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.