The Brandeis Hoot - Feb 17, 2012

Volume 9 Number 5

www.thebrandeishoot.com

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.

February 17, 2012

Student misconduct rarely brings consequences Coping with Weak univ penalties sole deterrent for most violations

By Nathan Koskella Editor

Official crime reporting at Brandeis highlights only a trace amount of severe misconduct in recent years,

which the university routinely deals with internally, rarely referring incidents to outside law enforcement.

“We’re like our own little city here,” Associate Dean of Student Life Maggie Balch said of Brandeis’ student conduct management.

Crime itself is very rare at Brandeis, according to testimony from administration officials, but it is even rarer for such an action to result in a mean-

ingful disciplinary penalty.

Community Advisors refer about 10 students per week to the student conduct office and board system, and only half that number ever get as far as a meeting with Dean Gendron, the director of Community Standards.

Gendron recalls only meeting with “three or four” students as the result of a serious violent offense in his three years as Brandeis’ conduct ad-

ministrator. “There are two or fewer violent incidents a year,” Gendron said, whose recollection matched campus security records exactly.

Only “egregious” incidents are referred to the Waltham Police Department, and yet several recent violent incidents resulted neither in punitive punishment nor real criminal See CONDUCT, page 2

V-Monologues discuss sexual health

photo by ingrid schulte/the hoot

monologues Students perform on stage in “The Vagina Monologues,” showcasing a play fostering open discussion of women’s issues. For more, turn to page 17.

News Analysis

In transit cuts battle, univ benefits from unique position

Brandeis singled out in advisory board plan

By Alex Schneider Editor

Under a new “third” plan released Wednesday to bridge the MBTA’s budget gap Comment page 13 and prevent service cuts, Brandeis students could be forced to dish out an annual $10 commuter rail fee while the university would be asked to make a payment of $50,000 to keep its name on the Brandeis/Roberts station.

The three-member MBTA Advisory Board proposal made clear that those with the most to lose from service cuts should be asked to contribute to ensure service cuts do not materialize. The plan would prevent threatened transit cuts and would only lead to a 25 percent fare increase, promising to be far more politically palatable than previous plans.

The plan recognizes the unique position of Brandeis in the MBTA

cuts battle. Access to Boston is not at risk in the same way for Brandeis students as it is for local residents. After all, were service to be eliminated, Brandeis could charter its own Boston shuttle. Instead, what is at issue is who will pay to keep transit services intact: commuters or college tuition payers.

The alternative plan comes at a time when Brandeis administrators have voiced concerns over the MBTA cuts but have not released details about what kinds of action they would take should service cuts be implemented.

“The Advisory Board did not inform Brandeis nor the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts of its proposal before it was released,” Senior Vice President for Communications Andrew Gully said.

“We’re hoping to get more details in the days ahead so the administration can discuss it internally as well as with members of our State House delegation, representatives of the city, and our colleagues at other colleges and universities.”

See MBTA, page 3

tragedy, one year later

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

One year after a student suicide rattled the Brandeis community, Feb. 15 holds a new meaning for Manny Zahonet ’14.

On his birthday last year, Zahonet returned to his first-year residence hall to find district attorney investigators questioning students and chaplains escorting others to the Psychological Counseling Center in the early morning hours.

For Zahonet, who used to stay up late studying with Kat Sommers ’14 and sharing soup in the hall lounge, his initial reaction was disbelief and shock.

“I just didn’t want to think so I tried to run as much as I could,” Zahonet said over coffee at Einsteins Thursday afternoon.

The tears of a grieving campus that filled a 400-person vigil in Sherman Function Hall last year were not visible this week. Brandeis has attempted to recover from the tragic winter afternoon last Feb. 15 when Kat Sommers took her own life inside a firstyear residence hall.

The death of Sommers, a history major who loved Disney movies and laughter, left a university stricken with grief. For her friends and classmates, the suicide marked a pain that See TRAGEDY, page 3

Clayborne Carson accepts Gittler Prize

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

By Rachel Hirschhaut and Sarah Schneider Staff

Professor Clayborne Carson of the African-American Studies Department at Stanford University came to Brandeis on Tuesday to receive the

Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize. The award, named in honor of the late sociology professor Joseph Gittler and his mother Toby Gittler, recognizes “outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic and/or religious relations” according to the program website. Professor Frances

Foster of Emory University was also awarded the prize and gave her lecture earlier this year.

Carson, who once worked as an editor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s papers, is now one of America’s foreSee GITTLER, page 5

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

February 17, 2012

Housing policy puts Brandeis in small group

By Aly Schuman

Special to the Hoot

Gender-neutral housing is a recent addition to Brandeis but one that makes it rather unique among colleges, allowing for any students, regardless of gender, to share a dorm room on campus.

“Brandeis saw an opportunity a few years ago to implement genderneutral housing as one further step along our social justice journey. Over the years students were beginning to [associate with] various gender identities and were requesting a housing accommodation,” Jeremy Leiferman, senior director of Community Living said.

The Department of Community Living’s website also described the arrangement as “[supporting] the University’s non-discrimination policy and fully [committing] to the principles of social justice with respect to sexual orientation, sex, gender and gender identity.” The policy allows for transgender or questioning students, or simply those who do not wish to

prescribe to a gender identity, to have housing options with which they may feel more comfortable. Eliminating the heteronormative rules that accompany traditional housing assignments allows for an environment that may be more welcoming.

“Student leaders were a huge rallying factor to assisting us in the creation of the policy,” Leiferman explained. The student advocates’ work turned out to be worthwhile. “We have received strong positive attention from other schools who are following our lead and implementing gender neutral policies on their own campuses.”

Although many students say they would consider gender-neutral housing, only a small number have taken advantage of the opportunity, Leiferman concedes. Neither he nor Dean Gendron, director of Student Rights and Community Affairs, however, has received any complaints from students or other constituents.

Gendron admits that any student issues could have been resolved more casually without the assistance of the

Conduct penalties lack severity CONDUCT, from page 1

charges. Both Gendron and Balch denied that the university tried to exert any influence on police decisions whether or not to charge students, despite the lack of simultaneous action by the school and the real criminal system.

Balch and Gendron both said that some violent assaults were never reported outside of the university, and that Brandeis’ safety office handles most cases itself.

In December 2010, a student driving on Loop Road struck and injured two others, one of them seriously. The student is no longer a member of the Brandeis community, but Gendron would neither confirm nor deny if the student had been suspended or whether he or she withdrew voluntarily. But that is the most that happened to the student in any case.

The only student to be suspended in the three most recent years of records, 2008 to 2010, was in November 2010—they committed not a violent crime but “academic dishonesty.”

Gendron also says he has seen only four alleged perpetrators of sexual misconduct. The broad category includes everything from forcible rape to verbal sexual abuse, and Gendron said the students he has seen have been accused almost exclusively of only this verbal abuse.

He acknowledges that a much larger number of students claiming to be victims of sexual misconduct have come to talk to him, but the student conduct records indicate that the vast majority of such complaints are never adjudicated.

One recent instance of sexual misconduct did actually make it to the disciplinary phase. A student was found responsible for “sexual harassment/assault and battery”: The student was put on probation and referred to the school’s counselor; he or she was asked to write a letter of apology.

Neither Gendron nor Balch

would discuss whether the student caught in the recent shower-spying incident in Gosman is still being adjudicated—similarly, there is no criminal case found involving the case’s description.

“Disciplinary probation” is a common sanction, the most numerous in records by far. The penalty’s application ranges from such serious crimes of violence to stealing from the C-Store or Einsteins.

“Disciplinary probation has a lot of levels,” Gendron said, but there are other sanctions Brandeis can impose. But he said “we’re not very prohibition-ist here.” He explained that in the publicized incident involving an intoxicated student accused of biting a campus police officer, the student received the ubiquitous “disciplinary probation.”

But few other sanctions are ever applied. Gendron could recall no instance of, for example, restricting a student’s privileges to clubs or on-campus activities. Instead the largest occurrence in the reports of any other sanctions beside the disciplinary probation are “letters of apology.”

Balch admitted that the process, even when effective punishments are imposed, are open to interpretation and individual officials’ wide discretion. “Six people could all be written up for the same offence, say a six-pack in their room,” but receive different levels of sanction. But students have not raised an issue of the varied, changeable discipline measures, which after all results predominantly only in the warnings.

Balch said that in some cases, “it’s about supporting the victim but also about the alleged perpetrator, they’re a Brandeis student too.”

“College is about learning,” she said, “not ruining your life,” echoing Gendron’s calls for leniency. “It’s not about ruining your life, and we take threats very seriously.”

student conduct process, but he has not heard of any complications.

Kelsey Strouse ’13 and Robbie Steinberg ’13 described a positive experience last year when they shared a gender-neutral room in East. They and three other friends had initially wanted a suite in Rosenthal, but failed to obtain one under the housing lottery.

Strouse did not have any reservations going into the decision. “We both respected each other a lot and we were really comfortable around each other, so I wasn’t concerned,” she explains, a statement backed by Steinberg. He added that because they were such good friends, “It was probably my favorite year housingwise so far.”

To Strouse, it was not any different than if she would have a girl as a roommate.

“Any issues that we had were issues that all roommates work out, but it never had anything to do with gender.

I honestly had more difficulty adjusting to the gender-neutral bathroom than my gender neutral dorm room!”

Gender-neutral housing is not available to first-years, as the policy only applies to those who specifically agree to room together, but it can be made available if specifically requested.

A few first-years mentioned their willingness to try the housing option in the future, if their potential roommate were someone with whom they felt comfortable.

“A lot of my close friends are girls,” Brian Haungs ’15 expressed, “so it wouldn’t be weird.”

Jes Lin ’15 said she would rather have a male roommate.

“Girls are more drama! If a guy left his shirt on the floor, I’d just tell him to pick it up. But if a girl did the same thing, I would be afraid I would hurt her feelings.”

Not all students felt this way, some citing religious reasons or claiming that they would not feel comfortable in terms of modesty.

Gender differences, however, do come into play. Last year, Nicole Nightingale ’13 shared a suite in Rosie with one other girl and five guys, and

opted for gender-neutral housing again this year, living in a suite in Ziv with two guys and four girls.

She describes her experience from the previous year. “[The suite] was not always as clean as it could have been and it was a bit louder than the housing I have this year. I’m not saying girls are always quieter, but the girls I have lived with definitely play less video games.”

Her experience was positive overall, though. “The dynamic of the suite was great. It was definitely a fun atmosphere and studious as well.” Since it went so well, Nightingale was encouraged to choose similar housing this year.

Steinberg, too, said that he would opt for gender-neutral housing in the future and recommend it to others.

“My advice for people who want to do it is: Don’t do it if you’re dating that person, because that’s an awful idea.

Do it if you’re friends and you know you’ll work well together as roommates.”

Brandeis ranked among best-value colleges

By Connor Novy Editor

Princeton Review has once again listed Brandeis as one of the “Best Value” colleges in America. The average student, the survey claimed, graduated Brandeis with $21,000 in debt. Nearly 70 percent of students receive financial aid, the same percentage that borrows money in loans.

While Brandeis has significantly

higher tuition than the national average for private universities, its gift and other financial aid warrant its place on one of the 70 best private institutions this year.

The annual survey collected information on academics, financial aid and tuition costs. Brandeis was not in the top 10, which listed Ivies and other high gift-aid able universities, but some students feel that the Review’s list of 150 public and private colleges is “subjective” because the ratings fail to recognize other legitimate measures of value. The survey did not

take into account future earning potential, student/faculty ratios or average student happiness. The Princeton Review senior vice president Robert Franek lauded the institutions for attempting to keep relative costs down, but assured that the list was not simply based on a low “sticker price.”

He said the rankings also required a commitment to “excellent academic programs.” The online database tracked the overall tuition costs—for Brandeis about $54,000—its needbased aid, as well as the percentage of students who borrow.

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February 17, 2012

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

Students weary about fallout from transit cuts

By Zachary Romano Staff

In preparation for a March 1 Waltham hearing on MBTA cuts, Student Union President Herbie Rosen ’12 and Vice President Gloria Park ’13 organized a Town Hall Forum on Monday night for members of the Brandeis community to voice their concerns and hear the university’s response to the recent MBTA plans.

Brandeis University’s Senior Vice President of Communications and External Affairs Andrew Gully spoke on behalf of the administration. “There is a temptation to say that we want action now,” he said, “but there is a long period of comment. This issue is a political process just as much as a budget process.”

While a handful of students attended the Town Hall meeting, others rallied at Occupy the MBTA, an extension of the overall Occupy movement. On Monday evening, protesters organized by the T-Riders Union took to the rail lines as a means of retaliating against proposed service reductions and fare increases.

“The atmosphere in the demo was incredible. Many familiar faces from the Occupy Boston community, standing strong with the T workers union,” Noam Lekach, organizer of the Brandeis protest, said.

According to Brandeis Sustainability Coordinator Janna Cohen-Rosenthal, Brandeis makes full use of current MBTA offerings.

“Twenty-five percent of all the trips applicable commuters make that we reported to DEP were in public transit.

Applicable commuters are those who work and/or study more than 17 hours per week; don’t use their car for work; and don’t live on campus. When just employees are taken out, it’s about 13 percent of employees who take public transportation and 18 percent of students for commuting purposes.”

Nearly 55 commuter passes have been obtained by Brandeis employees, as reported by Human Resources.

Even more concerning are the greater disparate effects of fare increases and service cuts on college students, not only at Brandeis, but across the BostonMetropolitan area. At Monday night’s meeting, a small group of students ad-

dressed the particular drawbacks to these changes.

“Cutting service and raising fares has a disproportionate effect on college students; we cannot easily switch to vehicles as a mode of transportation or pay pricey fares,” said one undergraduate.

Accessibility via the Fitchburg Commuter Line to Boston, which is already limited by infrequent service during off-peak hours and weekends, will become much less efficient in getting Brandeis students to their internships, immersion opportunities, and travel hubs like South Station and Logan International.

Locals are similarly weary. According to an article on Waltham Patch, home values could fall with service cuts.

When asked what would be done for Brandeis transportation into Boston in the light of the MBTA decision, Gully stated: “As we wait to see what the MBTA is going to do, it’s premature to say how we will respond.”

Rosen also stated that e-mail surveys will be sent out in order to obtain statistics on the percentage of affected students. Findings of the survey will be presented at the March 1 hearing in Waltham.

photo from internet source

commuter rail

Under third plan, MBTA fares would increase 25 percent MBTA, from page 1

Advisory Board Budget & Policy Analyst Brian Kane confirmed that the ideas in the report have not yet been discussed with institutions such as Brandeis. He called on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) to “begin liaising with institutions.” He also admitted that the MBTA had “no real authority to collect” revenue from institutions, but that cooperation would be crucial to preventing service cuts.

Students have generally frowned

on the idea of service cuts, especially at a Town Hall meeting held Monday with Student Union President Herbie Rosen ’12. But at the same time, were cuts to be made, Brandeis students have university resources to fall back on, potentially in the form of new transportation offerings.

The Advisory Board’s proposal could be appealing to Brandeis administrators, requiring a one-time, up-front payment instead of forcing any new, costly busing service. The plan also avoids a situation of the administration charging students to use a new bus service.

Details of the plan According to the MBTA Advisory Board, the new plan would raise $2.6 million from commuter rail beneficiaries.

Kane explained that the main goal of the plan would be to ensure “we did not have service cuts.”

“Given the benefit [commuter rail beneficiaries] testified about receiving it is reasonable to ask those institutions to contribute towards partially preserving them,” the board’s report explained.

As part of the plan, the 140,000

full- and part-time students in the commuter rail zone would be asked to pay a $10 annual student fee, to raise $1.4 million. The cost would help keep late-night and weekend commuter rail trains running. The board also signaled future increases in the fee could be negotiated in exchange for “night owl” service or “offpeak discounts.”

The plan also singles out Brandeis in discussion of raising $50,000 from the school to keep the name of the Brandeis/Roberts station. “There is value … we think there should be some payment made,” Kane said.

In total, four institutions would be asked to make payments, for a total of $200,000.

On top of all the payments, fares would increase by approximately 25 percent, which would mean a fare increase from $4.75 to approximately $5.94 in zone two for a ride to North Station. That’s considerably less than the scenario in which fares would be increased to $7 or $6.50, as previously proposed. Monthly passes, currently priced at $151, would increase by 25.5 percent under the plan to $189.50.

Under the plan, Charlie Card fares on the T would also rise to $2.15 from $1.70.

Remembering student tragedy, one full year since TRAGEDY, from page 1

few others could understand.

As a community searched for answers to how a seemingly happy college student took her own life just days before February vacation, her peers faced a struggle for understanding and healing.

“She always made people laugh. I can’t remember not laughing when we were hanging out together,” Zahonet said.

Katharine Glanbock ’14, who lived next door to Sommers said that she will miss most her friend’s patience as a listener and her sense of humor.

“She was the warmest, most patient person I’d ever met, and she always knew how to make you laugh, or feel better about yourself, even when you thought you were miserable or unworthy,” Glanbock wrote in an e-mail.

“Her sense of humor was so warm, so thoughtful. You just knew she was genuine.”

Jake Crobsy ’11, who shared a history class with Sommers in fall 2010, said that his initial reaction was shock and disbelief.

“Things hit you so quickly, it’s hard to fully accept,” Crobsy said in an interview last spring. “My first reaction is, I want to talk to her. I want to say ‘hey Kat, what’s the problem here?’

Everything just seemed perfectly

normal. We were going to get back in touch. That was the plan.”

Following the suicide, the university provided an extensive range of resources for students, including extra hours at the counseling center and group therapy sessions in the evenings for students uncomfortable meeting privately with psychologists.

Simon Diamond Cramer ’13, who had just met and began dating Sommers one month before she died, said the community support helped those directly impacted by the tragedy cope with their grief.

“The community outreach after Kat died was probably one of the most important things that kept me going.

For the rest of the week, there were people taking care of us (me and Kat’s friends), people we often barely even knew, just to make sure we’d make it through,” Diamond Cramer wrote in an e-mail.

Zahonet said that summer vacation was an especially helpful time to deal with his emotions without the distraction of classes or constant reminders of the scenery at Brandeis.

Unlike others who visited the Psychological Counseling Center, Zahonet said he recognized the values of the services but preferred to work through his emotions by talking about them with his friends.

As Zahonet shuttled between class-

photo by ingrid schulte/the hoot

memorial held last year

es and club meetings one day before February break this week, he said students need to keep a perspective on the pressures that seem overwhelmingly important at the time.

“That’s the main problem—how seriously we take every exam or every paper. We’ll be OK. Even with a 2.5 GPA, we’ll be OK,” Zahonet said.

Instead of the campus-wide vigil last year, this week there was a small gathering of students who came together in

North Quad to remember Sommers.

“It’s not a burden as much as it used to be. I wish she was still here but I’ve become used to her not being here. I can breathe a lot easier than I used to,” Zahonet said.

Yet, even as her friends begin to accept and deal with life after tragedy, their college years will never be separated from the experience of coping with a loss that even over time still lingers on their minds.

“It’s been an extremely difficult year, and there has been no specific way to go about dealing with it,” Haley Bierman ’14, a friend of Sommers, wrote in an e-mail. “It comes down to getting through each day in the best way you can. Whenever it gets especially difficult, I remember what an extraordinary person she was and remind myself how privileged I was to have been her friend.

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

February 17, 2012

Brandeis graduate convicted in terror plot, appeals case

By Connor Novy Editor

Lawyers for Brandeis graduate Aafia Siddiqui PhD ’01 have appealed her conviction, saying that the testimony the 39-year-old woman gave during her trial was involuntary because she was not mentally stable at the time. In 2010 she was sentenced to 86 years in prison for opening fire on U.S. soldiers in a police station where she was being interrogated. Officials believe she assisted al-Qaida by laundering money and Liberian diamonds and by buying illegal high-technology weaponry.

Siddiqui is a graduate of MIT with a B.S. in biology who later studied cognitive neuroscience at Brandeis. She taught a General Biology Lab, which is required for pre-med and similar majors.

She finished her dissertation on “learning through imitation” in 2001.

She lived in the Boston area before returning to Pakistan with her husband and children, citing difficulty living as a Muslim in America after 9/11.

In 2003, she sent an e-mail to a former Brandeis professor about returning to work in the United States, but a few months later was accused, according to the FBI, of being a “courier of blood diamonds and a financial fixer for al-Qaida.” According to a dossier prepared by U.N. investigators for the 9/11 Commission, Siddiqui was one of six alleged al-Qaida members who bought blood diamonds in Liberia immediately prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Her second husband was the nephew of one of the organizers of 9/11.

She and her three children left Karachi five days later, ostensibly for the airport, but disappeared. She is believed to have been arrested by Pakistani authorities and may have been handed over to the FBI. On April 21, 2003, a United States official told

media outlets that Siddiqui was in Pakistani custody but retracted the statement the next day. Whether she was in Pakistani custody from 2003 to 2008 is unsure. Reports differ, some claiming she worked at the Karachi Institute of Technology, others that she was detained by the FBI. In 2008, Siddiqui was arrested by Afghan police, who found a number of documents in both English and Urdu that could have been used to create bombs inside her bag, as well as various chemicals, says a later complaint filed against her in the Southern District New York court.

The following day, says American authorities, a group of United States military personnel arrived to interrogate her, and were attacked when Siddiqui she took the warrant officer’s loaded rifle from the floor When Pakistani senators visited her later, Siddiqui asserted that though she had tried to escape, she had not shot at the soldiers, and that after seeing she was unsecured, they shot her in the torso.

During her initial trial, Siddiqui was repeatedly disruptive and said that she would not cooperate with her lawyers because she believed the trial to be “a sham.” The trial had been previously delayed in order to perform psychiatric evaluations. Though doctors initially thought she suffered from chronic depression, they later amended their reports and said that she was faking her mental illness. A judge decided that though she may suffer some mental illness, she was well enough to stand trial.

Her lawyers, whom she has repeatedly attempted to fire, assert that the testimony she gave in her first trial was invalid because Siddiqui was not rational at the time. Prosecutors maintain that she understood the questions asked her at the trial.

Siddiqui herself has denied that she is mentally ill and insists she be present and allowed to testify.

Midyear senator elected, Charles River still vacant

By Connor Novy Editor

Derek Komar became the first midyear senator after the election Monday night with 37 percent of the vote. He is intent on effecting change in both the student body’s perception of the Student Union and the Union itself. While he concedes that many before him have tried and were largely ineffectual, he believes that his new position will add a “new perspective and a new fire” to the debate.

First-year senator Sneha Walia ’15 expressed the views of many at the student union, “I’m glad we have the position and I think Derek is really passionate about leadership and I’m really excited to work with him.”

Komar is also extremely focused on not only integrating midyears into the whole of Brandeis’ student body, but also retaining their sense of camaraderie. “I’ve talked to some people, and they really like how separate and bonded they feel. I want everyone to do exactly what they feel comfortable with.

Both going outside their comfort zone or staying in it.” He hopes to continue to represent midyears not only when they are in the Village, but also after they have dispersed into other quads.

The position as representative of the 2015 midyear class is newly formed. It had been proposed in the past but not until recently has there been enough support to send the issue to a vote.

In the past, it has resulted in the impeachment of a former president and much contention.

Union President Herbie Rosen ’12 promised a midyear senators position in his State of the Union address last fall. It was created on Feb. 1 with an overwhelming majority and only 10 abstentions.

Due to abstention, the Charles River senator position will remain vacant until the next election. Komar does not believe that the abstain option impedes elections; he replied “I think it’s important to have it. I’d rather wait until a person willing runs than force students to choose someone.”

photo from internet source

aafia siddiqui

Gates Foundation gives $500,000

By Morgan Gross Editor

Donald Shepard, a professor at the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy at the Heller School, has been awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to pursue research on malaria prevention in Kenya and Tanzania.

According to an article on BrandeisNOW, the professor and his collaborators will receive $500,000 during the course of the next three years as they attempt to develop a new wallpaper-like liner that—thanks to advanced design and insecticidetreatment—could prevent as many as 300,000 of the 800,000 deaths that oc-

cur annually from malaria in Africa.

Shepard explains in the BrandeisNOW article that “Malaria is one of the biggest killers in the world,” but world response and reaction to the disease and its consequences are far behind. “We’ve known how to treat it, but it’s only been in recent years that prevention strategies have been implemented in a larger scale.”

Shepard’s research on this new wallpaper-like liner serves as an evolution of the conventional mosquito net, which currently serves as the most widely accepted and implemented method for malaria prevention worldwide.

He describes this innovation as a “very important tool that can overcome some of the limitations in exist-

ing technology and make a very substantial contribution.”

The most recent results of research conducted in Kenya show a 38 percent dip in malaria rates with the implementation of Shepard’s new technology.

The research team is comprised of Elizabeth Glaser, a doctoral student at Heller, Sareh Khoshi M.S. ’10 and Aggrey Kihombo PhD ’04. Together, their continued research will pursue a more comprehensive understanding of how this technology will impact the area of its implementation, Shepard and his team will be conducting additional research in local school systems during a two-week trip to Africa in mid-February.

AMST’s Whitfield on ‘Jews, Racial Justice, and Democracy’

By Rachel Hirschhaut Staff

Professor Stephen Whitfield (AMST) gave a lecture Sunday titled “Jews, Racial Justice, and Democracy,” speaking at Temple Shalom in Medford, Mass. The event, open to the public, emphasized the “role of Jews in promoting black culture and therefore promoting racial justice” before and during the civil rights movement, Whitfield said.

Specifically, Whitfield focused on African-American and Jewish alliances in the business world and in the music industry. He discussed people such as Julius Rosenwald, former president of Sears, whose philanthropy helped fund the creation of more than 5,300 charter schools for African-Americans in the South and supported historically black universities, and Jewish record executives who promoted African-American jazz musicians.

“What people need to know is that the Jewish and the African-American movements in America are alike because of the fundamental struggle for social justice,” Whitfield said to conclude his lecture.

February 17, 2012

NEWS 5

The Brandeis Hoot

Two students found tech start-up, showcase newly-made app

By Connor Novy Editor

Brandeisians are the type of people who color-code their closets and keep files in extremely complex subfolder systems. It’s little wonder then that two of them have invented a mobile organizing application.

Sahar Massachi M.A. ’12 and Adam Hughes ’12 will design and present the official app at the RootsCamp conference in Washington D.C. next week.

With his friends dispersing all across the country, Massachi said he realized that an app to make sense of who was where would be a great asset.

The app is a virtual business card that logs not only your contact information, like your telephone number, Twitter and e-mail, but logs your “home base,” where you hail from in a zoomable map. Contacts are marked on the map and more detailed information—like the circumstances under which you met them—can be input after clicking on them.

Massachi and Hughes describe what they do as “social entrepreneurship,” making the world a better place

while at the same time building a forprofit company. Their fledgling Innermost Labs was founded in order to create “lasting activist networks at Brandeis University,” Hughes wrote in a blog post introducing the official app.

While “it isn’t like the app goes in and social justice comes out,” Hughes explained, it can help people achieve it. “Knowing who can do what across the country is an important part to developing new ideas, and during a conference, you meet so many people in such a short amount of time, and a day later, most of it is lost.”

The app was developed with a Brandeisian haste. In little more than a week Massachi and Hughes developed a program that works not only for alumni networks but also for conferences and campaigns. It’s for situations when you want to save a contact but a Facebook friend isn’t quite the answer: “I don’t care about their dog, but I do care about hanging out with them if we’re in the same city,” Massachi said.

“It can connect entrepreneurs and organizers, volunteers and campaigners, as well as alumni scattered across the globe. It facilitates everything from couch surfing to campaign or-

ganizing,” he added.

Hughes was first brought onto the project only to attend the conference

by Massachi, a veteran of the practice.

But the project quickly snowballed for him.

“I asked if he wanted to go to RootsCamp and then a few days after that, I was like ‘what if we did a start-up,’ and a few days after that, I was like ‘hey, what if we presented it at RootsCamp next week,’” Massachi said.

The RootsCamp organizers were impressed with the app from the start.

“They reacted with more enthusiasm than we can ever imagined and made it the official app of the conference,” Hughes said.

Massachi and Hughes will open the very beginning RootsCamp conference with an introduction of their app and then expand the discussion to broader topics.

The app will be open source and completely free for personal use. It aims to derive revenue from branded versions for companies—and conferences like RootsCamp—and preloaded conference guest lists.

Hughes believes that keeping the app free is essential to the mission of “progressive organizing,” and thus the mission of Innermost Labs.

app screen image

Stanford prof wins prize for work on race, religious relations GITTLER, from page 1

most scholars on King and the civil rights movement.

In his acceptance speech, Carson marveled at the fact that nearly 50 years ago, when King gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech, Carson could not have fathomed becoming a professor because there were so few black college professors at that time.

In describing King’s speech, Carson commented that, “he was talking to the architects of the republic” by addressing the fundamental questions of liberty and justice that are at the core of American society.

Carson lectured the audience of students and professors on the social justice lessons he learned from King’s legacy and their meaning for humanity as a whole. He said that his lifelong journey of learning has taught him that King was more than a powerful civil rights leader; he “became a symbol for something much bigger, drew attention to it, and gave it a larger significance,” Carson said. “King was a prophet for all society.”

“As I grow older, King has become wiser. He is a person who grows on you,” Carson said, commenting on the significance of King’s lessons to his life. “I came to focus more and more not on the ‘dream’ speech, but on what he said late in his life. Now I see him as someone who understood the ‘why’ of it all.” King’s lessons of peace and justice resonate not just in the context of the civil rights movement, but for all of humanity, Carson said. This concern for humanity extends to King’s hope of demonstrating that, according to Carson, “oppressed people are not alone in the world.”

Carson also highlighted King’s work that moved beyond racial relations, including King’s anti-war beliefs and his work in the global war against poverty. He described King’s view that war was the third social evil after poverty and racism, a belief that is not widely discussed in popular discourse about King.

Carson plans to donate his prize of $25,000 to the work of the King Institute for research and awareness of the civil rights movement, which he heads at Stanford.

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

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ImpressiOns

6 The Brandeis Hoot

February 17, 2012

The Katzwer’s Out of the Bag

It is not such a bad thing to have to fight for gay marriage

By Yael Katzwer Editor

The past couple of weeks have seen amazing headway in the advance of legalizing gay marriage in the United States.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire signed into law on Feb. 13 a bill legalizing gay marriage in the state.

This brings the count of states allowing gay marriage up to seven: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and now Washington. Our country’s capital, Washington D.C., also allows gay marriage.

On Valentine’s Day, two same-sex couples got married alongside two heterosexual couples at the Empire State Building in New York City.

These are the first same-sex marriages to take place in the famous landmark.

Also on Valentine’s Day, Maryland delegates voted 25-18 to send samesex marriage legislation to the full state House, where it could be debated as early as next week.

On Feb. 13 New Jersey’s state Senate passed a bill to recognize samesex marriages. Of course, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie has already promised to veto the bill when it comes before him.

Prop. 8—the 2008 proposition banning gay marriage in California, which had been legalized a few months earlier—was declared unconstitutional on Feb. 7. Of course, opponents of gay marriage are currently planning to appeal the decision, forcing the struggle to continue.

While these last two examples may seem to be mixed blessings, they are actually both positive steps for the individual states and for the country as a whole.

Why rejoice that New Jersey is finally attempting to legalize gay marriage when Gov. Christie has already

graphic by steven wong/the hoot

said he will veto the bill? It would have been nice had Christie said: “Yes, I heartily look forward to signing gay marriage into law in New Jersey! Equality for all!” It would have been nice but it also would have been naive. Christie is a Republican and he is not afraid to let that show, both socially and fiscally.

And, very central to the Republican persona, is the belief that more decisions should be placed before citizens in a mass vote. And that is exactly what Christie is saying right now. Christie believes that such a

monumental change should be left in the hands of the voters; he plans, now that the bill has passed, to place the issue of same-sex marriage on a ballot. While it seems pretty clear that this is a ploy by Christie to keep gay marriage off the law books for as long as possible, it is still a ploy that will work in favor of the pro-gay marriage activists.

Although New Jersey currently has a Republican governor, New Jersey has a history of going blue in many votes of candidacy, fiscal issues and social topics. I truly believe that if gay

marriage goes on the ballot in New Jersey, it will be legalized. Christie’s procrastinatory ploy will only delay gay marriage in the great state of New Jersey; it will not quash it. And who knows, maybe this will be the final impetus for New Jerseyans to return to the dark side, i.e. a governor who identifies with the Democrats.

Even more uncertain though is the reversal of California’s Proposition 8.

Many rejoiced last week to hear that Prop. 8 had been overturned; my Facebook feed became clogged with posts praising California’s Supreme

Court for striking down that ignoble ban. Despite the general air of elation and pride, however, many naysayers pointed out that, while declaring Prop. 8 unconstitutional was a good thing, it did not prevent the future battles to prevent same-sex marriage in California and it did not erase the past prejudices and unaccepting behaviors. To these people, I say: Way to ruin a nice thing!

But seriously, while I wish we could all just get along and accept everyone See MARRIAGE, page 8

No need to mind your own business, intelligence is intelligence

By Abby Vigderman Special to the Hoot

A recent conversation with a friend got me thinking about intelligence.

We were discussing neuroscience when she told me that she’s not very good at it. This confused me.

I know that neuroscience is an intense subject to study, but my friend is intelligent and does well in her classes. Yet she described herself as being “dumb” when it comes to learning and understanding neuroscience.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard comments like this from friends of mine who are humanities or social science majors, and every time I hear that I cringe. Who or what convinced so many people that neuroscience is incomprehensible? I’ve come up with a few reasons, all of which stem from misjudgments about science and learning.

First, many people are afraid of science classes and think that they’re somehow harder than other kinds of classes. This isn’t true! Science classes and humanities classes are structured differently, but that doesn’t mean one is harder than the other. Science classes require a certain amount of work every day—taking notes, writing lab reports, reviewing concepts, etc.—

while humanities classes have reading that often isn’t read. If you want to get a B in a science class, you still have to do all those things every day, but if you want a B in a humanities class you can skip most of the reading and write a paper the night before it’s due. But this is only if you want a B. If you want an A in a science class or a humanities class, you have to do the same amount of work, no matter what subject. Science students like to complain about how much work they have to do, but it’s primarily a pity party to make themselves feel better and does not reflect the difficulty of the class or the class material.

People also have a fear and dislike of science that I think partially stems from the general bias that humanities people can have against it. In a psychology class I am currently taking, when the professor spoke about neuroscience, she would say, “I know this is boring ... are you still awake?” and many other things to that effect.

A teacher’s job is to engage students in subject material, not put down other material for the sake of connecting with her students. It is criminal for a teacher to disparage any sort of learning or any subject material. Not only does it make it completely impossible for students to learn the material themselves, but it subconsciously tells them that this information isn’t

for them or is something they cannot do or with which they shouldn’t be concerned. Even if the subject material is difficult or boring, it is the job of the teacher to teach and not to pass judgement. If you wrote the syllabus, you obviously think material pertains to the subject of the class. To discourage a student to learn about a certain subject actively—whether consciously perpetrated or not—is to rob them of their intellectual curiosity, which is the worst thing a teacher can do.

Another annoying complication of the humanities/science divide is that it leads to individuals who separate themselves into “science-minded” or “humanities-minded” categories, as if some people are simply “dumb” when it comes to a certain subject (their words not mine). When I hear people say that they are unintelligent when it comes to a subject, it reminds me of what a neuroscience professor once said about intelligence. He said that any subject can be learned and that there is no inherent ability required to learn a subject, unless that subject is math or music. I can’t say whether or not math and music require innate abilities, but I can say that he is right about learning in general. Most times when I talk to somebody who thinks they can’t learn a subject, I tell them that the issue isn’t whether or not they can learn a subject, but how

graphic by yi wang/the hoot

much time it takes them to process the information. Some people grasp certain subject material faster, but that in no way means that you are “dumb” when it comes to a subject.

Saying that about yourself is limiting your potential.

Keep in mind that this in no way applies to everybody. These situations

have occurred enough that it seemed to be a phenomenon worth addressing. Obviously it seems hypocritical of me to criticize peoples’ judgments of science while I make judgments about them; however, I hope that what I have to say encourages people to think more about what they study and what is possible for them.

February 17, 2012

Call Me, Tweet Me

IMPRESSIONS 7

The Brandeis Hoot

Let’s talk about domestic violence, baby

By Leah Finkelman Editor

Remember when Chris Brown hit his then-girlfriend, Rihanna? I do.

It was the eve of the 2009 Grammys, and Brown and Rihanna were both scheduled to perform the next day. According to a search warrant, obtained and released by TMZ, they were driving when Rihanna read a text message from a woman with whom Brown had had a sexual relationship. Brown tried to force Rihanna out of the car, shoving her head against a window, and hit her several times. She ended up in the hospital.

I was shocked. Unfortunately, I wasn’t shocked that it happened— domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women, even without accounting for unreported abuse.

Instead, I was shocked by the way it was handled by the media, by the music industry and by the rest of the country. Recently, I was even more shocked by Brown’s performance at the Grammys and the response that followed.

Musically, I think that Chris Brown is incredibly talented. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I’ve been known to get my groove on when one of his songs comes on at a party.

But Chris Brown does not deserve to be following his passion and performing for millions of viewers and listeners. He does not deserve to be

touted as an incredible star, with the coveted privilege of performing at the Grammys. He deserves to be in jail.

Following a plea bargain in August of 2009, Brown avoided prison but was sentenced to 180 hours of community service and five years of probation.

This column, “Call Me, Tweet Me,” originated with its name because Ariel, then Editor Emeritus; Morgan, Impressions Editor; and I agreed that it was a great name for a column about human communication in its many forms—and a great “Kim Possible” throwback. I’ve written on topics like context in journalism, racism and sexism in language, and the control technology holds over us.

I’ve strayed from that original premise slightly, two weeks ago choosing a topic and then struggling to connect it back to communication. This week, I’m decided to return to my column’s roots to tackle a controversial and all-too-relevant topic: the way we talk about domestic violence and assault.

One aspect of the crime that hasn’t been covered very well is Brown’s family history with violence. Back in 2009, Brown announced on “Larry King Live” that his mother was physically and chronically abused by her husband, Brown’s step-father. His mother said that Brown had never before been violent, though, and his attack on his girlfriend was not part

of an inter-generational cycle of violence.

If only that were comforting.

Physically, one incident is far less painful than continual abuse. That goes without saying. Emotionally, however, domestic violence is domestic violence. Most of us enter into relationships so that we can feel safe, secure and loved. When someone hurts their partner, whether the pain inflicted is physical, verbal or emotional, and regardless of their gender, they strip the relationship of that trust.

To act or say otherwise is to do a great disservice to everyone—anyone who has been in an unhealthy relationship, anyone who has felt unsafe around someone who claimed to love them, anyone who would be appalled if they saw someone hit someone else on the street—even if it was “provoked.”

Chris Brown is a felon, and we should refuse to forget that, while simultaneously admiring him as an artist. This is about something much bigger than him and Rihanna. By extolling his musical talent, we are sending a strong and damaging message—it’s OK that he hit Rihanna.

Maybe she deserved it, maybe she didn’t, but he apologized, so let’s leave him alone now.

I’d like to believe that I’ve been brought up to be the kind of person who, if hit by a partner, would hit them back, walk out the door and

graphic by linjie xu/the hoot

call the police. I’m lucky enough to have never been in that position, and I hope never to find out for sure. I also hope, however, that my mother, or my sister, or whomever I turned to would have the sense to tell me that it wasn’t my fault, and that one slap or shove is enough.

Hollywood, apparently, disagrees.

When the incident became public, Hollywood was silent, save for a few brave souls who knew right from

wrong—and got flak for it. Jay-Z, one of Rihanna’s mentors and the man who discovered her, issued a statement saying, “You have to have compassion for others. Just imagine it being your sister or mom and then think about how we should talk about that. I just think we should all support her.”

Despite seeming like unnecessary See VIOLENCE, page 8

Engrossing

Internet news blurs the boundary between fact and falsehood

By Morgan Gross Editor

As an editor of The Hoot, I have an obvious interest in the way news is produced and consumed in our country.

Many people have predicted the downfall of the newspaper as Internet news sources have all but overtaken the traditional form.

A book that I’m reading for one of my classes this semester gives very interesting insight into to the way Web-based news sources have ousted the newspaper as our society’s primary supplier of current events, and ushered in the age of instant and viral information.

In his book “Here Comes Everybody,” Clay Shirkey reflects on how recently developed Internet technologies—specifically social media outlets—have allowed individuals to collaborate and organize in ways that were never before imaginable.

In his commentary on our society’s transition to electronic news sources, the author notes that the Internet’s lower operating costs (as opposed to paper) has led to a shift in the consumption of news content.

Shirky states that our society has “long regarded the newspaper as a sensible object because it has been such a stable one.” He suggests that our trust in newspapers is created, not because of any logical connection between its components, but because of its established structure and balance between these components.

He explains that “what holds a newspaper together is primarily the cost of paper, ink, and distribution; a newspaper,” and that “what doesn’t go into a newspaper is whatever is too expensive to print and deliver. The old bargain of the newspaper—world news lumped in with horoscopes and ads from the pizza parlor—has now ended. The future presented by the Internet is the mass amateurization of publishing and a switch from ‘Why

publish this?’ to ‘Why not?’”

This is an interesting set of points.

First, that the structure of the newspaper—in its balance between articles/features, advertisements and alternative arts/sports/entertainment content to boost the publication’s market—coupled with a general widespread awareness of the angles of each publication and ultimate motivation to cover operational costs and produce profits, has allowed consumers of information to be aware of influences leading to the decision to publish or not publish each piece of content.

Second, that the Internet has removed the operational costs associated with broadcasting news to the masses and—with this massive dip in operational costs and space limitations for content—has removed limits on how much news can be broadcast and still make desired profits.

Shirky really gets to the heart of the matter with his statement: “The question that mass amateurization poses to traditional media is ‘what happens when the costs of reproduction and distribution go away? What happens when there’s nothing unique about publishing anymore, because users can do it for themselves?’ We are now starting to see that question being answered.”

Interestingly enough, I came to this realization earlier this week, when I— along with most of America—was devastated by the news of Whitney Houston’s death. I was reading an article in The New York Times, which credited a user on Twitter as the first to publish news of the singer’s death, more than 45 minutes before any other source.

Upon reading this, I looked at the results of an earlier Google search page—terms: ”Whitney Houston dead”—and clicked forward in the results. On the sixth or seventh page, I started to unearth blog posts and “news reports” that had been published over the past few years, all an-

graphic by steven wong/the hoot

nouncing the death of the artist.

In this moment, it was clear to see the way that the lack of filtration of content published on the Web impacts how we consume this information.

The Internet’s low operating costs, when compared with paper publishing have allowed information to flood the Web and have altered the way that society interacts with and consumes this information.

On the Internet, nobody is checking to ensure information being posted for access by the masses is accurate or unbiased. People had been publishing obituaries for a woman who was still very much alive.

When there was real news to report, however, an Internet news source was the first to make this information available to the public.

I can’t help but wonder how this strange juxtaposition of total nonsense on the same search page as real information affects the way we process the news we consume.

I am interested in how this Internet-facilitated transition to amateurized content obscures consumer’s

ability to gain insight into the motivation behind published content and leads to confusion between information and entertainment or advertisement.

In the traditional form of newspaper, the motivation between the answer to the question “why publish this?” was clear to the consumers of most publications.

This rule applies to all publishing outlets.

Book publishing companies judge their acceptance or rejection of submissions based on whether or not its content would generate profits on the shelves of bookstores nationwide.

Magazine companies compile articles and features that will result in the greatest consumption by a specific interest group or demographic to maximize profits.

In this model, different types of content were differentiated by the publications in which they were printed and information and entertainment were clearly identified. As the Internet has become prominent, publication of all of these types of content has become effortless—I

quote Shirky above in saying: “There’s nothing unique about publishing anymore, because users can do it for themselves.”

While it’s true that this amateurization of publishing facilitates the broadcasting of news and information that would never have reached public audiences due to the fact that it was not deemed “newsworthy,” it also makes it difficult for consumers of information to differentiate information from entertainment or advertisement. With the loss of distinction between these types of content, individuals lose perspective on what is fact and what is fabrication.

Shirky explains that “the old bargain of the newspaper” cues readers to expect the nonsense of advertisement and some published content in exchange for access to desirable informational content. In this situation, there is a clearly drawn and defined line between information and entertainment. On the Web, this line is blurred considerably, and I can’t help but wonder what happens when this perspective is lost and our consumption of information and nonsense.

8 IMPRESSIONS

Sexcapades

The Brandeis Hoot

February 17, 2012

The ins and outs of sex in a galaxy far, far away

graphic by jesse appell/the hoot

By Sean Fabery and Yael Katzwer Editors

SSIS does a great job of educating Brandeis students about sex, but there are just some things that SSIS has never bothered telling us. We had to learn these things from other places, including that sixth-grade sex

ed. class we crashed, that strip club we frequent or that strange site we stumbled across while on the Internet.

Now, this may not shock you, but one of the best sources of sex information is the movies. For example, we now know that there’s no lubricant better than a live chicken, and it’s all thanks to John Waters and his inspirational “Pink Flamingos.”

An even better source of sex advice than John Waters is George Lucas’

Second chance or keeping it quiet?

VIOLENCE, from page 8

advice (support the woman who was abused? Duh ...), the message came across as extreme and out of the blue.

Exactly three years later, Brown was once again scheduled to perform at the Grammys, and this year he didn’t get … uh … sidetracked.

Grammys executive producer Ken Ehrlich said, “We’re glad to have him back. I think people deserve a second chance, you know. If you’ll note, he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years and it may have taken us a while to kind of get over the fact that we were the victim of what happened.”

Yes. People deserve a second chance, even Chris Brown. But the Grammys are the victim? What? I’m sorry that three years ago they were forced very quickly to replan the evening due to circumstances out of their control. But the lack of compassion extends not only to Rihanna but to victims of domestic abuse everywhere.

Two weeks ago, Susan G. Komen For The Cure announced they would stop giving grants to Planned Parenthood for breast exams that had the potential to save lives. After a massive outcry, they reversed their decision three days later. This column two weeks ago was about my grandmother, a victim of breast

cancer, and why she would urge me to stop supporting Komen. I wrote that “she would find it inconceivable that Komen didn’t want to help women who were unable to provide for themselves.”

How is this any different? I respect Rihanna’s right to keep quiet about the incident and I don’t blame her. But someone needs to speak up for the countless men and women who have been victims of domestic violence, and by applauding Chris Brown we are telling those men and women that selling records offsets the pain he’s caused. We are telling them that they are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

It makes me angry and I hope it makes you angry. I’m making my anger public and I hope you’ll do the same.

Sasha Pasulka, an entertainment blogger, wrote this: “So I want to say this to anyone who is listening: This is not OK with me. A man hitting a woman in anger is unacceptable and is not easily forgotten or forgiven. A man who hits a woman in anger deserves to be reported to the authorities and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of who might be inconvenienced in the process. A man who hits a woman in anger may eventually be permitted to go on with his own life, but he is not permitted back in my life, even if it’s been three whole years.”

I can’t say it any better than that.

original “Star Wars” trilogy. Although George Lucas has surely never had sex in his life, he imparts a lot of wisdom in those movies. In case you only walked out of those movies thinking about the implicit coolness of lightsabers and Boba Fett, allow us to explain the sex lessons of “Star Wars” to you.

1. Don’t go around kissing people because they may be your long-lost twin. Before kissing anyone, insist

that they submit to DNA testing.

Also, if you do kiss them and they then turn out to be your sibling, never speak of it again.

2. For all those guys out there who fantasize about Princess Leia in a golden bikini: Stop! We now know that girls do not like that. If you even get your girlfriend to wear a golden bikini, it may result in her strangling you with a giant chain. That is an unpleasant way to go.

3. As with No. 2, if you look like Jabba the Hutt, you can’t get away with that shit—any shit to be exact.

We bet, however, that Han Solo can get Leia to wear whatever he damn well pleases—we mean, come on, he’s Han freakin’ Solo.

4. Since we’re on the topic, only Han Solo can get away with saying “I know” when a woman tells a man she loves him. If you try it, you may yet again find yourself at the wrong end of a short chain.

5. If you are going to insist on using your lightsaber only against the dark side like Luke Skywalker, don’t expect to get laid. No girls walked out of those movies wanting to sleep with Luke—it was all Han, all the time.

(And Chewie for that odd percent of the population that call themselves Plushies.)

6. Gay men will always be the coolest. Just look at R2-D2 and C-3PO. They’re so cool, they can get away with walking around naked (even Chewie has to wear a utility belt!).

7. Have performance anxiety issues? Don’t worry! If you happen to shoot first, you can always go back 20 years later and edit any evidence so that it looks like the other person went first. Or maybe that only applies to Han Solo, too.

8. Don’t talk like Yoda. Ever. It is

just so unappealing. When talk like this you do and when you insist on contradicting yourself every other sentence, people don’t want to hang around you. In fact, they will flee from you. There’s a reason Yoda lives all alone on Dagobah; people cannot stand to be around him. Even Luke— who doesn’t really have anyone else going for him—opts out of his whole training montage before it’s complete.

Yoda also gives really bad (sexual) advice; he tells Luke: “Size matters not.

Look at me.” Heh, good one, Yoda.

9. It’s OK to be a little rough every now and then, but everything works best in moderation. Darth Vader takes the entire choking thing way too far. Not cool, man.

10. Even the most annoying people will one day find the perfect person for them. Otherwise we wouldn’t have any ewoks.

So, while “Star Wars” may just seem like a trilogy of fun adventure flicks, it’s really so much more. If any of these lessons seem incorrect or counter-intuitive to those things which you think you already know, then you should internalize Yoda’s only line of dialogue that isn’t embarrassingly stupid: “You must unlearn what you have learned.”

Men, the next time you’re in bed with a girl just think: What would Han do? Then remember that you’re not Han and scale it back just a tad.

Ladies, remember, when you’re one of only three named women in the universe—the others of course being Aunt Beru and Mon Mothma—you can get away with pretty much anything. You just have to wait until that day.

Also, can Han really understand Chewie? Or does Han just have a thing for bears?

Gay marriage: Let’s fight for it MARRIAGE, from page 6

for who they are, let’s be honest with ourselves: That is not going to happen. Additionally, I can see both complaints above as good things. While the past fights have been polarizing and at times cruel, they forced the issue of gay marriage into the spotlight.

California’s struggles with accepting and equalizing its gay citizens forced other states to evaluate how they treat their citizens—all of them, not just the heterosexual ones. I honestly believe that had California not pushed the issue, the United States would not have experienced this deluge of progay marriage activism.

And, while future battles mean more hurtful words, more stress and more feelings of inadequacy, future battles also mean that the gay-marriage bug has not run its course. The more they fight in California and the higher they take this case in the court system, the more attention it receives and the likelier it is that gay marriage could be legalized on a federal level.

When this case hits the U.S. Supreme Court, that is it. While a U.S. Supreme Court ruling does not mean that that the issue will never be broached again, it is a far more definitive ruling than anything else. I have confidence that when gay marriage goes before the U.S. Supreme Court, it will be legalized and this legalization will have ramifications for all 50 states. Not allowing same-sex marriage is, plain and simple, unequal and against the Constitution that the U.S. Supreme Court justices have sworn to uphold.

I would actually like to thank the

photo from internet source

people who propagated Prop. 8 in California. Although their heartless desire to disenfranchise their fellow countrymen is cruel and is often pursued in slanderous and libelous ways, these people are forcing the issue to go higher within the court system.

While I sympathize with the pain that gay Americans must feel whenever they see a Prop. 8 poster or flyer, their strength to remain steadfast in their desire to get married and be equal despite the torrent of abusive behavior is a beacon for justice that will shine

even into our future generations and will stand as a testament to equality.

The more robust the fight to institute gay marriage is now, the more rigorous it will be in the future to preserve gay marriage.

All in all, it has been a good couple of weeks for the fight to legalize gay marriage. While this does not mean that these past weeks have been entirely positive, it means that our country is moving in the right direction and that this seemingly endless struggle will not be in vain.

February 17, 2012

IMPRESSIONS 9

The Brandeis Hoot

What you get for a B.A.

By Adam Cohen Staff

Conventional wisdom tells us that we’ll forget 90 percent of everything we learn in college. When we say this as a joke, laugh and complain about how unfortunate it is that we cram textbooks-worth of information into our brains and pour them out into a blue-book. Rarely do we take a moment to reflect on how sad this whole process is. No matter how well we think we know something, no matter how well we do on our exams, the words last longer on the page than in our minds. No wonder our books are so much heavier than our heads.

If this is true, what’s the point of going to college? What do we get out of our four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars besides that flimsy diploma? A job? To quote my mother, “in this economy? Oy.” So what then?

What’s the point?

As dismal as this outlook makes the liberal arts, there is some redeeming value to this whole system. It does not reside in the textbooks and notebooks we—well, I—save. We’ll never really read through those things again. It isn’t the learning we do outside of the classroom, though there is no denying that the growing up we hopefully accomplish in college helps to define

our futures. Let’s forget about all the things “we’re supposed to get” from our classes and think about what we actually get. What are the things we really come away with from all the hours spent in class?

The answer, I think, is something residual like the calm feeling that can come over you when you look at a picture you took on vacation. You don’t always know it’s there but then it makes itself known when you need it most. It is the grime that is left when we toss the books from the shelves of our mind and empty our hearts of campus melodrama. Like mold, it grows in the darkness when we don’t think about it. These imagines might be gross, but they illustrate the organic nature of the way we learn. Some things stick and grow along with us and some things fall off and die. The books and papers die away. Something remains and lives on inside of us, making us stronger.

That thing is …

Of course, I don’t speak from any experience. I am just a romantic senior with a cynical shell, months away from the real world whether I’m ready or not. Looking back on the hours spent studying, the trials and tribulations of papers and exams and the prospect of potentially leaving the cozy confines of Waltham for the fearsome wilderness of his par-

Midyear mess: housing headaches

By Zoë Kronovet Staff

You may be surprised to hear that I am not unhappy being a midyear. I know that it has been discussed many times, but as a receiver of the midyear acceptance letter, I can’t emphasize the confusion and insecurity that follows its delivery. I spent the many months separating my acceptance to the university and my arrival in Waltham, hoping that by the time Brandeis began I would be genuinely excited to be here. Now, more than a month into the semester, I am glad to report that I am.

The midyear experience, however, is not a flawless one. One of the only truly negative aspects midyears have to confront is the housing process, after just a few weeks at Brandeis. Other firstyears have the opportunities to form relationships with their friends and establish whether or not they would be good roommates. Midyears, however, are forced to bond quickly under the duress of being the “new guys” and unstable relationships ensue.

Many promises have been made thus far within the midyear group about housing next year. Friends have come up to me, clutching the roots of their hair in a panic, confessing to have promised themselves to two different friend groups and accompanying housing arrangements. I have already been part of a failed attempt at establishing a “common-cause community.” We went so far as to begin to write the application before we realized that we truly had no interest in committing ourselves to the cause we were writing about, but instead were just hoping to avoid the catastrophe that the housing process appears to be.

During the last day of the ori-

entation we were treated to a presentation on the housing lottery system and process that sufficiently freaked me out. I have had very little time to come to terms with the fact that I could either end up in a closet in the Castle, a bug infested room in East or a smoky haze in Rosie.

I’ve heard horror stories of former midyears whose housing situations completely deteriorated, resulting in rooms being swapped.

While I’m sure this is not limited only to former midyears, it is undeniable that the time crunch in which midyears are forced to make housing decisions can contribute to this housing strife.

An added downside to the midyear-housing situation is that we are set up in what has been described to me as “hotel-style” living. After living in the Village for a month, it’s not difficult to see why my living in the Village and all the things that go along with it (the gym, the V-Store, kitchens) is “clutch” to say the least. I’ve lost track of the number of times nonmidyears have told me not to get used to my cushy living situation because its all downhill after living in the Village.

I appreciate that the midyear program facilitates bonding within the Chosen Ones (the midyears) and I don’t find it to be exclusionary from the first-year community or the Brandeis community as a whole. At the same time, living in the Village does narrow down potential roommates, seeing as we’re only exposed to 100 or so people in a communal fashion.

I’m not sure how this problem can be remedied or avoided. I only hope that the friends that I make this semester as a midyear continue to be my friends after the housing process, which I’ve been told can be the beginning or end of friendships.

ents’ house. This piece is more of a prayer than it is a conviction. I don’t know exactly what it is actually we come away from college with. People say it’s the skills to succeed in the world, the ability to be a productive and thoughtful contributor to society, and, above all, the ability to find and attain those things that will make you most happy in life, whatever they may be. I don’t really think it’s that either.

What I think, no, what I hope is a sense of confidence. Of course, it is nice to graduate with knowledge and skills as I hope we all will to one extent or another, but I think there’s something more. I hope we graduate with the confidence that we could somehow transform from the starry-eyed, bewildered and strange people we were when we first came to this cold corner of the academia into something resembling a human being. If we remember anything, if we retain anything from our time at Brandeis, I hope it’s that we conquered this phase in life, we passed the tests with flying colors and you better believe we can do it again. We might all still be lost.

From what I’ve heard we’re all going to be lost for a long, long time. I hope our college experience will give us the courage to forge ahead and find our way through the unknown. If it’s anything like coming to college, then I’m sure we’ll all be smiling soon enough.

graphic by ariel wittenberg/the hoot

Still Writing

How a game of ‘chicken’ could teach us about compromise

By Gordy Stillman Staff

Chicken is a game between two parties in which both take positions and attempt to make the other yield, with the worst possible situation being neither party yielding. A simple example would be two cars driving down a single-lane road. As they approach each other, both sides try to get the other to move to the side and out of the way. If neither side shifts, they will crash.

A similar situation arises when sports teams need or want (both are possible) new stadiums. In this scenario, the two cars are replaced by the ownership of a team, seeking a new and better venue in order to update the experience for both the teams and the fans, the government, seeking to balance budgets and not spend money irresponsibly. It happens all the time, most clearly when teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and infamously the Indianapolis Colts relocated to their current locations. One current example is the give-and-take between the Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Legislature.

The Minnesota Vikings are “franchise free agents,” they have no lease and, until last Wednesday, were free to relocate to anywhere provided the NFL approve of the relocation.

Since Wednesday was the deadline for the Vikings to inform Commissioner Roger Goodell of intentions to move, it’s safe to say that they are not relocating to Los Angeles or anywhere else for the 2012 season.

They have been working for most of the last 10 years trying to convince the state legislature that the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome has become too old and out-dated to be a viable stadium. Unlike the three other regular tenants, they have been unable to get funding for new

venues. While Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins were able to get funding for the construction of Target Field, and the University of Minnesota was able to fund the building of TCF Bank Stadium, the Vikings have been sitting on the side and consistently pushed as an issue of low priority.

On the other side of the issue is a Republican-controlled state legislature that will not implement a new tax to fund a future stadium and a democratic (technically democraticfarmer-labor) governor Mark Dayton that is hesitant to pull state money from other programs or funds in order to finance a stadium.

While I can sympathize with the fact that money is not made out of thin air and the fact that the state has been involved in two stadiums during the last six years, the fact remains that the state has handled the whole situation horribly. After nearly a year of work promoting and developing a site and a proposal to fund construction, most of this while the legislative session had adjourned for the year, the legislature has all but crushed that plan while Governor Dayton has endorsed what the Vikings have made clear is the “least preferable” option.

If the state government was going to do nothing but tear the proposals apart piece by piece, why not either call a special session and decide against the proposal back in September? Why not become actively involved in building the project plan together so that both sides can be happy with the end product.

Aside from issues of where to build and how to fund a stadium, there are issues of the details that also need to be hammered out. The Vikings feel that they only “need” an outdoor stadium, without a roof. The state wants a stable or retractable roof so that a future stadium can be used

year-round for functions in the winter and spring months when football doesn’t have games and its too cold to have outdoor events.

Compromise can work in two ways. The first and more common way is when both sides trade concessions and walk away with something that they don’t like but is between the two original proposals.

The less common situation is when the two feuding sides come together and hammer out a new unified plan.

Whether politicians realize it or not, having professional sports teams bring in a lot of money through taxes and raise the profile of a city relative to other regional population centers. To lose an NFL team will hurt the local economy as well as government tax revenue whereas construction of a new stadium would provide jobs in both the building and the management of a new stadium.

Just because the Vikings cannot move away this year, does not mean that they are not free to leave after the upcoming season. If the two sides could come together and, rather than tear each others’ proposals apart, build a plan with both sides’ support, Minnesota can avoid having another team go the way of the Lakers and the Vikings can avoid becoming like the Baltimore Colts and re-locating overnight.

Teams re-locate often when they cannot come to an agreement with local government over the financing of either upgraded or wholly new stadiums. The Colts left Baltimore, the Browns (now Ravens) in all but name and history left Cleveland and the Oilers (now Titans) left Houston. If the parties in Minnesota cannot learn to stop playing chicken and start compromising and working together, it appears all too likely that the Vikings will be the next NFL team to relocate.

10 The Brandeis Hoot

VIEWS OF THE WEEK

Clockwise from top-left A volunteer kicks back while letting loose some lifeblood; a student cuts loose at the TRISK dance; ribbons festoon the stairways of the SCC reminding students to register for Relay for Life; Gabriel Nemzov ’12 puts on his thinking cap for trivia night at the Stein; wireframe and cardboard instruments line the walls of Spingold Theater; and a dancer bathes in the blue light of the TRISK dance.

February 17, 2012

photos by nathan rosenbloom/the hoot

February 17, 2012

FEATURES

The Brandeis Hoot 11

Posse program supports student achievement

By Marisa Budlong Special to the Hoot

This academic year marks the 14th year that Brandeis University has worked with the Posse Foundation, which works with public high school students in urban areas that have great potential for academic achievement, founded in 1989 by Brandeis alumna Deborah Bial ’87.

The Posse Foundation has joined up with 39 top colleges and universities in addition to Brandeis and has eight sites throughout the country, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York and Washington D.C. Posse partner colleges and universities award Posse Scholars four-year, full-tuition leadership scholarships.

Posse’s success stems from the support system––or each student’s own posse. Each Posse student is placed in a supportive and multicultural team of 10 students, which serves as a way for increased individual and communal development. Posse claims to have started when one student said, “I never would have dropped out of college if I had my posse with me.” These simple words started what the Posse Foundation considers a “movement” to gain diversity in representation for leadership roles.

Posse at Brandeis works through two systems: one for the liberal arts and one for the sciences. Each year, 10 Posse students are selected for each section of study. In order to be chosen, a student must undergo a Dynamic Assessment Process or (DAP).

This non-traditional forum scouts outstanding leaders that would otherwise be overlooked, but would excel in certain colleges and universities.

Unlike Liberal Arts Posse students, Science Posse scholars must complete a two-week “Science Boot Camp” prior to the start of classes and are required to enroll in introductory science and math courses during their first year of study.

Dean of Academic Services Kim Godsoe oversees the Brandeis Posse Scholars and believes that it is a great method for success. “Posse students are leaders in the classroom and in campus activities. They are regularly on the dean’s list [for academic achievement] and hold many leadership positions across campus,” Godsoe said. “The energy and enthusiasm with which they embrace Brandeis is inspiring. After Brandeis, Posse Scholars are leaders in business, com-

munications, education, science and non-profit work.”

Posse students generally surpass the level of the average college student. With a 90 percent graduation rate, which is much higher than the national average of 55.5 percent, a number of Posse students go on to acquire leadership roles after their graduation in their careers.

This past week, the Office of the United States Press Secretary announced that President Barack Obama would invest more than $100 million in students that pursued science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The Obama Administration plans to take steps to prepare 100,000 math and science teachers to meet the increasing demand for STEM graduates over the next generation. Both the Posse Foundation and Brandeis University were mentioned in the enhancement of the means to increase the number of STEM students. Brandeis University was one of the first academic institutions to invest in the Posse Foundation, and trialed the first ever posse devoted specifically to the sciences or “STEM Posse.” The first of these Brandeis STEM Posse students had the promising result of a 100 percent graduation rate, with most of the students pursuing graduate or professional degrees in a STEM field.

In a recent interview, President Obama mentioned founder and MacArthur awardee Deborah Bial as an “innovator” who “proposed a model to identify promising students from disadvantaged urban backgrounds using an alternative set of qualities as predictors of success in college.”

“President Obama’s support is exciting, but it doesn’t change the number or the way that we select students.

It does demonstrate that Posse and Posse Scholars are respected on a national level,” Godsoe said.

Irv Epstein, a Henry F. Fischbach Professor of Chemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor at Brandeis University founded the Brandeis Science Posse. Four years ago, Epstein won a million-dollar grant from the country’s prime private funder of science education, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grant, to start the STEM Posse program at Brandeis. With this grant, the Brandeis Science Posse was up and running by fall 2008 when the first Science Posse of 10 arrived. Just a year ago, Epstein won another grant of $600,000 for the STEM program.

photos courtsey of brandeis.edu

posse program at brandeis Students in the Posse program pose with their peers, who form a support network encouraging leadership and scholarship at Brandeis.

Pests infest dorms, to students’ ire

By Zach Reid Staff

In many residence halls across the campus, students have found themselves at odds with all manner of pests. They include but are by no means limited to spiders, flies, mice, beetles, cockroaches and the “East Bug.” East Bugs, otherwise known as house centipedes (scutigera coleoptrata), can most often be found on the first through fourth floors of the buildings in East Quad, and have been described by a Community Advisor from East as “truly terrifying.”

They do, however, feed on other insects, so they contribute something to keeping East Quad from becoming even more infested with pests.

Despite their efforts, East Bugs are not the only pests in the quad. The same CA recollected how after being one of the first residents to move

back, they “awoke one morning to find that I had placed my stuff across the path of an ant colony foraging for food.”

Many of these incidents, however, are not reported to Facilities. According to Peter Shields, Facilities Administrator, there have only been 11 pest control work orders for the residence halls in East Quad, all of which were from the Hassenfeld. Shields also stated, “Both of those buildings have routine preventative maintenance scheduled throughout the year.”

There have also been pest issues in halls on the other side of campus, including Renfield Hall. Sarah Copel ’15 told The Hoot how, after a friend left food on her carpet, her room (located on the ground-level floor) was “swarming with ants.” After contacting Facilities, Copel was told “the best way to get rid of them would be to remove the food and wait.”

Ants also occupied other rooms on Copel’s floor during early November,

and many residents were similarly told to “keep food in a closed container” and to “wait it out” to remove the ants. In both Copel’s room and others on the floor, the ants did leave once there was no open food present in the rooms.

The same CA from East Quad commented that Brandeis ”does have an exterminator … who’s available twice a week,” Tuesdays and Thursdays, according to the Facilities Web page, and has eradicated the infestations he is informed about. Both the CA and Shields agree that Facilities’ measures against pests are adequate, and that while they can be minimized, pestrelated incidents are a part of life on campus.

Overall, it seems clear that this is just one more way Brandeis helps it students to grow—by teaching them both valuable self-defense skills against pests and patience, because students simply shouldn’t let issues bug them.

‘it’s bugging me!’ Pests such as the one above have invaded

many residence halls around campus.

photo from internet source

12 FEATURES

The Brandeis Hoot

February 17, 2012

Don’t worry, there’s no rush to join ’Deis activities View from the Top: Yael Katzwer

By Yael Katzwer Editor

When I look back at my past three and a half years at Brandeis, a lot of things stand out. One thing that truly stands out to me is the differences I see between myself and a lot of my classmates. Often when I speak to people, they will tell me how all the way back in our first year they joined the five clubs with which they are now involved and they had already chosen their three majors.

That was so not the case for me. I came to Brandeis with only a vague notion of what my major would be. I was all gung-ho about being a journalism major only to discover a couple of months before moving in my first year that Brandeis does not have a journalism major. That sent me into a tailspin. I quickly started telling people that I would minor in journalism but when they asked what I was considering for my majors, I would shrug and chuckle self-deprecatingly.

Oddly enough, everyone else knew before me what majors I would eventually gravitate toward. Upon telling my mother that I did not know what to major in, she laughed and said, “English …” as if this were the obvious answer. And she was right. I am an English major and I love it. I have loved English since high school, where everyone told me I would be an English major. I love reading all those “classic” texts and I love writing essays. Since my time at Brandeis I have taken English classes on Renaissance literature regarding witchcraft, Shakespeare and early American bestsellers.

The last class was particularly fun because, as anyone glancing at the New York Times bestseller list can tell you, not all bestsellers are actually good books.

That being said, I declared my English major the last day of sophomore year on the last day in which I was able to do so. I made that deadline by a few hours. I did not even take any English classes my first year.

My second major, Classical Studies, was so far into left field for me that no one could have anticipated it. I have loved Greek and Roman mythology since I was little kid when I learned to read English using a beautifully illustrated mythology book. My entrance into Classics was very gradual.

Upon arriving at Brandeis, I looked at the university requirements and saw that I needed to acquire 30-level proficiency in a language. I had taken Hebrew for 12 years and Spanish for four years and I did not really speak either of them. I figured that the third time is the charm and decided to start fresh with a new language. And by new, I mean old, very old.

I saw “Introductory Latin” and thought: why not? I ended up loving it. I stayed in both semesters of introduction Latin and then then took more semesters of advanced Latin sophomore year. One can not appreciate Ovid until one has read him in Latin. At the end of sophomore year though, Professor Patricia Johnston (CLAS) took me out to lunch to discuss Latin and, somehow, by the end of lunch, I was a Classics minor.

I was perfectly happy being a Classics minor but, somehow, at the end of junior year, I emerged from Professor AOK-O’s office, where I had gone to discuss a paper, as a Classics major. I am convinced that the Classics professors have some sort of Jedi mind power: (with an overwrought sweep of the arm) You want to major in Classics.

I want to major in Classics.

I am very happy though and abso-

photos contributed by yael katzwer

yael katzwer and hoot members

lutely love Latin, mythology, archaeology, all of it. I really recommend at least one Classics class, if not more, to everyone. The Classics department is phenomenal and I cannot now imagine myself not being a Classics major.

To recap, none of the classes I took my first year counted toward either of my majors and yet I still am managing to graduate with the typical Brandeisian overachieving double-major.

Let’s be honest, had I known for certain in what I had wanted to major back in my first year, I probably would not be as stressed now as I am. Although I am finishing, I did cut it closely. I am taking two Classics classes this semester that I need for my major and I had to substitute a few classes to make it work.

I still would not change my first year here. By not being focused on anything, I was able to take a lot of different classes and to spread my wings a bit. I took a class with Professor Bernadette Brooten (NEJS) about slavery—both historical and modern—through the lenses of race and religion. This may sound cliché, but that class changed the way in which I view the world. I also took a class on environmental health—a dreaded science class!—and loved it. I have not taken another class like this since but I really am glad that I had the chance to take it once.

My advice to first-years is to take their time and let things come naturally. This goes for academic and ex-

tracurricular pursuits.

Everyone has heard the story of the first-year who leaves the Activities Fair signed up for a million clubs and who runs himself ragged trying to be active in 20 clubs. That was not me.

I left the Activities Fair signed up for two listservs: The Blowfish and Hillel.

I signed up for Hillel because I felt I should. I had a very weird relationship with Hillel my first year; I obligatorily went to the first Hillel Shabbat dinner of the semester and to Friday night services that first Shabbat. I did not go again for the entirety of my first year.

I had gone to a Jewish high school and, as much as I hate to admit this, I had come to look at Judaism as something in which I was being forced to participate, not something in which I wanted to participate. I saw Brandeis—although it is sometimes called a “Jew school”—as my out from Judaism for a while. And I lived the life. I maintained my kashrut, but that was about it.

By sophomore year, however, I realized that I missed going to services and I missed doing something special for Shabbat. I began my time at Brandeis, basically, as an un-practicing Jew but came to realize how much I loved Judaism. Religion is incredibly enjoyable and fulfilling when you do not feel like you are being forced into it.

Sophomore year I began to go to services again and I started going to Hillel events; I made a bunch of new

friends. I was often asked that year as I met new people: Oh, are you a firstyear? Awkward. (I still get that a lot from people in my class—oh well.)

I have now become a fixture at Hillel dinner and Friday night services and could not be happier about it. I am slowly expanding my involvement with Brandeis’ Jewish community and am falling in love with my religion anew. This year I even learned how to lead certain religious services that I had never led before and gave my first d’var Torah since my bat mitzvah!

The only other thing I signed up for my first year—The Blowfish, Brandeis’ best newspaper—I also integrated myself into slowly. I was so shy my first year that I would go in, copy edit the hilarious articles and then leave again; I was so quiet that apparently some of the editors did not know I could speak. By sophomore year I had begun to write and the editors realized that maybe there was a reason that the mute new girl had joined the comedy newspaper. It turns out I can be funny sometimes— not always, but sometimes.

I am now an editor at The Blowfish and our new members find it difficult to believe that I was not always the outspoken and immediately noticeable person I am now.

Now, you may have noticed that it says “Editor” under my byline at the top of this column. Yeah, I did not join The Hoot until my second semester sophomore year. I know, I

know, for someone who considers journalism to be her passion, I waited a ridiculously long time. Part of the reason was a vacillation between The Hoot and the Justice and part of the reason was that I was afraid to take on too much. Just like with my majors, with Hillel and with The Blowfish, I fell in love almost as soon as I joined The Hoot and quickly rose within the ranks.

I love working on The Hoot for journalistic reasons—I think we put out a damn good paper—and I love the people with whom I work. My fellow editors at The Hoot are some of my best friends at Brandeis. I am not going to go into specifics and name names because, if you are still reading this, you will quit if I do that. It’s OK, I know. Whereas I had once found myself always doing work on weekends and staying in my room, I now find myself hanging out with friends and going places. (I still do work of course; I just have to plan my time better.) Joining The Blowfish and The Hoot were two of the best decisions I have made at Brandeis (I highly recommend it—nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

In summation, when I was an underclassmen at Brandeis, I was almost always panicking that I did not have these clear plans about what I wanted to do and how exactly my future in academic career would play out. It always seemed that everyone else always knew exactly which classes they were going to take semesters in advance, had planned where they were going to dorm in the coming years and had a trajectory for their involvement in their clubs. Honestly, I still feel like that sometimes but I have learned just to sit back and enjoy the ride.

I may not have always known exactly which classes I would be taking weeks in advance but everything always worked out. I have learned to somewhat embrace this philosophy (at least about these things—do not take this as a permit to plan nothing).

It is important to let things happen naturally.

I did not come into Brandeis telling everyone that I was majoring in English; I waited it out, took some chances with other classes and then returned to my old love. I did not come into Brandeis boasting about my Classics major; I discovered a new adoration of Latin, rekindled my old passion for mythology and learned to appreciate the subtle beauty of ancient architecture and wall painting.

I was tired of Judaism when I entered Brandeis but, by allowing my innate passion and spirituality to grow, I came back and am happier in Judaism than I ever had been before.

Entering Brandeis I knew I loved newspapers and copy editing, yet the only publication I joined was The Blowfish. I took my time to decide which serious newspaper to join and am confident that I made the right decision as I have made the friends of a lifetime.

Underclassmen, don’t make any hasty decisions when picking majors and clubs. Don’t compare yourself to everyone else and assume that just because you are doing things differently that you are doing them incorrectly.

Four years is a long time and during that time you will change—a lot.

Things that you may love your first year, you may feel lukewarm about by senior year. If you are trying something new and do not like it, do not be afraid to abandon it for a new pursuit.

Let your majors and clubs choose you; wait until something calls to you. Do not force it; let it all come naturally.

EDITORIALS

February 17, 2012

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editor-in-Chief Jon Ostrowsky Managing Editors Yael Katzwer Nathan Koskella Alex Schneider Editor Emeritus Connor Novy News Editor Morgan Gross Impressions Editor Candice Bautista Arts, Etc. Editor Brian Tabakin Sports Editor Ingrid Schulte Photography Editor Nate Rosenbloom Photography Editor Emily Stott Layout Editor Steven Wong Graphics Editor Leah Finkelman Production Editor Gordy Stillman Business Editor Suzanna Yu Copy Editor Morgan Dashko Deputy Copy Editor Destiny D. Aquino Senior Editor Sean Fabery Senior Editor

Volume 9 • Issue 4 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

U

Applaud new MBTA proposal

nder mounting pressure for seeking large cuts in transport service, the MBTA has released a subsequent proposal with a range of alternatives to make up the budget shortfall. We applaud the attempt, which has steps that would be a great improvement to loss of service.

The authority suggested a 50-cent surcharge on concert tickets, as these large events contribute greatly to service use on the T. This proposal is sound, and would be nearly painless per person affected while raising $5 million. We approve of it so much that we believe surcharge should even be increased to $1 per ticket, doubling the amount of money raised to $10 million. It could also include convention center atten-

dance rates and other large events—a dollar more for a downtown event ticket is much easier than a dramatic loss of T service for everyone, including the concert-goer.

The extra money in the doubling would allow the MBTA to drop a disturbing portion of its new proposal: the requested $2 million in “advertising” it seeks from places who have named stations, like Harvard, Boston University and Brandeis. Our university would be charged $50,000 for the Brandeis/Roberts commuter rail station. The advertising idea is shallow and demands far more money for name recognition than the stops deserve.

Universities already pay enough under the other parts of the plan. More than

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 Senior Staff Nafiz “Fizz” Ahmed Alana Blum Debby Brodsky Savannah Pearlman Sam Allen, Rick Alterbaum, Victoria Aronson, Louis Berger, Alex Bernstein, Emily Breitbart, Adam Cohen, Haley Fine, Jeremy Goodman, Rachel Hirschhaut, Paula Hoekstra, Adam Hughes, Gabby Katz, Josh Kelly, Samuel Kim, Zoe Kronovet, Sarah Sue Landau, Arielle Levine, Ariel Madway, Estie Martin, Juliette Martin, Adam Marx, Anita Palmer, Alex Patch, Lien Phung, Zachary Reid, Betty Revah, Zach Romano, Ricky Rosen, Aaron Sadowsky, Jessica Sashihara, Sarah Schneider, Alex Self, Naomi Shine, Diane Somlo, Sindhura Sonnathi, Ryan Tierney, Alan Tran, Dana Trismen, Yi Wang, 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.

The Brandeis Hoot 13

Give a Hoot, Join The Hoot!

The Hoot is looking for writers, editors, photographers and illustrators this spring semester.

thebrandeishoot.com/join

$10 million would be extracted from colleges, museums and other institutions that make use of the T for their high level of visitors. As long as these fees assessed were distributed in a way so that groups with different levels of monetary gain from the T were paying fairly representative rates, the plan can be swallowed without too much hardship.

All of these ideas are steps in the right direction away from would-be disastrous cuts to weekend commuter rail and other services. Boston with its T is one of the most tourist-friendly cities in the nation, and is completely without rival for its student population.

There’s no making “Boston” without a strong “T.”

SPORTS

14 The Brandeis Hoot

February 17, 2012

Men’s basketball drop two, fall to fourth in the UAA

By Brian Tabakin Editor

The Brandeis men’s basketball team suffered a major setback this weekend in their quest for a berth into the NCAA Division III tournament. This past Friday the Judges fell at Rochester 76-61 as the Judges could just not stop the Yellowjackets’ offense, and then two days later on Sunday, the Judges failed to complete a last-minute rally against 23rd-ranked Emory as they lost 65-62. With the back-toback losses, the Judges record fell to 12-10 (6-5 UAA) and they dropped into a fourth-place tie in the UAA with Rochester and Chicago behind Washington, Emory and NYU. Forward Vytas Kriskus ’12 once again led the Judges with 21 points and a game-high eight rebounds with four of his boards coming on the offensive glass. Kriskus connected on 7-of-18 from the field including a three-pointer and was 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Guard Jay Freeman ’13 once again provided a spark off of the bench scoring 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc and center Youri Dascy ’14 added 11 points on 5-of7 shooting. Unfortunately, no other Judges’ player had more than six points or three rebounds.

Brandeis was unable to stop or at the very least contain Rochester junior guard John DiBartolomeo as he scored 27 points on 9-of-11 shooting, 4-of-4 on three-pointers, and 5-of5 from the free-throw line. While as a team Brandeis connected on 43.4 percent (23-of-53) from the field, and just 25 percent (4-of-16) from beyond the arc, their defense was unable to stop the Rochester offense as the Yellowjackets shot 57.4 percent (27-of-47), and an impressive 50 percent (6-of-12) from downtown.

Brandeis started the game quickly, immediately taking a 14-8 lead in the first six minutes of play; however, Rochester quickly responded with a 16-3 run during the next five minutes to take a 24-17 lead. The Judges pulled within five points on multiple

occasions, but that was as close as they ever got, as the Yellowjackets would never surrender the lead.

DiBartolomeo scored 18 of his 27 points in the first half to help Rochester build an eight-point lead at the half, while Kriskus contributed 10 points for the Judges. Rochester took a 37-29 lead to the locker room at the break.

Rochester scored the first five points of the second half quickly to stretch their lead to 13 points. The Yellowjackets kept this comfortable lead for most of the second half; however, the Judges were able to make the game interesting in the game’s closing minutes. Down 11, 62-51, with 7:11 left in the contest, Brandeis quickly went on a 6-0 run that forward Alex Stoyle ’14 capped off with a jumper to pull the Judges within five points; however, on the next Rochester possession, DiBartolomeo drew a foul and calmly drained both free throws.

Furthermore the Yellowjackets scored on each of their next two possessions while getting defensive stops on the other end to stretch their lead back to 13 points and ice the game.

The Judges hoped to bounce back from their loss two days later as they traveled to Emory to face the 23rdranked Eagles.

Down 10 points at halftime, the Judges made a valiant rally against Emory coming back from a 12-point deficit to take a late lead and then tie the game after a three-pointer from Kriskus; however, with the game appearing to be headed into overtime, the Eagles hit a three-pointer with just three seconds left to break the tie and escape with a three-point win, 65-62. Freeman commented, “There were no defensive breakdowns on the final play. They just hit a good shot.”

Kriskus had his third double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Additionally, his gametying three-pointer in the closing minute of the contest was the 150th of his career, making him just the sixth Judges player to reach the mark. Furthermore, with his 13 points, Kriskus now needs just 23 points to become

jay freeman ‘13 passes the ball up court

the 30th player to score 1,000 points in their collegiate career.

Dascy led the Judges with 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting while guard Ben Bartoldus ’14 scored 13 points as well.

Guard Tyrone Hughes ’12 had six assists.

Despite outshooting the Eagles 49 percent (25-of-51) to 45.8 percent (22-of-48), the Judges were unable to get the victory. The Eagles outscored the Judges 16-6 from the free-throw line and had a 22-8 advantage in points scored off of turnovers.

Freeman added, “We put ourselves in a hole the way we played in the first half. Turnovers really hurt us, and we just couldn’t execute. We played much better in the second half, limited our turnovers, just executed better.”

The Judges lost by just three points and the 22 points that the Eagles scored off of the Judges’ 22 turnovers clearly doomed the Judges’ effort.

The loss has to be disheartening for

photo from brandeisnow

the Judges as their defensive energy and effort was drastically improved from their previous loss at Rochester.

The 65 points the Eagles scored were more than 20 points below the season scoring average for Emory.

Freeman continued adding, “Emory’s a great offensive team; we just couldn’t pull it out, just a tough loss.

I’m proud of the effort. Everyone fought hard. Had a good run at the end, we were just a shot or two away.”

While the Judges’ prospects for a berth in the Division III NCAA tournament have taken a serious blow, the Judges can still make a case for a birth with a strong showing in their three-game home stand against UAA competition.

Ultimately, the Judges’ NCAA fate will be decided by the coaches. The Judges can only worry about taking care of their own business with threestraight wins to close out the season.

Brandeis will take on conference-

leading Washington this Friday at 8 p.m. as they close out the season at the home.

could only muster an 18-14 advantage in second chance points. Their inability to convert their offensive rebounds into easy buckets loomed large as the Judges only lost by five points. Guard Diana Cincotta M.A. ’12 added seven points and a careerhigh four steals while forward Shannon Hassan ’12 contributed six points off of the bench.

Emory had four starters in double figures and were led by junior center Danielle Landry who had 12 points.

The Judges were able to keep sophomore guard Hannah Lily, the UAA leading scorer, to a manageable 11 points and also held senior guard Melissa Koike to 11 points. Junior forward Misha Jackson chipped in 10 points for the Eagles and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds with six of her boards coming on the offensive glass, half of Emory’s total offensive rebounds. Jackson also grabbed the

Men’s basketball Team

UAA

All

Washington

9–2

17 – 5

Emory

7–4

18 – 4

NYU

7–4

18 – 4

Rochester

6–5

15 – 7

Chicago

6–5

15 – 7

Brandeis

6–5

12 –10

Carnegie Mellon

2–9

7 – 15

Case Western

1 – 10

9 – 13

Box Scores Rochester

Loss

76 – 61

Emory

Loss

65 – 62

Women’s basketball’s cold shooting forces losing skid to four

By Brian Tabakin editor

The Brandeis women’s basketball team has further fallen down the UAA standings after dropping both games this past weekend, a 53-48 loss to Emory and a 53-37 loss to 11th-ranked Rochester. Two weeks ago, the Judges were hoping to establish momentum after notching their first UAA victory; however, they proceeded to go 0-4 on their four-game UAA road trip. The Judges have been struggling from the field during the past few games and this weekend was no different as their cold shooting doomed the team in both games. During their four-game losing skid the Judges are shooting just 26.7 percent (65-of-243). With the losses, the Judges fall to 8-14 (110 UAA) on the season.

Against Rochester this past Friday, Brandeis could not find its shooting touch. Guard Morgan Kendrew ’12 led the Judges with eight points; however, her eight points were just the second time in 10 UAA games that she had been held to less than 10 points. Forward Nicolina Vitale ’14 and guard Kelly Ethier ’12 each scored seven points off of the bench.

The Judges shot just 22 percent from the field (13-of-59) for the game and failed to drain a single three-pointer going 0-of-13 as Rochester held the Judges to their second-lowest scoring total of the season.

Rochester sophomore guard Laney Ming scored 11 points for the Yellow-

jackets, and she was the only player in the contest to reach double figures.

Additionally, sophomore forward Loren Wagner had nine points and 11 rebounds off of the bench. Finally, senior forward Jodie Luther also had eight points for Rochester.

Rochester shot just 34 percent from the field (21-of-61) and 25 percent (4-of-16) from downtown, but it was enough to win as Brandeis was never able to get into any offensive rhythm.

Brandeis committed 15 turnovers in the contest and Rochester converted those 15 turnovers into 14 easy points. Furthermore, the Judges struggled at the free-throw line, shooting just 57.9 percent (11-of-19).

Despite the Judges shooting woes, if they had been able to limit their turnovers and hit their free throws they would have been in a position to win the game.

The Judges’ ability to control the offensive glass was one of the few bright spots in the game. Brandeis out-rebounded Rochester 47-46 but 17 of those were offensive rebounds that the Judges converted into 11 secondchance points.

Just two days later, the Judges looked to rebound from the loss as they traveled to Emory. Despite dominating the Eagles on the boards 5534 and having a 19-3 edge in bench scoring, shooting woes continued to plague the Judges as they shot just 28.6 percent (16-of-56) from the field in the game. The Judges would end up losing the game 53-48.

Kendrew once again led the Judges

nicolina vitale ‘14 goes up for a layup

with 11 points, marking the seventhstraight game and 11th time in the last 12 games that she has been the team’s leading scorer; however, Kendrew was just 4-of-20 from the field, including 3-of-12 from beyond the arc in an extremely inefficient shooting performance. Forward Erica Higginbottom ’13 led the Judges’ dominating effort on the boards grabbing a career-high 11, including six on the offensive glass. The Judges had a 20-12 edge in offensive rebounds but

photo from brandeisnow

See W. BASKETBALL page 15

February 17, 2012

SPORTS 15

The Brandeis Hoot

Fencing impresses at Duke Invitational and the Beanpot

By Brian Tabakin Editor

This past Saturday the men’s fencing team went 2-3 at the Duke Invitational, finishing in a tie for third place.

The Judges defeated Johns Hopkins for the second week in a row, 17-10, while edging North Carolina 14-13 to avenge a loss from earlier in the season against the Tar Heels. Brandeis had hard-fought 15-12 losses to both Air Force and Duke while falling to top-ranked Penn State 19-8.

The match against Johns Hopkins, which came down to the final bout a week ago at the Eric Sollee Invitational at Brandeis University, was decided much more quickly this week.

The Judges won in saber competition 7-2 and in foil competition 6-3 while just losing epee competition by a slim 5-4 margin. Jess Ochs-Willard ’15 went 3-0 in saber action while Adam Mandel ’15 finished 2-0. Juan Castillo ’14 and Noah Berman ’15 led the foil squad as they both won all three of their bouts, while Alex Powell ’12 finished 3-0 in epee action.

In their contest against the Tar Heels, who had previously defeated the Judges 17-10 on Dec. 2, all three weapons came down to the final bout with Brandeis emerging victorious in two of the three weapons to pull out the victory against coach Bill Shipman’s alma mater. In epee, the two teams split the first six bouts, before Mike Zook ’13 took a 3-2 decision to give Brandeis a 4-3 lead. After Harry Kaufer ’13 lost 5-4 in the next bout, Powell won the final and decisive bout 5-3 to win the epee competition for the Judges.

The saberists were also tied 3-3 after the first six bouts; however, Carolina took two of the next three bouts to win saber action. Foil competition was tied 3-3 as well through the first six bouts, but Berman and Ethan Levy ’15 won their bouts 5-3 and 5-2 respectively to get the win for the Judges.

In their close losses to Air Force and Duke, the Judges earned one weapon victory in each contest.

Against the Falcons, Mandel and Ben Loft ’15 each went 2-1 while OchsWillard earned a point as well to give the saber squad a 5-4 victory. In their contest with the Blue Devils, both Cardillo and Berman won all of their bouts to lead the foil squad to a 7-2 win.

Three Judges posted winning records against Penn State with Kaufer, Zook and Mandel each going 2-1 to account for six of the Judges’ eight points.

A few days later, the Judges traveled to the Beanpot Tournament at Harvard where they finished in second place at 2-1. It was the second consecutive year that the Judges came in second place. The Judges defeated Boston College (BC), 15-12, and MIT, 18-9, while falling to third-ranked

Harvard 22-5.

In the opening match against BC the Judges avenged the 16-11 from earlier in the season. The Judges took three out of two weapons, easily winning saber competition 7-2 and narrowly edging BC in foil competition 5-4, while the Eagles took epee action 6-3. Ochs-Willard had the Judges’ best record against the Eagles, winning all three of his bouts and only allowing one touch in his first two wins.

Five other Judges went 2-1 against BC, including Mandel, Loft, Berman, Cardillo and Powell.

Against MIT, the Judges again won two out of three weapons. Saber won the first seven bouts in a row to earn a 7-2 victory led by a 3-0 mark from Mandel. Berman also went 3-0 to lead the foil squad to a 6-3 win. While Powell won all three of his bouts, it was not enough to gain an epee victory as the Engineers won 5-4.

In their contest with Harvard, Mandel, Ochs-Willard, Berman, Powell and Zook each registered points for the Judges.

Powell, Berman, Ochs-Willard and Mandel all finished with six wins in the tournament with Ochs-Willard going 6-2 and the others finishing 6-3.

Ochs-Willard commented, “The team has definitely improved since the beginning of the year. We’ve recently won against many of the teams we lost to at the start of the season.”

He continued, “There is more support and camaraderie among the team now.” Five of the nine starters on the team are first-years but Ochs-Willard said, “while there are times where our inexperience has shown, every player has previous fencing experience.”

Furthermore, according to Ochs-Willard, “Adam Mandel, Noah Berman and I each have a change to make the NCAA Tournament this year.”

On the womens side, the team struggled at the Duke Invitational going 1-4 with three of their four losses against nationally ranked teams. The Judges’ only victory was an 18-9 win against Air Force, while their four losses came against top-ranked Penn State 20-7, eighth-ranked Temple 189, 10th-ranked Duke 22-5 and North Carolina 14-13.

In their match against Air Force, the Judges won all three weapons.

Leah Mack ’14 led the epee squad to a decisive 7-2 victory while going 3-0 in her three bouts, while Kristen Ha ’14 and Eliza Powell ’15 each finished 2-1.

All three saberists, Emmily Smith ’13, Zoe Messinger ’13 and Eunice Ko ’14, went 2-1 in a 6-3 victory, while Vikki Nunley ’13 and Hallie Frank ’14 led the foilists to a 5-4 win.

The foil squad also picked up the Judges’ only other squad victory at the tournament, defeating UNC 7-2 as Nunley and Frank each went 3-0 while Jessie Kirshner ’15 picked up Brandeis’ other point in foil. Mack went 3-0 against the Tar Heels in epee action, but the epee squad ulti-

Women’s basketball loses again W. BASKETBALL, from page 14

most critical rebound after the Judges forced a stop in a three-point game.

After securing the offensive board, Emory was able to reset their offense and try for another score. Jackson also led all players with six steals as Emory forced the Judges into an astounding 27 turnovers.

The Judges will close the season on a three-game home-stand starting with a matchup against 12th-ranked Washington University this Friday at 6 p.m. While the Judges haven’t been able to establish a consistent rhythm this season, they will look to close the season off on a three-game winning streak and take some momentum into the off-season.

Women’s basketball Team

UAA

All

Chicago

11 – 0

22 – 0

Rochester

8–3

19 – 3

Washington

8–3

18– 4

Emory

7–4

16 – 6

Case Western

5–6

12 – 10

NYU

2–9

10 – 12

Carnegie Mellon

2–9

8 – 14

Brandeis

1 – 10

8 – 14

Box Scores Rochester

Loss

53 – 37

Emory

Loss

53 – 48

photos courtesy brandeis sports

mately fell 5-4. The saber squad failed to make any noise in their bouts as they were defeated 7-2 with Messinger picking up the squad’s only two points.

While the saberists failed to make any noise against the Tar Heels, they had Brandeis’ best performances against the three ranked teams at the tournament. Messinger went 3-0 against Temple in a close 5-4 loss.

Nunley also finished 3-0 against Temple in foil action. Nunley also posted two of the team’s seven points against Penn State and was the Judges’ only

multiple-point winner, but no fencer managed to post multiple points against the Blue Devils.

For the tournament, Nunley went 11-3 in foil competition while Mack and Messinger finished 9-6 in epee and saber action respectively.

At the Beanpot Tournament, the Judges struggled at the Beanpot going 0-3 as they failed to win a single match. Their closest match was against MIT where they lost 16-11.

They also fell to Boston College 19-8 and to seventh-ranked Harvard 24-3.

The Judges only had two weapon

wins at the tournament. Nunley and Kirshner each went 2-1 to help lead the foil squad past BC 5-4 as Frank won the final bout 3-1 to earn the decisive point.

Against MIT, Ha and Mack went 2-1 while Powell secured the final point with a 5-3 win in the last bout to earn a 5-4 win. Mack and Ha posted the only three points the Judges’ scored against Harvard.

Both teams will return to action Feb. 25 when they travel to Vassar College for the New England Collegiate Championship.

Brown and Warwick lead men’s and women’s track and field

By Justin Burack

special to the hoot

Brandeis track and field athletes turned in exceptional showings at the 2012 Boston University Valentine’s Day Invitational during the past weekend.

Distance runner Kate Warwick ’12 placed 10th in the 5,000-meter run at 17:03.44 at the meet for men and women, placing her sixth among collegiate runners and second among Division III competitors. It was the fastest time in the UAA this season and the fourth fastest time in Division III, placing her one step closer

to the NCAA Division III championships and earning her the Athlete of the Week award for the second time this season.

It was also 17 seconds quicker than her time last year and her personal best. Sprinter Brittany Bell ’13 made fifth place among Division III sprinters when she finished 26th in the 60-meter dash at 8.05 seconds. Triple jumper Kim Farrington ’13 placed 20th overall and fifth among Division III competitors with a jump of 34’ 9.5”.

Chris Brown ’12 finished first for the Judges, placing 21st in the mile run at 4:05.98, 13th among collegiate runners and second among Division

III competitors. He earned the Athlete of the Week award for the third time this season and moved much closer to the NCAA Division III championships.

He also placed first in the UAA and third in Division III for this season. It was also his lifetime best by 2.5 seconds. Sprinter Vincent Assante ’14 finished 27th overall in the 60-meter dash at a time of 7.16 seconds, placing him sixth among Division III runners.

The men’s and women’s teams will compete again at the New England Division III Championships on Feb. 18, with the men competing at MIT and the women at Smith College.

16 The Brandeis Hoot

Arts, etc.

February 17, 2012

Oh Megan puts the ‘Oh’ in orgasm Dana Trismen Staff

For the second time this year, the Brandeis Vagina Club brought back “Oh Megan!” to impart her knowledge about the female orgasm. Held in Lown Auditorium, the workshop quickly became standing room only as Brandeisians learned about themselves, their partners and how to stimulate their sex lives.

Megan is a nationally certified sexuality educator who has toured the country giving workshops on sexual issues. She has taught at more than three-dozen higher educational institutions from medical schools to the Ivy Leagues to Brandeis. She boasts a “sassy yet approachable style” that allows her to impact her knowledge without her audience feeling uncomfortable.

So why bring Megan to Brandeis?

Aside from teaching all the different ways a female can reach orgasm, what does she bring to campus? A major part of Megan’s presentation involves dispelling myths. During her presentation she told a story of how at one of her other workshops a woman came up to her after they had a section where they shared stories about masturbation. She asked Megan why none of the women who had talked about masturbation had physical impairments, for she had always been taught that disabilities resulted from masturbation. It is myths like these that Megan helps with; she knows the answer to every old wives tale told and every rumor heard. For example, vibrators can cause desensitization, but it is only for a short amount of time, while circumcision can make it harder

oh megan! Megan hands out sex toys during last year’s workshop.

to orgasm. Sexual myths are easy to believe, it is not always a talked-about topic, and it is easier to believe something heard one time than to know nothing about sex at all. Megan’s ease in covering myths in her presentation as well as in questions asked by the audience is one of her true skills.

Megan’s style of talking about sex is what truly makes her a good sex educator. She is very down to earth, aware of what makes people feel uncomfortable or awkward but at the same time encouraging them to share those feelings of discomfort. She cracks jokes as she wields her vagina puppet, easing tension that arises from people’s

photo by nafiz “fizz ” ahmed/the hoot

uneasiness about talking about such taboo topics. She easily encourages “genital self-esteem,” explaining that women should be proud of their genitals no matter what they look like. She backs up her facts with hard evidence, showing pictures of how women’s genitals always look uniquely different and even beautiful. When asking for thoughts and reactions she is sincere, accepting all people’s views and reactions whether they are disgusted or gleeful.

Brandeisians’ reactions to Megan are also somewhat astonishing. While sporting events or plays are often only half-filled with spectators, Megan’s

workshop was very well-attended.

Couples sat together, presumably trying to learn about how to please each other, while others attended just to learn these facts for themselves. The audience would raptly pay attention, often asking Megan to repeat questions asked and waiting impatiently for answers. While class discussions often result in students falling asleep, Megan’s questions were met with multiple answers. Students would reveal their actual reactions to the presentation and video clips shown. It seemed as though Oh Megan’s openness is contagious; since she is so open and honest in her presentation, it inspired

students to act the same way in their responses.

That being said, Megan is not for the faint of heart. She is serious about exploring all aspects of sex, from showing a sex move dubbed “The Alien” to explaining the most explicit of questions. Megan’s presentation also includes playing a video centered around a woman named Betty Dodson. Dodson is a woman past middle age who claims she used to believe she was “genitally deformed” and it was only once she realized that some other women’s genitals looked like hers that she was able to lead a successful life. In this way, she said, “porn transformed her.” The video with Dodson shows normal middle-aged or older women fully naked, displaying their genitals to the camera. While the clip is occasionally hard to watch since in our culture it is not the norm for average women to sit in a circle and compare genitals, the message Dodson and Megan are trying to get across is actually important. Women’s genitals come in all shapes and sizes. The way they look does not matter for sexual enjoyment and should not be viewed negatively.

Instead the clip focuses on the “beauty” of genitals.

Why Megan is so important is because she is able to inspire confidence.

Whether students were worried about their sex lives, genitals or just purely curious, Megan preaches that all sexual identities, appearances and desires are acceptable. She encourages communication between partners, and explains that it is normal to want to have sex, or to want to talk about it. While it is easy to feel alone and have sexual questions in the society in which we live today, Megan is here to help spread acceptance and knowledge.

Who’s annoyed with ‘Ordinary’ Virginia Woolf ?

By Candice Bautista Editor

To be fair, I have read about two pages of Virginia Woolf ’s work, specifically two pages of “Mrs. Dalloway.”

From those two pages, I gathered that party planning was a big deal way back when. This was the only knowledge I had about Woolf when I went to watch “Ordinary Mind, Ordinary Day,” a play written by theater Professor Adrianne Krstansky and Abigail Killeen, and directed by Krstansky and Eve Kagan. Although I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to follow the show, I didn’t realize the extent to which I would be horribly confused and even mildly angry.

The show is supposed to come off more as a conceptual piece, a true piece of “theater” than anything else.

It is roughly broken into three parts, each reflecting a different short story written by Woolf. The first part titled “Strangers on a Train,” based on the short story “An Unwritten Novel,” focuses on Virginia Woolf ’s younger self. It is a medley of scenes ranging from her struggles as a writer to her sexual abuse as a young child to reflective rides on a train. The second part “Rest in Peace,” based on “The String Quartet,” features a girl reacting to the loss of her boyfriend, presumably a soldier in, interestingly enough, the Vietnam War. The last section, titled “Kew Gardens” based on the eponymous short story, was written by the Ensemble and added a nice touch to the show.

My initial comment on the show is how hectic it is. The ensemble consists of 14 people and frequently all 14 are on-stage if not sitting in chairs off to

photo from internet source

meet virginia The play “Ordinary Mind, Ordinary Day,” adapted from Virginia Woolf ’s

short stories by Adrian Krstansky and Abigail Killeen, is playing this weekend.

the side, sort of as a dugout for the performers. Seated to the side of the ensemble is a seven-piece band that complemented, if not enhanced, the show very well. As a whole, however, there were about 20 people visible at all times, which lent itself to the “distressed and depressed ” aspect of Virginia Woolf but also made the whole experience all the more traumatic.

The show begins with Eve Kagan (listed in the playbill as “The Writer” but essentially a crazed Virginia Woolf) discussing the concept of writing and of theater, which foreshadowed the ambiguity of the show. Now, there have been previous Brandeis productions in which plot wasn’t the

primary focus (“Dog Sees God” and “Waiting for Godot” immediately jump to mind), and they were staged successfully. In “Ordinary Mind, Ordinary Day,” it is almost continuously unclear what point is trying to be made. The first part, “Strangers on a Train,” focuses on young writer Virginia Woolf (mostly played by Cathy Messier ’12) but is also directed by Eve Kagan as the inherently insane Woolf, resulting in Kagan yelling from offstage and pantomiming Messier’s actions. This idea is further diluted by the fact that many women end up playing Woolf. Thus, in this section of the show, many things seem to happen at once to varying levels of success. In

one of the more visually impressive scenes, Minnie Marsh (Grace Fosler ’14), one of Woolf ’s characters, stands bawling on a train. The ensemble does a very good job of pretending to be on a train, with several taller men holding up the handrail onto which the passengers hold. As the train screeches to halt, the passengers accurately fall backward slightly, as Fosler continues weeping. Messier-Woolf decides her moods and her movements, and it’s interesting to see the scene play out.

Another good scene from “Strangers” was a very intimate one depicting sexual abuse and featuring Aliza Sotsky ’15 and Yoni Bronstein ’13. It is part dance, part acting and all emotion. No words were spoken in the scene but the connection between Sotsky and Bronstein was amazing; the trust that Sotsky had in Bronstein before his betrayal is very powerfully portrayed by their body language. The band was playing beautiful music during the scene and brought it to a whole new level. Overall, this was the best scene of the show, hands down. Even though the progress of the show itself was confusing, this scene was strong enough to stand on its own.

The rest of “Strangers” consisted of the ensemble yelling (Kagan most of all) and running back and forth amid general confusion. At one point, Messier-Woolf kisses her character Minnie Marsh, much to Kagan-Woolf ’s dismay (and the audience’s incredulity).

The second portion, “Rest in Peace” is made no better even with a new focus of the show, the woman who lost her boyfriend (Stephanie Ohebshalom ’15 and Jordan Brown ’12, respectively). This is made even more confusing because another woman (Anneke Reich ’13) is supposed to be the same woman, but is slightly saner.

The really aggravating part of the show, past the complexity of what is occurring on-stage, is the music.

The band was spectacular and, combined with on-point sound effects and lighting, the stage was literally set for an amazing show. The presence of a bassist, cellist, violinist and clarinetist filled Laurie Theater with amazing music and made the production feel richer. The ensemble’s singing, however, really killed whatever mood the band was creating. Solo singing, or even in a duo, worked very well— Ohebshalom and Reich in particular.

In a group, though, something was off.

The singing seemed to come up randomly as if in a bad episode of “Glee” and, when it was appropriate, the voices didn’t blend together perfectly, giving the moment a bad aftertaste.

All in all, the singing could have been done away with and may have made the confusing scenes more tolerable.

The only part of the play that wasn’t incredibly bewildering was the last part, “Kew Gardens,” a series of monologues written by the ensemble themselves. The reflections presented a much more relatable experience and allowed the audience to internalize better what was occurring on-stage.

Some monologues were personal and touching, including one that told the story of a girl whose mother didn’t love her. On the other hand, some of the monologues just seemed like shallow problems that you listen to only because the other person is your friend. Overall, the last section was my favorite and was a good place to wrap up the show.

“Ordinary Mind, Ordinary Day” tried very hard to have you thinking about life and get in your head after the play. When I left the show, though, I only had a headache.

February 17, 2012

ARTS, ETC. 17

The Brandeis Hoot

Vagina love for ‘The Vagina Monologues’

photo by ingrid schulte/the hoot down there? “The Vagina Monologues” were put on last weekend in the Shapiro Campus Center. From top left clockwise: LB Moore ’13 in “Hair”; Hannah Diamond ’14 in “The Vagina Workshop”; Samantha Cortez ’13 and Candice

Bautista ’14 in “They Beat the Girl Out of my Boy ... Or So They Tried”; and Maya Grant ’13 in “The Flood.”

By Alex Patch Staff

“The Vagina Monologues,” performed on-campus last weekend, was a beautiful show. “Monologues,” presented this year by 30 young women, is an annual tradition at Brandeis, as well as at many colleges across the United States. It corresponds with V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women. All proceeds from the show went toward three organizations chosen by Brandeis students: the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, Students Active for Ending Rape, and V-Day Spotlight Campaign 2012: Women and Girls of Haiti.

The show opened with a video montage of interviews with the actresses involved, nicely mirroring the fact that the actual show is based on interviews with more than 200 women. The music combined with the footage of women confessing their various attitudes toward vaginas gave me chills. Their answers ranged from silly to serious to awesomely ridiculous, such as sophomore Hannah Diamond’s statement that, if her vagina were to talk, it would laugh and

laugh and laugh! I also loved the reference to the sensational YouTube video “Sh*t Brandeis Students Don’t Say,” as Emma Balmuth-Loris ’14 proudly declared, “This campus doesn’t care about my vagina!” This opening sequence set the stage for what was to come: a sincere and witty, yet touching account of women’s vaginas.

Although I also enjoyed last year’s “Vagina Monologues,” a difference in this year’s show that I greatly appreciated was the decision to keep all actresses on stage for the entire show. They sat facing the back wall, until one-by-one the actresses who had already performed would turn their chairs to face the audience. This set-up allowed for us to see the other women’s genuine reactions to each monologue. I witnessed smiles, grave faces and at times uncontrollable laughter. Having everyone on stage also created a sympathetic environment, as the women supported each other in what they had to say.

One of my favorite monologues was “The Flood,” performed by Maya Grant ’13. Although it was a generally serious piece, she brought out the humorous moments with her wonderful acting ability and accurate Southern drawl. Grant captured my attention for the entire monologue, and I felt for

her in the awkward moments depicted in the story.

Another favorite monologue of mine was “My Angry Vagina,” performed by Jemesh Hunter ’15. She was so confident while delivering the story that the audience simply had to believe it. I could not stop laughing as she made us truly understand why her vagina was angry. Hunter was relatable and hilarious; the way in which she delivered the monologue is comparable to a great stand-up comedian.

And then, of course, came what I always call “The Orgasm Piece” but, in reality, was the second half of “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy,” incredibly performed by Marisa Turesky ’13. This performance takes guts! Turesky portrayed this sexually dominant woman confidently and flawlessly. It all led up to the climax of the piece, her depiction of different kinds of sexual moans. The crowd’s favorite was “The Brandeis Moan,” which seemed normal until she stopped, exclaiming, “I have to go study!”

I was emotionally taken by the group pieces as well. “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could,” featuring Lauren Grewal ’13, Shakara Scott ’13, Alison Thvedt ’15, Natasha Qidwai ’14, Anushka Aqil ’13 and Liv-

ia Bell ’13, was a somewhat depressing piece about a girl put through continuous trauma, although it ended up being quite moving. Each actress played a different age of the same girl, and they conveyed each story well. Even more importantly, although each actress looked very different from one another, I believed that I was watching different versions of the same person, as they really kept the same energy of the character throughout the piece.

Another poignant group piece was “They Beat the Boy Out of My Girl ... Or So They Tried,” acted out by Rachel Barron ’14, Candice Bautista ’14, Samantha Cortez ’13 and Jeralyn Hawes ’12. First performed by an all-transgendered cast in Los Angeles in 2004, it is a poetic work about the hardships of being a man yet feeling like a woman. After a heart-rendering line about one woman’s boyfriend being killed, there was my favorite line of the monologue, talking about those people who terrorized them: “They were that terrified of love.” The women’s acting moved me, and it was an important message that any kind of love is beautiful. It is sad that some people cannot accept it.

I felt very uncomfortable quite a few times throughout the show, but I think that it should do that to audi-

ence members to get us really to listen up and come out of our prudish shells.

I tried to take in all that I could, but it was difficult at times. For example, I could not bring myself to yell “cunt” in Rachel Benjamin’s monologue, “Reclaiming Cunt,” though I was impressed by her courage to do so, after listening to her say in the beginning video that vaginas make her uncomfortable. She added, however, “This experience has helped me feel more comfortable.”

“The Vagina Monologues” is a learning and growing experience not only for the audience but for the actresses as well. I was excited to see multiple friends of mine acting in it, even some that I did not know were doing the show. Director Meg Evans ’12 and Coordinator Sarah Steele ’13 did a wonderful job in putting the show together. Toward the end of the night, I looked at my watch, and could not believe that it was already 9:30 (the show had started at 8). I had been so enthralled with the stories that the time flew by. I am strongly considering auditioning for this show my senior year—I hope you will come see it then!

Note: Candice Bautista is an editor with The Hoot.

18 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

February 17, 2012

‘The Vow’ offers typical romantic heartbreak

By Betty Revah Staff

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, a movie like “The Vow”— with its tragic, life-changing, worldshaking romance—was more than expected. The movie, directed by Michael Sucsy, is doomed to predictability from the start, with an eye-locking moment, a chocolate-filled first date, an invitation to move-in and a strange declaration of love. Nonetheless, it meets its chick-flick expectations well.

“The Vow” tells the bittersweet love story of Paige (dimpled beauty Rachel McAdams) and Leo (jaw-clenching Channing Tatum). It seems like the typical boy-meets-girl plot until the unrealistically happy couple is rearended by a truck in Chicago. The anticipated tragic moment is enhanced by the beauty of snowy scenery and the kiss that the couple shares just seconds before the accident, which is played in slow motion and elicits shocked gasps from the audience.

Paige flies through the windshield and enters a coma from which she emerges more beautiful than ever, but with amnesia. She thinks Leo is her uncommonly handsome doctor—to which Channing Tatum responds with more jaw-clenching—and, to top it all off with the ultimate girl drama, she hates her artsy clothes. Paige can’t remember quitting law school, fighting with her wealthy, snobby parents or ending her engagement with Jeremy (Scott Speedman). The last thing she remembers is asking a waiter at the Macaroni Grill if they had toasted ravioli, but she can’t remember the answer. What a tragedy!

Even though Paige’s parents want her to move back in after the acci-

dent, Leo convinces her through a voicemail in which she sounds happy and in love that going with him is the right thing to do. With her weird artsy clothes in hand and Leo’s piecing blue eyes watching her every move, they go home and Paige becomes a “sweater-set-wearing, mojito-drinking sorority girl.” Poor Leo. Rachel McAdams plays her part well—the role of confused and innocent daddy’s girl certainly agrees with her—and she gets both laughs and tears from the audience. Channing Tatum, on the other hand, is slightly less believable and slightly more distant, but his unnaturally perfect body is exposed several times and that alone is a good enough reason to see the movie.

Paige and Leo are very well-developed but the same cannot be said about the rest of the characters in the movie. This is especially true when it comes to Leo’s friends who barely even have personalities of their own.

It’s true that Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum have very beautiful faces, but that doesn’t mean that we want to look at them for two hours straight. The only exception to this is Paige’s mother (Jessica Lange), who acts beautifully even though she doesn’t appear much throughout the movie.

The idea of “The Vow” is fantastic and sweet. It’s about the possibility of second chances, of fixing the mistakes you made in the past, of being better.

On their wedding day, Leo’s beautiful voice tells Paige that he loves her, and that “No matter what challenges might carry us apart, we will always find a way back to each other.” That is essentially the plot; everyone knows what will happen in the end but there’s way too much back and forth.

photo from internet source

a forgettable romance Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams star in “The Vow” as a couple who must deal with the devastating results

of a car accident .

The film was apparently “inspired by true events.” The story came from a couple in New Mexico and four screenwriters—Michael Sucsy, Jason Katims, Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein—brought their tragedy to the big screen. All in all, they could have done a better job at it. Although there are some nice reflections in the movie—“How do you look at the girl you love and tell yourself that it’s time to walk away”—most of the lines are very standard. It’s not Rachel McAdams’ or Channing Tatum’s fault. They

delivered their lines enthusiastically, and if it weren’t for them, the movie would have been completely ruined.

The actors interact well and there is clearly chemistry between them (I don’t blame Rachel McAdams, honestly, it’s Channing Tatum!). It was only natural for them to co-star in this movie after gaining previous experience from a couple of Nicholas Sparks’ tragedies (McAdams in “The Notebook” and Tatum in “Dear John”). They’ve mastered the loving looks, fake laughs and sorrowful mo-

ments to perfection.

In the end, “The Vow” promises more than it delivers and it really didn’t promise much to begin with.

The movie wasn’t expected to be lifechanging or shocking but its degree of forgettability came as an unexpected surprise. It’s one of those cases in which the scenes in the trailer are better than the scenes in the movie.

Sadly, only the sight of Channing Tatum’s bare bottom can help the film out of its current amnesia-inducing obscurity.

Romantic movies, please; hold the schmaltz!

By Yael Katzwer Romance Editor

Just because Valentine’s Day has come and gone—as it is wont to do—does not mean that the romance needs to end. But let’s save the fancy dinners and expensive jewelry for the special occasions. What if it is just date night and neither of you really wants to get dressed up and go out.

No problem. A quiet night spent with take-out, a DVD and each other can be just as nice as the whole night-onthe-town shebang.

This of course begs the inevitable question: What movie should we watch? Ladies, your first instinct is probably a romantic movie. There is nothing wrong with that but you should always bear in mind that there are two types of romantic movies; don’t watch the kind that make you weep with your guy—it will make him hate you. He won’t want to hate you but he will. It is, however, perfectly acceptable to get together with your galpals and watch “A Walk to Remember.” All of you will have so many tears running down your faces that you won’t be able to shoot each other disgusted glances. And guys, when picking a movie, remember that your girl probably wants some iota of romance and nothing that occurs in “The Fast and the Furious” counts as that.

When picking a romantic movie to watch, keep in mind that you both should enjoy it. The following five movies seem to be movies that can be quite romantic and that both sexes can get behind: Director Michael Mann’s “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992) definitely fits the bill for a movie that has scenes for both the guys and the gals. Taking place during the French and Indian War, this movie follows Hawkeye

photo from internet source

an unsentimental education In director Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey play a

couple who erase their memories of one another.

(Daniel Day-Lewis) as he traverses the wilds of upstate New York with his adopted Mohican father and brother.

As they gallivant around, two British women and a British soldier come under their protection. Obviously, Hawkeye falls in love with the elder daughter, Cora (Madeleine Stowe).

(Although this is not obvious if you have read the book because in the book Hawkeye, a.k.a. Natty Bumpo, doesn’t fall in love with anyone and Cora goes for his Indian brother.)

This movie has something for both sexes. Gals: It is a heart-wrenching love story that will have your face permanently frozen into that look you make when you sigh. Also, Dan-

iel Day-Lewis is exceptionally hot in this movie—which is weird because he looks very unappealing everywhere else. Guys: Not only do you get to look at Madeleine Stowe but you also get to see some pretty graphic violence. I’m not going to spoil anything for you but you do see someone get tomahawked in the face.

Of course, not everyone can handle that. If you feel the need to scale it back a bit, Kevin Smith’s “Chasing Amy” (1997) is a good choice. It is still very shocking but in a very different way. (Let’s be honest, Kevin Smith eats shocking for breakfast.)

In “Chasing Amy,” a young comic book writer (Ben Affleck) and his

best friend and co-comic book writer (Jason Lee) are introduced to yet a third comic book writer (Joey Lauren Adams) who—twist—is a girl. Affleck immediately falls in love with Adams but is heartbroken to discover that she is a lesbian. He refuses, however, to quit.

“Chasing Amy” is great because, while hysterical in an out-there way, it is a surprisingly feeling movie. There are a lot of emotions flying around and a lot of the relationship issues that one expects in a romantic comedy. Most romantic comedies, however, don’t have extensive comic book discussions or multiple scenes revolving around threesomes.

If you would prefer not to give your significant other any ideas about possible future date nights but still like the idea of a comedy, I suggest Harold Ramis’ “Bedazzled” (2000). “Bedazzled” follows a young man (Brendan Fraser) as he makes a literal deal with the devil (Elizabeth Hurley) to try to woo a woman with whom he works.

Needless to say, when you make a deal with the devil, things rarely work out the way you had planned. The viewers follow Fraser from one ridiculous fantasy to the next, absolutely loving the ride. “Bedazzled” is very silly but also has a very touching amount of heart behind it.

Of course, it is a remake of the 1967 version starring Dudley Moore in Fraser’s role and Peter Cook in Hurley’s role. While the original is very good, I find the remake more approachable. Also, guys, remember that the remake has a very scantily clad Elizabeth Hurley in it; Peter Cook would just look silly in a miniskirt.

If you enjoy the zany fantasy of “Bedazzled,” perhaps you should also give some sci-fi a chance. Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) is one of the weirder movies I’ve ever seen (it’s not the weirdest, that title belongs to “Brazil”). In “Sunshine,” the flighty Clementine (Kate Winslet) has a procedure to erase all her memories of her ex-boyfriend, Joel (Jim Carrey). Joel decides to respond in kind by having Clementine erased from his mind but during the process he decides that he doesn’t want to forget her, even knowing the result of their relationship. To be honest, this is just a brief look at the plot of this movie; there are so many characters See ROMANTIC, page 19

February 17, 2012

‘Soul Calibur V’: Have the swords rusted?

By Gordy Stillman Staff

“Soul Calibur V” is the latest game in Namco Bandai’s “Soul” series, which tells the tale of two semisentient legendary swords. There’s the cursed sword, Soul Edge, and the blessed sword created to destroy it, Soul Calibur. Each game in the series features 20 characters who set out either to obtain or destroy one of the swords. Past installments of the series have earned consistent praise for their controls, variety of characters, graphics, music and storyline. While “Soul Calibur V” is fun to play, it falls short of being a great game, especially in light of its $60 price tag.

In previous games, each character had his/her own story. By engaging the game through arcade mode a player could piece together the game’s larger, grander story. “Soul Calibur V” differs in that it utilizes story mode, in which the player is assigned a pre-chosen character for each fight for roughly 20 chapters.

This change offers some benefits.

The story the designers set out to tell would have been difficult to follow had they retained the previous format.

“Soul Calibur V” tells of a young man named Patroklos, the son of a character from an older game, and his search for his long-lost sister Pyrrha. As his journey progresses, he becomes the chosen wielder of Soul Calibur and discovers that his sister has been raised to wield Soul Edge. I won’t spoil the details of the final battles, but leave it to say that while the story is different, and weaker overall, it is nonetheless fun to play. After playing other games in the series I would have liked to continue more of them rather than just experience the characters that directly interact with the main story.

While the storyline is a weak facet of the game, it does have its positives.

One such positive feature is the way it doesn’t integrate the game’s “guest character.” Traditionally, the “Soul Calibur” games feature between one and three guest characters from other franchises. Past games have featured Link from “The Legend of Zelda,” and even Yoda, Darth Vader and Vader’s secret apprentice (since named Galen Marek) from “Soul Caliber IV.” This game’s guest, however, Ezio Auditore da Firenze from “Assassin’s Creed” is not part of the game’s story mode. This is favorable because, while I absolutely loved fighting as Yoda in the last game, it never meshed well with the story.

By keeping a few specific characters out of the plot, the game avoided a convoluted story.

Another great aspect of the game are the exceptional controls. It’s not overly difficult or painfully simple to execute combination attacks.

ARTS, ETC. 19

The Brandeis Hoot

The Hoot predicts the Oscars

By Sean Fabery, Editor

Best Picture

Will win: ‘The Artist’ Could win: ‘The Descendants’

photo from internet source

got soul Patroklos is the primary character in “Soul Calibur V,” the latest installment in the

“Soul” series.

Furthermore, there is a fine balance between horizontal attacks, vertical attacks and kicks, with each type of attack superior to another. Another carefully executed element is the guard feature. In some games a patient player can guard continuously, only stopping to launch a quick counter-attack before returning to a defensive position. In this game, if a character guards incessantly their defensive armor and ability will weaken under the continued assaults of their opponent, forcing players to balance between defense and offense. In combat, even the best defenses will eventually weaken under continued assault. The same is true in this game. While defense is absolutely necessary, players need to take risks and go on the offensive in order to win matches.

The general visual presentation is spectacular; the graphics are nothing short of beautiful. The backgrounds are detailed and varied. The cut scenes are detailed to the point that they look like they are from a

movie. These scenes, however, do have some problems. Throughout approximately 75 percent of the chapters, interactions other than fights are depicted through what look like drawings on parchment paper. While it looks interesting for the first few moments, it felt very out of place alongside the CGI cut scenes and on a game respected for its visual presentations.

To sum it all up, while the gameplay and visuals remain very solid, and are the foundations for a great game, the story is both poorly developed and poorly presented. If I only played games for the multiplayer and online play, this game would be great— namely because the factors that affect multiplayer are well developed, for instance, the controls, the fighting system and the visuals. But if you care about having a decent story, this game is a real disappointment as the story is hardly worth the $60 that video games now cost.

Though he’s the only freshman among the nominees, Hazanavicius seems sure to win. Best Picture and Best Director rarely split, and “The Artist” is the kind of inventive, visually dazzling film that people like to reward. If Scorsese hadn’t won for “The Departed,” he would be more of a threat here.

Best Actor Will win: Jean Dujardin, ‘The Artist’ Could win: George Clooney, ‘The Descendants’

There’s little chance “The Artist” won’t win, as it has swept almost all the awards for which it has been nominated. It will become the second lowest-grossing Best Picture winner, which is unsurprising considering it’s a black-and-white silent film.

Best Director Will win: Michel Hazanavicius, ‘The Artist’ Could win: Martin Scorsese, ‘Hugo’

Initially it appeared that Clooney would win his second Oscar for “The Descendants,” as the film has garnered him the best reviews of his career. Most groups, however, have been rewarding Dujardin for his silent performance in “The Artist.”

Romantic films without the ick ROMANTIC, from page 18

that I cannot go into any more detail.

The stellar cast includes Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst and Tom Wilkinson.

More is not always better, however, as Goran Dukic’s “Wristcutters: A Love Story” (2006) proves. “Wristcutters” is fairly bizarre as well but the plot is easier to explain. In this movie everyone who commits suicide goes to this place after they die that is basically just like a somewhat crappier

version of the real world. While there, the protagonist Zia (Patrick Fugit) decides to go on a road trip with his friend Eugene (Shea Whigham) and his new acquaintance Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon); Zia is traveling to find his ex-girlfriend, who committed suicide not long after him, and Mikal is trying to find whoever runs this world as she is convinced that she is there by mistake. You can guess what happens.

While this movie does not necessarily win points in the plot department, the acting is phenomenal, the

incredibly bleak moments are often broken with incredibly funny moments and we are finally given an explanation for why things inexplicably disappear under the seats of our cars (if you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about).

These six movies are sure to make any date night more enjoyable. If, for some reason, your significant other does not enjoy these movies, maybe you should reconsider where this relationship is going. It is better to end it now before either of you become too invested.

Davis almost won an Oscar for “Doubt” three years ago, but it seems like her time has finally arrived. “The Help” was widely praised for its ensemble praise, but Davis was easily best in show. If “The Iron Lady” had been a better film, Streep could have received her first Oscar since 1982’s “Sophie’s Choice.”

Best Actress Will win: Viola Davis, ‘The Help’ Could win: Meryl Streep, ‘The Iron Lady’

HOOT SCOOPS

February 17, 2012

The Brandeis Hoot 20

Sound off: discussing mental health on campus

Despite passing time, past suicides at Brandeis remain in our minds.

Students address coping with mental health at school.

By Tali Singer

friend, I’m not feeling well today emotionally, like would you mind just talking so I can get some of these feelings off Almost exactly one year ago, my chest or whatever. Unfortuthe Brandeis community was nately, I guess kind of like husent into shock when Kat Som- man nature is to just withdraw. mers, a first-year, committed suicide. Her death not only left BECKY: We try to kind of, a hole in the Brandeis com- our society to create this façade munity, but it also brought up of competence and kind of a rarely discussed topic: the hard work and being really on mental health of college stu- top of our game. And you can dents. do that and still need help for The Hoot sat down with two mental health issues, because if students, Becky Grossman ’12 you’re getting the help, you’re and Chase Hiller ’12, to talk on top of what you’re dealing about that very issue. Their with. And I don’t think there’s comments were edited by Tali any shame in that because I Singer. would say that most people do have issues.

Visit thebrandeishoot.com to We’re not wired to react in hear this podcast. the most adaptive way to everything.

BECKY: I think there’s a huge amount of stigma just in the BECKY: I know that in my college population about men- four years here, there have been tal illness and mental health. I two suicides. And I just found grew up in a household where out earlier today that there was my mom was a psychiatrist one in the year before I got and it was just kind of part of here. everyday conversation. To me So in five years, three suithat was natural but, I think cides. For a school of that size, I for a lot of people, it’s not, and don’t think that’s OK. it’s kind of like really taboo for some people. And it’s also CHASE: For me I think it something that, maybe not evoked some emotions and necessarily taboo, but people memories I had in high school. just don’t know about it.

I wasn’t suicidal, like I wasn’t making plans to like kill myCHASE: Well my first year self. But like I was struggling and sophomore year, I was with my sexuality and that kind having a lot of mood issues. I of thing, and I also had deprestake medication for anxiety, sion and anxiety and I just I redepression, and the medicine member there was a long periwas helping, but I think that od where it was just hard to like like the stress of school and even wake up in the morning some social anxiety issues that and go to school.

I was having, a lot of times I I thought to myself, I’d rathwould withdraw into my own er not be living right now. I’m world instead of seeking like, glad that I sought help from a friends. counselor and I made it to college, which is good.

BECKY: It’s a very personal The incident that happened issue, and a lot of the times last year with Kat, it just got when people have mental me thinking about that again. health issues or concerns, a lot And it made me sad. There’s so of it has to with the fact that many emotions wrapped up in they’re ashamed. that.

Part of depression is feelThat could have been me, like ing lonely. If you’re lonely, you three or four years ago. It’s a won’t feel like you have any- tough issue to deal with. one to talk to about being depressed.

BECKY: I know it does unfortunately happen all the time, CHASE: I had friends, but I and there are schools where it wouldn’t necessarily seek them happens even more than that, out if I was depressed or in a but we’re a research institution bad mood. I think that’s a fairly that’s on the cutting edge of common thing. It’s kind of what we do. And part of that is counter-intuitive. medical science.

The best thing that someone So I think it’s inexcusable for could probably do is to tell a us to be so on top of our knowlSpecial to the Hoot

mailman house For students feeling anxious or depressed, the Psychological Counseling Center shown above can either be a great help or a frustrating experience.

edge and what we do here, and not be able to pick up on that and say that’s not OK and how are we going to fix that.

BECKY: And It’s really unfortunate because sometimes these things happen and they just go so under the radar and there really is no way to stop it, but at least for all of us to know and have this toolkit is something we should be able to do.

And I think that’s really important, just being really transparent and being out there and knowing this is what depression looks like, whether or not

you have it, whether or not you can spot it, because at some point, you might experience some of those things, and you might not be depressed, but you might experience those things, or you might see a friend experience those things.

And just to kind of have that in your mind, you’re more aware when it does happen to you or when it does happen to someone. Because it rings a bell of something you might have learned about.

And that’s just, that in itself can be really helpful. If that rings a bell of what you learned

photo by todd kirkland/the hoot

about depression, maybe you can say something to a friend, and maybe that one little thing can help, so I think people need to have that in the back of their minds along with all the other things they do have.

BECKY: There’s a huge spectrum of places you can be as far your mental health goes, and it’s not all institutionalized and locked away for life. Most people who are suffering from psychological issues can still contribute just as much and be just as successful as the next person.