The Brandeis Hoot 1/18/19

Volume 16 Issue 1

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe” www.brandeishoot.com

January 18, 2019

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper · Waltham, Mass.

Brandeis ‘springboard funding’ plan to pay for projects, maintenance

By Celia Youg editor

PHOTO BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

BERNSTEIN MARCUS ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDING

Matthew Sheehy led the university in enhancing library infrastructure.

Brandeis will increase its endowment spending from 5.7 percent to 6.2 percent each year to partially fund a $73 million “springboard funding” plan to pay for operational costs and capital projects, according to an email announcement by President Ron Liebowitz.

The Board of Trustees approved the possible endowment spending increase although, prior to the announcement, spending had been decreasing for the past years in an attempt to reach a goal of five percent endowment spending.

The 6.2 percent value is calculated based on the average value of the endowment over the past 12

quarters.

The spending plan is divided into two funds. Operations now has a fund of $47 million, including increasing faculty and staff and the operating budgets of a variety of offices as well as the creation of a presidential discretionary fund. There are $26 million to fund various maintenance projects on campus, including making buildings compliant with the American Disabilities Act (ADA) and part of the cost of maintaining buildings, equipment and IT infrastructure.

“We’re basically investing in ourselves,” Liebowitz said, in an interview with The Brandeis Hoot. “We’re borrowing from our See FUNDING, page 2

Schuster Institute shuts down

By Celia Young and Rachel Saal editors

After nearly 15 years of non-profit investigative journalism, the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism shut down

last month. Founded in 2004, the institute was the country’s first investigative reporting center based at a university.

The institute had been experiencing financial difficulties for the last two and a half years, according to Provost Lisa Lynch’s announcement of the shutdown

in an email to the student body on Dec. 20.

Florence Graves, award-winning journalist and the founder of the Schuster Institute, spoke to The Brandeis Hoot about her work with student research assistants at the institute.

“We’ve had students who are

just so bright and so passionate about social justice and our projects and about wanting to do a really great job,” she said. “The students have enabled us to do far more work than we would’ve been able to do if we did not have them,” she continued. “Their enthusiasm has inspired me all of

these years.”

The Justice Brandeis Law Project, which is responsible for the exoneration of wrongfully-convicted men including Angel Echavarria and George Perrot, will continue operations until at See SCHUSTER, page 4

Brandeis Counseling Center experiences 120 percent increase in hospitalizations

By Celia Young editor

The Brandeis Counseling Center (BCC) experienced a 120 percent increase in student hospitalizations in 2018 as compared to 2017, according to BCC Director Joy von Steiger. This increase is part of a general rise in student requests for the BCC’s services.

The BCC has also seen an 84 percent increase in initial assessments and a 47 percent increase in total appointments, comparing

the use of the BCC from August to November in 2017 and 2018, according to Steiger.

“We get an increase every year, consistently since I’ve come here and that’s true across the country,” Steiger said. “I think it’s something like between a 10 and 20 percent increase in requests for services from year to year at most universities. So that’s pretty consistent.” However, Steiger noted that to have this big of a jump is unusual.

Inside This Issue:

See BCC, page 3

News: Library acquires rare Lenny Bruce film Ops: Attend Saturday’s Women’s March Arts: Black Mirror’s ‘Bandersnatch’, mapped Sports: Women’s Track and Field excelled EDITORIAL: Thank you, Schuster Institute

Page 2 Page 5 Page 15 Page 12 Page 10

MAILMAN HOUSE, HOME OF THE BCC

BUSDT The swimming and diving team started the semester strong.

SPORTS: PAGE 12

PHOTO BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

‘Beale Street’ Essence of novel translates to screen.

ARTS: PAGE 13

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

January 18, 2019

Springboard funding plan may increase endowment spending SPRINGBOARD, from page 1

endowment in order to invest right now to increase our capacity to raise funds for the future.”

The Board of Trustees approved the increase in the endowment spend rate and bond refinancing to fund the $26 million, as well as the framework and concept of the funding, but has not finalized the allocations of the funds. The board will discuss how to allocate the funding in their Jan. 27 meeting.

Hiring and spending for the plan has already begun. Provost Lisa Lynch has already approved several positions to deal with the larger than expected freshman class. Brandeis has already hired additional part-time counselors and graduate residential mentors.

The largest university departments to receive funding are Institutional Advancement and Academic Services, according to Liebowitz. The Institutional Advancement department fundraises donations and gifts from alum-

ni and others.

“You need a really vibrant fundraising program and we need to invest in that in order to do what we aspire to do in the next few years,” Liebowitz said. “So they’re going to be getting a large number of fundraisers.” Liebowitz hopes to increase the number of traveling fundraisers from three to between 15 and 18.

The $26 million plan will be funded by refinancing bonds.

Brandeis has debt of which the university pays a part of through the operating budget each year and, by extending the life of a series of bonds, is able to gain funding without increasing the university’s debt. “We have a debt service now to pay for the $260 to $270 million overall. We happen to have one series of bonds that were maturing,” Liebowitz said.

He continued, “We were able to refinance this one series. So, what we’ve done is we’ve kept our debt service at the same level so it’s no bigger hit to the operating budget each year, but from refinancing at a better rate we yielded the $26

million of excess funding.”

The $47 million comes from four sources, including increased endowment spending, money saved from a new financial framework, expected increases in the university’s Annual Fund and philanthropic investments the university is currently fundraising.

Brandeis may not receive the full $47 million, however, depending on the amount of donations and gifts the university gets to fund the project. Liebowitz expects to receive enough funding, but spoke about what would happen if Brandeis did not. “We’re going to have to triage and say what are the most important things minus the amount that we’re counting on for fundraising,” he said.

The $47 million will fund additions in a variety of departments, including the addition of 17 full-time faculty, with 15 in the School of Arts and Sciences and two in the International Business School (IBS). The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) reaccredited

IBS, recommending that Brandeis increases the number of full-time faculty at the business school.

The $47 million will also establish a presidential discretionary fund, which is common among universities, to support new projects that the operating budget does not have the extra money to fund, said Liebowitz.

Academic Services and the Division of Student Affairs will gain an increase in the faculty salary pool to retain and recruit faculty members. The fund will also provide an additional $1 million to the Provost Research Fund, which currently provides $250,000 to $300,000 in awards each year for $50,000 grants to support major research innovation awards.

Liebowitz is also looking at expanding funds to improve the university dining program. “This is something that’s not definitive but it’s in there because it’s no secret that a lot of people have issues with our dining,” said Liebowitz.

“There’s parts of our agreement with Sodexo that are cemented in,” he continued. “We’re trying to

find ways to address some aspects that students and parents and we find most constraining.” The Brandeis contract with Sodexo will expire June 3, 2023.

The Office of Communications, which runs the Brandeis magazine and the university news website, BrandeisNOW, will receive more staff members, a larger operating budget for “branding, external partnerships, internal communications, and public affairs,” according to the email announcement.

The plan will fund a new Office of Equal Opportunity, which will centralize the complaint process at Brandeis. The $47 million will also fund additional staff for the Office of Spiritual and Religious life, the Ombuds program, the Intercultural Center and increased training, education and development.

The $47 million will also fund new staff for campus operations, four new police officers and additional staff for the Office of the General Counsel, Brandeis’ lawyers.

Brandeis Library acquires unreleased Lenny Bruce film

By Celia Young editor

American comic Lenny Bruce plays a down-on-his-luck newspaper salesman in an original, unreleased silent short film now available for viewing through the Brandeis Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department. The twelve-and-a-halfminute film was added to the Lenny Bruce collection, which contains photographs, correspondence and audio recordings of his comedy performances.

The film shows Bruce’s character as he goes about his day, arguing with his landlady and eventually being evicted, where he runs into a police sting of drug dealers selling “benzidine barbiturates,” likely “bennies,” a popular amphetamine during the sixties and seventies, according to an Atlantic article about the drug.

The newspaper salesman, Bruce’s character, accidentally consumes some of the pills and becomes energized before finally collapsing in the street.

“It’s an untitled [film], with no credits whatsoever but appears to be very rare footage,” said Special Collections Librarian Anne Woodrum. “As far as we know it’s an unreleased film, and we don’t know of any other copy at this point. But again, we’re at early stages right now because we don’t have a lot of information.”

The 16mm film is part of the larger Lenny Bruce collection that is free to access by students and researchers.

The film has a piano soundtrack likely composed by musician, and friend of Bruce, Lewis “Count” DePasquale, according to the library database description of the film.

“Before it was put up for auction, it was in the custody of the DePasquale family,” said Woodrum. “They’ve been able to provide some information

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ROBERT D. FARBER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

[about] what they think it is, and they’ve indicated that they believe it’s film created by Count Lewis DePasquale and Lenny Bruce, and their understanding is that Count Lewis DePasquale made the jazz soundtrack.”

The landlady character is likely played by Bruce’s mother, Sally Marr, according to the description. It was created in the late 1950s or early 1960s, according to Woodrum.

The film is similar to another short film by Bruce called “The Leather Jacket.” Woodrum spoke about the other Bruce film, saying, “Since we’ve acquired it and we’re trying to learn more about it, we have learned more about another film created by Lenny Bruce called ‘The Leather Jacket’

which actually bears a striking resemblance to this film as well.”

A brief excerpt of “The Leather Jacket” without sound is available online through Historic Films Archive, a stock footage collection company.

“The Leather Jacket” excerpt is very similar to the film acquired

by Brandeis, though there are scenes in the Brandeis film that do not appear in the excerpt.

There are also scenes in “The Leather Jacket” that do not appear in the film acquired by Brandeis, according to Woodrum.

The film is a valuable addition to the Lenny Bruce collection, which was acquired from his daughter, Kitty Bruce with a grant from the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation, said Woodrum.

“Because we have this core collection of Lenny Bruce material, we want to acquire complementary material with the idea of putting these materials these archival materials documenting Lenny Bruce in one place for researchers.”

The acquisition process moved quickly and easily, according to Woodrum.

Though the film was purchased at auction with funds through the Library’s own acquisition fund and from the Ann and Abe Effron fund in 2017, the Library announced the films availability on Dec. 17, 2018 on their university website.

Woodrum works with the Lenny Bruce collection as a whole and was excited about having made the film available for research-

& SPECIAL COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY

ers. “In my role, we’re really set on preserving these collections documenting the life and work of Lenny Bruce so that we can make it available to researchers and scholars and students and anyone so that they can examine his work, what it meant in our culture [and] what it means today,” she said.

Lenny Bruce, who performed stand-up comedy in clubs and on television in the late 1950s and 1960s was famous for controversial comedy, dealing with issues of race, law, drugs, patriotism and Jewishness.0 In modern culture, he is portrayed on the award-winning television show, “ The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which centers around a female comic in the 1950s and 60s.

January 18, 2019

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

BCC use, hospitalizations increase BCC, from page 1

The reason for the increase in hospitalizations is unclear. “This is the 20 million dollar question,” Steiger said. Instability in the political situation, climate change, incidents of bias—for example, the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina in 2018—and the economy could all be contributing factors, said Steiger, especially on young people becoming independent.

Steiger also emphasized that this increase in the use of counseling services is not unique to Brandeis. “It’s a nationwide problem, and in fact it’s not just college [students], it’s also high school [students],” Steiger said.

Other colleges have also experienced increased demand. Boston College experienced a 25 percent increase in student demand for counseling services in 2016, causing the university to hire two new full-time staff members, according to their university newspaper.

Boston University also increased their counseling staff in 2017, according to their university newspaper.

In 2017, the BCC also experienced an increased demand for resources, including a 90 percent increase in walk-ins and a 2,000 percent increase in use of the center’s after hours counseling line, according to an earlier report by The Brandeis Hoot. The center also faced complaints of

long wait times by students. The BCC addressed the 2017 demand by hiring four new clinicians for the center, expanding BCC hours and increasing group therapy sessions.

Steiger spoke about improving the student experience at the BCC through student input. “We know that there are students who wish they had a different kind of experience when they came here,” she said. “We’d like to be able to work with students to make this environment more of what they’d like it to be. We do have a faculty advisory committee and a student advisory committee so I’m always happy to have students work with us,” she continued.

This year, the BCC has also hired four new part-time therapists and one located in the Department of Community Living in response to a larger incoming first-year class, President Ron Liebowitz mentioned in an interview with The Hoot.

To meet this year’s increase, the BCC hosts a Community Therapy Program aimed at reducing barriers to care by having therapists, social workers or psychologists located around Brandeis, such as in first-year residence halls and the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, rather than only in the BCC. The BCC also hosts a campus connect program aimed at providing suicide prevention training.

“The idea of the Community Therapy Program was that it’s an

opportunity for folks to get support in a less stigmatized environment,” Steiger said. “That’s to reduce barriers to care, and hopefully for students that wouldn’t ordinarily come to the BCC, they might go see a community therapist.”

Of students who visit the BCC, 10 percent think about suicide several days a week to nearly every day and seven percent of those students report that they intend to kill themselves, according to data distributed in the Campus Connect training and obtained

by The Hoot. Most students visiting the BCC report symptoms of depression and anxiety, with 54 percent reporting moderate to extreme depressive symptoms and 54 percent reporting moderate to extreme anxiety symptoms.

Students go through an assessment process at the BCC to determine if they need to be hospitalized. The BCC evaluates students to try to determine if they are an imminent risk to themselves or others based on several factors, including whether a student is having passive or active suicidal thoughts, like making a plan and intending to carry out that plan, and if the student has exhibited suicidal behavior.

The BCC also looks at factors that increase or decrease a student’s risk for suicide.

“Things that decrease somebody’s risk of suicidal behavior if they’re having suicidal thoughts are things like support from

friends and family and having things in the future that they might be looking forward to,” Steiger said. “Things that tend to increase somebody’s risk are things like having made prior suicide attempts, having somebody in their life who previously made a suicide attempt, a sudden change—like a life change that they’re really unprepared for that’s negative—and not having the support of friends or family.”

“So we sort of put all of those things together in the mix and then try and determine, in this moment, how much of a risk does this person represent,” she continued.

After a student is deemed an imminent risk, the BCC contacts the campus police, who call an ambulance to take the student to the McClain hospital in Belmont, MA. The BCC then daily communicates with the emergency room about the student and recommendations for further treatment.

To be taken away by ambulance, the BCC must use a section of Massachusetts law known as Section 12, titled, “Emergency restraint and hospitalization of persons posing risk of serious harm by reason of mental illness.”

“In Massachusetts, you can’t get into an ambulance unless there’s a Section 12, so in order for an ambulance to transport someone anywhere they have to have a paper that says that,” she said. “This is what Section 12 is, it’s a section of law. It’s a paper that says that

the person’s at risk.”

She continued, “That piece of paper that we fill out to let them take the ambulance ride does not indicate anything about what happens once they are in the care of the emergency room.” When a student arrives at an emergency room, the hospital then becomes responsible for their treatment.

A student can come to the BCC themselves or can be brought in, most often by the Department of Community Living. From the time they meet with a BCC staff member until they leave Brandeis for the hospital, the student is with someone at all times. A member of the campus police will escort the student to the ambulance, after searching the student and checking their belongings for items they could use to hurt themselves or others.

The BCC notifies the Dean of Students Office, which communicates with academic services. Academic services will notify faculty that a student is in the hospital, without explaining the details of the student’s case.

The BCC makes appointments with students returning from the hospital, who can receive longer-term care at the BCC or with an off-campus psychiatrist or therapist. Most students elect to get treatment at the BCC, which has three psychiatrists and fourteen psychologists.

Sasha Skarboviychuk contributed to this report.

Student Union seeks financial aid ‘horror stories’

By Ryan Spencer editor

Student Union President Hannah Brown circulated a Google form in Brandeis Facebook groups earlier this month which invited students to share bad experiences or “horror stories” with financial aid at Brandeis.

The form—which can be submitted anonymously or with identifying information—is part of a larger effort by the Student Union to address student concerns with financial aid.

“A lot of students have issues with financial aid here at Brandeis,” Brown told The Brandeis Hoot, “It’s hard to deny the problem and it really calls for action.”“Part of the problem, I

think, is what the university defines full need as,” she said. “There really is a gap between the calculated full need of aid and the actual living experience of need.” She said that financial aid at Brandeis will be an issue that the Union will explore through research and surveys throughout the semester.

Brown pointed to the final question on the Google form—which asks respondents if they would be “interested in sitting on a panel of students to share [their] story with the Board of Trustees”—as the most important.

She told The Hoot that this question aims to gather students “with powerful stories that really can make a difference” to talk on a panel with a group of Trustees at the end of the month.

Brown has received about 20

responses to the survey so far, she told The Hoot, with several respondents stating they would be willing to participate in the panel.

“I would say there were some really, really sad stories where there is a profound lack of trust or a feeling like the institution doesn’t care,” she said of the responses received thus far.

“Part of the challenge is getting people to share their stories in person, which is really difficult because a lot of that is going to be highly emotional,” she said.

Brown noted that bringing issues directly to the Board of Trustees has brought results on other student issues in the past. “It was largely the students coming to the Board of Trustees which ended up increasing the staff for the counseling center, it was students

that made changes on divestment policy,” she said. “A lot of the decisions are made when students get to speak to the Board.”

The impacts of financial aid can affect student life in multiple ways, according to Brown. “Taking on extra jobs, that’s a difference between calculated need and real need,” she said, noting that taking on too many jobs could leave students with less time for school work and club activities.

She said that financial aid can affect student food security when students move off campus and end up “facing food insecurity because they wanted to save money.”

She also noted that on-campus students could face similar insecurity if they choose cheaper and smaller meal plans to save money.

Students have expressed discon-

tent with financial aid at Brandeis in the past. A Student Financial Survey conducted in 2015 reported “discontent and confusion with the financial aid process,” according to a Hoot article published in October of 2015.

According to a Hoot article, 55.8 percent of respondents to the 2015 survey receive need-based financial aid, and 70.8 percent anticipate graduating with debt. The survey received 769 valid responses, accounting for about one-fifth of the student body at the time.

According to the Brandeis website, “47 percent of admitted students to the Class of 2021 received need-based financial assistance.”

The Student Union plans to hold a campus conversation on financial aid and affordability of campus later in the semester.

Brandeis alumni named U.S. Attorney

By Sabrina Chow editor

Aaron L. Weisman, a Brandeis alumnus, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by voice vote to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Rhode Island on Wednesday, Jan. 2.

Weisman will replace acting U.S. Attorney Stephen Dambruch, who has led the office in Rhode Island temporarily but who stepped down on Jan. 2 after being appointed as the Criminal Division Chief of the Rhode Island Department of the Attorney General, according to an article published by the Warwick Post.

He was succeed by U.S. Attorney Richard B. Myrus, who

held the position for a day before Weisman was confirmed.

Prior to this appointment, Weisman served as an Assistant Attorney General and the Chief of Rhode Island Attorney General’s criminal appeals unit, according to the United States Attorney’s Office District of Rhode Island. He has held the position since January 1993 and has worked under four different attorney generals.

He has previously appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court to defend Rhode Island’s interest in the “finality of its criminal convictions.” Weisman helped to ensure that any disputes that may have arisen in the trial reached a resolution, without the possibility of additional appeals.

Weisman also oversaw the

Rhode Island Attorney General’s post-conviction relief unit. There he ensured the “just and orderly processing of collateral attacks on felony judgments of conviction,” said the U.S. Attorney’s office.

This unit made sure that any attacks on the convictions of felonies were processed, and handled, accordingly.

President Donald Trump announced the “Eighteenth Wave of Judicial Nominees, Eighteenth Wave of United States Attorney Nominees and Thirteenth Wave of United States Marshal Nominees” on Oct. 10 on the White House’s official website. Weisman was among the 16 people that President Trump nominated for various positions.

When this announcement was

released, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, who represent Rhode Island, issued a statement in support of President Trump’s nomination. The statement said Weisman is “dedicated, well-respected and has a record of exemplary service in the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office.

We are confident he will do an effective job serving and protecting the people of Rhode Island.”

Senator Reed and Whitehouse both voiced their confidence in Weisman’s leadership. “Mr. Weisman has the experience to effectively lead the U.S. Attorney’s office for Rhode Island,” Reed said in an official statement. “I am confident that he will provide strong, steady leadership in this role.”

Whitehouse also spoke highly of Weisman. “Mr. Weisman’s record at the Attorney General’s office is exemplary; his personality is caring and thoughtful; I enjoyed working with him; and I am confident he will serve the people of Rhode Island with distinction as our U.S. Attorney,” Whitehouse said in his statement.

Weisman will serve a four-year term as U.S. Attorney once he is sworn in.

Before his appointment as a special assistant attorney general, Weisman worked at Jones Associates, which is a Providence-based law firm that specializes in appellate practice. He received his Juris Doctorate from Cardozo School of Law in New York City, N.Y. and received his B.A. from Brandeis.

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

January 18, 2019

After two and a half years of financial struggle, Schuster Institute closes SCHUSTER, from page 1

least the end of the academic year, Lynch announced in the email. It will be housed in the Ethics Center. The offices the Schuster Institute occupies will return to the library.

Graves hopes that the law project will continue. “In terms of the Justice Brandeis Law Project’s work, public defenders and other lawyers representing indigent clients have significantly fewer resources than police and prosecutors.

And they have told us that they simply can’t afford to hire professionals to do the kind of deep investigation that is often required to make significant progress on a wrongful conviction that has been standing for 20 or 30 years,” she said.

“People who write to us say that we are their last resort.”

Because of the lack of funds, the law project has also suffered.

“We’ve had to turn down people whose cases we would’ve taken if we had had the resources,” Graves said. “Which, as you can imagine, is heartbreaking when people have said you’re their last resort.”

The institute provided many

students with jobs and mentorships from the time of its opening up until its closure. These students were able to learn from hired staff, and many students with a Journalism minor were able to count their work at the institute toward their minor’s internship requirement.

“Working at Schuster taught me a lot of what I know about investigative journalism,” said Elianna Spitzer ’18, former Managing Editor of The Hoot and research assistant at Schuster.

“It gave me a lot of skills that I wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere.”

The center had been slowly winding down to try to preserve the projects and initiatives staff members and fellows worked on, said Graves, in the hopes that the center might receive more funding in donations or grants.

In previous years, the institute had a yearly budget of between $500,000 and $800,000, according to Graves, and about 85 percent of this budget went toward funding staff salaries, Lynch told The Hoot in an email. This past academic year, the budget was reduced to $55,000 to allow projects that were in progress to be completed, and about one-third of that budget was allocated to student wag-

PHOTO BY NOAH HARPER/THE HOOT

es, wrote Lynch.

The university provided $450,000, mainly to cover staff salaries and expenses made to support facilities, utilities and central administrative costs, Lynch told The Hoot. The funds donated by the university were a substantial portion of the institute’s funding, but if an underlying endowment does not exist, free-standing insti-

PHOTO BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

tutes and centers associated with the university are required to generate their own funding to sustain operations.

In the past year, the center had three full-time staff members along with several student research assistants, said Graves. The number of full-time staff varied on the amount of donations and grants the institute received.

The biggest cost to the institute’s budget was people, according to Graves, which includes salaries and other benefits, such as healthcare. The university also took 15 percent of the institute’s budget as an administrative fee.

Many efforts were made to bring in funding and save the institute by senior administration and Florence Graves, the director of the institute. These efforts included outreach to potential donors and foundations.

The biggest source of funding for the institute was the Schuster family, who pledged a $5 million gift that launched the institute in 2004 and helped fund the institute for more than 8 years. The institute also raised funding from other individuals and foundations. The Schuster family is no longer supporting the institute,

and fundraising was challenging in part because many potential donors assumed that the institute was funded by Brandeis and the Schusters, said Graves.

“They couldn’t imagine that we needed more money,” said Graves.

Another obstacle to funding the institute was a lack of an endowment, which meant the institute relied on donations and grants.

“For many of the centers that have endowments, there’s a little less pressure to be constantly raising funding,” Graves said.

The institute also had to compete with an increasing number of non-profit journalistic institutions all applying for the same pool of funding, said Graves.

“And then, when many other non-profits came on the scene, we were all in the same place — knocking on the same foundation’s doors and competing for the same dollars,” she said.

After assessing the feasibility of generating funds necessary to continue operations, Lynch consulted the President, Office of Institutional Advancement, Office of Budget and Finance and the Faculty Senate, and they made the ultimate decision to close the institute.

LATTE receives system updates, implements new course retention policy

By Sabrina Chow editor

The university sent out an InBrief on Jan. 3 announcing that the Learning and Teaching Technology Environment (LATTE) is receiving a system update as well as the implementation of a course retention policy.

“LATTE, was upgraded on January 9, 2019, to a new version in order to maintain security updates, address bug fixes and introduce new features and enhancements,” Christine Jacinto, the ITS Communications Specialist, told The Brandeis Hoot in an email.

According to a handout provided by Information Technology Services (ITS), there are five specific improvements that came with the update. The first improvement is to the software system. “This is the first in a series of changes we are bringing to LATTE to improve the overall

experience,” said the handout.

ITS will also continue regular maintenance checks throughout the semester and “will continue to review and assess the system as it considers future requests for functionality enhancements,” Jacinto told The Hoot.

In the text editing toolbar of LATTE, students and faculty are now able to record and attach audio and video into their class pages, giving the opportunity to embed media into their assignments.

Some examples listed on the handout include instructors providing welcome/introduction videos for their classes or giving foreign language professors the opportunity to record audio for students for them to use during their coursework and to help evaluate their learning without taking up class time.

The “New Participants” and “Enrollments” screens have also been combined for faculty use only. Professors will now be able

to see all the participants in the course on one screen. Different parameters can be used to show specific groups of students, such as group enrollment status.

Students who have dropped the course will not show up on either of the screens anymore, in an effort to reduce the amount of confusion.

This will also allow faculty to directly enroll individuals in the course without having the trouble of first going through SAGE. The new “Group Choice” activity will now allow students to organize themselves into groups within LATTE. While professors are able to limit the number of groups and students per group, students can decide for themselves which group they want to join.

Professors are now able to restrict their submission file types.

When creating assignments, professors can limit which files are allowed to be uploaded, preventing

any unwanted file formats. According to Jacinto, faculty members were originally only allowed to request certain file types, but now they are able to specifically indicate which file types are able to be submitted.

The other new major addition to LATTE is the new Course Retention Policy through ITS that became effective on Jan. 1, 2019.

The objectives of the retention policy according to the handout is to “define how long course materials contained within the LATTE (Moodle) Learning Management System will be retained; Describe the best practices on how to backup and import LATTE (Moodle) course materials; Optimize performance of Latte (Moodle).”

“The course retention policy was written in collaboration with stakeholders across campus to determine the appropriate retention period for which courses should remain within LATTE,” explained Jacinto. “The policy ensures opti-

mization of system performance which directly impacts the students by allowing for a responsive learning management system.”

The main purpose of this policy is to increase the performance ability of LATTE by eliminating previous iterations of the same course material that may be repetitive. “LATTE is not designed for unlimited course storage,” the handout explains.

“And carrying materials over indefinitely can diminish the performance of the application and divert resources better used on current support and enhancements.”

The new retention period is six academic terms and any courses older than six terms will be archived and recoverable for an additional year. Any courses that were created prior to the Spring 2017 academic term will be archived and the courses created prior to Spring 2016 will be permanently removed.

January 18, 2019

OPINIONS

The Brandeis Hoot 5

In support of a decentralized, intersectional Women’s March

By Sarah Terrazano editor

There is nowhere you should be this Saturday aside from the Women’s March.

This year’s Boston march centers around the theme, “Until All Voices Are Heard.” While it is bound to not be as large as the original 2017 march, it’s still an important reinvigoration of the fight for equality and a rebuttal to the racist, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic presidency.

As a college student, this is especially the time to support causes you believe in and put in the necessary legwork. The 2017 march was the largest coordinated demonstration in the world, and we have the chance to be part of its legacy going forward. Sure, the initial shock of the election has worn off, and Congress now has a record number of women in the House and Senate. But we are nowhere near finished in the fight for equality, and the recurring Women’s Marches are evident of that. It is time to focus on an intersectional fight for women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community. The time to march has not passed.

This is not to say that the Women’s March is a faultless cause. The controversy around the march has blown up in recent months, from accusations of anti-Semitism directed towards the national organization, to fears that the national leaders are going to trademark the Women’s March “brand” and possibly restrict how satellite organizations use the

name and other march rhetoric.

The resulting fears are valid— how can one organization own the phrase “Women’s March?”

Isn’t that counterintuitive to the foundation and goals of the march? The movement was born to uplift and unite women around the world, not restrict groups under one parent organization.

Of course, then the concern is how to maintain a unified platform without national leadership—but is that really so necessary? Why should a movement that is so far-reaching, and involves so many different kinds of people, be centralized in one city, with one leadership board?

It’s a broader question about how unification works for social justice causes or missions, and it’s one without a clear answer.

But we can look at something like the #MeToo movement for comparison. While it is not the same as the Women’s March, #MeToo is a national movement to raise awareness from often-silenced or marginalized voices from survivors of sexual assault. It is not limited to women, although women have led the charge in coming forward about sexual assault, but men have opened up about their experiences as well.

The other key difference is that #MeToo is a movement—not an organization. Its power emerged on social media with a hashtag, and it is on social media where its influence into more mainstream news outlets began. It can be used by anyone who wants to use it, can be applied to people’s specific experiences and cannot be owned by one person. Why should the

Women’s March be so different?

It is absurd to be fighting over who “owns” the Women’s March name or “brand,” just as it is counterproductive to try to limit or exclude smaller, local organizations hosting their own marches. The national branch of the march, in DC, should not set the rules for the rest of the country.

No one will ever be completely satisfied. And in such a large, widespread movement, it is particularly impossible. Critics lash out against the pink pussy hats because not all women have vaginas. Others criticize the march’s white feminism. Some don’t want to associate themselves with a majority pro-choice platform.

Shockingly, not all women advocate for the same thing. But what is important is ensuring a space for all women to feel represented and validated and for women with more privilege than others—such as white women—to recognize and counteract the marginalizations that oppress other women.

Intersectionality is vital—recognizing that many women have double-edged swords of oppression, such as being black and female, or trans and Latina, or gay and lower class; the list goes on.

We all need to recognize and uphold that marching for “women” in general must include all types of women, especially women who are more marginalized than others. This is the motivation behind Boston’s theme this year: “We march forward, until all voices are heard.” But it does not mean that if you don’t agree with the pussy hats, or you think the marches are whitewashed, that you

CARTOON BY HELEN WONG/THE HOOT

should stay home or stay silent.

The Women’s March should not be an organization or a corporation, or anything that implies singularity—as a movement, it is something that is widespread and has the freedom to evolve.

It necessitates people working together and learning from other perspectives. A movement changes and takes different shapes based

on who’s participating in a shifting social climate. And I think it is better to add your voice to the mix than to glower in shortcomings.

It’s important to participate locally and show how the movement has nationwide influence, thanks to the leaders of your city.

The Boston Women’s March is this Saturday, Jan. 19, at 10 a.m. on the Common. See you there.

The social implications of offensive humor

By Alex Kougasian staff

When enjoying the art of comedy, it is inevitable that one encounters a joke or a bit that uses a premise that is shockingly offensive. Yet, in some circumstances, this form of joke proves itself to be overwhelmingly funny. Why is this? And what is required for this seemingly warped comedic formula to work?

A valuable case study for answering these types of questions is the Michael Richards’ racist rant against African American hecklers at the Laugh Factory comedy club in November of 2006. He used blatantly offensive language and referenced some truly hateful stereotypes in an angry tone that made the viral video clip from the event difficult to watch.

Michael Richards appeared on “Letterman” to apologize for the incident and Letterman asked the question, “Did you think that somehow, by being outrageous and completely inappropriate, that it might somehow [...] diffuse it a bit?” Richards responded with, “Yeah I tried to do that. [...] You know you do that. I’ve got a microphone in my hand; I’m trying but it didn’t work out.”

Letterman’s question highlights the significance of Richards’ incident in the grander scope of comedy. Comedians often find themselves walking a metaphor-

ical tightrope. Leaning too much in either direction will lead to a long fall from grace. On one end, the comedian may lose prevalence for being too inoffensive or not fully following through with the creativity of their ideas in fear of the potential social fallout. On the other end, the comedian may lose all ethical ground, and, with it, their entire career.

It is important to note that some gifted comedians find success and a profoundly meaningful voice without resorting to the use of shocking language or offensive premises. But not all comedic styles foster that luxury.

It is clear on which side Richards fell. As I understand the situation, Richards’ problem was that he used this offensive language against hecklers at whom he was already angry. Given the genuine display of emotion, it is impossible to see Richards playing a character or being ironic as he berates the hecklers with racist insults.

This case shows the necessity for a comedian to not only be funny but know why what they say is funny. Without that critical self-awareness, a comedian will quickly find themselves on either the unsuccessful or morally insensitive sides of the tightrope.

In theory, this would be the end of the discussion, except that the vast majority of cases of offensive comedy are not nearly as clear-cut as Richards’. Take, for example, Dave Chappelle’s controversial

raping superhero bit in which Chappelle describes a superhero who must rape people to save lives.

This joke is seen as acceptable by some and criticised by others, but for a host of different reasons.

Some believe that if Chappelle is going to reference rape jokingly he must use it in service of a more important point while others argue that he was drawing a worthwhile moral comparison between saving a life and preventing the trauma of rape. There are also those who feel that he should never be referencing rape in such a lighthearted context.

I am not in any position to say what criticism is fair or unfair. I do believe it is important, however, for all consumers of comedy to understand that Dave Chappelle along with every other comedian is walking that tightrope. I would argue that this dilemma warrants a greater widespread forgiveness of comedians.

It seems to be that the most commonly accepted form of offensive humor is that which most clearly presents an outlandishly problematic premise in an ironic manner that flips and undermines that premise in order to make a reasonable and cogent point.

A more worrisome issue underlies this otherwise fairly harmless problem regarding acceptable comedy. In September of 2017, the 17-page style guide for The Daily Stormer, a Neo-Nazi aligned website, was acquired and

published by the Huffington Post.

The entire document is a disturbing yet intriguing look at the strategies a hateful organization uses to persuade. One such tactic is described thusly on page 11 of the guide: “The unindoctrinated should not be able to tell if we are joking or not. There should also be a conscious awareness of mocking stereotypes of hateful racists. I usually think of this as self-deprecating humor—I am a racist making fun of stereotypes of racists, because I don’t take myself super-seriously. This is obviously a ploy and I actually do want to gas kikes. But that’s neither here nor there.”

From this, it is reasonable to conclude that some white supremacist groups are aware of the hateful nature of their viewpoint and consequently want to shroud those genuine statements of hate behind a veil of irony.

Comedians use irony to convey a meaning that is opposite to what they say, but it seems as if some truly hateful individuals and organizations are inclined to co-opt that artistic device for usage as a medium for hate.

Michael Richards has demonstrated that if a comedian makes an offensive joke, but their intentions or emotions seem to align with what they said, there is no room for irony and the offensive joke merely becomes an offensive statement. This can easily lead to a comedian be-

ing called a bigot for making a statement they never intended to make. But the reverse is also true.

The truly hateful can use irony to make hateful statements into more socially acceptable and even humorous content that is intended to tear at the fabric of our linguistic and moral understanding of what is right. And The Daily Stormer style guide reveals that those hateful people are ready and willing to do just that.

This presents yet another dilemma for the comedian. Is it that by using irony to make shocking, yet meaningful jokes comedians are contributing to a veil of irony that prevents hateful individuals from being forced to fully confront the social ramifications of their viewpoint? I would argue that the answer to that question is a soft yes.

While I think using irony contributes to the ambiguity surrounding hateful speech, it would be absurd to deem immoral every artistic medium and device that has the potential to be used for hateful purposes. Ultimately, I believe that it is the responsibility of the individual to think critically about the intent behind such humor just as it is the responsibility of the comedian to convey their intent as clearly as they can given an ironically presented premise. If done effectively, the well-meaning consumers and purveyors of comedy can use jokes to strengthen their moral understanding rather than confuse it.

6 OPINIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

January 18, 2019

For the sake of British democracy, Brexit must proceed

By Joesph Silber staff

March 29 will mark one of the most consequential days for the global economy in recent memory—the United Kingdom is scheduled to withdraw from the European Union (EU), sending the world’s fifth largest economy into a period of deep economic uncertainty.

Yet many pro-European lawmakers are determined to make sure that day never arrives. The Scottish National Party (SNP) and Liberal Democrats, two centre-left parties in the House of Commons, have called for a second referendum to be held in order to reverse the Brexit process altogether. And according to a recent poll conducted by the ESRC Party Members Project, 72 percent of Labour Party voters support the idea of a second referendum as well.

While this option could help Britain avoid the economic un-

certainty that is sure to follow its separation from the EU, it would call into question the United Kingdom’s commitment to democracy and respecting the will of its voters. Just three years ago, 52 percent of the British people voted to leave the EU, regardless of whether or not there was a negotiated exit agreement reached between the two parties.

Unfortunately, the past three years, which were set out to be a period of negotiating Britain’s exit terms from the EU, have been a colossal waste of time.

The governing Conservative Party has been marred by intraparty fighting between Brexit hardliners, who want a clean separation from the EU regardless of the economic consequences, and soft Brexiteers, who want to fulfill the will of the referendum while at the same time maintaining a close partnership with the EU. Meanwhile, the three main opposition parties, Labour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats, remain unified in opposition to

any Brexit agreement reached between Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU. Given the slim parliamentary advantage held by the Conservatives, it is inevitable that March 29 will arrive without any exit agreement approved by the House of Commons.

The question facing the United Kingdom is whether it is better off abandoning the will of the voters or exiting the EU without any negotiated agreement.

It’s clear that neither of these two options are preferable, as British Parliament failed in its duty to approve a sensible deal that would have mitigated the economic damage that will be done post-March 29. Some have called for the March 29 deadline to be postponed for several more months, but that would raise further questions as to the U.K.’s commitment to fulfilling Brexit, given the fact that the government couldn’t reach an agreement for three years.

And the Labour Party has called for a snap general election to be

held in the event of a “no deal” exit scenario, yet the prospect of far-left Prime Minister Corbyn, who has been marred by controversies surrounding anti-Semitism, would further rattle the markets post-March 29.

Ultimately, May, in spite of facing constant criticism from those on the left and the far right for her negotiating tactics, has put Britain on the best path forward given the difficult circumstances.

She has prepared “no deal” contingency plans in order to prepare the country for life outside of the EU, and has ruled out remaining in the EU, holding a second referendum, or postponing the March 29 exit deadline, each of which would represent a slap in the face to the 17.4 million Brits who voted to leave the EU, and call into question the value of holding free and fair elections in the future.

Reneging on Brexit would be the American equivalent of overturning the 2016 Presidential election as a result of the uncertainty surrounding Don-

ald Trump, a frightening scenario that would have resulted in widespread violence throughout the country. Instead of moaning over their election loss and Russia’s election interference, Democrats spent the next two years organizing on the grassroots level, recruiting an impressive and diverse group of candidates on their way to capturing the House of Representatives last November.

Rather than betraying the will of the British people, the U.K. would be wise to accept the result of the referendum and part from the EU on March 29. It could then quickly iron out free trade agreements with the EU, United States, China and other major economies, restoring confidence in the global economy.

Ultimately, the short-term pain inflicted by certain election results is outmatched by the long-term benefits of democracy. As Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried from time to time.”

Student Sexuality Information Services: advice column

By SSIS special to the hoot

Welcome back to the SSIS col-

“How partner

do

to

I

umn, where we answer any and all of Brandeis students’ questions about sex, sexuality, identity and relationships! If you have a question you’d like answered

in our next column, email ssis@ brandeis.edu or leave a question in the Google Form link on our Facebook page. Any and all questions are welcome: There are no

bad, stupid or weird questions!

(Note: These answers are good-faith attempts by SSIS to be helpful to the Brandeis community, and are by no means

exhaustive or to be taken as universal. If these answers don’t resonate with you, either pay them no mind, or reach out to us with suggestions for improvement!)

That said, there are some discuss anal play, specific toys or get my come?” specific techniques that many more. If you’re curious about these

Thank you for asking this question! It’s a tough one: Getting your partner to come can be challenging, whether you consider yourself sexually experienced or not. Since each body is vastly different from the next, each partner you have will likely want very different things sexually.

Therefore, communication is key.

Maybe ask your partner what they do to make themselves come: Masturbating and finding out what makes you feel good can be one of the best ways to empower you to communicate what you want with your partner. Perhaps, if you are both comfortable, they can even demonstrate for you.

This can be a great way to see what feels good for them. Many people have cultural, religious or other reasons not to masturbate. If this is the case, it’s important not to push or pressure them about it.

Listening is a crucial skill for improving sex with partners, whether that means asking them directly, or listening to their noises and body movement during sex. Asking questions and being curious are great ways to enhance sexual situations. Again, everyone has a different comfort level when it comes to talking about sexuality, so always try to be mindful and courteous of boundaries.

It’s important to keep in mind that, while having an orgasm is a great thing, it’s not the be-all and end-all to a satisfying sexual situation. Some people find that they can only orgasm when alone, and that’s totally okay. Others don’t orgasm at all. Having a conversation with your partner about your sexual goals and desired outcomes can help determine what’s working and what needs improvement in terms of your shared sexual life.

find help them to orgasm.

If your partner has a vagina/ vulva, clitoral stimulation is often key. Clitoral sensitivity varies from person to person, so proceed with caution and monitor your partner’s reactions to what you’re doing. The clitoris is mostly internal, so often indirect stimulation can feel really good.

Some may find direct stimulation too intense, and some may like it. They may not necessarily enjoy vaginal penetration, so that’s a good thing to ask about too.

If your partner does want to be penetrated, start out small; begin with one finger and increase if your partner asks you to. Another technique to try is to make a “come hither” motion with your finger(s) while inside your partner, which stimulates the G-zone, although there are many different techniques that may feel good. Once you find something that your partner says or indicates feels good, it often pays to keep doing that specific technique: consistency is key for many vagina owners. Again, it’s always important to ask, for everyone has different preferences.

If your partner has a penis, here are some techniques to start out. The head of the penis is one of its most sensitive parts.

Whether stimulating orally, manually or otherwise, the head (or glans) of the penis is definitely important. Also, the frenulum (which connects the glans to the shaft on the underside of the penis) is a very sensitive spot for many, and some may find stimulation of it pleasurable. Again, everyone’s body is different, so it’s important to ask what your partner likes.

Of course, there are infinite ways to increase sexual pleasure.

If we had more space, we might

things, or have any other questions, please submit a question to ssis@brandeis.edu or through the form on our Facebook page!

There can often be a lot of pressure to orgasm during sex.

Though it’s awesome to have a variety of tools and techniques in order to help this happen, it’s important to know that sex does not always have to include orgasm to be pleasurable. Every sexual interaction is different and every partner is different, so try taking the pressure off of yourself and your partner and simply focus on having fun!

“I want to use lube, but I have no idea where to start! Help?”

You’ve come to the right place! SSIS sells several different brands and types of lubes.

We sell packets of lubrication for $0.25, small bottles for $3.50 and large bottles for $10.

There are quite a few different types of lube: water-based, silicone-based, hybrid (usually around 85 percent water-based and 15 percent silicone-based) and oil-based.

It is important to recognize the differences between these lubes, as the lube’s makeup impacts which situations they can be used in, and what materials can be safely used with them as well. Whether you purchase your lubes at SSIS or not, always be sure to check if the lube is body-safe. (All of the lubes SSIS sells are body-safe.)

Water-based lube is one of the more commonly found lubes; since they are water-based, they are easy to clean off of clothing and bedding, absorb into the skin, and are compatible with all sex toys and all barrier meth-

PHOTO COURTESY SSIS

ods/condoms. They do tend to dry out faster than other kinds of lubes, but can be reactivated with water (or saliva). Some water-based lubes contain glycerin and paraben, so if you are sensitive to these ingredients or prone to vaginal/urinary infections, you may want to avoid lubes with these ingredients. Many people enjoy the thicker, “cushion-y” quality of water-based lubes. The water-based lubes offered at SSIS include Please Gel, Aneros Sessions and Sliquid Swirl (which comes in six unique flavors!).

Silicone-based lubes are more slippery and longer-lasting than water-based lubes, and are not water soluble. Thus, they are harder to wash off than water-based lubes. This type of lube is compatible with all barrier methods, and with some toys.

Silicone-based lube can degrade silicone toys, however. The silicone-based lubes offered at SSIS include: Pjur, Gun oil and Pink.

Hybrid lubes combine the qualities of water-based and sil-

icone-based lubes, often having the thicker quality of water based lubes with the longer-lasting properties of silicone lubes.

If used with pure silicone toys, the lube may degrade the material, so do test out the lube on a non-essential part of the toy before using it on that toy. The hybrid lubes offered at SSIS include Please Cream and Sliquid Silk.

Oil-based lube takes a while for the skin to absorb, so is pretty long-lasting, but can interfere with the vagina’s self-cleaning mechanisms and also destroy the material of latex and polyurethane condoms, so DO NOT use it in these situations. SSIS carries a penis owner masturbatory cream called “Stroke 29,” which contains oil, so if you are using this product be mindful of the safety concerns that come with oil-based products.

When trying any lube for the first time, test it out to see if the consistency and feel works for you, and to make sure you are not allergic to its ingredients.

FEATURES

January 18, 2019

The Brandeis Hoot 7

Grant provides funds for social justice-in-action events

By Sabrina Chow editor

The Brenda Meehan Social Justice-In-Action Grant provides an unique opportunity to undergraduate students to bring together both an academic and activist perspective on pressing public policy issues that face the United States and the world.

According to their website, these issues include healthcare, immigration, harassment, criminal justice reform and climate change.

By no means is this an exhaustive list; qualifying for the project only means that the subject has to relate to a current public policy issue.

The selection committee for the grant looks at five key factors according to their website. The first key factor is the incorporation of “both academic and activist social justice perspectives in meaningful ways.”

According to Lauren Jordahl, the academic administrator for the Sociology department, Social Justice and Social Policy (SJSP) minor and the Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies minor at Brandeis, the committee is looking for student programs that bring both of these aspects to the Brandeis community.

“We encourage students to make connections with other students to put on these types of events but also to bring in other organizations and clubs and have it be a campus initiative,” Jordahl told The Brandeis Hoot.

The second and third factor is the involvement of the Brandeis campus and community. The event must be free to all members of the Brandeis community to incorporate as many people as possible.

“Students oftentimes have phenomenal ideas but lack the proper funds to make that happen,” explained Jordahl. “So if you have the idea, we are available as resources to help them frame it.”

The fourth and fifth factors are the collaboration between student organizations, undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff. Jordahl explained that a lot of the projects they fund are extensions of ongoing initiatives that students may already be involved in and want to explore further.

“Any student organized event that could bring social justice-inspired activities to campus are encouraged,” said Jordahl.

The steering committee that chooses the projects reviews the proposals to see the impact that each would have on the Brandeis community. “We really look at

PHOTOS FROM BRANDEIS.EDU

Some of the 2018 recipients of the Brenda Meehan Social Justice-In-Action Grant include the Brandeis Asian American Task Force & Brandeis Asian American Students Association, Miriam Berro Krugman & Brandeis Democrats and Sharon Cai & Food Recovery Network.

PREVIOUS GRANT RECIPIENTS

what we think could be expanded as an initiative brought to campus and how could the campus community benefit,” explained Jordahl. “We really like the collaborative nature of students working with other students, involving other organizations and groups on campus. Just bringing people together as part of the initiative around social justice is really important.”

Jordahl welcomes all students who are interested in applying to reach out to her or Melissa Stimell, the program chair for the SJSP program, for any assistance or guidance that they might need in coming up with their propos-

als.

“We are very hands on with the students if they want that or need the expertise or guidance along the way so we can really work with once we decide that we are going to fund their project,” explained Jordahl.

Students interested in applying need to submit their application, which contains five parts. The first is contact information for the applicant as well as any co-sponsoring clubs or organizations. Next is a one paragraph summary of the proposed event and a brief statement that provides background on the experience of off-campus speakers, if applicable.

Applicants will also need to provide an itemized budget estimate for their event, along with any other sources of funding.

Finally, a 500 word statement that describes the “organization and anticipated impact of the event(s), the full set of anticipated participants, and whether or not off-campus participants have already committed to participate,” according to the website.

Students applying can receive up to $1500 to support their events.

Applications are due by 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 8 and should be sent to Stimell at stimell@ brandeis.edu.

Featured Events Calendar Ninth Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Interfaith Service

Monday, Jan. 21, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., Levin Ballroom Come honor and learn from the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (19291968), pack meals for food pantries & congregations that serve the homeless community and participate in social justice discussions with Brandeis clubs and local non-profits. Workshops for the day include: Chaplains on Way—Spiritual Companioning, Prejudice or Empathy with CMM’s IFYI Program Director Shelton Oakley Hersey, Habitat for Humanity, Community Day Center of Waltham, with activities for younger kids too. Held by the Department of Spiritual and Religious Life, with on-campus partners: the Office of Communications, The Waltham Group, Intercultural Center, and International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, the MKTYP Program and the MLK Fellows in Academic Services, together with Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries.

13th Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial: There Is No Him Without Us

Monday, Jan. 21, 6:30-10 p.m., SCC Theater We will be celebrating Black excellence at Brandeis as we note the 50th anniversary of AAAS! Let us be the love that h8 can’t stop.

After the main event, please enter the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium for the second annual Brandeis University MLK Sound Collection featuring Radio Station 94.5’s best D.J. and Brandeis Alum, “DJ DCASO.” The first 30 minutes will be music from the ’60s and ’70s, the next 30 minutes will be Latin-fused and the final 30 minutes will be all that is “now.” The Brandeis University MLK Sound Collection will end at 10 p.m.

Accessibility Forum

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2-3:30 p.m.

In response to important outreach from groups of concerned students, we are pleased to invite you to a forum on accessibility on campus. The goal of the forum is to learn more about and develop possible next steps for improving accessibility for community members with disabilities.

This event will be moderated by Dr. Mark Brimhall-Vargas, Chief Diversity Officer/ Vice President of Diversity Equity, & Inclusion and Dr. Kim Godsoe, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs. Members from administrative, staff and faculty offices and departments will be in attendance. CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) or Real-Time Captioning will be provided at the forum.

Ariel Burger Remembers Elie Wiesel

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 7-8:45 p.m., Usdan International Lounge Ariel Burger first met Elie Wiesel at age fifteen.They studied together and taught together. In his recently published book, “Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom,” Burger describes the unexpected ways that Elie Wiesel communicated the Holocaust’s universal lessons to his students. Using his own personal journey from boyhood to manhood as a backdrop, from student and assistant to rabbi and, in time, teacher, Burger chronicles the intimate conversations between them over decades as he sought counsel on matters of intellect, spirituality, and faith.

’Deis Hacks

Saturday, Jan. 26, 8 a.m. – Sunday, Jan. 27, 2 p.m., Farber Library, Mezzanine Hosted by the Brandeis MakerLab partnered with the Brandeis International Business School, this year’s ‘Deis Hacks is an evolution of the Printathon and Codestellation hack-events with a community engagement twist! Expanding on last spring’s Hackathon, the Waltham community facing “Social Design Challenge on Disequity,” we are sourcing our hack-challenges from the 30-or-so not-for-profits and social enterprise organizations local to Waltham.

Instead of having a single hackathon challenge, this event’s theme will fuse design thinking, digital fabrication and social impact to work on real world solutions for non-profit companies. Each hackathon team will chose a design challenge from Waltham’s diverse non-profit community they find compelling to focus on.

Close Looking: Howardena Pindell’s Untitled #18

Wednesday, Feb. 6, 3:30-5 p.m., Rose Art Museum Organized by the Mandel Center For the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber Archives and Special Collections at the Brandeis Library, this interdisciplinary series features engaged looking and active discussion about art and other objects housed in Brandeis collections. In this session, John Wardle (Astrophysics) will discuss Untitled #18 by Howardena Pindell on view at the Rose in Howardena Pindell: What Remains To Be Seen.

Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective: A Talk Campus Celebration for the with Joy Ladin Thursday, Feb. 7, 5-7 p.m., SCC Opening of Howardena Pindell: Multi-Purpose Room, Second What Remains To Be Seen Floor Friday, Feb. 1, 2-5 p.m., Rose Art Museum Join us in celebration of the opening of Howardena Pindell: What Remains To Be Seen! Meet the artist at a book signing, go on a curatorial tour of the exhibition and enjoy snacks, great music and giveaways.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Artist Talk: Karin Rosenthal

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 5-8 p.m., Epstein, Women’s Study Research Center WSRC Scholar Karin Rosenthal will discuss her current work and Kniznick Gallery exhibition, Half-Silvered. Reception to follow.

Joy Ladin, the first openly transgender professor in an Orthodox institution, will read from her new book, “The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah From a Transgender Perspective” (Brandeis University Press/HBI Series on Jewish Women). Ladin will discuss the need for this trans perspective, as well as her process and journey. She is a professor of English at Stern College/Yeshiva University. Book signing and reception to follow.

- Compiled by Jennifer Cook

8 FEATURES

The Brandeis Hoot

January 18, 2019

Brandeis welcomes midyears to campus

By Shruthi Manjunath staff

Being a first-year in college is hard enough, but imagine beginning your first semester at Brandeis in January. While other first-years rejoice to see their friends after a long and restful break, you have to tackle adjusting to the freezing temperatures in New England, finding your classes in the maze that is the Brandeis campus and figuring out how the points versus meal swipe system works.

Although students may think beginning college after your peers have settled in is a scary task, in

some ways, it is completely the opposite of that. First of all, most individuals on campus, whether they are first-years beginning their second semester or upperclassmen, are willing to help individuals in any way possible.

Brandeis is full of friendly people who will always assist those in need. All you have to do is ask!

Additionally, in contrast to Orientation for first-years, which involves around 100 Orientation Leaders (OLs) for the many students beginning their semester in August, there are usually only around 20 midyear OLs since there are fewer midyear students.

This creates a more intimate environment in which students feel

closer to their peers and OLs. It allows for more personal relationships, in which people form bonds that sometimes last them all throughout college.

This year, the class of ’22 welcomed 110 midyear students.

These students spent the first semester in various environments, such as working at Capitol Hill, traveling in Europe, volunteering in shelters or working at museums. Other individuals may have taken classes at colleges close to home, or they may have worked at jobs or internships. Some students may have made valuable friendships with other students, however, others may have been alone in their endeavors. Orientation gives these students the opportunity to meet others who are in a similar situation and not feel so alone as they transition to life at Brandeis. Bonds can form between these students which will allow for individuals to have a happier and more successful first few weeks at Brandeis. OL Sam Forman ’21 explained that “my favorite part of being a January OL is the opportunity to help out incoming students who are in a pretty unique position.”

Both first-year and midyear Orientations involve lots of energy, which is supplied by the wonderful OLs who spend a whole week training for the arrival of new students. Furthermore, these OLs conduct their tours in the freezing cold, which is even more impressive. Many of these OLs were previously midyears

PHOTOS FROM INSTAGRAM.COM

themselves, which allows them to provide the best possible advice to these incoming students.

Orientation is important, as individuals are transitioning into a new stage in their life. I am currently a first-year, and Orientation allowed me to meet people who were just as nervous as I was to adjust to a new environment and make friends. Through Orientation, I realized that college is not a scary place at all, in fact, it is quite the opposite. People are so kind and willing to go out of their way to help you in any way possible. I hope that midyear students have a similar experience and realize that college is a wonderful place

where people learn and grow over the course of four years.

Lastly, Forman highlights that “I always stressed to my grouplets this semester, as well as my transfer students during fall Orientation, that there is no difference between them and fall, first-year admits. Everyone at Brandeis is a Brandeisian. I also hope they gained the resources necessary to tackle any difficult situations that arise during their Brandeis career.”

Hopefully midyear Orientation has provided the new students with the tools that will allow them to be successful in their first semester at Brandeis.

Brandeis prof. wins 2018 National Jewish Book Award

By Polina Potochevska editor

Brandeis professors, like their students, are hard at work during the school year. If they are not teaching classes or giving talks on campus, they can often be found working on their own independent projects and research. Jonathan Decter, Associate Professor and the Edmond J. Safra Professor of Sephardic Studies, of the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS) Department, is one such professor.

Decter has won the Jewish Book Council’s 2018 National Jewish Book Award in the field of Sephardic culture for his book titled “Dominion Built of Praise: Panegyric and Legitimacy Among Jews in the Medieval Mediterranean.”

Published by the University of

Pennsylvania Press, Decter wrote to The Brandeis Hoot that the book is about “Jewish culture in the medieval Mediterranean (including Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Southern France, and Sicily) as seen through the lens of praise writing (panegyric), i.e., texts written in praise of people.”

Decter explained that these texts “tell us a great deal about how Jews idealized their leadership, usually with a blend of qualities that emanated from traditional Jewish and contemporary Islamic or Christian culture.”

The book also discusses topics such as inter-religious relations found in texts that Jews wrote in honor of non-Jewish rulers, and political and theological issues, “such as the tensions that arise when people dedicate praise to God and to humans at one and the same time,” said Decter. According to an article written by BrandeisNOW, Decter will accept the Mimi S. Frank Award in Memory of Becky Levy on March 5 in New York City.

Decter began teaching at Brandeis in 2002 after finishing graduate school. Some of his favorite courses to teach include NEJS 144A: Jews in the World of Islam, NEJS 155A: Maimonides: A Jewish Thinker in the Islamic World and NEJS 3A: Religions of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, FYS 53a: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain and NEJS 177b: Judeo-Arabic Literature.

Some of his favorite parts of being in the Brandeis community are “its strengths in Jewish and Islamic Studies,” “the commitment to the humanities and the liberal

arts,” its activist history and the “warm community and bright students.”

Decter’s inspiration for “Dominion Built of Praise” began when he was a graduate student, as he noticed that “some panegyric texts praised flesh and blood humans with the very words with which God is praised in the Hebrew Bible and in the Jewish liturgy.”

Decter realized that there was a large amount of Jewish writings in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic, Arabic written in Hebrew script, that had not been analyzed systematically. He explains that this is largely due to the fact that the texts were “anathema to contemporary literary tastes and perceived as boring.”

“Quite often I find that things that seem boring or strange to us (it seemed inexplicable that medieval Jews spent so much time and ink praising one another) turn out to be truly fascinating when thought about the right way,” said Decter.

Although the idea of the project began for Decter as a graduate student, he first worked on his dissertation, which later became his first book, “Iberian Jewish Literature: Between al-Andalus and Christian Europe,” published in 2007. Once that had been released, Decter returned to his prior interest, which would eventually become “Dominion Built of Praise.”

Decter said it felt wonderful to discover that his work had won the award. “While writing a project of that magnitude over such a long period, you often feel that you are toiling in the dark and

PHOTOS FROM BRANDEIS.EDU

Prof. Decter (NEJS) has been awarded for his work in the field of Sephardic culture.

NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD WINNER

wondering if anyone will find it to be of value. I hope that the book will reach audiences in Jewish Studies, Islamic and Mediterranean Studies and Hebrew and Arabic Literature,” said Decter.

The professor is currently on sabbatical with a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies working on a project called “The Jewish Discovery of Religion in the Medieval Mediterranean.”

It will study how Jews living in Islamic territories came to compare

Judaism “somewhat systematically with other religions, not only Islam and Christianity but also Hinduism, Buddhism and even systems of idolatry.”

“Of course they believed that their own religion was superior to those of others, but the very fact that they thought they could be compared was something new.

I study this shift as result of the Jewish engagement with Muslim writings on religions of the world,” said Decter.

January 18, 2019

NEW BARK

WEEK IN PHOTOS

PHOTO BY SARAH TERRAZANO/THE HOOT

He’s coming for you.

DISNEY WORLD

Only for the Dole Whip.

PHOTO BY EMMA LICHTENSTEIN/THE HOOT

BEMCO BEMCo welcomed a new truck into commission.

CHINA One

CATS

Two black cats is good luck right?

fish, two fish, white fish, orange fish, all the fish.

PHOTO BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

EIC

The Brandeis Hoot 9

PHOTO COURTESY JACOB DIAZ

PHOTO BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

Abigail Gardener neigh-ver wants to leave Iceland. PHOTO BY ABIGAIL GARDENER/THE HOOT

EDITORIALS

10 The Brandeis Hoot

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editors-in-Chief Abigail Gardener Sarah Terrazano Managing Editor Emily Botto Senior Editor Ryan Spencer Copy Editor Natalie Fritzson Deputy Copy Editor Jennifer Cook News Editor Celia Young Deputy News Editor Rachel Saal Arts Editors Ben Beriss Noah Harper Opinions Editor Sabrina Chow Features Editor Polina Potochevska Sports Editors Zach Cihlar Shea Decker-Jacoby Layout Editor Candace Ng Social Media Editor Emma Lichtenstein

Volume 16 • Issue 1 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

STAFF

Lucy Braverman, Emma Belkin, Camila Casanueva, Kevin Costa, Katie Decker-Jacoby, Chris DeMena, Olivia Ellson, Daniel Freedman, Jonah Koslofsky, Jackie Kostenko, Alex Kougasian, Jenna Lifschitz, Josh Lannon, Shruthi Manjunath, Gillian O'Malley, Thalia Plata, Sasha Skarboviychuk, Zachary Sosland, Sophie Trachtenberg, Rachel Wang, Hannah Wilson, Helen Wong

January 18, 2019

Rest in peace, Schuster Institute

L

amentably, after 14 years of investigative reporting at Brandeis, the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism closed its doors in December 2018.

According to an email from Provost Lisa Lynch announcing the closure, the Schuster Institute was the first investigative reporting center at a university when Florence Graves founded it in 2004. Due to the increasing difficulty of fundraising, the institute unfortunately ran out of funding and will no longer be operating.

The Schuster Institute leaves behind a long and impressive legacy in reporting on human rights and social justice. It has tackled issues such as human trafficking, border policies, government wrongdoing, environmental justice, international adoption fraud, sexual harassment and gender justice. The institute has been a pioneer in non-profit impact journalism, releasing its reporting through public broadcasts and magazines and discussing results on radio, television and social

media. Its website is home to documents and source materials that readers and policymakers can use to further examine the issues.

Throughout its 14 years, the institute has helped exonerate wrongly convicted men, such as Angel Echavarria and George Perrot, through the work of the Justice Brandeis Law Project, which investigates probable wrongful convictions. Echavarria spent 21 years in prison for a murder he did not commit and Perrot 30 years after being wrongfully convicted for a rape.

“We see how systems can fail people, often unintentionally, and the criminal justice system is no exception,” Graves has said.

Lynch’s email notes that for the rest of this academic year, Graves— the Institute’s founder and director—will continue working with her student research assistants in the Law Project, in space thoughtfully provided by the Ethics Center at Brandeis.

Like most print media, journal-

ism has fallen to the wayside under the shadow of TV broadcast and the endless expanse of online blogs.

As a result, funding for journalistic non-profits and even profits for well-established newspapers have taken a nosedive. The closing of the Schuster Institute, if not a direct result of this decline in journalism and newspaper popularity, is a side effect of the growing apathy toward investigative journalism. When journalism is not seen as important to the public eye, those who have the money to fund it choose to lend it elsewhere.

As a community of journalists, we are deeply saddened by the Schuster Institute’s closure as many previous Hoot staff members and editors have worked there. We wish that more donors could have prioritized its important work and it could have been saved.

Thank you, Schuster Institute, for all your journalistic contributions.

We know that your legacy will live on for years to come.

MISSION As the weekly community student newspaper of Brandeis University, The Brandeis Hoot aims to provide our readers with a reliable, accurate and unbiased source of news and information. Produced entirely by students, The Hoot serves a readership of 6,000 with in-depth news, relevant commentary, sports and coverage of cultural events.

Recognizing that better journalism leads to better policy, The Brandeis Hoot is dedicated to the principles of investigative reporting and news analysis. Our mission is to give every community member a voice.

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

Please submit letters to letters@thebrandeishoot.com along with your contact information. Letters should not exceed 500 words. The opinions, columns, cartoons and advertisements printed in The Hoot do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.

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

CARTOON BY HELEN WONG/THE HOOT

January 18, 2019

SPORTS

The Brandeis Hoot 11

Men’s basketball finds success opening up UAA play

By Camila Casanueva staff

Over winter break, men’s basketball was still in action with 5 games, one out of conference and three UAA games. The Judges began on December 30th hosting Bowdoin College. Brandeis outscored Bowdoin, 32-23, in the first half closing on a 6-0 run in the final 1:13 to take a nine point lead. Junior Eric D’Aguanno led all scorers with 10 points off the bench in the first. Bowdoin began its run in the second half, going on a 10-2 run with 8 minutes to go. Bowdoin was able to push the lead to five and the Judges were never able to climb back.

The Polar Bears were able to hold Brandeis to just two field goals over a seven minute stretch as the Polar Bears came back from an 11 point deficit to defeat the Judges, 64-58. D’Aguanno led the Judges with 16 points for the game. He hit 6-13 overall and 4-10 from deep. He also pulled down six rebounds for the second game in a row. Also scoring in double digits were Senior Corey Sherman who had 15 and sophomore Chandler Jones who had 11. Rookie Nolan Hagerty had one of the best games of his career, with team and career highs of nine rebounds and four

assists. He logged a career best 20 minutes.

In their second game, the Brandeis men’s basketball team opened up UAA conference play against NYU at home. The Judges were able to hold the lead throughout a tight game and closed out on a 25-11 run to seal the 56-52 victory.

Junior Colin Sawyer scored 11 of his team-high 13 points in the second half to lead three Judges in double figures in scoring. It was his sixth game reaching double digits this season. Sophomore Lawrence Sabir added 12 points, seven in the second half, while pulling down five rebounds.

Graduate student Latye Workman rounded out the double-digit scorers by recording his second double-double of the season and the fifth of his career with 10 points and 11 rebounds, tied for game-high honors. He also led the Judges with four assists and added two blocked shots.

After struggling from the floor in the first half, Brandeis turned it around in the second, hitting 52.2% (while holding NYU to 32.1%. The Judges held the Violets 21 points below their season scoring average and under 60 points for the first time in 201819.For their non-conference finale the men’s basketball team faced

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

COLLIN SAWYER ‘20

Amherst College. It was a battle of two of the top defensive teams in Division III this season, 24thranked Amherst College defeated the Brandeis University men’s basketball team, 65-52. With both teams allowing under 62 points per game entering the contest, but Amherst was able to make just enough plays to seal the win.

The Mammoths held Brandeis without a field goal for more than six minutes as they built a double-digit lead in the first half, 175. The Judges were led by Sherman

COREY SHERMAN ‘19

with 14 points, while Jones scored 9 points and grabbed a team-high 6 rebounds for the Judges. They finished shooting 33% from the floor and 30% from three.

The men’s basketball then traveling to Pittsburgh and Cleveland for UAA play facing Carnegie Mellon University and Case Western Reserve University.

Facing host the Carnegie Mellon Tartans, the Judges fell behind early and were unable to recover falling 80-63. The hosts led by as many as 17 points early in the second half. Brandeis was able to get within 11 points on a four-point possession. Sherman was fouled at the 8:04 mark and the Tartans were hit with a technical. Sherman hit all of his free throws to cut the CMU lead to 11 at 64-53. After getting a stop, Brandeis couldn’t respond and CMU connected from downtown on the next possession to halt the Judges’ momentum. Sherman led the Judges in scoring with 16 points, 11 coming in the second half. He also dished out a team-high four assists. D’Aguanno added 12 points and eight rebounds off the bench, hitting 3-6 from three. Jones registered his third double-double of the season and the fifth of his career with 10 points and a career high 13 rebounds.

In the second game of the weekend, the men’s basketball

team was able to get back on track against host Case Western Reserve University, with a 67-65 road victory in the UAA. Brandeis trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half but D’Aguanno kept the Judges in the game in the first half with nine points on three 3-pointers. The Judges opened strong in the second half, scoring the first seven points to take a 3835 lead after Sawyer hit a 3-pointer and two free throws. The game was back and forth, with several lead changes, until a Jones 21’ 3-pointer from straight away that gave the Judges a 52-51 lead they would not relinquish. Sherman led all players with 20 points, 13 coming in the second half. He hit 8-12 from the field, 2-4 from 3 point range, and 2-2 from the line.

Jones and Sawyer also had big second halves, with Jones scoring 10 of his 13 points after the break and Sawyer netting seven of his 10. Grad student, Workman nearly registered a double-double with nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

He also led all players with five assists. With the win, the Judges improve to 9-5 overall, 2-1 in the UAA. The victory was Brandeis’s first in Cleveland since the 200809 season. Brandeis needs just one more victory to reach a 10 win season for the first time since 2013-14.

Women’s basketball goes 6-7 after winter break

By Shea Decker-Jacoby editor

The women’s basketball team worked hard over winter break, playing four games and starting conference play. Going into their final non-conference game, the Judges had a record of 4-5.

Starting the second half of their season off on January 1, the Judges fell in their final non-conference game against Regis, 62-57.

The Judges were able to connect six three-pointers, but it wasn’t enough compared to the Regis Pride’s 10 three-point connections. Brandeis was outscored 19-8 in turnovers. In a close first period, the Judges stayed close to the Pride, only trailing by one with a score of 10-9. In the second period, the Pride scored 12 of their 16 points from the threepoint line to secure a lead at 26-19 by the end of the first half. In the third quarter, the Judges fought back, opening the quarter with a

11-2 point run, which included a three-pointer by Kat Puda ’21 to make the score 30-28. Regis led by as many as 10 points in the fourth period, but Brandeis got within three on a lay-up by Hannah Nicholson ’20 with 1:17 to go. Lauren Rubinstein ’20 put up another three with 10 seconds to go, but the Judges were not able to come back. Puda led the Judges in points, scoring 15; hitting 5-of14 shooting from the floor, 2-of-9 from behind the three-point line, and 3-of-3 from the line. Camila Casanueva ’21 added nine points and a game and season high with six assists. Nicholson led the game with eight rebounds and Casanueva led the game with assists.

Four days later, the Judges headed to New York City for their first league match of season. The Judges led the majority of the first half, taking a lead with 3325. Casanueva led all players with 13 points and seven rebounds in the first half. Brandeis outshot NYU 40.6 percent to 27.3 per-

cent in the first half to establish the lead. Maya Burris ’22 scored four points from the free throw line, which rounded out Brandeis’ 12-point run. With a 49-39 lead, the Judges earned the largest lead in the game after a three-pointer by Rubinstein and two more points added to the board the Judges earned the largest lead of the game at 15 points.

The game finished with a score of 69-61 in favor of the Judges. Casanueva lead the Judges in points with 15 and Puda led with assists at five.

The next week, the Judges flew to Pittsburgh where Casanueva earned her first double-double with 27 points and 10 rebounds to help the Judges take the victory against the Carnegie Mellon Tartans with a final score of 78-61.

The Judges were trailing for only 15 seconds early in the first quarter. Brandeis outshot CMU 50 percent and built a 19-10 lead at the end of one period. In the second period the Judges increased

their lead by one. Casanueva led Brandeis with nine points in the first half and Nicholson had seven of her own with six rebounds.

In the third, with a steady performance by Burris, the Judges extended their lead to a score of 52-39 with only ten minutes left of the game. In the fourth, Casanueva scored 14 points, which included 9-of-10 from the line and secured a victory for the Judges.

The final match-up for the Judges over the break was in Cleveland, Ohio, facing Case Western Reserve. With a record of 11-3, this game was proven to be the hardest for the Judges. The Judges fell in a 67-64 decision. In the first quarter the Judges only hit one field goal in 15 attempts and CWRU took a 20-4 lead at one point, but the Judges inched their way closer, going on a six-point run. Brandeis was able to come back in the second quarter and outscore the Spartans 24-14 leaving the first half with a tie score of 34-34. The Judges fought point for

point with CWRU in the second half of the game. The third quarter had four lead changes, including one on the last possession. In the fourth quarter, opened with a three-pointer from Puda to take the lead for Brandeis at 53-51.

Casanueva answered to CWRU’s comeback with a three-pointer to take back the lead for the Judges.

The Judges were only able to hit one more field goal for the game

by Rubinstein with one minute of play left. When the Judges forced the shot-clock on the Spartans’ next possession, they were left with 14.6 seconds when the Judges were called for an offensive foul, giving CWRU the final lead of the game. Rubinstein lead the Judges in points with 17 and Nicholson lead in rebounds with nine. Casanueva lead the Judges with five assists.

The Judges will take the court again at home on January 18 and again on the 20th facing the University of Chicago and Washington University.

12 SPORTS

The Brandeis Hoot

January 18, 2019

Men’s and women’s track and field start indoor season strong

By Sabrina Chow editor

The Brandeis men’s and women’s track and field team started their indoor season this past weekend at home at the annual Reggie Poyau Memorial Invitational, in honor of former athlete Reggie Poyau.

The men’s and women’s teams had strong starts to their season, both placing second out of ninth overall. University of Southern Maine took first in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

On the men’s side, Regan Charlie ’19 was the only champion in the 60 meter dash. Charlie won both the preliminary race and the finals race in 7.27 seconds and 7.19 seconds, respectively.

Lorenzo Maddox ’20 placed third behind Charlie, finishing in 7.25 seconds in the final.

Charlie and Maddox also placed in the 200 meter dash. Charlie took second with a time of 23.33 seconds and Maddox was right behind him finishing fourth with a time of 23.71 seconds.

In the 400 meter run, rookie Jamie O’Neil ’22 ran the race in 52.76 seconds, finishing in fourth

place. Another rookie, Aaron Portman ’22 finished second in the 600 meter run with a time of 1:26.54. Erez Needleman ’20 also finished second in the 800 meter, ending the race in 2:02.54. In the one mile race, Josh Lombardo ’21 raced another second place for The Judges, crossing the finish line at 4:34.83. Ben Watson ’20 ran a 5:08.33, good for 11th place in the race. Rookie Matthew Driben ’22 finished in sixth place in the 3000 meter with a time of 9:09.53. Brian Gao ’20 finished in 9th with a time of 9:16.56.

The Judges 4x400 meter ‘A’ team won second overall with a time of 3:36.15. The team consisted of Patrick Quinlan ’21, O’Neil, Needleman and Portman.

On the field side, Aaron Baublis ’21 and rookie Dionysus Morris-Evans ’22 placed second and third in the 60 meter hurdles, respectively. Baublis finished in 8.82 seconds and Morris-Evans was only two hundredths of a second behind at 8.84 seconds.

Breylen Ammen ’21 placed second in pole vault with a height of 4.10 meters. In long jump, Jack Allan ’20 jumped 6.01 meters, good for a third place finish. Kev-

Women’s and men’s swimming both seek wins after winter break

By Sophie Trachtenberg staff

After coming back from a successful training trip in Florida over winter break, both the men’s and women’s swimming teams got back into the pool and came out strong for their first meet in 2019.

The women topped Merrimack by a slim margin of 131.5 to 129.5 and handily defeated Maine Maritime by a score of 225 to 25.

On the men’s side, the Judges were also victorious, winning over Maine Maritime by a score of 110 to 78.The women’s win over Merrimack was quite competitive, as the two squads were closely matched. The Judges won seven out of 15 events, ultimately giving them what was needed to secure the win overall. To lead the way, senior Kylie Hermann was victorious in two freestyle races, recording times of 2:04.81 in the 200 yard race and 5:37.12 in the 500 yard race, winning by just three-tenths of a second and one and a half seconds respectively.

Next, the first-year class shinned, as rookie Olivia Stebbins came out on top in all of her breaststroke events receiving first place in both the 50 and 100 yard with times of 34.12 seconds and 1:12.34 minutes respectively.

In butterfly it was Rookie Gazelle Umbay who beat her nearest opponent by 0.64 seconds to come in first place with a time of 1:04.04. She also came in third place in the 50 yard butterfly sprint with a mark of 29.38 seconds.

Lastly for the individual events, first-year Claire Xu topped the 200 yard individual medley with a time of 2:19.57, with sophomore

teammate Annie Huang coming in second 3.5 seconds behind her.

As for the relays, Xu, Stebbins, Umbay, and fellow rookie Lauren Howard received first place in the 200 yard medley with a time of 1:56.35, winning by just seven-tenths of a second to their opponents.

On the men’s side, the Judges swept Maine Maritime by winning all 15 events.

In the freestyle races, firstyear Brendon Lu won the 1000 yard competition with a time of 10:28.48 while also coming in second in the 500 trailing behind teammate junior Justin Weissberg who earned first with a time of 5:14.95.

He also received first place in the 200 freestyle, recording a time of 1:56.75. Fellow junior Matthew Arcemont found success in both the 100 butterfly and backstroke events, seeing times of 55.25 and 57.76 seconds respectively, bringing home two wins for the Judges.

In the 100 yard category, rookie Jonathan Ayash won the breaststroke race in 1:11.89 minutes, while also receiving first place in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:22.51.

Lastly, in the individual category, first-year Ian Smith was victorious in the 50 backstroke and the 100 butterfly, recording times of 28.66 seconds and 1:01.53 minutes respectively.

As for the 200 medley relay, Smith, junior Junhan Lee, sophomore Benjamin Francis, and firstyear Benton Ferebee edged out their opponents to secure the win with a time of 1:49.77.

The Judge’s return to the pool next Saturday to compete against both the hosting Bridgewater State and Keene State in a trimeet.

in Truong ’21 placed 6th after jumping 5.78 meters and Morris-Evans finished 7th with 5.72 meters.

Scott Grote ’19 finished fifth in shot put with a distance of 12.88 meters. Grote also got second place in the weight throw with a distance of 14.17 meters.

The Judges finished second with 107 points, over 50 points behind champion University of Southern Maine which earned 158 points.

The women’s team won five races throughout the meet. In the 60 meter dash, Kanya Brown ’19 finished in 5th place with a time of 8.40 seconds. Three Judges placed in the top ten in the 200 meter race. Rookie Devin Hiltunen ’22 placed second after running a 27:22, while fellow rookie Sonali Anderson ’22 placed fifth with a time of 28.34. Brown rounded out the group of Judges, finishing in seventh.

Hiltunen again placed second, this time in the 400 meter dash, trailing champion Steph Mattson from Bentley University by almost five seconds. Leinni Valdez ’21 got The Judges another second place finish in the 600 meter, finishing behind University of Southern

Maine’s Haley Bantz.

The Judges dominated in the 800 meter and 1 mile race.

Brandeis runners took five out of the top six places in the 800 meter and four out of the top six places in the mile. The Judges were led by three-time NCAA qualifier Doyin Ogundiran ’19 who finished first with a time of 2:18.92.

Rookie Jac Guerra ’22 followed with a time of 2:22.49, with Lisbeth Valdez ’21 right at his heels, finishing at 2:22.76. Maya Bliss ’19 placed fourth with a time of 2:23.83 and Meaghan Barry ’19 rounded out the scorers, finishing sixth at 2:31.05.

Julia Bryson ’19 outran fellow Brandeisian Andrea Bolduc ’21 in the mile run to win the race. J. Bryson finished in 5:20.47, while Bolduc finished at 5:21.96. Elis Hallstead-Williams ’21 finished the race in fifth with a time of 5:47.34 and rookie Hannah Walsh ’22 placed sixth at 5:54.41, scoring points for Brandeis.

NCAA Champion in the 3000 meter, Emily Bryson ’19 easily took the lead in the race, winning the 3000 meter in just under 10 minutes at 9:56.97, beating runner-up Sophie Gorton of Mer-

rimack College by almost a full minute. Rookie Erin Magill ’22 placed third in the race with a time of 11:15.14. Christine Minor ’19 ran her way to a fifth place finish at 11:19.80.

Anderson also dominated in the 60 meter hurdles. She took first both in the preliminaries and in the finals, running the race in 9.65 seconds and 9.48 seconds, respectively, breaking another school record.

The Brandeis ‘A’ Relay team for the 4x400 meter relay also finished first. The team consisted of Ogundiran, Hiltunen, Bliss and Valdez. Valdez completed the relay in 4:12, while the Brandeis ‘B’ team finished in third place with runners Guerra, Barry and E. Bryson.

In pole vaulting action, Willa Moen ’20 placed fifth with a height of 2.90 meters.

The women’s team placed second with 118 points, narrowly losing to University of Southern Maine by 3.5 points.

The men’s and women’s teams are back in action this week at the Wheaton Invitational on Friday, Jan. 18 and the Bowdoin Invitational II on Saturday, Jan. 19.

ARTS

January 18, 2019

The Brandeis Hoot 13

‘Aquaman’ stuns and excites

By Josh Lannon staff

The latest installment to the DC Extended Universe, “Aquaman” is visually breathtaking and incredibly fun to watch. While it is by no means a perfect movie, it makes up for its flaws with entertaining action scenes and surprisingly deep and nuanced characters.

The main plot follows Arthur, better known as Aquaman, who is half Atlantean and half human.

When his half brother, Orm, becomes the villain known as Ocean Master, Arthur is is forced by the princess Mera and his former mentor Vulko to claim his birthright as the King of Atlantis in order to stop Orm from starting a war with the surface world.

While the movie takes place

chronologically after 2017’s Justice League film, it also serves as an origin story for Aquaman.

However, “Aquaman” distinguishes itself from the traditional and somewhat tiresome superhero origin story troupe by having his backstory not be about him but instead about his parents. The beginning of the movie focuses on the relationship between queen Atlanta and Arthur’s father, how they met and how she had to eventually leave him and their infant son. While this story serves as a prelude to the movie, it diverges from other superhero origin stories that simply show a tragic backstory or motivation for the hero. Instead, the relationship between Arthur’s parents is actually an essential part of the overall plot of the film and is not simply motivation for Arthur to become

PHOTO FROM AFTERCREDITS.COM

the titular Aquaman.

The film’s greatest strength is the entertaining and well-choreographed fight sequences. The large scale battles between CGI armies, which can sometimes feel boring or even derivative in other films, feel unique and look absolutely stunning. However, the film truly excels at the smaller actions scenes like Arthur fight against Black Manta and the one on one trident duels between Arthur and Orm. The excellent choreography of these smaller fights is supported by great camera work.

Many of these fights simply track the action in one continuous shot. One moment you could be watching Mera fight Atlantean commandos and then the camera would smoothly pan over to Arthur’s fight with Black Manta. The variety of fight scenes from underwater duels to rooftop chases made each encounter unique and prevented them from becoming monotonous and predictable. Of course, these fight scenes would be nothing without impressive adversaries for Arthur to fight, and the movie more than delivers with the main villains Ocean Master and Black Manta.

Both these bad guys are extremely entertaining to watch, but they are also nuanced characters with their differing motivations and personalities. Arthur’s half-brother Orm, despite being the main antagonist of the film, is not completely evil. While his intent and means of starting a war between the Kingdoms of the Seven Seas and the surface is reprehensible, his motivations for pursuing war is surprisingly relatable. Orm seeks to stop the

surface from polluting and destroying the oceans and also believes that the surface will destroy itself and take Atlantis along with it. Orm’s strained relationship with his half brother is equally relatable. While Orm feels he must kill Arthur to destroy the surface world, Orm actually laments the fact that they have to fight and kill each other. Their strained relationship makes the conflict between them all the more captivating to watch. Of course, there’s also a coolness factor to Ocean Master’s character because not only is he a physical match for Arthur, but he also rides a Mosasaur into battle, which is undeniably awesome.

The other major antagonist is Black Manta, portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. While Abdul-Mateen did an excellent job translating Manta’s famous bloodlust from the comics to the big screen, his overall demeanor was a tad overboard. When compared to the leveled and intricate performance of Patrick Wilson, who played Ocean Master, Abdul-Mateen’s performance seems more erratic and a little over the top. Once Abdul-Mateen donned Manta’s famous helmet. From that point forward, Abdul’s physical performance combined with the excellent combat choreography really brought the famous comic book villain to life.

The excellent action scenes and well-choreographed fights combined with compelling villains made “Aquaman” a worthwhile movie experience. However, the film does suffer from a common flaw in many superhero movies and adaptation of long running

series in general: trying to show too much at once. Trying to create the world of Atlantis and the other Kingdoms of the Seven Seas would be difficult in a television mini series, nevermind a nearly two and half hour long movie. To the credit of director James Wan, every little detail of the world he brought to life was stunning and unique. But only so much explanation and exposition can be put into one film. For example, the kingdoms of the Brine and the Fishermen were both incredibly different and unique. However, the audience barely gets a glimpse into their societies or how they evolved to look like crab people and merfolk respectively. That being said if the film were to take the time to properly show all this, the movie would be extremely long, and all that exposition would bog down the action scenes, which make the movie so great. Despite this expansion of exposition, director James Wan found a good balance between world building, character development, and entertaining action scenes in most of the movie.

Despite a few flaws, “Aquaman” was a thoroughly enjoyable film that kept me on the edge of my seat. The well-choreographed and diverse fight scenes kept the story from becoming monotonous while the excellent character development and compelling villains added depth and complexity to the film. I highly recommend seeing this film, especially if you are a fan of the Aquaman comics.

Even if you aren’t, “Aquaman” is an entertaining film with stunning visual effects and engaging characters.

‘If Beale Street Could Talk:’ love and injustice in 1970s New York

By Noah Harper editor

The score of “If Beale Street Could Talk” stays with you long after the movie ends. Composer Nicholas Britell’s minimalist soundtrack swells and ebbs; the main theme a distant brass section doing a call and response with some strings. Paired with the music, the images recur too: close-up portraits of young lovers Tish and Fonny in 1970s New York looking almost right into the camera. A great film is one in which, long after you’ve left the theater, its feeling lingers.

“If Beale Street Could Talk” is based on the 1974 James Baldwin novel of the same name. While many book-to-screen adaptations fail to capture the ethos of their source material, that isn’t the case this time. “Beale Street” carefully recreates the world Baldwin builds in the book, doing it justice as it conveys the story to a much larger audience.

A story as relevant as when it was published, “Beale Street” is about a young, black couple torn apart by a racist system and a group of committed people working against the system to reunite the couple.

It starts with the narrator Tish, a pregnant, nineteen-year-old department store clerk, breaking the news to Fonny, her recently imprisoned boyfriend. They were

going to make a life with each other, having just finally found an apartment that would rent to a black couple. Though their future has suddenly become uncertain, Fonny’s eyes light up behind the prison glass when Tish tells him.

He’s ecstatic; he’s going to be a father.

Tish then tells her family about the baby. Tish’s mother Sharon, played with tender strength by Regina King, takes the news well enough and takes down the fine alcohol for when they have to tell her dad. He’s apprehensive at first, but they soon begin to celebrate— her dad lets out a joyous laugh at the prospect of being a grandfather. The moment soon sours after they invite Fonny’s family over to tell them about the baby.

His mother, Mrs. Hunt, is a memorable character from the novel: a cold, rigidly religious woman who finds no joy in the news. She and her likeminded daughters shoot venomous barbs at Tish for having the child out of wedlock—Mrs. Hunt even says that she wishes the baby would die before being born, at which she is violently slapped across the face by her alcoholic husband, Frank. The two fathers rush out to a bar, and the others are shooed out. The once joyful celebrations ends in altercation and vitriol.

To me, “Beale Street” is a romance about people living on the edge, trying to make a life for themselves in an economic and political system built on their sub-

jugation. It’s a story about young people of color having their lives irrevocably altered on the whim of one white policeman and the hierarchy dedicated to preserving the racist social order.

This is something the film transfers well from the novel, effectively conveying the frustratingly simple tragedy of the whole thing: Fonny shouldn’t be sitting in jail, accused of rape—he has an alibi. But that doesn’t matter to those in power. Now that he’s inside, it’s almost impossible to get him out.

But “Beale Street” isn’t hopelessly tragic; there’s an uplifting current in the love between Tish and Fonny and their families’ (minus Mrs. Hunt and her daughters) dedication and perseverance in the fight against the racist leviathan that endures in the American criminal justice system.

The two fathers begin working side hustles, selling stolen goods uptown to finance the legal operation. Tish stands behind the perfume counter at a department store, forced to smile and suffer dehumanizing attention from white men. The family’s resilient determination to persevere, in spite of harsh realities, is particularly inspiring.

Academy Award-winning “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins expertly weaves the narrative of Tish and Fonny’s romance into the pregnancy and prison plot. We elegantly move back and forth in time, our understanding of Tish’s

and Fonny’s relationship grow as the prospects of Fonny ever being released from prison dim.

As an adaptation of a beloved classic, “Beale Street” succeeds because it doesn’t try to perfectly transform the book into a motion picture. It takes the spirit of Baldwin’s work, the scenario, setting, and narrative technique—like Tish’s first-person narration—and reconstructs it all into a two hour film. Jenkins’s visuals fit the world conjured in Baldwin’s book, and the director imports his own ex-

quisite close-up portraiture and a cinematographic style inspired by photographer Roy DeCarava’s stark depictions of quotidian life in Harlem.

But it’s all tied together with Nicholas Britell’s soundtrack, a sonic version of the film’s emotional experience. A handful of horns, woodwinds and strings evoke both sadness and hope.

“Beale Street” depicts a harrowing reality, but also a powerful love that can endure beyond systemic oppression.

PHOTO FROM THENEWYORKER.COM

14 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

January 18, 2019

‘Bandersnatch’ fails to snatch viewers for the right reasons In honor of the creation of a film that allows the viewer to forge their own path, we are introducing a one-of-a-kind “choose-your-own-adventure” review of this “choose-your-own-adventure” film.

We hope it isn’t as confusing to read as it was for us to write.

And much like many of the endthe endings seemed extremely the game is being reviewed. This Section 3: ings, the decision making didn’t rushed and unfinished. If there basically proves that the creators Bandersnatch in a nutshell is get much better than that.

As the had been more variation in the editors of the film have a specific path a choose-your-own-adventure viewer gets further and further paths that the viewer was able to film about a choose-your-ownthey want you to take, and are into the film, it is very apparent take, making all the endings vastadventure book. I had such high pushing you toward it. that the director is leading you in ly different from one another, it Section 1: hopes for the film before it came Working at Tuckersoft could the direction of specific endings. would have been so much better Director David Slade, probably out. When I first saw the headhave created a whole other stoJust looking at my chart, I could and added much more depth to more famous as the director line that Netflix was planning to ryline for Stefan and his father, pretty easily figure out how the film. of the third installment of the release a choose-your-own-adbut the directors want you to Netflix really wanted the show Sans the extremely Netflix endTwilight saga, “Eclipse,” is back venture film, I immediately told work on the completion of Bandto play out if we just let it run ing, all of the endings stem from once again as director of his our Arts editor that I wanted the ersnatch, and everything that through.

I tried to do it but if one key action, Stefan killing second “Black Mirror” piece. His story for myself.

Netflix checked how long I had his dad.

But why does it have to comes with it. first piece, “Metalhead,” was the Get to the first choice in the watched the show, they would be this way?

Why does Stefan’s Bandersnatch has been called only completely black and white show, cereal. Seriously. Cereal. be extremely concerned for my disposal of the body ultimately episode in the “Black Mirror” revolutionary by some, as it presI don’t care about cereal, I just well-being. determine what ending you are series. ents the possibility of a whole want to do something interestWhile the themes and basis brought to?

Not all of us are Very similar to “Metalhead,” ing. And much to my dismay, it new genre of interactive televiof idea of Bandersnatch are Dexter. common themes that appear in didn’t get much better than that. sion. But Bandersnatch isn’t the extremely interesting, the lack in What the film does for me, Bandersnatch include those of I spent at least 10 hours watchfirst interactive film; in fact, it’s diversity in the endings and the though, is give me hope for the helplessness, especially as the ing, and re-watching, the show not even Netflix’s first interactive paths the viewer could take is future.

I read around that there viewer moves through the film. attempting to get as complete of film.

Movies like “Puss in Book, ” ultimately what draws me away were around five hours of footage Much like most of the other a map as I possibly could. Yes, I a Dreamworks animated flick from the film, and causes me to in the entirety of the episode.

“Black Mirror” episodes, we have it. And yes, I’m willing to starring everyone’s favorite chargive a more negative review.

While I’m pretty certain I didn’t knew practically none of the share if you’re actually too lazy acter from the Shrek series, Puss Much like many of the endings see five hours of footage while I actors that were in the film. to watch it. But the biggest thing that I saw, I give Bandersnatch was watching, I commend them in Boots, is also interactive and Stefan Butler, portrayed by Fionn that bothered me about the show 2.5 out of 5 stars. for filming and editing that much Whitehead, is a young, brilliant was released in 2017. Netflix also had nothing to do with the show The directors were extremely footage.

That sounds like a lot of video game developer in the early has other interactive films such at all. It was the inability for the ambitious in what they were work.

1980s who is given the opporviewer to jump to different parts as “Minecraft Story Mode.” trying to accomplish, and while So kudos to you, Netflix. tunity to publish his own video of the show. While attempting to Though clearly aimed at children I applaud them game, Bandersnatch, which is complete my tree, I had to stop, (sorry, but anyone reading a the “Choose Your for what they were Section 4: based off of a book that he read and restart, so many times just college newspaper is too old to Own Adventure” able to do, some of All in all, Netflix when he was younger. to follow another path. be playing MineBooks from the 1980s should be praised for Tuckersoft, the company that and 90s, and the craft), these movies attempting to bring offers Butler the job is led by Motrademark owner of demonstrate that Do you care about who the director and actors are? the audience more han Thakur (Asim Chaudhry), “Choose Your Own the idea of interinto the film, making Go to Section 1 and grants him the opportunity Adventure” is suing active film existed it as interactive as to work with his hero, Colin Netflix for trademark possible for a reader before BanderRitman (Will Poulter).

Not really, what did Celia think? infringement. without actually castHere in the film is the first big snatch.

Go to Section 2 In the report, ing them in the show. decision that the viewer is faced But that doesn’t Chooseco says Netflix We extremely apprewith: Do they want Stefan to necessarily stop I don’t care about Celia’s opinion, “used the mark ciated this.

Both of us work at Tuckersoft with a team, Bandersnatch from what did Sabrina think? willfully and intenspent way too much or to work on his own at home? being, at least on Go to Section 3 tionally to capitalize time going through These two options create the some level, revoluon viewers’ nostalgia the film, dying and biggest decision that the viewer tionary.

The film is for the original book So should I actually go watch it? reviving ourselves wants to make. Or so it seems. series from the 1980s able to execute plot Go to Section 4 magically to get all If Stefan chooses to work at and 1990s.

The film’s changes based on the different possible Tuckersoft the game is deemed dark and, at times, the viewer’s deciendings. too rushed and given 0 out 5 disguise a lack of ingenuity the movie as real events and not sloppily disturbing content And contrary to sions so seamlessly stars and called terrible. If Stefan on the creators’ behalf as tacked on as dreams the plot could’ve dilutes the goodwill a lot of the news refuses…well you just have to that Bandersnatch, a complex thought rather been considerably different. Instead, for and positive outlets that give figure that out for yourself. A when watched than an inability to create the dream sequences don’t matter all associations with the “true endings, ” questionable feature of the film for the first time, an interesting film and a that much, sending you to the same Chooseco’s mark and we’ve shown that is some of the “forced endings.” appears as one diverse set of paths for the next choice, with a few varying answers, tarnishes its prodthis isn’t really the Even though you are given a coherent movie. viewer. rather than taking you on an entirely ucts,” according to case. Most of the decision in a lot of places, a lot Though BanderThe film essentially dedifferent route. an article published endings are true of times, the decisions that you snatch may not be scribes its ideal self, the Those who unfortunately choose to by The Hollywood but went through make lead nowhere. game, Bandersnatch—a Reporter. watch the film more than once are the first of its kind, the iterations at Having Stefan working at TuckSo while us viewers complex adventure game instantly disappointed by the near utter it does set a higher least five times each ersoft on Bandersnatch could will always dream of with multiple possible lack of divergence in the plot, and are standard for films and never got to have evolved into a whole new having a more interversions of reality.

But it forced to follow roughly the same path some of the endof the interactive storyline, however, it automatactive choose-yourfails utterly at living up over and over again, hoping futilely for ings, even by the ically jumps to the end where genre. own-adventure film, to this grand promise. a different ending (I would know). And directions given on we don’t think it’s Section 2: Instead it gives the reader once you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole these sites. And if worth a $25 million If you’re a fan of the complexity characone bland path with a few interesting, more than once, you quickly realize the the director of the lawsuit or the delay teristic of choose your own adventures, albeit unoriginal, endings. I mean, the inconsistencies in the stories. If you refilm doesn’t even on Season 5 of “Black then this film is not for you. Watching one where it was all a Netflix show in the fuse to exit to the credits, you eventually know all of the Mirror.” the film for the first time, I was interested end? Seriously? endings, how can run into continuity errors, more specifiby the ability to make different choices The film tries to involve substantially anyone be so sure? cally one big error: Colin. for the character and the film that theredifferent scenes that the viewer choosThe future of In some versions, Colin is dead or Bandersnatch, and es, through a dream sequence that is by ensued. But once I watched it more mysteriously disappeared. In others, he choose-your-owntriggered by picking up a certain object. than once, the scenes, even the new ones lives once again. If you follow the film adventure anyBut this is quite literally one of the laziest multiple times you eventually realize that, that were introduced, quickly became thing, is extremely devices in literary history. It was all a repetitive. for anything to make a modicum of sense questionable dream? Really? I still have nightmares of Bandersnatch failed simply because there he has to be Schrodinger’s Cat: alive and now. Following my high school English teacher telling wasn’t enough choice. The film tries dead at the same time. Sadly the film the release of the me that if I used the “It was all a dream” to make a larger argument about the lacks this substantially more interesting show, Chooseco, ending he’d drop a house on me. non-existence of free will—but this plot metaphor, and relies on the tired refrain the publisher of PHOTO FROM NETFLIX.COM If these scenes had been integrated into point is simply an excuse, an attempt to of no free will.

By Sabrina Chow and Celia Young

January 18. 2019

ARTS 15

The Brandeis Hoot

‘Bandersnatch’ story map

DIAGRAM BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

‘Vice:’ nearly as frustrating as the Bush presidency

By Jonah Koslofsky staff

Three years ago, Adam McKay won an Oscar. This was… a career shift: McKay made his name directing Will Ferrell comedies like “Step Brothers” and “Talladega Nights.” He’d never come off as a bad filmmaker (“Anchorman” is a classic), but awards-bait wasn’t his niche. “The Big Short” changed all that—the success of McKay’s frantic retelling of the 2007/8 financial crisis reframed his trajectory towards urgent, political material.

Alas, “Vice,” McKay’s second semi-serious effort, winds up being blisteringly average. Again, this is a story we all lived through:

Christian Bale stars as the tyrannical V.P., one Richard “Dick” Cheney. The film opens with Cheney, a Yale dropout, getting pulled over for his next DUI, then flashes forward to Cheney in the situation room on 9/11, using the tragedy as an opportunity to amass power—“Vice” promises to fill in the gap.

The film works best while Cheney is clawing his way to the top; motivated by his wife Lynne (Amy Adams) and threats of divorce if he doesn’t clean up his act. Dick attends a 1968 Congressional internship program, where he becomes a lackey of then-Congressman Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell). Of the performers in McKay’s picture, Carrell turns in the best work as the slimy

Rumsfeld, while Adams could do this role with at least one hand tied behind her back.

Bale, meanwhile, never finds anything new or insightful in Cheney’s psyche—but perhaps that’s the fault of the film as a whole. Nearly everyone who buys a ticket to “Vice” is going into the theater knowing Cheney is a bad guy who will leave the world a worse place than he found it. But McKay doesn’t seem to have this much faith in his audience, using a grab-bag of fourth-wall breaking tricks and in-your-face narration to illustrate some relatively simple ideas. It’s all about as subtle as “Aquaman,” and for a movie that promises “the untold true story,” “Vice” has very little to say.

At least it’s entertaining for

the most part (basically a watered-down Armando Iannucci flick). Sam Rockwell’s impression of George Bush is pretty funny, but by the time Bush and Cheney actually make it to the White House, McKay is in a hurry to wrap things up. “Vice” certainly fails to stick the landing, and

things go from bad-to-worse with an end credits scene that leaves a truly sour aftertaste. If McKay wants to take home any more golden statues—or better still, actually make a good movie—he’s going have to start treating his audience with a bit more respect. It’s not that complicated.

PHOTO FROM TELEGRAM.COM

16 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

January 18. 2019

Television not the home for ‘Homecoming’

By Celia Young editor

The podcast “Homecoming” opens mysteriously. A discordant tune plays muffled on the piano, followed by the entrance of the voices of the two protagonists of the show, therapist Heidi Bergman and army veteran, Walter Cruz.

The television show of the same name follows the podcast’s opening scene almost exactly, even paraphrasing the opening dialogue about a fish tank in Bergman’s office. But the television show almost immediately runs into a problem the podcast wholly avoided: how much information is too much.

“Homecoming” is a noir thriller based on the podcast of the same name. The podcast and the show center around Bergman’s struggle to regain her memory of her time at the Homecoming facility, where she acted as a therapist to army veterans in an experimental and unethical drug trial.

The podcast was created by Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg in 2016, and the television adaptation, starring Julia Roberts, was released to Amazon Prime on Nov. 1, 2018.

The show is directed by Sam Esmail, who is most known for his role as the creator, executive producer and head writer of the T.V. series and technological thriller “Mr. Robot,” which gained critical acclaim when it was first released in 2015. Homecoming is reminis-

PHOTO FROM IMDB.COM

cent of “Mr. Robot,” which also contained anti-corporate themes and terse, but meaningful, dialogue.

Esmail’s experience in T.V. thrillers is a clear influence on the show, which takes the noir theme of the podcast to new heights. The show utilizes longer takes, contrasting the trend of fast paced television and film most often seen today, emphasizing the classic noir feel of the series.

Bergman’s therapy sessions with Cruz often include long scenes of Cruz speaking, rather than cutting between the two. This camerawork pulls the attention on Cruz and his experiences during the war, which become crucial in later episodes as he struggles to re-

call them. It makes the scene feel more important but also builds the sense of anticipation for the viewer for the eventual reveal that Cruz is losing his memory.

While the long scenes combined with a classical, discordant sound track evoke a feeling of paranoia similarly found in Alfred Hitchcock’s films, the infrequent cutting also gives the reader a vague sense of the discomfort similar to when a Wi-Fi connection is agonizingly slow. The podcast itself was slow moving, but this tortoise like pace is all the more evident in the television show but surprisingly, not to its detriment.

Though the scenes are long, even edging on a molasses-level pace at times, the effect of dis-

rupting the viewers normal expectations is profound. The show emphasizes a feeling better illustrated in the podcast: an incredible desire to know more about the world it creates.

The podcast had an easier time creating this desire in the listener; as a simple fortune of formatting, the podcast has far less information available to a listener. As a result, the question of “what the hell is actually going on here” was left open.

The podcast’s vague answers and hints at a government conspiracy are emphasized by an unsettling, but iconic, opening theme by composer and sound designer Mark Henry Phillips.

The classical piano piece is quiet and discordant, similar to a prelude for the entry of the evil spirit of a dead child in a horror film.

Unfortunately, the show eliminated that wonderful and incredibly disturbing opening theme, but Esmail clearly took the show’s music seriously, incorporating scores made famous by their appearance in such pillars of cinema as “All the President’s Men,” “The Thing” and “Vertigo.”

The producers spared no expense in getting the rights to these classic and thrilling compositions, and they got what they paid for. The soundtrack of the show adds to an overwhelming sense of paranoia and the oppressive anxiety of danger being just around the corner, leaving the viewer wondering what on earth could happen next. The near constant presence of classical music

in the credits also emphasizes the final scene of each episode, which is almost always a cliffhanger.

But the show suffers from the classic consequence of trying to merge the world of radio with the world of television. It gives away too much. From the start, the premise of the show is clear. We can see Julia Roberts’ character Bergman’s office, the homecoming facility, the veterans—we understand where Bergman is and her role as a therapist. Listening to the podcast, all of this is left to the imagination of the listener, creating a constant need to know more.

But what can seem at first problematic quickly becomes powerful. Rather than eliminating the sense of ambiguity that made the podcast powerful, the television show adaptation directs the viewer to ask the question: What happened to Heidi? The television show uses the larger pool of information to influence where the viewer looks, rather than the amount they see. By juxtaposing scenes from Bergman’s present with her past, the viewer is left with the question of how she lost her job, her memory and possibly her morality.

The show plays with suspense and paranoia to create a Hitchcock-ian thriller worth anyone’s time. Though it may not rival the podcast, “Homecoming” is an artfully created tribute to the Noir genre, with a plot that would make anyone start looking over their shoulder or ahead for the next season.