The Brandeis Hoot, 03/22/2019

Volume 16 Issue 8

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

March 22, 2019

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper · Waltham, Mass.

Union Elections fill all open seats

AAPI minor in the works

By Sabrina Chow

By Sabrina Chow and Abigail Gardener

editor

editors

The first round of the spring elections saw all seven positions filled for the Executive board and other representatives in the student union. A total of 999 students voted in the election.

In the Executive board, Simran Tatuskar ’21 will be the new president of the Student Union. Tatuskar beat out Lizy Dabanka ’20, David Hui ’22 and Oliver Price ’20 for the position. Tatuskar received 395 out of the overall 999 votes, while Dabanka trailed by only 26 votes with 369. Hui received 78 See ELECTIONS page 3

A new Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Studies program is set to begin at Brandeis in the 2019-2020 school year, according to Max Tang ’19, president of the Brandeis Asian American Task Force (BAATF). The program came together as a result of a petition sent to Brandeis administration in 2015.

Members of BAATF gathered outside of the Bernstein-Marcus administration building in December 2015 to advocate for the formation of the program, along UNION DEBATES

The Student Union Vice Presidential candidates debate in Skyline Commons.

PHOTO BY SASHA SKARBOVIYCHUK/THE HOOT

See AAPI, page 4

Brandeis institute founder accused of sexual harassment

By Celia Young and Ryan Spencer editors

Michael Steinhardt, a billionaire Jewish philanthropist with ties to Brandeis, including an institute bearing his name, was accused of a pattern of sexual harassment in an article published by The New York Times on Thursday.

Steinhardt, a former Wall Street hedge fund manager, donated $12 million to establish the Brandeis Steinhardt Social Research Institute in 2005. He is listed on the Officer and Members of the Brandeis Board of Trustees webpage as a Brandeis trustee emeritus.

Steinhardt was accused by multiple women who worked for different organizations he supported, or helped to

found, according to The Times.

A vice president at the Jewish college outreach group Hillel International, Sheila Katz, accused Steinhardt of repeatedly asking her to have sex with him. A woman who worked for Birthright Israel, Deborah Mohile Goldberg, said Steinhardt asked her to have a threesome with another female colleague. An officer at a small nonprofit Steinhardt

helped to establish, Natalie Goldfein, said that Steinhardt suggested they have children together, according to The Times piece.

None of the women interviewed by The Times and ProPublica said Steinhardt touched them inappropriately, according to The Times article, though they said they felt pressured to endure the comments out of fear complaining could harm their careers.

Steinhardt is a co-founder of Taglit-Birthright, a program that provides 10-day trips to Israel for young Jews. Steinhardt was also on the Hillel International board of governors until he was removed after an investigation

by Hillel International in 2018.

Two staff members said that See HARASSMENT, page 5

VP of Campus Operations to leave for Smith College

By Rachel Saal editor

Vice President of Campus Operations Jim Gray will be leaving Brandeis and joining Smith College on April 19 after working for five years at Brandeis, according to Stewart Uretsky, executive vice president for finance and administration. Gray will serve as Associate Vice President for Facilities and Operations at Smith.

Gray’s role at Brandeis includes overseeing several departments and teams, including facilities, university services, dining services, environmental health

and safety, events management and public safety, according to Uretsky.

“I am most proud of having been a member of the team responsible for the closing of the old Castle, which was a dangerously antiquated building, and the creation of the new Skyline residence hall,” wrote Gray in an email to The Brandeis Hoot.

Uretsky said that creating Skyline required Gray to partner with internal stakeholders, the city of Waltham, architects and a construction company to see the project through successfully.

Inside This Issue:

News: Experts discuss Iran nuclear policy Ops: The controversy of Common Core Features: TRII and its advocates Sports: What to expect in March Madness EDITORIAL: Good start on AAPI minor

See VP, page 3

SKYLINE STAIRCASE

Deavere Smith

Page 5 Page 12 Page 7 Recipient of Richman Fellowship.

Page 10 Page 9 NEWS: PAGE 2

PHOTO BY CANDACE NG/THE HOOT

The staircase in Skyline Residence Hall.

Arcadia Arcadia excites with visual flare.

ARTS: PAGE 16

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

March 22, 2019

IN THE SENATE: March 10, 2019

Photobook reflects on collective power of Women’s March

By Ryan Spencer editor

“We Who March,” a book of photos from the 2017 Women’s March shot by 30 photographers—28 of which were women—is a “book for the community, by the community and of the community,” according to the book’s creator Ellen Feldman.

The self-published book, which features photos shot primarily at marches in Washington, D.C., New York City, Boston and Chicago, sought to present a sense of community, diversity and collective strength between the activists who took to the streets on Jan. 21, 2017, according to Feldman.

The Jan. 21 Women’s March was one of the largest single-day demonstrations in recorded U.S. history, involving between three to five million participants, according to The Washington Post.

Hundreds of marches were held throughout the country with about 68 percent of marches including less than 1,000 participants. Sister marches were also held on the same day throughout the world.

“I wanted the book to present a sense of community and solidarity and unity because that’s what we all felt there, no matter where we were marching in this country or all around the world,” Feldman said in a discussion about the book on Tuesday night.

Feldman was introduced by Susan Reverby, a professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Wellesley College, who also wrote the introduction for “We Who March.” In introducing Feldman to an audience of about 20—several of whom were also photographers who had contributed to the book—Reverby described the Women’s March as a reaction to

the 2016 presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The Women’s March “spread through social media and anger, anger that Hillary had lost by so little to a man with no character and what it would mean to have Trump as president—although I think then we had only a glimmer of how horrific it was going to be,” Reverby said.

In addition to presenting about 150 photographs, the book includes about 20 quotes from the activists captured in its images. Feldman, who collected the quotes while also shooting her own photographs to be included in the book, described the process she used to obtain the quotes from activists at the march in Washington, D.C. Rather than ask for quotes from demonstrators on the spot, Feldman would take note when she thought she took a particularly powerful photo and ask the subject of the photo to write their email on an index card. She would later email these people for quotes, she said.

“I wanted [quotes] where they could be thoughtful, ruminate on what had happened, look at it in hindsight and come up with a really strong statement,” she said.

Feldman also discussed the thought process which went into organizing the book and presenting the march through photos sorted into seven chapters.

“I wanted to start big,” Feldman said of her first chapter, which focuses on the “sheer numbers and quantities of people who are marching.” The first chapter, which she titled “We are Legion,” presents several wide shots of marchers filling the streets of cities such as Boston, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

The second chapter, titled “We

Can’t Believe We’re Still Marching,” focuses on people who Feldman described as “my cohorts— second wave feminists” who participated in demonstrations throughout the ’60s and ’70s only to continue advocating for women through the Women’s March in 2017. The chapter includes fewer wide shots, focusing more on individuals, particularly those who are old enough to have participated in the women’s movements of the 20th century.

The seventh chapter, according to Feldman, was about “the children who need to fight on once we’re gone.” Whereas the second chapter focused on the older generation of marchers, the final chapter focused on the younger generation. One photo from this chapter depicted a young girl wearing a pink “pussy” hat and holding a sign that said “Nasty Women in Training,” a reference to a comment made by then-candidate Trump about Clinton during a presidential debate.

The title of the seventh chapter, “You See a Girl, I See the Future,” is a quote from a sign held by a young girl in the final photograph of the book.

Another section included in the book, though not a chapter, was described by Feldman as the “rupture.” This “section,” which is scattered throughout the book, includes photos consisting of “really strong anti-Trump signs and a lot of anger on the faces of people.” Photos which are part of this “rupture” are presented with a black border to “make sure that we thought of these as different than everything else.”

A portfolio of several images included in the book and a full list of contributing photographers can be found at wewhomarch.org.

Anna Deavere Smith accepts 2019 Richman Fellowship

By Sarah Terrazano editor

Actor, playwright and educator Anna Deavere Smith is this year’s Richman Distinguished Fellow in Public Life. Deavere Smith accepted the award from President Ron Liebowitz in a packed Sherman Function Hall on Thursday.

Deavere Smith’s recent work involves the creation of over 15 one-woman shows based on hundreds of interviews she conducted around the country. She turns these interviews into scripts and performs as the interviewees, cutting out her follow up questions.

The resulting show, “Notes from the Field,” won the 2017 Obie Award.

“Notes from the Field,” examines, among other themes, the school-to-prison pipeline and income inequality.

“We are honored to have Anna Deavere Smith as one of those courageous individuals who holds a mirror to our contemporary society and asks us to reflect along

with her about how it might become more equitable and just,” said Liebowitz.

After remarks from Liebowitz, Deavere Smith was introduced by Professor Marya Levenson (ED), the Harry S. Levitan Director of Teacher Education.

Deavere Smith spoke about her recent work on “Notes from the Field” and her interview journey across America. “When I was a girl, my grandfather said, ‘If you say a word often enough, it becomes you’... and so I’ve been going around America with a tape recorder for many, many years now, with this ridiculous idea that I could become America word for word,” Deavere Smith said. “And of course, I have not done that— but it’s kept me busy,” she continued to audience laughter.

Deveare Smith performed a few excerpts of her interview portraits, including one with lawyer Bryan Stevenson about the Equal Justice Initiative, his work with the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the hardships of representing clients who are on death row.

She also performed a piece based on an interview with a fifth grade teacher in Helsinki.

Deavere Smith visited Finland to learn more about their advanced education system. After showing her a video of a police officer dragging a student from her chair at a high school in South Carolina, Deavere Smith performed the teacher’s horrified reaction to the presence of police officers in American schools.

Deavere Smith is also the recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” and a National Humanities Medal. She has acted in various television series, such as “The West Wing” and “Nurse Jackie.” She currently teaches at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Richman Fellow criteria include an active role in public life and a commitment to improving society, strengthening democratic institutions and advancing social justice. The Richman Fellowship is hosted by the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life on behalf of the Office of the President.

•

The Senate meeting began with senators paying their respects to the victims of the shooting at the Churchchrist Mosques in New Zealand. Vice President Aaron Finkel ’20 announced changes in chairs of Senate committees: Jacob Diaz ’20 has been appointed as the Rules Committee cochair, as current chair Jake Wong ’21 is currently helping the Club Support Committee. Taylor Fu ’21 is the new chair of Campus Operations, due to some concerns from senators and students about how the committee has been run.

•

Finkel also announced the impeachment of Matthew Reeves ’19, the senator to the Foster Mods, as he has not attended a single meeting this semester, which is more than the allowed three missed meetings. There will be no special elections held to fill this seat.

•

Finkel announced that the secured club advisor project will be going ahead. The leaders of the Union have been meeting with club leaders as well as the administration and looked at models in other universities that already have this requirement. Finkel said “trying to be as open and transparent about it as possible” and are slowly trying to address all the concerns raised.

•

The Senate passed and proposed a number of amendments. An amendment to add excused absences passed unanimously, as currently there is no such rule in the Bylaws. The amendment to update the name and purposes of the Dining Services Committee also passed unanimously. An amendment to make sure senators are present at the meetings and focusing on what is happening was proposed to the senate. This would include having them put away personal devices during presentations. After a vote by roll call, the amendment did not pass.

•

An amendment to clarify Allocations Board policy was proposed, as currently the criteria for the A-boards rejection of a marathon appeal is not clear. An amendment to streamline the outreach of the committee was also proposed, which would mean that committee chairs would have to make weekly reports that would be included in the Student Union weekly email. The Senate will vote on the two amendments at the next meeting.

•

The Rules Committee reported that it is focusing on holding senators accountable, to ensure senators are reading all the documents prior to the meeting and are trying to come up with a bylaw to enforce that. The Dining Committee has been talking about the meal exchange option at the C-Store and SubConnection; Sodexo posted a list of all possible exchanges on their website.

•

Campus Operations will focus on cleaning up the storage unit in East and generally beautifying it. Health and Safety is having a follow up appointment with BCC to discuss the issue of accessibility and bridge communication between students and the center. The committee is also addressing the issue that shampoo has been used as hand soap on campus.

•

The Sustainability Committee is installing solar panels on the roof of the Village building, and have purchased water bottles that will be distributed to the first-year class. They are also installing new water fountains, mainly in residential buildings, particularly East, which previously did not have any. Water fountains will also be installed in Gerstenzang and Upper Usdan.

•

The Services and Outreach Committee is planning the Midnight Buffet and will soon submit a Senate Money Resolution to have a flea market event where upperclassmen can sell their used furniture and other items. The Club Support Committee is working with the seven clubs that applied and voting on which ones would make it to the next round.

•

Finkel reported that he met with Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Tim Touchette, who explained how laundry next year will work. There will be a fee paid at the beginning of the year, and students will have unlimited laundry swipes.

He also reminded the senators that there will be free airport shuttle for April break that will work in the same manner as the one after February break.

- Sasha Skarboviychuk

March 22, 2019

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

All positions filled during first spring election, 999 students vote ELECTIONS, from page 1

votes, while Price received 73.

While at a debate held this past Monday, all the candidates were given the opportunity to speak about their platforms and answer questions submitted by the student body.

Tatuskar highlighted her previous experiences to help drive her campaign. She is currently serving as the secretary of the Student Union, the chair of the Health and Safety Committee and a member of the Dining Committee, Campus Operations Committee and Rules Committee. Tatuskar is also the only presidential candidate that has previous Executive board experience.

“I learned that it’s more important to work smartly than to work hard,” said Tatuskar during the debate. “All of the work I have done around campus has been to make the student body better.” She assisted in the menstrual products initiative that brought menstrual products to campus, dining committee to decrease prices in the C-Store and currently working with the Brandeis Counseling Center to make “students voices heard by the counselors and the counselors voices heard by the

students,” she said.

Tatuskar is pushing for more communication through all the branches of the Union because she realized that “the point of the union is collaboration and working towards that collaboration…

By focusing on ourselves individually, as a union we forget that we are supposed to be working together,” she said.

Guillermo Caballero Ferreira ’20 defeated Trevor Filseth ’20 for the position of vice president.

Caballero Ferreira received over 60 percent of the total votes, with 584 votes. During the debate, he spoke about his campaign during the previous special election for vice president, when he did not win, and how he didn’t realize how many people were behind him until after the election was over. “I am really happy to be here to honor the people who were behind my team,” he said in the debate.

Caballero Ferreira will work towards maintaining the current projects in the Union and making sure they succeed in the long term. He will also post Student Union posters around campus to keep the student body informed about everything that is happening in the Union and increase transparency.

“As vice president, I will continue a sense of family and community that Brandeis has and things that make us unique and different from other universities,” he said.

Taylor Fu ’21 ran unopposed for the position of secretary, obtaining 616 out of the total 952 votes. As the current East Quad senator and the chair of the Campus Operations Committee, Fu is working on various projects in East Quad, including cleaning the storage space in the basement so clubs will have access. She was also one of the organizers of the appreciation day for facilities and Sodexo workers a few weeks ago.

As secretary, Fu will work to “maintain a bridge of communication between the student union and the student body,” she said at the debate. “I will implement and utilize social media as a way to foster communication.”

Yona Steinman ’20 is the new treasurer of the Student Union, having run unopposed. He won over 70 percent of the total vote with 673 votes. Steinman has been a part of treasury for three semesters and served as a deputy during the fall semester. He is currently studying abroad.

As treasurer, Steinman will work towards “making the treasury process easier for everyone

involved, whether it be the deputy or assistant treasurer on the Union but also club treasurers to make it an overall smoother process for everyone.”

Zoe Fort ’21 will act as the new junior representative to the Board of Trustees. Fort beat out Jake Rong ’21 for the position with 487 of the total 960 voters.

Fort currently is serving as the Student Union Diversity and Inclusion Officer and is serving on President Ron Liebowitz’ Task Force for “honoring our founding values,” according to her candidate profile.

Gabi Burkholz ’21 is the new junior representative to the alumni board, having ran unopposed and gaining 614 out of the total 947 votes. She is the incoming director of the Brandeis National Committee Student Ambassador program, which is a group that works with alumni and donors on campus.

Burkholz hopes to bridge the gap between the student body and the alumni, so current students will have the ability to meet alumni and form the relationships that she was able to make. “I love what I do,” she said at the debate.

“I love the student body and the ones who aren’t on campus with us anymore. I would love for the

student body to get to know their alumni.”

Isaiah Freedman ’20 and Ben Silver ’20 are the new representatives to the Brandeis Sustainability Fund (BSF). Freedman won a majority of the votes with 231 of the total 618 votes. Silver received 165 votes.

Freedman is a biology and environmental studies major who has taken a lot of environmental-oriented classes, which he believes makes him qualified to be on the board. Freedman spoke about his high school experience where he completed a capstone aimed at decreasing plastics use at their school. He also spoke about how he had the opportunity to compete in SaveOhno this semester, a project that was funded by the BSF. Silver’s highlighted in his campaign that “Brandeis has made steps in the right direction towards addressing sustainability and climate, but there is work to be done here on campus to reduce our carbon footprint.” His main goal as representative on BSF is to help students take advantage of the BSF and make the campus more sustainable.

Vice president for facilities and operations Jim Gray to leave Brandeis next month VP, from page 1

Gray wrote that he is also proud of his work that helped Brandeis increase sustainability and reduce its carbon footprint. Gray’s efforts exceeded the University’s goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 10 percent by 2018, according to Uretsky.

Gray has led Brandeis’ real estate endeavors, securing additional off-campus space and managing our off-campus holdings. Gray also helped implement a better work order system and a

campus-wide stakeholder survey which he said has helped the administration begin to measure the satisfaction of the community and use that feedback to improve customer service.

“As his record of service to our campus demonstrates, Jim Gray is a leader who is capable of managing numerous projects and institutional priorities regardless of their size and scope. He is a true professional with whom I have had the great pleasure of working with and he will be an equally valuable asset to his new team at

Smith,” said Uretsky in an email to The Hoot. “Jim has done a remarkable job both advocating for needed projects and making sure those projects are completed in a fiscally responsible manner.”

Gray said that he has enjoyed working with people who have been committed to making a bright future for Brandeis. He said that his job at Smith will be similar to the role that he had at Brandeis.

“I was receptive when Smith reached out to me through an executive recruiting firm largely

because of the attractiveness to me and my partner of Northampton and Western Mass, which we like very much,” said Gray. “Also, Smith College is an exceptional place with a great mission, as is Brandeis of course. The beautiful and well cared for Smith Campus, designed by the most famous American landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, was also an attraction.”

Gray said that he will be spending his final days at Brandeis transitioning several special projects and helping think through how

the workload will be managed after he leaves and how to find a new VP for Campus Operations at Brandeis.

Brandeis will conduct a nationwide search for a new Senior Vice President of Campus Operations, beginning the process by reviewing the current job description before formally opening the position to candidates. The community will receive updates throughout the search process and the administration hopes to hire a new Vice President for Campus Operations “as soon as is practical.”

Office Spiritual and Religious Life searches for new University Chaplain director

By Sabrina Chow editor

Finalists for the Director of the Office Spiritual and Religious Life (OSRL) at Brandeis were announced in an email sent to the student body on March 14. The new director will serve as the University Chaplain and oversee all the chaplains and staff affiliated with the Department of Spiritual and Religious Life.

The finalists named in a campus-wide email sent by the Kristen Lucken, the chair of the search committee. Maya Dietz, Reverend Matthew Carriker and Debra Jackson were cited as the finalists for the position.

According to the position’s description, the director “serves as a

primary campus leader on issues of faith, spirituality, conscience, belief systems and religion within the broader academic setting of Brandeis University.” The Director of OSRL and University Chaplain is not required to have a specific denominational affiliation.

The job description states that the director “has a responsibility to serve and engage the broader spiritual and religious communities of Brandeis as well as those who have no professed religious or spiritual tradition.”

The OSRL is made of chaplaincies from the Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Dharmic traditions, according to their website.

There are three primary responsibilities for the incoming director. The first is to manage

and lead the OSRL. This includes serving as the primary supervisor for the different chaplains. The director will share supervision with the vice provost for student affairs over the Jewish Chaplaincy.

They will also establish and help maintain any affiliate chaplaincies such as Chabad or Intervarsity.

The new director will also work with the Office of Institutional Advancement and other campus stakeholders to fundraise for OSRL and the chaplaincies.

The second responsibility is to increase campus engagement to mainly “facilitate collaboration between the chaplain and Brandeis staff and faculty to provide diverse and robust co-curricular learning opportunities around religion and broadly understood,” according to the job

description. They will also be required to maintain a social media and web presence for OSRL. The final responsibility for pastoral care is “to participate in teams that support student emotional health and wellbeing,” whether it be through the campus CARE team or be representation from OSRL on the Committee for Academic Standards (COAS).

The minimum requirements for the position will be individuals with a Master of Divinity or a similar degree, 10 years of work experience, have experience in interfaith work and five to seven years of supervisory experience.

Ideal candidates are those that hold terminal degrees in their relevant field and “verifiable ordination or recognition as clergy in a religious/spiritual tradition.”

Dietz is a Christian Scientist that served in the Army. According to an article by Teach for America, Dietz said that “I help to ensure that people can practice their religious traditions faithfully and that they have access to confidential pastoral counseling and religious rites.”

Carriker is the current Protestant Chaplain at Brandeis and is often referred to as “Minister Matt.” He leads Protestant services and acts as the religious advisor to Protestant student clubs on campus, according to OSRL’s website.

Jackson is the current spiritual care coordinator at Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia, C.A.

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 22, 2019

AAPI Studies program in the works AAPI, from page 1

with a host of other demands.

Following their “Day of Action,” members of BAATF entered Bernstein-Marcus to give their letter to Lisa Lynch, then interim president, and other members of the administration.

According to the letter, BAATF is “a grassroots, Brandeis University based and focused, student organization created to advocate for the needs and betterment of the Asian American community here at Brandeis University. The purpose of BAATF is to gather and mobilize students around finding solutions to issues specific to the Asian American community here at Brandeis.”

In the demands, BAATF asked for the formation of an Asian American Studies Department that includes both a major and a minor, an introductory course on Asian American Studies taught in fall 2016 to continue each year and a hire of three tenure-track Asian American Studies profes-

sors, which included a Florence Levy Kay fellow of Asian American studies. Following the “Day of Action,” a student and faculty committee was formed to help create the program, said Tang in an interview with The Brandeis Hoot.

In fall 2017, Dr. Leanne Day (WGS/GRALL) was hired as a Florence Levy Kay fellow in Asian American Pacific Islander Studies and has been at Brandeis since.

She currently teaches Introduction to Asian American Studies (AAPI 140b) and Asian American Pacific Islander Literature and Popular Culture (AAPI 150b) and has taught The Asian American Pacific Islander Experience: Race, U.S. Empire, and Migration (AAPI 140b) in past semesters.

In March 2019 at an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) celebration held by the Brandeis Asian American Student Association (BAASA), Tang announced Dr. Yuri Doolan, a Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University, had been hired as the first tenure-track assistant professor

in AAPI Studies. According to an email sent to The Hoot by Dean of Arts and Sciences Dorothy Hodgson, the search committee for the School of Arts and Sciences unanimously selected Doolan for the position and were able to successfully recruit him.

“One of his key responsibilities will be to develop and implement a new minor in Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies and support broader AAPI programming (lectures, events, etc),” said Hodgson in the email.

“The School of Arts and Sciences is deeply committed to building AAPI Studies at Brandeis. We are excited that Mr. Doolan’s hire will be an important building block in that process.” She also noted that the committee is in the process of agreeing on a budget to support this programming.

Doolan did not reply to requests for comment from The Hoot.

Additionally, Hodgson said in the email that she approved a “one year full-time teaching position next year in the School of Arts and Sciences for a candidate to

teach two to three AAPI courses, in addition to other courses relevant to their expertise.”

This was partially in response to the March 4 petition submitted to Hodgson and various other administrators, which garnered over 425 signatures, requesting that Dr. Leanne Day be retained as a faculty member for another year in order to support the formation of the AAPI Studies program. Although Hodgson cannot guarantee Day will be the faculty member to fill the one year full-time teaching position, “if she chooses to apply, Dr. Day will certainly be a candidate for that job,” she said.

The minor is still in the works and must be “designed and approved by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and then at two votes at Faculty Meeting,” said Elaine Wong, senior associate dean for undergraduate education in the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences in an email to The Hoot. “Its creation would ensure that AAPI courses are offered regularly and that new courses will continue to be developed.

The minor will also enable students and faculty to engage with one another in programming related to AAPI Studies,” she said.

“It’s good to know that the BAATF has been able to sustain its leadership, even as its founding members graduate, and that the university has been able to honor its commitments to the BAATF and other concerned Brandeis students,” Wong said.

Tang was a part of the founding group of BAATF at the “Day of Action” in 2015 and was inspired by founder, Jamie Wong ’17. Wong was inspired to start this campaign while attending an activism event. She left a quote on the walls of the Intercultural Center (ICC), which said, “If an opportunity does not exist, create it. If an idea does not exist, create it. Do not wait.”

Members of BAATF and the rest of the Brandeis community are continuing to fight for the AAPI Studies program and the rest of the demands from the letter to administration in 2015.

Politicians talk about being women in office

By Rachel Saal editor

Four local politicians spoke about the obstacles of running for and serving in office as women on Friday. Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards, Waltham City Councilor Kristine Mackin PhD ’14, State Representative Tram Nguyen and State Senator Becca Rausch ’01 answered questions in a panel organized by the Brandeis Democrats club.

Edwards said that women need to help other women whenever possible. “You will see me. If you say no, then you’re going to say no to all of me, but you will know who that is,” said Edwards.

“At some point, all of me is going to cross over some of you. You’re going to see some of you in me.

That’s what I firmly believe in politics. I believe in connection.”

Nguyen said that Edwards endorsed her and helped her campaign. Edwards said that helping Nguyen was not only a positive action, but it helped both of their public appearances.

“I interrupted the line of Ital-

ian prince, Italian prince, Italian prince. So you must remember to always build a pipeline. I am going to find that person, whatever color they are, wherever they come from, and say you’re next in line, and my job is to prepare her to be the next city councilor,” said Edwards.

Edwards said that she has also made an effort to give kids who feel voiceless the opportunity to share their experiences and opinions. “When they say I want a voice, I say here’s a megaphone,” said Edwards.

Nguyen spoke about encouraging more women to consider running for office. “I do know that women many times need to be asked on average seven times to run before they would even consider it, and for women of color, most of us are not even asked, so consider this, everyone, your first ask,” said Nguyen.

She said that since there are so few women of color, they have to seek each other out to help each other find an augmented voice.

“One of the hardest things... campaigning as a woman of col-

or is that I need to prove myself first for people to actually listen to me. Being a woman of color means you have to work so much harder to get your voice out there and actually run a campaign in a way that’s authentic to you,” said Nguyen.

Edwards said that when campaigning becomes difficult, she often thinks about how she would react if someone slammed the door in a client’s face. “What would I have done if this was my client and she had the door slammed in her face? I would’ve gotten my elbow in the door before it could shut and I would’ve given the argument of my life for her,” said Edwards. “That’s what I had to do [for myself].”

Rausch said that she hates the term “pink wave” because she doesn’t think that any woman has won an election simply because she is a woman. She said that women win in spite of the fact that they are women and are often told that they cannot run.

“I was told I can’t win, so I will never say that to someone. I will never tell them that you can’t win,

therefore you can’t run. If your goal is to actually implement real change and to push an agenda that you feel is not being met, run. But run with dignity and run with a positive campaign,” said Edwards.

“Allies support, allies are honest, allies listen and allies are okay if they’re not leading.”

Mackin said that she is not looking forward to running for reelection and that the work that goes into campaigning is like having another job. She said that she is going to pull out the list of every registered voter this year and try to reach people who haven’t been engaged in local politics. “I think that people want to feel like politicians care, and that’s the most basic qualification for elected office, legitimately caring about the community and other people,” said Mackin.

Mackin said that when she studied biochemistry at Brandeis, there were only two women teaching in the department. “I said that I can’t fight as hard as they do for the basic respect and recognition as experts in their field. If I have to fight that hard for that type of

respect and recognition, I want to do it on a bigger stage, and politics is that bigger stage.”

Rausch said that Brandeis is the first place that she applied intelligent thinking and critical analysis together to her dedication to social justice and broad spectrum equality. It is important that young people vote and that Brandeis students consider changing their voter registration to indicate that they live in Waltham, noted Rausch.

“I cannot emphasize more that all politics are local. Please consider changing your voter registration to right here where you live… You spend the vast majority of your year here,” said Rausch.

“The policies that the Waltham city council works on, that your mayor works on, will directly impact your day to day life vastly more than the president of this country, than the state house of representatives, than the state senate, I guarantee you,” Rausch said.

Author discusses Iranian Revolution’s history

By Sasha Skarboviychuk editor

A visiting professor from the London School of Economics spoke about human rights and the global history of the Iranian revolution, as part of the working process for his book to get reactions from the audience and collect ideas.

Professor Roham Alvandi is the Associate Professor of International History and Director of the Cold War Studies Project at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of History at Columbia University.

Alvandi began by explaining the origins of his book, saying that the project grew out of his earlier work on Iran in the Cold War: he grew interested in the correlation between the time that major human rights movements were happening and the timing of the

Iranian revolution. This brought him to global human rights and human rights in the Cold War, in connection to Iran.

Alvandi has two audiences: those that are interested in Iranian studies, as well as those who are interested in human rights and transnational history. He then proceeded to explain the historiography of the topic.

When the revolution is looked at through the lens of human rights, two distinct narratives emerge.

The first narrative is U.S. President Jimmy Carter embracing human rights in the world, which undermined the Iranian leader, the Shah, and led to the revolution. The second narrative is one of a celebratory and romanticizing view on the revolution: the younger generation is able to identify with the cause of the revolution, which was fueled by the inequalities they faced. In Alvandi’s eyes, this is both a political and generational divide in opin-

ions.

This brought Alvandi to two central questions: why was the Shah susceptible to pressure from this humans rights push, and in what way does the opposition instrumentalize human rights as well as its relationship with human rights?

Alvandi continued by saying that the protest started with 10 nights of poetry reading where poets openly criticize Shah: this was the first open public protest.

What is still not understood, however, is why the Shah backed down, as everyone expected him to crack down on protests.

Another interesting aspect of this is the role that the opposition played in the outcomes of these events. The opposition did not write about human rights abuses in domestic papers, however they were widely mentioned in documents targeted at the international audience. This indicates that the issue of human rights abuses

in Iran was aimed at the international community, rather than Iranian citizens, as the opposition never truly adopted the values of human rights.

A large concern for Iranian citizens, according to Alvandi, was westoxification, which in turn undermined the value of the liberal and social ideas in Iran, which were seen as the West’s attempt to control Iran. This also caused the rise of Iranian anti-imperialism.

Alvandi also highlighted the importance of the student movements in Germany and the United States to the Iranian Revolution.

Iranian students in Germany were using the memory of the Holocaust as a way to push German students to support their issues.

By making comparisons between the human rights abuses during the Holocaust and those that were occuring in Iran, the students were able to gather a large amount of support in Germany.

Gathering student protests in

the United States was even more simple for the Iranian students because of the ongoing Vietnam War, which was a large concern for the American public. Other than the students, however, there was not much pressure on the Shah to change the way people are treated in Iran. According to Alvandi, Carter was not going to do much about the abuse of human rights in Iran.

Alvandi concluded by sharing his theory on the events with the audience. He believes that a large part of the problem was the idea of Iran being considered a part of the modern west. He also argued that the civilizational narrative was the most important, to weaken the power of the Shah. Just these factors alone were enough to cause the fall of the Shah.

The event was sponsored by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, International and Global Studies Program, History Department and Politics Department.

March 22, 2019

NEWS 5

The Brandeis Hoot

Steinhardt Institute founder and Brandeis trustee emeritus accused of sexual harassment HARASSMENT, from page 1

Steinhardt made inappropriate comments to them in 2011 and 2015, according to an article from The Forward. According to the article, Steinhardt later apologized for the first incident.

Katz said that Steinhardt’s behavior was not unknown. “Institutions in the Jewish world have long known about his behavior, and they have looked the other way,” said Katz to the Times.

“No one was surprised when I shared that this happened.”

A statement from the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish life signed by Steinhardt’s son, David Steinhardt, says that The Times story “goes out of its way to leave the false impression that Michael propositioned a handful of women,” while Steinhardt “did no such thing.”

It continues, “Did Michael constantly try to fix people up and make inappropriate jokes?

Of course he did” but clarifies that these comments were not insidious. It goes on to criticize The Times reporter

covering the accusations and quotes Steinhardt’s full apology.

The statement from Steinhardt talks about his provocative sense of humor and reads in part, “In my nearly 80 years on earth I have never tried to touch any woman or man inappropriately. As I have said before, I deeply regret cavalierly making comments in professional settings that were boorish, disrespectful and just plain dumb,” said the statement on the Steinhardt Foundation page.

Steinhardt has been involved in the Brandeis community on

multiple occasions in the past.

A 2007 article which interviewed Steinhardt quoted him as saying, “My hope for Brandeis is that it can be the light unto the non-Orthodox, secular, American Jewish world, which I do not think it is yet… But I do believe it, more than any other institution, has that potential.”

In 2009, Steinhardt, who was then a Brandeis trustee, spoke to nearly 200 alumni at an event at the Harmonie Club in New York, according to a Brandeis University alumni chronicle publication.

Steinhardt is not the only Brandeis donor to have made headlines in recent weeks for allegations of misconduct. The accusations against Steinhardt come just weeks after another Brandeis donor, Robert Kraft, who supports the Robert and Myra Kraft and Jacob Hiatt fund at Brandeis, was accused of soliciting prostitutes in a Florida case.

The Brandeis Hoot reached out to a brandeis.edu email account associated with Steinhardt, who did not respond before press time.

Experts discuss if Iran can be stopped from getting nuclear weapons

By Celia Young editor

Two experts in nuclear proliferation and an attentive audience discussed if Iran can be stopped from getting a nuclear bomb on Thursday. But the two experts, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute Robert Einhorn and Senior Executive Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies Gary Samore (POL), disagreed on the likelihood of Iran eventually developing nuclear weapons.

Einhorn is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute who worked under the Clinton and Obama administrations, helped to lead U.S. efforts to constrain North Korea’s missile program and was a part of the direct negotiations with Iran that led to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more commonly known as the Iran deal.

Einhorn and Samore discussed the JCPOA. Samore also has extensive experience in nuclear proliferation, working in both the Clinton and Obama administrations on the topic.

The JCPOA, which Einhorn called, “the best [deal] that could be achieved at the time,” was an agreement that limited Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons for the next 10 to 15 years in exchange for economic sanctions relief from the United States.

President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA and reimposed economic sanctions, causing heavy economic burdens on Iran and the perception that the U.S. wants Iran to either “capitulate or to collapse,” according

to Einhorn.

The title of the talk, “Can Iran be stopped from getting the bomb,” was answered differently

by Samore and Einhorn. Einhorn didn’t believe that Iran would inevitably get nuclear weapons, saying, “I think they [Iran] have genuinely not made up their mind yet.”

But Samore thought differently.

“Bob (Einhorn) says the final decision hasn’t been made,” Samore said. “I think, with the current crop of leaders, the temptation to build nuclear weapons—if they think they can get away with it and if they have the technical capacity—it’s going to be too hard to resist.”

Einhorn and Samore discussed the history of the Iranian nuclear program, which included nuclear energy and a covert program to develop nuclear weapons with enriched Uranium, an element that can be used for nuclear energy or weapons development depending on the level of enrichment. When the Iranian nuclear weapons program was discovered in 2003, the discovery set of a chain of diplomatic talks, temporary agreements and negotiations, eventually resulting in the JCPOA. But Iran didn’t give up on their nuclear ambitions. “Through all the twists and turns they’ve been able to creep closer and closer to nuclear weapons technology,” Samore said.

The two experts also discussed criticisms of the JCPOA that contributed to Trump pulling out of the deal. Critics argue that the JCPOA only stalls Iranian nuclear weapons development, and doesn’t address other issues be-

tween Iran and the United States, such as Iranian support for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah.

But Einhorn disagreed, saying an “all or nothing” deal would hold a nuclear deal hostage to other issues that were less important to national security.

Einhorn also recommended that, though pulling out of the JCPOA was a poor decision, a potential democratic president in 2020 should do more than just rejoin the original deal.

“If I were advising the democrats I would say don’t go right back to the JCPOA,” he said. “In doing that you’re giving up the leverage that the Trump administration has provided in terms of the sanctions, but I would enforce those sanctions in a kind of kinder, gentler way.” Einhorn also recommended that the U.S. be willing to relax primary U.S. sanctions in exchange for further Iranian concessions.

Einhorn encouraged mending relations with key states. “We’re not going to get the Iranians back to the negotiating table unless we have the support of these key partner governments,” he said, identifying Russia and China as key to the negotiations.

Einhorn also recommended that the U.S. take a more reasonable position on Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Uranium enrichment is considered by the United States a step towards achieving nuclear weapons. “The Trump administration has taken the view that we should completely eliminate Iran’s uranium enrichment program,” Einhorn said. “That would be great if they would completely get rid of that.

But we tried for years and years to do that and we didn’t have the leverage… We had the entire international community calling for that, now it’s virtually impossible. We have to be more realistic about that.”

The two of them took questions from the audience about Iran, and discussed the risk of Iran developing a covert nuclear weapons program. “I wouldn’t stake my life on it,” said Einhorn though he expressed his confidence in the U.S and Israeli intelligence com-

munity’s ability to discover any covert operations—especially given Iran’s track record of failing to hide its nuclear ambitions.

In addition to Einhorn’s earlier publications, he has two policy reports, one on constraining Iran’s nuclear program and the other on constraining Iran’s missile program, that will be released in the Brooking Institute Thursday the 28th. The reports will be available on the Crown Center for Middle East Studies website.

PHOTO BY CELIA YOUNG/THE HOOT

Entrepreneur lectures on his start-up in Israel

By Sasha Skarboviychuk editor

Cybersecurity entrepreneur Udi Mokady, Chairman and CEO of CyberArk, an information security company offering Privileged Account Security, gave a lecture in Hebrew on doing business in start-up nations to Hebrew 124, as well as Hebrew for Business.

Mokady received the 2018 Asper Award for Global Entrepreneurship from Brandeis University and a 2017 SC Media Reboot Award as a cyber security influencer. According to the Brandeis International Business School,

the Asper Award for Global Entrepreneurship is given annually to a person who best exemplifies the values of entrepreneurial spirit and independent thinking at Brandeis International Business School (IBS) while achieving outstanding success in the global marketplace through creative marketing and business strategies.

Mokady began by telling the students about his career path: since co-founding the company in 1999, he served as CyberArk’s chief strategist and visionary, overseeing global expansion, management, execution and corporate development. In 2005 he became the CEO of CyberArk.

During his time as CEO, Mokady lead CyberArk to achieve record growth while accelerating overall market adoption for privileged access security solutions to protest against an evolving advanced threat landscape. Today CyberArk has customers in 90 countries, and employees in 30 countries. Upon conclusion of his presentation, the students had the opportunity to ask Mokady questions.

When the concern of CyberArk’s products being bought and used for malintent was brought up, Mokady had a simple reply to the concerns. CyberArk makes security devices, explained

Mokady: they are defensive tools, not offensive tools. Furthermore, CyberArk has to follow the expert regulations of two countries: the United States and Israel. These regulations define who the firm can or cannot trade with, which does not allow for the products to be used for harm. The biggest issue with this, according to Mokady, is being careful with who their partners sell to, as there have been issues in the market with companies selling to banned nations.

The audience also asked about the trend of most Israelis making companies with the purpose to sell them. Mokady responded saying that culturally, Israel

is better for innovation and less so for long term projects. We tend to “bless the exit,” concluded Mokady. However, he reassured the audience that CyberArk is not looking for a quick exit.

Sara Hascal, the interim director of the Hebrew language program and organizer of the event, told The Brandeis Hoot that it was a wonderful opportunity for the students to be able to apply what they have been learning in class, as it is not often that while living in the United States, they get to speak about business in Hebrew. The event was sponsored by the Hebrew Program.

FEATURES

6 The Brandeis Hoot

March 22, 2019

Brandeis team talks the talk at the Hult Prize Competition

By Shruthi Manjunath editor

Imagine presenting an idea to an audience of business leaders who stare down your soul as fellow competitors wait for you to choke. You nervously clutch the microphone and stare into the eyes of a business tycoon who could make or break your whole career.

For the last 10 years, a social impacts competition called the Hult Prize Competition, run by the Hult International Business School in Cambridge, M.A. and partnered with the United Nations, has been a benchmark program that social entrepreneurs have participated in. This year, a Brandeis team made it farther in the competition than any Brandeis teams have in the past.

Each year is centered around a theme related to social issues.

This year’s theme is based on youth employment, with youth ranging from ages 16 to 35. The competition consists of three initial rounds and teams who move on advance to the regional competition.

After the regional competition, the winning team will live in a castle outside of London over the summer and undergo a business accelerator, which is a program in which start-ups or developing companies have access to many resources, allowing them to build their ideas and become self-sufficient to enhance their projects.

After the summer, the winning team will work with the United Nations to further develop their ideas.

At the 2019 Hult Prize Competition, Max Brodsky ’20 (GRAD),

PHOTOS COURTESY MAX BRODSKY

Abigail Montine ’19 (GRAD), IBS scholar Liza Korotkova ’19 and R. Matthews ’19, collectively called Team Talk, pitched the idea of an app called Talk. Their idea centers around the growing number of youth in the United States that are multilingual, which proves to be useful in many situations.

The app Talk will allow multilingual young adults to act as translators and interpreters through video remote communication, which would benefit businesses, schools and nonprofit organizations. Team Talk previously won $5000 through the SPARKTank competition at Brandeis, the Hult Prize Foundation Challenge and then continued on to compete in the Hult Prize regional competition.

Max Brodsky is currently an MBA student at the Heller School for Social Policy with a concentration in children and families.

Prior to attending the Heller School, he worked at a healthcare nonprofit helping children in neighborhoods. Abigail Montine previously worked at the Peace Corps and aided in youth development. Brodsky and Montine heard about the Hult Prize Competition during their orientation at the Heller School.

Brodsky came up with the idea for the Talk app in August of 2018 and over time the group of Korotkova, Montine and Matthews worked together to develop this idea further. In the Hult Prize

TEAM TALK

Members of Team Talk pitch their idea at Regionals.

Competition, Team Talk made it farther than any Brandeis team has in the past by placing in the final six at regionals out of fifty teams.

Furthermore, Brodsky describes the stressful atmosphere in which a team’s name is called and they must immediately pitch their idea to everyone in the auditorium, which includes fellow competitors, spectators and most importantly business leaders such as the former assistant dean of the Harvard Business School.

Team Talk is currently taking a break from working on their idea and focusing on finishing their degrees. They hope to finish developing the business plan.

In the future, they plan to compete in competitions such as the Mass challenge, which is the largest accelerator challenge in New England. In addition, they hope to find contacts to talk to such as

venture capitalists who could provide them with resources.

Team Talk had a multitude of support from individuals at the Brandeis International Business School, the Heller School, the Waltham Partnership for Youth and from individuals such as Bozhanka Vitanova, Rebecca Menapace, Fern Shamis from the provost office and Kaytie Dowcett. The team owes their success to all of these people and more who have supported them throughout the process. Overall, to Brodsky, participating in the Hult Prize Competition was an “incredibly exciting opportunity.” The team performed extremely well and beat teams from schools such as Harvard and MIT. Brodsky explains how it doesn’t matter that they didn’t win the regional competition; they believe in their product and are confident that they will succeed in the end.

Featured Events Calendar When My Other Language is a Sign Language: A Signer’s Contribution to Linguistic Theory Friday, March 22, 2019, 2–3:20 p.m., Gerstenzang 124 Join the Brandeis Linguistics Program and the Brandeis American Sign Language Club for a talk by Dr. Helen Koulidobrova of Central Connecticut State University on sign languages. In this talk, Dr. Koulidobrova will discuss educational policy regarding native ASL speakers and contributions of signers to research in linguistics and multilingualism. She will also share data from ongoing research involving speakers of various signed languages, including American Sign Language, Emirati Sign Language, Icelandic Sign Language and Polish Sign Language.

Refreshments will be served!

Mini Day of Service Saturday, March 23, 2019, 9 a.m.–6 p.m., Off Campus We invite students, faculty and staff to join the Waltham Group’s Community Connections for a mini day of service.

Engage on-site with 2Life Community’s Coleman House and reflect about your experience with your group.

Legacy and Learning Fair Sunday, March 24, 2019, 9:30 a.m.–12 p.m., Olin-Sang Forum Come to an open house on a special BJEP day. Join us as our sixth graders get creative and share their family legacies. Students will showcase family recipes, artifacts and stories. All projects give a window into our unique cultural and Jewish educational program housed on the vibrant Brandeis Campus. Guests will be invited to participate in making a legacy collage art project that will highlight their own family history.

Rosenstiel Award Lecture: Stephen Harrison Monday, March 25, 2019, 4–5 p.m., Gerstenzang 123 “Viruses, Proteins and Cells” The Rosenstiel Award has had a distinguished record of identifying and honoring pioneering scientists who subsequently have been honored with the Lasker and Nobel Prizes. In 2017 Rockefeller University Professor Titia de Lange was named for her pioneering work on how cells preserve the integrity of their chromosomes. In 2016, Professor Susan Lindquist was cited for her work on the association of protein aggregation and neurological disease. In 2015, Professor Yoshinori Ohsumi was the recipient for his description of protein degradation through the process of autophagy. Thirty-six of 90 Rosenstiel Award winners have been awarded The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine or in Chemistry.

Lovin’ Spoonfuls Food Recovery Speaker Event Tuesday, March 26, 2019, 7–8 p.m., Olin-Sang 201 Deborah Hicks, a representative of Lovin’ Spoonfuls, will be speaking about food waste and its impacts, both global and local as well as the role of Lovin’ Spoonfuls in mitigating these issues through food rescue and education. She will also speak about the Plenty programming and ways in which individuals can help combat food waste.

Come by for this one-hour speaker event to learn about food recovery and local opportunities. There will be free pad thai offered, gluten-free and vegan.

PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK.COM

Equatorial Guinea, Literature, and Activisms in the Diaspora: A Talk by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel Wednesday, March 27, 2019, 5–7 p.m., Mandel Center for the Humanities 303 Equatoguinean writer Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel embarked on an unexpected hunger strike in February 2011 to protest against the repression of civil liberties in Equatorial Guinea. Exiled now in Barcelona, Spain, Ávila Laurel continues using his literary work to denounce the second dictatorial regime established in Equatorial Guinea since 1979. Located in the Gulf of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea is the only African country that has Spanish as its official language. Since independence in 1968, two consecutive dictatorial regimes have impacted the country with a long history of diasporic movements among a people that strives to escape arbitrary rulers. The literature of Equatorial Guinea represents the voice of those silenced in a country marked by the opacity of information, lack of freedom of expression and violation of human rights. Ávila Laurel’s latest book, “The Gurugu Pledge,” is a novel dedicated to the migrations of black Africans to Europe, and offers a vision of an extended phenomena resulting from decolonization and dictatorships.

The author’s talk will be in Spanish, and it will be introduced and interpreted into English by Carolina Nvé Díaz San Francisco (Medical Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Practice, Boston University). Refreshments will be served.

- Compiled by Jennifer Cook

March 22, 2019

FEATURES 7

The Brandeis Hoot

TRII advocates and their stories: Jonathan Goldman

By Polina Potochevska editor

The Right to Immigration Institute (TRII) founded at Brandeis is a unique organization that trains undergraduates to become accredited representatives in immigration courts and to gain legal experience firsthand. It allows for immigrants to receive assistance with many types of legal processes, making sure they have the support and the knowledge they need.

Jonathan Goldman ’19 is a politics and philosophy double major and the relations director of TRII. He is also one of the co-founders of TRII, a member on the Board of Directors and an accredited representative through the Department of Justice and the Office of Legal Access Programs.

Outside of TRII, Goldman is also involved with playing squash on campus and is a member of the Democratic State Committee. He also works for an outside company as an Inventory and Tech Analyst. His role in TRII during its founding, including many basic administrative duties, was much different than it is now. Currently, he is working on a strategic fiveyear plan to expand TRII outside of Brandeis. By going through the planning process, “we’re more narrowly defining what people’s roles are. The goal is for my role to fall into expanding TRII outside of Brandeis,” said Goldman.

The TRII office is located at 24 Crescent Street in Waltham, around the corner from popular brunch restaurant In A Pickle. A day in the life of a TRII advocate is ever-changing and often hectic.

Goldman described his normal daily operations to The Hoot, based on his experiences that Monday: he came into the office

at 9 a.m., where students had already been meeting with a client.

From there, he helped a volunteer attorney from Brazil get set up for her day, picked up a member of TRII to attend a workshop, rushed back to the office to finish applications with clients and worked with other students to make sure that all forms and cases were updated. Goldman is also working with another student in TRII to develop an art installation “focused on immigration and the environment” through the Blueprint Projects in Waltham, MA. “I’m interested in working with people and doing something good… my drive involved with TRII is not so much connected to my immigration background, but I think in some ways being born in another country has informed, in some ways, the way that I think about immigration,” said Goldman.

He was born in Denmark and immigrated to the United States at the age of two. He also attended Danish summer school for three years, and spent time studying abroad in Denmark for a summer.

Goldman discussed his ease in the process of obtaining dual citizenship, and how the ease of his personal process informed him how broken the system can be for others, saying “there’s so much more that we need to do.”

The process to become a member of TRII involves a training program during the fall semester, after which you can take an exam to qualify for membership.

Then, students can come into the Waltham office, do intakes and work with clients on cases. Once they have 60 hours of hands-on experience doing casework, they can apply with the Department of Justice to become accredited representatives—there are two levels of certification. The certifications

PHOTO FROM THERIGHTTOIMMIGRATION.ORG

allow students to be able to give legal advice, and represent people before the Department of Homeland Security. Goldman explained that these two levels of certification are the “only in-court legal experience you can have in law, without a legal degree.”

A positive experience that Goldman fondly remembers is when his first client called him to tell him that she became a citizen.

“When she called me, she was screaming, she sounded like she had won the lottery and it was just like such a fulfilling experience,” said Goldman. After spending time with her and learning so much about her story, it felt like a victory not just for himself but for someone that he felt tied to in a unique way.

He also shared a moment from last semester, in which around 100 people came to TRII’s introductory meeting, proving that the organization provides a mission statement that resonates with many members of the Brandeis community and fueled its members throughout the training process.

A challenge that Goldman has run into is related to the fact that TRII is still a new organization,

and that everyone is learning as they go along. While he feels that TRII has succeeded in developing a compelling message and image, the organization continues to try and improve operating systems within the club to give students resources to turn to when they are faced with questions or concerns, thus allowing for more one-onone connections with students.

“I would rather put in the time to see how people are, than view it as a statistic for our organization; if you do everything in numbers you lose the human side of what you’re trying to do,” he said.

“It’s not an internship, it’s not a volunteer experience, it’s something different,” said Goldman.

“Something I often tell clients when they come in is ‘our job is to make your lives as un-stressful as possible, we’re here to make sure you don’t have to think about this, we’ll answer the questions you’re worried about because this isn’t something you should have to worry about,’” said Goldman.

When asked why TRII is important to the Brandeis campus, Goldman explained that it is vital to have such an organization because “so much of immigration is based on facts and characteristics

that are outside the people’s control. And that should not be a determining factor on your life.” He explained that factors such as the country one is born in, religion or financial status should not limit the opportunities given in life to that person, and “they should not be the things that are limiting your ability to live the life you want to live.”

In the future, Goldman hopes to expand TRII to other universities if possible. “I think TRII will exist until it just can’t exist anymore,” said Goldman about the systems put into place to make sure that TRII can survive for years to come. He explained that TRII has the possibility to spread to other college campuses and how exciting it would be to be able to say that it all started at Brandeis.

Goldman also expressed that being a part of TRII has been rewarding in the ways that students learn to see each other differently and confront their own biases. For members who have personal experiences with immigration and for those who don’t, there is always something new to be learned from clients and their individual experiences and from one another in TRII.

New app combines sustainability with grocery shopping

By Sabrina Chow editor

Going grocery shopping can be one of the most fun but difficult tasks in an adult’s life. How can one combine grocery shopping with environmental action to help sustain the planet? GreenChoice recently launched a beta version of their mobile app that “makes conscious eating and grocery shopping easy, fun and more affordable for consumers who care

about health, ethics and the environment,” according to a press release.

Started by Galen Karlan-Mason ’16 MBA ’17, GreenChoice evaluates and scores different grocery stores based on their health and sustainability. “Our data sources include federal agencies, research institutes, third-party certifiers, new sources and more,” according to the GreenChoice website.

“Through comprehensive product scoring, personalized user feedback and increased connectivi-

PHOTO FROM GREENCHOICENOW.COM

ty, GreenChoice hopes to foster large communities of informed consumers purchasing with their values.”

Unlike most companies, GreenChoice is a public benefit corporation (PBC), meaning that “GreenChoice has a legal obligation to prioritize our public benefit to society and the environment alongside financial returns,” according to their website.

The company’s charter states that their public benefit is “to empower people to create a healthy, just and sustainable world.” They do this by empowering consumers to make informed choices, conducting operations with integrity and transparency and fostering a work environment of integrity, courage, curiosity and collaboration, according to their website.

This past Thursday, March 14, Karlan-Mason presented the beta app at Mass Innovation Nights, a monthly event held all around the greater Boston area for entrepreneurs to gain more visibility on their current projects.

According to the press release, the app will “allow users to quickly and easily find products that match their values which work

PHOTO FROM FORBES.COM

The grocery store: a fun place to shop, but not always the most sustainable. GreenChoice can help.

GROCERIES

with their financial and dietary needs. Users will be able to search or scan barcodes to see GreenScore© data on nutritional value, processing concerns, food safety and environmental impact of around 50,000 foods and beverage products.”

The app will also allow users to compare product prices between ten different grocery retailers to help build the most cost-effective shopping lists at the best prices.

Online orders and earning rewards for better products are currently in progress.

8 The Brandeis Hoot

LIME BIKE

WEEK IN PHOTOS

“Please unlock me, or I’ll call the police!”

PHOTO BY POLINA POTOCHEVSKA/THE HOOT

NIGHT SKY

SUNSET

Walks to the library just got more pleasant.

PHOTO BY POLINA POTOCHEVSKA/THE HOOT

TWINS

PHOTO BY CANDACE NG/THE HOOT

Where are the werewolves?

PHOTO BY SARAH TERRAZANO/THE HOOT

Read about the 2019 Richman Distinguished Fellow in Public Life presentation in NEWS, page 5.

ANNA DEAVERE SMITH AND ANITA HILL

March 22, 2019

Hillel hosted a carnival in Levin Ballroom in honor of Purim.

HAMENTASHEN

Two roommates find themselves twinning.

PHOTO COURTESY KATE ROSS

PHOTO BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

EDITORIALS

March 22, 2019

“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 Deputy Opinions Editor Sasha Skarboviychuk Features Editor Polina Potochevska Deputy Features Editor Shruthi Manjunath Sports Editors Zach Cihlar Shea Decker-Jacoby Deputy Sports Editor Sophie Trachtenberg Layout Editor Candace Ng Social Media Editor Emma Lichtenstein Cartoonist Helen Wong

Volume 16 • Issue 8

the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

STAFF Medjine Barionette, Emma Belkin, Lucy Braverman, Camila Casanueva, Katie Decker-Jacoby, Chris DeMena, James Feltner, Daniel Freedman, Stewart Huang, Jonah Koslofsky, Jackie Kostenko, Alex Kougasian, Jenna Lifschitz, Josh Lannon, Thalia Plata, Joseph Silber, Zachary Sosland, Rachel Wang, Emerson White, Hannah Wilson

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.

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The Brandeis Hoot 9

Admin slow to act but upcoming AAPI minor a good step

T

he Brandeis administration ipate in.

Does change just take a long time, recently announced its intenAlthough it is a big step for- or do students need to be even tion to construct a new Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) ward to officially announce the more outspoken about the gaps in Studies minor in the next academ- beginning of an AAPI program at Brandeis, students have been openic year, after continuous requests ly advocating for this since 2015, from interested students. This acwhen the Brandeis Asian American quiescence of the university to deTask Force (BAATF) sent in a petimands of students shows a growing tion to the Brandeis administration. willingness in the administration to Though Brandeis has slowly begun listen to what students want from to apply these changes to the curtheir education and their on-camriculum, they have taken four years pus life. to take definitive action in order to Further, the tenure-track assiscement the presence of the AAPI tant professor that has been hired to department at Brandeis and still head this program shows the com- have not satisfied many of the de-

Brandeis’ inclusion and education?

The administration taking action is always something to get excited about; however, their tendency to do as little as possible for as long as possible does not instill confidence in the people who are relying on them to create the necessary resources. We hope that the administration will continue to fulfill the demands that were posed in 2015 and continue to listen to students in

the future. mitment of the university to the mands present in the 2015 BAATF More importantly, we encourage success of the program’s creation. petition. the university to consider each deThe devotion of two scholars—the The 2015 BAATF petition was re- mand made by students seriously professor, along with an additional

leased at the same time as the 2015 and improve their reaction to them

to-be-hired faculty member—will

Ford Hall demands. Similar to the by immediately taking whatever ac-

be essential to build the minor into

long journey of the AAPI program, tion possible to fulfill the student

something that students on campus the administration has lagged on

body’s wishes for the university’s

will be proud and excited to partic- addressing the Ford Hall demands. academic future.

10 The Brandeis Hoot

SPORTS

March 22, 2019

March Madness 2019 The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, also known as March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament that happens each spring featuring 68 of the top college basketball teams in the country. As spring begins to spring out of the environment, intense basketball fans prepare for the most competitive competition of the year.

It’s upset season

By Sophie Trachtenberg editor

College basketball fans live for the month of March. From the overtimes to the crazy student sections, to the famed upsets, March Madness is a basketball lover’s paradise. Not only are the teams themselves competing against each other, but amateurs and experts alike are playing their own game, trying to predict the perfect bracket.

Everyone loves a Cinderella story, but nobody wants to bust their bracket. Last year, during the 2018 tournament, it was the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers who shocked the nation, as the number 16 seed beat number one seeded University of Virginia, who millions of people picked to win overall. According to The Washington Post, only two percent of brackets correctly chose this upset, which was the first time in NCAA tournament history that a number 16 seed beat their number one opponent in the opening round of 64.

The Loyola Chicago Ramblers also had a historic run in 2018, becoming the first number 11 seed to make it to the Final Four before losing to the University of

PHOTO FROM LUC.EDU

Michigan. Professional bracketologists were stunned, but despite the continual upsets that the Ramblers seemed to pull off, the whole country was behind them, as everyone was in absolute awe of their perpetual success. According to CBS Sports, sports television personality and

basketball aficionado Skip Bayless admitted to this being “sheer madness,” commenting that such competition is what college basketball is all about.

So, who will it be this year? As a 12 seed, the Murray State Racers are set to take on the fifth seeded Golden Eagles of Marquette. All

eyes will be on the matchup at the guard position, as Ja Morant has had an incredible sophomore season for the Racers, winning the Ohio Valley Conference’s Player of the Year after averaging almost 25 points, ten assists and five rebounds per game, according to Sports Illustrated. Are Morants’

talents enough to lead his team past his opponent Markus Howard and the Golden Eagles, with Howard being the sixth leading scorer in the nation after ending the season averaging 25 points, four rebounds, and four assists according to NCAA.com. The two crafty guards will face off in the West region, fighting for a chance to play the winner of Florida State University and the University of Vermont.

On the opposite side of the bracket, the 11th seeded Gaels of St. Mary’s will face the sixth seeded Villanova Wildcats. The Gaels are coming into the tournament hot, fresh off of a win over West region’s number one seed, the Bulldogs of Gonzaga, in the West Coast Conference Tournament. According to CBS Sports, the Gaels held Gonzaga star forward Rui Hachimura to just nine points, while Jordan Ford took over for St. Mary’s, pouring in 17 points while playing all 40 minutes. They were able to limit the nation’s most efficient offense, holding the Zags to just 47 points despite their usual average of almost 90 per game. With such defensive toughness, St. Mary’s just might be able to pull off another upset in the first round over Villanova.

March Madness begins with No.1 seeds Duke, Gonzaga, North Carolina and Virginia

By Camila Casanueva staff

March Madness is upon us with the start of the NCAA Tournament, arguably one of the most exciting events in sports. An event where 68 of the nation’s best college basketball teams will go head to head in a three week, winner take all tournament. The tournament is led by number one seeds of Duke, Gonzaga, North Carolina and Virginia. These are the front runners to win the national championship come April 8. There is beauty to the madness with the unpredictability of the tournament, where last year the UMBC Retrievers pulled off the upset of all upsets as a 16th seed going on to defeat No. 1 seed Virginia, to write their names in the history books. It is one game, one shining moment, where anything can happen, but these four top teams will look to remain on top come Thursday when the madness begins.

One of the three ACC teams to earn a No. 1 seed is Virginia (23-3), coached by Tony Bennett.

They come in looking to avenge last years early exit in the first round. However, Virginia will continue to stand by their core values of toughness and being one of the best defensive teams in the nation, as they only gave up 55.1 points per game. Although Virginia has always been known for their gritty defense, this is

also one of the best offensive teams they have had in years. The Cavaliers are led by the excellent trio of Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy and sophomore guard De’Andre Hunter, who is projected to be a top NBA Draft pick. They have been a top team all year long, with all three of their losses coming from opponents ranked in the top five, as they lost twice to their ACC rival Duke, and Florida State in the ACC tourney semifinal.

They may not be the most exciting team in the tournament, but Virginia plays a traditional style game with an emphasis placed on the defensive end, that will put pressure on offensive teams.

One of the most talked-about teams in all of college basketball, with the most talent, spear headed by coaching legend Mike Krzyzewski, are the number one seeded, Duke Blue Devils (29-5).

All eyes have been on the trio of Zion Williamson, T.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish, with all three being possible top five picks in the NBA Draft. The Blue Devils are led by star studded, Zion Williamson as he has been unstoppable all year long, making Duke a championship caliber team. However, the team looked to be in jeopardy going 3-3 during a brief span when Zion was recovering from a minor knee injury. With Zion’s return, the Blue Devils returned to their standing as the best team in college basketball, avenging losses to rival North Carolina, and winning the ACC tournament.

PHOTO FROM CBSSPORTS.COM

Hall of Fame Coach Mike Krzyzewski will lead this talented group headlined by the freshmen trio, looking to bring their relentless man-to-man defense and flashy offense to the tournament come Thursday.

From the west coast are the Gonzaga Bulldogs (30-3) who have been ranked the No. 1 team in the nation for the last month but stumbled in the West Coast championship by losing to Saint Mary’s. If the Zags had not lost in the conference tournament final, they might have been able to beat out Duke to secure the tournament’s top overall seed.

The Bulldogs have a deep rotation with multiple stars led by Rui Hachimura and Brandon Clarke.

Most people write off Gonzaga due to the benefit of playing a softer schedule and their lack of success in the tournament in past years, but they will look to establish themselves as one of the best teams in the nation and make a return to the Final Four for the second time in team history. Also, keep in mind Gonzaga was the only team to beat Duke at full strength this season when they won in the Maui Invitational.

Lastly, the North Carolina Tar Heels (27-6) also received a number one seed in the tournament after their strong performance in ACC conference play. The Tar Heels were able to take advantage with Zion Williamson out of the lineup, and secure two victories

over Duke, while later falling to Duke at full strength by one point in the ACC tournament semifinal. UNC also beat fellow number one seed Gonzaga on December 15 to help boost their resume and help secure a top seed. They have been one of the most fun and exciting teams to watch this season with their up-tempo style of play, led by veteran experience coming from seniors Cam Johnson and Luke Maye, and younger players that provide the team balance. One of these younger players, freshman point guard Coby White, is a threat to score from everywhere on the floor and will be a huge part of North Carolina’s run come Thursday.

March 22, 2019

SPORTS 11

The Brandeis Hoot

Women’s and men’s tennis succeed on the weekend

By Jesse Lieberman staff

It was a busy weekend for both the men’s and women’s tennis teams. The women split their matches, losing 9-0 on the road to Middlebury on Saturday and defeating Colby 5-0 at Gosman on Sunday.

The men played matches on three consecutive days, winning two out of three. They traveled to RPI on Friday, winning 6-3. They joined the women in Middlebury, but lost 6-3. They concluded the weekend by sweeping Colby 5-0.

The weekend puts the women at 4-4. Against No. 6 ranked Middlebury at Nelson Recreational Center, the Judges never won a set, and won four or more games in only two sets. Diana Dehterev-

ich ’20 was defeated 6-3, 6-4 by Katherine Hughes in No.1 singles.

Rookie Ana Hatfield ’22 was the closest to winning a set in No. 6 singles against Emily Bian. Hatfield forced a tiebreaker at 6-6 in the first set, but lost the tiebreaker 7-2. She lost the ensuing set 6-2.

The story was the opposite against Colby as the Judges never conceded a set.

Olivia Leavitt ’19 lost only three games combined in both her doubles and singles matches. Playing in the number one doubles alongside Lauren Bertsch ’21, the tandem defeated Gabriela Venditti and Callie Nesbitt 8-1. Then in No. 2 singles, Leavitt defeated Venditti, winning both sets 6-1.

Although the Judges are ranked 20th in Division III, there are five teams from the UAA ranked higher than them. Three of these

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

teams are in the top 10, including No. 1 Emory.

The men started off slow against 33th ranked RPI, losing two of

three doubles matches. Rookies Jeff Chen ’22 and Adam Tzeng ’22 were the lone victors as they defeated Clay Thompson and Brian Niguidula 8-3.

After Anupreeth Coramutla ’21 lost in No. 2 singles 6-3, 6-1 to Clay Thompson, The Judges were down 3-1. The Judges won all five remaining singles matches.

Despite dropping the first set in No. 3 singles, Tzeng won the next two as he defeated Andrew Imrie 3-6, 6-3, 6-0. Chen won his match in straight sets 6-2, 6-0 against Yudai Teruyama.

In a top-10 showdown against No. 2 Middlebury, the Judges lost all of the doubles matches, despite forcing a tiebreaker in two matches and winning at least six games in each match.

Coramutla, Tzeng and Chen were all victorious in their singles matches. Coramulta defeated Stanley Morris 7-5, 6-3. Tzeng

Softball shuts out Eastern Nazarene

By Sabrina Chow editor

Earlier this week, the Judges defeated Eastern Nazarene College in a double header. According to an article by the Brandeis Judges website, Eastern Nazarene College scored the first run in both of the games in the double header. Both of the first points were scored in the top of the first inning.

Pitcher Scottie Todd ’20 gave the Judges their first break with a groundout and an error by Eastern Nazarene College gave Brandeis a 2-1 lead at the bottom of the first. Keri Lehtonen ’19 and Jolie Fujita ’21 were the scorers.

Judges continued scoring throughout the rest of the first game, with Eastern Nazarene College unable to score any more runs.

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGE.COM

Bridget Cifuni ’21 scored at the bottom of the second inning; Marley Felder ’22 scored at the bottom of the third; Todd hit a home run and made it all the way back to home plate at the bot-

tom of the fifth inning. Melissa Rothenberg ’21 also hit a home run. Prue Ross ’20 also scored at the bottom of the fifth. Lehtonen scored again at the bottom of the sixth, leading the Judges to an 8-1

victory.

In their second game, Eastern Nazarene College once again started out scoring and managed to hold off the Judges until the bottom of the fourth inning. Ma-

won 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) against Andre Xiao, while Chen won his match 6-3, 6-0 over Nate Eazor.

Against Colby, Chen and Tzeng continued their strong doubles play as they won 8-0 in No. 2 doubles. David Aizenberg ’19 and Coramutla won in No. 1 doubles 8-7 (7-4) after being down 7-6.

Aizenberg then won 7-5, 6-2 in No.1 singles. Tzeng clinched the victory in No. 3 singles 6-2, 6-2.

Although Coramutla’s match did not finish, he won the first set 7-6 (8-6) despite being 5-2.

The Judges have now won five out of their last six matches and are 8-2 and are ranked 10th.

There are four teams from the UAA in the top 10 and seven of eight teams in the top 40.

Both teams play this Saturday as the women host Wheaton and the men host Swarthmore.

rissa DeLaurentis ’19 and Ross both scored at the bottom of the fourth, tying the score.

Fujita scored at the bottom of the fifth inning. Sydney Goldman ’19 hit the second home run of the day and with Todd scoring, the Judges were up by two. Similar to the first game, the Judges blocked the Lions from scoring any more points.

Fujita hit the first home run at the bottom of the sixth inning.

Ashleigh Fultz ’19 followed with a two-run blast and Melissa Rothenberg ’20 finished off the game with a double down left field, according to an article from Brandeis Judges.

The Judges are currently undefeated, sitting at 6-0. They return to action at home against Simmons University on Sunday, March 24 at noon for a double header.

Baseball falls on the road

By Sabrina Chow editor

The Judges baseball team suffered their third loss of the season on the road at Suffolk University.

Brandeis started strong at the beginning of the game, scoring the first three runs. Victor Oppenheimer ’22 scored the first run for the Judges at the bottom of the first inning. Alex Parrott ’21 scored at the bottom of the second inning, while Nick Yanco ’21 scored on a wild pitch, bringing the Judges up to a 3-0 lead. The Rams fought back, however, and blocked the Judges from scoring any more points during the rest of the game. Zack Aresty was

the first to score for the Rams at the top of the third inning. Rich Gilbride scored at the top of the fifth, bringing Suffolk one run closer to tying the Judges. Trevor Lee scored at the top of the sixth inning, tying up the score. At the top of the seventh inning, the Rams scored three points, helping the Rams gain a 7-3 lead over The Judges. The rest of the eighth and ninth inning remained scoreless and Sufflox defeated Brandeis 7-3. With this loss, the Judges record falls to 7-3 and Suffolk improves to 6-6 on the season. The Judges return to action with a double header at Salem State University, which will being a ninegame road trip, according to the Brandeis Judges website.

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGE.COM

OPINIONS

12 The Brandeis Hoot

March 22, 2019

Asian food at Brandeis sucks

By Stewart Huang staff

I never expected great food when I decided to come to Brandeis. In fact, I was quite aware of the average quality of the campus food in America, being badly burned before in high school. But I still thought to myself: “Hey, that tuition must have gone somewhere. It can’t be that bad, right?” So, I made the unfortunate mistake of getting my hopes up for the rice and noodles on campus. And how could I not, as an Asian? If I can’t even rely on having decent rice and noodles to sustain myself, what else is there to live for?

Sadly, disappointment hit once again like a slap to the face as I sat down in Sherman Dining Hall for the first time: I realized that the most integral parts of my diet were defiled and distorted into something I can barely stomach.

And now, I shall give you my full thoughts on these dreadful foods, which have been the catalysts of my declining health. Hear me (and the cries of my starving belly).

It’s truly amazing that there is a way to somehow screw up plain white rice. It’s literally as simple as making instant ramen: putting some water into it and just letting it cook. But Sodexo messes it up all the same. It tastes like wax, like plastic. They clearly did not put enough water into it, for it’s extremely dry. As a result, it’s unusually rigid and hard to swallow. I’d rather choke than eat this crap. It is also very overcooked and has no flavor whatsoever, as opposed to normal rice, where you can taste, albeit just a tiny bit,

the sweet, fresh carbs contained inside.

The presentation of it is also highly concerning. If you’ve seen properly cooked white rice, you’ll notice that its color is of marble, glowing white, and boy do you want to devour it whole.

Whereas sometimes the rice on campus looks like a bunch of dead maggots: dirty white tainted by a yucky yellow mixed with this poopy brown. That’s how I remembered it anyway, as I have vowed to never have it again. I don’t know what kind of seasoning that was, but it’s definitely not helping.

We do get rice that looks good and delicious, but that only adds to my disappointment, with a tinge of betrayal that’s due to my repeated and misplaced trust, as it still tastes like dog crap. And the only way I’ll put that rice in my mouth is with beef stew, which is my reluctant savior that appears all too seldom.

My conspiracy theory to explain all this is that Brandeis made a deal with the town of Waltham to only provide terrible rice to the students, so they would order food more frequently, which would bolster the local economy.

What a fiendish master plan.

Now I half expected the rice to be terrible, as I have experienced similar atrocities before. I merely didn’t want to entertain the thought, which would leave me broken as it does now.

However, the noodles were really a sleeper hit. It was during lunch when I discovered people lining up right beside the card swipe: they were eager to have these noodles with this soup that looked promising. The person serving it also happened to be

Asian, a fact which I falsely equated with “here’s good food.”

So imagine the grimace on my face when I finally had some.

Oh, how it writhed and wriggled!

First of all, the noodles were severely undercooked, like the chefs were expecting the soup to just magically cook the noodles by itself. They were rigid (a recurring theme) and I had to exert extra effort in slurping and biting one off, almost as if I’m tearing away at some rubber band, which is clearly a sign of how bad it was, considering that udon noodles shouldn’t feel like that. Eating them should’ve been a smooth entry and a soft bite.

At this point, I thought maybe the soup can be the saving grace, yet wrong I was again! Without

exaggerations, this was the saltiest soup that I ever had the privilege of tasting. And it’s absolutely disgusting. I’m normally a pretty hardcore guy when it comes to the saltiness of my food. Like I always use up the entire pack of sauce when I’m having my instant ramen, but the soup was too much even for me.

It reminded me of my bitter childhood when I was curious and stupid enough to try and drink from a bottle of soy sauce.

Maybe the soup was soy sauce.

Later I heard from a friend that there actually exist good noodles on the kosher section. I don’t doubt it. Kosher foods are pretty good, though my knowledge is limited as I’ve only ever tried the meat.

The most I can say for the Asian cuisine at Brandeis is at least the sushi is decent. I do wish that we got seafood inside the sushi, but it’s decent right now. The rest are terrible and will most likely remain terrible. Some people probably love them.

Good for them. But every time I see these things, I think about how much better they could have been, which makes me loathe them even more.

As a result, I’m already contributing way too much to the local economy by ordering food almost once a day. At this rate, my wallet will soon be starving on the streets and I’ll be able to write a review for every dish for every restaurant in Waltham. Look forward to it.

PHOTO BY STEWART HUANG /THE HOOT

The controversial Common Core

By Alex Kougasian staff

The Obama administration saw the conception, creation and implementation of a Common Core system that was very much controversial. A Gallup news article comparing two Gallup polls on parents’ views on the Common Core around the time of the new enforcement of the standards stated, “Thirty-five percent [of parents] view [the standards] negatively and 33% view them positively, while another third aren’t familiar with them or don’t have an opinion. This reflects a slight shift since April, when parents were slightly more positive (35%) than negative (28%).”

This issue was always quite a partisan one, with the same Gallup article citing that, “The majority of Republican parents—58%—now hold a negative view of Common Core, up from 42% in April, and leaving just 19% viewing it positively.” Many states’ governmental races have demonstrated this with liberal candidates expressing their support of Common Core and right-leaning candidates expressing their disdain.

Despite all of this controversy and the fact that the Common Core is still being used in 41 states, it is hard to find conclusive data on how well the Common Core has worked. A 2017 paper entitled

“Is Common Core ‘Working?’

And Where Does Common Core Research Go From Here?” written

by Morgan S. Polikoff of the University of Southern California, attempted to aggregate research in achievement-success and implementation of the Common Core to paint a picture of how well the standards attained their vision.

In the paper Polikoff states quite clearly that, “The upshot of these issues—and there are more—is that no analysis of which I am aware provides convincing causal evidence of the impact of the [Common Core Standards] on any student outcome. Furthermore, it is not obvious to me that such an analysis is even possible.

Even if it is possible, the outcomes that would be used for such an analysis would almost certainly be quite narrow.”

This makes the Common Core a very difficult issue to tackle given its astronomical importance.

Families need to find unconventional avenues of education for their child, in order to not regularly encounter the standards and regulations that do not perfectly account for the needs of every type of community with a public school could be devastating for some. But it is difficult to find and maybe even impossible to identify the effects of the Common Core Standards on student achievement.

I believe it is this futility that has made the discussion of the Common Core Standards lay dormant.

In early 2019, USA Today reported that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would sign an executive order that would eliminate the last of the Common Core from Florida. But this event triggered no mainstream discussion of the Common Core’s effectiveness.

Society tends to dwell on largescale theoretical problems. With Trump taking office, it is not surprising that most current concerns focus on the abstract issues that paved his way to the presidency. However, the Common Core is an example of an extremely impactful policy that cannot be thoroughly evaluated in a purely theoretical way and, by the same token, cannot be dealt with entirely at the local level. The Common Core impacts every school and community differently but represents the nationwide use of federal guidelines. In order to give it a thorough evaluation, widespread awareness and a practical mindset is required.

Perhaps it is that narrow margin of change in achievement that Polikoff described that justifies the lack of debate surrounding the Common Core. Even if it has made students worse off as a result, the change is not enough to plunge any state’s educational system into an identifiable turmoil.

While I do not think the topic should dominate discussion, the lack of discourse on the topic feels isolating.

At the end of her paper, Polikoff gives some guidelines to future

researchers of the Common Core.

They read: “First, there will continue to be a desire to answer the impact question, and researchers should do the best that they can to meet this demand. [...] Second, we need ongoing implementation research. [...] Third, we need to better understand how district and school leaders can support effective standards implementation [...] Fourth, we have relatively little work that addresses the equity implications of the Common Core. [...] Finally, in this rapidly changing policy environment, we need research that is (a) timely and (b) made available and

digestible to policy makers and practitioners.”

I would argue that these guidelines are not only helpful for researchers but also concerned parents and individuals. Given that we have no meaningful data to cite, it is important that we go out and ask community officials and teachers about the impact, implementation and equity of the Common Core system. As a liberal, I am inclined to trust the work done by the Obama administration, but as a student, I am skeptical of a nationally enforced standard of education that is not discussed with any frequency.

PHOTO FROM ONENEWSNOW.COM

ARTS

March 22, 2019

The Brandeis Hoot 13

Thank U, Liquid Latex

By Aaron LaFauci staff

Another year, another Liquid Latex. Nineteen years in and the Brandeis tradition of stripping down to our bottoms and plastering ourselves in latex paint is going stronger than ever. Nothing says campus diversity quite like a hundred different body types flailing around to club music against the roar of a sold-out auditorium. The turnout this year was immense with over 80 dancers total, and we even got to see an all-guys act, which was a fun surprise for a project that can have trouble recruiting a large amount male volunteers.

For the uninitiated, Liquid Latex is an annual dance show in which Brandeisians are allowed to flaunt their stuff in the most literal way imaginable. Students dedicate weeks to choreographing and practicing dance routines with various themes to be presented in Levin Ballroom. Predictably, the dances can tend toward the erotic.

A makeshift catwalk extends from the stage to allow dancers the full opportunity to put their moves on display. Where most institutions have fashion shows, Brandeis dispenses with the clothing altogether to create something much

more intimate—and much more body positive.

Despite the sexy undertones, the show represents so much more than an opportunity for voyeurism. By intermission, the novelty of seeing your peers swing their breasts around starts to lose its shock value. The uncomfortable plastic chairs probably help, but, really, the atmosphere is far more empowering than it is lascivious.

There is no discrimination between looks or skill; each participant is given a moment in the catwalk’s spotlight. Every dancer is met with deafening cheers from the crowd. The confidence exuded by everybody in the production is inspiring, and the sheer diversity of body types present is reassuring in its own personal ways. No matter the shape—round, bony, tall, squat—there is a body for everybody, and these bodies are carried without shame. In the curated image culture of this unfortunate 21st century, Liquid Latex stands out as a bold attempt to dissolve the hypertension surrounding the presentation of the body. It has a ton of fun along the way, too.

Interpreting theme can be a tenuous thing with Liquid Latex acts. If you fail to look over the playbill before hand, some of the acts can seem downright bizarre.

Thankfully, they are usually bi-

The Brandeis Hoot will not be publishing photos from “Liquid Latex” online out of respect for students who do not want the images to be circulated beyond the Brandeis campus.

zarre regardless. Highlights: The show opened with “It’s Latex, Bitch,” featuring nine dancers representing nine iterations of Britney Spears (including a surprise appearance from the umbrella wielding 2007 Meltdown Britney).

Space Jam heralded Avi Baynash ’20 donning a glorious silver latex leotard in Act two, and Wren Li ’22 as the planet Saturn delivered an awesome series of beyblade/ballerina spins in orbital fashion on the catwalk.

Act three, “Latex the Musical,” reminded us of the timeless value of “Hamilton” with DeBorah Ault’s ’22 striking, full body 18th century latex coat and breeches.

“Kitt’s Angels” was an elusive and empowering tribute to Eartha Kitt. The intermittent use of quotations was well executed and added a narrative element to the entire display.

The first half of the show ended with “Mt. Olympus,” complete with the Greek pantheon rendered with perfect recognizability.

Rebecca Carolyn’s ’20 representation of Athena was priceless and possessed a whole lot of school spirit with an owl design.

After the intermission, “It’s Good to be Bad” fulfilled the Disney quota with its entourage of villains. Among the cast was another appearance of Eartha Kitt as the much appreciated Yzma from “The Emperor’s New Groove” (Mariah Manter ’20), as well as a very outgoing Tinkerbell (Genevieve Bondaryk ’21). Act seven, “Celebrating Originality,” lacked distinct cinematic or theatrical references, but you wouldn’t notice between the high energy shaking and glittery coloration.

“Ferris Bueller’s Clothes Off ” practically stole the show with its reenactment of a particularly iconic scene from “Dirty Dancing.”

Bradley Kaplan ’21 and Casper L’esperance-Kerckhoff ’19 made a strong duo, and the three “Santas” swaying in time to “Love is Strange” tied the whole bit together with a theatrical flair to match “Kitt’s Angels.”

“Magic Mike,” the all male act, had an indescribable allure to it.

The conga line of ass-slapping was nigh Shakespearean. Finally, Act 10, “Candy Land,” probably held the strongest thematic execution. Zach Goldblatt’s ’19 hulking portrayal of the gummy bear juxtaposed perfectly with the rest of the Candyland cast.

There is too much content to give all the dancers the credit they deserve, but part of the wonder of

The Brandeis Hoot will not be publishing photos from “Liquid Latex” online out of respect for students who do not want the images to be circulated beyond the Brandeis campus.

The Brandeis Hoot will not be publishing photos from “Liquid Latex” online out of respect for students who do not want the images to be circulated beyond the Brandeis campus.

Liquid Latex is its distinctly noncompetitive vibe. At its grandest, the show is a celebration of all the things we hope Brandeis stands for: self-love, acceptance, diversity and overflowing confidence in the face of unaccepting societal standards. At its most basic, Liquid Latex is a chance for the student body to gather around and get to know itself a little better. It’s a simple thing that has the potential to mean so much to so many different people.

Liquid Latex is as much a show for the dancers as it is for the greater community.

The show ended on a heartwarming note. After all the dancers had returned to the stage for their final bows, Liquid Latex

president Rebecca Kahn ’19 was invited forward. Treasurer Max Michel ’21, still wearing his latex cowboy uniform complete with assless chaps, presented a bouquet of flowers to the president.

Kahn’s contributions to the club over the years have saved the club from the brink of obscurity, and the scope and quality of this year’s performances are a testament to that fact.

This has been an exciting season for Liquid Latex.

Next spring will mark two decades of the show at Brandeis, and the 20th anniversary promises to be an incredible spectacle. If the number of volunteers continues to climb, it may also be the largest show in its history.

The Brandeis Hoot will not be publishing photos from “Liquid Latex” online out of respect for students who do not want the images to be circulated beyond the Brandeis campus.

14 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 22, 2019

TSA’s ‘Love, Formosa:’ a night of romance and talent

By Rachel Wang staff

From performances of romantic songs to audience participatory activities that mimicked “The Newlywed Game,” the annual culture show hosted by the Brandeis Taiwanese Student Association (TSA) on Saturday night was a comprehensive celebration of love. While paying homage to Taiwanese traditions of love, the event also focused on Taiwanese dating culture in today’s day and age and encouraged the audience to engage with the possibilities of romance in fun-loving ways.

The show opened with MisMatch, a band of five Brandeis students that has performed their music on campus and in the Boston area. MisMatch’s soft rock sound was pulled together by their lead vocalist’s passionate singing.

Chu Ling Dance Academy was next with an elegant fan dance.

A talented member of the Boston-based group later performed an impressive solo ribbon dance.

Emcees Annie Tsai and Jason Chang facilitated a fun game of “How Well Do You Know Your Partner?” towards the end of the first act. Three volunteer couples from the audience stood back to back onstage while guessing answers to questions like, “What’s your partner’s favorite order at Einstein’s?” The game succeeded in eliciting some good laughs, and

the crowd only got more excited with the entrance of singer Junshu Zheng.

The Chinese singer-songwriter and Berklee student charmed the audience right away with his smooth voice and charismatic stage presence. Junshu and his band of exceptionally cohesive instrumentalists performed famous Taiwanese and Chinese pop songs like “Wo Yi Ran Ai Ni” and “Xin Tiao.” The Voice of China alumnus warmly thanked TSA for welcoming him to play at Brandeis for the second time before closing out with an upbeat funk original titled “Call Me Whatever” that showed off his falsetto range.

XL Girls, an on-campus hip hop dance group, continued to pump up the crowd with their dynamic choreography. Replete with sharply synchronized moves and eye-catching outfits, XL Girls brought an energy of cool onstage with both their dance numbers.

The night ended with headline act, Nix Tan, a YouTube artist who rose to fame through her ukulele covers and went on to land a spot on Sing! China. Nervous at first, the artist related her unfamiliarity with live audiences to her familiarity with performing on YouTube, a platform on which Tan first began as a fan.

In an endearing accompanying powerpoint, Tan brought the audience through the history of her musical journey, while singing notable songs throughout the presentation to commemorate

those milestones. Tan performed songs by AJ Rafael, a fellow YouTube musician who she cited as the reason she first started on YouTube, as well as Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning,” which was the first cover she uploaded in 2010.

Getting more personal, Tan shared what it was like being born in New York City but raised in Malaysia and all the conflicting feelings having two homes brought. She described “feeling like New York and Malaysia were a part of me, but I wasn’t a part of them” and how she often felt unwelcome in both places growing up. Tan delivered a creative original whose bubblegum pop sound was offset with heartbreaking lyrics about negotiating identity and cultural belonging.

Armed only with a uke and a mic, Tan’s performance really showcased the shining clarity and sweet quality of her voice. Her dulcet voice, however, performed quite a few acts of unexpected acrobatics throughout the show, as she took on fast-paced raps in Chinese and bilingual mashup covers.

Tan wrapped up her act with a cover of Nicki Minaj’s “Superbass” (her first viral cover on YouTube) and her audition song on “Sing! China” called “Ting Ma Ma De Hua.” The crowd waved lit up phones and paper lanterns in the air as Tan ended with a bilingual cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow.”

“Love, Formosa” was a lively celebration of youthful tal-

ent and youthful love. Standout performances by Junshu Zheng and Nix Tan showed how multifaceted talent is in the current moment—often transnational, bilingual and genre-bending. Ultimately, the evening was a labor of love born by those who organized it. The TSA E-board was eager

to be present with the audience all through the night, whether it was by encouraging crowd participation or introducing every segment of the show with an ever rotating pair of different emcees.

Their efforts guaranteed a night of fresh personality and exciting performances.

PHOTO BY RACHEL WANG/THE HOOT

‘Nature’s Nation’ exhibit examines American art Most art museums don’t really try to explore the origins of their pieces. They leave them up on the wall with just a few scraps of information—leaving it up to us to piece together their historical context. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a sentence or two describing the artist’s life; if we’re unlucky, there will be a blurb just describing the art to us. But the Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum took a decidedly different approach, creating an art exhibit that’s explicitly about the context. “Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment” looks critically at the origins and sociopolitical context of its pieces, constructing meaningful historical connections between classic works of American art.

Rather than focus on one particular style, “Nature’s Nation” surveys how American art has depicted and interacted with the environment. The show covers a lot of ground, starting out with indigenous art—a Pawtucket bear sculpture from the sixteenth century—and going all the way to contemporary video and photography pieces, such as a Misrach photo of petrochemical decay in Louisiana or a video of a mirror protest at Standing Rock from 2016.

From John James Audubon and Albert Bierstadt to Georgia O’Keefe and Robert Rauschenberg, the exhibit has considerable breadth. “Nature’s Nation” is structured into segments; in one section it examines the context behind luxury goods, in another, the representation and plight of the buffalo.

There is, quite possibly, too

much art. The scope of the exhibit and its highly curated nature can seem overwhelming. To survey hundreds of years of American art and examine how it considers us and our country’s legacy in connection with the land is a laudable undertaking. While the exhibit does bite off more than it can chew, it shouldn’t be faulted for trying.

“Nature’s Nation” seeks to provide context and connections. In one instance, we see a silver sugar urn, and next to it, a fair amount of interpretation explaining its significance. We learn about the history of silver mining in Bolivia, how it began in the country as a Spanish practice under colonial

rule and continues to be a point of tension today. Without that information, I would have just passed by the urn without giving it any thought. Instead, it became a meaningful, problematic object.

Notably, the exhibit starts with something I’d never seen before in a museum: a land acknowledgement. “The Peabody Essex Museum acknowledges that we are on the ancestral territory of the Pawtucket, Pennacook, Naumkeag, and Massachuset,” reads a sign. “Please join us in honoring their communities, their elders past and present, as well as future generations.” It’s possible to envision signs like these all over the Boston area and the United

States—even in places that aren’t directly interrogating the history of the American land. Hopefully they’ll become less rare.

After looking at Bierstadt’s painting celebrating Manifest Destiny (“Mount Adams, Washington”) and Frederick Law Olmstead’s Central Park schematic— which displaced Seneca Village, a neighborhood founded by freed slaves—I thought about how little museums actively try to tell the stories behind their pieces.

With few exceptions, the MFA does precious little to educate visitors on the historical, social and economic stories that shaped its art. After seeing “Nature’s Nation,” it seems that leaving out

critical context is a choice in itself—to drive discourse away from how money and politics have affected art. Context helps bring the art world back down to the real world, implicating it as part of the same processes of imperial oppression. The exhibit makes a compelling case for why museums need more interpretation, not less. Art can’t exist in an aesthetic void.

There need to be more conversations about the roles of power and wealth in the often affluent world of art. As a provocation for thought and more active curation “Nature’s Nation” is successful; as an efficient, coherent exhibit, it is not.

PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIACOMMONS.COM

March 22, 2019

ARTS 15

The Brandeis Hoot

‘Patriot Act’ puts a comedic spin on the news

By Medjine Barionnette staff

As a habitual binge watcher of TV shows, I always get excited when Netflix decides to come out with new ones; it’s another excuse to procrastinate. Despite my excitement, there is always a sense of uncertainty because Netflix gives its writers and creators creative freedom, and they don’t always deliver their best material. When I heard comedian Hasan Minhaj was getting his own web series, however, I was genuinely excited.

Hasan Minhaj is an alumnus of “The Daily Show” who has won a Peabody Award and is the first Indian American TV show host.

I believe Hasan Minhaj is rather funny, politically aware and not another white guy taking up TV air space.

His web series “Patriot Act” on Netflix has a total of 13 episodes airing every Sunday. In these episodes he covers a variety of topics from Saudi Arabia,

Amazon, student loans, hip-hop and drug pricing. Essentially he gives a “Woke TED Talk” every Sunday. He adds his own brand of comedy to these topics, but most importantly he talks through the reasons they matter without being too preachy. This isn’t his first time on Netflix either. His comedy special (because anyone can get a comedy special on Netflix), “Homecoming King” was a hit when it came out, and in hindsight it was mostly likely a prelude to his show.

Of course, there is the extremely liberal viewpoint that he presents this information from. While I’d like to say that the webseries is for everyone, it’s just not. Hasan Minhaj has left-leaning views and of course he talks about all subjects through that lens. He criticizes the Trump administration and devotes an entire episode to depicting how members of Trump’s cabinet are systematically chipping away civil rights from minorities and members of the LGBTQ community. In this day and age, that means liberal bias.

But as someone who leans pretty far left, I don’t mind. That said, he is speaking to a specific demographic, liberal individuals ages 18-35, most likely college students or college graduates.

Pretty much Brandeis students.

Our community leans left, for the most part. The things we care about as college students and people who consider themselves “woke” are the things he talks about. His commentary is littered with pop culture references, modern millennial rhetoric and slang.

“Patriot Act” is an entertaining way to get information about events happening around the world and In the United States.

His episode about hip hop covers its global reach and how it is used as a form of dissent in countries all over the world, namely Thailand. He also devoted an episode to student loans and how our loan servicers are essentially screwing us over. Whatever subject he focuses on during the week allows him to explore the many problems with politics, culture and the

PHOTO FROM WHATSONNETFLIX.COM

world.

The biggest question for me is whether or not he is effective.

If his aim is to bring awareness to these subjects and spark conversation, is he actually doing that and doing it well? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the show and would recommend it. Patriot Act is thought provoking but sometimes it can feel as though the thought the show conjures may be steering the viewer in a certain direction, forcing them to have certain opinions.

Hasan Minhaj is definitely bringing awareness to problems

happening all over the world but it can feel as though he wants his viewers to feel a certain way about the events and topics if you don’t already feel the way he does. That said, his demographic does most likely feel the same way he does.

If his goal is only to bring awareness to a specific subject or event, then he gets an A+, but if his goal is also to perpetuate a specific political agenda then it’s pretty disappointing. If that is the case, his show is just another form of media struggling to have control or influence over our collective consciousness.

In ‘Us,’ Jordan Peele unleashes his apocalyptic pessimism Few endings are as gratifying as the conclusion of “Get Out.” Our hero, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) finally, well, gets out (with some unexpected help from a friend).

But this crowd-pleasing closure was writer/director Jordan Peele’s second choice: The alternate ending, which found Chris unjustly imprisoned, is a much more realistic resolution—and an enormous bummer.

Two years later—and with the world even worse off—“Us” synthesizes the pessimism of that original ending into a two hour, intentionally frustrating, indictment. If “Get Out” was a spotlight on the Obama-era’s ugly underside, then Peele’s sophomore feature is the bloody, queasy reckoning that’s come for all of us with the Trump presidency. Yet this makes the movie somewhat

difficult to judge: “Us” left me profoundly unsettled, confused and unhappy. I’d wager that was Peele’s whole goal.

Like “Get Out,” “Us” opens on a long country road leading to a doomed vacation. This time, we’re traveling with the Wilson family, Adeline (Lupita Nyong’o), Gabe (Winston Duke), Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex). Duke, working with his “Black Panther” co-star, turns in a nice, breezy performance, and newcomers Joseph and Alex keep up (in other words, “Us” isn’t held back by its child actors but bolstered by them).

Lupita Nyong’o, meanwhile, is absolutely superb, working both sides of a beautiful, nuanced dual role. And while the marketing has played it pretty close to the chest, she’s definitely playing the main character; clutching a fire poker, she emerges Lady Liberty reincarnated, a horror protagonist for the ages.

PHOTO FROM LOS ANGELES TIMES

On a scene-by-scene basis, this thing is damn near perfect. Each piece of Peele’s puzzle is well-constructed, tense and entirely captivating.

The auteur hasn’t lost his ability to energize an audience: Just as his debut served up surprises at every turn, “Us” will keep you on your toes to the final frame (and potentially, past it). Working with cinematographer Mike Gioulakis (another incredibly talented filmmaker), Peele delivers a stream of memorable and precise images, carefully and constantly show-

ing—never telling.

Many have described “Us” as “scarier” than Peele’s prior outing—and there’s certainly an increase in violence. But once the heads start rolling, they look identical to our own. The disgust that reverberates throughout knows no bounds: We, on a collective and individual level, are responsible for our massive national predicament. David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” serves as a spiritual predecessor, and it’s no mistake “Us” opens with a prologue set the same year “Velvet”

was released. Both illustrate a sensation of staring into the abyss at the heart of the United States and seeing your own reflection.

Furthermore, both are set in a heightened reality, while offering no solutions to the very real problems they uncover, lying just below the surface.

Again, there was a satisfaction to “Get Out”—the foreshadowing, mythology and performances all lined-up to make an airtight, endlessly re-watchable picture. This time around, Peele is less interested in pleasing his audience, so he doesn’t always supply an explanation. And because his message is so severely depressing, and sometimes messily articulated, you sort of get the sense that “Us” is less than the sum of its parts. But no—that would be as unsatisfying an ending to this review as “Us” itself. Instead, I’ll say this is a movie you must see— just don’t expect it to ever aid the dread it’ll point you to.

‘Love, Death and Robots’ is Netflix garbage I haven’t watched TV for almost a year. That’s only a slight exaggeration—I haven’t really gotten into any TV shows since “The Americans” went off the air. I used to love television, but I feel like the prestige shows lost what made them compelling and exceptional.

Unfortunately, I picked the worst show to come back to the medium with: Netflix’s “Love, Death and Robots.”

It’s an anthology series, very much in the vein of “Black Mirror,” though animated. Anthology series seem to work well with the Netflix business model. They’re extremely bingable, pre-packaged doses of entertainment. Don’t like this one? Just watch one more.

Episodes are usually in the ten to eighteen minute range, varying across different sci-fi conceits. In one, a band of farmers in giant robot suits defend their fields from

invading aliens. In another, yogurt becomes sentient and takes over the country. That’s it.

Executive produced by David Fincher (“Gone Girl,” “Fight Club”), and “Deadpool’s” Tim Miller, most episodes in “Love, Death and Robots” are gritty and provocative. They’re like sketches—brief ideas with interesting hooks that get quickly played out and then end limply. The show is the visual equivalent of a book of sci-fi short stories you might find in a thrift store: Pulpy genre fare that’s more often miss than hit.

My friends and I started to play a game with each episode: Bingo but for whenever there’s gratuitous nudity and graphic violence.

The show is edgy just for the sake of it, usually saying nothing meaningful whatsoever. If I were 16, I would have thought it was really cool, but “Love, Death and Robots” makes “Black Mirror” look like literature.

The episode “BLINDSPOT,” which has an admittedly cool

description—“A gang of cyborg thieves stage a high-speed heist of a heavily armored convoy”— looks like something you’d see on Cartoon Network, except with more cursing.

“ICE AGE” stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Topher Grace, about a couple who find a lost civilization in their fridge. It sounds like a bad pitch, something that would get you thrown out of a writer’s room, but here, on content-hungry Netflix, it gets produced and shoved at us.

There’s an episode called “THREE ROBOTS” about three robots. I can’t tell you more because I turned it off after ninety seconds because it was so irritating—the annoying glibness of “Guardians of the Galaxy” mixed with the faux-highbrow humor of “Rick and Morty.”

Three episodes do make the cut. “SONNIES EDGE,” despite looking like an extended cutscene from a Playstation game, has an interesting conceit, in which a

woman with a traumatic past battles as an alien beast in a dystopian gladiator arena. “THE WITNESS” is weird but in a good way, like the first foray of a promising student filmmaker. “THE SECRET WAR,” about a group of Soviet soldiers in Siberia during World War II fighting against hordes of terrifying ghouls, is exquisitely rendered in a realistic style, and even has a little subtext.

But can three passable episodes make up for fifteen bad ones?

That’s a pretty bad batting average.

To me, “Love, Death and Robots” is indicative of your typical Netflix show. It’s gratuitous in the sense that there’s too much of it, and there seems to have been little to no quality control, part of a deluge of shows that the streaming giant is constantly throwing at us, with minimal concern about whether or not anything’s actually good, only that we’re watching.

In my year off from TV, I haven’t felt particularly out of the loop—

PHOTO FROM THEVERGE.COM

except for not having watched my favorite anthology-style series of all time, HBO’s “High Maintenance.”

That show is everything that this Netflix show isn’t: Joyfulw, inventive, fun. Watch a character-based show about a weed dealer and his idiosyncratic clients instead of half-baked sketches about yogurt taking over the world. “Love, Death and Robots” is just more empty content trying to take time out of your life.

Arcadia sets the stage ablaze

By Gabriel Walker special to the hoot

When I walked into the SCC Theater last Saturday night, I was immediately met with the scent of open flames. As I was familiar with Arcadia’s grim ending, I thought, “Wow! What a brilliant composition decision!” Alas, it turned out that this scent was merely due to a technical glitch, which was quickly resolved by the SCC Theater Assistants. Nonetheless, it poetically began an evening filled with the intentional brilliance of a wonderful artistic team, helmed by director Sarah Salinger-Mullen ’19.

As the audience sat in the theater, waiting for the production to commence, we were allowed to relish in the breathtaking set designed by Jacob Bers ’20, lit beautifully by Noah Mark ’19.

The action of Arcadia unfolds in one room, jumping between the early 1800s and the present day.

Bers crafted an open-faced living room, which brilliantly kept Mullen’s playing space visible to the audience while also allowing for an intimate staging required by the dialogue. While Bers’ set was mostly naturalistic, it was elevated during moments of surrealism by

Mark’s tactful lighting decisions.

Both props and costumes, designed respectively by Monica Stamler ’21 and Kat Lawrence ’21, were tasked with the responsibility of transporting the audience between the two time periods.

This proved to be a challenge in which both thrived. The distinction their designs drew between these periods was smart and seamless, while also aesthetically pleasing.

All of the actors in this production should be applauded for how well they each handled the massive amounts of challenging text provided by the script. However, the standouts of Saturday’s performance were undoubtedly Eliana Weiss ’21, Peirce Robinson ’22, Jason Frank ’22 and Mia Rubenstein ’22.

Rubenstein was cool and incredibly comfortable on stage, acting as a voice of reason during the present-day scenes and providing a necessary foil to Frank’s bombastic, disorderly and comical portrayal of Bernard Nightingale. Robinson was witty and commanding, delightfully carrying most of the weight during the scenes from the past.

Perhaps the most riveting part of the evening was watching the transformation undergone by

PHOTOS BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

Weiss between the two acts. Like a candle, Weiss flickered between a naive, growing 13-year-old to a confident, mature young woman, allowing the audience to relish in the fire this character may have ignited on the world had her flame not been extinguished. The scenes between her and Robinson were engaging, sharp and some of the finest I have seen in the SCC Theater.

It is certainly no easy feat to stage a play as large and as famous as Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, particularly with an undergradu-

ate design team and cast. Rather than allow herself to be bogged down by the gravity of this task, Mullen and her team flourished.

They clearly put a substantial amount of time and care into the text work, which paid off in how well each actor understood and commanded their language, along with the solid, steady pacing of her production.

Mullen’s interpretation of the play also led her to create an alternative ending for the piece, which was potent, thrilling, and heartbreaking. Rather than al-

lowing Arcadia to end on a blissfully ignorant moment of peace, she forced the audience to grapple with the moment Thomasina (Weiss) is engulfed in flames.

This kept me on the edge of my seat until the moment the theater went dark, and serendipitously tied together my first moment in the theater with the last in a beautiful, tragic package. Mullen led her team to craft one of the strongest Undergraduate Theater Collective shows in recent memory and has set a new standard for productions to come.

Arts Calendar Friday March 22

p.m.

Army of Providence, R.I. Mandel

Straight B’s with Evan BAASA Presents: Film Fes- G03, 10 p.m. tival 2019 Sunday, March 24 Hirsch, piano BAASA will be presenting our Ben Eisenstein, violin Faculty pianist Evan Hirsch presents a recital of works by composers whose names begin with the letter B. To include variations by Beethoven and Brahms, and Out of Doors, by Béla Bartók. Slosberg Music Center, 8 p.m.

The Effect

Free Play Theater Cooperative presents “The Effect,” based on a book written by Lucy Prebble.

The show centers around two young volunteers who agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. The trial is soon thrown off course when the two volunteers fall for each other. Schwartz Hall Room 103, 8 p.m.

Saturday, March 23

Kaylee Wallace, mezzo soprano Senior undergraduate performance-track music major Kaylee Wallace performs a recital of classical works for voice and piano. Slosberg Music Center, 2

very first Film Festival! We will be continuing the dream theme from the Opening Ceremony and will feature films from various Asian American and Pacific Islander filmmakers, including on and off campus and alumni creators! Join us March 23rd in Levin Ballroom from 7 to 9p.m.!

We will also be having special guest STEVEN LIM from BuzzFeed’s “Worth It” join us!! He will be giving a short talk, Q&A, and Meet and Greet! Tickets available at the SCC Ticket booth. Levin Ballroom, 7 p.m.

“Rocky Horror Show” Screening

Picture

Triskelion, Brandeis’ LGBTQ Student Organization, is hosting a screening of “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the classic LGBT sci-fi musical experience, as a part of its annual Pride Month celebration. The screening will also feature a professional shadow cast performance by RKO

gold, 5 p.m.

Thursday, March 28

Music Department ColloJunior undergraduate perfor- quium: Damaged Cargo

mance-track music major Ben Eisenstein performs a recital of classical works for violin. Slosberg Music Center, 3 p.m.

Monday, March 25 Dror Keren: What is home?

Dror Keren ia an actor, playwright and director who has acted in countless productions over the past 20 years and will be presenting “What is home?” which depicts what it is like to grow up in and support Israel. With a razor-sharp wit and punchy-writing, Keren showcases all that it means being Israeli. Merrick Theater in Spingold, 11 a.m.

“Damaged Cargo: Concerning The Unfortunate Voyage of Poet-

ic Meter to the Land of the Modern Music-Theory Textbook” features special guest speaker Richard Cohn, Battell Professor of the Theory of Music at Yale University. Slosberg Music Center 212, 4 p.m.

Wednesday, March 27

Post-Baccalaureate and Senior Honors Exhibition Opening

Check out work by our post bacc and senior honors students. Light refreshments will be served. Dreitzer Gallery in Spin-

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

PHOTO FROM SAOBSERVER.NET