The Brandeis Hoot - March 16, 2012

Volume 9 Number 8

www.thebrandeishoot.com

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.

Interpretation is focus of Imam talk MSA hosts Islam awareness week

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

As part of the university’s first Islam Awareness Week on campus, Imam Suhaib Webb, the Oklahoma native

who converted to Islam as a college freshman and was named as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world, told the Brandeis community about his struggle to find culture in a new religion and reconcile religious values in American life during a keynote address Wednesday evening.

In a lecture filled with jokes and references to American rap artists, Webb explained how Islamic faith can

coexist with American culture.

“One of the things that pushed me away from religion was very religious people,” Webb said. “As an institution, we believe faith is extremely important.”

Webb explained that “religion as a whole is on the ropes,” facing growing criticism in the media. He views the See IMAM, page 12

Aramark phases out student managers

usdan dining workers Aramark eliminated student managers last year.

By Gilda DiCarli Staff

Since the beginning of the academic year, Aramark, Brandeis’ food service provider, began phasing out student manager and supervisor positions. After the graduation of cur-

rent student managers, the positions remain unfilled and were ultimately eliminated. Student and union workers find that they now bear increased pressure.

The elimination of the student manager position has “definitely had a noticeable effect on the way that the

Rosbash named neuro chair

By Connor Novy Editor

Michael Rosbash, already awarded the Greuber Neuroscience Prize in 2009 for his research on brain and sleep disorders, has been named the first Peter Greuber Endowed Chair in Neuroscience, a new university position on the board of trustees.

Rosbash, who runs the Rosbash lab, has made significant headway in the scholarship of circadian rhythms of Drosophila, the fruit fly. The new chair position is not the first time Rosbash has been honored by the Greuber family. In 2009, he and his colleagues Jeffrey Hall and Michael Young were awarded the Greuber Neuroscience Prize for their work in the field.

The Greuber Prize awards three scientists in the fields of neuroscience, cosmology and genetics each $500,000. It funds social justice and women’s rights programs through Yale Law as well.

Rosbash has been researching Drosophila at Brandeis for more than two decades with his colleagues, where he discovered the universality of sleep genes. He directs the Brandeis National Center for Behavioral Genomics. Rosbash is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

The new chair from the Greubers contributes a significant amount of funding through a gift to Brandeis, and increases funding for Neuroscience research, which has already garnered considerable attention for its inquiry into neurodegenerative and aging disorders. Patricia Greuber believes that Michael Rosbash’s work is “an appropriate and lasting way” to honor her late husband, according to a BrandeisNOW announcement.

Rosbash is honored to receive the chair, especially as the work of the Greubers is already known for connecting scientific research and Brandeis’ common mission of social justice.

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

work place works here. There’s a lot less accountability on the part of the students. A lot of students don’t show up to their shift or show up late and there’s just not any consequences,” Ben Sargent ’13, the last student manSee ARAMARK, page 11

March 16, 2012

Univ activists react to Kony video

By Emily Belowich Staff

In less than two weeks, millions of people worldwide were introduced to Joseph Kony, Ugandan rebel leader and warlord. In a matter of minutes, he became a pop culture icon, made famous by a 30-minute documentary produced by Invisible Children that spread across the worldwide Web and generated 112 million views earlier this week.

Although the Brandeis community does not host its own Invisible Children chapter, many Brandeis students plan to be involved with “Cover the Night” on April 20, in which people are encouraged to put posters all over campus in order to show Kony’s face.

There are also many conversations going on with student activism clubs, including Brandeis’ Chapter of Amnesty International.

The video aims to expose the war crimes committed by Joseph Kony and his paramilitary group. They are accused of kidnapping girls and using them as sex slaves as well as forcing young boys to become child soldiers for the past 26 years. Kony has been accused of compelling these children to mutilate people’s faces and kill their own parents. Critics argue that Invisible Children has exaggerated the crimes of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), producing a disproportionate amount of attention. Children are dying on a daily basis in northern Uganda from malaria, diarrhea and nodding disease, but there has been no viral video for these children.

Daniel Goulden ’14, president of Brandeis’ Chapter of Amnesty International, critiqued the message but not the effort of the group.

“I don’t think you can argue that what Invisible Children is trying to

do isn’t commendable, but you can definitely argue with the way they are getting their message across,” he said.

Critics are also arguing against Invisible Children as the one organization that has centered itself as the main agent of change. The organization has received an incredible amount of backlash because people think the documentary was a ploy to make money.

Invisible Children spent only 32 percent of its money on direct services, and according to the group’s financial statement released on its website, much of the rest of the money goes toward film production, travel costs and staff salaries.

Goulden argues that nonprofit organizations such as Invisible Children need to use these administrative costs to build themselves up into becoming efficient.

“I think charities get much more scrutiny than companies do. Charities should be able to operate the way they want to operate,” Goulden said.

“In order for a charity to be effective, it has to spend a fair deal of money of administrative costs just to build itself up, especially a charity like Invisible Children, which hasn’t been around for that long.”

“As a human rights club leader, a lot of what’s really important is just getting people to be aware. A lot of people do care, but you have to inform people about that, and that can be very difficult and time consuming,” Goulden said.

Goulden commented about an unspoken mentality that he believes exists on some college campuses. The mentality is that if you go to a private, small liberal arts college, then you don’t need to be educated about the See KONY, page 12

Amnesia no impediment to ‘Fuddy Meers’

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

‘fuddy meers’ Brandeis Experimental Theatre (BET) debuts play in the SCC theater on Thursday. For The Hoot’s review, turn to page 17.

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

March 16, 2012

Alum donates social justice prize in reunion gift

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

As part of her 50th reunion gift, Linda Heller Kamm ’61 endowed a $1,000 annual award for an undergraduate student committed to advocating for career social justice.

First exposed to injustice from her time growing up in segregated Miami Beach, Kamm explained that she established the prize to encourage students interested in pursuing public interest careers.

“It seemed to me that that was an important career to encourage young people to pursue,” Kamm said in a phone interview last week. “What constitutes social justice in each generation and what are the next hurdles to overcome? For me it goes back to the concept of tikkun olam and repairing the world.”

Students can nominate one another for the $1,000 award this spring. It is intended for first-, second- and thirdyear students Kamm said, adding that the amount of the award was less significant than the name recognition

and prestige she hopes it will develop in the future.

Highlighting Kamm’s legal career were positions in both the public and private sector. In 1977, the Senate confirmed her as the first woman to serve as general counsel in a U.S. Cabinet Department at Transportation. She was also the first woman to become partner at Foley & Lardner, one of the country’s oldest law firms.

At the Department of Transportation, Kamm strengthened economic regulation and enhanced competition for the airline and railroad industries, according to a press release from Development and Alumni relations. She also introduced new environmental standards for transportation projects.

After graduating from Boston College Law School, Kamm worked at the U.S. Department of Housing under President Lyndon Johnson. There, she helped advocate for legislation to reduce inequality in home ownership, according to the press release.

In 1969, Kamm transferred her public interest work to the Democratic Study Group in the House of Representatives, broadening her workload

linda kamm Alumna donated annual award.

from housing to civil rights, health care and education policy.

A history major at Brandeis, Kamm was active in the civil rights and women’s rights movements, focusing on challenging the inequalities of the

Editor

Administration Michael Rosbash, already awarded the Greuber Neuroscience Prize in 2009 for his research on the brain and sleep disorders, has been named the first Peter Greuber Endowed Chair in Neuroscience, a new university position.

lowing sight-disabled individuals able to use them, in one year. LATTE will be monitored and faculty educated in accessible practices.

Crime Watch A group was apprehended while carrying street signs on March 10 near the Athletics lot. Two individuals who were not Brandeis students were told to leave campus. The signs were returned.

An individual reported someone throwing glass out of a window in the 567 apartments on March 10. Campus police responded and made the offending party clean up the glass.

The CDC was contacted and dealt The search for a new director of with judiciary issues.

The Rose Art Museum is “nearing the An accident involving a university endgame,” according to Provost Steve Goldstein. The position will soon be vehicle occurred at the Main Street CVS on March 10. Waltham Police announced. was notified and university police Sprout Grants, which provide compiled a report on the incident. funding for venture ideas looking to Both drivers were relatively unimprove commercial interest, will be harmed. awarded at the end of March.

Activism Brandeis FMLA held a week of Professor Christopher Tompkins has been granted a four-year, $50 mil- events centered on feminism and lion award to study how Medicare is gender equality. The program included a “Feminist Coming Out Day,” funded with the Heller group. tile decorating, t-shirt sales, speaker The Faculty Senate is forming a events and art installments. sub-committee to understand propOn March 19, Professors Anita er responses to sexual harassment claims as well as education of faculty Hill (Heller) and Bernadette Brooten (NEJS) will hold a conference on and staff. sexual assault toward black women According to Provost Steve Gold- and the cultural, religious and legal stein, the Accessible Tech committee implications which create discrepanwill have Brandeis websites compliant cies in the reporting and prosecution with the American Disability Act, al- of sexual assault.

past through optimism and passion for social justice.

Kamm said that her priority in launching the award was to make sure students could nominate their peers for recognition of excellence in social

Improving job market gives graduates renewed optimism

The Brandeis brief

By Connor Novy

photo courtesy of alumni development office

justice work. An online nomination form was sent to students via e-mail informing them about the prize.

There are several other social justice and activism awards managed by the Office of the Dean of Student Life, including the David A. Alexander ’79 Memorial Award for Social Consciousness and Activism, the Edwin E. Hokin Memorial Prize, the Jacob and Bella Thurman Award for Social Citizenship, and the Robert B. Sherman ’67 Memorial Prize.

Students receive the awards at a ceremony in early May. While the Kamm prize is not restricted to social justice in the government arena, the goal is that her name recognition as a government official and leader in non-profit advocacy will create a prestige and resume building recognition for select students.

“In every era, there are important issues of social justice that need to be addressed, never more prominently than now. I hope that young people will fashion their careers so they find a meaningful home in the social justice movement,” Kamm said in the alumni office press release last month.

The World Report and U.S. News listed the Heller School for Social Justice among the top-10 graduate schools in social policy. The rankings place Brandeis ninth in the country.

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

networking Seniors seek jobs.

By Zach Reid Staff

With graduation rapidly approaching, many Brandeis seniors are nervously struggling to find jobs postgraduation. Although many began the search last August, pressure comes to an all-time high in the spring.

According to Lisa Lynch, dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, the current unemployment rate for people with higher education is 4.2 percent. Many Brandeis students have heaved a collective sigh of relief, as the low rate

means their job searches will be a bit easier. The class of 2012, for example, is facing much more favorable odds than the class of 2009 did when they graduated, when the Great Recession was still wreaking havoc with employment opportunities and patterns.

This economic growth, however, could quickly sour. Lynch told The Hoot that she is “cautiously optimistic that more and more of our students will find more job opportunities.”

The implications of the modern economy’s fluctuating nature, however, echo in her words. “If Europe continues to have economic difficulties,” Lynch warned, “this could act as a drag on our growth and this will dampen employers’ hiring behavior.”

Europe is posed on a financial precipice, with the prospect of fullout collapse looming in the distance.

Greece, one of the countries hit hardest by the financial crisis, is currently battling to make a series of austerity measures work, and to tame its massive national debt.

Most members of the European Union, including major economic powers such as Great Britain, France and Germany are scrambling not only to prevent their markets from plummeting, but to keep the Euro afloat, lest the economies of all E.U. countries take a major hit.

Despite these uncertainties, the low unemployment rate means that American employers and companies are looking for new employees right now—an overall improvement over the past four years, despite the fact that some recent college graduates might have to settle for lower salaries

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than expected.

The recent growth in the American economy has created a new wave of optimism for people of all ages currently searching the job market for employment opportunities. “The U.S. economy has now turned in three of its strongest months of job growth since the recession began,” a March 9 segment of PBS News Hour stated.

Many households in America are finding jobs more readily available and, while the damage from the Great Recession is nowhere near completely repaired, America’s recovery has begun. Elana L. Givens, associate dean for Career Services at the International Business School, however, believes that graduates should look abroad for job opportunities. She believes Brandeis possesses a “key competitive edge [over] other institutions: true global reach.”

Brandeis currently has students from more than 120 countries studying on campus, according to the International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) This diversity has been an integral part of the Brandeis community since the school’s founding, and has helped Brandeis to build a network of what Givens describes as “loyal, helpful alumni around the world.”

In addition to the alumni network, Givens stated that the International Business School “offers a course twice per year called ‘Launching Your Global Career,’” which is designed to provide students with the knowledge of how to build a resume, manage a LinkedIn profile, and other essential business and networking techniques.

March 16, 2012

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

Global Green Initiative reconciles profits and environmentalism

photos by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

global green initiative Eric Pooley (above) and Joseph Stanislaw (below).

By Connor Novy Editor

As the global economy begins to reverse its descent, the Brandeis Global Green Initiative teaches MBA students not only how to make a profit, but how to do it responsibly.

On March 13, the Brandeis International Business School hosted two eminent environmentalists—Eric Pooley, former deputy editor of BusinessWeek, who left the magazine to work at the Environmental Defense Fund after the failure of Congress to pass the Lagston Markey Bill in 2009, and Joseph Stanislaw, founder of advisory firm The JAStanislaw Group, which specializes in strategy, sustainability and environmentally sound investment.

They discussed the imminent danger of climate change and its potential effect on business. Both believe that in order for the United States to compete economically, it must compete environmentally.

The lecture was part of the Brandeis International Business School’s Glob-

al Green Initiative program, which seeks to accommodate good business practice and environmental sustainability. Beyond promoting environmentalism, the IBS lecture introduced students to rational dialogue between differing viewpoints.

During the lecture, a student pointed out the need for American jobs, defending the “Shale revolution” and the practice of fracking, which has reaped significant profits for people in Pennsylvania and the surrounding region.

Stanislaw rebutted with the possibility of job creation in new energy industries, including the production of fuel-efficient cars. He has worked with the governor of Ohio for the past year and a half to create jobs “surrounding energy” and maintains that the possibility of progress is definite: “Every major thrust of the human race has originated in a change in energy source.”

“By addressing climate change and energy, it will be the source of economic growth,” Stainslaw said in his lecture.

Warren Leon, coordinator of the Global Green MBA, agrees: “There is increased awareness that being socially responsible, being concerned about the environment … is not necessarily in conflict with making a profit.” After centuries of profit-at-any-cost ideology, the rise in “building sustainable businesses,” says Leon, is due in part to a changing consumer demand and part to the internal pressure in the business world.

Many companies have begun to make more socially and environmentally conscious decisions for fear of retribution. “Doing things that are bad,” explained Leon, “could open them to criticism.” Still, Leon maintained that while many studies show that consumers would pay more to know that the products they buy aren’t toxic, in practice it rarely works out that way.

Whether consumers really have to pay more, though, is unclear. Spread over the entire population of Massa-

chusetts, getting power from a more efficient grid would cost consumers only 50 cents more a month, estimates Leon, where as voluntary participation would cost fewer consumers up to $5.

Pooley charged consumers with abandoning the environmental cause when “financial worries took priority.”

Using more socially conscious materials, or fewer harmless materials altogether, could actually reduce a company’s costs. Most of these concepts aren’t completely unheard of, but their implementation has been rare in the past. “We don’t just go into the class and repeat endlessly that this is a good idea,” Leon said. Students at the MBA program are taught the “practical tools to implement these ideas.”

The long-run strategies of sustainability, according to Pooley and Stanislaw, are necessary not only in terms of the global environment, but are

also necessary for the future of companies. “Companies are missing profits because they are using too much energy,” explained Stanislaw. “We have to use energy smartly.”

Stanislaw is passionate about supporting what he calls “crazy technology entrepreneurs,” which in theory the IBS program is educating.

Whether students are actually graduating to work in their fields and promote the concepts they learned at the Global Green Initiative is still unclear seeing as the program is still in its infancy. Whether or not students feel that it is their mission though, maintains Leon, the schooling in good economics of sustainability will be helpful.

Leon called it a “different kind of accounting,” one with three bottom lines, instead of the traditional one: profit. Environment and social consciousness, he said, must also be taken into account. Stanislaw called it “the power of how you use data.”

Showgirl a highlight of BNC event

By Rachel Hirschhaut Staff

In difficult economic times, successful philanthropic fundraising requires creative thinking and original, attention-grabbing ideas.

This is part of the reason why the Brandeis National Committee (BNC) Las Vegas chapter brought Betty Bunch, a former Vegas showgirl entertainer, to speak at their 15th annual book and author luncheon on Sunday.

Bunch, who performed in shows and movies such as “South Pacific” in the 1950s and ’60s, shared photos and excerpts from her recent memoir “High Heels and Headdresses: Memoirs of a Vintage Vegas Showgirl.”

“Welcoming a showgirl as our guest speaker is perfect,” chapter representative Denise Needleman told The Las Vegas Review-Journal. The BNC chose Betty Bunch “particularly since such a significant number of our members have been residents of our valley since the heyday of the ’50s and ’60s,” Needleman said. “We were excited to learn tidbits about our own

community and we thought it would be fun to share memories together.”

Bunch is not only a showgirl, but she is also a television, stage and screen personality honored by the University of Nevada as a “Walking History Book” according to Needleman, an expert on Las Vegas culture in its heyday.

Bunch reminded Las Vegas residents of a different time, when Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra performed frequently and the Riviera was the only high-rise on the Sunset Strip.

Needleman said her archive of photos is “a testament to the continuing transformation that marks this town.”

Eighty-three BNC members and community members attended the event held at the Rampart Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The luncheon also honored Elliot Karp, a Brandeis alumnus and executive director of the Las Vegas Jewish Federation, who spoke enthusiastically of the university’s strong programs

in the physical and social sciences, and Edith Einhorn, past president and current Communications Coordinator of the chapter. She received the Chapter Outstanding Service Award for her years of contributions.

The Las Vegas chapter is comprised of Brandeis alumni of all ages. They carry out the BNC’s mission of philanthropically supporting the university through fundraisers and activities that strengthen community service and social justice.

Each BNC chapter supports multiple causes at Brandeis, and the Las Vegas chapter is no different. They plan to award a full, chapter-endowed scholarship to at least one incoming student a year from the Las Vegas or the Henderson area. All proceeds from the luncheon will support this project.

Since the Las Vegas BNC chapter’s founding in 1994, it has raised more than $250,000 for the Brandeis library.

photos from internet source

betty bunch The former Vegas showgirl spoke at a Brandeis National Committee luncheon

to promote her new book, “High Heels and Headdresses: Memoirs of a Vintage Vegas Showgirl.”

4 The Brandeis Hoot

By Alana Blum

FEATURES

March 16, 2012

The facts and fiction of feminism: FMLA dispels common myths

Staff

As Brandeis students and staff strolled through campus this past week, they may have been surprised to encounter a display of burnt bras near Shapiro Campus Center. This exhibit was one of the many ways in which Brandeis’ Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) initiated feminist dialogue in a week-long campaign to refute major stereotypes about the feminist movement. Called “Feminist Coming out Week,” the campaign included a variety of events that each helped redefine public perception of what it means to be a feminist.

The string of bras symbolized an overriding stereotype about the nature of feminism. Feminists are often misrepresented as women who deny all aspects of their femininity and promote solely female power. In reality, this stereotype is fictitious, resulting from an isolated incident that occurred more than four decades ago.

In the 1960s, a group of feminists had been demonstrating against the Miss America Pageant, claiming that it promoted anti-feminist ideals. One particular demonstrator tossed her bra into a garbage can in an act of protest. A journalist satirically likened the incident to Vietnam War protesters who were burning their draft cards, even though no bras had been burnt.

Decades later, this “bra-burning” myth regarding feminism still exists.

FMLA members hoped the burntbras exhibit would help students question this stereotype. As expected, the display also sparked controversy and debate.

“There’s been a lot of backlash on campus. A lot of people really support our exhibit and a lot of people don’t, which is fine. We want that. We want that controversy because it promotes feminist dialogue, which is really all we’re looking for,” FMLA E-Board member Hailey Magee ’15 said.

“Feminist Coming out Week,” began on March 7 with on “Undoing FGM” and a Depression, Suicide and Self Care Event. The following evening included a Faces of Feminist Panel, in which panelists discussed their experiences regarding feminism throughout the past few decades. Certain panelists also spoke about the history of the Women and Gender Studies department at Brandeis and the difficulties surrounding its acceptance as a legitimate discipline.

On Saturday, Brandeis’ Women of Color Alliance (WOCA) and FMLA co-sponsored a High Tea event in an effort to refute a second persisting myth surrounding feminism. Feminism is occasionally critiqued for only encompassing the experiences of white, upper-class women. FMLA endeavored, however, to dispel this

photos by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

stereotypes of feminism: fmla display

common critique.

“A problem within the feminist movement at the beginning was that it was mostly made up of white, middleage women … but feminism today has a lot of diverse groups which are all fighting for gender quality within the context of other stereotypes and discrimination that they face,” FMLA Eboard member Kat Flaherty ’15 said.

By bringing together women of different races, ethnicities and background, FMLA and WOCA tried to emphasize that feminism is in itself an intersectional movement.

“People consider feminism outside of the realm of what it means to be a person of color or what it means to be a queer person, when in reality we have to confront these topics within the reality of every person being a highly diversified body,” FMLA E-board member Alex Weick ’15 explained.

The week-long campaign also included a film showing of “!Women Art Revolution,” a feminist documentary about female artists. The film helped illustrate how women are also underrepresented in the art community.

On March 14, the campaign culmi-

nated with a “Feminist Coming Out Day,” celebration in Shapiro Campus Center. Interested students were invited to have their picture taken with a sign that read, “This is what a feminist looks like.” Students were also encouraged to create their own feminist signs. FMLA also set up an informational booth, offering students the chance to announce their support of feminism with t-shirts, pins and stickers. A passerby could also pick up a “Feminist Coming Out Day 2012” informational pamphlet or simply ask questions about feminism in general.

Some students may have been inclined to ask about the event’s title.

When the Feminist Majority Foundation first created the nationwide event, they had also titled the event “Feminist Coming Out Day.” Although the foundation recently decided to change the event’s name to “Feminist Pride Day,” Brandeis’ FMLA decided to keep the original title despite its controversial nature.

“The title of the event is controversial because people think it has to do with coming out of the closet as a gay or lesbian individual,” Magee said.

“We just think that the metaphor of ‘coming out’ is important because as

real monologues Female faculty performed orginial monologues about their experiences as women.

students get educated on feminism in the scc

feminists we’re sheltered in a space where we’re misunderstood and people try to misrepresent what feminism means. By coming out of that metaphorical closet, we’re basically saying we’re proud to be feminists and we embrace our identities. You could equate it to a gay or lesbian individual coming out and saying, ‘Embrace who I am. Embrace my identity.’”

There still exists one prevailing misconception regarding feminism that FMLA hopes also to dispel. Most people tend to view feminism as a movement that only benefits women.

“When we try to promote feminism, we’re really promoting gender equality,” Weick explained. “In that respect, it would positively affect anyone who was male, female or of any gender queer identification because all people are locked into gender roles. So when we try to destabilize and confront the roles that oppress men and women … it’s beneficial for all parties involved.”

Flaherty explained that anyone who feels stuck in a prescriptive gender role can embrace feminism’s drive to grant everyone the freedom to act outside of the gender binary. Feminism proclaims that a man should be able to choose to become a stay-athome father without ridicule. Likewise, a woman can also be a feminist and simultaneously choose to become a stay-at-home mother, because part of feminism is acknowledging one’s ability to make that choice.

Through “Feminist Coming Out Week,” FMLA wanted to express to the Brandeis community its message of feminism as a request for equality.

March 16, 2012

By Victoria Aronson

FEATURES 5

The Brandeis Hoot

The board of trustees: influential profiles

Editor

Ellen Kaplan Brandeis trustee Ellen Kaplan ’64 was awed as an entering student, remarking on the sensation that “campus felt like a new world to me, my world.” Coming from a high school in a small city, she described the feeling that her high school education may have been inadequate in preparing her for Brandeis. Suddenly confronted with students from private high schools, who already displayed superior knowledge of materials that were entirely new to her, Kaplan recalls an initial period of doubt, questioning: “Do I really belong here? Can I really do it?” Her fears were rapidly dispelled as she immersed herself in the academic environment, stating that Brandeis “opened the world for me, introducing me to subjects like literature, economics and sociology that I had not explored before.”

She recalls facing intellectual challenges from professors at the forefront of their fields, though she subsequent-

ly developed profound relationships with them due to the small class sizes.

She has noticed the countless alterations that have occurred on campus since her time as a student, both technological advancements and major physical additions, but she asserts that one crucial aspect of Brandeis has prevailed. Referring to the university’s focus on social justice, she observes a “continuation of this spirit that is wonderful and exciting, making Brandeis unique.”

Upon graduating with a major in English and American literature, Kaplan attained her first employment opportunity with a publishing company in New York. As an editorial assistant responsible for creating the blurbs written on the covers of novels, she soon found herself seeking to further her career through other fields. In 1979, she received an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, going on to work as a major account representative at Xerox. Expressing the desire to discover “what it takes to make an organization successful,” she then co-founded Strategic Costs Systems, a small software and consulting firm,

ellen kaplan (middle), a brandeis grad of 1964

along with her husband. She then be- since occurred, and their important came an expert on strategy formula- implications for education. tion and implementation for nonprofHer contributions as trustee have it organizations, and she continues been expansive. According to Dathat work today on a pro-bono basis. vid Nathan, director of development Kaplan has been able to apply the and communications, she is one of skills she has obtained from her career approximately three dozen alumni to her role as a trustee. She is currently members who have donated in excess in the process of revising the univer- of $1 million to Brandeis. sity’s code of conduct, a document As a suggestion to current students, that specifies the “expectations for Kaplan professes: “Take advantage of behavior by every constituent of the the widest breadth of courses you can university.” possible. If you hate music, take a muShe chairs the board’s student en- sic class, learn about it.” She attributes rollment committee, which oversees her lifelong interest in opera to a class issues such as financial aid, class en- she took at Brandeis on a whim, later rollment procedures and university continuing her newfound passion to diversity. With the excitement culti- become a board member at the Bosvated from the recent inauguration ton Lyric Opera. Identifying herself as of President Lawrence, she recognizes “a strong advocate of the liberal arts the need to “move ahead and adapt.” education,” she emphasizes the imAccompanied by a hint of nostalgia, portance of literature classes, despite Kaplan referred to the utter absence one’s major, stating that they “enable of computers and cellphones during better communication skills which her time as a student, recalling that are absolutely critical in the profesher dorm had only one designated sional world.” payphone per corridor for receiving and making calls. Such memories dramatize the rapid technology and communications advancements that have Peter Zlotoff Peter Zlotoff ’72 is not an ordinary Brandeis trustee. Since graduating from Brandeis, he got his pilot’s license and has also built the Arnold Zlotoff Museum in honor of his father.

During his youth in New York, Zlotoff attended a large magnet high school, a fact which attributed to his subsequent attraction to Brandeis, a polar opposite institution. As a member of three sports teams during his time as a student, Zlotoff was actively involved in the Brandeis community from the start.

Despite his major in sociology, Zlotoff recalls taking a diverse assemblage of academic classes. In a previous interview with David Nathan, director of development communications, Zlotoff stated, “I was someone who had great intellectual curiosity, and at Brandeis I could experience all these different things. The truth is, I loved them all.” He described his time as a student as “life sculpting.”

When questioned as to the development of his career, Zlotoff described himself as a “serial entrepreneur.”

Photos Courtesy of Alumni relations peter zlotoff ‘72

Having been employed by numerous firms since graduation, he went on to become chairman of Uniprop, a real estate firm with a specialization in manufactured home communities.

Zlotoff is one of more than 30 alumni who have donated in excess of $1 million to the university. He has served as president of the Alumni Association and two terms on the board of trustees. Zlotoff is also a supporter of the Annual Fund and a chair member of the University Fellows, an honorary society for alumni and friends.

Currently abiding in suburban Detroit, Zlotoff can also add the title of certified ski instructor to his repertoire. Other less quirky achievements include honoring his father with a museum. His father was an industrial arts professor in New York, who amassed a large collection of early American jewels. Zlotoff built a museum for his father located near Lake Champlain to serve as the site for this assemblage of more than 3,000 tools that date from the Colonial era.

On behalf of current students at Brandeis University, Zlotoff urges “You should learn as much as you can in a wide range of subjects to become a truly well-educated and well-rounded individual, creating the foundation for your future.”

SEA coffeehouse displays student talent

music and laughter From left to right: Emma McAfee-Hahn ’13 sings at the Students for Environmental Action coffeehouse at Chum’s on Thursday, March 15. Tom Phan ’14 performs with the

comedy improv group Bad Grammar. Talia Davidoff ’12, Jesse Hart ’14 and Joshua Seiden ’13 act out another Bad Grammar skit.

photos by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

6 The Brandeis Hoot

The Katzwer’s Out of the Bag

ImpressiOns

March 16, 2012

‘Balanced literacy’ leads to balanced people

By Yael Katzwer Editor

Our country’s public education is in a sorry state; this is not some new discovery. For years the media has been reporting on how much better China’s children are at math and science and on how schoolchildren do not know many basic bits of data.

The United States’ public schools have been trying to push back. They have been tweaking their curricula and instituting new standardized tests. “No Child Left Behind,” as much as it failed, was meant by President Bush to improve children’s test scores.

Ten New York City public schools recently participated in an experimental reading curriculum and were then compared to 10 schools that maintained their past curricula. This three-year experiment covered children from kindergarten through second grade.

The 10 experiment schools used a reading curriculum—designed by education theorist E.D. Hirsch Jr.’s Core Knowledge Foundation—in which their students were given non-fiction both to improve their literacy and their overall knowledge in topics such as science and history. The other 10 schools used multiple methods, all of which fell under the “balanced literacy” approach, which was championed and spread by New York City’s former schools chancellor, Joel Klein. Balanced literacy splits the content of students’ reading assignments down the middle, with half being non-fictional texts and the other half being fictional “fluff.”

Students who used the new approach scored a little higher on a literacy test and scored much higher on a general knowledge test. While

there was a large gap between the two groups in kindergarten, however, by second grade it had evened out and most of the kids were at about the same level.

Despite this small yet present improvement, I have to urge schools not to abandon balanced literacy.

Balanced literacy does not just balance the materials read by students; it balances the students.

While reading about the Civil War and about oxidation will certainly improve a student’s knowledge of such matters, these lessons need to be interspersed with some lighter reading that a student can enjoy. It is the fluffy books like “Charlotte’s Web” and “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” that help develop untestable things, like a child’s imagination or empathy.

While reading non-fiction can be fun, sometimes a child just needs a book of pure fantasy. We must work not only to make sure our children are intelligent people but to make sure they are well-rounded people, something that Brandeis University takes very seriously. Brandeis is fortunate to have such a plethora of differently-minded students who are devoted to both the sciences and to the arts. But would we have so many Creative Writing majors if we had only read non-fiction in elementary school? Would Brandeis publications like “Where the Children Play” even exist?

Also, do these public schools plan to institute this new curriculum throughout the entire system, even into high school? Will high school students no longer read “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” or “Nineteen Eighty-Four”? These phenomenal texts really draw students in, allowing them to synthesize information about real issues in the world and about real emotions while they remain in the confines

graphic by diane somlo/the hoot

of a safe, fictional book. But, if students are not taught in elementary school to appreciate fiction, they may be unable to appreciate these classics and to learn the lessons from them that are so important.

That idea just saddens me tremendously.

Reading fiction when we were children helped develop—for some

of us at least—our love of books, a love that has persisted throughout the ages. I know that there is no greater joy than getting to a really exciting point in a book and itching to turn the page but also knowing that the sooner you turn that page, the sooner the suspense will end.

There is always that trade-off of rushing to the end of a book to see

what will happen to your favorite character but then being sad because his adventures must end with the final page. I would hate to be denied that feeling of losing yourself so completely in a work of fiction that you jump five feet into the air when See READING, page 9

The Editor’s Desk

How Thoreau would critique Brandeis

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

Too often with hectic schedules and exam periods, college students lose sight of why we come to college, what we hope to achieve here and how we plan to learn.

The book that teaches us about politics, the professor that teaches us how to analyze political theory— these relations are commonplace at American universities. What is rare and missing in higher education is wisdom that teaches students not how to study but how to live.

Inside a Lown classroom on a Tuesday afternoon last month, Professor Tim McCarty (POL) led a discussion about how Henry David Thoreau begins his masterpiece “Walden” by explaining the great tragedy of life: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

When the professor asked how many students had memorized their grade point average, nearly everyone in the room raised their hand. Just weeks earlier, when he asked how many students knew the mayor of Waltham, no one did.

It was an alarming contrast. Should Brandeis students invest interest in the government of Waltham and the mayor who runs it, they will find that Jeannette McCarthy, whose direct

phone number is listed online, actually wants to speak with students. After an hour interview with The Hoot last year, she spent 30 minutes asking for advice on how to transform this community’s economy. Politics aside, students ought to know who she is and communicate with her. It will not earn us points of recognition, but it will provide us with perspective, participation and appreciation for the community in which we live.

People—not GPAs—achieve goals. Memorizing our GPA, spending winter break performing hours of community service to bolster our resumes or stressing about what our peers think of us—such behaviors are acts of desperation, McCarty explained.

There is nothing wrong with academic ambition and excellence. But there is a fundamental difference between writing a paper to earn points for your grade average versus attempting to work through a solution to a problem in your mind and then communicate it to someone else. One can study for an exam by memorizing facts, names and data or one can search creatively for patterns of behavior and thought.

In his inaugural address, President Lawrence defended the value of a liberal arts education, explaining that “the ability to turn information into knowledge, the ability to analyze

closely, the ability to solve problems and the ability to communicate” will always prove useful in the work place. He warned of the dangers of desperation—only focusing on what we need to do.

The liberal arts critic views history as an impractical major because it will not lead to a secure job after graduation. But the value of studying history cannot be measured in dollars. It is about learning to recognize what has happened, observe what is happening and envision what ought to happen next.

The liberal arts critic views politics as a theoretical major taught by academics lacking political experience.

Yet the value of political theory is ultimately that it teaches us to study the process of compromise.

The journalism critic argues it is a dying industry, useless to teach students searching for a job. But journalism is not only about nut graphs, interview techniques and writing on deadline. It is also about searching for complicated answers to uncomfortable questions, trying to understand the flurry of competing thoughts in your head and communicating what you think to others.

The transition from knowledge and critical thinking skills to career success will occur for most of us. But for a select few, a college experience filled with Thoreau’s “wisdom” could

graphic by linjie xu/the hoot

lead to a new purpose and meaning in our lives.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life … and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear,”

Thoreau wrote. He challenged us to discover the joy of living, to spend time satisfying ourselves rather than waste it pleasing others.

We can choose to read Thoreau and study it as 19th-century political philosophy. Or, we can learn to adapt its lessons to our lives here at Brandeis.

March 16, 2012

IMPRESSIONS 7

The Brandeis Hoot

Touring campus as a graduating senior

photo by ingrid schulte/the hoot

By Alex Schneider Editor

I first toured Brandeis in the fall of 2006. It was about time to take the tour again.

But there’s no doubt about it: Touring campus was far more rewarding the second time.

This time I was prepared. I’d sat in on a few too many classes, met some nice professors and stayed overnight in a real Brandeis dorm.

Taking the tour was just a formality.

A chance to validate what I knew about the school, to see “college students in their natural habitat,” in the words of one hard working student who apparently doesn’t understand library acoustics.

I thought it would be best not to ask too many questions, although I certain-

ly wanted to. “How does campus food compare with other schools you’ve visited?” “Does everyone get their first choice of housing?” “How much does it cost to ride the commuter rail?” “When you say that the campus shuttle comes every 15 to 30 minutes, does that mean it isn’t actually on a schedule?” “Have you ever been unable to enroll in a course?” “What does the Castle look like on the inside?” And so on.

But then everyone else’s questions came, and I knew I was out of my league. A father raised his hand and asked how many students attend the school. A mother asked, “This isn’t obviously a sports school, is it?” Another inquired about the student-faculty ratio. (If someone told you 7:1, 8:1 or 9:1, forget the math, would you even know what that meant in terms of the value of a Brandeis education?)

Lesson #1: Before visiting a college,

do your homework. Asking questions is useful only to a point; learning how students react to questions and the ways in which they respond is far more telling.

Despite the lackluster crowd, the guides were compelling, expert storytellers. We heard about the Cheese Club, about specific trips into Boston and about surviving forced-triple accommodations.

The guides used anecdotes to make larger points. In addressing the connection between students and professors they discussed the take your professor to lunch program, eliciting nods of approval from parents. In explaining social justice, they cited the high participation rate of the Waltham Group.

Participants were attentive and focused. The tour avoided Rabb Steps, so no one was out of breath, even though the tour lasted almost an hour and a half.

What a difference a careful, considered tour makes.

Here’s what I remember from five years ago: an overly enthusiastic college student stumbling backward up Brandeis hill trying to persuade me to attend. She didn’t help her case when she led us through Shapiro dorms.

That’s when I knew I didn’t want to go to Brandeis.

All these years later, looking back, I still can’t figure out how the Brandeis I visited is the same school I attend.

There’s a real difference and the tour reflects it. In 2006, I visited Shapiro dorms and now the tour visits the newly renovated Usen. Back then, there was no Mandel Center, no Shapiro Science Center and no Shapiro Admissions building. The old Ridgewood still stood, waiting to be demolished.

But I’ve also changed, and I would be remiss to forget that fact. Brandeis no

longer looks as colorless, because as I followed the tour group, I didn’t just see old brick buildings, I saw people I knew.

As we passed by offices and discussed experiential learning and study abroad opportunities, I had my own experiences to which I could relate. When we walked through Usen dorm, I didn’t see a messy college dorm, I saw just another busy day when cleaning up and doing the laundry just isn’t at the top of the to-do list. Perspectives really do change.

Since 2006, I’d never before traversed the campus so slowly. Our tour guides kept a decent pace, but still, they stopped every so often to discuss a new topic or share a story from their campus experiences. As they did so, I had a chance to look around, to see the campus from a different perspective, the perspective of a prospective student.

I liked what I saw. Sure, our tour guides didn’t take us through East or show us the food prices in Usdan or explain the Rose saga. We never heard about last month’s arrested professor or last year’s Waltham triple homicide. But every school has its positives and negatives. Brandeis is making a real attempt to define itself, independent of peer institutions.

A key example is the new admissions website unveiled this week—which incidentally replaces the old one that was around back in 2006. The site finally presents Brandeis to the world in a manner that the school deserves.

The website complements the school’s new buildings and new leadership and will no doubt help attract students who might otherwise have misunderstood the core mission of the university.

That’s what Brandeis needs to continue to do: explore new ways to sell itself because, as I was reminded this week, Brandeis really does have much to offer.

And thankfully, with the tour behind me, I now know where on campus I can find what I’m looking for.

Finding the value of feminism today

By Zoe Kronovet Staff

As I walked toward Usdan for dinner the other night my male friend and I got into a debate. Arguing is an unsurprising activity for me since the adjectives most frequently associated with my personality are “snarky” and “sassy.” I remarked that I thought the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance’s dramatic attempt to catch the eye of the Brandeis student body by hanging a clothesline of burnt bras between two trees was humorous and clever.

This seemingly provocative display forces students to reconcile their perception of feminists and drums up excitement and awareness about feminist coming out week. My friend responded that, in a world where many of the original issues that caused the start of feminism are being solved, the movement has become less relevant and therefore less prevalent in our society. I fervently disagree with him and was displeased that he was giving a movement and ideology so important to me a bad rap. In the vein of full disclosure, however, I should note that I have never participated in or attended any organized feminist activities or events. My feminism is “home grown” and stems from having an independent (and mildly defiant mother), reading various feminist works (like “The Feminine Mystique”) and my own liberal tendencies.

Some say that the talk during the Republican presidential primaries regarding women’s right and accessibility to contraception is actually a ploy to distract American voters and that the real issues that should dominate today’s political sphere are

the economy, the war in Afghanistan (which as of late has become increasingly alarming) or our own domestic issues. Ruse or not, women’s access to health care should be taken seriously. When I hear of candidates who espouse women’s right for self-determination regarding their sexuality, I am comforted. Comparatively, when I listen to the rhetoric of Republican candidates, I worry; I am tempted to run to the pharmacy and buy out Walgreen’s supply of birth control just in case it gets taken away from me by a righteous, male, Republican zealot.

Perhaps Rick Santorum’s stance on birth control is emblematic of a greater problem that I’ve read a lot about recently: the ‘decline’ of men.

Today, for every two men who receive a bachelor’s degree, three women will do the same. Out of the 15 categories into which jobs are broken down (janitorial, computer engineer, child care, food preparation, etc.), women dominate all but two of them.

One out of every five men in “prime working age” is unemployed. Coming from this perspective, it is easy to understand why our XY chromosome brothers would be intimidated by women’s rise in the academic and professional world. Their response is to lash out and attempt to control what for so long has comprised women’s identities: their ability to have babies.

So, one might argue, if women are doing so wonderfully, what’s the point in having a “feminist coming out week”? Why should I care if feminism sticks around or not? Sure, the pay inequality gap between genders is less horrifying than it once was and more childcare responsibilities are being balanced between both father and mother, instead of the traditional roles of bread-winning father and

caretaker mother (just check out The Good Men Project’s response to an apparently sexist Huggies commercial).

I believe that it is because of these things that feminism should and must continue to exist and be present in our lives and discourse. Feminism must remain as the gatekeepers and the guardians of the progress being made thus far.

In our political discourse today we see threats against organizations and services that provide vital services to women. People continue to question women’s right to exist in the workplace and hold high office. Even though progress has been made, it is still subject to attack by those who are made uncomfortable and oppose women’s equality.

The more people I talk to the more I am surprised that so many people consider feminism an antiquated movement filled with a bunch of whining women. There are still barriers that have not been broken, rape is still a problem in our society that needs to be addressed and remedied, and inequality still exists. For these reasons and many more I have not enumerated, feminism should continue to be present in our college campuses and in our society.

Being informally educated in the feminist movement in the United States, I can’t say with any type of certainty what feminist wave I am currently part of. I hope, however, that— in spite of our use of the world “wave” as terminology to describe feminism movements—feminism will remain like the ocean, constantly fluctuating but forever present, helping to keep alive and encourage the independent spirit of women and check our societal impulse that says that my female identity is all that matters about me.

graphic by yi wang/the hoot

8 IMPRESSIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

Call Me, Tweet Me

March 16, 2012

When free speech turns sexist

By Leah Finkelman Editor

Do you like beautiful women? Do you like politics? Do you like free food?

If you do, you may have found yourself at a Brandeis LibertarianConservative Union (BLCU) speaker event featuring S.E. Cupp last night.

From what I’ve gathered from the Facebook event page and a little Internet detective work, Sarah Elizabeth “S.E.” Cupp is a politically conservative commentator and writer, published in several notable newspapers and featured on CNN and Fox. So many aspects of the Facebook event offended me that I don’t even know where to start, but I’ll try to keep it concise.

In a competitive environment like Brandeis extra-curriculars, you’ve got to work with what you’ve got, and at Brandeis having a smokin’ speaker is definitely noteworthy. Although I think it’s distasteful, immature, borderline trashy and downright offensive, the BLCU is fully within their right to free speech to market the event as they wish. Unfortunately.

Several students questioned the BLCU’s marketing strategy on the wall of the Facebook event. Some complaints were met with mature, well-thought out arguments about free speech, while others … weren’t.

On the marketing and perceived censorship of wall posts, one female student wrote “It’s kind of disgusting that the posts calling out the sexism in the advertising of this event were deleted. When the first sentence is about this speaker’s looks and not her intelligence or her occupation or anything RELEVANT, that’s sexism.”

The comments quickly spiraled out of control. “Your paranoia and feeling of entitlement that everybody must conform to your standards resembles that of an autocratic tyrant and is contrary to the First Amendment,” wrote one administrator of the event.

Wait, wait, it gets better.

The next response was an attack on her seemingly “provocative” profile picture, which wasn’t even of her.

“Now, you are accusing us of using a woman’s looks to attract people to our event? Good point. But, look at your picture. If it is you in the picture, you are modeling in what appears to be very provocative clothing.

I assume you made that your profile picture to obviously attract people to your Facebook page. Doesn’t that not align with your values that you are strongly forcing upon this Facebook event?”

Therein lies a big part of the problem. Unless the girl’s picture was her posing in lingerie, I can’t imagine how it could be relevant—and even then I would have trouble making the connection.

Liz Lemon Tina Fey taught me that I should never call another girl a slut or a whore, because “it just makes it ok for guys to call [us] sluts and whores.” Okay, I already knew that it was wrong on a lot of levels, but as the ever-inspirational Ms. Norbury she reinforced it. We’re supposed to embrace our inner beauty and see the better qualities in everyone around us, right?

For the most part, I’ve always been pretty slender but with, for lack of a better word, a booty. Despite a few self-deprecating jokes, I knew I wasn’t fat, and compared to most teenage girls, I’ve always been comfortable with my body. When I was in middle school, my mom made me watch “Real Women Have Curves.”

It’s a great movie, I highly recommend it.

Some women are curvy, some are stick-thin, but we’re all supposedly beautiful, right? That begs the question—where do we draw the line between calling ourselves beautiful and letting others call us beautiful, or sexy, or hot, or anything else that praises our physical looks?

I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I know where I draw the line. To an extent, I’m fine with anyone using whatever words they want to describe someone’s appearance. Obviously, I’d prefer them to stick to respectful, positive words like beautiful. Remember in “When Harry Met Sally” when Harry tries to set Jess up with Sally and Jess says, “When someone is not that attractive, they’re always

photo from internet source

described as having a good personality”? Maybe that’s a good thing.

That said, appearance should never be a selling point. From before they can speak, both boys and girls are told how cute they are, how handsome or beautiful they’ll grow up to be. It’s a societal flaw, not a partisan point of contention. For both sexes, there is constant pressure to be attractive, whether that means size zero or with bulging abs, coming from all sides.

We’re all in big trouble if we don’t start to look deeper on a regular basis.

If the BLCU was trying to use Cupp’s looks as a promotion tool, a picture would have worked much better. I

agree, she is incredibly beautiful. The fact that they felt the need to spell it out indicates that either they truly believe it is a way to get people to come to an event, or that they don’t care that they are objectifying her.

Her beauty is not, presumably, why they brought her here. Her political views are.

I don’t know whose idea the marketing strategy was. It’s entirely possible that when the BLCU contacted Cupp, she suggested it. It’s also possible that if she saw the flyers and the Facebook event page she would be disgusted, but be flattered and admire their chutzpah.

I would have loved to be on campus last night to go to the event and ask her what she thought, and ask her if her physical attractiveness was something for which she wanted to be known. I know what my answer would be.

Although ideologically the two of us could not be more different, I respect Cupp for the work she’s done, but if I had garnered that much respect as a political commentator, I would be ashamed for the group that seemed to care more about my physical assets than anything I actually had to say to them.

Doonesbury debacle: a debate of free speech

graphic from internet source

By Ariel Madway Staff

In the United States of America all citizens are granted the freedom of speech. This is perhaps the most wellknown and most sanctified clause of the Bill of Rights. It is a clause meant

to protect to the ideas of the citizens and a clause meant to prevent the American government from ruling as a monarchy. Throughout history, art has been a prevalent form of portraying ideas. Political plays, movies, books, songs and cartoons have circulated for centuries in an attempt, ei-

ther by the author or artist, to spread a specific idea to a large percentage of the population.

These artistic portrayals of belief do not often come from the government; they come instead from ordinary people yearning to be heard. Back in my high school AP U.S. history class,

almost every PowerPoint presentation seemed to contain at least one “political cartoon” to help us further understand the political situation of whatever era we were studying.

Furthermore, we wrote bi-weekly “DBQs” in which we had to synthesize various cartoons (and other documents) into coherent papers on that specific era. The immense time spent studying political cartoons highlights their immense importance in our country’s history. Perhaps the fear of the political cartoon’s power is the very reason that many newspapers took it upon themselves to cut this past week’s Doonesbury comic, depicting a very controversial strip dealing with the new Texas laws regarding abortion.

The strip mocked the new laws, creating a short political satire. It was greeted with great applause from many pro-choice readers. Many conservatives, however, viewed it as being offensive because it compared Texas’ new legislation to rape. The blunt brutality of Gary Trudeau, the comic, polarizing as it may be, succeeded in one thing: It reached the national news. Had this comic been printed per usual, it probably wouldn’t be receiving all the hype and attention it is now, but since it

was treated differently it wound up reaching an even greater audience, thereby negating the efforts of newspapers to shield it from the public eye. Clearly the newspapers, when making the decision not to print such a provocative strip, were afraid of the strip’s consequences, but the consequences for not printing the strip were even greater.

With that being said, the main question at hand is whether or not newspapers should even have the power to censor the opinions published within the paper. If all citizens are given the inherent right to publish ideas, an artist should be allowed to as well. The author of Doonesbury being penalized for sharing a specific point of view clearly goes against the value of free speech. Although not everyone may agree with his convictions, and although his art may even be offensive to some, it is important that his strips are published where they rightly belong. By removing his strips, newspapers are not protecting their readers from specific beliefs, but they are instead restricting the channels through which free speech can flow. Political cartoons are powerful channels for expressing ideas, and it is important to preserve this historically sanctified venue.

March 16, 2012

IMPRESSIONS 9

The Brandeis Hoot

The Self Shelf

General education requirements: harmful, not helpful

By Alex Self Columnist

At most liberal arts colleges and universities, one can find the concept of general education requirements.

These usually constitute required classes or areas of study of which one must partake in order to get a degree.

Students respond to these requirements in a variety of ways. Some try to get all of their requirements out of the way at the beginning of their college career while others cram them all in during their senior year. A portion of students dive into their gen-eds by taking in-depth classes in the subject, while others take courses that have as little to do with the subject at hand as possible. My goal here is not to talk about how best to deal with general education requirements but instead to discuss their validity in general. I realize this policy does not have the largest impact upon student life but I believe gen-eds are bad, and that one can attain a better education without them.

General education requirements require students to take classes they have no interest in taking. This leads to a number of harms. First, in forcing the student to take these classes, it leads to half-hearted attempts on the student’s part in the class. This lack of effort leads to problems for both the students (failing) and the professors (dealing with a class of students who do not care about the material being taught). This mitigates one of the main purported benefits of gen-eds, the nebulous concept of exposure to a subject. If I am forcibly exposed to a subject I am not interest in taking, the odds of me actually liking the subject are far less than if I simply chose it out

of my own free will.

Second, one’s time in college is valuable—one can only take so many classes in the standard four years one is in school. Thus, when the university forces students to take classes they do not necessarily want to take, they also prevent them from taking classes in which they would have actually been interested. It is wrong to force a neuroscience major who wants to take 40 neuroscience classes instead to take 36 neuroscience classes and four unrelated classes simply in the name of a well-rounded education.

Yet the largest harm here is that it goes against the purpose of college in the first place—the ability to explore academia based on your own preferences. College is supposed to be a step beyond the structured environment of high school—there, you can make your own decisions and have an education on your own terms.

The second argument as to why the concept of general education requirements is bad is the concept of monetary returns. One can make the argument that it would be better if every student took subjects out of their comfort zone and that it is thus a fine policy. I have already disputed the academic value of such an arrangement but there is also a basic moral concept that you should get what you pay for. When a student pays to go to college, presumably they are not paying for mandated eclecticism. If the student wants to take a class in a wide variety of subjects, that is perfectly acceptable. Yet, if a student is paying Brandeis more than $50,000 for an education that will prepare them for the rest of their professional life, it seems uncertain to me why Brandeis should have any moral mandate to tell the student what subjects to

graphic by yi wang/the hoot

study. Although one can respond that Brandeis, as the provider of services, has the right to package those services in any way it wishes, it is unclear why it ought do this. After all, it is not as if students are flocking to Brandeis for the general education requirements.

Considering the relative uselessness of these services in attracting students, it seems unclear why Brandeis or any other liberal arts college for that matter has gen-eds. Furthermore, one does not need these requirements to be proficient enough in a subject to make it into a career. If anything, these requirements merely detract from a student’s future prospects of success by taking away opportunities for students to take more classes in their chosen field. Thus, insofar as it hurts the career prospects of the stu-

dents while taking their money, the concept of general education requirements in general is unjust.

Lastly, general education requirements are bad because they are ineffective. The main reason propagated for the continued usage of general education requirements is the idea that they are part of a liberal arts education—the idea that one must be exposed to a variety of subjects.

Yet, as I have previously alluded to, students are not walking into these classes with the hopes of exploring a new subject. Generally, students treat general education requirements with disdain—they try to get out of them as much as possible by taking classes only tangentially linked to the requirement and put little actual intellectual thought into them. The idea

Study abroad adventures: experiences of an American in Kosovo

By Jordan Birnbaum Special to the Hoot

I am currently on the School for International Training (SIT) Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo: Peace and Conflict Studies in the Balkans. I’ve been living in Belgrade for a little more than a month, but last week, had the amazing opportunity to spend a week in Kosovo. So my question to you is, where in the world was I? To be honest it depends a lot on who you ask and what country you live in. If you recognize Kosovo’s independence as a sovereign country than stick to Kosova or Republic of Kosovo, and if you don’t then you’ll use the term Kosovo or occasionally South Serbia. You see, during the war in Yugoslavia, Kosovo was annexed, then became a province, and then became an autonomous province, and in1989 was declared a part of Serbia.

In 2008 Kosovo declared independence as the Republic of Kosovo. It’s a long story, for another time.

Prishtina, the capital, was an extremely welcoming city. The people here smile on the streets, they’re friendly and they want to help. I wonder if it’s because very few tourists come to Prishtina, or if it’s because we are American. We are, after all, talking about a city with “I love USA” posters and a statue of Bill Clinton. I’m not naive; I know that that sentiment can’t be true everywhere, but it was definitely an interesting phenomenon. When you walk around Prishtina there are people everywhere, all the time. Students in school uniforms, older people sitting on park benches and students from

that forcing an economics major to take Chem 101 is going to change that student’s overall disposition seems unlikely. Even if this does happen for some, for the vast majority gen-eds are a burden they must overcome.

Furthermore, this general attitude forces the professors involved in these subjects to teach to a student populace that has no interest in the subject at hand, thus robbing those who took the subject out of true interest of the attention they deserve.

College should not be a chore to get through but an exciting chance to explore the subjects in which one is most interested. General education requirements ensure the former and prevent the latter—it would be better for college education in general if they were abolished.

Don’t scrap fiction READING, from page 6

photo from internet source

the university wandering around.

When we walk down the street people watch us. I admit, we’re a large group and we’re not quiet, but they say hi to us in English and smile as we walk past. They’re curious, I think, because we’re in Prishtina not as part of the United Nations, the European Union or the international community, but because we are curious. We represent a very small (if not nonexistent) amount of tourism that Kosovo/a will see in a year.

During the last week we attended lectures with people from civil society in Kosovo/a including professors at the university, senior members of NGOs and others who taught us more about transitional justice and the role of the international community in

Kosovo/a. We have spent a lot of time talking—sometimes in circles—about language, ethnicity and identity.

Sometimes the outcomes of discussions were optimistic, other times we are left wondering what the future of Kosovo/a will be. It always seems so mind-boggling when I remember that the conflict in Yugoslavia started when I was born, and the war in Kosovo started when I was in fourth grade. I have a hard time understanding how that is possible. The only time I can remember fearing for my country was in the minutes following Sept. 11 when I was in the fifth grade.

The university students here, those carefree students with the great fashion sense and a love of Rakija (the local alcohol), were born into a country

that was dissolving, lived (either here or as refugees abroad) through a war, and have returned to a country whose very existence is called into question on a daily basis.

Being in Kosovo/a, even only for a week, was an amazing experience, and I got the chance to see a country I wouldn’t have imagined visiting last year. I climbed a fort, had dinner in a rotating restaurant, attempted to learn some Albanian, tried some amazing food, went into a mosque for the first time, met with some brilliant leaders, took a photo with the Bill Clinton statue, played on the newborn sign and went to a few different cities. I learned more in just one week then I would have ever thought possible.

someone calls your name and you are rudely drawn out of this new, enticing world.

I do not want the next generation of children to be oblivious to these joys.

Some people claim that learning should not be fun and that children can develop their passions and fall in love with fiction elsewhere. Neil Postman argues in his 1985 book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” that “Sesame Street” was destroying our country’s youth because it created the expectation in them that all learning should be fun. While a part of me agrees with Postman, a part of me knows that school should be more than just learning facts. In school a child should discover what he is passionate about or what absolutely fascinates her. Also, while all learning certainly does not have to be fun, some of it should be. They are children, not automatons.

New York City public schools must keep the balanced literacy approach to reading. Reading is a love that must be developed early on; once you have them hooked, then you can give them the boring textbooks. Don’t deprive our children of the joys of literature.

10 IMPRESSIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 16, 2012

Meet the Majors, join a community of writers

By Dana Trismen Editor

As a creative writing major, I am not often in the company of my peers outside of class. We creative types are small in number and often overlooked compared to the swelling numbers of psych or science majors.

When a Meet the Majors event was offered for creative writing students, I figured I would take this opportunity to be around like-minded people.

It is this need that Meet the Major programs fill here at Brandeis. Not only is it a chance to interact with people with whom you have a lot in common, but it is also a way to mingle with faculty and alumni. Any questions about the major and its requirements can be answered. Another large upside of this event is its inclusion of free Panera pastries.

The event was very tailored to the interests of creative writing students.

After introduction and the consumption of a large amount of pastries, people were asked to stand up and read a selection of their work. This is normal for a creative writing major.

Students are often asked to read their work out loud in class. Yet, this was a more performance-based, spokenword setting. I found this an interesting challenge. I read the same short story out loud at both the Meet the Majors event and in class; yet it was while standing at the podium during Meet the Majors that my story truly came alive. I found myself changing the tone of my voice for the different characters, emphasizing certain lines and completely investing myself in my story in a new-found way. In this way the event was not just a communal sharing of work and ideas, but also an actual spoken-word event.

Features

Meet the Majors also inspired me by illustrating the pure talent we have here at Brandeis. Olga Broumas, director of creative writing on campus and also our poet in residence, gave a truly spectacular poetry reading that honestly made me reconsider my monogamy toward fiction. While I have yet to have the pleasure of being in her class, I enjoyed the way the two poems she read tied into one another.

William Flesch, a renowned English professor, also read his work.

While not a self-described writer, he is a translator, and his insights into Dante’s “Inferno” went far beyond my previous knowledge of the text from good old high-school AP European History. Student readings were no less important, even members of my own creative writing class whose work I read on a weekly basis brought new pieces that impressed me.

Meet the Major events are not always well-attended. Many students seem to take the viewpoint that they can look up the requirements for their major online, or talk to their adviser.

There seems to be no point in gathering on a weeknight to talk about information already so accessible. I argue, however, that these events are essential not because of the information they provide, but because of the community they foster. Now that I know the creative writing majors, the UDRs and the faculty a little better, I would feel more comfortable contacting them if I ever had a problem with a piece or encountered writer’s block.

Having already done something so personal as share my own writing with them, I feel bonded in the way only a community of writers can.

I am not a science major. I cannot gripe to my friends and classmates about the stresses of taking organic

chemistry. In describing my creative writing class to others, they seem taken aback by the fact that it involves a mere 14 people in a class, it requires permission to get into and it’s an environment where many of the fiction stories shared are actually so personal it turns out they are true. Meet the

Majors allowed me to be among people who recognize this as the norm, who understand the writing-obsessed side of me that I feel uncomfortable sharing with others. It allows me to have that feeling of companionship, that sensation that people in more popular majors get everyday, that I

usually only obtain in class once a week. The fact that it requires one to take two workshop classes before declaring a creative writing major is not the point, it is that people like me exist at Brandeis and are as excited to share their work as I am.

photo from internet source

creative writing Currently there are 29 creative writing major and minors at Brandeis.

The lasting influence of Ernestine Rose

By Emily Beker Staff

speaker paula doress-worters

Paula Doress-Worters, founding co-author of “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” came to the Women’s Study Research

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

Center (WSRC) at Brandeis University to explore a long-standing interest in Ernestine Rose. Honoring feminist week at Brandeis, Doress-Worters’ lecture on the 19th-century woman’s rights advocate Ernestine Rose was timely and relevant.

Ernestine Rose, daughter of Rabbi Perchozka, was born in 1810 in Poland and soon sent to school at the age of five. She had the benefit of attending a progressive school established by German Jews. Soon after becoming enrolled she was punished for an infraction she was unaware of committing. Out of protest, Rose stopped attending school. She went on to study with her father, something she insisted on doing in Hebrew. Together they learned Talmudic texts. Through those sessions she developed the ability to ask critical questions about the texts.

As she got older her questions became: “Are you sure God said this?”

This eventually prompted Rose to state: “I was a rebel at eight and a heretic at 15.” Rose’s curiosity concerning these religious matters inspired her to question the norm. This set her up for a career as a voice for women’s advocacy.

She was first driven to win when her father planned an arranged marriage for her. Rose insisted that she should marry for love. Rose continued to fight for the freedom to marry for love for the duration of her life.

She succeeded and her arranged marriage was annulled. Rose then proceeded to move to Berlin.

Berlin, to Rose, was a city of opportunity. When she encountered the anti-Semitic policy, however, that forbid Jews from entering the city unless involved with a larger group, or bringing a lot of cattle, she protested.

She went in front of the court and fought for her entry into Berlin, separate from the group of Jews already

present. Rose also won that battle.

Rose was an academic and was multi-lingual. The first job that she took up when she moved was as a language tutor. Rose was also particularly inventive. While in Berlin she invented her own fragrance and proceeded to move to England with the success of the scent’s sales. While living in England she met her husband, William Ella Rose, as well as Robert Own, who soon became her mentor.

Rose and her husband then immigrated to the United States.

They moved to the Lower East Side where the residents spoke freely. Her husband began his work as a silversmith. Their move also marked the start of Rose’s 30 years of activism in the United States. There was, however, no organized women’s rights movement at the time. Together Rose and her husband fought for women’s property rights. She came across a forum of free thought versus scripture.

Rose was the only woman to debate in this forum. Her presence became public knowledge, gaining the attention of press and reporters.

During this time period, possessing a public view on femininity without being particularly pious painted a woman as a prostitute; because of this Rose was considered to be of a lower status than the Jews. Yet Rose fought on, coming across many more opportunities to debate topics with different leaders—religious and secular—within women’s rights activists.

By the Seneca Falls Convention, an early and influential women’s rights meeting, Rose had been traveling all over the country. After the Seneca Falls Convention there were women’s rights conferences.

Rose made what some called the “unforgettable speech” that focused on the four areas that are essential for women: education, occupation, legal rights and political rights. Rose at-

tended a lecture by Horace Mann and this began her next debate, this time through the medium of paper. After the two lectures by Mann, Rose wrote two papers on his lectures and her perspective of what he said.

Rose was considered a bridgebuilder because she brought freethinking to a secular time, which she reinforced constantly at conferences.

She also brought women’s rights to the forefront of people’s minds through papers and conferences.

ernestine rose: Influential feminist. photo from internet source

March 16, 2012

NEWS 11

The Brandeis Hoot

Aramark drops student manager positions ARAMARK, from page 1

ager remaining in Usdan, said.

There were approximately six student managers before the position was phased out. Sargent was promoted to student manager in the second semester of his first year. Now, he’s the only one left. He held the position before Aramark decided to stop hiring, so he has been grandfathered out. The other student managers either graduated or stopped working at Usdan.

One of these former student managers is Dane Isenberg ’12.

“Student managers are really important in my opinion,” Isenberg said.

“Students would come to work without any experience in what they were doing, so you needed a student manager to show them what to do. There were new hires every couple of weeks and random substitute workers.”

Student managers must know how to operate every station and are responsible for all student workers.

They make sure student workers have everything they need to do their jobs.

In addition, “for breaks, student managers would cover the station where the student was taking the break on,” Isenberg said.

Not only did this position provide management structure, but it also provided motivation for student workers. The pay raise is considerable, with wages rising from $8.50 to $10.50 for student managers.

“Basically it was something students strove for. It definitely kept students honest. You wanted to be better at your job to learn more skills as a food service person because you wanted the money. It’s the most simple principle of capitalism,” Sargent said.

Aaron Bennos, director of Dining Services, could not be reached by email on Thursday afternoon for comment in this story.

Food service jobs are different than other jobs on campus because of this possibility for progress. “It made food service jobs for students more desirable because it’s one of the few jobs on campus where there is a real drive for advancement,” Sargent added.

At the same time that the student manager position was eliminated, the supervisor position was also terminated. The supervisor position was directly above the student manager but below upper management. With these two positions gone, there are often lapses in communication between student workers and upper manage-

This week in photos photos by ingrid schulte/the hoot

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

ment, according to Sargent.

“It’s really difficult for them to put consequences on the workers or even be aware if they are late,” Sargent said.

“The upper managers are extremely busy. They’re largely overworked because there’s no one in between to help them out.”

Eliminating these two positions coincided with two of the top managers leaving the company. There has been a large overturn of managers in the past

year. Eight managers left at the beginning of the year.

Among the supervisors is Alexei Alvarado. “I think it was a mistake to get rid of that position. I was a student manager for two years. I feel that having that position available motivated students to work hard and be responsible so that they could be promoted from the general service position,” said Alvarado.

Furthermore, Alvarado explained

that student managers helped him as supervisor. “It was helpful for me to have reliable student managers to work with because I always had too much on my plate and could use whatever help I could get.

“In my five years working for dining services (two plus years as a supervisor and manager), it seemed to me that supervisors and managers never really had anybody supporting us,” Alvarado wrote to The Hoot.

events around campus Top (from left to right): Students Talking About Relationships (S.T.A.R.) counselor tables at a stressbuster event. Students inquire about S.T.A.R in the Shapiro Campus Center on Thursday, March 15. Bottom (from left to right): German 20b students reenact a Brother Grimm’s fairytale at the Center for German and European Studies sponsored Fairytale Symposium on Tuesday, March 13. Local high school students attended the symposium, which celebrated the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tale Collection (1812).

12 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

Brandeisians attend DC summit Brandeis students Beneva Davies ’13 and Omoefe Ogbeide ’12 are among 115 students from around the country in Washington D.C. this weekend as part of Teach For America (TFA)’s Rising Leaders Fellowship program. After a competitive process that chose Davies and Ogbeide for their demonstrated leadership, both off- and on-campus, they are joining a diverse group of students as the first class of Rising Leaders fellows for this National Partnership for Educational Access (NPEA) program.

The goal of the problem is to end educational inequality by strengthening the social justice movement. Both Davies and Ogbeide, as part of the program, are designing projects to address educational equality in a specific community with the assistance of a mentor. Additionally, they can attend seminars on leadership development and networking events with the other participants in the summit.

It’s also a valuable chance for the Rising Leaders fellows to gather and connect with organizations such as the Center for Student Opportunity, D.C. Public Education Fund, D.C. School Reform Now, La Raza and Urban Alliance, with TFA leading skilldevelopment workshops.

The summit will allow TFA and NPAE to “cultivate the next generation of education champions before they’ve finished college,” according to Elissa Kim, executive vice president of recruitment and admissions at TFA. “It’s going to take dedicated individuals bringing diverse experience and perspectives to make the systemic change necessary to give every child an excellent education no matter what their zip code or family income.”

— By Hoot Staff

March 16, 2012

University activists discuss impact of Kony 2012 KONY, from page 1

news, but he believes this is completely untrue at Brandeis.

TIME Magazine has named the video the the most viral video in history. Since the 1980s, Kony and the LRA have kidnapped more than 30,000 children, according to the video.

GOOD News reported Monday to The Guardian about its interview with Invisible Children’s director of communications Jedidiah Jenkins.

“Our films are made for high school children,” he said. “Our films weren’t made to be scrutinized by The Guardian. They were made to get young people involved in some of the world’s worst crimes.”

Kony has been number one on the International Criminal Court’s World’s worst criminals list since he was indicted on July 8, 2005. His crimes against humanity include murder, sexual slavery, rape and abductions. In 2010, Congress passed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. Last October, President Obama sent 100 special forces to Africa in an attempt to capture Kony, but his lack of presence in Uganda has complicated the search.

Professor Richard Gaskins (AMST), Proskauer Chair in Law and Social Welfare, believes that Kony’s case will not receive immediate attention, because there are more urgent cases awaiting justice.

“Right now, something far more important for international justice is the judgment that will be handed down in the Hague this coming March 14 in the case of Thomas Lubanga, who is being prosecuted for recruiting child soldiers. This will be the first trial completed at the ICC, and the eyes of the international legal world are on this case,” Gaskins wrote in an e-mail from the Hague.

“The Kony tape is more interesting as a media event than for what it means for international law.”

photo from internet source

JOSEPH KONY

Legally, Gaskins points out that this case has been on the ICC’s list for more than a decade, which makes people wonder why the case has not been settled sooner.

“His importance from a legal point of view (as opposed to his sudden celebrity) stems primarily from the fact that his prosecution is unfinished business for the International Criminal Court, which has had its troubles in its nearly 10 years of existence,”

Gaskins wrote.

The KONY 2012 campaign spread like wildfire across the worldwide Web. Politicians, economists and citizens from across the world are critiquing each and every aspect of the campaign. And while the views of each critic vary enormously, all individuals share the common goal of stopping Kony and his paramilitary group. The campaign to capture and arrest Kony, according to Russell, ex-

pires on Dec. 31, 2012. Goulden says that Invisible Children has put itself at a large risk.

“This tactic that has an enormous amount of risk. I think they are close to finding him or they wouldn’t have produced this video. That being said, as we’ve learned, it’s really hard to find [warlords]. I don’t know if he can be captured, and although it’s a risky tactic, the payoff will be huge and will change the world if he is.”

Imam presents to MSA

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

IMAM, from page 1

challenge of Islam as seeking to preserve the value of faith.

Discussing whether “Islamic law [can] function within American legal framework,” Webb said that 85 to 90 percent of Islamic law is actually open to a range of interpretation.

He said that although progressivism can encompass a diversity of viewpoints, it requires understanding religious texts in the context of present circumstances.

“I have found the universal [law] … but then how is that going to work with America?”

Explaining his own conversion experience, Webb said that he felt challenged to uphold his new religious values and teachings without sacrificing his American culture and sense of belonging through music and sports.

“In many ways you can amputate certain cultural aspects of your life” when you convert, Webb said. “The

reality that we’re dealing with … is people are spiritually unstable.”

Yet Webb found that converting to Islam did not, in the long-run, force him to neglect culture and community. On the contrary, he found that adopting the new religion provided a sense of wholeness and belonging in his life.

“I think sometimes we forget that fraternity is an integral part of religion,” Webb said.

Other events sponsored by the MSA and other clubs this week included “Scarves for Solidarity” on Tuesday where students wore headscarves to classes, an art and poetry event in Mandel on Thursday evening and a prayer session in the International Lounge on Friday led by Muslim Chaplain Talal Eid. Throughout his lecture, Webb voiced optimism about the connection between religion and progress.

“We have a lot of things to do. All of us are very young. We stand on the shoulders of giants,” he said.

EDITORIALS

March 16, 2012

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editor-in-Chief Jon Ostrowsky Managing Editor Yael Katzwer 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 Suzanna Yu Copy Editor Gordy Stillman Business Editor Deputy Editors

Victoria Aronson Dana Trismen Juliette Martin Morgan Dashko

Senior Editors Destiny D. Aquino Sean Fabery Savannah Pearlman

Volume 9 • Issue 8 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

Founded By Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

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

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

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

The Brandeis Hoot 13

New admissions website a welcome change

T

his week, the Office of Admissions finally unveiled a new website, updated to reflect just how Brandeis has changed during the last six years. The old site, built in outdated Web styles, featured students who have long since graduated. We applaud the university for publishing the new site.

Brandeis has invested considerable resources to improve its communication and marketing strategy during the past year. These changes are welcome but they are also long overdue. If Brandeis wants to attract the students that competing top-30 universities do, it must find creative ways to use technology and social media that place it ahead of its competitors.

The challenge for any university is to define its image and clearly state its mission so that prospective students

understand what to expect form their college life experience. Most importantly, the university’s image must also explain how it differentiates itself from other similar schools.

During the past year, under the leadership of a new president and senior management team, Brandeis has undertaken a strategic planning process to focus on the image it seeks to portray, the values it wants to prioritize and the academic achievements it needs to publicize.

But the effort to revitalize communication to new students should not end with launching an updated admissions website. While the redesign of the Brandeis homepage last year marked effective improvements highlighting the wide range of accomplishments and talents in the community, it still must be updated more frequently. For

months, the same feature stories appear on the homepage. They are interesting to read and each of them promotes impressive achievements. But by leaving the same stories on the main sideshow for months on end, students will wonder what else is happening at Brandeis and why the page is not updated more often.

The main question on the admissions page, “Can you see yourself here?” is one that high school students visiting colleges across the country ask themselves each spring. As the admissions office mails its decisions this month and tries to convince admitted students to attend, it knows that the new website will enhance the prospects of increasing our yield rate.

But the strength of the new page should remind the communications team of the work that re-

- Photographers wanted -

STAFF Senior Staff Nafiz “Fizz” Ahmed Alana Blum Debby Brodsky Sam Allen, Rick Alterbaum, Emily Beker, Alex Bernstein, Emily Breitbart, Marissa Budlong, Justin Burack, Adam Cohen, Haley Fine, Jeremy Goodman, Rachel Hirschhaut, Paula Hoekstra, Adam Hughes, Gabby Katz, Josh Kelly, Samuel Kim, Zoe Kronovet, Arielle Levine, Ariel Madway, Estie 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, Yi Wang, Sarah Weber, Rachel Weissman and Linjie Xu

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Correction

Due to a reporting error, an article last week titled “Univ overlooked criminal record in hiring” misstated Andrew Gully’s response. Gully said the university “stands by the Public Safety report on this incident” but did not comment on whether the university was aware of Ross’ neurological condition. We regret the error.

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We welcome unsolicited submissions from members of the community sent by e-mail to eic@thebrandeishoot.com. Please limit submissions to 800 words. All submissions are subjected to editing.

Join The Hoot’s photo staff.

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SPORTS

14 The Brandeis Hoot

March 16, 2012

Baseball drops five straight games at UAA tournament

By Brian Tabakin Editor

Just two weeks after a seven-game road trip, the Brandeis baseball team returned to Florida again this past week for the opening of UAA conference play and a matchup with Emory.

Unfortunately, the Judges lost to the Eagles 6-0.

Emory rookie pitcher Connor Dillman turned quite a few heads with his performance holding the Judges to just five hits and striking out 13 to tie a UAA record set in 2004 by Dan Ruef of Case Western Reserve.

Both teams failed to put runs on the board through the first four innings even though the Judges had numerous scoring opportunities to break through. In the second inning, first baseman Kyle Brenner ’15 led off with a single and then was bunted over to second, while shortstop Dom Schwartz ’14 began the third inning with a double down the right-field line; however, the Judges were unable to advance either runner farther with Dillman striking out two of the next three hitters when Schwartz was threatening at second.

Emory finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring two runs off of several miscues by the Judges. After Pat Nicholson M.A. ’12 walked the first Eagles’ batter, the batter advanced to third behind two wild pitches and then scored on a throwing error. The Eagles also scored another run on a RBI single.

The Judges squandered another chance to score in the sixth inning.

Catcher Chris Ferro ’13 doubled to center field with only one out; however, Dillman again got out of a bind getting a groundout and another strikeout to end the scoring threat.

Dillman allowed just one more runner to reach base the rest of the game as he improved to 4-1 on the season.

Emory chased Nicholson from the game in the sixth inning after sophomore catcher Jared Welch launched an RBI double, and Welch also cranked a two-run homerun in the ninth inning off of Brent Edmunds ’15. Nicholson took the loss going 5.2 innings allowing four hits and four runs—two earned. He struck out three, walked five and hit three batters.

Brandeis looked to bounce back the next day when they faced the Washington University Bears. Unfortunately, the Judges were hammered, 14-2 in a shortened seven-inning game.

Starter Kyle Brenner ’15 got off to

a rough start as the Bears tagged him for three runs in the first inning with two outs. Brenner settled down after the first and Brandeis pulled within one run, almost tying the game in the third inning. With two outs, Catcher Kenny Destremps ’12 singled and Ferro walked. Nicholson then singled to shortstop producing a run after the Bears threw the ball away. Designated hitter Dan Gad ’15 singled in another run, but Nicholson was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second to end the inning.

In the fifth inning, the Bears put the game away scoring four runs, only two of which were earned. The fifth was extremely odd as it featured three sacrifice plays after a throwing error on a bunt attempt. The Bears added seven more runs in the seventh inning when 11 Bears came to the plate.

Destremps was 2-of-2 on the day with a run scored, while Gad was also 2-of-2 with the Judges’ only RBI; right fielder Zach Malis ’12 was 2-of-3 on the day. After pitching two complete games to start the season, Brenner suffered his first loss allowing seven runs, five earned, in five innings.

The following day, Brandeis looked to snap their two game losing skid with a doubleheader against Rochester and Emory; however, the Judges dropped both games, 6-5 to Rochester and 11-7 to Emory.

Brandeis got off to a strong start against Rochester scoring four runs in the first frame. Gad launched a tworun single in the inning while Destremps and third baseman Brian Ing ’14 each had RBI singles in the inning as well. Unfortunately for the Judges, their bats went ice cold after the first inning and they failed to score another run until the final frame.

While the Judges’ bats were cold, Rochester’s bats quickly heated up.

Rochester scored two runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings against Brandeis starter Dylan Britton ’13.

The Yellowjackets scored their first run off an errant-pick off attempt at second base and an RBI single from catcher Steve Pokallov. In the fourth, the Yellowjackets tied the game at 4-4 on a sacrifice fly from third baseman Chris Davis and a single by shortstop Tim Leseur.

In the fifth, Rochester had a runner on second with two outs when Britton walked first baseman Brian Bezek. The Judges pulled Britton and put in Edmunds who immediately gave up an RBI double and then fired a wild pitch that allowed the Yellowjackets to notch a key insurance run.

photo from brandeisnow

The Judges had a chance to tie the game again in the top of the sixth with runners on third and second with just one out; however, Rochester starter Jeremy Diller got out of the inning after a strikeout and a fly-out.

The Judges once again had two base runners in the seventh and eight innings, but a double play in the seventh and a ground-out in the eight ended any chances of a Judges rally in the frames.

Nicholson scored an unearned run in the ninth inning off of a Rochester error but Brandeis was unable to tie the game. Brenner, Destremps, Ing and Ferro each had two hits for the Judges while Britton took his first loss of the year allowing seven hits and seven walks with three strikeouts in 4.2 innings of work.

In the second game of the doubleheader, Emory plated five early runs to put Brandeis in a hole, but the Judges used a six-run fifth inning to take a 6-5 lead into the sixth inning.

After Gad singled to lead off the inning, Rochester hit Brenner with a pitch and Ing drew a walk. With the bases loaded, Malis hammered his first homerun of the season—a grand slam—to pull Brandeis within one run.

With the bases cleared, third baseman Tom McCarthy singled to chase Emory starter McMahon from the game. Second baseman Sean O’Hare ’12 immediately hit a single off of the

Emory reliever and Ferro tied the game with a sacrifice fly. Nicholson put the Judges ahead with a double to right centerfield.

The Judges were unable to maintain their lead as the Eagles sent nine batters to the plate in the seventh inning and scored five runs to reclaim the lead at 10-5.

The teams traded runs the final two innings as the Judges scored in the bottom of the eight and the Eagles scored in the top of the ninth.

Gad, McCarthy, Nicholson and O’Hare each had multiple hits for the Judges. Jesse Link ’13 suffered the loss for the Judges giving up two hits, three walks and two earned runs in 2.1 innings of work.

The Judges looked to get their first win in UAA the following day when they faced Washington again. Unfortunately, the Judges offense was silent once again as they fell 5-3.

The Judges scored first when Gad and Brenner singled to lead off the inning. After Washington starter Max Gordon got a grounder to first base for the first out of the inning, Malis singled to second to drive in the first run of the game and put runners on the corners; however, Brandeis was unable to take advantage as Gordon got out of the inning after Brenner was thrown out at the plate trying to score after tagging up on a fly ball to center.

Washington tied the game up in the

bottom half of the inning and then scored two runs in both the fifth and sixth inning to go ahead 5-1.

Brandeis was able to score two runs in the top of the ninth, but their rally fell short as they lost 5-3.

With their five straight losses, the team is now 4-8 on the season (0-5 UAA).

The Judges have two more games in Florida before they return home on Tuesday to face Bridgewater State in their first home game of the year.

Baseball Team

UAA

All

Washington

5–0

12 – 3

Emory

5–1

12 – 7

Case Western

2–3

8–5

Brandeis

1–5

5–8

Rochester

1–5

1–5

Chicago

0–0

0–0

Box Scores Emory

Loss

6–0

Washington

Loss

14 – 2

Rochester

Loss

6–5

Emory

Loss

11 – 7

Washington

Loss

5–3

Case Western

Win

4–3

Cardillo heading to NCAA fencing championships

By Brian Tabakin Editor

After impressive performances at the regional championships at Boston College, two Brandeis fencers are up for at-large berths in the 2012 NCAA Collegiate Fencing Championships.

Julian Cardillo ’14 is attempting to earn a second-straight appearance in men’s foil while Zoe Messinger ’13 is looking for her first appearance in women’s saber.

Cardillo, who placed 17th in foil competition at the 2011 championships, finished 10th at regionals this past weekend after entering competition as the seventh seed.

After going 3-3 in the opening pool, Cardillo qualified for the second round of play earning the last available spot. He finished the second round 4-2 moving on in ninth place, but posted a 3-7 record in the final round. Cardillo finished just ahead of Noah Berman ’15 who went 4-1 in

the first round and 4-2 in the second round before struggling in the final round 2-8 to finish in 11th place.

Prior to last week’s competition, Messinger’s best performance at regionals was a 17th place finish last year. But this year, Messinger finished in 11th place. Messinger headed into regionals seeded 20th.

In the first round she went 4-2, advancing to the second round in the 16th spot where she went 3-3 edging two other fencers with the same record but with an even touch differential to claim the 12th and last spot in the final round.

In the final round, Messinger earned two points over fencers from St. John’s and Boston College to finish in 11th place.

Mike Zook ’13 had a sensational performance for the Judges in men’s epee. Zook replaced Alex Powell ’12 who was out with an illness. Zook competed in Powell’s place heading into tournament play as the 33rd seed. Zook went 3-1 in the first round

photos from brandeisnow

and 3-3 in both the second and third rounds to claim the 19th out of 21 spots in the third round and the 11th out of 12 spots in the final round.

Zook went 4-7 in the final round with three of his wins coming against Ivy League competition from Harvard, Yale and Colombia to earn a 10th place finish. Unfortunately,

Zook did not perform well enough in the regular season to merit consideration for an NCAA berth.

Two days after the regional tournament the at-large berths for the NCAA championships were announced. While Messinger was not selected, Cardillo will be headed to San Antonio, Texas, to compete in his

second straight championship.

“I’m very pleased for Julian,” head coach Bill Shipman said in a Brandeis Athletics press release. “He didn’t necessarily fence his best at the regional championships, so I look forward to him returning to form at the NCAAs.” The championships will take place March 23 to 26.

March 16, 2012

SPORTS 15

The Brandeis Hoot

Softball starts off 2-1 at UAA tournament

By Alex Bernstein Staff

After being shut out 8-0 in its season opener Tuesday against Emory, the Brandeis women’s softball team swept a double-header against Rochester and Case Western Wednesday by scores of 2-1 and 7-5. All three games were part of the University Athletic Association (UAA) tournament, which is being held in Altamonte Springs, Fla. In the season opener, the Judges were at a disadvantage, facing a team who had already played 19 games this season. Emory, the fourth-ranked team in the nation, held a record of 18-1 going into their matchup with the Judges.

Emory jumped on the Judges quickly, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning, including a two-run homer by first baseman Megan Light. The Eagles went on to score four more runs in the fifth, all of their runs coming in just two innings.

Because there is an eight-run cap, the game was called after five innings.

The Judges had only two hits all day—singles by Marianne Specker ’12 and Melissa Nolan ’14. Pitcher Caroline Miller ’12 was the losing pitcher, going three innings while giving up four runs on seven hits. Pitcher Lena Brotman earned the shutout for the Eagles, striking out seven batters while improving to 6-0 on the season.

Looking to bounce back from the

tough loss, the Judges faced Rochester and Case Western in a double header Wednesday.

In the opener, the combined three runs scored by both teams all came in the first inning, in what was a close pitcher’s duel. After the Yellowjackets scored on a single in the top half of the inning, the Judges responded with two runs. Specker hit a single, Nolan reached on an error, and third baseman Anya Kamber ’15 hit an RBI double, which was her first career hit with Brandeis. Centerfielder Lauren Porcaro ’12 then hit the go-ahead single, which would wind up being the game-winner.

Both pitchers performed extremely well for the remainder of the game.

Miller, pitching again, allowed only one hit while walking three during the next five innings. For Rochester, Madeiline Skellie retired 13 straight batters after Porcaro’s go-ahead single, while striking out six for the game.

The Yellowjackets had a great opportunity to tie the game in the seventh inning, loading the bases with just one out. Miller then induced a groundball that resulted in a forceout at home, and ended the game by forcing a pop foul to third base.

The Judges hit much better in the second game, scoring seven runs on 11 hits, five of which went for extra bases. The Spartans jumped to an early lead, scoring twice in the bottom of the first.

The Judges then took the lead, scoring three runs in the third inning, in-

photos from brandeisnow photo by ingrid schulte/the hoot

cluding a solo homerun by Brittany Grimm ’12. It was the eighth homer of her career and her first of the 2012 season.

After the Spartans tied up the game at three in the bottom of the third, the Judges went on to take the lead in the fifth inning, scoring four runs on four hits, and benefiting from three errors committed by the Spartans.

Even down 7-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Spartans did not give up, making a good run at a comeback, but falling short. After scoring two runs to make it 7-5, the Spartans put the tying run on second with two outs. Miller came in from the bullpen and struck out the final batter to earn her second career save.

Grimm was certainly the offensive player of the game, going 3-for-4 with a homerun and two RBI, two stolen bases, and two runs scored. Specker extended her hitting streak to 16 games, which dates back to last season.

Softball Team

UAA

All

Emory

4–1

21 – 2

Washington

3–2

9–3

Case Western

2–2

5–4

Brandeis

2–3

2–3

Rochester

1–4

2–6

Chicago

0–0

0–0

Box Scores Emory

Loss

8–0

Rochster

Win

2–1

Case Western

Win

7–5

Washington

Loss

12 – 3

Emory

Loss

15 – 0

Men’s tennis splits matches at Middlebury Invitational

By Brian Tabakin Editor

The Brandeis men’s tennis team split their two matches at the Middlebury Invitational last weekend. The Judges opened the invitational with a 6-3 win against NYU before losing the second match to seventh-ranked host Middlebury College 8-1. Steven Milo ’13 led the Judges with an impressive 3-1 record in both singles and doubles action.

In doubles action against NYU, the Judges took two out of three. Milo and Josh Jordan ’14 won No. 2 doubles 8-2 while Michael Secular ’15 and Alec Siegel ’15 won No. 3 singles 8-3. Ezra Bernstein M.A. ’12 and Dave Yovanoff ’13 lost in No. 1 doubles 6-8.

In singles action, Milo cruised to a 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 1 singles while Siegel won No. 4 singles 6-2, 6-1 to put the Judges one win away from clinch-

photo from brandeisnow

ing the match. Secular lost in No. 6 singles 3-6, 3-6, but Bernstein put the match away with a 7-5, 6-2 win in No. 5 singles. Yovanoff won No. 3 singles 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 while Jordan lost at No. 2 singles in three sets 2-6, 6-2, 3-6.

Against Middlebury, Milo won the

Judges’ only point by defeating Alec Parower, who is ranked 11th in New England and 37th nationally among Division III competitors. Milo won in straight sets 6-2, 6-3. Siegel came close to winning No. 3 singles but ultimately fell in three sets 6-3, 1-6,

5-7. Bernstein and Yovanoff came extremely close to beating Middlebury’s No. 1 doubles squad but fell 6-8.

The Judges, now 2-4 on the season, will return to action on Wednesday when they host Bentley in their first home game of the season.

Women’s tennis suffers first loss of season

By Brian Tabakin Editor

The 26th-ranked Brandeis women’s tennis team easily defeated their UAA rival NYU 8-1 before falling to 10thranked Middlebury College at the Middlebury Invitational last weekend. With the split at the tournament Brandeis is now 7-1 on the season.

Brandeis got off to a quick start winning all three doubles matches. Faith Broderick ’13 and Carley Cooke ’15 won their match 8-3, Alexa Katz ’14 and Nina Levine ’12 won their match 9-7, and rookies Dylan Schlesinger ’15 and Simone Vandroff ’15 won the final doubles match 8-1.

In singles action, Broderick easily won the No. 2 match in straight sets 6-0, 6-0; Allyson Bernstein ’14 won the No. 3 match 6-0, 6-3; and Cooke

won the No. 1 match 6-3, 6-4.

With the match already in hand, head coach Ben Lamanna decided to give new players some playing time.

Jill Martin ’15 rewarded her coaches’ decision with a 6-0, 6-1 victory in No. 6 singles and Vandroff improved to 5-0 in singles play this season with a 6-2, 6-3 win in No. 4 singles. NYU’s lone point came in No. 5 singles in which Marissa Lazar ’14 lost 6-3, 6-1.

The next day, the Judges suffered their first loss of the season against Middlebury College, 9-0.

Cooke lost her first match of the season at No. 1 singles 6-3, 6-4. Broderick was the closest to winning a point for the Judges, but she fell in a third set tiebreaker in No. 2 singles 6-4, 5-7, 10-8.

The Judges will return to action March 22 when they host Bentley in their first home match of the year.

photo from brandeisnow

Men’s tennis

Women’s tennis Team

UAA

All

8–0

Case Western

0–0

13 – 2

Team

UAA

All

Emory

0–0

Washington

0–0

6– 3

Carnegie Mellon

0–0

11 – 2

Carnegie Mellon

0–0

7–4

Brandeis

0–0

7–1

Case Western

0–0

8–5

Emory

0–0

6–2

Chicago

0–0

1–2

Washington

0–0

7–3

0–0

3–1

Brandeis

0–0

2–4

Chicago

NYU

0–0

1–2

Rochester

0–0

1–1

Rochester

0–0

0–2

NYU

0–0

0–2

Box Scores

Box Scores

NYU

Win

6–3

NYU

Win

8–1

Middlebury

Loss

8–1

Middlebury

Loss

9–0

Brown’s AllAmerican performance paces Judges

By Brian Tabakin Editor

Chris Brown ’12 earned his first career All-American honor this past week at the NCAA Division III indoor track and field championships at Grinnell College in Iowa.

The third-seeded Brown had the fastest time in the preliminaries the day before the race with a time of 4:12.57, beating Kevin McCarthy of Wabash by just .17 seconds. Brown’s time was a record at the Grinnell facility. The following day in the finals, Brown ran in the middle of the pack for most of the race, staying between fifth and seventh place. When McCarthy surged to the lead in the final quarter-mile of the race, Brown attempted to catch him with a kick in the final lap. Although Brown was unable to catch McCarthy for the title, his kick propelled him to a third place finish with a time of 4:11.24. McCarthy beat Brown’s short-lived record with a time of 4:08.93, less than a second behind the Division III championship record.

“I’m really proud of [Brown’s] performance,” Brandeis head coach John Evans said in a Brandeis Athletics press release. “He had taken a big step this season and to finish third in his first national track championship is a great achievement.”

Brown said “it feels good” to be an All-American. “If you had told me at the beginning of the year, I would have been really excited. It’s been a long process from freshman year.

“I had slight improvements in my times my freshman and sophomore year, but this past year I had a really big jump.”

With his third place finish, Brown became the first All-American male at the NCAA Division III track and field championships since 2005, when Ryan Parker ’06 finished as the runner-up in the 800-meter race. Brown earned six points for the Judges to help Brandeis into a six-way tie for 27th place out of the 60 schools that scored points. The Judges placed eighth among New England schools and second among UAA schools, just behind Washington University.

On the women’s side, Kate Warwick ’12 placed 12th in the 5,000-meter run.

Third-seeded Warwick ran with a big pack for the first 2,000 meters of the race. When a lead pack emerged featuring two runners, including eventual meet champions Wartburg College and Johns Hopkins University, Warwick stayed near the front of the second pack. While the front two runners increased their lead, Warwick fell off the pace, eventually finishing in 12th place with a time of 17:53.35, roughly 35 seconds out of a top eight finish, which would have earned her All-American status.

Since Warwick was the only competitor for the Judges, Brandeis was unable to score any points at the meet.

16 The Brandeis Hoot

Arts, etc.

March 16, 2012

‘Brandeis Cares’ raises HIV/AIDS awareness in subpar variety show

By Candice Bautista Editor

“Brandeis Cares” was put on last night in the Sherman Function Hall to raise money for Broadway Cares: Equity Fights AIDS, one of the nation’s leading industry-based HIV/ AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. The show was put on as a series of performances of popular Broadway songs, featuring many of the students involved in the Brandeis theater community. Overall, it was enjoyable, though it sometimes felt like a fifth-grader’s talent show.

The show began with a performance of “Time Warp” from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which was a rocky start to the night. Although there was a high level of energy involved, there was a bit of an uncomfortable feeling to the show. Because many of these performers are in other theater groups, standards had to be slightly dropped because this was a side project for most of them. On the other hand, this one piece seemed to lack the spark and dedication necessary to pull off any performance with good effect. To add to this, Sophomore Jason Dick’s microphone was not working for the duration of the song, and his absence was sorely obvious. Jackie Theoharis ’13, however, really shone in a tap solo, pulling the song together.

“What Is This Feeling?” from “Wicked” pitted two a cappella groups, “Rather Be Giraffes” and “Company B,” against each other This idea was good in theory but was executed poorly. Firstly, both a cappella groups had their lyrics obviously in front of them. In addition, although it was supposed to be a “battle,” it was apparent that Company B had rehearsed more. Overall, the performance was OK and seemed to be the average performance for the night.

What really brought up the average was the “In The Heights” medley. The routine promised to be exciting, with

more than 20 people involved, and it definitely provided. Usman Hameedi ’12 started it right with the opening lines of “In The Heights,” delivering the lines with the same amount of soul and power that he has whenever he slams. This amount of energy and sway over the audience continued as the cast danced to and sang three other songs from the show. One of the reasons that this medley was so strong was the fact that none of them, save Aiden Horowitz, was actually all that involved in Brandeis theater. Additionally, the entire ensemble was dancing and a majority of them were singing, which kept the energy high.

The other reason they were successful was that most of them were actually minorities. Brandeis isn’t that great at portraying the minorities in shows accurately but “In The Heights” did a good job. Excellent performances combined with spectacular lighting made this piece the stand-out of the night.

One of the morals of the night was that there are many excellent performers who are not involved in Brandeis theater at all. In addition to “In The Heights,” excellent performers

were also seen in the performances of “Good Morning, Baltimore” from Hairspray by Alison Uliss ’12 and “The Internet Is For Porn” from “Avenue Q” featuring Ben Gold ’12 and Abby Armstrong ’13. From these performances, it seems that if one of the numerous theater groups on campus were to put on one of these shows that it would be wildly successful.

One of the last performances of the night was an improv musical that contrasted the rest of the night to good effect. Zane Relethford ’13 led the group strongly by choosing “platter” as the topic of the musical and by playing a man who was born and raised in a cave and who only recently joined civilization. Elly Kalfus ’13 and Caroline Grassi ’12 continued the situation very well, with Kalfus attempting to teach Relethford the ways of the modern day. Grassi was also helping out, depicting herself as Merriam-Webster, author of the dictionary.

It was inspiring to see the Brandeis performers come together, whether or not they were directly involved in theater, for the common cause of raising HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention as well as showing off their talent.

photos courtesy of ben federlin

brandeis cares 2012 In a variety show to promote HIV/AIDS awareness, from top

left, clockwise: “In The Heights” medley; improv musical actors Emily Duggan ’12 and Zane Relefthford ’12; Abby Armstrong ’13 and Jordan Brown ’12 singing “I’d Give It All For You.”

‘Tuesdays With’ Ellen

By Dana Trismen Editor

“Tuesdays With,” a program based on the premise of the novel “Tuesdays With Morrie,” brings a professor from Brandeis into close proximity with students as they tell the tale of their lives and what brought them to Brandeis. “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Brandeis alum Mitch Albom ’79 is a famous non-fiction novel, topping the New York Times Bestsellers list in 2000. It describes Albom and his interactions with an aging former sociology professor at Brandeis, Morrie Schwartz, who passed away from Lou Gehrig’s Disease. These interactions, which started out quite awkwardly, resulted in a true bond between the two men despite the very different stages in their life cycles.“Tuesdays with Morrie” is relatable and touching; it features Schwartz reminiscing on his life and the lessons Albom learns from him.

In this same vein, “Tuesdays With” is a program sponsored by Academic Services designed to have professors speak about their lives. This past Tuesday, Ellen Wright (PSYC) spoke. She is a well-known psychology professor teaching Intro to Psychology, Adolescence and Transition to Maturity, and Research Methods.

The great benefit of “Tuesdays With” is that it humanizes professors.

The classes Wright teaches all have more than 50 students, with her intro

photos from internet source

ellen j. wright “Tuesday’s With” is based off Mitch Albom’s novel “Tuesdays With Morrie.” The speaker this week was psychology professor

Ellen Wright, who talked about her life from schooling to her band.

course having almost 200 students, making it difficult to have a personal relationship with her since she is shared among numerous students. In addition, it is sometimes difficult to separate professors from the material they are teaching. Students often view professors as just the pathway to knowledge—that they are merely machines and not humans.

“Tuesdays With” combats all of this in a very intimate setting. Wright was able to explain all the twists and turns of her life, painting herself as a very vivacious person while still imparting wisdom.

Because of her importance in our community, it seems as though Wright has been at Brandeis her entire adult life. It seems that the oppo-

site is true, however, because she has been here for only a short span of six years in which she wasn’t even initially involved in studying psychology. The daughter of an Air Force pilot turned minister, Wright lived a sheltered life in Colorado. She loved biology and was interested in becoming a veterinarian until she realized that she was incapable of euthanizing the animals.

She “dabbled” in college, majoring in biology and taking classes she thought were interesting, eventually ending up as a teacher. She described the horrors of inner city schools, where students would threaten to rape her and she would pray for their absences on the attendance list.

While taking psychology classes during a summer, she soon fell in love

with the subject and eventually went to grad school. She studied depression and its effect on women, taking an internship in the Boston area and going on to teach at Simmons. Her husband left his post at Brandeis to write his novel about the state of America’s health care, inspiring her to transition to Brandeis. Wright claims she loves the Brandeis community, commending the school for the fine liberal arts education it offers.

The benefits of “Tuesdays With” are apparent. I discovered information about Wright that never would have been available in her large lecture classes and facts that made me understand more of the person she is. For example, after college she toured for nine months with a Christian band,

singing alongside her brother. While it may seem that she is all knowledgeable and capable, she too has human faults: It took her a large amount of time to finish her dissertation. Wright also imparted wisdom that could be applied to anyone else’s life, true to the spirit of “Tuesdays With Morrie.” She believes that you can live to work, or work to live, because both cases are acceptable, but it is wise to pick the one that would make you happier. She advises students to dabble a little in all subjects and types of work because a person does not have to be stuck doing something they don’t want to do.

Per her example, switching jobs many times doesn’t keep a person from leading a successful, happy life. Wright does seem to have finally found her niche: She claims to love teaching because it gives her the greatest rewards and the chance to make a difference.

At this week’s “Tuesday’s With” event, there were very few students in attendance. Members of Academic Services are proposing to shut the series down eventually since such a small amount of the student body seems to be taking advantage of it.

Students should start showing up. Not only does the program bring the spirit of “Tuesdays With Morrie” to our campus, where the book originated, but it also allows students to get to know their professors on a basic, human level and learn knowledge from them that is impossible to get from a textbook.

March 16, 2012

ARTS, ETC. 17

The Brandeis Hoot

‘Fuddy Meers’: a show as twisted as it is brilliant

By Juliette Martin Editor

“Fuddy Meers,” written by David Lindsay-Abaire, first premiered in 1999. This week, it has come to Brandeis, presented by Brandeis Experimental Theatre (BET) and directed by Michelle Kuchinksy ’12. “Fuddy Meers” presents the thoroughly twisted story of Claire (played by Jackie Theoharis ’14), a woman who wakes up each morning with no memory of who she is. She awakens to an overlynervous husband, Richard (Herbie Rosen ’12), and a deeply troubled son, Kenny (Neal Rabinowitz ’13), neither of whom she recognizes. Despite the obvious tragedy of a woman with no memory, it begins humorously enough: Claire seems brightly to accept her lot, and seems quite happy and friendly, if rather addled.

The clues that not all is well, however, assault the watcher almost immediately. Claire, upon looking at the photo album of memories that Richard has prepared for her, remarks on how sad she looked, and continually calls her husband Richard “Phillip,” a mistake at which he seems to bristle.

These clues, easily overlooked at first, become suddenly important when a masked man claiming to be Claire’s brother, Zach, (credited as “limping man” and played by Peter Charland ’14) appears from under her bed and declares that he is taking Claire away from Richard, who has apparently mistreated her, and that they are running away to their mother’s house.

“Fuddy Meers” first presents itself in a light that is highly comedic: Claire appears artificially bright in light of her condition, Richard is laughably twitchy and Kenny appears as the fullon stereotype of a disturbed young man. The play, however, becomes very dark, very quickly. Though laced with comedic moments throughout, partially due to the absurd extremity of

the situation, the more we learn about Claire’s life, the more we descend into a maze of conspiracy, crime and abuse.

“Fuddy Meers” presents a uniquely disturbing mess of a life through the eyes of the amnesiac Claire as she tries to make sense of her life with the restricted help of her mother Gertie (Jen Kleinrock ’12), whose speech is rattled and often incomprehensible due to a stroke.

The plot of “Fuddy Meers” unfolds engrossingly, with the use of discreet hints dropped at each junction. The story heads in one direction only to turn back around itself in a simple, subtle switch that forces a shift in perception.

Effectively, the viewer discovers the story as slowly and unreliably as Claire does. There are several moments in which both Claire and the viewer come to believe they have a grasp on the situation, until some tiny shift forces us to reconsider our perceptions. One particularly poignant example of this occurs just when we think we’re sure that Zach is indeed Claire’s (rather estranged) brother: He kisses her somewhat suddenly on the mouth, as he would a lover rather than a sister. This small action completely changes the slow-built conceptions regarding Claire’s situation, forcing a dramatic reconsideration of the characters that we think we have come to understand.

I was also particularly impressed with the way the characters develop over the course of the play. As the plot gets darker, so do they, their comedic beginnings giving way to an incredible depth. The place where this is best done, I think, is in the character of Claire’s son, Kenny, who is portrayed with all the gravity that his character is due. At the outset of the play, Claire’s son is a classic delinquent. Though clearly troubled, the depth of Kenny’s pain becomes gradually less comedic and more real, particularly when he proves to be the key factor in unveiling Claire’s past, a fellow victim in the tragedy that has been her life and the central piece to unraveling

the mysteries behind her current situation.

Though the play presents itself in an remarkably strange manner, the relatively small cast (only seven actors) pull off their roles flawlessly, allowing the plot to pivot and turn as strangely and subtly as it is clearly supposed to. There is not a single actor who I was not completely impressed with. Each was fully consumed by their role, playing it for comedy when such was called for without losing the deep darkness of each character and of the show as a whole. Even when the cast appeared on stage for their curtain call, I could not fully separate them from the parts they had played. Particularly of note was the ability of Jackie Theoharis, in the role of Claire, who portrays her character to perfection, gradually shifting her style as the character became steadily more aware of the true gruesomeness of her fate. Though I highlight Theoharis, each and every actor in “Fuddy Meers” did an incredible job in their highly complex roles.

In the end, “Fuddy Meers” is a deeply complex play perhaps best understood through the understanding of its title. Fuddy Meers, as we learn, is Gertie’s stroke-addled version of “funny mirrors,” the warped mirrors commonly found in carnivals. Though these fun house mirrors play a roll in the plot, they also reflect the heart of the play itself.

Just as fun house mirrors show their subjects as deformed versions of themselves, so Fuddy Meers shows a life deformed and contorted beyond salvation, so far gone that the word itself has become a nonsense mockery. Though Fuddy Meers, which runs until March 18, can be a challenge to untangle, it is engrossing and enjoyable: highly worth the effort. Fuddy Meers is a show not to be missed for anybody with a taste for the twisted.

photos by nate rosenbloom/the hoot a show for the twisted Brandeis Experimental Theatre (BET) debuted “Fuddy Meers”

last night in SCC theater. From top left, clockwise: Jackie Theoharis ’14 and Jen Kleinrock ’12 stare at a peeping puppet; Theoharis, Kleinrock, Peter Charland ’14 and Matt Eames ’13; Herbie Rosen ’12 and Theoharis; and the gang breaks into a riot.

18 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

March 16, 2012

Despite inconsistent acting, ‘Friends With Kids’ succeeds

By Betty Revah Staff

Friendships between men and women are complicated to say the least, but bring a kid into the equation and you’ll see how complicated things can be. “Friends With Kids,” directed by Jennifer Westfeldt (also the film’s writer and star) is a romantic comedy that reveals in great detail the experience of having a baby.

Best friends Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) and Jason (Adam Scott) understand each other perfectly. They live in different apartments in the same building and know each other’s darkest secrets. It appears to be a perfect friendship: They have late night conversations about the best ways to die and whether or not they would want the love of their life to have a terminal disease. They are both single and have a happy life. It all seems to be going well until they realize how much their friends have changed after having kids and how much their marriages have suffered. they then come to the decision that kids ruin romance and drunkenly decide to have a baby together.

In theory, since they are best friends and have agreed to split equally the commitments and responsibilities that come with raising a child, the having-a-baby-together idea is reasonable. The actual babymaking, however, presents some complications. Julie complains of feeling like she’s kissing her brother and she constantly apologizes for not having the body type that Jason appreciates. After a couple of uncomfortable giggles, Julie and Jason manage to get the job done. Despite their friends’ opinions, Julie gets pregnant and they have an adorable baby boy.

The cast also includes Megan Fox, who plays the role of Jason’s

photo from internet source

that is a child Jason, played by Adam Scott, looks bewildered at the sight of a child.

girlfriend but she doesn’t look quite as beautiful as usual. Maybe it’s because of the fact that her name is Mary Jane; that she’s playing a selfcentered Broadway dancer who distracts Jason from the lovely Julie; or that she’s much too into herself these days. Truth be told, it feels like they have exhausted the Megan Fox related dirty jokes. Yes, she’s beautiful.

We know that. Regardless, there are many other talented actresses (some of whom have also starred together in “Bridesmaids”) who do a surprisingly good job.

Also part of the cast are Jason and Julie’s friends (two married couples with kids) who inspire their no-tomarriage but yes-to-kids idea. Jon Hamm plays the role of Ben, Missy’s (Kristen Wiig) not very nice husband. Although Missy and Ben used to have a lot of fun together before

having kids, the tension builds up between them as the movie progresses and we see Missy crying more than a few times. There is also Maya Rudolph, who plays the role of Leslie, and Chris O’Dowd as Alex. Their acting is slightly more convincing than some of the other stars, and they have some of the funniest moments.

Let’s just say that Alex is proud of the fact that he takes a sandwich and his computer with him every time he goes to the bathroom. Finally, there is Edward Burns in the role of Kurt, Julie’s very handsome boyfriend. Although most of the time we see only James and Julie, since the plot is centered on them, these extra characters are nonetheless very well-developed and extremely well-played.

Even though the film may scare some newlyweds out of having kids (at least for a little while), I have it

on good authority that for those who have already gone through the experience, the movie is very funny and entertaining. How could it be anything less than hilarious with scenes that include a diarrhea-covered Jason and lengthy discussions on the topic of vaginal elasticity?

All in all, Westfeldt and Scott play their parts brilliantly. I do have to mention, however, that whatever it was that Westfeldt did to her face (whether it be Botox, a facelift or cheek implants) is not working for her. When she speaks or smiles, her upper lip looks so strange that it’s hard to concentrate on what she’s saying. Not that it takes any credibility from her as an actress, a writer or a director—being the triple threat that she is—but it’s a shame she felt that her face needed an improvement. After all, she is quite naturally beauti-

ful. Scott, on the other hand, is fantastically funny and talented. He has learned to play the sweet guy to perfection, but the role of bad boy who has uncountable one-night stands is not at all ill-suited. Not to give too much away, but his last scene is adorable and funny.

“Friends With Kids” is the not the typical romantic-comedy but, then again, it’s not supposed to be. There is romance and there is comedy, but just the right mix of the two. It is perfectly entertaining—even if slightly predictable—and it makes the audience both laugh and cry. In the end we learn that friendship and babies probably shouldn’t mix, but that doesn’t mean it’s not interesting to see what happens when they do.

As Ben puts it, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Or, as this movie explores, can you?

Andy Gruhin inks deal with Sony/ATV

By Adam Marx Staff

It’s always exciting to hear that one of your favorite artists is planning to sign a major record contract, but it’s even more exciting when you see that artist make the transition before your eyes. Andy Gruhin is one of those artists. A presence on my music blog NewRockNews43 since 2010, Andy Gruhin was one of the first artists I discovered when I first entered music journalism. He has been a staple of and on constant rotation on my radio show, Underground Takeover, since its inception last semester. I’ve followed Gruhin through his two EP releases and now up to the amazing news that he announced at the start of this week.

Gruhin told me this week that he has just concluded talks and signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV. Gruhin released his first EP, “World Out There,” in the summer of 2010. The recording was the result of just four days in the studio (almost unheard of for the sort of production it boasts) and featured full-band versions of the title track, “Higher,” “Little Piece of Summer,” “Short and Beautiful” and the epic track (as well as Gruhin’s own selfdescribed anthem) “Sore Losers.”

The EP also included a diamondin-the-rough song as a special bonus track that has been my favorite since I was lucky enough to hear a skeletal version of it about a year prior to its official release. The acoustically stripped-down track “Without My Wings” was, as far as

I was concerned, a sign of things to come. While “World Out There” and “Higher” boasted high-octane guitar riffs and addictive drum fills, “Without My Wings” showcased a different side of Gruhin’s artistic abilities. The guitar riff was simple, yet what drew me in from the first finger-pluck were the lyrics; “Lack of liquor broke my heart with a thud” are words every lover can relate to as they pen a retrospective love song, pouring over the letters that were sent and received months ago. And as the chorus approaches and crescendos, the piano and female backup vocals give the track an ethereal quality that makes it an unforgettable song, as well as one of Gruhin’s best pieces— acoustic or otherwise. But the acoustic version was only the beginning for this song.

In the summer of 2011, Gruhin followed up “World Out There” with “Let the Darkness Grow!”—an EP so unapologetically brash and edgy that it stands out in ways that other artists wish they could achieve. There were a slew of new songs on the new EP, but I was immediately drawn to a re-recorded full-band version of “Without My Wings.” I wasn’t disappointed. I was blown away from the first second as Gruhin’s guitar exploded from the speakers and his new anthemic vocals replaced the breathy whispers of the acoustic version. Also joining the new vocal arrangements and energy were a blasting rhythm section and a note progression that Gruhin inserted just after the second verse, the latter of which still sends chills down my spine. My pick for the lead-single

of the EP, “Without My Wings,” has been on constant rotation on my radio show, and it regularly helps draw in thousands of listeners every week who are looking for new underground music. Along with the newly recorded version of “Without My Wings” and the title track were the high-energy tracks “The Fairest,” “Wasted Words,” “Under My Skin” and the power-balled “I’ll Follow You.” If “World Out There” was a solid hit for Gruhin, he hit a homerun with “Let the Darkness Grow!”

On the eve of inking a publishing contract with Sony/ATV, Gruhin stated that the new material he’s working on will make the long wait worth it. “The first EP was only four days in the studio,” Gruhin said, “and the second was only about seven. For the next recording, I hope to be able to spend more time so that I can really get the best versions of my songs on it. I’m also looking to do a music video, so I’m trying to see about that as well.”

Gruhin has clearly made a full leap forward, but I still cant wait to see what happens for him next. I heard from Gruhin that new material is certainly in the works and that he’ll be working on sharpening his writing skills so that his next release will be his best yet.

I knew it was only a matter of time until Andy Gruhin blew up; sometimes you know in your bones that something like this is destined to happen. The feeling behind the new opportunities on the horizon is simple for Gruhin: “I’m just excited to have this opportunity and I’m ready to show the world what I can do.”

photos courtesy of andy gruhin

andy gruhin Andy Gruhin, indie musician, recently signed a publishing deal with Sony/

ATV.

March 16, 2012

ARTS, ETC. 19

The Brandeis Hoot

‘League of Legends’: low commitment, high fun

Arts Recommends film

photo from internet source

‘Days of Heaven’ photo from internet source

teemo The powerful hunter humorously comes across as “more like a plush toy” in video game “League of Legends.”

By Zach Reid Staff

When I came to Brandeis, I assumed that video games would become a very minimal part of my life, that would only be played occasionally with friends—something that seemed perfectly fine to me. Within the past few months, however, I have found that one game has brought together many Brandeis students for hours upon hours of mutual enjoyment through their computers—“League of Legends.”

“League of Legends” (“LoL”) is a free-to-play online game that pits up to 10 players against each other in Player vs. Player (PvP) games as well as games against computer-controlled foes, or “bots.” These games typically last between 15 and 45 minutes, depending on the game type, although games between evenly matched teams can last for more than an hour. The ultimate objective of Classic Mode is to destroy the enemy team’s Nexus, a crystal in the heart of their base.

To do this, players must fight through waves of less-powerful computer-controlled soldiers, called minions, and destroy turrets across the map.

Different game modes help to add variety to a player’s “LoL” experience. If the lengthier games of Classic Mode don’t appeal to players, Dominion offers fast-paced, capture-the-flagesque gameplay, with the objective to hold as many as five control points as possible, similar to the Conquest game mode in “Star Wars: Battlefront II.” Games usually last between 10 and 20 minutes and consist of many more PvP, as opposed to bot, skirmishes. There are bots present in this gametype, but their role is mainly to serve as distractions for players, as opposed to being a significant threat for damaging the player or capturing control points.

Graphically speaking, the game is pretty solid. It has an almost cartoonish look to it, thanks to the comical nature of the minions and some of the champions (the miniature Teemo, for example, looks more like a plush toy than a powerful hunter). This element of amusement serves to enhance the experience; however, it also helps to maintain the enjoyable, more light-hearted atmosphere of the game as opposed to more intense games such as “World of Warcraft.” In terms of hardware capabilities for “LoL,” there are options for tweaking the graphics in order to provide a greater opportunity to customize the player’s experience based on their computer’s capabilities.

The major downside to “League of Legends” is the hardware requirements. This game cannot be played on a Mac computer without Boot Camp, a program which runs Windows software on Apple hardware, and thanks to its 2009 release date, some computers have difficulty running the game without lag. Lag can cripple a player mid- or late-game because of the game’s fast-paced action and deters some Mac users from playing.

It is with regard to the game’s Champions, however, that developer Riot Games truly

shows their genius. There are more than 90 Champions released to date, and a new Champion is usually released every one to two weeks.

Champions can be acquired in the “LoL” store by using Influence Points (IP), which are awarded based on the player’s performance in games, or Riot Points (RP), which can be bought for varying sums of money. Games maintain interest by the sheer variety of enemies the player encounters as well as the Champions they can control. While Champions have a general role on a team (damage-dealer, healer, anti-spell caster, etc.), each one has unique abilities and specialties that offer many ways for a player to use them.

In addition to this continually expanding variety of Champions, Riot has instituted a system called the Champion Rotation, in which it makes 10 Champions free every week, to give players a chance to try out new characters.

These free Champions range from cheap to incredibly expensive (450 IP to 6,300 IP), ensuring players the chance to play with Champions that they wouldn’t normally have access to, as well as giving them a better feel for how they operate for when they come against those champions in games.

Gameplay has an appealing if slightly repetitive feel to it and is fairly easy to pick up. The first 10 minutes of each match consist of “farming” (killing enemy minions and neutral creatures to obtain gold), “pushing” (killing enemy minions quickly so allied minions and champions can attack the enemy turrets in your lane) and “ganking” (ambushing an enemy champion to secure the kill). Once players get past this point, the game becomes more focused on killing the other team’s players, as opposed to bots—the true enjoyment of the game. The battles the player finds him or herself in are radically different each time, based on the makeup of the other team and the player’s own character. The mage character Annie, for example, can easily demolish a melee character at range but is no match for Veigar, a diminutive anti-caster.

Factor in five characters to each team and 70plus characters for each player to choose from, and you have a nearly infinite number of game variations, never mind how individual player skill factors into the games.

Overall, “League of Legends” is a solid game and is a great choice for a college student looking for some casual gaming. While it isn’t as intense or popular as other games that are currently on the market, it’s completely free to play, which more than makes up for these slight disadvantages. Best of all, there’s already a healthy community of LoL players here at Brandeis.

Personally, I know of more than 20 players— and I know there are others—given that a group of first-years were very nearly successful in making a competitive team for a collegiate league, known as IvyLoL. So, if you’re looking for a good game to kill an hour or so with, or if you’re trying to meet new friends in a way that’s adequately nerdy for Brandeis, look no further than “League of Legends.”

There may be no film more beautiful than Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” (1978). In the early 1900s, working-class lovers Bill (Richard Gere) and Abby (Brooke Adams) migrate to the Texas Panhandle, where they begin harvesting wheat for a well-to-do farmer (Sam Shepard). The farmer instantly falls for Abby. When Bill discovers the farmer has a terminal illness, he encourages her to marry him in order to inherit his fortune.

Tragedy naturally ensues, but it’s perhaps the most beautifully rendered American tragedy to date. Most of the scenes were shot during the fabled “magic hour,” that period of dusk when the light is gentle but the sun has already vanished. Beautiful golden fields of grain provide the backdrop for Malick’s story, with the farmer’s haunting, expressionistic homestead mansion reigning over it all.

sean fabery, editor

books

photo from internet source

‘Miss Lonelyhearts’ by Nathanael West “Ever wonder who writes those kitschy newspaper advice columns that purport to solve everyone’s problems? Nathanael West gives a darkly comic response to this question in his 1933 novella “Miss Lonelyhearts.”

At its center is an unnamed writer who gets assigned to write his paper’s “Miss Lonelyhearts” column. Initially he takes it as a joke. Then he begins reading the letters, horrific accounts of spousal abuse, child molestation and physical disability: “I cry all the time it hurts so much and I dont know what to do.” Miss Lonelyhearts finds himself helpless, able only to offer meager words of consolation. No matter how hard he tries to quit, he can’t tear himself away—he reads the letters obsessively “for the same reason an animal tears at a wounded foot: to hurt the pain.” Soon he’s smack dab in the middle of an existential crisis.

Yet, for all that angst, it’s also darkly funny, owing in part to Miss Lonelyheart’s heartless editor (is there any other kind?) who uses the letters to shake the man’s faith: “When the salt has lost its savor, who shall savor it again? Is the answer: None but the Saviour?” There are few books who so grotesquely tear apart notions of human kindness and good will—and that’s why you should read “Miss Lonelyhearts” now.

sean fabery, editor

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March 16, 2012