The Brandeis Hoot - Mar 12, 2010

VOL 7, NO. 7

MARCH 12, 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

Pres search progresses Committee receives 50-plus applications

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor

PHOTO COURTESY Mike Lovett/ Brandeis University

INTERFAITH: (From Left to Right) Protestant Chaplain Alexander Kern, Imam Talal Eid, Father Walter Cuenin and Rabbi Elyse Winick denounced Wednesday last week’s vandalism to the Muslim Student Association lounge and prayer space.

Univ reacts to MSA vandalism

BY JON OSTROWSKY Staff

The Brandeis Chaplaincy, Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams and University President Jehuda Reinharz denounced Friday’s vandalism of the Muslim Student Association’s (MSA) prayer space and lounge in Usdan Student Center. The identity of the vandals remain unknown.

Adams, Reinharz and the chaplains, representing the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim faiths, gathered in the Muslim prayer space and lounge Wednesday to speak out against the vandalism.

“We unite in solidarity with all

our Muslim students and assure them that this kind of action will not be tolerated at Brandeis,” the statement said. “Any act of vandalism, especially those that target a particular religious or cultural community, is deplorable.”

The vandalism to the newly renovated lounge was discovered at 9 a.m. last Friday morning by MSA President Neda Eid who noticed two lamps in the lounge were unplugged and turned upside down.

According to Imam Talal Eid, Neda’s father, vandalism was not considered until 11:30 a.m. when he entered his office and found his computer and phone unplugged,

chipped paint and damaged kitchen utensils. His personal copy of the Quran, complete with notes from previous sermons, was also missing.

“I looked around the place after lunch and then I came to my office and told the secretary to call the contractor to see whether it was a construction worker and if not to call the police,” he said.

While some members of campus are calling the act of vandalism a hate crime, Eid said he doubts it was.

“When I spoke to the chief of po-

The Presidential Search Committee has received more than 50 applications to replace current university President Jehuda Reinharz, who announced his resignation in October.

Search committee member Prof. Gregory Petsko (BIOL) told the faculty meeting Thursday that the committee is in the process of “making contact with the applicants to find out the level of interest and doing background checks on people we might want to interview.”

Petsko said the applicant pool is “surprisingly broader and

deeper than I might have hoped it would be.

“When you start a process like this one thing you are afraid of is that the pool is narrow and shallow and it’s not,” he said. “We also have reason to believe that a significant number of applicants are interested in this specific job at Brandeis, not just in being president of a university.

This announcement comes following the committee’s Monday release of its “case statements and priorities” which dictate what the committee will be looking for in a future president.

The statement, which has been posted on the presidential search Web site, states that the new president should seek to establish Brandeis as the best See SEARCH, p. 4

BRANDEIS BEGINNINGS

See VANDALISM, p. 3

Fall JBS students housed on-campus

BY DESTINY D. AQUINO Editor

Students participating in the Fall Justice Brandeis Semester (JBS) will now allow students to live on-campus, despite JBS’ initial mission to alleviate overcrowding by moving participating students off campus.

JBS Program Manager Alyssa Grinberg said the change in housing is the exception to the rule and will only be in place for the upcoming fall semester.

The change will only effect the Environmental Field Semester, the single JBS program running in the fall.

As such, the JBS Web site has not been changed, and still states that students participating in JBS programs during the academic year will be required to find housing off-campus.

THIS WEEK:

Last spring, the original Committee Academic Restructuring Steering (CARS) created JBS in order to both earn revenue for the university and relocate students off-campus to prevent overcrowding.

Prof. Brian Donahue (AMST), one of two professors teaching the Environmental Field Semester, said the change was made in order to encourage students to apply.

“The administration was informed of the difficulty students were facing having to find housing in Waltham for only one semester, they decided to lift the policy [forcing students to live off-campus] to make it more accessible for students [to participate],” Donahue said.

He added that many students were not going to participate in the program due to the housing restriction. Neither Donahue

nor Grinberg were willing to release the number of students that applied to the program as well as the number of students who were considering not applying due to the previous policy.

However, Donahue did say enough students have been accepted to the program for it to run as planned.

“We’re really pleased with the group we got and were still taking applications,” he said.

Web Services and Mobile Applications and Health and Society, two other JBS programs that have a fall component, will still require their students to live offcampus.

The fall component is not required but recommended and can be completed outside of the Waltham area “and really anywhere in the world,” Grinberg said.

PHOTO BY Phil Small/The Hoot

Prof. Whitfield discusses Brandeis’ history

BY LEAH FINKELMAN Staff

Professor Stephen Whitfield (AMST) gave a lecture Thursday evening regarding the history of Brandeis University. The program, titled Brandeis at the Beginning, highlighted early Brandeisian history from before the founding in 1948 to the end of the 1960s.

Joyce Antler (AMST) introduced Whitfield, the Max Richter Chair in American Civilization, to a group that consisted of Brandeis students, alumni, faculty and staff. Distinguished members of the group included Board of

Trustees Chairman Mal Sherman, Provost Marty Krauss and Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe.

Antler described Whitfield, who received his PhD in American History from Brandeis in 1972, as the perfect person to talk about Brandeis history. He has received two teaching prizes, written eight books and edited many others on topics such as civil rights, American Jewish culture, Cold War culture and Brandeis.

Whitfield began this branch of his research at a conference in Munich last year, when he offered See WHITFIELD, p. 4

@TheBrandeisHoot.com HootCast Audio

Brandeis Watch: Constitutional Review Committee

Highlights, page 10

Visions, page 11

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

2 The Brandeis Hoot

NEWS

March 12, 2010

Book showcases photographer’s study of Russian Jewry

BY LEAH FINKELMAN Staff

PHOTO BY Ingrid Schulte/The Hoot

RUSSIAN JEWERY: Prof. ChaeRan Freeze (NEJS) introduced guest speakers Harriet Murav and Eugene Avrutin at an event celebrating the photography if S. An-sky. The guest speakers, both of whom are professors at the University of Illinois discussed the stereotype of Russian “shtetls” and the important work S. An-Sky did in documenting them in the early 1900s.

Annual symposium discusses accomodating disabilities in education

BY BECCA CARDEN Staff

Academic experts Manju Banerjee and Loring Brinckerhoff discussed the advances the disabled have made in the world of academia at the annual Disability Symposium Wednesday in Rappaporte Treasure Hall.

Banerjee, the associate director for the Center for Students with Disabilities at the University of Connecticut, began the symposium by outlining the history of the movement to accept people with disabilities in society, specifically in America.

She explained that disabilities’ “origins were shrouded in mystery, superstition and misunderstanding.”

“A lot of civil rights and institutional shaking up, if you will, [was] happening in the 1960s and 70s,” she said. “And the 1990’s saw great achievements for equal rights for disabled persons, especially in the field of education.”

“We at the University of Connecticut talk about students with disabilities as the most quickly growing minority on campus,” Banjeree said.

In fact, she explained, this is a nationwide trend. In 2000, 9 percent of college students had disabilities; this rose to 11 percent by 2008. Furthermore, the number of disabled students who attend fouryear colleges is predicted to rise in the next few years as well.

In addition to these statistical improvements, disability advocates have also achieved legislative advances. In the 1990s, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) declared disabled and nondisabled persons equal under federal law.

The ADA’s even more progressive amendments include people with various types of impairments, concentration disorders, reading disabilities and chronic health issues as legally disabled.

“A lot of the disabilities cycle in and they

cycle out, and these are now protected,” said Loring Brinckerhoff, the director of the Office of Disability Police at Educational Testing Service. “If someone has a clear history of migraines, then we have to be proactive and accommodate that,” he added.

The speakers also discussed methods of making the learning environment more accessible to the disabled. It is important to offer students an array of methods, not only including lectures but group work, handouts, usage of the Internet and simulations to demonstrate what they’ve learned in classes.

Universal Design is a movement that focuses on how new technology can help disabled students to learn. Flash drives and smart pens, which help students take notes, are just some of the technological innovations that are being used for this purpose.

“I always thought that technology was the great equalizer for people with disabilities,” said Brinckerhoff.

However, both speakers emphasized there is room for improvement. Many disabled students are hesitant to come out about their conditions. For example, Banerjee discussed a survey recently filled out by disabled students on the Brandeis campus. She emphasized how it demonstrated that some Brandeisians might try to hide their disabilities in order to avoid judgment from their peers and professors.

“One of the key things is creating a better understanding,” she said. “You have perceptions that are perpetuated by media, by experiences that people may have” and these become generalized to the whole disabled population, she explained.

The speakers’ long-term goals are to raise knowledge about disabilities in higher education, encourage dialogue about disabilities on the Brandeis campus and raise disabled and non-disabled students’ comfort level with the topic.

“Everyday we’re reminded there’s more work to do,” said Brinckerhoff. “What we want for students with disabilities is to know that every option is open to them.”

An event held Tuesday celebrated the work of S. An-sky, who was recently included in a 2009 book published by Brandeis University Press, “Photographing the Jewish Nation: Pictures from S. Ansky’s Ethnographic Expeditions.” The event included Brandeis professors, students and families to share in the photography of 20th century Jews.

“Photographing the Jewish Nation” features photographs taken and documents collected by An-sky and his nephew, Solomon Iudovin, in their two-year expeditions in Russia during the early 1900s. The book also contains an introduction and commentary by the six editors, including Harriet Murav and Eugene Avrutin who are both professors at the University of Illinois, specializing in Russian cultural studies, as well as their colleagues at the St. Petersburg Judaica Center of the European University at St. Petersburg, Russia.

Murav began the presentation by dis-

cussing the stereotype of the Russian “shtetls” as being filled with old men and women, a belief furthered by most historical sources. An-sky, however, took many pictures of everyday life there, including children, teens and families.

“These photographs are not just important as records of a life, but as a mark of what that life could become. An-sky was very futuristic,” Avrutin said.

Muray said An-sky had a progressive view for his time, and wanted the Russian Jews, as well as the rest of the world, to modernize.

An-sky conducted his research in several ways, especially ethnography (the anthropology of a specific culture), by listening to stories, jokes and proverbs and collecting sound recordings as well as photographing people and places.

“An-sky used these photographs and recast East European culture through the use of the visual aspects. We hope that the photographs show not just a timeless world but will revisit old questions in a radical way,” Murav said.

NOW ONLINE:

The Hoot Classifieds

Post & view classified ads, first listing is FREE for students.

Find housing, list a job offering, sell a textbook. http://thebrandeishoot.com/classifieds

March 12, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

Reinharz proposes wage raise pool for employees earning less than 150K

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor

University President Jehuda Reinharz proposed the creation of a pool for faculty and staff salary increases at last Thursday’s faculty meeting.

The announcement does not signify an accross the board wage increase; if approved by the board of trustees, only faculty and staff earning less than $150,000 per year would be eligible for the increase, and the decision of who received one would be made by the appropriate deans or managers.

Thursday’s faculty meeting was closed to non-faculty members, however, Reinharz told The Hoot in a phone interview that “we need to show the faculty and staff that despite all sorts of changes and belt tightening taking place, everybody appreciates the hard work that they are doing day in and day out.”

“We need to recognize them in some fashion,” he said. “Even if it’s not a huge

sum of money, we need to recognize their contribution to the welfare of the university.”

Reinharz also proposed a wage-freeze for university employees earning more than $150,000 a year.

There are 1,111 employees at Brandeis not including Aramark and Mailroom staff, with 36 employees earning more than $150,000 a year.

Both proposals will be voted upon by the board of trustees at their March 24 meeting, and Reinharz said he is hopeful the measure will be passed.

“I have spoken to some key memebers of the board who are very much in favor of this,” he said. “I can’t guage the reaction of the whole board, but I will certainly make the case to them that if you want to keep outstanding people at the university, you’ve got to compensate them appropriately.”

The money for the pool could come from the university’s reserves, Reinharz said, however the size of the pool has yet to be determined.

ADVER TISEMENT

NEWS

3

Brandeis Briefs Pass/fail parameters reconsidered The Student Union is currently negotiating with the University Curriculum Committee (UCC) to expand the university “pass/fail” program to include general education requirements (GEs) and major requirements.

The pass/fail option must be declared with the university registrar when registering for a course. Upon receiving a final grade, students can decide if they would like a “P” placed on their final transcript instead of their “D-” or above (failing grades are not exempt). A student may only use the pass/fail option four times and not more than once a semester.

The Union proposal would allow the program to fulfill GEs and possibly major requirements if a grade was a “C+” or higher.

According to an e-mail from Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe, the matter “will be considered first by the UCC. If the UCC recommends a change to current policy, that change would have to be approved by a vote of the faculty at a faculty meeting.”

“It will allow students to have better freedom when taking general education courses,” Union President Andy Hogan ’11 wrote in an e-mail to The Hoot. “Students will be more adventurous and take courses that they are interested in, rather than the ‘easy A’ course to satisfy the GE requirements.”

Jaffe wrote “The Dean’s office does not have an opinion.”

The timing regarding the decision and when the policy could potentially take effect is uncertain, but, Hogan wrote, “we hope that this proposal will afford students more academic freedom.”

By Nathan Koskella, Editor

Students celebrate International Women’s Day The university celebrated the International Women’s Day Celebration Wednesday in the ICC Swig Lounge. Students, parents and faculty dined on Russian food and watched several performances, varying from recitations of poetry to traditional Russian folk dances.

Though the holiday originated in the former Soviet Union, it is now annually celebrated on an international basis.

Julia Rabkin ’11, President of the Russian Club, and Diana Aronin ’11, acted as emcees and hosted the event.

The celebration was also a fundraiser for the Adamov Fund, a non-profit organization that helps talented blind youth in Russia. Each audience member was encouraged to donate a minimum of three dollars to help raise money for equipment such as sturdy canes, used computers and Braille materials.

This, the third consecutive year of the International Women’s Day Celebration, was its most successful event yet. Women were honored specifically at the end of the festivities when each woman in attendance was offered a rose as a symbol of beauty.

By Morgana Russino, Staff

Brandeis alters policy on protecting confidential personal information As of March 1, Massachusetts implemented a new state regulation that specifies how a wider range of Confidential Personal Information (CPI) of an individual must be protected. This new law redefines CPI as a person’s first and last name, along with his or her social security, driver’s license, or financial account number.

In response to this new regulation, on March 5, Jeff Apfel sent an email to the Brandeis student body saying that the University has created the Brandeis Information Security plan. It is most applicable to health and financial records within the university. “In most cases the regulation applies to faculty and staff who have custodial responsibility for information about students or employees of the university, as well as applicants, alumni, donors, etc.,” stated Dennis Devlin, the Chief Information Security Officer.

This new plan is in response to an increase of criminal activity, more specifically, identity theft and the abuse of financial account information. The regulation is meant to combat computer crime and protect Massachusetts residents, including the Brandeis community.

“It is prudent for everyone to learn and follow the same best practices to keep their own information secure. That is why we included every member of the Brandeis community in the announcement, including students,” Devlin said, in response to why the email was sent out.

By By Trishna Mitra, Staff

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 12, 2010

Constitutional Review releases 11 proposals NATHAN KOSKELLA Editor

The Constitutional Review Committee Sunday night released its proposals to amend the Student Union Constitution, which include a complete overhaul of the Union Senate’s structure. The proposals were approved by the Senate directly following their release, and will now be put to a student body vote on March 18.

If the proposals are passed, the Senate would be replaced by two bodies, the Union Assembly and a Club Support Board (CSB), dramatically altering the allocation of Union power.

The Assembly would “serve as an advocate for the student body,” according to the proposal. The Assembly would also maintain the current legislative powers of the Senate.

Unlike the current Senate, the Assembly would not include representatives for each quad, decreasing the number of student representatives to 13, or by more than half. Representatives would be elected by class year or other constituencies including midyears or Transitional Year Program.

Union President Andy Hogan ’11 said he was “really excited” about the restructuring process, saying it would allow “less Robert’s Rules of Order” and “more one-on-one representation.”

One current power of the Senate the Assembly will not maintain is the power to charter, recognize and support clubs, which under the new proposal would go

PHOTO BY Alex Schneider/The Hoot

PROPOSALS: The Student Union has used their wall space in the Usdan Student Center to advertise the 11 proposals made by the Constitutional Review Committee this week. The proposals will be put to a vote by the student body on March 18.

to the CSB. The board would be composed of one member for each of eight subcategories of clubs, ranging from service to academics to the campus media.

The CSB would also include one Union executive board member.

“This [reorganization] will mean more collaboration between the Union and clubs,” Director of Community Advocacy Jenna Brofsky ’10 said The other fundamental reform proposed by the committee would be a move

to instant runoff voting. Instead of having multiple rounds of voting, under the new proposal students would rank candidates on a single ballot, meaning the winner of each election could be determined in one election.

Other proposals include renaming the position of Racial Minority Senator to “Representative for Historically Underrepresented Races” and renaming the corresponding position on the Finance Board; changing the name of the Union

Whitfield reviews Brandeis’ roots

Judiciary to the Student Judiciary and expanding its pre-trial powers of mediation; mandating finance training for all Finance Board and Treasurer candidates; and having the Union Vice President appointed internally by the Assembly instead of being elected by the student body.

The report also recommends securing Students for Environmental Action and the Student Sexuality Information Service.

Provost approves 2020, changes one

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG

WHITFIELD (from p. 1)

to present a paper about the origin of Judaic Studies at Brandeis.

“When you think you know something, it turns out you don’t … This has grown into something larger, and it’s still only a work in progress,” said Whitfield, who plans to publish his research after a sabbatical this fall.

Brandeis was founded in 1948, in the era immediately following World War II. Although anti-Semitism was generally fading around the world, Jews were still excluded from many aspects of life, including quota systems to suppress Jewish enrollment in higher education. Albert Einstein left Europe after anti-Semitism increased and took a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1933. There, he saw quotas at Princeton University firsthand.

He began corresponding with Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis about creating a Jewish-sponsored institution of higher learning. Einstein’s dream to create a secular university founded on Jewish values led to a 1946 gathering of prominent Jewish businessmen and attorneys to form it. They faced opposition from many who feared assimilation, including Chaim Weizmann.

“I was astonished to hear a few months ago that someone wastes to establish a Jewish university in America … Do not waste the strength of the Jewish people. There is no substitute for Zion,” Weizmann said, encouraging American Jews to instead focus their support on the soon-to-be state of Israel and its Hebrew University.

Despite the misgivings of Weizmann

and others, Einstein went through with his plan. However, when founders offered to name the university after him, he declined.

At that point, he had been in the United States for barely more than a dozen years, had been a citizen for only six years, and still spoke broken English. He wanted the school to be named after “a great Jew who was also a great American.” The obvious choice was to name the school after Justice Brandeis, who had died a few years earlier.

“The name Brandeis,” founding president Abram L. Sachar said, “will combine most felicitously the prophetic ideal of moral principle and the American tradition of political and economic liberalism.”

Sachar, who was president from the founding until 1968, lead Brandeis to become an internationally recognized teaching and research university. Only five years after opening, the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools accredited the school. After 13 years, Brandeis got a charter for Phi Beta Kappa – faster than any other college or university since 1776.

“Without [Sachar] there could have been just no Brandeis as we know it, but very possibly no surviving Brandeis at all,” a professor wrote in 1970, praising the former president for his achievement at money raising for the right reasons.

Despite accusations of downplaying its Jewish history, Brandeis was the first university outside of Israel to establish a Jewish Studies program. Whitfield spoke extensively about Nahum Glatzer, Simon Rawidowicz and Alexander Altmann, the original, German-born faculty of Judaic scholarship. The three professors contributed to an active intellectual social life,

with professors and their spouses crossing departmental lines to socialize and discuss topics of the day. At the time, lines separating disciplines were blurred both physically, with music practice rooms and labs in the same building, and professionally, with many professors having several specialties.

Whitfield praised Brandeis’ ability to cultivate innovative and esteemed professors and lecturers, including people like Abraham Maslow, author of a book about values and the higher life, Herbert Marcuse, a leftist politics and philosophy professor often named in conjunction to Karl Marx and Mao Zedong, and Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady of the United States.

Whitfield recounted one story of Roosevelt’s time at Brandeis when she was in her 70s: she was teaching a politics seminar with Lawrence H. Fuchs, and she called him to regretfully inform him that she wouldn’t be able to make it to the seminar because of the weather. “I didn’t have the heart to tell her that classes had been called off,” Fuchs recalled. “I called all of our fifteen students, and I got most [of them] to show up.” Roosevelt’s dedication has been a model for faculty ever since.

“Steve is someone who makes history come alive, and I think that his talk was riveting, inspirational, reverential,” Provost Marty Krauss said in an interview with The Hoot after the lecture. “I would love all students coming into this university to have access to that. He reveals how very unique and special Brandeis is. I just can’t imagine any other university that would have this kind of history. The connection of the faculty to each other, the intellectual community, was incredibly inspiring.“

Editor

University Provost Marty Krauss has approved all 17 of the Brandeis 2020 Committee’s proposals to suspend or restructure academic programs in order to save the university $3.8 million annually beginning in 2012. Krauss also altered the Committee’s original proposal to terminate the Ph.D. program in anthropology and has instead proposed that the program “be retained on a smaller scale,” and only admit students from Brandeis’ Master’s in anthropology.

Krauss, made her announcement Monday afternoon in a campus-wide e-mail. The proposals, which were a reaction to the board of trustees’ January request that the university restructure academics in order to help close a $25 million annual budget gap, will be voted upon by the board at its March 24 meeting.

“I have decided to accept the full set of recommendations of the Brandeis 2020 Committee ... so as to hold intact the collective judgement of this broadly based faculty and student committee,” Krauss wrote in her decision.

Krauss wrote that her decision regarding down-sizing the anthropology Ph.D. program came after conferring with members of the Anthropology Master’s program who told her the university’s Ph.D. program was a factor in their decision to attend Brandeis. “[Maintaining the Ph.D. program] will maximize the opportunity to maintain the significant revenue stream of the M.A. program, while reducing the cost of the Ph.D. program and limiting it to those students most likely to excel,” Krauss wrote.

In preparation for the board’s March 24 meeting, Trustee Meyer Koplow ’72 asked Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 to create a survey for students to express their reactions about the 2020 proposals.

March 12, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

NEWS

5

Screenwriter Kashua discusses identity roles in Middle East

BY JON OSTROWSKY Staff

Sayed Kashua, screenwriter for the popular Israeli television show “Arab Labor,” and columnist for the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, answered questions after a screening of an episode from the first season of the show Tuesday evening.

Much of the first season of “Arab Labor” centers on the beginning romance between an Israeli man and an Arab woman.

Kashua said he wanted to attract the audience to the show by making them want to see the relationship be successful. “Arab Labor” has seen high ratings in Israel and features mainly Arab actors.

Although Kashua admitted his show has not had an influence on the peace process and politics of Israel, he stressed the need to view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one between human beings, rather than races.

“I hate this separation because of religion and nationalism,” Kashua said. He added that despite the show’s popularity, “peace can only be made by politicians.”

“Artists can make this atmosphere [of peace] in the street, but not more than that,” Kashua said, commenting on the limited impact he believes his show will have on Israeli politics.

The screening, held in Wasserman Cinematheque, and sponsored by the Schusterman Center and the National Center for Jewish Film, featured the fifth episode on the first season of “Arab Labor.”

The episode was about a Passover seder that an Arab family came to celebrate with an Israeli family, and the episode included humor to depict the differences and particular traits of Israeli and Arab culture.

“I think it could be the basis of some very important dialogue,” Cynthia Cohen, director of the Slifka Program in Intercommunal Coexistence said in an interview with The Hoot.

Kashua told The Hoot that he hopes students take away “the basics–that all human

beings are the same” from his lectures and workshops.

Kashua, the author of “Dancing Arabs” and “Let it Be Morning,” also discussed issues of identity that Palestinians face in Israel. When asked how he identifies himself by a student after the screening, he said, “Can I just say I’m a father, a husband and a writer?”

Although much of Kashua’s work uses humor and satire, he insisted that he is more concerned with being serious and telling important stories than being funny.

“I don’t feel like I have to be funny at all,” he said.

Yet Kashua acknowledged that when he does use humor and satire to reflect on and explain the Israeli culture.

Prof. Ilan Troen (NEJS) was able to get Kashua to visit Brandeis this week, according to visiting Professor Gannit Ankori from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

On Monday, Kashua spent time working with students in a Schusterman Center graduate center class.

At a workshop on Tuesday, Kashua spoke to students in classes about Hebrew literature, Israeli art and film, and Muslim culture, Ankori wrote in an e-mail to The Hoot. Along with Ankori, Prof. Mitra Shavarini (WGS) and Prof. Ilana (NEJS) Szobel hosted the workshop.

At a workshop Wednesday afternoon in Shapiro Campus Center, Kashua spoke about different episodes of “Arab Labor” after students had an opportunity to view them and then ask questions.

The workshop included students from Ankori’s “Trauma and Art” seminar, graduate students from Prof. Mari Fitzduff ’s (COEX) “Co-existence and Conflict” program and Slifka Scholars, according to Gankori.

The workshop was also co-hosted by the Ethics Center.

In one episode shown on Wednesday, an Arab father was debating whether to claim a millon dollar cash prize after his child was the first baby born in the New Year.

PHOTO COURTESY Mike Lovett/Brandeis University

The family was Arab, and in order to claim the prize had to name their son Israel. After talking to an Israeli father whose child was the second born child of the year, the two agreed to let the Israeli father claim the prize and then split the money between themselves.

Ankori wrote that “of course political actions have a direct and obvious impact on our lives—but I think art and culture also have a long term and gradual effect. Art can help change attitudes, open hearts and

Campus comes together in wake of vandalism VANDALISM (from p. 1)

lice, I asked him not to rule out a hate crime,” Eid said. “But the Muslim community here is very peaceful, we have a good relationship with students, especially the Jewish students.

There is not this kind of tension here.”

He added that on Ramadan, Jewish students would often cook Iftars for Muslim students, showing a “history of interfaith relations.”

Students have responded to the vandalism by starting a Facebook page, titled “Can 600 People Say No to Hate and Yes to Love?”

On the page, students expressed their solidarity with the MSA in statements like “this was an act of hate. We can respond with an act of love.” The goal of the Facebook event is to obtain 600 members to condemn the violence.

Sahar Massachi, who started the Facebook page, also posted a petition on the Brandeisbased blog at innermostparts.org for members of the Brandeis community to sign.

“This is unacceptable,” the petition reads.

“We reject this hateful and juvenile act. It deserves to be roundly condemned and is an embarrassment to this community. We fully support and stand by you in this troubled time.”

In an e-mail to the student body on Thursday night, MSA President Neda Eid wrote “I

am working with the Brandeis faculty, club leaders and their organizations, the chaplaincy, the dean of student life, the general student body, newspapers and outside MSAs to address the larger issue of hate on university campuses and the need to actively respond.”

Eid said that she is planning a program titled “Peaceful Response,” which will allow students to share their thoughts about the recent vandalism by writing on posters in Shaprio Campus Center and Usdan next week.

“I believe this will provide a great outlet for students to express their opinions, show a means of solidarity, and commit to a healing process,” Eid wrote.

There will be a Peace Vigil held by the Chaplaincy today at 12:15 p.m. in the Peace Garden. Students are asked to wear white as a symbol of solidarity and commitment to peace, the e-mail said.

While most reaction to the vandalism has been in solidarity with the Muslim community, there have also been anti-Semitic comments.

One student posted early yesterday morning that “I think the religious hostilities at Brandeis have gone way too far. First the Jews invade Palestine, then they destroy the MSA.” Other students also engaged in a debate about potentially religious motivations for violence.

Reinharz dismissed the idea. “I think it is

certainly inappropriate. I don’t know what that means to blame the Jews,” Reinharz said.

Police are still investigating the case. Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan declined to comment for this article and referred questions to the university’s Senior Vice President of Communications and External Affairs Andrew Gully. Gully said that the investigation is “still ongoing.”

Waltham Police Detective Sergeant Timothy King said that any information being released about the incident would come from campus police.

The University is considering limiting the prayer lounge’s availability to students with card access, Gully said.

“This is not a closed case and it is difficult to determine who did it with no tips and no clues,” Talal Eid said.

Reinharz urged students to come forward with any information about the vandalism. “[They] can do this anonymously if they want,” he said. “Any information that will lead to figuring out who did it would be extremely useful. This is certainly not what Brandeis is all about so we are very anxious to find out who did it.”

While Eid is anxious to catch the perpetrators, he also would like his Quran back.

“It will not benefit anything, but for me I have been taking notes in it for two years and they are irreplaceable,” he said.

minds.”

She wrote that she respect Kashua’s modesty but insisted that he should not “underestimate the power of [his] work.”

Students in the audience expressed much gratitude for Kashua’s presence here at Brandeis and many explained that they and their families are all regular readers of his weekly columns in Ha’aretz.

“You have fans here for whatever you do.

We hope to see you back here at Brandeis in the near future,” Troen said.

Pres search committee wants ‘creative thinking’ candidate SEARCH (from p. 1)

small liberal arts research university in the country; move Brandeis forward into an era of enhanced financial stability by building the endowment, exploiting Brandeis’ strengths and managing resources wisely; generate and articulate a vision for Brandeis both within the university community by creatively thinking about ways to adapt and grow; and foster a sense of campus community and community engagement.

Petsko also said he believes the Brandeis 2020 Committee proposed academic cuts would help the university find more candidates.

“I have many friends who are current university presidents or are retired ones, and they seem to appreciate that Brandeis is using a strategic attack on our budget as opposed to across the board cuts,” he said. “I think that is very attractive to potential candidates.”

6 The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS, etc.

‘Dido’ hits the right notes

March 12, 2010

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

The first performance of Henry Purcell’s definitive work, the opera “Dido and Aeneas,” occurred in 1689 at a London girl’s school. Three hundred and twenty-one years later, it can still sound fresh and lively if it’s presented by an organization with as much talent as the Brandeis University Department of Music. Last Sunday’s staging of the classic was a collaboration between the University Chorus, the Chamber Choir and a collection of guest musicians. Under the direction of Jason McStoots and the baton of James Olesen, the groups managed to put together a very enjoyable show, and my greatest complaint was that it was over all too quickly.

The story of “Dido and Aeneas” is adapted by librettist Nahum Tate from a legend most famously presented in Book IV of the “Aeneid” by Vergil. It opens with Queen Dido planning to meet and eventually marry Aeneas to restore stability to her nation of Carthage. However, the evil Sorceress and her coven of witches hope to drive Aeneas away, and they trick him into believing that the gods are calling him abroad. Dido is both angry and heartbroken that Aeneas would leave her, so she furiously curses him before killing herself.

The story is fairly simple and old-fashioned, so James McStoots made the decision to modernize it. He claims in the program notes that this is out of deference to the tradition of evolving oral storytelling, but I imagine that ease of staging and costuming also had a large role to play. The updated plot summary is a little cringe-inducing, saying things like “Did is the mayor of a beleaguered city, a city eyed for other purpos-

GRAPHIC BY Leah Lefkowitz/The Hoot

es by the Sorceress, a greedy and powerful corporate CEO and her minions of lawyers and sycophants.” I read it before the opera began, and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to take the performance seriously.

However, it worked well enough, mostly because the staging was so understated.

Props and sets were minimal, and a large screen in the background projected grainy city shots before each scene just to set the atmosphere. There were times when forcing the ancient story into the present felt uncomfortable—when the Chorus decorates Dido’s dead body with roses, the dramatic punch is lessened when you realize it’s occurring on a nondescript bench rather than

in the midst of her gilded palace. The overall impact, however, was unobtrusive enough that it complemented the music well.

Similarly, the acting was minimal, serving as a supplement rather than a critical element of the production. There were several great moments of levity, such as Aeneas’ exaggerated argument with a manicurist whom Dido and her companions had stiffed for the bill. For the most part, the actors were content to keep their acting merely functional and let the music come to the forefront.

This proved to be a good decision, because the music was excellent and wonderfully presented. Purcell composed in a

courtly, English Baroque style reminiscent of Handel, and the opera is full of appealing melodies.

The tricky instrumental interplay was handled by only five musicians: Marika Holmqvist and Karina Fox on the violins, Emily Rideout on the viola, Sarah Mead on the viola da gamba and Frances Conover Fitch on the harpsichord. Using period instruments made the atmosphere authentic, and the musicians’ skill at navigating the complex arrangements made the group sound larger than it actually was.

notic fashion with models representing their natural, idyllic surroundings. When Ad a m — n ot Eve—chooses to take a bite out of the fateful apple, the s ou n dt r a c k q u i c k l y changed to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Rom a n c e .”

Adam and Eve dance ecstatically to the Gaga tune until they become aware of their own nakedness, at which point they—along with the music— slip into melancholy.

This was followed by perhaps one of the most eclectic presentations of the show, “Man vs. Empire Brain Building,” in which a hardworking man must fight back against the busy, modern world that oppresses him—represented by the “Empire Brain Building.” It was abstract but fun, and it was clear that the performance’s choreographers and dancers took a lot of joy from it.

“Beat of Beethoven” juxtaposed the classic grace of Beethoven with the ecstatic

rhythms of classic disco.

One of the most elaborate performances came in the form of “Biohazard,” a play on the classic Frankenstein concept. In this case, a doctor and a nurse concoct their creations in a giant Petri dish, resulting in a variety of rapturous bacteria with a yen for dance.

They quickly get minds of their own and attack their creators GRAPHIC BY Leah Finkelman/The Hoot with toxic lust (appropriately enough, Britney Spears’ “Toxic” played at this point).

After an intermission, the show resumed with “For My Eyes Only,” a staging of “Cell Block Tango” from “Chicago,” which successfully captured the mixture of sex and murder that was present in the original.

This was followed by “Runway: World Runner,” which combined a culturally conscious fashion show with an infectious M.I.A.-infused soundtrack.

The following group tackled an interpretive presentation of George Orwell’s “1984” by way of Radiohead and managed to do so

successfully.

“Dancing in the Streets” proved to be one of the more eccentric presentations.

Though it initially began with a crowd of clothed students on stage (eliciting a chorus of people confusedly asking “Why are they clothed?!”—oh, the magic of Liquid Latex), various familiar “Sesame Street” characters—Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster, among others—appeared and shared a few songs from the show, which inspired spontaneous clapping from the audience. At the end, presenters declared that the show had been “brought to you by the Letter L and the number 10,” a reference to the show’s 10th anniversary.

The show’s finale, titled “:-D ;-* 8^$ :-0 >:-[ :’(,” presented a world in which, on the sixth day of Creation, all human emotions were discarded. On the seventh day, however, emotions in the form of models escape and wreak havoc, unleashing both their private joy and anger. These emotions literally popped out of a giant garbage can that appeared on stage, and they returned to it at the end of the show—but not before they escaped into the audience, gesticulating wildly at onlookers.

The show ended with a quick parade of all the models, choreographers and designers that were involved, concluding yet another successful Liquid Latex show. Though the performances weren’t exactly revelatory, they weren’t trying to be—clearly everyone involved was in this for the fun of the experience, and they successfully managed to share this with their audience.

See DIDO, p. 9

Liquid Latex lays bare annual show

BY SEAN FABERY Editor

Unsurprisingly, the Levin Ballroom was packed to capacity on Thursday night, with all seats filled and numerous people standing in the back of the room, all in anticipation of Liquid Latex’s 10th annual show. Every year, students get on stage and prance about with nothing on but latex and a lot of creativity, which always leads to some interesting results.

Liquid Latex performances tend to consist of two varieties: some choose to take themselves incredibly seriously while others decide to let loose.

After a brief introduction by the show’s coordinators, the first act took the audience inside the world of a very untraditional circus troupe, which consisted of such circus mainstays as a ringleader, a strongman and a pair of mimes. Together, they danced to the eponymous Britney Spears hit and introduced the show’s attendees to the circus that is Liquid Latex.

The frothy and fun “Circus” was followed by “Revolution,” which presented a fightthe-man theme in which a group of various dissenters were beaten down by a police officer—“the man”—with a nightstick. Just as he became comfortable in his role as oppressor, the others returned and beat the system into submission.

The next act, “Botany of Desire,” put a spin on the traditional version of the biblical Adam and Eve story. The performance began calmly enough, with both Adam and Eve dancing harmoniously in a hyp-

March 12, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS, ETC.

7

Why do we love naked golden men?

A study of our obsession with the Academy Awards

BY SEAN FABERY Editor

An ungodly runtime, hosts with mediocre jokes, long clip montages with no apparent purpose and sometimes dubious winners. Every year, critics and viewers alike lodge these complaints against the annual Academy Awards, yet tens of millions still watch the ceremony every year—and that’s just in the United States alone.

Why? I asked myself this question as I dressed up in a suit and a pair of Converse shoes on Sunday night in order to attend an Oscar viewing party with some friends. Why bother watching? Anyone who’d bothered to watch the Golden Globes or the SAG Awards knew who was going to win, and choosing not to watch would spare me four hours of being alternately bored and outraged. But still, I got dressed up and enjoyed the night.

Only a select few—the approximately 6,000 members of the Academy and the people they nominate—have an actual stake in the ceremony, and you’re not likely to know any of these people. Carrie Watkins ’12 is one exception. Her grandmother—actress Connie Sawyer, who has appeared in movies as diverse as “When Harry Met Sally” and “Pineapple Express”—is a member of the Academy’s acting branch. Both of my cousins and sister have gone to the Oscars with my grandma,” Watkins said, also noting that “she doesn’t like going to the actual Oscars now, because the seats aren’t so great [for someone her age].”

The Oscars also hold a certain personal significance for the family of Zach Lambert ’12. His parents actually met at an Oscar party, and every year his family watches the Oscars together while eating takeout Chinese—the same kind of food that had been served at that memorable Oscar party 25 years ago.

Of course, most of the Oscar’s viewership—which numbered 40 million viewers this year—lacks this kind of connection to the Oscar telecast; yet they still watch. During and after the ceremony, I asked others about the reasons they watch.

For some, it’s an opportunity to see movie stars in action, with the red carpet-fashion specials that air on E! and ABC being a popular GRAPHIC BY Ali Corman-Vogan/The Hoot attraction, as WATCHING THE SHOW: Millions of people gather for a diverse variety of reasons to watch the annual Academy Awards. they allow viewers a chance to focus on the fashions worn of gourmet choices for future movie view- Sandra Bullock win. And sometimes small to the Oscars. “I usually love the red carpet ing. Many acknowledged that they hoped films aren’t recognized the way they should special,” said Stacy Handler ’12.“This year to soon see Best Picture winner “The Hurt be,” said Handler. was a disappointment, though. Too many Locker” along with other major nominees The people with whom I watched the Ospoofy and neutral dresses.” like “A Serious Man,” “Precious” and “The cars reacted positively to most of the winFor others, the Oscars are relevant be- Blind Side.” ners this year. This was especially true of cause they are widely considered to be At the same time, there was also a con- the wins for Mo’Nique in “Precious” and the most important celebration of film in sensus that the Oscars don’t always select Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds.”

American pop culture. the best films and actors to win. After all, Sandra Bullock’s win for Best Actress re“People care about the Oscars because numerous American classics like “Citizen ceived the most mixed reaction, with some it’s the highest award in America that a film Kane” and “Raging Bull” failed to secure feeling it to be a win of commerce over art. can get. Since people love Hollywood and wins for Best Picture, and many other clasAs for the ceremony itself, it was largely it’s a giant part of our culture, it matters,” sics like “Pyscho” and “Some Like It Hot” the same as always, despite ABC’s insissaid Lambert. failed to even be nominated. tence that the telecast would allow AmerMost of my fellow partygoers admitted “Usually, I think the Oscars get it pretty ica to see “Oscar as you’ve never seen him that they had yet to see most of the films right. I was pleased with ‘The Hurt Locker’ before.” Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin nominated, but they also pointed out that winning. I think politics and celebrity do served as effective enough hosts, though the Oscars provided them with a variety play a role in this, like in the case of the See OSCARS, p. 8

Following the players: FTP’s traveling ‘Guildenstern’ amuses

BY KAYLA DOS SANTOS Editor

Clever stage direction and stellar acting made the Free Play Theatre Cooperative’s production “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” an enjoyable experience. However, Tom Stoppard’s uneven and muddled script left the audience feeling dissatisfied.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the often forgotten minor characters from William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” take center stage in Stoppard’s script. In Shakespeare’s mammoth play, their presence is almost negligible as their only role is to spy on the troubled, possibly mad Prince of Denmark (which they do unsuccessfully). While their presence is barely noticed in the play, their deaths are even less memorable. However, Stoppard’s script focuses on the friends as they come to terms with the fact that they have little or no control of their fates.

Director Lily Nagy-Deak ’11 and Stage Manager Kelsey Strouse ’13 did an excellent job using stage direction to emphasize the theme of unreality. The difference between being an actor, a part of the play, and an observer, a witness to the play, was blurred so the two roles were almost indistinguishable from each other. The effect was that while the audience watched the production, they also, unsettlingly became a part of it.

The production was a “traveling-show,” attendees following ushers around the

Schwartz building, pausing to witness brief scenes. The first one took place in front of a side entrance, the audience crowded around Rosencrantz (Rachel Garbus ’13) and Guildenstern (Rachel Kelmenson ’13) as they flipped coins, heads coming up an impossible 92 times. This is the first time the main characters and the audience with them realize that not all is right in the real world, that they, in fact, might not even occupy the real world at all.

By having no separation between the actors and the viewers, along with attendees physically approaching scenes instead of simply watching them, NagyDeak and Strouse effectively place their audience members in the shoes of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The two friends pay for an actor troupe’s performance and discover that they have become part of a play, while the audience undergoes a similar experience.

Another highlight of the play was the acting. Garbus and Kelmenson both had great comedic timing, and when given funny material, they executed their

PHOTO BY Andrew Rauner/The Hoot

MEET THE PLAYERS: The Tragedians kept “Rosencrantz and Guildstern are Dead” lively with slapstick humor, occasional raunchiness and minor acrobatics.

lines with impressive style. Yoni Bronstein ’13 as the head of the Tragedians, an acting troupe, mysteriously known as “The Player,” was particularly adept at slapstick physical comedy, which always received appreciative laughs.

Unfortunately, the play faltered when, at turns, it became serious. This was not from poor acting, but from the script’s abrupt shifts in tone. The main characters would be laughing one minute and hyperventilating from grief and fear the next. There seemed to be no real transitions, thus creating the issue that the audience did not know whether to empathize with their grief or to laugh at it.

The play also suffered from attempting to juggle too many themes: death, reality, fate, the acting experience—all set against the backdrop of “Hamlet.” While separately the themes were interesting and led to enlightening philosophical discussions between the main characters, especially concerning the nature of and acceptance of death, taken all together the themes were a confusing mess.

In the end, though, the Free Play Theatre Cooperative’s production of Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” was engaging because it was ambitious, at times amusing and occasionally insightful. While it was, at times, confusing, overall it made for an entertaining evening.

8 ARTS, ETC

The Brandeis Hoot

March 12, 2010

Southeast Asia Club dances with dragons

Photo spread by Ingrid Schulte

Why and how do we watch the Oscars?

OSCARS (from p. 7)

they were sidelined for much of the proceedings. There was clearly a conscious attempt to attract younger viewers to the show, as Miley Cyrus, Taylor Lautner and Zac Efron all served as presenters.

This, in combination with the implementation of ten Best Picture nominees, was clearly an attempt at populism by the Academy.

Send an E-mail to join@thebrandeishoot.com

The telecast also offered up some historic moments, as Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”) became the first woman to win the award for Best Director. Prior to Bigelow, only three other women had been nominated for the award in the entire 82 year history of the Oscars. Geoffrey Fletcher, who won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay for “Pre-

cious,” also made history as the first African American to win an Oscar for screenwriting.

Though the telecast as a whole differed little from the way it’s been presented in the past, the people I watched it with seemed to prefer this. Watching the Oscars is tradition, and you don’t mess with tradition.

PHOTO FROM Internet Source

HISTORIC MOMENTS: At this year’s show, Kathryn Bigelow made history when she became the first woman to take home the award for Best Director, which she won for “The Hurt Locker.” She also won a second Oscar as one of the producers of the film, which also nabbed the Oscar for Best Picture.

March 12, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS, ETC.

Little wonder in ‘Wonderland’: Quirk for quirk’s sake?

9

BY SRI KUEHNLENZ Editor

The experience of watching “Alice in Wonderland,” the newest film from zany director Tim Burton, in 3-D was like falling down a rabbit hole and being bored by the fall. Sure, the situation itself is odd enough, but there are no significant surprises. My attitude may be a result of overly high expectations and my overpreparedness to have my warm, fuzzy associations with this story from my childhood perverted, by the eerie, creepy qualities that Burton’s previous work possessed. (See “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”)

Alas, it seems that Burton is getting soft in his old age. The plot, which follows a teenaged Alice on her second return to a Wonderland now ruled by the Red Queen with cruelty, naturally lends itself to a visually exciting journey. However, the visuals focus on presenting eye-popping colors and disproportionate objects. While this was entertaining to watch, it left the viewer waiting for the true Tim Burton quality to exert itself, which it never did.

The thought of 3-D technology at Burton’s hands inspires much more creative images than what actually transpired in the film.

Burton adopts an almost blasé attitude towards 3-D and seemingly forgets about it soon into the movie. With the exception of perhaps a knocked over ob-

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: Burton’s foray into 3-D fails to live up to the high expectations of its audience, but Mia Wasikowska’s Alice (above) proves to be a nice contrast to an otherwise insane cast of characters.

ject in the rabbit hole that swings towards the camera, the viewer has little reason to remember or appreciate that the movie is presented in 3-D. Given the caliber of Burton’s long career, I expected jolting twists and scenes that piqued the audience’s curiosity and perhaps made them slightly uncomfortable, something like first watching “Edward’s Scissorhands.”

Though I never thought I would say this about Burton’s work, the movie seemed almost formulaic.

His standard duo of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are

both present as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen respectively, joined by Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar and Crispin Glover as Stayne, the Knave of Hearts.

Sandwiched among these distinguished actors, Australian newcomer Mia Wasikowska plays the title character.

While this cast is certainly a force to be reckoned with, the centering of the film around Johnny Depp and his innate penchant for quirkiness is a little too been there, done that. With the exception of a noticeable difference in

accents and swagger, it’s hard to tell the difference between the Mad Hatter and the charming and notorious Captain Jack Sparrow he played in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films. Given the many familiar faces from Burton’s previous films, Wasikowska is a breath of fresh air in the role of Alice. She strikes a nice contrast to the range of wacky characters, as she is the one sane person with whom the audience can actually relate. Her performance comes across as genuine and does not attempt to compete with any of the quirky characters for atten-

PHOTO FROM Internet Source

tion on-screen.

Though “Alice in Wonderland” is worth the two hours in terms of its entertainment value, it fails to meet the expectations of what a Tim Burton version of the story could be like. Surprisingly, I left the theater wishing that the movie had been more traumatizing and posed a greater challenge to the Disney version I remembered from my childhood. Perhaps Burton needs to go to Wonderland himself in order to rediscover his own edgy quirkiness that had led to such raised expectations for “Alice.”

‘Aeneas’ showcases strong vocals DIDO (from p. 6)

The singing itself was everything you could hope for in a choir production. Purcell’s vocal lines are heavily ornamented, rising and falling throughout the scale, but the soloists handled them with competence and style.

Aimée Birnbaum ‘10 had several strong arias as Dido’s sister Belinda, and she handled them with aplomb; my favorites were her bright, pleading performance of “Pursue thy conquest, Love” and her soaring rendition of “Thanks to these lonesome vales.”

Ethan Goldberg ‘12 ably brought Aeneas’ conflicted loyalties to life despite a difficult role that forced him into both tenor and baritone ranges.

The highlight was the showstopping performance by Mariah Henderson ‘12 of the opera’s most famous selection, Dido’s dying lament, “When I am laid in earth.” She has a wonderful voice, and she sang the slow, sorrowful number with just the right combination of pathos and restraint to make it effective. Henderson

was at her strongest at the opera’s most emotional moments, a good quality to have for portraying a character as troubled as Dido; from the opening “Ah, Belinda, I am press’d,” she made the Queen’s internal struggles the focal point of the opera.

The Chorus and Choir sounded great during the ensemble pieces.

More than just background singers, they contributed choruses that provided heft to the most dramatic moments; for instance, the vicious “Destruction’s our delight” turned them into witches, complete with sinister cackling.

They also punctuated the strongest melodies, taking the beautiful duet “Fear no danger to ensue” between Birnbaum and Claire Arkin and injecting a powerful climax.

The entire performance of “Dido and Aeneas” lasted only an hour. When it was over, I felt like I could easily sit through it again.

Despite the vast differences in ages and lifestyles, the collaboration between professional musicians, my Brandeis peers and a centuries-old composer proved to be fruitful.

10 The Brandeis Hoot

HIGHLIGHT

March 12, 2010

Constitutional Review Report Proposed Amendment 1: Student Union Government restructuring

By Nathan Koskella, Editor

• Part one would replace the legislative powers of the Union Senate into an Assembly and Club Support Board.

• Under the committee’s proposal, the Vice President would be internally elected by the Assembly—merging the

position with executiv senator.

• The Union Judiciary would become the Student Judiciary and take on mediation powers to possibly avert a trial.

• The final subject of the restructuring article mandates monetary training for all Finance Board and Treasurer

candidates.

Proposed Amendment 2: Senator for Racial Minority Students and Finance Board member for Racial Minority Student change in title

• Part two attempts a name-change of the Racial Minority Senator to a Representative for Historically Underrepresented

Races.

Proposed Amendment 3: Definition of Secured Organizations

• Amendment three defines secured organizations.

• “Secured organizations are hereby defined as those organizations that the student body recognizes as fundamental to

the mission of the university”.

Proposed Amendment 4 and 5: Securing SSIS and SEA

• Four and five officially recommend securing Students for Environmental Action and the Student Sexuality Information

Service, respectively.

Proposed Amendment 7: BEMCo constitutional funding increase

• Proposal seven aims to increase funding for BEMCo. • BEMCo’s “baseline” funding allocation is stated as $23, 500 currently. This amendment will change that number to

$30,000..

Proposed Amendment 8: Inclusion of Club Sports memo

• Proposal eight seeks to include a Club Sports memo solidifying the agreement between the Department of Athletics

and the Union.

Proposed Amendment 9: Board of Trustee representatives

• Amendment nine would allow for more than just two representatives to the board of trustees should that expansion

ever become available.

Proposed Amendment 10: Instant Runoff Voting system

• This changes the voting system of the Union from simple plurality voting and a runoff to instant-runoff voting with

candidates ranked in order of preference.

Proposed Amendment 11: Constitutional Review Committee changes

• The last seeks to reform the Constitutional Review Committee itself, by allowing more discretion on the part of the

President and rules for the appropriate members.

Email: join@thebrandeishoot.com

March 12, 2010

VISIONS

The Brandeis Hoot 11

Things fall apart Article and Photos By Alex Schneider, Editor

FALLING APART: From top to bottom, left to right, abandoned building on loop road, door of mailroom, Shapiro House sign, fading cross walk, uneven pavement, Brown building, Shiffman classroom, Sherman, Olin Sang exterior.

Have you seen the new Mandel Center for the Humanities? Towering above Rabb Academic Quad, the new building stands out, its clean, red brick and shining glass windows contrasting sharply with the dreary concrete slabs at its rear.

When complete, the new building will join an array of stand-alone edifices of differing architectural style that come together to make up the Brandeis campus.

Unfortunately, Brandeis administrators have largely ignored many of the other buildings on campus, allowing ceilings to collapse and water stains to linger. They rely on the idea that new building projects–not to mention stellar academics–will sell students on a Brandeis education.

This notion has persisted, but with rising budget deficits, Brandeis administrators can no longer ignore the facilities already here. Some will argue that priority must be given to saving academics in this financial crisis. Still, in order to continue to attract the students who will pay this institution’s bills without compromising admissions standards, Brandeis must prioritize funding the upkeep of all buildings on campus.

Prospective students who visit Brandeis arrive at a school where our pool is closed indefinitely, our cafeterias are badly in need of a paint job and our roads are ridden with potholes. Then, they visit classrooms with holes in the ceilings and writing on the backs of the seats. The overall impression is of a school that does not attempt to present itself well.

Other schools capitalize on aesthetics, gaining free publicity in The Princeton Review’s annual “Top 10 most beautiful campuses” list. In 2008, Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Virginia, was listed as the most beautiful, followed closely

by Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, and Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.

While trying to compete with these three schools would prove challenging (Boston is not Malibu), the next three colleges on the list— Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and Wagner College on Staten Island in New York—all suffer from the same winter weather and the inevitable clean-up costs that result.

Every current student knows that the week before Brandeis’s spring open house, facilities cleans the campus from top to bottom, strategically placing bright, spring flowers on pathways and clearing debris and garbage from the ground.

While welcome, this effort only addresses the campus’s external appearance and ignores visitors who arrive at other times during the year.

The focus of Brandeis administrators ought to be to identify and correct all building maintenance issues year-round; after all, our reputation and financial viability are at stake.

DAMAGED CEILINGS: From top to bottom, left to right, classroom in Shiffman, ceiling in Castle (photo by Kieinan Bagge), classroom in Gerstanzang, ceiling in Sherman, ceiling in Brown, classroom in Shiffman, ceiling in Upper Usdan.

12 The Brandeis Hoot

FEATURES

March 12, 2010

While abroad, Brandeisian finds hope amid Chilean disaster

BY DESTINY D. AQUINO Editor

As she slept in her hotel room on the last night of her study abroad orientation in Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, Chile on Feb. 28, Quinn Lockwood ’11 felt the shocks of one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded.

“We certainly felt the shaking.

[It was] very scary, and the hotel sustained some damage, but compared to many other areas of the country and even other areas of the same city, we were very fortunate,” Lockwood wrote of the 8.8 Richter scale quake in an e-mail to The Hoot.

The next day, amid aftershocks (some of which reached 6.0 on the Richter scale), Lockwood moved into her host family’s home.

“This is my second week living with my Chilean family,” Lockwood wrote of the experience.

“Everyone was stressed and worried, naturally, but they were unbelievably kind and welcoming, even immediately after the disaster,” Lockwood wrote.

Despite the losses and fear residents and students were facing, the program has continued on as scheduled.

Lockwood’s host family’s home was not severely damaged but they did suffer a loss of electricity and water for close to a week after the earthquake. Her host family has not personally suffered a loss of life resulting from the earthquake, but many of their extended family in the town of Concepcion, the earthquake’s epicenter, have lost close friends and personal businesses as a result of the catastrophe.

Lockwood, who is in Chile as part of an SIT study abroad program which focuses on cultural identity, social justice and community development, plans to spend today with members of

her SIT study abroad program helping to clear debris from Valparaiso.

The communication lines in Chile are slowly recovering from the events and Lockwood feels she has been privileged in her ability to make international calls and get on the Internet, but she also acknowledged that it’s still very hard for other people to communicate with the rest of the world.

“I can only speak to my own experience, which has been that I was able to use the Internet immediately after the quake but not for several days after. I was also able to make an international call from a call center two days after the earthquake. However, I think communication is still very difficult in the most severely affected areas, particularly Concepcion,” she wrote.

Despite the criticism certain relief organizations have recently faced, Lockwood feels that students and their families wishing to donate to Chile should donate to the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity, both of which had a strong presence in Chile before the earthquake.

Overall, experiencing this natural disaster while studying abroad has given Lockwood hope and optimism for the future.

“The single most amazing thing I have witnessed since the earthquake is the support and kindness that the people I have encountered have shown me, as well as each other,” she wrote. “Many people, including my host-mom and I, spent the day after the earthquake traveling around, checking on friends and neighbors, bringing food, water and comfort. Though it might sound cheesy, witnessing so much goodness after such a tragedy has given me a little more hope for the future of the human race.”

SCENES FROM CONCEPCION: While studying abroad in the town of Conception in Chile, Quinn Lockwood witnessed the recent 8.8 Richter scale earthquake. Above and below are photos by Liana Langdon-Embry and Simona Lang of the same town prior to the earthquake.

PHOTOS RIGHT AND LEFT BY Liana Langdon-Embry/The Hoot

PHOTOS ABOVE AND BELOW BY Simona Lang/The Hoot

EDITORIALS

March 12, 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 Josh Waizer Distribution Manager 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

The Brandeis Hoot 13

Jargon no substitute for historically ‘under-discussed’ position

I

n April 2009 the Student Union Judiciary (UJ) was unable to come to a majority opinion in a case that questioned the legality of the Racial Minority Senator position.

The UJ instead ruled that the fate of the Union position created in the early 1990s should be decided by the Union’s Constitutional Review Committee this year in order to “adequate[ly] gauge student opinion or the needs of the community.”

Unfortunately, the committee did no such thing in its 11 proposed Constitutional amendments released Monday.

Instead, the committee made the baffling proposal to merely rename the Racial Minority Senator position the Representative for “Historically Underrepresented Races.”

This attempt to quell campus racial strife by altering constitutional jargon is unacceptable. In the weeks leading up to last spring’s UJ trial, the campus was engulfed in racial tension and hurt.

Racial minorities saw the suit brought against the Union by a white student as disrespectful and ignorant, while some white students suggested that the position was a form of reverse racism and akin to political affirmative action.

When the trial came, the court room was filled with spectators, many of whom had to stand.

Renaming the position cannot change the underlying racial tension.

The name change might be understandable if it had been accompanied by deliberative racial dialogue, but it was not. All meetings of the Constitutional Review Committee were closed to the public. Though the Committee held four “open house” forums on the review process as a whole, there was no attempt to specifically talk about the Senator for Racial Minorities position.

While the committee’s proposal states that the name change has been cleared by Brandeis racial minority students approached by the committee representative from the intercultural community and the current Senator for Racial Minority Students, asking permission to change the name is not the same as fostering open discussion.

The one meaningful change the Committee did make was in who is able to run for it. If approved, any student will be an eligible candidate (as opposed to only racial minorities), but only registered racial minorities will be eligible to vote.

Again, the committee failed to discuss the change, writing only that the switch was a response to “controversy [which] has ensued in the past over who can run for these positions”–completely understating the widespread tension of last spring.

This is an insult to the social justiceminded students of Brandeis, many of whom chose this university because they are interested in learning how to find solutions to uncomfortable social and political situations like affirmative action and race in politics.

The extraordinarily vague name selected to replace the “racial minority senator” of “representative for historically underrepresented races” only further underscores the idiocy of this proposal.

Nowhere in the 61 page document was a “historically underrepresented race” defined, leaving constituents to wonder why the committee would bother to change the name at all.

Without an open dialogue with all constituents about what role race should play in campus politics, the committee’s proposal regarding the racial minority senator is as meaningless as its new name.

We stand against hate This board was disturbed and hurt by the vandalism to the Muslim Student Association (MSA) suite this week.

We were equally disturbed and hurt by the suggestion that such actions could be blamed on “the Jews” as one individual wrote on the wall of a Facebook event created to show support for the MSA. The vandalism to the MSA suite, though entirely horrible, is the result of the action of individuals, not an entire group.

Thus far, the investigation into the vandalism is ongoing and Public Safety has yet to find the perpetrator. It is pre-

mature to assume the motivations of a as yet unknownn actor.

Even if, once found, the perpetrator reveals they did have religious motivations, blaming an entire group for the actions of one individual is unjust.

Brandeis has a history of interfaith cooperation. Every month the chaplains hold at least one interfaith event, and every Ramadan, the Jewish committee supports the Muslim community by cooking Iftar meals. It is ignorant to apply the international narrative of religious tension in the Middle East to Brandeis.

Though the writing on the Facebook

wall, like the vandalism, is the act of individuals, not the view of the entire campus, it is of the utmost importance that students reject this scapegoat philosophy when they encounter it.

Such comments draw attention away from the crime committed against the MSA. Not only can we not allow hate to perpetuate hate, we also must not allow hate to distract from hate.

We encourage all students to sign the petition decrying the potential hate crime posted on the aforementioned Facebook event and to combat hate with love.

On-campus JBS not solution to housing problems

W

hen the Justice Brandeis Semester (JBS) was first suggested last year, there were more than a few skeptics. Were students going to bite? Were they going to take this opportunity to either earn extra credit during the summer and graduate early or to pay less tuition and live off-campus? Despite these concerns, the university decided to go ahead with the program in order to gain more tuition revenue and to reduce overcrowding on campus by freeing up beds by kicking students off-campus for a semester or

getting them out of here a year early.

So we were confused when, in an effort to make the Environmental Field Semester JBS more appealing to students, the program’s manager decided to allow participating students to live on-campus. Sure, the fall JBS is still a great opportunity to get involved in a different style of learning, but the change in policy ignores the initial intent of the program.

Given that the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring and Steering Committee pitched this as a solution to housing shortages on campus, it

just does not make sense to have an exception to that rule. If this is not working, what is the next step?

While students are at Brandeis, they are here, they need somewhere to live, and JBS is no longer fixing the problem of overcrowding. Brandeis needs a new solution.

We suggest building more housing.

Yes, the campus is packed with buildings as it is, but three-story dorms obviously are not doing the trick. While the renovation of the Charles River Dorms to make more students want to live on-campus is a step in the

right direction, the university needs to think seriously about constructing student housing options that have more rooms. If there is no land available, why not replace old buildings with taller ones?

While some students will be able to live off-campus when push comes to shove, others must live on-campus to keep their full financial aid package.

Brandeis cannot fill that need and ensure that every student who wants to or needs to live on-campus unless JBS students live off-campus, or the university builds more housing.

14 The Brandeis Hoot

Book of Matthew

IMPRESSIONS

March 12, 2010

Poisoned discourse

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

Aramark, off the mark

BY BRET MATTHEW Editor

The usual dinner crowd surrounded Einstein’s Bagels. Students browsed through shelves full of prefabricated salads, chip bags and microwaveable meals.

They peered into the refrigerators, selecting one Coca-Cola product or another. Each swipe of a WhoCard indicated to those surrounding that, for yet another student, dinner was served.

Amid the cacophony of continuous transactions, I could hear workers shouting out bagel orders to students who thought it wiser to eschew packaged food in favor of the real deal.

Or so they thought.

“All bagels at Einstein’s have high fructose corn syrup in them,” Amy Englesberg ’12 said to me as we sat at a nearby table.

We were discussing food quality at Brandeis. Amy is a member of Real Food 2020. Founded only a few weeks ago, this small coalition of Brandeis students has a simple goal: a university that serves 20 percent “real food” by the year 2020.

“Real food,” she said, “nourishes all aspects of the food system.” It is produced ethically, through the humane treatment of animals and the labor of fairly compensated workers. It is grown locally and sustainably, without the use of chemical pesticides and with as small a carbon footprint as possible. It is also healthy, being free of trans fats, chemical additives and high fructose corn syrup.

Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to find on campus. A quick walk through any dining hall reveals an unpleasant sight.

Much of the food is processed.

Very little is “fair trade,” with the exception of some coffee. And while labels of “organic” or “natural” can be found, these terms have been so misused by food corporations that they have become methods of false advertising, rather than legitimate consumer notifications.

Basically, almost none of the food served on campus meets “real food” standards. There are a few “locally-grown” signs hovering around the salad bars, but that’s about it. Amy estimated that one percent of campus food is “real”—far from her coalition’s goal.

What’s the largest obstacle blocking change? Not students.

The seven core members of Real Food 2020 have used various club listservs to reach out to more than one hundred students, and the results have been quite positive. “Some people have never thought about what they put into their bodies,” Amy said. “Once people are aware, it’s hard not to act because food is what makes us function.”

Aramark is the behemoth standing in our way. Though Amy and other students have brought “real food” to the attention of officials like Director of Dining Services Michael Newmark, the responses have so far been the same: lots of excuses, little action.

For example, Aramark claims that they are unsure about the safety of much locally-grown food. It also insists that small farms do not have the capacity to provide for all of Brandeis’ dining needs.

This is, as Amy puts it, “extremely hypocritical.” Brandeis’ main produce provider, Sid Wainer & Son, buys from farms all over Massachusetts. And, like any responsible provider, they confirm the safety of this food. Aramark should know that they have nothing to worry about. So why are they being so stubborn?

“It is difficult to make these connections with farmers,” Amy said. “[Aramark] has more important things to do, like figuring out ways to rip us off.”

“In all honesty,” she added, “I don’t think they really care.”

This is a legitimate concern.

Not all schools are in the same situation regarding “real food.”

The University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amy said, serves 27

percent “real food”—to a campus population of about 40,000 students. There are even food service companies like Aramark who have made sustainability a much greater priority. Chartwells and Bon Appetite, subsidiaries of Compass Group North America, have both taken steps toward reducing the environmental impact of their operations and increasing their supply of locally-grown food. Bon Appetite even tries to get students involved. It recently published a manual about how to start a student garden and integrate it into the campus food supply.

When Brandeis started its own student garden, Newmark was reluctant to integrate it because of “food safety," which was news to the students who did the planting.

“Is it safer to put chemicals and pesticides in our bodies than a little extra dirt?” Amy asked.

No, it’s not. And it’s foolish to delude ourselves into thinking so.

It’s time we realized that Aramark’s current business strategy is holding Brandeis back while other schools move forward to improve their dining. Luckily, we have the opportunity to change that. Aramark’s contract is once again up for renewal, and as the administration goes through this process, we should remind them of one very important thing: “Aramark is not our only option,” Amy said. “If they do not recognize the student body and the values of our university, then we should not think twice about keeping them.”

We are the customers here. We are, as they say, always right. We all pay Brandeis a large sum of money for dining, much of which goes to Aramark ($10.7 million in 2008). We expect a service in return for that money. As part of this service, we ought to demand that Aramark provide sustainable food that is actually good for us.

If it cannot do that, then it’s time for the customers to find another place to shop.

Alright, stand back everybody. I’m going to try something unprecedented with this week’s column, something new that I’ve never done before. So watch out, ’cause anything can happen. Today, I’m going to break a long-standing principle of mine, and actually write... about...

POLITICS!!!

AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

Well, not really. As my legions of devoted readers (Hi Mom!) should know, I never discuss national politics in The Hoot, and I don’t plan to start now. The problem is that, with all due respect to my fellow columnists, I just don’t believe an audience for political commentary exists on campus. It’s perfectly easy to grab a national newspaper or click on a web site; why should anyone care what I, some college student, care about the latest from Washington when there are so many better informed, more direct sources to get it from?

In addition, I’m wary of falling into the Brandeis echo chamber. This campus has a distinct leftward slant (what, you haven’t noticed?), and I feel that even if there’s someone willing to take the time to read my column, the best I could hope for is to preach to the choir. There’s no one to persuade and no new insights that I can contribute. So instead I shoot for the the specialized audiences and the narrow interest stories, basically just writing about things I find interesting and relevant that no one else is writing about.

Make no mistake, I do have strong political views, and I do care about the legislative process. I try to keep well-informed and politically involved, and I think that everyone should if we want our democracy to function. And I’m outspoken about the fact that my views are unashamedly left-wing, probably even by the standards of this campus.

I’ll happily embrace the labels liberal, progressive, socialist, Obamavoting ... you get the idea.

I don’t talk politics as much as I used to though. This isn’t by design; it’s just the way my life has gone. Maybe it’s post-election letdown, maybe I’ve said all there is to say, maybe everyone here just agrees with me too damn much–I don’t know. I still read political sites and stay upto-date on the latest news, but I do it in relative silence.

The entire mainstream political discourse has just grown too shallow for my taste. Once you reach a certain saturation of political, economic and sociological knowledge, you begin to realize how empty you find everything that politicians say. I’m not trying to claim any special depth or understanding for myself; I just think that this barrier is very low. The rhetoric is all tailor-made to appeal to the masses, and arguments which require nuance seem to be dead on arrival. I’ve reached the point where I assume that politicians on both sides of the aisle must be either willfully ignorant or deliberately deceptive, because there’s no other way they would be able to repeat such blatant fabrications and over-simplifications.

I wish that there could be a mainstream debate on political philosophy in this country, one that consists of more than leaders reaffirming their principles to their followers. Sure, you can find plenty of essays on what it means to be “conservative” or “progressive,” but there’s no attempt to engage the other side in philosophical dialogue and to recontextualize political debates as outgrowths of deeper differences in values. We can argue for or against health care reform all day and end up right where we started. However, discussing the value of promoting self-sufficiency in general or of the morality of a free market holds the potential for progress, as long as the debate can be disengaged from the political paradigms we’ve built around it. At the very least, it will cause those who’ve never been approached on that level to view and reconsider their political beliefs in light of deeper moral questions.

Even the politically seasoned would benefit from this level of intellectual probing. You can find educated, respected economists who will argue for either side of a welfare state issue, for instance, and each will have persuasive data and analysis to defend the superiority of his position. While an objective truth exists, the factors involved are so complex and humans are so good at ignoring contradictory evidence that I’m not sure we’re capable of finding it. But if the question shifts from “What is objectively right?” to “What is morally right?”, then the very foundations of political issues are approached. This is how large-scale political changes can actually occur.

One of my few long-term political goals is to establish this kind of political dialogue with someone. I like the idea of being intellectually challenged by someone with a differing political philosophy. I picture a series of probing essays, an unfettered but respectful point and counterpoint, and I think at the end (would there be an end?) I will have learned a lot about myself. I want to be forced to defend my most deeply held beliefs; I want to establish a more complete, nuanced worldview.

Or maybe this is all just intellectual masturbation, and we’d eventually reach the same dead ends that people always reach. Maybe at some point our intellectual capacities will be exhausted, and the dialogue will descend into the same old “I’m right, you’re wrong” talking points that has become synonymous with modern political debate. Maybe the national discourse has simply become too poisoned for the two (or more) sides to meet with sufficiently open minds. I’d like to close on a note of optimism, but I really don’t know if our intellectual limitations are just too great.

March 12, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

The Self Shelf

Tea parties: Dregs of the right wing

IMPRESSIONS.

15

SEA Change

Changing how we think about climate change

BY DORIAN WILLIAMS Special to The Hoot

Recently, I’ve heard buzzwords like "climate change" thrown around a lot recently. I want to change the way we talk about this issue. I want to change how we think about this issue. People talk about climate change as an environmental issue. But that gives the wrong impression. You say “environmental issue” and it brings to mind images of long-haired hippies hugging trees and petitioning to “save the earth.” But, honestly, the earth is not my primary concern. Not that I don’t care about trees, but the earth has been around for billions of years, changing and adapting to the atomic circumstances.

So unless we resort to nuclear annihilation, it’s going to continue doing so whether or not we are happy about it. What I’m more concerned about are the human consequences to an abrupt overhaul of the environment we have grown accustomed to. Climate change is beyond an environmental issue, it deals with health, society and security.

If you care about anything, you care about climate change. If you care about public health, immigration, technology, business, race relations, gender relations, religious influence, international conflict, domestic conflict, disaster relief, poverty, gas prices, house prices, insurance prices, food prices, your living standard or your children, you care about climate change. That is because if climate change takes effect, we would see dramatic increases in flooding, drought, effects from hurricanes as well as decreases in arable land, clean water and suitable areas for human settlement.

This would cause huge food shortages, mass migrations, widespread decease, and higher levels of poverty and homelessness. And that excludes the possibilities for fatalities. Conflicts over food, water and resources would further destabilize already problematic areas. These conflicts easily spill over into the surrounding region and have effects all across the globe. Because not only does conflict in one country or region often lead to steep declines in exports and imports that hurt the global economy, but it can also produce extremist governments and organizations that threaten international security through genocide and terrorism. You want to keep Al Queda from spreading their jihadist ideology? Eliminate poverty and get people back in schools and back to work through preventing climate change.

But I’m not here to make the moral appeal for your fellow man. You already know that line, and clearly it’s not enough. So instead, I want to speak to your self interest: that which drives what you buy, how you act and what you commit yourself to. Because climate change is not just the problem of small island nations and poor countries that won’t be able to mitigate the crisis. Climate change is our issue.

We tend to have this mindset in the United States that just because we are the only superpower (at least right now) we are above experiencing national crisis. We forget about the poverty and devastation in our own country because most of us don’t have to think about it. Katrina tried to show us otherwise. It demonstrated that we are susceptible to natural disasters and therefore would be affected by climate change just like everyone else. You can try to ignore it all you want, but climate change already is and will continue to be our problem.

It will be our problem when the price of energy skyrockets as we run out of fossil fuels. It will be our problem when people’s homes on the coasts are engulfed under water. It will be our problem when millions of displaced people try to seek refuge in our country. It will be our problem when the amount of food produced is vastly outnumbered by billions of hungry people. It will be our problem when every hurricane outmatches the defense infrastructure. It will be our problem when disease and conflict proliferate, sending governments and businesses spiraling out of control.

Prices will rise and options will drop so that more and more of your money will go towards more basic goods and necessities. So if you want to keep buying your lattes with coffee beans from Brazil out of cups made in China for under $5, you better start thinking about the choices you make and the consequences they will have on your future.

If you care about anything, you care about climate change.

PHOTO BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot

BY ALEX SELF Columnist

As spring finally is arriving, the political scene is about to enter a nuclear winter. The Democrats have imploded during the past six months and the Republicans can’t find a common platform besides obstructing the Democrats.

Out of this morass has appeared the Tea Party, the biggest third party movement since … well, since the last third party movement. This new movement stands for fiscal conservatism. Why they differentiate themselves from libertarians is far beyond me—perhaps they think libertarians are too liberal.

This new political movement is not to be confused with the Republicans. They are far more conservative. Some reports show them as a mob of disorganized protestors ranting about Obama.

Others (a.k.a. Fox News) show them as the savior of the Republican Party. Reports on their leadership range in points of view from that of Newt Gingrich to Sarah Palin to Glenn Beck.

However, the Tea Party is not really about the leadership or organization, it’s about the message.

For example, it’s about attacking the government stimulus package passed when our economy was in the throes of recession. The Tea Partiers claim that this was an ex-

ample of communism, socialism or some kind of leftist policy (it varies depending on how angry the speaker is at the moment).

In light of this, I have a better name for the Tea Party. Let’s call it the Herbert Hoover Party. Everyone remembers how much he championed capitalism, and according to the Tea Party’s philosophy, the Great Depression was a triumph of capitalism. Most other people believe the stimulus was absolutely necessary.

Even the Republicans were at least somewhat in favor of stimulus. After all, former President George W. Bush passed his own stimulus bill in 2008. Economists were very much in favor of a stimulus–in fact, they lobbied for a larger stimulus bill. The Tea Party apparently ignored this when they were busy dressing up in colonial costume to the applause of Glenn Beck.

The other big issue of the Tea Party is the idea that the Democratic healthcare bill is leading us to communism (socialism or the like as before). The Republicans generally have a strong ideological stance against the health care bill. This I can comprehend.

However, the Tea Party has not been able to present a coherent philosophical analysis on the topic besides the fact that it’s communism incarnate.

I would expand more upon the

Tea Party’s ideas on health care but I can’t glean its actual message (and I have looked). Are these the guys who stood up in health care town hall meetings and compared President Obama to Hitler? Were they the ones who campaigned upon the “Save Grandma!” platform in opposing the healthcare bill? At some point, it seems that all of these messages were attributed to the Tea Party.

The Tea Party has been so radical and incoherent that even the Republicans have distanced themselves from them somewhat (although it seems to be a love hate relationship). In my opinion, the Tea Party represents the stereotypically backwards part of the Republican Party. They have played into the hands of Democrats because they represent the ignorant caricatures derided by liberal elites.

They lack the coherency of the libertarian party and the ideological consistency of the Republicans. All in all, the Tea Party should go back to the drawing board if it ever wants to be taken seriously in American politics (making Sarah Palin a keynote speaker doesn’t help their cause).

In the end, the Tea Party needs to examine the facts before it organizes protests. Thus far though, reason just doesn’t seem to be its cup of ... well you know.

16 IMPRESSIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 12, 2010

Sexcapades

The pill is not enough The triumph of process

BY MATTHEW KIPNIS Special to The Hoot

BY SOPHIE RIESE Columnist

I recently read about the current rise of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) in young adult females. I was frightened by this statistic and the knowledge that Brandeis students are not excluded from this statistic. During training for Orientation Leaders, we were told that most students contract STDs during the first six weeks of school. But what about after that?

If you contract an STD during that period and then go on to have sex with one (or five) people, you are putting people at risk of contracting that STD. Where has safe sex gone?

As a disclaimer, it is hard for me to judge exactly what’s going on in terms of safe sex and condom use because this year I have been in two sexual relationships, both of which were committed and monogamous in their own way. Whatever choices we made, or are making, about how to protect ourselves, are based on knowledge and trust. However, as a long-time rover, the idea that I would ever not use a condom (particularly if it was a one-night stand, a booty call or an infrequent hookup) is ludicrous.

The widespread availability and use of female birth control has perhaps attributed to this idea that we’re all “safe,” because in college, our biggest concern isn’t often about disease. Instead we are concerned with what might stop us from achieving our goals, and pregnancy tops that list.

But given the prevalence of STDs on campuses, this is foolhardy of us. Every time we sleep with someone and don’t use a condom, we are putting ourselves at risk.

These risks are far greater for women than they are for men.

Apart from the STDs you already know about–HIV Herpes–there are a variety that you probably haven’t heard about since sixth grade health. Some of them can lead

PHOTO BY Leah Finkleman/The Hoot

to impotence or infertility in men, but a far higher number can lead to infection, infertility and even cancer in women. HPV, for example, can lead to warts or cervical cancer. But the guy you got it from might not even know he has it.

Unless your hookup is getting tested every six months or so and getting tested every time they have unprotected sex (which, lets face it, he probably isn’t), you need to protect yourself effectively and use a condom.

College is a time for having fun, but really, it’s only fun if you’re safe.

Even though both partners should be carrying protection with them before they go out, you can’t always count on your guy of the evening. There’s nothing wrong with a girl who carries a condom or a dental dam in her purse when she goes out. It’s better to have it and be able to use it than discover that neither partner has protection.

Even if you go back to the guy’s place, there’s no guarantee he will have anything.

Even though there is sometimes a stigma attached to women who carry protection, women should never depend on the guy to make sure they’re safe.

In the horrible summer of 2004, one hardly dared to hope of Iraq settling into a democratic rhythm. Barely a night went by without the report of yet another American death via suicide bomber or improvised explosive device. That spring four American contractors had been dragged from their cars in Fallujah, beaten, immolated, and strung up over the Euphrates River, and the American Army, in retaliation, embarked on the long, costly struggle for control of that city which would result in more than 1,000 casualties.

In the election that took place the following year, a remarkable 76 percent of Iraqis voted. Defying bombs and gunmen to dip their forefingers in a well of blue ink, the Iraqi people created the closest thing to a genuine popular government their country had seen in decades. Yet there were flaws— gaping holes, really. Ballots from north to south were cast under the veil of an American gun. Many of the principle candidates came from violent religious factions. And worst of all, Iraqi Sunnis, 20 percent of the population, boycotted the vote en-masse.

The intervening years have hardly been smooth by anyone’s definition. After a period away from the front page, Iraq slid back into the headlines in 2006. American troops and the Coalition of the Willing battled the euphoniously titled Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and their fellow “foreign fighters.” At the end of that year, and following years of failed policy, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was finally shown the door, if not the light. As Rumsfeld’s successor, Robert Gates successfully pushed for the surge, thanks to which the Iraqis now have their streets back.

Yet while the streets may be safer, the politics remain rough. Several months ago the current Prime Minister, Nuri Kamal alMaliki, in an effort to shore up his Shiite base, had the electoral commission disqualify more than 500 parliamentary candidates—mainly Sunnis—on the grounds that they had ties to the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein. This open attempt to manipulate the election was thwarted only when an appeals court overturned the commission’s decision, and likely opened the way for further legal challenges in the near future.

Still, the fact that voting took place this past Sunday, with "only" 40 fatalities, in spite of a series of bombings, offers a stirring hope.

Joined this time by large numbers of Sunnis, Iraqis again voted in higher percentages than Americans, even in the 2008 election. The candidates that campaigned in Iraq this time around did so, for better or worse, much as American politicians do— as individuals with party backing, rather than vice-versa.

Let me make one thing clear: I do not and never have believed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. That the years of struggle in Iraq have cost more lives (upwards of 100,000 in most estimates, and at least five times that number of displaced persons) than Saddam Hussein would have taken in this period I think likely. That we entered the war under false pretenses—that we were lied to—I have no doubt.

But that something good—a democratic Muslim country in the Middle East—can come of this mess, I find both remarkable and heartening. Regardless of the result, a free and fair election in Iraq can only be a good thing, for the Iraqis, for the region, and for us.

That we entered the war under false pretenses—that we were lied to—I have no doubt.

Borde-nough

Campaign finance reform: A hot topic?

BY CHRIS BORDELON Columnist

Campaign finance reform is a hot topic in our nation’s Capitol, but politicians have temporarily shelved the issue. Even in normal economic times, campaign finance is a topic that rarely excites voters because reforms unavoidably sound like sheep-safety schemes drawn up by wolves. Because legislators’ constituents today find their best economic opportunities involve shopping for imported home appliances made by near-slaves for Wal-Mart and Target, campaign finance reform has been left by the wayside.

Or has it?

Looked at another way, campaign finance reform has never generated the kind of enthusiasm that it does today.

What makes this special effort hard to identify is that it goes by other names.

When Democrats pursue this kind of campaign finance reform, they call it things like “the jobs bill” or “the President’s health care plan.” When Republicans have done it, they’ve preferred terms like “tax cuts” or “Medicare Part D.” Both parties like the label “stimulus package” (It sounds so sexy!).

Almost all politicians appear happy to

pursue campaign finance reform when it’s called “homeland” or “national security,” or “keeping America safe” or “strong.”

If you’re having trouble seeing the “campaign finance reform” in all this, these alternative labels have done their intended work. Officeholders use the resources at their disposal–those that belong to the public–for self-aggrandizement. They then give a name to what they’ve done. The ideal name, if the above examples are any clue, is easy to remember but sounds a little more like a policy than a slogan. The deeds done by politicians in this way are expensive, but the public enjoys them. They turn public funds into a giant campaign kitty–producing an unfortunate kind of campaign finance reform in all but name.

On the other hand, the government spends a lot of money for good reasons.

How can one distinguish campaign spending from other kinds? One might start to answer the question by asking whether the public fisc can sustain the programs created for long enough to permit them to perform their stated objectives.

Because the amount of money in the public fisc can be changed by adding or subtracting revenue or outlays, the real issue is whether the political will exists to keep enough money in the public fisc to

sustain the new spending.

Judged by those standards, probably no campaigns in history have been financed as lavishly as those of the last ten years. The midterm elections this year look to break new records in this respect. The United States Treasury Department reported this week that the government operated at a deficit of more than $220 billion in February, its largest-ever monthly shortfall.

The deficit this fiscal year is projected to break last year’s record of $1.4 trillion.

Deficit spending isn’t new. Neither is the phenomenon of politicians claiming credit for their spending future Americans’ money. What is new is that no one vested with responsibility seems to care. It used to be possible for the parties to make political capital out of one another’s overspending, which had salutary effects on the size of government deficits. It sounds almost quaint today, but politicians used to campaign on promises to balance the budget.

Instead, warnings about the budget are ignored.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the Senate Budget Committee on Feb. 4 that there existed a “long-run gap between government revenues and expenditures.” But he did not add–and little attention was paid to–how short-term behavior might change that dire prognosis.

While Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate Financial Services Committee on Feb. 24 that future deficit projections were “above a sustainable level” and called for a “fiscal exit” from projected spending, the president and his allies pushed their health care plan.

They attempted to sell their plan as a deficit-reduction measure. But their estimates are based on what amount to guesses as to the future behavior of private businesses involved in the scheme, including health insurers and providers. It’s their actual future behavior that counts. Given their heavy involvement in drafting the administration’s health care proposal and their demonstrated capacity to extract big money from government programs, there is good reason to believe savings will not materialize.

Describing the content of the health care proposal on March 9, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that “it’s going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

That’s a terrible way to legislate. But it’s a smart way to run for office, for as Pelosi must know, it’s better to save your good stuff for later on in the campaign season.

March 12, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

Altered Consciousness

Iran’s sad state of affairs

BY RICK ALTERBAUM Columnist

In 1979, an Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew Iran’s presiding ruler, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, commonly known as the Shah of Iran. Iran’s current regime, which came to power as a result of this historic event, still triumphantly celebrates this remarkable transition of power. But the Iranian government’s recent actions stray from the ideals that inspired so many Iranians a generation ago.

The Iranian revolution was the product of a confluence of forces. At the time, the Shah’s policies increasingly favored Westernization, modernization, and closer ties with the United States and even Israel, among other countries. As a result, his administration’s actions began to conflict with the identities and ideologies of devout Shiite Muslims, who made up the bulk of the populace.

Iranians felt they could not trust their government. Under the Shah, dissenters were oppressed, murdered, tortured, incarcerated and put under constant surveillance. Pahlavi’s security forces, known as the National Intelligence and Security Organization, were gradually transforming Iran into a totalitarian police state. Consequently, Ayatollah Khomeini wanted to create a freer society for Muslims.

When the Shah was overthrown, Iran did not become a liberalized democracy, since such a system was viewed as being tainted

by Western influence. Indeed, the new government that was installed began denying basic liberties to its people, particularly minority groups. Also, candidates running for positions in Iran’s elected bodies had to undergo a rigorous vetting process in order to ensure that their religiosity and political allegiances were acceptable. Both of these trends continue to this day.

However, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rigged election over Mir-Hossein Mousavi and the subsequent oppression of members of the Green movement convinced much of the public that the status quo was intolerable. Many in Iran have awakened to the fact that this government’s cruel policies increasingly resemble those of the Shah’s. Evin Prison, once used by Pahlavi to imprison Islamists, now is used

to imprison Greens. Although the regime in power has maintained its strict antiWestern mindset that has fueled it since its inception, its subjugation of fellow Shiites runs contrary to what Ayatollah Khomeini originally intended in 1979.

The government may try to justify its actions by claiming the change represented by the Green movement is radical and un-Islamic. Yet consider its leaders–MirHossein Mousavi was Iran’s prime minister from 1981-1989, Mohammad Khatami served as president from 1997-2005, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was president from 1989-1997 and current chairman of a governing body known as the Assembly of Experts, was once considered as a successor to Ayatollah Khomeini for Supreme Leader, the most powerful office in the government. These are not extremists; they are the founders of the Iranian Revolution and have been critical supporters of and players in the government it produced.

What are the political positions of the Green movement? They overwhelmingly support Iran’s nuclear program, viewing it as a source of the country’s strength and pride. They are skeptical about conciliation toward the West, despite the fact that they are less antagonistic toward it than Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In fact, from the viewpoint of the regime in power, the only truly radical view they have is that, just like Khomeini, they yearn for a trustworthy government that is accountable to all Shiites.

Instead of listening to the Greens, power has increasingly shifted into the hands of Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as its subsidiary, the paramilitary Basij militia. The idealism of the Islamic Revolutionaries in ’79 has been replaced by brute force. Organizers of the Green movement have faced humiliating show trials, execution, incarceration, torture, rape, and more. Individuals like Neda Agha-Soltan, who was only an innocent bystander at a Green protest, have become martyrs. Despite these events, oppositionists have continued to valiantly make their stand, albeit less so in recent months.

Is this really what Ayatollah Khomeini wanted? For revolution-supporting Muslims who only yearn for justice to fear their government as he and his followers did 31 years ago? Iran is in a sad state of affairs.

Have an opinion? e-mail Impressions @thehoot.net

IMPRESSIONS

Impressionable Weekend comics and fun from The Hoot

The World of “um”ing

By Alison Corman-Vogan

17

18 The Brandeis Hoot

SPORTS

March 12, 2010

PHOTO BY Andrew Rauner/The Hoot

PHOTO BY Paula Hoekstra/The Hoot

RACE TO THE FINISH: The Brandeis track and field team competed against universities such as New York University at the UAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 5.

PHOTO BY Andrew Rauner/The Hoot

Indoor track and field hosts UAA championships

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

Brandeis University played host to the 2010 University Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 5 and 6, and the hometown squads finished the week with their heads held high. The Brandeis men took two UAA titles over the meet, and the women had 15 point-scoring performances in the final tuneup before this weekend’s NCAA Championships.

The women started their success early on Friday, as Lucia Capano ’11 leaped 5.31 meters in the long jump, one of the meet’s opening events. The distance was good for both a second place finish and an All Associationrecognition, the first of six the team would eventually earn.

Their other All-Association performance of the day came courtesy of distance medley relay team of Beth Pisarik ’10, Anifreed Sinjour ’13, Erin Bisceglia ’12 and Marie Lemay ’11, which also

placed second by clocking a time of 12:15.39. Ally Connolly ’10 also scored points for the Judges, finishing sixth in the 5,000-meter run in 17:55.39.

The second day was full of strong individual performances for Brandeis, and no event proved more profitable than the mile run. Brandeis earned 16 points for that race alone, taking half of the point-scoring spots available.

Lemay finished fifth in 5:05.22, Pisarik finished third in 4:59.11, and Grayce Selig ’11 finished second in 4:56.12, less than a second behind the winner. The athletes set a blindingly fast pace, and the top four finishers all broke the two-year-old UAA record time 5:01.53. Selig’s time set a new Brandeis record, making it the third time this season she has rewritten that entry in the record book; both she and Pisarik got All-Association awards for their performances.

The other two Brandeis AllUAA honorees were Emily Owen ’11 and, for the second time in the meet, Capano. Owen completed

the 800-meter run in 2:17.60, and Capano jumped 10.89 meters in the triple jump; both performances were good for third place finishes.

The Judges had two more events with multiple scoring finishes. In the high jump, Suzanne Bernier ’10 and Lily Parenteau ’12 each leaped 1.58 meters high; after tiebreakers were applied, Bernier was ranked fourth and Paranteau was ranked fifth. Kate Warwick ’12 and Connolly finished fourth and fifth respectively in the 3000-meter run with times of 10:21.94 and 10:23.68.

A trio of sixth place finishes rounded out the scoring for Brandeis. Sinjour in the 400-meter dash (1:01.79), Lucia Capano in the 55-meter dash (7.57), and the 4x400-meter relay team of Michelle Gellman ’11, Anne Gregory ’13, Sinjour, and Erin Bisceglia (4:10.90) each earned single points for the Judges.

The Brandeis men only had two scoring performances on the first day of competition, but both were among the best athletic accom-

plishments of the meet.

First, Paul Norton ’11 came in second place in the first men’s track final, the 5,000-meter run.

His time of 14:44.14 was just over a second behind the pace of the conference-record-breaking winner.

Then, Marc Boutin ’12, Brian Foley ’13, Chris Brown ’12 and Devon Holgate ’11 led Brandeis to its first association championship of the year by winning the distance medley relay in a time of 10:08.42. Both performances earned all-UAA honors.

On Saturday, Paul Norton outdid himself in completing the long-distance double-dip. This time it was 1st place and an association championship after completing the 3,000-meter run in 8:37.28. He had good company on the podium; Alex Kramer ’13 finished in third with a 8:39.33.

Aaron Udel ‘10 joined them to become the final Brandeis all-Association winner by taking third place in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:56.13.

Three other events on the final

day yielded points for the Judges.

As it was with the women, the mile run was particularly profitable.

Devon Holgate took fourth place with a 4:21.83, and Chris Brown added a sixth place finish with 4:23.45. Brian Foley had the men’s strongest individual sprint finish with his fifth place performance in the 400-meter dash (50.80). Finally, the 4x400-meter relay team of Mingkai Lin ’12, Ned Crowley ‘10, Josh HoffmanSenn ‘13 and Foley polished off the meet by running 3:28.18 to take fifth.

Overall, the women’s team finished in the middle of the UAA pack, claiming a total of 60 points for fourth place in the seven team competition.

The men did slightly worse, finishing in fifth with 49 points.

The only event left in the indoor season is the Division III National NCAA Championships; those runners who qualified will be competing today and tomorrow at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.

March 12, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

SPORTS

19

Softball opens their season with warm weather play

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

The Brandeis softball team could hardly have asked for a better start to their season. In their first week of competition, the Judges have managed to compile a 5-1 record, and their 3-1 conference record leaves them wellpositioned to contend for the University Athletic Association Championship.

Brandeis got off to a quick start in their season on March 7, scoring in the very first inning of their first game when Marianne Specker ’12 doubled home Melisa Cagar ’11. The game, held in Clermont, Florida against Rensellaer, seemed like smooth sailing until the bottom of the sevent inning, when Brandeis’ 3-0 lead was wiped out courtesy of two critical errors from the defense, sending the game into extra innings.

The Judges would reclaim the lead with two runs in the top of the eighth, but miscues doomed them again in the bottom of the frame when Emily Vaillette’s ’10 wild pitch helped Rensellaer tie the game again. The teams traded single runs in the ninth.

In the tenth, a wild pitch from Rensellaer’s Felicia Bua allowed

Brandeis to score, and Caroline Miller ’12 pitched a perfect bottom half to give the Judges the 7-6 win.

Vaillette, who was charged with six runs but with only one earned, got the win for her nine-inning performance. Bua, who pitched 8 2/3, got the loss, and Miller got the save. Cagar scored three runs to lead the Judges’ offense.

Later that day, Brandeis faced off against Pitt, Brandford, and this time the outcome was never doubtfil. After two innings, Brandeis had a 6-3 lead off of eight hits, and the offense never stopped churning. The Judges ended up with a 10-4 victory in a sloppy game that featured a total of eight errors.

Caroline Miller continued her pitching performance from the previous game, throwing five innings and allowing only one earned run to add a win to her opening-day save. Jillian Kreitzer was charged with the loss. First year Stacy Berg introduced herself to the Brandeis faithful with four RBIs, and Brittany Grimm ’12 and Marianne Specker each contributed three hits.

Two days later, the UAA Tournament began, pitting the Judges against their conference foes for the first time. They started out

against Emory, and the game was all about Eagles pitcher Jamie Melson. She scattered four hits over seven innings, allowing only a single run and picking up the win. Emory plated three runs in the first two innings and coasted the rest of the way to a 3-1 win.

Vaillette was solid in defeat, matching her counterpart’s complete game and one earned run.

Berg earned Brandeis’s sole tally with a home run in the bottom of the fourth.

Things looked bleak for the Judges as they headed into a critical game with seventh-ranked Washington University. Brandeis struck first when Melisa Cagar hit a two-run homer in the third inning, and pitcher Caroline Miller seemed to be coasting, giving up two hits and no runs in the first three innings. But three straight singles and a grand slam to lead off the fourth turned the tables immediately and drove Miller out of the game.

Brandeis, however, was not to be denied. They scored four of their own in the top of the fifth, then three more in the sixth. The final score was 9-6 for the Judges, with Allie Mussen ’10 getting her first win of the year and the tireless Vaillette working two innings for the save. Voris threw a

complete game in defeat. The top of the order proved to be fruitful for the Judges, with lead-off hitter Cagar and second batter Brittany Grimm combining for seven RBIs. Brandeis brought both their bats and their arms in a big way to the next day’s games. Against Rochester, Grimm launched a two-run home run in the first inning before the YellowJackets could record their first out. Carly Schmand ’11 added a two-run double in the fourth, and the team put up three runs in the sixth to end the game at 8-0.

Vaillette pitched all six innings and allowed four hits while striking out six in the shutout, while Rochester’s Sara Hutchinson picked up the loss. The Judges got hits from eight slots in their lineup; Cagar led the team with three.

But the Rochester game was just a warm up, as Brandeis landed an even harsher blow against the Case Western Reserve Spartans.

Already up 2-0, Berg slugged a two-run fourth inning blast, and the rout was on its way. Up 6-0 going into the sixth, Berg struck again with a two RBI double, and she was followed by run-scoring hits from Lara Hirschler ‘12, Keliann Kirby ‘13 and Samantha Gajewski ‘12. Meanwhile, the

Brandeis pitching staff remained a stone wall, with three separate pitchers combining for a three-hit 11-0 shutout.

Mussen’s three innings of middle relief got her the win, while Andrasik pitched six innings and surrendered 14 hits and 10 earned runs to get the loss. Berg ended the game 3-4 with two runs and 5 RBI’s, and Brandeis sent 32 total batters to the plate.

For the year, Cagar is batting .500 with seven stolen bases on eight attempts, and Berg is leading the team with 11 RBI’s and three homers. The team’s batting average is .348 while its opponents are being held to .218. Vaillette has thrown 24 innings and kept her ERA at an exceptional 0.58.

Brandeis was supposed to continue its season on Thursday with another contest against Emory, but rain forced postponement with no make-up day scheduled yet. Instead, the team will continue its march through the UAA Tournament with games against Washington and Rochester today and Case Western Reserve on Saturday; Brandeis is currently tied with Emory for the lead.

After the tournament, the Judges’ schedule continues with a home doubleheader against Wellesley.

Men’s basketball advances to Baseball spends the week playing in Florida Sweet Sixteen

BY HANNAH VICKERS Editor

BY HANNAH VICKERS Editor

After two exciting victories last weekend in the first and second round of the NCAA Division III tournament, the Judges have moved onto sectional. This is the second time Brandeis has reached the Sweet Sixteen under head coach Brian Meehan.

The Judges kicked off the weekend in Rochester on Friday night when they faced the St. Lawrence University Saints. The Saints opened up the game with back-to-back baskets to take a four-point lead but guard Kenny Small ’10 answered back with a trifecta off an assist from classmate forward Terrell Hollins.

St. Lawrence held onto the lead for the first ten minutes of play before Small was able to tie things up at 17 each with a three-pointer and Hollins took the lead off a layup. The Judges would hold the lead for the remainder of the game, slowly building it up in the remainder of the half. Guard Vytas Kriskus ’12 tacked on three three-pointers before the break to help give Brandeis a 42-33 lead going into the lockers.

Brandeis opened up the second half with a commanding 23-9 run in the first ten minutes, taking a 23-point lead.

While the Saints fought to bring the game back within reach, the Judges continued to hold steady.

When the buzzer sounded,

Brandeis had beaten their opponents 76-64.

Kriskus led the Judges with another incredible performance, coming off the bench to tack on 29 points in 30 minutes.

He landed 6-of-9 from beyond the arc, matching a careerhigh. Small had 16 points on the night while Hollins put up 12. Forward Christian Yemga ’11 had seven rebounds, tying for the game-high and matching his season-high, and guard Andre Roberson ’10 had the game-high seven assists and six points.

This was the first time the two schools had faced each other. St. Lawrence finished up their season with a 16-12 record.

Brandeis went on to face the hosting St. John Fisher Cardinals on Saturday night. The two teams traded leads and baskets to open up the first, going through three ties and one lead change. Roberson nailed the first basket for the Judges, a three-pointer just under three minutes in that tied the game at 5-5. With the basket Roberson became the 28th player in school history to reach the 1,000 point plateau.

A layup by Hollins at 9:14 gave Brandeis a 17-15 lead and set them on a 9-1 run to get an eight point lead off five points from Kriskus and four from Hollins. Fisher continued to fight back, landing baskets and cutting the Brandeis lead to just three points a few times before

the end of the half when another layup by Hollins closed out the first stanza with a 35-27 Brandeis lead.

The Judges really turned up the heat in the second half, starting off with a 13-5 run to snare a 16-point lead. Brandeis held onto a double-digit lead for the first 16 minutes of play before two foul shots by the Cardinals brought the game to just eight points with a score of 58-50.

In the final minute and a half of play the Judges defense held the Cardinals scoreless while Kriskus, Roberson, and Hollins nailed two foul shots each to make the final score 66-52 in favor of Brandeis.

Kriskus finished out the game as the leading scorer for the second night in a row, putting up 17 points in 26 minutes off the bench. Hollins put up 16 points alongside a career-high 21 rebounds while Small hit 4-of-5 from three-point range to help him reach 14 points on the night. Roberson rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 points.

Brandeis will now mve onto the Sweet Sixteen on Friday night, travelling to Williamstown, Massachusetts to face Williams College at 6 p.m. The winner will face the winner from the Williams/SUNYIT face-off on Saturday night at 7 p.m. in the Elite Eight. The victor from that matchup will travel to the Final Four. WBRS will broadcast the game live.

The Brandeis baseball team is participating in the University Athletic Association Tournament down in Sanford, Florida this week. The team will play six games total between Tuesday March 9 and Saturday March 13.

The Judges kicked off the tournament against the Emory University Eagles. In the top of the first the Eagles got their first run off their hosts with a bases-loaded walk. Brandeis responded in the bottom half when shortstop Sean O’Hare ’12 got on base with a single to centerfield and proceeded to steal second. The Judges loaded the bases off a walk and an error that gave designated hitter Drake Livada ’10 the chance to tie the game with a grounder to second.

From that point on, though, Eagles pitcher Matthew Katten ’10 settled into a rhythm and did not allow the Judges to add another run. On the other side of the board Emory was able to take the lead a two-run homerun in the third and another in the seventh. The Eagles tacked on an additional run in the ninth to beat the Judges 7-1.

Brandeis bounced back from their disappointing loss when they faced off against the Washington University in St. Louis Bears the next morning. In the bottom of the first Wash.

U put up five hits and five runs to jump out to an early lead. The Judges answered back in the top of the first with three runs and four hits of their own to get back in the game.

Brandeis really opened things up in the third when they hammered the Bears with six runs and five hits but

Washington University answered back in the bottom with four runs and four hits of their own to tie the game at nine apiece.

The Judges grabbed the lead in the next inning with three runs off a three-run home run from Livada.

They added their final run of the game in the sixth, which was enough to hold off the brief run by the Bears in the bottom of the eighth when they tacked on two additional runs.

Brandeis finished the game with a 13-11 victory. Second baseman John O’Brion ’10 led the Judges with four runs off four hits and three RBIs. Third baseman Tony Deshler ’11 also had three runs on two hits.

Right fielder Chris Ferro ’13 had a two run homerun while rookie Andrew Weissenberg had three and a third innings of shutout relief pitching to help secure the win.

The Judges fell to Case Western Reserve University in a disappointing 12-5 game. Brandeis held a 4-3 lead in the third but Case tacked on three runs in the fourth to take the lead and two in the fifth to secure it.

The hosts closed things out in the bottom of the eighth with an additional three runs for the win.

The men had an off day on Thursday to give them time to prepare for a double-header against Emory and Wash U. on Friday. The games will be at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. respectively.

The tournament ends Saturday with a 2:30 p.m. matchup against Rochester University. Rochester currently sits at the top of the UAA with a 2-0 record in conference play and a 4-1 record overall. Emory is ranked second, having gone 2-1 in the UAA and 9-7 overall. Brandeis is currently fourth with a 1-2 record in conference play and having gone 2-5 over-

20 The Brandeis Hoot

HOOT SCOOPS

March 12, 2010

It’s all greek to me university policies unclear on Fraternities and Sororities

By Ariel Wittenberg, Editor On April 11, the Student Union will host a half-marathon across the Brandeis campus. The event is being organized by Union Vice President Amanda Hecker ’10 and Phi Kappa Psi President Justin Meltzer ’11. The Facebook event created to advertise the event will say the race is being “cosponsored” by both the Union and the fraternity, but flyers posted around campus will include no mention of Meltzer or Phi Psi’s involvement.

This inconsistency is just one example of what fraternities and their Union collaborators do in order to avoid a scolding from the administration.

Similarly, the Union Social Justice Committee will unofficially cosponsor “Invisible Children,” an event meant to raise awareness about child soldiers in the Sudan, with Phi Psi on March 18.

Like with the half-marathon, however, the fraternity will be omitted from advertisements, even though fraternity brothers and Union officials are performing “equal work.”

“In my eyes they are cosponsoring the event, whether or not we can officially recognize it,” Union Social Justice Committee member Andrea Ortega ’13 said.

According to Appendix B of the Students Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, the university does not recognize “exclusive or secret societies” because they are “inconsistent with the principles of openness to which the University [sic] is committed.” The policy was “reaffirmed” by the board of trustees in a 1988 meeting. Before that time, there was no written policy about Greek organizations at Brandeis.

Though the appendix reads that fra-

ternities and sororities “are neither recognized nor permitted to hold activities on campus or use University [sic] facilities,” the policy on Greek involvement in student life stops there.

In fact, the only other explicit statement of policy toward Greek organizations is actually found in the Student Union Bylaws, which read that in order for a club to be recognized by the university it must “not be a fraternity or a sorority.”

This bylaw was written in 1986, two years before the board’s resolution. It was the result of a student referendum on the involvement of fraternities on campus in which 72.5 percent of students voted to not recognize Greek organizations until members could be of either gender and did not have to pay dues.

Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer said the university’s policy on Greek life additionally prohibits Greek organizations from “using the university’s name, using the university’s tax exemption status or implying that the organization is part of the Brandeis community,” however those three restrictions are not written anywhere.

Dean Gendron, director of the Office of Student Life and Community Standards, said, “what you don’t find written down are explicit statements of do’s and don’ts. Technically, all we have is a statement about how we want to think about these types of organizations.”

The inconsistencies in university policy toward Greek life are also apparent in its enforcement. In 2007, the fraternity Zeta Beta Tau received a letter from Brandeis’ legal counsel Judith Sizer ordering it to remove the university logo from its Web site. The fraternity complied; however the Brandeis-based

chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi includes the university’s name on its online logo.

The Phi Psi Web site demonstrates similar inconsistencies: While the text of the site avoids mentioning Brandeis (and instead reads “welcome to Phi Kappa Psi at ??????? University”), the site is actually located on the university-supported Webs pace of one of the brothers.

Additionally, the Web site of the local Alpha Delta Phi chapter officially defines the organization as the “middlesex chapter” of the fraternity, however states that the chapter “is composed of academically motivated students of Brandeis University.”

Sawyer attributed the inconsistency in university action regarding fraternity Web sites to a lack of resources.

“No one is patrolling Facebook pages,” he said. “We have to send letters when something is obviously brought to someone’s attention, but otherwise, the university’s counsel is really, really busy.”

Sawyer called the attempt by Union members to co-sponser events with Greek organizations “a stretch of policy,” saying, “if there is a legitimate, recognized organization co-sponsoring an event with an organization, that would be stretching the limits.”

Brandeis’ first fraternity, Pi Tau Pi, was founded in 1952 but died out soon after. The university remained Greekfree until 1985, when the organization of a Brandeis Zeta Beta Tau chapter spurred the current Union and university policies concerning Greek life and sparked a half-decade long controversy among students.

Zeta Beta Tau was closely followed by Alpha Epsulon Pi in 1986, affirming the presence of fraternities at Brandeis.

Sawyer said that in their inception, fraternities were be extraordinarily aggressive in their recruitment and would

attempt to overshadow Orientation Leaders in order to gain brothers. Issues of the Justice from the mid-to-late 1980s also mention multiple incidents of hazing involving the newly founded fraternities.

Lately, however, Sawyer said the Greek organizations’ “aggressiveness has dissipated,” which he credits with the “leadership in Greek organizations for being more diplomatic and coexisting on our campus.”

Still, he said, the policy will not change. If Greek organizations were recognized by the university, they would have access to the Brandeis name, use of its facilities, use of its taxexempt status and access to the student activities funds–something Sawyer labeled “a legal liability.”

But to Meltzer, who is sponsoring the marathon with little credit, this policy is “frustrating.”

Proceeds from the half-marathon will go to Jewish Big Brother and Big Sister–the charity the fraternity supports as part of its philanthropic mission. Many of the runners in the race will be members of Phi Kappa Psi, with most of their donations coming from a network of 500 to 600 Boston-area Phi Kappa Psi alumni.

Though Meltzer said “recognition is secondary to helping others,” he does wish the event could acknowledge the contribution.

Instead, Meltzer and his brothers will be taking advantage of yet another inconsistency within university fraternity policy.

Directly after the board voted to not recognize Greek organizations, administrators would prevent students from wearing fraternity or sorority paraphernalia. As time has passed, that policy has fallen by the wayside.

“We will all be running in our letters,” Meltzer said.