The Brandeis Hoot 08-28-2020

Volume 17 Issue 9

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

August 28, 2020

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper · Waltham, Mass.

Students return to univ.

By Sabrina Chow and Victoria Morrongiello editors

Most classes will be online for the fall 2020 semester, announced President Ron Liebowitz in a June 30 email outlining Brandeis’ plan for the 2020-2021 academic year. Students will be allowed to live on campus, with the opportunity to complete coursework remotely. Everyone on the Brandeis campus will be required to wear masks indoors and outdoors. The announcement comes after the university’s COVID-19 task force released its June suggestions for Brandeis to hold a mixture of online and in-person courses in the fall.

The Brandeis Hoot will be interviewing members of the administration in the coming weeks for more information about plans for the fall.

Academics The fall semester will start on See WELCOME BACK, page 5

Wednesday, Aug. 26, a week earlier than previously announced, and classes will conclude on Thursday, Dec. 3, according to the university’s website. Students will be given an extended Thanksgiving break (Monday, Nov. 23 through Friday, Nov. 27) and will complete the rest of the semester online after that break. The last week of instruction, study days and final exams will all be conducted remotely.

The university will finalize dates for the spring 2021 semester during the fall semester. The tentative plan is to start the semester a week later during the last week of January and eliminate February break to limit travel. The task force announced these changes in an earlier June email from Provost Lisa Lynch.

Most classes will meet twice a week for 90 minutes, on Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday, with 30 minutes between classes for on-campus classroom cleaning. Fridays will be reserved for three-hour class blocks, advanced labs and project labs, recitations, speakers, faculty meetings and special

BACK TO SCHOOL:

PHOTO BY GRACE ZHOU/THE HOOT

Brandeis students will be frequently tested for the coronavirus.

Instagram account shares ‘unheard stories’ from Brandeis

By Emma Lichtenstein editor

The Unheard Stories at Brandeis Instagram page (@unheard_stories_deis), an account that shares anonymous stories of community members’ experiences on campus, according to an Instagram

story highlight, has garnered nearly twenty thousand followers and has posted over two hundred posts about misconduct on campus since its creation on June 27.

According to the page’s Instagram story highlights, this page was founded as a platform for students to anonymously speak about their experiences as well

editor

President Ron Liebowitz announced an initiative where groups of administrative officials will come up with plans over the next 90 days to transform the campus and address systemic racism, according to a June 10 email. Liebowitz followed up on his statement six days later, where he apologized for a lack of clarity about who will make up the groups, writing that community members had reached out to him

Inside This Issue:

By Rachel Saal editor

about his original statement.

Students on Brandeis’ official Instagram and Facebook pages criticized the statement for centering White administrators in the groups designed to outline new roles and responsibilities for departments including Public Safety, the Department of Community Living, Human Resources and Athletics. They called on Brandeis to center students, faculty and administrators of color, according to several student posts.

Some drew attention to the uniSee RACISM, page 3

News: Univ. partners with Institute for testing.

Ops: Thoughts on Adam and Eve. Arts: Avatar is a beautiful anomaly.

Sports: Athletes react to season cancellation.

Editorial: Better safe than sorry!

Page 2 Page 12 Page 13 Page 6 Page 8

toward a minority community.

In an interview with the account over Instagram direct messages, the page revealed that posts are on a three week backlog, as the page’s Google form—which it used to collect stories—was “absolutely flooded with responses.”

The page told The Brandeis Hoot that they understand that a

lot of these issues are “systematically embedded” in these organizations and that holding present members or leaders responsible for their predecessors is not fully fair. “Our naming of the organizations and clubs is to ensure that they do take accountability See UNHEARD, page 4

Economists raise doubts about model saying univ. will “perish”

Brandeis announces initiative to address systemic racism

By Tim Dillon

as start a conversation about the culture at the university.

Many of the posts are alleged negative experiences from students about Brandeis clubs and organizations, courses, faculty and overall culture of the community. Most of the concerns were about either sexual harassment or assault or microaggressions

New York University (NYU) Marketing Professor Scott Galloway said that hundreds of colleges around the country, including Brandeis, will fail under current fall reopening plans due to the coronavirus, but analysts and university administrations have refuted the professor’s model and that there have been direct consequences of his post. Professors from other institutions told The Brandeis Hoot that Galloway’s model is irresponsible and unethical, particularly because he did not disclose potential conflicts of

Bomb Threat Brandeis received a bomb threat before the school year began.

NEWS: PAGE 4

interest.

“The economic circumstances for many of these schools are dire, and administrators will need imagination—and taxpayer dollars—to avoid burning the village to save it,” reads Galloway’s blog post. “Per current plans, hundreds of colleges will perish.”

Ed Carr, the director of the international development, community and environment department at Clark University, another school that was predicted to perish, told The Brandeis Hoot in an interview that he thought the post was “obnoxious.”

“Without testing, the implicit model behind this analysis is

self-referential and easily engineered to produce any desired outcome,” Carr wrote in a blog post he co-authored with Rob Johnston, Director of the George Perkins Marsh Institute at Clark University.

Carr told The Hoot that he thinks Galloway should have disclosed his potential conflicts of interest in his blog post, including that he is heavily invested in a large start-up for online education. Carr said that Galloway’s investments might not have influenced his conclusion, but that

Support BLM Student sells earrings to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

FEATURES: PAGE 9

See NYU, page 4

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

August 28, 2020

Univ. works with Broad Institute for testing

By Victoria Morrongiello editor

The university’s testing frequency for the coronavirus will be dependent on how often an individual is on campus per week, according to the university’s testing page.

Members of the Brandeis community living on campus and individuals who come to campus three or more times a week are required to get tested twice a week, or every three to four days. Individuals who visit campus once or twice a week are required to take one test a week and those who do not visit campus on a regular basis are required to get a test every time they visit, according to the testing page. The university is administering tests which assess asymptomatic individuals within the community.

The university has multiple testing sites including the Admissions Building and the Heller School, according to the university’s testing portal. The tests will be sent to the Broad Institute, in Cambridge, MA, to check if COVID-19 is present, according to the article.

The university has administered 3,000 tests having identified three

MASKS

positive COVID-19 results, according to an Aug. 14 email from President Ron Liebowitz. The university expects to process up to 1,200 tests per day. As of Aug. 27, the university has conducted almost 8,000 tests from over 3,400 unique individuals with a total of six positive cases since July 14, according to Brandeis’ COVID dashboard. This equates to a 0.05 percent positivity rate as of Aug. 25, with the Massachusetts positivity rate at 1.08 percent as of Aug. 25.

If a student tests positive for the coronavirus, they will be isolated and will communicate with contact tracers to determine individuals deemed within close contact with the person who tested positive, according to Liebowtiz.

In order to get tested, members of the community must first make an appointment online using the university testing portal, according to the testing information page. Appointment times are offered in half-hour windows, according to a BrandeisNOW article, and when you arrive you must check in with staff who will give you a sample tube with a swab.

Then you are assigned to medical personnel who guide you in how to administer the swab test to yourself.

Members of the community must take the swab and insert it into both nostrils, swirling it around to ensure the test has been administered properly, according to the article. After the test, the university will provide hand sanitizer for the subject and then the medical personnel cleans the surface for the next appointment.

On the university testing portal, members of the community must also indicate how often they are on campus, in order to determine how often they should receive testing. The portal is where one must complete their daily health assessment as well. The Daily Health Assessment must be completed by those who are arriving on campus or are residential members, according to the assessment tool.

The survey asks whether the individual has had any symptoms of COVID-19 including: fever, shortness of breath, cough, muscle aches, chills, headache, sore throat, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and loss of taste or smell, according to the survey. The individual is also asked whether they have been in close contact with a person who has received a positive test result, or is presumed to have it, according to the survey. An individual must also indicate on this survey

whether they have spent the last 14 days outside of the exempt states under the Massachusetts State Guidelines which include: Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Vermont, as of print time.

The Broad Institute in March 2020 converted their labs into a COVID-19 testing facility; since then the lab has processed over 400,000 COVID-19 tests, according to their website. The Broad Institute works with hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and homeless shelters, as well as colleges and universities. The Broad Institute’s partnership with the university provides pre-assembled test kits, which contain tubes and swabs.

The test processing will return results within a 24 hour window of the receipt, according to their Fall 2020 College and University Testing Discussion page on their website.

The Broad Institute is providing the university with an asymptomatic community testing program, according to the university’s Student Quarantine and Isolation Policy and Procedures page. The program provides the university with testing swabs which are self administered and act as an initial screening to determine whether an individual has COVID-19. If

an individual were to test positive on the initial screening test, they would then have to receive a follow-up exam which must be administered by a medical professional to confirm the positive test result, according to the page. The diagnostic test must confer with the initial screening to confirm whether a person has the virus or not.

The Broad Institute’s tests are intended for the use of detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection in the acute phase of infection, according to the Broad Institute’s COVID-19 Testing at Broad page.

Positive test results on the initial screening indicate an active infection with SARS-CoV-2; however, they do not confirm co-infections with other viral or bacterial diseases, according to the page.

Testing at the university began on July 27 with the beginning phase of pilot testing. These tests were administered at the Shapiro Science Center to asymptomatic members of the community after they had scheduled an appointment online through the university’s scheduling portal.

The pilot testing phase increased its number of tests leading up to the start of the academic year and return of students to campus.

PHOTOS BY GRACE ZHOU/THE HOOT

Masks are required on the Brandeis campus.

Brandeis and Mass. travel protocols include restrictions; noncompliance could result in fines

By Tim Dillon editor

As many students return to campus for the fall semester, they will face travel restrictions and quarantine requirements implemented by Brandeis University and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Failing to comply can result in fines of up to $500 per day.

Any travelers entering Massachusetts, including returning Massachusetts residents, from outside of the designated “lower

risk states” are required to fill out the Massachusetts Travel Form and quarantine for two weeks or until they receive a negative result from a test taken within Massachusetts, according to the state government’s website. There are limited exceptions for people who commute out of state for work or school, people travelling to MA for medical treatment, anyone travelling on federal or state military business, people travelling through the state without stopping, and workers entering to perform “critical infrastructure functions” as designated by the Cybersecurity and

Infrastructure Security Agency, a sub agency of the Federal Department of Homeland Security.

As defined by Massachusetts, lower risk states include Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and New Jersey. Massachusetts does not require travelers from those states to quarantine or fill out the Massachusetts Travel Form. These states are seen as having the virus sufficiently under control so that there is a minimal risk of spreading it to Massachusetts—the reason for the exemption. Rhode Island and Hawai’i were formerly on that list, but due to an increase in cases in

both states they were removed on August 7 and August 14 respectively. In addition to Massachusetts law, students must follow Brandeis’ additional protocols for returning to campus. Firstly, all students who will be required to quarantine by Massachusetts will be instructed to quarantine in their dorm rooms until they receive a negative result from a test that will be administered to them upon arrival at Brandeis.

Brandeis is not requiring students from the low risk states to quarantine in their rooms, although all students are required to fill out the Brandeis Daily

Health Assessment upon arrival.

Although Brandeis’ Fall 2020 Health and Safety Plan was updated August 19, the travel section incorrectly lists Hawai’i as a low risk state at time of writing.

Once on campus, all students are required to get tested twice a week. This mandatory testing is provided for free, and in an Aug. 14 email, President Ron Liebowitz said that the university will be able to process “between 1,000 and 1,200 tests each day for faculty staff, and students.” Anyone on campus will be required to fill out the Daily Health Assessment, as the name implies, on a daily basis.

August 28 , 2020

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

Brandeis rabbi responds to criticism of student union president

By Celia Young and Victoria Morrongiello editors

Rabbi and Executive Director of Brandeis Hillel Seth Winberg responded to social media criticism of Brandeis’ student union president’s Instagram comments about a New York Senate Bill—a bill that would require school children in the state to be educated on the meaning of swastikas and nooses as symbols of hatred and intolerance—according to its text.

Winberg’s email, which came out on July 24, followed tensions on social media as Brandeis students discussed the president’s statements—arguing that the swastika’s history in other cultures should also be acknowledged— and as social media accounts with larger followings drew attention to the conversation.

Winberg acknowledged the backlash President Simran Tatuskar ’21 faced online, including what appeared to be a threat on an Instagram page with over 13,000 followers. An Instagram user wrote that they were “finding her name location and address [sic].” The Instagram page replied that it had that information, according to screenshots obtained

by The Brandeis Hoot. The page, @stop_antisemetism, which deleted the comments, did not respond to requests for comment.

In a post on Facebook Winberg said that he was “embarrassed” by the response to Simran’s post made by those who claimed to be representative of the Jewish community. Winberg also wrote that a more productive reaction would be to be considerate of the opposing argument, ask further questions to get a better understanding and check the facts before criticizing someone.

In an email to the community that also touched on the backlash, Winberg wrote, “Some of the assessments of the current student union president have been unfair and distressing. My sense from her other social media posts is that she is aware of and speaks

up about antisemitism...Students deserve the benefit of the doubt as they find their voices and learn how to express themselves sincerely and delicately,” He continued, “.We need to be vigilant in combating antisemitism, and we should all be allies in that regard.”

The social media backlash followed an Instagram story on Tatuskar’s account that questioned a New York Senate bill—S6648— which passed in the senate on July 21, according to the senate.

The bill comes in response to a rise in hate crimes nationwide, according to a CNN article.

Tatuskar posted comments by an Instagram account discussing the bill and added her own commentary, where she argued that both histories—the Hindu and Buddhist history of the symbol and the Nazi history—should be taught.

“I grew up in a religious family and understand the historic significance and value of this symbol in Hindu culture. I don’t understand why cultural appropriation from Hindu/Buddhist culture for a truly evil and vicious cause by Nazi Germany isn’t isolated from the origins of the symbol and what it still continues to mean,” wrote Tatuskar in the post.

“I think it’s important to teach both - awareness of other cultures and to be cognizant of antisemitism as a reality,” wrote Tatuskar. “I’m aware of how valuable and historic Jewish culture is, and the level of antisemitism that’s faced to this day that needs to be addressed.

But that can’t be done by invalidating other cultures and their values/symbols in the process.”

Winberg responded directly to Tatuskar’s comments, writing, “My own view is that there ought to be a way to teach about the swastika as a symbol of hateful anti-Judaism without disenfranchising American Hindus. The Third Reich’s misappropriation of the swastika should be taught as part of Holocaust history.”

Tatuskar later clarified her remarks in a subsequent post, saying she regretted the mis-

understandings it caused.

“The Nazi swastika undoubtedly represents the horrors of the Holocaust,” Tatuskar wrote in the subsequent post a few days later, on July 22. “Hitler tilted the swastika and turned it into a symbol of hate... As someone who is not Jewish, I know that I cannot fully understand the Jewish experience and feelings my post evoked, but I never wanted to harm anyone...

The current version of the bill erases and vilifies various cultures for using this symbol. This may perpetuate ignorance, since all students will learn that the Swastika [sic] is solely and exclusively associated with hatred and intolerance rather than being educated about the full historical and cultural meaning of the symbol.”

The history of the swastika dates back to before the second world war, and the word “swastika” means “well-being” in Sanskrit, according to a BBC article.

The symbol is used by Buddhists, Hindus and Jainists, and was used in the west for advertising and product design prior to the 1930s. Within the religion of Hinduism, “it is an auspicious sign that signifies prosperity and good luck, hence it is displayed during religious festivals.” according to an ABC op-ed. The swastika was used during the second world war, by the Nazi Third Reich, for uniforms, flags and even troop formations at rallies, according to The Smithsonian.

The symbol used by Nazi Germany at the time, the black straight-armed hakenkreuz, or hooked cross, was placed on a white circle and red background to form the Nazi flag.

The symbol is notorious for representing antisemitism and the Holocaust—or the imprisonment and genocide of around 6 million Jewish people. It is known as a hate symbol in the U.S. and linked with white supremacy movements, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The symbol has been banned in Germany, since after World War Two, according to a VOX article.

Several Brandeis Instagram us-

ers referenced a post by user Anna Rajagopal, who does not attend Brandeis (though she says she was accepted into Brandeis’ midyear program last fall and chose not to attend), and who self-identifies as both Indian and Jewsh. She told The Hoot in an email that several Brandeis students reached out to her about Tatuskar’s posts. She wrote about the meaning of the symbol to her and criticized Tatuskar’s statements in a post to over 3,000 followers on July 21.

“Here’s the bottom line: If you aren’t Jewish, you are not “aware” of the way the Swastika affects us Jews. We suffer from intergenerational trauma correlated directly to the Swastika,” the post reads.

“As president of @brandeisuniversity’s student union, this is unacceptable. I ask--Why post this now? The answer: Because antisemitism is finally gaining the attention that we Jews have long waited for, and you are using our momentum--our outcry of trauma and pain.”

Rajagopal wrote she stands by her post, and that Tatuskar’s second post “was not an apology,” but minimized Jewish trauma and failed to acknowledge that some Jewish people are nonwhite. Rajapogal wrote that she condemns threats and doxxing— where individuals publish another’s private information online as a form of revenge— of any kind.

“I hope that the Jewish community—my community—realizes the nuance inherent to this issue...

I am a Jewish Indian. I grew up around the Swastika [sic], with the symbol present in my life— as a symbol of peace. As a Jew, I also grew up with that symbol as a reminder & bringer of great trauma. Jewish Indians NEED [sic] to be included in these discussions.

This conversation can’t be Jews versus Indians, because then we are leaving out thousands of those of us who exist as both,” she wrote.

“To allow Hitler, Nazi Germany and White Supremacy [sic] to continue to pit both marginalized groups against each other is doing EVERYONE [sic] a disservice.”

Several prominent Instagram

pages, including @jewishoncampus and @stop_antisemitism, also posted criticism against Tatuskar, and the Free Press Journal, an English daily newspaper out of Mumbai, and the website Swarajya Magazine picked up the story. Tatuskar’s original post was reposted to the Instagram stories of several Brandeis students in the following days.

When Tatuskar clarified her statement, she wrote that her original post was about the New York Senate bill. Tatuskar described the Nazi definition of the swastika as “vital and necessary learning for all students,” and concluded that, “Marginalized identities should not be pitted against one another.”

She cited a leadership summit that Winberg also references in his email response. The 2008 summit, attended by both Chief Rabbis of Israel and the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha, representatives of the World Council of Religious Leaders produced a declaration which included a description of the swastika’s history.

“Svastika is an ancient and greatly auspicious symbol of the Hindu tradition,” the declaration reads. “It is inscribed on Hindu temples, ritual altars, entrances, and even account books. A distorted version of this sacred symbol was misappropriated by the Third Reich in Germany, and abused as an emblem under which heinous crimes were perpetrated against humanity, particularly the Jewish people.

The participants recognize that this symbol is, and has been sacred to Hindus for millennia, long before its misappropriation.”

The discussion was brought to the comments section of Brandeis University’s official Instagram page on July 23, which discussed the return to fall learning. It was repeatedly commented on by users writing the hashtag “#Hinduphobia”, “#westandwithSimranTatuskar”, “#stophinduphobia” and others. This post now has over 150 comments, with Brandeis students and others discussing the origin, meaning and modern use of the swastika.

New initiative to address systemic racism at Brandeis RACISM, from page 1

versity’s policies on student protests, which were updated in late August of 2019, according to an earlier Hoot article, and Brandeis’ treatment of the Still Concerned Student protestors, who protested discrimination at Brandeis in May 2019.

Brandeis’s protest policies allow the university to limit “the time, place, and manner of demonstrations” and states that the Dean of Students Office (DOSO) must “be notified in writing in advance of any planned demonstrations, and may instruct organizers regarding the guidelines for such activity,” according to the Brandeis Rights and Responsibilities.

A majority of the 13 administrators charged with creating these action plans are White, but Liebowitz’s second email on June 16 clarified that membership of each group is not limited to the administrators he listed in his first email.

“The names listed in the memo are those who will be responsible and accountable for submitting

plans to me by September 1,” wrote Liebowitz on June 16.

“I had not intended to limit membership to those involved in the reporting process.” He also added that anyone is free to independently submit ideas if they have them.

Recent weeks have seen protests for racial justice across the country and around the world.

The protests began as a response to repeated police killings of unarmed African Americans, such as George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY; however, they have grown to encompass opposing systemic racism in police and other American institutions, according to a New York Times article.

Chief diversity officer Mark Brimhall-Vargas wrote that he felt “deep sadness and anger at the recurring examples of racist violence against black people across the United States, made worse at this time by the inequitable impact of COVID-19 on our communities of color” in a May 29 email to the Brandeis

community, the first university communication in response to the protests. “[Brandeis’] black and brown students, faculty and staff are carrying the extra weight of systemic racism in addition to the pandemic’s challenge…Equity and respect for people—regardless of the color of their skin, religious beliefs or background—are among our most important foundational values at Brandeis.”

“George Floyd’s killing was cruel, inhumane, and contemptible,” Liebowitz wrote in a June 1 email.

“The injustice of violence against black people must stop,” adding that “the history of our great university is intertwined with the pursuit of justice.”

The Board of Trustees also said they are “committed to creating a campus community that is an exemplar of how people of many nationalities, races, ethnicities, and differences can live together comfortably with dignity, respect, and equity, excluding no one,” saying that so far, Brandeis has “not done nearly enough,” according to a

June 10 statement.

Provost Lisa M. Lynch urged members of the Brandeis community to take time to examine systemic racism in the larger society and at Brandeis itself.

Lynch announced a panel titled “America’s Racial Reckoning: Black Lives and Black Futures in Historical, Political and Legal Context” on June 12 to discuss systemic racism, moderated by Chad Williams (AAAS), the chair of the African and African American Studies Department.

PHOTO FROM HOOT ARCHIVES

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

August 28, 2020

Univ. releases statement on anonymous forums UNHEARD, from page 1

for the story that emerged,” they wrote. The page made it clear in both early posts and the interview that they are hoping for accountability, but do not support cancel culture, which is typically defined by the public shaming of an entity and loss of support from friends and/or the fanbase.

“It is no secret that Brandeis has many problems, especially pertaining to race, minorities, and assault. From Ford Hall’s activists to the constant microaggressions, being a Brandeisian means constantly experiencing and/or confronting racism and sexism within the community,” reads the caption of the first post on the Unheard Stories page. “Our voices have power together. Let’s use this space to share our stories and experiences at Brandeis University.

Anonymity guaranteed always.”

Groups that received a lot of criticism were the athletics department, South Asian Student Association (SASA) and Greek Life. Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT) and Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternities

By Celia Young and Rachel Saal editors

Brandeis community members were notified of a bomb threat on the Brandeis campus on Aug. 20 at 10:50 a.m. via phone call, text and email through the Brandeis Emergency Notification System (BENS). At 1:40 p.m., commu-

have been given the most criticism on the page, with several posts alleging sexual violence from members of the institutions. All of the organizations that were mentioned have come forward with apologetic statements and plans for how they intend to improve the culture of their institution in the future in response to the page.

Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Mark Brimhall-Vargas sent a statement to the entire Brandeis community, on behalf of the administration, regarding sharing stories anonymously and general reporting at Brandeis on July 24.

“It is an integral and important part of being a Brandeisian to speak out for equity and justice,” Vargas wrote in the email.

“The university supports and respects students’ right to have their voices heard on issues that are important to them. This is true, even when we share stories anonymously … We encourage all of you to continue speaking out to improve Brandeis.”

The email then said that there

are consequences of speaking out.

Though no students have been explicitly named in any of the Instagram posts, students have been identifying the people being written about, according to the email.

Vargas wrote that these identified students are left “without a way to meaningfully respond, defend themselves, or engage in any form of restorative resolution.”

This response was unsatisfactory for many followers of the Unheard Stories page. Using the question feature available on Instagram stories, the account asked followers how they felt about this email. Many of the posted replies mentioned that the email focused on protecting those who are being accused of the misconduct, not the students on the receiving end. The page told The Hoot that they tried to post every response to this email.

At the end of his email, Vargas urged students to report these incidents in the proper Brandeis channels, linking each of the resources, including the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO), Ombuds, and the Dean of Students

Office. “Usually when a matter is reported anonymously, the University will not be able to take any action regarding that report,” according to the OEO website.

“By filling that gap and trying to be as inclusive as possible to all stories and situations, we’ve genuinely created a community where Brandeis was unable to provide one where people can feel comfortable talking about their experiences,” the Instagram page told The Hoot.

When asked who was running the account, the page responded saying, “who we are is irrelevant.” They wrote that the power does not come from the account itself, but rather by the stories and the amount of engagement the Brandeis community has with them.

“We have had many individuals reach out who have been harassed by various individuals— specifically in Greek Life—who believe that they are running this page,” the account told The Hoot.

“That type of behavior of trying to ‘hunt someone down’ instead of realizing that org[anization]

Univ. receives bomb threat

nity members were notified that the threat was “all clear” and that public safety had concluded their search and determined that it was safe to end the shelter-in-place and resume campus activities.

The motivation or intent behind the threat as well as who initiated it is unknown, Director of Public Safety Edward Callahan wrote to The Brandeis Hoot in an email. He said that there were no explosive devices located, and the

investigation is being conducted as a collaborative effort among several law enforcement departments.

“Upon hearing of the threat this morning, we implemented our comprehensive emergency response protocols and directed all individuals on campus to shelter in place as the threat was assessed and investigated,” said President Ron Liebowitz in an email to the community on Aug. 20. “The way

we responded today should give us all a sense of confidence about our abilities to address threats and protect our community.”

The bomb threat was called into the Brandeis Police Department at 10:55 a.m., according to the first BENS notification. A subsequent update at 11:35 a.m. told those on campus to continue to shelter in place, stating that the campus police were in the process of conducting a search of

s need to take accountability themselves is disappointing and speaks volumes about how these stories are still being ignored.”

The OEO website states that when a matter is reported anonymously, the University will usually not be able to take any action regarding that report.

There is an increased chance of action, however, when the EthicsPoint online reporting portal is used because it allows the OEO to communicate with anonymous reporters without disclosing their identities.

“If you choose to report anonymously, it is important that you log back into the portal to follow up on your report,” reads the website. “If you do not follow up on your anonymous report, Brandeis will most likely not be able to take any action in response to that information.”

A list of confidential and nonconfidential resources to file misconduct on campus can be found under the “Discrimination, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Resources” section of the OEO webpage.

the grounds. The alert instructed people to evacuate, shelter in place or remain off campus if they are currently off campus In 2017, Brandeis received a bomb threat before the school year began, on Aug. 23. The university was evacuated and closed for seven hours due to the threat.

At the time, students were evacuated onto different sports fields, according to a Hoot article from the time.

Analysts say model claiming univ. will ‘perish’ unscientific NYU, from page 1

he should have made this conflict more clear.

Galloway’s model is based on two calculated “second-order” scores, where schools are assigned to four different quadrants based on their viability: thrive, survive, struggle and perish; with each quadrant containing around onefourth of schools analyzed. He calculated his results based on various factors: endowment, educational offerings, tuition and student populations.

“Professor Galloway has created four buckets using only selected data with no model presented to see whether there is any predictive power of the various measures used,” Brandeis’ Executive Director of Communications and Media Relations Julie Jette wrote to The Hoot in an email. “He does not include indicators of stress on institutions - e.g. reported shortfalls in enrollment, reported layoffs, furloughs or salary cuts, reported forecasts or actual deficits, etc.”

Jette told The Hoot that many of these factors will not be known for weeks or months. She said that even if those factors were part of the analysis, it would not necessarily be predictive of how an institution will perform going forward.

“Galloway’s simplistic data sort doesn’t and can’t assess the likelihood of success of the carefully-considered decisions being made by schools across the country,” Jette wrote.

“Nor can it predict the geographic course of the pandemic and the variation in regional impacts it will have over the course of this academic year. None of our peer institutions have suggested their institution is going to “thrive” in the midst of the pandemic.”

A study done by Prescience Associates found several flaws with Galloway’s model, including the assumption that some schools “must fail.” “The final assessment of a school’s institutional viability...is not according to its performance on validated or expected standards of strategic “health,” but rather according to its relationship to the study’s population of institutions,” reads the study.

Carr told The Hoot in an interview that if more schools were included in the study, schools in the “perish” quadrant would move up because there are other schools in worse shape. Galloway’s data only analyzes 15 percent of the 2,832 four-year public and private colleges and universities in the United States, according to an article by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Schools included in the study were ranked schools,

which already have a better chance of survival, Carr added.

Steve DeLoach, the Chair of the Economics department at Elon University, another school that was predicted to perish, told The Hoot in an interview that he thinks Galloway’s spreadsheet is “clickbait” and “borderline unethical.”

“When you first see something like this, it has this ere of credibility,” DeLoach told The Hoot. “He’s presenting himself as a scholar in some way with some expertise about the financial health of institutions and he has zero expertise in any of that nor is he looking at anything that anyone would look at. If you wanted to do a serious analysis, you would look at things like the percentage of an institution’s revenue that comes from room and board which he didn’t look at.”

Galloway makes the assumption that bigger schools have bigger endowments, which according to his analysis, assumes they will be fine. But DeLoach countered that smaller schools realistically have a better chance at staying opening.

DeLoach said that since every state has lost huge amounts of revenue in taxes, many state schools will lose a significant amount of funding. For example, DeLoach explained that universities in North Carolina should plan for 30 to 50 percent cuts in expendi-

tures. Schools with large athletic departments will take huge losses.

The “Big Ten” football schools are predicted to lose more than $700 million from postponing their fall football season, according to CNBC. DeLoach explained that Galloway also makes the assumption that richer schools with bigger endowments will be better off, which is a common misconception. “People think if you have a big endowment, people think of it as a big savings account. [Endowment] money can’t be used for anything that it wasn’t designated for,” DeLoach explained. “A big endowment will not keep you from having to make the same cuts as everyone else.”

“It took five minutes to figure that the analysis was trash,” Carr told The Hoot. “Something [Johnston and I] found disingenuous was this line saying: ‘I just want to start a conversation.’” Carr said that given the uncertain circumstances that the world is in, there would be material impacts of Galloway’s post, not only with current students, but with alumni relations and networking opportunities. “I’ve heard from faculty from colleges who reached out around the country. I’m certain some schools out there may have lost students over this kind of thing,” said Carr.

Carr said that some of Gallo-

way’s other mistakes were not normalizing teacher salaries based on the school’s location, assuming that average teacher salary correlates to quality and using the data that was most readily available, not necessarily the data that was most relevant.

“He quantified prestige by looking at internet traffic,” Carr explained. “Lots of things drive internet traffic. You could have a colossal scandal at a school and you’re gonna get a lot of internet traffic. If you have a nationally ranked football team you’re going to have a lot of traffic, but does that mean that your school’s prestige is high?”

Carr said that he thinks that factors that will contribute to a school’s reopening success are: low infection rates where the school is located, residential campuses, high frequency testing and quarantine housing available to individuals who test positive.

Galloway teaches Brand Strategy and Digital Marketing at NYU Stern and was elected to World Economic Forum’s “Global Leaders of Tomorrow.” He has served on the board of directors of Eddie Bauer, The New York Times Company, Gateway Computer and Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, according to his NYU faculty page.

Galloway did not respond to The Hoot’s request for a comment.

August 28, 2020

NEWS 5

The Brandeis Hoot

Students return to campus, online classes WELCOME BACK, from page 1

events, according to the website.

Classes with more than 28 students will be held online-only.

In-person classes are limited to 29 people, including instructors and teaching assistants. The university is following guidelines set by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as well as the American College Health Association that recommends reducing class capacity by 75 percent. Spaces not typically used as classrooms, including Hassenfeld Conference Center, International Lounge, Levin Ballroom, chapels and Gosman Sports and Convocation Center will be used as additional spaces for classes, according to the website. Starting July 6, the registrar’s office will be updating Sage to reflect the changes in course times, according to an email sent by Dan Kim, vice president of marketing, communications and external relations.

All introductory lab courses will be held online and other lab courses may be offered in person or online. The science-lab faculty are re-examining lab courses while trying to keep students in science courses on track for their majors, according to the Frequently Asked Questions section.

Art faculty are also considering both in-person and remote learning. Students with disabilities can request accommodations that include online learning if their disability would affect their ability to engage in in-person classes.

Classrooms will be deep cleaned and disinfected twice a day, opposed to once a day before COVID-19. Time between classes will now be 30 minutes to allow students and faculty to wipe down work spaces before and after classes. Seating locations will be marked to ensure distances of six feet between students. A “teaching zone” will be marked at the front of the classroom to allow faculty to move around while maintaining a safe distance from the closest students. Departments will also provide faculty members with their own supply of chalk or whiteboard markers and erasers to reduce the need for communal equipment. For the fall semester, only classrooms that are of sufficient size to ensure physical distancing will be used.

Faculty have also been asked to assign seats during the first class and maintain the same seat throughout the semester. All faculty will also be expected to take attendance regularly and maintain an accurate attendance log to assist with contact tracing, if necessary.

Courses at Brandeis International Business School and the Heller School for Social Policy and Management will all be taught online. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will offer a combination of online and in-person activities. More information on each specific graduate school is available here.

Quarantine and Self-Isolation Members of the Brandeis community that test positive for COVID-19 or who are in close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19 while test results are pending, or until the 14-day quarantine period is complete must self-isolate, according to a report about plans for fall 2020. The university is following the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) recommended recovery strategy, which details that recovery status is assigned when: “(1) the individual remains fever-free without the use of fever

reducers for 72 hours, (2) symptoms have improved, and (3) it has been at least 10 days since their symptoms first appeared,” according to the report. It is unclear if students in recovery status must continue to self-isolate.

Individuals that are asymptomatic for COVID-19 but test positive can be cleared to return 10 days after testing positive— as long as they do not develop symptoms.

Specific rooms in residential areas will be set aside to isolate students who have tested positive for COVID-19 during the school year. Students who reside on campus and have not tested positive for COVID-19 but have been identified as being in close contact with someone who has tested positive will be required to self-quarantine in their own room. During self-quarantine, students will stay in their current bedroom and will not be allowed to leave except to use the bathroom or in health emergencies, according to the report. The university will provide medical care, deliver meals and provide any other assistance necessary.

Students that live off campus and test positive for COVID-19 will also be required to self-isolate. The university will provide instructions on the most safe and effective way to do so, according to the report.

The administration is in contact with local hotels to potentially arrange for students to live in empty rooms if there is a shortage of housing. Brandeis may also use local hotels to quarantine infected students, Liebowitz said in a community town hall on May 14.

Health Measures Students living in a residence hall during the school year will be tested upon their arrival on campus, and students living off-campus will be tested at a designated time before the start of the semester, according to the university website. Frequent and mandatory testing will be conducted each month for students, faculty and staff who live on campus or come to campus several times a week.

People that come to campus less will be tested less. Students engaging in remote learning only or faculty and staff conducting all their work remotely will not be given regular testing. More information on the amount of testing students, staff and faculty will receive will become available in the next several weeks.

Along with frequent testing, the university will be implementing contract tracing measures to track the spread of COVID-19 on campus. Any member of the Brandeis community that tests positive will have contact tracing. Individuals who test positive or report symptoms and all their immediate contacts will be interviewed within 24 hours. Any individuals identified as being in “close contact” with the individual that tests positive will be required to self-quarantine. Close contact is defined as “being close than six feet for longer than 15 minutes, regardless of whether a face covering was worn,” according to the university’s website. More information about contact tracing on campus will be available in early August.

In the case of a potential campus outbreak, the university may transition into exclusively remote work. The decision to transition to remote work will depend on shelter-in-place advisories or restrictions that require remote-only operations, exceeding quarantine and self-isolation capacity for residential populations, a surge in

PHOTO BY GRACE ZHOU/THE HOOT

cases or based on contact tracing analysis, according to the website.

More information on quarantine and self-isolation capacity will be available in the coming weeks.

Brandeis will start to limit access to university buildings to only faculty, staff and students, according to a report detailing plans for the fall.

Cleaning Measures The task-force had recommended that the university make adjustments to its campus in areas including attention to hygiene, practicing physical distancing, screening tests and mask usage for faculty, staff and students.

Facilities staff will continue to clean and sanitize classrooms, common areas, residence halls and dining facilities daily, paying extra attention to surfaces that people touch, including door handles and tables. Facilities is also working to increase the amount of fresh air in campus rooms.

High-traffic areas, including the library and Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, will install safety modifications—Plexiglas barriers or removal of furniture— to allow for proper social distancing measures. Outdoor furniture including picnic tables, tents and chairs will be added across campus to reduce capacity of indoor common spaces such as the library.

“Individuals who fail or refuse to comply with the new health and safety policies will be subject to disciplinary action and may not be allowed to have access to campus until the threat of COVID-19 has passed,” reads the website.

Anyone coming to campus or residing on campus will be required to complete a Daily Health Assessment, which sees how respondents are feeling and if they have any symptoms of COVID-19. Mandatory training on public health practices, campus safety policies and student expectations will be given to first-year students during orientation and distributed to returning students before their arrival on campus.

Dining Both Sherman and Usdan dining halls will primarily rely on takeout food service, according to the Campus Health and Safety Measures page. Seating will still be available at both locations with significantly reduced capacity levels with table and floor markings to ensure six foot distances between students.

Dining services and Sodexo are planning to expand hours of operation to accommodate more students over a longer period of time. Pre-ordering meals for pickup through a mobile application is also being developed to reduce contact and the number of students in one location.

Residence Halls All incoming first-year students will be housed in single rooms and returning students

with housing contracts will be guaranteed housing. While most rooms will be used as singles, there will be limited double occupancy available but no triples.

Some returning students with housing contracts may be offered alternative room assignments so all students can live in single rooms. Students with housing contracts can release themselves from their housing contract with no penalty by July 8 if they prefer alternative arrangements.

First-year students that reside in the Greater Boston Area will be allowed to live at home during the fall semester and commute to campus for in-person classes.

Physical distancing in residence halls will be facilitated through limiting gathering sizes and enforcement of guest policies.

Gatherings in residence halls will be “limited based on room dimensions and state public health guidelines,” according to the Frequently Asked Questions. As of print time, no overnight guests are allowed in residence halls and gatherings cannot exceed 10 people. Cleaning materials, such as sanitizing wipes, will be made widely available in residence halls.

Move-in for returning students will be extended over a number of days to de-densify the process. Specific move-in dates will be announced in July.

Travel The university is continuing to encourage members of the Brandeis community to limit personal travel as much as possible.

As of press time, anyone arriving from out-of-state who is not a local commuter is required to self-quarantine before coming onto campus. Brandeis has not specified how long that self-quarantine will be. Brandeis community members who are returning to campus after international travel must self-quarantine for 14 days. Individuals who need to self-quarantine must notify the university to receive health care monitoring and support.

Students will also generally not be able to participate in university-sponsored travel outside of the greater Boston area for fall 2020, according to the report.

Plans for spring 2021 will be finalized during the fall semester.

All university-sponsored domestic and international travel is still prohibited without written approval from the provost.

Study abroad and international student exchange programs are also suspended for fall 2020.

Students will be notified during the fall semester about spring 2021 study abroad programs.

Tuition There will be no increase in undergraduate or graduate tuition fees from the 2019-2020 academic year for the 2020-2021 academic year, according to an email sent out by Liebowitz. Stu-

dents enrolled in lab or studio art classes will also not have to pay additional fees. Room and board fees, which include residential contracts and meal plans, will not increase—unlike previous years.

There will be no reduction in tuition because of the new, mixed mode of instruction—and no reduction if classes go completely online “Despite the hardships imposed by the pandemic, we will continue to deliver high-quality academic programs and services that our students and their families expect, and our schools will continue to devote their resources to delivering excellence in course instruction, student services and extracurricular activities,” explains the Frequently Asked Questions website.

The university also noted that the cost of running Brandeis has not decreased—another reason not to reduce tuition.

A refund for room and board charges will be given if students are required to leave campus.

Returning students who have completed applications for needbased financial aid for the 20202021 academic year will receive their financial aid packages in mid-July. Additional financial aid funding has been set aside to meet the demonstrated financial aid of students, according to the report. Students and families whose financial situations may have recently changed due to COVID-19 should contact Student Financial Services so their financial aid packages can be reviewed and revised appropriately, according to the report.

Electronic bills for the semester will be available on Sage in late July with payment due Aug. 21.

First-year and transfer students have until July 8 to request deferral for a semester or year. Current degree-seeking students have the ability to take a leave of absence through the Office of Academic Services and must complete the leave of absence request form by Aug. 1.

Athletics Gosman Sports and Convocation Center will be open in the fall and open to the Brandeis community with new protocols to ensure safety. Fitness equipment will be spaced out and the equipment and surfaces will be cleaned and disinfected regularly. Competitive club sports and team-based intramurals have been suspended for the fall semester. The university is still working with other schools in the University Athletic Association (UAA), public health officials and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) about how and when varsity sports can return to practice and competition, according to a statement by Brandeis Athletics. Coaches will be in direct communication with their athletes as soon as any decisions are made.

SPORTS

6 The Brandeis Hoot

August 28, 2020

Student-athletes react to fall sports seasons cancellations

By Sophie Trachtenberg and Sabrina Chow editors

As the coronavirus continues to affect millions of people across the globe, many collegiate athletes in the United States have had to cope with the fact that there will be an extremely limited, if any, fall season for their sport.

Daria Bakhtiari ’21, Women’s Soccer After her semester studying abroad in Copenhagen this past spring was cut short, Daria Bakhtiari headed back to Massachusetts with only one thing on her mind: getting back on the soccer field and chasing after a national championship title for one last season.

“I had everything to look forward to,” she commented in a message to The Hoot, also noting that, “I was training like crazy when I got home from abroad: running, lifting, and touching a soccer ball every day. I was so excited to come back to Brandeis after being away and playing again with some of my favorite people.”

She spent her summer with this mentality, knowing that she had nothing to lose once she got back to campus this fall, while also wanting to make the most of her cherished senior season. At the same time, Bakhtiari understood the reality of the situation early.

As cases of COVID-19 began to rise, she watched as school after school began to release dreaded news, preparing herself for a statement from Brandeis to be released come July.

“When we received the email about the season being cancelled, I was ready for the news,” said Bakhtiari, “[I] got the initial shock reaction out earlier than most others.”

Though unsurprised and thoroughly disappointed, Bakhtiari has kept her head held high and is committed to helping her teammates, as well as herself, prepare to take the field next season, as she plans on using her remaining year of eligibility to return in the fall of 2021.

That said, Bakhtiari advises other athletes undergoing similar challenges to continue training as if a normal season were on the horizon, saying that, “This cancellation has really shown me to be grateful for what you have, because sometimes you don’t realize how important something is until it’s gone. I feel so lucky to have the choice of coming back next fall… and I am using that as motivation for training to be the best player and person I can be.”

Ruby Siegel ’23, Women’s Soccer Before hearing the official announcement from the Department of Athletics, rising sophomore Ruby Siegel received a text message from a teammate while at work, alerting her that the fall soccer season she had been waiting for all summer had finally been canceled. Like her other teammates, she was rather unsurprised by the news, saying in a message to The Hoot, “I was definitely sad and disappointed, but ultimately I understood that sports needed to take a back seat with what is happening.”

While the coveted University Athletic Association (UAA) competition will not take place like usual in 2020, Siegel knows that

As of July 27, intercollegiate varsity athletics at Brandeis have been suspended until Dec. 31, which includes all fall sports (men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball and men’s and women’s tennis) and some winter sports that start during first semester (men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s fencing, men’s and women’s swimming and div-

BAKHTIARI

SIEGEL

not all hope is lost and is looking forward to reuniting with her teammates both on and off the field. Despite the fact that training will be restricted in terms of health and safety protocols, Siegel commented, “ I’m glad we can still come together and train in different ways,” explaining that she and fellow teammates will train in small groups, will receive workouts from strength and conditioning coach Jay Mendoza and will either be at Gosman or on Gordon Field with any chance they get.

In addition to these chances to come together in terms of athletics, Siegel expressed that she and her teammates have also been able to connect socially over the summer, participating in many Zoom calls, group chats and movie nights. As training groups will be small during the fall semester, they plan to continue with virtual weekly meetings that will bring the whole team together in a safe, meaningful way.

As she is still an underclassman, Siegel will have more opportunities to compete in her Brandeis uniform during future years.

Staying motivated for next fall, she commented that this season’s cancellation “is a good reminder that nothing is guaranteed. The time that we have on the field and with our teammates is really special.”

Michael Burch ’22, Men’s Soccer With everyone apart and at

ing and men’s and women’s track and field), according to a Brandeis Judges article. Brandeis Athletics promises to update athletes when it has new information.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced on Aug. 5 that all Division III championships for fall sports during the 2020-2021 season would be canceled because of the “COVID-19 pandemic

PHOTO COURTESY DARIA BAKHTIARI

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

home for the summer, Brandeis Men’s Soccer resorted immediately to their team group chat after the press release broke, revealing their emotional reactions to the news of a canceled fall season. Since then, Michael Burch has been quite busy as one of the team’s captains, planning for what workouts might look like during the upcoming year, as well as searching for ways to keep his teammates engaged and maintain a constant flow of communication during these unique circumstances.

In addition to being stripped of all opportunities to compete in 2020, Burch is also disappointed in the fact that practices will not resemble their usual form, as only small groups of less than ten players will be permitted at one time, and no contact will be allowed. In his opinion, practice is the best time for teams to push each other and ultimately get closer, so missing out on these opportunities is not ideal.

Burch’s sense of motivation is still ablaze, however, commenting in a message to The Hoot that, “I think that this is some of the best motivation anyone could have.

Something we all love has been taken away from us, so we will not take it for granted. It will make us work that much harder so that in future seasons, we can make the most of them and play as well as possible.”

As he takes the field in a different fashion this year, Burch shared some advice he continues

and related administrative and financial challenges,” according to a press release. The Division III Administrative Committee within the NCAA also recommended that member schools not compete during the fall season, reads another press release. For the 20202021 academic year, full-time enrolled student athletes that optout of participating in athletics for the season would get a two-se-

BURCH

LOMBARDO

to give to his fellow teammates, hoping that they remain focused on their long withstanding goals.

He strives to remind them that, “The goal does not change, it is just delayed. Take it one day at a time and just remember that every new day is one day closer to doing the thing you love and competing with your teammates.”

He looks forward to taking advantage of opportunities that come his way in 2021, spending this year pushing his teammates to never lose sight of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Josh Lombardo ’21, Men’s Cross Country Like many other senior collegiate athletes across the country, Josh Lombardo had hoped to finish his final collegiate year strongly but figured “it would be better for me to expect the worst, so I would not be so disappointed, or crushed when the [cross country] season was cancelled,” he wrote to The Hoot in an email.

After finishing first for the men’s cross country team during the New England regional championships his junior year season after missing the first half of the season to injury, Lombardo was looking forward to running with his teammates, as well as trying to help the team earn a bid to the national championships.

As one of the cross country and track and field captains of the men’s team, Lombardo and the other captains on both the men’s and women’s teams are working

mester/three-quarter extension of their eligibility.

The Brandeis Hoot spoke with players, captains and seniors on fall sport teams about their reactions to the cancellation of their seasons, how they are coping with the unexpected circumstances and to discover what they are doing to both stay in shape and stay connected to their teammates, both on and off campus.

PHOTO COURTESY DARIA BAKHTIARI

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

to make sure the team stays connected, especially for their teammates staying home, through weekly trivia nights, office hours and other group activities over Zoom. “I’m really just trying to be there for my fellow teammates to talk with, whether it be over Zoom or on the phone,” he explained. “Also, by being allowed to still train with teammates this semester—keeping in mind the safety protocols—we can still continue to better each other during each run and training session.”

As a three-sport athlete, Lombardo is continuing to hold out hope for the possibility of an indoor or outdoor track season later in the year. “In terms of motivation, I enjoy training with my teammates, and at this point in my career I can confidently say I truly love running,” he wrote to The Hoot. “Just lacing up my running shoes everyday is something I need at this point, as it is a stress reliever during the school year.”

Lombardo asks non-senior athletes to think about the importance of one’s respective sport in their life. “Without a competitive season, do you still enjoy training with your teammates?” he asked. “Although this year will be different and challenging, I hope so, because I feel the main reason we become collegiate athletes is because we truly love our sports, considering we still balance, academics, extracurriculars, and a social life.”

August 28, 2020

SPORTS 7

The Brandeis Hoot

Student-athletes react to season cancellations Bridget Pickard ’23, Women’s Cross Country After her rookie season was cut short in the spring because of COVID-19, Bridget Pickard felt a strange sense of relief after her fall cross country season was also cut because she knew having a season was not feasible, she wrote to The Hoot.

“I’d rather hear earlier as opposed to later about this, and being able to adjust my mindset early on helped me to accept the reality of athletics this fall,” she

PICKARD

PHOTO FROM TWITTER.COM

wrote.

Though not able to compete, Pickard has continued to train throughout the summer and was excited to see if she had improved her times after training for months due to the cancellation of her outdoor track season in spring 2020.

With her return to campus, she is looking forward to training with her teammates again in a format modified from that in previous years. “I am going to make sure I stay consistent in my training so I can come out of this lull in competition even stronger than before,” she wrote to The Hoot. “I suspect racing will feel especially cathartic when we get back to business.”

Pickard also sees this time as a chance to mentally rest and hopes other athletes are doing the same. “Competing is important, but having a break has proven to be beneficial,” she wrote. “I’ve focused a lot on my training and how my body feels, and I think any athlete is capable of putting in some time for their mental health while we take a break from competing.”

Hannah Saadon ’21, Women’s Volleyball There are few things that athletes look forward to more than their senior season, with Hannah Saadon being no exception.

Knowing that she and her teammates had put in so much hard work during the spring and summer offseasons, Saadon was excited to see those efforts come out on the court this fall, but at the same time knew the reality of the situation at hand. Even more than that, Saadon was eager to come back to campus and spend time with her friends and teammates for one last hurrah.

“I was really just looking forward to having one last season with my team that I love so much, and to be able to have all of the fun moments and memories that have truly made my college experience what it is,” she wrote in a message to The Hoot.

Despite not having a conventional season on the horizon, Saadon has spent time emphasizing to her team the importance of pushing through, continuing to train and supporting each other

PHOTO COURTESY HANNAH SAADON

SAADON

throughout this time. Along with another teammate, she organized a fitness competition to engage with over the summer, making quarantine workouts a little more enjoyable for Brandeis Volleyball, while also using these as a means to hold everyone accountable and stay prepared for next year.

While they may not be able to be together physically, Saadon recognizes the importance of maintaining team culture and values, especially during these unprecedented times.

“As a senior, I think it’s really easy to disconnect from the team after the news of the season being canceled, but I think now more than ever is the most important time to really be present and to make sure you are staying con-

nected with everyone,” she mentioned in a message to the Hoot.

For Saadon, her senior season will look quite different on the court, but her stance on leadership remains undeterred. She adds, “The season may be canceled, but we are still a part of the team, and playing doesn’t change that.” Saadon looks to set an example and leave her mark on the team before she graduates, doing so with a sense of optimism, hope and encouragement for both herself and her other teammates.

Editor’s Note: Josh Lombardo is a member of the men’s cross country team and a staff writer for The Hoot. He did not contribute to the writing or editing of this article.

Emma Bartlett ’20 named Brandeis nominee for 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award

By Sabrina Chow editor

Emma Bartlett ’20, a fouryear starting middle blocker on the volleyball team, was named Brandeis’ nominee for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award in early July. She is just the second player in Brandeis volleyball history to receive an honorable mention, All-American honoree by the American Volleyball Coaches Association during her junior season, according to a Brandeis Judges article.

Bartlett was named to the second-team All-University Athletic Association (UAA) during her junior and senior seasons and helped the Judges to fifth place as a junior, the team’s best finish in almost a decade.

She is extremely humbled to be receiving the Brandeis nomination for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Thinking back on her time spent growing up and playing the sport, she could not even imagine having the opportunity to compete at the Division III level someday.

“The empowerment when participating in women’s sports is invaluable and I couldn’t imagine going through college without a team of powerful women to support me throughout,” she wrote to The Brandeis Hoot. “I do hope that through this award more female student-athletes will be inspired to take their talents to the next level and find their own unforgettable experiences and lifelong lessons.”

“I chose Brandeis firstly because of the academics, which were rigorous but flexible to allow me to explore different disciplines,” Bartlett wrote to The Brandeis Hoot. “This was paired with the strong sense of community I felt from the smaller campus, and of course the team.” Unlike other athletic conferences in Division III of the NCAA, athletes in the University Athletic Association (UAA) are able to travel to cities across the east coast and midwest of the United States to compete,

another aspect that appealed to Bartlett.

Alesia Vaccari Bennett, who has been the head coach of the volleyball team for the past five seasons, met Bartlett while she was still in high school. Bennett and Bartlett met at a volleyball camp at Tufts University when Bartlett approached Bennett with her interest in attending Brandeis and playing volleyball.

“She was very athletic and her gymnastics training and tennis experience helped her volleyball skills,” Bennett wrote in an email to The Hoot. “I knew she could do great things in our program.

Emma [Bartlett] has been a four year starter and every single day at practice she worked to improve and learned how to use her body efficiently and effectively in the position she was playing.”

Bennett’s proudest moment as Bartlett’s coach was during the 2018 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament where the Judges advanced to the semifinals.

“In the fifth set of the match, our whole team was exhausted due to travel and back-to-back games,” Bennett wrote. “I could see the fatigue taking its toll on our play, but after a time out, we took the court and won the match with critical kills and dominating blocks from Emma [Bartlett].”

The best piece of advice that Bennett gave Bartlett during her career was to “control the controllables.” Bartlett explained that, in volleyball, it is easy to get caught up in what the opposing team is doing. “But, by placing the focus on ourselves and what we can control, because the only thing we truly can control is ourselves, we control the controllables. It’s certainly an important lesson to take out into the real world when dealing with situations in which we don’t have any control, except your own actions.”

Bartlett’s proudest moment during her collegiate career was during the UAA Championships her junior year during the 20182019 season. The team fought against the future 2018 NCAA Di-

vision III champions, Emory University, and won their first UAA game after a long stretch against Case Western University. “The feeling was ecstatic,” she wrote.

“Every one of my teammates seriously put everything out on the court and were not satisfied until match point.”

During the fifth place match against New York University (NYU) at the 2018 championships, the Judges came back from two sets down to beat NYU, leading to Brandeis’ best UAA finish in almost a decade. “I still get chills thinking about that final point and everyone rushing to the center of the court,” she wrote.

The defining moment of her Brandeis career was during a tournament in California where the team’s hard work led them to a 3-1 weekend. “We had the opportunity to compete on the other side of the country, and then pushed the reigning national champions, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, to a five-setter without fear and with such intensity,” Bartlett wrote. “It was one of those moments that everything clicked and I truly felt a ‘flow’ where nothing else mattered except for the play happening on that volleyball court.”

Like many athletes, Bartlett struggled through injury and had to learn to listen to her body. She sprained her ankle multiple times during the season and continued to play despite her injuries.

“I definitely learned to listen to my body and vouch for my own wellbeing,” she told The Hoot. “I also used the training room to my advantage if there was something that didn’t quite feel right or just to do prehabilitation to properly prepare myself for the lengthy season that it is.”

“Never forget why you play the game,” Bartlett would tell current student athletes. “We elect to be a part of an extraordinary opportunity to represent our universities and attend these academically competitive schools … Never forget why you are there and be open to rediscovering new ways of revamping that passion” Off the court, Bartlett was a

SPIKE

Bartlett (7) going for a spike

double major in economics and environmental studies with a minor in Hispanic studies. She is currently on the job hunt, trying to narrow down her interests within a specific discipline within environmental studies, with the hopes of attending graduate school in the future.

Barlett is one of seven female athletes in the UAA that were nominated for the award. Michelle Karabin ’20 of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Shivani Beall ’20 of Emory University were selected by the UAA to represent the conference in the NCAA Woman of the Year award, according to a press release by UAA. Bartlett, along with Emma Nicklas-Morries ’20 of CMU, Ilissa Hamilton ’20 of Case Western Reserve University, Laura Darcey ’20 and Agnes Lo ’20 of University of Chicago were all considered for the UAA nomination but were ultimately nominated by their respective schools for the award.

Bartlett is now one of three female athletes at Brandeis that have been nominated for this award. She joins four-time national champion and nine-time All-American cross country and

PHOTO BY GRACE ZHOU/THE HOOT

track and field athlete Emily Bryson ’19, one of two UAA representatives for the award in 2019, according to an earlier Hoot article, and Michaela Friedman ’17, a two-time All-American defender and Brandeis’ 2017 nominee, according to an article from Brandeis Judges.

605 female athletes were nominated for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year award, the most in the program’s history. The NCAA Woman of the Year Award was established in 1991 “to recognize graduating female athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate career,” according to the NCAA website.

Nominees for the award span all three divisions within the NCAA, with 259 nominees from Division I schools, 126 from Division II schools and 220 from Division III schools. After the initial nomination phase, the Woman of the Year selection committee within the NCAA will choose the top 30 honorees, 10 from each division.

The 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced in the fall.

EDITORIALS

8 The Brandeis Hoot

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editors-in-Chief Sabrina Chow Celia Young Managing Editor Natalie Fritzson Copy Editor Madeline Rousell News Editor Rachel Saal Deputy News Editors Tim Dillon Victoria Morrongiello Arts Editors Aaron LaFauci Emma Lichtenstein Opinions Editor Sasha Skarboviychuk Features Editor Shruthi Manjunath Sports Editor Sophie Trachtenberg Photos Editor Grace Zhou Social Media Editor John Fornagiel

Volume 17 • Issue 9 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

Founded By Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

STAFF

Josh Aldwinckle-Povey, Medjine Barionette, Camila Casanueva, Vivian Chang, Sam Finbury, Lucy Frenkel, Stewart Huang, Uma Jagwani, Joey Kornman, Alex Kougasian, Josh Lannon, Justin Leung, Jesse Lieberman, Francesca Marchese, Anna Nappi, Zach Newman, Caroline O, Hannah Pedersen, Thomas Pickering, Isaac Ruben, Jacob Schierson, Courtney Thrun, Adian Vinograd, Caroline Wang, Emerson White

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

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

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F

August 28, 2020

Better safe than sorry

rankly, universities should not have reopened. In the past weeks, several large universities have seen a recent spike in cases of the coronavirus—over 500 total at the University of Alabama, 200 new cases at Auburn University (also in Alabama) and University of Southern California has over 100 students in quarantine after being exposed, according to Inside Higher Ed and Reuters. Opening a university and encouraging students to come back to campus from states all across the country is simply a bad idea. While Brandeis has had only four individuals test positive in the past month, the student body, faculty and staff have no guarantees that our low positivity rate will continue. Brandeis, because of its smaller size and frequent testing program, is likely at a lower risk than larger state universities. But, nonetheless, a risk still remains.

It seems counterintuitive for so many universities across the country to welcome students back to campus, increasing the risk for not only faculty and staff at the schools but also the community where the college is located, while K-12 schools across the country are choosing to go fully online for the fall semester/trimester, or limit in-person classes to one or two days per week. While the college setting is different in terms of the learning experience, there is significant potential for new and returning students to be vectors of disease and bring the coronavirus to college campuses or towns. Robust testing is always important, and necessary, but scientists are still trying to understand the asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus, and it realistically would have been safer

to continue purely remote learning or allow very few individuals to return to campus, rather than everyone.

The decision to return, however, has been made. With just over half of the student body living back on campus and others living in the surrounding city of Waltham, we have a social responsibility to abide by the regulations set by not only Brandeis but by Massachusetts and the United States government.

We’re all in this together.

Other universities have already demonstrated what can happen if students, faculty and staff recklessly congregate without social distancing or proper face coverings. Some of the regulations may seem tedious or stringent at times, but they are in place to protect our community and prevent an outbreak from occurring on our campus.

Ignoring these regulations would be inconsiderate to our entire community. While most faculty are teaching remotely, those that do come to campus, along with staff members who work on campus, still go home each night to their families. If a single person decides not to comply with the safety measures, it could affect a number of families. This relationship is true in reverse—faculty and staff can also expose students. While students may feel as if they are in a “bubble” on campus, that is not accurate.

People come and go on this campus everyday. Each and every person who steps foot onto the Brandeis campus brings the risk of spreading this virus. We must remain cautious and vigilant if we are to protect ourselves and others.

We have seen on the news how failure to follow social distancing

guidelines and mask mandates has created new hotspots for the coronavirus in pockets of the United States, while other states working diligently to keep individuals at home have seen significant decreases in cases. Despite the temptation to surround ourselves with friends, we as a student body need to be cautious. If we are careless in our social interactions, the privilege of being back on campus will surely come to an end sooner rather than later.

While the federal government is trying to deny the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, it is important that we, as a campus and Brandeis community, continue to diligently practice social distancing, wear masks and wash hands frequently. These practices are so simple, yet so effective in preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

In the case that someone you have been in close contact with has been confirmed as a positive case, or suspected positive case, do your due diligence and follow protocols set by contact tracers and be open and communicative about who you have been in contact with. It is equally, if not more important, to be honest about your interactions with contact tracers so they can help prevent the further spread of the disease from that one person.

We, as the editorial board of The Brandeis Hoot, urge our classmates to take on this social responsibility to practice safe interactions to give us the opportunity to stay on campus for the entire semester. If you are given the choice to go to a party but feel unsure because you don’t know if they will be practicing the safe guidelines, do not go. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

FEATURES

August 28, 2020

The Brandeis Hoot 9

Brandeis student sells handmade earrings for charity

By Emma Lichtenstein and Sasha Skarboviychuk editors

Resin crafts have been a hit throughout the entire quarantine period. Many have taken to making cups, coasters and jewelry as a way to fill time or to make some extra money. Krupa Sourirajan ’23 has created her business using a slightly different idea. This summer, she has been selling resin earrings and donating the profits to various charities.

Sourirajan made the Instagram account on May 31, posting her first earrings a week after that. She told The Brandeis Hoot in an interview that all the proceeds brought in from earring sales in June were donated to charities. “Contributing to various funds and donating isn’t easy… but doing something a little creative where people can ... feel that they’re getting a product

back, and that their money is still going to a good place makes me really happy and makes the people buying them happy.” She was able to donate to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. She is currently deciding where to donate in August. These donations were matched by organizations that match donations as well as a friend of a friend, according to Sourirajan.

In July, Sourirajan decided to include St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the charities she’s donating to. “I decided that I would rotate the organizations …every month to keep with the people who constantly need it.”

She always wanted to donate to St. Jude’s, she said, but decided to first give to organizations supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. She later said that

“as my earring orders came in, I listened to some of what my followers had to say on what organizations to donate to, and that was really useful.” With Sourirajan’s business expanding and requiring her to purchase more supplies in order to continue producing, she decided to donate only the profits she makes off of sales.

Originally, Sourirajan made around a thousand dollars; however, after her donations were matched by others, the total donations that came from her earrings totalled over five thousand dollars.

Sourirajan started making her crafts without much of a guide; she just ordered the supplies off of Amazon, picked wild flowers growing in her neighborhood and learnt through trial and error.

When asked whether she was going to expand into other types of crafts, Sourirajan told The Hoot that when she was just starting her business, she was looking at resin

mugs but she was worried about the possibility of resin residue left inside them, while coasters, which are the most popular resin craft, are already sold in abundance. Sourirajan started making bracelets and rings, but ran into issues with sizing and making generic jewelry. “The market didn’t seem to be there,” added Sourirajan, so she is most likely sticking to making earrings in the future.

Currently Sourirajan makes over 50 styles of earrings, in various colors, all of which can be customized. Shapes include glittery stars and moons, which are Sourirajan’s favorites, as well as rectangles, circles and square hoops all full of pressed flowers.

The newest additions have been hoops with the original resin shapes on them.

When asked whether she was expecting to gain so much popularity, Sourirajan told The Hoot that she “was really surprised because I did not expect people to

buy handmade earrings…Once I figured out the right marketing strategy…it kinda started to settle in like, oh, this is actually a thing.” Advertising for the earrings was done entirely through word-of-mouth, with most of it being from Sourirajan’s friends.

As of August 8, she has had over 250 orders, as well as a few rings and bracelets. She has sold across the United States, but mentioned interest from a potential customer in England.

Sourirajan will not be continuing making earrings during the school year, however she will be bringing earrings that have not been sold to Brandeis, which will be available to purchase. Additionally, Sourirajan will continue making custom earrings when she goes back for breaks. She mentioned that making resin crafts is a really fun hobby, one that she could see herself “doing for a long time on the side…or teaching it to people because it is so fun.”

Student helps fundraise money for Minnesotan community

By John Fornagiel and Sasha Skarboviychuk editors

Following the murder of George Floyd, a lot of stores were looted or forced to close during the protests.

This resulted in food insecurity in communities in Minnesota that already face various socioeconomic challenges: People in those areas were unable to access food that they needed as stores were closed.

All of these events occurred in communities close to where Lexi Foman ’21 and her brother live.

Foman told The Brandeis Hoot in an interview that this “was an emotional time and was strange

to have the whole country talking about Minnesota.” There were a lot of community groups that posted on social media and asked for the supplies they needed, and Foman’s brother went out to go and get supplies and volunteered at those sites as well. However, due to health concerns, Foman was unable to attend protests or do a lot of the in-person volunteer work, but she was still determined in helping the community in some way.

What Foman decided to do was post on Facebook and see whether people were interested in donating to a GoFundMe created to raise money for the community. During the first day, the page raised over two thousand dollars.

Seeing how successful the first

day was, the siblings decided to reach out again, and they raised over 13 thousand dollars over the course of the next two weeks.

“People felt like they could trust us, which encouraged them to donate,” added Foman.

A little over eight thousand dollars was spent on supplies during those weeks and were dispersed throughout the community in struggling areas where food banks were unable to meet the growing demand. Even supplies such as diapers and baby formula were given to new parents throughout the area.

After around two weeks, the food banks were once again able to meet the demands of the community, leaving Foman and her brother with a little over five thou-

sand dollars left over from what they had fundraised. They, along with their friends who have been helping them with the initiative, decided to donate the remaining funds to Second Harvest Heartland, a well-known food bank in Minnesota.

Second Harvest Heartland not only helps to buy meals at a very cheap price, but they also assist in their distribution to shelves.

One of the major reasons that Foman chose Second Harvest Heartland is that Foman’s brother and others have worked with Second Harvest Heartland in the past, so they were all familiar with the organization and how they worked. Additionally, they matched each dollar that they raised. Since every one dollar

equates to three meals, this means that one dollar donated equates to six meals since it is matched. With the funds that Foman donated, this money represented over 30,000 meals for the Minnesota community.

Foman told The Hoot that even though both her and her brother were involved, there were many other people involved as well, that were really helpful in the whole process.

They were among a bigger group that helped their community.

This would also hopefully facilitate people making donations.

She also emphasized that there are a lot of community groups that are doing great work, which always need support.

Julián Cancino to lead new vision for Gender and Sexuality Center

By Emma Lichtenstein and Sabrina Chow editors

Julián Cancino, a transgender LGBTQ activist, joined Brandeis in July 2020 as inaugural director fo the Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC), according to an email obtained by The Brandeis Hoot from Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mark Brimhall-Vargas. Though the center opened in 2015, according to an article by The Hoot, it has not had a director until now.

“As a transgender person of color and accomplished manager, educator, and social justice leader, I’m passionate about building institutions, serving communities, and broadening perspectives. I’m delighted to join the Brandeis family,” Caninco told The Hoot in an email.

Cancino has been an advocate for marginalized communities his entire life. He started in the legal field after completing his under-

CANCINO

graduate career, he wrote to The Hoot. During his undergraduate studies at the University of California Berkeley, Cancino helped to establish the Undocumented Student Program, which is “a personalized and solution-focused approach to student services,” according to Brimhall-Vargas’ email.

His main focus has always been on LGBTQ rights, whether at law firms or educational

PHOTO FROM TUFTSDAILY.COM

institutions, starting his career at the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Fransisco and later at Munger, Tolles & Olson (MTO) in Los Angeles.

Cancino is rather tight-lipped about the details of his new plans for the GSC, telling The Hoot he would work closely with students, faculty and staff to build the new center in the coming months and that he would an-

nounce more details soon. He also wanted to thank all the student workers in the GSC that are helping to further its mission.

“I aim to provide visionary leadership toward creating a comprehensive, vibrant GSC that partners [with other organizations] across the campus and community to support, advocate for, and educate on matters related to gender and LGBTQ+ identities,” Cancino told The Hoot. “I also have a special responsibility of creating a welcoming environment that facilitates LGBTQ+ students’ advancement, growth, and development through advocacy, policy development, and appropriate institutional intervention when necessary.”

Since coming to Boston, Cancino has worked at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and served as a policy advocate in support of the 2016 Act Relative to Transgender Anti-Discrimination. Though the law was challenged in 2018, it was upheld, and Massachusetts became the “first state-wide anti-discrimination law passed by referendum in

support of transgender rights,” according to Brimhall-Vargas’ email.

After working in law, Cancino started working in education as the director of the Latino Center at Tufts University, where he “fostered innovation in administration, passionate commitment to learning opportunities, and enhancing collaboration across schools,” according to Brimhall-Vargas.

Cancino also held a position at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston prior to coming to Brandeis, where he led innovative initiatives.

Cancino wrote that he will report directly to Brimhall-Vargas and is the primary contact staff member for “the institution’s efforts to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive campus for students, employees, and alumni who identify as LGBTQ+.”

At the event, “You’ll meet our inaugural director, Julián Cancino, and out and proud faculty, staff, and students,” according to a flyer about the event. The GSC’s virtual kickoff event will be on the evening of August 28.

10 The Brandeis Hoot

OPINIONS

August 28, 2020

The ultimate mask guide

The masks discussed in this article are listed in order from most effective to least effective: choose your weapon of choice wisely.

(Note: This article is a good-faith attempt to be helpful to the Brandeis community and is by no means to be taken as universal. This article does not replace the advice of a medical professional. This article is not written on behalf of the Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps (BEMCo) and is not affiliated with BEMCo in any manner.)

By John Fornegial

By Sasha Skarboviychuk

editor

editor

N95 N95 masks are a great mask for filtering out particles in the air as the wearer breathes. Although these masks boast an extremely high filtering power, they are not well-suited for the general public and should mainly be reserved for first responders, medical professionals and other high-risk workers. Additionally, due to the rarity of these masks, it may be tempting for individuals to use an N95 several times. However, these are intended for single-use only. The reasoning for this is that an N95 is designed to trap very small particles (such as dust and bacteria) onto its fibers. These can accumulate over time and inhibit the effectiveness of a mask. Finally, if you are a frequent user of an N95, make sure to shave off all facial hair to ensure full effectiveness of the mask. Facial hair can cause a poor fit and allow particles to seep in through the sides of the mask. Also, fun fact: The number in N95 is the percentage of medium-sized particles that the mask filters. There are also masks such as N99 that also exist that possess an even higher filtering power!

KN95 KN95 masks are extremely similar to N95 masks. The KN95’s are a version of a filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) that was approved in China, with the N95

PHOTO FROM BLOOMBERG.COM

counterpart being approved in the U.S. While there are some minute differences between the N95 and KN95, they virtually hold the same role for the general public. Fortunately, at the time of writing this, there are some KN95 masks available for purchase that can provide you with better protection than a typical cloth or surgical mask. Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified KN95’s (among other FFR’s) as a suitable alternative to a mask. Conveniently, everything that was said about the N95 also applies to the KN95!

Surgical Mask Surgical masks cover the nose and mouth and are very loose-fitting. Their main purpose is to protect the nose and mouth from any large splashes and sprays that can come close to the mouth.

PHOTO FROM GOCOMICS.COM

Although they excel at blocking large particles such as water droplets, they do not filter out medium-sized or smaller particles as well as the N95 mask does.

Fortunately, although viruses are often too small to be blocked by a surgical mask, it is important to remember that these viruses are not often airborne. They are often carried by larger water droplets that can be blocked by the surgical mask.

Cloth Mask Although these masks are not as effective as the N95 masks or even the surgical masks, they are much better than not wearing a mask at all and are reusable. The CDC recommends wearing a cloth face covering when social distance measures are difficult to uphold. The CDC also recommends washing a cloth mask after each use. Washing a cloth mask is as simple as throwing it in the laundry with the rest of your clothes! To facilitate usage of a cloth mask, you can cycle through two or more masks to ensure that you always have a clean one on hand.

Face Masks with Valves These masks are very misleading and often provide a false sense of security. The valves on the mask are designed to make it easier for the user to breathe out, but in doing so, facilitate the spread of germs from the user to those around them. Although they provide good protection to the user, they often unknowingly put those around them in danger and at risk if the wearer is indeed contagious.

In fact, these masks are so ineffective that Brandeis does not allow them on campus.

N95 Ah, the king of all masks. How did you get your hands on one?

You surely have connections to the mask mafia. If you are one of those people who is connected, you will know all the horrors and benefits of wearing one. Let’s start by talking about everyone’s large concern: aesthetics. I am not going to lie and say that the N95s are the most beautiful thing you can wear on your face: They are pretty ugly. Oh yeah, and it is not as easy to breathe in it, in case you are one of those people who is concerned about breathability. And the fact that it is so thick makes you realize that you should brush your teeth more often. And the little fibers in the mask can get really irritating on your skin. Good thing that the concern right now is how pretty and comfortable your mask is and not preventing a global pandemic from going on for even longer.

KN95 The KN95’s are like the vice president who is always there, but no one is sure why or what they do. The second in command mask does not differ much from the king in terms of aesthetics, only by its country of origin (China as opposed to the United States). I have to say that the shape of the mask makes it look like you have a beak and you are trying so hard to cover with the mask (and are failing). I am not going to lie to you by saying that I’ve ever worn one so I cannot answer the ultimate question: Can I breathe in it? Though I do have to say that if people couldn’t breathe in it, there would be quite a number of lawsuits (this is America afterall) against the producers of these masks.

Surgical Mask This mask is definitely more on the breathable side of the masks considered and, at the beginning of this whole COVID-19 thing, was the most common. In the first few months everyone was wearing a surgical mask. Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy that people are complying with the mask advisory, but I am not very happy

with the fact that everyone looks like a dentist. It’s like there are dentists all around. And they’re following me, reminding me that I definitely missed my last few appointments. Truly scary happenings, guys.

Cloth Mask I have to admit that these are oftentimes really cool. Amidst this pandemic, companies have been able to take advantage of great demand for a new product: masks. Everyone is making them, from Disney to Macy’s, it’s like everyone wants to tap into the mask market. I kind of want to get one as a memory of the crazy times we are currently living in. In terms of breathability they are close to surgical masks: They don’t make you puke from your own breath but can still protect others from you.

Who can complain about these masks? They are easy to breath in, can be personalized and, most importantly, they look cool!

Good thing we have our priorities straight.

Tissue over face You know I really wish I could tell you that this type of mask was something I came up with to be funny. But it’s not. For the safety of the creator, I will keep their identity a secret, but I promise you this is something someone I know wore in lieu of a real mask.

In terms of aesthetics, I only have one thing to say: Halloween is in October. And tissue face is a lame costume. But there is good news too: It is incredibly easy to breathe in this “mask.” It’s almost like you are not wearing one at all!

No Mask Ah the boldest of all choices.

While most of us have been enjoying the opportunity of shamelessly not smiling at people and not worried about our resting bitch faces, some people choose to grace us with their entire face.

What can I say, those people have been embracing the opportunity to breathe in droplets that come out of other people: Who can resist? Oh, and in terms of breathability, it is perfect: You have easy access to all the crap that is currently polluting the air.

But hey, at least they don’t look like a dentist; they just look inconsiderate!

Resist the urge to overcommit

By Claire Odgen special to the hoot

It’s common knowledge: Brandeis students are chronically overcommitted. I think it’s part of what attracts us to this school: the active extracurriculars, the ease with which students can double or triple major in different fields.

But I’ve seen so many people here committed to an extent that they neglect their studies––and worse, themselves. I’ve also been guilty of overcommitting. In past semesters, I’ve held two or more jobs along with extracurriculars and a five-class schedule. I’ve been stressed to the point that I was unable to enjoy my time here. I’m not unique in this. In

recent years, student requests at the Brandeis Counseling Center (BCC) have skyrocketed at a rate that exceeds the BCC’s available resources.

In a recent article by The Brandeis Hoot, they noted that colleges in America have become pressure cookers; while our transcripts might look good, our holistic wellbeing is suffering.

Even disregarding the global pandemic, the Brandeis culture of overcommitment is unsustainable and unhealthy. In addition to our wellbeing, it comes at a cost for our professional and academic lives: According to a fall 2018 survey conducted at Brandeis through the American College Health Association (ACHA), participation in extracurricular

activities is among the top five factors negatively impacting academic performance. After all, does anyone in the “real world” really care about how many clubs you were a part of on campus? Do employers think double or triple majoring is a necessity? No. They care about your perspective and the skills that you have to offer.

College is not about doing every single thing; it’s about the relationships you build and the opportunities you take advantage of.

Accolades are not an accurate or holistic measure of success.

Recently, a close friend called me out on my own tendency to overcommit: “You have so many interests and it’s great, but you end up getting burnt out in the process,” they told me. It hurt, but

it was what I needed to hear. If you’re overfunctioning to a point that it worsens your quality of life, it’s time to take a hard look at what’s necessary and what’s extraneous. While cutting out extracurriculars or classes you’re passionate about may feel like you aren’t making the most of your Brandeis experience, it will ultimately add to it. Because you can’t truly succeed if you aren’t bringing wyour full self to the table.

As we all settle into classes and campus life amid a global pandemic, it’s even more important now to take a hard look at our schedules and priorities. Do we really need to be on three club executive boards? Do we actually need to take five classes? Unlike previous semesters, students now

are navigating the challenges of emerging adulthood while also trying to avoid the spread of a deadly virus. So as we all settle into life in this new hellscape, let’s ask ourselves these questions: How can we dedicate ourselves to what’s truly important? And how can we prioritize ourselves and our communities in this time, rather than false notions of accomplishment?

End note: If you’re looking to contribute directly to Brandeis community wellbeing, consider donating your time, money, skills or resources to Brandeis Mutual Aid (@brandeismutualaid on Instagram.) Wealth redistribution is a great habit to cultivate, now more than ever before.

August 28, 2020

OPINIONS 11

The Brandeis Hoot

Fixing the Brandeis weekend

By Max Lerner special to the hoot

Following increased national discussion on progressivism and protests surrounding human rights, it is important to look at one of the biggest perpetrators of injustice in college culture: Greek life. Colleges constantly grapple with these issues, but often go without the same level of criticism levied at other institutions.

Many conservatives consider higher education to be a radicalizing experience and it is true that voters with higher education degrees are more likely to vote Democratic than those without.

Some use this fact as evidence of the progressivism of universities around the country. However, despite this reputation, higher education institutions are not without fault, as fraternities and sororities are still among the most segregated and harmful communities for students in America.

It is no secret that Greek life groups are often toxic organizations at Brandeis and almost everywhere else in the country.

Consistent and credible accusations of racism, discriminatory practices and sexual harassment are a well-deserved stain on the reputation of many who participate. Despite Brandeis priding itself on unity and community, any community earning this reputation by ignoring the rampant problems is misleading and dangerous. Damaging and racist events occurring at, and often enabled by, Brandeis have been well documented by hundreds of anonymous posts on the Instagram account @unheard_stories_ deis, created this June. No small amount of these are accusations against the fraternities, including disparaging remarks against students in historically marginalized groups, harassment of partygoers and multiple accounts of rape.

The administration has handwaved this account away, with a predictably hollow apology and no promise of change.

Brandeis’ official policy, taken from the 2020-2021 Rights and Responsibilities packet, is that since Greek life organizations are exclusive and are not open to all members based on skill and interest, they are not formally recognized by the administration.

This provision is the only section on Greek life in the entire 79-page document.

The purported preservation of community used as an excuse to turn a blind eye to Greek life is a thin cover for an absolute lack of compassion or responsibility from the administration. By denying funding or resources for fraternities and forcing them to exist off campus, Brandeis can claim deniability for any and all of these events, brushing them aside with an excuse and a reference to law enforcement. Such willful blindness just enables the fraternities to maintain their destructive practices.

The lack of administrative response is not the only way that Brandeis administrators contribute to the harm performed

by Greek life. By not providing resources for students to gather on campus, the university is actively pushing its students to seek weekend activities off campus, sending its community to the lawless wasteland of Alpha Epsilon Pi’s (AEPi) basement. The only locations on campus for students to gather freely are the few maintained outdoor areas, which are subject to the whims of the climate; the Stein, which is rarely open and staffed by administrators and Chum’s, which is too undeveloped to be useful for gatherings. If there were more consistent student-run venues on campus, then students would be able to gather in areas that guaranteed the protection of the administration and offered alternatives to the fraternity party scene.

The process for fixing these issues is difficult. Two major steps must be taken for any change to be possible. First, Brandeis must formally recognize the fraternities and sororities. Ownership of

PHOTO FROM SHECARTOONS.COM

the houses and funding the activities of the fraternities and sororities would place them under the jurisdiction of the administration, which would include university regulation and protections for those who choose to participate.

Brandeis has a higher stake in trials and enforcement than the police and criminal system, as any controversy could lead to massive nationwide coverage and dropoffs in enrollment and donations, which would likely force administrators to take a more proactive role.

Furthermore, the administration would be able to mandate what members of the organizations do in order to maintain their standing or admissions status. Required sensitivity and cultural training seminars, GPA requirements and the maintenance of good standing with student groups and clubs would all help to create a healthier culture among Greek life. The criminal justice system is intimidating and often works against survivors, dissuading victims from coming forward with their claims. If the university worked to create a thorough and anonymous system of investigation, the threat of expulsion could

be much more real than any consequences assaulters face at the moment.

Second, the university must provide more alternatives to the off-campus party scene. There are plenty of people who genuinely enjoy the benefits of fraternities, which is perfectly fine. The problem arises for all those who do not. Students need to have more diverse opportunities than what currently exists, so the trap of fraternity parties can be avoided.

Chum’s and the Stein should be student-run, which would allow for more free gatherings in these spaces without the stifling feel of staff and Sodexo workers controlling the atmosphere. Not only would this allow the venues to be open for more hours, but it can provide students the opportunity to fill work-study requirements and gain work experience. The only outdoor spaces are a couple of grassy fields and a few quad yards, which are wonderful places to spend time playing ultimate frisbee but are not otherwise put to much use. Whatever forms they may take, providing opportunities for students to interact and hold events without a twoweek application process would

dissuade students from feeling pressured into attending Greek life events, and in turn could stifle some of the issues rampant in these organizations.

These actions would not completely end the issues, nor is this supposed to be taken as a to-do list to be thrown out the same way I discard my mental health checklist during finals week. Tackling injustice is a difficult, demanding and extended pursuit, and no part of our society is free of it. Racist comments, controversial administrations and particularly sexual assault are permeating in college culture nationwide, often coming from Greek life organizations and the failure of administrations to deal with such problems. Complete negligence may seem to create an atmosphere of companionship at Brandeis, but a deeper look shows the dark underbelly of our student body, and the administration has both the authority and the imperative to take action in order to prevent further damage.

Editor’s Note: Coverage by The Brandeis Hoot on the Instagram account, @unheard_stories_deis, can be found here.

When alcohol goes too far

By John Fornegial editor

Let’s say it is your first frat party during your first year of college.

You’re planning on heading there with some friends that you met earlier in the semester and are excited for this chance to bond and meet some new people. You show up at the party and begin to loosen up and enjoy yourself after a few drinks. In the middle of the party, you begin talking to someone and you are a bit suspicious that they may have had too much to drink. They are slurring their speech heavily, they are stumbling around or they may even be on the cusp of losing consciousness.

How can you properly identify if this person has had too much to drink? If they drank too much, how do you ensure that they get the proper medical attention that they need?

Unfortunately, this situation is all but uncommon on college campuses. In severe cases, people can get alcohol poisoning, a serious and lethal set of symptoms that occur from drinking a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time. Some of the classic symptoms include: confusion, vomiting and depressed breath-

PHOTO FROM WELLNESS.UTK.EDU

ing. In severe cases, symptoms can include: seizures, coma and altered consciousness.

If you suspect that a person you are talking to has alcohol poisoning, whether these symptoms present or not, one of the first things to do is to seek immediate medical care. Some people often hesitate in seeking medical care because they are often breaking the law while needing to seek medical care, such as underaged drinking.

Fortunately, Massachusetts does have what is known as a Good Samaritan Law, which provides limited, situational protection to an underaged drinker that is calling to assist an intoxicated friend.

This ideally absolves the caller

and the drinker of any blame, and they will not get in trouble with the law for calling for emergency help. When you call dispatch (the person who is on the phone), they will likely assist you in the next steps. However, there are several other things that you could do to help someone who has alcohol poisoning.

One of the things that dispatch will likely tell you to do is to ensure that the person’s airway is open and that they are breathing.

If they are conscious and seated, then you should monitor them and try your best to keep them conscious and in a seated position. If they must lie down or are unconscious, however, then you must take further measures to en-

sure that they can still breathe.

To ensure that they are breathing, try to have them lie down sideways, possibly propped up against a couch or mattress. If you can not have them lie down sideways, then place them on their stomach and turn their head sideways. This is to drain vomit and spit out of the mouth and prevent them from choking. If possible, give the person water, as alcohol is a diuretic and can make people extremely dehydrated.

One of the simplest ways to prevent alcohol poisoning is to simply avoid drinking altogether. Realistically, however, another solution is simply to know your body and drink accordingly. Everybody reacts to alcohol differently. For

some, it might take several drinks to get tipsy, whereas for others, one could be more than enough.

Risk factors for alcohol poisoning include small size and low weight, heredity, an empty stomach, as well as a high rate and amount of consumption. Typically, younger adults are more likely to progress into alcohol poisoning as they are experimenting and do not know their limits as well as someone who is experienced and has been drinking for decades.

Parties can be a fun way to relax and enjoy the weekend. However, sometimes people are often thrown in scenarios where they are unsure how to act to provide the best possible chances of survival for somebody else. Becoming educated on topics such as alcohol poisoning can make the party environment both more fun, safe and relaxing for you and the people around you.

(Note: These articles are goodfaith attempts to be helpful to the Brandeis community and are by no means to be taken as universal.

This article does not replace the advice of a medical professional.

This article is not written on behalf of the Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps (BEMCo) and is not affiliated with BEMCo in any manner.)

12 OPINIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

August 28, 2020

President of no one

By Abdel Achibat special to the hoot

The Trump administration’s abhorrent ignorance and subversion of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement not only signals a radicalization of right-leaning racial politics but also a likely steep decline in American global reputation. The BLM movement is likely to be the largest movement in U.S. history, and rightfully so.

Recent decades of propaganda pushing for a “post-racial” society has allowed for living generations to believe that racial justice can be viewed through a political lens; the truth is that racial inequality and inequity can only ever be systemically dismantled in understanding it as a humanitarian crisis. Viewing Black liberation as a political operation only works to view it as a gradual systematic change, rather than the swift systemic upheaval society necessitates.

Trump’s republican politics treats the BLM movement as a politically and societally-terror-

izing organization, which is so far out of touch with modern concepts of civil rights, that mainstream republican policies are being pushed even further right to accommodate such radicalization.

The more vocal and demanding radical left-leaning politicians are, the more left-leaning establishment Democratic Party policies become, as evidenced through the multiple concessions Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has made to newly-elected grassroots congresswomen since 2018. Consequently, the more Trump and his base push for a portrayal of the BLM movement as a political attack and to defend the Confederacy, the more establishment Republicans have to radicalize their policies to be even further dismissive of Black liberation as an attempt to compromise.

It is this extremely visual compromise Senate Republicans, along with many establishment Democrats, have made, evidenced through their blind support of subtle police reform, “a lite revolution,” rather than mean-

ingful abolition and redirection of funds.

It is this compromise, that has been praised by the Republican Party as grave evidence of how they are not racist, that shows exactly how Black liberation and racial justice has been perverted to be viewed as something that can only be achieved through minor wins across decades.

The overwhelming silence on the grotesque nature of viewing racial justice as inherently difficult and gradual in its attainment is what reduces the cruel burn of watching powerful republicans downplay or defend the Confederacy and white supremacy.

In actuality, Conservatives’ hesitation but eventual acceptance of the Trump administration’s intrinsic racism has undoubtedly leaked into the documents and policies that have been drafted in the Senate as any concession to subvert or slow down Black liberation is a conscious choice to prolong oppression and disenfranchisement.

Moreover, as 15 to 26 million Americans have protested in support of the BLM movement,

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according to a Civis Analytics poll published in The New York Times, traction and attention has been built throughout the globe.

Demonstrations of solidarity or in retaliation to their own oppressors have been growing in power and quantity as a direct cause of the BLM movement. Evidently, the world is watching the United States. The world is watching the United States be oppressive and dismissive towards Black people, and at the same time, in denial of its failings.

As the United States has preached its success in assuring freedom and liberation to all, even engaging in countless wars in non-white states as its manner to bring liberty, the world is now watching the truth.

The Trump administration’s conscious decision to not pass systemically racially progressive policy or programs while it simultaneously seemingly defends a dead traitor Confederacy is a sign to the world of how the United States has failed its citizenry.

An extrovert’s quarantine thoughts: Adam and Eve

By Thomas Pickering staff

Last time I wrote one of these articles, the Brandeis community had just been sent home as lockdowns began to occur around the world and in, well, certain parts of this beautiful country. But regardless, as introverts saw the world turn into a paradise of no social gatherings or events, myself and other extroverts became confined in a level of hell worse than any in Dante’s Inferno. We were left alone with our thoughts.

Until now, extroverts have been able to remain sane due to our friendships and being with others; it grounds us and makes us feel secure, but when left to our own devices… the world becomes weirder.

For instance, as I was thinking about my Renaissance art class that I’m taking this fall semester, I thought it wise to begin educating myself on some artwork. As

PHOTO FROM FAVPNG.COM

I explored some Christian pieces of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, I was consumed by the thought: “why do they have belly buttons?”

Now, seriously, why? If they were the first people from God, why did they need umbilical cords? It’s not like they popped out of some womb, did they? No, they were made from the earth.

And even if they have them for the *aesthetic,* who cut the cord?

What being was like, “we got to cut this bro?” Particularly if they are the first human beings how did they know to cut it at all? Was it an accident?

And say God cut the cord— seems a little redundant when you think about it.

If God created humans to be “perfect,” why would God cut the umbilical cord off? Was God thinking to himself as he was forming Adam, “I want there to

be a decaying black cord coming out of its abdomen. It should be pointless, in fact, screw it all together. Cut it off we will start again there later, how does a crater in the middle of the body sound Gabriel?” All I am saying is that if I was creating some being, I am not sure if I would add unnecessary stuff right from the get-go.

And say they did not need belly buttons for their birth, does that mean they are for more phallic

activities?

Thus, does God have weird kinks? I could continue down this rabbit hole forever and slowly shatter the thin veil of fabric that religion sits on, but I will not beat a dead horse. The point being that quarantine has led extroverts such as myself to discover the oddest ends of the universe. I could also go on forever about an idea I mentioned in a former article as to why we have no B batteries.

Like seriously, we double, triple and even quadruple up on A’s but don’t have any B’s? What the heck!

To relieve myself I have to watch Gordon Ramsey videos of all things to distract my wild and crazy thoughts with more wild and crazy thoughts!

So as we return to campus with this new normal and adjust, I hope for my own sanity and the sanity of other extroverts facing the same mental fatigue I am from odd thoughts, that it may be smooth and easy, unlike belly buttons.

SSIS advice column Welcome back to the SSIS column, where we answer any and all of Brandeis students’ questions about sex, sexuality, identity and relationships.

If you have a question you’d like answered in our next column, email ssis@brandeis.edu or leave a question in the Google Form link on the Student Sexuality Information Service Facebook page. Any and all questions are welcome: there are no bad, stupid, or weird questions!

(Note: These answers are good-faith attempts by SSIS to be helpful to the Brandeis community, and are by no means exhaustive or to be taken as universal. If these answers don’t resonate with you, either pay them no mind, or reach out to us with suggestions for improvement!)

By SSIS special to the hoot

How can COVID-19?

I

date

during

This is a great question! Dating during COVID-19 is more complicated but definitely not impossible! There are a number of things you can do to make dating less risky. One thing you can do is explore online dating! Online dating is great because there is no risk of contracting COVID-19 from texting, video calling or talking on the phone.

Another way to date during COVID-19 is planning outdoor, socially distanced dates such as

picnics, hikes, studying together outside, biking, et cetera. Make sure to remember to DEIStance and wear masks when you are not eating!

If you find yourself seeking physical intimacy or sexual intimacy, there are several ways to safely have that during COVID-19. Risk exists on a spectrum, so it is important to keep in mind how much risk you are willing to take on. One important thing to do to mitigate your risk is to have an open and honest conversation of your COVID-19 testing status. Here is a list of

ways to be physically or sexually intimate, listed from least risky to most risky in terms of contracting COVID-19.

1. Sexting or having video sex (lowest risk) 2. Mutual masturbation from opposite sides of a room while wearing masks 3. Hugging while wearing a mask 4. Having manual sex (with hands, sex toys or other objects) with masks on 5. Having genital sex (genitals touching genitals) with masks on 6. Oral sex (very risky)

7. Sex without masks (very risky) 8. Kissing (highest risk) Reardless of how you choose to date during COVID-19, feel free to text SSIS at 586-ASK-SSIS for more information.

Will SSIS be open this semester?

This is another great question!

SSIS will have open office hours this fall. Our hours will be posted on our social media soon.

However, our office will look different this semester due to

COVID-19. We will change the physical set up of the office to be conducive to DEIStancing. Before entering the office, students will have to fill out a form for contact tracing. All of our services will be contactless, we will use a transaction table to sell products and accept payment. You will also be able to order products in advance if you don’t want to physically enter the office. In addition, our office will be open for peer support in person, over our virtual office hours, over the phone at 781-7363695 during office hours, or over text at 586-ASK-SSIS.

ARTS

August 28, 2020

The Brandeis Hoot 13

‘Surveillance Camera Man:’ Greatest video on Youtube

By Mike Richard special to the hoot

Imagine yourself out in public.

You could be alone or with your family. It could be noon or three in the morning. A man approaches you holding a camera. He is a complete stranger, and you can think of no reason as to why he would be filming you, so you ask him what he’s doing. You may do so out of genuine curiosity or with visible discontent. Either way his response is the same, “I’m just taking a video.” He continues filming. You then ask, or command him, to stop.

He persists. His robotic demeanor is unfaltering, he is determined to capture something about you, and he will do so whether you permit it or not. If you ignore him, if you scream at him or even if you try to assault him, he will persist.

I can say this confidently and without exaggeration: “Surveillance Camera Man” is the singular greatest piece of film posted on Youtube to date. Sitting at less than half a million views, this accidental masterpiece’s influence has far outpaced its popularity.

Providence’s NBC 10 and Vox’s The Verge have both published pieces on the video, the first investigating the legality and the second analyzing the validity of the creator’s intentions.

The concept is simple: A man films random people in Seattle without their permission. He claims that his filming of strangers is no different than that of an unmanned security camera in a

grocery store, but his goals are not what I find fascinating. “Surveillance Camera Man” offers a thrilling exposé on modern expectations of privacy, with seemingly unintentional additional insights into mental illness, drug abuse and homelessness within the United States.

“Surveillance Camera Man” captures an incredibly broad range of human experiences, showing more in a 50-minute film than many may experience in a decade.

His subjects include: bewildered college students, mormon missionaries and scientology advocates, as well as many individuals suffering from visible mental illness and drug addiction. The creator’s attempt at a poignant message about surveillance technology feels vapid in comparison to the blunt reality of the situations we are shown. While a majority of the subjects are angered by the cameraman’s presence, others appear to see the camera as an opportunity to send a message or tell their story.

One of the last scenes in the video features a man who laments over his lot in life.

“I’m a homeless American, would you not believe that? I can do no better, I’ve tried,” the man says in the video. His words convey more pain than can be shown through the traditional documentary medium.

Another of the most tragic scenes in the film stars a young woman who at first appears to be a naturally friendly person that wants to be on film, but after a few minutes attempts to prosti-

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tute herself to the cameraman.

It is the scenes with people like these, those who are the most forthcoming and who have the least to hide, that seem to bear the most darkness in their lives. The people who reacted the most adversely tended to be those in the most mundane situations: eating lunch in a restaurant or walking through the airport with their family.

Among the most interesting aspects of the video is the cameraman himself. We, as the viewers, know so little about him. The only clues about him that we acquire are superficial: He is an American male, likely in his late twenties or early thirties judging by his voice.

The other thing we can infer about him is that he is irrationally fearless and immune to feeling

awkward. At one point, he films a man who appears to be inspecting a home’s locks presumably to rob it later. The man tells the cameraman to delete the footage, but the cameraman, of course, persists. The robber gives chase, and the cameraman escapes only after hiding behind a vehicle. This scene was not unique.

Throughout the video, a number of the cameraman’s subjects attempt to physically assault or at least threaten him, but he always narrowly escapes. While many have tried, nobody has ever successfully identified the man behind the camera. That makes the film all the more fascinating— that he felt comfortable and even righteous putting a stranger’s life on display but refusing to even show his own face.

It is clear that the cameraman’s desire was to be a moralistic protagonist.

To make people feel how he thinks they should feel all the time in a surveillant society, in a state of constant paranoia and unease. However, he certainly fails in this regard, as most of the people who see this video categorize him as a creep and an unethical voyeur of others’ personal lives. I agree with this sentiment for the most part, but the video holds incredible value to me nonetheless. I think “Surveillance Camera Man” ultimately taps into a deep seeded desire to see what is not supposed to be seen. To peek into the world’s of those whose activities may seem so foreign to us but are nothing more than mundane to them.

“folklore:” fantastical tales of love and loss

By Caroline O staFF

Taylor Swift’s “folklore” feels like that rare beam of sunlight that you quietly appreciate in the midst of a brewing thunderstorm—a story told in a small bedroom with the curtains drawn to keep out the rain and lightning.

But outside of just feelings alone, Swift’s “folklore” is an absolute lyrical and musical masterpiece that has rightfully climbed to the top of Billboard’s Charts.

Announced and released on July 24, Swift swept away countless listeners—both longtime and new fans—with an album composed in a time of quarantine and social distancing. In a total of 16 tracks, “folklore” ventures away from Swift’s previous pop aesthetic and instead explores the softer, quieter folk/indie genre. As a result, Swift’s songwriting comes

TAYLOR SWIFT

through the strongest in this album, accompanied by the gentler sounds of acoustic guitar and piano that comes with the territory.

True to the album’s name, “folklore” focuses on fictional stories: a child comforting a traumatized friend, an angry wife discovering her husband’s affair, a man wandering in a hopeless exile and, recurring throughout the album, the story of teenagers caught in a love triangle that doesn’t feel like something out of an overrated CW show. Memorable lines abound in this album, weaving the songs together into beautiful, multi-faceted tales.

One particularly notable tale takes form in the fourth track “exile,” a collaboration between Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Swift.

Vernon’s low, deep tones contrast sharply with Swift’s own higher pitch, the two voices spinning a tale of lovers separating and seeing each other from across a room. There is clear anguish on

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both sides. With haunting lyrics such as “I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending” and “you’re not my homeland anymore, so what am I defending now?,” “exile” stands out as the emotional punch of the album.

Listeners get the first hint of Swift’s storytelling abilities in “cardigan,” the first perspective of the love triangle of “folklore.” Starting off with soft tones, Swift spins the tale of someone welcoming back, to put it bluntly, a cheater. Her voice grows stronger, louder with the third verse as her character finds the chastened love back at her porch: “I knew you’d miss me once the thrill expired, and you’d be standing in front porch light, and I knew you’d come back to me.”

The response to “cardigan” takes form in “betty,” a guitar- and harmonica-dominant tune reminiscent of Swift’s earlier country days. Listeners find themselves in the perspective of the one who hurt the narrator of “cardigan,” and Swift paints a picture of a 17-year-old apologizing. The chorus, an out-of-breath rush of lyrics—“Would you have me? Would you want me? Would you tell me to go f*ck myself or lead me to the garden?”—mimics the speech of any teenager stumbling for the right words. While listeners can’t quite forget what this narrator did to hurt the protagonist of “cardigan,” they still find themselves feeling a bit hopeful and cheerful for this particular character, especially when Swift changes the key at the end of the song to signal the eventual making-up of the two lovers. And, of course, the outro—“standing in your cardi-

FOLKLORE

gan”—gives the listeners the sense that perhaps this couple managed after all.

The third perspective of the love triangle, and perhaps the most intriguing of them all, takes form in “august”: a summer-y, breathy masterpiece that recalls memories of a summer love that wasn’t quite meant to be. Swift explores the perspective of the final member of the love triangle, the one who the narrator of “betty” had cheated the narrator of “cardigan” with.

Despite the cheerful strums and upbeat drum in the background, the lyrics are wistful, bittersweet: “so much for summer love and saying ‘us’ ‘cause you weren’t mine to lose.” Here, listeners find themselves once more in an interesting

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perspective of Swift’s creation— and instead of bashing the “other woman” of the relationship, we find ourselves sympathizing with the situation. In that way, “august” signals a new level of maturity in Swift’s songwriting tradition: the delve into a separate perspective rather than villainizing it brings out the complexities of the story, therefore making this tale an interesting one to behold.

But no matter the content of the songs themselves, Swift’s storytelling remains true: listeners are immersed in the fantastical little tales of love and loss, and for that, the songs of “folklore” will be replayed and re-listened by those always searching for a good story.

14 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

August 28, 2020

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender:’ a beautiful anomoly

By Uma Jagwani staFF

With many people quarantined at home and their eyes glued to Netflix, the recent addition of “Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA)” on the streaming service has offered itself as a form of escape in these chaotic times. This phenomenon has inadvertently led to a random (or possibly fateful) reignition of the show that first aired between 2005-2008 on Nickelodeon.

Although “ATLA” was popularized as a show directed towards young adolescents, “ATLA” remains a timeless exemplification of deep values and important themes that frankly, both children and adults can learn from.

Although I was familiar with the show as a kid, as an adult viewer watching the entirety of the all three “books” or seasons consecutively for the first time, I, much like many others, fell in love with the wondrous world portrayed through the masterful storytelling of creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

As “ATLA” rose to the #1 spot

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on Netflix, even setting records, everyone including my 49-yearold mother couldn’t help but fall in love with the show. After her initial resistance, arguing her age as reason for being “too old for cartoons,” a week later I received a message from her saying she has now binged season two, as the show “grew on her.” In moments like these, it’s easy to forget that “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was, in reality, first aired as a children’s show meant for a much younger audience.

The show is unique among the array of typical Nickelodeon shows, as it presents deeper and more mature themes (no offense, “iCarly”). This is in part given by its East-Asian-inspired setting, suggesting eastern philosophies as a framework for their world.

Still, its distinct features go beyond its celebration of non-white cultures, highlighting important ideals like friendship, feminism and introspectivity.

In “ATLA,” one is immediately immersed in a compelling realm, ripe for adventure, as Avatar Aang, Katara and her brother Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe embark via Aang’s air bison, Appa, on a journey for world peace. The show’s premise introduces us to the four nations: Water, Air, Earth and Fire, and their sometimes gifted citizens born with the ability to manipulate and sometimes conjure their nation’s element, called “benders.” There was peace, until the fire nation attacked and began to colonize.

The fate of the world rests in the Avatar, a reincarnated soul that is reborn into a new human for each generation, who is the bridge between the spirits and the humans, and can master all four elements.

The defeat of the Fire Nation and restoration of the world relies on

the new generation, specifically, in this team of pre-teens.

Enter Team Avatar. While it’s an undoubtedly large task to burden a few 12-year-olds with, their journey makes an inquiry into friendship, culture, governmental and societal structuring and the understanding of differing cultures among nations.

The show has a charming manner of simplifying ideas that promote sagacity, which I find so clearly encompassed in, ironically, a character from the tyrannical fire nation: Prince Zuko’s tea-loving Uncle Iroh. His character is a loving and kind one, despite being a general of a vicious army. Iroh has a plethora of wise quotes embedded through striking moments, such as when he says to Zuko, “it’s time to start asking yourself the big questions: who are you, what do you want?”

These questions spark introspective thought in the same way Zuko struggles with his internal conflict, and we, the viewers, are invited to go inward with him.

As much as the “bending” action steals the spotlight, I revel in these internal struggles just as much.

The reminder of childhood magic in the show (aside from bending) comes from the beauty and simplicity of universal ideals like joy, unity and spirituality— which makes the show so incredibly wholesome. Aang, although 113 at the start of episode one, is the embodiment of childhood bliss, as his zen wisdom teaches how to be flexible, and to live life mindfully with a presence of joy at the forefront in the way we go through the world. He shows us how to enjoy, to be so in love with the small moments even during times of extreme struggles.

Alongside ideas of wisdom and joy, feminist ideals portrayed by

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strong women characters are not sparse, as characters like Katara, Toph and Suki showcase strength, wisdom and fearlessness in their own ways. The show very clearly refutes misogyny from the very beginning when Sokka reevaluates his sexist notions after getting pulverized by one of the Warriors of Kyoshi. Suki beats the misogyny out of him, and he is humbled, realizes he is wrong and asks for Suki to teach him. Not only does it highlight strong women, but the demonstration of a man swallowing his hubris and acknowledging women as their equals and possibly even superiors in some regard, sets a strong example for young people (and your racist relatives) in having the ability to recognize their faults and learn from them.

Suki saying she is a warrior but “a girl too,” highlights the show’s feminist message, proving women can be both feminine and fierce, and truly, whatever they want to be.

Ultimately, what I love most about this resurgence is its ability to bring people together. I can send memes to my mother, college friends and 10th grader cousins about this show, which is astonishing to me. Perhaps, as cheesy as it sounds, just like the four nations, “ATLA” can bridge humans to other humans in these distressed times. In all three seasons, “ATLA” is beautifully woven, unique and an anomaly, in its vast audience that it’s able to captivate, and in the way it both teaches and entertains so gracefully.

Aside from amazing characters and profound themes, “ATLA” is filled with moments that can make you laugh out loud or start tearbending. And if you loved “ATLA” as much as I did, its sequel, “Legend of Korra,” which is about the next avatar after Aang (and which I love just as much) was recently added to Netflix as well.

‘Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts:’ a second season done right

By Joshua Lannon staFF

Kipo is back and better than ever. The excellent first season of “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts” ended on a massive cliffhanger with many questions left unanswered. Luckily the second season starts right where the first leaves off and exceeds the quality of the first season in almost every way. While Kipo herself grows immensely over the course of this season, the development of her antagonist is even more gratifying to watch. It is everything a viewer could ask of a second act.

The plot of season one revolved around the titular Kipo as she tried to find her way home through a colorful and strange post-apocalyptic world. Along the way she met various anthropomorphic characters, called “mutes,” and gathered a group of quirky companions along the way.

The show stood out by presenting a more lighthearted adventure while still packing emotional depth through character development and alongside quite a bit of comedic relief.

Season two not only retains the core aspects of the first season, but it builds on them. In particular, the second season has a lot more action than the first. While “Kipo” is not necessarily an action-oriented show, I still enjoyed scenes involving Kipo and her friend Wolf, the latter of whom

provided most of the group’s muscle until Kipo developed superpowers. We only really got to see Kipo fight during the latter half of the first season, but the second opens with Kipo going to rescue her father and her people, only to narrowly escape a fortress without succeeding. Kipo failing to rescue the people of her home burrough provides plenty of motivation for the rest of the season.

The action in Kipo serves a narrative purpose. At the end of season one, Kipo had just started to awaken her mysterious powers but could not fully control them.

Having her suddenly become a master fighter would have been a cheap way to progress her character arc. Instead, season two is about Kipo learning to control her powers, with the fight sequences serving as ways of physically demonstrating how she improves over time. For example, after defeating two henchmen in the first episode her father notes that she got very lucky by catching the two off guard. But by episode nine, Kipo has defeated far greater threats and improved greatly and her father notes her amazing fighting capabilities. This is shown not only through her father’s dialogue but also is shown visually through Kipo’s improvement over the course of the season.

One of the most interesting dynamics in season two is the relationship between Kipo and the season’s primary villain, Scarlemagne. Scarlemagne is an evil mutant Mandrill with the ability to

PHOTO FROM KIPO.FANDOM.COM

control primates and humans. In season two, he reveals his plan to take over the world, force the other mutants to serve him, enslave all of humanity and crown himself emperor. While his ambition may paint him as a typical evil antagonist trying to take over the world, season two reveals Scarlemagne to be a much more emotionally complex character.

While Scarlemagne is presented as an unhinged egomaniac, his origin story makes him much more relatable and even portrays him as a tragic character. In season one, his interaction with Kipo’s father indicated they had met in the past and had some mutual animosity. However, season two reveals that Scarlemagne was originally named Hugo and was a test subject of Kipo’s parents. They eventually formed a kind of family unit, but when Hugo finds out

PHOTO FROM PLUGGEDIN.COM

about the true purpose of the experiments is to get rid of the mutant animals’ advanced intellects, he feels his first sense of betrayal from his parental figures.

Eventually Hugo is abandoned by his parental figures when the lab is destroyed and he is forced to find a way to survive on the surface.

While this is more than enough backstory to make any villain sympathetic, it also connects Scarlemagne more to Kipo. Their stories mirror each other: Both characters became lost on the surface after the destruction of their homes. While Kipo found a new family through love and compassion, Scarlemagne survived by forcibly controlling others. Despite his evil acts, Kipo recognizes that Scarlemagne is redeemable, and towards the end of the season Kipo eventually gives herself up

to Scarlemagne in hopes that she can help him. Her interactions with the mad Mandrill reveal that his vulnerability and need to control others stems from his earlier abandonment and the idea that no one would ever choose to be his friend. He and Kipo’s common origin makes their conflict both more intense but also uniquely intimate.

Season two of “Kipo and the Wonderbeasts” exceeds all expectations. It not only retains all of the aspects that made the first season so enjoyable, but actually improves upon them.

Adding both more action and even more emotional complexity to all the characters, even the antagonist, while maintaining the animation quality and values of the first season, makes this show a perfect example of how a second season should be done.

August 28, 2020

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The Brandeis Hoot

‘Detention:’ an original Taiwanese horror adventure

By Stewart Huang staFF

“Detention” is a 2D side-scrolling, point-and-click horror game that takes place in 1960s in Taiwan under a period known as the “White Terror.” This was a time when the country was put under martial law by the Chinese Nationalist Party after its defeat in a civil war against the Chinese Communist Party. You play as Wei Chung-Ting and Fang RayShin, high school students who find themselves trapped in Greenwood High School, a high school in a mountainous region of Taiwan, and must navigate through the Silent Hill-esque highschool hellscape and confront their tragic past. Let’s just keep it at that to avoid any spoilers.

The game places heavy emphasis on puzzle solving, which entails finding items that interact with the map and decipering combinations to unlock the next path forward. These puzzles are generally straight forward, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on your taste. Occasionally you’ll have to evade detection from monsters, but I feel that these encounters are a little too easy, rendering the horror of “Detention” at times underwhelming.

The game takes about three to four hours to complete and there are two endings available.

What sets the story of “Detention” apart from most others with a dystopian setting is that it is heavily based on real historical events. Of course, I, as a Taiwanese, learned about the “White Terror” in high school, but only from a few paragraphs in my his-

PHOTO FROM STORM.STEAMPOWERED.COM

tory textbook. “Detention” brings to life every vivid detail of that dreadful life during martial law: posters and slogans urging people to report communists, teachers taken by the police during class and highschool students being arrested and rounded up for execution. The game is a portal that transports you back in time so you can experience the tragic weight that is required in order to truly understand and take into memory this grim part of history.

The biggest strength of “Detention” lies in its art direction. In a market saturated with tropes such as asylums, experiments gone wrong, monsters with ridiculous gimmicks (like Slenderman) and

vicious female ghosts, “Detention” is an immediate breath of fresh air. It is also probably the first ever horror game to feature a Taiwanese aesthetic. I was so excited to see the once familiar Taiwanese school environment— the wooden chairs and desks, the blackboards, the white walls, the auditorium that demands obedience from the student body, the military instructor everyone is afraid of, the short hairstyles and the bland uniforms that kill individuality—retrofitted as the stage of a horror game for the first time, because it is perfect for that role.

The implementation of local culture and superstitions as puzzles and ghost encounters is an-

other highlight, with the latter being easily the most eye-opening segments for me. I desperately wish that there were more of these encounters. The fact these ghosts are based on folklore lends them personality and just enough perceived plausibility, making them so much more interesting than anything from urban legends or creepypastas.

I’m sure others who aren’t familiar with Taiwanese culture will also find the visual elements exciting. The game masterfully paints an absolutely demonic and evil representation of Taiwanese culture, with its use of a drab, almost black-and-white color scheme and an oppressive political back-

ground, that I can only imagine the dread of seeing these representations and being surrounded by them in-game as an outsider.

The cryptic Chinese characters and posters on the walls probably add to that feeling too.

However, the game’s biggest weakness is that the threat of danger turns out to be an illusion. I mentioned earlier that the enemy encounters are too easy. That is because the ghosts all move very slowly that you can approach them carelessly and kite them around with no consequence. It doesn’t help that these encounters are few and far between and enemy variety is low. Add to the fact that these encounters are the only way you can die in-game, it’s easy to lose your suspension of disbelief and render yourself desensitized to the horror. Sure, the audio and visuals are consistently great at producing the anxiety of imminent danger, but nothing realizes that danger aside from jumpscares and a few admittedly quite creative scenes. This is especially true in the latter half of the game where the story focuses more on building its characters than delivering scares. Of course, I’m not discounting that the game builds horror in psychological and historical aspects, but I would have liked to see more ways to experience danger and loss of progress to keep me on my toes.

The story and visuals provide a unique experience on Taiwanese history and culture that cannot be found elsewhere (aside from the developers latest installment “Devotion” which I will definitely review in the future). Everyone should give this a try. The game is available on PC, Xbox, PS4, Switch, iOS and Android.

The success of July’s Boston Student Film Festival

By Aaron LaFauci editor

The 2020 run of the Boston Student Film Festival was livestreamed the second weekend of July, and, to the collective relief of myself and the ten or so other viewers in virtual attendance, the show went off without a hitch.

My half-semester experience with Zoom had trained me to expect disaster in all things livestream, but I was pleasantly surprised when the final day of the stream wrapped up without a single crash or stutter. The quality of the student films themselves were also a pleasant surprise, but that is not to say that their contents were always pleasant or surprising.

Started in 2019, the Boston Student Film Festival is laudable for being one of the few organizations in New England to actually showcase student works, and it is great to see that the coronavirus did not extinguish the idea before it could begin its second show. While not literally a Brandeis production, it is Brandeisians that form the backbone of the show. This year’s festival director was Benedikt Reynolds ’19, the two producers were Savannah Edmondson ’19 and The Brandeis Hoot’s very own Noah Harper ’19, and a key sponsor of the entire event was Mark Dellelo, founder of the Sound and Image Media Studios (SIMS) at Brandeis. This year’s show features 25 films from 15 colleges across the New England area with a combined viewing time of about three and a half hours.

Most indie films have a kind of

sad, anxiety inducing angst about them, and student films amplify that effect greatly. This often results in frankly vague and uninteresting bouts of self exploration, but a few of these films were genuinely captivating. Tiffany Rekem’s “Bye bye” is the real winner of this category. It presents a seemingly biographical account of the director’s father’s struggle with mental illness through an arrangement of interviews, observational shots and vintage footage. Monologues from the aging father are interlaced with scenes of mundane life, including uncomfortably close shots of television watching, eating and some singing. Hitchcockian voyeurism is brought to an extreme as the viewer is made to listen as the father recounts his troubled childhood and past desire to kill himself. There are touching moments too, but I will not spoil them. Rekem’s project is one of the most intimate works of art I have ever been made to watch, and I am grateful for it.

Other standout films in my self-invented angst and anxiety category include Nicole Sellew’s “Isabel,” a series of monologues with a “Moonrise Kingdom” delivery and aesthetic, and Camila Vilaplana’s “Insomnia,” of which the name speaks for itself.

The animated works of the show are plentiful, and all of them are good. None of them commit particularly hard to providing a long cinematic experience, although some of them are shorter and sweeter than others, and the variety of animation styles ranging from claymation to computer generated make it difficult to pick a single favorite. I will admit that

PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK.COM

Austin Kimmell’s “Trapper Keeper” immediately tore a hole in my heart, if only for its painful representation of the exhaustion and routine of high school life.

My personal favorite animated work, however, is Maddie Brewer’s “God of Chaos.” The short is a narratively complete cartoon that would not look out of place on Adult Swim. Its hand drawn style is distinct (if somewhat unsettling), and movement is fluid and constant. Despite lacking any dialogue whatsoever, the animation succeeds in presenting a clear antagonist, a fun pair of protagonists and a suspenseful conclusion to tie the wacky thing together.

Finally, we have the big hitters-–the longer films that try to capture a truly cinematic experience. I will preface by saying that all of them are impressive. Student films, by virtue of budget,

talent and equipment constraints, will almost always appear slightly mediocre, but the ambition of these particular submissions is backed by raw talent. Case in point: Timothy Amatulli’s “The Quiet Pain” actually made me forget that I was watching a student film, and I was sad when it ended so soon. It tells the familiar story of a woman discovering that her husband is cheating on her. With few words, it captures the anxious tension of a father-mother feud with a daughter caught between.

Bubbling throughout the film’s conclusion is the quiet sadness of a wife that must reconcile that she is not as young and desired as she may have once been.

Monica Liao Queliz’s “WOKE,” is an all too relevant butt-clencher.

The plot and dialogue is obvious but nonetheless gripping as an Afro-Latina college freshman attempts to interface with her

school’s white-dominated diversity club. After a cringe inducing round of racially charged banter, the camera dramatically pulls back to a stage as the protagonist delivers a speech about belonging and identity. In this day and age, it is pretty much required viewing.

If even a single of these films catches your attention, I recommend giving the show a shot. Both days of screening can be found on the Boston Student Film Festival Facebook page as well as the official website of the same name.

Streaming a film festival is never as interesting as physically being there, but it cannot be helped.

Going to an in-person screening of a student festival would be a blast, however, and we can only pray that the Boston Student Film Festival will outlive the pandemic.

We are only students for so long— we must appreciate the experience while our youth lasts.

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August 28, 2020

Read ‘Today Tonight Tomorrow’ today, tonight and tomorrow

By Emma Lichtenstein editor

Rachel Lynn Solomon has once again proven that the best books are a blend of too good to be true and heartbreakingly real.

With her third novel, “Today Tonight Tomorrow,” Solomon said that she wanted to write a lighter novel, and, for the most part, she did. “Today Tonight Tomorrow” is filled with antics, mishaps and bonding moments full of character development, but also scenes that show the harsher sides of humanity and growing up.

The book opens on a highstakes scenario: the last day of senior year. These early scenes set up a nostalgic, bittersweet feeling: the joy of graduation mixed with the sorrow of a painful goodbye.

This opening is a strong emotional pull, but misleading. This isn’t her main challenge—her fight for valedictorian and a perfect last day is nothing compared to what

she will endure once those school bells ring. Though it may seem like it at first, “Today Tonight Tomorrow” isn’t a love letter to high school, but rather a love letter to Solomon’s hometown of Seattle and teenage adventure.

Solomon invents a game called “Howl,” a scavenger hunt mixed with mafia tradition where seniors are expected to explore Seattle looking for clues while simultaneously trying to “kill” the other competitors. This game has main character Rowan Roth teaming up with her archnemesis, Neil McNair. Neil is initially set up as a villain, the descriptions aiming to make readers despise him from the very first moment.

Rowan eventually discovers the humanity within Neil as he is slowly revealed to actually be a really sweet, totally normal guy.

The biggest surprise about Neil for Rowan is that he’s Jewish. Solomon writes Rowan as a lonely character, one who is proud of

her Jewish heritage, but isolated from the culture. Rowan longs for Jewish friends early in the novel, people who understand her experiences with antisemitism, her feelings of otherness and a total disconnection with the month of December. She unexpectedly finds that in Neil. My favorite moments in this book all revolve around these types of deep conversations between the characters. The less pleasant side of the Jewish experience is often missing from Young Adult (YA) literature.

Solomon has never been afraid to examine intense topics in her novels. Both of her previous two novels also touch on the taboo.

Despite the lighter tone of this novel, Solomon does not back down the likes of antisemitism, stigmas against romance novels and active self sabotage. Instead, she weaves them into plot lines and conversations throughout the entire book. It’s almost jarring to see. Provocative arguments and

stances are explicitly written in a book that’s marketed as a simple enemies-to-lovers romance (Though that’s not to say that the novel would be bad if it were missing these topics—romance novels without controversy are great. Rowan goes on many rants about their importance throughout “Today Tonight Tomorrow,” and if I wasn’t convinced before, I certainly am now). Though the mixture of expected and unexpected is what I’ve come to appreciate and adore from Solomon’s works, it still surprises me every time.

With each new novel that she writes, Solomon stuns me more and more. “Today Tonight Tomorrow” is a true adventure from beginning to end. Winning “Howl” isn’t a life or death situation; it’s not even about the cash prize: it’s just about proving that she can. Rowan’s mission feels very important though the stakes are actually very low. Even the

PHOTO FROM AMAZON.COM

fluffiest of scenes contain so much depth, and Solomon’s characters are so lifelike that I feel as if I’ve been friends with them my whole life. Her next novel is set to change genres, from YA to adult.

I’m so excited to see how she’ll push boundaries in a whole new space.

Friendship, queer love and big pharma in ‘The Old Guard’

By Isaac Ruben staFF

If you can die a thousand times and always wake up, what is the point in living? This is the central, if unspoken, question in “The Old Guard.” The answer: friendship.

“Friends are good” might not sound like a particularly hot take, however for a big, shiny superhero movie, this is quietly radical.

In Netflix’s new summer blockbuster, the stakes at the heart of the film are not saving the world from a big bad John Cena or a big purple Josh Brolin. Instead, the soul of the film lives and dies with the bonds between the group of immortal, evil-fighting heroes, helmed by Charlize Theron’s Andromache (Andy, for short).

This is not to say that “The Old Guard” is lacking in action hallmarks. The film follows a quartet of immortal warriors, who have been fighting together for centuries, quietly protecting the world’s less privileged citizens from greed, corruption and violence.

Our heroes are riddled with bullets, stabbed in the stomach and thrown off buildings. Each time, they get back up, tend to each oth-

er’s wounds and laugh it off with a snappy quip. The main villain is, of course, a White male pharmaceutical executive, because who could possibly embody evil better? Steven Merrick, played by Dudley from the “Harry Potter” movies, wants to harvest the immortals’ genetic codes in order to “do good”—for his shareholders.

“The Old Guard” makes you wonder why they keep letting Vin Diesel star in action movies when everyone knows Charlize Theron exists. Sure, Tom Cruise strapped himself to an airplane once, but Theron can, well, act…very well.

All while doing some of the most exhilarating fight sequences I’ve seen in a long time. In the first act of the film, the team has to induct (read: kidnap) a new member. This leads to a hand-to-hand combat sequence between Andy and Nile (Kiki Layne) in a moving cargo jet. Nile is a twenty-something year old soldier who doesn’t understand how she’s survived having her throat slit, and Andy is a battle-born, war-torn veteran. It’s a fight between old and young, knowledge and denial.

It’s unabashed, action fun and an emotionally serious scene. These characters’ lives are not, as in so many films, surrounded by vio-

Artist:

Emily Riordan (‘22)

Do you make comics?

Email submissions to our editors! elichtenstein@brandeis.edu ajlafauci@brandeis.edu

lence, but forged in it. This scene also passes the Bechdel test—that checks to see if two female characters discuss anything other than male characters—which is simply very rare.

The team of heroes at the center of “The Old Guard” is not only female helmed, but it also features two gay men who have been madly in love for hundreds of years.

They’ve suffered and prospered through immortality together, and it’s the most wholesome (and objectively longest) love story to be featured in a recent Hollywood action film.

It’s unfortunate that decent representation in a superhero movie warrants note, but until it’s the norm, “The Old Guard” earns its praise, both on screen and behind the scenes.

What is most refreshing about “The Old Guard” is that director Gina Prince-Bythewood treats the heroes as humans first.

Where Marvel or DC characters might spend entire films wearing souped-up Halloween costumes from Party City, Andy and the team wear human-person clothing, not only because they’re hiding, but because they’re “just” people who happen to have superhuman abilities. These charac-

PHOTO FROM NETFLIX.COM

ters, created by screenwriter and comic book writer Greg Rucka, face loneliness and heartache, camaraderie and joy. Their interactions are more Greta Gerwig than Michael Bay, which only makes the Michael Bay parts of the film feel more important. If you stripped away the costumes and VFX of “The Old Guard,” you’d have a Noah Baumbach-style family drama; the same treatment to an Avengers film would leave an empty soundstage.

Unfortunately, much of what I appreciate about “The Old Guard” is rooted in the shortcomings of

its competition. After two decades of cookie-cutter superhero doldrums, a film doesn’t need a stroke of brilliance to gain praise and become the number one movie on Netflix; it just has to be solid. If the summer action offerings from Marvel and Christopher Nolan had reached cinemas, who knows if “The Old Guard” would’ve made it onto my radar at all? Regardless, I’m glad the holy Netflix algorithm decided to serve it up. “The Old Guard” won’t go down in history, but I’ll certainly remember it long enough to watch the sequel in a couple years.

August 28, 2020

ARTS 17

The Brandeis Hoot

Student Art Showcase

Untitled

Artist:

Gretchen Manley (‘22)

Bonnie

Artist:

Tenor Matys (‘22)

Are you satisfied?

Artist:

Hannah Park (‘23)