The Justice- Sept. 22, 2009

ARTS PAGE 19

FORUM Behold election folly 11

FAUXHARMONIC

SPORTS Men’s Soccer loses home opener 16 THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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Justice www.theJusticeOnline.com

Volume LXII, Number 5

Waltham, Mass.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

STUDENT UNION

ROSE ART MUSEUM

Elections Committee urges Univ to keep Rose public proceed after delays ■ The Future of the Rose

Committee released its report the same day as the injunction filing deadline.

By ALANA ABRAMSON and NASHRAH RAHMAN JUSTICE STAFF WRITERS

The Future of the Rose Committee will recommend in its report today that the Rose Art Museum should remain open to the public, according to a Boston Globe article published

today. The Globe wrote that the committee’s report, of which the newspaper received an advanced copy, does not comment on the University’s potential sale of art. The Globe article was published too late for the Justice to contact the necessary parties involved in the Rose Art Museum museum controversy.

The committee was formed by Provost Marty Krauss to issue reccomendations to the University administration and Board of Trustees in light of the current circumstances surrounding the museum.

Prof. Jerry Samet (PHIL) is the

chair of the committee. The Rose Board of Overseers, Fine Arts faculty and students are represented in the committee.

The deadline for the opposing counsel in the lawsuit to file a motion for a preliminary injunction, an injunction that takes place before the verdict is determined, is today, according to the deadlines set at the case management conference Sept. 1.

“The court ordered the injunction to be filed on the 22nd. You can expect me to meet any court deadlines,” Edward Dangel III, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said yesterday.

He would not make any further comments until the injunction had been filed.

“The purpose of a preliminary injunction is to require someone to do something or to stop them from doing something. Until it has been filed in court, it is not appropriate for me to comment,” Dangel said.

The lawsuit was filed by Rose overseers Jonathan Lee, Meryl Rose and Lois Foster on July 27 in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, and was subsequently transferred to the Suffolk Probate

See ROSE, 7 ☛

■ The Student Union

elections, which were posponed last Thursday announced results today.

LONG LUNCH LINES

By EMILY KRAUS JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The first round of the Student Union election results were announced today after the elections were rescheduled to open at midnight Sunday due to technical difficulties with the polling system, according to Student Union Secretary Diana Aronin ’11.

Brendan Fradkin and Jackie Saffir won the seats for Class of 2012 senator and Class of 2010 senator, respectively.

Abergel Ruben, Jonah Cohen, Todd Kirkland and Nathan Koskella will continue to the final round of the elections for Class of 2013 senator, as only two positions are available.

Another round of voting takes place when any candidate does not receive 50 percent of the total votes for the position.

Beneva Davis ’13 is the senator-atlarge.

Linda Li ’13, Andrea Ortega ’13 and Mark Trilling ’12 won the senator seats for Massell Quad, North Quad and the Castle, respectively.

Yakov Israel ’12 and David Wayne ’12, who both recieved 9 votes each, will participate in another round of voting for the one seat available for Rosenthal Quad senator.

Ziv Quad and Ridgewood senators are Ryan Fanning ’11 and Beau Bonness ’11, respectively.

Marcela Dodi won the seat for TYP senator, and Jordan Caruso ’11 for off campus senator.

The highest percentage of voters, at 56.23 percent, participated in the Class of 2013 senator election.

The lowest, at 4.10 percent, participated in the off-campus senator election.

Union President Andy Hogan ’11 said the number of participants in the elections was expected.

“I think we always kind of round off at 30 percent,” he said.

Hogan added that the postpone-

See UNION, 7☛

MAX BREITSTEIN MATZA/the Justice

LONG LINES: Caleb Everett Smith ’10, at the register, is one of the many students who stand in long lines for food during lunch hours in the Upper Usdan dining area.

Univ expands dining options to offset overcrowding ■ Dining Services will allow

students to use C-meals at the cafe in the Schneider Building and will expand meal options in Usdan Café and the P.O.D. Market.

overcrowding of the dining halls in the Usdan Student Center during lunch hours, according to a Student Union press release last Sunday.

Dining Services will also work to increase ready-to-go hot meal options in Usdan Café and the Provisions on Demand Market in response to overcrowding, Union

By MIRANDA NEUBAUER JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

University Dining Services is temporarily allowing undergraduates to use C-meals in the Java City café in the Schneider Building of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management to help alleviate

President Andy Hogan ’11 said.

Students can currently use CMeals on preapproved items at the P.O.D. Market, the Kosher Express in Sherman and Einstein Bros.

Bagels.

Students will be able to buy coffee, croissants, bagels, sandwiches,

See DINING, 7 ☛

The journey of ‘Bare’

Theodore gets hat trick

Events at Mandel

■ In the first of a three- part series, the Justice takes look behind the scenes of ‘Bare.’

■ The women’s soccer team was led by midfielder Mimi Theodore’s ’12 three goals last Sunday against Clark.

■ The newly created steering committee will plan events for the Mandel Center for the Humanities.

FEATURES 9 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

17

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 9

OPINION POLICE LOG

11 2

SPORTS 16 COMMENTARY 11

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

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS POLICE LOG

AP BRIEF President speaks to governor about Senate succession law RICHMOND, Mass.—Gov. Deval Patrick said Friday that President Barack Obama had personally talked to him about changing the Senate succession law in Massachusetts, and White House aides were pushing for Patrick to gain the power to temporarily replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy amid the administration’s health care push.

A month after a White House spokesman labeled the issue “a state matter,” Patrick said he and Obama spoke about changing the law as they both attended Kennedy’s funeral in Boston last month.

He also said White House aides have been in contact frequently ever since and pushing for the change so they can regain their filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate.

“It's out there that the Senate president and the [House] speaker are trying to figure out whether this can be accomplished, and he fully understands, as do his aides, who I have talked to more about it, the importance of having the support for a changed agenda down in Washington,” Patrick added.

Republicans, who hold just five of 40 seats in the state Senate, objected to the bill being taken up without formal notice. Under Senate rules, the objection means the bill can’t be debated until the next formal session, scheduled for Monday. The GOP has said it is reviewing options to force a further delay.

The delay came a day after the Massachusetts House voted 95-58 in favor of the bill, with 42 House Democrats joining all 16 Republicans in opposition.

Supporters, including House Speaker Robert DeLeo, a Democrat, said the change is needed to ensure Massachusetts continues to be represented by two senators until voters can choose a replacement in the special election.

Kennedy urged the change in the law in letters to Patrick and legislative leaders shortly before his death last month of brain cancer. He said, “It is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens.”

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said Friday that qualms about whether to allow the interim appointment shouldn’t be used to help defeat major policy issues like expanding Americans’ access to health care.

The bill initially would have required the appointee to be from the same party as the person who created the vacancy, a Democrat in the case of Kennedy’s successor.

That requirement was stripped after critics in the House raised constitutional concerns and noted that more than half of voters in Massachusetts aren’t enrolled in any party and would be barred from consideration.

Medical Emergency Sept. 13—A party in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center reported that he was experiencing knee pain.

BEMCo and University Police responded, and the party was treated on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Sept. 14—BEMCo responded to a female party who tripped on the stairs in Renfield Hall. The student was treated on-scene with a signed refusal further care.

Sept. 14—An Aramark staff member suffered a lacerated finger in the Usdan Student Center.

The party was treated on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Sept. 14—A 21-year-old student in the Usdan Student Center reported feeling nauseous and dizzy. BEMCo responded and the party was transported to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital by

ambulance.

Sept. 16—A student on Chapels Field requested BEMCo for a possible leg injury. The party was treated on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Sept. 19—A party reported that his friend had slipped and fallen on the stairs in Renfield Hall.

The injured party, who had reportedly been drinking, struck his head and was bleeding but conscious and alert. An ambulance and the Waltham Police Department responded.

Sept. 19—A party in East Quad reported a possible allergic reaction. BEMCo treated the party on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Sept. 19—A party in Rosenthal Quad reported that a frozen soda can exploded in her friend’s hands and caused a small laceration.

BEMCo bandaged the injured hand.

Sept. 20—A party in Reitman Hall requested BEMCo for a male party vomiting in front of the building.

The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital by ambulance.

Vandalism Sept. 14—University Police observed suspicious persons defacing the roadway outside of the Rabb steps on Loop Road.

The parties were identified as Brandeis students using spray paint to advertise for wiggio.com, the company employing them.

University Police advised the students that they were not permitted to spray paint on Brandeis property without permission and dispersed them without further incident.

Miscellaneous Sept. 18—University Police found five students smoking marijuana on the Rose Art Museum’s loading dock.

The drugs and paraphernalia were confiscated, and judicial charges will follow.

Sept.19—University Police shut down an unregistered party in Rosenthal Quad.

Alcohol and marijuana were confiscated, and judicial referrals were drawn up.

Traffic Sept. 16—A party in Athletics Lot reported that her car wind-

—compiled by Emily Kraus

AP BRIEF Obama: Politics of moment won’t shape war strategy WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama says he has no deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan and is pledging there will not be an indefinite American occupation. Sounding much like his predecessor, Obama said he won't base any war decision on “the politics of the moment.”

The eight-year-old conflict in Afghanistan, overshadowed by the war in Iraq during much of George W. Bush’s presidency, is a dominant challenge for Obama. The American public and leaders of his own party have eroding faith in the face of a resurgent Taliban, as well as doubts about Afghan leadership and rising U.S. engagement.

“I don’t have a deadline for withdrawal,” Obama said in one of a series of television interviews broadcast Sunday.

“But I’m certainly not somebody who believes in indefinite occupations of other countries.”

Obama has ordered 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, increasing the number of U.S. forces there to 68,000, and is expecting to get a request for more troops from the U.S. and NATO commander. Obama said the decision is more than the inclination of “If I get more, then I can do more.”

Obama has pledged no imminent decision on sending in more troops and says he wants to see updated reviews on all aspects of his war strategy. His road map to winning the war in Afghanistan relies heavily on clearing al-Qaida terrorists from Pakistan, according to a list of benchmarks given to Congress last week.

Obama said once he hears from advisers and has a better idea on whether more troops are needed, then “What I will say to the American public is not going to be driven by the politics of the moment.”

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS An announcement in News last week misspelled a professor’s name. The professor’s name is Sarita Bhalotra, not Salitra Bhalotra. (Sept. 15, p. 2) Two articles in News last week did not include the name of the writer responsible for those articles. ‘Liberal Arts Posse on hiatus’ was written by Nashrah Rahman, Justice editor, and ‘Health Center identifies 12 cases of influenza-like illness on campus’ was written by Miranda Neubauer, Justice senior writer. (Sept. 15, p. 1 and p. 2) An article in News last week misrepresented the schedule for the renovations that will take place at the University’s four places of worship. The Protestant and Catholic Chapels will be renovated one at a time beginning in mid-October, and worshippers of each denomination will share the other space while renovations are ongoing. Renovation of the Berlin Chapel will take place over the winter break and conclude before the start of the spring semester; consequently, users of the chapel will not need to share other spaces. (Sept. 15, p. 5) An article in Features last week misstated when Reuben Wechsler ’80 and Ellen Levine-Wechsler ’80 were married. The couple wed in 2001, not 2006. (Sept. 15, p. 9) An article in Sports last week misspelled the name of a member of the golf team. The golfer’s name is Aaron Cusato, not Aaron Custato. (Sept. 15, p.16)

shield was broken. She will contact her insurance company.

Sept. 19—A party reported that an escort van was involved in a minor accident and knocked out the other vehicle’s headlight.

University Police and the Waltham Police Department responded.

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

See the world At last Thursday’s “Go Away” Study Abroad Fair, students met with representatives of universities and programs from all over the world and found answers to questions about the study abroad process.

NOTE TO READERS: The Justice is on hiatus due to the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. The next issue will be published Oct. 5, 2009.

Log onto our Web site at www.thejusticeonline.com.

An article in Arts last week misstated the name of a student. The student’s name is Nick Brown, not Nick Branley. (Sept. 15, p. 19) 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 are held every Wednesday from 1 to 2 p.m. in the Justice office.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS Study Abroad Info Session: Health Careers Focus This information session is designed to give an overview of the off-campus study process at Brandeis. Topics include tips for researching programs and destinations, the application process, getting credit for your work off campus, financial aid and resources and services provided by the Office of Study Abroad. This session will focus on a particular special interest, but all sessions cover the information necessary to begin the studyabroad process. Attending a general information session is mandatory for all students wishing to study off campus for the semester or academic year. Wednesday, Sept. 23, from 4 to 5 p.m. in Usdan 122. For more information, call the Office of Study Abroad at (781) 7363483.

Jewish Studies Colloquium Prof. Michah Gottlieb, assistant professor

of Jewish Thought and Philosophy in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, will give the first presentation of fall 2009, titled “Moses Mendelssohn and the Project of Modern Jewish Philosophy.” Thursday, Sept. 24, from 4 to 6:20 p.m. in Lown 315. For more information, call Miriam Hoffman at (781) 736-2125.

Undergraduate Research Program (URP) Info Session The Undergraduate Research Program funds research projects for students during the summer or for an academic semester. All disciplines are welcome, including all areas of the creative arts and the humanities. Those interested in learning more about the URP can attend one of the info sessions held weekly throughout September. Tuesday, Sept.

29 from 3 to 4 p.m. in Usdan 122. For more information, e-mail Sheilah Coleman at sheilah@brandeis.edu.

Study Abroad Applications Due Study abroad applications for all of the year 2010 are due by noon next Wednesday. Applications may be dropped off in the Study Abroad Office. Wednesday, Sept. 30, from 9 to noon in Usdan 127.

The Fauxharmonic Orchestra The Fauxharmonic Orchestra is a computer-based instrument that Brandeis alumnus and conductor Paul Henry Smith M.F.A. ’04 has created to perform orchestral music.

Smith will perform Brandeis student compositions, Webern’s Symphonie, and other works. There will be a Q&A session for anyone interested in the musical or technical facets of this new mode of performing orchestral music. Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for senior citizens and the Brandeis community. Sunday, Oct. 4 from 3 to 5:35 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall. For more information, e-mail shawna@brandeis.edu.

THE JUSTICE

University plans to upgrade wireless end support for wired Internet connections due to a low rate of student usage.

By MIRANDA NEUBAUER JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

Networks and Systems plans to upgrade the campus wireless system to a faster standard and is considering ending support for wired Internet connections in student residences as part of that upgrade, Director of Networks and Systems John Turner said.

Students use the current wireless network much more frequently than the wired one, according to the office’s data; therefore, not upgrading the wired network could have financial benefits, Turner explained.

Turner characterized the wireless coverage in the dorms “as good but not necessarily perfect.” He added, “We’ve seen a significant number of students who’ve been connecting only by wireless.” On any given day, the University has over 2,000 users connecting to the wireless network,

he said, with many fewer connecting to the wired ports.

“In all the Ridgwoods, there were 11 devices connected [to the wireless ports] last year when we did the study, out of 110 people living in the dorms,” Turner said.

The last major wireless upgrade was four years ago, Turner said. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association ratified the new 802.11n wireless standard on Sept. 11, he said. This standard can offer speeds of 300 megabits per second, Turner explained, three times faster than the current wired connection in a dorm.

The current wireless speed is 54 megabits per second.

Networks and Systems will start the planning for the campuswide upgrade this semester. “Over the summer … we’ll go out to the dorms, we put test access points up, we go with our actual computers where a student’s bed, desk, everything is, check wireless coverage, and then we mark down exactly where we would put that access point,” said Turner. Networks and Systems would do the main installation the following summer.

The new standard is already em-

ployed in the Carl J. Shapiro Science Center, the Ridgewood Residence Halls and the Farber Library study areas. He said users on those networks have reported faster service and fewer disconnections.

Farber is one of the most heavily used network areas, he said. To use the higher speeds, student computers need to have wireless cards supporting ABGN wireless standards, he said. He added that Apple laptops have supported the new standard for three years, as have computers recommended for purchase by Library and Technology Services.

Brandeis currently has Category 5 wiring for Ethernet, Turner explained. “The next technology that we would upgrade to in wired would be gigabit,” he said, which would offer one gigabit per second speed but require replacing all the wiring.

He explained that users would not see a lot of benefit from upgrading to the gigabit-per-second speed since the University’s network connection is only 250 megabits per second.

“All these things cost millions of dollars,” Turner said. He said costs for the wireless system would decrease since Brandeis would not be

See WIRELESS, 7 ☛

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

3

LEADING LADY

TECHNOLOGY

■ The planned upgrade may

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ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

Roosevelt Lecture Managing editor and host of the National Public Radio’s Latino USA program Maria Hinojosa gave the sixth annual Eleanor Roosevelt Lecture last week.

ACADEMICS

Profs present JBS proposals at workshop ■ Three Justice Brandeis

Semester pilot programs for summer 2010 were presented to faculty at a meeting last Wednesday.

By NASHRAH RAHMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

A Justice Brandeis Semester workshop was held last Wednesday to encourage University faculty to design pilot JBS programs for summer 2010 and the next academic year.

The workshop, although specifically held for faculty, was also attended by Student Union representatives such as Union President Andy Hogan ’11 in order to provide student input. Members of the JBS committee Profs. Tim Hickey (COSI), Laura Goldin (AMST) and Elizabeth Ferry (ANTH) presented their proposals for summer JBS programs.

The Justice Brandeis Semester is an experimental, immersion-based instruction program, which will allow students in groups of eight to 15 to earn up to 20 credits over eightor 10-week summer programs or regular semesters.

The program was approved by the University Curriculum Committee Feb. 26.

Students and faculty must submit proposals by Oct. 1 for summer programs and Dec. 1 for fall and spring semesters. Students must collaborate with a faculty member affiliated with the academic discipline associated with their JBS program in order to draft a proposal.

The proposals will be reviewed by a JBS selection committee before being presented to the UCC for final approval.

The four JBS pilot programs that faculty have officially submitted to the committee are: “Collaborative Theater and the Theatrical Essay,” “Environmental Health and Justice,” “Ethnographic Fieldwork” and “Web and Mobile Application Development,” according to the JBS Web site.

Hickey said in an interview that he created the “Web and Mobile Application Development” program “partly in response to a call by students over the last several years that they wanted to have more of a opportunity to apply the theory they’re learning in real-life situations.”

The proposal consists of a 12credit summer course or two sixcredit experiential courses and an eight-credit, 10- to 15-week program in the fall that includes a full-time internship and an independent study, according to the draft proposal available on the JBS Web site.

“I think it will be successful because Brandeis students love to

“

We’re working through student organizations.

PROF. TIM HICKEY (COSI)

make change. They want to be patrons of social change, to make a positive difference in the world.

And this program is designed exactly to help them do that,” Hickey said.

“I was asked to develop a pilot proposal, which will be reviewed along with the others after the deadline of Oct. 1. So it has not yet been approved (nor have any of the proposals, yet),” Ferry wrote in an email to the Justice regarding the “Ethnographic Fieldwork” proposal.

She also wrote that she and Prof.

Sarah Lamb (ANTH) developed the program together.

“Ethnographic Fieldwork” is a 10-week, 12-credit summer program that includes intensive training for ethnographic fieldwork, a course in reading classic and contemporary ethnographies and an independent research course, according to the draft available on the JBS Web site.

“I am very excited about it [be-

cause] it (like the other JBS proposals) gives the opportunity for much more classroom and experiential time (since it’s 12 credits rather than 4 credits) with the same group of students,” Ferry wrote in her email.

“Environmental Health and Justice” is an 8-week, 10-credit “community engaged learning multidisciplinary semester,” said Goldin, the architect of the proposal.

The required classes for this program are AMST 102: “Women, Environment and Social Justice,” BISC 6: “Environmental Health” and “Practicum” (94a EL).

In the practicum course students will use “environmental health monitoring and assessment and other tools in a supervised settings in the field along with community partners or government agencies,” according to the draft on the JBS Web site.

The proposal also has a twocourse off-campus option in which students can pay the full tuition fee for a summer and fall 20-credit JBS. Hickey and Ferry said that no student-initiated JBS proposals have been submitted as of yet. “[Encouraging student-originated JBS proposals] hasn’t been the forefront of our discussions. I mean in the same sort of way that you know most courses … aren’t student generated courses. … I’m not saying that we’re not open to it,” Ferry said.

“We’re working through the student organizations; we’re going through [Undergraduate Departmental Representatives] to get the work out that way,” Hickey said.

All three professors said that student input is valuable in constructing JBS proposals.

Hickey said that he will meet with several Computer Science students on Thursday to discuss his proposal.

Likewise, Ferry wrote that she will meet with Anthropology UDRs and Student Union representatives to strategize on how to publicize the proposal to the student body.

Goldin said that she will publicize her proposal in her classes.

ACADEMICS

Committee will plan events for new center ■ The steering committee

will advise administration on who should be moving into the Mandel Center.

By HARRY SHIPPS JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe appointed a steering committee to put together a program for next year regarding which events will be held to mark the opening of the new Mandel Center for the Humanities currently under construction.

Jaffe stressed that the Mandel Center included two different things: the physical construction of the building and the center in terms of programming and organizing activities. “The steering committee is not a steering committee for the building. The steering committee is a steering committee for the Mandel Humanities Center as a center,” said Jaffe.

The committee, which will meet for the first time next week, will be responsible for planning events in the Mandel Center and advising Jaffe and Provost Marty Krauss on who should be moving into the building, Jaffe said.

He also said Krauss will make the final decision as to who will move into the building.

“We’ve had some initial discussions with some groups that we think it makes sense to move into the building, but no final decisions have been made,” Jaffe said. Krauss also said that she would consult with the director of the Mandel Center during the decision making process.

The construction of the center is slated to be complete by the beginning of the fall 2010 semester, Vice President for Capital Projects Dan Feldman previously told the Justice on Aug. 25.

The committee, which will meet for the first time next week, will be chaired

by Prof. Ramie Targoff (ENG), who is on sabbatical this year. Other committee members include Profs. Steve Dowden (GRALL), Eugene Sheppard (NEJS), Bernard Yack (POL), Michael Willrich (HIST), Sarah Lamb (ANTH) and Jonathan Unglaub (FA). Unglaub said that Targoff will participate in meetings through teleconferencing.

Committee members were selected by Jaffe.

Jaffe said that the Mandel Center “will bring people together to talk about the humanities in a general framework, so the steering committee will decide what the first theme is going to be.” The Mandel Center will be organized in accordance with a theme, which will guide the center’s activities for a year or two before a new theme is chosen.

In an e-mail to the Justice, Willrich wrote, “The great challenge for the steering committee, and for the faculty and students at large, will be to ensure that this building becomes home to more than office space, that it becomes a vital center for serious humanistic inquiry, scholarly and public programs, good conversation and free expression.”

“I am hoping that we can keep this process moving, and maybe within the next month we will be at a point where we can sort of get a better sense of who will be moving into the building,” Krauss said.

Krauss said, “Looking at how many offices are going to be available to be populated, … there’s a lot of different factors that go into my thinking about how to potentially utilize the space there.” Krauss continued that they would evaluate space needs across campus before deciding who would be moved into the new building.

The process for assigning classrooms combines professor’s requests with assignments based on class sizes and specific technical or space needs, among other factors, according to University Registrar Mark Hewitt.

Hewitt said that “conservatively,” the registrar’s office will begin scheduling classes in the Mandel Center’s four classrooms before spring semester 2011. However, Hewitt added, if the center were ready for occupancy before spring 2011, scheduling would begin accordingly.

Hewitt said that the four classrooms in the Mandel Center would include an auditorium-style classroom with around 90 seats, a smaller classroom with around 50 seats and two seminarstyle classrooms with between 20 and 25 seats.

— Miranda Neubauer and Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting

PHOTO COURTESY OF HAY KRANEN OF WIKIPEDIA CREATIVE COMMONS

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

5

SPEAKER

Harvard professor speaks about Obama ■ The Harvard Law School

Professor spoke about his former student during a speech at Heller last week.

By LIZ POSNER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Harvard Law School Prof. Charles Ogletree discussed the ways in which race, gender and religious issues played into the 2008 presidential election of his former student, President Barack Obama, last Wednesday.

Ogletree’s speech was the first in the ongoing lecture series “Social Justice and the Obama Administration,” sponsored by the Heller School for Social Policy and Mangament in honor of its 50th anniversary.

Ogletree is also the founding and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, an organization based at Harvard Law School that organizes forums and conferences to promote civil rights legislation, according to its Web site. He taught Obama during his years at Harvard Law School and is currently writing a biography of the president.

Ogletree showed media coverage of the race, gender and religious issues that arose during the campaign.

Among the topics he discussed were the controversy over Obama’s relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the debate over Obama’s religious affiliation and fears of a “Bradley effect” in the voting booth.

During the campaign, news media released excerpts from sermons delivered by Wright, the pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, of which Obama had been a member. The excerpts were highly critical of the American government and of the history of race relations in the United States. Obama’s critics at the time used both the Wright controversy and the speculation about his Muslim heritage to suggest that Obama harbored anti-American sentiments.

The Bradley effect debate arose before voting took place last November when some analysts predicted that Obama would win fewer votes than expected. This was the case when Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley lost the 1982 gubernatorial race despite his lead in opinion polls, possibly because he was African-American.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

THE AGE OF OBAMA: Prof. Charles Ogletree spoke about the research he is conducting for his biography of President Obama.

Ogletree also spoke about how, in his opinion, President Obama has helped promote civil rights and equality through his cabinet and high government appointments.

“He did [appoint Secretary of State Hilary Clinton], but he did more than that in terms of social justice,” Ogletree said in his speech. Obama’s appointment of Eric Holder, the first

African-American attorney general, and of Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and third female Supreme Court justice, were “symbolic for the country to see that everybody should have that opportunity.”

Ogletree believes Obama’s appointment of Elena Kagan, the first female solicitor general, was especially progressive.

“It’s sort of extraordinary that … we’ve missed gender as a factor when over half our law students are women and half the population is female,” he said.

“It was, to me, probably the most important appointment symbolically because it said, ‘This is a job everyone can do.’”

Included in his lecture were several

BRIEF

ACADEMICS

Jaffe will request progress updates ■ The updates will describe

progress on such issues as streamlining of curriculum and affiliation of faculty.

By MIRANDA NEUBAUER JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe intends to ask department chairs to give an update on their progress in meeting the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee goals when they submit their annual curriculum plans in December, according to a summary of the most recent Dean’s Curriculum Committee meeting sent to faculty Sept. 10.

The e-mail contains the suggestion that departments will be asked to describe their progress on such issues as affiliation of faculty, streamlining of curriculum and review of classes with low enrollment.

“I’m going to be asking the chairs —in some way, that we’ll be working out over the next few weeks for information on how that’s going,” Jaffe said.

The DCC’s task is to advise Jaffe on ways to continue delivering the curriculum with fewer faculty members, as recommended by the CARS committee last semester, including having faculty affiliated with departments outside their own, forming curriculum committees for each major and examining ways to reduce major requirements.

“For this year, some of these re-

anecdotes about Ogletree’s relationship with Obama. For instance, when Ogletree discussed the controversial July 16 arrest of fellow Harvard professor Henry Gates, he also described the experience of personally attending the infamous White House “beer summit” between Gates, Obama and Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department on July 30.

In a question-and-answer session following the lecture, Ogletree predicted that Obama would have to balance and address both the specific needs of the African-American community and Americans in general.

“We cannot think of him as ‘the black president,’ but rather the president who happens to be black,” he said. Ogletree argued that this is because the president is elected to represent the entire country, even though Obama’s appointments and support for legislation like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act suggest his support for civil rights.

“What would transform America,” Ogletree concluded, “is not just [Obama] getting elected, but young people saying, ‘I can, too: I can become senator, I can become governor.’ If the young people who came out enthusiastic about this campaign became enthusiastic about democracy, about changing the way we face the issues, we can move forward on these issues and begin a real transformation in this country.”

In an interview with the Justice, Prof. Anita Hill (Heller) who introduced the speaker, said, “This is really such a complex issue with so many things to consider.”

“We can think about not only the role that race, gender and religion played in the campaign but how they impact where we need to go now as we look at health policy, education policy and economic policy,” Hill said.

“This was the first time I had seen these images and news clips since 2008. I never realized how large a role they played in swaying public opinion,” Benjamin Huh ’13 said in an interview with Justice after the event “It was clear from the videos [Ogletree showed] how during the election the news media hyped up superfluous things like whether Obama is a Muslim,” said Huh. “It was fascinating to hear from someone who knows Barack Obama personally and has sort of an insider’s perspective into his presidency,” said Madelyn Katz ’13.

ports will be, if not hypothetical, they’ll be projective, like we hope to be coordinating with Sociology and have this course that both of our students will take,” said Prof. Richard Parmentier (ANTH), a member of the DCC. “The dean wants to know what your planning perspective is rather than accomplishments,” Parmentier said.

Both Parmentier and Jaffe said that department chairs would not be making recommendations about the departure of faculty since those decisions are not under their purview.

Instead, Parmentier said that during the CARS implementation process over the next five years, the DCC would be advising Jaffe on decisions such as replacing a retired or departing faculty or responding to a departmental request for a new position.

“We might advise the Dean ... that there’s a request from History and a request from Latin American Studies, and they ought to get together,” Parmentier said.

Jaffe noted that the University has created incentives for faculty to voluntarily retire early or reduce their workload and is not hiring very many new faculty.

He said that that there have been talks about the retirement plan but declined to offer specifics.

“What we’re trying to figure out is what other kinds of indices will demonstrate that a department is taking seriously the CARS plan,” Parmentier said.

“The Dean is saying let’s configure

our courses in the most efficient way we possibly can so that when the faculty size changes, it’ll be within a planned curriculum, not random.”

“One way you might want to think about [the dean’s recommendations for the chairs] is to think about CARS from the curriculum [perspective] rather than personnel,” Parmentier said. “[The idea is to] have the curriculum motivate the dean’s planning for faculty—rather than starting with

“

In the CARS era every innovation isn’t going to be possible.

PROF. RICHARD PARMENTIER (ANTH)

what faculty do you have, let’s start with what courses do we need to teach,” he said.

Parmentier said this was the traditional approach in curricular planning.

Offering a humorous example, he said a department could state that “We need someone whose research has to do with green people on Mars, and the dean would say, ‘well what courses motivate that request?’ In that sense, “CARS is actually going back to basics,” Parmentier said.

“Arts and Sciences starts with the curriculum, and then the faculty are

arranged and hired to teach that curriculum,” he said.

The DCC also discussed changing the language of its recommendations on affiliated faculty to clarify their voting rights, based on feedback from department chairs.

“The CARS plan cannot change the faculty handbook. … The Faculty Handbook governs all of our activities,” Paramentier said. Among the areas where the Faculty Handbook specifies the role of members of the department is in the area of tenure and promotion.

Requests for new courses would go to the School Councils and the DCC, Parmentier said.

“Some innovation is good but maybe in the CARS era every innovation isn’t going to be possible.”

He said one of the main differences in this year’s curricular process compared to previous ones would be that that “a second set of eyes” in the form of the five senior faculty on the DCC would be looking at the proposal reports that come in Dec. 1.

In terms of other changes recommended by the DCC, departments have also begun forming curriculum committees.

Parmentier said that in the Anthropology department, the department chair, the undergraduate advising head and the director of graduate studies will sit on the curriculum committee.

He added that there would be a faculty member with archeology expertise on the committee in the event, as none of the other members had expertise in this area.

Hogan to e-mail Union listserv members soon The new Student Union listserv “involved_students” had 367 members as of yesterday, according to data available on the listserv.

Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 said, “The push to get students on [the listserv] just ended.”

Hogan said that he would be sending out an e-mail to members of the listserv this week and continued, “It’s a work in progress, but I think it’s a very, very useful idea.”

At the Union Senate meeting Sept. 13, Hogan said that he plans to use the listserv to send out weekly questionnaires about Union happenings in order to get student input. He anticipates asking about dining, student life, academics and sustainability.

Hogan said that because the Union supports with anecdotal evidence much of what it advocates, it will be helpful to have a concrete number behind Union proposals.

Hogan said that “recruitment is always very difficult. We were trying to make it the least work on behalf of the student. … At the Activities Fair, I was yelling it out to get [students] to sign up for the list.” He said that efforts to get students to sign up on the listserv will be ongoing.

Hogan wanted to avoid sending out campuswide e-mails because he said that students already get too many and signing up for the listserv “creates a kind of desire to be included in some of the decision … If [a question] is sent out to this specific listserv, you signed up for it, you did some of the work for it, so you feel more compelled to answer the question.”

- Harry Shipps and Miranda Neubauer

THE JUSTICE

UNION: Election results arrive

HEALTH AND ECONOMICS

—Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

Fighting leprosy 2009 International Humanitarian of the Year Padma Venkataraman spoke yesterday about her grassroots efforts to eradicate leprosy through microfinance projects.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

7

ROSE: Committee releases its report CONTINUED FROM 1

CONTINUED FROM 1

affected the number of participants.

Hogan added that he was excited that a high number of first-years had participated in the elections.

Winning candidates will be sworn in at a special Senate meeting on Wednesday.

Final rounds will open at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24, according to Aronin.

Election winners and candidates could not be reached for comment by press time.

The Union elections, originally scheduled to begin Thursday, Sept.

15, were rescheduled on Thursday Sept. 24.

Problems arose immediately before the elections so that the candidates were not listed properly on the poll Web site, according to an email to the Justice from Hogan.

Elections could not continue before the problem was rectified, Hogan wrote.

A third party outside of Brandeis runs the polls; as a result, the system does not automatically include the candidates’ names, Hogan wrote.

He added that Brandeis’ Library and Technical Services is responsible for incorporating the candidates into the polls.

However, “due to a miscommunication, LTS was not given enough time to populate the lists. That is what needs to be done and should be done by Monday.

Our contact at LTS is going to be working during the weekend to make sure that the polls are properly populated,” wrote Hogan in his email.

The Student Union’s Web site directs voters to bigpulse.com for elections, which describes itself as a company that “excels with difficult and complex high security online voting and elections” on its Web site.

Candidates were not informed of the specific problems involved in the elections’ postponement, although they received an e-mail from Aronin last Wednesday letting them know that elections would not be held as scheduled.

Aronin wrote in the e-mail, “I am being forced to postpone the elections because of some technical difficulties.”

The student body was also not informed by the Union that the elections would be postponed.

“The reason there was no allcampus email was because we were not positive when the polls were going to be populated,” Hogan wrote.

“We have been working closely with LTS to set a timeline and it wasn’t confirmed until very recently. … Because we did not know the final details, we did not want to send an email with incomplete or false information,” he wrote.

“I don’t have any specific knowledge of the technical difficulties involved with the elections,” wrote Class of 2012 senatorial winner Brendan Fradkin ’12, in an e-mail to the Justice.

“It bothered me,” said Castle Senator-elect Mark Trilling ’12.

“I was ready to go and ready to get the results this weekend,” Trilling said.

“I had no clue it was being postponed,” said Jeremy Goldenberg ’11 in an interview with the Justice.

“Who really knows what’s happening except for the few who are into the Student Union?”

Goldernberg asked.

●

Court.

The lawsuit seeks to maintain the Rose collection intact by stating that the University’s decision to close it and sell paintings would violate the museum’s ethical codes.

The University’s commitment to the Rose family to maintain the museum solely as a public museum will also be violated, according to the lawsuit.

This deadline is the second one for the case; a motion to dismiss was last Tuesday filed by Thomas Reilly, the University’s lawyer for the case.

The deadline to oppose the motion to dismiss the case is Oct. 6. The first hearing is scheduled for Oct. 13.

Reilly explained that the plaintiffs in the case are seeking to gain control over the museum, a claim that Reilly says has no legal basis.

Reiily explained that all three plaintiffs are members of the museum’s Board of Overseers, a

committee that Reilly said plays a strictly advisory role and has no fiduciary responsibility Reilly said that the plaintiffs’ objective in the case “is contrary to 200 years of law in Massachusetts.”

“The impact of this decision, if granted, would be felt throughout Massachusetts, where advisers, committees, and volunteers could seek to take control over what they have pledged to serve,” he said.

“What will become clear as the case progresses is that what the trustees have done and what the administration is doing [is] acting in accordance in the law of the state of Massachusetts,” he added.

☛ Please visit our Web site

at www.thejusticeonline.com for an updated version of this story.

WIRELESS: Network systems to be upgraded CONTINUED FROM 3 implementing it for 18 months. Every wired connection outlet costs $1,000, Turner added. “Not upgrading those wires is very, very cost-effective.”

Turner said the University upgraded its network connection from 150 megabits per second this summer after a large number of complaints that Internet bandwidth was slow around 3 p.m. in the afternoon. He pointed out that with the advent of legal sources of online video, the file sizes of high-definition legal video could be four gigabytes, while illegally downloaded videos were more often between 150 to 250 megabytes.

If Brandeis chose to not support wired connections anymore, Networks and Systems would take out the electronics supporting that system in the dorms so that the wired ports would no longer connect to anything, he explained. “We would take the equipment out because it draws a

lot of power,” he said. He added that Networks and Systems could put the electronics back in if there were somebody with a particular need for a device that only works on wired.

One significant unresolved issue with removing wired connections, Turner explained, would be the support of the telephone network, which transmits over the wired connection.

He said there was a lot of discussion within Networks and Systems about the issue but no decision as of yet.

Turner said that surveys of students indicated decreasing interest in and less importance placed on campus phones.

He said students hardly use the long-distance service at all, although the phones are used for local calls. “A lot of folks are using Skype or other things,” he said.

On the new 802.11n standard, there would be enough bandwidth to support access to videos on LATTE or

IPTV that currently only work on the wired connection, Turner explained.

In addition to the areas that have the N standard, laptops that support the A standard can currently access those videos because it is a less popular, uncongested network, he said.

The new standard would also allow more students to use an access point at the same time with more bandwidth, Turner explained.

“Video is the biggest use of the network today,” Turner said. “Not even course videos; Hulu, YouTube, … all these things take tremendous amount of bandwidth.” Network use has also changed dramatically, he said. Originally the wireless network was built to be optimal for simply accessing Web sites.

“Now every time you load Facebook, it’s like one megabyte that gets downloaded to your computer,” Turner said.

As part of the network upgrade,

Network and Systems is also preliminarily looking at options for increasing cell phone coverage. He added that he has also spoken with technology companies regarding whether there would be ways that Brandeis could provide better support to networks used by iPhones.

“The [wireless] coverage in dorms could be improved; it’s very shaky,” Sherry Seibel ’11 said while using the wireless Internet in Farber. “I have an issue with the fact that if you’re taking a film class, you are unable to screen videos from LATTE via wireless. You have to plug it into your wall, which makes it very inconvenient at times.”

Dan Saxe ’12 also said that he generally had no concerns with the wireless but added that there could be better access outside.

“If you’re in a three-hour class, my laptop isn’t going to last that long,” Saxe said.

DINING: C-meal options increased to address long lines CONTINUED FROM 1 soups and salads at Java City with C-meals, according to the press release sent on Sunday by Union Director of Communications Sydney Reuben ’10.

Vice President for Campus Operations Mark Collins wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he had discussions with Director of Dining Services Mike Newmark about adding more options to the salad bar in Usdan.

Newmark could not be reached by press time.

Hogan said he brought up concerns about overcrowding with Collins last week.

Collins added that he “observed lines that seemed a little too long on occasion, and a few students commented to me directly.” He wrote that at the moment he is not considering any other additional options to alleviate the problem of crowding. “[This action] is almost solely motivated by the overcrowding on campus with 100 more students and 100 more coming in the next three years,” Hogan said. “We need to prepare for all of these students, so one immediate step is having Schneider in Heller be more accessible to undergraduate students.”

Hogan said the measure was temporary because “we don’t want undergraduate students taking over Schneider and Heller, because it’s in a graduate building.”

He said the Union was continuing to think about more long-term solutions to make dining more efficient.

“We have to be careful what we

MAX BREITSTEIN MATZA/the Justice

NEW OPTION: Undergraduates can now use C-meals in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management eating area. do. We can’t jump into something that’s too big, but also we have to acknowledge that there is a problem and think of ways to fix it,” Hogan said.

The Union will work to publicize the new options by placing signs pointing to Heller, Hogan said.

“We don’t want every single

undergraduate student going there. … Instead of swarming Usdan, some of them will go to Usdan, [and] some of them will go to Heller. …

It’s not a fix-all solution; it’s a start,” he said.

“I don’t think people will actually go to Heller for meals, because the selection is so limited,” Hilla

Shimshoni ’10 said.

“The dining room itself isn’t crowded, but the lines for the registers are. It would help if they opened up more registers,” Ayal Weiner-Kaplow ’11 said.

—Liz Posner contributed reporting

THE JUSTICE

just

features

BAREING IT ALL

●

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

VERBATIM | Donald Trump A little more moderation would be good. Of course, my life hasn’t exactly been one of moderation.

ON THIS DAY...

FUN FACT

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed a congressional act that established the Peace Corps.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

A three-part series about the production of ‘Bare’

Getting to know you The cast and crew of Austin Auh’s ’10 PART1 senior thesis begin work on production

By KAPRI KREPS and SHANA D. LEBOWITZ JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Halfway through their three-hourlong read-through, the cast and crew for Brandeis University’s upcoming pop opera Bare erupts in laughter.

“There’s a black woman inside the soul of every gay man!” declares Romy James ’13, who plays Sister Chantall.

Sitting in the Alumni Lounge of Upper Usdan on a lazy Sunday afternoon, the cast exudes a low-key vibe, coupled with what can only be described as bottled-up excitement for the upcoming months.

Although this Sept. 13 read-through marks Bare’s first official rehearsal, the cast members seem completely at ease with one another, and their time spent reading and singing the lines of the new-age play is comprised of moments of poignant emotion and drama, albeit still allowing for blips of gut-wrenching hysterics.

Bare, originally titled Bare: a Pop Opera, merges a mainstream sound and comical elements with a serious undercurrent that delves into issues such as homosexuality and teenage pregnancy. Debuting in Los Angeles in October 2000, the off-Broadway musical follows the lives and struggles of high school students at a Catholic boarding school, in particular the complexity of the secret relationship between two gay students, Peter and Jason, played by Austin Auh ’10 and Rob St. Laurence ’11. Auh and his production staff plan to donate all proceeds from the show to the Waltham House, a center for GLBTQ youth.

During the rehearsal, Auh, who is also co-director for Bare, observes his cast’s interactions and takes notes in his script in between his own numerous lines. The production of this 13actor play makes up his senior thesis. He is currently co-directing the show with his voice teacher at Brandeis, Pamela Wolfe.

For Auh, about 5 feet 5 inches tall with two cartilage piercings and an energy that makes it seem like he’s bouncing, directing Bare represents the opportunity to take a more psychological approach to theater. He pushes his cast to develop their characters beyond what unfolds on stage.

“I [want to] go deeper,” he says of the rehearsal process, during which he’ll meet individually with every member of the cast to help them develop their characters.

Last Monday he met with Benny Gronich ’12, who plays Matt in the show.

“We spent a half an hour going through the show, and we only got halfway!” Auh says as he breaks into a wide-mouthed grin that returns every few minutes or so while he discusses his plans for the production.

Although Bare documents the emotional misadventures of a bunch of hormone-driven high school seniors at a Catholic boarding school, Auh wants his show to be anything but a superficial parade of feelings.

“The thing is,” he says, “that when you’re a teenager these emotions are the most important thing. I want them to come across without it being two-dimensional.”

It’s clear that Auh has not only spent time coming up with his theories on what theater should and shouldn’t be but also taken the time to explain them to people before. He’s relaxed but passionate, gesturing repeatedly with his hands when talking about transcending conventional styles of performance.

This is the first show Auh has directed since high school, but during the past four years, he’s been involved in almost every facet of the campus’ theater community. When he arrived at Brandeis, “I auditioned for everything.” His first semester, he was in two shows (“a mistake,” he concedes) and took part in a performance every semester through the first half of his junior year.

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice

PRE-SHOWTIME: Members of the production team Austin Auh ’10, Nicole Litvak ’12 and Kat Teeter ’12 discuss strategies for the show and rehearsals.

“Being in a show and directing it is really interesting,” he says. “I’m thinking about my character in the context of the whole show— that’s not something I usually do.”

Other cast members of Bare also feel as though performing in Bare will be a growing experience. St. Laurence, who is tall and lean and could easily pass for a college graduate, feels as though “the part of Jason [will] stretch me and put me out of my comfort zone as an actor. I am excited to break old acting habits and stretch my vocal range from classic to pop,” he said.

St. Laurence arrived at Brandeis his freshman year as a swimmer with some acting experience. He did not consider any auditions until that spring, when he landed a leading role in a show.

Bare’s cast members share an easy cameraderie. St. Laurence is able to create a realisticlooking relationship with Abby Armstrong ’13 who plays Ivy, the teenage girl who falls hopelessly in love with his character.

Smiling in near-disbelief at this opportunity, Armstrong is intrigued by and excited for her role. Throughout high school, Armstrong took part in many theater activities, even landing a spot in the prestigious Walnut Hill School in Natick, Mass. for a five-week summer program.

Even so, it is clear that this modest first-year did not expect a leading role at Brandeis during her first semester.

Armstrong’s face comes alive as she describes watching a high school friend in a production of Bare a year ago. When she had learned that Brandeis would be performing the musical, she was immediately interested in playing Ivy. “I can’t even imagine going through many of Ivy’s struggles. I look forward to the challenge of playing her, especially singing her song ‘All Grown Up,’ because it is so moving,” Armstrong says of her expectations for the role.

While Bare isn’t as widely recognized as A Chorus Line or some of the other shows that held auditions during the same week, the show’s casting process was highly selective.

Though neither Auh nor Lauren Elias ’10, who

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice

IN THE ZONE: Austin Auh ’10 directs Rob St. Laurence ’11 and Abby Armstrong ’13 as they rehearse. plays Peter’s mother, Claire, and is assistant directing, can say for sure how many students auditioned for the show, 35 were called back to try out for specific roles.

“There were a few people who just really jumped out,” Auh says of the auditions.

Bare’s casting process was especially unique in that it was, as Auh proclaims, completely “color-blind.” According to Auh, the script clearly marks each character’s ethnicity, but “I threw out pretty much all the racial designations.”

Part of Auh’s purpose in casting without respect to ethnicity was to “enforce diversity” and push against the paucity of minority actors in professional theater.

Auh is majoring in Music and Psychology and says he wants to “try to be an actor” after graduation. When asked if his interest in psychology has anything to do with his feelings on character development, he answers quickly: “I do partly have a huge interest in psychology not just because I like knowing how people work. It does help a bit with trying to get into the heads of characters.”

In planning the performance, Auh wants to concentrate on helping the actors connect with the audience. Auh talks about private moments during the show, such as characters speaking to God, that actors can share with the audience.

Says Auh, “There’s a lot of opportunity to really break that fourth wall.”

9

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 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 REBECCA KLEIN, Features Editor REBECCA B LADY, Forum Editor IAN CUTLER, Sports Editor JUSTINE ROOT, Arts Editor SARAH BAYER, Acting 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, Acting Advertising Editor

Election mishap unacceptable By failing to inform students that the Student Union elections had been postponed, the Union has bungled a routine responsibility.

For a president who campaigned on promises to open the lines of communication, this is a disappointing start.

As soon as it became clear that the fall election could not be held on time, the student body should have been apprised of the postponement via email. But candidates and even Union officials were kept in the dark about the nature and span of the problem.

The glitch with elections software was unforeseeable, and it remains unclear who was responsible for fixing it. However, in the midst of the confusion, no one took responsibility for informing the student body. Union Secretary Diana Aronin ’11, who also serves as chief of elections, continued to send out Student Union announcements with no mention of the delay.

Her stated reason for her silence—that a new date had not yet been determined—does not hold water.

Furthermore, the final date was set long before Monday at midnight, which was the first time that anyone on the Union directly addressed stu-

Prevent communication gap dents about the issue.

The elections commission, appointed by Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11, also made no announcement, and its members are not identified on the Union’s Web site. In many cases, the aspiring student leaders spread the word themselves through Facebook groups advertising their candidacy. Students who hadn’t joined these groups had to learn of the issue through word of mouth and student publications. Rather than hold their elected representatives accountable, the majority of the student body took no notice of the change, signifying an unfortunate level of apathy.

This lapse in communication reinforces the image of the Union as an inaccessible, arcane body—an unfortunate message to be sending to firstyears looking to take on campus leadership roles after only a few weeks at Brandeis. We urge Mr. Hogan and his colleagues to hold officers accountable for future elections’ procedures so as not to reverse the considerable improvements in transparency made by their predecessors.

Reconsider plan for dining In an effort to alleviate overcrowding in the dining halls, Dining Services has allowed C-meals to be used temporarily at the Schneider Building café in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. While we realize some measure to decrease the number of students crowding dining halls is necessary, the chosen solution is not useful.

The Java City café in Schneider offers only pre-made sandwiches, fruit cups, coffee drinks and baked goods for sale; these are not an appealing choices compared to Usdan Student Center’s fresher and more extensive offerings. Also, for most students, Heller is not conveniently located.

Even if the attempt to redirect students to Heller for lunch was feasible, the Java City in Schneider is not large enough to accommodate more than its current patronage. The small café can

Crowding still a problem serve the graduate students, professors and staff of the Heller School, but an additional influx of undergraduates would overwhelm the facilities and only aggravate the problem.

Instead, Dining Services should look into expanding the Stein and the Faculty Club’s lunch-time offerings.

The Stein currently closes for lunch; offering a lunch-time buffet or Ollie’sstyle casual food choices might draw students from Usdan more than Java City’s meager offerings. Similarly, publicizing the fact that the Faculty Club is open to students and offering low-cost, C-meal-approved options would provide an additional lunchtime option. These solutions would be more appealing to students and also more permanent than the current fix.

Posse decision lacked input As part of an effort to manage its shrinking budget, Brandeis will temporarily suspend the Brandeis Liberal Arts Posse and continue to recruit for Brandeis Science Posse. We recognize that financial restrictions prevented the University from maintaining the Liberal Arts Posse, supported by general University funding, versus the Brandeis Science Posse, funded by a grant from the Howard Hughes Science Institute. But the administration should have involved the Brandeis community in this decision.

Given the Posse Foundation’s role in Brandeis history, this breach of communication was unacceptable. The Liberal Arts Posse, which was founded

by Deborah Bial ’87 and offers full merit-based scholarships to college applicants all over the country, has

Keep community apprised been an integral part of the Brandeis campus. Posse scholars run clubs and organizations, represent their peers in the Student Union and excel in a wide range of areas of study.

Dean of Academic Services Kim Godsoe said the decision is “another example of a very difficult decision that the University needed to make in order to respond to the greater economic climate.” But because administrators kept the decision-making process private, to students the decision seems hasty and unwarranted.

Posse scholars and non-scholars alike have worked for over a decade to make this initiative a success. They should have been consulted before any final decision was made.

A. ELI TUKACHINSKY/the Justice

Facebook should not be imposing a political agenda on its patrons

By HANNAH GOLDBERG JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

For the first time last week, Facebook correctly defined the northern borders of Israel.

Before last Tuesday, if citizens of the Golan Heights wanted to list their hometown, they would be required to say that they lived in Syria. For example, if someone lived in Katzrin, a city in this region, they would type in Katzrin in the hometown blank on the personal information form, and the only option Facebook offered them to enter would be “Katzrin, Syria.”

The small problem: Facebook was listing information that has been inaccurate for over 40 years.

The Golan Heights were annexed by Israel in 1967 as a result of the Six-Day War. Today, Jewish and Arab citizens living in the Golan Heights enjoy the same Israeli governmental services as the rest of the country, including electricity and health care.

The big problem: Facebook has become the chief networking and socializing tool across college campuses, and it is preventing users from expressing correct political points of view.

It’s not even up for debate. Facebook has a monopoly over interactions on college campuses. It is the single medium that is guaranteed to be familiar to every individual on a college campus. (How many of you really know how all of the functions of your UNet account actually work?)

If it weren’t for Facebook, you probably wouldn’t know when elections are for Union Senate or even who was running. On the bottom of every campaign flyer is a link to the candidate’s Facebook group. Brandeis students use Facebook to find out when clubs are meeting, organize hall and dorm meetings, find out when the Theater Arts department will put on shows, and even to vote for whom Brandeis brings for concerts. During orientation, it was how I kept track of the names of all the new people I was meeting.

Facebook is an integral part of our daily lives. Recently, I was even “friended” by “Louis Brandeis,” who created a Facebook page to advertise www.mycampus.com where students can go to buy and sell textbooks, organize carpools home or rent apartments.

After our time at Brandeis, we will undoubtedly begin to use Facebook to keep in touch with our college friends, and perhaps, more importantly, network for jobs. At this point in its life, Facebook has reached the magnitude where it can sometimes be an employer’s first impression of a potential employee. When evaluating candidates for a job, some will comb their applicants’ Facebook pages for questionable pictures, group associations or inappropriate wall posts left by friends.

For instance, imagine you are applying to work at a Jewish Agency and you list that your hometown is Katzrin, Syria. Your employer looks on your Facebook to find out more about you, only to discover you are from …

Syria?

By restricting the choice of country, not only does Facebook increase the ambiguity of meaning and political viewpoints, but it also may give employers the wrong idea about what viewpoints their applications will potentially bring to their organization (although one would hope that employers are scrupulous enough to check out the facts on their applicants through resources other than Facebook).

To protect its users from scenarios such as this, Facebook is responsible for allowing its users to represent themselves accurately.

Perhaps Facebook did not intend to grow this large, but now that it has monopolized the networking and job scene, it must accommodate its users, and that means setting aside the creator’s own beliefs and broadcasting only accurate facts. It should not matter that Facebook is a privately owned company. The fact of the matter is that Facebook must be held to higher standards to maintain the niche it has filled in the lives of its users.

It would be in the best interest of Facebook and its consumers to provide options that appease all political beliefs in order to fairly represent all segments of its usership.

OP-BOX Quote of the Week “I think we’re playing with something to prove, not because we’re getting shut down, but because we’re a good team and we want to prove it.”

—Aaron Cusato ’12, a member of the golf team, in response to the possibility of the team getting cut. (See Sports, page 16)

Brandeis Talks Back What do you think the University should do about the long lines and overcrowding in campus dining halls?

LEO GUYSHAN ’10 “Open more dining halls.”

JESS SCHAENGOLD ’11 “I’m not on a meal plan, so I don’t really care.”

ALISON FINK ’12 “They should hire more people.”

VIKTORIA LANGE ’13 “Make new stations.”

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

11

CAMPAIGN CONUNDRUMS

READER COMMENTARY Muslim students deserve a chapel In response to your article “University chapels to be renovated” (Forum, Sept. 15): It seems to me that just as the University paved the way for multireligiosity in the ’50s, the time has come for Brandeis, as the first Jewishsponsored, nonsectarian University, to show the way by building a brand-new mosque for those who regard Islam as their focus, regardless of the number of users.

In the ’50s, the vast bulk of users of the Catholic chapel were the members of the recruited football team! If we no longer actively recruit a more diverse student body, perhaps we should. It would be a wonderful way of showing the world that we still believe in religious equality as well as religious freedom.

Vice President for Capital Projects Daniel Feldman and University President Jehuda Reinharz ought to see the need and instead of financing rehabs and make-dos, find the funds to build the fourth chapel. It can be financed in much the same way as most other institutions do—by issuance of bonds. America financed the construction of Israel through bonds. It was a good idea back then. It still is right now. And on a local level makes a great PR as well.

—Ed Hamada ’59

Reconsider funding for golf team In response to your article “Golf: Team breaks a school record” (Sports, Sept. 15): What a shame that Brandeis is no longer willing to fund this ever-improving golf team, especially as it has demonstrated vast improvement and great desire.

I hope that the University will reconsider the dropping of this sport and find a way to fund this team. There are apparently some very talented players, including Mr. Lee Bloom, and an enthusiastic coach. Surely funds can be found.

—Martin Zelnik ’61 The writer was the captain of the men’s tennis team in 1960 and 1961.

Cartoons not a censorship issue In response to your article “Klausen’s cartoon book exceeded the bounds of freedom of speech” (Forum, Sept. 15): Censorship in its true form is really only the action of a government. The choice not to depict the cartoons is a mutual decision by publisher and author.

Obviously, the weight of the decision comes overwhelmingly from the publisher, but the book, with or without the cartoons, belongs to the author.

The cartoons appeared in a nation of just over 5 million people, fewer than reside in Massachusetts, and I imagine not many more speak Danish, yet these cartoons inspired craziness and death worldwide. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic tract long ago exposed as a fraud, are produced in the millions of copies year in and year out in many languages, though Arabic and English are probably the most popular, and are even endorsed by leaders of many Arab and Muslim states and yet do not evoke any violence or killing.

Being offended or having your feelings hurt are not suffient grounds for violence and neither Yale nor Brandeis nor Dr. Klausen should have to make a decision about an academic publication over fear of violence or terrorism.

I’ve never known of an academic book to sell millions of copies for decades, if not a century.

—Robert Brennan The writer is a data analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Yale’s decision on book is valid In response to your article “Klausen’s cartoon book exceeded the bounds of freedom of speech” (Forum, Sept. 15): I applaud Yale’s decision; the images were not necessary as they could be described. While they are merely supplements, they could have caused serious damage. The cons definitely outweigh the pros.

These aren’t merely feelings that could be hurt, but lives taken.

—Rinita Zanzerkia ’13

Cartoons could only induce tension In response to your article “Klausen’s cartoon book exceeded the bounds of freedom of speech” (Forum, Sept. 15): It is a wonder that anyone would find a reason to dispute the decision to remove the cartoons; allowing them to be published would only have increased the risk of tension or worse.

—Stephan Trahan The writer is a student at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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.

STACY HANDLER/the Justice

Gear up for Union elections Hillel

BUECHLER AND SO ON

You’ve probably been very excited lately; I know I’ve been. After all, the first Student Union election season of the academic year is upon us. Elections for open positions in the Union Senate!

The elections were supposed to be last Thursday, but that didn’t happen. And the Union kind of just threw the Monday election at us, first notifying us of the elections date on the day of the elections. But I’m still excited because this means an extended elections season, which showcases the Union at its absolute finest.

Going through Union elections is a cutthroat process, even for the candidates. After candidates sign up to run, they have to attend an entire informational session whose primary purpose is explaining the election rules.

Really intense stuff.

Of course, the informational session isn’t intended to explain the job description of a senator, which makes sense since the Union already has enough trouble attracting a competitive pool of candidates in the first place.

Most elections include several candidates running for otherwise uncontested positions. It surely would not benefit the Union to risk losing candidates by actually warning them about a proper senatorial workload.

In fact, to entice students to run for office this year, Union Secretary Diana Aronin even had to send out an e-mail with the subject line “Need something else to put on your resume?”

That’s exactly the right way to brand public service.

And why would we want to ensure that all registered candidates knew exactly the commitment they were getting themselves into?

It’s not like the Union Senate has a problem with attendance for which it felt the need to pass a bylaw last year establishing a strict attendance policy. (Oh, wait—it did.) And it’s not like project reports, which Union senators are required to submit on a regular basis, are proportionally rare entities on the Union Web site. (Oh, wait—they are.)

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

Plus, election rules are very important to know, especially for those already involved in the Union and its elections, like perhaps the chief of elections. For example, it’s nice to know that should Union positions become open during the academic year, special midterm elections are held to fill them. But that is not true for the positions of president and vice president. Last year, there was a little confusion regarding that addendum. It resulted in an unconstitutional midterm vice presidential election to fill the vacant position and a subsequently unconstitutional, yet effective, vice president.

Election regulations are super important to know for candidates, too. The Union rules permit only 100 sheets of paper worth of campaigning, along with some tape. Libelous campaigning is out the question, so we have to deal with only self-advertisement. And that reality lends itself to exacerbating the pre-existent absurdities of campaign platforms in the college bubble.

One candidate used at least one of his 100 sheets to display his picture with the words “THIS … IS … PARSAAAAAAAAAAAA.” Yes, 12 As. Some candidates simply have not done their research. There’s a candidate who wants to create better cell phone service in the Usdan Student Center. If elected, maybe this candidate will use Union funds to purchase a cell phone signal amplifier. (Done—thanks, Andy.)

Maybe candidates will also try to start a free bike rental program (already done) or institute an awkward event before finals week at the end of each semester (that, too).

There are also those candidates who have yet to realize that some of the most useful changes are de facto blocked in the student committee process because the Union has no power to institute them in the first place. For instance, one candidate, probably among several, wants us to be able to use meals whenever we’d like. Cute idea. But that’s really up to Aramark and the University, which means that it’ll end up being discussed in the Student Dining Committee—if it hasn’t been already.

Then, there may be a recommendation made on behalf of the committee to one of those two parties. But I’m sure the issue has already been tackled to the most feasible extent. As surprising as it may be to some candidates, most of our meal plans weren’t crafted over

The Staff For information on joining the Justice, write to justeditor@ brandeis.edu.

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS NEWS: Harry Shipps FORUM: Hillel Buechler

the summer. Meals have been around for a while.

Another candidate placed a campaign poster above a toilet in my floor’s bathroom. On the ravishing background of a toilet seat it reads, “Do you think this is gross …,” followed by an emphatic “Me too.” The poster then goes on to promote his position on campus improvement.

In case you couldn’t guess, he’s for it.

Lots of candidates seem to be in favor of making the campus nicer. And that’s really benevolent of them. But it’d be even better if they didn’t make us feel bad about what we have at the moment just so that they stand a better chance at getting our vote. I think the word for that is demagoguery. It might be a silly use of the word since we’re just college students, but political demagoguery starts somewhere. Maybe our candidates should think twice about its engagement. Who knows what Brandeisian demagogic senators will try to do once in power? Propose even more ideas?

Maybe they’ll even attend a Senate session.

Candidates running for office should spend more time advertising their ability to listen to their constituents. Many candidates advertise that they are in favor of more students’ input.

But for the most part, that’s the end of that.

While they may advertise their specific goals, like putting ATMs in each quad, candidates should be spending more time creating and pushing for individual communication with their constituents—maybe a promised quad or even class listserv with weekly or monthly updates. Once our Mr. Smiths reach the Union Senate and realize that they cannot afford to place condom machines in every building (an actual campaign promise), communication with the students they represent will be crucial for further progress.

Elections at Brandeis might sometimes seem like too much to handle. But I suppose that all of this election excitement may be necessary in order to elect people to spend the thousands of dollars in the Senate budget in a variety of potentially controversial and occasionally useful ways. This year’s Senate will have $10,850 at its discretion. It’s a lot of money.

There may be better ways to run Union elections. There may not be. At the moment, I’ll just continue to enjoy the obvious competitive excitement that’s clearly penetrated every element of campus life.

STAFF Senior Writers: Miranda Neubauer, Melissa Siegel Senior Illustrator: A. Eli Tukachinsky News/Features Staff: Alana Abramson, Destiny Aquino, Sam Datlof, Irina Finkel, Reina Guerrero, Ruth Orbach Forum: Richard Alterbaum, David Litvak, Zachary Matusheski, Ethan Mermelstein, Eileen Smolyar Arts: Marianna Faynshteyn, Emily Leifer, Daniel Orkin, Alex Pagan, Ben Serby, Shelley Shore Photography: Rebecca Ney Sports: Josh Aysen, Sean Petterson Copy: Ariel Adams, Danielle Berger, Jacob Chatinover, Emily Kraus, Lauren Paris, Joyce Wang Illustrations: Stacy Handler Layout: Karen Hu, Kathryn Marable

12

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

FORUM WEIGHING IN ON GREEK LIFE

RISHIKA ASSOMULL/the Justice

IN FAVOR

Recognize Greeks’ inherent role on campus

By REBECCA KELLOGG JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

If you were to ask a first-year what attracted him or her to Brandeis, you would receive many various replies: the passionate students, the stellar academics, the dedicated professors, the excitement that comes from living in a bustling city like Waltham (okay, so maybe not so much that last one, but you catch my drift). One item, however, that you will almost never hear listed among Brandeis’ many assets is our happening party scene. You may not be aware that there is, in fact, any sort of party scene here at all, but I can assure you that one does exist. You can find this so-called “party scene” off campus, hidden in a shady little backstreet in Waltham: our Greek life, Brandeis’ own shameful secret.

In the interest of full disclosure, I need to clarify a few key points before I begin. I don’t like the idea of fraternities and sororities, period. I think that they can quickly become dangerous, mainly because they legitimize excessive alcohol intake, drug use and unsafe sexual activity. All three of these have the potential to do substantial harm, and I do believe that fraternity parties propagate the pathetic fallacy that alcohol is necessary to have a good time, a lie that even the most levelheaded of folks fall for when placed in a situation where one is “supposed to” participate in these activities.

“

The University may think that it’s doing a favor for its public image by pretending that Brandeis Greek life is nonexistent, but in reality this just makes our administration look utterly clueless.

Now all that has all been said, I can arrive at the main point of this piece: I truly believe that the University should recognize our fraternities and sororities. This isn’t because fraternities and sororities are just super—I really don’t think that they either add or detract anything from the typical college student’s experience. Rather, I think that the main reason for the official University recognition of our fraternities and sororities is simply because this open secret makes our administration appear weak and blind. It’s moronic for the University to constantly boast about how we don’t permit Greek life at Brandeis because it is cruel and exclusive, while students of all years talk openly about the night’s upcoming party, multiple students run around campus wearing garments advertising their own fraternity or sorority, and it’s possible for anybody to go onto the national Web site for each of our seven Greek organizations and plainly see Brandeis University listed as an active chapter of said sorority or fraternity. The University may think that it’s doing a favor for its public image by pretending that Brandeis Greek life is nonexistent, but in

reality this just makes our administration look utterly clueless.

It is true that Greek life was banned with good intentions; a campus culture where no one is excluded is truly a noble vision.

However, it’s simply just not realistic.

Nobody can have everything he wants. I can guarantee that you will experience at least one or two disappointments in life, and frankly, if at the end of your life, your greatest emotional burden is not making it into a fraternity or sorority, you’re a seriously lucky person. Not to mention the fact that I would dare venture to say that it’s even hypocritical for the University to deny Greek organizations the right of recognition, when other organizations that are often exclusive by nature (e.g., a cappella groups, sports teams) are proudly praised.

To those of you who would argue that the recognition of Greek life here would change the character of our school: Get real, please.

At the end of the day, Brandeis is still a rigorous university that attracts serious students. Fraternities and sororities are not so revolutionary or rare that multitudes of people would flock here just for our amazing Greek life. Brandeis will never become a

haven for the stereotypical meathead fraternity boys of the movies. On the contrary, a positive social effect is possible: we might stop losing bright students to other schools, who opt not to come here because they’re afraid that the rumors of a stuffy, uptight student body are true.

My true rationale for supporting the legitimization of Brandeis Greek life, however, is as simple as this: I trust my peers. I’ll admit that I don’t at all see the appeal of either belonging to a fraternity or sorority, or attending their parties. I think that the whole “let’s go out and get wasted” mentality is silly. But, in the few short weeks that I’ve been here, I’ve come to notice and respect the intelligence and passion of the vast, vast majority of my fellow students— many of whom, it’s true, indulge in such unsavory activities in the dark, sleazy fraternity house basements. The administration is wonderful in listening to the opinions of the students most of the time, and I don’t think that this issue should be any different. I may not agree with them, but if the majority of my peers here believe that it’s time to bring official Greek life to Brandeis, then I support the motion.

IN OPPOSITION

Allow Greek life to exist, but only unofficially

By LEAH SMITH JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

It’s a beautiful afternoon, and several of my friends and I are sitting by the pond in Massell Quad. Most of us are doing work when a large pickup truck blasting music pulls up alongside our table. Around 15 guys jump out, whip out a grill and start cooking hamburgers, which they pass out for free to anyone who walks by.

After talking to some of them for a while, I quickly realize what their motive is. These guys aren’t just giving away food to be nice.

They represent one of Brandeis’ fraternities, whose main goal is recruiting first-year guys who might want to join.

When I applied to Brandeis, I knew that the University did not recognize fraternities and sororities. I also knew that there were several that operated under the table anyway. So when I arrived here, I was a little surprised to see how blatant the recruitment process was on campus. But I was also surprised to find that this activity didn’t bother me very much.

Granted, the fraternities and sororities put a lot of effort into recruitment, but I felt absolutely no pressure to rush a sorority.

Much of why I was unfazed by this recruitment process lies in that the University does not recognize Greek life.

At other universities, where fraternities are more ingrained into campus life, many people get pressured into rushing for social reasons, either by the fraternities themselves, or by

“

Sure, everyone wants to party, socialize and have fun, but many aspects of Greek life are contradictory to the values that have governed Brandeis since its founding.

their friends who are rushing. At Brandeis, I know several people who are either in a fraternity or pledging one. While I would never join a sorority myself, I think it’s understandable that people in college want to be part of one, as long as they don’t drag their friends with them.

Although understandable, the existence of fraternities at Brandeis creates a bit of a conundrum. Sure, everyone wants to party, socialize and have fun, but many aspects of Greek life are contradictory to the values that have governed Brandeis since its founding.

One of the major issues with Greek life at Brandeis is the society’s exclusive nature.

Brandeis University was founded specifically as a place for Jews and other minorities, who were excluded from other universities.

Fraternities and sororities may not discriminate based on race or religion, but there is still a discriminatory element. If you don’t fit the profile of the fraternity or sorority, you aren’t accepted, no matter how much you might want to join.

Lewis Solow-Collins ’13, a pledge to one of Brandeis’ fraternities, believes that fraternities are “like a sports team. Just because you want to be on varsity swimming doesn’t mean

you get to. ... Just because you want to be in a frat doesn’t mean you get to, either.” True, varsity swimming is quite exclusive, but for a reason. If the swim team were to accept everyone, it is likely that its level of competitiveness would drop significantly. But a fraternity is not a competitive team. It is a social group. At a university that prides itself on diversity, there is no place for groups that only allow members of a certain kind.

Solow-Collins also argues that “varsity swimming gets funding, so why shouldn’t a frat?” Varsity swimming gets funding for the same reason it is allowed to be exclusive. They are a team that represents Brandeis through competition. Without funding, they would not be able to train their members effectively or travel to competitions. Again, fraternities are only social groups. It would be highly hypocritical for Brandeis to say that its main principles are acceptance and diversity, but to then give funding and recognition to fraternities, whose membership is based upon social exclusion.

Furthermore, if fraternities were recognized, they could potentially be detrimental to the University’s image. Greek life is common-

ly associated with an intense party scene.

Since fraternities and sororities aren’t recognized, most people don’t even hear about them until they get here. Thus, Brandeis doesn’t attract the stereotypical fraternity boy or sorority girl that comes to college solely to party and avoids the reputation of being a party school.

So, what is to be done about Greek life at Brandeis? The unfortunate truth is that not much can be done. There is a reason Greek life exists unofficially at Brandeis, even though the University refuses to recognize it. College kids still need to blow off steam, and many people see fraternities and sororities as the best way to do so. As it stands now, Brandeis’ Greek life operates mostly off campus (except when recruiting) and is largely insignificant to Brandeis students who choose to remain uninvolved. As long as Brandeis sticks to its principles and continues to deny fraternities and sororities recognition, the University has fulfilled its commitment to maintaining an open and diverse community. So, if students choose to partake in this under-the-table society, let them. It ultimately takes nothing away from the Brandeis experience.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

13

SPORTS VOLLEYBALL

Judges able to hold off Endicott on road ■ The volleyball team beat

Endicott College last Thursday night in four sets to improve to 8-3 on the year.

By JOSH ASEN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

With the volleyball team ahead by a score of 26-25 in the third set of a 1-1 match against Endicott College last Thursday, Endicott rookie Ashley Norley went for a kill in an attempt to even up the score, but outside hitter/middle blocker Bridget McCalister ’10 and middle blocker Nicole Smith ’11 leaped and blocked Norley’s shot, giving Brandeis a 2-1 lead in the bestof-five match-up.

From there, the Judges never looked back as they defeated the Gulls at Endicott in four sets, 25-17, 22-25, 27-25, 25-17, to improve their record to 8-3 on the season.

Smith acknowledged the impact her third-set block had on the team the rest of the way.

“Any chance to get a point, whether it’s a kill, block or ace, gives great emotion to the team,” Smith said. “We came off that block, and crazy emotion [came] from all the players on the court, even everyone on the bench; we picked it up and went with it. It kept our spirits high, and we continued to win the next game and the match.”

Captain and right setter Piera Carfagno ’10 led the Judges with 10 kills while also adding nine digs.

Smith and outside hitter Paige Blasco ’11 had nine and eight kills, respectively.

Setter Abby Blasco ’11 had 35 of the team’s 42 assists. Coach Michelle Kim said she has been pleased with Abby Blasco’s individual play but also with the positive influence she has on her teammates as captain, along with Carfagno. “[Abby Blasco] is a playmaker for

our team and works so hard,” Kim said. “She is a good example for our younger players as well.”

With the score at 18-16 in the first set, the Judges won seven out of the last eight points to defeat the Gulls 2517. Before the Judges’ run at the end of the first set, the game was tight, as the Judges’ largest lead was only four points. Brandeis had three aces in the set from Carfagno, Abby Blasco, and libero/defensive specialist Lauren Polinsky ’10. Middle blocker/right setter Becca Fischer ’13 contributed three kills to the win as well.

Despite its success in the first set, Brandeis lost the second set 25-22. With Brandeis winning 11-10, Endicott senior Steph Wiese recorded six service aces in a row, forcing Kim to call a timeout after the Gulls took the lead for the first time since the very beginning of the first set. Wiese had eight aces in the match, which now ranks sixth for most aces in one match in team history.

”[Wiese] is a great server,” Kim said. “She jump serves and puts a back spin on the serve. … [To improve], we need to work getting ourselves in the right and position quickly and recognizing that on the serve at hand. We have to anticipate and work hard on getting our positioning better.”

The third set was highlighted by Brandeis’ ability to come from behind.

The Judges were down for the game’s entirety until they tied the score at 16 midway through the set. From then on, both teams prevented the other from gaining any momentum: The largest lead any team had before Brandeis’ stretch to win the last three points was two, when the Judges led 23-21.

With the score 25-25, McCalister delivered a key kill to give the Judges a one-point lead, followed by her and Smith’s block, which preserved the win for Brandeis.

The Judges ran away with the fourth and final set after a 7-7 tie. The

MSOCCER: Squad drops home opener 3-2 CONTINUED FROM 16 committed a horrible and unnecessary foul,” Coven said, “which gave them a penalty kick, and they scored on it.”

Later, the Engineers capitalized on another opportunity when Zajac was given a free kick from 25 yards away at 74:45. Zajac arched a perfect shot that was just out of Lynch’s reach and went into the goal in the top left corner to put WPI up 2-1. Just over two minutes later at 76:50, Engineer junior Matt Ford stole a ball in the offensive zone and was able to dribble in on a breakaway and kick it by Lynch, increasing the lead to 3-1.

“We work all week on not holding the ball in front of the goal in our defensive third of the field, and one of our freshmen held onto the ball and was very slow to get rid of it in front of our own goal,” Coven said. “Someone pressured him, he lost it, and the WPI player went in on a breakaway.”

The Judges did not give up, though. At 85:11, the Judges brought the ball down the field and midfielder Kyle Gross ’11 put the ball up for forward Lee Russo ’13, who was able to head it past Moan to cut the lead to 3-2.

The Judges would come no closer as WPI improved to 5-1 with the win.

“The first half showed that there is a combination that does work,” Bautista said. “We just need to figure out how to keep it consistently throughout 90 minutes.”

“That was a game that was ours to lose, and we did,” Coven added.

“It was very disappointing.”

The Judges will look for their first win of the season tomorrow at 7 p.m. at home against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

first half].”

At the 60-minute mark, Brandeis took a 2-0 lead off a goal from Pacheco, her team-high fourth of the season. Mimi Theodore’s sister Ali Theodore ’12 had the assist.

Clark, however, was able to pull within one in the 62nd minute. A hand-ball call against the Judges gave the Cougars a penalty kick, and Clark junior midfielder Laura Hedden was able to knock the ball past Brandeis goalie Hillary Rosenzweig ’10 to make it a 2-1 game.

But the Judges were able to pull away in the last 10:31, scoring

GOLF: Team earns third place at Elms Invitational CONTINUED FROM 16

MAEGAN BAUTISTA/the Justice

SEPARATION: Men’s Soccer midfielder Matt Hauser ’13 looks to dribble away from a WPI defender in a loss last Wednesday.

WSOCCER: Deis goes 2-0-1 to improve record CONTINUED FROM 16

Gulls committed several costly errors in the set, and timely hitting by Carfagno and her teammates gave the Judges an easy victory.

With Endicott in the rearview mirror, Brandeis turns its attention towards tonight’s home match against Tufts University, who beat the Judges in straight sets at the Brandeis Invitational on Sept. 12.

The team said it was looking forward to having another opportunity to defeat the Jumbos, but Smith pointed out that despite the desire to avenge a loss, the team must remain disciplined.

“We need to say calm and focused,” said Smith. “[We have to] play our game and not let them choose how we play.”

After the battle against Tufts, Brandeis, along with Amherst College, Middlebury College and Westfield State College, will play in the Amherst Classic starting Saturday.

Tonight’s match begins at 7 p.m.

three goals in that span. The first of the three came from midfielder Alanna Torre ’12, who used her 5 foot-10-inch frame to head the ball into the net off a corner kick from Pacheco.

“I’ve been working on [Torre] being more aggressive [with the ball] in the air, because she clearly has size,” Dallamora said.

The last two goals both iced the contest for the Judges and gave Mimi Theodore the hat trick. Her second goal came in the 81st minute off a long pass from forward Melissa Gorenkoff ’10 that Theodore hit into the right corner of the net. With just under four minutes left, Theodore hit a header

off another assist from Gorenkoff to finish off the hat trick. “[Theodore has improved] mostly her first touch decision making and vision,” Dallamora said.

“She’s got better vision, so she makes better decisions and is making runs. She understands what she should be doing.”

Last Thursday, the Judges were shut out by Roger Williams University but were able to hold the Hawks scoreless and preserve the scoreless tie.

Both teams had plenty of opportunities to score, with the Judges getting off 22 shots and the Hawks getting 20, but neither side was able to put the ball into the net.

This came after the Brandeis offense exploded for six goals against Bridgewater State College, including two from Pacheco and one from Gorenkoff.

The games were the second and third shutouts of the season for the Judges and gave Rosenzweig her 18th career shutout, tied for second on the team’s all-time list.

The Judges will play next Thursday at Gordon College at 3:30 p.m.

After that, the team will host Wellesley College Sept. 30 in its final regional game before beginning University Athletic Association play at Case Western Reserve University Oct. 3.

could’ve, but it’s not such a competitive tournament, so if there was one tournament I’d pick to play bad, this one would’ve been it.”

Lee Bloom ’10, who shot under par in the team’s record-breaking round last week but tied for 13th place last Tuesday with a nineover-par 80, said that the greens were very difficult to play on and praised Custato for his ability to manage them well. While the two sophomores paced the team at the top, the rest of the squad held its own as well as the Judges had four players shoot under 14-over-par 85. “[Cusato] played very well, especially on the way the green were rolling, it’s a great game,” he said.

Coach Bill Shipman also said the greens were tough and that those conditions could have played a role in the team’s performance.

“I think the greens bothered them a bit; it made putting pretty difficult,” Shipman said. “It wasn’t a terrible round, but we could have done better. It wasn’t an important tourney, but we should have finished higher.”

Looking ahead, the team will compete at the Duke Nelson Invitational in Middlebury, Vt. starting Saturday, a competitive 25-team tournament that includes foes such as New York University and Skidmore College.

“If we can get in there and do well in the next tourney, it would make the team very credible,” Bloom said.

“All the best teams are there, so if we could break the top 10 or even top five, it would be a great finish,” Shipman added.

The team continues to play well despite the seemingly inevitable fate it faces at the end of the season, as the University still plans to suspend the varsity golf program after this season.

“I think we’re playing with something to prove, not because we’re getting shut down but because we’re a good team and we want to prove it,” Cusato said.

14

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

●

THE JUSTICE

SPORTS CROSS COUNTRY

Both teams place in top tiers ■ The men’s and women’s

cross country teams did not race full teams at the UMass-Dartmouth Invitational last Friday but still finished in the top four.

By JEFFREY BOXER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Competing undermanned due to injuries and illness, the nationally ranked No. 13 men’s cross country team pulled off a fourth-place finish at the UMass-Dartmouth Shriner’s Invitational last Friday. The Judges were only able to compete with five runners yet still managed to outrun much of the competition, most of whom were using eight contestants.

Brandeis finished behind only regionally ranked No. 7 Keene State College, nationally ranked Division II No. 13 Stonehill College and nationally ranked No. 27 the University of Southern Maine.

The women’s side was not so different: The Judges competed with only seven runners yet still pulled off a second-place finish out of 42 teams.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology won the invitational on the women’s side.

“It was a great weekend,” coach John Evans said. “We had a smaller team going out, but we opened up better and we started significantly better, than we ever have.”

This was the first tournament of

the year for either team, which had only run a small head-to-head meet against Bentley College Sept. 4.

The men’s team was led by Paul Norton ’11, who finished the five-mile course third overall and second among Division III runners with a time of 24 minutes, 43 seconds.

Norton’s time was a full 25 seconds faster than the one he ran at this event last season, in which he barely missed being named an AllAmerican.

Chris Brown ’12 was the second Judge to cross the finish line, closing out the five-mile course in 25:20. Marc Boutin ’12 was next, with a time of 25:30. The two finished in 13th and 24th place, respectively.

Devon Holgate ’11 was the next Brandeis runner to finish, coming in 29th place with a time of 25:34. This was his first varsity race after missing his first two seasons with injury and illness. “[Holgate] ran a great race,” Boutin said.

Evans added to Boutin’s remarks, saying that this was “an awesome way for [Holgate] to start.”

Sam Donovan ’11 finished in 48th place with a time of 26:07, struggling because of illness. Evans said that Donovan “was running very under the weather, which probably added at least 30 seconds to his time.” Dan Anastos ’11 was also sick and was forced to drop out of the race before reaching the finish line.

Three of the team’s top runners were kept out of the meet because of injuries. Kerwin Vega ’11 and Zack

Schwartz ’11, who had the fourth and fifth best performances at the Division III Championships last year, were both held out for minor injuries.

Alex Kramer ’13 was also unable to run with a minor hip injury.

“We lost a few key people to injury, so this weekend was more about seeing where the team was,” Boutin said.

All three have been practicing and are expected back within two weeks.

For the women’s team, Grayce Selig ’11 again paced the squad by turning in the team’s best time for the second consecutive meet. Selig finished the 5,000-meter course in 18:42 to earn eighth place overall. In the team’s first meet at Bentley College, Selig’s time of 15:45 led the pack of 11 Judges who finished the race first.

Kate Warwick ’12 and Marie Lemay ’11 also had top finishes, completing the race in 12th and 13th place, respectively, with times of 18:32 and 18:36. Alyssa Pisarik ’12 and Ally Connolly ’10 rounded out the five Judges who finished in the top 25 with 17th- and 25th-place finishes, respectively. Pisarik had a time of 18:47, while Connolly had a time of 19:07.

The two remaining runners, Beth Pisarik ’10 and Hannah Lindholm ’11, finished in 38th and 39th place, respectively, as they crossed the finish line just one second apart from each other.

Both teams will attempt to build off of their successes from last week at the Connecticut College Invitational Saturday at 10 a.m.

AP BRIEF

STRONG START

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

NEW FACE: Men’s tennis rookie Steven Milo ’13 returns a backhanded shot.

Women play at ITAs; men win in first match ■ The men’s tennis team

beat Bentley University last week while the women were at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Championships.

By JONATHAN STEINBERG JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

CHARLES DHARAPAK/The Associated Press

PRESIDENTIAL SPAR: Tim Morehouse ’00, right, attended President Obama’s Olympic promotional event last Wednesday.

Obama makes plea for Olympic Games ■ Tim Morehouse ’00 was

one of the Olympic athletes invited to the White House last Wednesday.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama staged an Olympic rally at the White House on Wednesday, saying the United States was cheering for his hometown of Chicago in its efforts to host the 2016 Summer Games.

“Chicago is ready.

The American people are ready. We want these games,” he said to applause.

“If you choose Chicago, I promise you this—Chicago will make America proud, and America will make the world proud,” Obama added.

The International Olympic Committee will choose a host city during an Oct. 2 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. Obama

will not attend the meeting, instead sending first lady Michelle Obama to lead the U.S. delegation.

Chicago is in a tough competition with Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Madrid, Spain; and Tokyo. In recent years, heads of state such as Tony Blair have traveled to the IOC meetings to help seal the deal for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and Vladimir Putin for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

Obama said, “I would make the case in Copenhagen personally,” were it not for his quest for health care reform. “But the good news is I’m sending a more compelling superstar to represent the city and country we love, and that is our first lady, Michelle Obama.”

The first lady didn’t return the kudos, describing the president’s dabbling in some of the Olympic sports before the event.

Among the sports the president took part in was fencing, in which

he jokingly sparred with Brandeis alumnus Tim Morehouse ’00.

Morehouse became the first Brandeis alum to medal at the Olympic Games last summer, when he won a silver medal at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

“You should have seen the president in there fencing,” Michelle Obama said to laughter, as President Obama stuck out his arm in a mock fencing move. “It was pathetic. But he passed the baton really well.”

Obama said that while he loves Washington, Chicago has been his home for nearly 25 years. He called it a “city of broad shoulders and big hearts and bold dreams, a city of legendary sports figures, legendary sports venues and legendary sports fans.”

The Obamas appeared with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and a host of Olympic athletes, some of whom staged exhibitions on the South Lawn.

With the men’s tennis team opening its season with an 8-1 rout of Bentley University last Wednesday and the women’s tennis team getting strong individual performances at the Division III Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Championships last Sunday, Brandeis tennis seems to be headed in the right direction.

On the women’s side, the Judges had three players competing for the title in the singles championship bracket. Rachel Rosman ’11 was the highest-ranked Judge, coming into the tournament ranked in the top 16 out of 64 competitors. In her firstround match, Rosman easily defeated opponent senior Jennifer Ouyang of Amherst College 6-2, 6-1. In round two, Rosman continued her brilliant play, taking care of sophomore Rebecca Stone of Babson College in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.

In round three, she faced Tufts University senior Meghan McCooey, who was ranked No. 6 in the region.

Control of the ball switched back and forth, but McCooey came out on top in the end, winning the match 4-6, 6-4, 10-7. McCooey would later team up with the singles’ runner-up, teammate junior Julia Browne, to defeat Rosman and Mackenzie Gallegos ’11 in the first round of the doubles championship bracket as well.

Coach Ben Lamanna said he was very impressed with Rosman’s play despite her third-round defeat in singles.

“It was a step in the right direction,” Lamanna said. “She has improved a lot. Her backhand is a big weapon.”

Lamanna also commented on her aggression on the court and the trust, she has in herself and in her game.

“She’s in the process, but she’s in good shape.”

In other singles action, captain Ariana Sanai ’10 had a tough firstround draw, playing No. 7 Victoria Aiello, a sophomore from Middlebury College. Sanai played a strong match

but fell 6-1, 6-3. Rookie Faith Broderick ’13 was the third Judge to compete in the singles bracket and lost in the first round to Amherst senior Jill Wexler, another top-16 player.

While Broderick dropped her first match in the singles championship bracket, she made some noise in the consolation bracket by winning two matches and advancing to the third round. In her first consolation match, she faced senior Mohona Siddique of Wellesley College and won 7-6, 6-7, 107. In her next match, she won 6-1, 6-0 over rookie Sabrina Salmela of Simmons College. In her third-round match, facing rookie Britanny Faber of Middlebury, Broderick played strongly but lost 6-3, 6-3.

Broderick also picked up a win in the doubles championship bracket with partner Sarah Richman ’12, defeating junior Rebecca Heupel and rookie Cassie Smith of Connecticut College 8-1.

Broderick noted that being a rookie has helped her game this season.

“I’m so new on the college tennis scene,” she said. “I feel like I don’t have that much pressure on me right now, so I am able to play very relaxed.”

Lamanna praised Broderick’s play thus far. “She’s got a great future,” Lamanna said. “She keeps working hard, and stays humble and is beginning to understand how to construct matches.”

For the men’s team, the squad opened the season at Bentley with five new members in the starting lineup and defeated its crosstown rival 8-1.

In doubles action, the No. 1 pairing of Simon Miller ’11 and Steven Nieman ’11 won 9-7. At No. 2 doubles, Fred Rozenshteyn ’13 played in his first collegiate match and paired with Mike Tatarsky ’12 to beat their Bentley opponents 8-4. At No. 3 doubles, Dave Yovanoff ’13 and Ezra Bernstein ’11, a transfer student from the University at Buffalo, won 8-5.

Rozenshteyn felt that he has been playing well, attributing his success to the support of his teammates.

“You have all these experienced players, and you are out there always looking up to people,” he said.

In singles action, the Judges won all but the first singles match.

The women’s team will next compete at Bentley on Thursday, while the men prepare for the Division III ITA Regional Championships starting on Friday.

THE JUSTICE ● TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

AP BRIEFS

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

USC drops out of top 10 in AP poll after loss at Washington

Mimi Theodore ’12 ■ The women’s soccer player got her first collegiate hat trick in a 5-1 win over Clark University last Sunday.

The last time women’s soccer midfielder Mimi Theodore ’12 recorded a hat trick, she was back playing for Walpole High School in Walpole, Mass. Theodore remembers that game pretty well.

“It was against Milton [High School], and actually I was going through a rut at that time, so after that game [it] kind of brought back my confidence, and I was able to start scoring again,” Theodore said.

The Judges hope that Theodore’s first collegiate hat trick will have a similar impact, as Theodore scored three goals in Brandeis’ 5-1 win over Clark University last Sunday.

After last Sunday’s win, her teammates all surrounded and congratulated her, but Theodore was quick to compliment her teammates on their playing as well.

“It’s really nice [seeing her teammates’ reaction to her hat trick],” she said. “It was definitely a full team effort, so it’s kind of like everyone was celebrating because I think everyone knew just how well we had played.”

The three goals moved Theodore into second place on the team’s season scoring list with eight points.

Her three goals and two assists already match her total from all of last season, when she started 12 of the team’s 22 games.

“This year I’ve been playing a lot more up top [and] it’s given me more opportunities. [Forwards Melissa Gorenkoff ’10 and Tiffany Pacheco ’11] are obviously great to play with, and I’ve learned this year how they’re playing more and what kind of passes they make and I’ve been able to

Judging numbers

10

kills and nine digs for Piera Carfagno ’10 in the volleyball team’s 3-1 win at Endicott College last Thursday. Carfagno was one dig away from getting a double-double.

2

nd-place finish for the women’s cross country team at the UMass-Dartmouth Invitational last Saturday.

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/THE JUSTICE

HAT TRICK: Midfielder Mimi Theodore ’12 controls the ball in the team’s win last Tuesday. feed off them a lot better this year.”

Besides adjusting to her teammates, Theodore also feels more comfortable in her second year under the tutelage of head coach Denise Dallamora and assistant Kerry O’Malley.

“It definitely helps knowing how

[Dallamora and O’Malley] coach and just how the whole team in general plays. I’ve just gotten a better idea of what my role is and what I have to do,” Theodore said.

—Melissa Siegel

UAA STANDINGS Men’s Soccer

Women’s Soccer

Not including Monday’s games

Not including Monday’s games

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

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

W 6 5 4 4 4 3 3 0

L 1 1 0 0 1 3 4 3

Overall T Pct. 0 .857 0 .833 2 .833 3 .786 2 .714 1 .500 0 .429 1 .125

W 6 5 4 4 5 3 2 1

L 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 4

T 0 0 2 2 0 1 3 0

Overall Pct. .857 .833 .714 .714 .714 .583 .583 .200

TEAM LEADERS MSoccer (shots)

WSoccer (points)

Midfielder Sam Ocel ’13 leads the Judges with 10 shots this season.

Forward Tiffany Pacheco ’11 leads the team with 13 points this year.

goals for women’s soccer forward/midfielder Mimi Theodore ’12 in the Judges 5-1 win over Clark University at home last Sunday. The three goals marked Theodore’s first collegiate hat trick.

Player Sam Ocel Matt Peabody Luke Teece Joe Eisenbeis Lee Russo

Player Tiffany Pacheco Mimi Theodore Melissa Gorenkoff Sofia Vallone Ali Theodore

4

Volleyball (kills)

Volleyball (digs)

Outside hitter Paige Blasco ’11 leads the Judges with 123 kills.

Libero Anna Homitsky ’13 has 114 digs to lead the squad this season.

Player Paige Blasco Piera Carfagno Bridget McAllister Nicole Smith Becca Fischer

Player Anna Homitsky Paige Blasco Piera Carfagno Bridget McAllister Abby Blasco

3

goal differential between the men’s soccer team and its opponents this season. The team is 0-3-1 through four games.

18

career shutouts for women’s soccer goalie Hillary Rosenzweig ’10 after the team tied Roger Williams University 0-0 last Thursday.

Rosenzweig has the second most shutouts in team history.

Shots 10 7 7 6 6

Kills 123 82 76 74 61

Points 13 8 7 6 5

Digs 114 106 105 105 105

UPCOMING GAME OF THE WEEK Volleyball vs. Tufts University at HOME The Judges will have another chance against Tufts University tonight at 7 p.m.

1

singles set lost by the men’s tennis team against Bentley University last Wednesday. The only set lost was by Seth Rogers ’10, who dropped the first set en route to a win at No. 6 singles, 4-6, 6-3, 10-4. The Judges won the match 8-1.

15

The volleyball team has gone 0-6 since the 2005 season against Tufts University.

Most recently, it lost 3-0 to the Jumbos Sept. 12 in the Brandeis Invitational.

Tonight, the Judges look for retribution against the Jumbos at home.

Tufts is 6-1 and has won six straight matches. The Jumbos are captained by setter Dena Feiger ’10 and outside hitter

Brogie Heigeson ’10. The Jumbos have lost only two sets since their first loss of the season at the University of Massachusetts at Boston The Judges are coming off a win at Endicott College where they took the match in four sets to improve their record to 8-3 on the season.

The match will start at 7 p.m.

NEW YORK—Southern California dropped nine spots and out of the top 10 in The Associated Press college football poll Sunday, and the University of Washington moved into the rankings for the first time in six years.

A day after the Huskies upset the Trojans 16-13 on a late field goal, USC fell from No. 3 to No. 12 in the media poll.

The Trojans became the second preseason top-five team to lose in the first three weeks of the season. Preseason No. 3 Oklahoma University lost its opener to Bringham Young University.

Washington, ranked for the first time since Sept. 28, 2003, is No. 24.

No. 1 University of Florida and No. 2 University of Texas have held firm to their spots all season. No. 3 University of Alabama and No. 4 Ole Miss moved up one spot in the latest poll, giving the Southeastern Conference three of the top four teams in the nation. Penn State University remained No. 5.

BYU dropped the farthest this week, from seventh to 19th after a 54-28 home loss to Florida State. The Seminoles moved back into the rankings at No. 18.

The rest of the top 10 was California Berkeley at No. 6, followed by Louisiana State Universtiy, Boise State University, the University of Miami and Oklahoma.

The Hurricanes made the biggest jump of the ranked teams from last week, moving up 11 spots after a 33-17 victory against Georgia Tech. The loss knocked the Yellow Jackets out of the rankings. The University of Utah also dropped out after a loss.

Miami is in the top 10 for first time since the final regular-season poll of the 2005 season. Miami was the dominant team in college football during the early 2000s. In the latter part of the decade, USC has taken Miami’s place.

The last time Miami was ranked higher than USC was Oct. 26, 2003. That week the Hurricanes were No. 2 and USC was No. 3. The next week, USC moved up a spot, Miami dropped to sixth and the two programs kept drifting apart. The Trojans became a top-10 fixture while the Hurricanes struggled to even crack the Top 25.

Since Nov. 3, 2002, Pete Carroll’s second season at USC, the Trojans have spent only six weeks out of the top 10—all in 2007 following an early October home loss to 40point underdog Stanford University.

Washington, like Miami, contended for national championships earlier this decade, but the Huskies have fallen on even harder times than the ‘Canes.

Washington finished that 2003 season 6-5 and hasn't had a winning season since. The Huskies hit rock bottom last season, becoming the first Pac-10 team to go 0-12.

Jake Locker and the Huskies snapped a 15-game losing streak last week with a 42-23 victory against Idaho, but beating the Vandals could hardly be viewed as a sign that Washington was ready to defeat USC. New coach Steve Sarkisian, a former USC assistant, and the Huskies did just that. Locker led a masterful late drive, and Eric Folk kicked a 22-yard field goal with 3 seconds left in the game.

“We said early on that it wasn’t going to take us very long,” Sarkisian told reporters on Saturday. “I think maybe some people outside our own little domain thought that that was just press-conference-speak.”

It was only a week ago that USC, behind freshman quarterback Matt Barkley, was coming off a dramatic comeback victory against Ohio State University. Barkley did not play against Washington because of a sore shoulder.

OSU is No. 13 in the new poll, followed by the University of Cincinnati and Texas Christian University.

Oklahoma State University, University of Houston, Florida State University, BYU and Kansas University round out the top 20.

The University of Georgia, University of North Carolina, University of Michigan, Washington and University of Nebraska are the final five.

Cavs’ Delonte West arrested for speeding and weapons possesion UPPER MARLBORO, Md.—Cleveland Cavaliers guard Delonte West was arrested Thursday after officers pulled him over for speeding on a motorcycle while carrying two loaded handguns as well as a loaded shotgun in a guitar case.

Prince George’s County police spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Reedy said Friday the Cleveland Cavaliers player was arrested about 10 p.m. Thursday.

Reedy said West was riding a Can-Am Spyder motorcycle north on the Capital Beltway in Upper Marlboro when he cut off an officer, who then pulled him over.

Police said they found a handgun in his pocket, another in his pant leg and a shotgun in a guitar case.

Reedy said West “was very cooperative, [and] there were no issues” during the incident.

The 26-year-old West, who lives in Brandywine, Md., was charged with speeding and weapons counts. It is illegal to carry concealed weapons and to transport loaded guns in Maryland, according to police. Reedy said West was released on his own recognizance early Friday.

Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry said the team was monitoring the situation.

“We have been in communication with Delonte and his family,” Ferry said in a statement. “We are gathering more information and will not have further comment until the appropriate time.”

Online court records did not list an attorney for West.

Last year, West left the Cavaliers’ training camp to seek treatment for depression and a “mood disorder” he said he has battled his entire life. At the time, he said he was taking medication and attending therapy sessions. West said his mood problems date to his childhood.

West has said his mood swings seem to be most erratic when his life seems to be in order.

Cpl. Clinton Copeland, a Prince George’s County police spokesman, said West was carrying a Beretta 9mm handgun, a Ruger .357 magnum handgun and a Remington 870 shotgun. Copeland said the penalties West could face if convicted have not been determined.

West was drafted in 2004 out of St. Joseph’s University by the Boston Celtics. He has spent five years in the NBA with three different teams.

just

Sports

Page 16

ALUM VISITS OBAMA Olympian Tim Morehouse ’00 went to the White House for an Olympic promotional event, p. 13.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

MEN’S SOCCER

Waltham, Mass.

STILL ROLLING

Team struggles in home opener ■ The men’s soccer team lost to Worcester Polytechnic Institute 3-2 last Wednesday.

By DAVID FISCH JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In the closing minutes of the men’s soccer team’s home opener against Worcester Polytechnic Institute last Wednesday, the Judges trailed 3-2 and were desperately trying to tie the score. The team had fired shot after shot on Engineer junior goalie Paul Moan but continued to come up short. In the last 10 seconds, the Judges hurried to set up a corner kick seconds after forward Matt Peabody’s ’13 header was deflected to the left of the goal, spurring a groan from the crowd. As the ball was put into play, the Judges had one last shot that was blocked by an Engineer defender. With that, time expired: The game was over, and the Judges’ record dropped to 0-3-1.

“Realistically,” coach Mike Coven said, “at the end of the first half [we] should have been [ahead] four or five to zero. … We had opennet shots the entire first half, which seemed harder to miss than to actually score on. … It’s inexcusable to not score those goals, and that’s just a lack of composure.”

The Judges were dominant in the first half, outshooting the Engineers 14-4. However, the disparity in shots did not reflect the score, as the team only led 1-0 at the half. The goal was scored by forward Alexander Farr ’12 and assisted by forward Luke Teece ’12.

Goalie Matt Lynch ’11 scooped up a ball that came into his area and rolled it out to a Brandeis player who was streaking up the field, who then passed to Teece, who set up the goal for Farr at 39 minutes, 35 seconds.

Early into the second half the Judges got a chance to extend their lead as they were given a penalty kick in the 54th minute on a WPI tripping foul inside the box.

Midfielder Joe Eisenbeis ’13 took the shot but missed it by hitting the right post.

The Judges had a chance to to score on the rebound as the ball bouncd right to Peabody, but his shot was stopped by Moan, ending the threat.

The team realized that having rookies like Eisenbeis and Peabody on the frontline of the offensive attack increased the potential for missed opportunities.

“The two players playing up are freshmen,” midfielder Jaime Batista ’10 said. “So it’s no surprise that there is a sort of transitional period. Playing in college is different than playing at any other type of level. But I do have full confidence that they’re going to find their stride. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.”

“They’re young kids; [they’re going to] make those mistakes,” Coven said.

Soon after, the Engineers received a penalty kick of their own which they were able to capitalize on. At 57:36, Engineers senior Tommy Zajac lined up and fired a ball that got past Lynch to tie the game at one.

“We started to get a little nervous and we lost our composure, and we

See MSOCCER, 13 ☛

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice

WINNING WAYS: Women’s soccer forward Kelly Doolittle ’12 tries to make a play on the ball in the Judges’ win over Bridgewater State College last Tuesday at home.

Theodore gets three in victory ■ Women’s soccer

midfielder Mimi Theodore ’12 had a hat trick in the team’s 5-1 win over Clark last Sunday. The Judges went 2-0-1 last week.

By MELISSA SIEGEL JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

Going into the women’s soccer team’s game against Clark University last Sunday, Judges midfielder Mimi Theodore ’12 had

two assists but no goals. By the end of the game, she was second on the team in goals scored.

Theodore scored three goals for her first collegiate hat trick as the Judges defeated Clark University 5-1. While Theodore’s performance marked her first hat trick since high school, her response to her third goal was more team-oriented.

“My first reaction [after getting the hat trick] was I was just glad, because there wasn’t that much time left and I pretty much knew [that] we were going to win. So it was nice just knowing that we

were going to get a win out of them,” Theodore said.

The Judges’ win puts them at 20-1 for the week after they defeated Bridgewater State College 6-0 last Tuesday and tied Roger Williams University 0-0 on the road last Thursday. The Judges’ record now stands at 4-1-2 on the season, including a 4-0 record at home.

Brandeis took a 1-0 lead in the 27th minute against Clark, when forward Tiffany Pacheco ’11 dribbled the ball toward the net before passing it to Theodore, who chipped it over Cougar senior goalie Joanna Clark for her first

goal of the game.

The Judges were only able to score that one goal in the first half despite outshooting the Cougars 12-4. In the second half, though, the Judges had four goals off 13 shots.

“We made better runs and better choices in the second half,” coach Denise Dallamora said. “In the first [half], we were slotting balls wide, and we really should have been shooting from up top. … We’d get balls at the top of the box, and we were passing them when we should have been shooting [in the

See WSOCCER, 13 ☛

GOLF

Judges finish third at Elms Invitational at 36 over ■ The golf team took third

place out of nine teams for the second straight event at the Elms Invite last Tuesday.

By MAX GOLDSTEIN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

After shooting a school-record low round at the Bowdoin College Invitational last Sunday that resulted in a third-place finish, the

golf team came into last Tuesday’s Elms College Blazer Invitational with a new mark to its name and a chance to improve upon history.

The Judges did just that by means of their third-place finish instead of by another recordbreaking round.

The squad shot a 36-over-par 320 for the tournament, putting it just one stroke behind Franklin Pierce College, a Division II team, and 10 strokes behind the first-place Nichols College.

The team was led by Aaron Cusato ’12, who finished sixth overall with a seven-over-par 78, and Scott Beaulac ’12, who shot one stroke behind Cusato at eightover-par 79. Daniel Goldsmith also fared well, shooting a 12-over-par 83, good enough for a tie for 18th place.

Despite his team-best performance, Cusato was a bit disappointed with his game at times. He also said that this event was not as competitive as future ones will be,

so to struggle in it would not be detrimental.

“I wasn’t hitting the ball well all day, and I scrambled really well in the front nine, but my putter let me down in the back nine, so that’s why I didn’t finish as well as I wanted,” he said. “I tripled the third hole, so it was tough from then on. ... I tried to grind it out after tripling that hole. I don’t think we played as well as we

See GOLF, 13 ☛

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ARTS

September 22, 2009

‘Fences’ features boundless talent p. 21

Photo courtesy of Eric Antoniou. Design: Julian Agin-Liebes/the Justice.

18

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

●

THE JUSTICE

POP CULTURE

INSIDE ON CAMPUS

18-20

■ Fauxharmonic Orchestra 19 Using a machine he invented that synthesizes the sounds of an orchestra, Paul Henry Smith M.F.A. ’04 will play music by two Ph.D. students in the Slosberg Music Center.

20 ■ Award-winning Designers Two Department of Communications employees won awards for their designs of such campus publications as the Admissions viewbook and the Festival of the Arts guide.

20 ■ Blank Label A young Boston designer has created a student-oriented fashion label that offers custom-tailored suits at affordable prices.

OFF CAMPUS

20-24

21 ■ ‘Fences’ Huntington Theatre Company’s production of August Wilson’s play lived up to the work’s reputation as a great American drama.

21 ■ ‘Community’ A new NBC comedy about community college students introduced promisingly farcical characters in its premiere episode last Thursday.

23 ■ Yo La Tengo The veteran indie rockers wowed audiences during a gentle, spacey concert last week.

23 ■ ‘The September Issue’ The documentary followed the production of Vogue magazine, delving into the domineering persona of its editor, Anna Wintour.

CALENDAR

INTERVIEW

by Marianna Faynshteyn

When Ellen DeGeneres took the post of daytime talk show host, the move seemed appropriate, if not the best option available. After all, it had been years since the comedienne graced the small screen, her eponymous TV show turning sour after her character made the same bold gesture she had: restricting herself to buttondown shirts—oh, and women.

DeGeneres speaks of those days as dark times, her actions simultaneously receiving high praise and low ratings. Her ascension to TV host undid most of the damage, the combination of years past and DeGeneres’ likeability giving the host a resurgence of popularity as well as a slew of professional, personal and political opportunities. Since the inception of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, DeGeneres has hosted the Emmys and the Oscars, denounced Proposition 8, married a woman and made a public, crying plea for a puppy.

Her success has probably now peaked with her latest job offer: the judge’s chair on the most popular talent show in the U.S.—American Idol. But this position has not been doled out without bloodied hands, i.e. the ones that have clawed at Paul Abdul for the last eight seasons (yes, Simon Cowell’s, but FOX’s as well).

Paula shot back with some Idol-worthy tricks herself, gracing the VH1 Divas program as host and for a very tolerable 30 seconds as an Ellenimpersonator. More impressive than her Ellenlike dance moves? The speed at which it took her to soften the gesture. “All kidding aside, nothing but love, Ellen,” she muttered, her mic to her mouth and her hand on her heart (oh my, the sincerity).

Like the wedding that features the perpetual spinster in her role next to the bride, in the scheme of American Idol, Abdul proves yet again, always a Paula, never a Simon.

Austin studies academic fraud ■ Renaissance literature scholar

Jodie Austin has written a paper on new media and academic integrity.

Jodie Austin is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English and American Literature. At present, she is working on a paper exploring the “dilemma faced by students and universities in choosing whether or not to utilize services offered by websites such as Turnitin.com, which scans papers for plagiarism red-flags.” She will present the paper at the Oct. 9 conference of graduate students titled “States of Crisis.”

MATT SAYLES/The Associated Press

READY FOR PRIMETIME: Ellen DeGeneres will take over Paula Abdul’s role on ‘American Idol.’

The question remains, what role will Ellen take up in light of this recasting? Will she maintain Paula’s cozy position, clutching her lavender bouquet, as all turn to the person beside her for the moment of truth?

Well, let's consider her response to Paula’s act. “Paula—you’re hilarious. You’ve left me with big shoes to fill. ... Unfortunately I don’t wear high heels. Nothing but love for you too.”

Some snip coated with sweetness. Maybe there will be more bouquet-throwing from the middle judge’s chair this time around, after all.

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus

Korean Student Association Chuseok Event Chuseok is a major harvest festival and threeday holiday celebrated by Koreans on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar.

On this day commemorating the good harvest, Koreans traditionally share a feast of favorite Korean foods and visit their ancestral hometowns. This Chuseok, the Korean Student Organzation invites members of the community to join them in celebrating the beloved holiday.

Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. in the South Campus Commons in Ridgewood A.

Belly Dance Classes The Belly Dance Ensemble will host an evening of belly dancing classes for beginners as well as more advanced dancers. The class for beginners will be held at 8 p.m., while at 9 p.m. an instructor will teach students how to incorporate veils into their dance routines. The Belly Dance Ensemble, a noncompetitive club in which members are given the opportunity to learn from a traditional Egyptian and Turkish belly dancing instructor, will hold a variety of these educational sessions throughout the semester.

Tuesday, Sept. 29 from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room of Village C House.

Brandeis Open Mic Series B.O.M.S. returns for another season of open mic sessions. This meeting, as well as subsequent meetings, will be open to all creative writing and performance art and will also host featured poets and a poetry slam. From 8 to 9 p.m., a poetry skills workshop will be held, and from 9 to 11 p.m. open mic sessions will begin with an oncampus 15-minute spotlight feature and a halfhour performance by a professional poet. After, the mic will be opened for those looking to slam toward a spot on the Brandeis Slam Team.

Tuesday, Sept. 29 from 8 to 11 p.m. in the Castle Commons.

Lydian String Quartet: Music at Noon The Lydian String Quartet, composed of Profs.

Daniel Stepner (violin), Judith Eissenberg (violin), Mary Ruth Ray (viola) and Joshua Gordon (cello), will perform Shostakovich’s Unfinished Quartet and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quartet in E-Flat, Op. 127 during a concert that is free and open to the public.

Wednesday, Sept. 30 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Zimmer Forum in the Schneider Building.

Around the World in a String Quartet

WHAT’S ON?

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/Justice File Photo

CLASSICAL INTERLUDE: Lydian String Quar tet musicians Profs. Daniel Stepner, Joshua Gordon and Mar y Ruth Ray per form at a Music at Noon event last year at the Rose Ar t Museum.

The Lydian String Quartet will be playing pieces from Germany, Austria and Russia such as Schoenberg’s Quartet No. 2, Op. 10. The performance will be preceded by a lecture at 7 p.m.

Tickets will cost $10 for students who buy them in advance and $15 for those who buy them at the door.

Saturday, Oct. 3 from 8 to 10:35 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall.

The Fauxharmonic Orchestra The Fauxharmonic Orchestra is a computerbased instrument that conductor Paul Henry Smith M.F.A. ’04 has created in order to perform orchestral music. Using Macs, Wii controllers and high-quality Bang & Olufsen speakers, Smith will perform Brandeis student compositions, Webern’s Symphonie, Edgard Varèse’s “Ionisation” and Beethoven’s Second Symphony at this event. The concert will open with a demonstration and end with a questionand-answer session for anyone interested in the musical or technical facets of this new mode of performing orchestral music. (See article on p.

19 for more information)

Sunday, Oct. 4 from 3 to 5:35 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall.

Classical Studies Film Series As part of its ongoing film series, the Classical Studies department will show I, Cladius: Part 1 & Part 2: A Touch of Murder and Family Affairs with Derek Jacobi and Brian Blessed. Other films to be screened this semester will include O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Oct. 7) and Gladiator (Nov. 4).

Wednesday, Sept. 30 from 7 to 9 p.m. in Shiffman 219.

Free Outdoor Festival

OFF-CAMPUS EVENT The Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival will hold a concert featuring performances by the Berklee Music All Stars, Ashanti Munir, Elan Trotman and the Donna McElroy Quartet.

Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. at the corner of Massachusetts and Columbus Avenues, Boston.

JustArts: How did you come to choose Brandeis for your graduate work?

Jodie Austin: I came to choose Brandeis mainly because some of my favorite professors at [University of Californa,] Santa Barbara had done their graduate work at Brandeis, including Prof. Sheridan Blau [Ph.D. ’67] in the English and Education Departments at [University of Californa, Santa Barbara] and the poet Shirley Geok-Lin Lim [Ph.D. ’73]. Both of them had wonderful things to say about their own graduate experiences at Brandeis, and I was interested in doing work at a campus that was not in California. ... I hoped that by coming to the East Coast, I’d be able to expose myself to some schools of thought I’d be less likely to encounter on the West [Coast]. Plus, where else can you find a campus with a castle in the States?

JA: What is your dissertation going to be about?

Austin: Right now my area of concentration is in the Renaissance, although I’ll most likely find a way to balance my interests in new media by pursuing research of continually relevant issues like publication, copyright and authorship.

JA: Would you say that a lot of your work has a sociological/social science flavor to it?

Austin: When our conference committee originally got together to brainstorm ideas for the 2009 theme, we were hoping to hoping to find a sort of “umbrella topic” that could be pursued from a variety of angles. Although the topic of the economic recession was (and still is) a hotbutton issue right now, we felt that if we limited our discussion to portrayals of economics in and out of literature we would be ignoring the larger ramifications of the recession itself. ... We’ve certainly felt our share of the impact here at Brandeis. By deciding upon “Crisis” as our main theme for this conference, we envisioned hearing from representatives of multiple fields who had as many creative solutions to offer along with depictions of crises, old and new.

On a more personal note, I’ve spoken to many non-English majors who assume that the bulk of our studies are spent performing close-reading techniques on classic literature and that inevitably, this places us on the fast-track to a teaching career as our only recourse after graduate school. ... The questions we encounter in literature are no less relevant when asked from an empirical or a scientific standpoint. As an English major, I use literature as my starting point for formulating questions, such as questions about crisis. Literature becomes my primary method of inquiry for engaging other disciplines, be they architecture, film or mathematics. You might say that it’s my “lens of choice.” Just don’t ask me to explain quantum mechanics in a nutshell, and we’ll be fine.

JA: Can you opine a little about the benefits/drawbacks of services like Turnitin.com?

Austin: I’m trying to remain as objective as possible in my research on services like Turnitin.com; on the other hand, I’m also trying to make a statement about how the availability of materials online have irrevocably changed the research landscape for students and instructors alike. ... The epistemological floodgates have been opened, so to speak, and it's going to be pretty hard to just put a stopper on the flow of information that students encounter every time they go online. Most students have a hard enough time not being bombarded by ads for free papers when they do their research. My current opinion, however cliché-sounding, is that we should look toward ways of harnessing this flow instead of ... [fighting] the current.

—Andrea Fineman

Top 10s for the week ending Sept. 22

Box Office

College Radio

Billboard

WBRS

1. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. The Informant 3. Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself 4. Love Happens 5. Jennifer’s Body 6. 9 7. Inglourious Basterds 8. All About Steve 9. Sorority Row 10. The Final Destination

1. Fruit Bats – The Ruminant Band 2. Wilco – Wilco (The Album) 3. Dead Weather – Horehound 4. Yacht – See Mystery Lights 5. Japandroids – Post-Nothing 6. Modest Mouse – No One’s First and You’re Next 7. Wye Oak – The Knot 8. Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer (EP) 9. Portugal. The Man – The Satanic Satanist 10. Jay Reatard – Watch Me Fall

1. Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3 2. Miley Cyrus – The Time Of Our Lives (EP) 3. Whitney Houston – I Look To You 4. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx ... Pt. II 5. Brooks & Dunn – #1s ... And Then Some 6. Trey Songz – Ready 7. The Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D. 8. Boys Like Girls – Love Drunk 9. Kings of Leon – Only By The Night 10. Taylor Swift – Fearless

1. Uzi Hitman – “Al Chet ShaChata’nu” 2. Regina Spektor – “The Calculation” 3. Silversun Pickups – “There's No Secrets This Year” 4. Harlem Shakes – “Nothing But Change Part II” 5. Johnny Rawls – “Can't Win For Losing” 6. Yo La Tengo – “Nothing To Hide” 7. Late of The Pier – “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” 8. Jeff Healey – “Stop Breakin’ Down” 9. Florence and the Machine – “Kiss With a Fist”

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

THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

FAUXHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Classical music meets the machine

■ A Brandeis alum brings

his unique invention to campus to perform music

by Brandeis grad students.

Christian Gentry Ph.D. ’12 JustArts: What do you plan to do once your graduate studies here are over?

By ALEXANDER PAGAN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Those who listen to a symphony on record may begin to take the orchestra for granted. The sound one hears is whole; the orchestra, when playing, is one thing. To see an orchestra perform, however, is an entirely different thing. With about 100 members, such an orchestra is both visually stunning and slightly overwhelming.

Because of the sheer size of such an ensemble, there are relatively few nationwide (only 350 or so). Consequently, fewer people are able to witness performances of great symphonic works, and fewer conductors are able to conduct large ensembles.

Paul Henry Smith M.F.A. ’04 may be able to change this with his project, the Fauxharmonic Orchestra.

The Fauxharmonic Orchestra uses sampling software to digitally simulate a musical ensemble, which can be as large and complex as a symphony orchestra. While this is excellent news for young composers who want relatively inexpensive recordings of their compositions, the possibilities afforded by this technology are even greater.

With the aid of a specialized conducting apparatus, one is able to not only play back recordings of the Fauxharmonic Orchestra but also conduct the Orchestra—that is, control the tempo, dynamics, timbre and brightness of the synthesized group. This means that the Fauxharmonic can also be used as a means of accompaniment, allowing a few instrumental soloists to perform a piece that was written for many more performers. Even more astoundingly, this mechanism obviates the need to contend with the prickly egos of professional musicians when establishing his or her musical vision.

Such a performance of Smith’s Fauxharmonic Orchestra will occur at Brandeis on Oct. 4. In addition to works by Anton Webern and Edgard Varese and a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D major, Smith will conduct two student compositions: Animated Watercolors by Jeremy Spindler Ph.D. ’11 and A Piece For Several Instruments (or a futile attempt to explain the magical powers of nothingness)

by Christian Gentry Ph.D. ’12.

One may wonder what such an

CG: Hopefully I will have enough experience and connections to continue to write music as well as teach at a college or university.

JA: Could you describe your piece a little in your own words?

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTT EDMISTON

CONDUCTOR AND INVENTOR: Paul Henry Smith M.F.A. ’04 sits with the Wii-mote that can be used to conduct a simulated orchestra. Smith’s Fauxharmonic Orchestra will perform works by two Brandeis graduate students at a concert Oct. 4. instrument sounds like. According to a test performed for the Wall Street Journal, it sounds remarkably like an actual symphony orchestra. In the trial, two professors of music listened to four renditions of a passage from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7—one of which was Smith’s synthetic version—and tried to identify the computer-generated version. On both occasions, the professors misidentified the sample.

Smith’s Fauxharmonic Orchestra uses a bank of millions of samples—digital sound clips of acoustic orchestral instruments—which are then arranged to correspond to the requisite pitches and timbres of the music. Given the rapid improvements in computer technology in the last several decades, it is unsurprising that such a feat—a “brute force” approach that 30 years ago may have been considered impossible—is feasible today. In an e-mail interview with justArts, Smith mentioned that even 15 years ago, the equipment being developed for music synthesis in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab was inadequate for the task of replicating an orchestra, especially in a real-time performance situation.

Now, all that is needed for such an instrument is equipment that can be bought at relatively little cost, as well as patience and expertise. Smith gave a brief overview of the apparatus that he uses to conduct: “During my concerts I stand on stage holding a wireless controller, called a Wii-mote (the controller used with Nintendo’s Wii gaming console), which acts as a baton programmed to respond to my conducting gestures to affect the tempo. I also stand on a pressuresensitive platform (the Wii balance board) that detects the movement of my body so that different sections of the orchestra can be brought out simply by leaning toward their would-be location on the stage.” In this way Smith is able to control various parameters of the software, which are initially preset to “a close approximation of [his] ideal performance” and then modulated according to his preference, the acoustics of the venue, and the needs of any other soloists.

Even though the equipment is sufficient for playing high-quality music, as with any instrument the onus is on the musician to do creative work required for a good performance. In Smith’s own words: “Anyone can walk into a store and

buy a Steinway piano, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to play it like Horowitz. Musical ability is far more important than any technical factor.” The approximations of the music to be performed take many hours to produce—about 80 hours for a single movement of a Beethoven symphony—and once assembled, it is the conductor that lends the piece the subtlety and responsiveness that provide realism and emotional depth.

The agenda of the Oct. 4 performance is notable for its varied compositions. Contrasted with the Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D major is Webern’s atonal Symphonie, which is itself contrasted with largely atonal and percussive work, Varese’s Ionisation. While there is also contrast between Spindler’s Animated Watercolors and Gentry’s Piece For Several Instruments, they both share the quality of being “very imaginative and powerfully expressive.”

The concert will be held Oct. 4 at 3 p.m. at the Slosberg Recital Hall.

All are invited to bring questions about The Fauxharmonic Orchestra, as there will be a demonstration of the technology and question-andanswer session before and after the performance.

JS: The piece being performed by the Fauxharmonic Orchestra is titled “Animated Watercolor” and was first performed as a chamber ensemble piece for 12 instruments last May on a New Music Brandeis concert.

Upon being selected for the Fauxharmonic concert at Brandeis, the conductor and I discussed expanding the instrumentation to include a larger string section. We quickly agreed to expand the solo string parts I had originally written for to a string section with four on each part—4 violins, 4 violas, etc. ... The reason for this is that although the synthetic instruments sound quite realistic, a solo string instrument does not sound quite as realistic as a string section; so essentially, it has changed from a large chamber piece to a piece for chamber orchestra. While I wrote some orchestral pieces as an undergraduate student I do not include them in my current works list as they are rather weak in their orchestration. I

consider this my first orchestral work.

Of all visual artists I am familiar with Wassily Kandinsky has made the most significant impression upon me. While Kandinsky has a number of stylistic periods, it is his abstract works, especially the “Compositions,” that greatly catch my attention. I have always been quite fond of brilliant, bold colors and sharp, rigid lines, both of which occur frequently in his works. For whatever reason, when I am stuck writing a piece, Kandinsky aids me in generating motives, melodies, and harmonies for my ear; often I obtain more ideas than I can deal with.

Animated Watercolor was inspired by a particular painting of Kandinsky which I find quite fantastic. While it appears to have a few different names depending on the source, the one that appears most frequently, and the one I personally like the best, is Bustling Aquarelle which translates to Animated Watercolor. It is the goal of my piece to bring to life the elements of Kandinsky’s painting musically via rhythmic energy, distinct

JA: What kinds of musical or other experience influences your work, and this work in particular?

CG: I am what I hear. But, this is not consciously embedded in my music. Lately, however, I find myself fighting against my own clichés.

Jeremy Spindler Ph.D. ’11 JustArts: Could you describe your piece?

CG: This is a difficult question to answer, and the primary reason why I tend to avoid writing program notes if possible. Without trying to influence any listener interpretation I can probably talk a little bit about my musical (creative) preoccupations with the piece. Basically I want to do all I can to "capture lightning in a bottle."

That is, I may have an improvisation I play on the piano, or an abstract gesture I hear in my head (i.e. an upward flourish of dissonant notes that ends with an almost imperceptible metallic tinkling). I try to capture these moments the best I can and build musical material around them in all directions. I think that sums up a lot of what happens in A Piece for Several Instruments: Micro-moment after micro-moment (flashes of spontaneous creation) that build a cohesive composite (hence music composition).

I wrote the piece this summer and it was premiered at the Wellesley Composers Conference conducted by James Baker. ... It is scored for fl./piccolo, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, piano and percussion.

musical lines, and colorful orchestration.

JA: What kinds of musical or other experience influences your work, and this work in particular JS: While there are many composers that influence me, I am particularly fond of the late Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti. Over the last few years his music has influenced my own works more than any other. For “Animated Watercolor” I looked frequently to his Chamber Concerto for 13 instruments. I enjoy music that is modern and somewhat abstract in it style, but that can also speak to a variety of listeners. I feel that Ligeti’s music strikes a wonderful balance between the heart and the mind. It is music that the layman and the intellectual can often pull something out of.

JA: You said that you primarily work in the contemporary chamber format, but you want to expand into both electronic and orchestral composition. As we can see from the Fauxharmonic Orchestra col-

laboration, these two new directions aren't impossible to reconcile.

Do you think, however, that generally electronic and orchestral are two formats that are well-suited to one another?

JS: This is a very good question! I first want to say, that at its current state, technology cannot give you the "humanized" realization of a piece that live musicians can give you. However, I think that as this technology continues to improve and becomes more accessible it will become more widely used, especially by young composers and songwriters. Although there are likely more orchestras today than there ever have been before, it is currently very difficult to get orchestral music performed, even for experienced composers. The Fauxharmonic Orchestra is quite impressive in its technology and I very much look forward to its continued evolution in the years ahead. There is definitely great potential here for both the concert stage and the recording studio.

—Andrea Fineman

JA: This may be a sort of unenlightened question, but it seems that if you wrote the piece this summer and it has already premiered at a conference, it seems to be a rather quick turnaround from start to finish on a piece that involves so many voices.

Would you say that this composition came quickly to you? Or do you normally compose things in a short time frame like this?

CG: I do not normally compose this quickly. I rarely compose slowly either. I just had a deadline I had to meet.

I got it done in about two months (it is only 7-plus minutes). After several listenings I have realized that the material is thick enough and 7 mins. is just not enough time.

But, hey, its [sic] a risk you take when you try to get a piece done so quickly for so many instruments.

—Andrea Fineman

19

20

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

●

THE JUSTICE

ART

Brandeis designs earn top prizes ■ Two employees, Deborah Wieder and Zak Kubert, won awards for their designs of University publications.

By ANDREA FINEMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

One of Brandeis’ myriad internal agencies is gaining some off-campus recognition this fall. Graphic designers Deborah Wieder and Zak Kubert, who work in the Office of Communications, will receive awards from the University and College Design Association for their respective work on a mini-viewbook for Admissions and the guidebook for the 2009 Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts.

Though most in the Brandeis community will be unfamiliar with the Admissions viewbook, which is mailed to high school juniors who have expressed an interest in coming to Brandeis, the Festival of the Arts guidebook was part of an overall campaign Kubert designed around the Office of the Arts’ slogan, “Art is Happening.”

Some may remember the large banner hanging on the south façade of the Shapiro Campus Center, as well as the posters and other publicity materials distributed around campus, that featured swashes of watercolors layered with photographs and text. The campaign also included postcards and brochures that were sent out to local residents.

These awards are the first Wieder and Kubert have won since coming to Brandeis last fall. Since then, they’ve worked on over 400 projects for various campus organizations including academic departments, the Rabb School of Continuing Studies, Admissions and the Office of the Arts.

“Deborah and Zak have been here for a year and they’ve really taken the lead, taking charge of revamping the look of our publications and making sure everything’s dynamic and fresh and new. And winning an award, to us, it sort of underscores their effort,” said Audrey Griffin-Goode, director of integrated marketing at the Office of Communications. Wieder, who has an MFA in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design, and Kubert, a recent graduate of the Art Institute in Boston, adamantly stated that the awards, though theirs in name, really belong to the Office of Communications as a whole. “I think it’s not really

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRANDEIS OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS

SNEAK PEEK: The above spreads from the Brandeis Admissions viewbook were designed by Deborah Wieder. The book was mailed to prospective students. our award. It’s our office’s award because we collaborate here. … I couldn’t do this without the help of everyone who’s involved,” said Wieder.

Indeed, according to Wieder, Kubert and Griffin-Goode, the Office of Communications’ design projects start out with a brainstorming session to develop a direction for each project to take. With the Admissions viewbook, Wieder says Assistant Vice President of Communications Ken Gornstein came up with the idea of a small, square book as opposed to a larger pamphlet. Out of their brainstorming session also came the idea of including questions throughout the book, beginning with “What are you doing right now?” on the front cover. Says Wieder, “We did want to play off the Web concept a little bit and Facebook. ... And what’s interesting to me is when you have the opportunity to have something evolve into the final piece, these little special moments happen in the book, and I think that’s what’s fun to me about the creative process.”

“The client really has to take a leap of faith and trust us, because these are really different from what they are

used to seeing. … The client was thinking, ‘Well, it’s rather small for a viewbook,’ which is true, and maybe it’d get lost in a table, but over time you get more excited about it, and in the end it’s worked out really well. But I can see where they had those concerns, so again, I think it’s great that they did trust us and kept helping us getting it crafted to where it would work for them,” Wieder said.

Wieder described the Admissions viewbook as more of a strategic piece and Kubert’s collection of publicity materials for the Office of the Arts as “more of an artistic creation, that Zak had this vision and he created this, and the client loved it,” she said.

“When they came to me with that idea [of happenings], I knew that they wanted something that had a lot of energy in the design, and they really wanted to show all that the arts have to offer at Brandeis, so I wanted to balance all of these aspects,” said Kubert.

Discussing the development process for the Festival of the Arts guidebook, Kubert said, “I’ve always liked watercolor. I like how vibrant you can make it; you can make it really subtle. …

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice

ART DECOR: Zak Kubert works while his prize-winning poster sits in his office.

There’s a lot you can do with it, and, plus, it’s transparent.”

“I painted in the office for most of a day, I just painted watercolor in here and then I scanned all of them in. … I was trying to get a nice texture of how they would look on top of each other, because if you take paint and you mix it, you get a different color, but if you digitally take [the paint colors] and mix them, you get a totally different effect,” he said.

Wieder and Kubert, along with the

Office of Communications as a whole, are looking forward to their next 400 projects. Having just finished a project for the Brandeis Theater Company, they’re preparing for their next round of assignments. “We have a whole suite of things we have to do for Admissions, and we’ve been working based on this concept to create a cohesive package for their whole campaign, … and I think, for me, it’s going to be exciting to finish up the whole suite of materials for them,” said Wieder.

FASHION

Blank Label styles students for success ■ The founder of a local fashion label is providing custom suits at prices a college student can afford.

By AMY MELSER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A Brandeis student does not have to wait until he has “made it” in the corporate world in order to purchase a custom, well-fitted and stylish suit.

Blank Label, which was founded in July 2008, hopes to come to campus and display a trunk show of its designs to demonstrate that looking great for an internship, interview or future career can be affordable.

Boston-based Blank Label specializes in corporate customization with compelling designs, differing patterns on the inside and outside of dress shirts and suits and clothing that provides a youthful, affordable approach to dressing for success. “In a marketplace of upwards of 14 million college students, Blank Label positions itself as the trusted resource for the millions annually making the transition from college to corporate, campus to boardroom,” wrote company founder Fan Bi in a June business update for the company.

Bi is a Babson College graduate who was born in China but moved to Sydney, Australia in 2001. In 2006, Bi went to London and gained a diverse fashion perspective. When he returned to Sydney and found there

PHOTO COURTESY OF FAN BI

WELL SUITED: Blank Label’s custom designs are geared towards college-age men. was just too much sunshine for his liking, he decided to relocate to Boston. At Babson, he majored in entrepreneurship with the notion that he would become a banker. However, after completing internships in banking and accounting, he realized that it was just not the best fit for him.

Fashion was always an interest of his, but he never considered making a career out of it until a trip back to

China. He underwent the process of getting fitted, selecting fabrics and then trying on his own custom dress shirts. This process was not unique to Bi; many people in China get custom dress shirts and suits due to cheap labor and bountiful fabric options. The clothing he made was tailored not only to his body but to his personal style. The idea that he was making something that he knew was stylish to him as opposed to buying

something only because it was a designer label gave his clothing an extra-special touch.

Bi shared his experience with his friends and found a business partner, Max Cornell. “Founding a startup with someone is one of the most profound experiences I’ve ever had, and even though Max is no longer with the company, I’ll be forever grateful that I was able to share that experience with him,” said Bi. His friends were not only impressed with his designs; they found it inspiring to look beyond the basic black or blue suit for work attire.

Bi and his team have visited college campuses such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Northeastern University and Babson for fashion and trunk shows. They also have a sales representative, Julian Betancourt, who assists a high volume of clients with personalized attire through fraternities and sororities.

At present, Blank Label is developing a Web platform that will be completed in mid-October of this year that will allow visitors to design their own shirts from the comfort of their rooms by customizing aspects such as fabric and fit. Eventually, Blank Label hopes to have a physical store, but it is selling its products online and through college campuses for now.

In five years Blank Label hopes to see the customization industry grow from shoes to jewelry and more.

Right now, Blank Label is focusing on men’s fashion exclusively, but one day it hopes to make women’s

clothing. At the moment, however, Bi wants to fully establish his product and create a niche. Bi explains we are a consumer generation, and with Blank Label the consumer can pick what he wants. “If we just keep listening to our customers, we’ll have our best chance of making it.”

Youthful consumers interact with Blank Label via Twitter, Facebook and blogging. Blank Label hopes to come to campus and interact directly with Brandeis students so that we can see the products, meet the team and perhaps even be entertained with a fashion show.

College students are bombarded with designer labels. One day Nike is in; the next day it’s all about Under Armour. For suits, many feel like Giorgio Armani or Hugo Boss is the only way to go. However, proper fit is critical to wearing your clothes with confidence. Blank Label ensures that whatever you create will not only fit you well, but will also help you feel stylish, special and unique. “Too long have over-paid designers imposed on consumers what to wear, making us put on shirts with their names on it,” said Bi. “How pretentious is that! Blank Label is about allowing everyone to design their own label: Dan’s Label, Marc’s Label. You get the idea.” And Blank Label reminds us that wearing clothes doesn’t always have to be about either function or fashion: Bi’s company effortlessly marries the two, allowing for a unique, personal experience with the clothes you wear for achievements in the corporate world.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

21

THEATER

TELEVISION

Leon’s ‘Fences’ is laudable

‘Community’ features a cohesive cast

■ The director worked with writer August Wilson before his death in 2005.

■ The new sitcom, which stars television veterans like Joel McHale and Chevy Chase, follows a former lawyer looking to earn a legitimate college degree.

By AARON ARBITER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The sixth play in August Wilson’s epic Pittsburgh Cycle, Fences opened the 2009 to 2010 season at the Huntington Theatre Company, and the acclaimed production hasn’t lost steam since its opening Sept. 11. With discount ticket offers, it’s well worth catching before it closes Oct. 11.

The Pittsburgh Cycle is perhaps one of the greatest American dramatic works. Each of the plays, one for every decade of the 20th century, penetrates the very soul of the African-American experience. They explore, often humorously, race relations, family and our relationship with history. Fences, written in 1983, earned Wilson his second Pulitzer Prize for Drama (his first was awarded for The Piano Lesson).

Set in 1950s, Fences is the story of Troy Maxson (John Beasley), once a great Negro League Baseball player, whose bitterness about the past infects his family and friends. He is a tragic figure, and Beasley’s performance is as grounded as it is rich with grit and heartache. And although Beasley has little in common with the booming presence of James Earl Jones, who won a Tony for his portrayal of Maxson on Broadway, he is just as masterful and is a force to be reckoned with.

The ensemble also includes Crystal Fox as Rose, Troy’s wife of 18 years.

Fox’s performance is as solid as her character’s devotion to her husband and her son Cory, aptly played by Warner Miller. Bill Nunn, Eugene Lee and Brandon J. Dirden complete the cast as Troy’s apparently mentally disabled brother, Gabriel; his best friend, Jim Bono; and his son from a previous marriage Lyons, respectively. Faith Lambert and Hyacinth Tauraic alternate in the role of Raynell. The entire cast is excellent, capturing the humor and sorrow of Wilson’s text. Their artistry makes the intricate rhythms of the period’s dialect sing.

This is not particularly surprising considering that the production’s director is Kenny Leon, who collaborated with Wilson before he died and has directed all of Wilson’s plays.

Leon is also responsible for the 2004 Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, (yes, the one with Sean “Diddy” Combs). He has once again assembled a knockout cast here; if what they say is true and directing is 90 percent casting, then Leon gets an A. Still, not every aspect of the production shone as brightly as the ensemble. Transitions felt clunky, either painfully slow or haphazardly rushed.

Marjorie Kellog’s massive set and Anne Wrightson’s lighting were richly textured and served the play by primarily focusing the action on a surprisingly large stage. Yet both design elements, despite imposing such a large physical presence in the space, did not adequately keep the play’s temporal shifts grounded. Night turns to day, weeks pass, several years go by—and yet this is hardly acknowledged in the set and lighting. It is chiefly through the skill of the actors in this production that we follow the changes in season and their characters’ changes of heart.

Like its older cousin Death of a Salesman, Fences is an incredible domestic drama.

However, Fences seems somehow more heartening, and for all its sorrow, more optimistic. In both plays, a man’s infidelity and bitter relationship with his past threaten to destroy the family he has worked so hard to maintain, but the characters in Fences have a much stronger sense of their own past, and thus their stories carry a much richer historical context and dramatic life. In the end, another generation picks up the torch, racing across boundaries to carry light into the future.

Fences runs through Oct. 11 at the Boston University Theater on the Huntington Theater’s main stage, Monday through Thursday nights at 7:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Matinees take place on select Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Tickets are available online at Huntingtontheatre.org; $15 student rush tickets are also available two hours before curtain at the box office.

By ALEX DESILVA JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY

BEASLEY AT HIS BEST: John Beasley (left), shown here with the equally excellent Crystal Fox, shines in the role of Troy Maxson.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY

SOULFUL SOLDIER: Faith Lambert (left) and Warner Miller as Raynell and Cory Maxson, respectively, appear in ‘Fences.’

I have to admit that before even seeing NBC’s new show Community, I was really hoping for it to be good.

After all, it was created by the people who worked on The Sarah Silverman Program and two of the directors behind Arrested Development, and it stars Joel McHale and Chevy Chase. Needless to say, I was excited.

Still, I knew that in order to write a proper review of the show, I couldn’t let my excitement write this article; I’d have to approach the show with a journalistic attitude. Yet even with this neutral approach, after seeing the show I can say that my expectations were definitely met.

McHale, the human embodiment of snarkiness, is perfect as Jeff Winger, a character who is the fictional embodiment of snarkiness: He’s the kind of person you know you should hate, the kind who believes “You have Asperger’s” is an appropriate comeback. Despite this, McHale adds a certain likeability to Jeff that just makes you root for him.

According to the show, Jeff actually used to be a lawyer but was disbarred after the state bar realized the truth behind his “degree from Columbia” (“And now I have to get one from America,” is Jeff’s response to the situation). This takes him to Greendale Community College, where one of his former clients (John Oliver) is the head of the psychology department. He pretends to be a Spanish tutor to get close to Britta, a 28-year-old high school dropout who wants to get her life back on track.

This plan soon backfires when the study session with Britta turns into a group filled with people looking to Jeff for help. Among those in the “study group” are Pierce (Chevy Chase), a seven-time divorce and moist towelette entrepreneur; Abed (Danny Pudi), a pop culture-obsessed 20-something who wouldn’t seem too out of place at Brandeis; Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown from Drake & Josh, a fact I can’t believe I’m admitting I know), Troy (Donald Glover), a former high school quarterback and prom king; and Annie (Alison Brie), a stressed-out girl who thinks that she should be at a more “distinguished” institution. Jeff eventually takes up the role of semileader, making him, to quote Abed, “like Bill Murray from Stripes or Meatballs.”

Judging by the show’s pilot, it looks like Jeff is going to try to get away from his old ways and attempt to actually work for something instead of lying and cheating, though only time will show us how succesful he’ll be. However, I’m really curious to find out more about the different group members. The first episode gave us a taste of who they are and what they desire, but it left me wanting to know more and gave me a reason to come back next week.

The show is well written and definitely well acted. A small thing that caught my attention is the realism of the chatter that breaks out at times.

Instead of having one-at-a-time dialogue, there is a jumble of people trying to make a certain point or say something, which just feels very realistic. It makes me want to watch the episode over again just to pick up on what everyone said. I hope they keep this small quirk as the series progresses.

Overall, Community has a good ensemble cast that will be interesting to follow. The opener didn’t have too many laugh-out-loud moments, but the characters were always entertaining. Also, knowing the immense talent behind the show, I think this is definitely something to keep an eye on.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

23

FILM

‘September Issue’ in Vogue ■ The film’s portrayal of the

fashion world is both intense and surprisingly poignant.

By JUSTINE ROOT JUSTICE EDITOR

I was hesitant to go see The September Issue when I saw that the documentary wasn’t narrated by Morgan Freeman. How interesting could a movie starring a group of editors, of all things, possibly be without his silky tones adding enticing commentary? Penguins were barely interesting with Freeman’s help, and I don’t even deal with their ilk on a daily basis.

However, since I want to make a life out of journalistic pursuits, I decided it was an important part of my career-related research to see the film and thus get an idea of the blood-sucking, salad-sans-saladdressing-eating people I might be working for one day.

After viewing The September Issue, which details the development of Vogue magazine’s anticipated September 2007 installment under the iron hand of editor in chief Anna Wintour, I came to two conclusions: (a) My working under Wintour would result in the untimely demise of one or both of us at the hands of the other, and (b) The September Issue is as well put-together as one of the fashion models featured in the film.

The film begins with icy-eyed Wintour provoking tremors from hapless editors and being praised as the “most powerful woman in America,” and I came under the impression that I was about to view an hour-anda-half-long film based on a society’s idolization of a fashion editor. However, once the documentary gets past this initial bout of Wintour worship, it offers a surprisingly perceptive and occasionally personal look into the world of fashion and Vogue magazine.

The September Issue’s exploration of a hidden subculture is in part what makes the documentary so fascinating. When the film looks at the prominent figures of the fashion industry—people you and I may not have heard of but who are champions among their peers—and at the intensity with which those in the industry approach fashion, it is an astounding reminder of the communities that exist outside our own and of the idea that many of us will never see or be aware of such subcultures. And this latter idea is especially dumbfounding after viewing The September Issue, as the film depicts an industry that operates at such a high frequency that one is amazed the passion of fashion devotees doesn’t leak into every news medium.

DON POLLARD/The Associated Press

FRIGID FASHION EDITOR: Anna Wintour (far left), the editor in chief of Vogue magazine, is one of the stars of R.J. Cutler’s documentary film ‘The September Issue.’

For it seems as though the employees of Vogue magazine are everywhere, always pursuing the perfect couture gown or the ideal setting for the next photo shoot. Over the course of the film, editors, photographers and an assortment of the magazine’s other staff members visit locales such as Paris and Rome in the name of their craft, and they spend an equal amount of time tearing apart the projects of their coworkers and fellow industry members in a delightfully fickle manner.

One Vogue magazine persona, editor at large André Leon Talley, disparages a Calvin Klein line for being too “clinical,” but praises the work of designer Isabel Toledo later on for featuring the aforementioned quality.

However, the effects of criticism are also surprisingly serious on occasion. For instance, when Wintour cuts several photos from the September issue that were favorites of the magazine’s creative director, Grace Coddington, the effect on the latter is startling; Coddington is initially indignant but then becomes visibly distraught over the loss of her work.

Indeed, many of Coddington’s coworkers display a similar emotional toll when they find their efforts tossed aside. Some of those that appear on camera regularly boast darkly circled eyes and constant anxiety over an upcoming review of their projects by Wintour.

Another serious aspect of the film is Wintour’s and other fashion fa-

natics’ self-consciousness; those who are heroes are aware that they are only heroes in their own world, and it is evident that they, along with others in the industry, feel like outcasts. A scene in which Wintour’s daughter labels the fashion world as excessively strange for her tastes is followed by one in which Wintour disappointedly describes her siblings’ low regard for her chosen profession, and it makes for an expectedly poignant juxtaposition.

However, The September Issue isn’t devoid of brighter tones: A side story involving an up-and-coming designer named Thakoon provides an interesting and joyful look at the development of talent in the fashion industry, and the inclusion of the

documentary’s film crew in a photo shoot makes for a fun, comical demonstration of Coddington’s resourcefulness.

If The September Issue were an article of clothing, it would be draped across the cover of Vogue magazine and labeled as the must-have fixture of the season, a piece well-suited to all those who take the time to seek it out; in fact, the film will prove enjoyable for even those most fashionphobic among us. However, if you’re looking for an extended episode of America’s Next Top Model, look elsewhere; the only aspect of fashion The September Issue does not touch up on are the models that grace Vogue’s pages, except to show how they eat fruit pies while on photo shoots.

MUSIC

Tengo show proves band has “it” factor ■ During its concert at the Wilbur Theatre with the group Yura Yura Teikoku, the band showed why its live shows have garnered such a reputation for excellence.

By BEN SERBY JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Over many years, the veteran indie rockers of Yo La Tengo have earned a collective reputation as a must-see live act. Simultaneously, by releasing an uninterrupted string of highly acclaimed albums for well nigh 20 years, the Hoboken, N.J.based trio has built a loyal fan base and achieved a level of respect from critics and listeners alike that few bands can boast. Drawing on a highly varied repertoire of songs during a performance at the Wilbur Theatre

last Wednesday night, the members of Yo La Tengo demonstrated a remarkable ability to reconstruct their sound in a live setting, thus proving to the (considerably grizzled) audience that their reputation reflects reality.

But before Yo La Tengo took the stage, the opening act, Yura Yura Teikoku, played a rousing set. Clad in form-fitting pants and sporting enormous hairdos, the androgynous three-piece Japanese classic rock outfit clung to its somewhat passé 1970s style to an extent that verged on parody. Regardless of the laughter that such excesses elicited in the audience, the band wowed listeners with excellent guitar playing and catchy songs that followed a familiar structure despite the fact that they were sung in a foreign language.

After a rambling one-hour set, the crowd was ready for the esteemed headliner.

Yo La Tengo exhibited character-

istic breadth in their performance, playing material from earlier albums such as Painful (1993) and I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (1997), as well as the band’s newest release, the allusively retrospective Popular Songs. From the Motown-inflected “If It’s True,” which benefited from the temporary addition of a string section to the ensemble, to the shoegazey buildup “More Stars Than There Are in Heaven,” the range of songs indicated a remarkable versatility. In addition, the contrasts of style, volume and tone were striking: Several times during the concert, multi-instrumentalist Ira Kaplan played a sizzling, distorted onslaught of guitar notes while flailing his lanky body in a spasmodic effort to conjure a chaotic mess of sound. At other moments, such harsh entropy was completely abandoned in favor of a gentler aesthetic, as on “The Weakest Part,” when the virtuosic Kaplan soothed the audience with

piano while his spouse and fellow band member Georgia Hubley sang sweetly in her trademark, featherlight voice.

Several songs saw the various poles of sound and tone—loud and soft, melodic and jarring, smooth and distorted—resolved into a cohesive whole in a sort of musical dialectic.

For instance, on the crowd-pleasing “Stockholm Syndrome,” bassist James McNew sang a bittersweet pop melody over a mellow acoustic guitar and muted drums only to be interrupted midway through by an extremely raucous, off-beat and off-key set of electric guitar shrieks that consciously threatened to rend the neatly ordered song apart. (Indeed, Kaplan played the rest of the song following his solo out of tune, prompting the band to repeat the last verse in a moment befitting a venue that traditionally functions as a comedy club).

Such a synthesis of opposites was

most notably achieved on the aforementioned sprawling ballad, “More Stars Than There Are In Heaven.”

For roughly 15 minutes, the trio harmonized to the lyrics “We’ll walk hand in hand” over an unchanging chord progression in a beautiful repeating sequence, while very gradually the sound grew overwhelmed and distorted, devolving to the point of utter chaos in an ugly catharsis reminiscent of The Velvet Underground and Nico. By the end, the piece resolved its tensions into a coherent whole once again as the threatening high-pitch bouts of feedback subsided, leaving in place an endlessly repeating melody that seemed to stretch on forever. The song itself seemed a fitting metaphor for Yo La Tengo, a band that has always pushed itself, sometimes erratically, in various directions over the course of a quarter-century and yet has managed to remain consistently grounded throughout that time.

24

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

ARIES (March 21 to April 19) An upcoming trip could create some problems with your schedule unless you tie up as many loose ends as possible before you head out the door. Ask a friend or colleague to help you.

TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Being eager to start a new project is fine; however, moving ahead without knowing what actually will be expected of you could cause a problem down the line. Ask some questions.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Getting through some recent challenges in good shape might give you a false sense of security. Don’t relax your guard. You need to be prepared for what else could happen.

CANCER (June 21 to July 22) Caution is still advised even though you think you’re as prepared as you need to be. Keep in mind that change is in your aspect, and you should expect the unexpected.

LEO (July 23 to August 22) The Lion’s gift of persuasion helps you get your points across, even to some of your most negative naysayers.

An old friend might seek you out for some advice.

VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Being sure of your convictions is fine, but leave some room for dissenting opinions. You might learn something that could help you avoid a possible problem later on.

LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Getting good legal advice on what your rights actually are is the first step toward resolving that pesky problem so that it doesn’t re-emerge at a later date. Good luck.

SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) Longtime relationships work well this week, whether they’re personal or professional. It’s ACROSS 1. Muppet master Henson 4. Look-alike 8. Low range 12. Literary collection 13. Head light?

14. Easter flower 15. Redo 17. In due time 18. Uncomplicated 19. Mexican’s ancestor, maybe 20. Squander 22. Exposed 24. Grounded flock 25. Luthor’s enemy 29. Standard 30. Ancient Dead Sea region 31. Carte lead-in 32. Hitchcock classic 34. Vail gear 35. Roddick of tennis 36. Performs, biblically 37. Home of America’s largest urban zoo 40. Drink 41. Trickster god 42. Get amorous 46. Ostentation 47. Garfield’s pal 48. Lubricant 49. Mediocre 50. Poetic foot 51. Today’s “groovy” DOWN 1. Predicament 2. —fix 3. Guarantee 4. More than just that?

5. Undulating 6. — -de-France 7. Clause connector

also a good time to invite new friends and colleagues into your life.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) This is a good week to do the research that will help you uncover those irrefutable facts that can back you up on your new venture when you most need it.

CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) Change is an important factor in your aspect this week and could affect something you might have thought was immune to any sort of adjustment or alteration.

AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Being asked to share someone’s deeply personal confidence might be flattering, but accepting could be unwise. Decline gracefully but firmly.

PISCES (February 19 to March 20) As wise as you are, you could still be misled by someone who seems to be sincere but might not be.

Take more time to assess the situation before making any commitments.

BORN THIS WEEK: You like to face challenges that others might try to avoid, and by so doing, you set an example of courage for all.

BRANDEIS

Through the Lens

Solution to last issue’s crossword.

SHAEFALI SHANDILYA/the Justice

DesiFest Decoration At last Thursday’s South Asian carnival, hosted by the South Asian Students Association, a student applies henna to the hand

Sudoku

8. Sports jacket 9. “— She Sweet?”

10. Plumlike fruit 11. Harmonization 16. Chow 19. Vicinity 20. Cried 21. Asian servant 22. Crony 23. Tarzan’s clique 25. Irrational number 26. Indemnify 27. Settled down 28. One of CSN&Y 30. Hoodoo

33. Exile 34. Ground 36. Uncool sort 37. Let the cat out of the bag 38. Irritate 39. Gumbo need 40. Read cursorily 42. Miss Piggy’s pronoun 43. Oklahoma city 44. Compete 45. Will Ferrell movie

King Crossword Copyright 2007 King Features Synd., Inc.

■ The Campbell’s Soup paintings by Andy Warhol have become iconic, with collectors paying up to $11.7 million to own one. The very first one ever sold, however, cost only $100. That was way back in 1962, and the buyer was actor Dennis Hopper.

known as the Gummi bear, here’s some good news for you: The world’s largest Gummi bear is now on the market, available for about $30. The equivalent of 1,400 regularsize bears, the giant candy weighs five pounds.

■ You probably don’t think much about the fees charged at ATMs, but maybe you should start. That $1 here, $2.50 there really adds up—to more than $4 billion every year in the U.S. alone.

■ It was British novelist Terry Pratchett who made the following sage observation: “Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying ‘End-of-the-World Switch.

PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH,’ the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.”

■ Do you suffer from prosopagnosia? Unless you’ve suffered some kind of injury to your brain, probably not. Also known as face blindness, prosopagnosia is the inability to recognize familiar faces.

■ Wimbledon, played in the United Kingdom and one of the four Grand Slam events, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world.

Every year at the event about 42,000 balls are used.

■ If you’re a fan of the tiny, rubbery candy

■ The Goliath frog of West Africa can reach up to a foot in length and weigh more than seven pounds.

Thought for the Day: “Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?”—Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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 2007 King Features Synd., Inc.

of one of her peers. In addition to being beautified, Brandeisians could also sip mango juice and enoy barbecue at DesiFest.