The Brandeis Hoot 4/27/2018

Volume 15 Issue 11

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

April 27, 2018

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper · Waltham, Mass.

Hrabowski to speak at commencement

By Celia Young editor

Former president Jacob Edelman ‘18 swears in new Student Union president Hannah Brown ‘19.

STATE OF THE UNION

PHOTO BY CELIA YOUNG/THE HOOT

Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the president of University of Maryland, Baltimore Country, will address graduates and guests at Brandeis’ 67th commencement May 13, President Ron Liebowitz announced Monday.

There will be five honorary degree recipients this year, including Hrabowski, Israeli singer Chava Alberstein, Mary Sue Coleman, the president of the Association of American Universities and philanthropists Jay Ruderman ’88 and Shira Ruderman.

Hrabowski is described as a “child-leader in the Civil Rights movement” on his University of Maryland webpage. At 12, he joined the Children’s Crusade march for civil rights in Birmingham, AL. Hrabowski and other

children were arrested during the march. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited them in jail and Hrabowski took inspiration from the words he shared with them. He recalled King saying: “What you do this day will have an impact on children not yet born,” according to a Brandeis press release.

Hrabowski came to UMBC as vice provost in 1987 and became president in 1992. He is the author of several books focusing on the educational success of African Americans in science and technology, such as “Holding Fast to Dreams.” Hrabowski was named one of America’s ten best college presidents by “Time” magazine in 2009 and one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2012.

Hrabowski is also a consultant to the National Institutes See COMMENCEMENT, page 3

Student Union presents ‘State of the Union’ address

By Celia Young editor

Members of the Student Union reported on their achievements from the past year and swore in next year’s leaders, including President Hannah Brown ’19 and Vice President Benedikt Reynolds ’19, during the final “State of the

Union” of this academic year.

Outgoing president Jacob Edelman ’18 gave some final remarks to the Brandeis community, stating, “Thank you for the opportunity to work, to make Brandeis better. It’s been the highlight of my time here...and I’ll always be grateful,” he told The Hoot.

Speaking to the crowd, he reflected on the Union’s successes

from the past year. “I think at Brandeis University we don’t tend to give ourselves a lot of credit.

We give ourselves a lot of criticism, and criticism is healthy and its necessary for growth, but giving ourselves credit and hoping people listen to that is also important … We make student life better… and we try to walk away at the end of the year as friends

with each other,” he concluded.

Edelman swore in Brown and other newly elected members of the Union’s executive board, Senate and Judiciary, marking the official start of their terms. Brown thanked Edelman for all his work and urged students to get involved in the Union.

Brown spoke to The Hoot after the ceremony about her goals for

next year. “What I’d like to focus on is student life and happiness … primarily on affordability,” she said. In Brown’s campaign for the presidency, she pledged to address certain hidden costs of college by decreasing punishment fines such as library fees and possibly subsidizing printing or laundry.

See SOTU, page 3

BCJ rallies for divestment

By Rachel Wang staff

Members of Brandeis Climate Justice (BCJ) read a public statement outside the Faculty Club during a Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, demanding action on divestment from fossil fuels. President Ron Liebowitz and board member George D. Krupp exited the meeting to speak with the students and announced there could be a vote on divestment within the next 60 days.

BCJ’s push for fossil fuel divestment, which is the removal of university endowment funds from companies that support fossil fuels, has been a six-year-long

Inside This Issue:

campaign. BCJ last met with the board on Jan. 31, 2018 to present arguments in favor of divestment.

After students surrounded the faculty club to chant their public statement, Liebowitz and Krupp went outside to respond to them.

Krupp informed students that the board had received a memo detailing pros and cons of the issue and precedent set by other universities. He announced he would be presenting on divestment to the board the next day, Thursday, April 26.

While Krupp said he didn’t expect a vote to be held Thursday, he told students to expect a vote within 60 days. More than once, See DIVESTMENT, page 2

PHOTO BY RACHEL WANG/THE HOOT

DIVESTMENT RALLY

‘One Love’

Students gather to urge the Board of Trustees to vote on divestment from fossil fuels.

Page 5 News: Professors receive teaching awards Page 10 Culture X 2018 presents Ops: Why you should adopt a plant-based diet Arts: Adagio presents compelling semester show Page 14 Brandeis’ artistic diversity Page 9 ARTS: PAGE 13 Sports: Tennis secures victory on senior day Page 10 Editorial: Reflecting on the Union’s work

Brandeis’ history An exploration of Brandeis’ Jewish identity FEATURES: PAGE 6

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

April 27, 2018

Brandeis Never Again rallies for gun violence prevention with student and guest speakers

By Sabrina Chow staff

Members of the Brandeis community rallied at the Light of Reason last Friday to express support for gun violence prevention.

Students from Brandeis Never Again organized the rally as part of a national school walkout day marking the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School.

Fourteen speakers addressed the crowd on topics ranging from personal experiences with gun violence to the youth driven nature of the present gun control movement.

Between speeches, Renee Korgood ’20, a coordinator for the event, encouraged attendees to take action, register to vote and make their voices heard at the ballot box. “We need to make voting something people look forward to,” said Korgood at the rally. “And that starts with getting more people to understand how important it is.”

There was a table set up at the rally for participants to register to vote. Brandeis and national #NeverAgain organizers have emphasized the importance of voting and political engagement as the next step in pushing for gun control reform.

Speakers at Brandeis included students, Waltham City Councilor Kristine Mackin ’14 and members of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence.

Mackin focused on how “nothing has changed” since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. “After Sandy Hook, my hope died,” said Mackin during

her speech, referring to the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people, most of them first graders. “If we couldn’t change after twenty of the youngest school children were murdered, there’s no hope.” Following the shooting at Stoneman Douglas, Mackin could not get herself to read the headline, wondering why she should subject herself to even more grief. “To my shame, I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to bear witness to another unspeakable tragedy.”

The protests led by students from Stoneman Douglas and across the country demonstrated to Mackin the power of that generation. “You are alone because the adults of this country have failed you. We have looked away in the face of an ongoing horror, we blinked. We gave up. But you are rising up, showing us the way, and leading where we have failed,” said Mackin.

Mackin urged the students to keep going and ensured them they have the support of the older generation. “As you rise and as you lead you made it easy to relinquish this podium back to you.

You make it impossible for me to walk away, you make it impossible to shut my eyes again … And you make it my responsibility to commit those of my generation and older to fight your cause until you say your work is done.”

Charlotte Lowell, a high school student from Andover, Massachusetts, was a student organizer of the Boston March for Our Lives.

In her speech, Lowell relayed a letter she and a friend wrote to members of Congress. The speech drew parallels between school and gun control reform. “Recently, my time has been consumed by other

things [besides school]: demanding that my representatives take progressive action on gun policy in America and organizing sit-ins at my high school to draw upon the astounding change that our government has failed to implement,” said Lowell in her speech.

Lowell went on to say that Congress is “flunking” because of their inability to address the epidemic of gun violence and encouraged the audience not to endorse politicians who receive money from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Joshua Moll ’19, who is from Parkland, recounted his personal experience with the shooting.

His younger brother was inside the school, he said. “I was sitting at my desk on the day of the shooting and I saw two text messages: ‘Jake’s school has shooter, he’s locked in a closet. SWAT and FBI,’” said Moll during his speech.

“I immediately texted Jake to see if he was okay. It took him one hour to reply. For one whole hour of my life, I did not breathe.”

The whole crowd was silent as Moll described the feeling of not knowing what had happened to his brother.

“I am lucky because one hour later my brother replied yes and eventually went home safely,” said Moll. “But for 17 other families, that hour ended in a very different manner. That hour ticked on eternally as those parents waited for their children to walk out of school. Those children never walked out of school.”

Victoria Richardson ‘20, one of the members of Poetic Justice who spoke at the rally, commented on her own experiences with gun violence. She recited two po-

ems, one focusing on police brutality in America, and the other dedicated to friends she had lost to self-inflicted gun violence. “I am very aware of the ways police brutality and gun violence can become a tragedy.”

Michael Barrett, the state senator who represents this area

was unable to attend for health reasons. In a Facebook post, Barrett said, “Reducing the staggering number of firearms and firearm-related deaths is the most pressing issue in the country right now. I’m grateful to see Brandeis leading the way in addressing the problem.”

KWASI JONES ‘21

JOSHUA MOLL ‘19

PHOTOS BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

BCJ urges Board of Trustees to vote on divestment DIVESTMENT, from page 1

within 60 days. More than once, Krupp called divestment a “very complicated issue” that required time.

“If you just give us a little bit more time, we’ll come up with something that’s satisfactory to not only Brandeis but also to the student body,” Krupp said.

Liebowitz added that the difference between this year’s movement on divestment from previous years is that the full board has been present to listen to student concerns. He said all the trustees were present for and impressed with BCJ’s presentation in January and would again be there for Krupp’s presentation the next day.

Cassie Cain ’18, who has been involved in BCJ since her first year at Brandeis, expressed frustration with the board’s lack of action but said she is hopeful for an upcoming vote. She noted that Liebowitz has been more responsive to divestment than President Frederick Lawrence, who departed in 2015. At the same time, Cain does not necessarily expect a majority vote supporting divestment because the investment committee may be reluctant. Cain said even if the Board votes against divestment, it will give students “even more reason to escalate” their action.

Before Liebowitz spoke to the crowd, BCJ coordinator Jordan Mudd ’20 spoke about how

Brandeis was built on Wampanoag land. Mudd found this important to acknowledge because climate change disproportionately affects indigenous as well as black and brown people.

Ben Percival ‘18, who is from Samoa, spoke next about how climate change and rising sea levels threaten islands in the Pacific. Cain followed, emphasizing that progress on divestment can only be achieved if students push for it. Cain recalled that exactly three years ago on April 24, 2015, then-President Lawrence announced the release of a 178page report from the Exploratory Committee on Fossil Fuel Divestment, which he established in 2013.

Lawrence asked the board, specifically the Investment Committee, to “evaluate strategies proposed by the report for consideration by the full Board,” in a campus-wide email.

Students marched from the Great Lawn to the Faculty Club with posters and noise-making instruments in hand. Student musicians were also present to support the beat of rhythmic chants such as “Hey Brandeis, step off it!

There’s poison in your profit!”

Once students surrounded the Faculty Club windows, Renata Leighton ’21 led the group in shouting a public statement, which in part read, “Board of Trustees, three years ago you formed an Exploratory Commit-

tee on Fossil Fuel Divestment.

Students and faculty wrote a report. They proposed strategies for divestment. It was over 170 pages long. In response to this report, on April 24, 2015, exactly three years ago today, President Lawrence asked the full board to consider divestment. This decision was supposed to take place Fall 2015. Instead, you ignored us.”

It continued, “We thank you for hearing us speak in January.

We thank you for forming this new committee. It is a step in the right direction. But we need action now. We need to know you are listening. Do not ignore this report again. Otherwise history will repeat itself. It is your turn Brandeis! We need a vote now.”

PHOTOS BY RACHEL WANG/THE HOOT

April 27, 2018

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

Student Union swears in new members SOTU, from page 1

dizing printing or laundry.

Several members of this year’s Union gave speeches, addressing successful and ongoing initiatives from the year.

Senator-at-large and Executive Senator Aaron Finkel ’20 cited Union accomplishments such as successful Midnight Buffets, revisions to the Union bylaws, the free menstrual product initiative organized by the Campus Operations Working Group (COW-G) and the senate dining committee’s Meatless Monday event.

Finkel joked about the Meatless Monday event. “I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan but I must say congratulations on that it did have pretty good food, but it left me asking, ‘Where’s the beef?’... Yeah I guess you could say the stakes were pretty high on this one,” he said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

Aseem Kumar ’20, chair of the allocations board, discussed A-board allocations during marathon, calling the Student Activities Fund (SAF) “in good financial state for next year,” as they had only allocated $1.6 million dollars of their around $1.7 million budget. Kumar also emphasized that the allocations board members spend many hours working on marathon, and urged those attending “to appreciate the work that A-board does.”

Kumar discussed other initiatives, including a review of the allocations procedures for bias.

Though they found little bias, Kumar hopes to continue making the processes more objective. Kumar also spoke about a union initiative to create stipends for certain student positions, like members

PHOTOS BY CELIA YOUNG/THE HOOT

of the Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps (BEMCo). He hopes money for the stipends can come not from the SAF, but from the university. “[The] Administration needs to pay students for the work they do and the money they truly

deserve for the work they put in,” he said.

Student Union Vice President-Elect Reynolds has been involved with this initiative. He spoke about how he hopes to create a framework for paying stu-

dents in services such as BEMCo and SSIS in an interview with The Hoot in March.

Zosia Buse ’20, of the Office of Student Rights and Advocacy, discussed the offices’ work in hiring more student advocates and

in establishing a relationship between her office and the Brandeis Ombuds office and reaching out to international students.

Buse will serve as the junior representative to the Board of Trustees next year.

Liebowitz announces commencement speaker and honorary degree recipients COMMENCEMENT, from page 1

Health and National Science Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in higher education administration and statistics and an M.A. in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Hampton Institute.

“President Hrabowski showed tremendous courage as a youngster in the civil rights movement and, as an accomplished educational leader, has dedicated his career to ensuring that students of color get equal access to STEM education,” said Liebowitz in the

press release. “He has earned enormous respect and admiration for his dynamic leadership on social mobility and other issues in higher education. I look forward to the insight and vision he will deliver in his Commencement address.

Hrabowski will receive an honorary degree along with four other recipients of various occupations. Alberstein, who is a popular singer-songwriter in Israel, and has released more than 70 albums since 1967. She will be performing at Commencement.

Coleman has been the president of the Association of American Universities—an organization composed of 62 American and

Canadian universities and colleges, since 2016.

She previously served as president of the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa, the first woman to lead both schools.

Both Jay and Shira Ruderman lead the Ruderman Family Foundation.

“Guided by … Jewish values,” the foundation aims to “advocate for and advance the inclusion of people with disabilities throughout our society; strengthen the relationship between Israel and the American Jewish Community; and model the practice of strategic philanthropy worldwide,” according to their website.

Always curious? Enjoy writing?

Join The Hoot to engage with the Brandeis community and become part of a new one.

PHOTO FROM STRATEGICPLANNING.DARTMOUTH.EDU

4 NEWS

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April 27, 2018

Biologist Titia de Lange studies the causes of cancer

By Ruoshi Liu staff

Professor Titia de Lange received the 47th Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for her research on telomeres and chromosomal degradation, a process that can lead to cancer, and delivered a lecture on her work on April 12.

The Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award, established in 1971, is awarded to scientists who conduct medical research, with a focus on “recent discoveries of particular originality and importance to basic medical research,” according to the award’s website. De Lange is the Director of the Anderson Center for Cancer Research at Rockefeller University and a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Telomeres, protective elements located at each end of a chromosome, protect chromosomes from decay and ensure they can properly replicate. They also contribute to the cell’s aging process.

Telomeres play an important role in the early stages of cancer, a disease caused by abnormal cells.

De Lange’s focuses on mammalian telomeres, which decay as cells proliferate. Her lab identified a protein complex, shelterin, that specifically binds to telomeres in six subunits. De Lange and her colleagues followed the progress of telomeres lacking one or more of the six shelterin subunits. This work showed that the chromosomes of cells lacking shelterin decay are part of DNA damage.

De Lange’s lab is researching how shelterin proteins prevent genome instability in human cancer.

Researchers found that inside the

“t-loop” structure of telomeres, a special mechanism is responsible for hiding the telomere ends from DNA damage. By specifying a component of the telomere structure (named TRF2) and determining its important role in the repression of DNA damage, the lab concluded that the special telomere structure may account for the dysfunction of the chromosome ends. If the theory is proven, it will be a big step toward discovering the cause of human cancer.

De Lange earned her PhD from University of Amsterdam in 1981 and has devoted herself to the research of telomeres and chromosomes for over 25 years. As a foreign member of US National Academy of Sciences, de Lange has received “too many awards to be listed here,” as the host, Professor James Haber (BIO), put it.

PHOTO BY CELIA YOUNG/THE HOOT

University Press of New England to close

By Celia Young editor

The University Press of New England (UPNE) will close this December, according to statements by Dartmouth College’s Office of Communications and Brandeis Provost Lisa Lynch, the two remaining member universities of UPNE. Brandeis is working on measures to secure the Brandeis University Press imprint, according to Lynch.

An statement released by the Dartmouth Office of Communications announced UPNE’s closing on April 18, and stated that the press would close in December as it is “unsustainable to operate with only two member-institutions.”

UPNE was founded in 1970 and at its largest had 10 member

institutions, but its numbers have decreased in recent years, down to just Brandeis University and Dartmouth College.

The UPNE Board of Governors voted to dissolve and close the press Tuesday, April 17 according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Lynch released a statement about UPNE’s closing on April 20, saying, “I want you to know that Brandeis remains fully committed to the future of Brandeis University Press. BUP will maintain current books in press or under review and continue to support its growing portfolio of books covering diverse subjects and perspectives. We are currently engaged in discussions to quickly find alternative arrangements to secure the Brandeis University Press imprint into the future, and we will announce those arrangements as soon as they are finalized.”

Dartmouth College President

Phil Hanlon also commented on the closing of UPNE in the Dartmouth College Office of Communications statement, saying “This decision was not made quickly or easily.” He continued, “Dartmouth will continue to support the scholarly publication of the work of its faculty.”

The publication “Inside Higher Ed” reported on the story, discussing faculty concerns about the closing of UPNE and university presses in general. The story described faculty members’ fear in regards to the closure of academic publishers, as faculty members are often expected to have published books or materials in order to be awarded tenure.

“With more departments having heightened expectations about faculty publishing, any loss of a scholarly publisher could have an impact on academic careers,” the article stated.

The Association of Universi-

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

Where UPNE was based.

ty Presses (AUP)—formerly the Association of American University Presses—a community of publishers that advocates for scholarly publishing, commented on UPNE’s closing in a tweet on April 19.

PHOTO FROM BOSTONGLOBE.COM

“We were surprised and saddened to hear the news about @ UPNEBooks planned closure, but stand ready to work with Dartmouth and Brandeis as they chart a new course for their respective presses,” read the tweet.

Four new members to join Brandeis Board of Trustees

By Celia Young editor

Four new members were elected to Brandeis University’s Board of Trustees, according to a BrandeisNow article. The new members are Bonnie Berger ’83, Josh Kraft, Deborah Bial ’87 and Lan Xue ’90, and they will start their four-year terms May 14.

Jonathan Davis ’75 was reelected to the board.

Berger has been the Simons Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 2016 and a professor at MIT since 2002. She focuses on the use of mathematics in the field of molecular biology, according to her MIT webpage.

Kraft has been the president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston since 2008, an organization which hosts educational and mentoring programs for children in Boston.

Kraft is also the president of New England Patriots Charitable Foundation and is the son of the late trustee Myra Hiatt Kraft ’64,

who is the namesake of the Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program, which provides students who have not had access to AP and honors courses with support systems.

Bial is the president and founder of the Posse Foundation, which recruits and trains students in teams to help them succeed in college. Posse Scholars receive four-year, full-tuition leadership scholarships.

In an interview with the New

York Times, Bial said her inspiration for the foundation came from a student she met at the nonprofit CityKids Foundation.

“I loved this idea that you send teams of kids together to college so they can back each other up.

Social justice motivates me now, but at the time the idea of starting something and making it great really appealed to me,” Bial said.

Lan Xue ’90, who received her bachelor’s degree in economics

and masters in international economic in finance from Brandeis and Brandeis International Business School, is a founding partner at Trivest Advisors.

She focuses on Chinese financial markets and actively supports women in finance. Xue spoke at a Hong Kong lecture series in 2016 in connection with the global organization “100 Women in Finance.”

Davis, who was reelected to the

board, is a former vice chair of the Board of Trustees and works as the chief executive officer and chief investment officer at the real estate management, investment and development firm Davis Companies.

He has also been involved with several non-profit organizations including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston and WBUR.

PHOTO FROM BRANDEIS.EDU

April 27, 2018

NEWS 5

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Annual ‘Relay for Life’ raises $24,169.40 for American Cancer Society

By Celia Young editor

Students gathered for “Relay for Life” on Saturday, an annual event featuring games, concerts and bake sales to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

As of press time, Brandeis Relay for Life had fundraised $24,169.40. Held in the Gosman Athletic Center, the event lasted from Saturday, April 21 until Sunday, April 22.

A highlight of the night was the Luminaria ceremony, where students held glow sticks and walked around the track in remembrance of those lost to cancer, those who are currently fighting cancer and

RELAY FOR LIFE

those who have beaten cancer.

At Relay for Life, teams could register to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Individual team members who raised $100 or more received a 2018 Relay for Life T-shirt. Top teams at Brandeis included the Brandeis women’s Frisbee team, Banshee, which raised $2,209 and Holliston High School, a local Massachusetts school.

At Relay, student musician and a cappella groups, including Company B and Proscenium, performed. Students could play a variety of games, purchase baked goods and participate in other fundraising events led by individual teams.

Two Relay organizers, Ilana Bauman ’19 and Brianna Silver-

man ’19, spoke about their experience with Relay.

“The Luminaria ceremony as a whole is always really meaningful to me,” said Silverman.

She described how, after walking around the track with glow sticks, students put the lights in a giant white Luminaria bag near the center of Gosman to represent those lost to cancer. Students walked up in groups based on who they had lost—close family members, friends, grandparents or others. “[A]fter we put the glow sticks in the bag … we can see the people they have lost in their lives and we … learn something about them, and then we come together,” said Silverman, “It’s almost like a family.”

Attendees also wrote messages

Students gathered in the Gosman Athletics Center for Relay for Life.

on the bag about those they had lost to cancer or the reasons they participate in Relay.

Bauman and Silverman also spoke about the reason they participate in relay. Bauman’s father was diagnosed with cancer when she was six years old. “For me, Relay means really actively fighting back but also acknowledging that we’re fighting for a reason” she said.

Planning and fundraising for Relay is ongoing throughout the academic year. According to the national Relay for Life webpage, the donations are “used to fund life-saving cancer research, patient support services, prevention and education information, and detection and treatment programs.”

PROSCRENIUM

A LUMINARIA BAG

PHOTO BY CELIA YOUNG/THE HOOT

Faculty members Mascall, Baskaran and Hannig receive teaching awards

By Celia Young staff

Professors Kristen Mascall (CHEM), Aparna Baskaran (PHYS) and Anita Hannig (ANTH) received teaching awards at the Faculty Meeting on Friday, April 20.

The Committee for the Support of Teaching, in conjunction with the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, chooses award recipients, according to a BrandeisNow article, though students can nominate professors for awards.

Mascall received the Louis Dembitz Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching, honoring “an individual who is involved in the co-curricular and extracurricular life of the campus, and more importantly, has had a significant impact on students’ lives as an exceptional teacher, mentor, adviser and friend,” according to the award’s webpage.

Noa HaLevi ’20 took Organic Chemistry with Mascall as part of her biochemistry major. “Mascall is super hardworking and straightforward about what she expects from you. She is very organized and her notes are incredibly easy to follow, considering how difficult the topics are,” HaLevi told The Brandeis Hoot. Ac-

cording to HaLevi, Mascall holds six hours of office-hours each week, more than most professors, to ensure her students can come ask questions and clarify material as often as possible.

Prior to joining the Brandeis faculty in 2014, Mascall completed a B.S. at the University of West Indies, a PhD at Dartmouth College and a postdoctoral fellowship at Boston University. Mascall teaches Organic Chemistry I and II, their respective labs and Honors General Chemistry II. She is also a first-year advisor and part of the Brandeis Pre-Medical Board. In previous years, Mascall served on the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and subcommittee for Independent Interdisciplinary Majors (IIMs).

“It was a humbling experience and I recall feeling much gratitude towards the students who nominated me for it,” Mascall said in an interview with The Hoot.

She said her students’ “motivation and enthusiasm for learning” make her job easier. She encouraged students to “keep working diligently, strive for excellence and continue to rise to each challenge that is thrown at you.”

Baskaran, recipient of the Lerman-Neubauer ‘69 Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring, is an Associate Professor

of Physics. She teaches courses such as “Waves and Oscillations,” “Quantum Theory” and “Introduction to Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics.” She received her M.S. at the Raman School of Physics at Pondicherry University in Puducherry, India.

She earned a PhD from the University of Florida before moving to Syracuse University for her postdoctoral fellowship.

Baskaran’s research into the properties of soft materials and the physics of biological systems has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published in a variety of scientific journals.

Chris Simonetti ’19, majoring in physics and mathematics, took two classes with Baskaran. Even though most students decide to take Introduction to Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics as juniors, Simonetti elected to take it as a sophomore because he knew Baskaran was the professor.

Baskaran is seen as a mentor to all of her students, said Simonetti. He said in an interview, “After my freshman year of physics I felt very discouraged. I thought I wasn’t cut out for the physics major, that I wasn’t smart enough.

However, after taking a class with her, not only did I realize that I was capable of understanding

difficult concepts, but I was also reminded of my excitement for learning physics.”

In addressing her students, Baskaran said she hopes they enjoyed learning with her as much as she did teaching them. She continued, saying, “I did have fun, in spite of [the] existential angst that I suffer whenever you guys look at me funny and it is obvious I am not making my point clearly.”

To any future students, Baskaran said she tooks forward to guiding them through their “exploration of some awesome physics.”

Hannig received the Michael L. Walzer ’56 Award for Teaching, which is awarded to a tenure-track professor “who combines superlative scholarship with inspired teaching,” according to the award’s webpage.

Hannig came to Brandeis in 2012 as a Florence Levy Kay Fellow and then became an Assistant Professor of Anthropology. She teaches a variety of medical anthropology courses and Health: Science, Society and Policy (HSSP) courses.

“Brandeis is a special place to teach, as students are just so ready to jump into new ways of thinking feet-first,” said Hannig, “As a professor, it feels really gratifying to work with such enthusiasm in the classroom and to help students

develop their critical thinking muscles. I am, of course, completely honored and thrilled that I won this year!”

Sarah Fielman ’19, a double major in HSSP and Anthropology, took “Medicine, Body and Culture” and “Medicine and Religion” with Hannig.

Fielman said Hannig helps generate critical conversations so students can “gain better knowledge of health and life as well as the ability to understand different perspectives.” “[Hannig] challenges students which is something I think every student should experience,” said Fielman.

Hannig was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Reed College and received her M.A. and PhD from the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on medical anthropology, the anthropology of religion, gender and the body, and the anthropology of death and dying, according to a BrandeisNOW article. In 2017, Hannig published “Beyond Surgery: Injury, Healing, and Religion at an Ethiopian Hospital,” an ethnographic account of hospitals and rehabilitation facilities in Ethiopia.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan J. Birren presented their awards during the April 20 Faculty Meeting.

FEATURES

6 The Brandeis Hoot

April 27, 2018

An in-depth look at Brandeis’ religious identity—Part 1: The History

By Polina Potochevska and Sara McCrea editors

Last fall, our Features section began to speak with students, administrators, professors, chaplains and student organizations about the role of religion at Brandeis. As Brandeis students, we have often heard that Brandeis is a non-sectarian institution with Jewish values. But what are these values? How big of a role does religion play in Brandeis history, social life and identity? We compiled these questions and more into an online poll which we released to the Brandeis community.

Our exploration of Brandeis’ Jewish identity will be released in an online series on www.brandeishoot.com throughout the summer. To begin, we delve into Brandeis’ history—how we were founded, how we have evolved and how religion has played a role in shaping the university as it is today.

Since even before its founding in 1948, Brandeis University has had ties to the American Jewish community, though its identity has evolved in many ways over the past 70 years.

In 1923, Rabbi Louis I. Newman wrote a book titled “A Jewish University in America,” a historical account of the long-held dream to establish a Jewish institution of higher learning. Newman wrote that the idea of an American Jewish university did not come from a specific individual, but the idea had circulated in the American Jewish community for centuries.

In 1945, many of the most prestigious universities, including Harvard, Yale and Columbia, had quotas on the amount of Jewish students admitted. During the time period from the late 1910s to post World War II, Ivy League universities and other selective colleges imposed admissions quotas to ensure they only accepted a limited number of Jewish students. Columbia University imposed a 20 percent quota, Harvard a 10 to 15 percent quota and Yale a 10 percent quota. Because of this, a group of community leaders began to explore the idea of a new American university, founded on Jewish principles but nonsectarian and open to students and faculty from all backgrounds. At the helm of the idea was Rabbi Israel Goldstein, the spiritual head of B’nai Jeshurun congregation in New York and the president of the Zionist Organization of America and the Synagogue of America. Goldstein had contacts in many circles who

Brandeis originally had funding to build just the Jewish chapel, but after students protested, decided to hold off on construction until they could build all three at once.

CHAPELS FROM LOOP ROAD

could help make the new institution a reality.

Middlesex University, a medical and veterinary school in Waltham where Brandeis now stands, was facing major financial problems in the early 1940s. In 1945 the Dean of Humanities at Middlesex, Joseph Cheskis, wrote to C. Ruggles Smith, president at the time, to consider establishing a nonsectarian university in Middlesex’s place, said Silvan S. Schweber in his book, “Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius.” Cheskis referred Smith to Joseph Schlossberg, secretary-treasurer of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, who then referred Smith to Goldstein, as Goldstein had explored the possibility of a nonsectarian university since the 1930s.

Goldstein, who knew the university needed the support of the Jewish community as a whole, called on Albert Einstein, who was teaching at Princeton. Einstein was an early supporter of the new university, but he withdrew his support after disputes with Goldstein and the Board of Trustees.

Recognizing that replacing the name “Middlesex” would be integral to the university’s success, Goldstein recommended the new school be named after Louis Dembitz Brandeis, the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice and a celebrated figure within the Jewish community who had died in 1941. Serving as an associate justice on the Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939, Brandeis became famous for his contributions to the “right to privacy” concept and free speech law. He was a leader in the Progressive movement and was wholly dedicated to service

and advocating for the public in court. Goldstein’s suggestion was met with nearly unanimous support.

Abram L. Sachar, retired director of the Hillel foundation, served as the first Brandeis president. In his inaugural address, Sachar laid out his vision for the school as a place where the students “will be taught that brilliance is no substitute for content, that manners and amenities and social poise cannot take the place of …the deep and earnest striving for truth,” as quoted in “From The Beginning: A Picture History of the first four decades of Brandeis University.”

As Brandeis continued to grow, Sachar announced in 1953 that Brandeis would begin construction of a Jewish chapel, but did not yet have the funds to build a Protestant and Catholic chapel as well. Students protested the decision and said the university should not begin any construction until they were prepared to complete all three chapels. Tour guides explain to groups visiting campus how the structures were engineered so no building’s shadow overlaps with another.

During Sachar’s 20 year presidency, the university quickly rose to academic acclaim, won Phi Beta Kappa accreditation just 13 years after its founding and became an internationally recognized research university.

The university saw changes with the election of Evelyn E. Handler as university president in 1983. After a period where the university was struggling to court donors, Handler and a committee of students and trustees explored ways to lessen the university’s Jewish character, such as relaxing

dietary restrictions in the dining halls to include pork and shellfish, according to Marvin Fox’s essay, “Jewishness and Judaism at Brandeis University.”

Handler, wanting to appeal to a wide variety of non-Jewish students, also removed the Hebrew word “emet” (truth) from the Brandeis seal, but donors threatened to revoke funding, and after Handler’s resignation in 1991, both the original seal and cafeteria menus were reinstated.

In 1994, Jehuda Reinharz was elected as university president.

During his nearly 17 years at Brandeis, Reinharz emphasized Brandeis’ ties to the American Jewish community, following the controversies surrounding Handler’s presidency. “Tempering our Jewish identity did not work.

I have defined our mission very

clearly and without embarrassment as having four pillars: Jewish sponsorship, total non-sectarianism, a commitment to social justice and excellence,” Reinharz said, according to a 1998 “New York Times” article.

The “Times” article, titled “Brandeis at 50 is still searching, still Jewish and still not Harvard,” criticized Brandeis’ approach to its religious identity, arguing that while the founders of Brandeis envisioned the university as becoming a “Harvard of the Jews,” once universities lifted admissions quotas, more Jewish students began attending other elite universities, leaving Brandeis with a lack of identity.

Ronald D. Liebowitz was elected as the university’s ninth president in 2016. Dedicated to a period of transparency and accountability, he stated in his inaugural address that “we should be able to develop an environment that actively promotes all of the core components of our founding identity: Jewish, openness, worldclass research and the liberal arts.”

Liebowitz said that the community should feel comfortable saying without apology that Brandeis is a Jewish-sponsored, nonsectarian university.

The Brandeis website lists 16 spiritual or religious groups on campus. Just under half of Brandeis’ currently enrolled students identify as Jewish. In an interview with The Brandeis Hoot, Liebowitz emphasized that Brandeis was never intended as a space only for Jewish students. He said Brandeis must embrace and foster diversity while “never [losing] its roots.”

For our next segment on Brandeis’ religious identity, visit www.brandeishoot.com for updates.

PHOTOS BY CALEIGH BARTASH/THE HOOT

Have you filled out the Features survey yet?

The Features Section is exploring religion at Brandeis, how it affects students, and the prevalence of religion on campus.

All questions are optional and anonymous, unless the respondent chooses to add any personal information if they feel comfortable doing so.

Scan the QR code to access our poll, or check it out on our Facebook page!

EDITORIALS

April 27, 2018

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editors-in-Chief Hannah Schuster Emily Sorkin Smith Senior Managing Editor Allison Plotnik Senior Editor Sarah Jousset Copy Editor Emily Botto News Editor Celia Young Arts Editors Ben Beriss Rebecca Goldfarb Opinions Editor Katarina Weessies Features Editor Polina Potochevska Deputy Features Editor Sara McCrea Sports Editor Zach Cihlar Deputy Sports Editor Shea Decker-Jacoby Layout Editor Candace Ng Editors-at-Large Katie Decker-Jacoby Abigail Gardener Ryan Spencer Elianna Spitzer Sarah Terrazano

Volume 15 • Issue 11 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

STAFF

David Aizenberg, Juliana An, Robert Banks, Caleigh Bartash, Pavla Berghen-Wolf, José Castellanos, Anindita Chanda, Sabrina Chow, Jennifer Cook, Kevin Costa, Olivia Ellson, Daniel Freedman, Natalie Fritzson, Ariella Gentin, Rebecca Goldfarb, Noah Harper, Kevin Healey, Jonah Koslofsky, Alex Kougasian, Matthew Kowalyk, Samantha Lauring, Ruoshi Liu, Jerry Peng, Carolyn Rogers, Elana Rombro, Rachel Wang, 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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A

The Brandeis Hoot 7

Union must start next academic year strong

s the year closes, The Brandeis Hoot editorial board would like to reflect on the year, and to look to the future, especially with regard to student government. The Brandeis Undergraduate Student Union has had successes over the past academic year, and we would like to offer our appreciation, criticism and suggestions for the upcoming year.

Over the academic year, the Union has undertaken several initiatives to improve student life. These include partnering with Brandeis Students for Reproductive Justice (BSRJ) on an initiative to provide free menstrual products on campus. The initiative began in fall 2016, but has yet to be fully or permanently implemented. This year, the Senate funded and helped organize a pilot program offering menstrual products in certain campus bathrooms, providing important support for menstruators across campus.

Senators are now seeking to have the university fund the initiative, but say they are struggling to get the answers they need from administrators. We encourage the Union to keep pushing on this important project.

The Student Union has also worked to increase dialogue between students and administrators this year by hosting fo-

rums on student life—on topics of public safety, mental health, on-campus social programing and sexual assault and misconduct services. These forums have provided students and administrators alike with valuable information about aspects of the student experience. They would, however, be more valuable with greater attendance. The panel on mental health saw higher attendance than the others.

Approximately 30 students attended the mental health forum, though closer to 10 attended the panel on sexual misconduct services. There was a Facebook event for the forum on mental health which helped to increase outreach. Several clubs also sent messages to their listservs encouraging members to attend.

Union leaders and administrators have said they plan to host additional forums next year. We encourage the Union to make Facebook events for any such forums and reach out to club leaders for help in increasing attendance—as students may be more likely to read emails to club listservs than campus-wide messages.

The Hoot also encourages next year’s Senate and e-board to clarify where the Union stands on the role of intersectionality in the club chartering process. There has been debate in the Senate this year regarding

whether an intersectional club runs up against a clause stating clubs cannot replicate an existing group’s purpose. Much of the debate has centered on the Jewish Feminist Association at Brandeis—whether their purpose overlaps with the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) or other Jewish groups.

Despite this ongoing debate, the Senate has yet to develop a clear position on this issue. Intersectional spaces are essential on this campus, and the Senate needs to send a clear message to the student body.

Looking to the future, The Hoot hopes Student Union leaders will stick to their campaign promises, especially President Hannah Brown’s ’19 and Vice President Benedikt Reynolds’ ’19 aim to address university affordability—by decreasing laundry or printing costs and providing stipends for employees of the Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps (BEMCo) or Student Sexuality Information Services (SSIS).

The Hoot congratulates the newly sworn in Union members and recognizes their commitment to these roles. We also recognize the Union’s shortcomings and hope they will continue their mission of communicating with the student body to improve the Brandeis community.

Correction: An article from April 20, titled “‘Lucid’ and ‘Blood and Water’ raise questions about

how we behave” incorrectly attributed Brenda Shen’s ’18 performance to Karina Wen ’20,

and incorrectly spelled Gabi Nail’s ’18 name.

8 The Brandeis Hoot

FEFU AND HER FRIENDS

YEAR IN REVIEW

The Brandeis theater department’s production explored the complex emotions and relationships between women.

PHOTO BY EMILY SORKIN SMITH/THE HOOT Gittler Prize winner Kimberlé Crenshaw spoke to a full Rapaporte Treasure Hall in the fall.

KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW

Brandeis Never Again arranged a walkout in support of the victoms of the Parkland, FL shooting.

MARCH FOR OUR LIVES

PHOTO BY MATTHEW KOWALYK/THE HOOT AMAL KASSIR Syrian-American slam poet and activist Amal Kassir performed at ‘DEIS Impact, the annual festival of

social justice.

April 27, 2018

PHOTO BY MATTHEW KOWALYK/THE HOOT

PHOTO BY CANDACE NG/THE HOOT

PHOTO BY EMILY SORKIN SMITH/THE HOOT

The solar panels installed on the library roof this semester doubled the amount of solar power on campus.

SOLAR PANELS

SPORTS

April 27, 2018

The Brandeis Hoot 9

Men’s and women’s tennis snatch victories on Senior Day

By Shea Decker-Jacoby editor

The men’s and women’s tennis teams honored their senior players this past Tuesday before heading to Florida for the University Athletic Association (UAA) championships.

The teams honored Billy Wilson ’18, Eric Goldberg ’18 and Haley Cohen ’18 for their commitment to Brandeis tennis during their four years at Brandeis.

After the ceremony, the women’s tennis team went on to sweep Wheaton College 9-0. Wheaton did not take a single set away from any of the Judges, except for the tight match in the singles number one seat. Keren Khromchenko ’19 swept her opponent in the first set 6-0, then fell 6-7 (57), heading into the super breaker set. Khromchenko had her eyes on the prize and dominated her match, beating her opponent 10-4 in the final set. Olivia Leavitt ’19 took her place in the number two seat, giving up just two points in two sets. Lauren Bertsch ’21 earned her third seat win with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Michele Lehat ’19 dropped only one point in two sets taking her win 6-1, 6-0. Rachel Zubrinsky ’21 took the fifth seat. Finally, the only Judge who did not drop a single point in a singles match, Isabel Cepeda ’21 won the sixth seat in a clean sweep victory of 6-0, 6-0. The Judges had the same showing in the doubles matches. Overall, they only dropped five points with none of

their Wheaton competitors coming close to a victory. In the first seat, Sabrina Ross Neergaard ’20 and Khromchenko won their match 8-4. Cohen and Leavitt followed with their victory in the second seat with a score of 8-0.

Finally, Cepeda and Bertsch only let up one point in their match, taking home the win in the third

seat doubles.

The men brought home nine victories, dominating with a clean sweep against Wheaton. Anupreeth Coramutla ’21 and David Aizenberg ’20 beat their opponents in the number one doubles seat 8-6. Nikhil Das ’21 and Rajan Vohra ’21 earned their victory with an 8-2 win of their own. The

final doubles match featured Zach Cihlar ’19 and teammate Goldberg. The senior earned his final at home doubles victory with a final score of 8-1. In the singles matches, the Judges dominated throughout. In the number one seat, Aizenberg took his final home victory of the season with a score of 6-3, 6-1. Second, Jackson

(Right to Left) Coach Ben Lamanna, Billy Wilson, Haley Cohen, Eric Goldberg, Assistant Coach Mike Kopelmanm pose for a photo before Senior Day match.

SENIOR DAY

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

Kogan ’19 beat his opponent 6-0, 6-2. Cihlar dominated his match with straight 6-1, 6-1 victories. In the fourth seat, classmate Ethan Saal ’19 swept his match 6-0, 6-0.

Benjamin Wolfe ’20 earned a victory with a two set victory, 6-2, 6-2. Finally, Wilson earned his last at home singles victory with a final score of 6-3, 6-2. The Judges won the match 9-0.

Cihlar was recognized as UAA Athlete of the Week for his 3-0 performance during a 2-0 week for the now #17 nationally ranked Judges.

The teams traveled down to Florida earlier this week for the UAA Championships. The men got edged out Washington University of St. Louis 5-4 in the first match. The Judges started off strong in the doubles matches with Kogan and junior Tyler Ng clinching the second seat 8-5.

Das and Vohra earned the victory in the third seat beating their opponent 8-5. WashU bounced back early in the singles matches winning the first four matches to secure their victory. Vohra earn one of the two victories for the Judges in the singles matches with a close game, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Das was the second win for the Judges defeating his opponent in three sets too, with final scores of 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.

The Judges will face off against eighth seat in the UAA; Rochester and Case Western Reserve before the competition ends.

Editor’s note: Zach Cihlar is a sports editor for The Brandeis Hoot.

Track and Field shines in last invitational of the season

By Sarah Jousset editor

The men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams finished their invitational season with the Sean Collier Invitational hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA. The men’s track and field team gave a fantastic performance at the invitational. Graduate student Irie Gourde ’17 led the outstanding performances with a school record in the 200m race.

Gourde finished with a time of 21.59 seconds, which was almost .10 seconds less than his previous personal best. Gourde also earned a personal best in the 100m dash with a time of 10.96 seconds. Both of these times qualify Gourde for the Division III New England Championships.

Regan Charie ’19 also gave a personal best performance for the season this weekend, finishing second in the 100m race with a time of 11.15 seconds. Charie was also part of the 4x100m relay team that earned second place at the invitational with a time of 43.30. The team was made up of Charie, Lorenzo Maddox ’20, Jacob Ward ’21 and Churchill Perry ’20 whose second place finish was a season best for the group.

In the men’s distance events, Ryan Stender ’18 stood out for

the Judges, winning in the 5000m with a time of 15:17.50. He earned a DIII New England qualifying time in his first meet of the outdoor season after suffering minor injuries during the first part of the outdoor season.

For the men’s field events, a number of Judges also earned DIII New England qualifying times. Scott Grote ’19 earned a six-foot personal best and second place in discus with a distance of 45.86m. Perry also earned an individual second-place finish in the triple jump with a distance of 13.56m. Aaron Corin ’20 finished off qualifiers from the men’s team with a third place pole vault of 4.25m. This vault was only one centimeter off his personal best, set last year.

In the women’s events, the DIII New England qualifiers came from the mid-distance runners.

In the 800m event three athletes qualified: Doyin Ogundiran ’19 finished third with a time of 2:16.80, Lisbeth Valdez ’21 finished seventh for the Judges running a 2:20.47 and her twin sister, Leinni Valdez ’21, came in 11th in 2:21.48.

Three Judges gave top performances in the 1500m event.

Meaghan Barry ’19 finished fifth with a time of 4:55.34, while Kyra Shreeve ’18 earned a time of 4:53.87 to put her in fourth place.

The only runner to qualify for the DIII New England Champion-

ships in the 1500m race was Julia Bryson ’19, who snatched the first place spot with a time of 4:47.44.

Two other Judges qualified for the DIII New England championships as well. Lydia Harris ’20 recorded a personal best and won the 400m hurdles with a time of 68.87 seconds. Kanya Brown ’19 also gave a personal best of 12.87 seconds in the 100m race, finishing in seventh place.

Those who qualified at this past weekend’s Sean Collier Invitational will compete this weekend in the University Athletic Association Outdoor Championship hosted by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. The tournament will run from Saturday, April 28 to Sunday, April 29.

GOING GREEK

HURDLING MOUNTAINS

Scott Grote ‘19 throwing discus.

Kayla Fahey ‘20 running in the 200m hurdles at Tufts.

PHOTOS FROM BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

10 SPORTS

The Brandeis Hoot

April 20, 2018

Premier League enters semi-finals

By Kevin Costa staff

This week saw the conclusion of the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals. On Tuesday April 24, Liverpool pulled off a convincing 5-2 victory over Roma. The following day, Real Madrid narrowly edged past Bayern 2-1 and is now a match away from makings its third straight Champions League final.

Bayern kept Madrid on its heels, however, and appeared to dominate despite early exits from Arjen Robben and Jerome Boateng due to injury. Bayern threatened early, and the team’s persistence led to the game’s first goal. After 25 seconds, Robert Lewandowski had an opportunity inside the six-yard box but sent in a cross that sailed passed the mouth of the goal. Bayern got its first break after Joshua Kimmich slid the ball from a tough angle past Madrid’s goalkeeper who was perhaps anticipating a cross to Lewandowski running up the middle, the Guardian reports. Bayern nearly struck again immediately after the ensuing kickoff, except Franck Ri-

bery took an errant touch off of a pass from Thiago Alcantara. Such missed opportunities would come to defy Bayern Munich in this match.

FACE OFF

While Bayern dominated possession and created better opportunities for themselves, Madrid was able to capitalize off of Bayern’s mistakes. Five minutes be-

The Eruopean Champions League enters into the semi-finals.

fore the first half, Madrid evened the score after a Bayern defensive miscue. Ramos sent a diagonal chip to Carvajal on the wing who headed it back towards the top of

PHOTO FROM WWW.PUNGNG.COM

the Bayern’s 18. Ronaldo wound up for an overhead kick but pulled back, and the ball took a bounce in front of the defense before Javi Martinez hit a one-touch shot into the bottom corner.

In the second half, Madrid added another goal. This time, Bayern’s Rafinha made and errant pass near midfield. Marco Asensio, who had been subbed in, intercepted the pass and lead a counterattack. He slotted a pass to Lucas Vazquez and both players ran up the field with only a single defender and the goalkeeper to beat. Vazquez soon passed the ball back to Asensio who placed the ball into the corner.

Madrid was able to defend its lead in the closing minutes. Bayern ended up with 13 shots, eight of which were on target. In extra time, Bayern’s Corentin Tolisso had one last opportunity to finish off a cross but the ball hit the ground and bounced over his head.

The second leg of the semi-finals will take place next week.

Real Madrid and Bayern will play on Tuesday, May 1 while Liverpool and Roma will play on the following day.

Baseball, softball drop series against NYU 1-3

By Zach Cihlar editor

Brandeis baseball and softball both played four-game series against UAA Conference opponent New York University over the weekend of April 19-21.

Brandeis baseball hosted NYU. Over the weekend, the team played four games over three days. The Judges, however, could not convert the home field advantage to a win, dropping the series 1-3, extending their record to 3-22.

The team’s sole win came in the third game of the series, played on Saturday evening. Rookie Tommy Sand ’21 carried the Judges through the day, going three-forthree at bat. Hitting a double and two home runs, Sand scored a total of four runs for the Judges in the 7-5 win.

Victor Oppenheimer ’20 also helped the Judges out, hitting in three total RBIs throughout the Judges win. Mason Newman ’21 earned the win, pitching a total of 3.2 innings.

The softball team traveled to New York to play their series against NYU. Similar to the baseball team, softball dropped the se-

ries 1-3, despite earning a shutout win in the first game of the series.

The Judges came out firing in the first game of the series, winning 5-0 against the Violets.

Scoring four runs in the second inning, the Judges capitalized on the early momentum, holding steady in the field to earn the norun win.

Scottie Todd ’20 threw her second shutout game of the season and the fourth of her career.

At bat, Todd was helped out by catcher Keri Lehtonen ’19, who batted in all five runs for the Judges. The highlight of the day came from Lehtonen’s bat in the second inning. With two outs and bases loaded, Lehtonen crushed a pitch, hitting a grand-slam homerun to put four runs on the scoreboard.

After dropping the series 1-3, Brandeis softball rallied back during the week, earning a sweep against Babson to advance their record to 11-17.

Both baseball and softball play another UAA conference series over the weekend of April 27-29.

Baseball will travel down to St. Louis, MO to play against Washington University in St. Louis while Softball will host the Missouri team at Brandeis. The series is the last of both of the teams’ seasons.

AY BATTER BATTER, AY BATTER BATTER

SWING.

Amanda Shore ‘18 up at bat during a home game.

Tommy Sand ‘21 up at bat during a home game against NYU.

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PHOTO BY BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

PHOTO BY EMILY SORKIN SMITH/THE HOOT

OPINIONS

April 27, 2018

The Brandeis Hoot 11

Enough is Enough: guns, race and empathy in America

By Katarina Weessies and Sabrina Chow editor and staff

At the “Enough is Enough” rally held at Brandeis the other day, a member of Poetic Justice reflected upon their experiences with law enforcement on Brandeis campus when the lockdown of the school occurred.

The speaker said that they didn’t know at the time that an armed robbery occurred. They continued poetically, saying that they didn’t need to be told they “fit the description.” They added “How dare I forget that I am always the armed robber and the shoplifter and the drug dealer and the gang member.”

They then brought up how they felt after being stopped, saying that the encounter terrified them and caused a hit to their self esteem. “The sir that rolled off my tongue when I addressed the cop now stung, stung like the tongues of my ancestors when they said master.” The fear and belittlement that they experienced is particular to black people, since the broad history of racism informs their experience with police. The speaker went on to commemorate those who had been slain by police officers in recent years: “Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Arteri Woods, Desmond Phillips, Rodney Hess, Tamir Rice, Eleanor Bumpurs, so on.” The history between the police and black people can make

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH RALLY

every interaction with police a trauma. You can never be sure if the officer will hurt you or if you will be blamed for it. Even if you come out physically unscathed, the experience is harmful.

For white people, encounters with the police are different.

Armed or not, white people are much less likely to be shot by police.

In interactions between police and the most violent white criminals, the white criminals often come out unharmed. Many people wouldn’t think twice if the police had shot at Nikolas Cruz, the man who killed seventeen people in Parkland, FL. Police could have reasonably assumed him to be armed, given the circumstances, and been inclined to draw weapons in self-defense. In Cruz’s case, the public would likely have accepted that excuse with minimal protest. As a white man, his

PHOTO BY SABRINA CHOW/THE HOOT

arrest involved a degree of caution that isn’t afforded to black men, which resulted in his survival of the encounter.

Dylann Roof, the man who killed nine churchgoers in a racially motivated attack was also never shot by police. Both Nikolas Cruz and Dylann Roof had killed several people before the police arrived using several high-powered weapons, yet they were unharmed by police, while innocent people like Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile and Eleanor Bumpurs were killed, even though they were all either unarmed or safely carrying legal firearms.

A study done by The Counted, a project of The Guardian that collects data on police violence in the US, found that 31.9% of black people who were shot were unarmed, almost double the number of white people shot while

unarmed, at just 15%. And even though non-white Americans make up less than 40% percent of the population, almost half of the people killed by police are minorities, almost two-thirds of which are unarmed.

The Guardian mentioned that they had collected these statistics themselves, adding a statement from Laurie Robinson, the co-chair of Barack Obama’s task force on 21st-century policing, “It’s troubling that we have no official data from the federal government. I think it’s very helpful, in light of that fact, to have this kind of research undertaken.”

When innocent people of color are shot for no apparent reason, police officers defend their actions in the name of self-defense. Their defense breaks down when one considers the cautious way police apprehend men like Cruz and Roof. Men like Trayvon

Martin and Tamir Rice were not armed and presented no danger to the police officers they encountered. They were existing in public, a right only afforded to some.

Self defense did not play a role in these shootings. Their skin color was the only perceived threat.

The differing degree of police attention imposed on people of different races affords white people a certain leeway in society. We can walk on the street, play in a playground, linger at a Starbucks and lounge in our backyards without giving it much thought.

White people need to understand that we’re granted leeway that others are not, and empathize accordingly.

We can extend this empathy into action by donating to organizations like the ACLU or Innocence Project, or attending protests and rallies against police violence.

Choose a plant-based diet to save the planet

By Rica Sun special to the hoot

The reality that our planet is suffering at the hands of human society is undeniable, and one major factor is our dietary habits.

We must become more conscious of the environmental impacts of the food we buy and consume.

The greatest obstacle to lowering our environmental impact is a lack of knowledge about the critical impact of the animal agriculture industry and the severe consequences of purchasing and consuming animal products.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calculated the emissions production of animal agriculture to be at least 18 percent of the global human greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). These GHGs remain in the atmosphere of the planet, trapping heat and slowly warming the Earth’s average temperature, leading to global climate-based catastrophes. While many cite transportation as the greatest contributor to pollution worldwide, the culmination of the entire transportation sector’s direct emissions is only a small percentage of the emissions from the animal agriculture industry.

Cows produce methane gas which is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide regarding climate change. The documentary “Meat the Truth” states that in the span of a year, the average

dairy cow will produce the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as a car that drives 70,000 kilometers, roughly 1.5 times the length of the planet. The environmental impact of one cow is monumental, yet the industry produces billions each year for the sake of food production.

According to the FAO, the number of animals raised in the animal agriculture industry is more than three times the human population and increasing by 25 million every year. To keep up with the increasing production of livestock, millions of acres of forests in South America are being cut down for feed production and grazing land. These forests are pivotal to the wellbeing of the planet, as the Rainforest Foundation states they produce 20 percent of the world’s oxygen.

According to the Water Education Foundation, 2,500 gallons of water are required to produce one pound of beef, 477 gallons of water are required for one pound of eggs, and 900 gallons are needed to produce one pound of cheese.

To put this statistic in perspective, 55 percent of water consumed in the U.S. is used in animal agriculture freshwater resources, while only 5 percent is used by private homes. The demands of the animal agriculture industry require an unsustainable amount of land, water and resources.

One of the simplest ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to buy and consume fewer ani-

mal products. A plant based or vegan lifestyle may appear difficult, daunting or even radical, but the normalized lifestyle of eating meat and animal byproducts is true radicalism. Animal protein requires more land, water, energy and resources than plant based protein.

Even if you are someone who does not think they can give up meat, cheese, dairy or eggs, reducing your carbon footprint can be as easy as giving up meat or animal products for one meal a day, or one day a week.

“Meat the Truth” states that if every American chose not to eat chicken for one meal a week, the effect on carbon dioxide emissions would be comparable to taking 500,000 cars off of U.S. roads.

Going meatless, dairy-less, and/ or eggless for a few meals is better than no change at all. We can no longer ignore or deny the fact that one of our most environmentally devastating and unsustainable behaviors is our consumption of animal products. If you care about the planet then you must also care about the environmental impact of what you consume. Refuse to buy or reduce your consumption of animal products. Making either shift will reduce your carbon footprint and help address environmental devastation in the world.

In addition to decreasing your carbon footprint, reducing your animal product consumption has

PHOTO BY POLINA POTOCHEVSKA/THE HOOT

Brandeis Dining, with the help of vegan restaurant Red Lentil, goes meatless for a day.

MEATLESS MONDAY

myriad health benefits, including lowering your risk of heart disease, diabetes, most forms of cancer and other health issues.

There are no nutrients in an animal-based diet that you cannot find in a balanced vegan, vegetarian or plant-based diet.

You can live a more healthy, eco-friendly and animal-friendly life.

Some examples of delicious vegan snacks include guacamole

and chips, salsa, any of your favorite fruits and even certain dark chocolate bars.

While switching to a plantbased diet may appear daunting, it is comforting to know that even favorites like Oreos and Sour Patch Kids are completely free of animal products.

Save an animal to save yourself, and as a result, save the world.

12 OPINIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

April 27, 2018

On concluding undergraduate studies at Brandeis

By Zach Phil Schwartz columnist

On August 24, 2014, I woke up at 6 a.m. on the dot. From what I remember it was a cool Sunday morning set to become a typical humid Long Island summer day.

When I emerged from my home about an hour later I turned around and took a good look at the front. I thought, “when I return here, I will be a bona fide college student.” I then hopped in my mother’s SUV, which was loaded to the brim with all the essentials, and we drove up to New England.

My family arrived just before 10 a.m. at 415 South Street, in a city called Waltham in Massachusetts. At no points on our trip north had I given one second of thought to the events that would culminate in the university’s 67th Commencement Exercises, to be held on May 13, 2018—just weeks from now.

Alas, here we stand. And here we think. After four long years, my fellow members of the Class of 2018 and I will be graduating

from Brandeis University. Cue the festivities. In lieu of early celebrations, I have been reflecting on the experiences that have brought me to where I am and what Brandeis means to me. The last four years have certainly been eventful. The Class of 2018 has seen three university presidents. We’ve seen a lot in the name of the push for progress and righteous protest. We’ve seen highs and lows as a community of students, both in academics and in other aspects of life at Brandeis.

Indeed, a lot has happened over the past few years. There were, personally, a few rough times, but at the end of the day they were overwhelmed by the great times.

This is my advice as a graduating senior to underclassmen: when the cloud never seems to lift and things seem rough, if you see things through to their conclusion, they will get better.

It also doesn’t hurt to have a few close friends and extracurriculars to help you along the way.

Some say you make the closest of friends in your college years. Now with four years of evidence, I can

give a resounding endorsement to that statement.

At Brandeis you have the ability to make and keep lifelong friends who have your back, will show up to events with you and will, perhaps most importantly, be honest and genuine. As we all prepare to graduate, I want to thank those friends in my life who made the Brandeis experience all the better.

The same goes for extracurriculars at Brandeis. There is no more expansive club scene than at this university, and for good reason.

This is a place where ideas can flourish and not be relegated to a few huge umbrella clubs nobody seems to have interest in.

For example, in my first year, a few friends and I decided to get together to restart Brandeis’ defunct academic quiz bowl club.

We presented our case before the Senate and before long the Quiz Bowl Team was up and running again. Although I am no longer part of Quiz Bowl, I am still proud of its re-establishment and its subsequent success.

Another club I think of fondly at the end of my undergraduate

career is the one that is publishing this very piece. I was an editor for The Brandeis Hoot for a part of each of the four years I’ve been at Brandeis. With some undue haste I departed last semester—a move I have embraced but have always looked back on with mixed feelings—but I did not forget the time I spent here. The paper, too, had its ups and downs, but at the end of the day it was always a rewarding experience. I met some of my closest friends on the paper, and a couple of them have done a masterful job running it this year. I tip my hat to you, editors-in-chief Emily Sorkin Smith and Hannah Schuster.

Lastly, there is the club that I will always hold most close to my heart. It is none other than the Brandeis Ski and Snowboard Team. When I got to Brandeis, I knew I wanted to ski. I also acknowledge that I was a rather poor skier at the time. Not only did the Ski and Snowboard Team embrace me for my ability, they embraced me as a person. That is what the team has always been about: camaraderie.

As with The Hoot, I have fostered some close friendships with my fellow teammates that have truly transformed my experience at Brandeis. Team, you all know that this is not the first time I’ve gushed about you in an opinion piece here. That’s because I can never fully express my love for all of you and my thanks for a wonderful four years. Here’s to you.

Taking a step back, we see the larger picture. Brandeis is a place of excellent academics, we know that for a fact. Sometimes, the academics can be stressful, but fret not. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Your friends and peers are there to guide you to the end of that tunnel, which for myself and the rest of the Class of 2018 is just weeks away. Try not to make hasty decisions, have faith, hold on to clubs you love, hold your friends close and, most of all, have fun. You’ve got less than four years; make them last.

To those like myself who have just weeks, congratulations! It’s time to celebrate.

STUDYING ABROAD IN THE HAGUE

CAPTAIN OF THE SKIING TEAM

PHOTOS BY ZACH PHIL SCHWARTZ/THE HOOT

THE FIRST EVER QUIZ BOWL MEETING

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ARTS

April 27, 2018

The Brandeis Hoot 13

Culture X showcases diverse student talent

By Caleigh Bartash staff

The Brandeis community celebrated diversity and the end of the semester with the stunning performances at Culture X, an annual show co-sponsored by the Intercultural Center and the Gender and Sexuality Center.

Host Kwesi Jones ’21 hyped up the crowd with an infectious enthusiasm that came to define the event. He and the Culture X e-board introduced this year’s theme of “One Love: Between the Crossroads,” a spirit of acceptance and unity which brought an uplifting and welcoming feel to the show.

The performances started with a piece from the Waltham-based Afro-Diamonds, a group of dancers choreographed by Bridget Kamanzi. The young group gave a glimpse of African cultures with fierce dance movements and remarkable synchronization. They made a strong impression with intricate face paint and different styles of dance, which earned them roaring applause.

The Afro-Diamonds were followed by the Classic Indian Ensemble, who performed a number of musical numbers set to the hum of traditional Indian music.

Inspired by themes of body positivity and the classic Indian dance form Bharatanatyam, they created a colorful performance with bangles and bindis.

Angela Mendez ’18 delivered two powerful slam poems in the next act about her “Chicana experience.” Her pieces were brief, but powerful. She spoke emotionally about her experiences with code switching, aggressive americanization and xenophobia, and ended with the confident statement: “My flame will never be tamed.”

After Mendez, dancers of the Toxic Majorette Dance Line performed showed off their impressive flexibility and artistic skill to the beat of Drake tracks like “God’s Plan.”

Next up was Brandeis’ Formation Ballroom Dance Team, who flaunted their dance expertise with samples of the Jive, Cha Cha Cha and Samba, moving to Train’s “Hey Soul Sister” and Lou Bega’s “Sweet Like Cola.”

Following ballroom’s showing, the Rebelle dance team gave an energetic and flashy display of Afro-Caribbean moves, rushing on

Angela Mendez delivered powerful slam poetry describing her experience as a Chicana in America.

THE BADDEST ANGEL

AFRO-DIAMONDS

The group of dancers, though varying in age range, kept the level of talent uniformly high in their stunning performance.

stage with international flags as capes and beaming smiles.

The Brandeis Ballet enticed the audience with choreography set to cellist Zoe Keating’s piece, “Optimist.” Donning tie-dye dresses, the dancers’ performed fluid leaps and graceful spins as the soft cello played.

Chak De, a coed Bollywood fusion dance team, showed a strong sense of camaraderie in their skilled dance techniques during their fast and fun performance.

One man show Eli Kengamana, the last act before intermission, wowed the audience with a special form of guitar called percussive fingerstyle. His song was inspired by a drawing, which he asked the audience to picture in their heads as he both plucked and drummed his guitar.

Act two began with hip-hop dance crew Kaos Kids, whose

playlist sounded like a video game soundtrack. The large group practically filled the stage as they moved, with one of the most exciting moments coming when some members held another upside down as she danced.

Bethel Adekogbe ‘20, also known as Bethlehem the Producer, commanded control of the Culture X stage with a track called Crossroads, which he created alongside Jerome B. and Mack, a proud alumni. He and stage partner Marcelo Brociner ’18 rapped in tandem to the original music in a charged up performance, receiving an enthusiastic reaction from the audience.

Brandeis Stop Motion, an act that originated at Culture X in 2014, danced to the song “Clique”

by Jay-Z, showing off their passion for dance and individual flair.

Nan An ’21 followed Stop Mo-

Linda Forrester performs in Rebelle’s high energy performance that combined multiple cultures within the African diaspora.

REBELLE

CLASSICAL INDIAN ENSEMBLE Using

tion with a sweet-sounding guitar solo of traditional Chinese music.

The traditional fingerstyle, which excluded words, put emphasis on An’s guitar strumming.

Platinum Step put on an empowered showing of their inimitable dance style wearing tough facial expressions and athletic shorts. After cues from Kyra Frazier ’21, the team burst into a sequence of slapping and stepping.

They stunned the crowd as they used their bodies as instruments, but kept their performance light-hearted with jokes about Ultimate Fighting Championship stars.

The next performers, XL dance team, sought to make their passion for dancing “extra large,” looking effortlessly cool in dark bomber jackets as they displayed a variety of pop dance moves as well as girl power.

Too Cheap For Instruments hosts another successful Folk Fest

By Rebecca Goldfarb editor

On Saturday, Brandeis a cappella group, Too Cheap For Instruments, hosted their annual Folk Fest on the Great Lawn. The performance, part of Leonard Bernstein’s Festival of the Creative Arts, highlighted folk singers and bands from all over New England for the beautiful showcase.

Aside from Too Cheap For Instruments, the show featured performances by Molly Pinto Madigan, Lauren Pratt, Crowes Pleasure, Walter and the Night Owls and Cold Weather Company, among others.

The most well known musician of this lineup, Cold Weather

Company, is a New Jersey based alternative folk band that formed in 2011, after meeting at Rutgers University. The members of the band include Brian Curry, Jeff Pestecia and Steve Shimchick.

They are best known for their singles “Wide Eyed” and “Gettysburg.” They plan to release a third album later this year.

Too Cheap For Instruments emphasizes folk music during their a cappella performances.

The group opened with a mellow take on “Ophelia” by the Lumineers. The band then performed a variety of songs including “Planets” by Joseph, “White Winter Hymnal” by the Fleet Foxes, “Dusty Trails” by Lucius, and “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash.

The group’s dynamics, in addition to their well-blended vocal techniques, created an atmosphere perfect for the bright, sunny day.

Some attendees reflected on the festival: “All of the performances were amazing, Too Cheap For Instruments put together a really great lineup.”

-Matt Foshay ‘21

“I thought it was lovely. The atmosphere was perfect, and it was a beautiful day for it. The music sounded great as well.”

-Ash Taber ‘21 “Folk fest had a nice, relaxed atmosphere and some of the music

PHOTOS BY EMILY SORKIN SMITH/THE HOOT

classical Indian dance, this group encouraged body positivity and explored the theme of overcoming insecurity.

(especially Too Cheap For Instruments) was really great! Folk Fest had a really nice, relaxed vibe I think we can always use more of.”

-Jacob Margolis ‘21 “It was a really chill event with great artists. I enjoyed listening to the music while sitting outside and doing homework with friends. There was a really nice atmosphere.”

-Jordan Scheiner’ 21 Two members from Too Cheap for Instruments, soprano Annie Grimley ‘21 and mezzo soprano Sarah Lavin ‘21 explain their perspective about how it felt to perform at such a big event like Folk Fest.

The penultimate act Poetic Justice, which consisted of five student poets, delivered a powerful joint poem about mental health and its surrounding stigmas. They sounded off on the pressures they faced from families who did not face the reality of the issue.

Finally, Brandeis Bhangra’s Punjabi folk dancers claimed the stage for the last act. Dressed in colorful outfits, the performers moved to a tracklist which included an energetic mix of modern and folk songs. As the show came to an end, they released rainbow confetti into the audience, giving a colorful end to the exciting night.

Editor’s Note: Editor-in-Chief Hannah Schuster and Features Editor Polina Potochevska performed in Culture X with the Ballet Company.

“It was so amazing to hear the energy of the crowd and all of the artists. The beautiful weather made it really pleasant to stand up there and perform.”

-Annie Grimley ‘21, member of Too Cheap For Instruments “My a cappella group actually put on Folk Fest! It was so cool to be able to meet the artists and sing for not only Brandeis students, but the Waltham community as well. And the sunshine and blue skies made it even better than I hoped it would be.”

-Sarah Lavin ‘21, member of Too Cheap For Instruments Folk Fest celebrated local folk music, and set the stage for more favorable musical events.

14 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

April 27, 2018

Performers in Adagio semester show dance like they meme it

By Ben Beriss and Rebecca Goldfarb editors

The Adagio Dance Company hosted their semester show Wednesday, a performance that exemplified the energy dance can bring into the room.

With a theme based on memes, the show demonstrated the sense of community and openness Adagio hopes to create within their club and throughout their performances. Each dance captured a certain message, belief, or concept the creators wanted to explore in the space Adagio afforded them. This spirit created a enticing show, binding many different inspirations into a performance united by the spirit of dance.

Emcees Yael Matlow ’18 and Julia Green ’18 kept the show on track and the audience engaged throughout, introducing each act with voices similar to hosts on pop radio shows around the world.

The first piece, “Escalate,” was choreographed by Julie Joseph ’18 and performed by the Ada-

gio Dance Ensemble, an audition-based group within Adagio.

A piece based on a theoretical post-apocalyptic world that left only women as “bada$$ robot-esque creatures,” “Escalate” used flowing movements and ferocious poses to deliver a performance which captured the spirit of post-apocalyptic defiance.

The show then moved into “Mambo No. 5,” a jazzy piece with gold, glittery dresses (perhaps the best costumes in the show), which was choreographed by Lindsay Weiner ’18. “Fighter,” choreographed by Emily Glovin ‘19 and Hannah Suib ‘19, followed and brought excitement to the stage, not only with the song’s empowering message, but with the dancers’ assertive and confident stage presences and pseudo-pantomimes of fights.

This was followed by “L.O.V.E.,” choreographed by Lizzie Grossman ‘18, brought a disco vibe to the stage, building on the background music of Ashlee Simpson, constructing a fun and upbeat piece.

Rachel Lese’s ’21 “River” came next and delivered a stand-out message. The opening of the

dance featured a solo from Genevive Bondaryk ‘21, whose delivery was technically complex and impressive. The dance itself incorporated well-executed ballet inspired moves, revealing the message of the song that we all have our own story to tell about mistakes we have made.

The piece “Chains,” choreographed by Haley Director ’20, took on Nick Jonas’ song with an electrified, sassy stage presence and choreography that was technically dramatic, not allowing a dull moment on stage.

The following dance, “Dive,” choreographed by Meghana Reddy ’21, chronicled relationships as they grew and fell apart, contrasting waltz-like moves and solo dramatic flutterings to show the joy and pain of relationships.

“Game of Survival”, an excellently theatrical dance, proceeded in the program, featuring the choreography of Sarah Lavin ‘21, which combined movements reminiscent of violent rituals and combat to transform the stage into a dramatic battlefield. The performers did an amazing job bringing this concept to life.

“Total Entertainment,” choreo-

DANCE ENSEMBLE PERFORMS “ESCALATE”

graphed by Lissa Sangree-Calabrese ‘21, curated the idea of relationships like “Dive,” but went for concepts of love over specific couples. Throughout the piece, dancers expressed difficulties relating to each other deeply. The end of the dance featured Sangree-Calabrese stumbling and falling to the ground, creating a dramatic effect to conclude the dance.

The penultimate piece was “An Adagio Retrospective,” with choreography chosen and put together by Brooke Granovsky ’18, including some from as far back as 1997. Set to Kanye West’s “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’,” the dance was a wonderful mash-up of some of

PHOTO BY PAVLA BERGHEN-WOLF/THE HOOT

Adagio’s most impressive dances.

The show ended with Dance Ensemble’s rendition of “Havana,” choreographed by Rebecca Kahn ’19, where the dancers pulled off the impressive move of dancing in high heels.

The Adagio semester show was as a great way for members of the Brandeis dance community to express themselves and their visions through dance. The dancers performed a show that was both entertaining and lively, allowing the audience to take a break from studying for finals.

Editor’s Note: Editor-in-Chief Hannah Schuster is a member of the Adagio Dance Company.

Saba bares his soul in ‘Care for Me’ album

By Ben LoCascio special to the hoot

Saba dives deep into his demons, and he isn’t scared. Full of pain, loneliness, depression but, ultimately, authenticity, the album, “Care For Me” has the level of honesty only found in one’s private journal entries. Saba’s pain meets his pen which comes crashing down hard onto the page. In “CALLIGRAPHY,” the fourth track on the new album, Saba explains “I just got tired of runnin’ away, runnin’ away” so instead he sat down to “write it away, write it away.”

“Care For Me” is exactly that, a loose leaf torn out of Saba’s diary, personal struggles made public songs, written in his own carefully crafted “CALLIGRAPHY.”

West-Side Chicago rapper Tahj Malik Chandler, better known as “Saba” released his second album “Care For Me” on April 5. The album was listed at number 45 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts within its first week and already has heads spinning all over the hiphop community. Even this early in 2018, it is on my list as a serious contender for Best Rap Album of the year.

Twenty-three-year-old Saba, who got his start on the vibrant Chicago open mic scene alongside big names like Vic Mensa, Noname and Chance the Rapper, has finally come into his own with this project. No longer is Saba “that one rapper featured on Chance’s song.” With “Care For Me,” Saba has solidified his persona as the tortured poet who isn’t afraid to take a hit in order to produce a more accurate picture. In

the song “GREY,” Saba asks us not to label him with those who have “infatuation with plastic” instead “I wanted it to be realer.” He sings about the nature of radio hits and money making singles. For Saba “the best song is probably on the B-Side.” Saba distinguishes himself; he is speaking from the heart.

Saba raps over piano-based ballads and jazz inspired beats, reminding the listener of the intimate place from which the album was born. The jazzy chords on “GREY” speak of long nights spent hunched over the piano, pouring one’s heart out into ivory. The thumping upright bass in “LIFE” alludes to the bluesy depression felt by many jazz musicians and singers of the past.

The music provides a melancholy space which set the tone for Saba’s flow and thoughts to shine.

The album feels more like a

broken landscape with a singular narrator than a journey accumulating in a single message. Saba is our tour guide, taking us through a haunted city where he maintains the power to temporarily inhabit the voices of different ghosts. The album’s opening song BUSY/SIRENS makes references to the unfair deaths of Tamir Rice, Philando Castile and Stephon Clark, deaths resulting from police brutality. Saba then sees them as phantoms, singing, “Now you’re lying where angels lay.” The project ends with the song “HEAVEN ALL AROUND ME,” where the soul of Chadler’s dead cousin, Walter, watches paramedics try to resuscitate his own body, and cries out to his mother and brothers, “I know you hear me…/ [but] Regardless how loud, they don’t hear.”

The album seems void of hope

and speaks of sadness, stepping inside the lost dreams and unrealized futures of Saba’s dead loved ones. “My best friend obituary really hang on my wall, by the dresser.” However, the hope in the album lies in what it does for the listener. The experience ends up so accurately embodying what it means and feels like for humans to live in a broken system that it forced me as the listener to come to terms with my own anxieties.

The album brings me towards feelings I don’t want to have to explore, but the honesty and bravery with which Saba travels gives me the strength and ability to voice my own hidden fears and look my demons straight in their eyes.

Saba pushes me to go where I can’t or where I won’t. The album asks its audience repeatedly, “Can’t you care for me?” But instead the album cares for me, the listener.

‘Legion’ is just as crazy and just as compelling in its second season

By Jonah Koslofsky staff

Interpretive dance battling against the forces of evil. Waffles delivered to a hungry protagonist on tiny boats. Time travel. Random narration by Emmy award winner Jon Hamm. Seriously, if you’re not watching “Legion” on FX by now, I’m not sure what else I can do to sell this show. There’s no other series that balances such stylish insanity with seriously compelling, existential character drama. If you like superheroes, good TV or waffles, you will like “Legion.”

For those who are unaware, “Legion” is a show about a young man named David Haller, who is either a) mentally ill or b) the most powerful superhero on the planet. It’s not quite clear which.

One part “Donnie Darko” and one part “X-Men,” “Legion” likely wouldn’t be the success it is without Noah Hawley, the main creative force behind the camera.

Like “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler, Hawley excels at taking existing intellectual property and reinvigorating it with his own aesthetic sensibilities. Hawley even manages to do this without losing what made those series or stories unique in the first place.

Hawley, who either wrote or cowrote every episode of “Legion” season 2, originally worked wonders on the anthology television adaptation of “Fargo.” The difference is due to the subject matter; with “Legion,” Hawley can let his imagination run wild, every frame just dripping with style.

That said, I did have some worries going into the second season of “Legion.” So much of this show is reliant on Hawley, who hit a bit of a creative burnout on the third season of “Fargo” last year. Hawley has said in interviews that he was writing both shows simultaneously, and his workaholic tendency caused “Fargo” season three to be the weakest season out of anything he’s ever made.

So while the first season of “Le-

gion” was great, the cynical part of me worried a bit that Hawley had lost his way as an auteur. The good news is that it looks like the second season of “Legion” is Hawley’s main focus, and he seems to be giving it his undivided attention, which leads to some spectacular television.

“Legion” season 2 builds on everything that was great about season one without not resting on its laurels (as any good sequel should). It picks up one year later, with David finally free from the mysterious Orb that picked him up at the very end of last season.

Still at large is Amahl Farouk, or “The Shadow King,” an X-Men villain who had been living inside David’s mind for decades.

However, there’s a key inversion this season: in season one, David was an insane man in a seemingly sane world, but now, with many of his mental demons vanquished, he’s the sane man in an insane world.

And that’s where Hawley’s style comes into play. Between the

narrative detours that the show happily indulges in (which include Jon Hamm’s narration and explanations of real world mental health phenomenon) to the android hive mind that’s casually introduced with a few lines of dialogue to the psychological “virus” that makes people’s teeth chatter endlessly, we don’t know much about the world “Legion” takes place in, but we do know that it’s gotten as crazy as David ever was.

Most of the weird stuff on “Legion” last season took place within David’s mind, but Hawley has now unleashed his distinct aesthetic on everyone, which makes “Legion” feel like a show where anything can happen.

Although Hawley may come from a more prestigious background than most comic book showrunners, his imagination is what makes “Legion” so closely resemble a comic book. After all, comics writers and artists have no constraints on their vision, as awe-inspiring visuals don’t have the same special effects cost on

the page as they do on the screen.

It’s not like comics creatives have to worry about “ink costs” the way showrunners have to balance a special effects budget over a dozen episodes.

So while “Legion” is very visually distinct from something like the CW’s “Flash” or any of the Marvel Netflix shows, I’d argue that the creativity and distinct aesthetic makes it closer to the comics it’s adapted from.

I could honestly gush about this show endlessly, without even getting into how the show perfectly pays homage to one specific X-Men comic (Uncanny X-Men 117, which happens to be a personal favorite). But basically I just want to encourage everyone and anyone to give this show a try.

With “Legion” and “Atlanta” (another favorite of mine) both airing on FX, it’s clear that the network has a vision for where the television medium is going, and that’s apparently this unique, creator driven and stylish direction.

Waffles included.

April 27, 2018

ARTS 15

The Brandeis Hoot

Senior theses examine representational issues in art

By Ben Beriss editor

The performances of the shows created by Brandeis’ graduating theater majors came to a close with the end of the Festival of the Arts, but their limited run managed to raise deep questions about how we feature minorities in art.

The most interesting piece came from Keturah Walker ’18, whose “From Pearls to Hoops” piece recounted her experience as a black woman in the primarily white Brandeis theater department. A dramatized version of her life, the play uses Walker’s story as a vehicle to talk about her successes in addition to the challenges black artists face in traditionally white environments.

The show was specifically framed around a specific interaction wherein someone talking to Walker let slip that she assumed Walker didn’t know her father. Freezing in that moment, the show traveled through all of Walker’s prior experiences that determined her reaction to this comment.

Dipping in and out of realism, “From Pearls” mixed Walker’s real-life experiences with her thoughts, effectively chronicling her growth from timid and unsure to a strong self-advocate.

These inner thoughts are presented in interludes between literal scenes from the story, abandoning these literal scenes’ dialogue for dance, poetry and music. This

semi-surrealist style lent itself to the emotionally-driven purpose of these scenes, easily communicating Walker’s initial worries about success through panicked cries and, later, her self-assurance through a powerful poem about self-care. The more literal scenes drove home the difficulties racism, explicit or implicit, presents for minorities and how the lack of early opportunity can make it difficult to succeed.

Many actors involved in the show had little prior theatrical experience, but under Walker and Shaquan McDowell’s ’18 direction, they created compelling performances. Their lack of experience slanted them toward a more exaggerated, comedic style but this matched the show’s lighthearted spirit. A notable scene was Walker’s “inner bad bitches,” both of whom had perfect sass.

While this show took on complex problems (well), the lightness which ran through the show made it a pleasure to watch and even more satisfying when Walker got up to tell off the woman who assumed she did not know her father.

Sara Kenney’s ’18 production, “The Most Excellent and Lamentably PC But Incompleat Tragedy of Shakespeare’s Womyn Without a Single Reference to Lady Macbeth, Or What You Will” was an intriguing reconstruction of Shakespeare’s women. As an anthology of Shakespeare’s most powerful scenes involving women, the show removed scenes from

the original show and juxtaposed them with other portraits of the Bard’s women, thereby shifting the emphasis of each scene onto the specific characters and the way they represent their gender.

The show managed to provoke thought about women, power and representation without a single explicit lecture.

The scenes themselves, made up of Shakespeare’s notoriously difficult language, were skillfully performed by Kenney and Rachel Greene ’20, under the direction of Andrew Child ’18. Kenney delivered powerful monologues, switching fluidly between characters and moods while avoiding getting bogged down by the Bard’s language. Greene served as an impressive second-woman, matching Kenney’s clarity and elevating comedic scenes with a wonderfully ridiculous energy.

They were aided by quick-change costumes and projection which solidly established the scene and larger show moods, respectively.

With a remarkable grasp of the material, the show was a striking introduction to Shakespeare or an intriguing exploration of gender for those already familiar with him.

Tres Fimmano ’18 also examined representation in art, with his piece “Queering the Cape: Hidden Themes in American Comic Books,” which featured four comic nerds arguing about themes of sexuality in the world of comics. The show alternated between the cute moments of close

FROM PEARLS TO HOOPS

friends and impassioned speeches about which superheroes were gay icons or a step backwards in the struggle for the right kind of representation of queer characters. However, not everyone in the show agreed on what the right kind of representation would be.

The arguments the characters had on this topic were weighed down slightly by the need to explain the comic-world context of each topic, but still presented fascinating questions about the way comic creators treat queer characters. Is it necessary to have bisexual characters label themselves as such? How closely can the strug-

PHOTO COURTESY KETURAH WALKER

gle of mutants (of X-Men fame) be matched to the gay rights movement? Can Superman be a gay icon despite (usually) being totally straight? Alongside these arguments the actors displayed a series of adorable moments, presenting the carefree happiness that only spending time with friends can bring.

The unification between these two elements, however, suffered slightly; with slightly awkward transitions in and out of monologues and characters who never truly shared their history or personalities to explain why they felt this way about these comics.

Blacklist hosts coffeehouse and open mic night

By Olivia Ellson staff

The undergraduate literature and arts journal Blacklist celebrated the release of their second volume this year with an open microphone event at Chum’s on April 24.

Blacklist has undergone major changes this year. “We basically changed everything,” said managing editor Tiana Murrieta ’19. The publication had existed under the title “Where the Children Play” since 1994 before rebranding as “Blacklist” last semester.

Blacklist also transitioned from a magazine to a paperback, fully bound journal and went national, expanding its submission base from Brandeis students to any undergraduate in North America.

“We got to reach out to more schools and get more submissions,” Murrieta said of their work during the spring semester. “We’re more hitting our stride now.”

According to assistant editor Nyomi White ’20, there are also considerations to expand the journal online to allow for more digital media, including video and music, to be submitted.

The event itself began with free food and complimentary copies of Blacklist Volume 2 for everyone in attendance. A journal of literature and art, the book contains poetry, short stories, artwork and photography submitted by college students across the nation. Contributors come from as close as Brandeis and as far as the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

To kick off the event, Murrieta and poetry editor, Sumner Alperin-Lea ’18, gave a brief introduction. They served as emcees for the evening, where Brandeis students were given the chance

to read original poetry, perform slam poems and play music.

Events like these are “really just about creating a community around our journal,” Murrieta said, “so that one, people feel more comfortable interacting with us, but also so that people have an outlet for their creativity.”

White added some light-hearted comedy to the evening with a dramatic reading about fandom discourse, as well as several poetic variations on the “i lik the bred” meme.

Linfei Yang ’20 performed his poem, “Invertebrate”—featured in the new issue Blacklist—bringing the work’s intriguing visual structure to life. Many of the other performers were not published in the journal, but instead took advantage of the casual, friendly atmosphere of the open mic event.

One such group was an as yet unnamed band introduced as “Big Mystery.” With Nic Neves ’20 on keyboard, Jonathan Aiyathurai ’21 on saxophone, Elias Trout ’21 on trumpet and Max Halpern ’20 on the drums, these four musicians were one of the highlights of the night, playing a bit of jazz amidst the poetry and spoken word.

Alperin-Lea said he is glad to provide a space for musicians as well as writers to perform, saying, “We often bemoan that we can’t publish songs in print. If we could publish an entire song in print, we would, but that’s why we also like to have musical acts at the open mic.”

The open mic provided an impressive display of the artistic talent in the Brandeis student body.

Blacklist will continue to publish their journal and host events at Brandeis in the fall, promoting a space for artists to create and share their work.

EMCEES FOR THE NIGHT

BIG MYSTERY

Tiana Murrieta and Sumner Alperin-Lea introduce the event.

Nic Neves, Elias Trout, Jonathan Aiyathurai and Max Halpern perform jazz music.

PHOTOS BY OLIVIA ELLSON/THE HOOT

16 The Brandeis Hoot

ZUCCHINI

WEEK IN PHOTOS

PHOTO BY EMILY SORKIN SMITH/THE HOOT

Because tomatoes had not yet made it to the Arabian Penninsula.

Members of the Brandeis Farmers Club weed in preparation for Plant Fest FARMERS CLUB

PHOTO COURTESY BENÉE HERSHON

Libby Williams ‘20 and Nina Bart ‘20 enjoy the last day of classes in their hammocks.

SUNSHINE

SPRING Students studied outside the library on one of the first warm days of the spring and

soaked up the warm weather and sunshine.

April 27, 2018

PHOTO BY ALLISON PLOTNIK/THE HOOT

PHOTO BY SARA MCCREA/THE HOOT

Senior fine arts majors Pavla Berghen-Wolf PHOTO BY EMMA HANSELMAN/THE HOOT ‘18 and Orli Swergold ‘18 pose outside the Rose on their last day of classes.

THE ROSE