The Brandeis Hoot - April 5, 2012

Volume 9 Number 11

www.thebrandeishoot.com

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.

Union candidates announced Five contenders vie for presidency

By Aly Schuman Staff

Student Body President Herbie Rosen ’12 outlined the upcoming presidential elections in a meeting

Wednesday.

Five candidates announced their intention to run for student body president by press time, including current secretary Todd Kirkland ’13, David Fisch ’13, Louis Connelly ’13, Dillon Harvey ’14 and Joshua Hoffman-Senn ’13.

Charlotte Franco ’15 said she thinks the race is shaping up to be “really interesting” since there are “a

lot of different people running.”

“I do know some of the candidates,” Franco said, “but I don’t have a favorite.”

Connelly and Harvey both noted that it would be a tough race, particularly because Kirkland has what Harvey referred to as “name brand recognition.” Since Kirkland sends See UNION, page 12

Governor fields questions on innovation

governor deval patrick Massachusetts Governor addresses annual Global Trade Summit on Tuesday.

By Connor Novy Editor

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick met with raucous applause at Brandeis’ annual Global Trade Summit last Tuesday. He praised his own administration’s successes in

the world economy and its recuperation in the country’s technology and business sectors.

Education, one of Patrick’s three main talking points at the summit, is currently the most contentious.

With a 5 percent tuition hike at Brandeis, the cost of higher educa-

MBTA concedes cuts, raises fares

By Yael Katzwer Editor

Amid criticism over severe service cuts, the MBTA revised its budget proposal last week in a change that would raise fares an average of 23 percent but only result in minor service cuts. The price of the commuter rail and the 553 and 554 buses that many commuting students use will experience a fare hike but will not be limiting service. These changes will take effect July 1.

The announcement came after two months of the MBTA suggesting both fare increases and service cuts—including the Fitchburg commuter rail line that services Brandeis—to alleviate the $160 million deficit that they face in the upcoming fiscal year.

Under this new proposal students taking the commuter rail from Brandeis to Boston will pay approximately $6 instead of $4.75; subway riders using a CharlieCard will pay $2 instead of $1.70; and bus riders

will pay $1.50 instead of $1.25. The MBTA last raised fares in 2007.

“Of course I don’t like that there are higher fares, but compared to previous proposals, I am more willing to accept this one,” Student Union President Herbie Rosen ’12 told The Hoot via e-mail. “I think it will be more of a strain on students, but I doubt the ridership will decrease. Maybe more students would be interested in the Riverside station to avoid a $6 commuter rail ride, and we’ll try to find a way to provide the Riverside access. Honestly though, I am just glad our service to Boston is still open.”

The MBTA was able to concede to the public, who demanded that service not be cut, by finding funding elsewhere. They plan to use $7 million in remaining snow and ice money left over from the mild winter and $5 million from a deal to lease the North Station parking garage.

See MBTA, page 4

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

tion, which Patrick says provides not only “intellectual capital” to Massachusetts but encourage investment and innovation as well, has steadily risen. Although the Massachusetts state budget proposed a 5 percent See IBS, page 4

April 5, 2012

Univ ranked among worst for free speech

By Forrest Hardy

Special to the Hoot

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) released a list of the 12 worst colleges for Free Speech on March 27, which featured Brandeis in the top three. The list was released on the Huffington Post’s website and, among others, it included Harvard, Tufts and Yale University.

The FIRE’s list of the worst colleges for free speech brings up an issue integral to Brandeis University and its commitment to social justice.

FIRE, according to its website, aims to “defend and sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities.” It annually releases a new list of colleges that it deems offensive to free speech. According to FIRE, Brandeis University earned a place on the list due to an incident four years ago where Professor Donald Hindley (POL) allegedly “explained to his class that Mexican migrants in the United States are sometimes referred to pejoratively as ‘wetbacks,’” according to an article on the FIRE website.

After the controversial investigation by the administration, FIRE added Brandeis to its list because “Brandeis’ contempt for Hindley’s rights severely alienated many among Brandeis’ faculty and students.”

Many students, however, were surprised by Brandeis’ inclusion in FIRE’s list. Though many Brandeisians have not encountered violations in free speech concerning racism, some say they face it in the realm of politics. As Brandeis is largely liberal, there is a risk that more conservative students may feel alienated by the views of their professors and peers.

Daniel Goulden ’14, a founding member and president of Brandeis Chapter of Amnesty International

says he has never experienced any problem with the administration concerning free speech. Concerning the Hindley case, Goulden said, “I think banning free speech is always a terrible idea.

I think that Comment page 9 when you have offensive speech, what you should do instead is open up a discussion about it, rather than banning it.” He believes that Hindley’s comments were taken out of context and that there was an overreaction on the administration’s part.

Concerning alienation due to political views, Goulden said, “I don’t think it’s the administration’s responsibility to keep professors in line with their own ideas. Professors have a right to their political opinions and this has been historically true.”

Jake Weiner ’13, president of the Brandeis Democrats, added, “The one area where you might run into people actually being prejudiced is Israel. Israel on this campus is a very divisive issue and I don’t feel that necessarily all viewpoints are represented.”

Goulden agrees that Israel is one of the more polarizing issues on the Brandeis campus. “I’ve noticed when it comes to social justice clubs there is a lot of fear on the part of the student body to really take action,” he said.

Goulden attributes this fear partly to the ferocity of the Israeli-Palestinian debate, which makes many students wary of student activism; additionally, many activism efforts get lost in the fray. He says, “There is such a pressure on Brandeis to be so accepting, that we end up being almost afraid of activism and social justice because of the Israel issue.”

“It’s not even suppression, clearly See FIRE, page 12

At memorial, wearing hoods for Trayvon

photo courtesy of amanda dryer

solidarity for justice President Fred Lawrence stands in an embrace at a memorial for Trayvon Martin. For more, turn to page 20.

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

April 5, 2012

Emergency communication systems depend on texts

By Zach Reid Staff

Brandeis has instituted a system of emergency text messaging designed to send students “pre-defined messages to match the situation,” according to John Turner, director of networks and systems at LTS. After the initial message, he explained the system allows staff members “to send follow-up messages with more details.”

Turner also stated how the system was designed to allow Campus Police to act quickly in an emergency, and to communicate quickly with the community.

Despite the system’s inherent reliance on users being tuned-in to technology, it has already gained a significant foothold in the Brandeis community. Ed Callahan, director of Public Safety, said the recent test on Wednesday resulted in 2,230 text messages being sent out—an incred-

ibly large number when compared to more traditional methods of communication, such as e-mail or phone calls.

According to Callahan, the university sent out 2,946 messages to desk phones on campus, as well as 8,413 calls to off-campus phones and 3,621 e-mails to off-campus addresses. He further explained that “off-campus” meant addresses that community members register with the university, and could include parents, spouses, relatives, etc. These numbers represent communication with all members of the Brandeis community, not just students and faculty.

Universities have been moved to rework their emergency response systems after recent campus shootings.

On Monday at Oikos University in Oakland, Calif., a shooting left seven people dead and three wounded. The shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and 2011 devastated the Virginia Tech community. The 2011 shooting

left a police officer and the shooter dead, while the 2007 attack left 32 students dead and 25 wounded.

The Virginia Tech 2007 shooting “hit close to home” and showed that “no one is insulated on a college campus,” Mark Collins, senior vice president for administration said.

Collins also told The Hoot that the events on Sept. 11 were “probably when things started changing,” and that the events had “raised the bar on crisis communication.”

The 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech revealed how communication could be extremely inefficient and potentially life threatening. Once the shootings started, it took Virginia Tech staff more than two hours to inform students about the shooter’s location.

This time gap was enough for the shooter to leave the site of the initial shootings, return to his dorm room, change clothes, delete his e-mails, and then mail NBC news a package that included video recordings of himself.

He then entered a separate hall from the previous shootings and began murdering other Virginia Tech community members.

Turner explained how Brandeis staff have not forgotten the lesson.

“The tragedy at Virginia Tech sparked a renewed sense of urgency across the entire academic community to ensure we could communicate effectively during an emergency,” Turner said.

Concerns have been raised that the system of text messaging may be insufficient to alert community members to a dangerous situation if one were to arise. While there are areas on campus that don’t have cell reception, such as the science quad, some dormitories and basement floors, text messaging is not the only way Brandeis staff have to communicate with other community members in an emergency.

The university has a total of seven modes of communication in place

for a crisis, Turner said. In addition to text messaging, these methods include “e-mail messages, reverse 911 calls to registered cell phones, emergency sirens, the campus phone PA system, banners on our website (SAGE) and plasma displays around campus.”

In addition to these modes of communication, Callahan said that there are other networks of support and information available to Brandeis staff including the Waltham Police, as well as both state and federal networks.

Collins agreed with Callahan. “Everything possible [to prepare for an emergency] has been done at this point.” He also cautioned, “We have further planning to do” and said creating and preparing new emergency responses and communication modalities, as well as updating current ones, is an ongoing process, due to the ever-changing nature of emergency situations.

In Memoriam: David Waltz, computer science prof., 68

david waltz

photo from internet source

By Ben Federlin

Special to the Hoot

Former computer science Professor David Waltz died March 22 of brain cancer. He was 68.

Professor Waltz had been a member of the faculty at Brandeis for nine years before working at Columbia University and then Princeton University. Waltz was a leading member of the computer science industry. In addition to his impressive accom-

plishments in the field of computer science, Waltz also was instrumental in establishing the Volen National Center for Complex Systems here at Brandeis, having been previously involved in the creation of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois where he had worked previously.

He later helped create the Center for Computational learning systems at Columbia where he served as director for several years.

Waltz was especially influential in the development of technology used for the creation of Internet search engines, including Yahoo and Google.

His contributions to the field of computer science are quite numerous and include a method of “case-based” reasoning that allows computers to recognize various elements of text or sound better as well as a number of contributions to the development of artificial intelligence.

Professor Jordan Pollack (COSI), computer science department chair, was Waltz’s student at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and worked with him for many years.

“I went to University of Illinois for grad school in Computer Science in fall 1980, and joined up with Dave Waltz’s AI research group,” Pollack wrote to The Hoot. “The focus of the lab was in natural language processing, which at that time meant building English-like interfaces to large databases owned by the sponsor, in this case, the Navy. Dave had become

interested in the new field of cognitive science, which had just had its first conference, and a major funding boost from the Sloan Foundation. He started collaborating with professors and attracting students from Psychology and Linguistics who became my closest friends.

“It was a very interdisciplinary moment, and we became interested in the mental limits on humans during sentence understanding, combining computation with psycholinguistics.

We built a model to simulate the feeling when you read ambiguous and garden-path sentences like ‘the doctor practiced on Henry’s organ’ and ‘the hunter shot some bucks at a casino’ using parallel processes known as spreading activation and lateral inhibition, which eventually became a well-cited paper in the new field of neural networks and part of my PhD thesis.”

Pollack described his personal relationship with Waltz as one that superseded that typical of a student and teacher. “David had very few formal barriers between himself and his PhD students,” Pollack said. “My wife and I felt a part of his family, and enjoyed the opportunity to socialize with Dave and Bonnie and their faculty friends.”

Waltz came to teach at Brandeis where he eventually became head of the Computer Science department.

Professor Pollack followed his friend and mentor to join Waltz at Brandeis.

“Dave left Urbana in 1984 to join a startup called Thinking Machines, and secured a part-time faculty job helping to expand the Computer Science department at Brandeis and its new PhD program. I first visited Brandeis as an invited speaker at the Volen Center retreat in 1993, just before the building was completed, Thinking Machines folded, and he moved to New Jersey. After working in Big 10 universities, I fell in love with the more personal scale of Brandeis and moved here when a faculty position opened in 1994.”

Waltz had been battling brain cancer for some time. He passed away at the University Medical Center at Princeton. Pollack and the computer science department faculty have two separate projects in mind to honor Waltz.

“Dave’s death last week hit me very hard, even though I knew he had inoperable brain cancer for a year. I am working on a couple of projects to honor him for his work and his time at Brandeis. One project is an academic symposium featuring speakers from the six phases of Dave Waltz’s career. I expect to hold it on campus in late September,” Pollack wrote.

“The second is a memorial fundraising project which is in the earliest stages of development.”

Waltz was survived by his wife, Bonnie; his two children, Vanessa and Jeremy; and one granddaughter.

Adrienne Rich, activist and poet, dead at 82

By Rachel Hirschhaut Staff

Adrienne Rich, a poet, social activist and one of the most influential feminist writers of the 20th century, died on March 27, at her home in Santa Cruz, Calif. She was 82.

Rich taught creative writing at Brandeis from 1970 to 1972 and was awarded honorary doctorates from both Brandeis and Harvard. She also taught and frequently gave readings at universities such as Cornell, Stanford and liberal arts colleges such as Swarthmore.

Rich, who had an affinity for poetry since her childhood, began writing in her college years at Radcliffe College. She published her first collection of poems, “A Change of World,”

the same year she graduated with a degree in English. The collection was selected by poet W.H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award.

Her ouvre include 25 books of poetry and seven nonfiction books of essays and social commentary.

Rich found her poetic identity in the 1960s, channeling the turbulent social period into her writing.

After marrying economics professor Alfred Conrad and having three children, Rich felt conflicted about society’s expectations of her as a wife and mother at a time when that social role was hotly debated. This inspired her collection of essays, “Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution,” published later on. The book challenged traditional notions of what it meant to be a mother.

A few years after Conrad’s death

in 1970, Rich came out as a lesbian.

Shulamit Reinharz, sociology professor and director of the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis, said that Rich was “triply challenged” by her unique role as a woman, a lesbian and a Jew who discovered her Jewish identity later in life.

This self-conflict was visible in her poems and essays, especially “Compulsory Heterosexuality,” one of the first essays to take on sexuality at that time. It has become a staple reading in women’s studies classes, according to Reinharz.

Rich’s later poems took on other issues of the time, including civil rights and anti-war protests against the Vietnam War. “She was one of the great American poets; she was totally committed to what we think about today as

social justice, but radically so,” Rich’s friend Bettina Aptheker, UC Santa Cruz professor and feminist, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. “She was antiimperialist in her thinking. She had a razor-sharp mind and brilliant use of language that gave you tremendous insight into things.”

Even when Rich was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1997 by President Clinton, she refused it due to the “disparities of wealth and power” in America, and in protest of the House of Representatives possibly cutting funding for the National Endowment of the Arts.

Later, in her acceptance speech for the National Book Foundation Award in 2006, she acknowledged, “Poetry is not a healing lotion, an emotional massage, a kind of linguistic aromatherapy. Neither is it a blueprint, nor

an instruction manual, nor a billboard.” Rich knew that poetry alone could not solve social problems, but it could illuminate what it meant to be a woman. Her mission was to bring about “the creation of a society without domination” through writing.

Olga Broumas, a Brandeis professor of creative writing, will remember Rich as someone who was “consummately present, ever gracious, and had an uninterruptible channel for poetry, intelligence, and justice”; she “radiated ethical conscience and commitment.”

Rich’s other awards include the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

April 5, 2012

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

Nobel Prize winner to speak at Heller commencement

photo from internet source

amartya sen Nobel Prize-winning economist and philosopher will speak at commence-

ment of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

By Nathan Murphy Needle Special to the Hoot

Dean Lisa Lynch of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management announced that this year’s commencement speaker will be Nobel Prize-winning economist and philosopher Amartya Sen. Sen is the winner of the 1998 No-

bel Prize in Economic Sciences; this year’s recipient of the National Humanities Medal; and Lamont Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. While he has received recognition largely for his contributions in the field of economics, his work extends far beyond. According to Professor of Philosophy and Affiliate of the Heller School An-

Housing numbers lag behind growing class size

By Emily Belowich Staff

Housing lottery numbers ran out nearly 300 spots earlier than they did last year, reflecting the trend of a growing student body and limited housing availability on campus.

This situation is forcing university officials to review the ratio of rooms to students for future classes.

“Students seemed to use the lottery numbers slightly more efficiently this year—meaning that students with lower numbers pulled in students with higher numbers at a greater rate. This means that there were more valid, usable lower lottery numbers and housing ran out at a lower number,” Senior Director of Community Living Jeremy Leiferman said.

Leiferman also said that because more housing became available to sophomores, this year 35 fewer juniors and seniors were able to select housing at room selection. He anticipates that they will be able to accommodate everyone on the waitlist who desires on-campus housing.

Changes to housing designations in the Village, with added floors for sophomores, have also left rising juniors with fewer options than they had last year. Previously, these floors were available only for juniors and seniors.

While it seems that this is potentially an issue of increasingly larger first-year classes, the central concern is a shortage of housing.

“Individuals who are directly involved in the decisions about the size of each class do consider housing, among other factors, when

making these decisions,” Leiferman said regarding the correlation between class size and housing.

The housing lottery began in midMarch when rising sophomores chose housing for the upcoming year. Shortly after, juniors and seniors chose housing based on the limited availabilities. Housing ran out at number 1535, forcing many juniors and seniors to look into alternative housing off-campus. Last year, housing ran out at number 1816. With approximately 3,300 undergraduate students, there is only a certain amount of housing and it is bound to run out at a number that leaves a few hundred students to find housing on their own.

According to its website, Community Living says that they seek to “intentionally foster a student’s holistic development from their first year through commencement.”

DCL only guarantees housing for first-years and sophomores and, as upperclassmen, there is limited housing available. For juniors and seniors, on-campus living is available in Ziv Quad, Charles River Apartments, Ridgewood and the Village. Foster Mods are exclusively for seniors and offer a variety of apartment housing options, which include kitchens.

Some of the features of upperclassmen housing include central airconditioning, apartment kitchens, common rooms and a gym open 24/7 in one of the Village houses.

Ridgewood, which opened in January 2009, accommodates approximately 180 students and was designed and constructed to be a quad that is more sustainable, environmentally friendly and energy efficient.

dreas Teuber, “He helped give an ethical dimension to economics and has written extensively on poverty and inequality.” In addition, he has recently written about justice, and his thesis that famine does not exist in true democracy is now commonly accepted by the international community. In India, many call Sen “the Mother Teresa of economics,” and in 1999, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest award.

“The range and depth of Amartya Sen’s work is truly astonishing,” said Teuber. “He’s internationally respected for his groundbreaking work on liberty and equality, poverty and famine, and changed the way many of us think about development economics by conceiving human well-being in terms of capabilities for choosing lives we have reason to value rather than in terms of GNP, utilities and the satisfaction of preferences.” As the Swedish Academy put it when it awarded him the Nobel Prize he has “restored an ethical dimension to the discussion of vital economic problems.’”

Sens work is far from limited to his role as speaker and writer. He has worked as an educator around the world; in addition to his current post at Harvard, he has taught as visiting professor at MIT, the University of Oxford in England, Delhi University in India and at the London School of

Economics, where Dean Lynch was his student. “I never missed a chance to hear him lecture there,” Lynch said.

“I still recall many an evening at the Beaver’s retreat (the LSE pub) vigorously debating the implications of his theory with my classmates and professors as we struggled to develop a ‘new’ framework for thinking about labor and welfare policy … there was also a significant focus on the measurement of poverty and inequality so, as Professor Sen moved into this area of research, he again shaped the thinking and approach of many scholars in my generation.”

Sen’s time at Brandeis will not end with his speech. On May 20, Sen will be able to add Brandeis to a list of more than 90 major institutions in Asia, the Americas, Africa and Europe from which he has received an honorary degree. Also receiving this distinction will be Brandeis graduate and this year’s undergraduate commencement speaker Deborah Bial; late philanthropist and Brandeis trustee Myra Kraft; Nobel Prizewinner Sydney Brenner; and Juilliard School President Joseph W. Polisi.

According to Lynch, the reaction by students and faculty alike has been positive. “I just hope that our students have the same reaction that I did when I heard him first speak as a student—this is a man who uses his knowledge to challenge conventional

thinking and was never content with just achieving success in the academy,” Lynch said.

Lynch is not the only faculty member who shares this sentiment. According to Assistant Professor of Justice, Rights and Social Change Raj Sampath, each year during orientation for the Sustainable International Development programs at Heller, entering students participate in an afternoon symposium on Sen. During this part of the orientation, they read the introduction to “Development as Freedom,” arguably Sen’s most widely-read book. “Approximately 65 percent of SID students are international, and Sen is a global figure who can speak to a diversity of cultures and traditions,” said Sampath.

Both Teuber and Sampath discussed the Sustainable International Development program further. Sampath hopes that Sen’s work will help to highlight how the social sciences and liberal arts interact in progressive ways and in an ever-changing international community. He hopes students will see Sen as an “academic who has had real-world impact in advancing social justice and improving lives on a global scale.”

“Our motto at Heller is ‘knowledge advancing social justice,’” Lynch said.

“Professor Sen epitomizes this in so many ways.”

College Notebook

Body of college student discovered

By Marisa Budlong Staff

Arizona police discovered the body of missing Elmira College student Jessica Ronhock last Saturday in an SUV at the bottom of a cliff 25 miles south of Flagstaff, Ariz. Her body was found inside a white Jeep Cherokee.

A couple of elk hunters came across the SUV. Ronhock’s body had been decomposing for several months.

The 21-year-old nursing student went missing from the upstate New York college on Jan. 10. The last person to see Ronhock was her roommate, who said she found a note claiming that Ronhock went home because of a “family emergency.”

According to Ronhock’s parents, there was no emergency and she never returned to their home in Mashpee, Mass.

Credit card records show that during her disappearance she traveled through areas of Florida, Texas and Arizona before her death. There is security footage that displays Ronhock alone and withdrawing cash from an ATM machine in Baytown, Texas, on Jan. 15.

She was not reported missing until Jan. 19, when she was thought to be traveling through Arizona.

There is evidence that Ronhock was at a campground in Florida immediately before her disappearance.

Purchases on her credit card show that she was also traveling in both southern and northern areas of Arizona. From an inn’s video footage, a woman who appears to be Ronhock is making reservations for two people at

photo from internet source

jessica ronhock Body of missing college student Jessica Ronhock was found Saturday in

Flagstaff, Ariz.

the hotel.

The last contact with Ronhock came on Jan. 22 when her private journal was mailed to Ronhock’s family from Williams, Ariz., just west of Flagstaff and 60 miles south of the Grand Canyon.

The entries in the journal were said to be “of a disheartening nature.”

Arizona police, however, do not think that this was suicidal behavior and claim that her death was more likely to be merely a “traffic accident.”

The Elmira City Police agree that Ronhock did not display suicidal behavior. One Elmira City sergeant stat-

ed that most suicidal people would not put in the effort to travel across the country in the way Ronhock did. He thinks it more likely that she “went out there to clear her head and gather herself and something’s happened since then.”

The SUV had crashed through the guardrail and plummeted about 200 yards below, probably causing immediate death.

According to local reports, the body was brought to the Coconino Medical Examiner to make the final identification.

Attention Seniors:

Get ready for commencement with an ad in The Hoot’s special issue.

Learn more: http://thebrandeishoot.com/

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

April 5, 2012

Patrick addresses IBS annual summit IBS, from page 1

increase during the past year, its funding for education is still significantly reduced—27 percent, according to the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Last month, Patrick unveiled a plan to centralize oversight of the state’s community colleges, a plan that has been questioned by colleges, who claim they have a better understanding of what local businesses require in terms of training than a distant board of overseers does.

Still, Massachusetts has made gains in technology and biotechnology, according to Patrick, and has had “tremendous success” on their trade missions. “International companies are making Massachusetts their home away from home more often,” he said.

More than half of the students

in Brandeis’ International Business School are from outside the United States, which means in a global economy, says Patrick, that “the International Business School gets it … and your state government, better and better every day, gets it.”

“The global economy waits for no one,” Patrick said, and the collaboration between the public, private and academic partnerships may lead to what Patrick calls “deeper commercial relations.”

His three tenets of education, innovation and infrastructure, he claimed, have done wonders for the Massachusetts economy, including the reduction of the average time required for permits from two years to six months, and a plan to revise any old regulations that might be outmoded and hamper economic growth. According to Patrick, Massachusetts has seen significant job growth and added 23-thousand

MBTA relents, cancels service cuts proposal MBTA, from page 1

The MBTA also plans to use $51 million from the the surplus remaining from when the state’s motor vehicle inspection program raised the cost of inspection stickers to $29. In order to use this money, the Legislature must first alter a state law that earmarks this money for improving motor vehicle air quality.

“As we read the statute, we didn’t believe the MBTA fell under that, but frankly I can’t think of any other better air-quality improvement than getting people on public transportation and out of their cars,” Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey said. “So we believe this is an appropriate use of that surplus, to at least give the MBTA fiscal flexibility to keep service running.” These alternative funding sources will lower the amount of money that MBTA riders need to make up to about $90 million, Davey said.

The MBTA reached these proposals after, according to the MBTA website, “nearly 6,000 riders attended 31 public meetings, with nearly 2,000 individuals offering public comment on our proposals. In addition, we received 5,850 e-mails and more than 400 letters on the proposals.”

Last week, when the MBTA was still discussing cutting commuter rail service on weekends and at night, Rosen and Vice President Gloria Park ’13 penned a letter to the MBTA entreating them not to cut service as “should the MBTA go through their their proposals, Brandeis University

will be crippled.” The letter continued: “The MBTA is considering cutting our commuter rail service during the exact times that we use it most. We use the MBTA especially during the weekends … Moreover, we have a significant number of commuter students who would not be able to attend school without the 553 and 554 buses.”

With the new proposals, the commuter rail service will not be changed and the 553 and 554 buses will continue running. Despite these new proposals, however, Rosen and Park intend to edit the letter and send it anyways. “As of now, we intend to send it,” Rosen told The Hoot. “Though voting by the MBTA board takes place tomorrow. We will edit it to advocate for a better long term solution (since this arrangement is only for a year). We will take out much of the original text and edit it to fit this new proposal.

We’ll also send it out for approval by the Student Body—probably after break.” The original letter had 445 signatures.

Although the MBTA is considering these proposals to alleviate the following fiscal year’s deficit, this is a one-year plan. Next year there may be a harsher winter and the state’s motor vehicle inspection program is only a one-year measure. “I can’t emphasize enough this is a one-year solution,” Davey said. “And all things being the same, we will be back in the same position a year from now, looking at service cuts and potentially more fare increases.”

new jobs since the beginning of this year. The jobless rate in Massachusetts, according to numbers released March 22, held at 6.9 percent, well below the national average of 8.3 percent.

Opposition has hotly contested his claim that Massachusetts is leading the country, saying that the Patrick administration’s numbers are skewed to make the state look like it is in a better economic position than it is. Still, Massachusetts is ahead of the nation in its rate of economic recovery.

Patrick’s commitment to Massachusetts infrastructure, he says, has led to a widening of health care, which he sees “as very much an infrastructure problem” and financial gains, including a bond rating that trumped most other states, after affordability analysis that his administration “took to Wall Street” and made a reality.

Despite the recent successes of the Patrick administration, he addressed the multitude of problems still present in the Massachusetts economy, particularly the “huge backlog” of infrastructure repairs and the current financial difficulties facing the MBTA. While Patrick is supportive of the intentions of the “Big Dig” which re-routed Boston’s I-93, he added “the way we paid for it was not honest” and had to be rectified for the T and connected institutions to thrive. According to The Boston Globe, Patrick has already asserted that he cannot imagine a way to fund the T without an increased gas tax or similar measure.

At Brandeis’ Global Trade Summit, he reminded the audience, “We are

photos by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

exactly where I said we would be when I proposed the gas tax three years ago.”

The Trade Summit follows Bruce Magid, Brandeis International Business School Dean, and Governor Deval Patrick’s trip to Brazil last December, which aimed to build both cultural and commercial connections between the commonwealth and Brazil. Patrick has also

traveled to India and Russia, and plans to “get back to Europe soon” to build the relationship between foreign nations and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Brandeis looks to gain from the trade missions by fostering student and faculty connections between other nations, most recently Brazil and India, where President Lawrence fostered connections this semester.

Admitted and deciding

photo by ingrid schulte (top) and alan tran/the hoot

admitted students day (top) A group of admitted students converse. (bottom) Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps (BE-

MCo) members Dan Saxe ’12, Hannah Goldberg ’13 and Paul Schneider ’12 reach out to admitted students.

April 5, 2012

This week in photos

The Brandeis Hoot 5

photos by nathan rosenbloom and ingrid schulte/the hoot

club events display brandeis diversity (clockwise from top left) Cultural Food Gala: Members of the Korea Student Association (KSA) distribute dumplings. Students taste food provided by clubs such as Students for Environmental

Action (SEA), the Cheese Club, Anthropology Club and Russian Club. Elly Kalfus ‘13 learns about food from countries around the world. SPECTRUM’s Autism Awareness Coffeehouse: Lindsay Tsopelas ‘12 sings with Starving Artists. Rapper Saz.E (Osaze O. Akerejah ‘14) performs and speaks about personal experience with autism. Student Events Texas State Fair: Students compete in the “Chubby Bunny” competition by stuffing their cheeks with marshmallows.

6 The Brandeis Hoot

The Katzwer’s Out of the Bag

ImpressiOns

April 5, 2012

Put the blame where it belongs: misinformation is not racism

By Yael Katzwer Editor

The Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida has captured the country’s attention because of the questions it raises about racial motivations, vigilantism and lax self-defense laws.

Important as these questions are, the Martin case has caused many people to overlook another heartbreaking story in California.

On March 24 Pasadena Police received a 911 call from a man named Oscar Carillo; in the call Carillo reported that a backpack and a laptop had been stolen from his car by two men who were carrying guns. Police tracked down the suspects and, when 19-year-old Kendrec McDade seemed to be reaching for his waistband, the two officers opened fire and killed him. No gun was found.

People are decrying the alleged racism of the crime—both officers were white whereas McDade was black. But this is not fair. These officers were told that their suspect was armed. In a life-or-death situation, one does not always have the time to sift through all the evidence. Instinct takes over. If the officers had chosen not to shoot and McDade had been reaching for a gun, that pause could have resulted in the deaths of two police officers.

The real problem here is not the officers; they were acting to the best of their ability with the knowledge they were provided. The problem is the false report filed by Oscar Carillo, in which he lied and said that the two men were armed so that police would respond more quickly.

McDade was the teen who stole Carillo’s possessions and McDade’s 17-year-old accomplice has been apprehended and charged with two counts of commercial burglary, one count of grand theft and one count of failure to register as a gang member

photo from internet source

as a condition of his probation. While McDade is likely guilty of theft, he did not deserve to die for that. McDade’s crime was a misdemeanor.

Carillo’s false information led to McDade’s death, however, and Carillo should be held responsible.

Carillo was arrested by the Pasadena Police for involuntary manslaughter and, although he is being held for investigation, he has yet to be charged. That must change. He knowingly lied to the police, forcing police officers into a mindset that led to a young man’s death. This crime is the result of stupidity and a wanton disregard for others, not racism.

We are taught since childhood that if you do not need the police, you do not call because it takes police resources away from people who do.

Police respond more quickly to cases with weapons involved to save lives.

It is the same reason hospitals triage patients and move those who are hemorrhaging to the front of the line.

By falsely reporting that the thieves were armed in order to get immediate police action, Carillo deceived authorities, preventing them from responding to more urgent, violent calls.

By telling police that the thieves were armed, Carillo forced the officers to choose between the well-being of the suspect or themselves. When suspects are armed, there is little room for error. Police officers need to act quickly and decisively. Not only did Carillo’s actions result in McDade’s death, but they forced two police officers—one of whom has never fired his weapon before and the other who only once used his weapon to kill a dog that was attacking someone—to kill an unarmed man. They will have

to live with that knowledge for the rest of their lives.

Carillo was given multiple chances to retract his statements about the gun(s) before McDade was shot. During his 911 call, he changed his story twice. The 911 dispatcher is not without fault here. The dispatcher asked Carillo: “Which one had a gun?” and he responded: “One of them, one of them, they just pointed it at me right now.” And yet, after being asked for more details about the gun a few seconds later, rather than owning up and admitting there was no weapon, Carillo said: “Both have a gun, man.”

Regardless, the officers were not on the 911 call and were not able to hear the discrepancies. All they knew was that the suspects were armed.

Carillo did not even admit to making up the weapons until he was interviewed for a second time by the

police. He should be charged with obstruction of justice as well as involuntary manslaughter. Lying to the police is a crime because of the drastic consequences it can produce.

Just because Carillo began the night as the victim does not mean he should still be treated as one.

Just because McDade began the night as the suspect does not mean he is not a victim. The real victims of this case are Kendrec McDade and the two police officers to whom Oscar Carillo lied. Carillo needs to be held responsible for his actions.

Exaggerating crimes in 911 calls is unacceptable.

Racist accusations against these two officers need to stop. The community needs to place blame in its rightful place: with Oscar Carillo, the liar who caused Kendrec McDade’s death.

Rethink univ values in tuition debate

By Matt Gabrenya Special to the Hoot

graphic by linjie xu/the hoot

Brandeis brags that its student body is comprised of judges; however, the actions of administrators contradict this value of student authority. When the board of trustees voted last week to increase tuition 4.1-4.85 percent, Brandeis students weren’t invited to engage in the decision-making process. Instead, two students were invited to watch, and the rest of the us got an e-mail requesting we direct our complaints toward Herbie Rosen ’12 and Andrew Flagel. As with all the important university economic decisions, this one was decided behind closed doors by the self-selecting board of trustees.

The Institute for College Access and Success, a non-profit organization that monitors student debt, found that 70 percent of 2010 Brandeis graduates left with an average of $21,351 in debt. Debt held

by American students has doubled in the past 10 years, with a total exceeding $1 trillion, more than credit card or auto-loan debt. Lenders are eager to give student loans because, unlike mortgage or credit card

borrowers, students can’t legally declare bankruptcy. Students are indentured for life, even through grinding poverty. Maybe that’s why 4.8 percent of delinquent student loans are held by folks age 60 and older.

Instead of weighing the decision between a functioning pool and increased tuition, too many Brandeis students are faced with the much harder decision of whether to take out more crippling student loans despite the risk of unemployment after college, or leave Brandeis. The board of trustees acted shamefully by putting people into that bind without even hearing their input before rendering judgment.

It is wrong for people to make decisions without the input of directly affected stakeholders.

Brandeis students all received an e-mail announcing the tuition hikes with an invitation to voice our concerns in a town hall forum, but it was well after the budget was proposed, finalized and sealed.

Does it not seem blatantly patronizing to ask students to voice their concerns now, while we were offered no such option months ago when our voice could actually af-

fect budget proposals?

As direct stakeholders, all students should have a voice in the process of developing an annual university budget from day one.

And on the last day, all students should have a vote to ratify the budget. Decisions that affect a person without their say are not legitimate and that includes every single one made by the board of trustees.

Year after year, the board of trustees hikes tuition without our consent. If the 4.85 percent tuition hikes continue, a newborn today might pay $100,000 per year by the time they are 18 years old.

Will a Brandeis education be completely inaccessible to our children, or will they be forced to saddle an even greater burden of debt than so many students today? Will only the children of the very rich have access to a Brandeis education?

If we stick up for ourselves now, and pry open more space in the budget planning process for student voice, we win more accessible quality higher education for ourselves and our children. If not, we perpetuate higher education as a right only for the very rich. Now there’s a decision we can make. It’s time to strike the gavel.

April 5, 2012

IMPRESSIONS 7

The Brandeis Hoot

The Editor’s Desk

A foolish mistake from BU editors

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

When student journalists make mistakes, the community notices.

We face unique pressure on a daily or weekly basis. When we make the wrong decision, thousands of people read about it the next morning. Accountability to readers—apologies, explanations or retractions—cannot change what we choose to write and print.

After The Daily Free Press, Boston University’s independent student newspaper, published an April Fools’ issue on Monday poking fun at rape, the board of directors, chaired by former editor-in-chief Annie Ropeik, asked Chelsea Diana to resign as editor-in-chief.

In a year when the university faced growing criticism for its lax culture toward campus sexual assault attitudes and policies, with two BU hockey players arrested for sexual assault, Diana and the Free Press erred greatly.

Society and colleges in particular do not take sexual assault seriously enough. Making light of it in a student newspaper is irresponsible. But so too are April Fools’ editions.

As journalists, we dissect the issues confronting our community—interviewing sources, researching facts, analyzing context, exploring divergent viewpoints—and write about

Engrossing

By Morgan Gross Editor

A few days ago, at Women in the World Summit hosted by Newsweek and The Daily Beast, Nobel Peace Prize-winner and Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee asked an important question: “Where are the angry American women? In all honesty, I’ve also been watching the men talk about your reproductive issues and saying: Why are these women

them to inform the public. How can we maintain readers’ trust and sources’ faith in objective reporting if on April 1 we publicly mock and deride the same university officials, students and topics we write about each week?

The Hoot editorial board chose not to print an April Fools edition this year to preserve journalistic integrity and the community respect we work tirelessly to earn each week. Journalists are reporters, not satirists. Students searching for satire on a college campus can watch comedy groups perform. Not turn to the front page of a newspaper. Many college editors look forward to April Fools’ editions each year but forget that far fewer students find them funny.

The Daily Free Press received intense scrutiny and criticism this week and rightfully so. But the blame should not fall squarely on Diana’s shoulders.

In a letter published online Tuesday, Ropeik apologized for the joke, defended the paper and showed little loyalty to her colleague.

“In making the ultimate decision to run many of the articles, however well-intentioned, fictional or joking they may have been, Editor-in-Chief Chelsea Diana in no way perpetuated our values as an organization,” Ropeik wrote.

Ropeik was right when she wrote, “we cannot apologize sincerely enough to all those who were offended by the inexcusable editorial judg-

ment.” But she was wrong to place the majority of blame on Diana.

Pundits can criticize leaders for their organization’s failures and errors. But when peers and former editors do so in public it is different.

I am not defending or excusing what Diana did. Like The Free Press and student newspapers across the country, at The Hoot we reported in-depth news stories about campus sexual assault policies, demanding that our community answer the uncomfortable but urgent questions surrounding the topic. Diana and The Free Press acted with poor judgment and deserve intense criticism.

But as the editor of my college newspaper, I empathize with the response to her actions. Diana’s mistake is public, not hidden or limited the way college athletes receive the comfort and shelter of their teammates and coach when they fail.

Now Diana’s mistake is on the front page of The Boston Globe’s website, next to the mistake of Tim Cahill, charged with using $1.6 million in ad money from the state lottery to fund his 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Yet Cahill, a former state treasurer chose to enter public life, knowing well the public scrutiny that accompanies it.

Diana is a 19-year-old college sophomore.

The Globe editorial board recognized the unique pressure on student journalists this week, writing, “When college athletes blunder during an

graphic from internet source

important game, they may face the scorn of teammates, coaches and fans. But unless they seriously foul up on or off the field—by breaking the law, for instance—they aren’t kicked off the team.”

And if they are kicked off, their coach—not their teammates— makes the decision privately.

College journalists do not have a coach. There is no supervisor to whom they report. Yes, we have faculty advisers and former editors with whom we consult, but ultimately the responsibility is ours.

Unlike most student athletes, for

example, we are student journalists but also professional journalists. The news we publish directly produces tangible impacts and consequences in the lives of other people.

No doubt Diana screwed up this week. But professors or administrators who criticize her should remember the pressure she faces each day—one that few other students can understand.

And her colleagues should remember they were part of the mistake, not innocent from it. At the very least, Diana could have resigned on her own terms, not theirs.

Finding the angry feminist within not angry and beating men left and right? It’s time for women to stop being politely angry.”

I came across her statement last week while spending an early morning in bed, Facebook stalking as an excuse to stay in bed a few more moments.

Gbowee asked attendees of the event why American women aren’t up in arms about the women’s health legislation being proposed all over the country and, after doing a little more research on the topic, I can’t help but ponder the same question.

Take for example Terry England,

a Republican State Representative from Georgia who is a strong supporter of HB 954, which makes it illegal to obtain an abortion after 20 weeks even if the woman is known to be carrying a fetus not expected to live to term. In other words, this legislation restricts women’s right to choose an abortion even if they know that their child will never make it into the world.

As a part of his defense of the bill, Rep. England treated his audience to an antidote from his childhood.

The politician reflected: “Life gives

photo from internet source

us many experiences … I’ve had the experience of delivering calves, dead and alive. Delivering pigs, dead or alive. It breaks our hearts to see those animals not make it.”

While it’s nice to know that England is sympathetic toward women who struggle with reproductive health issues, the legislation he proposes is completely inconsiderate of the physical and emotional strain it could put on the women it controls—also, I’m pretty sure that he just compared them to farm animals.

Turn your attention to the cases of Rennie Gibbs and Bei Bei Shuai, two women who were charged with the murder of their children; Gibbs after miscarriage due to her cocaine use and Shuai after attempting suicide and losing her child in the process.

Or, consider new legislation being proposed in Arizona that enables employers to request proof, from female employees using insurance to buy birth control, that they are being prescribed the birth control for a medically viable reason other than not wanting to get pregnant.

With this information, employers have the right to refuse to cover the contraception and even to dismiss their employee. Even married women and those in monogamous relationships who are not trying to have children will not be granted coverage unless they can produce (or fabricate) another reason for the prescription.

This legislation restricts women and their doctors from making necessary decisions about their health, body and sex lives. It paints us as being animal-like in our incapability to participate—or at least, irrelevant—in the making of decisions about our bodies.

How can we continue to promote laws that discriminate against half of the population?

More importantly, why aren’t

more women angry about it?

As if listening to men talk about reproductive issues isn’t upsetting enough, consider that these statements aren’t being made by crazy fringe organizations, but the individuals who have been popularly elected in this country to represent the interests of their citizens. Because they are mouthpieces of the public, their words are broadcasted for all to hear and the hate within them does not stay contained in the discussions of individuals.

One need only look to our country’s newspaper to see this ignorance bleeding into the lives of Americans.

Consider last Sunday night’s attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Grand Chute, Wis., in which a small bomb exploded outside of the clinic.

The most recent statistics released by the National Abortion Federation recorded 114 violent attacks—including one bombing, one case of arson, eight burglaries and 27 counts of vandalism—against abortion providers in 2011.

When looked at in isolation this statistic may seem shocking but it is perfectly understandable when we consider the messages being publicized by our officials.

It’s time we see that by filling our society with announcements of women’s irrelevance, we are allowing individuals to sustain this judgment in their lives.

It’s time that we pay attention to the correlation between officials who produce sound bites comparable to hate-speech and violence against women’s health providers in our country and understand that the only way to put a stop to the latter is to end the former.

More than anything, it’s time that we answer Gbowee’s question and show her—along with the rest of the world—that the angry women are right here and we’re not going anywhere.

8 IMPRESSIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

April 5, 2012

Hey! Turn the record over

By Connor Novy Editor

The first time I heard Mick Jagger, it was on vinyl. Through some very impertinent cabinet-opening, I had discovered the family record collection, which spanned from my grandfathers old 45s from the 1930s to Donna Reed and the Clash. I demanded that my parent play one for me. It was enthralling to watch, the way the record slipped out of the jacket, which was in itself a work of art: sharp, square and beautiful. I remember turning it over in my hands, careful not to touch its face, before setting it with over-zealous caution onto the player. As the needle touched it, the black disc crackled softly into life. It whirled softly along, crooning. The needle bounced slightly as it dragged its way along the track. I could not see it ever move in, toward the center, but if I looked away and back again, it would have jumped nearer to the end.

It was then I knew I had something special. A physical object that was connected to music, that was played in a very physical way. It was all very deliberate. The track list is set; there is no Shuffle button. The artist, or the producer, decides in which order songs are to be played, and the decision is made with great thought and consideration. It has two sides and requires active listening because after 15 or 20 minutes, you have to get up and turn it over, or put something new on instead. While the interminable drone of a radio or your iTunes is momentarily appropriate, the experi-

ence lacks something special.

When you listen to iTunes, you’re disconnected from the music. It’s completely a passive experience, and when you do take control as the listener, you control too much. You have the ability to pick in which order things are played very easily, whether to arbitrarily fade in and out songs, how many seconds of silence are in between them. You lose the experience of listening to an entire album, from beginning to end, with the intended pauses and the sequence.

At one point in time, things like sequence mattered. Listening to music, music that you love and know by heart, creates a connection with those who made it, even if they are dead or unbelievably vain. It is the same connection one feels now, when you read a very fine book for the first time, and you realize that the author has felt the same as you, maybe decades past, and these feelings elicited the same anxieties. You wouldn’t read the chapters of a novel out of order, it would be disrespectful. The same applies to music.

And music has lost that. It’s lost its deliberation; it has become something played to color in silence. And that is extremely sad.

There are limitations to the vinyl record. They are not very portable.

The records themselves don’t fit on a normal bookshelf and the players are just a little bit massive. They are fragile. They warp in the heat.

They shatter easily. But they still have worth. Not only are they a more involved way of listening to vinyl, used ones have been listened to by others; people you have never met have ex-

graphic by rachel weissman/the hoot

perienced the same songs you listen to now, maybe years and years before.

They are artifacts. One day, hopefully, someone else will own them, and know that someone before them listened to those same songs.

I’ve never stopped listening to vinyl. Its recent gains in popularity have created a higher demand and now new artists are printing LPs. I’m glad, even if it does drive the prices up—one of my secret, less whimsi-

cal reasons for adoring outmoded technology is that it is, or at least was, ineffably cheap. Elvis Costello’s Blood and Chocolate cost $12 on CD, and about $10 for an mp3 download. On vinyl it was only $3.

The Self Shelf

The fickle winds of March

graphic by sindhura sonnathi/the hoot

By Alex Self Columnist

What many pundits and experts considered a clear decision in the

health care Supreme Court Case has now become shrouded in fog after hearings on the law.

Before the oral arguments, there was a popular shared sentiment that the individual mandate would

be upheld. The government’s case hinged on a question regarding whether the act of forcing someone to buy health insurance was justified under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. By glancing

cursorily at the relevant precedent for the Commerce Clause, it seemed clear that the mandate was constitutional.

The Roberts court, however, which has leaned conservative, tore into the government’s representative, Solicitor General Don Verilli, during the hearings on the law.

After three days of interrogation, pundits began pondering the question of whether the court would strike down not only the individual mandate but also the entire law.

Suddenly, supporters of the individual mandate, who had previously welcomed the chance of having the Supreme Court render a definitive ruling on the matter, now, anticipating the law could be overturned, peremptorily defamed the Court for its political partisanship.

The Court will not publish its ruling until June 28 but now conservatives are the ones discussing an inevitable triumph regarding a repeal of the law.

President Obama, meanwhile, has already prepared his supporters for disappointment. He has defended the constitutionality of the individual mandate, arguing any other finding by the Court would represent an increasing trend of politically motivated judicial activism. If the Court strikes down the law, then his re-election campaign will blast this argument to the American public.

If the Court struck down the individual mandate but left the rest of the law intact, it would force a heavily polarized congress to fix a law no longer fi-

nancially solvent. Without the individual mandate, insurance companies would be forced to cover the increased costs of the very sick without the financial support of the young and healthy.

The legislation prohibits denying people insurance based on preexisting health conditions.

Such a situation forces insurance companies either to raise prices drastically or suffer significant losses. Congress could resolve this but has proved itself increasingly unreliable in recent months—a trend I predict will continue.

The Court’s other option is to invalidate the entire law, a procedure which has not been used in 80 years. Undoubtedly, this would strengthen President Obama’s accusations of the increasing politicization of the court and could potentially undercut the court’s legitimacy going forward.

The Court could also uphold the mandate itself if liberal Justices Sotomayor, Ginsburg, Breyer and Kagan were joined by one of the more moderate conservatives—either Justices Roberts or Kennedy in a pragmatic decision.

None of these options is ideal for the Court, and we can likely expect a contentious 5-4 decision. There are many possible directions regarding the impacts from the court’s decision. We can only wait and speculate as to which way the winds of justice will blow when they rend asunder the fog that shrouds the constitutionality of the health care law.

April 5, 2012

IMPRESSIONS 9

The Brandeis Hoot

Ten creative coping mechanisms for the stress of student life

By Morgan Gross and Lila Westreich

Editor, Special to the Hoot

Perhaps you are a new Brandeis student and just realized how strange the spring semester schedule is. Or maybe you are a university veteran who is used to yearly panic attacks, which often happen near the second round of midterms. Our double-break system divides the semester and reduces the stress of looming finals. While the welcome April break is upon us, its arrival means that pretending like finals aren’t happening this year is becoming less and less possible. With your mental health in mind, we have teamed up to bring you a list of surefire, serious and sometimes silly solutions for the stress that is sure to precede the summer.

1. Pretend you won the lottery After the mass spam on Facebook about liking posts to win money from the huge lottery winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland, you are probably already thinking about all the money you could have won. Try taking time to write out exactly what you would do with it all. Imagine the possibilities. Pick a company at random and buy them out. Replace it with a dog salon. What would your ideal dream be?

The world is your oyster.

2. Take up tree-climbing or play on the new campus swings We all know that exercise is a proven stress-buster, but extreme stress calls for extreme measures. For a change of scenery in your activity, head outside! Treeclimbing is challenging, stimulating and invigorating; swinging is relaxing. The weather is getting to be tolerable and campus is looking beautiful after its Admitted Students Day makeover. We are lucky to have trees-a-plenty at Brandeis and swings sprinkled all across campus. Go out and take advantage!

3. Become the king of recycling Remember all of those times you were too lazy to wash out your Einsteins salad container and ended up throwing it in the trash? In between flashcards and study sessions, sort through your dorm’s recycling bin to procrastinate and save the world at the same time.

4. Try baking Instead of wasting points and calories on candy from the C-Store and Usdan french fries to sustain you in the library, leave the library for an hour or two to eat take-out with friends and make some munchies of your own. Make a huge batch so that you can eat some now and still have leftovers. Baking can be fun, cookie dough is always delicious and, even if you are not a master chef, remember that we live on a college campus. This means that there are always going to be hungry people to devour your leftovers.

5. Dance Close all of your books. Minimize all of your Microsoft Word documents, your browsers full of research, references and Facebook. Turn on some mood lighting or turn the lights off and put on a cool music video. Make a playlist of your favorite dancing songs. Utilize any and all speakers accessible, turn the volume up and dance.

6. Clean your room Do your laundry, change your sheets, make your bed, fold everything and put it all away.

Wipe down your desk, throw out everything that needs to be thrown out and organize the papers you have left. Sweep, vacuum, take the trash out. Getting your life into physical order makes it easier to get your mind into order.

7. Pull a “Friends” at Chum’s Wait for a group of prospective students to come around the corner, and then walk into Chum’s with five of your friends. Grab a couch and order a bunch of coffees that no one will end up drinking. Say some scripted jokes, and then laugh and clap when your fake episode ends.

8. Pretend to be a prospective student

photo from internet source

Wander around campus and pretend you are still in high school. Tell random people about your accomplishments in band and choir, and tell the admissions counselors about your AP scores. Feel free to make some of them up. Take a tour and spoil the fake facts tour guides tell prospective students. Remember why you decided to come to Brandeis in the first place.

9. Sleep Because I know that you’ve heard this before, I will simply remind you that trying to work through exhaustion wastes more time than it would take to give your body and mind what it needs with a few hours of shut eye. Work takes longer to do when you’re tired. Sleep deprivation will make it even harder to come up with work that you’re proud of.

10. Do something that you love It may feel like you don’t have time to do anything simply for fun, but setting aside time to do something that you love can be an important part of staying happy and sane in times of serious stress. Pick something that you’ve always wanted to do, but have never gotten around to.

Join the Juggling Club, sing with the gospel choir or attend a figure-drawing class.

Creativity, escape and distraction are the keys to preventing stress from finals. Try these tips and see. They are far better for you than eating too much and sleeping too little.

Why so mad, Huffington Post?

By Peter Wein Staff

The Huffington Post recently published a list of schools that lack free speech, even though the online newspaper claims to uphold the opposite stance. The rankings from Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) do not include schools that deliberately tell you certain freedoms of speech will be restricted.

In these cases, you can’t complain because you know the restrictions. How did Brandeis, however, manage to make it on the list?

In 2007, Brandeis accused Professor Donald Hindley (POL) of using a racist slang term in one of his classes. The university decided that he was guilty of racial harassment and discrimination and began to have an administrator monitor his classes.

Why does it matter? Brandeis never gave him a formal hearing or a written document setting out his charges, according to FIRE. The university never gave him the chance to explain his side of the story or give any context to the situation.

This is, by its very virtue, similar to when younger children begin to learn about curses and thus ways to use them without getting in trouble. “Hell,” given that is it a religious location or idea, is often exploited. When a young child first uses the word “hell,” his parent or guardian will naturally chastise him for using poor language. When this child learns that hell actually has multiple uses and meanings, he will use the word constantly, but then defend himself by saying it is just a place and not a curse.

Where do the differences lie between our “racist” professor and a bit of my childhood?

First, Hindley was not attempting to aggravate any administrators for attention or annoyance; he was teaching the material of his course.

Sometimes words with negative connotations must be used. Few of us could fully understand the most egregious injustices and horrors of history without hearing offensive words that accurately depict the environment of the era.

In an academic circumstance, censorship only hurts those who are learning the material.

Sheltering us will not help us learn.

Many Brandeis community members have seen the university’s process for dealing with delinquents, whether it is being written up for a small or a serious issue. The process is wellconstructed and focuses on having the student understand why they committed their specific action. It focuses on how to prevent it from happening again in the future. The process is constructive. What was given to Hindley regarding why all of these charges and monitoring began?

Nothing. No documentation, no explanation.

And that is the sad.

We are a university that sanctifies social justice—the idea that you can be the change you want to see if you put in the effort and passion.

Both staff and students alike disagreed with the treatment of Hindley, according to The Post.

They would like some explanation that free speech will not be restricted in the future—an affirmation of our commitment to foster academic and intellectual growth. Yet five years later, nothing has happened.

Social Justice? It sounds like we need to change a few mottos or acknowledge why we’re wrong.

graphic by yi wang/the hoot

FEatures

10 The Brandeis Hoot

April 5, 2012

Senior Lauren Gendzier competes nationally

By Dana Trismen Editor

Despite no ice rink on campus, Lauren Gendzier ’12 has found a way to enter the competitive world of synchronized skating, a sport defined by the U.S. Figure Skating Association as “a fast growing sport,” with approximately 525 synchronized teams registered in the United States. It is an intense team sport, in which eight to 20 skaters perform the same footwork at the exact same time, matching speed and changing formations. Gendzier is a member of Team Excel Collegiate, which was founded in 2009 and represents the Skating Club of Boston.

Growing up in Orlando, Fla., Gendzier explains that in her town, the ice rink was housed in an athletic complex where various sports teams practiced, including the professional basketball team. Her mother worked at this sports complex, and as a child Gendzier spent her afternoons there.

At eight years old she decided to take up ice skating since the rink was at her disposal. Gendzier fell in love with the sport. A freestyle skater in high school, she tried her hand at synchronized skating by joining the recreational team. Laughing, she notes now that she “wouldn’t call that real synchro,” given her intense experience here in the Boston area at the collegiate level.

A business and sociology major, Gendzier chose Brandeis not only because of its academics but also because, at the time, she could bike three miles to an ice rink and continue skating. As the New England weather made biking more difficult, she refused to give up the sport; instead renting a zip car and eventually switching rinks. Here she practiced on her own despite being away from her coach in Florida.

Gendzier became even more motivated by her newfound commitment to synchronized skating and the people on her team. Team Excel Collegiate consists of 21 members, all studying full time at different colleges.

While the skating is demanding because 16 people are skating on the ice at the same time, matching complex footwork, she claims it is rewarding.

Gendzier acknowledges the benefit of meeting girls from different schools who share a love of skating but have different life experiences.

It is not only this emotional bond

that Gendzier has gained: Team Excel Collegiate routinely succeeds on a very competitive level. The team took fifth place out of 13 teams in the 2012 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships, held on the first weekend of March at the Skating Club of Boston in Worcester, Mass. This was a nationwide competition, pitting the top teams from the East, Midwest, and Pacific Coast against each other.

This past weekend, Gendzier performed in Ice Chips, The Skating Club of Boston’s annual showcase for skating. This year celebrated the club’s 100 Years of Excellence, and featured performances from within the club itself, along with special guest skaters who were previous Olympic champions. Gendzier herself participated in the adult number to music from “Mame,” and her team skated their final performance of the season.

Gendzier has been influential in bringing skating to Brandeis. President of the Brandeis Ice Skating Club for two years, the club offers students the chance to go ice-skating for free.

The recreational club accepts skaters of all levels and allows students to rent skates from the rink. Gendzier describes that her duties involved contacting the rink and planning events, so that club members were able to go skating four to five times a semester. She also notes that she was responsible for watching over their safety at the rink.

Gendzier is unsure of her future after graduation. This past year, she has also tackled ice dancing, a sport popularized by TV coverage during the Olympics. Ice dancing involves set patterns on the ice with different types of footwork. Involving a male and female partner, it is extremely intense and intends to show a sort of relationship that goes with the music. As Gendzier moves away from Brandeis, she notes that her skating will depend on where she decides to live. If she stays in the Boston area, the Skating Club of Boston offers synchronized skating on a non-collegiate level, one in which she would still be able to participate. If life takes her elsewhere, Gendzier will have to find another route to continue her skating.

Gendzier has pursued her love of the sport thus far from her unlikely roots in Florida to skating at Brandeis despite the school not having a team.

She is not likely to give up now, regardless of her post graduation plans.

synochronized skating team excel The team performs a parallel wheel.

gendzier performs Attitude with ribbons.

photos courtesy of lauren gendzier

April 5, 2012

FEATURES 11

The Brandeis Hoot

First-year student and influential yoga instructor

By Victoria Aronson editor

As a first-year student at Brandeis, Shayna Palmer ’15 has already seized initiative, sharing her passion for yoga with her peers. Palmer teaches four yoga classes every week to the diverse assemblage of students who attend these sessions as part of her work-study program.

Palmer confessed that “initially, you couldn’t get me in a yoga room,” but as an athlete interested in pursuing tennis at Brandeis, Palmer accredited her initial feelings to a misconception based on the common athlete mentality that yoga is “just stretching.” After experiencing an unfortunate back injury, Palmer first delved into yoga to alleviate pain as well as to aid in her recovery process.

Once she began, she was hooked, asserting, “I hit the ground running and never looked back.”

Palmer initially became involved in hot yoga, in which yoga is practiced in a room kept at an elevated temperature. This heated environment improves flexibility, allowing the muscles to stretch while building core strength, Palmer said.

Upon becoming enthralled with yoga, Palmer wished to “share the gift with other people,” for she claims it has “the capacity to change the mind and body.” Having taught classes in Florida, Palmer requested to continue instructing yoga at Brandeis as well, which is a proposition that ad-

shayna palmer Demonstrating yoga pose.

yoga class at brandeis university

ministrators readily accepted.

Expanding beyond her former involvement with hot yoga, Palmer now leads sessions dedicated to vinyasa flow, a popular form of yoga that synchronizes breathing with physical movements. Describing her role as a university yoga instructor, Palmer claims that it is “an honor to inspire people,” referring to yoga as a broader “lifestyle choice.”

Although attending these sessions may appear intimidating to the newcomer, Palmer hopes to show that yoga is “a process, not a result.” She encourages all in attendance to “leave behind all judgments and expectations” and to “give it time.” In her words, “the body is an amazing machine,” which, when given time and opportunity, can adapt and improve, developing strength and flexibility.

She hopes newcomers will “meet everything with an open mind” in order to derive the benefits of such an experience.

Palmer attests that those who attend her sessions are diverse in both skill level and athletic ability. Newcomers practice alongside those she dubs “regulars, dismissing any unwarranted fears regarding ability.”

Besides instructing these sessions, Palmer has also privately taught the basketball and soccer teams, demonstrating the benefits of yoga for different sports. Palmer emphasizes that yoga can not only “decrease the risk of injury” but can expedite the healing process as well, all while improving

flexibility. She asserts that it also has the ability to serve as an “awesome preventative measure” against common minor injuries, demonstrating its impact on the realm of athletes and physical health.

Although adding yoga to an already existing workout routine can aid performance and improve health, Palmer recognizes that there are distinct mentalities that exist on the yoga mat versus in the athletic, competitive environments.

Athletes possess the constant mentality to “push, push, push” until the game is won, physically exerting their bodies and strength until the point of exhaustion. Palmer, however, observes a very distinct state of mind within the yoga sessions. She describes the ability to “settle slowly into posture,” gradually stretching the muscles and improving strength in time and relaxing the mind.

As a first-year student, Palmer reveals that she is undecided about her major and field of study but recognizes that yoga is an essential component of her lifestyle. Palmer’s dedication to a healthy lifestyle extends to her work with the club Brandeis Vegans.

Palmer asserts that she will continue with yoga after college, which has become an integral aspect of her routine. She adamantly proclaimed, “I’m never going to give it up.”

She spoke about the possibility of one day owning her own studio, hoping to spread the benefits of yoga to as many others as possible.

photos courtesy of shayna palmer

shayna palmer Demonstrating her flexibility.

photo by nate rosenbloom/ the hoot

12 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

April 5, 2012

Candidates for union president commence campaigns UNION, from page 1

candidates (Clockwise from top left) David Fisch ‘13, Todd Kirkland ‘13, Joshua Hoffmann-Senn ‘13, Dillon Harvey ‘14, and Louis Connelly ‘13

City Year director speaks on leadership

out many e-mails in his role as secretary, he will already be given a boost in students’ awareness.

Connelly said that while Kirkland may have name recognition, “I feel I know the student body better, so I would be better suited to the position.”

Although Connelly is still working on his platform, some of his proposals include building a better relationship with Aramark, so that the relationship is more flexible and catered to the needs of the students. He also mentioned some changes he wishes to make with the Hiatt Career Center.

“While it’s a great resource for students, I think that we could include more programs, initiatives and opportunities to learn and network with alumni.” Connelly noted how he felt he had to go look for some of this information for himself, and how he hopes to incorporate that knowledge with Hiatt for further programs.

Harvey said he plans to run a “vibrant social media campaign” and focus on word-of-mouth campaigning.

He currently serves as the Director of Community Advocacy on the Eboard, and was a Class of 2014 senator last year. While his platform is still developing, Harvey plans to focus on building in events to promote school

Special to the Hoot

The Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education hosted a lunch seminar on Monday led by Dr. Max Klau, a Harvard graduate and the director of leadership development at City Year. Klau discussed leadership and development of City Year participants, called core members, in the event titled “Fanning the Flame of Idealism: How City Year Develops Leaders Through National Service.”

“We want to make all of City Year a leadership learning community, creating a culture where people feel comfortable,” Klau said.

City Year’s slogan is “Give a year.

Change the world.” Founded in Boston in 1988, City Year places core members aged 17 to 24 into schools where they serve as mentors and tutors to students from lower income areas. Since its opening, members have been placed in the United States, South Africa and London. City Year is continuing to expand as it nears its 25th anniversary.

Core members are trained specifically to work in these lower income schools and spend 10 months volunteering in the school. Approximately 80 percent of the participants in City Year are involved in the field of edu-

cation or nonprofits.

As part of leadership development and personal growth, the core members meet in groups every other week for guide-led discussions, as well as workbook reflections and leadership learning sessions. The students in each group work at different schools.

Guides have gone through a very selective application process and are in their second year of service.

Klau explained that a City Year experience is complex because many different problems can arise in the classroom. Rather than having the discussion groups turn into venting sessions, City Year created models and processes designed to develop skills in problem finding. These lead to a more directed and engaging discussion for core members.

Klau led the seminar participants through two activities that core members do in their bi-weekly group meetings so the audience could receive a better understanding of leadership development. First, the audience was given four minutes to write personal mission leadership statements, which includes a one- to four-sentence statement beginning with the phrase, “As a leader I am …” Throughout their service core members refer back to this personal mission statement.

Stifled speech called out FIRE, from page 1

groups have a right to say things, but it’s the tactics that they use,” remarks Weiner.

For most Brandeis students, it is not the administration that is the biggest hindrance to free speech. Instead, it is the students and occasionally the professors. Mary-Alice Perdichizzi ’12, the president of The Brandeis Tea Party Nation, has experienced free speech violations personally. When putting up flyers for various Brandeis Tea Party Nation events, she has come

back to find that some flyers have been ripped down or deliberately posted over. She admits, however, that these are cases of a few individuals and not necessarily representative of the entire Brandeis community.

FIRE lists the case of Hindley as the main reason that Brandeis University was included in the list. The incident, however, occurred in 2007 and since then there have been many changes in the Brandeis administration. Since then Brandeis has installed Frederick Lawrence as president and seen the arrival of new provost Steve Goldstein.

a smaller amount), and can use the option for a full page in the Union newsletter, which can include a quick summary of the candidate’s position.

All have the option to create a website, although usually only presidents take advantage of or need this option.

Rosen described how his computer major friend set up his website during his campaign, joking “that stuff is beyond me!”

Only university recognized clubs and groups may endorse candidates, meaning that fraternities or sororities cannot endorse.

The elections will be separated into two rounds, the first on Thursday, April 19, for the positions of president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, member of the Union Finance Board, and representatives for the board of trustees, Alumni Association and Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. Campaigning officially begins on April 5 at midnight. While candidates were told to sign up as soon as possible, the deadline is this Saturday.

The second round of elections will include the positions for Senator at Large, Class Senators, Senator for Racial Minority Students and Associate Justice of the Student Judiciary. Those candidates are not permitted to start campaigning until April 18.

Travel home costly for some students

By Emily Beker Staff

By Jennifer Spencer

spirit and bring the campus together.

He also cites his commitment to diversity and pluralism in the Brandeis community.

A total of 38 students showed up to listen as Rosen reviewed the rules and regulations for the candidates.

“Hopefully if you’re here, you want to continue something that the Union has done which you liked, or you want to change something you think you could do better,” Rosen said, citing financial restructuring as one of the major issues facing the Union.

Overall, Rosen said he is “happy to see a bunch of people interested” in being a part of the Student Union this upcoming year. When asked to give advice for those running, he said, “Be open and show the best side of yourself. Have a platform. Do research.

One of the reasons I was so successful is because I knew what I was talking about.”

All those running must be at Brandeis for the full academic year, meaning that juniors studying abroad cannot be on the official ballot.

Rosen mentioned many strategies that students running can employ, such as the popularity of social media campaigns, particularly Facebook.

Those running for full campus positions are allowed 200 copies for fliers (second-round candidates are given

While many students travel home for break, they pay large expenses to do so. The cost, however, is sometimes prohibitive. For those who stay, dining options create other problems.

Amelia Wood ’15 told The Hoot, “I am going home but just because I found someone to drive me. Getting home through public transportation can be too expensive.” It is at this time of year that the Facebook groups are swarmed with posts of people asking for rides back home and to the airport to avoid the costs of a cab. On average, a cab ride from campus to Logan Airport can cost more than $50.

Some students use student-run groups, like Rachel’s Rides, a program founded in 2009 that provides car rides to the airport at rates cheaper than taxis, or Brandeis’ shuttles to get to Logan when possible. During the break, however, Rachel’s Rides become difficult to utilize because of such high demand.

When a cab ride can total nearly half of the cost of a plane ride, some students find ways around paying $50 to $60 for a cab ride to the airport. Some split the ride with friends, others use alternate modes of transportation. Stu-

dents connect with fellow classmates via Facebook to find rides and share cabs. One student told The Hoot that she would probably take the 553 bus to the Silver Line, which costs less than $10. Some opt for the buses that leave from South Station and take the commuter rail to get to the station.

“Usually when I have to take public transportation I will take the train one-way, which is about $44 and the bus one-way, which is about $20, or my sister picks me up,” Danielle Mizrachi ’15 said.

Some students opt for cheaper prices by going to locations nearer than the airport, which lowers the price of a cab.

Some students return earlier than the end of break. Leah Staffin ’15 said, “I’m coming back early to work at my internship and hang out with friends the weekend before school starts up again.” Others plan to come back earlier so they can get schoolwork done more effectively.

The students who live in distant cities often do not go home, but some find alternatives to staying on campus. Allie Alexander ’14 shared her own plans: “My parents live in London and that’s too far a trip for just a week. I’m spending half the break at a friend’s house and the other half at Colorado College with

my sister.”

Many students in a similar situation, in which the distance outstrips the work of a week visit, find alternatives.

Most students here have friends who will be home, as Alexander explained.

They join friends in the surrounding areas or go visit other college campuses to see friends who do have school this week. The students who do live in the immediate area avoid cab fares, and the short travel time makes the trip enjoyable without the financial strain other students’ experience.

For those who do stay on campus, there are few options. During February break only Sherman was open for dining. During April break, however, everything will be open. For the Jewish population that observes Passover and keeps kosher, dining options are more tricky. Rabbi Elyse Winick said that a small percentage of students who celebrate Passover remain on campus.

The university does supply the students with home hospitality for the seders.

She continued to say “given [that] the seders take place on a weekend they received even fewer requests than usual.”

Last year, students were polled by the university and were found to be uninterested in Passover meals, or even Kosher dining during break.

EDITORIALS

April 5, 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 Section Editors

Victoria Aronson Morgan Dashko Zoe Kronovet Juliette Martin Dana Trismen

Senior Editors Destiny D. Aquino Sean Fabery Savannah Pearlman

Volume 9 • Issue 11 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

Founded By Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

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

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

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

STAFF 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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B

The Brandeis Hoot 13

Balance tuition costs and univ spending

randeis is not in an enviable position when it comes to tuition costs. Students constantly protest the poor facilities and the sub-par services, among other things. Brandeis cannot fix these things without money. But, when Brandeis raises tuition, students begin protesting the tuition hikes.

While this editorial board understands the difficult position Brandeis is in, we cannot condone the tuition increases. Brandeis claims to be a university that cares about all of its students from all economic backgrounds. And yet, this tuition increase will significantly impact students from middleclass families who are receiving little or no financial aid and who struggle to pay the current tuition bill.

A Brandeis tuition is already expensive and many of these students are already struggling. While we understand that Brandeis needs more money,

it should not come from the students whose bank accounts are already stretched to the breaking point.

Additionally, this editorial board cannot condone the proposed allocations of this money. We hope university officials and Student Union leaders will take seriously their promise to hear student input on this issue. Funds from tuition increases should be used to support programs and facilities that students view as priorities.

While next year’s budget and tuition increase are final, we hope that as the university continues developing its strategic plan it will keep housing renovations as one of its top priorities.

While building new residence halls is highly expensive, more modest renovations to first-year dorms is an effective way to recruit prospective students.

When it comes to rising tuition costs, it is not an adequate excuse to say that our increases are lower than other

universities. For a school that prides itself on financial access and economic equality, administrators need to set an example for managing tuition costs. We understand the need for raising them to provide more services and improve campus facilities. But we hope these rising costs are not permanent. There are innovative ways to boost fundraising and, for the administrators already making six-figure salaries, we hope not to see increases next year. As our costs go up, six-figure salaries should not.

Financial decisions are complex and we hope that, going forward, the trustees and officials making them will keep in mind that students’ ability to afford their education and access high-quality services and facilities on campus must remain the priority. Balancing these two competing objectives will require creativity and most importantly, student input going forward.

Letter to the Editor This letter is in response to last week’s news article titled “Knesset forum disrupted for second year.”

I moderated the event so I was up on the stage making my introduction when it took place. It was a silly protest, actually infantile.

The protesters did not respond to any person or any statement. They protested for the sake of proclaiming Israel as an apartheid state. The lack of seriousness was apparent to anyone who looked at that stage on which sat not only an Arab Member of Knesset but an Arab who is the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and had recently been a Minister in the Israeli cabinet in a previous government.

In reality, the protest was a non-event for the nearly 800 people who stayed the nearly two hours of fascinating discussion about many contentious issues concerning Israel. According to YouTube [video] they posted immediately upon leaving the hall, the protest lasted 1:11 minutes. That is, one minute and 11 seconds out of an event that lasted nearly two hours.

The protest was clearly irrelevant, not even a minor annoyance to those who attended.

One last word, as moderator I commented that the protesters clearly do not understand what apartheid is about. I shared that I had the high honor of awarding Nelson Mandela an honorary doctorate at Capetown University on

behalf of an Israeli university before a packed hall that included representatives from 35 South African institutions of higher education. Mandela, who knows what apartheid was about, gave a glowing and warm speech that demonstrated a deep appreciation for the Jewish state. The protesters could learn much from Mandela’s example, rather than follow the shallow and distorted path of mouthing slogans they poorly understand.

—Ilan Troen Stoll Family Chair in Israel Studies Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

Look sharp for that interview!

14 The Brandeis Hoot

SPORTS

April 5, 2012

Baseball’s disappointing season continues

By Brian Tabakin Editor

This past week, Brandeis baseball continued their season-long struggles, dropping four more games as their losing skid reached 13. The Judges dropped both games of Saturday’s double-header to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in extra innings 3-2 and 2-1.

The first game went into extra innings tied 2-2. In the bottom of the ninth inning, WPI’s Shane Sampson came to the plate with one out and runners on second and third.

Sampson laid a perfect squeeze bunt to score David Trujillo from third and the Engineers walked off 3-2. The bunt was set up when Trujillo was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Kyle Bartosik, who ended up safe at first off of an error, and both players moved to third and second respectively after a sacrifice bunt from Mitch McClune.

The Engineer’s walk off win spoiled a spectacular performance from Judges’ starting pitcher Mike Swerdloff ’13 who gave up just a single run in 8.1 innings of work.

Swerdloff also struck out eight batters, the second-highest mark of his career.

Brian Allen ’15 drove in a run on a squeeze play in the top of the second inning to tie the game at 1-1, while Kyle Brenner ’15 and Pat Nicholson M.A. ’12 each had a base hit.

In the nightcap, WPI once again capitalized on the opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.

Steve Petry came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs; however, the exciting scenario was rather anticlimactic as Petry was pegged by a pitch that by default drove in the winning run, and WPI picked up their second one-run win of the day in extra innings.

The Judges once again got strong starting pitching as Nicholson went six innings, allowing only a single run with six strikeouts. Kenny Destremps ’12 finished with two hits and an RBI while Dan Gad ’14 added two hits and Allen had a hit as well.

The following day, Brandeis attempted to recover from the losses against WPI when they faced University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

Destremps, who hit a homerun, and Ing, who went 2-for-3 with two runs and a double, led the Judges but their performances could not carry the team before it dropped the game 7-3.

UMass-Dartmouth got stellar pitching from Tyler White, who relieved starting pitcher Tyler White in the third inning, as he held the Judges to one run and just three hits over 5.2

photo by paula hoekstra/the hoot

innings of work while rookie third baseman Ryan Medeiros had four RBIs for the Corsairs.

Medeiros put the Corsairs ahead 3-0 in the bottom of the first frame when he stroked a bases-clearing two-out double.

The Judges cut into the lead in the top of the second when an error by Corsairs’ shortstop John Granahan allowed a run to score, but UMassDartmouth quickly regrouped, scoring a run in the bottom of the fifth, two runs in the bottom of the sixth, and another run in the bottom of the seventh.

Unfortunately, the Judges were unable to muster any timely hits and left six men on base.

Two days later, the Judges traveled to Tufts to face the 21st-ranked Jumbos.

The Judges took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning, but Tufts rallied, scoring two runs in the bottom of the eighth and ninth innings to pull out a 5-4 win.

Brenner pitched sensationally until the eighth inning. He had allowed just one run in the first seven innings of play and had retired 13 out of the previous 15 Tufts batters.

Tufts took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third on consecutive singles from rookie catcher Nick Barker and rookie outfielder Connor McDavitt, a sacrifice bunt from junior second baseman Scott Staniewicz, and an RBI groundout from senior Sam Sager.

A combination of four different Tufts pitchers kept the Judges scoreless through the first six innings.

Additionally, the Judges were held without a hit for the first four innings.

The Judges’ first hit came on a oneout single from second baseman Tom McCarthy ’15 in the fifth inning.

Brandeis finally broke through against the stellar Tufts’ pitching in the seventh inning while also taking advantage of several Tufts’ errors.

First baseman Pat Seaward ’13 led off the frame with a single, advanced on an error and then scored on a wild

pitch. Right fielder Dylan Britton ’13 added a RBI groundout and left fielder Joe Galli ’12 tacked on a sacrifice fly.

The Judges added an additional run in the eighth inning when Destremps laced a one-out double and was then awarded third after a balk. Allen then brought him home with a sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, it appeared the Judges were close to a breakthrough victory; however, things quickly went south for the Judges.

With two outs in the frame, senior Matt Collins singled down the right side and then junior Eric Weikert drilled a two-run opposite-field homerun to pull the Jumbos within one, 4-3.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Jumbos once again had a timely hit.

Down to their last out, Sager hit a two-run walk-off double to give the Jumbos the 5-4 come-from-behind victory.

With the four losses, the Judges

drop to 5-21 (1-7 UAA) on the season. They will try to start a winning streak when they travel to Rhode Island College today for a 3:30 p.m. game.

Baseball Team

UAA

All

Emory

7–1

19 – 8

Washington

5–3

21 – 6

Case Western

4–4

17-10-1

Rochester

3–5

4 – 12

Brandeis

1–7

5 – 21

Chicago

0–0

10 – 6

Box Scores @ WPI

Loss

3–2

@ WPI

Loss

2–1

@ UMass-Dartmouth

Loss

7–3

@ Tufts

Loss

5–4

@ MIT

Loss

9–2

Specker’s career day carries Brandeis softball past Lasell

By Alex Bernstein Editor

The Judges swept Lasell College at home in a day-night doubleheader on Tuesday, winning the first game (201) in five innings as well as the second game by a score of 8-3. The 20-1 victory was the largest margin in Jessica Johnson’s six years as head coach of the Judges.

First baseman Marianne Specker ’12 had a career day, driving in seven runs in the first game. She went 2-for4, hitting a grand slam, which is her first home run of the season and fifth of her career. She also hit a triple with

the bases loaded and reached on an error that brought in two runs. A Brandeis player had not driven in seven runs in a game in almost 10 years.

In addition to Specker’s brilliant performance, second baseman Leah McWilliams ’14 contributed in both games by reaching base seven times in seven appearances at the plate.

She went 3-for-3 in each game, going 6-for-6 on the day, plus a walk that came in the first game. McWilliams also crossed the plate three times in each game while driving in three runs in the first game and two runs in the second game. Caroline Miller ’12 also hit her third homerun of the season in the first game.

The Brandeis pitchers also performed well on the day. In the opener, Miller went three innings, allowing two hits while striking out six to earn the win and improve to 5-4 on the season. Melissa Nolan ’14 was even more impressive in the nightcap, allowing just four hits during seven innings while striking out eight. She is now 3-1 on the season.

After the games, Ali Theodore ’12 commented on the Judges’ successful day. “I think we did a great job of playing ‘Brandeis softball’ today and not playing down to [Lasell’s] level.

After we adjusted to the pitching, we really connected well with the bats, which carried us through the games.”

While pleased with her team’s performance, Theodore added that the team still needs to stay in the right mindset to accomplish the team’s ultimate goal.

“We still need to remember to play every inning with the same strong intensity,” Theodore said. “It’s important to remember that our long term goal is to make the NCAA tournament and, in order to do that, all of the small components of our game need to be perfect. No matter what team we play, it’s a stepping-stone game—miss one step and you fall behind.”

The Judges, who are 7-2 at home this year, have now won five straight wins to improve to 10-8 overall.

Softball Team

UAA

All

Emory

6–2

25 – 3

Washington

4–4

15 – 7

Rochester

4–4

11 – 7

Case Western

3–5

18 – 11

Brandeis

3–5

12 – 8

Chicago

0–0

13 – 5

Box Scores Lasell

Win

20 – 1

Lasell

Win

8–3

April 5, 2012

SPORTS 15

The Brandeis Hoot

Women’s tennis off to best start in 25 years

By Brian Tabakin Editor

The 19th-ranked Brandeis women’s tennis team continued their blistering start to the season with a 6-3 win against 30th-ranked Bates College and an 8-1 win against Babson.

With the win against Bates, the Judges improved their record against nationally-ranked opponents to 3-1, their sole loss coming from a match against Middlebury College.

The Judges are now 10-1 on the season, their best start since the 198586 season. With their two wins this week, the Judges can almost certainly expect their ranking to rise.

Against Bates, Carley Cooke ’15 and Faith Broderick ’13 produced stellar performances.

The pair, ranked sixth in the Northeast in doubles play, earned an 8-4 win against Meg Anderson and Elena Mandzhukova at No. 1 doubles; however, the Judges dropped a point at No. 2 doubles as Alexa Katz ’14 and Nina Levine ’12 lost to Ashley Brunk and Nicole Russell 8-6.

The Judges rebounded at No. 3 doubles as Dylan Schlesinger ’15 and Simone Vandroff ’15 dispatched Erika Blauth and Kristen Doerer in a marathon 9-8 (7-2) win to take a 2-1 advantage into singles play.

In singles, Cooke rebounded from a first set loss to defeat Mandzhukova 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1 singles, and Broderick earned a 6-4, 6-1 win agaisnt Anderson at No. 2 singles.

Allyson Bernstein ’14 had a dominating win over Jacqui Holmes, 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3 singles while Vandroff rallied from a first set loss to defeat Brunk 4-6, 6-4, (11-9) at No. 6 singles.

Bates picked up two wins in singles

photo from brandeisnow

play as Blauth defeated Katz at No. 4 singles 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(7) and Lucy Brennan took down Roberta Bergstein ’14 at No. 5 singles 6-3, 6-2.

On Monday, the Judges traveled to Babson looking to continue their strong play.

The Judges jumped out to an early lead as Cooke and Broderick defeated Alex Freeman and Sarah Whitaker 8-2 at No. 1 doubles, and Schlesinger and Vandroff took care of Minte Ta-

moshunas and Alexis Ferraro 8-4 at No. 3 doubles.

Babson was able to pick up one point in doubles play, however, as Rebecca Stone and Ashley Lake defeated Katz and Levine 8-1 at No. 2 doubles.

Although four of the six singles matches were closely contested, Brandeis was able to sweep all six.

The easiest wins for the Judges came at No. 1 and No. 3 singles. At No. 1 singles Cooke defeated Free-

man 6-1, 6-1 while at No. 3 singles Bernstein defeated Stone 6-0, 6-1.

At No. 2 singles, Broderick outlasted Whitaker 6-2, 7-6, (7-4), and at No. 4 singles Katz earned a victory after eking out two hard-fought sets against Tamoshunas 7-6 (7-1), 7-5.

At No. 5 singles, Bernstein topped Courtney Fischer 2-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-2) while Vandroff dispatched Victoria Lorido 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-4) at No. 6 singles.

The Judges will return to action this weekend when they serve as cohosts with Wellesley College for the Nor’Easter Bowl along with Wellesley College.

The tournament will feature five of the top-30 teams in Division III according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, including third-ranked Amherst, 12th-ranked Tufts, 18thranked Wellesley, 24th-ranked Skidmore and 30th-ranked Bates.

Men’s tennis falls to Bates, rebounds against Babson

By Brian Tabakin

Men’s tennis

Editor

The Brandeis men’s tennis team played two distinctly different road matches this past week. In the first game, they were dismantled by 15thranked Bates College in a 9-0 loss while in the second game, a makeup of a game from last week, Brandeis easily dispatched Babson 8-1.

Bates had gone undefeated in five straight doubles matches and that streak continued against Brandeis. At No. 1 doubles, Matt Bettles and Rob Crampton defeated Ezra Bernstein ’12 and Dave Yovanoff ’13, 8-2. At No. 3 doubles, Peter Yanofsky and Kyle DeSisto dispatched Ben Fine ’15 and Michael Secular ’15 with an 8-3 win.

At No. 2 doubles, Pierre Planche and Timmy Berg beat Josh Jordan ’13 and Alec Siegel ’15, 8-5, to sweep doubles play.

In singles play, the Bobcats dominated the Judges, dropping only a single set. At No. 1 singles, Berg defeated Jordan 6-1, 7-5; at No. 2 singles, Bettles took down Yovanoff 6-2, 6-3; at No. 3 singles, Crampton dispatched Siegel 6-3, 6-0; at No. 5 singles, Planche upended Secular 6-2, 6-3; and finally at No. 6 singles, DeSisto won against Adam Brown ’14 6-1, 6-2.

In his loss against Jeff Beaton, Bernstein picked up the Judges only set win of the day in a 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 loss.

On Monday, the Judges traveled to Babson to make up a match postponed from March 28. Against Babson, the Judges swept doubles play and suffered only one loss in singles play. With the win against Babson, the Judges snap their three-game losing skid and improve their record to

Team

UAA

All

Emory

0–0

13 – 0

Carnegie Mellon

0–0

10 – 5

Case Western

0–0

11 – 6

Washington

0–0

8–5

NYU

0–0

2–2

Rochester

0–0

5–9

Brandeis

0–0

3–6

Chicago

0–0

1–3

Box Scores @ Bates

Loss

9–0

@ Babson

Win

8–1

Women’s tennis

photo by paula hoekstra/the hoot

3-6.

In doubles play, Bernstein and Yovanoff earned an 8-6 win over Ramone Doyley and Nissim CohenSabban at No. 1 doubles, Siegel and Jordan posted an 8-3 victory against Danny Schneider and Rushab Tanna at No. 2 doubles, and Fine and Secular secured an 8-6 win against Roy

Murdock and Zach Ringer in No. 3 doubles.

In singles play, Babson’s sole win came in at No. 1 singles where Doyley defeated Jordan 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 1-0 (10-3). At No. 2 singles, Yovanoff dispatched Cohen-Sabban 6-1, 6-3; Bernstein defeated Murdock 6-3, 7-5 at No. 3 singles; Secular secured a victo-

ry against Ferran Arimon 6-3, 6-3 at No. 4 singles; Brown took care of Schneider in a lengthy three-set match at No. 5 singles 3-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-3); and finally Fine defeated Tanna 6-3, 6-4 at No. 6 singles.

The Judges host MIT today at 3 p.m. before taking on Coast Guard and Bowdoin during break next week.

Team

UAA

All

Case Western

0–0

13 – 2

Carnegie Mellon

0–0

13 – 3

Brandeis

0–0

10 – 1

Emory

0–0

10 – 3

Washington

0–0

7–3

Rochester

0–0

7–3

Chicago

0–0

5–1

NYU

0–0

0–3

Box Scores @ Bates

Win

6–3

@ Babson

Win

8–1

Arts, Etc.

16 The Brandeis Hoot

April 5, 2012

Don’t miss the ‘B---- in Apartment 23’

By Yael Katzwer Editor

It is very difficult for sitcoms to grab an audience from the first episode.

Often a new comedy show needs a few episodes to create the inside jokes that an audience craves. This was not the case for ABC’s new sitcom “Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.”

“Apartment 23” grabbed me during its pilot in which trusting, small-town June (Dreama Walker) moves to New York for a Wall Street job only to find that her dream job is gone, her dream apartment is gone and her dreamed future is gone. Struggling to find a place to live, she moves in with Chloe (Krysten Ritter) thinking that she has found the coolest and sweetest person in the city. As she leaves to get her things, however, her new neighbor (Liza Lapira) conspiratorially calls her over and warns her: “Don’t trust the bitch in apartment 23.”

The character of June is kind of dull. So many shows have given us the small-town girl swept up in the big, bad city and it is cliche to the point of tedious. This is not to say that Walker does not do a good job; she manages to open her already obscenely large eyes even wider and give this trapped and scared look. That look and her Midwest charm are not enough to carry “Apartment 23” though; this is where Ritter’s character, Chloe, comes in and saves the show.

Chloe certainly lives up to her titular name. She originally only takes June in as her roommate so that she can be the worst roommate ever and steal all of June’s money. June realizes fairly quickly that Chloe is terrible.

Snapping out of the naive mold she seemed set to spend the rest of the

show in, she fights fire with fire.

Krysten Ritter plays Chloe perfectly; she is a bitch and she not only knows it but owns it. She lies, she steals and she is entirely uncaring. At the end of the pilot, she showed some humanity—in accordance with June’s claim that Chloe has very tenuous ties to it.

She did not, however, transform into a wonderful, caring person—thankfully. In the second episode she is back to her usual ways, complaining that her wheelchair-bound mother never took her ice skating. It is also nice to see Ritter in a starring role after seeing her nail some minor roles in “Gilmore Girls” and “Veronica Mars.”

As strong as Ritter is in “Apartment 23,” this show would not hold up without the weird and nuanced supporting cast. Liza Lapira (Ivy on Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse”) plays the crazy neighbor, Robin, a former roommate of Chloe’s, who is absolutely obsessed with the bitch. We see her tailoring her outfits to look like Chloe and talking to a mannequin with a picture of Chloe attached to it. While this seems formulaic, Lapira infuses the character with such vitality that it is a pleasure to watch. There is also the crazy neighbor Eli (Michael Blaiklock), who only communicates with the girls through a window while masturbating. Despite his unabashed creepiness, however, Eli is a genuinely nice guy.

The best part of the show, however, is James Van Der Beek. Comfortingly, he is not playing a character anything like Dawson—he’s playing himself. I love when actors play themselves on television and just make themselves look like crazy jerks. I loved Carl Weathers on “Arrested Development” with his odd obsession with stew—

photo from internet source

there’s the b---- Dreama Walker and Krysten Ritter star in the new ABC sitcom “Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.’’

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. There’s still plenty of meat on that bone. Now you take this home; throw it in a pot; add some broth, a potato. Baby, you’ve got a stew going”—and I adored George Takei on “Psych,” complaining that the main characters got him the wrong blueberries—“The blueberries are still wrong.

I requested North Carolina blueberries but they sent me Michigan blueberries. People say I’m crazy but I can taste the difference.”

James Van Der Beek plays Chloe’s best friend James Van Der Beek. Possibly the best James Van Der Beek moment—and yes, it is necessary to use his entire name on every reference—

was at the end of the pilot episode when we see a commercial filmed in Japan. It was just so ridiculous and over-the-top with that hint of selfloathing that most over-the-hill actors have for themselves.

I found this show refreshing because, while Chloe and James Van Der Beek can be good people and show that capacity in both the pilot and the second episode, they choose not to be. James Van Der Beek and Chloe choose to be self-involved. Often shows will set up a character as a bitch but then show their softer side and basically destroy the character.

Sometimes characters need to remain

somewhat evil; hopefully Chloe and James Van Der Beek will remain this way.

So, if you are like me and could not stand Fox’s “New Girl” because of its saccharine-sweet temperament, “Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23” is perfect for you. “Apartment 23” is unashamedly cruel; the oddities of the characters are not written off as quirky and cutesy acts but as deep character flaws. This does not make the characters any less lovable though; it just makes them less trustworthy.

Don’t miss the premiere of “Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23” on Wednesday, April 11, at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.

Free Play’s ‘Gabler’ gives Brandeis a ‘Hedda’-ache

By Candice Bautista and Nate Rosenbloom Editors

The play “Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Ibsen was put on last weekend by Free Play in the Mandel atrium. The show was put on to almost universal derision due to incredibly poor emoting, misinterpretations of the play itself and inconsistent acting. This may or may not be due to poor casting—it was difficult to tell whether the blame should be given to director Christopher Knight ’14 or to the actors themselves. I feel obliged to blame the actors though. It almost seems that this was the show for the people who weren’t cast in the other Free Play shows.

The play featured recently married Hedda (Lisa Feierstein ’15), who felt trapped and bored in her new life as a married woman. The show is essentially about Hedda’s frustration with her life and the various ways she tries to find beauty and excitement. In the play, it is also clear that she never really loved her husband, George Tesman (Jørgen Tesman in the original, played by Josh Kelly ’14 at Brandeis) and may have even gotten married out of sheer boredom. Tesman’s old rival Eilert (Matt Garber ’12), a former alcoholic, comes into their lives boasting a recently published work, becoming increasingly worried about the professorship that he was expecting. In addition to this, Gabler appears to have feelings for Eilert.

Soon after, it is realized that Eilert has no desire to obtain the professorship and continues working on the sequel with Mrs. Elvsted (Devan

photo from internet source

how one feels at the show Free Play put on “Hedda Gabler” last weekend, and it was horrid mostly due to poor acting and misinterpretation of the Ibsen play.

Johnson ’13) to create the sequel to his work. Gabler soon becomes jealous and forces Eilert to get drunk and go to a party. As a result of his drunkenness, he forgets the manuscript of his “masterpiece,” which Gabler later burns for Tesman’s job security. Afterward, she tells Eilert to kill himself,

which results in a series of events that becomes a scandal and ends with Gabler killing herself.

From the basic idea of Gabler’s boredom sprouts a series of conflicts and confrontations based on the relationships in the play, and conveys jealousy, hopelessness and suicidal

tendencies in two and a half hours.

The first problem was a practical one; although the stage they built was impressive and the space worked well as Tesman’s villa, they did not have enough seats for the audience of 50, leaving half of the audience on the floor. Those sitting on the floor ac-

quired an intimate understanding of all of the actors’ knees.

The second problem was the acting and direction of the play. Kelly, for example, was unable to deliver his lines with emotion and ended many words See GABLER, page 19

April 5, 2012

ARTS, ETC. 17

The Brandeis Hoot

‘The Omen Machine’ has mixed reviews despite big hype

By Juliette Martin Editor

In 2007, Terry Goodkind ended his best-selling “The Sword of Truth” series with the novel “Confessor,” the last of a set of three books that worked to pull together the numerous loose ends and tangents opened by the sheer bulk of the books preceding it. With his 11-book series at last completed, Goodkind moved on from the epic high-fantasy that characterized “The Sword of Truth” into new genres. This year, however, Goodkind has returned to his original epic with a 12th addition, setting up a whole new story as a starting place for potential new readers unwilling to go back into the early books of the series, called “The Omen Machine.”

“The Omen Machine” is the latest story of Richard and Kahlan, the two protagonists that have been Goodkind’s brainchildren for what now amounts to 12 books. Though their story had gained closure following “Confessor,” this new book opens new questions for them to explore. For those of us who had grown attached to these characters, “The Omen Machine” immediately seems a welcome return to familiar favorites.

Goodkind’s writing is highly escapist, drawing the reader into the novel and forming strong emotional attachment to his characters. More of these familiar faces was highly anticipated and appreciated.

Despite the happy return to an old favorite, “The Omen Machine” is not

the omen machine “The Omen Machine” by Terry Goodkind met mixed reviews due to the forced feel

photo from internet source

to the book, despite the big hype and anticipation for the novel.

as wonderful as fans had expected.

Many have observed that Goodkind’s writing went downhill as the series dragged on into its later novels. Though he eventually managed to bring together his loose ends, the logic was often stretched. “The Omen Machine” had great potential as a way to reboot an ailing series, giving new villains to the same beloved heroes, an easy formula for success, as it mixes new excitement with long-standing emotional investment.

Unfortunately, this formula did not work out in favor of “The Omen Machine.” Though a return to such beloved characters was certainly welcome, particularly after the failure of the series’ television adaptation after

only two seasons, it at times felt rather forced. No matter how much fans hoped and pleaded for this return to “The Sword of Truth,” it must at this point be admitted that the story of Richard and Kahlan is over. No matter how much we have loved them, it is time to put them to rest.

“The Omen Machine” feels frustratingly forced, simply an attempt to abuse fan loyalty in search of further profit. The writing is very immersive, which has always been Goodkind’s greatest asset, but less so than the novel’s predecessors. Furthermore, while the early novels told the story of Richard and Kahlan’s rise from desolation to save their homelands, “The Omen Machine” opens with them in the lap

of luxury: not exactly the tale that originally made “The Sword of Truth” series so compelling.

Furthermore, the reader becomes frustrated, as characters failed to learn anything from their previous actions.

Despite doubts time and time again in earlier books, and the fact that Richard has grown to be a powerful figure in both politics and the magic of his realm, the other characters still distrust him. They continue to treat him like the lost puppy he was when they first met. Richard, in this novel, is no lost puppy: He is the most powerful figure around, a man who has proven himself repeatedly, and yet his fellows still shrug him off. It makes the first half of the book rather redundant,

as they struggle with a thousand different solutions before finally letting Richard take control of the situation.

This makes it feel like “The Omen Machine,” which is a very different story from that which was first told, is being forced into a formulaic box in which it does not quite fit.

Setting aside this major flaw, “The Omen Machine” is actually an enjoyable read. After such a long hiatus from the series, for the old fan immersing oneself in this story actually feels a bit like going home. Ideally, however, as a fresh start telling a new story, “The Omen Machine” should be much more inviting to new readers. Without the pre-standing attachment to the characters and immersion in the universe, it doesn’t have much to offer. It comes across as a sort of conventional and perhaps even subpar tale of a high-fantasy king already in power and satisfied. Richard now must struggle to protect his home, but on its own this struggle falls flat.

For old fans of the series, “The Omen Machine” is an enjoyable read, bringing back familiar favorites with the same intense immersion that Terry Goodkind so skillfully creates.

Even then, it is not a book of particularly high quality. Nonetheless it is ultimately still enjoyable to read.

For new readers who may see “The Omen Machine” as a good chance to get into the series without reading the 11 preceding books, however, it would be far wiser simply to go back to the beginning of the series. “The Omen Machine” is not worthy as an introduction to the sprawling world and beloved characters of Terry Goodkind when such better novels already exist.

Panel brings together Middle Eastern scholars

By Ben Federlin

Special to the Hoot

A panel of scholars discussed the relevance of the two-state solution in regard to negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians in an event April 3 hosted by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies.

The panel consisted of three members as well a moderator, including Asher Susser whose recent book on Jordan, Palestine and Israel was on sale at the event. The second member was Doctor Ahmad Khalidi, a professor at Saint Antony’s College at Oxford, and the third panelist was Doctor Robert Malley, the program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Center in Washington D.C. Professor Shai Feldman (POL), the Judith and Sidney Swartz director of the Crown center. They agreed with each other on nearly every point, which turned what was advertised as more of a dialogue between opposing ideologies into a series of lectures that reinforced the same issues numerous times.

The event still proved to be very interesting with well-articulated arguments from each of the panelists.

That being said, it was, on some level, almost disappointing that each of the panelists essentially agreed with each other. All of the panelists agreed that the two-state solution was in fact still relevant. It draws into question whether the advertising for the event, which boldly asked whether this idea still had legs, was slightly sensationalist in an attempt to draw a crowd.

And it questions what could be best

achieved by both parties working toward their own betterment independent of each other.

As one panelist put it, “peoples don’t negotiate their narratives,” emphasizing how the burden of the past can inhibit negotiation and progress on both sides of the conflict. It was extremely exciting to have such esteemed scholars and minds speak at Brandeis. Malley had previously worked in the Clinton administration and, according to a member of the Jordanian royal family, there is no one in the world more knowledgeable about the state of Jordan than Susser. The advertising for the event was somewhat misleading. The event focused more on Susser’s book than might be expected, although it did sound very interesting and was conveniently available for sale outside the conference center.

President Fred Lawrence opened the event before having to leave for a previous engagement. During his opening remarks Lawrence thanked all of the members of the panel and everyone in the audience. He highlighted the need of respectful dialogue from both sides regarding this serious and tense conflict. Lawrence stated that dialogues like this are extremely important because all too often shouting and refusing to listen to the opposition are mistaken for legitimate discussion in regard to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. In light of the recent protest of Knesset members by vocal Brandeis students at Temple Emanuel last week, one cannot help but wonder if this is the kind of unhelpful shouting to which Lawrence had been referring and criticizing.

photos by ingrid schulte/the hoot two-state solution Top: Professor Asher Susser speaks about the two-state solution in regard to negotiations between the Israelis and

Palestinians. Bottom: President Lawrence, who opened the event, listens attentively to panelists before leaving.

18 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

April 5, 2012

‘Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy’ brings self-loathing to new levels

By Candice Bautista Editor

I picked up “Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy” for the same reason I pick up most books—its cover looked pretty. The book is only slightly larger than my palm and boasts a hot pink cover with a scribbled-on rat. I assumed it was a book about neuroscience or weird psych cases, but instead it was the “poetry” of a pretentious NYU graduate, Tao Lin. I say “poetry” with slight hesitancy though. I’d never heard of Tao Lin before but a quick Wikipedia search reveals that he has won a couple of small writing awards and has published another book of poetry as well as three other novels. On the other hand, his poetry reads more like the poetry that we find in a notebook in our attic back from our self-loathing middle school days. His interests are so closely aligned with my own, though, that I just had to buy the book.

The poems are essentially about the same crises that every 20-something year old goes through. What am I doing with my life? Does my existence really matter? Will I ever find love or does love even exist? Lin also seems to appeal to our generation, or more specifically myself, in really awful ways. In fact, his poetry has been described as “narcissentialism” because it’s so self-absorbed.

Everything about this small book is formatted exactly as how I would have formatted it. From the cover to the font to the lack of punctuation— a sort of bastardized e.e. cummings.

When I picked up the book, I couldn’t help but feel that I was really related to this guy, whoever he was. When I read through his poems, I felt that I

photo from internet source

a poet? “Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy” by Tao Lin is a collection of poetry that is somehow both narcissitic and unifying.

would have a similar feeling as when I read “Catcher in the Rye.” How could I not when the first poem in “Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy” is titled “i will learn how to love a person and then i will teach you and then we will know”?

Poetry has always been a kind of lost form to me. I could read a poem and interpret it in a hundred different ways depending on whatever crisis I was having during that hour and say, “Well, that was a good read.”

But I have never read a poem that hits home the first time I read through it as this one did. The only times I’ve ever

felt a great connection to a form of art are when I hear a really great song for the first time, like a good Modest Mouse song. Reading through Lin’s poems though, I feel that he is actually the voice of our generation. It’s a lousy feeling knowing that I connect to him this much. His poetry is unlike Auden’s or Yeats’—it’s about writing e-mails, shopping on Amazon or stealing baguettes from Whole Foods.

One of his novels is actually titled “Shoplifting from American Apparel.”

He talks about masturbation bluntly and also bizarrely. One line from the poem “eleven page poem, page six”

reads: “my heart feels like a mediumerect penis wrapped in saran wrap … / now i have to go do something to my penis” Even just writing this review about his poetry, I really hate Lin and his poetry and can’t help but feel like he’s writing about first world problems.

There is also that once-in-a-while line that makes the whole thing worth it. One of my favorite portions of “eleven page poem, page six” reads, “as a teenager i experience existential despair as an unsexy sensation / of repressed orgasm in the chest; today i experience existential despair /

as a distinct sensation of wanting to lecture you / on how i am better than you, without crushing your hopes and dreams.” Lin is essentially describing himself as a jerk, but who hasn’t felt that way five times over?

Our generation is a strange group of kids in that we’re supposed to be indifferent about most things and, if we aren’t, we’re viewed as a “try-hard.”

This would explain why we find vague occupations like “being in a band” or “writer” or “artist” as really attractive in a person. This has led us to be increasingly more self-conscious on so many levels not just when we’re doing the “right” thing, but also when we’re trying so hard to be doing the right thing. It all gets pretty confusing.

We are all aware of “hipsters” and think they’re trendy. Or at least I think so and would like to think that others do too. But being a “hipster” is viewed negatively because that means you’re trying too hard to be a certain thing or a certain type of person. I’m still not sure what being a hipster is or means but I find a lot of things related to hipsters appealing. I would even go so far as throwing “CognitiveBehavioral Therapy” out as “hipster garbage.”

The only reason I can recommend “Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy” despite its incredibly pompous writing is the way that Lin talks about himself. In his writing, he realizes that our generation is incredibly selfconscious but not self-aware at all. He notices that we have the capacity to watch the news but are more likely to go onto Facebook and that anything mildly “noble” that is done is accomplished in a self-appreciating way. In short, this book is both enjoyable and horrifying because it reminds me of myself.

‘Gears of War 3’: a bloody end to a blockbuster trilogy

By Zach Reid Staff

“Gears of War 3” is a third-person shooter game designed exclusively for the Xbox 360 by Epic Games. The third game in a trilogy known for its intense storyline, brutal gameplay and quick-paced, violent multiplayer matches, “Gears 3” has plenty of hype.

Luckily, the game doesn’t disappoint as it has proven to be one of the best Xbox 360 exclusive games to date.

“Gears 3” follows the story of Marcus Fenix, a soldier in the remnants of the Army of the Coalition of Organized Governments (COG), and his squad, all of whom are known as Gears—slang for the COG’s soldiers.

Throughout the game, they try to cope with a society utterly decimated by war and strive to fight against two subterranean species: the Locust Horde and the Lambent.

The game has no qualms about immersing the player in emotionally charged cutscenes that pepper gameplay. These brief scenes serve to maintain the player’s interest in the story and help take the game beyond the “point and shoot” stereotype of video games. While the ending was fairly predictable, the storyline sufficiently wrapped up the trilogy’s arc and was relatively good for a series that made its name based on combat mechanics.

In terms of gameplay, the main appeal of the game remains the same as those in previous installments: the weapons and cover mechanics. With more than 20 destructive weapons, each with its own execution move,

gears of war 3 The game follows the story of Marcus Fenix, a soldier in the Army of the Coalition of Organized Governments, in this quick-paced game.

the player has nearly limitless ways to enjoy killing the Locust, Lambent or Gears, depending on for which team he is playing. In addition to new weapons, fan-favorites have returned to the game with new improvements, such as the Lancer, which gives players the option of literally cutting their foes in half with a chainsaw bayonet attachment—a move that has become iconic for the series as a whole.

Cover mechanics have also played a large part in the popularity of the series and “Gears 3” only improves on them. The cover system allows players to use virtually any piece of the envi-

ronment as cover, a factor missing in many other shooters on the market.

Additionally, the player is granted more mobility than other shooters, including the ability to roll, quickly move between covers and hop over lower forms of cover. Certain types of cover that players can use are also destructible, giving an extra element of strategy to the game.

The artificial enemies (AIs) the player can face in “Gears 3” soar far above the standards of the previous two entries in the series. Players will find themselves facing a variety of enemies, all of whom use different

weapons and tactics. Hulking maulers will use their shields to deflect player attacks; for example, the intimidating and armored Kantus Monks can roll through the player and his squadmates with near impunity, spraying bullets as they go. Each type of enemy requires different tactics to defeat, making games against AI opponents not only interesting but also legitimately challenging.

“Gears 3” also features a multiplayer component that is immensely entertaining. The variety of game types available to play, including the standard Team Deathmatch and King

photo from internet source

of the Hill, is bolstered by innovative options such as Capture the Leader, in which players are required to find the leader of an enemy team and use him as a “Meat Shield” (a tactic in “Gears 3” that allows a player to hold a foe in front of himself in order to block incoming fire), gaining points for every second that the leader is held.

The game also includes Horde Mode, a challenge in which the player and up to four friends are tasked with holding off waves of enemy Locust See GEARS, page 19

April 5, 2012

ARTS, ETC. 19

The Brandeis Hoot

‘Gears of War 3’ impresses

Arts Recommends music

photo from internet source

photo from internet source

GEARS, from page 18

and Lambent AI’s. Each successive wave brings more difficult foes to contend with. Players have the ability to unlock devices to aid them, such as barbed wire, automated turrets and powerful weapons. Horde Mode is also reflected in the new Beast Mode, in which the player and up to four allies assume the roles of Locust Horde creatures and try to destroy waves of COG soldiers in a designated amount of time. These two game types add immense variety to the standard shooter multiplayer and are bound to keep interest in “Gears 3” piqued for many months to come.

Visually, “Gears 3” is very well-constructed.

Players find themselves in a variety of detailed landscapes, fighting enemies that seem more and more lifelike as the game progresses. Some of the set pieces are a bit over-the-top but serve to add perspective to the scope of the war that

envelopes the Gears.

The audio of “Gears 3” is well-done, but not enough to be classified as spectacular. The game’s music manages to reach the player and add yet another emotional level to the game thanks to the work of composer Steve Jablonsky. The voice cast also adds a bit of repute, with some characters voiced by seemingly unlikely actors (John DiMaggio, the voice of Marcus Fenix, also voiced Bender in the show “Futurama”). Overall, the audio enhances the game but is certainly not the main attraction.

Overall, “Gears 3” is a great game but not much of a surprise. Epic Games knew they had a great formula based on the previous entry in the series, “Gears 2,” and greatly streamlined it to present a very solid game. If you consider yourself to be faint of heart, then look elsewhere for some entertainment. If, however, you enjoy the bloody fun of chainsawing your foes in half or performing executions a la “Mortal Kombat,” “Gears 3” is one game you won’t want to miss.

Free Play’s ‘Gabler’ gives Ibsen bad name

‘Youth Novels’ by Lykke Li Despite its title, “Youth Novel” is an indie rock album by Swedish artist Lykke Li. This novel is the kind of album that you keep playing in the background day-to-day and soon find yourself singing. Lykke Li has the voice of a five-year-old that causes her lyrics to sting more than the average female artist, especially when she sings: “I think I’m a little bit in love with you but only if you’re a little bit in love with me.” She talks frankly about sex, love and about being the abuser in an abusive relationship, all with melodies that are complemented with mystifying synths that feel netherworldly. It’s an album that will stay close to your heart, and remind you of when your first girlfriend dumped you at Jew camp.

candice bautista, editor

books

photo from internet source

‘Kindred’ by Octavia Butler

photo from internet source

GABLER, from page 16

with a rising intonation. Statements he didn’t turn into questions, he punctuated with numerous um’s and pauses. None of this convinced the audience of his character.

The remainder of the actors appeared merely to misinterpret the words instead of acting them out. The play really hinges on Hedda’s ability to have the audience sympathize with her actions, or at least understand why she was doing them.

Because Feierstein was inconsistent with her acting, however, we were never able to figure out any underlying motivation, other than the superficial “I’m so bored.”

With the two main characters acting poorly, much of the play was adrift. Much of the action in the show resides in the characters’ ability to internalize, and none of that was apparent in the show. It was difficult to determine whether the actors themselves were bad or if the misinterpretation of the show was what kept them from succeeding. Additionally, the energy of the show

overall was low, which intensified Hedda’s boredom, but also the audience’s boredom. Judge Brack (Zev Kupfer ’15) as well as Eilert were the only people with any enthusiasm for their roles at all.

A blatant error from the director was that many of the lines were stretched to be humorous instead of portraying the heartfelt meaning of the original piece. It is disappointing that such a great show was put on this poorly.

As usual, Free Play put on a show with minimal production values, using floodlights in lieu of standard stage lights. I have always admired Free Play’s dedication to put on real theater, with a minimum of fluff. In this case, however, more lights and tech could have been used to distract from the acting even slightly.

All in all, “Hedda Gabler” was well-intentioned, and Ibsen is always difficult to perform because it focuses on interpersonal relationships and the secret desires of the characters. There are many layers to each character’s true feelings and Free Play oversimplified them, lacking critical thought.

Octavia Butler’s 1979 novel “Kindred” is one of the most beautiful pieces of literature I’ve ever read. While Butler technically writes science fiction, her novels are so much more and “Kindred” explores both time travel, slavery in the South and racism. The novel follows Edana, a young black woman who lives in California in 1976; Edana begins time-traveling back to the slave-holding South. While there she experiences firsthand the brutality of slavery and the odd relationship dynamic that existed between slaves and their masters.

This is not a novel for those who are squeamish or emotionally fragile as there are very intense and disturbing scenes in Master Rufe’s home. Despite this, “Kindred” should be read by everyone, both for the beautiful prose and for its candid look at American slavery. Octavia Butler does meticulous research for all of her novels and that really shines through in the vibrancy of this book. I wholeheartedly recommend all of Octavia Butler’s works but, if you only read one, read “Kindred.”

yael katzwer, editor

20 The Brandeis Hoot

Hoot scoops

April 5, 2012

A call for justice for Trayvon Martin

By Josh Kelly Staff

More than a month since the Feb. 26 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by 28-year-old George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla., many questions remain. These questions vary from the complex legal ones concerning “hate crime” and the efficacy of “stand your ground” laws, to the more mundane question of simply what happened. There are also concerns about media coverage.

During the past week, members of the Brandeis community united under the simple and inclusive messages of honoring Martin and fostering an open dialogue. Events ranged from a discussion and candle-lighting ceremony on Thursday night to a Peace Vigil and a “Hoodies Up” March on Friday. The events were sponsored by the Brandeis Black Student Organization, MLK and Friends, Women of Color Alliance, Men of Color Alliance and the Queer People of Color Coalition.

Maya Grant ’13, president of the Brandeis Black Student Organization, spoke positively about the weekend’s events. Specifically, she appreciated the wide variety of the turnout.

“I was really excited to see a lot of different faces … It made me feel supported on this campus.” She went on to praise the openness of the events. “[There was] an opportunity for everyone to speak openly and freely about how they felt and I felt that that’s exactly what the community needed.”

When speaking about the events, President Lawrence had similar sentiments, saying that it was a “great opportunity” for the campus to “come together,” and try to deal with the complex issues involved, including the “intersection of race and law.”

Grant went on to praise the events for their cathartic nature, in allowing individuals to let out their feelings.

“A lot of people felt frustration and anger … not really understanding why this was happening in America.”

By Grant’s estimate, the Peace Vigil attracted approximately 25 students, and the “Hoodies Up” march from the Peace Circle to the Louis Brandeis Statue included nearly 100 students.

While everyone seems to be in agreement that the death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy that should not have occurred, debates open up over other issues connected to the inci-

hoodies for hope

dent.

One of the major issues concerns whether or not the killing of Trayvon Martin can be considered a “hate crime.” Lawrence spoke to that, citing the difficulty to determine “beyond a reasonable doubt” that something constitutes “hate crime,” and suggesting that we do not have enough information at this point. He did present, however, two ways in which the crime could be prosecuted with the racial aspect attached to it. George Zimmerman could be charged with manslaughter with the “hate crime” aspect in the status of a “lesser-included offense.” In this case, Zimmerman would actually be prosecuted for two separate crimes. Zimmerman could also be simply charged with manslaughter, and if the court were to determine that the crime was racially charged, the penalty could be increased.

To Grant, it seems clear that race could be considered as a major aspect of the crime.

When asked what standard to apply when determining whether or not something can be deemed a hate crime, Grant responded that “in trying to determine whether race was involved, [one needs to consider] if he knew the race before pursuing the victim. I have listened to the tapes and it’s clear that Zimmerman said that he was either black or Latino.”

She also admitted, however, that this is a more complex case than most.

“I think there are some hate crimes that are overt hate crimes … And then there are those that have to do with suspicion and stereotypes and stigma.” According to Grant, these types of incidences are on the line “between true hate crimes and just a misunderstanding.”

During a Piers Morgan interview with Robert Zimmerman, George Zimmerman’s older brother, Robert, made the argument that George’s actions were in self-defense.

“He prevented his firearm from being taken from him and used against him and that’s called saving your life,” Robert Zimmerman said. Zimmerman’s argument rests on the premise that he was being attacked by Martin and acted in self-defense. Robert Zimmerman also argues that “you return force with force when somebody assaults you.”

Lawrence discussed self-defense, including both the factual definitions of self-defense, as well as his personal

“ ”

President Lawrence, Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams and students mourn the death of Trayvon Martin.

opinions. He said the acceptability of taking physical action in self-defense rests on two major premises. The action must be necessary and it furthermore must be proportional. By this logic, if one can avoid taking an action, even if they have been assaulted, that is generally seen as the better of the two options. In most cases, there is a duty among people assaulted to retreat. By this principle, were George Zimmerman attacked, if it were possible for him to escape Trayvon Martin without using his firearm, he would be required to do so. George Zimmerman’s case rests on the “stand your ground” law, however, which essentially states that one is not obligated to retreat. If attacked, then a person is fully within their rights to attack back.

President Lawrence feels that “‘stand your ground’ laws are dangerous for the reasons [seen in this case]” and he explained that it is a risky standard to start condoning private use of force between citizens.

Grant, upon hearing Robert Zimmerman’s claim that one can still feel threatened when being attacked even if the assailant is unarmed and they are armed, found it to be “a completely bogus argument,” arguing along the lines of Lawrence that it would be best to walk away.

A lot of people feel frustration and anger ... not really understanding why this was happening in America.

Maya Grant ’13

The issue remains of the hoodie though. The march on Friday being themed as a “Hoodies Up” march, one has to consider what role this played, and when it is OK for someone to be profiled based on what they are wearing.

Grant, when asked if Trayvon would have been treated differently were he wearing a suit and tie, responded that she felt he certainly would have been. “I think that the hoodie definitely played into the stereotype and the fear that Zimmerman had.” She also made it clear, however, that it is understandable to be nervous based on clothing on a “rainy night.” “I would think anyone would look kind of suspicious wearing a hoodie and walking by themselves.”

Lawrence was less willing to make judgments of this sort, but when

asked about profiling based on clothing in general, made clear that there is a distinction between the police and George Zimmerman. He explained that the police are “trained to determine reasonable suspicion.” This could include what clothes a person is wearing, and this would justify the police in stopping and questioning someone. He, however, does not feel comfortable allowing volunteers such as George Zimmerman to take on this role.

With regards to the media, Lawrence believes that far more facts are needed before judgments can be made. To him, while it is good that the media is pressing society to investigate more deeply than would have been done without all the attention, the media is hastily making judgments on the case that simply cannot be made yet.

photo courtesy of leah staffin

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