The Brandeis Hoot 10/19/2018

Volume 15 Issue 19

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

October 19, 2018

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper · Waltham, Mass.

Students rally in support of vote on divestment

By Ryan Spencer editor

PHOTO BY CELIA YOUNG/THE HOOT

ABOVE THE RABB STEPS

A banner saying “climate change kills #divestdeis” hangs over the Rabb steps.

Students with Brandeis Climate Justice (BCJ) rallied in support of divesting university funds from fossil fuels on Thursday, BCJ member Claudia Davis ’19 told The Brandeis Hoot. She believes a vote from the Board of Trustees in favor of divesting from fossil fuels is “imminent.”

President Ron Liebowitz expressed hope that there would be a vote on divestment soon but could not say whether the vote would take place in 2018, he told The Hoot in an email. “The conversation and further information gathering continues,” he said in the email, “[The Board of Trustees] are looking at all the ways we can address the issue of climate change, including looking at our own carbon footprint and what we are doing actively (not just

passively) to reduce our impact.”

In a September meeting, the board did not vote on divestment or a document titled “Brandeis as a Responsible Investor,” which trustees say needs to be updated before a vote on divestment can take place, according to a campus-wide email from Liebowitz last week.

The BCJ demonstrators, who rallied outside Rabb Graduate Center and the Gerstenzang Science Library, passed out fliers and hung large banners as part of “Global Climate Change week,” according to Davis.

A statement from the group posted on Facebook noted that “for over six years, Brandeis Climate Justice has encouraged the Board of Trustees to divest from fossil fuels and substantiate its claims on being an institution institution that values social justice.”

See DIVESTMENT, page 3

Students interrupt classrooms in protest of sexual violence

By Ryan Spencer and Sabrina Chow editors

Demonstrators with #deisbelieve interrupted at least three classrooms on Monday, carrying signs and banners advocating

against sexual violence, before holding a sit-in at the Shapiro Campus Center (SCC) atrium.

The hashtag #deisbelieve refers to an organization of Brandeis students who, last week, held a protest on the Rabb steps in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault. According to their Insta-

gram page, the group has the goal of bringing “awareness and solidarity to sexual violence survivors on college campuses.”

Kristen Mascall (CHEM), the professor of an organic chemistry class which was interrupted sometime between 11:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Monday, told The

Brandeis Hoot she was surprised when demonstrators entered her classroom. “I wasn’t sure of what I was supposed to do,” she said.

“Was I supposed to stop lecture or continue with lecture? So I just continued.”

“I’m hoping that they were able to get their message across with

what they’re trying to accomplish and I’m sorry if it seemed disrespectful or anything of their protest,” she continued. “That was not my intention.”

Thomas Murdy ’21, a student in attendance at the organic chemisSee #DEISBELIEVE, page 4

Sodium cyanide found in Foster Mods

By Elianna Spitzer editor

On Oct. 12, a hazmat team removed sodium cyanide from a Foster Mods residence. In an email to the student body, James Gray, Vice President for Campus Operations, confirmed that no one was injured by the substance.

No arrests were made. The administration would not comment on whether or not someone was detained for questioning. The administration also declined to release information about how the sodium cyanide was discovered.

A hazmat team responded to the scene to safely remove it. The hazmat crew was joined by BEM-

Inside This Issue:

Co, Brandeis PD, Department of Community Living, Waltham PD, Waltham fire trucks, Cataldo ambulances and helicopters.

Students were evacuated from Mods early in the afternoon on Friday with the assistance of emergency personnel. Students were not allowed to return to their residence until 5:15 p.m., when the hazmat team concluded its work.

The incident left students wondering about what sodium cyanide looks like and how a student got ahold of it. Sodium cyanide is an extremely dangerous substance. In its crystallized form, it can be toxic if ingested. HydroSee CYANIDE, page 4

OUTSIDE GOSMAN ATHLETIC CENTER

men’s soccer

Page 4 Page 7 Men’s soccer wins in a thriller Page 12 Page 8 SPORTS: PAGE 10 EDITORIAL: Emergency response quick and helpful Page 9 News: Academics discuss importance of debate Ops: Deflection is in the air Arts: Conover’s comedy causes cringe Features: Univ. exceeds carbon reduction goal

BEMCo staff gather after sodium cyanide was found.

opinion How people should really be protesting OPS: PAGE 5

PHOTO BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

October 19, 2018

Students from ‘#deisbelieve’ protest sexual violence through SCC sit-in #DEISBELIEVE, from page 1

try class which was interrupted, told The Hoot, “I was impressed...

They definitely did their job...

Overall what they did was really effective so they should feel really proud of what they did because it definitely got the message across.”

Demonstrators also interrupted Programming in Java taught

by Professor Antonella Di Lillo (COSI) and Introduction to Psychology taught by Professor Ellen Wright (PSYC).

“I think it’s really important to remember that at Brandeis, we all represent a diversity of opinions, backgrounds and personal feelings, and I want my classroom, my office, my contacts all to reflect that,” Wright told The Hoot.

Di Lillo did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

A “Statement on Campus Protests” from Dean of Students Jamele Adams, which was delivered to students in a campus-wide email on Wednesday, thanked Brandeis students for “working together to support the survivors of sexual harassment and assault on our campus and beyond.”

The email, which included a link to The Student’s Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, noted that “Our code of conduct also requires that teaching and learning should not be interrupted” but that “these standards were not honored in recent protests.”

The Rights and Responsibilities Handbook notes in Section 2.3 that “Obstructing or disrupting teaching, research, or administrative, public service, disciplinary, or other authorized University functions is unacceptable.”

The university does not shut down protests “provided safety is not compromised and university functions, including classes, are not disrupted,” the email noted.

The email from Adams also reminded students to “consider the

unintended consequences your actions might have on members of the community who have experienced sexual assault or harassment. Some survivors may not be ready to participate in or be confronted by protest, and all students should feel safe attending classes.”

Provost Lisa Lynch told The Hoot via email, “I appreciate and value that many in our community are searching for productive ways to address issues of sexual misconduct and to support the survivors in our community.” She echoed Adams comments that interrupting classrooms was unacceptable.

A Monday night instagram post from @DeisBelieve stated that the interruption of classes was intended to be “a provocative statement about the erasure of survivors in classrooms.”

“Sexual assault does not disappear in academic spaces; survivors carry this burden into class,” the post read. “By not standing with or not believing survivors, the university is asking survivors to discard a part of themselves and just show up to class as purely students.”

“We want to recognize the concerns of individuals that were triggered or were made uncomfortable by our demonstrations.

We apologize for the multitude of ways in which our demonstration might have caused harm to survivors,” the post noted. It said the group is working on changing their tactics and language in future demonstrations.

A reporter from The Hoot reached out several times to demonstrators at the sit-in. “We are not giving statements or talking to the press, any of us here,” Kavita Sundaram ’20, a student who participated in the sit-in, told The Hoot. “We’re going to ask right now if you’re taking notes on this please do not include our names,” she later told The Hoot. The Hoot chose not to heed these requests

PHOTO BY RYAN SPENCER/THE HOOT

due to the public nature of the event and the newspaper’s ethics policy which requires that we “identify sources whenever feasible.”

At about 1 p.m., demonstrators at the sit-in collectively read aloud the statement they had dispersed to passerbys and participants. The statement highlights the importance of their hashtag, #BrandeisBelieveSurvivors, which, according to the statement, is “a radical demand to our faculty of students, administration and staff to address the dearth of dialogues surrounding the political climate and sexual assault cases.”

The hand-out also asked “if you are faculty and in solidarity with our mission, please share this amongst your department and with colleagues from other institutions to bring further awareness.”

Following the reading of their statement the group sang two songs. The lyrics of the first song, “Rich Man’s House,” centered on the first person narrator taking back what the “rich man took,” things such as “my dignity” and “my humanity.”

The second song they sang, titled “Courage,” contained the lyrics “Courage. My friend. You do not walk alone. We will, we will, walk with you, walk with you and sing your spirit home.” Demonstrators at the sit-in who sang along with the song replaced “courage” with words such as “freedom,” “justice” and “liberty” in repetitions of this refrain. A version of the song on Soundcloud.com notes that the song originated as an anti-apartheid song which was “sung as protestors were being taken to jail.”

Word of the sit-in first came from a post on the group’s Instagram account. “At 12 PM tomorrow join us outside Bernstein-Marcus for a sit in against sexual violence” read the Sunday night post. “Note this is a silent protest,” the post read.

The demonstrators never rallied outside of Bernstein-Marcus and instead sat on the first floor of the SCC where the approximately 30 students held signs, worked on computers, read books or talked amongst each other.

Last week demonstrators rallied on the Rabb Steps as students moved to and from classes. The

statement provided by the demonstrators noted that they plan to continue with these rallies throughout the month of October, which is also domestic violence awareness month. “A collective group of students are rallying to amplify the voices of survivors and victims whose stories have been afterthoughts on our political agendas. Time’s up on waiting.

Time’s up on tolerance. Time’s up on discrimination, harassment and abuse,” the handout also says, in conjunction with the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement Demonstrators also attempted to hang signs from railings on the second and third of the SCC. A sign hung on a railing halfway up to the second floor read “Brandeis we feel your silence #BrandeisBelieveSurvivors.” An employee at the SCC told demonstrators that they could not hang signs or banners without the permission from the Student Activities Office and the banner that had already been hung would be removed. As of 4 p.m., almost two hours after the conclusion of the sit-in, the banner hung by demonstrators had not been removed.

Former Israeli soldier speaks on her experience

By Celia Young editor

A former soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, Merphie Bubis, spoke about her experience in the Israeli Civil Administration and the favoritism with which Israeli citizens and settlers were treated as compared to Palestinians. J Street U Brandeis hosted the lecture on Monday, Oct. 15.

J Street U Brandeis, a Jewish organization at Brandeis, advocates for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and an end to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza territories. They describe themselves as a “pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, pro-peace” organization.

Bubis served for two years in the Civil Administration, a military unit that managed the infrastructure of the occupation, including movement to and from the Occupied Territories, water, electricity and more bureaucratic matters like travel papers.

As a soldier, Bubis said her main role was to protect Israeli citizens,

but she often ended up protecting Palestinians from violence by Israeli citizens.

She told a story in which Israeli settlers uprooted trees and attacked a Palestinian village.

Fighting broke out, and while the Israelis responsible were taken to the police station in an ambulance, seven escaped and no one searched for or attempted to recapture them.

Bubis also quoted other former soldiers, who were told that their responsibility was to protect settlers. Bubis agreed with their statements, saying “As soldiers this is something that we’re told constantly, that it’s actually not our job, and even if we witness this kind of violence, we should not be even attempting to enforce the law on Israeli civilians.”

Bubis recounted several incidents when she was called to respond to a report and called the authorities, the Israeli police, who did not adequately respond to the situation.

“They [Israeli soldiers] inform us about settlers throwing stones, young teenagers. And as soldiers

they’re not actually supposed to enforce the law or do anything to stop the Israeli civilians. The only thing that they can do at that moment is call the Israeli police. And the police simply do not show up.”

“After about thirty minutes the soldiers report back saying that the children apologized and they were sent home. That’s a very different outcome versus Palestinian children [or] teenagers who were caught throwing stones in the West Bank. They can easily find themselves managing the bureaucracy of the military court system and also potentially sitting for months in a military prison.”

Bubis also mentioned that the settler movement, which encourages Israeli settlers to move into the West Bank, caused conflicts she had to mitigate. J Street U Brandeis taped posters to the wall of Lurias in Upper Sherman, where the event was held, describing the settler movement.

“Over time, and especially as Israel politics has shifted rightward, the settler movement has become an institutionalized part of Israeli society. Support comes in the

form of building permits, public investment, and even incentives for Israelis to move into the West Bank,” one of the posters read.

It continued, “As the settler population swells, any scenario of a Palestinian state that encompasses the entire West Bank dwindles.

It’s simply not plausible to remove

more than 400,000 residents from their established communities.”

The event ended with an opportunity to sign a petition that would ask Brandeis Hillel to include voices from Palestinians on Birthright, a trip that gives Jewish students the opportunity to travel to Israel.

PHOTO BY CELIA YOUNG/THE HOOT

October 19, 2018

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

Students rally for divestment DIVESTMENT, from page 1

“We are done encouraging; we are demanding,” read the statement.

“We want to be visible on campus about the real ramification of climate change which is more severe natural disasters, more severe weather events, and so many deaths,” Davis told The Hoot.

“In the last hurricane season we just saw so much destruction in communities in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,” Davis said, “and now with this season Florence and Michael have already taken really significant hits and there are other hurricanes— just hurricanes, we’re not even talking about cyclones or floods or droughts or heat waves.”

Earlier in the week BCJ students tabled in Upper Usdan to raise money for victims of Hurricane Michael which struck the Florida panhandle earlier this month.

A banner hung by BCJ above the Rabb Steps read “Climate Change Kills #DivestDeis.” Fliers handed out by the group stated, “We can’t wait any longer. Do better, Brandeis. DIVEST NOW.” Last April, Board of Trustees member George D. Krupp told students and faculty who had gathered for a climate justice rally that a vote on divestment would come within 60 days. In June, Liebowitz pushed the vote to November after announcing that the board must first vote to update “Brandeis as a Responsible Investor,” which was last updated

in 1974.

“The board devoted a significant amount of time to discussing whether and how the university can address the legitimate concerns about climate change through fossil fuels divestment,” Liebowitz announced to the Brandeis community in an email summarizing his September meeting with the Board of Trustees.

According to Davis, BCJ was told by Board of Trustees Chair Meyer Koplow that Krupp did not have the authority or permission of the board to promise a vote within 60 days when he met demonstrators in April.

Davis told The Hoot that she believes that the Board of Trustees intends to “restructure [Brandeis as a Responsible Investor] so that the language is a little more direct and gives them reasons to divest from fuels but will help them push back against any future divestment campaigns.”

“After we divest from fossil fuels, we can divest from private prisons, we can divest from arms deals, we can divest from Israel, and they don’t want that,” she said, “I think they’re realizing now that divestment from fossil fuels is really close to happening and they’re scared that people are going to ask for more, ask for too much. That’s their slippery slope argument.”

Davis told The Hoot that she is hoping to see a vote on divestment from fossil fuels when the Board of Trustees meets in November. “I think the process of divestment takes time, but it takes

PHOTOS BY CANDACE NG/THE HOOT

less time than the Board is trying to lead us to believe it does,” she told The Hoot.

“Hundreds of millions of lives are at risk in the very near future, and a lot of lives have already been lost to climate change,” Davis warned, “The world as we know it is going to change entirely in our lifetime because of climate change.”

Earlier this month the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change released a report warning that if global emission rates remain the same the atmosphere could warm as much as 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels by 2040, according to The New York Times.

Under these circumstances, the report warned, the world would see worsening food shortages, increased wildfires, and increasingly severe weather events.

The report also concluded with “global warming has already caused multiple observed changes in the climate system” and that to avoid the more severe changes, the global economy would have to react with changes that have “no documented historic precedent.”

Sabine von Mering (ENVS/ GRALL/WMGS), a member of Faculty Against the Climate Threat, told The Hoot via email that “Anyone who read the most recent report by the International Panel on Climate Change knows how urgent it is. Brandeis should be a leader not a late-arriving follower on issues of social justice.”

“We trust that our trustees understand their responsibility to our students’ future and the future of life on planet earth,” von Mering said. “They are called trustees for a reason.” She noted that Liebowitz signed a statement in support of the Paris Agreement, an international agreement aiming to keep global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius this century.

She also said she hoped that “President Liebowitz will speak to his commitments to climate action in his Oct. 29 address.”

Rachel Wang contributed to reporting.

IN THE SENATE: Oct. 14, 2018 •

The Dining Committee reported that, at the weekly meeting with Sodexo, the committee gave Sodexo all of the feedback received via Facebook from the student body.

After many requests to have Lower Usdan open during the weekends, the committee decided to send out a survey to better quantify this need. The committee also discussed a proposal to allow students to exchange unused meals for points.

•

The Community Emergency and Enhancement Fund (CEEF) discussed two proposed ideas: the installation of a TV in the the SCC Atrium, to advertise various campus events, with the goal of engaging more people, as wtgell as the development of a new app, BRENDA. BRENDA would combine all current Brandeis apps, including Rider, GET, LaundryView, and Bite, etc.

•

According to Senator Aaron Finkel ’20, a member of the Service and Outreach Committee, students are “gobbling down” the Turkey Shuttle Tickets, with three buses already sold out. The Senate also passed a motion to provide the remaining necessary funds for the Turkey Shuttles.

•

The Club Support Committee rejected the proposal to start a fitness club because of the incorrect format of the proposal and uncertainty about whether a sufficient numberof students want the club to exist. The committee is also continuing to help clubs prepare for the Allocations Board Marathon on Nov. 1.

•

The Sustainability Committee is searching for a better way to communicate with the student body, particularly with first-years, about the various sustainability initiatives at Brandeis. One proposal was to reach out to the Community Advisors for help.

•

The Health and Safety Committee proposed moving the cigarette disposers farther away from the entrance to the library and buying condoms to put in residence bathrooms.

•

Senator Alex Chang ’22 continued discussing his proposal to put pianos in the lounges in first-year quads. Chang found pianos that are being given away for free. The Senate would have to pay about $150 in transportation costs, according to him. To avoid conflict, the keyboards of the pianos will be locked during quiet hours; the Senate is discussing final details with the Department of Community Living. The Senate will discuss the idea further and vote on it during the next Senate meeting.

•

The Senate concluded the meeting with a discussion of the Presidential All-Campus Event, which will occur on Monday, Oct. 29, at 1 p.m. in Sherman Function Hall, where President Ron Liebowitz will discuss his plans for leadership at Brandeis.

-Sasha Skarboviychuk

Prof. Diouf visits Senegal through Wellington Prize

By Candace Ng editor

Professor Emilie Diouf (ENG) was selected randomly for the Wellington Prize this year, according to a BrandeisNow article.

Established by an anonymous donor in 1993, the Wellington prize is a gift used to “enliven the spirits and delight the sense of assistant

professors.” Every year, the winner of this prize is chosen randomly at the final faculty meeting of the academic year and can use the $3,000 cash prize in any way they see fit, as long as it is not used for research purposes.

Diouf, who is originally from Senegal, used the prize money to visit Senegal with her two-yearold daughter Annette. Diouf had not returned to Senegal in three years, and her daughter had never

been. The mother-daughter duo spent seven weeks in July and August visiting family and friends in Dakar, Thies, Mbour and Joal-Fadiouth.

The trip allowed Diouf and her daughter to re-root themselves culturally. “I didn’t realize I missed home so much until I got there,” said Diouf in the interview with BrandeisNow.” Diouf also noted that her daughter was able to become

more fluent in Wolof and develop bonds with relatives face-to-face, as opposed to on phone or Skype calls.

Diouf also told BrandeisNow that her trip also gave her insight as to how migrants feel when they return home. During visits to the African Renaissance Monument in Dakar and the House of Slaves and its Door of No Return on Gorée Island, Diouf explored the ways Senegal preserved the cul-

tural memory of the Atlantic slave trade and forced displacement.

Diouf came to the United States from Senegal in 2008 to pursue a master’s and PhD degree at Michigan State University. Diouf specializes in Anglophone and Francophone postcolonial African literatures and cinema with emphases on gender, feminist theory and trauma theory; she joined Brandeis as an assistant professor of English in fall 2017.

GSC urges Brandeis students to ‘vote yes on 3’

By Celia Young editor

The Gender and Sexuality Center hosts a phone bank every Thursday where students and Waltham community members call local voters to urge them to ‘vote yes on 3’: to vote in favor of the third ballot question on the

2018 Massachusetts Nov. 6 ballot.

This question asks voters whether or not they support a 2016 law that guarantees access to public accommodations for transgender people according to their gender identity.

Signed into law by Republican governor Charlie Baker, this provides equal access to spaces such as restaurants, libraries and bathrooms.

Several student volunteers organize the Gender and Sexuality Center’s weekly phone bank, including Renee Korgood ’20, who spoke to The Hoot about the campaign to ‘vote yes on 3.’

“I think we can all agree that discrimination in particular is not a Brandeis value,” Korgood said.

“I think that it’s really important at Brandeis and in our community to fight for people who may not

have the voice or the ability to do this advocacy themselves.”

The phone bank began Thursday, Aug. 30 and will run until Nov. 1. Then, from Nov. 3 to Nov. 6, the Center will host an allday phone bank with Triskelion, Brandeis’ LGBTQ+ student social group, according to Korgood.

Organizers of the phone bank will also attend a Social Impact Job Fair on Wednesday, Nov. 24

to recruit more phone bank volunteers.

Korgood was pleased with the number of volunteers, saying, “Most of our volunteers are coming from the Waltham community.”

Korgood and other organizers have recruited volunteers and canvassed in Waltham. Korgood estimates that she herself has contacted more than 75 students.

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

October 19, 2018

Hazmat teams respond to sodium cyanide CYANIDE, from page 1

gen cyanide is the toxic, gaseous form of the substance. Brandeis confirmed that sodium cyanide was not taken from a lab on campus, quashing rumors that it was stolen during a lab experiment.

However, The Hoot asked several students who confirmed that sodium cyanide can be found in labs on campus.

In an email to the student body, Gray said the substance was bought commercially.

According to the website for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sodium cyanide is used commercially in mining operations. It can be found in the chemical solutions that are used to develop photographs, inside cigarettes and in the manufacturing of paper, textiles, and plastics.

Cyanide can be a naturally occurring substance too. “Pits and

seeds of common fruits, such as apricots, apples, and peaches, may have substantial amounts of chemicals which are metabolized to cyanide,” the CDC’s website reads.

Barry Snider, Department Chair and Professor of Organic Chemistry, explained that the substance is difficult to identify. “Sodium cyanide is a white crystalline solid that looks like salt (sodium chloride) or sugar although the crystals are often bigger like those of salt used for deicing roadways.

You can’t recognize sodium cyanide by visual inspection.”

Exposure to a very small amount of cyanide can affect someone within minutes. They will experience “dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, rapid breathing, rapid heart rate, restlessness, and weakness,” according to the CDC. Exposure to a larger amount of cyanide will cause “convulsions, loss of consciousness, low blood pressure, respiratory failure, and slow heart rate.”

Grace Han, an assistant professor of chemistry, advised, “One should evacuate the place immediately and call EHS if they encounter the substance.

If there is a chance of exposure to the substance, one should call a poison center or emergency immediately and follow the guidance of professionals.”

The Brandeis Police have specific protocols for different types of emergencies and evacuations.

Students described being asked to leave the area by emergency personnel.

The fire alarm was also triggered to speed up evacuation.

More information about what to do if a hazardous material is released on campus can be found on the Brandeis Public Safety webpage.

Julie Jette, Director of Media Relations, confirmed that the administration will not be releasing any further information about the situation.

PHOTOS BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

Politically opposed thinkers discuss importance of free debate

By Ryan Spencer editor

Displaying an image of open debate and friendship between individuals of politically opposite perspectives, conservative legal scholar Robert George and liberal thinker Cornel West discussed the importance of liberal education and open-mindedness on Wednesday night to a packed Sherman Function Hall.

George, professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, and West, professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard, addressed each other as “brother” throughout their conversation, which often highlighted their vastly different backgrounds and political beliefs.

“We acknowledge our differences, we acknowledge the ways we might look at the world through a different lense,” West said.

“This is simply not about politics; there is nobody whose integrity I admire more than Cornel West,” George told the audience.

“See, he’s from a vanilla, bluegrass section of America,” West said in reference to George, “and

I’m from gut-bucket, black, Aretha Franklin-shapen…chocolate side of town, but our love and friendship are genuine.”

George used his West Virginian home as a starting point for a discussion on the importance of liberal education, telling the audience that while he was growing up his family had impressed upon him that education is important, “mainly because it promised socioeconomic advancement.”

“What I was not brought up understanding was truth as something worth pursuing just for its own sake,” he said. It was only in his sophomore year at Swarthmore College, where George earned his undergraduate degree, that he encountered Plato’s dialogues for the first time and began to understand truth in this way.

“Cornel and I are both disciples of Plato,” he said. “Plato was the guy who asked questions about everything, especially the most important things, the deepest things, the most elusive things, the fundamental questions of existence and meaning and value.”

He described Plato as someone who “could never really find a way to rest content, fully content, with

answers, even the best answers.”

He noted that Plato was always willing to “question the premises of everything.”

“What Plato, that old Greek, forced me to do was to think, for the first time in my life, why I believed what I believed,” George said. “I had never subjected my beliefs to criticism; I didn’t know why I should. Now I do.”

George described the idea of subjection of beliefs to criticism as “a continuing and lifelong project” and “the real value of a liberal arts education.” West also played with the idea of scrutinizing beliefs, noting that intelligence alone is not enough. “Gangsters can be smart, Nazis can be smart, white supremacists can be smart, misogynists can be smart, homophobes can be smart,” he said, “but when you really cut deeper and allow for that compassion and wisdom to play the role, then you’re not just impressed by the smartest person in the room.”

“Let the phoney be smart, you better be something deeper,” he told the audience. “That deeper is precisely what the liberal learning is all about.”

West noted the importance of

this kind of critical thinking, saying “you can’t sustain a democracy without it, that’s why we’re spinning, sliding down a slope of chaos and hatred and contempt.”

West and George’s different beliefs on the market and how it should or should not be regulated indicated their political differences.

“Cornel, as you may know, is an honorary chair to the Democratic Socialists of America and I’m, I’m a conservative,” George said.

“Now I’m not a laissez-faire libertarian; I think there are legitimate reasons to regulate the market, but I believe in the basically free market,” he noted.

Whereas George said that he thinks that “the market is a wonderful mechanism for lifting people out of poverty or dispersing power [and] making sure there is not too much power in the hands of the government,” he noted that “Brother Cornel is a bit more skeptical, I’d say a good bit more skeptical, than I am about the magic of the market pulling people out of poverty and creating centers of power that are alternative to the government.”

“The market from Cornel’s

point of view is a sort of lesser evil,” George said. “I see it as a positive good.”

“The mechanisms of accountability when it comes to the government, when it comes to public power,” West said, “I want that same focus on the accountability on the concentration of power in the market.”

George noted that, “We agree people ought not to be suffering” because of economic inequalities, but said that while “I have more faith in the markets than [West] does, he has more faith in government programs than I do.”

“It’s really important to find people you have really fundamental disagreements with and develop relationships with them,” George said near the end of the event. “Try to figure out where they’re coming from, consider the possibility that they might be right on some things [and] you might be wrong on some things.”

At the end of the event, which was introduced by President Ron Liebowitz and sponsored by the American Studies Department and several other academic departments, George and West embraced in a hug.

Lecturers speak on how ageism affects women

By Thalia Plata special to the hoot

Lecturer Margaret Morganroth Gullette traced the painful story of workplace discrimination and downward mobility faced by the aging population in her lecture “Bummer: Boomer Women, Work and Love.” She was followed

by Emily Fox-Kales who examined cultural narratives of gender, aging, and sexuality in her lecture “Sex, Love and Death in Malibu.”

The two lectures were hosted by the Women’s Studies Research Center (WSRC) and took place at Liberman-Miller Lecture Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 16.

Both scholars spoke on issues affecting people, especially women, midlife and beyond. Gullette

focused on the age wage curve.

Over a normal working life, wages rise in youth and stagnate in midlife, and then fall. However, this does not affect everyone equally.

Margaret Morganroth Gullette is an internationally known pioneer in age studies, a cultural critic and award-winning writer of nonfiction, an essayist, a feminist, and an education activist.

Her latest book “Agewise: Fighting the New Ageism in America” (2011), won a 2012 Eric Hoffer Book Award. A recipient of NEH, ACLS, and Bunting Fellowships, she is a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center.

During her lecture, Gullette showed data that illustrated that men’s annual pay keeps increasing

until about age 45, while women’s stop growing after age 37. Gullette expressed how worrisome this data was, considering that people are living longer and retiring much later than usual.

Gullette also expressed her frustration with the lack of attention over the issue of ageism to the crowd, most of whom were fellow scholars at the WSRC. “Overcoming ageism is the next important social movement of our time,” said Gullette. Fellow scholar, FoxKales, expressed a similar sentiment.

Fox-Kales is a clinical psychologist specializing in eating disorders as well as a feminist media scholar. She is a lecturer in psychology at Harvard Medical School and on the faculty of both

Northeastern University and the Graduate Consortium of Women’s Studies, where she teaches cultural and gender studies with a focus on visual representations of the woman’s body.

During her lecture, Fox-Kales focused on sexuality later in life.

According to Fox-Kales, after a woman reaches midlife she is no longer seen as a sexual being. She used the popular Netflix series “Grace and Frankie” to illustrate expectations of women in midlife.

In the clip she showed, the titular characters trying to get a bank loan to produce sex toys designed for older women, specifically for women with arthritis.

They are met with obvious discomfort from the banker and are denied a ten-year loan because

of their age. While the clip was tinged with humor, Fox-Kales stressed the issue of age-related discrimination.

The two lectures where sponsored by the WSRC Scholars Program, which offers events and a lecture series for the public.

In 1992, the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Brandeis University opened its doors to academic scholars who were on leave from other universities, in retirement or working independently, conducting their own research and writing.

Through WSRC’s Scholars Program, artists and academic scholars explore women’s and gender issues, their work often culminating in books and presentations that are open to the public.

OPINIONS

October 19, 2018

The Brandeis Hoot 5

How should we protest?

By Noah Harper editor

I love protests. There’s something exciting about seeing people sticking it to the man—expressing themselves in public, risking their comfort and safety for what they believe in. But I worry that we all haven’t thought enough about what it means to demonstrate. What is a protest, and how can it be most effective?

Brandeis has a proud tradition of student activism. As the National Strike Headquarters in the late ‘60s, we helped coordinate some of the most consequential student protests in American history. On an institutional level, we have seen the Ford Hall demonstrations of both 1969 and 2015— students saw a problem and put themselves on the line to fix it. At its core, protest is a fundamentally transgressive act. No one protests because they’re happy with the status quo. The demonstrator takes time out of their day and puts themselves in a heavily-trafficked public place so that they’ll be both seen and heard. The point is to draw attention and to take people out of their rhythms. Optics are key to getting people to care.

If protest is transgressive, then rule-breaking must be a part of it. Breaking rules should be the point. Maybe I’m showing my secret anarcho-Marxist sympathies here, but the protest should fight

REMEMBERING FORD HALL 1969

indifference by unabashedly barging into people’s lives. Banners, loud colors, chants—all of these work to pull the observer out of their apathy and into the cause.

I spent the first half of this year in Spain, where protests are almost a daily occurrence. I remember one by a group of actors from a historic theater that the government was planning on defunding.

Instead of a show that evening, they performed protest songs outside on the steps. Unorthodox and attention-grabbing, it soon drew a sympathetic crowd.

Institutional rules are part of the problem—following them to the letter when we protest just keeps the system functioning.

If the point is disruption, work-

PHOTOS FROM BRANDEIS LIBRARY ARCHIVES

ing within the system isn’t going to be effective. We want to keep things from working properly until our demands are met.

Demands are a key component: Having actionable goals dramatically increases the likelihood of the protest being productive.

I could stand in front of President Liebowitz’s car to demand that the university divest from fossil fuels stop climate change, but would that really help with what I’m trying to accomplish?

Instead, we need to think local. What can we disrupt that would have a direct impact on the powers-that-be that decide what we want to protest?

To continue that thought, what are the real, specific, achievable goals that I would want the Brandeis administration to enact?

Advocating for national change is laudable, but casting too wide a net means things become unfocused and objectives infinitely harder to accomplish. We have to think about the here and now.

We also have to be cognizant of how using social media for a cause can be disruptive.

It’s easy to think that because we used a hashtag or angrily commented something on Facebook that we’ve done our part for the cause, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The system doesn’t care about

your tweets. The system only pays attention when it’s being pushed out of order—it’s the only way to get a response, and, hopefully, what you want.

Risk is implicit in protest. If you’re not risking something, your demonstration probably isn’t going to be very effective.

When rules are broken, there are going to be consequences, but the selling point of the radical activist is that they care about their cause enough that they’re willing to accept the risk of being punished. There can be different kinds of risks involved: disciplinary punishment from breaking the rules, reactivated trauma by reliving difficult memories associated with the protest.

There could be very real, very painful consequences. But the calculus of the protest is that it’s all worth it; that the possibility of achieving the intended goal outweighs the high likelihood that the protester will suffer in some way for their actions.

The cause is worth the suffering.

This kind of invested transgression is appealing to outsiders—if you care about something deeply enough to have bad things happen to you, then there must be something important about it—and now I as a bystander I’m interested and might want to become involved.

As the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon said, “When deeds speak, words are nothing.”

In the best case scenario, people pay attention to what you’re doing and want to join in and help publicize it.

Getting to this stage means that one part of the protest has already been successful.

In garnering public sympathy, you’re winning people over to your cause and becoming closer to achieving your goal.

By having places for them to participate and welcoming the publicity—free press—you can get the word out even more.

Once enough people believe in the cause and the actionable goal, there will be much more pressure on the system (i.e. in our case, the administration) to change.

The ideal protest should be loud, transgressive, inclusive of new supporters and taking advantage of any media to spotlight their cause. The goal is not to be an insular club of “woke” people but to actually make real changes in the world—keeping in mind all the messiness that entails.

To do so, you need dedicated activists, a worthy cause and a willingness to weather the reactions of the system until your practical goals are achieved. Break the rules and fight for what you believe.

Librarians deserve a fair contract

By Brandeis Labor Coalition special to the hoot

The Brandeis University librarians and their union, SEIU 888, are fighting for a better contract with the university administration. Brandeis Labor Coalition (BLC) and the students at Brandeis stand with them and express our support.

This is the administration that has claimed “social justice” as the motto of Brandeis.

However, what the administration fails to realize is that you don’t believe in social justice if you don’t want to pay people fairly. You don’t believe in social justice if you refuse to listen to what your workers are telling you they need. You don’t believe in social justice if your actions do not match your words.

The university is refusing to budge on contract issues and is therefore refusing to live up to this social justice message.

The library, as any Brandeis student knows, is the hub of the

school. The librarians themselves work tirelessly, when physically at the library and not, to make sure that every student is fully supported and has the resources they need.

What Brandeis student hasn’t needed last minute help on a paper and approached a research librarian, done some deep digging in the archives with the support of those librarians, or received meticulous guidance to the exact book they need from a desk helper?

What Brandeis student hasn’t gotten a donut or apple cider or petted a farm animal at their most stressed moments? What Brandeis student hasn’t had their life profoundly helped and brightened by the wonderful staff that populates our library?

It is important for students to take time and acknowledge our personal experiences with the librarians, specifically how, without their support, much of what we do and what we have, even just in terms of academic infrastructure, simply would not exist.

A BLC member speaks about their personal experience with a

librarian: “I took classes over the summer where I learned how to appropriately do legal research through the help of the one and only Aimee Slater. Slater is a Government Information and Social Sciences librarian here at Brandeis.

I struggled working on an essay, but I emailed her and she was more than willing to schedule an appointment with me (outside of her normal hours).

“Slater was so patient with me in understanding LexisNexis (a law research database) she had me practice looking up different statues on my own until I got it correctly! Aside from helping me with my paper and research she also was kind enough to bring me a few beverages to take with me on the hot summer day.” This is one of many examples of the full willingness of the librarians at Brandeis to help students as they go above and beyond to assist and support us at all times.

These direct and tangible examples of how we benefit from the library are really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how

the librarians dedicate their time to us. Behind the scenes, librarians will take hours pouring over materials to prepare for meetings.

They work long hours in order to provide more research help.

They create exhibits to educate students about knowledge essential to Brandeis’ own history, such as Ford Hall.

They provide help with voting and absentee ballots. A new initiative even replaces late fines if you bring in non-perishable food donations instead.

The staff stocks, shelves, cleans, curates and organizes so that Brandeis students can get the best resources and experience.

The smooth operation of our library is really thanks to how far above and beyond our librarians go on a daily basis, and this is really something we all should be deeply thankful for.

Our librarians are fighting for a fair contract—not an exorbitant one, certainly not one that would have a large impact on the yearly surplus of $2.9 million that Brandeis is currently

operating with. On the Friday of Family Weekend, Brandeis Labor Coalition worked with SEIU 888 handing out leaflets to students, families and members of the administration.

Every family we spoke to, every student we approached even in passing, expressed their deep support for the librarians in their fight. In fact, even Ronald Liebowitz himself said that he “loves librarians.”

With this overwhelming support from every sector, we ask the administration to answer the librarians demands.

We want to send a clear message to the administration. We, the students of Brandeis, are watching. The library and the librarians are extraordinarily important to our success at the university, and we will not sit idly by as they are mistreated and steamrolled over.

The students of Brandeis University call on the administration to support the librarians, like we do, and negotiate with them fairly for the benefits they so clearly deserve.

6 OPINIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

October 19, 2018

All sports clubs should be considered club sports

By Sabrina Chow editor

In the world of college varsity athletics, those of us who don’t have the elusive title of “varsity athlete” are considered NARPs, non-athletic regular people. As a Division III school that is in a conference with a lot of “nerd schools,” we do pretty well for ourselves, I must admit, in terms of varsity athletics. With a men’s soccer team that consistently makes Final Four appearances and a women’s soccer team who was handed only their second loss of the season this past Sunday, Oct. 14, our athletics department has a right to boast its successes, even with its controversies over the last year.

And also having been ranked third in the country by the Princeton Review for the section, “There’s a Game?” attesting to our lack of varsity sports attendance, sports seems extremely irrelevant, unless it’s the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles fighting over the Super Bowl title.

One of the best parts of being in college, opposed to high school, is that the school gives non-varsity athletes the opportunity to play sports with others at our school. As a former varsity athlete in high school, I’m glad to have the opportunity to play a sport that I love with good players, in an extremely competitive environment, even though it isn’t at the varsity level. It proves that we don’t all have to be varsity athletes to be good at a sport.

I’m sure many of us could participate on varsity if we had the option to but choose not to for various reasons.

The biggest downfall in Brandeis’ athletics is its treatment of non-varsity athletes. Brandeis athletics has a rule that sports teams that have varsity sports cannot also be considered club sports. Since we have a varsity

PHOTO BY MATT KOWALYK/THE HOOT

GOSMAN SIGNAGE

tennis team, Brandeis Tennis Club is not considered a club sport but a sports club. Another example would be the popular Brandeis Football Club (BFC), both the men’s and women’s teams.

Even though we compete against other club teams around the state and the country, we are not given the same luxuries as club sports are given. This is not fair. I am in no way trying to badmouth club sports; I have many friends who are a part of them, but sports clubs deserve better from both the Student Union and the athletics department.

One of the biggest issues that I have with club sports is their access to transportation. As a designated club sport, these clubs are

able to take out the athletic vans, at little to no cost to them. One hundred percent of their transportation was covered in previous year, but it has been set back to 80 percent to match the 65 percent subsidy that all other clubs receive.

As a sports club, we are required to find our own transportation to matches. We have to drive ourselves to the majority of our matches with our own gas money.

In the off-chance that student activities lets sports clubs use the Waltham Group vans, a lot of clubs are still required to pay for their own gas, with only a 65 percent reimbursement of funds.

Also, a luxury afforded to club sports is the ability to have space in Gosman Sports and Convocation

Center. All club sports have locker space to store all their equipment when they are not at practices, which is both an amazing convenience and luxury to have.

Our president is required to carry around a ginormous tennis bag and a basket of balls to and from every practice to so we are able to provide racquets if necessary and tennis balls to hit with.

If she didn’t have a car, transporting would be ten times as difficult and more of a hassle than it’s honestly worth.

But club sports, such as club squash, are able to leave all their materials right inside Gosman, accessible at their fingertips whenever they have practice.

Another issue is the scheduling of indoor spaces as Gosman. As a sports club, we are not given designated reserved times for practices, oftentimes having practices out in the cold purely because the courts are way more accessible there. With only three indoor tennis courts, it’s oftentimes very cramped, and club sports get priority over space in Gosman.

Tron and Banshee require the entirety of the main floor of Gosman, including the tennis courts, track and Auerbach Arena to host practices, preventing anyone else from using the space unless it is the weight room or dance rooms. And on top of varsity courts always reserving the

courts in case of rain, there is not much time left for sports clubs.

Sports clubs should also be given the opportunity, and right, to reserve spaces for designated times without worrying about being booted off by club and varsity sports that believe they take precedence. As sports that often compete with other colleges and universities, we need time to practice or we would just make a fool out of ourselves on the court.

With 1.7 percent of our tuition going to the expenditures set by the Allocations Board (A-Board), I feel like every club should be able to have the same benefits when it comes to the resources of the university.

We are the ones inherently paying for it, even if we don’t have to pay for gas or tournament fees when we sign up. So why should some sports get priority over others when we are all competing at essential the same level across these sports?

This is not a problem within A-Board; they are simply following the policies that have been set by their predecessors.

We already have enough trouble as it is during marathon because sports clubs are not part of the club sports secured clubs spending, and they got over $300,000 last semester from marathon.

As a secured club, each of the club sports asks for a certain amount of money and all the money is allocated within a general grant.

The Club Sports council, a six-member council, then distributes the resources as they see fit.

The council is one of the upsides to being a sports club instead of a club sport. With almost 20 club sports and only six seats on the council, club sports with members on the council have a significant advantage over other club sports.

At least with sports clubs, we vouch for ourselves and do not have a power above us controlling our assets, aside from A-Board.

All I’m asking is that we get some of the benefits that club sports are afforded.

The money is nice but not an essential need; sports clubs are usually allocated enough money to pay for a majority of their expenses. The largest discrepancy is access to resources within the athletic department.

Sports clubs are as much a sports team as any club sport or varsity team. Some may even say we’re better because we’re even more inclusive than try-out sports, so why don’t we get the same treatment in Gosman with accessibility? S hare the wealth, please— it will make us all happy.

October 19, 2018

The Brandeis Hoot

OPINIONS 7

We are in a worrisome era of deflection

By Alex Kougasian staff

There is no question that politicians are not very transparent. This is likely a product of the idea that politicians know they can get away with some small-scale forms of deception and fallacious comments in order to make their perspectives and values seem more amiable.

This practice is frowned upon, but because of the gray area of what qualifies as deliberate deception and the widespread use of the tactic by politicians across the spectrum, being lied to has become expected from politics as a whole.

What happens, though, when a politician’s base is worryingly susceptible to being deceived?

This is one of the biggest threats to politics in the wake of the Trump administration, and the situation does not end with Trump himself.

Trump has often pandered to supporters he believes to be lesser-educated, with comments like,

By Renee Nakkab staff

You see it, right? You know what I’m talking about: the black circles under your eyes, the sluggish movements of everyone around you, the mass exodus from class right to the library. Some may think zombie apocalypse, others may think rapid illness, but we college students know better.

It is the hectic, sporadic time of the semester when testing is always on the mind.

Midterm season is well underway, and it is through these stressful, trying times that comfort food is a vital necessity. Believe it or not, the dining halls do not serve that homey comfort food that so many of us crave. On campus, Einstein Bros. Bagels is one of the closest food options to attaining that cozy feeling.

After studying all weekend, I was relieved to get my first collegiate midterm over with on Tuesday. On Monday, a few of my friends in the class and I were studying. We wound up missing lunch hour in the dining halls, so we went to Einstein’s. That was

EINSTEIN BROS BAGELS LOGO

“I love the poorly educated,” a comment he has used at numerous rallies.

This, along with the festering Republican emotions, allows Trump to get away with much more deceptive and fallacious rhetoric than other politicians of recent memory.

The freedom that Trump’s administration is given with regard to the truth has had ripple effects throughout politics and political discourse.

Recently, we saw a prime example of Trumpian rhetoric during the Kavanaugh hearings.

Kavanaugh was very deflective throughout his questioning. When asked if he had ever blacked out while drinking, Kavanaugh ended up asking Senator Klobuchar if she had ever blacked out drinking.

This was an answer that he apologized for later in the hearing but is a clear example of a relevant question that was diminished and left unanswered through deflective tactics. Also,

when many senators asked if he would authorize an FBI investigation into the allegations, Kavanaugh avoided giving a yes or no answer by saying that he will submit to whatever the council decides to do and by remarking on the inconclusiveness and biased nature of the investigations.

He said these things, not because he did not have an answer to give but rather because he knew that the more time that passed before truly damning information was made public, the higher chance he had of being confirmed.

Trump’s use of this deflection is much more commonplace and arguably more systematic than the rhetoric that we have seen from anyone else in his administration. How much of this form of politics is deliberate is debatable. However, it has a clear impact on political discussion surrounding the presidency.

The president does or says something controversial, and then he deflects or de-

nies the ensuing criticism.

He then does something else controversial under the shroud created by the hysteria, and the cycle repeats.

The difficulty this cycle presents is that it becomes seemingly impossible to attach any accountability to the president for the things he does because his ability to distract from the issues in his presidency rouses his already unwavering supporters.

Journalists suffer the most from Trump’s strategy.

Those who attempt to bring facts to the public have a hard time operating under the new definition of truth that has come from the Trump administration.

Trump compounds this problem through his consistent and often unfounded jabs at the media.

Throughout history, the public has worried about journalists developing a friendly relationship with people in politics.

But in the age of Trump, the “watchdog” role that journalism carries over the government

is being co-opted as a justification for Trump to criticise it, all the while deflecting the criticism thrown towards him, to the delight of his supporters.

The question remains: how do we discuss politics when defending the president requires us to neglect the truth?

I believe the answer lies in correcting the mistruths when we see them but never belaboring the nonsensical nature of Trump’s responses. We should focus on the exact actions that Trump takes and the effects they have; these two criteria are the main ways in which we should evaluate any president.

By discussing the Twitter rants and by postulating about his responses to criticism, we as liberals play into the hysteria from which Trump’s administration benefits.

Ours is certainly a difficult political situation, but we require an intelligent strategy for the future of the liberal movement and for the future of the country as a whole.

What I wish I knew: Einstein’s needs to change

the biggest mistake of my entire day, I had the worst dining experience I have ever had on campus.

“Einstein Bros. Bagels is your neighborhood bagel shop. We’re proud to provide our guests with freshly baked bagels, breakfast sandwiches, lunch sandwiches, coffee, catering and so much more. Stop on in. We’ll have a fresh bagel and cup of coffee ready for you.” This is Einstein’s mission statement.

Is there anything about this statement that seems a little foreign to Brandeis’ Einstein’s? Fresh has never been part of my Einstein’s experience.

I had a coffee and muffin the first time I went to Einstein’s. The muffin was hard, and the coffee tasted burnt.

I usually get a bagel two to three times a week, and every time I go, the bagels are relatively hard and taste to be at least a day old.

Now, you may be wondering why I would continue eating there if I do not like the food. If I am on lower campus, it is convenient and fast; in addition to being a change from the dining hall options. Upper Usdan does have options, yet to go from one side of campus to

PHOTO FROM TWITTER.COM

the other is counter-productive.

When my friend and I went to Einstein’s before heading back to North Quad after studying, I was infuriated by what I experienced.

Firstly, aside from another student, my friend and I were the only people in line, and it was baffling how long the entire process took. The cashier and cooks were standing behind the counter chatting, and after making eye contact with us, they continued to talk. I had to actually ask one of them to take our order.

If this was an actual restaurant or if I had the time to go elsewhere, I would have never given this establishment my business. If they do not care to assist the customer, why would I give them my money?

After ordering a bagel with cream cheese, an easy order, I had to wait eight minutes for it to be ready. Mind you, the other orders were not anything increasingly complicated. My friend ordered an egg and cheese sandwich and a smoothie, and the other student ordered some sort of sandwich.

As I was waiting for my bagel, their conversation picked right back up where it left off.

While the workers were chatting about their social lives, they were not paying attention to their jobs and wound up burning the other student’s sandwich to a crisp.

When the worker eventually took the poor sandwich out of the fiery inferno, she shrugged at the lifeless food, threw it in the trash and proceeded to start remaking the sandwich. My ears began to turn red; I was growing more and more frustrated. The mere shrug she gave it seemed like this is a norm behind that counter, second nature if you will. If this is a practice of the cashiers and cooks in Einstein’s, it is vital to touch upon the economic effects.

If food is being thrown away, that is a loss of resources, such as time, efficiency and money.

Unsurprisingly, they messed up my friend’s order. She did not receive her smoothie, but after waiting 12 minutes for her meal, she was rightfully fed up and wanted to leave.

MOLD? GLASS? NO ONE KNOWS!

This is not the first complaint regarding the timeliness of Einstein’s service.

Sammi Cohen ’22 goes to Einstein’s before she goes to class in the mornings. “Sometimes I’m waiting for my order for so long, it makes me late to class.”

Cohen allocates 15 minutes in the morning for her breakfast order and travels from the SCC to Schwartz Hall, a mere five minute walk where she does not stop until she reaches her class.

This is not a one-time occurence; Cohen has been late or barely made it to her class on time on many different accounts due to Einstein’s inability to fulfill orders in a timely fashion.

When it is at the expense of the students, it is an obvious red flashing sign that this system is broken and needs to be amended.

Now, for the quality of our orders. When my friend and I finally sank our teeth into our food, we really hoped it would be worth the wait. It was not;

PHOTO BY RENEE NAKKAB/THE HOOT

my bagel was dry and had barely any cream cheese on it. Yet, after taking another bite, my friend started to spit out her food.

After removing the top of the bagel, we discovered blue, fuzzy dots squished into the egg.

Was it mold? Was it ink?

Was it chalk? Whatever it was, it should not have been in her food. It is clear that the staff ’s negligence is doing more than just making students late; they are now putting students’ health at risk. These dots were vibrantly blue and very obvious, how could they have missed this?

How distracted did they have to be to not even notice this obvious problem?

Enough is enough. There needs to be a change in the way Einstein’s is operated. From throwing away food, causing customers to be late and potentially putting customers’ health at risk, it is more than evident that this establishment needs to be internally inspected and altered for the better.

8 The Brandeis Hoot

FEATURES

October 19, 2018

Brandeis exceeds its goal for carbon reduction

By Jackie Kostenko staff

As the necessity for a more environmentally friendly world grows, Brandeis has started taking steps to create a more sustainable campus. In 2015, Brandeis set a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 10 percent by 2018. The campus has reached this goal and even surpassed it at 12.6 percent reduction of carbon emissions. It has been a gradual reduction, and the fight to lower carbon emissions is not over yet. A new goal was set to reduce carbon emissions by 15 percent over the 2015 baseline by 2020.

In order to reach the 2018 goal, a change in energy policy was made in order to avoid overusing heating and cooling systems

on campus. Brandeis also took action by reducing the use of natural gas from the heating plant, decreasing streamline pressure and testing biofuel in the previous winter. The progression towards a more environmentally friendly campus began in 2007 when Brandeis agreed to the Carbon Commitment, promising to integrate more sustainable and climate change adaptive practices on campus.

In 2015, Brandeis set a tangible goal through the Climate Action Plan to reduce the school’s carbon footprint.

Although the Trump Administration decided to revoke the U.S.’s participation in the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016, President Ron Liebowitz signed “We Are Still In,” stating, “Brandeis is proud to stand with other uni-

versities and innovative businesses, mayors and governors from across the U.S. who are all committed to working within our institutions and together to advance sustainability while combating climate change” in 2017.

This is an incredibly important time for changes in sustainability on campus with the increasing risk of climate change, and students are not yet satisfied by Brandeis’ efforts. Brandeis Climate Justice says in their official banner statement, “Sustainability is not enough to combat climate change when 100 companies are responsible for 71 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Brandeis must take a stand against fossil fuel corporations if they claim to care about their students’ futures.”

Izzi Graj ’21, a student in BCJ,

PHOTO FROM BRANDEIS.EDU

emphasized the importance of this statement, saying, “The school cannot say it believes in a clean and just future if they are invested in the industries destroying any chance we have of one.”

Rumors debunked about Brandeis Confessions

By Jennifer Cook and Polina Potochevska editors

Founded on Jan. 6, the popular Facebook page Brandeis Confessions has become a place for members of the Brandeis community (and people outside of the community as well) to anonymously comment on the university, their classes and each other.

Since its humble beginnings last semester, it has gathered a following of over 1,400 people.

On Oct. 2 at 9:16 p.m., a con-

fession, #3007, was posted by the Brandeis Confessions moderators from an anonymous source about a rumor that the Student Union wanted to “shut down Brandeis Confessions. That’s censorship.”

The confession received 20 reactions from followers.

Two following confessions were posted on Oct. 7 and 10 regarding the rumor. Confession #3085 urged the Student Union to rethink the decision, stating “Do not dare to take this page down,” in all capital letters, receiving 17 reactions. Another confession three days later, #3148, is from someone claiming to be a part of

“the resistance inside the Student Union” and showing their support for the confessions page.

The confession received 28 reactions and comments from two students questioning the power of the Student Union to shut down a Facebook page. One student wrote that if the Student Union has no “better” things to do than to “try shutting down a funny Facebook page,” then the school itself is “devoid of fun.”

Despite all of the rumors, Student Union President Hannah Brown ’19 set the record straight to The Hoot.

“There is no movement within

the Student Union to shut down Brandeis Confessions. I’m pretty sure that’s Facebook’s job to figure out whether or not the page should exist,” Brown said. “I mean it’s a Facebook page, not affiliated with Brandeis, officially. So no, that’s not really our territory. People are always welcome to come to us with issues.”

Brown also mentioned that because it is a public page, it is possible that people outside of the Brandeis community are filling out the form.

“It’s just a Facebook page and the Union does not have control over Facebook, nor do we want

Despite the goals Brandeis has set and completed so far, there are still many steps to take for Brandeis to improve their sustainability and reduce their carbon footprint.

to infringe upon free speech. If anyone has a problem they’re welcome to come to the Union and we can handle things with our discretion,” said Brown.

The moderators of the Brandeis Confessions page responded to The Hoot over Facebook Messenger. “Regarding the Student Union topic, our moderators haven’t had much information about it. We have never got any official reach out, though one of our moderator has overheard a conversation, and we had a confession about it (which we posted). I personally would be a bit sad if this is really a thing.”

Featured Events Calendar Henna Night Fri, Oct. 19, 6-8 p.m.

Join the South Asian Student Association (SASA), Namaskar and Muslim Student Association (MSA) to get henna done!

MSA Suite in Usdan Travel Around Southeast Asia Fri, Oct. 19, 7-9 p.m.

Join the Southeast Asian Student Association (SEAC) as they taste various foods from all over Southeast Asia.

Intercultural Center (ICC) Echoes of the Holocaust: Beyond Sides of History Mon, Oct. 22, 6:30-8 p.m.

A screening of the short film, “Beyond Sides of History” and a discussion with Julia Lindahl and Rachel Cerotti. Facilitated by Auschwitz survivor and psychiatry professor Anna Ornstein.

International Lounge, Usdan Wake and Shake: Community Impact & Education Fair Tues, Oct. 23, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

Join Hiatt outside Usdan to celebrate the beginning of fall with apple cider and information about the Community Impact & Education Fair.

Loss and Recovery of Knowledge at Rome Wed, Oct. 24, 5-6:30 p.m.

Join Assistant Professor Hannah Čulik-Baird (CLAS) at Boston University, who will speak about “Loss and Recovery of Knowledge of Rome” and the challenges faced by the Romans and how they developed strategies to recover the knowledge they lost.

Mandel 303 Trivia Night Thurs, Oct. 25, 9:30-11 p.m.

Test your knowledge against other students on campus for fun prizes!

The Stein - Compiled by Sabrina Chow

EDITORIALS

October 19, 2018

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

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

Volume 15 • Issue 19 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

STAFF

David Aizenberg, Juliana An, Caleigh Bartash, Camila Casanueva, Kevin Costa, Chris DeMena, Olivia Ellson, Daniel Freedman, Ariella Gentin, Kevin Healey, Jonah Koslofsky, Jackie Kostenko, Alex Kougasian, Samantha Lauring, Emma Lichtenstein, Ruoshi Liu, Gillian O'Malley, Renee Nakkab, Sasha Skarboviychuk, Zachary Sosland, Sophie Trachtenberg, Rachel Wang, Helen Wong, Chengcheng Xiang

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

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

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

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

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The Brandeis Hoot 9

We commend Brandeis emergency personnel for their work last Friday

W

e would like to thank the emergency personnel who responded to the sodium cyanide incident in the Foster Mods on Oct. 12. Their prompt response guaranteed the safety of all the students that were potentially in danger.

The Brandeis University Emergency Medical Corporation (BEMCo) and the Brandeis Police were on the scene almost immediately and took all the necessary precautions in order to maintain proper safety proceedings. BEMCo helped ensure that students living in the Foster Mods were all safely evacuated and remained on-scene throughout. A hazmat crew, Waltham Police Department, Waltham Fire and Cataldo ambulances were also on scene at the Mods.

We appreciate how the administration reacted to the situation from a publicity standpoint, while still exercising discretion. A representative from the Office of Communications was on site with both student reporters and local news channels, providing constant updates whenever they came up. At the same time, while keeping us informed, the university was still able to protect the privacy of all parties involved.

While the community was never put at risk, Brandeis emergency services made the right call in exercising the utmost caution.

Sodium cyanide can be lethal, and it is better to be overly careful than potentially put students’ health in jeopardy.

After the incident, The Hoot

editorial board took a moment to review safety policies for a variety of incidents that could happen around campus. We encourage students, staff and faculty to do the same. Under the “Emergency Preparedness” tab on the Brandeis Public Safety webpage, members of the community can find a list of potential hazards on campus.

Under each hazard, Public Safety offers advice on how to handle each unique situation. Reviewing these tabs will help prepare members of the Brandeis community for unforeseen emergencies. It is better to take a few minutes to review safety policies, than to panic in the event that an emergency does happen on campus. And when in doubt, alert public safety if the campus is at risk.

SPORTS

10 The Brandeis Hoot

October 19, 2018

Men’s soccer ends the weekend with a thriller

By Camila Casanueva staff

The Brandeis men’s soccer team faced another weekend of UAA conference matchups, this time hosting University of Rochester and Emory University. Both contests needed extra time to be decided with the Judges experiencing a heartbreaker against Rochester on Friday but bouncing back with a thrilling win against Emory on Sunday.

The first match against Rochester Friday night began with the Judges scoring the third minute of play with Brandon Miskin ’19 placing a great ball off a corner kick, that was headed into the goal by Alex Walter ’20.

In the 36th minute, Rochester returned the favor with a header off a long throw in. The Rochester Yellowjackets held the advantage in shots 14-12 at the end of regulation.

Heading into overtime it did not take long for the visitors to score the decisive goal. Rochester made the Judges pay after a defensive miscue in the 91st minute, sending home a shot from the top of the box to give the Yellowjackets the win. Rochester finished the game with a 15-12 advantage in shots and a 7-2 corner kick

PHOTO BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

JUDGES TRIUMPH OVER UAA OPPONENT EMORY UNIVERSITY

advantage. Brandeis’s goalkeeper Greg Irwin ’20 made two saves in the 2-1 losing effort.

On Sunday, the Judges looked to bounce back as they honored their seniors for Senior Day and looked to knock off Emory. Before the match Brandeis honored their five seniors who were play-

ing in their final UAA home game of their career. The seniors were forwards Devan Casey and Andrew Allen, defensive backs Julien Tremblay and Stephen DePietto, and midfielder Joshua Handler.

Neither team was able to hit the back of the net in the first half. Shots were 8-6 in favor of

Brandeis at the half and by the end of regulation the Judges outshot the Eagles 8-2. The match was physical and chippy, with 33 fouls and three yellow cards being handed out.

Heading into the first overtime, Emory had the upper hand, outshooting Brandeis 3-2 and earn-

ing two corner kicks, but they were unable to break the tie. In the second overtime, the Eagles had the first two shots and the next two went to the Judges. With the game in the last minute, Brandeis earned a throw in deep in the Emory zone. Jake Warren ’20 tossed the ball deep into play. An Emory defender attempted to clear the ball but missed, being picked up

by Andrew Allen ’19. His initial shot was blocked but came back to him and with the Eagle goalkeeper out of position, Allen was able to rebound his shot and send it inside near the right post.

It was an electric moment for the Judges and a special goal for Allen playing in his final UAA home game of his career. It was his fourth goal of the season and second game winner. Allen has had quite the career with 14 goals, five being game winners. But he is not finished quite yet.

Inside the box, Brandeis finished with a 22-13 edge in shots, including 8-2 in shots on goal.

Corner kicks were even at seven apiece.

Brandeis goalkeeper Noah Cohen ’20 made two saves to give him his second win of the season and first career shutout.

With the win, the Judges improve to 7-5-1 overall, 2-1-1 in the UAA.

Volleyball drops four at second UAA Round Robin

By Zach Cihlar editor

Brandeis volleyball had a jampacked weekend in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, competing in the second and final UAA Round Robin. This one, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University, saw the Judges battling against four UAA opponents.

After the last game on Sunday, Oct. 14, the Judges walked away dropping all four games over the course of the weekend. The Judges struggled to grab set wins in the first three games, losing each 3-0, but saw a push in the last game against NYU, taking the UAA team into a fifth set, but ultimately falling to the New York team.

At the start of the weekend, the University of Rochester seemed like the most beatable team in the UAA for the Judges. In the previous Round Robin, Rochester suffered a 3-1 loss to the other lower-ranked UAA team, NYU, which gave Brandeis an opening to do some damage.

The Judges couldn’t capitalize, however, losing three tight sets in a 3-0 loss to the Rochester Yellowjackets in the morning game on Saturday, Oct. 13. The first two sets witnessed just a two point deficit from Brandeis, both resulting in a 25-23 win by Yellowjackets. The final set ended 25-21 in favor of Rochester.

Brandeis had trouble defending against the offense of Rochester’s senior Alara Kocak, who hit an impressive 14 kills against the Judges. For the Judges, junior Emma Bartlett ’20 was the closest to Kocak’s numbers, hitting eight kills throughout the three sets.

Later on Saturday, the Judges returned to the court to face hosting team Carnegie Mellon University. In the last Round Robin, Carnegie Mellon stepped

away with a 3-0 record against conference opponents, even defeating Emory University, ranked #7 at the time of the first Round Robin. Prior to facing the Judges, Carnegie Mellon dropped a close five-setter earlier in the day to #9 ranked Washington University in St. Louis.

Carnegie Mellon, a strong unranked team, swept through the Judges in three relatively dominating sets. The final score settled at 25-14, 25-19, 25-18 in favor of Carnegie Mellon, ending the first day of play for the Judges.

Brandeis returned to Carnegie Mellon’s volleyball court the next day set to play against Emory University, ranked #12 in the onset of the second Round Robin. The Judges pushed the Emory Eagles to close sets, but continued the shutout loss streak, losing 3-0 with set scores at 25-22, 25-22, 25-21.

Hoot Sports Editor Shea Decker-Jacoby ’19 had a particularly good game against the Eagles. She was dominant at the net, hitting a total of 18 kills throughout the

TEAM HUDDLE

three sets. Her teammate Grace Krumpack ’19 helped her out on the defensive end, battling to achieve 22 digs to keep the ball in play.

The final game of the weekend, and the last team in the UAA the Judges are scheduled to play, saw Brandeis against NYU, another more beatable team in the UAA. Going into the game, NYU was 1-5 against UAA conference opponents.

The team had defeated the University of Rochester in the first Round Robin, but, like the Judges, had dropped all three games 0-3 in the second Round Robin prior to facing the Judges.

Despite losing the first two sets to the NYU Violets, Brandeis pushed the game to five sets, making a comeback and putting pressure on the New York team.

The Judges couldn’t keep the momentum going, resulting in a final score, of 21-25, 18-25, 25-23, 2519, 9-15 for the Violets.

After the Round Robin, the Judges conference record dropped to 0-7. They’ll get anoth-

er chance to recover and advance that record when the UAA tournament begins on Friday, Nov. 2.

The University of Rochester will be hosting the tournament at the their home courts in Rochester, New York.

KILLIN’ IT

Overall, the Judges’ record fell 8-14 for the season after a rough couple of weeks of results.

They’ll look to reverse their fortune at the Hall of Fame Classic Invitational hosted by Smith College in Northampton, Mass. this

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

The Hoot Sports Editor Shea Decker-Jacoby ‘19 led the team with seven kills.

PHOTO BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

October 19, 2018

SPORTS 11

The Brandeis Hoot

Women’s cross country earns #8 ranking

By Zach Cihlar editor

Brandeis women’s cross country experienced more success over the Oct. 13 weekend, where they competed in the Pre-National Meet, held in Winneconne, Wisconsin.

Running against some of the strongest teams in NCAA Division III, the women walked away from the course with a third place prize.

Entering the meet ranked No. 18 in the nation, the team shocked the competition and competed above their ranking. Their success earned them a major bump in the rankings; the team ranks at No. 8 in the nation according to the most recent rankings.

Senior captain and defending NCAA national champion Emily Bryson ’19 paced the team, capturing fourth place with a time of 21:38.50. She was the top New

England runner. Julia Bryson ’19, another senior captain, wasn’t far behind. J. Bryson was the second of the Judges to cross the finish line after running for 22:46.20, enough to secure a 28th place finish. Danielle Bertaux ’20 achieved a personal best at the Pre-National Meet, running 23:00.50. She finished 39th overall.

The men’s cross country team didn’t need to go nearly as far for their meet. The team travelled to Connecticut College to compete in the Connecticut College Invitational. The men finished 24th overall among a densely populated race.

Their top performer was Josh Lombardo ’21, who finished in 93rd place with a time of 26:24.40.

Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams have a big race coming up next. They will be heading to Parkside, Wisconsin, where the University of Chicago will host this year’s UAA Championship Meet on Sunday, Oct. 28.

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY POSES AFTER MEET VICTORY

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

Men’s tennis finishes fall season at home tournament

By Shea Decker-Jacoby editor

The Brandeis men’s tennis team joined with the Tufts men’s tennis team to host a joint Tufts-Deis Invitational tournament to close out their fall season.

Being split between the Brandeis and Tufts campuses, the Judges came in ranked first in the ‘A’ doubles, third in the ‘B’ singles and third in the ‘B’ doubles.

The men’s team shinned with the doubles performances and only past the first round of play in the singles matches. In the ‘A’ draw, senior Jackson Kogan ’19 and rookie Adam Tzeng ’22 reached the semi-finals by defeating Williams 8-7 (10-8) and Bowdoin 8-5 in the first two rounds of the tour-

nament. The duo fell to the fourth seat Amherst 8-7 in the semis.

In the ‘B’ draw, the unseated sophomores Anupreeth Coramutla and Colt Tegtmeier made it to the semis as well. They defeated Williams in the opening round, 8-5. They went on to upset top-seeded Middlebury in the quarterfinals with another 8-5 score. They feel in the semi-finals to Amherst with a score of 8-7.

In the singles play, the Judges had two players who made the quarterfinals. Third-seeded Kogan defeated Tufts with a score of 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of play.

Then defeated his opponent from Wesleyan 6-4, 7-5 in the second round.

In the quarterfinals, Kogan played a third-set super-tiebreaker to Amherst, but feel with final

scores of 6-7, 6-2, and 10-5. Senior Tyler Ng competed in the other half of the draw and beat MIT 6-4, 6-2 and Williams with final scores of 6-2, 6-4 before falling in the quarterfinals against Amherst 7-6, 6-1.

Third seeded Kogan topped Tufts with a victory of 6-3, 6-4 in the first round and defeated Wesleyan in the second round 6-4, 7-5. Kogan took his opponent from Amherst 6-7, 62, 10-5. In the second half of the draw senior Tyler Ng defeated MIT 6-4, 6-2 and Williams 6-2, 6-4 before falling in the quarterfinals match to Amherst 7-6, 6-1. Tzeng and sophomore Rajan Vohra each won their first matches to upset against seated players. Tzeng upseated the fourth seat winning 1-6, 6-0, 10-5. Vohra upseated

the seventh-seeded Middlebury, 6-2, 6-2. Unfortunately, none of the Judges advanced past the first matches.

JACKSON KOGAN ‘19

The men’s tennis team returns to the courts in February with their annual spring trip to California.

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

Women’s soccer splits final UAA home games of the season

By Sophie Trachtenberg staff

Brandeis women’s soccer hosted another round of UAA games this past weekend, taking on both the University of Rochester and

THE CLASS OF 2019 AT SENIOR DAY

Emory University, sweeping the Rochester Yellowjackets 4-0 and falling to the Eagles in a tough fought 2-1 match. The win against Rochester bumped the team up to 10 wins on the season, making this their seventh straight season to reach that achievement. After

the weekend, Brandeis maintains a 10-2-0 overall record, 3-1 in the UAA, leaving them sitting at #14 nationally, according to the United Soccer Coaches poll.

First, the Judges met the Yellowjackets on Gordon field, beating them handily with an offen-

PHOTO BY BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

sive push. Late in the first half, Amanda Fernbach ’20 passed to Daria Bakhtiari ’21, who headed the ball off to Emma Spector ’20, who was finally able to place the ball in goal. This was her first of the season.

It did not take long for the Judges to start their scoring streak in the second half. At just 38 seconds after the two teams resumed play, Sasha Sunday ’19 scored off of a rebound from an attempt by rookie Lauren Mastandrea ’22.

This was her second goal of the season.

In the 73rd minute, senior captain Hannah Maatallah ’19 netted yet another goal for the Judges.

To round out this four-goal game, Spector struck again in the 78th minute, scoring her second goal of the season in a single game, and becoming the first Judge this season to score two goals in one game.

On the defensive end, goalkeeper Sierra Dana ’20 recorded her third shutout of the season and ninth of her career, as she made four saves throughout the match.

To complete the weekend, Brandeis faced the Emory Eagles on the team’s Senior Day, honoring the eight-person class of 2019, which includes Becca Buchman, Julia Jaffe, Minjee Lee, Hannah Maatallah, Julia Matson, Sasha

Sunday, Emily Thiem and Samantha Volpe.

The Eagles scored both of their goals in the first half, one coming off a penalty kick, and the other after a corner kick. Before this, Brandeis had only let their opponents score more than one goal in a single game in one other game this season.

In a comeback effort, Bakhtiari headed in a corner kick from Mastandrea with 10 minutes left in the second half. After this goal, Bakhtiari, Mastandrea, and rookie Juliette Carreiro ’22 all had chances on goal, but could not connect over Emory’s keeper.

These efforts were not enough, resulting in a 2-1 loss for the Judges.

This was Bakhtiari’s fifth goal of the season, becoming tied as the team’s leading scorer on the season.

In the goal for Brandeis, Dana made five first-half saves, while Victoria Richardson ’20, subbing in for Dana, made three saves in the second. Despite the uneven score, the match was balanced, as both teams shot 20 times, took five corner kicks, and committed eight fouls.

The Judges hit the road for a five game away streak, heading to Simmons University to enter a non-conference match on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m.

ARTS

12 The Brandeis Hoot

October 19, 2018

Rose teaches ways of seeing

By Noah Harper editor

Last Saturday, the Rose Art Museum started its “Through Lines” series with a guided tour by Professor Andreas Teuber (PHIL, FA). The program’s goal is to combine an expert guest speaker with the museum’s considerable collection—to provide a distinct point of view to the sizeable selection of artwork on display. Teuber’s “through line” was a simple aesthetic approach that can help anyone appreciate art: practicing how to look.

“You start with what you can see, and then work your way out,” Teuber told the group as we looked at our first painting, “Peaches, Grapes, Pear, Jug” (1924) by Georges Braque. But Teuber didn’t give us any information on the artist—instead, he asked us to tell what we saw. “I see a butt—two of them,” remarked one gentleman.

The exercise soon gave way to more fruitful associations, with one woman observing the lack of depth in the painting. “It comes from several perspectives,” Teuber added. We thought about, in practical terms, how and why the audience would choose this perspective.

Teuber described how most people look at art: reading the title card first, glancing at the painting for a second, and then moving onto the next. It’s an easy habit to fall into—I felt implicated. But it’s such a reductive way to look at

PHOTO COURTESY ROSE ART MUSEUM

art, something that I suspect most of us are guilty of.

“People want to make sense of things,” he said. The intention of the tour was to strip down that sense of why, to retrain the viewer to focus on what’s immediately apparent in a piece of art. “Letting the painting pull you,” Teuber said.

“A lot of painting is haunted by the history of art,” Teuber said, explaining how many artists

would spend time doing exactly what we were doing, just studying paintings and their construction.

To show this connection, Teuber passed around a copy of a similar still life by Cezanne. Its colors were much more vibrant than the muted, “industrial palette” (as one woman called it) of the Braque.

But the inspiration and visual resemblance was clear. Because we’d spent time looking and thinking about it in basic terms, we were

able to intuit a lot from the painting.

As we looked at two more paintings, Teuber presented the idea of “reading” art. From a western perspective, we read from left to right, so our eyes tend to look at the canvas the same way. Of course, artists play with this tendency, but having an awareness of it can help provide insight into the construction of a piece—how did the artist construct their painting?

As we looked at Morris Louis’s “Number 3” (1961), a long, vertical canvas with multi-colored dripping bars of paint, Teuber had us think about orientation.

“Isn’t this painting upside down?”

The attendees argued for and against which was the “right” way to hang the painting. It got us to think about the sense of gravity in art, particularly how the piece treats the physicality of its objects.

“Why should there be a right way up?” a professor from the physics department asked.

With these concepts in mind, we approached our last painting: “Elegy to the Spanish Republic” (1957-1961) by Robert Motherwell. Teuber started the conversation in the same way, asking us to describe what we saw—not an easy task. We were challenged to think about the painting in non-theoretical terms.

“I see fences,” said one woman.

Another gentleman saw a timeline, suggesting we read the white background as peacetime and the black as fascist oppression. I saw oppressive black bars obscuring columns of color, with tinges of

tan, brown, and orange peeking through—vanquished but not entirely eradicated. See how it hard it is to keep from theorizing about what things mean? The practice of telling, without interpreting, is hard.

At the end of the tour, we were each given a handout titled “Instructions for Looking at Art,” adapted from a Mary Oliver quote: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

As someone who’s never taken an art history class but tries to write about art, I found this approach invaluable. The fine arts have a reputation for being elitist and insular—you think that you have to have years of education (and money) to be able to begin to approach them. But that’s not true. Anyone who spends time just looking and thinking about a piece can make an informed, totally valid opinion. It just requires time and intention.

I challenge Brandeis students to try this on their own. Choose five paintings in the Rose and try to spend at least five minutes with each of them. Don’t read the info beforehand—just think about where your eyes go, what it looks like and how it makes you feel.

The Rose’s “Through Lines” program will continue this week, with walkthroughs on Oct. 19 and 20 (12 p.m. and 11:30 a.m., respectively) by Nancy Scott, a professor of fine arts at Brandeis.

I look forward to seeing a series of different perspectives and connections of this monumental collection.

‘Adam ruins’ family weekend

By Ben Beriss editor

Brandeis celebrated family weekend with student and professional performances alike, but possibly the one with most buzz was comedian Adam Conover.

Known for work at popular group CollegeHumor (whose fans never actually seem to be in college) and self-titled show “Adam Ruins Everything,” Conover has created a brand with a smarmy know-it-all character who dispels myths with punchlines but also sometimes a genuinely galling cockiness. This was not, however, the Conover on show at family weekend.

Before Conover came out, the crowd was warmed up by opener Moses Storm. Known for appearances on “Arrested Development,” “Conan” and “Unfriended,” Storm brought an oddly familiar pessimistic demeanor to the stage.

He started with loosely organized one-off jokes, riffing about the awkwardness of parents and children watching comedy together, both scared of being judged for what they laugh at, and parents’ presumed annoyance with paying thousands of dollars to invite him to perform.

Not stopping with the audience, he then riffed on the welcome card left for him which specified the pronunciation of Brandeis and Waltham twice (and judging from how he read it, incorrectly). But this led into a piece about the challenges of being dyslexic and the main segment of his act: detailing the tragedy of his

childhood. Because, as Twitter has shown, even great suffering can be hilarious when it’s absurd enough. And absurd it was, with examples ranging from being bought ice cream so awful it was cheaper than an empty bucket to being forced into cheer camp and then to cheer for the basketball team while they bullied him.

Along with interspersed references to Adderall and party culture, Storm was impressively college literate and played to the crowd excellently.

But surprisingly quickly, he abruptly ended his story and introduced the headliner who came out to cheers with an enthusiastic smile.

Starting with what is apparently a college comedian stock joke, about parents being upset to pay for this, he quickly launched into his prepared show: a roving exploration of the world’s parasites.

Complete with visual aids.

Evidently building on the “Adam Ruins Everything” style, the show felt somewhat like a lecture delivered by a deeply enthusiastic and surprisingly witty professor. Conover started with a just-detailed-enough description of the cordyceps fungi which infects insects and takes control of their minds, convincing them to climb trees and sit on the end of a branch until the fungus bursts forth from within, killing the host. Which, as Conover aptly pointed out, is horrifying. Something which could only be the result of a sadist god or evolution, which the “ruins everything” side of Conover somewhat conde-

scendingly pointed out is merely a dumb algorithm. And if the dumb algorithm of evolution can create something as horrifying as a real-life chestburster, he asked, how should we feel about the dumb algorithm which rules our lives: the social media content feed?

Through a series of skits such as the pantomime of going to the bathroom without ever looking up from his phone, one-liners and a lot of rattled off statistics, he made the point clear; the algorithm which keeps us on these sites is not good for us. After all, would Facebook’s algorithm keep pissing you off with the posts of that one aunt with awful politics if it cared more about your health as well as engagement numbers?

Would YouTube show children hours of videos of parodies of beloved characters such as Spiderman and Elsa if it cared about anything but views?

The rest of the show followed a similar routine. The green-banded broodsac, which infects snails and gives them a caterpillar shaped growth so they will be eaten by birds, was compared to advertising which has an undeniable effect on our minds. He proved the effectiveness of advertising by asking the audience to identify jingles, logos and even colors associated with the biggest brands of the world. Singing the end of the Nationwide jingle only to be immediately congratulated with a comedian’s triumphant “they’ve got you!” was an entertaining experience.

The last comparison was with the lancet liver fluke which is eat-

PHOTO FROM DALLASOBSERVER.COM

en by snails which excrete it to be eaten by ants, who the parasite mind-controls into climbing a stalk of grass every night to increase the odds of being eaten by sheep (or as Conover put it, an extremely twisted version of “there was an old lady who swallowed a fly”). Pointing out the ant likely rationalizes this evening walk unable to understand it is being mind controlled; Conover compared the fluke to alcoholism.

This was perhaps the most chilling example, where the edges of the routine began to fray as Adam described our society’s normalization of alcohol juxtaposed with

his realization that he had been an alcoholic; the Adam character gave way just a little to the person underneath.

The show ended with words of caution (be conscious of your drinking and avoid ads) but mostly the mild satisfaction of a decent comedy performance. While the subject was odd, Conover largely did a good job undercutting most of his seriousness with a cheery attitude and well-placed punchlines. It was a great show to see for free, but perhaps both performers were right when they questioned whether or not it was worth thousands in tuition.

October 19, 2018

ARTS 13

The Brandeis Hoot

‘Venom:’ two tongues down

By Jonah Koslofsky staff

“I’ve had one of those things… up my ass!” exclaims Tom Hardy, in his terrible “American” accent, somewhere in the middle of “Venom.”

Just one of the awful, laughable moments, “Venom” is a mediocre superhero movie that neither offends nor impresses. Don’t let the advertising or the script’s half-hearted attempts convince you otherwise – “Venom” is just another superhero movie in a year that’s delivered better and a genre that’s no stranger to worse.

After a dreadful, CGI-heavy prologue, we meet Eddie Brock (Hardy), the world’s best journalist. He’s got it all—the apartment, the girlfriend (played by an underwritten Michelle Williams), the award-winning news(?) show—that is, until he winds up on the wrong side of Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), our evil, pseudo-Elon Musk and head of the “Life Foundation.” If all these elements sound trite and halfbaked, that’s because they are. Yet “Venom” just keeps on chugging through, until a disgraced Eddie winds up back at the Life Foundation and accidentally bonds with one of their alien “symbiotes.”

Unfortunately, “Venom” ends up being a failure on pretty much every level. The script is actual garbage, filled to the brim with

bad dialogue, nonsensical characters and structural issues. But the key problem is that we never get a sense of who Brock is, although the paper-thin villain doesn’t fare much better. Meanwhile, director Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”) doesn’t show much inspiration in the action sequences, clunky car-chases and choppily edited fight scenes. There are no stakes, and the special effects make everything feel weightless, especially in the “climax.”

The person responsible for bringing “Venom” to life ends up being one of the weakest links.

This isn’t the first time Tom Hardy has lent his immense talent to big budget projects (see “Mad Max,” “Inception”), and while there’s something admirable about his commitment here, it doesn’t come together into anything other than a bad performance. Aside from whatever his voice is doing, Eddie Brock is neither compelling nor likable as he waddles across the frame. No, thank you.

So what is “Venom” trying?

Basically, superhero movies have been dipping their toes into other genres the past few years. “Logan” is an awesome neo-western, “Winter Soldier” envisioned itself as a seventies spy-thriller, and Sony’s last superhero outing, the excellent “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” was a John Hughes-esque high school comedy. “Venom,” meanwhile, tries to play into the horror genre—to poor results. Instead of being “scary,” the movie settles

for “occasionally creepy;” you get the sense that Fleischer’s instinct to veer towards body-horror have been shackled by a studio-mandated PG-13 rating. “Venom’s” more disgusting aspects are either ignored or relegated to a cheap punchline. What could have been a refreshing, Deadpool-type anti-hero is relegated to generic, low-stakes fluff.

But then again, perhaps this should come as no surprise: This is the same studio that brought us the “Amazing Spider-Man” movies. For those who don’t follow the behind-the-scenes minutia of superhero movies (or have a day job), the rights to “Spider-Man”— along with the characters he’s associated with, like “Venom”— have been Sony property since the nineties. But after Sony’s failure with the ironically titled “Amazing” franchise, they’ve given Spidey back to Marvel (which is how he was able to appear in “Infinity War”). But “Venom” proves the Sony that made the “Amazing Spider-Man” is alive and well. After all, they greenlit a “Venom” movie that doesn’t include Spider-Man (the freaking focal point of the character!).

But there were also some smart producers in the room: “Venom” clocks in at a mere hour and fifty-two minutes, which is the best thing about it. The movie was just barely entertaining enough to keep me happy, making this the closest anything in the superhero genre has come to replicating

PHOTO FROM VILLAGEVOICE.COM

the fun of a “Fast & Furious” flick.

Again, it’s not good, but I didn’t hate it. Has “Venom” been cut-tohell? Yes. But the resulting stupidity is… kind of enjoyable.

But the fact that this even exists is maybe the most remarkable thing here. Sony’s been “developing” this thing since 2008, and it feels like just yesterday we got that trash-fire of a first trailer (a solid

representation of what would follow). Not only does “Venom” exist, it’s probably getting a sequel, considering the mid-credits set-up and the massive opening weekend. Even with bad writing, acting, directing and special effects, “Venom” is better than a “Suicide Squad” or a “Batman v. Superman.” But I can’t recommend it.

Life is meaningless but ‘Little Dark Age’ is good

By Chris DeMena staff

“Go fuck yourself, you heard me right.” This January, MGMT released their fourth studio album “Little Dark Age.” The album is heavy in retro synth-funk and psych-rocks sounds, and lead singer Andrew VanWyngarden’s lyrics are the most absurd they’ve ever been. The album feels like being Mario in Super Mario Galaxy and is the most complete project MGMT has ever put together.

“Look who’s bending over.”

MGMT is, of course, most famous for their psych pop ballads from 2008: “Time to Pretend,” “Electric Feel” and “Kids.” Most people are at least familiar with one of those three, sometimes two. Ask anyone if they’ve heard any of their other songs and the answer is no 90 percent of the time. This is likely a

result of the shortcomings of their debut album “Oracular Spectacular” and the inaccessibility of their previous two projects “Congratulations” and their self-titled release. On “Little Dark Age,” VanWyngarden and bandmate Ben Goldwasser are at the most commercial they’ve been since their debut while turning up the dial on the insanity.

“It’s not a question now.” At 10 tracks and 44 minutes, this album is a similar length to previous releases, but this is the first release where every track feels essential. Even the instrumental track “Days That Got Away” feels like a necessary break, transitioning the album into a much more somber and desperate ending with “When You’re Small” and “Hand It Over.” There’s no sounds on this album that seem overwhelming like the overcompressed tracks of “MGMT.” Instead, LDA is a line

PHOTO FROM CLASHMAGAZINE.COM

up of groovy songs with unique quirks that feel like fine details on an intricate tapestry.

“Welcome to the shitshow.”

From the jump, this album slaps you with how ridiculous it is.

The beginning track “She Works Out Too Much” finds Andrew trapped in a relationship where his partner will break up with him if he doesn’t work out with him/her. On “Tslamp,” Andrew portrays someone at the gates of heaven on their cell phone and on the chorus, the phone’s perspective. Instead of portraying your Tucker-Carlson-watching uncle’s opinion, we are given a toxic love song about “never letting you die,” “finding the time,” and “finding me when the lights go down.”

“Even if you choose to believe it’s empty, you’ll come back to me again, you can go ahead and stop pretending.” And the list goes on.

If you were to just read the lyrics to “When You Die” you would think the song would have an aggressive sound to it. But instead, quotes like “I’m gonna eat your heart out” are accompanied with an instrumental that sounds closer to “Yellow Submarine” than “Frankie Teardrop.” The music video to “Me and Michael” sees MGMT hit it big after stealing a Filipino artist’s song, get exposed, hit rock bottom and then Michael Buscemi pulls his testicles out of his stomach.That’s probably the best example I can offer you of what this album is like.

“The fun is over.” Let’s be clear, the album is absurd, but it’s not pointless. The title track’s themes of fear, anxiety and exposure are all prevalent throughout the album. “When You’re Small” is an intense look at the feeling of

PHOTO FROM NME.COM

failure. With the context being MGMT’s fall to obscurity, the band takes solace in the fact that “When you’re small...you feel like you belong… you can curl into a ball.” Behind all of the album’s antics there is a very real sense of desperation. Imagery of engine failures, being alone on a stage and running from the police all paint a tense picture.

At times the ridiculousness of the human condition is offered as response. But there is no silver bullet to anxiety and the ultimate answer remains unclear.

“You die and words don’t do anything.” If it’s not pointless, what does it mean, Chris? I don’t know.

This album is very intentionally ambiguous. “Me and Michael” is, according to the band, just a song about an ambiguous relationship.

Who is Michael? Why is it not a question now? What was the question? Why are they solid as

they come? The song “James” is much of the same. Who is James?

Why does VanWyngarden keep calling him “my little doll?” Why can they both say “who’s laughing now?” Does it even matter who James is? I’m not sure if any of it matters. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe MGMT doesn’t think so either.

“I don’t want to die.” LDA is an absurdist look at anxiety and failure.

It’s an accessible albeit vague album with no shortage of entertainment value. Whether it’s the humor in the title track or the solace of taking things back into your own hands in “Hand It Over,” MGMT gives listeners a lot to work with in 45 minutes.

Everything is neatly packaged with quality production and singalong friendly choruses so you and your friends can all belt out in unison “we’ll all be laughing with you when you die.”

14 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

October 19, 2018

‘Talking With...:’ eleven touching monologues provides engaging view into women’s lives

By Ben Beriss editor

The Free Play Cooperative somewhat unofficially joined Family Weekend with their newest show, “Talking With…” which proved to be a touchingly emotional night of stories. Directed

by Lauren Komer ’21 and Amber Ruth Crossman ’21, the production created a tender space where playwright Jane Martin’s characters could express themselves to the fullest.

“Talking With…” is a series of 11 monologues from female identifying people, each of whom have a unique past and perspective. Simply presenting the monologues as a series, MOTH radio hour style, everything in the show comes from the characters; characters which the Free Play Theatre Cooperative thoughtfully evoked on stage to converse with their audience.

The first three characters address the performer-audience relationship when “Fifteen Minutes,” (Lexie Vogel ’21) an actor musing on an upcoming performance relaxedly talks through her subtle resentment; her audience gets to know her while she never knows them. She is followed by Nickole Sandoval ’22 as “Rodeo,” a defiant rodeo star bemoan-

ing the commercialization and commodification of her passion.

The story of the rodeo’s downfall becomes a larger message; the unjust nature of the world and how money corrupts as Sandoval slowly transitions from a reckless pacing anger to defiance and pointedly addresses the audience straight-on. Her striking warning from the far side of success is succeeded by “Audition” (Norma Stobbe ’20) who is desperate to become a popular performer.

And as her typical audition nervousness gives way to increasingly disturbing rants about classicism and she threatens to kill herself or her cat for the part, you see just how desperate she is. Stobbe undercuts the true craziness of the character somewhat, starting standard theater-unhinged but never quite belying the passion one might expect from a suicidal feline hostage-taker (as “Audition” becomes), but this only makes the ramp-up from “are you sure you can hear me” to threatening a pet’s life more unnerving.

Rebecca Nachman ’20 as “Twirler,” a baton twirling prodigy who lost her competition chances to injury, is similarly unnerving. She is solemnly reverential throughout her monologue, dismissing people’s preconceptions of twirling with a religious devotion to

the art, a devotion which is clarified by solemn stories of rituals with razor-tipped batons and superlative achievements. When she says she can reach Jesus with her baton, she means it. It might even be true.

Yet a later monologue from the “Handler” (Jaquelyn Wycoff ’21), snake handler raised in the tradition by her religious community creates the exact opposite impression. With a dancing ribbon as a snake, she calmly tells the audience about the ideas behind the tradition, her elegant movements fulfilling the romance of the snake handler’s flirt with death. Yet as she describes her own experiences with the practice she gets subtly angrier until she bursts with the declaration she doesn’t believe in the religion. And this denunciation seems as understandable as the “Twirler’s” devotion.

Sophia Massidda ’20 stands out as “Dragons,” a woman giving birth alone reflecting on her choice to deliver these “dragons,” a decision her doctor disapproved of after the results of mysterious tests. Abruptly thrust into a situation no other character faces, alone on stage with only her bed lit up, “Dragons” truly seems alone. Yet in the throes of the painful creation of life, Massidda creates an impressive spirit who

maintains a sense of humor while she tells a truly moving story of love and commitment between contractions.

“Clear Glass Marbles” (Sophia Lee ’21) tells a similarly moving story, inverted. Confronted by a mother with a cancerous expiration date and a determination to “take to the bed,” Lee’s character tells the initially somewhat comical story of a matriarch who rules from the bed while counting down her life with a vase a clear glass marbles, rolling one out each night. Lee’s reenactment of this, rolling marbles down the stage, is a beautifully poetic gesture and lends a haunting rhythm to the story. Until the abrupt spilling of the entire vase, a sound you can feel in your gut abruptly signals a disaster and the inevitable story’s end. After the intermission comes “Lamps,” followed by the aforementioned “Handler,” then “Scraps,” “French Fries” and “Marks.” “Lamps,” played wonderfully tragic by Sophie Welch ’20, tells the tale of a woman more comfortable in an attic filled with lights than with people, a woman who has lost tremendously and clings to her lights as a reminder of those she once loved.

“French Fries,” Jessica Rips ’22, a presumably homeless woman delivers an ode to McDonald’s

where “nothing bad ever happens,” telling the story of how a fantastic series of coincidences saved a man from cerebral palsy and showing how any place that treats people with respect can become a holy community place.

“Scraps” and “Marks” present the most arresting contrast of the show. “Scraps,” played by Abby LeRoy ’20, is the story of a housewife driven to imaginarily escape to the land of Oz by her existential boredom and anxiety. Dipping in out of imagination and panic, dressed in an elaborate Oz costume made from scraps, LeRoy’s performance is reminiscent of a more doomed version of Kushner’s Harper Pitt, trapped in urbanity by a patriarchal economy yet fated to be kicked out of the house once her escapes are discovered. “Marks” (Casey Schryer ’21) epitomizes the opposite of this, the liberated woman, freed from a life of following society’s rules by a scar from a thief ’s knife, a scar which brings her into the world of rulebreakers, poetry and an expanse of love. A dignified woman with a glass of wine detailing her subsequent tattoos and encouraging everybody to earn marks of their own, she ends the show with a captivating performance of walking on the wild side.

Halloween classic: ‘The Sixth Sense’

By Shruthi Manjunath special to the hoot

M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense” describes the journey of a boy named Cole Sear on his quest to fit in with his classmates, and the simultaneous changes that child psychologist Malcolm Crowe undergoes as he recovers from a previous failure. While this supernatural horror film is a great movie to watch during the Halloween season, it also provides insight into many of the issues that individuals today deal with, such as bullying, fitting into society and the manners in which psychologists study and treat children. The audience is placed inside the mind of a young child who is struggling and is therefore able to empathize and realize that he is simply an individual who needs help.

The film begins with a romantic scene in which Malcolm Crowe celebrates his accomplish-

ments with his wife Anna. Anna is proud of Malcolm, yet mentions that he put his work above everything, including her. The mood of the scene shifts entirely when the couple notices that one of their windows has been shattered and there is a man standing in their bathroom with a gun in his hand. The man is identified as one of Malcolm’s previous patients named Vincent Grey, who has grown up but is still facing problems.

Suspense is created as Vincent’s anger escalates and he blames it all on Malcolm. In the midst of the scene, Vincent raises the gun in his hand and shoots Malcolm and, afterward, himself.

The next fall, Malcolm begins working with a boy named Cole Sear who displays similar symptoms to that of Vincent. Cole has cuts on his arms, talks to himself, and has episodes in class. He has very few friends in class and his mom is overwhelmed and unable to deal with him. Malcolm has many doubts because of his

PHOTO FROM FEMALEFIRST.CO.UK

PHOTO FROM TIME.COM

previous failure with Vincent.

He believes that if he helps Cole, it will allow him to redeem himself from his previous failure with Vincent.

As Malcolm spends more time with Cole, he begins to understand his own feelings of loneliness, since his wife is seeing another man. Cole eventually tells Malcolm that he is able to see dead people. At first, Malcolm does not believe him; however, as he listens to previous tapes from his sessions with Vincent, he begins to believe Cole.

The tone of the movie shifts from cynicism to hope as Malcolm is able to help Cole deal with the voices he hears. Cole is able to form relationships with other children in his class and even participates in the school play. Cole sees the ghost of a girl in his room who was killed by a chronic illness. The next day he goes to the girl’s funeral. When he visits her room he sees her ghost again, however, she pushes a small box with a tape towards him. The tape contains footage of the girl’s mother poisoning her, which saves the girl’s sister, as she

would have been the mother’s next victim. Furthermore, Cole is able to amend his relationship with his mother by conversing with his dead grandmother. His grandmother tells him that she is so proud of his mother, which he conveys to his mother. Cole and Malcolm also end on good terms and Cole suggests that Malcolm speak to Anna while she is asleep.

At the end of the movie, as Anna is sleeping and Malcolm is silently watching her, she asks “Why did you leave me?” and drops his wedding band on the floor.

At this moment, Malcolm realizes that he is a ghost. Ever since Malcolm was shot, he has been a ghost presence who remained on Earth in order to redeem himself from his previous failure with Vincent and also tell his wife she was never second to his work. By completing these two tasks, Malcolm has cleared his name and is sent to Heaven. Although it was a shock to realize that Malcolm was actually a ghost, there is evidence as in many parts of the movie, individuals ignore Malcolm’s presence. Specifically, when Malcolm goes to meet Anna at a restaurant,

he speaks to her the entire time and she does not acknowledge his existence and only whispers “Happy Anniversary” once she leaves. Furthermore, the waiter slips the check to Anna rather than Malcolm.

Perhaps Shyamalan includes this twist at the end in order to highlight the futility of life. In the end, no one knows when they will die so it is best to live one’s life to the fullest.

“The Sixth Sense” touches on various topics such as being an outcast in society, struggling with one’s self-confidence, and learning how to overcome previous failures. The film not only provides the audience with hope but also allows us to understand that children who may be struggling to fit in deserve help. In addition, the film also highlights the manner in which psychologists study and aid children, which can be helpful if individuals are interested in the field of child psychology. Overall, “The Sixth Sense” is a great option for a scary film to watch during the Halloween season, and it also provides insight into many topics that plague the world today.

October 19, 2018

ARTS 15

The Brandeis Hoot

Music exhibit celebrates Leonard Bernstein’s legacy

By David Cohen staff

The Dreitzer Gallery in Spingold Theater will be dedicating a music exhibit for Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday until Nov. 18. Organized by the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, the exhibit features numerous documentaries and excerpts from Bernstein’s works, ranging from his youth all the way to his time at Brandeis where his legacy unequivocally prevails. In addition, original artifacts are available for display, such as a menorah given to Bernstein by the Israeli Children’s Choir, his ex-wife Felicia’s Hebrew Bible, and annotated manuscripts.

According to exhibition curator Ivy Weigram, the exhibit praises Bernstein’s larger-than life personality, delving into his musical works while also acknowledging his political influence.

One display explained, “Bernstein’s music held the solution to the 20th century crisis of faith,” with West Side Story in particular “embodying Cold War anxieties and changing notions of what it meant to American.” In fact, navigating his way through political catastrophe was a lens through which Bernstein could express his liberal, jewish, commie-pinko and queer identities. Despite subdued emotions of witnessing the effects of World War II on America, racial injustice and discrimination, and even presidential assassinations, he maintained optimism, claiming “this will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more devotedly than ever before.”

This was certainly no lie, as the man had quite the credentials in the music industry. He began playing piano at a young age, often

PHOTOS BY BEN BERISS/THE HOOT

reciting operas and full Beethoven symphonies with his younger sister Shirley. After graduating from the Boston Latin School, he continued his studies at Harvard with Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston, earning a bachelor of arts cum laude, and studied conducting as well at the Curtis Institute of Music. Not long after, Bernstein earned an assistant conducting position with the New York Philharmonic. After a guest conductor was forced to withdraw from a performance due to flu symptoms, Bernstein stepped into the spotlight without having priorly rehearsed to take over, which earned him fame instantly.

Ever since, he led the New York Philharmonic to unimaginable success, and his interpretations of Mahler symphonies, the Dvorak “New World Symphony,” Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” and more renowned works prevail as some of the most iconic performances in music history.

Bernstein also had a tremendous record of compositions as well, including 22 orchestral pieces, three operas, nine musicals and several vocal and chamber pieces. His works project unique rhythms and tonal patterns unlike any other composer, often written in response to literature

that inspires him. Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, for example, is a five movement composition scored for solo violin, strings, and percussion, and each movement echoes statements of love exchanged between philosophers in Plato’s work (Phaedrus, Aristophanes, Eryximachus, Agathon and Socrates, respectively).

Each speaker’s opinions about the spiritual and physical aspects of love contain dramatic differences in emotion, and Bernstein emphasizes the changing sentiment from one movement to the next. Music Biographer Humphrey Burton describes the work as “ a portrait of Bernstein himself: grand and noble in the first movement, childlike in the second, boisterous and playful in the third, serenely calm and tender in the fourth, a doom-laden prophet and then a jazzy iconoclast in the finale.” Considering violinist Midori Goto broke her E string, the highest string on the violin, twice during her performance of this piece as a 14-year-old at Tanglewood, the intensity of his music should not even be questioned.

Aside from his compositions however, Bernstein is also renowned for his altruism in musical pedagogy. His Young People’s Concerts featured him lecturing

about complex concepts such as modes, melodies, and sonata form, as well as the history behind pioneer composers like Gustav Mahler. He would often conduct the New York Philharmonic in playing various excerpts to demonstrate the concepts he introduced, occasionally using his own pieces as examples. Moreover, his concerts were the first

ever to be televised from Lincoln Theater, earning Edison, Emmy, Peabody and Sylvania awards for excellence in television. The New Philharmonic continues to hold programs for young children to maintain Bernstein’s goal of inspiring a new generation of music lovers.

Exclusive sneak peak: ‘The Tempest’

PHOTO BY NOAH HARPER/THE HOOT

Performances Friday 7 p.m.

Saturday 2 p.m.

Saturday 8 p.m.

Sunday 6 p.m.

Check brandeishoot.com for further coverage soon

16 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

October 19, 2018

‘It’s Time’ provides much-needed comedic relief on campus

By Candace Ng and Sabrina Chow editors

For days leading up to Oct. 13, 2018, organizers Perry Letourneau ’20 and Dane Leoniak ’20 had posted on a Facebook page event counting down to “It’s Time.” The event was scheduled to take place on Chapel’s Field at 11:48 p.m. on Oct. 6 before being rescheduled to Oct. 13, from 11:48 p.m. to 2:48 a.m., due to a live action roleplay humans versus zombies game taking place in the planned location.

The Facebook event “It’s Time” first started on Sept. 26. On the second post on the event page, Letourneau wrote, “There actually is an event actually show up this is not a prank,” though limited details of the actual event were available. A number of students enthusiastically commented on the page, saying “thank you!!! it’s about damn time!!!” and “it’s here. spread it like wildfire.” As the day approached, the organizers posted countdowns to the event.

The Brandeis Hoot arrived on Chapel’s Field minutes before the event, and Aaron Stone ’20, who was sitting on the wet grass spinning an umbrella, got up and told the crowd to follow him. Stone walked towards the far end of Chapel’s Field and stopped at a light closest to Bethlehem Chapel.

The crowd stood at a distance on the wet glass and anxiously awaited to see the event unfold.

“I’m glad that other people are around… this is such a strange time and location for an event,” said Chris Calimlim ’19. Others in the crowd agreed, saying that they were there just to see if anything would happen.

At exactly 11:48 p.m., the approximately 40-person crowd screamed “it’s time!” followed by

moments of silence interspersed with giggles. Two individuals in neon green and orange ski masks emerged from behind Bethlehem Chapel with a megaphone in hand. The pair introduced themselves as “Little Oscar” and “Grouchy Mane.”

After a moment of silence, the two started singing the “Baby Shark” song in its entirety. “Little Oscar” performed the actions to the song while “Grouchy Mane” sang “Baby shark, doo doo doodoo doo-doo” into the megaphone. “Grouchy Mane” continued until the “Grandpa shark” stanza. Rita Scheer ’20, a member of the audience, commented, “That opening was flawless.”

Following “Baby Shark,” “Grouchy Mane” dropped beats as “Little Oscar” rapped OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” and “B.O.B.” Suddenly, an entirely new event began. “This will be a dramatic reading of ‘My Immortal,’” one of the men yelled to the crowd. The crowd gasped at the sound. An audience member even fell into the arms of another.

Both performers whipped out single pages of paper and began with the infamous first line, “Author’s note: Special fangz (get it, cuz Im goffik) 2 my gf (ew not in that way) raven, bloodytearz666 4 helping me wif da story and spelling. U rok! Justin ur da luv of my deprzzing life u rock 2! MCR ROX!” During the reading of “My Immortal,” a group of students walking down Chapel’s Field towards Rosenthal Quad screamed, “What are you doing?” to which someone in the crowd responded, “Go to sleep!”

“Grouchy Mane” and “Little Oscar” ran away at 11:58 p.m., much to the audience’s bewilderment.

“Is it no longer time anymore?” asked an audience member. The crowd began to compile theories on what the duo might do next;

many thought that it was a costume change. They were incorrect.

The event officially concluded at 12:02 a.m. “It is no longer time,” said multiple people in the crowd as they walked away from Chapel’s Field. One member of the audience noticed that the pair left their scripts behind and took it as a memorabilia. The Facebook event was also deleted minutes after.

While the performance was met with a lot of confusion, “It’s Time” brought much-needed comic relief after the first full week of classes and and earned the applause of the audience. “I’m shooketh,” said Julian Snyder ’21 to The Hoot. “That was beautiful.”

The Hoot editors in attendance were pleasantly surprised by the quality of art performed and are upset that it’s no longer time. We will be singing “Baby Shark” for the rest of the week or, at least, until it’s time once again.

News editor Celia Young contributed to this article.

THE SUSPENSE

UMBRELLA NAB

The audience eagerly awaits.

“Come toward me,” Aaron Stone ‘20 told the crowd.

“LITTLE OSCAR” AND “GROUCHY MANE” Baby shark, doo doo doo-doo doo-doo...

PHOTOS BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

Brandeis on-campus arts calendar On-Campus Stein Night

The open-mic live music showcase for students continues this Friday at the Stein. Signups available on “Stein Night” Facebook page. Friday, Oct 19, from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

The Old Shit Show

Sketch comedy club Boris’ Kitchen will perform this Friday, Oct 19 at 8 p.m. in Mandel G03.

“Be there or be a big stinky loser!”

Toxic Majorette’s Showcase

Fall

Featuring dance, ballet, hip hop and more—an opportunity see Brandeis performing arts groups and teams from nearby colleges and universities. Sat Oct 20 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Dream a Little Dream

“an original theater piece that focuses on the dreams of two people who are asleep in their beds.” Plays through Sun Oct 21.

Performance schedule available on Brandeis’ Theater Arts Productions page. Spingold Theater.

TOXIC MAJORETTE DANCE LINE

IFFBoston Fall Screening: Roma

PHOTO FROM HOOT ARCHIVES

Focus

Alfonso Cuarón’s very personal film, based on his relationship with his childhood housekeeper, screens at the Brattle Theatre Sun Oct 21 at 12 p.m.

Mira T. Lee “Everything is Beautiful” Mira T. Lee, the author of a novel about the relationship between two Chinese sisters separated by an ocean, will be on campus Tuesday Oct 23 to do a reading at 5:30 p.m. in the Harlan

Chapel.

Spooky Campfire Tales: An Open Writing Workshop

Presented by Brandeis literary magazine Blacklist and the English and Creative Writing UDRs in order to help aspiring writers practice their workshopping skills. Halloween candy will be available. Submit work for review via the “Spooky Campfire Tales” Facebook event. Wednesday Oct 24 at 7 p.m. in the Pearlman Lounge (the toilet bowl building).

STEIN NIGHT

Cecilia Vicuña: Disappeared Quipu

Cecilia Vicuña’s new exhibition opens at the MFA, a pairing of quipu (a record-keeping device of knotted cords used by the ancient indigenous people of the Andes) from the Peabody Museum of Archeology and a site-specific video installation by Vicuña. Through Jan 29, 2019 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Admission is free with Brandeis ID.

Rineke Dijkstra / Nan

PHOTO BY NOAH HARPER/THE HOOT

Goldin / Sheila Hicks

Also opening at the MFA are three smaller, single-artist exhibitions in the Contemporary Art Wing. From Rineke Dijkstra’s intimate photography, to Nan Goldin’s collection of portraits, to Sheila Hicks’s textile work, it’s an opportunity to see three different female artists making compelling contemporary art. Through Jan 21 at the MFA. Want to see your Brandeis event listed? Email suggestions to eic@thebrandeishoot.com