The_Hoot_03-26-2010

VOL 7, NO. 9

MARCH 26, 2010

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

WA LT H A M , M A

Board approves FY 2011 budget

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor

The board of trustees approved a $356 million operating budget for fiscal year 2011 that, due to the Brandeis 2020 Committee’s academic cuts, will put the university on the path to a balanced operating budget by 2014.

The board took 13 percent ($11 million)

of the university’s quasi-endowment in order to balance FY 2011’s budget. The quasi-endowment is often referred to as the university’s “reserve fund” because, unlike the rest of the endowment, which is comprised of restricted gifts, the quasi-endowment can be used for anything at any time.

The 18 academic cuts proposed in the Brandeis 2020 Committee’s report,

which was by university Provost Marty Krauss March 8, will be “phased in,” board member Meyer Koplow ’72 said.

According to university projections, the budget for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 will draw $6.3 million and $ 1.8 million from the quasi-endowment, respectively, Koplow said. By 2014, the university budget should not draw from the fund.

This balanced budget means the 2020

cuts should mark the end of over a year of academic, budgetary and programing cuts that have plagued Brandeis since the beginning of the nationwide recession in fall 2008.

“We are not anticipating that there will be further cuts to the academy,” Koplow said. While the approved 2020 proposals do plan for “staff consolidation” of 12 to See TRUSTEES, p. 6

SEA reacts to CRC vote

BY NATHAN KOSKELLA Editor

The Brandeis group Students for Environmental Action (SEA) reacted this week to the March 18 vote of the student body against securing the club, one of Brandeis’ largest undergraduate organizations.

“I was surprised that we weren’t deemed to be providing services that are integral to student life,” SEA President Hannah Saltman ’12 said. “You can’t have social justice in a society ravaged by the effects of climate change.”

According to the Student Union Constitution, which governs the management of clubs, a secured organization is guaranteed a designated amount of funds per year as opposed to asking the Union Finance Board for money each semester. The purpose of this is to provide a necessary service to the university.

On the ballot last week, a student or a group of students submitted arguments against SEA’s being secured, arguing that the group did not meet the standards of mandatory Finance Board funding.

“Secured organizations are hereby defined as those organizations that the student body recognizes as fundamental to the mission of the university,” the argument began.

“SEA is a fantastic club which has contributed much to Brandeis, and they should be commended for their work. However, there is no compelling reason to secure SEA. SEA’s aims are neither fundamental to the operations of a university nor particularly relevant to Brandeis,” it continued. “SEA is one among many activist groups at Brandeis, and while all of these groups work towards social justice, a pillar of Brandeis’ mission, none of them deserve special consideration” over another.

The argument evidently convinced enough voting students to reject the organization widely expected to win security.

Saltman disagreed, saying that the environment was not a strictly activist or partisan cause.

“In advocating sustainability, it relates to See SEA p. 6

THIS WEEK:

Go ‘wild’ with Adagio PHOTO BY Andrew Rauner/The Hoot

DANCE OFF: Members of Brandeis’ student dance group Adagio preform at their spring show last weekend. For more photos see page 11.

Acheampong, Kriegsman, Massachi and Souffrant to run for Union President

BY DESTINY D. AQUNO Editor

Four of Brandeis’ most well-known students have signed up to run for Student Union President in the upcoming April 22 election. Daniel Achempong ’11, Matthew Kriegsman ’11, Sahar Massachi ’11 and JV Souffrant ’13 will face off April 13.

Student Union Treasurer Achempong was previously an assistant treasurer and has served on the Student Union for four semesters. He was not available by press time for comment.

Kriegsman has served for three semes-

ters as an Associate Justice on the Student Judiciary. As president, he hopes to be more available to the student body and even hold office hours in the atrium instead of the Union office.

“I can come to the position with experience from a club perspective, as an advisor perspective, as a Roosevelt fellow; and people will be able to know me as more then just their president,” he said. “I think it would be a great learning experience and I think I could make a positive change because there’s things I love about [the Union] and things I don’t.”

Innermost Parts creator Massachi has not

served on the Union but said he had thought about running before and hopes to improve Brandeis, “I want to make Brandeis a better place and push for things to make that happen,” he said.

Student Union Treasurer Acheampong was previously an assistant treasurer and has served on the Student Union for four semesters. He did not respond to requests to comment.

Racial Minority Senator Souffrant has served for two semesters and wants to be president in order to create new programs that will help students and address their needs.

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March 26, 2010

MLK Scholars discuss faith and Brandeis

BY LEAH FINKELMAN Staff

The MLK and Friends club concluded a weeklong celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a Buddhist meditation that was attended by more than 40 Brandeis students.

At the meditation, students clapped and sang along to Brandeis’ gospel choir, ate traditional Jewish stew, sang a Hindu folk song and watched a video depicting average American Muslims. The students embraced religious pluralism through presentations from representatives of various religions on campus.

The event featured representatives from the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim student communities on campus, and each group was given ten minutes to showcase their beliefs and faith. During the introduction, a video showed interviews with students who described what faith meant to them, with answers ranging from being a good person and respectful of others to believing in something 100 percent even with no explanation.

Matthew Zunitch ’13 and Miriam Von Guggenberg ’10 represented Sangha, one of the Buddhist groups on campus. They lead the group in a compassion meditation, which Zunitch explained was designed to “cultivate feelings of understanding,” and to create a desire to do kindness to others.

A reading from the Book of John depicting God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice represented Christianity, followed by Voices of Praise, Brandeis’ gospel choir. The group sang “In the Sanctuary,” a song by Kurt Carr that praises God’s love and glory.

Two representatives of the Brandeis Jewish community gave a brief historical background of Judaism, including the differences between various movements of Judaism.

They also brought cholent, a Jewish stew traditionally served on the Sabbath.

Wajida Syed ’12 and Neda Eid ’11 taught

the group about the basic principles of Islam, and mentioned that according to traditional law, everyone is initially equal in the sight of Allah, or God, but that piety and worship can create distinctions. They also showed a video in which Muslims answered the question, “What does Islam mean to you?” Their answers, which varied greatly, emphasized that the American and world stigma towards Islam is misdirected.

Hindu students read a Hindu prayer for coexistence. They also sang a song, “Shuddha Brahma,” which told the story of Rama, a Hindu deity.

After the presentations, students were invited to engage in discussions about their own religious experiences, before and after coming to Brandeis.

The event, along with others that recognized several major activist actions on campus, was organized by MLK and Friends to celebrate the national MLK week.

MLK and Friends is a club that was started in 2007 by recipients of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship. The club does community-building events focused on the ideals of Martin Luther King, Jr., including social justice, community service, education and equality, and is similar to longterm community service, said member Alie Tawah ’11.

“It’s something we do to show our appreciation for King and his ideology, everything we do encompasses a part of that,” Desiree Murphy ’10 said.

The t-shirts that members of MLK and Friends wore to promote the club were modeled after Got Milk ads, with “Got MLK?” on the front. On the back, the shirts read “Studies show that when MLK scholars do projects that allow diverse interest groups to work together, students feel a better sense of campus unity. So join the listserve, get involved, and think MLK. Now that’s a dream come true, student body by MLK.”

PHOTO BY Nafiz “Fizz” R. Ahmed/The Hoot

INTERFAITH: Members of the Brandeis Gospel Choir Voices of Soul perform Wednesday at the final event for the MLK and Friends club’s weeklong celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Judiciary to mediate film festival squabble

BY JON OTROWSKY Staff

The Student Judiciary (SJ) notified will be using an informal mediation process rather than a trial to resolve the slander complaint filed last week by Avi Swerdlow ’10 on behalf of the SunDeis film festival against Illona Yuheav ’11 and the IndieLouies film festival committee.

The SunDeis film festival committee submitted the complaint to the then Union Judiciary (UJ) because of a statement posted on the IndieLouies Web site, claiming that SunDeis was “taken over by the Film Department for fundraising purposes.”

The Web site’s statement also read, “IndieLouies is the new student film festival at Brandeis; it is run by students, for students.”

Yueheav, along with Oren Nimni ’11, and Tom Charging Hawk ’10 organized the IndieLouies film festival, which will take place April 9 and 10.

In an interview with The Hoot last week, Yueheav said that SunDeis did not have the student involvement in planning this year that it did in previous years.

“We are following this process [of mediation] for a rather straightforward reason: it is the required one spelled out in the Constitution,” Chief Justice Judah Marans,

wrote in an e-mail to The Hoot, referencing an amendment to the Union Constitution, said.

Marans’ statement also explained that if the mediation process, one that he claimed is informal and not as accusatory as a trial, is unsuccessful, a trial will take place.

“We made sure that both parties were aware of these new options,” Marans wrote.

Both parties still have the right to bring the complaint to trial if they wish to do so, rather than engage in mediation, according to Marans.

On Sunday, Nathan Robinson ’11, Yuheav’s counsel, wrote in an e-mailed statement to Marans that the IndieLouies committee requested that Yuheav’s name no longer be associated with the complaint, since she did not write the post on the Web site and has no more power in the committee than any other member.

According to Robinson, Yuheav requested that the entire committee become the defendant in the case.

“If this change is permissible, and the person responsible for the Web site’s statement can defend himself rather than someone not involved, we would be happy to engage in mediation with Mr. Swerdlow,” Robinson wrote.

Although official mediation with the SJ did not take place this week, Yuheav

wrote in an email to The Hoot that she met on Wednesday with Director of Student Rights and Community Standards Dean Gendron, Gdaly Berlin, another member of the SunDeis committee, and Swerdlow, commenting that it appears “the accusation of libel has been dropped because BTV did not want to discuss whether the statement was truthful or not.”

Swerdlow said in a phone interview with The Hoot that “the meeting was very productive in terms of starting dialogue,” but because of the nature of the Gendron’s department, the effects it could have were limiting.

Swerdlow said that The Office of Student Rights and Community Standards is best suited to resolving disputes between individuals and the conflict between groups in this case makes it difficult for the Office to resolve the issue. Marans came to a similar conclusion after meeting with Gendron on Thursday afternoon, according to a statement sent last night. “It seems that everyone agrees that the Judiciary, and not the Office of Student Rights and Community Standards, is the proper venue in which to proceed,” Marans wrote.

Swerdlow, the director of BTV and member of the SunDeis committee joined by several students, originally filed a charge of slander, which constitutes false spoken

information. Libel is falsely written information, which would constitute an Internet violation.

“They didn’t argue that it is untruthful.

Instead the accusation is that IndieLouies negatively advertised the SunDeis festival,” Yuheav wrote. “The tone of what was written was the main complaint.”

Yueheav wrote Thursday, “some members of the [IndieLouies committee] feel that a conversation will just lead to mediation with the UJ anyway, so we should just go there directly.” But Yueheav added that the committee is willing to talk with Swerdlow both privately and with the guidance of SJ mediation.

Marans described the role of the SJ as aiming “to address issues of the student body in order to help achieve a just result, no matter the preferability of their timing.”

With the upcoming vacation, Swerdlow said he believes that talks will be stalled for a couple of weeks and resume when everyone returns to campus. Discussing anything over email, he said, can have unintentionally negative results.

“I think especially when we’re talking about starting a dialogue, the most effective way to do it is in person....I think comments can be misinterpreted very easily by email.” Marans also stated that mediation will not begin until after spring recess.

March 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

NEWS

5

Environmentalists strive Undergrad applications to change climate, minds increase by almost 1,000

BY BECCA CARDEN Staff

An environmentalist panel, “Changing People in a Changing Climate?” convened Tuesday to discuss the negative effects that climate change has on people around the world. The dialogue, which was subtitled “Ethical Implications of Climate Disruption,” focused on the environment, globalization and accompanying conflict.

Saleem Ali, an associate professor at the University of Vermont, discussed his new book, “Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed, and a Sustainable Future.” Ali wrote that clashes over environmental problems, specifically the scarcity of natural resources, could actually be used to achieve peace.

Ali said climate change and conflict are, at their core, ethical issues. He emphasized the words of Mohandas Gandhi, who said, “the Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” Ali used this quote in titling his book because he argued it sums up the cause of modern competition over natural resources. He explained people must find a way to address both environmental problems and human rights abuses together.

“Constructive consumption cannot occur if

you are not focused on issues of livelihood and try to address inequality,” he said. “We have to meet the needs of the population, but in an ethical way,” he added.

He explained that intrapersonal relationships and the connection between people and the earth can be an inspiration for peace. “For me, climate change is really about … appreciating our fundamental relationship with Earth.”

Ali used the blockbuster “Avatar to illustrate this connection, saying he interprets the movie as “going back to the traditional age. It also has to do with this forest which is being mined, which goes back to fossil fuels.”

The panel included four Brandeis professors with a diversity of expertise: Executive Director of Development and External Affairs at the International Business School Prof. Michael Appell (IBS), Prof. Bernadette Brooten (NEJS), Prof. M. Cristina Espinosa from the Sustainable International Development Program at the Heller School and Prof. Tory Fair (FA). Prof.

Kate Moran (PHIL) moderated the discussion.

“The root of this problem is a crisis in values,” Brooten said, referring to both environmental and humanitarian issues.

Ali agreed. “The empathy part is missing,” he said. “People don’t get it.”

See CLIMATE, p. 6

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor

Brandeis received the largest number of applications in university history this year despite campus-wide fears that the university’s widely publicized financial crisis would have a detrimental effect on applications. The 7,738 applications, up from last year’s 6,815 applications, have also allowed the admissions office to maintain a selective acceptance rate at 33 percent even as the office keeps with its plan announced last year to increase the student population by 400 students by 2014.

“Despite the tough economy and tough headlines Brandeis endured in the last year, potential students and their families recognize the value of the education they can receive here,” University President Jehuda Reinharz wrote in a campus-wide e-mail.

Last year, the university’s acceptance rate was 40 percent with the mean SAT score of 1392. This year, the acceptance rate dropped by 7 percent and the mean SAT score rose to 1400.

Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy said the lowest the university’s acceptance rate has ever been was 32 percent for the class of 2012.

“We want to get back to that,” Eddy said.

International applications increased from 1,211 to 1,599, and applications from students of color increased from 1,706 to 2,111.

Though international applications increased, the admissions rate for international students did not. Last year the number of international students accepted rose by 20 students, in part because admissions for international students is not needblind. While the same number of international students were accepted this year as last year, the number is still considerably higher than in the past.

“Our hope is to maintain the number of international students that we had last year,” Eddy said. “It’s already high enough.

We have no plans to increase that number.”

Eddy told The Hoot in the e-mail that number will probably manifest into 10 to 20 more international students in the class of 2013 who “will bring additional insight about their cultures and customs” to the university.

Applications to the Heller School IBS also increased. Heller saw a 10 percent increase, while IBS reported a 14 percent increase in applicants.

Admissions by the numbers: Class of 2013

Class of 2014

• 6,815 applications

• 7,738 applications

• 40 percent acceptance rate

• 33 percent acceptance rate

• Mean SAT score of 1392

• Mean SAT score of 1400

• 1,211 applications from international students

• 1,599 applications from international students

• 1,706 applications from students of color

• 2,111applications from students of color

IBS ranked among top 15 grad schools by Princeton Review

BY DESTINY D. AQUINO Editor

The International Business School (IBS) was named one of the top 15 graduate business schools for both finance and global management in Princeton Review’s Student Opinion Honors list. This is the second year that IBS has made the list, which appears in the April issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.

The list names 80 schools in six categories. IBS’ ranking puts with schools like Georgetown University, Harvard Business School in the global management category.

For finance, Brandeis was ranked among Columbia Business School, New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and Yale School of Management. The top 15 schools in each category were not

ranked by number but were placed alphabetically.

“It is remarkable that our School has gained such a reputation among thousands of business students on such a consistent basis,” Dean of IBS Bruce Magid said. “To recognize IBS for the second year in a row in the areas of finance and global management speaks to our academic program being both rigorous and relevant to these challenging economic times.”

The Princeton Review compiled the list by polling 19,000 graduate business students in what it considered to be the best 301 business schools. The students rated their school on a five point scale on how well their master’s in business administration programs prepared them to suceed in six areas: Accounting, Finance, General Management, Global Management, Marketing and Operations.

6 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

Board uses $11 million from ‘quasi-endowment’ to close Fiscal Year 2011 budget TRUSTEES (from p. 3)

do plan for “staff consolidation” of 12 to 14 university employees, this should be the last cut of any kind for the foreseeable future.

The budget for FY 2011 will be balanced, in part, to a 3.9 percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees. With the increase, tuition will cost $38,994, housing (on average) will cost $6,306 and meal plans will cost (on average) $4,906.

Contributing to the balanced budget are re-financed energy contracts by the board which reopened and extended the contracts at a lower price.

Koplow did not know whether the recent installation of solar panels on the roof of the Gosman Sports Center had an effect on the budget. The solar panels,

which cost the university no money to install as they were bought via a power purchase agreement, were turned on Feb. 24 and are projected to save the university $1 million over the course of their lifetime.

President Jehuda Reinharz wrote in an e-mail to the Brandeis community that the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, the International Business School and the Rabb School of Continuing Studies also generated more income for the university by increasing enrollment for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Reinharz also wrote in his e-mail that he and other members of the senior administration will be holding two open houses, one for undergraduates and one for graduate students, after spring break.

SEA not secured, club’s leaders disappointed

SEA (from p. 3)

everyone,” she said. “We show everyone how to work toward sustainability, no matter what their interest or ideology.”

SEA Vice President Matt Gabrenya ’13 said the recent and coming events in SEA will keep the organization strong. “From Bike Bloom,” an event Thursday encouraging bike travel as green living, “and our recent sleep out, we have been very successful—we had a lot of people come out.”

Saltman said that her club will not let the vote, which passed by a simple majority but not the required two-thirds, be deterred.

As the argument against them said, they have been able to accomplish everything, she said.

“I think that because we’re one of the biggest clubs on campus it speaks to students’ commitment to sustainability,” she said, illustrating the case for security. Contrary to the charges of ordinary and common activism, Saltman called environmental action “the defining value of our generation.”

Green activists call for change CLIMATE (from p. 5)

When asked how people can get motivated about climate change, Moran answered that “there’s a space between recognizing that something is the right thing to do, sometimes, and getting the motivation to do it. And it can be a very big space.”

Espinosa added that connections with the outside world are imperative to motivation. “When we see change, we then see it as something that is outside ourselves. Like, a sacrifice,” she said, “To achieve that kind of perfection, we must think of ourselves and others as a part of a collective.”

“Sometimes, I think [climate] just becomes another thing out there, another thing to feel guilty about,” said Fair.

He urged people not to “reduce everything to a carbon footprint.” Instead, he said, they should weight environmental, humanitarian, and other aspects of a situation and try to make the best choices they can from there. “So what if there’s a slight ecological footprint? Don’t think myopically

from one impact.”

Professor Tory Fair showed slides of her students’ environmentalist art projects. Their assignment was to incorporate a cactus into a sculpture.

The works were set up in the Shapiro Campus Center for a week in the beginning of the semester.

In addition, “It’s Real, It’s Unreal, and It’s Uncertain,” a film by Charles Radin with videography

by David J. Weinstein, was also shown. It featured interviews with a diverse collection of Brandeis students and faculty who were either informed or uninformed about and generally uninvolved with climate change.

“Brandeis University is a tremendous intersection between the local and the global,” said Appell of the film. He spoke highly of the Sleep-Out hosted by Students for Environmental Action last week. “I thought his was a wonderful gesture. It is the kind of thing Brandeis students do,” he said.

“I think what we have here is an unknown,” said Fair, “and it’s scary. But this unknown is really an opportunity. I would just like to celebrate this unknown with you and the environment.”

Hoot poll of the week

Vote in next week’s poll only at thebrandeishoot.com

March 26, 2010

The tab: $11 million from “quasi endowment” + $38, 994 per student for tuition (up from $37,530) + $11,212 on average per student for room and board (up from $10,792) + $3.2 million from Brandeis 2020 cuts + Refinanced energy contracts = $356 million operating budget for FY 2011

Activists speak on importance of educating Sudanese girls

BY JON OSTROWSKY Staff

Human rights activist Gloria White-Hammond spoke about using education to ensure equal opportunity rights for women in Sudan and other countries.

Co-founder of My Sister’s Keeper, a women’s organization in Sudan, White-Hammond was accompanies by her Chief Operating Officer Lee Farrow and Program Director Sarah Rial at Monday’s speech in the Heller School.

All three women agreed that young girls do not have the ability to improve their lives without access to education.

As part of My Sister’s Keeper to educate girls, the group helped build The Kunyuk School for Girls in Akon. Located in southern Sudan, the school has 525 students enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade.

White-Hammond explained that the need for female education in Sudan was especially dire, as only one in five primary school students in Sudan is female. Ninety percent of the population in Sudan as a whole is illiterate.

Farrow said educating the women in Sudan could help provide them with a historical and current background of the country they live in.

“We want the women to invest in the things that they feel most concerned about,” Farrow said.

The first step in the organization’s theory is to educate the girls about their ability to promote change and to teach them about how the civic process works, Farrow said.

At first the school did not have physical buildings, but White-Hammond said, “When you [the girls] have been deprived for decades, you want a physical structure.”

The school recently opened eight classrooms along with offices and dining space in June 2009.

Although genocide has devastated the country’s Darfur region, and 300,000 have been killed and 2.5 million displaced, the organization works with the entire country of Sudan, as well as other nations.

“Our commitment is to think about Sudan in a holistic sense,” White-Hammond said.

Rial, who herself is a refugee from Sudan who has been living in the United States for ten years said her country is “tired of war, but they are stuck and they hope that we, as women can help.”

What separates My Sister’s Keeper from other groups providing humanitarian aid and relief, according to White-Hammond is that her group is “one of the few groups that has a development project on the ground and also does advocacy [work].”

Franco Majok, founder of the Wunlang School for boys and girls in southern Sudan, was also present at the talk and said basic education can help start children on the path to a better life.

“People with education, it’s easy for them to get out and escape. And that is what I’m hoping now,” Majok said in an interview with The Hoot.

The problem he faces is the difficulty in finding well-educated teachers for his school.

Most of the teachers are older students in grades five through seven.

In the Kunyuk School, White-Hammond faces similar problems, admitting that there are few educational options for children once they complete eighth grade.

When asked by a student how long her group will continue to help women and work for peace, White-Hammond said, “How long will we stay with it? As long as it takes.”

FEATURES

March 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot 7

On the cutting edge of film

BTV’s latest projects prove to be most professional yet

BY CHRISSY CALLAHAN Editor

Arun Narayanan ’10 is one tired guy. He’s been up since 4 a.m. editing a short film for IndieLouie, a 48-hour film challenge, and now that he’s started, there’s no turning back. Sure, the clock in the Brandeis Television office and his body are telling him to go to bed, but his inner man on a mission is urging him to keep going.

Narayanan’s eyes, visibly bloodshot, are focused intently on the large Mac screen in front of him. His hands—one perched on the mouse, one stationed on the keyboard—move nimbly back and forth, expertly maneuvering his way around. His hands move so fast that if you weren’t paying the closest of attention, you’d miss what changes he just made to the short film, called “Still Alive.” There’s a rhythm here that only those who’ve used Final Cut Pro video editing software recognize, a hybrid of frustration and satisfaction that all creators understand.

He’s visibly tired, yet as Narayanan—director of production and programming and head of communications for BTV—finally takes a break to sit down on a couch, his eyes light up with energy and excitement.

Narayanan is here to talk about BTV’s latest projects—what he and other senior members of the BTV board could very well consider to be their legacy. Narayanan approached these projects with as much, if not more, dedication as he’s put into this IndieLouie contest. It’s a good thing, too, because it’s this determination that got him and other BTV members to drag themselves out of bed before 5 a.m. and stay outside in Boston’s

bitter December weather until midnight, filming “Pinch Me,” one of the two short films BTV is currently fine-tuning.

While most Brandeis students went home for winter break, around 10 BTV members stuck around for a week to film “Pinch Me.” Just like with major movies, BTV members hired extras and actors, paid for food on set and worked all hours of the day.

Unlike major film studios, BTV members were doing this for the sheer love of filmmaking and weren’t raking in a sizable paycheck to do so.

Many people know that BTV stands for Brandeis Television and most people know that they produce cool projects here and there that you hear about through the Brandeis grapevine. Yet with their latest projects, BTV is ready to show the Brandeis community that they’re more than just an amateur, student-run organization.

On April 8 at 9 p.m., BTV will premiere three short films— “Pinch Me,” “Art & Jealousy” and “Still Alive”—in Chum’s, followed by an after party. BTV’s work in these short films—and the equipment they used to film them—is increasingly professional, and so are the students behind these projects.

Since he wrote and edited “Pinch Me,” Narayanan is especially proud of this particular project and says it’s an example of BTV’s new direction. “It ended up being the first [really] professional project we’ve done because we worked on it nonstop every day,” he says.

Up until now, BTV had stuck with smaller-scale projects, but after progressively improving the quality of their equipment and their talent over the past few years, Narayanan and other

members of the BTV board decided they wanted to step up their game this year—for most of them, their last at Brandeis— and take on some more involved projects. Narayanan says the inspiration for these projects was twofold: “The senior members of the board definitely wanted to do something kind of serious, something that kind of a. was able to showcase the talent that we all knew we had [and] b. really use the equipment that we have now to the best of [its] ability.”

For his part, Narayanan was ready to take a break from his work with BTV’s show Slice and Deis to branch out into some shorter films. So during the fall semester, he wrote “Pinch Me,” a 25-minute short film that portrays one man’s confusion of dreams and reality. Directed

by Avi Swerdlow ’10 and Chris Lavery ’10, “Pinch Me” was filmed in December and Narayanan has been editing it ever since. The amount of time it has taken him to edit is in itself indicative of the increased level of professionalism characteristic of BTV’s latest work. After all, since BTV members were using different and oftentimes more complex equipment, there was a lot more unexpected fine-tuning to do when it came time to editing.

“Since we’re trying to do as much as possible on a professional level, it’s very time consuming,” Narayanan says.

These projects also served as a way to recruit new members and leave behind a legacy for the younger members of BTV. Narayanan says “Art and Jealousy,” written and produced by Leanne Ortbals ’12, served as a “way of transferring [the seniors’] knowledge to underclassmen

in the form of this professional project.”

“Art and Jealousy”—a short film chronicling the struggle of Jane, a student who falls in love with her art professor—is currently in post-production phase.

Working on the film turned out to be as much of a learning opportunity for Narayanan as it was for newer BTV members, such as Emily Salloway ’13.

Salloway, a first-year, came to Brandeis earlier this year with the clear goal of majoring in film and visual media studies.

In addition to the education she has received in the classroom, Salloway says BTV has offered a more hands-on approach to the art of filmmaking.

“I think that BTV really offers a well-rounded education of film,” she says. “This has really rounded out [my in-class education and experience].”

By working on this project with older members of the BTV board, Salloway was able to apply what she’s learned in the classroom to something more tangible. In doing so, she learned that films aren’t always as glamorous as they appear in their final form.

“I learned that there’s a lot more time that goes into making a movie than you think. It takes a lot of planning,” she says.

To film “Pinch Me,” BTV hired a few actors through Craigslist and also rounded up a group of dedicated students willing to stick around after the fall semester had ended. For “Art and Jealousy,” they had a mix of Brandeis and outside talent and hired several extras for the film.

The overriding focus for the two projects was quality rather than quantity, a distinction BTV members actively recognized while making these two films.

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

“There [are] two sides of filmmaking, especially from the college point of view. On the one hand, you definitely want to have content made and as much stuff as possible that people can see,” Narayanan says. “On the other hand, there’s also the alternative, which is to really craft something as much as possible... and that seems to work better for a short film.”

In the past, Narayanan says, BTV was eager to get out enough content to generate and maintain viewer interest, and while they did care about the quality of their work, they didn’t spend as much time on past projects as they did with these most recent ones. BTV members such as Chris Lavery ’10 hope that with these two short films, BTV will become a more recognized organization around campus.

“BTV is an underused resource that surprisingly few people know about. I think there are a lot of people on campus who would be astonished at how much stuff BTV does and just the quality of work that we do here,” Lavery says. “I feel that we still haven’t fully found everyone on campus…Our weakest aspect is definitely publicity.”

And that’s exactly what BTV members are hoping to change with this premiere and with these new projects.

“I generally get positive feedback about [BTV’s work], but obviously it doesn’t look like real movies on other channels,” Narayanan says. “I think the stuff that we’ve been doing this semester [is] actually comparable to stuff you can see on other channels. And I think for that, people should definitely come to the screening, check it out and see what students on this campus can do.”

SPORTS

8 The Brandeis Hoot

March 26, 2010

PHOTOS BY Max Shay/The Hoot

OUT OF THE PARK: (LEFT) Brandeis’ catcher Erin Ross ‘10 (No. 13, pictured) hits safely into a fielder’s choice, during the first inning. After failing to make an out on the play, Lasell gave up an unearned run due to a wild pitch. (RIGHT) Emily Vaillette ‘10 (No. 8, pitcured), Brandeis’ starting pitcher, hurls one home during Brandeis’ 9-6 win against Lasell, on Friday.

Softball finishes strong week after earning first ever national ranking

BY JON OSTROWSKY Editor

The softball team earned a national ranking for the first time in Brandeis history last week. This week, they finished strong, winning the first game of a double header against Lasell College while finishing the second game in a 2-2 tie since ti was called after six innings due to darkness.

Commenting on the Judges 9-6 victory in the first game against Lasell, four-year Head Coach Jessica Johnson said in an interview with the Hoot that she was satisfied the squad was able to post nine runs, but admitted they struggled on defense.

“We had some mental mistakes on the bases, and defensively we’re doing okay–we’re not doing

extraordinary, unfortunately,” she said.

Johnson explained that the team regularly plays consecutive games against the same school, so it is very used to and not bothered by the double-header format.

Lasell firstbaseman Ashley Laramie put the Judges in a tough spot during the first inning of the second game, hitting a two-run homer off of starting pitcher Caroline Miller ’12.

“I think personally my performance was lacking. [I have] a lot of potential to do better,” Miller said.

She added that the team performed well on defense but struggled to get their offense going.

“Today we kind of played down to the other team’s level,” Brittany Grimm ’12 said, commenting on

the team’s performance in both games. I think being a ranked team now, we’re getting in our heads a little bit, and every team is really out to win against us.”

But Grimm added that she hopes the team’s performance today will serve as a “wake-up call” and motivate them to raise their level of play. Grimm drove in Specker with a double to right field in the third inning and later scored off of an error in centerfield, contributing the Judges only two runs in the game.

Lasell Head Coach Tom DeFilippo, said that compared to other schools his team faces Brandeis has a “solid, solid club” with “good pitching.”

Posting their best finish since 1999, the Judges came in second place at the UAA tournament,

held the week of March 9, and finished league play with a 5-3 record.

The softball team finished third in the UAA and earned a 14th place national ranking, according to a National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III poll last week.

Currently they are ranked 20th in the nation, according to the Brandeis Athletics Web site. The Judges also placed Emily Vaillette ’10, Melisa Cagar ’11, and Grimm on the all UAA tournament team, according to a press release from the Brandeis Athletics Web site.

For Cagar, who plays second base and hit .333 in UAA action, it was her third year in a row on the all UAA team. Cagar was joined by fellow infielder Grim, who plays third base and led the

team with a .400 batting average in UAA play to earn her first selection to the all league team.

“I’m just happy that I contributed to my team as much as I did,” Grimm said.

Vaillente posted a 3-2 record from the mound, and the league’s second best earned-run-average at 0.66, according to the Athletics Web site.

Before the start of the second game, Johnson said that the end of the season will be especially challenging. “[We’re] definitely hoping to peak at the right time.

Our schedules are going to get progressively harder and harder,” Johnson said.

The Judges play two games against Salem State College on Saturday. The first game begins at 1 p.m.

Women’s tennis defeats Bates

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

The Brandeis men’s and women’s tennis teams traveled to Lewiston, Maine last Saturday to take on the Bates College Bobcats, and after a pair of hard-fought matches, the women left with a 5-4 victory while the men fell to a 6-3 defeat.

The middle of the line-up proved most fruitful for the women’s singles team. Rachel Rosman ’11 paved the way in the No. 2 slot, dropping only one game in her two set sweep. The victory moved Rosman to a team-leading 8-4 record on the year, including a perfect 3-0 from the second spot.

Ariana Sanai ’10 and Mackenzie Gallegos ’10 held down the fort as numbers three

and four, neither dropping a set as Sanai won 7-5, 6-2 and Gallegos won 6-4, 6-0.

However, number one Faith Broderick ’13 and No. 5 Nina Levine ’12 each fell in difficult, three-set matches, and Sarah Richman ’12 was swept to leave the singles record at 3-3.

Brandeis’ doubles pairs were the deciding factor, going 2-1 at the start of the match to aid the Judges’ in victory.

The number one team of Rosman and Broderick earned an 8-6 victory, running their record as partners to 3-0. Sanai and Levine, the only number three pair Brandeis has used all season, claimed a 8-3 win. An 8-6 loss by Gallegos and Richman was the only flaw for the doubles on the day.

The men’s doubles started off looking just as successful as the women, as Simon Miller ’11 and classmate Nick White earned an 8-5 win from the number three seed, but things unraveled from that point. number two Steven Milo and Dave Yovanoff, both rookies, lost a bitterly-contested 9-8 set, and number three Steven Nieman ’11 and Michael Tatarsky ’12 suffered an 8-6 defeat.

Bates then swept the first four seeds of the singles matches to guarantee itself the victory. The closest a Judge could come was number two Miller’s third-set defeat by a heartbreaking 7-5, 6-7(4), 10-8 score.

White lost a 6-4, 6-1 contest from the top spot, and numbers three and four Yovanoff and Fred Rozenshteyn ‘13 could only combine for four games won over their

four sets of action. Redemption came from the number five and six slots, as Nieman bounced back from a close first set defeat to win 5-7, 6-1, 10-6 and Milo ran his Brandeis career record to 10-2 with a 6-2, 6-1 victory.

Both the men’s and the women’s team now sport 5-5 records with less than a month to go before UAA Championship season begins.

A scheduled home match against Rochester for March 28 was canceled, freeing up what will still be a very busy week for both squads. The men will travel to Wellesley, Mass. on March 27 and again on April 1, the first time to play Amherst College and the second time to play the hosting Babson College. Meanwhile, the women will host Babson March 31.

March 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

SPORTS

9

Baseball drops a pair, claims a win Thursday

BY KARA KARTER Staff

The Brandeis Baseball team returned home seeking a revival. After slogging through nine games in Texas and Florida to start the season–a span in which they went 2-7–the Judges climbed to a 10-9 walk off win in their home debut last Thursday against Bridgewater State (6-4). The Judges would continue the New England segment of their schedule four days later, gunning for a win on the road.

The week began on a high note for the Judges, as rookie left fielder Chris Ferro ’13 was named University Athletic Association hitter of the week. Against Bridgewater State, Ferro hit a perfect 4-for-4, collected five RBI, scored three runs, and stole a base.

The Walpole, Mass. native leads the team with 11 RBIs and two home runs while batting a healthy .355.

Against the Salem State Vikings (5-5) however, a triumphant follow-up was not in the cards. Rookie pitcher Andrew Weissenberg ’13 was unable to make it out of the first inning, allowing all four Vikings he faced to reach base.

After walking the first two men he faced, Weissenberg gave up an RBI single to Salem State’s Steve Mucci ’10 and a double to designated hitter Ryan Kane ’11. Kane’s

run-scoring smash knocked Brandeis’s rookie righty out of the game. Alex Tynan ’12 came on in relief. After allowing Salem State’s fourth run–this one by way of the sacrifice fly–the Judges’ pitching staff settled down.

Despite allowing baserunners in each of the next four innings, the relief corps proved successful escape artists. They wouldn’t give up another earned run for the remainder of the affair.

However, the Judges could only take solace in small victories, as Salem State pitched its way to a 5-1 win.

Salem State’s Matt Kerr ’12 was untouchable, striking out six and allowing only seven runners on route to a complete game four-hitter. The only spot on his scoreless resume occurred in the Judges’ seventh, courtesy of a one-out two-bagger by Artie Posch ’10. The double followed an error, and so the run was unearned.

If the Judges were hoping for a quick shot at redemption, it would have to wait another day. Tuesday’s scheduled home game against Wheaton College (4-4) was postponed due to rain. The game will now be played on Sunday, April 18.

Although the rain let up in time for Wednesday’s contest against Wentworth, the Judges may rather have had another washout. A tight game in its early stages,

the 7-4 Leopards clawed their way to an 11-5 win on Stein Diamond.

The teams traded zeros for the first two innings. In the third, Wentworth jumped ahead by four after receiving RBI singles from one third of its lineup. The lead wouldn’t last long. With the leadoff man leading off first, sophomore shortstop Sean O’Hare delivered a two-run bomb in the bottom of the frame. The homer was O’Hare’s first of the season. Brandeis picked up two more scores on a pair of one-out hits from Ferro and John O’Brion ’10.

Wentworth scored run number five in the fourth. Again, the Judges answered quickly, evening the score on another hit from O’Brion. With Drake Livada ’10 standing on second base in the home sixth, the Portland, Maine native drove a single to left-field. The Judges would not score again; Wentworth would go on to plate six more runners.

Unable to carry any momentum from its tying score out of the sixth inning, Brandeis allowed the first four Leopards to reach base in the very next frame. Rather than dig deep for the big bomb, the Leopards were content to play small ball. It was a formula that served them well. In the bottom of the sixth, Wentworth scored four runs on three hits, a pair of hit-by-pitches, two bases on balls, and a sacrifice bunt. All

three hits were singles. Wentworth–on a single from leadoff man Matt Jordan ’11– would tack on two more in the eighth.

Despite the loss, the Judges’ offense performed well. Five players – O’Brion, Ferro, O’Hare, Tony Deshler ’11, and Jon Chu ’12 – each collected at least two hits. Five Leopards achieved the same feat.

On Thursday, the Judges made their way to Rhode Island for a date with Salve Regina’s Seahawks (7-6). They would leave the Ocean State with a 9-4 victory in their name. The Seahawks tallied two in both the second and the fourth, and Brandeis fell behind by an early 4-1 margin. Still, the Judges never relented. Brandeis pitching allowed only four base runners after Salve’s second score.

In the eighth inning, the Judges would take control. Livada opened the inning with a triple. He would trot home on a Deshler double, tying the score at 4-all. Deshler came around on a throwing error. It was a lead the Judges would not relinquish; before the affair was over, they would score four more The Judges are back in action with two doubleheaders this weekend. Saturday, they’ll play a pair in Springfield (6-5); on Sunday, they return to Stein Diamond to take on Framingham State (5-7). On both occasions, the early game begins at noon.

Will Bedor ’10 heads to Nationals, four women earn All-Northeast Honors

BY HANNAH VICKERS Editor

This weekend epeeist Will Bedor ’10 will be breaking new ground. For the first time in his career, he has qualified for the NCAA Championships, which will take place at Harvard University Thursday though Sunday.

“I’ve always been very close every year, I’ve always missed it by one or two spots,” Bedor told The Hoot. “This is the first time I’ve finally made it over the hill so I’d say that yeah, this makes it more special [to get there as a senior].”

Head Coach Bill Shipman sees Bedor’s success as a great capstone to his career at Brandeis.

“He had been a starter all four years, beating many of the best fencers in the [United States]” Coach Shipman said in an e-mail.

“If he can keep his confidence and composure he has a chance to do well there.”

While Coach Shipman described the men’s fencing season overall as “a disappointing one in the win-loss column,” epee was always the group he could turn to for success. “[They] were a very experienced group, and did well, but could not carry the team,” he explained.

Of the ten epeeists on the men’s team, half were seniors. Bedor will graduate in the spring along with Alex Clos, Alex Kasper, Jared Shackelford and Andrew Travis.

Alex Brand and Jeff Cornejo, both sabre, will also be graduating in May. While their absence will certainly be felt, Coach Shipman hopes it will give the younger fencers a chance to “step up and excel.”

Despite an extremely successful season for the women’s squad, none of the fencers qualified for a spot at Nationals.

“The women had an excellent

season overall, finishing 20-9 and winning our conference title, 12v0d,” Coach Shipman explained in an e-mail to The Hoot. “We won several very close meets, including our first ever win over UPenn, a national power in fencing, MIT, UNC, NYU and Brown.”

Coach Shipman always had faith in the women but was still a bit surprised by their performance given the team lost several senior starters last season. According to Coach Shipman, returning fencers stepped up to the plate while the rookies filled the void. The powerhouse squad earned national attention when four of their ranks were named Northeast Fencing Conference Champions.

Anna Hanley ’11 and classmate Emma Larkin were named first team All-Conference and rookies Vikki Nunley and Zoe Messinger were named second team.

Hanley, a saberist, was named Fencer of the Year last year after going undefeated in NFC matches and this year held a commanding 22-3 record in the NFC with an overall record of 54-17. This is Larkin’s first mention from the NFC whose bronze medal epee performance at the Big One Tournament put her on the radar. Larkin also played a crucial role in the Judges conference victory by posting an 11-1 performance on the day.

Nunley, a foil fencer, finished out the season with a 60-25 record overall and a 28-6 record in the NFC. She went 3-0 against UPenn to help Brandeis defeat the Ivy for the first time.

Messinger, a saber fencer, started out her first year at Brandeis in a major way by going undefeated in the first Northeast Conference meet at Brown University.

“I had to prove myself then and there,” Messinger told The Hoot.

“There was pressure to do well.”

Messinger kept up her perfor-

mance and brought home a victory against UNC at the Duke Invitational when she went 3-0 to clinch the 15-12 win.

“This year I picked up the team mentality to go into everything with an open mind and learned that there is nothing to be nervous about,” Messinger explained. “We just go out there and have fun.”

The fun continued for the rookie when she had a 9-2 record at the Eric Sollee Invitational, a home meet, including going 5-0 in her final three matches. She was 42-49 overall on the season and 19-5 in the NFC. “I am really happy with Second Team,” Messinger said. “It’s such an honor and I never expected it.”

“I am so happy I ended up at Brandeis,” she added. “I am really looking forward to next year.”

Sydney Reuben ’10 will be the only senior graduating this spring for the women’s squad. Reuben came back after a year abroad to have some really key performances.

“She had many important wins against our rivals in the conference, and particularly UPenn,” Coach Shipman said.

Bedor went into NCAA Regionals March 14 as the 13th seed but soon climbed well above that ranking, finishing things out in the sixth place spot. He went 15-8 overall and notched a win against the first place finisher James Hawrot of Harvard. Knowing he was able to take down Hawrot has certainly boosted his confidence going into this weekend.

“I’ve fenced a lot of these guys at various world cups and nationals so I’ve already experienced the way they fence,” he explained to The Hoot. “I know their talents and their technique, so I am definitely going into the competition with a bit of a competitive edge.”

Although Bedor has been fencing for nine years, this season he made a bit of a change. After some urging from his coaches, he altered his style, which he believes has helped him reach this point.

“These past four years [at Brandeis] have made me a good fencer and have definitely developed me as a person,” Bedor told The Hoot.

While this might be the last meet of his college career, Bedor hopes to continue competing “here and there” after graduation.

The NCAA Nationals are a round robin set up so Bedore will face every competitor. To prepare himself he is keeping up his practice schedule.

“Honestly I don’t know [my chances]. I’ve never been in such an intense level of competition before. These are the top 20 fencers in the country so we’re all at a certain level,” Bedor said.”

Despite his modesty, it is clear from his performance this year that Bedor has made it this far for a reason.

“He certainly belongs,” Coach Shipman said.

The Hoot wishes the best of luck to the graduating seniors and to Bedor this weekend.

10 The Brandeis Hoot

BY KAYLA DOS SANTOS

ARTS, etc.

March 26, 2010

‘Eden’ not quite paradise

Editor

Hillel Theater Group’s (HTG) production of “Children of Eden” had moments of humor, large amounts of wit and a few amazing solo performances, but it was burdened by awkward staging, musical missteps and confusing acting choices.

The musical attempts to retell two stories from Genesis: the first act centers on the tale of Adam and Eve while the second deals with Noah’s ark. The musical is based on a book by John Caird , which twists the parables by humanizing them through an emphasis on family drama. In HTG’s production, this leads to mixed results.

During the first act, God (Ethan Goldberg ’12) fashions mankind and attempts to have a close relationship with his creations, in order to form a family. He tells his children that he loves them, orders them to go to bed early and warns them to stay away from a tree with strange fruit.

The re-imagining of this Genesis tale works in that it adds dimension to Adam’s and, in particular, Eve’s characters. Eve, played by Zoe Novic ’13 with an earnest charm, is fueled by a curiosity to know the answers that her “father” cannot provide her. Her rebellion in eating the fruit of knowledge is not only significant as a betrayal of her God, but as a betrayal of her father. When Eve is expelled from Eden, she is not only forced to leave Paradise but also her home. Caird makes Eve’s fall analogous with a child’s loss of innocence and transition into adulthood, which is an interesting concept and fascinating to watch.

Similarly, Caird’s transformation of Adam (Nick Maletta ’13) into a three-dimensional character is also effective. Adam is a dutiful son who must choose between his God, who is also his father, and his lover. His indecision results in one of the most moving musical performances of the night, the duet “A World Without You,” sung by the Father and Adam. Maletta did a beautiful job of communicating the pain Adam feels in making an impossible choice.

However, while Eve and Adam benefit from becoming three-dimensional characters, the character of God does not. In fact, God comes across as kind of a jerk. This would have been fine if it was intentional, but his behavior was jarring in the context of the play and its themes. Nevertheless, this has more to do with the script than the director’s choices.

The Father describes his reasoning for making Adam and Eve as “They will keep me company, they will keep me young,” hugging himself and consequently reducing the creation story into a man’s attempt to prevent loneliness. His attitude towards Adam and Eve is awful.He is condescending, aloof, at times wrathful and is frustrating in his ambiguous answers.

God is no longer God, but a being with powers who treats humans as playthings.

Thus, it’s a relief when Eve and later Noah rebel when Adam and Abel blindly obey him. In the musical’s attempt to provide viewers with a personal version of the Genesis tales, it may have missed an opportunity to explore bigger questions.

While the second act, which tells the story of Noah’s ark, presents a compelling

BECOMING HUMAN: In HTG’s production of “Children of Eden,” tales from Genesis are twisted to emphasize the conflict among generations.

viewing experience, a few song missteps proved to be distracting. Noah’s son Japeth (Neal Rabinowitz ’13) falls in love with a descendent of Cain, Yonah (Marti Dembowitz ’10), creating a clash between father and son and echoing the first act’s theme of children rebelling against an indifferent father. The love ballad “In Whatever Time We Have” between Japeth and Yonah was cringe-worthy because Rabinowitz, for some reason, sang in an irritating falsetto.

This was disappointing because Rabinow-

PHOTO FROM Internet Source

itz’s earlier song “Lost in the Wilderness” was a joy to hear.

Yet, the second act also featured Mama Noah’s “Ain’t it Good?,” which was amazing in a bluesy, wonderfully over-the-top way.

In this song Julie Stein ’11 stole the show with her powerful vocals and charismatic performance. Unfortunately, her performance was nearly overshadowed by the question of why she was performing See EDEN, p. 13

Farewell act: senior Leonard Bernstein Scholars bid goodbye to Brandeis

BY ADAM HUGHES Staff

I walked into Slosberg Music Center last Sunday, and the distant sound of chamber music hit my ears. The doors to the auditorium were shut, and the hall was empty except for the greeters.

Uh-oh.

Timidly, I asked, “Is there a concert at four o’clock?”

“No, it started at three.” Apparently, the two groups set to perform early shows had less material than they planned, and their concerts had been combined and moved forward an hour.

Damn! What was I going to review this week?

“There’s an intermission coming up in about five minutes, though. You can stay and watch the final piece.”

Let me take a moment now to gently chide the Department of Music. In the future, if you’re going to make a last-minute schedule change, please try to update your semester concert calendar, particularly the online version around which I plan my attendance. Also, it would be nice if you could update the myBrandeis campus calendar as well. At the very least, could you try to keep the same time if at all possible?

Then again, maybe I missed something obvious. After all, I appeared to be the only late arrival, and the concert hall appeared to be moderately full. Whatever the case, I was disappointed to miss most of the show but still eager to see whatever I could.

As I took a seat to wait for the intermission, I started feeling fortunate that I would catch any of the concert at all. This was a particularly important show for some of the most talented musicians on the Brandeis campus: the Leonard Bernstein Scholars. The Scholarship, which fell victim to last year’s budget cuts, was awarded to “students proficient in violin, viola, cello and piano and with an interest in pursuing the study of chamber music.”

It provided a great way for Brandeis to entice some of the best music students in the country, and I hope that our improving financial fortunes allow us to

and pianist Karen Lowe ’10. I read their dedications as I flipped through my lucky program; each thanked the other two for their extensive musical relationships in intimate, touching ways. Their final piece together, Beethoven’s “Ghost” Trio in D major Op. 70, No. 1, was the same piece they had performed at their first Brandeis concert in 2006.

I had already missed quite a bit of Beethoven. The concert opened with the composer’s Trio in E flat major Op. 1, No. 1, one of his earliest works and fairly typical of the Classical style. Then, the 2010 LBS Trio gave way to the Scholars from the class of 2011 (violinist Ethan Valinetz, violist Emily Gelb and cellist Conner Massey), who performed the String Trio in C minor, Op. 9.

Finally, Chakoff, Kim and Lowe returned to the stage, and I got to hear their farewell to the Brandeis campus. To be honest, I was slightly underwhelmed. Maybe I’ve grown to expect too much from Beethoven, but the “Ghost” Trio (which I was previously unfamiliar with) seemed to lack the magic that distinguishes much of his best work. It was certainly a pleasant piece, but the characteristic bold climaxes just didn’t strike me with the same emotional depth that so many of his chamber pieces reach.

However, this shouldn’t reflect on the GRAPHIC BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot musicians themselves, because they per“You’re not completely out of luck,” the restart it soon. formed with a sparkling interplay that only usher said helpfully. “You get the very last This was the last show for the Scholars a seasoned ensemble can pull off. Kim and program we have.” in the class of 2010, and it marked the end Chakoff proved the strength of their con Well, you know what they say about of four years of intense study for violinist See BERNSTEIN, p. 13 clouds and silver linings.

Joshua Chakoff, cellist Yoon-Jin Kim ’10

March 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS, ETC.

11

Greengrass’ film is in the ‘Zone’

BY SEAN FABERY Editor

No film dealing with the war in Iraq has done well at the box office. Hollywood has certainly tried, but film after film—think of “Brothers,” “The Messenger,” even “The Hurt Locker”—has failed to attract an audience. Americans collectively don’t appear to be interested in seeing the evening news play itself out at the multiplex.

Director Paul Greengrass’ “Green Zone” is this trend’s most recent casualty, grossing only $26 million thus far on a $100 million budget, which is unfortunate because, while not quite as spectacular as “The Hurt Locker,” the film is certainly worth seeing.

“Green Zone” chronicles the attempt by warrant officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) to find out the truth behind the United States’ invasion of Iraq. Initially assigned to search sites that reportedly contain weapons of mass destruction, Miller becomes suspicious of U.S. intelligence when site after site turns up empty. His search puts him squarely between CIA bureau chief Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson), who believes intelligence may have been fabricated, and Pentagon official Clark Brownstone (Greg Kinnear), the man who may have been responsible for the fabrication. With some assistance from Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan), a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who wrote multiple articles endorsing government intelligence before the outbreak of the war, Miller comes closer to uncovering the truth.

“Green Zone” is an unabashedly political film in which the Republican officials depicted willfully withhold information from the public for nefarious reasons. It’s no accident that the final shot of the film consists of Miller driving by an Iraqi oil field, suggesting a possible ulterior motive for the in-

GOING ‘GREEN’: Matt Damon uncovers the real reason behind the U.S. invasion of Iraq in Paul Greengrass’ “Green Zone.”

vasion. By incorporating Dayne’s character, the film also comments on the role journalists played in the lead-up to the Iraq War. Dayne blindly trusts intelligence provided to her by government officials and fails to fact check anything for her articles.

Some have contended that the film is anti-American, yet this hardly appears to be the case: only bureaucracy is shown as being corrupted, while the American people themselves—represented in this film by Miller—hunger for the truth.

Some of the film’s political statements are a bit overcooked and could benefit from more subtlety. One of the most potent examples of this is the presence of Freddy (Khalid Abdalla), a veteran of the Iraq-Iran War who becomes Miller’s translator. Time and time again he reminds Miller that Iraq is his country and that his countrymen will ultimately be the ones who will decide its future.

While this message is certainly valid, Freddy’s only purpose within the movie seems to be to reinforce this statement repeatedly. One of the film’s climatic moments actually stems from this, and it managed to elicit both groans and laughter at the screening I attended.

Indeed, if the film suffers from any specific flaw, it is that its plot is a bit too simplistic.

There are explicit good and bad guys; there is little in the way of gray characterization, the Dayne character aside. It’s difficult to believe that everything about the war could be uncovered over the course of a few days, especially considering that it’s been seven years and this has yet to occur in reality.

For the most part, acting in the film is solid. Damon imbues the central character with a likability that makes you root for him throughout even though he at times risks being too good to be compelling. Ryan, best known for her Oscar nominated turn

PHOTO FROM Internet Source

in “Gone Baby Gone,” makes the most of her few moments on-screen, though often her character seems to do little but lurk in the shadows. Kinnear also does the best he can with a character who seems one step removed from twirling his mustache.

The film’s direction is also strong. Greengrass employs his trademark shaky cam to give the film a documentary feeling, making the narrative seem like a genuine artifact from the invasion of Iraq. Of course, opinions on this differ; others with whom I watched it found it to be distracting. At the same time, others who I watched it with found it distracting.

Though suffering from a simplistic plot with sometimes thinly-sketched characters, “Green Zone” is still an intriguing attempt at coping with U.S. involvement in Iraq. It certainly does not deserve the chilly reception it has received.

Adagio dancers perform at annual show Photo spread by Andrew Rauner

12 ARTS, ETC.

The Brandeis Hoot

March 26, 2010

‘Hurt’ so good: Film depicts bomb squad

BY KAYLA DOS SANTOS Editor

Films set in Iraq have a difficult time moving beyond the political in order to tell the human story.

Recent Academy Award winner “The Hurt Locker,” however, tells an authentic and compelling personal tale, focusing on one man’s love of the adrenaline rush that comes from disabling bombs.

Unfortunately, the film, despite winning numerous awards and receiving high critical acclaim, has not done well at the box office. But you should catch this film in theaters while you still can. Moving, powerful and intimate, “The Hurt Locker” is well worth the price of a ticket.

The film’s title, which references the place where soldiers physically injured by a bomb are sent, proves to be fitting for the movie as it centers on individuals who cope with the devastating consequences of day-to-day contact with explosives. The film takes the military location’s meaning one step further to explore the physical, emotional and psychological hurt soldiers in war zones can feel.

Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) is sent to Baghdad to head team Bravo, a bomb squad unit whose members are dealing with the traumatic aftermath of an explosion which killed one of their team members. On his first day, James shocks his new team when he approaches and disarms a bomb almost nonchalantly, seemingly not taking into account the dangers involved.

The film establishes the fact that James is a cool customer. In one

scene he discovers that a trunk of an abandoned car is weighed down with enough explosives to level the area. He swears but then takes off his heavy bombsuit, saying, “There’s enough bang in there to blow us all to Jesus. If I’m gonna die, I want to die comfortable.”

James then disarms the bomb like a mechanic dealing with a particularly difficult engine problem.

Renner plays James cool but always within the realm of believability. He sweats, he panics, he fears, but always subtly, you have to watch for the facial tic, a flicker in his eyes.

Yet “The Hurt Locker” is not a stereotypical action movie. As James makes more and more reckless decisions and puts his life and the lives of his team in danger, his cool demeanor becomes troubling to watch. Is he brave or is he motivated by the need to feel the thrill of possibly being moments away from a fiery death?

His collection of harmless pieces of the bombs he’s disabled (or, as he calls them “things that could have killed me”), kept in the same place as his wedding ring, reveals that his blasé attitude has a sinister undercurrent.

Anthony Mackie, who plays by-the-book Sergeant JT Sanborn, is also brilliant as James’ foil. Mackie communicates a lot through his calculating stares: his competence, his disgust of James, his concern for his team and his overpowering fear of the situation he finds himself in. His powerful silence makes James’ chattiness all the more disconcerting. In fact, all the actors in the Bravo team give powerful performances. Brian Geraghty’s depiction of Specialist

PHOTO FROM Internet Source

IN THE ‘HURT LOCKER’: Members of the bomb disposal unit depicted in “The Hurt Locker,” like Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson (Guy Pearce), confront danger regularly throughout the film.

Owen Eldridge is fascinating as he convincingly switches between Eldridge’s vulnerability and his deep rage.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film was the evolution of the team members’ relationships with one another.

This was cleverly shown through small moments that, in the end, had great impact on the dynamics of the group. When the team is caught in the cross-hairs of an enemy sniper, a deadly waiting game ensues as James tries to locate their adversary and give Sanborn the coordinates so that he can pick him off with his rifle. James’ cocky attitude shifts to a steady calm as he directs Sanborn, and as a result, Sanborn’s resentment for the team leader transforms into a grudging respect.

Although the film does not have a distinguishable plot, this only contributes to director Kathryn Bigelow’s success at making an honest film. “The Hurt Locker” feels like a documentary, not only for its shaky handheld footage, but for its realistic characters.

The only moments that felt unreal was when the film resorted to extreme slow-motion and closeup shots: dust slowly rising off the roof of a car, a shell casing landing on the dust floor. However, these moments are few and effective.

The shots serve the purpose of illustrating that the film itself is a kind of close-up, a intimate study of people fighting a war.

“The Hurt Locker” is propelled by the fact that team Bravo only has a few weeks left before its memberscan leave Baghdad and

The hype is ‘Justified’

BY SRI KUEHNLENZ Editor

FX’s newest drama, “Justified,” which premiered on March 16, takes viewers on a journey through the “Dirty South,” where the gun-slinging cowboys and outlaws of the West are alive and well.

The show follows Deputy United States Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) as he returns to his hometown in rural Kentucky, a move which occurs after he ruffles some bureaucratic feathers in Miami by shooting a gun thug point-blank. Upon his return, he is faced with old friends-turned-criminals and old high school crushes-turned-murderers.

Raylan’s homecoming is anything but cheery. Instead, he is greeted with an ultimatum to leave town in 24 hours from Boyd (Walton Goggins), a friend he used to mine coal with and who now heads a robbery gang. Coincidentally, Boyd is the brother of a man murdered by Raylan’s high school crush, Ava (Joelle Carter), for physically abusing her. As this twisted plot shows, the TV drama does its best to capitalize off of the concept of the small, closely

PHOTO BY Internet Source

CRIMINAL COWBOYS: Timothy Olyphant stars as a U.S. marshal reassigned to his native Kentucky, where he must bring his own special brand of justice to his former friends, lovers and enemies.

interconnected Southern town.

The scary caricature of the South only escalates from there, with rednecks executing small acts of terrorism in pickup trucks and wearing oversized Confederate flag belt buckles.

Though it’s hard to tell how much of this portrayal is hyperbole, the show portrays the classic struggle between outlaw and lawman. While the first two episodes revolve around an external conflict between two individuals, it also becomes apparent that the fight between abiding by the letter of the law and vigilantism is an in-

ternal one for Raylan as well.

Though he definitely differentiates himself from the bad guys, his badass, edgy persona pushes you to the edge of your seat, wondering if he is going to pop that robber/ex-convict/etc. (depending on the particular episode) right then and there. As his ex-wife tells him, “Honestly, you’re the angriest man I’ve ever known.”

The fact that Raylan’s father, Arlo, is a career criminal also prompts viewers to wonder if Raylan inherited some bit of his father’s criminality. What makes

Raylan such an appealing character is his ability to switch between refinement and brute masculinity.

He can go from wooing the former head cheerleader to sternly threatening one of Boyd’s lackeys and disarming him with a swift jab to the stomach.

Olyphant is perfect in bringing Raylan’s complex character to the small screen. It also is new territory for Olyphant, who usually plays the bad guy, as seen in “Live Free or Die Hard,” where he played the remorseless techie villain, or in the comedy “The Girl Next Door,” where he assumed the role of a sleazy porn producer.

Olyphant comfortably slips into Raylan’s badass persona without overdoing it. His attitude and performance are so convincing that the viewer can take him seriously even though he is clad in a cowboy hat and cowboy boots.

Though the other cast members can hold their own beside Raylan, his persona is too cool to be matched. With Olyphant heading this drama, there’s no need for FX to justify this drama; it’s a closed case.

“Justified” airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.

return home.

Each ‘chapter’ of the film is preceded by a countdown, so the audience, like the team members, is always aware of the upcoming reprieve. As their last day in Iraq approaches, rather than experiencing relief, though, the team members face even higher tension and stakes. It becomes clear that no one will emerge from the war unscathed.

Bigelow’s film is an example of clever and subtle storytelling.

Because the characters are so three-dimensional, by the end of “The Hurt Locker” the audience is emotionally invested in the lives of the characters. If you haven’t already, don’t miss out on this ambitious war movie which successfully explores the realm of painful human experience.

March 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS, ETC..

13

Showing some ‘Skin’: Brandeis Asian American Student Association puts on a fashion show Photo spread by Max Shay

‘Community’ schools other sitcoms

BERNSTEIN (from p. 10)

BY DANIELLE GEWURZ Editor

NBC’s Thursday night lineup may have taken significant hits in the last decade, but upstart “Community,” currently in its first season, has proven that NBC might be able to get a bit of its bite back. Similar in aesthetic to recent sitcoms, a great deal of “Community”’s humor derives from the self-referential use and acknowledgement of sitcom tropes, much like “Modern Family” or “How I Met Your Mother.”

“Community” has the advantage of being set in a local community college. This permits the writers to play with a much more diverse set of characters and perspectives than your average sitcom can. Jeff, the main character played by Joel McHale of “The Soup,” is a disbarred lawyer who returns to college in order to get a legitimate degree. Chevy Chase’s Pierce, meanwhile, is a retiree, Donald Glover’s Troy is a failed high school athlete and Yvette Nicole Brown’s Shirley is a recently divorced mother. This, combined with the wacky antics of Ken Jeong’s Spanish professor provide opportunities for establishing a dynamic that isn’t based on a group of white friends with nonexistent jobs.

Danny Pudi’s Abed, a frequent highlight of the episodes, imbues the show with a meta level of humor. Abed, whom the show somewhat jokingly implies might have Asperger’s Syndrome, also makes references to other sitcoms, TV plotlines, Batman and, in the most recent episode, enacts

Bernstein Scholars perform last show

PHOTO FROM Internet Source

‘COMMUNITY’ LIVING: Joel McHale, pictured here with Danny Pudi, plays a disbarred lawyer who must attend community college in order to get a real degree.

his own voiceover of Jeff ’s actions.

Indeed, he and Jeff do part of the dance from “Sixteen Candles.”

But where Pudi really shines is with Glover in the end-of-episode tag scenes. The two rap in Spanish, pretend to be Bert and Ernie or practice krumping. It’s a nice flash of absurdity in what is otherwise a conventional show.

Sure, sometimes the pop-culture references are a bit overused.

In fairness to the show, a large number of them seem to be targeted at people who are older than 21, so I’ve missed several jokes as a result. The success for the writers is that “Community” is still funny without catching those references.

The show’s best gags have little to do with pop culture and often depend on visual impact, like the college’s alien-looking mascot, the Greendale Human Being or the sailing class that takes place entirely in the parking lot outside a classroom.

When it comes down to it, “Community” isn’t interested in

narrative innovations. There are no running plots—plotlines are linear and fairly comprehensible.

It’s both the writing and the cast that make the show work and worth watching. It’s a pleasure to watch the cast members interact, because there’s chemistry in all the possible pairings of the ensemble. The show has thankfully let the romantic tension between Jeff and Gillian Jacobs’ Britta fade to the background, rather than making them the token “will they/won’t they” couple.

On the whole, “Community” is shockingly good, going beyond its premise and offering a good 22 minutes of entertainment. As “30 Rock” and “The Office” have been struggling somewhat this season, “Community” has stepped in to fill the void of NBC’s Thursday lineup. A low-key show with a great deal of promise, it’s worth giving a chance.

“Community” airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.

nection in the first movement, where the sweet main theme is played on the cello and closely echoed by the violin. They remained in perfect time, allowing each instrumental voice an equal share in constructing the piece.

Lowe’s highlight came in the second movement with a series of morphing textures and dynamics on the piano that broadened the scope of the music. They closed with the presto final movement, and then it was over: the piece, the concert and their Brandeis performing careers.

It’s a shame to think that such high level chamber music might

become a thing of the past for Brandeis undergraduates. Clearly, Chakoff, Kim and Lowe must have had many tempting options coming out of high school, but Brandeis proved it could offer them the resources and the opportunities of a first-rate music school. To hear them perform is to understand what a strong investment that was.

Reviving the Leonard Bernstein Scholarship should be at the forefront of the university’s concerns as soon as it is economically feasible. I feel bad enough about missing half of one concert; I hope Brandeis won’t soon miss all of their music for good.

‘Eden’ plays with tales from Genesis EDEN (from p. 10)

it in the first place. All the other characters in the second act were played by actors who had roles in the previous act, creating parallels between the two acts through doubling. So, Maletta played Adam and Noah (both fathers), while Rabinowitz played Cain and Japeth (rebellious sons).

Thus, when Noah and Japeth make different decisions than their former counterparts, the play’s theme of second chances has a deeper meaning. Novic, however, does not continue this doubling trend by taking on the role of Noah’s wife. Although Stein was wonderful, her presence disrupted the play’s continuity.

Poor staging negatively impact-

ed the audience’s perception of the play as a whole, as well. While it was clever to have God gradually ascend above the other characters as he distances himself and ultimately disappears from their lives, the effect was ruined when God, at times, had to awkwardly descend from his high platform.

In addition, the majority of the stage was taken up by raised steps, which left little room for the actors when they congregated on stage.

HTG’s “Children of Eden” did many things well and provided for an overall enjoyable night of entertainment, but there were simply too many distractions to fully appreciate its positive qualities.

14 The Brandeis Hoot

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

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

CORRECTIONS Last week The Hoot ran an article with the headline “Sundeis could be defendent in UJ case,” which should have read “SunDeis could be plaintiff in UJ case.”

NOW ONLINE:

The Hoot Classifieds

First listing FREE for students.

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

EDITORIALS

March 26, 2010

No one wins when no one votes

T

his editorial board was appalled by the week voter turnout in last week’s student body vote on the Constitutional Review Committee’s 11 proposed amendments. At most, only 279 students voted on these issues.

Some amendments received even fewer votes, such as one to change the Constitutional review process, which yielded only 220 votes.

This disparity is simply unacceptable.

The Constitutional Review Committee and Student Union are partially to blame for this prob-

lem. The Constitutional Review process and vote is meant to represent the entire student body.

This cannot occur without voter turnout, and voter does not happen when students are unaware of the vote.

As representatives supposedly elected to look out for their constituent’s interests, senators and other Union members should have run a ‘get out the vote’ type effort.

Yet while the Constitutional Review Committee and Student Union are certainly to blame for a lack of advertising and consequential lack of votes, no one is more to blame than students themselves.

As students, we should take advantage of every opportunity to have our voice heard.

Though many of us may rightfully complain about the Union’s pompous attitude and detatchment from the rest of the student body, such problems can never be solved if we neglect to participate in our government in the most minimalist of ways.

We are not asking you to run in the upcoming Union presidential elections, nor are we asking that you join a committee. We are simply asking that you log onto your computer every so often and check a box or two.

Letters to the editor

Letters from the community may be submitted to eic@thebrandeishoot.com

School critique comes up short To the Editor, The article, “Giving bad schools an ‘F,’” by Alex Self (March 19, 2010) fails to consider the fundamental structural causes behind the Central Falls High School debacle. Self correctly notes that Central Falls is a city of few resources, yet he does not extend this observation to understand the failings of the school system.

Let me explain. Given that Central Falls’ perennial financial woes have only been exacerbated by the national financial crisis and that the city budget depends on tax revenue, it is clear why the city makes minimal investments in the school system. So, Self ’s apparent solution that “we should provide fully funded schools for these children… we should subsidize good grades” ignores the limitations imposed by desperately small financial resources.

I commend Self ’s awareness of the various circumstances of students, which impacts their school performance. Having worked with students from Central Falls High School for two summers in a college preparatory program, I can attest that these kids have the potential and motivation to exceed these circumstantial and structural obstacles more often than not. Indeed, among the several metropolitan schools of Rhode Island, Central Falls High produces some of the best students I have worked with.

This observation defies Self ’s generalization that, “Education is usually not their main prerogative.” Self admits that he has never even met anyone from Central Falls. What experience, then, has informed this gross generalization?

As for the teachers, I know professional educators in Rhode Island who praise the teaching quality at Central Falls High. Given the characteristics of

the city and its population, these teachers are fighting the odds. Self ’s claim that they are inexperienced is unfounded. The City’s decision to fire the faculty was based on contractual disputes between the union and the city, as the city threatened to impose controversial NCLB restructuring plans that would require teachers to put in extra unpaid time. The decision to fire the teachers is not due to their incompetency. It is a union-busting tactic on the part of the Superintendent. In fact, the City’s plan is not to hire all new teachers but rather to rehire 50 percent of the former faculty. Therefore, the same so-called “incompetent” teachers will be back, but only fewer of them. This is an effort to break the union. We would probably agree, however, that teacher-student ratio is an important element of a quality education.

The City’s plan has less to do with improving the school and more to do with cutting the budget in a time of crisis. Central Falls is simply the worst case scenario of something happening across the state. I agree with Self that any solution to our schools’ failings must be creatively targeted at the structural causes. Instead of Self ’s suggestions, however, I would propose extensive federal and state funding grants to struggling schools with pedagogical and administrative decisions staying in the hands of the City and school community. Furthermore, before drawing his conclusions, perhaps Self should visit the community in question.

Ned Crowley

Facilities not to blame To the Editor, I write in response to the recent editorial piece, “Rains generous, Facilities not so much” (March 19, 2010). I was disappointed in this piece, and particularly in the remark that while stu-

dents were coping with flooding issues, “you [presumably facilities workers] returned to your homes dry and safe.

And even if your homes flooded, you probably had a wet vacuum to clean it up.” In the same article that calls for greater sympathy for students facing the difficulties brought on by the recent weather, the writers extend no sympathy, but rather a snide accusation to the people responsible for the hard work of dealing with overwhelmed storm water management systems, aging buildings and certainly more work orders than can be processed at once.

Did any of the writers of this article look into how many work orders were filed during the flooding, or how many people are on the facilities staff at Brandeis?

I have worked on a college grounds crew (not precisely analogous, I recognize) and have dealt with demands from facility users who assume you can be everywhere at once and that you have nothing else to do but address their particular personal concern, and immediately.

Are the problems the article refers to really a case of callous negligence or inadequate resources, (human, equipment, and infrastructure) to deal with what the piece correctly cites as a “state of emergency?” I have heard from students that there were flooding incidents in the Mods, the Shapiro dorm and the Village and have seen for myself that there was flooding in the library. Do the writers of this article imagine facilities workers were sitting around drinking coffee while all this was happening?

With the extent of the flooding in the greater Boston area, extra help to deal with these problems must be in short supply. The piece does not consider the possibility that the staff was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work to do.

I hope to see better work from The Hoot in the future.

Chris Payson ’10

March 26, 2010

IMPRESSIONS

‘I'd like a bagel ... hold the bag’ Minimizing waste at Brandeis

BY CECELIA WATKINS

The Brandeis Hoot 15

You're majoring in ... what?

The woes of an economics major

Special to The Hoot

BY ADAM HUGHES

Do you think you could go a week without producing any waste while living here at Brandeis? Even if you’re an eco-superhero, the answer is probably not. A few weeks ago I decided that, for one week, I would carry all the waste that I produced (excluding toilet paper) with me for a class assignment in which each student of SOC 114b: Utopian Communities was asked to positively change one aspect of their life.

Given all the simpler options of things to change, why did I choose to inflict myself with this environmentalist escapade? Because, prior to this week, all I had was a very vague idea that making trash was a bad thing. That’s it. I had no strong factual evidence to support what I was doing, just a very basic ideology of, “Hey, we should try to be less wasteful.”

Not so surprisingly, producing as little waste as possible turned out to be rather difficult. On day one of my experiment I woke up, washed up in the bathroom, mentally patted myself on the back for remembering not to use a paper towel, then walked up to Einstein’s for a morning bagel before class.

I was promptly handed my bagel … in a paper bag. I thought about giving the bag back, but they were busy, and I figured it would just get thrown away. So I kept the trash, and added it to my bag.

I quickly realized eating was by far the most waste-producing area of my life. From grabbing individually wrapped Balance bars between classes to heating up a SimplyAsia Pad Thai for dinner, food packaging waste seemed almost impossible to avoid. I tried to be aware of what I was buying, and dutifully added all packaging waste to my bag. At the same time, I was carefully eating every morsel I was given to prevent my ever-growing garbage bag from smelling like rotting food. By the end of the week, my total generated trash (including recyclables) amounted to the size of a small backpack, weighing about a pound.

Throughout my weeklong experiment, as I began to literally feel the weight of my waste, I quickly became more interested in discovering the reasoning behind this madness. A friend loaned me his copy of Colin Beavan’s fabulous “No Impact Man,” which tells the story of a man who tried to live in New York City for a year with no net environmental impact. According to him, and a study by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2006, the average American produces 4.6 pounds of trash per day.

Around 80 percent of this trash comes from products we only use once, often for only a few minutes.

Paper towels. Napkins. Plastic utensils. Bagel bags. OK, so we produce a lot of trash, and a lot of it is unnecessary. But why is that such a bad thing, and why should you, as a concerned Brandeis citizen, try to reduce your personal waste?

It happens every time I’m discussing the future with any of my more activist-minded friends. They’re excitedly telling me about how close they are to completing their Tofu and Arugula Studies major, and I'm listening and nodding politely, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

They make the predictable joke about how nonexistent their career prospects are, and I smile and assure them that things will work out somehow. Then, finally, it happens: “So what are you majoring in?”

I shift my head to the side and mumble something under my breath.

“I’m sorry?”

Well, here goes nothing. I take a deep breath and, in a low, self-effacing voice, say, “Economics.”

“Economics? Really? Why?” Shoot! Once again, I feel like a corporate sell-out, completely profitdriven and, ugh, pre-professional. Like a defendant called to the witness stand after pleading guilty, I begin my standard self-defense, hoping against hope that I can somehow be forgiven for my sin.

Obviously, I’m embellishing quite a bit with the preceding story, but it's true that I do feel the need to justify my choice of major from time to time. After all, I also looked at the economics major as being somewhat soulless before I became one myself. Even now, I occasionally fear that I’m just setting myself up to go into big business and become another cog in the capitalist machine, that the intense gravity of the American rat race will prove too strong for me to avoid. But I also see a lot of potential in the rules of economics, and it inspires both the rationalist and the humanist sides of my brain simultaneously in a way that no other field of study can.

I entered Brandeis intending to be a Politics major. Throughout I think that many high school, following politics had become one of my hobbies, people assume that and I had become involved in the goal of economics multiple local campaigns.

I was excited to take that interis to maximize profit, est to the next level and plan my simply because it tells entire academic future around political action. However, I reyou how to maximize alized after several semesters that politics as an academic field profit. didn’t hold nearly the same fascination for me, that it wasn't scientific enough for my rigorously methodical thought process and that it devoted too much attention to how the game was played. Policy was what I actually wanted to study; implementing it, not so much.

Taking Intro to Economics, however, completely altered my existing worldview. It seemed like every day, ideas that I had taken for granted were either being challenged or being explained to me in new, deeper ways. Already, I began to realize how vapid the mainstream dialogue on economic issues could be, and I was filled with excitement at how much more there was to learn. Everything we talked about could be distilled down to objective mathematical language, yet their implications could fundamentally alter the lifestyles of billions of people for the better.

I think that many people assume that the goal of economics is to maximize profit, simply because it tells you how to maximize profit.

However, I like to view economics as more of a series of concrete rules, no more responsible for the worst excesses of capitalism than physics is for the hydrogen bomb. These rules can become the vehicles for actualizing our principles in the world, so long as we don’t make the mistake of substituting them for our principles.

Sure, economics can tell you that any taxation will by necessity incur a deadweight loss. But if you enter with the goal of restoring greater equality of wealth and providing necessities like health care and the opportunity for higher education to every person in the country, economics can also tell you how to best structure the tax code to make that possible.

Unfortunately, the average level of economic understanding in our culture is very low, and our politicians find it much easier to pander to this ignorance rather than to do anything about it.

Our school system doesn't help much; think of how much time you spent in high school studying economics as compared to, say, English, and then think of how much these subjects actually impact our day-today lives.

In my eyes, this deficit of knowledge has become one of our major societal ills, one which I believe needs to be solved before we can hope to address many others. Working to fill this gap is a goal that I feel comfortable devoting my life to. I’m not sure how that will manifest itself in my later life, and I know I’m not nearly educated enough to begin working to that end yet, but I already find the prospect of doing so tremendously exciting.

Staff

ILLUSTRATION BY Leah Lefkowitz/The Hoot

At a glance

Ways to reduce and reuse at Brandeis: • Get a reusable mug and a reusable water bottle • Buy food in bulk from the grocery store and get reusable shopping bags to put it in • Save, wash and reuse plastic utensils • Avoid foods with excessive packaging, such as SimplyAsia or individually wrapped items • Get a handkerchief, use instead of tissues • Don’t use paper towels! Either carry a wash cloth to dry your hands or use the tried and true shake method—it only takes about a minute to dry your hands this way • Buy and use a green, reusable to-go container from Usdan • Only take as much food as you can eat • Make art out of waste • Ask for no bag when you order your bagel at Einstein’s

Have you heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It is exactly what it sounds like: a gigantic swirling mess of garbage in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The lowest estimates say it’s a little bigger than the state of Texas. The larger estimates say it’s twice the size of the continental United States. Within the garbage patch, plastic material is six times as prevalent as bio-matter.

Needless to say, this is somewhat destructive to the marine ecosystem.

Still not convinced? Think about landfills—how they are continuously increasing and contributing to pollution that is deadly to everything on this planet, including us.

Think about Wall-E. Think about deforestation—the trees sawed down to produce the bags your bagel comes in—and how fewer trees equals more carbon dioxide equals global warming. Are you thinking “Bah, climate change! That stuff ’s for hippies!”? OK, think about your wallets. Being less wasteful will often save you money. If you use a

reusable mug to get coffee at Einstein’s, you save a dollar. If you get coffee every day, you’re saving $7 a week. Seven dollars a week! Go buy yourself a double scoop ice cream cone, you eco-friendly stud.

But the question remains: How do we live producing minimal waste at Brandeis? Well, simply enough, by following what you’ve seen on little green triangles since infancy—reducing and reusing. Lately we’ve been so intently focused on recycling that we seem to have forgotten these other two arguably more vital angles of the eco-triangle. So, check out the bulleted list of ways to reduce and reuse at Brandeis.

Check out the facts. Ask yourself right now—is this paper bag protecting my bagel worth the destruction of our planet, and ultimately, the human race? It may sound silly and over-exaggerated, but we need to start somewhere. And in the immortal words of Rage Against the Machine, “What better place than here? What better time than now?

All hell can’t stop us now.”

16 IMPRESSIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

Book of Matthew

Aramark's wage problem

March 26, 2010

SEA Change

BY BRET MATTHEW Editor

It is a generally accepted notion among businesses that workers must be paid for all services rendered. Usually, that means paying employees fair wages.

Usually.

Aramark seems to be having trouble with this idea—in its own backyard, no less. The Philadelphia-based company stands accused of cheating 3,000 employees of several Philadelphia sports stadiums: Citizens Bank Park, the Wachovia Center and Lincoln Financial Field.

And these employees are not happy.

Lynne Fox, head of the Philadelphia Joint Board of the Workers United union, teamed up with five current and former Aramark employees this month to file a class-action lawsuit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. They brought forward two main complaints: that Aramark had knowingly paid employees standard wages for what should have been overtime work, and that it had refused to compensate employees for working through their lunch breaks during busy hours.

All of this is illegal. Pennsylvania wage laws require employers to pay a rate of no less than one and a half times an employee’s regular wage for hours exceeding 40 per week. This was reinforced in every worker’s contract. And although the state does not have meal break laws for workers 18 and older, federal law only allows meal breaks to go unpaid if the employee on break is completely relieved of all duties.

If employees have to work through lunch, it is not considered a break and they are entitled to their normal wages. Without this requirement, it is possible for low-income workers to actually average less than the minimum wage.

But rather than play by the rules, Aramark apparently tried to hide its actions by confusing its employees. It issued pay stubs that only listed the total wages earned, without showing the number of hours worked.

This made it far more difficult for employees to keep track of their pay, forcing them to do the math themselves. By the time many of them had discovered that they were being underpaid, Aramark had made off with an extra $2 million.

So far, Aramark has remained more or less silent throughout this process (although one spokesperson did insist to the press that no laws were broken before declining to comment further). But really, what can the company say? This is not the first time it has gotten in trouble for not paying employees properly. In April 2009, Aramark agreed to pay $154,320 and all attorney fees to 419 Philadelphia Convention Center workers. Two months later, Aramark reached a $1.5 million settlement with Fenway Park workers. In both cases, the workers accused the company of denying them rightful pay.

There are countless more cases out there. Some have received quite a bit of media attention, some not so much. But whoever is in charge of Aramark’s pay policies must have been quite busy lately, to say the least.

A former Aramark employee and current plaintiff summed up the situation to the Philadelphia Inquirer rather simply: “That was the way they did business.” Aramark long ago stopped showing any interest in responsible business practices. More and more, it has become apparent that the company does not treat its employees with respect, but rather as tools for which it can use to reap larger profits.

A company like this does not deserve to do business. And it certainly does not deserve business from Brandeis, where we claim to believe in social justice. Even though there is no evidence that Aramark has ever mistreated Brandeis workers, the money we pay inevitably goes toward financing mistreatment elsewhere. And there is no justice in that.

ILLUSTRATION BY Leah Lefkowitz/The Hoot

The perils of global warming

BY NICOLE-ANNE ANCHETA Special to The Hoot

The world is at a turning point, celebrating its greatest accomplishments while facing its greatest peril. As the world’s factories, cars and power plants continue emitting hazardous greenhouse gases at alarming rates, the earth is getting warmer. The scientific consensus is the effects of global warming will continue to worsen unless we take immediate action.

The phenomenon known as “global warming” is mostly caused by emissions of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide and methane. Although some of the mechanisms of global warming are complex, the basic idea is that human actions influence the earth's climate. Deforestation and the combustion of fossil fuels, for example, allow the proliferation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, causing the planet to warm. The bottom line is that human activity is largely responsible

for climate change, posing dire ramifications for our lives and the wellness of the earth.

The symptoms of climate change, like extreme weather, rise in temperature and sea level, extinction of animal species and the depletion of fresh water all threaten to fundamentally change the way we live our lives. Thankfully, though humanity is the problem, we are also the solution.

Just as the industrialization of the human race has driven us to the brink of disaster, human ingenuity has proposed both complex and simple solutions to global warming.

For instance, an article published by Time Magazine titled, “The global warming survival guide” proposed many simple ways to save our planet.

To reduce automotive emissions, we must have fewer and more efficient cars on the highways. Starting a carpool is a simple yet effective way to reduce carbon emissions, especially

when catalyzed by government incentives and legislation. Another easy way to reduce carbon emissions via transportation is through using public transportation like the subway, rail and bus systems. Turning off all electronics, like lights or computers when you are not using them also saves large amounts of energy and reduces carbon emissions. Hangdrying your clothes instead of putting them through a drying machine, is another perfect example of where a little effort can help fight climate change. Trading standard light bulbs for compact florescent light bulbs, although more costly, will also help save energy. During a trip to the supermarket, bring your own bag instead of taking home plastic, which will most likely end up in a landfill.

Individual actions might seem insignificant, but their cumulative impact may well be our most effective weapon against global warming.

Sexcapades

Students must be more aware of STDs

BY SOPHIE RIESE Columnist

There was free HIV testing at the International Cultural Center Monday, did you know that? The amount of advertising was negligible at best. On a college campus, testing should not only be well advertised, but should also encompass all sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), not just HIV. Though the Brandeis Health Center does provide STD/STI testing to all students, the test comes with a price. Students wanting to ensure their safety have to fork over $200 unless their insurance company will cover the costs and they don’t mind their parents finding out.

The cost of testing often makes students put off testing indefinitely until they can find the money or have time and transportation to go to Planned Parenthood or Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where testing is low-cost or free. The tests at those facilities often cover more STDs than those at Brandeis and come with the

option of anonymity.

Clubs like Student Sexuality Information Services (SSIS) and the Pre-Health Society should team up with the Health Center, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, or Planned Parenthood to provide free STD testing for students once a semester. Once a semester may not be ideal, but it’s better than nothing.

As for advertising, Brandeis should follow the example of Yale University, which runs a campaign to de-stigmatize STD testing. In preparation for “Sex Week,” students from all facets of the university get together to get tested and have their photos taken holding signs that say, “I did it,” or “I got tested.”

These students are football players, sorority girls, mathletes and debate team members, thespians, lesbians, legacies and first-time college students. There is a week when free STD testing is conducted by their health center, and this advertising campaign both raises awareness and

reduces stigmatization about STD testing.

Nowhere is this more necessary than on college campuses.

I don’t mean to undervalue the HIV testing happening at Brandeis. It's great. But it is also not enough. I understand testing is very expensive, but with awareness and fundraising, it is not unfeasible. And if it were to be a joint project between a number of student groups, and some Massachusetts health organizations, the costs could be ameliorated.

I’ve talked about it before, but as college students, we are more likely than any other population group in the country to contract STDs. Many of these STDs are not HIV, but are still enough to damage your reputation, reproductive organs and future if not identified early. Because of this, it is important that testing become something students get used to, like going to class or taking exams. Ideally, you should never sleep with anyone who has not been tested.

Additionally, SSIS, and other student

organizations, should do more to educate about STDs. We all know the only safe sex is abstinence, and that the best protection is barrier methods, but intercourse is not the only way to contract an STD. No one wants to give (or receive) oral sex with a condom, but in truth, we all should until we’re sure of the status of our partner. And gloves might seem strange, but there’s a reason they appear in your mailbox when SSIS hands things out.

Even when we are educated about methods, it’s hard to carry them out. I know that a lot of times I don’t think about STDs because in truth, I don’t even know what a lot of them would look or be like, even if I did have one. Gonorrhea and chlamydia?

Who knows what they are? Is Syphilis still around?

All I know is that the only way we can be sure we’re safe is if every student thinks of testing as an ordinary, expected thing to do, rather than something to be embarrassed about.

March 26, 2010

The Brandeis Hoot

IMPRESSIONS

17

Altered Consciousness

Tackling political partisanship by its roots

BY RICK ALTERBAUM Columnist

If you haven’t noticed, the partisanship in Washington is intractable and endless.

Republicans are declaring Democrats socialists while Democrats are calling their “friends on the other side of the aisle” obstructionists, and there seems to be little–if any–cooperation or camaraderie between the two sides. Perhaps one way to decrease the divisiveness of our political system is to introduce non-partisan blanket, or “jungle,” primaries nationwide.

Jungle primaries, which currently only exist in Louisiana on the local level, involve the following: In an election for a political office, there are two rounds. In the first round, every candidate in the race, regardless of party affiliation, receives a vote at the same time by the general electorate. If no candidate receives a plurality of the vote share, the two individuals with the highest levels of support will compete in a runoff.

The winner of this runoff will win the election.

The main virtue of this system is it eliminates closed primaries in which only individuals who are registered with a particular party may participate. These types of primaries, which are currently most commonly used for federal, state and local races, incentivize candidates to appeal to their core constituencies, who form the majority of the voters in these rounds, while ignoring the political center.

Instead, in jungle primaries, everyone has the capacity to vote at the same time and choose their representative. This opens opportunities for more reasonable candidates, who would not be able to win in extremely partisan contests, to achieve victory.

The impact of this is that legislatures and other elected bodies across this country desperately need a dosage of moderation.

ILLUSTRATION BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot

In the United States Congress, for instance, the multitude of party-line votes for major initiatives, such as the recently passed health care reform package, is disconcerting. Instead of bipartisanship and national unity, we have only heard about filibusters, cloture votes, reconciliation (ironicallytitled) and holds, among other hyper-partisan legislative tactics.

At the root of this problem is the fact that the Republican Party in particular is held captive to its base via the closed primary system.

Members of this group who are brave enough to even consider mustering the courage to vote with the Democrats are immediately deemed heretics and may very well be threatened in their next election by a party-line loyalist. This strongly deters them from forming coalitions or partnering with members of the opposition.

There are a couple of counterarguments to jungle primaries, the first of which being

that they reduce the strength of political parties by increasing the chance for independents and independent-minded candidates to be elected. This is true.

However, I believe that most people would prefer an individual who takes into account the interests of all of his or her constituents instead of just one singular interest group, namely those who vote in primaries. Also, the two-party system is extremely rigid, and weakening it can perhaps make our politics as a whole more representative and democratic, albeit parliamentary.

A second counterargument is that a jungle primary can lead to chaos: that anyone can run and thus win. However, I still believe voters will make an informed decision and choose based on who can best serve their interests instead of voting for just any random candidate. Also, the runoff serves as a buffer in these cases.

Opponents also argue that a runoff can

possibly produce a contest between two individuals of the same party. But this really does not matter, considering that the ideological outcome in such a case would remain nearly the same regardless of who is elected.

An alternative may be to have open primaries for each party. That is, Republicans and Independents could vote in Democratic primaries, and vice versa. However, this could lead to the potential manipulation of elections, with individuals of opposite parties voting for the weakest candidate in the hopes of that individual losing his or her general election.

Partisanship in Washington, as well as in state legislatures, is a grave problem. The best way to tackle it is by its roots. Consequently, it is imperative that our government replace closed primaries with jungle ones to ensure that political candidates represent not just one small faction, but rather, the people at large.

Borde-nough

Democrats: What will you tell your constituents?

BY CHRIS BORDELON Columnist

Imagine that you're a Democratic member of Congress who voted for the recent health care legislation backed by President Barack Obama.

You're at home in your district telling your constituents about all your hard work. How will you respond when they bring up the new health care law?

Thank you so much for universal health care. You'll smile, pat this person on the back, and say, “That's what you sent me to Washington to do.” Then you'll change the subject, because you know that an estimated 23 million Americans will still lack coverage in ten years under the new law.

Bypassing the Senate filibuster rule was the right thing to do.

“Definitely,” you'll say. But privately, you'll wonder. If you live by the sword, you just might die by it, too. When Republicans control the White House and Congress again, what will Democrats do then?

Comparisons of Obama's ef-

forts in connection with the new law with efforts of earlier presidents' efforts to pass legislation are not apt. Other presidents worked within the rules rather than discarding them. Bypassing the filibuster will someday look less like genius and more like a short-sighted effort to gain electoral advantage.

You didn't have to do any dirty deals to get this passed, right?

“No,” you'll say reassuringly, and you'll be right, in a sense. It was Obama who made the deals.

In exchange for financing an advertising campaign for the president's health bill, the health care industry got to draft large parts of it.

They created their dream scenario. Their revenue streams will flow from the seemingly bottomless Federal purse even in hard times. And Americans who aren't their customers will be penalized, creating a captive market.

I've got a job but no insurance.

Thanks for hooking me up! You'll say, “You're welcome,” but your heart won't be in it. Most people won't get anything for years.

Only people making less than four times the Federal Poverty Level (roughly $44,000 for an individual and $88,000 for a family of four) will qualify for any subsidy at all.

Furthermore, the subsidies won't buy a policy. Their insurance-buying value will fall over time, because the FPL is indexed to the ordinary rather than the higher medical rate of inflation.

Even people with big subsidies will have to pay between three and four percent of their income to insurance companies; for those with smaller subsidies, the figure is closer to ten percent.

Hype surrounded the prospect of requiring employers to insure their employees. But many employers will find it cheaper to pay a tax penalty. Some may fire employees rather than cover them.

How'd you manage to do this and still reduce the deficit? “We're smart,” you'll say. But the numbers are estimates. The Congressional Budget Office called the law's “budgetary impact ... very uncertain.”

The numbers are based on

the law never being amended.

Amendments will surely be made to account for inflation. Subsidies are not indexed to the rate of medical inflation.

Moreover, the CBO's estimate about the law's effect on the deficit is based on the assumption, among others, “that Medicare spending would increase significantly more slowly during the next two decades than it has increased during the past two decades.”

How likely is that?

The law includes certain cuts in payments to health care providers and hospitals that serve disproportionate numbers of people without sufficient insurance. The cuts helped make the new law look cost-effective, but more money will likely have to be allocated in the future to maintain service.

Finally, uninsured people who had relied on the government to pay for emergency room visits must now buy insurance. The government's whole burden of providing care to these people was shifted onto their backs; subsidies

will help them with only part of it.

I've got health insurance from my employer, and I don't fall into any groups whose taxes are going up. I don't have anything to worry about, right? You'll say “Right,” shake this person's hand, and quickly walk away. This person will face waiting lines—or longer waiting lines—as the newly insured crowd into health care providers' offices.

Worst of all, the quality of this person's (and others') insurance is likely to fall. The new law allows plans, including those offered by employers, to set high deductibles and to cover as little as 60 percent of the costs of benefits.

Insurance that covers so little isn't of much help when benefits cost thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Insured workers will find themselves under bargaining pressure from employers eager to reduce benefits to this cheaper but inadequate level.

In the end, you'll be able to answer all the questions but one: “How am I going to get reelected?”

18 The Brandeis Hoot

HOOT SCOOPS

March 26, 2010

Bike Bloom

By Ariel Wittenberg, Editor

Bicycle parts sprouted from the ground and trees alike yesterday on the walk from the Shapiro Camus Center to Usdan as part of Students for Environmental Action’s (SEA) event “Bike Bloom.”

The blooming bikes, accompanied by signs reading “put the fun between your legs” and “burn fat not gas,” were meant to remind students that spring weather is not only a break from the cold, but can also be a break from carbon emissions if students bike instead of drive.

“We want to get people on their bikes,” one of the event’s organizers Annie Chiorazzi ’11 said. “With such great weather, there’s almost no excuse.”

Chiorazzi said the event was timed just two days before April break in order to encourage students to get their bikes from home and bring them to Brandeis.

“A lot of people think since they haven’t ridden a bike since they were a kid, they won’t remember how,” Chiorazzi, who hasn’t ridden a bike since childhood, said. “But I tried it again today, and the expression ‘just like riding a bike’ comes from somewhere.”

SEA member Hannah Negami ’11, who helped organize the event, said it was created in order to “promote bike culture and cycling as a healthy and sustainable form of transportation.”

“Bikes are so sustainable, students should be riding them,” he said. “But I don’t know how many people know you can ride to Hannaford’s in ten minutes.

We want to raise awareness about that.”

Bike Bloom is part of SEA’s ongoing

campaign this year to educate students about how easy biking on campus and in Waltham can be.

While this event was meant to encourage students to bring their bikes to campus, another SEA event on April 10 will be held when students get back to school to show them how to bike around town.

The event, Tour de Waltham, will be a bike tour of the city from Brandeis to Prospect Hill which will show students shortcuts and ways to avoid main roads when biking.

The event will begin on the Great Lawn at 2 p.m. and will end at Prospect Hill with a picnic. Students without their own bikes are encouraged to use the bicycle rental program DeisBikes to join the Tour.

“A lot of why people don’t bike on campus is because there is a lack of knowledge of the area, they are nervous about biking on South Street or they don’t know where to store their bikes,” Chiorazzi said. “We want to clear that up for them so they want to ride.”

SEA member Matthew Schmitt ’11 agreed.

“People have the misconception that Waltham is hilly because Brandeis is,” he said. “But really, Brandeis is the only hill in Waltham, the rest of the city is flat.”

SEA also has a page on their Web site with information about where to buy bikes, bike safety and information, how to bike to Waltham or Boston, and how to box one’s bike.

Students can see for themselves at <http://www.seabrandeis.org/get-on-abike.html>