The Brandeis Hoot 10/07/2016

Volume 13 Issue 18

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

October 7, 2016

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper · Waltham, Mass.

Features: Political poll reveals student reluctance to speak

By Charlotte Aaron editor

graphic by charlotte aaron/the hoot

The Features Section of The Hoot researched how students politically identify and the correlation between identities and willlingness to share their opinions on campus diversity of political ideas

Club leaders must participate in bystander training

By Hannah Schuster editor

All club leaders must participate annually in bystander intervention training, as the result of a Student Union bylaw amendment officially announced via the club leaders listserv on Wednesday.

The amendment was passed last year but will take effect now, and club leaders will have until the end of this academic year to complete the training. After this point, any club with e-board members failing to comply “will be placed on probationary status, meaning that they will lose their ability to book space or utilize funds until all club leaders have undergone

the training,” wrote Paul Sindberg ’18, the Student Union vice president, in his email to the club leaders listserv. Returning officers must be re-trained each year.

Starting within the next few days, students will be able to enroll in a series of sessions capped at 50 people, according to the email. These sessions run approximately 1.5 hours. Any club leaders who have already been bystander trained this year, meaning on or after Aug. 14, can fill out a Google form to indicate they have “fulfilled the requirement.”

“The point [of the bystander amendment] isn’t to waste people’s time and add an obstacle …

See BYSTANDER, page 7

Students protest racial injustice

By Abigail Gardener editor

Over 100 students came together on Monday, September 26 to protest racial injustice, in response to the recent police shooting of Terence Crutcher, as well as the countless other murders of “black and brown bodies,” the March for Justice Facebook page.

The March for Justice began at noon with a gathering at the Rabb Steps and was followed by a march to the Shapiro Campus Center (SCC) where students participated in a “die-in” on the floor of the atrium. Students who attended

were asked to wear black. Many of the students involved in the Ford Hall 2015 protest were involved in organizing this event.

Once a large group of students had arrived at the Rabb steps, an organizer thanked everyone for coming and lamented that the gathering was not under better circumstances. He announced, “I think it’s pretty clear today why we’re all here. We’re still in an environment, we’re still on a campus, where our lives don’t feel validated.”

The crowd was silent as Nyah Macklin ’16 sang Billie Holiday’s

At the beginning of the semester, The Brandeis Hoot Features Section put together of a list of questions we had about the Brandeis community. One question we felt particularly passionate about was whether or not a diversity of political ideas exists on campus. Because we so rarely hear more than “one side” of any argument in our daily lives at Brandeis, we decided the topic warranted an investigation.

Two weeks ago, we collected responses to a three-question poll asking students how they politically identified, their com-

fort level sharing political views on campus and why they hesitated to share views, if at all.

Based on 509 responses submitted anonymously from current Brandeis undergraduate students, we concluded that while about 64 percent of the students identify as some degree of a Democrat or liberal, 20 percent consider themselves independents and 13 percent identify as some degree of Republican or conservative.

So if there is indeed a diversity of political opinions on campus, are students not sharing their opinions? According to the poll See IDEAS, page 14

Gov. Dukakis speaks on past and present elections

By Hannah Schuster, Abigail Gardener and Elianna Spitzer editors

Former Governor Michael Dukakis reflected on personal experiences to illustrate how the political landscape has changed since he has been involved in politics in front of a crowd of approximately 50 students Wednesday night.

Dukakis thinks this presidential election is “a little crazy,” that Donald Trump’s economic plan would create the worst recession since the Great Depression and that Hillary Clinton has always been “very progressive.”

The governor should know a thing or two about presidential elections. Dukakis was the Democratic nominee for president in 1988, but lost to then-Vice President George H. W. Bush. According to the website 270towin,

Dukakis won 111 electoral votes, while 426 went to his opponent.

Dukakis started his political career when he was elected as a Town Meeting Member in Brookline, MA. In 1960, he was elected chairman of the Brookline Democratic organization. Before running for president, Dukakis served four consecutive terms in the Massachusetts legislature and held three non-consecutive governorships. Though Dukakis does not hold office, he is politically involved, something he said is important for all.

He does not understand Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “When was that?” he asked as he reflected on the discrimination present in America when he became interested in politics.

Dukakis saw a less progressive, more segregated environment in his own backyard. “Boston was

racist. It was anti-Semitic. Irish kids were beating up Jewish kids on Blue Hill Avenue in the middle of the Holocaust, and people of color could not live on this side of the railroad tracks.”

He pointed to high school dropout rates, infant mortality rates and world events like the Vietnam War. Dukakis also spoke about the rise of McCarthyism, an anti-Communist movement in the 1950s that allowed a House committee to seek out and prosecute Communist sympathizers.

The problems he saw around him motivated Dukakis to get involved in politics. Reflecting on the current political landscape, Dukakis said, “This is an infinitely better country and … an infinitely better world today.”

See DUKAKIS, page 2

See MARCH, page 2 photo by zach phil schwartz/the hoot

Inside This Issue:

stunning bet performance

News: RCC releases Interactive Resource Guide Page 2 Opinions: Install visitor check-in for security Page 12 Page 11 Two-man show breaks Arts: CAST founder creates social change fourth wall.

Page 15 Features: Israel and the next president Editorial: Address sexual assault seriously Page 7 ARTS: PAGE 8

slice n ‘deis Tennis Club hosts eight teams at tournament.

SPORTS: PAGE 6

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

October 7, 2016

Alumnae create Interactive Resource Guide for RCC

By Abigail Gardener editor

Two Brandeis alumnae created an Interactive Resource Guide for students that details the many resources and ways of reporting available for those who have been affected by sexual assault.

Students click through the anonymous guide and answer questions about what has happened to them and are then directed to the resources.

Ava Blustein ’15 and Evelyn Milford ’16 created the guide, which is now available on the Rape Crisis Center’s (RCC) website. While at Brandeis, Blustein and Milford were heavily involved in the RCC and Office of Prevention Services (OPS), as well as activists for Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence (B.SASV).

They were prompted to create the guide after discussions with peers and the results of the spring 2015 Campus Climate Survey proved that students are not as aware as they could be about the available on- and off-campus resources.

“How, then, we asked ourselves, were individuals seeking information during a crisis, supposed to locate the services they might require?” Milford said. “While the information was out there, it was widespread and difficult to maneuver.”

Blustein agreed, voicing her concern that handing students an informational sheet of paper does not always give insight into how the process works, or what steps need to be taken to properly serve each student or fit each individual need.

“Evelyn and I … often wished we had a more visual, comprehensive and easy-to-understand way to give students information about some of the processes like reporting at Brandeis or getting medical attention off-campus,” Blustein said.

They brought their idea to Sheila McMahon, the sexual assault prevention and survivor specialist in the Office of Prevention Services. Knowing they wanted to make the guide as interactive as possible and have it be accessible online and on mobile devices, McMahon suggested the survey

software Qualtrics as a base for building the guide.

Blustein and Milford spent almost two years working together to get the program where it is today. They worked collaboratively, drawing on knowledge they already had from working with the RCC and OPS, research and assistance from B.SASV and help from various Brandeis offices and administrators, according to Milford.

Gathering information and conducting research was not the hardest part of the project, but rather navigating the software.

Qualtrics is a survey software, so it wasn’t necessarily conducive to making a comprehensive guide.

Blustein explained that they wanted the guide to be an endless loop, so users could access different sections at any time, but Qualtrics had to be updated before this was possible.

“It actually wasn’t until Qualtrics was updated and improved, and we were granted access to extra features of the platform, that we were able to make the Main Page and create a survey that gave us those capabilities,” she said.

The guide begins by asking users whether or not they are in immediate danger. If the user clicks yes, the page redirects to a list of emergency numbers. If the user clicks no, the page redirects to the Main Page of the guide.

The Main Page lists five categories: medical attention, accompaniment, counseling, accommodation services and reporting options. The user can click through these five categories at their leisure.

“Once you click on any of those options, you’ll be asked a series of questions that will lead you to information based on your responses. In several of the paths, once you reach a section that contains information, it will also ask if you’d like to know more about other options, or will lead to another category,” Blustein said.

The user always has the option of returning to the Main Page.

Contact information for McMahon, the RCC and Julia Rickey, survivor advocate and education specialist, is listed on the Main Page as well.

Blustein and Milford hope to get a lot of feedback as students

use the guide so they can update it to make it as relevant and accurate as possible. “We want to hear feedback from students about what aspects of the guide are most useful, if the language being used feels accessible enough and would love to hear suggestions about ways in which the guide could be more useful,” Milford noted.

The creators also want students to know that this guide is entirely confidential and anonymous. No personal information is saved after students use the guide. They also want to emphasize that the guide is a tool for everyone.

“Whether you’d like to get information for a friend or for yourself, you’re curious about options after an incident of sexual violence, or you’re a CA, OL or in a leadership position on campus, this guide is meant to spread information that we, as a community, all benefit from knowing,” Blustein said.

The link to the Interactive Resource Guide can be found on the homepage of the RCC’s website, in the right-hand column titled “Resource Guides.”

Panelists discuss role of race in presidential election

By Ryan Spencer staff

Two professors and a Massachusetts House representative discussed the implications of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the polarization between political parties, whiteness in America and the winner of last Monday’s presidential debate in Getting Political: The Implications of Political Campaigns, a panel discussion on Tuesday, Sept. 27.

Brandeis Professor Chad Williams (AAAS) told the audience of about 75 people that Trump’s nomination was a result of an Obama presidency and the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Trump represents a lastditch effort to hold onto … the privileges, the power, of whiteness” Williams said. He added that Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” implies that racial and religious minorities should “stay in their place” rather than seek equality.

Williams described the country

as experiencing a “moment of national crisis” in the wake of Trump’s rise to the Republican candidacy.

Leah Rigueur, a Harvard professor, described the country as in a “crisis of democracy” due to the polarization between the Republican and Democratic parties. She spoke of the necessity of a third party in politics, describing the Republican party as “rooted in racial nationalism” and the Democratic party as taking minority groups for granted. She argued that despite black woman voters having the highest rates of voter turnout in the 2012 Presidential election the Republican party still refuses to “get real with black voters” in terms of policy and outreach to such groups. Rigueur did not let the Democratic party off the hook, though, saying that because black women voted so consistently Democrat that the party takes them for granted, and thus black women and other minority groups fail to gain a voice in either party.

“Whoever becomes president,

whether it is Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, there is going to be significant sections of this country who will view [the president] as illegitimate,” Williams said.

Panelists also discussed the idea that being white in America affords white people certain privileges, especially in terms of status and respectability, which minority groups don’t necessarily have due to long-standing systematic bias and discrimination.

“Often the idea of talking about whiteness contains an indictment,” said Rigueur, noting how hard it can be to not be accusatory when talking about whiteness.

“You are bad because you’re white doesn’t even start a conversation” added Tackey Chan, a Massachusetts House representative.

Williams expressed a disappointment that Clinton, the Democratic nominee, did not personally recognize the benefits of her whiteness during the first presidential debate. Although she talked about implicit biases, she did so universally rather

than in respect to herself and her own political career, he noted.

Williams expressed hope that the public would challenge elected officials to have a conversation about whiteness.

Rigueur said that Trump lost the debate because he did not provide policy details and often did not provide direct answers to questions.

She expressed concern that his failure to be specific on policy matters may not have “really mattered” in terms of how current and potential supporters view him.

Chan also said Clinton did a better job of answering questions and speaking about policy than Trump did but, in his opinion, neither candidate made real strides through the debate because both were unable to connect at a personal level with voters. “As long as you didn’t fall on your face you didn’t lose,” Chan said, reinforcing his opinion that there were no real winners or losers in the debate.

Williams argued “we all lost” because important issues such as

race in America were not thoroughly discussed by the presidential nominee of either party.

Certain “blind spots” exist within this election, he said, and the ways in which the public views this election.

Panel moderator and Brandeis professor Anita Hill also believes the debate inadequately discussed many issues. “There was no discussion of immigration and historic and systemic racism in our immigration and naturalization policies and there was no discussion of voting rights,” she said.

This panel discussion was part of #TheDialogues, a series of discussions and panels on race and gender. These events will take place throughout semester. The next two events focus on the workplace: The Micro-aggressions in the Workplace panel is on Wednesday, Oct. 26, and an event on the wage gap that will help millennial women negotiate a fair first salary is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 8.

The full list of events is available on #TheDialogues’ website.

March for Justice finishes in die-in at SCC MARCH, from page 1

Macklin ’16 sang Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” to officially begin the march. While the haunting song about lynching still hung in the air, Macklin addressed the crowd. Former Student Union president Macklin was a negotiator during Ford Hall 2015.

She spoke of “the dream” that people of all backgrounds will join together and dedicate themselves to racial justice not just with hashtags or by having “that black friend,” but working actively for “this work that is liberating a people, that is dismantling systems that both oppress and kill us.”

It is vital to create spaces for both healing and mourning to exist without filter or judgment, she told the attentive crowd, urging them to take action.

She eloquently stated, “we are tired of marching. So feel the collective breath that is this community standing with us, and in generations past. All of our ancestors are watching. The time is now.”

Wil Jones ’18 directed a specific message to people “not of color,” asking them to devote time to thinking and reflection, so they can better understand what it feels like to be a person of color, and therefore become better able to take action, he said at the march.

He explained, “I want you to

think, I want you to reflect, I want you to understand the differences in our positionality … I want you to understand that no one comes up to you with stories about their German or European ancestry with hopes of relation, like they do to me when they tell me four years ago they went on a trip to Africa.” He added, “and after y’all think, translate those thoughts … into action. I want to see you decolonize your own minds, and then colonize other minds.”

Students were invited to come before the crowd to express their feelings or share their personal experiences. Some students read poems they had written and spoke to the crowd.

At approximately 12:30, the

march began down Rabb steps toward the SCC. Students held signs containing phrases such as, “Black Lives Matter,” “I am #BlackBrandeis, I am #FordHall,” “Indigenous for #BlackLivesMatter #Afro-Disapora” and “From Palestine to Charlotte to Puerto Rico We Shall Be Free.”

Students chanted as they marched. Chants included call and responses such as “no justice, no peace, no racist police,” and “It is our duty to fight for our freedom, it is our duty to win.

We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

Upon reaching the SCC, the chanting continued as the crowd filed into the atrium. After some more remarks from event orga-

nizers, the group was asked to lay down on the floor for four minutes and imagine what it would be like to lay like this, not knowing what is going to happen next, not knowing if survival is guaranteed.

As the protestors lay, march organizers read aloud names and ages of people murdered by police brutality in the silent atrium. Finally, all who attended stood up and joined hands. Macklin asked everyone to join her in singing a hymn that echoed her previous statements that “our ancestors are watching.” Some students were visibly emotional. As the crowd began to disperse, the organizers expressed their gratitude for everyone who attended the march.

October 7, 2016

The Brandeis Hoot

NEWS 3

Student Union member profile: Ziv Quad Senator Michelle Jimenez

By Samantha Lauring staff

Ziv Quad Senator Michelle Jimenez ’18 wants to make all students feel like they have a place and voice on campus, so one of her main focuses this year is to uplift the voices of marginalized students on campus.

“It is important to pay attention to what students need on campus and to make sure people who come from different backgrounds feel like they have a place at Brandeis,” said Jimenez, who is now the chair of the Senate’s Social Justice and Diversity committee.

The first committee meeting of the year is coming up soon and she plans on inviting and work-

ing with different cultural clubs on campus, such as the Taiwanese Student Association and the Brandeis Latinx Student Organization, to ensure that students from marginalized communities are being heard. She also hopes to work with resources such as the Rape Crisis Center and the Queer Resource Center to make sure students know about all the available resources on campus.

Jimenez said she has started to reach out to cultural club leaders and resource centers because if she is going to represent people, she wants their input. “If we are having a committee on Social Justice and Diversity, we should be engaging in dialogue.”

Every senator serves on at least two committees, and Jimenez is

also a member of the Campus Operations Working Group, which works with Facilities. She wants Ziv Quad residents to know that they can come to her if they want to voice their opinions about how to improve the quad.

Jimenez hopes to be accessible by using social media to let students know how to reach her and what times she is available to meet. She hopes that her actions will be transparent, which would include live streaming or allowing students to sit in on meetings she has with club leaders and other constituents, she said.

Jimenez was elected with 42 of 80 votes in the fall Student Union elections. She was the only candidate on the ballot, but there were 22 votes for one write-in can-

didate. In response to low voter turnout in the recent Union election, Jimenez noted, “It is important to vote because you should be voting for someone who is looking out for the best interest of the people and who is involved and actually cares about helping people out.”

According to Jimenez, the purpose of the Union is to voice the concerns of students. “The Student Union acts as a bridge between the administration, the Board of Trustees and the student body, and we are here to represent their needs in terms of different committees and what constituents want,” she said.

If students have concerns, Jimenez explained, the Union has more direct access to the ad-

ministrators on campus, like Vice President for Campus Operations Jim Gray and Provost Lisa Lynch.

She also noted that it is important for students to be involved and share their opinions so that the Union can exercise its power and help students.

“My main goal is to make my constituents feel safe and that their needs are being met and that they are being listened to.”

This is Jimenez’s first year as a senator on the Student Union.

“It is different than I thought it would be … I did not really know what the Student Union did and what its capacities were, but I am enjoying it, and I think a lot of my fellow senators are really engaged and supportive of the community and the students.”

Brandeis Dems bring former presidential candidate to campus DUKAKIS, from page 1

One of Dukakis’ major accomplishments in politics was his campaign to fix Boston’s mass transit issues in the early ’80s.

Dukakis said that in order to fix traffic congestion, a highway system was proposed. On a trip to Los Angeles, Dukakis witnessed their highway system and immediately knew that it was not going to solve Boston’s issues.

He was the first to stand up and demand that the highway bill be killed. According to a 1983 New York Times article, Dukakis then backed programs that made ma-

jor improvements to Boston’s subways.

He addressed the importance of going door to door to speak to voters, a strategy known as grassroots campaigning. It mobilized people at the local level to support a candidate. In his campaigns, he liked to have 12 precinct captains knock on every door, “making personal contact on an ongoing basis with every single voting household.”

Dukakis said that a lack of grassroots organizing contributed to his loss in 1988. “If we win this thing, it will be because Hillary’s got a much better grassroots organization,” Dukakis said. He thinks

photo by zach phil schwartz/the hoot

there are states that Clinton could win if she engaged voters more on the ground.

In particular, he thinks the Democratic Party needs to do a better job connecting with blue-collar voters. The party is ignoring issues that matter to them, he said, causing voters that should be automatic Democrats to vote Republican.

Trump’s economic policy, which would “cut taxes for the rich and deregulate the financial industry,” would lead to financial crisis, Dukakis said, yet the Democratic Party still cannot hold on to these voters.

Dukakis thinks Clinton is a progressive candidate, and finds the claims that she is “middle of the road” or not a real liberal to be incorrect, arguing she was a “very progressive” and an “effective” U.S. Senator from New York.

A vote for a third-party candidate, a “protest vote,” is a vote for Trump, according to Dukakis. When asked how to respond to a friend who says they cannot trust Clinton and are voting third party knowing their candidate will lose, Dukakis said, “Ask them how they’re going to feel the day after the election,” when Trump has won.

His main concern with Clinton, and American politics in general, is the foreign policy situation in Syria and the Middle East.

With regard to the conflict in Syria, Dukakis said we should have resolved this before it became a crisis, mentioning a United Nations conference in 2012.

He used the Greek phrase, “pathima mathima,” which means we must learn from our mistakes.

Still, he thinks the world is on a path of stop resolving conflicts through war.

Dukakis made the audience laugh several times throughout the night. He set the record straight that his first election was not the Town Meeting, but a successful race for president of his third grade class.

When he was governor, Dukakis called his third grade teacher

and asked, “Would you like to bring your class down to meet the guy that you got started in politics?”

He also offered an apology to the crowd for his failed presidential bid. “If I’d beaten Bush I, we never would’ve had Bush II,” he said. Dukakis thinks Bush Sr. was a strong president in regard to foreign policy but weak domestically. However, he said it was “too bad his kid didn’t read his memoir,” because Dukakis thinks that Bush Sr. would have strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq.

Alex Faye ’15, a former president of the Brandeis Democrats (which hosted the event) moderated the discussion.

New hires at Hiatt and the Counseling Center

By Hannah Schuster editor

Brandeis increased diversity and expanded its outreach with several new hires at offices designed to support students, the Hiatt Career Center and the Brandeis Counseling Center (BCC).

The Hiatt Career Center had two open positions this year and hired Sonia Liang to serve as a career counselor focused on supporting international students.

There are three main parts to Liang’s work in her new position, all centered around supporting international students—who constitute 20 percent of the undergraduate study body.

Most importantly, Liang said, is the direct career counseling where she meets with students to help them create resumes and find jobs or internships, for example. Other Hiatt counselors have specialities, such as law school or liberal arts. “My speciality would

be bringing in my intercultural training and also my experience working with international populations,” said Liang.

“We need someone in this position to do more intentional work,” she said regarding the specificity of her focus.

Liang also works on Hiatt’s Employer Relations team to create resources for international students on the other side of the equation, helping specific companies better support them. This could include providing written information for employers on the process of hiring international students which requires certain forms and authorizations. According to Liang, however, there is actually far less paperwork required than some employers expect.

Sometimes students feel like they are being pushed into the world of work and told to adapt to American culture, according to Liang, but she wants to be sure the students feel appreciated and wel-

comed. Having moved here from China two years ago, she is aware of potential challenges.

The final piece of her job involves serving as one of many “campus partners” for the group InStep (International Student Experience Project). The more than 10 partners include employees in the International Students & Scholars Office, the Brandeis Counseling Center, the Intercultural Center, Academic Services and the Department of Community Living, according to the InStep website.

InStep pools resources such as job or volunteer opportunities, academic and counseling services to make sure international students are aware of them. They host events such as their Launch Party last month where students could speak with partners, learn about services, get career tips and win prizes.

Liang had been interested in working with international stu-

dents, but while pursuing her Master’s degree in Education at Kent State University, she explored career counseling theory.

She said she would be excited to “infuse” both interests, but that it was “really rare to find a career counseling position … also focusing on international students, which made the posting from Brandeis a perfect fit.”

At Kent State, she helped develop and teach a class on career counseling while pursuing her masters. She also translated the “course manual” into Chinese and adapted the examples to be more relatable for Chinese-speakers in America in the hopes of recruiting students in a future course.

The Brandeis Counseling Center (BCC) hired five new counselors this year, including several of color. Three new clinicians, Dr. Jessica Yanick Pierre, Dr. Martin Pierre and Dr. Dennis Tyrell are “experts in multicultural mental health,” according to a cam-

pus-wide email informing students of BCC services last month.

Tyrell’s specialities include “migration and cultural adjustments,” and Yanick Pierre’s include “multiculturalism [and] racial identity development.”

A demand of Ford Hall 2015 was to “employ additional clinical staff of color within the Psychological Counseling Center in order to provide culturally relevant support to students of all backgrounds.”

Joy von Steiger, clinical director of the BCC, said new hires seek to reflect the “diversity in the larger community,” in an email to The Brandeis Hoot.

Clinicians are “invested in the work we are doing to address race, power and privilege as it is reflected in the clinical work we do,” she added. “Our new clinicians bring with them a diversity of identities, experience and specialties that enrich our staff and expand our clinical offerings.”

DEBATE

4 The Brandeis Hoot

October 7, 2016

The debates: a ‘Libertarian’ perspective

By Matt Kowalyk editor

photo from businessinsider.com

“Secretary Clinton doesn’t want to use a few words: law and order.”

-Trump With the police brutality and him saying Hillary Clinton doesn’t use the words law and order just brings into the fact why the Black Lives Matter movement took shape.

- Alleah Salone ’17 There’s not a civil way to engage in protest without enraging the other die. Hillary Clinton is too lenient towards police brutality. These are contentions that are a serious concern to our nation and should be dealt with an iron fist.

- Evelyn Karin ’17 I don’t think Donald Trump should be able to say anything on that. He spends most of the time on TV bragging and building a wall and less about what he is going to do to end police brutality or he doesn’t even talk about the lives that were lost.

- Valerie Ony ’17

At this stage in the election season, a ‘season’ that has lasted almost as long as a winter in Westeros, it is difficult for any original criticism, opinions or angles on the race to emerge. Other than the leak of some pages of The Donald’s tax returns a few days ago, nothing really interesting has happened since the post-RNC slump in Trump’s numbers and the following rebound. There have been ill-conceived jabs at the truly irrelevant movement that is the Alt-Right, Clinton’s stumble and Trump trying to appear like he wants to really be the Commander-in-Chief. Few events have been shocking or earth-shattering.

Even in my experience polling people on the presidential race in July, I met accountants who predicted exactly what was going to be on the tax returns and how his write-offs work, but they did not take a stab at the size of them.

After such a slump in the entertainment, I was hoping that the first presidential debate would be interesting. I was hoping for a total and complete meltdown or Trump to come up with viable policy out of nowhere; I was hoping for Clinton to attack him with passion, regardless of the criticism of her from some due to

her being a woman and all; I was hoping for Gary Johnson to show up; I wanted it to be pivotal. Instead, we were all given attitudes and attacks that were right in line with the political brands that we have come to know and dislike.

The attack on Trump’s attitude toward a former Miss America contestant was well dug-for, but I doubt its effectiveness since Trump has had no trouble in turning most women away already. Clinton did manage to get under his skin with her choice of calling him “Donald,” a name which lacks all the power and definitive sound of his last name, and clearly he is not a fan of that fact. Telling people to check her website for fact checking was an interesting choice, but other news organizations like Bloomberg were doing the same thing. It was a nice notion, though I doubt how really effective it was. Other than that and her very clearly rehearsed lines like “Trumped-Up Trickle-Down,” she did a decent job. I do not think she really needs to add in all of the acting in her reactions to Trump; she can allow him to pull all of the weight in that regard.

Trump’s remark about the emails was predictable, though it did seem to be a notable blow to Clinton judging by her and the crowd’s reaction. His reactions were far from perfect, and his ref-

erences to individuals from longtime rivalries may no longer have the effect than they do when he is in more intimate settings at rallies and other events. They seemed incredibly out of place at the debate. What I did not understand is how on Trump’s website, like on Clinton’s, there are some policy proposals written out in detail.

He has given a speech about his economic plan, and has explained views on foreign policy specifically. Yet, for some reason, they were never mentioned in order to rival Clinton’s proposals. He made statements similar to ones he has repeated at rallies for months, but never discussed whatever policies his campaign has laid out.

If anything could win him more support or make him look more “presidential,” it would be bringing what plans he actually has to the forefront. Clinton has spared no chance to exploit this.

With regards to the vice presidential debate, it was even more predictable than the one for their running mates.

This article was supposed to be a Libertarian’s view on the debates. I do not identify myself as a Libertarian due to the ridiculous radicalism that makes up the majority of their party, a party that seems to be too obsessed with thought experiments and just being radical for the sake of radicalism. I did not dislike the reserved

pragmatism that seemed to be what the Johnson/Weld ticket represented by their second town hall with CNN, but for obvious reasons, I cannot throw my faith behind them.

Personally, a sort of reserved pragmatism with a focus on institutional reform and a more realist view of foreign policy is what I would prefer, but that is not what I see in any of the candidates running this year, even from the primaries. Most candidates (emphasis on “most”) have (or had) at least one or two decent policy points, coupled with many that seem purely inflammatory for marketing and virtue signaling purposes. Real plans are mostly glossed over in speeches, as if getting down into the gritty details is something most voters cannot handle; that is, if the plans are detailed enough for this to be possible. Clinton has taken a few opportunities to do this, and I really wish other candidates did. When it comes to the debate, I was watching for the entertainment value, but I also anticipated some sort of smackdown with policy jargon and for somebody to make an eloquent and defining remark that would make me feel better about either candidate. I was hoping to see the best of both candidates (if that’s possible). There are more debates to come, so it may still happen.

A Tale of two Americas

By Jacob Edelman staff

Out of many, we are one. After November 8, regardless of the results, it is together as one nation that we will have to proceed. We are stronger that way. In the wake of the presidential debate on September 26, however, it was clear that only one of the two major candidates understood that truth as well.

That evening, two visions for America were laid out, both directly and indirectly: one by Hillary Clinton and one by Donald Trump. Clinton’s vision was one by which America can leap into the future as one nation and be stronger because of it: together all the way. Trump’s vision was one of an America divided along lines of race, gender, shape and size, appearance, mental and physical ability and willingness to accept facts as true.

We saw in the debate that in

Clinton’s America, we invest in our people because we know that is how to stimulate the economy, get people to work and create prosperity that lasts beyond any one presidency. In Clinton’s America, we support those who come to our nation in search of a better life because we do not forget that we are a nation of immigrants, with each successive generation becoming richer and more diverse because of the contributions brought by every new group of people. In Clinton’s America, we take steps to protect our environment, because we have but one planet for all seven billion of us to live on, and we need to take steps to protect it.

We saw in the debate that in Trump’s America, we would only accept the facts that suit his twisted “truths.” In Trump’s America, he did not support the war in Iraq, despite there being audio of him saying in an interview that he did. In Trump’s America, he can’t release his tax returns because he

is under audit, despite the I.R.S. announcing to the public that he can release the returns while under audit. In Trump’s America, fact is irrelevant, because they expose him as the con artist he is.

We saw in the debate that in Clinton’s America, we take a stand against racism, sexism, cruelty and bullying. We call those things out for what they are and take action to create a kinder and more just country for all of our citizens.

Clinton understands that equality is a part of our most fundamental ideals and that we must do what it takes to live up to that.

We saw in the debate that in Trump’s America, racism, sexism, cruelty and bullying are accepted as commonplace. That it is somehow defensible to refer to women as “pigs, slobs and dogs.”

That it is somehow defensible to characterize the first man of color elected to the presidency as not being an American citizen. That it is somehow defensible to characterize and profile entire groups of

citizens based on the color of their skin.

The contrasts between Hillary Clinton’s America and Donald Trump’s America could not be more stark. One is an America of promise and hope, while the other is an America of pessimism and hard knocks. One is an America in which when we disagree, we do so based on logic and discourse, while the other is an America in which we attack each other based on how we look. One is an America grounded in the idea that it is not, in fact, an America belonging to Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, but an America belonging to everybody. That America is the one idealized by Clinton, and is the one that was promoted by her on September 26.

In the coming debates, I expect this ideal to be put on display once again for the American voter. It is my hope that everyone who believes in it makes their convictions heard and accounted for this November 8 and beyond.

Student thoughts on the vice presidential debate Which candidate performed better?

"Pence did better. He seemed more composed and prepared.

However, I think that Tim Kaine had a strategy to make Pence deny all the crazy stuff the Donald has said, which he definitely did. This made Pence look like a liar."

- Len Grazian ’17

“Unfortunately, I think Pence did better. Not because he showed any kind of talent but because Kaine doesn’t know how to debate. For example, literally the first thing mentioned was that Hillary was running a smear campaign on Trump, and Kaine proceeds to attack trump— not that that is a bad thing, just no tact. Also there is a lot to attack Pence on (LGBT issues, basically causing an AIDS epidemic, Planned Parenthood, etc.) But Kaine only chose to go after Trump. Because the debate wasn’t fact-checked, this gave Pence blanket opportunity to deny everything.”

- Joshua Romanowicz ’17

“I think that there are two ways to judge the debates. Performance-wise, I think Pence did better. He was able to remain calm and appeared poised, a welcome change from the Trump campaign. Substance-wise, I’m glad there was more policy talk than we’ve seen before in this race. I think Kaine did better because he was on the offensive for a majority of the debate.”

- Daniela Michelle ’19

DEBATE

October 7, 2016

The Brandeis Hoot 5

What impact do you hope the first presidential debate has on U.S. citizens voting in the election?

Leading up to the 2016 presidential election, conservative and liberal Brandeis students will be prompted with a weekly question. Below are their responses.

By Stephen Roselli conservative

First and foremost, I believe that the largest impact of the presidential debates during election season is the presentation of the election on nearly all news networks and stations for the public to view.

The presidential debates have a way of bringing politics to the national stage, although for this election, both Trump and Clinton have been the subject of much chatter for several months. Thus, I believe the importance is placed not on the education of the public on the political issues (as the public has certainly been made well aware of the subjects of debate so far), but rather the opinions on such issues directly from the candidates.

For months, the media has informed us—the general public— of updates regarding recent political happenings, from both the Trump and Clinton campaigns.

By Alex Friedman democrat

I hope that U.S. citizens will have the same experience I had watching the debate: A sudden shock of disbelief that the man at the podium has the potential to become the President of the United States. I hope that the American people felt a sudden lurch and drop in their stomach, such as what you would feel when about to jump off of a cliff, and that they will take a step back from the ledge.

I hope that the American people realized that the job of the President, and of lawmakers, is to run the government and to make laws—to know policy. That they realized that the job of the President is not to make you feel special or to rile you up. That the ability to say soundbites that feel right and mean nothing is a skill entirely divorced from the job of the President.

I hope that Secretary Clinton’s vast experience and “wonkiness” was apparent. I hope that Senator

However, often our (note: I speak in the first-person collective to comment on the nature of the election from the standpoint of what I believe is the perception of the average moderate American, who compose the largest voting bloc in the United States) perceptions of this campaign are based on flashy headlines and clickbait titles, rather than hard and concrete evidence.

Especially in such a polarized election season, it is extraordinarily difficult to find objective reporting on political issues and candidates, so what we read often influences how we think and feel, whether we like to believe it or not.

As a result of this predicament, for those more moderate Americans seeking to make an informed decision, finding evidence of the candidates’ true political views and agendas can be difficult. For those radical liberals and conservatives following their respective candidates, these opinionated news articles only affirm their un-

shaken beliefs or infuriate them with such opposing and inflammatory language.

One of the media’s purposes is to bridge the gap between the general public and the elite politicians of Washington, and it takes on a certain degree of responsibility. However, with social media being such a large portion of consumed media today, it is also the citizen’s duty not to perpetuate such divisive articles.

But I digress. The point is, in political campaigns, the media conveys the messages of political candidates to the public, and often those messages are skewed.

So the importance of the political debates is bringing the American people to look beyond the headlines and news articles and actually listen to what each candidate has to say for him- or herself when all eyes are watching.

Too often people vote based on their opinions of the candidates rather than their opinions of the candidates’ policies, and to those people I say, the best way to know

whether you like a candidate as an individual is to sit down and listen to them speak.

I also hope for those looking to make an informed decision that the debates, in (hopefully) mentioning actual issues, bring awareness to the candidates’ policies, and thus spark interest in learning more about them.

These were my impressions prior to the debate, and still are after, but I do have additional hopes after having viewed the entirety of the first debate myself.

I believe that for those who feel adamantly for Trump or Hillary, the debate did nothing to change their views, and likely nothing, especially a debate, ever will. I also believe, however, that the first debate did not really bring about anything so significant that moderates would truly be pushed left or right of center.

Regardless, there is still much in store for this election and the nation as a whole, and I look forward to the next debate, and hope you do as well.

Clinton proved her willingness to accept when she is wrong and to defend what is right. I hope citizens remembered that every investigation into her integrity, be it White Water, Benghazi or her emails, always ends the same way: a Republican exonerating her.

The same cannot be said for her opponent. His fraudulent charity, his fraudulent university, his bribery of the Florida Attorney General. All unacceptable.

I hope that fact checking made clear the honesty gap between the two viable candidates. That it showed that every time he interrupted to say “wrong,” he himself was wrong. That it made clear she is one of the most honest candidates who ran for president this cycle, and that he is the least.

Check PolitiFact. That it exposed that every point he made has been overruled by history or would destroy the future, be it weakening NATO, renegotiating the debt, playing coy with Russian aggression, shaming women, belittling people of color, insulting Hispanics or denying climate change.

I hope that the debate was helpful to those who proclaim in anguish, “This is the choice I have to make?!” That we will no longer extol those who claim to be “indifferent” or “unbiased,” assuming that because they believe very little, they are the ones to turn to for advice.

Social pressures to produce false equivalences in pursuit of appearing “objective” will have us seriously considering a bullet to a banana because the banana is bruised and the bullet is shiny.

This path to self-destruction has, incredibly, been met with, “I know, but…” by everyday people.

There is no legitimate qualifier here! There is no middle ground when the vote comes down to this!

I hope that the debate opened the eyes of those who still believe in the fallacy of the “protest vote.”

That to vote for a third party, or not at all, is worthwhile. Hillary needs the youth vote to win, but the massive effect that they could have by voting as a bloc is being degraded by this pernicious myth.

While most people my age strongly prefer Hillary to her opponent, in a four-way race with the Green and Libertarian parties, her support drops to under half.

I hope the reality that neither third party candidate qualified to participate in the debate solidifies in the minds of the American people the real choice they have to make. That they either vote for Hillary, vote for her opponent or declare that they do not care who the president is.

This election is not about how you feel, nor is it about sending a message. It is about doing your part to bring the best option for our president to the White House.

There is no other way for this country to be successful. It is both selfish and self-defeating to vote otherwise.

This is some of what I hoped would happen as a result of the debate. What do I believe will actually happen? A two-point jump in the polls for Hillary that will evaporate when she next dares to sneeze in public.

Please prove me wrong. Vote.

Student thoughts on the vice presidential debate Was there a standout moment?

"When Pence called Donald’s comments on Latinos ‘that Mexican thing,’ it stood out as dismissive and insensitive. Also, when Pence admitted that Donald ‘is not a seasoned politician,’ it seemed like the weakest excuse that he could possibly use, but I think this actually is how Pence justifies Donald’s behavior to himself.”

- Len Grazian ’17

“No, not really. I don’t think either said much that could be contested ([because there was no live] no fact check) that turned the whole thing into a jab fest of sorts with no real conversation or arguments on the part of either of the men, whose only distinguishing features were the colors of their ties.”

- Joshua Romanowicz ’17

‘“Six times tonight I have said to Governor Pence, ‘I can’t imagine how you can defend your running mate’s position.’’ - Tim Kaine’ - Daniela Michelle ’19

photo from static.politico.com

“Of course, we are 5 percent of the world’s population; we have to trade with the other 95 percent.”

- Clinton "Trump believes that Clinton thinks that she is above the law. She thinks she is held at a different standard than everyone else.”

- Nihar Shendye ’17 “I think whether or not we have to trade with the rest of the world its the terms on which we’re doing it. And they both skipped the issued in that particular question.”

- Jon Lipsitz ’17 If a small portion of the world is trading with 95 percent of the globe then that means that we have a lot of economic power. To cut off any nation or country because they don’t do what we’re saying, not only are we disrupting our own economy but we are also disrupting every economic structure outside of this world.

- Shaquan McDowell ’18

SPORTS

6 The Brandeis Hoot

October 7, 2016

Tennis Club hosts first Slice N ’Deis tournament

By Zach Cihlar editor

For the first time, the Brandeis Tennis Club (BTC) hosted eight visiting teams for the Slice N ’Deis club tennis tournament.

Eight schools from the New England area traveled to Brandeis to compete in the two pools offered.

Slice N ’Deis tournament was the first large-scale club tennis tournament that the BTC hosted. Teams within each pool began play on Saturday, Sept.

24. Each team played the teams within their pool, and then matchups for the final match were chosen based on the results of each pool. The winner of the first pool would play the winner of the second pool to determine the tournament champion.

The matches were scored based on a tally of the number of individual games won in each match, and the team with the most games would advance. With this format, “It’s very important to fight for every game because it can make a difference,” said current president Lian Gersh ’17.

Northeastern University ended the tournament claiming first prize of the first-ever Slice N ’Deis Brandeis Club Tennis tournament, according to Gersh, while the BTC finished in seventh place overall. The results of the tournament will be used for seeding purposes at Sectionals, which occur in late October at Harvard University.= The BTC is a relatively new club on campus, established in 2013. Gersh has witnessed every part of its inception. After the club’s inauguration during

her first year, its future seemed short-lived, and the organization “kind of fell apart for a year,” Gersh said.

With the help of now alumnus Kevin Dupont ’16, Gersh rebuilt the club, which now sees 15 to 25 players at every practice.

The club practices three times a week, two of which are dedicated to two-hour hits while the other is scheduled for conditioning.

The club caters to various different skill levels. Broken down into an A Team, a B Team and a squad for recreational play, every member has the opportunity to practice weekly and participate in competitive match play.

The majority of matches for the club tennis team are scheduled in the fall semester, due to the number of school breaks and the greater amount of practice

slice n ‘deis

President Lian Gersh ’17 and BTC members Emma Bers ’20, Zoe Tai ’20 and Fern Sawetamal ’19

space.

Recently, the team traveled to Sectionals to compete against other New England college club tennis programs in the fall of 2015. In the spring 2016 semester, the team took a major trip to Tucson, AZ, to compete in a National Invitational. As for now, the team does not have any up-

Women’s soccer continues to dominate

By Shea Decker-Jacoby staff

On Saturday, Oct. 1 the Brandeis women’s soccer team traveled to Carnegie Mellon for the first league game of the season. The Judges came out really strong and took the game 2-0, extending the 11-game winning streak. Brandeis women’s soccer came into the match ranked number 10 in Division III in the NSCAA poll and number 13 in D3Soccer.com with a record of 10-0-1. The first half of the Judges season is the best 11-game

start in the 34-year history of the program under head coach Denise Dallamora.

Cidney Moscovitch ’17 came out really strong and intercepted a clearing attempt by the Carnegie Mellon goalkeeper to start the game off with a 1-0 lead in the first minute and half. This is Moscovitch’s fourth goal of the season. Moscovitch initiated the second goal to ensure a win with a hard-driven ball, which was poked out of the goal by Carnegie Mellon’s goalie, but teammate Lea McDaniel was there to finish off the rebound for her team-and UAA-leading 10th goal of the season. Brandeis out-

Sox win AL East

By Kevin Costa

special to the hoot

October marks the beginning of a new baseball season, but only for those teams left standing after 162 games. The Red Sox are one of those teams, finishing the regular season with a 93-69 record. The last time Boston made the playoffs was in 2013, a year in which they won the World Series.

Their success is due in part to an 11-game winning streak from Sept. 15 to 25. During that stretch, the Red Sox pulled ahead of the Orioles and Blue Jays to clinch the American League East. Yet the team faltered at the season’s close, dropping the last five of six games. David Ortiz, in what has been an outstanding farewell season, slumped at bat during that span. He went 3-for-20 and posted three walks and six strikeouts, according to ESPN. The bullpen for Boston also struggled, giving up a Mark Teixeira walk-off grand slam and two game-winning runs against the Blue Jays, according to CBS. Still, the Red Sox finished the season with the best offense in the league. Boston averaged 5.42 runs per game, the highest scoring team since the 2009 Yankees averaged 5.65 runs per game, according to CBS. The Red Sox also put up league highs for team batting average (.282), on-base percentage (.348) and slugging percentage (.461) according to CBS. On Thursday, Oct. 6, the Red Sox will face off against the equally talented Cleveland Indians in

Game 1 of the ALDS. Cleveland had similar success this season, finishing 94-67 and even posting a 14-game winning streak of their own. And unlike the Red Sox, the Indians finished the season with a convincing three-game sweep of Kansas City. All in all, the Indians’ bullpen has been more reliable. The team’s closer, Cody Allen, has been solid down the stretch, whereas Boston’s closer, Craig Kimbrel, has struggled. In his last three closes, Kimbrel has walked six of 13 batters and conceded four runs. Cleveland’s setup pitchers Andrew Miller and Bryan Shaw have been healthier than Boston’s setup, Koji Uehara, who has just returned from a twomonth-long recovery from a right pectoral muscle strain according to ESPN. Despite their success, Cleveland has had it’s own spell of troubles.

The team suffered injuries to key players who will miss the postseason: outfielder Michael Brantley, who missed all but 11 games this year, and pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar, according to the The News & Observer. In this year’s season series, the Red Sox had the edge over the Indians. Boston won four of six headto-head games, half of which were played in each city. Yet in the upcoming series that counts, the Indians will have the home field advantage. In what looks to be a slugfest against an equally matched Indians team, the Red Sox will attempt to come out on top and make another run at a World Series championship.

shot the Tartans 9-5 with huge saves by Brandeis’ goalie, Alexis Grossman ’17, who made five saves to earn her sixth shutout of the season.

The Brandeis Judges then took on Lesley University on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at home with a 2-0 finish.

Samantha Schwartz ’18 scored both goals of the game, one in minute 19 of play and the second in minute 55 of play to ensure the win. Assisted by Haliana Burhans ’18, Schwartz dribbled through the left of the box and shot a hard-driven ball toward the right of the goal to beat the goalie. In the second half of the game, McDaniel found Schwartz

at the corner of the six-yard box where she drilled the ball to the back of the net to earn the 2-0 lead. The two-goal performance was Schwartz’s second of the season and the third of her career, while the game-winning goal was her second this year and the eighth of her college career.

Brandeis outshot Lesley 14-3 with 10-1 shots on goal. Grossman made one save to record her 27th career win and 18th career shutout. Now at an 11-0-1 record, places this year’s squad to the best 12-game start in school history. This win makes nine shutout wins for the Judges and they intend to beat the standing

photo courtesy tina nguyen

coming plans for travel for this academic year.

Gersh expects the club to develop well over the next few years. “I am excited to welcome our new club and team members,” she said. “We have a very young team this year, and I cannot wait to see them continue to play amazing tennis.”

record of 14 shutout wins set in 2012.

The Brandeis Women’s Soccer team is now ranked 10th by NSCAA Coaches. The Brandeis Judges take the field again when they return to the University Athletic Association play on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 11 a.m. against Case Western Reserve University as part of Homecoming Weekend.

They will then travel to the University of Chicago and and the Washington University in St. Louis to continue UAA play and will return home on Friday, Oct. 28 for a match against Emory at 5 p.m.

Fighting for the underdog

By Sarah Jousset editor

Looking for something a little bit different to fill up some free time in your schedule and blow off some steam? The Brandeis Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu club was founded in 2004 with a mission “to instruct students in the practice and application, in both competition and self-defense, of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu,” according to the club’s constitution. The Brandeis club sports team is headed by coaches Dave Ginsberg and Mike Mena.

The club’s president is senior Isaac McKillen-Godfried.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was developed by the Gracie family in 1882 from pre-war Kodokan Judo and western wrestling. The goal of a match is to bring an opponent to the ground and use grappling techniques to force the opponent into submission.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a form of self-defense used in MMA and Vale Tudo competitions like UFC and Pride FC. The club currently operates as an instructional organization, teaching their members techniques in self-defense, combat sport and ground fighting based martial art, or grappling. However, there are a few members of the club who compete as individuals in various Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments in the area. The sport is designed for the underdog, reinforcing the idea that the smaller participant can control and defeat the large opponent through the

use of leverage. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu focuses on both positional dominance, like pinning the opponent for control, and submission skills like joint locks. Practices for the club include a formal bow-in at the beginning of each practice followed by technical drilling and calisthenics, and each practice finishes with live rounds and sparring.

The club looks to “teach students basic ground techniques so that if they either find themselves on the ground in an actual fight they can defend themselves or if someone is striking them they can take the fight to the ground and defend themselves. Secondly, we want to introduce them to the potentially lifelong hobby of both BJJ training and competition. We also help people who wish to go into Mixed Martial Arts develop their grappling base,” explained McKillen-Godfriend.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is as much about self-defense as it is a technical challenge. “Many people have described it as almost like a physical type chess and I couldn’t agree more,” McKillen-Godfriend said.

“You’re always trying to think two moves ahead and chain various

techniques together. Sometimes you win and come out on top, other times you get shut down, but it’s always fun.”

The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu community also allows participants to build both physical and internal skills. “BJJ has made me more humble. Repeatedly getting submitted will definitely help get rid of any ‘ego’ you might have,” explained McKillen-Godfried. He also finds motivation in those around him practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, “because merely the fact that you are rolling live (close to 100 percent) with some of the best chokers and joint lockers around will give you more confidence and inspire you to improve. As you build skills and realize how much better you are now than when you started you will also gain confidence.”

The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu club meets Sunday from 12 to 1:30 p.m. and Wednesday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Practices are held in the Linsey Pool House in MPR 3 and are open to anyone who would like to check out a practice. For more information about Brandeis’ Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Club, email jmgb@brandeis.edu.

“Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has made me more humble.”

-isaac mckillen-godfried ‘17

EDITORIALS

October 7, 2016

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editors-in-Chief Mia Edelstein Julie Landy

Managing Editor Allison Plotnik Senior Copy Editor Sarah Terrazano News Editor Hannah Schuster Deputy News Editors Abigail Gardener Elianna Spitzer Arts Editor Sabrina Pond Opinions Editor Zach Phil Schwartz Deputy Opinions Editor Katarina Weesies Features Editor Charlotte Aaron Deputy Features Editor Albert Reiss Sports Editor Sarah Jousset Deputy Sports Editor Zach Cihlar Photo Editor Karen Caldwell Layout Editor Lisa Petrie Editors-at-Large Matt Kowalyk Emily Sorkin Smith

T

RCC’s Interactive Resource Guide and Mandatory Bystander Training for Club Leaders

he Rape Crisis Center (RCC) and Office of Prevention Services (OPS) have recently begun new initiatives to improve sexual assault prevention on campus and the resources available to survivors. The RCC released an Interactive Resource Guide, created by two alumnae, to explain the resources available for survivors of sexual assault, and the OPS has collaborated with the Student Union to make bystander training mandatory for all Brandeis club leaders at least once annually.

Ava Blustein ’15 and Evelyn Milford ’16 created the Interactive Resource Guide to ensure a better way to compile information for all students—both those who have suffered from sexual assault and those trying to help others.

The guide takes the form of an online survey in which users anonymously answer questions that will direct them to a variety of resources. According to the main page of the guide, “no university actions of any kind, including reports or investigations, will be initiated as a result of your responses. This guide is meant as an additional resource for you, and however you choose to use this information is entirely up to you.”

The Interactive Resource Guide is

Founded By Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

STAFF

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.

CONNECT phone • (781) 330-0051 e-mail • eic@thebrandeishoot.com online • brandeishoot.com twitter • twitter.com/thebrandeishoot facebook • facebook.com/thebrandeishoot

ADVERTISE Advertising in The Brandeis Hoot helps spread your message to our readers across the Brandeis campus, in the Waltham community and beyond through our website.

All campus organizations receive a 25 percent discount off our regular prices. We also design basic ads for campus organizations free of charge.

To reserve your space in the paper, contact us by phone at (781) 330-0051 or by e-mail at ads@thebrandeishoot.com.

GIVE A HOOT, JOIN THE HOOT!

Writers, editors, photographers and graphic artists wanted to join The Brandeis Hoot, your weekly community newspaper.

To learn more, send us an e-mail at join@thebrandeishoot.com, or visit our website http://brandeishoot.com/join.

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.

a crucial step in improving the issue of sexual assault on campus. From the main page, users have a choice of five options: medical attention, hospital accompaniment, counseling, academic accommodations and reporting.

With a confidential and anonymous platform, control and agency are restored to survivors who may be uncertain on the next steps to take. It is also a 24/7 resource, accessible anywhere with an Internet connection.

The format of the guide is beneficial to its purpose. Users are walked through their options in what is an uncertain and difficult time in their life, and they are able to scroll through as many pages as they need, so that the guide is a never-ending program that people can use at their own pace. In addition to choosing “yes” or “no,” usually there is also the option to select “unsure” if users want more information before making a decision. For instance, instead of only asking if the user wants to be accompanied to the hospital, the guide explains why an accompaniment to the hospital can be helpful for emotional support.

The Student Union’s collaboration with the Office of Prevention Services in order to mandate bystander training

for club leaders is another necessary step in making the Brandeis campus safer in terms of sexual assault prevention. Active bystanders intervene in potentially unsafe situations, whether they know the people involved or not, to prevent any harm, such as sexual assault, from being inflicted.

Students in club leadership positions are inherently role models and influential to others, and anyone in such a position should also be bystander trained to foster a safer campus climate. Clubs also often host parties, and it is important that club leaders are trained to be bystanders in situations that may involve alcohol. With multiple training sessions offered, scheduling should not be a problem in completing the training.

We commend these increased efforts to improve the issue of sexual assault and how survivors are able to recover on campus. With Brandeis’ disappointing response to sexual assault cases in the past, and the concerning results in previous campus climate surveys, the transparency of the university’s efforts to improve is welcome.

These resources validate survivors’ experiences and the actions all students should take to prevent further cases in the future.

NEWS

Volume 13 • Issue 18 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

Emily Altkorn, Rachel Bossuk, Sharon Cai, José Castellanos, Shea Decker-Jacoby, Jacob Edelman, Amanda Ehrmann, Andrew Elmers, Zachary Gordon, Max Gould, Emma Gutman, Sophia He, Alana Hodson, Daniel Kang, Emma Kahn, Naomi Klickstein, Adam Lamper, Samantha Lauring, Monique J Menezes, Santiago Montoya, Candace Ng, Polina Potochevska, Faiyaz Rahman, Caroline Rourke, Ryan Spencer, Hannah Stewart, Lily Wageman, Michael Wang

The Brandeis Hoot 7

Union amendment expands prevention efforts BYSTANDER, from page 1

The point is to make people more aware of these sorts of issues,” said former Senator-at-Large, Lorenzo Finamore ’18 in an interview with The Brandeis Hoot after the amendment passed last year.

Bystander training is a program that teaches students how to intervene in situations that could lead to sexual misconduct, allowing participants the opportunity to discuss or role-play scenarios involving partner violence, intoxicated hook-ups and homophobic remarks.

Two “trainers” prompt participants to consider how they would approach the situation as a bystander to prevent harm while also thinking about their safety, according to Sheila McMahon from the Office of Prevention Services (OPS).

“Club leaders … have a really important role in setting the tone for the people who are a part of their group,” said McMahon in an interview last fall. This initiative has been a joint effort between the Union and OPS. Bystander training seeks to expand the “one-to-one” relationship between victim and perpetrator, according to McMahon, because “if you expand the frame of your awareness and include people who are around the potential victim and the poten-

Last week’s solution

tial perpetrator … [it] gives everyone a role in making the campus safer,” she said.

Club leaders are “an enormous chunk of the student body that are already engaged in leadership roles,” so training them is “a matter of setting the precedent for future Brandeis’, creating that sense of community responsibility to end these issues,” said Sindberg. Sindberg is a Community Advisor and works at OPS as the program liaison between OPS and the Department of Community Living.

He encouraged anyone to reach out with concerns about the training requirement. “We want our sexual assault prevention efforts to be trauma-informed,” taking into account needs of sexual violence survivors and making the program inclusive, said Sindberg.

Since the introduction of bystander training in 2014, hundreds of students have participated. Groups trained so far this year include Orientation Leaders, RCC Peer Advocates, the Student Union and several Greek organizations. Last year, around 30 groups had trainings, including Greek organizations, sports teams, residence halls and clubs.

Students were also invited to participate in a “train-the-trainer” program.

There are about 25 trainers now, and 4050 more students will become trainers this weekend, according to Yael Platt ’17, the

Staff Assistant at OPS. OPS has also been developing the Bystander 2.0 program, a follow-up training option. A goal of 2.0 is the “psychological steps necessary to encourage people to become prosocial bystanders,” the process people go through when deciding to perform a certain behavior, said Sindberg.

“Something [OPS is] really struggling with is people know this information, they know it’s important to do, but it’s not exactly … happening in the moment when you’re at a party,” said Valerie Timms ’16, last year’s Charles River/567 South St. senator.

Ryan Tracy ’17, chair of the Union’s club support committee, helped with the logistics and implementation of the amendment. He compiled a list of club leaders, noting students who are on more than one board, said Sindberg. The committee will manage the records of club leaders who have been trained, using attendance sheets from the trainings.

The “impression” is often that if you have been trained once, “you’re good to go,” said Sindberg, but research shows that if you undergo multiple trainings, even if they’re the same, then you’re “much more likely to step up when you’re called upon.”

That said, he does hope 2.0 will interest students and that they will not see bystander programming as redundant.

L C R O S S WO R D S ?

V E Become a hoot crossword creator. email eic@thebrandeishoot.com if interested.

8 The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS, ETC.

October 7, 2016

‘At Home At The Zoo’ sets new, gold standard for Brandeis theater

By Adam Lamper staff

This past weekend saw a reasonable share of excitement on campus, as did students and other playgoers alike as they walked down the hamburger-bun-lined walkway to Merrick Theater to witness “At Home At The Zoo.” Written by (and dedicated to) the late Edward Albee, who passed away less than a week before Brandeis Ensemble Theater production’s first showing, “At Home At The Zoo” is superficially just a play about two men having a conversation on a Sunday morning in Central Park. However, it is so much more than just that.

“I chose this play because it’s been on my mind since I first read

it four years ago,” said director Raphael Stigliano ’18. “It was one of the first things I read that got me really interested in theater, and I’ve been looking for a chance to see a production of it since then—but I’ve never had the chance. I’ve always felt that you should create the kind of art you want to see, and I wanted to see this play.” Stigliano certainly did this performance justice, likely instilling in many viewers the same passion he felt when he first encountered it—partly due to the cohesive and enthralling nature of the storyline itself, and largely due to the brilliance of its actors, Dan Souza ’19 and Connor Wahrman ’17.

Ultimately an allegory of class warfare, cursory judgment and human relation, it’s imperative

that the lead cast be able to portray a diverse range of emotive expression, as was the case with Souza and Wahrman, who managed this to such an extent as to blur the lines of fiction and reality. Souza, as Jerry, a vagrant-esque twenty-something in desperate need of companionship, truly dominated the stage with his character’s brash and boorish personality. Wahrman’s Peter, a white-collar publisher and father of two young daughters, was represented in a more timid light, progressively becoming more and more agitated by Jerry’s offensive temperament. “I love these characters, and I love what these two actors have done with them,” noted Stigliano. ”I think they’ve both created some unique characters that I’m hoping will connect with the audience.”

“We’re trying some experimental things in terms of concept, too,” said Stigliano. “I think a lot of student theater is too afraid to take risks, so we really wanted to try some different things with this and maybe open up a few doors if we could.” These “experimental things” included many instances of breaking the fourth wall by continually making physical contact with the walls of the theater apart from the set (which was only a simplistic patch of grass and bench). As Stigliano eloquently put it in the director’s note, “We had to look at the text as a conversation between two conflicting worlds, the moment when the outsider meets the interior. Those two spaces took shape

photos by adam lamper/the hoot

as we began to isolate the scene itself at the heart of the cold white walls of the theater.”

Altogether a great feat of acting, direction and overall storytelling, Albee’s “At Home At The Zoo” is now perhaps one of the best, if not the best, productions I personally have seen during my time as an arts writer here at Brandeis.

Almost completely void of noticeable line errors, despite having up to six-page-long monologues, Souza and Wahrman delivered such compelling performances and were able to completely embody their characters in a way that is difficult to find anywhere offscreen, especially in a university-level production.

It is with utmost sincerity that I recommend witnessing both these

actors in action (as they are both most likely to take part in another production this year). When their talent brings them to astronomical heights, you can say that you were their fans since the beginning.

The Brandeis Ensemble Theater is an affiliate of Brandeis’ Undergraduate Theater Collective (UTC), which spans across six different clubs, ranging from musicals to sketch comedy. To witness future performances as dazzling as “At Home At The Zoo” and to support peers involved in the performing arts here at Brandeis, be sure to attend the upcoming UTC events: Boris’ Kitchen’s “Old Shit Show” on Friday, Oct. 14, and Free Play’s “Circle Mirror Transformation” from Oct. 14-16.

Prof. Downey wears multiple hats as teacher, artist

By Sophie Welch special to the hoot

The painting is different. Something about it pulls your eye closer, maybe the way the bookcases stand tall and crisp and colorful in the background, but are blocked by this clearly two-dimensional figure.

The woman’s hands and mouth seem to be in motion as wisps of her blond hair blow outward.

She is surrounded by a pink fuzz that seems to cut her off from the three-dimensional world she has been placed in.

This work of art is called “Shelley” and was created by Post-Baccalaureate Program Coordinator and Fine Arts Lecturer Professor Sean Downey (FA).

“I use a lot of recognizable, representational imagery which tends to make the work feel narrative, but I also want the paintings to be sort of awkwardly aware of

themselves as flat, static images,” Downey explained to describe his painting style and the frequent contrasts in perspective.

He expanded upon this idea, comparing his creations to stories told by a friend. “On one level you are transported to wherever or whatever they are describing, but at the same time you are also always aware of the person in front of you telling you the story.

I want to get that feeling of being simultaneously here and not here into my work.”

On Downey’s website, there is a large portfolio of his works.

There are many different paintings, each intriguing in its own right. He explained that when he starts painting, he often has a partial idea formed.

It is a “purely visual idea,” and the message or story of the piece “comes into focus as the painting develops.” Finishing a painting is also a lengthy, tumultuous pro-

cess. Downey will often “sand down, change and repaint parts over and over.”

Downey gets his inspiration from the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up, and from having “spent a lot of my childhood outdoors in some pretty stunning, monumental natural landscapes.”

He admits that even when he paints an image that is not of nature, “it still tends to have a lot of the visual congestion and rhythms of a forest.” This can be seen in the rich colors used in his works—especially the earth tones of green and brown.

Oil paints seem to be Downey’s preferred medium for painting.

In fact, they are used for all the paintings shown on his website.

The professor revealed that the oils are such a basic, pure and yet gritty material, “basically colored mud.”

It takes work to shape and control. “If you want it to look like

a chair in a room, or a slow gradation from yellow to red to blue, you have to make it do that from the ground up.”

Yet at the same time, oils allow for experimentation. “At every step there is room for invention, imagination and what the great 20th-century painter Bob Ross called ‘happy accidents,’” Downey said.

As chair of the post-baccalaureate program, Downey has administrative duties and is responsible for “organizing extracurricular activities.” Often he will take students on field trips to cities like New York, Philadelphia or Washington, D.C., where they “visit galleries, museum, and artist studios.” He also teaches workshops for students who will apply to MFA programs. These sessions often go beyond class teachings, such as “documenting artwork, putting together application portfolios, writing artist statements.”

Downey has also worked alongside two other artists to create Kijidom, an artist-collaborative and gallery located in the South End in Boston. “We collaborate with artists on various projects and curate exhibitions in our gallery space, which operates out of an artist studio building,” he explained.

It is clear from learning about Downey’s passions in art and his coordinator responsibilities that much of his time is occupied. It is also clear that he is extremely advanced in making art. However, he still takes great enjoyment out of teaching students.

“I teach mostly intro-level courses, and I love seeing students progress,” he explained.

“It’s amazing to watch students who may have little or no painting or drawing experience make the initial discoveries that allow them to begin to speak this new visual language.”

photos from seandowney.net

October 7, 2016

The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS 9

Lou Jones’ photography illuminates the joy of diversity

By Santiago Montoya staff

For Lou Jones, photography is a medium to give voice to those who lack one. He is a pioneer in his profession and is beyond merely “capable.”

Jones visited the Women’s Studies Research Center (WSRC) to talk about his latest work, “panAFRICAproject,” on Sept.

27. It is a photography project that, according to Jones, took over his life—a project in the continent of Africa.

His aim was to redefine preconceived notions of Africa and to highlight how culturally diverse the continent is. The presentation addressed several aspects that overlap in many African countries, such as education, social mobility, religion, culture, traditions, public health and medicine. Jones’ photographs are solid proof of how complex and enriching each and every country in the African continent is.

The first photo he showed is one of a group of black men chained, all walking in line in the state of Texas. Along with the photograph, he threw at the audience an interesting fact to start a provocative conversation: Texas executes more people than any other state.

This image, along with three other photos that he displayed at the beginning of his presentation, belonged to one of his older exhibitions. He chose to show photographs of black men on death row to emphasize how most of

photos from panafricaproject.com

his work is about giving voice to those who are marginalized and left voiceless.

Another photograph from his “Downtown Crossing Project” exhibition features men working in construction. The photographs were taken from outstanding and thrilling angles, leading the viewer to question if the photographer’s life was not put in peril when taking these shots. What resonated so strongly with these photos is what Jones had to say about them. He explained that these are the faces of the people whose lives and work are invisible: When looking at a building, who thinks of the people who toiled with all their strength and sweat to reach the skies and lift these gigantic constructions? Not very many people.

He then moved on to discussing his “panAFRICAproject.” There are 54 countries in the continent of Africa; Jones pointed out that

it is important that people do not refer to Africa as a single country, especially because every country is very particular.

In addition, he said that the African Union wanted to censor whatever happens in African countries from news outlets in the Western media. He argued that photojournalists are only chasing their next Pulitzer when taking photographs that solely focuses on poverty and underdevelopment, relentlessly alluding to misery and meagerness. Jones believed that journalists only use Africa for their form of yellow journalism, oftentimes neglecting the many interesting and unique facts and history that makes the continent what it is.

The “panAFRICAproject” was intentionally made to demonstrate to outsiders what it is like to live in different areas of the continent. Jones’ pieces are so awe-inspiring because they are all authentic, bright and capture an

often neglected reality of Africa.

It is possible to see this authenticity and African pride in his everyday shots. “I have to approach this as boots on the ground. I have to be there,” Jones said about his method. He used the example that a photographer cannot be like Herman Melville, the author of “Moby Dick,” who wrote a novel which takes place at sea even though he had never stepped foot on a boat before.

One of the countries that Jones visited for the project was Ghana, where he photographed a nightclub. He said that while the viewer would not relate a nightclub in Ghana, the fact is that music from different parts of Africa has had a major influence on American music, such as the blues, jazz and rock and roll, just to name a few genres.

Another country that Jones visited was Egypt. There, he photographed a doctor’s office, high-

lighting the importance of public health for many groups of people across the continent.

He also went to Swaziland, a small country that is located in eastern Africa adjacent to South Africa. During Apartheid, people crossed from South Africa to Swaziland and were able to go to bars or have sex with people of different races. He had several photographs inside wire factories, which had a huge impact in Swaziland’s economy.

Most of Jones’ pieces from his “panAFRICAproject” take place indoors. This is Jones’ attempt to redefine the preconceived notions that outsiders have about Africa as nothing more than open spaces occupied by wild animals.

The only way to achieve this is if he excavates beyond the surface of the soil and finds a way to evoke the significance behind the African experience.

Growler’s new album reminisces about ’80s Los Angeles glamour

By Ben Benson staff

Whereas previous albums by the Growlers rang with the twangs of 1970s California psychedelia, “City Club’s” title track opens the album with a funky jam evocative of 1980s Los Angeles.

While the album still has the Orange County band’s trademark faded psych rock aesthetic, there is an added layer of ’80s-style synth that expands the Growler’s genre appeals, first heard on the band’s previous album, “Chinese Fountain.” The band has traded their oft-used “Beach Goth” label for “L.A. Noir.”

While the change of pace for the band is welcome, one can’t help wonder if the sound adopted by “City Club” owes much to the likes of the Black Keys or the Arcade Fire in its rock elements.

Likewise, the synthesizers liken this album to many pop artists who have lately favored the retro sound.

photo from laweekly.com

The vocals on “Dope on a Rope” almost sound like Daft Punk, yet retain the drugged-out signature of the Growlers’ Brooks Nielsen.

Despite the slick city synths, the twangy guitar signature to the band’s sound is still featured

heavily on this album. A new addition is a more hard rock-influenced guitar modulation that also evokes the ’80s sound the Growlers seem to have sought for with this project. The filtered guitar sound along with the synths gives “City Club” a haunting quality,

one that is more reminiscent of urban isolation than a ghost town, the latter of which was showcased in their previous records.

Vocally, there isn’t a lot of development on this album, though that is not necessarily a bad thing.

Nielsen’s vocals are still filtered to give them an old, faded quality, as seen on the Growlers’ previous records. While this sound meshed well with the high desert sound of their previous projects, these vocals seem somewhat out of place in a record that swings more toward synth-pop rock. That said, the sound isn’t unappealing, but simply unorthodox.

Thematically, the album seems to be a chronicle of loneliness and heartbreak in Los Angeles. It is a dark, melancholy sound, yet the feeling that the album provokes is one that should be familiar to many—the feeling of being a small fish in a very large pond.

The album isn’t all sadnes. Many of the songs, while dark, feature upbeat riffs that ensure that the

album doesn’t pass the threshold to being purely depressing. “Daisy Chain” remains upbeat on a surface level, making the album thoroughly enjoyable to listen to, especially considering the lyrical subject matter. To be fair, there are an equal number of songs with a darker sound, which serve to balance out the emotional resonance of the album.

The album art depicts a wide range of individuals coming and going in front of a seedy southern California nightclub at dusk. This is a change from previous Growlers album covers, which were largely personless. The addition of people to the image marks the change in the Growlers’ music from desolate desert imagery to crowded urban isolation. The band is clearly beginning to explore a much different aspect of their southern California roots.

With “City Club,” the Growlers have left the beach and moved back to the city. Whether they’ll stay there remains to be seen.

10 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

October 7, 2016

Joshua Gordon enamors with a masterful cello performance

By Sabrina Pond editor

Some performers, specifically musicians, walk on the stage and have an unmistakable presence, a certain swagger of sorts when they meet the audience’s eyes. They have a certain ease of step and self-assured expression on their faces as they take a seat on the stage, hardly speaking a word. With a deep inhale of the lungs and a sassy hand gesture, the performers play the first few notes of a wonderful composition too lovely for human ears to take in. Or so it seemed when Joshua Gordon, master of the cello, performed at “Converging Tracks: Music for Cello Alone and With Violin” on Saturday, Sept. 24.

Gordon took center stage at Slosberg to showcase his almost perfected talent, wonderfully complemented by the euphoric sounds of Andrea Segar’s violin.

His display of masterful musicianship dominated the first half of the program, while Segar’s intimidatingly gorgeous violin performance delighted the audience for part of the second half of the concert.

The cellist used his performance as a means of channeling his distressed, raw and altogether conflicted feelings regarding the attacks on Sept. 11, which killed 2,996 people and wounded 6,000 others. According to Gordon’s program notes, he wrote that, “After dealing with watching the disaster unfold on live television … I found myself back in my old Upper West Side apartment, where the day had started with the

loudest sound I have ever heard as hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 roared low and fast.”

With that said, Bach’s “Suite No. 5 in C Minor for Unaccompanied Cello” makes all the more sense in the light of this revelation. A poignant piece with six movements that explore the innate human capacity to feel a mix of tumultuous emotions, the composition begins on a sour note and ends on a much lighter one—not quite happy, but verging on calm and numb. What began as a rapid, mostly monotone and lethargic piece eventually transitioned to one of sadness, then dread and finally the overtones of acceptance. “It may be a cliche to talk about turning to music for solace, but I needed to do something for my own sanity,” Gordon candidly admitted. His ability to convey these emotions throughout the piece was uncanny, and proved his finesse with the large and unwieldy cello.

Gordon’s illustrious career precedes him. A cellist who has

photo by karen caldwell/the hoot

participated in a many orchestral groups, such as the Lydian String Quartet in 2002, the New York Chamber Soloists, the Group for Contemporary Music and the New Millennium Ensemble, Gordon has managed to make huge strides in his career and gained significant experience over the years.

He is a chamber musician, instructor and recording artist who has received ample praise from his greatest critics and colleagues alike. The New Yorker reviewed his duo with pianist Randall Hodgkinson as “insightful and impas-

sioned,” and he has been a guest for a number of ensembles including such well-known names as Juilliard, the Boston Chamber Music Society and Cassatt.

The latter piece, “Oyan!” was composed by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh and perfectly combines contemporary Western-style techniques and elements of more traditional Azerbaijani music. It is this boldness that makes “Oyan!” an interesting piece; namely, the dichotomy between these two distinct facets makes it unlike anything I’ve heard before. According to Gordon, “The title of this work literally means ‘awaken!’ in Azerbaijani. But far more is expressed by this word that just that. It can also mean, ‘Come to yourself! Be courageous! Rebel!’—for a new day, for good deeds, for an act of heroism.”

A splendidly woven piece, its ultimate performance was wonderfully choreographed and precisely played. Definitely the best performance of the night, the professionalism and memorable transitions managed to take the concert to a whole other level.

In her youth, Segar’s experience speaks volumes about her

raw talent and outrageous expertise as a violinist.

Receiving both her undergraduate and Master of Music degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music, she went on to become a faculty member at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School. Her performances have aired on NPR’s Performance Today as well as on other classic radio stations throughout the country. Segar is a member of the Lydian String Quartet and is an associate professor of practice at Brandeis.

Like other musical performances that happen at Slosberg, this addition to the 2016-2017 Concert Series was a pleasure to experience because of how different it was from previous concerts. The talent that stems from a single individual’s dedication to their craft is something that, however intangible, doesn’t seem so anymore when in attendance of the soloists’ performances. I was left speechless at the wonder that is honed talent, skill and grace with the bow and fingertips, and it is quite possible that you would have been too.

photo from joshuagordoncello.com

Stirrups, cowboy hat, revolver in hand, ‘The Magnificent Seven’ delights

By Zachary Sosland special to the Hoot

“The Magnificent Seven” is a remake of John Sturges’ acclaimed Western released in 1960 which itself is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” released in 1954—neither of which I’ve seen. Directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke, among others, this new iteration of the acclaimed hero’s tale is about a mining town called Rose Creek that is terrorized by an evil businessman named Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Saarsgard) who makes the townspeople sell their land cheaply and murders Emma Cullen’s husband (Haley Bennett) in the process.

Devastated yet enraged, Emma assigns a bounty hunter named Sam Chisolm (Washington) to recruit six other well-intentioned outlaws in order to save Rose Creek from Bogue’s clutches.

From the trailers and marketing, I went in expecting a fun throwback to classic Westerns and I’m happy to say that the latest film does not disappoint.

First off, “The Magnificent Seven” works on a technical level. In addition to being well lit and well shot (no pun intended) for the most part, the film relies heavily on practical effects—which I’m not saying are necessary for all blockbusters—but to know that people actually put time and effort into this $95 million remake of a remake is absolutely noteworthy.

Likewise, “The Magnificent

photo from movietimes.com

photo from mymoviewallpapers.com

photo from bbc.com

Seven” has a surprising amount of heart that’s absent from many remakes nowadays, and that fact is especially present in the film’s haunting opening sequence as well as its more intense action scenes; they are just that much more gripping because of it. As for the other technical aspects of the film, I loved some of its editing choices and am happy that it put James Horner’s final score to good use. All these elements combined give the film a much-needed old timey, Western feel.

“The Magnificent Seven” has top-notch performances. Obviously, I mostly want to discuss the main seven who all have great on-screen chemistry together. Notably, Chris Pratt’s performance in this film brings his signature charm while also highlighting a sense of mystery in two of the scenes. Although he would sometimes revert back to his usual Pratt-isms, his role is mostly solid throughout.

Ethan Hawke’s role was arguably the most developed main character and seeing him in an another Antoine Fuqua film with Denzel Washington was a nice touch. I don’t want to forget to mention Byung-hun Lee as the group’s knife expert and Vincent D’Onofrio as its big, crazy guy, both of whom handle their insane roles in the film with ease. The least developed main character was Martin Sensmeier’s Native American character, who was still interesting nonetheless.

Where most modern remakes just want to dive right into the action, “The Magnificent Seven” takes its sweet time introducing

our heroes and showing us why we should care about them. I will say that the first remake didn’t have a diverse cast, probably because it was released in the ’60s.

Fortunately, however, this remakes does.

As for Haley Bennett, I’m not surprised that not many reviews mentioned her since the film doesn’t truly develop her character Emma Cullen until the third act; in fact, I wish we learned more about Emma’s marriage— otherwise, why should we care if this widow avenges her dead husband? Peter Saarsgard’s villain was also disappointing considering how well he’s introduced before becoming a rather generic villain when we meet him again later on.

Finally, the films I love the most are the ones that know what they want to be and “The Magnificent Seven” knows that it wants to be a fun throwback film despite being unnecessarily cheesy at times. Many consider Antoine Fuqua one of the best popcorn flick directors and this film is no exception.

He expertly directs the film’s action sequences as well as its more dialogue-driven moments; however, I do wish the pacing was better in its 172-minute runtime to fix development issues. I also didn’t receive the sense of satisfaction from the last five to 10 minutes that I was hoping for.

Overall, “The Magnificent Seven” is a great summer blockbuster that isn’t actually a summer blockbuster. Anyone looking for a fun time at the theater will not be disappointed with this film.

October 7, 2016

ARTS 11

The Brandeis Hoot

Prof. Cynthia Cohen solves the world’s problems with creativity

By Brianna Cummings staff

Professor Cynthia Cohen is a noteworthy intellectual, who has made major contributions to both Brandeis and the world. The current director of the Peacebuilding and the Arts program and the acting director of the Ethics Center, Cohen has also created the Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation (CAST) minor at Brandeis.

Cohen has been working at Brandeis and studying coexistence and the arts since 1997.

During this time, she says that the students at Brandeis inspired her with the idea to create the CAST program. “As I came to know Brandeis students, I realized how many of them were interested in both contributing to social justice and cultivating their talents as artists,” Cohen says. She adds that, “meanwhile, I was learning about the work of artists in zones of violent conflict and developing educational and training materials for the emerging arts and peacebuilding field. It seemed like a natural

step to propose a minor. Also, I was encouraged very directly from a colleague, the Brandeis alumna Elaine Reuben ’63.”

Cohen is able to do such significant amounts of work thanks to her background in numerous subjects. Her education degree has helped her to explore the topic of reconciliation, having written a dissertation exploring the “educational dimensions of reconciliation.”

Cohen explains that “the basic idea is that reconciliation requires learning: learning about ourselves and each other. Because it entails, in part, learning to understand another’s suffering, it requires a kind of knowing that is sensory as well as cognitive. It requires letting go of certain kinds of defenses, and learning to be present with alert calmness and a kind of engaged detachment.”

Cohen elaborates, saying that reconciliation involves learning about the self and about others, a concept inherent to the CAST program and, “these kinds of knowing can be cultivated through engagement with artistic

forms and processes that have carefully crafted to support these purposes.”

She adds, “ideas surrounding the nature of the learning facilitated by aesthetic engagement, and the nature of the learning required for social transformation are at the core of my teaching and research related to the CAST minor.”

Cohen says that her master’s degree in city planning helped her learn to communicate with others, she explains, “my training in city planning informed my approach to creating the minor by consulting widely with different members of the faculty. It also informed my thinking about what kinds of skills and experiences students should have in the introductory course. That is why I almost always try to include a design lab in the syllabus of the intro course.”

Design labs are a vital part of the CAST program because they allow students to think critically about creativity and social justice.

These labs attempt to design a solution for contemporary issues

photos from brandeis.edu

and new initiatives. In the past they have incorporated students from the class, as well as professors and professionals from local peace and arts organizations.

Different topics can be explored with a CAST minor, ranging from how music helps unite different cultures, to how artwork brings opposing sides together. This program is where peacebuilding meets creativity.

“Creativity, I think, can help with almost any complicated problem,” Cohen said. “Creativity allows us to imagine what does not yet exist. It allows us to imagine the experiences of others. It allows us to imagine a future that is different, more just, more vivid, less violent, than current conditions. It allows us to put seemingly disparate elements into relationships that are meaningful and beautiful.”

A CAST minor does not lead to one single career. CAST minors have an array of opportunities awaiting them after graduation.

They can “work as artists, arts administrators, museum educators, activists, policy makers, designers, architects, playwrights—in

communities in conflict, in communities that need to be encouraged to think about privilege, in communities where difficult truths about both the past and present must be faced,” Cohen said.

“The field of arts and social transformation is growing in credibility in various national and international policy arenas, related to economic development, human rights, violence prevention, urban studies,” Cohen explained.

“The CAST minor is not only for artists: Through CAST, people concerned about issues of social justice can learn to collaborate with artists, and to imagine how the creative sensibilities of artists can be brought into processes of planning and social change.”

Cohen cares deeply about the arts and peacebuilding. As she continues teaching the Introduction to CAST course this fall and serving as an advisor to students completing their CAST capstone projects, Cohen hopes that she can inspire a new generation of people to take a look at the world’s problems and solve them with a little creativity.

To Be Announced boasts great chemistry with new members

By Katie Decker-Jacoby special to the hoot

Brandeis improvisational group, To Be Announced (TBA), welcomed Abby LeRoy ’20 and Evan Moloney ’20 into the TBA family in its first show of the year on September 29.

“Company TBA Presents: Newlywedded Newbs” launched the show with a mock wedding, uniting LeRoy and Moloney as TBA’s newest members.

TBA proceeded to amuse the crowd with a long improv exercise where the actors created different characters and scenarios that eventually became intertwined. The comedy group entertained the audience with a multitude of skits centered mainly around sex, love and drugs.

TBA made the audience laugh with an ongoing plot about a depraved camp counselor and her naïve campers. Julia Green ’18 portrayed a camp counselor who pranked her campers by giving them weed, though it was actually oregano. “No, I’ve never touched a real weed before,” exclaimed Monica Chen ’19, who played a camper. “What if I get high from sniffing it?” Conor Amrien ’19, another camper, inquired.

Amrien also played Carl, a recurring character who experienced ongoing existential crises. He continuously questioned whether Carl was physically and emotionally “there.” “I don’t think you understand that Carl is not here right now,” explained Amrien during a therapy session.

photos by katie decker-jacoby/the hoot

There was also a scene where LeRoy and Becca Groner ’17 ran a hair salon called “The Most Expensive Hair Salon in Colorado.” Their two clients, Chen and Green, play snobby wives who try really hard to one-up each other. When Green announced she

was getting the “Pegasus” hair treatment, Chen quickly declared she was getting the “Gold Pegasus” treatment, and so on.

Ultimately, the ex-campers discovered the weed was merely oregano 30 years after the prank and Green’s forbidden sexual af-

fair with one of her former campers evolved into a set of octuplets.

“I really thought I was high,” Chen said in an elderly woman’s voice, 70 years later.

Carl’s existential crises came to an end when he realized that it was just oregano; both of the wives’ husbands, Moloney and Amrien, abandoned them to pursue a gay romance together; “The Most Expensive Hair Salon in Colorado” evolves into “The Most Heterosexual Hair Salon in Colorado”; and whenever there was weed involved, it turned out to be oregano.

This long improv exercise seemed most appealing and humorous to the audience. “The best part was the long form. There weren’t any awkward pauses and they all have great chemistry with one another. They always brought back old jokes that resonated with the audience,” said Becca Rogers ’19, who has already attended three or four TBA shows. “I think they’re always consistently funny and put on a good show,” she added.

“I enjoyed the long form. I felt as though the transition from one scene to the next was very smooth. I like how the individual stories somehow interconnected in the skits. It was a very funny show,” commented Penhleakhena Ou ’19.

The improv group concluded its show with another game where they created rhymes based on selected phrases. Each actor tapped a chair and made verses that filled in the blanks to “I once dated oregano,” “I once dated a fish”

and “I once dated scissors.” The crowd reacted to the sexual innuendos in the “I once dated a fish” round, but did not quite catch on to the “I once dated scissors” verse.

TBA covered topics that were relatable to a fair number of college students. The comedy group did not hold back. Sex, love, alcohol, weed, heroin and cocaine were among the topics that elicited the most laughter from the audience.

“Newlywedded newbs” LeRoy and Moloney put on a spectacular first show. “They’re great! They both had experience with improv before joining, so they came into the group strong. I think we all vibe very well together inside and outside of improv,” said Chen.

Ultimately, the comedy group managed to fill the entire SCC multipurpose room with audience members who were ready to engage in TBA’s interactive evening show.

From a mock wedding for the two newlywed members, to short improv rhyming games about fish, to long improv exercises about a corrupt camp, crazy Carl and “The Most Expensive Hair Salon in Colorado,” the sketches carried a lighthearted feel and ran exceptionally smoothly. The enthusiastic crowd and TBA’s effortless dynamic enabled the two new members to shine in their first show.

TBA looks forward to collaborating with its fellow Brandeis improv comedy group, Bad Grammer, this Saturday at 10 p.m. in Pollack Auditorium.

12 The Brandeis Hoot

OPINIONS

October 7, 2016

Install visitor check-in center at campus base

By Zach Phil Schwartz editor

South Street is a heavily used open-access road: the gateway from two interstates and places west of the City of Waltham.

Scores of vehicles pass by campus going one way or the other on South Street on a regular basis, and any one of them can waltz right into Brandeis’ campus via the wide and open entrance, without any questions asked.

Needless to say, although it makes the campus easily accessible and minimizes traffic stops, the open nature of the university’s main entrance is exceptionally dangerous.

Thanks to Brandeis’ somewhat secluded location on the outskirts of the city, alarmingly problematic trespassing issues are not as bad as they would be in, say, Cambridge, but the risk remains.

Anyone with a car can enter Brandeis’ gates, or lack thereof, and stroll around doing whatever they want at their leisure. There is no way of knowing who strangers are or what they are doing here as they solitarily observe the Mandel building from within or without their vehicles.

If someone from the outside of campus decides to do the community harm, there is nothing but open access between them and all of Brandeis. This is not to say that there is an imminent threat or there is currently a substantial

By Daniel Freedman special to the hoot

Things that are certain: death, taxes and now thanks to a government near you, lawsuits. It seems a litigious society with an ever-expanding appetite for court may have opened Pandora’s box. The recent Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) now passed provides legal recourse to sue sovereign governments for acts of terrorism committed, upending previous immunity from U.S. jurisdiction.

It may sound like a contentious topic that would require careful scrutiny, but our government is a

contemporary issue that warrants this discussion; but I want to know what the university is waiting for. Why leave open the opportunity when it is so simple to rectify? The university needs to install a security gate and booth complex between the entrance area and Loop Road.

Such an area would not be difficult to put together at all; the university has already invested in several gates scattered around campus, and a security booth would not have to be bigger than the booth sometimes occupied by police and at other times by BranVan dispatch. At a security booth a member of Public Safety will be able to check-in visitors and keep a record of who is on campus, allowing the university to be more knowledgeable and more accountable to the purpose and whereabouts of strangers here.

A security booth/visitor checkin center will also be able to allow for an increased Public Safety presence (or at least attention) to the most heavily traveled area on campus, where they can check for suspicious characters as well as intoxicated drivers with more ease, making the community safer.

Naysayers of such a proposition, which would not be much of a financial burden in construction, may point to an increased traffic burden on the entrance street and then a back-up on South Street. I will concede that the distance between Loop Road

and South Street does not make the proposed visitor check-in center an appealing option, but there are ways to go about such problems without scrapping the idea. For example, the proposed center would probably not have to be open at all times; the idea is to keep campus safe from those who may wish to harm the community when people are not looking (read, asleep). Traffic onto campus at night is quiet and a visitor check-in center would make it easier for Public Safety to see who enters campus at late hours and why they’re doing it.

Another answer to the issue of traffic onto campus would be to put in a second entrance lane with a second gate, only accessible with a card swipe. This in place, members of the Brandeis community with campus cards (staff, students and faculty) would not have to worry about a manual check-in, and can access campus quickly and still enjoy the benefits of having campus just a little more protected.

This proposed visitor check-in center is not meant to keep the greater community off Brandeis’ campus; it is meant to keep our community safe. If a non-Brandeis driver checks-in to campus with a legitimate reason, by all means I don’t consider it a problem. I do consider it a problem that as of right now people who wish to do harm unto the community can drive onto our campus—into our

community—and do what they please. To continue taking such a risk is unnecessary and unsafe.

Over the last two weeks I’ve had family come and visit me on campus. On the first week, my grandparents drove onto campus, picked me up and were gone within five minutes. Nobody knew who they were or what they were doing, yet they were able to grab their grandson and go without any record of them ever being there. I’m not trying to scrutinize the actions of my grandparents or any other Brandeis relative that operates in the same way; I’m trying to advocate for more barriers that would prevent (or at least identify) malicious individuals from grabbing someone and then bolting, or doing something bad and then bolting.

On the second week my father came to campus to pick me up.

Same thing. He drove onto campus without so much as a question asked and then, when I had told him I would be a half-hour late, he roamed around Einstein’s and the SCC to waste time. Even he was perplexed that nobody had inquired as to what he was doing on campus or why he was roaming around a student center for that much time.

Again, I’m not trying to scrutinize the actions of my family as evidence of why a visitor check-in center would be a good idea (although I don’t feel like I’m doing a good job of proving the former);

I’m trying to say that it could’ve been someone else parked on campus and wandering around Einstein’s—someone with bad intentions. You can’t measure intentions at a check-in booth, but with it you can sure as hell note whoever enters campus at a check-in booth.

I propose that all members of the greater community (those without campus cards) who enter campus, including my grandparents and my father and the rest of my family, at least be on record saying when and why they’re here.

A visitor check-in center would not take much to build (it could probably be done in a few weeks over the winter or summer recesses) and would be effective when it comes to keeping individuals with malicious intent off campus. Such a system is a deterrent; being on record as having entered campus space is a whole lot less appealing to such individuals than the current open-access system.

My proposal stresses the existence of those who wish to do the Brandeis community harm; I will here say that (at least I hope) there are not many of those kind of individuals out there. At the same time, what are we waiting for?

Why wait to evaluate such individuals entering campus? It does nobody any good, and it only serves to hinder Brandeis from being as safe as it can be.

What can my country do for me? funny one. In a landslide, bipartisan overrule of a presidential veto, the senate voted 97-1 to pass JASTA. This act defines a narrow set of legal proceedings, but has an even narrower original purpose: allowing U.S. victims of the 9/11 terror attacks to sue Saudi Arabia, based on the probable connection to state sponsorship of the attacks.

To Congress it apparently seems like a foolproof piece of common sense legislation—let the terror victims have their day in court, receive reparations and punish a government that aided (to some extent) the attack. What all of the Senate, aside from minority leader Harry Reid, failed to realize is

that this sets a precedent that will lead to similar legislation being passed in other countries across the world. Will Iraq sue for damages from the war? Will individuals sue for the deaths of innocent civilians in drone strikes? Heck, half the world could now have grounds to file suit against the U.S., from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Once the lawsuits start flying there will be no winner. The U.S. will undoubtedly be the primary defendant in the untold cases that will come.

For a minute now, let’s assume that other countries do not pass similar legislation based on the precedent set. The idea of suing

foreign governments still has flaws. Iraq has already claimed that a pending lawsuit from the victims would cause a selloff of U.S. treasuries that would destabilize their financial institutions as well as the U.S. dollar.

In all of this mess, Obama, as the voice of reason, has been urging Congress to consider the ramifications of their actions and the precedent that it sets. With amazing foresight he vetoed the bill to no avail, and it seems now some members of Congress have realized the error of their ways, or at least that serious amendments are still needed. That said, it seems the President’s fears have already

been realized and the answer to one rhetorical question has been answered—an Iraqi lobby group has already called for its government to seek compensation for the Iraq War. But that is just the beginning. If the true aim of the legislation comes to fruition and the families of 9/11 victims sue, there will be no holding back the deluge that will likely leave this nation in court cases up to its metaphorical eyeballs.

Our myopic government must take a step back to see before it acts, but maybe that is asking too much of a legislative body willing to shut the government down for every debt negotiation we have.

photo from wikimedia commons

October 7, 2016

OPINIONS 13

The Brandeis Hoot

Encourage and empower women in STEM field

By Santiago Montoya columnist

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Angela Mendez ’18, reacting to the statement that Tim Hunt, a biochemist and molecular physiologist, and Nobel Prize-winner in Medicine in 2001, said a year ago, in 2015; “I remember when Tim Hunt said [that] three things happen when women are in labs: men fall in love with women, women fall in love with them and women cry when they are criticized.”

For Mendez, “It’s intimidating to know that there are people who believe that because we are women, we bring ‘drama’ to the field.” In fact, Mendez said that she hopes to see more women in the STEM field. However, the fact that women are underrepresented in several or, perhaps, all of the STEM fields, does not completely intimate her. “I am determined to make my dreams come true. I will graduate Brandeis with a biology degree,” she said. Nonetheless, Mendez and a few other female students in STEM claim that gender representation is an issue, not only at Brandeis, but globally.

Carly KleinStern ’19, is another STEM student, studying physics.

This fall, she is taking Waves and

Oscillations, a class for sophomores who are physics majors.

KleinStern claims that there are only five female students out of 21 total, including her. In her electronics lab class, are three female students out of 16.

“I am not intimidated by this, but I am when I think about my future. Things I’m scared of: being aggressive and getting interviews and being super proactive about networking,” KleinStern said about gender representation in STEM classrooms.

But she says that there is not different treatment from her male peers. “Some of them are stuck up, but that’s a ‘person[ality]’ thing, not a boy-studying-physics-thing.” She reached the conclusion that “women and men can be equally great physicists.”

Something that KleinStern did address was the fact that students, regardless of their gender, are thrown into a pool without knowing how to swim: “Speaking from experience, I wasn’t particularly prepared for first-year physics and math classes, and I went to a fine high school. I can’t imagine what it’s like to come from impoverished schools.” She also said that several students are forced to “play catch up, and that’s a bad place to be when you haven’t even started college yet.”

As a matter of fact, the journey can feel frightening and lonely, also known as, the “isolation effect,” said Joelle Robinson ’18, who is studying computer science. Robinson said that the “isolation effect is then amplified for women and students of color. This has held true for me for the four years that I have been coding.

I’ve feel this cloud of loneliness drifting over me every time I perform poorly in any of my STEM courses, or [the fact that] I am the only black woman in a computer science course, or I am the only woman in my internship’s software development team.”

Another computer science student, Sarah Khimjee ’19, said that the number of female students compared to male students in her computer science classes are significantly different. There is an odd dynamic in her classes, although perhaps not alarming.

Khimjee has noticed that the male students are more nonchalant in the classroom, whereas women “will ask more questions and be more respectful toward the professor.”

One of the major issues is encouraging young women that they have the same opportunities to be successful in a STEM field.

Khimjee, a Posse scholar, said that “one person from my posse, even

though he is a male, is in computer science, and he is very helpful.”

Robinson also expressed her gratitude toward the vast resources that are available to women and minorities, especially for students in the STEM field. “Luckily, through programs like Girls Who Code and National Society for Black Engineers, I am able to have a more positive outlook on being in STEM. I have grown with my community of colored and women engineers. It’s with this support group that we are able to become the change that we hope to see in the world.”

According to Robinson, Girls Who Code is a “non-profit organization that provides high school girls with a summer immersion program to introduce them to the technology industry and teach them the fundamentals of computer science.” And while outside resources like these exist, there are not many of those specific resources here at Brandeis designed to empower women in STEM, which would have been useful for KleinStern’s first tough year.

The people interviewed for this article, all being women from different ethnic backgrounds, have agreed that at Brandeis, there is certainly the space and a welcoming environment to be successful in the STEM field. Nonetheless,

one of the major issues that they all voiced having trouble with is the lack of representation. To put it succinctly, the way Mendez did, the hope is to “see more women in the field”—not only working in labs or designing their own inventions, but also teaching at higher learning institutions.

Khimjee shared the opinion.

“It’s really important for young women and girls to know that there are older women that are killing it in the fields they want to be in. It inspired me to see people that are doing things that I want to do in the fields that I want to be pursuing. That’s important for every field, but especially in a field like computer science, I would like to be someone that young girls can look up to.”

The primary way to empower young women from an early age is through education. Khimjee founded the Brandeis chapter of the UN campaign Girl Up at Brandeis, which increases awareness and raises funds to empower young girls in five different thirdworld countries with the power of education.

It may be a slow process, but it is important to increase representation in both the student body and faculty—especially when the Brandeis student gender distribution favors women.

A quick fix for cleaner dorms

By Mia Edelstein editor

Among the laundry list of things that are missing from Brandeis dorms, there is one thing that is actually an easy fix: communal vacuums.

With the daily wear and tear that dorm rooms receive, vacuuming them seems like a no brainer. Some of us have dustbusters, but even those are only good for small messes. And a dustbuster can’t tackle anything in suites, which are large and can usually register parties, making them more inclined to be dirty.

No one wants to be hunched over a hand vacuum, barely making a dent in the dirt, when you

could easily clean the mess by full-size vacuum in a matter of minutes.

However, buying such a vacuum is cost prohibitive for students.

Additionally, no one in college would vacuum all that frequently—once a month is my guess, once per week for the hyper-clean among us. So barely anyone at this school owns a vacuum because it’s a ridiculous investment.

Even if students were to buy vacuums, where would they store them at year’s end? Most students use a storage service rather than haul all of their belongings back home. Standard storage boxes don’t fit vacuums, and you have to pay a fee to store any exceptionally large objects. It is in no one’s best interest to have their own

vacuum.

But it is in Brandeis’ best interest for us to vacuum our floors. The more often that they’re cleaned, the less often that Brandeis will have to replace the carpet because it’s in disrepair. This is also an important life skill. Once we graduate and move on to our own apartments, it’s no longer acceptable to have your floor feel more like the outdoors you’ve tracked in than carpet. If we begin to get in the habit of vacuuming our first year, we’ll have some of the cleanest homes post-graduation.

I would love to occasionally vacuum my floor. But I never do because I don’t have access to a real vacuum and instead let the dirt and crumbs and turf pellets sink deeper into my carpet until

Facilities cleans my room in May after I move out.

Logistically, this poses some challenges, but not insurmountable ones: Where do you store the vacuum? How does Brandeis ensure the vacuums aren’t stolen?

To combat some of these issues, vacuums could be stored in facilities closets. One way to hold students accountable for the vacuum is to have a swipe system of taking it out. Maybe the vacuum is locked in the closet via a swipe so that you must swipe your Brandeis ID in order to unchain it from the wall. As the CA on call makes their rounds, they could even make sure that all present vacuums are locked up at night to make sure that no one is skirting the system by leaving the vacu-

ums unlocked.

If Brandeis invests in one vacuum per floor of each building, it would avoid the problem of students breaking them while taking them up and down the stairs, thereby lengthening the life of each vacuum. We have a communal kitchen. We have a communal hall lounge. So why not a communal hall vacuum?

It’s not the end of the world if we work on the honor system and simply take the vacuum when we need it and return it promptly. After all, we are all adults. Brandeis will have to trust us not to steal from the facilities closets, to handle the vacuums with care, and to return them. So we need to step up to the plate and embrace our status as responsible adults.

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 weeks issue! Submit to eic@thebrandeishoot.com Have a piece you want published? Submit it to us at zpschwar@ 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.

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.

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

To learn more, send us an e-mail at join@ brandeishoot.com, or visit our website http://brandeishoot.com/join.

CONNECT phone • (781) 330-0051 online • brandeishoot.com twitter • twitter.com/thebrandeishoot facebook • facebook.com/thebrandeishoot

14 The Brandeis Hoot

FEATURES

Poll reveals student hesitations

RESULTS, from page 1

results, the answer to this is yes.

Further, there exist correlations between how likely students are to express their opinions and how they politically identify, as well as why students hesitate to share opinions and how they politically identify.

Poll results were collected in various locations across campus, including the Goldfarb Library, Shapiro Campus Center and the Admissions bus stop. Polls were also distributed to groups of athletes, in a few classrooms, including two journalism classes, a politics class and a sociology class as well as posted on various Facebook pages.

graphs by charlotte aaron/the hoot

The “Willingness of Students to Share their Political Opinions” graph makes it clear that there is a large percentage of the student body that does not always feel comfortable sharing their political opinions on campus—a concern for an academic institution that encourages open dialogue among its students.

While 69 percent of the student body will more often than not, if not always, share their opinions, 27 percent of the student body usually will not share and four percent of the student body never shares, according to the poll.

To further break down this data, the correlation between the willingness of students to express political opinions and their political identifications was examined. *Consult Graph A The main focus of the “Willingness of Students to Express Political Opinions Based on Their Political Identifications” chart was to determine if there was, indeed, a correlation between how students politically identify and how willing they are to share opinions.

Specifically, we wanted to explore whether conservative students were less willing to share their opinions than students who had a more liberal identification, or an identification outside of traditional party lines.

In the collected data, students were asked to politically self-identify. While responses varied greatly, including responses such as “liberal/Democrat-ish (not too extreme)” and “conservative independent,” they were categorized into 10 main political groups, and four “other” categories.

The main political groups included the following: libertarian, socialist, Green Party, liberal, Democrat, moderate Democrat, independent, moderate Republican, conservative and Republican.

The non-political groups included international, other, do not know enough to identify and do not have a political identification.

From these 14-category responses, anyone who identified as “conservative,” “Republican” or “moderate Republican” was put into the “conservative” category. Students who identified as “liberal,” “Democrat” or “moder-

ate Democrat” were put into the “liberal” category. “Independents” maintained their own category, and all other political identifications were put into the “other” category.

The “Willingness of Students to Express Political Opinions Based on Their Political Identifications” chart summaries the data. Twenty-five percent of conservative students were willing to share their opinions, and 75 percent were not willing to share their opinions on campus. These responses are drastically different from those of “liberal” and “other” students who will share their opinions 75 percent of the time and keep quiet only 25 percent of the time.

It is notable that while students who identified as “independent” were willing to share 67 percent of the time—significantly more than conservative students—they were almost 10 percent more likely to not share than “liberals” and “other” students.

To further explore this, we asked students why they don’t share their opinions on campus.

The provided response options included: “I don’t want my peers to judge me,” “I don’t want my professors to judge me,” “I don’t want to be verbally attacked” and “I do not hesitate to share my opinions.” Students also had the option of writing in their own responses.

When we correlated student political affiliations with why students hesitated to share opinions, a few different trends became apparent.

Conservative students are significantly more likely to be concerned about judgment from their professors than their more liberal peers, while being the least likely group to respond that they “do not hesitate” to share opinions. Additionally, all students, especially conservative students, are concerned about being verbally attacked.

In a similar analysis looking at why students are hesitant to share opinions depending on willingness to share, it is clear that as students become less and less willing to share, they are increasingly concerned about verbal attacks and being judged by their professors and less concerned about judgment from peers. *Consult Graph B While peer judgment, professor judgment and verbal attacks were all provided as possible responses for students, 21 percent of students wrote in their own responses in the “other” category. Within these responses, there were many

October 7, 2016

Admin. urges students to speak freely

By Zach Cihlar editor

“I think in the past year or two, most college campuses have become far more politicized,” said President Ron Liebowitz during an interview with The Brandeis Hoot.

As an experienced university president, Liebowitz has witnessed firsthand the change in student body demographics and the shifting political culture within the college and university setting. He served 11 years in the position at Middlebury College in Vermont before starting the same position at Brandeis in July of this year.

Even though Liebowitz is relatively new to the political dynamic of Brandeis’ student body, the large presence of individuals who identify as left-leaning on the political spectrum does not surprise him. In fact, he said, college and university campus cultures generally lean toward being liberal.

As president of Middlebury, Liebowitz noticed a greater engagement of students in political issues in recent years, although he admitted that at Middlebury, this engagement wasn’t as exaggerated as it is at Brandeis. The increased politicization of college campuses affects the format of political debate by creating an atmosphere of polarization, where discomfort and confrontation can arise over dissenting opinions. Therefore, Liebowitz concluded that he was not greatly surprised by the data gathered from The Hoot’s poll quantifying students’ general hesitation to express their political views.

Though unsurprised, Liebowitz admitted the data proved a little disappointing. The goal of colleges and universities across the nation, he explained, is to build diversity within the student body so that students can experience, interact with and challenge different opinions in order to formulate and reshape their own. Uniformity of common themes.

The most common “other” response, with 31 percent of students who wrote in responses answering this way, was some variation of “I don’t know enough, so it’s more productive to listen.”

Some of these responses included statements such as, “I don’t feel like I know enough to defend my points of view.”

The second most common “other” response from 22 percent of students who wrote in responses was some variation of “I don’t want to offend someone.”

“The people on campus censor others in ways that may be too much. I never know if I’m right [or] am saying the right things.

I don’t want to offend people,” wrote one student concerned about offending peers.

While 22 percent of the 20 percent of students who responded to the “other” section is small, it is significant that multiple students took the time to write that offending their peers was a major concern of theirs—one that prevented them from sharing their own opinions on campus.

Other categories that developed out of the “other” category include, “I don’t want to be confrontational,” “My political beliefs are personal,” “It’s not worth it” and “I don’t care.”

While this is just part one of data analysis, as next week’s edition will contain addition-

opinions and hesitancy to share dissent harm the achievement of this educative goal. “That’s what is a little bit disappointing about these polls,” he admitted. “If so many are holding back, then that’s not fulfilling the mission.”

Many universities have faced similar halts in political discourse, according to Liebowitz.

Various colleges and universities across the nation have taken up initiatives to respond to and combat the increasingly restrictive climate of discussion in order to pursue expanded communication and a greater, more beneficial form of debate. Most notably, the University of Chicago rejected the “safe space” platform of discussion as part of their free speech initiative, inviting students to openly discuss thoughts and issues without the hesitancy of causing discomfort, offense or confrontation to another student, according to the University of Chicago’s email to the student body.

The general trend is that other universities are becoming aware of what Liebowitz called the “shortcomings in how discourse is shaped” as well. Many, in fact, have responded to these shortcomings in the form of task forces designed to address issues with dialogue.

Liebowitz and the administration have likewise looked into a responsive task force, which intends to look into the umbrella idea of free speech in the context of a campus setting. The task force would host discussion between the administration, faculty, staff and students and seek to implement new plans intended “to really enhance the quality of debate and discussion for the purposes of education.”

“More is better,” Liebowitz said of dialogue in the student body and the mission of the task force.

“I think holding back on speech is the antithesis, really, of what liberal arts education is all about. So therefore, hopefully there will be a lot of discussion as to how far one

goes to allow free speech.” “[We] need to continue developing ways for us to communicate with each other and to support open intellectual discourse on all these topics,” Dean of Students Jamele Adams said in an email to The Hoot.

Overcoming the general hesitancy to express political views also begins at the individual level.

Students should learn and build resilience to discomfort and offense in political conversations, said Leibowitz. The administration wants to achieve an environment where the expression of a minority opinion is valuable to all the parties involved, both dissenting and concurring. The environment created by this practiced resilience allows for potentially offensive comments to be accepted “in stride as part of the education” of both the listener and the speaker, according to Liebowitz.

Liebowitz also noted that frequently offensive comments arise due to ignorance rather than malice, which explains the importance of debate and discussion in informing students of potentially offensive language and topics. Yet the administration does not condone hate speech, and Liebowitz said that in conversation it should be called on and reproached.

Nevertheless, the individual environment fostered by students, as detailed by Liebowitz, requires steadfast debaters who remain unshaken by factually based dissenting opinions and who will inform one another about reality-based opinions, Liebowitz said.

Overall, Liebowitz suggests, “I don’t think silencing individuals is the way to go. I think we have to build an environment where people are free to speak and build their own resilience.” He continued, “I think students need not be protected as much as some would want to be protected. It tarnishes and erases the overall depth and quality of an education one can See ADMIN., page 15

graph a

graph b

al charts, commentary from Brandeis professors and continued commentary from students, this initial data is revealing of a political climate on campus that is not conducive to students sharing ideas openly.

If those with opinions most differing from the norm are too afraid to speak, how are meaningful discussions to be had? If students are concerned about

being verbally attacked, how can we create an environment where students feel comfortable enough to share?

As the Features Section continues to investigate this issue, we hope the Brandeis community reflects on this data and uses it not only as a starting point to change political culture on campus, but as a conversation starter—a reason to start speaking.

October 7, 2016

The Brandeis Hoot

Admin. responds to poll ADMIN., from page 14

receive.”

“I find it unfortunate that we speak less and less face to face as people, and it seems evident that comfort in expressing ourselves digitally is further limited by the threat of online ridicule for ‘saying’ something that might be considered hostile,” Adams added.

The goal of all these responses, according to Liebowitz, is to achieve a political tone that is “as open as possible.” Brandeis’ president endeavors for open debate where every participant understands the context of the opposing political beliefs and builds arguments based on solid facts that support their own view. Qualitative debate such as fact-based arguments are crucial to achieving an educational environment of political discussion. In other words, the administration desires debate that conducts speech according to the purposes of the university.

Liebowitz mentioned that dealing with dissenting or clashing political opinions is a skill required for the world after college.

Students should learn to refute challenges to their opinions, challenge the opinions of others and also learn how to push through the discomfort that contrasting political views sometimes generates. Students acquire these skills through communication available during college. “The whole idea

of spending four years at a place like this with smart people is to engage ideas and challenge one’s own thinking,” Liebowitz said.

In this way, access to uninhibited discussion prepares students for interactions of any kind outside of Brandeis, where, demographically speaking, political views are less uniform than in a campus setting like Brandeis.

With the current state of politics during this unconventional election year, there is even more extreme polarization between supporters of each candidate both in the greater voting public and in the campus setting. Because of this, it is an important year for expanded intellectual discussion on politics, mentioned Liebowitz.

“The political season, with all of its challenges on the national stage, provides ample ingredients for such conversations to happen.

Hopefully we will continue to utilize these moments as opportunities to exemplify what it might sound like to have spaces where dialogue—difficult, complex or compounded—can occur safely,” Adams stated.

“Some of these spaces have presented themselves through programming, ‘teach-ins’ and intimate discussion forums. No single one of us is more important than all of us; therefore we must be intentional in our desire to shape our house, while remaining committed to our mission and vision,” said Adams.

FEATURES 15

Diversity of ideas poll results: student responses

By Albert Reiss editor

Brandeis is famous for having a robust, politically aware student body. Conversations regarding the Middle East, the American election and other sensitive political topics are common place on campus, in and out of the classroom. A recent survey by The Brandeis Hoot reveals results that these conversations are limited, as a large portion of the student body is not comfortable sharing their opinions.

“I think the reason that some students feel uncomfortable is because Brandeis has very liberal stances, and I feel that most students have a narrow viewpoint and sometimes if you veer off of that you feel afraid to speak out because you fear being judged,” Sydney Glazer ’20 said.

Glazer was not the only student who cited the liberal campus as a source of discomfort in sharing political opinions.

While 64 percent of the campus does identify as some degree of liberal, that leaves 36 percent identifying as either independent or conservative or as aligning with other party’s political views, according to the poll results.

“I think that a lot of people generally don’t like to talk about political issues just because it is

a rule of thumb. A lot of people don’t feel comfortable talking about these topics because they won’t be able to see a person the same way again,” Stephen Rosselli ’20 said.

“I think especially when we talk about the election during class a lot of people have very strong opinions, and it’s difficult to express an opinion without getting into a heated argument about it … people are very passionate about their views,” Glazer said.

Discomfort with sharing political opinions also extends to the classroom, according to Glazer.

This is especially true for social science and humanities classes.

When asked during interviews how students felt approaching political topics such as the upcoming election, students indicated feeling even more hesitant than normal to express views.

“I don’t want my peers or professors to judge me. I tend to keep that to myself because of the political climate that surrounds Brandeis,” Glazer said. The liberal nature of Brandeis’ campus climate can be hard to combat especially for students who may not see completely eye to eye with the candidate’s viewpoints.

“Even if you are not for Hillary, that is an opinion that is against the consensus. The general opinion is that she is the best, and she is the greatest,” says Roselli.

Roselli noted that in one of his economics classes, his professor brings up many policies supported by the Obama administration and seems to favor them. “I know that in my high school my teachers tried to be as apolitical as possible, especially if you are talking about politics, or history, or anything of that sort,” Roselli said.

This is important so that students are given the facts instead of any sort of political opinions, Roselli said.

“I think conversations are sometimes one-sided, and you don’t really get the other viewpoint a lot,” Glazer said when asked how the climate of political discussion affects her academic experience.

In particular, Glazer noted how in one of her politicas classes, they “discuss this kind of material, and it tends to always veer to one side, and you never get to hear the other opinion. I would want to have a more well-rounded discussion.

If people weren’t afraid to speak their political opinions, I think that could be achieved.”

Yet having come from an environment not nearly as liberal as Brandeis, Glazer has noted a change in her political views. “I come from a conservative town, so coming to Brandeis it has definitely changed my opinion on some topics, but in a good way,” she said.

On the topic of Israel, what actions are you looking for the next president to take?

Leading up to the 2016 presidential election, conservative and liberal Brandeis students will be prompted with a weekly question.

Below are their responses.

By Tal Richtman ’20 special to the hoot

Last week, Israel and the world lost one of the greatest leaders we had; the last of the giants, the ninth president of Israel, Shimon Peres.

Besides taking roles of Prime Minister (twice), Israel’s President between 2007 and 2014 and many others, in recent years Peres was a splendid ambassador for Israeli innovation. He took part in many international conferences and economic forums at which he energetically promoted the Israeli technology industry.

Both U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton arrived in Israel to respect Peres in his last journey. The warm relationship between Peres and the two presidents is evidence for the strong relationship between the two nations.

In 2012, President Obama pre-

photo from wikipedia.org

sented Peres with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.

It is not a secret that since the foundation of Israel in 1948, the U.S. has been its biggest ally. The U.S. Congress has placed considerable importance on the maintenance of a close and supportive relationship. The main expression of Congressional support for Israel has been foreign aid. Since 1985, the U.S. has provided nearly $3 billion in grants annually to Israel.

U.S.-Israel relations are not only financial-aid-based but also reflect a strong cooperation in science and technology. This cooperation is broad and includes American aid, intelligence sharing and joint military exercises.

One example of their strategic relationship is the joint development of the Arrow Anti-Ballistic Missile Program, designed to intercept and destroy ballistic mis-

siles.

As an Israeli, a week after my nation’s loss and my own personal loss, I’m thinking of what Peres would expect the next U.S. president to maintain in the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

I have no doubt that Peres, who was described by academics as a prophet of Israel and a technological superpower, would expect the next president to increase the share of knowledge between the countries.

The cooperation between the two in developing new technologies will suggest a better future.

“Science, innovation and peace are our goal, and they must be there for all, not just Israel—all the nations of the region should benefit. I believe that everyone has the potential to become a scientist, and Israel must strive toward this,” Peres said.

What is left after his passing is his vision. Peres believed in the power of science and engineering to move humanity toward a better future.

Obama well described Peres’ legacy in his eulogy: “He knew, better than the cynic, that if you look out over the arc of history, human beings should be filled not with fear but with hope. I’m sure that’s why he was so excited about technology—because for him, it symbolized the march of human progress … It’s why he believed in miracles—because in Israel, he saw a miracle come true.”

The next U.S. president should remember this vision of Peres and should support Israel-U.S. cooperation in science and technology.

By Iona Feldman ‘17 & Guy Mika ‘17

brandeis students for justice in palestine

For the cause of Palestinian freedom, there is seldom much hope to be found in U.S. presidential elections, and this one is no different. Both major party nominees met with Benjamin Netanyahu last week, hoping to outcompete each other in their support for his oppressive policies (the most extreme in Israeli history).

Trump unapologetically draws parallels between his advocacy for the further militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and Israel’s apartheid wall, while Clinton has vocally promised to prioritize suppression of the grassroots Palestinian civil society led-Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement.

Occasionally, the United States utters limited condemnation of Israel’s illegal settlement project in the West Bank, as the State Department did on Wednesday.

However, the U.S. never fails to continue providing Israel with enormous amounts of military aid, three weeks ago increasing it to $38 billion over the course of 10 years.

There are those who continue to hope that the U.S. government can one day facilitate some sort of peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. But such an analysis stems from a flawed understanding of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

As Hillary Clinton stressed to Netanyahu last week, “A strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States because we share

overarching strategic interests,” according to The Guardian. Indeed, Israel serves as a junior partner in advancing the U.S.’s imperialist aims, and any genuine U.S. government action to protect Palestinian human rights is therefore disarmed from the outset.

If we want anything more than that, we need to carry our conversation beyond this election. We need to continue to organize in solidarity with Palestinians, partly through boycotting and divesting from the corporations most involved in their oppression. But also, we need to continue working towards building a mass anti-war and anti-imperialist movement, one that would match in scale the demonstrations of the Bush years.

Then, we could bring people together to fight not only against apartheid in Palestine, but against the U.S. drone war in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia. We could support Syrian refugees and welcome them into this country.

We could work against U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war in Yemen. And of course, we could fight against the U.S.’s domestic imperialist policies against black people in our cities, indigenous people protecting their water and people running away from the mayhem that U.S. policy has created in Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras.

It is highly unlikely that the next president will do the right thing on any of these closely interconnected issues, so it will be our duty to continue organizing in solidarity.

16 The Brandeis Hoot

WEEK IN PHOTOS

October 7, 2016

photo by allison plotnike/the hoot

photo courtesy brandeis democrats

former ma governor michael dukakis visited brandeis

cellist joshua gordon at slosberg

photo by karen caldwell/the hoot

slice n ‘deis tennis tournament

photo courtesy tina nguyen

photo by allison plotnik/the hoot