Volume 9 Number 4
www.thebrandeishoot.com
Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.
’Deis monitors security after Israel-Iran tensions
Blasting hip hop in Levin
Univ among sites on DHS alert list By Jon Ostrowsky Editor
araabmuzik performs Students attend a concert on Thursday. Turn to page 17 for The Hoot’s review.
Lawrence runs the show, even from India By Nathan Koskella Editor
President Lawrence’s official trip to India, now at the end of its two weeks, is notable both for its length and the sheer number of goals the administration and community has laid on its shoulders. All the while, according to the university, Lawrence has also been running the place “business as usual.” Brandeis initially sold the event as one to “expand Brandeis’ India presence.” Lawrence has also been working on the links between this university and those abroad, meeting with his counterparts on Indian colleges and with non-academics involved in university and international tie promotion. Lawrence told an audience of Indian students and other community members that the importance of his trip could not be overstated. “We should not expect the world’s two largest democracies to travel identical paths or reach identical results,” Lawrence said, but they will “have a great deal to teach each other and to learn from each other in the quest to build tolerant and diverse societies.” This learning was stressed by Lawrence to mean collaboration, not detrimental competition. “As we aim for the stars and as we try to do too much, we are keenly aware and deeply grateful that we are not in this alone,” he said. “Together we will indeed keep grinning … Together we can continue to argue with the world, and to challenge ourselves to imagine a world as it should be, as it might yet be,” he continued. The president also met with the India National Center for Biological Sciences to promote what BrandeisNOW called See INDIA, page 3
February 10, 2012
photo by haley fine/the hoot
As Israel debates whether to launch a preemptive strike against the rising threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued security alerts and warnings to Brandeis University and other Boston-area sites, Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said. “All it takes is a little information to put people on high alert,” Callahan said in a phone interview Thursday. “We’re aware of this concern but at this point in time, we just need to go about our daily lives.” Brandeis regularly receives e-mail
bulletins from Homeland Security and the Massachusetts State Police Fusion Center, a division that provides warning to private entities in the state, Callahan said. Because of the university’s sponsorship from the American Jewish community and its large population of Jewish students, Public Safety often communicates with the federal government to ensure its police and officials are up-to-date on security threats related to conflict in the Middle East. Following a U.N. report last November from the International Atomic Energy Agency citing concerns that Iran was using nuclear power to build a bomb, rather than peacefully produce energy, the United States and its European allies have adopted See SECURITY, page 4
Pool temporarily closed after student fell ill from heat By Connor Novy Editor
Newly opened Linsey Pool closed last Saturday, Feb. 4, following an incident involving a Brandeis student requiring medical assistance after swimming laps in pool temperatures that reached more than 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Though the pool is now open and has returned to a normal temperature, staff felt it necessary to discontinue service for the remainder of the weekend to ensure the safety of swimmers. The announcement Saturday morning cited “emergency repairs” to the pool as the reason it closed. Reports are mixed on whether the swimmer, a graduate student, lost consciousness. According to Sheryl Sousa, Director of Athletics, “the lifeguard obSee POOL, page 5
analyzing linsey Student lifeguard monitors chemicals of the pool after heating malfunction.
photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot
Four students capture ’Deis culture and limits in viral video
photo from internet source
what we don’t say Co-creator Paul Gale ’12 illustrates Brandeis-isms in short film.
By Nathan Koskella Editor
If you haven’t yet seen “Sh*t Brandeis Students Don’t Say,” then
you may actually have been helped by the Hiatt Career Center or be the lone kid in the stands at the Judges game. The video created by four Brandeis students pokes fun at more than 100
you-have-to-go-to-Brandeis-to-getit stereotypes and has been viewed more than 8,500 times and counting since it was uploaded to YouTube two days ago. Not only will Brandeis students be the only people who can get most of the sardonic humor, but the video’s makers assert that just about each and every Brandeisian will be able to understand it, without fail. “Sh*t” demonstrates, for instance, that no Brandeis student goes to Ollie’s sober, enjoys UWS or misses Jehuda Reinharz. No student is having much sex and never, ever wonders where the “weird kids” are. Paul Gale and Adam Lapetina, both class of 2012, and Aaron Sadowsky and Joshua Seiden, both class of 2013, put the video together this week, going from brainstorming session holders to viral video makers in a matter of days. “We had this idea and wanted to make a funny video, and even though the ‘things people say’ meme is tried and old, it’s the most universal way to
attract people and apply to everyone,” Gale said. The project started out of Brandeis Basement, the local chapter of the Campus Basement network that, according to Seiden, “provides blogging for campus-specific comedic content.” The comedic cohort have produced videos as part of Brandeis Basement before, but none of the other short clips presaged the success that “Sh*t” has seen. Former videos had about 1,000 to 2,000 hits. “We thought it was pretty well done, maybe figured that people would see it and like it,” Seiden said, “but we didn’t anticipate the level of mouth-to-mouth spreading this would take on.” This week’s stereotype sensation has of course been viewed by a number more than twice as high as that of all Brandeis students enrolled. And the success has not been limSee VIDEO, page 3