The Brandeis Hoot - April 8, 2011

Vol. 8, No. 11

www.thebrandeishoot.com

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.

April 8, 2011

New federal guidance on univ sexual assault Brandeis follows Biden lead on Title IX

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

executives University President Frederick Lawrence introduces Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick .

photo by ingrid schulte/the hoot

Patrick boasts state’s competitiveness

By Nathan Koskella Editor

Gov. Deval Patrick defended Massachusetts’ post-recession economy and promoted his plans to enhance the state’s financial competitiveness while visiting the Brandeis campus, speaking to a room of business leaders and state officials who gathered for the International Business

School’s Global Trade Summit Tuesday in Levin Ballroom.

“Since the beginning of my first term we have stuck with our plan during the worst recession in living memory,” Patrick said, “and pursued a three-pronged strategy to lift up the commonwealth and compete in our global economy.”

University President Frederick Lawrence upon introducing the gov-

ernor picked up on the first of Patrick’s prongs, followed by innovation and infrastructure, highlighting the primary role education plays in the state and world marketplaces.

“The most important industry in this state is the state of the mind, we are an education state,” Lawrence said, “and it is good to know: Our See PATRICK, page 2

Brandeis will shift its standard of proof for internal hearings on sexual assault to a lesser burden, a university official said Thursday evening. The change comes in response to new Title IX guidance from the U.S. Department of Education released Monday.

Brandeis will require only a “preponderance of the evidence standard” rather than its current “clear and convincing” standard in university grievance procedures on sexual assault, a decision in line with guidance from the Office for Civil Rights, Andrew Gully senior vice president for communications, wrote in an e-mail.

Under the “clear and convincing standard,” it must be “highly probable or reasonably certain that the sexual harassment or violence occurred,” but under a “preponderance of the evidence,” it must only be “more likely than not that sexual harassment or violence occurred,” according to a letter from the

Office for Civil Rights.

“Grievance procedures that use this higher standard are inconsistent with the standard of proof established for violations of civil rights laws, and are thus not equitable under Title IX,” Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in the letter Monday. “Therefore, preponderance of the evidence is the appropriate standard for investigating allegations of sexual harassment or violence.”

From 2007-2009, there were three reported “forcible sex offenses” at Brandeis, according to data published in Fall 2010 from Public Safety.

Nationally, nearly one in five female and one in 20 male undergraduate college students will become a victim of a sexual assault, or attempted sexual assault, according to data from the Office for Civil Rights. Victims of sexual assault are also at greater risk for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol and drug abuse and contemplation of suicide.

Brandeis will amend the Rights and Responsibilities handbook this summer to reflect the changes in the standards for the fall, Gully wrote, adding that the “vast majority of colleges and universities” currently also still use the “clear and convincing standard.”

The guidance reminded colleges and See TITLE IX, page 3

Once defiant, Goldstone changes tune 16 months after Brandeis visit

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

South African Justice Richard Goldstone, head of the United Nations fact-finding mission on the 2008-2009 Gaza War, said in a Washington Post column last week that there were both inaccuracies and mistakes in his 2009 report.

In November 2009, Goldstone and former Israeli Ambassador Dore Gold participated in an on-campus forum in Levin Ballroom. Then, Goldstone defended the report, which accused both Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian Militants of committing war crimes during the 22-day Gaza War. “We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report,” Goldstone wrote in an April 1 column in The Post titled “Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war

crimes.” “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.”

At a town hall meeting with members of Israel’s Knesset on campus Monday evening, Professor Ilan Troen (NEJS) pointed out the inaccuracies of Goldstone’s presentation in 2009.

“I know that unlike that event [in 2009], that everything that our speakers will say tonight will not need to be taken back,” Troen said.

Goldstone insisted that the amount and intensity of the Israeli force during the Gaza War were disproportionate. The Gaza War completely destroyed more than 5,000 homes and damaged more than 200 industrial factories, according to what Goldstone said in 2009. He also stated that in Gaza, 90 percent of the people live on one dollar a day.

“The allegations of intentionality

by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations See GOLDSTONE, page 2

a panel of politicians Knesset members address audience questions at an event on Monday.

photo by nafiz “fizz ” ahmed/the hoot

Knesset members speak on Iran, Arab spring

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

Israeli Knesset members called for increased pressure from the United States and the world to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran during a town hall meeting at Brandeis University on Monday evening.

“It’s not a game,” Minister of Internal Security Avi Dichter said during

the town hall meeting in Levin Ballroom. “It’s [a nuclear bomb], not something to play with. It’s something that has to be stopped before it’s going to be finished.”

Kadima member Ronit Tirosh criticized America’s response to Iran and explained that a nuclear-armed Iran poses a threat to the entire international community, not just Israel.

Iran must become a priority and not

something that can wait until IsraeliPalestinian peace negotiations succeed.

“Iran is not the problem of Israel. Iran is the problem of the whole world,” Tirosh said. “[President] Barack Obama thinks we must settle [the] Palestinian-Israeli peace before bringing Arabs to coalition against See KNESSET, page 7

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

April 8, 2011

Inside renovations for Linsey Pool

By Jon Ostrowsky Editor

About half of the $3 million renovations to the Linsey Pool facility will involve electrical repairs in the basement rather than the actual pool university officials said on Monday.

The remaining money will go into renovations for the pool deck, locker rooms and lobby along with new building code requirements, Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins and Associate Vice President for Facilities Services Peter Shields said during a walk through at the pool.

Nearly all of the equipment in the basement, with many of the deteriorating pipes covered with rust, will be replaced, except for two filtration tanks that were recently installed will remain, Shields said.

The outer gutter along the perimeter of the pool will be replaced and locker rooms will be renovated with a small reduction in the number of lockers and removal of benches helping to create more space, Shields said.

Before the pool closed, swimming teams competed in three-meter diving but the curve of the pool made it unsafe. There was a switch to one-meter diving in order to make the competition safer. The depth of the pool, at 12 feet in the deep end, has always fulfilled safety regulations, Shields said.

The costs of the renovations, estimated at between $3 and $3.5 million will also create a need to fulfill new building codes, including an upgraded fire alarm system and handicap accessibility, Collins said.

Other updates will include new lighting and a softer texture on some of the walls in an attempt to reduce the echo sound effects, Shields said.

The pool has been closed since 2008, at which point the university suspended its swimming and diving teams. With the renovations, the teams will reopen for the 2012-2013 academic year and coaches will begin recruiting this summer.

Work on the pool will be finished by early 2012, Collins said.

In addition to the pool allocation, the board of trustees last week also approved a $6 million upgrade to the campus technology network.

photo by ingrid schulte/the hoot

linsey pool to be renovated

Patrick touts state record on education PATRICK, from page 1

governor gets it.”

Patrick touted the state’s record on educating public school children, including the fact that Massachusetts children have been scored first in student achievement nationwide five years in a row, and the state is ranked top-five internationally in math and science scores. Massachusetts also placed first in President Obama’s Education Department’s Race to the Top program and secured the most in federal award grants.

“When you see a public school teacher, you thank them for our economic engine,” Patrick said.

The governor drew a direct connection between educational success and the future of the Massachusetts economy, saying that “education is our calling card around the world,” and that assembled business heads in attendance could see the innovation in the state.

“Our strategy remains one to grow jobs and to support the business community,” Patrick said.

The way to do that, he said, is to “pay particu-

lar attention to those industries that depend on brainpower... to support our preeminence and secure it for the future.”

Patrick also championed his political decisions as governor, promoting his energy policies as tantamount to a good jobs policy and beyond. The summit, held to promote investment in the state and increase international demand for Massachusetts exports, pertained to just these themes.

Infrastructure, rounding out the governor’s three-part plan, was called the “unglamorous work of government,” but Patrick defended it as necessary work only the state may provide.

“As more and more Massachusetts companies compete internationally, we in government will work harder to create more jobs in the commonwealth,” Patrick said, while stressing that the real hurdle—hiring new employees—will come from the chief executives sitting in front of him.

Lawrence’s zinger suggestion for the directors was simple, telling them that the most important thing for the summit, the governor’s visit and his presidency was only that “you all have to hire my kids.”

Goldstone changes opinion on Israel GOLDSTONE, from page 1

where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion,” Goldstone wrote in the column last week. “While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.”

Goldstone, the chair of the International Advisory Board of the Ethics Center at Brandeis , also served as a prosecutor for war crimes in Rwanda. Goldstone had been the target in 2009

of individual criticism as a Jew opposing Israel.

“I’ve had many sleepless nights and I continue to go over this issue, and one of the questions my wife and I debate is had I known what was going to happen, would I do it. If I was to be absolutely honest I don’t know,” Goldstone said in a November 2009 interview with The Hoot.

In the column, Goldstone said that Israel accepted the recommendations to conduct internal investigations while Hamas neglected them.

“Indeed, our main recommendation was for each party to investigate, transparently and in good faith, the incidents referred to in our report. McGowan Davis has found that Israel has done this to a significant degree; Hamas has done nothing,” Goldstone wrote.

April 8, 2011

The Brandeis Hoot

NEWS

3

SEA camps out, promotes environment

camp out Students for Environmental Action (SEA) listen to acoustic music while supporting sustainability.

By Debby Brodsky Staff

Students made a statement about the overuse of electricity and advocated for Brandeis to work to use more sustainable energy sources Wednesday evening at the third annual sleepout on the great lawn, hosted by the waste and energy management subcommittee of Students for Environmental Action.

The sleep out represents one of many attempts by students to protest the university’s overuse of dirty energy. During the sleep out, students first

broke into policy groups, and held a club meeting outdoors. Then in an effort to keep warm without the use of electricity, students did Zumba dancing with glow sticks and played with a glow-in-the dark Frisbee.

“I want to see Brandeis students pay more attention to how much they recycle, compost and waste,” said Haley Orlofsky’14, coordinator of the sleep out.

Orlofsky, a midyear, came to Brandeis specifically because of SEA’s high level of environmental activism.

“Brandeis is even doing green tours now,” Orlofsky said, “to share green facts about certain dorms, and to

show that it is much better to reuse energy than to just reduce it.”

As Orlofsky expressed, Brandeis makes going green accessible and rewarding. SEA has four subcommittees, including waste and energy management, a food group, students for a just and sustainable future (SJSF) and the Lemberg program, which visits Brandeis’s campus preschool each week to teach preschoolers about what it means to go green. SJSF originally hosted the sleep out, and then broke off from SEA to become a coal action group, which works to stop Massachusetts from building new

photo by ingrid schulte/the hoot

coal plants.

Coal plants release harmful carbon emissions into the environment, and SEA and SJSF students are working to promote the use of renewable resources instead. “There are four coal plants in Massachusetts,” Regional Outreach Coordinator Dorian Williams’13 said. “We are trying to put pressure on legislators to cut out coal from Massachusetts by 2015. There are two bills in legislation right now, one to get rid of coal by 2015, that’s ours, and another to get rid of coal by 2020.”

Williams came up with an idea

to build a microturbine on campus.

“The microturbine generates energy, and has the electric capacity of a small house.” While the energy the microturbine produces pales in comparison to the amount of energy Brandeis uses, “it’s a strong showing of Brandeis’s commitment to sustainability,” Williams said.

Students in SJSF and SEA work together to raise sustainability awareness on campus, and locally in Waltham. “We focus on renovating houses in Waltham, so that the owners spend less money on heat,” President of SEA Nick Polanco ’13 said.

According to Polanco, SEA and its subcommittees have accomplished several major goals. “We got solar panels installed on the roof of Gosman, bottled water removed from lower and upper Usdan, and we set up the Brandeis Sustainability Fund, which provides grants, advice and support to any undergraduate student for their projects promoting sustainability.”

Still to come this semester, SEA will be hosting a Charles River cleanup, and will continue to focus on renovating houses in Waltham. Not only are clubs like SEA working to promote going green, but Brandeis’ International Business School was recently recognized as one of the best business schools in the nation for educating students to enter “green business” fields. Through the efforts of activists and educators on campus, Brandeis is on the road to becoming a more sustainable university.

Government outlines new federal guidance for Title IX TITLE IX, from page 1

universities that they must conduct an internal Title IX investigation, separate from a criminal investigation, following reported or known sexual violence and harassment on campus.

“Police investigations may be useful for fact-gathering; but because the standards for criminal investigations are different, police investigations or reports are not determinative of whether sexual harassment or violence violates Title IX,” Ali wrote. “Conduct may constitute unlawful sexual harassment under Title IX even if the police do not have sufficient evidence of a criminal violation.”

Even if a victim or third party does not file a complaint, universities that learn of possible sexual harassment must order a Title IX investigation, independent of a local or state run criminal investigation, the guidance said.

Brandeis deals with alleged violations of Rights and Responsibilities through “the student conduct process independent of any ongoing criminal matter” Gully wrote.

As the administration released new guidelines, Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the University of New Hampshire on Monday, reminding both students and university administrators of their power to prevent sexual violence.

“We’re saying that under Title IX, schools have a responsibility to bring justice to the victims and change the culture on campuses that make it clear that sexual assault is simply not tolerable,” Biden said.

In the letter on Monday, The Office for Civil Rights reminded any school receiving federal funding that sexual violence is a form of sexual harassment prohibited under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and thus requires specific university regulations to prevent it.

Gully said that Brandeis has a strong prevention system in place, but welcomes the guidance to review its regulations.

“The guidance offered by the Office for Civil Rights is a reminder of the importance of protecting students from

sexual harassment and providing a safe learning environment at Brandeis University,” Gully said in a statement. “We feel our policies on sexual harassment and sexual assault are strong but look forward to reviewing the new guidance.

We also applaud the vice president for his ongoing efforts to raise awareness of an issue that is vitally important on every college and university campus.”

Monday’s guidance said that schools must assist victims of sexual violence who file a complaint, even if the assault did not occur on school property, or during a school-sponsored event.

“Because students often experience the continuing effects of off-campus sexual harassment in the educational setting, schools should consider the effects of off-campus conduct when evaluating whether there is a hostile event on campus,” Ali wrote in the letter.

“Every school would like to believe it’s immune from sexual violence, but the facts suggest otherwise,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said at UNH on Monday. “We know that if children and young people aren’t safe, they can’t learn. It’s as simple and as fundamental a priority as that.”

Brandeis advises students to report cases of sexual assault to the Department of Public Safety. Students can choose to pursue criminal charges with local law enforcement offices, choose a referral to the student conduct process or choose to fill out an anonymous report with Public Safety.

Public Safety has six officers specifically trained to handle cases of sexual assault sensitively, who know they have the power to immediately create a “no contact” order against the alleged perpetrator.

According to Rights and Responsibilities, investigations into sexual misconduct can allow for emergency suspensions.

“Due to the seriousness of sexual misconduct accusations and accompanying issues that may impact the Brandeis community, any student accused of sexual misconduct may be placed on campus restriction or emergency suspension pending the outcome of any investigation or conduct pro-

cess,” according to the handbook.

The Division of Student Affairs at Brandeis notifies students about a wide range of services available both on and off campus for dealing with sexual assaults, including the Counseling and Rape Crisis Hotline, Office of Human Resources, Psychological Counseling Center and the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.

Students can also choose to use services through the health center, local hospital care and the chaplaincy.

Reminding schools of a 2001 guidance, the letter stated that schools could be in violation of Title IX if “students are unaware of what kind of conduct constitutes sexual harassment....”

The Rights and Responsibilities Handbook at Brandeis specifically defines sexual misconduct for students.

“Students are prohibited from engaging in sexual misconduct. Sexual contact that occurs without the explicit consent of each student involved may be considered sexual misconduct. Consent must be clearly communicated, mutual, non-coercive, and given free of force or threat of force,” the handbook states. “A student who is physically or mentally incapacitated by drugs, alcohol, or other circumstances is not capable of giving consent.”

Under Title IX, schools must let all students and employees know the name, title and contact information for a specific coordinator who oversees the university’s compliance with Title IX. The guidance advises that the coordinator should not be a member of a disciplinary board or general counsel, in an effort to avoid conflicts of interest.

At Brandeis, Athletic Director Sheryl Sousa deals with athletic related policies of Title IX and Vice President for Human Resources Scott Bemis addresses administrative issues related to Title IX, leaving no conflicts of interest, Gully wrote.

The Office for Civil Rights also suggests that universities notify students that concern about safety is always the priority.

“OCR recommends that schools inform students that the schools’ primary concern is student safety, that any other

New guidelines Below are some of the key points of guidance that Office for Civil Rights issued to schools on Monday about how to comply with Title IX:

• Schools that learn of sexual harassment or violence must investigate the case, regardless of whether a complaint is filed.

• In cases of sexual violence, schools must conduct an internal Title IX investigation separate from any criminal investigation.

• Schools must assign an employee as the coordinator of compliance with Title IX. • Cases should be decided by a “preponderance of the evidence,” not by a “clear and convincing standard.”

• Colleges and universities cannot force a complainant to sign a non-disclosure agreement. info graphic by jon ostrowsky/the hoot

rules violations will be addressed separately from the sexual violence allegation, and that use of alcohol or drugs never makes the victim at fault for sexual violence,” Ali wrote in the letter.

Yet in addition to the administration’s efforts to remind university officials about the requirements of Title IX, Biden also said that reducing and preventing sexual assault requires a new commitment from students.

Biden described America’s response to sexual violence as a way to label “how to improve the measure of our decency as a society.”

“The decency of a nation is more determined by how we tolerate or do not tolerate the abuse of women—the abuse of anyone who finds themselves in a situation where someone physically

is more powerful,” Biden said.

He urged men in the audience to become responsible citizens by recognizing that there is never any excuse or justification for sexual assault.

“When it comes to sexual abuse, it’s quite simple. No means no,” Biden said.

“No means no if you’re drunk or you’re sober. No means no if you’re on bed in a dorm or on the street. No means no even if you said yes at first and you changed your mind. No means no.

And it’s a crime to disregard no.”

He said that universities need to remind students that the rules against sexual assault are clear and unquestionable. “Rape is rape is rape. And the sooner universities make that clear, the sooner we’ll begin to make progress on campuses.”

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

April 8, 2011

Part two in a comprehensive examination of race at Brandeis

The gatekeepers:

Admitting racial diversity photo by alan tran/the hoot

In March of 2006, the University Diversity Committee created an addition to Brandeis’ original mission statement to promote the importance of diversifying the student body. The “diversity statement,” now featured under the mission statement on the university website, reads, “[Brandeis University] seeks to build an academic community whose members have diverse cultures, backgrounds and life experiences … believes that diverse backgrounds ideas are crucial to academic excellence … recognizes the need to analyze and address the ways in which social, cultural and economic inequalities affect poor and privilege in the larger society and Brandeis itself.”

Though the mission statement already stated that “Brandeis strives to reflect the heterogeneity of the United States and of the world community whose ideas and concerns it shares,” the committee felt the point needed to be reiterated.

The decision to write a “diversity statement” that would complement the university’s mission statement was made at a time when “we felt we did not have the distribution of students we should be having [in terms of diversity’,” Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong said in an interview last month.

“We weren’t the best or the worst in any category relating to diversity,” she said. “But we always aspire to do better.”

Three years after this statement was issued, 5 percent of the student body identified as Hispanic, 5 percent as American-born African American, 11 percent as Asian American and 47 percent as white. Of the 3,317 undergraduate students, 10 percent were international students and 23 percent of Americanborn students’ race was unknown, according to data from the 2009-2010 academic year (the most recent year for which the university has statistics).

Despite university aspirations, Brandeis demographics do not match up to the United States population, which the 2010 census reported was 13.6 percent African American, 16 percent Hispanic and 4.8 percent Asian American. Ultimately revealing that living up to its founders’ vision is a goal the university’s admissions office has yet to reach.

In the quest to fulfill this aspiration, the university must grapple with questions of what factors classify racial diversity from an admissions perspective, and how exactly the university differentiates between the quantity and the quality of racial diversity on campus.

By

Ultimately these lead to the vital question: Can these issues can be addressed on the university level?

Practices behind percentages The notion of “affirmative action” was first used in 1964 when United States President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925 requiring government contractors to ensure that it did not discriminate against “race, creed, color or national origin” in its hiring practices. Since then, the term has been most widely used in reference to the practices colleges and universities use to achieve racially diverse student bodies.

In 2003, the United States Supreme Court upheld the affirmative action practices of the University of Michigan Law School, which was using students’ race as a “potential plus factor” when it came to admissions.

The court’s majority ruling, written by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, held that while quotas—policies regarding what percentage of the student body should be of a certain race—are prohibited by the United States Constitution, it “does not prohibit [a school’s] narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.”

Brandeis University supported the decision along with 37 other private colleges and universities, submitting an amicus brief stating that the university considered the gender, race and country of origin of applicants in the admissions process alongside extra-curricular and co-curricular activities, special talents and evidence of leadership.

“Diversity in the student body as well as the faculty is judged inseparable from the university’s commitment to academic excellence,” read the universities’ brief.

Today, while diversity is a priority of the admissions office, Brandeis does not have an explicit affirmative action policy.

When considering applications to the university, Vice President of Students and Enrollment Keenyn McFarlane said last month the admissions office “does not take into account race, creed, color, religion—anything.

“Affirmative action is specific and to my mind sounds a lot like quotas, which have so much negative history,” he said. “We want to matriculate the students who want to be here.

If those students happen to be all Asian, for

Wittenberg,

example, then I am happy they are happy, but I am not happy because it is not diverse.”

In past years, the university has attempted to increase diversity by simply increasing the number of applicants to the university, a practice in which there has been some success in recent years. In March 2010, undergraduate applications jumped to 7,738 from 6,815 the year before while maintaining an acceptance rate of 32 percent.

“If you have more applications, then the number of additional applicants who are people of color is going to go up proportionally,” Mcfarlane explained. “If those applicants of color are qualified, then they will be admitted in the same proportions as white students. It’s not something that happens by chance, nor is it by design, it’s just the way it works.”

Indeed, last year 27 percent of applicants to the university were minority students, with Asians being the largest proportion. Minorities in turn accounted for 27 percent of students accepted, and 28 percent of the class of 2014 identify as minorities.

Defining diversity University President Frederick Lawrence said in an interview last month that he did not believe Brandeis necessarily needed to be racially diverse in order to be diverse as a whole.

“When you are thinking through the lens of percentage of minority students it is going to lead to brittle thinking” because it does not take into account “the breadth of the community.”

“Some people may all look the same but there are lots of ways for a school to completely be diverse,” he said, adding that each student brings to Brandeis their own personal experiences which may or may not correlate to their own race.

McFarlane admitted that Brandeis is not as racially diverse as he would like it to be, but said quantifying the level of diversity at Brandeis is difficult because statistics do not always take into account students of mixed race or the 23 percent of students at Brandeis who do not identify their race.

In addition to soliciting applications from a racially diverse range of American citizens, the admissions office also actively pursues applications from international students. In the fall of 2009, the international students at Brandeis hailed from 53 countries, with the top five being China, South Korea, India,

Ogbeide &

France and Israel.

“Let’s say you have a student from Panama, it’s not like we are admitting them because we think we might get a Latino student,” McFarlane said. “We are admitting them because they are qualified, and they add to the international diversity. The fact is sometimes they are Latino, but sometimes they are Jewish and sometimes they are black.”

Graduate students also add to the mix of racial and international diversity seen at Brandeis. While 2 percent of American-born graduate students are Hispanic, 3 are African American, 4 are Asian and 30 percent are international students, many of whom come from African or Asian countries. This creates the illusion that the undergraduate population is more diverse than it actually is.

“When you are at Brandeis and looking around, you can’t tell if the black person you see is undergraduate, graduate, African or African American,” McFarlane said. “Graduate students certainly contribute to the visual diversity of campus, even if they are not in the undergraduate classes.”

Taking (non-affirmative) action While the admissions office does not actively pursue applicants of color, it does strategically encourage applicants from different geographical locations that are racially diverse.

This year, the Office is particularly focusing on schools in Atlanta, Ga., a city with a large percentage of African Americans.

“We want to increase Brandeis’ exposure to markets that are more diverse,” he said. “Because of the racial makeup of Georgia, applicants from there would be more diverse than from, say, Montana.”

In order to increase the university’s name recognition in Atlanta, McFarlane is using current Brandeis students from the area as “ambassadors” so they can spread the word about Brandeis in their communities.

“It’s all about geography,” he said. “The best and brightest of the Atlanta area know more about Emory than Brandeis, and the best and brightest of the Boston area know more about Brandeis than Emory.”

“But it’s also about a concerted recruitment effort,” he said. “If the Bay Area of California is important to Emory, then they are going to know about. Georgia is a market that Brandeis thinks is valuable, so we have to make ourselves known.”

Gubbala

April 8, 2011

By the numbers

FEATURES 5

The Brandeis Hoot

Survey of 270 students, or 8 percent of the undergraduate student body

5% Afric an Am e

c

5% His pan i

rican

The racial breakdown of the undergraduate student body in the 2009-2010 academic year.

47 % White 11 % Asian

“We need guidance counselors to know that Brandeis is a place to send their kids if they can do the work.”

But targeting a geographic area in order to increase the total number of applicants, and therefore the number of minority applicants, doesn’t solve every problem.

“We have a lot of kids here from Chicago, but we are not reaching the top kids in the all black high schools on the South side of Chicago, and those are the kids that we want to come here,” McFarlane said.

In an effort to attract more minorities, and in particular, African American applicants, the university is currently in talks to establish an exchange program with historically black colleges such as Tuskegee University, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe said in an interview last month. The program, which would potentially exchange both students and faculty members much like a foreign exchange program, could not only act to expose Brandeis students to new cultures and environments, but also to increase Brandeis exposure to markets that are more diverse.

Honest advertising In addition to personal outreach, one key tool admissions offices of all colleges rely upon is the pamphlets and literature that are distributed to guidance counselor offices across the country, something which has been an issue in the past.

“One of the tensions in the past has been whether or not admissions is representing what the student body actually is like in view books and presentations,” Wong said.

“Sometimes you open the view books other schools put out and it almost looks like a mini-united nations,” she said. “There is the question of how many students of color are you going to put in it, and is that representative of what is going on here?”

For JV Souffrant ’14, the university brochure is misleading.

“Sometimes [it seems like] in admissions games they will show you a brochure with a picture of students in a class and you will see six African-Americans and two white people and that’s not how it is.”

“I came here and was like, well where are all of those people that I saw?”

Preparing admissions pamphlets is a delicate task for that very issue, McFarlane said, and the admissions office is caught between two goals of accurately portraying Brandeis as it actually is, and of portraying Brandeis’ aspirations, McFarlane said.

“You have to be smart about your marketing, and I recognize that it has to be both

23 % Unknown 10 % International

NOTE: “Caucasian” indicates white/non-hispanic, “noncaucasion” single-race minority, “mixed” of one or more race and “unknown” a non-racial response

factual and aspiration,” he said. “If you don’t have that racial makeup [in the literature] you may be discouraging people from being interested in Brandeis. But by inviting that sort of interest, you may get the place to where you want it to be.”

Clogs in the pipeline In response to the pervasive educational disparities suffered by lower-income communities in the United States, Brandeis has explored a number of different avenues to increase its accessibility to students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

“There are people who do not have access to higher education because of their socioeconomic conditions, and the fact is that many of those people are minorities,” McFarlane said.

“Access to higher education by students of color is a problem in this country. Until that access happens, you might have some incremental changes [in the number of minority students] but you are not going to see some market leap of the percentages at Brandeis being on par with the nation’s [racial demographic] as a whole.”

Only 20 percent of black students and 16 percent of Hispanic students graduate high school college-ready, as compared to 32 percent of all students, according to a study by the Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute.

Of this 32 percent of college-ready high school graduates, only 9 percent are black with a further 9 percent are Hispanic. The authors of the study suggested that “the main reason these groups are underrepresented in college admissions is that these students are not acquiring college ready skills in the K-12 system rather than inadequate … affirmative action policies.”

“How do you take a kid out of that failing school, even if you think they are smart, and then expect them to be prepared for a place like Brandeis?” MacFarlane said.

Some of the solutions to McFarlane’s dilemma already exist at Brandeis in the form of the Transitional Year Program (TYP).

TYP, a year-long academic program, prepares students for college who have shown strong determination and academic focus despite obstacles such as under-resourced high schools, many of which lacked honors and AP classes, or personal conflicts that have derailed their paths to secondary education.

Professor Jacob Cohen (AMST), the first director of TYP, said in an interview last month that the purpose of TYP was to help students “who, for many reasons, had not made it in the conventional lockstep from

high school to college.”

“They are experienced, intelligent but not well educated people,” he said. Our philosophy was that what was needed was intense remediation.”

The program is just that: a remedial process that gives disadvantaged students tools and resources to develop the necessary skills for collegiate success. Coupled with academic support like tutoring and the Writing Center, along with personal support through mentorship, TYP students must successfully complete a full load of courses offered by the program in writing, math, science, social science and computer science along with one Brandeis undergraduate course a semester.

A by-product of this program is the addition of diversity to the Brandeis campus.

Director of TYP Erika Smith declined an interview with The Hoot last month due to the belief that “the mission of the program is actually not to contribute to diversity, rather it is to promote educational access and equity.”

She added that students are not selected or admitted to the program on the basis of race and there are not race-specific elements to the program.

“There is no racial component to TYP, it is about access to higher education, but I can’t deny that it adds to Brandeis’ diversity.”

The Posse Program is another program at Brandeis whose primary purpose is providing access to higher education but that also adds to the diversity of the student body.

Created with the idea of providing innercity students who showed leadership skills with a support system once they entered college, Posse is a full-tuition scholarship paid for by Brandeis for ten students who show not only academic prowess but leadership and teamwork skills as well.

“The idea is if you take students from the inner city who are just absolutely exceptional, at the top of their class in high school and who show leadership skills, if instead of sending them to college one by one, you send them in a group of 10 to create a support structure for them prior to entering college,” said Director of Academic Services Kim Godsoe, who is the Posse liason at Brandeis.

Brandeis is one of 12 schools that have a posse program, and this year there were 3,000 students from New York City nominated to receive a scholarship from one of those schools. Students applying to Posse have a 4 percent chance of receiving a scholarship, and after being nominated students go through a rigorous interview process that See Race, page 6

There are people who do not have access to higher education because of their socioeconomic conditions, and the fact is that many of those people are minorities.

— Keenyn Mcfarlane

Sometimes [it seems like] in admissions games they will show you a brochure with a picture of students in a class and you will see six African-Americans and two white people and that’s not how it is. I came here and was like, well where are all those people I saw?

—JV Souffrant ’14

6 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

Shades of Gray

April 8, 2011

Univ support system helps diversity

RACE, from page 5

includes group dynamic assessments, personal interviews and visits to college campus before being selected as part of the program.

Once students become a part of the Posse program, they receive pre-collegiate training, meeting once a week from January to July in workshops to build leadership and teamwork skills.

On campus, Posse scholars meet in groups with a mentor once a week, and every other week individually.

Brandeis has two distinct Posse programs— one for students studying liberal arts and another for students studying sciences. Traditionally both Posses come from New York City, but after the liberal arts Posse was cut for this academic year, administrators decided to bring it back with students from Atlanta for the 2011-2012 school year.

“Posse is based in urban areas, so each posse is going to reflect the demographic of that area,” Godsoe said, saying that while the program does not make increasing Brandeis diversity one of its goals, it is a byproduct. “If you compare the diversity of New York City, for example, to the majority student population at Brandeis which in many ways comes largely, not exclusively, from middle-to upper-middle-class suburban neighborhoods that are largely white, you can see … there is a difference in the student populations.”

Retention issues Just because a minority student is accepted does not mean that they will enroll in the university. Each year, the university spends countless hours attempting to create models and formulas for how many of the admitted students will actually accept the offer.

“It is somewhat of an absurdity,” McFarlane said. “How can you predict what a 17-year-old is going to do?”

One sure way to encourage students to enroll, however, is with a competitive financial aid package.

“There is only a fractional correlation between applications coming in and that particular minority student enrolling,” McFarlane said.

“You can lead them to water, but dollars speak a lot louder.”

Financial aid packages are particularly a factor with minority applicants, who may need the help more if they are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Not only do financial aid packages need to fulfill a student’s need, but they also must be competitive with packages offered at other schools in order to encourage a student to come to Brandeis.

This year, the university was able to meet financial need for all students it accepted into the Class of 2015, something McFarlane hoped would increase student diversity.

“Brandeis doesn’t give many merit scholarships: what we are about is financial need; if you need the money we will meet that need,” he said.

admitted Perspective students gather to the right of the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Admissions building awaiting tour guides to show them the campus

One of the six merit scholarships Brandeis does offer is the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship, founded in 1968 following the reverend’s assassination. The scholarship was originally intended to be given to deserving African American students; however, throughout the years the scholarship’s definition has changed to apply to any students who have shown “outstanding community involvement,” according to the university’s financial services website.

In past years, when financial need was not met for all students, the admissions office tried to give merit scholarships, like the MLK scholarship, to students with financial need.

“One way to matriculate a student of color would be to give them an MLK scholarship because otherwise, if you let them in but don’t give them any money, it is tantamount to rejecting them because they won’t be able to come,” McFarlane said.

He added that giving students in financial need “merit” scholarships in cases where financial aid is not enough is also “clever in terms of our enrollment yield strategy” because scholarships “mean more when you call it merit. It makes it more prestigious,” and encourages students to come to the university.

But while the Posse and MLK scholarships and the Transitional Year Program can indirectly increase the number of minorities who attend Brandeis, some students worry that the programs pad the numbers.

“I am not content if there are only five percent African American students in a school of 3,000 and the majority of those students are TYP or Posse,” Souffrant said. “If you take away those kids, how many minorities are admitted through the admissions office? You can’t just have all of your minority students from those programs because then other students will think that all black kids are from inner-city, disadvantaged schools.”

The combination of adequate financial aid

and increased diversity underlies an assumption that students of color are also poor students—an assumption Godsoe said the university combats in its admission processes.

“I think that every school strives to have not just diversity, but diversity within diversity,” she said. “I’m obviously not in admissions, but I think the university actively tries to recruit students of color from different financial backgrounds, regardless of income. There are multiple layers that are on our radar.”

University-wide support A network of support is an essential component in the success of a student. Even if a student had the intellectual ability to succeed, without affirmation and encouragement the challenge of higher education is exacerbated with anxieties and perceptions of inadequacy.

This problem is all the more real to students of minority backgrounds, who must face the additional challenge of disproving preconceived notions of their capabilities while fighting off insecurities fueled by societal stereotypes.

The fact that some scholarships and programs, like the Posse scholarship, come with additional support like mentoring and peer networks for their recipients can encourage a minority student worried about attending Brandeis—something McFarlane believes is extraordinarily important.

“If I got an applicant who was able to do the work, and I was able to get them to matriculate, they are only going to stay if they feel comfortable. In order for that to happen, we need a support network for minority students,” he said.

The Student Support Services Program is one such system for students who are the first in their families to go to college and who face significant financial problems. Combining academic advising, peer mentoring, individual tutoring and workshops about the college ex-

photo by alan tran/the hoot

perience, these services are, again, not only for minority students but effect many of them.

“Once you bring these students to college, you have to have support for them,” the program’s Director Gererdo Garcia Rios said. “We are that community that students can call a home away from home.”

Lawrence said one way to build a network is through co-curricular programming that discusses the integral role of civil rights equality and the obstacles that people with different backgrounds can face.

“I think issues of racial intolerance and racial injustice will for the foreseeable future be important issues in the American landscape that we have to talk about,” Lawrence said. “There are discussions of those issues on campus, but we can do more of that.”

Godsoe said support systems have “multiple pieces” that consist of what the university does formerly the campus climate among students and individuals like professors who may not have a formal support role but whom students know they can go to with problems.

“Faculty play an enormous role in reaching out to students … and there are a number of faculty members who themselves are not minority but who are very interested in issues of diversity and supporting students,” she said.

But for Souffrant, a former TYP student, being a black male means that his support system should include faculty members who are of his own race.

“It’s a motivation factor. If I can see more professors who look like me, it is an incentive to try harder,” he said. “I want to see people here who understand how I feel and who can support me, and they will make sure the conversation about race at Brandeis continue.”

Next week: The Architects—a look at the role of race in Brandeis administration and academics.

April 8, 2011

NEWS 7

The Brandeis Hoot

Meet the presidential candidates AMBER KORNREICH 2012

Herbie Rosen

Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Major

American Studies Major

AKASH VADALIA

2012

Biology and Health Science Society and Policy Double Major

Journalism and Legal Studies Minors

Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Minor

Current Union Position Student Union Treasurer

Current Union Position Student Union Secretary

Current Union Position Union Outsider

2012

Campaign Slogan Listening…ACTUALLY LISTENING.

Campaign Slogan Putting the U back in Union

Other Campus Involvement President of the Deis Dems, Waltham Group Coordinator, CoFounder of Brandeis Buddies

Other Campus Involvement Orientation Leader, C.O.R.E coordinator, Brandeis Undergraduate Theater Consortium, Brandeis Theater Ensemble, Waltham Group Volunteer Vacations

Other Campus Involvement Experiential Learning Fellow, Campus Center Supervisor, Psychology Lab Research Assistant, Former Varsity Tennis Player, Former Co-President of the South Asian Student Association

As a Union Outsider Kornreich feels she can offer new energy. In her opinion student democracy only works if the Union is aware of exactly what the students need and desire so she will use her experience as an activist to reach out to the student body on multiple levels through polling, forums, video updates and overall open dialogue with the community.

As Secretary Rosen feels he has been able to become comfortable with every aspect of the university and understand all the logistics of being president and working with the student body. In his opinion his ability to handle multiple projects as secretary has allowed him to become even more competent to juggle the many challenges and expectations faced as president.

As Treasurer Vadalia believes his work on the Union throughout his three years on campus in various positions has allowed him to understand how the Student Union works to help members of the community and now he feels he’s ready to take the biggest leadership role possible.

Main Presidential Objectives Environmental Sustainability initiatives working closely with Students for Environmental Action and the administration to ensure Brandeis continues to invest in environmental sustainability. She believes it is time to completely eliminate bottled water from campus, demand local food in the dining halls, and seek out other ways to reduce the Brandeis community’s environmental impact.

Main Presidential Objectives Have a student representative on every university committee, without exception. He plans to institute an application process through the Union so that student body members can sit on these committees, not just Student Union members and furthermore so there is never a question about student opinion when impactful decisions are being made by the university.

Main Presidential Objectives Promote the togetherness of the university, specifically through programming. He plans to work with club leaders to assure that events are scheduled evenly throughout the semester so that there’s always something to do on campus and so he that student activities fund is used to fulfill the needs of the campus most efficiently. He has confidence that this will boost Brandeis’ reputation in the sense that it’s not only great academically but it is also a social and enjoyable campus.

Campaign Slogan

Demand Social Justice, Sustainability and Student Power from your government.

A highly informed student union regarding its community and their needs, she plans to implement this through constantly asking questions through polling to gauge what students want to see from their government.

“I truly believe we can challenge Brandeis to be the best she can be. We must inspire students to dream big of a student union without limits.”

Focus on aiding the current housing situation. While Rosen acknowledges that university needs more housing on campus, he also feels that the university in the mean time needs to renovate the housing it does have and institute a system for helping students find off campus housing such as a off-campus liaison in the office of Community Living.

“I have the fire in my belly to get initiatives rolling and make sure they follow through, with the new administration of President Lawrence this is the time we can really work together to get things done.”

Renovate the housing on campus such as the Castle, East and The Mods.

“I am a hard worker, it’s a great quality of not the greatest quality of mine that I’m a very hard worker. Of course I have weakness like anyone else but my hard work gets things accomplished.”

photo by nafiz “fizz ” ahmed/the hoot

Despite protests, Knesset members discuss Israeli politics KNESSET, from page 1

Iran,” Tirosh said.

Likud member Tzipi Hotovely doubted that economic sanctions would have any significant impact. “With all the respect to the sanctions, the world is responding way too little and way too late,” Hotovely said.

Carmel Shama, through translated remarks, said that a need for oil is a key factor that influences America’s policies in the Middle East.

“The way we will solve many of our problems is to find a substitute for oil,” Shama said. “Much of the negative problems that arise in the Middle East are funded by petroleum, especially Iran.

One way in which the U.S. can lead the world toward a better future is by finding substitutes for oil,” Shama said.

When Dichter stood up to speak behind a podium, about a dozen Brandeis students, including many from the organization Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine (BSJP), began to protest, shouting that Dichter was guilty of war crimes and should be arrested for violations of international law.

The students passed out fliers to the audience,

shouted in Hebrew, “Don’t worry Avi Dicther, we’ll meet you in the Hague,” and then exited the ballroom.

Earlier in the forum, Danny Ben Simon had said that debate about Israel was necessary.

“It’s better to care than to be indifferent. Indifference is death,” he said. “Anyone with an agenda is better than anyone without an agenda.”

The six Knesset members visited Brandeis as Ruderman fellows in a program sponsored by the Ruderman Family Foundation created by Jay Ruderman ’88. The fellows included politicians from three different parties: Shama and Hotovely of Likud, Dichter and Tirosh of Kadima and Eitan Cabel and Daniel Ben Simon of Labor.

The fellows disagreed about the effect that recent revolutions the Middle East, in nations such as Egypt and Libya, would have on Israel.

Dichter said he was skeptical that democracy could succeed in the region.

“Democratizing the Middle East is a dream, not a vision,” Dichter said. “The difference between a dream and a vision is a vision might happen someday. A dream, you open your eyes

and nothing happens.”

Tirosh agreed that the revolutions may not end with democratic states.

“The Arabs from their history, they are not prepared for democracy,” Tirosh said, reminding the audience that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.

Ben Simon said that the revolutions may have a positive impact on Israeli’s foreign policy, suggesting that “we should let them have revolutions because the outcome might be better for Israel.”

Discussing the future of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, Ben Simon said that about 80 percent of Israelis support a two state solution and agree that it will be necessary to concede some land to the Palestinians.

The debate, he said, is over the costs of peace.

“Israel has turned the page of the ideas should we make concessions to the Palestinians or not,” Ben Simon said. “We are not talking about having a wedding with the Palestinians. It’s a divorce.”

Hotovely said that the world often neglects the facts when evaluating Israeli politics in an attempt to group any one act into a larger trend.

“We’re playing in a playground where the

facts are not playing a major role,” Hotovely said. “The world is indifferent because there is a paradigm the world is thinking through.”

Following the terrorist attack last month when assailants stabbed five members of the Fogel family to death while they were sleeping, including a three month old baby, Hotovely said that it forced attitudes to shift among Israelis.

“All Israeli’s were sharing the same feeling that our enemies are not made from the same humanitarian DNA.” The world also often loses sight of the larger conflict that is taking place between Western and radical Islamic values and not just in Israel, Hotovely said.

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the story,” she said. “The fact that the Islamic world is becoming more radical [is].”

In his remarks, Dicther spoke about the need for trust between Israelis and Palestinians but also a realization about what is practical for Israel.

“Everybody knows that it’s impossible to go back to the lines of ’67 of Israel,” Dichter said.

“If there is a real trust between both sides we can go forward,” he said. “We need two hands to clap hands. One is not enough.”

Sports

8 The Brandeis Hoot

April 8, 2011

Brian’s NBA rankings: playoff picture coming together

By Brian Tabakin Staff

1. Bulls (57-20): This Bulls team has the likely MVP in Derrick Rose and the likely Coach of the Year in Tom Thibodeau. With a great supporting cast and bench the only thing this Bulls team lacks is playoff experience.

2. Lakers (55-22): After the Spurs lost six in a row, the Lakers had a real shot at catching them for the one seed in the west. But after losing their last two games, the Lakers have blown any chance of that and it is important to note that the Lakers have not won a playoff series on the road since 2004.

3. Spurs (59-19): The Spurs just ended a six-game losing streak, their longest since drafting Tim Duncan in 1997. However, with an aging roster, they will place health over wins and they still have the hold on the number one seed.

4. Thunder (51-26): Since acquiring Kendrick Perkins from the Celtics, the Thunder have been red hot and they still have an outside shot at catching Dallas for the second seed.

Led by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, look for this team to send the Lakers packing in the playoffs.

5. Celtics (54-23): The pieces are starting to come together for the Celtics. Jermaine O’Neal has played greatly in limited minutes since coming back from knee surgery and the second unit is starting to play consistently.

6. Heat (54-23): The Heat and Celt-

ics are currently tied and the upcoming showdown is on April 10 in Miami will likely decide which team gets the second seed. The Heat needs players outside the Big Three to step up in order to beat the Celtics or the Bulls.

7. Nuggets (47-30): It certainly looks like the Nuggets got the better end of the Carmelo Anthony trade.

Since the trade, the Nuggets have the most efficient offense in the league and have been giving up almost 10 fewer points per game.

8. Mavericks (53-24): Last week’s showdown against the Lakers was an important test for the Mavericks to show they couldn’t be pushed around by the top teams. They failed it by being destroyed by 28 points.

9. Grizzlies (44-34): Led by former Celtics reserve Tony Allen, the Grizzlies have one of the best defenses in the league. For a team that has never even made the playoffs before, this team has a decent chance of upsetting the Spurs in the first round if the seedings hold as they are.

10. Trail Blazers (45-33): I will never understand why Nate McMillan is never in the discussion for Coach of the Year. He has gotten a team plagued by injuries to all-stars Greg Oden and Brandon Roy in the playoffs for the third straight year.

11. Magic (49-29): The Magic are locked into a first round matchup with the Hawks. This normally wouldn’t be concerning but the Hawks have Jason Collins, one of the few centers in the league who can guard Dwight Howard with single

coverage.

12. 76ers (40-38): This team already has 13 more wins than they did all of last season. However, the recent injury to Lou Williams should concern 76ers fans if he is not able to come back for the playoffs.

13. Hornets (44-33): Monty Williams has had an impressive rookie season as head coach. He has led this team to the playoffs through all the chatter about Chris Paul leaving, the team relocating and David West’s season-ending knee injury.

14. Hawks (44-34): After getting swept and destroyed by the Magic in the playoffs last year, the Hawks believe this is the year they can finally get past the pesky Magic because of their new center Jason Collins.

15. Pacers (35-43): The Pacers are pretty much backing into the playoffs behind extremely inconsistent play.

Nonetheless they’ll take the playoff berth even if they’ll be first round fodder.

16. Rockets (41-37): The Rockets may want to apply to join the Eastern Conference in the off-season. They are likely to miss the playoffs in the West but would be the sixth seed in the East.

17. Knicks (39-38): Since the sixgame losing streak, the Knicks have started to get things together and only trail the 76ers by a half game for the sixth seed with a showdown looming on Wednesday.

18. Suns (37-40): Steve Nash is suffering from a multitude of injuries and possibly the flu. With absolutely

no chance at making the playoffs, the Suns should sit Nash down for the rest of the season and let him regain his health.

19. Bucks (31-46): With all hopes of a playoff run evaporating, the Bucks will see those hopes destroyed with the dreaded Florida swing against the Magic and the Heat.

20. Bobcats (32-45): The Bobcats can pretty much kiss any chance at the playoffs away after losing three straight. They can also blame Michael Jordan for poor management and trading away their biggest offensive threat: Gerald Wallace.

21. Jazz (37-41): The Jazz have struggled since Jerry Sloan retired and Deron Williams was traded. But in Tuesday night’s game against the Lakers, Gordon Hayward showed why the Jazz drafted him, scoring 22 off the bench and out-playing Kobe.

22. Warriors (34-44): The Warriors are the new proverbial “one piece away” team. If they can build something that looks like defense, they could easily be a playoff team.

23. Clippers (31-47): The Clippers have a young core of talent surrounding all-star Blake Griffin and would have had significantly more wins this season if not for injuries. If owner Donald Sterling doesn’t get in the way (which is a big if) the Clippers will be a playoff team in two years.

24. Kings (23-54): The Kings have been mathematically out of the playoffs for about a month now. Yet they are constantly in the news because of their relocation to Anaheim. At least

they’re in the news, right?

25. Pistons (26-51): The Pistons have once again mutinied against their coach. Rodney Stuckey ignored John Kuester’s request to enter the game in their loss against the Bulls and was subsequently benched for the next game.

26. Cavaliers (16-61): In a season full of misery the Cavaliers have a few bright spots to point to. Hall of Fame announcer Joe Tait is back calling games after a battle with cancer and they finally beat Lebron James.

27. Raptors (21-56): The Raptors have two wins against the Magic, a season sweep against the Thunder as well as wins against the Mavericks and the Bulls. The Raptors may not win much, but when they do it’s shocking.

28. Wizards (21-56): The Wizards now have a couple of road wins.

Even better is the recent outstanding play by bench-player Jordan Crawford and the triple doubles of John Wall, Javele McGee and Jordan Crawford.

29. Nets (24-53): Newly-acquired star point guard Deron Williams hasn’t done much to help the Nets and if they can’t lure a second superstar to the team, Deron Williams isn’t staying with the team.

30. Timberwolves (17-61): About the only positive thing this season for the T-wolves has been the breakout play of Kevin Love, but Kevin Love will now miss the rest of the season with an injury.

Judges softball wins four straight on the road

By Gordy Stillman Editor

photo by paula hoekstra/the hoot

Baseball wins three games this week, extends winning streak to four

By Gordy Stillman Editor

The Brandeis baseball team started off this week’s games with a sweep of WPI on Saturday.

The Judges outscored their foes, the WPI Engineers, with a combined 20-12, including a 12-5 rout in the first game.

The Engineers started off the first game with two runs right away. Brandeis bounced back with a two-run homerun by Chris Ferro ’13.

Brandeis continued to outscore WPI in almost every subsequent inning. WPI never got more than one run per inning after the first, while the Judges hit anywhere between one and four runs in all but the fifth inning.

This included a three-run homer by Tony Deshler ’11 in the third, which brought the lead to 5-3. After getting the game to 8-5 by the sixth inning, Brandeis shut out WPI during the top of the sixth and paved the way for a four-run bottom to close the game at 12-5 after a no-run seventh.

The second game started off one-sided, but ended with a nail-biting score of 8-7. Behind starting pitcher Mike Swerdloff ’13 Brandeis took a commanding 5-0 lead after three innings.

Additionally Swerdloff struck out a career-high

11 batters. By the fourth inning things weren’t perfect as the Engineers earned their first run of the game. After another tricky inning in the sixth the Judges maintained a strong lead of 8-2.

The Engineers took advantage of the change in pitchers in the seventh and almost tied the game up. After five runs were scored relief pitcher Pat Nicholson ’11 earned the final two outs.

The Judges earned their third win of the week on Wednesday in a 9-5 victory as they hosted MIT. Brandeis took a lead early on in this nineinning game, never being ahead by less than a few runs. Designated hitter Eric Rosenberg ’11, catcher Kenny Destremps ’12 and second baseman Sean O’Hare ’12 all scored doubles bringing in runs.

In the second inning the Judges tore the lead wider with four more runs after MIT made the miscalculation of loading the bases. Rosenberg earned his second double of the day, clearing the bases for three RBIs and running himself, after O’Hare earned an RBI single to bring the lead to 7-0. MIT put up four more runs between the fourth and sixth inning but the Judges answered back with two runs of their own. After a final run in the top of the ninth, the Judges won and pitcher Colin Markel ’14 earned his first win of the season.

Extending their record to 13-12, the Judges softball team spent the last week winning in all of their games on the road. It started with a rout against Lassell College last Thursday, with the Judges outscoring their foes a combined 18-6.

In the first round of the double-header the Judges got off to a great start with pitcher Melissa Nolan ’14 giving up a mere three hits and no runs in a 9-0 shut out. Brandeis got six runs on the board beginning with three consecutive doubles by Brittany Grimm ’12, Samantha Gajewski ’12 and Courtney Kelley ’11. After getting two runs on the board and suffering two outs, the Judges got back to scoring with doubles from Lauren Porcano ’12 and Marianne Specker ’12. Carly Schmand ’11 also got on the board with a base hit before Grimm got her second double of the day for the final RBI of the inning.

The Judges got back to scoring in the sixth with singles from Specker and Schmand followed up by an RBI single by Grimm. A second Gajewski double brought Schmand back home and Gajewski eventually got an unearned run on a passed ball. For the bottom of the sixth Caroline Miller ’12 took over pitching and maintained the shutout for the 9-0 win.

In the second game the Judges got on the board quickly with two runs in the first and three more unanswered runs in the second.

Schmand, Grimm and Gajewski all played well, getting a double, RBI single and RBI double respectively before a double play by Lassell ended the inning with a double play leaving one runner stranded on-base. With five hits in the second, another three runners made it around the bases to get it to a 5-0 ballgame.

The Judges scored another run in the third before Lassell began to answer with run of their own after sacrifice hits helped Talia Dechiara round the bases. Lassell got back in the running at the bottom of the sixth, scoring four runs and bringing the game to within a run at 6-5. The Judges got back to a four-run lead after scoring three runs in the seventh by capitalizing on a Lassell error. Specker walked and was followed

by Schmand who made it to first base off of an

error by Lassell that sent Specker to second.

After both stole bases and were in scoring position, they both advanced again due to a wild pitch. Grimm followed up with an RBI double.

After advancing to third, Grimm scored off an RBI single by Kelley. Lassell tried to come back with a run in the bottom of the inning, but just couldn’t come back from their deficit and ended the game 9-6 for Brandeis.

After almost a week of rest, the Judges got back to work on Wednesday facing Suffolk University. In the first game the Rams got on the board first with a run in the fifth with an RBI triple. Brandeis got back with a little luck in the seventh when Nolan had her own RBI triple, which, because of an error, got her around the bases for a 2-1 win.

In the final battle of the afternoon, the Judges appeared energized from their close call and went on to crush the Rams 13-1. The Judges got to work quickly with singles by Schmand, Kelley and Nolan, the last one including an RBI. Suffolk bit back and got their one run of the game during the second inning on a sacrifice fly ball.

Between the third and sixth innings the Judges put up five unanswered runs, including an RBI triple for Lauren Porcaro ’12 and an RBI single for Specker in the fourth. Porcaro went on to get a two-run homer in the sixth to bring the lead to 6-1. If there was any chance of a comeback for Suffolk, they wasted it as the Judges earned a whopping seven runs in the seventh inning.

After a hit-by-pitch put Kelley on base and a single by Nolan, the stage was set for Maxie Hirschler ’12 to manage an RBI double followed

by Gajewski with a two-RBI triple and no outs to bring the lead to 9-1.

After two outs, Specker singled to bring Gajewski home while Schmand’s reach on an error in the next at-bat resulted in a single.

Grimm also got an RBI single before Kelley was again hit by a pitch and loaded the bases. Nolan’s reach on an error got an un-earned RBI and the last run of the game came from Hirschler walking, forcing a run. Casey Ducinski pitched her way through the final inning to complete the game with four strikeouts and only five hits allowed.

The Judges next play this afternoon as they host Babson at 3 and 5 p.m. in a doubleheader.

April 8, 2011

SPORTS 9

The Brandeis Hoot

UAA standings and over-all records

MLB power rankings: Phillies keep the top

By Gordy Stillman and Edwin Gonzalez Editor and Staff

Baseball Team

UAA

All

Emory

5– 1

21 – 12

Case Western

4–2

21 – 10

Washington

3–3

19 – 11

Brandeis

2–4

14– 10

Rochester

1 –5

6 – 10

Chicago

0–0

8–6

Box Scores WPI

Win

12 – 5

WPI

Win

8–7

MIT

Win

9–5

Softball Team

UAA

All

Emory

8– 0

27 – 2 – 1

Washington

6–2

20 – 7 – 1

Rochester

3–5

12 – 8

Brandeis

3–5

13 – 12

Chicago

0–0

12 – 6

Case Western

0–8

10 – 20

Box Scores @ Lasell

Win

9–0

@Lasell

Win

9–6

@Suffolk

Win

2–1

@ Suffolk

Win

13 – 1

Men’s tennis Team

UAA

All

Emory

0–0

17 – 2

Chicago

0–0

12 – 3

Rochester

0–0

10 – 5

Washington

0–0

7–4

Brandeis

0–0

8–5

Carnegie Mellon

0–0

11 – 7

Case Western

0 –0

8–6

NYU

0–0

4–4

Box Scores Bates

Win

6–3

MIT

Loss

7–0

Women’s tennis Team

UAA

All

Chicago

0–0

11 – 2

Emory

0–0

15 – 3

Rochester

0–0

11 – 3

Washington

0–0

10 – 3

Brandeis

0–0

9–5

Carnegie Mellon

0–0

10 – 6

Case Western

0 –0

7–5

NYU

0–0

0–7

Box Scores Amherst

Loss

8–1

Tufts

Loss

8–1

Men’s track and field Event Tufts Snowflake Classic

Eigth Place 12 teams

Women’s track and field Event Tufts Snowflake Classic

Eigth Place 15 teams

1. Philadelphia Phillies (5-1): The Phillies got off to a great start with a 3-0 sweep hosting the Astros. The pitching rotation, dubbed “R2C2” seems to be unstoppable, but they’ll need to win games on the road to confirm it.

2. Texas Rangers (6-0): The defending AL champions swept the Red Sox last weekend. Their pitching seems to be managing fine without Cliff Lee. 3. Cincinnati Reds (5-1): The Reds are the first team on this list to have swept a division foe, the Milwaukee Brewers. This makes the sweep extra sweet because wins against division rivals are particularly helpful near the end of the season.

4. Chicago White Sox (4-2): The White Sox have been busy against division rivals too. They may have lost a game to Cleveland, but this week’s games against the Royals gave the Sox a chance to take the top of the AL Central.

5. Baltimore Orioles (5-1): This may be the biggest surprise of the opening week. The Orioles started off their season 4-0 leading the AL East.

6. New York Yankees (4-2): The Yankees are doing better than many expected. Perhaps this is because they have yet to travel and have not yet gone through their rotation a few times.

7. Atlanta Braves (3-4): The Braves have been doing very well while traveling. Taking a loss against the Nationals, however, lowers them a bit.

8. Minnesota Twins (2-4): This year marks the third straight year that the Twins have lost their first game. In the last two they followed by winning their division, “arguably the most competitive division in the AL” according to MLB.com.

9. Los Angeles Dodgers (3-3): The Dodgers did well beating the defending world champions in their opening series. Unfortunately their fans haven’t been acting so well.

10. San Francisco Giants (2-4): The Giants managed one win against their hosts, the Dodgers. It’s quite a shame though that a fan was beaten outside the stadium following their openingday loss to the Dodgers.

11. San Diego Padres (3-2): With wins against Albert Pujols on the road, the Padres have shown promise for the season. Winning against the Giants doesn’t hurt either.

12. Toronto Blue Jays (4-2): The Blue Jays got two great wins against the Twins this past weekend. It’s too bad for the Blue Jays that they got the distinction of handing Joe Nathan his first save since 2009.

13. Boston Red Sox (0-6): The Sox may be winless and this may seem hopeful, but it’s just a little too early to call the season lost.

14. Detroit Tigers (2-4): The Tigers’ first win is also the Yankees’ first loss of the season. The Tigers are in good company though, sharing the bottom of the AL Central with rivals the

Twins.

15. Pittsburgh Pirates (4-3): The Pirates haven’t done well in a long time. Surprising many, they’ve started off this season strong in the only sixteam division in the major leagues.

16. Kansas City Royals (4-2): The Royals are momentarily atop the AL Central. White Sox, Tigers and Twins fans can remember the Royals haven’t been to the playoffs since 1985, and they’d need a lot of luck to keep this up.

17. Seattle Mariners (2-4): The Mariners have been busy traveling to their AL West rivals. They won their series against the A’s but turned around and got swept by the Rangers.

18. New York Mets (3-3): The Mets at the top of their division? The Mets served the Phillies their first loss of the season; it was a Phillies home game.

19. Chicago Cubs (3-3): The Cubs record may be deceptive. They won a game against the Pirates, a historically bad team, and have wins against the Diamondbacks, another relatively weak team.

20. Colorado Rockies (4-1): The Rockies may be deceptively low in the rankings. Their games played has been deflated by a postponed game against Arizona and two days off in the first week.

21. St. Louis Cardinals (2-4): At least the Cardinals have not been swept. It’s too early to tell if this will be a truly disappointing season.

22. Washington Nationals (2-4): The main thing to buoy the Nats’ ranking is their win against the

Braves. They’ll need to start putting wins on the board if they hope to avoid falling.

23. Oakland Athletics (2-4): The Athletics have been struggling to say the least. They lost a home series against division rivals the Mariners and have not been doing any better on their trip to Toronto.

24. Cleveland Indians (4-2): It’s too early to tell whether Cleveland is deceptively low or doing deceptively well. With the uncertainty of this year’s Red Sox, it’s hard to judge whether these wins have been flukes or signs of things to come.

25. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (3-3): All of the Angels’ losses have been to the Royals. The Angels may make some huge leaps if they can shake off these losses and get to work.

26. Milwaukee Brewers (3-4): The Brewers started off 0-4. Not even a win against the Braves can fully recover that in one week alone.

27. Tampa Bay Rays (0-6): Unlike the Brewers, the Rays have not even had a win to redeem their 0-4 start 28. Florida Marlins (3-3): The Marlins may be in a position to rise.

They’ve already had two games go to extra innings and even won a game against the Mets.

29. Arizona Diamondbacks (2-3): Perennial losers may be a title to drop this year. They beat the Rockies in extra innings in their first game and have been losing to the surprisingly good Cubs.

30. Houston Astros (1-5): Getting swept by the Phillies and losing to the Reds is never a good thing.

The Red Sox: spring training in review

By Edwin Gonzalez Staff

The 2011 Boston Red Sox have much to live up to in the 2011 season.

With the big off-season acquisitions of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, the Red Sox offense is setting itself up to be explosive. Crawford’s speed on the bases and Gonzalez’s power hitting fourth in the lineup puts pressure on the Sox’s divisional rivals the New York Yankees without a doubt.

During the month of March, the Sox won 13 games while losing 19, and two games ending in a tie. Overall, the Sox scored 145 runs during spring training but allowed 153 runs giving the Sox a .424 winning percentage during their time in Florida.

Week one (March 1 to 5) of spring training saw the Sox face the Twins, Braves, Phillies and Yankees, with the last day of the first week featured a double-header against the Orioles and Marlins. The first week of Spring Training the Sox had to face very good teams, especially the Phillies and Yankees being World Series caliber teams. The Sox won their first game of spring training against the Twins in a 5-0 shutout. The following day they faced the Atlanta Braves losing 1-6. Boston faced 2008 World Series Champions the Philadelphia Phillies on March 3 and lost 0-2.

The Sox followed up by facing the 2009 World Series Champions the New York Yankees the following day and won 5-0.

By the end of the first week the Sox had scored 17 runs and only allowed 11 runs giving them a record of 2-3-1.

In week two (March 6 to 12) the Sox faced the Mets, Orioles, Cardinals, Astros, Rays, Twins, and Florida Marlins. March 8 was a double header against both the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros, both of the National League (NL). By the end of this double header, the Sox were on a three-game winning streak and outscored their opponents 17-14. The following game against the Orioles saw the Sox win a nail biter game 2-1.

The Sox would go on to lose against the Rays and Twins in week two but

finished the week by beating the Astros and Marlins. By the end of week two the Sox had managed to outscore their opponents 50-37 and had a record of 6-3-1.

Week three (March 13 to 19) began with a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Sox managed to beat their rivals, the Yankees, once again, this time 2-1. Following this win, the Sox beat the Tigers 2-1 as well.

The rest of the week did not go so well for the Sox by losing four games while only winning one against the Mets 8-5.

The Sox began to slip during the third week of spring training due to the offense not producing enough runs while the pitchers allowed many runs. The Sox were 11-11-1 by the end of week three with plenty of time to make the 2011 spring training a winning one.

In week four (March 20 to 26) the Sox woes continued as they entered with a three-game losing streak. The losing streak did not break and by Sunday, March 27, the Sox had a 10game losing streak. In only two out of those 10 losses, the Sox lost by more than five runs. Seven out of those 10 losses were by less than three runs.

This shows that during the regular season, the Sox’s offense needs to help their pitching win games. In their last

graphic by ariel wittenberg/the hoot

game of spring training the Sox faced off against the Houston Astros and, on a positive note, the Sox won with a 10-0 shutout at Minute Maid Park.

Spring training serves as the best way for a team to figure out in which areas they need to improve. The Sox left spring training with a losing record but that does not mean that the Boston Red Sox are not World Series caliber.

Most teams need to work their kinks out during spring training and the Sox are no different. As long as the players on the Sox stay healthy and do not lose their motivation during the tough times, I have no doubt that they

will make it to the World Series. April Fools marked the beginning of the 2011 season, and without a doubt the Sox were fooled by the Rangers losing all three games in the series.

The Sox were outscored 11-26. This weekend the Sox will host the New York Yankees in the first series of the season between the rival teams. During spring training the Sox managed to beat the Yankees twice outscoring them 7-4 in those two games combined. The Boston Red Sox have plenty to work on in terms of offense and pitching but, with enough dedication, the team that won it all in 2004 and 2007 can maybe do it again.

10 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

Brandeis Briefs Students defeat faculty in Hoops for Haiti charity game

April 8, 2011

This week in pictures Shooting Hoops for Haiti

By Ingrid Schulte, Editor

Students won the 2011 Hoops for Haiti face-off against the faculty Monday night, 49-42, in the second annual charity basketball game organized by the Brandeis Haiti Initiative.

The students made a comeback from last year when the faculty won a close victory, 37-31, led by coach Professor Jerry Cohen (AMST). But this time faculty and staff coach Senior Vice President for Communications Andrew Gully struggled to keep up with the students, who were led by several varsity players and coached by Ryan Fanning ’11 and Allen Karon ’91.

In a repeat maneuver of last year’s eventAssistant Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams faked an injury and hobbled off the court early in the game. Women’s basketball coach Carol Simon ran down from the stands, took her place and put on the “Human Thunder” jersey. Adams came back quickly after his “injury.”

The faculty team’s top scorers were Mike Vella and Cary Weir Lytle.

Proceeds from the game will be donated to ETE (Empowering Through Education) Camp, Hope for Haiti, Partners in Health and Japanese earthquake relief efforts.

— Hoot Staff

Fed adviser warns of slow recovery The economy is making slow progress in its recovery, and unemployment will most likely remain high for several months, a senior official at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston said on Wednesday evening in Rapaporte Treasure Hall.

Jeffrey C. Fuhrer, Executive Vice President and Senior Policy Adviser of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston said that until GDP growth rises significantly above 3 percent, unemployment will remain high.

“The economy is growing and creating jobs slowly by historical standards for a recovery,” Fuhrer said. “Unemployment is high and is likely to remain so for some time.”

Fuhrer explained that although the unemployment rate has declined recently, the number of people in the labor force has also declined.

A decreasing labor force can be a sign of workers who are seeking work, but have recently gotten discouraged and do not count in the labor force, even though they are still unemployed.

Although some unemployment may simply be “structural,” Fuhrer said that he believed must unemployment now was the result of extended unemployment benefits, “house lock”, and geographical differences between jobs and where the unemployed people are living.

The housing market will also not be able to fully recover until housing prices stop declining, Fuhrer said. Until people see constant or rising prices, they will have no incentive to invest.

Fuhrer also attributed the slow economic recovery to a lack of confidence about investing in foreign markets, particularly in Greece, Spain and Ireland.

Although individual firms may hire or let go large numbers of employees in one quarter, Fuhrer said that only the net gain is important for the economy because each quarter there are millions of both job gains and losses.

When asked about the current debate in Washington about the national budget, Fuhrer said that the Federal Reserve typically tries to stay out of political decisions and instead tries to focus on “sensible economic decisions.”

The Federal Reserve has also faced an unexpected challenge from the recent economic recovery.

“What we learned is that doing monetary policy in a very low inflation environment is not as easy as we thought,” Fuhrer said.

— Jon Ostrowsky, Editor

Give a Hoot, Join The Hoot

Adagio 2011

By Paula Hoekstra, Staff

FEATURES

April 8, 2011

The Brandeis Hoot 11

This Week ‘V.O.C.A.L. Presents...’ local and student poets in History

By Jeremy Goodman Staff

Brandeis

2002 Tom Friedman ’75 receives his third Pulitzer Prize in Commentary for writing about terrorist threats.

2004 Senator Ted

Kennedy speaks at 45th anniversary of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

Massachusetts

1908 A fire in Chelsea,

Massachusetts, leaves 12 dead and moves dangerously close to oil refineries.

1969 Harvard students

took over University Hall, demanding that the university end its ROTC program.

United States

1861

The Civil War begins when Confederates open fire on Unionheld Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay.

1997 21-year-old Tiger

Woods wins his first major tournament, the Masters Tournament, by a record 12 strokes.

On April 3, Olin-Sang Auditorium—most often known for large, lecture classes—was transformed into a stage for the abstract art of slam poetry. On this Sunday evening, V.O.C.A.L. Poetry put on their annual show titled V.O.C.A.L. Presents…, a performance benefit to raise money for the Waltham Middle School’s after-school creative writing program. The presentation showcased Brandeis 2011 slam team, a selection of middle school students from the program the event was benefiting and three well-known headliners.

Jason Simon-Bierenbaum ’11 is a founder of V.O.C.A.L. Poetry and a creator of the V.O.C.A.L. Presents… show, has been involved with the planning of V.O.C.A.L. before he was even a student at Brandeis. Although he took a step back from planning the event this year, he helped with bringing three spectacular poets to Brandeis: Joshua Bennett, Caroline Harvey and James Caroline.

“The headliners made sense because they were great people who would be down to do it for a price that we could afford while still giving a world-class show,” Simon-Birenbaum said. His work and connections were essential to adding these top-notch performers to the bill.

On Sunday evening, emcees and former slam team members, Simon-Bierenbaum and Rachel Parkin ’12, took the stage to start off the threehour poetry showcase . Simon-Bierenbaum first performed one of his own poems, a comedic and quirky story about moving and shaking.

Parkin then explained more about the art of slam poetry and its assertive and potential abilities: “[Slam poetry allows us to] take words and put them into action,” she said.

The 2010-2011 Brandeis Slam Team: Rawda Aljawhary ’13, Usman Hameedi ’12, Jordan Hinahara ’12, Sara Kass Levy ’12 and Ashley Lynette ’12, led the next portion of the show.

Lynette, started off the team’s set with a sugary, youthful poem about candies and games. Following, Hinahara commandingly performed “Five Things She Learned from her Mother.”

Levy, a shy and seemingly reserved girl, shocked us all with her personal, and powerful account about standing up for herself and commanding attention behind her seemingly shy, reserved front.

Closing out the first round of appearances by the team, Hameedi presented his work, “PreMed Track and Field.” Hameedi compared the pre-med academic track and his love for science chicks in a witty, coarse fashion, “digging into my chest, ripping pieces of my left ventricle.” His poem epically concluded with the line, “Keep training—I’ll see you at the finish line.”

Coming up to perform for the second time, Aljawhary, Lynette and Hinahara uniquely pieced together a poem about what it means to be Muslim, Jewish and Christian, drawing

upon their personal beliefs and dilemmas associated with their perceived social, religious and personal identities. This included false stereotypes about Muslims, rights of passage, sexual escapades during Jewish summer camp, and explosive comments about being Christian and not conforming to their beliefs about being a woman.

Before the intermission, members of the Poetry Club from John F. Kennedy Middle School in Waltham performed. An after-school creative writing program, headed by teacher Kaytie Dowcett—a Brandeis alum and member of the class of 1999—brought four students to perform in Sunday’s show. The four poets were the finalists in last year’s poetry competition held at the middle school, which was emceed by SimonBierenbaum. The after school creative writing program was the recipient of the proceeds raised by ticket sales for V.O.C.A.L.

[The headliners] were great people who would be down to do it for a price that we could afford while still giving a world class show.

– Jason Henry Simon-Bierenbaum ’11

The young poets, who each received a standing ovation from the audience spoke about various topics, from war in Vietnam to social labeling and what it means to be popular. In a brief interview with Dowcett, she revealed that through her work with the Brandeis Slam Team and increased exposure to this type of poetry, she has gained a new understanding and respect for the performance art.

The second half of the show exclusively featured performances by the headliners, Bennett, Caroline, and Harvey. Bennett, of New York and graduate of UPenn, is an up-and-comer within the slam poetry community. Straight off an airplane from Philadelphia, he arrived and performed several poems. His delivery was full of passion, raw emotion, and his characteristic gut-wrenching and soulful tone. His other poems, one of which he also performed at the White House for Obama, detailed his work with low-income neighborhoods around Philadelphia and his personal barriers and struggles connecting with his deaf sister.

Personally referred to as the Carolines, Caroline and Harvey are two very well-known and respected local poets who are regulars in the Boston slam poetry circuit. Friends, colleagues and tour mates, Caroline and Harveyline switched off performing for the remainder of the show. Although both incredible writers and performers, they each brought different styles, themes and meaning to the stage.

Tattooed and leather jacket-wearing, Caroline stole the show. When he opened his mouth, out came beautiful, passionate and awe-inspiring words. Caroline’s poems were unequivocally passionate; they ranged in topic from his own family, to the lives and struggles of teenagers growing up queer in today’s world.

His most notable poem, which he concluded with, described the forbidden love of two Irish boy soldiers. With believable Irish accent and all, he delivered the poem in the words of one of the young boys. He discussed their blooming love, and mutual acceptance of being gay and in love. The story concluded with one of the boys going to fight in a battle. The other boy runs to him and gets shot by the enemy in the eyes of his love. The story was deeply emotional and brought to the audience thoughts about the universality of love, regardless of gender or sex.

Caroline Harvey, a composed, seemingly spiritual and artistic soul, took the stage to perform a poem titled “At Your Feet” about her personal journey to find Mashemone, a Mayan Mystical Spirit Deity located in Santiago, Chile. Before performing she explained some background.

Mashemone, one of the holiest and most sanctified gods in his culture—and simply a wooden sculpture in form—is moved every night for protection.

Its location is kept a secret, only disclosed to the young children of the village, encouraging the local economy, by having tourists pay the children to lead them to the god. With detailed and personal accounts of searching, some of which were in Spanish, Harvey describes her longing to find and see Mashemone.

In between her poems, she openly discussed her personal experiences with writing poetry and the art of performing. She explained the intimate exchange between herself and the audience as she performs. Harvey continued, performing is an emotional experience, laying out her personal and secret feelings and thoughts and then presenting it to us, the audience. She continued by explaining how the audience’s role is reciprocal of hers. She herself feeds off the audience’s energy and in return can deliver an evocative performance.

Partway though her set, she called up slam team member, Hinahara to perform with her.

To Hinahara’s beautiful singing of Amazing Grace, Caroline live-edited and composed some of her poems, on the spot—no notes, nothing prepared. She shocked the audience with the display of her innate and outstanding poetry abilities.

Overall, V.O.C.A.L. Presents... was a compelling and overwhelmingly successful event. The poets involved presented an incredible show that was simultaneously thought-provoking and inspirational. The night was a success—upwards of $300 for the creative writing program was raised—and those present were treated to an extraordinary performance in a genre that has yet to be explored by many.

The team

World

1940 German troops

enter Norway and Denmark, and Nazis take control of three countries, including Poland.

2004 The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.

Sara Kass Levy ’12 Usman Hameedi ’12

Jordan Hinahara ’12 Ashley Lynette ’13 Getting ‘vocal’: Jason Henry Simon-Bierenbaum ‘11 hosted the event in February that decided which students would be part of the team that is attending a national competition this weekend. photos by nafiz “fizz ” ahmed/the hoot

Rawda Aljawhary ’13

EDITORIALS

12 The Brandeis Hoot

Established 2005 "To acquire wisdom, one must observe."

Alex Schneider Editor in Chief Destiny D. Aquino Managing Editor Nathan Koskella News Editor Jon Ostrowsky News Editor Leah Finkelman Features Editor Morgan Gross Impressions Editor Alex Self Impressions Editor Sean Fabery Arts, Etc. Editor Gordy Stillman Sports Editor Leah Lefkowitz Layout Editor Vanessa Kerr Business Editor Yael Katzwer Copy Editor Savannah Pearlman Copy Editor Ariel Wittenberg Associate Editor Photography Editors Nafiz “Fizz” Ahmed Ingrid Schulte Alan Tran

Senior Editors Bret Matthew Kayla Dos Santos Max Shay

Volume 8 • Issue 11 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

Founded By Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

STAFF Rick Alterbaum, Candice Bautista, Alana Blum, Chris Bordelon, Debby Brodsky, Emily Breitbart, Haley Fine, Emma Chad-Friedman, Jodi Elkin, Andrea Fishman, Jeremy Goodman, Edwin Gonzalez, Paula Hoekstra, Adam Hughes, Gabby Katz, Josh Kelly, Christina Kolokotroni, Anthony Losquadro, Ariel Madway, Estie Martin, Alex Norris, Alexandra Patch, Lien Phung, Andrew Rauner, Alexandra Zelle Rettman, Ricky Rosen, Nate Rosenbloom, Imara Roychowdhury, Morgana Russino, Aaron Sadowsky, Jessica Sashihara, Aliza Sena, Emily Stott, Brian Tabakin, Ryan Tierney, Steven Wong, Yuan Yao and Suzanna Yu

Mission The Hoot is a community student newspaper of Brandeis University. Produced entirely by students, The Hoot serves a readership of 6,000 with in-depth news, relevant commentary, sports and coverage of cultural events. Our mission is to give every community member a voice.

SUBMISSION POLICIES The Hoot welcomes letters to the editor on subjects that are of interest to the community. Preference is given to current or former community members, and The Hoot reserves the right to edit or reject submissions. The deadline for submitting letters is Wednesday at noon.

Please submit letters to letters@thebrandeishoot.com along with your contact information. Letters should not exceed 500 words.

The opinions, columns, cartoons and advertisements printed in The Hoot do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.

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A

A cease-fire for protests

s a community that purports to investigate issues thoroughly ‘unto their innermost parts,’ Brandeis should not tolerate the recent rash of protesters who have chosen to disrupt speakers discussing Middle East events.

We recognize that tensions run high on this issue, and that’s not a bad thing—after all, we should have a diversity of opinions on campus. But this back and forth rhetoric needs to stop.

On Monday, prominent Knesset members from all sides of the political spectrum visited Brandeis, and they deserved respect. Students had a chance to ask them questions; to ask, for instance, about Operation Cast Lead from 2008 or about Israel’s policies toward the West Bank. Doing so helps further debate and shows that

O

April 8, 2011

Brandeis is a serious university where students truly are interested in learning.

Similarly, last semester, when Noam Chomsky came to campus, students had a chance to learn from a noted scholar, and whether or not they agreed with his views, they were again able to ask questions to delve deeply into issues.

In both cases, however, a small group of protesters chose to disrupt the proceedings and upset the speakers. These acts were disrespectful and do not reflect well on Brandeis as a university.

But that’s not the worst of it. When students protest, they may make the front page of the campus newspaper, but they show that they are no longer interested in learning and examining issues in the best traditions of a univer-

sity.

This has become a self-perpetuating cycle, but there is an answer: treat others’ guests as you would want your own guests to be treated.

Student leaders and advocates on all sides of the debate can agree to disagree, but they must also agree to respect all speakers—our guests—when they visit campus. Ask tough questions, engage speakers, but do so in an academic context.

There’s no harm in an ever-polarized world in taking a step back and examining issues critically. After all, if we can’t even show that we can listen to others in our own campus community, how can we expect our leaders to take the right steps to improve the situation in the Middle East?

Allow student reps to vote

n April 14, the student body will have a chance to vote on many Student Union positions. Included in those positions are then representatives to the board of trustees. Despite representing the entire undergraduate student body, these representatives will not have a vote in matters discussed by the board.

We think that they should.

The board of trustees makes crucial decisions regarding the university budget and other matters that subsequently impacting student life. Arguably, students are the university population that are most impacted by the board’s decisions.

Whether it be choosing which academic programs to cut, which buildings to renovate or anything in between, students are the most effected.

While faculty certainly feel the results of the board’s decisions, their representatives do receive a vote in board matters.

Not only are student representatives to the board of trustees unable to vote, they are also not allowed to attend executive sessions of the board, which are only open to voting members. Executive sessions where, for example, the vote to close the Rose Art Museum was cast, often are the site for the most controversial decisions the board makes.

Having voting student representatives to the board of trustees is not a unique idea, and is carried out by many colleges such as William Paterson University and Kean University.

Currently, Brandeis student representatives to the board of trustees are there to give their opinions on board decisions but do not actually have a say.

We would rather have something than nothing, but it is disenfranchising to have a representative that cannot vote.

Given that social justice is a core value of Brandeis, this quasi-taxation without representation is appalling.

Having a voice should mean having a vote.

IMPRESSIONS

April 8, 2011

Optimism, awkwardness and nerdiness

By Sam Allen Staff

With my 21st birthday looming, I have spent some time reflecting on where I am. I thought a bit about one issue I have with the news media, which is that they almost never cover positive stories, instead focusing on sensational and tragic events such as murders or kidnapping.

Columnists are often guilty of this negativity in a different way, as many of them write exclusively about negative events or problems.

Shining a light on an important issue or problem is a good thing, but sometimes an optimistic column is in order. So instead of writing about the stress or problems Brandeis students deal with, I am going to write about two of our most endearing collective qualities.

I am a nerd. I have watched every season of “Battlestar Galactica” and have read “The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century”

by George Friedman, which means that no amount of time spent on the basketball court or partying in the Mods will change me from being anything but a nerd.

At Brandeis, however, I am surrounded by other nerdy people like me, who have a wide range of interests. I have had great conversations with my fellow Brandeisians, such as conversations about living as a secular Jew, aeronautic black projects and a debate about the ending of “Inception.” The nerdiness of the Brandeis student body was something I realized quickly, especially after my Orientation Leader admitted that she was a nerd and that the majority of Brandeis students are as well. Many people at Brandeis that seem “cool” on the surface have a nerdy side to them. I am sure some

The Chosen Rosen

Brandeisians would object to being called nerds, but the majority of us certainly earn the label. Being surrounded by other nerds is one of the best aspects about Brandeis, something Brandeisians from East Quad to Grad should celebrate.

When I was looking to transfer schools last winter I heard that one of the most common stereotypes about Brandeis students is how awkward they are. After I transferred to Brandeis in the fall—after being forced to go through the college admissions process twice—I can say with certainty that there is a lot of truth to the stereotype.

After all, I consider myself a somewhat awkward guy, something my friends from high school never let me forget. At Brandeis, however, I never feel more awkward than the next person, even when I am out on the weekends at a party where dancing is required. I am one of those guys with no understanding of rhythm or beat, therefore my dancing skills usually involve lots of flailing, with a big focus on just having a good time. Everyone at Brandeis has stories involving themselves or others that involve awkwardness that the rest of the world might find extreme. Instead of being embarrassed by these stories and the people in them, we should all take it as a point of pride that we are a part of a collectively-awkward student body.

Being a part of the Brandeis student body is something I have enjoyed immensely, and I plan to appreciate it for my next two years at Brandeis as well.

College is supposed to be a time to find yourself, and as I turn 21, I find myself among an amazing group of people, who may be considered awkward nerds by some, but also happen to be pretty darn cool.

The Brandeis Hoot

13

Book of Matthew

Peering over The Times’ paywall

By Bret Matthew Editor

Those of us who follow the news are familiar with The New York Times.

Journalism students in particular are encouraged to read The Times every day, and it shows. Read through The Hoot’s entire Impressions section—heck, read the Justice’s Forum as well—and you can bet that many, if not most, of the writers who grace our pages got their op-ed ideas from The Times.

You can also bet that many, if not most, did not pay for the privilege.

I was reminded of this fact earlier this week when I clicked on a Times online article and was greeted by a little pop-up window in the bottom left corner of my screen, reminding me that I only had five out of 20 free articles left for the month.

Whoops. It was only the beginning of April, and already I was failing to keep track of my usage.

Many Times readers were not surprised when, on March 28, the paper put its online content behind a paywall. We knew something about The Times’ business model had to change—online advertisers pay a pittance, and despite averaging 30 million unique viewers per month the paper had been bleeding money for years. graphic by steven wong/the hoot

See TIMES, page 15

Exploring the caffeine craze

By Ricky Rosen Columnist

graphic by ariel wiittenberg/the hoot

There’s a good chance that as you are reading this article, you’ve got a ceramic coffee mug in your left (or right) hand. Or if you weren’t lucky enough to have received one of those coffee mugs with the funny sayings from a family member for the holidays (it really is the easiest gift to buy someone), you’re probably holding a paper cup filled with your ticket to caffeinated glory. Either way, you’re drinking coffee.

When I was younger, my mother used to always say: “I need my coffee to get through the day!” In fact, every adult around me would say that. From teachers to relatives to my older friends, I never could quite understand what it was about coffee that had everyone so hooked.

Regardless, coffee-drinking was a sign of maturity and of adulthood; so one day I decided to try some.

Ever since then, I’ve been hooked.

Currently, I drink a cup of coffee every day, but I have gone on caffeine binges, where I have had as much as three or four cups in one day. Back when I was working in a coffee shop, I would drink more than that. I would spend late nights experimenting with caramel, mocha, espresso, sprinkles and whipped cream. I even invented my

own drink: the “Rickaccino.” I have grown rather fond of coffee over the years.

Nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t love coffee. Whereas when I was young, it was mostly consumed by adults, today, kids as young as 12 or 13 drink coffee regularly. Even though there’s no age limit on drinking coffee, most parents try to keep the sacred beverage away from their kids (and their pets—although I’m always tempted to let my bird have a sip). Why is this? Coffee contains caffeine, which is a powerful stimulant. Oftentimes, we fail to realize just how potent of a substance coffee is. A 16-ounce cup of coffee in the morning has enough caffeine to provide an energy boost and increase your alertness level for up to six hours. That would probably explain why 56 percent of Americans drink coffee every morning, according to a CBS News Study.

On the whole, there’s nothing Americans love more than coffee (except maybe money). According to CoffeeResearch.org, Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day. There are roughly 300 million people in America—that includes 60 million children younger than 14, who likely aren’t drinking coffee. So that means 240 million Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee each day. By my cal-

culations, every person older than 14 is drinking approximately 1.67 cups of coffee per day.

If that’s not enough, according to CoffeeResearch.org, regular coffeedrinking Americans consume 3.1 cups of coffee per day on average.

How much caffeine is that? Well, one 16-ounce cup of coffee contains between 150 and 200 milligrams of caffeine. And so, drinking three cups of coffee per day would provide someone with anywhere between 450 and 900 milligrams of caffeine per day, and between 1050 and 2100 milligrams of caffeine per week. And people wonder why nobody sleeps anymore!

CoffeeResearch.org also reports that men drink just as much coffee as women, with each gender consuming an average of 1.6 cups per day. Furthermore, 65 percent of all coffee is consumed during breakfast hours, with 30 percent being consumed between meals and the remaining 5 percent being consumed with other meals. How do coffee drinkers take their coffee? Thirtyfive percent prefer black coffee and 65 percent prefer to add sugar, cream or milk.

I personally don’t care what kind of coffee it is or where it’s from; I drink coffee for one reason and one See COFFEE, page 15

14 IMPRESSIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

The Self Shelf

April 8, 2011

Compromise for the greater good

By Alex Self Editor

As the battle of the budget in Congress wears on, I’m increasingly reminded of my hometown of Seekonk.

Every year in Seekonk, the town was divided into two camps—parents with children in schools and the elderly.

And every year, when it came time to draw up a budget, one of the two would find themselves indignant. For the elderly, any raising of taxes was considered a direct attack upon them. For the parents with children, any slashing of education funding (and the Board of Selectmen would always take money from education) was considered a direct attack upon them. This would lead to heated town meetings year after year where both sides would say similar things in increasingly hysterical tones.

You would get passionate testimony from teachers talking about how they could not possibly teach 30 kids in a classroom with outdated books, only to be followed by angry testimony from a senior citizen decrying the latest round of prescription price jack-ups.

In the end, the elderly won far more battles than the families did. The greatest occurred when one of the town’s three elementary schools closed due to lack of funding five years ago. Naturally the education system muddled on, albeit with 35 elementary-school kids per classroom. I still feel bad for the teachers but I also knew countless senior citizens who were falling behind on their monthly bills. Someone’s goose had to be boiled and it was the children

who paid the difference in the town budget. Nonetheless, the school system got its revenge when the elderly tried to convert the school into a town nursing home. Educational administrators balked, claiming the school as a form of bureaucratic headquarters. Two years later, the school was sold, provoking even more outrage.

Despite all of these squabbles, however, life in my town went on. It was not easy and there was always someone on the losing end. Yet they would grumble, pick up the pieces and continue moving forward. It’s an example of stoicism from which congress could learn a lot.

The actors are aiming for the same budget measures they always have. The Republicans want to slash democratic projects such as Planned Parenthood and the Environmental Protection Agency while the Democrats want to maintain the budget in the name of economic recovery. Strong arguments can be made for and against both.

Which side you agree with, if either, most likely depends on your ideological preference. Every year, during the budget process, the two parties bicker, not unlike the people of my hometown.

Yet every year for the past decade, they grudgingly come to a compromise of some sort and lick their wounds while planning how to get more leverage for next year.

Unfortunately, this year finds the ideological divide cutting deeper than usual. Negotiations between the two sides have broken down and everyone in the political sphere is expecting a government shutdown due to lack of funding. What this will entail is a furlough of more than 800,000 govern-

ment employees and a suspension of pay from the military. Additionally, it will render pointless all other legislative goals and completely tie down government attention. These shutdowns tend to be quite nasty but luckily also quite brief. I suppose that eventually it gets difficult to rationalize withholding pay from people who are dying to protect you overseas. Nevertheless, a government shutdown is a travesty but an eminently preventable one. There isn’t a satisfying reason for what now seems like an inevitable breakdown in negotiations. The reasons for the absurdity of the ensuing situation are the following.

First, Congress has known that this day would come for many months now.

It is not as if this sprang upon them from some unforeseen catastrophe.

On the contrary, everyone in Congress knew this was coming and even foresaw it.

Yet they could not look beyond themselves in order to reach some kind of compromise. And by compromise, I mean a budget bill that would allot victories to both sides, thus making everyone at least somewhat satisfied.

Ideological posturing could surely wait for the budget process next year when there would be more time. You might ask, however, how the two parties’ situation is any different than a union that fights for its rights against a corporation. If both sides believe they are right, doesn’t it make sense for them to hold out in order to protect their rights (or in this case their political will)? This analogy falls, however, when you consider that the government has obligations to its people above all else. That’s why the government has the power to

graphic by leah lefkowitz/the hoot

break strikes when there is a compelling national interest—the interests of the state outweigh any kind of personal or ideological pursuit. Thus, one would think that the government would find a way to keep itself running in order to provide such critical functions as paying its military and passing legislation.

Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case.

The second and more important reason why a shutdown would be absurd, however, is the fact that the two parties are not all that ideologically far apart.

Moderate members of both parties, which outnumber radicals by a healthy majority, are being pulled to the ideological poles of their party. This in turn creates a situation where we have the Tea Party against the most leftist liberals. Such a wide gap in viewpoints and wishes does not represent the true

viewpoints of the parties and thus does not represent the true wants of the majority of the people. I would argue that more than half of the country would be satisfied by some kind of compromise.

The 20 to 30 percent who would not be satisfied, should not outweigh the majoritarian desire or national interest in having a functioning government.

Thus, in the end, all I want is for John Boehner and Harry Reid to act like the elderly and the young families in my town. I want them to make a grudging compromise.

They may not be happy but the rest of country should be, knowing that their services will not be cut and the men and women fighting in their name will be paid. In the end, all I want is for the Democrats and Republicans to toss aside their ideological wants and look to American interests.

Altered Conciousness

Obama should reconsider Syria policy

By Rick Alterbaum Columnist

Hopefully, the recent tumult in Syria will cause the Obama administration to rethink its policy toward the country.

For the last two years, Obama has been attempting to improve ties with and engage with the Syrian regime, along with Iran, diplomatically. In fact, the administration was so desperate to do so that it overrode Congress and appointed an ambassador, Robert Ford, to the country via a recess appointment. In contrast, President Bush had withdrawn his representative to Syria in 2005.

To understand why Obama was wrong in pursuing this policy, it is important to understand why Syria, led by the Baathist leader Bashar al-Assad, is such an enemy of the United States and a violator of international norms.

Firstly, Syria, along with the Iranian regime, is the primary funder, weapons supplier and supporter of Hezbollah, which currently dominates Lebanon politically, and Hamas, which controls Gaza. Under the guise of radical Islamism, both of these terrorist groups have committed countless crimes against humanity against Israel, our most reliable ally in the region, and have used civilians as human shields in conflicts with the Jewish state.

Furthermore, they are enemies of the United States as well; Hezbollah, for instance, was responsible for the 1983 bombing that killed approximately 240 U.S. marines.

Syria has also repeatedly violated the sovereignty and independence of Lebanon, which it views as being a part of “Greater Syria.” It militarily occupied the volatile country from 1990 until the Cedar Revolution and was responsible for the assassination of reformist Prime Minister Rafiq Harriri.

With an emboldened Hezbollah having toppled the government of Harriri’s son, Syria’s influence in Lebanon has increased greatly once again.

Syria has additionally pursued a clandestine nuclear weapons program, despite Israel bombing one of its facilities in 2007. For instance, International Atomic Energy Agency photos recently

revealed a new nuclear enrichment facility near Damascus, and Syria has consistently prevented inspectors from visiting it and similar sites.

Lastly, Syria has provided transportation, housing, training, weapons, supplies and funding to jihadists who have fought and killed U.S. troops in Iraq.

The logic of the Obama administration was that, via a combination of carrots, meaning talks and economic incentives, and sticks, namely sanctions, Bashar al-Assad’s government would cease these policies and sever its alliance with its main benefactor, Iran. Furthermore, Obama attempted to revive Israel-Syria peace talks—that is, coerce Israel into giving up the vitally strategic Golan Heights to Damascus in exchange for a piece of paper.

There are several problems with the diplomatic engagement strategy: It legitimizes the Syrian regime, rewards it for its present behavior, and sends a negative and confusing signal to our allies in the region. Furthermore, the policy ignores the fact that Assad must resist Israel and the United States to gain support and legitimacy in the eyes of his people. The need to do this is underscored by the fact that the dictator is an Alawite, a branch of Shiite Islam that is deemed heretical by Syria’s majority-Sunni population.

Regardless, the Obama regime ignored all of these facts in the vain hope that this despot, in Hillary Clinton’s words, was a “reformer.”

Now, the dramatic protests that have rocked the country have revealed two things, the first of which is that Assad is a brutal tyrant. While he has not yet surpassed his father, whose army massacred at least 20,000 Syrians at Hama in 1982, he presumably hopes to. Second, it exposes the fact that the Damascus government is fragile and clearly nervous.

Instead, Obama should firmly back the Syrian people, albeit not through military intervention, in their quest for economic, political and social opportunity, dignity, and justice while isolating the Assad government. What better way to stand for both U.S. principles and interests?

Some claim that if Assad falls, Islamists may

take control of the country. I understand this argument and, because of the influence of these radicals, I am extremely skeptical and worried about a post-Mubarak Egypt, not to mention the situations in Bahrain, Yemen and Libya. In Syria, however, this is an unlikely possibility, considering that Islamists would probably have to share power with numerous other groups. Furthermore, as made

abundantly clear, the regime in Damascus cannot get much worse than it currently is.

Let us hope then that Obama overcomes his predilection toward Assad and other anti-American dictators like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez, often at the expense of U.S. interests and allies, and genuinely supports the Syrian protesters.

graphic from internet source

April 8, 2011

IMPRESSIONS 15

The Brandeis Hoot

The New York Times online: To pay or not to pay?

graphic from internet source

PAYWALL, from page 13

To read more than 20 Times articles each month, readers now have a few options. They can pay $15 per month for unlimited access to the Times website from a computer or smartphone, $20 per month for access from a computer or tablet, or $35 per month for access from all three.

Old-school readers who subscribe to the print version of The Times will also be able to read it online on all three devices at no extra charge. If you live within the New York area, a seven-day paper subscription will set

you back $23.40 per month, and the price increases the farther away you live.

Of course, a problem arises: How do you tell readers who are used to reading whatever they want for free on the Internet that they must transition back to paying for their news?

Call me one of the guilty ones: I don’t subscribe to any publications, online or off. I am yet another stereotypical freeloading consumer of news—rather than be loyal to any particular organization, I read my news rapidly and randomly, bouncing from free story to free story as fast as

the hyperlinks can carry me. It’s not because I don’t support journalists— if anything, I do it simply out of the habits that Internet use has cultivated in me.

But I was taken aback when I read Times columnist Charles M. Blow’s tweet in mid-March, when news of the paywall was first released: “And yes, I’m going to say it,” he wrote. “If we loose [sic] some viewer [sic] then so be it. I’d rather write for people who value my work anyway.”

Which brings me to an interesting paradox, because I do believe that I value this product—or at least,

The need for caffeine COFFEE, from page 13

reason only: for the energy boost it provides. Most working adults drink their daily cup of coffee before work to get them going. As for college students, we usually drink coffee late at night to finish a paper or cram for a test. And many people also drink coffee socially—a “coffee date” has become the “new” movie date (you save money not having to buy those overpriced movie tickets!).

Unfortunately, though, all we’ve ever heard about drinking coffee is that it’s bad for you. “It’ll stunt your growth!” my grandmother always used to warn me. But to the cast of the television show “Little People, Big World,” I assure you that coffee consumption is not the cause of your height, as this myth has been debunked time and time again.

In actuality, it turns out that the benefits of coffee consumption far outweigh the risks. According to WebMD, coffee drinkers are less likely than noncoffee drinkers to have type-II diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and dementia. There have also been fewer cases of liver cancer, heart rhythm problems and strokes among coffee drinkers when compared with noncoffee drinkers.

Coffee has also been known to have positive effects on cognition. According to EnergyFiend.com, researchers in Japan have shown that caffeine from coffee increases memory. In tests of reaction time, verbal memory and visual-spatial reasoning, participants who regularly drank coffee performed better than non-coffee drinkers, with the tests reflecting a positive relationship between test scores and the amount of coffee consumed. Caffeine from coffee has also been proven to ease depression by increasing dopamine levels in the brain.

A study from the University of Scran-

ton revealed that coffee is America’s No. 1 source of antioxidants, which are an important compound that protects your body from disease and help stave off cancer, heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

According to Disabled-World.com, small amounts of caffeine can also be used to help control weight, alleviate pain, open up airways for improved breathing and, most importantly, overcome chronic fatigue. Additionally, coffee increases metabolism by breaking down fat, freeing fatty acids and forcing them to be burned. Now you know why a late-night cup of coffee will have you craving Chipotle all night!

But there is truth to the notion that there are numerous drawbacks to coffee consumption. Since caffeine is a stimulant, it raises blood pressure, as well as adrenaline levels, in the body.

Excessive caffeine can also induce the “jitters,” a feeling of restlessness and anxiety. Coffee also causes staining of the teeth and bad breath.

The determinant of the risk with coffee, though, is frequency of consumption. People who drink two cups of coffee per day are not at risk. According to MayoClinic, however, drinking four to seven cups of coffee per day can cause problems such as anxiety, irritability, rapid heartbeat, nausea and sleeplessness. Moreover, as your body gets used to caffeine, it can become addicted to it. Many people go through caffeine withdrawal, which occurs when the caffeine intake wears off. Symptoms of withdrawal include headaches, drowsiness, anxiety and restlessness. But it all depends on how much coffee you’re drinking. In general, moderate caffeine consumption is not dangerous. It’s when you drink an entire Box of Joe by yourself that it becomes unsafe.

And there are many circumstances when a cup of coffee is advantageous.

When you have a long night of driving ahead of you, drinking coffee is prefer-

able to sleep. EnergyFiend.com points out that caffeine protects against eyelid spasms (twitching) and helps keep your eyes open. In addition, when cramming for a test, drinking coffee is a good idea, since caffeine has been known to increase short-term recall. Try drinking coffee when you hit the gym, since caffeine has been proven to increase muscle strength. In fact, according to Energy Fiend, caffeine relieves post workout muscle pain by up to 48 percent.

Alexander Pope once mused “coffee, which makes the politicians wise, and see through all things with his half-shut eyes.” Pope, like many of his contemporary writers, enjoyed a good cup of Joe while jotting down satirical verse. Thomas Jefferson considered coffee “the favorite drink of the civilized world,” taking sips in between writing his autobiography. Today, coffee is a source of inspiration for people from all walks of life. Baseball players drink coffee before batting practice. Surgeons begin their days with a cup of coffee.

Even the commander in chief himself indulges in a warm cup of presidential coffee in between meetings with the speaker of the House and the U.N. ambassador. I too am drinking coffee right now, granted I don’t have the White House chief of staff preparing it for me (nor am I sitting in the Oval Office).

The fact is that most people in America, as well as the world, enjoy their cup of coffee every day. And contrary to popular misconception, this is perfectly good for our health, assuming it is taken in moderation. In fact, Frank Hu, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health notes: “There is certainly much more good news than bad news, in terms of coffee and health.”

So whether you prefer Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks, whether you take your coffee black or with 12 packs of sugar (like I do), enjoy your coffee!

Espresso yourself!

I know that I ought to. As a citizen I want to be informed; as a prospective journalist I would really, really like to have a job in this industry someday.

It is probably for people like me that The Times designed its paywall with so many deliberate holes. For example, Times articles posted on social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter do not count as part of the monthly 20 article maximum.

It’s an incredibly bold move that will supposedly keep casual readers interested in the paper. But ultimately, it won’t solve The Time’s financial problems; for that, I think more bold moves are in order.

If it hopes to attract more paying customers, The Times is going to have to address its cost issue. For an all-digital offering, the new online subscription prices are surprisingly high, especially that of the $35 option.

I’m not convinced that it makes good business sense to charge more for this option than for a daily paper subscription that includes all the benefits of an online access plan plus an actual newspaper. Newspapers as a physical medium are dying, we are told, because people don’t want to pay for them. Charging an even higher price for a lesser product isn’t going to help.

Journalist and blogger Steve Outing recently argued on his blog that The Times should scrap its new price structure all together and replace it with something that more closely resembles the pricing of Apple’s iTunes store. While a few elite readers may be willing to pay $15 to $35 per month for something that they used to get for free, Outing writes, most will not.

Instead, he suggested charging 99 cents per month for computer access

Sexcapades

to The Times and $1.99 for computer, smartphone and tablet access. This way, more readers will be willing to pay a fee that, to them, seems like almost nothing, but still earns the Times extra revenue.

It’s also time for The Times to carry out a long-overdue website redesign.

No matter how much you charge for your product, you need to entice people to pay for it in the first place.

This means offering customers not only good, in-depth reporting, but also a pleasant, readable format that they will want to come back to again and again.

In some ways, The Times is already off to a good start. Visit its homepage, and you’ll notice that photo slideshows, videos, and other multimedia are well- integrated.

On the other hand, the whole thing looks like a newspaper, and from a website design perspective, that’s not a good thing.

I don’t want to squint to read the cramped headlines and even tinier section titles that The Times web designers managed to fit together in a page so small that it has wide, blank side margins, even on my relatively tiny 13-inch computer screen. Let’s face it—this website was designed for square CRT monitors circa 1998.

There are a lot of nicer looking ones out there competing for reader attention.

Perhaps I’m looking too deeply into the crystal ball. Perhaps none of us can say what truly attracts or detracts readers from different websites, but I will say this: If The Times continues to improve itself and its pricing plan, here’s one freeloader who will be glad to join the ranks of the paying customers.

Redefining bases?

By Sophie Riese Columnist

Sex is sex is sex is sex you might say … but is it really? I remember in sex ed. in eighth grade, when our teacher told us that, despite what anyone might say, oral sex was still sex. That almost seems obvious but, in a lot of ways, it isn’t. This is especially because we often think of oral sex as a precursor to sex and not as something on which to hold off. I also remember learning that year that you can contract STDs from something as seemingly benign as giving a hand job or kissing.

So why is it that for most college students the only thing that really constitutes sex is vaginal (or anal) penetration? And does that include penetration with hand-held toys, or only with body parts (and strap-ons)? We don’t consider “fingering” to be sex most of the time, but that’s still penetration.

So where do we draw the line? And should we maybe be thinking about moving that line?

There’s something else, too: I know a lot of guys who practically will not accept a hand-job, viewing them as middle or high school remnants, never to be disturbed again. So we, the partners, are put in situations where even if we consider oral sex to be sex, we have to sort of go with all or nothing.

And what about us? How many guys do you know who are willing to go down on a girl the first time they hook up? Not many, I’d guess. And yet they still expect head if they get you home with them. How is that fair, or fun for that matter?

At what point should we be standing up and saying that we need to reorganize the “bases,” to make them each as important as they really are? Remember middle school when it was a

HUGE deal to make it to first, or more amazingly, second base? Everyone had their own base system, much like we all have different ways of organizing the importance of sexual acts now. For almost everyone, first base was making out, but beyond that it got hazy. Some of my friends thought that feeling a girl up, under her shirt, was second base, but for some, it was feeling a girl up over her shirt, and for some, a hand job, or “fingering” constituted second.

Third tended to be oral, with home plate as sex.

If we were to re-assess this system for college, however, it would almost always come out like first base is kissing, second base is oral, and third is sex, with home plate ending up in a relationship or something. How did that happen!?

Maybe guys should give girls a break—try heading down on a girl before pushing her head towards your downtown? Or even just try to be nice and maybe hold off on anything too intensely sexual until the second go round? When both people are not on the same page about what they’re expecting, willing to do and hoping for in the future, our messed up “base” system can be a major problem. It certainly doesn’t help that guys are much more likely to receive than to give in the bedroom, especially during the first hook up.

Something we should be thinking about is how to have fun and be respectful simultaneously. Sex is sex is sex is sex is true! If someone thinks it’s sex, it is, and whether or not you agree, you have to respect them for their understanding of their body.

Especially if you know you’re never going to call again, you should be thoughtful, if not honest, about what you’re planning for the night.

16 The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS Etc.

April 8, 2011

Hersonski discusses ‘Unfinished’ documentary

By Sean Fabery Editor

Innumerable documentaries have attempted to grapple with the specter of the Holocaust. Some elegize the victims and celebrate its few heroes, while others probe the roots of evil.

“A Film Unfinished,” a documentary released late last year, takes a slightly different approach, offering a deconstruction of the Nazi propaganda machine at its worst. Israeli director Yael Hersonski appeared at the Wasserman Cinematheque last Sunday to discuss her film with members of the Brandeis community.

Hersonski’s film focuses on the mystery surrounding “Das Ghetto,” an uncompleted Nazi propaganda film that presents itself as a documentary about Jewish life in the Warsaw Ghetto. Shot mere months before the ghetto’s destruction, the Nazi film depicts the ghetto’s culture as being wholly unequal and fundamentally corrupt; in short, it covertly attempts to justify the extermination of the European Jewry.

While other propaganda films were well-documented after the war, a twist occurred in the uncompleted film’s history. In 1954, roughly-edited footage from “Das Ghetto”—about 62-minutes worth—was uncovered in the East German archives. While the authorities initially acknowledged the film as propaganda, the rough footage quickly lost its context; scholars soon accepted the footage as a legitimate record of ghetto life, ignoring the clips of Jews dining lavishly that seemingly clashed with history.

In a sense, “A Film Unfinished” is an attempt to solve a mystery of sorts, as Hersonski slowly builds a case against the historical legitimacy

photo courtesy of alice kelikian

documenting history Director Yael Hersonski discusses her documentary “A Film Unfinished” with Professor Paul Jankowski.

of the ghetto footage.

The single most damning piece of evidence featured in the film is a lost reel of outtakes from “Das Ghetto” that was discovered in Ohio in 1998. These outtakes reveal the elaborate staging employed by the Nazi filmmakers; certain scenes were completely fabricated and the filmmakers shot multiple takes of some scenes again and again. Clearly and unsurprisingly, the Nazi crew had an

agenda.

Hersonski’s documentary served as a tightly-focused rebuttal against the mishandling of these disturbing images. Rather than pander to our emotions, Hersonski allows the documents employed—including the testimony of ghetto survivors and the recently uncovered cross-examination of one of the Nazi filmmakers— to speak for themselves. The effect is chilling and extremely unsettling,

particularly when one considers how people allowed these images to lie to them for decades.

After the screening of the film, Hersonski sat down for a questionand-answer session with Professor Paul Jankowski (HIST).

“I never thought I’d make a film of the Warsaw Ghetto, but when I saw how manipulated this film had been [I had to make my own documentary],” Hersonski told the audience.

In producing the film—a process that took nearly five years—she explained that she wanted to understand why “no one asked who framed [the film] this way” and why it had become so widely accepted among scholars as “an objective documentation of the victims.”

Hersonski also reflected on “Das Ghetto” in the context of general Nazi propaganda. “[The propaganda film] demonstrates the Nazi paradox, their need to annihilate the evidence and their uncontrollable desire to document,” she said.

One of the questions which puzzled her in creating the film was why it had been created in the first place.

A similar propagandistic documentary, “The Eternal Jew,” had bombed less than two years before production commenced on “Das Ghetto.”

Hersonski argued that the film came out of a desire among the Nazi elite to “decontextualize” their Jewish victims and to “use it as a kind of a false snapshot of a community that is immoral and corrupt,” thus justifying their horrific actions.

Yet Hersonski believed that the piece of propaganda itself helped her disprove the original filmmakers’ point.

“I always felt there was much more to show than the Nazi filmmakers wanted to show,” she said.

“The frame will always show more than they wanted to show. There’s two gazes: the gaze of the cameraman and the mechanical gaze of the camera.”

This mechanical gaze captures the anguish in the faces of Jewish actors forced to perform on camera for the Nazis. In one horrific sequence, Jews given nice clothing by the filmmakSee PROPAGANDA, page 18

Free Play‘Spring Awakening’ blooms on stage

By Kayla Dos Santos Editor

When I’m in a sour mood, I blast “The B*tch of Living” and dance around my room, to the amusement and horror of my roommate; when I’m in a cloudy mood, it’s the melancholy and sweet “Don’t Do Sadness/ Blue Wind.” The songs from Duncan Sheik’s 2007 rock opera “Spring Awakening” seem so applicable to a young person’s life. When I heard that the Free Play Theatre Cooperative was putting on the original version of “Spring Awakening,” the German play that was Sheik’s source material, I was excited at the opportunity to see a 19th-century play whose themes continue to be relevant to a modern audience. Free Play’s production didn’t disappoint my high expectations, as it revealed the power of Frank Wedekind’s complex and dense script.

“Spring Awakening” focuses on a group of teenagers on the brink of sexual and intellectual adulthood living in a repressive village. Wedekind’s script is broad, covering issues from abuse and sexual ignorance to the academic pressures of school.

What is alarming is that what were issues in the 1800s continue to be issues that concern America’s youth today. When the characters on stage gripe about essays they haven’t started yet and tests they have to study for with pained expressions, I can’t help but be reminded of the kind of stressed-out chatter that infiltrates so many Brandeis students’ conversations. What makes Wedekind’s script

so powerful is that the problems he raises are the kind that aren’t bound by time, but are part of growing up— when children attempt to discover who they will be as adults.

The play was a string of short scenes, connected by themes, rather than by a forward-moving narrative. Although the play focuses on the characters of Melchior, Moritz and Wendla, there were several scenes in which none of the main players took part. While this worked for the most part, at times it appeared extremely random. A scene featuring a first kiss between two boys, while sweet, seemed to be tossed-in.

What made the short scenes appear even more fragmented was that the audience, having not been instructed to hold their applause until the end, clapped after each scene.

Wedekind’s script is filled with controversial topics such as abortion, suicide and juvenile delinquency. What could have been a clunky, stitchedtogether onslaught of issues is instead made realistic and human by moments of levity in the play.

This is helped by sophomore Yoni Bronstein’s spot-on depiction of Melchior, a budding brooding intellectual who becomes more and more skeptical of the world around him. When Melchior offers to explain to Moritz about their “masculine stirrings,” you can’t help but chuckle at his seriousness, just as you can’t help but be amused by Moritz’s (Dave Benger ’14) bafflement. These light-hearted moments make the tragic ones even more poignant.

Benger plays Mortiz as a person teetering between the edge of despair and the humor of life’s absurdities. In one

scene, Moritz’s recounting of a tale told to him about a headless queen and a two-headed queen is funny at first, but achingly sad in retrospect.

One character, however, that struck me as one-dimensional was Wendla (Corrie Legge ’14). Wendla is a complete innocent. She revels in being a girl, ponders the mysteries of boys and visits the poor. She only has a dim idea of where babies come from—she’s ruled out the stork. Wendla doesn’t act like a teenager; she acts like a sacrificial lamb. While this is mostly due to Wedekind’s script, Legge emphasizes the character’s childishness by giving the character a babyish voice. While the boys seem like fully-realized characters, the girls are somewhat lacking.

Wendla’s innocence is connected to one of the play’s largest themes: The children’s unfortunate fates rest on the culpability of the parents.

Wendla’s mother informs her that in order to get pregnant, you have to be very much in love (impossible at her age), which of course leads to negative consequences. Moritz and Melchior’s parents are equally at fault for what happens to their children.

While this presents an effective critique of a society in which the parents and school teachers pressure, lie to and manipulate the children, it does a disservice to the personalities of the children. Melchior may appear as a flawed, complex, independent individual, but many of the other children appear just as victims. Maybe that is the point. Melchior, during the time frame of the play, becomes an adult, while his friends for many reasons do not.

As far as the mechanics of the pro-

photo from internet source

duction, the staging was well-done.

There were few props and Free Play appropriately let Wedekind’s words work their magic instead.

The Free Play Cooperative’s “Spring Awakening” was overall a moving play. There were scenes that were

heartbreaking to watch that spoke to the strength of the source material and the talent of the actors. While there were a few missteps, Free Play has proven that the original “Spring Awakening” still has the power to speak to modern audiences.

April 8, 2011

ARTS, ETC. 17

The Brandeis Hoot

HTP gives ‘Othello’ a successful steampunk twist

By Yael Katzwer Editor

Last weekend Hold Thy Peace (HTP) put on a spectacular production of William Shakespeare’s “Othello.”

In a modern approach, co-directors Jane Becker ’11 and Emily Dunning ’11 staged a steampunk “Othello.” For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that takes place in the past in an alternate timeline where many modern technologies exist but are powered by steam.

The steampunk undertone to the show thankfully did not change the feel of the play at all. The only real difference was that rather than experience racism for being darkskinned, Othello experiences racism for being the only person lacking steam-powered implants. This theme seemed to be the most evident between scenes, while the run crew was changing the set. At these times, an eerie red glow would backlight the stage while sound effects of gears clunking and steam hissing filled the theater.

The costumes also reflected the steampunk sub-genre; although the set and the costumes looked old-fashioned, each character had metallic parts attached to their costumes and had metallic face-paint.

Needless to say, it looked really cool.

One of the neatest costumes was worn by Gratiana (Zanna Nevins ’12); it featured a form-fitting suit with a riding crop that gave her a dominatrix-like vibe as well as a gold, cage-like contraption strapped to her head with leather straps. Nevins rocked the look with her steely exterior.

The set looked simple, with wooden platforms of varying levels cov-

ering the stage. The actors climbed around the set and looked entirely natural except when they had to climb down the back, which looked a bit awkward. The very few special effects were good but unneeded.

When the characters first get to Cyprus, a storm was simulated with flashing lights and the sound of rain.

While this helped set the scene, the noise drowned out the actors, making it impossible to hear what they were saying. Despite this one moment, the actors projected their voices well and could be heard at all other times, even though they were not using microphones.

What made the show so enjoyable, however, was the amazing acting by the cast. Each line that Jonathan Plesser ’12 delivered as Othello made an impact due to Plesser’s clear voice and emotive face. One of the best scenes in the play was the final one, when Othello kills Desdemona (Caitlin Partridge ’13). Plesser and Partridge had great chemistry together, each actor bringing out the best in the other. Partridge’s muffled screams as Plesser suffocated her with a pillow chilled the blood.

The final scene in the first half of the show also struck a chord. In this scene, Iago (Lenny Somervell ’12) tells Othello that his Desdemona has been unfaithful to him with his second-in-command Cassio (Walker Stern ’13). This scene was incredibly emotional with a conniving Somervell and an emotionally overcome Plesser. During this scene, Somervell and Plesser completely ignored the set and did not make use of any props, instead relying entirely on the power of Shakespeare’s words and their own acting skills. It was an incredibly effective scene.

Somervell also had incredible chemistry with Jenna Schlags ’12, who played Emilia, Iago’s wife. Despite being played by two girls, the

photos by alan tran/the hoot

othello Hold Thy Peace imbued Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ with a steampunk vibe. At left, Desdemona (Caitlin Partridge) comforts Othello

( Jonathan Plesser). At right, Iago (Lenny Somervell) intervenes in a fight between Cassio (Walker Stern)and Roderigo (Andrew Prentice).

married couple’s repartee was aptly timed and incredibly well-acted.

Schlags also gave a thrilling performance in the final scene, when Emilia confronts Othello, who has just murdered Desdemona. Schlags looked as if she were about to burst into the tears and was nearly shaking from the anger she felt. Her death was heart-wrenching.

Although many scenes in “Othello” are dark, depressing and tragic, Shakespeare understood the need for comic relief. Thankfully, this gloomy play has the character Roderigo, played brilliantly Andrew

Prentice ’13. Roderigo is skillfully manipulated by Iago to stalk Desdemona and Othello and to begin a fight with Cassio, which ultimately leads to his death. Although this sounds depressing, Prentice brought the much-needed comedy to “Othello.” Every time he “stealthily” crept his way on stage to converse with Somervell, Prentice got laughs as he manipulated his lanky body. When Somervell would insult or upset him, Prentice seemed to wilt and have a hangdog look on his face. After Somervell would give him orders to carry out, Prentice would run

off stage in a manic panic. Prentice was able to be funny for most of the show but, during his death scene, he was able to switch off the comic aspect of his character and convey the gravitas of the scene admirably.

Stern’s Cassio was similar in that he could be very funny at times yet terribly serious at others. During the scene of Cassio’s fall from Othello’s favor, Stern had to display many emotions. In the beginning of the scene, he was incredibly humorous as the inebriated lieutenant. Placing See OTHELLO, page 19

New powers at the helm: It’s time to face the music

By Adam Marx

Special to the Hoot

Amidst the turmoil now blanketing the music industry, music fans are finding it harder and harder to go about life as usual. Record labels are seeing their worst nightmares realized as their customers—many of whom were born into the age of the Internet and online downloads— now not only have access to music from sources other than the record companies themselves but now have found ways of circumventing payment if they so wish. Of course, in an era where more and more people are learning about the intricate workings of the recording industry and its dirty little secrets, the argument over the free downloading of music has become increasingly convoluted.

It’s almost common knowledge for the many of us plugged into the music scene that the argument of “they’re stealing from the artists” is not as simple as it’s played off to be (sorry Lars). Now people know that the profits from purchased CDs are split among the recording company, the distributer, the sound engineer, the mixer, the producer, the manager and any number of other channels before the artist even gets paid; if it’s a group of five people, divide the profit even further for each individual artist. As a result, it is common knowledge among artists that the real money they earn comes from touring and merchandise sales.

Yet, for one reason or another,

the old giants of A&M, Columbia, Universal, Sony and countless other labels gasping for breath and record sales find themselves still grasping to the ancient order and traditions.

Things have changed, though, and few in the music elite seem to see it. Even fewer see it as a good thing that music can now be swapped and copied at will, usually without any payment taking place during the transaction.

But some pioneering ventures online (where, let’s face it, the future of everything lies) seem to have taken notice and are cashing in on the change, both metaphorically and literally. For example, Purevolume. com—an online site for artists and fans to upload music and comment on each other’s work as well as build their prospective fan-bases— jumpstarted the careers of such infamous acts as Paramore, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Boys Like Girls, Owl City and NeverShoutNever.

Finding a home in the presence of all and the presence of none, artists like Paramore and Boys Like Girls, both of whom are now nursing major-label contracts, worked the internet like their own little fangrowers, drawing in legions of fans week after week while at the same time appearing and staying close to their core fanbase, adding to their credibility. Myspace.com and ReverbNation.com, too, are racking up the hits as they continue to simultaneously play the roles of online radio, communication station and message board.

The irony, though, is that in the

photo from internet source

midst of all this new innovation and technology, the old-age giants still seem wary of new ways of participating in the music community.

Things worsened for the labels when Apple computers with GarageBand and other recording programs became popular among college students and artists. Now not only did artists need no funding from major labels to record relatively good quality demos, but they also had the means to distribute them online for free through the aforementioned sites or through iTunes for a desig-

nated price.

With the growth of message boards, Twitter, Facebook and other discussion sites, the record labels have even lost the ability to control the artists’ communication with each other and so, in effect, have lost control over their own futures.

And what has come of all this new innovation? Only suspicion and fear mongering within the music industry with regard to downloading and online distribution have resulted.

Two of my favorite arguments on the part of the labels is that “you’ll never

make a living that way” or “you need professional help to distribute properly.”

It seems that major publications in the music world are also feeling the hurt, as they are starting to majorly lose their control over who reads what and when. Rolling Stone, Spin, Alternative Press and others are finding themselves consistently outdone by online blogs and posting boards.

I myself write a music blog specializing in debuting new underground and unsigned bands from all over the world. Like many of these other sites, NewRockNews43. blogspot.com started in my room one day as I was bored and fed up with what I was reading between the pages of Spin and Rolling Stone.

Though it started off a little shakily as all sites do, it grew and grew and grew.

Now, over a year and a half later, I have debuted a slew of amazing new artists, some of whom have played or will play Warped Tour. ,One has landed a spot opening for Quiet Riot and L.A. Guns this summer, another has played on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and countless others have played with the likes of underground favorites Norma Jean, Middle Class Rut and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

Now I write about groups like Fit For Rivals, spawned from the same Florida scene as Red Jumpsuit; Voted Most Random, last year’s winner of the East Coast Indie Battle of the See MUSIC, page 19

18 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

April 8, 2011

‘G-Gundam’ proves another awesome anime

By Gordy Stillman Editor

A long, long time ago, back when I was barely a teenager, I received my first introduction to anime though Cartoon Network’s Toonami block. It was through this block that I first started watching “Mobile Fighter G-Gundam,” one edition in the lengthy “Gundam” franchise.

While “G-Gundam” does not conform to what I later learned were the standards of the “Gundam” franchise, it still turned out to be a very entertaining story.

“G-Gundam” takes place years in the future, at a time when most countries have established colonies in space. Every country has renamed itself by basically adding “Neo” as a prefix to its name, and governments based in the colonies rule over their earthbound counterparts.

Most “Gundam” series revolve around wars between Earth and these space colonies—or, in some cases, between Earth and the moon.

Tension in the “Gundam” world also exists between evolved humans and natural humans. Evolved humans were simply meant to serve as the next stage in human evolution, but, due to their inherently superior skills, the majority of society distrusts them.

Another typical element in installments of the “Gundam” series is some type of romantic plot that usually involves people from warring factions.

Things change a bit with “G-Gundam.” To prevent war among the colonies, a year-long competition called the Gundam Fight is hosted every four years, with the winner’s country earning the right to rule over space for the next four years.

With the establishment and acceptance of the Gundam Fight, war has

become a thing of the past.

Gundams are technologically advanced fighting machines piloted by a representative of each country. Each country chooses its best fighter to serve as its representative.

Earth serves as their battlefield and, for almost a year, they do nothing but fight and work to survive until the finals, an elimination-style tournament.

There are many rules governing the Gundam fight, with two being particularly important. The first is that a fighter cannot target the cockpit area of another Gundam.

The second states that, if the head of a Gundam is destroyed, then the fighter is disqualified from the finals.

Neo-Japan’s fighter, Domon Kasshu, has a second mission in addition to competing. He became the pilot for Neo-Japan in order to clear charges against his father after his brother, Kyoji, stole a classified Gundam prototype referred to as the Dark Gundam. Domon, tasked with finding his brother and returning the stolen prototype to Japan, travels the world while competing against any fighter that stands in his way.

Along the way he encounters and befriends fighters from other countries. They include Neo-America’s Chibodee Crockett, a boxer who grew up in New York; Neo-France’s George de Sand, a fencer who considers his honor and chivalry to be very important; Neo-Russia’s Argo Gulskii, a convicted pirate fighting for the freedom of his friends; and Neo-China’s 16-year-old Sai Saici, a child fighting to resurrect Shaolinstyle martial arts.

These characters serve as great foils for Domon, as well as for each other. Chibodee and George, for instance begin as complete opposites unable to get along, with Chibodee rising from the bottom against George, a member of an established

‘mobile fighter g-gundam’

aristocracy. Saici, the youngest and most energetic member, starts off unable to see eye-to-eye with the reserved and disciplined Argo Gulskii.

Domon and his friends, while not any more evolved than average humans, are exceptionally powerful. While the series lacks the tension between evolved and natural humans that characterizes previous “Gundam” series, the show substitutes this with a system in which intense training provides great gains In addition to his fellow fighters, Domon receives support from his childhood friend and present crewmember, Rain Mikamura. Rain’s father built Domon’s Gundam, so Rain is uniquely able to repair it.

Domon’s travels take him around the world to Africa, Europe, the Americas and beyond as he defends a Tokyo besieged by his brother,

photo from internet source

trains in the Guyana Highlands and even makes it to Neo-Hong Kong (notable because the show was made before its reunification with China) to compete in the finals.

The show’s first episodes seem overly formulaic: In each installment, Domon arrives in a country, finds its fighter, and proceeds to fight and then interrogate them as to whether they’ve met his brother.

The series improves around episode nine. At this point, story arcs begin to emerge, and the show becomes much more about the battle between Kyoji’s dark army and Domon, who receives support from his friends.

Eventually Domon’s Gundam— known as the Shining Gundam—is rendered useless. By a special application of the rules, namely that the Gundam’s head hasn’t been destroyed, Domon is granted a replacement Gundam. In the English

New documentary reveals Nazi propaganda PROPAGANDA, from page 16

ers were forced to walk past corpses on the ghetto sidewalks and were instructed to ignore them, furthering the propagandist’s thesis of gross inequality.

When it came to incorporating footage from “Das Ghetto” in her own documentary, Hersonski encountered some resistance.

A segment in the Nazi film shows Jewish men and women separately partaking in a ritual bath. In the recently recovered outtakes, these residents of the ghetto are shown being corralled into the baths against their will.

“This isn’t about Jewish ritual life, but of the sadism of the human beings [doing the] filming,” Hersonski said, noting that she had originally encountered the footage in an exhibition where it was labeled as being a genuine depiction of Jewish religious life.

“Maybe for the first time these women [in the baths] were shown as human beings and not just as victims,” she said in an earlier interview with The Hoot.

“I wanted to create a moral way of viewing these images.”

Using this footage of the naked victims raised some questions within the Jewish community.

Orthodox Jews in Israel requested that she create another version of her documentary in which the nudity be edited out. She found this request “a bit appalling,” believing that this created a false illusion of a world “without nudity [and] without death,” she

‘a film unfinished’

told The Hoot.

The use of this footage also stirred controversy within the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which gave the film an R rating. The film’s distributer, Oscilloscope Laboratories, appealed for a PG-13 rating, believing that this would give the film maximum exposure, but the request was denied.

While Hersonski employed footage from almost every major segment of “Das Ghetto” in her own documentary, she chose not to include clips from a scene involving the examination of ghetto residents suffering from severe skin diseases.

photo from internet source

“[It was] the fact that their faces were not shown … just the diseased part. The message was clear to me: This body is a disease … someone was saying that this individual should be exterminated.”

In making the film, she was also conscious of her own identity as an Israeli filmmaker and as a citizen critical of the discourse that surrounds the Holocaust in her native country.

“I always felt the national ritual around Holocaust Memorial Day … was taken away from the survivors by the state to use it for its own purposes,” she said.

“Everything became politicized, generalized, a fetishization of a narrative.”

In making the film, she expressed the desire to make a documentary that was willing to ignore the conventions of Holocaust films and documentaries.

“I was trying to do the exact opposite of being confident,” she said.

“I wanted to open it again and examine it in a space that cannot [rely on] knowledge.”

In creating such a thought-provoking film that questions the validity of images that surround us, she achieved just that.

dub, the replacement was known as the Burning Gundam, but the original Japanese version referred to it as the titular god Gundam.

The Gundams at times offer the show degree of humor. Neo-Mexico’s entrant, for instance, is known as the Tequila Gundam, while NeoCanada’s Gundam is called the Lumber Gundam. While not all of the names poke fun to the same degree, names like these proved especially entertaining and comedic.

With a careful balance of interesting characters, engaging story arcs and the occasional shot of comedic flavor, “Mobile Fighter G-Gundam” proves to be a very entertaining series.

At 49 episodes, it achieves balance in being neither too long nor too short and also serves as a great introduction to the entire Gundam Franchise.

April 8, 2011

ARTS, ETC. 19

The Brandeis Hoot

Fighting the flower wars: you versus springtime allergies

By Gabby Katz Staff

Despite our usual rainy, windy, cold days, peeks of sunshine and fresh mulch show that somebody pressed the bloom button on campus. Sun and above-freezing weather always bring a noticeable change in happiness and positive emotions on campus, along with a surplus of flip-flops and sneezing people.

Yes, as peppy and bright as campus may seem, I’ve noticed the sniffles plaguing our poor Rudolph noses, including my own. While questioning whether I needed to dig out the Purell and sanitizing wipes I have left over from flu season, I quickly realized the source of these newfound campus boogers: seasonal allergies. Blast them!

This non-contagious ailment, which puts a damper on our outdoor fun, is one that is quite common, annoying and surprisingly treatable. So before flowers and pollen go into full attack mode, I’ve researched some preventative methods and treatment techniques we can use to fight seasonal allergies.

According to the National Jewish Health website, allergies can be mainly attributed to genetics and early exposure in childhood to environmental factors. When someone is first exposed to something to which they are allergic—think pollen, for example—the body’s white blood cells, also known as T-cells, recognize the allergen and alert the body of the “foreign invader” while also instructing the B-cells to produce IgE antibodies. An allergen by

definition is an antigen that is usually harmless but that the immune system interprets as toxic. These antibodies then produce an inflammatory response of the immune system in the skin and respiratory track in order to attack the allergen. After the primary exposure, the body already has the IgE antibodies ready for attack in case one encounters the allergen again; such contact causes the body to release histamine, which is essentially a chemical messenger that tells the immune system to prepare for attack.

Histamine is thus the true cause of all the common allergy symptoms like warming and swelling of the skin, itchy and watery eyes, sneezing and increased mucus production, and swelling of the throat.

It is important to realize allergic reactions can either be immediate or delayed up to six hours after exposure.

So how do you know if you’re at risk this upcoming season for allergies? The four primary ways through which doctors make diagnoses is based on clinical history, family history, physical exams and allergy tests that consist of skinallergen testing or the testing of blood-sensitizing antibodies. Unfortunately, without a history of the allergy, people often don’t find out about their allergies until after an allergic reaction to primary exposure has occured.

What’s especially hard about seasonal outdoor allergies is that, unlike food allergies which can be somewhat controlled, we have no control over the pollen count or grass spores in the air come springtime. The five most common out-

photo from internet source

door allergens are pollen, mold, poisonous plants, insects and air pollution. Once you’ve realized that what you thought was a cold is actually outdoor allergies, you should implement preventative steps to avoid a reaction.

One way you can ease your symptoms is to avoid being outside on windy days or to cover your mouth with a scarf to avoid allergens being blown around.

Another is to check the pollen count for the day and plan your activities accordingly; if the pollen count is high, you may not want to fly your kite that day. Or, if you check a seasonal calendar and know which weeks will have high rag-

Music industry shuns future MUSIC, from page 17

Bands; Mass Undergoe, a riotous alternative group shaking up the streets of Vancouver; and Diamond Eye, who will play with Quiet Riot, Warrant and L.A. Guns this summer in Perth, Australia.

As I do this, I find myself wondering how it is possible that none of these groups who are taking the underground by storm in their respective genres and areas are getting any attention from the music elites. What is even more amazing, though, is that Rolling Stone goes so far as to say in one of its March 2011 issues (“Where Did The Rock Hits Go?” #1125) that 2010—a seminal year by my count in the number of brilliant artists I discovered (seriously, it’s heartbreaking how much talent is out there)—was a year devoid of rock hits. Those hits were there; they just weren’t listening.

If the major-label releases of Linkin Park’s “A Thousand Suns,” My Chemical Romance’s “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” or Lostprophets’ “The Betrayed” weren’t enough to sate the writers at the Stone, then how about releases from All I Know (“Vanity Kills”), Cloé Beaudoin (“Rest In Peace-EP”), LOVELOUD (“LOVELOUD”) or Lost In Atlantis (“Silent World”)?

The reality is that, though they would like to think otherwise, the major powers that have controlled most, if not all, aspects of the music industry up until now are starting to fall away and lose influence.

The good thing about all this?

More music on demand and more direct contact with the artists for us, the listeners. With sites like Purev-

weed- or oak-allergen counts, you can take an over-the-counter allergy drug. One that is particularly effective is an antihistamine, which blocks the histamine receptors in your body so it cannot propagate its immunoresponse with the annoying side effects of allergies.

You could also take a drug that specifically targets individual symptoms. For instance, you could use a decongestant, which relieves swollen nasal tissues and mucus.

You can also change your clothes and shower after outdoor exercise, which allows you to play outside and remain unaffected later in the day. This rinses off any allergens left on your skin or hair and can

also protect friends or family members with similar allergies. Lastly, you can enjoy more springtime fun in the sun by wearing goggles to eradicate irritation from allergens.

Remember: When you see me walking around campus with my Scuba Steve goggles, I’m just fighting those dandelions. No big deal.

The best part of springtime is enjoying fresh air with people you like, so don’t let your allergies hinder your fun. Just try out these different methods to fight back and enjoy!

Tune in for more health tips and send me an e-mail at gkatz10@ brandeis.edu with any health-related questions you may have.

HTP’s steampunk ‘Othello’ soars

photo by alan tran/the hoot

plotting Soldiers under Othello’s command—played by Charlotte Oswald, Zanna

Nevins and Tiffanie Sainte-Quakenbush—plan an attack in HTP’s steampunk production of “Othello.”

OTHELLO, from page 17 photo from internet source

the future of music Artists like Paramore have taken advantage of the internet to increase their number of fans despite not having signed with a major label.

olume and Myspace leading the way in new artist uploads, and profiles and other sites like my own NewRockNews43 capturing the journalistic side, it is clear that we are poised for a crescendo of new rules in a new era of music.

Now there’s something for everyone, from indie and screamo to pop-punk and heavy metal—no matter what the major publications and labels think anymore. If Rolling Stone and other publications like it want to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that no good

rock music came out last year because they weren’t quick enough on the uptake, that’s fine. But for me, I look forward to a new year of surfing countless Myspace and Purevolume pages searching for just the right artists who fit my tastes to add to NewRockNews43 and share with other blogs like it.

Funnily, things are simpler now than they were years ago, though I know many in the record industry would disagree. The music is out there, all you have to do is go out and find it.

his hand on Somervell’s shoulder, he intoned in mock seriousness, “This is my right hand.” Then, holding up his other hand, he said in a perfect imitation of a drunken idiot, “And this is my left.” By the end of the scene, however, he was bringing tears to the audience’s eyes as he sat on the stage, dejected, pounding his fist against the floor, crying out “Reputation!” as he bemoaned his loss of it.

The middle of this scene contained the first fight between Cassio and Roderigo, broken up by Othello. While the fight was well-

choreographed it was not very credible. Stern is much taller than Plesser, and it was hard to believe that the smaller, not steam-powered implant-enhanced Othello could best Cassio in a physical altercation.

Although every actor in the show cannot be mentioned, they were all fantastic. During the course of the three-hour play, they only stumbled over their difficult lines a few times and each time they recovered quickly.

When the play ended, the eerie red backlight remained for a few moments before going to blackout, leaving the already discomfited audience with a feeling of foreboding.

Hold Thy Peace’s “Othello” was fantastic and left a lasting impression.

20 The Brandeis Hoot

hoot scoops

April 8, 2011

‘I have a dream’

Waltham Group inspires local ELL students and has fun while doing it

By Leah Finkelman Editor

When Amy moved from Haiti to Waltham in February of last year, she barely spoke English.

“I knew ‘hi,’ ‘out,’ ‘back,’ words like that,” she said on Thursday in nearly perfect English. Now, just more than a year later, Amy is a 13-year-old seventh grader at Waltham’s Kennedy Middle School and an enthusiastic participant in Language and Cultural Enrichment (LaCE), a subset of Waltham Group.

Each week, LaCE volunteers are paired with students participating in Kennedy Middle School’s English Language Learners (ELL) program. ELL, formerly called ESL (English as a Second Language) is a specially-designed curriculum for students who aren’t proficient in English. Students, depending on their fluency, spend most or all of their day with other ELL students in classes taught in English. “The kids end up hanging out together and speaking their native languages outside of class, so their English sometimes takes a long time to improve,” LaCE coordinator Laura Velez ’11 said.

Each Thursday, the kids walk in laughing and talking with their friends in a mix of English and their native languages, which include Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Tajik and Spanish. Excited to see their tutors, they file in, still messing around until the coordinators get up to explain the day’s activities.

The afternoon begins with a big group activity for the first hour and one-on-one tutoring during the second. This week TRON, Brandeis’ men’s Ultimate Frisbee team, came to hang out with the kids. “Any group on campus should be giving back. Brandeis gives us a lot, so it’s really the least we can do,” Captain Sean Petterson ’11 said.

During their introductions, each player and several volunteers and ELL students said where they were from and what they were studying.

When the players listed their majors, the kids seemed surprised and inspired that getting a great education and spending several hours a week practicing and competing in a sport was a real possibility.

After introducing themselves, the TRON players explained how to throw a Frisbee and how to play Ultimate. Although few kids said they had ever played Frisbee before, they caught on quickly once outside, practicing drills with their tutors.

Other group activities have included trips to The Rose Art Museum, Spingold Theater and the BTV studio, and visits from campus groups like Kaos Kids, a dance group, and improv groups. “We travel around campus as much as possible,” Velez said. “The point is to show them what a college campus and college students are like.”

After playing Frisbee, everyone went back inside and the students split up to meet individu-

ally with their tutors. Although tutoring is an important component of LaCE, it is more social and cultural than academic, Velez said. Unless a student asks for help in a specific subject, the tutoring focuses on English vocabulary and usage that the children might not be using in the classroom, as well as cultural and social adjustments to living in a new country.

Before the semester began, Velez and the other coordinators, Jon Lopez ’11, Amanda Reuillard ’11 and Matt Eames ’13, pair each volunteer with an ELL student. After a trial week, the pairs are set for the semester so that the tutors and students can form a more personal relationship than they would if they were switched around every week. In order to become a tutor, Brandeis students must interview with the coordinators, but they don’t need to speak the native language of the kids. It’s actually good if they don’t, Velez said, because then the kids are more likely to consistently use English. Velez, an international student who grew up in Colombia and then lived in Honduras before coming to Brandeis, makes sure she doesn’t switch back to Spanish with other native speakers.

Tutoring sessions are planned by the tutors with help and feedback from the coordinators, and usually depend on the student’s English level. Tutors play games like charades, scavenger hunts in the C-Store and board games.

Amy, the Haitian 13-year-old, is currently writing a book with her tutor, Rebecca DeHo-

vitz ’14. The book began as a list of new words that DeHovitz wanted Amy to learn. Now, it has become the story of a girl who discovers a diamond and puts it on display. When the diamond is stolen, characters based on Amy and DeHovitz come to save the day.

DeHovitz was randomly paired with Amy at the beginning of the fall semester and hasn’t looked back. “I love working with her and learning about her, especially learning about Haiti and learning Haitian Creole,” she said.

The pair found a children’s book written in English, French and Haitian Creole and, after Amy read it in English, DeHovitz read it in Creole. Remembering this, Amy laughs, which prompts DeHovitz to add that the atmosphere in LaCE is very open, and that the kids enjoy it because they are able to have fun while learning and practicing English.

Amy initially joined the program because she wanted to see what American college was like, knowing it was different than college in her home country. She wants to become a diplomat, and knows she will need a good education. “My parents are fighting for it,” she said, describing her parents’ emphasis on the importance of doing well in school and their hope that Amy and her 14-year-old brother will go to college.

“I love Brandeis. I have a dream to go here,” she said. If her ambition, charm and enthusiasm are any indication, she could easily be a perfect fit to the Brandeis class of 2020.

Hangin’ out, havin’ fun: Clockwise from top: Students, tutors and TRON players celebrate after an hour of Frisbee. Joey Rosen ‘14 throws to two KMS students. Rebecca DeHovitz ‘14 talks about LaCE with Amy. Students and tutors pose with Louis Brandeis. Beneva Davies ‘13 stands with a student and watches others play Frisbee.

photos by ingrid schulte/the hoot