The Brandeis Hoot - Feb 26, 2010

VOL 7, NO. 5

FEBRUARY 26, 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

WA LT H A M , M A

J Street on South Street Founder: time running out on two-state solution

BY LEAH FINKELMAN Editor

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

THE CHOPPING BLOCK: A sign in the window of the Anthropology department expresses displeasure at the Brandeis 2020 Committee’s proposal to terminate the department’s Ph.D. program.

Brandeis 2020 Committee suggests broad academic cuts

18 proposals terminate, Cuts elicit muted restructure academics community reaction

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor

The Brandeis 2020 Committee today released a list of 18 proposals to either terminate or reorganize graduate and undergraduate programs in an effort to save the university $3.8 million annually beginning in 2012.

Eight of the proposals affect graduate programs, and include

indefinitely suspending admissions to the doctorate Anthropology program, the master’s program in Cultural Production and the master’s of Fine Arts in Theatre Design.

Other proposals concerning graduate programs include merging the Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology doctoral programs, halvSee PROPOSALS, p. 5

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor

Despite recent proposals to terminate or restructure 18 academic programs, the university’s students and faculty alike have been relatively accepting of the need for cuts.

Caroline Grassi ’12 said at an open forum for undergraduate students Thursday that she “understands the need to cut.”

“Considering our economic sit-

uation, I feel the Committee did a fairly good job,” she said, adding that her understanding comes despite being an Italian major, one of the programs which may terminate in 2015.

Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 said the tone of discussion about the recently proposed cuts is a drastic difference than

See REACTIONS, p. 4

Campus TV cable to remain despite service warnings

BY DESTINY D. AQUINO Editor

Brandeis’ cable television service provided by Comcast will not be affected by their transition to digital cable in the Waltham area, despite frequent warnings from the cable company during regular programing.

John Turner, director of systems and networks for Library and Technolgy Services wrote in a myBrandeis post, “Don’t panic!

Brandeis is NOT going to lose our Cable TV. Comcast is transitioning the Waltham area cable completely digital service. As a result our TV stations are getting a message that says if you can read this you need to get a cable box. This is NOT true for Brandeis.”

The notices appearing on campus TV sets will continue until

THIS WEEK:

Waltham transitions to digital cable.

After the transition is complete on April 7, the university will be an exception to the digital service, which requires customers to own a cable box. During the transition, several channels may not be available for 24-hour periods, although some may last throughout the entirety of the transition.

There have been several cable channel outages in the last week, which led to student rumors stating that the university would soon only have access to network channels like ABC, CBS and NBC as well as public television such as C-SPAN. Student concern also led to a Facebook group named “Brandeis give us our TV back!,” which demanded the return of cable service from the university.

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder of the national Jewish lobbying group J Street spoke Thursday about the need for Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, emphasizing the need for an American presence.

J Street, founded as a “proIsrael, pro-peace” lobbying body which advocates for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, means to represent Americans who support a twostate solution: a Jewish homeland in Israel, and a sovereign Palestinian state. J Street believes that diplomacy and dialogue are better options than military action, he said. According to its website, the mission is to “promote meaningful American leadership to achieve peace and security in the Middle East and to broaden the debate on these issues nationally and in the Jewish community.”

Ben-Ami described himself and his colleagues at the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement as “deep and passionate advocates for Israel” who want to aid Israel in its quest for peace.

He echoed the thoughts of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at a recent security conference.

“The simple truth is, if there is one state it will have to be either binational or undemocratic,” Barak said. “If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”

Like Barak, Ben-Ami and J Street are calling for a two-state solution as soon as possible. “I have never felt a greater sense of urgency from everybody in the region,” said Ben-Ami of his recent visit to Israel. “The greatest threat to Israel’s security is a failure to reach a two-state solution.

The time is running out.”

He said both sides feel that they have no partner in the issue, and there must be some sort of moderator in any peace talks. “At the end of the day, we’re Americans and the decisions are up to Israel,” he said, but the Obama administration should act as a mediating presence.

“If we’re going to make peace, this is the leadership to make it See JSTREET, p. 4

@TheBrandeisHoot.com HootCast Audio

The Brandeis Watch: CARS Report Open Call: Theater cuts at Brandeis The Hoot Report: Health care summit

Olympics, page 14

Impressions, page 16

Twitter: http://twitter.com/thebrandeishoot Facebook: http://facebook.thebrandeishoot.com

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

February 26, 2010

Skinner exposes modern slavery in Social Justice lecture

BY JON OSTROWSKY Staff

Investigative journalist E. Benjamin Skinner discussed modern slavery and working towards emancipation in a Social Justice Leadership lecture in Rapaporte Treasure Hall Monday. The lecture was sponsored by the Schuster Center for Investigative Journalism, where Skinner is a senior fellow.

Skinner stressed that although there are more slaves than ever before in human history, the problem can be solved by pressuring governments to spend more money towards emancipation programs.

While modern slavery is most prevalent in South East Asian nations such as India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, Skinner said that between 14,000 and 17,000 people are enslaved in the United States every year.

“This is not a crime that is far from where we live,” Skinner said, adding that there are about 50,000 slaves in the United States at any given time. One person becomes a slave in the United States every 30 minutes, Skinner said.

“The critical thing is mapping where the slaves and the trafficking victims are coming from, and that takes research and dedicated, young Brandeis graduates” to find out where the trafficking is happening, Skinner said.

“The critical part that I see missing is prevention,” Skinner said. “There really has to be a better way of first implementing that prevention, and then measuring it.”

Skinner told one story of how he was once able to negotiate the slave trade of a 12-year-old girl in Haiti. The trader initially asked for $100, but Skinner said that after about two minutes, he had negotiated the sale down to $50.

“I bet that’s less than the cost of a cab from here to Logan airport,” Skinner said.

Haiti, like other poverty stricken nations, is succeptable to slavery because many parents face a “devil’s choice” between allowing slave traders to provide

basic necessities including food to their children “versus the certain fait of watching the child die.”

“These are not parents selling their children into slavery,” Skinner said.

Before the Jan. 11 earthquakes, between 225,000 and 300,000 Haitian children were domestic slaves, Skinner said.

He also said that there is no law against human trafficking within Haiti.

Skinner strongly criticized the ten American missionaries charged with child kidnapping in Haiti after attempting to transport 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29. The Americans claimed that they had an orphanage set up there.

“Their actions showed just how vulnerable the children and these families were,” Skinner said.

Skinner called the missionaries “fools” and “clowns,’ who are taking away important news coverage of topics such as aid and relief work for the victims of the earthquake. Referring to the missionaries legal adviser Jorge Puello, who has an Interpol warrant issued for his arrest for crimes involving prostitution with young girls, Skinner said that “those that are the best at it [human trafficking], those that make the most money, are least likely to be prosecuted.”

“It’s important that we do prosecution right,” Skinner said.

Responding to comments about the impact of abolishing slavery on the global economy, Skinner said it will actually help improve the world’s economy because slaves will be given money for the first time, which they can spend once they are able to live at a “moderate poverty” level.

Skinner, author of “A Crime So Monstrous: Face to Face with Modern-Day Slavery,” has researched human trafficking first-hand while occasionally participating in negotiations with slave dealers conducting human trafficking.

“I knew that I couldn’t count every slave,” Skinner said, speaking about the goals of his recent book. “What I wanted to do was to show what their slavery meant.”

PHOTO BY Jodi Elkin/The Hoot

EXPOSURE: E. Benjamin Skinner discusses his experiences as an investigative journalist exposing modern slavery at the Shuster Institute for Investigative Journalism’s Social Justice Lecture.

Skinner reminded the audience that although we often refer to slavery as a “metaphor for undue hardship,” the slavery he investigates deals with “people that cannot walk away from their work.”

Though slavery is still prevalent today, Skinner said the percentage of enslaved people worldwide has decreased. “I would argue that there are plenty of in-

dicators that gives us hope,” he said. We have to do abolition right this time,” he said.

“One of the goals of the [Social Justice] Series is to introduce students to individuals who have forged career paths in pursuit of social justice. And Ben Skinner is certainly one of those people,” Florence Graves, founding director of the Schuster

Gosman solar Haiti relief efforts continue, donations to panels turned on Partners in Health matched through Sunday

BY DESTINY D. AQUINO Editor

The solar panel installation on the roof of The Gosman Sports and Convocation Center is now turned on and collecting energy. NSTAR energy approved the installation in an inspection on Feb 24.

In the past two days the panels have produced over fourteen thousand-kilowatt hours of energy.

It is projected to produce approximately 300,000 hours per year and SAVE the university close to a million dollars in its expected 25-year life span. The system is one of the largest in the state; it will account for approximately ten percent of the energy needed to power the Gosman center.

Students can monitor how much energy has been created through the campus sustainability website. The solar panel installation was part of a power purchase agreement between EOS ventures and the university. The university will buy the energy produced by the panels from EOS instead of from a regular electrical utility.

BY LEAH FINKELMAN Staff

The Brandeis community continued to raise money for Haiti this week with several events bringing it closer to the ultimate goal of $25,000 for the earthquake-struck nation with an additional incentive: Brandeis joins schools across the country in an initiative through Partners in Health (PIH) to match student donations raised before Sunday.

PIH has collaborated with the Entrepreneurs Foundation HelpHaiti Fund to begin the Students For Haiti Challenge. For one week, the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas will match money donated to Partners in Health by schools including Boston University, Harvard and nearly fifty other colleges and universities that have chosen to be included.

PIH is a health care provider with an eye towards social justice. Based in Boston, PIH has been operating in Haiti and other countries, including Rwanda and Peru, for more than twenty years. More than four thousand employees in Haiti provide a “preferential option to the poor,” working under a model intending to both treat patients and prevent diseases, be-

lieving that health is a right that should be available to everyone. Currently, their biggest need is monetary donations to send supplies and medical teams where they are greatly needed.

Partners in Health is one of three organizations that receives donations from the Brandeis Haiti Relief Fund. Money also goes to Hope for Haiti and ETE Camp, a children’s summer camp in Haiti started by Shaina Gilbert ’10.

Other fundraising efforts this week included a concert featuring Mike Posner, Big Sean and Tha Jist and Improvaganza: Haiti Benefit.

The concert, sponsored by Student Events with help from the Waltham Group, attracted 400 students, and gave about $800 in proceeds to the Brandeis Haiti Relief Fund, according to Student Events Outreach Coordinator Jonathan Kane ’10.

“We were pleased with the turnout,” Kane said. “Obviously we want to sell out every show, but our chief goal is to entertain students and we did that.” He added that although Student Events has nothing else currently planned for Haiti relief, the group is looking forward to helping other campus organizations, including the Waltham Group, plan more events and fundraisers.

Improvaganza and Chum’s Coffeehouse teamed up for a night of improv comedy on Thursday featuring The Floor is Lava and other groups. Improvaganza, a monthly comedy forum, is usually free, but when Chum’s Event Manager Alissa Cherry ’10 suggested a fundraiser to organizer Paul Gale ’12, he “gladly embraced it.”

“I’d do this stuff for free all day, so why not do it for charity?” Gale said.

The hosts asked that guests donate two dollars, but many donated more, raising a total sum of $117. All of the money will go to ETE CAMP, Partners in Health and Hope for Haiti Cherry said.

BHRE also receives money from club fundraisers each week, such as an Ice Skating Club event this week and English department reading of Haitian literature, said BHRE Heller School Coordinator Heather Lefebvre ’10. In addition, proceeds from Pachanga will be given to BHRE. “Supporting the people of Haiti is extremely important at this time,” Gilbert said. “The entire nation, from its destroyed capital to its now overpopulated and under-resourced villages and provinces, needs a great deal of assistance.

February 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

NEWS

3

On campus housing prices to rise for 2010-2011 year

BY BECCA CARDEN Staff

The university will increase housing prices between the Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 semesters; however, the amount of the increase will not be determined until after the board of trustees’ budget discussion in May. “I don’t anticipate that the university’s going to be in the position to increase the rates to a really high level,” Senior Director of Community Living Jeremy Leiferman said, adding that housing prices rise almost every year.

Traditionally, rooms in the Ridgewood and Foster Mod suites, which both cost $8,100 this year, are the most expensive on-campus housing. Rosenthal and Ziv quads are also generally more expensive than other options.

Singles and doubles in other areas are all around the same price this year.

Trina Barnes ‘12 said the price difference will affect her housing decision.

“I actually was going to go with Ridgewood because I got a pretty good

number,” Barnes said, “but I heard that it was one of the most expensive quads.

Now that I heard the price is increased, I’ll have to seriously consider it.”

Not knowing the exact prices of housing before the lottery, scheduled to begin next week, is frustrating for students living on campus.

“I fell like we should know what prices are before we research what we want to do and make a decision,” Olivia Gratz ’12 said.

Leiferman, however, said the rates will probably rise in proportion to prices this year, which can help students predict what different rooms will cost in the future.

“Our advice to students is that there will be a raise in rates across the board,” he said. “There’s not been a case where we raise the rate, say 20 percent for one area and not as much for others.”

Many students see living off campus as a viable option to avoid potential high costs of living on campus. “I’m moving off campus next year because it’s cheaper, I hear,” Joe Eisenbies ’13, said.While off-campus housing is of-

ADVER TISEMENT

ten easier for students to afford, Brandeis does consider their competition from the Waltham, Cambridge and Boston housing markets when it sets its prices.

Howe ve r, Leiferman explained that many students’ choice to live off campus is based on more than money.

“I think that it has to do with the experience students are looking for,” he said.

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

German green expert discusses effects of Copenhagen conference

BY NATHAN KOSKELLA

said.

“The Copenhagen accord,” he said, “for the first time lays out the agreeInternational political scientist Arne ment that the goal is for the average Jungjohann presented continuing plans global temperature to not rise by more of the global green movement to the than two degrees Celsius [in compariuniversity’s Forum on Environmental son to 1990 levels].”

Crisis at the Faculty Lounge Monday Though the involved nations still “Let us go around the room,” Jung- need to agree upon details of how dejohann, who was on last December’s veloping nations can afford to green world climate conference in Copenha- their economies, Jungjohann said the gen, said. “I ask you: ‘Was Copenhagen conference also established a basis for a success or a failure?’” eventual funding, which he deemed a Most participants, including mem- success. bers of the faculty from the InternaFor there to be success on the issue tional Business School and the Environ- going forward, he said that Europemental Studies ans must “learn program and lesson of the “The Copenhagen accord for the the Student Union divergences that members, re- first time lays out the agreement were felt at Cosponded that that the goal is for the average penhagen.” international “Americans unc o n f e r e n c e global temperature not to rise by derstand markets, failed to pro- more than two degrees Celsius.” shares and new duce “meantechnologies— ingful results.”

- Arne Jungjohann this is a language Ju ng j ohan n , they understand,” from the HeinJungjohann said. rich Boell “This is the way Foundation in Washington, D.C., a European nations and activists need to think-tank affiliated with the German frame the debate: green economies are Green Party, disagreed. better economies,” he said.

“As a European, when I am in Eu“This is the argument that I hope Europe, I agree with you [and the nega- rope will make to the United States,” he tive assessment],” he said. “But because continued.

I work in D.C., I see the many internal After the lecture, those present again divergences,” Jungjohann said, “and I’m voiced their dissatisfaction with the actually an optimist about the future.”

Copenhagen Conference. Seeing this, Though Jungjohann acknowledged Jungjohann declared that though “evhis position representing a progres- eryone is unhappy with the process of sive nation in terms of climate control Copenhagen … we can’t wait for weathwould lead people to believe he would er, bad occurrences, to take action.” be a hard-liner for strong results at Jungjohann pointed to the upcomCopenhagen. However, he said that ing November conference in Cancun, when the European-centric and strong Mexico as the next stage to find a “new climate change activists’ views are bal- agreement before the Kyoto Protocol, anced against American and develop- [which regulates international emising nations’ problems, Copenhagen sions and energy for the sake of climate was actually “a limited success, ” he change] stops being in effect.”

Editor

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

February 26, 2010

Brandeis credit rating downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service

BY DESTINY D. AQUINO Editor

Moody’s Investor Service downgraded the university’s credit rating from a double A rating to a single A rating this week. This rating is used to inform investors on the open market of the risk involved with loaning funds, through the purchase of bonds, to the university.

The drop in rating marks a move from an institution of high credit quality to one of upper-medium grade quality, according to Moody. It also downgraded the risk investors would incur from lending to the university from “very low” to “low.”

The difference in ratings will cost the university about $45,000 a year more in interest, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Apfel explained in an e-mail to The Hoot. However, with a university budget of over $300 million, Apfel said this change doesn’t cause significant financial stress.

Ratings are based on student

quality, a school’s reputation and the schools underlying financial situation. While Brandeis’ overall financial resources may be more comparable to the schools previous rating of double A, its unrestricted funds are far less.

“For the most part, the single A is a way of saying ‘we see you have a great reputation, admit excellent students and have a great program, but since we are in the business of advising bondholders about worst-case nonrepayment situations, you don’t have exactly the same cushion as your usual double-A,” Apfel wrote. “Your cushion is a lot more like single-A places.”

“The rating action reflects our concerns about the university’s reduced levels of unrestricted and expendable resources in light of investment losses and history of operating losses, as well as recent pressure on student demand,” Moody’s said in a statement on their Web site.

“Although we believe that the university is taking steps to bring operations into balance, we believe these revenue-generating and expense contain-

J Street founder BenAmi lectures on need for two-state solution JSTREET (from p. 1)

with,” he said, referring to both Israeli and Palestinian leaders as well as Obama.

Ben-Ami described Israeli-Palestinian relations as an “existential challenge” to the American Jewish community, and said that J Street hopes to provide a better space for conversation about Israel, which he deemed “absolutely essentially to the health, vitality and future of the American Jewish community in the 21st century,” especially college youth.

Jeremy Sherer ’10, the president of J Street U, the on-campus movement, introduced Ben-Ami. Sherer spent the summer of 2009 interning for J Street after meeting Joel Rubin ’91, who was then political director. Frustrated by the polarization of sentiment towards Israel on Brandeis’ campus, he decided to start the group as a forum for those who believed in a middle ground.

“I started J Street U to give those students a voice and open up a real discussion on this campus concerning these issues, and I think we’ve succeeded thus far,” he said.

Both J Street and J Street U have caused controversy in the pro-Israel community. Some believe that the groups do not have Israel’s best interests at heart and are too idealistic and too eager to concede to an uncompromising enemy to create lasting peace.

Others, like Ben-Ami and Sherer, argue that the groups do in fact want what is best for Israel, and claim that in a dialogue some sac-

rifice is necessary.

“J Street believes that honest negotiations, fueled by robust American leadership, represent the only way to resolve this conflict,” Sherer wrote in a column in The Hoot lastfall. “Of course reciprocity is needed in negotiations … however, a bit of urgency from the Israeli side of the table may be equally critical.”

Although Ben-Ami is staunchly pro-Israel, what he really wants is peace, and that requires a nonpolarized view of the situation.

“We are consciously promoting the notion that there’s a lot of grey,” he said, arguing that favoring a two-state solution meant being anti-Israel. “We disagree with the notion that you have to choose a side.”

“I believe—and this is a belief, not a fact—I believe that it is fundamentally pro-Israel to be in favor of the creation of a Palestinian state,” Ben-Ami said in response to a question from a student, explaining that if nothing changes, Arabs will soon outnumber Jews.

When that happens, the government will have to make a choice between being a democratic entity in losing the Jewish majority, or a state run by the Jews, where “the majority of people don’t have rights.”

Ben-Ami stood firm in his belief that being pro-Israel means being pro-democracy. “The most challenging thing to me is that [the Israeli right wing] don’t see a problem sacrificing democracy,” he said. “We can’t let ourselves get to that point.”

ment measures will take time to be fully realized,” the statement said.

Wednesday, the university priced approximately $180 million worth of bonds, this pricing locked in a low 4.75 interest rate on these bonds for the next 30 years, and this is an excellent deal, wrote Apfel. The downgrade in rating does not affect previous bonds.

Currently the university has a balanced budget and is projecting the same for next year.

Through the implementation of proposals made by last year’s Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering Committee and they assumption that this years Brandeis 2020 Committee proposals will be effective, the university has dealt with a situation that a lot of other schools are just beginning to face, Apfel explained. Dartmouth along with several other comparable universities are projecting growing deficits while Brandeis’ projects theirs shrinking, said Apfel.

The endowment was $619.6 million as of Jan. 31.

Committee raises money for clean water

BY LEAH FINKELMAN Staff

The Student Union Senate Social Justice Committee kicked off a semester-long fundraiser for charity:water Wednesday with coffee, donuts and a 5-gallon jug of water. The jug, representing unfit water drunk by people world-wide, was filled with water collected from Massell Pond by committee members Jackie Saffir ’10 and Ryan Fanning ’11.

The project aims to raise $5,000 to build a well that will provide more than 250 people with clean drinking water in a developing country.

“One in eight people on the planet do not have access to clean, safe drinking water and are forced to trek long distances just to collect dirty water from puddles,” Andrea Ortega ’13, North Quad senator and member

of the Social Justice Committee, said. “[They] are forced to trek long distances just to collect dirty water from puddles.” Ortega estimated that the first day of fundraising solicited close to 100 donations for the project.

The committee chose charity: water for its universal appeal as a humanitarian agency. The fundraiser is a semester-long project with clubs on campus fundraising as well.

“Clubs can get creative in the way they raise money,” Ortega said, emphasizing the point that each club can fundraise in its own way. The committee has helped clubs brainstorm ideas, and is willing to act as a resource to anyone interested in donating or fundraising. “Brandeis was founded on principles of social justice and activism, and while many of us intend to change the world later on in life, there’s nothing stopping us from changing

the world now,” Ortega said.

“Someday there will be a well somewhere with ‘Brandeis University’ on it,” Saffir said. One hundred percent of the money raised by Brandeis for charity: water will go to bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Private donors fund the organization’s administrative costs.

The Social Justice Committee includes Ortega, Class of 2010 Senator Saffir, Class of 2012 Senator Brendan Fradkin, Ziv Quad Senator Fanning and non-Senate member Boris Osipov ’13. Other upcoming committee projects include screenings of “Invisible Children,” co-sponsored by Phi Kappa Psi, Mock Trial and BADASS, “The Cove,” an animal rights documentary, and “The Greatest Silence,” a documentary about the rape of women in Congo.

Community understands need for cuts REACTION (from p. 1)

he heard from students last year when Brandeis was first reacting to its economic crisis.

“The tone now is much more intimate,” he said. “There is less antagonism and more discussion and understanding. Everyone understands that cuts need to happen.”

American Studies Professor Steven Whitfield expressed a similar reaction. The Committee’s proposal recommending the transition of American Studeis from a department to an interdepartmental program is in fact a reiteration of a proposal from a different university committee last spring.

While last spring’s proposal was met with so much animosity that it was ultimately dropped, Whitfield is more accepting this time around.

“We are glad and gratified by the affirmation of our major, which

has been and will be interdisciplinary,” he said. “We like who we are and we want to stay that way and the proposal endorses that.”

Not all students and faculty feel this way, however, as the university’s Ph.D. and Masters’ students in the Anthropology department expressed a similar opinion in a letter to university Provost Marty Krauss, who must approve the proposals before they are voted upon by the board of trustees.

“We, the M.A. and Ph.D. students in the Department of Anthropology, while recognizing the dire financial circumstances facing Brandeis at this time, respectfully submit that closing the Anthropology Ph.D. program would be a serious mistake and strongly urge that the Provost reconsiders this course of action,” the letter reads.

The students have hung a sign reading “Dept. of low-hanging fruit” to express their displeasure

at the proposal.

Director of Theater Design Debra Booth said she is “outraged” at the proposed termination of the Masters’ of Fine Arts of Theatre Design program.

“This plan to eliminate the design program is based on very little understanding of how theater functions and how departments of theater functions and little understanding of the role of production,” she said. “The interconnected quality of theater is at its very core. The cuts will affect every theater student, every audience member, not only design students.”

Though she is upset with the cuts, however, Booth too recognizes the need for them.

“I know that cuts are necessary, but if they have to cut theatre, they should have asked us how best to cut theatre,” she said. “If they had, I think there would have been a different conclusion.”

February 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

NEWS

5

Brandeis 2020 Committee announces 18 proposed academic cuts PROPOSAL (from p. 1)

ing the number of Computer Science Ph.D. students, reducing the number of Chemistry Ph.D. candidates from 25 to 20, reducing the budget of the Brandeis TheateR Company and the requirement that all Graduate School of Arts and Sciences stand-alone master’s programs create a three-year plan detailing how they will achieve goals set by the dean of the Graduate School for Arts and Sciences.

The cuts to graduate programs will decrease the number of graduate students supported by the university by 15 to 20 students, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe, who chaired the Brandeis 2020 Committee, said.

Other proposals that will affect undergraduate studies include terminating the Italian Studies major, the Hebrew Language and Literature major, the Internet Studies minor and the Yiddish and East European Jewish Culture minor. All terminations would go into effect with the class of 2015 and would allow current students to graduate with degrees in their chosen field.

The report recommends that the Physics Department consider whether the biological physics major can be replaced with a track within the physics major, but leaves the decision up to the Department. Jaffe said that though departments would be cut, classes in those areas of study will still be offered.

He added that the majors and minors being eliminated have no more than five students declared.

“Considering everyone double majors now anyway, we’re hop-

ing this will have a minimal effect,” 2020 committee member Prof. Sara Lamb (ANTH) said.

Brandeis’ sciences were hit with multiple proposals which recommend the chemistry, biochemistry, biology, physics, math and computer sciences departments be reorganized under an “umbrella” of a “Division of Science,” which would consolidate and reorganize science classes. This consolidation would include the reduction of 10 full-time faculty members by eliminating the research portfolios of chemical dynamics, immunology, radio astronomy and combinatronics.

The proposal recommends the American Studies Department become an Interdepartmental Program as opposed to a department and that the new program be reduced by four faculty through attrition.

Despite the cuts, Jaffe said he believes the proposals would make American Studies “a stronger major.”

“It will be able to draw on various other departments to thrive,” Jaffe said.

The proposal also recommends the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS) be reduced by four fulltime equivalents.

Though the proposal recommends a reduction of 35 fulltime equivalent faculty. Jaffe said only six to seven faculty members and six to seven administrative staff members would be reduced by Fiscal Year 2012.

The faculty reduction would most likely come from contractfaculty of the affected depart-

ments. The remaining 28 fulltime faculty equivalents would be reduced “through attrition.”

“The ultimate goal is saving money,” Jaffe said, “But the board doesn’t care if we save money in the next few years or in the long run.”

The report also asks that NEJS faculty positions be joined with other departments in order to better integrate the department with the rest of the university.

The report also recommends the faculty in Comparative Literature, European Cultural Studies, English and American Literature, German Studies, Russian Studies, French and Francophone Studies, Hispanic Studies and Judaic Studies “consider a restructuring the literature and cultural offerings

to increase flexibility ... and to facilitate better sharing of resources” by March 1.

While some faculty members had voiced the suggestion earlier in the semester that the 2020 Committee look into eliminating the University Writing Seminar and the foreign language requirement, the Committee’s report does not propose those changes.

The Brandeis 2020 Committee was formed at the beginning of the Spring semester after the board of trustees ordered the university to make academic cuts to help alleviate the university’s $25 million annual budget shortfall.

While the board did not give the committee a “target” amount of money to save, Jaffe said, “the

Advertise in The Brandeis Hoot Students: Prices start @ $15

ads@thebrandeishoot.com

board asked us to do what we thought should be done.”

“We believe we have done what has been asked of us,” he said.

The proposed changes must be approved by Provost Marty Krauss and the board in order to be implemented. The proposals will be discussed by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Faculty Senate and Graduate School Council.

While these reviews will most likely result in tweaks of the proposals, Jaffe said the committee hopes all facets of the proposals will be implemented.

“It’s an integrated plan,” he said. “We really look at it as a package and are hoping the package will remain as a package.”

6 The Brandeis Hoot

FEATURES

February 26, 2010

When in Rome:

BY CHRISSY CALLAHAN Editor

The Last Supper A group of 23 people sat and dined at a long, winding table. The group was mixed in age, race and personality, but they all shared one thing in common—their strong faith. As this group drank wine and broke bread together, they reveled in the past six days they’d all shared. Near the center of the group was the thread that held it together—the Rev. Walter Cuenin.

As the night progressed, impromptu karaoke sessions emerged, and stomachs started to ache—not from eating too much food, but rather from laughing.

It was a scene reminiscent of a famous religious one—the Last Supper, and, in a way, it was our last supper—together in Rome, that is. And in a sense we were a bit sad because our magical week in Rome was coming to an end. But like the historical last supper, we were also filled with hope.

This scene took place during February break when a group of Brandeis students from the Catholic Students Organization traveled to Rome, Italy with Cuenin. Partially funded by outside donors in the Catholic community, the trip was an opportunity for us all to visit the roots of our religious faith, drink in the Italian culture and forge bonds with our fellow classmates and churchgoers.

I was one of those students. I’d first heard about the trip two years ago when I wrote an article for The Hoot detailing students’ experiences in Rome. This time around, I write about my own experiences in the Eternal City on a life-changing trip that opened my eyes to a whole new way of living and of viewing my own faith.

Rome if you want to Thursday Feb. 11, we embarked on our journey together. Making up the group from Brandeis were 16 undergraduates of mixed class years and the Cuenin. Accompanying us were

a few regulars of the 10 a.m. Sunday Mass on campus—Steven and Vivian Holland and the McGovern family: Debbie and Tim and their sons Ivan and Jack. Their presence further enriched our experience and provided much entertainment.

We arrived in Rome Friday afternoon and after getting settled, we headed out later in the day for dinner and drinks. At dinner, we were serenaded by the melodic sounds of Italian musicians and the laughter reverberating around the walls of the cave-like restaurant we were eating in.

Staying just a quick walk away from Vatican City, we were situated right in the heart of our religious faith. Though 1.1 billion people in the world consider themselves Catholic, the Catholic community on campus is relatively small in size and generally underrepresented in most conversations.

Before leaving for Rome, the trip naturally came up in many of my conversations, and when it did, many people actually asked me if there were really Catholics at Brandeis. Yet, while we’re a small community on campus, we’re no less of a meaningful or faithful community.

Before coming to Brandeis, I attended Catholic school for eight years, so you could say that coming to Brandeis was a bit of a culture shock.

And although I happily embraced the chance to be exposed to different faiths, it was nice to spend this week with other people who understood my faith completely. In the midst of conversation about how beautiful Rome is and what a great time we were having, it felt quite normal to discuss our religious histories and try to understand each other in a way you just can’t do in passing at Mass each week.

Being with fellow Catholics also meant that you understood the effect a beautiful church or a religious painting might induce in your fellow travelers. After all, there’s just something about standing in St. Peter’s Square that makes you feel so small.

PHOTO BY Chrissy Callahan/The Hoot

SIMPLY ANGELIC: Rome is filled with breathtaking views. On the right, a back view of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Maybe it’s the fact that you’re merely a little blurb standing in the midst of such beauty and grandeur. Or maybe it’s all the history inlaid in this breathtaking fortress. Whatever it is, we all experienced it together.

It’s actually funny how being in Rome affects your religious sentiments. For example, when I was in

SIMPLY ANGELIC: Beautiful fountains can be found all over Rome. Here, part of the fountain in the Piazza Navona PHOTO BY Chrissy Callahan/The Hoot

Catholic school, I was required to go to church with school and attend theology classes. Back then, it wasn’t a matter of choice, but rather a matter of obligation. But now that I’m in college, I’m free to make my own religious decisions and going to church felt far from being an obligation on this trip; it felt right.

A few years ago I would never have gone to confession voluntarily because I saw it as an obligation, something annoying that my teachers made me do, like homework.

But while exploring St. Peter’s Basilica with a few friends last week, we were all overcome by the desire to visit the confessional and confess our sins. Since it was my choice this time around, it felt quite different, more meaningful in a way. It was a recognition that I’m an imperfect person and admitting that is ok.

In addition to the powerful religious experiences we all shared, we became oriented to the cultural and historical wonder that is Rome, taking in all of the famous sites a tourist to Rome must see. Our week was perfectly divided between organized group activities and free time, during which we went off to explore Rome on our own. During this time, we roamed around with old and new friends, getting to know each other even better.

For a week we lived in a city where a day without gelato—or gelats, as we fondly deemed it— is hardly a

day at all ; where meals last into the two hour range; and where the locals put wine in everything—including cheese plates and certain flavors of gelato. After all, only in a place like Rome can you sit outside in the middle of February and sip on wine or savor a cone of creamy gelato; are you greeted with “Ciao bella,” are you encouraged to linger at your restaurant table for hours on end; can you find a gelato place that’s open until 2 a.m.; and only in a place like Rome are you not surprised to see a group of nuns walking down the street.

Over the course of the week, we all adopted certain Italian habits and saw just how beautiful Rome is.

Carpe Diem: Brandeis students seize the day When you return from a vacation, you’re inevitably bombarded with the obligatory “How was it? What did you do?” Where to begin?

We saw famous sites such as the Trevi Fountain, the Coliseum and the Roman Forum, the Pantheon and the Vatican. We celebrated Mass in the crypts of St. Peter’s basilica and visited breathtaking religious sites. We sat in outside bars and cafes, our chilled bodies warmed by outside heaters and rising flames. We zigzagged in and out of the crazy Italian traffic. We did more than I can mention in this article.

While most Brandeis students

February 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

FEATURES

7

Catholics explore the roots of their faith in the Eternal City likely slept in until the lazy early afternoon hours, we were up bright and early with the Roman sun. Under Cuenin’s expert guide, we navigated the bumpy cobblestone roads that are all said to lead to Rome. Having lived in Rome while studying to become a priest, Cuenin was the perfect tour guide and a wonderful resource for us all. He chose the menus for many of our dinners—most of which lasted into the two hour range; he brought us to such acclaimed sites as the Vatican and the Pantheon; he presided over Mass for us in beautiful and sacred places; and, most of all, he served as a fun fellow traveler.

We visited the Eternal City at an opportune time. It was the season of Carnevale and, as such, bits of confetti were to be seen all over the ground, sparkling masks filled the racks of souvenir shops and festivities abounded all over the city. And, as any Catholic knows, with Mardi Gras comes Ash Wednesday, bringing with it the season of Lent.

On Ash Wednesday, one of the more commonly known holy days in the Catholic liturgical year, we were treated to an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Sitting in a room with 7,000 other faithful, we listened and waited for our school’s name to be announced so we could cheer and represent Brandeis. Although the surreal nature of this audience might have prevented some of us from realizing this at that time, we got closer to the Holy Father than many people ever dream.

Knowing that the Pope would bless any religious items we brought into the audience, we all came prepared, carrying in rosary beads and crosses, religious medals and holy water. As we sat waiting for the Pope to enter the room, we all became anxious, impatient for the audience to begin.

When he entered the room, it was like no other moment any of us had experienced. It was surreal and powerful all at once, and I know that I could hardly believe I was in the presence of the actual Pope.

As each group in attendance was announced, they made their presence known by making as much noise as possible. Several of the groups being called broke out into song, but one group in particular stands out in my mind. There was one group that started to sing as their name was announced and at that moment, I truly felt it. There were thousands of people in that room, all hailing from different countries, different backgrounds and different degrees of religious faith. But in spite of language barriers, we all had one thing in common—we believed in something powerful. And we believed we were in the presence of something so much bigger than ourselves.

Going into this trip, I knew I would see amazing cultural and historical sites and I knew I would have the chance to explore the meaning of my faith. But I didn’t completely expect that I would come out of it with a stronger sense of faith and appreciation for my religion. But I did, and for

PHOTOS BY Chrissy Callahan/The Hoot

MEET THE PRESS:ABOVE: Students pose with their favorite Gelato flavors in Rome.

BELOW: Students pose with Father Cuenin after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

that I’m grateful.

All roads lead to…Florence and Assisi?

Six days is a whirlwind to see any city as famous as Rome, but many of us managed to also take in two other famous Italian cities: Assisi and Florence. Monday, we all took a train to Assisi, the town of St. Francis, and had Mass; took in the beautiful countryside views; ate a delicious lunch; and roamed around the quaint little shops.

Tuesday we had a free day, to be

spent however we wanted. One of the options was to take a high speed train to Florence or Pompeii, and many of us opted for the former. In spite of the on and off rain that day, Florence was breathtaking and had something for everyone. For those like yours truly, Florence, with its never ending shops and flea markets, was a shopper’s paradise. We winded our way through the endless flea markets, haggling along the way with the local vendors.

We also took in Michelangelo’s David statue, marveling at its grandeur.

When in Rome…

Besides the cultural and religious experiences we all shared, we gained something else to take home: new friendships. Before this week in Rome, many of us didn’t know everyone else on the trip. Maybe we were friends with a few people or recognized a few other faces from passing by them in the Communion line at Sunday Mass. But this week strengthened those bonds for all of us. For me, one of the best parts of this trip was meeting new friends, and that’s better

than any souvenir or picture I could take home with me.

Two years ago, I wrote an article for the Hoot about a trip to Rome. I spoke to the students who went on the trip; I heard their amazing stories; and I tried my best to translate their experience into my own words, only able to imagine the beautiful sights they had seen. Now instead of imagining, I know because I’ve seen it all for myself. Now I can truthfully say: I came, I saw, I conquered.

8 The Brandeis Hoot

SPORTS

February 26, 2010

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

FIGHTING FOR THE BALL: Brandeis University’s Diana Cincotta (No. 15, left) tries to swat the ball away from Washington University guard Stacy Niese (No. 25, left), during Brandeis’ 50-37 loss two Fridays ago.

Women’s basketball ends break on a high note

BY KARA KARTER Staff

The majority of Brandeis students entered mid-February break looking for a chance to get away, for a chance to relax. For the Brandeis women’s basketball team, there would be no break.

There would be no chance to relax.

With four games on tap during the hiatus that wasn’t (including one against each of the University Athletic Association’s top three squads) the women dropped the first pair, losing at home to the conference leading Washington University Bears (22-2, 12-1) and the University of Chicago Maroons (19-5, 11-2). They rebounded by sweeping the subsequent road contests at Rochester (18-6, 8-5) and Emory (10-14, 3-10).

With one game left to play, the Judges sit in fourth place in the UAA with an overall record of 158. They are 8-5 in conference play.

The Judges took to the court against WashU riding a four game winning streak and the enthusiasm of the crowd at Red Auerbach Arena. Momentum and cheers aside, an upset was not in the cards. It didn’t take long for the visiting Bears to show why

they entered the match as the 7th ranked team in the nation (according to D3Hoops.com), arriving at a 10-2 lead less than five minutes into the contest. The Judges were held to 13 points in the first half on 25 percent shooting, as WashU clawed its way to a 50-37 victory. It was both teams’ lowest offensive output of the season.

Senior Guard Jessica Chapin ’10 led the Judges with 13 points, while Forward Shannon Ingram ’13 grabbed a career high eight boards. No other Brandeis player was able to break through for more than 4 points against the strong Bears’ defense. Three WashU players – Grad Student Jamie McFarlin, Zoe Unruh ’10, and Janice Evans ’10, all reached double-digits.

Even with Ingram’s career night, the rebounding game belonged to the Bears. The 36-27 advantage helped WashU score 13 second chance points, compared to Brandeis ’12.

The Judges hoped to return to their winning ways two days later against the University of Chicago. Despite another double-digit performance from Chapin (14 points), the Judges were unable to avenge their earlier loss to the Maroons, falling to their UAA rivals 49-47.

Brandeis got off to a better start

than it did two days prior, jumping out to a game high 7 point lead on a layup from Mia DePaolo ’11 with 4:16 left in the first half.

After twenty minutes of play, the Judges led 25-22.

Despite Brandeis’ early advantage, the game would become a back-and-forth affair, with nine ties and 11 lead changes, including six and five respectively in the final 14 minutes of play.

The Maroons would get the last laugh after a foul on Kasey Gieschen ’10 and two made free throws turned a 47-46 Brandeis lead into a 48-47 deficit with 56 seconds to play. Carmela Breslin’s ’10 desperate heave at the buzzer failed to fall through, ensuring Chicago’s 49-47 victory.

The Judges then embarked on their final UAA road trip of the season, with stops at both Rochester and Emory. After scoring only a combined 84 points during the previous weekend’s games, Brandeis totaled 67 against Rochester, topping the Yellow Jackets by a score of 67-65. It was an inspiring victory for the Judges, who trailed early and often. Down 43-25 at the start of the second half, the Judges saw Rochester’s lead balloon to 20 on a made three-pointer with 14:41 left in the competition.

A 25-5 run, culminated by a layup from Forward Amber

Strodthoff ’11 evened the score at 54 with 6:03 left in regulation.

The game’s only previous tie had been at 0-0, lasting ten seconds until Jodie Luther’s ‘12 bucket put Rochester up 2-0.

Brandeis claimed its first lead on a Morgan Kendrew ‘12 three with 5:23 to play. Held without a field goal for over fourteen minutes of action (at which point they led 53-33), the ‘Jackets finally nailed a shot from the floor with 13 seconds remaining. After a collection of shot clock violations, turnovers, and missed baskets, however, it was a case of too little too late for Rochester. Two successful shots at the charity stripe from Diana Cincotta ’11 sealed the deal for the Judges, who left the Palestra at Rochester with a 67-65 victory that had, minutes before, seemed utterly improbable.

Three Judges recorded doubledigit point totals along the way.

Strodthoff ’s 15, Kendrew’s 17, and Sophomore Shannon Hassan’s 12 paced the Judges, who shot an impressive 47.8 percent from the floor in the second half.

Brandeis then journeyed down to Atlanta to take on Emory’s Eagles. Surely, the Judges hadn’t forgotten their 73-65 loss to Emory on January 24, arguably the team’s most disappointing defeat of the season.

The Judges pulled a WashU on Emory, holding the Eagles to under 40 points on route to a 58-38 Brandeis victory. Brandeis never trailed and the game was tied only once, at 15-all with nine minutes remaining before intermission.

The star of the game was Junior Guard Strodthoff, who had recorded her fourth double-double of the season by halftime. Her sixteen points and a career-high 17 boards led the team. Strodthoff ’s two blocks and steals were also career bests.

Strodthoff ’s efforts in the wins over both Rochester and Emory earned her the title of UAA Athlete of the Week. It was her first time receiving this honor. She averaged 15.5 points and 10 rebounds per game while shooting 63.2 percent (12-19) from the floor and 85.7 percent (6-7) from the free throw line. It was the third time in the last four weeks a member of the Brandeis women’s basketball received the award.

Chapin was singled out for her great performance by the UAA for the weeks of Feb. 1 and Feb. 8.

The Judges will play their final game of the regular season on Saturday, February 27 at home against the New York University Violets (13-11, 5-8).

With a win on Saturday, the Judges may earn a berth in the NCAA tournament.

February 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

SPORTS

9

Men’s basketball splits the week 2-2

BY HANNAH VICKERS Editor

With the NCAA tournament bracket announcements this coming Monday, the Brandeis men’s basketball team is feeling the pressure. They have split their last two weekends to bring them to 18-6 overall and 8-5 in the University Athletic Association and have just one game remaining in the regular season.

The Judges opened up play over February break when they hosted the Washington University of St. Louis Bears on Friday the 12th. At the time the Judges were ranked 21st in the nation by d3hoops.com while WashU was in 3rd, but since then the Bears have moved up to become the top ranked team in division III basketball.

Despite a strong start for the Judges, who opened the game with a 14-8 run in the first five minutes, WashU could not be silenced for long. The Bears went on a run of their own, going 12-2 in just under four minutes to take a 20-16 lead. Brandeis kept things tight over the next few minutes but by the break the visiting Bears commanded a 44-32 lead over the Judges.

The Bears and Judges traded baskets for most of the second half and with 12:25 remaining on the clock, a jumper from guard Andre Roberson ’10 brought Brandeis within four points, a 5753 game in favor of WashU. The visitors responded with six foul shots and a three to give them a 13-point lead yet again.

Brandeis turned on the heat in the final ten minutes and a layup by forward Vytas Kriskus ’12 with four and a half left to play took the Judges within five. Again, though, WashU was able to hold on and fight back. In the final minutes they tacked on a few more foul shots to give them their final 9292 victory over Brandeis.

WashU had four players reach double digits, including Aaron Thompson ’10 who had a gamehigh 29 points.

The Judges also had four scorers

in double figures. Forward Terrell Hollins ’10 had ten points in each half and a game-high eight rebounds. His single assist in the game marked the 200th of his career, making him the fhird player in school history to reach 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 200 assists in his career. Classmate guard Kenny Small put up 17 points and three steals while Kriskus had 15 points off the bench. Roberson had 10 points and tied for a gamehigh seven assists.

After the loss on Friday night Brandeis took out the University of Chicago Maroons on Sunday afternoon 83-71. The match up started with both teams trading baskets and leads over the first ten minutes until a jumper from Roberson gave the Judges the lead for good. Brandeis continued to add to their lead for the rest of the half and eventually went into the lockers with a 41-31 advantage over the Maroons.

Chicago came out ready to fight for control and went on an 11-5 run in less than six minutes to close the game to 46-42, trailing by just four points. The Judges responded by regaining an eightpoint lead and held off the Maroons for the remainder of the game.

Kriskus led Brandeis with 20 points in 26 minutes off the bench while classmate Tyrone Hughes and Small put up 14 points and three assists. Hollins added 12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds for his eigth doubledouble in nine games. Roberson rounded out the double-digit scroeres with 10 points and six rebounds.

Brandeis kept the momentum going when they hit the road this past weekend to face off against the Univresity of Rochester Yellowjackets on Friday night.

Thanks to a game-high 25 oints from Small and a season-high shooting percentage of 63 (35-56) from the floor, the Judges completed their season sweep of the Yellojackets with an 87-70 victory.

This was just the second time in history the judges have swept Rochester, the first time came in the 1994-5 season.

The win did not come easy, though. In the beginning of the game Brandeis was down 22-14 9:30 into play. They would not sit by and take that for long. The Judges seemed to snap into action at that poin, going on a 14-2 run to give them a 28-24 lead. Rochester answered back with a run of their own, jumping back up to a slim 33-32 lead before Brandeis went on another run, grabbing a 42-36 advantage with just over 1:30 remaining before the break.

They went into halftime with just a 42-40 lead.

After trading threes for the first two baskets of the second half, the Judges took the lead and never looked back. Even though Rochester was able to climb within three points a few times, Brandeis opened it up with a 16-2 run over five minutes to take a 20 point lead. In the final minutes of play the Yellowjackets fought to get baskets, but even with six free throws, they finished the game 17 points behind the visiting Judges.

In addition to Small’s huge 25-points, Brandeis had three other players in double figures.

Kriskus went for 17 points off the bench while Hollins added 16 and tied the game-high with eight rebounds and five assists. Roberson put up 11 points and five assists.

Their final road game of the season on Sunday was a bit more frustrating for the Judges. Play was very evenly matched between the Judges and the Emory University Eagles with four ties in the first half. The two teams traded baskests with neither the Judges nor the Eagles allowing their opponent to get too far ahead. The final tie of the half came with just four seconds remaining off a foul shot by Roberson which brought the game to 29-29 at the break.

The Judges opened things up with a 9-2 run over the first few minutes to take a 38-31 lead over their hosts. The Eagles were right there with them, though, and were able to tie things up at 39 apiece with 13:14 remaining. Kriskus nailed one to give the Judges a two point lead before back-to-back baskets by the Eagles game them the lead with 9:44 left to play.

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

GUARDING THE BALL: Brandeis guard Tyrone Hughes (No. 11, left) defends against an Amherst offender earlier this year.

The next minutes were a near free-for-all with both teams tacking on the points until the judges held a 62-57 lead with 2:19 on the clock.

The Eagles made all four foul shot attempts in the final minute of play to bring the game within one. With 14 seconds left, Small missed an attempted three and Emory got the rebound. The game winning shot went into the basket with just seven seconds remaining, giving Emory a 64-63 lead.

Despite the loss Hollins managed to put up a game-high 16 points and 19 rebounds. Small

added up 12 points while Kriskus had 11 off the bench. Guard John Weldon ’10 had a career-high eight points.

Brandeis will play their final game of the regular season, Senior Day, on Satruday at 3 p.m. against UAA rival the New York University Violets. The Judges have five seniors who will be graduating in May: Small, Hollins, Roberson, Weldon, and Rich Magee. Team Manager Gabe Marwell will also be walking in May. The Judges ask fans to come out and support the team as they fight for a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Track and field have mixed day at New England Division III Championships

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

Last Saturday, the men’s and women’s track and field teams travelled to the University of Southern Maine for the New England Division III Championships, and though the teams managed only a mixed record, a pair of stellar individual performances helped make the Judges proud.

The women’s team found the most success, earning 25 points over 21 events in order to finish 10th of the 26 teams competing.

The men’s team suffered a more disappointing result, managing only one point and finishing in a tie for 21st.

The highlight for the Brandeis squads was undoubtedly the performance of Grayce Selig ’11, who won the 3,000-meter race to become the New England Regional titleholder. Selig’s time of 10:14.57 was al-

most three second faster than her closest competitor, earning her 10 points for the Judges. Her performance came less than a week after she became the first woman in Brandeis history to run a sub-five minute mile, recording a time of 4.57.68 at the Valentine’s Day Classic at Boston University on Feb. 15. Selig is now ranked fifth nationally among Division III mile runners.

The Judges scored their first points early, as Lucia Capano’s [‘11] 5.23 meter long jump was enough to place sixth in the third event of the day. Ally Connoly ‘10 earned sixth place in the 5000-meters with a time of 18:21.41. Beth Pisarik ‘10 took sixth in the mile run with 5:06.51, less than a second ahead of teammate Marie Lemay ’11, who grabbed the final point in the event by finishing eighth. Emily Owen ’11 put the Judges on the board for the last time, and her fourth-place time of 2:18.58 in the

800-meters was less than three seconds behind the winner.

All six of the aforementioned athletes won All-New England honors; this is the second time that Selig, Capano, and Lemay have earned that distinction.

The men got their only point from the fleet feet of Alex Kramer ’13, who continued his strong rookie season with an eighth place finish in the mile in 4:20.53. The race was very tightly contested, and Kramer earned the finish and the point by a razor thin margin of .01 second while only losing out on seventh by .02 second. His time was just two-and-a-half seconds away from the first-place finisher.

Marc Boutin ’12 was among those bunched with Kramer, and he had to settle for tenth place with a time of 4:20.58. Brian Foley ’13 showed his great promise for upcoming years by running the 400-meter

dash in 52.03, good for 14th, and Mingken Lin ‘12 finished right behind him in 16th. Mik Kern ’13 continued the strong rookie performance by breaking into the top twenty with a 19th place finish in the 1000-meters in 2:38.16. The Judges’ best performance outside of the mile came in the 4x400 meter relay, where the team of Josh Hoffman-Senn ’12, Ned Crowley ’10, Lin and Foley clocked a time of 3:32.33, good for 12th place and just two seconds out of scoring position.

Kramer, however, was Brandeis’s only male athlete to earn a spot on the All-New England list.

The men and the women are back in action again today and tomorrow in the Open New England Championships on the Boston University campus, their last meet before the UAA Championships and then the NCAA Championships in early March.

10 The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS, etc.

February 26, 2010

Grad gets a long overdue face-lift

BY DANIELLE GEWURZ AND ALISON CHANNON Editors

When we were sophomores, you know, a million (ok, two) years ago, there were plans of renovating Grad. But they never materialized. And so, bright eyed and eager, we moved into our five-person abode in the fall of 2008. For two years now we have endured the sympathetic smiles, pitying glances and outbursts of disgust when we revealed our living location. No amount of urging that we call our dwelling ‘Chuck River’ could induce non-Grad dwellers to change their opinion of our Soviet bloc housing.

But now, given the imminent increase of students on campus, it seems the Office of Capital Projects and the Department of Community Living have decided to transform Grad into a place your parents won’t resent paying for.

The prototype apartment was unveiled Wednesday, and it looks quite spiffy. Smartly, they chose a spacious five-person to act as guinea pig, quietly seducing naive sophomores who don’t realize that the larger apartments are few and far between. Luckily for us, we live in a five-person apartment, so we are able to compare apples to rotten apples.

The changes to Grad are substantial but superficial. The apartment floor plan still features the same mini fifth bedroom and narrow kitchen. But they have added more overhead lighting to the living room and overhead lighting to all of the bedrooms.

Instead of one light at the far end of the living room, there are now four lights to brighten the space.

Instead of the mix-and-match rickety tables and chairs that adorn our common

MAKING THE GRAD-E: Students discuss the new, improved Charles River Apartments while sitting on newly-installed couches.

space, the new Grad apartment features a smart wooden dining table, chairs and a coffee table. The most appreciated change that we will never actually get to appreciate is the addition of two functional couches.

For those who have never watched bad reality television in our apartment, our couch cushions gave up a long time ago. As we sit here writing, we are very uncomfortable.

The kitchen is still small, but the appliances, cabinets and counter have all been upgraded. Unlike Ridgewood, there is no microwave or dishwasher. The bathroom fixtures have also been replaced. The new

toilets feature the green dual-flush system found in Ridgewood. Aside from the addition of overhead lighting, the bedrooms are essentially the same. Instead of carpet, they have linoleum floors. The walls are freshly painted, and the shades are new.

The most clever change is the transformation of the storage dungeon into a functional well-lit room. Five-person grads have a room that used to be a kitchen that now functions as a storage room, but most are unfinished. Ours has pipes sticking out of the walls. The new Grad storage closet has extensive shelving and lighting, making it

PHOTO BY Abby Berin/The Hoot

far less likely to turn into a dark pit of boxes and suitcases.

The renovations are nice, but they are not earth-shattering. It’s still Grad. The exteriors are still ugly and the floor plans still leave a lot to be desired. But now at least the inside is quite pleasant.

It certainly is not palatial or modern like Ridgewood, but I think the new Grad, with its bright lights and comfortable couches, will prove a very nice place to wile away the twilight months of your college career.

Hopefully next year’s residents encounter fewer condolences over their lot in housing.

‘Funnyhouse’ built on unstable foundation

BY ADAM HUGHES

the supernatural unreality of the mental demons they portrayed while avoiding the trap of becoming over-exaggerated caricatures. The set design was tremendous. I could barely contain my gasp as the curtain covering the stage was pulled away to begin the play, revealing a broken, lifeless shell of a room that immediately radiated hopeless depression. The presentation had every element necessary to create a uniquely moving

theater experience.

It is a real shame, then, that the script itself was such a horrible disappointment.

Let there be no doubt about it: “Funny“Funnyhouse of a Negro” was the first play house of a Negro” is the most spectacuwritten by Adrienne Kennedy in the early lar production I have ever seen on the 1960s, and it earned her immediate success Brandeis campus. upon release. It won the 1964 Obie Award The acting was very strong. The actors for “Distinguished Play” and launched her seemed to burst from the stage with precise, successful playwriting career, which she crackling energy, simultaneously capturing still continues now in her 79th year. Her work is particularly notable for its exploration of racial issues through unique, heavily surreal and experimental narrative structures.

The main character is Sarah (Japonica Brown, GRAD), a woman of mixed race who is tormented by her unclear ethnic identity. Specifically, she loathes the black African heritage of her father, which she believes defiles the purity of her mother’s white heritage.

PHOTO BY MIKE LOVETT/BTC To explain how FUNNYHOUSE: Numerous apparitions, including the one above, haunt Sarah, a young woman troubled by her mixed racial identity. she could have Staff

been conceived from what she views as such incompatible backgrounds, she continually repeats a story of brutal rape by her father, to whom she attributes a stereotypical, tribal savagery. Her psychological neuroses manifest themselves in four separate personae: the Duchess of Hapsburg (McCaela Donovan, GRAD), Queen Victoria (Tanya Dougherty, GRAD), Jesus (Ben Rosenblatt, GRAD), and former Congolese revolutionary Patrice Lumumba (Equiano Mosieri, GRAD). Her apartment, the titular “Funnyhouse”, serves as the only setting, and her isolation within its walls means that the audience has no basis for determining what among her ramblings actually occurred in the context of the play and what is merely a product of her troubled mind.

Under the leadership of director David R. Gammons and choreographer Susan Dibble, Japonica Brown captured Sarah’s character expertly, successfully conveying the agony she finds in her very existence.

Her voice filled with pain for Sarah’s repetitive monologues, continuing until she was overcome with emotion and could only lie writhing on the bed as her invented apparitions played out her darkest fantasies. Her entire supporting cast was very strong, rising to the challenge of capturing the story’s ever-present air of insanity.

The most impressive element of the show, however, was the design. Scenic designer Carlos Aguilar (GRAD) was tasked with designing the Funnyhouse itself, simultaneously a shelter and a prison for Sarah and existing fully neither in her reality nor in See FUNNYHOUSE, p. 12

February 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS, ETC.

11

The Sounds ` & Spaces of Brandeis Getting lost in Brandeis spaces

BY KAYLA DOS SANTOS Editor

A peripheral scan of the room: Brandeisians hunched over computers, one bopping to a silent tune, another swilling coffee while jabbing at his keyboard chopsticks-style, others lounging on overstuffed chairs, limbs akimbo with laptops perched precariously on knees—thinking. I walk the boundary of the room, backpack slung over my shoulder and a thermos in hand.

Should I sit next to the guy mouthing the words to his music, clearly on the precipice of breaking out the air guitar? Or would that distract me? Should I sit by the window looking out onto Usdan’s entrance? Or would I daydream? Of course, there’s always the silent depths of the library, where someone could live in a study carrel for weeks without being discovered. Or would that be too quiet?

Nowhere seems to have the right—for lack of a better word—vibe. It’s clearly one of those unproductive days in which a paragraph will be considered to be an achievement because it has somehow emerged from the time-suck that is Facebooking, IMing and/or staring off into the nothingness that we call space.

Often I wonder how much thinking relies on the environment a person studies in, how much the outer world impacts the formulation of ideas. Maybe I have better

thoughts when I’m writing in a notebook at Einstein’s, surrounded by people munching on bagels. Or maybe inspiration hits when I’m in my room at my desk with its burn marks and drawer that falls open when I get too enthusiastic at the keyboard.

Yet, perhaps physical location doesn’t matter so much. After all, when a person is in deep thought the surroundings melt away. When there is more focus on the interior landscape, the exterior one seems to decrease in significance. There are some people who study in Usdan in the midst of crowds of their peers who talk, chew, laugh and generally make noise. If any work gets done, if any constructive thinking at all occurs, it’s because the person has managed to block out the cacophony that encircles him.

This suggests that the ideal environment to think in is the one that you can ignore.

Curators in traditional museums seem to go along with the idea that, in order for people to reflect, the environment needs to be muted. At the National Gallery in London, the walls were painted a boring tan, shades were drawn over windows and the lighting was dimmed. All the emphasis was on the paintings. Perhaps brilliant ideas are like paintings in museums: they must be housed in banal surroundings.

However, if that were entirely true, then people should sit and think in undecorated dorm rooms. Surely it’s easy to ignore the white painted cinderblocks, the gray car-

GRAPHIC BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot

pet and the speckled ceilings. I don’t know about you, but I cannot think in that type of environment, and, furthermore, I don’t want to spend any time there. I need my posters, wall-hangings and pictures of friends.

It could be that an environment has to have the potential to inspire. At night, from the roof of Usen Castle, a person can see the lights of Boston. Maybe those distant lights will be the catalyst that sparks the beginning of a poem, story or theory.

One of the most famous examples of an environment inspiring an idea is the myth of how Sir Isaac Newton thought to develop the theory of gravity. One day he See SPACES, p. 13

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

The halls are alive with the sounds of ... Brandeis to get work done. Besides, surely some people would be sticking around.

Within a few hours of the end of classes, Footsteps. Laughter. A girl on her cell East had seemingly become a ghost quad. phone. A stereo blasting Lady Gaga. A Nothing is as spooky as finding a place usubongo. ally filled with so much sound suddenly As anyone living in a dorm can attest, rendered silent. you’re likely to hear all of these on any This problem extended beyond my brief given day, blending in with a plethora of stay in the dorm, however. Once at home, it other sounds to which you’ve become accustomed. If anyone were to ask you about them, there’s a pretty good chance that you’d express your annoyance. They can keep you from focusing on your work, they can keep you from getting some much needed shut-eye, and some of the music other people play is simply unpleasant. I’m in complete agreement with this assessment.

But, simultaneously, I’ve come to find something wonderful in all these noises.

I admit this has not always been the case.

I’ve shown up in my lounge to tell others to quiet down. I’ve become fed up with the lack of regard some people have for others.

But, simply put, there’s something great in sheer noise.

At the beginning of our last break, I stayed on-campus for two days. Initially I didn’t think it would be a big deal—at the very least, it would be a good opportunity

BY SEAN FABERY Editor

persisted—too little noise, too much quiet.

Only the occasional honking car or chirping bird would break up the monotony of the night’s silence. My home certainly is more comfortable than my cell in East, but it left me drowning in silence.

Yes, the typical noises one finds in a dorm often annoy but there’s a certain immediate sense of vibrancy that’s charming in its own

way. Each sound is a distinct impression left by one or more of your fellow students.

When will you be granted this kind of experience again? Regular homes and apartments don’t lend themselves to that kind of impersonal personal exchange.

The most obvious sounds you hear in a dorm stem from the people who love programming their own selection of music for the hall to hear, whether it’s in order to study or simply to get up and dance. The sheer eclectic nature of the music you’re liable to hear in a dorm is astounding.

The kitschy pop stylings of Lady Gaga have intermingled with classic Miles Davis jazz at least once on a floor—and, if I remember correctly, they were coming from the same room.

There’s something to be said for people who choose to express themselves musically, whether it’s through singing or the guitar. As with virtually anything one’s likely to encounter in life, it can become obnoxious, but there’s something beautiful to be found in the sheer creativity of it. One of my hallmates last year lived next to a member of an A cappella group and confessed that hearing this person sing through the wall would actually help lull him to sleep late at

ILLUSTRATION BY Allison Corman-Vogan/The Hoot

See SOUNDS, p. 13

12 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

February 26, 2010

‘Island’ makes audiences shudder

BY SRI KUEHNLEZ Editor

Just hearing the names Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio in the same sentence is a giveaway that whatever movie it’s referring to is a force to be reckoned with. And “Shutter Island,” the newest collaboration from this Hollywood director-actor power duo does not disappoint.

DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a U.S. marshal sent to Shutter Island, a mental institution for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of one of its patients/prisoners. As Teddy struggles to keep his wits about himself on an island where the inmates, along with the doctors and nurses themselves, possess an element of instability, he is also plagued by the mental trauma

wreaked by witnessing the horror of Nazi concentration camps as an American soldier and losing his wife in an apartment fire.

It is eventually revealed that Teddy requested to come to the island based on his suspicion that a government conspiracy was afoot, realizing possibly too late that it is a set-up, forcing him to question everything he knows, even the loyalties and true identity of his

PHOTO FROM Internet Source

ON THE ISLAND: Michelle Williams (right) haunts Leondardo DiCaprio (left) in Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island.”

new partner, Chuck Aule, played

by Mark Ruffalo.

Based on a novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, Scorsese incorporates all the basic elements of a thriller to bring Lehane’s original story to the silver screen: suspenseful music, the backdrop of a hurricane and characters who can make your skin crawl with only a lingering gaze.

However, he does so without it being formulaic. Though at times distracting, the choppy instrumental music used to build the tension of a scene adds a discordant feel to the movie, but in a way that strengthens it as a psychological thriller where nothing is as it seems.

However, what really distinguishes this film from being simply a tired re-hashing of the thriller genre is the A-list cast who slip so seamlessly into their roles that the line between actor and character is blurred. Leonardo DiCaprio adeptly conveys the self-doubt and mental anguish of a man trying to maintain his own sanity in a world where insanity is normal.

Ben Kingsley co-stars as Dr.

Cawley, the head of the institution and, as Teddy suspects, the puppet master of a greater devious scheme possibly involving the government. Cawley is a culturally refined man, but at the same time, one who seems capable of disturbing cruelties, a character that society has grappled with for centuries. (Look at the personas of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.)

With his upper-crust accent, Kingsley’s character acts as a perfect counterpart to DiCaprio’s, whose mind seems to be slowly unraveling. Cawley, on the other hand, is one who witnesses the extremes of insanity each day in his patients and is still able to remain creepily undisturbed by any of it.

Instead of just relying on overthe-top gore, Scorsese makes this a thriller of the mind, using his actors to spook the audience with their intonations or expressions as much as he uses the music or setting to create an air of suspicion and creepiness. All of these elements work together to create a curtain of mystery that Scorcese both lifts and pulls over the audience’s eyes.

‘Funnyhouse’ boasts good acting and production design, weak script FUNNYHOUSE (from p. 10)

her mind. Layers of dilapidated wood poking out from cracked, receding plaster formed the walls.

Ghastly skulls fell without warning from the ceiling, punctuating Sarah’s most morbid delusions.

A solitary noose hung from the ceiling, a permanent reminder of how far Sarah’s obsessions might take her. David Wilson’s (THA) sound design effectively completed the mood; most striking were the periodic bursts of carnival-esque dance music, which seemed to mock Sarah with their gaiety.

Despite all of these positives, however, “Funnyhouse of a Negro” still failed at providing a completely enjoyable theater experience for me. Simply put, I do not believe that the script provides a particularly relevant or constructive look at the issues involving race that it addresses.

When I was helping to plan events as a member of the Brandeis Mixed Heritage Club, the greatest challenge we kept encountering was finding media that offered a fair portrayal of a multi-ethnic character. We would regularly seek out movies claiming to feature strong characters of mixed heritage only to find the same cartoonish depictions of self-loathing and alienation.

While these questions of identity certainly are faced by many in the mixed heritage community, the media never handles them with much subtlety or with regard to these individuals as complete people defined by more than just

PHOTOS BY Mike Lovett/BTC

“FUNNYHOUSE”: Actors gave powerful performances as part of BTC’s production of “Funnyhouse of a Negro.”

their ethnicity.

Perhaps this has left me very jaded when it comes to approaching characters of mixed heritage, but taken from this perspective, “Funnyhouse of a Negro” becomes just another iteration of a

well-worn caricature. Indeed, the only difference between Sarah and the dozens of other characters left socially paralyzed by their mixed backgrounds is one of magnitude; Sarah is even more ridiculously consumed by self-loathing than

most.

There’s something that seems rather dated now about the idea of a person being driven to the brink of suicide because one of their parents is black. Is there a constructive message about race

relations to be taken from a story that’s so introverted and stark?

While I certainly think we need more, not less, honest exploration of racism from the arts in our culture, Funnyhouse becomes so thoroughly extreme that I think it can only serve to obscure the discussion and perpetuate stereotypes.

I certainly don’t think I can speak for anyone’s racial experience outside my own, though, and I’m perfectly willing to admit that others might take a whole lot more from the play than I did.

Indeed, it seems that most of the people I’ve talked to who saw it have described it as a very powerful, moving experience. What I can say, however, is that if you are unable to form this intense emotional connection to Sarah’s struggles, then the script doesn’t have very much to offer you. The atmosphere was too uniformly morbid for me to find a foothold to begin appreciating the story; in fact, the monotony only served to drive me even further away from the characters, and by the end, I had no personal investment at all in what would become of Sarah.

Based on the audience reaction, however, I’m sure I was in the minority on that point, and everyone involved in “Funnyhouse of a Negro” should be very proud of how much they were able to achieve with such challenging material.

Regardless of my feelings for the play, the talent working with the Brandeis Theater Company was more than enough to make their performance well worth seeing.

February 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

The value of dorm room din SOUNDS (from p. 11)

night.

When I think of musicians at work in the dorm, my mind instantly goes to this mythical bongoist who inhabits my building. Throughout the fall semester, the tapping and thundering of his instrument would waft up to our window every now and then. He became something of a dormwide sensation—for a short while, it appeared that everyone in Hassenfeld knew exactly what you meant when you mentioned the mysterious bongoist. There was a kind of communal relief in finding out that no, you were not crazy and hallucinating a bongo.

One day, while busily at work, I looked up to find three people standing in my doorway, peering

into the room.

“Is he here?” they asked in a tentative whisper. “You know, the bongo guy?”

I had to tell them that no, he was not—but in a sense I was relieved that the mystery was alive, and that it was something connecting so many people who didn’t actually know one another.

For all this emphasis on music, however, I would be remiss not to mention the other, less prominent things one hears in a hall, all of which come together to create a kind of ambient anthem for the dorm.

No matter what time it is, there are always footfalls in the hall, accompanied frequently by indecipherable hushed whispers. It’s almost calming in the sense of the reassurance that it gives one

about the consistency of life.

One of my favorite ambient noises happens to be the sound made when my neighbors open and close their mirrored medicine cabinets, which always close with a loud slam. Again, it serves as a reminder of the perpetual motion around you, and, on the weekends, I always know when it’s okay to knock on their door to ask if they want to grab brunch.

There’s little doubt that it can be annoying when someone on your hall suddenly decides to rock out to Miley Cyrus just as your head is hitting the pillow. The same applies when zoo noises begin reverberating around the dorm. But, if nothing else, it keeps you up-todate with contemporary pop radio, and it’s nothing a loud, well-placed fan can’t fix.

ARTS, ETC.

13

Speaking for space SPACES (from p. 11)

was sitting beneath a tree when he observed an apple fall to the ground. If he had not been in that location at that time, would he still have come up with that particular idea?

Instead of physical location, perhaps a better word would be ‘space.’ Far from just a geographical spot, space encompasses a period of time, the area’s place in society and its connections with other spaces. When someone goes to a place to think, it’s not just the tree or the earth that the person is confronted with, it’s the time of day, the time in that person’s life, the spot’s history, how society views that spot, where it fits in the social realm. French philosophers, in particular Henri LeFebvre, have filled books with

this concept and have discussed it more intelligently than I have, so please read them if you’re interested.

Nevertheless, the fact is Newton probably would still have thought of the concept of gravity without watching an apple fall and most people don’t need Boston’s lights to think.

Perhaps the ideal environment to think in simply doesn’t exist because it must be one that can inspire and one a person can simultaneously ignore. Perhaps these spaces are simply fleeting, transitory and dependent on the individual. Some of mine are outside the Shapiro campus center at 9 a.m. as leaves float to the ground, at dusk by the Louis Brandeis statue on the cusp of summer, or in a friend’s suite, over-caffeinated, as a new day begins.

Mike Posner performs at Brandeis Singer-songwriter Mike Posner performed songs from his debut mixtape alongside Big Sean.

The concert’s proceeds went to Haiti Relief.

Photos by Andrew Rauner

14 The Brandeis Hoot

OLYMPICS

February 26, 2010

Why I love the Olympics or how I spent my February break

BY HANNAH VICKERS Editor

Ever since I was a little kid I have loved sports. I played over half a dozen at one point in time or another and have always adored watching them on TV. Every two years I get so excited to tune in for the Olympics. I get shamelessly into the hype over the latest American athlete, and cheer my country to no end. The last two Olympics, Beijing and Vancouver, have been different.

I was studying abroad in Australia during the 2008 games and had to settle for watching men’s field hockey (because the Aussies were playing) rather than some of the Michael Phelps finals. After that heartbreak, I was even more excited to catch the Vancouver Olympics from my living room in New Jersey and my dorm room at Brandeis.

This summer, though, that whole plan changed. I got an email from the National Hockey League in July informing me of a once in a lifetime offer: ticket packages to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. Not only could I get tickets for a slew of events during our February break, but it included a hotel stay at a gorgeous place in downtown Vancouver and bus transportation to all events (for the oh-so tiny amount of $5,000). After small amounts of yelling at the idea of being able to see these games in person and completely ignoring the absurdity of the price, I called my best friend in Minnesota to see if she was in.

“Do you have five or six thousand dollars?” I asked her.

“Uh, I might have five of six…”

Sarah said a bit shocked.

After I explained what it was for she laughed at me and suggested the most obvious thing ever: If they’re trying to get suckers to buy these over priced plans, why don’t we just look for individual game tickets and stay with her family friends for free? They live right next to the Olympic village.

Needless to say, this was a much better plan.

We ordered tickets to two hockey games, Russia vs. Latvia and Finland vs. Germany, and booked our flights.

We could not believe that tickets for these games were the same price as Bruins seats. Shouldn’t we be getting ripped off more than this? Still, we had our seats on the lower level of the arena, just 20 rows and 8 rows respectively from the ice.

Over the next few months my excitement faded a bit as school work and grad school applications ruled my life. It wasn’t until Christmas time that the reality of going to the Olympics began to set in again. After scoring some seats for the women’s snowboarding half pipe, we were all set for a week of adventure.

Sarah’s parents and younger sister joined us for the first few days

up in Vancouver. Even once we landed and saw the Olympic rings from the train and the huge venues looming right outsides our window it still did not seem like this could be happening.

It was not until we went out into the city the next day that everything set in. The streets of Vancouver were packed with people and almost every store had something in the window to show they supported Canada. Maple Leaf flags hung from balconies at apartments complexes all over town. While there were a lot of Canadians, it was everyone else I was paying attention to. I have never seen a place where so many different countries could come together. We overheard a dozen different languages in the first hour of our adventures. People walked around with Australian, Chinese, and Swedish flags as capes to show their pride.

Our first Olympic event ended up being the men’s Nordic combined on Valentine’s Day. The family we stayed with gave us the tickets for free, so off we went at 7 a.m. to Whistler to catch the action. We were probably the only people at the ski jumping portion or the cross country segment who did not bring a flag. Some people even had flags for countries that were not participating, but they still wanted to show their pride in their nation. We managed to get spots right along the fence 250 meters from the cross country finish line. One gentleman had brought an American flag, a Swiss flag, and a Canadian flag with him to represent his three citizenships and the three countries he has lived in. Again I was struck by how unique the Olympics are. When else would you have the chance to wave three flags at once?

After a few more days of exploring the city, experiencing all the pavilions where we could grab freebies, and spending far too much time and money at the Hudson Bay Company store buying official merchandise, we went to the Russia/Latvia hockey game.

To say the Russians had a bit of a presence is an understatement. It seemed like nearly everyone in the arena was wearing red and white or sporting the new Sochi 2014 jackets to advertise the next winter games. Still, despite their support for one team, most people cheered for both squads and were excited whenever either one made a goal.

I was honestly blown away by how everything was organized the entire week. Despite the British griping over this being the worst Olympic games ever (see The Guardian for the piece) things were running as smoothly as I could have imagined. With millions pouring in from around the globe I was amazed that more things did not go wrong.

The planning committee could not have known global warming would take away the snow from Cypress mountain, the venue for the snowboarding events. At the

PHOTO BY Sarah Bloomberg/The Hoot

NORDIC COMBINED: Crossing the finish line during the cross country legacy event.

end of the day playing the hockey games in the Canucks NHL arena instead of an Olympic sized rink is not the end of the world. The two things I personally witnessed that should have been handled differently were the Olympic Cauldron and an incident at the women’s half pipe.

At every Olympic games, there is a Cauldron that burns outside from the Opening to Closing Ceremonies. In Vancouver the Cauldron was located right next to the newly built convention center right on the bay. When we went to try to get photos, though, we were a bit disappointed. Standing between us and our picture was a massive chain link fence, most of which was covered with Vancouver 2010 themed netting. Swarms of people pushed ahead to try to sneak their camera lenses through holes in the fence, but it did not do much good. The Olympic officials claimed these were safety and security precautions. Once objections were raised, though, the fence was moved, the netting taken down, and a viewing platform set up on the roof of a one story building right next to the flame. They cut out a large strip of the fencing so everyone could easily get their photo. I was pretty impressed with how quickly they solved the problem (overnight) and very happy with the results.

The half pipe event took place at Cypress Mountain, just 30 minutes outside the city. The stands were apparently the tallest ever constructed at an Olympics which probably explains the nearly 300 steps spectators had to walk up to get to their seats. After getting more than a little winded we settled in for what promised

to be an incredible experience.

What we were not bargaining for was the serious injury that took place between the qualifying and semi-final round. Most people in the stands were just chatting, killing time, while snowboarders made their way down the pipe on practice runs. No one was paying much attention when suddenly we saw a girl wipe out – landing on her back after missing a trick and slamming her head into the snow. She lay there for a moment with her arm raised before she passed out.

It took the coaches at the bottom nearly 20 seconds to notice the accident before the raced to her side. As she was being strapped to a board and taken to receive medical treatment, the announcers at the venue did not even acknowledge what had happened. They continued talking to each other and blatantly ignored the fact a competitor was seriously injured. They did not even give the audience her name.

It was not until after the first run of the finals that we realized it was Queralt Castellet, the Spanish boarder who had qualified third, who had fallen. Her score was listed as DNS – Did Not Start – while the other 11 women had numbers next to their names. We could not believe the officials had not made some kind of announcement regarding her condition to the stands. I can understand not wanting to alarm fans, but it was so odd to just ignore that it ever happened. Obviously she crashed, everyone saw it. I felt it was almost disrespectful to Catellet to not at least say something.

Despite that set back, the half pipe was still a pretty phenom-

enal event. Right before the first run of the finals a woman came up the stairs carrying a two-foot tall kangaroo stuffed animal with boxing gloves – the unofficial official symbol of Australian sports.

After shamelessly taking a photo with her, she sat with us to watch “her girl” Torah Bright take her first run. Bright, an Australian favored to medal, fell before the end, earning low marks.

The Aussie next to us was unfazed, explaining that “Torah recovers from that all the time, just puts more pressure on her for the second run.” It was at that point we learned that the woman we were talking to was actually the physical therapist for the Australian team. After comparing a few notes on her home country, she went down to the coaches area to watch the second runs. Bright had a perfect run and earned the gold medal.

The whole week we met the most random, nice people. Everyone wanted to talk to everyone else, to talk about where they were from and what events they were seeing. Some crazy Canadians were even boasting in the bars about spending nearly four thousand dollars a ticket to go to the USA vs. Canada men’s hockey game Sunday night. I certainly did not see as many events that week as I would have if I had been sitting in front of my TV, but what I got to experience meant so much more. That was a week when you cheered for your country but you supported the world. We came together to be part of something larger than ourselves and we have got the key chains, mugs, sweatshirts, mittens, hats, scarves, and memories to show for it.

February 26, 2010

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.

Think our editorials are wrong?

Write a letter to the editor at eic@thebrandeishoot.com

EDITORIALS

W

The Brandeis Hoot 15

A not so artful decision

hen the university decided Jan. 22 that the impending academic cuts were to be decided by a Committee, this editorial board thought the powers that be had finally learned their lesson.

After all, many of the university’s public relations blunders can be attributed to a chronic lack of responsible committees.

For example, Jan. 16 of last year, a campus-wide e-mail informed students that merit-based financial aid would no longer apply towards study abroad. The thought was if merit aid was cut, it would save the university from paying outside study abroad programs; and in turn solve a then $800,000 shortfall within the Department of Academic and Financial Services.

That the university had already promised aid could be used for study abroad in acceptance letters to current students on three different scholarships apparently slipped administrators minds.

So after protests by rightfully enraged students, the university created the Study Abroad Committee which allowed current students to use their merit aid for study abroad, but enacted the new rule

Email: join@thebrandeishoot.com

for future students.

Then, in February, President Jehuda Reinharz announced the university would close The Rose Art Museum and sell its art to close a $80 million budget gap over the next four years.

Again, the lack of committee deliberation proved a mistake. There was public outcry, and an unprecedented media firestorm surrounded the university, plastering our economic woes on front pages nationwide. This prompted Reinharz to backtrack, saying we never wanted to close the museum, but rather sell the art. Again, a committee was formed in order to re-determine the fate of the museum.

So, naturally, when it came to academic cuts, this board thought we were making a step in the right direction—after all, the order was correct; committee first, then decisions.

But, apparently the Brandeis 2020 Committee, in proposing to indefinitely suspend the Master’s of Fine Arts in Theater Design, suffered a case of retrograde amnesia.

Regardless of the merits of or problems with the Theater Design program, it’s naive to think that a campus, and a public, which has

not yet recovered from The Rose Art Museum debacle (currently awaiting resolution via a Dec. 2 court date), could see this suspension as anything other than another blatant disregard for arts at Brandeis.

If this proposal is finalized by the board of trustees, it will no doubt again attract media attention that will label it with headlines all to similar to those that followed the initial announcement about The Rose.

The Brandeis 2020 Committee has said the proposal to cut the Theater Design program is financially motivated and does not reflect an animosity towards the arts.

But, again, we refer them to history.

When the university could no longer handle the media’s inquiries following The Rose announcement, they hired a Public Relations firm, Rasky Baerlein, to which they payed $20,000.

That amount may be small change when compared to an $80 million projected deficit over the next four years, but add it to the opportunity cost of a (yet again) battered reputation.

Can we really afford to cut it?

16 The Brandeis Hoot

Book of Matthew

IMPRESSIONS

February 26, 2010

You can’t choose your abortion facts

BY BRET MATTHEW Editor

The girl in the pamphlet stared off into the corner of the picture frame. She looked like a lead female role in a low-budget 50s horror movie—covered in shadow and looking fearfully at some unseen enemy.

“The Deadly After-Effect of Abortion: Breast Cancer,” read the boldfaced title.

This was no movie.

The pamphlet was one of many taken from the Heartbeat Pregnancy Help Center in Burlington, Mass. Heartbeat is a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization which provides free consultation and services for women who find themselves pregnant and unsure what to do about it. But this otherwise laudable service is marred by the center’s decidedly anti-abortion position.

I got the pamphlets from Aleze, a member of the Brandeis chapter of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA), which is part of the national Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF). FMF has taken an interest in pregnancy centers lately, and has been calling for its branches to investigate different centers that are suspected of pushing anti-abortion propaganda.

Brandeis’ FMLA decided to cover the Boston area, dividing into pairs and seeking out questionable centers.

And so, last semester, Aleze and her friend Maddie made the twenty-minute drive to the Heartbeat center. Pretending that Maddie was pregnant, the two girls secured a Saturday appointment with one of Heartbeat’s volunteer counselors .

The students, who asked their last names not be used so their investigations would not be uncovered, sat down with the counselor in the building’s small office. It was literally decorated wall-to-wall.

Hundreds of pictures of smiling babies crawling were hung proudly. Some were even accompanied by handwritten let-

ters by proud parents, no doubt thanking Heartbeat for their services.

One prominently displayed poster depicted a black-and-white newborn, fast asleep and wrapped in a blanket. “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on,” read its caption.

Nearby, a desk held a collection of oddly shaped plastic figures, which, upon closer examination, turned out to be models of fetuses. Pink and shiny, each one represented a different stage in fetal development.

Though slightly put-off by the subliminal nature of the decor, the girls found the counselor to be mostly friendly and understanding. As Maddie described her circumstances—trying to sound as panicky as possible—she listened carefully, and even offered words of encouragement.

“You would definitely make a good mother,” she said when Maddie laid out her doubts about giving birth and raising a child. Many students, the counselor said, are able to raise children while still graduating on time. She even gave examples of a few young mothers who she knew had raised multiple children over the course of four years in school.

The girls attempted to steer the conversation toward abortion. Aleze mentioned that she had a “friend” who recently had one. Immediately, the counselor became inquisitive, asking probing questions: Had she been pressured by someone? How is she doing now?

“That’s really the worst idea,” she said, claiming that girls who get abortions almost always end up with physical and psychological trauma. She was especially insistent in her belief that abortions raise the risk of breast cancer later in life. When the girls asked how that was possible, she briefly attempted to explain the “science” behind it before pointing to studies cited in many of the pamphlets lining the office’s shelves.

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

See FMLA, p. 19

Great minds ... compose at Brandeis

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

Brandeis University opened its doors to its first student in the fall of 1948. Less than three years later, Arnold Schoenberg passed away at the age of 76. Schoenberg is often considered the last great composer of the art music canon, one whos work was so innovative that it created new modes of thought about music but who still achieved the widespread recognition to make his music a vital part of the art music repertoire.

Through his twelve-tone system, he broke the final rules of tonality, but what seemed like a shocking new development at the time soon became a curse. For the first time, it seemed that all the new vistas in art music had been explored, and the attempts of subsequent composers to push the boundaries of art music even further turned it into a largely academic art form, one that could not be appreciated without extensive training. Since Schoenberg, art music has never regained its position of primacy in mainstream cultural importance.

Brandeis, therefore, just missed the long gilded age of the European art music tradition. However, our music department still has a very long, rich history to brag about, and the list of respected composers who have served on the Brandeis faculty is as impressive as that almost any school in the country.

No one has been more important to music

at Brandeis than Irving Fine. Born in Boston in 1914, Fine attended Harvard University and earned prestigious positions on the Harvard faculty and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1950, he moved to the fledgling Brandeis, founding the School of Creative Arts. He remained at the university until his untimely death in 1962, and his legacy lives on in the institution he created and in the professorship, performance ensemble and tribute concert that bear his name. Fine’s melodic music also earned him great praise, including a Fulbright and two Guggenheim Fellowships.

One of Fine’s greatest triumphs was the quality of composers he brought to the Brandeis faculty. He was very well connected, and he became one of the members of what would later be termed the “Boston school”, a close-knit group of area composers containing some of the biggest names in the art music world. Through Fine’s influence, several prominent Boston school composers would begin long tenures at the university.

Arthur Berger was one of these, and when he accepted the title of Irving G. Fine Professor of Music in 1969, he began an association with Brandeis that lasted until he died in 2003.

Berger explored a serial, Neo-Classical style that united the styles of Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, rigidly shunning the more mainstream path taken by his close friend Aaron Copland. Apart from his composing, Berger also gained fame as a music critic, writing for several Boston and New York newspapers and

founding Perspectives on New Music, now the second oldest scholarly journal on music theory in the country.

Harold Shapero also came from the Boston school, and his 37-year Brandeis career included time as the Chair of the Department of Music. Shapero was (and still is) interested in the new field of electronic instruments, and his leadership helped to grow the very unique Brandeis Electro-Acoustic Music Studio into the nationally-respected facility it is today.

His “Symphony for Classical Orchestra” is still regularly performed, and his record of international prizes is extensive.

The most famous Boston school composer, and the man most recognized as being associated with music at Brandeis, is Leonard Bernstein.

One of the seminal figures in 20thcentury music, Bernstein is famous world-wide for his popular works for stage like West Side Story and Candide and for his extensive tenure as the music director for the New York Philharmonic, during which time his Young People’s Concerts made him a household name. His recital hall compositions are less well-known, but he left behind three symphonies, several conventional operas and a number of other works for symphony, chamber groups and solo piano.

Bernstein joined the Brandeis faculty in 1951 and remained there until 1956, subsequently becoming a University Fellow and a member of the Board of Trustees. In 1952,

Bernstein premiered his opera Trouble in Tahiti at the university’s first commencement, and he established and directed the first Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, an event which still occurs annually.

Outside of the Boston school, several other noted composers have taught at Brandeis, and any list of them is bound to be incomplete.

Wayne Peterson was at the school for several years; he would later win the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Alvin Lucier was a student at Brandeis and later joined the faculty.

He has gained some fame for his quirky sound experiments that attempt to manipulate and explore the nature of sound waves themselves. Yehudi Wyner is probably the best-known member of Brandeis’ current music faculty, and his accomplished career of exploring his Jewish heritage through music culminated in the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for his piano concerto “Chiavi in Mano.”

Despite its late start, the Brandeis Department of Music has managed to attract some of the greatest minds in the art music world and to build a very strong reputation. Though the composers it has attracted have been of diverse musical minds, they helped to develop a sound and movement that is uniquely American and uniquely Bostonian. Perhaps art music will never again serve as the medium for relentless experimentation at the forefront of culture that it used to be, but Brandeis University has and will continue to ensure as it is not a spent force.

February 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

IMPRESSIONS

17

Approaching American decline

BY RICK ALTERBAUM Columnist

Within the next fifty years, China will probably overtake the United States as the world’s dominant hegemonic power. When this happens, historians will ask “when was the turning point?”

Indeed, at what point did America begin to decline? The answer is in the policies of the past administration, that of President George W. Bush.

The Bush presidency can be held in such low regard because of its economic policies. During his 2000 campaign, Bush touted himself as a typical fiscally conservative Republican who would cut government spending and make economically responsible decisions.

Ironically, the complete opposite held true. Before Bush ascended into the White House, the United States, for the first time in decades, was producing record surpluses that could be used to pay down the debt. By the time Barack Obama replaced our 43rd president eight years later, he was faced with a federal deficit of approximately one trillion dollars and a debt of nearly $12 trillion.

This state of affairs was the byproduct of unrestrained fiscal profligacy. First, Bush passed a series of unnecessary tax cuts catered to the rich, resulting in billions of dollars of lost revenue and tax receipts. Then, with the onset of the so-called War on Terror, the government invested copious amounts of resources defeating insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq and nation-building in those two countries. Meanwhile, the administration passed into law Medicare Part D, a program which entails the government pouring massive amounts of funds into the insurance industry to provide prescription drugs to seniors.To cap this all off, there was the financial meltdown of

2008, which was in no small part spurred on by the administration’s continued support of deregulation of the financial services sector, low interest rates, and the practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac concerning mortgages.

The subsequent infusion of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds into institutions crippled by toxic assets, in addition to the precipitous decline in tax revenue caused by the great recession, also did not bode well in terms of our immediate fiscal outlook. I am not going to debate the merits of every single one of the Bush Administration’s actions.

Rather, I lament the fact these policies have left us with a seemingly insurmountable level of federal debt. Past empires, from the Romans to the Ottomans, have crumbled in part due to a lack of control over their respective economic situations.

Similarly, if we refuse to solve our debt crisis, we will face enormous interest payments, a lack of investor confidence, a decline of the value of the US dollar and a resistance by our major creditors, such as China and Japan, to cooperate with us.

In the end, this downward spiral could portend potential doom for the federal government, and an inability of it to provide essential services and administer the rule of law.

Fortunately, we are not at this level yet. However, I am pessimistic about the prospect of Congress coming together on this problem in the near future.

There are very legitimate concerns about whether either cutting spending or raising taxes, even on the rich, is appropriate during a recession.

And, neither Democrats nor Republicans are committed to making difficult decisions with potential short-term political ramifications.President Obama’s announced freeze on non-defense

GRAPHIC BY Lenny Schrier/The Hoot

discretionary spending, as well as a fiscal commission, are steps in the right direction. Contrary to conservative rhetoric, he is, in reality, far from the extravagant spender he has been caricatured as, to his credit. However, there

is certainly no guarantee that Congress will act upon the commission’s recommendations. This is especially the case with Republicans, who have collectively resolved that they will oppose any major initiative Obama endorses.

And if Congress fails, what will we have left? No solutions for long-term solvency, and only political inertia, paralysis, and the catastrophic fiscal legacy left by President Bush. I hope we can do better.

A plan for resource-rich countries

BY LEON MARKOVITZ Editor

Most countries that are rich with natural resources, such as petroleum, gas and minerals have a large percentage of poor citizens. This is the reason many oil-rich countries have called oil a blessing and curse at the same time.

Many social scientists, economists and philosophers have come up with countless theories as to why this is here’s mine: Large income from natural resources usually leads public servants to become overwhelmed and corrupted by it. The governments usually take the place of the private sector, and stretch their abilities beyond capacity, opening doors for corruption.

To be or not be corrupt depends mainly on the people in charge, but with the right system in place to check on corruption this problem may be significantly reduced.

An international body could be set in place throughout these countries that

would investigate complaints or suspicions about corruption, or maybe a national government agency that is in charge of checking for corruption, whose employees get compensated for the crimes they detect. A good legal system is also required.

But beyond the creation of such agencies, private, governmental and financial security must also be assured. Once this happens, investments will flow into countries naturally.

Capital goes where it is safe. Security would stop the flight of capital, and is the main factor that leads to poverty, which leads to insecurity, eventually leading to flight of capital. It comes full circle.

This security can be achieved once income from natural resources is directed into security enforcing agencies of all kind. This includes affordable housing, health care, micro-finance and education. After the money is invested in this, the remaining profits should be left to the private sector. These will provide security to the countries by

giving a healthy lifestyle to the poor, as well as future opportunities. By giving the poor their basic needs and finance for future enterprises the security is almost guaranteed.

Once foreign and national investors realize the country is secure, capital will flow to finance businesses and projects.

Most resource-rich countries have millions of people who want to work, millions of entrepreneurs and millions of untapped talent because of the lack of investment.

Many of them will be able to get jobs from private investors that will be the responsible ones for investing on everything else that the government was investing their money before. The redistribution of the natural resource income to only those concentrated areas will further help reduce the possibilities of corruption History has shown private capital is better at managing and financing projects than governments are. Think of the possibilities for example of developing the agricultural sector on countries

that suffer from the dutch disease. Innovative companies would jump at the possibilities of developing these longforgotten lands.

Of course, companies that exploit natural resources should pay higher taxes and royalties to the government as well as employ a good percentage of national citizens in the company.

This newfound industry will benefit both the people and the government.

The flow of capital into the countries would increase tax revenues, reduce poverty and crime, improve the terms of trade, and increase their popularity. The government would give a free hand to new capitalism, but still help with public projects such as repairing highways.

People would feel safe and would shop without fear, and flocks of tourists would visit–a new world would open.

Enforcing an efficient security system and redistributing the government revenue to these few and specialized areas is then the key to free these countries from poverty.

18 IMPRESSIONS

SEA Change

The Brandeis Hoot

February 26, 2010

Remembering the significance of planet earth

BY DEBORAH SALMON Special to The Hoot

The new “it” thing these days is to go green. People around the world find delight in being able to say things such as, “My new Toyota Prius is environmentally friendly,” or “My dorm has been green certified.” But the reality is that people’s lifestyles are not drastically changing in order to fit the needs of the environment.

Yes, people are continuously more concerned about issues such as deforestation, land and water pollution and the big one – global warming.

However, people don’t really know the essence of the many problems our planet is facing, nor do they know how exactly going green is helping the environment.

People succumb to such a mode because others are doing it, because it is easier, or, simply, because it’s comforting to know that something you are doing is “good for the planet.”

Yet most people do not really know why it is that turning off a TV, or switching off a light, will make such a huge in the long run.

The truth is people don’t really go out of their way to help the environment because many have never been exposed to a rural world. We live in concrete jungles, forgetting

the importance of nature and the Earth itself.

I myself am a victim of this urbanized society, and had forgotten the significance of “Planet Earth” until this winter break when I was lucky enough to travel to one of the most remote and breathtaking places in the planet– Bolivia.

It lies in the heart of South America, a most controversial country swimming in problems - ranging from government corruption, poverty, and continuous instability. Yet, in the midst of all these difficulties lies a tapestry of wonders. Bolivia’s rainforest is home to one of the world’s richest arrays of plant and animals species. A rainforest in which new creatures are discovered everyday lurking behind the enormous tree trunks and intertwining branches.

As part of my adventure I experienced living in the real jungle for four days. In the Beni River, located in Eastern Bolivia, roams a “Flotel” or floating hotel. Basically the idea behind this hidden attraction is to live, breathe and ultimately become one with nature.

I lived in this boat four days. During the nights, I slept out in the open– on a hammock in the upper deck of the boat. I was able to see the stars in the sky like I had never before, and I realized how magically soothing sleeping outdoors can be.

Of course, there was a price to pay: the next

morning I was completely devoured by mosquitoes.

During the day time I went swimming with pink river dolphins, a species endemic to Bolivia. I also took various nature walks through the depths of the forest–while listening to the sounds of nature. Overall, a feeling of serenity, one which I had never experience in an urban surrounding, overpowered me. I was completely free. I could jump into the river when I pleased, or relax on the deck while taking in the vastness and beauty of the jungle.

Having been exposed to a world so different from what I know–if only for a few days – made me

Creating jobs in all the wrong places

BY CHRIS BORDELON

Staff or Editor or Special to The Hoot

If the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index has as much to say about a president’s political health as it has in the past, President Barack Obama needs emergency care.

The Index stands at 46, a drop of more than ten points since last month, and more than 40 points less than what is typically regarded as a good reading.

But while the president’s condition should worry his supporters, they can at least take comfort in knowing that he suffers from no dislocation of priorities. One month ago in his State of the Union address, when the president declared that “jobs must be our number-one focus in 2010,” he was even more serious than his words made him sound.

He was so serious that he set an example for bosses everywhere by hiring a new employee.

According to Congressman Joe Sestak, who is challenging party-switching incumbent Senator Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary election this May, the president sought to appoint former rear admiral Joe Sestak to Secretary of the Navy.

One doubts that the job offer, which Sestak revealed in a Feb. 18 interview, would have been forthcoming had Sestak not been campaigning against Obama’s favored candidate, the ex-Republican Specter. The White House denies that an offer was made. Still, one could hardly blame the unemployed if they suddenly began mounting Democratic primary challenges en masse against the bland conservatives whom Obama apparently prefers.

The president’s focus on jobs means more than just hiring

more help, it means ensuring available jobs are good ones, and that people get the pay they deserve and the benefits that basic human dignity requires.

That must be why the Treasury Department decided to sign off on a compensation package for General Motors Chief Executive Officer Edward Whitacre consisting of $1.7 million in salary and $7.3 million in GM stock shares.

The administration might have reasoned that Whitacre was barely getting by, given that his job at GM paid only $950,000 in salary and $4.4 million in shares last year. Or maybe it believed that he was doing a better job this year-– a severalmillions-of-dollars-better job.

In any case, the US government owns more than 3/5 of GM, and Obama’s Treasury Department had to agree to the pay package.

Alas, for other GM (and government) employees, it seems doubtful that Whitacre’s big money hints at things to come for those further down the employment food chain.

Obama’s health care plans have been a godsend for recession-hit Madison Avenue, as health care lobbyists vie to mislead the public with competing advertisements. Some ad agencies, however – especially politically well-placed ones – apparently still had had a hard row to hoe. The compassionate president must have felt their pain. He and his rich friends in the pharmaceutical industry put together a stimulus package of up to $150 million for advertisers in a deal, the results of which were discussed on Feb. 22 on the National Public Radio show Fresh Air. The industry’s trade lobby, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (headed by another party-

switching ex-congressman, Billy Tauzin), agreed with the administration to fund an ad campaign promoting Obama’s version of health care reform by funneling money through benignly named nonprofit groups. The administration, for its part, intervened in Congress to keep off the table provisions that would have threatened drug companies’ profits by allowing Medicare more flexibility in buying drugs and more leverage in negotiating drug prices. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, doubtless saw great wisdom in the deal, which would pay the advertising firm he founded, AKP & D Message and Media, to produce the ads. That’s nice work, if you can get it.

If the jobs that Obama has focused on seem strange, it helps to remember that the job he really cares most about won’t be at risk for more than two-and-ahalf years.

Still, in a country where public spending does not come close to being paid for by tax dollars, somebody must be found to pay for the noble deeds of leaders like Obama. Unfortunately, China’s dictators, who until recently had been willing to buy all the bonds that the US Treasury saw fit to print, have in the last few months become net sellers of US bonds.

One hopes that other countries will buy more to keep America’s borrowing costs low, notwithstanding how laughable the prospect of repayment of a growing debt of more than $12 trillion has become. If not, maybe the US Mint will start contracting out its production work, so that printing tradesmen can take advantage when the government is forced to adopt the ultimate stimulus package, printing money to pay our creditors.

think about how easy it is to forget our planet.

People tend to get caught up in the industrial, capitalist world, and completely disregard the environment. The very jungle I learned to love so much is currently facing, among others, terrible threats of deforestation. The wood found there is destined to be turned into fuel to generate electricity, which in turn directly feeds your light bulb and your TV set.

So, next time you leave a light on, or forget to switch off the TV just remember that you are one step further away from experiencing the planet in its rawest and purest of ways.

GRAPHIC BY Allison Corman-Vogan/The Hoot

Celebrity apologies: A damaging waste of time

BY ALEX SELF Staff

The celebrity stands behind the podium, a solitary figure surrounded by a sea of media.

His crimes have been laid out before the court of public opinion for months.

This is his penance.Stoic and robotic, he reads his written apology like a book on tape.

It is the press’s job to decipher the emotion behind the words, for he will have none of it.

His statements ring hollow, as fake as the spontaneity of his speech.

“I apologize for all of the transgressions … [looks down at notes] that I have committed against my family … [looks down again] … my community … [one more time] and my fans.”

Only then does the absurdity of the situation suddenly appear to me.

This man is trying to make amends with the public for an indiscretion committed against his family.

Meanwhile, he’s only reading the speech the public wants to hear.

Of course, the first celebrity that comes to mind with this situation is Tiger Woods but there have been a number of famous figures who have begged forgiveness at the altar of public opinion. Many a philandering politician have found themselves giving the talk of shame.

Adultery is a very serious issue and there should be consequences for any celebrity who betrays his family.

However, there should not be a media circus the likes of which has encompassed a figure like Tiger Woods.

I’m not blaming the press for reporting that the adultery occurred, but calling for a public

apology is out of line.

Why should a celebrity who committed an act of treason against his family issue an apology to the public at large? He should make amends with his family, not the viewer.

Instead, what we get is a public apology with a boring speech that is more attributable to the teleprompter than the heart.

The media circus associated with a celebrity mea culpa is more of a show than anything else. Instead of forcing celebrities to read their public relations directors’ masterwork on national television, why don’t we instead judge them on what they do to heal their families?

It would certainly spare the celebrity – not to mention us – the additional pain of going through the obviously scripted apology.

It would also allow us to judge the transgressor on their actual progress in healing the wounds they have caused, as opposed to the sincerity of their sorrow for their crime.

And, with a little practice, this may even be the start of a system where celebrity transgressors and their victims are given a little more privacy.

Unfaithfulness takes a heavy emotional toll, and it’s unfair for the media to inflict even more pain upon a family that’s already in disarray.

It’s time we stopped requiring celebrities to issue show apologies to society as a whole.

They provide little benefit to anyone and pour salt in familial wounds.

By allowing celebrities to make their own amends and then judging them on this criteria, we can help ensure that actual healing takes place rather than ripping the wound open all over again.

February 26, 2010

Sexcapades

The Brandeis Hoot

IMPRESSIONS

19

The importance of pillow talk

BY SOPHIE RIESE Special to The Hoot

In an ideal world, a first date (or maybe three) would come before sex. Unless, of course, all you want is the sex. In that ideal world, the sex would come easily, with no strings attached and no conversation needed. But we don’t live an ideal world–in college, we don’t even live in the real world. And while in the real world, things aren’t perfect, in college, things don’t even work in the most basic of ways.

Drunk at a party (or Pachanga), we’ve all kissed someone we wished we hadn’t, or worse, taken them home. But what can be worse is kissing someone or taking someone home you actually like, because when the next morning comes, you never know what your feelings–or theirs–will be.

But if you’ve already had sex, and can still bear to see each others’ faces in the morning, you should face the awkwardness and think about the next

step. Do you want to continue hooking up? If so, should it be booty-call style, or something to be done regularly, perhaps even soberly? Maybe you want to try to get to know each other a little better? Start with a Usdan date, or maybe e v e n lunch at the Faculty Club?

After a while, if you’ve been sleeping together regularly, but not really spending sober time together, it gets more complicated. At what point have you crossed the line from “hooking up” to “kind of together,” or even, however accidentally, to “exclusive?”

I’ve certainly been there. You wake up one morning in bed with someone and realize you’re practically dating, even if dates

aren’t part of your repertoire.

For weeks, they’ve been the only person you’ve hooked up with– let alone thought about–and you see them almost every day, sleeping togethe r most of the time.

T h e s e x might b e great, or it might be mediocre, but either way, this is the situation. Upon this realization, there are really only two options: stop sleeping together, or discuss what the future may hold for you as a pair (thought not necessarily as a couple).

I’m one of those people for whom sex holds a certain importance. In a relationship, you cannot function well if your sex life is not up to par. You should

be comfortable and open, with both parties willing to try new things and talk about what they want. And while relationships do require other things to work (an emotional connection, things in common, good conversation etc.), without sex, none of the other things can, in and of themselves, make a relationship work. You’ll notice that many couples begin to fall apart when their sex lives take nosedives.

Many of my friendships encounter sex in one way or another. My closest girl friends are the ones I’m completely open with about my sex life, and who I think will be open with me too.

Many of my closest guy friends are men I’ve encountered sexually, whether it was making out with at a party in tenth grade, to sex, to flings and relationships. Physical comfort can really only come along with a kind of emotional comfort, and viceversa, which is why it’s easy for me to stay friends with people (although for others it’s not so

easy).

So once you wake up next to someone you’re interested in, it’s important to start the conversation. As a pair, it is important that boundaries are set as soon as someone brings up the situation. You have to be aware of what each of you is comfortable with, and what each of you is willing to give, otherwise, you’re doomed as friends, and as lovers.

Boundaries can be anything from deciding to be together, to deciding never to sleep together again, to deciding never to speak again.The two of you are the only ones who can make that decision, but open communication, however awkward, must take place. It is also crucial that, no matter what your partner says, you get to say your piece as well, even if you completely disagree with them. If you get to say what you wanted to say, then you’ll never have any regrets, no matter what the outcome; and you can probably plan to avoid the situation next time.

GRAPHIC BY Allison Corman-Vogan/The Hoot

Feigning pregnancy in a Heartbeat FMLA p. 16

the pamphlets lining the office’s shelves.

The girls were right to be skeptical. It turns out that those studies are mostly out of date and have since been replaced by more recent scientific work.

Both the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute have concluded that there is no relation between abortion and breast cancer. Though they acknowledge that studies have found otherwise, they maintain that these were done improperly, resulting in skewed results.

According to an article on the National Cancer Institute’s Web site, in most of the older studies “only a small number of

women were included … and for most, the data were collected only after breast cancer had been diagnosed, and women’s histories of miscarriage and abortion were based on their ‘self-report’ rather than on their medical records.”

Of course, whether or not she cared to admit it, the counselor at Heartbeat had an agenda to push, and she was prepared to do anything to see it through.

On top of the false information she gave Maddie, the counselor offered to provide her with clothes, a baby carriage, a crib and other supplies that she would need were she to keep the baby.

She also told her that she could apply for food stamps and subsidized health insur-

ance if necessary, and suggested that Maddie move in with her boyfriend.

In fact, she was prepared to offer Maddie all the help and advice that Heartbeat was capable of giving. The only thing she would not do was allow Maddie to make a truly informed decision.

Maddie and Aleze left Heartbeat with one final admonition to keep the baby. In an attempt to follow up on their visit, I went to the center on Tuesday and met with Muriel, the center’s director.

In the same office where the students had sat before me, Muriel told me about all the work that Heartbeat had done in the past year. They had delivered clothes and baby formula to needy mothers and their

Impressionable Weekend comics and fun from The Hoot Sleazy by Matt Kupfer

Jumble by Cecelia Watkins

children, and counseled the mothers of 103 babies.

It was work that I could not necessarily find fault with. But like the counselor, Muriel remained adamantly against abortion, insisting once again that it was dangerous for the mother and handing me even more pamphlets containing outdated studies.

It is often said that we are entitled to our own opinions, but not to our own facts. I thought about this as I scanned the walls around me, my eyes landing on each piece of subtle, and not-so-subtle, propaganda.

And I also thought of the countless women who had done the same thing, while desperately trying to make a difficult decision that was slowly being made for them.

20 The Brandeis Hoot

HOOT SCOOPS Four-year cup of fun

BY DESTINY D. AQUINO Editor

It’s 11:30 on a Thursday night and the campus coffee shop is bustling. At college, the coffee shop is an experience (no matter why) everyone seems to gather here.

You notice the freshmen right away. They huddle in the corner over books, still bundled up. They haven’t adjusted to the cold, and judging by the large cup of coffee they’re each holding, they haven’t adjusted to the workload, either.

Sophomores are easy to spot.

They look exhausted, but instead of working they’re socializing. This is a habit for them; in between life’s demands this is where they go.

Juniors, they’re the ones not sitting either, but, instead of exhausted, they look rejuvenated. Among them there’s talk of study abroad and internships.

Life is good for them; they’ve

February 26, 2010

balanced demands. Their conversations end with “I’m going to bed soon” instead of the sophomores’ lament: “I haven’t even started my reading for tomorrow yet.”

Seniors sit by themselves here. Their table is covered in resumes and grad school applications, signs of life after Brandeis. You look at them, their ease: working around the rustling noises of feet, voices, coffee makers, doors, chairs scraping the floor. You begin to wonder, how many times have they done this in four years?

Changed in the last three years, yet still the same late-night coffee shop run. How many friends have they sat here with? It’s like a high school locker. As a freshman, you can’t figure out how to work it or when to go to it, but, like the coffee shop, once you do it’s a haven in a sea of schoolwork.