November 9, 2012 - The Brandeis Hoot

Volume 9 Number 25

www.thebrandeishoot.com

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.

Students react to Obama victory

Hurricane Sandy still afflicting Tri-State area

By Debby Brodsky Editor

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s destruction, New York and New Jersey residents continue to experience extended power outages and flooding during an increasingly chilly fall.

While little impact can be seen in Waltham more than one week after the storm, many students at Brandeis are concerned about their families in the Tri-State area who remain deeply affected.

Nine hundred and sixty nine of the 3,560 Brandeis undergraduate students are from New York and New Jersey, Andrew Flagel, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment said. Roughly 27 percent of the undergraduate population has family and loved ones in the affected areas.

Since the hurricane, Brandeis has offered extensive counseling services to students and has remained cognizant of sensitive issues, such as Phonathon fundraising efforts, following the storm.

“Brandeis suspended fundraising calls to affected areas shortly after the hurricane hit,” Bill Burger, Brandeis Associate Vice President of Communications said.

Rebecca Sanders ’13 explained that while she is safe at Brandeis, her fam-

election night Students who supported President Barack Obama celebrate his reelection

Tuesday night.

By Nathan Murphy Needle Staff

Tuesday night marked the reelection of President Obama and the victory of Democrat Elizabeth Warren over incumbent Republican Senator Scott Brown, as well as the passage of landmark ballot measures across the nation. The results were met with both celebration and dismay around the Brandeis campus.

Obama won the presidential election with 303 electoral votes to Romney’s 206, not including Florida, which has yet to be counted.

“My mom took me canvassing with her for Clinton when I was two years old, so voting for my first presidential election through absentee was a little

anticlimactic, but I’m proud that this is my first of many elections,” Marcie Lieberman ’13, former ’Deis Dems member and Florida resident said.

“America needs gun control laws that are strong, real education reform and money in head-start programs and other safety programs. What I expect to see is Mitch McConnell whining because he couldn’t accomplish his first goal, ‘to make Obama a one term president.”

While Brandeis is widely regarded as one of the nation’s most liberal universities (ranked 22nd most liberal by Newsweek), the campus was not void of disappointment Wednesday morning.

See ELECTION, page 4

November 9, 2012

ily in River Edge, N.J., did not have power for more than a week.

“My town wasn’t flooded but towns nearby got some pretty heavy flooding. It was difficult. I kept wanting to check in back home to make sure everything was OK. It was weird being away and not knowing what was going on at home,” she said. “I kept seeing pictures on the Internet of what was going on in New Jersey and having to call home to see if my family was alright. It was strange to have life continue at Brandeis as though nothing had happened, while I knew everything was going on back home,” Sanders added.

Sanders’ family regained power this week and were able to return to work on Tuesday.

“Now the majority of River Edge has power back and people are finally going back to work. But there’s still the undertone of destruction in nearby places,” Sanders said.

According to Anna Khazan ’13, her family in Woodmere, N.Y., a Long Island community, was extremely lucky and only lost power for one day during the hurricane. “My grandparents still don’t have power and water, so they’re living with us. My family is an exception because for the first week things See HURRICANE, page 3

photos by ally eller/the hoot

LTS explains sage lag during spring registration

By Debby Brodsky Editor

When class registration on sage opened last Tuesday, many students experienced a significant delay in the registration process. Although students were held to a strict appointment-based schedule, despite the Library and Technology Services’ (LTS) best efforts, class registration only resumed its anticipated pace by 2 p.m. Tuesday.

“There were a bunch of reasons sage was slow during this registration period,” Lisa DeMings, Director of Administrative and Library Information Systems said. “Sage is actually set up to handle about 800 concurrent users at a time, which should more than cover the 300 or so folks we expect to have registering each hour during the registration period.”

According to DeMings, although only a few hundred students are able to actually register during the allotted time, which is normal and has been the case for years, anyone may sign on and add classes to their shopping cart—they just can’t register until their allotted appointment.

“We saw an unusually high number of connections during the Tuesday registration period this year, an

Inside this issue:

over 25 percent increase compared with past years, perhaps because we had power issues the day before due to the hurricane,” DeMings said. “We really don’t know why volume was so much higher than in past years. Most years we experience some latency but the experience this year was completely unprecedented.”

Sage’s slow pace was not a result of network problems, DeMings said.

“The problem was with our web servers and our application servers, part of the sage PeopleSoft architecture. We saw first that requests for sage got stacked up by slow web servers, so we increased the amount of RAM there and then they got stacked up within sage at the app servers, so we increased our capacity there to be about 1,000 concurrent connections. We learned of the problem at about 10 a.m. By about 2 p.m. we noticed improvement once we cleared out all the old requests,” DeMings said.

Sage’s sluggishness did not come as a surprise to many students—however frustrating it was to handle. Many, over time, have come to expect a delay because of the sheer number of students logging onto sage in a short See SAGE, page 2

News: Patrick stumps for Obama in Waltham Sports: Men’s soccer returns to NCAAs Features: Linsey implements gender neutrality Editorials: The active duties of citizenship Opinion: The pros and cons of many majors Arts, Etc.: ‘Bat Boy’ flounders in absurdity

Page 5 Page 8 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 16

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

town hall Jesse Manning ’13 of WBRS joins student leaders Wednesday evening to discuss

the proposal to bring Bob Dylan to perform in April.

Students consider possible Dylan concert

By Connor Novy Editor

Fifty years ago, Bob Dylan performed at Brandeis, just two weeks before his second album was released, and as Jesse Manning ’13 says, it was “when he became Bob Dylan as we know him.” A recording of the 1963 Brandeis concert was discovered and released only two years ago, which inspired Manning and Alex Pilger ’13 to try to get Dylan back to campus for

a 50-year reunion.

If Brandeis administrators support it, the 50th Anniversary Brandeis Folk Festival would bring Dylan back to Brandeis on April 27, the day before Brandeis’ annual Springfest. They plan for Saturday to “be a full-fledged music festival,” said Manning, with two stages and Bob Dylan headlining and capping-off the day. On Sunday, says Manning, “Springfest is as you imagine it.”

“For the past year, we’ve been

meeting with everyone, everywhere,” Pilger said. The administration has been positive about the venture and faculty have offered their own support. According to Pilger, however, “the university is cautiously pessimistic.”

After multiple drafts of a business plan, repeatedly narrowed in scope at the request of the administration, any possible stipulation has been covered, See DYLAN, page 2

Russian author sponsored

Heather Dale performs

Features: Page 10

Arts, Etc.: Page 17

The creative writing program sponsored a book reading by JudeoRussian Gary Shteyngar.

Heather Dale and others performed a concert in Levin Ballroom Monday night.

news

2 The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2012

Town hall presents proposed folk festival to student body DYLAN, from page 1

organizers say. The current draft of the plan, according to Mikey Zonenashvili, “accounts for every possible cost.” While the administration has not yet given them the go-ahead, the organizers brought the idea to the student body Wednesday in a town hall meeting, where they presented the benefits and risks and asked for student input.

Despite unfavorable weather, a relatively large number of students came to listen to Manning, Pilger and Zonenashvili, as well as Student Union President Todd Kirkland and Student Events members Rachel Nelson and SuWei Chi, who are helping to move the plan forward.

After the positive reaction of the student body, all the organizers now need is a queue from the administration. “A go-ahead wouldn’t mean we would do more thinking,” Zonenashvili said. “It would mean full-steam ahead,” Manning said.

“We want to balance the context of the event,” Zonenashvili said. “Not just cashing in on history.”

The students are working with Jay Sweet, Editor of PASTE Magazine and Producer of the Newport Folk Festival, to bring Dylan to campus. Sweet has already been hired by the university, and, Zonenashvili said, can offset the price of bands by approximately half through his connections.

Manning originally reached out to Dylan’s agents in April and then Sweet made a professional offer later.

Many students doubt whether the administration will allow the plan to proceed.

bob dylan Student Union President Todd Kirkland ’13 speaks at campus discussion of Springfest perfor-

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

mances.

“I’d really like it to happen, but especially from the university’s perspective, the risks outweigh the benefits,” Jake Altholz ’15 said.

Manning disagrees, though he understands why administrators might be reticent to commit to such a large festival.

Senator-at-large Theodore Choi ’13 believes it is in the best interest of Brandeis to allow the Folk Festival to happen. “If they’re thinking in their right minds, they’ll bring him … The university needs to do something to get its name out there.”

“One of their main concerns is they’re going from square-two to square-10,” Manning said. He says

that because Brandeis has not had an event of this size for more than a decade, some are concerned that Brandeis is not equipped for the volume of crowds.

The festival would bring a vast number of outside people onto campus, which Manning, Pilger and Zonenashvili concede could make some nervous. “There definitely will be people who will be against having outside people,” Zonenashvili said.

The organizers believe, however, that they have covered every possibility, including extra ambulances, tents, tables, chairs and handicap access.

They have reached out to Waltham vendors to supply to both the Folk Festival and Springfest the following

day. “There could not be anything left that could possibly go wrong,” Mikey Zonenashvili ’13 said.

Springfest, while technically an open event, typically attracts most Brandeis students. The projection for the Folk Festival, according to Manning, is a 4,300-person crowd, plus approximately 2,000 Brandeis students. The Folk Festival, organizers said, would allow Springfest to pull in larger acts, which students were asked to vote on during the town hall.

Springfest, on the second day, would not be advertised, and would have a smaller audience.

With an increased audience anticpated, student organizers have already taken precautionary plans. The costs

Strategic plan reaches final discussions

By Connor Novy Editor

In an email to the student body, Provost Steve Goldstein announced the next steps in the already longrunning Strategic Plan. The university released a “preliminary framework” four weeks ago, which went through multiple rounds of committee discussions involving the entire campus.

The next steps for the plan involve taking it to the trustees, whose meeting last week was canceled due to the hurricane. The administration rescheduled the meeting for Nov. 27 but, for fear of further impeding the progress of discussion, moved forward with personal phone calls and meetings with trustees separately.

Goldstein wrote that once trustees have given their input, the administration will write an initial draft, which once again must go to committee and “will offer further opportunities for comment and discussion within the community.”

During the campus-wide committee process, many felt that the plan was too general for the plan to move forward smoothly. According to Goldstein, this new draft will narrow the language and “provide the greater specificity that many have been eager to see.”

The deans and faculty from the Strategic Planning Steering Committee (SPSC) are going to draft the initial document in separate pieces.

“In this initial draft, each of the strategic directions in the framework will be rendered into specific objec-

tives, along with concrete actions to realize them,” Goldstein said, addressing yet another concern of the faculty and student body.

The SPSC will have to wait until the board meeting later this month to report on the work that has been accomplished and receive cohesive feedback. Afterward, they will begin to write the initial draft.

After the initial draft is composed,

it will, again, go into discussion. “The draft will then be discussed by the SPSC, and once approved, it will be submitted to the University Advisory Council and other standing bodies within the community for comments,” said Goldstein.

The document must be written by the beginning of December, when it is submitted to the faculty at their meeting on Dec. 6, and then to the

Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees on Dec. 12 for what Goldstein calls “further discussion.”

Once discussed, Goldstein says the Strategic Plan will begin to come to a close. A final draft will be returned, “to be proposed to the Board of Trustees at its meeting on Jan. 22 and 23. The Board will then vote on the plan. Once we have an approved plan, a new process begins: implementing the plan.”

presented to administration include metal detectors and security.

“We want to make this a familyfriendly event,” he said. Zonenashvili notes that the soccer and club sports field, where they hope to hold both the Folk Festival with two stages and Springfest with one, is more than enough space for the projected audience. “We want people to have enough space to sprawl out. Bring blankets and lawn chairs.”

Manning points out that Bob Dylan is “not a dangerous demographic.”

“We’ve over-accommodated for the amount of space we have and overestimated the amount of people,” Zonenashvili said.

The administration has asked for projected costs for every aspect of the festival, which the organizers then presented. While exact numbers have not been given to the student body, according to Pilger, “all of the budget is offset by ticket sales.”

Tickets to non-Brandeis students would sell for approximately $100, which is on the low side for Dylan, who sold out a similar venue to Brandeis last year for closer to $180 a ticket. “The university is putting this money forward in hopes they make it back,” Zonenashvili said.

In the business plan, Zonenashvili assures that all of the costs were more than accounted for, and the organizers purposely underestimated the income, which still covered all the costs put forward by the University.

“This is a student-driven event,” Manning said. “It shows that students can still do something here.”

LTS plans changes to sage SAGE, from page 1

period of time, regardless of the amount of RAM that LTS provides.

According to DeMings, LTS has several different plans for next year’s fall registration period to ensure a fast-paced registration process.

“We have several ideas in the pipeline, one includes having resources on standby to handle the increased traffic. We’re thinking of sizing to allow for about three times the normal load. We are also looking into how to do better load-testing on our systems prior to registration starting,” DeMings said.

goldstein

photo by maya himelfarb/the hoot

November 9, 2012

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

JBS program expands and diversifies

By Rachel Hirschhaut Editor

Two years after Brandeis began the Justice Brandeis Semester, the programs are growing in popularity and engaging new groups of students.

Fourteen students are enrolled in the Environmental Field Semester with Professor Brian Donahue (AMST), the largest number since the program’s inception, according to Professor Laura Goldin (ENVS).

Over the summer, 12 students were enrolled in Ethnographic Fieldwork with Professor Elizabeth Ferry (ANTH) and 11 enrolled in Web Services and Social Networks with Tim Hickey (COSI).

Two other JBS programs ran in 2011: Civil Rights and Justice in Mississippi, with 11 students, and Filmmaking: From Screen to Print, with 10 students.

Goldin’s Environmental Health and Justice JBS began with nine students and grew to 11 last year. In JBS, students work directly with affected communities as they delve deeply into the science, law, policy and social impacts of environmental justice and health challenges facing individuals and families today. They work directly with disadvantaged communities, from Waltham and Boston to the rural coal mining mountains of Appalachia, battle issues such as toxic exposure and access to safe housing and ultimately write a publishable environmental health study addressing an urgent need.

Some participants study environmental studies; others study law and public health. There are no prerequi-

sites to get in and people from nearly all class years can be accepted.

“Students emerging from this program are equipped to hit the ground running in addressing the complex, multi-disciplinary environmental and environment health issues we all face in the real world,” Goldin said. “The most daunting challenges must be solved using inter-disciplinary skills and knowledge. And Environmental Health and Justice JBS students have real-life experience in doing just that and can affect change even while at Brandeis. Students gain essential knowledge and practical skills in housing and toxics law, negotiation, advocacy, client counseling, study design and much more.”

One transformative moment in last semester’s JBS was when the class drove 18 hours to Harlan, Kentucky, and stopped to take a hike in the pure, untouched mountains. The next day, they saw the effects of mountaintop removal in the same region.

The Environmental Field Semester program will run again in 2013. The next selection of JBS programs will be announced soon, Goldin said.

In the Ethnographic Fieldwork JBS, students developed their own research projects and spent half of the summer out in the field with their subjects. Students studied topics as diverse as transgender communities, ultimate frisbee, sexual education programs, cancer patients, sushi restaurants and vegan families, according to Ferry. The students’ final projects included papers, posters, a zine, a website and a short film.

“They all learned how to develop their own research projects, interview and analyze data, which are all skills

fieldwork Students on the Environmental Field Justice Brandeis Semester analyze a topographical map.

they would need to go on in anthropology, that are also transferable to other fields,” Ferry said.

The Web Services and Social Networks JBS gave computer science students a taste of possible careers with courses in Mobile Application Development, Mobile Game Design and The JBS Incubator, which teach them to design games and fix data issues, among other skills.

“These JBS graduates are given an opportunity to experience entrepreneurial computer science where they

are developing a product for a particular population of users, they employ cutting edge technology, practices and research,” Hickey said. “Some students discover that they love the excitement and challenge of a startup environment like the JBS, others rededicate themselves to future careers in research or make plans for working in a large established company.”

“We think of the JBS as giving students a special kind of superpower: they can imagine a web or mobile application and know how to make

photo courtesy brandeis.edu

it, how long it will take and who they will need on their team. It is a pretty empowering course in that way.”

As the programs grow in popularity and reputation, however, only a limited number of students are able to enroll, making the JBS admissions process more competitive. “Due to the intensive nature of the program and transportation needs—we go in a van to the small towns in the mountains of Kentucky—I can only accept up to 12 or 13 people at the most,” Goldin said.

For some, Sandy not yet in aftermath HURRICANE, from page 1

were a lot worse for many people. A lot of people still don’t have power. It’s popular now to hang out at Starbucks for Internet,” Khazan said.

Khazan described the unusual feeling of being far from home during the hurricane.

“Usually your family is looking out for you when you’re at Brandeis. This was the other way around. The hur-

ricane didn’t have too much of an effect here, but it was hard to imagine what was going on at home, because you could see pictures but you weren’t actually there,” Khazan said.

President Fred Lawrence expressed concern for affected families, in an email this week.

“I know that everyone at Brandeis has been saddened and even shocked by the devastation caused by Hurri-

cane Sandy. We know that the families of many of our students from New York, New Jersey and other affected states are still struggling through the impact of the storm and the devastation it created,” he wrote on Tuesday.

“Our thought and prayers go out to them and we encourage everyone who is able to find a way to contribute to the important emergency and recovery efforts underway.”

According to Khazan, Brandeis

kept students and faculty informed through every step of the storm.

“Most of the information I received was through Brandeis. We all felt really safe and in the loop and it’s nice that the university recognized how many people come from the TriState area. Just because we didn’t have flooding here, doesn’t mean that we weren’t affected,” Khazan said.

Like Khazan, Sanders expressed the eerie feeling of looking at current pic-

tures of landmarks she has known as intact her whole life.

“The Jersey Shore has been completely destroyed in many parts. It’s strange to see pics of places I’ve been going to my whole life. It’s sad and it will probably take a long time to rebuild. One week later at Brandeis, not much is visible. In Massachusetts, people have generally moved on, unless they have family in the affected areas,” Sanders said.

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2012

Election Coverage Students react to hard-fought presidential election

ELECTION, from page 1

“The country chose social values over economic ones,” said Brandeis Tea Party president Joe Lanoie ’15.

“Unemployment hovers at 8 percent and gas prices slowly rise … I wish Obama the best, but he must go back to the Constitution and the principles espoused within it to prosper. The Constitution is there for a reason.”

“Barack Obama should be bipartisan and focus on an economic boom by cutting taxes and cutting spending to Constitutional limits. If this happens, success will follow,” he added.

In Massachusetts, voters elected Warren to the Senate.

“I’m proud to be going to college in Massachusetts during a time when Elizabeth Warren will be in the Senate,” said Fred Berger of ’Deis Dems.

“As the head of the Consumer Protection Bureau she has proven that her voice is a voice of the people.”

Berger also noted that Obama’s second term will likely be more productive than the first. “Without the need to be reelected, President Obama will be a stronger, bolder leader,” he said.

The election was a big win for women in Massachusetts and around the country. The Senate now consists of the most female senators in history, with Wisconsin electing the first openly gay congresswoman to the Senate.

Gender took the center stage with Romney’s now infamous, “binders full of women” gaffe in the second debate.

“Obama has always been very vocal in supporting women’s rights and making them a big part of his campaign, which is so important to me,” said Zuri Gordon ’15, member of the FMLA executive board.

“This year’s Congressional election was also very influential for women.

Now there are 19 female senators, which is the most ever in U.S. history.

I’m glad that this includes women of color, non-heterosexual women, veterans, alternatively able-bodied women and women of varying ages. There’s still a long way to go with making the

How Waltham voted:

Senate more diverse, but I think that we have progressed and will continue to, under Obama,” Gordon said.

In addition to the national and local elections, Massachusetts residents voted on three monumental ballot questions. While a “death with dignity,” or assisted suicide measure in cases of terminal illness was voted down by an infinitesimal margin, voters approved the legalization of medicinal marijuana by a landslide victory of 63 percent.

“Not only was I thrilled to vote in my first presidential election, but Question 3, proposing the use of medical marijuana, was on the ballot for Massachusetts,” Khadijah Lynch ’15 said. “It seems as though our

country is slowly but surely starting to warm up to marijuana and get rid of all those negative stigmas associated with weed.”

Lynch is in the process of chartering an on-campus hemp club, which will bring attention to issues surrounding the use of hemp and marijuana and how it affects students.

“My mother is a breast cancer survivor. I remember how miserable, melancholy and weak she would be after all of her treatments and hospital visits. Knowing that medical marijuana will be used to alleviate some of the physiological side effects of cancer treatments is wonderful news to cancer patients and their families,” Lynch said.

Question 2: Doctorassisted suicide

Question 3: Medical marijuana

source: waltham patch

November 9, 2012

NEWS 5

The Brandeis Hoot

Gov. Patrick stumps for Obama, Warren in Waltham

photo from internet source

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

Governor Deval Patrick stumped for Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and President Barack Obama at Sebastian’s Ice Cream shop Saturday afternoon, framing Tuesday’s election as a chance to protect the American Dream and meeting with volunteers next door to the Waltham campaign headquarters on Main Street.

Patrick, a top surrogate for the president and national co-chair of his campaign, urged voters to recognize the upcoming election as a choice larger than politics or policy.

“It’s not about an individual candidate or party, as important as that might be,” Patrick said, shouting and standing on a chair inside the packed

Main Street ice cream shop. “What’s at stake right now is the American Dream, two very, very different visions of what kind of country we are, what we stand for and what we represent.”

He cited the president’s record of job growth along with auto and financial industry bailouts as his most significant economic accomplishments. But Patrick also referenced the passing of the Affordable Care Act, the Equal Pay Act and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as proof of Obama’s legislative leadership capabilities.

The Governor praised Obama’s record despite what he called a hostile political climate in Washington.

“Imagine the odds: the worst economy in living memory. A Republican party united in opposition and dedicated to the idea of standing

on the sidelines and rooting for failure,” Patrick said.

Criticizing Senator Scott Brown’s advertisements calling himself an independent voice, Patrick responded that Brown has failed to show independence from the Tea Party on the President’s job bills, health care reform and what he labeled “a woman’s right to decide what to do with her own body.”

“We don’t need an independent voice when it’s time to campaign,” Patrick added. “We need an independent vote when it’s time to govern.”

Congressman Ed Markey joined Patrick, urging voters to mobilize one another and drive Tuesday’s turnout to produce a democratic victory. Markey, who first ran for state representative of Massachusetts 40 years ago, said he is one of the few people who can say he was swept into office because of the

George McGovern’s Massachusetts victory during the presidential election of 1972. Referring to Patrick’s victory in 2010 over Republican Charlie Baker and Independent Tim Cahill, Markey said the grassroots organization from the Governor’s reelection campaign should model voter turnout efforts again this week.

“I do not know what’s going to happen in North Dakota. I do not know what’s going to happen in Montana,” Markey said. “But we are going to have an Obama-Warren landslide in Massachusetts.”

He expressed optimism that Tuesday would yield a different result than Brown’s victory in Waltham by 53 votes in 2010.

Markey tried to label the Republican ticket as a party for the wealthy, referring to the famous line about national service from President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, shouting in a speech that Patrick would jokingly call a sermon once he took the microphone.

“We know what the Republicans are saying this year. Ask not what you can do for your country, but ask rather what you can do for your country club member,” Markey said.

“They’ve got the money, but we have the people.”

Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, who spoke before Patrick and Markey in Waltham, recognized the impact that high voter turnout among Democrats for the presidential and senate races could have on local contests such as his.

“We need to get out there and deliver every single vote,” Koutoujian said. “Get out there and use your personal capital.”

While Patrick’s speech was filled with critiques of Republican policies and positions, he did not shy away from criticizing Democrats for de-

manding immediate change after the president’s 2008 victory or for being unwilling to engage with their political opponents.

“There is power in the respect shown of engaging with someone and making it clear to them you are not just working for Democrats. You are working for this whole country,” Patrick said.

After forming a new political action committee called TogetherPAC, Patrick has traveled the country this year, delivering speeches in several swing states and appearing regularly on talk shows to speak on behalf of Obama’s reelection campaign.

Democrats, including Patrick, have called the Massachusetts health care reform bill signed into law by Governor Mitt Romney in 2006 a model for the Affordable Care Act, attempting to show Romney and Brown as opposing the federal law only as a matter of politics.

“The only reason that Scott Brown isn’t supporting national health care reform, is I think the same reason that Governor Romney isn’t supporting national health care reform. It’s because they don’t like the Obama in Obamacare,” Patrick said in an interview after the rally, outside his black Chevy Tahoe SUV, waiting to travel to Boston for an Elizabeth Warren rally.

On Monday, in Massachusetts a new state law aimed to curb the rising costs of health care coverage took effect, and the governor said the framework of the law, which centers on replacing the fee for service model with a whole person care system, can also be seen as a national sample.

“Just as we were a model for universal coverage, we’re going to be the place that cracks the code on cost control. We’re going to get this right and we know that the whole country is watching,” Patrick said.

Coiner and Mann reflect on election results

By Lassor Feasley Staff

Professors Catherine Mann (IBS) and Michael Coiner (ECON) argued the economics of the vote Monday, before the election Tuesday, in a mock-debate. After the results came in, they reflected on them.

Some see Obama’s win not so much as a validation of his policy than as a rejection of Romney’s.

“Its very hard for people to say Obama’s policies have turned the economy around, because they haven’t,” Mann said. “But they very clearly recognize that the policies that were embraced by the Romney-Ryan agenda were the policies that got us to where we ended up.”

Not so, says Professor Mike Coiner of the economics department at Brandeis.

“My sense is that surveys of voters indicated that a plurality of voters felt Romney would do a better job on the economy and on the deficit,“ Coiner said. “I think Obama won the election because of other issues.”

While voters have consistently cited economic issues as their top priority, Mann argues that Romney’s vision, rather than Obama’s policy, shaded electoral outcomes. “I asked [Ryan advisor] Glenn Hubbard ‘Is there any role for redistribution in the tax system?’ and his answer is no.” She continued, “I think that the election makes it clear that people believe that progressive tax systems are an important part of how the government intervenes.”

Both Coiner and Mann agreed that voter consensus held that a Romney victory would disproportionately

benefit upper-class Americans.

“I think many people concluded that Romney’s proposed policies would primarily benefit the wealthy and weren’t paying enough attention to the welfare of the middle class,” observed Coiner. According to Mann, Obama demonstrated a sensitivity to the concerns of the middle class, which Romney lacked, leading voters to “see him as acknowledging that the income distribution in the economy has led to the outcome that the middle class can not move up in terms of economic well being,” she said.

If voter aversion to Romney’s economic vision led to his loss, scholars are left asking, to what extent did Obama’s economic policy lead to his victory?

“I think that voters felt ambivalent about Obama’s economic policies.

They don’t think the economy is very robust right now, the recovery has been too slow and they worry about very large deficits,” Coiner said.

Even Mann was ambivalent to cite Obama’s economic policies as a boon for his presidential race. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say [the election] was a validation of his policies,” she said,

but rather, “its a validation of his vision for America.”

As the Obama administration considers new policy in the future, lawmakers will need to know what type of popular mandate the president’s victory has established in the public eye.

Mann thinks that the president will have space to make major reforms in the next four years.

“As a second-term president … he has the potential to actually have the whole, grand bargain discussion.”

In her estimation, “What we have to bring to the table is social security, Medicare and tax reform.”

Coiner agreed. Despite “only a partial validation of his economic policies,” he conceded, “I think [the victory] does give him a stronger mandate to undertake policy.” Like Mann, he predicted that Obama will “try to work with Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff and perhaps to negotiate a grand bargain of spending cuts and tax hikes.”

Although Americans have not been satisfied with the past four year’s tepid recovery, their voting habits seem to indicate a continued confidence in the president’s ability to shepherd the economy.

debate Professors Mann (above) and Coiner (below)

debated economic policies Monday evening.

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

6 The Brandeis Hoot

FEATURES

November 9, 2012

March of Dimes chapter to hold first lecture series

By Rachel Hirshhaut Editor

Damiana Andonova ’15 became interested in the complicated topic of premature birth when she was just a junior in high school.

“I was always fascinated with obstetrics and perinatology. In 11th grade I realized that causes of prematurity are still speculative,” she said.

“Way back in the 1500s, DaVinci was thinking about causes of prematurity and still no one knows why some babies are born prematurely.”

That mystery inspired Andonova to start a new student organization at Brandeis this year: the first and only collegiate March of Dimes chapter in Massachusetts. March of Dimes is a national activist organization that fights for the health of babies. Originally founded during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency to help polio victims and fund a cure for polio, the organization succeeded and its official mission changed in 2003 to focus on fighting prematurity, birth defects and improving babies’ health.

Andonova believes that Brandeis was the right place to begin this chapter because of its variety of social justice and community service programs. “This is an issue that extends beyond whether you like babies or not. This is about universal themes of social justice, access to health care, equality,” she said.

“Our mission as a club is advocacy, philanthropy and education. We want to make meaningful learning experiences while we build a volunteer force that not only stays true to the March of Dimes mission but educates the Waltham community about the importance of prenatal care and ways we can support the fight against prematurity,” Andonova said.

March of Dimes will hold its firstever speaker series, BabyTalk Colloquium, this coming week from Monday to Saturday, in honor of World Prematurity Day on Nov. 17. The discussions feature eight doctors and one public health researcher. They are meant to appeal to a variety of people, not only pre-health students, Andonova says.

One lecture is geared toward neuroscience majors; another book-related lecture is intended to engage English majors.

The speakers include three Newborn Medicine Fellows from the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts University on Monday; Dr. Sarbattama Sen, a researcher of maternal obesity

at Tufts on Tuesday; Dr. Adam Wolfberg, author of the book “Fragile Beginnings: Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU” on Wednesday; Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson, MPH from the Heller School of Social Policy, an expert on infant mortality and maternal health disparities, on Thursday; Dr. Leslie Kerzner, an NICU doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital, on Friday; and a capstone discussion on Saturday with Paul Sukithamapan, a Brandeis alumnus and founder of Project Plus One. “The purpose of these events is to create transparency and discourse among doctors, researchers, families of Lemberg students and Brandeis students. The council thought in one hour we could combine social justice, science and narrative medicine by sharing, collaborating and discussing our common goals,” said Andonova, who plans to pursue the pre-med track of the HSSP major.

March of Dimes already has a strong relationship with the Brandeis science department. The organization gave its annual research grants of $150,000 to two biology professors, Avital Rodal and Suzanne Paradis (who specialize in neurobiology) this year.

The club also has a three-member faculty advisory committee, led by Judith Tsipis, director of the Genetic Counseling Program. These science professors “can help illuminate part of our mission,” Andonova said.

brandeis march of dimes Club members flier the campus.

photo by rachel hirshhaut/the hoot

IBS’ Mann nominated for EIU Business Professor of the Year

By Emily Beker Staff

Professor Catherine Mann (IBS) was nominated last month as Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Business Professor of the Year. Mann began teaching at Brandeis in 2006 and spent 25 years prior to that working in Washington, D.C. Mann has taught at least one course every year since she completed her Ph.D. at MIT in 1984. Before coming to Brandeis, from 1990 to 2000, Mann

catherine mann

would fly back and forth on the weekends from Vanderbilt to teach. She taught a class at the school of management every spring semester and continued to do so for 10 years.

Mann is no stranger to the act of teaching.

“You can say that every time you stand up in front of a crowd you are teaching. One thing I found interesting was in my Washington time period, based on my research, I would not go and give the same talks but similar talks day after day after day to differ-

ent groups, either about the global or local economy, or role in information technology and outsourcing,” Mann said.

“When you come to teach, you have the same group and you are giving different talks, each one growing on the next. So, in a way talks are the same thing as teaching.”

While in Washington, Mann describes how her “academic part was part-time and my policy was full time,” a switch, for “now the university setting is full time and policy work is part-time.”

Even though she now teaches at Brandeis, Mann is still involved with the Federal Reserve, the World Bank and sometimes the Peterson Institute for International Economics. All of her work is project-based and is more directly involved with policy questions.

Mann teaches a wide variety of students on campus. Teaching undergraduates, graduates and students aiming for their Ph.D., Mann teaches international macroeconomics and finance to the undergraduate student body; the primary students in that class are juniors and seniors. Her work with the graduate students involves

their core courses. She teaches two of the five courses all first-year graduate students must take.

One course she teaches is Global Economic Environment. The format of the course is the illustration of major economic concepts through case studies. The class is broken up into smaller groups, so the international students feel more comfortable speaking.

Mann then hands out different roles in each case study. This week, the class worked on a case about the economic concepts underpinning productivity growth in Singapore. The question on the case was whether or not Singapore should try to enhance its economic growth by targeting an investment in government or in the biomedical sector.

Another course she teaches on the graduate level is Advanced International Macroeconomics. That course discusses what determines exchange rate, the international traffic flows and other topics.

On the Ph.D. level, Mann teaches a reading course. Once they finish their formal program, meaning their courses, they have to begin the process for their theses. Mann pulls together

25 or so different working papers to show the process of writing a paper that will eventually be part of their thesis. They have to present the paper of their choice, which is based on their interest, as the author would. They are taught to use advanced econometrics in this class in addition to being provided with a lot of literature with which work.

Her recent nomination was due to student nomination. Current and former students can vote for her, among 250 other professors from all over the world for the EIU award, a division of The Economist.

The committee assesses factors such as how the number of years the professor has been teaching and the size of the school when determining the final four professors. Once the final four are selected, they travel to London to present a talk on a topic of their choice, somewhat reminiscent of a teaching competition. Mann was the only Brandeis professor nominated for this award.

Mann expressed optimism about her role in teaching economics to the Brandeis community.

“I really like what I do; I’ve done it for a long time,” she said.

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

November 9, 2012

The Brandeis Hoot

FEATURES

7

Professor and journalist reflect on complicated black-Jewish relations

By Nate Lurie

Special to the Hoot

Professor Ibrahim Sundiata’s new Class, “The History of Black-Jewish Relations in America,” examines two groups that have helped to define the American experience. On Monday, the topic was explored in a new light at the joint Brandeis Black Student Organization and Hillel organized “Common Ground: Exploring Black and Jewish Relations.”

Jonathan Kaufman, Pulitzer Prizewinner and Bloomberg News education editor, spoke alongside Professor Ibrahim Sundiata (HIST). They discussed the history of relations between America’s Jewish and black communities, emphasizing their cooperation in the Civil Rights movement and a precipitous decline in mutual understanding during the following decades.

Both groups define themselves by struggle. The Atlantic slave trade and the treatment of slaves in the New World was a brutal display of inhumanity. In the United States, some slaves managed to have families, but

relied on their master’s whim. At any time, couples and children could be split apart. Struggle did not end with Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Today, this history is central to the identity of blacks in America, Sundiata said.

Meanwhile, Jewish communities in Europe experienced adversity that stretched from pogroms in the East to exclusion from daily life and pseudoscientific racialization in the West.

Understandably, many were tempted to drop it all and jump onto a ship to America.In the beginning there were few Jews coming to America and most whites accepted the newcomers as not black. A few Jews owned slaves, while some in the North supported abolition early, Sundiata said.

But in the 20th century, places like Manhattan’s Lower East Side became flashpoints for conflict. When blacks moved to the North for work during the war years, Jews were already beginning to move out of the cities.

Blacks replaced them, but Jews retained property and businesses. For a time, the perception grew among blacks that Jews lorded power over

tenants and store patrons.

But there was a sense of empathy within the Jewish community. As Sundiata explained, grants from Jews helped encourage the prolific artists of the Harlem Renaissance and Jewish donors supported institutions helping blacks in the rural South. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was a cooperative effort by leaders from both communities.

Kaufman offered explanations for a few peculiarities of black and Jewish interaction. During the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King had a strong connection with Jewish leaders like Rabbi Abraham Heschel, a central figure in the Reform and Conservative movements. He likened his march at King’s side during the Selma to Montgomery March to “praying with his feet.”

The “Common Ground” event helped build an understanding of relations between blacks and Jews in the present. Following the speeches, Malika Imhotep ’15 encouraged discussion, which took place at individual tables instead of with the entire room.

Vancea ’14 pursues passion for film

By Emily Beker Staff

Originally from Romania, Paul Vancea ’14 is representative of the diverse multitude of students at Brandeis University, having arrived in the United States six years ago. His family had the ability to come to the United States because they won the visa lottery.

In Romania, different families can apply every year to become an American delegate. Each year a few families are interviewed and chosen for the opportunity to be a delegate. Criteria for selection is based upon family situation and motivations behind the move to America.

Vancea is currently majoring in business, economics and film. He chose to major in business and economics because before coming to Brandeis he was incapable of understanding business. Vancea feels that with economics he is “learning a concrete set of skills.” Majors like sociology interest him as well, but do not entail the same concrete skills economics requires.

After a JBS course called Script to Screen, which he took two summers ago, he became interested in film.

Vancea prefers to watch non-fiction films, some of which are adaptations from biographies and autobiographies.

When Vancea first arrived on campus, he got involved in Brandeis Television and the program afternoon enrichment, which brings local middle school students to Brandeis. During his first year, he also started Brandeis Health and Fitness club with some of his friends.

This current semester, Vancea has cut back on his involvement in clubs due to his current work in film. In addition to his film work, Vancea has two jobs on campus. He worked at Ollies for two years and he began working this year at the Getz Media lab in the library.

His job at Getz media lab involves working with the Experiential Learning groups, designing promotional videos.

Working alongside EL fellows to determine their goals for the project,

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

paul vancea

Vancea has also created videos for DCL. Currently, Vancea is in the process of communicating with Damon Lee from Hollywood to discuss a contract for YouTube videos.

Vancea first met Damon Lee last year when he visited a film class on campus, and they have has since been in contact. The premise behind the series is centered on faith. Vancea explains, “It is about a girl who is religious, she reads the bible and goes to church but she is a stripper.”

When discussing his future plans for applying his film and business major, Vancea stated, “I feel like I can do so much with business and film but I always go toward film so I want to spend the summer in Hollywood and

see what I like best and either be a producer or an independent filmmaker.”

When asked about the possibility of returning to Romania as a filmmaker, he said, “I would like to go back to Romania if I have a project that interests me, because I have not been back in six years, but only if I have a project that interests me.”

Vancea expressed his excitement about being in the United States, stating, “There are so many opportunities here. When I went to school in Romania, I wouldn’t know what I wanted to do but after college there would be a big blank. Here I still don’t know what I want to do but there isn’t a blank after college. The fact that I go here for basically free because I have almost a full scholarship is really amazing.”

In terms of internships, Vancea expressed his desire to alternate between film, economics or business internships every summer.

Last summer he interned at the Albright Stonebridge Group in Washington, D.C. during the months of June and July.

Vancea described the experience as “incredible because all the interns had access to the important parts of the company, the chair was down the hall from me and I was able to meet so many new people. It was beginning to get funny because it was like I said we are going on a second date.”

“They did not let you pay, asked things about you and got to know each other. By the end of the summer I came out with a stack of 16 business

cards and I still keep in touch with them, some I am friends with on Facebook,” he added.

This coming summer, Vancea is hoping to be put in a position where he can choose between attending a good financial institution or pursuing his passions in Hollywood.

Last summer, Vancea began a documentary about Eli Segal, for whom the Segal Citizen Leadership Program is named after, which funded his summer internship.

His favorite part of making movies is coming up with the idea and collecting a group of people to make it happen.

Despite his confession that he does not adore the filming process itself, he does enjoy the editing process: “I like the beginning, middle and end.”

8 The Brandeis Hoot

sports

November 9, 2012

Men’s soccer defeats NYU; returns to NCAA tournament for first time in 27 years

By Brian Tabakin editor

The 17th-ranked Brandeis men’s soccer team defeated NYU 1-0 in the regular season finale Nov. 3. With the win, the Judges finish the season with a record of 16-2-1 (4-2-1 UAA) and a four-way share of the UAA title for the first time ever.

A bizarre series of events led Brandeis, Washington University St. Louis, Emory and Carnegie Mellon to share the UAA title. After Brandeis earned the win over NYU, Washington and Chicago battled to a scoreless draw. Shortly after that match ended, Emory defeated Carnegie Mellon, causing each team to finish with 13 points in conference play.

Carnegie Mellon earned the automatic NCAA berth by virtue of their 2-1 record against the other teams tied for the title and their head-tohead tiebreaker against the Judges.

Prior to this year, Brandeis’ best UAA finish was second place, accomplished in 1990, 1997 and 2002. This season also marked the fourth time in program history that the Judges won 16 games or more. Previous years include 1981 (17-3-1), 1984 (19-5) and 1985 (17-3). The 1981 and 1984 teams both reached the Final Four of the NCAA tournament, reaching third place and national runner-up respectively. The Judges’ singular national title came in 1976 when the team finished 15-2.

In the first half of the game against NYU, the Judges struggled with their offense as they were outshot 6-1 by the Violets and were called for eight fouls, compared to just one for NYU. Blake Minchoff ’13 kept the Judges in the game, making two key saves to keep NYU off the board while the Judges tried to get their offense going.

Tyler Savonen ’15 thought the Judges were trying to do too much in the first half. “We always knew what was at stake. We had to win. We tried to stay calm since we knew we were better than NYU. In the second half, we just played our game and we won.”

After a listless first half, the Judges turned up their offensive pressure in the second half and took eight of the first nine shots before finally getting on the scoreboard.

In the 63rd minute, after an offensive burst of three shots at the net that produced two blocked shots and one that sailed wide to the right, the Judges earned a corner kick. In the 67th minute, Lee Russo ’13 put the ball in play and it bounced off the head of Sam Ocel ’13 and past the NYU keeper to put the Judges on top 1-0.

The goal was Ocel’s 10th of the season and his UAA-leading seventh game-winning goal of the campaign.

In combination with Russo, the Judges have had two 10-goal scorers in a single season for the first time since 1994.

After the goal, the Brandeis defense did their job as they shut out the Violets to preserve the 1-0 victory.

On Monday after their win over NYU, the Judges gained an at-large berth into the Division III NCAA tournament for the first time since 1985.

With their season record of 16-21, the Judges have earned the right to host first and second-round games.

Savonen stressed the importance of playing home games: “We’ve had great success here with the fans and Coven’s Corner. If I was the other team I wouldn’t want to play at a place where I had 100 fans screaming at me.”

Their first matchup will be against the Baruch College Bearcats, winners of the City University of New York

fighting for position Judges maneuver to gain control of the ball and apply offensive pressure.

Athletic Conference (CUNYAC), Saturday at 5 p.m.

Savonen acknowledged that the Judges don’t really know a whole lot about the Bearcats. “We try not to look into the opponents too much.

We just focus on playing our game and executing.”

The Judges will bring the UAA’s top-scoring offense into the matchup, having scored a staggering 48 goals in 19 games. Lee Russo ’13 and Sam Ocel ’13 were the top-two scorers in the UAA with 31 and 28 points, respectively, and are both on the Judges’ top-20 all-time scoring list.

This will be the first time that the Judges and Bearcats face off. The Bearcats return to the tournament for the first time since 2006. Oren Kozilowski led the team with 13 goals and five assists during the season, for a total of 31 points, while as a team the Bearcats scored 44 goals in 19 contests.

The only common opponent the Judges and Bearcats faced this season was NYU: the Judges won a tight 1-0 match while the Bearcats lost 4-0 on Sept. 15.

Immediately following the match between Brandeis and Baruch, Tufts

photo by paual hoekstra/the hoot

University will play Vassar College.

The winners of each match will face each other in the second round Sunday, Nov. 11 at 5 p.m.

The Judges’ side of the bracket is filled with some heavy hitters but Savonen and the team do not lack confidence. “Every section of the bracket has heavy hitters. I like to think we can play with them and that’s the mindset we have. I think we can win a national title.”

For the tournament, students will need tickets. It costs $6 for the general public, $3 for students and is free for Brandeis students with ID.

Volleyball drops both games at UAAs; earns top seed at ECAC Tournament

By Brian Tabakin Editor

The Brandeis volleyball team lost both of its matches at the University Athletic Association tournament at Emory University Nov. 2, finishing in seventh place.

In the quarter-finals, the Judges lost 3-0 in straight sets, 25-18, 2513 and 25-21, to 16th-ranked and second-seeded University of Chicago.

In the semifinals of the consolation bracket, the Judges fell to sixth-seeded Rochester in straight sets: 25-17, 25-19 and 25-21. Since NYU dropped out of the tournament, due to Hurricane Sandy, there was no seventh place match.

The Judges, therefore, will finish the season with a record of 19-13 (1-8 UAA).

While their 1-8 in-conference record is marginally better than the 0-10 mark from last year, the team’s inability to compete in their own conference has become a disturbing pattern heading into the postseason.

The tournament’s opening match against the Chicago Maroons illustrated this problem. Not only did the Judges lose in straight sets, they never even led an individual set.

The closest lead they came to was a 3-3 tie in the first set.

In the second set, the Judges were able to pull within two points after a kill by Lauren Berens ’13,

but Chicago immediately answered with a 6-1 run to take control of the set.

In the third and final set, the Judges once again fell in an early hole, 5-1; however, the Judges scrapped and clawed their way back into the set and a kill from Becca Fischer late in the set cut the Maroons lead to 23-21.

Unfortunately, Chicago regrouped and subsequently closed out the match winning the next two points.

Liz Hood ’15 had 10 kills, leading all players, while Berens finished with eight kills against one error in 18 attempts for a .389 hitting percentage.

Setter Yael Einhorn ’14 posted her ninth double-double of the season with 24 assists and 11 digs, while Elsie Bernaiche ’15 led the team with 18 digs.

It looked like Brandeis would be able to salvage their tournament, however, with a win in the consolation round against the Rochester Yellowjackets.

After taking an early 5-2 lead in the first set, the Judges appeared to be pulling away; however, Rochester rallied to tie the set at 7-7 and then tied it again at 10-10.

Rochester then scored four of the next five points to make the score 1411, a lead that they would never give up as they finished the set on a 15-7 run.

The Judges never sniffed a lead in the second set as the Yellowjackets led the set from start to finish. In the third set, the Judges once again fell

behind early-on by scores of 3-1 and 5-2; however, they were able to claw back and tie the game at 7-7 before Rochester went on a 7-3 run to take control of the set. The Judges tried to make a final push, pulling within one point at 20-19, but the Yellowjackets turned back the Judges’ efforts and closed the match with a 5-2 run.

With eight kills Hood tied for team honors with Si-Si Hensley ’14. Hensley also led the Judges with 13 digs, while Einhorn collected her second double-double of the tournament and 10th of the season with 27 assists and 10 digs.

Throughout the season the Judges had stressed the importance of mental toughness and offensive execution; however, on too many occasions this season, the Judges folded under adversity and failed to execute their offensive sets.

On the bright side, the Judges managed to return to the New England Division III ECAC tournament for the first time since 2009, grabbing the top overall seed.

The Judges were supposed to open the tournament on Wednesday; yet, the snow and messy weather caused the tournament opener to be delayed to Friday at 6:30 p.m.

The Judges will face eighth-seeded Albertus Magnus, 12-12 on the season, for the first time. The semi-finals and finals will be hosted by the highest remaining seed so if the Judges keep advancing, all games will be played on their home court

photo by ally eller/the hoot

Swimming and diving improves

By Connor Novy Editor

Brandeis swimming team had a pair of losses to Roger Williams University last Saturday but managed to win 10 events. The men’s team lost 144-110 and the women’s team fell by 152-116.

Distance swimmer Theresa Gaffney ’16 finished first in the 1,000yard freestyle at 11:49.30, while Holly Spicer ’13 won both breaststroke events and set personal best times.

She placed first in both the 100-yard with a time of 1:10.65 and the 200yard with 2:34.02.

Fay Laborio ’16 received her first two wins in both the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke, with times of 1:07.58 and 2:24.17, respectively. Fallon Bushee ’16 came in second place by .31 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle event.

The men’s team saw Brian Luk ’16 pick up three victories: the 100-yard

freestyle in 49.74 seconds, the 200yard freestyle in 1:50.28 and the 100yard butterfly in 55.97. He made personal bests in both the 200-freestyle and the butterfly.

Max Fabian ’15, only two weeks after setting a school record in the 1,000-yard freestyle, again took first in the same event. He finished nearly 26 seconds before the second-place finisher, with a time of 10:06.76.

Fabian also won the 500-yard freestyle with 5:00.59. He finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke with a 2:22.34 time.

David Lazarovich ’16 finished second in the 200-yard individual medley with a 2:12.65. Women’s team Lauren Cruz finished in the same place, in the same event at 2:27.57.

Niko Karkantis ’13 placed second in the 50-yard freestyle with 24.08, two seconds later than his prior personal best.

The Judges will compete at Providence College on Nov. 10.

November 9, 2012

The Brandeis Hoot

SPORTS 9

Women’s soccer rides defense to NCAA tournament

By Brian Tabakin Editor

Earlier this week, the women’s soccer team defeated NYU 3-0 in the final match of the regular season behind a pair of first-half goals from Dara Spital ’15 and a stalwart effort from keeper Francine Kofinas ’13 as she made a season-high five saves in the first half.

With the win, the Judges finish the season with a record of 13-4-2 (2-32 UAA), finishing fifth place in the UAA. Spital gave the Judges a lead they would not relinquish just five minutes into the game. She gained possession of the ball at midfield and then dribbled past her defender to the left and then unleashed a bullet, beyond the reach of the NYU keeper, into the right side of the net. The goal was Spital’s 11th of the season and her seventh game winner, first in the UAA and fifth overall in Division III. Spital credited the first goal to a great pass. “After the pass, there was a lot of space to work with and I beat a couple of defenders,” she said.

Aided by their relentless defense, the Judges generated sustained offensive pressure on the NYU keeper for the next 20 minutes, firing off seven shots on goal. Spital broke through once again in the 25th minute to pad the Judges’ lead.

Midfielder Mary Shimko ’14 played the ball into the box where Spital then deflected the ball off the far post and into the goal. This was Spital’s third multi-goal game of the season, but her first such game since early Sep-

tember. The assist was Shimko’s second of the season.

After Spital’s second goal, the NYU offense came alive and Kofinas stood on her head for the Judges, making three saves in a span of only five minutes. She denied Serra Tumay in the 43rd minute and then stopped both Amelia Hammerl and Leslie Smith in the closing seconds of the first half before the final whistle.

Keeping with their system of dualkeepers, Michelle Savuto ’15 picked up where Kofinas left off in the second half, anchoring the Judges’ defense.

Savuto opened up the second half with another save on Hammerl to keep the Violets off the board. Savuto made two more saves before the game ended to complete the Judges’ 13th shutout of the season, extending their single-season record.

Brandeis added a third and final goal with just 1.9 seconds left in the contest after Zoe Siegel’s ’13 corner kick was played from Megan Kessler ’14 back to Haley Schachter ’16 who tapped the ball into the net for her first collegiate goal of the season.

Two days after the game, on Monday, the NCAA announced that the Judges had received one of the atlarge bids for the tournament. This will be the Judges’ second berth in the tournament in the past three years.

Spital and the Judges have been focused on the match ahead and not getting caught up in the tournament hype. “Our main goal is to stay focused and play how we’ve been playing and reflect who we are as a team.”

The Judges will travel to Amherst

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

converging on the ball Two Judges defenders close in on the ball aiming to clear the zone.

College on Saturday, Nov. 10 for a 1:30 p.m. matchup against 24thranked Union College (15-3) who earned an at-large selection from the Liberty League.

If the Judges make a deep run into the tournament it will be on the back of their defense. They set a school record with 13 shutouts in 19 games as Savuto and Kofinas split time in goal; Kofinas started every game while Savuto played the second half and overtime. Brandeis finished second in the league with 87 saves and fourth with a .82 goals-against average.

Spital credits the team’s defensive

prowess to team chemistry. “We have a lot of heart. It makes keeping the ball out of the net easier when you trust each other.”

Spital led the Judges’ offense with 12 goals and five assists on the season for a total of 29 points.

An auspicious sign for the Judges is their 5-3-1 record against teams in the regular season that made the tournament. This heightened competition will help the Judges in the always competitive NCAA tournament.

In the tournament, Union will make a staggering 10th appearance in 14 years. The Judges will have

to contain senior forward Jennifer Mansfield who was named the Liberty League player of the year with 13 goals and four assists, finishing the season with 30 points. Their keeper, Kayla Marti led the league with a .874 save percentage.

Union’s only three losses this season were played against Rochester Institute of Technology and William Smith College, both of which made the NCAA tournament.

The Judges and Dutchwomen had only one common opponent on the season with both squads defeating the Rochester Yellowjackets 1-0.

Men and women’s fencing earn medals in first action of season

By Connor Novy Editor

The fencing team pulled off multiple victories at the season-opening competition at Smith College last weekend. At the New England Fall Collegiate Invitational, colloquially called The Big One, four men and two women from Brandeis’ fencing team medaled. The wins included Caroline Matos ’16, who pulled a win for women’s foil, Adam Mandel ’15 with a silver and Jess Ochs-Willard ’15 with bronze.

Mattos, in her college debut, scored 30 touches while allowing only a single touch in five-point bouts, sharing the top seed.

She made it to quarterfinals of the elimination bracket, with 45 touches scored to just four allowed. Mattos had her closest match with Linda Zhang of Boston College but defeated her 15-9.

Mattos defeated Vassar student Katie LeClair in the semifinals 15-7 and then won the gold with an impressive 15-4 win over Sacred Heart University’s third-seeded Jayme Smith.

Captain Zoe Messinger ’13 performed admirably in the saber, going 5-0 in the preliminary rounds, proceeding to the quarterfinals where she was defeated by MIT silver medalist Robin Shin.

Emmily Smith ’13 went 4-1 in pool play before falling to Shin in the round of 16.

The men’s team placed three of the top-ten finishers in the saber competition.

Mandel won all six of his bouts with a combined 30-1 score while Ochs-Willard had a 30-7 scoring edge to go undefeated.

ready stance Adam Mandel ’15 prepares for the next

photo courtesy brandeis athletics

bout.

Mandel made it into the semifinals, including a 15-9 win over fellow Brandeisian Ben Loft ’15 in the quarterfinals.

Mandel then defeated Brown’s Denis Dukhavalov in the semifinals with a score of 15-14 before losing the title match to eighth-seeded Nick Deak of Brown.

Ochs-Willard refused to allow his opponents within seven points on his way to the semifinals. His closest bout, also against his own teammate,

came against Eric Shen ’16 in the round of 16. Ochs-Willard defeated Boston College challenger Devin Midgley 15-6 in the quarterfinals before also losing to Deak, 15-10, in the semifinals.

After an extremely successful first meet, both squads will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 1 p.m. for the Northeast Fencing Conference Meet at MIT along with BU, UMass, Tufts, Sacred Heart, Wellesley and MIT.

features

10 The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2012

Creative writing program sponsors Judeo-Russian author

By Dana Trismen Editor

Gary Shteyngar’s book reading at Brandeis Nov. 5 was not only an important literary experience for students but also an accomplishment for the creative writing department.

Associate Director of Creative Writing Steven McCauley assures, “We’ve been trying to bring Gary Shteyngar to Brandeis for several years.” A prolific writer, Shteyngar’s arrival was made possible by multiple factors. “He’s doing a reading elsewhere in Boston,” says McCauley, “and the Russian studies department was contacted by his booking agent.”

Also sponsored by the Brandeis Genesis Institute for Russian Jewry and steadfastly encouraged by Irina Dubinina, director of the Russian Language Program, Shteyngar’s book reading was available only through the communication and cooperation of departments.

McCauley describes how Shteyngar “has a big following among college students, is a major contemporary writer and a greater performer and some of his novels have been taught in courses in the English department.” Born in Leningrad, USSR, to Jewish parents, Shteyngar rose to fame with only three novels. His works have won the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction, become New York Times Notable Books and won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature.

With a talent for satire, Shteyngar is famous for making fun of everything and everyone.

While McCauley admits that for book readings, “audience size varies greatly from event to event,” the Shteyngar reading was extremely well-attended. Extra chairs had to be added to accommodate the swelling audience. McCauley explains that the large audience could be due to a partnering with different departments, for it “builds audiences for the reading series and [attracts] students outside of English and creative writing who might not ordinarily consider attending a reading.” Indeed, as Kathy Lawrence announced Shteyngar’s reading, she proclaimed he should feel at home due to the large number of Russian-speaking Jews in the audience.

Shteyngar chose to read from two of his novels, his newest, “Super Sad True Love Story,” followed by his first, “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook.”

Both scenes chosen illustrated dating scenes and Russian culture. While “Super Sad True Love Story” is set in the future, the scene Shteyngar read was immensely relatable. He wrote of the relationship between child and parents, whose main hobby is a “painful scrutiny of their only child.” The scene fondly mocked traditional Russian parents, their dining room with “fish-smelling air,” floors “immigrant clean” and loud, noisy personalities.

The second novel’s scene focused less on parents but still concerned itself with Russian culture. It described what its relationship in a “Russian soul” and entailed an uproarious firstdate story.

Shteyngar is all that his books make him out to be: he is a funny man and a comic reader. While he reads quickly,

shteyngar The Creative Writing department cosponsors a ready by Shteyngar.

question and answer Shteyngar responds to questions about his heritage and literature.

all in one breath, he pauses to add different voices to his characters. He would give his Russian voices heavy accents, while American characters’ voices were higher-pitched, their dialogue filled with “likes” and “totallys.”

Even before the reading, Shteyngar illustrated his sense of humor. He mentioned the modern looking cover of “Super Sad True Love Story,” which is adorned with different colored buttons. He describes how it took a focus group to pick the cover. Yet, the end result only serves readers minimally, for, “if you have a small dog like a

photos by ally eller/the hoot

dachshund, it can play twister on this.”

In the question and answer session after the reading, Shteyngar admits his satire is at the ready for everyone.

While he mentions the bad reviews he received from Russian critics, he also states that “nothing gets a free pass, everything sucks in my books.”

His admiration for the United States is nothing extreme, he describes it as “a decent country,” but mentions how “nothing lasts forever” and “every empire comes to an end.” In making fun of the U.S., Russians and Jewish people, audiences can at least proclaim that Shteyngar is certainly fair.

Shteyngar does seem to hold a special place in his heart for Russia. At one point, admitting that he struggles with anxiety and depression, he made it clear he believes returning to Russia is helpful. He proclaims he is trying to find out “who [his] parents really are, and how did they become the people they are,” admitting that that has a direct correlation to himself.

Shteyngar seems to struggle with finding himself and finding the true spirit of Russia, for he believes “nothing ever changes in Russia.” While he describes the political turmoil and poverty in the country, it nevertheless has an irreplaceable hold on Shteyngar. Currently penning a

memoir, Russia is extremely essential to Shteyngar’s person.

McCauley describes the impact that readings like Shteyngar’s can have on students. “It exposes students to a variety of voices and writing styles,” McCauley says. “Meeting a writer face-to-face gives you an instant connection to their work and emphasizes the point that the creation of literature is an ongoing process,” he says. Students were interested in Shteyngar’s history as a writer, asking questions about his creative process.

Shteyngar mentioned how it was his grandmother who got him to write, promising him, “I’ll pay you a piece of cheese for each page you write.” His first story circled around Lennon and a magical goose and ended with Lennon consuming his comrade. More seriously, Shteyngar admits that writing “was a way I could be appreciated” and mentions it as a key to making his first friends.

Discriminated against due to his heritage, Shteyngar found writing as a way to connect.

McCauley vouches for creativewriting-sponsored readings, even when they have very few attendees.

He believes these programs hold true value. “Even if you don’t love an author’s work, there’s always a line or a sentence or an observation in a reading that is inspiring,” he said.

Linsey Pool implements gender-neutral locker rooms

By Victoria Aronson Editor

Rather than provide changing facilities strictly divided between males and females without consideration given to differing sexual orientations, the university athletics department recently implemented gender-inclusive locker rooms at the Linsey Pool Center. Deemed a proactive measure

by Athletic Director Sheryl Sousa, the changing rooms are currently available for use.

According to Sousa, prior to the creation of gender-inclusive locker rooms, the Linsey pool center, which was constructed in 1967, possessed only two entrances to the pool deck through the distinct male and female changing rooms. Recognizing the potential discomfort this may pose for members of the Brandeis com-

munity, the athletic center sought to create facilities that would remedy the situation.

Acknowledging the innovative nature of this approach, Sousa stated, “I believe Brandeis is ahead of our peers in this area and especially with universities who have older buildings like ours.”

Despite the proactive nature of these facilities, however, Sousa reveals that due to the building’s structural design, “access to the gender inclusive locker room requires assistance of the lifeguard on duty to open an exterior door that leads directly to the pool deck.”

She encourages students wishing to use the gender inclusive locker rooms to contact Jessamine Beal, staff member at the Intercultural Center for assistance.

As a proactive measure, the recent creation of gender inclusive changing

rooms supplements numerous services available on campus for students of varying sexual orientations.

For example, The Queer Resource Center, founded in 2003 as a branch of Triskelion, was “designed to provide support to the queer and allied community,” according to an anonymous representative from the organization.

In collaboration with other campus organizations such as STAR, SSIS and PERC, the Queer Resource Center participated in Campus Cares, an event encouraging students to utilize diverse resources on campus.

Despite this collaboration, a representative from the club emphasized the unique services provided by the Queer Resource Center, stating, “The main difference between the QRC and other counseling organizations on campus is that our main focus is on LGBTQA+ issues and as such the

majority of our training is spent going into great depth on queer topics, whereas other groups focus more on topics relating specifically to their organization, for instance, sex and sexual health for SSIS and relationships for STAR.” In the past, the Queer Resource Center has organized informational sessions in first-year residence halls, presenting educational information such as the distinction between sexuality and gender among other topics.

According to the source, however, the club is currently in the process of revising this program in hopes of implementing a new version by the end of November.

In order to become a member of the Queer Resource Center, candidates are required to undergo extensive training sessions grappling with a range of diverse topics and issues.

An example, according to the rep-

resentative, “program QRC staffers receive training in supporting and counseling people of all identities, including but not limited to Trans* (the Transgender umbrella), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Asexual, Queer, Intersex, BDSM, Kink, Polyamory and Allies.”

Beyond providing support to members of the queer community, the resource center also extends its services to suicide prevention, self harm, domestic violence and sexual assault.

According to the representative, “all staffers are trained in supporting individuals who may be dealing with any of these issues and more.”

Despite the current need to request entrance to the gender inclusive changing rooms, which Sousa attributes to the structural design of the building, she asserts, “The Linsey Pool is a popular facility on campus and we want to see all members of the community be able to enjoy it.”

November 9, 2012

THIS WEEK IN PHOTOS

The Brandeis Hoot 11

First Snow photo by lien phung/the hoot

whiteout The first snow of the winter season descends onto campus.

Town Hall

play to win the game Above: Snow dots the Castle. Students watch the election results,

and the voting precinct in Waltham Right: Jesse Manning ‘13 discusses Bob Dylan.

photos by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

EDITORIALS

12 The Brandeis Hoot

The active duties of citizenship

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editor-in-Chief Jon Ostrowsky Managing Editors Leah Finkelman Emily Stott Senior Editors Nathan Koskella Brian Tabakin Connor Novy News Editor Debby Brodsky News Editor Rachel Hirschhaut Deputy News Editor Victoria Aronson Features Editor Dana Trismen Features Editor Juliette Martin Arts, Etc. Editor Zach Reid Deputy Arts, Etc. Editor Zoe Kronovet Impressions Editor Morgan Dashko Copy Editor Nate Rosenbloom Photography Editor Jun Zhao Graphics Editor Gordy Stillman Business Editor

Volume 9 • Issue 25 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.

November 9, 2012

A

fter billions of dollars in advertising blitzes, thousands of miles crisscrossing the country for stump speeches and newspapers dominated by partisan headlines, when the TV networks began to call the final swing states late Tuesday evening, the nearly two-year presidential campaign of 2012 came to a close.

And in the early morning hours, as Democrats rejoiced in victory and Republicans awoke to the reality that the party alienating Hispanics, women and young people, among others, could not win the support of the American people, Governor Romney and President Obama took their respective stages in Boston and Chicago to deliver speeches, speaking to families exhausted but still gazing at the television sets in their living rooms.

In a political campaign dominated by choice between Democrat and Republican, left and right, and attempts to portray the contest as one between candidates catering to wealthy or middle-class Americans, the speeches early Wednesday morning struck a dif-

ferent tone.

Romney, displaying grace, sincerity and patriotism, just minutes after suffering a defeat to his presidential aspirations that began years ago, explained the calling to all Americans, not the twisted political messaging that dominated his campaign.

“And we citizens also have to rise to the occasion. We look to our teachers and professors, we count on you not just to teach, but to inspire our children with a passion for learning and discovery,” Romney said from his campaign headquarters in Boston. “We look to our pastors and priests and rabbis and counselors of all kinds to testify of the enduring principles upon which our society is built: honesty, charity, integrity and family. We look to our parents, for in the final analysis everything depends on the success of our homes.”

As Romney said, ultimately, people from all backgrounds and walks of life, not elected officials, determine the effectiveness of our government. His call to educational and spiritual leaders and parents was genuine. And in all com-

munities, including at this university, it holds true today.

Speaking shortly after, the president echoed a similar tone of citizenship and patriotism over political partisanship.

“The role of citizen in our democracy does not end with your vote.

America’s never been about what can be done for us,” he said before the thousands of supporters rallied in Chicago.

“It’s about what can be done by us together through the hard and frustrating, but necessary work of self-government.

That’s the principle we were founded on.”

Regardless of who you voted for, the words Obama and Romney spoke on Wednesday must now fill our conversations about the relationship between government and citizenship. And here at Brandeis, students have a vital role to play in shaping a national political discourse built around service to our community and service to the public.

For now, we have seen enough political campaigning. The time for governing and active citizenship, has arrived.

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.

connect phone • (781) 330-0051 e-mail • editor@thebrandeishoot.com online • thebrandeishoot.com twitter • twitter.com/thebrandeishoot facebook • facebook.com/thebrandeishoot

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

CORRECTION

The article, “Legacy fund hosts symposium on poverty in America,” published on Nov. 2 incorrectly stated that “The Other America was a novel.” It is a work of non-fiction. It also misspelled David Duhalde Wine’s name.

Letter to the Editor

I

Professor Sullivan’s removal is sad news for free speech

don’t see how praising Hammas for “good health care and kindergartens” indicates “rampant antiSemitism.”

Nor do I see how arranging trips to meet Arab political and religious leaders indicates anti-Semitism.

God forbid that he assigns proPalestinian scholarly works. He even assigned the “Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” as one of the readings for his class.

Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer

cite that book many times in “The Israel Lobby and Foreign Policy.”

Despite that “students and faculty had a variety of opinions about the issue,” only one view is represented in the article, which is that of a Brandeis Zionist Alliance member. Turns out Sullivan isn’t the only one who is one-sided.

I agree that it’s wrong for professors to give bad grades to students who disagree with them. But there is no proof that Professor Sullivan is guilty of this,

just claims by a few students and the former director of Hillel at Northeastern.

This is the first time in history where the act of criticizing a country’s policy is considered, as The Hoot’s headlines states, “offensive.” Professor Sullivan’s removal from the list of faculty at Northeastern is an affront to free speech and should be condemned.

--Manoo Sabety-Javid

OPINION

November 9, 2012

The Brandeis Hoot 13

The major (and minor) dilemma Two members of The Brandeis Hoot, an editor and senior versus a sophomore Opinion staff member, debate the merits of the Brandeis liberal arts model. At issue is the tendency of Brandeis students to accrue multiple majors, and the lack of many core requirements, as compared to most other competing colleges, and the ongoing balance between depth and breadth of an undergraduate education.

Multiple majors misses the point of a liberal arts education

By Allison Thevdt Staff

Brandeisians’ deep need to major and minor in many subjects is so ingrained in our campus culture that it was featured in the popular video, “Sh*t Brandeis Students Don’t Say, Part 2.” A girl is shown going to the registrar, saying, “Hi, um, can I declare my one major and zero minors?”

Whether it is a double major, a triple major, or multiple minors, it appears that everyone here pursues more than just one field of study. In fact, this multitude of majors is something with which our school prides itself. I remember a Brandeis representative who visited my high school during my senior year and made it one of his selling points.

And I’ve passed by more than one tour group as the guide explains how easy it is to double or even triple major. The most common combination, I’ve found, is the double major and single minor. But why do we, as Brandeis students, feel the need to have so many majors and minors?

Perhaps it’s because it’s so easy to just pick up another minor or major here. I’ve gone to several “Meet the Majors” events where a professor or student will tell me, “Well, if you’re interested in it, you should just minor!

The requirements are easy!” But it’s at times like those when I wonder why I would minor in something just for the sake of having that extra minor. It seems to me that many students end up trying to build their resume with many minors and majors simply because it is easy to do so. Ultimately, this practice creates shallow understandings of subjects. At Brandeis, instead of students prioritizing and focusing all their energy on one or two subjects, they spread out their focus in order to try and add on another major or minor.

It’s not that Brandeis students don’t care about or are not interested in their majors— it’s just that choosing to have three majors instead of one forces you to limit the amount of time you spend on each major. Why not choose the one you really love and then just explore the other subjects? Why does having as many majors as possible take precedence over the in-depth, expansive education you could achieve with just one major?

Choosing one major would allow you to focus on your passion. It is hard to truly delve into your area of passion if you are stretched-thin because you must fulfill all of the requirements for the three minors and two majors you are pursuing. One major exemplifies what it is you want to concentrate on and you can explore all other subjects to whatever extent you wish.

Not too long ago, I was talking to a professor about studying abroad and whether or not I should go for one semester or two.

What if I want to pick up a second major, I asked, and couldn’t complete my requirements (should I study abroad for a year)?

The world doesn’t care how many majors you have, my professor told me. And to give up studying abroad for a whole year, just for that reason? He recommended I not worry about it.

If your main worry is to build up your resume, there are different (and better) ways to

do that; you can put down specific classes on your resume to show how you are prepared for a job, you don’t have to have a major in that area. You can study abroad for a whole year and truly master a language. You can get a super awesome internship during the summer. You don’t have to major or minor in something as a way of proving that you are interested in a subject and prepared to tackle it in the real world—you can be perfectly prepared to enter the job industry without majoring in everything relevant to your field.

There are also things more valuable than having multiple majors; there are things in getting a college degree that are more important than being able to succeed in the real world. Education and the process of learning in themselves are incredibly valuable, regardless of whether or not you end up majoring in your career field. Exploring topics in a way that doesn’t include pursuing three majors— just taking an environmental class, a class on gender studies, or a politics class once or twice during your college career can have an incredible value. You can take what you learned in those classes and apply them to your field of interest, instead of having multiple fields of interest and never getting any different perspectives. Two majors and a minor? Unless you’re deeply passionate about all those things, I would say don’t do it.

Undergraduate college is about breadth, not depth

By Nathan Koskella Editor

As a senior frighteningly close to his last semester at Brandeis, I recall one of the top reasons I decided to come here in the first place. At Brandeis I can take classes of all different kinds and rarely, if ever, have to take any classes I do not want. I have never hated a class here, even the few I only took for my major requirements.

Majors at Brandeis are so flexible and university-wide requirements are frankly so superficial that, in addition to learning a lot, I have so far loved every lesson.

During my sophomore year, I started taking courses just for fun because it was so clear that I could finish a major—I have two, with a couple minors—with plenty of credit-hours to spare.

I decided I wanted to double in politics and American studies very early-on and these majors include about the largest number of crosslisted classes as possible. But the vast majority of programs here at Brandeis, and no one needs more than one, allow for plenty just-for-fun classes. Here students can take classes that they never, ever would have taken without Brandeis’ liberal definitions on requirements and doublecounting. I’m even taking a class in the mathematics department this semester—yes, math.

No matter the major here, students get to take

graphic by linjie xu/the hoot

classes beside those of the subject to which they are dedicating their lives and tuition dollars. A liberal arts education is about broadening the mind and Brandeis students can expose themselves to all types of pedagogies, teaching styles and subjects.

The amount of cross-listing opportunity, the small number of required classes for most majors and the lack of strict university requirements set Brandeis apart from other schools.

Majors elsewhere may be aimed at intense study within one’s own field, increasingly focusing on narrower and narrower subject matter as one gets closer to completing a bachelor’s degree. But Brandeis chooses breadth. And from an educational point of view, it makes sense: an undergraduate degree is rarely the final degree for many fields, but conversely is the last degree obtained for the vast majority of American students (those lucky enough to attain any secondary education at all).

Over-specializing as an undergrad would be unproductive for most students, who come for a liberal arts education to broaden their minds with a holistic education that can apply to any path in life. The Brandeis system allows one to pick a field of particular interest but all its degrees are designed to teach to broader skills that are used in any profession.

An undergraduate degree from Brandeis in sociology does not make one a sociologist—it shouldn’t, and very few people who get one want to be actual sociologists. Brandeis’ liberal arts education is desirable because this university does not try to make an undergraduate degree something that it is not, a qualification by itself to practice many of the things in which we may technically major, such as biology or French.

In addition to low requirement counts and lax double-major and cross-listing standards, Brandeis offers a very permissive pass-fail option and late drop period: all of these things contribute to the varied-educational experience. After getting the breadth of the Brandeis education with these features that enable you to take all manner of subjects outside your comfort zone, you are ready. Either you are ready for the real world, as an educated, more well-adjusted individual, the path so many choose, or else prepared to take your major in anthropology and apply to grad school, where that further degree is the right one to qualify you to be a real anthropologist. But with my American studies major, I too could apply to an anthropology Ph.D. program. Thus, Brandeis’ system more honestly represents the true nature of higher education.

And if this has not convinced you, the Brandeis policies of cross-listing and lack of forced specialization can actually let students choose the method they like best for themselves, either breadth or depth. Nothing stops one from taking all the courses your major offers, matching the higher number of requirements at other schools and making sure you are more specialized than the average Brandeisian. In fact, Brandeis’ toothless general requirements can permit you to specialize even more, as we are free from a heavy-handed “Core Curriculum,” with which the lion’s share of major universities burden their undergraduates.

Most importantly though, you are permitted, not forced. The Brandeis system is most preferable because you can choose—for yourself—between the vision of breadth most academics here like to espouse and the depth that one needs to become a paid academic.

14 OPINION

The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2012

ELECTION 2012

Now that the presidential race is over, Hoot editors and staff discuss the campaign season from three angles: Israeli-American’s voting trends, privileges associated with the right to vote and media coverage of the campaigns.

American Jews: Israel shouldn’t be the only focus during election season

The right to vote and what it means

By Zoë Kronovet

By Zachary Romano

According to the Jerusalem Post, a record number of Israeli-Americans cast their vote in this election.

Four times the amount of absentee ballots were sent from Israel to voice their support for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. Unsurprisingly, Israelis supported Romney over Obama.

Exit polls show that Romney received 85 percent of the Jewish vote via absentee from Israel. This is in direct opposition to the 69 percent of the Jewish vote that supported President Obama in America. This discrepancy is easily explained and highlights the differences between Jews in America and our countrymen residing in the homeland regarding presidential politics.

When analyzing the results from Israeli absentee ballots, one shouldn’t read too far into them.

Israeli-Americans live in Israel because, for whatever reason, at this current moment, they want to be in Israel more than America. There is nothing wrong with that. We must understand that Americans choosing to reside in and consider Israel their home make decisions with their “Israel brain” of what is best for Israel. They are thinking solely of the consequences of the presiden-

though half of the coverage was about how the outcome would affect President Obama’s next two years and the prospects for his possible reelection.

As soon as the midterms were over, pundits and analysts kicked 2012 into high gear. While this had some benefits, such as the Daily Show’s latest special “Indecision 2012,” they were few and far between.

Once the GOP primary election season began, things were at least interesting. Primaries are fun because, at least from my perspective, one gets to watch a collection of aspiring candidates tear each other apart. It didn’t matter that it was the Republicans who were stuck spending time finding a candidate to unify around, a Democratic primary competition would also have been hilarious had they not had an incumbent to support from the beginning.

Election season has thankfully concluded. Mass media will cease to play political advertisements and discuss the Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney saga. I am proud to say that this election felt very much alive in political spirit between both parties and across all ages. During election season, it is quite common to hear people talk about voting as a privilege or something that must be done.

Most people see voting as part of our duty as citizens, but I think this is quite flawed. Our citizenship can be reflected beyond the act of voting.

Why should voting hold much more weight than any other form of civic engagement? For Americans, many of us see it as the ultimate way for our voices to be heard; the one time every four years that we have the most active decision-making in our country.

American history shows that voting has always been a hyper-political topic. For several populations, the obstacles to gain suffrage were far greater and truly did give them a voice in society. The meaning of a vote is relative to the historical context. Using the women’s suffrage movement as an example, democracy was incomplete without the right to vote. Through this, voting has become a symbolic act in American culture. It shows that we are actively engaging our government by determining its course. Without voting, democracy would ultimately fail. Citizens find solace in having the right to voice their opinion and voting is an extension of this form of expression. If one does not vote, they lose that chance to express their opinion.

But an individual is not worse off by choosing not to vote.

I think the issue comes out of this differentiation between those who do and do not vote. It becomes a form of “othering,” with those who choose not to vote seen as somehow throwing away democracy and not performing their civic duty. This feeling of obligation toward voting is something that I do not understand. There are many valid reasons to not want to vote. In this past election, I personally did not feel totally invested in either candidate. Many of my peers also based their votes on “the lesser of two evils,” seeing both candidates as bad choices.

This is why the decision not to vote should not be a scrutinized issue. In a predominantly two-party system, there is always a seemingly black-andwhite decision, a 50-50 shot of making a good choice. If neither candidate suits your needs as a citizen, then you oblige yourself to vote on a false foundation. But if you do not vote, then

See MEDIA, page 15

See VOTE, page 15

Editor

Staff

See ISRAEL, page 15

Still Writing

graphic by leah finkelman/the hoot

The election is over … finally

By Gordy Stillman Editor

The headline doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of how excited I am that the election is over. While I preferred a particular candidate, by the time the debates began at the start of last month, I was ready for it all to end. This was not because I had already voted—I sent in my absentee ballot a week before the first debate— but because the election cycle had become rather long.

President Obama’s reelection campaign was a no brainer from the day he was first elected. Barring some major policy failure, it was clear that he’d be one of the two major candidates.

Governor Romney also remained politically active after the 2008 election cycle, raising money for congressional candidates, publishing a book and commenting on—but mostly opposing—legislation such as the Afford-

able Care Act. Since President Obama’s first term began, pollsters and news media dedicated resources to assessing possible GOP primary candidates. Seriously, almost three full years before the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primaries, CNN published a poll on prospective 2012 nominees. Hell, less than a week after President Obama was elected—before he was even inaugurated—sites such as Zogby.com ran polls on expected candidates.

What’s more ridiculous is that Newsweek ran a poll in October 2008, more than four years before the 2012 election, in which Romney won the most votes for the Republican nomination.

The problem is not that we have so many potential candidates all trying to get a leg up on their competition. The problem is that news media thinks three to four years ahead of an election is a good time to start drawing attention. Furthermore, the media can only do this because we the

public buy into it all.

Four years ago, I wasn’t exhausted and sick of the election when November rolled around. While that might have been the excitement of voting for the first time, I like to think that in the last election cycle I was better able to avoid more of the hoopla than this time around. I’ve spent almost all of the 2012 election cycle at Brandeis, a college campus with quite a few politically active students. Even without my friends from the Democratic and Republican clubs all harping about their candidates, I was much less successful in drowning out the excess this time around.

Especially during my time in college, unlike in high school, and I expect, unlike in my eventual future career, I spent a lot of time on the Internet. Not only on the Internet, but also while watching TV during study breaks, the 2012 election has been front and center. During the 2010 midterm election, it felt as

November 9, 2012

To improve mental health, reevaluate the culture of success

By Juliette Martin Editor

Repeatedly during their first week at Brandeis, students are told that should they need help there is a plethora of resources available to them. Any question has an office to which it can be directed, counseling sessions are available without cost and we are told that there is no reason to hesitate in reaching out.

But too often after our first week, we forget to engage in a discussion about the reasons why mental health issues surface during our college years.

Recently, a story made the rounds on social media networks of a student who was nearly forced out of the University of Amherst after seeking help in the wake of a rape by a fellow student. Several years ago, a professor was murdered at the University of Texas after her student was failed by his school’s mental health services. After two suicides on our own campus in as many years, isn’t it time we put serious thought in the way we look at mental health?

Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy as simply reforming our own campus system—though that is undoubtedly the best place to start. Troubles with the system at Brandeis are a symptom, and while treating it will certainly ease the issue on this campus, the ailment is far deeper than that: the problem at hand is likely an expression of a culture that refuses to deal with mental health in productive and understanding ways.

In the United States, there is a widespread cultural attitude of self-reliance.

In many cases, people don’t want to ask for help for fear of burdening their friends and family, or for being seen as less worthy, important or successful person. There is an incredible pressure on soldiering through, on persevering alone in pursuit of some hazy, illdefined and often unattainable portrait of happiness defined by success: the American dream, a concept that lives on in our ideology but exists less and

less often in the realm of reality. Working one’s way up to success is more and more challenging as the gap between rich and poor grows ever greater. Similarly, the concept that sheer perseverance, against all odds, which will yield this sweet ideal, becomes gradually unrealistic.

Our concepts of success are changing drastically. In truth, perhaps American culture no longer needs this idealistic obsession. The world, and the role of Americans in it, is changing— so, why then does this obsession with self-reliance as the value of a person’s worth in this world so stubbornly persist? But persist it does, and as a result, mental health has become stigmatized, implying that one is less worthy, a label that is as blatantly wrong as it is intrinsically harmful for those to whom it is assigned.

That insidious attitude may well be the root of the aforementioned problems with the way universities deal with mental health: the concept of success is at the heart of much of academic culture, but it is time to reform the way that success is offered and defined.

There should be an understanding that there is absolutely nothing wrong with seeking aid in the path to success.

And until the attitudes discussed can change, issues regarding mental health will continue to be stigmatized, viewed as issues that should be cast aside and as problems that should be overcome with that good old American spirit.

This is not an active disregard, but rather the final face of an overall attitude of self-reliance in equation to success that pervades this culture and infects everything we do. It is time not only for a shift in the way this and other universities prioritize mental health, but also in the way our culture dismisses it as a personal failing. The first steps in this path have already been taken, and it is time for a serious movement in university culture to reestablish our concept of success so as to better the way we deal with issues of mental health.

A right is not an obligation VOTE, from page 14

you are seen as not exercising your privilege and deemed foolish by those who do vote. This is a catch that I feel many people get trapped in during the election seasons.

Moreover, the electoral college system poses another reason why voting should not be taken as seriously. The electoral college deems certain states more valuable than others. This is a very real discrepancy in the ultimate form of democracy. Every vote should count for one vote and the sum determines the winner of the race. No other nation has an electoral college and I am inclined to believe that there is no incentive to its implementation. This system creates the dynamic of presidential elections in America. In addition, states are simply arbitrary delineations of populations in America. If the states were broken up differently under the electoral college, that would change the outcome of any election.

Yet we cannot change the historical context in which we have developed and that leaves several aspects of our nation, and the political process, arbitrary.

Although I find the amount of activism in each election empowering, I feel that a lot of energy in our society gets wasted on the elections and party politics rather than on the actual issues at hand. For example, instead of going door-to-door and making phone

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The Brandeis Hoot

calls for presidential candidates, those same citizens could do that for civic issues during the non-election season.

People only seem to be active during election periods and then act politically dormant during the rest of the year. Those people are missing the point of civic duty. Ultimately, for me, our civic duty should involve promoting the greater good, not the greatest candidate. Party politics have no place in the success of our country. Each of us are entrusted one vote. What comes with that vote is more important than the vote itself. Democracy believes in the individual and we are fortunate to be able to act as individuals in the eyes of our government.

That is why we see voting as a privilege. Not every nation allows democracy and not every individual has a voice. In this vein, we should all embrace that we have the right to vote.

Most of us do not know anything other than having this right. But I refuse to vote for a presidential candidate solely because somebody else in the world does not have this same right. I will only thoughtfully vote for the candidate who I truly believe is the better choice and who aligns with my core principles. If neither candidate seems to be the right choice, I will not vote. We like to believe that the individual vote is what matters, but there is an individual behind every vote.

Voting does not make our country better, individuals make our country better.

US needs to revamp foreign aid and help victims of genocide

By Rachel Hirschhaut Editor

While watching the foreign policy presidential debate last month, I couldn’t help but notice a glaring omission in both candidates’ answers to foreign policy questions. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney addressed how they would deal with the conflicts in volatile regions of the world—Iran, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries—but each failed to address the state of countries dealing with genocides: Sudan, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo. I saw this information gap as a sign of the larger problem: America needs to do more to stop genocides in the world.

Now, as President Obama begins his next four years in office and the world looks to the United States with a renewed sense of hope and purpose, one truth is clear: Genocide prevention needs to become a more important foreign policy goal in the next four years.

As the largest nation in the free and developed world, I believe we are obligated to share our resources with countries that are struggling. We need to extend a hand to countries even if it isn’t profitable for our country. We need to be humanitarians, not just in our rhetoric but also in our actions.

Twelve million people in total (including six million Jews) were killed in the Holocaust, but how many people

Media’s election coverage began far too soon

can remember off the top of their head that 1.5 million Armenians died in the Armenian Genocide, 1.7 million people in the Cambodian Genocide or several hundred thousand in Sudan? Who can name one action that the United States took to stop or prevent these genocides while they were happening? Hindsight is not always accurate and no one knows for sure if foreign aid from the U.S. could have stopped or prevented these genocides. Conflict is caused by complex and deep-rooted social problems. I still wonder, however, whether or not our nation’s actions could have saved hundreds or thousands of people.

Were we complicit in these genocides because some of us were aware, some were ignorant and we found it easier to remain as bystanders?

The best action the U.S. government can take right now is to increase funding to protect civilians in vulnerable countries. According to STAND, the international genocide prevention organization (with a local chapter on campus), foreign aid and prevention are two sides of the same coin. STAND defines foreign aid as “technical, economic or military assistance provided by the United States in the interest of advancing U.S. foreign policy goals, priorities or interests.” This can include assistance for peacekeeping, health care, education and many other essential human services.

Today, the U.S. spends less than 1 percent of its budget on foreign aid, according to STAND. If anyone needs

proof to believe that our money truly helps prevent conflicts, they need only look at the ways U.S. diplomats stopped post-election violence in Kenya in 2007, or helped South Sudan come into existence as a new nation just last year after years of civil war and genocide.

Foreign aid is an investment. It can save struggling countries from the human, social and financial costs of future conflicts. Almost 20 years after 10 percent of the Rwandan population was killed in their genocide, Rwanda’s GDP is still struggling to recover, according to a World Bank report. Even when a country recovers from conflict they still suffer from its lasting effects. So, to prevent conflict is to ensure a secure future for a country.

Our leaders should also make sure information about global conflicts is more accessible and encourage college students to promote initiatives like the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative—a grassroots effort to push university officials to buy electronics from companies that invest responsibly in Congo’s mineral sector. This is also an initiative of which the STAND chapter at Brandeis is involved.

The world is becoming more and more globalized and part of becoming global citizens is to understand the problems and needs of the rest of the world. As we are aware of current global conflicts, our government needs to use their power to take action to prevent further conflicts from arising and present conflicts from escalating.

In 2012, Israeli-Americans tended to vote Republican

MEDIA, from page 14

ISRAEL, from page 14

While the primaries were hilarious because, as usual, they expose weaknesses in their candidate and set up very amusing general election campaigns from June, or whenever a candidate gets the necessary delegates, until a few weeks before the first debate I avoid election coverage. Once it got down to the final two months, it became watchable again.

While the past couple months of the election had their interesting moments, such as Romney’s “47 percent” comment and Obama’s abject failure to respond competitively in the first of the presidential debates, I paid attention because it was a requirement for responsible voting. After more than three years of activity from President Obama and Governor Romney—barring an October surprise—I didn’t see much point other than to double check the candidates before filling out my ballot.

Only a few days ago, we elected our president for the next four years. It was a long, drawn out process. Some would call this whole extended process the American way and praise the fact that we regularly handle the transition of power smoothly and peaceably. Some argue that the election process is too long and drawn out for a multitude of reasons. One thing is certain, while I can spend hours, weeks, even months researching and paying attention to something interesting, the years that are necessary to follow an election from start to finish are past my tipping point. I hope that by the time this column prints we as a nation will have had a few days to relax before people start talking about 2016. Then again, who am I kidding?

There’s probably already a poll for 2016 on the Internet.

tial election for Israel. The domestic consequences of their vote are not necessarily a top priority when they fill in their ballot with an ink pen.

They want an American president who will support Israel with no limitations, who will provide financial, public and military support. This is not an unreasonable request. It is, however, selfish and should not be a barometer of Jewish opinion on presidential candidates.

This problem is not limited to votes cast from abroad. There are many American Jews who will proudly vouch their vote for Romney. Similar to their Israeli counterparts, American Jews want a president that will unwaveringly support Israel. They want a president that will constantly affirm Israel’s importance in foreign policy. Because of these demands, this is exactly what is happening on a national stage.

Again, according to the Jerusalem Post, during the third and final presidential debate, Israel was mentioned an astonishing 32 times. The Jewish voting block is far too important for any presidential candidate to neglect to reaffirm their love and commitment to Israel. American Jews possess a sincere, but unnecessary worry that a presidential candidate in the near future is going to announce that he or she no longer supports Israel.

Israel is still, however, in the most basic sense, just another country.

In the same way that no American would be all right with the government writing a blank check to just any country or cause, a blind philosophical and financial support of Israel would be unwise at best. The perspective that despite historical

ties, and an American responsibility toward a country it helped to create, it is necessary for a candidate to pledge unwavering support for Israel should be kept in check. I like the fact that Obama doesn’t let Israel get away with whatever it wants.

Israel, despite what many American Jews and Israelis believe, does not always know what is best, nor do they always do the right thing. I want a president who isn’t going to be constantly bowing out, or blindly supporting and agreeing with Israel’s actions. I want a president with a backbone in foreign affairs. Obama has a clear analytic mind and is calm and rational in action. Romney was worrisome for a multitude of reasons, but in respect to Israel, he would have supported Israel out of blind faith, instead of truly evaluating its demands and actions.

But Romney appeared to be exactly what Israelis want, an American president who will stand with and act in accordance with Israel’s whims without critically thinking about its actions. Israeli-Americans who submitted their absentee ballots in support of Romney were choosing what was best for their own homes, like any other American. The Romney/Ryan ticket would have lent blind-support for the country in which they live. It is understandable that Israeli-Americans and American Jews were so disparate in this year’s election: they were voting for the candidate that benefited them. That the policies of the candidates inspired such division is not the fault of the demographic, but rather it is the result of a system that requires a candidate, in order to gain the support of a certain demographic, to unwisely pledge a foolish, undying support for a country with its own interests.

16 The Brandeis Hoot

arts, etc.

November 9, 2012

Despite valiant efforts, ‘Bat Boy’ flounders in absurdity

By Juliette Martin Editor

Built off of a tabloid story, “Bat Boy” could not have been more ambitious. The musical tells the story of a young bat humanoid found living in a cave and chronicles his struggle to learn the truth of love as he settles into human society, despite its overwhelming hate toward him. In concept, “Bat Boy” looks to use its unsettling subject matter, which includes not only the feral child to which the title refers, but also rape and incest, to raise important questions about humanity and compassion. While “Bat Boy” was never intended as a show that made logical sense, and rather sought to find its impact in emotional appeal, Tympanium Euphorium’s production seems to have lost its way and fallen prey to the sheer absurdity of the show.

It is from the standpoint of lighting and set that “Bat Boy” draws its greatest strengths. The production used light to establish mood and create emphasis during climactic moments, lending great strength to the most epic moments of the story. Clearly, great attention was also put into the set, which featured a cave-like structure dotted with blood and plastered with newspaper clippings about vampires and bats. The structure was put to great use, particularly in the end of the show in which the mouth of the cave was covered with a sheet and illuminated with green light, as silhouetted actors within served as a flashback to the Bat Boy’s dark origins.

Costumes, for the most part, were similarly well-done, clearly evoking the musical’s setting and time. They suffered only one moment of imperfection, when a nature-themed sex scene featured two actors, transitioning very suddenly from fullyclothed to dressed entirely in leaves and quickly back again. While the artistic and thematic aims behind this costume change were clear and well done, in reality, the sudden switch and return was confusing and forced.

Despite this strong technical background, the musical aspects of “Bat Boy” struggled. The music was distinctly too loud, making it a challenge for the audience to hear the actors and forcing them to shout in an effort to be understood over both the music and each other. This greatly weakened the music of the show as a whole, as yelling distinctly reduced the quality of many vocal perfor-

mances, which were already quite challenging. The choreography of the numerous dance numbers was very well-done, consistently matching mood and establishing the shows dark, romantic underpinnings—but unfortunately, the actual dancing did not do it’s choreography true justice.

The cast was out-of-synch with both the music and each other, creating a series of awkward numbers in which the townspeople circled the main actors as more of a distraction than any kind of addition to the scene.

“Bat Boy” did, however, feature several strong performances from lead actors. Of particular note was Eliza Dumais ’14 as Meredith Parker, who’s strong and beautiful voice never faltered, and who’s acting ability provided the most emotional moments of the production. In the role of Meredith’s daughter, Shelley, Sarah Hines ’15 was similarly impressive and the songs shared by the two of them were easily the greatest moments of the show. In relatively smaller roles, Micheline Bellmore ’15 and Caley Chase ’16 also impressed, fully entrenching themselves in the portrayal of their respective characters. In the second half of the play, Jason Dick ’14 was a welcome presence in a pair of comedic roles that made use of his clearly

considerable talents. Not every performance, unfortunately, stood up to such standards. In the early part of the play, Zev Kupfer ’15 showed great promise in his role as the titular Bat Boy (also called Edgar), fully occupying the fear and unsettling nature of a feral, half human child—but the performance began to fall flat as the anti-hero grew more socialized, lessening the part’s potential emotional impact as Kupfer struggled in the vocal demands of the part. In the role of Thomas Parker, Danny Steinberg ’15 similarly struggled, ultimately delivering a stilted and forced performance in dialogue and song alike.

It is clear that “Bat Boy” was an incredibly ambitious undertaking. To take a show that so finely walks the line between emotional impact and sheer absurdity was bound to present unique challenges, and much respect is due to all those involved in “Bat Boy” for such a valiant effort.

Despite issues, it is clear that a great deal of thought and effort was put into the show. “Bat Boy” was a hard show with difficult roles and even more challenging subject matter and praise is undoubtedly due for all those who worked toward the final production, despite the fact that it fell short of its intended level.

bat boy Students preformed Thursday in the SCC theatre for the opening night of ‘Bat Boy,’ a show as

twisted as it is absurd.

photo by maya himelfarb/the hoot

November 9, 2012

ARTS, ETC. 15

The Brandeis Hoot

Popular and creative, electronica draws crowds to Chums

By Max Randhahn Staff

holy f*ck The band, which has garnered fame for it’s unique brand of electronica, preformed last Friday.

photo from internet source

On Nov. 2, WBRS brought the inimitable Holy F*ck to campus, opened by Bearstronaut in their second appearance at Chum’s. Attendance was middling but filled out by the time Holy F*ck took the stage. Both bands performed some phenomenal electronic music in different styles.

Bearstronaut consists of a quartet of Lowell men who have been together only a short time. Although the band has been making music since 2007, 2011 saw a lineup change. This didn’t affect Bearstronaut’s brand of whimsical synth-pop. Taking influence from a range of bands including, Hot Chip and Talking Heads, early Bearstronaut relied more on their guitars and bass than their electronics, resulting in a more aggressive sound. The band that came to Chum’s, however, saw more of a reli-

ance on synth sounds and keyboards, giving the show a sound that combined New Wave with R&B. The four members call their style “dance music” but admit that the term is used loosely, at best. “Moniker,” a single off of their most recent album, “Satisfied Violence,” epitomizes this trend, featuring ephemeral sounds and percussion trends that date back to the 80s. Lead singer Dave Martineau’s vocals are downto-earth, which prevents the band’s overall sound from becoming too abstract or pretentious. The crowd certainly approved, as most people near the front of the stage danced with fervor. Bearstronaut kept them well entertained, joking with the audience and expressing thanks for being able to play at Chum’s again. As they came to the end of their performance, they obliged WBRS and Punk Rock and Roll Club to call them for a show at any time.

After Bearstronaut finished their

energetic set, Holy F*ck prepared to mystify the crowd with their unique, percussive electronic rock. Hailing from Toronto, Holy F*ck is the project of Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh, the band’s two keyboard players. Borcherdt, in particular, appears in various other Canadian indie bands and as a solo performer with the moniker, The Remains of Brian Borcherdt. Holy F*ck is well known both in the U.S. and Canada, with their debut album ranking among the top 10 of 2005 in a well-known Montreal culture magazine and their most recent album reaching No. 14 on the Billboard dance charts. They have played everywhere from Coachella to Lollapalooza, with such acts as M.I.A. and Wolf Parade and their music appears in such media as Scott Pilgrim and Breaking Bad. Holy F*ck achieved this level of See HOLY F**CK, page 19

With a medieval flourish, Heather Dale refreshes campus music scene

By Zach Reid Editor

Heather Dale performed a concert titled “An Ancient Yule” in Levin Ballroom Monday night. Although relatively few people attended the concert, the band kept the atmosphere light-hearted and fun and made for a good way to relax and listen to some enjoyably atypical music.

Hailing from Canada, the band consisted of Heather Dale as the show’s headliner along with Ben Deschamps, S.J. Tucker and John Stadtlander. The band has released 16 albums thus far and performed in numerous venues in both North America and Europe; Brandeis was one of the early stops in their winter tour. They produce medieval music with a modern twist, which Dale’s website describes as a fusion of “the Celtic folk tradition with a healthy mix of world music and rock influences.”

Despite a late start, they quickly kicked off into an engaging show.

The band played a nicely balanced repertoire, with slower classics like “Ave Maria” standing in contrast with the upbeat rhythms of “This Endris Night” and “The Road to Santiago,” among others. Instrumental solos varied the band’s songs even further,

as each member was featured in multiple songs on different instruments.

These not only prevented the set list from becoming repetitive but also kept the audience’s rapt attention on the soloist of the moment. Each performer seemed to have enormous fun during their solos, showcasing a vast variety of talents. Perhaps the most memorable of these was Deschamp’s jazz flute solo at the beginning of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen/Patapan/Hunting the Wren,” which kept true to the medley’s jolly nature and had the entire room nodding their heads with the beat.

One of the most appealing aspects of the band was their sheer variety of musical instruments: from guitars and basses to the hammered dulcimer, each member specialized at playing multiple different instruments. The program for the performance highlighted this, attributing seven out of 15 instruments alone to Heather Dale. The more common instruments blended seamlessly with classic medieval apparatuses, which were particularly interesting to hear given that they have become such a rarity in modern music.

The lack of substantial attendance for the performance left Levin Ballroom feeling a bit empty and cavern-

ous. Despite this, an undeterred Dale interacted with the audience throughout the performance, often by inviting them to sing along or by telling the background stories of each song.

The rest of the group had no qualms about joining in. Deschamps had the crowd laughing uproariously after telling a story about being chased out of a Florida polling place four years ago during an election. The group was just as comfortable off-stage as they were during their performance.

Members went into the audience to meet their fans and joke around during intermission as well as before and after the performance—a tactic that worked well for them, if the line at the merchandise table was any indicator.

Although Heather Dale performs music from our past, she has carved out a place for herself in the modern day. The band’s great attitude, powerful stage presence and appealing musical variety collide to make them not only good performers, but fun to listen to on recordings. To help promote itself, the band put up free downloadable copies of its album “Perpetual Gift” on its website; if nothing else, download them and listen for a bit— modern Celtic, rocky-folk music just might be a welcome diversion from pop and rap.

heather dale Alongside her acompanying band, Dale preformed her unique music at Levin Ballroom

on Monday.

photo by maya himelfarb/the hoot

18 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2012

‘Halo’ embarks on a new trilogy with a triumphant return

By Gordy Stillman Editor

It’s been five long years since a new game starring the Master Chief, the traditional protagonist of the Halo franchise, has been released. In the interim, Bungie Studios released two games and handed over the franchise to Microsoft’s 343 Industries in order to launch a new game in what had previously been assumed to be a finalized story. Halo 4 is 343’s first true foray into the universe of Halo—not counting last year’s visually-improved Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Good news for 343 Industries, the first game in the planned “Reclaimer Trilogy” is a worthy addition to the Halo Saga.

Halo 4 distinguishes itself from its predecessors with a fresh and intriguing plot, exploring questions of humanity, sanity and characterization. It is a breath of fresh air to a franchise that has otherwise always focused on a war for the survival of humanity.

Not only is it a chance to tell a different story, but for players who’ve grown attached to the characters, it provides a wealth of additional depth.

Having a solid story covers half of the criteria of a great game. Halo 4 covers the other half with great gameplay and controls. The control schemes are numerous and any player should be able to find a control layout that they enjoy. For more traditional players there is an additional layout, as with Halo: Reach, that is similar to the older Halo games.

And any gamer knows that along with good controls comes impressive level design. One of the flaws in earlier games of the series was an overemphasis on shooting things until vic-

halo 4 The game, which features stellar graphics and gorgeous scenery, was released on Tuesday by 343 Industries to millions of expectant fans.

tory was achieved. Granted, the series is chronicled through a first-person shooter, but FPS games are best when they are not so simplistic. Campaign missions have good pacing, balance between puzzle objectives and battles.

Furthermore, the game’s visuals are nothing short of breathtaking. In gameplay, the colors are vibrant, yet toned down to be more gritty and realistic compared to the rest of the series. By toning down the colors, as 343 Industries did, a new tone is set for this gleaming trilogy. The color pal-

Kendrick Lamar enters the scene with a historic debut

By Alec Siegal

Special to the Hoot

Since hip hop rose from the streets of Brooklyn in the 1970s, artists’ careers have largely been measured by their debut albums. Such classics as Nas’ “Illmatic,” Jay-Z’s “Reasonable Doubt” and Kanye West’s “The College Dropout” resulted in career-defining albums that have had a lasting impact on hip hop as an art form. Kendrick Lamar’s official debut album, “good kid, m.A.A.d city” deserves mention along with the aforementioned classics, and instantly launches Lamar to a space shared by few unique stars.

On his official introduction to the world, Lamar displays storytelling ability and a penchant for songwriting that separates him from his peers.

The album is subtitled “A Short Film

by Kendrick Lamar” and Lamar really takes this concept and runs with

it. VHS clicking-and-whirring sound effects and skits that appear at the end of almost every song add texture to an already engrossing experience.

The opening track, “Sherane a.k.a.

Master Splinter’s Daughter” serves not only as the introduction of a recurring character throughout the album, Sherane, but allows Lamar to display his ability to tell an intricate story.

The two title tracks, “good kid” and “m.A.A.d city” serve as microcosms of the overarching story Lamar tries to convey with the album. The latter includes an ingenious guest spot by MC Eiht, whose gruff delivery and in-your-face presence makes him the perfect character to occupy Lamar’s “m.A.A.d city.”

While the bulk of the album reveals layered details of Lamar’s upbringing—alongside fiction—the closing See LAMAR, page 19

kendrick lamar ‘m.A.A.d city’ has been met with both critical acclaim and commercial success.

photo from internet source

ate is not only appropriate for Halo 4, but also helps set the stage for the next step in the series. The game’s graphics are equally successful. In the opening moments of the prologue, it is easy to forget that the scene isn’t a live action sequence. Fans of the more sci-fi look of previous Halo installments, or from other series such as the Mass Effect games, might be disappointed. Halo 4 straddles the fine line of realism and grittiness, while still highly futuristic.

In terms of multiplayer, Halo 4 is much the same as prior releases. All

the standard types are present, with new maps, weapons and customization options available for hours of entertainment. One of the few letdowns of Halo 4 is the drop of the Firefight game mode. While Firefight was very popular and will be sorely missed, 343 Industries is trying something new with a more mission-based Spartan Ops game mode. It’s too early to fully judge Spartan Ops, since it’s dependent on weekly downloaded updates, but the addition appears promising.

Another aspect of the great gameplay

photo from internet source

is the enormous variety of weaponry.

Halo 4 does possesses all the qualities of a good shooting game. The story is engaging; the gameplay is smooth and enjoyable; the visuals are stunning and it strikes a balance between single-player content and multiplayer content. When Bungie ran Halo, a new game came out about every three years after 2001. While 343 should certainly not sacrifice quality for expediency, Halo 4 has made the wait for stories to come much more difficult.

In new album, Lupe Fiasco echoes previous success.

By Alec Siegal

Special to the Hoot

The past two years or so have been a wild ride for Lupe Fiasco. He experienced creative issues with his label, Atlantic, which resulted in a critically panned (yet commercially successful) third album, “Lasers.” “Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt.1” marks a return to the meaningful subject matter, masterful storytelling and lyrical complexity of which we all knew him capable.

“The Great American Rap Album” is not as much a boastful claim as it is a commentary on everything American: society, politics, history and culture, including hip hop. As in his first two releases, the album opens with a thematic poem performed by Fiasco’s sister, Ayesha. She briefly touches on topics that will be further discussed throughout the album, as she compares America with the rest of the world to highlight the problems we face at home.

“Bitch Bad” uses its three verses, each told from a different perspective, to explore the use of the word “bitch” in American music. Fiasco’s delivery on the song is a purposeful imitation of the typical rapper who may overuse the aforementioned word and the beat is standard of a song that may contain such language. These small touches add to the message of the song and Fiasco fills in the rest with his visual narratives in each verse.

“Audubon Ballroom” and “Unforgivable Youth” highlight the ills of America’s relationship with race and its destructive past. “Form Follows Function” and “Put ’Em Up” are purely lyrical—hip hop in its purest form—as Fiasco rhymes circles around his peers and exemplifies why his lyrics deserve repeated listens to fully digest.

food and liquor ii Fiasco’s tumultuous career takes a

photo from internet source

step towards the right track with his latest album.

Thematically, Fiasco sticks to the the same basic subjects but the album does veer off in places. A threesong stretch, beginning with “Heart Donor,” deals with romantic issues, which would normally be acceptable, but in the case of Fiasco’s tightly conceptual project, the songs, while enjoyable, feel out of place and distract from the great flow established by the first eight songs.

Fiasco’s previous album, “Lasers,” was comprised of electronic, EDM influenced sounds, leaving fans pining for Fiasco to return to the traditional hip-hop-leaning beats of his past.

“The Great American Rap Album” may not match the musical dexterity of his first two albums but it does make a marked improvement over the EDM of “Lasers.”

It is nearly impossible to talk about a Lupe Fiasco album release without bringing up his first two masterpieces, “Food & Liquor” and “The Cool.” Fiasco set the bar, so high, so early in his career, that anything less than a classic feels like a letdown. “The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1” is not a classic by any means, but it is an impressive return to form of an artist lauded for his content and lyrical skill.

November 9, 2012

The Brandeis Hoot

Holy F*ck and Bearstronot electrify Chum’s HOLY F*CK, from page 17

fame partly due to their name, but mostly for their desire to create electronic music without the use of any commonplace techniques currently used to make such sounds. Hence, the band relies on toy keyboards, phaser guns and other ephemera such as a 35mm film synchronizer. This was highly evident in their performance as one keyboardist pecked buttons on a console while the other blew into a melodica. The result is a synergy of noise. Holy F*ck is well known by the Brandeis campus, as evidenced by the incredible turnout that the band garnered. The band plays instrumental tunes that are meant to be danced to; their shows are parties, and

you are meant to socialize and have fun. The stage was lit from below by strips of lights, casting an electronic glow on the performers and further enhancing the mentality of a party or rave. Through the expression of their sounds, it is clear that they are fully aware of their status as makers of beats. Holy F*ck is not afraid of dissonance-as-noisemaker, as several of their songs can attest. All told, WBRS put on another successful show with a pair of lovely electronic bands.

Bearstronaut’s new EP “Paradice” is preceded by a release party Nov. 14 at T.T. the Bear’s in Cambridge. This Friday and Saturday, Chum’s will host South By South Brandeis, featuring the talents of Callers, Delicate Steve, Plume Giant and Hospitality.

ARTS, ETC. 19

Arts Recommends BOOKS

photo from internet source

The Bro Code In the popular TV show “How I Met Your Mother” (HIMYM), the playboy Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) often boasts of a mythical code that governs his chosen lifestyle as a “bro:” the Bro Code. In 2008, writer Matt Kun and Harris (using Stinson’s name) collaborated to formally publish the Code, which was gleefully received by millions of rabid fans.

The Bro Code contains 150 articles, which detail the various situations that a bro can find himself in and how he should deal with them; this is not to imply that women cannot be bros, as Harris and Kuhn address in an article called “The Chick Code.” The articles address issues ranging from the proper etiquette for a high-five to determining who will serve as the bro’s wingman, as well as more stereotypical situations such as how to pick up women at a bar.

Every article referenced on HIMYM is portrayed in “The Bro Code,” with classics such as articles 89 (mothers of bros) and 159 (a bro will like another bro’s new profile picture), as well as new ones such as article two (questionable decisions are permitted if other bros are also making them). With each article more amusing than the last, “The Bro Code’s” articles provide a highly enjoyable companion to a critically acclaimed TV show.

zach reid, editor

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‘m.A.A.d. city’ displays hip hop flair

FILMS

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The Shawshank Redemption

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LAMAR, from page 18

track, “Compton,” acts as a transition into the current phase of Lamar’s life.

It features Dr. Dre, a hip hop legend, and a celebratory tone that distinguishes it from the reality based, dark lyrics found throughout most of the album.

Lamar’s in-house producers provide the bulk of the music on the album. This familiarity is evident, as the music is perfectly paired with the lyrical content on each song. “Backseat

Freestyle” includes a loud bass, paired with odd vocal samples that fit well with the aggressive, confident tone of Lamar’s lyrics. “Poetic Justice” features a Janet Jackson sample that smoothly wraps around the seductive, femalecentric rhymes provided by Lamar and featured artist Drake.

With “good kid, m.A.A.d city,” Kendrick Lamar more than meets the hype that has surrounded him the past two years. The good kid from Compton, Calif., breathes fresh life into a genre desperately in need of it.

Frank Darabont’s “The Shawshank Redemption” tells the tale of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a man wrongly imprisoned for his wife’s murder and his struggle to survive in the vicious environment of the Shawshank State Penitentiary.

The true brilliance of “The Shawshank Redemption” lay in the relationship between Dufresne and Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman). Despite Red’s initially callous attitude toward Dufresne, the two quickly become friends, as Red helps Dufresne learn how to survive in his new reality; in turn, Andy’s hopeful personality begins to rub off on Red and other prisoners as he works to improve the prison. The corrupt dealings of Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) are even turned to the prisoners’ favor, as Dufresne helps him with taxes in exchange for improving the prison’s library.

Dufresne’s escape provides the most powerful moment of the movie, as it exemplifies the dedication and perseverance that allowed him to survive the mental horrors of incarceration.

It also prompts a shift in the power structure in the prison, which inspires the other prisoners to keep their spirits high.

“Shawshank” was met with critical acclaim and despite a lackluster box office reception, has been hailed on numerous occasions as one of the top-five movies of all time. A drama of this magnitude is a very rare thing and is definitely worth checking out. zach reid, editor

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