The Justice, September 17, 2013

ARTS Page 23

SPORTS Women’s soccer continues to roll 16

BOSTON CALLING

FORUM Embrace unexpected college experience 11 The Independent Student Newspaper

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

Justice

Volume LXVI, Number 3

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

STUDENT UNION

NECK AND NECK

Fall candidates begin campaigns ■ The candidates shared

their ideas and introduced themselves to the student body before election day.

By SAM MINTZ JUSTICE EDITOR

On Sept. 18, the Student Union will hold its fall elections. The positions to be filled include treasurer, associate justice and many senators, including both quad senators and class senators.

Harry Greenberg ’15 and Micah Lehmann ’15, both former assis-

Waltham, Mass.

tant treasurers, are running for the treasurer seat recently vacated by the resignation of Sunny Aidasani ’14. Lehmann said that his experience with the treasury, as well as his time as vice president and treasurer for the Brandeis Orthodox Organization, make him prepared to step up to a more important job.

“All of this experience makes me feel confident in my leadership skills and my ability to bring organization to the treasury of the Brandeis student body,” Lehmann wrote in an email to the Justice.

Greenberg spoke specifically about his plans to deal with any po-

See ELECTION, 7 ☛

ADMISSIONS

Admissions to revise ambassador program ■ Starting in spring 2014, the tour guide position could potentially become a volunteer position.

By MARISSA DITKOWSKY JUSTICE EDITOR

The status of the student tour guide position is currently under review, and may become unpaid as soon as the spring 2014 semester. This potential change is part of a review of Brandeis’ entire ambassador program.

Although these changes have not been finalized, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel wrote in an email to the Justice that he expects “our tour program to continue to develop consistent with these goals.”

“I have reassured the tour guides that no change is being made to their employment status for at least this semester, and I will take all of their input and suggestions into account before any final decisions are made on long term structure,” wrote Flagel.

According Flagel, a change in the program is necessary due to increased interest in Brandeis and in touring the campus. “The resulting increasing size of our tour groups seems to correspond with some unfavorable tour feedback,” he wrote.

Flagel wrote that the decision could

have been made to expand hiring to accommodate the growing interest, but that expansion of expenditures could lead to increased tuition.

The goal, according to Flagel, is to increase the prestige of the tour guide position on campus. These positions, he wrote, would be comparable to positions such as an Orientation Leader or Roosevelt Fellow. OLs receive room and board during training and for the early move-in period, and Roosevelt Fellows receive a stipend of $500 per year in installments of $250 per semester. However, no wages are provided for either sought-after position.

“At many of our peer institutions, student ambassador organizations are among the most prestigious groups on those campuses: conducting tours, working with alumni and donors, and supporting the institution through social media,” he wrote.

According to Flagel, a majority of universities that most often overlap in admission with Brandeis have volunteer tour guides during the academic year. Those that do fund tours do so largely as work study at a wage that is “significantly less than we pay at Brandeis,” he wrote. “Schools with these competitive volunteer programs appear to be among the schools’ most prestigious roles.”

A representative at Boston University’s Admission Reception Center confirmed in an interview with the

See TOURS, 7 ☛

MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

Forward Dara Spital ’15 surged ahead of a Bridgewater State University defender in a 3-0 victory for the women's soccer team to preserve an undefeated season on Sept. 10.

STUDENT UNION

Union treasurer steps down after controversy ■ Treasurer Sunny Aidasani

’14 resigned from his position for personal reasons that affected communications.

By MARISSA DITKOWSKY JUSTICE EDITOR

Student Union President Ricky Rosen ’14 sent an email to the student body on Sept. 8 to announce Treasurer Sunny Aidasani’s ’14 formal resignation. According to the email, Aidasani resigned due to “personal health problems” that would interfere with his duties as treasurer.

The resignation came just a week after Executive Board members called

for an emergency Senate meeting to consider impeaching Aidasani. Executive officers cited a general lack of communication over the summer as the reason for impeachment. However, the impeachment process was halted following a meeting between Aidasani and Rosen, and Aidasani was given a deadline of last Tuesday to complete a list of tasks for the treasury, according to Student Union Vice President Charlotte Franco ’15.

In Aidasani's statement of resignation, emailed to the student body by Rosen, Aidasani wrote that he felt these personal health issues were “inhibiting [him] from performing [his] duties to the best of [his] abilities, along with conflicting with [his] personal commitments.” He added that he

See TREASURY, 7 ☛

Green installment

Making an impact

Higher in the ranks

Project helps campus meet sustainability milestone.

 Evan Jastremski ’17 has made an impact for the men’s soccer team.

Brandeis moved up to number 32 on the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

FEATURES 9 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org

“may need to take time off this year” and wrote “it would only be fair if I resign now so that there is no disorder within [the] Treasury if that happens later.”

“The Student Union and the Executive Board is confident that this decision is what is best for the Brandeis student body, and for Sunny himself,” Rosen wrote. “The Student Union is grateful to Sunny for making this difficult decision with the interests of students in mind.”

The controversy began over the summer, when, according to Rosen, the Student Union and club leaders had difficulty getting in touch with Aidasani. “Having not heard from him in months his status was very

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INDEX

SPORTS 15 ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 8

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

News 3 COPYRIGHT 2013 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Email managing@thejustice.org for home delivery.

2

TUESDAY, september 17, 2013

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS SENATE LOG

New senators acclimate to positions On Sept. 8 and Sept. 15, the Senate gathered for its first meetings of the year.

Due to the fact that quad and Class of 2017 Senate elections have not yet occurred and only a few positions have been filled thus far, a limited number of senators attended. The meeting acted as an introduction for new Senate members.

At the Sept. 8 meeting, Student Union President Ricky Rosen’s ’14 cabinet appointments were confirmed unanimously by the Senate. The final appointments were as follows: David Clements ’14 as chief of staff, Anthony Nguyen ’14 as executive director, Jon Jacob ’16 and Wenyi Zhang ’16 as co-directors of communications, Bethlehem Solomon ’14 as co-director of academic affairs, Shukai Zhang ’15 as co-director of academic affairs and Undergraduate Curriculum Committee representative, Owen Voelker ’14 as director of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibility and community advocacy, Andre Bourne ’16 as the appointed Finance Board member, and Sara Pedersen ’15 as ’Deis Day coordinator.

New cabinet positions included the communications positions, executive director and ’Deis Day coordinator, according to Rosen in an email to the Justice.

Rosen also addressed the Senate to deliver his report.

Rosen discussed plans for dining services, including Einstein Bros. Bagels elimination of 24-hour services due to its “basically non-existent” business after 2 a.m., according to Rosen. Rosen also discussed the plan for Dunkin’ Donuts to open where the Village Provisions on Demand Market was located in mid-October, and the current project to include a warming station for those waiting in line at the Dunkin’ Donuts. According to Rosen, employees for Dunkin’ Donuts are currently being trained.

The Stein will be open until 3 a.m. on weekends, but will now be referred to as The Stein, and not Ollie’s Eatery. Guy Fieri’s is set to open in January at the earliest, but could possibly not open until the summer, according to Rosen. When the location opens, Fieri will be making an appearance and taking photographs. According to Rosen, the Union will be a part of that promotion. The food truck by Fellows Garden will begin to accept WhoCash as soon as the machine is put in for the employees to do so.

Rosen stated that Sodexo is also looking into adding a dining location in the athletic buildings that would serve smoothies. A Sherman Dining Hall revamp is also being looked into for this summer. Rosen explained that none of these plans are definitive, but that they are working toward these goals currently.

Rosen also discussed the transportation trial periods for the Boston and Cambridge shuttle and the Riverside Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority station shuttle.

According to Rosen, a bus monitor will be present to keep track of how many students are using these Unionfunded services.

The renovations completed on campus over the summer were also discussed, in addition to plans for the Launch Pad Show. According to Rosen, he is still searching for a host.

As a part of the informative nature of the meeting for new members, the purposes of each Senate committee and the duties of all senators were discussed, in addition to formalities that must be followed during meetings.

Executive Senator Annie Chen ’14 discussed her plans to streamline committees that serve similar purposes this year.

Class of 2015 Senator Anna Bessendorf, a new member of the Senate, discussed the possibility of a sustainability committee, and working more closely with environmental groups on campus.

On Sept. 15, Union Vice President Charlotte Franco ’15 announced efforts to begin a constitutional-review task force for this year. The task force will determine what should be revised in the constitution.

In addition, the Brandeis Punk, Rock n’ Roll Club requested a name change to the Brandeis Association for Music and Concert Organization.

“We don’t like the way our club is perceived by the student body, by the professionals that we have to work with, because we feel the name ‘punk, rock n’ roll’ is either a misnomer or makes us seem really unprofessional,” said member Kevin Berzinis ’14 at the Senate meeting.

Berzinis described the name as a “misnomer,” because the group brings a “diverse array of musicians” to play at Cholmondeley’s. “We don’t want people to be deterred from coming to our events just because they think it’s punk and they don’t like punk,” he said. The change was approved unanimously by the Senate.

—Marissa Ditkowsky

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS n A photograph in Sports misidentified the photographer. The photograph was taken by Jonathan Dweck, not Jon Edelstein. (Aug. 27, p. 13) n An article in Arts incorrectly identified the date of the auditions for the upcoming BTC show Cabaret. The auditions were held on Sept. 7, not Sept. 15.

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

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POLICE LOG Medical Emergency

Sept. 5—A man experienced chest pains outside Hassenfeld Conference Center and was transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for further care.

Sept. 7—A rider on the Joseph’s Transportation bus reported a possible seizure.

BEMCo had been notified and the student was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Sept. 8—An intoxicated student was reported outside Massell Quad and treated by BEMCo. Sept. 8—An individual outside of the Rose Art Museum reported that he may be having an allergic reaction.

Sept. 9—A male reported having a seizure outside the Shapiro Campus Center and was transported to Newton Wellesley Hospital.

Sept. 9—University Police received a call that a student had suffered an injury while playing frisbee by Renfield Hall. The stu-

dent was transported via ambulance for further care.

Sept. 9—A student suffered a right ankle injury in Hassenfeld Conference Center and was treated by BEMCo. Sept. 11—BEMCo reported that a student had a seizure in Farber Library. BEMCo responded and an ambulance was requested.

Sept. 12—A student reported that her roommate experienced a prolonged nose bleed and requested medical attention from BEMCo. Sept. 13—BEMCo staff and University Police addressed a woman who fell and lacerated her head outside of Spingold Theater Center.

Traffic

Sept. 10—A staff member reported bumping into a pedestrian with a University-issued van while driving out of the Village Market.

Sept. 11—An escort supervisor reported that a University escort van struck a parked car.

Disturbance

Sept. 5—Two students engaged in a heated argument were advised to separate and clear the area outside 110 Angleside Road.

Sept. 5—A student complained of loud music outside of the Charles River Apartments.

Larceny

Sept. 4—A student reported that her wallet was stolen from the cardio room in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center.

Miscellaneous

Sept. 2 —A caller alerted University Police of four individuals outside who appeared to be intoxicated en route to campus.

Sept. 3—A student notified University Police that he observed a possible incident of masturbation in Goldfarb Library.

Sept. 4—A student reported that she was sexually assaulted in her residence hall.

Sept. 5—A female student reported that an individual in the

woods behind Scheffres Hall photographed her while changing. The suspect was not present upon the officers’ arrival.

Sept.

5—Waltham Police sought to locate four individuals who possibly smoked marijuana in the woods outside Theater Lot. Sept. 13—University Police reported that two students climbed into a window to reach the roof of Usen Castle. The students could not be located.

Sept. 13—A loud, unauthorized party occurred in a suite in Rosenthal East, which also included a tampered fire alarm.

University police immediately dispersed the gathering.

Vandalism

Sept. 14—An individual reported that his car’s side door was damaged. University Police arrived to compile a report on the incident.

—compiled by Adam Rabinowitz

WIRE BRIEF

NERF WAR

Twitter announces IPO

ANNIE FORTNOW/the Justice

Students particiated in a nerf gun war on Wednesday, Sept. 4 on the Great Lawn. The event, which was sponsored by Game Knight, kicked off the long Rosh Hashana weekend with a bang.

The most anticipated Silicon Valley initial public offering since Facebook is on its way: Twitter announced Thursday that it has privately filed for its first public sale of shares.

In a message sent on the corporate account of its own microblogging service, Twitter said Thursday, “We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.”

Twitter’s growth has produced strong IPO buzz for years, but Facebook’s rough Wall Street debut quieted much of the excitement. Facebok exercised a record-breaking IPO in May 2012 that valued CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s creation at more than $100 billion, but problems with initial trades and doubts about Facebook’s ability to generate revenue pushed shares from an initial price of $38 to less than $20 in the first year of public availability.

While Twitter Inc. doesn’t disclose revenue, analysts estimate it’s well below the one billion dollar threshold. The research firm eMarketer projected Twitter will have about $580 million in online ad sales this year, or more than double eMarketer’s estimate of $288 million in 2012.

The research firm projects Twitter’s ad sales could rise to one billion dollars next year.

Like Facebook, Twitter generates its revenue from advertisements, with businesses paying to promote their tweets in users’ timelines on personal computers and mobile devices. The company has taken pains to develop its revenue generation in the past year by opening its ad platform to third-party software, improving ad targeting with the use of cookies and data-mining, and partnering with WPP, the world’s largest advertising agency. Earlier this week, Twitter announced the planned acquisition of MoPub, a mobile advertising company, and said it will use the company’s technology to offer advertisers real-time auctions for purchasing ads.

—McClatchy Newspapers

ANNOUNCEMENTS KaBoom playground build

Join 250 community members from Waltham, the New England Patriots, United Health Care and Bentley University to build a playground and community garden at Prospect Hill Public Housing Complex here in Waltham.

Volunteers will help with construction, youth engagement activities and gardening.

Today from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Prospect Hill.

Go Away! Study Abroad fair

The Go Away! Study Abroad Fair provides students the opportunity to interact with and collect information from various study abroad programs.

Today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Levin Ballroom in the Usdan Student Center.

Constitution Day

Celebrate the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. Join us to receive your free copy of the Constitution and help us build

our own flag.

Today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

Apple picking

Spend an afternoon picking the crispest apples you can find before heading home to bake some pies for your roommates.

The price of apples at the site are not included in the price of the trip. A five-dollar refundable deposit is required in the Shapiro Campus Center atrium. The bus leaves the Theater lot at 1 p.m.

Thursday from 1 to 5 p.m. at Honey Pot Hill Orchards.

Women’s self defense clinic

The Brandeis Student Athlete Advisory Committee is sponsoring a women’s selfdefense clinic. The purpose of this clinic will be foundations of self-defense and stand-up postures with defense against grabs and chokes.

Thursday from 8 to 9 p.m. on the Red Auerbach Arena.

Trivia Night

Bring your brain and your friends to this friendly competition. Play as an individual or play with a team of five. Teams can stay consistent throughout the year to be eligible for a year-long prize. Each night there is a winner of a gift certificate to enjoy a night in Waltham.

Thursday from 10 p.m. to midnight at The Stein.

Amazing Race You’ve seen the show, now get a team together and experience it firsthand, Brandeis-style. Teams limited to minimum four, maximum eight students. Register your team by Sunday, Sept. 15 at 11:59 p.m.

Will your team win the coveted grand prize? Teams will begin at the Carl J. Shapiro Science Center and then play across campus.

Friday from 8:30 to 9 p.m. in the Shapiro Science Center Lobby.

THE JUSTICE

ranking with three other schools, including NYU. By ilana kruger JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

JOSHUA LINTON/the Justice

A BRIGHT FUTURE: The panels, installed on the Charles River Apartments, are designed to provide 60 percent of heating energy.

Solar panels to supply heat for residence halls by a Brandeis alumna, was funded by the Brandeis Sustainability Fund.

By MARISSA DITKOWSKY JUSTICE EDITOR

The University installed a solar thermal system to supply heat for the Charles River Apartments over the summer. The project was completed in addition to several deferred maintenance projects, and is the first system of its kind in Massachusetts.

The project, a part of the Brandeis Sustainability Fund, was originally proposed by a student, Nicole Litvak ’12.

“I was inspired by my study abroad experience in Israel, where virtually every household has solar hot water,” wrote Litvak in an email to the Justice. “This technology is not very widely deployed in the [United States], where most of our solar is photovoltaic (using solar energy to create electricity as opposed to thermal energy for heating water).”

In addition to receiving some funding from the BSF, the project received a large portion of its funding from Walden Renewables. According to Sustainability Coordinator Lea Lupkin, the organization has paid for a majority of the installment and maintenance.

Litvak wrote that at first, the plan was just to install a small demonstration system on one building, because that is all the BSF would have been able to afford with the grant. However, a local company called Paradigm Partners provided Litvak with a solution that would require a private investor to buy and own the system, and Brandeis would buy the thermal energy from them. The muliple parties were unable to comment on the exact cost of the project.

“We, to date, have never used an alternative system to supply heat to the campus, [and] it’s also the first project of its kind in the state,” said Lupkin in an interview with the Justice.

The project was proposed during the 2011 to 2012 academic year, but only came to fruition this year. According to Litvak, after many meetings with Paradigm, Facilities Services, the BSF board and University President Frederick Lawrence, the project was finally approved, but “long after [she] graduated.”

Lupkin said that the solar power is supplying heat to the water in the building’s water-heating system, whereas previously, oil was being used. However, the oil system is currently still acting as a supplement to the solar thermal system. According to Lupkin, the engineers did not remove the oil system to ensure that

3

University 32nd in United States ■ Brandeis shares the high

there is a backup in place.

“What’s considered by the engineers to be the best system is for it to supply about 60 percent of the thermal energy needed to heat the water,” said Lupkin. “It’s designed to have only about 40 percent heated by the oil.

Obviously what’s designed and what actually happens depends on what comes from the sun, but that’s what it’s designed for.”

According to Director of the Department of Community Living Jeremy Leiferman, there are now solar-powered panels on the roof that are feeding into the hot water heating system.

Lupkin explained that these panels are actually shaped more like tubes due to the fact that they are a part of a solar thermal system.

Charles River is not the only location that is powered by solar energy.

Litvak was aware of the use of solar panels to provide electricity for Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, which have been functioning since February 2010, and wanted to bring solar thermal technology to Brandeis, as well.

According to a Feb. 23, 2010 BrandeisNOW article, the system powering Gosman is 271 kilowatts and comprised of over 1,200 high-efficiency photovoltaic modules.

This system is also owned by a third-party company, like the Charles River solar thermal system. The system is only supplemental, like Charles River’s. “It’s not supplying all of the electricity needed to support that building,” said Lupkin.

According to Lupkin, there are no current plans to expand the system to other locations on campus.

Lupkin said that the choice to install the system for Charles River came out of a feasibility study that was funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and performed

by Paradigm Partners. No other buildings on campus were deemed as proper candidates for this sort of project in the short term through the feasibility study.

According to Lupkin, factors taken into account were the roofs of each building and their ability to support such a system, as well as the buildings’ current heating systems. “For Charles River it made a lot of sense because that is actually the only building where the heating is still coming from oil.

“The rest of the campus is on steam provided by natural gas, so for Charles River it made a lot of sense both to save money for the institution as well as to reduce the carbon footprint,” said Lupkin.

BSF receives about $50,000 a year through an additional student fee, and funds sustainability projects proposed by students. BSF asks students to submit ideas during the fall semester, and helps students develop formal propos-

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

academics

SOLAR SUSTAINABILITY

■ The project, spearheaded

●

als and projections of how the project could work. Proposals and final details are due by the end of the fall semester, and projects are funded and implemented over the course of the spring semester, according to Lupkin.

“All of the projects that were proposed by students, they stay involved throughout the process of making decisions and so in the case of … the solar thermal project, she helped to find the firm that did the feasibility study and then ended up installing the units in the system,” said Lupkin.

Litvak currently works as a solar analyst for a company called Greentech Media Research, completing research and consulting on the solar photovoltaic industry. “I was at Brandeis about a month ago and was thrilled to see the system finally being installed almost [two] years after I started the project,” wrote Litvak. “I hope current Brandeis students take notice of the renewable energy that is powering/heating various parts of campus, but more importantly, I hope this serves as an example of how students can actually make major projects like this happen.”

In addition to BSF projects, the University has been working on an energy-efficiency program. Last year, according to Lupkin, the Board of Trustees invested five million dollars, and this year it is investing another five million dollars, toward improving the infrastructure of buildings across campus and reducing energy use.

“Over the course of that year and a half we worked in basically a dozen different buildings working on upgrades, and that’s estimated to save about $500,000 a year in utility costs and reduce our carbon footprint equivalent to taking over 300 cars off the road every year,” Lupkin said.

Projects have included replacing the underground steam pipes across campus, upgrades to replace lights with more efficient technology, installation of occupancy light sensors, replacing air chillers and the improvement of ventilation and pressurization in laboratories.

“Upgrading those to be newer both reduces need for maintenance of those units and also often increases the efficiency of the units just because they’re newer,” Lupkin said.

Projects have occurred or will occur in the following buildings this upcoming year: the Goldfarb Library, Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, Usdan Student Center, Hassenfeld Conference Center, GoldmanSchwartz Art Studios, Spingold Theater Center, the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center, East Quad, Massell Quad, Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, Rosenthal Quad, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections, Carl J. Shapiro Science Center and Shapiro Campus Center.

On Sept. 10, U.S. News & World Report released its 2014 Best College Rankings. Brandeis is now ranked number 32 in its national university rankings, moving up one spot from last year.

Brandeis is just under Boston College, number 31, and shares the number 32 ranking with The College of William and Mary, New York University and the University of Rochester.

The U.S. News & World Report ranks schools in the categories of national universities, which “focus on research and … offer several doctoral programs,” liberal arts colleges, regional universities and regional colleges, according to the U.S. News website. The website also lists schools that are not ranked for various reasons, including schools that do not factor SAT or ACT test scores in their admissions process.

The University’s new test-flexible application option, under which standardized test scores are not required and students can instead submit an academic portfolio including an analytical writing sample and extra recommendation letter, will begin next fall. However, Brandeis still does use test scores if students choose to submit them, and international or homeschooled students are required to submit SAT or ACT scores.

“Being test flexible does not impact our ranking or listing, and many test optional and flexible schools are in the rankings, such as Wake Forest [University],” Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel wrote in an email to the Justice. “It is possible that an institution doing away with standardized tests entirely could impact U.S. News status, but that is far from the case for the Brandeis program model.”

Flagel also serves on the Educational Advisory Board for U.S. News & World Report, which is an unpaid position. The board meets to discuss, review and improve the rankings prodecure.

“If students know how the model is developed, they can use the rankings to quickly compare schools across a small number of areas,” Flagel said.

“Unfortunately, it often serves as a proxy for which school is ‘better,’ which doesn’t even touch consider-

ations like campus culture and individual student interests or standout academic programs.”

The problem, according to Flagel, is that “the rankings become a shorthand for educational quality.” The U.S. News & World Report website encourages students to use the rankings as just one tool in comparing schools, and not to rely solely on them.

U.S. News & World Report calculates the rankings based on questionnaires sent to “accredited four-year colleges and universities in the late winter through spring,” according to its website. “Measures of graduation and retention are the most heavily weighed factors in the Best Colleges rankings.”

This year, many schools improved or decreased in their rankings due to changes in the ranking methodology.

These changes include placing less weight on the high school class standing of incoming students and more weight on SAT and ACT scores.

However, according to Flagel, “the tool is purposefully designed so that there is little movement among the very top levels of the ranking. Although Brandeis has remained in the top tier since the inception of the rankings, this design provides an advantage to older and larger schools with very large budgets.” Therefore, it is hard to tell precisely what impact the rankings have in attracting new students.

Based on anecdotal information, a school’s movement up or down in the rankings does not tend to correlate with an increase or decrease in applications, said Flagel.

Brandeis may continue to move up in the ranks, according to Flagel.

“Because this particular ranking receives so much attention, it is important that we are aware of how it interacts with our decisions. As we work on the goals of the Brandeis strategic plan, we can focus on areas where our goals align with things that are measured by the survey methodology,” Flagel said.

One influential factor measured by the rankings is class size, which research has shown is important to Brandeis’ prospective students. “It is a Brandeis core value, and our plan is to support and enhance that structure, so in that case placement in the rankings and our plans align closely,” Flagel said.

The complete list of ranked and unranked schools in all categories, as well as the detailed description of the methodology used, can be found on the U.S. News & World Report website.

BRIEF Shuttle malfunction causes stir A Boston/Cambridge shuttle had to stop its route after smoke was seen coming out of the back on Sept. 7, according to student accounts and Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan in an email to the Justice. No passengers were injured and another bus arrived within 30 minutes to pick up the students from the location of the incident. “[W]e had smelt smoke on the bus. We suddenly stopped and had to evacuate the bus,” wrote Flora Wang ’14, one of the passengers, in an email to the Justice. “There was [a] large amount of smoke billowing out of the back of the bus.”

“There was a strong smell, an alarm, and lights on the dashboard,” recalled Mia Katan ’15, another passenger, in an email to the Justice. “The bus driver pulled over and told us to get out because the bus was on fire.”

The incident took place off campus while the bus was on the normal route. Callahan wrote he believed it took place “close to Brandeis.”

According to Callahan, an alternator malfunctioned, causing the bus to smoke, “which necessitated the bus be stopped for [the] safety

of passengers.” All passengers were moved to a second bus.

This is not the first time a shuttle has experienced malfunctions.

In March 2012, a Crystal Shuttle bus caught fire while on Loop Road. The Waltham Fire Department and University Police were called to the scene to put out the fire. No injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire was unknown.

Last week’s incident comes shortly after the switch to a new transportation provider, Joseph’s Transportation, which replaced Crystal Transport this semester.

According to Callahan in a Sept. 3 Justice article, the change to Joseph’s Transportation was made after the contract with Crystal Transport “went out for bid.”

While the details of the contract are not known, Callahan said that he believed the switch to Joseph’s Transportation would allow the University to save money.

Katan later wrote in her email that the event was “fairly calm.”

“I never saw any flames and no one was hurt,” she wrote.

—Sara Dejene, Phil Gallagher contributed reporting.

THE JUSTICE

student union

of staff and others were finalized last week.

By marissa ditkowsky JUSTICE editor

Student Union President Ricky Rosen ’14 finalized his cabinet appointments on Sept. 8 after a search to fill three vacant positions, most prominently his chief of staff.

David Clements ’14, the 2012 to 2013 Student Union treasurer, and runner- up in last spring’s presidential elections, fills the top position in Rosen’s cabinet as chief of staff.

The positions of co-director of communications and ’Deis Day coordinator were filled by Clements, Wenyi Zhang ’16 and Sara Pedersen ’15, respectively.

The cabinet appointments were unanimously confirmed by the Senate at its meeting on Sept. 8.

Clements wrote in an email to the Justice that he is excited about his appointment as chief of staff. “I think it is safe to say that our goal is simply to make the Union more relevant,” he wrote. “We want the student body to realize that the Union is their advocate and always a resource. I look forward to improving campus life, club support, and our relationship with [University] administrators.”

Rosen added three new positions to the cabinet this year that had not been a part of the cabinet previously, including the positions of executive director and two co-directors of communication.

According to Rosen, the job of the executive director is to oversee members of the Executive Board, and will be responsible for collaboration within the Union.

“Having been in the Union for two years, I felt that it was important to have someone on the E-Board whose sole responsibility is to ensure that other representatives are completing their duties, and to serve as a resource is [sic.] any of them need assistance,” Rosen wrote in an email to the Justice in regard to his decision to add this position.

In regard to his decision to appoint two co-directors of communication, Rosen wrote that “[t]he greatest challenge that we face as a Union is how to communicate our achievements and initiatives to the student body—this year, I believe that we have found an ideal medium of communication with video updates, which requires a Communications Director to head this effort.”

Co-Director of Communications Jon Jacob ’16 will responsible for heading Student Union Video Committee and publishing video updates to student body, while CoDirector Zhang will be responsible

for maintaining Union website and social media platforms, according to Rosen.

“In years past, I believe Co-Directors of Communication were positions on the Executive Board, however, I do not believe that [2012 to 2013 Student Union President] Todd [Kirkland ’13] appointed students to these positions last year,” Rosen wrote.

Rosen wrote that generally Union presidents look at the last few years for guidance on what positions to appoint. However, Rosen also has the ability to put together his own cabinet based upon the needs of the Brandeis community and the Union.

As a part of this initiative, Jacob wrote that he plans to revamp the Student Union Launch Pad Show, which will now be “a series of biweekly programs that will feature multiple entertaining yet informative video segments” on the Student Union’s YouTube channel.

Jacob’s proposal includes segments that would inform the student body on recent initiatives from both Executive Board members and the Senate, although, according to Jacob in the email, it is still in its initial planning stages.

Rosen wrote that this program will be an opportunity for “Union representatives [to] recap the Union meetings, discuss initiatives, respond to students’ tweets and bring administrators onto the show.”

Jacob will also be fulfilling his role as Class of 2016 senator simultaneously. “I have no doubt that Jon [Jacob] will do a fantastic job as both a Senator and Co-Director of Communications this year—I would not have appointed him for the role if I felt otherwise,” Rosen wrote. “In addition, many of his Senate tasks, particularly those pertaining to Outreach, may cross over with his work on the Executive Board and the Video Committee, which is convenient.”

Rosen wrote that there is nothing stated in the constitution that prohibits a senator from serving as both a senator and a member of the cabinet. “[S]tudents cannot hold multiple elected positions, but can hold one elected and one appointed position,” he wrote.

The list of appointed positions prior to the selection of Clements, Jacob and Zhang consisted of Anthony Nyugen ’14 as executive director, Jacob as co-director of communications, Bethlehem Solomon ’14 as Co-Director of Academic Affairs, Shukai Zhang ’15 as Co-Director of academic affairs and Undergraduate Curriculum Committee representative, Owen Voelker ’14 as director of office of student rights and responsibility and community outreach and Andre Bourne ’14 as appointed Finance Board member.

TUESDAY, September 17, 2010

5

BREAKING THE FAST

Rosen chooses Union cabinet ■ Appointments for chief

●

ANNIE KIM/the Justice

University President Frederick Lawrence takes part in a festive break fast meal at the end of Yom Kippur on Saturday night. The event took place in a large tent on the Great Lawn and featured a massive spread of bagels and lox and more traditional dinner foods.

faculty

Faculty meeting includes discussion of online classes ■ University faculty met

last Thursday to discuss several issues and initiatives around campus.

By tate herbert JUSTICE editor

Topics of discussion varied at last Thursday’s faculty meeting—the first of the academic year. University President Frederick Lawrence and Provost Steve Goldstein ’78 discussed the status of the University budget and the strategic plan, while chair of the faculty senate Prof. Eric Chasalow (MUS) addressed his peers’ concerns about the online learning and test-flexible admissions initiatives.

Current University staff and faculty members also introduced 11 new faculty members, two postdoctorate fellows and one new staff member, Vice President for Alumni Relations Patricia Fisher.

The new faculty members were added in the Mathematics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, American Studies, Economics, History, Psychology, Womens and Gender Studies and Japanese departments. Visiting professors were also announced in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Education and Philosophy, as were postdoctoral fellows in Women’s and Gender Studies, Film Studies and the Digital Humanities

and History.

Addressing the gathered faculty, Lawrence said that while the 2013 fiscal year budget is not ideal, “certainly by the end of the decade” it would be “well within reach to achieve a goal the University has never really achieved, which is to live within our means, and have appropriate surpluses” to fund University initiatives.

One goal over the next 10 years, he continued, is to raise $210 million to establish scholarships and bolster the endowment.

In terms of savings, Lawrence stated that the University’s new contract with Sodexo adds “substantial” savings to the budget—“something in the low seven figures.”

Goldstein added that the University was also seeking to save with its “aggressive” approach to reforming procurement, redirecting those funds back into the academy.

Goldstein went on to say that construction would soon begin on a new home for the Lemberg Children’s Center on South Street. The new building will have more space and be able to enroll more, and younger, children.

The increased enrollment is projected to cover the additional costs of the new site, according to Goldstein.

Goldstein announced last spring that the center would be relocated in response to regulatory changes that made the current building unsuitable.

This coming spring and summer, he added, the Crown Center for Middle

East Studies will start moving into the former Lemberg building.

Last but not least, Goldstein announced the addition of a curator at large position at the Rose Art Museum, and that the Rose Board of Overseers had been reconstituted. He called the latter the “last formal step in the rebirth of the Rose.”

After the introduction of new faculty, Chasalow gave the faculty senate report. He first addressed the room on “this experiment that [Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment] Andrew Flagel is engaged in with going test optional.” Regarding faculty concerns, he said, “This is the discussion that we have to have: what does this mean for us, what are the ramifications going to be?”

On the topic of 2U and online education, Chasalow had a similar message. “I know that many of you are concerned with [Brandeis’ participation in online learning],” said Chasalow. “We will continue to see how this goes,” he added.

Chasalow also reported that the senate council recently held a meeting, led by Prof. Bernadette Brooten (NEJS) and Prof. Faith Smith (AAAS), to address the issue of Sodexo’s ethics and labor practices, which was a topic of concern for faculty as early as last spring. Brooten volunteered to continue a discussion with Sodexo and report back to the Senate. “It’s not a very clear situation, we still have questions,” Chasalow said of the process.

dining SERVICES

Sodexo using only disposable plates and utensils in Usdan ■ Students raised concerns

regarding the presence of only disposable utensils and plates in the dining hall.

By sam tOPPER JUSTICE contributing writer

The recent switch to Sodexo as a food service provider brought about many changes to the Brandeis dining experience. Some students recently expressed concern about one of these changes: the lack of reusable diningware in Usdan Boulevard and Usdan Café.

In an interview with the Justice, Haley Orlofsky ’14 from Students for Environmental Action said that “SEA plans to launch an initiative which aims to address the lack of reusable plates, cups and utensils as a priority this semester.”

DeGioia said that Sodexo plans to

hire a student sustainability coordinator to help facilitate student involvement. “My goal is to make this the best dining experience we can possibly make it, and we can’t do that without the students and the community,” said DeGioia.

“As a guest, it is easy to make smart environmental choices when you dine at a Sodexo café,” Sodexo assures visitors on the website specific to Brandeis.

The site’s “Planet” page discusses the ways Sodexo intends to operate in an environmentally-friendly manner, including “reducing inorganic and organic waste.”

Some students, such as Erica Gwinn ’16, said they do not find it easy to make smart environmental choices at Usdan Boulevard and Usdan Café. Her only option in Usdan is to use paper plates and plastic utensils, which she said makes her unhappy. “It seems very wasteful to me” she said regarding the disposable plasticware.

Jay DeGioia, Sodexo’s resident dis-

trict manager for Brandeis, reinforced the company’s environmentally-conscious position in an interview with the Justice. He explained that when Sodexo first took over, both Usdan Café and Boulevard simply did not have enough reusable plates, cups and cutlery to open the two dining halls in time for the arrival of students.

Currently, according to DeGioia, Sodexo has no intention to stop using disposable plates and cutlery. Instead, Sodexo is focusing on plans to renovate Usdan Cafe so that students can enjoy a second all-you-can-eat dining hall similar to Sherman Dining Hall.

While this would result in the acquisition of reusable plates and silverware for Usdan, DeGioia stated that such a large overhaul would not take place anytime in the near future.

Though DeGioia said he was unaware of students’ concern over the use of disposables, he affirmed that student feedback will help Sodexo finetune its programs to the needs of the

Brandeis community. “We’ll definitely look at it as we go forward,” said DeGioia in an interview with the Justice, referring to the replacement of disposable plates, cutlery and cups with more environmentally friendly options.

Strong support from the student community will help expedite any changes, as DeGioia said that Sodexo looks for student involvement and feedback to point out any changes that can be made to help meet the needs of Brandeis students. “We want to give the program back to the students,” DeGioia expressed. “It’s their meal plan.

We want them involved.”

Students like Gwinn have also expressed concern over the slips of paper Sodexo workers give students that act as receipts for the cashiers, another change which Gwinn said she and her friends feel unnecessarily adds to the large amount of paper already disposed of in Usdan.

DeGioia says the company is “more than willing” to do whatever it can to

improve sustainable practices, but that he wishes to continue using paper ‘receipts’ for check out at retail dining locations like Usdan Boulevard and Cafe. While cashiers used to look at students’ food to determine what to charge, now they use a slip of paper marked by the worker who prepared the food. DeGioia defends this practice with an explanation that the papers help the lines move faster, which makes the students happier, in DeGioia’s opinion. DeGioia stated, however, that he could look into types of paper that would be less harmful to the environment.

Gwinn said that she thinks the receipts are helpful in theory, but “in practice, not so much.” As a Usdan frequenter, she said she feels that the lines are neither shorter nor longer than they used to be, and so the slips have become wasteful. Gwinn said that the slips do not help the long lines because “the problem is that there’s not enough registers open” she opined.

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CONTINUED FROM 1 RAFAELLA SCHOR/the Justice

Students gathered on Saturday, Sept. 7 for a New Years Eve party to celebrate Rosh Hashana, which took place from Wednesday night on Sept. 4 to Friday night on Sept. 6.

TREASURY: Election to take place this week much in the air when the school year began,” said Rosen in an interview with the Justice. “Since we had not heard from him in so long we decided that the best course of action for the student body would be to approach the Senate about removing him from office.”

According to Rosen, the same day that he and other Executive Board members had decided to schedule a meeting to discuss Aidasani’s status as treasurer, Rosen heard from Aidasani. “After speaking with him, I decided that it was in the best interest of students to give Sunny an opportunity to perform all of the duties that he had promised to when he was sworn in as the treasurer over the next few days,” Rosen said.

Rosen said that although Aidasani was able to resolve many of the issues that the Finance Board and the treasury were facing, including questions regarding Procurement Cards, clubs’ allocations and other duties within the Student Union such as buying supplies for the Union office, he “did not believe that Sunny could continue to maintain this level of commitment to this position for the duration of the year.”

“I feel like as Sunny stated in his email, his personal circumstances were preventing him from being able to fully commit to being treasurer … and being treasurer of the Student Union is the most difficult position on campus,” Rosen said.

According to Rosen, Aidasani made the decision to resign despite the fact that he was able to complete most of his duties prior to this past Tuesday.

“We certainly made Sunny aware of

the fact that given his inactivity over the summer we would be considering asking him to resign if he failed to complete the duties over the few days, but in the end it was Sunny’s decision,” Rosen said.

Previous Union treasurer and current Chief of Staff David Clements ’14 wrote in an email to the Justice that the job of treasurer often made him feel like he was “‘on-call’ 24/7” and that “any personal issue that would prevent someone from properly performing his or her job is sufficient reason to step down.”

According to Clements, in addition to working 10 hours in the office per week, he would receive between 100 and 150 emails per day from club leaders and administrators, “all of which needed to be answered in a timely manner.”

Director of Student Activities Stephanie Grimes said in an interview with the Justice that she tried to reach out to Aidasani several times over the course of the summer, but that “there was generally a lack of communication in regards to funding.”

According to Grimes, she does not believe the process of checking allocations was made clear to club leaders, especially since the Union began posting allocations to the Student Union Management system instead of my.brandeis.edu this summer.

“We were getting lots of questions from club leaders about their allocations and making sure that people knew what they had going into the school year in regards to their early marathon allocations,” she said. “The communication about that in connection with logistics of people not having access to the club leaders’ email [listerv] and not using resources in that

regard I think enhanced the communication challenge.”

Grimes also said she believes that early marathon was slightly delayed.

“I think that the biggest challenge that I saw with the early marathon allocations process was the communication to club leaders that their allocations were up,” she said.

In his statement, Aidasani wrote that in his absence, “[p]roper measures are being taken to make sure there is a smooth transition into a new treasury.” According to Rosen, until a new treasurer can be elected, Mohamed Ali ’14, the Finance Board chair, will serve as the interim treasurer.

An election for a new treasurer will be included in the general Senate elections Sept. 18.

Until a new treasurer is elected, Ali will be serving as both the interim treasurer and F-Board chair.

Grimes raised concern about the overlap of these commitments, as start of regular marathon and the end of early marathon will take place around the same time that a new treasurer is elected.

“I think just like any student I would be concerned about his time commitment at the end of September and early October when the F-Board process is in full swing and making sure that he’s balancing the F-Board chair role with any remaining treasurer responsibilities,” she said.

However, Grimes said that she feels that Ali is capable of balancing the jobs, and Ali wrote that the possible overlap in September should not cause any issues because “by [the time the FBoard has high priority tasks], a new treasurer will be elected and begin training."

TOURS: Guide program to expand CONTINUED FROM 1 Justice that their undergraduate tour guides are volunteers, although the university does offer special events and barbecues to thank volunteers for their service. At Boston College, undergraduate tour guides are also volunteers, as confirmed by a representative at undergraduate admissions. The representative said in an interview with the Justice that there is no need to incentivize students with stipends, as there are “way more students interested than what [they] need.” Volunteers at both universities go through a competitive application process.

According to ambassador coordinator Naomi Volk ’14, the program will continue its rigor in regard to training and preparation to become a tour guide. “[W]e plan to compensate for the lack of pay by creating a model program with untold perks for those participating in the Ambassador program,” Volk wrote in an email to the Justice.

Despite the existence of such “untold perks,” Volk wrote that “[t]he goal is for people to genuinely enjoy being an Ambassador and have the

benefits of the organization make it even more worthwhile for those involved than were they being paid …

The design of the changes is to foster a sense of community around the organization, centered more on our mutual love of Brandeis, rather than experiencing it as a job.”

Eliza Kopelman ’15 was hired as a tour guide during the spring 2012 semester, and moved up to the position of chatting coordinator last May. Kopelman wrote in an email to the Justice that she is still getting paid to fill her position as coordinator, but in the form of a stipend as opposed to the hourly wages that she had received previously. The change will be in effect this semester, according to Kopelman. The stipend, she wrote, is “pretty equivalent to how much [she] would have made if [she] had been logging all of the hours [she] worked that week.”

The hours that Kopelman works per week differ. She explained that during the first few weeks of the academic year, she worked more because she had to interview new chatters and organize the schedule. She also works all day during preview days, but wrote that during other weeks, she works less hours.

THE JUSTICE

7

ELECTION: Senate candidates share their platforms

APPLES AND HONEY

CONTINUED FROM 1

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According to Kopelman, she was not obligated to remain in her position now that the policy has changed.

However, she wrote, “I wouldn’t leave, I love my job.”

“One of the reasons why I came to Brandeis is because of the Chatters in the Admissions Office; so to coordinate the program is an unbelievable experience I have to hopefully help other prospective students realize how awesome Brandeis is,” Kopelman wrote.

Kopelman wrote that she does not believe there will be a change in the number of applicants should the ambassador position become a volunteer position. “I still would have applied to be a tour guide if I had known it was a volunteer position,” she wrote. “I think that the transition year is going to be hard as it comes with some changes that the old guides will have to adjust to, but in general, I think that we are on our way to creating a stronger program.”

According to Volk, on average, ambassadors only spend about an hour and a half working per week.

Editors Note: Naomi Volk ’14 is a columnist for the Justice, and Eliza Kopelman ’15 is a Justice Copy staff member.

tential lag created by the resignation of Aidasani.

“If elected, I plan to meet right away with my fellow assistant treasurers, [University Budget Analyst] Steve Costa ... and the EBoard in order to get the treasury up and running as soon as possible,” he wrote. “Additionally, I will increase the treasury office hours for the first month in order to make up the lost time. Every new treasury faces obstacles during the beginning of the year and while this is a [particularly] large one, I believe that I can get us through this hiccup and have a productive year.”

Three candidates are running for senator-at-large: Naomi DePina ’16, Theo Goetemann ’17 and James Polite ’15.

DePina wrote in an email to the Justice that she wants to improve dining and shuttle services on campus, and help the University embrace diversity.

Goetemann wrote that he “will be the most direct voice between our student body and the Brandeis Administration … I love meeting and talking to new people, joking around with everyone, and hearing what we all have to say.”

Polite wrote that he wants to extend library hours and solidify Brandeis’ position as a leader in sustainability.

Class of 2017

There are seven candidates for two Class of 2017 senator seats.

David Heaton said that he wants to introduce environmentally friendly initiatives, Class of 2017-specific events, diversified dining options and reasonable Usdan prices.

Cindy Xu wrote that she wants to unite the Class of 2017 with field trips, camp fire nights, sports contests between North and Massell and class T-shirts.

Erica Barnett wrote in an email to the Justice that she would bring fresh ideas such as proposing enrichment programs that allow students to give back to the community, events that promote crosscultural communication and outlets for students to de-stress.

Liz Washington wrote that she hopes to improve Brandeis’ sustainability efforts and make the campus greener.

Hee Ju Kang’s ideas range from promoting more morale-boosting student activities throughout the year to fighting for better serving sizes in the Usdan Cafe, he wrote in an email to the Justice.

Emily Conrad wrote that she wants to try to improve cell phone service on campus and lower food prices in Usdan, as well as adding a link on the Brandeis website homepage to the Brandeis UNet login.

Daniel Jaffe said he is looking to take a pragmatic approach and try to solve everyday problems that the Student Union can impact.

Quad Senators

Victor Zhu ’16 and Brian Hough ’17 are running against each other for North Quad senator.

Zhu said he wants to “spice up life at North” with movie nights and a Halloween trip to Salem, Mass., and says that he wants to “create a connection between me and everyone else who lives in North.”

Hough wrote he has plans in four specific areas: “regular meetings with faculty members/administration, community service and social justice, quad events and the promotion of a fun and cohesive quad for all.”

The residents of Massell Quad have proven to be more interested in student government than their North counterparts, as six are running to represent their quad.

Among the candidates, Annie Abrams ’17 could not be reached by press time.

So Jin Chon ’17 said he wants to implement movie nights and more interaction between dorms within Massell.

Kathryn Semerau ’17, a member of the women’s soccer team, said she wants to attempt to get better cell phone service in the dorms, create a fitness room and make a listserv to directly communicate with Massell Quad residents.

Dennis Averin ’17 said he hopes to work on sustainability around campus and any other issues his constituency thinks and decides are important.

Jianshuo Qin ’17 said he would like to build Massell into a comfortable and harmonic quad, and try to deal with any problems in the quad that arise.

Henry Snow ’17 will try to improve cell service in dorms, improve dining and library hours, and possibly introduce hammocks.

Wei Qian ’17, the sole candidate for racial minority senator, talked about promoting communication and understanding among Brandeis students.

“Bias and labels can be eliminated only if people truly know each other, not just know as a race, a group, but individually,” he wrote.

Of the two candidates for two Class of 2016 senator seats, Marlharrissa Lagardere and Kathy Nguyen, only Lagardere could be reached by press time.

Lagardere, a Posse scholar, said that she wants to bring a southern flair to campus.

“I am running for Class of 2016 senator because I believe in the Class of 2016. There are so many talented individuals just within the Class of 2016 and I’ve had the pleasure of having several oneon-one encounters with my fellow scholars of various backgrounds,” she wrote.

The sole candidate for Rosenthal Quad Senator is Eden Zik ’16.

Ameline Limorin ’16 and Ellen Parker ’16 are running for Castle Quad senator. Limorin kept it simple in her response to the Justice, saying, “I love the Castle and it’s the best place on campus ever. It would be amazing to be the queen, I mean, Castle Quad Senator.”

Parker, too, expressed her love for the Castle. “I’ve learned that there’s simply too much to say about our quirky character as a dorm—our pie-shaped dwellings, sinks in the rooms, spectacular views of Boston, [Cholmondeley's] and even our own pottery studio,” she said.

Like the Castle, Ziv Quad will be looking forward to a one-on-one election between Wonhee Choi ’15 and Guy Morag ’15.

Choi said his campaign revolves around adaptability and openness.

“While I would function as the voice within the Student Union as senator, what I’m looking to do is [make] it a group effort … where I look towards other members of the Ziv community to want to talk with me about what they would like to see happen for our quad,” he said.

Morag, a former combat officer in the Israeli Air Force, shared three specific goals he has if elected: ensuring timely maintenance from facilities, organizing a quadwide event and working with the Village senator to expand the Village gym.

Haley Orlofsky ’14 is running unopposed for Foster Mods senator.

Jennifer Almodovar ’17 is running unopposed for Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program senator.

Kira Levin ’17 , Jonah Samost ’17, Jason Schaff ’17 and Tony Tran ’17 are running for the one open seat as an associate justice.

The candidates for East Quad senator and Charles River Apartments senator could not be reached by press time.

— Ellie Benjamin, Brian Budik and Marissa Ditkowsky contributed reporting.

8

features

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

just

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THE JUSTICE

VERBATIM | BRUCE LEE I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1994, Heather Whitestone of Alabama became the first deaf Miss America.

The word “muggle” was used as a slang term for marijuana in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HARRISON GOLDSPIEL

BIKING FOR CHARITY: Goldspiel ’13 completed the northern Bike & Build route with a group of 27 other biker/volunteers..

Riding a different route Harrison Goldspiel ’13 biked and gave back post-graduation

By LIZ SOOLKIN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

While many alums leave college and trudge into the workforce immediately, one former student chose to bike across the country, paving a new road.

Harrison Goldspiel ’13 chose to spend his summer in a program called Bike & Build.

The organization was founded in 2002 as an expansion of a cross-country bicycle challenge organized by Habitat for Humanity at Yale University. Habitat for Humanity is an international non-profit that works to combat the issue of homelessness all over the world by building affordable housing.

The program features eight different crosscountry routes that riders can choose from.

During the journey, riders stop and assist various organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, in their mission to build affordable housing for residents of low-income neighborhoods in America.

Goldspiel chose the Northern U.S. route ,which covered a variety of American landscapes like New England, the Great Lakes, Glacier National Park, the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest. Goldspiel began his journey with 29 other bikers in Portsmouth, N.H. and finished the ride in Vancouver, Canada.

“Through biking trips focused on community service, Bike & Build benefits affordable housing and empowers young adults for a life-

time of service and civic engagement,” according to its mission statement.

Goldspiel believed that his passions would be best suited for the physical work of “biking across the country and working on affordable housing” with Bike & Build.

Participants of the program must train rigorously by biking 500 miles and doing 10 hours of volunteer work at the housing organization before joining the summer-long cross-country biking journey. Members of this trip travel to various rural communities in need of affordable housing assistance.

Goldspiel explained that the build site “can be a house, it can be a local garden or it can be some sort of housing development project … we would always work with other organizations. Usually we would work with local Habitat for Humanity chapters.”

Other organizations that the Bike & Build members worked with include Cover Home Repair, a Vermont-based organization that assists with repairs on low-income housing; Community Action Inc., a non-profit in Wisconsin fighting poverty by focusing on longterm benefits including urban development; and Hope Village, a North Dakota organization that is working to revitalize homes that were damaged in a flood in 2011.

As another part of the pre-departure requirements, each Bike & Build member had to fundraise $4,500. Having worked at the Phonathon at Brandeis, Goldspiel was up for the challenge. “I wrote over a hundred letters to

STATE BY STATE: The bike route Goldspiel tackled on the trip crossed 14 U.S. states and ended in Vancouver, Canada.

family and friends, sent out many emails and Facebook messages and asked businesses in Waltham and at home for their support,” Goldspiel said. A portion of the money went toward the bike cost. Bike & Build distributed the rest of the money in three ways: competitive grants, which were allocated by participants of Bike & Build to organizations that apply, non-competitive grants donated to organizations that provide the cyclists with materials and services and rider donations by each individual rider to an organization of their choice. Goldspiel decided to donate his $500 to Waltham Alliance to Create Housing, an organization in which he was very active during his time at the University.

In terms of housing for the members of the trip, living conditions consisted mostly of churches that hosted them for the night. On one occasion, they stayed in a synagogue, a night that Goldspiel fondly remembers. “Everybody kept asking me what to do in the synagogue and if I’m going to go to a Shabbat service. They didn’t know it wasn’t Shabbat. That was really fun.”

On a typical day, “we would follow directions and do any sort of tasks like framing, painting, insulating, landscaping, roofing and demolition,” Goldspiel said.

Goldspiel faced a number of challenges along the way including poor weather conditions, fatigue, harsh riding terrains and worst of all, Giardia, a gastrointestinal bacterial infection that left Goldspiel feeling tired and

CRUISING VOLUNTEERS: The trip was founded in 2002 as an expansion of a Habitat for Humanity program at Yale University.

weak. “Being sick brought me down a lot because you don’t want to be sick … you want to ride. That’s why you do Bike & Build,” he said.

Feeling the effects of homesickness, Goldspiel admitted that there was a week when he just didn’t want to ride. “I wanted to do nothing … I wanted to go home, to be honest, … but eventually I passed over that. I got back to my normal, happy self,” Goldspiel said.

Goldspiel also explained the challenge of going on this adventure immediately after graduation without the chance to figure out his future plans. “It’s hard to be in that state of uncertainty about your life. You’re not grounded to school and you’re not grounded to home, and you’re anxious because you’re always on the move,” he said.

But despite occasional anxiety regarding his future plans, Goldspiel feels, overall, that his trip was the perfect alternative to what he deems a “typical post-college road trip.”

He felt that it was the perfect combination of challenging and inspirational. He rarely felt physically overwhelmed because the trip was not professionally led and 90 percent of the riders had not been cyclists prior to joining.

This cyclist-humanitarian is thinking about what he will do next.

“I’d like to get more field experience in ecology, wildlife biology and land management …

I’m waiting to hear back from various jobs and AmeriCorps positions. Hopefully by October I’ll be out in some other part of the country doing hands-on fieldwork,” Goldspiel said.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

Re-charging sustainability

Zeng ’14 installed electric chargers in three locations around campus By rebecca heller justice contrIbuting writer

Imagine having cars that don’t rely on gasoline and plugging them in to charge, just like cell phones and laptops. Picture having these charging stations for cars ubiquitous in public places, not confined to the garages of a few people who make a special effort to acquire them. Seem futuristic?

Not to Vivian Zeng ’14, who spent her summer planning and overseeing the installation of three charging stations for electric vehicles on Brandeis’ campus.

The charging stations, which Zeng fondly calls her “brainchildren,” have three locations: the parking lot at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, in the Tower parking lot near the Mandel Center for the Humanities and in the Admissions parking lot next to the Slosberg Music Recital Hall.

They are free and open to the public.

Zeng, a senior majoring in Environmental Studies and Health: Science, Society, and Policy, and minoring in Legal Studies, first became interested in electric vehicles in Prof. Laura Goldin’s (AMST) “Greening of the Ivory Tower” class, but charging stations were not her original focus. One of the components of the class is to do a greening project, the focus of which is to “think of ways you can improve Brandeis’ campus sustainability.”

Zeng’s first project was not related to charging stations, but about getting an electric vehicle for Media and Technology Services, where Zeng works. “To get around, we use this gasoline golf cart. I applied to get an electric vehicle, and I was rejected on the grounds that it’s too departmentbased and it should be more of a campus thing,” she said. Goldin suggested switching the focus to acquiring a charging station, and Zeng carried the project from there.

Zeng officially began the project eight months ago. In order to fund the purchase and installation of the charging stations, she received money from the Brandeis Sustainability Fund and from the U.S. Department of Energy, which funded the project after approving a grant proposal for it. Once she obtained funding, the project involved “a lot of coordinating with the contractor, the campus electrician, the representative from the company … it was a lot of meetings and meetings and meetings and then finally the shipment arrived for the stations,” Zeng said.

Though the process took approximately eight months to come to fruition, Zeng says that the administration was helpful in implementing the project: “The administration’s been really supportive.

For EV stations it was really easy because all you needed was an electric source from a building, so we chose the new location of these stations to be

close to buildings so that we could tap the new electricity grid there.”

Despite the limitations of old buildings, Zeng thinks that Brandeis is “trying to be a lot more sustainable. And you can see that with a lot of the other BSF projects”.

For instance, one BSF project involves installing outdoor water fountains so that people don’t have to buy water bottles. “It’s an awareness issue, I think,” she says, “A lot of students don’t really know that we’re trying hard to be more sustainable.”

Since the charging stations were installed just two weeks ago, it is not yet clear how much use the they will get. However, Zeng hopes that the visibility of the stations on campus will inspire students, faculty and staff to be more aware of alternatives to cars that run on gasoline, and encourage them to choose an electric vehicle when they purchase their next car. The stations are also free to use in order to incentivize the purchase of electric vehicles. Zeng explains “I think people really need to see change in order for them to be inspired to do more change. I really think electric vehicles are one of those things that are unfortunately the stepping stone to a better, more sustainable mode of transportation”.

Zeng acknowledges that most college students will not own electric vehicles because of the high costs, but notes that the stations will be useful to individuals other than Brandeis students as well. In the past, Zeng has received multiple calls from visitors, including guest lecturers asking if Brandeis has an EV [charging] station on campus. We had to say no, “and we couldn’t even give much information about the sites in Waltham” she said.

There are three EV charging stations already located in Waltham, so the three new ones added at Brandeis double the number of stations available for local use.

In the long-term, though, Zeng hopes to move beyond the specific focus of electric vehicles. “I like seeing sustainability in action,” she says, “I’m a huge fan of trying to do projects like this, but what I am seriously passionate about is environmental justice issues.”

In particular, Zeng would like to change the fact that minority neighborhoods often bear most of the impact from pollution and other environmental issues: “I grew up in a minority neighborhood in New York City, so I’ve seen that; I grew up in that.”

Zeng hopes to go to graduate school for public health with a focus in environmental health or environmental epidemiology. “Hopefully once I get the science down, I can then tackle the policy,” she said. “Nowadays, policymakers are often ignorant of the science in their own policy plans—I refuse to make that mistake.”

JENNY CHENG/the Justice

ELECTRIC OPTION: Zeng’s installation of three electric vehicle chargers on campus doubles the number of total chargers in Waltham.

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10 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 ● THE JUSTICE

Justice Justice

the the

Established 1949, Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Established 1949

Tate Herbert, Editor in Chief Andrew Wingens, Senior Editor Adam Rabinowitz, Managing Editor Sam Mintz, Production Editor Rachel Burkhoff, Sara Dejene, Phil Gallagher, Shafaq Hasan and Joshua Linton, Associate Editors Marissa Ditkowsky, News Editor Jaime Kaiser, Features Editor Glen Chagi Chesir, Forum Editor Henry Loughlin, Sports Editor Rachel Hughes and Jessie Miller, Arts Editors Josh Horowitz and Olivia Pobiel, Photography Editors Rebecca Lantner, Acting Layout Editor Celine Hacobian, Acting Online Editor Brittany Joyce, Copy Editor Schuyler Brass, Advertising Editor

Sustainability projects impress This past summer, several “green” initiatives through the Brandeis Sustainability Fund came to fruition, most notably the installation of three electric car-charging stations on campus and solar energy panels on the roof of the Charles River Apartments.

We support the implementation of these projects and hope the University continues its efforts to further the sustainability of the campus.

Over the past nine months, Vivian Zeng ’14 has worked in coordination with the Sustainability Fund to install three electric car-charging stations throughout campus: one in the Tower Lot, one in the Athletics Lot and one station in the Admissions Lot. The stations will also be free of charge. We admire the Sustainability Fund’s efforts to implement a project that has the potential of a substantial and practical impact on the environment.

The carbon footprint of a gasoline car has long towered over electric cars. According to the United States Department of Energy’s website, electric cars convert about 59 to 62 percent of the electrical energy from the grid to power at the wheels while conventional gasoline vehicles only convert about 17 to 21 percent. Furthermore, electric cars emit little to no tailpipe pollutants. Given the project’s innovative nature, the installation of the electric carcharging stations aligns well with the social justice mission of the University.

A common stumbling block to the purchase of electric cars, especially for students, is the price of the car. While the stations may not be relevant to the community for several years, we recognize

Incentivize electric cars that these stations are pioneering a future sustainable campus. The environmental benefits of electric cars are evident and perhaps the introduction of the stations will encourage students to adopt the electric cars themselves.

Another impediment to the installation of the charging stations is the lack of energy efficient buildings on campus that can efficiently power the stations, due to the age of the majority of campus buildings. However, it appears the University is attempting to rectify the sustainability of buildings as well. Through the Sustainability Fund, the University has recently installed water-heating solar panels on the roof of the Charles River Apartments, in addition to the solar panels on the roof of the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center that were installed in February 2010.

We hope the University continues this trend and moves forward to install panels on other areas of the campus as well.

In the past, this board has scrutinized previous projects that have been initiated by the Brandeis Sustainability Fund, which is given $50,000 each semester funded by students to further implement these projects.

However, the solar heating panels and electric car charging stations are a progressive step for the University that will help to ensure the campus’ future sustainability.

We commend those involved in these projects for their efforts and look forward to seeing continued progress towards an environmentally friendly campus.

Shuttle service needs review The University has long promoted, and Students have long valued, the University’s provision of convenient and free transportation to Boston from the Brandeis campus. However, despite the popularity of the service, the shuttles have developed a reputation for being structurally unsound. In 2012, one of the shuttles caught fire while returning to campus from Boston and had to be evacuated. More recently, a shuttle broke down in Cambridge. The change this academic year to a new shuttle provider, Joseph’s Transportation, was expected to save money, according to Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan, but it has not rectified long-standing student concerns.

Students should be able to feel assured of their safety on any campus shuttle that they board.

A shuttle bus catching fire, especially so soon after transitioning to this new shuttle provider, raises unease and worry about the reliability of Joseph’s Transportation. We question the maintenance records of their buses and hope the University ensures that the buses are safe and reliable for students.

The change to the new shuttle provider came alongside the creation of a new shuttle stop at the Riverside MBTA station. For the past couple of years, students have voiced a desire for a shuttle from campus directly to the Riverside MBTA station.

In November 2011, the Student Union and Public Safety tested the student use of a Riverside shuttle on a Saturday and

Ensure student safety Sunday, which failed to attract sufficient student ridership and was subsequently discontinued. The creation of a shuttle to the Riverside MBTA station was heralded as a sought-after addition to the shuttle stops, but the schedule of the shuttle severely hinders its usefulness. The new Riverside shuttle runs two days a week: Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. This development, however, has failed to meet the needs of students.

In theory the Wednesday shuttle is adding an extra day of campus transportation to Boston where none previously existed.

The reality is the vast majority of students do not choose Wednesday or Thursday afternoon to travel into Boston.

To that end, if they do decide to use the Riverside shuttle on Wednesday, they must limit their time in Boston to a very brief stay to catch the last shuttle back to campus or else take the Commuter Rail.

This editorial board expects that, as a direct result of the poor scheduling, the shuttle will not experience enough foottraffic to justify the overall cost of the Riverside shuttle service. The schedule of the shuttle should be changed to a day and hour that better suits the needs of more students.

It is critical for the Student Union and Public Safety to review the changes that they have made to the shuttle service this year to ensure student satisfaction, student convenience and, most importantly, student safety.

HANNAH KOBER/the Justice

Views the News on

This past Tuesday, President Barack Obama advocated diplomacy in Syria and postponed the crucial Senate vote on a potential military strike, prompted by information suggesting that Syrian President Bashar alAssad used chemical weapons on civilians. From a human rights standpoint, using chemical weapons has been President Obama’s “red line” that would invoke military action if crossed. Yet both the American people and Congress are weary of war from the past decade. How should the United States proceed?

Prof. Mari Fitzduff (Heller)

There are two major questions on Syria. The first is how to diminish the violence— because if any side “wins” through violence, including chemical violence, it will be a loss for all sides and their future together. The other is how can we get a political settlement that will accommodate all communities in Syria e.g. Sunni, Shia, Alawites, Christian, Assyrians, Kurds, Druze, Palestinians, etc. Will the use of force by the United States and others decrease the violence and help towards a political accommodation? Will it force people to the table or just prolong and widen the war? I believe the latter is more likely and hope the reprieve offered by the Kerry/Russian intervention will be used to win over as many rebel groups as possible to the table with Assad and his people, realizing that the only viable exit out of this war is a political exit with concessions on all sides about future power and resource sharing.

Mari Fitzduff is the founding director of M.A. Program in Coexistence and Conflict.

Prof. Yehudah Mirsky (NEJS)

There are no good options in Syria, and President Obamas was wise to be cautious. But he failed to formulate objectives, plan for them and put together the means—diplomatic, political or military—to achieve them.

Because he didn’t even plan for the crossing of his “red line” on chemical weapons, the U.S. has, incredibly, secured Assad’s hold on power and invited Putin’s Russia into the driver’s seat. The administration must be clear on its expectations from both Syria and Russia: prepare allies abroad and supporters at home for containing Syria’s destabilizing regional effects; articulate what it expects from whatever government emerges in Syria; engage with acceptable Syrian conversation partners; and prepare for the inevitable failure of the Russian-led effort. What we call “human rights” is a complicated, precarious effort to moralize politics without sacrificing essentials of security and survival. Syria has shown us that the ways we go about promoting, enforcing and thinking fundamentally about human rights need badly to be rethought if this precious enterprise is to be saved.

Yehudah Mirsky is an Associate professor of the Practice of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

Danielle Higgins (GRAD) After the United States and Russia reached an agreement on the Syrian disarmament deal, President Obama affirmed that if Syria refuses to comply, the U.S. military is poised to strike. In fact, Syria probably will not comply—Libya still had over half of its mustard gas nine years after it had agreed to destroy its stockpiles, and the chaos of the ongoing Syrian civil war will surely inhibit the process. President Obama’s reiteration of an imminent military threat may simply be a way to maintain pressure on Assad in vague hope that the plan will work. But it signals that the U.S. is unwilling to make one last concession to diplomacy—open talks with Iran, Syria’s closest ally, whose moderate President Hassan Rouhani is perhaps the best bet the region has had in years to diffuse tensions not only over the Syrian crisis but on the issue of nuclear proliferation. The U.S. must back away from its “red line” that prevents it from engaging in real diplomacy with Iran, and this may be the key to ending the crisis in Syria.

Danielle Higgins is a master’s degree candidate in the Politics department, specializing in comparative politics and the Middle East.

Geraldine Gudefin (Ph.D. ’14)

Having made a deal to disarm Syria of its chemical weapons, the Obama Administration appeared to make a profound policy shift—but in reality, it didn’t. In engaging in the long-term process of disarmament that this class of weapons requires, President Obama has signaled that the U.S. will be working with the Assad regime in the medium-term. Assad went from being an international pariah to an accepted, legitimate member of the international community overnight, able to sign on to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

And now that the U.S. has gone down this path, an Assadist victory in the Syrian civil war—or at least a splintered state in which Assad remains a major player—is almost assured. By watching on the sidelines the entire war, the U.S. has essentially blocked a rebel victory. Administration officials seem to think that the best course of action is to wait out the bloodshed until a pro-West, anti-terror Assad wins with his endless supply of Russian arms.

Given the inability of U.S. forces to genuinely change the situation on the ground, the deep uncertainty over who the rebels are and what they’d usher in, and the fact that the CWC will finally get a new member, the question of “What should the U.S. do” has become a foregone conclusion.

Geraldine Gudefin is a third-year Ph.D. student in History and the Teaching Fellow for “The Iranian Revolution from Monarchy to the Islamic Republic.”

THE JUSTICE

READER COMMENTARY Past US wars lack defensive reason To the Editor: I was surprised to read in Noah Horwitz’s ’16 recent op-ed (“Syria comparisons to Iraq are misinformed and incorrect,” The Justice, Sept. 10) that “The Iraq War is the only time in the nation’s history that we invaded an overseas sovereign state with absolutely no immediate defensive reason.”

What about, in fairly recent historical memory,the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 (under President John Kennedy), the invasion of Grenada in 1983 (“Operation Urgent Fury,” under President Ronald Reagan), the invasion of Panama in 1989 (“Operation Just Cause”, under President George Bush the first), the previous invasion of Iraq in 1990 (“Operation Desert Storm”, under President Bush the first), and the invasion of Haiti in 1994 (under President Bill Clinton)? This is only a partial list.

Then, certainly, there was the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1973, under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, which included military destruction in Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. This warfare included our dropping the chemicals napalm and Agent Orange on civilians. Chemical weapons.

These were, to use the columnist’s words, “invasions of overseas sovereign states”—about that there is no doubt. Was there in these cases, really, an “immediate defensive reason” other than hegemony? Who is misinformed and incorrect?

—Harry Mairson Prof. Harry Mairson is a professor of Computer Science at Brandeis University.

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Strike in Syria would prove to be foolish

By NELSON GILLIAT JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Syrian conflict confronts the United States with a perplexing foreign policy dilemma: either continue to police the world or mind our own business.

Morally, legally and practically, the U.S. must not be the world’s policeman. It’s neither in the best interest of the United States, nor in the interest of the rest of the world.

A government’s sole moral obligation is to protect the rights of its own citizens—not those of civilians in other countries. “Humanitarian” intervention on behalf of foreign civilians endangers the lives and property of citizens at home, whether during the actual conflict, or afterward in the form of “blowback,” a term coined by the CIA to describe the hatred and possible retaliation we incur thanks to our meddling. A quick look at our meddling in Iran in 1953 and Afghanistan in 1979—and then at the causes of 9/11—has proven the CIA right.

Intervention to protect “international norms” on chemical weapons isn’t morally justified either.

Before Bashar al-Assad’s alleged chemical attack on Aug. 21 that killed 1,400 people, he murdered over 100,000 citizens with conventional weapons.

Where the indiscriminate killing of innocents is concerned, it’s morally irrelevant whether a club, machete, gun or gas is used.

Furthermore, the use of force is morally justified only on the grounds of protecting the rights of its own citizens—in other words, self-defense.

That is not the case in Syria, which poses no security threat to the U.S. Governments that violate the rights of their citizens are immoral and illegitimate, and any moral government has the right to intervene—but not a moral obligation. The moral responsibility and fault lies with the Assad regime, not with us, and

though we retain the moral right to intervene—we don’t have a moral obligation.

From a legal standpoint, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution vests the power to declare war with Congress—not the president. The president however, may unilaterally go to war without Congressional authorization if there’s an imminent threat.

When then-Senator Barack Obama campaigned for president, he argued strongly in favor of this Constitutional approach. Once in power, however, he changed his tune: President Obama didn’t seek Congressional authorization for intervention in Libya nor did he originally plan on seeking it for Syria until political pressure forced him. Nevertheless, he views it as a mere formal courtesy, making it clear that even if Congress denies authorization, he still retains the right to go ahead unilaterally. At least his predecessor sought Congressional authorization for both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Also, there are the numerous practical problems of Syrian intervention. Historically, intervening in the political affairs of other countries, however well-intended, rarely produces positive outcomes, either for the intended beneficiaries, or for us. In Iran 1953, in Cuba 1961, in Vietnam 1963, in Afghanistan 1979, in Lebanon 1982, in Iraq 2003, and in Libya 2011 are just a handful of examples.

And of course, there’s the funding problem. The national debt is the single-biggest security threat to the U.S. We’re $17 trillion dollars in debt and our economy is still in recession. The government’s statistics on unemployment, increase in gross domestic product and inflation—7.3 percent, 2.5 percent, and 1.96 percent respectively—are dismal at best. We don’t have the money for another war, let alone a global military. When we inevitably default on our debt, we won’t be able to fund our police, military or our intelligence forces.

Perhaps more troubling is that any interven-

tion on behalf of Syrian rebels would aid our sworn enemy, Al Qaeda, present among the rebel forces, according to recent reports by the New York Times, CNN, Time Magazine, among others. We’re currently aiding the “moderate” rebels with weapons, but how do we distinguish a “moderate?” How can we trust the “moderates,” who have joined forces with Al Qaeda against Assad, to keep those weapons out of Al Qaeda’s hands?

If the rebels succeed, and Al Qaeda is an ally, there is a possibility that the perpetrators of 9/11 will replace Assad.

Syria is not a battle of good versus evil, between rebels fighting for rights and constitutionallylimited government, versus an oppressive regime.

Assad murders and imprisons dissenters; Al-Qaeda conducts suicide bombings, public beheadings and executions.

9/11 should have caused Washington to rethink our foreign policy. Instead, it emboldened them to pursue the very same course of action that caused 9/11, only this time, with zealous righteousness under the guise of fighting terrorism.

Not even the last decade’s failed military adventures are enough to change Washington. Thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars later, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya are riddled with sectarian warfare and political corruption.

Al Qaeda, meanwhile, is alive and well in various Middle Eastern and North African countries. We cannot make the world a better place with bribery and bombs: for we create more enemies, waste lives and bankrupt ourselves in the process. Instead, it is better to lead by example, through diplomacy and free trade.

Yet, despite the moral, legal and practical flaws in our interventionist foreign policy, it appears leadership in both political parties refuse to abandon this self-destructive course of action. It’s high time we re-evaluate and change our interventionist foreign policy, starting with Syria.

True college experience involves taking the unexpected path

By KAHLIL OPPENHEIMER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

What’s your major? If you’re a first-year like me, and maybe even if you aren’t, you’ve been asked this a lot over these first couple of weeks. Maybe you know for sure that you’re a Neuroscience major. Maybe you’re kind of sure that you’re an English major. Or maybe you have no idea; you feel overwhelmed and unsettled by even labeling yourself with a major.

In any case, this seems to be a big topic of discussion (at least until we can all remember each other’s names). But it’s paramount that we remember why we’re in school in the first place. We are not here just to get a job; we’re here to learn and discover—not just about the periodic table, but about ourselves. We’re here to find, explore and develop passions and curiosities. We’re here to change the world.

While we all have to work to live, we are not alive to work.

For many of us, high school wasn’t about learning and self-discovery; it was about surviving. We convinced ourselves that if we didn’t get into the elite IVIES (or Brandeis), we’d end up homeless on the streets. And so it follows that choosing a major became strictly an economic analysis—the safest path into the highest-paying job.

A little bit of research yields that engineering, computer science, finance and of course, law and health, come up at the top of that list.

According to a recent Forbes article, the average starting salary of engineers is $63,000, while the humanities and social sciences scrape by with $37,000—sorry English majors.

But performing such an analysis and calculating our chances based on income seems like a lousy way to go about living.

Going to college gives us more job security and more materialistic satisfaction in the long run, but why are we looking for more security and material satisfaction? Are we insecure and discontent with our lives? I’m certainly not saying that anybody should forgo material altogether and starve on the streets, but chasing materialism will lead to an insatiable hunger of its own. Instead of trying to fill this void of insecurity and dissatisfaction with temporary material, why not fill it with something that lasts? Passions and curiosities never die. You gain and lose wealth because it’s out of your control, but what you love to do in this world, what you strive to

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

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MARISA RUBEL/the Justice

understand, doesn’t go away until you find something more captivating.

I won’t assert that I know everyone’s plans, but I will say that we are outlining the paths we’ll follow for the rest of our lives, whether we like it or not. Just think about that for a second. If you still feel like you’re working toward an end—that this day, this week, this semester or even this year is a necessary evil to achieve something bigger—I implore you to consider this: college is the something bigger. Take a class or join a club you’ve always wanted to try, or maybe even one you’ve never heard of. Don’t waste four years of your life (and a lot of money) studying something you decided on in the seventh grade without even exploring your options first. Go outside of your comfort zone and take advantage of your time here. College has literally everything

Fine Print

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you need to explore each walk of life.

In college, you can develop your inner jock, artist, scholar or whatever else. Walking through the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center last week, I saw a machine on the basketball courts that catches your missed shots and passes them right back to you, without you needing to move a step, and a machine in the Linsey pool locker room that dries your bathing suit within seconds. This place has it all. But even if you’re not willing to don a speedo or pair of Jordans, how about trying out an intro class you’re not familiar with?

Linguistics, computer science, sociology, philosophy, theater, Chinese music and its origins—whatever it may be, just go for it. If you end up not liking it that much, no big deal; it’s only one class out of around 32 you’ll take in college. But if you discover something you re-

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

ally do love, and you find yourself eager for the next class, reading ahead in the textbook and feeling mentally engaged and stimulated, then you’ve made it. “Work” becomes learning. “College” becomes home. Your “major” becomes your life.

You can take this time to do what you want to do. No, don’t act impulsively and nap all day, but do let your curiosities take hold of you. Free yourself from society’s expectations, curiosities and passions, and become captive to your own.

Did you know that “Feminist Sexual Ethics in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam” is a class offered this semester? How about “Mobile Application Development?” Whatever classes you end up taking, majors you end up deciding on and clubs you end up joining or, whatever—do it for yourself.

Editorial Assistants Arts: Emily Wishingrad Sports: Avi Gold Staff Senior Writers: Jacob Moskowitz News: Danielle Gross, Luke Hayslip, Ilana Kruger, Scarlett Reynoso Features: Selene Campion Forum: Michael Abrams, Jennie Bromberg, Daniel Koas, Aaron Fried, Noah M. Horwitz, Catherine Rosch, Naomi Volk Sports: Ben Freudman, Avi Gold, Elan Kane Arts: Aliza Gans, Brett Gossett, Zachary Marlin, Adelina Simpson, Aliza Vigderman Photography: Jenny Cheng, Wit Gan, Annie Kim, Abby Knecht,

Bri Mussman, Adam Stern, Xiaoyu Yang Copy: Kathryn Brody, Samantha Cootner, Melanie Cytron, Eliza Kopelman Layout: Jassen Lu, Lilah Zohar Illustrations: Hannah Kober, Tziporah Thompson

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

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THE JUSTICE

FORUM

All states should embrace Medicaid expansion Jassen

LU

JUDGE’S VIEW

With 2014 fast approaching, the federal government is preparing to implement a number of policies enacted under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, otherwise known as Obamacare.

Even three years after its enactment, and more than one year after the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality, many Republican governors and state legislatures are still fighting one of its signature provisions: the expansion of the Medicaid health insurance program, which insures millions of low-income patients.

By refusing expansion, those opponents are only hurting their constituencies as well as their future political prospects.

To qualify for Medicaid, a beneficiary’s annual income cannot surpass Medicaid’s income eligibility cap, which, depending on his state’s Medicaid program, can vary from 100 to 133 percent of the federal poverty level income, which is approximately $11,490 per person. In many cases the individual must simultaneously meet certain demographic qualifications too, such as being married with children or disabled.

Unfortunately, these standards have left many other unqualified but needy patients without insurance.

ACA’s Medicaid expansion directs states to abolish the demographic requirements and standardize the income requirement to cover individuals with income at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level. However, after the provision was declared optional by he Supreme Court on year, 22 Republican governors and state legislatures, many of whom oversee states with large low-income populations, have determinedly refused the expansions to demonstrate their ideological opposition to the ACA. For example, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana stated that the policy would not only be fiscally foolish, but would also mean “giving up more and more of our freedoms to an ever larger and more powerful government” and moving toward government-run health care.

The ideological decisions of those states would mean that 3.6 million Americans, according to the RAND Corporation, a policy research organization, would continue to go without insurance, thus continuing the problems of having uninsured populations.

Without insurance, poorer patients are more likely to forgo regular care because of their inability to pay.

As such, when they need medical attention, they are more likely to visit the local emergency room, which is obligated to treat them regardless of their ability to pay. However, using emergency services for many preventable and minor conditions is costly and wasteful. Since poor patients often cannot pay for the care, health care providers cover those services by raising costs on insured patients. In a June study, the RAND Corporation predicted that those states’ forfeiture of the expansion would

HEE JU KANG/ the Justice

result in them wasting one billion dollars on avoidable uncompensated care by 2016.

Those patients’ lack of insurance also complicates the management of their long-term health. Without regular care, they cannot access many preventative and chronic disease management services. As a result, their conditions, which include diabetes, cardiovascular disease and respiratory illnesses, can worsen and become unnecessarily complicated and expensive to treat.

States also stand to lose a lot by denying the program expansion. Although many governors have claimed that the policy is unaffordable, they are woefully ignorant to several facts.

First, from 2014 to 2016, the first two years of the ACA’s expansion, the federal government will pay for all of the expansion costs, only gradually reducing its contribution to 90 per-

cent by 2020.

If the states adopt the policy by 2014, there will be little financial burden on them, as all or most of the expenses will be paid by federal dollars instead of state revenues. Second, by refusing this offer, those states will forfeit $8.4 billion of valuable federal funds per year beginning in 2014. If they decide to expand their programs later on, not only will they receive less assistance with the expansion once the federal funding is reduced, but they also will have missed out on valuable funding when it was available to them.

Undoubtedly, the decisions of those 22 Republican state governments risk tarnishing the image of the party, too. Not only will the party repel more low-income constituencies who would benefit from the expansion, but it also risks further damaging its relations with

minorities. With this expansion, ethnic and racial minorities will gain the most, as the majority of newly eligible beneficiaries are minorities. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 47 percent of potentially eligible minority beneficiaries live in states that have refused the expansion, and almost 60 percent of potentially eligible African Americans live in those states, too. With the Republicans’ reputation deteriorating among minorities, those politicians are not helping themselves by limiting access to health insurance in these populations.

Admittedly, Medicaid does not provide the best care coverage when compared to private insurance, but for many needy patients, it is all they have. To me, health care is a human right, and to withhold it from vulnerable citizens out of political spite is a great injustice.

SAT-based admission conflicts with mission of University

By MAX MORAN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

To my fellow first-years, I’d first just like to say congratulations: you are in. And not only are you in, but even more relieving, you are finally out.

Out of the prep classes, practice tests and Princeton Review textbooks. Out of giving the College Board dollar after dollar in the vain hope of the investment paying off. Out of the stressful nights tossing and turning over the four hours to follow in the morning, spent in one room filling in Scantron bubbles. Out of the college admissions process, a backward, bizarre game which the player cannot opt out of playing.

However, it appears that people on the inside are coming to recognize how twisted the game has become and are attempting to do something about it. In July, Brandeis announced that it would be shifting its admissions process to include a test-flexible option for the Class of 2018. Under the new system, students will no longer be required to submit SAT or ACT scores. They will instead have the choice of sending their main SAT or ACTs, sending several subject-specific tests such as the SAT IIs and APs or fore going any tests at all and instead sending examples of their analytical writing, along with an additional teacher recommendation.

This is a step entirely in the right direction.

By eliminating the need for students to submit themselves to the culturally-biased, money-grabbing and systemically-broken institution that is standardized testing, Brandeis is demonstrating that it understands the inherent flaws in the testing system. It joins an ever-growing list of test-flexible universities and colleges, including Bard College, Bates College, Roger Williams University and Columbia University.

Brandeis’ new system is also well structured. Subject-specific test scores allow applicants to demonstrate the areas that they are best at and most interested in, and writing selections allow the readers to learn about the person behind the application form. At the same time, the University is still holding its applicants to a high standard. Those who send subject tests must send at least three different tests—one in math or science; one in English, languages, arts or humanities; and one of your choice—meaning applicants must still demonstrate ability in multiple areas.

The third option provides readers with both a student’s creative writing (from their main application essay) and analytical writing, giving a sense of their capacity for several different types of thought, as well as their overall writing ability.

Critics of the shift have said Brandeis is only changing its policies so that those who

do send SAT or ACT scores will be high scoring applicants, thus pushing the school up in rankings to look more prestigious. Fortunately this opinion is misinformed.

Admitted students who choose not to send scores in their application will still be asked to submit them after accepting, for internal research on the program and reporting numbers accurately.

Indeed, this shift is not about earning brownie points within the admissions business; it is about Brandeis recognizing the flaws in the standardized testing process and doing something to fix it.

A school which preaches social justice and diversity simply cannot participate wholeheartedly in the SAT system. Many studies have found that the SAT is less a determinant of how intelligent the test-taker is, than of how white, wealthy and American the test-taker is.

In fact, a Jay Rosner study in 2003 found that sample SAT questions which were answered correctly by African-American students were deleted from the SAT. This was done so that the test results would be “consistent” from year to year. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, meanwhile, recently determined that the gap in standardized test scores between rich and poor students is almost 60 percent, twice the gap between white and non-white test-takers.

It is ironic that a test whose purpose is to be a universal metric of knowledge is rooted in the

biases of its authors.

It is time for a meaningful and lasting change in the college admissions process, and the first step is for the schools themselves to reject the validity of the system. I applaud Brandeis admissions for recognizing that standardized testing does not work, and taking necessary action to create a more just system.

However, there is one area the program is clearly lacking; test-flexibility does not extend to international students, a surprising choice given that they are a group whom the testing system is stacked against. For many international students, questions on the SAT are difficult to properly interpret and cultural references specified to the test’s mostly American audience, another example of how the SAT’s writing style excludes otherwise excellent students. As a school with a rich international community, Brandeis should recognize and accommodate this bias.

Still, the program is only in its infant stages.

As applicants try the new program, research and revision will create a better admissions system that I think will become a permanent institution at Brandeis. While the admissions process will never be perfect, by giving applicants options, Brandeis has shown that it is a welcoming and open-minded place, and understands that intelligence is not shown through a number.

THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

13

MSOCCER: Men stay perfect by defeating foes

PREPARING THE SERVE

CONTINUED FROM 16 a nice finish.”

Though Brandeis came away with the victory last Tuesday, Coven did not like the way his team played overall. “[Grinding out the win] can only go so far,” said Coven. “We got the win but we were playing an average team [who was a] man down. The fact that we didn’t beat them by a lot bothers me, but we were a man up and we let them have opportunities to get good shots. [Goalkeeper Joe] Graffy ’15 had to make three or four very good saves.”

Ocel agreed with Coven’s notion that the win was not pretty, adding that the reason could just be from a lack of chemistry early on in the current season.

“We’re getting the hang of it. It’s a new group of guys playing different positions. I don’t think we’ve put it all

together but we’re almost there.”

The Judges have a tough schedule coming up, including games against conference opponents such as Case Western Reserve University and the University of Rochester. Brandeis will also re-ignite a local rivlary with Tufts University.

Coven knows his team has what it takes to keep being successful this season, but realizes that the squad must continue to improve in all facets of the game.

“We have to dominate play in the middle of the field,” Coven said.

“Against some of the teams coming up, the UAA opponents, if we get four or five quality shots on goal that’s going to be a lot. So we’re going to have to finish up two or three or four of them.”

The Judges will look to keep their winning streak going on the road, facing Wheaton College today at 4:00 p.m. in Norton, Mass.

WSOCCER: Judges record shutouts in VBALL: Squad takes part two home victories MORGAN BRILL/the Justice

REACHING HIGH: Setter Maggie Swenson ’16 sets the ball during the Judges’ 3-1 victory against Colby College on Saturday.

in weekend tournament CONTINUED FROM 16

responded in the second set with a late rally to tie the match at one each. The final two sets of the match led to a quick-paced nailbiter, but ultimately, the Judges won both sets by scores of 25-21.

This match proved to be a contest of power between Hood and Colby College sophomore middle blocker Kim Donaldson.

Hood led the match with 16 kills while Donaldson was a close second with 13 of her own. The Judges had to adjust quickly this weekend as captain and setter Yael Einhorn ’14 did not play due to an injured knee.

Setter Maggie Swenson ’16 responded well to the challenge, recording a notable 35 assists. The combination of Swenson and Hood proved to

be too much for the Mules to handle as the Judges improved to 4-4 on the season.

Bernaiche noted how proud she was of Swenson’s efforts.

“With our senior setter out with injury, we have had Maggie setting and she has done a great job of moving our offense around,” she said.

She contributed a career high 35 assists against Colby, as well as an additional 27 and 26 against Regis and Bowdoin, respectively. The sophomore setter also added 12 digs against Bowdoin.

Bernaiche noted the team’s difficult slate this weekend while commenting on their resilience and persistence to keep fighting.

“We had a really tough schedule, playing some great teams this week-

end,” she said. “I think we faced the challenge with a lot of patience because we managed to always come back strong the next set.”

Bernaiche is hoping that the Judges will be able to build some momentum of their own and overcome the injury bug that has so far plagued their team.

“We are still dealing with some injuries, so hopefully we will have a full team for our University Athletic Association matches and will play to our full potential,” she said.

The Judges continue their season with three home games this week.

They square off against Wheaton College tonight, followed by a double-header at home against Emmanuel College and Colby-Sawyer College on Saturday.

CONTINUED FROM 16

to be too late. The unfortunate day for the Bates women was eptiomized by a late shot on goal by Bates junior forward Dakota Donovan that caromed off the top of the cross bar. This allowed goalkeeper Michelle Savuto ’15 to record her fourth shutout in the five games that the women have played this season, highlighting the squad’s impressive defensive performance.

When asked about the strong start to the season, midfielder Alyssa Fenenbock ’15 stated she was impressed with the team’s progress, but believes they can continue to improve.

“We’re getting better and stronger and more fluid, as opposed to getting complacent because we talk about that every day—how we can’t let up just because we’re 10th in the country right now and how we want to be better,” she said.

On Tuesday, the Judges shut out Bridgewater State University in a game where the Judges took a while

to get going.

In the first half of the game, the visiting Bears appeared to be dictating the pace, and almost opened the scoring just 10 minutes into the game. Awarded a direct kick 25 yards out, Bridgwater State sophomore forward Mackenzie Hatfield sent a high shot on net, which Savuto did well to tip over the bar. Despite being out-possessed, the visitors led the attempts category with six shots on goal, all of which were stopped by Savuto.

Yet, the Brandeis women took control in the second half and were able to put the game away. Edalati scored two goals 10 minutes apart—in the 48th and 58th minutes, respectively— while Darling secured the third and final goal in the 67th minute, launching an impressive outside-of-the-foot lob over sophomore goalkeeper Marissa Yowell into the net.

The team will look to extend its winning streak at Gordon College at home this Wednesday followed by a match versus Wellesley College on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

MEN’S TENNIS

Team finds success in Middlebury Invite doubles matches ■ First-years Brian Granoff

’17 and Brian Arguello ’17 won as a pair in Brandeis’ first competition this fall.

By SAM SUGARMAN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Starting a new season is a time when teams figure out what’s working, what isn’t and what adjustments the team needs to make.

This was certainly the case in the Brandeis men’s tennis team’s first match of the year. Made up of a diverse group of veterans and firstyears, the team drove up to Middlebury College in Vermont to kick off its 2013-14 season at the annual Middlebury Invitational.

First-years Brian Granoff ’17 and

Ryan Bunis ’17 played in the Adraw, while Michael Arguello ’17 and Adam Brown ’14 competed in the B-draw. Ben Fine ’15 and Kevin DuPont ’16 took the C-draw while Chris Labovich ’17 and Jeff Cherkin ’17 began their tennis careers in the D-draw.

After graduating Steven Milo ’13 and Josh Jordan ’13, the men looked to rebuild and start fresh with a reinvigorated core. However, the team was unsuccessful in its quest for a singles win, as Granoff won his first set against Middlebury senior Brantner Jones, before falling 4-6, 6-2, 10-4.

In addition to Granoff’s battle, the other Brandeis competitors were able to gain valuable experience in singles competition. Bunis dropped his battle to Bates freshman Chris Ellis, 6-2, 6-2.

Arguello fell to Middlebury sopho-

more Palmer Campbell by the same score. Brown was defeated by Middlebury junior Courtney Mountifield, 6-1, 6-2. Fine fell to Bates freshman Patrick Ordway, 6-1, 6-2.

DuPont played Bates senior Peter Yanofsky close before dropping a 6-3, 6-3 decision. Labovitch also lost his decision 6-3, 6-3 to Bates sophomore Andrew Salvador, while Cherkin was swept by Skidmore freshman Max Swerdlick 6-0, 6-0.

Though disappointed in coming away without a win, the squad’s early hiccups weren’t a surprise—with tough Division III opponents such as Middlebury, Bates College, Trinity College, Skidmore, and Wesleyan University, the Brandeis squad faced a daunting challenge in competing against more experienced teams at the invitational.

While the results might have been

demoralizing, it is important to note that half of the Brandeis players were competing in their first-ever collegiate tournament.

Arguello, for example, noted the learning experience that he received in his first invitational.

“This weekend was an enlightening experience,” he said. “I learned a lot about the difference between high-level college tennis and high school tennis.”

While the first-years had trouble in their singles matches, they are still transitioning.

With young players dominating the men’s tennis team in sheer numbers, there will inevitably be some time before the new college athletes feel fully comfortable in the unique environment where there is undoubtedly more intense competition.

Although the team lacked success

in singles, they did have a glimpse of light in the doubles area.

Arguello and Granoff were able to win their first A-doubles match against Trinity freshman Rutendo Mantingo and sophomore Aaron Segel, winning 8-6 [in a pro-set], before falling in the quarterfinals to Bates’ Yanofsky and senior Ben Bogard, 8-6.

Despite the rough start, the team is bound to increase their success as the first-years gain experience.

Meanwhile, the upperclassmen hope to continue to lead the team with their skills and experience playing at the collegiate level.

The squad will be back at Middlebury for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals from Friday, Sept. 27 to Sunday, Sept. 29.

— Henry Loughlin contributed reporting

THE JUSTICE

JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

●

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

15

ATHLETE PROFILE

MEN’S SOCCER UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Goals

2013-2014 Statistics UAA Conf.

W L D JUDGES 0 0 0 Carnegie 0 0 0 NYU 0 0 0 Emory 0 0 0 Rochester 0 0 0 Chicago 0 0 0 WashU 0 0 0 Case 0 0 0

Overall W L D Pct. 6 0 0 1.000 5 1 0 .833 5 1 0 .833 4 1 0 .800 4 1 0 .800 3 1 0 .750 3 1 1 .700 1 0 3 .625

Kyle Feather ’14 leads the team with four goals.

Player Goals Kyle Feather 4 Sam Ocel 2 Tudor Livadaru 2 Michael Soboff 2

Assists Three players lead the team with two assists apiece.

Player Assists Ben Applefield 2 Sam Ocel 2 Michael Soboff 2

UPCOMING GAMES: Tomorrow vs. Lasell Saturday at Tufts Wed., Sept. 25 vs. Wentworth

WOMEN’S SOCCER UAA STANDINGS

FINAL TEAM STATS

2013-2014 Statistics

Goals

UAA Conf.

W L D WashU 0 0 0 JUDGES 0 0 0 Case 0 0 0 Carnegie 0 0 0 NYU 0 0 0 Chicago 0 0 0 Rochester 0 0 0 Emory 0 0 0

Overall W L D Pct. 5 0 0 1.000 4 0 0 1.000 3 1 0 .750 3 1 1 .700 3 1 1 .700 3 2 0 .600 3 2 0 .600 2 2 1 .500

UPCOMING GAMES: Tomorrow vs. Gordon Tues., Sept. 24 vs. Wellesley Sat., Sept. 28 at Bowdoin

Sapir Edalati ’15 leads the team with six goals.

Player Goals Sapir Edalati 6 Dara Spital 4 Holly Szafran 2 Melissa Darling 1

Assists Dara Spital ’15 leads the team with four assists.

Player Assists Dara Spital 4 Mary Shimko 2 Holly Szafran 2

VOLLEYBALL UAA STANDINGS

FINAL TEAM STATS

2013-2014 Statistics

Kills

UAA Conf.

W L Emory 0 0 Carnegie 0 0 NYU 0 0 WashU 0 0 Chicago 0 0 Case 0 0 JUDGES 0 0 Rochester 0 0

Overall W L Pct. 10 1 .909 9 1 .900 8 1 .889 9 3 .750 7 3 .700 7 5 .583 5 6 .455 3 10 .231

UPCOMING GAMES: Today vs. Wheaton Saturday vs. Emmanuel Saturday vs. Colby-Sawyer

Liz Hood ’15 leads the team in kills with 127.

Player Kills Liz Hood 127 Carly Gutner-Davis 65 Si-Si Hensley 49 Rachael Dye 30

Digs Elsie Bernaiche ’15 leads the team in digs with 167.

Player Digs Elsie Bernaiche 167 Liz Hood 95 Si-Si Hensley 75 Yael Einhorn 66

CROSS COUNTRY Results from Aug. 31 meets in Maine (women) and Boston (men).

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

RUNNER TIME Ed Colvin 16:04.0 Jarret Harrigan 16:16.0 Daniel Leon 17:04.0 Jarret Harrigan 17:06.0

RUNNER TIME Victoria Sanford 16:42.0 Maddie Dolins 16:43.0 Kelsey Whitaker 16:43.0 Amelia Lundkvist 16:43.0

UPCOMING EVENTS: Sat., Sept. 21 Shriners Invitational at UMass Dartmouth Sat., Oct. 5 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Saratoga Invitational

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAN VOLK/Sportspix

LOOKING UP: Forward Evan Jastremski ’17 has started every game as an offensive threat for the Judges this season.

New forward a part of team’s current success ■ Forward Evan Jastremski ’17 has played a big role in Brandeis’ 6-0 start, scoring the winning goal versus MIT.

By JESSE FELDSTEIN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

It is rare for a first-year men’s soccer player to be on the field during a key match against a regional foe. It is even rarer for that player to record the game-winning goal.

Forward Evan Jastremski ’17 did just that. On Sept. 4, the first-year from Marshfield, Mass. tapped in the winner in overtime against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to give the Judges a 2-1 overtime victory.

Though Jastremski has only been on the team for a month, he has been playing a significant amount of time.

“I think Evan’s speed and skill have been really good,” head coach Mike Coven said. “What’s also great is that he comes back and plays defense. His work-rate is terrific.”

Throughout his high-school career, Jastremski accumulated numerous accolades. In addition to being named Atlantic Coast League player of the Year, he earned two incredibly prestigious accolades—being recognized as an All-Scholastic Player in the Boston Globe and being named an All-New England player.

Last year, he scored 32 goals and led Marshfield High School to a quarterfinals game in the Massachusetts Intercollegiate Athletic Association State Tournament.

Still, Jastremski found the adjustment to collegiate soccer a bit of a challenge.

“Everyone is a lot better,” Jastremski said. “It’s so fast out there, and it’s much more physical.”

On the other hand, he also says that the unexpected opportunity has been exciting.

“It was a complete surprise to get this kind of playing time, but I feel honored,” Jastremski said. “It helps that everyone is so supportive of me.”

As a first-year, Jastremski realizes that the encouragement from upperclassmen goes a long way.

“The captains and veterans know how to get the best out of all the players,” Jastremski said. “We see them working hard, so we want to work hard.”

According to Jastremski, he picks up most of what he needs to know—including improvement in his technical play—by simply watching and learning from the veterans of the team.

“They set a good example for me and the younger players who are learning the intricacies,” he said.

Yet, Jastremski is focused on collaborating with the veterans in winning the University Athletic Association and making a second consecutive appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

So far, the men’s soccer team is right on track with a 6-0-0 mark.

While some teams would be thrilled with such a mark, Jastremski says that this is what the team has come to expect.

“At this point it is a tradition.

Brandeis soccer is always competitive,” he said.

Jastremski hopes to be a key part in that tradition during his time playing soccer at Brandeis.

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE Patriots escape from Gillette with narrow win over New York Jets in exciting game marred by storm The New England Patriots are only two weeks into the National Football League season and they have barely held on for two victories against AFC East opponents.

Last Thursday, the Patriots battled both the New York Jets and torrential rains before escaping with a 13-10 victory in front of a raucous home crowd at Gillette Stadium.

Before the game ended, the Patriots and Jets had been locked in a grudge match. Both defenses were particularly stingy, which held each opposing offense in check. The Jets held Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady to 19 successful completions out of 39 passing attempts, which resulted in only 185 yards and one touchdown.

Meanwhile, the Patriots had their way with their opposing offensive

leader, sacking Jets’ quarterback Geno Smith once and applying intense pressure another seven times which ultimately resulted in him being tackled.

The Patriots intercepted three passes from Smith, including one by Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib to seal the game. They also held Smith without a touchdown and sacked him four times in total.

Talib, who had two of the three interceptions, intercepted Smith’s pass with 38 seconds left in the fourth quarter and brought the ball back toward the line of scrimmage before dancing out of bounds.

A late hit by Jets center Nick Mangold cleared both benches and ultimately saw two Jets—guard Willie Colon and left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson—get ejected.

Though they were in control during portions of the game, the Patriots were happy to leave Foxboro, Mass. with a win, given that they entered the night without their top three offensive weapons: tight end Rob Gronkowski, wide receiver Danny Amendola and running back Shane Vereen.

The majority of Amendola’s passes went to wide receiver Julian Edelman, who had 13 catches for 78 yards and was the only receiver from either team to record double digit-catches.

Aside from Edelman, the Patriots’ wide receivers were relatively quiet, only recording six catches for 114 yards and a touchdown.

Brady’s only touchdown came midway through the first quarter when he hit Aaron Dobson for a 39-

yard touchdown, ultimately the longest play of the night. A Jets field goal by kicker Nick Folk was sandwiched by two Stephen Gostkowski field goals that left the Patriots with a 13-3 lead at halftime.

With just over five minutes left in the third quarter, the Jets’ running back Bilal Powell, who finished with 48 yards on 12 carries, capped off a nine play, 58-yard drive with a three yard touchdown run to cut the Patriots lead to 13-10.

That was as close as the Jets got as the offense sputtered to three interceptions and two punts over their final five drives.

Though their opponents emerged with the victory, their counterparts did not fare much better.

Not only did every Patriots drive in the second half end in a punt—ex-

cept for Brady’s kneel down to end the game—the longest drive was a mere 22 yards, which was vastly different from the New England team’s opening series of 81 yards.

In the absence of Vereen, running back Stevan Ridley gained 40 yards on 12 carries, but the running attack was held largely in check by the Jets’ defense.

Fortunately for the Patriots, their defense stood taller than their opponents to produce three turnovers that ultimately sealed the game.

The Patriots’ offense, which appears to get Gronkowski back before next week, faces another tough defense as the visiting Tampa Bay Buccaneers will arrive in Foxboro next week.

— Avi Gold

just

Sports

Page 16

TENNIS FALLS IN EARLY MATCHES The men’s tennis squad kicked off their fall campaign with experience at the Middlebury Invitational, p. 13.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Waltham, Mass.

DANCING BY THE DEFENDER

Judges get wins at home to remain unbeaten ■ The team beat Bates and

Bridgewater State by 3-0 margins to keep its No. 10 ranking in Division III.

By DANIEL KANOVICH JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Brandeis University women’s soccer team continued to impress, securing two impressive wins at home. After moving up to No. 10 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Poll last Tuesday following their 3-0 start, the team is looking at a bump up in the rankings after yet another slate of victories, downing Bridgewater State University and Bates College on Tuesday and Sunday, respectively, by identical scorelines of 3-0.

“I think we definitely got better as the game went on,” said forward Dara Spital ’15, who notched an assist in each of the games, after Sunday’s victory. “We started working well as a team. It was definitely a better showing than the last game,” she said.

Brandeis and Bates played an even game for much of the first half, a period of play defined by hard fought battles for the ball and minimal opportunities for either of the teams.

Yet, the Judges just had too much speed on the wings of the field, and it showed when the Judges scored their first goal. In the 35th minute, forward Cidney Moscovitch ’17 received a pass from midfielder Melissa Darling ’16, who then raced down the right side of the field to score over the outstretched arms of Bates senior goalkeeper Anabel Schmelz. While Schmelz secured a career-high 12 saves on the day, it was the goal from Moscovitch that would define her afternoon.

Despite the first-half goal, the game was far from over. Bates held their own in the second half, keeping the ball away from their side of the pitch. The Judges came out with some extra motivation, though, to increase the lead and put away the visiting Bates team. The Brandeis women increasingly won possession, quickly advanced down the pitch, and put intense pressure on the Bates defense.

The women’s offensive persistence paid off quickly in the second half, as they scored two consecutive goals in the 54th and 57th minutes of the match. The first of the two was scored when a shot by Spital caromed off a number of defenders and landed in front of forward Sapir Edalati ’15, who chipped the ball into the goal. Meanwhile, the second came when midfielder Mary Shimko ’14 snuck a goal past Schmelz to record her first goal of the young season.

The Judges cruised from that point on, sensing victory was in their sight. Many of the starters were subbed out with 10 minutes left in the match.

While Bates responded with some sustained offense toward the end of the match, the effort proved

See WSOCCER, 13 ☛

ANNIE KIM/the Justice

EDGING THE BATTLE: Forward Mike Lynch ’17 tussles with a defender from Worcester Polytechnic Institute during the Judges’ 3-0 win over the Engineers last Tuesday.

Men prove too strong for WPI and Clark in shutout victories ■ Brandeis beat Worcester

Polytechnic Institute at home and Clark University on the road in shutout wins this week.

By ELAN KANE JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The men’s soccer team continued their winning streak this past week, defeating Clark University 5-0 last Saturday and Worcester Polytechnic Institute 3-0 last Tuesday. With the victories, the Judges improved their record to a perfect 6-0-0 on the current season.

Coach Michael Coven noted he was quite pleased with his team’s performance following Saturday’s match at Clark’s Granger Soccer Field.

“I think yesterday was the best game we played all year,” Coven said

after the defeat of Clark. “We were 5-0 going into the game, but I don’t think we had played particularly well.

Our goalkeepers have been forced to make some pretty good saves, and we weren’t scoring a lot of goals.”

In that game, the Judges got on the board in the 14th minute when forward Tyler Savonen ’15 scored off a throw in from fellow forward Tudor Livadaru ’14. Savonen had an assist himself, to Livadaru, in just two minutes after the aforementioned goal.

Livadaru kicked in a rebound, which Savonen shot off a Clark defenseman to give Brandeis the 2-0 lead heading into half time.

The Judges added onto their lead early in the second half, as the Cougars scored an own goal. The final two tallies came from midfielders Josh Berg ’17 and Kyle Feather ’14 in the 75th and 76th minutes, respectively,

to put the game out of reach for Clark.

It was Berg’s first collegiate goal and Feather’s fourth this season.

Coven explained that the turning point in the game came as Berg entered the field and forward Sam Ocel ’13 moved from forward to midfield.

From there, the Judges began to win contested balls in the middle.

“With [midfielder] Jake Picard ’16 still not feeling well, I moved [Ocel] from forward to midfield, and that helped quite a bit because he’s an aggressive player. He started winning the balls in the middle of the field,” Coven explained. “And then I inserted Josh Berg and the whole game turned around once I put him in—he just won everything.”

It seemed like it would be a different type of game against WPI—at least, until the 23rd minute. The Judges were tied at 0-0 with the Engineers until, in

the 23rd minute, the referee awarded a penalty to Brandeis and gave a red card to a WPI defenseman for a handball that, according to the referee, stopped a clear goal. Ocel took the kick and sent it into the net, scoring his second goal of the season.

Five minutes later, defenseman Conor Lanahan ’16 headed in another goal to give Brandeis a 2-0 lead.

The second half had one more Judges goal, this time a tap in by forward Matt Peabody ’13, who missed last season due to injury. It was Peabody’s first goal since 2010, and one that did not go unnoticed by Coven. “That was great—that made my day for me to see Peabs go and finish it up. That was a nice goal,” he said. “He was at the right place. It was the only goal we scored off the flow. Good build-up and

See MSOCCER, 13 ☛

VOLLEYBALL

Women split in tournament contests ■ The volleyball team beat

Colby and Regis, but fell to Roger Williams and Bowdoin in a weekend tournament.

By CORI COLEMAN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Last weekend, the women’s volleyball team had their work cut out for them at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Invitational.

The tournament began Friday night at the Red Auerbach Arena, with Brandeis facing off against the Colby College Mules and the Bowdoin

College Polar Bears. Meanwhile, Saturday’s games against the Roger Williams University Hawks and the Regis College Pride were contested at MIT. The Judges finished the weekend strong with a sweep of Regis, winning by margins of 25-12, 25-13 and 25-15. Outside hitter Liz Hood ’15 had her best game of the Invitational with 12 kills and only one error in 21 attacks on the Pride defense.

Earlier in the day, however, the squad was on the receiving end of the sweep. The Hawks defeated the Judges in three straight sets, 25-13, 25-22 and 25-8. Libero Elsie Bernaiche ’15 led the defensive ef-

fort in this game with 23 digs. Although this effort did not prove to be enough, the Judges were able to put up a strong fight against the Hawks’ attack in the second set before ultimately recording the loss.

On Friday evening, the Judges drew a tough opponent in Bowdoin, ultimately falling in straight sets by scores of 26-24, 25-17 and 25-18.

The first set in the match looked to be very evenly matched. Each team went point for point with each o t h e r , eventually forcing the g a m e to go into overtime. The Judges rallied in the first game, but unfortunately fell just short. The Polar Bears continued to gain mo-

mentum and won the next two sets without much difficulty. Hood continued to lead the team with nine kills. Rookie outside hitter Rachael Dye ’17 had an impressive showing with a career high eight kills while Bernaiche led the team with 17 digs.

Ultimately, the Judges finished the weekend with an eighth place in the Invitational and a 5-6 overall record this season.

The team started the weekend on the right note against Colby College. The squad jumped off to a great start, easily handling the Mules with a score of 25-16. Colby

See VBALL, 13 ☛

JustArts Volume LXVI, Number 3

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

In this issue:

Katzen Sculpture

Unsung history of campus art

Improv Showcase Comedy show cracks up crowd P. 19

P. 21

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

Waltham, Mass.

Rise Against

Punk band returns to roots P. 21

‘The League’

TV series slowly goes downhill P. 22

Hailey Magee ’15

Student musician drops EP P. 19

Boston Calling

Exciting music festival smashes expectations P. 23

18

justARTS

TUESDAY, September 17, 2013 | THE JUSTICE

CALENDAR

INTERVIEW

$

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

ON-CAMPUS EVENTS Artist Talk: Omer Fast

Come listen to renowned artist Omer Fast speak before viewing his exhibit and others at the opening of the Rose Art Museum. Fast’s 30-minute cinematic work opens up a discussion about one of the most pressing issues of today—drone surveillance and warfare.

Today from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Eddie and Lew Wasserman Cinematheque in the Sachar International Center. This event is free and open to the public.

Fall Exhibitions Opening Celebrations

Sarah Horn ’16 SCRAM leader discusses a year of art planning OLIVIA POBIEL/the Justice

This week, JustArts sat down with Sarah Horn ’16, leader of the Student Committee for the Rose Art Museum, and talked about the group’s plans for the semester.

JustArts: For those who are unfamiliar with SCRAM, would you please tell us a bit about what you do?

Sarah Horn: We’re the Student Committee for the Rose Art Museum. So basically the point of the organization is to get the student body of Brandeis to come into the Rose and see the various exhibitions and also participate in a lot of the programs that we have.

JA: What has changed about the club over the duration of your time with it?

SH: Actually a lot in the past year. Previously, it was a smaller group of people who were mostly very associated with the museum. This is the first year that we went to the activities fair. We are very open to welcoming people who might not be Fine Arts majors but [are] very interested in art. We are open to a lot more types of people around campus, which is the point of the organization.

JA: How do you think that what you guys have been doing has changed Brandeis?

SH: Well, I would hope that it’s opened people up to the possibility that you don’t have to be an “art” person to enjoy a museum. The Rose is free, and something that I really like to do is just walk in for a few minutes, look at a piece, and walk out. You don’t have to go and read about every piece and spend a long time in the museum, so we’re really hoping to open that up to people … We’d like to do a lot of cross-genre educational and social programs to get people who, maybe, are science people or math people interested in things that are going on in the art world.

JA: What can we look forward to seeing from SCRAM this semester? Any special events coming up?

SH: First of all, the opening [of the Rose] is the 17th. The [Andy] Warhol show is going to be amazing—I’ve seen it— It’s wonderful. In the fall, we work with the museum to do the student loan collection.

So basically, we allow students to loan works of art from the Rose collection... out to put in their dorm rooms for the year ... Right now, we’re planning a [first-year]-oriented event at the Rose, like a mixer, something to get the first-years involved and have them see the collection a bit.

JA: What has been your favorite memory of working with SCRAM? SH: We do an annual event called SCRAM Jam, which is like a party in the Rose. It was my first semester, I had just started to meet these really great art people and learn about the community.

I was dancing with my friends in the middle of all these amazing works of art—that showed me why it was so important to get so many people into the Rose, because it doesn’t have to be an art thing, you know, you can have a dance.

JA: Can you talk briefly about the Warhol exhibit? I’m so excited for it!

SH: It’s in the Foster Gallery and 80 percent of the exhibition is from the Rose’s own collection. It showcases how influential the Rose collection is, and we’re all very excited about it. We were gifted a collection of Polaroids that Warhol took, and a lot of those are up on view. Our Brandeis Warhol is up on view, and the rest of the series as well. There’s Warhol wallpaper up, which is special – you can’t get it unless you’re a museum, basically.

We have a very important Warhol, from his “Disaster” series, and an “Uncle Sam” that’s up. And then there’s some later photography and prints that were all done. I could talk about it forever. I think it’s a great thing for the Rose, and it will bring in a lot of people who might not know a lot about art, but they know who Warhol is—they know the Campbell’s soup cans, the pop art. It’s a really exciting opportunity, especially for SCRAM, because our mission is to get students involved in the Rose, to have a bunch of different people come in and have different discussions about art and interact with the space in the way they want to.

—Rachel Hughes

The Rose presents four new exhibitions and invites you to join the celebration. Artists include Jack Whitten, Omer Fast and Andy Warhol. The opening reception will be preceded by a lecture by artist Omer Fast.

Today from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Rose Art Museum. This event is free and open to the public.

‘Silk and Bamboo: Music From China’

Music From China invokes the subtlety and power of both traditional and contemporary Chinese music. Artistic director and erhu soloist Wang Guowei leads the ensemble in one of the most popular of Chinese music genres – sizhu. This event is sponsored by MusicUnitesUS. MusicUnitesUS is a university program that aims to further understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures through music.

Wednesday at noon at the Mandel Center for the Humanities. This event is free and open to the public.

Artist’s Slide Talk: Art and Activism

Waltham-based artist and activist Suzanne Hodes exhibits paintings, drawings and prints that collectively examine the legacy of three generations of women in her family, beginning with the artist’s grandmother, who immigrated to New York from Lithuania in 1904, and including her mother and herself.

Hodes is one of the founders of the Waltham Mills Artists community, which occupies two reclaimed textile mills in downtown Waltham where Hodes has kept a studio for more than 30 years.

She has also been a lifelong activist and is the co-founder of Artists for Survival, a group that educated the public about the dangers of nuclear arms for 15 years.

Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the Kniznick Gallery of the Women’s Studies Research Center. This event is free and open to the public.

The 24-Hour Musical

This student-produced annual event defies common sense and casts, designs, directs and puts on a full-length musical in 24 hours. The title of the show will be announced shortly before the performance. A limited number of tickets will be available at the Shapiro Campus Center box office the day of the performance.

Sunday at 8 pm in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater of the Shapiro Campus Center. Tickets are free.

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS Mary Reid Kelley at the ICA

The Institute of Contemporary Arts presents the first solo museum exhibition of artist Mary Reid Kelley, on view through October 27, 2013. Composed of live action and stop-motion animation, the South Carolina native’s narrative videos present historical or myth-based stories.

At the center of each is a main character or narrator played by Reid Kelley, who appears costumed, bewigged, and practically unrecognizable, her face painted white with features defined in black.

A trained painter, Reid Kelley creates all of her costumes, props and sets in black and white, creating a kind of three-dimensional drawing.

On view through Oct. 27. Admission is $10 for students and $15 for general admission.

Ridley Howard: Fields and Stripes

Ridley Howard explores how 21st-century painting might capture intense yet oblique emotion. He pares down color and geometry into delicately composed portraits, landscapes and abstractions that recall the cool psychology of paintings by Edward Hopper or Ed Ruscha. Yet their softedged finish knowingly hints that painterly romanticism is at the core of his work.

On view through Oct. 27 in the Henry and Lois Foster Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Admission ranges from free (for youth up to age 17) to $25 (for general admission).

Night of the Stars on Boston Common

This first-ever Boston Ballet performance on Boston Common kicks off the celebratory 50th season with an amazing show, featuring the full company and live music from the Boston Ballet Orchestra.

The evening’s program features a vast range of works from classical ballet to contemporary dance including George Balanchine’s Serenade and Symphony in Three Movements, Jorma Elo’s Plan to B, and excerpts from Marius Petipa’s Don Quixote, Florence Clerc’s La Bayadère, Christopher Bruce’s Rooster and a special surprise world premiere piece.

Saturday at 7 p.m. on Boston Common at the corner of Beacon and Charles Streets. This event is free.

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba

The music that Bassekou Kouyate and his three ngoni accompanists coax from this simple instrument is extraordinary—intricately woven lines, crisp bluesy riffs and funky ostinato patterns, along with wild, rocking solos.Add lilting griot melodies from Ami Sacko, Kouyate’s wife, and driving West African rhythms from two percussionists, and you’ve got Ngoni ba, one of the hottest bands from Mali.

Wednesday at 8 p.m. This is a 21 and over event. Admission requires a vaild ID. General Admission is $25 and seating is limited.

Pop Culture ww is in the air, my pop culture peeps.

Love To catch you up on what you may have missed these past couple weeks, here are some updates on the marriages, engagements (both confirmed and rumored) and budding romances in Hollywood.

It looks like Scarlett Johansson is off the market once again. The actress, 28, is engaged to a French journalist, Romain Dauriac. Reportedly, the couple’s engagement happened about a month ago. Keeping the news under wraps for that long is super stealthy by Hollywood standards, especially considering Johansson’s former high-profile relationship with actor Ryan Reynolds, whom she married in Sept. 2008. Reynolds and Johansson divorced, however, in July 2011. So far, there’s no word on when ScarJo and Dauriac are planning on tying the knot.

In another surprising sneak move, news broke last week that actress Zoe Saldana got married earlier this summer to Marco Perego, an Italian artist. Their relationship only became public in May, at the premiere of Saldana’s film Star Trek: Into Darkness. Secret Hollywood engagements and marriages? Such madness!

TV personality Katie Couric, 56, got engaged over Labor Day weekend, adding to our tally of celebrity romance gossip for these last two weeks. Couric’s banker boyfriend of two years, John Molner, apparently asked her to marry him while the couple was on the beach in the Hamptons. The beach, a gorgeous ring—it certainly looks like Molner, 50, knew what he was doing.

In addition to photographers snapping pictures of Couric and her fiancée, they also captured a playful kiss between Nick Jonas, 20, and his rumored girlfriend, Olivia Culpo, on Sept. 3. Culpo, 21, was crowned Miss Universe in 2012. The two supposedly met at the Miss USA pageant this June, which Jonas hosted along with (who else?) his brothers.

Finally, rumors that hot couple Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis possibly got engaged also made Hollywood headlines recently. The cause of all the engagement talk? A thin, gold band that Kunis, 30, was snapped wearing on her left ring finger.

By Mara Sassoon

Los Angeles Times/MCT

OFF THE MARKET: Actress Scarlett Johansson has been linked to many men in recent years.

The couple worked on That ‘70s Show together for 8 seasons, but only began a romantic relationship as of early 2012.

So far, though, the rumors are just that—neither Kutcher’s nor Kunis’s reps have confirmed an engagement. Plus, Kutcher, 35, still is not legally divorced from his ex Demi Moore. Still, Moore and Kutcher were photographed last Tuesday exiting the same airplane at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif. They had been attending a conference related to Thorn, their shared organization that fights against online predators. Is the situation complicated enough for you?

On a completely unrelated note, how

about the new Dancing with the Stars casting? It’s always fun to see just how loosely the show can interpret the notion of ‘star.’ This season’s DWTS, which premiered Monday, has a cast that includes Jersey Shore’s Snooki, High School Musical actor Corbin Bleu and singer Christina Milian.

I think I’ll be watching this season, if only just to see everyone’s favorite science guy, Bill Nye, foxtrot his way across the television screen. Hopefully, this has inspired you to take a trip down memory lane and re-watch the epic intro to Bill Nye the Science Guy, or at least gotten it stuck in your head. You’re welcome.

ARTS COVER PHOTOS: BRI MUSSMAN/the Justice, JOSHUA LINTON/the Justice, DESIGN: Rachel Burkhoff/the Justice.

ON CAMPUS

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, september 17, 2013

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IMPROV performance LAUGHING MATTER: Maryetta Surrette ’15, left, and Samantha Gordon ’14 performed as part of the group Crowd Control.

BRI MUSSMAN/the Justice

BRI MUSSMAN/the Justice

CLASS CLOWNS: Jesse Hart ’14 and Jeffrey Maser ’15 from Bad Grammer performed short, improvised skits at the show.

Improv showcase starts rollicking year

By EMILY WISHINGRAD justice EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

On Sunday night at 9 p.m., students gathered in Cholmondeley’s for a night of laughter and leisure before the start of the first five day week of the semester, a sign that the school year is beginning its intensity. Chum’s was hosting the first improvisation show of the year, a show that consisted of four popular improv groups on campus, each with a half-hour slot.

I got there 10 minutes early, expecting people to be trickling in, and was pleasantly surprised to see the place packed from wall to wall.

People were crammed in all the way to the back of the room and sitting on the floor in front of the stage.

It seemed like the entire Brandeis community had come to support peers, hang out with friends or just enjoy a decadent chocolate milkshake from the coffeehouse.

The first group, TBA, started off

the night with a lively performance.

The group played a unique improv game in which two members of the group verbally battled over an audience volunteer for a date with him. Throughout the game, the two members of TBA would tap members of the audience for inspirational words, which they would then use in their monologues. The game ended when Gabby Zilkha ’16 got the word “sausage” and, completely baffled, announced to the volunteer that she liked sausage.

The volunteer promptly chose her for his “future date.”

Next was False Advertising, a group that specializes in musical and long form improv, a type of improvisation in which the skits tend to be more detailed and complex.

False Advertising’s show was absolutely hilarious and skits ranged from children trying to find husbands to animal testing on talking mice.

Perhaps the most impressive

aspect of False Advertising’s performance, even above their impeccable humor, was the musical improvisation. Periodically during the improvisation, False Advertising’s pianist, Nate Shaffer ’16 would start an improvised riff and the entire group, or select members of the group, depending on who was speaking at the time, would join in a completely improvised musical number.

Kelsey Segaloff ’15 did an amazing job actually rhyming lyrics on the spot, giving the impression of a well-rehearsed number. The musical numbers were not repetitive and songs had diverse tempos, keys and melodies and thus exuded an air of professionalism.

The next group to perform was Bad Grammer, a group specializing in short form improv, improvisation in which the group quickly changes from skit to skit and game to game. An audience favorite was Bad Grammer’s advice game,

which went like this: the group called on a first-year to yell out a college-related problem he had experienced since being at Brandeis and three members of Bad Grammer would attempt to give advice on the issue. The twist was that the first member gave “good” advice, a second gave “bad” advice and the third gave “evil” advice. Problems ranged from “Massell is a dry quad” to “my roommate had sex on my bed.” The “bad” solution for the former was to do a rain dance, preferably with one of those rain sticks we all had as children, and the forbidden substances would rain down. Needless to say, the audience was amused.

The last group to go, Crowd Control, provided an especially comical finish to the night. The group started with a line game called “I Make Love Like I….” The game operated exactly how it sounded. In the game, the audience suggested verbs such as “drink” or “study”

to finish the phrase “I make love like I” and then the members finished the analogy. One particularly entertaining analogy was “I make love like I swim: I stroke at a competitive pace.”

Adult content was an ongoing theme in Crowd Control’s performance. In their long form improvisation, Samantha Gordon ’14 and Andrew Savage ’16 snuck into Usdan Student Center at four in the morning to have sex. Savage had just commented that the leftover ketchup on the tables could conveniently function as lube, when the cleaning lady walked in, ruining the mood. The couple’s cover-up got them posted as culinary interns for a week.

The improv showcase was the perfect way to start off the year in a fun, casual night out with friends.

The humor, especially the raunchy and explicit humor, was a perfect way for students to let go of shopping period stress.

ALBUM REVIEW

Student musician leaps into industry with new EP By nate shaffer

justice contrubuting writer

“Limerence is the scientific word for the chemical state of your body when you’re falling in love. Ever since I heard that word I wanted to write a song about it, and name an album after it.” This summer, Hailey Magee ’15 did just that.

Released on Aug. 24, Limerence is Magee’s second EP, a seven-song endeavor written and recorded during the past eight months.

Thematically, it’s all about limerence—about that very interesting and artistically fruitful space between falling in love and hitting the ground—or in the case of this album, the bedroom.

Admittedly, I initially felt a bit girly pumping this through the stereo in my dorm room—a stark contrast from the Yeezus I had been blasting prior to streaming the EP from her Bandcamp site. But after a bit of listening, after about a minute, actually, I stopped feeling insecure about my masculinity and let Magee’s smooth vocals and engaging lyrics take me to New York City and through the rest of this EP’s intimate, personal stories of whisky, sex on couches, letting go and falling asleep gazing at the light of a skyline.

Magee’s canvas for this EP is a

simple, traditional singer-songwriter style fabric of acoustic guitar and vocals, with a little bit of multitracking. Her understated guitar work and occasionally eyebrowraising chord changes reveal an experienced musician.

She’s more sophisticated and nuanced than a “four-chord guitarist,” but she certainly doesn’t bash you over the head with it. As competent as the guitar work is, though, Limerence more prominently features Magee’s voice and her songwriting.

The album has the sound of liverecorded vocals; none of her vocals’ character is lost through the recording. Despite how good she sounds, at times it feels like she’s still trying to find her own vocal style. For example, more aptly, she chose to take on the vocal aesthetic of a different pop sub-genre.

When she does this, namely on tracks two and three, “Heartprint” and “Never Sleeps Alone,” she loses a bit of her voice’s unique and alluring personality. It’s a bit unclear exactly what she’s going for; the changes in style are a bit unexpected and even jarring.

Yet even in those songs, her rocksolid lyrics keep the album from dragging. Her hooks and imagery are strong—for the most part she doesn’t sacrifice content for catchiness. Many moments are indelible.

At times, she meanders from the lyrical tightness she set us up to expect with the first song, “& Company.” Some of her choruses meander toward questionable vagueness, but she tends to wrap them up with a memorable line that clarifies the preceding lyrics.

“Armistice,” “& Company” and “Limerence” are definitely standout tracks on the EP. They feel like part of a cohesive and wellconceived personal style. The vocals sound less affected—truer to the natural character of Magee’s voice—and they’re the best written of the songs.

Above all, Magee has earnestly spilled herself into this EP. While you probably won’t stand up and dance, it’s hard not to smile and nod along to the catchy tunes. That is hardly a complaint—any sort of more elaborate dancing may distract you from the EP’s engaging storytelling.

Emotionally, the tracks stay in that easy-to-accept, slightly moody middle ground—and that’s what thematically it’s all about: the middle ground, the uncertainty of false starts accompanied by cautious optimism.

Each song has a slightly different stylistic influence, but they’re all really about the struggles of finding yourself, and as part of that, find-

JOHSUA LINTON/the Justice

THE WRITE STUFF: Hailey Magee ’15 writes her own original music and lyrics and sings it to guitar accompaniment, impressing audiences at Brandeis and beyond. ing out who you are in the context of others.

Overall, I was satisfied with this EP. There’s enough pop flair to keep the casual top-40 listener engaged, but also enough substance to war-

rant a thorough examination and a cheap four dollar download.

What it lacks in complexity or extravagance is more than made up for by the palpable amount of sincerity on each track.

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TUESDAY, September 17, 2013 | THE JUSTICE

theater revIEW

Student presents senior thesis,

‘Tick, Tick... BOOM!’

PHOTOS BY BRI MUSSMAN/the Justice

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY, I’LL CRY IF I WANT TO: The show’s main character, Jon, celebrates his 30th birthday with his girlfriend, Susan, and best friend, Michael.

By Rachel Hughes justice editor

Last Friday, the Brandeis theater season started off with a bang—or should I say, a boom?

With the premiere performance of Jackie Theoharis’ ’14 senior project and two subsequent performances the same weekend, Brandeisians got a taste of what they can expect from our performing arts community this year. Presented by the Theater Arts department, Theoharis chose the production Tick, Tick…

BOOM!, which she was able to reproduce through a special copyright arrangement with Music Theatre International.

Tick, Tick… BOOM! was staged in Spingold Theater Center’s Laurie Theater, a popular venue for performances that are just in between the smaller, more intimate Masters of Fine Arts program productions, and the larger, all-out performances put on by Brandeis Theater Company and the Undergraduate Theater Collective. This three-actor musical was, however, quite different from the dance and theater productions I’ve seen in Laurie—the entirety of the one-act-long Tick, Tick…BOOM! was accompanied by a live four-piece band: a keyboard, drum set, electric guitar and electric bass added a rock vibe to the show.

The packed premiere performance opened up to a barren stage, save for a black upright piano and matching stool, on which the main character, Jon, played by Jared Walsh, a local actor, was sitting. Lights slowly brightening, Jon rose from his seated position behind the piano, where he was hunched over, frus-

trated. Jon’s 30th birthday was approaching fast, and as a musical playwright and composer whose work had reached a standstill, he was anxious that his life was starting to pass him by.

Jon’s bright and charming long-time girlfriend, Susan, played by Theoharis, who also officially produced the show, and his up-and-coming businessman best friend Michael, played

by Ben Oehlkers ’12, rounded out the three-person cast. The musical follows Jon and Susan through the struggles of partnership as Susan—a dancer whose career prospects are progressing much faster than Jon’s—longs for a home in New England and a quiet family life away from their current cramped New York City apartment. All the while, Michael, a force of reason and example of determination and young self-made money, tries to encourage Jon to keep his options open by applying for a job in the business world.

Throughout the production, Jon’s stress mounts until he reaches a personal and professional breaking point—and the music really starts to heat up.

Perhaps my favorite moment of the production was actually the pinnacle of a fight between Jon and Susan; Susan was ready to settle down, and Jon was still absorbed in his efforts to write the next big hit musical. With just the two on the stage, they burst into a musical number called “Therapy,” yelling at each other and riding out the most emotionally violent flairs of their love through song. The song was obviously well rehearsed; the two were extremely expressive with their movements, and main-

tained a high quality of vocal performance, even at a loud, aggressive volume. Throughout the song, they weren’t much more than about 10 feet apart from each other—a spatial intimacy that added to the high-pressure mood of the music.

Overall, each of the actors performed very well, moving within the personalities of their characters and acting out of personal empathy for the problems they were faced with in each role.

Theoharis and Oehlkers, who each played, for brief moments, a slew of supporting roles—Jon’s parents, cast members in Jon’s musical and even customers at a grocery store—showcased a wide range of emotion and compassion in their performances. Their quick clothing changes, all casual attire, except Michael’s signature startch suit, were just as speedy and precise as their character transformations. Walsh, whose character was largely emotionally stagnant and not as dynamic as the others, still did an incredible job performing in a way that conveyed the angst Jon felt.

By the end of the performance, Jon’s musical dreams became a reality: his first show has been performed, and his musical idol attended, along with all his closest friends and family. The closing scene shows the three actors together, with renewed chemistry, huddled around a cake and singing “Happy Birthday” to Jon. The quiet light from the birthday candle was the brightest point in the theater, and reflected the way that something small— say, a production with a cast of only three—can turn into something big, bright and memorable.

PIANO MAN: Jon is a struggling composer who strives to write the next great Broadway musical—set to his favorite genre, rock music.

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

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sculpture

Campus art fixture holds unique history

By Phil gallagher

HIDE AND SEEK: Cheryl Kreinbring and Amy Milne, research associates in Rosenstiel, pose in “The Wand of Inquiry.”

justice EDITOR

Public art, such as sculptures, carries the special characteristic of developing an iconic status over time, becoming a key part of a landscape even as its surroundings change. At Brandeis, the large silver pair of statues outside of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center have become a landscape all their own. The statues, together entitled “The Wand of Inquiry,” have a long history that many students and faculty have yet to learn.

Installed in 1983, the sculptures were created by Lila Katzen, a sculptor who died in 1998 and was known for her large works of polished steel. Her work was known at Brandeis, as the Rose Art Museum featured her art in an exhibition in the fall season of the same year “The Wand of Inquiry” was put in place.

The taller sculpture of the pair has a “central flame-like element, [and] resembles a coiling double helix,” writes Prof. Nancy Scott (FA) in Twelve + Sculptures, a publication on Brandeis sculptures, which was co-authored by students from her class “Modern Sculpture as Public Art” last academic year. The double helix structure is complemented by the “wide, horizontal ribbon” which sits only a couple of feet away.

CAROL PALMER/Brandeis University

A BIG ENTRANCE: The doublehelix statue being installed in 1983 in its original location with an audience standing by.

Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University

In an interview with the Justice, Scott elaborated on the importance of smaller details in the structure to better understand Katzen’s artistic intentions for public interaction with the sculpture. “I know that the platforms that the two stainless steel pieces sit on … [raise] the whole piece up a bit from the earth, which means that you could sit on it more easily that way,” she said. “I think she’s made it very easy for people to want to interact [with the sculpture].”

Prof. James Haber (BIOL), the current director of the Rosenstiel facility, verified the interaction that people have had with the two sculptures. “All of us have posed in front of them at some point,” he said, referring to photographs taken by University scientists in front of “The Wand of Inquiry.”

Prior to the construction of the Carl J. Shapiro Science Center, the statues were situated in a location near the Rosenstiel facility. In that location, Katzen had organized some landscaping to more properly situate the sculptures. “[Katzen] came to campus and did this beautiful landscaping around the sculpture with these sort of long grasses that glisten in the sun,” Scott explained. However, when the Shapiro Science Center was constructed, the plantings were removed as machinery for the new science facility was installed around the sculptures. Both Scott

and Haber reported sending requests to administrative offices within the University asking that the sculptures be moved away from the machinery to a more prominent space. Although the sculptures have since been moved to their current location away from the machinery, the greenery that Katzen had originally included are no longer there.

The larger statue of the coiling double helix is often interpreted as symbolic of DNA structure, although Scott clarified that Katzen “doesn’t talk about that,” and further, the title “The Wand of Inquiry” is “detach[ed] a little bit from any specific representational idea,” effectively leaving the job of interpreting the meaning of the two sculptures entirely to the viewer. Nonetheless, a structure with such an inviting scientific interpretation is appropriate outside of a building filled with scientists.

Susan Lowey, a Biochemistry professor at Brandeis in the 1970’s and 80’s, who is now on the faculty at the University of Vermont, had a personal understanding of the sculpture’s deeper meaning. “The statue did represent the faith we all had in basic research as the path to discovering the secrets of nature,” said Lowey, referring to the double helix statue in an email to the Justice. “And science to us was also an art form because an elegant structure was beautiful.”

CAROL PALMER/Brandeis University

ART AS LANDSCAPE: Back in 2000, the PetskoRinge Laboratory posed in front of the statue and Katzen’s foliage can be seen behind the group.

Album Review

Rise Against comes back with compilation album

By Catherine Rosch Justice contributing writer

Rise Against’s newest release is not anything new, but that’s not to say the punk rock band from Chicago has lost its sound. Rather, Long Forgotten Songs: B-Sides & Covers 20002013, the band’s newest work since 2011, is a compilation of B-sides that did not make it onto earlier recordings: singles that only had limited release, covers and even a rare live performance with members of Rage Against the Machine. The album serves as a tribute to Rise Against’s growth since 1999 and the talent of the four members, while capturing the band’s history of progressive activism and musical influences.

Rise Against records songs that are fast, loud and, more often than not, angry and melancholic. The one downside of the album, something that is not unusual in punk music, is

that it can be difficult to understand the lead singer, Tim McIlrath. Some of the songs on Long Forgotten Songs, especially covers of other punk songs, tend to fit this style, but the majority of the songs are catchy and easier to listen to and understand than Rise Against’s typical fare.

Such was the case with the album’s first two songs, “Historia Calamitatum” and “Death Blossoms.” While they aren’t as memorable as some Rise Against songs, both are fast, catchy and enjoyable to listen to because of their clever lyrics and fleeting guitar riffs.

Other songs previously released as B-sides or on movie and video game soundtracks, like “Generation Lost,” “Dirt and Roses” and “Voices of Dissent,” are very similar to the first two tracks on the album. All these songs have memorable guitar and drum lines and lyrics that are for the most part easy to understand, with

lots of emotion. Most of these songs sound more like songs from older albums, like their Siren Song of the Counter Culture.

Three tracks especially stick out on Long Forgotten Songs. “Everchanging” is a soft, mournful piece that calls reference to other acoustic Rise Against hits like “Hero of War.” The cover of Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of Hollis Brown” gives a modern twist to a classic folk ballad. The final track, a live rendition performed with Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Bruce Springsteen, is the most powerful song on Long Forgotten Songs. “The Ghost of Tom Joad” is intense, haunting and by far the most emotional song on the album.

The listener can feel the desperation of the everyman the song describes, and the guitar and bass eerily echo throughout the performance.

Interestingly, the weakest tracks

on Long Forgotten Songs were covers Rise Against did of older punk songs or some of Rise Against’s earliest works that did not make it on albums. For example, “Join The Ranks,” the first song the band ever recorded together, is very difficult to understand and has a much rougher sound than the rest of the album.

Likewise, “Built To Last,” a rendition of the Sick of It All hit, is next to impossible to understand and is simply less than impressive.

My favorite tracks were the rereleases of exclusive tracks that originally were only released on special iTunes recordings or outside the United States. Any die-hard fan will recognize “Elective Amnesia,” “Lanterns,” “Give It All” and “But Tonight We Dance.” It is refreshing to hear familiar songs, even though some of them are not the exact same cuts as the tracks that were on certain albums.

By far the most interesting tracks were the covers of either songs not composed by punk bands or acoustic covers of punk songs. They ranged from a hilarious punk rendition of “Any Way You Want It”

by Journey to a reimagined “Making Christmas” from the Nightmare Before Christmas, where the band transposed the entire orchestration for guitar, drums, bass and voice.

“Blind,” a cover of Face to Face, is played on baritone guitars, which gives it a sound different from anything else on the album.Anyone who needs a Rise Against fix until their new album comes out in 2014, likes punk rock music or just wants to get pumped up will enjoy Long Forgotten Songs. While the album is not the best or most innovative Rise Against album, it is a nice reminder of how far the band has come in nearly 15 years and a good way to get excited for new material to come.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 | THE JUSTICE

television review

‘The League’ goes stale in latest season

CREATIVE COMMONS

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: Six friends come together in the television series The League to form their own fantasy football group.

By alexandra zelle rettman justice contributing writer

The new school year has begun, football is underway and The League has returned for its fifth season on the network FXX. The hit television series follows the relationship dynamics of an old group of friends as they navigate the victories and defeats of their fantasy football league. When the show began, I was skeptical of its possibility for success. How could a series about fantasy football receive a large viewership? The fact that it is on its fifth season is answer enough.

The League’s success lies in its semi-improvised comedic structure, similar to that of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Cast members Mark Duplass, Stephen Rannazzisi, Nick Kroll, Paul Scheer, Jon Lajoie and Katie Aselton each contribute to their roles both as actors and comedians under the supervision of co-creators Jackie

and Jeff Schaffer, who also produce and write for the show.

The raunchy, juvenile pranks that the friends play on each other are what sets The League apart from other shows on cable television. In the pilot episode, the group breaks the news to André (Scheer) that the first joint he had ever smoked, which was given to him by his friends, the joint he has framed on his wall, did not, in fact, have marijuana in it, but rather Kevin’s (Rannazzisi) pubic hair. This sketch set the comedic dynamic for all seasons to come—André would be the loser in his group of friends. This season, André is once again placed at the center of ridicule. Season four ended with news of André’s engagement to girlfriend Trixie, and season five began with André’s friends being the only guests to not have RSVP’d for André’s wedding. But when the group learns that the wedding is taking place in Los Angeles, excitement

is restored for a “destination draft,” an idea that Trixie is less than thrilled about.

The League’s reliance on semi-improvisation means that the quality of each individual episode fluctuates on a larger scale than fully-scripted television shows, resulting in some pretty flat jokes, and some pranks taken too far. Season five opens with André and his betrothed Trixie starring in their own wedding video-invitation, a spoof on Top Gun, titled “Top Groom.” This cheesy stunt makes viewers cringe, along with the five other stars of the show. Though this is typical behavior for André, his video-invitation did not start the season off with the bang that I was expecting.

Season five’s second episode did not make me feel any better. Ruxin (Kroll), a conceited rich geek who generally spews insulting one-liners at his friends, has now been placed in a tamer, less vocal role, turning what

were once laugh-out-loud moments to silence. At the end of season three, Ruxin became the League’s champion, so throughout season four, he was riding high with the “Shiva” trophy in tow, smack-talking everyone in his path. That is, until he won the “Sacko” trophy. Now Ruxin is the League’s loser and must therefore carry out humiliating tasks set out for him by the rest of the League’s members, including walking into a vegan restaurant, wearing a giant cow costume with sagging balls and screaming, “Don’t you want me in your mouth?” But Ruxin, ever the sore loser, refuses and instead resigns from his fantasy football league, leaving him a spectator.

The episode had a brief moment of redemption toward the end. André discovers he is masturbating to his sister having sex with Taco (Lajoie) as Trixie discovers that André has turned their destination wedding into a destination draft for their fantasy

football league. She bursts into the room hysterical that he has betrayed her and blots her eyes with one of André’s used tissues. But in case you have forgotten, Trixie is deathly allergic to André’s semen. Unfortunately, the hilarity of the situation ends there. Trixie heads off to the hospital with bandages over her eyes and the wedding is off. A despondent André stands in the road next to his friends who are unfazed by the situation.

They choose this moment to welcome Ruxin back into their league and casually ask André to buy them all a round of beers.

The League’s newest season has started off a bit weak. Though it did have a few laughs and some neat guest stars, including actor Adam Brody and professional football player J.J. Watt from the Houston Texans, both the first and second episode, the only to have aired so far, left me feeling like maybe The League is past its prime.

movie review

‘Riddick’ fails to develop beyond superficial level By jessie miller justice editor

Walking into the theater, I had no idea that Riddick, a newly released action movie, was actually part of a larger trilogy and video game franchise starring Vin Diesel. To be fair, the second movie, The Chronicles of Riddick, was released in 2004 with tepid reception (1.5 stars on Rotten Tomatoes)—nearly ancient history in Hollywood terms. The sequel was released after strong DVD sales and Vin Diesel’s recent success at the box office (most likely due to the Fast and Furious movies). However anticipated Riddick may have been by eager fans and gamers, I was thoroughly disappointed and spent most of the movie waiting until I could leave and get back to my homework.

Vin Diesel himself has been the force behind the success of many action movies, so I think that Riddick’s failure establishes itself at a conceptual rather than performing level. Nothing was clearly explained, the plot was nonexistent and the most compelling character was a hybrid zebra-hyenadog animal. Nearly the first 30 minutes of the movie consisted solely of Riddick (Diesel) fighting strange animals on an abandoned wasteland of a planet—plenty of muscular fight scenes, yet completely void of any deeper meaning. Basically, the only explanation the viewer has of the scene is that Riddick, who was the leader of another civilization, was left for dead after being overthrown by power-hungry commanders.

After being left for dead on the isolated planet, Riddick fights for his survival against the native creatures. To survive, he realizes he must get off this

planet and finds his way to an abandoned mercenary station where he sets off an emergency alert. Little does he know, there is a $50,000 bounty on his head, thus attracting two bounty hunter groups to his location. Riddick’s reputation as a fierce, unbeatable convict precedes him and the rest of the film shows the two groups trying to capture Riddick—a game of cat and mouse.

The most substantial part of the film actually looks like a rip-off of I Am Legend, in which Will Smith’s character fosters an endearing companionship with his dog. Riddick himself captures a young zebra-hyena-dog hybrid and trains it to obey him (instead of ripping Riddick’s head off like the other dog creatures did). The only moments I enjoyed of the film were those between Riddick and the dog because there is emotional depth underlying the action and dialogue, though the movie did a better job developing the dog’s character than the main actor’s.

Riddick is simply a conniving killing machine who lacks any emotional depth. In many cases, an audience can grow to love this type of character and slowly see him in a different light, but Riddick never changes. He remains a man whose greatest strength appears when he has a weapon in hand. Some may argue that this is what an action movie and video game character is made for, but Riddick lacks any appeal other than violence.

However much I dislike the movie, I have to admit that the title character is strikingly clever. He makes intricate weapons out of animal bones, concocts a serum to protect himself from the poisonous venom of a predator and deftly sets traps for his enemies—all with ease and believability. The one saving grace of the movie is Vin Diesel’s un-

forgiving, hardcore attitude. Though I disliked the movie as a whole, I do think Diesel filled the role he was given; however, he has been much better in other action movies, like the Fast and Furious series.

As for supporting characters, bounty hunter Santana (Jordi Mollà) stands out for his Spanish accent and crude behavior, while opposing bounty hunter Boss Johns (Matthew Nable) is much more diplomatic with his team.

The two men lead different bounty teams that are both looking to capture Riddick after he lures them to the deserted planet where he is trapped.

While the only female character, Dahl (Katee Sackhoff), could have been empowering, she is instead sexualized, and her talents as a bounty hunter are minimized. In one scene, directors chose to film her naked while washing her face. This added nothing to the plot of the film, yet simply served as an opportunity to give male viewers some nude entertainment. Why couldn’t Dahl serve as an equalizing force that proves women are just as capable and strong as men? Because sex sells—and this is just one of the several instances of unnecessary nudity in the film.

With all the confusion, plot holes and utter lack of character development, Riddick was a complete waste of 11 dollars. It is a challenge to combine a stunning action movie with any complex plot dynamics. On the other hand, Riddick probably makes an excellent video game character, and I can even imagine Vin Diesel’s deep, angry voice coming from an animated character.

When it comes to stories like this one, Hollywood should stick to creating video games of pure excitement and adrenaline and not bother with an actual movie script.

Jan Thijs/MCT Campus

WILD WARRIOR: Vin Diesel stars as Riddick, the lead in the similarly-entitled action movie, part of a trilogy and video game series.

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, september 17, 2013

23

concert review

Boston Calling brings music downtown By douglas Levine justice contributing writer

As Passion Pit took the stage on Sunday, Sept. 8, the crowd shifted anxiously. By the end of that night, 30,000 people had danced their way across Boston’s City Hall Plaza, enjoying the music, culture and excitement of the second installment of Boston Calling.

Boston Calling is Boston’s first midsize music festival directly in downtown Boston. Music from all genres blasted out of the speakers on the two stages continuously during the two days, and rarely was there a dull moment.

The overall organization of the festival paved the way for the bands to perform at their best.

The festival’s two stages allowed for an almost seamless transition between acts, eliminating time wasted shuffling bands on and off stage. The crowd filled the entirety of the area in front of each stage, stretching halfway across the plaza.

Sound quality was great, allowing one to hear the music from almost anywhere in the plaza. Massive screens next to the stage also allowed listeners to enjoy from a distance because they could watch the show live.

Though the first day lulled slightly during early acts, the tempo and energy picked up as the day progressed, in spite of the heat. Okkervil River and The Airborne Toxic Event brought the energy level up in the midafternoon. The Airborne Toxic Event jammed as many hits as possible into their hour-long time slot, mixing their music with exciting

action onstage, as singer Mikel Jollett scaled the scaffolding, dangled his feet and snapped a picture of the roaring crowd. Mayor Thomas Menino also joined in the festivities of the first day, making an appearance to thank concertgoers and to welcome Local Natives to the stage.

Vampire Weekend closed the first day with their jangling, upbeat music, playing hits spanning back to their eponymous first album. The band shined on the main stage, soaking in the noise from the massive crowd and feeding it with a nonstop performance that treated fans to major hits like “Holiday” and “A-Punk” as well as lesser-known hits and some grooving tracks from their new album Modern Vampires of the City.

Vampire Weekend closed their set with two lesser-known gems from their first album: a massive sing-along to “One (Blake’s got a New Face)” followed by a perfect performance of “Walcott.” Overall the first day provided a great smattering of indie rock bands and closed off with the charming, exciting class of one of the best bands touring today.

While the first day was marked by a mix of raw indie bands and the clean-cut refinement of Vampire Weekend, the second day was a collection of electronic dance music, disc jokeys, and the electronic indie wonderfulness of Boston natives Passion Pit. The day featured DJs Flume, Flosstradamus, Major Lazer and Wolfgang Gartner, all of whom had the crowd bouncing, dancing, jumping and moving. Throughout

all of the acts the plaza became a massive dance floor and outdoor rave. Major Lazer was particularly exciting, causing the crowd to erupt as Diplo, one of the DJs in the group, entered a large inflated ball and tumbled his way across the top of the crowd.

Following the mix of DJ and EDM music, Kendrick Lamar mounted the stage as the festival’s only rapper. Lamar delivered a solid set, though he failed to create the excited atmosphere that many earlier acts did. After fans migrated from one stage to another, Passion Pit took the reins and prepared to close out the second day and the festival overall. Singer Michael Angelakos remarked to the crowd throughout the set how great it felt to come back to the city that never gave up on Passion Pit and that supports them even today.

Like Vampire Weekend, Passion Pit provided fans with a catalog of their greatest hits, stretching back to their first EP with songs such as “Sleepyhead.” The crowd definitely reacted well to the music, swaying and singing along to the choruses and enjoying Angelakos’ onstage excitement.

Overall, Boston Calling delivered on everything that it promised to, bringing some of the most exciting touring bands and freshest music right to downtown Boston and creating an amazing atmosphere with easy access and a great diversity of acts. The third iteration of the festival will be held next May, and it’s sure to be one festival you will not want to miss.

CALLING ALL ARTSTS : Ezra Koenig, lead singer of Vampire Weekend, took the stage on the first day of the concert.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE DISKIN

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE DISKIN

MUSIC IN THE PLAZA: The music festival took place in the heart of Boston: City Hall Plaza. Fans enjoyed outdoor music for two days.

concert review

Free concert attracts hordes of fans to Boston By brandon gale justice contributing writer

I arrived in Back Bay around 2 p.m. right outside the Esplanade, a crowded park that hosts a multitude of events each year. Today, the majority are there for MixFest.

MixFest is an annual free concert sponsored by Boston radio station Mix 104.1 at the Hatch Memorial Shell. Every year it draws thousands of Bostonians with the promise of a good time. This year, the lineup boasted singer Gavin DeGraw, the Backstreet Boys and alternative group Of Monsters and Men. As the concert start time neared, I headed over to the already overcrowded shell, only to find that the area had been blockaded by

Massachusetts State Police. After sneaking around a fence, Gavin DeGraw took the stage. DeGraw, who plays many folksy rock songs, began, slowly moving into a deeper, emotional blues feel, with lyrics echoing of past heartbreak. The crowd surged forward, attempting to break across the bridge. Some suggested swimming across the water. DeGraw began to sing “Follow Through,” calming the masses as they begin to chant the lyrics. After covering the recent hit “Mirrors”

by Justin Timberlake, DeGraw began to belt out his famous hits, from “Best I Ever Had” to “Not Over You,” before giving a final goodbye.

The Boston sky became cloudy as the sun set. Piercing screams alerted us to the arrival of the Backstreet Boys. They led with a loud

and vibrant chanting of “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).” The crowd surged forward again. The boy band followed with a song from their most recent album, befuddling the crowd. But they soon returned to classics, busting into “As Long As You Love Me.” “Whenever you bring a band that everyone remembers from their childhood and put them in a free concert, you’re bound to have chaos,” a fellow concertgoer told me. She was accurate. The audience began to act more erratically and wildly. A Bostonian began shouting in a thick accent, repeatedly insisting that she is Nick Carter’s longlost daughter. Following a performance of “I Want It That Way,” the boy band bid a premature farewell to the crowd.

Following Backstreet’s departure, many in attendance began to depart, but the crowd remained thick. I climbed onto the bridge railing for a better view. After half an hour, operatic music began echoing over the grounds, and the final band, Of Monsters and Men, took the stage.

Their indie-folk sounds and multitude of instruments rang out over the grass, causing the crowd to sway their hands in time with the music, lost in moments of ecstasy.

The sky was getting darker, the temperature dropping, the moon growing brighter as it rose. Skyscrapers around Boston were illuminated. Multiple songs included long choruses of chanting while the audience swayed in time with the beat, bathing in the ambiance.

The band began playing “King and

Lionheart,” bringing the crowd out of their trance to chant the lyrics.

Lights flashed on, rolling over the crowd.

Beneath the streetlights, I saw the faces of young people staring at the stage, looking at it as a beacon.

They cheered the words and danced vigorously as Of Monsters and Men began playing “Little Talks,” their most famous song. People from all over Boston, native or not, united together, chanting the lyrics along with the band. “Don’t listen to a word I say. Hey! The screams all sound the same. Hey! Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.” In the last moments of the concert, stars started to appear in the sky. The band took a bow, and the crowd went their separate ways.

24

TUESDAY, september 17, 2013 | THE JUSTICE

Brandeis TALKS

ARTS ON VIEW: rosh hashanah break

Quote of the week

BOX OFFICE

1. Insidious: Chapter 2 2. The Family 3. Riddick 4. Lee Daniels’ The Butler 5. We’re the Millers 6. Instructions Not Included 7. Planes in 3-D 8. One Direction: This Is Us—New Extended Fan Cut 9. Elysium 10. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters 3-D

— Flora Wang ’15, one of the passengers on a Joseph’s Transportation shuttle, wrote in email to the Justice (News, p. 3)

What is a photo on your mobile device that has a story you would like to share?

NYT BESTSELLERS

PHOTO COURTESY OF Morgan Fine

ON TOP OF THE WORLD: Morgan Fine ’14 snapped a view from the top of Cannon Mountain, N.H., at the end of his 1,000 foot climb while on vacation during Rosh Hashanah break earlier this month.

“This is my brother’s daughter. For her 100-day ceremony, I bought her a little gold ring. It’s a Korean tradition. We dressed her up in traditional Korean clothes and celebrated her being 100 days old.”

Yesenia Herrera ’15 “This picture is from the app Pic Stitch. I put it on Facebook for the celebration of Independence Day for Central America yesterday [Sept. 15].”

Anna Bessendorf ’15 “My friend’s club is Brandeis Beats. It’s a club that has drums and does workshops and performances. A group of friends and I wore Brandeis Beats T-shirts to a Chum’s concert.”

NEXT Issue’s PHOTO CONTEST THEME: Sukkot

Submit your creative photo to photos@thejustice.org to be featured in the Justice!

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 “Welcome __, Kotter ” 5 “Up __ Night ” 8 Popular female singer from Ireland 9 “__ It to Beaver ” 12 “Make Room for __ ” 13 “__ Camera ” 14 Brenneman and Madigan 15 Pet ’s name on “The Flintstones ” 16 “The __ Couple ” 18 Flavor-enhancing additive 19 “My Two __ ” 20 Nastase of tennis 21 Reddish horse 23 “__ Acres ” 24 “__ Rock ”; song for Simon and Garfunkel 25 Sound the horn 26 Clumsy social blunder 28 __ and rave; carry on 29 Comments from Little Orphan Annie ’s dog 30 “__ ’70s Show ” 32 Actress Thurman 35 Hawaiian garland 36 “The Guilt __ ”; Barbra Streisand movie 37 Smile 38 “Sesame __ ” 40 Thomas or DeVito 41 “Are You __, Chelsea? ”shortlived sitcom for Laura Prepon 42 Grew old 43 Prefix for respect or own 44 Dumbo ’s “wings ” DOWN 1 Rays from the sun 2 Star of “Matlock ” 3 Charisse and others 4 Actress Panabaker 5 Thicke and Rachins 6 “The Tonight Show with Jay __ ” 7 Boy 10 Role on “Private Practice ” 11 Cantor or Fisher 12 Water barrier 13 “El __ ”; Charlton Heston movie 15 Delany or Carvey 17 Spare bedroom, often 19 “The Hunchback of Notre __ ” 20 “__ Man ”; film for Robert Downey Jr. 22 Clumsy fellows 23 Myrtle on “The Waltons, ” for one 25 “The Parent __ ”; movie for Dennis Quaid & Lindsay Lohan 26 “For Me and My __ ”; Judy Garland film 27 “Give it __! ”; words to a windbag

Fiction 1. Never Go Back — Lee Child 2. The Mayan Secrets — Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry 3. The Cuckoo’s Calling — Robert Galbraith 4. STYXX — Sherrilyn Kenyon 5. Inferno — Dan Brown Nonfiction

1. Si-Cology 1 — Si Robertson with Mark Schlabach 2. The Liberty Amendments — Mark R. Levin 3. Happy, Happy, Happy — Phil Robertson with Mark Schlabach 4. Zealot — Reza Aslan 5. Lean In — Sheryl Sandberg with Nell Scovell

iTUNES

1. Miley Cyrus — “Wrecking Ball” 2. Katy Perry — “Roar” 3. Lorde — “Royals” 4. Avicii — “Wake Me Up” 5. Lady Gaga — “Applause”

BILLBOARD

1. Ariana Grande — Yours Truly 2. Tamar Braxton — Love and War 3. Nine Inch Nails — Hesitation Marks 4. John Legend — Love in the Future 5. Luke Bryan — Crash My Party 6. Jaheim — Appreciation Day 7. Robin Thicke — Blurred Lines 8. Avenged Sevenfold — Hail to the King 9. Justin Timberlake — The 20/20 Experience 10. Imagine Dragons — Night Visions Top of the Charts information provided

by Fandango, the New York Times, Billboard.com and Apple.com.

30 “Men in __ ” 31 “Your __ Parade ”; musical series of old 33 “Criminal __ ” 34 “__ Given Sunday ”; Pacino film 36 Hatcher or Garr 37 Pop singer Lady __ 39 “The __ Skelton Hour ” 40 Daniel __ Kim

STAFF’S TOP TEN

Miley Moments

By MARISSA DITKOWSKY Justice editoR

“Wrecking Ball” does not even begin to describe Miley Cyrus just being Miley.

Solution to last issue’s crossword Crossword Copyright 2012 MCT Campus, Inc.

SUDOKU INSTRUCTIONS: Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Sofiya Zaytseva ’14 “This photo is at break fast.

This is my friend. I thought this was a special moment because she surrounded her bagel with cupcakes and [was] wearing Native American-style clothing, so my friend joked that she was taking food back to her tribe.”

—Compiled by Olivia Pobiel/the Justice

CHARTS Top 10s for the week ending September 16

“[W]e had smelt smoke on the bus. We suddenly stopped and had to evacuate the bus ... There was [a] large amount of smoke billowing out of the back of the bus.”

Esther Cho ’14

TOPof the

Solution to last issue’s sudoku

Sudoku Copyright 2012 MCT Campus, Inc.

THE LIST 1. September 2013— Slapping a twerking dwarf in Germany 2. May 2010— Giving 44-yearold Last Song producer Adam Shankman a lap dance 3. January 2012—Phallic cake for Liam Hemsworth’s birthday 4. July 2008—Pictures showing Miley in her underwear hacked and released 5. December 2010—Salvia usage?

Really?

6. August 2009—Pole dancing at the Teen Choice Awards 7. June 2013—The entire “We Can’t Stop” music video 8. August 2013—Twerking at the VMAs 9. September 2012—Blonde pixie haircut drama 10. 2006—“Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?”—Moisturizing hands with ketchup