The Brandeis Hoot 03/10/2017

Volume 14 Issue 5

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

March 10, 2017

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper · Waltham, Mass.

Brandeis Labor Coalition hosts Women’s Day Rally

By Elianna Spitzer and Abigail Gardener editors

Speakers at a rally of about 50 people called for the recognition of women’s work and workers’ rights on March 3, International Women’s Day. The rally took place outside the library and was organized by the Brandeis Labor Coalition (BLC).

The event was co-sponsored by clubs and unions. Undergraduates, graduate students and faculty were in attendance. Eight speakers stepped up to the microphone to address the crowd. The speakers focused on women’s contribution to the workforce and the importance of unionization.

Graduate student workers are unionizing to increase advocacy and mediation, according to

Anna Henkins, a graduate student working toward a Ph.D. at Brandeis. Henkins spoke about several concerns such as cost of travel and long hours. Graduate students are limited to speaking with professors within their department to handle complaints, according Henkins. She hopes that unionizing will create an outlet for complaints to be formally resolved. “A union lets us work together with Brandeis to make working conditions good enough that we can be our best self and make Brandeis its best self,” Henkins said.

Michelle Mann, another speaker, finished her Ph.D. at Brandeis and now teaches as an adjunct faculty member. “Many adjunct and contingent faculty are living on the poverty line with almost See RALLY, page 2

women’s day rally A group

photo by elianna spitzer/the hoot

of students at pose with signs for Faculty Forward, the faculty organizing committee.

Free expression task force sparks controversy

By Ryan Spencer staff

photo by elianna spitzer/the hoot

who runs the world Student

made signs declare the names of women workers of various socio-economic backgrounds in front of the Light of Reason statue.

SU partners with GSA to reintroduce Riverside Shuttle

By Abigail Gardener editor

The Student Union, in partnership with the Graduate Student Association, reinstituted the Riverside shuttle earlier this month.

The shuttle to Newton’s Riverside T station was introduced to campus for the fall 2016 semester and discontinued in December of the same semester due to “overall cost of the program and low ridership numbers,” according to an

Inside This Issue:

email sent to all students from the Office of Graduate Student Affairs.

Another contributing factor to the cancellation of the shuttle was lack of publicity. “Ultimately they decided that the ridership wasn’t enough to justify the cost, but really I think that was mainly a result of failure to advertise enough, because a lot of people didn’t even know about it until they heard it was canceled,” said Class of 2019 Senator and Chair of the Services and Outreach Committee Han-

nah Brown.

The Riverside shuttle was originally a project instituted by the Graduate Student Association, and was mainly targeted to graduate students, according to Brown.

Some undergraduate students utilized it as well, but not many, she said.

After the discontinuation, Student Union Director of Communications and Academic Involvement Jacob Edelman ’18 received See RIVERSIDE, page 2

Post-Bacc Art

Page 3 Ops: ‘Leveling Up’ is a poor choice of play Sports: Fencing wins conference championship Page 16 Page 12 Exhibit tranfixes with geoArts: Library honors Lenny Bruce Page 13 metric abstraction Features: Kidney donors needed EDITORIAL: Task force missing vital voices Page 7 ARTS: PAGE 9

A discussion on Wednesday, March 8 that aimed to inform an 18-member task force about campus opinions on free expression asked questions such as “Do you feel that you have full access to free expression?” and “Should there be consequences for free expression?” The conversation among students grew heated, and some students feuded with campus press coverage of the event.

Mark Brimhall-Vargas, Chief Diversity Officer and a member of the task force, requested at the start of the event that students’ names not be used in the press coverage of the event so that students could feel comfortable voicing their opinions.

University President Ron Liebowitz created the Task Force on Free Expression last fall. He asked the task force to produce two documents, a statement of principles that define how the campus’ students, staff and faculty think about freedom of speech and a set of recommendations for how the administration should treat issues of speech. The discussion on Wednesday was meant to help in-

form the task force as they create these documents.

The controversial events that took place at Middlebury College on March 2 were a subject of constant discussion among the almost 50 students, faculty and task force members present at Wednesday’s event.

At Middlebury, protests erupted in reaction to Charles Murray, a controversial social scientist who has been defined as a white nationalist by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He had been brought to speak on the Middlebury campus by the school’s chapter of the conservative group American Enterprise Institute. The protests grew violent and resulted in the injury of a university professor.

Much of the discussion at Brandeis on Wednesday used Charles Murray and the events at Middlebury as a hypothetical situation. Many students who spoke agreed that the words of Charles Murray could be classified as “hate speech” and should not be tolerated at Brandeis in the hypothetical event that a campus organization wished to have him (or any other controversial individual) speak.

Ending Track’s Indoor Season Last indoor meets were Ithaca and Tufts SPORTS: PAGE 15

See EXPRESSION, page 2

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

March 10, 2017

Students wear red in support of Intl. Women’s Day RALLY, from page 1

no job security, no opportunities to advance their scholarship or their careers,” she said. Brandeis adjunct faculty members teaching in the College of Arts and Sciences receive a minimum of $6,700, and graduate student instructors earn $4,900 per course each semester, according to labor organizer Jeremy Thompson.

Brandeis Faculty Forward, the non-tenured, contingent faculty union, has been collectively bargaining for higher wages. In her speech, Mann advocated for better opportunities for recent graduates and adjunct faculty members. “Brandeis and Brandeisians, now is the time for our university to make a strong statement saying that we value education, we value our faculty, we recognize their contributions and we will not rest until we achieve greater equity for all.”

Michelle and Lucia, dining services workers and stewards of the union Local 26, spoke briefly about how the union has helped them. Both have worked at Brandeis for almost 20 years.

Michelle referenced that the Einstein’s workers’ hours had been cut this semester to 37.5, but thanks to the union, they got

all 40 of their hours back. “The union helps us … we are so lucky,” Lucia said.

Risa Dunbar ’18, co-chair of J Street U at Brandeis, spoke to the crowd about women’s leadership regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, specifically a group called Women Wage Peace.

“The women who make up Women Wage Peace span all sorts of political, religious, ethnic, economic and geographic spectrums,” Dunbar said. “They include religious and secular women, Jews and Arabs, right- and left-wing voters, immigrants and native-born residents, enabling the movement to advocate for peace, prosperity and self-determination for all inhabitants of the Israeli-Palestine region.”

Dunbar emphasized the importance of women organizing to bring about change. “Conflict is a women’s issue, and the women who make up Women Wage Peace exemplify the incredible power of organized women working to bring about a resolution,” she said.

Librarians also spoke about their experiences as workers at Brandeis. The management has been receptive to their ideas, according to Anne Kardos, a librarian.

The Brandeis Labor Coalition

organized the majority of the event and members passed out flyers for an upcoming meeting.

The club thought International Women’s Day/A Day Without a Woman would be an appropriate day to raise awareness about the economic problems unions face.

“We decided to make the intersection between women and worker something that happens together, because together we’re strong, and apart we’re separated and weak. So it’s really important for us to have the intersectionality between women and workers seen, and that women are workers and workers are women, so we thought it was a perfect day to put it on,” said Phoebe Dolan ’20, member of the Brandeis Labor Coalition.

Many attendees wore red in support of the cause and “as part of the call for action overall in the nation,” Dolan said. As part of the national A Day Without a Woman, many women chose to strike and not come to work (whether paid or unpaid) to show the value that women have to the economy.

Because Brandeis could not hold an official strike due to union negotiations that some workers are engaged in, the rally was held to show the same type of support for the movement, according to Dolan.

IN THE SENATE: Mar. 5, 2017 •

Chartering • Studio drawing club • Want to allow drawing without being inhibited by financial needs • Passed unanimously • E-Board updates • Thirty clubs, on a confidential list, are on probation because their leaders have not completed bystander training. If at the close of the semester the club is on probation, it will be dechartered.

• Riverside shuttles • Going to advertize shuttles to increase use • Senator Updates • Campus Operations Working Group Chair Aaron Finkel ’20 • Trying to reduce cost of menstrual products initiative • Attempting to reduce the number of units in total and determine who will be in charge of restocking: Union, school or club • Dining Committee Chair Kate Kesselman ’19 • Trying to add a cereal bar to the C-Store • Putting a panini press in Sherman over April break • Sustainability Committee Chair Elijah Sinclair ’19 • Person from green campaign in Boston came and spoke and introduced initiatives • State of sustainability is coming up in the first week of April • Social Justice and Diversity Chair Christian Nuñez ’18 • Creating a committee to bring clubs that focus on social justice together • Club Support Committee • PR workshop for club leaders in Pearlman • Help with advertising events • CEEF • Read through proposals and now in process of making decisions on allocations but waiting for Class of 2020 Senator Tal Richtman to return to campus • Racial Minority Senator Lian Chen • SMR: Speaker from PR firm in Boston would talk to club leaders about advertising on social media. There would also be a panel of students who have successful ly advertised their clubs.

- Charlotte Aaron

Student Union funds Riverside shuttle RIVERSIDE, from page 1 photo by mia edelstein/the hoot

Free expression forum ends in contention

EXPRESSION, from page 1

Raising his voice, one student shared his opinion that the university should not draw any line restricting who can or cannot speak and that those who do not want to hear an individual speak on campus about controversial issues simply should not listen.

This student made a point to condemn Charles Murray despite arguing that he should hypothetically be allowed to speak on campus.

Other students retaliated, arguing that Brandeis as an institution should not condone certain speakers by allowing them to speak on campus. Students on both sides of the discussion spoke out of turn, interrupted each other and raised their voices. Some shushed one another when trying to speak simultaneously.

When a photographer from The

Justice, a campus newspaper, attempted to photograph a student who was speaking from the back of the room during the heated moments of the discussion, the student requested, “I’d prefer if no pictures were taken of me.” The photographer continued to take pictures, and the student repeated her request.

While some students in the room defended the photographer’s decision to continue taking photos, on the basis that she had the right to photograph a public event, others built a human shield around the speaker to block further photos from being taken.

Students who said that “hate speech” should not be allowed on campus were asked by Brimhall-Vargas, who led the discussion, to define what qualifies something as hate speech and to attempt to draw a line for what kinds of speech would or would not be tolerable. Responses did

not yield any concrete guidelines.

Several students in the room expressed concern that the voices of students with conservative viewpoints were repressed on campus due to the majority of Brandeis students being liberal.

All of the opinions expressed in the discussion were “well represented on the [task force] committee,” said Brimhall-Vargas toward the end of the discussion, which ran nearly 30 minutes over the originally allotted hour and a half period.

All of the topics raised at the discussion were noted, without attaching the names of speakers, by a university employee so that they could inform the task force as they moved forward.

In the next month, the Task Force on Free Expression will be meeting individually with groups on campus to continue discussions about free expression, according to Brimhall-Vargas.

an email stating that the Riverside shuttle cancellation was problematic, because many students had the potential to use it or were using it already, Brown said. After some research, the Union realized the project had been a graduate student service and reached out to the Graduate Student Association to begin discussion.

“We ended up scheduling a few meetings, talking about it,” Brown said. “We had room in our budget to provide for it, and it was just a lot of collaboration, seeing that there was the need on both sides.

It was a good way to even set up a link for us to communicate in the future.”

Rather than being a strictly graduate student service, the Riverside shuttle is now being provided as a service to both undergraduate and graduate students.

It is funded by the Student Union budget’s fundraising fund, according to Brown.

The Union hopes that students will be more aware of the shuttle this time, and realize more opportunities for commuting or internships are possible. “We’re hoping with the new shuttle instatement, maybe with some better advertising, and people knowing that … they can go intern in Boston

or commute, it will get increased ridership over time,” Brown said.

Students have already responded to the Riverside shuttle’s return.

“I’ve already seen some pretty nice feedback. I know a few of us [Student Union members] posted in the class pages and everybody seemed pretty receptive and excited to see that it was back,” Brown said.

As with last semester, the shuttle runs on weekdays, from 7-10 a.m. and 4-7 p.m. It provides transportation from Spingold Theater and Admissions to the Riverside T station with various stops in between. The only change made is that the shuttle will be smaller, which will be more cost efficient, Brown said. The official schedule with times and stops can be found on the Department of Public Safety’s website.

Brown hopes students continue to give feedback to the Student Union so that they can continue to make positive change for the Brandeis community. “All of us on the Union really appreciate when people reach out to us with their concerns and with a specific thing that we can address,” she said. “It really gives us an opportunity to do something meaningful that will really help people out. As you can see, when people reach out to us, we do our best to address the issue.”

March 10, 2017

OPINIONS

The Brandeis Hoot 3

‘Leveling Up’ is the wrong choice of show

By Amanda Ehrmann special to the hoot

­­­Every theater major has to complete two practicum requirements by working tech for a department show, including running lights, sound, costume, backstage crew and ushering, among other jobs.

This semester, I needed to complete my last practicum, and the only choice was a show called “Leveling Up.” I went into the process knowing nothing about the show. The first day, all the practicum students watched the last rehearsal before tech began.

Something felt off about the show after that night, and I have spent the rest of my time trying to justify working on this show. I still do not have an answer, and I wish I was able to pick a different show (maybe one of the amazing ones the department has produced in the past, like “Intimate Apparel”), but this is my last opportunity.

“Leveling Up” follows three 20-somethings, Zander, Ian and Chuck, living in an apartment and spending their time playing video games, occasionally visited by one of their girlfriends, Jeannie. The first thing off about this

By José Castellanos columnist

On Jan. 21, the single largest protest in American history occurred in Washington, D.C. Between 3.3 and 4.6 million people participated in the Women’s March to protest the inauguration that had occurred the previous day in an incredible display of solidarity that helped funnel the outrage that would follow the announcements from the White House over the following weeks.

The sense of solidarity carried over into lawyers working pro bono in airports to ensure that Muslim citizens were not being unlawfully detained by the TSA. It carried over into state legislatures, where bills such as

the women’s march in washington, d.c.

show is that it does not pass the Bechdel test.

In order to pass the Bechdel test, a work of fiction must contain two or more named women who talk to each other about something other than boys (extra points if they talk to each other about something other than clothes, accessories or diets). In “Leveling Up,” there is one woman, and all of her interactions are with male characters. Furthermore, they all attempt to flirt with her and question her decision to be with her boyfriend, Zander. If the playwright is trying to point these habits out as negative traits, it is incomplete, as in the end these characters are painted as sympathetic.

Similarly, she is not a well-written female character. She is in a bad relationship with a man who uses and ignores her, and all her decisions are made for her. Even the decision to end the relationship is Zander’s. She is met with sexist remarks about the clothes of an avatar she makes in a video game and is told after an intimate moment between avatars in the same video game that Chuck needed, “Some alone time.” She does not react to this or speak

up. If this is a social commentary about how men mistreat women and women do not have the opportunity to act for themselves, it is not explicit and not explored.

It just seems like she is too weak, and she is OK with being a game piece in their lives. These notes are not an attack on the women involved in the show. There are so few opportunities for women compared to men, and involvement in a field of interest is an opportunity that women cannot always afford to pass up.

Despite all of this, the big event which really fueled me to question the whole play is the climax.

In a cheap, “Ender’s Game”-like spinoff, where Ian is employed by the army to run video game-like simulations (mixed with real applications), he becomes emotional at the prospect of possibly having killed innocent people in a drone strike. When Jeannie tries to comfort him, he viciously attacks her, pinning her down. Despite her complaints, he does not yield.

Chuck and Zander enter and rush to her defense. This is a clearly an abusive event (which does not get a warning in the Playbill), but it is never discussed. Instead, when Jeannie returns to pick up her

items from Zander’s room, she acts nice toward Ian and wants to continue a friendship with him.

She is not traumatized by him or triggered by the attack. She seems completely fine. It almost makes Ian’s actions seem excusable because of his aggravation. The scene does not accurately portray the effects of his actions, and that is extremely problematic.

What kind of message does this offer abuse victims? That they are not strong enough like Jeannie is? That they should forgive their assailants? I need some sense of completion from the play, some mention of the event and how it affects Jeannie (if it does not affect her, why not?), and this just does not happen.

Similarly, because Ian is so troubled we are meant to feel bad for him, instead of the innocent victims he potentially killed. He is painted as the troubled one, the one with the difficult life, instead of the little girl he bombs who lives in a country constantly under attack. The playwright is scheduled to come to the performance on Saturday and I plan to ask her these questions. I am interested in hearing her response, but art should be able to stand by

Do not grow complacent

Massachusetts’ Safe Communities Act are attempting to protect communities of undocumented immigrants and Muslims. And most recently, it carried over into Standing Rock protesters setting up sites in Washington in a multiday protest, as well as the Sioux Tribe’s planning of an Indigenous People’s March.

What is going on is resistance. It is millions of people protesting an illegitimate president put in power by an outdated system rather than the voice of the people and attempting to prevent him from enacting invasive and unconstitutional policies. However, there will always be more work to be done. As of press time, there are 1,412 days left in his term, barring any circumstances such as impeachment, death or revolu-

tion. It is going to be a long and tumultuous struggle and that is why it’s important that we do not grow complacent.

This presidency is not normal.

This is not business as usual. This is not how a president should act.

Take into consideration his recent Twitter tirade accusing President Barack Obama of wiretapping him in the period leading up to Election Day. The best-case scenario here is that there is an unstable, pathological liar who is willing to spread any conspiracy theory he finds that would gain any iota of sympathy from the people and would smear his predecessor. The worst-case scenario is that he is ignorant enough to post classified intelligence onto a publicly accessible social media site without any actual proof to

photo from wikipedia

support his allegations. This is not normal.

Imagine the outcry from conservative groups if President Obama had accused President George W. Bush of wiretapping over Twitter. These same groups are staying willfully silent, and it would be irresponsible for leftists, liberals and moderates alike to act the same way.

We are roughly a month and two weeks into his term, and it is highly unlikely that anything is going to dramatically change in his attitude or actions. He is a 70-year-old man, firmly set in his ways, and nothing is going to change his attitude on immigrants, women, gender minority groups, Muslims or the impoverished. He is going to keep attacking those who he sees as the

standing rock protest site in washington, d.c.

itself without needing to be defended. I think it is important that I illuminate these points before audience is added into the mix, in the hope that observers will consider key moments of the play from a different perspective.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the casting and choice of this play.

The actors and production crew are brilliant, hard workers. This production quality is amazing, with a stunning set, and this is not a criticism of those involved.

Instead, I would like to question why four white actors are on stage. There is another test, the DuVernay test. In order to pass it, a person of color has to have a fully realized life, complete with hopes and dreams. If the department is insistent on producing a show that does not promote social justice and marginalized stories or at least stories that explore important themes, then why not cast an actor of color to give them that opportunity and endorse representation? The Brandeis theater department has the funding, publicity and access to execute amazing shows that give voice to the voiceless, but instead they chose “Leveling Up.”

“others,” unable to protect themselves. We cannot accept this as the new normal. We cannot grow complacent, because the second we accept this as normal is the second that we succumb and lose the fight.

Resistance is key, and resistance goes far beyond making a single call to a legislator and hoping for the best. Resistance is taking to the streets. Resistance is protesting whenever he lashes out against undocumented immigrants or Muslims. Resistance is openly criticizing him and making sure your voices are heard.

And, if need be, resistance is becoming ungovernable, because our moral obligation to follow the law ends when those laws become unjust or inspired by prejudice, and we are far past that point.

photo from wikipedia

4 OPINIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 10, 2017

American politics and lowering the bar

By Matthew Kowalyk editor

When Mao Zedong was building his revolutionary army, he employed practices that gave his cause more legitimacy to average people, such as teaching new recruits how to read, employing severe punishments for those who would steal or mistreat civilians and a policy of only attacking the vanguard of the enemy regime.

This way, he appeared to act far more ethically than the regime in place. Of course, we cannot forget the end result of his efforts, as many young pseudo-rebel intellectuals/activists choose to, but there is something to be learned here when it comes to political violence and ideological convenience.

Last year, when Michelle Obama spoke at the DNC, she said that, “When they go low, we go high.” Nowadays, you find videos on The Guardian explaining why it is ethical to punch “Nazis,” employing techniques of implication and cognitive dissidence, as well as appeals to pathos rather than logos.

At Trump’s inauguration, a white nationalist, Richard Spencer, was punched in the face. This sparked a discourse about whether this type of violence is acceptable under the current political circumstances. Some people call the idea that we should not punch Richard Spencer “disturbing.”

This is disturbing in itself, and is highly characteristic of elite ideological ineptitude. Another Facebook video was even simpler, saying, “There should be no need to rationalize it.”

I am certainly not going to defend his ideas nor provide him any sympathy for having such a corrupted worldview. I believe these controversial speakers who have been given time on the mainstream media recently, like Spencer, are purely there for their own self-aggrandizement, seeking to upset and anger for their own selfish goals. Unable to find any verification through discourse that is intellectually rigorous or constructive, they resort to perverted polemics. Unfortunately for them, many of their critics fight back with delusions of the same character, only influenced by a different side of the ideological divide, fighting with overused, similarly delusional and overly moralistic rhetoric which falls, in general, on deaf ears. Is anything gained?

This is a persistent characteristic of the toxic political environment we are living in: dead-end pseudo-discourse up against dead-end pseudo-discourse. When people say “discussion” these days, they only mean to ultimately convince the other side to agree with them.

This is a mark of the neoliberal focus on the self, permeating deep into our cultural experience.

There is nothing to achieve except the satisfaction that one has gained social capital. However, when dealing with such people who are projecting their insecurities and fears about the world and their prospects, in truth, everyone is guilty of to some extent.

Fighting “violence” with violence is not the answer, nor is silencing dissenting opinions.

Silencing bigotry allows it to be forgotten about, allows the bigots to keep it inside, to fester, to grow and to infect others in private. Silencing bigotry with violence further feeds the biases of the bigots.

The old saying goes that when you have enemies, you must be doing something right, and it is this line of thinking that makes political violence and social intimidation fall short of achieving its goals.

Not only that, but in an era of incredible egotism, having enemies provides excellent narrative bias to those whom you go after.

This is all said under the assumption that I am speaking to university students, and that assumption is important. It seems especially prevalent because we all speak as if we know better than the majority of people, evidenced by this privileged attitude and line of thinking, that because you have made it to college and took a few courses in politics and read “The Communist Manifesto” that you know when it is right to use political violence. The “black bloc” protesters, many supporters of and encouraged by the Internet anarchist communities, are fighting for something that is wholly unrealistic and unachievable without a significant amount of the population being killed.

It seems that many college-educated, Internet-echo-chamber left-leaning ideologies seem to lack any real agenda or have any practical plan. In the short-term, violent protests, in the long-term, communist/anarchist/peaceful/ classless society? If any semblance of the international order is to stay together, a concerted effort to create a society like this is not beneficial, nor would it be possible given the strength in our political institutions. It is almost

richard spencer

as if impossible, vague goals are chosen in an effort to create lopsided dialogue in which opposing parties’ arguments can be simply reasoned away when questioning the legitimacy of these goals, and in order to create a perpetual fight that feeds individual personalities, not society.

College conservatives, on the other hand, seem to fill a similar ideological void, albeit in a much more unstable fashion and a less totalitarian character. College conservatives are much smaller in number, and although they can sometimes be better at citing facts, there is little ferocity or energy behind their overused rhetoric, as compared to that of left leaning students, and it is falling on even deafer ears. This is why they turn to calling in people like Milo Yiannopoulos, to feel some sense of agency through a man who has no dignity nor respect.

However, the existence of this feeling is not their fault for not caving. We live in a time where a lack of practicality and vision exists on both sides.

It is interesting when people compare the rise of these ideologies to the rise of the Nazis, especially when one leaves out such factors as the prevalence of the private militia that was the storm troopers, the overwhelming presence of anti-Semitism, the cunning and years of work with which the Weimar Republic’s institutions were undermined, the greater political power of the army and the years it took for the party to build up the coalition

photo from wikimedia

and break the monopoly on state power, which were all necessary to achieve Hitler’s goals.

Germany had conditions far more conducive to the creation of a dictator than currently exist here.

There are no Trump storm troopers, there is no one to call the “September Criminals,” over half of the country voted against him in the popular vote and institutions still have power.

Better examples from history would be the system of “delegative democracy” prevalent in Latin America from the 1930s through the 1980s, where an elected president would rule by decree and undermine the institutions which created checks and balances. We may be seeing inept people being put in charge of agencies, but they come with thousands in their staffs. Also, even in delegative democracies, the president could be voted out.

I am all for dialogue. I am all for disagreement. I am all for protesting, and I am all for learning.

Do not think I condone bigotry.

For too long, our political leaders thought it convenient to forget what kind of thinking still existed under the surface. Then again, there were quite a few structural and cultural issues that were forgotten about, and now they have been brought to the fore. Our leaders are not offering any solutions beyond ones that are easy to repeat and trendy among their loyal constituents. This is not a problem perpetuated by just Republicans, either.

What I hope to get across is

that people need to examine their ideas, compare them with facts and history, and when you feel certain you are correct, do not belittle people for thinking differently, even if you do not agree with their facts.

Yelling at them for being wrong, and being openly angry at people for disagreeing with you before they even make their case is not constructive.

Unfortunately, many normal, rational people are “conservative with a small c,” in that they do not want to give up what they have (refer to Saul Alinsky). Indeed, it is the pervasive precariousness (real or imagined) in the economy and social settings that drives debates to such impotent ferocity.

There may not be much you can do if this is encountered. Instead, pick your battles wisely. Do not tire yourself with constant action if you have not considered all options or weighed your opportunities.

Above all, do not silence people because you want to create a facade of everything being okay, and do not punch the people that disturb that version of reality. If they have not punched you first, do not be the instigator. Do not take words for action.

Though this can waste opportunities for convenient labelling and early identification of threats, the harm that it does is much greater.

Have some standards. If one of the most horrid human beings in history can have better standards than you, you can definitely do better. If you cannot, do not take the low road.

March 10, 2017

The Brandeis Hoot

OPINIONS 5

College students should help promote the Act Relative to Sexual Violence on College Campuses

By Katarina Weessies editor

Unfortunately, most people don’t pay attention to state laws.

Especially in the current presidential administration, the public and media focus is understandably directed toward federal lawmaking. In some ways, this is a good thing, as the Trump administration should be met with as much criticism and oversight as possible. However, in America’s federalist system, state laws often have a more broad and more direct effect on people’s lives.

Most people believe that state laws are too complex or small in scope to warrant public attention. This apathy about state laws is mirrored in the media, where even local media covers state legislation relatively rarely. State laws are especially influential in terms of welfare, health accessibility, reproductive rights and mass incarceration.

For example, despite abortion being legal federally, the entire state of Mississippi only has one abortion clinic, which is routinely attacked by legislation and semi-violent protest. Conversely, there are at least nine abortion providers in Los Angeles County.

This means that pregnant women in Mississippi and California will face incredibly different experiences, with the Californian women having much more of an opportunity for choice. State-influenced issues like abortion access tend to deeply affect marginalized people, which is especially important during the Trump administration, as they could work against many of this administra-

By Daniel Freedman staff

The party in power has taken no interest in protecting democracy, not that this is remotely surprising given the context of the partisan status quo. Republicans have backed their own interests in the race and stacked the deck further in their favor precisely because they can, just as a Democrat majority would. All they have ever known is a two-party system, and in Washington, they run their petty rat race of red versus blue with disregard for the pawns on the table.

This is business as usual. Voter disenfranchisement and suppression? Sure, all day. Gerrymandering? You betcha. And while these tend to be bipartisan endeavors, there is a preponderance of stories and boastful quotes that link at least intentional voter suppression with Republicans. But that is not the point of this article. I am not making a strawman argument of the Republican Party and picking them apart by their shortcomings—who are liberals to stand on a moral high ground and deny their culpability in this flawed system?

Unfortunately, the congressional milieu has been interrupted by an outside voice who claims

tion’s more bigoted laws.

In Massachusetts, state laws involving higher education are especially important, since Massachusetts has so many colleges and universities. There is one bill currently in the Massachusetts legislature known as the Act Relative to Sexual Violence on College Campuses, that could have massive benefits for college students if passed.

The Act Relative to Sexual Violence on College Campuses is incredibly comprehensive in its effort to prevent sexual violence and ease the process of reporting it. It covers matters involving sexual assault prevention, counseling, reporting and disciplinary procedures. The bill requires all higher education institutions to provide to students, applicants and staff, upon request, information about sexual assault emergency services, disciplinary procedures, counseling services and survivors’ rights.

It includes that universities must be willing to alter a survivors’ living situation or employment in response to an assault.

It also regulates the manner of disciplinary proceedings after an assault, requiring a high degree of confidentiality, prohibiting the use of a survivor or character witness’s past sexual behavior, not allowing a survivor and perpetrator to confront each other in person during the proceedings, and providing the survivor and perpetrator of the school’s decision within seven days of the proceedings.

This eases the psychological stress of the disciplinary process for both the survivor and the accused. For the survivor, the process of recovering from and

photo from wikimedia

the massachusetts state house

reporting a sexual assault can be incredibly traumatic. The changes that this bill mandates for disciplinary procedures would make it easier for survivors to recover from this trauma, without hurting the due process of the accused.

Furthermore, the bill requires that higher education institutions have a sexual assault and domestic violence crisis center with a professional counselor, which would even further ease the psychological burden of coping with a sexual assault.

Luckily, Brandeis already has a Rape Crisis Center. The RCC is known for being a beacon of hope for sexual assault victims, providing legal guidance and counseling for victims. I personally know many sexual assault survivors who have benefitted from the guidance and security provided

by the RCC. If the Act Relative to Sexual Violence on College Campuses is passed, all colleges and universities in the state would have to have a center similar to the RCC. This means that sexual assault survivors will feel less powerless and alone in their fight for security and justice.

Another thing the the bill requires is that universities have yearly bystander trainings. While many people find bystander trainings to be time-consuming and cumbersome, they are critical to maintaining a climate of safety on college campuses. It is easy for people who are not directly affected by sexual assault to forget how common and traumatic sexual violence is. It is also easy to forget any prevention measures that you might have learned during Orientation or at another

Only following orders

to speak for a party. Sure, Donald Trump ran as a Republican, but his entrance to the race was dismissed by the heart of the party. The Republican centrists gave him attention only to condemn his words, until he was their presumptive nominee. Support slowly grew as Republicans decided they would rather sell their souls than lose the presidential race.

Now as their leader, the Republicans have closed ranks and toe the Trump line. Even the voting records of his harshest Republican critics, such as John McCain, have given way to a field of “yeas” in the wake of party pressure.

Trump’s cabinet, stocked with anachronisms and ineptitude, would bring us back to the 1950s on environmental protection and social equality, with a war machine ready to conquer some unsuspecting Middle Eastern country with oil. Many of his harshest former critics now do not dissent—it seems either scruples or spines went out the window.

The whole of the party is held hostage. Many must feel that speaking out is political suicide, and without a coordinated effort, resistance would surely fail. Without the option of a coup, the Republicans in Congress continue supporting horrid acts. There is no telling where this will end; it is hard to draw the line on a slippery slope once you have already start-

ed sliding.

It is not only the politicians who have been swept along on this terrible ride, though. The polarization and divide in this nation are manifest in the media as well.

Everyone is forced to take a side.

Even a staunch Trump opponent such as Rupert Murdoch has seen his media empire turn Trump

apologist, while left-leaning media has in some cases been prevented from even covering White House events. Trump has named the media the enemy of the people, which has the ring of an eerily despotic statement one might have expected from Stalin.

This is only the beginning, and many contend that calling Trump

rupert murdoch, founder of news corporation

time in your college career. Yearly bystander trainings take up minimal time and ensure that students are reminded of the seriousness of these issues and means of preventing assaults.

The Act Relative to Sexual Violence on College Campuses is currently in the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Higher Education. The hearing for the bill is on Thursday, April 13. It is important for Massachusetts residents, especially those who are college students, to do what they can to promote this bill. This includes talking to other college students and staff, talking to a Massachusetts state senator or representatives and connecting with local interest groups having to do with sexual assault and domestic violence.

a fascist is a false equivalency, but fascism is not born of democracy in a day. Slowly, legal and legislative precedents are pushed back and control is accumulated. At the end, I wonder if the party of the elephant will remember and adopt the famous defense of the Nuremberg Trials: “only following orders.”

photo from wikimedia

6 OPINIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 10, 2017

Recognizing Christian victims of violence

By Alex Mitchell columnist

In our globalized world, the plight of refugees and victims of political and religious violence has been widely distributed. Footage of and commentary on the tragedies of the Syrian Civil War and the rise of ISIS abounds on radio, television, newsfeeds, Twitter feeds and every other medium.

Never before have we as global citizens possessed so much access to news and images about the world we live in. Many of these images are powerful, of wounded children and broken families, and excite great sympathy within us. It is truly a beautiful fact for humanity, that despite never meeting these people and sharing neither language, ethnicity, nor religion, we feel such compassion towards them.

Violence against Christians is widespread, and spans many countries and belief systems. Law in North Africa and the Middle East limits Christians’ civil and property rights. The Buddhist government in Myanmar actively bombs churches and kidnaps clergy. Atheist governments in North Korea and China routinely imprison and kill Christians. Even when the state allows freedom of religion, nationalist mobs and militias often target Christian settlements, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.

No wonder then, so many seek aid from or asylum in the West.

Despite widespread access to information about our global community and a deep reservoir of compassion for refugees, many Americans remain unaware of the struggles faced by Christian refugees. A poll by Rasmussen found that 47 percent of self-identifying Democrats and 40 percent of those below age 40 believe Christians are not persecuted in the Islamic world, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. These numbers show a stunning ignorance of a global human rights crisis. Christians are disproportionately targeted by religious violence. The International Society for Human Rights, a secular nonprofit, estimates

that 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination are directed against Christians. It is difficult to get reliable numbers on the number of Christians killed for their faith each year, particularly because “dying for the faith” can be a somewhat nebulous term, but the estimates tend to be on the order of thousands or tens of thousands.

In America, a country with strong Christian roots, the idea of oppressing Christians seems childish. Claims of religious discrimination against Christians here often are greeted with derision. We tend to project our America-centered worldview, in which hypocritical religious-right televangelists wield undue influence in politics, onto the global problem of religious violence. We fallaciously reason that if American Christians are so prevalent

and potent, then the global Christian community needs nothing from us. Essentially, we are unable to visualize the struggles of Christians around the world merely because they share a religious identity with people we disagree with.

We need to break out of this mentality if we are going to be good stewards of global peace.

Recently, President Trump suggested that America give “priority” to Christian refugees coming from abroad. Such a policy would of course be discriminatory and wrong, and was soundly condemned by religious groups across the spectrum. But he did speak to a significant issue: America’s existing refugee policy does seem to penalize Christians.

Of the over fifteen thousand refugees let into the United States from Syria last year, only 125 were

Christian, despite the fact that 10 percent of Syrians are Christian.

While many have leveled false accusations against the Obamaera State Department, the most sensible reason seems to be that all refugees must be processed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who runs a number of campus for displaced persons. Many Christians and other religious minorities avoid these camps, where they can become victims of mob violence.

Some European leaders, particularly far-right governments in Eastern Europe, have voiced their support for Christian refugees and victims of violence abroad, but these statements are often paired with disgusting Islamophobic statements. I fear that the issue of helping Christian refugees may become unattractive

middle eastern christians protesting

to many, simply because of the association with these unsavory figures. As a result, the question of Christian victims of religious violence may become unnecessarily polarized. It should not be. Helping oppressed Christians, like any oppressed group, ought to enjoy broad and bipartisan support.

Internationalist liberals and religious conservatives already fight alongside one another on issues like immigration and foreign aid; perhaps we can expand this collaboration to help the victims of religious violence abroad. Such cooperation would be a strong blow against those who have tried to use this issue to divide people of good conscience and could help free millions from the burden of religious discrimination and violence.

photo from wikimedia.com

SUBMISSION POLICIES

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD Write a letter to the editor to express your views on our writers’ opinions, and see yourself featured in next week’s issue! Submit to eic@thebrandeishoot.com Have a piece you want published? Submit it to Opinions Editor Katarina Weesssies at kweessie@brandeis.edu

The Brandeis Hoot welcomes letters to the editor on subjects that are of interest to the community.

Preference is given to current or former community members and The Hoot reserves the right to edit or reject submissions. The deadline for submitting letters is Wednesday at noon. Please submit letters to letters@thebrandeishoot.com along with your contact information. Letters should not exceed 500 words.

The opinions, columns, cartoons and advertisements printed in The Hoot do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.

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EDITORIALS

March 10, 2017

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editors-in-Chief Mia Edelstein Julie Landy Senior Copy Editor Sarah Terrazano News Editors Abigail Gardener Elianna Spitzer Arts Editors Katie Decker-Jacoby Emma Kahn Opinions Editor Katarina Weessies Features Editor Charlotte Aaron Deputy Features Editor Polina Potochevska Sports Editor Zach Cihlar Photo Editor Karen Caldwell Layout Editor Lisa Petrie Deputy Layout Editor Candace Ng Editors-at-Large Matt Kowalyk Sarah Jousset Allison Plotnik Sabrina Pond Hannah Schuster Zach Phil Schwartz Emily Sorkin Smith

Volume 14 • Issue 5 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

A

Task force should prioritize marginalized voices

Task Force on Free Expression should represent the opinions of all members of the community. It should uplift all student voices, even those that may be unpopular, but especially those that are systematically marginalized.

And it certainly should instill trust in the members of the community it claims to represent.

However, as seen at the open forum on Wednesday, March 8, this is not always the case with Brandeis’ Task Force on Free Expression. The goal of the open session was to discuss what University President Ron Liebowitz called in a campus-wide email “a shared understanding of what free expression means and how it relates to one’s education.” Debate erupted between attendees about what freedom of speech should entail on a college campus and how much responsibility the administration has to address students’ concerns about unchecked free expression at Brandeis.

In Liebowitz’s email inviting students to the open forum with the task force, he referenced the recent events at Middlebury College in which Charles Murray, a notoriously racist, misogynistic and homophobic social scientist, was prevented from conducting his scheduled speaking event due to student protests. Liebowitz specifically wrote that “such behavior cannot and will not be tolerated on our campus.” Yet by promoting his own agenda before the forum even began, he has already set the stance that the task force will take, making it seem that its position is firm regardless of what feedback it gets at the meeting. This discourages students who

STAFF

Faria Afreen, David Aizenberg, Emily Altkorn, José Castellanos, Elizabeth Cayouette-Gluckman, Anindita Chanda, Leah Channen, Brianna Cummings, Shea Decker-Jacoby, Gabriel del Carmen, Sanin Dosa, Jacob Edelman, Daniel Freedman, Ally Gelber, Ari Givner, Max Gould, Emma Gutman, Noah Harper, Sophia He, Alana Hodson, Daniel Kang, Adam Lamper, Samantha Lauring, Monique J Menezes, Santiago Montoya, Katharine Mound, Faiyaz Rahman, Caroline Rourke, Ryan Spencer, Lily Wageman, Michael Wang

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

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

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

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

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GIVE A HOOT, JOIN THE HOOT! Writers, editors, photographers and graphic artists wanted to join The Brandeis Hoot, your weekly community newspaper.

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

The Brandeis Hoot 7

have dissenting opinions from feeling listened to and as if it is worthwhile to share their opinion. In the spirit of fostering free expression, shouldn’t he have abstained from defining his opinion until the subject had been thoroughly discussed?

During the meeting, a black female student interjected in the conversation, and a white male student shushed her. As moderators of the event, the task force is responsible for setting the tone of the conversation, but no one on the task force stepped in to mitigate the situation.

“Shushing” particularly is a silencing tactic that is disproportionately used against black women and shouldn’t be tolerated in a discussion on free expression. Moreover, it demonstrated why the task force is not earning the trust of marginalized students on this campus. When the task force—the people charged with finding out how students feel about free expression—is not actively enabling historically silenced voices, it is falling short.

This is part of why the demographic of Wednesday’s meeting was mostly white and vocally conservative. Brandeis and the task force have earned these students’ trust through numerous instances of shutting down or not uplifting the voices of those who are not white and conservative, simultaneously losing the trust of those whom they have ignored or actively silenced. If attendance is not reflective of the entire Brandeis community, the omitted opinions prevent the task force from coming to a comprehensive conclusion about campus opinion on free speech.

Even though the task force is made up of 18 people, only two are students—and

only one is an undergraduate. Since this task force is setting principles and recommendations for the whole campus, which is majority students, it is our opinion that one undergraduate representative is not enough. How can one person, regardless of their ability and background, be expected to represent 3,600 undergraduate students? She is charged with representing the majority of people who will be affected by the task force’s recommendations, yet as one person, simply cannot represent the entire student body. Additionally, student representation should be most significant from those most affected by hateful speech, but as seen from the task force’s current record, these are not the voices being prioritized.

The task force has been charged with producing its two documents by the end of the semester, which is still two months away. In this time, the task force can and should take this criticism to heart and make it a priority to seek out the widest range of voices, not just the voices of the people who feel most comfortable speaking. Earn the trust of these students by listening, uninterrupted, to them and promoting spaces where they will be heard. Listen to students who know, based on personal experience, that bigoted speech is not just controversial—it is violent speech that affects them in their daily lives.

Charlotte Aaron, Features Editor and Undergraduate Student Representative to the task force, was not involved in the writing of this editorial.

Puzzle inception

By Mia Edelstein, Emily Altkorn and Caroline Rourke editor and staff

ACROSS 1. Federal med. research center 4. Celeb.

7. Furry hopper 13. Greek expression of celebration *14. Fruit-themed tile game 16. Hoodlum 18. Ogle 19. Org. for the Celtics 20. Footnotes, for example 22. Can’t wait 24. Notices 25. Mesh used for catching 26. Passing grades 27. Herb 30. Something found à la plage 33. Collection of songs 35. Now, in México 37. Prefix with dynamic 39. Yoga sounds *42. Opportunity to build cities and roads 46. Exasperation, in text speak 47. Singer-songwriter Marvin 48. Hangs above the throat 49. Part of an address (abbr.)

51. Turn back to zero 54. Response request, for short 55. Type of dash 57. Above you in Spain 59. Mathematical device 61. Coffee option 63. Fire descriptor 68. Suffix with Israel 69. Baan ___ 71. Travel lodging possibility *72. Block your opponent’s red or black circles 75. Long time 76. Carrying 77. Locales

for urgent medical care (abbr.)

78. Parent DOWN 1. Type of star 2. Apple product 3. Give 4. Spanish soccer star Víctor 5. Out opposite 6. It can tell your future 7. Miley __ Cyrus 8. Concur 9. Atomic no. 35 10. If repeated, a Jessie J song 11. Implant 12. Russian rulers 14. ___ of my existence 15. Best-selling gaming console of the ’80s 17. Abandon 21. Where we are now (abbr.)

23. Had food 25. Brand specializing in toy weapons 27. Back-talk 28. “Excuse me” 29. High school clique dressed in all-black 31. What is run at Fenway 32. In between Cancer and Virgo 34. #45 36. North Af. country 38. Oklahoma schl.

40. String of Hindu prayer beads 41. Food-assistance program

43. British nobleman 44. Bread for pastrami or corned beef sandwiches 45. Uses or takes advantage of 50. Airport security org.

52. Airplane arrival time 53. Jewish rear end 55. Official order 56. “I, as well” 58. The Weeknd song 60. Toffee Hershey bar 62. Penny 63. Feline 64. Widespread 65. Couple 66. Roman emperor 67. Fabulous 70. Hormone detected in pregnancy tests (abbr.)

73. Symbol for nickel 74. West Coast Portland’s state

8 The Brandeis Hoot

t-shirt sale

WEEK IN PHOTOS

photo by polina potochevska/the hoot

photo by candace ng/the hoot

The Quidditch team is fundraising for their trip to nationals.

March 10, 2017

students show support

Students thanked Usdan Dining Hall workers on Friday March 3, Employee Appreciation Day.

photo by lisa petrie/the hoot

‘footloose’ Hillel Theater Group’s ‘Footloose’ cast rehearses one of their dances. Come see the show on March 30, April 1, or April 2 in the SCC Theater.

photo by katie decker-jacoby/the hoot

Cupcake Obsession Club celebrated Mardi Gras with a cupcake take on the traditional King Cake. mardi gras

CALLING ALL STUDENTS STUDYING ABROAD! The next Week in Photos will be study abroad themed: Week in Photos Abroad.

Submit photos to eic@thebrandeishoot.com with your name, where the photo was taken and a caption if you would like.

photo courtesy kayla flanagan

introduction to sculpture

Student’s book project interpretation of a quote from ‘The Iliad.’

ARTS

March 10, 2017

The Brandeis Hoot 9

Post-Baccalaureate exhibition abstract and innovative

By Noah Harper staff

A new selection of thought-provoking pieces by Brandeis artists is now on display in the Dreitzer Gallery of Spingold Theater. The Post-Baccalaureate Program in Studio Art, which “provides students the space to grow as artists and develop a portfolio for graduate school admission or a studio practice,” opened its Painting and Sculpture Exhibition on Wednesday, Feb. 15.

Art aficionados, faculty in the department and the artists themselves gathered to celebrate the exhibition’s opening. The show provides a unique opportunity to observe developing artists as they hone their craft and wrestle with contemporary issues.

The six program participants, Brenda Gonzalez, Nick Constantino, Carly Sheehan, Elena Batrice Babineau, Christine April and Katherine Gardener, are each given individual sections with which to display their work. As a whole, the exhibition allows for a brief foray into the world of contemporary young artists.

Gonzalez, the first artist exhibited, primarily uses mixed media, a variety of formats such as watercolors, folded paper and thread to create vibrant, three-dimensional works that explore space and dimension. An aesthetically

fascinating thread pattern spans an entire wall, composed of tightly-strung lengths in geometric arrangements. Gonzalez’s other pieces—all untitled—include a drypoint, its design reminiscent of a science fiction sketch (or the work of Rodrigo Corral), and a trio of three-dimensional paper constructions. The third work of this series is particularly engrossing: Papery, water-colored leaves grow into fiery blossoms, becoming an organic eruption frozen in time. This is Gonzalez’s strongest piece.

Constantino’s first creation, “Book of Bindings,” is a book whose pages are flowing outward.

As the pages unfurl, they demonstrate different kinds of bindings: Japanese stab, coptic stitch and accordion fold. “Book of Bindings” is a cross-cultural exploration of the ways that words are held together, and how their recombination can lead to new ideas and interpretations.

To the right of the book is another piece by Constantino, titled “White Picket Border Fence.” The largest work in the exhibition, it looms over its viewers. It is an opportunity to realize and reexamine the nature of barriers—particularly how exactly a border fence would dominate a landscape. But “Fence” is not intimidating in its color design.

It is painted like a generic suburban yard fence—the artist is

perhaps calling to attention political efforts to normalize the outlandish and absurd through superficial aesthetics. “Fence” provides an exploration of the conception of borders and whether their outward appearances can change their perceived function.

This is the most explicitly political work in the exhibition, a worthwhile reflection of current events that affect us all.

Sheehan’s work is done in a variety of media, including collage, drypoint and oil on canvas. “Suspension” (oil on canvas), easily catches the eye. It is very much abstract and open to interpretation. The painting’s focal point is a hanging red dress full of jagged cuts. To its right is a similarly-pierced pink dress, floating over a turquoise bed. This piece is quiet and pensive without being obtuse. Sheehan’s work is a definite highlight of the show.

Some of Sheehan’s other work reflects this simple style, though betraying depth upon further examination. Her “Kansas” series is an investigation of space through object distortion. In “Kansas pt.

IV,” warped buildings loom over one another. Windows, doorways and stairs are placed in the most inconvenient of locations.

The painting bends reality without breaking it. It is M.C. Escher meets “The Scream.”

Babineau’s most striking pieces explore texture and earthiness.

“Anxiety” (acrylic on canvas), is an apt, concise encapsulation of worry and dread. The painting is incredibly simple: a color gradient of dark red as it fades to black, textured like the earth. But it works: One cannot help feeling anxiety while looking at it, as it effectively communicates emotion in a very simple way.

“Skimming the Surface,” a multimedia work, continues upon this dour, sparse theme. A white wooden canvas hangs from the ceiling, contained on either side by glass. Within it are two trees, drawn with house paint, that seem to be growing from actual soil at the piece’s base. Hidden to to the left, however, is a tiny green sprout—perhaps, a shred of hope.

The physical nature of this piece is worth reflecting on as well.

Because the canvas is suspended instead of mounted on the wall, the work gains an added dimensionality.

April works in a variety of mediums, from paper to steel to virtual reality. Her most captivating piece, “Tower Viewer,” exists solely in the digital realm—the only way to view it is by putting on a virtual-reality (VR) headset. This new perspective affords a different perception of scale: Big blocky creatures, that are probably very small in reality, tower above the viewer. VR, usually considered only in terms of entertainment value, should be used more as

a medium for artistic expression. VR wholly encapsulates the viewer, fully immersing them in the piece, removing distracting self-awareness in the process. The other highlight of April’s art is “Wallpaper in B Minor,” a beautiful blue pattern that, upon further analysis, reveals itself to really be made out of faces.

Gardener, in her second year of residency in the program, has the final section of the exhibition.

Her work might suffice as an effective summary of the art show: abstract, three-dimensional geometric patterns and a distinct use of color. Movement is a key aspect of her art. Each of her pieces feels alive; they’re like squirming, wriggling growths that might have been plucked from a radioactive swamp somewhere.

“Around” (acrylic paint on cast plaster), is made out of five organic, fungal creations with coral-like texture, colored with orange-red and streaks of blue. “Journey” (oil on masonite), can best be described as a group of psychedelic lilly-pads.

The exhibition is on view until March 27.

While particularly notable for those interested in geometric abstraction or new utilizations of position and scale, the show is an accessible opportunity for art lovers of all levels to experience a fascinating foray into the next generation of artists.

photos by yarisa diaz/the hoot

Annual tradition ‘Liquid Latex’ sure to delight

By Sanin Dosa staff

Back again for its 17th annual show, Liquid Latex club has put together eight original performances for this year’s show.

“Liquid Latex,” named Best College-Supported Art Project on the Playboy website in 2010, is an entirely student-run spectacle in which performers wear nothing but underwear and cover their bodies with latex paint, premiering Tuesday, March 28.

Some of the performances are dance pieces, commemorating rock and pop idols such as Lady Gaga. These pieces tend to be more narrative.

For example, this year’s show will feature a reproduction of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

“These pieces have a stronger emphasis on performance than the paint design,” said Morgan Winters ’17, the president of Liquid Latex.

Other pieces in the show emphasize the design of the painted costumes and will aim to make a

statement, Winters said. For example, the theme in one of the pieces this year will center around the criticisms of social media.

Also, there will be a runway piece with a horoscope theme in which the paint costumes are influenced by a zodiac sign, Winters said. These types of pieces call attention to the shapes, colors and images painted on the models’ bodies.

“Liquid Latex” brings together painters, designers, choreographers, models, dancers and actors who are all students. Preparation for the show started in the middle of the first semester. Designers create the “costume” designs to paint on the models’ bodies.

Choreographers and directors create pieces to perform in the show. Sometimes one student will manage the entire creative process for a performance piece.

Sydney Westervelt ’17 is choreographing, directing and painting designs for her own piece, titled “Evolutions of Gaga.” Each of her designs is influenced by Lady Gaga’s albums, she said.

Applications to be selected as a

piece creator open in the beginning of the first semester. Typically “Liquid Latex” board members try to come up with an overarching theme for the show. This year, however, the themes are diverse due to a delay in the preparation for the show, according to Winters.

Applications also include positions for modeling which are filled on a first-come-first-serve basis. There is no particular look choreographers and designers strive for when choosing a model. “An interesting thing about the show is that you can see all the different shapes that can form a body. Everyone holds a unique form,” said Emma Jannsen ’17, assistant coordinator of “Liquid Latex.”

E-board members of Liquid Latex encourage Brandeis students to participate in at least one of the annual shows during their years at Brandeis.

“A lot of people connect with one another and the experience is not sexual nor is it intended to be,” said Jannsen. “From the perspective of a viewer I never

focused on the fact that the performers are naked.”

“This show is about celebrating the human spirit and body. It’s full of love and support, which is good especially in this day and age in which everyone judges you

based off your dating profile,” Westervelt said.

“Liquid Latex’s” doors open at 7:45 p.m. on Marcbegins at 8 p.m.

Tickets are free with student IDs and are available at the Shapiro Campus Center ticket booth.

photo courtesy jordan miller

10 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 10, 2017

Luxury Death’s ‘Glue’ a lo-fi genre gem worth a listen

By Katharine Mound staff

From the start of the first track of Luxury Death’s newest EP, “Glue,” a sense of two beings is immediately recognized.

An electric guitar begins the opening track, “Radiator Face,” in your right ear, and is then rounded off by the streamlined electric piano in the other: two distinct melodies on each side of the brain, married with the steady rhythm of the tambourine. It is reminiscent of the almost 8-bit tune from The Strokes’ “12:51” from the band’s sophomore album, but more upbeat and light, at least at first.

It is a fitting start for for the Manchester boyfriend-girlfriend duo’s first album. Luxury Death is fronted by Ben Thompson on guitar and Meg Williams on keyboard, although both contribute the enjoyably angsty lyrics and characteristically lo-fi vocals to the tracks.

It’s hard to swat a smile away with witty lines like, “I feel at home on your collarbone,” and impossible to refrain from admiring the simple yet saccharine nature of the band’s accessible, homey poetry.

Yet everything is not as it seems.

These candied lyrics are often undercut with bold, caustic parallels: “Your body aches for another fake

embrace,” for example. There is always some level of tension and emotional unrest lurking under the words of Thompson and Williams, preventing us from defining tracks explicitly as expressions of chaotic heartbreak or heart-swelling love. Although the album as a whole does not boast literary genius with each passing line, amusing gems like, “Did you hang me out the window just to dry?” wedge themselves in approachable lyrics.

Luxury Death was ironically birthed after Nai Harvest, a British garage punk band comprised of Thompson and Lew Currie on drums, broke up in 2016. Although the two bands are decidedly distinct from one another in instrumental composition (namely for the conspicuous lack of keyboard, which is so prevalent in Luxury Death’s sound), they share a similar lyrical sensibility toward life.

They present an almost casual nihilism balanced with a playful treatment of complicated, uneasy and wavering emotion. In a way, Luxury Death’s lyricism cultivates the same anxiety and biting sarcasm as that of treasured folkypunk duo Girlpool, although perhaps on a lesser scale. Though Luxury Death does not thrust its anxieties out into the world like the women of Girlpool, there isn’t an expectation that they should.

Its expressions are subdued,

thumb-twirling concerns behind the facade of modest lyricism, performed excellently.

I’m going to be completely honest: Luxury Death is not a band that I commend for its musical innovation. Generally speaking, its flavor and sound are anticipated, a conglomeration of the audio and ambience of all of the lo-fi punk bands I have ever heard. Although its lyrics seem to mock the sober approaches to relationships that many musicians take on, this is nothing particularly fresh, especially from its genre.

What I find most compelling about Luxury Death’s sound, however, is how dynamic the keyboard is in every song off the EP (admittedly, a four-track compilation does not make this an astounding achievement, but one nonetheless). The title track, “Glue,” showcases a shrieking sequence of notes that sounds somewhere in-between a Talking Heads song and a horror movie theme.

“Listerine” is inaugurated with a slightly hymnal treatment of the keyboard that has the likeness of a synthetic chapel organ.

In “Needle,” the keyboard drives a tame melody with a sprinkling of vibrantly high notes, almost like a rustling lake glinting with specks of sunlight on a summer afternoon.

What is also notable about Luxury Death’s sound is that even

photo from bandcamp.com

though the woven harmony of keyboard, guitar and vocals all seem to coexist in a singular, lighthearted tone, each instrumental component can be distinguished from the next. Williams and Thompson’s voices easily mimic the pitch of electric guitar or the crooning of the ever-present keyboard, but they do not vanish into the neon melody of computerized sound.

While these specific characteristics individualize Luxury Death

in the vast sea of lo-fi punk, I do not believe that they define Luxury Death’s identity starkly enough to prevent them from being swallowed by the other hundreds if not thousands of groups vying for recognition in the genre.

It would seem that Luxury Death’s “Glue” is just as reliable as the crafting material itself: able to adhere to a defined sound and sensibility, but subject to fall apart if examined, prodded and challenged forcefully enough.

Oscar-nominated ‘Lion’ a powerful true story

By Ryan Bunis staff

Although “Lion” did not win any of the six Oscars for which it was nominated, the film still carries an incredible emotional power.

Directed by Garth Davis and written by Luke Davies, “Lion” is based on the nonfiction book “A Long Way Home” by Saroo Brierley and Larry Buttrose. It received academy nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Dev Patel), Best Supporting Actress (Nicole Kidman) and Best Adapted Screenplay, but won

none.

“Lion” is a true story about a young Indian boy named Saroo, played by Patel, who ends up thousands of miles from home.

His long journey starts when he decides to go with his brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) to a job. At the train station, Saroo stays behind to take a nap on one of the benches. When he wakes up, his brother is nowhere to be found. Saroo looks for him and boards a train, thinking Guddu might be on it. Saroo falls asleep again and wakes up to the moving train. It arrives in Calcutta, thousands of miles away from his home. He is unable to communi-

photos from imdb.com

HOOT SCOOPS: “I don’t really watch them because I don’t really watch many movies, but I always am curious about hearing what happened at them afterwards, since they are an important artistic watermark. It also helps me pick out what movies I do want to see.”

-Troia Reyes-Stone ’18

cate with anyone since he speaks Hindi, and the local language is Bengali. In the span of a few months, he survives on his own, but then is put into an orphanage.

He is eventually taken under the care of an Australian family.

Two decades later, he is a happy young man, moving to Melbourne to study hotel management. Coming across a food from his childhood, emotions emerge.

His friends tell him to search for his home and so he does. He starts a long process, searching for his hometown on Google Earth, and his living room becomes consumed by the materials for the quest. His relationship with his girlfriend deteriorates, he quits his job and all the while his adoptive mother struggles with her health. One night, on the edge of giving up, he scrolls along a similar mountainous area and finds his town, Ganesh Talai.

Initially, the film felt all too similar to “Slum Dog Millionaire,” in which Patel also stars. The early sequences with Saroo and his brother robbing the train felt like the “Slum Dog” scenes when Jamal Malik and his brother, Salim, were on top of the trains with M.I.A’s “Paper Planes” playing.

But “Lion” evolves into more.

Patel, mature-looking and with a little more muscle, takes control

in the second act of the film with some fantastic acting. He is perfect with his developed Australian accent and not to mention carries some long black hair. Patel grabs the audience with the emotions he feels for his lost family. The shift to the older Saroo could have happened earlier, as there was too much time spent on younger Saroo’s survival in Calcutta. Although there were some marvelous shots of India and the continuity editing within those scenes flowed effortlessly, it was too long.

There were far shots as well as others in which young Saroo ran across the street, encapturing how small he was, lost in the giant city of Calcutta.

“Lion” was able to grab the au-

dience emotionally in so many ways. Not only is it a long, unbelievable story, but the people in Saroo’s life carry this emotion.

His adoptive mother, Sue, played

by Kidman, gives all her love to him; adopting an Indian boy was a vision she had as a girl. She tells Saroo that it was not because she was infertile but that her vision drove her to help others. Kidman comes off as slightly over the top at times, but the film is no doubt a great comeback for her. What touches the audience even more is the climactic ending. It is no coincidence that Saroo’s name, which actually is supposed to be Sheru, meaning “lion,” is the courageous animal he embodies in his long journey home.

What did you think of the Oscars?

“I didn’t watch it. I never watch American award shows. The only award shows I watch are Hindi ones.”

“I didn’t watch them, but I’m happy about the wider representation of people of color among Oscar recipients. I just can’t help but question whether this was strictly a political move or a genuine recognition of the talent, regardless of color.”

-Marcelo Brociner ’18

-Shamaila Khan ’17

March 10, 2017

The Brandeis Hoot

Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’ impresses in a stunning directorial debut

By Jonah Koslofsky special to the hoot

Somewhere between their second and third season, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele’s “Key and Peele” exploded in popularity.

Legendary sketches like the “East/ West College Bowl,” “Obama’s Anger Translator” and, of course, “Substitute Teacher” succeeded in capturing the zeitgeist in a way that few sketch shows ever do.

But by seasons four and five,

it was clear that the glory days of “Key and Peele” were, unfortunately, behind it. More people were watching, but some of the quality of those earlier sketches had been lost. That is why it was not particularly surprising when it was announced that “Key and Peele” would be ending its run in 2015 so that Key and Peele could focus on movies. And while their first release (last year’s “Keanu”) was not particularly successful or funny, Peele’s solo film, “Get Out” is a return to form, reaching even

photo from imdb.com

higher highs than those first seasons of “Key and Peele.”

The film centers on successful photographer Chris (played by Daniel Kaluuya, who you might know from “Black Mirror”) who goes to the suburbs for the weekend to meet his girlfriend’s family. However, the problem when it comes to discussing “Get Out” is that this is a film that should not be spoiled. Peele knows exactly what his audience is expecting and throws out more than a few red herrings, subverting expectations even in the film’s final scene. In fact, do not even watch the trailer, which is an incredibly effective piece of marketing but gives away just a little bit too much.

One thing I can easily say to anyone about “Get Out” is that you will still enjoy this movie even if you do not generally like horror movies. “Get Out” has a much broader appeal than the usual jump scare demon garbage that passes for horror these days, and while the film does have some scary moments, there is nothing too gory or disturbing.

As someone who usually does not

like horror movies, I can happily report that “Get Out” transcends the genre.

Truly, what is so impressive about “Get Out” is that it accomplishes the rare feat of being both a crowd-pleasing movie and a film that paints a complex view of race in America today. This is a movie that certainly has something to say, but that is also fun enough to appeal to all. A lot of that praise can be given directly to Peele, who both wrote and directed the film.

Peele deftly balances the horror and comedy elements with such style that I was almost reminded of British genius Edgar Wright’s first two films, “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.” That’s high praise—and no accident. All of Wright’s movies are extremely well written and Peele has said in interviews that he actually spoke to Wright on how to structure “Get Out” and it shows in really nice, subtle ways. Again, I cannot say exactly how it is so praise-worthy without spoiling some great segments of the film, but the film does a great job of foreshadowing what is to come.

Within Peele’s comedic work,

ARTS 11

he has always shown himself to be the quieter and more behindthe-scenes performer, playing the calm and cool President Barack Obama in contrast to Key’s anger translator, or to a character showing up at the very end of the over-the-top substitute teacher sketch. But if Peele turns strictly to writing and directing instead of acting, I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing. There are very few directors whose first film is anywhere near the quality of “Get Out,” and even fewer actors-turned-directors.

If you have a chance to see “Get Out” in theaters, I highly recommend it—this was a film built to be experienced in a group. You have probably heard that “Get Out” scored the mythical 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (actually that number went down to 99 in the past few days because a single critic from the incredibly conservative magazine “The National Review” didn’t like that the film seemed pro-Obama), but “Get Out” is the rare movie that lives up to the hype. You will have fun and leave with a lot to think about.

‘Myths and Ms.’ reading invites audience feedback

By Emma Kahn editor

A table reading of “Myths and Ms.” gave Women’s Studies Research Center Resident Scholar Rosie Rosenzweig the chance to hear her characters come to life and the opportunity to receive vital feedback from a thoughtful audience on Sunday, March 5.

Many distinguished guests were in attendance, from fellow resident scholars to family members of the actors to various members of the community.

The event was hosted in honor of Shulamit Reinharz Ph.D. ’77, founding director of the Women’s Studies Research Center (WSRC).

Reinharz will retire soon but leaves behind a strong legacy of scholars working out of a robust research center. Sitting on a couch in front of a photographic history of women at Brandeis—including portraits of Eleanor Roosevelt among other notable women— Reinharz summarized the founding ideas behind the WSRC. “The center began back in 2001. Its purpose was to find a model for the integration of research, art and activism,” Reinharz said. She spoke of the more than 80 resident scholars with great satisfaction and pride.

Playwright Rosenzweig viewed the table reading as an important opportunity for artistic growth.

“The purpose of the table reading is for the playwright to get to hear the dialogue and bring up what needs to be changed,” Rosenzweig explained. The actors had only rehearsed once prior to the table reading and used the reading as a time to practice and grow. “Rosie will be getting the characters out of her head, off the page and onto the stage,” Reinharz added.

Both the play’s director Ronn Smith and Reinharz introduced the play before the actors began to read. “The play addresses radical ideas about reincarnation and abortion, which are not often put together,” Reinharz explained.

The WRSC does put on perfor-

mances that consist of complete works, but also frequently present works in progress, utilizing the creative potential of an audience as critics and reviewers. “She invites you to write and share your thoughts,” Reinharz reiterated, highlighting the main purpose of the evening. The audience—made up of WSRC scholars, actors’ family members and community members—was timely, attentive and engaged throughout the table reading.

Six actors and one narrator made up the full ensemble. As Smith noted before the reading began, the actors were chosen not according to age or physical appearance, because these elements are less important during a table reading. Instead, the audience was urged to pay particular attention to the ways in which the characters emerged through their dialogue with one another.

The play centered around the family of Ruth, a middle-aged woman whose mother had recently passed away. As she finds herself in an ambiguous point in her life, she reflects upon her spirituality and her belief in reincarnation.

Her husband Jack takes an interest in an NPR radio special that celebrates the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and even calls in to discuss his wife’s abortion.

Meanwhile, his daughter tunes in and hears her father’s revelation, opening up new windows through which the family can understand each member’s invisible woes.

As the play progresses, we delve into each family member’s complicated struggles with a broad range of dense themes like abortion, reincarnation, spirituality and racism. No topic is taboo for Rosenzweig, and she effortlessly weaves heavy subject matter into gentle banter between family members and everyday banalities.

To understand more about the play and how the plot unfolds, one really must sit down to a table reading, or better yet, stay tuned for the play’s opening. “Myths and

Ms.” cannot be adequately compared to any other performance piece, and is unique in its blend of powerful themes and messages.

The audience members were then given the opportunity to speak about what worked for them and what they found lacking. Members of the audience made all types of recommendations, including minor moments of dialogue that did not work, and questions regarding technical elements of the plot. There was even some profound commentary regarding the realism of a character and what might make a more compelling individual emerge from the playwright’s script.

All the comments appeared useful to Rosenzweig, who thought critically about what her audience had to say. At times, she seemed aware of what questions or comments the audience might raise, anticipating the direction of certain discussions, and at other times she seemed to turn over new ideas that had not yet occurred to her. Overall, the Q&A session sparked deep and fascinating exchanges.

Much of the dialogue and themes emerge from Rosenzweig’s own experiences over several decades of her life. When the first act opens, Ruth is telling her husband a story about a man in the airport who was telling someone over the phone that he would “sooner sell his children” before selling his boat. In reality, Rosenzweig did encounter that man at the airport and unlike Ruth, she did confront him. At the end of the play, Rosenzweig confessed with a grin, “I’m the lady in the airport.”

In addition to fun or lighthearted elements, it became clear that Rosenzweig derives inspiration from more dense materials as well. “This has been decades in the making,” she explained. “I started writing this play at 31 when my sister died.” Such powerful ties to her reality are what ground the characters in the minds of the audience as genuine and relatable individuals.

photo courtesy mei-mei ellerman

Not only did Rosenzweig find inspiration in her own life, but she also finds inspiration from one particular individual, Nick Danforth. She and Danforth listened to the Roe v. Wade anniversary radio show together, a pivotal moment for the development of her play. Danforth has direct experience with Roe v. Wade, as he was responsible for hiring lawyer Sarah Weddington, the youngest lawyer to ever win a case before the Supreme Court. He also worked on the social science and activism elements concerned with the case. Throughout his career, Danforth has worked on abortion rights throughout the world, particularly in Africa. He has also previously brought Weddington to the WSRC to speak about her experiences and answer questions.

Danforth, in attendance for “Myths and Ms.,” and his contributions nicely summed up the impact of the play and of the evening as a whole. He spoke first of his experiences working on Roe v. Wade. “We had no money. We had a very difficult time putting it together. I thought we’d lose the case. When we got a 7-2 decision … that decision didn’t solve anybody’s problems. It didn’t answer any of these questions. It just enabled us to begin to have discussions,” Danforth remarked.

Over 40 years later, it may be

easy to forget that prior to Roe v.

Wade, the subject of abortion was taboo even within families.

One integral result of Roe v.

Wade was to open a space for new conversations and to grapple with heavy notions of rights to life, of human rights and of women’s rights. “What I loved about this experience was that there were all these complexities and all these discussions. It was wonderful.

This was the first generation that could talk about this openly,” Danforth said.

“Myths and Ms.” will provoke profound questions and emotions in its audience. In fact, even without any formal theatrical elements, without the actors having memorized the lines and without a cast that represented the intended physical appearances of the characters, the dialogue alone still evoked powerful thoughts and discussions by the audience.

Theater, if nothing else, generates conversations, and “Myths and Ms.” does so in an entirely unprecedented and thoroughly sincere way.

There will be additional table readings of “Myths and Ms.” prior to its formal performances, as well as similar opportunities for audiences at the WSRC to engage critically with works in progress, a unique and exciting opportunity for any member of the Brandeis community.

12 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 10, 2017

Library exhibit honors activist Lenny Bruce

By Noah Harper staff

The best comedy is often ephemeral, expertly managing to capture and crystallize a certain point of view from an exact moment in time. But as the years go on, we often lose that cultural and sociopolitical context that allows us to “get” the jokes, which is why comedy does not age well. Unlike with literature or film, this artistic medium relies on an involuntary reaction for its effectiveness—you can’t try to make yourself laugh.

What remains when a comedian’s sense of humor is lost to time? It’s their achievements, the principles they stood for, the ideas behind their comedy that make them important. Lenny Bruce is a perfect example.

Comedians are hybrid philosopher-poets, wayward souls tasked with trying to distill life to its most absurd and striking elements. Great comedy means something beyond just being funny. Even when the humor aspect is long gone, the underlying ideas from a great joke’s investigation into cultural assumptions and social structures remain. What comedy says about society, about how people think, the absurd aspects of life, do not go away with time.

Brandeis’ Special Collections exhibit, “Introducing … Lenny Bruce!” pays tribute to the legacy of one such comedian, a man who made an immense contribution to civil freedoms through his comedy.

The result of a purchase of hundreds of documents from Kitty Bruce, Lenny Bruce’s daughter, the exhibition showcases just a few highlights from the recently acquired archival collection documenting this groundbreaking figure from the 1950s and 1960s.

The exhibit, located on Goldfarb 2 in the library and open Monday through Friday during business hours and on display until July, is comprised of select primary documents, photographs and newspaper clippings from

Bruce’s life. It is a small exhibition that provides a brief but detailed foray into the life and legacy of this notable comedian.

If you’re unfamiliar with Bruce’s comedy—as I was—you will not come away with a satisfying understanding of the man’s sense of humor. You will instead learn about who Bruce was as a person and gain a comprehensive understanding of his life and legacy.

Born Leonard Alfred Schneider on Oct. 13, 1925, in Mineola New York, “Lenny-Penny”—as he was called by his father—was heavily influenced by the fact that his mother did stand-up comedy. He joined the Navy when he was 16, serving in Africa and Italy during World War II, first performing stand-up for his shipmates. On display are Bruce’s Navy ID card, school certificate and a picture of him and his father from 1939, among other documents from his formative years.

There’s plenty of memorabilia from Bruce’s career as a comedian. In addition to performing stand-up, he was also a prolific writer. For example, on view is a magazine feature, “Pictures and caustic comics from his secret file” and a short-story collection, “Stamp Help Out! And other short stories” authored by Bruce.

He was known for his spontaneous, often rambling, risque comedy that broke the barriers of what was socially (and legally) acceptable for a comedian to say on stage. Hearing him is kind of like listening to spoken-word jazz: Improvisatory elements collide, compete and combine into ever-shifting jokes about a wide variety of subjects.

To get a sense of him as a performer, I found plenty of his comedy albums on YouTube and Spotify. For those who find those resources lacking, the Library’s Archives & Special Collections Department hosts a surfeit of audio materials from Bruce. It’s worth taking a moment to listen and hear what kind of comedian Bruce was.

He seems to conjure his comedy from thin air. In his “Carnegie Hall” performance, he gets

distracted mid-joke by someone playing piano offstage, which then becomes its own material, and when he’s done playing around with that, he goes back and finishes his original joke about the Ku Klux Klan.

Even though the comedy seems to have come easily, it is evident that for Bruce, it was anything but.

In a letter to his close friend Ralph Gleason, he writes, “I’ve decided that I’m completely corrupt. My whole act, my economic success, is wholly dependant on the existence of segregation, violence, crime and the other odious counterparts.” It is obvious that he felt a certain amount of guilt about the provocative material he used, but Bruce did not give himself enough credit. He used intentionally off-putting topics or sensitive issues, such as race, to skewer contemporary social structures, societal shortcomings and inadequacies. And people hated him for it.

There is a section of the exhibit, “Obscenity & the Law,” that features pictures of Bruce being arrested. Visible are his mugshot, a picture of Bruce behind bars and newspaper clippings from around the country, reporting on his legal troubles.

Headlines include: “The Arrest of Lenny Bruce; California’s new smut law is tested,” “Profane comedy” and “Bruce Bombs in Chi; Also Arrested.” Labelled “the sick comedian,” the first time Bruce was arrested was at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco in 1961. It would not be the last.

His career, however, was shortlived. On Aug. 4, 1966, Bruce was found dead in his home, killed by an accidental heroin overdose.

While part of his sporadic performance style might be attributed to his drug addiction, his comedy does seem to have been coming from his naturally vibrant personality. But still, the legal troubles did not help with his mental health.

On the wall is a quote from Vincent Cuccia, the assistant district attorney from New York and one of Bruce’s prosecutors, saying,

photo by katie decker-jacoby/the hoot

“We drove him into poverty and bankruptcy then murdered him … We used the law to kill him.”

Bruce’s main issue with authorities was over the censorship of his routines, which he decried, saying, “Censorship is unconstitutional according to the First Amendment. I’m a soldier fighting for the Constitution.” He also approached his argument from a more philosophical perspective: “If God created the Body, and the Body is dirty, then the fault lies with the Manufacturer.” As his infamy grew, Bruce ended up being blacklisted from almost every major club in the country.

It is the depiction of Bruce’s private life in the exhibition that is the most compelling. There is a case featuring candid photographs of the comedian, different depictions of him in his most offguard moments, shaving, reading or walking on the beach. There is a certain weariness apparent in his eyes, and a lonesomeness too—like he knows he is in a battle he cannot win, and that it is going to destroy him.

In the section dedicated to depicting Bruce and his family, we can read of Bruce’s most personal letters in the exhibit: “Dear Father: Why? What happened to Lenny-Penny? … Why couldn’t we relate? Endless restless nights

staring at hotel doors that stare back … The restlessness I feel is involved with the guitlts [sic] I have for rejecting my creator my father. I do love you.”

Bruce left behind an American legal legacy of championing free speech. He paved the way for generations of comedians after him, liberating them to describe the world how they saw fit, thereby ensuring that their speech was constitutionally protected. By mocking dominant social structures and flouting authority, however, Bruce may have sealed his fate. But he seemed to have been sacrificing himself for something he believed in.

“Introducing … Lenny Bruce!” is worth visiting because it effectively memorializes the often-overlooked aspects of the comedian. While comedy-lite, we get an excellent understanding of him as a person.

The comedian faced many obstacles: court cases, being blacklisted, substance abuse, tense relations with his father, but still, until his death, he persisted in speaking his mind.

He continued to champion First Amendment rights, to stick up for what he believed in and to tell things how he saw them. Despite all odds, Lenny Bruce was not afraid.

Brandeis Chamber Singers tour Italy over break

By Katie Decker-Jacoby editor

While most Brandeis students were catching up on homework, applying for internships and lounging around during February break, 25 students from Brandeis Chamber Singers toured Italy. The group not only traveled to Italy, but also performed in the Pope’s

own home.

Brandeis Chamber Singers has not gone on a tour like this for a while, however, Associate Professor of the Practice and Choral Conductor Robert Duff collaborated with a professional tour company and colleagues in Italy to bring this tour to life. Although Duff is only in his first year as Associate Professor of the Practice of Choral Music, he has already

photo from facebook.com

made his mark in the music community at Brandeis. With Duff ’s expertise and his students’ talent, the eight-day trip was a success.

“On any tour program, it is important to include repertoire by composers of the area, as well as introduce music from the U.S. to audiences,” Duff explained. For that reason, the group performed original works by Italian composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, Giacomo Carissimi and Giovani Luigi da Palestrina, along with American composers like Alice Parker, Moses Hogan, Stephen Paulus and Thomas Dorsey. “The pieces were chosen to challenge the singers, and to bring the audiences on a journey through music of different periods and styles,” Duff added.

With a repertoire as expansive as this one, much rehearsal was needed. The group is an auditioned-ensemble and rehearses twice a week, according to Duff.

Although Brandeis Chamber Singers had been practicing since September, Duff had been planning the trip a year in advance, reaching out to companies for proposals.

“After receiving initial pro-

posals, student leaders of the Chamber Singers reviewed these proposals and collaboratively we fine-tuned the itinerary to include performances in historically important venues and specialized sightseeing opportunities,” Duff said.

In terms of funding, students paid for 50 percent of the trip and the remains were covered by donations from the Brandeis Music Department, the Brandeis Arts Council and private donors, according to Duff.The group performed at the Oratorio del Crocifisso in the early evening on Saturday, Feb. 18. The next day, the Chamber Singers sang in the Piazza San Pietro in Vatican City, also in the early evening. Additionally, the group performed at Sadum Hall for the Florence Jewish Community.

One highlight of the trip was the Chamber Singers’ joint performance on Thursday, Feb. 23 in Florence, which was not rehearsed beforehand.

The performance took place in Il Conservatorio di Luigi Cherubini, a renowned institution that is connected to the Accademia dell’arte and houses Michelan-

gelo’s “David” sculpture. Some students’ families even flew out to Rome and Florence for the performances.

“My favorite place to sing was the conservatory, also known as ‘the pink palace,’ since all the seats were pink because it was the last performance, and it seemed like everything just came together,” said Chamber Singer member Kaylee Wallace ’19.

Chamber Singers visited numerous attractions throughout the trip: the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Coliseum, the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, the Synagogue of Florence and Giotto’s Bell Tower, to name just a few.

“Several of the performance venues were chosen in coordination with the repertoire, as the repertoire was first premiered in these venues,” Duff expressed.

One of Wallace’s favorite moments was taking the classic tourist picture with the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

For pictures, more highlights and video clips of performances in Italy, check out “Brandeis Chamber Singers Italy Tour 2017” on Facebook.

FEATURES

March 10, 2017

The Brandeis Hoot 13

WANTED: kidneys for community members

By Blake Linzer

Dania Khandaker battles kidney failure

staff

The meeting was scheduled for four o’clock in the SCC. At first glance, Dania Khandaker, 27 (department coordinator for the Brandeis National Committee), like all other interview subjects, did not particularly stand out from the Einstein’s crowd. Once recognition gave way to introductions, she stood apart from other interviewees. Because of her Lupus and immunosuppressant drugs, which makes her the constant victim of being sick, the typical handshake was not an option.

Khandaker’s experience with dual kidney failure did not have a toll on her sense of humor or optimism—a feat considering what she deals with on a day-today basis. Despite what it seemed, her life with kidney failure was a challenge. The torment that is life without functional kidneys is not necessarily seen on the surface.

“No one sees my catheters,” she said as she pulled her shirt forward and exposed the catheter on her chest. This was just the start of Dania’s internal struggle with kidney failure that one would never know just by looking at her.

“Dialysis feels like jail,” she said. Dania has to go in for dialysis, medical treatment for kidney failure, after work for four hours every few days. For the process of dialysis, a needle must be inserted into her arm and connected to a large medical machine. “I don’t

have a choice,” she said, since dialysis is her only treatment option.

She asked me to imagine what this does psychologically to people. When they must be strapped to a machine for four hours with a needle stuck in their arm and there is no other option. Medical jail is not a bad characterization.

The imprisoned feeling, however, is just one of the many ways that dialysis affects Dania. According to Dania’s website, “Dialysis takes a physical toll on my body leaving me tired and weak.

I am not living my life anymore as other 26-year-olds do. I used to have a 40-hour work schedule and would then take care of my household.” Furthermore, Dania, whose family is from Bangladesh, used to be an avid traveler. “I’m well traveled and enjoy traveling to new and exotic locations.”

Traveling, Dania said, was a “huge part of my identity.” But with dialysis, and with a set treatment center near her home in Newton, Dania cannot “just hop on a plane.”

Forget exotic locations; Dania can’t even go home to Bangladesh. She worries that if one of her older parents, who are in Bangladesh, gets sick or are in need, she would not be able to travel back to see them.

Catheters and dialysis incarceration are just the start of how living without functional kidneys affects Dania’s life in ways that the average observer cannot possibly know, given her seemingly well spirited demeanor. Dania stressed how the infringement of

The Ideal Donor Blood Type: B or O Age: 18-45 years old Need: ability to travel to Massachusetts General Hospital for additional testing.

Website: danianeedsakidney.com Personal Email: danianeedsakidney@gmail.com

little things, little life pleasures most people take for granted, is a major factor that makes having kidney failure so radically life altering. “I haven’t showered in [months]. I have to take scrub baths like an old person,” Dania told me. When Dania found out she couldn’t shower like a normal person, she cried. Consider how many cups of coffee you drink a day. Or orange juice. Or water.

“People don’t think twice” about the simple pleasure of drinking.

Dania is on a strict fluid limit and cannot enjoy a drink whenever she likes, let alone have a bottle of water whenever she wants.

The immunosuppressant medicine that makes her unable to shake hands, the catheter in her chest, the routine necessity to attach oneself to a machine for four hours of blood filtration. The inability to drink. The inability to travel. The inability to be oneself. The inability to even shower.

All summed up in six powerful humanizing words by a young, hopeful and helpless victim: “It’s not a way to live.”

Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel for kidney disease, for unlike other debilitating diseases, kidney failure has a salient cure: transplant. And since everyone has two kidneys, live donation is a feasible option. Dania is currently on the national waiting list for kidney donations, but is desperately hoping to find a live donor because, on the national waiting list of 121,678, she expects a wait time of 7 years.

If she has to wait for that long, she would be 34 by the time she had a donation and will have to spend all the interceding years with chest catheters, fluid limitations, scrub baths, identity-stripping travel restrictions and routine trips to the treatment center after work for four hours to be connected to a machine through deep needles just to survive. She would have to spend the next seven years in a way that she

photo courtesy lily fisher

photo courtesy dania khandaker

feels “is not a way to live,” instead of comfortably raising a family and living a vibrant life.

In searching for a donor, Dania needs someone 18 to 45 with blood type B or O, regardless of if the blood type is positive or negative. If someone gets tested and does not match her, a national matching kidney swap program is available, so that someone who wants to donate to Dania, but cannot, can donate to someone else they do match with. The person who wanted to donate to this other patient, but cannot and is a match to Dania, will donate to Dania. Two lives will be saved.

Donating a kidney is scary and may not be for everyone. However, everyone can help and we can find Dania (and so many other patients in need of a kidney) a donor. Dania said she searches for a donor by asking everyone she meets. She never knows who would know something or someone, be willing to help or even be willing to donate.

When asked the biggest way that others can help, other than donating, she responded that people can tell everyone they know.

Everyone. Since it only takes one donor to save Dania’s life and so many other lives, if everyone tells

everyone they know it’s likely one donor will be found. So please, tell everyone you know about Dania’s story and kidney disease in general. Share with everyone you can the personal struggle of kidney patients such as Dania.

Also, consider doing some advocating with the National Kidney Foundation on important legislation. Read about donating your kidney when you pass away, and perhaps even while you are still alive. Watch some of the wonderful TED Talks on youtube about kidney donations.

And perhaps even consider giving Dania and many others the gift of life. Because as one donor, Allyssa Bates, has said in her TED Talk, “I recognize that [saying yes] to donating a kidney may be terrifying for you. But please know that ‘no’ is terrifying for those people on the waiting list.”

Dania went to college with the hope of “working in a field where [she] could change the world,” and works now in research administration where she helps students change the world everyday. Please do all you can to help change her world, whether that is just learning more and telling everyone you know or donating.

What you need to know about kidney donation Medical information from Dr. Sander Florman, director of Recanti/Miller Transplantation Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center

• The kidneys serve two functions: They get rid of water, and they get rid of toxins. When the kidneys do not function, toxins build up and make individuals feel sick, food tastes differently and work difficult.

• Dialysis replaces only about 10 percent of kidney function, but that requires going to the dialysis unit three days a week, four hours each time—“It’s kind of a brutal life,” Florman said.

• The most common reasons for a kidney transplant include high blood pressure and diabetes. Other causes include congenital disorders, infections and trauma. It is the most common of all the transplants.

• There are about 90,000 people in the United States waiting for a kidney transplant, and there are only about 14,000 transplants from deceased donors each year. On average, there are about 6,000 to 7,000 living donors each year. “The harsh reality is that a majority of them will never get one because the three-year mortality on dialysis is almost 50 percent,” Florman said.

• The wait to get a kidney in Massachusetts is just about seven to 10 years.

• Kidneys from deceased donors last, on average, seven years. Kidneys from living donors last, on average, 15-20 years. Donors can be as young as 18 and as old as 75. If a kidney donor ends up with kidney failure, a national rule allows the individual to go to the top of the transplant list and receive the next kidney.

• Even if a donor are not the same blood type of the person they want to donate to, they can be involved in a kidney swap with another donor-recipient pair that does not match.

• The process to remove a kidney from a donor is done laparoscopically. The surgery takes two to three hours, and the patients can go home the next day and are back at work within a couple of weeks. “It’s very safe to give a kidney. The risk of death is one in 10,000 … the same chances of dying giving birth in the United States,” Florman said.

• The operation for transplant recipients is a small incision in the groin area that takes two to three hours. The recovery usually includes three to four days in the hospital, but then they are off dialysis, which significantly elongates the recipient’s life. “You’ll live better, you’ll live longer, and you’ll enjoy your life. People have done just about anything you could imagine,” including playing in the NBA and running marathons. “You can go back to a very productive and normal life,” Florman said.

photo courtesy kentuckytotheworld.org

14 FEATURES

The Brandeis Hoot

March 10, 2017

Monica Ramirez hopes for transplant

By Polina Potochevska editor

Monica Ramirez, 33, is a lowrisk pregnancy coordinator for Tufts Health Plan in Watertown.

Her mother is a long-time member of the Brandeis community as a staff member for Brandeis Facilities Services. Unfortunately, Ramirez suffers from kidney problems and is in search of a donor.

For those unfamiliar with the kidneys, they are two beanshaped organs, each about the size of a fist. They are incredibly important for the human body because they keep the composition of blood stable so that the body can function normally. Kidneys prevent the buildup of waste or extra fluid, in addition to stabilizing levels of electrolytes such as sodium, making hormones that

help regulate blood pressure and making red blood cells, according to the National Institute of Health.

Ramirez first started to develop kidney problems around the age of 16. Twelve years ago, she successfully received her first kidney transplant through Boston Children’s Hospital. However, in 2015, Ramirez contracted pneumonia and was in the hospital for a month. During that time, her kidney failed, and she is now in need of a second transplant.

In addition to problems involving her kidney, Ramirez also has a heart condition that will requires her to undergo a stress test. This is necessary so that a cardiologist can give her the permission to go into surgery for a transplant once a donor has been located. When the doctor confirms that her heart is strong enough for surgery, they will put Ramirez on the waiting

The Ideal Donor Blood Type: B or O Age: 20-45 years old Need: ability to travel to Brigham and Women’s Hospital for additional testing Email hospital at BWHkidneydonorinfo@partners.org and ask to be tested as a match for Monica Ramirez.

list for the transplant. She said that they will put her name on the list along with the amount of time she’s been waiting, about a year and a half. Unfortunately, the wait time for a donor is from five to seven years.

Since her kidney failure in 2015, Ramirez has started dialysis, a medical process that purifies and removes the waste products in the blood as a substitute for normal kidney functions. Currently, she works from 8:30 A.M. to 5 P.M., and then goes to get dialysis three days a week starting at 6 P.M.. Ramirez talked about how it is difficult for her to balance her daily life along with her constant surveillance of her kidney.

She said, “I have a husband and want to spend time with him but I don’t always have the time.” In addition to balancing her time between work, family, and treatment, Ramirez says that it is also a struggle financially.

Among daily costs, Ramirez pays for health insurance and other types of specific medical insurances, in addition to the multitudinous hospital bills. “I qualify for Medicare, but I still have to pay the premium,” she mentioned, a premium being the monthly payment that goes towards the Medicare coverage.

A kidney transplant is an in-

credibly important and life saving procedure that Ramirez is in need of. Ramirez also clarified a few misconceptions about being a living kidney donor. She knows people in her community and church who have donated and they are still okay and living well.

“A person can live with one kidney,” Ramirez said in relation to the misconception that donating a kidney could possibly lead to kidney problems with the person who donated to someone in need.

Also, it is a very careful process to become a kidney donor. “They would be checked first to make sure that [the donor] is healthy enough, they would do a lot of tests,” Ramirez reassured. Also, for those who may be worried that in the case of donating a kidney and later in life needing one, living donors are given priority on the waiting list for a transplant, according to Kidney.org.

In terms of what Ramirez’s ideal donor would be, the age should be between 20 and 45, and have the blood type B or O. It is also important that the donor has the ability to travel to Brigham and Women’s Hospital for testing.

“It’s hard to ask people to donate something so delicate,” Ramirez said about being in search of a donor. “It would be very appreciated, but it is very hard to accept

photo courtesy monica ramirez

from a family member. I am really in need.”

If you are interested in becoming a kidney donor, but are not a direct match with Ramirez, you may still be able to help through what is called a paired kidney exchange. This is a program in which one incompatible donor/ recipient pair is matched with another similar pair so that two lives may be saved.

Please consider helping a member of the Brandeis community, or help to spread the word about Ramirez’s search for a kidney donor. It is very appreciated and could save her life.

A donor’s testimony

By Charlotte Aaron editor

You just don’t know who you are going to touch and what someone’s connection could be, according to Melinda Estelle, a kidney donor. Since donating her kidney to a coworker’s husband a year and a half ago, Estelle has been an advocate for kidney donation and the life changing impact it has.

On campus as a volunteer with New England Donor Services during the blood drive, Estelle worked with staff members from the Brandeis Development Office who were trying to spread the word about their colleague Dania Khandaker and community member Monica Ramirez, both individuals in need of kidney donations.

“It’s definitely a doable thing.

Organ donation doesn’t have to be as scary as some people think,” explained Estelle. “I think if you are considering [kidney donation at all], you should talk to the people at the transplant center.”

While Estelle admits that had the opportunity presented itself 5

years earlier she would not have been at a place in her life to donate. She emphasized the fact that if the time is right and you feel a connection, donation is not only an incredibly rewarding experience, but a safe one as well.

After she discovered her coworker’s husband would need a kidney transplant, Estelle began to mull over the idea of donating a kidney herself. “I just felt very connected to him,” explained Estelle. As a senior in college, her father passed away due to kidney cancer, and although he could not have had a kidney transplant himself, she believed people would have donated for him.

“He was just a real kind soul, a real giving soul, and if transplant had been an option, I just feel like there would have been people who would have wanted to do that for him,” she explained. “I just felt a connection.”

While the interest and will to donate was enough to begin the process, it was only the beginning.

Before she was able to officially make a decision about whether or not she was going to donate, Estelle went through a long medical analysis to ensure she was even a potential donor—a process all in-

dividuals interested in donation go through.

“The workup that they do is unbelievably thorough, because they want you to be healthy and they want to know that you can handle the surgery and that your body is ready for that,” said Estelle. The decision regarding whether or not an individual is able to donate does not end with the two-day workup. Once testing is complete, the doctors present the potential donor’s information to a transplant board to determine if the individual is chosen as a donor.

Following the decision, potential donors are then forced to take a two-week reflection period to consider the donation.

The two days of testing at the transplant center, while important medically, are also important in terms of getting to hear the experiences of individuals who have already gone through the process, said Estelle who met both individuals two weeks after surgery and over a year out of surgery.

“Everyone’s experience is different, but you can learn something from each of those conversations,” Estelle said.

For each kidney donation, there are two teams. One team is for

the donor and one for the recipient. According to Estelle, the objective of these teams - separate until after surgery - is to ensure, at least on the donor’s end, he or she is absolutely confident in the decision to donate. “Knowing that you do have control over the process, for me, was a really important piece … and the team goes out of their way to make sure you feel no pressure to make the decision to have surgery. They give you every reason to step away. They don’t put any pressure on you at all,” said Estelle.

Estelle’s surgery took place on a Tuesday, and that Friday, she was back at home and visiting her neighbor next door. While physically she felt good after surgery and recovered well—now, a year and a half later, she feels no effects of the surgery and has resumed all of her activities—the fatigue in the months following the operations came as the biggest surprise.

“The one thing is the fatigue,” explained Estelle. While she was not functioning at full energy, two months after surgery Estelle was able to take a two-week business trip to Texas without a problem. “[The fatigue] is just something you sort of have to give into,” she

said.

Now a year and a half out of surgery, Estelle could not be happier with her decision. While at the time the decision to donate was tough not only physically, but for her husband as well, who initially had trouble understanding why she was willing to go through major surgery by choice for an individual she didn’t directly know, it was ultimately the right thing.

“Everyone assumes that it’s a relative that donates [a kidney], and that’s not necessarily the case,” said Estelle, who then told the story of a woman who donated her kidney to someone with diabetes because her brother had lost a kidney to diabetes as well.

“It’s hard for people [who need a kidney]. They don’t want to feel like they are burdening anyone with their problems, but you don’t know how someone is going to relate to your story or feel connected. For me, it was a way to honor my dad.”

Ultimately, while the decision to donate is not one to be taken lightly, Estelle testifies to the fact that it is entirely doable, survivable and rewarding in more ways than imaginable.

Brandeisian in the operating room

By Charlotte Aaron editor

As is a common theme among Brandeis students, Dr. Sander Florman ’89, now director of the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center, was a student of many interests during his time as an undergraduate at Brandeis.

While he managed to complete all the pre-medicine requirements and earn a letter of recommendation for medical school, he was a philosophy major, equally interested in attending law school after

graduation as he was in attending medical school.

As graduation neared, Florman took both the LSAT and the MCAT, unsure of which direction he wanted to take his career. After getting into law school and medical school, he had a tough decision to make. “I decided ultimately that if I went to medical school and didn’t like it I could probably still go to law school, but if I went to law school and didn’t like it, I would not be as eager to go to medical school, so I went to medical school!” Florman exclaimed.

Although dual degrees have become more common among universities today, Florman ex-

plained that while he was a student, it was unusual for universities to offer its students such academic liberty. “It’s made me a better person and a better doctor to be a philosophy major, and I never in a million years thought I would have pursued that. I think Brandeis allowed me the diversity and the opportunity to pursue things I never thought I would pursue, and I’ve always appreciated that,” Florman said.

While Florman’s range of interests exemplified the Brandeis academic experience, his Friday flower sales in the student center captured the spirit of the student body. “Every Friday, there was

a wholesale flower place not far from Waltham. We’d go and buy them and sell them in the student center,” Florman explained. “It was fun. All my roommates got free flowers, and I made some money!”

The Friday flower sale, while run by Florman in his time at Brandeis, was a tradition that had been started at least 10 years before his time at the university and a tradition he passed down after he graduated.

Just as selling flowers on Friday, one of his earlier job experiences, was a job he found much joy in, Florman emphasized that he ended up becoming a transplant

surgeon simply by doing what he loved. “I was always taught do what you love and it won’t feel like work, and it’s been true ever since,” he stated.

While his time in medical school, surgical residency and then additional schooling to earn a focus in transplants resulted in 12 additional years of education after his Brandeis graduation, Florman believes it was well worth it. “I find [it] very inspiring.

Transplant is about hope. Transplant is about second chance and restoring functional life,” he explained. “It’s very gratifying to be in the field.”

SPORTS

March 10, 2017

The Brandeis Hoot 15

Track sees significant improvements at split-squad meets

By Jackson Kogan special to the hoot

This past weekend, both the men’s and women’s track teams wrapped up their indoor seasons with some members representing the Judges at Ithaca College in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship, and other members representing Brandeis in the Tufts Last Chance Meet, aptly titled as it was the Judges’ last chance to see any players qualify for NCAAs. At the ECAC meet in Ithaca, the Judges sent a squad led by rookie Jack Allan ’20. Allan ended the meet with All-ECAC honors in the heptathlon event, which included the 60-meter dash, high jump, shot put, long jump, 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and long-distance run. Allan came extremely close to recording a personal record after the first day, scoring 4,329 points, just one point shy of his record.

Additionally, rookie Churchill Perry ’20 used his final attempt in the triple jump greatly to his advantage, placing 11th in the event.

On the women’s side, the 4x200m relay team consisting of Kanya Brown ’19, Maya SandsBliss ’19, Jessie Moore ’18 and Kayla Kurland-Davis ’20, also ran a personal record of 1:49.43.

This time narrowly earned the Brandeis foursome 16th place by a mere two-thousandths of a second.

“I could definitely tell we were tired. UAAs took a lot out of all

photo courtesy kanya brown

of us the weekend before, because we all competed in at least three events over the course of a weekend,” Bliss said about the overall team results at the meet.

Bliss also commented about the split-squad style of the weekend, where half the team competed in another meet. “It was also hard that there were only eight of us competing, because we didn’t have the support of an entire team. We all tried hard and overall had good performances,” she said.

Over at Tufts, the Judges had a couple of top-three finishers. In the 400-meter, rookie Irie Gourde ’17 ran a blistering 49.7 seconds, only half a second slower than his personal record.

On the women’s side, Doyin Ogundiran ’19 also ran a 2:16.03 in the 800-meter, beating out the fourth-place finisher by .58 seconds. Other Judges, Julia Bryson ’19 and Maddie Dolins ’17, ran a 5:10.79 in the mile for ninth place and a 10:25.90 in the 3,000-meter for seventh place, respectively.

“Our team has been gradually rebuilding the past three to four years, and this year has been the strongest by far. We have a great group of freshmen, and we did not graduate too many seniors last year, so our team is getting larger as well as acquiring more talent,” Bliss said about the team’s indoor season.

The team has seen significant improvement over the season,

according to Bliss. “We are improving as a group, too, in addition to having stand-out athletes.

The girls scored 3.3 times as many points at UAAs this year than we did at last year, and the boys did similarly,” she said, citing the results from last weekend, which surprised many other schools in the UAA conference.

Emily Bryson ’19 will be the only Brandeis track and field runner to be making the trip to Chicago for nationals. She is currently ranked third in the nation.

Although Brandeis has only Emily Bryson racing in NCAAs, there were a couple other athletes who were very close to qualifying. Gourde was on the bubble to qualify, as he was ranked number

16 in the country in the 400-meter.

When asked about NCAAs and how some of her teammates compare to other track athletes in the country, Emily Bryson said, “We definitely had a few athletes who were close, so going into outdoors [this year] and indoor track next year, I think this gives them and our team as whole more confidence that we can qualify even more athletes for NCAAs.” The team begins its outdoor season on Saturday, March 25 at Bridgewater State University in the Bears Invitational. Emily Bryson will compete in NCAAs on Friday, March 10 and Saturday, March 11 in Chicago.

Women’s tennis advances 11 spots in rankings

By Shea Decker-Jacoby staff

The women’s tennis team is now ranked Number 21 in the nation after its victory against Bates College on March 3, its highest ranking since 2012.

Coming back from a huge success in California over February break, team captain Haley Cohen ’18 spoke to The Brandeis Hoot about the team’s goals. Before the matches against Bates and MIT, they focused on “competing well and to stay in the present.

Our coaches emphasized that we should focus on the process, and based on that, the results will come,” said Cohen. And that advice from their coaches paid off.

After trailing 2-1 from a doubles defeat, the Judges came back to win the match against Bates 6-3.

The number one doubles team Sabrina Ross Neergaard ’20 and Olivia Leavitt ’19 knocked off the Bobcats 8-5 for the number one seat in the doubles tournaments, but the Judges fell behind with a Bobcat 9-8 victory, winning the tiebreaker 9-8.

The Judges bounced back in the singles matches by taking all five victories. Neergaard and and captain Cohen gave Brandeis the lead by taking the top two spots. Neergaard won 6-4, 6-2 to take the number one seat and Cohen took a 6-4, 6-1 win for the number-two seat. Keren Khromchenko ’19 took the number three seat with

keren khromchenko

olivia leavitt ’19

’19

her victory of 6-4, 6-3, and Leavitt finished off the singles matches with her 6-3, 6-0 victory taking the fourth seat in her home state.

The Judges hit the courts again at MIT, where they picked up their second-straight road win beating #17 MIT 6-3, making it the first loss of the season for the MIT Engineers (10-1).

Brandeis started off strong by taking the 2-1 lead early, with Leavitt and Neergaard ultimately taking an 8-4 win for the number one double seat. Lehat and Khromchenko took the number three seat to break the tie with a victory score of 7-2 after the doubles match. With a lead going into

the singles matches, the Judges held nothing back by taking the top three seats in the tournament.

Neergaard defeated the number one seat with a score of 6-4, 6-0.

Cohen won her match against the Engineer who beat her and her partner in the doubles match with a score of 6-3, 6-4. This victory gave her the second-place seat in the singles match. Khromchenko clinched the number-two seat with a 6-2, 6-3 win. Lehat earned a win at number five, taking the match to a tiebreaker, 6-2, 2-6, 11-9. This was the first win for the Judges against MIT since 2012.

With the rising success for the Brandeis women’s tennis team,

Cohen spoke about the team and about its recent ranking rise. “A big part of our success can be attributed to our team’s chemistry, our supportive and knowledgeable coach staff, and of course the hard work we put in on and off the court—day in and day out,” she said.

“We have come so far, both mentally and physically,” Cohen said about the team’s growth over the season. “It is not easy, and it requires tremendous perseverance. This requires each and every one of us to have the willingness to listen and to be open-minded.”

The team is only a few weeks into the season. According to Co-

photos from brandeisjudges.com

hen, the team still wants to “keep growing and maturing, because the opportunity for that is endless. In a perfect world, we’d love to win each and every match from here on out. It may happen, it may not, but one thing we can count on is the undeniable effort that will go into every point played on the court.” That is exactly what we can expect to see from each member of the Brandeis women’s tennis team.

The Judges return to the courts to face off against St. Lawrence University on Saturday, March 11 before facing off against UAA rival New York University on Sunday, March 12.

16 SPORTS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 10, 2017

Fencing brings home gold in NECCs

By David Aizenberg staff

Brandeis fencing continued their stellar season as they emerged victorious at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference Championship this past Saturday, March 4 at the University of Vermont. The Judges won a thrilling Championship against runner-up MIT, with the final score being 171-169.

In a standout victory, the women’s fencing team won gold in foil, while the men won gold in the saber competition. The young members of both the men’s and women’s team shined as they helped Brandeis to their first victory in the tournament since 2014.

The men’s team placed fourth in three-weapon standings behind Boston College, MIT and Vassar College. There were multiple gold-medal finishes too, as the Judges brought home team gold medals in men’s saber along with women’s foil. Individual men and women foilists also won gold.

On the women’s side, Jessica Gets ’20 and Joanne Carminucci ’19 had exceptional performances. Carminucci defeated opponents from Tufts University and MIT to take the crown for the Judges (winning 15-11 in the final round). Gets was edged out in the semifinals but not before achieving an outstanding record of 11-2 in the team competition.

In the epee event, the women’s

team took silver. Liz Feller ’18 and Dakota Levy ’20 earned the third and fifth seeds, respectively. With Levy being eliminated in a tough contest first round, Feller fell in the finals. When the time maximum came in the finals, MIT’s Helen Sakharova was ahead by just one point to edge Feller, 1312.

Captain Nina Sayles ’17 claimed third in the saber event, while the team placed fourth in the event overall.

For the men, rookie Ian Quinn ’20 knocked off opponents from Boston College (15-10) and Sacred Heart (15-10) in the individual competition to win gold, after starting the competition as the sixth seed. Quinn helped the Judges to a second-place finish as a team with a record of 10-1.

In the saber competition, Curtis Wilson ’18 and Leon Rotenstein ’20 helped the Judges break a 3131 tie against Boston College to win the indicator 113-106. Carrying on their stellar seasons, both fencers posted records of 11-1 and earned the fifth and sixth seeds. Rotenstein showed grit and reached the finals, but he fell to MIT’s Tzer Wong, 15-12. Wilson, however, was taken out in the first round, but was helped by his teammate’s strong performances.

Next for the Judges is the NCAA Northeast Regional at Yale on Sunday, March 12. The tournament will determine if any Brandeis fencers will qualify for the NCAA tournament in Indianapolis on Saturday, March 25.

neccs

Above, fencers show off their medals. Below, saberist Kyle Berney ‘18 faces an opponent.

photo courtesy jessica getz

photo from brandeisjudges.com