The Brandeis Hoot - Dec 2, 2011

Volume 8 Number 25

www.thebrandeishoot.com

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.

December 2, 2011

Class of 2015 mirrors diversity of past years Room for improvement on class, socioeconomics

By Nathan Koskella Editor

photo by ingrid schulte/the hoot

mayor jeannette a. mccarthy

Mayor seeks new dialogue with ’Deis

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

As Brandeis emerges from the economic recession onto stable financial foundations, Waltham Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy said she hopes to begin a conversation with President Fred Lawrence, opening new lines of communication about renewing the university’s commitment to the

Waltham community through investments in its economy and students in its schools.

“I’d like to outline what exactly do you do for Waltham. I want to put it on a piece of paper,” McCarthy said in an hour-long interview from her City Hall office Thursday morning. “I think they should do more.”

McCarthy, who has served as mayor since 2004 and just won re-election

for a third term, met with former President Jehuda Reinharz several times during his tenure and plans to meet with both Lawrence and Bentley President Gloria Cordes Larson together. She spoke of the optimism and spirit she sensed about Lawrence at his inauguration in March and spoke with high regard for Reinharz, See WALTHAM, page 4

When President Lawrence announced last spring that the class of 2015 would be accepted on a completely need-blind basis, it begged the question what the class would look like if this were the case. New Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel said that the university’s new class profile, which he will formally present at the December faculty meeting next week, almost exactly resembles that of the past three years in terms of racial and geographical diversity.

Socioeconomic diversity, a more difficult achievement at any elite institution in higher education, is more difficult to measure. But the possibility of looking at need for some students has not, apparently resulted in a narrowing of Brandeis’ class makeup.

The policy of the last few years, which Brandeis calls need-sensitive, Flagel said “for the vast majority [of students], we don’t even look at it and financial need at all.”

Still, we are not completely needblind. “We are need-blind within our resources—there is a tiny number on the periphery where there would be some need-sensitivity,” he said.

Flagel estimated that ability to pay is looked at for “most likely 1 to 2 percent, maybe as high as 5 percent” of the 850 students.

The decision to look at some students’ ability to pay may conflict with the goals of the institution: admitting the most qualified student regardless of how many will need aid under all circumstances or allowing funds to go to aiding all of those who are accepted.

Flagel is committed to “allowing every qualified student who is admitted to Brandeis to come here,” which he admitted is different than saying Brandeis admitted every qualified student.

But Flagel says that is the point—no university accepts every “our-school qualified” student, and added that qualified is a malleable term.

It does not exactly mean accepting the “smartest” applicants—“If this was a simple matter of IQ and test scores, then we wouldn’t need an admissions office at all, we’d simply See ADMISSIONS, page 12

A Brandeisian commitment to overcommitting

By Josh Kelly Staff

When people think of Brandeisians, they think of students who are passionate, driven and deeply connected to a variety of activities.

Brandeis does have approximately 250 student-run clubs and organizations on campus, ranging from community service to performing arts to Quidditch. Sometimes, however, students feel they can get a little too attached to their clubs and organizations—students frequently bemoan their masochism for committing themselves to so many things.

There are different ways, however, in which Brandeisians commit themselves. Jordan Rothman ’09 is one student who pushed himself to take part in a wide variety of activities rather than focus full-force on one thing.

Over the course of his four years at Brandeis he took part in 23 extracurricular activities including varsity indoor and outdoor track, being a Community Advisor, a tour guide, and taking part in 19 other clubs, of which he became an officer in 10.

Rothman explained that these activities—including Debate, Union Judiciary, Company B and Waltham Group—combined would generally take up anywhere from 40 to 60 hours per week, and that in the thick of the track season it might add up to even

more than that.

Erica Haas ’14 presents a different method of taking part in activities.

She has focused primarily on activities relating to theater and has taken part in five main-stage shows since arriving at Brandeis; she seems intent on taking part in more as her college experience continues. Haas explained that this commitment generally takes up 10 hours per week when averaged out over the course of the semester, while emphasizing that “tech weeks”—the week prior the opening of a show­—are vastly more demanding than “non-tech weeks.” While 10 hours may seem low in comparison to the staggering 60 spent by Rothman, when divided by all 19 clubs and organizations, Rothman spends far less time for each individual club.

Rothman explained his motivations for taking part in his activities, “I was involved in a wide range of things just because I had a lot of interests and wanted to satisfy all of these passions.” He denies, however, pandering to extracurriculars for the sake of his resume. “I did indeed think that the magnitude would affect my resume, but not any clubs in particular.”

Andrea Dine, associate director of career development at the Hiatt Career Center, reiterated the push of Brandeis students to participate in See CLUBS, page 3

restricted access Occupy Harvard camp, which has been closed to all but Harvard students.

photo courtesy of summer shafer

‘99 percent’ occupy Harvard Yard

By Connor Novy Staff

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — For three weeks, Harvard students have inhabited tents, occupying their campus not only in solidarity with other protests around the country, but also to demand changes to their own university, which is one of the ivy-covered institutions that have historically educated the children of the top 1 percent or less. Protesters have, however, been placed under intense scrutiny by the university, removing the public ele-

ment from the protests and requiring a Harvard ID to enter the campus, which has always been open to the community.

“They’re keeping the community out,” said Gargo Chatterji, a Harvard protester, “which is unfortunate, because we should have the greatest possible dialogue between Harvard and the community at this point.”

The university claims that the heightened security is meant to keep the first-years, whose dorms edge the occupied yard, safe. In a published response, the occupiers said, “The de-

cision to only grant entry to Harvard ID holders has reinforced the institutional exclusivity and elitism that Occupy Harvard seeks to change.”

Summer Shafer, a Harvard graduate student and Occupy Harvard organizer, explained: “Legally, they’re worried about vagrancy, which was a big problem with Occupy Boston.

We’ve had other occupations before, and they’ve never closed the gates. By keeping the gates closed, it keeps the opinion of the movement negative.”

See HARVARD, page 4

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

December 2, 2011

In Memoriam Hornstein program founder Bernie Reisman dead at 85

By Victoria Aronson Staff

Professor Emeritus Bernie Reisman died Nov. 21 after years of struggling with Alzheimer’s disease. Reisman has left a lasting legacy at Brandeis through his numerous achievements as director of the Benjamin S. Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program and through the personal impact he bore on countless members involved in it.

According to a transcript of the funeral service held for Reisman on Nov. 23, Rabbi Michelle Robinson explained the degree of significance he held within the Jewish community, saying, “In basketball, if you say Michael, there’s only one: Michael Jordan. In entertainment, Elvis. In Jewish communal leadership, all you have to say is Bernie.”

Since its founding in 1969, the Hornstein program has amassed more than 600 student graduates, who continue to demonstrate leadership in America and within international Jewish organizations. Reisman, who served as director of the program for more than 30 years, is said to have been “a visionary leader in the Jewish communal world,” according to comments on the Hornstein alumni page. Combined with the aspirations of Professor Leon Jick and the support of benefactor Benjamin S. Hornstein, Reisman succeeded in creating

a leading graduate program dedicated to Jewish professionals. This program sought to establish technical and management skills in union with a continued commitment to and understanding of Judaism.

Beyond his prominent role within the Hornstein program, Reisman further founded the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Brandeis (BOLLI) in 2002, advancing educational opportunities and embodying the concept of learning throughout life.

Named in his honor as founder, the BOLLI Bernie Reisman Fund accepts donations to continue to promote this program. As an author, Reisman published works such as Life on the Frontier: The Jews of Alaska and The Jewish Experiential Book.

In a tribute shared by alumnus Elliot Karp, Reisman is described as “an amazing teacher and true pioneer in the arena of experimental education. Reisman’s soft touch and voice bellowed the enormous power of his wisdom, experience and ability to inspire generations of professionals to provide visionary leadership to the Jewish people.” Perhaps what is most memorable about Reisman, however, as those who know him would say, was his ability to leave lasting impressions upon others, fostering personal bonds while also encouraging academic growth.

Reisman’s personal impact is evident through the array of dedications and sorrowful reflections found on

photo from internet source

bernie and elaine reisman

the official Hornstein Alumni Facebook page following the announcement of his death. Former students stress Reisman’s role in illuminating their future career paths, while colleagues fondly recall aspects of his personality, including his infamous passion for the game of tennis.

One such post stated: “What I learned most from Bernie is to be mindful of the needs of other people: to be humble, non-judgmental, caring and concerned. Most of all, to be happy in the simple things: learning, good conversation, gardening, and most of all, a good tennis shot.”

While the passing of Bernie Reisman brings a sense of loss within the Brandeis community, his ability to forge lasting contributions and his influence upon those surrounding him allow his legacy to remain. He is survived by his wife, Elaine, and numerous children and grandchildren.

Trustee Alex Barkas ’68, university benefactor, dead at 64

By Sarah Weber Staff

Alex Barkas, an extremely generous Brandeis contributor and alumnus died unexpectedly Nov. 21, at age 64. Barkas worked as a venture capi-

alex barkas and students

talist with Prosper Venture Partners.

Barkas was a managing director at Prospect Venture Partners since 1997 and had worked on the boards of various biotech companies. Prospect posted a brief memorial to Barkas on its website, which said: “Alex was an

photo courtesy of helene lowenfels

extraordinary father, and husband, friend and colleague, deeply admired and respected by all who had the special privilege to know and work with him,” the statement said. “Alex brought passion, wisdom, sincerity and an unrivaled love of life. Alex leaves behind for us a legacy of hope and commitment to achieve greatness with kindness, care and perseverance.

He will be very deeply missed.”

In 2001, Barkas joined the Brandeis board of trustees; he was reelected to the board in 2006 and again in 2010.

Barkas’s death comes as a great loss to the Brandeis community. Barkas was one of the main contributors to The Rose Art Museum and his work in the museum can be attributed to its success.

In addition, he was a supporter of the Business School and the sciences.

In 2000, Barkas had served as chair of the Brandeis University Science Advisory Council, a council that advocates maintaining and growing sci-

ence education at Brandeis. Barkas, as described by Provost Goldstein, “was enormously dedicated to his alma mater. He was a wonderful family man with a loving wife and two young daughters. Professionally, he combined his love of science and his business acumen to invest in and help develop life in science companies.”

Barkas’ relationship to The Rose Art Museum was one that was exceptionally special. His connection to the museum and the student body was more than just a typical donor relationship. According to Helene Lowenfels from the class of ’05, who knew Barkas very well through The Rose Art Museum, “Donors don’t always want to work with students,” but Barkas, “loved having kids do great things and wanted to personally work with the students.” Lowenfels worked at The Rose Art Museum as a first-year at Brandeis and was put into contact with Barkas; Barkas “really emphasized that the museum is

a special place to him and his wife.

Without his gift I never would have been able to put on the events in The Rose that I did.”

While the money certainly was helpful to the school, Lowenfels stresses, “It was not just the money. It was his ideas and role in the community.” Lowenfels describes how Barkas met her and her friends on campus and was genuinely interested in discussing their classes and school activities. According to Lowenfels, Barkas was “really just a wonderful person. He wanted his money to go to the museum and support Brandeis.” When asked to choose one word to describe Barkas, Lowenfels replied, “Can I choose two? He was generous: His financial contributions were extremely generous; and he was heartfelt: His mission was clear and came from the heart.” In sum she said Alex Barkas was “an impressive person. He will be extremely missed by the Brandeis community and especially by The Rose.”

Magid departs with Gov. Patrick to South America

By Connor Novy Staff

International Business School Dean Bruce Magid leaves today for Brazil, accompanying Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on a trade summit with the intention of solidifying commerce agreements between the state and the South American country. They plan to meet with Brazilian leaders, and bring new jobs through technology and investment to the Commonwealth.

On a daily basis, Magid, the Governor and other members of the mission will “be meeting with members of the Brazilian ministry of education and finance, the former president of

the Central Bank of Brazil, executives from major companies in health care and clean technology, and experts in economic development and international trade, among others,” Magid wrote in an e-mail.

The mission is part of an effort “to build on the commercial and cultural connections between Massachusetts and Brazil. We hope to grow jobs in the Commonwealth by creating new opportunities for trade and investment.”

Magid also hopes to bring more international attention and students to Brandeis, as well as to develop job and internship opportunities for Brandeis alumni. He looks forward to the opportunity “to enhance the visibility of Brandeis University and Brandeis

International Business School and further advance our efforts to attract more students from the region.”

Magid was chosen for the trade mission because of his strong background not only as the dean of Brandeis’ International Business School, but also as former managing director and senior vice president at Bank of America, where he led the bank’s trade finance activities in Latin America. “I also was on the Board of the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment,” he wrote, “where I offered policy advice on trade issues for the state.”

Trade relations with Brazil will continue to positively affect Brandeis after the current mission is complete,

Magid wrote.

“The mission will lay the foundation for the business school’s second annual Global Trade Summit in April, which features Brazil as one of its focus countries.”

After the first Global Trade Summit with Patrick, which attracted more than 300 business, academic and government leaders, Brandeis is continuing forward as a major player in Massachusetts-International trade.

He is confident that the mission to Brazil will “be equally productive in building bridges between the two regions” as had been the summit for Israel and the United Kingdom earlier this year, on which he accompanied Patrick as well. He believes it will en-

courage Brazilian students to attend American colleges and universities such as Brandeis.

Massachusetts and Brazil already have a working trade relationship, which Patrick and Magid hope both to solidify and amplify. Exports to the country reached $396 million last year and increased by 31 percent in the past 12 months with imports that totaled approximately $80 million.

Brazil is the largest economy in South America and is projected quickly to become the sixth largest economy in the world.

Patrick hopes to attract Brazil’s expedient growth and bring its innovation, especially in clean energy, to Massachusetts.

December 2, 2011

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

Opportunities for Israel in a changing Middle East

By Connor Novy Staff

Professor Shai Feldman (POL) discussed the effect of the Arab Spring revolutions on Israel and the relationship between Israel and Egypt in light of the latter’s upcoming elections on Wednesday. Alumni, parents, students and friends of the Brandeis community logged into a live chat to hear Feldman’s lecture and ask questions.

Feldman allayed fears that the revolutions in Egypt and surrounding countries will “galvanize a Palestinian Arab Spring.” Israel is concerned that the revolution will spread to Jordan, which has a significant minority population of Palestinians, and is critical to Israel as a buffer between itself and the Persian Gulf. Of more pressing concern are the upcoming elections in Egypt, the results of which are untenable at the moment.

Feldman stated, however, that “change in Egypt until now has been

far less dramatic than people originally feared,” and that very few of the Egyptian population supports abrogating the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

He cites Israeli leadership as a large propagator of anxiety in the country.

Israelis, says Feldman, are “fearful of change,” because they are influenced by the country’s leadership. “The talking heads get attention not by calming the people, but by stirring their fears.”

He advises that Israel can minimize the danger of upset and “moderate the change by acting positively … to the new Egyptian leadership.” He points out the potential positive elements of the situation. The changes in Syria have decreased the likelihood of collusion between it and Israel’s “archenemies.” In fact, Feldman points out, none of Israel’s worst fears have materialized. The Palestinian population has not mobilized against them and, as of yet, Egypt has not drastically changed its stance or broken the

peace treaty. If the population elects a conservative Islamic government, Israel might have problems, but “all of this has to be taken in good measure,” Feldman said, and diminishes the gravity of the region’s change. He also stated that Israel’s position is relatively secure. The largest roadblock for liberal candidates in Egypt is their own lack of leadership.

“The change has not been as dramatic as first believed. There has been more continuity than change until now,” he said, despite media alarmists. Instead of focusing on the risks of the situation, Feldman believes the opportunities are far more important.

“There is a natural inclination to look at the risks rather than to see the opportunities,” but Israel stands in a position to gain if they are imaginative in their diplomacy.

“The only way to survive in the Middle East is to think about how entrepreneurs operate in a bad economy,” Feldman said. professor shai feldman

photo by max shay/the hoot

Brandeis scholar co-authors book that questions gender stereotypes

By Emily Belowich Staff

Pink is for girls. Blue is for boys.

Math and science are for boys. English and history are for girls. Where do we get the idea that gender is systematized?

Where is the research that says boys are more apt to become the next rocket scientists and girls, because of their “empathizing” brains, will become the next generation’s social workers, primary school teachers and nurses?

There is a significant amount of research on this ideology—that boys’ and girls’ brains are wired differently, setting them up to become better suited in certain academic areas. According to Dr. Rosalind Chait Barnett, a senior scientist and researcher here at Brandeis’ Women’s Studies Research Center, however, much of this research is flawed.

In their sixth book, “The Truth about Girls and Boys: Challenging Toxic Stereotypes About Our Children,” Barnett and Professor Caryl Rivers, a professor from Boston University’s School of Communication, pick apart the flawed research that has left little room for gender variability.

The book, published by Columbia

University Press in late October, challenges parents and educators to break apart the “old” stereotypes that state the learning styles of boys and girls are so entirely different that they require an entirely separate school system. Barnett and Rivers prove these claims wrong by showing the increasing amount of research that supports looking at children as individuals, not as girls and boys.

Although Barnett and Rivers did not conduct any primary research, they reviewed pop literature, films, newspaper articles, quotes from historical people, data and surveys, and many other resources that validated their argument.

Through this research, they were easily able to pick out the flaws in the experiment bias.

Barnett found that in the research that they critiqued, “the feelings were so strong and the data was so weak.

“There is a growing disconnect in peer-review literature and what the mass media is telling us,” Barnett said in a sit-down interview with The Hoot.

“The research is getting more sophisticated and the media narrative is all the same. There is an enormous gap within gender variability, which makes it next to impossible to simply place your brain

College Notebook

Tufts bans ‘Naked Quad Run’

By Josh Kelly Staff

Kevin Maguire, the director of Public and Environmental Safety at Tufts University, published a letter to all Tufts University students in The Tufts Daily on Wednesday regarding the recent banning of the Naked Quad Run. This Tufts tradition, a once-universitysanctioned activity, which was intended to relieve stress around finals period, was banned by former President Lawrence Bacow last semester. The decision was made due to safety concerns and is supported by current President Anthony Monaco, as well as the Committee on Student Life, the dean of Student Affairs and the Tufts University Police Department.

In the letter, Macguire explained that while he knew the majority of the students he was addressing would be respectful of the ban, it was necessary to address everyone due to the inability to know ahead of time who would violate the ban. He also intended to warn students that the ban would be enforced strictly, and that any student found in violation would be punished with a one-semester suspension from Tufts, which would go into effect immediately for spring 2012.

Macguire further warned of criminal charges of public indecency, which could result from indecent exposure, or disorderly conduct/assault and battery, which could result from intoxication and display of uncooperative and/or violent behavior.

See NOTEBOOK, page 4

in a box: boy or girl.”

Barnett and Rivers are cognizant of the fact that boys and girls encounter different experiences as young children that spark certain emotions and eventually create these gendered stereotypes. They believe, however, that children, specifically girls, must go outside of their comfort zones in order to build a strong sense of character. Barnett argues that if we don’t recognize and act on this, then we are validating the existence of “boy”- and “girl”-specific learning styles.

“People don’t believe it,” Barnett said.

“But if we don’t give girls the opportunity, they are shortchanged. We need to learn how to become better consumers of the pink-brain blue-brain arguments.” Barnett continued to argue that the argument of “keeping women out” has always been an essential argument and that this notion of girls and boys being taught in different ways is actually quite sexist.

In “The Truth,” Barnett and Rivers argue that there is no “ideal classroom” for boys or girls. In chapter 9, they feature an Alabama middle school where teachers are encouraged to gear their assignments to a gender when possible,

such as assigning a different writing prompt for boys than for girls. They argue, “This ideal classroom—classrooms, actually, separated by gender— could wind up being harmful to both boys and girls.”

“There’s no data out there that shows if we took boys in one class and girls in the other that they would be better off,” Barnett said.

Barnett remarked that there are too many variables—resources, class size, and caliber of the school—that one could never be able to detect gender segregation as the root of success.

For the past five years, Barnett and Rivers have brought their expertise together to bring forth insightful ideas that have for so long been concealed behind flawed research that our society has accepted as factual. In writing this book, Barnett and Rivers concluded that there is “surprisingly little evidence of sex differences in children’s brains.”

Barnett said that she and Rivers wrote this book with the hope that people will begin to start questioning their own stereotypes.

According to Barnett, this book targets anyone who has an investment in young children. She wants these people

dr. rosalind chait barnett

to understand how their behavior affects young children.

“Kids already have an understanding very early on,” Barnett said. “Girls and boys are aware of gender stereotypes early, even before they can speak.

By two, they are well versed in what’s ‘appropriate’ behavior for males and females. These stereotypes put kids in straitjackets, harming their futures.”

Barnett and Rivers are currently working on their seventh book together.

A tendency to join more than just one CLUBS, from page 1

many different activities.

“I think part of it is that they came in that way, being super-involved people. I think that’s the personality and type that Brandeis attracts.” Dine explained that this makes it difficult for students to drop any one activity and leads them to participate frantically in many.

“Diversity of interest and passion is what makes people stretch and try to do 20 activities a semester instead of just focusing on a few.” Dine disagrees with Rothman concerning the impressiveness of having many different activities. To Dine, it is best to be committed to just a few major ones and to be really involved in those ones. “I don’t think necessarily that more is better. I think depth is better … A student that is very involved in certain activities and takes a leadership role in those activities—that would be more beneficial in comparison to someone who is in a lot of activities but does not take a leadership role.”

Neither Rothman nor Haas have had academic issues as a result of their devotion to their clubs and organizations. Rothman explained the miniscule effect that his 40 to 60

hours of activities per week had on his academic life.

“My academics were never affected. I graduated magna, pretty close to summa cum laude and was able to finish a master’s degree during my senior year of college,” Rothman said. Rothman is set to graduate from Georgetown University Law Center this spring.

Haas gave a similar answer with regards to academics, explaining that she is still doing quite well in all her classes, but admitted that it is surprising how little negative effect theater has had on other areas of her life.

They diverge, however, with regard to social issues. College is about one’s social life as well, and to devote oneself to an activity or multiple activities does lead to the possibility of hindering one’s time with their friends.

Rothman, busy with club activities, was never able to socialize very much, “I think the second greatest function of college is to be socially actualized, and I mostly missed out on this, which has taken me a long time to make up for.”

Both Haas and Dine differ somewhat, explaining the tendency of clubs at Brandeis to be a gateway through which one can make friends.

According to Haas, she is able to mo-

nopolize on her time by multitasking when it comes to theater and social life, “most of my friends are in theater so theater and friends happen at the same time.”

According to Dine, “It depends on how social the activities are. It could be that the student’s social life is tied to their activities and so they’re kind of in conjunction with each other, and sometimes they’re really separate.”

Dine is of the opinion that Brandeis students in particular are driven to participate in so many things because of their vast amount of interests, but thinks that Brandeis is “very similar in many ways to other competitive liberal arts institutions.” Rothman agrees, citing his experiences with students at other universities, “I think that this phenomenon is a function of the high caliber of students at these universities.”

While Rothman presents the view that “Brandeis students view club activities as brass rings rather than a meaningful experience in and of itself,” Haas contends that it is passion that drives Brandeisians to be “insane masochists” with regard to extra-curricular activities. “Brandeis is quirky and if you like something you just really like it and you just breathe it and live it.”

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

December 2, 2011

Harvard students show solidarity with ‘Occupy’ protesters HARVARD, from page 1

Ironically, the security personnel keeping non-Harvard students out are those whom the movement initially supported. The custodial staff and Securitas security officers were part of the union for which the students had occupied, in solidarity with the union during contract negotiations. There is, though, little animosity between security and the protesters, who understand “they’re working people pressed for wage, part of the whole issue we’re fighting,” Chatterji said.

Security personnel, checking IDs at the gate, declined to comment.

The protests began in order to assist the janitorial staff in achieving better pay and working conditions, and when custodial staff and supporters were locked out of the first general assembly, according to Shafer, students began to discuss how to get into the yard and put up tents. Since then,

“Occupy spread and connected out with the ideas of limited demands, in the other movements.”

They have expanded their list of demands to include greater investment transparency, and that Harvard discontinue its investment in HEI Hotels and Resorts, which has come under fire for maltreatment of labor, and Emergent Asset Management, which is criticized for its practices, Shafer said, “buying land in Africa, displacing the local populations, and using it for agricultural export or development.”

“We don’t want our university to be a part of displacing people. That’s not what Harvard should be about,” Shafer continued. Protesters think Harvard, as one of the leading universities in the country, she said, “should use its position to communicate with Washington,” to address the inequalities of the country.

They aim to disintegrate the legacy system at the university, as well as to

increase debt relief and financial aid for students in need, and ultimately to create a “University for the 99 percent,” according to the movement’s website. They plan to meet with the student newspaper The Crimson to publish a definite list of demands, which has raised skepticism from some protesters, who feel that concrete demands could hurt the movement.

Many feel the occupation of Harvard by its students is hypocritical and according to Sneha Walia ’15, “Even if they’re not in the 1 percent, they’re at Harvard, they’re going to be.”

Others, like Flora Wang ’15, bemoan Occupy Harvard’s futility: “I don’t see the purpose, the space they chose to occupy is their own. It doesn’t really make that much of an impact.”

The Occupiers, however, say their efforts would be far less futile if the university would open the gates and allow sympathizers and press onto the campus. photo courtesy summer shafer

Mayor McCarthy discusses Brandeis-Waltham partnership WALTHAM, from page 1

pausing during the interview to pick up a photograph of his wife, Shulamit and singer Barbara Streisand from her visit to campus.

The mayor said the conversation should start with a two-way line of communication, where the two chief executives, one of a city and the other of a university, each share what they believe Brandeis contributes to Waltham.

“Let’s quantify what you do,” McCarthy said about Brandeis. “I agree that they are primary employers in the city—both Bentley and Brandeis but I also agree that there are other things they can do.”

McCarthy cautioned that quantifying community involvement is not only about counting donations and economic investments. She explained that Bentley brings a useful expertise in business but added later that Brandeis students share high-levels of social awareness.

“I have a lot of kids that might never get to go to college … those are the type of things that I can’t quantify with a financial value but I would quantify those with a social value,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy, who grew up in Waltham and graduated from the city’s public schools before attending Boston College, Suffolk University Law school and earning a graduate degree in criminal justice from Northeastern University, said that Brandeis has helped over the years by participating in a mentoring program with Waltham students. She hopes to expand mentoring programs, explaining that many young kids in Waltham view college students as role models.

McCarthy made clear that at Brandeis, “the Waltham Group—I have not one complaint. They do a wonderful job.”

Overall, however, McCarthy asserted that Bentley is more involved in the community its students live in.

“Now, in fairness, Bentley does more than Brandeis,” McCarthy said.

“I’m just being honest.”

Bentley students provide more in cash donations and helped create 19 apartments for the elderly by the Harding School, she said.

The mayor said that most complaints from residents about Brandeis come when students move in a the beginning of the year all at once or throw parties on streets where residents live, an issue that used to be a major problem of community and university relations.

She also voiced safety concerns about students who run across South Street by the Village and Ziv, rather than crossing on the Squire Bridge by Gosman.

“You’re not really driving fast, but you come over the hill either way and there they are, zoom … There are near misses all the time and someone is going to get hurt. That’s the reason why the city allowed the bridge, but maybe the bridge is in the wrong location,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy contacts Brandeis through its senior vice president for administration, Mark Collins and she recently met with officials to discuss college scholarships for select Waltham students.

Each year, Brandeis selects four graduating seniors from Waltham High School and awards the Stroum Family Waltham Scholarship, providing four years of full tuition.

Even as Waltham faces challenges to its economy and education system, McCarthy insisted that the school district is improving, providing motivated students with quality resources and added new investments on Moody Street will continue to spur economic growth and enhance social life.

McCarthy said that restaurants are a major attraction in the city for students from both Bentley and Brandeis.

Referencing a business study run by Bentley, McCarthy said that students often go to Cambridge and Boston, “so I said what would keep them in here, you know what I mean, things to do? They said definitely, they like the food but as far as other activities

NEU president criticized for salary NOTEBOOK, from page 3

photo by ingrid schulte/the hoot

they’re going to get back to me about that.”

Discussing two new construction projects at opposite ends of Moody Street, one project to turn the old watch factory into office space, retail stories and residences and the other to build about 200 apartments at One Moody Street, the Mayor said “the overall Moody Street is going to be hopping again.”

When asked to discuss the city’s efforts to reduce crime after a sudden increase in bank robberies during the recession, McCarthy said that the FBI began investigating and the number of incidents has decreased because of the federal involvement.

The mayor called drug-related murderers troubling and said police have doubled their efforts with regard to drug-enforcement.

On Sept. 12, three men were murdered in a Harding Avenue apartment. Authorities, including the District Attorney’s Office are still investigating the killings of Brendan Mess, 25, of Waltham; Erik Weissman, 31, of Cambridge; and Raphael

Teken, 37, of Cambridge, who graduated from Brandeis in 1998.

“For the most part Waltham is pretty safe but when you start having random murders like that and they’re not random so to speak … everybody should be on top of that,” McCarthy said.

“I believe that if you can keep kids busy, you keep them out of trouble,” McCarthy said, explaining a new program called Chill Zone on Friday and Saturday nights that is free for people to participate in recreation and cultural activities.

Inside the mayor’s office, behind a desk scattered with holiday cards and piles of documents, was a pad of sticky notes where she wrote down the ideas of students about their school’s community involvement and what they want it to become.

“Brandeis—because of their money problems—they’re not as involved,” McCarthy said. “So I would like to open up those lines of communication again to see what we’re doing.

Now McCarthy wants to add to ideas of students and jotting down Lawrence’s thoughts on her pad of sticky notes.

President Joseph Aoun faced criticism from the Northeastern University community after his salary, including benefits, topped $1 million last year, The Huntington News reported on Thursday.

The salary reflected an increase of 11 percent from the previous year. To put this in perspective, the president of Harvard received $874,560 in 2009, while the president of Tufts received $737,393.

This move places Northeastern in the company of Boston University and Suffolk University, both of which paid out more than $1 million to their presidents last year.

Mike Sabo, the president of the Student Government Association, while acknowledging that Northeastern had risen in the rankings and that therefore the salary increase could be justified, also criticized the move.

“In a time when everybody is struggling economically, I’m not sure if that’s the right message to send to students and the university,” Sabo said in The Huntington News.

Some have linked the rise in the president’s salary to general issues associated with corporations as well as Occupy Northeastern.

International Affairs major Tori Porell explained this point, and argued that it is not just a Northeastern issue.

“Other universities have the same problem of giving presidents large salaries. The culture has become endemic,” Porell told The Huntington News.

Porell went on to argue that it is not the objective salary to which she is opposed, but rather the salary when compared to the significantly lower salaries of other workers at Northeastern, which she believes the president should take into consideration.

December 2, 2011

views of the week

The Brandeis Hoot 5

Students enjoy The Rose after hours

photos by haley fine/the hoot

scram jam The Student Committee for The Rose Art Museum (SCRAM) hosts SCRAM Jam, a mixer held at The Rose after its regular hours of operation. The Dec. 1 event in The Rose included a cocktail hour (top left) and a

dance DJed by Brandeis’ own DJ Octokyu.

Classical Studies department thanks donor

photos by alex patch/the hoot

classics receives gift The Department of Classical Studies hosts a party to honor Eunice Lebowitz Cohen for a recent gift that provides financial security for their Classical Studies Artifact Research Collection (CLARC).

The celebration included a formal plaque presentation renaming CLARC the Eunice M. Lebowitz Cohen Classical Studies Artifact Research Collection Resource Room and included a performance by all-female drummer group SheBoom.

ImpressiOns

6 The Brandeis Hoot

The Editor’s Desk

December 2, 2011

History repeats: Kansas college wrong to sell artwork to fund renovations

By Alex Schneider Editor

“untitled” by marsden hartley

photo from internet source

At the Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery, urgency has prompted an art sale. Sound familiar?

The gallery located at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., has announced it will be selling a 1919 still life by Marsden Hartley, which one expert told the Kansas City Star was the “crown jewel” of the collection.

The estimated proceeds range from $700,000 to $900,000 and will be used to pay for renovations to the gallery.

Clearly, Bethany College has not heard the phrase, “art trumps money.”

This art sale is not a first for Bethany, a college of 610 students founded in 1881. In August, the college announced it was auctioning off 11 art pieces by Birger Sandzen and a collection of Native American pottery for profits of $1.15 million. In an August 2011 press release, the college president, Edward F. Leonard III, attributed the decision to a lack of space: “We don’t have the capacity to showcase and care for all artwork. Some of them hadn’t even been on display in years.”

In contrast, the Hartley still life, which was the gift of a Bethany piano teacher in 1968, was not taking up too much space. Instead, with the August sale as a precedent, the latest auction is being sold as a way to raise the last $700,000 for a renovation project after a failed capital campaign. In good form, the gallery’s curator, Ron Michael, told the Star, “We really looked at a variety of options … and felt this would be the most expedient way to complete the renovation.”

In 2009, Brandeis faced ethical and legal scrutiny when it announced the closing of The Rose. In comparison, the Sandzen Gallery does not belong to the American Association of Museums nor does it need to follow its ethical guidelines, and the Hartley painting was given as a gift without restrictions on its future sale. Other than an article in the Kansas City Star,

press coverage has been minimal.

From a public relations standpoint, Bethany has done everything right.

The gallery’s curator has given approval to the plans and the announcement of the various art sales have been spread out over time to minimize press coverage.

But there’s a lesson to be learned from Brandeis’ experience. Art lasts longer than recessions or budget deficits. In 2009, closing The Rose was urgent. Today, the museum marks its 50th anniversary and the university, through hard work, has managed to keep its finances afloat.

Urgency is never a given. Think of the occupy Best Buy tents from Thanksgiving day—also known as the line where only some people get a $300 TV and the rest lose sleep for nothing. Best Buy is clever: The company says there’s no choice, if you want a $300 TV, Black Friday is the day. Period.

But that isn’t true. Wait out the holiday cycle or even wait another three months and there’s bound to be another opportunity to buy that TV for as good a price.

Urgency is exciting and motivates action. At Brandeis, without a sense of urgency there would be no Justice Brandeis Semester (JBS) program or Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering (CARS) committee recommendations for future university improvements.

But if urgency had won, the art would have been sold. Thankfully, legal hurdles extended the timeline on the closure of The Rose long enough for the community to realize other options existed.

I’ve never been to Bethany College or seen the gallery, but I am confident that the school could have waited a year or two to try to solicit donations before starting the renovation project.

Sure, the heat might have gone off in the summer and the lighting might not be state of the art. But who needs a museum that’s state of the art when there is no art to display?

Details on dining: Which meal plan is best?

By Betty Revah Columnist

graphic by diane somlo/the hoot

After eating turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie during Thanksgiving break, coming back to dining hall food was not easy. I had forgotten what it felt like to eat without having to show anyone your ID, without having to count how much money your food would cost in order to decide if you were over or under a meal, or having to debate whether to use a meal or points while waiting in line. Sometimes it seems as though the meal options available to students have not been considered properly because—although the food at Brandeis is not bad at all and it truthfully must be really difficult to cook for thousands of persons everyday—what Thanksgiving break reminded me of was not the quality of the food but the major flaws in our meal plan options.

Every semester students have the opportunity to choose from seven meal plans: the 21-meal plan, the 14-meal plan, the 5-meal combo plan (which is not available to firstyears), the 10-meal combo plan, the $1,400 all-points meal plan (also not

available to first-years), the flex plan and the Village plan (for Village residents only). Clearly, first-years have the least amount of options or flexibility with their meal plans, which is more than inconvenient considering that first-years get to campus without knowing how meal plans work, how expensive the food is, how many meals they eat per week or how much money they generally spend on food.

Most students I know (all firstyears) decided to choose the 21meal plan option before arriving at Brandeis. They did so partly because their parents were afraid they would go hungry and partly because they didn’t know any better. Most of these students, however, changed their meal plans before classes even started, mostly because they realized that eating all 21 meals a week is almost impossible. I was one of these students. I’d heard older Brandeisians complaining about the 21-meal plan, so I decided to change to the 10-meal combo plan. As it turned out, changing my meal plan was the worst thing I could have done. I ran out of points in the middle of the semester (yes, I know it has never happened to anyone before) and since then all I have is 10 meals a week, WhoCash and a very

empty wallet.

There are some very large flaws regarding meal plan options at Brandeis, the first and most important one is the lack of flexibility that these meal plans offer. If, for example, you have three meals left by Sunday night, you cannot take advantage of all of them because you are only allowed to use one meal per meal period. The 21-meal plan offers no points—which usually come in handy at Einsteins or the C-Store, which is ridiculously overpriced. The meal options that have points, however, do not offer enough meals per week for people who have three meals a day most days.

Perhaps these problems could be solved by a new meal plan option that resembles the 10-meal combo plan, but has a few more meals per week.

Something like 15 meals a week and points would be perfect. Even a customized meal plan option or a WhoCash-based meal plan would work.

Meals should not be such a great concern among students at Brandeis but sadly they are and next semester, along with promising new classes, new friends and more fun, comes the dreaded question: “Which meal plan should I get?”

December 2, 2011

IMPRESSIONS 7

The Brandeis Hoot

The Katzwer’s Out of the Bag

Sharing one day, savagery the next

By Yael Katzwer Editor

Children pepper sprayed in the face. Pregnant women shoved to the ground. Men trampled to death.

Frenzied rioters just daring the police to step in and stop them. But don’t be mistaken—these are not downtrodden people fighting an oppressive government for the rights we consider basic to living; no, these are heartless people fighting each other for discounted televisions. This is not the Arab Spring. This is Black Friday.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. To celebrate the rampant consumerism this month represents, many stores open earlier than usual and offer “killer” discounts.

Historically, Black Friday has been crazy since about the ’70s. Recently, however, the day has become downright dangerous as people are willing to injure—and in some cases kill— others in their search for discount items.

This year was one of the worst years ever. Sociologists have suggested that so many people attended Black Friday this year and behaved so manically due to the struggling economy. I’m sorry but a struggling economy is no excuse for savagery.

In a Los Angeles Walmart, a woman pepper sprayed approximately 20 other customers in her rush to get at gaming consoles. This is, plain and simple, insane. Firstly, this woman actually brought pepper spray to the store with her—she planned this. Secondly, she sprayed children in the face, which is just so inherently wrong. Thirdly, she was not the only one acting like a nutjob at that Walmart.

The sale was set to begin at 10 p.m.

Thursday night but Walmart allowed shoppers inside the store early so they could stake out prime positions. At 9:55 p.m. the crowd went wild and began tearing the plastic wrapping off of display cases, throwing merchandise to the floor, shoving people, trampling people, stealing and so on.

I think Black Friday is one of the worst examples of humanity we have.

People can argue: No, genocide is the worst example. I would argue that the

Still Writing

By Gordy Stillman Editor

One of the first changes I made when I came to college was shifting a majority of my purchases from trips to the store to a few clicks on my computer. I didn’t have a car, the Boston shuttle equaled a three-hour roundtrip if I caught successive shuttles and being a college student didn’t erase my appetite for movies, games, etc.

Less than a month into my first year I created an Amazon account and started ordering things online.

Online shopping usually has both advantages and disadvantages. On the negative side, the consumer might have to pay shipping, cannot get the item the same day and cannot do immediate returns. Additionally, depending on the site or the reason for return, the customer might have to pay the return shipping costs, taking a financial loss if the item is defective or otherwise not-as-described. On the positive side, it takes very little time to buy stuff online, you can quickly

people who commit genocide are so disturbed that they do not even constitute humanity anymore. Black Friday shoppers are just like us but with an extra helping of crazy. That really frightens me.

And, again, you, a rational human being, are thinking: So one crazy lady brought pepper spray; that hardly speaks to an entire group of people.

Pepper spray is fairly tame. At a Florida Walmart in 2010, a man was arrested for carrying a pepper spray grenade, two knives and a gun. Luckily, he was arrested before he could use any of them.

This was unfortunately not the case in 2008 when two men shot each other outside a California Walmart. Both men died … in front of their children.

By far the worst example of mob mentality, discount mania and just plain, old heartlessness occurred in a Long Island, NY, Walmart in 2008.

The store was set to open at 5 a.m.

Friday morning but the crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers had grown restless. At 4:55 a.m. they pressed in on the sliding glass double doors, banging their fists on them and screaming “Let us in!”

The double doors, unable to take the weight of the mob, shattered. In poured 2,000 frenzied people who did not give a damn who they hurt in their quest for the $388 laptops marked down from $499.

Jdimytai Damour, 34, a part-time Walmart employee was almost instantly knocked to the ground and trampled by 2,000 people. (I keep repeating the number 2,000 because I am amazed at how many people behaved so callously.)

In this onslaught, an eight-month pregnant woman was trampled, resulting in a miscarriage. These people had a disgusting disregard for human life. An eight-month-old fetus has fully-formed lungs and can survive outside the womb. They killed a baby.

Meanwhile, Damour was still bleeding out on the floor as more feet came down on him. Other employees tried to get to Damour but they were trampled by the crowd as well and had to withdraw, watching as their co-worker was stampeded to death.

When police tried to enter the tumult to rescue Damour, shoppers shoved them out of the way. Then, when police had finally rescued Damour’s body, they attempted to

graphic by rachel weissman/the hoot

close the store but shoppers refused to leave. They were informed that a man had just been murdered—and yes, trampling to death is murder— but they were insistent on getting their discounts.

One witness to this soul-crushing display said, “When [the police] were saying [the shoppers] had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning.’ They kept shopping.”

I do not even think I need to say anything more about this because that disgusted and inconsolable feel-

ing in the pit of your stomach right now should say it all.

I cannot understand why people go shopping on Black Friday anymore.

Although this kind of stuff should not happen, it does. People should be aware of that. Also, the discounts are good but they are not good enough to risk death or permanent injury.

We now have this amazing invention called the Internet and most of the Black Friday stores offer the same deals online. You can save $200 on a $1,500 television from the safety of your home now. Even more so, you should not be taking your children

to Black Friday. I wish it were safe to bring children shopping the day after Thanksgiving but it is not and people need to remember that.

Of course, not all the blame goes with the amoral crowds—although most of it does. The stores also behave recklessly. They know what Black Friday is like; they have experienced it. And still they perform dangerous stunts, such as a snowfall of gift certificates. In 2006 in a California clothing store, 500 gift certificates were See BLACK FRIDAY page 9

Time for an online sales tax compare prices between stores or different brands, and you can even sit in a comfortable chair or recliner as you do your shopping. Additionally one of the biggest advantages of online shopping is one we have due to laws not catching up with modernity. I’m talking about sales tax.

Because states cannot collect sales tax from online sales, if the retailer doesn’t have physical stores, when I shop at Amazon.com, sales tax is not added to my purchase like it is when I buy something from Best Buy, Target or Toys “R” Us. Even if a customer shops online, if the retailer has a physical store, then the website collects sales tax because states are allowed to collect the taxes.

Why is it that some retailers are able to undercut others by appearing to sell stuff as tax-free? The answer is because it’s not supposed to be taxfree. When anyone buys something online and sales tax is not collected, they are supposed to assess and report the owed tax on their own. The problem with this is two-fold; who would voluntarily hand over their

sales tax after-the-fact? For instance should a college student with no job file an income tax return just to hand over $20 in uncollected sales tax?

Furthermore, does anyone actually keep all of their receipts for a year?

For example, I usually keep a receipt until the return period or warranty expires. The other issue is that many people simply don’t know about the self-reported use tax. Admittedly, I only know anything about it because I have family in the business world.

If not for one or two people I’d have never heard of the use tax and continued simply to think it was awesome that I could buy stuff tax free.

Because of these problems with the use tax, Amazon and other onlineonly retailers should be required to collect sales tax at the time of purchase. Aside from making it easier for the consumer to comply with the law, it creates a more level playing field for everyone. Yes, we all might get a little annoyed if Amazon started collecting sales tax and our purchases might end up being a few dollars more, but if online retailers collect sales tax

then they will have to compete with traditional retailers through sales and other ways to offer the best prices for the consumer. In the current system Amazon can sell everything at the same list price as another retailer but Amazon gets an inherent advantage because when buying something, Amazon doesn’t automatically add tax to the total.

If all retailers, online or not, collect sales tax it will benefit the consumer in two ways. Firstly, it will benefit the consumer because, with a more equal playing field, retailers will have to offer better sales and promotions in order to get an advantage over other retailers and convince a consumer to shop at a specific store. Secondly, sales tax from online purchases would help fund government budgets. This week in Minnesota the state legislature is having hearings on possible solutions to the Vikings’ (NFL) stadium needs.

One of the biggest issues they are trying to figure out is how to fund the public contribution without raising taxes. While I certainly don’t think sales tax from online purchases alone

would suddenly be able to fund huge projects like stadiums, it could at least add needed revenue to states by simply shifting online sales from the self-reported use tax to the alwayscollected sales tax.

graphic by steven wong/the hoot

8 IMPRESSIONS

Engrossing

The Brandeis Hoot

December 2, 2011

Chronicles of an iPhone owner: the slippery slope of staying connected

By Morgan Gross Editor

Hello. My name is Morgan Gross and I may or may not be addicted to my iPhone.

To understand how this happened—it certainly hasn’t always been this way—we must go back a few weeks in time.

I have been a BlackBerry owner, tried and true, for years. While I have always been reliant on my phone to stay connected, I have never been attached to the device. In fact, I often frustrated my friends and family with my failure to check my phone for hours (and sometimes days) at a time.

My BlackBerry served its purpose, by letting me call and text anyone that I needed to, check my e-mail and occasionally play a game of BrickBreaker when train rides (or lectures) got unbearable. The BlackBerry’s unreliable Internet service, countless glitches, frozen screens and hours of pointless loading, however, left me disenchanted with the device and put me on the prowl for something new.

I never thought I’d be an iPhone owner, but the heady cocktail of creative ad campaigns, BlackBerry boredom and peer pressure tempted me away from my established ways. Now, after Thanksgiving break—and as the result of an early-Hanukkah windfall (thanks, Mom!)—I am the owner of a brand-spanking-new iPhone 4S. Upon purchasing the phone, my first move was to procure a protective case. The iPhone is a Faberge egg compared to the brick of the blackberry

curve and it is certainly not Morganproof. I needed something to compensate for my less-than-graceful ways and tendency to drop, break and shatter any and everything in my wake.

After taking a few minutes to appreciate the phone’s physical beauty, now sheathed in the sleek blackness of protective polycarbonate, I set out to discover all that my new toy had to offer.

For starters, in addition to the phone, e-mail, Internet and music capabilities, expected from most smartphones, there are the thousands of apps that come preloaded or available for purchase and use with the iPhone.

There are games, search engines, databases and social media outlets galore.

Also, many popular companies and websites offer applications for iPhone, which allow you to access the website’s information right from the iPhone’s home screen. The iPhone afforded me so much convenience; now, I could find anything from restaurant recommendations to train schedules with no unwieldy browser use needed. I had no idea what I was missing with the BlackBerry!

Also, a new feature of the iPhone— which came with the release of the 4S in October—is Siri, a voice-controlled personal assistant software. According to the Apple website, “Siri on iPhone 4S lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. Ask Siri to do things just by talking the way you talk. Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back.”

Basically, you hold the iPhone’s home button, tell Siri what you want her to do and she does it. It’s crazy. Siri can schedule appointments, set alarms,

convert units, look up information, get directions, call, text, e-mail and all sorts of other stuff.

I admit that this was the feature of the phone that fascinated me the most.

I spent hours playing with Siri, asking her questions and seeing what she could do. The Siri software, in and of itself, is a lazy person’s dream. It makes it so that you don’t even have to navigate the iPhone to access its myriad features.

Within a few hours of playing with the iPhone, I came to the realization that I will never have to be bored again. I have the entire world, packaged in one sleek rectangle, in my

pocket at any given time, its contents just a finger-slide away. When I first bought the iPhone, I was excited about this prospect; however, I had no idea of the effect that access (and accessibility) would have on me.

Since my iPhone ownership began, I have been attached to the device. It is constantly on my person, in my pocket or (most likely) in my hands. I find myself taking it out, unlocking it and staring at the home screen, with the realization that I had no one to text and nothing to look up. Even worse, I find myself playing with my phone while I am talking to my friends or sitting in class.

The iPhone was supposed to make me more productive and organized, with its advanced scheduling software and access to the world, not fuel my distraction. While it’s true that I never have to be bored again, I wonder if this means that I will forget how to deal with things that are boring, or even things that are not totally interesting to me.

Balancing the iPhone’s utility and distraction has been an unexpected challenge, but is something that I will have to figure out—especially since I have used up my phone’s upgrade (and Hanukkah presents) and won’t be getting a new one for a very long time.

photo by sean fabery/the hoot

Call Me, Tweet Me

Women: the powerless gender

By Leah Finkelman Editor

Embarrassing but true: my Ohio accent is stronger when I’m talking to cute boys. Oh-high-oh becomes Oh-hao and all of my syllables slur together, just enough that my speech becomes the Midwestern version of a Southern drawl. I tilt my head, put my hands on my hips, and speak with the “powerless language” that women supposedly use, according to some anthropologists.

It’s distressing to be raised by feminist parents, work as hard (if not harder) than the boys back in Ohio, and get into a top-notch college, only to find out that when I say “maybe,” make statements in the form of questions, and limit my cursing, I am identifying myself as part of the “powerless” sex.

In virtually any society, men and women are different. Obviously.

Some differences are physical, but the majority of those differences, such as speech and gender roles, are simply manufactured by society. I have always hated classifying gender stereotypes and roles—often dichotomies, they separate members of a society, and those who don’t fit in one way or the other are ostracized. Powerlessness can be a descriptor of individuals, but I can’t imagine using it to generalize half of the population.

Being powerless is a life senphoto from internet source

tence of inferiority. Some may manage to climb social ladders until they have reached a point of superiority, but it’s rare. “Powerless language” is a suitable term for those who are, in fact, powerless (at least comparably) but it can’t be applied to American women as a whole.

In 1973, Robin Lakoff, a linguistics professor, published a list of ten basic traits of language used by women. Her list included characteristics like hedge phrases (sort of, kinda, like), apologies and indirect requests (I’m so thirsty vs.

Can I have a drink?). Seven years later, William O’Barr and Bowman Atkins spent two and a half years analyzing court cases to expand on those speech differences.

After listening to witness testimonies, they concluded that the differences between men’s and women’s speech existed, but the differences Lakoff listed were not characteristic of all women and were not limited to women. More often, it was people in subordinate positions who spoke in Lakoff ’s “powerless language.” The men and women with power, whether from a certain social status or status in the courtroom (such as an expert witness), spoke much more comfortably. Despite admitting that speech qualities such as tagging, using empty adjectives, and letting oneself be interrupted could not be applied to all women, they continued to consider it

a more feminine than masculine manner of speaking.

English is generally much more gender neutral than many other languages, but as a society we’ve still found a way to use language and speech to dichotomize gender. From gendered pronouns to considering adjectives to be feminine or masculine traits, gender becomes a part of our everyday lives. To me, the term “powerless language,” whether it is being used to refer to women or a more general group, implies that someone has been put into a position in which he or she is powerless and unable to become powerful. Especially in modern America, women are not markedly less powerful than men, and it seems there must be a better term to fit the way women speak.

Even if powerless language was given a less evocative name, it still shouldn’t be used as a blanket term or generalization for female speech. Nancy Bonvillain notes that results of gendered speech research is inconsistent, which she credits in part to the fact that gender is only one factor that accounts for someone’s speech. This idea fits with O’Barr and Atkins’ research, as it partially attributes powerless language to social status and position. Any number of social phenomena can cause women to speak differently than men. Being “powerless” is usually not one of them.

December 2, 2011

The bane and beauty of books

By Connor Novy Staff

Books and I, we get along well but I treat them terribly. I turn down pages, I spill coffee and leave greasy fingerprints in the corners. I flip pages too quickly and leave little tears at the bottom of every page. And the worst habit of all, I collect them compulsively. I hoard them, pack them away in three-volume deep shelves, away from light and air and dust and humanity. I have to stop and dig through every Three-for-a-Dollar cart I pass. I never, ever give back a book someone has loaned me. Erasmus would buy books if he had any money, and then food and clothes. I just spend the rest on more books.

This compulsion has not exactly created unforeseen issues, but issues of incomprehensible magnitude.

There is a significant likelihood that I will die under an avalanche of books.

It is almost certain that I will never finish all the books I’ve bought, but I’m resigned to that. It won’t stop me from giving it a shot.

I have a bad habit of picking up a book and beginning it while I make coffee or wait for laundry, without any intention of continuing to read it beyond that moment. It’s more for the sake of the words themselves than the story they tell—I’ve started at least three Isak Dinesen stories this year and have finished none. I’ve been in the last 20 pages of “Ragtime” for three years, and never managed to finish “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” (Though, in the latter case, D. H. Lawrence was beginning to wear on my nerves. He’s not as much of a stud as he thinks he is.)

I’m sure the books feel very badly as a result, completely forlorn, sitting on the shelf unfinished, but at least they are loved and they have plenty

IMPRESSIONS 9

The Brandeis Hoot

of makeshift bookmarks to keep them company.

My other problem results from being overly possessive of my books. I still own every novel, nonfiction and copy of National Geographic since I began reading. I refuse to donate them or to loan them to my friends.

I form sentimental attachments to them, remembering exactly where I was when I started and finished the book. They correlate so exactly to points in my life that giving away a book is like giving away a part of my past. Without the physical object, I might forget. So, in order to save my past from oblivion I have created monstrous bookcases. I have 14 of them, with an average of five shelves, and on each shelf there are multiple rows of books.

Blackest day

This is, obviously, a very inefficient system. I have no way of reaching the books that are four rows behind the ones in front, which means occasionally I have to check a book out from the library that I know I already own. Or I buy it again.

Despite the inconvenience, the system has a rare beauty. During the manic episodes where I clean out my bookcase and throw all of my hundreds of books on the floor, I find little gems that I haven’t thought about in years, that I then sit on the floor and flip through and remember what I was doing when I first read it. I know I will be crushed to death when my bookcases tip over onto me, and I know it will be ineffably painful, but I’m okay with that. It’s not like I can stop myself anyways.

photo from internet source

BLACK FRIDAY, from page 7

dropped from one central location onto a crowd of, yet again, 2,000 people. Imagine 2,000 people all rushing into a space about as big as the Shapiro Campus Center. It is not pretty.

And, every year, in order to attract more shoppers, stores have begun to open earlier and earlier. This year, Walmart opened at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a day—on paper at least—about sharing and family yet Walmart felt the need to rupture that by beginning Black Friday—which, as you can see from this article, they know to be utter chaos in their stores—on Thursday.

The prize for reckless inconsiderateness this year, however, goes to Toys “R” Us. This chain of toy stores opened its doors around the country at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving. I thought

this store was supposed to care about children.

Of course, not all stores acted like Walmart and Toys “R” US. P.C. Richard & Son went so far as to turn their Black Friday newspaper advertisement into a declamation against Walmart and Toys “R” Us for opening on Thanksgiving. They reminded those giants that it was unfair to their employees and was destroying the spirit of the holiday. They then thanked the people who provide essential services to us on Thanksgiving, such as doctors, nurses, policemen, firemen, etc. I applaud P.C. Richard & Son for having the cajones to say that in their ad rather than touting their sales.

So just remember: No sale is worth loss of life or insensible violence. A good deal should not make people behave like savages. Most importantly though, people do behave like barbarians, so do yourself a favor and stay safe at home next year.

photo from internet source

Shopping remorse: why I hate shopping

By Dana Trismen Staff

During the holiday season I often feel rather Scrooge-like because I despise shopping. I usually experience extreme stress upon entering shopping malls.

I believe this stems from my mothers obsession with Kohl’s. For some reason, my mother can spend eons in Kohl’s—something that has always baffled me since she is normally a very busy and productive person.

Kohl’s seems to be a place of relaxation for her, where she not only buys clothes for herself but for every other person my family has ever encountered. I will occasionally tag along to

Kohl’s, in need of a new winter coat or some sweaters, only to find myself on an epic marathon of Kohl’s shopping that lasts for four hours and usually ends with me lying down on one of the coat racks, hidden and exhausted.

My brother and I now know that a trip to Kohl’s may sound like a good idea but is not worth the pain.

Now that I’m older and have both a driver’s license and a car, it’s become a normal event for my friends and me to go shopping. While this is usually less of an endeavor than the trips to Kohl’s with my mother, I tire of shopping far earlier than my friends.

While they lose themselves in the floral patterns at Forever 21, I physically lose myself in Forever 21, getting lost in the maze of the store. I don’t understand why the store needs to be

that large; the amount of clothes and mirrors make me feel trapped.

The only thing that captures my interest when I go to the mall is eating pretzel bites. I am obsessed with butter pretzels. Despite my normal thriftiness, I will always spend money on pretzels. Unfortunately, problems then result when my friends want to enter an expensive prom dress store and I am still eating pretzels dripping with butter. The employees aren’t exactly welcoming to me, a fact with which I am perfectly content even if my friends are not.

The only stores I truly love are the bookstore and the pet store. Books and I have always gotten along.

Bookstores do not stress me; they are peaceful places that lack annoying employees. They are just shelves and

shelves of books waiting to be read.

Since bookstores often include coffee shops as well, I can grab coffee and stroll aimlessly up and down the rows, reading what I want for hours on end. Books are far more interesting than clothes: Clothes don’t bring characters to life or interest me for more than the few seconds it takes to say, “Oh, I look good in this.” Pet stores I love because animals themselves are stress relievers. I cannot possibly be unhappy while staring at cute hamsters. I also have a rather odd obsession with fish.

Sadly, I cannot buy all my Christmas presents for my family and friends at the bookstore or the pet store (though believe me, I’ve tried).

So I suffer through the mall, randomly entering stores I feel my father

would like, trying to find a shirt he would wear. It usually ends badly, with my head pounding and my desire to leave looming. It is not that I totally lack fashion sense; I just have no desire to spend money or time picking out clothes. In this way, online shopping is not much better (though it does take away some of the stress); staring at clothes online still bores me.

As a result, my Christmas presents usually end up being rather unusual. I give my dad duck statues and puzzles, my brother books from my familiar old bookstore, my mother a latch-hook pillow I finally figured out how to make. Perhaps a fear of shopping isn’t a bad thing—I’ve learned to adapt, and maybe make more meaningful presents.

graphic by leah finkelman/the hoot

features

10 The Brandeis Hoot

December 2, 2011

ELL and BLC plan lunch to honor university staff

By Samuel Kim Staff

The English Language Learners Initiative (ELL) and the Brandeis Labor Coalition (BLC) are hosting an appreciation cafe for its workers and tutors on Dec. 2 in the Shapiro Campus Center atrium from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

The cafe is an effort to raise awareness about the importance of workers in our dining halls and workers from facilities services and to create interactions and long-lasting friendships among students and staff members.

Over the past few years, the appreciation cafe has been held on campus. Because this is the ELL’s 10-year anniversary, the ELL coordinators invited all of the tutors and tutees (or “learners” as the ELL calls them) to the cafe so that each person involved with the

club can learn more about each other outside of a teaching environment. WBRS will DJ the event and Spellbound, an on-campus band known for jazz music, will perform live at the event.

“Holding this type of event that encourages dialogue between the students and workers allows for students to create new bonds with the workers. I’ve always hoped that forming those types of bonds will encourage everyone on campus to always be respectful and understanding of the workers, as well as appreciative all the time—not just once a semester,” says Alana Pellerito ’13, an administrator for both the ELL and the BLC. Tutors for the ELL teach workers from dining services or from facilities English every week for 30 minutes during their lunch breaks. There is no set curriculum for each

student, as each person has varying levels of speaking, reading and understanding English.

Typically, each learner works with multiple tutors each week, and all the tutors meet to develop lesson plans catered to each learner’s language level.

“I wanted to give back to the community and witness my impact. I’ve been tutoring Maritza of Facilities for at least three years now and have truly seen her grow. It’s amazing how much of a difference you can make by giving 30 minutes of your time each week to tutoring,” says Josh Kahane ’12, another administrator for the ELL. The BLC works to ensure and gain fair labor policies on campus and internationally.

The coalition tries to raise public and oncampus awareness about labor issues by orga-

nizing events, such as the appreciation cafe.

In addition, the facilities worker biographies that are found in North and Massell are interviews conducted by the BLC. Many of the tutors and learners involved with the ELL are also part of the BLC. Students who are interested in joining the ELL submit an application at the beginning of the semester to get matched with a learner based on their schedule. The BLC meets weekly to discuss labor issues, organized by one member in the coalition.

“Students are welcome to bring campaigns, ideas, passions and speakers to BLC; we are always welcome to expanding and trying new things,” says Pellerito. She adds that, “I love doing community service, and though there were a lot of options when I arrived at Brandeis, ELL was the most perfect for me.”

Teaching from experience Polonsky’s studies reflect his upbringing in South Africa

antony polonsky NEJS professor has received more than 10 awards

photo from internet source

for his contribution to the study of Polish Jewry and speaks “eight or nine languages.”

By Alana Blum Editor

Professor Antony Polonsky does not just lecture from a book. Rather, he draws on his travels and the people he has met to create a unique learning environment.

Polonsky teaches three specific areas of study at Brandeis: the Holocaust, the history of Jews in Eastern Europe and the history of secular Jews. On their own, these courses appear to reflect Brandeis’ Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department.

These courses, however, gain a new meaning as students learn how Polonsky’s areas of study reflect the path he took over the course of his life, starting with his commitment to social change as a young college student in South Africa.

Comparing his childhood upbringing to the movie “The Help,” Polonsky described how he had been brought up by African servants who were without any political or social rights. Since his father was ill for most of Polonksy’s upbringing, the servants became similar to substitute parents for Polonsky. It was one of the male servants who had taught Polonsky how to tie a tie and how to dance.

“His wife and family were living hundreds of thousands of miles away,” Polonksy said. “He used to visit them once a year, but he used to show me a picture of his two daughters who are named after my mother and my mother’s sister. Well, you feel badly when you think about this.”

Thus, while Polonsky’s childhood upbringing in South Africa was quite comfortable, he was vehemently opposed to the country’s system of apartheid. He quickly began doing his part to alleviate the situation.

In one incident, he and his friends began a non-violent protest against his university’s policy of social segregation through enacting a non-segregated tennis tournament. They had everybody gather together on a Saturday morning to participate in the tournament. At around 12 o’clock, however, somebody reported that a group of students were occupying the tennis courts and the group was told to leave. Polonsky’s large house included its own tennis court, so Polonsky simply brought the group back home to continue the match. At the age of 18, Polonsky was thus already exhibiting a commitment to non-violent social justice, which is valued at Brandeis. “[My parents] were very comfortable and part of the liberal Jewish middle class—very much opposed to apartheid and believed that they were doing what they could to alleviate the difficult situation of Africans in South Africa … but to us, at least when I became politically aware, this seemed merely a form of paternalism,” Polonsky said.

Polonksy therefore became involved in his university’s leftist opposition. Fortunately, he had already left for England in the late 1960s on a Rhodes scholarship when a member of his group was arrested.

The young man gave the names of most of the people associated with that group un-

der pressure from the police. While several of his associates had subsequently received prison sentences back in South Africa, Polonsky was earning his second undergraduate degree at Oxford University.

Nevertheless, Polonsky’s upbringing in South Africa still had a hold on him and he became interested in studying the history of fascist Germany since, in his opinion, he had come from a fascist country. This interest eventually brought him to Poland, where he became involved in the opposition to communism.

Polonsky’s interest in Polish-Jewish history was largely influenced by the defeat of the first solidarity of Poland in 1981. Many of Polonksy’s colleagues felt one of the reasons why the solidarity had failed was because they hadn’t made an adequate reckoning with the anti-Semitic and chauvinist past of Poland.

“I knew the Jewish languages and had a religious education in South Africa, so when people said we should be looking at these Jewish issues and [asked if I had] contacts in the Jewish world, I did.”

This marked the beginning of serious research on the history of Jews in Poland. Polonsky became the chief editor of “Polin,” a journal focused on studies in Polish Jewry.

Its 24th volume will be launched in London’s Polish Embassy this December.

Throughout the course of his research, Polonsky has received a number of awards and honors, including the Knight’s Cross and Officer’s Cross from Poland, the Officer’s Cross from Lithuania and an honorary doctorate from the University of Warsaw.

Each award honors Polonsky’s contribution to Polish-Jewish and Lithuanian-Jewish studies. He is also to receive the Kulczycki Prize for the best work in any area of Polish studies.

Although Polonsky’s awards are numer-

ous, he is certainly not one to brag about his accomplishments. When asked how many languages he speaks, he had off-handedly replied “Oh, eight or nine,” as if the ability to speak so many languages is nothing praiseworthy. Nevertheless, Polonsky is still particularly proud of his honorary doctorate from the University of Warsaw and the Kulczycki Prize since both awards are not Jewish decorations. Rather, they are decorations from the Polish academia, thus symbolizing Poland’s understanding that the Jews are part of Polish history.

“These last two are important to me because they are … recognition by the Poles that what I’m doing is important to them, and that is important to me,” Polonsky said.

Before arriving at Brandeis University, Polonsky taught at the London School of Economics. While there, he inquired if he could introduce a course on the Holocaust.

The university’s committee turned his idea down, explaining that it was a Jewish agenda. Thus, it was a feeling of liberation for Polonksy to be able to come to Brandeis and actually teach Holocaust studies.

Polonsky is now on the retirement track at Brandeis, meaning that he only teaches one semester per year. His time at Brandeis, however, has continuously impacted Polonsky’s research.

“I’ve had very good students in all of my courses and everything I’ve written since I’ve been here has benefited from the interaction with students,” Polonsky said.

It is often difficult to imagine a Brandeis professor’s life outside of the Brandeis setting. As Polonsky’s story illustrates, however, our entire learning environment is made up of the incidents which brought each professor here. When students take a course with Polonsky, they are participating in a unique experience which takes root in a childhood upbringing in South Africa.

polonsky’s publications The 24th volume of “Polin” will be launched this December.

photos from internet source

December 2, 2011

FEATURES 11

The Brandeis Hoot

View From the (Very) Top: Andrew Mandel

You Know We’re Right

Reasons for advance roommate agreements

Learning ‘real life’ lessons photo by leah finkelman/the hoot

By Andrew Mandel Special to the Hoot

When I first told my parents that I was considering staying at Brandeis for a fifth year to get my master’s degree in Global Studies, they were very skeptical. They thought I was signing up for another year of crazy parties and drunken shenanigans with my friends. To be honest, a part of me hoped that was for what I was signing up. As a current student, applying to graduate school here was a breeze. My GRE scores were waived (which was good, because I didn’t take the GRE), and it was very easy for me to schedule my interview. It didn’t really feel like I was going to graduate school at all, more like I was opting to extend my undergrad experience.

I could never have predicted how much my life would actually change.

Growing up, my family moved around a lot and, unfortunately, I never really liked many of the places where we lived. Part of the reason that staying at Brandeis was so attractive was because Brandeis feels like more of a home than anywhere else I have lived in the past 12 years.

This also made the prospect of leaving somewhat terrifying.

Even though I am still at Brandeis and it still

feels like home, however, many things are different. After living on campus for four years, I now live in an off-campus apartment, which is a big change in itself. Almost all of my friends from my first year are gone, and I hardly get to see those who are still here. Academically, I am challenged much more than I was as an undergrad. The papers are longer, the readings are denser, and now I am the graduate student leading discussion sections, instead of the student in the back who is doing anything but paying attention. At nine people, the program is also very small, especially when compared to the 200plus community of undergraduate International and Global Studies majors.

All of these differences have positive aspects.

I’ve made some new friends and I’ve become closer with people whom I’ve known from my years as an undergraduate. I’m definitely learning a lot; the fact that I am able to lead a discussion section (barely) for an undergraduate class is a testament to that. Also, the size of the program makes it much more intimate. Even though we’re a really diverse group (the age range is 22 to 32, some of us are single and some of us are married), we’ve become pretty closeknit over the past few months. I don’t really have any comparatively similar undergraduate expe-

rience, but it is something I have enjoyed about my program here.

Staying at Brandeis to do my master’s has had other benefits as well. While it is true that I am spending another year in the same place, this familiarity has really allowed me to be academically engaged. I’m not distracted by a new environment or possessed with the desire to explore my surroundings when I should be doing research for my thesis. I also haven’t needed to worry about making friends, as I have plenty of friends still here. I do appreciate the friends that I have made this year, but it has been nice not to need to worry about building up a whole new social network.

While the first few weeks were filled with annoying “He doesn’t even go here!” jokes, getting my master’s at Brandeis has definitely been the right choice for me. The program is great, and staying in a familiar environment has had many advantages. Next year I might be moving to Japan to teach English, so I think I deserve another year living somewhere that I am comfortable. In many ways, this program is an easier way to transition into the “real” world. Most of my close friends are scattered across the world, meaning I will have one less major adjustment to make when I leave Brandeis.

Emory professor awarded Gittler prize

photo by nafiz “fizz ” ahmed/the hoot

professor awarded Emory University Professor Emerita is awarded the Gittler prize, given for scholarly contributions to cross-cultural relations.

By Debby Brodsky Editor

Emory University Professor Emerita Frances Smith Foster was formally awarded this year’s Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize Tuesday, in Rapaporte Treasure Hall. As a co-recipient of the prize with Stanford University historian Clay-

borne Carson, Foster is an authority on African American family life and slavery narratives, and has published more than a dozen books on her research. Foster is a fellow of the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project at Brandeis, and of the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Religion at Emory Law School, and is a past fellow at Harvard Divinity School and the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at

Harvard University.

The Gittler Prize, created by the late Professor Joseph B. Gittler, recognizes “outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic and/or religious relations,” according to its website. The recipient receives a medal and a cash prize of $25,000 at a reception and lecture on campus.

Dear Leah and Morgan, I have never had any problems with roommates in the past. After the housing lottery left my friends and me with less-than-ideal numbers, we decided to move off campus together.

Everything was great at the beginning of the semester, but as the year has progressed I have been having problems with a couple of my housemates.

I have tried to be as accommodating as possible and have made concession after concession for the last three months and it is getting too be too much.

Recently I proposed a compromise in which the housemates get something they want and I get something I want.

I would move out to end the problem, but even if I could get into university housing I’d still be on the hook for rent through August.

I don’t want to be a source of infinite discord in my house, but I can’t keep being nice and in return treated like a second-class citizen; if even a citizen. Do you have any ideas on how I can resolve stuff peacefully?

Sincerely, Sick, Tired and Fed Up Dear Fed Up, We’re so sorry to hear about your predicament. Living with friends can be difficult, as it is hard to balance friendship with housemate relationships.

Luckily for you, we have a few suggestions for you on how to make things a little better.

Keep an eye out Moving back to campus might seem like a longshot, but it’s not impossible! It’s uncommon, but not unheard of for people to withdraw from housing at the midyear point. It’s always worth keeping an ear to the ground for anyone looking to move off campus, or anyone coming back from abroad whose housing plans fall through.

Talk to them Sit down with your housemates and have a very frank discussion about how you’re feeling.

In order to make sure your feelings are communicated clearly and completely, try to use “I statements” when confronting them.

It’s easy to get emotional and personal in these situations, so be sure to keep your cool and remain rational. Try to keep it from getting too personal, make sure they understand exactly why you’re upset, and that you’re partly to blame for the miscommunications. Even if you don’t think that’s true, you are partly at fault for letting things progress to this point. It also can’t hurt to admit some culpability.

Try Compromise 2.0 Without knowing the details, we can’t tell you why they weren’t willing to take your compromise. After you communicate your concerns to your housemates, try to reach a new compromise. Hopefully, once they know how upset you are, they will be more willing to try to work things out. Remember that compromise is a two-way street, it can never hurt to phrase it in a way that sounds like you’d be giving up way more than they would.

Starting fresh In the future, remember that making agreements and setting boundaries with roommates is incredibly important. Remember that roommate contract your CA made you do your first year? Think that. It’s tough to set boundaries with your friends, but it will benefit you all in the long run. Come up with all of the hypotheticals: how you’ll share and pay for food, how you’ll pay rent and utilities, and, most importantly, how you’ll collect if your friends owe you money.

It’s way easier to establish strict house rules and loosen up as the year progresses than it is to try to establish strict rules when there are none in place.

We hope our suggestions help and that the situation gets better!

Best of luck!

Peace, love and good advice, Leah and Morgan Have questions that you want answered by the lovely ladies of The Hoot? Submit your questions to advice@thebrandeishoot.com or at formspring.me/leahandmorgan! They will be answered by Leah Finkelman ’13, Features Editor, and Morgan Gross ’14, Impressions Editor.

We’re so excited to hear your questions!

12 FEATURES

The Brandeis Hoot

December 2, 2011

This Week Peru TRC uses art to achieve justice, understanding in History

By Jon Ostrowsky

Brandeis

2007 Brandeis Tele-

vision-produced sitcom “Slice and ’Deis” premieres to rave reviews in Golding.

2007 Students hold a

candlelight vigil to commemorate World AIDS day.

Massachusetts

1826 The first steam-

boat passes through the Headley Canal on its way to Vermont.

1867 Charles Dickens

Editor

Former president of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Salomón Lerner Febres said that arts hold the power to help communities heal from the gaping wounds left by systematic human rights abuses, delivering a keynote address Thursday evening at a two-day symposium on justice, violence and the arts organized by the Ethics Center.

“What happened, happened, and there would be no added gain in its occurring again,” Febres said in translated remarks. “What is at issue with theater has less to do with reproduction and more to do with the relation of the meaning of what happened—and with atonement, through a ceremony involving the audience.”

Febres oversaw the Commission’s response in 26 months of proceedings, helping his nation recover from the two decades of violence when armed organizations resorted to terrorist tactics to halt Peru’s return to democracy after more than a decade of military dictatorship. Led by an organization called The Shining Path, or the Communist Party of Peru, and joined by a smaller group called the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, militants murdered 69,000 Peruvians from 1980 to 2000.

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions represent an alternative to international war crime tribunals for nations that suffer from years of mass murder, genocide or systematic human rights abuses. With reconciliation the emphasis

is on healing over revenge. It’s a theory guided by the belief that justice can best be obtained by helping society move forward, enabling families of victims to overcome suffering through recognition of the truth behind in the past and a restoration of dignity.

“Any act of violence constitutes the denial of the identity of its object and as a consequence involves the breaking down of the sufferer. Any violent act entails a depersonalization of the victim, who becomes, suddenly, an object without dignity,” Febres said.

If violence deprives people of dignity, art seeks to restore it by providing a common ground for understanding and truth, Febres said.

“Real theater is the experience of truth

Real theater is the experience of truth through the potent act of exhibiting the symbols that give shape to experience.

– Salomón Lerner Febres through the potent act of exhibiting the symbols that give shape to experience,” he said. “Art, understood thus, is a restoration of truth, and therefore stands in opposition to a contemporary culture which privileges the illusory.”

In Peru, Febres explained the challenge was to provoke discussion that went beyond reporting the facts and allowed people to overcome silence

and through reconciliation, achieve justice.

“We understood immediately that it would not be enough to simply report the facts: that to inform the public by offering volumes of data would be insufficient. We were engaged in a much more complex task, which, if we were to meet our goals, implied the greater mission of reconstructing memory, as a first step toward reparations for damages done and the beginnings of justice,” he said.

The artistic expressions of violence in healing in Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani, Peru’s reenactment of the story, do not attempt “to portray social violence per se in a supposedly concrete way.”

Rather, the goal is to appeal to imaginations and emotions invoked by the violence and communication “symbols through which culture is expressed.”

Febres’ lecture was part of the symposium “Just Performance: Enacting Justice in the Wake of Violence” that involved students, professors, and other leading academics and lawyers from the field of international law and justice.

Febres concluded his talk inside the Mandel Center for The Humanities by speaking to the power of art over words, the power of images to fill the gaps that language cannot.

“Art restores meaning in bringing us, as responsible human beings, face to face with the undeniable facts and circumstances. Through this encounter with the undeniable … we are perfecting our moral judgment …” he said.

begins his second American tour at Boston’s Tremont Temple.

United States

1947 “A Streetcar

Named Desire” opens on Broadway, staring 23-year-old Marlon Brando.

2001 Enron files for

bankruptcy and costs investors millions as stock plumets.

World

1135 Henry I of Eng-

land, the first in a long line, dies.

photo by nafiz “fizz ” ahmed/the hoot

Salomón Lerner Febres speaks about how Peru used art as part of its Truth and Reconciliation Commission to help the nation recover from mass killings.

1782 The Treaty of Paris is signed, marking the preliminary peace articles of the Revolutionary War.

Univ looks to expand diversity in both race and class ADMISSIONS, from page 1

dump them in a computer,” Flagel said.

Brandeis balances academic merit with a Brandeis-specific fit, incorporating many personal or leadership skill factors, so even the students at the very last admissions process are never not admitted for sheer inability to pay, but usually for other factors. “There could be a very brilliant racist out there—very brilliant,” Flagel said, “but who would not be a very good fit for Brandeis.”

Being “need-sensitive” does not harm finding the “best possible class,” as Flagel puts it; the actual determination of deciding who is fit to attend Brandeis and is offered admission is both complex—and simple.

While being “just too hard for a computer to do,” Flagel said the applicant pool could be divined by someone “just from meeting and getting to know 20 of our students.” If the average student picked about a third of the applicant pool as fit to attend, they would probably do about as well as the admissions office. Need-sensitivity

does not change the missions of the institution.

Even “need-blind includes self-help,” says Flagel, as it includes student work-study and loans.

What Brandeis’ policy means is that, in order to be able to aid those who do come here, the ability to pay is considered as one factor out of money to make the best class available.

Flagel considers Brandeis a step above truly need-aware schools, because at Brandeis, “If there is a student who truly identifies with the school mission and values he may get in regardless of his ability to pay.”

The issue of becoming more economically diverse and representing a broader portion of the country’s citizens is still on Flagel’s mind. He said that the increased outreach and recruiting will undergo in the coming years should help. “We are doing well on diversity, but not as well as I would like,” he said, “And we lag behind some of our competitors,” citing Emory, GW, Tufts and Brown.

But some of that, he said, is due to lack of aid funds or having a larger pool of students they accept; according to Flagel, for instance, “GW accepts students we wouldn’t even look at.”

The senior vice president said this increases Brandeis’ representativeness, though, in terms of fairly having students of all backgrounds, is important for the university’s famous social justice ethos.

“Having been founded in answer to inequity, in that spirit one should be judged on one’s merit.” Brandeis, by founding ideology, should be serious about diversity “and that includes socioeconomic background,” Flagel said.

The mission now, especially since President Fred Lawrence’s busy first-year efforts to sell the school, is to showcase “what is exceptional here,” he added, and predicted that “we will see a transformation in terms of the expansion of who we are as a brand” as well as celebrity.

“Our brand is excellent, but now nearly as well-known as we ought to be—but most of our competitors are primarily because of their sports teams,” Flagel said ironically. “I love the Judges, but I’m not counting on a Final Four appearance,” he said. In five to 10 years, however, an increase in the Brandeis name-recognition will be “an undisputed outcome,” Flagel declared.

EDITORIALS

December 2, 2011

"To acquire wisdom, one must observe."

Editor-in-Chief Alex Schneider Managing Editors Sean Fabery Yael Katzwer Jon Ostrowsky Senior News Editor Nathan Koskella News Editor Debby Brodsky News Editor Leah Finkelman Features Editor Morgan Gross Impressions Editor Brian Tabakin Sports Editor Candice Bautista Arts, Etc. Editor Alana Blum Hoot Scoops Editor Savannah Pearlman Copy Editor Gordy Stillman Business Editor Steven Wong Graphics Editor Nafiz “Fizz” Ahmed Photography Editor Ingrid Schulte Photography Editor Leah Finkelman Production Editor Emily Stott Layout Editor Suzanna Yu Deputy Copy Editor Destiny D. Aquino Senior Editor

Volume 8 • Issue 25 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

Founded By Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

Mission As the weekly community student newspaper of Brandeis University, The Brandeis Hoot aims to provide our readers with a reliable, accurate and unbiased source of news and information.

Produced entirely by students, The Hoot serves a readership of 6,000 with in-depth news, relevant commentary, sports and coverage of cultural events. Recognizing that better journalism leads to better policy, The Brandeis Hoot is dedicated to the principles of investigative reporting and news analysis. Our mission is to give every community member a voice.

SUBMISSION POLICIES The Brandeis Hoot welcomes letters to the editor on subjects that are of interest to the community. Preference is given to current or former community members and The Hoot reserves the right to edit or reject submissions. The deadline for submitting letters is Wednesday at noon. Please submit letters to letters@ thebrandeishoot.com along with your contact information. Letters should not exceed 500 words. The opinions, columns, cartoons and advertisements printed in The Hoot do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.

STAFF Sam Allen, Rick Alterbaum, Victoria Aronson, Louis Berger, Alex Bernstein, Emily Breitbart, Adam Cohen, Morgan Dashko, Haley Fine, Jeremy Goodman, Edwin Gonzalez, Paula Hoekstra, Adam Hughes, Gabby Katz, Josh Kelly, Samuel Kim, Christina Kolokotroni, Sarah Sue Landau, Arielle Levine, Ariel Madway, Estie Martin, Juliette Martin, Adam Marx, Connor Novy, Anita Palmer, Alex Patch, Lien Phung, Andrew Rauner, Betty Revah, Alexandra Zelle Rettman, Ricky Rosen, Nate Rosenbloom, Imara Roychowdhury, Aaron Sadowsky, Jessica Sashihara, Alex Self, Diane Somlo, Ryan Tierney, Alan Tran, Dana Trismen, Sarah Weber and Linjie Xu

connect phone • (781) 330 - 0051 e-mail • editor@thebrandeishoot.com online • thebrandeishoot.com twitter • twitter.com/thebrandeishoot facebook • facebook.com/thebrandeishoot

Advertising information Advertising in The Brandeis Hoot helps spread your message to our readers across the Brandeis campus, in the Waltham community and beyond through our website.

All campus organizations receive a 25 percent discount off our regular prices. We also design basic ads for campus organizations free of charge.

To reserve your space in the paper, contact us by phone at (781) 330 - 0051 or by e-mail at ads@thebrandeishoot.com.

I

The Brandeis Hoot 13

Renew dialogue with Waltham

t’s time for President Fred Lawrence to meet Waltham’s mayor.

In an interview this week with The Hoot, Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy, who was just elected to a third term, said that, although she attended Lawrence’s inauguration last spring, she has not yet met with Lawrence in an official capacity.

That’s a pretty big problem. As a part of Waltham, Brandeis has a responsibility to give back to the community and McCarthy has some big ideas that Lawrence and the rest of the Brandeis community would do well to consider.

“I have a lot of kids that might never get to go to college. … Those are the type of things that I can’t quantify with a financial value but I would quantify those with a social value. I want to know

what [Brandeis is] doing now.”

McCarthy explained that the recent financial crisis has meant that Brandeis is not as involved as it was in the past.

“They are involved with the students but they are not as involved financially,” she said.

In comparison, Bentley University, also in Waltham, has given more in “cash donations” to the city than Brandeis. McCarthy would like to see that change.

But the first step is for both sides to sit down and, as McCarthy suggested, outline both the realities of the WalthamBrandeis relationship and how Brandeis can be more involved in the community.

Our community has a real stake in Waltham’s plans.

McCarthy detailed ideas for a

Waltham transportation system run on clean energy and for making streets safer through improvements in lighting for students walking at night. When speaking with Hoot staff, she was receptive to incorporating student ideas into her policy plans for the coming term. At the same time, however, she made clear that lines of communication between Brandeis and her office ought to remain open. “[Brandeis] is a worldwide international university, but it’s a university within the … community,” McCarthy said. “I think they should do more.”

It’s about time for Lawrence to pick up the phone, dial 781-314-3100 and begin discussions with McCarthy and, by extension, the greater Waltham community.

Trustees should strive to connect with students

N

ext week the board of trustees will gather at Brandeis to discuss the strategic vision of Brandeis but most integral community members—the vast majority of students—often don’t get to know trustees. It is a sad thing and it represents a larger problem. How many trustees do students know? Do most even know Chairman Mal Sherman? Did students know before her unfortunate passing that Myra Kraft, prodigious philanthropist and co-owner of the New England Patriots, was integral to Brandeis’ direction and mission?

This board strongly feels that trustees should be more present on campus—more visible, more in touch with students and involved more than just behind the scenes.

Trustees should, like President Fred Lawrence, attend campus events. A basketball game, theater productions, student forums or even more speaker events. As Lawrence should be applauded for his attendance at student events, the trustees should be encouraged to follow his example.

The board of trustees, of course, is heavily involved with everything at the

university to a greater extent, likely, than most students realize: They approve each and every curriculum chance, hiring decision and of course guide the allocation of tuition dollars.

So they should be not simply more accountable and invite some students onto their committees—but be visible among their “constituents.”

And now would be a great time to start—the board of trustees is having their next meeting next week. Now, guess how many students knew that?

Perhaps that number could be improved next time.

sports

14 The Brandeis Hoot

December 2, 2011

Slow starts continue to plague Judges

photo by nafiz “fizz ” ahmed/the hoot

By Brian Tabakin Editor

Behind an explosive first-half performance and a strong effort from their bench players, Clark University thrashed the visiting Brandeis Judges 74-55 in a non-UAA conference matchup this past Tuesday.

The loss snaps the Judges’ sevengame winning streak against Clark, which started in the 2001-02 season.

The loss also denied Clark University alum Brian Meehan, the Judges’ head coach, his 300th career win.

The two teams were evenly matched for the first five minutes of play with the score knotted at 10-10. The Cougars proceeded to go on a 16-6 run

over the next nine minutes, however, to take complete control of the game.

The scoring binge included threepointers from junior guard John Karas and senior guard Travis Curley, as well as a pair of transition layups from senior forward Brian Vayda.

The Judges staved off some of the Cougars’ momentum with the long ball as guard Derek Retos ’14 drained three from beyond the arc in the first half with the last one cutting the Clark lead to 41-33 with less than a minute remaining in the first half.

Senior Mitch Renshaw scored four more points in the first half, however, to push the Cougar’s lead to 12 at 4533.

The Cougars further increased their

lead to 50-35 in the opening moments of the second half after Curley scored, stealing the ball and knocking down a three-pointer just two minutes into the second half.

The Judges cut the deficit back to 12 at 50-38 after an and-1 by forward Alex Schmidt ’14 with a little less than 15 minutes remaining in the game; however, the Cougars put the game away after a dunk from senior forward D.J. Bailey increased their lead to 20. Bailey slammed it down after an excellent pass from senior guard Drew Billington. Bailey was fouled going down with the ball and subsequently converted the free throw to put the Cougars ahead 70-50 with 4:38 left in the contest.

Clark shot a sensational 67 percent from the field in the first half (18of-27) and finished the game at 52 percent (29-of-56), while the Judges made just 51 percent of their shots for the game (22-for-43). The Cougars had a season-high 20 assists on their 29 baskets with Billington dishing out a career-high nine. Perhaps the biggest difference of the game was the play of each team’s bench.

Clark’s bench outscored the Brandeis reserves 34-8. The Cougars also converted 14 Brandeis turnovers into 15 points.

Curley finished the game with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting and Renshaw added a season-best 14 points off the bench while Bailey rounded out the Cougar players in double digits with 13 points in just 16 minutes of play. For the first time all season, Vayda did not reach double figures; however, he stuffed the stat sheet with nine points, a game-high eight rebounds, four assists and four steals in 25 minutes of play.

Retos led Brandeis with 17 points including a 4-of-7 performance from downtown. Forward Ishmael Kalilou ’15 finished with a career-best 11 points in his first collegiate start while center Youri Dascy ’14 added 10 points, four rebounds and two blocks.

Earlier in the week, the Judges fell to visiting Rhode Island College 6150 as the Judges committed an astounding 26 turnovers, a season-high.

Retos scored a game-high 18 points with nine coming in each half. Retos hit 6-of-12 from downtown and is now shooting a sensational 52.4 percent from downtown on the season.

Forward Vytas Kriskus ’12 added eight points of the bench. The Judges finished with a 35-32 advantage on the boards with 10 coming from Dascy and nine from Schmidt.

Rhode Island College had three different players in double figures.

Senior forward Mason Choice led the Anchormen with 14 points, eight of which came in the first half while junior guard Tahrike Carter added 12 points and senior center Mike Akinrola chipped in 10 points and a teamhigh eight rebounds off of the bench.

While forcing Brandeis into 26 turnovers, the Anchormen only committed nine turnovers en route to a 29-4 advantage in points off of turnovers. Rhode Island College also held the advantage on the offensive glass, 17-10, and turned the second chances into 18 points compared to just five for the Judges.

The two teams played a competitive game for the first 10 minutes of play with Rhode Island College ahead just one, 13-12, at the 10:27 mark.

The Anchormen, however, would

go on their first big run of the game outscoring Brandeis 15-3 in the next six and a half minutes. Choice had six points for the Anchormen during the run while sophomore guard Avery King chipped in five as the visitors held Brandeis to 1-of-5 shooting, with five turnovers during the run.

With the lead at 28-15 and 3:52 remaining in the first half, the Judges went on a mini-run to cut the lead to 10, 35-25, after center Wouter van der Eng ’13 put back a missed shot just before the buzzer.

Rhode Island College pushed the lead back to 12 at the start of the second half after a basket from Choice; however, Brandeis then made its best run of the game. The Judges went on a 13-2 run during the next five minutes of play that included two more three-pointers from Retos and a pair of buckets from guard Tyrone Hughes ’12 to cut the Clark lead to 39-36 with 14:40 remaining in the game. Akinrola scored for the Anchormen out of a timeout and the visitors twice pushed their lead back up to six. Facing a 4741 deficit, the Judges scored the next five points, with three coming from guard Ruben Kanya ’14 after he was fouled on a three-point attempt and two coming off of a Kriskus jumper, thereby pulling the Judges within one with 8:57 left in the game. The Judges were unable to sustain further offensive success, however, as the Anchormen closed the game on a 14-4 run.

The Judges didn’t help their cause, committing six turnovers and allowing the visitors to grab six offensive rebounds down the stretch.

The Judges will return to action Saturday when they visit Salem State for a 3 p.m. matchup in the third annual New England Big Four challenge. Meehan will once again go for win number 300 against the team he coached for his first 160 wins.

Men’s basketball Team

UAA

All

Emory

0–0

6–0

NYU

0–0

3–0

Rochester

0–0

5–1

Chicago

0–0

4–2

Case Western

0–0

3–2

Washington

0–0

3–2

Carnegie Mellon

0–0

3–3

Brandeis

0–0

2–4

Box Scores Rhode Island College

Loss

61 – 50

@ Clark

Loss

74 – 55

Poor shooting drops women’s basketball to 3-4

By Brian Tabakin Editor

In a non-conference matchup, Emmanuel College defeated visiting Brandeis University 55-43. Junior forward Fiona O’Dwyer led the Saints to victory with a game-high 26 points and 13 rebounds. With the loss the Judges drop to 3-4 on the young season.

The Saints played spectacular defense early in the game, holding the Judges scoreless for the first five minutes of play while building a 7-0 lead behind back-to-back jumpers from O’Dwyer. The early lead forced the Judges to take a 30-second timeout with 14:39 remaining in the first half.

After the timeout Emmanuel College pushed their lead to 10-0 on a free throw from senior guard Meghan Kirwan and a jumper from rookie guard Britni Mikulanecz. While the

Saints couldn’t miss a shot, the Judges couldn’t buy a basket. The Judges finally got on the scoreboard seven and a half minutes into the game with a single free throw from guard Kelly Ethier ’12.

The Saints continued to shut down the Judges’ offense completely, limiting them to an embarrassing 0-of-17 shooting, causing Brandeis to call a full timeout, trailing 14-1, with 10 minutes left in the first half. Immediately out of the time out, guard Hannah Cain ’15 drove to the basket to give the Judges their first field goal of the game.

Following Cain’s basket, Emmanuel stretched their lead to 22-3 with a three-pointer from the top of the key by junior guard Laura Benvenuto with five minutes remaining in the first half; however, the Judges responded with consecutive three-balls from guard Diana Cincotta ’12 to cut

the deficit to 23-9 with 4:08 left to play in the half.

The Judges ended the half on a 6-2 run to go into the locker room trailing 25-15. While the Saints committed 17 first-half turnovers, usually a recipe for disaster, they held Brandeis to just 15.2 percent (5-33), shooting in the first half and out-rebounded the Judges 31-18. O’Dwyer paced the Saints with eight points and seven rebounds in the first half, while Cincotta and forward Samantha Anderson ’13 each scored six points for Brandeis.

The Judges opened the second half on a 9-4 run behind two baskets from forward Shannon Hassan ’12 and a three-pointer and two free throws from Ethier to pull the Judges within five points at 29-24 less than five minutes into the second half; however, the Saints quickly responded with an 8-0 run of their own to push their

lead back to 13, 37-24, with 12:44 left in the contest. The Judges’ backcourt had trouble dealing with the Saints’ full-court pressure as Emmanuel College forced the Judges into five turnovers in the opening minutes of the second half.

O’Dwyer grabbed her 10th rebound just 10 minutes into the second half, recording a double-double with 10 minutes left to play in the game. With a little less than six minutes remaining in the match, a jumper by Ethier pulled the Judges within eight, 45-37.

Unfortunately, Brandeis could not muster any further offensive success as the Saints used their pressure defense to hold the Judges to just three points over the next four minutes of play. Trailing 50-40 with 1:30 left in the game, Brandeis was unable to rally for the victory as O’Dwyer and rookie forward Lena Negri made clutch free throws down the stretch as

the Saints defeated the Judges 55-43.

O’Dwyer’s game-high 26 points came on 11-of-21 shooting and 4-of4 shooting from the free throw line.

Negri finished one point shy of a double-double with nine points and a season-high 13 boards. Sophomore center Victoria Johnson chipped in with seven rebounds to help the Saints overpower the Judges on the glass, 59-44.

Both teams struggled from the charity stripe with Emmanuel shooting 50 percent (11-of-22) and the Judges shooting 45 percent (9-of-20).

Brandeis finished the game shooting 23.1 percent (15-of-65). Hassan helped boost the Judges’ field goal percentage behind her 5-of-6 performance. Hassan led the Judges with 14 points and eight rebounds while See BASKETBALL, page 15

December 2, 2011

The Brandeis Hoot

Quidditch caps season with club sport membership

By Gordy Stillman Editor

It should come as no surprise that Brandeis, a school with a castle as a housing option, has a Quidditch team. For those who do not know what Quidditch is, it’s a sport made famous by the “Harry Potter” series.

In the real world, Quidditch is “the fastest growing sport among colleges,” according to club leader Harrison Goldspiel ’13. Muggle Quidditch has a few differences compared to the version played in the worldfamous books and movies. Since flying brooms don’t exist, players have to navigate the field holding their brooms between their legs. Since bludgers cannot fly around on their own, beaters carry them. In addition, getting hit by a bludger forces players to run to their goalposts before returning to the game. Another key change is that catching the snitch, which is a tennis ball usually wrapped in a sock and tied to a neutral runner, is worth only 30 points, thus prevent-

ing matches from becoming dependent on who catches the snitch.

This semester the Brandeis Wizengamot had numerous intercollegiate matches for the first time since being founded in the spring of 2010.

The Wizengamot has faced Emerson, Tufts and Wellesley and got to play at Boston Commons. Part of the Wizengamot’s success and increased number of matches this season was thanks to “a consistent group of people including [both] veterans and [firstyears],” said Theresa Fuller ’13.

The biggest event of the fall season amounted to participating in the fifth International Quidditch Association (IQA) World Cup in New York. Fuller called it “one of the first team-bonding experiences that everyone will always remember.” Goldspiel added that it felt good to be “one of the schools that’s a part of this growing movement.” The whole experience was described by Fuller as “magical.”

Aside from playing the game and bonding as a team, the World Cup was also a chance to connect with

other teams to try to make plans for future matches. For example, the Wizengamot hope to attend the Flurrious Festival Cup in Buffalo, NY, the SBU Northeast tournament in Stonybrook.

One of the big things that will help the Wizengamot attend tournaments is its new status as a club sport. After meeting with Ben White, the recreation and aquatics director, the club

photo courtesy of brandeis quidditch

had to show what Fuller listed as “intercollegiate competition, longevity [and] interest” to the Club Sports Council (CSC). White described the CSC as “a seven-member group of club sports leaders voted upon by each club. They’re responsible for new club acceptance, budgets, policies, discipline, etc.” After a presentation to the council, demonstrating Quidditch’s qualifications, the council

Ethier added 10 points and Anderson chipped in 12 rebounds.

Earlier in the week, the Judges fell to visiting Tufts University 59-44. Senior forward Kate Barnosky led the Jumbos with a game-high 17 points while Anderson led the Judges with a career-high 13 points to go along with five rebounds and a block.

The first half was an extremely competitive contest, with both teams going on scoring runs. The Judges opened the game on a 6-0 run but the Jumbos then quickly responded with a 9-2 run of their own giving the Jumbos a 9-8 lead with 12:43 remaining in the half. The rest of the first half continued to go back and forth

with two ties and seven lead changes.

Guard Morgan Kendrew ’12 pulled Brandeis within two, 22-20, with 2:14 left in the first half; however, the Jumbos finished the half on a 5-0 run to take a 27-20 lead into the break.

The Jumbos further padded their lead with a 5-0 run to open the second half. The Judges cut the deficit to four points with 9:02 remaining in the game when Anderson finished off a 6-0 run with a spectacular drive to the basket down the middle of the lane; however, Tufts did not ease up and clutch three-pointers and free throws from sophomore guard Caitlin McClure, junior guard Collier Clegg and rookie guard Kelsey Morehead allowed the Jumbos to pull away from the Judges and secure the victory.

Cain was the second-leading scorer, behind Anderson, with a careertying 10 points along with two assists, a block and six rebounds, while Ethier also chipped in six rebounds, four points, two assists, a block and a steal.

McClure was the second-leading scorer for the Jumbos, behind Barnosky, with 12 points including 2-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc to go along with two steals and two rebounds. Senior guard Tiffany Kornegay chipped in three assists in addition to a team-high six rebounds, while Morehead chipped in with five rebounds and three steals.

Brandeis returns home on Saturday to take on Daniel Webster College at 1 p.m.

Return of the NBA: lockout is over

By Brian Tabakin Editor

A little past 3 a.m. on Nov. 26, after 15 straight hours of negotiations, the NBA and its players finally resolved their differences and agreed on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), thus ending the nearly fivemonth lockout.

The new agreement will allow teams to open training camps, sign and contact players, and make trades. There will be just two preseason games this year between geographically close teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers with each team getting one home game.

Finally, after the two preseason games the regular season will open with five games on Christmas Day. The new CBA will make Big-Threes such as Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett nearly impossible for teams to have. The new CBA has a salary cap of about $58 million and, while there is no hard cap preventing teams from spending above this cap, there is a punitive luxury tax system now in place.

In the previous CBA, for every dol-

Brandeis fencing dominates at meet

By Louis Berger Staff

Both men’s and women’s fencing gave strong performances at the Northeast Fencing Conference meet at the University of New

lar a team spent over the luxury tax, they paid $1; however, in the new CBA teams will pay an incremental luxury tax for every $5 million they spend over the luxury tax ($1.50, $1.75, $2.50, etc.) and teams that repeatedly spend over the luxury tax will face a harsher tax per dollar over ($2.50, $2.75, $3.50, etc.).

This new system will severely limit the abilities of teams such as the Knicks, Heat, Celtics, Lakers and Mavericks from attracting high-profile free agents and building super-teams. For example, according to Larry Coon of ESPN.com, the Lakers’ tax bill in 2011 was $19.9 million.

Under the new CBA, being that far over the tax would cost them $44.68 million and if they repeatedly went over the tax (being over for four out of five years), they would owe $64.58 million.

This new system would make it almost impossible for the Miami Heat to maintain all three of their superstars down the road. Similarly, it will make it extremely hard for the Knicks to keep their own Big Three of Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. Consider this, next year the Knicks will have roughly $40 Hampshire on Nov. 19. Both teams beat Boston University, UMass and University of New Hampshire. The women’s team beat Wellesley College and fell to Sacred Heart and MIT. The men defeated MIT but fell to Sacred Heart.

The men’s team was led by strong performances from saber Adam Mandel ’15, who went 11-0, and foil Julian Cardillo ’14, who was 14-1 for the day. Alex Powell ’12 led the epee

million devoted to just Anthony and Stoudemire. That would leave them just $18 million to sign 13 players before going over the luxury tax, thus making it nearly impossible to sign another super-star such as Paul and still fill out their roster.

While the new system looks like it will allow small-market teams to compete with large-market teams in principle, this will probably not be the case. Major-market teams like the Lakers and Celtics have multi-billion dollar TV deals that will significantly lessen the financial impact that will result from being over the luxury tax.

Though the NBA may be back, the new CBA has an opt-out clause for both sides in 2017. As fans, we can enjoy the NBA for at least six years but, once the calendar hits 2017, prepare for labor war all over again.

The NBA and players may say all the differences have been resolved, but this entire process was just one small battle in a giant labor war. This new CBA may look good on paper, but it will only result in business as usual, with big-market teams using the revenue from their TV deals to continue to outspend their small-market counterparts. squad with a 9-3 record.

The women had standout performances by foil Vikki Nunley ’13, who went 16-1, saber Zoe Messinger ’13, who went 14-3, and epee Kristen Ha ’14, who went 13-5.

The Judges will resume competition Dec. 4 at the 2011 Brandeis Invitational, starting at 9 a.m. in the Gosman Athletic Center. Brandeis will face teams from Brown, Yale, St. Johns and Cornell at the event.

voted 6-0 (one member was absent) to admit the Wizengamot to the club sports program. White added “both the council and I were very impressed with the leadership of the club, particularly such a young club on campus, and we expect that Quidditch will be an excellent addition to the club sports program.”

Being a club sport allows the club to “use the athletics vans. [Now we] don’t need volunteers with cars. [We can] get athletic fields rather than just Chapels [Field],” according to Fuller.

Goldspiel added that, as a club sport, the team will “be able to get more equipment and storage space.” It also adds to the club’s positive image.

Goldspiel mentioned that “becoming a club sport shows the status of Quidditch at Brandeis; it’s real … If anyone still doesn’t believe that Quidditch is a real athletic game, I challenge you to come to practice and play against some of our experienced veterans.”

Cross country brief

By Louis Berger

Women struggle to score consistently BASKETBALL, from page 14

SPORTS 15

Staff

Women’s basketball

Team

UAA

All

Chicago

0–0

5–0

Rochester

0–0

5–0

Emory

0–0

4–1

NYU

0–0

4–1

Washington

0–0

4–1

Case Western

0–0

4–3

Brandeis

0–0

3–4

Carnegie Mellon

0–0

2–4

Box Scores Tufts

Loss

59 – 44

@ Emmanuel

Loss

55 – 33

Kate Warwick ’12 finished 48th out of 277 runners with a time of 21:54:84 at the 2011 NCAA Division III Women’s Cross Country Championships. Warwick missed a top 35 spot by just 12 seconds, which would have gotten her AllAmerican Honors. She ran the six-kilometer race only five seconds behind her career best, which she set a week earlier at regionals.

Warwick finished eighth among University Athletic Association runners and 12th among runners from New England. The Women’s Cross Country Championship took place Nov. 19 at Lake Breeze Golf Club in Wisconsin and was hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.

Judges induct six into hall of fame

By Brian Tabakin Editor

This past week Director of Athletics Sheryl Sousa ’90 and Friends of Brandeis Athletics (FOBA) President Jim Leahy ’85 announced that six athletes will be inducted into the 14th class of the Joseph Linsey Brandeis Athletic Hall of Fame on March 31, 2012, in the Gosman Sports Complex.

Ruther Porter Bernstein ’57 will be admitted in the contributor category.

As a member of the 1956 Hall of Fame women’s basketball team, Bernstein was a pioneer and vigorous advocate for women’s sports at Brandeis.

Harold Warren Zinn ’61 helped found the Brandeis golf team and is still considered one of the best golfers in Brandeis History. He passed away in 1991.

Robert Nayer ’70 was a star scorer and rebounder for the men’s basketball team in the late 1960s and 1970.

At the end of his collegiate career, he was just the seventh Brandeis player to score 1,000 points in his career; he

Gordy’s game guesses: week 13

currently ranks 18th on the all-time scoring list. He still ranks second in all-time rebounds with 993.

William Carpenter ’81 was a star shortshop in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He is still among the Brandeis leaders in six different statistical categories. He was the MVP of the Greater Boston area in his senior year and went on to be drafted by the Boston Red Sox. Geoff Getz ’99 had a sensational career as a middle-distance runner, winning three NCAA Division III championships and twice finishing as the runner-up in the 800-meter race.

He also won five New England AllDivison titles at 800 meters.

Maya Marx ’04 appeared in the NCAA Divison III swimming and diving championships three times in her career and was also a three-time All American in breaststroke. She finished sixth in the nation in her junior year. She also won two UAA championships and was a nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year as a senior.

Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Bucaneers Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers Atlanta Falcons at Houston Texans New York Jets at Washington Redskins Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots Oakland Raiders at Miami Dolphins Denver Broncos at Minnesota Vikings Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Bills Kansas City Chiefs at Chicago Bears Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland Browns Dallas Cowboys at Arizona Cardinals Green Bay Packers at New York Giants Detroit Lions at Chicago Bears St. Louis Rams at San Francisco 49ers Detroit Lions at New Orleans Saints San Diego Chargers at Jacksonville Jaguars Last week’s record: 9-4 2011 season’s record: 90-52

Arts, etc.

16 The Brandeis Hoot

December 2, 2011

Kermit and company mark magical return with ‘Muppets’

By Sean Fabery Editor

If you’re anything like me or my friends, a certain wave of nostalgia accompanied the first trailer released for “The Muppets,” which finally premiered last week. After all, the Muppets themselves have been largely absent this last decade, with their last big screen venture now 12 years in the past. Needless to say, I had high expectations when I arrived for a midnight screening of the film. Luckily, the movie turned out to be everything I hoped it would be.

“The Muppets” is itself a profoundly nostalgic film. Two brothers, Gary (Jason Segel) and Walter (Peter Linz), share a house in Smalltown. They’re best friends, but Walter is a muppet and consequently feels a little left out—until he discovers “The Muppet Show” as a child. When Gary decides to take his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) to California for their anniversary, he invites Walter along so he can finally see the fabled Muppet Studios.

There’s only one problem: The Muppets have long been disbanded, with their studios now in rapid decline and visited only by the occasional Asian tourist. Even worse, wealthy oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) has just bought the studio and plans to demolish it. Inconsolable, Walter tracks down Kermit with Gary and Mary’s help, and together they hatch a scheme to reunite the Muppets so they can stage one more show—a telethon—to save the theater.

Of course, it’s not that simple. After reuniting, the Muppets must first convince a television executive (Rashida Jones) that they are still relevant; meanwhile, Tex schemes to ruin the telethon and replace the Muppets with his own cheap knock-offs, the

photo from internet source

a muppety man Jason Segel stars in “The Muppets,” for which he also wrote the script. The film also features (from left) Beaker, Kermit the Frog, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Sweetums and Miss Piggy.

Moopets.

“The Muppets” perfectly recreates the spirit of past entries in the franchise. That classic oddball sense of humor with which their creator Jim Henson gifted his creations is still very much there. The Muppets manage to be totally entertaining while still remaining kid-friendly, employing their mix of strong, colorful personalities

with often (intentionally) groan-inducing comedy. There’s also a bit of darkness thrown in for the adults in the audience, which was also present in the past Muppet movies. For instance, when the Muppets meet with the TV executive, she shows them a clip of a hot new reality TV show “Punch Teacher,” in which contestants … punch their teachers. As the

camera shows the Muppets’ horrified reaction, you can hear a weak voice coming from the TV: “I just wanted to make a difference!”

With so many Muppets and relatively little time, the film does a great job of spreading material among the large cast. As always, Kermit serves as the sensible, level-headed ringleader who makes sure the telethon makes it

to the air. Miss Piggy, unsurprisingly, indulges her diva sensibility while alternately pining for Kermit; prior to their reunion, the odd couple had been separated for many years, with Piggy serving as the editor of French Vogue. Gonzo, Fozzie, Rowlf, Swedish Chef, Beaker and Animal get their See MUPPETS, page 19

‘MELA’ brings night of South Asian dance

By Dana Trismen Staff

MELA 2011 was by far the most well-attended event I have seen this semester at Brandeis. I arrived a halfhour early and still had trouble getting seats. People were there to support their friends and were enthusiastic all night long; people were truly invested in the performances. For those who are unaware, MELA is an annual production produced by the South Asian Students’ Association. It is a joyous celebration of the eight nations that compose South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

This year, MELA’s theme was “Pehchaan,” which means “identity.”

MELA aims to show others what it means to be associated with South Asian culture. This includes students born in South Asian countries, those whose parents were born in the region and those who simply associate themselves with the culture. It’s truly a labor of love, involving a large amount of effort; everyone, especially the executive board, puts in countless hours to make the show a success.

MELA itself is composed of a variety of events. Although a bulk of the show consisted of cultural dance numbers, there were also spoken word readings, a fashion show and instrumental performances. The dance numbers were fascinating mainly because they incorporated multiple styles of dance, with performances including aspects of classical dance with hip-hop. I was impressed with the choreography, especially in numbers like the Sophomore Dance. There were so many students performing that it was amazing

mela melee A bellydancing group performs at MELA 2011: Pehchaan.

they all fit on stage. Though the hiphop aspects of the dances were interesting, I enjoyed the classical parts of the dances as well. There is something enthralling about the costumes, colors, bell sounds and arm movements in South Asian dance. The very movement is graceful and is only amplified by the brilliant colors of the costumes.

A very touching performance came from Dean Jamele Adams and Usman Hameedi ’12. This spoken-word piece answered the question of which topics would be discussed if Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi ever met. Adams is famous around campus for the

workshop he runs during Orientation titled “This is Our House.” A fan of his diversity workshop, I was not disappointed by his performance here.

These two powerhouses of the spoken word gave me chills, especially when they spoke in unison about culture and the world today.

One of the dance numbers with which I was most impressed was performed by Chak de ’Deis, a Bollywood fusion dance team incorporating Bollywood, Bhangra and hip-hop. This group consists of an equal number of men and women, and involved a good amount of dancing in pairs but also

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

many hip-hop moves. I was impressed with their poise, as well as by how professional they were.

The fashion show, choreographed

by Natasha Qidwai ’14, was another highlight of the night. Though I normally find gazing at people modeling clothes boring, this was different. For one thing, South Asian clothes are beautiful: They come in a wide pallet of colors and flow smoothly over the body. This fashion show was particularly entertaining because each person was given a pose to enact once they finished walking across the stage.

These poses were adorable and usually

involved the other person modeling at the same time. I loved the atmosphere of play while also displaying the culture of South Asia through clothing.

This year, the money raised from MELA—tickets were $5 apiece—went to the organization Empower Dalit Women of Nepal (EDWON). A short PowerPoint presentation was made about this charity. EDWON believes the main hope to bring countries out of poverty and to revive whole communities is empowering women. It raises the standards of life for women in Nepal through literary training, support groups, women’s savings groups and formal education for lowcaste children. EDWON has seen results: Literacy rates are rising and women are taking more active positions in their communities. This is a trend that hopefully will continue through the funds donated from MELA. The educational part of MELA was an unexpected but enjoyable aspect of the show. During the years, MELA has become more informative for students. A non-South Asian myself, I appreciated the slides that were shown about the different countries and the styles of dance through which South Asians express themselves. I loved the fusion of culture and dance, and felt as though they were sharing their traditions with me as the viewer. I truly felt the passion these students feel about their country and it inspired me to want to learn more about their culture. Though I am not South-Asian, I am considering participating in MELA next year—it seems like an amazing opportunity to bond with fellow Brandeisians and learn about different cultures.

December 2, 2011

The Brandeis Hoot

‘Ballyhoo’ a ball of a good time

By Yael Katzwer Editor

“Dreams don’t last four hours.”

These were the words uttered by Beulah Levy (Joanna Nix ’14) after her daughter, Lala (Jacquelyn Drozdow ’15), hails the newly premiered “Gone with the Wind” as a dream. “The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” presented by Hillel Theater Group (HTG) on the weekend before Thanksgiving, was not a dream but, at about two hours, was pretty close.

“The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” written by Alfred Uhry, who also wrote the acclaimed “Driving Miss Daisy,” follows the Freitag and Levy family in the last two weeks of 1939. The family lives together in a house in Atlanta, Ga., struggling to find their place as the only wealthy Jewish family on their street. The play’s drama revolves around Ballyhoo, an annual dance that the local Jewish country club holds to which the two young ladies of the play wish to go.

Lala wants her uncle’s young business protege, Joe Farkas (Ryan Kacani ’15), to ask her but he quickly gains affection for Lala’s cousin, Sunny Freitag (Viktoria Lange ’13), and asks her to the dance.

Through each character’s focus on Ballyhoo, the true themes of “Ballyhoo” emerge. “Ballyhoo” is about Jewish assimilation into Southern Christian culture and the intolerance between different groups of Jews, an apt play for HTG to perform.

The Freitag and Levy family have become so assimilated into Southern culture that they decorate a Christmas tree in their front parlor and know next to nothing about Jewish holidays.

Joe, who was raised as a proud Jew in New York, tries to engage them in discussions about what he considers to be their Jewish anti-Semitism but is often overlooked because he is “the other kind of Jew.” The family draws a distinction between themselves, wealthy Jews of

German ancestry, and the other kind, Joe’s kind, the Russian Jews. While they see the Russian Jews as inferior, they are also forced to consider their own heritage in one brief scene in which Adolph Freitag (Ben Miller ’15) reads about the impending European War. I wish this scene had been expanded.

The set of “Ballyhoo,” like most Brandeis-production sets, was flawless. The stage was made to look like the Freitag and Levy family’s front parlor and kitchen and director Helena Raffel ’14 made great use of the space as she had the actors exiting the stage into different parts of the house and occasionally calling out things from off-stage.

The clear stand-out of “Ballyhoo” was Joanna Nix who imbued Beulah with a certain snobbish vigor while maintaining a sympathetic air. Although Beulah is one of the worst offenders when it comes to “Jew-hating” despite her Jewish status, it is impossible not to like her. The widowed Beulah tries to reign in her daughter’s fancies to give her daughter a good life despite her own bitterness.

Nix’s accent was subtle yet rang true; some of the accents in the show were a bit too emphatic and detracted from the dialogue. The small frown gracing Nix’s face every time she said something sarcastic or scolded a family member really brought Beulah to life.

A close second to Nix’s performance was that of Viktoria Lange as Sunny. Lange’s accent was understated as well and she brought a sweetness to her character despite some of the ignorant things she uttered. Lange’s shining moment was an argument between herself and her cousin, Drozdow’s Lala. The cousins are polar opposites: Lala is flighty and superficial while Sunny is intelligent and aspiring; Lala is forceful while Sunny is shy.

In the argument, Lala accuses Sunny of trying to get all the attention at Lala’s father’s funeral years earlier, even though Sunny had gotten all the

attention at her own father’s funeral just three months previously. Lala claims this is Sunny’s modus operandi, always stealing Lala’s thunder.

This scene was Drozdow’s best moment in the show. In most scenes, her overzealous accent was a bit grating and her character was just incredibly annoying, a problem with the character, not the actress. In this scene, however, Drozdow forces the audience to empathize with Lala and we really understand her neuroses and her obsession with Ballyhoo.

Ben Miller was spectacular. His Adolph was understated and had great comedic timing. His few serious scenes were well done but he truly shone when delivering his one-liners.

While the four actors mentioned above were very good, they were forced to carry the show for their three remaining cast members. While Ryan Kacani was not bad, he was not particularly good either. He seemed very uncomfortable with his body, sitting oddly and leaning on things stiffly, and he only seemed to have two expressions: thoughtful and confused.

Still, he was better than Sarah Pace ’13 who was so over-the-top in her portrayal of Reba Freitag that her every line was painful. Her accent was fine but the falsetto voice she accompanied it with was irritating and detracted from what otherwise would have been a fine performance.

And the worst was John Seale ’15 as Sylvan “Peachy” Weil. His accent was atrocious, each line fell flatly and he just destroyed every scene in which he appeared. Luckily, he was in very little of the show.

Despite the misstep in casting Pace and Seale, the show was very good and the other actors performed admirably. While I disliked the show’s ending, that is a complaint against the playwright, not the show.

All in all, “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” was well done and I left the theater impressed both by the show chosen and the manner in which it was presented.

photos by nafiz “fizz ” ahmed/the hoot eye on the ‘ballyhoo’ Clockwise from top, Adolph (Ben Miller), Sunny (Viktoria Lange) and Reba (Sarah Pace) have a discussion; Joe

(Ryan Kacani) flirts with Sunny at a train station; Beulah ( Joanna Nix) encourages her daughter Lala ( Jacquelyn Drozdow) in a call to a boy; Adolph, Joe and Peachy ( John Seale) wait for the girls to go to the dance.

ARTS, ETC. 17

18 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

December 2, 2011

Original ‘Halo’ remains a classic 10 years later

By Gordy Stillman Editor

A little more than 10 years ago, Microsoft entered the video game console world with the Xbox. It had few launch games and might have sold OK had it not been for “Halo: Combat Evolved,” which became a must-have game that drove console sales. Since then, it has spawned a trilogy, prequel and expansion game, and even moved from the realm of video games to books, videos and, at one time, a planned Hollywood movie. In order to inspire interest in the upcoming “Halo 4,” planned to be the start of a new trilogy, Microsoft recently re-released “Halo” in order to introduce gamers to the game that started it all.

“Halo” begins with its protagonist, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, waking from a hibernation-like sleep just as a group of alien races, united by a religious faith known as the Covenant, begin attacking his ship. The ship crash-lands on a mysterious ring structure in space, known as Halo, where the Master Chief has to fight off the Covenant and try to survive.

As the two sides engage in guerrilla warfare, the Covenant discovers a secret that was better left buried among the ring’s mysterious secrets.

At its core, this is the same “Halo” that started it all. The levels are the same, the plot is the same, and the weapons and vehicles are the same. But other aspects of the game—namely the graphics, music and multiplayer experience—have been updated to match the rest of the series.

343 Industries, the company Microsoft employs to continue the “Halo” series, has gone through “Halo” and upgraded to high-definition graphics. Every character, structure, map and weapon is now hi-def. While playing the game, I actually forgot the first game was released before the advent of HD gaming.

While I’d never say that HD is worth spending extra money on hi-def TVs or Blu-rays, playing games in HD adds little details that make game-play a more immersing experience.

Furthermore, if you ever want to play the original game without the updated graphics, that’s also possible. With the push of one button, I was back playing the 2001 version of

photo from internet source

i can feel your ‘halo’ The anniversary edition of ‘Halo’ includes new upgrades such as improvements in HD graphics, remastered music and access to new world maps.

the game. It was one of my first, and remains among my favorite, first-person shooters. One of the nicer things about the updated graphics, whether or not you’re playing on an HDTV, is that 343 took the chance to make a few of the maps easier to follow. Several of the maps in the original game were very hard to follow due to dark lighting and the chaotic nature of game-play, especially on higher difficulty levels. With updated graphics, the tough spots have better lighting and the difficulty becomes more about seeing enemies instead of running off the map.

One of the other biggest changes involves the music. While music never makes or breaks a game in my opinion, it was nice that they remastered it for the anniversary release. The music sounds clearer and without a doubt enhances the feel of each level. The soundtrack

still consists of Martin “Marty” O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori’s compositions, but with touch-ups and the help of Skywalker Sound.

These small modifications are slight but still make the soundtrack a shade better. Additionally, there is an option in the main menu that allows the player to switch between the original and remastered music.

Last but not least is the multiplayer aspect.

When “Halo” first came out it featured local multiplayer. While a game of “Halo” with a few friends is fun, it doesn’t hold up to a game of “Slayer,” Capture the Flag or Griffball with full teams. “Halo 2” was one of the first games to utilize Xbox Live for multiplayer gaming and the world hasn’t looked back since. The anniverasry edition of “Halo” features re-mastered versions of Halo’s original levels but with online play using the multiplayer engine from

“Halo: Reach,” the last “Halo” release. Not only is it nice that they continued to use the “Reach” engine and the multiplayer core Bungie (the original “Halo” developers) created, but it is great that “Halo” was brought to the same level as prior games in the series rather than staying a step below the rest of the series. The anniversary “Halo” features a handful of levels from the original game’s multiplayer setting, redone in HD with online multiplayer. Another nice feature is the ability to download the new maps in order to use them with “Halo.”

In the last few years, I finished the fight with “Halo 3” and I watched the human race go on defense in the prequel “Halo: Reach.” With the re-release of the game that started it all, I’m certainly still interested to see what 343 Industries comes up with next year when they release “Halo 4.”

‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’ exceeds expectations

By Juliette Martin Staff

The hype surrounding the latest game in the expansive “Elder Scrolls” series leading up to its Nov. 11 release was of unbelievable proportions. The teasers showed “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” as a truly epic game, with stunning visuals and beautifully designed foes in the form of massive dragons. With so much anticipation, it seemed that “Skyrim” would be hard-pressed to meet the high expectations of its fan base. Bethesda Games, the studio that developed “Skyrim” and its four predecessors, however, took that as a challenge to meet. With the game’s release date having finally arrived, it is clear that “Skyrim” goes above and beyond all expectations, creating a beautiful and immersing world for gamers to get lost in for hours on end. “Skyrim” contains an enormous world full of dragons to fight, ruined cities to explore and impressive storylines in which to engage.

One of the best aspects of the game is the sheer vastness and grandeur of the landscape: The world of Skyrim itself features sprawling mountain ranges, glittering rivers and aweinspiring northern lights over a gorgeous arctic landscape. The graphics are smooth and realistic, allowing the player to disengage easily from the real world and to take in effortlessly such a gorgeous universe. No visual detail is neglected; from the patterns of snow blowing in the wind to the flow of water over riverbed rocks, everything is taken into account.

“Skyrim” follows the story of a character created entirely by the player, with endless physical variations from which to choose. In addition there is an endless freedom in designing a character’s personality as the game plays out.

“Skyrim” presents a completely open game-play format: The player can travel wherever they like over a vast country, following the main storyline if they so choose (it is far from mandatory, something that makes the “Elder Scrolls” series quite unique), or else engaging a slew of other equally long quest lines. The player can even choose not to follow quest lines at all and in-

‘skyrim’ “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” provides open-ended game-play set in a gorgeous, explorable world.

stead spend hours exploring, fighting monsters, discovering treasure in gorgeous caverns and reading the massive amount of books found ingame that reveal the expansive lore of the “Elder Scrolls” universe, which is so vast that most players can only hope to scratch the surface of the history, religions and theories present in this world. I’ve found that the best manner of playing is to do a little bit of everything. Let your attention wander—explore the storylines, spelunk in random caverns, take in bits of lore and wander across a beautiful place that is clearly built to be explored.

The main goal of “Skyrim” is to live the life of whomever the player decides to make their main character: a human, elf or orc. For those not familiar, an orc is a dragon-born prophetic figure with the blood and soul of a dragon. Orcs can speak in dragons’ tongue and are destined to save “Skyrim” from the powerful dragons who have reappeared out of legend to ravage its cities and towns. The player can also choose to follow

separate storylines, involving various guilds and a revolution. One can even choose to be quite villainous, following the plot line of a thief or assassin.

The highest praise I can give “Skyrim” is in its all-encompassing immersion. “Skyrim” allows you to build an entire life, however you please, in a fascinating world that draws you in more and more deeply with its adventure, history and attention to detail.

That said, the game is not without its flaws.

Because of the sheer amount of game-play available to the player in “Skyrim,” the game has been beset with glitches, including crippling lag after the player reaches approximately 20 hours of gameplay on the version of the game for PlayStation 3, which is quite a small amount by “Skyrim” standards. Bethesda has released a patch attempting to deal with this issue, but the lag remains. There are also smaller graphical glitches present, including losses of color and texture that can range from mild annoyances to

photo from internet source

game-breaking problems.

Another issue I encountered was that, though “Skyrim” included romance, a first for the series, it seemed poorly planned and rushed rather than take advantage of the intriguing subplot it could have had. Romance in the “Skyrim” universe consists of finding a character with whom you’re friendly and marrying them. There is no sense of personality or courtship, making the feature seem almost like a last-minute addition.

Furthermore, the list of marriageable characters is woefully homogeneous, with several races left unrepresented.

Despite these problems, “Skyrim” is easily one of the best games I’ve played in a long time, simply because of it’s capacity to pull the player into its world, with an immersing story, a vast area to explore, beautiful scenery and smooth mechanics. It certainly has lived up to the hype surrounding its release and I look forward to spending a great deal more time with it.

December 2, 2011

ARTS, ETC. 19

The Brandeis Hoot

‘Breaking Dawn’ potentially best comedy of 2011

By Candice Bautista Editor

The “Twilight” series has a negative reputation, and for good reason. On the surface, it appears to be somewhat exciting, revolving around a woman’s interaction with an elusive vampire family living among humans. Upon reading the first pages of the novels or watching the first minutes of any of the four films, however, it is quite clear what it is—a teenager’s deliriously hopeless fanfics that somehow ended up becoming best-selling books and high-grossing films, the latest of which is “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.”

I confess that I am part of the reason that “Twilight” is so well known at this point. I have seen each of the movies a week within their release dates, but mostly to enjoy the teenage girls squealing every time Taylor Lautner removes his shirt (which is quite often, faithful to the books) and to wallow in how awful the films are. Needless to say, after watching the first three movies, I was excited and had the lowest expectations for “Breaking Dawn,” but was pleasantly surprised!

In short, “Breaking Dawn” is one of the funniest and most hilarious movies I’ve seen this year.

To recap the “Twilight Saga,” Bella Swan (played by oh-so-pale and oh-so-sulky Kristen Stewart) moves to Forks, Wash., the dullest and dreariest place in the world. She sulks and expects to be as much of an outcast as she has been her entire life but, surprise! Everyone loves her there! They all want to be her friend! That is, everyone but ohso-sparkly Edward Cullen (the awkward Robert Pattinson), the only single member of the Cullen clan. After the longest video montages of ignoring someone, Edward and Bella start dating, and Bella finds out he’s a vampire. Some other stuff happens afterward, though nothing quite as interesting: There are continuous threats to Bella’s life, a game of vampire baseball, a love triangle ensues between the couple and Jacob Black (the continuously shirtless Lautner), and Bella begs to become a vampire.

Now, Bella begging to be a vampire is where the movie becomes interesting. As Bella begs to become immortal, she is also begging for Edward to put out. But Edward, with his Stephanie Meyer/Mormon-inspired morals, refuses to do the dirty unless she marries him first. It is hilarious and silly and, essentially, “Breaking Dawn” is the movie about Bella getting married and becoming a vampire just so her 18-year-old self

photo from internet source

from different worlds In “Breaking Dawn - Part 1,” Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) share many meaningful glances.

can finally get some.

It is this reason and this reason alone why “Breaking Dawn” is so successful. The other films were attempting to be taken seriously as “vampire films” by having constant threats to her life related to Edward being a vampire. With the end of “Eclipse,” however, it appeared that all other threats to her life were momentarily gone, leaving the plot to focus on my favorite part: Edward and Bella’s silly relationship. The fact that “Breaking Dawn” is broken into two movies (a la “Harry Potter”) is a testament to how much ground parts one and two have to cover (in addition to how ridiculous this whole thing is).

In fact, “Breaking Dawn” opens with Edward and Bella’s wedding. How does this differ from any other rom-com that we pretend to hate?

There is some “drama” here involving this indicating the end of her human life and the beginning of an immortal life that possibly involves

‘Muppets’ movie madness MUPPETS, from page 16

own bits in the film.

The new additions for this film also proved worthy additions to the Muppet canon. Rather than taking away time from already established characters, they added something fresh to the film. Both Segel and Adams did well as Walter’s (almost) perennially smiling human companions. Segel, who wrote the film’s screenplay, has the biggest part, but Adams nonetheless made an impact with the kind of cheery persona she previously perfected in 2007’s “Enchanted.”

Cooper’s greedy Texas oilman makes a great villain. He’s just one step away from twirling his non-existent mustache, which worked perfectly—after all, how could anyone threaten the Muppets? The best bit involving Cooper concerned his maniacal laugh—rather than actually laughing, he would simply repeat the words “maniacal laugh” while gleefully looking at his henchmen for approval.

As the only new Muppet, Walter is a great addition to the cast, serving as a kind of audience substitute. He boasts something akin to an awkward, Michael Cera-esque personality; apparently Segel originally envisioned Cera providing his voice.

Of course, no Muppet venture would be complete without at least a few celebrity cameos, considering how steeped in showbiz the Muppets are. Every episode of “The Muppet Show” had a celebrity guest host, and the Muppets’ telethon is no different, with a kidnapped Jack Black performing the honors. As someone who rarely finds Black’s humor funny, he did surprisingly well here.

Perhaps the most unexpected cameo came

in the form of Emily Blunt, who played Miss Piggy’s secretary at Vogue—clearly an allusion to her first big role in “The Devil Wears Prada.” Unfortunately, the movie didn’t try to replicate that character’s acidic delivery, making this particular cameo a little disappointing. Jim Parsons, Neil Patrick Harris and John Krasinski also appear briefly, as do Whoopi Goldberg and, strangely enough, James Carville.

Every Muppet production incorporates at least a few musical numbers, and “The Muppets” is no different. The film opens with “Life’s a Happy Song,” a slice of cheery perfection. Muppet songs aren’t expected to be musical masterpieces, but they do need to be catchy and lively; this song did not disappoint.

The songs “Me Party” and “Man or Muppet” also proved to be standouts. In “Me Party,” Mary and Miss Piggy sing about the joys of spending time on one’s own; at this point in the film, neither Gary nor Kermit are paying enough attention to their respective ladies. “Man or Muppet,” meanwhile, generates the most laughs, as it shows Gary grappling with being a “muppety man” and Walter considering his own status as a “manly muppet.” Bret McKenzie, best known as one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, wrote all the original songs. A few muppet classics also make an appearance, with Kermit reviving “Rainbow Connection” as the telethon’s penultimate performance.

One of the big problems with nostalgia is that you might find yourself disappointed if you ever get the opportunity to revisit that certain something. That’s certainly not the case here; it’s genuinely a pleasure to be reunited with Kermit, Miss Piggy and the gang. If you grew up loving the Muppets, then definitely take this opportunity to see them on the big screen.

the damnation of her soul, but for now, it’s just a fun wedding!

This becomes even funnier when Bella tries finally to have sex with Edward on their honeymoon. Even though they are legally wed, there are some aspects of human-vampire coitus that are apparently really dangerous. Whether the danger is in the fact Edward literally broke the bed, Bella got bruised up or that we had to see Kristen Stewart awkwardly wearing lingerie is never quite made clear. It was funny though, and made doubly hilarious when Bella gets knocked up with a half-vampire, half-human baby that slowly kills Bella unless she drinks blood with a straw.

“What about the crazy love triangle?” you’re probably asking yourself. Does that ever resolve? By the end of “Breaking Dawn – Part I,” this resolves with the birth of Bella’s demonchild. Apparently werewolves have another

word for “awkwardly obsessing over someone” called “imprinting.” Once a werewolf “imprints” on someone else, they always have to be around them and continuously guard them no matter what. In other words, because it’s abundantly clear that Bella isn’t single, and the main characters always have to be some sort of strange and no one’s allowed to be in a normal relationship, Jacob falls for his former love’s just-born daughter, the curiously named Renesmee.

There is no lack of ridiculous happenstance in this film, and knowing that another equally ridiculous film is coming out in a year brings me a good amount of glee. My advice, howevery, is to watch it only if you have absurdly low expectations for the film. Nothing can keep “Breaking Dawn” from being a truly awful movie other than the lowest of expectations and the best attitude—and maybe a theater full of prepubescent girls watching a post-marital sex scene.

Arts Recommends film

‘Shadow of a Doubt’

photo from internet source

Alfred Hitchcock’s later masterpieces like “Psycho,” “Vertigo” and “North

by Northwest” usually get the lion’s share of attention when discussing his oeuvre, but to ignore his earlier films is to deprive oneself of some great filmmaking. Among the best is 1943’s “Shadow of a Doubt.”

Teenager Charlie Newton (Teresa Wright) is bored with life in her idyllic small town when her Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) arrives for a visit.

They’ve always been close—they share a name, after all—and his visit rejuvenates her. Or at least it does until a young detective (Macdonald Carey) arrives and tells her that Uncle Charlie may be the notorious Merry Widow Murderer, leaving her unsure what to do.

“Shadow of a Doubt” shows that evil can lurk even in the most idyllic of environments; no matter how perfect young Charlie’s family is, it cannot escape evil’s touch. Wright and Cotten both turn in superb performances that emphasize the Freudian ickiness that accompanies their closeness. As for good ole Hitch, he of course remains the master of suspense.

sean fabery, editor

20 The Brandeis Hoot

hoot scoops

Henna by Sienna

Senior discusses his thesis topic, the intersection between henna and Sephardic Judaism

henna by sienna Judaism-inspired henna created by Noam Sienna ’11, who spoke Thursday about his thesis research and the prevalence of the art in Sephardic Judaism.

By Debby Brodsky Editor

The Brandeis Sephardic Initiative hosted a henna night Thursday, to educate students about the centuries-old practice of henna applications in the Sephardi Jewish tradition.

The Brandeis Sephardic Initiative is in its second semester on campus. A cultural club under the Hillel umbrella, they are dedicated to Sephardic culture, and are open to anybody, whether they’re Jewish, Sephardi or neither. “Sephardi is a term limited to Jews from Spain, Portugal and North Africa,” said Jacob Chatinover ’12, Brandeis Sephardic Initiative’s campus relations coordinator. “The term needs to expand to the Orient, meaning Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Egypt, too.”

Noam Sienna ’11, the highlight of the evening, spoke to students about his extensive studies of Jewish henna practices while presenting the research behind his senior thesis, exploring Jewish henna ceremonies and the politics of heritage. Sienna, a current Brandeis ’12 master’s student in education, described ancient and modern customs surrounding henna, while simultaneously explaining the benefits of natural henna powder for the skin.

“Jewish henna is paradoxically one of the least known, and most well-documented traditions,” said Sienna. According to Sienna, his thesis is the most extensive work ever written on Jewish henna. Although there have been works

compiled on Jewish henna traditions of specific countries, Sienna’s thesis is the only compilation of Jewish henna traditions from all around the world.

“I am one of the few people who can do this,” added Sienna. “I have the cultural and linguistic background, and I speak over 10 languages.”

Sienna’s thesis is primarily in English, but includes excerpts of French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish, Latin and Classical Greek.

Sienna’s fascination with henna began during his first-year orientation. “I was introduced to henna by a friend of mine, and thought it was cool. I immediately discovered that there were Jewish roots to the tradition, and now I have been studying it for four years. I try to always have henna on one part of my body.”

While the most common places for henna application are the hands and feet, Sienna explained that he has also applied henna to the bellies of pregnant clients as part of life cycle ceremonies. “I offer henna for life cycle ceremonies such as births, marriages, bar and bat mitzvahs, ending a period of mourning or even to celebrate new jobs,” Sienna said. “Henna is a fantastic way to mark ritual occasions, and offers an opportunity for people to gather together.”

According to Sienna, the earliest record of henna use is in Egypt, where ancient mummies have been recovered with traces of henna on their nails and in their hair. Henna is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, as well as in the Hadith,

December 2, 2011

photos from internet source

or reports of the statements and actions of the Prophet Muhammad. Throughout the centuries, henna traditions have followed Jewish cultural groups as they have migrated and been expelled from countless countries. Wherever and whenever henna application is practiced, however, its significance has always been threefold. “Henna is culturally endowed with the idea of beauty, being a powerful and protective agent and it is seen as a symbol of transformation,” Sienna said.

Of henna’s various religious and cultural significances, most significant is that it remains on the body for weeks, as a constant reminder of the meaning of the ceremony past.

Like the henna plant, which transforms from a leaf to a powder to a paste to a stain, when a bride is covered in henna before her wedding ceremony, the henna is said to transform and disguise her from demons looking to harm her.

Once the henna fades, she is a married woman safely protected in her husband’s house.

To conclude, Sienna stressed the importance of avoiding labels. While most Jewish communities that practice henna application are labeled as Sephardic, the countries of origin of these communities are far too varied and wide-spread to earn just one label. While many believe henna to be a practice originating in India, according to Sienna, henna was only introduced to India 500 years ago, and has become a popular practice from Bollywood exposure during the past 50 years.

sharing his passion Sienna explains the cultural relevance of henna before demonstrating on students.

photos by ingrid schulte/the hoot