The Justice, September 27, 2011 issue

ARTS Page 21

FORUM Palestinian statehood 11

CAVE DWELLERS

SPORTS Soccer drops in double OT 16 The Independent Student Newspaper

the

of

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

Justice

Volume LXIV, Number 5

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Waltham, Mass.

crime

FALL 2011 ELECTIONS

Student robbed Tallying procedures likely lead to inaccurate results during AHORA! weekend dance ■ Candidates for the

By HILLEL BUECHLER and aSHER KRELL

Student Judiciary may have been adversely affected by inconsistencies between Union rules and the instant runoff voting system.

JUSTICE EDITORS

Student Union election results appear to incorrectly reflect the actual student vote, a Justice examination of 2010 and 2011 election data has revealed.

The issue stems from a conflict between two major aspects of Union

elections. These two aspects are the Union’s constitutional election procedures and its instant runoff voting system. The result of this conflict is a vote-tallying system that distributes student votes to candidates in a way that is likely inconsistent with voters’ intentions.

■ A student reported that he

felt an object poked into his back as he was robbed near the Levin Ballroom.

See VOTING, 6 ☛

By ALANA ABRAMSON JUSTICE EDITOR

A robbery occurred on campus during the AHORA! Dance in the Levin Ballroom at midnight on Saturday. A student attending the dance was robbed in the restroom, Director of Public Safety Edward Callahan wrote in a campuswide email last Sunday.

Callahan notified the campus community at noon on Sunday after he was aware of the incident, requesting information from students. He wrote in his email that “The victim said an object was pressed against his back and money and other items were taken from his wallet.”

According to the email, the identities of the perpetrators have not been identified.

The name of the student who was robbed has not been released.

Although Callahan did not mention the details of the object that was thrust into the students’ back, the University Police Log states that the student reported that “two males poked an object into his back.”

Callahan wrote in an email to the Justice that he was notified of this event early Sunday morning by his employees in the Department of Public Safety who handled the incident.

“At approximately 2 AM., I received an email from the Night Brandeis Police Lieutenant who indicated the incident was under investigation and possible suspects were being interviewed,” he wrote.

JANEY ZITOMER/the Justice

TAKING THE OATH: Several senators were sworn in as a group by Student Union President Herbie Rosen ’12 on Sunday.

Union announces election winners ■ The senator for the Mods,

senator for Charles River, racial minority senator and seats on the SJ are unfilled.

By ANDREW WINGENS JUSTICE EDITOR

Sixteen senators, one Alumni Association representative, two Brandeis Sustainability Fund representatives, one racial minority representative to the Finance Board and one member of the Student Judiciary were elected in fall elections Thursday, according

to Student Union Secretary Todd Kirkland ’13 in an email to the Justice.

The positions of senator for the Mods, senator for Charles River, racial minority senator and three seats on the SJ remain unfilled.

The largest percentage of voters, as well as the largest number of candidates, turned out for the Class of 2015 senators and first-year residential quad senators.

Sneha Walia and Daniel Novak were elected the next senators for the Class of 2015 with 96 and 68 votes, respectively.

Alexander Thomson ’15 finished two votes short of Novak, placing

third and not winning a senate position. According to the voting data, 42.8 percent of the Class of 2015 voted for this position.

“I’m really excited, and I can’t wait to start working with everybody,” said Walia in an interview with the Justice. “I really want to try to get events and projects done based on community service, things that the student body really cares about.”

Novak also expressed excitement following the announcement.

“I’m excited; I’m ready to do a good job for the Class of 2015,” he said in

GUSTER LIVE The band played one of Brandeis’ most popular fall concerts.

ARTS 20

See RESULTS, 6 ☛

A kidney from kindness

Oliver’s twist

Presidents talk

 An alumnus donated his kidney to the son of his Brandeis roommate.

 Shaun Oliver’s ’97 career took an unexpected turn after working for the New England Revolution.

 Presidents Frederick Lawrence and Uriel Reichman answered student questions.

FEATURES 7 For tips or info e-mail editor@thejustice.org

The dance, according to wherevent.com, was titled, “AHORA!: Blaze Reggaeton vs. Reggae.”

It was sponsored by AHORA!, a Hispanic/Latino awareness group and the Nu Chapter of Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity of Boston University and took place in Levin Ballroom from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Callahan said there was an enhanced security presence at the event.

“It appears that very detailed security was in place for the dance,” said Callahan.

Callahan provided the same response when asked about future security measures on campus.

Gabby Castellanos ’13, the president of AHORA!, said in an interview with the Justice that she only knows that the incident happened in the bathroom, and the student assaulted felt something sharp in his back.

Castellanos noted, however, that the event had metal detectors, which she believes eliminates the possibility that the object was a weapon.

“We had metal detectors, therefore I know it wasn’t a weapon—we had a lot of security,” she said.

Castellanos has not had subsequent contact with the student who was robbed and only knew the incident occurred because she saw a number of police officers and asked a University Police officer what had happened.

Although Callahan wrote that “the events of the night in question are under review,” he emphasized that the overall safety of the campus was not at stake.

“It appeared that there was no imminent threat to the Brandeis Community,” he wrote.

Callahan wrote that the investigation is ongoing.

Let your voice be heard!

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

INDEX

SPORTS 14 ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 8

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

COMMENTARY

11

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

2

TUESDAY, september 27, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS SENATE LOG

POLICE LOG

Senate swears in 19 members, charters Global Medical Brigades

Medical Emergency

At the first Senate meeting following the fall 2011 Student Union elections, 16 new senators, two associate justices and a Finance Board minority representative were sworn in.

The senate also approved Student Union President Herbie Rosen’s ’12 appointments of Joshua Roseman ’12 to the position of director of the Office of Student Rights and Advocacy and Andrea Ortega ’13 and Anthony Nguyen ’14 to be co-directors of Communications. Ortega served in that position last year, and Nguyen also serves as an assistant treasurer.

The Global Medical Brigades organization approached the senate requesting to become a chartered club.

“Global Medical Brigades is a secular, international student-operated volunteer organization whose mission is to provide sustained health care to underserved communities throughout the world. ... Our current emphasis is to help the impoverished villages of Honduras in collaboration with one of their country’s most highly regarded nonprofits, Sociedad Amigos de los Ninos,” according to the club’s constitution.

The senate held a lengthy discussion about the club and asked several questions regarding the club’s funding and purpose.

Some senators suggested that GMB should not be recognized or chartered because it has a duality of purpose, meaning another club on campus may already serve a similar function.

Ultimately, the senate decided to hold two discrete votes. One vote was held for the recognition of GMB and one to charter GMB. Chartered clubs can request financial assistance from F-Board, while recognized clubs cannot. One senator recused herself from the vote because she serves on the executive board of GMB. The senate voted to recognize GMB by a vote of 18 to 1. The senate then voted not to charter the club by a vote of 9 to 6 with four abstentions.

However, a senator then motioned to revote because some senators were unclear as to what they were voting on. The senate voted once again regarding the charter of the club, this time approving the charter by a vote of 13 to 4 with two abstentions.

Senators nominated Senators-at-Large Shekeyla Caldwell ’14 and Evyn Rabinowitz ’12 and Senator for the Class of 2012 Missy Skolnik for the position of executive senator. The three nominated senators will make presentations next week and then the senate will vote for the next executive senator. The executive senator serves as the president pro-tempore of the senate as well as the official liaison between the senate and the executive office of the Union.

Sept. 19—A staff member in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center was taken by ambulance to a local hospital after complaining of stomach pains.

Sept. 20—A student with a mental health issue at the Mailman House was transported by ambulance to a hospital.

Sept. 20—A student suffered a back injury on the athletic fields by the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. BEMCo treated the student, and they refused further aid.

Sept. 21—BEMCo received a report of a student in Deroy Residence Hall with a dislocated shoulder. The student was transported by police cruiser to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Sept. 22—A caller reported an attempted suicide by overdosing on pills in Hassenfeld Residence Hall. An ambulance responded, and the CDC was on-scene.

Sept. 22—A staff member at the Health Center reported a student with a possible bee

sting reaction. The student was transported by ambulance to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Sept. 23—A party in Ridgewood C suffered from a possible adverse affect to muscle spasm medication. BEMCo treated the party on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Sept. 24—An intoxicated party in the Rosenthal Quad was transported by ambulance to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Sept. 24—A student in the Foster Mods reported not feeling well, possibly as a result of low blood sugar. BEMCo treated the party on-scene, with a signed refusal for further care.

Sept. 24—A BEMCo supervisor reported that an ambulance transported an intoxicated male from the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Their CDC was notified.

Sept. 24—A reporting party stated that his friend was vomiting and suffering from a headache at the University’s main entrance. An ambulance

arrived on-scene and transported the party to the NewtonWellesley Hospital. The party’s CDC was notified.

Miscellaneous

Sept. 20—A custodian reported smelling marijuana in the basement of Brown Social Science Center. University Police checked the area but the suspect was gone upon the officer’s arrival.

Sept. 21—A reporting party called University Police complaining of loud music as an on-going problem in Pomerantz Residence Hall. Police checked the area and heard no music playing—the reporting party stated that the music had been turned down prior to the officer’s arrival.

Sept. 23—University Police received a noise complaint in North Quad. Students turned the music down.

Sept. 24—A CDC notified the University Police that occupants of a room in the Village came back to their room

Four people arrested at URI KINGSTOWN, R.I.—Four people were arrested after a University of Rhode Island fraternity party got out of control, with fights erupting when the hosts tried to shut it down.

Eighteen police officers responded early Friday morning to try to bring order to the crowd of about 500.

Two of the four people arrested were URI students.

Three face various charges, including disorderly conduct. Another was charged with possession of a knife longer than 3 inches.

University spokeswoman Linda Acciardo said the fraternity had permission to hold the party and also had the required police presence there.

She said the school has not “had an incident of this magnitude for quite some time.” She called it “very unfortunate.”

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

n The Brandeis Talks Back feature in Forum misspelled the surname of an interviewed student. The student’s name is Sivan Levine ’13, not Sivan Levin. (Sept. 20, pg.

10) The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Email editor@ thejustice.org.

Justice

the

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

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

Sept. 24—A student at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center reported that his Leatherman tool was missing.

Sept. 24—A student in the Usdan Student Center reported that two males poked an object, believed to be a knife, into his back and demanded his wallet.

The robbery occurred inside the men’s bathroom near the Levin Ballroom.

—compiled by Marielle Temkin

Wisconsin senior starts social site

AP BRIEF

n An article in News incorrectly implied that the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department was two separate departments, when it is, in fact, one department.

(Sept. 20, pg. 7)

Larceny

AP BRIEF

—Andrew Wingens

n An article in News incorrectly stated that Prof. Dan Perlman (BIOL) was involved in the research that led to the creation of Smart Balance. In fact, it was Prof. Daniel Perlman (PHYS) who contributed to the research that led to the product. (Sept. 20, pg. 3)

and found that items had been moved around, but nothing was stolen, and the door was locked upon their arrival. An officer was sent to the room. Residents were satisfied with a log entry, and decided they may call for a locksmith to change the lock.

Sept. 24—A University Police officer checked on a car with its lights on at the Brandeis/ Roberts Commuter Rail station. A female party in the car was crying because of “money issues,” but stated she was OK.

JON EDELSTEIN/the Justice

From Russia with food Students enjoy free food at the Russian Barbecue, hosted by the Russian Club on the Great Lawn outside the Shapiro Campus Center last Sunday. The barbecue, which was the club’s opening event of the semester, featured grilled food, salads and desserts as well as music.

DES MOINES, Iowa—A new business designed to help college students track and share social events on and around campus has launched at seven campuses in Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin this year and plans to expand to as many as 300 schools.

Fampus, the creation of Brittany Brody, a University of WisconsinMadison senior, combines campus and community calendars with social networking tools. The name comes from the company's motto: “Find fun fast on campus.” The website service is operational for students there and at a half dozen other campuses including Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of NebraskaLincoln. It is also operational at Grand View University and Drake Univesity, both in Des Moines, and Simpson College in Indianola.

Students can log onto fampus.com for their school by using their email address ending in .edu.

Brody, 22, from Des Moines, said she came up with the idea in 2009 after finding she had little knowledge of what was going on around campus and in the Madison, Wis., community.

The Fampus site allows users to search through featured events localized to each campus and surrounding community.

It has Facebook-like options in which users can follow one another and offer comments and photo streams of events so students who are not able to attend can see what’s happening as an event occurs.

Fampus is privately funded with the help of Brody’s father—Des Moines businessman Brad Brody, owner of Strategic Growth Capital, a commercial real estate development firm.

The company has plans to expand to other campuses either this year or early next year with eventual designs to serve the top 300 campuses in the United States, said Brad Goldman, vice president of operations.

ANNOUNCEMENTS Study Abroad info session

Navigating the off-campus study process and finding the best study program can be challenging. Each of the information sessions is designed to give you an overview of the off-campus study process at Brandeis, including tips for researching programs and destinations, the application process, getting credit for work off campus, financial aid, resources and services our office provides.

Attending a general information session is mandatory for students wishing to study off campus for the semester or academic year.

After students have attended an information session, they may set up an appointment with a member of the study abroad staff.

Today from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Usdan Student Center Alumni Lounge.

Martin Weiner Lecture Series

With traditional science and mathematics teaching, students struggle with fundamental concepts. For example, they cannot reason with graphs and have little feel for physical magnitudes. With such handicaps in intuition and reasoning, students can learn only by rote. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Professor Sanjoy Mahajan will describe these difficulties using mathemati-

cal, physical and engineering examples and discuss how street-fighting mathematics and science—the art of approximation—can improve teaching and thinking, the better to handle the complexity of the world. Today from 4 to 5 in Abelson-Bass-Yalem 131.

Year-in-Service interview preparation

Learn how to interview effectively for Year in Service Programs. Several competitive Year in Service Programs have priority deadlines in the early fall, including Teach For America, City Year, Citizen Schools, Boston Teacher Residency, Student Conservation Association Corps, Teach For China and JET. Don’t miss out on this chance to make sure your interview skills are top notch. This session will be hosted by Director of the Hiatt Career Center Joe Du Pont, who served as the vice president of career services for 5 years at Teach For America.

Today from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Hiatt Career Center.

General Tutoring training night

General Tutoring will be introducing new tutors to our program and will be welcoming back returning volunteers. This event includes tutoring protocol, frequently encoun-

tered situations in tutoring, advice, tips and suggestions. Come for food, fun and friends.

Today from 7 to 8 p.m. in the South Campus Commons.

Natick Day Away

Get off campus for an afternoon to shop and dine at New England’s largest mall.

There’s everything from Nordstrom to The Cheesecake Factory. Sign up in the Department of Student Activities. A $5 refundable deposit is required. Buses will leave from the Theater Lot. Thursday from noon to 4:30 p.m. at the Theater Lot.

Year Abroad, Queer Abroad

This event features a panel of Brandeis students who have studied abroad in various countries. Each student speaks about some of their experiences studying abroad, and the panel ends with a Q&A session. The goal of this event is to give potential Study Abroad students an idea of the kinds of experiences queer- and ally-identified students have had while studying abroad in prior years. These experiences can range between academically-related, social life-related, and activism-related. Monday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Abraham Shapiro Academic Complex.

THE JUSTICE

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Bello describes health programs ■ Dr. Bello spoke about

the need to develop San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua and ideas already implemented.

By tate herbert JUSTICE contributing WRITER

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

STREAMING LIVE: The event, which featured a Brandeis student panel and two IDC students via webcam, was streamed live.

Lawrence and Reichman discuss higher education ■ The presidents both

emphasized interdisciplinary education, creativity and independent thinking.

By ALLYSON CARTTER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

JON EDELSTEIN/the Justice

PRESIDENTIAL PANEL: Lawrence and Reichman took questions from students.

Lawrence said.

Reichman said that because Israeli students serve for 3 years in the army before attending university, undergraduate degrees are typically more professional. Like Lawrence, Reichman emphasized the importance of creativity and independent thinking, saying that a goal of the IDC is “inching people to think rather than provid[ing] information.”

The IDC also has a strong focus on political, social and business leadership, he said.

In response to a question from Rosen asking how the presidents would change their respective institutions to “better fit the current times” and competitive job market, Reichman stressed the importance of intensive, individualized and “transdisciplinary” education with a global focus.

Lawrence spoke about embracing the growing role of technology in the education process and about challenging the “false dichotomy between theoretical and practical” by incorporating more experiential learning into curricula.

Chum posed a question about the impact of student media platforms on campus life. In his response, Lawrence said that student media can both help communicate with and challenge the administration. As a “portal out to the entire world,” publications can now instantly disseminate information worldwide, he said, and this position brings with it both more opportunities and more responsibilities.

The IDC has two daily student publications, one in English and one in Hebrew, Reichman said. He said that it is important for student publications to understand “that they will have an impact on the future.”

In response to a question from Baruch about Brandeis’ views on Judaism and Israeli nationality, Lawrence asked whether she wanted the “2-minute” version or the “2-hour” version.

He continued by discussing how

3

campus speaker

INTERACTING ONLINE

Last Thursday, University President Frederick Lawrence and President of the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel Uriel Reichman answered questions from Brandeis and IDC students concerning higher education, student life on campus and approaching cultural differences in an academic setting.

The event, titled “Interview with the Presidents,” was held in the Multipurpose Room in the Shapiro Campus Center and was broadcasted live on the WBRS radio station and on its website. Two students from the IDC, Maggie Baruch and graduate Yona Lador, were present via video chat projected onto a screen. The show was later broadcasted on the IDC radio station, Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams said in an interview with the Justice.

The IDC is located in Herzliya, Israel and was founded by Reichman in 1994. According to its mission statement on the IDC website, the goals of the university are to “cultivate freedom of thought, research, and self-realization” and to “imbue its students with a broad cultural background and a vision that has international horizons.”

Lawrence visited the IDC during his trip to Israel in June. This event, Moderator Michael Perloff ’12 said in his introduction, was a collaborative effort between the IDC and Brandeis and “represents the first move toward a partnership between” the two schools.

The Brandeis student panel was comprised of Perloff, co-moderator Jesse Manning ’13, Student Union President Herbie Rosen ’12, Alex Chum ’12, and Supreetha Gubbala ’12. Each of the panelists was chosen because of their extra- and co-curricular involvement.

Lawrence and Reichman began the event by donning complimentary WBRS shirts over their formal attire. Manning began by asking what the presidents believed the role of a college education to be in the job search process, particularly an undergraduate degree in a job market that often requires further qualifications.

Lawrence responded by emphasizing the importance of an interdisciplinary education, referencing to the tendency of Brandeis students to take classes outside of the field in which they plan to major. It is important for education to focus on communication, analysis and critical thinking skills, he said, so that students can turn “information into knowledge and hopefully turn that knowledge into wisdom.”

“We’re not training you just for your first job, but we’re training you for your third and your fifth job,”

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Brandeis’ Jewish roots have influenced the school’s values and by emphasizing the University’s strong Israel, Middle East and Judaic studies programs, which are designed “not in a way that is narrow and sectarian but in a way that is broad and open to all.”

Reichman spoke of Judaism’s universal message, which promotes “working for the same ideas [of] justice for all” and offers a “vision or a practical answer” for a peaceful world, he said.

Gubbala asked the presidents about approaching culturally sensitive topics and “cross[ing] cultural boundaries safely” in academic settings.

Lawrence said that it is important to “engage in hard, difficult topics” while maintaining ground rules of civility and respect. He emphasized challenging others’ views rather than delegitimizing them, which is “antithetical to what [an] academic community is about.”

Reichman said that in order to “see that other [opposing] party is a human being like you,” it is essential to reach out and initiate a dialogue. If politicians had this approach, Reichman said, “maybe we would live in a different world.”

Ilanna Nivasch ’13, who attended the event, said in an interview with the Justice that the program and its unique format were “really exciting.”

“I think it’s great that we were able to … have this collaboration with [the IDC],” she said.

Adams, the associate dean of student life who assisted in coordinating the event, said in an interview with the Justice that it was “incredible” to “experience the bridge that was built” between the IDC and Brandeis. The relationship between the two schools will continue with further radio talk-show and music exchanges, he said.

“Both the Brandeis family and the IDC family were extended on that day,” said Adams.

Dr. Rosa Elena Bello, a distinguished visiting practitioner with the The International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life spoke last Wednesday in Rapaporte Treasure Hall on her experiences promoting “lifelong empowerment for men and women” through improved health and education services in the community of San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.

Bello’s weeklong residency at Brandeis apexed in this keynote address titled “Village by Village, Barrio por Barrio: Integrated Development in Nicaragua.” Ready and Margaret Morganroth Gullette, a scholar in the Women’s Studies Research Center, hosted the residency.

Bello conducted the entire event in Spanish with the aid of translator David Gullette, Gullette’s husband.

She began by describing San Juan del Sur, a village on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua whose tourism industry has grown significantly in recent years. This growth has created some jobs, said Bello, but it has also contributed to social problems. For example, high-end resorts still exist side-by-side with what she called “typical rural dwellings” with dirt floors and tin roofs.

Community Medical Services, founded by Bello in San Juan del Sur in 1990, was her response to the need of many poor families for basic health care.

Bello described the Services’ methods of health education and preventive health, particularly for women. However, Bello said, it was soon discovered that the Medical Services’ efforts were being obstructed by widespread illiteracy—60 percent among women.

Bello went on to detail the highly successful literacy and education programs that she played a key role in implementing in San Juan del Sur and over 30 surrounding villages.

Literacy for Women, Bello’s pilot educational program for all ages, graduated 242 students with the equivalent of a sixth-grade education within 3 years. In response to a demand for higher education, Bello helped to found the High School for Adults, a public high school which now instructs over 600 students from the greater San Juan del Sur

area in a wide range of subjects, including accounting, chemistry, history, folklore, English and ecotourism. It is certified by Nicaragua’s National Ministry of Education.

The last organization of which Bello gave an account of was Solidarity House, a center that was opened last year to provide shelter, counseling and, in some cases, education to victims of domestic violence. It is intended to be “a safe place to be” for women and children while the authorities handle their cases, said Bello.

Many of the residents of Solidarity House are teenagers as young as 13. According to Bello, this is because of the prevalence of “adolescents … being sexually exploited by their families and by people in their community.” This practice has become relatively common, said Bello, in part because the tourism boom created a demand for sexual exploitation and made it profitable.

After the lecture, Bello took questions from the audience. In response to a question concerning students’ role in activism, Bello invited students to become “world citizens.”

“When you go out and volunteer in a poor country, you’re also doing yourself a favor. There’s a great deal to be learned and to be gained in terms of your own growth,” she said.

Marci McPhee, associate director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life, said in an interview with the Justice that she thought the week of events with Bello “had enormous value because of [Bello’s] career path and because of what she’s been able to accomplish as an indigenous woman.”

“She has done it by her bootstraps, certainly not without help from lots of people, but she’s put San Juan del Sur and Nicaragua on a level of this concept of integrated development that makes it a model for Nicaragua and for many nations in Latin America to address a variety of social problems in an integrated way,” added McPhee.

The event was also sponsored by AHORA!, the Brandeis Labor Coalition, the English Language Learning Initiative, Girl Effect, the Heller Career Development Center, the Heller Gender Working Group, the Heller School, the Hiatt Career Center, Hispanic Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, Positive Foundations, the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, the Vagina Club, the Women’s Studies Research Center and the Ethics Center.

—Allyson Cartter contributed reporting.

Subscribe to the Justice!

Order subscriptions at go.thejustice.org/subscribe Only $35 per semester or $55 per year.

For more information, contact Nashrah Rahman at managing@thejustice.org.

Waltham Group Blood Drive Where: Sherman Function Hall When: Tuesday, Oct. 4 to Thursday, Oct. 6 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

To sign up to donate: Sept. 27, 28 and Oct. 3 Usdan Student Center: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sherman Dining Hall: 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Or sign up online: www.redcrossblood.org (sponsor code 965) When you donate: • Bring your ID • Don’t forget to drink lots of water and eat iron-rich foods • Not interested in donating but want to help out? Let us know

and you can volunteer!

Questions? Contact Jess at jessf13@brandeis.edu.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, september 27, 2011

5

STUDENT LIFE

POLITICAL DIALOGUE

Students celebrate renovations to the Beit Midrash

■ The renovations to the Beit Midrash, or House of Jewish Study, are aimed at encouraging more student use.

By SARA DEJENE JUSTICE editor

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

INITIATING DISCUSSION: Students, professors and staff converse about issues in the Middle East at the “Talk Israel Initiative,” which was sponsored by Hillel.

Hillel pitches tent for discussion ■ Hillel at Brandeis was

one of 20 across the nation participating in talks to foster peaceful dialogue.

By SARA DEJENE JUSTICE EDITOR

Last Wednesday, Hillel at Brandeis sponsored the “Talk Israel Initiative” on the Great Lawn, an event aimed at encouraging discussion about the Middle East among university students.

Hillel at Brandeis was one of 20 Hillel organizations across the country participating in the event.

Most of the discussions were held in tents provided by Hillel’s Center for Israel Engagement, which also supplied AV equipment and resources for each tent discussion.

According to Hillel’s website, the tents offer areas where “students can converse in an atmosphere governed by the rules of civil dialogue and the universi-

ty’s code of conduct.”

In an interview with the Justice, Hillel at Brandeis Executive Director Larry Sternberg said that the purpose of the event was to provide an area students could enter, hold discussions and ask various questions about the Middle East. In addition, Sternberg mentioned the additional media outlets provided for the conversations.

“There were videos available for people. There was an opportunity for people to go on Facebook, and we were hooking up also to Brandeis TV so if they wanted to find out what was going on at the U.N.,” said Sternberg. “But in fact, people were much more interested in talking to one another, which was exactly what the purpose of the event was.”

Sternberg also said that the conversations had several aspects that spanned a wide range of topics and was inclusive. “We had Israeli students come into the tent.

We had American students, Canadian students. We had students

from all over, over the course of the day. It was informal. It was non-threatening and it was exactly what we hoped to achieve,” said Sternberg.

The discussions also featured Prof. Ilan Troen (NEJS) and Visiting Professor from Hebrew University Uri Bialer, who specializes in political science an international relations.

“They had a chance to sit down with students who just had questions to ask, and any question was fair game,” said Sternberg. “They don’t always agree about things, but they give different perspectives from their different disciplinary points of view.”

Sternberg said both professors expressed interest in participating in similar discussions in the future. According to Sternberg, Prof. Shai Feldman (POL) said he would also like to act as a resource during these conversations. Feldman was unavailable to attend the event because of a previous commitment to hosting a colleague from Saudi Arabia, said Stern-

berg.

The talk fell 2 weeks after a forum with Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute David Makovsky, who noted a need for peaceful dialogue. “[Makovsky] pointed out that too often on campus, we’re engaged in finger pointing and blaming and we don’t get around to constructive engagement,” said Sternberg.

Sternberg said he was pleased with the tent discussion and that he looked forward to having more in the future.

“We don’t really need tents to have conversations, so now having established the modality of being able to engage in open conversations, I look forward to being able to do more of them,” he said.

According to Hillel’s website, there are plans to repeat the initiative during the spring semester.

—Andrew Wingens contributed reporting.

STUDENT LIFE

Activists walk to aid the environment ■ Brandeis students and

faculty joined the Waltham community for Moving Planet last Saturday.

By ERICA COOPERBERG JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

This past Saturday, Brandeis students joined Bentley University students and members of the Waltham community for Moving Planet, an international day to put demands for climate action into motion and encourage the world to move beyond fossil fuels, according to the Moving Planet website.

For Brandeis students, the day included a meet-up in Waltham with speakers and music, followed by a bike ride or commuter rail trip into Boston to join a larger, more cohesive rally, all in the effort to move the planet toward a clean energy future.

Moving Planet drew participa-

tion from several members of the Brandeis community, including undergraduates, graduate students and professors, who contributed everything from designing posters to giving speeches.

It was powerful to “come together and hear each other’s stories, share experiences, and bond with other people who feel the same way as you [in terms of environmental issue],” wrote Lisa Purdy ’14, a member of Brandeis’ Moving Planet planning committee, in an email to the Justice.

The event was intended to highlight four main demands that revolve around the idea of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to below 350 parts per million, or the “safe upper limit” of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, according the Moving Planet website.

As described on the website, the demands outline the creation of science-based policies to get the world back to 350 ppm, a transition to cutting carbon emission

to zero and lifting the rights of people and nature over the rights of polluters.”

Prof. Eric Olson (Heller), who was both an organizer and participant of the event, described the uniqueness of Moving Planet in an email to the Justice.

“I have been part of three climate rallies of this sort in recent years, and this one had a very clever feature: in addition to gatherings in the individual towns around Boston, participants were encouraged to converge in downtown Boston later in the day to join a central rally,” he wrote.

Moving Planet provided an opportunity for involvement for all levels of environmental supporters. Sarah Schneider ’13 said that the event simply piqued her interest.

“I think this is a really great concept to show my support,” she said in an interview with the Justice. “I think it’s really cool that people are coming from all over Boston to show their support.”

Ryan Nicoll ’14 had a more fixed agenda, hoping to remind people about the importance of natural transportation.

“I think we’ve lost touch with moving as a means for transportation. I think we [forget] that our bodies are meant to take up places,” he said in an interview with the Justice.

Participants were given suggestions of modes of transportation to get into Boston, either by commuter rail or by bicycle, and Purdy wrote that she was happy with the amount of people who chose to pedal their way into the city.

“I was extremely pleased when 9 people rode all 15 miles into Boston that day, one of whom was a Waltham resident who had heard about the event,” she wrote.

Schneider summed up the general feeling of the event.

“It’s important to show that there are lots of people who think it’s important to move forward [and take environmental action],” she said.

The Brandeis Orthodox Organization hosted a celebratory event last Thursday in the Beit Midrash, located in the basement of Shapiro Residence Hall, to showcase renovations completed over the summer.

The Beit Midrash is an area for Judaic study, specializing in the practice of havruta, or learning in pairs, according to the Brandeis Beit Midrash Research Project’s website.

These renovations, according to Beit Midrash Coordinator Yael Marks ’14 in an interview with the Justice, will attract more students to the Beit Midrash to study Judaism, Jewish life and the Torah.

According to BOO President Daniel Kasdan ’13, the tables and chairs were replaced, in addition to the flooring, which is no longer carpet.

Kasdan said this will make cleaning and maintaining the area easier.

In addition, Kasdan said the walls were painted over and the bookshelves were replaced with shelves similar to the ones used in the library, making them sturdier than before.

Kasdan said that the changes will improve the atmosphere of the Beit Midrash and make it more inviting than it had been in the past.

“I guess you could call the Beit Midrash dilapidated last year,” said Kasdan. “The shelves were falling over. The tables were in a mess. The chairs—when they were existent— were dirty and disgusting. The floor had stains all over it. The lighting was not working. The paint on the walls was cracked. It was a total mess, but thanks to these renovations, [the Beit Midrash] is looking a lot better right now.”

According to Marks, the idea to renovate the Beit Midrash originated from previous BOO President Jacob Agi ’12.

However, according to Kasdan, Agi’s term had ended before any action was taken, so he and Marks continued Agi’s initiative.

Kasdan approached Executive Director of Hillel at Brandeis Larry Sternberg in this spring about renovating the Beit Midrash, according to Sternberg.

Sternberg said he then contacted Senior Vice President of Administration Mark Collins to examine the Beit Midrash, leading to a plan to begin renovations in early summer.

The renovations took place over the summer so that the Beit Midrash would be ready for students’ return in the fall, said Sternberg.

Sternberg, Marks and Kasdan each praised the renovations and said that the updates would encourage more attendance and use of the Beit Midrash.

“The University [has] done a great job in making sure Brandeis’ Beit Midrash is open, bright and accessible to everybody,” said Sternberg, who also noted BOO members’ contribution, preparing the area for both renovation and the return of students in the fall.

“I think by giving the BOO community a more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing place to study, it promotes an atmosphere of studying Torah,” said Kasdan.

“It promotes an atmosphere of wanting to come in there and just sit for a while,” he continued. “Because of the way it had been before, people had been turned off by the physical deficiencies of the room, but now it’s much more pleasant to be in there.”

—Andrew Wingens contributed reporting.

6

TUESDAY, september 27, 2011

●

THE JUSTICE

FALL 2011 ELECTIONS

VOTING: Expert sees system flaw CONTINUED FROM 1 The ensuing problem is particularly significant in multi-position elections, such as those for seats in the Student Judiciary.

It is highly plausible that two additional candidates for the judiciary in last Thursday’s election— John Fonte ’12 and Claire Sinai ’15—would have been declared winners had the instant runoff system operated true to its original intent.

Fonte and Sinai received the most votes in the initial round of voting, and Gali Gordon ’15, the candidate who won the judiciary seat, came in third.

According to article IX of the Union constitution, “If abstain receives the greatest number of votes during a final election, than [sic] there will be a vacancy in the office until the next election.”

The apparent problem arises because candidates who receive the most votes in initial voting calculations may be systematically prevented from defeating “abstain” in a given election. This is due to the fact that Union’s rules concerning the “abstain” option are not accounted for in the calculations of the Union’s instant runoff system.

In a phone interview with the Justice, Gregory Dennis, a board member of Citizens for Voter Choice, a Massachusetts organization that promotes instant runoff voting and proportional representation, who was briefed on the election data for the latest judiciary election, said “The tally, the tabulation, was right, but the interpretation was wrong.”

“There were four candidates in this race that won. Three of them were people, and the fourth was ‘abstain,’” said Dennis, who holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in computer science and has been involved with voting technology processes. In 2010, Dennis consulted with Sahar Massachi ’11 MA ’12 in order to advise the Constitutional Review Committee, which at the time was considering the implementation of the voting system currently in use.

The Union began conducting instant runoff elections last fall, in line with a constitutional amendment approved by the student body in spring 2010.

In instant runoff elections, voters rank their choices for a given position. For instance, in last Thursday’s election to fill the four available seats on the Judiciary, students were presented with nine candidates and asked to rank them in an order that reflected their preferences.

After the polls close, the system calculates a threshold for victory—the number of votes required for a given candidate to win. This threshold is calculated by taking the number of voters in that election—excluding voters who chose “abstain”—and dividing that figure by the sum of one plus of the number of open positions in the election.

Then the system starts calculating the winners.

First, the system declares any candidates whose votes meet or exceed the threshold as winners. For the judiciary election, those candidates were Fonte and Sinai.

Next, the system reallocates winners’ excess votes in a trickle-down process.

To do this, the system subtracts all votes beyond the threshold from the first position candidate and distributes them proportionately among the second-choice candidates of that winner’s voters. From then on, the system considers these winners as removed from the process and prevents them from receiving any further votes from redistribution. For the judiciary election, this meant that Fonte’s surplus votes were distributed proportionately according to his voter’s second choices. Fonte was then prevented from benefiting from further vote distribution.

This process continues until the system finishes distributing

the surplus votes of all candidates whose votes met or exceeded the threshold. For the judiciary vote, because there were only two candidates who met the standard, this meant that Sinai’s surplus votes were then distributed by the same process as Fonte’s. Sinai was then prevented from benefiting from further vote distribution, and that part of the process was complete.

The system also reallocates the votes of candidates with the fewest votes in a trickle-up process.

One by one, the system works its way up from the bottom starting with candidates who received the fewest number of votes, eliminates them and distributes their votes proportionately among the secondchoice candidates of their voters.

The system completes this process once there are no more candidates that could receive further votes.

For the judiciary election, the system completed the process once the vote count of Gordon exceeded the threshold, making him a winner.

Gordon, however, was in third place after the initial tally, which incidentally allowed him—unlike Fonte and Sinai—to acquire a number of votes greater than that received by “abstain.” Because the system had excluded Fonte and Sinai from receiving any further votes—having already considered them winners—their initial leads in the vote count actually worked against them, preventing them from acquiring the votes necessary to beat “abstain” and win.

In an interview with the Justice, Union President Herbie Rosen ’12 said, “Honestly, this is something our union came to inherit. And it’s things like this that get brought to our attention that we will move to correct and fix. Sorry for the confusion and inconvenience, but you can expect better from us in the future when we come up with as a solution.”

In a phone interview with the Justice, Fonte, a candidate for the judiciary who may have been affected by these election issues, stated that, although he was unwilling to discredit the Union’s results, “If the results are false, then to be honest that’s more of a problem on the Union’s part. … I would still run again. According to the numbers I saw, ... I had a good running chance.”

Sinai, another candidate for the judiciary who may have been affected by these issues, said in phone interview with the Justice, “I think that’s a huge error for Brandeis, and it’s sort of an embarrassment almost. ... I don’t want to be mean. … I think it’s a little unprofessional for this to have happened, and I really put a lot of effort into it, so I feel … it is upsetting.”

In a phone interview with the Justice, Rob Richie, executive director of Fair Vote, a national organization focused on election reform, who was briefed on the election data for the latest judiciary election said, “[The result of last week’s judiciary election] sounds like that was a misinterpretation of the rules, because these other candidates weren’t even in the position to get votes anymore, … so it sounds like someone misprogrammed the system.” In 2010, Richie consulted with Massachi in order to advise the Constitutional Review Committee.

Concerning the way votes were tabulated for the judiciary positions, Richie said, “That’s nutty.

That doesn’t make any sense to then say that they lost, because they weren’t able to win.”

Regarding the victory of “abstain” over several candidates in the judiciary election, Dennis, an expert on election processes said, “Just over 20 percent of [voters] didn’t want anyone [to be elected]. ...

I don’t think those 20 percent of people should get basically 75 percent of the say, which was the result.”

—Andrew Wingens and Emily Kraus contributed reporting.

JOSHUA LINTON/the Justice

NEW JUSTICE: Gali Gordon '15 was sworn in as an associate justice of the Student Judiciary on Sunday at the Senate meeting.

RESULTS: Sixteen senators were sworn after their election CONTINUED FROM 1

an interview with the Justice.

“I really want to do a lot of events with the Class of 2015, Novak continued. "I want to work on meal hours and hours of transportation to Waltham, things like that.”

“I promise the class of 2015 that I will not let you guys down and we will have an amazing first year.

Thank you and once again I want to hear about all the requests and concerns that any of you may have,” wrote Novak on Facebook.

Dean Kaplan ’15 was elected senator for Massell Quad with 92 votes, finishing 22 votes ahead of secondplace candidate Bradley Burns ’15.

Nearly 34 percent of those residing in Massell Quad voted for this position.

“I’m excited to represent my fellow classmates that live in Massell. … I’ve heard from some people that there is a lack of flowers in the pond area, so I want to try to add some flowers to the area,” said Kaplan in an interview with the Justice.

Winning with 61 votes in North Quad was Charlotte Franco ’15, making her the next North Quad senator.

Nearly 37 percent of that quad’s residents voted for their quad senator.

“I plan on hosting various community service events for the quad, and I also plan on hosting one school-wide event. Some possible ideas [for] the school-wide event would be a movie night or barbecue,” said Franco in an interview with the Justice.

The Class of 2013, on the other hand, recorded only a 13.6 percent voting rate with Theodore Choi and Sarah G. Kim winning 70 and 68 votes, respectively. Abstain garnered 28 votes in this contest.

Choi, who wants the library open 24 hours a day, as well as extended dining hall hours, said in an interview with the Justice, “I’m feeling good, obviously. It’s definitely an honor to be chosen to represent any group of students.”

Kim said in an interview with the Justice, “I just want to make sure that people who are too shy or too nervous to speak out their concerns … can come to me and voice their

opinions, I will make sure that [the] Student Union hears what they have to say.”

Melissa Donze was chosen by 126 members of Class of 2012 to represent them as the senator for that class. The voter participation for that class was about 13 percent, similar to that of the Class of 2013.

“I am really excited for this year.

It’s the start of a new administration, basically, here at Brandeis, and I’m really excited to be a part of that and to work with the administration to make our senior year the best year that it can be,” said Donze in an interview with the Justice.

Kelsey Dean ’14 won the position of Castle senator with 26 votes, pulling ahead of former Village senator Nathan Israel ’14 who received 11

☛ For additional news analysis

on participation rates and the new "skip" option, visit go.thejustice.org/participation votes.

“Now that I’ve been elected, I plan to start following through on all those goals such as fixing the piano in Schwartz, trying to take care of the bug problem and start planning social events like a scavenger hunt or haunted house for Halloween,” wrote Dean in an email to the Justice.

Jeremy Goodman ’14, who ran unopposed, won 74 votes and will be the next senator for East Quad. Twenty voters abstained and one added Stephen Colbert as a write-in.

Jacklyn Gil ’14 was elected Rosenthal Quad senator with 52 votes.

Former Off-Campus Senator Evyn Rabinowitz ’12, who also ran unopposed, was elected senator-at-large with 525 votes.

Rachel Goutman ’12 was elected off-campus senator with 52 votes.

About 7 percent of off-campus students voted for this position.

Boris Osipov ’13 and Sol Kim ’12 won the positions of Ridgewood senator and Ziv senator, respectively.

About 16 percent of eligible students voted in each of those elec-

tions.

Benjamin Beutel ’12 was elected Village senator with 33 votes, beating runner-up Andre Tran by three votes. About 31 percent of eligible students voted in this election.

“My first order of business will be trying to get a better supply of towels and other cleaning supplies to the Village Gym, followed by trying to procure free weights to the Village Gym,” said Beutel in an interview with the Justice.

James Polite was elected Transitional Year Program Senator with 10 votes.

Although nine candidates ran for a position on the Judiciary, only Gali Gordon ’15 was elected to a position. Gordon won after several counts of the ballot, due to the runoff system in place.

Under this system, students rank candidates in order of preference, and if no candidate wins a majority of votes after the first count, students whose first-choice candidate received the fewest votes have their second-place choice counted instead.

Voting counts continue in this fashion until a majority winner is obtained, and if abstain receives the greatest number of votes during a final election, there is no winner.

Abstain won 146 votes for the Judiciary, and Gordon finished with 150 votes.

Lisa Purdy ’14 and Rohan Bhatia ’14 were both elected as Brandeis Sustainability Fund representatives.

Jenny Lau ’14 was elected representative to the Alumni Association.

Paul Lee ’13 won the racial minority seat on the F-Board.

Abstain claimed victory in the elections for Mods senator, Charles River senator, racial minority senator and three positions on the Judiciary.

“If abstain receives the most votes in the final round, then that position in question remains vacant. We will soon be announcing the election date for the vacant positions,” wrote Kirkland in an email to the Justice.

—Sara Dejene, Emily Kraus, Sam Mintz and Ryan Yuffe contributed reporting.

just

features

THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, september 27, 2011

VERBATIM | JOSEPH ADDISON Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1908, the first Ford Model T automobile was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit.

A person uses approximately 57 sheets of toilet paper each day.

Joe Altman ’85 donated his kidney to the son of his Brandeis roommate

By CLAIRE GOHOREL JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

PHOTO COURTESY OF SUSANNAH ALTMAN

OLD FRIENDS: Greg Newman ’85 (third from left) and Joe Altman ’85 (bottom right) celebrate their college graduation together.

An act of altruism

PHOTO COURTESY OF SUSANNAH ALTMAN

SAVING A LIFE: Carlos Newman and Joe Altman ’85 spent time together in August just a few days prior to their kidney transplant.

7

Brandeis is a place to nurture intellect and encourage debate. It is a small place where people from all over the world collide. These seemingly serendipitous encounters may have an enduring impact on your life, whether professional or personal. Perhaps the girl in your art class will one day be your wife. Or maybe your roommate might one day save your son’s life.

Greg Newman’s ’85 and Joe Altman’s ’85 friendship started before Brandeis and blossomed throughout college. Newman and Altman have known each other since they were freshmen in high school.

“We both grew up in the same borough, [and] we both rooted for the same baseball team,” Newman said. The friends left Queens, N.Y. for Waltham, where they roomed together for 2 years at the University.

Here, the two men both met the women whom they eventually married. Newman and Susan Hart ’85 recently celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary. In art class, Altman met Susannah Cohen ’86, who later became Susannah Altman.

Though their time together at Brandeis ultimately came to a close, Newman and Altman continued their friendship throughout the years.

“After we graduated, we still got together—‘the Brandeis crowd,’— as we called it,” Altman said. “We remained good friends, sharing the different phases of life,” he described.

The attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 were an impetus for change for Newman’s and his wife’s lives.

“9/11 was the trigger for me; everyone rethought their lives [at that time]. We discussed adopting, and 9/11 convinced me to do it,” Newman said.

In 2002, the couple adopted a baby boy from Guatemala named Carlos. Today, Carlos is a gregarious 12-year-old.

“We used to call him the mayor [because] he is a big people person.

We go places, and people always know his name,” Hart explained.

Despite his happy, outgoing nature, Carlos was plagued with health complications from a very young age. He suffered from itchy skin, sleepless nights and high urine output.

Between late January and early February 2011, Carlos’ health became a serious concern.

“He was exhausted, out of breath [and] he would fall asleep in school. … We took him to the pediatrician. ... They thought it was the stomach flu,” Hart said.

On April 4, Carlos, then 11 years old, was rushed to the pediatric emergency room. After a blood test, he was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease, also known as chronic kidney failure.

“He had a number of the symptoms of kidney problems over the years, but none of his pediatricians ever connected the dots,” Hart said.

By the time Carlos was finally diagnosed, it was clear that he would need a kidney transplant. “[The doctors] thought he might not make it through that day,” Hart added.

Carlos’ parents set out on an immediate mission to find a kidney donor. His mother, Susan Hart, who was tested first to determine whether or not she was a match, initially appeared to be viable donor.

Her kidneys, however, are lowfunctioning and do not filter blood efficiently enough to be transplanted.

The couple began to reach out to friends, family and even to strang-

ers to find a kidney for their son.

The first person to put his name on the potential donor list was none other than Newman’s college roommate, Joe. “It just hit me that I thought that I would be [Carlos’] donor. Something felt that way for me. I knew that I was blood type O, that I was a universal donor,” recalled Altman.

His wife, Susannah, had a similar feeling; “Just knowing who [Joe] is as a person, I knew he would do it.”

While organ donation naturally poses a certain degree of risk for the donor, Altman’s decision also had the potential to alter his wife’s life as well. Susannah has lupus, an autoimmune disorder that affects the kidneys, among other organs. “[Joe’s] first concern was that if I had a kidney problem, he couldn’t give it to me. We made sure that I would be covered in the worst scenario. My sister had her blood tested, and she was a match,” Susannah said.

Though the Altmans had their minds made up, the process was also stressful for Carlos’ parents, who recognized the gravity of the situation.

“It is not easy to ask people to donate a part of themselves, to put themselves at risk to help someone else. We knew we were asking people to make a huge sacrifice for us,” Newman’s wife wrote on a blog at the time.

Despite a strong desire to help his son, Newman had concerns for his longtime friend. “I was worried about Joe’s physical condition in the hospital, for his wife and his kids,” he said.

But for Altman, donating his kidney to save Carlos’ life felt like the only option. “There are many difficult decisions in life, and this isn’t one of them,” Altman reassured his friend.

Humans have two hands, two feet and two eyes, but “Why did God give us two kidneys if we only need one?” Newman wondered.

“One to keep for ourselves and one to be available to donate to someone in need,” he concluded.

After enduring years of physical discomfort and months of thriceweekly dialysis, Carlos has reason to smile today.

On August 31, 2011, Altman’s kidney was removed and transplanted into Carlos’ body to save his life.

“Joe and Carlos’ recoveries were textbook: as fast and as good as you can hope,” Hart said.

After spending just 1 day in the intensive care unit following his surgery, Carlos was moved to the hospital and was able to return home a week later.

A few weeks after the surgery, Altman is still a little sore. “I knew the recovery would be painful and challenging,” Altman said.

“While it has been [painful], it has been less than I expected. Within a few days, I was able to be up and around, [and] I have gotten stronger day by day.”

“The few weeks of discomfort that I have had ... so pales in comparison to the feelings that I have, how good I feel about having done this,” he added.

The new kidney has revitalized Carlos. “Physically, he feels better than he has in years. … He is bikeriding and playing Wiffle Ball,” his mother said.

The two families live a 20-minute drive from each other and can easily check on each other’s progress.

The friendship that began in Queens between Greg Newman and Joe Altman has spanned decades as the two have experienced life and its challenges.

After all of this, Altman feels that “quite honestly, we’re family now.”

8

TUESDAY, September 27, 2011

●

THE JUSTICE

PHOTO COURTESY OF KATHY LAWRENCE

BON APPETIT: President Frederick Lawrence and wife Kathy enjoy a restaurant in Paris with their children, Miriam and Noah.

TALI SMOOKLER/Justice File Photo

TEA TIME: Graduating students chat with Lawrence over tea and pastries.

First Lady Lawrence shares her literary passion

By Rachel L. Miller JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

HILARY HEYISON/Justice File Photo

THE LEADING LADY: Lawrence enjoys herself at the president’s Inaugural Ball.

She grew up in the heart of Beverly Hills, Calif. in a home that was imbued with a Hollywood aura.

Her parents, who escaped anti-Semitism in Europe, fulfilled the American dream and made it big in the film industry by working for Paramount Pictures.

She would return home from school to find none other than Alfred Hitchcock filming a movie at her house. Her father was good friends with the Marx Brothers, and her home was previously inhabited by the famous actress, dancer and singer Betty Grable.

Yet Dr. Kathy Lawrence, wife of current University President Frederick Lawrence, pursued a career somewhat deviant from her family’s professional interests. “I’ve always been bookish. I was a little bit of an anomaly, growing up in a Hollywood environment and always being the one reading a book,” she said.

Lawrence’s passion for literature began at an early age. In school, she discovered Henry James, the subject of one of her four forthcoming books. “I sort of devoted my life to Henry James and to 19th-century American fiction. … [James] is very profound. He is a moral historian, … and he digs below the surface of human behavior,” Lawrence remarked.

Studying English at Yale University during the 1970s just after the school began accepting women, Lawrence said her college experience was “like watching history.”

“There were very few women role models. There were only two women in the English department who had tenure while I was there. It was still a men’s school, and it was an amazing experience for me coming from [Los Angeles] to be in a men’s school, since I was coming from a girls’ [high] school,” Lawrence said.

During college, Lawrence realized that the American culture and lifestyle that she read about through the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Henry James still existed. While living in New England, the works she read throughout her childhood came alive. Lawrence’s literary world and real world collided.

The most fortuitous of her college experiences was meeting “Prez Fred,” as the first lady refers to her husband. “We met at Friday night Shabbat services at Yale Hillel. Prez Fred was a first-year law student, and I was a senior,” she said. Her friend introduced them, and the rest, as they say, is history.

After graduating, Lawrence taught for a couple of years at a prep school and went to New York University to earn her doctorate in English literature.

She and President Lawrence tied the knot when she began her graduate studies. During graduate school, Lawrence gave birth to her two children, Noah and Miriam. She later continued her doctorate at Boston University, combining her study of 19th-century American literature with art after her family made the move up to Boston.

Once Lawrence completed her doctorate, she wrote numerous scholarly articles, which are both analytical and archival. Their topics focus mostly on Henry James, Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson and his secret lover Caroline Sturgis. She conducted her research worldwide and has spoken at numerous conferences.

While Boston is now the Lawrence family’s home,

Lawrence’s work has taken her all over in search of 19th-century works. “I’m a literary archivist, and that means that you look at letters and look at diaries that are unpublished. … I go all over the world reading letters and diaries. [With] the James material, some of it’s in London, some of it’s in private hands and some of it’s in Texas.”

She is currently writing a book about the darker side of Henry James and working as one of 10 editors of The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Works of Henry James, which “I chip away at every day,” she said.

Lawrence describes editing Henry James’ short stories, novels and non-fiction as “intricate, because we are taking note of all previous editions and their textual variants to find out what words were changed. … We will also annotate James’ use of metaphors, foreign languages [and] biographical connections.”

In addition to her works in progress concerning 19th-century American fiction, Lawrence is writing a memoir about her life as a child growing up in Hollywood.

Last year, the Lawrence traveled around the globe to meet alumni and friends of Brandeis. “I loved last year, but Prez Fred and I went to nine cities, and that was just in the U.S. We also went to Israel and Rome.

It was exciting, but it was hard to sit at my desk. It was hard to work on airplanes all the time, so I’m a little bit behind.”

While Lawrence’s days may be filled with completing book chapters to meet constant deadlines, Brandeis still plays a large role in her life.

“My commitment to Brandeis is very deep and very profound. I feel that I’m in service to Brandeis, and that’s because of my father. … My father knew [the University’s first president] Dr. [Abram] Sachar. … [He] started giving to Brandeis in 1952,” Lawrence said, adding that if her father knew where she is today, “he wouldn’t believe it.”

The date of publication for her first book is therefore undecided as she works to keep her involvement at Brandeis on the forefront as well.

“I’m interested in anything that Prez Fred needs me for, and a lot of that is meeting alumni and welcoming people and showing hospitality and being at his side at various events. Sometimes I brainstorm with him and think about creative new things that we can do.”

Her favorite part of the University, though, is the students themselves. She admires their “energy, their commitment and their cheerfulness,” which “makes the whole environment very real, very authentic. … In addition to that, I really love my husband and I believe in his vision for Brandeis and his idea that there is only one Brandeis.”

During her time at George Washington University Law School, when President Lawrence served as dean, Lawrence was an English professor and taught 19th-century American fiction, where she had the chance to get to know students. She will be offering a class next semester here as well, called “When Genius is a Family Affair: Henry, William and Alice James.”

“I can’t wait,” Lawrence said. “My whole life is preparation for my teaching. It’s a passion,” said the first lady of Brandeis—a leading lady in her own right.

THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, september 27, 2011

9

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applying to college

College counseling on the Web collegeolive 20 videos Subscribe

HILARY HEYISON/the Justice

ON THE WEB: On the YouTube channel she created to help high school students who are applying to college, Olivia Pobiel ’15 gives advice to viewers in videos discussing various aspects of the application process.

Olivia Pobiel ’15 uses YouTube to advise college applicants

By Tess raser justice editor

Olivia Pobiel ’15 has been making videos for friends and family for 3 to 4 years. She remembers a recent family vacation to California that she documented through video.

To Pobiel, the memories she has captured on video are priceless. However, she uses her interest in video not only to document her family vacations but also to share her unconventional insights into the college application process for prospective students.

The Minnesota native makes videos for her YouTube channel, which is aimed at offering advice to high school students applying to college, discussing topics such as application essays and college selection.

“After I finished applying to college last March, I realized that I had a lot of information and experience with the entire [college] process, and I knew that a lot of other students were stressed out and had worries,” Pobiel said.

In her videos, Pobiel, who posts videos under the username “Collegeolive,” stands in front of a white wall and she speaks to the camera in a professional tone. She seems to leave no detail in whatever topic she is discussing uncovered. With each video the result of long planning, Pobiel typically films three to four videos in one sitting. Each one takes her about an hour and a half to write, film and edit, followed by an hour or two of uploading. However, for her, the process is not daunting. The topics of her videos range from the decision to go to a community college rather than a 4-year college to the Common Application process.

“I love YouTube, and I think it’s a good way to share content, share information and interact with people,” Pobiel explained.

Pobiel has always been a fan of YouTube, but her relationship to and appreciation of the Internet goes farther than the popular website.

Pobiel attended an online high school.

The school, Stanford University’s Education program for Gifted Youth Online High School, is “a fully accredited, diploma granting, online independent school situated at Stanford University,” according to its website.

The school is similar to what Pobiel refers to as a “brick-and-mortar school,” or traditional high school, in that it has an administration and student body, but different only in that the classrooms are virtual.

“It was a very exciting experience because we had teachers from around the country and students from around the world,” she said.

Although Pobiel’s experience was positive overall, there were fewer college planning resources available to her. While she had a helpful college counselor with whom she met over the summer, she still had to seek additional college advice. In the end, she decided to come to Brandeis as a result of the University’s Admitted Students Day. “I visited Brandeis for the Admitted Students Day weekend, and it was obvious for me that this was the school because [first], the academics are great, but when I visited, the students were happy, they were laughing and talking with each other, and after classes you could see them walking around with [professors],” she said.

“A lot of the application process I had to figure out on my own or ask other people who had experience with applying to college,” she recalled. She thinks that YouTube videos would have made her college process smoother.

“I actually went on YouTube for videos about college life, about applying for college, and I was surprised about how little content there was online. By the time I was done, I wanted to start and fill the empty gap,” Pobiel explained.

In her first semester at the University, Pobiel has just created a new series for her channel. The series is based on the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. At the end

of each video, viewers have the option of actually clicking on responses to questions asked by Pobiel on the video. All viewers have to start with the first video to start the “adventure.”

“There’s a beginning video in which I explain the merits of going to college, and at the end I have two options to the question ‘Do you [want to] apply to college? Yes or no?’ That’s an introduction to get people used to the interactivity,” she said.

Depending on which answer viewers choose, they are led to a link for a new video where more questions will ultimately be presented to them.

“This way, the viewer can choose what content they want to see and essentially which path they want to take,” Pobiel continued.

She came up with this idea of video interactivity with her younger brother when YouTube created linked annotations. Pobiel explained that the linked annotations allow users to put a box in a video with links to other videos or websites, which viewers can then click on to be taken to a new page.

“My brother and I talked about different possibilities for that, and we thought about a Choose Your Own Adventure series.

We didn’t actually make one, but this ‘how to apply to college’ series was my own version,” she said.

In addition to the YouTube channel, Pobiel has a blog that acts as a complement to her YouTube site. She explained that “it’s designed for when I don’t have time to make a video, but I want to throw out a tip. [I also use it] to provide more details to the videos.”

Currently she does not use other social networking sites, as she hopes to build up an audience before tapping into other types of networking. Still, she has already received several comments and email responses to her work.

“I have watched the first few videos and really like the format. … The short snippets focusing on parts of the process are great for

people who don’t have big chunks of time to sit down and watch them,” said a parent of a prospective college student in a email to Pobiel. “You’ve broken down the college search and application process into logical videos snippets, so well done!”

Pobiel wants more feedback like this before she creates additional content. “That forces your audience to just go and focus on that particular content. … I think it might dilute how much [the audience] is devoting to core content,” she said when explaining her reasons for sticking exclusively to the blog and YouTube.

Still, Pobiel sees the Internet, based not only on her interest in YouTube but on her experience at an online high school, as a powerful tool, despite its sometimes negative reputation.

“I’ve realized the power of [the] Internet to bring people together and the power of [the] Internet as an educational tool,” she said.

Pobiel hopes to create a cognitive science major as she continues to expand her Web endeavors, which she thinks will help her in the future.

“I’m interested in business. … Through YouTube, you can develop a name, and if you create content that people enjoy [and] visit again and again, you can build a name for yourself and expand through advertising,” she said.

In the near future, Pobiel hopes to create more videos about college life and make videos with the friends she has met on campus about the processes they went through in applying to college. Ultimately, she wants to expand her audience as well.

“As of now, my audience is on the small side, but I hope that as we get into the school year, it will grow and it will receive more feedback and direction.

I’ve had people message me and say, ‘Hey, I saw your video, and I’m applying to college, and this is perfect. This is what I’m looking for.’”

10

TUESDAY, September 27, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

Justice Justice

the the

Established 1949, Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Established 1949

Emily Kraus, Editor in Chief Nashrah Rahman, Managing Editor Brian N. Blumenthal, Production Editor Hillel Buechler, Deputy Editor Alana Abramson, Rebecca Blady, Rebecca Klein, Asher Krell, Tess Raser and Robyn Spector, Associate Editors Sara Dejene and Andrew Wingens, News Editors Dafna Fine, Features Editor Eitan Cooper, Forum Editor Jeffrey Boxer, Sports Editor Wei-Huan Chen and Ariel Kay, Arts Editors Yosef Schaffel and Tali Smookler, Photography Editors Nan Pang, Layout Editor Marielle Temkin, Copy Editor Cody Yudkoff, Advertising Editor

Flawed election results Three weeks ago, this editorial board noted two serious concerns with the Student Union’s computerized voting system. The first, the possible misuse of the abstain option, was addressed in part by the Union in this past election through the addition of a “skip” option on every ballot. The second, the inability of the current system to handle the multiple variables required of it, has yet to be solved and requires immediate attention and possibly a reelection for the Student Judiciary.

In last Thursday’s election, it appears that two candidates who should have won positions on the SJ were not rightfully declared the victors. While we are encouraged by the Union’s initiative taken in adding a “skip” option to every ballot, we strongly urge the Union to make every possible effort to mend a voting system that currently does not produce fair results.

One challenge with the current system is that the software utilized for tallying results does not interpret the “abstain” option in the manner the Union expects it to (for more information, see the News section, page 1).

More importantly, though, the system declared certain candidates as receiving the most number of votes—in this election’s case, John Fonte ’12 and Claire Sinai ’15 for the positions of Justice on the SJ. The Union mistakenly (and understandably) misinterpreted the confusing results, only pronouncing Gali Gordon ’15 as a winner.

This is hugely problematic. In an interview with the Justice, Student Union President Herbie Rosen ’12 described the voting system as “something our union came to inherit … that we will move to correct and fix.”

Union must fix voting system Indeed, it is difficult to assign blame for the situation at hand to the current Union. Former Union officials, who implemented the instant runoff system more than a year ago as part of an amendment that the student body adopted, did not anticipate the current problems or think about the possible flaws in the system. We cannot expect current Union officials to have known the inner workings of the voting system at the outset of their terms. It is understandable that it takes some time to learn how to understand a complex system. Certainly, it is none of the current officials’ fault that the current situation transpired.

However, given that current Union officials have had ample time to acclimate to their positions and that the situation at hand is quite troubling, this issue must be dealt with swiftly.

If at all possible, we suggest that those responsible for administering Union elections receive training in the election software as soon as possible. The complications with the voting system seem to have stripped those who rightfully won Union positions of their victory. It may ultimately be necessary to nullify the results of the SJ election, as the announced results are likely incorrect.

If the Union intends to seriously represent itself to its constituents, and, more importantly, to appear as a respectable organization, it must be capable of producing fair election results. The incident from this past election is not only unfair to the candidates who spent time campaigning and planning platforms but to the entire student body.

BSF needs thorough proposals Last semester, the Brandeis Sustainability Fund modified its microturbine proposal due to financial constraints and communication issues. This proposal is one of five approved last semester currently being put into action, and we are encouraged by the progress being made in the implementation of these proposals. That being said, this editorial board urges the student body to seriously and thoroughly research ideas before submitting this year’s proposals.

Students whose proposals are accepted are granted significant funds in order to finance their plans. In its annual report the BSF tells students “projects that have serious logistical flaws” will not be voted on in order to save the fund’s “time and resources.” They encourage applicants to carefully research projects before submitting their ideas to avoid the financial inconveniences evidenced by the microturbine project.

As students will be funding the BSF’s budget regardless of their personal involvement in the fund’s administration, it would behoove them to at least see their money allocated to projects they have researched and believe have the potential to be successful.

Fund affects every student Last year, we expressed reservations about some of the BSF’s projects.

Among our worries is that, while these ventures are paid for by the entire student body, many are unaware and indifferent to the projects the BSF is implementing. Nonetheless, this does not change the fact that each student is required to pay $15 as part of their tuition to support the sustainability initiatives. This sum is allocated to the BSF and is at their disposal to finance approved proposals such as placing composting worms in Village Residence Hall A or installing solar powered lights on campus.

Most, if not all, undergraduates are affected by the five projects the BSF is currently managing. The BSF is asking for submissions by late October and will be holding information sessions next week to educate the student body about the criteria of proposals.

More thoroughly thought-out ideas would benefit the BSF and consequently the entire student body. Increased participation and serious, well-thought-out contributions from the student body will yield better results for the initiative.

RISHIKA ASSOMULL/the Justice

Rankings imperfect, but still important Philip

Gallagher Back to Basics

OP-BOX Quote of the Week “We try to honor and preserve the emotional core of the song and yet remain spontaneous.” ­ Saxophonist Joshua — Redman on his band James Farm’s approach to performing jazz.

(See Arts, page 23)

Brandeis Talks Back It is rather surprising to realize how many people are unfamiliar with our university. Unless a student is from the Northeast, Jewish or intimately familiar with higher education, he or she has no real reason to know anything about our school.

Thus, there is a large contingent of students who may be interested in what Brandeis has to offer but simply has never heard of us. We have to work harder to get our name out to those students who don’t fall into our traditional demographics. The college rankings of U.S. News & World Report do an excellent job of helping us accomplish this task, even though their ranking methodology is questionable.

To reach out to students who don’t meet traditional admission demographics, Brandeis has to advertise itself as an academically rigorous school of the highest quality. Although that description is accurate, proving it is much easier said than done. Asserting it ourselves isn’t exactly an impartial account, and we only have so many alumni and friends who can vouch for us.

This is where the college rankings of U.S. News serves its purpose as a straightforward and highly read list. The myriad colleges in the U.S. can be incredibly intimidating for someone with no prior exposure to college admissions. U.S. News breaks it down to the absolute basics by assigning a number to American colleges and universities, indicating a hierarchyand providing basic information about each school so that students can learn more about their favorites. Even in neighborhoods with the resources to educate students about the college process, U.S. News is still used to help students make college decisions. When I was applying to college, I recall hearing of friends often using ranking lists to help shape their list of college applications.

However, many people frequently question the methodology of U.S. News’ college rankings—with good reason. The methods U.S. News use can be easily critiqued. For example, approximately 7 percent of the entire ranking is composed of faculty salaries which, although a potential measure of faculty happiness, have little to do with the actual quality of education that students receive. Furthermore, another 10 percent of the ranking measures spending per student. Together, these two measures put wealthier, more established schools at a significant advantage to newly founded schools.

U.S. News also seems to use some dubious polling methods to obtain results for its measure of “Undergraduate Academic Reputation,” for which it polled college administrators and high school guidance counselors for their opinions on colleges’ academic reputations. The response rate for college administrators’ surveys was 43 percent, which counted as 15 percent of the entire ranking. For high school guidance counselors, the response rate was only 13 percent, yet these results were 7.5 percent of the overall ranking. These mediocre response rates put the quality of the responses into doubt, as such small rates may not be reflective of the overall educational community.

Regardless of the methodological flaws, these rankings are very useful to Brandeis. First, people around the country read these rankings to get an idea of which universities are considered to be the best. Second, U.S. News is informally considered to be an authority on college rankings. Third, the rankings are not written by a higher education institution, which allows us to use them as an arbitrator to demonstrate our excellence. In fact, on the “Points of Pride” page of the Brandeis website, we refer to our consistently high ranking by U.S. News as a higlight.

Thus, our recent increase in the National Universities rankings of U.S. News from 34th to 31st is very significant. From a sheer practical standpoint, the increase in Brandeis’ national ranking is helpful to our national exposure. Students without knowledgeable guidance counselors or parents will likely defer to U.S. News or a similar ranking list to determine which colleges are worthy of their application. In such a case, Brandeis is benefits by being toward the top.

It isn’t hard to view U.S. News as a flawed ranking system, but it isn’t easy to ignore its influence either. Regardless of the magazine’s questionable methodology, U.S. News is a widely read magazine that people use to get an idea of which colleges are superior. As a result, it is in our best interest to do what we can to get closer to the top.

What did you think about the Guster concert?

Stacey Frisch ’12 “I was working for BEMCo and it was fun watching everyone dance. The band was really good too.”

Naveh Halperin ’12 “I didn’t go because I was disappointed Guster was performing.”

Leah Silver ’12 “I really liked them, and it was evident they liked being at Brandeis.”

Julia Derk ’12 “Good and sweaty.”

—Compiled by Shafaq Hasan Photos by Asher Krell/ the Justice

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, September 27, 2011

11

PROFESSORS’ PERSPECTIVES ON PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD

Conflict currently hinges on public relations

By GORDON FELLMAN Special to the justice

At this moment, the focus of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict has shifted from violence and non-violence on the ground to public relations. Although PR has been important all along for both sides, Palestinians seem to be gaining ground in the effort to make their case before the world that the two-state solution is the only viable way to end the confrontation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not the first Israeli prime minister to favor the establishment of a Palestinian state, but his actions continue to belie that declared support. Netanyahu speaks peace even while ordering the establishment of still more Jewish settlements on what would be the land of Palestine.

Last week, both Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, a government-in-formation, made their cases before the U.N. General Assembly. Abbas laid out the frustrations, violence and exasperations that have marked Palestinian experiences with Israel since the 1967 war, at the end of which Israel took over the West Bank and Gaza. His speech was very well received, but it did not mention Hamas’ refusal to accept Israel or the history of Palestinian violence against the occupiers. The speech was conciliatory, though, and invited a mutual response that could conceivably push the conflict toward the two-state resolution.

Netanyahu’s speech mocked Abbas and made no reference to the burden of the occupation upon the occupied or to the increasing number of settlements or to Israel’s protecting settlers who act violently against Palestinians.

The rhetoric was fully adversarial. Netanyahu repeated many times that Israel desires peace, but that desire was not located in a discussion of the occupation and reasons for its continuation or its inconsistency with the only peace that could be acceptable to Palestinians, a national entity of their own. However, the Israeli prime minister spent much time on the dangers of Islamic extremism and the case for a Jewish national response to centuries of anti-Semitism, persecution and annihilation.

RISHIKA ASSOMULL/the Justice

Indeed, the tradition of Israeli PR is to emphasize the real dangers of Israel’s hostile neighbors and to invoke the Holocaust to justify Israel’s existence and fears. This PR has been given muscle over the decades by a strategy of threats and intimidation.

Members of the United States Congress dare not criticize the occupation for fear of losing their seats to what would surely be organized Jewish establishment attacks upon

them. They have gone so far to the extent that a very smart U.S. president apparently felt compelled in his U.N. remarks to empathize with Israel completely and with the Palestinians not at all.

Although both sides are indeed guilty of outrageous violence, the conflict is not symmetrical. Israel can end it; the Palestinians cannot. Powerful minority elements of each side have, in typical macho fashion, assumed

that maximum violence against the other would bring it to its knees. It does not work that way in either direction, but the compulsion behind assumptions about the effectiveness of violence continue among powerful elements of both contending parties.

Abbas’ U.N. speech is part of a PR strategy to gain empathy, sympathy and political support from much of the world. Indeed, there appears to be more attention than in the past to Palestinian suffering. Israel’s insistence on its rights to do whatever it wants because of what it has suffered in the past may be running its course. The influence of Palestinian PR appears to be expanding, as does awareness of the realities of the occupation.

However, the persuasiveness of Israeli PR seems to be limited to those passionate and very active Israeli and U.S. Jews who support the occupation, some wealthy U.S. funders of Democrats who insist on uncritically accepting whatever the far-right-wing government of Israel does and those Christian fundamentalists who believe that Jesus will return to earth only when Jews have returned to Israel and converted to Christianity.

Whether or not the U.N. General Assembly accepts Palestine as a member or grants it official observer status, such actions will not end the occupation. But it will, under Abbas’ PR strategy, garner increased world support for the Palestinian cause.

Israel’s right-wing government continues its puzzling antagonism toward two former regional allies, Turkey and Egypt, and continues its dismissal of anyone who recognizes the two contending parties as each in its own way both victim and victimizer. Genuine reconciliation would have to address this reality.

It is worth noting that none of those three General Assembly speeches by Abbas, Netanyahu or Obama built upon this hardcore truth of the conflict. There may be ways to resolution without addressing the genuine and deep hurts, fears, anger and hopes of both sides, but I doubt it.

Editor’s note: The writer is a professor of Sociology and Chair of the Peace, Conflict and Coexistence studies program.

Israeli left plays crucial role in peacemaking

By MICHAEL FEIGE SPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE

The Palestinian bid for statehood and for acceptance as a full member in the United Nations has placed Israel and its ally, the United States, in a difficult diplomatic position.

I wish to point to an important change in Israeli society that goes a long way to explain the decision of the Palestinians the isolation Israel currently faces in the world arena and maybe the future prospects for the area: The steep decline of the Israeli peace camp.

In Israel, what is called “the left” was in power just less than 20 years ago. Demonstrations for a two-state solution, territorial concessions and dialogue with the Palestinians have drawn thousands to Tel Aviv’s squares and formed a viable political option that was always on the table. Academic articles were written about the “two Israels,” the right and the left, roughly equal in size, and that an unbridgeable rift lies between them.

These days are long gone.

Ironically, the basic assumptions of the peace camp were adopted by the Israeli center and right, and even Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has expressed support for a two-state solution.

However, this “victory” of the peace camp is very shallow, as the camp that is supposed to supply political substance to the idea is currently politically negligible.

As a result, the discourse that has dominated the Israeli public sphere for decades—

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on peace, territories, Palestinians, settlers and the direction Israel should take as a nation—has practically disappeared (some newspaper columnists and intellectuals notwithstanding) and is no longer a defining factor in the identity of most Israelis like it was in the recent past.

The Israeli peace camp has diminished for a variety of reasons. The demographic growth of the national religious camp and the ultra-Orthodox community was translated into political power in favor of the right.

As former President Bill Clinton rightly noticed, new Russian immigrants to Israel, making up about 1 million of Israel’s 7 million citizens, tend to be right-wing. After the Oslo Accords, the Israeli peace camp needed to redefine itself and failed to find new objectives that could hold its constituency.

Part of the reason was the failure of the Camp David talks of 2000, leading to the second Intifada and the horrific suicide attacks on Israeli cities. One left-wing leader after another has expressed disillusion and disappointment with the Palestinians and their leadership, and most have not returned to their former opinions, even after the Palestinians have stabilized a more moderate leadership.

The example of the Gaza Strip, which Israel left and which fell under Hamas rule after democratic elections, is a very strong analogy to what can happen in the West Bank.

It has been utilized to the fullest extent by the Israeli right, including Netanyahu in his U.N. speech.

The Israeli peace camp was portrayed as

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naïve to a dangerous extent in demanding further Israeli withdrawals. Not to mention that the division between two parts of the Palestinian authority, hostile to each other, makes a systematic peace plan much more difficult to conceive. Many in Israel see the moderation of the current Palestinian leadership as a charade; they believe that the Palestinians are not seeking peace with Israel and, in any case, their leadership is unable to deliver. In such circumstances, the Israeli peace camp finds little room to maneuver.

The demise of the peace camp in Israel leads both sides to engage in unilateral acts. The Palestinians—to a great extent due to their own fault—lost their powerful ally within Israeli society: a large influential camp that believed that a Palestinian state next to Israel is morally justified and is also in Israel’s best interest. After all, the Palestinian state will have to emerge on the ground and not in the corridors of the U.N. The Palestinians will need to find Israelis willing to support their cause, who are not radical-left extremists. With less such Israelis around and very few of them holding political power, Palestinians see unilateral acts as their best option.

Ironically, the Israeli rightist government finds itself in a weaker position, partly due to the absence of an acceptable left-wing opposition.

The peace camp has historically served as a buffer by mitigating attacks on Israel, displaying Israeli democracy at its best and raising hopes among critics of Israeli right-

The Staff

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

ist policies that a change can come from within.

It was also always a focus of identification with Israel for those who shared its values, Jews and non-Jews alike, and its withering away is having additional consequences that I shall not discuss here.

Most importantly, the weakening of the peace camp limits the public discourse in Israel regarding the shared future with the Palestinians (and with Israeli Palestinians as well). The right-wing government stresses the Jewish right to the land, security issues and the suspected untrustworthiness of the Palestinians. All of these are important, constitute legitimate Israeli concerns and should not be neglected in future negotiations.

The counterarguments regarding the possibility of living in peace and cooperation with the Palestinians’ neighbors, together bringing prosperity to the region and gaining international support—all values that were held alive by a strong peace camp—are currently represented to a much lesser extent.

However, they are keys to a lasting peace in the Middle East, based on shared interests and open lines of communication. Without a strong Israeli peace camp, this may be difficult to achieve.

Editor’s note: The writer is a professor from Ben Gurion University in Israel and a visiting professor in the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and the Departments of Anthropology and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.

Editorial Assistants

Forum: Shafaq Hasan Sports: Adam Rabinowitz Staff Senior Writers: Josh Asen, Max Goldstein, Bryan Flatt Senior Illustrator: Rishika Assomull News: Shani Abramowitz Features: Dave Benger, Claire Gohorel, Rachel Miller, Rocky Reichman Forum: Aaron Fried, Philip Gallagher, Hannah Goldberg, Tien Le, Diego Medrano, Liz Posner, Sara Shahanaghi, Leah Smith, Elizabeth Stoker, Naomi Volk Sports: Julian Cardillo, Jonathan Epstein, Jacob Lurie, Adam Rabinowitz, Natalie Shushan, Jonathan Steinberg Arts: Aaron Berke, Alex DeSilva, Leah Igdalsky, Olivia Leiter,

Amy Melser, Leanne Ortbals, Mara Sassoon Photography: Amy Bisaillon, Jenny Cheng, Lydia Emmanouilidou, Morgan Fine, Nathaniel Freedman, Rachel Gordon, Hilary Heyison, Davida Judelson, Joshua Linton, Alex Margolis, Maya Shemtov, Josh Spiro, Diana Wang, David Yun, Janey Zitomer Copy: Aliza Braverman, Rebecca Brooks, Allyson Cartter, Hilary Cheney, Erica Cooperberg, Patricia Greene, Celine Hacobian, Rachel Herman, Liana Johnson, Lauren Katz, Eunice Ko, Felicia Kuperwaser, Tarini Nalwa, Mailinh Phan-Nguyen, Maya Riser-Kositsky, Mara Sassoon, Holly Spicer, Dan Willey, Amanda Winn Layout: Rachel Burkhoff, Nadav Havivi, Denny Poliferno, Michelle Yi Illustrations: Stacy Handler, Arielle Shorr, Ari Tretin, Sara Weininger

12

TUESDAY, September 27, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

FORUM EXAMINING THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS

Penalty a virtual lynching Elizabeth

Stoker Brevity

In a misty bamboo grove, the body of a murdered samurai is found by a woodsman who alerts the police. In the investigation that follows, seven mutually compelling but contradictory testimonies are given, and only one—delivered through a medium by the vengeful spirit of the dead man himself— contains a complete, coherent story whose factuality is compatible with reality.

So goes one of the most repercussive short stories in all of Japanese literature, “In a Grove” by Rynosuke Akutagawa. The chilling takeaway is, of course, that in criminal trials, the spirits of the dead do not testify, and the stories of eyewitnesses can bear all the hallmarks of genuineness without containing a single grain of truth.

However, in the trial of Troy Davis, who was convicted for the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Ga., the testimonies of eyewitnesses carried the burden of an entire case.

No murder weapon, incriminating fingerprints or any DNA evidence that indicated guilt on Davis’ part was ever recovered. The State of Georgia presented a number of witnesses who claimed that Davis was responsible for the crime. Some of these witnesses were allegedly present at the scene, and others stated that Davis had confessed his guilt to them.

The testimonies of the witnesses varied widely. Some individuals were only able to commit to having seen someone in a white T-shirt and blue shorts at the scene. Others claimed that they had overheard conversations had by Davis that

incriminated him, and some said that he had confessed the crime to them personally—though their renditions of the confession varied.

Among those testifying against Davis included another man suspected of being guilty of the murder, his former cellmate and a man who later claimed he had been threatened by the police.

Is it possible to imagine problems with testimony given by someone who might otherwise be convicted of the crime, someone who stands to gain from cooperating with a police investigation due to their position in the judicial system and someone who has been threatened by the same police present in the courtroom? Is it entirely sensible, reasonable and fair for a police department that has just lost a fellow officer to investigate that very crime?

“

Davis’ death is a testament to the remains of a southern lynch mentality.

Obviously, the trial of Troy Davis was unfair, as the trials of black people in the Deep South tend to be. After all, multiple studies have confirmed that a defendant is many times more likely to receive the death penalty if he is black.

Even if, by some amazing cosmic coincidence, Davis was guilty of the murder of MacPhail, his death illustrates what the death penalty serves to do as an institution: It carries out the darker machinations of human grief, anger and fear. It is now what the lynchings of the Deep South’s yesteryear were—crowd-pleasing catharses for a society that barely conceals its barbarism.

Less than a century ago, towns in

the South would congregate in their entirety to witness the murder of alleged criminals, and it seems that the murder of Troy Davis was enjoyed no less by those associated with the trial in the present. Currently, the memorial page dedicated to Mark MacPhail features comments such as “I’m so happy that the murderer has been put to death for this young Police Officer’s death,” and “This Officer died protecting people & the killer is made out to be a victim. It’s disgusting.”

Most comments merely praise the final delivery of “justice.” Counter-protesters in support of Davis’ execution gathered at the prison to cheer the murder on, mostly citing support of justice and MacPhail’s memory. The sheer publicity of Davis’ death is a testament to the remains of a Southern lynch mentality, an ideology whose counterpart in the justice system will doubtlessly continue to deliver victims for future executions.

I believe that lynchings correspond to prejudiced attitudes that are imposed socially and carried out to an extreme. What is “lynchlike” about the life and death of Troy Davis is that a contingent of people were very interested in seeing it, even going so far as to appear at the prison itself on the day of the execution. Though the counterprotests in favor of the execution of Davis were minor compared to the protests against it, this only proves that attitudes supportive of lynching have dwindled, not disappeared, and even a little desire to see someone killed is too much.

Both of the major problems with the murder of Troy Davis—the botched trial and public execution—point to the problem with the death penalty itself: People are imperfect. We lie, we fear, we forget, we misremember. We are fallible even when we are striving to do the right thing. No government made therefore, be entrusted with the power to end human lives.

Don’t enact penalty when doubt remains Hannah

Goldberg Everything illuminated Without a qualifier of innocent or guilty, the statement “a man was put to death” sends a reflexive feeling of unease to anyone who comes across it. Perhaps for some, the knowledge that this man was certainly guilty may alleviate feelings of alarm or even inspire a supportive attitude toward the death.

However, I believe that many more people would take issue upon hearing that a man who may or may not have been guilty was put to death. This is what happened at the hands of the United States Department of Justice last Wednesday evening when Troy Davis was put to death for the 1989 killing of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail.

Despite allegations of police misconduct, reports that another person committed the crime and recanted testimonies from several witnesses at the trial, Troy Davis was executed by lethal injection for killing Mark MacPhail. MacPhail’s mother understandably responded to the controversy surrounding Davis’ execution by explaining that she “just wanted closure” for the killing of her son, and that Davis’ case should serve as an admonition to the danger and that is inherent to capital punishment.

As someone who has never been in the tragic position of grieving for the murder of someone I care about, it is not my place to say what a person in that situation may or may not desire from the accused. However, it seems logical that a person in such a position would immediately pine for justice against anyone responsible for the crime.

Unfortunately, the structure of

any judicial system does not make death a reasonable means to achieving justice. Though punishments may be based completely on the knowledge that someone committed a crime, a serious effort should be made to isolate circumstances of reasonable doubt before assigning a punishment. Because a legal system can almost never prove the absolute guilt (or perhaps, more importantly, the intention) of a defendant, it becomes impossible to define the appropriate form of justice. And surely, if it is not feasible to determine an absolute guilt or intention, it seems irrational to order the death penalty as a final punishment.

The practice of capital punishment sets up a dangerous, slippery slope. Once death has become the goal of the prosecution, there is a natural tendency to continue to strive for death. As such, an evolving understanding that the acts committed may not have been as heinous as believed at the outset of the trial may fall on the deaf ears of those who hunger for justice.

It is alarming that in spite of all of the reasons not to sentence Troy Davis to death, a jury of his peers made the decision to punish him with death while even an infinitesimal amount of doubt existed. Sentencing a man to death who may not have committed the crime instead of sentencing him to life in jail is a grievous and reckless act. Even scarier is that Davis’ 11th-hour appeal was denied by the Supreme Court while, this same doubt existed.

Death is the most final—not the most just—of punishments. It is tainted with emotion and sensationalism that erode the very premise of its existence. Troy Davis’ case makes it clear that especially when the alternative of life in prison exists, the decision to kill a criminal for his or her crime does not bring justice but rather brings about a possibly equally unjust death.

Hemp Fest protestors risk harming their agenda Aaron

FRIED fREE THOUGHT

On Saturday, Sept. 17, college students, old hippies and liberty activists gathered on Boston Common and engaged in a gesture of civil disobedience casually nicknamed Hemp Fest.

The 22nd Annual Boston Freedom Rally was organized by the Massachusetts Reform CoalitionCann, an organization advocating for the legalization of marijuana for medicinal and recreational use. Unfortunately, the event’s message runs the risk of being shrouded in a thick cloud of smoke.

This is colossally disappointing.

True grassroots protests are rare gems whose messages we should consider—not ignore. Hemp Fest, a peaceful and sociable assembly, is especially valuable as it preaches in favor of a substance that, according to its critics, makes people violent and reclusive.

Given the fact that the rally itself contradicts two very common stereotypes about pot and those who use it, is it not worth listening to the arguments that its organizers put forth?

In a country that is supposedly founded on the premise of liberty, I find it somewhat vexing that there are laws that govern what a person can or cannot ingest into his or her own body.

Considering the fact that marijuana smokers are not directly harming anyone, except possibly themselves, their actions are outside the purview of the public domain. To allow a government to deny someone’s right to

use marijuana is to tacitly agree that the government can regulate what we put in our bodies, as long as the majority believes that the substance should not be ingested. This is no different from alcohol prohibition in the early 20th century, nor would it be different from a law drafted to completely outlaw tobacco.

All of these arguments, of course, are operating under the common misconception that marijuana is as dangerous as tobacco, a fully legal substance that has been scientifically proven to cause several deadly diseases. Marijuana has never been linked to lung cancer, heart disease or any other tobacco-related illness; however, it has been shown to possess several medicinal benefits.

It is widely known that medical marijuana can be hugely beneficial for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Two major difficulties that chemotherapy patients commonly encounter are loss of appetite and nausea. It is impossible to deny that the perfect prescription to ameliorate these symptoms comes in the form of a joint. Marijuana is both an appetite stimulant and an antiemetic, which can help a person who is fighting cancer, hunger and the constant desire to vomit.

There has also been significant research that shows that cannabis’ medical utility extends beyond simply helping people improve their appetite and spirits. A 2008 study published by the American Association of Cancer Research, the world’s oldest professional organization for cancer research, showed that THC, the ingredient in marijuana that creates the “high,” cannabidiol and other similar chemicals found in marijuana are useful in fighting cancer cells. The University

ARIELLE SHORR/the Justice

of Wisconsin Medical School-affiliated researchers who wrote the article concluded that many of the cannabinoids found in marijuana may be useful in preventing the proliferation of and, in some cases, kill tumor cells belonging to gliomas, a very deadly type of brain

tumor; prostate cancer; breast cancer; lung cancer; skin cancer; pancreatic cancer; and lymphomas. While the research is not entirely conclusive that marijuana is—ironically—a cure for cancer, it shows that it may have the potential to be a lifesaving treatment.

All of these elements can bolster the case of the activists who attended Hemp Fest. If any of them truly believe that marijuana should be legalized and are willing to fight for it, they would spend time listening to speakers and reading articles to become better informed. Outrageously, this is not the case. As I observed the attendees of Hemp Fest, throngs of so-called believers in the end of marijuana prohibition did not feel the need to advance their argument further than a T-shirt or bumper sticker slogan. The stage with speakers advocating legalization was the least occupied part of the event. By sacrificing knowledge for music, camaraderie and concession stands, these activists are contributing to the trampling of their freedoms.

To deny someone the freedom to use their body as they see fit is tyrannical. The opposition to the legalization marijuana is merely a manifestation of this tyranny. Even if, theoretically, someone was perfectly comfortable claiming authority over others and revoking their natural rights in an attempt to prevent so-called “deleterious behavior,” it would be inhumane to stand in the way of marijuana because of its medicinal value. Marijuana, like red wine, is something that, while temporarily impairing, can provide certain health benefits to regular users over a period of time. Those who continue to stand between its legalization ought to reexamine their compassion for others and their value of freedom. Marijuana has become taboo because parents, middle school teachers and anti-drug activists told us it was. There has never been a strong rational argument against it. Frankly, it’s high time that we grow up, think for ourselves and continue the push to legalize marijuana.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, September 27, 2011

13

SPORTS OBITUARY

COLD STREAK

Fencing great Joe Pechinsky passes ■ The former men’s fencing

coach and United States Fencing Hall of Famer died last Thursday.

By josh asen JUSTICE senior WRITER

JOSH HOROWITZ/the Justice

FLYING HIGH: Outside hitter Liz Hood ’15 goes up for a spike during the team’s loss to the Tufts University Jumbos last Tuesday.

Team’s losing streak at 5 after rough tourney ■ The volleyball team lost all

four of its matches last week and is now 7-7 on the season after starting strong.

By jacob moskowitz JUSTICE contributing WRITER

The volleyball team arrived at the Amherst Classic at Amherst College last weekend with a 7-4 record.

However, the team left with a 7-7 record after failing to win a set in their matches against Amherst, the United States Coast Guard Academy and Middlebury College. The final loss of the tournament was the team’s fifth in a row.

“We played three very good teams,” middle blocker Becca Fischer ’13 said.

“All [three of of our opponents are ranked] top 15 in New England. We played very well in the last two games against Middlebury; really picking it up as a team.”

The Judges lost the first match of the Amherst Classic 25-15, 25-1325-22 to Amherst, despite winning the first 2 points of each set. The Lord Jeffs, who improved to 7-2 with the win, won each of the first two sets comfortably before fighting off the furiously rallying Judges for a slim third-set victory.

After finding themselves down 9-6 in the third set, the Judges moved to within one point of tying the set at 17-16, forcing an Amherst timeout.

The timeout proved unsuccessful for Amherst, as the Judges took the next 2 points to go up by 1.

Amherst tallied 3 out of the next 4 points, taking a 20-19 lead. They then extended their lead to 23-21 and held on, eventually taking the set 25-22 to sweep the match.

Brandeis outside hitters Liz Hood ’15 and Si-Si Hensley ’14 recorded six kills apiece. Setter Yael Einhorn ’14 tallied 15 assists, and libero Elsie Bernaiche ’15 recorded 12 digs. Middle

blocker Lauren Berens ’13 had five spikes in the loss.

The Judges fell to the Coast Guard in their second match 25-18, 25-9 and 25-17. Hood and Hensley recorded seven and five kills, respectively. Einhorn racked up 13 assists, and Bernaiche and outside hitter Susan Sun ’13 combined for 23 digs in the match.

In the final match of the tournament, the Judges again failed to take a set, losing 25-10, 25-20 and 25-21 to Middlebury. After losing the first set by a large margin, the team picked up its play in the final two sets, ultimately losing both sets. Hood had eight kills and six digs, while Einhorn tallied a match-high 22 assists. Fischer had five kills and three blocks.

Despite the losses, Fischer believes that the team gained valuable experience against tough competition.

“This weekend, coach [Michelle Kim] put a bunch of new players in, which allowed them to get some playing time and also allowed us to grow as a team,” said Fischer.

Bernaiche agreed, saying that she was proud of the team’s performance in the tournament.

“The teams in the tournament were really good teams,” she said. “But it was a great opportunity for us to show how competitive we can be. We didn’t really look at the final scores of the matches; we looked at how we performed at different points throughout the games to see how we improved.

We don’t really see the games as losses.”

The team’s match against Tufts University last Tuesday seemed to set the tone for last weekend’s tournament, as the Judges started slowly but came back strong. However, they were unable to take a set against the Jumbos, falling 25-12, 25-21 and 25-20 as Tufts moved to 6-0 on the season.

The Jumbos ran away with the first set, building an early 12-4 lead. The Jumbos were ahead 16-7 before the Judges made a small push, scoring

four points in a row. However, Tufts used a timeout to halt Brandeis’ momentum and finished the set with a 9-1 run.

The second set was much closer.

The Judges jumped out to a 3-1 lead, but Tufts responded and tied the set at 3-3. The Jumbos went up 11-7, but the Judges responded by taking 5 of the next 6 points, tying the set on back-toback kills by Hood. The set went back and forth, but the Jumbos closed on a 4-1 run en route to a 25-21 victory.

The third set followed the same pattern, with each team falling behind by a few points and battling back. After the Judges tied the set at 19 apiece, the Jumbos took advantage of a Brandeis error and took 6 of the last 7 points, winning the final set 25-20.

Bernaiche was proud of the way that the team battled back after a tough first game.

“It [was] just about continuing to play when the times are tough,” she said. “We’re still a really young team, and we’re trying to figure out what works for us in games.”

“As a team, we realized we needed to eliminate our own errors,” added Fischer, referring to the Judges’ improved play in the last two sets. “We came together as a team and started playing our own game. A lot of us wanted to prove that we were a better team than the way we played in the first game, because we are.”

Hood and Fischer combined for 19 kills against Tufts, including seven from Fischer in the third set. Einhorn recorded her first double-double of the season with 29 assists and 11 digs.

Bernaiche had a team-high 12 digs, and Fischer had three blocks. Sun finished with three service aces.

The Judges’ next competition is the UAA Round Robin Tournament at Washington University in St. Louis, which starts on Saturday. They will face New York University and WashU on Saturday, followed by Carnegie Mellon University on Sunday.

Joseph E. Pechinsky, Brandeis’ men’s fencing coach from 1970 to 1980 and a member of the United States Fencing Hall of Fame, died at the age of 92 last Thursday at the Radius Health Care Center in Danvers, Mass.

“He was very much a gentleman to everyone that he met all the time,” said men’s and women’s fencing coach Bill Shipman, who took over the coaching job at Brandeis after Pechinsky left in 1981. “He always had good looks for everyone. He was very well liked here at Brandeis. He only worked part-time, so he wasn’t around a lot, but the kids all liked him and respected him.”

While at Brandeis, Pechinksky recruited fencers for the team by asking many of his physical education students at Brandeis to join the team.

“It was a different time [for recruiting],” Shipman said. “He mostly took kids out of [physical education] class and asked them to be on the team; [he got] a good number of kids like that.

There wasn’t really any recruiting or anything much like there is now, so it was all different.”

Pechinsky was a wrestling coach at the Salem YMCA in Salem, Mass. in the early 1960s when he suffered a serious knee injury while wrestling one of his students. He was introduced to fencing by one of his wrestling students and quickly discovered a love for the sport and pursued fencing further. Pechinsky took a few private lessons but realized that coaching was his passion.

Pechinsky, who never fenced a scored match, began coaching fenc-

ing at the Salem YMCA and quickly became one of the most famous fencing coaches in the country for his work at the Tanner City Fencers Club in Peabody, Mass. “[Pechinsky] came to us in the mid1970s and told us the Salem YMCA had run out of space, and he wanted to know if we could accommodate him in Peabody,” said Peabody Recreation Director Dick Walker in an article published in the Salem News on Dec. 18, 2008. “Joe was inspiring.

He became internationally known, a coach emeritus of the U.S. Olympic Fencing Team, and he put Tanner City on the map.”

In addition to coaching NCAA National Champions at Tanner City, Pechinsky had at least one student of his on each United States Olympic team from 1968 to 2000. His niece, Sally Pechinsky, competed in foil in the 1968 Summer Olympics.

For his contributions to the fencing community, Pechinsky was inducted into the United States Fencing Hall of Fame in 1996. He continued coaching until 2006 when he suffered a broken hip from falling down a set of stairs after a fencing practice in Peabody. That was the last fencing practice Pechinsky ever gave.

While Pechinsky coached fencing throughout his life, he also served for 31 years on the Peabody Fire Department and retired in 1983. Before his time in the fire department, Pechinsky enlisted in the United States Army in 1940 and survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served in the Pacific Theater until he was discharged in 1945.

During his spare time, Pechinsky was an avid mountain climber and artist. He climbed mountains such as the Swiss Alps, the Matterhorn on the border of Switzerland and France and the Riffelhorn in Switzerland.

Pechinsky was a true Renaissance man, and the fencing and Brandeis communities will miss him.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BRANDEIS SPORTS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT

A BRANDEIS LEGEND: Former Brandeis men’s fencing coach Joe Pechinsky (left) hands out an award at the 1974 Department of Athletics Award banquet.

MSOCCER: Judges fall in overtime vs Babson CONTINUED FROM 16 the resulting throw-in. The ball fell to Russo, who had a crack from a full 50 yards that found its way over the goalkeeper before bouncing into the net with 1.7 seconds left.

Despite losing to Babson in such a bitter fashion after the win against MIT, both Eisenbies and Coven remained optimistic about the team’s chances.

“We are looking good right now,” Eisenbies said. “We are playing well and with three games this week, we can get back on track and open up our [University Athletic Association]

schedule on Saturday against [the University of] Rochester at home.”

“We’ve got Rochester on Saturday, which will be a big game,” added Coven. “We beat them at their place last year in a crazy game. They’re a good team. It’ll be a good test.”

While the conference games have not yet been played, it is safe to say that only a small bite of the team’s potential has been shown.

The team plays Wentworth Institute of Technology at home tonight at 7 p.m. The Judges will then travel to Colby-Sawyer College Wednesday at 4 p.m. before taking on Rochester at home.

14

TUESDAY, september 27, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

From

SUSANNA CHILNICK/Justice File Photo

Gordon Field to the Big Leagues

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BRANDEIS SPORTS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT

FULL SPEED AHEAD: Shaun Oliver ’97 (far left, No. 14 on the right) turned his career on the Brandeis soccer team into a successful career with several MLS clubs. Oliver now is director of operations for the Red Bulls.

Shaun Oliver ’97 now plays a huge role on a top MLS team By julian cardillo JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Shaun Oliver ’97 has come a long way in the world of soccer. Unlike some former Brandeis men’s soccer players who still participate in the sport as high school and college coaches, Oliver has taken on an even bigger role. He has worked in the United States’ top-tier league, Major League Soccer, since graduating from Brandeis and is now the director of soccer operations for one of the country’s most established clubs, the New York Red Bulls.

“I have to thank Brandeis.

[What I do now] isn’t why I went to Brandeis,” said Oliver, who studied Sociology and American Studies. “But it was because I was at Brandeis that I was able to make something that I couldn’t make anywhere else.”

American soccer picked up at the right time. When MLS kicked off in 1996, Massachusetts’ professional team, the New England Revolution, practiced at Brandeis because its home field, Foxboro Stadium, didn’t have proper training fields. Soccer stars like Walter Zenga, Joe-Max Moore, Alexi Lalas and others practiced on Gordon Field and developed a close relationship with Brandeis players and coaches.

“The Revolution were very friendly and professional,” current head coach Mike Coven, now in his 38th year coaching men’s soccer, recalled. Coven coached both Oliver and his older brother Kris at Brandeis, noting that most players had an up-close look at what the professionals were like.

“It was fun. They used our locker rooms and we gave them a spot downstairs to put their stuff. The

pros were very visible and our Brandeis players got to know them.

We scrimmaged against [the Revolution] from time to time, or we would go watch them.”

Coven said that watching the Revolution train helped him improve how he taught and developed players. But the Revolution’s presence did a bit more for Oliver. In 1998, the Revolution had a job opening for an equipment manager and offered it to Oliver, who at the time was working in the equipment room at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center.

The rest is history.

Oliver, originally from Winchester, Mass., started working for his hometown team right out of college, eventually being promoted from equipment manager to team administrator. Oliver’s time with the Revolution was cut short when coaching changes overhauled most of the Revolution staff, forcing him to look elsewhere for work. He worked briefly for Special Olympics Massachusetts before taking an administrative position with another MLS team, the San Jose Earthquakes.

And Oliver wasn’t completely alone in San Jose, either. When former Revolution defender Alexi Lalas retired in 2003, he took a job as general manager of the Earthquakes.

Oliver knew Lalas well because of the relationship they established in New England, which became important once the San Jose franchise relocated to Houston in 2008 after their owners, Anschutz Entertainment Group, were unable to secure a stadium. And when Lalas became president of MLS’s New York MetroStars in 2005, Oliver had a place to go.

Oliver nearly faced another staff overhaul in 2006 when the Metro-

stars were sold to Red Bull GmbH, maker of the popular energy drink.

But this time, Oliver was able to stick it out and remain a part of the franchise.

“It was the same as where I’d been in a couple of different situations,” recalled Oliver when Red Bull took over. “In sports, people have the people they trust. But you have to find your way through and prove yourself to the new operation.”

No team in MLS has had more personnel changes than New York in the last 5 years. But Oliver impressed the new owners and was made part of the MetroStars’ makeover. The first major development under new ownership was changing the team name from MetroStars to Red Bull New York.

“The MetroStars had a great name and fans stick to it to this day,” explained Oliver. “Red Bull brought in a global view; after all, their product is a global product. But they knew the type of sponsorship and the type of people they wanted.”

More changes followed.

When the Los Angeles Galaxy signed David Beckham from Real Madrid in 2007, MLS drastically changed. Foreign stars that were once impossible to sign were now attracted to playing in MLS because they could garner pay comparable to salaries in Europe. This was accomplished because the league amended cap rules that prevented teams from spending over $2 million on salaries, opening the door for investors to scout big name players.

“Beckham’s [arrival] greatly affected what some teams could do,” added Oliver. “Companies put in a lot of money that they wanted to spend on players that could grow their name. In the past, under old

WSOCCER: Squad breaks skid, finishes week at 1-1

CONTINUED FROM 16

the opportunities we had.”

“The loss was very tough,” added coach Denise Dallamora. “We had our chances, but did not come through. There were a couple of defensive lapses at the end.”

The Judges started the week on the road at Gordon. After starting the season at 3-0, the Judges entered the game against the Fighting Scots on a four game losing streak. However, Brandeis took an early 1-0 lead in the fourth minute with an own goal from a Gordon defender, and never looked back. The Judges pelted Gordon with eight more attempts in the first half, but

none found the net, and Gordon entered halftime down just one goal.

Brandeis quickly doubled its lead in the second half, with a goal just four minutes into play. Defender Ali Maresca ’12 headed in a corner from defender Alec Spivack ’15 for her first goal of the year and third of her career. In the process, Spivack earned her first point in her collegiate career. The Judges added to their tally when defender Kelly Peterson ‘14 drilled in a direct kick from 35-yards out to put Brandeis up 3-0 in the 54th minute and put the Judges firmly in control.

Gordon had a few scoring opportunities, however, including

a goal in the 65th minute from junior midfielder Karina Scavo, who scored on a direct kick. Brandeis, however, tightened up its defense, and the game ended 3-1.

Despite a mixed week, Theodore was pleased that many of the team’s underclassman played prominent roles.

“Each game and practice, [the underclassmen] continue to work hard and are really contributing to the team. [Spivack] has done a great job playing everywhere on the field. She really is a reliable player who has really stepped up in the past couple of games.”

The Judges next host Wellesley College tonight at 7 p.m.

salary cap rules, the MetroStars could only attract players as much as they could. Most of the foreign players they signed before were older.”

Today, teams can sign up to three players whose salaries can be higher than the league’s salary cap. In April of 2007, the Red Bulls followed the Galaxy’s lead, signing Colombian forward Juan Pablo Ángel to a highsum deal from Aston Villa in the English Premier League. Since then, the team has transformed even further. The Red Bulls were runners-up in their first MLS Cup appearance in 2008 and have continued to invest in foreign stars, adding former Barcelona players Rafael Marquez and Thierry Henry to the fold last season.

Henry alone, who represented France in four World Cups and starred for various big European clubs, has increased the credibility of the Red Bulls and attracted more fans. But the Red Bulls, who were drawing crowds of about 30 thousand at Giants Stadium once the foreign stars arrived, were not happy.

Oliver and other Red Bull Administrators worked to bring a socceronly stadium to the New York/New Jersey area to house the Red Bulls.

Construction began in Harrison, N.J. in 2006 and last March, Red Bull Arena opened its doors.

Today, the 25,000-seat soccerplex that Oliver helped to bring to the Red Bulls is regarded by many as the premier soccer stadium in America.

Engineers News Record named Red Bull Arena as the Project of the Year in 2010, and some talk has gone on about making the facility the official home of the U.S. national team.

“We’re in a great position now,” says Oliver. “The hardest thing for

the team was playing in Giants Stadium. There’s no atmosphere there, even with 30,000 fans. Now we have the premier building in the country.

New York is a destination for everybody.”

Oliver was promoted to director of soccer operations for the New York Red Bulls, meaning that he is in charge of the day-to-day running of Red Bull Arena. But Oliver still manages to make it back to Brandeis like many of his fellow men’s soccer alumni for the Annual Alumni Soccer Game in August, and he still has a close friendship with Coven and his former teammates.

“I keep in touch with the guys I played with,” said Oliver. “Every time we get together, we reminisce about old fights we had and the games we played. I still talk to Coach Coven a couple times a year too. We have a very good relationship. So many people go to the alumni game every year because of him. He always kept an eye out for us. It wasn’t just a 4-year relationship. He wasn’t only interested that we became good soccer players, but good people too.”

“He worked his way up and kept working,” Coven said of Oliver.

“Highly motivated, very good head on his shoulders. He was a very serious student and player. You knew whatever he was going to go into he’d be successful at.”

So what is Shaun Oliver’s greatest success?

“I had a child the same week we opened Red Bull Arena. The stadium alone was an achievement. But to have my 4-day-old daughter there the day after the stadium opened made me think, ‘I get to do something I love.’”

“And now I just say, ‘Wow, this is awesome.’”

TENNIS: Squads rock ITAs CONTINUED FROM 16 scores of 6-2 and 6-4. Yovanoff lost 6-4 in consecutive sets against Bowdoin College junior Oscar Pena, while Bielfield came up short in his match against United States Coast Guard Academy junior Blake Maurer, losing 6-4 and 6-1.

While the team did not perform as well as it would have liked to in the singles tournament, Milo remained positive about the weekend’s results.

“We can definitely play with the big boys in doubles,” he said. “In singles, we were right there also. This time, it didn’t go our way, but next time, we’re going to take it for sure.”

Lamanna saw much room for improvement in the singles play.

“We did a lot of learning this weekend,” he said. “We still got a lot of work to do on the singles court. As long as our guys stay comfortable and keep working at it, we don’t know the ceiling for this team, or if there will be one.

But it was a good tournament to get experience. On the singles court, for example, [Milo] was like 1-12 on break points to get to Bettles. Little things like that—on the break points—that’s usually where the games usually start.

There’s a lot of little things. But, hey, our freshmen got matured a little bit.”

Despite having plenty of room to improve, Lamanna said that the team’s drive to succeed would be an asset going forward.

“I think the most important thing with these guys is that they all want it pretty bad, and they don’t fear anybody,” he said. “So, that’s it. It’s a great couple [of] qualities to have. They all want it bad enough, … and they all want to be the best player. It’s great to have that to work with.”

The men’s tennis team next plays on Oct. 7 at the Wallach Invitational at Bates. The women’s team, meanwhile, will participate in the ITA Regionals this Friday.

THE JUSTICE

jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS Men’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Points

Not including Monday’s games UAA Conference Overall

W L D W L D Pct. Case 0 0 0 7 1 0 .875 WashU 0 0 0 7 1 0 .875 Chicago 0 0 0 5 1 1 .786 Rochester 0 0 0 5 2 0 .714 JUDGES 0 0 0 4 2 0 .667 Carnegie 0 0 0 4 3 1 .562 Emory 0 0 0 4 4 0 .500 NYU 0 0 0 3 3 1 .500

Lee Russo ’13 leads the team in points this year with eight.

Player Pts Lee Russo 8 Kyle Feather 6 Theo Terris 6 four tied with 5

Shots

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TUESDAY, September 27, 2011

15

CLUB SPORTS

Sailing club races top team at regatta

Joe Eisenbies ’13 leads the team in shots this year with 17.

Player Shots Joe Eisenbies 17 Lee Russo 16 Sam Ocel 15 Tyler Savonen 13

UPCOMING GAMES Today vs. Wentworth; Wednesday at Colby-Sawyer; Saturday vs. Rochester

WOMen’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS

Not including Monday’s games

Points

UAA Conference

W L D W L Emory 0 0 0 7 0 WashU 0 0 0 7 1 Case 0 0 0 6 1 NYU 0 0 0 6 2 Chicago 0 0 0 5 2 Rochester 0 0 0 5 2 Carnegie 0 0 0 5 3 JUDGES 0 0 0 3 5

Sapir Edalati ’15 and Mary Shimko ’14 lead in points.

Player Pts Sapir Edalati 4 Mary Shimko 4 Hilary Andrews 3 Kelly Peterson 3

Overall D Pct. 1 .938 0 .875 1 .812 0 .750 0 .714 0 .714 0 .625 0 .375

UPCOMING GAMES Tuesday vs. Wellesley; Saturday vs. Rochester; Thursday, Oct. 6 at Babson

Shots Alanna Torre ’12 leads the team in shots taken with 28.

Player Shots Alanna Torre 28 Mimi Theodore 18 Hilary Andrews 17 Sapir Edalati 15

VOLLEYBALL UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Kills

Not including Monday’s games UAA Conference Overall

W L W L Pct. WashU 0 0 14 0 1.000 Emory 0 0 17 1 .944 Chicago 0 0 15 1 .938 Case 0 0 10 4 .714 NYU 0 0 12 6 .667 Carnegie 0 0 10 6 .625 Rochester 0 0 10 6 .625 JUDGES 0 0 7 7 .500

UPCOMING GAMES At the UAA Round Robin at WashU: Saturday vs. NYU and WashU, Sunday vs. Carnegie Mellon

Liz Hood ’15 leads the team in kills so far this year with 159.

Player Kills Liz Hood 159 Si-Si Hensley 94 Becca Fischer 71 Lauren Berens 60

Digs Elsie Bernaiche ’15 leads the team in digs this year with 202.

Player Digs Elsie Bernaiche 202 Susan Sun 103 Si-Si Hensley 86 Liz Hood 78

cross cOuntry Results from Sept. 17 meet at UMass-Dartmouth

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

RUNNER TIME Chris Brown 24:56.74 Marc Boutin 25:11.99 Taylor Dundas 25:19.73 Alex Kramer 25:43.70

RUNNER TIME Kate Warwick 17:58.39 Amelia Lundkvist 19:20.58 Miriam Stulin 19:23.45 Victoria Sanford 19:44.04

UPCOMING EVENTS Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Open New England Championships at Franklin Park; Saturday, Oct. 15 at the University of Albany Invitational

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOSHUA BASSECHES

LAND AHOY: B-division skipper Forrest Hardy ’13 (standing) and crew member Jeanna Perry ’13 race at a local regatta.

■ The Brandeis sailing club

team finished 15th at a regatta at the University of Vermont 2 weeks ago.

By jonathan epstein JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

On Sept. 17, the Brandeis sailing team placed 15th in a field of 18 at the Lake Champlain Open in Vermont.

The University of Rhode Island won the regatta with 38 total points, followed by Northeastern University with 40. The University of Vermont finished third with 41 points, and Salve Regina University, Bowdoin College and Providence College all tied for fourth place with 44 points.

The Judges totaled 114 points, 7 be-

hind Connecticut College and 3 points ahead of Maine Maritime Academy.

Sailing’s scoring system is similar to cross country’s method, in that teams receive points equal to their place of their finish in each race, and the team with the lowest point total wins the regatta. However, because of a lack of wind, only four races were held in each division.

While the team didn’t do as well as its members had hoped, Fundraising and Communications Director Joshua Basseches ’12 said that competing in the regatta was impressive given the size of the Brandeis sailing program.

“For us to be able to travel to Vermont and compete in this qualifying regatta was a very big accomplishment in [and] of itself because the competition consisted of larger

schools from all three of the NCAA’s divisions, as well as teams with more funding,” he explained. “So while I wish we had placed higher, I think we agreed it was pretty solid compared to what we were hoping for.”

Of the two divisions in the regatta, the Judges placed 12th in the A division with 48 points and 17th in the B division with 66 points. The highest finish of any individual Brandeis team during the regatta was ninth.

Brandeis was supposed to sail in the Chris Loder Trophy last weekend at the University of New Hampshire, but, without any wind, the regatta had to be cancelled. The team has two events next weekend, the first at Tufts University on Mystic Lake and then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the team will race down the Charles River in Boston.

AP brief Buffalo Bills show that they’re the real deal, dropping the New England Patriots in 34-31 slugfest ORCHARD PARK, N.Y.–Hold on to your seats, the Buffalo Bills are showing they’re for real.

Kicker Rian Lindell hit a 28-yard field goal as time expired to cap a stunning comeback for a 34-31 victory over the New England Patriots last Sunday.

The win snapped Buffalo’s 15-game losing streak against the Patriots that dated back to 2003 and sparked a wild celebration in which stadium officials guarded the goal posts to ensure that fans didn’t bring them down.

The Patriots looked golden for the first 24 minutes Sunday. But NFL teams play 60 minutes, and eventually the Bills jumped on New England’s mistakes. As Lindell’s kick sailed through the uprights, holder Brian Moorman jumped on Lindell’s shoulders, and receiver David Nelson went running down the other end of the field

pumping his fist.

The Bills (3-0) won courtesy of yet another rally led by Ryan Fitzpatrick, overcoming a 21-0 second-quarter deficit. It was reminiscent of what the Bills did in a 38-35 win over Oakland a week earlier when they scored touchdowns on their final five possessions to overcome a 21-3 deficit.

This time, they did it against their longtime AFC East nemesis.

Quarterback Tom Brady went 30 of 45 for 386 yards and four scores for New England (2-1), which had a 10-game regular-season winning string ended. Wes Welker had 16 catches for a franchiserecord 217 yards and two scores.

Despite setting a league record for most yards passing over a three-game stretch, Brady matched a career worst with four interceptions. That included Drayton Florence’s 27-yard intercep-

tion return for a touchdown with 10:22 left that came 14 seconds after Buffalo’s Fred Jackson tied the game at 24 with a 1-yard plunge.

Though Brady led the Patriots back to tie the score at 31 on a 6-yard touchdown pass to Welker—on fourth-andgoal, no less—the Bills would not be denied. Getting the ball back with 3:25 remaining, Fitzpatrick needed only three plays to get the Bills into scoring position.

Facing first-and-10 at the Patriots’ 39, Fitzpatrick hit Jackson over the middle. Jackson broke loose and was attempting to dive into the end zone before being tackled from behind by Devin McCourty.

Officials initially ruled that Jackson had scored, before having it overturned on video review.

That wound up being an advantage

for the Bills, who ran down the clock by kneeling. The Patriots ran out of timeouts—and composure—as an unsportmanlike conduct penalty against Vince Wilfork gave Buffalo another set of downs at the 1.

Dating to 1950, the Bills became the only team to overcome deficits of at least 18 points to win in consecutive weeks, according to STATS LLC. In fact, only six teams have won twice in one season when trailing by 18 or more points. The last team to do so: the Patriots in 1996.

This comeback started before halftime. Down 21-0, Fitzpatrick capped a 96-yard drive by hitting Stevie Johnson for an 11-yard touchdown. Brady’s first interception came on the following possession, which led to Lindell’s 42-yard field goal.

Johnson had eight catches for 94

yards and a touchdown for Buffalo.

Tight end Scott Chandler also scored on a 3-yard catch.

It was a back-and-forth game featuring two of the NFL’s top-scoring teams.

The Bills racked up 448 yards on offense and 24 first downs. The Patriots were even more productive, finishing with 495 yards on offense and 30 first downs.

Brady’s 387 yards passing gave him 1,326 in three games, which eclipsed the record of 1,257 set in 2006 by New Orleans QB Drew Brees. It was also Brady’s 37th 300-yard career game, moving him into ninth place, one ahead of John Elway.

The Patriots extended their franchise-record streak to 11 games of scoring 30 points or more, three short of matching the NFL record set by the St. Louis Rams in 1999-2000.

just

Sports

Page 16

FENCING GREAT PASSES Former Brandeis men’s fencing coach and U.S. Fencing Hall of Famer Joe Pechinsky died last Thursday, p. 13.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

women’s soccer

Waltham, Mass.

TENNIS

SLIDE TACKLE

Judges end skid but fall to Lasell

Doubles teams roll at the ITA tourney ■ Two men’s tennis doubles teams advanced deep into tournament play last weekend.

■ After defeating Gordon College last Tuesday, the women’s soccer team fell to Lasell College last Thursday.

By JACOB LURIE JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

By max goldstein JUSTICE senior WRITER

The women’s soccer team ended its four-game losing streak but was unable to put together a winning streak of its own during a mixed week. The Judges lost in agonizing fashion at Lasell College last Thursday after cruising past Gordon College last Tuesday, leaving the team at 3-5 overall.

Though Brandeis ended the week with a loss, midfielder Mimi Theodore ’12 was unfazed by the team’s recent rough stretch.

“We just need to take each game one step at a time,” she said. “We are going to be switching some things up for the next couple of games, which will hopefully prove to be good for us.”

The Judges, coming off a win against Gordon that snapped Brandeis’ losing streak, entered Taylor Field at Lasell last Thursday looking to start their own winning streak. In the first 45 minutes, neither side could find the goal. The Judges narrowly outshot Lasell 6-5 in the first half and generated more shots on target, but three saves from Lasell senior goalie Elizabeth Stickley kept the score level. The second half began with much of the same—a few shots and chances on both sides—but neither team could find the net. After 72 minutes of play, Lasell finally put a goal in the net.

Lassell sophomore forward Sam Peck intercepted a poor Brandeis pass and sprinted down the field, cutting between two defenders. She fired the ball over goalie Michelle Savuto ’15 for the score.

Brandeis responded with a goal of its own just 10 minutes later. Forward Hilary Andrews ’14 headed in a corner from midfielder Alyssa Fenenbock ’15 in the 82nd minute. The goal was Andrews’ first of the season, and Fenenbock earned her first point in a Brandeis uniform.

One minute later, Peck had another chance to score, this time drawing a penalty shot in the 83rd minute. Lasell sophomore forward Jamie Harris was called upon to attempt the penalty, but she could not convert, thanks to a tremendous save from Savuto. Savuto saved two rebound shots as well, and the Judges forced overtime.

Theodore said that she was happy with the team’s play overall, but said that they needed to improve at the net.

“We need to improve on finishing,” she said. “We have controlled play throughout. However, we have been unsuccessful because we haven’t been able to find the back of the net.”

The first overtime was reminiscent of the first half, as both sides had their chances, but neither team could convert. However, Lasell ended the game early in the second overtime on a goal from Harris in the 105th minute. Harris beat her defender, found space in front and hit the ball over Savuto’s head for the win.

“It was really tough,” said Theodore. “It is disappointing to know we could have come out with a win had we had taken advantage on some of

See WSOCCER, 14 ☛

JOSHUA LINTON/Justice File Photo

PAST THE DEFENDER: Defender Ethan Berceli ’14 avoids a tackle from a Worcester Polytechnic Institute defender Sept. 14.

Men fall to Babson in heartbreaking fashion ■ The men’s soccer team

suffered a 2-1 overtime loss at Babson College last Saturday.

By HENRY LOUGHLIN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Despite pulling ahead early in the second half, the men’s soccer team dropped a tough double-overtime 2-1 decision to Babson College last Saturday.

After a scoreless first half, midfielder Joe Eisenbies ’13 broke the deadlock with a thunderous header 7 minutes past the interval. Though the strike looked like it may set the Judges on the road to victory, Babson junior forward and All-American Erik Anderson notched a 73rdminute equalizer before ending the contest in the second extra session to give the Beavers, now 5-2-1, a vital victory.

“We gave away two fouls, and their guy had two headers,” lamented Brandeis coach Mike Coven. “[Anderson] is a great player. They’re a big rival, so it was disappointing to lose.”

Brandeis, now 4-2-0, had dispatched the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last Monday night by a score of 2-0, extending their unbeat-

en home streak to three games.

After defeating MIT, the Judges looked to keep flying high last Saturday afternoon, as the Judges traveled the short 6.5 miles to HartwellRogers Field. The visitors ended any chance of a scoreless draw in the 52nd minute, as midfielder Theo Terris ’12 sent a ball into the box from a short corner, where Eisenbies nodded home for a 1-0 Brandeis advantage.

Despite playing “some of the best soccer a Brandeis team has ever played,” according to Coven, for the first 60 minutes, the Judges soon found themselves on the back foot.

A long service from Babson senior midfielder Salomon Guindi found the head of Anderson, who made no mistake in knotting things up with 17 minutes to play.

Both sides had chances to emerge victorious in regulation. First, forward Sam Ocel ’13 had a headed bid saved by Babson senior goalkeeper Peter Crowley at his near post. Minutes later, Beavers senior forward Ayo Iwuagwu sent a headed effort from a corner just over the bar, sending the game to overtime.

Although the first sudden-death session did not result in a winner, the second session featured the killer blow from the home side. Having received a throw-in near the center circle, senior midfielder Max Walk-

er knocked a long ball towards the Judges’ box, where the omnipresent Anderson out-jumped charging keeper Blake Minchoff ’13 to bury his second header of the match and send the home crowd into raptures as a result of the sudden victory.

In the first encounter of the week, the hosts grabbed an early lead as forward Lee Russo ’13 headed a cross from Ocel past Engineers senior goalkeeper Dylan Rankin with 15 minutes gone. Though Brandeis dominated possession following the goal, Rankin stonewalled Russo twice and defender Tyler Savonen ’15 to keep the difference at one goal going into the half.

Following the intermission, MIT almost grabbed the equalizer in the 57th minute. Senior forward Zach Kabelac unleashed a rocket that Minchoff did well to keep out. The ball trickled free to the back post, leaving sophomore midfielder Jonathan Tebes with an open net. However, Minchoff made a fantastic save, hurling himself across the face of goal to keep the Engineers off the board.

With the match was very much in the balance, Russo gave the Judges some breathing room just before the final whistle. After Minchoff came up the pitch to knock a bouncing ball out of play, the Judges quickly took

See MSOCCER, 13 ☛

The men’s tennis team turned in a great performance last weekend, as both doubles teams advanced to the second round of the 2011 Intercollegiate Tennis Association New England Regionals at Williams College. In the tournament, the duo of Hunter Bielfield ’15 and Alec Siegel ’15 advanced to the quarterfinals before being eliminated by a team from Williams.

Bielfield and Siegel first went up against Babson College freshmen Ramone Doyley and Roy Murdock, and they defeated the Beavers 8-5.

The duo next squared off against Middlebury College senior David Farah and sophomore Edward Fitzgibbons, pulling out a close 9-8 win.

Coach Ben Lamanna was impressed with his first-years in their tournament debut.

“I thought [Hunter and Alec] played great,” he said. “They’ve been working hard. They’ve been improving, and I thought they had a great showing. It was a nice win over Middlebury in a tie-breaker.”

Lamanna credited the success in the doubles bracket to several factors, including team cohesion and a solid ability to work together.

“We generally try to maximize what each individual can do, but we do have a style that we like to play,” he said. “[Steven Milo ’13 and Dave Yovanoff ’13] have had some big wins for us over the years, and they have some good chemistry together, and I think [Bielfield and Siegel] really learned a lot about each other …and are starting [to] gain that chemistry as well.”

In the quarterfinals, Bielfield and Siegel went against the homecourt team of Williams junior Felix Sun and sophomore Matt Micheli. Brandeis could not pull out another win, losing the match 8-6.

The Judges’ first doubles team of Yovanoff and Milo opened up against Wesleyan University freshman Stephen Monk and junior Ben Hudson. Yovanoff and Milo knocked out their opponents 8-3 and advanced to the second round.

Milo explained that he and Yovanoff have a great deal of trust in each other. “[Yovanoff] and I have been playing together since freshman year,” he said. “I pretty much know what he’s going to do before he does it, and he knows the same about me.”

In the second round, Yovanoff and Milo found stiffer competition in the form of Bates College junior Matt Bettles and sophomore Tim Berg. Bettles and Berg, coming off an 8-0 shutout of Springfield College, defeated the Judges tandem 8-4.

In the singles bracket, Brandeis did not have as much success. Siegel battled Bates freshman Pierre Planche and dropped in consecutive sets, 6-2 and 6-4. Milo was defeated by Bettles once again, losing by

See TENNIS, 14 ☛

just

September 27, 2011

ARTS

Guster rocks Gosman

with

stellar

songs p. 20

Photos: Robyn Spector, Asher Krell and Nathaniel Freedman/the Justice. Design: Robyn Spector/the Justice.

18

TUESDAY, September 27, 2011 ● THE JUSTICE

POP CULTURE

INSIDE ON CAMPUS

19-22

■ Art opening

19

The senior and post-bac show “New Work from Home and Abroad” opened this week.

■ Climate change photography 19 German photography analyst and BU Ph.D. candidate Ulrike Heine shared her views on the global warming media trend.

■ Guster at Brandeis

20

■ ‘Cultures of Resistance’

20

Alternative-rock band Guster performed last Saturday with opener Jukebox the Ghost.

The new film documents artists’ struggle against violence in their respective countries.

■ The Frat Cave

21

■ Milcah Bassel

21

Adam Levitt ’12, Chris Defalco ’12 and James Bartolacci ’12 operate a small basement venue for indie and upcoming bands.

The feminist artist, who graduated from the post-baccalaureate program last year, discusses her sculptures housed at Brandeis.

■ BC3 club profile

22

OFF CAMPUS

23

■ ‘Machine Gun Preacher’

23

■ James Farm review

23

JustArts checks in with Brandeis’ resident Chinese club about its goings-on.

The man who inspired the upcoming film spoke about fighting tyranny in Africa.

The influential acoustic quartet performed at the Berklee Performance Center to kick off the Beantown Jazz Festival last Friday.

CALENDAR

Interview

Boston musician causes a stir in the jazz world

by Shelly Shore

For those of us who have been following pop culture for way too long (yours truly, for one), it’s hard to remember that the Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston-Angelina Jolie split drama happened almost 6 years ago. The way the tabloids keep dragging their names together in almost every article about any one of them makes it especially hard to forget.

This week, though, Brad Pitt broke the status quo and directly addressed his split with Aniston back in 2005. “I think that my marriage had something to do with it,” he said. “Trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn’t.” He followed the statement by mentioning that in regard to his large family with Jolie, starting a family with her was “one of the greatest, smartest things I ever did.”

Tabloid backlash was instantaneous, accusing Pitt of being too critical of Aniston as a person and blaming her for his decision to get involved with Jolie while they were still married. Pitt immediately backpedaled, issuing an official statement to clarify: “It grieves me that this was interpreted this way. Jen is an incredibly giving, loving and hilarious woman who remains my friend. It is an important relationship I value greatly. The point I was trying to make is not that Jen was dull, but that I was becoming dull to myself—and that, I am responsible for.”

Celebrity infidelity is nothing new. It seems like almost every celebrity split is surrounded by rumors of cheating—some accurate, some not. But sometimes we have to wonder: Is the constant harping on past relationships in the media making it impossible for the celebrities involved to move on? As much as we would like to ignore it, the fact remains that celebrities are people too, and I’m pretty sure that if I was Aniston, I wouldn’t want to be answering questions about Pitt every time I think I’m being interviewed about a new movie.

But, then again, drama sells. Tabloids have always been more concerned with selling is-

 JustArts spoke to Joshua Redman, an accomplished tenor saxophonist who founded the jazz collective James Farm, his latest musical outfit.

BARBARA DODUK/Flickr Creative Commons

BRANGELINA: Brad Pitt finally came clean on his breakup with ex-wife Jennifer Aniston this week.

sues than selling kindness, and the Pitt-Aniston-Jolie triangle is a gold mine. In the celebrity blogging community, there’s a pretty big divide between Team Aniston and Team Jolie (Team Aniston, represent!), which goes to show just how much people are willing to get involved in events that have nothing at all to do with them.

As for Pitt, he seems to be well aware of the constant media opinions on his relationships.

“I think it’s a shame that I can’t say something nice about Angie without Jen being [dragged] in,” he told Matt Lauer in an interview on NBC’s Today Show on Thursday. “She doesn’t deserve it.”

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus

ON-CAMPUS EVENTS DesiFest Fall 2011

DesiFest, held every semester by the South Asian Students Association, is an event held to make students on campus aware of South Asian culture. The event will include complimentary Bhel Puri, a well-known South Asian vegetarian snack; mango juice; henna for girls and boys; cricket; and desi music.

Wednesday from 3 to 6 p.m. on the Great Lawn.

Argentine Tango Society meeting

Whether you’ve never stepped out on the floor before or you are a king of swing, Argentine Tango Society welcomes you to a night of beautiful and seductive dancing.

Thursday from 9 to 10:15 p.m. in the South Campus Commons. ffffff

Kaos Kids open class

Join the on-campus dance troupe Kaos Kids to work on improving your dance style. At the class, you will learn some of the moves that make Kaos Kids popular performers and also get to teach some of your own cool moves. And what better way to exercise when you are sick of the treadmill?

Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center Dance Room.

Music by Chants

Faculty jazz band Bob Nieske 4 will perform this unique show featuring songs that showcase either chant-like singing or improvised numbers. The band is composed of Prof. Robert Nieske (MUS), as well as trumpeter Phil Grenadier, percussionist Jon Hazilla and slide-guitarist and “gizmo” player Dave Tronzo.

Saturday from 8 to 9:30 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall.

Brandeis University Making Strides

Making Strides is a celebration of survivorship. Spend a few hours with Brandeis Colleges Against Cancer and the American Cancer Society for an inspirational event of exercise, camaraderie and entertainment to honor people who have been affected by breast cancer. There is no registration fee or minimum fundraising amount. The Brandeis team name is Brandeis CAC and Friends, and you can register at www.makingstrides. acsevents.org.

Sunday from 8 to 11 p.m. in DCR Hatch Memorial Shell, located on Storrow Drive, Boston.

‘The Reckoning’ screening

The Reckoning: Crimes Against Humanity documents the work of International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

The Reckoning is one film in a series leading up to a symposium titled “Just Performance: Enacting Justice in the Wake of Violence.”

The movies all feature individuals attempting to lessen the suffering around them caused by political strife.

Monday from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Heller School for Policy and Social Management Room G2.

ROBYN SPECTOR/Justice File Photo

SNACKS BY SASA: Students in the South Asian Students Association (above) served Bhel Puri, a vegetarian South Asian snack, and mango juice at last year’s DesiFest. This year’s festival takes place on Wednesday.

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS James Van Praagh talk

Praagh, a noted medium, or communicator with the dead, presents his skills to a live audience in this spiritual performance. Praagh asserts that he can “feel the emotions and personalities of the deceased,” and he provides access to the thoughts and feelings of the dead to those still on earth.

Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Wilbur Theater, located at 246 Tremont St., Boston. Tickets are $40 to $50.

‘Porgy and Bess’

This George Gershwin-penned opera is about the interactions of three African-American families living in South Carolina in the 1920s. The opera, first performed in 1935, was originally considered controversial for its use of an all-black cast and production team. Porgy and Bess stars David Alan Grier (In Living Color) and Audra McDonald (Private Practice).

Running until Sunday at the American Reperatory Theatre, located at 64 Brattle St., Cambridge. Ticket prices vary.

The Cut Tour: Boston

Filmmaker Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon will present his documentary, CUT: Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision in a presentation sponsored by the Massachusetts Association for the Genital Integrity of Children. A nationwide film tour sponsored by nonprofit organization The WHOLE Network, the Boston event will also feature a special guest, Ronald Goldman Ph.D., author of Circumcision: The Hidden Trauma and Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective.

Tuesday from 8 to 10 p.m. at 65 Cornwall St. (off Amory), Jamaica Plain, Mass.

Roxbury Open Studios

This annual 4-day event is an opportunity for individual creativity to play its part in the cultural and economic development of Roxbury. Visual artists will welcome the public to view and purchase paintings, drawings, sculptures, textiles, jewelry and other studio crafts, and there will be a Thursday night film and panel. There will also be free trolley service running every 15 minutes to various artist locations from MBTA stations and community landmarks on Saturday and Sunday.

Thursday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; free film and panel on Thursday at MassArt Tower Gallery, located at Massachusetts College of Art and Design at 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston, at 8 p.m.

‘The Other Night Sky: Destiny, Warfare, and Ruins among the Stars’

Trevor Paglen, a social scientist, artist, writer and provocateur who has been exploring the secret activities of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies for the last 8 years through publishing, speaking and taking photographs gives what promises to be an exciting and enlightening talk.

Friday at 7 p.m. at MIT Bartos Theater, Building E-15 Lower Level, 20 Ames St., Cambridge.

‘The Phantom Tollbooth’

Wheelock Family Theater celebrates The Phantom Tollbooth’s 50th anniversary by putting on a musical adaptation of the classic children’s novel. Protagonist Milo journeys through the Kingdom of Wisdom searching for the Princesses of Rhyme and Reason in the fantasy.

Running Friday, Oct. 22 to Friday, Nov.4 at Wheelock College’s Wheelock Family Theater, located at 180 Riverway, Boston.

Joshua Redman once had the whole world in front of him. In 1991, he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Social Studies and had already been accepted to Yale University Law School. Then something struck him, and he quickly became immersed in the New York jazz scene. The young tenor saxophonist never looked back and now has 14 albums and more than two decades of performing under his belt. Redman’s latest project, the collective James Farm, may be the most innovative and influential band in the jazz world today.

JustArts: How would you characterize your relationship with Berklee and Boston?

Joshua Redman: I went to school in Boston; not Berklee, but Harvard. I made some very strong musical connections and friendships with people at Berklee and the New England Conservatory. I learned to play by hanging out with these musicians—Mark Turner, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jorge Rossy, Jim Black, Antonio Hart. That was a very formative time for me. I’m very grateful to have gone to school in Boston. Had I not, I don’t know if I’d be playing music today.

JA: What’s interesting to me about James Farm is that it’s a collective instead of something like the Joshua Redman Quartet. Was it a conscious decision on your part to be in a collective?

JR: From the beginning when the band was formed, we viewed it as a collaborative project, and we’ve kept it that way. The way we approach our music, develop our sound and come up with our repertoire are really collective decisions.

Each of [our] musicians is a strong composer and a visionary bandleader in his own right. We wanted to put this band together and organize it as a band, not as a leader and some sidemen. The music would have a different character than it would if it were any one of our bands.

JA: Musically, what is your role in James Farm when you’re composing and improvising?

JR: When I’m writing music for the band, there’s an experimental side of me where I don’t know what I’m going for, but I have some ideas and some inspiration, and I kind of try to work with those ideas and flesh them out. Compositionally, I don’t always know where I’m going.

It’s kind of like improvisation, I just go forward and see what emerges. With this band, I definitely have everyone’s sound and their approach in mind. Also, these musicians are incredibly flexible and accomplished. You can put anything in front of them, and if there’s any musical sense to be made out of it, they’ll make it. With this band, we’re interested in finding ways to not rely on the model of playing the melody, and everyone takes a solo and we play the melody in the end. There’s more of a big-picture approach. We’re interested in how we can remain pure and spontaneous improvisers but have those improvisations serve a larger goal of telling a story with the song.

JA: Do you usually compose something then present it to the group, or do you bounce ideas off of each other while you’re together?

JR: The way it’s worked so far is we each write independently and bring the song to the group.

But when we bring it to the group, it’s often not fully formed. We’re constantly adjusting the songs and relying on everyone else’s intuition and musical intelligence and instincts to make the songs work for the band. None of the songs I’ve written for the band have had a clear conception of how I thought the music should sound.

I had some ideas, and I put them down. But so much of bringing a song to life takes place after the composition process. We breathe life into the music through the human elements of us conversing as a band.

JA: Did your approach to your compositions come from a specific inspiration?

JR: No, I think we all listen to a lot of music that falls outside of whatever the strict boundaries of jazz might be. We definitely have influences of electronica and modern rock and singersongwriter music and maybe even some classical music. We each have our strong individual inclinations, and I think one of the strengths of the groups is how these unique personalities come together and how we find common ground as a band.

JA: Do you ever go back to the old Coltrane and Miles albums?

JR: I don’t consider it going back. I mean, do I listen to Coltrane and Miles? Sure. I don’t consider it like ‘Oh, let me go back and check out music, that I used to listen or that was once important.’

The great music of the masters of jazz— Coltrane, Miles, Ornette Coleman, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk—their music to me lives in the present. That music affirms universal truth and that music continues to sound so hip and modern to me.

—Wei-Huan Chen

THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, september 27, 2011

19

ON CAMPUS Fine Arts

“New Work” showcases student talent ■ Pieces of various media,

from paintings to sculpture to photography, are now up in Brandeis’ latest show.

By Alex DeSilva JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

This past Thursday, two shows celebrating the works of Brandeis’ senior and post-baccalaureate students opened on campus. The openings, titled “New Work from Home and Abroad” mark the end to the art program’s “Meet the Majors” night.

These shows were special because the senior and post-bac students rarely have the chance to show their artwork on campus. For the most part, their work is done in an off-campus art studio, meaning that most of the student-made art seen on campus is done by underclassmen.

According to Prof. Tory Fair (FA), who organized the event, the gallery showing was to “give a presence of senior and post-bac work”—and if tonight’s show was anything to go by, students have been missing out on some thrilling works of art.

The senior work was shown in Goldman-Schwartz Art Center, which is also where the “Meet the Majors” event took place. The works were hung throughout the halls of Goldman-Schwartz, grouped by the artist and accompanied by each artist’s biography and what inspired their works. Putting them up in the hall might sound unceremonious, but no one seemed to mind. All eyes were on what was hanging on the walls.

Taken as a whole, the senior show was very diverse. There were works that ranged from realistic figure paintings to more abstract installments, like the canvas covered in paint splatters and pierced by clusters of nails and the piece of bamboo in a wicker basket. On the other end of the spectrum were the human figure paintings by Stacy Ha ’12, who had immersed herself in classical painting styles. There was also Kelsey Grab’s ’12 series of paintings, “Us and Nature,” inspired by what she saw over the summer when she worked as an interior decorator in Bali. Most of the paintings were inspired by the island’s stunning natural scenery; however, the beauty of much of the scenery is being destroyed to make way for construction projects focussed on building infrastructure for tourism. The paintings mourn the loss of these natural areas while also celebrating what is still there. The paintings use vibrant colors to play up the island’s natural beauty. Grab included pho-

tographs of some areas that inspired her, and the most remarkable thing about them is that, no matter how colorful the paintings are, the actual landscapes are equally vibrant.

Every piece at the show was notable; each work was unique, each came from a personal place and each fully deserved its spot in the showing. The same goes for the post-bac works. As the night went on, people began migrating away from Goldman and toward the Drietzer Gallery in the Spingold Theater, where the post-bac works were on display.

These were just as well done as what was featured at the senior showing, but were, if anything, a bit bolder.

After all, the senior showing didn’t feature gigantic, wire-frame letters spelling out “HIV,” with the “I” covered in mesh and dripping fake blood. This work was made by Robert Fitzgerald PB after his time with the Peace Corps in Kenya, where he witnessed the ravages of HIV firsthand.

Like the senior works, post-bac art is rarely seen on campus, and for the most part, the post-bac students seem to have even less of a presence.

Almost all of their work is done off campus, and the program itself lasts only 1 or 2 years; despite how incredible it is, many undergrads are not going to see this artwork.

There was political art like Fitzgerald’s work; whimsical landscapes that included rainbows, unicorns, castles and giant fish skeletons; a giant painting of a Mesoamerican woman, coupled with pastoral scenes that looked like something made by one of the Mexican muralists; and a series of three small, dark pastel and charcoal drawings that simultaneously evoked feelings of dread and a strange bit of hope.

Other standouts were a series of small square paintings, each of which had a counterpart, by Adam Sultan, who referred to the paintings as “Grids,” as well as two paintings by Kelsey Lloyd. Lloyd’s “Soft” gives off a Latin American feel despite being based on a food stand at Coney Island, and a painting that used cut-out pictures of a housewife and porcelain deer for an enjoyable, if somewhat surreal, effect.

Like the senior show, the attention given to those few works doesn’t take away from how powerful everything else was. In both showings, the art was the product of everything these students have learned over the years and the hours of work that went into their creations. Both exhibits showcased how talented these students are, and if anything, made a great case for more frequent displays of student art.

ASHLEY LAU/the Justice

GALLERY GOER: Seniors display their best creations in Goldman-Schwartz Art Center.

CLIMATE CHANGE PHOTOGRAPHY

JANEY ZITOMER/the Justice

ART AND NATURE: Photography analyst Heine (above) came to campus at the request of Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL).

Heine speaks about images documenting climate change ■ Ulrike Heine shared her

views on the recent media influx of environmentally conscious photographs.

By Damiana Andonova JUSTICE Contributing WRITER

Ulrike Heine, born in Germany, has studied art history throughout Europe and has finally made her way to New England to begin to work on her doctorate degree. Heine, a Ph.D. candidate from Justus-Liebig-Universität in Glieben, Germany, is visiting Boston for a fellowship at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future where she hopes to focus on photography and climate change. The Pardee Center regularly convenes symposia and supports policy-relevant future-oriented research that hopes to improve our life on this planet. Previously, Heine studied art history and culture studies in Leipzig, Germany and St. Petersburg, Russia. Though she’s not a practicing photographer, she is particularly interested in analyzing photography in all fields—including art, photojournalism and commercial photography—as a tool for understanding and depicting climate change. She hopes to accomplish this during her fellowship at the Pardee Center.

Earlier this week, Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL) introduced Ulrike Heine to students at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

Upon entering the lecture room, it felt like I was entering a class for a guest speaker. There were snacks and fruit available and a big projector screen projecting the words “Climate Change and Photography, Ulrike Heine.” The room was half-full as Heine stood behind the computer preparing her talk. Though the event was open to the public, most of the attendees were students interested in environmental science.

Von Mering’s introduction gave context to the lecture. “Climate change isn’t very much prevalent [in the current political agenda] here [in the United States] like it is in Europe,” said von Mering, “but of course, we hope to see changes happen.” Von Mering invited Heine to speak at Brandeis because the professor hopes that more discussion-generating lectures like Heine’s will spark more interest in discussing climate change in America.

After von Mering’s introduction, Heine lectured on the focus of her doctorate studies and her aim to discuss specific iconography, quality of presentation and distribution as crucial elements of climate change photography. In other words, she sought to determine what specific images or icons within a photograph made it relate to climate change and how the presen-

tation and content of the photograph itself affected how it was interpreted.

She spoke on three different hypotheses: Climate change is not a single discourse, there are no particular aesthetics to climate change photography, and photography is a problemsolving mechanism to be accepted as a fact—we can learn how climate change works as a cultural idea.

Her lecture consisted of analyzing approximately 20 hand-selected photographs and then discussing her findings and hypotheses with the audience. Heine aimed to pick out certain imagery within a photograph and describe how the image related to climate change, what the photographer hoped to portray and how the photograph itself was presented and distributed among its audience. For instance, we looked at photographs of landscapes, both destroyed and stabilizing, as Heine commented on what “iconography” made it relevant to climate change.

“I am looking at climate change through the lens of photography. Photography takes an extraordinary role in climate change,” said Heine, as she continued to show photographs in various groups such as landscapes, urbanscapes, anthropogenic (human impact on the environment) and anthropological photography, as well as envisioned computer-generated landscapes. The photographs were extraordinarily beautiful. From an artistic perspective, they were highly stylized and had amazing perspectives. As she moved through the slides, I could see conventions like rule of thirds, specific angles, focus manipulation, dimension and proportion. It was clear Heine carefully chose distinctive photographs that differed from the typical image of a polar bear on an ice float.

Heine is especially interested in understanding how photography aims to discover and document the world and capture the moment. In addition, she wants to understand the idea of photography as a pure image rather than an interpretation. “Art photography, photojournalism and commercial photography have overlapped over time, which has resulted in a double occupation of photographers,” said Heine.

She believes photographers have a more complex relationship with their photographs as they aim to capture images, in addition to their audience and social media.

Furthermore, Heine stated that the recent advancements of technology and other “photography-like industries such as video and motion photography” have had significant impacts on photography in general.

Heine explained how the Internet has commercialized photography with applications like iStockphoto, Flickr and Google Images.

Heine then analyzed how anthropogenic climate change imagery has al-

lowed more discussion among global leaders.

Heine stated that the use of this imagery has also engaged artists in cultural discourse and has been used as a framework for moral and cultural values. Images discussed during this portion involved industry landscapes and urbanscapes. The images consisted of factory pollution juxtaposed with birds flying overhead, images of skylines and of consumerism. For example, one image she used was a photograph of a teenage girl with heavy pink makeup and cosmetics holding a pink cellphone, and another was a photograph of a high-traffic aisle at a supermarket.

Throughout the presentation, Heine analyzed a selection of climate change photography from both American and international photographers. She looked at idealistic, altered and industrial urbanscapes as well as glacier archives and destroyed landscapes as symbols of climate change. In addition, she explained that envisioned future photography and computergenerated, post-human aftermath photography have “done damage to photography of climate change.” Examples of envisioned photography include computer-generated images of what important landmarks would look like after a natural disaster. Consider how London would look if it was covered in water or how the Golden Gate Bridge would appear if everything else around it was covered in snow. Heine states that photographs like these, which depict unrealistic futures, undermine the advancements realistic photography has made to climate change.

“Anthropological imagery,” Heine stated, “are highly stylized depictions of victims of climate change where the photographer attempts to put a human face on climate change in vulnerable communities.” Some of the images presented were of indigenous populations in their native surroundings.

Photographs that stood out were African tribes standing next to dead livestock on desiccated landscapes and African mothers with children against a backdrop of dried land. Heine also discussed how photography of the consumer’s world and capitalism, as well as inscriptions and captions, aim to frame climate change photographs.

Heine finished her lecture by summarizing her research hypotheses.

She’s also working on the reportage of solutions. “I think it’s more natural for photographers to depict consequences of, rather than solutions to, climate change,” she said. The lecture itself wasn’t entirely easy to understand, but the photography presented certainly engaged the audience. Many comments about the photos were made after the talk. Students really seemed eager to discuss the topics Heine introduced after the presentation.

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music

Beloved rockers Guster take the stage ■ Student Events brought

prolific pop-rock band Guster and opener Jukebox the Ghost to Gosman on Saturday.

By louis polisson JUSTICE contributing WRITER

Over 1,200 people crowded into Shapiro Gymnasium in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center Saturday night. The stage was set for opener Jukebox the Ghost and headlining band Guster. A mix of Brandeis students and concertgoers from off campus slowly filled the gym leading up to the start of the show. Many longtime Guster fans were in the audience, which gave Jukebox the Ghost a good opportunity to impress the crowd.

Jukebox the Ghost, an act that has been rising in popularity for the past several years, is a three-piece indie rock outfit based in Philadelphia composed of vocalist and pianist Ben Thornewill, vocalist and guitarist Tommy Siegel and drummer Jesse Kristin.

The band opened their set with “Schizophrenia,” the first track off their last album, Everything Under the Sun (2010). The song was a strong opener, highlighting the band’s tight vocal harmonies over highly danceable drumbeats.

“Schizophrenia” also exemplified the ways that Jukebox the Ghost often uses instrumental melodies that lock in with each other: the vocal, synthesizer and guitar lines were often sung and played in unison as well as in harmony. The band continued with “Summer Sun,” another danceable tune with catchy guitar and synth riffs. The next tune, “Somebody,” showed the band’s quieter, lighter side.

Other highlights of Jukebox the Ghost’s set were “Say When” and “Hold It In,” during which Thornewill’s charismatic hand and arm gesticulations drew in and entertained the audience. Siegel made good use of his Gibson SG Classic, playing full rhythmic chords in addition to melodic leads and distorted solos. Thornewill’s two synthesizers were used creatively as well: His full-size keyboard was used for its piano voice while a smaller synth set up above the keyboard was used for bouncier, wavier synth sounds.

Overall, the band’s playful stage presence created an infectious performance. Their cover of Huey Lewis and the News’ “The Power of

NATHANIEL FREEDMAN/the Justice

PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC: Guster “completely melt our faces,” according to up-and-coming opener Jukebox the Ghost. The band played an eclectic, upbeat set.

Love” demonstrated that the band was not afraid to have fun. While Jukebox the Ghost put on an enjoyable show, their poppy brand of piano-and-guitar indie rock only goes so far. Their music is wellcrafted, but it does not break any new ground. Their energy and attitude added a great deal to their live show, however. As Jukebox the Ghost promised earlier in its set, Guster would shortly come onstage to “completely melt our faces.”

The crowd’s excitement was palpable as Guster took the stage around 9:15 p.m. Members Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner and Brian Rosenworcel came onstage in the dark while booming music played.

The stage setup had already given a preview of the high-energy, multifaceted performance the audience was about to experience. Lights were hanging above the stage and small lighting towers lined the rear of the stage. A hand percussion setup, complete with a kick drum, sat at the center of the stage between a keyboard and a full drum kit.

The band opened with “What You Wish For,” a loud, upbeat song, replete with tight, pleasant vocal harmonies and acoustic and electric guitar parts. The next song, “Satellite,” kept the energy high with its famously eerie yet enjoyable high synth line.

From song to song, the band proved its musical ability and versatility, with members constantly switching from guitar to bass to keyboard to banjo and more. Drummer Rosenworcel switched back and forth between his standing hand percussion setup and his full drum kit. Rosenworcel amazed the audience with his extraordinarily fast and powerful hand percussion, hitting congas, snares and even lower-tuned drums with his hands.

Miller used a ukulele and harmonica on a few songs, such as “Come Downstairs and Say Hello.” The band’s vocal talents were impressive as well; they often used threepart vocal harmonies, which created a thick wall-of-vocal sound effect.

The variety didn’t end there,

though: The 12th song in its set was a jam over which Ryan Miller freestyle rapped about Silk soymilk, avocados, cereal and more, in order to be “more hip-hop” à la the music played at the fraternity party that members of the band attended the night before. The band’s good sense of humor about music—their own and others’—was evident in this song and throughout the entire performance.

Guster played many of their hits, including “Barrel of a Gun,” “Demon,” “Ramona,” “Happier” and more. The band closed with “Hang On,” interspersed with parts of Billy Joel’s “My Life,” during which Miller came down from the stage into the audience, wearing a bra that had been thrown onstage from the audience around his neck.

The lighting, which changed from red, orange and yellow to blue and turquoise through the entire set, matched the mood of each song perfectly, creating a well-orchestrated, enjoyable performance. Many of the audience members sang along. The

entire crowd was constantly dancing, clapping, cheering and simply enjoying the concert.

Just as with Jukebox the Ghost, Guster’s music does not break new ground. Despite this, Guster’s vocal and instrumental talents, which translate well on its catchy records, were complemented well by their live energy, resulting in a strong performance.

Jukebox the Ghost was a solid opener for Guster, with its indie pop rock synth and guitar parts and sweet vocal melodies and harmonies, while Guster raised the bar with its long, high-energy and fun performance, replete with brassieres and ping-pong balls (thrown at the stage after “Airport Song,”) as Guster fan tradition dictates.

Though the Guster fans were certainly out in force, the concert was also a great deal of fun for newcomers to both bands. Student Events brought two fun bands to Brandeis on Saturday night, and those who were not in attendance missed a great show and a great time.

film

New film documents artists’ attempts to heal the world ■ “Cultures of Resistance,”

hosted by the Anthropology Club, showcases artists bringing peace to their countries.

By olivia leiter JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

“Attention: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now over!” This was announced in a fictitious edition of The New York Times created by “The Yes Men,” a group of political activists/ artists/pranksters, in the hopes of shocking people out of their conventional ways of thinking. Many other artists have been actively engaged in trying to change appalling situations in places such as Rwanda, Iran, Syria and Brazil.

Last Thursday in the South Campus Commons, the Anthropology Club hosted the screening of Cultures of Resistance, a documentary that showcases the work of artists, musicians and dancers throughout the world who are working for peace and justice. The film was directed by Iara Lee, an activist and filmmaker.

The film provides a panoramic view of different global crises and the ways in which everyday people protest war through artistic expression. The film covers a wide array of international conflicts, providing videos and photographs of the Rwandan genocide, cultural intifada in Syria and slums in Brazil. There is ample raw footage of these terrible conditions, which were each narrated by artists of each of the

PHOTO COURTESY OF SNAGFILMS

PAINT JOB: The director, Lee, filmed the works of Syrians, Brazilians and other artists. countries involved.

There is something powerful about people from all walks of life telling their stories and working toward social justice, the unifying thread that ties them all together. Cartoonists, rappers, graffiti artists and dancers try to express their opposition to the violence around them. Some visual

artists present deglamorized images of what they saw, trying to expose ugly realities. One Iranian graffiti artist explained, “There’s so much space for expressing yourself and changing systems.” A member of Tehran Rats, another Iranian group of street artists, said, “Good art is something that moves you and shakes you.” Musi-

cians, too, focus on the daily problems of their countries. A Palestinian rap group said, “We talk about the things we see in life.”

After the film, Jessye Kass ’13, president of the Anthropology Club and an Anthropology major at Brandeis, led a discussion. Some students expressed that the film was not specific enough and needed more elaboration.

One student explained, “I wish the film talked more about the causes of conflicts.” Another student said, “It was not clear exactly who everyone is fighting against. Who are ‘they’?”

Even though the film may not have been entirely specific and in-depth, most students who watched Cultures of Resistance felt that it gave a good overview of various global issues. One student explained, “The panoramic viewer is a good sampler.” Another viewer said, “The point of the film was to give a brief overview. Watching the film is the first step in getting people to take initiative and do their own research.”

Most students at the screening thought the film was inspiring. One student explained, “It did a good job encouraging people that they can make an impact.” Another viewer said, “It provided concrete examples of different kinds of artists. I liked that it showed how everyday people can make a change.” More attendees expressed feelings of empowerment, saying, “I feel like everyone can do something, not just political activists” and, “The movie made me think.” One of the final comments expressed was,

“This documentary was not meant to be critiqued. It was more about how every work of art has a message. The goal was to make the viewer feel something, to have a reaction. Everything that is created by a person has to have perspective; it is hard to be completely neutral. The film itself is subjective because it was made by an artist.”

In an interview with justArts, Kass talked a bit about the Anthropology Club. Though the club was only founded in November 2010, it has already hosted a number of successful events. Last March, for example, the club hosted a massive cultural food gala that 250 people attended. Last May, the club held a Questin and Answer session with Prof. Janet McIntosh (ANTH) during which McIntosh spoke about her fieldwork in Africa.

This November the club will be showing an episode of Bones for its first-year anniversary. Kass explained, “The Anthropology Club is geared toward students who want to learn more but who don’t have the time to take classes.”

Many of the students who showed up at the event last Thursday were not Anthropology majors. I have never taken an Anthropology class, but I did not feel intimidated or pressured during discussion at Thursday’s event, as I was not expected to take an academic view on the topics presented. I felt that the event’s focus was more on initiating a reciprocal dialogue in which students could both express their views freely and learn from others in a tolerant and respectful environment.

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music

Seniors create a haven for indie bands ■ Indie bands from all over

the country have played at one of Waltham’s most intimate venues, The Frat Cave.

By tess raser JUSTICE editor

Whether or not we like to admit it, most of us have found ourselves at a party in a Waltham basement at one time or another—mostly at fraternity and sorority parties.

There are generally too many people crammed into too small a place.

The ceilings are low, and the pipes hang unsafely close to our heads.

There is oftentimes a glowing laptop staring up at a disc jockey blasting top-40 hits and techno remixes.

In the midst of these carbon-copy basements, there is another, more special cellar.

Yes, there are still the low-hanging pipes and that familiar, musty smell, but in place of the 21st-century jukebox, there are live bands.

Adam Levitt ’12, Chris Defalco ’12 and James Bartolacci ’12 operate this small basement concert venue on Dartmouth Street, which they call The Frat Cave.

The venue first opened when Defalco’s friends, who were in small bands, asked him about performance spaces, and he decided to invite them to his home off campus.

The Frat Cave had its first show last September and has had about 13 shows since, each with an average of three different acts. Preparation for the shows is minimal, as is cleanup.

The space has gained something of a reputation in its short existence in the local Boston music scene.

“We don’t have to contact bands anymore. They do that on their own. When we first started, I emailed people about putting shows together, and [now they know us],” Defalco said in an interview with justArts.

Although many of the musicians that have performed at the Cave hail from the Boston area—such as Abram Taber and Vile Bodies, who were part of the most recent Cave

MADELINE STIX/The Justice

FRIENDLY FANS: From left: Levitt ’12, Defalco ’12 and Bartolacci ’12 are the permanent residents and founders of The Frat Cave. performance—bands have come from as far away as San Francisco.

Levitt explained that the bands from San Francisco, including NEO CONS, were connected to the Cave by the band Foreign Objects, which had previously performed there.

“The fantastic Foreign Objects set up like half of our shows,” Defalco added.

Another contact was made through a request Defalco received on an online message board.

The process is pretty informal, and the only time the three seniors

have ever set a price for a band or musician was for the multi-instrumentalist Ryan Power. According to Bartolacci, during the shows, he, Defalco and Levitt take donations in a donation bowl, but there is no formal payment to the bands.

“Small, touring bands will take anything they can,” Defalco said.

The mission of The Frat Cave, whose name, which was invented

by Levitt, is a reference to Batman’s secret hideout and the house’s location on a street dominated by fraternity houses, seems to be simply

about bringing musicians and fans together in a laid-back environment where the songs can be most appreciated.

The energy varies by show because of the range of musical genres the bands the group brings to the Cave play.

“The last show ended with people ripping the crossbeams from the ceiling,” Levitt said in reference to their Sept. 8 show that had the selfdescribed hardcore and punk bands, Vile Bodies, Subclinix, Male Nurses and San Fransisco band Neighbor-

hood Brats. “[But] there are shows where there can be a lot of people there and not a lot of noise. … We have everything from like ambient stuff to hard rock,” he continued.

With musical diversity comes a diverse audience, mostly from the Boston area and the Waltham community. However, the group wishes that more Brandeis students would come. “We are open to everybody,” said Bartolacci, who moved into The Frat Cave house after he was already familiar with the venue.

One of his favorite shows at the Cave was Oberhofer, a New Yorkbased band that played at the Cave after a show at Cholmondeley’s on April 9 of this year. This show was not just one of his favorites because it was “a great show,” but because a lot of Brandeis students were there. “[The Frat Cave] is really the only place that has house shows in Waltham, so it’s kind of special,” Levitt said.

The group sees the small basement venue as a “cultural institution” in the community. Bands recognize it as such, too. Lawrence Welks & Our Bear to Cross, one of the most recent bands to play on campus, has performed at the Cave three times. “[Lawrence Welks & Our Bear to Cross] is always awesome, and they’re always well-received at our house,” said Levitt.

In the future, the group hopes to put together a 12-hour festival called “Frat Cave Fest.”

While no concrete plans have been made for the festival as of now, there is a planned show Nov. 5, and Defalco frequently receives band requests.

The Frat Cave residents create events on Facebook to let people know about upcoming shows, and many hear news of upcoming shows by word of mouth.

Levitt, Bartolacci and Defalco say that they believe support of local musicians and the arts is critical and encourage students to stop by the Cave for a show.

“The Frat Cave is always open,” Levitt said.

“We’re a warm, welcoming place,” added Bartolacci.

fine arts

Milcah Bassel PB ’11 speaks about her gender-focused art ■ Bassel shared what inspires

her work, including her trip to Paris and her experience in an Israeli army combat unit.

By amalie kwassman JUSTICE contributing WRITER

The first thing I notice about her is her boots. These flaming red boots are coupled with a man’s vest, a polka-dotted scarf, a beaded necklace and a white button-down shirt.

This artsy cross between men’s and women’s wear immediately has me intrigued. Her curly hair is pulled into a ponytail, and she has a name from the bible meaning “queen.”

This woman with striking footwear is the same woman who created the sculptures that are on display at the “Floors & Ceilings” exhibit in the Women’s Studies Research Center. In the first student-run exhibit of its kind at Brandeis, Milcah Bassel’s PB ’11 sculptures catch my eye just like her boots. Her sculptures occupy most of the exhibition space of the WSRC. At the “Artist’s Slide Talk” this past Thursday in the WSRC, Bassel gave a talk about what inspired her bold pieces. Bassel graduated this past May, and her friends from her post-baccalaureate program and a few undergraduates attended the event.

Bassel was born in Boston and moved to Israel when she was young. She grew up in Jerusalem in a very orthodox Jewish community.

Bassel recalls, “always being a doodler” from a very young age, but it wasn’t until she did her compulsory military service for 2 years that she became interested in art and drawing.

Fighting in a male-dominated combat unit helped Bassel to discover her strength. From then on,

Bassel decided that she was not just going to doodle in her notebook; she was going to take up space, and she was going to create art.

At first, Bassel painted. Her paintings focused a lot on the human form—in particular the female body, which is often drawn by men and made into a sexual object for men to “ooh” and “ahh” at. Bassel wanted to be more than “oohed” at.

If there was any “way of moving away from the male gaze, … if it was possible for a woman to deal with her body in a new way,” Bassel was going to find it.

Bassel traveled to Paris, where she visited many chapels. Despite being a Jew, Bassel had a “very strong experience” going to these places of Christian worship, filled with vivid colors painted during the Renaissance.

Perhaps as part of some spiritual epiphany brought on by spending so much time in churches, Bassel realized her paintings were missing something. Paintings “couldn’t go beyond the surface or the visual,” and Bassel “wanted to experience her own body.”

“Paintings couldn’t go all the way into the body experience,” explained Bassel. So she switched to sculpture, a more body-conscious field, which aided her other profession—as a massage therapist who focuses on healing the body.

One of Bassel’s most popular sculptures is the “Body Tunnel.”

This big, oddly shaped sculpture, which Milcah said resembles a “whale,” is shaped like a long funnel. The inside of this funnel represents the interior space of the body, “like a room.”

Working from the inside out is one of Bassel’s goals. Pushing our minds is another. Bassel has thought about what it would be like to be without skin.

Her wire pieces, made out of masking tape and aluminum wire,

DAVID YUN/Justice File Photo

HITTING IT BIG: Bassel enjoys creating pieces that viewers can physically interact with, such as this humongous sculpture. try to convey an interior and exterior without skin. It is because what “goes on in our own body that is so sacred” that Bassel feels that we don’t need the skin to hide what is so holy beneath it.

The piece that takes up most of the space in the WSRC is Bassel’s “The Skin Piece,” or “the monster,” as the artist calls it. When Bassel was working on “The Skin Piece” in her studio, it got so big that it was outgrowing her workspace. This piece, made out of paper and then hardened, took months to make.

When Bassel was moving the skin to the research center, she had to pour water on it to revive the piece, as she felt the piece had lost some of its “fluidity.”

The water reminded Bassel of the taboo toward discussing bodily fluids and our ways of hiding natural discharges. Growing up in the Judeo-Christian tradition, pouring water on the skin reminded Bassel of all the water rituals in the Jewish tradition that are done to purify people, because the body is not considered sacred and is separate from the holy. But Bassel’s goal is to prove that the body is divine.

To get away from the tradition of the body as something to be looked at, Bassel does not use visuals to help her along in her creations. Instead, she relies on her own body to create her artwork.

Bassel is now feeling her way through a new project: “The Male

Fertility Cult Learns to Menstruate,” which will focus on gender and the beauty of menstruation.

Bassel’s pieces are designed to make us engage with our body.

Viewers can walk around inside and climb on her sculptures. She also wants us to think about space, and particularly how her sculptures dominate space. With her sculptures, Bassel is making a “big statement.”

The sculptures dominating the space of the WRSC give off the feeling that behind every side of the sculpture, there is a woman in red boots reclaiming her body and taking up space for all the women in the world who have not yet realized that they have permission to be loud.

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culture

BC3 prepares for an exciting new year ■ Best known for its karaoke

night, dumpling night and Lunar New Year events, the Brandeis Chinese Cultural Connection club looks forward to the upcoming year.

By kelly li JUSTICE contributing WRITER

The Brandeis Chinese Cultural Connection started out the year with a bang, creating, for the first time, a welcome party in the Sherman Function Hall for new and returning members. Free Chinese food, along with singing and traditional dancing from several students and a special performance from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Asian a capella group, Syncopasian, made an exciting night.

When BC3 was founded, it was a much smaller club, but the large crowd of students at the welcome party now suggests otherwise. Copresidents Jiaying Zhang ’13 and Jeffrey So ’14 promise to make this year “something entirely different” from previous years—BC3 is getting bigger and better. It’s a club mainly created for American-born Chinese and Chinese international students, but “BC3 is a club for anyone interested in the Chinese culture,” says So. “It’s not only for Chinese students. We call ourselves the Brandeis Chinese Cultural Connection, not the Chinese Student Association, because we want to welcome everyone.”

Not only do club members celebrate and explore the culture, they raise awareness of events going on within China.

Zhang, who is from Guangzhou, China, hopes BC3 can help other international students better transition to living at Brandeis. “We’re looking to get Chinese [international students] more used to being

here,” she said. Zhang cites a very tight connection to her culture and wishes to share her experiences with other students.

So, who hails from Hong Kong, also has a deep bond with BC3 through a shared culture.

Zhang recalls joining BC3 as a first-year and enjoying going on outings for bubble tea, meeting friends and attending the annual Dumpling Night hosted by the club.

These events originally inspired her to get more involved with BC3; she eventually became secretary on the club’s executive board as a sophomore and this year decided to take on the role of co-president.

Likewise, So joined the club as a first-year and decided last semester to undertake a higher leadership role despite only being a sophomore.

When asked about their favorite events and memories of BC3, both smiled and said, “Definitely, the Lunar New Year”—a celebration of the New Year on the Chinese calendar that falls around January and February.

“It’s a tight schedule and a busy, crazy week for everyone,” admits So, but it’s the one event that both BC3 presidents enjoy above all others. The Lunar New Year features a traditional lion dance and a Chinese yo-yo dance, hilarious skits, many performances from outside groups and students, live music and free food. Many volunteers are needed each year to help coordinate this huge event that promises to be spectacular fun for students at Brandeis.

So what else is happening with BC3 this year? “Something big,” hints So. For now, BC3 is planning on hosting a Karaoke Night in October and having their yearly Dumpling Night while getting ready for the annual Lunar New Year, which takes place around January. Be on the lookout for more BC3 events in the following months.

DIANA WANG/Justice File Photo

HAPPY NEW YEAR: This winter, the Brandeis Chinese Cultural Connection will celebrate the Year of the Dragon in its popular festival.

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THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, september 27, 2011

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OFF CAMPUS film

Childers is the ‘Machine Gun Preacher’ ■ Sam Childers spoke about

his transformative journey to Africa, which inspired the new Gerard Butler film.

By Brandon Gale JUSTICE contributing WRITER

There are many people who feel that they receive their calling to serve God. However, there are an equal or greater number of people who feel that they are too far gone and have been abandoned. Religious or not, Sam Childers was in this latter situation.

The new movie Machine Gun Preacher tells Childers’ story. The movie starts in Childers’ dark days of crime and drug abuse, and follows his conversion to Christianity and his life in Africa. Childers (played by Gerard Butler) is continually tested throughout his journey, and the film emphasizes his perseverance.

One of the film’s highlights was its compelling characters. All the different people in the film were flawed, and therefore relatable. We all can identify with Childers and his family and friends because we all have been in a situation that was less than desirable. The film offers beautiful shots of the African landscape. The violence in the movie is shocking, but not without purpose. It all serves to bring the message of how important Childers’ actions are to the people of South Sudan.

However, according to Childers, this isn’t the purpose of the film.

“There’s been over 1,000 people [who have contacted] our office and say after seeing the movie, when they left the theater, it wasn’t about Sam Childers anymore, it was about you,” Childers said. “What are you going to do now? There’re children around the world dying, and there’s something everyone can do. Now it’s your call, what are you going to do?”

The film itself is a very powerful and moving piece. It contains many harrowing scenes that strike the viewer to his very core. However, despite Childers’ call to action, the movie leaves the viewer thinking more about Childers himself than the people he is helping. The fact of the matter is, this man is larger than life and doesn’t need a movie to prove it.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RELATIVITY MEDIA

FACT TO FICTION: In ‘Machine Gun Preacher,’ Gerard Butler (left) plays Sam Childers (right), who battled social injustice and violence in Africa after converting to Christianity.

Childers is a native of North Dakota. He began his involvement with drugs at a young age and became a member of the motorcycle gang the Hells Angels. For years, he committed crimes and sold drugs. Later, he began to re-evaluate his life. “I was in a really bad bar fight in Orlando, Fla., and it turned out to be a gunfight,” Childers relates. “I almost got killed. That night I went home and said I’m done, I’m walking away from this life.”

Childers made this change and kept it, turning his life over to the church. Years later, Childers was called upon by his pastor to go to Africa and help those in need. He went to South Sudan and began building homes. Eventually, he started to conduct rescue missions for children.

He went on to build the Children’s Village orphanage in South Sudan,

which has saved over 1,000 children from the terrors of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel military force headed by Joseph Kony that has been active in South Sudan since 1987. The Children’s Village is the largest orphanage in South Sudan. He continues to do work in the region, and is expanding to other countries.

“We’ve got three projects in Uganda, a new project in Ethiopia, [and] we’re getting started … in Somalia,” Childers related. “I also do work back home in Pennsylvania with drunks and alcoholics around the U.S. It’s about doing work around the world.”

Childers strongly advocates that many more people get involved in bringing a peaceful conclusion to the conflict in Sudan. He speaks throughout the U.S. on the crisis in South Sudan, as well as issues closer to home, such as drug abuse. One of his main

points is the corruption and interconnectivity between the LRA and the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir.

Bashir is a known supporter of terrorist efforts worldwide, and has been providing funding for Kony and his genocidal army. Childers got the nickname “Machine Gun Preacher” because, after seeing the LRA kidnap and kill thousands of children, he began rescuing them. Childers’ snuck into LRA camps and, armed with an AK-47, would stealthily lead the children to safety.

“There’s no way anyone would have done a movie and put President Bashir in it as a murderer,” Childers said with aggravation, commenting on the way directors tread lightly when accusing dictators. “When I speak to the media, I can tell people that he is a murderer. He is the only leader of a nation to have charges of

war crimes against him to remain in office. I believe his days are numbered, I believe that the world is tired of dictators, and I believe that soon the people of Northern Sudan are going to stand up and want this man out of office. That’s when we’ve got to back them as American citizens to bring this man out of power.”

When asked about what people can do, Childers has a ready answer: “The best thing you can do is educate yourself. Go home and learn as much as you can about Kony, the LRA and the terror in Uganda. If you still feel like doing more, you can start educating others or donate either time or money to the cause.”

Childers is a larger-than-life character. He has done more than can be asked of any man, and the children of South Sudan owe him their gratitude, and their lives.

music

Greater than the sum of its parts, James Farm rocks the BPC ■ The newly formed

collective James Farm melded four jazz stars into one cohesive act at Berklee Performance Center.

By wei-huan chen JUSTICE editor

Historically, great jazz groups have come in the form of quartets and quintets led by a highly influential composer and performer. Master bandleaders such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Art Blakey stood at the forefront of their music and gave each song their own sound.

While each member was essential and individual, they were labeled as “sidemen”—the people who played in the leader’s group.

Not so with James Farm, the acoustic jazz collective consisting of tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland. And while each is a leader in his own right, this quartet has achieved an elusive result in jazz with its eponymous 2011 album—a collective band identity.

“From the beginning, we’ve viewed the band as a collaborative project ,and we’ve kept it that way,” says Redman a few days before a set at the Berklee Performance Center last Friday. “We wanted to organize our music as a band, not as a leader and some sidemen.”

Formed in 2009, James Farm made its first big splash at the Monterey Jazz Festival and has been credited to hold a stake in the future of jazz.

JIMMY KATZ/Jimmy Katz Photography

JAZZ MASTERS: From left, acoustic quartet James Farm consists of Matt Penman, Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks and Eric Harland.

But these are not newcomers to jazz by any means. Redman, Harland and Penman played together in the SFJAZZ Collective from 2005 to 2007, and Parks has shared albums with the other James Farm members.

Put the first letters of each member’s first names together and you get “JAME.” Where the “S FARM” comes from, no one knows. While the origins of James Farm’s name remains a mystery, the group once attributed it to “too many drunken emails.”

Redman, son of saxophonist Dewey Redman, has been a prominent player in jazz for over a decade and dedicates much of his time to big-name collaborations such as a duo tour with

Brad Mehldau this fall. The tenor saxophonist—who turned down his acceptance into Yale University Law School after graduating from Harvard in order to become a full-time musician in 1991—has recorded with Pat Metheny, Christian McBride and Aaron Goldberg and played with the Bad Plus and even progressive-rock jam band Umphrey’s McGee. Parks, the youngest of the group, has played with trumpeter Terrence Blanchard since the early 2000s.

Meanwhile, Penman, a native of New Zealand who moved to the U.S. in 1994, performs regularly with John Scofield, Mark Turner and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Both Penman and Har-

land, an influential bandleader and drummer in his own right, are current members of the SFJAZZ Collective.

James Farm strays from the old jazz formula of melody and improvisation, focusing instead on developing narratives through song. Gone are the solos that seem to last forever. Here, the changes lie in the form, in how each composition is structured. For example, in Parks’ “Chronos,” a dark, minor piano theme gives way to unexpected transformations. A melody begins to build off of the piano riff, yet just as Redman’s solos and Harland’s grooves heat up the song, everything slows down for an otherworldly new

section.

“There’s definitely more of a bigpicture approach here,” says Redman.

The big picture turns out to be a more open and free-form type of chamber jazz, a breath of fresh air for a scene littered with people who play too fast. Not that the members of James Farm sometimes don’t stretch their virtuosic muscles—Harland’s “I-90” begins with one of the fiercest grooves in recent memory, bearing influences of electronica. Redman’s solo in “Coax” spans the range of his instrument in seconds. But they know when to stop showing off and start playing songs.

James Farm began its fiery performance at the Berklee Performance Center with a driving, groove-based “1981” that morphed seamlessly into Redman’s “If By Air” via a quiet interlude. It was a beautiful moment when all that could be heard was Redman’s low, hissing notes. The tenor saxophonist demonstrated an unmatched maturity with his soft, breathy tone.

But the subdued atmosphere doesn’t last for long—like any live jazz performer, Redman soon had the crowd going wild over his solos.

Redman’s “Polliwog” was noticeably faster live than in the album, with Harland imbuing the song with a blues-rock flavor not found in the recording. But to Redman, variation is what jazz is all about.

“We try to honor and preserve the emotional core of the song, and yet remain spontaneous,” he says. “I think that’s one of the balancing acts of the band, and maybe one of our strengths, too—the ability to serve the song and also honor the moment by pure improvisation.”

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TUESday, september 27, 2011 ● THE JUSTICE

TOP of the

ARTS ON VIEW

TRIVIA TIME 1. What was the former name of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport?

2. Who played Eliot Ness on the original TV show The Untouchables?

3. Who wrote The Pump House Gang?

4. Which singer kicked off the national dance craze called “The Twist?”

5. When did the animated feature Dumbo debut?

6. Edam is a popular type of what?

7. Goshen was a region in which ancient land?

8. Psephology is the study of what?

9. How many lines are in a standard sonnet?

10. What does the Greek prefix -ornitho mean?

ANSWERS 1. Idlewild 2. Robert Stack 3. Tom Wolfe 4. Chubby Checker 5. 1941 6. Cheese 7. Egypt 8. Elections 9. Fourteen lines 10. Bird

SHOWTIMES 9/30 – 10/5 The Help Fri-Sun: 1:20, 4:40, 8:10 Mon-Thurs: 2:50, 7:20 Killer Elite Fri-Sun: 1:00, 3:40, 6:30, 9:05 Mon-Thurs: 2:00, 4:50, 7:40 Contagion Fri-Sun: 1:10, 9:10 Mon-Thurs: 2:10, 7:50 Midnight in Paris Fri-Sun: 4:10, 6:40 Mon-Thurs: 4:50 Drive Fri-Sun: 1:30, 3:50, 6:50, 9:15 Mon-Thurs: 2:20, 5:00, 8:00 Moneyball Fri-Sun: 1:50, 4:50, 8:00 Mon-Thurs: 2:40, 7:30 50/50 Fri-Sun: 1:40, 4:00, 7:00, 9:20 Mon-Thurs: 2:30, 5:00, 8:10

The Embassy is located at 18 Pine Street in Waltham

CHARTS Top 10s for the week ending September 25 BOX OFFICE

1. The Lion King 3D 2. Moneyball 3. Dolphin Tale 3D 4. Abduction 5. Killer Elite 6. Contagion 7. Drive 8. The Help 9. Straw Dogs 10. I Don’t Know How She Does It

NYT BESTSELLERS

HILARY HEYISON/the Justice

PURPLE PETALS: This photograph, shot by Justice photographer Hilary Heyison ’13 at her house in Massachusetts over the summer, takes the viewer back to warmer days before the fall frost sets in.

CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1. Sugar meas.

4. Historic time 7. Jump 11. Oil cartel 13. Fresh 14. Part of the foot 15. “Why not?”

16. CSI evidence 17. “Monopoly” card 18. “Get lost!”

20. “Why not?”

22. Scarlet 24. Takes pleasure in 28. Capistrano bird 32. Block the flow of 33. Cab 34. Chatter 36. Egypt’s river 37. British 39. Completely engrossed 41. Brownish-gray antelope 43. Marshy area 44. Legislation 46. Incorrect 50. Not pizzicato 53. Multipurpose truck 55. Olympic sword 56. Food 57. Yank 58. Knitting need 59. Big village 60. Sudden turn 61. Parcel of land

Fiction 1. New York to Dallas — J. D. Robb 2. The Night Circus — Erin Morgenstern 3. Kill Me if You Can — James Patterson and Marshall Karp 4. Abuse of Power — Michael Savage 5. Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues — Michael Brandman Nonfiction 1. Jaqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with with John F. Kennedy — Caroline Kennedy and Michael Beschloss 2. That Used to Be — Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum 3. In My Time — Dick Cheney with Liz Cheney 4. Unbroken — Laura Hillenbrand 5. A Stolen Life — Jaycee Dugard

iTUNES

1. Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera — “Moves like Jagger (Studio Recording from The Voice)” 2. Adele — “Someone Like You” 3. Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris — “We Found Love” 4. Foster the People — “Pumped Up Kicks” 5. LMFAO — “Sexy and I Know It” 6. Gym Class Heroes feat. Adam Levine — “Stereo Hearts” 7. LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock — “Party Rock Anthem” 8. Rihanna — “Cheers (Drink to That)” 9. David Guetta feat. Usher — “Without You” 10. Lady Gaga — “Yoü and I”

BILLBOARD

DOWN 1. Playthings 2. Detail, for short 3. Bartlett or Bosc 4. Conclusion 5. Nevada city 6. Not sleeping 7. Nine-day queen of England 8. Before 9. Expert 10. Third degree?

12. Schulz lad 19. Tillis or Torme 21. Moreover 23. Pooch

25. Leave out 26. Christmas 27. Raced 28. Use a swizzle stick 29. Cleanse 30. Wheelbase terminus 31. Series of battles 35. Chest protector 38. Old French coin 40. Solemn promise 42. Butterfingers 45. Needle case 47. October birthstone 48. Pianist Peter 49. Mannered bloke 50. Performance 51. Greek P 52. Calf’s mama 54. Omelet need

1. Lady Antebellum — Own the Night 2. Adele — 21 3. Lil Wayne — Tha Carter IV 4. Brantley Gilbert — Halfway to Heaven 5. Staind — Staind 6. The Beatles — 1 7. George Strait­— Here for a Good Time 8. Dream Theater — A Dramatic Turn of Events 9. Jay Z and Kanye West — Watch the Throne 10. The Devil Wears Prada — Dead Throne Solution to last week’s crossword

King Crossword Copyright 2011 King Features Synd, Inc.

STRANGE BUT TRUE  It was 20th-century American novelist, poet and performer William S. Burroughs who made the following sage observation: “Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can’t mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has.”  The first traffic signal, which began operating in Cleveland in 1914, wasn’t much of a labor-saver. To operate it, a police officer had to sit in a nearby booth where he could oversee the traffic.  Those who study such things claim that at any given moment, there are 850,000 people inside a Walmart store. And that’s just in the United States; there’s no telling how many people are shopping at Walmarts abroad.  The California Institue of Technology conducted a study in which consumers were offered two samples of the same wine, but each sample was labeled at a different price point. Unaware that the wines they were drinking were identical, most participants said they preferred the more expensive sample.

 If you’re planning a trip to Turkey, be sure to book a stay at the Marmara Antalya on the country’s southern coast.

This unique hotel revolves, offering ever-changing views of the Mediterranean Sea to its guests.  Are you a phonophile? If so, you might be finding it hard to pursue your passion in this digital age — a phonophile (also known as a gramophile) is a collector of phonograph records. FOwls are one of the only birds that can see the color blue.  Between 70 percent and 80 percent of all the Earth’s fresh water is stored in glaciers, 99 percent of which are found in the Arctic and in Antarctica. oNutmeg can extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.

Thought for the Day: “You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there.

—George Burns

Top of the Charts information provided

by Fandango, the New York Times, BillBoard.com, and Apple.com.

STAFF PLAYLIST

“Musical Delight”

By RACHEL L. MILLER Justice STAFF WRITER

Here’s a list of my all-time favorites that I will never tire of.

THE LIST 1. “Set Fire to the Rain” — Adele 2. “Soul Meets Body” — Death Cab for Cutie 3. “Kiss From a Rose” — Seal 4. “Night by Night” — Chromeo 5. “Winter Winds” — Mumford and Sons 6. “Goodnight Goodnight” — Maroon 5 7. “Stereo Love” — Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina 8. “Head Over Feet” — Alanis Morissette 9. “Chalomot Shel Acherim” — The Idan Raichel Project 10. “West Coast Friendship” — Owl City