The Brandeis Hoot - 10/18/13

Volume 10 Number 18

www.thebrandeishoot.com

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.

Visiting poet discusses race and family ties

Author and LGBT activist brings audience to tears

By Robin Briendel Editor

poet Tess Taylor, a descendant of Thomas Jefferson, speaks on race relations and her family history.

By Dana Trismen Editor

Poet Tess Taylor read at Brandeis on Oct. 10, a gloomy Thursday during the month of ghosts. It was a fitting time for her to visit, as her poems explore the ghost of Thomas Jefferson, a founding father for America and an ancestor of Taylor’s.

Taylor’s work has appeared in the “Atlantic Monthly,” the “Times Literary Supplement,” “The New Yorker” and on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Released in August, her lyric debut “The Forage House” has begun to attract attention, due to its tense themes of racism, history and family stories. This was

photos by jingru wang

the volume Taylor read from in the Mandel Reading room, presenting her work to a sizeable audience of students and professors.

Taylor is a fantastic reader, bringing emotion and expression to her vivacious stanzas. Many of her poems present family members who shaped Taylor’s life, such as her grandmother. When other people appeared in the poem, Taylor would scrunch up her nose and speak in a slightly altered tone, giving a true voice to the character. She spoke loudly and clearly, often looking up from her poems to connect with the See POETRY, page 8

tess taylor, poet

October 18, 2013

On Tuesday, transgender woman, professor, author and LGBT activist Jennifer Finney Boylan came to Brandeis for a presentation of her book “She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders.” The bestselling memoir is one of Boylan’s 13 published books, which include three novels, a collection of short stories and six books for young adults.

While Boylan always felt that she was a woman, it was not until age 40 that she underwent transition.

Formerly James, Boylan was married with two sons at the time of her transition. Raised and socialized as a boy, she explained she always had a “female sensibility.”

During the talk, Boylan shared excerpts from her own writing, sang, played the piano and gave a brief 101 on “trans” terminology. Her reading of a piece titled “In the Early Morning Rain” from the “It Gets Better Anthology” brought many in the audience to tears. In the story, she discussed a journey she went on pre-transition in which she ran away to Canada hoping to figure out her identity crisis and to solve the difficulties she experienced living in the body of a man. In the story she discusses her thoughts of suicide but did not act after hearing a spirit voice tell

her that it was going to be OK. She concluded the story with the line “It gets better. It’s not as bad as it feels now,” and states that from that point on she began the long journey toward “home.” Her story gave a clear picture of her experience being trapped in the wrong body, as well as the great strength necessary for being trans.

Throughout the talk, Boylan promoted a philosophy of accepting everyone as “cool,” stating, “We’re all so rough on each other,” but we’re all humans. Boylan referenced this in the context of her “trans 101,” promoting an acceptance of all types of people, and clarifying that being transgender is an umbrella term encompassing more than the male to female transgender women most commonly covered in the media. She further commented on the necessity to call people the names they choose and to make people feel safe. She strongly emphasized the point that we may make mistakes in discussing gender and sexuality with peers, but that we should always stop and apologize when we do so, as the absence of such an apology can be very painful.

Despite the more serious nature of the discussion on defining transgender, Boylan kept everyone engaged with her professorial demeanor and See TRANS, page 3

QRC proposes new counseling center and staff role

By Victoria Aronson Editor

Amid rainbow streamers in celebration of National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11, the Queer Resource Center has announced its proposal for the creation of a Gender and Sexuality Center. Margaret Borchert, co-coordinator for the Queer Resource Center, explained, “We thought Coming Out Day would be the perfect day for us to ‘come out’ with our proposal.”

According to Borchert, a diverse assemblage of students representing the QRC, QPA, Trisk, Trans*Brandeis and the Student Union organizations on campus are working in collaboration to spearhead the creation of the new center. The proposal further ecompasses the creation of a full time Gender and Sexuality Counselor.

Alex Thomson, fellow coordinator for the Queer Resource Center, said, “The center will address a crucial need on campus—helping to provide a safe space for queer identified students.”

In addition to the continued coordination of LGBTQ initiatives and educational resources such as the

Inside this issue:

Brandeis Safe Space Allies Training, Thomson reveals that the new center will seek to prevent and adequately respond to homophobic or transphobic incidents. He further cites the goal of “student leadership development for our LGBTQ and ally student organizations, including more oversight and administrative assistance for student run programs.”

Although there are numerous resources currently available for members of the LGBTQ community, the proposed Gender and Sexuality Center along with the creation of a full-time counselor position is aimed at filling a void on campus. According to Thomson, “This service will provide an essential service that is impossible for a student-run organization to fully address.”

While other organizations on campus employ peer counselors, the new center is seeking to hire a full-time counselor better equipped to meet the needs of students. Qualifications for the position will include a master’s degree in a relevant field and three to five years prior experience, among See QRC, page 3

Page 2 News: Sexual assault prevention specialist hired Opinion: Advocacy lacking in Student Handbook Page 12 Page 7 Arts, Etc.: Cyrus reflects on past demons Page 15 Opinion: Eliana offers enlightening advice Editorial: Admin chooses coercion over persuasion Page 10

global bazaar Multicultural vendors come to campus. See more photos on page 9.

photo by katie chin/the hoot

Univ Archives houses rare Shakespeare works

By Iona Feldman Staff

The library at Brandeis houses a collection of rare Shakespeare works.

Since 1961, the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections has counted books of Shakespeare’s plays that were printed in the 17th century among its acquisitions. In addition, the collection has a number

of later anthologies of Shakespeare poems, as well as contemporary facsimiles of the original publications.

Earlier this week, Special Collections Librarian Anne Woodrum showed The Hoot some of the highlights of Brandeis’ Shakespeare collection.

Allan Bluestein, a member of an organization known as the Brandeis Bibliophiles, donated a copy of the First Folio to Brandeis, beginning

a collection that the university has proudly maintained and expanded for half of a century. This book’s publication in 1623 serves as a milestone to Shakespeare scholars because it is considered to be the first reliable anthology of Shakespeare’s work. Although many of the 36 plays had been printed prior to 1623, these were

“Time Flies” when you’re having fun

Men’s Soccer re-

Arts, etc.: Page 6

Sports: Page 12

Gosman erupted when the much anticipated hip-hop duo performed.

bounds

See SHAKESPEARE, page 4

After a bitter loss to Rochester, Brandeis sweeps the Mass.

Maritime Academy.

news

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October 18, 2013

Sexual assault prevention specialist hired, hopes to connect with students

photo courtesy brandeis

sheila mcmahon

By Dana Trismen Editor

Brandeis announced the hiring of a Sexual Assault Services and Prevention Specialist on Oct. 7, welcoming Sheila McMahon to the staff while hoping to bring awareness about a sensitive topic. McMahon will begin

Nov. 1. Brandeis has had numerous sexual assault cases in the past, from allegations of sexual assault last January at a fraternity party to a case in 2012 where a Heller School student allegedly raped a female undergraduate student repeatedly. In an interview with The Hoot earlier this year, Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams

Science illuminates history of artwork

By Rachel Hirschhaut Editor

The visual arts and sciences are commonly thought of as two separate fields of study, with little overlap between them. However, in his lecture “Science at the Art Museum,” Richard Newman, head of scientific research at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston, demonstrated the crucial role of scientific processes in understanding and preserving works of art.

The lecture took place Tuesday evening at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center. It was another installment of their Women in Science Initiative lecture series.

The research center at the MFA is one of the first of its kind in the country.

“Art museums understand the value of science,” Newman said in his presentation. “It is very important to artifact-focused research, the technical studies of art.”

Still, “in-house scientific research is expensive, and labs in museums are often not sustain-

able,” he said.

As a result, much of the scientific study of art today takes place in university museums, where there is scientific equipment available.

Newman said that Europe continues to invest more money into the scientific study of art.

Through vivid photographs, Newman showed how chemical dating has helped art researchers trace art and artifacts back through history. In one case, artists and scientists in the research lab at the University of Perugia in Italy learned about life in Pompeii by chemically analyzing the pigment samples found in Pompeii’s paint shops and the silver content in their gold.

Research into “deterioration of art and development of new conservation materials” can lead to new ways of preserving art, he said.

Newman also noted the code of ethics in the scientific study of art: The research cannot do any damage or interfere with future analysis of the work.

“Nothing can last forever, but we try to ensure a lifespan of several hundred years for great works of art,” he said.

stated that “one sexual assault is one too many; and any occurrence should be reported.” The hiring of McMahon illustrates Brandeis’ firm stance on this topic.

McMahon has an extensive background in preventing sexual violence and aggression. After studying English and Women’s Studies at Boston

College, McMahon studied at Harvard University. In May, she will receive her Ph.D. in social work. She researched at the Center on Violence Against Women and Children at the Rutgers School of Social Work and spent four years as the director of Boston College’s Women’s Resource Center. McMahon also has as a background as a community organizer and advocate for progressive policy.

“I anticipate the community will find her to be approachable, compassionate and articulate,” said Associate Dean of Student Life Maggie Balch in an email conversation with The Hoot this week.

In an email sent out to Brandeis faculty, staff and students Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel explained McMahon’s duties. “She will coordinate advocacy services for survivors of sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking, conduct outreach and education to promote a healthy campus environment and serve as a liaison to student organizations,” he stated.

“During her interviews she was very excited to interact with students, to get to know them, to figure out how she might be a resource and/or advocate for all students on campus,” Balch said. “Students were the focus of all her answers, so I’m sure she will figure out a way to be readily accessible and responsive to our campus community.”

McMahon’s position will be fulltime. A committee spent about a month interviewing for the position.

“Campus-wide involvement from students, faculty and staff has been integral throughout the process. All three constituencies were represented on the search committee, and all three groups have met with candidates when they visited campus,” said

Director of Athletics Sheryl Sousa, the chair of the search committee for the sexual assault counselor, to The Hoot earlier this year.

“It is clear in her interviews that she is eager to get to know students, because she cares… Introducing yourself and giving her a huge Brandeis welcome will go a long way,” Balch said. While there were only two incidents of forcible sexual advances reported in 2011 (the most recent year data was available) according to the Brandeis Police website, many may go unreported, or students may not be sure where to go to. In an interview with The Hoot earlier in the year, Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan reported that everyone might not feel comfortable going to the police with an allegation of sexual assault. While the case may often filter down to Public Safety, students may feel too intimidated to speak after an attack.

Brandeis students can also seek help from services such as Community Living, the ICC, Student Activities, the Dean of Student Life, Student Rights and Community Standards, Public Safety, Community Service, the Health and Psychological Counseling centers, the Chaplains, the Title IX coordinator and more.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of hiring McMahon is that students will be completely sure which source to turn to, as her entire position revolves around protecting students from sexual assault.

“She brings a powerful combination of individual counseling skills, community programming experience and knowledge of leading-edge, evidence-based intervention in the area of sexual assault services and prevention that will be a tremendous asset to our community,” Flagel said in his email.

Univ creates two new positions to study African diaspora

By Jess Linde Staff

Last week, Brandeis announced a new initiative seeking to expand the Brandeis Department of African and Afro-American Studies (AAAS). The initiative, including a multi-year group of faculty hires dedicated to expanding the studies of the African diaspora, will begin this year with two new positions.

The initiative strengthens the University’s increasingly culturally diverse campus and curriculum, and is an important step in the development of the study of cultural diasporas at Brandeis. The timing of the initiative correlates directly to the implementation of the Strategic Plan, which was approved by the Board of Trustees this May. “We certainly hope that this initiative will allow AAAS to build on our existing strengths while at the same time growing the department in exciting new directions,” wrote AAAS Associate Professor and Department Chair Chad Williams in an email to The Hoot.

“However, we envision this as a truly interdisciplinary endeavor that will benefit multiple depart-

ments and programs.”

“African diaspora studies, while not new, has always been characterized by intellectual originality and cutting edge research,” continued Williams.

The interdisciplinary nature of African diaspora studies also enables participants to “grapple with questions, issues and ideas across from a variety of perspectives, employing a diverse range of methodological and pedagogical tools.”

Through the cluster hire, Brandeis seeks to strengthen relationships between academic departments and establish Brandeis as a premier and diverse institution for the study of cultural diasporas. For its first two hires, the University is seeking a joint appointment position in African and Afro-American Studies and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, as well as a historian of Latin America for the History department.

As the programs envisioned by the initiative continue to grow, criteria for future hires will be based on the needs of specific departments and curricula. The broad scope of these searches

demonstrates Brandeis’ strong commitment to interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary education, as well as its goal of the ongoing diversification of students, ideas and research opportunities on campus.

Among faculty, there is optimism that the initiative will strengthen Brandeis’ long-term recognition as a research institution. “We envision this as a truly transformative initiative that will place Brandeis at the forefront on universities engaged in the study of the African diaspora,” Williams said.

“Hiring a new cohort of faculty in multiple departments and programs over the next several years will inject new energy into our already outstanding faculty.”

The initiative has gathered support from various members of Brandeis’ faculty, and is expected to start smoothly. It is unknown when the first two positions will be filled or by whom, but it seems this expansion will bring more comprehensive opportunity and diversity to the ever-growing face of Brandeis’ cultural studies and research.

October 18, 2013

Freedom from poverty a human right

By Jaye Han Staff

Thomas Pogge, the world’s leading spokesperson for freedom from poverty as a human right, spoke at Brandeis on Oct. 8. The Graduate Programs in Sustainable International Development and Health at the Heller School with the Philosophy department in the College of Arts and Sciences presented the first ever human rights and social justice lecture with Pogge, the director of the Global Justice Program at Yale, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International affairs.

“The present rules of our current economy foreseeably produce massive human rights deficits and is therefore extremely unjust,” Pogge said. “At least a third of all human rights deficit from poverty-related causes, conservatively speaking,” he said.

400 million people die from poverty-related causes, deaths that are easily preventable through better nutrition, safe drinking water, mosquito nets, rehydration packs, vaccines and basic medicines.

“Poverty today is very different from poverty as it was 40 to 50 years ago. Today, we can really avoid it: It’s no longer something that the wealth of the world doesn’t suffice, as the distribution of the global household income implies. It suffices very easily, at very low costs. In economic terms, just a shift of one to two percent of the global household income distribution in favor of the poorer half, and that’d end at least the very severe poverty,” he said.

Pogge elaborated that in the current distribution of the global household income, the top five percent of the world’s population takes about 46 percent of the total global household income, and about the same goes to the next 20 percent of the population. This leaves about 10 percent of the global income to be distributed to the other three quarters of the population. The uneven distribution of the global income is even more exaggerated by the rich’s ability to lobby.

“Lobbying really works and really pays. In the last 30 years or so, the poorer half lost about half of their share of the global household income, while the top half gained. The top 30,000 people of the entire population have more income than the poorest 40 percent of the population, 2.8 billion people,” Pogge said.

The power of lobbying doesn’t only contribute to human rights deficit

through the uneven distribution of the income. “If there is a new law that the Congress wants to propose, that law has to be publicized and it has to be known to us—we can weigh in on it, we can organize demonstrations and so on. But international laws are proposed behind closed doors, they’re negotiated behind closed doors. You don’t even know what they’re negotiating until finally the result of the treaty is publicized,” Pogge remarked.

The lack of transparency makes for an ideal environment for lobbying, and for those who lobby to hide their tracks. “It’s so easy for them to just say that was the best we could do—they can’t pin it on anybody.”

We can’t rationalize to ourselves that we are helping the poor because they’re doing better than they did 20 to 25 years ago, argued Pogge. “It’s what matters morally,” he said, “We shouldn’t be comparing how they’re doing now relative to how they were doing 20 to 25 years ago. What matters morally is how they are doing, relative to how they might be doing now.” Although the situation may be better now than it was years ago, Pogge said that this does not make the current situation any more acceptable, because human rights continue to be violated.

We have negative duties to human rights. For example, we have the duty to keep people from being tortured and from having their possessions taken away. But human rights do impose positive duties as well, even internationally. The U.S. government declared the attainment of any “right to adequate food” or “fundamental right to be free from hunger” as a goal or aspiration. Pogge, however, asserts that they are rights, positive duties that human rights obligate us to take action for all people.

“Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized,” Pogge quoted from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“That’s all I need as a moral premise for this argument, saying that it’s fundamentally important that insofar as we impose any sort of supranational institutional order at all, it must be one that is human rights compliant.

Our international order cannot be one that automatically ensures human rights fulfillment perfectly, human rights fulfillment anywhere and everywhere, but it certainly can fulfill human rights to a much larger extent than the current international order is doing,” he said.

College Notebook

Economics Nobel winner has connection to Brandeis

By Charlie Romanow Staff

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics were announced this Monday. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the three individuals “for their empirical analysis of asset prices.” The Prize Committee stated that this year’s laureates were able to foresee the long-term course of asset prices.

The winners are Robert Shiller of Yale University, and Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago. These three men have worked independent of one another and promoted views that often conflicted with each other.

Robert Shiller is the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale after previously teaching at the University of Minnesota and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His New York Times Bestseller “Irrational Exuberance” refuted the idea that market assets are always priced efficiently. The term “irrational exuberance” was coined by Alan Greenspan in 1996 and refers to the overvaluation of the market due to the sometimes illogical and emotional thinking of investors. The two editions of the book discussed the dot-com bubble and housing crisis respectively, accurately warning of economic downturns.

He challenged the efficient-market hypothesis which was formed by Fama, which maintains that it is impossible to outsmart the market as prices reflect all relevant information. With Karl Case and Allan Weiss, Shiller helped form the Case-Shiller index, which measures the average housing prices over long periods of time and has helped forward the validity of irrational exuberance.

Shiller’s son Benjamin Shiller ’04 is an assistant professor of Economics at Brandeis after graduating magna cum laude with a degree in economics and going on to earn a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from Penn’s Wharton School of Business. He teaches Microeconomic Theory, Industrial Organization, and Empirical Industrial Organization. Professor Shiller commented on his father’s success and career.

“It always felt kind of strange hearing his name as a potential Nobel Prize winner, and stranger when it happened. He just seemed like a regular dad to me. Having later gone into academic economics myself, many

QRC to advocate for hiring of new staff member QRC, from page 1

other requirements. “Knowledge and understanding of intersecting multiple identities and interlocking systems of oppression is necessary,” Thomson elaborated.

Currently, Jessica Pedrick, whom Berchert describes as a wonderful addition to the Brandeis Community, serves as a part-time coordinator for Gender and Sexuality Diversity.

Thomson cites the hope for Pedrick to fulfill the full-time position as well if created.

The position of the full-time counselor will entail being responsible for a variety of tasks, including implementing educational awareness programs, facilitating a nurturing environment for members of the

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LGBTQ community, providing crisis counseling for students and families and advising current clubs on campus, amongst various other duties. In addition, Thomson explained, “This center will serve as a programming hub for the queer student groups on campus and will be the main resource space for students to access.”

In order to better serve the queer community on campus, the Center also will receive a budget separate from other student-led organizations such as the QRC and Trisk.

“The Gender and Sexuality Center will provide a safe space for all queeridentified students on campus to fully express themselves without fear for safety or comfort,” Thomson said.

Although currently the proposal for Gender and Sexuality Center and

the creation of a full-time counselor position are only preliminary, the student task force plans to meet with Andrew Flagel, senior vice president of students and enrollment, and Jamele Adams, dean of student life, this Friday. Ideally, the center will gain approval for funding and be established by the next academic year.

“ ” One difference would be his love of his work. He did work a lot, but never seemed stressed about it.

Benjamin Shiller ’04

people assume we talked a lot about economics when I was growing up, but we didn’t. He did regular dad stuff like be assistant coach of my soccer team, even though he didn’t really know much of anything about soccer. I guess I would say one difference would be his love of his work. He did work a lot, but never seemed stressed about it,” Shiller said.

He went on to say “It wasn’t until I was starting college when he started to become known to people outside the profession, when his book ‘Irrational Exuberance’ was released, and he appeared on TV a lot. That was a little weird and made me think twice about whether I wanted to major in economics.”

Eugene Fama is the Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago. He has spent his entire career at the university after receiving his Ph.D. in Economics and Finance there. Fama became known as the father of the efficient-market hypothesis after his doctoral thesis purported that stock prices are unpredictable and follow a random succession of steps. Contrary to Shiller, he believes that the recent financial downturn was caused by the strictness of government policies that prevented the market from taking its natural course.

His theory is that Fannie Mae and

Freddie Mac were encouraged to lower their lending standards as a result of government regulations. His coauthored 1969 article “The Adjustment of Stock Prices to New Information” was the first of many that set out to analyze how stock prices respond to events.

Lars Peter Hansen is the David Rockefeller Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota. Prior to working for Chicago, he was an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

He developed an econometric technique for analyzing data and asset prices that allow economists to more easily and efficiently test the various theories of what drives markets. Hansen is the co-founder of the Becker Friedman Institute in Chicago. He is well known for his work on the Generalized Method of Moments, which helps estimate parameters in statistical models. He co-directs a financial modeling group that works to develop improved models of linkages between the financial and real sectors of the economy after the 2008 economic downturn.

The three will share a prize of $1.2 million and be presented in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

photo from internet source

Boylan discusses strength through life experiences TRANSGENDER, from page 1

frequent use of humor. Speaking to this issue, Megi Belegu ’16 said, “Boylan made a topic that is very intense more accessible to people with humor.”

After a question and answer session with the attendees, Boylan went to the piano and sang. Everyone in the audience was moved by her musicality and passion. It was clear that she was singing from the heart and that the song, which was about change, resonated with her and her life experiences.

Boylan concluded her talk with an excerpt from her new book, “Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders,” discussing an adventure with her son in

which the story concluded with him calling her mom.

Boylan’s presentation was both an informative and entertaining experience for all. Her spirit and strength were infectious, and her candidness made her experience real for all attendees.

photos from internet source

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Rare documents in library’s special collections SHAKESPEARE, from page 1

done on the testimony of audience members who often made mistakes, as Shakespeare himself never wrote down his plays for sale in his lifetime.

In contrast, the First Folio was written with the contribution of actual actors who had worked under Shakespeare.

In order to facilitate access and prevent deterioration, the First Folio has been fully digitized through the Perseus Project of Tufts University. However, any researcher who wishes to see the original document may do so in the reading room of the Archives & Special Collections. Although the Folio used to be bound like a normal book, the special collections staff removed the spine because of its harmful effect on the sheets. Therefore, this copy resembles a very carefully ordered pile of pages.

Associate Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies Thomas King greatly appreciates the presence of the First Folio at Brandeis. In an email exchange earlier this week, he noted that the First Folio is “a kind of holy grail for those of us who love the materiality of Shakespeare’s texts and are interested in the history of editing Shakespeare plays.” King usually teaches only graduate courses in Shakespeare, though he taught Advanced Shakespeare to undergraduates last spring. He takes his students to see the collection because he believes that even professional Shakespeare scholars are incredibly privileged to be able to see this document.

The First Folio features a lengthy preface by the individuals who organized its publication, followed by a poem about Shakespeare by his contemporary Ben Jonson, who also wrote and acted in plays. The Folio also features a page listing the principal actors who originally took part in Shakespeare’s plays. A table of contents groups the plays by genres, separating the 36 plays into comedies, histories and tragedies.

From the same donor, Brandeis received a copy of the Second Folio, which came out nearly a decade later in 1632. In contrast with the First Folio, Brandeis’ copy of this collection is bound as a book. However, the binding is not original to the 1600s,

instead likely to have been added in the 19th century. A handwritten table of contents just inside the front cover also seems to be a later addition. John Milton, best known for his epic poem “Paradise Lost,” first appeared in print when he published a poem about Shakespeare in a preface to the Second Folio, in a similar manner to Ben Johnson’s in 1623. This curiosity is partly what brings Professor William Flesch (ENG) to take his students to see the First and Second folios.

Although Brandeis has no copy of the 1663 Third Folio, there have been two donations of Fourth Folios.

Published in 1685, the Fourth Folio contained several more plays that had been attributed to Shakespeare at the time. However, modern scholars disagree with the attribution, and only “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” has been added, even perhaps only in part, to the Shakespeare canon.

In addition to the original Folios, the Archives & Special Collections has acquired many other editions of Shakespeare. One is a 1951 facsimile of a 1603 quarto of “Hamlet.” While this was written 20 years before the First Folio, still during Shakespeare’s lifetime, its attribution to an audience member makes it a less reliable source. While the term “folio” refers to a book made of once folded sheets, two folds were needed for quartos, making for publications much smaller in size. Another of the library’s copies was compiled in 1968 from various copies of the First Folio with the aim of producing the most complete version possible. The library also has 18th century editions of Shakespeare: one compiled by Alexander Pope and one by Samuel Johnson.

These rare materials, when not being shown to visitors in the reading room, are kept in a secure, temperature-controlled, low-humidity environment. Leslie Reicher, the preservation officer at the archives, works to protect these documents from deterioration. But many publications, including those of Shakespeare and a variety of other historical documents ranging from American dime novels to Spanish Civil War posters to medieval European manuscripts, are all available for research at the University Archives. Anyone interested can go to the second level of the library and see what they have to offer.

October 18, 2013

Counseling center wins self-assessed award

photo by matt brondoli/the hoot

By Theresa Gaffney Editor

On Oct. 4, Dr. Michael J. LaFarr, associate director of the Psychological Counseling Center (PCC), announced that Brandeis has been awarded the JedCampus Seal from the Jed Foundation in an emailed press release.

The Jed Foundation is a “leading organization working to promote emotional health and prevent suicide among college students,” according to the press release. One of the programs that the Foundation provides to protect student health is JedCampus, a which analyzes the strength of a college’s mental health resources based on self-assessment and feedback. It is the first program nationwide to enable this sort of rating.

Brandeis began the process of applying for the JedCampus Seal by participating in an online self-assessment on the resources found here at the Counseling Center in Mailman.

The Foundation compared the responses to suggested guidelines from

“The Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention on College and University Campuses” developed by the Jed Foundation and Suicide Prevention Resource Center.

The award is based mainly on the school’s self-assessment, as the Foundation does not conduct an independent review of campus resources. In a separate email, however, Dr. LaFarr explained that after filling out the assessment, Jed senior administration came to the PCC at Brandeis “to discuss interventions and our work, and we collaborated with them to ensure we are doing blue ribbon work.”

The PCC at Brandeis was founded in 1952, and approximately 20 percent of Brandeis students take advantage of the counseling opportunities each academic year, according to the PCC site. It is located at Mailman House on Brandeis campus. Appointments can be scheduled with clinical staff members from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Center provides counseling for a variety of issues, from stress, anxiety or

academic problems to cross-cultural issues, trauma and abuse, depression or suicidal thoughts.

“We are very proud to have been awarded the JedCampus Seal. The Psychological Counseling Center works very hard with our many colleagues from across campus to promote wellness in our community. The honor of winning this seal is no small feat, and we are thrilled to have received such a high honor,” Dr. LaFarr was quoted in the press release.

The JedCampus Seal is valid for two years, and is a prestigious recognition. Other schools awarded the Seal include Columbia University, Cornell University, Yale University and Emory University. Schools that apply for the Seal but do not receive it are kept private and are eligible to reapply after one year.

Other Jed Foundation programs include ULifeline, Love is Louder, Half of Us and Transition Year. All of the programs aim to protect the mental health of college students, and can be seen further at www.JedFoundation. org.

Film displays other side of propaganda in North Korea

By Rachel Hirschhaut Staff

The controversial politics and foreign policies of North Korea are often covered by the American media, yet people still understand little about the lives of North Koreans. Filmmaker Rob Montz sought to tackle this problem by creating “Juche Strong,” a short documentary about how the culture of propaganda in North Korea has contributed to their national identity and survival as a country.

A screening of “Juche Strong” took place on Oct. 3 at the Wasserman Cinematheque, sponsored by the Film, Television and Interactive Media program and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Fund.

The film shows how the pervasive propaganda in North Korea has kept the country afloat, despite their fragile economic state and widespread poverty.

Interviews with North Korean

scholars teach the viewer about the concept of “juche,” the idea that the North Koreans are the masters of their country’s development and future. One might think that this idea is a sign of oppression, but to the citizens of North Korea, it is the political philosophy that is natural to them.

Montz made the film while spending 10 days in North Korea last summer, the maximum length of time that American travelers are allowed to spend in the country. Despite the fact that travelers may only visit designated areas and are forbidden from filming civilians and the military, Montz shot footage of elaborate public displays that helped paint a rich portrait of life in North Korea.

According to Montz, the purpose of making the film was “to shine a light” on the true nature of life in North Korea today and to provide “an alternative to our own propaganda about North Korea, our narrative of their society.” film discussion Filmmaker Rob Montz screened his 20-minute film on North Korea at the Wasserman Cinematheque on October 3. He argues that national ideology through propaganda kept the country united.

photo by dana levine/the hoot

arts, etc.

October 18, 2013

The Brandeis Hoot 5

“MGMT” an improvement from sophomore album

By Shikha Chandarana Special to the hoot

After a second album, “Congratulations,” that did not do very well on pop charts, one would expect that MGMT would try to recreate the electro-pop sound of its 2007 debut “Oracular Spectacular.” Yet surprisingly, MGMT took a different route and created an album stranger and more psychedelic than its second.

If this is Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser’s attempt to prove to the world that they are more than the pop hit makers of “Time to Pretend” and “Kids,” they have certainly done so in this self-titled album, “MGMT.” “MGMT” starts off with “Alien Days,” which uses a catchy hook and haunting lyrics, including a child’s voice to add layers to the song. It might sound absurd to a first-time listener of MGMT, but that is just the beginning of the ride for this album.

Songs like “Your Life is a Lie” and “Plenty of Girls in the Sea” have ridiculous lyrics and are sung in a madcap way that makes them fun to listen to.

“Your Life is a Lie” might be more difficult to enjoy, but it slowly grows on you after multiple listens.

“Cool Song No. 2,” with tribal beats and a piano background, make it an interesting amalgamation of styles. Its dark reflective lyrics are a refreshing

change from some of the more plain lyrics on the album. That and “Mystery Disease” are two of my personal favorites on this record. “Mystery Disease” uses loud synthesizers and manic drum beats with muffled vocals, while the repetition of the titular words and the overall production of the song make it truly haunting.

In some cases, the production of a song ends up making it sound overdone and forced, which reduces the effect that the track would have otherwise. “Astromancy” and “Introspection” sound like imitations of their own music. They are both over-layered and have distorted production that makes them almost difficult to listen to. The final song, “An Orphan Of Fortune,” is slower and doesn’t provide an epic finale for the album as it could have.

In the end, this is MGMT’s most experimental album. But is it really that good? I prefer their more experimental music in “Congratulations”; this album sounds a little over-worked and slightly indulgent. “MGMT” has its moments with some unforgettable, catchy songs. It also has a few tracks that seem repetitive. “MGMT” has the sci-fi, psychedelic vibe that the band has perfected. Though it may not be the greatest follow-up to the sophomore effort, this album still has the trademark MGMT sound. The band has stated numerous times that

mgmt The band experiments with a new sound on their third album.

it can’t write a pop song and “MGMT” seemed as if it was forcefully trying to prove that—and in a lot of ways it

seemed to work. MGMT is still trying to find exactly what it represents as a band, and the progressively experi-

photo from internet source

mental sounds of the last two albums are making me look forward to what MGMT will do next.

First-years experience the Rose in style

By Michelle Kim

Special to the Hoot

Free food and Andy Warhol always make a good combination. On Oct. 15, the Rose Art Museum invited first-years to come to the “Freshman Night At the Rose.”

The event was hosted by the Student Committee for the Rose Art Museum (SCRAM), a student group that strives to increase student relations with the museum.

“Our goal was to get freshmen into the Rose and to get them excited about art, visual thinking and the museum,” explained SCRAM member Christa Caggiano ’17. “Basically, we wanted people to come for the free food and to stay for the amazing art.”

Visitors were greeted by a friendly

and well-dressed group of SCRAM members that directed guests to a long table generously covered with cookies, cheesecake, brownies and other desserts.

After the cocktail hour was over, visitors were free either to explore the museum on their own or join a SCRAM-led tour.

Being the explorer that I am, I decided to wander off into a miniature movie theater, where I sat down on a seat and watched “Omer Fast: 5000 Feet is the Best,” a short film directed

by Omer Fast, an Israeli contemporary video artist. “5000 Feet” explores the use of drones in the U.S. military surveillance and warfare—without an actual narrator.

What viewers are shown instead are conversations between a journalist

rose art museum The museum boasts new exhibits each semester.

and a veteran, interviews with drone pilots and overhead shots of towns.

The film, which is 30 minutes long, has no clear beginning or end. It does not matter what time you walk into the screening room: You will understand the film as soon as you begin to watch it.

At first, the film seems simple, perhaps even a little boring. However, the eerie serenity of some parts of the film, like when the nameless main character stands in a dark and deserted hallway smoking a cigarette, makes it bewildering to follow, but it also makes viewers reflect on what they are seeing and hearing.

The film is unlike the movies watched in typical movie theaters; it makes you think for yourself and determine your own interpretation

photos from internet source

and analysis of what is being shown to you.

A half hour after entering the film room, I left to look at the other exhibits on display at the Rose, only to join a tour group instead. The tour, whose main goal was not only to expose us to art but also to guide us in a technique of art analysis called Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS).

My tour guide, Haley Coopersmith ’15, led us around the Andy Warhol exhibit, where we stopped in front of “Uncle Sam (from Myths portfolio),” a serigraph and screenprint piece of Uncle Sam, the symbolic figure of American patriotism.

Using VTS, the group analyzed “Uncle Sam” by discussing artistic techniques and American politics.

The discussion was led by Cooper-

smith, who asked us questions about the meaning of the Warhol piece.

At around 8 that night, the Freshman Night was called to an end. I was pleasantly surprised by the tour. Usually, my museum trips consist of quietly observing works of art by myself.

My night at the Rose was the first time I had been exposed to VTS, and I am extremely glad that I decided to go on a tour instead of just wandering around.

The Rose is an excellent source of art, and I would highly recommend going at least once in your years at Brandeis. I hope that SCRAM organizes more student events to increase students’ awareness of the Rose and art in general because this night was truly exciting and intellectually-stimulating.

an iconic artist Andy Warhol was a leading figure in the pop art movement.

6 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

October 18, 2013

“Gravity” may be boring, but a great spectacle

By Theresa Gaffney Editor

“Gravity,” which opened in theaters on Oct. 4, is not about gravity, but rather the lack thereof. Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, the movie begins in space. Bullock’s character, medical engineer Ryan Stone, is installing a program into the Hubble Space Telescope.

The function of this program is the first of many ambiguities within the plot of the adventure story. While Stone is supposed to be a medical doctor, Clooney’s character Matt Kowalski has to explain to her why she feels light-headed when her tank runs out of oxygen.

These small hiccups in the film are forgettable. What is not, however, is the lack of structure to the plot.

The movie, charted out on paper, is a straight line. Conflict leads straight to a resolution.

There is no true climax, there is no twist. The biggest shift in the action happens at the very beginning, when the first of many waves of satellite

the sandra show Sandra Bullock is the standout star of the film.

trash hits, leaving Stone and Kowalski alone in space.

After this dramatic collision, the audience is taken on what feels like an endless roller coaster ride: lots and lots of spinning. Stone travels from one space station to another on a quest to get back to Earth.

At each stop she is faced with the similar issues—this station catches

photo from internet source

fire, that escape pod gets caught in some wires. She gets to one ship, and it can’t take her home, so she moves on to another.

Finally, against all believable odds, Stone takes an escape pod and, in a meteor shower, crashes to earth.

When she lands in the ocean and begins to sink, the audience actually groaned at another life-threatening

obstacle.

Perhaps more offensive than the lack of a plot structure is the lack of a relatable protagonist.

The most you can feel for Stone is sadness that she could die out in space alone. But without a real backstory, the audience has nothing to hold on to in the character. A brief mention of her deceased daughter, who was left unnamed, was not enough to make the audience connect to Stone. If anything, her want of a family on Earth meant that her death would be rather inconsequential.

The most promising aspect of the script was in the budding relationship between Kowalski and Stone.

Kowalski’s affable nature countered beautifully with Stone’s hard, almost stone-like qualities.

Instead of watching the connection mature, Kowalski dies early in the film, cutting off the burgeoning companionship between himself and Stone.

Clooney’s creation of a character as easily likable as Kowalski could have been utilized for a dramatic turn of events with his death, rather than an

expected moment.

“Gravity” presents itself as a feature on the vastness of space more than a story. As Clooney reminds us repeatedly, “What a beautiful sight.”

The wondrous awe of the setting acknowledged by the character was just as striking on the big screen.

Landscape shots of Earth, the sun and the space around it all are visually stunning. At one moment, Bullock curls up into the fetal position in the center of the frame, suspended in mid-air.

The camera dwells on her in a truly breathtaking moment that contrasts sharply with earlier chaos.

The film also uses different camera perspectives that bring the audience into the characters’ heads. Often, the point of view floats into Stone’s helmet, with her breath visible on the glass.

“Gravity” was a good movie, yet it wasn’t all it could have been. As a thriller and a drama, it fails to drum up any real reaction. At worst, “Gravity” lacks a plot and a relatable protagonist, but at best, is a beautiful 90-minute spectacle.

Timeflies: too much for Gosman to handle

By Eli Kaminsky

Special to the Hoot

It is Tuesday, March 8, 2011 and a video has just been uploaded to Youtube. No one at the time realized this little video, featuring two nice Jewish boys who called themselves Timeflies, would kick off one of the most successful weekly web-series on the Internet.

By 2013, episodes of the appropriately titled “Timeflies Tuesdays,” were consistently attracting hundreds of thousands of views, occasionally even passing the million-view mark.

Two Saturdays ago, Brandeis students flocked to the Shapiro Gymnasium donning shirts emblazoned with slogans like, “Is it Tuesday yet?” and “Rock out with your clock out” for the annual fall concert, headlined by none other than Timeflies.

Since the electronic hip-hop duo is so used to routine, having released one piece of new material every Tuesday for over three years and counting, it was only logical that the concert would take place, once again, in the spacious but acoustically flawed Shapiro Gymnasium.

As is to be expected, the venue was relatively empty during the opening band, Mates of State, only filling up during the beginning of Timeflies’ set. However, instead of spreading out throughout the room, the latecomers pushed forward to the front row, until the entire audience encompassed only maybe three rows, creating an unnecessarily crowded, sweaty and hot environment.

One might have assumed that the audience was under the impression they were in a library throughout Mates of States’ performance, standing around silently, almost completely ignoring the hard-working band that was performing on the elaboratelyconstructed, black metal stage at the front of the room. Interestingly enough, as soon as Mates departed from view, the lights were ignited and pop radio was blasted from the PA system, inducing more dancing than the night had yet seen.

About 10 minutes later, producer Rob Resnick and singer-rapper Cal

Shapiro took the stage, causing a brief but powerful eruption of approval from the small, tightly-packed crowd.

Resnick climbed the stairs and settled into his post at the back of the stage, pumping his fist in the air throughout the entire ascent while Shapiro raced back and forth across the front lip of the stage greeting Brandeis with a bright smile.

Initially, the audience was extremely receptive of the vigor of the young musicians, but as soon as the poor sound quality and volume balance became evident on the first song, the audience’s excitement level lessened significantly.

“I couldn’t hear a single thing coming out of either microphone,” said George Dragoi ’16, who, like many of his fellow concertgoers, expressed disapproval with the venue’s aural situation.

It would be a lie to claim that such shortcomings have not occurred in the past. The 2012 fall concert, featuring Santigold and Theophilus London, was subject to an identical problem, which subtracted significantly from the artists’ passionate performances.

It is such a shame because Shapiro is a phenomenal singer with nearly studio-quality vocal tone.

Unfortunately, such attributes were lost to the ears of the audience members. Consequentially, fans were unable to please Shapiro during several moments of call-and-response and sing-along, thought he was good at hiding any disappointment he might have felt.

His performance was so dramatic and physical it was impossible not to watch with awe, despite the subpar acoustics. Shapiro was able to convert the concert from solely a musical experience to a musical and visual show.

Timeflies first attracted the spotlight thanks to their remixes of popular songs featuring impressive freestyle rap verses, courtesy of Shapiro.

Often, Shapiro would be presented with a list of terms or phrases and would be challenged to construct a freestyle on the spot.

This technique stands as the perfect marketing ploy to generate enthusiasm at a concert. Later into

photos from internet source

timeflies A YouTube phenomenon, Timeflies is becoming more and more popular.

the set, a representative of Brandeis’ Student Events club walked across the stage, handing Shapiro a page with Brandeis-related keywords with which to construct a verse.

While the duo’s earlier attempts to reach out to the crowd only gained audience attention for brief moments, Shapiro’s use of Brandeis’ plethora of inside jokes in a rap verse drew in every member of the audience and allowed Shapiro to hold that attention from the remainder of the concert.

Shout-outs to the “Judges Get Hammered” tank-tops that spread across campus last year and the unclassified breed of insects found in the dorms of East Quad echoed through the gymnasium. Although the audience members clearly enjoyed the freestyle significantly, they swooned the most during the following track when Shapiro, started quietly singing in a chair, slowly standing up more and more as the music became progressively more dramatic.

When the song reached its climax,

with a scream, Shapiro thrust his chair across the stage, leaping in the air and soaring through the last few songs, closing with an incredible rendition of “I Choose You,” Timeflies’ most popular song.

The show certainly did not rank among the strongest of Student Events’ efforts to date. This, however, was not entirely that band’s fault.

Timeflies found themselves under intense pressure to grip the attention of a distracted, distant crowd, with a poor audio system.

Because of the electronic nature of Timeflies’ background music, concert-goers dressed and prepared themselves for an electronic dance music event, typically classified as a rave. Because the musicians do not consider themselves strictly EDM artists, they proceed through a concert like any other rock or pop artist would.

However, thanks to the expectations set by the music, the audience found itself dancing rowdily to the

electronic music as they might at a Calvin Harris concert.

Thus unlike a show of that sort, when Shapiro and Resnick finished a song, the music stopped. It then took the audience the entire duration of the next song to find that groove again, only to lose it soon after. Combining an artful concert and an EDM rave can get messy if not executed perfectly. All that being said, despite some minor setbacks, Timeflies put on an exuberant and enjoyable concert and established themselves as extraordinarily talented musicians who know how to write fun music.

October 18, 2013

ARTS, ETC. 7

The Brandeis Hoot

“Miley: the Movement” to nowhere

By Dana Trismen Editor Robin Briendel Staff

“I live in America, which is the land of the free, and I feel like if you can’t express yourself, you’re not very free,” states Miley Cyrus in her MTV documentary “Miley: The Movement.”

Now say what you want about Cyrus, but she certainly has more balls than anyone else in Hollywood. In her new documentary, the notorious popstar makes it clear her recent changes of her persona are not a train wreck.

To many, Cyrus’ appearance changes and blatantly sexual music seem to be the signs of her psychological breakdown following the end of her engagement to Liam Hemsworth.

However, “The Movement” makes it clear this is no breakdown.

Throughout the documentary, Cyrus makes it known to all that this is what she was “born to do.”

She references her time as Hannah Montana as the dark days, in which she was forced to be someone she was not.

Her reflections on these dark days as a Disney employee make her sound as if her childhood was filled with psychological distress and oppression, the recognized scholarly components that mark the beginning of a social movement.

Now you may be questioning, what exactly does Cyrus have to start a social movement about? Is her alleged oppression really enough to mobilize the “army” she so frequently refers to in the documentary?

While Cyrus’ recent actions are not enough to dramatically change the world, it’s clear (as she so forcefully states) that “every decision goes into a bigger plan.” Cyrus’ actions reflect the ideology that she is above just trying to fit in.

She can do what she wants and be whoever she wants, and couldn’t care less if people judge her for it. This ideology may not be the grounds for the social movement she self-proclaims, but it certainly is a great motto to live by.

She might be a little crazy, but just imagine how awesome it is to walk around all the time and not care about what anyone else thinks.

That being said, Cyrus contradicts herself a little in this regard throughout the documentary. She is shown freaking out about the public’s reception of her now-hit single “We Can’t Stop” on numerous occasions, and worrying that she picked the wrong song as her single.

But overall her careless attitude holds true. She picks her own clothes

miley: the movement Miley Cyrus casts aside the dark days as a Disney teen star and reinvents her image.

for the runway, resists censorship of her lyrics and tweets whatever she’s thinking at the moment.

While Cyrus’ self-image is impressive and inspires confidence in her audiences, there are moments in “Miley: The Movement” that make her come across as too much of a diva.

There is a scene where Cyrus has a slight cold, and she is extremely dramatic about what a strain and strug-

gle it is to have to practice through the illness. Cyrus would do well to take some time to step into the shoes of others—the homeless on the street, the children who go without breakfast every morning.

“Miley: The Movement” is incredibly entertaining to watch, because it is a behind-the-scenes look at a girl who turns out, at her core, to be just like any other 20-year-old—but with

a lot more money and resources at her hands.

Cyrus loves her dogs, loves finding weird and wacky clothes to wear and honestly the only truly strange thing about her is that she believes she has started a colossal movement and that she likes dressing up as a baby clad with pigtails, onesies and unicorn slippers.

“BANGERZ,” Cyrus’s fourth studio

photos from internet source

album, dropped Oct. 8, and has risen to a coveted number 1 spot on both the USA and UK charts. That being said, the vast majority of the songs on the album are about her split from Hemsworth. The rest are about partying. While the music is lively and fun to listen to, Cyrus cannot start a movement without audiences knowing what that movement even rests on.

Deap Vally’s delayed, anticipated debut worth the wait

By Jess Linde Staff

I first discovered Los Angeles’ garage-blues duo Deap Vally in August, when skimming through a set of photos taken by Spin Magazine at San Francisco’s 2013 Outside Lands Festival. In the set were two photos of Deap Vally in the middle of a song.

The first photo shows vocalist/guitarist Lindsey Troy banging out a chord on her Fender Mustang guitar, her hands blurred and her hair flying in front of her face. The second features drummer Julie Edwards whipping her own hair towards the sun, her eyes

closed in an expression of rock and roll bliss.

I can’t quite explain it, but there was something about those photos that struck a chord with me.

I discovered the band’s video for “Gonna Make My Own Money,” and I was amazed at the juxtaposition between the imagery of the video (Troy and Edwards eating pizza, swimming and being friends) and song’s gritty, fuzz-filled sound. I was hooked, but I was also dismayed to see that their debut album, “Sistrionix,” had no release date at the time. Last week, however, I saw it sitting on the new releases rack at Newbury Comics.

“Sistrionix” opens with “End of

the World,” a pounding, optimismpreaching blues-rock anthem that immediately turns the energy and guitar distortion up to 11.

Next comes the brazenly feminist “Baby I Call Hell,” an empowering tune that sets the lyrical tone for the rest of the album. “If you wanna serve me/show me you deserve me,” snarls Troy.

“Walk of Shame” shoves slutshaming right back into the face of misogynists, “Gonna Make My Own Money” is a brilliant brag-track about independence, and the wickedly funny “Creep life” needs to be heard to be fully understood. “Your Love” flips traditional gender roles, featuring

Lindsey Troy shouting at her cheating lover: “You are mine/you are mine/ you belong to me!”

“Lies,” an angry breakup song, showcases the duo’s impressive instrumental skills with syncopated drum beats and multifaceted guitar parts.

The band’s troublemaking image is solidified with the extremely catchy “Bad For My Body,” as the chorus sings, “if our mothers only knew/the trouble that we get into.” “Woman of Intention” and “Raw Material” both introduce a tinge of soul influence to their pounding riffs and blasting choruses, and the nine-minute closing track “Six Feet Under” is a badass

blues jam in the vein of Stevie Ray Vaughan or Derek Trucks.

Deap Vally is excellent and “Sistrionix” is a creative and layered piece of loud, angry blues-rock that’s the rawest and most confident I’ve heard in years. Lindsey Troy plays guitar as fuzzy as Jack White, and Julie Edwards’ drumming gives The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney a run for his money.

It is great to see an unapologetically feminist perspective in a world populated majorly by guys in skinny jeans singing about breakups, especially an album executed so well. I may have waited a while for “Sistrionix,” but it was absolutely worth it.

8 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

October 18, 2013

Taylor inspires audiences POETRY, from page 1

audience. Taylor did extensive historical research before starting to write many of her poems, and she would explain this background before reading the poems so the audience grasped a clear picture of the setting and undercurrent tensions. But what truly shone during Taylor’s reading was her work itself. Taylor is an accomplished poet, and her connection to Jefferson is one that all audience members can share, due to Jefferson’s tie to this nation. Some of Taylor’s work is angry, chastising Jefferson for his illegitimate family and for his involvement in the perpetration of slavery. She calls him a man who “died in a debt greater than the nation,” and points out the color of her skin when she says Jefferson gave her “the lions share of your uneven

freedom.” In other moments, Taylor is tender with Jefferson, appealing to his known personality traits, such as his rational side. “Families are still stories but now we look at them with DNA, DNA would have fascinated you,” Taylor wrote, and then spoke of Jefferson’s obsession with knowledge, his sponsorship of Louis and Clark.

Often what makes great writing is the surprising; there are concepts that work together that never would have been connected until a creative soul thinks deeper. Many of Taylor’s lines are surprising and odd, but they work well in the poem. Taylor read a poem about Thoreau, given the local pull of the writer who lived at Walden Pond.

She speaks about Thoreau’s writing, and the beautiful nature he wrote about, and then surrounds her text with talk of airplanes and the stewardess arriving with pretzels. Taylor

photos by jingru wang/the hoot

tess taylor Taylor worked on her book “The Forage House” from 2004 to 2013.

captive audience A large crowd turned out for the poetry reading.

often combines the modern with the antiquated, and it highlights connections between the then and the now.

“Oh blurred stone and out of wedlock woman,” she wrote, as she allied ancient architecture with modern sexual practices.Taylor is fond of writing about the scenery and the land; her lines are tied to the earthy soil of the land. “Often I like to sit in a place and think about what the landscape was like before this place was what it was,” she said in an interview with The Hoot earlier this year. Many of

her poems presented at the reading had beautiful lines, such as “a pit cut deeper than the plow line.” Taylor is a poet who lets little moments inspire her. In a question and answer with audience members following the event, someone asked Taylor if there was something she found in her research that she wanted to write on, but never got the chance. Taylor told a story about a house where slaves were kept, where they were forced to work making nails. One nail that was found had been bent, into the shape of a fish-

hook. “I feel it as a poem,” said Taylor.

“It’s a beautiful, small thing.” A writer who observes everything from huge topics such as racism to tiny nails, Taylor is definitely qualified to give advice to aspiring writers. “Read a book and take a walk,” she said, when asked how to conquer writer’s block.

Taylor worked on “The Forage House” from 2004 to this past August, and her effort and dedication is clear in every line of her poems. Brandeis would do well to bring more people with such talent to the university.

Uncovering the life of Vivian Maier

By Victoria Aronson Editor

Pouring through thousands of film reels and prints, Northwestern lecturer Pamela Bannos delivered her presentation “Vivian Maier’s Fractured Archive: A Woman’s Story” to the Women’s Studies Research Center this past Wednesday. Bannos has dedicated herself to piecing together the mystery behind the identity of Vivian Maier, a street photographer and nanny who lived in poverty, only rising to acclaimed fame as an artist following her death.

Pamela Bannos, a distinguished lecturer from Northwestern University, appeared in the BBC documentary film “Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny’s Pictures?” granting her insight from intensive research.

Bannos received access to over 20,000 of the artist’s images, stemming from the impressive collections of John Maloof among others.

This rare insight has allowed Bannos to explore the life of Maier, who she explains was a 3rd generation member of the servant class, pursuing her passions for photography on the streets.

“I never rely on secondary sources,” Bannos said.

Working as a nanny in New York during the time period during and after the depression, Maier served in wealthy households. Bannos points to the irony behind this lifestyle, stating “she was somebody who never had a home of her own.” Painstakingly tracing Maier’s genealogy during her intensive research of the artist, Bannos explains “she lived the legacy of the women in her family.”

Bannos traces the cameras Maier employed pursuing her passion as a photographer, stemming from a basic, modest box camera to the Rol-

vivian maier Maier’s photographs provide insight into her life.

leiflex. Drawing attention to a photograph of Maier using the Rolleiflex months before it was released, Bannos questions how the nanny came to acquire the camera, one of the countless mysteries surrounding the artist. This transition ecompasses what Bannos describes as a steep learning curve in Maier’s photographic abilities, when originally “her intentions were at the mercy of this machine” while using the basic camera.

Tragically, Maier passed before her work reached acclaim, her negatives and photographs dispersed at auction.

John Maloof purchased a substantial

portion of her work at auction, creating a collection that has risen in value dramatically with Maier’s sudden rise to fame as an artist.

According to Bannos, the selection of Maier’s prints for the purposes of selling books, prints and other materials only allows for “getting to know her through someone’s else’s eyes.”

Sifting through thousands of negatives never before released to the general public, Bannos came across some particularly curious reels of photographs. She claims at times Maier used her cameras like a copy machine, photographing her passport applica-

photo from internet source

tion, medical prescriptions and bank books. At the time of her work, there were essentially no photo galleries to be found in New York, according to Bannos. The Museum of Fine Arts had only begun showing photographs of student work in basement galleries in the late 1940s, while Maier continued her street photography.

Commenting on the striking similarity between the work of Maier and other artists, such as Lisette Model, Bannos displayed side by side photographs taken by the two women.

The difference between the styles and frame choices were practically indis-

cernible. Although these similarities have spurred backlash from critics, Bannos exclaims, “Why do we have to pigeonhole her work?”

Stressing the emerging image of the mysterious Vivian Maier, both as an artist and as a woman working as a member of the servant class, Bannos explains “we can learn about her progress by studying her photographs.”

Continuing her fascination with the life and work of Vivian Maier, Bannos plans on presenting with BBC film director Jill Nicholls at The Photographer’s Gallery in London, England this November.

October 18, 2013

this week in photos

study space Renovations to the upper “Green Room� have remade the space into a collaborative work environment.

global bazaar Vendors offered a variety of items from across the world in Levin Ballroom Wednesday evening.

The Brandeis Hoot 9

photo by shanlai shannguan/the hoot

photos by katie chin/the hoot

10 The Brandeis Hoot

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editor-in-Chief Emily Stott Lassor Feasley Managing Editor Victoria Aronson Managing Editor Dana Trismen Managing Editor Morgan Dashko Copy Editor Theresa Gaffney Copy Editor Suzanna Yu Copy Editor Jesse Zeng Photography Editor Jun Zhao Graphics Editor Katie Chin Online Editor Rachel Hirschhaut Deputy News Editor

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EDITIORIALS

T

October 18, 2013

Choose persuasion over edict

his semester, a new administrative rule came into effect that requires all student groups using food in club events to purchase it from Sodexo. There are several exemptions to this rule that students may be eligible for after filing a waiver. If the purchase is under $100, the price of the food is cheaper than that provided by Sodexo or if a cultural theme for the event mandates food that Sodexo cannot provide, clubs may apply for an exemption days before the transaction is made.

Many club leaders were angered and confused by the policy. There was no student participation in the authoring of this policy. This resulted in a rule which is numb to student needs. For example, many clubs decide to purchase food minutes before they order, not days. Sodexo cannot replicate the robust variety of food that local vendors sell.

The reasoning behind the change was unclear in the email announcing it, which club leaders received from Director of Student Activities Stephanie Grimes. Many students assumed that the policy was instituted in an effort to coerce students to increase spending on university goods, regardless of their preferences. To club leaders, it seemed

like an added layer of bureaucracy that the university instituted to supplement its own cash flows.

Ask a Brandeis administrator why this policy was put into effect and you will hear the argument that the new rule reflects our mission of social justice. Some administrators believe that the student clubs have spent F-Board funds highly inefficiently and that drastic changes need to be implemented.

We suggest an alternative method of student engagement: Talk to us. No attempt was ever made to make students aware of excess spending on food. Sodexo, like its predecessor Aramark, does not provide menus, so if they do offer higher value than local options, club leaders are unlikely to be aware of it.

This echoes another recent policy which was also abruptly instituted with little student engagement. Administrators created a policy that required club apparel to feature the title “Brandeis.”

Similarly, students were frustrated with the apparently arbitrary constraint, which seemed to market the school at the expense of the creative discretion of the clubs. Similarly, there was little or no attempt to reform club decisions through communications between club

leaders and administrators before the new rule was instituted.

Students aren’t complaining because they enjoy it; clubs want a justifiable explanation for the policy changes.

People are much more likely to support a policy and assist in its implementation if they have a solid reason behind their efforts. We ask for a dialogue that allows both students and administrators to offer their voices and for a chance to learn from each other before widespread decisions are made.

If the administration wants to change club behavior, it should attempt to engage club leaders in a respectful and constructive manner. It should persuade them to change through logic and reason. Rather than exerting influence by persuasion and discussion, administrators have chosen to govern through edict. This tendency has resulted in student resentment not just for various administrators, but for the university itself. The school would be wise to more effectively utilize a communication infrastructure to attempt to moderate club behavior, rather than abruptly issue new policies without explanation.

October 18, 2013

sports

The Brandeis Hoot 11

Savonen nails first hat trick as Judges sweep Buccaneers at home

By Dani Chasin Staff

Coming off a sour loss against Rochester on Homecoming Day, the Brandeis men’s soccer team swept Mass. Maritime Academy 6-3 on Tuesday. The Judges, ranked 12th in the nation by the NSCAA and 13th by D3Soccer.com, now carry an overall record of 11-2, while the Buccaneers stand behind with 5-5-2.

Forward Tyler Savonen ’15 had a standout game for the Judges, nailing his first collegiate hat trick in the showdown against the Buccaneers on Gordon Field. His first goal came in the 11th minute and his other two goals came in the 58th and 65th minutes of the second half.

Savonen said the 3-2 loss against Rochester over the weekend was both frustrating and unexpected for the Judges. “We all thought we outplayed them, but that’s what goes on in the UAA. Any team could win on any day.” When asked if the loss af-

fected the team’s outlook for the rest of the season, Savonen answered, “Our game plan hasn’t changed at all, we are confident in our abilities individually, and as a team and we believe we should win the UAA.” The forward from Orleans, Massachusetts, found his scoring opportunities by being in the right position each time, as he scored the team’s second, fourth and sixth goals against the Buccaneers. “I’ve felt very confident playing lately, and so when those opportunities arose, I knew I was going to put the ball in the net,” Savonen said.

Savonen’s first goal in minute 11 came after a shot by midfielder Kyle Feather ’14 hit the post and found him for the finish into the goal. The play started with a cross by rookie forward Evan Jastremski ’17 that sent the ball into the box and found Feather, whose shot deflected off the post and lined up for Savonen’s goal.

In minute 58, Savonen found his second opening for the goal off an assist by Feather. After intercepting the ball off a goal kick for the Buccaneers, Feather was able to find Savonen just

onside and fed him a pass that gave him a clear route to the goal.

The team’s sixth goal, Savonen’s third goal for the game, came in minute 65 off a follow-up to his own shot that got blocked by the Mass. Maritime goalkeeper. After the goalie rejected the initial shot, Savonen found himself in good position to rebound the ball into the back of the net.

Savonen attributes his hat trick to an aggressive performance on offense by the Judges. “We had some nice quick play in the final third of the field and were able to ping the ball around their backs which allowed me to get in scoring positions very often,” he said.

Nailing seven points for his performance in the game, Savonen’s three goals add to his total of seven goals for the season. He now holds the 22nd position on the university’s overall scoring list with 21 goals and 12 assists for 54 points in his career.

He is also the 23rd player in school history with 20 or more goals.

Feather, Jastremski and forward Michael Chaput ’16 scored the other three goals for the Judges. The first

goal for the Judges came in the 7th minute by Feather off a cross by senior defender Ben Applefield. Feather’s goal, his ninth for the season, along with his assists for Savonen’s first two goals, earned him three points for the game.

After Feather and Savonen scored the first two goals for the Judges, the Buccaneers countered with a goal in the 18th minute. Before the half ended in the 32nd minute, Chaput found an opportunity to bring the score to 3-1 and achieve his third goal of the season. Assisted by rookie midfielder Josh Berg ’17, Chaput nailed his shot along the ground from 15 yards and placed it into the right corner of the net.

Savonen’s early goal in the second half sent Brandeis into a shooting spree, which quickly earned them two more goals. Jastremski got his chance in the 59th minute off an assist by forward Sam Ocel ’14. Ocel’s quick assist allowed Jastremski to go one-on-one with the keeper and secure his second goal of the season.

Though Savonen was able to attain the game-winning goal for the Judges

to close the game, the Buccaneers managed to score two more goals before the final buzzer. The opponent’s second goal came in the 81st minute off a foul on Brandeis that resulted in a penalty shot. The Buccaneers later added one more goal to bring the final score to 6-3.

“I thought at times we played well against Mass. Maritime, but it definitely wasn’t one of our strongest games as a team because defensively we let up three goals, and that goes for the forwards, midfielders, backs, goalie, everyone on the field,” Savonen said.

While Brandeis managed to shoot 21 shots on goal compared to the Buccaneers, who only had 5, the Buccaneers’ three goals remind the Judges to always take the opponent seriously. Savonen admits that the big win on their home turf serves as a nice sendoff for the tough UAA competition they will face on the road this weekend. “We’re going to maintain this confidence going into this weekend with two huge away games against Carnegie Mellon on Friday and Emory on Sunday,” Savonen said.

photos by matt brondoli/the hoot

opinion

12 The Brandeis Hoot

October 18, 2013

The Young Grasshoper’s Guide

Student disciplinary process lacks room for advocacy

By Lassor Feasley Editor

Supreme Court justices often like to think themselves above the rabble of the petty grievances and tedious procedural labyrinths of litigation advocacy. Many justices spend their careers in the sheltered comfort of theoretical academia or confined within the gilded halls of the Washington Beltway.

Not so of our beloved namesake, Louis Brandeis. He spent four decades of his career as a litigator and an advocate. Scholars have written academic papers on Brandeis’ ferocious defense of the use of advocacy in mediated disputes. In fact, a defense of legal advocacy was a large component of a series of lectures he gave at MIT. He felt that his role was “to give everybody, to the very best of my ability, a square deal.” In his opinion, advocacy was vital in the attainment of fair and reasonable outcomes in litigated disputes.

So how would our esteemed moral benefactor feel about the structure of the student judicial system that Brandeis University has established in the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook?

In my estimation, his feelings would be mixed, at best. Brandeis judicial review is divided into two separate adversarial structures. The first, the Student Conduct Process, described in Section 19 of the handbook, allows a relatively liberal role for advocates, who may be present in all relevant procedures. Profes-

sional legal advocacy from outside the Brandeis community may only be used in cases that involve actual legal processes of the state. While the role of advocates is prescribed as “passive,” they may speak on behalf of their clients and submit written testimony. Louis Brandeis can rest assured that students are unlikely to be underserved by the Conduct Process for lack of good council.

But a large portion of mediated disputes on this campus do not utilize the Section 19 hearing format. In fact, many of the most contentious student conflicts, those in which students are accused of harassment, sexual misconduct or hate crimes, are mediated through a little known procedural structure described in Section 22.6: the Special Examiner’s Process. These are the cases that are probably most likely to result in suspension or expulsion from the school. Here, a designated official creates a report that is presented to a tribunal of administrators, who render the innocence or guilt of the accused as well as any punitive outcomes.

What is the role of the advocate in this process? In short, there is none.

The accused may appoint an “advisor,” but upon assuming that title, the advisor has no right to speak or submit documents on behalf of her client. The advisor is stripped of the right to serve as a witness to the special examiner. In other words, under the Special Examiner’s Process, the accused has no right to advocate for herself or to have a trusted member of the University Community advocate on her behalf. Interesting.

graphic by katherine selector/the hoot

Now, what would Louis think about this? Would he rise from the dead only to have his heart shatter? Would the rate at which he spun in his grave incrementally slow the rotation of the earth? We will never know how Brandeis would react to the betrayal of his values that this university has undertaken.

In my opinion, there should not be a special tribunal that convenes in secret and issues punitive measures without justification or public scrutiny. It’s undemocratic and immoral. It negates centuries of judicial progress.

If the university does not have faith

in its own judicial processes as established in Section 19, it should attempt to create a more comprehensive and inclusive system that can handle a wide variety of situations. If anything, more contentious cases should be held to an even higher standard of ethics and scrutiny.

Advocates should be, as Justice Brandeis believed, a central pillar of conflict resolution. In his words, “The great opportunity of the American Bar is and will be to stand again as it did in the past, ready to protect also the interests of the people.” For hundreds of years of judicial history,

advocates were cast out of the courtroom, leaving judges to independently determine justice as they saw fit. According to Robert F. Cochran in his essay “Louis D. Brandeis and the Lawyer Advocacy System,” “Brandeis [in his MIT lectures on law] presented substantial evidence that this system did not work—defendants were unable to speak effectively for themselves and judges failed to look out for their interests.” As the administration considers reform to the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, it may be wise to consider the values of our namesake.

Sorority life incompatible with workforce mentality

By Debra Edelman Special to the Hoot

It’s a typical Wednesday morning and, as usual, I stroll into my 10 a.m. class, coffee in hand, still in the midst of mid-morning daze. My eyes glance around the room at my classmates, all preparing for the lecture ahead, when I notice the T-shirt of a girl sitting directly across from me. The emblem on her shirt shares a bizarre resemblance to the logo on my coffee cup and curiosity strikes. It is not long before I realize that this Starbucks-style black and green T-shirt with a slogan draped across it belongs to perhaps one of the most controversial social aspects of this campus: Greek life. As the day goes on, I notice more and more girls wearing these Starbucksinspired T-shirts, probably a ritual for the new members of the sorority.

I could write a trite diatribe about whether Greek life should or should not be a part of the Brandeis campus.

But instead, I want to think about what the implications for Greek life are on campus, and more specifically, what the implications are for female students in the Brandeis community.

In the post-college world, women face many challenges that their male peers never will. There is well-documented evidence that to this day, the gender wage gap in America persists, and in terms of holding high-powered positions in both the public and private sectors, women still severely lag behind men. While those two topics are complex in themselves, they represent just a few of the challenges that women at Brandeis will confront

once they enter the workforce.

One might then ask how gender inequality in the workforce relates to sorority culture at Brandeis. The answer is probably more relevant than one might think: Women who attend top universities such as Brandeis represent the future of women as leaders in the workforce, and in the world.

The experience that women have as undergraduates will play a crucial role in determining the type of leaders female students will be once they graduate.

Last week, as I was sitting in the lower green room of the library, I overheard a new-member “interview” between two sorority members as I tried to study. With questions that included “Who do you think is the prettiest sister?” and “Who is the queen of the Brandeis campus?”

I question whether an organization that endorses such superficial and degrading values is harming the female students on this campus in ways that they are not aware. Obviously sororities are not exclusive to Brandeis, and many universities accept and recognize Greek organizations. Comparatively, Greek life at Brandeis, with the administration’s refusal to officially recognize the organizations, is much less organized and much less of a presence than at other institutions.

I am not in a place to comment on whether Greek life should be banned completely from Brandeis, as I am neither a part of Greek life, nor do I have many direct connections to the organizations. I know that many members of this community and members at Greek organizations at

photo from internet source

other universities share a deep connection to their Greek organizations, and to their sororities in particular.

On her visit to the Brandeis chapter, a representative from the national headquarters of Sigma Delta Tau, who would prefer to remain anonymous, shared with me her insight into how she feels that sororities, and SDT in particular, relate to the leadership role of women.

“Being in a sorority allows college women to hold leadership positions for a national organization and to develop skills that allow girls to interact with administration, campus officials and students,” she told me. “SDT’s philosophy is to empower women to be the best advocates for themselves, their sisters and their community.” It is opinions such as these that many sororities try to project in order to

uphold their accredited status on university campuses.

In an article recently published in Cosmopolitan magazine, the Sigma Delta Tau chapter at Union College came under fire for allegations of severe hazing, torment and humiliation of its new members. The author, a Union College alumna and SDT sis See GREEK, page 15

October 18, 2013

OPINION 13

The Brandeis Hoot

Students paying double for events students who have to pay for their events out of pocket have effectively paid for their event twice.

graphic by linjie xu/the hoot

By Bethany Clark Special to the Hoot

Every member of a club executive board at Brandeis can tell stories of the mythical P-Card. A P-Card is a debit card that allows students to pay for club events straight out of Student Union’s bank account. These cards are meant for small purchases, such as office supplies, decorations, food and the like. There is no middle man; it’s paid for by Student Union from the start. Individual clubs can apply for

their own P-Cards, or they can apply to use one for a specific instance. PCards are supposed to be available for each club to use to pay for an event; as most executive board members will tell you, however, P-Cards are nearly impossible to get access to.

There is an alternative for those who don’t possess the ability to magically summon P-Cards. For clubs that cannot get to P-Cards, students can pay for events out of their own pockets. Then, they submit the receipts to the Student Union Finance Board

and wait to be reimbursed. In theory, this process should take about three to five weeks, but things don’t always go as planned. The process usually takes months, and some students have to wait until the following year to be reimbursed for events.

By this point, it’s necessary to ask from where the Student Union gets its money. Each student pays a Student Activities fee as part of their semester tuition, and this is what the Student Union uses to fund clubs. Students pay for events through this fee, so the

Needless to say there are problems with this system, the least of which is simply the amount of time it takes for a student to get reimbursed. The system is broken if students who have already paid for events must wait months to be paid back for money they spent paying for it a second time.

It’s inefficient and unfair to make students wait that long to be paid.

There’s also the problem of expecting students to pay for it out of pocket at all. Even students whose families have the means may not have the ability themselves to pay for events.

It is unreasonable to expect students to spend hundreds of dollars on club events, no matter how involved they are in the club. Under this system, every time a club plans an event, it runs the risk of not having a student who is able to pay for it.

Expecting the students on an executive board to pay for their own events and then wait to get reimbursed creates the risk of a de facto membership fee to be on the executive board. In clubs that are heavily based on costly events, students may feel that if someone cannot contribute monetarily to a club, they should not participate on its executive board.

There are alternatives to this system. A basis for a new system exists

within the possibilities that P-Cards offer. Instead of having an extremely limited amount of P-Cards for clubs to apply for, the Student Union could give a P-Card to each club with a monetary limit of what the club was allocated. This system has a risk of students using these cards for personal purchases, but in this case, the Student Union could charge the student’s Sage account for the cost of the personal purchase, possibly with interest to penalize them.

Another possibility is to simply make the Student Union P-Card easier to access. It should be possible for a student representing a club to go to the Student Union and borrow the P-Card to purchase supplies for an event instead of paying out of their own pocket. Again, personal purchases could be charged to the student’s account with a penalizing fee. In this case, a reasonable system already exists. It’s just a question of enacting it.

The system, the way it works now, puts pressure on students to be able to pay for club events up front when it is the Student Union’s responsibility, and it shames students who don’t have the means to do so. Brandeis University gives a lot of power to its students, and this is something the university should be commended for. The club finance system currently works in an unfair way, and as Brandeis students, we have a responsibility to fix it.

Complaints about complaining

photo from internet source

By Andrew Elmers Staff

I tend to complain about things.

I usually use this space to complain about a lot of things, and they are typically petty things. I am not particularly proud of the subject matter I have chosen; I could write about more pressing issues and more important ideas. But generally, I complain. And now I will complain about complaining.

Walking around campus, I pick up on a lot of things. I think of myself as being pretty observant, and it is difficult to not overhear different conversations. And a lot of what I hear is complaining in the plainest form.

Most of the time it is about a class, professor or grade to which the students take great offense. Other times, it falls into the middle school drama category—relationships, what someone did when they were drunk, etc.

And it is not just random conversations I hear. My friends do the same thing. Old friends from high school typically take to Facebook to rant about how much work they have to do and how much their life sucks, too.

It seems to be such a common disease of proclaiming how much school or life just stinks in the middle of an all-nighter, studying for an orgo test the next day. I do not think it is fair at all for students to make that claim when they are not by any means forced to go to college. I understand that societal pressures since birth have told us we need to go to college to succeed, but if we are just going to complain about it, then maybe we need to reconsider our priorities. And I do not think it is fair to whoever is paying our tuition for us to complain about what it is being used for. I know my father is making a lot of sacrifices for me to attend a school like this, and I want to make every effort to show

him I appreciate it.

To complain that a class is unfair or is just too much work is a bit unfair to the professors. While they might have lost a bit of their social graces and common sense during the years they’ve spent devoted to their field, they are still some of the smartest people we will meet. I feel that the professors I have are really good at their jobs, which is why we pay so much in tuition, and are extremely devoted to the advancement of their students. To whine about a certain assignment is just throwing that devotion back in their face, especially if you do not take advantage of all of the different ways they can help, and they want to help. Even the university as an institution wants to see its students succeed, and it is unfair to the school, having accepted and entrusted students with the confidence that we will succeed.

I have taken some classes at a com-

munity college in the past, and the professors here are more dedicated to their students by leaps and bounds.

Even though they are two very different schools with different goals, the difference in the quality of the staff is crystal clear when looking at Brandeis. Between having class canceled after a professor does not show without notice, to having a professor use a student’s car to get around, community college professors might not be the most professional academics. But here, they generally care and want their students to do their best.

We owe it to them to try before putting up a protest.

Maybe I am just misinterpreting others’ words. What I take as a complaint could actually just be an acknowledgment of a fact. College is hard and things might not work out in our favor. Sometimes, it is perfectly normal to vent about our stresses so that they do not build up within us,

waiting to explode. And if there were nothing to complain about, life would be terribly boring. Complaints usually mean conflict, and conflict makes the world go round, so complaining is completely natural. But it might not be natural to have a completely derogatory view of everything that happens.

We are receiving one of the most valuable resources in life—an education. We should be a bit more grateful for what exactly that means and how much better our lives will be if we are willing to put in some long nights and hard work in the present. Life is unfair, and the hardest thing we will ever face, but everyone has these difficulties, and whining and moaning about it to our friends and parents will not solve anything. I believe that we can get so much more out of life if we take the time to just realize how lucky we are to be afforded the opportunities we have been given.

14 OPINION

The Brandeis Hoot

October 18, 2013

Nature’s Classroom leads children to unneccesary trauma

By Charlie Romanow Staff

A local news story in my area has gained tread in the regional and national sector as two parents testified at a Hartford Board of Education Hearing in Connecticut’s capital city about a program that their daughter and her classmates attended. For 40 years, Nature’s Classroom, a residential environmental education program, has helped 750,000 children in 450 schools grow academically and as a community across New England and New York. One of the 500 programs that they offer is a reenactment of the Underground Railroad that involves middle school students taking on the role of slaves pretending to escape to the North as a way to teach children what the experience was truly like.

The Underground Railroad Reenactment is one of the most popular programs that is offered and many students feel like they have gained a better understanding of what people went through during the regrettable time in American history.

Sandra and James Baker’s daughter went on the trip with the Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy. The young girl, who is African-American, faced psychological and emotional trauma from the reenactment. She did not know if the staff was serious when the n-word was invoked. The parents were not informed about the reenactment beforehand and the students were only notified of the activity half an hour prior to when it took place. Before speaking to the Hartford Board of Education, the parents filed complaints with the Connecticut Department of Education’s Commission on Human Rights and the Office for Civil Rights.

I went to the same Nature’s Classroom in Charlton, MA for a couple of nights when I was in middle school and we participated in the reenactment. I do not remember much about

the field trip, mostly that I got to miss a couple days of school, hang out with my friends and watch a miniature rocket be launched. I saw some of the reactions to the complaint from my former classmates. The general tone is that they thought it was ridiculous to accuse Nature’s Classroom of causing such trauma, that the parents are only after money. My old classmates felt the experiences the program imparted upon them were truly educational.

After reading the parents’ testimony and the reaction of the director of Nature’s Classroom, I have to disagree with my classmates. I did not experience any trauma from the trip, and as far as I know, none of my classmates did either. But after thinking about the situation from a different perspective I saw that it could be quite traumatizing.

Every ethnic, religious and cultural group has gone through hardships, but frankly, some are more atrocious and long-lasting than others.

I attended Nature’s Classroom with my school which is about 95 percent non-Hispanic white, so for most of my classmates, the reenactment of slavery was not very personal. The complaint in the case claimed that the plaintiff and the other students of all races were called the n-word and had to act like a real slave. All of the staff who portrayed the slave masters were white. Some of the things that the “slave masters” said were, “You’re not a person. You’re property,” “Don’t look me in the eyes. You’re worthless,” and “God put you on this earth to serve us.” Though these statements are historically accurate with what was actually said, it seems insensitive and hurtful to speak to children in such a manner. A more appropriate experience would be if staff members acted as both slaves and slave masters and the children observed but did not participate.

As one of the only Jewish students

photo from internet source

in my middle school, I thought about what it would have been like if my middle school class had been part of a reenactment of a Nazi concentration camp. The mere idea of such an activity horrified me. I would have felt traumatized, ostracized and worthless if the adult leaders were speaking to me as Nazi gestapos spoke to concentration camp prisoners, as the “slave masters” were speaking to the “slaves” in the reenactment.

The reaction by the director of Na-

ture’s Classroom was not sympathetic to the parents or child as it was very dismissive and nonchalant.

He said that they do not condone the use of the n-word in the reenactment but mistakes happen. When dealing with impressionable children, such serious mistakes should not happen. He also seemed to say that the activity was only pretend, but the line between pretend and reality can be quickly blurred.

Nature’s Classroom does a follow-

up session and many of the individual schools review with the students, but it seems hard to believe that the best way to teach children about slavery is to subject them to similar conditions and verbally abuse them. Though some children may have a better understanding of slavery after going through the reenactment, no one can truly understand something without experiencing it for themselves, and it may be better to not attempt to feel the pain that destroyed so many lives.

BranVan fails to meet student needs

By Naomi Soman Staff

I’ll just say it: the BranVan system needs revamping. For all the people who live on or participate in clubs on campus, it doesn’t seem that important, but for those of us who need it, taking the BranVan can be a real pain.

It is unreliable, inconvenient and extremely problematic.

I take the BranVan every Monday and Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. to a studio across from Lizzy’s Ice Cream for Ballroom Dance Team, and there are a few rules on how to get there on time. First of all, you need to call exactly two hours ahead of time, not earlier and not later. The coordinators will not take your call more than two hours in advance, but if you wait until only an hour ahead of time, the BranVan will probably be full already.

The BranVan only runs every half hour, so if that’s not convenient, you end up wasting a lot of time. My dance class on Monday nights runs from 9-9:45 p.m., but the only way I can get there on time, is if I take the 8:30 BranVan, which gets me there around 8:45. On the way back though, I have two options, I can either catch the 10:00 van and wait around for awhile, or I can take the 9:30 van and hope I do not miss it because if I get out a couple minutes too late, I might have to wait until 11:00, which did happen to me once when I had plenty of homework to finish.

photo from internet source

There are only 12 seats on a BranVan, so if it’s full, it’s full. If they ran every 15 minutes, at least on busy nights like Thursday, Friday and Saturday between certain times, then fewer people would have to wait around or worry about how to get home. First-year and sophomore students cannot keep a car on campus, and there are few parking spaces for the upperclassmen who do have them.

Therefore, the BranVan system is a vital element of student transportation into Waltham. It’s not safe to be walking around at night, and as it is winter for most of the school year here, walking in the snow and ice is dangerous

too. Even students who need to walk to Hannaford’s or CVS, which are only a 15 to 20-minute walk, should not risk slipping on the ice or walking in the street because the sidewalks aren’t shoveled.

If the school is worried that extra BranVans will cost too much money, they should evaluate their other expenses. The Joseph’s Transportation Shuttle circles the campus every 15 minutes from 7 am to 4:30 pm, while the BranVan goes around from 7:30 a.m.-2:30 a.m. simultaneously. First of all, this campus is not that large.

Loop Road is a little more than a mile, so it takes 20 minutes to walk the en-

tire circumference of the school if you decide to take your time. Not only do we not need two shuttle services going at the same time, but we also do not need them so frequently.

Also, there is another Joseph Shuttle that goes into Waltham every 40 minutes from 7 am to 3:40 pm How many people need to go to Waltham in the morning, especially during the week?

Brandeis students are busy, and they do not have the time to go hang out on Moody Street in the middle of the day when they have classes. By cutting down on unnecessary Joseph Shuttles and daytime BranVans, the school could afford more BranVans at night

when people actually need them.

The BranVan system is not bad, but it is not working and needs to be fixed.

There are not enough vans at night to accommodate everyone who needs to go off campus, and in the vans they do have, there are not enough seats for everyone who needs them. The vans only circulate every half hour if you can get on one in the first place. I am sick of panicking at the last minute because there were no spots left on the BranVan and I have a commitment I need to fulfill. A convenient transportation system is not an outrageous request but rather a necessary part of a suburban college campus.

October 18, 2013

OPINION 15

The Brandeis Hoot

Eliana’s Advice

In touch and in the game

Sorority life examined

By Eliana Sinoff

at all. Right now a majority of my closet consists of very light clothing, and I am already starting to feel cold. How can I stylishly and cheaply prepare for winter?

Dear Eliana, -About to be Really Cold Frankly, my roommates are making my room smell horrible. The disgusting rank body odor Dear About to be Really Cold, and dirty laundry is driving me insane. The There are a few things that are essential for problem is amplified by the fact that I sleep on a lifted bunk, and the smell rises to the top of the winter in a place that actually has it: a coat, room, making it difficult for me to fall asleep. sweaters, a hat, a scarf, thick socks and warm I don’t know what or who is causing the prob- boots. I would also suggest wearing jeans or long lem. How can I approach my roommates about pants whenever possible, as shorts expose more the smell without it seeming like I’m insulting skin than is smart. Most of the popular stores sell winter clothes, so you just need to look. A good them? winter coat will not always be super cheap, but - Burning Nose Hairs it is worth investing in, especially if you plan on being here for the next few years. I am not really Dear Burning Nose Hairs, That sounds like a rather unfortunate situ- a fashion expert, so I would just say to get items ation. However, it is not necessary to go up to that are along the lines of what you typically your roommates and say, “Someone stinks. wear. I also do not really know how the prices Who is it?” There are gentler ways of addressing of stores compare to one another off the top of your problem. My suggestion would be that you my head, so I will leave you to solve that puzzle tell your roommates in a nice way, something yourself by using the Internet. Also, tons of layalong the lines of, “Hey, our room is becoming ering helps.

-Eliana a little bit dirtier than I would like, and it would be great if we could all contribute to keeping ourselves and our stuff clean.” If they really don’t get the message or if you don’t like direct confrontation, you could ask your CA to talk to them about the fact that with three people living together, it does not always smell like roses. In the meantime, perhaps invest in some Febreeze or other odor eliminator. Hope this helps!

Special to the Hoot

-Eliana

Dear Eliana, Parent’s weekend is coming soon, and I was talking to my parents about it when I realized that I barely know what’s going on with my family. Now that I am not directly seeing them every day, I feel I am falling out of touch with my family back home. How do I maintain a connection to my family life while I am away in college?

-Out of Touch

Dear Eliana, I was at a party last weekend, and I realized that many relationships seem to start out as random hook-ups. I am not the kind of person who is comfortable meeting people that way. It doesn’t seem like the best foundation for a relationship. How can I meet someone and build a solid relationship in a more traditional way?

-Lonely Dear Lonely, If it makes you feel any better, there are other people like you who don’t just want a random one-night stand. You might not find them at parties, but there are plenty of other places you might find someone looking for the same foundation as yourself. One place is one of the numerous clubs that Brandeis offers. You can meet people with common interests so that you can build a relationship with something other than alcohol. If you just keep an eye out and talk to people, you can snag yourself someone nice.

Good luck!

-Eliana

Dear Out of Touch, It can be hard to stay involved with your family when you’re living away from them. It’s especially hard if they live somewhere that’s more than a few hours’ drive away. However, it is fortunate that we live in a very technological time. Facebook, email and cell phones all make it very easy to stay in touch. You don’t have to be there every second to know what’s going on with your family. It could also help to have designated times that you will Skype with your family or talk to them in some form. If you make time to communicate, it won’t be too hard to stay connected.

That being said, it could also be good for you to learn how to be more independent. You are probably going to be living away from your family for a while. Don’t ignore your family, but use this as an opportunity to become your own person outside of the family. Try to find a balance.

-Eliana

photos from internet sources

I would love to hear your questions. They can be about anything you want. I can’t promise that I will always know what I’m talking about, but I would love to try to help you with anything. You can reach me at elianasadvice@gmail.com Dear Eliana, Thanks, I’m from California, and winter does not exist Eliana so much there. I am not prepared for the winter

photo from internet source

GREEK, from page 1

ter, describes in her article, titled “Why Getting Hazed for My Sorority Was Weirdly Worth it,” pledge rituals that include “line-ups” where the author and her fellow pledge mates were forced to wear “all white with [their] faces scrubbed clean of makeup” and were subsequently told to “take turns stepping into one spotlight in the middle of the [sorority] house floor” so that their body image could be picked apart by veteran sisters. Needless to say, these allegations carry with them legal implications for those involved and the university at which they occurred.

Stories of sorority pledging gone wrong are not unheard of by any means. Last year, a Boston University sorority gained media attention for a pledge event that ended with one of its new members hospitalized for alcohol intoxication and other injuries. There is enough media coverage alone to suggest that sororities are physically and psychologically harmful to women, yet at Brandeis, members continue to push for their existence even in the midst of administrative refusal. My question is this: If the founders of Brandeis and the current administration understand how detrimental these organizations can be to the development of college students, why do they still exist at Brandeis? Perhaps it is peer pressure. Students here want to have the experience of parties and mixers that their friends at other schools experience. Or perhaps students find a niche within their Greek communities on campus that they are unable to find elsewhere.

Regardless of the reason, I would like to emphasize that women have much more to lose from the dangers of Greek life than their male peers. Women who bear the psychological scars of being tormented by their own female peers during their undergraduate careers are not in a position to be role models for other women. The image of leadership that sororities try to project on a national level creates a deceiving illusion that these organizations can achieve something for women that their home universities cannot hide beneath words like “empowerment,” “philanthropy” and “sisterhood.” Sororities carry with them a long tradition of subjecting women to hazing, torment and degradation by their own female peers, and one cannot help but wonder if, once these women graduate into the workforce, they lack the confidence to see themselves and other women as leaders.

At a time when the world is in dire need of women in positions of power, this idea could be dangerous. If Brandeis strives to be a university that produces women who will be strong leaders in their fields once they graduate, then the continued existence of sorority life on campus should be questioned. It is not enough to allow these organizations to remain “underground;” the danger of psychological harm still remains.

And more importantly, the future of these organizations and their expansion needs to be seriously considered in evaluating the future of student life here at Brandeis. And perhaps most importantly, the impact that these organizations could potentially have on the futures of women and their interactions should be taken seriously.

October 18, 2013

THIS WEEK IN PHOTOS

tsa nightmarket Brandeis TSA organized a Nightmarket complete with free food and activities last Saturday night.

volunteer Students met with prospective employers at the Year in Service and Volunteer fair on Tuesday.

The Brandeis Hoot 11

photos by katie chin/the hoot

photos by dana levine/the hoot