The Brandeis Hoot

VOL 7, NO. 3

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

B R A N D E I S U N I V E R S I T Y ' S C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R

Program cuts to be announced this month

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor

The Brandeis 2020 Committee will announce its proposed academic cuts on Feb. 24, the committee’s chair Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe told Thursday’s faculty meeting.

The 2020 Committee has three major criteria for deciding which academic programs should remain intact: Programs needed in order to maintain Brandeis' standing as a respectable research and liberal arts

university, programs that distinguish Brandeis from other universities, and programs at which Brandeis excels.

"The problem is that one could argue everything we might want to cut would fall under that criteria," Jaffe said, adding that student demand and interest in programs is also being taken into account.

Chairs of departments that the committee is considering phasing out will be notified on Sunday, and the committee will meet with members of

WA LT H A M , M A S S .

UNION JUDICIARY NIXES ARONIN

each School between Tuesday and Thursday of next week to discuss the effect the proposals could have on the school.

Jaffe reassured the meeting that tenured-track faculty of the phased out departments will be reassigned to other departments, rather than having their contract ended; however, contract faculty of the phased out departments will not have their contracts renewed.

"I'm not going to sit here and try to sugar coat it for you See CUTS, p. 2

Vote to remove unanimous

BY NATHAN KOSKELLA Editor

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

MEET THE PRESS: New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Ethan Bronner spoke about the Middle East on Tuesday.

Bronner discusses impartiality in Israel

BY JON OSTROWSKY Staff

New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Ethan Bronner spoke to the Brandeis community Tuesday about the necessity of objective reporting in Israel, and the difficulties reporters face in pursuit of it, in the International Lounge of the Usdan Student Center.

Bronner explained to his audience how he tries to report on two opposing narratives, Jewish-Israeli vs. Palestinian, in an unbiased manner in his lecture sponsored by the Schusterman Center for Isreali Studies and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism titled “Covering the Middle East in 2010: A Report from the Field.”

When covering events in the region, Bronner said he hears both points of view but that much of the conflict and controversy is due to misunderstand-

THIS WEEK:

ing and an unwillingness to listen.

Bronner, who also served as Middle East bureau chief for The Boston Globe in the 1990s, explained that throughout his experience there, he had tried to write a neutral view.

“In a world which tends traffic in black and white, I traffic in grey," he said. "What seems to you to be true may not be true to someone else.”

“The problem is that I have two completely contradicting narratives,“ Bronner said. “You have to find a new way to describe things that doesn’t offend people.”

Professor Troen, director of the Shusterman Center for Israeli studies, introduced Bronner by encouraging the concept of listening to all sides of the conflict in Israel.

“What we like is a multiplicity of voices,” Professor Troen said.

The correspondent has recently come under fire from some in the media over the fact that he continues to write on the conflict while one of his sons has joined the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). But Bronner insisted, See BRONNER, p. 5

The Union Judiciary (UJ) voted to remove former Union Secretary Diana Aronin ’11 from office Sunday following last week's impeachment trial.

The ruling by the UJ found in favor of the senate which claimed Aronin “willfully corrupted and violated the duties set forth to her in the Constitution."

According to the Union Constitution, in order for Aronin's removal to be finalized, Union President Andy Hogan '11 had to formally announce the new Union vacancy, and the special election to fill the post will be held Tuesday.

Aronin's conviction followed the Jan. 24 UJ trial where Aronin presented three separate ar-

guments defending her refusal to call a referendum vote for the Senate proposal to create a midyear senator position.

Aronin had argued that her noncompliance with the Union Constitution was justified because one of the Senate sponsors was no longer an undergraduate by the time she could call a vote last spring and because she was ordered by Hogan to wait to call a vote until this spring’s Constitutional Review Committee.

The court dismissed each argument in its ruling, writing, "We disagree with Respondent’s first argument, find the second to be prima facie [on first appearance] valid yet ultimately critically uninvolved and fundamentally flawed, and expressly reject the third."

Storebeck Pimentel to assist in pres. search

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor

The executive search firm Storebeck Pimentel & Associates will aid the Brandeis Presidential Search Committee in its quest to find the next university president, the committee announced via their Web site Monday.

The committee will be directly working with the firm's managing partner Shelly Storebeck and partner Chuck Bunting.

Prof. Len Saxe (NJES), chair of the subcommittee charged

Our next president?

Impressions, page 16

with finding a search firm said the committee had looked at "lots of great firms," but rested on Storebeck Pimentel because of its experience working with small liberal arts research universities and colleges such as Wellesly College, Swarthmore College and Rice University, Saxe said.

Storebeck Pimentel's experience working with the Jewish Theological Seminary shows "an understanding of the Jewish Community," Saxe said.

Storebeck has also been involved in previous Brandeis

Hooked on tap Arts, Etc. page 10

Presidential searches, assisting with the query that brought current President Jehuda Reinharz to the post.

The search firm will facilitate the university in strategizing its presidential search, marketing Brandeis to prospective presidents, soliciting new presidents and vetting candidates.

According to the search committee Web site, they will be announcing presidential finalists by the end of February.

"Now the presidential search is in full gear," Saxe said.

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February 5, 2010

Study Abroad announces new summer program in The Hague

BY JON OSTROWSKY

rights,” Gaskins said.

The deadline for applications is March 26, and students who apply before the deadline will be notified on a rolling admissions process. The program costs $8,500, including tuition, housing, local transportation and health insurance, according to the Brandeis Study Abroad Web site.

The two courses will be taught concurrently and the fourth and fifth weeks of the course will be spent in an intensive workshop with lawyers from the International Criminal Court. Class time before the workshop will include preparation and meetings with judges, according to Gaskins.

“There will be a lot of hands on work during that time [of the workshop and] time also to see the area, which is historically very interesting, [and] culturally very interesting,” he said.

The two courses will count for eight credits and can count for the “international experience” component of the International and Global Studies program as well as the required internship for the Legal Studies program. The courses can also count as electives for IGS and Legal Studies and “The Spirit of International Law”

Staff

The Office of Study Abroad is now accepting applications to The Hague Summer Program, a new six-week opportunity that combines studying international law both in theory and in practice at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands.

Students enrolled in the program will live at the University of Leiden, take classes with Prof.

Richard Gaskins (LEG) and make frequent visits to The Hague to participate in workshops with lawyers and judges from the ICC. “I think it will be an exhilarating experience for everybody to meet the legal experts and practitioners who are trying to make international law a reality,” Gaskins said.

The program, sponsored by the Office of Global Affairs and the Office of Study Abroad, will run from May 30 through July 10 and consists of two courses: “The Spirit of International Law,” and “Advocacy in the International Criminal Court.”

“The goal is to introduce students to how law comes together with global politics and human

PHOTO COURTESY Alyssa Grinberg

ABROAD: View of a Dutch avenue in The Hague.

will count as one course for the Politics major.

The administration is seeking to build on Brandeis’ history and past experiences in the city.

“Overall Brandeis has a long relationship in The Hague and

we are excited to offer this new program for undergraduates to be with a Brandeis faculty member abroad taking advantage of this possibility,” Director of Study Abroad J. Scott Van Der Meid said. “I think this will be a great

beginning to more experiential learning opportunities abroad that bring our students and faculty together.”

Gaskins acknowledged that with a new program, there will be challenges in its first semester.

Union Election Results

Class of 2012

East Quad

Charles River

Union Judiciary

155 votes | Abby Kulawitz

55 votes | Melissa Skolnik

14 votes | Abraham Berin

116 votes | Ryan Martin

92 votes | Josh Basseches

14 votes | Abstain

1 vote | Abstain

100 votes | Deena Glucksman

15 votes | Abstain

74 votes | Michael Skarloff

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Brandeis joins Haitian relief

BY TRISHNA METRA Staff

Brandeis students have joined the relief effort to assist in rebuilding Haiti after the destruction caused by last month’s earthquake, which affected more than three million people.

The earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12 killed more than 200,000 people and left many more homeless and in urgent need of medical care.

Brandeis Haiti Relief Effort (BHRE), the official organizations students have set up will divide contributions among three organizations: Partners for Health, Empowering Through Education (ETE) Camp and Hope for Haiti. The main goal besides raising money is to “bring awareness of not only the poverty in Haiti, but of its culture too,” Nathaniel Rosenblum ’10 said.

Partners for Health will help provide long term health care and Hope for Haiti will assist in funding a recovery project to continue assisting those affected by the earthquake in the coming months.

Shaina Gilbert ‘10, a native from Haiti, helped launch ETE camp this past summer and the funds raised through BHRE will make it possible for the camp to grow by admitting more students than last year.

The students have established a steering committee that oversees a set of smaller subcommittees to focus on either fundraising or educational efforts within the community. Both the Brandeis students and staff have been working together to bring awareness about the situation and help to those in Haiti who have suffered.

One committee is designed to oversee events that take place here. One event specified for raising money is the Black Tie Affair, to take place on May 1.

“It is a good way to publicize Haitian culture through food and dance, while also fundraising,” said JV Souffrant ’13, chair of the Black Tie Affair committee.

This event is geared more towards faculty, staff, and alumni of the community rather than students, yet all will be invited to attend Students are planning to hold a silent auction in

coordination with the Black Tie Affair. BHRE is currently planning the event and more details will be announced soon.

Bowling for Haiti and benefit concerts are also lined up.

Souffrant is also planning on incorporating the campus’ underground Greek life into fundraising efforts.

Staff and students alike are working together to help bring relief to Haiti. As Rosenblum said, “The people in Haiti need our help and their need will only increase as the cameras begin to leave and rebuilding begins.”

Rosenblum did volunteer work in Haiti over winter break and returned just three days prior to the earthquake. Along with Shaina Gilbert, he has helped coordinate all the efforts of BHRE. All checks for BHRE can be made out to Brandeis University and addressed to: Brandeis University Mr. Lucas Malo Department of Community Service, MS 203 415 South St. Waltham, MA 02453 PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

ADVER TIS E M E N T

Students take up Carter’s challenge, cross borders

BY LEAH FINKELMAN Staff

Students Crossing Boundaries (SCB) is beginning another year of pursuing personal experiences to help students understand and engage in international dialogue about conflict.

SCB was originally created in 2007 after former President Jimmy Carter spoke at Brandeis and challenged students to experience the IsraeliPalestinian conflict firsthand with the hope that it would give them insight to both sides of the conflict.

A year later, in February 2008, eleven Brandeis students traveled to Israel and the West Bank. After the success of the first trip, SCB has expanded to become a fellowship program centered on the Israel-Palestinian Territories and the United StatesMexico borders. Fellowships are student-driven, and last nearly a full calendar year.

During the spring semester, participants are chosen for the program and begin to prepare academically for the road ahead. Over the summer, students travel to the bor-

ders of either Israel and Palestine or Mexico and the United States. While there, they receive a stipend for living expenses provided by a fund set up by Carter while they intern at a local organization of their choice.

Previous students have chosen organizations ranging from Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, to working against housing demolitions in Palestinian territories.

During the fall semester, students use what they have learned to incite discussions on campus and to educate the rest of the Brandeis community. Ten past SCB participants erected a cardboard checkpoint in Shapiro Campus Center this fall to represent the Israeli-Palestinian and United StatesMexican borders. They attached maps, photographs and stories to the checkpoint, and shared their summer experiences with other students in a question-andanswer session.

As part of the Israeli-Palestinian exchange, students from Al-Quds University, a Palestinian university, visited Brandeis last fall to promote the ultimate goal of understanding through knowledge.

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February 5, 2010

LouFind improves library online search

BY REBECCA CARDEN Special to The Hoot

Library and Technology Services has released a beta version of LouFind, a hightech and progressive way to search the Brandeis library catalog online.

This new search engine is more like Brandeis Scholar, an LTS tool for searchin through academic journal articles, than the older Louis Online Catalog that it may one day replace. It allows its users to categorize and refine search results, and to narrow down the books that they can look through for any given search. It also has a link to export book information to systems like RefWorks, Endnote and Zotero for automatic MLA and APA citations. Finally, it gives users the chance to tag certain books as favorites.

But the service’s most innovative new function is the ability to text a book’s location to its users’ phones. Students will no longer have to write down long call numbers on tiny scraps of paper, but can instead search the library in satellite signal space.

“It might be the end of old catalog cards,” said Dave Wedaman, director for Research and Instruction at the library.

“We think it’s going to be more intuitive for the users. When you search you get more what I like to call contextual info,” he said. “[And] we would love to see everybody tagging things in our collection.”

The project was available for use in late December, and the library has started advertising for the new semester. Now it will be hard to miss the posters for the system up all over the library with the blurbs like “omg! text your call #’s!” flashing on the screen over the main Goldfarb computer cluster.

“We’re seeking feedback from the users,” said Tania Fersenheim, manager of Library Services and leader of a team that focused on the new technological aspects

of LouFind. “Our goal is to have LouFind be our main catalog. Louis will still be around, but it will be de-emphasized,” she said.

The LouFind Web site calls for community feedback. Students are encouraged to send messages to the system’s organizers, who will then respond.

Lois Widmer, associate director for eresearch and leader of the more public side of the project, explained, “The idea is that we can get suggestions and do something about them. Louis was more locked down.”

So far feedback seems positive. For example, Sarah Hartman, a staff member who works behind the counter in Goldfarb, said,

“I like it a lot. One of my favorite things about it, that you could not do with Louis, is that you can tell just by the initial entry whether something’s checked out. You don’t have to click on the call number.”

Students can access LouFind through a direct link on the Louis Online Catalog page or by going to loufind.brandeis.edu.

Union Secretary Aronin speaks out against her impeachment HOOT EXCLUSIVE

BY NATHAN KOSKELLA Editor

When Diana Aronin ’11 heard nearly two months ago that she had been impeached as Student Union secretary by the Senate, she was not caught in the act, but rather off guard.

“I was completely surprised, and I had no idea there was even a big deal,” she said, referring to the absence of a vote on the Senate’s earlier proposal for a Constitutional amendment allowing for the creation of a midyear senator post. The Union Judiciary unanimously orderd for her dismissal on those charges Sunday.

“When [former and since graduated Mods Senator] Jon Freed came to me in mid-September, about a proposal from the end of the year before, he himself didn’t follow protocol,” she said.

The Senate, however, unanimously took the view that she had “willfully” violated the Constitution and ignored the calling of a student body-wide referendum.

But Aronin said she and Union President Andy Hogan ’11, whose advice she had sought, did nothing deliberate at all.

“In Andy’s eyes, the fact that the midyears would not have a senator this year See ARONIN, p. 5

PHOTO BY Robbie Hammar/The Hoot

ON THE STAND: Former Union Secretary Diana Aronin ‘11’s counsel Deena Glucksman ‘11 argues her client’s case before the Union Judiciary at the impeachment trial last Sunday.

February 5, 2010

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Bronner speaks to students on journalism BRONNER (from p. 1)

despite the criticism, that he is able to stay impartial on Israeli current events and promised neutrality.

“Reporters are a subspecies of humanity,” he said. “I’m not very emotionally evolved in this conflict. If I were, I wouldn’t be reporting on it.”

When asked further about a potential bias from his experience as a Jewish reporter covering attacks in the region, Bronner told The Hoot, “The issue of objectivity of a reporter is something that interests people enormously and I understand that…To me, it’s very important to do it right."

"I’m not saying I’m flawless about it, but that part of it has never been that hard,” Bronner said.

Bronner explained in his speech that Israel is constantly in the news despite other long violent wars and conflicts in nations like Sudan and the Congo because “this land is holy to nearly four billion people.”

“It’s a dramatic place [with] dramatic stories on which there are many, many interpretations,” Professor Troen said.

Bronner said he believes it is easier for The Times to gain access to Israeli officials than other newspapers because of its prestige, adding that he has been able to interview and speak with Hamas political officials as well.

During last year's Gaza War, however, Bronner, who lives in West Jerusalem, was not allowed into the region to cover

the conflict, and The Times had to rely on a Gazan freelancer instead. Bronner expressed frustration that he was not allowed in for much of the war, calling the decision “immoral” and a “stupid thing to do.”

Bronner also discussed the United Nation's Goldstone Report written about the Gaza War, calling the report a “harsh discussion” of the Gaza War. But he added that, “there are things in it that are reasonable.”

Goldstone visited Brandeis in November to defend his report in a forum with former Israeli Ambassador Dore Gold.

His report on the Gaza War drew criticism from many Israelis because they argued it did not accurately address the crimes that Hamas had committed before the Gaza War, in addition to their acts during the conflict.

Referring to the current state of Israeli and Palestinian relations today, Bronner said that, “the single ray of hope that I see for this conflict is that the expectations are so low.”

Nadav Tamir, the Israeli consul-general in New England attended Bronner's lecture, and afterward told The Hoot he disagreed that there is little hope for Israelis and Palestinians to create peace in the future.

“I’m actually much more optimistic and I think there are many ingredients for moving forward between Israelis and Palestinians than we ever [have] had in the past,” Tamir said.

HOOT EXCLUSIVE

Aronin disillusioned with Union following impeachment ARONIN (from p. 4)

wouldn’t be a big deal,” she said, noting that they had never had one before.

She added the attacks from senators and others on campus took an assumption and attacked her for it.

“I was accused of hating midyears— there was no intent at all in my failure to call a vote, it was a mistake,” Aronin said.

The first time that another Union official had raised the lack of a vote to her was “at the last [executive] board meeting,” she said, “where Jenna [Rubin ’11, the executive senator,]…told me that I only needed to apologize to the Senate, and at the next meeting I did apologize.

The next thing I knew, Andy called and told me that after an executive session of the Senate I was impeached.”

Aronin believes that the saga of her impeachment and subsequent removal was at least partly based on personal, political motivations.

“The Senate needed a scapegoat— they wanted to show their power—and they found one in me,” she said, adding she was impeached after she and Hogan had offered to put the proposal up for a vote.

To compound on her suspicions, Aronin said that she was told by “at least four senators that they had wanted to vote no, but that they were convinced when Rubin claimed she had done all of her research.” Four would have been enough to avert Aronin’s two-thirds vote of impeachment, and the research, she said, was contrived.

“It shows the weakness of the Senate, that they could change their minds about this so easily, and if they really cared about midyears, they wouldn’t have pursued impeachment.”

Aronin noted that the midyears could possibly have been electing their very first senator in the winter elections this week.

When asked about the toll the trial and judgment had taken upon her, Aronin was upbeat.

“I’m fully OK with this: the process has taught me that the Student Union is not a functional group of people,” she said. “We’re supposed to be working together.”

“They impeached me for a mistake,” Aronin declared, “The Union is not what it was when I signed up.”

PHOTO BY Author in Lowercase/The Hoot

MEET THE PRESS: Ethan Bronner of the New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau.

PR strategies for academic cuts topic of faculty meeting CUTS (from p. 1)

Prof. Jerry Cohen (AMST) said he was concerned that the March deadline by telling you that contracts will be refor the cuts would be detrimental to the newed," he said. "They will not." university's recruitment for the class of Some professors present at the faculty 2014. meeting were concerned about the quick "If you've got bad news, why not wait pace at which the decisions will be made; until summer to announce it?" Cohen however, Jaffe said the proposals must be asked.

"I don't think we've discussed the announced on Feb. 24 in order to be preconsequences and wider ramifications– sented to the board of trustees at its next partially in terms of [public relations]– meeting on March 4. that this news Executive could bring."

Vice President But, Jaffe and Chief Opsaid "the board erating Officer of trustees Jeff Apfel told won't let us dethe faculty lay the deadthat the board line, despite of trustees is the admissions planning on cycle." restructuring Cohen also the univere x pressed sity's debt at concern about their March how the unimeeting. The - Prof. Jerry Cohen (AMST) versity would board will also make the andecide whethnouncement of er to dip into the academic the universicuts to "the outside world given our ty's reserve fund at the meeting as well. [public relations] track record."

"There is a general feeling on the Jaffe replied that the university will board that if they are going to advance "not make any smoke and mirrors when more money and if they are going to dip we announce it." into the reserve fund, they want to see a "There are aspects of the proposals commitment from us to save money and that we don't like but we can cast it as an live within our means," Apfel said. exciting turning point for the university Provost Marty Krauss also vouched for to refocus," he said.

"This is painful but the board's feelings. "There is a lot of will make us stronger, that's the story I skepticism on the board that we are comwill be trying to spin." mitted," she said.

I don’t think we’ve discussed the consequences and wider ramifications–partially in terms of [public relations]–that this news could bring

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February 5, 2010

Libraries— the times they are a-changing

BY CHRISSY CALLAHAN Editor

Imagine you’re doing research for a paper. Let’s say that you, like many of your Brandeis counterparts, are in a rush and don’t have time to fool around, zigzagging between the myriad of bookshelves, searching for that book in a haystack. Or, let’s say you’re a little research-shy and aren’t exactly sure where you should start the process.

You’d think that a busy college student such as yourself would take the easy way out, asking the circulation desk or reference librarians for help. You’d think that, rather than feel the need to be independent, you’d openly welcome the services around you offering help with research, directions and technical support. Yes, you would be apt to think all these things, but you’d be wrong.

According to Library and Technology Services (LTS) Director for Integrated Services Josh Wilson, of the nearly 1,800 people who walked through the Brandeis main library each day during the fall ’09 semester, only three percent asked for help of some sort—including basic and in depth research questions, Louis catalog questions and mere directional inquiries. Of that same group of people, only 20 percent checked out a book or equipment of some sort. The lack of student inquiries seems a bit puzzling, and is a topic Wilson and the rest of LTS are seeking to explain.

“If 90 percent of students walk through the doors and never ask for the kinds of help that libraries have offered over time, that says that something’s different,” he said. “And we need to understand it better and do something about it, really adapt ourselves to try to fit where students are.”

In spite of a revolution in the information landscape that’s posed some challenges for library employees—the digitization of research sources and the booming technology industry have forced librarians to change the way they think about and perform their jobs—it turns out that students don’t seem to be the least bit fazed. On the contrary, they embrace this revolution and the always-connected and self-sufficient lifestyle that comes along with it.

“Clearly students view themselves as being self-sufficient because the vast majority of them don’t ask for help,” Wilson said.

It used to be that reference

librarians were constantly bombarded with questions on finding in-house library books or on researching outside sources.

Nowadays, it seems we not only like to self-diagnose medically, but with our research as well, with on-the-go search engines such as Google making it all too easy for us to do our own work without relying on library staff members. Sure, they’re there to help in case we need them, but Brandeis students tend to use them only sparingly.

Such changes are hardly rendering Brandeis’ librarians obsolete; on the contrary, LTS workers are riding along with the digital wave, striving to be on the cusp of the latest technological advances. According to LTS Associate Director for Research and Instruction Karrie Peterson, library employees are trying to keep up with a varied group of library users—ranging from those who possess traditional library skills to those who are technology-savvy—and are seeking to catch up with the rapidly changing information landscape, all the while trying to figure out how to best serve a new generation of library users.

“Our [goal] is really to tailor services for this wide-ranging group when in fact its composition is always on the move,” she said.

As online resources such as journals and e-books threaten to overtake the traditional reading experience, and increasingly updated new technologies continue to help students perform their daily work, where does that leave traditional college library employees? And why, with all the resources available to them in the library, do most Brandeis students not even bother to consult professional help from our library’s employees? Students and LTS staff members sound off.

Self-sufficient students What better way to find out what students are thinking than going right to the source? Ten students in the library were polled at random for this article and out of the 10, only one said they frequently had difficulty finding their way around the library. The others gave varied explanations for why they tended not to ask for help while in the library. Some said they don’t ask for help finding books because they rarely take out books;

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

MEET THE PRESS: A Brandeis student studies in the library on the first floor of Goldfarb.

others said they didn’t need help because they felt the layout of the building was self-explanatory enough. Several students also said they didn’t need help with research because they had been previously exposed to such instruction before college.

Most of the students had only asked for help one or two times during their time at Brandeis and the majority of them had been satisfied with the help they did receive. Most of the students frequented the library on a regular basis, staying there to do homework or to study the majority of the time. A few of them

said they’d taken out books before.

This wave of independence might just relate to the way today’s college students grew up and the technology provided to them, Wilson said. After all, many of the new technologies over the past several years have allowed us to be independent and consequently, students expect the same experience in the library.

“They want things to work in a help-free environment; they don’t want to need help,” Wilson said.

As such, students don’t tend to

consult librarians for help finding their way around the library often, even though the layout is a bit complicated. One area where students can find assistance with directions is the Info Point.

Likening the Info Point to a concierge at the front of the building, Wilson portrayed this spot as the central location where students can find the answers to a variety of questions, ranging from how to find a book, to which reference librarians can help them with a specific question, to what other services in the library will help them best.

Surprisingly, students rarely ask

February 5, 2010

for help of the directional sort, though.

Alana Tillman ’10 said she frequents the library a couple of times a week to do her homework, explaining that she gets too distracted in her room. Tillman said she caught on fairly quickly to the layout of the building and has only asked for help a few times with research questions or technical support at the help desk.

Yael Katzwer ’12, on the other hand, finds the layout of the building to be intimidating at times. “It’s just, it’s so big. I feel like I can’t find anything. I know technically where I have to be, and I’m holding the map, and I still can’t get there,” she said. “So I end up wandering around for a really long time till either I find someone who can help me or I find it on my own, which takes forever.”

Wilson admitted to the library’s confusing layout, but said that LTS is working on making the interface more conducive to students asking questions.

Libraries then and now Ask any librarian and they’ll tell you that libraries have changed completely over the last 20 years. If you’ve ever discussed libraries with your parents, you’ve most likely heard the stories detailing how easy you have it and how they used to have to—wait, take a minute to catch your breath—scroll through boxes and boxes of card catalogs just to find a book. In this scenario, librarians seemed so relevant. Nothing was digital and everything was done by hand. In this not-so-distant past, human service was en vogue and digital assistance was a far-off thought.

But nowadays, it seems that nearly everything we need and do is available online, and so our library needs have changed right along with the resources libraries continue to provide us. Most of this probably won’t seem too new for college students who’ve grown up with at least a passing familiarity with and expectation for digitally-enhanced libraries. But for traditional library employees, the changing library landscape amounts to changes in the way they do their job and the skills they must develop to do it well.

Karrie Peterson oversees the library’s instruction program, including in-class University Writing Seminar instruction and managing subject liaisons— librarians who specialize in various areas. Peterson has spent the last nearly 12 years working as a college librarian and has witnessed the library landscape change rapidly and dramatically.

“The whole world of information is totally changing and libraries are changing too and how students are accessing their information is changing,” she said.

Understanding those changes, Josh Wilson said, is one goal of LTS employees: “We’ve worked extensively on trying to build a culture of assessment here in

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LTS, trying to get us thinking about gathering evidence on what we do and analyzing, really trying to look for insights.”

Wilson manages Integrated Services, the sector of the Brandeis main library that oversees the Help Desk, Media Services and Library Public Services (including the circulation desk, loans and returns, the info point and the info common).

Keeping up with the constantly changing needs of library users can often be similar to chasing after a moving target, Wilson said, and keeps LTS workers on their toes.

“We’re trying to be as flexible and nimble and adaptable as we can. So we’re trying to get our staff members able to do multiple, different kinds of things,” he said.

Resources: To use or not to use?

LTS offers many services to students to help make their library experience easier. There’s the circulation desk, the Info Point, the LTS Help Desk, library liaisons for research assistance and the Getz media lab, to name just a few.

Some services, such as the LTS Help Desk, are used much more frequently than others. Wilson said that the help desk—which provides technical support for computers and also offers help with LATTE and networking problems—typically experiences their customer service boom between the mid-morning hours and the early evening.

Jeremy Asch ’12, who works at the LTS Help Desk, cited stu-

dents’ most common problem as difficulty connecting to the wireless network. Although he’s in a service position, Asch said he has rarely asked for help of the directional sort during his time at Brandeis, citing only one instance where he needed assistance finding a book for a research paper last year.

Asch isn’t alone in this respect.

Only one of the students inter-

viewed for this article said they used the help services provided to them more than a few times during their time at Brandeis.

Figuring out why students don’t seem to ask the questions people assume they will ask is a main learning goal for Wilson and other LTS employees.

“They never ask those questions, not even the basic ones.

One of the things we need to do is understand why that is and what that means,” he said.

Who can really say why students don’t frequently ask for help finding books? Maybe they want to make their own mistakes and get lost on their own without the help of library employees. Or maybe it’s because navigating your way through the Dewey Decimal System is just a bit more self-explanatory than repairing your fried hard drive.

But what about research assistance? Why don’t students take advantage of research resources more often?

Any student who has had to write a research paper can relate to the frustration with pinpointing the perfect source. But even with all the research-based resources available to them, rather than ask for help, many students go it alone. Case in point: LTS has a service whereby students can chat 24 hours a day with a librarian, yet according to Wilson, these services are only used, on average, one to two times a day.

Explaning why they tend to go it alone when it comes to research, most of the students polled for this article cited a sense of comfort with the re-

search realm.

Hollis Viray ’10, for example, said she uses the library almost daily, visiting in between her classes to study since she lives off campus. Viray said she has occasionally asked for help while researching a particular topic, but not very often. She said she didn’t think the re-

Library LINKS Know Your Library: http://bollywood. unet.brandeis.edu/brandeis_web/lts/instructional_videos/knowyourlibrary.mov Catalogs and Indexes: http://bollywood. unet.brandeis.edu/brandeis_web/lts/instructional_videos/catalogsandindexes. mov Evaluating Information: http://bollywood.unet.brandeis.edu/brandeis_web/ lts/instructional_videos/EvaluatingInformation102309Streaming.mov search instruction she received her first year during a first-year seminar—LTS staff give research tutorials in UWS classes—wasn’t that helpful because “they were kind of talking about how to search for articles in the catalog and I feel like most people already know how to do that.”

Sean Norton ’12 says he uses the library almost daily, mostly to study. Norton rarely asks for help when in the library and like Viray, also felt that UWS research instruction didn’t necessarily teach him a new set of skills. He did say, however, that it did point out a few of the re-

sources Brandeis’ library has available.

Considering why students don’t ask for research help all too often, Peterson said, students “tend to be a little bit overconfident” in their ability to perform research properly.

“They’re not alone. I mean, most people are overconfident about their skills…I would say there’s a lot of satisfying going

on…because how do you know what you don’t know?” she said.

“If you’ve gotten a B+ on your paper, maybe you’re not aware of the research skills that you could learn if you consulted with a librarian.”

In other words, many students might possess enough research skills to get them through a particular assignment or class, but they might find themselves lost in a different situation.

This is why Peterson and her team strive to instill both short and long-term research skills in students, with the shortterm goal of getting students familiar enough with research so that they can get through a specific assignment. LTS’ online research guides—which offer both general research help and course-specific research assistance—also provide short-term help.

For the long-term, Peterson said her department is working with various academic departments to identify specific research skills necessary to be successful in that subject area’s career field. Peterson likened these skills to a dynamic, moving target: “The professional skills that people need to come away with [are similar to] a moving target so we’re trying to be in discussion with [various departments to pinpoint the set of] skills that they need when they leave here and how will we provide them.”

Developing lifelong research skills will assist students such as Shoshana Rosen- b a u m ’10, who might feel comfor table in one subject area but not in others. Rosenbaum said she usually doesn’t ask for help from library staff members while doing research because her professor usually offers any necessary assistance. But she also said that one’s research expertise depends very much on what topic you’re used to researching.

“It depends, I think, on your subject area,” she said. “I would have no idea how to use the legal section, for example.”

Like many other things in life, it’s all just a matter of variables.

8 The Brandeis Hoot

SPORTS

February 5, 2010

PHOTOS BY Jodi Elkin/The Hoot

BALLIN’: Left: Case Western guard Reid Anderson ‘11 (No. 3, right) drives up court against a Brandeis defender. Right: Brandeis forward Terrell Hollins ‘10 (No. 33, right) calls for the ball during Brandeis 70-52 victory last Friday.

Men’s basketball sweeps UAA play over the weekend

BY HANNAH VICKERS Editor

At the start of Sunday’s game against the Carnegie Mellon University Tartans, forward Terrell Hollins ’10 was 18 points away from becoming the 27th player in team history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. With less than five minutes left to play Hollins make a lay-up to grab his 1,000th and 1,001st points of his career, surpassing marc Peabody ’90 for the take over the 26th spot on the all-time scorers list.

Hollins, who has said in the past that personal achievements mean nothing without a team victory, got his wish when the Judges swept their University Athletic Association rivals this weekend.

The Brandeis men’s basketball team moved up to 19th in the nation according to d3hoops.com and second in the UAA with the wins.

The Judges triumphed over the Case Western Reserve University Spartans 70-52 on Friday night and took down Carnegie Mellon 72-59 on Sunday afternoon.

The Spartans jumped out to an early 9-4 lead over the Judges but thanks to a pair of three-pointers over 25 seconds from guard Vytas Kriskus ’12 Brandeis pulled ahead.

Case Western fought back to tie it up shortly after on a free throw but the Judges would not let that stand.

Kriskus went for another three but missed the net. Hollins grabbed the rebound and found Kriskus who put it up for a trifecta. That sealed a lead Brandeis held onto for the remainder of the game.

Brandeis began pulling away for the remainder of the first, with John Weldon ’10 tacking on back to back three-pointers. Tyrone Hughes ’12 put up a total of eight before the break while Kenny

Small ’10 had seven, five of which came in the last two minutes of play. The Judges commanded a 33-22 lead going at halftime.

Case came out of the lockers ready to challenge their dominant hosts. The Spartans opened it up with an 8-2 run and brought the game within five. Brandeis responded with two free throws from Hollins and a Hughes threepointer to give them a double digit once again.

The two teams traded baskets for most of the second half until the Judges defense shut down the Spartans in the final seven minutes, holding them without a field goal for the rest of the game. Case was able to tack on five points through free throws but 16 from the Judges sealed the deal.

Kriskus had a game-leading 20 points including six trifectas.

Hollins had his third straight double-double with 13 points (12 of which came in the second half) and 12 rebounds. Hughes also put

up 13 in the game.

In the came against Carnegie Mellon on Sunday the Judges never fell behind their visitors.

The Tartans tied things up just 2:15 into play, but Brandeis fought back on a 12-4 run to regain control of the game.

The Tartans got within a single point of the Judges, pulling to 2726 with 5:41 left in the first half, but Brandeis would not let them take the lead.

The Judges went on an unanswered 12-point run in just over three minutes to pull away. Carnegie Mellon continued to fight, though. They put up eight of the final 10 points of the half to bring the game to judges 41, Tartans 34 at the break.

Carnegie Mellon came out of the lockers and hit the first two shots to narrow the Judges lead to just three points. Guard Andre Roberson ’10 answered back with a jumper and lay-up of his own to bring their lead back to seven.

but I think we can do it all,” sabre Zoe Messinger ’13 said.

The men’s fencing team was not as fortunate as the women. The Judges struggled, going 1-5 with a 22-5 win against Hunter. In their first match of the day against sixth ranked Penn, the judges lost 17-10 despite a 5-4 victory in the epee, led by Will Bedor’s ‘10 3-0 record.

The judges came into the match with high expectations. They hoped to be competitive against Penn and New York University, and were planning to win against Air Force and Haverford, schools that they lost to 16-11.

“As a team we’re looking to win every single bout and beat every single team here since they’re all Division 1 teams,” Bedor said.

“Individually you want to fence [well], and you don’t want to let

the team down because a lot of these teams today are pretty tough for fencing,” epee David Litvak ’11 said.

Coach Shipman expressed disappointment for their loss, explaining that Air Force, and Haverford, and even NYU were all teams that the Judges were hoping to beat.

“The men, they didn’t meet our goals. We thought we could beat Haverford and Air Force for that matter, but our foil guys didn’t fence well, they had a bad day, didn’t stay as tough as we would like,” Shipman said.

“The other weapons, while they fenced pretty well, they couldn’t make up that differential against Air Force and Haverford especially,” Shipman said.

The Judges will face tough com-

In the final six minutes of play the Judges went on a 13-8 run to hold onto the lead and end the game 13-points ahead of the Tartans.

Small led with a game-high 26 points, nailing 6-of-7 three-point attempts and making all four free throws. Hollins put up 19 points overall in the game as well as 16 rebounds for his fourth doubledouble performance in a row.

Hollins also had six assists, just one away from a career-high.

Roberson added 12 points in the win while Hughes had 10.

After two weekends at home the Judges are on the road this weekend, facing off against Case Western and Carnegie at their home courts. Action in Cleveland starts at 8 p.m. on Friday night and in Pittsburgh on Sunday at noon. WBRS will be calling both games live on location. The Judges will play at home next on Tuesday Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. when they take on Amherst College.

Women’s fencing beats #8 Penn at Eric Sollee Invite, men’s team struggles

BY JON OSTROWSKY Staff

The women’s fencing team beat eighth ranked University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and UAA rival New York University (NYU) on Saturday as part of their 5-0 sweep at the Eric Sollee Invitational in the Gosman Athletic Center.

After losing 5-4 decisions against Penn in the sabre and epee, the Judges won the foil with Vikki Nunley ’13 going 3-0 and Emily Levy ’12 going 2-1.

Commenting on the team’s performance last weekend, head Coach Bill Shipman was especially pleased with their 14-13 win against Penn, the first ever in Brandeis history. “The women achieved higher than their expectations,” Coach Shipman said. “[Penn] was a big win for us and

they beat Air Force and Haverford easily, which you would expect those teams to be a little bit closer to us,” Shipman said.

The Judges, the top team in the UAA, beat their league rival NYU 15-12. Later in the day, they scored 19-8 victories over Haverford and Air Force and beat Hunter 18-9.

“We have pretty good teamwork. I think that as long as we support each other and keep practicing that we should do pretty well,” sabre Kayla Cronin ’11 said.

This weekend the Judges will compete at the Duke Invitational. “If they can beat either Duke or North Carolina or both, that would be a nice win for them,” Coach Shipman told The Hoot.

“Our girls are very strong this year. We have a lot to improve on,

petition at this weekend’s Duke Invitational, fencing against top teams such as Penn State and North Carolina, according to Shipman.

“We didn’t reach our team expectations. We’ll just keep plugging away and see what happens next time, but the field at [the] Duke [Invitational] is a little stronger than this one, so it won’t be easy,” Shipman said.

“I think foil, they need to mostly get a little bit mentally tougher, fight harder, and be a little bit more fundamental in their approach. They’re a little too passive right now,” Shipman said.

The Duke Invitational begins Saturday at 8 a.m. in Durham, North Carolina. Both the men’s and women’s teams will be competing.

February 5, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

Sports

9

PHOTOS BY Alan Tran/The Hoot

FILL COURT PRESS: Left: Brandeis’ Morgan Kendrew ‘12 (No. 31, left) looks for an opening during Brandeis’ 71-52 victory. Center: Head Coach Carol Simon talks strategy during Brandeis’ win on Friday. Right: Brandeis guard Jessica Chapin ‘10 (No. 23, right), drives to the basket.

Chapin’s big weekend leads women to sweep

BY KARA KARTER Staff

The Brandeis women’s basketball team entered the weekend looking to rebound from last Sunday’s disappointing loss to Emory. Now, after a pair of crucial home victories, the team is looking toward the future. The Judges played their way to a 71-52 victory over the rival Case Western Reserve Spartans on Friday night.

They followed that effort up by defeating the Carnegie Mellon Tartans 70-58 on Sunday afternoon.

The weekend’s wins wrapped up the first half of University Athletic Association play. Brandeis sits in fourth place, with a record of 116. The Judges are 4-3 in conference play.

The weekend’s star was guard

Jessica Chapin ’10, who tallied a combined 59 points and 13 rebounds over the two games. Her performance earned her UAA Athlete of the Week honors for the second time this season. She also received the New England Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s nod for Player of the Week.

Case Western jumped out to an early lead on Friday, tallying their first basket barely more than a minute into the game.

For much of the first half, the Spartans controlled the play, taking a nine point advantage at 2718 with 4:05 to play in the session.

Chapin and forward Shannon Hassan’s ’12 clutch play at the line allowed the Judges to enter the half with a five point edge. Twenty minutes in, the Judges led 34-29.

The teams traded both buckets

and leads for the first nine minutes of the second half.

Then–with a Chapin steal sandwiched in between–guard Morgan Kendrew ’12 made two consecutive threes, giving Brandeis a lead it would never relinquish.

But the action did not stop there. After being fouled on a hard drive to the hoop with just over five minutes remaining in the game, Chapin showed some fire with a fierce fist pump. She then made the free throw to complete the three-point-play.

Chapin’s 32 points were two short of a school record and one off of her career high. Her 10 rebounds gave her a third doubledouble for the season and the seventh for her career. Diana Cincotta ’11 and Hassan also registered double digits, scoring 12 and 10 points respectively.

The 52 points matched Case’s lowest offensive output of the season.

Sunday’s game started off on a better note for the Judges.

They only trailed once in the first half, being down 7-6 just 3:23 into the game. Brandeis’s biggest lead of the half was eight points.

With a Chapin shot netting twine at the buzzer, the Judges entered the break up three at 33-30.

The early deficit would end up being Brandeis’ only of the game, as the Judges ended up outscoring Carnegie Mellon 37-28 in the second half.

However, despite carrying the play for much of the affair, the Judges were unable to pull away until a 9-0 run – capped by a Chapin three – gave them a commanding 12 point lead with 3:57 to go. A major key to success was

accuracy from behind the charity stripe. The Tartans got into foul trouble early and the Judges delivered, shooting 16 for 17 from the line throughout the course of the afternoon.

Chapin followed up Friday’s performance with 27 points and five assists.

Forward Amber Strodthoff ’11 totaled 7 boards and four steals – each a team high – in addition to her 14 points.

The Judges hope to replicate last weekend’s victories with success on the road. They will take their game to the Midwest, for rematches against both Case Western (11-7, 2-5) and Carnegie Mellon (8-10, 1-6).

The Judges’ next return home on Feb. 12 to face off against the conference-leading Washington University Bears (16-2, 6-1).

Halberstam of Miami Heat speaks on announcing experiences

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

Former Miami Heat announcer David J. Halberstam spoke at Brandeis on Sunday about his long broadcasting and sales career and gave advice on how to be a successful broadcaster.

The event, which was hosted

by WBRS and held in Olin-Sang, consisted of a short address by Halberstam and an open discussion with students from the WBRS sports department, many of them prospective broadcasters themselves. Earlier that day, Halberstam had joined his son Manny ‘10 in calling the Brandeis Men’s Basketball team’s game against Carnegie Mellon, which the Judges won 72-59.

“It’s quite something to be able to sit with my son,” Halberstam said, adding that sharing a microphone with him was “a dream come true.”

Halberstam had first suggested the idea as soon as Manny chose to attend Brandeis, basing it off a similar game that famed broadcaster Marv Albert called with his

son Kenny while Kenny want attending New York University.

Halberstam was the sole radio broadcaster for the Miami Heat from 1992 to 1998, during which Miami made the NBA playoffs five times and played host to alltime great players like Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning. He also sold ads for the three different flagship stations the Heat had during that period.

His career began calling games for City University of New York while he was still attending college. He followed that up with a stint at Hunter College, during which time he is sure he called a game against Brandeis in Waltham.

His big break came in the 1970s, when he found a small station in Long Island that would let him call games for St. John’s University. St. John’s was a burgeoning NCAA powerhouse, but they didn’t have a radio carrier in the crowded New York media market, and Halberstam convinced the station to sign St. John’s to a contract on condition that he would also be responsible for raising ad-

vertising revenue for the games.

He recalls the station director “[setting] down a phone book in front of me” and telling him simply to “start making calls.”

Under Halberstam’s leadership, the number of stations carrying St. John’s grew greater and greater until they were one of the premier college teams in New York.

Halberstam would also call occasional New York Knicks games from Madison Square Garden and had what he described as “a business relationship” with the New York Rangers.

Halberstam spent much of his talk giving advice on how to improve play-by-play skills, which he considers a “dying art.” He contrasts the days of his youth, in which the radio announcers were often the most direct contact between the fans and their teams, to today’s sports environment, in which almost every game is carried on satellite television and studio personalities have become the broadcast superstars. He offered several tips on how he prepared himself for games: improving vocabulary, “painting word pic-

tures” of everyday life, attending team practices, and studying the rules of the game to learn every nuance. He also stressed the importance of a thorough liberal arts education to build general knowledge and stated that he recorded every single game he broadcast to study the tapes later and fix and mistakes he made.

During the question-and-answer period, Halberstam shared some of the greatest moments of his broadcast career. The best game he ever called was St. John’s 1985 Elite Eight victory over North Carolina State, sending the Red Storm to their first Final Four in 33 years. His favorite play was not a high-flying dunk or clutch three-pointer, but an intelligent ball handling play by former Red Storm forward Chris Mullin that helped St. John’s kill the clock to defeat Patrick Ewing’s dominant Georgetown team in a clutch regular season game.

When asked about what it was like to call games with Michael Jordan in the 1990s, Halberstam said simply, “Radio does not do him justice.”

Halberstam also shared several anecdotes about the off-court experiences of spending time with NBA players and coaches. He called former Heat forward Glen Rice one of the funniest people he’d ever met, saying “my sides would ache from laughing” after sitting next to him on a plane ride.

He called Alonzo Mourning one of the hardest working athletes he’d ever seen and mentioned his close relationship with Heat coach Pat Reilly despite Reilly’s policy of removing broadcasters from the team’s plane. Yet despite these positive experiences, he also noted that knowing some sports personalities “taints the purity of sports fandom,” hinting that several players and coaches made a much more negative impression.

Reaction to Halberstam’s appearance was very positive from the small crowd who attended the event. WBRS sports director Adam Rosen, who has broadcasted many Brandeis basketball games, referred to working with Halberstam as a “great opportunity... both personally and for the department”.

ARTS, etc.

10 The Brandeis Hoot

February 5, 2010

Hooked on Tap heats up with ‘Hot Stuff ’ Ensemble proves the versatility and relevance of tap-dancing

BY KAYLA DOS SANTOS Editor

Hooked on Tap’s annual show “Hot Stuff ” proved that tap-dancing can be fun, creative and— above all—hot.

First thing’s first, I know absolutely nothing about tap-dancing.

I just have this dim memory of attending Miss Bonnie Haye’s dance school when I was seven, wearing a god-awful blue tutu and attempting to execute a step-ballchange. In no way has that brief interlude prepared me to comment on Hooked on Tap’s technical abilities, but, as a person who loves a good performance, I can tell you that I was immensely entertained.

“Hot Stuff ” started off the evening with a high-energy, playful routine, which set the tone for the rest of the show. The entire group gathered on stage in what was, at first, simply a mass of dancers. However, the Hooked on Tap performers deftly managed to make use of the small space, and the crowd diverged into distinct groups, allowing each to showoff their skills. It could have been a confused mess, but it wasn’t.

The dance-steps were fun, and the choreography combined flirtatious moves with a comedic sensibility. The opening number let the audience become engaged with the performance and clued them in on the fact that they were

LIONS ATTACK: In “The Hunt,” lions encircle their prospective dinner.

ILLUSTRATION BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot

versus prey face-off, in which a pack of “lions” displayed strength and aggression, while a herd of “zebras” danced with shaking knees and intermittent squeaks.

The predators surrounded their prey, broke up the herd and stalked their victims. Yet, in keeping with the light tone established by the first routine, the zebras were able to escape their fates as entrees by playing dead.

However, Alana Heumann, who choreographed the dance,

stated in an e-mail that the routine was not meant to be comedic. “I did not intend for it to be a funny dance but during the show everyone was laughing and then people told me that they thought it was hysterical.”

Another stand-out performance appeared in the second act, set to Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation.” Interestingly enough, this routine also played with the idea of pack mentalities. A rebel (designated by her leather jacket and

cordings. Dedicated to remaining on the cutting edge of art music, they’ve premiered more than 400 new works and organized eight festivals of their own. “They have an incredible mission,” Gentry says, based on the optimistic idea that “if you as a musician are completely devoted to a piece of music... the audience will listen.”

Their appearance at Brandeis was thanks in large part to James Borchers, a PhD student in Music Composition and Theory and the head of New Music Brandeis.

ILLUSTRATION BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot The ICE is reAVANT GARDE: ICE performed modern pieces composed ceptive to payby Brandeis grad students. ing the school a visit, because aggressively modern works of “Brandeis has a tradition of exart music. Already, they’ve decellent composers, ” Gentry said. veloped a strong reputation on Their Saturday night performance an international level, winning prestigious prizes, performing at consisted of several electrofestivals, and releasing several re- acoustic compositions from the

past thirty years, and their Sunday concert was dedicated solely to music by Brandeis graduate students.

Gentry was asked over a year ago if he wanted to write for the ICE, and he immediately accepted and began sketching out a piece for flute, clarinet, percussion and guitar. Though the harmonic language he employed was typical of his other compositions, he claims “the form and structure were a little different.” They were specifically designed to take advantage of the virtuosic talent of the ICE’s instrumentalists.

He included solos for each of the instruments, stretching the woodwinds to the upper reaches of their registers, and experimented with different instrumental combinations within the quartet. Finally, all that was left to do was to pick a title, a process that proved surprisingly challenging.

Gentry was stuck until he drew inspiration from that very mental block, and “No Epiphanies Yet (Stumped)” was born.

Five other composers premiered works on Sunday in a well-received showcase of the best that Brandeis has to offer in modern art music. Daniel Neal’s “Three short pieces” opened the concert with a strongly atonal and varied set of compositions. Michele Zaccagnini’s duo “Quetzel-

in for a treat.

After the opening number came the most creative choreography of the night, combining theatrics with difficult tapping. The lights dimmed and two dancers took the stage in silhouette. One stood still in the dark while the other approached timidly and unaware.

Suddenly the watching dancer leapt forward with a growl (a comical “rawr!”) and chased her prey off the stage.

What followed was a predator

tough attitude) confronted the leader of a posse of school-girls and a fight for control over the group commenced.

Similar to how the lions encircled their prey, the posse surrounded their leader and her challenger as they fought. Eventually, the crowd of girls mimicked the rebel’s dance moves and orchestrated an outfit change to copy her style. The renounced leader watched in dismay, but then inevitably joined in.

Not only did clever choreography make an impression, but other performances, including some

by Tufts and BU tap ensembles, displayed the versatility of tapdancing. The variety of musical genres used was impressive, with routines set to rock, jazz, pop and diva anthems. Notably, the Tufts Tap Ensemble had a performance set to the Presidents of the United States of America’s “Feather Pluck’n,” showing that tap-dancing can be rock-and-roll cool. As for the dances themselves, they varied from the laid-back “Every Other Time” routine to the more frenzied “This Joint” set. BU on Tap and Hooked On Tap alumni also contributed memorable performances.

As a newcomer to Brandeis’ tap-dancing scene, I was impressed and surprised and left the show looking forward to Hooked on Tap’s future offerings.

ICE at ’Deis: Graduate compositions impress

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

“This time in your career, you don’t get a chance to write for a group like that.” It’s Wednesday, and Christian Gentry (GRAD) has just finished teaching a course in country music and society. I’m making him late for his 2 p.m. seminar, but he doesn’t seem to care as he starts discussing his philosophy of modern music composition. I’m enthralled too; it’s not often that you get to talk to a successful artist about his art.

And make no mistake about it, Gentry is about as successful as any composer could hope to be while still in college. His Web site lists several regional ensembles that have premiered his work, including Brandeis’ own Lydian String Quartet, and he has already received a prestigious Barlow Endowment Composition Commission for an original work to be performed next spring. Another career highlight came last Sunday with the premiere of his piece “No Epiphanies Yet (Stumped)” at New Music Brandeis, a two-day concert series held in Slosberg Recital Hall by the International Contemporary Ensemble. Gentry still seems incredibly grateful for what he considers a unique opportunity.

The ICE was founded in 2001 as a touring ensemble to perform

coatl” matched a gentle flute with spry, percussive guitar harmonics.

“God Particles,” by James Borchers, created a science fiction-like atmosphere to explore the theme of musical elements traveling through time in the manner of hypothesized subatomic particles.

Yohanan Chendler’s “Lullaby” focused on an interplay between the flute and clarinet that was tight enough to obscure the musical shifts of the piece, creating a fascinating environment in which musical progression was felt before it was heard. Peter Van Zandt Lane closed the concert with “Poa Pratensis,” a concertino for electric guitar that would have come off as danceable at times if the propulsive rhythms hadn’t been so unusual.

The pieces all shared a relentless embrace of the avant-garde, and while I found something interesting in each of them, my inexperience with the style left me feeling like I was missing something. Listening to Gentry, it almost seems like this is his intention. “[I want to] write in a way that I feel best... that presents the audience with an experience that forces them to listen,” he said.

If Gentry and his fellows continue to attract the attention of ensembles as strong as the ICE, they’ll find a lot more listeners in their future.

February 5, 2010

BY SEAN FABERY Editor

For better or worse, the Academy Awards have been a huge part of the pop culture landscape since 1929 when the first ceremony—lasting only 15 minutes and with less than 250 people in attendance—was held in Hollywood. Taking a cue from Punxsutawney Phil, the golden man named Oscar poked his head out on Tuesday and announced this year’s nominations, honoring the films that are ostensibly the cream of 2009’s cinematic crop.

I’ve always been troubled, in a way, by awards ceremonies like the Oscars. After all, is there really any way to accurately judge and compare the merits of the hundreds of films that come out each year? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has tried to do just that for the last 82 years, but it never quite gets it right—the nominations always present a mixture of the genuine brilliant and films that are simply of-the-moment and have little staying power.

This year, the Oscars gave themselves a make-over of sorts by choosing to nominate ten movies instead of the standard five for Best Picture. This move was partially in response to last year’s snubbing of “The Dark Knight” and, more generally speaking, the trend towards specialty films in recent years. While these specialty films have done relatively well at the box office, they’ve failed to enter the American conscious in the way that previous winners like “Forrest Gump” and “Titanic” have done.

In terms of giving the nominees a more populist bent, the academy has succeeded. This year’s contenders for Best Picture include genuine blockbusters like “Avatar,” “The Blind Side,” and “Up.” However, one is left wondering whether the expansion was necessary for this to occur— even if the field was still restricted to five nominees, there’s little doubt that “Avatar” would have been nominated. And limiting the field to five nominees would have weeded out a film like “Blind Side”—which, in terms of narrative, seems more like a Hallmark weepie than anything else. The move was certainly a positive one for Pixar, though—“Up” is the first animated film since “Beauty and the Beast” to be up for the top prize.

While big budget fare might have been embraced, specialty films like “A Serious Man,” “An

ARTS, ETC. 11

The Brandeis Hoot

Oscar no golden boy

Education” and “The Hurt Locker” still made it into the category, with “The Hurt Locker” quite possibly on its way to winning the actual award. Its main contender is the aforementioned “Avatar.” In terms of gross, the films couldn’t be more different—“Hurt Locker” made a grand total of $12.6 million, while “Avatar” has notched up $60 million and growing.

Rounding out the nominees for Best Picture were “Inglourious Basterds,” “Up in the Air,” “Precious” and “District 9.” This year proved to be a great year for science fiction, with the Oscars embracing two sci-fi films in the top category.

As always, the nominations overall were AngloAmerican centric, with most of the foreign mentions being restricted to the ghetto that is the Best Foreign Film category.

Even as Americans gain greater and greater access to foreign films, the academy seems to nominate fewer of them. There were some exceptions, though, with “The White Ribbon,” “Il Divo,” “Coco Before Chanel” and “Paris 36,” gaining nominations in technical categories, showing that some branches are willing to read subtitles.

As always, the academy also focused on a small group of films. Out of hundreds of movies released in 2009, only 37 were deemed worthy of nominations. I can understand why the academy would ignore such cinematic notables as “Obsessed” and “He’s Just Not That Into You,” but many worthy films out there received absolutely no attention.

Of course, these are all longstanding problems I’ve had with the Oscars, and, despite my carping, I really do enjoy watching them. They serve as a kind of interesting time capsule, showing the films and actors that were held in high regard at any particular time.

Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”) and James Cameron (“Avatar”) are the main contenders in the Best Director category,

Top contenders “AVATAR”

an interesting situation considering the two directors were briefly married in the 1980s. Bigelow is only the fourth woman to be nominated in the category and is on track to win the award. Meanwhile, Lee Daniels was nominated for “Precious,” making him only the second African Ameri-

(“Crazy Heart”) will likely win the category for his role as a washedup country singer, with a win in the category also serving as a kind of career reward. Only George Clooney (“Up in the Air”) seems to be a possible threat to Bridges.

Both Colin Firth (“A Single Man”) and Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker”) received their first n o m i n at i o n s .

Though Morgan Freeman ( “Inv i c tus” ) generated little attention for his performance as Nelson Mandela, he did manage to procure a nomination.

The Best Actress category seems to be more fluid, with the winner still decidedly any woman’s prize.

Meryl Streep (“Julie & Julia”) and Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”) have been winning the lion’s share of awards at other ceremonies this year, though Bullock has the advantage of starring in a film that is up for Best Picture. Streep, on the other hand, has not won since 1982, and perhaps Hollywood will be more interested in awarding one of its greats as opposed to Bullock, whose niche has primarily been in popcorn films.

Gabourey Sibide (“Precious”) and Carey Mulligan (“An EducaILLUSTRATION BY Leah Lefkowitz/The Hoot tion”) have both can nominated in the category. received praise for their perforQuentin Tarantino (“Inglourious mances as two teenage girls with Basterds”) and Jason Reitman very different backgrounds (one (“Up in the Air”) round out the is illiterate and growing up with field. an abusive mother, while the othThe nominees for Best Actor er has a comfortable middle class proved unsurprising. Jeff Bridges existence worrying about boys

Though 10 films were nominated for Best Picture this year, only 5 managed nominations in the corresponding Best Director category, exponentially increasing their chances of securing the win.

“UP IN THE AIR”

DIRECTED BY JAMES CAMERON

“INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS”

DIRECTED BY JASON REITMAN

“THE HURT LOCKER” DIRECTED BY KATHRYN BIGELOW

and college), but neither seems primed for the win. Helen Mirren (“The Last Station”) rounds out the category.

The statue for Supporting Actress will undoubtedly go to a very deserving Mo’Nique for her portrayal of an abusive, mentally ill mother in “Precious.” Both Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga were nominated for their roles in “Up in the Air” as George Clooney’s protégé and lover, respectfully.

Penelope Cruz, who won last year in this category for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” surprisingly got in for “Nine,” a film that was dismissed at the box office and received a lashing from the critics. Rounding out the nominees is the Maggie Gyllenhaal for “Crazy Heart,” who was ignored by all the precursor awards.

Like Supporting Actress, there really isn’t a contest in the Supporting Actor category, as Christoph Waltz has won award after award for his portrayal of the multilingual Jew Hunter in “Inglourious Basterds.” Others up for the award include Matt Damon for “Invictus,” Stanley Tucci for “The Lovely Bones,” Christopher Plummer for “The Last Station” and Woody Harrelson for “The Messenger.”

The candidates for Best Animated Feature Film were “Up,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “Coraline” and “The Secret of Kells.” The first four were all popular and commercial successes, but the nomination for “Kells”—a small Irish film—came as a surprise.

As for Best Foreign Film, the frontrunners are Germany’s “The White Ribbon” and France’s “A Prophet,” both of which took Cannes by storm. The category has been criticized in the past for excluding some of the most notable foreign films, but this year proved different. Israel’s “Ajami,” Peru’s “The Milk of Sorrow,” and Argentina’s “The Secret in Their Eyes” were also nominated.

Overall, “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar” lead with 9 nominations each, while “Inglourious Basterds” received 8. Both “Up in the Air” and “Precious” got 6 each. Though “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” seem to be the favorites for the win, though“Up in the Air” or “Inglourious Basterds” could still squeak one out. One never knows—a lot can change between nomination day and the actual day of the awards.

DIRECTED BY QUENTIN TARANTINO

“PRECIOUS” DIRECTED BY LEE DANIELS

12 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

February 5, 2010

Remembering Howard Zinn

BY STEPHEN WHITFIELD Special to the Hoot

For about four decades, Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian who died last week at the age of 87, played so conspicuous a role in the political and academic life of Boston that many locals have memories of him to recount. Here are mine.

I first heard him speak on the Brandeis campus in the early 1970s, to a small group of faculty and graduate students in the field of American history. He had been the author or editor of several respectable mainstream books, in particular on the 1930s. Out of his experience teaching at Atlanta’s all-black Spelman College in the 1960s, he had also published an inspiring account of the most daring of the civil rights organizations in the South, entitled SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Having myself taught in the mid-‘60s at a New Orleans equivalent of Spelman College, I was also familiar with Zinn’s “The Southern Mystique,” an unappreciated volume that argued white resistance to racial desegregation

in the region was much exaggerated–and should not intimidate progressives who opposed white supremacy in the South.

In the International Lounge of Usdan, Zinn made an earnest and engaging case for a historiography that would deviate from the perspectives at the top. The stan-

PHOTO FROM Internet Source

dard version of the American past should not enjoy a monopoly, he argued. What I found persuasive was his claim that his own dissident slant was not the only way to

1922-2010 interpret the national experience, and was not intended to establish a new orthodoxy. Zinn asserted that he merely wanted other voices to be heard. Here was a sneak preview of the direction much historical scholarship would take thereafter–and of “The People’s History of the United States” that would bring Zinn his greatest fame.

Special notice should be taken of his denunciation of the folly of the war in Indochina. Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal was the first book to expose the utter pointlessness of the deepening conflict and to insist that the removal of American forces was the only humane and intelligent policy that should be adopted.

Five years later, with the Vietnam disaster still raging, Zinn joined with 107 others to commit an act of civil disobedience, by seeking to block Army inductees from getting to a Boston base from which they would be sent to Southeast Asia. I was among the protesters who were arrested, booked, fingerprinted and sent to a South Boston lock-up.

He and I ended up cellmates; and when we met the attorney assigned to us, my heart sank. In an era when long hair on males betokened a provocative countercultural radicalism, the blond locks on our lawyer fell to his

shoulders. I couldn’t help noticing that he was wearing sneakers.

Though our group had vowed to surrender our freedom to demonstrate how deeply we opposed the American war in Vietnam, any hope that we might have of avoiding a jail sentence depended on the eloquence of Howard Zinn.

He chose to defend himself–and, in effect, the rest of us.

He did not disappoint. Maybe I had a little too much at stake emotionally to offer a fair evaluation, but Zinn gave one of the most impassioned political speeches I’d ever heard (before or since).

He asked the judge in South Boston District Court to show some imagination–to think of the number of corpses the slaughter in Vietnam had produced, weighed against our peaceable act of “sauntering and loitering” in front of a bus. The judge looked more puzzled than impressed, and gave us a choice of $20 or 20 days.

Zinn opted to pay the fine. But 12 of us thought that the whole point of the protest was to renounce our freedom to publicize our cause; and I took a certain self-dramatizing pride in getting hauled to the same prison where Sacco and Vanzetti had been incarcerated five decades earlier, and Malcolm X two decades after them.

The last time Howard Zinn spoke on campus was earlier in

this century, under the auspices of the Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI). Over lunch I reminded him of the lock-up three decades before; and when he failed to recall the “NonViolent Direction Action Group” (as we called ourselves), I chalked up the memory lapse to the frequency with which he had been jailed. During his lecture, he condemned the war in Afghanistan, as though there were no difference between the incoherent rationale for the Vietnam War and the effort to dry up the sources of the fanatical rage that had resulted in 9/11. Sometimes lessons can be over-learned, or applied too rigidly.

But Zinn was at his best when a very patriotic member of the BOLLI audience demanded to know why the lecturer was so anti-American. Why did he seem to hate the history about which he had written? Zinn vehemently denied the accusation, by mentioning the figures he so deeply admired–from the abolitionists to the suffragists, from the labor organizers to the civil rights activists. That is the gallant lineage that indeed represents the best of our people. That is also a line that–his journey finished–Zinn himself has now joined.

Stephen Whitfield is professor of American Studies.

Rose 200th birthday celebration inspires conversation about activism

BY LEAH FINKELMAN Staff

Thursday marked the 200th birthday of Ernestine Rose, and the Women’s Studies Research Center celebrated with a party worthy of the activist, who spent her life fighting for human rights.

Paula Doress-Worters, a WSRC scholar and author of a book about Rose, presided over the affair, speaking about activism, what causes people to become activists and what they actually do.

Doress-Worters joked about Rose coming back for a visit, and, as she was speaking, there was a knock on the door. Anne Gottlieb, another WSRC scholar, came in dressed as Rose and addressed the group. She spoke about the importance of the work she did, and its relevance to today’s society. The information and many quotes in her speech were pulled from letters and speeches that Doress-Worters collected in her new book, “Mistress of Herself: Speeches and Letters of Ernestine L. Rose.”

Rose lived from 1810 to 1892 and immigrated to the United States from Poland in her twenties, after breaking off her arranged engagement. From the beginning, she was politically and socially active on the Lower East Side. She started by campaigning for a New York State Assembly bill

that would give a dialogue between the married women author and the birthday equal property party attendees about rights. what it means to be an Living in the activist and how they United States became activists. during the Civil “Am I an activist?

War and the I don’t know, I probfight against ably have been all my slavery, Rose life… it’s part of who I was an outspoam,” one woman said. ken abolitionist.

“I don’t think of myself She abhorred the as a feminine activist. I idea of one perjust live it out.” son owning an“I never actually deother, citing the cided to be an activist,” Declaration of another said. “It came Independence’s out of my research and “life, liberty, and my writing. One thing the pursuit of lead to another, and I happiness” for became a scholar activwhy humans are ist.” their own “legitiAs Rose herself once mate masters.” said, “Our individual Rose was one stories are not as imof the first acportant as the fact tivists to believe that we lived, and we in the idea that fought, and we somewomen’s rights times won.” are human One woman didn’t rights and huwant to come to a birthman rights are day party without a gift.

PHOTO BY Paula Hoekstra/The Hoot She brought a check to women’s rights, an idea current- CELEBRATING ACTIVISM: WSRC scholar Paula Doress-Worters spoke renew her membership ly espoused by about the activist Ernestine L. Rose who was born 200 years ago this week. in the Ernestine Rose people such as Society and a card that Hillary Rodham Clinton. She be- treatment under the law and in the 15 scholars, researchers and lieved that women were capable society. activists all signed. The card held Gottlieb’s speech, prepared by a sentimental message that was of everything men were capable of, and that they deserved equal Doress-Worter, was followed by echoed by everyone in the room:

“Even though you’re gone from our day to day lives, you’re always in our hearts.”

There is much to be learned from a woman like Ernestine Rose, who left everything she knew to come to a different country and fight for equal rights for all people, said Doress-Worters.

Everyone has the power to be an activist and can easily accomplish that through a little bit of work and a lot of passion.

Febryary 5, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS, ETC.

13

‘Ribbon’ leaves audience tied up

BY SEAN FABERY Editor

Evil begets evil. That’s the central message in Austrian director Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon,” a film that examines the causes of World War II. Instead of weaving a typical war narrative around this thematic exploration, however, Haneke sets his story decades before the war, focusing on one tiny village that serves as a representation of everything that went wrong in pre-war Germany.

It is 1913 in the Protestant village of Eichwald, and everything is essentially as it has been for centuries. A traditional, patriarchal structure dominates village life, with the local baron, pastor and doctor reigning as Eichwald’s moral authorities. However, all is not well. Village society begins to creak under the pressure of its repressive, pseudo-feudal structure, in which half the population works the baron’s fields and the church rests at the center of community life.

Suddenly, mysterious incidents start to occur. The doctor (Rainer Brock) falls from his horse after someone sets a trap outside his house. The baron’s young son (Fion Mutert) is kidnapped and beaten. Yet while these events raise concern, no one puts together the pieces of the crime. No one notices how strangely the village’s children have begun acting.

In essence, the film concerns itself with repression—political, religious, societal, sexual and otherwise. The entire village suffers from these forms of repression, and this cycles through all levels of society, including from parent to child.

What’s most striking, however, is the way no one tries to break this system. When

or the Schoolmaster. The viewer only sympathizes with the children, who are physically harmed over the course of the film, and they tend to make only fleeting appearances—something that keeps the audience at arm’s length.

Perhaps the only character with whom the audience can identify is the Schoolmaster (Christian Friedel). As the film’s narrator, he serves as the audience’s gateway into the series of events depicted.

The audience can feel close to him in part because, like the audience, he seems to know where this societal repression will lead. The audience also witnesses his courtship of a young nanny (Leonie Benesch), one of the few signs of hope for the future. Still at a distance, however, the audience never learns the Schoolmaster’s name.

Haneke furthers the distance between audience and character through his use of stark black-and-white cinematography. The camera also tends to avoid PHOTO FROM Internet Source characters when they’re at their most “THE WHITE RIBBON”: Michael Haneke’s film explores the roots of Nazism in turn-of-the-century Germany. emotional. When a farmer looks at the one father molests his teenage daughter, and physically abusive. Haneke represents dead body of his wife, Haneke chooses not nothing is done—even though his mis- this visually in the form of the eponymous to move the camera—keeping him out of tress knows about it. When the pastor ties white ribbon, which the pastor’s wife ties the audience’s view at one of the few times his son to his bed due to the fear that his onto the arm of her son and daughter as a he is truly emotional and human.

“The White Ribbon” proves to be an son may be masturbating, the son’s siblings reminder of Christian virtue, while to the refuse to release him when a fire threat- audience it visually echoes the appearance interesting watch on a general cinematic level, but it’s an especially fascinating intelens the house. They completely acquiesce of a Nazi armband. to authority—they fear their father will The film largely runs on the level of an lectual exercise, with its coupling of biting be angry. It’s a potent commentary on the intellectual exercise. As such, Haneke does insight with an engaging—and terrifying— mindset that led to the atrocities of World not intend for his audience to become mystery that makes for compelling viewWar II. close to his characters. Few of the charac- ing. If one wanted to frame the film in the The movie certainly puts traditional con- ters are given names, and, when they are most conventional terms possible, it would ceptions of morality on their head. Moral named, their names are mentioned once be as a whodunit which is never answered figures come to represent immorality—the and then forgotten. They instead become definitively. It is this open ended nature of doctor has a torrid sexual affair, while the identified by their role in the community, the story that makes it so horrifying. pastor (Burghart Klauβner) is emotionally whether they are the Baron, the Midwife

Currying flavor with enticing eggplants

BY ALISON CHANNON Editor

I love eggplant. But until recently, I’ve been insecure cooking it. I would always order eggplant at restaurants (and I have paid for some delicious eggplant), but it seemed a shame that I couldn’t find a satisfactory way to cook one of my favorite vegetables in my own kitchen. After a bit of internet perusing and a fair share of experimentation, I have finally developed a fool-proof and extremely delicious recipe for eggplant curry.

Along the way, I fell into my fair share of pitfalls. The vegetable can be bitter and if sautéing, it can soak up oil like a sponge, leaving you with a greasy mess. But its deliciousness urges us to press on, and so I offer you my wisdom and recipe in hopes that you will go forth and conquer.

My main tip for eggplant is SALT. If you are going to sauté eggplant, heed the recipe when it tells you to salt the eggplant and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes. In addition to flavoring a vegetable that can be bland, salting and rinsing the eggplant drains a lot of the excess water thereby preventing your eggplant from absorbing all the oil you drizzle in your pan.

My other tip is that eggplant takes time. It is not a vegetable that wants to be rushed–but I promise it’s worth it.

Now, if you want to avoid the problem of salting and oil-absorbing all together, my eggplant curry is perfect, though it is definitely not a 30 minute meal.

My attempt at Indian cuisine may be ama-

teur, but my roommates, my parents, and I can all attest – it is thoroughly delicious.

1. Before you begin anything, set your oven to 450 degrees.

2. Then, rinse your eggplant and poke holes in it. We are going to roast the eggplant whole so we need to allow the steam to escape. I like to use a pairing knife for this step because it’s small, but any knife will work. I usually poke between nine and 12 holes in all.

3. Once the eggplant is oven-safe, place it in a roasting pan and put it into the oven for 45-55 minutes. I generally leave the eggplant in for 50 minutes, just to make sure it’s tender.

4. If you’re using brown rice, your next step is to get it on the stove. Place half a cup of brown rice in a saucepan with one-and-

Tools: Roasting dish Serrated knife Pairing knife Chef’s knife Cutting board Small sauce pan with lid Sauté pan Measuring cup Measuring spoons Oven mits

white rice or basmati rice, you can wait to put the rice on. And remember, the ratio for basmati and white rice is two cups water to one cup rice.

5. While the rice and eggplant are cooking, prepare your onions and garlic. Using your chef ’s knife, slice your onion. I like to cut off each end, cut the onion in half (slice down through the end you just cut) and then remove the skin.

6. Then smash your garlic with your chef ’s knife (DO NOT BE TIMID! This is one of the most fun parts of PHOTO BY Alison Channon/The Hoot cooking.), peel away a-quarter cups of water. Cover and turn the the skin, slice off the ends, and then run burner to high. Once it starts to boil, drop your knife through the garlic. the heat down to low. It should take about 7. About 10 minutes before you take the 40 minutes to cook. If you decide to use eggplant out of the oven, coat the bottom of

Ingredients: 1 standard eggplant 1 clove garlic, diced 1 onion, sliced ½ can chickpeas ¾ teaspoon curry powder 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger pinch of cayenne pepper ½ cup brown rice 1.25 cups water Olive oil Salt your sauté pan with a thin layer of olive oil.

Turn the heat to somewhere between low and medium and add your onions and garlic. We want the onions to be translucent and tender. We do not want brown onions or garlic. Let the onions and garlic sweat for 8 to 10 minutes.

8. Take the eggplant out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Be careful. The eggplant will be very hot.

9. Use your serrated knife to cut off the ends of the eggplant. I suggest leaving the eggplant in the roasting dish and steadying the eggplant with your oven mit or pot holder protected hand. Let cool for another couple of minutes.

10. In the meantime, add the spices to your sauté pan. Stir so the spices are incorporated into the oil and onions.

11. Then use your serrated knife to slice the eggplant. Add the sliced eggplant to the sauté pan along with the half can of chickpeas. Stir and add salt to taste.

12. Serve the curry over the rice. Enjoy and feel proud of your creation.

14 The Brandeis Hoot

Established 2005 "To acquire wisdom, one must observe."

Ariel Wittenberg Editor in Chief Alex Schneider Managing Editor Destiny D. Aquino News Editor Nathan Koskella Deputy News Editor Bret Matthew Impressions Editor Chrissy Callahan Features Editor Hannah Vickers Sports Editor Jodi Elkin Layout Editor Max Shay Photography Editor Leon Markovitz Advertising Editor Vanessa Kerr Business Editor Savannah Pearlman Copy Editor Leah Lefkowitz Layout Editor Sean Fabery Arts Etc. Editor Kayla Dos Santos Arts Etc. Editor Senior Editors Sri Kuehnlenz, Kathleen Fischmann Alison Channon, Danielle Gewurz

FOUNDED BY

Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

SUBMISSION POLICIES The Hoot welcomes letters to the editor on subjects that are of interest to the general community. Preference is given to current or former community members. The Hoot reserves the right to edit any submissions for libel, grammar, punctuation, spelling and clarity. The Hoot is under no obligation to print any of the pieces submitted.

Letters in print will also appear on-line at www.thehoot.net.

The deadline for submitting letters is Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. All letters must be submitted electronically at www. thehoot.net. All letters must be from a valid e-mail address and include contact information for the author. Letters of length greater than 500 words may not be accepted.

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

The Hoot is a community student newspaper of Brandeis University. Produced entirely by students, The Hoot serves a readership of 6,000 with in-depth news, relevant commentary, sports and coverage of cultural events.

Our mission is to give every community member a voice.

EDITORIALS

February 5, 2010

No smoke and mirrors, just come clean

O

n March 4 the Brandeis administration will face the board of trustees to propose which academic programs should be phased out. At that time, the administration will also be faced with the decision of how to make the inevitable announcement of cuts to the world outside of Brandeis.

At a faculty meeting Thursday, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe said the university would “not make any smoke and mirrors when we announce [the cuts],” and would instead opt to “cast it as an exciting turning point for the university to refocus.”

“This is painful but will make us stronger,” he said, “that’s the story I will be try-

ing to spin.”

With all due respect to Jaffe, we wish it weren’t. The fact is that Brandeis does not have the best track record when it comes to public relations and dealing with the press–see the decision to close (or not) the Rose Art Museum. As a part of that press, The Hoot has decided to let the administration in on a trade secret.

When delivering unfortunate news, just lay it on us straight. Brandeis is not the only university struggling under the pressure of budget gaps and a failing economy, and as with other universities, academic cuts are at this point almost expected.

Trying to parade these budget cuts as something they are not–like an exciting new change and opportunity for the uni-

versity–will not bode well, and frankly, any reporter worth the $1.50 you pay for his newspaper will see right through it.

As the university should well know by now, journalists are fickle creatures, and while another headline about university budget cuts might not interest outside publication, any indication that Brandeis is again fudging the facts will.

The university thus far has done a commendable job with relating the news about the budget cuts to the faculty and students and of ensuring the parties affected by the cuts are involved in the decision. We hope this trend lasts.

As experts in the field, we hold that bad news is best announced quickly and without beating around the bush. And, if you can manage it, on a Saturday.

Editorial Cartoon

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Write a letter to the editor at eic@thehoot.net

Can’t a chicken live for a while with its head cut off?

Febryary 5, 2010

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16 The Brandeis Hoot

IMPRESSIONS

February 5, 2010

ILLUSTRATION BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot

The next university president: A Republican tobacco attorney?

BY NATHAN ROBINSON Special to The Hoot

In spite of the fact that President Jehuda Reinharz resigned over three months ago, we know little actual information about the process for choosing the next president. We do not know where the search committee stands in its process, and we do not have a list of the candidates currently under consideration. In fact, thus far, we have only heard one name mentioned as a possible replacement: board of trustees member Meyer Koplow, who stepped down as chairman of the search committee after his nomination for the presidency. This early publicity gives Koplow an automatic advantage for the moment, as his is the lone name associated with the empty position. But cursory research into Koplow's background shows him to be fundamentally at odds with the ideals of Louis Brandeis, and his presidency is a terrifying prospect.

Meyer Koplow's main notability came as a lawyer for tobacco giant Philip Morris (now Altria).

Koplow was one of the principle attorneys responsible for negotiating the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, in which the four largest tobacco companies struck a deal with 46 state attorneys general. Under the terms

of the deal, the tobacco companies made certain major concessions, such as refraining from advertising directly to minors and funding anti-tobacco efforts. In return, the states agreed to end the legal pursuit of compensation for health costs associated with tobacco use. At the time, antismoking groups hailed the settlement as a victory, and the tobacco companies used it as evidence that they were far from the soulless, murderous monoliths the public perceived them as.

But the settlement may have been far more of a victory for the companies than it initially seemed. Certainly it did little good for the public welfare: a 2001 study by the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the settlement "appears to have had little effect on cigarette advertising in magazines and on the exposure of young people to these advertisements." Furthermore, according to American Cancer Society CEO John Seffrin, "despite a commitment by the states to use proceeds from the settlement to combat tobacco use, states have unfortunately devoted the funds to other priorities at the same time the tobacco industry has increased spending on marketing and promotions." So the settlement barred states from

pursuing the tobacco companies further, while having scarce actual effect on their practices.

Amidst all of this, Koplow was a faithful crusader for Philip Morris. A New York Times article from the time reports on Koplow’s advocacy efforts: “Meyer Koplow, a lawyer for the tobacco industry, insisted last week that unless Congress enacted a law that gave tobacco companies considerable protection from damage suits, the cigarette companies would not agree to modify their relentless ad campaigns. Congress cannot stop the ads, Mr. Koplow asserted, because to do so would violate the companies' right to free speech.”

Koplow’s indifferent disregard for tobacco-related illness and death is alarming enough, but let’s probe further by examining his list of political campaign contributions from over the years. The first striking fact is that Koplow’s donations have overwhelmingly been to Republican candidates.

The lucky recipients of checks from Koplow include Jack Ryan, the 2004 Illinois senatorial candidate who was forced to withdraw from the race after divorce papers revealed that he had pressured his wife to have public intercourse at sex clubs. The Friends of Joe Lieberman fund received $2,100, and the New York

Republican County Committee received $1,000. Also featured is South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, who received $2,000 from Koplow. DeMint is one of the most colorful and conservative Republicans in the Senate. He opposes a woman's right to an abortion under all circumstances, including rape and incest. DeMint placed a hold on the confirmation President Obama's nominee for Transportation Security Administration administrator, purely out of his concern that the new administrator might allow TSA workers to unionize (This, of course, left America's security apparatus without leadership during the Christmas Day bombing attempt). Further, DeMint classics include stalling President Bush's global AIDS initiative, giving support to and meeting with the illegitimate military government of Honduras in deliberate defiance of the U.S. stance on the coup and claiming that reforming healthcare endangers the troops in Afghanistan.

All of this may seem like guilt by association. After all, Koplow is not actually the one who took Jeri Ryan to a sex club, or castrated the TSA in a time of crisis. But money fuels politics, and Meyer Koplow's money fuels Jim DeMint's politics. DeMint is only

able to continue to undermine America's security thanks to generous donations like Koplow's.

Of course, I don't know how strongly Koplow's nomination will be considered. His recusal may have given him publicity, but it doesn't necessarily give him credibility with the decisionmakers. But as a board insider, and especially as the former head of the search committee itself, he would seem to have certain natural advantages. It is our responsibility as students committed to Justice Brandeis' ideals to firmly oppose the progress of Koplow towards the presidency. Brandeis saw big business as a "curse," and, in fact, left the Republican Party when he believed it had become overrun with corporate interests.

He was a champion of the rights of the individual against the corporation, in sharp contrast to Koplow, who in fact sought to crush and poison the individual at the hands of one of the largest companies in the United States. So while Koplow’s nomination may be hailed by the Brandeis Republicans, his presidency would represent a tragic departure from the founding principles of the university, and any group with a social conscience should stand firmly opposed.

February 5, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

IMPRESSIONS

17

Book of Matthew

The stimulus at Brandeis

BY BRET MATTHEW Editor

As you may have heard, Brandeis received $9 million from the $787 billion federal stimulus package Congress passed last year, enough to fund several research projects that would have otherwise been put on hold. But not everyone approves. In his Jan. 26 column in the Justice, staff writer Avi Snyder argued that Brandeis should have neither sought nor accepted the aid.

Though a self-identified Republican who claims to be “naturally suspicious of big government spending projects,” Snyder does not dispute the overall boosting effect a stimulus package can have on an ailing economy. Instead, he argues that the money Congress approved could have been better spent in other ways, taking issue with the fact that it is going toward research and not job creation. Blue-collar workers, he says, have been hit far harder than any other demographic in this downturn; therefore, the government should have used its emergency relief to help them reclaim their jobs before moving on to long-term projects. By refusing the money, he concludes, Brandeis would have fulfilled its commitment to social justice by siding with workers in need.

I disagree with Snyder’s argument for two reasons. First, I believe that the goals of the stimulus, as stated in its introduction, are exactly what we need in this recession: “To preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery; to assist those most impacted by the recession; to provide

investments needed to provide economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health; to invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits.” This clearly shows an effort on the part of the government to take a long-term, as well as a shortterm, approach to the economic recovery.

Both are needed in order to ensure that our economy emerges from this mess stronger and more resilient.

While it is not always publicized, funding for scientific research tends to drop during recessions. Businesses, low on cash and under pressure to keep from going lower, tend to focus on what they feel is most important for their bottom line. Like it or not, Brandeis is a business, and major research projects are expensive. Without help, we would have to cut programs.

However, the $9 million Brandeis received will provide a solution to that problem by funding all kinds of projects: $800,000 to study the role the nervous system plays in heart disease, $1 million to study the ways the brain stores memory, and $900,000 to hire a tenure-track biologist and study neural circuitry. In total, the money will allow for the creation or retention of 16 full-time research jobs.

It is on that note that I reject Snyder’s second argument—that by accepting the $9 million, Brandeis took away opportunities from blue-collar workers. We need to acknowledge that the money Brandeis received was going to go to a university

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

to fund research whether we had put our name in for a bid or not. It is unlikely that the government had any plans to put that money into, say, unemployment benefits if Brandeis had chosen not to pursue it. It was up to the university to decide if it wanted to create jobs here or let another university jump on the opportunity.

We all benefit from scientific research.

Those who carry it out get paying jobs. The rest of us receive a plethora of scientific information that eventually finds its way into new technologies. Regarding some of the Brandeis projects, it seems likely that some of this research will influence future medical technology. No one can deny that this will be useful to all of us down the road.

It is certainly admirable of Snyder to ex-

press his support for blue-collar workers in need. There is absolutely no question that the government should do whatever it can to make sure that Americans get their jobs back. And I think it is. The stimulus put billions of dollars toward short-term economic relief, and as you read this, the president and Congress are working on a federal jobs bill that will hopefully provide even more relief.

But we must not forget that it is also up to the government to help strengthen the economy as a whole. I’m glad that even in these difficult times, Brandeis took the initiative and dedicated itself to carrying out cutting-edge research that will benefit us all.

Anti-Semitism at the academy

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the famous mathematician John Nash and his direct connection to Brandeis as a hired research specialist for a short time in the mid-1960s. I learned about this connection from reading Sylvia Nasar's excellent biography "A Beautiful Mind;" before that, I had no idea that Nash had been here at all. Outside of Nash's tenure at Brandeis, however, I discovered another theme running throughout the book that increased my appreciation of our university.

I had known since I first started looking into Brandeis as a possible college option that it was founded mostly due to the antiSemitic attitudes that existed in academia in the mid-20th century, but until I read "A Beautiful Mind," I had no idea how pervasive this bias was. The barriers that prevented Jews from attending and working for the top universities in the United States were so high that many of the greatest minds of the time were completely shut out from the only institutions with the resources to properly support their advanced research. As a result, the landscape of the preeminent science and mathematics departments in the nation was altered in a way that can still be seen today.

Brandeis was founded as a nonsectarian, Jewish-sponsored institution in 1948 in reaction to the strict quota system that had been limiting Jewish attendance at most American universities. Originally, it was to be named after the most renowned Jewish scientist in history: Albert Einstein.

Though Einstein's personal religious beliefs

tended closer to Deism than to organized Judaism, he still considered himself very much culturally Jewish, and he fled Germany early in the Nazi regime's rise to power.

Einstein's reputation was already that of the world's greatest scientist, enough to secure him a professorship at Princeton, but he was acutely aware that not all deserving Jewish thinkers were as lucky as he.

Harvard was one of the worst offenders.

Under the chairmanship of G. D. Birkhoff, who Einstein referred to as “one of the world's great academic anti-Semites,” the Harvard math department ignored the collection of Jewish talent that had fled Germany before World War II. And though Harvard couldn't reach the highest academic levels with Birkhoff, they couldn't without him either. His reputation was so great that his death provoked an exodus of some the school's top professors, and the department went into a state of decline.

Harvard's loss was MIT's gain, however.

The engineering school's reputation was not nearly what it is today, but their proximity to Harvard made it easy to siphon the intellects that the larger school lost or passed over entirely. New York University also established its stellar reputation during this time, as its non-discriminatory admission policies and location amid America's largest Jewish population allowed it access to plenty of forgotten talent.

Princeton might have benefited more than any other institution. Despite his Jewish background, mathematics department chair Solomon Lefschetz limited the number of Jews that were accepted as students; he reasoned that they would have trouble finding work, and the department's reputa-

tion would suffer accordingly. However, this bias did not extend to hiring faculty, and Lefschetz relentlessly pursued the top research minds in the world. Lefschetz himself was one of the leading lights of his department. His work on topology, particularly his fundamental fixed point theorem, has proven critical to the modern understanding of the subject, and his thirty year span as editor of the "Annals of Mathematics" turned the journal into one of the most revered publications in the academic world.

The greatest name on the Princeton faculty, and the one whose work would become most inexorably connected with that of John Nash, was John von Neumann.

Born in Hungary, he went to school and started working in Berlin before coming to America to escape Nazi persecution. He is recognized now as one of the great geniuses of the century, with contributions spanning several academic disciplines and a breathtaking mental computational ability. His "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior," which he co-wrote with Oskar Morgenstern, became one of the rare works that both founded an entire branch of mathematics (modern game theory) and became an international bestseller (earning it a cover story in the "New York Times").

MIT's brightest light was Norbert Wiener, who had started as a Harvard professor but was driven out by the anti-Semitism he found at the university. Wiener gained great fame as a pure mathematician, then moved into applied mathematics and invented the field of cybernetics. His religious background would later inspire him to write "God and Golem, Inc.: A Com-

ment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion" as an attempt to reconcile traditional religious thought with his new discoveries. One of Wiener's most notable hires was of Norman Levinson, who would go on to be one of John Nash's greatest friends as well as a successful mathematician in his own right. Levinson's spectacular resume made his rejection by Harvard for a professorship particularly offensive, so much so that the famous English mathematician G. H. Hardy personally accosted Harvard provost Vannevar Bush and accused him of running a theological seminary instead of a school.

In the early 1900s, Harvard University was universally recognized as the greatest college in the world, and it had the cachet and the endowment to collect the greatest talent in the world, particularly with the immigration of many German-Jewish scientists into the United States. The fact that they refused to do so purely for antiSemitic reasons has created scars in their department that still haven't healed. However, without their prejudice, the great diversification of American higher education into many leading schools might never have occurred.

Most importantly for us, the anti-Semitism that so many schools were guilty of allowed Brandeis University to attract top flight talent from its inception and grow in prestige faster than possibly any other college in the country. Brandeis' success is the success of non-discriminatory acceptance and hiring practices, and that makes attending this school all the more meaningful to me.

18 IMPRESSIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

Hoot Cartoons Sleazy by Matt Kupfer

February 5, 2010

Borde-nough

ILLUSTRATION BY Sara Weininger/The Hoot

Doing us a favor

BY CHRIS BORDELON Columnist

SEA Change

Get back on your bike

BY ALEXANDER POLANCO Special to The Hoot

Almost all of us can remember spending the afternoons of our youth riding around on bicycles after school. With training wheels spinning wildly, silly grins on our faces, and a gentle wind in our hair, we cherished those spring afternoons. It is an almost universal experience, appreciated around the world.

So what happened? Why in our adult life are bicycles no longer considered fun?

With winter’s whirlwinds violently battering our frail ramen-nourished bodies, it is completely understandable to dismiss bicycles as an outdated and borderline masochistic means of travel. However, in the oncoming spring months, bicycles can be a convenient, healthy, and environmentallyfriendly means of transportation.

Anyone who has spent time in Waltham knows that South St. and Main St. rush hour traffic can get pretty serious. Does it really make sense for us to contribute to the waiting and the pollution? Biking is one way in which we can act out against this fundamentally wrong institution of traffic, pollution, and waste.

Bike culture has been steadily gaining momentum in cities around the world, and it isn’t very difficult to see why. Critical Mass is a movement sweeping the world in which thousands of bikers take to the streets and show off their bike pride. Boston, New York, and San Francisco have huge contingencies of bikers.

Students for Environmental Action (SEA) supports bicycle culture. We have several events lined up, such as “Pimp your bike,” an event we are sure will allow for expressive, practical and very fun ways to customize your bicycle. We envision a campus full of unique bikes and safe riders.

Many have expressed reservations about bikes on our hilly campus, but never fear: SEA will soon be releasing bike-friendly trail maps through Waltham and alternatives to traffic-crammed streets. The pamphlet will be easy to read and navigate and will also include safety tips.

‘Deis-bikes will also play an integral role in allowing Brandeisians to see first hand how fun bikes can still be. Using this free service we can all check out bicycles for a day with just our Brandeis ID's. The bikes are stationed outside of the Shapiro Campus Center and will re-open in the spring.

Money may not be a concern for all of us, but it sure is for most. Bikes, unlike their gas-guzzling alternative, have no operating cost. Our biking future is strong and with gas prices rising and with the troubled economy, we’re all looking for cost-effective ways to cut back. Biking also has great health benefits and is a great way to get your heart pumping!

So when the weather warms and the snow finally melts away consider bicycling to your destinations. Pop that gear into action and pedal on!

The Russian and Chinese governments probably didn't plan to do the United States a huge favor last week that would enable the country to quickly improve its strategic posture. But, whether they intended it or not, they did. As in the way of international politics, of course, they expressed their goodwill in a manner more indirect than most intentional gift-givers, so it remains to be seen whether American leaders will ride their gift-horse or kick it in the teeth.

Russia's generosity began on Jan. 29 with its first public display of the new T-50 fighter aircraft. The T-50, a product of Russia's military modernization program, is considered the first non-American stealth aircraft. It is also the first result of nonAmerican efforts to build what writers on military hardware call the “fifth generation” of jet fighters, a field that the U.S. itself entered only in 2005 with the deployment of its most modern current fighter, the F-22 Raptor.

Not content to merely show off its plane, the Russian government added to its gift to the U.S. government when it sold a cache of arms to Libya. The weapons, according to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, were “not just small arms.” Perhaps Libya's ruler, the mercurial Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi, was in a bad mood on Jan. 29 when the deal was struck, because he had recently learned that he would be denied a second consecutive term as African Union president. Or maybe he acted as a middleman for someone in neighboring Sudan who wants weapons even more than he does. Whatever was on the colonel's mind, Russia's state-run arms exporting firm took advantage of his loose purse strings to the tune of $1.8 billion.

Russia was not alone in its show of affection towards the U.S. When the U.S. announced the long-anticipated sale of a $6 billion package of arms to Taiwan on Jan. 29, the Chinese government flew off the handle. Rather than confine itself to a temperate protest, China sanctioned certain imports from the US, suspended military exchanges, and threatened retaliation against American-run businesses situated in the districts of members of Congress who supported the sale.

Never mind that President Barack Obama's administration was, for practical purposes, compelled to sell something to Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act of

1979. And never mind that Obama carefully put off the sale of F-16 jet fighters— which, given the age of the jets and that Taiwan had already bought some of the aircraft from the U.S. 18 years ago, should have been uncontroversial. China's dictators didn't want their gift to the Americans to go unnoticed, so they loudly projected unmistakable anger and resentment.

The Chinese and Russians may have sought to give American leaders a hard time, but the Americans have actually received room to maneuver politically—if only they can grasp that fact. To be sure, there may seem little reason to thank Russia when it sells arms to tin-pot dictators or makes weapons to rival America's,. Nor is there much reason to applaud China's saber-rattling and assertion of a right to menace and ultimately destroy Taiwan in order to reclaim it.

Still, the obnoxious Russian and Chinese activities offer the yearold Obama administration a way to end the continued waste of lives in Afghanistan and Iraq and the overspending on those wars and homeland security.

If the U.S. is to compete with big, resourcerich countries like Russia and China which continue to modernize their armed forces, it must spend less money using old hardware to occupy poor, weak countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, the U.S. should spend more on building new hardware to deter real threats in the future.

The need to spend more selectively is clear. On Monday, Obama proposed a record-breaking 2011 U.S. budget deficit of $1.56 trillion, which is projected to amount to an unsustainable 10.6 percent of America's gross domestic product.

The recent Russian and Chinese moves together provide the perfect political cover for a review of American military commitments that would result in a shifting of defense priorities. An American exit from Afghanistan could be initiated, the exit from Iraq could be accelerated and future U.S. military spending could be directed toward countering real future threats rather than fighting Bush's—and Obama's— bogeymen. All this the administration could accomplish without being accused of retreating, appeasing, cutting, running or anything of the kind. Russia's and China's actions might ordinarily leave a sour taste in one's mouth, but lemonade can still be made of their lemons.

The need to spend more selectively is clear.

February 5, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

IMPRESSIONS

19

ILLUSTRATION BY Lenny Schnier/The Hoot

Making sense out of the Age of Division

BY RICK ALTERBAUM Staff

Five and a half years ago, a then littleknown state senator from Illinois named Barack Obama declared at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that, “There is no red America, there is no blue America— there is only the United States of America.”

Despite his soaring rhetoric, Obama, after one year into his presidency, has failed to truly foster a spirit of bipartisanship. On the contrary, the current administration has only exacerbated and increased the visibility of the schisms that linger over our country’s politics.

Initially, this may not seem to be the case. From an objective standpoint, the Obama administration’s policies have been extraordinarily centrist and pragmatic. In its current state, Obama's health care bill bears a semblance to the Massachusetts Plan passed under Republican Governor Mitt Romney: one third of his stimulus bill includes tax cuts normally favored by conservatives; his financial regulatory plan as well as his cap-and-trade bill do relatively little to harm corporations and are more or less sympathetic to them; his recentlydeclared spending freeze is a sign of his commitment to fiscal discipline; and he has sent thousands of additional troops to Af-

ghanistan, an action that has found much support amongst Republicans and skepticism from Democrats.

However, the irony is that this supposedly un-ideological approach has left the country bitterly divided because it has alienated both sides of the political spectrum. At the outset of the current administration, the left eagerly supported the new president.

When Obama began compromising with centrists and moderate Republicans, they knew that such tactical behavior was necessary for the passage of crucial legislation, such as the stimulus package. However, as time wore on, Obama either abandoned or postponed focusing on traditional causes associated with liberalism, such as a singlepayer health care system—or at least a public option—and the repealing of the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy. The disillusioned left-leaning electorate, though still eager to support Obama, especially in contrast to the demonized GOP, has lost a great deal of enthusiasm. In its current state, Leftists are far less inclined to donate, volunteer, or simply go to the polls for his future campaigns or Congressional ones than it was in 2008.

Conversely, the right has made the political calculation that they have nothing to lose by resorting to pure, unadulterated ob-

structionism. As mentioned before, there is much in Obama’s initiatives, such as tax cuts and business-friendly regulations, which the Republicans, under normal circumstances, would support. Yet the right has little incentive to cooperate, because if the Democrats’ plans fail, the blame, as proven by the 1994 elections, falls squarely on their shoulders. This strategy is manifested in their unprecedented use of the filibuster, holds, and other arcane parliamentary rules that serve as the plaque that clogs the arteries of the legislative circulatory system.

Of course, no mention of the GOP is complete without discussion of the Tea Party movement. This libertarian-leading crowd is not the first of its kind; this country has a long history of extreme right wing associations, from the John Birch Society to the Ku Klux Klan. However, the Tea Partiers have produced a Dede Scozzafava effect. Republicans are afraid of conservative primary challenges, and as a result, have become even more averse to bipartisanship on any significant issue. This dynamic is currently being reproduced in the Florida senate race between Governor Charlie Crist, a moderate Republican, at least at heart, and Marco Rubio, who has effectively used his opponent’s conciliatory

inclinations to his advantage.

One can argue that Washington has always been intractably ultra-partisan. Yet, this is certainly among the first periods in our history where nearly every single major initiative, even if it is centrist and seemingly uncontroversial, has passed through party line votes. At the same time, very few individuals, both on Capitol Hill and in the electorate, are perfectly content with the current state of affairs. The left feels disenchanted, with many of their progressive hopes dashed for the moment, while the right eagerly waits for those in power to fail as they scream “tax cuts” and “socialism” all along the way.

In response, Obama ought to rekindle the spark that made his 2008 campaign as epic and transformative as it was. A GOP concerned with tea-party-supported primary challenges will never support him. In regards to centrist Democrats, a rising tide of legislative success hopefully will lift all blue boats. In addition, the post-partisan shtick of un-ideological centrism that only produces even more partisanship, ought to go; if you can’t beat Washington’s ways, join them. Until then, the status quo persists, as our political leaders remain ensconced in this Age of Division.

20 The Brandeis Hoot

HOOT SCOOPS

February 5, 2010

State of the Union In the wake of Diana Aronin’s removal and breach of the student Constitution, the Student Union is reeling from both the loss of a secretary and much of its remaining campus credibility. After the fall from grace of a university-wide elected student leader and the accompanying judicial infighting, all three branches of the student government have fallen victim to campus-wide disillusionment.

The newly former Secretary Aronin ’11 herself attributes longstanding internal strife not only to the way she was tried before the Union Judiciary, but also to the fact that the “Union is not what it was when I signed up for this.”

“They impeached me for a mistake, and one like we all make all the time,” she said.

Aronin’s impeachment charges and the subsequent ordeal for not calling a vote for a midyear senator were grounded on a technicality of timing and a series of complications perpetuated by the Constitution itself.

Aronin’s defense claimed she could not constitutionally call the vote because the proposal was invalidated by the fact that a senator who had since graduated had written its argument for passage.

The Constitution also affected the action taken by the Senate against Aronin. The document commands that once enough senators ratify a proposal, it is to go before the entire student body. When it did not, the Senate unanimously charged Aronin with impeachment for “violation of the Student Union Constitution.”

Finally the UJ in turn also saw itself bound by the fact that a proposal was not in fact voted upon. The justices

“disagree[d] with [Aronin’s] first argument, [found] the second…ultimately critically uninvolved and fundamentally flawed, and expressly reject[ed] the third.”

Because the Senate did not present witnesses at the trial, the UJ had to weigh Aronin’s defense against only the Constitution in making its decision.

The result was Aronin’s ordered removal from office in a unanimous ruling.

Aronin believes her removal can be attributed to a Union power play, saying “the Senate was looking for a scapegoat and wanted to demonstrate their power.”

“The UJ just wanted a case,” she said. “It just landed on me.”

While internal struggles may have been part of the conflict, however, the case could not have unfolded were it not for the participants’ view that each was only acting according to the Constitution they had sworn to uphold.

The effect the trial has had on students’ perception of the Union is reflected in the scarcity of candidates for a multitude of vacant Union positions this week.

In addition to the office of secretary, the winter elections are being held for four Senate posts and a seat on the UJ. The judicial election has drawn some candidates, possibly in light of its recent news-making, including Aronin’s friend and counsel for her case, Deena Glucksman ’11, who is running to join the justices she argued before last month.

“To be honest, [my

By Nathan Koskella, Editor

running] was from the process of working with the UJ for Diana’s impeachment case,” she said. “The UJ process was really just frustrating.”

When asked about the view of the Union as a whole, Glucksman said that it was “ridiculous…and a lot of the things aren’t working.”

Glucksman said she wanted to run to be a justice because she feels she “can’t complain if I don’t try to fix it.”

Another candidate for Union justice, second-semester senior Ryan Martin said that he had “no particular agenda, but the Union’s reputation is pretty poor.”

“The students are completely disillusioned, and the Union has been termed ‘self-important,” he said.

“I’m running just to see if I can have some sort of role trying to fix their awful reputation.”

Not all students believe it can be fixed. The Charles River position had a single candidate running unopposed, though the Class of 2012 election did marshal two candidates.

But the Senate position for East Quad, where the majority of that sophomore class lives, looks to remain unfilled, as the 60-odd percent of the 2012 class that lives in East could not muster any willing candidate.

Executive Senator Jenna Rubin ’11, the senators’ self-elected leader, said, “the

Senate, after the impeachment business, is moving forward,” using the “really great project reports that are coming to completion” as an example.

But, according to the Union Web site, six of 18 senators have submitted three or fewer project reports this academic year, including one senator who has submitted zero.

At the most recent Senate meeting Sunday, half of the senators and executive officers did not submit their weekly reports. The week of Jan. 24, there was one report out of the 26 officials, indicating they share their constituents’ lack of enthusiasm in the Union.

Rubin said she “hope[s] students in the future will want to be more involved, because there’s a lot to be done.”

Union President Andy Hogan ’11 admitted that the Aronin case had put the entire Union under the microscope.

“We need to refocus what we’re doing—we need to move past this petty drama and toward what students really need,” he said.