuesday, the Judges split a dual meet decision against their cross-town rivals as the men’s team defeated the Falcons 131-99 but the women fell 136-96.

The men’s team won its fourth straight dual meet and are now 4-1,

while the women fell to 2-3 with the loss. With the win, the men’s team is ranked 48th in the College Swimming Coaches Association of America poll for Division III teams.

For a program that is on the verge of suspension and season’s end, swimmer Aaron Bennett ’11 described how significant such a team honor truly is.

“It’s a testament to how hard we have been working and that we have really earned our spot there,” Bennett said.

The men’s team nearly swept Bentley, as Brandeis swimmers took first place in 10 of the 11 swimming events while coming in second place in the other event. Recording multiple wins at the meet were Aaron Bennett ’11, James Liu ’10 and Marc Eder ’12.

Bennett led the way with a triple-win performance. He recorded first-place finishes in both long distance events, the 1,000-yard freestyle, the 500-yard freestyle, and the 200-yard butterfly. In the 500-yard freestyle, he won by 16.23

seconds over a Bentley opponent.

Liu, who lost both his events last meet at Babson College Nov. 12 by mere milliseconds, returned to his winning ways, taking first place in both freestyle sprinting events, the 50yard and 100-yard freestyles.

Eder clocked in first in the 200-yard individual medley and in the 200-yard breaststroke. Daniel Danon ’13 added a win for the men in the 200-yard freestyle. The squad also placed first in the 400-yard medley relay with the team of Justin Wellins ’10, Eder, Danon and Liu, and in the 400-yard freestyle relay with the foursome of Joshua Allgaier ’12, Danon, Wellins and Jesse Hershman ’13.

Bennett attributes his ability to remain focused and possess strong stamina to Coach Jim Zotz’s practices.

“Dual meets are hard because you punch in two or three events and a lot of yardage in a single day,” Bennett said. “[Zotz] pushes us hard, stressing focus and endurance.”

On the women’s side, the squad was only able to record four wins in swimming events and one win in diving events despite strong performances from Angela Chui ’12 and Hollis Viray ’10.

Chui took first in the 200-yard individual medley and in the 200-yard backstroke, both of which she won by nearly 10 seconds. Chui also placed second in the 1,000-yard freestyle, an event which she normally does not swim in but did because the team was without some of its swimmers due to injury or illness, according to Zotz.

Viray took first place in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard breaststroke and was runner-up in the 500-yard freestyle.

Dana Simms ’11 was also able to record a win in the 3-meter diving event, earning a score of 220.55 points.

Zotz was surprised by the results but was not disappointed with the team’s performance.

“We had at least one or two swim-

mers sick or injured, so we don’t have as much of a margin of error on the women’s side,” he said. “We were taking some chances. We still had some real good swims and races, but the other team was just a little stronger.”

With the men trying to build on their momentum and the women looking to get back on track, both squads will head to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the MIT Invitational on Dec. 4 for its final meet of the semester.

Both teams said that they see the upcoming invitational as one that can display the work that each team has put into this season thus far.

Bennett said of the men, “[The team] has been training really hard, so we look at MIT as a gauge about how we are doing.”

For the women, Viray said “We’ve just been working on being really aggressive with swimming and going out harder. We have a potential that we haven’t reached yet.”

14

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

●

THE JUSTICE

SPORTS FAMILIAR TERRITORY

FENCING

Women sweep field at first NFC contest ■ The women’s fencing

team went 6-0, while the men’s team went 3-2 at the first Northeast Fencing Conference meet this year.

By JONATHAN STEINBERG JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice

CRUISIN’: Guard Jessica Chapin ’10 glides toward the basket in the team’s 56-49 victory over Wentworth last Friday at home.

WBBALL: Team starts season at 4-0 CONTINUED FROM 16 flow.”

Forward Courtney Ness ’13 reiterated Foulis’ sentiments.

“We owe it to each other to keep pushing [our level of play],” she said.

“Brandeis has a huge reputation, and we’ve settled for just having the name and have forgotten about building ourselves. [Against Bates] we really worked to build the [current] team.”

The Judges’ improvements in the early minutes were proven by Saturday’s success.

Once again, guard Jessica Chapin ’10 led the team with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Not to be outshone, Courtney notched 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for her first career double-double, demonstrating formidable strength beneath the basket.

Brandeis’ post players, Courtney, Ness and captain/center Kasey Gieschen ’10 provided important inside play against Bates’ key players, including Bates’ “go-to player”

according to Breslin, senior forward Lauren Yanofsky.

“Most of their plays run through [Yanofsky]; she was the key to their game,” Breslin said.

Courtney also noted that the Judges handled Bates very well throughout the game, saying that Bates “had a good defense and strong players but [the Judges] did a great job [against Bates].” Essential to the power behind the Judges defense was movement off the ball and “awesome help-side,” she continued.

In the win over Wentworth, the Judges’ lackadaisical ball movement and lazy defensive play nearly cost Brandeis an opportunity at the TipOff Tournament Championship game and their first place title.

However despite a poor shooting performance in compairson with the rest of her week, Chapin led the team to victory shooting 5-for-17 from the field and 2-for-7 from behind the three-point line to net 14 points and six rebounds, while teammates Gieschen and guard Dianna Cincotta ’11 both contributed 8 points and

three rebounds. The Judges shot a mere 29 percent from the field and turned the ball over 21 times.

Breslin commented Friday on the team’s lack of intensity.

“We talked a lot about warmups and getting into the game prior to [tip-off],” Breslin said. “Sometimes, though, it’s an individual thing. You need to get yourself inspired, and it’s easier to motivate others if you’re motivated.”

In the team’s second game of the season last Tuesday at Babson, Chapin again led the Judges with 33 points, 1 point shy of a school record held by Pam Vaughan ’89. She also added 10 rebounds, six steals, two assists and one blocked shot in the win.

Geischen added a dozen points and three rebounds, while forward Shannon Hassan ’12 posted 4 points and six rebounds to guide the Judges to victory.

Brandeis will try to extend its winning streak tonight at Wellesley College at 7 p.m. before hosting Tufts University Sunday at 1 p.m.

MBBALL: Judges win opening home games CONTINUED FROM 16 rebounds in the game but had 9 points and eight rebounds in the first half.

“We did a great job of limiting [Shannon]. He’s [the] guy who runs the offense, and we did a great job of limiting his effectiveness,” Meehan said. “We did a great job of not letting him get the ball in the middle of the floor to [senior center/forward] Bryan Rouse, who likes the ball there.”

The defensive effort resulted in Rouse scoring only 8 points while dishing three assists in the loss.

The Judges had a strong defensive showing against Emerson,

forcing 22 turnovers. Brandeis scored 28 points off of turnovers, compared to just three from Emerson.

“That’s a key because we’re a good shooting team, and the better we take care of the ball, the more shots we get off,” Meehan said. “I think we’re going to force a lot of turnovers this year, and keep other teams from getting a lot of shots off.”

The team also played a relatively clean game, turning the ball over only six times and committing just nine fouls all game.

“We did a much better job of not reaching in. We committed silly fouls last game,” Meehan said. “If

we stay out of foul trouble like we did yesterday, we can rotate guys much better.”

In the team’s season opener last Tuesday, forward/guard Vytas Kriskus ’12 scored 23 points in the win. Kriskus connected on five of 11 shots from three-point range, and went seven-for-16 overall.

The Judges will conclude their first-semester schedule with five road games and one home game between now and Dec. 6.

After the team’s next game tonight, the squad will play its final five games of the semester between Nov. 29 and Dec. 6. Tonight’s game at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth is at 7 p.m.

In its first team meet of the season, the men’s and women’s fencing teams headed to the first Northeastern Conference Meet for bouts against Sacred Heart University, the University of New Hampshire, Boston University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Wellesley College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The men struggled in the meet but managed to come away with a winning record of 3-2, while the women’s team highlighted the event with a perfect record of 6-0.

The women’s team fenced a near perfect meet. The squad won five of its six matches by 11 bouts or more.

Against Sacred Heart, the women won 19-8. The team was victorious against New Hampshire and BU with a score of 22-5, and in its contests against UMass-Amherest and MIT, Brandeis won 20-7 and 14-13, respectively.

MIT gave the women their hardest match of the day. The Engineers came out with a strong team, but the Judges managed to outfence them by one bout.

Coach Bill Shipman noted the performances of épée Emma Larkin ’11 and sabre Anna Hanley ’11, both of whom did exceptionally well in their bouts. Larkin went 14-2 in her bouts, while Hanley went 13-1 in her contests.

Hanley was pleased with her individual performance but noted that she should have gone undefeated.

“I think I performed well,” Hanley said. “I lost one bout, but I could have definitely won that one.

Overall, it was a good day for the women’s team and me.”

Shipman attributes the women’s success to the skills the coaching staff stresses during practice.

“We stress agility, footwork and

tactics,” he said. “We focus on different skills for different people depending on their strengths and weaknesses.”

As for the team’s performance, Hanley was encouraged, especially by her first-year teammates.

“We are definitely in a transitional year in terms of the women’s team,” Hanley said. “I think we lost nine starting women last year. We are a new team, trying to get to know one another. We had some strong freshmen wins, especially against MIT.” On the men’s side, the squad dominated in its victories and lost closely in its defeats. Against New Hampshire, the squad won 26 bouts to one, versus UMass they won 21-6 and against BU, they won 23-4.

However, it was in the two other matches where the men spoiled the opportunities that were presented to them. Against MIT, the team lost a large early lead and fell 14-13. This was the first time in at least four or five years, according to Shipman, that the squad had lost to the Engineers. Épée Will Bedor ’10 cited the MIT match, in particular, as a “wake-up call.”

The team also let the match against Sacred Heart slip away, losing 15-12 to a strong and young Pioneers team. This was the first time that Sacred Heart had ever defeated the Judges in a fencing competition.

Despite the two losses, the team saw strong performances from épée Andrew Travis ’10 and saber Adam Austin ’11, both of whom went 8-1 in bouts.

Shipman commented on the need to improve performance for matches later in the day.

“We are not good enough to cruise through bouts,” he said. “We need more intensity and focus, especially in foil and saber, and in general, we need to be more composed.”

Bedor agreed with Shipman, saying that the team “needs to practice not losing focus and intensity near the end of the day following strong starts.”

Both teams will compete next on Dec. 5 at the Brandeis Invitational.

XCOUNTRY: Men’s squad finishes 24th CONTINUED FROM 16 over his campaign in his rookie season last year.

Brown finished 5.5 seconds later in 136th place. The finish was a 19spot improvement from last year.

In his appearance at nationals, Devon Holgate ’11 was the squad’s fourth runner to finish with a 191st-place finish at 27:28.4.

Kerwin Vega ’11 was the men’s final scorer, as his time of 27:58.8 gave him a 241st-place finish.

The team’s sixth- and seventhplace runners were Dan Anastos ’11 and Ben Bray ’11. They finished with times of 28:34 and 29:20.7, respectively.

On the women’s side, Selig finished the 6-kilometer event with a time of 24:13. She qualified for nationals as an individual after posting a career-best time in the New England Regional Championships Nov. 14, a result that earned her All-New England status.

“We didn’t have a team there competing, so [Selig] really didn’t come in with any expectations, so she really just went out there to see what would happen,” Norton said. “[Selig] did a great job of qualifying, and she will come back strong next season.”

All competitors this weekend had to deal with difficult running conditions because the course contained hills of varying heights.

Recent weather conditions also caused the entire course to be either muddy or very soft, two causes of difficult running conditions.

“We ran through the course [last] Friday to get an idea of what it would be like, so we were anticipating a lot of hills,” Norton said.

Norton also felt that the sloppy conditions at both the UAA and New England Regional meets “really helped prepare us for [Nationals].”

Despite dropping four spots from a 20th-place finish a year ago, the men’s squad has reason to be very optimistic about next season.

All seven of its runners from nationals, including its newly crowned All-American, will return for next season.

“We were a little disappointed to do worse than we did last year, but to be disappointed with just qualifying really shows how far the program has come,” Norton said. “It wasn’t the greatest season, but it was really a great learning experience, and hopefully it will set us up for a great next season,” he added.

THE JUSTICE

■ The men’s basketball guard leads the team in points, assists and minutes and is tied for the team lead in defensive rebounds after the Judges’ two opening victories last week.

7

th-place finish for runner Paul Norton ’11, who claimed AllAmerica honors in the cross country NCAA Championships at Baldwin-Wallace College in Cleveland.

73

-point differential for the women’s basketball team in its four victories against Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Babson College, Wentworth Institute of Technolgy and Bates College. The team is 4-0 this season.

4

consecutive dual-meet victories for the men’s swimming and diving team after defeating Bentley University last Tuesday.

50

percent three-point shooting percentage for women’s basketball guard Dianna Cincotta ’11 in four games this season. Cincotta is 8-for-16 from beyond the arc this season to lead the Judges.

6

wins for the women’s fencing team in the Northeast Conference Meet, which saw the team defeat all six opponents it faced on Saturday.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

son second in the University Athletic Association in steals, fourth in assists and fifth in free-throw percentage. His 10.3 points per game were fourth on the team last year and second among returning players.

However, Roberson feels that this year he must play a more consistent role.

“Last year I took days off [and] played inconsistently at times. I’m just trying to be consistent this year, come to practice early, work hard, just doing the little things that will help us win,” he said.

—Jeffrey Boxer and Max Goldstein

UAA STANDINGS Men’s Basketball UAA Conference WL Washington 0 0 JUDGES 0 0 Chicago 0 0 Rochester 0 0 Emory 0 0 Case 0 0 New York 0 0 Carnegie 0 0

Women’s Basketball W 3 2 2 2 1 2 2 1

L 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2

Overall Pct. 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 .667 .667 .333

UAA Conference WL JUDGES 0 0 Carnegie 0 0 Chicago 0 0 Rochester 0 0 New York 0 0 Case 0 0 Washington 0 0 Emory 0 0

W 4 3 3 2 3 2 2 2

L 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2

Overall Pct. 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 .750 .667 .667 .500

TEAM LEADERS MBball (points)

MBball (minutes)

Guard Andre Roberson ’10 leads the team with 17.5 points per game.

Guard Andre Roberson ’10 leads the Judges with 35.5 minutes per game.

Player Andre Roberson Kenny Small Terrell Hollins Vytas Kriskus Tyrone Hughes

Player Andre Roberson Kenny Small Tyrone Hughes Christian Yemga Two tied with...

PPG 17.5 15.5 14.0 14.0 9.5

MPG 35.5 31.5 28.0 22.5 21.0

WBball (points)

WBball (minutes)

Guard Jessica Chapin ’10 leads the Judges with 19.5 points per game.

Guard Jessica Chapin ’10 leads the team with 31.3 minutes per game.

Player Jessica Chapin Kasey Gieschen Diana Cincotta Morgan Kendrew Brighid Courtney

Player Jessica Chapin Diana Cincotta Morgan Kendrew Brighid Courtney Kasey Gieschen

PPG 19.5 9.0 7.3 7.0 5.5

MPG 31.3 26.3 24.3 21.8 20.3

UPCOMING GAME OF THE WEEK Men’s basketball vs. UMass-Dartmouh tonight The men’s basketball team will travel to face No. 8 UMass-Dartmouth at 7 p.m.

2

double-doubles in two games for forward Terrell Hollins ’10, who helped lead the men’s basketball to a 2-0 record on the season.

15

Real Salt Lake tops Beckham, Donovan and Galaxy in MLS Final

Andre Roberson ’10

Judging numbers

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

AP BRIEFS

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

After an impressive junior season, men’s basketball guard Andre Roberson ’10 has gotten off to a hot start in the Judges’ first two games of the season and is one of the main reasons why the men’s team has started off at 2-0.

Roberson scored 20 points to go along with a career-high eight rebounds and a game-high seven assists in a win against Lassell College last Tuesday to open the season.

With the game on the line in the final minutes, the senior hit six clutch free throws in the final 1 minute, 30 seconds of the game to seal the win. It was the fourth time Roberson reached the 20-point mark in his career.

Roberson followed the 20-point performance with a game-high 15 points in a crucial win over Emerson College.

“Emerson’s [going to] win a lot of games [this season, so] that’s [going to] help us out a lot in the long run,” Roberson said.

In both games, Roberson led the team in minutes. Roberson’s ability to stay on the court for much of the game has also been a key to the team’s success, since it only played nine players in the season’s opening games.

Roberson said that playing more minutes is part of his need to step into more of a leadership role this year as a senior.

“We lost two great guys [Steve DeLuca ’08 and Kevin Olson ’09] last year, and they helped us out a lot. Now we have to step up. Our class has good strong leadership with all of the seniors,” he said.

Roberson finished the 2008 to 2009 sea-

●

Last season, the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth narrowly defeated the Judges 68-62 at Auerbach Arena. The Judges will look for retribution tonight, as they travel to face the Corsairs at 7 p.m.

UMass-Dartmouth, ranked No. 8 in the preseason top 25 rankings conducted

by D3hoops.com, comes into the game at

2-1. Their lone loss was against the University of New England, which defeated UMass-Dartmouth 86-84.

The team is led by senior forward Matt Walker and senior guard Jeff Machi. Last year, the Corsairs finished with a record of 25-4. They lost in the NCAA Division III semifinal game to DeSales College 67-59.

SEATTLE—They were railed and criticized for reaching the championship of Major League Soccer despite a losing record in the regular season.

After outlasting and outplaying the stars from the Los Angeles Galaxy, no one is downplaying what Real Salt Lake accomplished.

“We wanted to see how many heart attacks we could cause to the fans and family,” RSL midfielder Clint Mathis said. “But none of that matters. What matters is having a gold medal, and we are champions.”

Robbie Russell scored in the seventh round of penalty kicks, and Real Salt Lake stunned the star-studded Galaxy 5-4 in penalties on Sunday night to win the MLS championship.

Russell’s winner came after RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando smothered Edson Buddle’s weak attempt in the seventh round and set off a wild celebration for a team dismissed because they went 11-12-7 during the regular season and needed help on the last weekend of the season just to reach the playoffs.

But there was RSL spending 30 minutes afterward on the confetti covered field while a few thousand fans that made the trip from Utah yelled and cheered and chanted “Nick Rimando” as RSL celebrated.

“It’s nice to say we’re the best team in the league,” RSL coach Jason Kreis said. “My honest opinion is we deserved to win that game.”

It was the second straight shootout victory for RSL, which beat Chicago 5-4 on penalties last week for the Eastern Conference championship. Rimando made three saves in the penalty shootout against the Fire, and the game MVP came up big again in front of 46,011 fans, the fourth-largest crowd for a MLS Cup. While Real could celebrate a most unlikely title—and the first professional crown for the state of Utah since 1971—the stars of Los Angeles were left wondering how a match they controlled for the first 45 minutes slipped away.

It was the crisp passing of David Beckham and Landon Donovan that gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the 41st minute when Donovan’s perfect cross found the foot of Mike Magee at the back post.

From there, the Galaxy’s control of play quickly disappeared.

Donovan became a nonfactor, as the league MVP was constantly hounded by the Real defense and never given space. The painkillers Beckham took before the game to relieve the discomfort from a bone bruise in his right foot started wearing off early in the second half, and his limp became more noticeable.

Meanwhile, RSL kept attacking. Robbie Findley scored in the 64th minute to pull RSL even at one, and the peppering of the Los Angeles goal continued from there.

They nearly scored again before the end of regulation then missed a trio of opportunities during overtime: Findley’s left-footed shot toward an open goal that was deflected by Los Angeles defender A.J. DeLaGarza and drives by Findley and Mathis scooting wide.

The Galaxy were fortunate just to reach penalties.

“I don’t think all of them were out of gas,” Real captain Kyle Beckerman said of the Galaxy. “But there were a lot of them gassing at the end.”

In the shootout, Beckham scored first as the first four kicks went in order. After Rimando’s save, Beckerman’s shot was shoved aside by Los Angeles keeper Josh Saunders.

That brought up Donovan, who was 19 for 21 in his MLS career on penalty kicks, the only two misses saved. He tried to go high on Rimando but sailed the attempt well over the bar.

“I just put it in the air,” Donovan said. “You know, it’s probably partially due to tired legs and not concentrating in that moment.”

Real had a chance to win it in the fifth round, but Andy Williams’ shot was saved by Saunders. Two rounds later, Williams was able to celebrate with Russell as RSL became the second expansion team in MLS history to win the title, joining Chicago in 1998.

“I just went with my gut. I went left, the ball went right.

There’s not much I can do,” said Saunders, who replaced starter Donovan Ricketts in the 66th minute after Ricketts injured his right hand in a collision with Findley early in the second half.

Twins’ Joe Mauer voted American League Most Valuable Player NEW YORK—Catcher Joe Mauer has become only the second catcher in 33 years to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award.

The Minnesota Twins star was a near-unanimous winner in voting announced yesterday by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, receiving 27 of 28 firstplace votes and 387 points. New York Yankees teammates Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter were second and third in the voting.

Teixeira finished with 225 points after leading the league with 122 RBIs and tying for first with 39 homers.

Jeter had 193 points, while Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera drew the other first-place vote and was fourth.

Mauer became the second Twins player to win in four years, following first baseman Justin Morneau in 2006.

After missing April with a back injury, Mauer homered in his first at-bat of the season and went on to lead the AL in batting average (.365), on-base percentage (.444) and slugging percentage (.587), the first AL player to top all three categories in the same season since George Brett in 1980.

Mauer set a major-league record for highest batting average by a catcher and won his third batting title, becoming the first repeat batting champion since Nomar Garciaparra in 1999 and 2000.

Mauer set career bests with 28 homers and 96 RBIs, had more walks (76) than strikeouts (63) and batted .378 after Morneau’s season-ending back injury Sept. 12, helping the Twins overtake Detroit for the AL Central title. He was voted to his third All-Star team and won his second straight AL Gold Glove.

just

Sports

Page 16

A NEW PERSPECTIVE Former women’s basketball guard Amanda DeMartino ’06 now coaches at Northwood University, p. 13.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Waltham, Mass.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

CROSS COUNTRY

Judges top Lasell and Emerson at home Norton

■ The men’s basketball

leads team at NCAAs

team opened its season with two straight home victories over regional opponents.

By MAX GOLDSTEIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

With 12 minutes, 47 seconds left in its home game against Emerson College last Saturday, the men’s basketball team led 47-31, but at 9:16, Emerson had cut the lead to just 5 and called a timeout to keep its momentum going. However, the break benefited the Judges; they scored 7 points in the next 45 seconds, sparking a 12-0 run that included a thunderous dunk from forward Terrell Hollins ’10.

“All we needed to do was refocus [and] come out [and] get the ball inside. We’d been playing the soft press all game, and then we kicked in the press. The guys responded really well,” said Coach Brian Meehan.

The Judges defeated Emerson 6952 to go 2-0 after winning their season opener against Lasell College 90-79 last Tuesday.

Against Emerson, Hollins led the team by recording his 10th career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. He also added three assists and four steals.

Guard Andre Roberson ’10 led the team with 15 points, while guard Kenny Small ’10 contributed 14 points of his own.

The Judges trailed early on as Emerson jumped to an 11-6 lead in the first half with 14:09 left in the half. But the Judges responded with a 14-3 run and went into the half up 30-19.

With the score 47-42, the Judges’ 12-0 run was largely due to Hollins’ awareness and well-rounded abilities. He started the run with a midrange jumper to put the team up 7 and then stole the inbound pass and dunked the ball to increase the lead to 9 points.

On the next possession, Hollins stole the ball again, this time at midcourt, and fed it to guard Tyrone Hughes ’12, who connected on a 3-pointer.

Hollins also scored the next two baskets, which put Brandeis in a commanding lead that lasted for the rest of the game.

Meehan said his team will rely on runs like it had against Emerson throughout the season.

“I think the team will spurt like this all year. At times it’ll look a bit sluggish, but I think our games will look a lot like that [this game]”, Meehan said.

Preseason All-American senior guard Jeremy Shannon led Emerson’s effort in the game but was slowed in the second half. He scored 13 points and grabbed 10

See MBBALL, 14 ☛

■ Runner Paul Norton ’11

was seventh at the NCAA Cross Country Division III Championships Saturday.

By JEFFREY BOXER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

teristic of this year’s women’s basketball team, remained a struggle for Brandeis.

Assistant Coach Scott Foulis discussed some of the factors behind the mistakes.

“It’s a big group of freshmen [head Coach Carol Simon and I] are still trying to integrate. Upperclassmen are being put in roles they haven’t played before and injuries remain a big factor,” Foulis said. “Right now, it’s about consistency [and] getting into a

Paul Norton ’11 had the highest finish by a Brandeis men’s cross country runner in 10 years, claiming All-American status as seventh place out of 276 runners at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships held at Baldwin-Wallace College in Cleveland last Saturday.

Norton’s impressive finish paced the men’s team to a 24th-place finish in the 32-team field.

Running as an individual in the women’s meet as the only Brandeis representative on the women’s side, Grayce Selig ’11 finished in 171st place out of 280 runners.

Norton led the team’s effort as he had all season long. The captain finished the 8-kilometer course with a time of 25 minutes, 37.8 seconds. Though he finished short of the time of race winner Ricky Flynn, a senior from Lynchburg College who finished with a time of 25:09.8, Norton finished less than 6 seconds behind the second-place finisher.

Norton’s finish was a 32-spot improvement over his finish last season, when he took 39th place.

He was the second finisher among New England runners this season and the top University Athletic Association competitor.

After barely missing AllAmerican status last year, Norton easily earned the honors in his third season on the team.

He finished less than 3 seconds off of the 35th-place cutoff a year ago, but was more than 30 seconds ahead of the 35th-place finisher last Saturday.

“To finish so close last season made this year’s results so much more satisfying,” Norton said.

He credited a stronger start this season with his improvement.

“Last year, I was too tentative and was probably in 100th place at the first mile marker, so I told myself to get a quick start this year and I was able to keep running strong until the finish line,” he said.

Norton was the first AllAmerican men’s cross country runner since Samson Yohannes ’00, who also finished in seventh place at nationals in 1999.

Overall, Norton is Brandeis’ 28th All-American men’s cross country runner in school history, bringing the University’s total to six-highest among NCAA schools For the second year in a row, Marc Boutin ’12 and Chris Brown ’12 were the next two runners to cross the finish line for Brandeis at the National Championships.

Boutin finished in 117th place at 26:50.04, a 12-spot improvement

See WBBALL, 14 ☛

See XCOUNTRY, 14 ☛

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

DETERMINED: Guard Andre Roberson ’10 is fouled while leaping toward the basket in the season opener over Lasell College.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Squad wins three and captures tournament ■ The women’s basketball

team won the Brandeis Basketball Classic last weekend and is now 4-0.

By QUINCY AUGER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In one smooth motion, women’s basketball guard Carmella Breslin ’10 caught a pass at the 3-point line and knocked down a basket to break a 2323 tie and help spark life back into the

No. 9 Judges in last Saturday afternoon’s game against the Bates College Bobcats. The Judges rose to victory in the two-day, four-game Brandeis Basketball Classic over the weekend and clinched the title with a 63-41 win over Bates.

The win over Bates followed a 56-49 win over the Wentworth Institute of Technology to open the tournament.

The Judges are now 4-0 to start the season after having also defeated Babson College on the road 68-58 last Tuesday.

Brandeis and Bates had been neck-

and-neck for the majority of the first half last Saturday. Both teams were searching for a chance to take the lead, and with 30 seconds left in the half, with the score 26-23, the ball landed back in Breslin’s hands.

Taking a moment to glance at the clock as she pushed the ball upcourt, she attempted a layup against two Bates defenders but missed. Forward Brighid Courtney ’12 capitalized on the rebound to put the Judges up by five as the teams headed into the locker rooms for halftime.

The slow start, seemingly charac-

just

A

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November 24, 2009

‘DYBBUK’ BEDEVILS BRANDEIS p. 19

Photos: Asher Krell/the Justice. Design: Julian Agin-Liebes and Robyn Spector/the Justice.

18

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

●

THE JUSTICE

POP CULTURE

INSIDE ON CAMPUS

Farewell, farewell, dear Oprah! How your sweeping judgments will be missed. How your endorsements will forever lose their impact.

How your penetrating glances will cease to linger as you mutter something revelatory—ah, what was it? “Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.” Yes, Oprah, how right you are!

You’ve interviewed the stars and the world leaders. You’ve catapulted worthy professionals who know how to give it straight. Without you, Dr. Phil would just be a silly Southern man with no credentials. Thank you, Oprah, for now he is a syndicated silly Southern man with no credentials.

Who knows, without your program, Tom Cruise’s “America’s Sweetheart” status may have remained; “The Secret” may have been kept (you know what secret I’m talking about, the one about how useful it is to do somethingor-other).

Because of your book club, people all over the country recognized Anna Karenina as a mustread. “When will Lifetime air this?” many a woman asked, coffee cup in hand, sitting at the kitchen table. “I know!” another responded, adding “But they have to cut out all that manual labor if they want it to be successful.”

Matt Damon nearly choked up when faced with the news—“I still have to digest it,” he offered.

Where will we go? Who will we be? Who will decide? How will I know I am wearing the right bra size? Who knows?! Not Oprah. Not anymore.

The season after next will be your last, you’ve proclaimed. And at the end of that fateful year, millions will suffer a disorder they assumed would only last to the end of daylight saving time—Seasonal Affective Disorder. It will make

18-21

■ Starving Artists 19 The a cappella group performed a stellar semester show featuring talented soloists.

■ Brandeis Film Collective 19 Brandeis students screened original films produced over the course of the semester.

■ ‘The Dybbuk’ 19 Hillel Theater Group staged the play about the supernatural as its semester production.

20 ■ ‘Reckless’ Director of the Arts Scott Edmiston directed the comedy for SpeakEasy Stage Company.

20 ■ Tom Hall interview The Improv Collective director spoke about his efforts in music and education.

21 ■ Mela 2009 Students celebrated cultures of South Asia.

OFF CAMPUS

22-24

■ Bowerbirds interview 22 Before the band’s concert at the Paradise, lead singer Phil Moore spoke to justArts.

22 ■ Dirty Projectors concert After a suprising set by tUnE-yArDs, the Brooklyn band proved its musical mettle.

23 ■ Pop Muse Lady Gaga’s album Fame Monster excelled.

23 ■ ‘Battle Studies’ The album by John Mayer contained a number of heartfelt songs with great melodies.

CALENDAR

INTERVIEW

by Marianna Faynshteyn

Bierenbaum pens poetry ■ In an e-mail interview, Jason Simon-Bierenbaum ’11 discussed the Brandeis slam poetry scene.

REED SAXON/The Associated Press

TV QUEEN: Oprah Winfrey announced that her long-running talk show would end in 2011. a resurgence with the knowledge that the lights on your show will go down forever. In fact, will the clocks be pushed back at all if Oprah will not be on the air? Many may wonder, and as a result will further sink into their SAD depression.

Perhaps as a parting gift, your absenceinduced illness will sweep the world and counter the dreaded Swine, freeing humanity of the effects of a bad flu. This must be your plan! How quasi self-sacrificing! How self-important. How Oprah.

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus

Slam team final The Brandeis Open Mic Series sponsors a competition to determine the members of the slam poetry team for this year. Celebrated local slam poet Ryk McIntyre will be on hand to host the event and perform.

Today from 8 to 11 p.m. in the Castle Commons.

Project Nur submission deadline Project Nur is sponsoring a contest for visual artists who seek to represent what worship means to them. Entrants are asked to submit up to five photographs, drawings or any other kind of visual art representing their ideas of worship or their observations of others. Captions or descriptions are permitted but not required. Winning entries will be displayed in the Shapiro Campus Center during the first week of December. Project Nur is a new initiative on campus dedicated to promoting an interethnic and multifaith student community that supports human and civil rights. Please submit high-quality electronic images to brandeispn@gmail.com.

Sunday, Nov. 29 at 11 a.m.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRENDA ANDERSON

VOCAL poetry contest submission deadline VOCAL is sponsoring a poetry-writing contest. The winner will have a chapbook of his or her poetry published. Judging will take place over winter break and the winners will be announced at a BOMS poetry slam next semester. Entrants are asked to submit a five- to 10-page writing sample to sarahk3@ brandeis.edu. To ensure a blind judging process, the entrant’s name should not be included on the pages of the sample.

Monday, Nov. 30 at 11:59 p.m.

OFF CAMPUS EVENTS ‘Mr. Skeffington’ As part of its tribute to the screenwriting team Julius and Philip Epstein, the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge will screen this classic movie starring Bette Davis as a selfish beauty who marries for convenience, then ruins her marriage and loses her looks. Claude Rains plays the title character, the wealthy, long-suffering but devoted husband. Tickets are $7.75 for the afternoon showing and $9.75 in the evenings.

Tomorrow at 4:15, 7 and 9:45 p.m. at the

WHAT’S ON?

MUSICAL MOMENT: Local youths participating in the Open Fields production of ‘RENT’ met Adam Kantor (bottom row, center), an actor who appeared in a Broadway production of the musical.

Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, Mass.

‘Casablanca’ Of all the gin joints in all the world, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) walks into the one owned by her former lover Rick (Humphrey Bogart).

This particular saloon also happens to serve as a front for Rick’s thriving visa forgery business, and since Ilsa’s husband Laszlo is on the run from the Nazis, the film becomes riddled with romance and suspense, making it one of the most popular movies of all time.

Tickets are $7.75 for the first screening each day and $9.75 for all other screenings.

Thursday through Saturday at 2:45, 5, 7:15 and 9:30 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre.

Do Make Say Think concert For over a decade, this Canadian band has been releasing innovative rock music that incorporates jazz, punk and electronica influences. They come to Cambridge on a tour in support of their album Other Truths, which was released in October. Do Make Say Think

will be joined by opening acts The Happiness Project and Years. Admission is restricted to those 18 and over. Tickets cost $12.

Friday at 8 p.m. at the Middle East Downstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass.

‘RENT’ The musical by Jonathan Larson recieved a Pulitzer Prize and four Tony Awards when it debuted in 1996. Based loosely on the opera La Boheme, RENT tells the story of a community of struggling artists living in New York City in 1989 at the outbreak of the AIDS crisis. A local youth community theater group, Open Fields, will perform the musical at Regis College. Nicholas Maletta ’13 will portray Tom Collins, a philosophy professor afflicted with AIDS. Tickets are $15 with a college ID, though some student seating will be available for $10 on a first-come, firstserved basis.

Friday and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Eleanor Welch Casey Theatre at Regis College, 235 Wellesley St., Weston, Mass.

Jason Simon-Bierenbaum ’11 is the president of VOCAL, the club that organizes the Brandeis Open Mic Series. In addition, VOCAL cooperates with theater groups on campus and engages in outreach to youth in the community.

JustArts: What’s your personal poetry style?

Jason Simon-Bierenbaum: I’m trying to develop a style that pulls equally from spoken word and more traditional “academic/page” poetry. I want to create poems that hold their own on stage and on paper, with different nuances in each version that can be enjoyed and understood upon first read, but that open up more options. While I’ve done some work in forms such as triptychs, sestinas and pantoum, most of my poems are free verse, often using stories to convey ideas. [I am a] big fan of extended metaphor.

JA: What kinds of themes do you usually deal with?

JSB: Bit of everything. Rarely overly political anymore, but always with meaning.

Praising and humanizing the misunderstood or under appreciated, speaking up for the hushed, exploring my old town and themes of conformity and assimilation.

JA: When you write poetry, do you write with your performance in mind, or does that come after the poem is already written?

JSB: Performance is rarely thought about until after. Some poems are just asking to be performed, but normally I don’t even think about that until I’m a few drafts into the work.

When I start memorizing, I really hear over and over how it sounds and works, and then it gets edited more that way.

JA: Do you practice your performances a lot?

JSB: Yes and no. I memorize a poem, then go over it a few times [a] day for the next week, and then I pretty much have it down pat, but if I have a big performance, I will practice it a lot more going into that.

JA: And then when you’re actually performing, do you find that it differs from what you've rehearsed?

JSB: Yes. Sometimes I mess up and don’t do it as well as practiced, but normally the energy of the audience and the feel of being center stage pushes me to a new level.

JA: What does performance of a poem add to the words on the page?

JSB: You’re able to connect with the audience and make them experience the poem. It also can create new interpretations, help get the emotions across, and make poetry fun for people who didn’t think that line breaks or metaphors or other things of the sort are interesting.

JA: What’s it like to work with the other members of a slam team on poetry? How does the teamwork element contribute to yours and others’ poetry skills?

JSB: It’s a blast. Last year we only ended up having two group pieces, but that is still one of the most fun poems to ever perform. In practices it’s great to have a diverse group of poets there to give feedback and critique on writing and performance. This also helped develop our understandings of each other, team bonding, and of course overall skills.

JA: BOMS often hosts outside poets at their events—could you talk a little about the Boston slam poetry scene?

JSB: Some of the best writing I’ve ever seen in a spoken word scene. Amazing, amazing writers.

JA: Do other colleges have clubs or events similar to BOMS and VOCAL? JSB: Emerson College and Hampshire College both sent teams to CUPSI last year. ...

Berklee College of Music has a pick up team for the regional competition and are trying to put together a team this year. Boston University and Harvard have poetry club. Mass Art and Northeastern are developing open mics. I’m sure there’s probably other schools with clubs.

However, I don’t know of other poetry clubs who do as many different things as we do, or have the same emphasis on community involvement through poetry.

—Sarah Bayer

Top 10s for the week ending Nov. 24

Box Office

College Radio

Billboard

1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon 2. The Blind Side 3. 2012 4. Planet 51 5. Disney’s A Christmas Carol 6. Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire 7. The Men Who Stare At Goats 8. Couples Retreat 9. The Fourth Kind 10. Law AbIding Citizen

1. Flaming Lips – Embryonic 2. Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk 3. Raveonettes – In And Out Of Control 4. Built to Spill – There Is No Enemy 5. Avett Brothers – I And Love And You 6. Xx – The Xx 7. Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs 8. Flight of the Conchords – I Told You I Was Freaky 9. Dead Man’s Bones – Dead Man’s Bones 10. Thao With the Get Down Stay Down – Know Better Learn Faster

1. Bon Jovi – The Circle 2. Andrea Bocelli – My Christmas 3. Carrie Underwood – Play On 4. Michael Jackson – Michael Jackson’s This Is It 5. Taylor Swift – Fearless 6. Various Artists – Now 32 7. Michael Buble – Crazy Love 8. Flyleaf – Memento Mori 9. Various Artists – Glee: Season One: The Music Volume 1 10. Various Artists – The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Album information provided by Billboard Magazine. Box office information provided by Yahoo!Movies. Radio charts provided by CMJ.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

19

ON CAMPUS THEATER

SINGING FOR SUPPER

HTG’s ‘Dybbuk’ doesn’t translate ■ Hillel Theater Group’s

play, based heavily on shtetl life, featured fine acting.

By ELLY KALFUS JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

SINGALONG: Jonathan Widberg ’12 debuts as a soloist during Starving Artists’ semester show, “Will Sing For Food.”

Artists’ ‘Food’ satisfies ■ Starving Artists showed

off members’ considerable vocal skill at its fall show.

By BRYAN FLATT JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

With so many a cappella groups on campus, all talented in their own respects, it is extremely difficult for a group to stand out at Brandeis. I am always curious to see a group perform and watch how it distinguishes itself.

Approaching its 15th year in existence next semester, Starving Artists, a coed group with 14 total members (two inactive) performed its fall semester show, “Will Sing for Food,” Nov. 17 in the Schwartz Auditorium.

Having heard Starving Artists sample a few songs at coffeehouses in the past, I was excited to see what was in store.

The group had decorated the auditorium (a place I had only known in the past as “the room where I took Psych 10a”) with red and black streamers, letters of the same colors that spelled Starving Artists and a cardboard sign that read, “Will Sing for Food.” The singers opened by making a classy entrance into the hall wearing all black with a splash of red (generally a belt for girls and tie for the guys). Ross Brown ’10, the only senior in the group, approached the microphone and said a quick welcoming introduction to the audience.

The Artists then started to sing the first song, “Home” by Marc Broussard, arranged and with a solo by Brown.

This song was quite an energetic start to the show. Though met with a few microphone malfunctions early on, Brown sang through the song with a great country-rock feel, and his strong voice was met with excellent

backing vocals from the rest of the group. During the chorus, the unity of the group truly stood out as it harmonized to create a nice full sound.

The arrangements of the songs emphasized the strong vocals of the entire group while concurrently allowing each soloist to shine individually. While each song contained good arrangements, strong group vocals and impressive solos, certain songs throughout the show stood out as true gems.

Of the soloists, Andrew Litwin ’11, Russell Foxworthy ’12 and Rachel Wolfman ’13 really stood out. Litwin’s rendition of the Edwin McCain original “I’ll Be” was just as heartfelt as the original and would probably even impress McCain himself. With sideburns and a studded costume, Foxworthy could have become Elvis Presley singing “Blue Suede Shoes,” and Wolfman’s controlled powerful voice brought tears to the eyes of the audience with a beautiful rendition of Robbie Williams’ “Angels.”

Starving Artists has more than just a few great soloists, and the amazing group vocals made the show exciting to listen to the whole time. This was most notable on the song “Because,” a cover of the classic Beatles song. As the song is almost entirely vocal harmony, it cemented the absolute skill of the bunch. Each member’s vocals completed the others’ and made for a rounded sound that sent shivers up my spine.

Starving Artists also premiered three new songs over the course of the performance. “Everybody’s Fool,” originally by Evanescence, is a very complex song that didn’t translate so well into the a cappella medium. The heavy guitar and drums couldn’t be matched even by the powerful voices of Starving Artists. I feel that, though difficult, the arrangement was done

in the best way possible given the source material, and soloist Jordan Brown ’12 still sounded good. The next new song, “This Time Around”

by Hanson, was sung by Eric Freeman ’12 and was arranged very well with an overlapping strong backing emphasizing Freeman’s voice. It is definitely a keeper for the future. The last new song, “Fallin’,” originally sung by Alicia Keys, was the perfect choice for first-time soloist Ellyn Getz ’13. Her soulful voice was able to match the difficult notes that Keys sings and showed great confidence for a first solo.

Concluding the show was the regularly performed “Before He Cheats,” featuring solos from all the Starving Artists girls (Wolfman, Getz, Nicole Izbicky ’11, Lindsay Tsopelas ’12, Abby Armstrong ’13 and Sarit Friedman ’13. The solo transitions were nearly flawless and flowed well even into transitions to “Hit the Road Jack” and “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” which appropriately ended the show.

With three new songs premiering (“Everybody’s Fool,” “This Time Around” and “Fallin’”), four new soloists (Jonathan Widberg ’12, Getz, Freeman and Jordan Brown), cutesy dance moves, a delicious intermission, incredible vocals and a great group dynamic, Starving Artists really put on a great show that stood out. Even with the setback of having no leading microphone, all the soloists rose to the occasion to belt out their songs—a testament to the vocal skill of every member. If the Tuesday night performance showed anything, Starving Artists should do very well in their next big performance, the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. If they “Will Sing for Food,” they certainly won’t go hungry any time soon.

This week marked the run of the Hillel Theater Group’s production of The Dybbuk, a play that explores traditions found in Hasidic Judaism and delves into the mystical world of the unknown. Much of the dialogue throughout the show refers to historic events in Jewish culture and ethics of Judaism, and the central action takes place within a synagogue and nearby graveyard. Although the show raises many interesting questions of ethics and morality, the production seemed to struggle to make a show about Hasidic Jews from another era accessible to a secular, contemporary audience.

The plot centers around the thwarted romance between Leah (Rachel Garbus ’13) and Hannan (Jacob Chatinover ’12).

Leah’s father, Sender (Jeff Horowitz ’10), has repeatedly attempted to marry her off, but each time the bridegroom’s family has failed to live up to his extremely high standards. While several rabbinical students are sitting around a table in the synagogue discussing Jewish parables, Sender is busy trying to betroth his daughter for a fourth time. The students are theorizing when a mysterious figure, known only as the Messenger (Maayan Bar-Yam ’12), arrives and engages them in debate. BarYam’s portrayal of the Messenger is very intriguing, but one is left wondering what his role is in the series of events that transpire, a question that is left hanging throughout the play. At times, the Messenger interacts with all of the characters, while at other times he is seen or heard only by Leah, leaving the audience in confusion as to whether he is some type of otherworldly spirit or a real person.

One difficulty with the production is the challenge involved in following the long-winded, detailed discussions in which the characters frequently engage. Although these discussions of morals make one think, they tend to be preachy and seem more like abstract philosophical questions thrown into the mix at random than relevant questions of ethics. The story is quite discursive, leading us down several routes only to abandon them later in search of the love story between Leah and Hannan.

Leah and her grandmother go to the synagogue to pray for the soul of Leah’s mother, and Leah is happy to find Hannan studying biblical texts there. The two shyly exchange looks as she approaches him only to be drawn away by her grandmother. Soon after the women depart, Sender returns to the synagogue with the good news that he has finally betrothed his daughter.

Hannan, distraught by this news, solil-

oquizes over his inability to understand kabbalah. However, after an epiphany, he immediately falls down dead, his body lying in front of the Torah ark.

In the next scene, Leah is preparing for her wedding day and is bothered by something she cannot identify. She dances with a group of wedding guests, but the exertion overwhelms her and she starts to feel faint. Confusingly, many of the female characters are played by males costumed in very comedic, “feminine” outfits, or with physical characteristics such as hunched backs and crutches. These depictions seem awkward and out of place. It is not clear why the director made these choices.

Increasingly agitated and exhausted, Leah faints, and the authorities determine that she is possessed by a dybbuk, or a “wandering soul.” Her father and grandmother immediately bring her to Rabbi Azrael, beautifully played by Dan Forman ’10, and he begins to perform an exorcism. With the help of Rabbi Samson (Sam Fowler ’13), it is discovered that the dybbuk is the lost soul of Hannan and that he has possessed Leah’s body in order to prevent her from marrying anyone because of a promise made by their parents before they were born. Hannan feels that he is Leah’s soul mate because of this predestined promise and refuses to give her up to someone else. The ghost of Hannan’s father is summoned and he claims that he and Sender had agreed to marry their children to each other long ago, before the children were born.

He accuses Sender of breaking this promise, and Sender confirms the claim, although he tries to justify his actions.

Although the truth has come to the surface, Hannan’s father’s ghost does not accept the rabbi’s pleas to ask Hannan to leave Leah’s body. While the rabbi wants to proceed with Leah’s wedding to her new bridegroom and believes he can vanquish the dybbuk, Leah and Hannan prove him wrong by uniting under a marital canopy carried by four spirits dressed in white. The show ends on an ambiguous note, leaving the audience to decide whether Leah has killed herself in order to be reunited with Hannan or whether she is still alive and they have been reunited in a purely spiritual sense.

Garbus plays a possessed Leah brilliantly, maintaining a sense of realism and invoking compassion for her character in an otherwise unbelievable story. Although several actors imbue their roles with great passion, the production did not capture the essence of mysticism which plays such an integral part in the Hasidic experience. We are left wondering and disturbed. Although questions of rabbinical authority are raised many times, in the end it is the dybbuk, or perhaps the power of love, that triumphs over all.

Editor’s Note: Jacob Chatinover is a member of the Justice Copy staff.

FILM

Brandeis Film Collective efforts stand out over difficulties ■ Students’ films proved

skillful despite technical problems at the screening.

By ALEX DESILVA JUSTICE STAFF WRITER The Brandeis Film Collective had a screening of three student-made films on Nov. 19 in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium. Those who were there know that the screening was unfortunately cut short—the movies were hard to see and hear in the crowded atrium. After repeated attempts to fix it, the projector, in one last act of rebellion, finally just broke down. The audience left, missing most of the work these student filmmakers had done.

Thankfully, I got to see the movies later, and have learned that they will soon be up on YouTube. So for all those who left the screening disappointed,

and those who simply didn’t come, here’s what you missed.

The first movie shown at the event was Ben Harel’s ’12 Aiden Own, which was shown in its entirety at the screening, but because of the lighting, much of it wasn’t visible. This obviously made for a much less coherent product, with one sequence consisting of only a blank screen with the soundtrack running due to the technical difficulties.

Despite the problems during its screening, you could still get the gist of the plot. The film follows the titular character as he gradually descends into madness after meeting an old aquaintance from years before, confronting his mental problems as he begins to realize what his chance encounter really was. Even though the audience at the event was able to pick this up, they’ll find upon rewatching it just how much more there was to it than what could be taken from the screening. The movie’s camera effects were very well done,

showing hallucination scenes and a fade-out of one character. The aformentioned 2 minutes of blank screen at the event was actually part of the elaborate hallucination, with the accompanying music working very well with the on-screen action. While there were some pieces of awkward dialogue, overall the movie was good. It’s surprising just how well this was shot considering the low budget, and there were scenes of genuine drama that made up for any faults it might have had.

Second in the lineup was Strep by Max Price ’11. Contrasting with Own’s drama and intensity, Strep was presented as a spy comedy movie, a genre that the movie itself thankfully recognizes is ridiculous and is sure not to take itself too seriously. It follows a delinquent student who is forced to spy on a classmate whom the deans think might be a terrorist, apparently ignoring the fact that they’re asking a ran-

dom college kid to stop this terrorist. In the vein of great spy organizations like UNCLE and SPECTRE, STREP stands for something: the Scholastic Total ReEducation Project. The film itself is pretty funny, playing up just how stupid the school’s idea truly is while being fairly well written and performed. For those of you who went to the screening and left without getting much of an impression of it, check it out again on YouTube. You won’t regret it.

The final film, Alexander Goldman’s ’10 Friday Night Special, wasn’t even screened in the Campus Center, as the projector broke down just as it was about to start. But before it broke, the audience was shown a still that promised that this one was the best of the three, something timed so well that I’m starting to think that the projector truly didn’t like us on that night. I was eventually able to see it later on and can tell you that it truly was the best

out of the movies (almost) shown. It was definitely the longest and largest of the three, with two separate stories that somewhat intertwined by the end of the movie. One showed a student’s failed attempts to pick up a girl at a party, while the other showed a shy student’s encounter with mushrooms and his subsequent trip, meeting the surprisingly lonely “Mayor of Cooltown, U.S.A.” and even climbing a mountain of cinder blocks. I have to say that this was genuinely funny, with some great performances and good camera tricks and effects. It was a bit hard to follow at first but soon found its footing. Between the writing, acting and overall story, I have to say that Special was definitely the best of the night (or would have been, at least).

Within the next few days these will be up on YouTube. They not only showcase the work of filmmakers here at Brandeis but are also pretty good. Take some time to check them out.

20

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

●

THE JUSTICE

FEELING ‘RECKLESS’

MUSIC

Tom Hall cultivates a taste for spontaneity ■ The director of Brandeis Improv Collective discussed his musical endeavors.

MARK L. SAPERSTEIN/SpeakEasy Stage Company

NARROW ESCAPE: In SpeakEasy Stage Company’s fantastical, funny production of ‘Reckless,’ a play by Craig Lucas, Rachel (Marianna Bassham M.F.A. ’02) escapes through her bedroom window when she finds her life in peril on Christmas Eve.

‘Reckless’ is a charming, madcap Christmas tale ■ In the production by SpeakEasy Stage Company, Director of the Arts Scott Edmiston collaborated with Marianna Bassham M.F.A. ’02 and Larry Coen ’81.

By AARON ARBITER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

I know, I know: People say it all the time, but the holidays really do come earlier every year. This season, two veteran playwrights see their respective Christmas wishes make Boston premiers. Last Friday night the Huntington Theater Company opened Paula Vogel’s A Civil War Christmas while the SpeakEasy Stage Company opened Craig Lucas’s Reckless, directed by Brandeis’ Director of the Arts Scott Edmiston. If one were to compare A Civil War Christmas to Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, then surely Reckless would be analogous to 1983’s unforgettable film A Christmas Story. Reckless is hysterical, heartbreaking and impossible to sit through without reliving some aspect of your own holiday agita.

Reckless opens on Christmas Eve when Rachel (Marianna Bassham M.F.A. ’02) is forced to flee via her bedroom window from a hit man hired by her husband Tom (Barlow Adamson). Leaving her family behind with only the pajamas on her

back, Rachel encounters Lloyd, his deaf-mute wife, Pooty, and everything else ranging from a surreal game show to more therapists than you can shake your copy of Dianetics at. With Lloyd and Pooty (played, respectively, by another Brandeis alum, Larry Coen ’81, and Kerry A. Dowling) Rachel manages to find something of a family, but soon tragedy comes knocking. Reckless is a story of zany mayhem and skeletons in the closet that is breathlessly hysterical and often deeply touching. The production also features Will McGarrahan, Sandra Heffley, Karl Baker Olson, and a staple of the Boston stage, Paula Plum, as the therapists (too many of them to count). The ensemble members are sharp and well tuned with each other, with a particularly perfect performance by Coen. Together they navigate the SpeakEasy’s shallow stage with ease, clearly having as much fun with each other as the play allows (which is a lot).

The holidays have the uncanny ability to inspire both dread and delight, and Reckless is hardly an exception, posing a steep challenged for the design team. I sat down with director Scott Edmiston to talk about some of the challenges of the play, including its ambiguous ending.

“I don’t want to tell people what to think, only pose meaningful questions,” he said. Edmiston went on to describe how he and the design team envisioned a world for the play

much like Alice’s Wonderland. The similarity between Rachel and Alice is easy to find, and although Christina Todesco’s set looks less like Carroll’s Wonderland and more like a bizarre department-store display, it evokes both a dreamlike wintry forest and a nightmarish cave.

The scrim-wall and the sheer width of the stage tended to give the production a flat look, but nevertheless it all works well here. Prof. Charles Schoonmaker (THA), another Brandeis affiliate, designed the production’s flawless and evocative costumes.

Playwright Craig Lucas wrote the book for The Light in the Piazza, which Edmiston directed for SpeakEasy last year. That story, like Reckless, has what Edmiston identifies in Lucas’s writing as a “fable quality,” explaining, “They ask if things happen for a reason or if things just happen.” It’s an important, if unresolved question in Reckless. At times the production seemed to not quite know what to do with itself during its darkest scenes. Yet if some of the play’s more dramatic moments didn’t quite feel, well, dramatic enough, then consider that in Reckless, as in life, people are not always what they seem and that sometimes, without rhyme or reason, things happen. It’s just as the Duchess tells Alice, “Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.”

Reckless runs through Dec. 12 at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston. Tickets are $30 to $50.

Most students at Brandeis who hear of the Improv Collective have little or no idea what it is. Some mistake the group for a comedy improv troupe or a jazz combo, two examples of groups who may do “improvisation.” What the Improv Collective actually is may surprise students, as the idea behind the group is extremely simple. Tom Hall, the director of the group, teaches musicians how to improvise. But what is improvisation? As a member of the group, this has been a question I’ve been trying to tackle for a long time. Fortunately, I was able to sit down with Tom Hall last week and talk about how he developed his method of teaching improvisation, what improvisation means, and what exactly it is that he does with the Improv Collective.

JustArts: So, first off, what is improvisation?

Tom Hall: Well, I think that improvisation is something that, as humans, we all naturally do. It’s the process of combining the knowledge and skills we possess with the possibilities and materials available in the moment, and spontaneously creating something. From the moment we’re born until the moment we die, from the most creative artistic endeavor to the most mundane action, it is an inextricable part of human life.

JA: How did you come to this realization?

TH: Well, the idea actually came from playing an instrument. When I started off in seventh-grade jazz ensemble, I realized that what I liked best was just that, being up there and playing stuff. That’s why I became a musician, and I went to college in the New England Conservatory. We had a band there called Ensemble Garuda, and what we would do is get together basically every day and improvise in every way that we could think of. And that really got me started thinking about improvisation in a broader context.

JA: So as a musician who improvised, how did you connect that with the idea of improvisation being something completely universal?

TH: Well, after I graduated college, I started playing a lot of different styles of music, whether it was funk or disco or straight-ahead jazz. What I realized was that no matter what kind of music I was playing, I always felt like an improviser. I had the ability to work with what was happening in the moment and to improvise in a way that worked and made sense. The process was the same, no matter what kind of music I was playing. Then I started wondering, well, if improvisation is the same with all music, is it the same with everything we create?

JA: You mean, other forms of artistic creativity?

TH: You see, I actually went through a period of time where I took some improvisational theater classes just to see if the process was the same, if I could apply what I knew about the process of improvisation to this other medium. I found out that, aside from certain things that are inherent to the medium, such as in music you have pitches and harmony, there’s all this stuff about improvisation that’s all the same: Basic concepts like beginning and ending, things like phrasing, creating a story, a narrative arc and the idea of relationship. And I spoke to dancers a lot, and to musicians, too.

And the more I did this the more I realized that the process of improvisation in all artistic mediums was the same.

JA: Are there any specific examples of theater and music using the same process to improvise?

TH: Well, there’s a improv comedy term called “finding the game.”

What’s the basic relationship between the characters, what’s the game that they’re playing? Then once you find the game you can follow the flow of the improvisation and know where the joke is going to be. In musical terms, maybe you’re playing in this key or you’re accompanying him, and that’s the game.

JA: So what finally led you to doing the Improv Collective at Brandeis?

TH: [Prof.] Bob Nieske (MUS), the

jazz ensemble director here, asked me to be a sax teacher at Brandeis. I came in and started doing work with sax players, and we ended up doing a lot of improvisation. That got me thinking about how to get somebody to feel comfortable improvising music if they haven’t done it before. So that’s how, in 1997, I got started developing the Improv Collective, the system I have for teaching people how to improvise.

JA: A lot of times musicians come to the Improv Collective, and I’ve heard them play in the orchestra and they’re phenomenal performers. But I talk to them and they say, “Oh, I don’t know how to improvise.” How do you make them realize that they can improvise?

TH: It’s actually remarkably easy. I ask them to improvise just one sound that tells me who they are right now. If you can get somebody to play that one note and to really truly have it come out as an expression of themselves in that moment, then the ice is broken.

Then it’s just a matter of learning technique, like how to improvise a melody.

JA: Would you say there is a process of learning and becoming a better improviser?

TH: Everyone has an incredible amount of knowledge of how to improvise. Every culture has music and speech, and everyone lives in a world where making sense of the sounds around you is so important. So the key to becoming a free improviser is how to put the two things together. We have all this knowledge improvising, we have all this knowledge about how to make sense of sound, and to be a great improviser you have to learn do the two at once.

JA: I heard you were coming out with a handbook that puts together all of these ideas of improvisation.

TH: Yes, it’s a workbook called Free Improvisation: A Practical Guide. I’ve been writing this book for over 10 years now. The book covers the theory and practicing behind improvisation, and it has 124 exercises focusing on developing skills to help you improvise.

JA: Will you be publishing the book yourself?

TH: Yes, I’ll be selling it on my Web site, www.freeimprovisation.com, as well as Amazon.

JA: What kind of people are you targeting?

TH: I truly think everybody can use it. I think an intimate understanding of improvisation can help everything.

I gave it to my old English teacher, and he said, “I wish I had this when I was a teacher. All of these ideas I would have used in teaching writing.”

It’s all the same thing.

JA: I also heard that you are performing free improv in the Boston area with other professional musicians.

TH: I’m currently doing a series called The Sessions, currently at The Outpost in Inman Square. I invite musicians that I think I would enjoy playing with and we improvise. I don’t distinguish between who’s in the free jazz realm and who’s not. Part of my thing is breaking those boundaries, getting an avant-garde jazz musician together with a blues player. The CD of Sessions III, which is a studio session I did recently with bassist Marty Ballou and trombonist Jeff Galindo, is currently available on my Web site.

JA: It seems like you’ll be busy with not only the Improv Collective but also the book and the performances.

Any other future plans or projects you’re working on?

TH: Eventually I want to do more sessions and workshops, open for anyone to come and work on different improv elements. I also want put on a theatrical show involving dance and improv music and costumes, but that’s far in the future. My next Session will be on Dec. 13 with Jerry Leake on percussion and Sonny Barbato on accordion.

JA: Final question, what’s the wackiest thing that’s happened during your time with the Improv Collective?

TH: Well, there’s always wacky things happening. Everything from purely beautiful music to some guy playing a two minute solo with his flip-flop, which happened in performance. It was during the final concert, and he just took off his shoes and started hitting things with them. It was intense.

—Wei-Huan Chen

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

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ASHER KRELL/the Justice

OSTENTATIOUS OPENER: A dance choreographed by first-year students followed the welcome speech at this year’s Mela. The “Freshman Dance” fused classical South Asian dance with an upbeat contemporary style.

Cultures meet at Mela Students gather to celebrate “milan”

By JOYCE WANG JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

The South Asian Students’ Association flagship event for the year, Mela, took place last Saturday night to an enthusiastic audience. Its theme was “Milan: Together We Are...” Milan, which in Hindi means “meeting,” was a celebration of South Asian culture melding with modern society. A combination of slide shows, videos, dances, spoken word and a fashion show, as well as dinner afterward, made for an exciting evening.

Act I opened with a slide show explaining the theme of Milan, which incorporated the history and art of the eight South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The first dance, Bharatanatyam, was a classical South Indian dance form that featured a fusion moment with the song “Liquid Dance” from Slumdog Millionaire.

Among the other modern moments of the first act was the Fusion Beats dance, which featured hip hop, Bollywood and bhangra influences, a particular standout of the evening due to its energetic, kinetic beats. Additionally, the Ishara… dance also featured Bollywood, reggae and hip hop influences.

Both of them incorporated the theme of modern culture fusing with more traditional forms. Another moment of

intersection occurred with the Kathak/Flamenco dance, where two flamenco dancers performed alongside a third Kathak dancer, which is a kind of classical Indian dance. Act I also featured an upbeat, humorous contribution from SASA’s first-years, titled Freshman Dance. A fashion show including a wide variety of South Asian fashions, from Indian to Afghani, also showcased the extreme enthusiasm of the audience. Not a single model emerged without a chorus of support, often from people yelling the models’ names. Indeed, the entire audience seemed constructed out of either relatives or friends of the performers, resulting in a rather lively experience.

However, the first act ended on a more serious note, with a charity slide show in support for the Asian University for Women, an organization that strives to provide higher education to more South Asian women. The university is located in Chattagong, Bangladesh and enrolls about 3,000 students.

Act II opened with the new student band, Aatma, a unique combination of jazz vocals and instrumentation followed by a more traditional South Asian styling. The saxophonist and drummer were particular standouts of the band. Next, after a blooper reel, Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams made a surprise appearance featuring his trademark spoken word, which was a paean to the power of

Mela. Following his performance was the ever-popular Brandeis Bhangra, featuring an upbeat and energetic dance from India’s Punjab region.

This was followed by a somewhat more subdued version of two kind of Afghan dance, Qataghani and Logari.

Act II also had some more humorous moments with Sophomore Lovin’ and Studs Express. Sophomore Lovin’ was a playful battle between a traditional and a modern group of dancers, each sparring for superiority in a short showdown sequence. Studs Express, a film by BTV, told in the first two acts the tale of a young man from India on a quest to find the girl of his dreams, charmingly acted in a mock-Bollywood fashion. The third act featured live dancers on stage. Act II ended with a Junior/Senior dance, in which the many performers filled the stage in a last goodbye to the audience. It closed out the evening with great success.

Mela is the kind of event for which you have to arrive an hour early to get good seats; I arrived half an hour before it started and barely snatched a decent vantage point. It may not be the most professional act you see this year, but its unmatched level of enthusiasm, variety and energy provides an entertaining evening.

Editor’s Note: Nashrah Rahman ’12, the Justice News editor, participated in Mela.

SPIN CYCLE: Ashni Davé ’12 acted as dancer and choreographer in Mela.

NATHANIEL FREEDMAN/the Justice

VIOLIN VERVE: Siddhi Krishna ’12 performs a thillana, a song of the carnatic genre, the classical music of South India.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

BEAT GENERATION: The dance “ishara...”, choreographed by Asa Bhuiyan ’10, sought to capture the common rhythm of music from many cultures.

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

OFF CAMPUS MUSIC

Bowerbirds to alight in Beantown ■ A justArts writer asks the Bowerbirds’ lead singer about the band’s music, its upcoming tour and various environmentalist activities.

The Bowerbirds are in some ways similar to the complex little Australian bird for which they are named. They aren’t extravagant, with only three members: singer-guitarist Phil Moore, singer-accordionist Beth Tacular and multi-instrumentalist Mark Paulson, and their music is soft and earnest. They have spent considerable time in the wilderness, where Moore and Tacular lived off the grid for two years in an Airstream trailer.

Like the bowerbird, their unassuming appearance belies the outstanding nature of their work. For those uninitiated in ornithology, bowerbirds have extraordinary mating rituals in which the male builds a small, roofed “hut” in order to prove his worth to potential mates. While Phil and Beth are indeed building a cabin in the wilderness, the obvious similarities end there. What truly separates the Bowerbirds from the recent glut of indie-folk acts is their strong songwriting, nuanced arrangements and ethically sensitive lyrics. Moreover, they are reputedly an excellent live act and will be playing the Paradise Rock Club in Boston on Nov. 30 with Elvis Perkins.

JustArts: What are your feelings about the upcoming European tour?

Phil Moore: I’m excited—very excited—to go to Europe again, but right now we’re planning all of the logistical things, like cars and the GPS and all of that stuff. Honestly, it’s much more of a hassle to tour in Europe. So I’m excited, but it’s flustering, maybe.

JA: How are you getting around once you get over there? Are you driving around after you arrive by plane?

PM: We’re renting a minivan. …

We’re not going with a tour manager this time, so we can save a little money [laughs]. But it’s also a bit of a headache because we have to figure a lot of stuff out.

JA: I hear that you guys tour with biodiesel. Are you also doing that with this tour? Is there any availability?

PM: Well, actually there is biodiesel in Europe … and our car should be diesel, so we should be using biodiesel. … But it’s also a rental car, so I don’t know if that’s actually true! But I also guess that gas is one of those necessary evils as well.

JA: Are you and Beth still living in the Airstream?

PM: We are actually living [half and

half] not in the Airstream currently, but in a cabin that we’re building right outside the Airstream on the same land, and we also have an apartment in the city so that Beth can have running water and do her art and stuff like that. We lived in the Airstream for two years—two plus years—and it was about time to not rough it any more.

JA: Despite the simple instrumentation, there seems to be a lot of rhythmic complexity in your music. I get the impression that you guys listen to a lot more than folk music, right?

PM: Yeah, definitely. Most of that comes from listening to jazz and playing different kinds of music over the years—I used to be in a band that people described as being post-rock—and we’ve listed to a lot of different music over the years. We weren’t just interested in making a folk record.

JA: Could you talk about how the group originally formed?

PM: Well I was in that band that I was talking about, Ticonderoga, and then I started writing these songs that were more straightforward and more based on quiet, finger-picked acoustic guitar. I was, at that point, playing them by myself. But then I was also living with Beth in South Carolina—I’d gotten a birdwatching job in really secluded place—and we then started playing those songs every day.

Beth had picked up an accordion and had never really played it before, but she eventually started playing along and singing with me and we got excited about just playing—not being a band necessarily—and it worked out really, really well. And then Beth got an accordion for Christmas and we started to play local shows and it went really well.

JA: I like your music because the instrumentation is really compact and nuanced. I remember seeing a video of the band playing “In Our Talons” while walking through New York City, and it sounded pretty much like the record. I take it that the instrumentation makes it easier to reproduce what’s on the record when playing live?

PM: Yeah, definitely. It’s the easiest transition. The first record was actually just the three of us playing live tunes in a room with microphones, and it was quiet enough that we could get a good room sound.

JA: From what I’ve heard, you, Mark and Beth are very multitalented. I read somewhere that Mark makes microphones and that you and Beth design Web pages. Could you talk about some of these other interests?

PM: Yeah, Beth and I had a Web design company before we started the

BOWERBIRDS/Dead Oceans

AU NATURALE: Members of Bowerbirds, who will play in Boston on Nov. 30, embrace a back-to-the-land ethos in their lifestyles. band, and we kind of cut back on our work so that we could do the band more. And Mark … is just ridiculous.

He’s a painter and a musician—he records music on his own when he’s not recording ours or touring with us—and he builds all of his own microphones and is building an addition onto his house. … And we’re also building our cabin, so I guess we’re overbooked. We’re just trying to get a lot of stuff done.

JA: I really like the songwriting on the new album, Upper Air. What do you think your biggest influences are in that regard?

PM: Probably my biggest influence is my friend Wes—back when I first started writing music, before I even knew how to play guitar, he took me under his wing. He’s always been one

of my main songwriting influences. …

You can hear his music at myspace.com/wesleydongeroga.

JA: I read that you guys have been playing together since elementary school, so I’ll be sure to listen to it. …

I notice that there’s a bit of a shift in perspective between Hymns of a Dead Horse and Upper Air. The new album seems to be more personal. Was there anything in specific that prompted this change?

PM: Yes and no … There was definitely a conscious decision to talk about things that are closer to my life and me. There were definitely some personal events that spawned a lot of the content on the album … But I’ll just be vague about that stuff.

JA: It looks like I’m almost out of questions, but I’m looking forward to

seeing you guys play the Paradise this November.

PM: Yeah, I’m really excited as well. Boston is like our favorite audience. … I don’t know why, but they’re very good to us.

JA: Are there any areas that respond better you your music than others?

PM: Yes, I think about it city by city—Providence doesn’t really respond well. Out shows are fine there, but they’re smaller. But in Boston, people are singing along. Both times when we played T.T. the Bear’s people were screaming and yelling. It was really fun. The audiences are really warm. Berlin is awesome, too—we look forward to that coming up.

—Alex Pagan

MUSIC

tUnE-yArDs exceed all expectations at Paradise ■ The Dirty Projectors and

opening band tUnE-yArDs showed exceptional warmth and talent during their sets last Tuesday night.

By BEN SERBY JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

In 21 years of attending concerts, I cannot recall ever seeing an opening act that grabbed my attention to such a degree that I actually considered that it might overshadow the headliner.

That changed on Tuesday night, when I witnessed a miraculous set performed by tUnE-yArDs at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. From almost the very second that she walked out onstage, Merrill Garbus (lead vocals, ukelele and drums) exhibited uncommon command of the audience’s attention. Her unique stage presence combined familiar indie-pop girl cuteness with a raw power that brings to mind strong female vocalists such as Etta James—and this woman is defi-

nitely listening to the blues. This arresting brew of brazen sass and deceptive meekness was reflected in both Garbus’ gestures and her sound. Opening her first song with a looped repetition of gentle, Lion King-esque “kee-kee ka-ka” chirps, she then launched into a forceful reproach: “I’m not your fantasy girl.” As she belted out the lyrics in what can only be appraised as an incredible voice, her eyes widened as though plotting some horrific punishment for her imaginary lover. Banging on the drums with fury, Garbus effectively lifted her initial veneer of timidity and instead confronted the audience with the image of a strong—even murderous—woman.

Gender analysis aside, tUnE-YaRdS are simply a lot of fun to watch. In addition to many moments of comedy, the set’s extensive use of looping techniques presented a chance for the audience to watch a song being built up one element at a time—a phenomenon that is far more entertaining when viewed live than when simply heard.

Throughout the opening performance, the entire venue seemed bent on Garbus’ every motion and utterance;

when she mentioned that she had only brought 30 CDs with her for sale, the crowd was visibly disappointed.

Obviously, this memorable showwithin-a-show set the bar rather high for the Dirty Projectors, whose highly acclaimed album, Bitte Orca, came out in June. After the six members of the band took the stage, they launched straight into a version of “No Intention” that felt slower than the album version and seriously lacked in energy. It seemed, for a moment, that the headliners, enjoying a comfortable reputation, would actually pale in comparison to their obscure opener.

But this prediction was quickly shown to be just silly. On the next song, “Remade Horizon,” the enthusiasm picked up considerably; during the technically remarkable bridge, the two guitarists engaged in a sort of jig jam with evident enjoyment.

Even more impressive was the way in which, beginning with this song and continuing throughout the rest of the show, the three female vocalists nailed their insanely challenging harmonies, flawlessly recreating the sound from the studio. The Projectors’

unique sound is chiefly characterized by their “hiccup” vocals, a style that takes apart the melody and moves each individual note from the mouth of one singer to the next along a sort of singing assembly line. As unsettling and beautiful as this feature can be on the album, the experience of seeing it live is mind-blowing; the audience member follows a string of notes passed like a Nerf ball around the stage, seamlessly developing into a coherent (and often complex) melody.

After running through a few more songs off of Bitte Orca—“Temecula Sunrise” and “Fluorescent HalfDome”—front man Dave Longstreth led the band into several rowdy renditions of some of their earlier material.

“Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie,” from Rise Above (2007), gradually grew from a soft opening to a powerful, beat-heavy jam that had the entire crowd moving.

The players were manifestly less selfconscious on these less demanding (and heavier) earlier tunes and attacked each part with an ease borne of the muscle memory that comes with having played them for two years. Attack gave way to all-out abandon when

several minutes of high-volume distortion punctuated the electric performance.

After that ear-splitting meltdown, the Projectors gratified the audience by taking a break from noise. Four of the band members left the stage, leaving Angel Deradoorian to sing the understatedly beautiful “Two Doves” to Longstreth’s acoustic accompaniment.

After a rendering of “Spray Paint the Walls” that surpassed the studio version, and a well-received execution of “Cannibal Resource,” the Projectors sealed the night with the crowd-pleasing “Stillness Is the Move.” Despite the sold-out venue, the cramped audience danced over a vigorous beat while vocalist Amber Coffman hit every high note spot-on. The band members, so often criticized for their noticeably distant and detached attitude while performing, smiled and laughed with each other. Already having demonstrated their awesome talent as musicians, they had plainly shed their discomfort as a live act. With any luck, the Dirty Projectors will be a group that we can see in concert for many years to come.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

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MUSIC

‘FAME MONSTER’

Mayer’s ‘Battle’ a bloodbath ■ John Mayer’s album ‘Battle

Studies’ is mature, emotionally raw and musically uneven.

By BRYAN FLATT JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

MEENO/Universal Music Group

POP PRODIGY: Lady Gaga’s eclecticism shines through on her new album, ‘The Fame Monster,’ originally intended as a re-release of her debut album, ‘The Fame.’

Lady Gaga has ‘Monster’ success Brad

STERN POP MUSE

As Torrance Shipman once said in the 2000 classic Bring It On, “Missy’s the poo, so take a big whiff.”

While that quote doesn’t really apply here (aside from suggesting that Lady Gaga is indeed “the poo”), the point is this: As the driving force behind the writing and recording process of her music, the creative director of her album artwork, music videos, tour visuals, merchandising and just about every other facet of her career, Lady Gaga is a very new kind of pop star—one that sings live, writes and records, dances, styles photo shoots and waxes poetic about the lifestyle of the artiste.

While many have managed to break the market on their own terms, I can’t think of a single mainstream female pop artist in recent times who has exercised nearly as much creative control in both the audio and visual departments as Lady Gaga.

Nov. 23 saw the release of Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster, a mini concept album originally intended to be a re-release of her debut, The Fame. Written as a kind of antithesis to the subject matter of The Fame, The Fame Monster centers on horror and fears from love to loneliness and death.

After some squabbles with her label (and a few inspired writing sessions while out on her Fame Ball Tour), Lady Gaga decided that this collection of eight tracks was enough of a living creature in its own right to merit release into the wild all on its own, rather than being slapped onto a re-release of The Fame. Of course, you can still opt to purchase the album as a two-CD bundle, but as a whole, the record is capable of standing on its own feet—however many feet a monster may have.

The Fame Monster begins with current single “Bad Romance,” an unstoppable barrage of catchy hooks, hymnlike chants and soaring crescendos. It’s a raw, raucous affair, best served at max volume in cars and clubs, and is arguably the greatest track that Gaga has ever recorded.

“Alejandro” comes next, an Ace of Base-like midtempo, tropical track. The song’s repetitive melody is beyond addicting, and like myself, you may find the song’s play count racking up faster than you can say “Alejandro,” “Fernando,” or any other man-of-Latin-origin’s nombre.

“Don’t call me Gaga,” Lady G announces as “Monster” begins to play. At this point, there’s really no need to progress any further into the album, as Gaga’s about to nail it: “Monster” is the epitome of the album’s essence, mashing a killer bass line with cheeky, creature feature lyricism. “We French kissed on a subway train / He tore my clothes right off / He ate my heart, and then he ate my brain,” Gaga laments during the song’s massive, glitchy breakdown.

“Speechless,” the next song on the album, comes with plenty of baggage in the Gaga Claims department over the past few months, with “my favorite song of all” and “the greatest song I ever recorded” being just a few of the descriptions offered up by the pop star during interviews. Mercifully, it delivers, and the payoff is rich: “Speechless” is the ’70s power rock ballad that always been hinted at in her earlier work though never fully realized until now.

Penned for her father, the song is the result of Lady Gaga’s appreciation for the arena-rock legends and glam gods of yore including David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, but it avoids imitation and plays like the torch ballad Gaga always needed. “I’ll never talk again / Oh boy, you’ve left me speechless,” Gaga croons with a swagger hitting somewhere between classic Elton John and Liza Minnelli. Concertgoers, be prepared—this one’s made for the lightersin-the-air moment.

Coming in thereafter is “Dance in the Dark,” the album’s chilliest moment. “Silicone, saline, poison, inject me / Baby, I’m a free bitch,” Gaga scowls at the song’s beginning, which happens to double as the greatest opening line of the year. A hands-in-the-air dance song about a woman being harassed by her boyfriend, Gaga’s “Dance” is a murderous slice of pop complete with industrial whirls, haunted synths and occasional screams of anguish in the distance. Who knew emotional abuse could inspire such happy feet?

The next track, “Telephone,” is a doozy—a duet with Beyoncé? Even on paper, you’re al-

ready asking for trouble. Along with a beat recalling Timbaland’s “The Way I Are” and a frantic, stuttering electro-bass line, “Telephone” is a mishmash of synths, phone sounds and above all, rampant telephone talk. While Beyoncé’s vocal runs are a welcome addition to the track, the song functions best as an unapologetic celebration of the vocoder. Just dance, as someone around here might say.

“So Happy I Could Die” seems to pick up where The Fame’s “Starstruck” left off, borrowing its squeaky synthesizers and urban flavoring to engage in some self-indulgence. “In the silence of the night, through all the tears and all the lies / I touch myself, and it’s all right.”

“Teeth,” the album’s premature closer, takes a surprising turn in sound: A stomping, hoot-and-holler-worthy chant-along, the final track of The Fame Monster invites listeners to cut loose and, well, sink their teeth into the music. Part musical, part country and a little bit tribal in spots, Gaga snarls and taunts above an incessant, stomping march: “Take a bite of my bad girl meat / Show me your teeth.”

Out of the eight excellent tracks of the album, the greatest part about listening to The Fame Monster is not the catchy beats or silly lyrics (of which there are many), or even the lock of Gaga’s own hair included with the Super Deluxe Fan Edition (which I still have no idea what to do with)—it’s the fact that the album is history in the making.

For better or worse, Gaga is on the path of legendary status. With only one album under her belt, Lady Gaga has already broken a world record for most No. 1 singles from a debut album; written for Britney Spears, Keri Hilson and the Pussycat Dolls; collaborated with high-profile photographers and artists; and scored the muse-worthy devotion of several runway legends, including Alexander McQueen and Marc Jacobs. Along the way, she’s performed to millions across the world, including a recent concert in New York where a newfound fan named Madonna watched along with her daughter in the audience.

While I may be prone to hyperbole, I do believe that The Fame Monster is without a doubt the pop album of the year, if not one of the finer pop records of the decade.

And to think, this was just going to be a rerelease.

John Mayer’s Battle Studies, an album just over three years in the making, is one of the most anticipated releases of the year. His previous album, Continuum (2006), solidified his place in a group of elite guitar greats like Eric Clapton. With his soft rock voice and skillful licks, he created an album filled with singles from “Waiting on the World to Change” to “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.”

If Continuum was another step forward in Mayer’s musical style, Battle Studies is a step to the side. In this album, he takes a different journey moving toward very personal, softer ballads away from singles. With songs titled “Heartbreak Warfare,” “Perfectly Lonely” and “War of my Life,” it is obvious this album was as much about making music as it was about self-therapy in an emotionally difficult time.

The first track, “Heartbreak Warfare,” sets the mood for the rest of the album. A mellow John Mayer sings over an ambient guitar and basic drum beat stating, “Lightning strike inside my chest to keep me up at night / Dream of ways to make you understand my pain.” Even the solo of the song feels very emotional, with the twang of the guitar embodying his pain. As the song progresses to the bridge the mood picks up, showing a sense of perseverance as Mayer proclaims, “I swear to God we are going to get this right if you lay your weapon down.”

Mayer is clearly putting down his shields and opening up, taking the listener through the emotional uphill battle he has gone through.

The rest of the album generally follows through with the idea of heartbreak, destruction and the pain of moving on. Whatever prompted Mayer to sing about this emotional pain clearly had a great influence on him for better or worse. The tone of over half the album is slower, more mellow and more reflective than anything Mayer has ever done. Though they constitute a majority, the album is not all ballads. In a testament to his growth as a musician, the middle few songs on the album are much stronger musically. In the middle of the album, Mayer goes back to the more laid-back and fun style that listeners are used to and focuses on moving on rather than dwelling upon being hurt. The songs that really stand out are “Perfectly Lonely,” a bluesy tune showing Mayer’s musical and lyrical growth; “Half of My Heart,” which features Taylor Swift in a lackluster appearance not fully using her talent; and “Crossroads,” a cover of the blues standard made famous by Eric Clapton’s band Cream.

The biggest issue is that the tracks don’t flow very well together, and Mayer seems unsure as to what kind of album he is trying to make. The music beings slowly with “Heartbreak Warfare,” gets slower with the repetitive “All We Ever Do is Say Goodbye,” and then begins to pick up the pace, going bluesy with the oddly placed middle track “Crossroads,” that belongs more on a John Mayer Trio! album than this one. The album then falls right back into the same slow ballads that started off the disc with “Do You Know Me.” It sounds as if Mayer originally wanted to create an album that followed along the path of his first three albums but was so heartbroken that he completely changed his pace to an emotional tell-all.

Where Mayer does shine is in his lyrics that remain as deep and powerful as they have always been even when describing heartbreak and sadness. On the first single of the album, “Who Says,” Mayer begins with the line, “Who says I can’t get stoned,” a line that garnered a lot of controversy. Seemingly about getting high, the song is much deeper, talking about enjoying life and taking the metaphorical smoke away from our eyes. The first line of the verse, “Who says I can’t be free / from all of the things that I used to be?” shows that Mayer has matured a lot since his first album. This is the same old John Mayer, just a little grown up and a lot more reflective.

Battle Studies’ last track, “Friends, Lovers, or Nothing,” showed that Mayer has found a way to balance his emotions with his musical potential. In a tune that starts off with a classic Beatles-esque riff and moves into a progression reminiscent of “Out of my Head” by Fastball layered with skillful guitar licks, the song leaves the listener with a good feeling and a smile.

All in all, Battle Studies is more of a healer for the heartbroken than casual chill music.

Though different from (and arguably inferior to) most of Mayer’s past work, there are still a couple of gems that will stay on my top-played list for quite a while.

24

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009

●

THE JUSTICE

ARIES (March 21 to April 19) That change in holiday travel plans might be more vexing than you’d expected. But try to take it in stride. Also, it couldn’t hurt to use that Aries charm to coax out some helpful cooperation.

TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Your Bovine determination helps you deal with an unforeseen complication. And, as usual, you prove that when it comes to a challenge, you have what it takes to take it on.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Although a romantic theme dominates much of the week, all those warm and fuzzy feelings don’t interfere with the more pragmatic matters you need to take care of.

CANCER (June 21 to July 22) Best not to ignore those doubts about an upcoming decision. Instead, recheck the facts you were given to make sure nothing important was left out. A weekend surprise awaits you.

LEO (July 23 to August 22) No time for a catnap—yet. You might still have to straighten out one or two factors so that you can finally assure yourself of the truth about a troubling workplace situation. Stay with it.

VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) News from an old friend could lead to an unexpected (but nonetheless welcome) reunion with someone who had once been very special in your life.

Be open to the possibilities.

LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) It might be time for a family council. The sooner those problems are resolved, the sooner you can move ahead with your holiday preparations. Don’t let the opportunity pass you by.

SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) Take some time out to give more attention to a personal relationship that seems to be suffering ACROSS 1. History chapter 4. Recede 7. Note to self, e.g.

11. Coed quarters 13. Stout cousin?

14. Verve 15. Concept 16. Dress (in) 17. Otherwise 18. Tropical timber trees 20. Coated with gold 22. Dawn goddess 24. Acceptable 28. Splendor 32. Form 33. PC picture 34. Morning moisture 36. Facility 37. Disreputable 39. It may say “Home Sweet Home” 41. Motion detector, e.g.

43. Neither mate 44. Unstable particle 46. Brandy flavor 50. Pinnacle 53. Cranberry territory 55. Old portico 56. Angry 57. Greek mountain 58. Former frosh 59. Put in the mail 60. Profit 61. Chaps DOWN 1. Tend texts 2. Took the bus 3. Vicinity 4. Have breakfast 5. Online journal

from a sense of emotional neglect. Provide that much-needed reassurance.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) Cheer up. That unusual circumstance that might faze most people can be handled pretty well by the savvy Sagittarian. Look at it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.

CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) Someone you believe has hurt you in the past might now need your help. Reaching out could be difficult. But the generous Goat will be able to do the right thing, as always.

AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Prioritizing is an important part of your preholiday scheduling. Try to give time both to your workday responsibilities and those personal matters you might have neglected.

PISCES (February 19 to March 20) With the vestiges of your anger about that painful incident fading, you can now focus all your energy on the more positive aspects of your life, including that personal situation.

BORN THIS WEEK: You have a way of bringing your own strong sense of reassurance to others and encouraging them to hope.

BRANDEIS

Through the Lens

Solution to last issue’s crossword.

MAEGAN BAUTISTA/the Justice

Books onstage Punk, Rock n’ Roll Club and WBRS sponsored a concert by indie band The Books in the Rose Art Museum on Thursday. The duo, composed of

Sudoku

6. Start 7. Tim Russert’s longtime show 8. Right angle 9. More, to Manuel 10. Indivisible 12. Just stay within your budget 19. “Mayday!”

21. — Angeles 23. Norm (Abbr.)

25. False idol 26. Church section 27. Antelope’s playmate 28. Fail to hit

29. Rue the run 30. Rivers or Collins 31. “Of course” 35. Ashen 38. Second person 40. Swab the deck 42. Batman’s partner 45. Protuberance 47. Teensy bit 48. Get by somehow 49. Nobel chemist Otto 50. Venomous snake 51. Bill and — 52. Wife’s address 54. “Roscoe”

King Crossword Copyright 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.

■ It was American actress and dancer Charlotte Greenwood who made the following sage observation: “Temperament is temper that is too old to spank.”

■ If you happen to own a Rolls Royce and want to swank it up a little bit, a mink jacket to fit the hood ornament is available for purchase.

■ San Francisco’s iconic cable cars are the only mobile national monument in the United States.

■ You might be surprised to learn that, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the largest swimming pool in the world isn’t found in a large industrialized nation but in the relatively small South American country of Chile. Built by a megaresort on the ocean, the pool covers 20 acres, is more than 1,000 yards long and holds a whopping 66 million gallons of water. Construction took five years and cost more than $1.5 billion, and the estimated annual maintenance cost is more than $3 million.

■ Those who study such things say that lightning travels at one-third the speed of light.

■ American comedian and actor Jack Benny originally entered the family business of haberdashery. However, he was so bad at it that his own father fired him.

■ According to legend, it was shepherds in Ethiopia who first noticed the effects of caffeine. It seems that the goats they herded would become exceedingly frisky after eating the berries of the coffee plant.

■ In order to come up with the cash to start Apple Computers, Stephen Wozniak sold his programmable calculator and Steve Jobs sold his Volkswagen microbus.

■ An experienced florist will never put daffodils in a bouquet; the flower is toxic to other blooms.

Thought for the Day: “Surrender is essentially an operation by means of which we set about explaining instead of acting.” —Charles Peguy

Enter digits from 1 to 9 into each blank space so that every row, column and 3x3 square contains one of each digit.

Sudoku Copyright 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.

Nick Zammuto (left) and Paul de Jong, is based in North Adams, Mass. Their show incorporated video art, as seen above.