The Brandeis Hoot

Volume 9 Number 26

www.thebrandeishoot.com

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.

November 16, 2012

Late header by Ocel sends men’s soccer to Sweet 16

Women in historic run at NCAAs

Judges to face Williams Saturday

By Evan Goldstein Staff

By Brian Tabakin Editor

Hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament at Gordon’s Field, Brandeis’ fans packed the bleachers with a crowd of more than 500 for two days last weekend, watching the men’s soccer team advance to the round of 16.

The Brandeis fans were treated to a dominating win in the opening round against the Baruch Bobcats as the Judges defeated them 2-0 to advance to the second round.

Sam Ocel ’13 lived up to his UAA MVP honors, scoring both Brandeis goals and setting the tone early on in the game. In the fifth minute of play, the Judges played the ball into the goalmouth from the right side of the 18-yard box. The Baruch defenders deflected the ball past their keeper Helder Correia and to the waiting foot of Ocel who buried it into the net for his 11th goal of the season and his eighth game-winning goal of the campaign.

Despite becoming the first Brandeis player to receive the UAA MVP since

1994, Ocel was in no mood to talk about the honor.

“I’m really getting sick and tired of talking about that,” Ocel said. “I honestly would See SWEET 16, page 10

photos by paula hoekstra/the hoot making history (Above) Kyle Feather ’14 fights for the ball in an attempt to clear it out of

the zone against Baruch College last Saturday.

Univ to launch innovative online program next year

By Nathan Koskella Editor

Brandeis next year will begin offering an online learning program as part of a collaborative effort with nine other leading national universities.

“Semester Online” aims to offer “rigorous online courses for credit from a consortium of universities,” according to BrandeisNOW. Pri-

vate, for-profit education company, 2U, will be used to offer the virtual classrooms interactive interfaces.

“We are excited about joining this consortium of great universities,” Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren said.

Current Brandeis students will be able to participate in the program at its inception, she said.

“All courses will contain both asynchronous material and real-

time virtual class meetings and we expect that courses offered by the consortium schools will meet Brandeis’ high academic standards,” she wrote in an email to The Hoot.

“Thus, Brandeis students will have access to high quality, for-credit courses in a semester while they pursue off-campus research experiences, internships or dealing with personal commitments.”

Provost Steve Goldstein told

Families impacted, students pitch in for hurricane relief

By Rachel Hirshhaut Editor Lassor Feasley Staff As students prepare to return home for Thanksgiving, some must brace themselves for the damage that Hurricane Sandy has inflicted on their hometowns in their absence. In the two weeks since the storm, Brandeis students and clubs have organized many events and ongoing initiatives to benefit hurricane victims.

Stephanie Grimes, Director of Student Activities, held a meeting last week inviting club leaders to discuss starting their own initiatives. Several students came from diverse groups, representing Waltham Group, a

Inside this issue:

BrandeisNOW the initiative was “an exciting step forward, not just for Brandeis but for higher education generally.” The universities collectively hope to “expand opportunities for students everywhere and will help us all gain experience and understanding of the broad potential of distance learning.”

Brandeis will partner with other See ONLINE, page 3

After a successful 13-4-2 season, the Judges found themselves at the NCAA tournament last weekend. Before Saturday’s match, the Judges were riding a high-tide from the 3-0 win against NYU to end their season.

With a losing record against UAA teams this season, the victory over NYU was all the more impressive. This provided the Judges with a needed lift as they went into the tournament, as the clean sheet with the three goals showcased the consistently strong defense along with the clutch scoring power in the offensive zone. This has been the formula for success all season. In fact, the losses that the Judges have suffered this season occurred when more than one goal had been scored in a match. This weekend, the Judges only allowed one goal in two matches, continuing the trend with two wins and a berth to the next weekend of tournament play, the Sweet Sixteen.

The first match of the tournament for the Judges resulted in a 2-1 victory against Union College in overtime, while the second match on Sunday concluded with a 3-0 victory against previous opponent Lasell. In one match, play was hotly contested as overtime was needed to decide the winner, while in the other match Brandeis dominated play.

“We did really well,” Melissa Darling ’16 said. “The first game was close but, overall, for both games we played so good—both our offense and defense was really good—and we controlled the ball pretty well against both teams.” Statistically, the Union match was impartial to both sides while the Lasell match was true to Darling’s description: a match dominated by the Judges’ stellar play.

See NCAA, page 6

‘Rumors’ has it

community-service-based club, and Student Events.

Twelve Brandeis students are traveling to New York City this weekend to volunteer with Occupy Sandy, a grassroots group of ordinary people volunteering with relief efforts, as a collaborative effort between two community service and activist groups, Hunger and Homelessness and Students for a Democratic Society. They plan to help distribute supplies doorto-door to housebound elderly, clean up damaged areas and cook meals for displaced New Yorkers.

Ellyn Getz ’13, founder of the fivemember jazz band, Spellbound, is See HURRICANE, page 2

News: Conflict over cost of Dylan concert Sports: Cross country competes at regionals Features: Local store donates gowns to soldiers Editorials: Stepping up hurricane response Opinion: Debate Israel conflict with respect Arts, Etc.: Exploring ‘The Law in These Parts’

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

‘rumors’ Bethany Adam ‘15 and Nati Peleg ‘13 star in the opening night of ‘Rumors.’ For more, turn to page 16.

Page 4 Kindness day Page 10 Students organize to celebrate the Page 8 annual Kindness Day on campus.

Page 12 News: Page 4 Page 15 Page 16

Political viewpoints BLCU reacts one week after President Obama’s victory.

Features: Page 8

news

2 The Brandeis Hoot

November 16, 2012

Altman’s new appointment reflects decades of experience

By Connor Novy Editor

Professor Stuart Altman (HS) was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on Nov. 1 to chair a new Massachusetts state health commission that will set health care spending goals and track health care providers’ success in reducing costs.

The 11-member Health Policy Board was created to enforce a new health care reform law. With the new law, Massachusetts becomes the first state to attempt to reduce both private and public health care spending, so that it cannot grow at a faster rate than that of the state economy through 2017. From 2018 to 2022, any rise in health care costs would have to be at least half-a-percentagepoint lower than the increase in the state’s gross domestic product.

Six years ago under former governor Mitt Romney, Massachusetts became the first state to require the majority of residents to have health insurance. Massachusetts’ health insurance mandates served as the model for President Obama’s recent national health care program. While the program insisted that most residents have health insurance, the 2006 law did little to slow health care costs.

While Massachusetts has grown at

rate of approximately 4 percent per annum, spending on health care has increased as much as 7 percent.

In an interview, Altman explained his role on the new health care policy board, which “is responsible for overseeing that law and designed to improve the quality of health care while reducing its cost,” he said.

“This is the first law of its kind, the first law that aims to reduce the cost of health care in the state while improving its quality. The committee oversees the key provisions of that law,” Altman said.

The bill, if properly administered, could potentially save as much as $200 billion in health care spending during the next 15 years.

Altman was chosen to chair the new commission due to his experience in the health care field. He served 12 years as chairman of the congressionally legislated Prospective Payment Assessment Commission, advising Congress and the Administration on the Medicare Diagnostic Related Group (DRG) Hospital Payment System and other system reforms. He is also chair of The Health Industry Forum, which brings together leaders from across the health care field to develop solutions for critical problems facing the health care system.

“I have a lot of experience and have

held a number of senior positions in the health care field, which is why I think the Governor came to me to chair the commission,” he said.

Altman has been the recipient of many awards, including being a member of the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences in 1996, Person of the Year, Medicine and Health, in recognition of “courageous stand” on the Medicare Commission in 1999 and was included in Modern Health Care’s 100 Most Powerful People in Health Care in both 2004 and 2010.

For Altman, accepting the position was simple. “Health care is something I’ve been very much involved in for the past 40 years. When someone offers you a job in something you are interested in, in a state you care about so much, it’s hard to say no to that.”

With the recent presidential election finished and Obama remaining in the White House, advocates hope health care reform will begin spreading throughout the country, with Massachusetts’ new law being a model that other states will hopefully follow.

“The recent presidential election definitely affects the future of health care,” Altman said. “Obama’s victory solidifies the continuation and implementation of the national health care reform. If Romney had won, Obama’s

Highlights from a career in health care 2000-2004: Served as the Co-Chair of the Government/ Legislative Health Care Task Force for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1997-1999: Served on the U.S. BiPartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare 1988-1989: Chaired the Advisory Board for the Massachusetts Savings Lives Program, Commonwealth Fund 1984-1996: Served as Chair of the U.S. Congress Prospective Payment Assessment Commission (ProPAC) 1971-1976: Served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation/Health Policy, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare Source: The Heller School for Social Policy and Management health care reform act might have been repealed. Now, however, President Obama can work on putting

the act into action and help securing health care reform in the entire United States.”

Khazei encourages students to be ‘change agents’

By Gordy Stillman Editor

Co-founder of City Year and founder of Be the Change, Inc. Alan Khazei spoke Thursday about the need for the youth in the service movement and the value of the youth vote in recent elections. Khazei spoke to the students as part of the Eli Segal ’64 Seminar in Citizen Leadership and Service.

Khazei met Segal in 1984 while Segal was working on Gary Hart’s presidential campaign. Khazei commented, “When Reagan was elected and then re-elected, we realized that national service was not coming from the president.”

Khazei spoke about his model of “Action-tanks,” which combine the planning and policy ideas of thinktanks with the programs that do the work. City Year was built to develop theories and then test them, rather than just one. Khazei stressed the value of finding a partner and building teams. “It’s more fun. It’s more enjoyable and you have a better chance of success when you have a team,” he said.

In Khazei’s case, his longtime partner Michael Brown was initially his randomly assigned roommate during his first year at Harvard in 1979. “I still don’t know who put us together at Harvard but they knew what they were doing … We just clicked.”

Khazei attributed a fair share of his successes to luck. During the 1992 election, while involved with City Year, the group invited all of the presidential candidates, “to [clearly] be bipartisan” to meet with the organization’s members. Khazei considers it luck that then-Governor Clinton was interested in meeting with City Year and then lucky that he was elected.

From the meeting with Clinton, Khazei told an interesting story of when a member gave Clinton a City Year sweatshirt that President Clinton later wore when he gave a press conference about establishing a national

service organization. Within eight months of President Clinton’s inauguration the legislation was passed and within a year it was all set up.

Tying it all back together Khazei spoke about how President Clinton asked Segal, who had become a significant mentor to Khazei, to help start AmeriCorps. After getting to the topic of when AmeriCorps’ funding was drastically cut in June 2003, Khazei discussed the importance of building a strong bipartisan coalition to pass legislation and restore the program.

Since 1994, when the GOP gained control of the House of Representatives, Republicans tried to cut AmeriCorps “but Clinton always defended it … In 2003 [George W.] Bush was president and both houses were Re-

publican.”

“We all had to combine forces if we were going to save this program,” he said. Khazei said the program was not just grassroots but also had the support of numerous governors, mayors and business leaders. “We got all the money back plus President Bush promised to help grow the program.”

From the experience trying to save AmeriCorps, Khazei emphasized the power of coalitions and why he ran for office. In more than 20 years working with Senator Ted Kennedy, “I could see the huge impact that he made and what a difference it could make … I learned a ton, it’s like a passport … It’s amazing how people open up to you.”

One of the major themes Khazei emphasized was the idea of approach-

ing government in a different way.

Aside from Americorps as a specific example, Khazei spoke about changing the “fundamental question in campaigns,” from asking an individual ‘Are you better off?’ to asking ‘Is America is better off?’

“We gotta get back to our roots. We gotta talk about the role of citizens in our democracy,” he said. Relating to this, Khazei discussed how innovators and entrepreneur are not connected enough to government.“ In the last election, while Democrats were pushing for “more government” and Republicans pushed for “less government … it’s more complicated than that. I believe in government but in a catalytic active government that helps to spur change.”

Khazei discussed the need for public-

private partnerships and the value of bringing the public, private and nonprofit sectors together to build multifaceted solutions.

The audience of mostly Heller students were largely excited to participate when Khazei opened the floor for questions. One of the first asked about how to bring large-scale changes into implementation. In response, Khazei emphasized the need to translate working for change, such as firsthand experience, into advocacy. Along with encouraging “change agents” to use their credibility to advocate for change, Khazei advocated the need to enable non-profit workers’ ability to not only help others achieve the American Dream but also have the American Dream for themselves.

photo from internet source

November 16, 2012

Univ to offer online classes with other elite schools ONLINE, from page 1

elite universities Duke, Emory, Northwestern, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Rochester, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Washington University in St. Louis. The program has left open the possibility of adding a small number of other top colleges before the launch in next fall.

Semester Online aims to offer the same types of courses available at the participant schools

and crucially with the same level of academic expectation.

According to BrandeisNOW, a state-of-the-art virtual classroom, will let students “participate in discussions and exercises, attend lectures and collaborate with peers while guided by renowned professors,” professors who ordinarily teach at Duke, Northwestern or Brandeis.

Class information should be available by spring 2013, with the first enrolled students in the fall. According to Birren, the schools have not yet prepared any announcement for the costs.

photo from internet source

Doonan lectures on state policy implementation after election

By Dori Cohen Staff

Professor Michael Doonan (HS) Ph.D. ’02, spoke Tuesday on “Election 2012: The President, Congress and Social Policy Implications,” during which he emphasized the importance of the states in enacting the social reforms passed in the federal government. The federal level only makes the laws, said Doonan. It is up to the state governments to help spread them and put them into action.

He discussed the implications of policy change on people, opportunity and life changes in the United States and the necessity of state cooperation with the federal government to make these policy reforms de facto.

Popular contention over jobs and taxation, higher education, health care and immigration see wide debate. While the executive branch does have some influence on the matters, Congress passes most of the laws that help reform them. The states are responsible for implementation.

Doonan stressed the importance of work in the state level. “The federal government is going to be a mess for a while; there’s going to be more gridlock,” he said. Just because the fed-

Dean hosts Hiatt biotech forum with Boston-area labs

By Lassor Feasley and Zoe Richman Staff

The Biotech, Health and Science Forum held its fourth annual conference on Wednesday, attracting scores of medical companies and research labs from around the Boston area.

The conference was an opportunity for pre-med and graduate students to mingle with employers and gauge the progress of a broad selection of some of today’s top medical research labs.

The conference, which was hosted by the Hiatt Career Center, included a structured discussion exploring the topic “Unmet Medical Needs.”

The moderator, Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren, a professor of neurobiology, peppered the three panelists with questions pertaining to their diverse medical backgrounds.

Birren has devoted much of her career to the study of neuro-responses involved in different types of developmental disorders, so her shepherding of the conversation was especially poignant.

Three panelists were in attendance, each from a different sphere of the medical research spectrum. Dylan Attia ’06 of Safe Passage Neuromarketing, a venture stage surgical monitoring corporation, shared his passion for small business: “I love working with a small company, I love the opportunity to build a business and I find it very exciting to merge the business venture with embittering patient care.” Attia’s employer, Safe Passage, “works with medical device companies to try and integrate diagnostic elements into what they do.” According to him, this integration represents the solution of an otherwise unmet issue of live diagnostics during surgery.

Birren asked the panelists to explain the progression of their careers.

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While each path described was quite different, the three gave similar advice to the students. First, they agreed on the idea that luck plays a large role in career paths. Flier originally chose to do research, the wrong choice for her.

However, through this mistaken path she found something she truly enjoys.

Dr. Terry Maratos-Flier, professor of medicine at Harvard, explained her passion for solving unmet medical challenges. “There’s nothing more satisfying than going to the lab and finding out something that no one else in the world has ever seen before,” she said of her research, which involves the study of molecular body weight regulators. She sees a commercial medical landscape which is rapidly addressing the world’s unmet medical needs. “If I look at what’s been happening in the last 30 years, there was no such thing as treatment for breast cancer or leukemia, there were things we look at today as chronic illnesses, which were death sentences,” she recalled, “and thats all happened because there are these crazy people in labs who do research.”

Finally, Carla Villacorta, a Health Policy Analyst for the Center for Health Information explained how she works to encourage corporations to increase medical coverage in Massachusetts. “I work with Medicare and we push for marketing for providers to sign on [to accept Medicare coverage],” she said. “But also I go out to the communities to help them know where those providers are.” As an Analyst, Villacorta works to bring transparency to the pricing process of health care providers. She does this “by getting health care costs and quality information, providing objective analysis and specifically information on health care policy.”

The discussion addressed both the unmet health needs of minority communities who lacked access to health care, as well the unmet technological

eral government is inactive does not mean that progress can not be made.

The states play an active role in lawactualization, said Doonan. Many of the reforms that were carried out on the national level are actually due to the work of the governments, of the states.

“Obama’s national health care reform was only brought about because it was foreshadowed in the state of Massachusetts,” he said.

Additionally, federal menu-labeling regulations created by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to which restaurant chains have been opposed since the regulations’ initial proposal in 2010, that outline nutrient-labeling requirements for restaurants that are part of a chain with 20 or more outlets were recently accepted by the eatery chains because such regulations were already being imposed in New York, Massachusetts and several other states. Instead of having to label nutritional values in some states, which is a hassle, the restaurant chain owners decided to do so in all of them.

States should take an even more active role in the lawmaking process, Doonan said, and do as much as they can to secure and extend social reforms in the country.

Afterward, Doonan answered various questions from the audience,

ranging from oversimplified policies to the role of emotion in the past presidential election to, interestingly enough, his thoughts on former CIA Director David Petraeus’ resignation over an extramarital affair.

Doonan’s presentation was part of the Tuesday Talks program, a series of lectures by Heller faculty members and researchers on select Tuesdays throughout the year. Previous lectures given as part of the series include, “Global Health Spending: Learning to Do More with Less,” presented by Professor Allyala Krishna Nandakumar, and “Using Data and Policy Indicators to Monitor Diversity and Equity Among America’s Children,” delivered by Professor Dolores Acevedo-Garcia (HS), Director of the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy.

photo from internet source

ExCEL celebrates programs with egg drop contest

needs, which are expected to be addressed in the future. This served to enhance the audience’s perspective both of industry and public policy concerns. In attendance among the scores of Brandeis students were a myriad of potential employers, including representatives from Beth Israel, GlaxoSmithKiline, the Children’s Hospital of Boston and Pfizer, among other organizations both in the private and public health care realms.

This gave attendees a rare glimpse of a comprehensive sampling of today’s health care and research landscapes.

Students quickly had an opportunity to put Attia’s advice to use as the evening concluded with a chance to “speed network” with a number of attending employers, including many Brandeis alums. The organizations represented blanketed every corner of the health sector, from the Boston Health Care for the Homeless program to HealthCorps to the Research Triangle Institute.

photo by firstname lastname/the hoot photo from internet source

egg drop Students drop eggs from the balcony of the SCC on Wednesday.

4 NEWS

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November 16, 2012

Students rally to celebrate community-wide Kindness Day

By Debby Brodsky Editor

Thursday marked Brandeis’ third annual Kindness Day, modeled after national Kindness Week, where students, faculty and staff had the opportunity to show friends and colleagues how much they are appreciated by sending smiles and giving hugs.

Kindness Day at Brandeis is organized by a committee of representatives from students, Human Resources, Dining Services, Student Activities, the Office of the Provost, Community Service and the Intercultural Center. This year’s Kindness Day slogan is “Kindness: Pass it On.” “Originally Kindness Day was brought to Human Resources by a faculty member in the Sociology Department. She found out that World Kindness Day existed and wondered why Brandeis didn’t celebrate kindness as an institution where social justice is ingrained into our values.

From there it has evolved,” said Rebecca Bachman ’13, one of two undergraduate student representatives on the Kindness Day committee.

Bachman has represented the undergraduate student body on the Kindness Day committee for three years, since its start at Brandeis. She and Gabby Zilkha ’16 are this year’s

undergraduate student representatives.

“This committee spreads out in a web across campus, which enables us to reach as many people as possible on Kindness Day,” Bachman said.

“The goal of Kindness Day is to feel appreciated. There are so many people who do different things for each other around campus that are taken for granted that you may not think about. The real goal is to reach out to students, faculty, staff, facilities and dining services. Everyone who makes this campus run.”

All week, leading up to Kindness Day, students have the opportunity to fill out postcards in Usdan to be sent to friends through intercampus mail expressing their appreciation for one another. Students can even send Kindness Day e-cards to one another.

“Tuesday through Thursday there is tabling in Usdan during lunch and at those tables students can sign big cards that’ll be presented to the mailroom, Sherman and Usdan. People really look forward to the intercampus postcards and get excited about that. At the the tables there will also be pie sales. You can buy a pie and a dollar from that purchase goes to the Community Day Center in Waltham.

We will also have collection boxes for Hurricane Sandy,” Bachman said.

On Thursday, students were able to participate in various service projects in the Shapiro Campus Center to benefit the Waltham community as well as the greater Boston community.

Student Events provided free coffee and munchkins outside Usdan in the morning, Waltham Group’s Kid’s Club held a bake sale to benefit kids with cancer, the Intercultural Center provided hot cider as well as a chance to win 15 pages of free extra printing and students could stop by the SCC all day long to help make no-sew blankets for infants with Cradles to Crayons.

According to Bachman, Brandeis Kindness Day evolves each year. This year, Brandeis has made a Twitter hashtag and encourages students to take pictures of Kindness Day flowers and events to tweet or Instagram with the Kindness Day hashtag.

“Students should feel the warm sense of community in a stronger way than they feel every day, knowing that everyone is a part of this incredible place that is Brandeis and that everyone here really does make a difference,” Bachman said.

During her time on the Kindness Day committee, Bachman has seen an overwhelmingly positive student body response to Kindness Day activities.

photo courtesy rebecca bachman

mayor’s office Rebecca Bachman ’13 (Left) and Student Union President Todd Kirkland

’13 (Right) pose with Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy in her office at Waltham’s City Hall.

“Whenever I tell my friends that Kindness Day is coming they get really excited. People like that extra appreciation and getting a postcard in

their mailbox. It’s really spectacular that there will be a service project that anyone and everyone can participate in all day,” she said.

photos by ally eller/the hoot

kindness Students, wearing their Kindness Day t-shirts, make blankets by tying them together Thursday afternoon in the Shapiro Campus Center.

Flagel, student organizers differ on Dylan concert proposal

By Connor Novy Editor

Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel leaked to the Justice last week that it would cost approximately $300,000 to book Bob Dylan for Brandeis’ potential Folk Festival in April. While declining to give specific costs for the rest of the project, the benefits, he said, might still exceed the cost of the expenditure.

“We thought it would be in our best interest to not discuss money as students because we would not be dealing with it,” said Jesse Manning ’13, one of the student organizers of the event. “We made a conscious effort, both at the presentation and just in general, to not disclose any financials.”

Flagel, who has been “consistently impressed” with the students organizing the event, says the booking price of Dylan is one factor, “I think the price listed, which was not in my understanding, a final number, is one consideration in the business model.”

Previously, Manning had not given a specific cost for the headliner, but Flagel told the Justice last week that the university has offered $300,000 for Dylan’s booking price. While Dylan has yet to be officially engaged for the venture, the offer submitted by

a former consultant to Dylan’s agent was slightly lower.

Manning explained he and the other student organizers were reticent to give specific costs, both because they were not involved in university finances beyond the business plan they presented to the administration and because dollar amounts were “out of context” for the student body.

While a few students expressed reticence in online comments to spend $300,000 on a concert rather than other services they felt were more pressing, Pilger explained that the money was not a general fund. If it were not used for Dylan, it would not be used at all.

“It’s not like we’re have $300,000 of fluid cash for student events. We came up with a project that needed that money,” Pilger said.

“It’s about scope,” said Alex Pilger ’13, who with Manning spearheaded the Folkfest project. In a town hall meeting last week, the organizers had ensured that the university stood to profit from the venture, the cost of tickets to non-Brandeis students covering all of the incurred costs, including Bob Dylan as the headline act.

“It’s not that we didn’t want to tell the student body,” says Manning.

“We didn’t think it was in the best interest of the forums we were going through.” Organizers Manning, Pilger

and Mikey Zonenashvili ’13 felt that the number would alarm people who were not familiar with booking bands or the entire budget of the project.

“It’s just hard for people who aren’t looking at the whole budget,” Manning said.

“I think that the number scares a lot of people,” Pilger explained. “I think a lot of people see the number and they go ‘Oh my god,’ but I think it’s not fair, without knowing the rest of the budget, it would be ridiculous for us to explain the rest of the budget to people as well, it’s just too intricate.

But I would be hard-pressed to say that people wouldn’t be scared by it.”

“I believe most students don’t object to exploring campus opportunities if the external revenue from those programs can cover some or all of the related costs and we are still in the midst of reviewing whether that is true in this proposal,” Flagel said.

Student response, however, seems undeterred by the announcement of Dylan’s price, according to Manning.

“Even the reaction we’ve received thus far has been positive,” he said.

Brandeis’ 50th Anniversary Folk Festival would bring Bob Dylan back to campus half a century after his last concert here in 1963, just two weeks before the release of his second album. If approved by the university, it would bring Dylan as well as other

bands to the campus for an entire day of acts, headlined by Dylan. The following day would be Brandeis’ annual Springfest.

The plan would bring approximately 4,000 people not from the Brandeis community to campus at $100 a ticket. Brandeis students would have free entry to the event.

The size of the outside audience is one of the largest concerns for the administration. According to Flagel, the revenue and press the university receives from the event might just outweigh the risks of the larger audience. What Manning and the other

organizers addressed as a logistical obstacle, which proper space and amenities had to be provided for, Flagel sees as one of the benefits of the might-be folk festival.

“Bob Dylan plays a wide variety of campuses and while this would be an anniversary of an important recording, it seems unlikely to make much in the way of news,” Flagel said.

“Bringing major concerts that bring large external audiences to campus, however, has potential to be a longer term benefit to our campus life, if we can manage the logistical issues and financial risk.”

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

November 16, 2012

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Burnat tells tale of Palestinian struggles

photos by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

By Nathan Murphy Needle Staff

Palestinian protest leader Iyad Burnat spoke Wednesday night about non-violent protests in his home village of Bil’in, a fight against Israeli forces that has lasted decades and led to many arrests and casualties. The event, which included a background presentation and film showing by Burnat, was sponsored by Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine.

Iyad Burnat is head of the popular committee against the wall and settlements in Bil’in, a small village in the West Bank halfway between Yafa and Jerusalem. Burnat has spent years peacefully protesting the presence in

his village by Israeli Soldiers. According to Burnat, Israel built the 750-kilometer wall around the West Bank in 2003 and construction in Bil’in began in 2004. The majority of Bil’in’s population—which is somewhere around 1,800 residents—works as farmers, and during the construction more than 1,000 olive trees were demolished to make way for the wall.

Following the commencement of construction, the residents of Bil’in reacted.

“We started our demonstration every week on Friday and we have been doing it for eight years now,” Burnat said.

Despite their non-violent nature, the protests have not been without bloodshed. “In eight years, we have lost two of our friends,” Burnat said.

One man was shot by a tear-gas canister, and some years later, his sister was killed by the same tear-gas. “We lost them because they participated in non-violent protest, because they said no to the war.”

The presentation also included a film showing, titled “Bil’in Against the Wall,” which consisted of 40 minutes of edited footage from the front lines of Palestinian protest. Audience members watched in silence—some even moved to tears—as protesters chanted “Bil’in will not surrender” and put themselves in the way of Israeli forces. One portion of the video showed Palestinian men throwing stones at Israeli vehicles, causing one viewer to question the so-called non-violent protest strategies.

“The man who was throwing stones,

he was sent by Israeli special forces to make non-violent protest look violent,” replied Burnat. “When we see someone throwing stones, we ask him to not do that. This is non-violent.”

SJP president Noam Lekach opened the event with a moment of silence for the recent events in the Middle East, following the Israeli bombing of Gaza that ended in the death of a Hamas chief during the day on Wednesday.

Hamas retaliated early Thursday afternoon by launching rockets into Tel Aviv, resulting in at least three deaths.

The attacks mark the first time in more than 20 years that rockets have reached Tel Aviv. Tensions have escalated, leaving Israel and Gaza on the apparent brink of war, but protest in Iyad Burnat reflects the more regular, day-to-day conflicts that have charac-

terized the region for decades.

“My small daughter smelled the tear gas at one-month-old,” said Burnat of the strife that has plagued his village for his entire adult life. Burnat also told of his time in prison, during which he was beaten and coerced into pleading guilty for crimes he did not commit. Burnat was among 20,000 prisoners, many of which were children under the age of 16.

“We continue our struggle, despite violence from Israeli soldiers, because we have a right to our land. We have a right to our freedom,” said Burnat.

“It is one Palestine—the same Palestine—and the same Israel committing crimes against Palestinians … we always have hope to change our future.”

Hurricane’s impact still felt by students HURRICANE, from page 1

holding a benefit concert at Cholmondeley’s on Saturday from 9 to 11:30 p.m. The show will feature performances from Spellbound and several other campus celebrities. North Quad Community Development Coordinator Jamie Kronberger is planning a service event for the entire quad, according to Grimes.

Community service and charity coordinators from Hillel and three of its member groups, BaRuCH, BUCO and BOO, organized a Tzedek Coffeehouse last Thursday. About 20 people entered by bringing baked goods to sell or by paying a small admission fee, bought coffee and treats and entered a raffle while watching a cappella performances by Starving Artists, BaNote and Too Cheap For Instruments, a piano performance by Zevvy Goldish ’15 and a performance by the Juggling Club. The event raised $204.

The coffeehouse had been in the works for some time, said Ami Merker ’15, one of the organizers. After Sandy struck, however, Hillel decided to donate the money to hurricane vic-

tims.

“We started planning this coffee house before Hurricane Sandy and we were planning on donating the proceeds to families that were struggling to make ends meet. When Sandy struck we decided that we can still stay true to our cause while simultaneously helping the people that were affected by the hurricane. I would say that we learned to pool our resources and our knowledge in order to help those who need us,” Merker said.

Many students are victims of the hurricane themselves. As they return home for the break, they do not know what to expect.

“The damage in Connecticut was never really reported as thoroughly as the damage in New York or New Jersey,” Adam Lavender ’13 said. “My hometown had power out for about a week, and literally lost school for about a week and a half.” Lavender expects downed trees and other damage to affect his community even weeks after the storm.

Ben Steel ’13, of Kingston, Rhode Island also anticipates heavy damages to affect his home. “I live about five minutes from the coast. There was a

great deal of wind damage, shingles blown off houses, with power-outages everywhere.” To date, Steel has only heard about damages second-hand, “primarily from friends/family and through brief reports on the local news.”

Harrison Morris hails from Mendham, New Jersey, an area hit particularly hard by the storm. “Power was out for roughly two weeks for most of the town and the high school canceled classes,” he said. “There are tons of fallen trees around town. Some houses have flood damage. Two people died after a tree fell on their car during the storm.”

Morris plans to help out however he can when he returns, adding, “I will be helping to clear fallen trees off my family’s property while I am home and will see if neighbors need help with anything.”

Many students are nervous about their bittersweet homecomings as they return to hurricane-ravaged locals. Most have only heard of the damage to their communities through local news outlets and anecdotes from family and friends and many are not quite sure what to expect.

eic@thebrandeishoot.com

FEATURES

6 The Brandeis Hoot

November 16, 2012

‘Oh Megan,’ certified sexologist, educates students

By Dana Trismen Editor

This past Monday SSIS (Student Sexuality Information Service) brought back to campus Megan Andelloux, a certified sexuality educator and sexologist, presenting “Oh Megan: Orchestrating Orgasms.”

Students had trouble finding a seat in Upper Sherman, with the large turnout.

“Megan’s events consistently have 250-300 students at each,” Mark Hajjar, co-coordinator of SSIS said. SSIS is a vocal club on campus, given it hosts numerous events and is omnipresent at first-year orientation and floor meetings. Students have enjoyed “Oh Megan’s” presentations on campus again and again, due to the risqué topic of sex, her presentation skills and the formidable club that is SSIS. As described by Hajjar, “SSIS’s main goal is to serve the Brandeis community. This primarily manifests itself through counseling … but also through the sale of, and education about safer sex products.” SSIS believes that bringing Oh Megan to campus is important, dedicating a portion of their funds to her each semester. “She is able to present a wide array of topics to our students in a fun and engaging format,” Hajjar said.

He mentions that sexuality is a giant spectrum and presenters often find it difficult to include every diverse version of human sexuality.

“Megan has a talent for presenting different aspects of sexuality in ways that engage students and make them think, while still remaining fun and inviting,” he said.

Hajjar believes that Oh Megan is an invaluable learning experience. “For students who would like to explore the concept of sexuality further, it’s a great opportunity.”

At the start of “Orchestrating Orgasm,” Oh Megan outlined the goals of her presentation, which included describing what it is that orgasms are, the average length, the various types and how to have one. A practiced public speaker, Oh Megan’s talent is putting audiences at ease. Directly telling the audience it is ok to giggle and ask questions, she even handed out her phone number so students could text questions if they felt uncomfortable asking it out loud. “I like when people interact with me like I

orchestrating orgasms Audience members giggle during the presentation.

am a living person,” Megan said, encouraging people to comment during every slide. Students did not need much prompting, hands were raised and questions called out enthusiastically.

Oh Megan provided students with useful information they may not have received from any other source. She defined orgasm as the “involuntary muscle contraction in the lower pelvic region,” describing how it is a release of sexual tension that also involves endorphins. She defined people who have “serial organisms,” something she believes our culture is obsessed with. Yet, she also cautioned that the way our society discusses orgasms is often different from the way they actually are, a person can have an orgasm and not even be aware of it.

While she cautioned at the start of

audience participation Andelloux dispels myths about orgasms.

the presentation that this specific topic had in the past made people pass out, the majority of her time presenting was spent going over minute details and answering many questions.

In response to Oh Megan’s more risqué material, Hajjar comments, “I would image there are some [people who do not approve of Oh Megan], but we’ve never really received any negative feedback about her from Brandeis.” He describes Oh Megan as “consistently being a very positive experience,” especially in regards to her success in educating the Brandeis community.

SSIS itself, even without Oh Meghan, perhaps may be one of the most widely -used clubs on campus.

“I think the two services that benefit the student body the most are our safer sex education and our counseling,”

said Hajjar. “[They] really go hand in hand.” SSIS also utilizes texting, allowing students to ask any question quickly and without embarrassment on their phones. Hajjar comments on the questions SSIS receives, saying, “Many of our students have questions about sex and sexuality and for them

to have a safe place to ask questions and voice their concerns about sex is invaluable.”

Hajjar believes Megan’s lecture is simply another way to educate people and help them explore sexuality, “whether or not they intend to put it into practice.”

megan andelloux Certified sexologist educates students.

photos by ally eller/the hoot

November 16, 2012

The Brandeis Hoot

FEATURES

7

Graphic design club helps student artists express themselves

By Victoria Aronson Editor

As a recent acquisition to the Brandeis community, the Graphic Design Club merges artistic capabilities with crucial technical skills to design marketing tools such as flyers, logos and apparel for a diverse assemblage of organizations across campus. Explaining her passion for graphic design, current president Diane Somlo ’15 likens the process to a puzzle, in which the objective is to “best convey the intended information, message or idea in an artistic and clever form.”

Originally co-founded in 2011

by Lenny Schnier ’13 and Sophie Golomb ’13, the club has already designed promotional material for more than 30 groups on campus, including the Brandeis International Journal, the Skydiving and Future Endeavors Club, the Astronomy Club, WBRS and the International Behavioral Economists and Finance Association, among others. According to Somlo, the recent completion of the design for the logo for Crowd Control, an improvisational theater group on campus, is currently being advertised on Facebook to promote the group’s semester performance.

Co-founder Schnier, a senior art studio major, traces his initial inspiration for the creation of the club to his observation of the “lack of academic graphic design programs on campus and any kind of allied community supporting the students who were interested in design.”

Seeking to unite individuals interested in the field while himself considering the possibility of pursuing a career in graphic design, Schnier first

proposed the concept along with peer and co-founder Golomb in the spring of 2011 during his sophomore year.

Upon receiving approval, Schnier and Golomb initiated the club in the fall of 2011 during their junior year.

As a means to garnish valuable experience and the knowledge of technical programs associated with graphic design, participation in the club’s activities can serve career interests.

For example, Schnier has completed two internships within the field of graphic design, serving as an intern at ArtBridge in New York City and as a marketing and communications intern with the Hiatt Career Center.

He expands upon his passion for the field, stating, “I love the challenge of conveying a message visually.”

Remarking upon the multitude of possibilities for students interested in the subject, Schnier asserts the prevalence of the need for such a skillset within almost any field. Drawing upon the vast realm of clientele, Schnier stated, “Everyone needs to brand themselves visually and creatively and having these skills can really help get an artist on their feet financially.” According to Schnier, within the actual study of graphic design itself, students can apply themselves more to the typographical or illustrative aspects depending upon their individual interest.

Despite Schnier’s evident investment within the field of graphic design, the organization possesses a wide range of participants with varying abilities. In fact, Somlo reveals “most members are novices interested in learning about graphic design,” acquiring knowledge of the technical skills associated with the development

of promotional tools directly through involvement in the club.

Beyond the prevalence of fine arts majors interested in graphic design, students involved in the organization pursue diverse fields of academic interests, ranging from business to biology.

As a biology major herself, Somlo confessed her prior lack of experience with graphic design, initially joining to supplement the lack of arts courses within her academic schedule. Yet, she rose to the position of president, demonstrating the opportunities available to students of all majors who wish to engage in the club.

A lack of prior experience with programs used for graphic design should not serve as a deterrent for new members, according to Somlo.

“It is our hope that by running tutorials on programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, we can help club members learn the technical, design skills they need to bring their ideas to life,” Somlo said.

Currently, the club has also implemented meetings at the Shapiro Campus Center to foster ideas for projects and continue to promote collaboration among members. In terms of future goals, the club is also seeking individuals interested in running tutorials for members of the club. This pursuit, Somlo deems an “exciting endeavor” that “would bring a whole new side to elaborating on interests in graphic design for the members.”

Beyond the benefits derived from the experience in terms of technical skills, Somlo further attests to the ability to interact with a wide range of student groups on campus.

“There are so many different activi-

ties, ideas and groups within our own Brandeis community that conversing with them for graphic design work is like a great survey and attests to the great variety of clubs supported by our student body,” Somlo said.

Regardless of experience level or

academic fields of study, Somlo encourages students to become involved in the organization. She says, graphic design is “sort of like art with a directive, and design is something you can keep playing with until you get it just right.”

design Lenny Schnier ’13 designed one of the club’s posters.

photo from internet source

SEA banquet promotes local healthy eating

By Emily Beker Staff

SEA held their annual Organic Foods Banquet on Tuesday. The banquet featured delicious food, inspirational speakers, dedicated students, sterno cans, glue, ribbons, cinnamon, blood, sweat and tears and a lot of fun. The banquet has been known to be a “fully environmental event” and Lisa Purdy ’14 shed some insight into exactly what that meant. “Even I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s “fully” environmental—no solar panels are powering the lights in there, we used cars a couple times to pick everything up, and we’ll be breathing out CO2 the whole time.”

Bikes were used in gathering the decorations; some of the decorations came from around campus and others from Waltham. The produce was all local and all organic, which decreases the carbon and environmental impact.

The menu for the banquet was entirely vegan, which is a low-impact diet. Purdy explained to The Hoot why a vegan diet is so much less impactful.

“Cows (for meat or for cheese) require immense amounts of water and maintained in a conventional way, will require lots of unhealthy, nutrient-deficient, government-subsidized corn. Conventionally their waste is also, well, wasted; by separating all that rich manure from plant production, we create a festering, methaneproducing heap and then require artificial fertilizers on our plants,” Purdy said.

“So-called happy cows will also require 2,500 gallons of water per pound (chickens will require 500 gal-

lons) as opposed to 25 gallons for a serving of rice.” Their menu, overall, reflects a holistic approach to eating “real food.”

In putting together an event as involved as the Organic Foods Banquet, Margaret Miller ’14 explained how SEA paid for the banquet.

“Some of the food we cook with has been donated from Waltham Community Fields Farm. The rest comes from the students! SEA applies for Student Union funding every semester. A large chunk of the money we receive is allocated to our Semi-Annual Banquet,” she said.

The event pulls in a large crowd, with the numbers varying around 150.

Clara Gray ’15 said, “We usually have to turn people away because it gets overcrowded. Brandeisians like food.”

Purdy said the banquet provides insight on the importance of eating healthy.

“There’s some research to suggest that the lack of pesticides allow for more natural interactions between the plants and their pests, increasing trace minerals and nutrients,” she said. The issue of pesticides with food is clear, as Purdy said, “It is either totally deadly or has sublethal effects, depending on what kind of pesticide it is. For instance, the sublethal effects of some pesticides are causing the bees that pollinate them to become so disoriented that they can’t find their way back to the hive and starve.” she said. She also mentioned the health impacts. “You’re ingesting chemicals meant to kill. If that isn’t enough to make you stop and think, then what is?”

Purdy also explained the cost difference between organic food versus foods that may contain pesticides.

“The cost of organic food a) reflects

sea banquet Brandeisians chose from selections of locally grown food.

a truer cost of producing food, since they don’t receive subsidies like big agribusinesses do and b) makes complete sense if you consider the fact that we end up (as a country) spending a lot more money on fixing the health issues we develop, when we could have prevented them,” she explained, acknowledging organic food’s high price.

Padriag Murphy ’13 discussed Brandeis’ food choices: “SEA has actually spent a lot of time communicating with Aramark over the past years through the Dining Service Committee, the Real Food Network and many, many emails.”

He details that recently there has

been an increase in the amount of organic, vegan and local options at Brandeis, but claims, “It’s still not nearly enough!” He expressed his hopes for the future in that potentially, “Aramark will strive to get as much of their food as possible from local and organic sources—the nutritional differences alone are reason enough.”

The costs being one of the obvious reasons Brandeis does not supply a larger selection of local, organic options, Murphy continued, “Anyone who wants more access to local and organic should consider getting a farm share (CSAs, we promote these every spring) or head down to the Waltham Farmer’s Market, which will

photo by maya himelfarb/the hoot

start back up in the early spring.”

The food for the banquet is either donated or bought at a discounted price from local farms. Waltham Fields donated butternut squash for the banquet this year and almost all of the banquet’s other products were purchased at a reduced price from Wilson Farm in Lexington, Mass. In terms of cooking the food, SEA usually occupies the Village; the necessity for oven space is key as they cook food for 150 people. Gray recounted a story to The Hoot, “I remember last year spending eight hours in the village kitchens running back and forth between ovens. It’s hectic, but awesome. We play music and eat snacks and have a great time.”

8 FEATURES

The Brandeis Hoot

Novemeber 16, 2012

Brandeis LCU gives conservatives a campus home

By Shreyas Warrier Staff

The Brandeis Libertarian Conservative Union is one of the many politically-inclined clubs on campus at Brandeis. Its members are part of the Massachusetts Alliance of College Republicans, which includes notable schools such as Harvard, M.I.T., Boston University and Boston College.

Morris Didia ’14, one of the leaders of the club, explained, “The Brandeis Libertarian Conservative Union is a political club on campus that creates an environment for politically conservative students to express their opinions.”

The club coordinates itself with the College Republican National Committee and the Young Americans Foundation, an organization that “promotes conservative principles on college campuses and asks college students not to be embarrassed to out themselves as conservatives in the heavily-liberal environment that surrounds them.”

The BLCU includes 10-12 members who consistently come to the meetings and the debates stem mostly from economic issues but also involve social issues. They believe that President Obama, who just recently won re-election for a second term, has a method for fixing the economy that will not work. According to Didia, the “Republican Party is the champion of economic issues, while the Democratic Party is the champion of social issues.”

Didia believes that the core of the economy of the United States is small business and that to ensure success taxes must be cut, allowing the small businesses to “generate enough capital to grow and create jobs.”

The club has consistent speaker events: last year, they brought the notable conservative columnist S.E. Cupp to speak at Brandeis. She is also the co-host of “The Cycle” on MSNBC, in addition to being a contributor to Fox News and CNN. In early December, BLCU is bringing David Horowitz to campus to speak of conservative values.Although the club is Republican in its values, Didia makes sure to mention that they do not fall into the stereotype of far-right Republican social views.“Most of us are for samesex marriage,” he says. Speaking about Mitt Romney, Didia had this to say: “I believe he was

brandeis liberal conservative union Morris Didia stresses Rhepublican values.

the best candidate—he was a modern Republican that works well with the opposing party.

Also, the most important issue in this election was the economy. Governor Romney was the perfect candidate to get our economy back on

Local martial arts academy raises thousands for Children’s Hospital Boston

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

With Reggie Perry blasting Rihanna’s “Shine Bright Like a Diamond” from the stereo system inside his Waltham Martial Arts Academy, and his wife repeatedly kicking the wavemaster for 10 minutes to gain pledge donations, their fouryear-old son Kobe, skipping around the room in his t-shirt and blue jeans, paused at the doorway to observe the scene.

The scene inside his academy, with students and instructors of all ages kickboxing at the Hope for a Heart fundraiser, aiming to raise $3,000 for the Cardiology Department at Children’s Hospital Boston, left Reggie Perry smiling and filled with gratitude on Nov. 3. When in the summer of 2009 at 11 months old, Kobe Perry contracted myocarditis, a viral infection attacking the heart that can lead to symptoms of heart failure if left untreated, he endured three and a half years of treatments, medications, visits and a 45-day stay at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Now, his heart has fully recovered.

“He came within 30 minutes of knocking on death’s door,” Reggie Perry said. “Through the modern miracle of medicine, Children’s Hospital saved his life.

Myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, infects several thousand Americans annually, but exact numbers are difficult to calculate because some people present no symptoms, according to WedMd.com. Combined, myocarditis and cardiomyopathy are the leading causes of heart transplants in the United States.

With the treatment Kobe received from a hospital team led by cardiologist Dr. Elizabeth Blume, his father referenced “the grace of God and prayer” to describe the quality of care.

“Heaven on earth is the phrase I’d stick to. I don’t know where we’d be without them. I probably would be living a very different reality,” Perry said.

A Lance Armstrong poster with the words, “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever,”

hung on the back wall as Chris Kokovidis, an instructor at the academy, approached the nineminute mark in his kicking. The grimace on his face tightening, Kokovidis accelerated his feet, switching between left and right, to strike the wavemaster at a quicker pace, reaching 1,057 kicks in 10 minutes for his final tally.

After catching his breath, removing the tightly wrapped white tape and wiping away the blood on his feet, Kokovidis reflected on the spirit of the fundraiser, saying, “It’s a miracle that he [Kobe] got through this.”

Perry said he had raised nearly $3,800 one day after the fundraiser and anticipated collecting more donations. Total kicks tallied 15,110, with some donors pledging money based on the number of kicks in the 10-minute intervals.

Describing his son as 100 percent recovered and healthy now, Perry, in between switching soundtracks, chatted with other students, friends and parents who watched the kickboxing in the blue-matted room from an open booth inside the Beaver Street studio.

Kaitlyn Cevrone, a student at the academy, said the motivation for each kick into the wavemaster came from recognizing how many kids today who are in need of support and high quality care, like Kobe.

“There’s still a lot of kids out there that need heart transplants, that need help, so we’re doing it for them,” she said.

Perry has led several other fundraisers and charitable causes, through martial arts, in his career. Black belt candidates under his leadership have participated in the Thanksgiving Turkey Brigade, where candidates organize a food drive for needy families in the Waltham and Metro West Boston area.A photographer, in between taking photos, stopped to shout words of encouragement and advice to Kokovidis and other students entering the fatigued and final minutes of their 10-minute challenge.

Perry, surveying the intensity and enthusiasm in the room, smiled as Kobe ran from door to door, peeking around the corners, awed by the activity around him.

track. He built a multi-billion-dollar company and created millions of jobs so his knowledge in the private sector is definitely unparalleled.”

Although their candidate lost the recent presidential election, Didia shows a great grace in

photo by ally eller/the hoot

defeat, saying that, “if America feels that he’s (Obama) the best candidate to make America strong economically, then I respect their judgment and I wish the president the best and hopefully he succeeds.”

Wedding gown drive benefits soldiers

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

Waltham bridal shop owner recalls deployments’ effects on her family Pointing to a poster with the words, “Our Heroes: In God We Trust” and standing beside dozens of white wedding gowns, Mireille Stanbro, owner of La Reine Bridal in Waltham, talks with distress about the sacrifice of war but with praise for the soldiers who fight it.

For Stanbro, whose son-in-law served eight tours in the U.S. Special Forces in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, war meant that her granddaughter, now eight years old, only saw her dad three months each year while he was deployed.

Stanbro, who opened her Main Street location on Saturday afternoon for her annual drive, donating free gowns to brides either deployed or married to a deployed soldier, says she was the first bridal store to start the charity event in 2004. Since then, she has donated more than 500 gowns and 18 stores have followed suit.

Originally from Egypt, Stanbro discussed the motivation behind the project: her constant amazement by the sacrifice of troops and their families to this country.

“I imagine any young man in war, how sad and how lonely he would be,” she said.

On Veteran’s Day weekend, Stanbro opened up her store for four hours, donating free gowns to soldiers and their spouses, only requiring that they write a $30 check to the Wounded Warrior Foundation.

“There are so many soldiers that are without limbs, without legs, so [it’s] at least a little bit to help the foundation,” she said.

In addition to Massachusetts, couples from Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut have come to claim their free gowns.

At her store’s other location on High Street Tuesday morning, Stanbro showed her proudly displayed certificate of appreciation from the 2nd Battalion 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) framed in gold. On a table next to an American flag folded in a case and six Casablan-

“ ” I imagine any young man in war, how sad and lonely he would be.

Mireille Stanbro, Owner of La Reine Bridal

ca Bridal awards, one of them gold and the others silver, are certificates from two commanders’ praises of the owner’s generosity.

“For your sincere and selfless contribution to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and most generous assistance to soldiers and their brides to be. Your contribution to, and faith in our military men and women is truly overwhelming and greatly appreciated,” the certificate reads.

Displaying the complexity of emotions from war, the white poster on the wall of her store entranceway is filled with a wide-ranging selection of photos, notes and memoirs. Photos of married couples on their wedding day hang next to one titled, “Greetings from Iraq” and features a soldier standing in a Humvee in the desert.

Thank you notes of gratitude are joined by poems about death and mourning. Also included is a photo of American soldier Keith (Matt) Maupin, captured by Iraqi insurgents in April 2004 and later found dead in March 2008.

Through her 37-year-old son-in-law, Stanbro has experienced the fear that nine tours of duty can imprint on a family.

“If you hear of any solider, anything happened to him … you can’t sleep till the second day,” she said.

With a leftover multi-layer wedding cake on the table Saturday, and a team of wedding planners and gown sales staff sitting by before the store closed, Stanbro, in a small office, emphasized the character of all soldiers and particularly the Special Forces.

“They really are the best of the best,” she said.

November 16, 2012

this week in photos

The Brandeis Hoot 9

Students rehearse for Mela 2012

‘Rumors’ has it photos courtesy deepti kanneganti

sasa presents (Top to bottom) Seniors enjoy their last time performing a class dance, including choreographers

David Robles ’15, Faja Ramsey ’15 and Frishta Abawi ’15 (center). The belly dancers practice their act for Mela.

President Fred and Kathy Lawrence attended the rehearsal to support performers.

photos by nate rosebloom/the hoot htg presents The cast of Hillel Theater Group’s “Rumors” reacts to loud gunshots, back pain and addiction. Top

to bottom: Aaron Fischer ’15; Nati Peleg ’13, Bethany Adam ’15 and Christopher Knight ’14; Sarah Pace ’13. See review, page 16.

Egg drop in the SCC

excel presents In order to promote the Experiential and Community-Engaged Learning (ExCEL) program, ExCEL fellows Emily Bunker Peterson ’13 and Zoe Oppenheimer ’14 planned an egg drop, held Wednesday in the Shapiro Campus Center.

photo by ally eller/the hoot

10 The Brandeis Hoot

sports

November 16, 2012

Men’s soccer to face Williams College on Saturday at Amherst for chance to advance to Elite Eight

SWEET 16, from page 1

trade that away in a second for the team. I want a national championship.”

While Ocel did not want to sing his own praises, Coach Coven had no hesitations. “Sam has been outstanding all year. I think his play speaks for itself.”

Just eight minutes later, Ocel struck again to pad the Judges’ lead. Lee Russo ’13 passed the ball to the right side of the box. Ocel was waiting near the far post and he immediately sent the ball past the Baruch keeper to put the Judges on top, 2-0.

The rest of the first half was evenly contested with Brandeis narrowly outshooting the Bobcats 6-4; however, the Judges enjoyed higher-quality scoring chances. Toward the end of the first half, the play became extremely chippy with Ocel receiving a yellow card.

In the second half, the Judges completely dominated possession and pace of play, outshooting Baruch 142. Correia made several spectacular saves to keep the Bobcats’ deficit at just two goals, including two stops on Tyler Savonen ’15.

Having kept the Brandeis offense off the scoreboard in the second half, the Bobcats got some highquality scoring chances of their own but failed to capitalize. Keeper Blake Minchoff ’13 made two sensational saves in the second half to preserve the Judges’ lead.

In the 60th minute, he came off his line to get the ball before Baruch’s Akil George, denying both Victor Tlepshev in the 72nd minute and Oren Kozlwoski in the 82nd minute.

Coven was extremely pleased with Minchoff ’s performance and was effusive with his praise in the postgame press conference.

“I think this was the best game I’ve ever seen him play. He was great.”

Coven said. “Blake has become a premier goalkeeper. It’s just hard work.

He sure put in his hours and look

what he’s done these past two years.”

The Judges sealed the win in front of a rambunctious crowd of 575 fans, the largest attendance in over two decades. This year, much has been made of the revitalized student support and attendance for the soccer team headlined by the newly formed Coven’s Corner. The support is not something that has gone unnoticed by the team.

Coven stressed the importance of the rekindled school spirit.

“I think our fans give us a little adrenaline rush. Our fans our great and what they’ve done this year is great for us with the way they support us,” he said. “It shows that Brandeis has school spirit. People come out to the games now, not just to see these guys play, but for the atmosphere. It’s fun coming out here cheering and yelling. Just being part of something like this is an enjoyable experience.”

Coven continued, “We’ve been all over the country—UAA schools, New England schools. Nobody has better fans than we do.”

The next day, the Judges took on Vassar College who had defeated Tufts the previous day.

While there were multiple opportunities to score throughout the game, both teams played stellar defense and had potential goals nullified as a result of offsides calls; thus, the game was played to a scoreless draw for 89 minutes.

With the game seemingly destined for overtime with the clock running down, the Judges finally broke through and sent the crowd into hysteria.

With a little more than 30 seconds left in regulation, Robbie Lynch ’15 launched a long throw-in from midfield to Russo. Russo took the ball on one hop and played it to the right side of the 18-yard box. He then fired a crossing pass to Ocel who was able to get his head on the ball and direct it past the outstretched arms of Vassar keeper Ryan Grimme.

In a state of shock and awe after sending the Judges to the Sweet 16, Ocel could not put into words what

on the attack Tyler Savonen ’15 fights with his defender as he readies a shot on goal against Baruch College.

the goal meant to him and the team.

“I really don’t know what to say about it right now. It’s the best feeling in the world,” he said.

Russo added that he thought Vassar had a defensive breakdown on the play. “Out of the corner of my eye I saw [Ocel], and he was unmarked for whatever reason so I tried to put it in his area and he made a really nice finish.”

Minutes before the Judges scored the game-winning goal, it appeared that Vassar had struck first. After a corner kick, Zander Mrlik got his head on the ball and attempted to redirect the ball into the goal but Kyle Feather ’14 was able to get his head on the shot and clear the ball off the line.

Minchoff was confident that Feather would make the play. “[Mrlik] just made a great play on the ball, but

Judges to face SUNY Cortland NCAA, from page 1

In the first match against Union, the Judges’ opponents dominated possession in the first half and scored a goal off a well-struck corner. The Judges, however, scored the first goal of the entire match and the first half when Haley Schacter ’16 touched a rebound across the line just three minutes into the match. Overall, the first half was owned by Union but the scoreline stayed even at 1-1 at halftime.

The Judges had more of a presence in the next half with better control of possession and more chances to score near the net. The pace of the match also increased as the ball moved endto-end with more frequency and consistency. Both sides had close calls near the goal with diving saves by the keepers and nearly-missed shots by the strikers.

After 90 minutes, with the score tied, the sides prepared for overtime. Neither team had to wait long as Brandeis scored a goal in just two minutes. Hero of the overtime play, Sara Isaacson ’16, made a spectacular strike from 20 yards that ended the match.

The second match against Lasell unfolded very differently as the Judges were unchallenged throughout the match, playing solid defense and generating scoring chances that added up to 16 shots with eight on goal for

when it went past me I knew Feather had it. That’s why we put someone on the post.

Coven has really enjoyed this particular team, noting their chemistry and passion.

“I’d be hard pressed to say there’s a team I’ve enjoyed more than this one.

Their love for one another and passion for the game makes them real special and I’m very happy for them.

I’ve had the championship team, a couple Final Four teams, the ECAC championship team last year, but this team’s real special.”

Coven continued, “When these guys came in we were probably average at best and maybe not even average and look what we are now in a very short period of time. That’s all hard work and the passion they have for Brandeis soccer and I couldn’t be

Editor

Brandeis against nine shots with four on goal for Lasell. The first goal, in the 13th minute, was made by the Judges’ leading goal scorer, Dara Spital ’15, who crossed a ball over to the left side of the box. It was then handled by Sapir Edalati ’15 who then passed the keeper for the score. This was Edalati’s seventh goal of the season.

The second goal, in the 49th minute, would follow a similar script with Isaacson, volleying a ball onto the left side of the box, which was then brought down by Madeline Stein ’14 and pushed deftly passed the keeper at close range. Already with a 2-0 lead in the second half, the Judges’ last goal, a brilliant header off a corner kick, was purely an insurance shot.

Alyssa Fenenbock ’15 would strike the corner with Schacter behind the

photo courtesy brandeis athletics

header and goal, it would be her second goal in as many days. Lasell suffered another one-sided loss because of these goals and because of the aforementioned defense.

The team’s core is its consistent defense, which proved itself yet again this weekend. This not only includes the back defensive line but the two keepers as well. Michelle Savuto ’15 and Francine Kofinas ’13 have been sharing time all season and have played remarkably as the last stop of the Judges’ defense.

Their contribution and the play of the back four must be consistent if Brandeis wants to get past this next weekend of play.

The Judges will face off against their next opponent, SUNY Cortland, Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Ithaca, N.Y.

happier for these guys. Nobody deserves this more than these guys. I can’t even put into words how much these guys mean to me and what they’ve done for the program.”

The Judges will travel to Amherst College this weekend for a Sweet 16 matchup with Williams College at 11 a.m. The Athletics department is sponsoring fan buses to and from Amherst for just $5, which will leave from Gosman at 8 a.m. on Saturday and return to Brandeis immediately after the game.

In addition to the Judges matchup with Williams, Amherst College will be playing against Swarthmore College. The winners of both games will play in the Elite Eight the following day for a chance to advance to the Final Four in San Antonio, Texas on Friday, Nov. 30.

Cross country wraps up season at New England Regionals

By Brian Tabakin

sweet 16 The team embraces after defeating Union College.

photo by paual hoekstra/the hoot

Both the men and women’s crosscountry teams competed this past weekend in the New England Regional Championship at Westfield State University. The men finished in 13th place out of 50 teams while the women placed 16th out of 51 teams.

The men’s squad was once again led by Ed Colvin ’14; however, Colvin was unable to accomplish his goal of attaining All-New England honors as he finished in 50th place in a field of 351 competitors with a time of 26:01.17 on the eight-kilometer course. The results were disappointing for Colvin as he failed to improve on his 49th place performance from the previous year.

In the final meet of his career, Mik Kern ’13 finished in 62nd place with a time of 26:16.10, marking just the second time this season that Kern was the team’s second-best finisher.

Classmate Alex Kramer ’13 finished in third for the Judges, coming in 72nd place with a time of 26:27.86.

Jarrett Harrigan ’15 finished close behind Kern with a time of 26:35.70 to earn 77th place while classmate Greg Bray ’15 barely missed a top-100 finish, coming in less than a second short as he finished with a time of

27:03.55, earning a 101st place finish to round out the scoring for the Judges.

Michael Rosenbach ’15 and Taylor Dundas ’14 were non-scoring members of the team, coming in 120th and 170th place respectively with times of 27:23.29 and 28:14.70.

On the women’s side, Amelia Lundkvist ’14 led the team with a 41st place finish in a field of 367 entrants with a time of 22:36.91 on the six-kilometer course. Lundkvist substantially improved on her performance from the previous year as she finished 22 spots ahead, taking 34 seconds off her time.

Classmate Ali Kirsch ’14 was the team’s second runner, coming in 55th place with a time of 22:52.82. Disappointingly, Kirsch was unable to improve on her performance from the previous year as she fell 14 spots.

Maggie Hensel ’16 and Kelsey Whitaker ’16, in their first regional meet, were the Judges’ third and fourth scorers, respectively, placing 115th and 137th with times of 23:59.77 and 24:24.92. Graduate student Erin Bisceglia rounded out the scoring for the Judges in her final collegiate race, placing 188th with a time of 25:19.42.

Molly Paris ’16 and Rachel Keller ’16 did not score for the Judges, placing 215th and 242nd, respectively.

November 16, 2012

SPORTS 11

The Brandeis Hoot

Volleyball closes out the season with second place finish at ECAC Tournament

trophy presentation Susan Sun ’13, Becca Fischer ’13 and Lauren Berens ’13 hold the second place ECAC trophy after falling to Western New England.

By Dani Chasin Staff

The women’s volleyball team went 2-1 at the ECAC tournament this past weekend and finished off their season with a record of 21-14. Forecasted to be one the top-ranked teams of the competition, the Judges walked away with a second-place trophy and two more victories to achieve an over 20win season, a feat they hadn’t accomplished since 2007.

Playing three matches over two days, the Judges defeated Albertus Magnus on Friday and Salve Regina in the first match on Saturday, only falling to Western New England in the championship. The Brandeis team

took the first two games in threestraight sets and lost in the final by a score of 3-1.

In the first match against Albertus Magnus, the Judges crushed the Falcons by wide margins in all three sets.

Coming out strong in the first set, the Judges managed an easy 25-9 score as six different players recorded at least two kills. The second set saw an attempt by the Falcons to battle back as they gained a quick lead; however, the Judges swiftly recovered to win the set 13-25. The third set continued similarly as the Falcons tried to gain momentum, but the dominance of the Judges was just too powerful to overcome, resulting in a 12-25 score.

The high-scoring match allowed

several Brandeis players to record first-rate statistics. Outside hitter Liz Hood ’15 nailed 16 kills and noted a season-high .652 hitting percentage, while classmate middle blocker Carly Gutner-Davis ’15 added four service aces and one kill in the second set.

Setter Yael Einhorn ’14 contributed 36 assists and teammate outside hitter Si-Si Hensley ’14 led the team with 10 digs. Overall, the Judges recorded a season-high .487 hitting percentage for the match against the Falcons who hold a 12-13 game record.

Hood credited Coach Michelle Kim for the team’s success this season.

“At the beginning of the season, I was not expecting to make it as far as we did, since last year we didn’t

photo courtesy brandeis athletics

even make ECACs,” Hood said. “This year Coach Kim did everything she could to help us in any way possible.

She helped us improve tremendously on our attitudes on the court, which greatly improved our play.”

In the semifinal match of the ECAC tournament, the Judges saw a more even match against the Salve Regina Seahawks. Although they were able to take the opponent in all three sets; the Judges barely managed a lead throughout the game. Finishing the first set with a score of 17-25, the Judges squeaked by in the second with a 25-23 win. The Seahawks, nearly breaking the Judges’ momentum, relentlessly tried to rebound in the third set, but the Judges respond-

ed with a 25-20 leading end-score.

Going into the championship match against the Western New England Golden Bears, the Judges were facing their toughest competition, who held a record of 25-7. Coming out aggressively in the first set, the Golden Bears managed to take a quick lead against the Judges with a score of 16-25. Unwilling to accept defeat in the second set, the Judges put on an offensive rally with kills from eight different players to win 25-17. The crucial third set was met with a back-and-forth battle between the Judges and Golden Bears, but the tactical effort on the WNE side proved to get the best of the Judges’ scoring opportunities, resulting in a 25-17 score. Unable to overcome the Golden Bears’ intensity, the Judges made one last attempt to bounce back in the fourth set, but lost by a margin of 25-21.

For the Brandeis seniors, Berens, Becca Fischer and Susan Sun, the ECAC tournament was the last time they would play with their teammates for the season. Reflecting back on her team’s performance, Berens commented, “I hoped we would win all three games and I knew we could, it was just a matter of knowing how we would play over the weekend. The last team we played, (WNE) gave our team the biggest challenge because we were most evenly matched. They had some really great blockers and a solid defense that made it harder for us to earn our own points.”

As for Kim, the biggest accomplishment of the season was seeing her players come together and improve their chemistry on and off the court.

Even though the team proved to be a dominating force, she says that winning was not the most important aspect of the season.

“As a coach, I’ve never had a number of wins in mind when we start out each season. My goal for the team is for us to reach our potential as a team and work hard toward that goal,” Kim said. “In the end, our win-loss record will take care of itself and I want our players to focus on the process more so than on the outcome.”

In first year back, swimming and diving takes added weight seriously

By Nathan Koskella Editor

The men and women’s swimming and diving teams hosted cross-town rivals the Bentley Falcons last Saturday. Losing by scores of 149-103 and 135-106, for men and women, respectively, the Judges nonetheless achieved a number of winning individual performances.

Max Fabian ‘15, who is in his first year at Brandeis, won a freestyle distance race by finishing first in the 1000-yard event. His time was 10:10.28. Fabian also won a medley event for the day, the 200-yard individual, for which his time was 2:08.75. First-year Brian Luk ‘16 from Hong Kong, led in two races as well, the sprint races comprising the 50and 100-yard freestyles, with times of 22.79 seconds and 49.08 seconds, respectively.

Brandeis did considerably better hosting Bentley than it did competitively at Providence College the day before. The Friars, a Division I team, outscored the visiting Judges by a much more lopsided 118-70 for the men and 142-5 for the women.

In addition to being Division I, where Providence frequently tests itself against some of the toughest regional squads, the Friars’ home pool is unfamiliar to Brandeis swimmers

as it measures in meters.

“The difference between it [and the standard 25-yard pool] is small,” Fabian said. “But it adds up. There are different ways to train and we don’t have the chance to race 25 meters often.” Overall, Fabian, who had the banner day Saturday, said that racing in Providence was “a great opportunity to race against” a Division I team.

Fabian said that not only was Bentley “closer to our level,” but predicted that it would be “a good rivalry in the coming years, the future, a bar for us to meet.”

The Brandeis swimming and diving program is on its first semester back after a necessary hiatus when Linsey Pool closed three years ago.

A member of the women’s team, rookie first-year Theresa Gaffney ‘16, said that her experience on the team is all the more special as it is also the program’s re-birth.

“It’s cool to be a freshman and know that we can start lots of new traditions,” she continued to say, “and we can set the tone for what the program is going to be like.”

Fabian echoed these notions, saying that a large part of the team’s goal this year is to represent the program and lay the groundwork for a successful Brandeis sport.

“This is a completely new shot: it’s a very rare opportunity we have, this

flying by Brian Luk ’16 rises out of the water as he competes in the Butterfly.

weight at our back, to try to rise to the challenge [of being the first in the new program],” he said.

Regarding the team’s mixed success so far this year, with several individual standout performances but large total point losses, both representatives, men and women, said that the size of the crew they could field in races explains much of the disparity.

“A lot of the time, including Bentley’s meet, there are about 15 swimmers just for the boys or girls side,” Gaffney said, “while we have 19 total for both” sexes. When schools can get the points for winning second, third and fourth, for instance, by fielding more racers, meet totals will show the

Judges as far behind even if they outswam in individual events.

Fabian agreed, saying that with only “nine guys” compared to 15, it was much harder even when he won several events to outscore in the grand totals.

“But this first year, we’re not looking at number of wins now, just trying to build the program, and successful swimming we can get,” he said. “We’re working hard, trying to build up and we can only get better from here.”

Coach Mike Kotch leads both the men’s and women’s teams. He said the theme of building the program was accurate and went even further to say it would fit in well with Brandeis’

photo courtesy brandeis athletics

overarching purposes, describing his squad as student-athletes in the best sense.

“We’re trying to build a culture of excellence, a competitive attitude, being accountable for each other,” Kotch said. “These kids are very driven in the classroom and we expect them to do the same in the pool, the basketball court, anything.”

The Judges have the rest of November off, with a meet at Wesleyan Dec. 1. Kotch said the meet would be a “good opportunity to compete against an established program and practice before we think about coming back to campus next year.” Brandeis will host its next home meet in January.

12 The Brandeis Hoot

“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 Victoria Aronson Features Editor Dana Trismen Features Editor Juliette Martin Arts, Etc. Editor Zoe Kronovet Impressions Editor Morgan Dashko Copy Editor Nate Rosenbloom Photography Editor Gordy Stillman Business Editor Jun Zhao Graphics Editor Rachel Hirschhaut Deputy News Editor Zach Reid Deputy Arts, Etc. Editor

Volume 9 • Issue 26 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

Founded By Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

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

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

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

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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.

EDITORIALS

November 16, 2012

With hurricane impact, a time for social justice

W

e applaud the students and staff who assumed leadership roles and launched relief projects for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

While the Brandeis campus suffered minimal physical damage, many students and their families continue to suffer greatly from the effects of the storm in New York and New Jersey. From benefit concerts at Chum’s to volunteer work for the elderly in New York City this weekend, students deserve great credit for stepping back from hectic weeks of midterms and recognizing the need to serve their community when needed most.

Yet we cannot ignore the fact, that for a campus built on the principle of social justice and a university strategic plan aiming to make social justice, our differentiating factor among peer schools, response to the hurricane could have happened much quicker and been far larger than it has.

Communication from the dean’s office and the president addressed the fact that many students have been impacted by the storm, including disrupted Thanksgiving plans and extensive home

damage, but such communication could have been sent immediately following the storm.

Director of Student Activities Stephanie Grimes has attempted to centralize planning from different clubs by coordinating their relief efforts and organizing meetings among different student leaders. Yet, still, relief efforts need even more organization.

Brandeis students have shown impressive responses to natural disasters across the globe, raising thousands of dollars for victims whose homes have been destroyed by flooding, earthquakes and other storms. One of the challenges on a small campus is that too many clubs advocating for fundraising relief can limit the impact of one organization rallying students to support the cause.

Competition among multiple athletic teams, singing groups and newspapers has many benefits. But when it comes to fundraising for community service, the more united the program, the more effective it will be.

The Student Union has taken steps to coordinate service-oriented clubs, launching a new social justice commit-

tee for club leaders. This work should continue. An effort for collaboration among service clubs is best led by student leaders from outside organizations such as the Union or from staff in student activities, such as Stephanie Grimes.

We do not mean to criticize those students, faculty and staff working around the clock to organize fundraising campaigns and volunteer opportunities.

But times of urgency create the need to evaluate how effective our efforts have been.

In an email to the student body on Wednesday, Union President Todd Kirkland wrote: “Many residents (especially elderly and disabled) are homebound and still without electricity. They could really benefit from your warmth to raise their spirits.”

For a school dedicated to social justice, students and administrators alike need remember they can only show their commitment to service, not by words in a strategic plan, but by actions when they are needed most.

November 16, 2012

OPINION

The Brandeis Hoot 13

Thanksgiving: more gravy, less God

By Lila Westreich Staff

I am a big fan of Thanksgiving. I love the food, spending time with my family and the well-deserved break from classes, papers, endless midterms and premature studying for finals. But when critics attacked the president this week for not mentioning God in his Thanksgiving address, I sat down and thought about what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving.

The president posted his yearly address online, mentioning how he would be spending the holiday eating delicious food, watching football and spending time reflecting on why he is thankful. On Fox News Radio, host Todd Starnes attacked the president for his lack of reference to religion in his address. Starnes said, “His remarks were void of any religious references although Thanksgiving is a holiday traditionally steeped in giving thanks and praise to God.” In my previous experience with the holiday, including making hand turkeys in Sunday school and wearing headdresses and Puritan caps in kindergarten, I never considered the grace of God to play any part in my Thanksgiving. I have never gone to church on the 24th and I have never taken time to thank God for my turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries and gravy. That honor is left for my father, the head chef. It surprised me to hear Starnes whining about a lack of religion on a holiday that historically celebrates survival.

The story of Thanksgiving, for those of us who may have forgotten as we got caught up in the Black Friday deals and leftover turkey recipes, is short and sweet. In 1621 the Pilgrims came to America and landed at Plymouth Rock, where they proceeded to fail at every task they attempted. They couldn’t grow their own crops, forage for berries, or stay warm in the cold Northeastern winters. On their shivering deathbeds, the Native American Wampanoag tribal leader, Squanto,

took pity on the starving pilgrims.

Squanto and his tribe taught the Pilgrims how to grow corn, take sap from maple trees, catch fish in rivers, avoid poisonous plants and survive the devastatingly cold winter.

Pilgrim journals from the time mention that without the help of the Wampanoag, the entire colony would have perished. Only half of the colony survived the winter to the first har-

vest. After this successful crop, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving and the colony feasted for three days.

Squanto is attributed with helping the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag tribe that would endure for more than 50 years and demonstrate one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans. To cel-

ebrate Thanksgiving, we should not only celebrate life and family, but also take a lesson from the early settlers and show kindness and respect to those people and cultures with which we are not familiar. In his own way, Obama did just that in his address.

He didn’t bring up God, because he understands that not every American believes in God. To mention religion, and single out non-believers, would

graphic by diane somlo/the hoot

alienate a country that needs to come together and understand respect for a point of view that is different from their own. The president made the right call. He understands that our country is no longer a monoculture of Christian beliefs. America is not just a place for Christians seeking safety and freedom from oppressive British rule. Those freedoms of property and religion belong to all who seek a place to call their own, without danger or persecution for what they believe.

And Thanksgiving is a celebration of those rights.

Thanksgiving is, overall, a celebration of life. It is the joy of surviving another hard year, being surrounded by people you love. It is being thankful for the ability to listen to your uncle as he tells you how many points he earned in Angry Birds the week before, and your grandfather as he mutters about when he was a boy they shot their own turkey. It’s another chance to be one-upped by your cousins, asked hundreds of times what you want to do after you finish college and eat until you’re sick. The Puritan settlers were just happy to be alive. We should all be thankful for a few days with the people we love and the time to relax.

After Fox News pundits had a field day with Obama’s lack of religion, John Stewart from The Daily Show decided to share his thoughts. Stewart remarked that Fox was “turning Thanksgiving into another type of Christian persecution culture war.”

Stewart added that he didn’t see Obama’s lack of religious reference to be a problem. And in the end, he also referenced the need to unwind. “I’ll give you the War on Christmas,” he said. “But this is all reform Jews have left … It’s the one holiday where everyone can just relax.”

So whether you’re Jewish or not, take this Thanksgiving to be thankful for what you have and the people around you. If you want to thank God for your meal, go ahead. Just try to leave the president, the government and Fox News out of it.

Canceled, when the clock is ticking

By Nathan Koskella Editor

It might have already been mentioned in this column that yours truly is a senior. About five times now, actually. Together we have explored such things as campus leadership and the joy that is the LSAT. But this week, the class I had most been looking forward to next semester, my final semester, was canceled.

Politics 154 was to be a seminar on citizenship—what it means, both its rights and its obligations. I do not know why it was canceled (if a class on citizenship, in comparative perspective no less, failed to achieve enough demand at Brandeis, well, shame on all of us and our supposed “social justice”), but at the very least, it could force me to put my money where my mouth is in terms of the weekly decrees in this space.

Now, my schedule next semester is wide open. I have completed two majors and a minor, probably another one of those if I bother to check, and I met all of my general requirements, some long ago. The citizenship seminar was to be a three-hour capstone to my social-science-heavy career, bringing in American studies and politics in general with a dash of the

photo from internet source

law, sociology and statistics once a week. And now my schedule has more holes than confirmed timeslots.

With the one class I have to take, I still have three or four possibilities. If you have been keeping count, you will see that even with “Citizenship” I had been having problems; that was probably the reason behind my piece last

week, which celebrated taking classes outside one’s comfort zone. The registrar, it seems, wants me to try a taste of my own medicine.

This has never happened to me before, this scrambling to find interesting classes. Brandeis is a fantastic place, I’m the first to admit it, and I’ve actually never had a class I disliked.

But each other term I’ve narrowed down four or five classes from six or seven. Now I have one for sure. But part of this is my fault. Even Citizenship would, as described above, have been a compilation of my studies up until this point. The math class I am taking this semester that I described last week? It’s as close to a politics class anything with actual “proof ” in it can be.

So, what I should do now is contained in my own writings: branch out, take something new. Don’t just keep pouring over Americanist or political junkie courses.

I have a snappy retort to this written version of myself, that I’m not taking those classes anyway because I want free Fridays to follow Hoot duties. But that just makes it worse.

I think I have found a history course to go with my base of one, so I may be up to two as of press time. But that’s not exactly out of my box.

But you are reading this for you, not to view my increasingly narrow interests. I probably will find another politics or history class to replace Citizenship. I do have a penchant though for taking those “special one-time” offerings, and my first recommendation is to take them, as many as you can.

And my second, broader point toward which I’ve been winding up is

not to waste your time here. If you want to become absolutely expert on American legal norms and political discourse, that is fine. Specifying is grand in the sciences or arts, as well, where it may actually even help you in your quixotic quest to get a Ph.D., for some reason. Or if you don’t yet know what you want to do, look for classes that sound interesting even if you have to wake-up early on Fridays. Pass-fails exist for a reason and just because you can now use one toward a requirement does not mean you should. Or it means you can take a requirement, like a politics course that is math, that you will soon realize you never should have taken pass-fail.

If I do find another me-course to substitute for Citizenship, I’ll still have room for another class. I hope that class stands up to the doubtless sterling credit I’ve built for myself lecturing to the whole community about the role of our Brandeis education. I doubt it. But I really have no excuse.

The LSAT is history and my applications for schools and the Fulbright will both be long-done in January.

What I’m really feeling when I stare at my empty sage schedule is not loss for another class on citizenship or stress looking for another to fill it. I look at my schedule next semester and I see my own Brandeis-mortality.

14 OPINION

The Brandeis Hoot

The Still Life

Obama claims mandate: He’s right

November 16, 2012

Any life lost is still a loss

By Zoe Kronovet Editor

graphic by jun zhao/the hoot

By Gordy Stillman Editor

When a president is elected by a decent margin, particularly in the popular vote, he can claim a mandate because he is elected from a national constituency. Speaker of the House John Boehner’s claim of having a mandate is unfounded. What Speaker Boehner forgot, so it seems, is that each member of his Republican majority was elected by a unique constituency, each with it’s own interests and reasons for electing their representative. Republican representatives from California, New York and Alabama were all elected from different constituencies. Members of the House, other than through party affiliation, have no inherently identical set of political priorities.

Whether President Obama has a mandate or not, his national constituency is the reason that only the president can legitimately claim a mandate. In every state, every county, even at every district voting location, the one thing that unified every single ballot was the presidential election.

Similar to state governors claiming mandates for their state’s future, the executive is the one official elected by voters in several states.

Another dubious problem for Boehner’s claims of a mandate is that many Republicans were elected as the majority of their state’s House delegation, while at the same time the state’s votes went to President Obama. Obviously, districts are going to vary in size, it’s not as though every decade in which states redistrict they perfectly equalize their size.

The Republican majority in the

House is further questionable when a handful of states are looked at. In Ohio, which President Obama won by a couple of percentage points, has 16 seats. One might expect that the seats would be nearly split, possibly slant 9-7 for the GOP due to redistricting. Twelve to four for the GOP suggests that 75 percent of the state population voted Republican.

Last week, Florida was still processing their presidential election results a few days after the election. The fact that it took so long for Florida to determine which candidate received its electoral votes may not have mattered as it did in 2000, but the fact that it was so close, within a couple percentage points, suggests that Florida’s House delegation should be a nearly even split of the 27 seats.

When all but one seat had been determined, Florida’s delegation included nine Democrats and 17 Republicans. That’s nowhere near the even split that the presidential votes displayed.

It’s easy to understand that there are always going to be states that are gerrymandered. Both Democrats and Republicans can be expected to, when given the chance, adjust districts in order to protect party stronghold seats and/or make other districts more competitive.

As it turned out, the Republican advantage during the 2010 Tea Party Republican surge allowed many state Republicans to redistrict to their advantage. Cumulatively, Democratic candidates got more votes than Republican candidates. While it’s easy— at times— to accept that the Republicans simply got more votes where it mattered than the Democrats, that doesn’t make it right.

Districts should be competitive. I shouldn’t be able to accurately predict, years in advance, how each district in my state will lean. My home state’s 5-3 Democratic split was fairly predictable.

Whether you believe in “mandates” or not, there is simply no way of qualifying Speaker Boehner’s assertion that he and his Republican House’s majority possesses a mandate to oppose President Obama and the necessary compromise that allows government to function effectively. In fact, Republicans—at least the ones that don’t run unopposed—have a greater interest in compromising than President Obama.

President Obama, regardless of a possible mandate, has been liberated from concern about future reelection.

All representatives, except the ones who do not want to keep their jobs, are up for reelection in less than two years. From this alone, Boehner’s posturing is somewhat counter productive. Incumbents are often re-elected, arguably because they succeed in blaming the failures of the House on other representatives. If Republicans insist on another two years of hardnosed refusal to compromise, however, independent voters are liable to vote them out of office.

Elected officials, including the president and those in Congress, are elected to fulfill the societal needs as a government. It definitely isn’t beneficial to spend months of time being stubborn. If Speaker Boehner and the House Republicans can let go of their false notion of a mandate and learn to play ball with the Democrats, then maybe the government can accomplish something over the next two years.

I was in a hotel room outside of Jerusalem when Osama bin Laden’s death was announced. The response of my peers on my gapyear was mild and vaguely patriotic. Sitting on my lumpy rented bed, I watched as status-after-status-after-status appeared on my Facebook news feed. They hailed the Navy Seal team that killed bin Laden and the joy Americans felt with bin Laden’s demise.

I am as uncomfortable now as I was then with loss of life. As tensions and violence in the Middle East escalate, casualties result.

On Wednesday, Ahmed Jabari, a Hamas military chief was killed by Israeli forces. I do not try to argue whether his death was justified.

The reactions to his death that I have witnessed on social media, however, make me uncomfortable.

So often today, the loss of life is marginalized. In Afghanistan and Iraq, Americans have lost thousands of their brothers and sisters.

But Afghanis and Iraqis have lost much more.

During the past decade, as the death toll came in each day, we became desensitized to it. In middle school when the 2,000th soldier was killed in Afghanistan, my orchestra teacher wrote the number 2,000 on the whiteboard of her classroom with frowning faces drawn in the zeroes and tears falling from squished eyes. It was as hard for me then as it is today to comprehend that number and see it for what it truly is: thousands and thousands of families that have been destroyed. Thousands and thousands of families who are war’s casualties. That number has grown exponentially today. The news anchor announces the latest number of bodies from the war, then moves on to another, trivial, piece of news.

Most students here are privileged. It is harder for us to connect the reality of war to ourselves, because of this. I have spent a significant amount of time in Israel.

I know more American-Israeli soldiers than I do American soldiers. Out of all the people I have

met in my life, I only know one person who is in the military and we are not close. I am very detached from America’s current wars and as the casualties stack up, I am not personally affected. My grandfather was a soldier in the Korean War, but Veterans Day was never anything special growing up. The role of the military in my life has been limited to rare sightings at the airport and my brother’s video games.

Yet, even in my detached state from my hotel room in Jerusalem I watched the happiness espoused by my fellow Americans at the death of another person. Yes, Osama bin Laden was responsible for atrocious acts that killed thousands of Americans. But I still felt that rejoicing in his death was wrong. The loss of life, regardless of whose life it is, is not something to be celebrated with champagne and dancing.

In the same way that many Americans expressed outright glee toward bin Laden’s death, many of my Jewish peers are displaying that same happiness at Jabari’s death. When Jabari was killed on Wednesday morning and my pro-Israel friends promoted the IDF poster, which displays Jabari’s face with the word “eliminated” stamped in white on the red backdrop, I became incredibly uneasy. It was in bad taste for the IDF to create such a poster and in even worse taste that some of my friends continue to promote it online. Despite all the horrible things that Jabari did in his life, his death is not something in which we should revel.

There are undoubtedly many people who disagree with me and I respect their right to believe so. I will not deny that America’s killing of bin Laden will remain a proud moment in American history, as Jabari’s death will for Israel. But there is a vast difference between being patriotic and being crass and inconsiderate. We need to be knowledgeable of the privilege in our own lives: that many of us will not have to deal with the potential tragedy of army husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers.

Our inexperience should not allow us to become hateful and inconsiderate of human life, regardless of the life lost.

Twitter, now more relevant, has supplanted Facebook

By Jennifer Spencer Staff

In a world of social media and instant information, college students have long gone to Facebook to connect with family, with friends at other schools, to procrastinate (homework on one tab, facebook on the other) and to upload photos of their awesome weekends.

Status updates, however, are one thing you will see less and less frequently these days. Why? Well, that is quite simply, I feel, because of the rise in popularity of Twitter. Twitter, which creeping up to 140 million plus active users, virtually captures the essence of one’s Facebook status, at a much more frequent rate. Twitter allows for more expression by the individual user because it is fundamen-

tally about the basics—what someone is thinking in the moment. You can update your Twitter throughout the day, describe your thoughts, location and other such insights. Twitter will continue to increase in popularity and more and more college students will spend the majority of their social networking time on this site.

While one may be criticized for updating their status too much on Facebook, this is precisely the point of Twitter. You can update as much as you want and those who choose to follow you can hear what you have to say and vice versa. Unfollowing someone on Twitter is much less obvious and awkward then de-friending someone on Facebook. It is also a lot easier to follow the everyday lives of celebrities, activists and organizations through continuous live updates that Twitter provides to users. In addition, a news feed is provided and major news companies such as CNN have twitter accounts that are open to the

public.

If you want to share private thoughts you can make your tweets private with the click of a button and only accept certain followers. Thus, it is very customizable to one’s interests and the amount of information they want to share and receive. It even caters to users by providing a list of similar users you might know and a list of trending words in a particular day. If a big news event occurs, a word relating to it will be hashtagged (the infamous Twitter symbol #) and you can click on the word to see all other tweets dealing with the issue. You can also use the search engine and almost every imaginable topic will have relevant tweets with a plethora of opinions and comments.

Twitter is much more representative of a person than Facebook. You get a person’s thoughts and feelings versus a picture of them posing in carefully-oriented profiles. People can rally around things that are important

to them through the opinions they post on Twitter. Just look at the statistics from the last election as described

by Fox News, noting that 327,000 tweets were sent per minute. If you were on Twitter during the presidential debates, this statistic probably does not surprise you. My news feed was filled with political commentary and jokes about the candidates during each debate. People seem less guarded and more blunt in their tweets as compared to their posts on Facebook.

Perhaps, it gives off a much more personal feel to users since it focuses more on opinion than on pictures and style, as does Facebook. You can still post pictures on Twitter but this is certainly not the focus of the site.

You have 140 characters or less to say what you want to say, which eliminates paragraphs of information and depicts what is happening then and there. This is, after all, exactly what people are looking for these days. When news is so readily acces-

sible and instantaneous, people prefer short and to-the-point statements.

At any point in time you can ask your followers about a particular issue, contact a person or organization directly and you can get a response.

People can respond to you via direct messaging or on their Twitter feed.

A discussion can go back and forth, main ideas can be retweeted and top thoughts and ideas favorited. Whether you have five followers or 100, it is easy to interact with others on Twitter and put your opinion out there.

While Facebook still has an incredible amount of followers across many demographics and took over the popularity of Myspace, I find it to be a lot more superficial than Twitter.

Facebook is a great way for groups to organize social events, reconnect with people and store photo albums. For a group of young people, however, who like straightforward, instant thoughts and ever expanding information, Twitter is the way to go.

November 16, 2012

The Self Shelf

By Alex Self Staff

It took Florida several days to tally the vote in the state, but unlike any other presidential elections in recent memory, the sunshine state did not make a difference in calculating the overall result. President Obama was re-elected overwhelmingly in the electoral college. Additionally, he won the popular vote by a margin of several million. In other words, this election was not particularly close.

This result shocked many people, especially in the Republican Party. One can empathize, somewhat, with their surprise.

If you had asked someone 20 years ago whether or not an incumbent with unemployment around 8 percent, with several pieces of controversial legislation to his name and a Congress that blocked his every move would be able to gain re-election, they probably would have replied emphatically in the negative. Yet, that is exactly what has happened. There are two possible reasons for this result. Either people really dislike Mitt Romney and/or really dislike the Republican platform. In all likelihood, it is a mixture of both reasons, but I would argue that the main reason the GOP lost in 2012 is due to demographics.

Despite winning the white voting bloc by nearly 50 percent, Romney did not come close to winning the election. Meanwhile, the results showcase GOP success with minority blocs as astonishingly low. Thus, considering the fact that the white proportion of the population continues to shrink, I would argue that the Republicans need to moderate their views in order to contend in future elections. More specifically, there are three areas in particular that the Republicans need to moderate if they wish to contend in the future.

The first area is that of immigration reform. Exit polls show that

OPINION 15

The Brandeis Hoot

Grand ‘Old’ Party needs new ideas President Obama won the Latino vote by a margin of over 40 percentage points, according to ABC News. This trend does not portend well for the GOP, especially considering that the Latino demographic is one of the fastest growing populations in the United States.

A few changes could alter GOP competition for the Latino vote. First, Republicans need to stop tossing out inhumanely tough stances on immigration as red meat to their constituents during the primaries. As much as Romney tried to run away from his comments about “self-deportation” as the solution to immigration problems during the general election, they continued to dog him throughout.

The callousness and inefficiency of this policy is enough to turn off many Latino voters from the Republican brand.

Second, the GOP needs to get behind a realistic policy for immigration reform. This will probably include a conditional amnesty of some sort. At the very least, Republicans need to support sensible and vastly popular legislation, such as the Dream Act. Standing tough on immigration may have been a winning policy in decades past, but as of now, it simply cuts off the Republicans from a key demographic.

Third, the Republican Party needs to increase outreach to Latino voters.

The Republican ground efforts to attract the Latino vote in comparison to those of the Obama campaign were devastatingly ineffective. The Republican candidate in 2016 has to provide some meaningful reason for Latinos to vote for the party. The good news for the GOP is that it appears their party is already conducting an about face—John Boehner, Marco Rubio and a number of other prominent Republicans have declared their openness to immigration reform. This is good for both the Republican Party and the nation as a whole.

The second area on which Republicans need to change their stance is the issue of voting restrictions. Trying to

graphic by sarah sue landau/the hoot

win an election via publicly and unashamedly attempting to disenfranchise minorities is not the way to build a strong political coalition in modern America. As Ta-Nehisi Coates from The Atlantic pointed out, the only real effect this had in the election was to give minorities a greater incentive to vote; this particularly took place with African Americans, who increased their percentage of the overall vote from 11 percent to 15 percent. Trying to suppress the vote invariably influences people to value their right more, making them more likely to exercise it. When they do, it does not take a psychic to guess for whom they will vote.

Furthermore, it makes the Republican Party look terrible when they are called out on a national level for engaging in a voter suppression campaign. If the Republican Party wants to succeed in future elections, it will

have to stop trying to bar people from voting and instead cater to their interests. Their current strategy is hugely counterproductive and is ultimately one of the many reasons that a president in dire straits was able to successfully portray his opponent as the least-appealing option.

The final area in which the Republicans need to improve is the issue of the youth vote. The 18-29-year-old demographic made up nearly 20 percent of the voting rolls this election and President Obama won it by 24 percentage points, according to The Huffington Post. This is bad news for the Republicans for a few reasons.

First, the loss of these voters is devastating to the Republicans in the short term insofar as this is a significant enough proportion of voters to deliver swing states to the Democratic Party.

Second and more importantly, this

demographic represents the future of the electorate, as the Huffington Post presented.

The GOP cannot count on all of these voters magically turning into conservatives later in life. Republicans need to reach out to the youth vote before it is too late. There are many ways to do this. The first is to stop ignoring them, as the Republican Party has largely done, in comparison to more prized demographics (Evangelicals, etc …); cutting threats of getting rid of Pell Grants would be a great place to start. Moderating on extreme positions would be an even better idea, for example, topics like gay marriage, medical marijuana and other facets upon which the minds of the electorate are changing.

The GOP may stand for the Grand Old Party but if it does not make some changes soon, it will end up expiring in an ever changing electorate.

No matter your side, there are real people on the other

By Juliette Martin Editor

This week, the latest facet of the conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian people reared its head in the form of the assassination of a military official of Hamas, the terrorist group currently in power in the Gaza Strip.

In retaliation, an intense barrage of rockets have been launched into the southern portion of Israel and in an especially unusual and alarming case, have landed in Tel Aviv for the first time in decades.

The situation is undeniably tense and the reactions appropriately so, particularly here at Brandeis, where many of the university’s numerous Jews have strong ties to Israel. People are upset and afraid and those reactions are not at all in question. What is concerning, however, is the dark underpinnings of some of these outcries, an issue which exists in both camps. In many cases, both unconsciously and with purpose, these emotional reactions center upon the dehumanization of the “other side,” oversimplifying an incredibly complicated and long-standing conflict that struggles with a great deal of emotional issues (human rights, persecution and identity, to name a few) into a simple matter of “us” and “them.”

Israel has the right to defend itself in the wake of this egregious attack on it’s civilian population, but that does not legitimize the dehumanization of

the Palestinian people, just as the occupation does not legitimize the dehumanization of Israelis.

There is much talk about the violation of human rights reflected in the attacks on civilian targets in Israel.

It is undoubtable that human rights have been compromised, but the issue here is that there is a tendency to take this particular snapshot of abuse and ignore the fact that both Israelis and Palestinians have initiated serious abuses against each other during the past years. It is inappropriate to use these as an excuse to condemn.

Providing love and support to those who need it in this trying time is a far better use of energy, especially when people are so dearly in need of support.

Condemning and dehumanizing the Palestinians is not support: if anything, it is worsening the schism of a clash decades in the making and will only serve to make peace even more challenging to achieve in the long run. It is one thing to condemn Hamas, which is a terrorist organization, but taking the conflict as a platform for racism, an attitude which is unfortunately (though often unconsciously) prevalent in many displays of support, is a very different state of affairs.

This week’s attacks on Israeli civilian centers is a serious act of terrorism in full defiance of the Geneva Convention, which sets the standards for human rights in times of warfare.

photo from internet source

That is not in question. The issue here, however, is that it isn’t as simple as people have made it out to be: this is but the latest facet of a much larger and more complicated situation.

Hamas and their actions are one face of a massive issue and Israel’s right to defend itself is undeniable—but taking that as an excuse to dehumanize Palestinians as a whole, as has been sadly prevalent in the wake of this week’s development (particularly in Facebook statuses professing support for Israeli human rights), is not, by any means, acceptable. This isn’t an attack out of nowhere, to be used as evidence that this ill-defined “other side” is peopled entirely by monsters, because that “other side” is too often expressed as an entire ethnicity rather than just Hamas, an extremist rul-

ing body that does not represent the people as a whole. This attitude often goes both ways, as well: Israelis and Jews are often blamed for less-thanfavorable actions of the Israeli government (which have, over the years and even very recently, been quite numerous) and in either case, dehumanization is entirely unacceptable.

This attack is one aspect of a long conflict in which both groups (Israeli and Palestinian) have caused each other grievous harm. For those of us who stand on the outside, there is far too much of a tendency to forget that and we instead place sole blame on whoever has fallen out of favor that day. This is more complicated and more painful than the act of taking sides can ever express. It’s time to stand up and acknowledge that

no matter the form in which conflict appears, it should never be used as a bludgeon to turn massive groups of people into faceless receptacles for blame.

Rather than taking sides and reducing people to monsters, it is wiser and healthier to simply be there for the people you love who are hurting, without tainting that support with hate. Instead of taking one side and hating the other, take the side of arbitration and peace, no matter how unrealistic it can seem, and be aware of how easily support turns into condemnation and hate. No matter what, reigning in the wide swaths of prejudice that result from the actions of a select group is by far the wiser route.

In short, do not use the actions of the few to condemn the many.

16 The Brandeis Hoot

arts, etc.

November 16, 2012

True to its word, farcical ‘Rumors’ delivers hilarity

By Juliette Martin Editor

“Rumors,” originally by Neil Simon and directed at Brandeis by Neil Rabinowitz ‘13, tells the story of two couples who have gathered for a tenth-anniversary party only to find the hosts in a state of absolute disaster. The story unfolds in an absurd cluster of nearly unbelievable happenings as the couples attempt to cover for their friend and host, who is the deputy mayor. The show itself is extremely humorous, carried only on the power of acting without any kind of gimmicks to lend it weight.

It’s a challenging feat that the cast and crew of “Rumors” pulled off with apparent ease, creating a hilarious show that held unadulterated attention for its entire run. With no more than a set of actors running around a house, “Rumors” makes for a truly impressive performance.

To begin a long list of assets, the set created an atmosphere that complimented the show itself flawlessly. Set up with four doors, a set of couches and chairs, and beige walls adorned with modern art, the stage accurately reflected the home of an affluent suburban couple. The obvious attention to detail in creating the stereotypical wealthy homestead showed, and did much to create a polished and well thought-out facade. It effectively established the tone and premise of the show from the moment it began.

Additionally, the blocking within the set was superb, as actors rushed from door to door to create an atmosphere of realistic chaos familiar to any attendant of a gathering gone wrong.

Of course, no set can pull off a show without a set of talented actors within it. “Rumors” utilized some of the best talent Brandeis has to offer, as a cast of ten delivered convincing perfor-

mances full of with wit and precision.

The show opened with the first lines of an overall stellar performance by Sarah Pace ‘13 as Chris Gorman, who progressed through various stages of frazzled, panicked and finally drunk, throughout the show without hesitation or stumble. Her opening scene, performed alongside Aaron Fischer ‘15 as her husband Ken Gorman in a similarly impressive performance, amounted to a great delivery of show’s beginning, key in creating engaging the audience from the start and setting up the show to come. In such a vital aspect, Fischer and Pace did a wonderful job.

Another great performance was delivered by Kate Davis ‘14 as Claire Ganz. Though the actress often verged on a sense of overacting, the delivery ultimately worked well for the show as a whole. She turned a potentially problematic performance into a very appropriate and clearly well-imagined one. Most notable about the talented actors of “Rumors” was how clearly invested each and every one was in their role. They clearly all put a great deal of thought into planning their characters, and it showed in the final production. Bethany Adams ‘15 particularly exhibited this asset in the role of Cookie Cusack, a part as far a cry as they come from young university student. The passionate flair of Samantha Levangie ‘15 as Cassie Cooper played into this as well, as her character fluctuated between rage and carefully controlled manipulation over the course of her scenes.

Another particularly skillful performance was that of Christopher Knight ‘14 in the role of Lenny Ganz, who appeared a rather nondescript character for the majority of the play, but wowed in the final scene through a brilliant delivery of the play’s climactic monologue. He drew all the

chaotic threads of the plot into a cohesive speech that utilized the entire staged and served as a wonderful opportunity for Knight to show off his talents. In this pivotal moment, clearly a make-or-break aspect of the show, Knight pulled through for a great delivery.

The trap of “Rumors,” it would seem, would be to fall into overdramatization and stereotype, tools meant to be utilized in such a show but that hold great possibility for failure. This production fell for none of those pitfalls, adeptly walking the line between extreme dramatization and humor without growing overly ridiculous. Rather than falling prey to stereotype, “Rumors” uses it as an asset, grounding its absurdist and over dramatic tendencies in familiarity, with over-the-top but ultimately realistic roles. They are delivered with great and effective flair as the actors engaged entirely with their respective parts. “Rumors” took a sense of overdramatization and made it work, lifting it higher even than the individual actors could have taken alone, wonderful as their performances were. All told, “Rumors” is a great example of Brandeis theatre that deliveries wonderful humor with a rare sense of professionalism.

rumors The cast of ‘Rumors’ carried a hilarious comedy, which opened Thursday night in the SCC theater

and plays through Sunday.

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

November 16, 2012

ARTS, ETC. 15

The Brandeis Hoot

Manginah’s melodious semester show astounds audience

By Emily Beker Staff

With the end of the semester quickly arriving, it is now the season for a capella semester shows. Starting the shows off with a bang, Manginah’s semester show this past Sunday was quite a hit. The venue, in Mandel, was tastefully designed with leaves scattered in the front of the room.Their show lacked a clever theme, but did not appear wanting. The show’s purpose was not to conform to a theme but merely to cater to the enjoyment of their audience and in that regard it was a complete success.

Their simple attire of gray and black added a level of elegance to the show. All the chairs in Mandel were filled with current students, family of the performers and various alumni

returned, some with their own children. There was standing room only for those who arrived just a few minutes late—a shout out to Manginah’s following and skill.

Their first song, “Bulgarian Chicks” made for an upbeat opening: the piece had no lyrics, but focused totally on rhythm, showcasing the groups ability to successfully blend their voices.

The second song brought them into their typical set list, which generally consisted of Hebrew songs, and Israeli pop. The solo by Mathew Kuruvinakekunnel ’15 added a new element to a particular song as he truly made it his own. His duet with Matt Sidel added yet another complex layer.

Another song, “Chelek Mimcha,” a clear crowd favorite did not fail to please this time around. Gabriella Fiengold’s solo, as always, was beautifully done. Their strong selection of Israeli and Hebrew music draws a

certain crowd to their shows, but even students who do not fully understand the songs and the meaning behind them showed up to support their friends. Their number “Even Ma’asu Bonim,” a classic the alumni throughout the room recognized, was another crowd favorite.

“Ani Chavatzelet,” performed by Jenna Kahane ’15 was beautiful and moving to listen to. Although Kahane is one of the group’s newer members, her talent and role as an asset to the group was evident. The crowd’s reaction to her song was a testament to the power of her talent, as a deep hush fell over the crowd.

Before a 15-minute intermission, Manginah showed off the blending of the group through six different songs, all of which the crowd enjoyed immensely. After their intermission, during which Manginah sold their most recent CD and promoted a pre-

order of their up-and-coming CD, the newest members of the group performed a skit. The “Newbie Skit,” usually performed at their first coffeehouse, shows off the newest members of the group. Jenna Kahane ’15 and Racheli Berkovitz ’15 imitated the other members, eliciting many laughs from the group members and the occasional audience members who had knew the other singers.

After their skit, when the rest of group returned, the last few numbers, among which were “Ah Ah Ah Ahava” and their signature song “Amen” were huge crowd-pleasers as well. In her solo, Coby Fleischman ’14 was vastly entertaining as she infused the song with great energy through physical movement.

As with most semester shows, when the alumni returns, the current members invite them to come sing a song with them. Manginah’s final num-

ber, their signature “Amen,” featured the alumni, expanding Manginah to a large semi-circle on the stage. The cohesiveness of the people on stage, some of whom had not sang the song with the group in years, showed the strong sense of community within Manginah.

The warmth and entertainment provided by the group made the event an enjoyable half-hour. The wide attendance of current students and alumni reminded Brandeis of the thorough connections that exist between members of groups like Manginah. Manginah’s strong connection to their alumni and the singing culminated very well, with the new Manginah members and alumni introducing themselves to one another and hearing about their experience in the group years ago. It was, from the perspective of the audience, heartwarming to see.

Lydian String Quartet revives classical music on campus

By Zach Reid Editor

In a rather enjoyable change of pace Wednesday afternoon, the Mandel Atrium was filled with the sounds of soothing string compositions. The Lydian String Quartet performed as a preface to their concert on Saturday, sponsored by the Department of Music and the Mandel Center for the Humanities.

Formed in 1980, the Quartet has been receiving critical acclaim for almost the entirety of its existence.

This performance included Professor Joshua Gordon (cello), Professor Daniel Stepner (violin), Professor Mary Ruth Ray (viola) and Mark Berger (violin); Gordon, Stepner and Ray are professors in the Department of Music, while Berger is a Ph.D. student. The Quartet’s numerous awards include the highly prestigious Naumburg Award for Chamber music.

These highly skilled performers read their music and watched each other with authentic looks of joy and intensity from the start of the concert, which made them even more enjoyable to watch.

In the Quartet’s first piece, Mozart’s “Quartet in D Minor” dedicated to Mozart’s mentor Joseph Haydn, the music reflected the various complex aspects in Mozart’s life at the time.

Slower swells of sound in the “Allegro

moderato” movement were followed by upbeat measures, which complemented each other nicely. “Andante” featured emphatic breaks in the music, which punctuated the longer, rich phrases in the piece.

The third movement, “Menuetto: Allegretto” capitalized on the singlestring plucking of some of the performers, which countered to more luscious melodies similar to “Andante’s.” The frequent tempo and style changes in “Allegretto ma non troppo” kept the audience’s rapt attention and evoked thoughts of Mozart’s performances when the piece was written, where he would sometimes play with Haydn in an impromptu string quartet.

After Mozart’s work came “Aqua,” a new piece composed by Harold Meltzer. Inspired by the design of the Aqua building in Chicago and the shimmering and liquid effects it creates, this performance was the Quartet’s premiere of the piece. Despite some initial hesitation about Meltzer’s inexperience with composing string quartets, the piece came together spectacularly.

Each of the 11 movements conveyed a different feeling and gave credit to the piece’s liquid inspiration.

The first movement, “Liquid,” showcased this loose and easy changeability, moving from rapid slews of notes to drawn-out, fuller phrases and back again often within the move-

ment’s three minutes. Another section of note was “Kaleidoscopic,” and while some members of the audience seemed off-put by its cacophonous and somewhat grating type of sound, “Warm and Full’s” rich melodies brought a sense of order and harmony to “Kaleidoscopic’s” chaotic orchestration. Whether this was a result intended by Meltzer or a happy side effect, the transition into a sense of musical balance set up the rest of the piece’s shifting nature quite well.

The audience was comprised mainly of adults, although students stood in the back of the atrium for parts of the concert; this lack of student attendance was by no means the fault of the Quartet, but likely due to classes beginning or ending during the concert. The presence of so many apparent classical enthusiasts resulted in the audience having a positive predisposition toward the Quartet, as they had gone out of their way to attend the concert.

This difference in audience from a typical campus performance also helped enhance the overall effect of the concert, as the audience held its applause until the end of each piece, rather than each movement—an approach that helped the performance truly feel like an authentic classical experience. The crowd had no problems with conveying their approval to the Quartet, as the wide smiles and lengthy rounds of applause indicated.

string quartet Members of the Lydian String Quartet

performed in Mandel on Wednesday.

photo by edwin gonzalez/the hoot

18 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

November 16, 2012

Documentary unveils dark underbelly of Israeli law

By Juliette Martin Editor

“The Law In These Parts,” directed

by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, details the legal system put in place after the 1967 war, in which Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip began. It’s a situation, which, at least in the case of the West Bank, perseveres to this day. Although the Israeli presence has been examined from a vast array of angles, this particular look is groundbreaking and fearless in its approach.

In the documentary, Alexandrowicz spends hours interviewing the military officials who served as judges in the military courts that handled the concerns of the Palestinian people. It’s a system entirely separate from the Israeli courts that served, as the film argues, to legitimize an abusive system that compromised the human rights of thousands.

In his discussion following the film, Alexandrowicz touched on issues of controversy surrounding the film. He discussed having broached it to those who wanted to take part in a more neutral film than the final portrayal and shared that around half of those interviewed were ultimately unhappy with the final product. Alexandrowicz, who is an Israeli native, has created a film that fearlessly presents an unexplored sea of potential abuse that has not, by any means, been widely supported, though he presents the film to audiences fully knowing that not all will approve or agree.

Throughout the film, Alexandrow-

the law in these parts Directed by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, ‘The Law in These Parts’ chronicles a dark look within the legal system imposed on the

photo from internet source

West Bank in the early days of the occupation.

icz raises some very touchy questions with regard to the legal dealings between the Israeli military and the Palestinian people. Much of the central issues regarded the use of Palestinian land for Israeli settlements and the ways the government looked to build these settlements without overtly disobeying international laws regarding warfare.

In dealing with a truly grim reality, “The Law In These Parts” walks a fine line between documentation and art.

The film is presented primarily as a series of interviews, often over footage and images of courtrooms and uprisings. Visually, it is a tricky concept, because much of the film simply depicts men sitting in a chair, sometimes as images flash on a green screen behind them—but often merely the men, former military judges who served in Palestine. This potentially bland visual scheme, however, did nothing to lower the incredible quality of the film, with stirring images mixed in

that served to complement and drive home some heavy points as the judges or narrator spoke over them.

“The Law In These Parts” does not hesitate to utilize visual symbolism: as in many instances, gruesome images of war and pain are partially hidden behind the empty desk and chair in which, in other scenes, interviewees would sit. This emphasizes the way abuses were hidden and overruled by the legal system. In many cases, the filmmaker also refers to his subjects

as protagonists, an interesting artistic choice given that the documentary does not strictly tell a story. Rather, it chronicles a mode of governance that has now endured for a grand total of 45 years. These artistic choices help alleviate some of the potential for dryness in the documentary’s chosen form. One particular moment in which an artistic decision was used to

bass player with the addition of bass string to his guitar. He performs feats of incredible dexterity to play both at once. Drummer Don Godwin doesn’t mess around, either; though his setup is minimal, he plays fluidly, keeping himself free of the trappings of traditional drummers. Sara Lucas’ voice is beautiful and has a presence that belies its tone. These ingredients all combine into a wonderful light, pop stew.

The band has grown considerably since its folkish debut album, branching out with two other albums into brighter tones and strange syncopa-

tions reminiscent of Dirty Projectors or a very upbeat Portishead. The crowd certainly got into their music.

Several audience members were dancing with gusto and the musicians bantered well, telling humorous stories about life in Brooklyn and the sorry state of their brightly-colored touring van, now incapacitated because of Hurricane Sandy. At one point, Delicate Steve got onstage to perform a song he co-wrote with them, to the enjoyment of the crowd. Callers made for a wonderful opening to the crazy stylings of Delicate Steve.

Steve Marion, however, is far from

delicate. He is a natural guitarist and showman and the whole band appears to be close-knit, having lived in a ramshackle house in Warwick, New York, in addition to chumming around Brooklyn with various indie musicians. But Steve wasn’t always appreciated in his time: his earlier band, Baller Banks, disbanded after a bad experience with Warner Bros.

Records. Afterward, Steve was turned off to making music for anyone but himself. Following a road trip across the U.S. in 2009, he started making melodies in his bedroom studio in New Jersey and thus Delicate Steve

was brought into being.

Since then, Delicate Steve has opened for both Yeasayer and tUnEyArDs, attracted an indie record label and put out three joyous albums. The entire biography of the five-man rock outfit was fabricated by Chuck Klosterman in an attempt to get the band some notoriety without necessarily describing their sound. But what a sound it is; Delicate Steve produces a garish and aggressive flavor of electrorock that results in some of the most danceable tunes around.

See DOCUMENTARY, page 19

‘South by South Brandeis’ openers erupt with unique flair

By Max Randhahn Staff

Punk Rock & Roll Club brought their cleverly-titled “South By South Brandeis” to Chum’s last weekend, featuring the highly anticipated bands “Callers” and “Delicate Steve” to kick off the show last Friday. Despite issues with feedback and leveling, Callers played a decent set. The band, which consists of a trio of musicians that each bring varied, impressive talents to the collective, has been making music since 2008. Ryan Seaton, the guitarist, also doubles as the band’s

delicate steve Along with Callers, Delicate Steve preformed at Chum’s last Friday in the opening show of the weekend-long ‘South by South Brandeis’ music festival.

See SOUTH, page 19

photo from internet source

November 16, 2012

The Brandeis Hoot

Analyzing law in the West Bank

photo from internet source

could tell whatever story he wanted to. This was an extremely poignant drive home a difficult point was when moment, as the filmmaker ironically a particular judge discussed situations challenges the legitimacy of his own in which he was presented evidence creation to make his point. regarding certain cases. He was given Following the screening, Alexana paraphrasing of the evidence, rather drowicz engaged in a question and than openly shown it in the traditional answer session with the audience. sense of due process. If there was any The director was refreshingly open, doubt in the mind of the viewer that taking controversy in stride in a way this is not an abuse, the narrator be- that is rare and challenging with such gins a voiceover during a shot of the an emotionally charged issue. He enstudio in which the interview was couraged more open conversation held, pointing out that the conversa- with regard to the challenges of Israeli tion lasted three hours and that only presence in Gaza and the West Bank, small segments were used—a para- a refreshing perspective on such a pophrase, so that in theory, the narrator litically-oriented issue.

DOCUMENTARY, from page 18

Bands kick off ‘South

by South Brandeis’

ARTS, ETC. 19

Arts Recommends movies

V for Vendetta

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Released in 2005, “V for Vendetta” tells the story of dystopian England in the 2030s, and the efforts of the freedom fighter V (Hugo Weaving) to bring to light the atrocities committed by the government, as well as avenge the wrongs done to him. Along the way, he meets Evey (Natalie Portman), a woman he trains to be his successor and with which he later falls in love.

“V for Vendetta” forces the viewer to ask whether a fighter who commits evil acts can truly be considered a hero, or merely a vigilante, out for vengeance. Revolution against oppressive government powers is also prominent in the film and provides most of the film’s moral justification for V’s actions; this was so well-received that the iconic Guy Fawkes mask, which V uses has become a symbol of demonstrations against governmental abuses of power, such as some of the Occupy Wall Street rallies last year.

Stellar acting also helps to improve the film’s appeal. Some of the best comes from V himself, as his ever-present mask hides his face completely from the audience; as such, Weaving’s voice and body language are the only ways he expresses V’s tortured past and feelings for Evey. Inspector Eric Finsh (Stephen Rae), the detective assigned to hunt down V, is drawn into an incredible moral dilemma, as his search for V’s past leads him to discover deeply buried secrets about the government’s history. These discoveries force him to question his beliefs in order and whether it is worth preserving for a government so willing to exploit its own people.

zach reid, editor

movies

photo from internet source

SOUTH, from page 19

There is a certain amount of quirk to the band, indicated in part by Klosterman’s irreverent, near-inscrutable bio and the the band’s demeanor. During the Chum’s show, Steve brought a couple onstage to dance to “Two Lovers” and asked to see people’s cell phones when he saw them texting, only to put the phone somewhere else onstage and continue playing. At one point, paradoxically, Steve wouldn’t start playing until the entire coffeehouse was silent, presumably as an ironic counteraction to some bands’ desire to get as much noise out of the crowd as possible.

Steve and his cohorts put as much zeal into playing with the crowd as they do in making excellent music.

Mike Duncan, the drummer, pulled off some ludicrous maneuvers on his kit: at one point alternating the tempo of one hand so the resulting beats diverged and recombined. Mickey Sanchez, the keyboardist, creates excellent effects that make Marion’s already-impressive guitar playing truly extraordinary.

Rob Scheuerman and Adam Pumilla create fantastic harmonies with guitar and bass, respectively. Combined, Delicate Steve presented a stage and a band full of spastic energy—so much so, in fact, that Steve broke two guitar strings during the performance, which he of course took in stride, japing with the audience during repairs.

Congratulations are certainly in order to both bands for a phenomenal job kicking-off the club’s “South By South Brandeis” series of shows.

Skyfall

photo from internet source

Skyfall is the fullest modern realization of all things Bond. It bridges the gap between the Bond in our heads and the Bond on the screen. Finally, the fully developed, intensely sympathetic and even more intensely charming Agent 007 that lived in the popular imagination now exists also in the canon.

The writing has surpassed anything in the Bond franchise so far. It allowed actors to use their skills—which, considering the cast (Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes and Albert Finney) would be heresy to fail.

Finally, after two films of only momentary glimpses of M, Dench gets an appropriate screen time for her talent and experience. She is the best Bond girl to date.

We see more of everyone, including Bond. The new Q, played by Ben Whishaw, allows the character to move past the lab coat and M finally gets out of the office. Familiar characters are brought back to the franchise, without feeling forced or like writers are catering to the fan base. connor novy, editor

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The Brandeis Hoot

November 16, 2012