VOL 7, NO. 11
APRIL 23, 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
Israeli Ambassador Oren to speak at commencement Community angered by divisive choice, Oren’s far-right policies BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor
PHOTO FROM Wikipedia
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael B. Oren will speak at commencement May 23, angering some members of the Brandeis community because of the polarizing nature of Oren’s politics. A member of the Israeli rightwing, Oren will also receive an honorary degree along with Partners in Health founder Paul Farmer; the first woman to serve as chief judge of New York State,
Judith Kaye; Spanish author Antonio Muñoz Molina; long time diplomat and National Security Council member Dennis B. Ross; and singer-songwriter Paul Simon. The choice of commencement speaker is made in two parts. First, a committee of the board of trustees reviews names that have been submitted to them through the year to receive honorable degrees. Once the committee determines a list, it is then sent to University President Jehuda Reinharz, who chooses the commencement speaker from the
list. Reinharz did not respond to requests to comment on his choice of commencement speaker, however University Senior Vice President of Communications and External Affairs Andrew Gully said, “Ambassador Oren is a great historian and Brandeis is honored to have him speak under any circumstances.” Some community members are angered by the choice of Oren, a member of the Israeli right-wing who wrote in The New Republic that the Goldstone Report on
the Gaza War “goes further than Ahmadinejad and the Holocaust deniers by stripping the Jews not only of the ability and the need but of the right to defend themselves.” Prof. Harry Mairson (COSCI) wrote in an e-mail to the “concerned” listserv that he is “appalled” at the university’s choice in commencement speaker, writing that the university was “making what is a very clear political statement, emphasizing what the See COMMENCEMENT, p. 3
Study abroad adds program at The Hague for spring 2011 BY DESTINY. D. AQUINO Editor
The Hague summer program has now been extended into a spring 2011 study abroad option by the Office of Global Affairs in conjunction with the Study Abroad Office, the International and Global Studies Program and the Legal Studies Program.
The new study abroad program will be similar to the sixweek program at The Hague, which will take place this summer. The spring program will give 10 students the opportunity to take three or four classes, participate in in-depth research and an internship program as well as
BY DESTINY. D. AQUINO Editor
See HAGUE, p. 4
Bmail will change to Gmail over the summer BY DESTINY. D. AQUINO Editor
Library and Technology Services (LTS) has announced that this summer, Bmail, Brandeis’ campus e-mail system, will be converted to a system managed and controlled by Google. It is also considering moving to a completely wireless Internet network in the residence halls, in addition to reducing or eliminating campus room phones. Brandeis currently controls Bmail, meaning that if the e-mail system was to suffer a glitch it would need to be fixed immediately by LTS staff. “Google has built a reputation for being highly reliable,” said Susan Wawrzaszek, deputy chief information officer and university librarian. The switch to Google will not cause students to loose any features; but they will gain access to a Google calendar and better spam protection. LTS staff previously working on Bmail will be redirected toward other projects in LTS.
THIS WEEK:
For students concerned about these changes, “ I would be happy to have students e-mail me. Direct contact is always easiest. Suggestions, concerns, and questions are always welcome,” said Wawrzaszek. Eliminating wired Internet in the residence halls as well as removing the phones will allow the university to save approximately $200,000 in energy costs from the change and removal in equipment. The campus network needs to be upgraded regularly as components become old or obsolete in the quickly changing technological world. Data from LTS surveys as well as information on usage has led LTS to consider switching to the completely wireless network in residence halls because, “this is the most popular network, it just makes more sense,” Wawrzaszek said. LTS will decide in the next year whether to make the switch to the wireless network. They plan to make sure that the new wireless
PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot
FEMINIST MARCH: The Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance and the Committee on Rape Education walked through campus Thursday as a protest of attacks on women.
Feminists, supporters ‘take back the night’ BY BECCA CARDEN Staff
Take Back the Night, an annual march through the Brandeis campus, took place Thursday against worldwide rape. This year the Committee on Rape Education (CORE), which usually organizes the walk, this year worked in conjunction with the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA). The main goal of the march is to make it safe for women to be out during the night without having to feel discomfort and anxiety. “There is a fear that, as women in society, we have to deal with
every day, and every night, that keeps us from going out,” FMLA President Leah Hartman ’12 said. “I think a big goal is to address this fear.” “It’s a vigil march,” CORE President Alex Turner ’11 said of the march which met at Rabb steps at 7 p.m. and walked to each quad ending at the Shapiro Campus Center. The organizers distributed candles and chanting guides for the walk. At the quad stops, student marchers were encouraged to share their own stories and spoken word poetry was performed. Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan, a few graduate students
from the Women’s Resource Center and others also spoke out for the cause. The Rape Crisis Counseling Hotline gave the organizers a piece to read, in which all the stories were anonymous. “Everyone is invited to speak, whether they have something prepared or they prefer to talk extemporaneously,” Jon Sussman ’12 a member of FMLA said. This event is more than a fight for a safe public space in the future. “We’re also empowering people to speak out about their See MARCH, p. 3
See LTS, p. 3
@TheBrandeisHoot.com HootCast Audio
Brandeis Watch: Constitutional Review Committee
ARTS, ETC. , page 13
Impressions, page 16
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NEWS
2 The Brandeis Hoot
Students to vote on empty Kalman space
April 23, 2010
Panel discusses human trafficking, sex work in U.S.
BY NATHAN KOSKELLA Editor
Provost Marty Krauss and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Apfel this week began a survey of the student body to determine what to do with new space left from the demolition of the Kalman building as part of the third phase of the university’s Science Complex Renewal Project. “The proposal for alternate space ideas has been six years in the making because [Kalman] was no longer a reasonable building,” Krauss said, noting that the university has an upgraded science center. “With the demolition there is a new open space and now the issue is how to make best use of that space.” The options include a “four-season garden” with plants to represent each time of the year that would serve as a recreation area; four sand volleyball courts; and a hybrid of the two options with two volleyball courts. The cost of the potential project would depend on what will fill the space. Students can submit votes at the Brandeis website under the Office of Capital Projects. “It is slightly more costly to put in a planted area than to have a sand volleyball court of equal size,” Vice President for Capital Projects Dan Feldman wrote in an e-mail to The Hoot. “The hybrid model would cost a bit more than courts alone, but the voting so far appears to not be very favorable toward the idea of courts only.” The possibility of a vote and student involvement led to a campus-wide e-mail from Union President Andy Hogan ’11 asking for student input on the decision. However, Hogan said in an interview with The Hoot that the Union will not be involved in the process and he did not know how impactful the outcome of the students’ votes would be. If the current voting trend holds, at least some form of garden, either by itself or with some courts, would be the student choice. “The voting will be an important factor as we work to reach a decision,” Feldman wrote. “Clearly there are considerations that have to be put at the highest priority level—the fire access road, and some handicap and visitor parking. But beyond that, we are listening carefully to what people say they want.” Krauss indicated that the vote would be meaningful because students, as well as other members of the Brandeis community, would be the ones using the possible space, whether garden or volleyball courts. “We’re thinking about who’s going to use this space, and it’s going to be students, faculty and staff, so we have to have input from everyone,” she said. But Feldman said a vote was chosen because “we wanted to find a way for members of the community to share their thoughts without formally convening a new group.” While a vote will be determinant of students who happen to submit it, it was decided to be better administratively for the subject matter that is meant to be “in terms of scope, limited discussion.” “An online presentation and poll seemed to be a great way to achieve those goals. The phenomenal ‘turnout’ in the voting seems to bear out the idea that this can be an effective way to get community input on matters like this,” he wrote.
PHOTO BY Nafiz “Fiz” R. Ahmed/The Hoot
TRAFFICKING: Mei-Mei Ellerman spoke Wednesday about human trafficking in the United States.
BY BECCA CARDEN Staff
Three leading experts and advocates in the field of human slavery and trafficking spoke Wednesday at the panel event “Slavery Today: Sex Labor & Pornography,” which focused on trafficking issues within the United States and the rise of pornography that features many enslaved women. Human trafficking is the third largest growing criminal market in the world, behind the sale of drugs and illegal weaponry. While it is an international business, it is perhaps unexpectedly prevalent in American society. Mei-Mei Ellerman, a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center and frequent speaker on the issues of modern day trafficking, Katherin Chon, a co-founder of the Polaris Project, an NGO that works with victims of sex trafficking, and Gail Dines, the author of the book “PORNLAND,” spoke about their experiences with these human rights violations at the panel. “So often we think of trafficking as something ‘out there,’” Ellerman said “There are 200,000 to 300,000 U.S.-born American citizens who are in high risk of ending up in false prostitution every year. That is a huge number,” she explained. In the United States, a victim of human
trafficking is defined as a child under the age of 18 who is compelled to perform commercial sex acts, an adult who is coerced into performing commercial sex acts or a person of any age who is mandated to do forced labor. “Many people are confused when they hear trafficking because they think about it being someone crossing borders,” Ellerman said. “You can be trafficked without leaving your house.” These victims are often abducted, however, they can also be lured into their situations with the promise of work, pay and a better life. In this kind of situation, especially, many victims are not aware of the extent to which they are being abused. “Most of us know what freedom feels like, what freedom looks like, and there are so many people in our own neighborhoods and communities who don’t,” Chon said. “Most of those enslaved or trafficked won’t even raise their hands and say, ‘I need to escape from this, this is bad,’” she illustrated. At the Polaris Project, Chon and her cofounder Derek Ellerman work to free victims of trafficking in the United States and Japan, help those victims overcome their experiences, push for anti-trafficking legislation and gather supporters as well as raise awareness for the cause. “We find the most success when we’re just there with [the victims] as fellow hu-
man beings,” Chon said. Pornography has become a cultural steppingstone to the extreme of human trafficking. It often features trafficked women and according to the event speakers, spreads a culturally-based dehumanization of and disrespect toward women. “What pornography does, is it legitimizes the buying and selling of women’s bodies,” explained Dines. Especially recently, the availability of pornography on the Web has boosted the industry. Thirteen-thousand porn films are released every year, which comes to $93 billion in revenues per year. The use of the Internet has also allowed the pornography to turn to the “gonzo genre,” a movement led by producer Max Hardcore. This genre celebrates dehumanizing, “body-punishing sex,” as Dines described it. In fact, this has gone so far that “There is nothing else to do to a women’s body, outside of killing her,” she said. “What used to happen is young boys, hormones going crazy, would go and look to their father’s pornography and they would find ‘Playboy’ and they would masturbate to it,” said Dines of this movement. Today, however, those boys can go onto the Internet and, instead, find sexist pornography videos and stories with the main goal of dehumanizing women. “You know what? We don’t know what the results are going to be,” said Dines, contemplating the possibility of a new generation of men who model their own sexual endeavors off the films they see online. “This is an experiment,” she explained. To further illustrate her point, Dines presented an analogy: “Pornography is to sex as McDonald’s is to eating,” she said, “because it’s so far removed from what it originally looked like.” The speakers urged their listeners to get involved. “This will continue and continue and continue until we as a people are outraged,” Dines said. “We have let pornography hijack our culture, hijack our sexualities, and you know what? I think it’s time we take it back.” “If you’re living and breathing, then there’s something you can do,” agreed Chon. Gender & International Development Initiatives, which comprises a part of the Women’s Studies Research Center, organized the event, held at the Heller School.
Brandeis’ first law journal makes its debut in May BY JON OSTROWSKY Staff
The first issue of the student-run Brandeis University Law Journal will be released May 3, founding Editor in Chief Judah Marans ’11 said. The law journal is one of the few undergraduate law publications in the country and features articles from students, professors and University President Jehuda Reinharz. The first issue includes a foreword from Harvard Law Prof. Alan Dershowitz. Marans, the chief justice of the Student Judiciary, explained that he came up with the idea of creating a law journal at Brandeis during the summer when thinking about the fact that undergraduates cannot submit articles to law publications run by law schools. The Law Journal is now an annual publication and receives funding from the Finance Board. Copies will be free for Brandeis students when they are released next month. Commenting on the challenges of founding a law journal without the resources and legal education that law schools provide,
“If it’s something that you’re passionate enough about, then even if you have limited resources, you will find those resources and make the best of them,” said Marans. Director of Communications for the journal Mark Garibynan ’11 said “its not really about the resources you have or don’t have. It’s about being resourceful.” One of the challenges that students faced this year was learning the proper method of legal citation, Copy Editor Jennifer Craig ’11 said. “We had to acquire skills that undergraduates really don’t have,” Craig said. But there are also advantages unique to the Brandeis Law Journal, Marans said, explaining that many law school publications do not publish features, only articles strictly based in legal analysis. “We’re publishing [some] articles and features that directly relate to Brandeis,” he said. The Brandeis Law Journal can “publish the kind of things that a law review could never publish.” The Journal includes a mix of articles from professors and students and Marans
said, “it shows that the study of law need not be for a select few.” Craig said that she found her experience as a first-year student working on the law journal very rewarding and enjoyed the process of learning to work together with the other editors. “[The opinions are] not always the same, but everyone has a passion for what they’re doing,” Craig said. The journal was able to recruit many of its members through activities fairs and contains an editorial board and an administrative staff. Some articles in the first issue include one on “Constitutional and Talmudic Law,” written by Marans, a feature called “‘Sexting,’ You, & the Law,” and a concluding article by Prof. Richard Gaskins, director of the Legal Studies program. Marans said that the Journal might eventually be sold on the Internet and in the campus bookstore. He explained that one of its future goals is to be published once a semester. Garibynan said that the success of the Journal could be attributed to the persistence of all of its members.
April 23, 2010
The Brandeis Hoot
NEWS
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Israeli soldiers No more sophomore parking with class of 2014 memorialized BY LEAH FINKELMAN Staff
A group of more than 100 students observed Yom Hazikaron in the Shapiro Campus Center atrium Monday in an event hosted by the Brandeis Zionist Alliance (BZA). The gathering marked Israel’s Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. Speakers at the event included Rabbi Elliot Kaplowitz, a Brandeis alumna and co-director of the Jewish Learning Initiative on campus and adviser to the Brandeis Orthodox Organization. Rabbi Kaplowitz said Yizkor and Kaddish, Jewish prayers of mourning. Jeremy Sherer ’10 spoke the prayer for the State of Israel and Liya Kahan ’12 said the prayer for the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces. The event also included songs performed by Manny Halberstam ’10 and Adam Ross ’10. David Wayne ’12 performed slam poetry that he had written. Dr. Moaz Azaryahu, an anthropology professor from the University of Haifa and a member of the visiting faculty of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, gave a personal reflection of what Yom Hazikaron means and its importance to Israelis. The event ended with “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem, sung by Jaclyn Frankel ’11 and Talia Salzberg ’10. Halberstam and Dana Bahir ’12 organized the ceremony. Last year, Bahir, whose parents are Israeli, worried that there were no events for Yom Hazikaron, but there were several for Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, which falls the next day. She planned a ceremony with the support of BZA, and Halberstam joined her this year, taking over the creative aspect while Bahir focused on the logistics. “Israel is our homeland, for Jews all over the world, and we can’t take her existence for granted,” Bahir said. “We need to appreciate and remember all those who lost their lives defending Israel and fighting for her continued existence, and for Americans and other Jews in the diaspora, it’s especially important to pay our respects to our brother and sisters in Israel who fought so that we can have a home.” The most meaningful part of the event was at the beginning when the air raid siren was sounded for a moment of silence, Rachael Pass ’13 said. The siren simulated moments of silence in Israel, where citizens halt their everyday lives to pay their respects. “This seems like a good day to be an Israeli,” Jessie Nusbam ’12 said.
LTS considers ending wired Internet LTS (from p. 1)
network is reliable and capable of the campus’ bandwidth needs. LTS is considering the removal of the phones because in essence they are minicomputers using energy. “The phones are really important to some students, I understand that some of you may use it as your main communication on campus, but there are some students who don’t even plug them in so supplying one for every student may not be best,” Wawrzaszek said. She added that most students own cell phones so they would still be able to communicate via phone. In addition to these changes, LTS plans to consider if and where desktop computer clusters are needed, as surveys and data also show that most students own a lap top computer. Lap top docking stations would most likely replace clusters. Special software clusters such as Getz Lab would not be removed.
PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot
BY DESTINY D. AQUINO Editor
Starting with the recently admitted class of 2014, sophomore parking will no longer be available. Current first-years will have access to parking but there will be rate increases for the entire campus in an attempt to address overall parking concerns on campus, Mark Collins, vice president of campus operations, said. The final decisions on rate increase are still under consideration but they will approximately double for both campus residents and commuters.
Residents parking in Charles River/J-Lot will have a lower rate, closer to the rate they pay now Collins said. The on-campus- $60 for commuters and $60 for students who park in Charles River/ J-lot. Parking prices at Tufts University are double Brandeis’ proposed fees with residents’ fees at $500. Currently sophomores occupy about 150 parking spaces on campus. Revenue collected from the rate increases will most likely be used to add more student shuttle services both on and off campus explained Collins but this is still under discussion.
“We’re trying to provide options for students who don’t want to pay the rate increase [parking in J-lot], options to students who don’t have a car [more shuttles] and to students who use their car all the time and want to pay the $250,” said Collins. The senior administration made these decisions as a part of the yearly campus rate review. Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan is in charge of implementing these decisions. A formal announcement regarding these changes will be made before the end of the semester.
Oren named commencement speaker, students lobby for Paul Simon to sing at ceremony COMMENCEMENT (from p. 1)
chairman of the Brandeis board of trustees told the Faculty Senate Council three years ago: ‘We support Israel.’” Mairson continued in his e-mail to write that if the university was to bestow honorary degrees upon Israeli politicians they should do it in an objective manner. “Even dual degrees to Judge Richard Goldstone and Dore Gold would have been better,” he wrote. “At least it would have underlined the proper role of a university.” Indeed, many members of the Brandeis community are more upset that commencement is the venue for such a polarizing speech than that which Oren will be delivering. While Brandeis is certainly no stranger to controversial speakers (Former President Jimmy Carter, former Weatherman William Ayers and Justice Richard Goldstone have all spoken on-campus within the past three years), Mariel Gruzko ’10 wrote on the Brandeis-based blog Innermost Parts that commencement is not the proper location for such controversy. “Regardless of your feelings for Israel ... Ambassador Oren is undeniably a controversial figure,” she wrote. “Commencement is meant to be an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the entire Brandeis community; for graduating seniors, it represents a final comingtogether as one.” “Abassador Oren’s presence as commencement’s keynote speaker does not bind our community together,” she continued. “It tears us apart.” Phil LaCombe ’10 wrote that he agreed. “As a fellow graduating senior with similar feelings, I don’t know what to do. Commencement is supposed to be the culminating ceremony of my Brandeis career, but
with Oren speaking it won’t feel that way at all,” he wrote. Gully disagreed with this point and said “his speech, rather than being divisive, will contribute to the dialogue that we encourage all of our graduates to be a part of.” LaCombe continued to write that having Oren speak at graduation would perpetuate stereotypes of Brandeis as a Jewish university. “This speaker won’t show [my family] the Brandeis I know,” he wrote. “All [my family] will see is the stereotypical Jewish institution that exists to support Israel no matter what.” Not all are upset about the choice of Oren as graduation speaker. Brandeis Zionist Association member Shirel Guzman ’12, who agrees with Oren’s politics, said she is not concerned with Reinharz’ choice of speaker. “Graduation is an exciting day for a lot of people,” she said. “I don’t think it will put a damper on the day just because they don’t like the speaker.” Jeremy Sherer ’10, president of Brandeis’ branch of J-Street, an organization of Americans who support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, wrote in an e-mail to The Hoot that “while I may not agree with the Ambassador’s politics ... I’ll be attending commencement as a graduating senior, not as the president of J Street U Brandeis.” “I look forward to the Ambassador’s remarks, which I’m sure will offer great advice to my classmates and I as we complete the fantastic accomplishment of graduating from Brandeis University.” Member of Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine Lisa Hanania ’10, however, wrote in an e-mail to The Hoot that she was “saddened and disappointed that the university chose such a controversial speaker to speak in an event that is supposed to be all-inclusive and
family-oriented.” “There are times when the Israeli-Palestinian politics should be left alone, and graduation is just one of them,” she wrote, adding that she encourages students from all sides of the political spectrum to speak up against Oren’s speech. Prof. Mary Baine Campbell (ENG) wrote to the “concerned” listserv that she would have preferred if Reinharz had chosen Farmer, who is receiving an honorary degree, to speak at the ceremony. “It’s a shame in the face of this year’s worldhistorical disaster in Haiti that we’ve passed up the opportunity to bring the catastrophe and our ethical obligation to act into focus at commencement,” she wrote. “That would have been the Brandeis so many of us were drawn to when we came here to teach and learn.” Farmer is not the only honoree receiving attention from the Brandeis campus. More than 350 Brandeis students have joined a facebook group titled “Paul Simon Should Sing at Graduation 2010.” According to the site’s “information” section, the groups creators hope that “If we show enough support, perhaps we can convince Paul Simon ... to sing (serenade us) at graduation !!!! (Because it would be awesome to say it happened.).” Amanda Hecker ’10 said she created the Facebook group when her mother asked if Simon would sing at commencement. “We’re paying more than $150,000 for our degree and he’s getting his for free,” Hecker said. “It would be really kind of him if he would sing for the senior class.” Upon being informed of the group, Gully said he thought Simon “would be very flattered” to hear the group’s request. “But I presume he’s expecting an honorary degree, not a concert,” he said.
4 NEWS
The Brandeis Hoot
April 23, 2010
Spring 2011 program at The Hague will focus on international criminal justice HAGUE (from p. 1)
participate in workshops with lawyers and judges from the International Criminal Court (ICC). The semester program will cost the equivalent of a typical Brandeis semester. Students would still be responsible for housing, transportation and meal costs as with any other semester study abroad option. Housing will be available at the University of Leiden; which is fifteen minutes away from The Hague, or closer than Brandeis is to Boston, explained Professor Richard Gaskins (LGLS), the faculty member teaching the program. Language requirements during the semester have yet to be decided. However, many language skills such as French and Spanish that have been acquired by a student may be of use in different internship and research opportunities depending on the individual student. In The Hague Summer program students will participate in workshops with international lawyers and ICC judges. It will consist of case analysis and hypothetical case study. During the semester option students will have the ability to intern and work on current ICC cases. “Many of the court procedures and the work that goes on in The Hague happens outside of the court room,” said Gaskins. “Undergraduate students will be able to participate in these long-term research projects and experimental learning options and bring a perspective that law students wouldn’t.” Gaskins said the semester op-
Students march to raise awareness about crimes against women MARCH (from p. 1)
PHOTO COURTESY Alyssa Grinberg
tion will allow students to go on excursions to different towns and countries both as a class and independently. “There’s more opportunity for a broader cultural picture, students will be able to visit museums and experience art and music and things of that sort because the course load isn’t so compact since it’s a semester [program] versus a summer [program],” he said. Students will take “The Spirit of International Law,” and “Advocacy in the International Criminal Court,” taught by Professor Gaskins as well as one class taught by a Dutch professor who will be selected during the summer program at The Hague. In addition to these three classes, students will have
the option of taking a class of their interest at the University of Leiden where they will be living. The classes taught by Gaskins and the Dutch professor will be part of the Brandeis Curriculum and therefore will affect your Brandeis GPA unlike other study abroad options. Any classes taken at the University of Leiden will be considered transfer credits and dealt with accordingly. Credits will be accepted for the Brandeis classes in the IGS, LGLS and Politics Departments. The Office of Global Affairs and the Ethics Center; who have had a strong track record of working with international tribunals and international judges; conceived the program as a way
for students to have more then a “textbook experience with International Law,” said Gaskins. He added that his experience in The Hague will also allow for a better curriculum in Walthambased classes. Students already approved to study abroad in the fall may choose to apply to this program in the fall instead of their preapproved program. “The Office of Study Abroad will administer the application process, coordinate pre-departure student support and will be involved with the development of the Program,” wrote Alyssa Grinberg, JBS program manager and administrative staff member of The Hague Program.
tion Security strongly recommends that every Facebook user explicitly configure their privacy settings to reflect their individual preferences as to how their information is made available to other Facebook users. When in doubt, it is always safer to be more restrictive with what information you expose on Facebook.” Facebook has three privacy settings, “Everyone, Friends and Friends of Friends” they recommed that information which will allow people to find you easiest such as your gender, location, about me and status be available to everyone. They also recommend that more private information such as your political views, religion, photos and videos only be set to “Friends of Friends” and that your entire Facebook page should only be viewable by people you’ve added as “Friends.” In a recent addition to Facebook you can now add your “Friends” to specific group categories you create. This feature allows you to select what conversations, status updates and overall activity each of your friends can see by allowing your activity to
only be viewed by certain groups of “Friends.” You can do this by clicking the lock icon next to any post you make on Facebook. Overall, do not make your default picture anything you wouldn’t want anyone to see. Set your settings by going to account, privacy settings, and choose what works best for you. Always remember though that just because you’ve added a friend doesn’t mean that they don’t log on and view your page with other people around them that aren’t your friends, or worse walk away leaving the computer open for a stranger, administrator or person you’ve been saying mean things about on your wall to walk up and see it, so be careful what you post.
LTS answers Facebook privacy questions BY DESTINY D. AQUINO Editor
There are more than 400 million users of Facebook, more than 40 percent of those users are between the ages of 17 and 24. The average user has 160 friends and is connected to 60 groups, pages or events. With the number of those over 40-years old using facebook growing, just how do students protect their profiles from being seen by administrators, professors, employers and, worst of all, parents? Library and Technology Services has recently had an influx in questions regarding Facebook privacy. Students were curious about what can be seen when they are Googled and how to protect themselves further. “The answer depends entirely on how an individual has configured the privacy settings on their Facebook account. University administrators have no ability whatsoever to override an individual’s Facebook privacy settings,” wrote Dennis Devlin, chief information security officer, in an LTS blog. He added, “Brandeis Informa-
own experiences,” Hartman said. The march sought to provide a safe atmosphere for the survivors of sexual assault, and other people affected by this phenomenon, to share their stories and feel the support of the Brandeis community. “Rallies such as these are about more than raising awareness,” Sussman explained, “they provide empowerment. They provide a crucial space for survivors and others affected by rape and sexual assault to come together, to let our community know that there are survivors among us and that we stand with them.” “I think it’s important to educate people on the resources available to them on campus,” Turner said. “I would hope that the people who come feel that this is a safe space to talk.” Take Back the Night is an international phenomenon. The first rally was in Brussels, Belgium, when the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women occurred there in 1976. After that, walks began to take place all over the world. One was held in Leeds, England, to commemorate the Jack the Ripper killings of the 1800s. They also happened in India, Australia, Canada and the United States, among other countries. “It’s a march and a movement that’s been around for a long time,” Hartman said. There are old bracelets from the 2005 Brandeis march, and other items from the 2007 march, in the Women’s Resource Center in Shapiro Campus Center. “Rape and sexual assault and all sorts of relationship abuse are very relevant issues everywhere, but especially on college campuses,” Hartman said. “I know a lot of my friends, from growing up in high school and people here, have had personal experiences with this. It’s very important to address.” For Sussman, one of the most significant parts of the walk is, “to let out our feelings of frustration and rage that often accompany these issues; it is empowering in itself to just rear back and yell, to give voice to feelings of hurt and disillusionment that testify to the fact that we’re still human.”
April 23, 2010
The Brandeis Hoot
NEWS
Election Results
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PHOTO BY Heddy Ben-Atar/The Hoot
Students celebrate Israel’s Birthday BY JODI ELKIN Editor
Student Judiciary: Matthew Kriegsman, Judah A. Marans, Rasheedat M. Azeez, Jessica Granville, Alex C. Norris ADVERTISEMENT
Students gathered on the Great Lawn Tuesday afternoon for the carnival held in Israel’s honor. Jews everywhere were especially excited on this year’s “4/20” to celebrate the 62nd birthday of Israel’s independence, otherwise known as the Jewish holiday Yom Ha’atzmaut. “4/20” is typically associated in both North America and abroad as a day to smoke cannabis. This was an alternative on the Brandeis campus, promoting to get chai (the Hebrew word for living) on life and Israel’s independence. Students were entertained by a moon bounce, sand art, wax hands, face painting, tie-dye shirts, free condoms and food, from cotton candy to snow cones. In synagogue that morning, Jews recited special prayers previously reserved for holidays: when Israel became the homeland in 1948, the prayers became appropriate for the day of independence.
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The carnival was completed with plenty of Israeli music, including performances from a cappella groups and B’yachad’s folk dancing. Coordinator Rebecca Schlangel thought that she and the other members of the team who organized the carnival “definitely stepped up the publicity for this event. We really went above and beyond,” she said. In addition to creating Facebook events and listservs to publicize the carnival, they attached condoms to fliers to grab attention, and also promoted the event with plenty of sidewalk chalk and balloons. “I love Israel. This was such a great way to commemorate our independence as the chosen people,” said a student. “And I really enjoyed that cotton candy.” The event was co-sponsored by Hillel, the Brandeis Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed organizations, the Hebrew Department, J-Street U, Birthright, Chabad, Brandeis Democrats and Republicans and Achla Muzika.
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6 The Brandeis Hoot
FEATURES The college experience x 4
BY ALANA BLUM Staff
For my family, everything seems to exist in fours. There are four siblings, four colleges, four college tuitions and four careers in the making. And we wouldn’t have it any other way (except the four college tuition fees, of course). Unknown to many Brandesians, I’m a quadruplet, born second. At home, being a quadruplet, or “one of the four,” was my identity. Here at Brandeis, I’ve tried to form a new identity, but when all is said and done, I’m still “one of the four.” The moment the college search began, it was an unspoken rule that the four of us would branch out into four separate colleges. We were more than ready to have our own space and be known for who we are individually rather than as a whole. Now, my siblings and I are spread out across New England, and I’m happily stationed at Brandeis. Since I was little, people have often asked me what it’s like to be a quadruplet and my reply has always been the same: “What’s it like not being one?” ven though I’m now away at college, I still have that unique relationship with my siblings that has resulted from sharing my life with them since day one. Sure, we will often go through weeks at a time with no communication, as often happens between family members, but I’m never happier than when I hear their voices. Adam, the “baby” (he was born last by a mere fifteen seconds), was the first one to get dropped off at college last year at the University of Connecticut. My other brother, Daniel, born third, was the next to get dropped off. He went to Uni-
versity of New Haven last year, but will be transferring to Wentworth Institute of Technology this coming semester. It was when I was saying good-bye to Daniel that it really hit me: The four of us were going our separate ways. And I can’t tell you why, but suddenly my eyes welled up with tears. This was it: soon we’d be getting separate jobs, getting married, having kids. The years ahead flashed before my eyes, and I was already consumed with nostalgia for days that weren’t even over yet. It wasn’t until Passover that year that we were all together again, and I could detect that each of my siblings had begun forming a new identity for themselves. After that time apart, character traits I had never noticed in them before had become much more apparent and defined. Arielle, the first born, was back from Israel, where she attended seminary last year, and I suddenly noticed how spiritual she had become. And Daniel was beginning to show his more loving side as he came out to greet me with a huge hug. In the past, he had been a little gruff at showing affection but one day, to my great delight, Daniel ended one of our phone conversations with “Good bye, I love you.” Adam, who is studying political science and business at University of Connecticut, surprised us all with a level of knowledge we never guessed he possessed. To tell the truth, perhaps Arielle had always been spiritual, maybe Daniel had always been affectionate, and perhaps Adam had always been so intelligent. Maybe even I, like many people in our lives, had been so blinded by the concept of us existing as
one single entity rather than as four individuals that I had just never noticed how unique we truly are. When I came to Brandeis this year after transferring from Bay Path College, I’d always use “I’m a quadruplet” as my cool and unusual fact about myself during icebreaker games. I never realized I had stopped telling people about my siblings until Wednesday when I caught three different people off guard when I mentioned that I was a quad. People’s initial responses are often based in surprise, as they ask me if I’m joking, but today I heard a new reaction: “How come I’ve known you this long and I’m just finding this out today?” I didn’t have a response. Instead, I myself began wondering why that was. Being at Brandeis has definitely helped me shape my own identity. While at Bay Path College I had felt like part of a broken entity; here I’ve had the opportunity to explore my interests and figure out my own individuality. Back at home, my siblings and I often did every-
PHOTO BY Alana Blum/The Hoot
MEET THE SIBLINGS: Alana Blum is pictured with her three siblings. They are all attending different colleges.
April 23, 2010
PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot
ONE OF FOUR: Alana Blum reminisces about her experience as a quadruplet and studying at Brandeis without her siblings.
thing as a whole, including joining the same clubs, or enrolling in the same classes. At Brandeis, though, I discovered my interest in the field of anthropology without having heard about it
first from any of my siblings. At Brandeis, I joined clubs that held special interest to me as an individual, rather than to the four of us as a whole. As much as I stress that I’ve enjoyed forming my own identity at college, I do often miss the good old days when I could just walk into one of my siblings’ rooms after a hard day and pour my heart out to them. But the most horrifying aspect of our separateness came earlier this semester with the death of our uncle. We had gone back to college after winter break thinking it would be a while until we were united again, but the funeral brought us back together a week later. It was strange to realize that it took a funeral for us to feel like a whole again. In the end, none of us regrets going our separate ways. My siblings and I had four separate baby cribs, four separate high school diplomas and now we have our four separate college experiences to laugh and cry about when we’re together. Only then can we experience that the whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts.
April 23, 2010
The Brandeis Hoot
Earth Day!
PHOTOS BY MAX SHAY
FEATURES
7
8 The Brandeis Hoot
SPORTS
April 23, 2010
Softball team ranked 14th in nation in Division III poll BY ADAM HUGHES Staff
The Brandeis University softball team has been on fire all year, and their dream season continued with more highlights this past week. After unleashing two more monster performances at Wesleyan, the Judges are beginning to receive significant national attention. And while the success belongs to the entire team, two of Brandeis’ stars have been singled out with special praise for their glittering achievements on the diamond. Pitcher Emily Vaillette ’10 was the first to get an individual honor. Her spectacular season earned her a feature article in the sports section of the April 16 edition of the Nashua Telegraph, a New Hampshire newspaper. Vaillette attended Milford High School, located near Nashua, and the Telegraph reports that she led the Milford softball team to two straight Class I title games and a state championship. Vaillette should have had the chance to show off her skills on the same day during Brandeis’ doubleheader at Framingham State, but she was denied by an opponent even she can’t defeat: the weather. Rain caused the games to be postponed, and a make-up date has yet to be scheduled. The delay only stoked Vaillette’s fire, and she came out throwing smoke to the batters in the first game against Wesleyan on Saturday, April 17. She pitched six innings and won the game, allowing only four hits, fanning six batters, and preventing a single Cardinal from reaching farther than second base. Meanwhile, Stacy Berg ’13 socked a two-run homer in the first inning to put the Judges ahead. The score remained 2-0 until the seventh, when the Judges exploded for six runs on five hits, with the key plays coming on a solo home run by Erin Ross ’10 and a two-run single from Marianne Specker ’12. Meaghan Dendy was saddled with the loss in the 8-0 Brandeis win. The nightcap showed that the Judges were just getting started. The first inning began with Melisa Cagar ’11 hitting a single, stealing second and scoring on
PITCHING: Emily Vailette pitches against East Connecticut State in Thursday’s game.
a single from Brittany Grimm ’12. Erin Ross followed shortly thereafter with a two-run single, and the rout was on. By the time Brandeis picked up its gloves for the first time, they had a 13-0 lead. The game ended after five innings with a score of 17-4. Specker plated a total of four base runners, including herself on a two-run home run, and Ross had a total of 3 RBIs. Allie Mussen ’10 didn’t have her best start ever, allowing four runs in three innings, but it was more than enough to earn the victory and run her season record to 4-0. On April 21, Emily Berg got a nice surprise when she was named UAA Hitter of the Week for her performance from April 12-18. During that time, Berg went 8 for 10 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in four
Brandeis wins, in which the team scored a total of 45 runs. On the same day, the Judges moved up to 14th in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll of Division III softball programs, matching the same ranking they reached earlier this season. Unfortunately, their first outing sporting the new ranking didn’t go as well as they hoped. On April 22, Eastern Connecticut State visited Waltham and made their presence felt quickly with a two-run homer in the first inning. After five frames, Brandeis was in a 3-0 hole and had failed to record a single hit against Warriors pitcher Molly Rathbun. In the sixth, Chelsea Korp ’13 finally punched through a single, and Melisa
PHOTO BY Andrew Rauner/The Hoot
Cagar followed by knocking the ball out of the park, slicing the deficit to one. However, Rathbun sent the Judges back to the dugout 1-2-3 in the seventh, and the game was over at 3-2. The game was interrupted by a 45-minute delay in the fourth inning due to lightning, and the later half of the doubleheader started behind schedule. The two teams battled to a 3-3 tie in the fourth inning, but it had to be called because of darkness before becoming official. Brandeis is now 22-6-1 on the year, including an 8-2-1 record at home, a 7-1 away record and a 7-3 record at neutral sites. The team will stay at home for a doubleheader against Babson on April 27 and then go to Rhode Island College for a doubleheader on April 29
Women’s tennis team finishes 6th at UAA Championships BY HANNAH VICKERS Editor
Thanks to a hard-fought win against the Case Western Reserve University Spartans last Saturday, the Judges were able to finish sixth in the University Athletic Association with a 1-2 conference record. “A sixth place finish overall is solid, but a little below our goals,” head coach Ben Lamanna told The Hoot in an email. “The top five teams are nationally ranked, so it’s really competitive.” Brandeis opened up the 2010 UAA Championships in Cleveland last Friday with a 5-0 loss to the Carnegie Mellon University Tartans, the 10th ranked team in the country. The Judges were the sixth seed going into the tournament while Carnegie Mellon was third in the conference. The matches were played inside due to inclement weather and as a result were played to decision instead of completion. The closest match of the day was first doubles where Rachel Rosman ’11 and Faith Broderick ’13 fell to their op-
ponents just 8-5. of her own, taking The Judges bounced “We play in the hardest con- the number four back the following day ference, and every year all singles 6-3, 6-1 to to face the seventh put Brandeis up seeded host Case West- the teams continue to get 4-1. ern in the consolation better.” The Spartans semifinals. Brandeis would not go qui- Emily Weisberger ’10 etly. They took started things off well, going 2-1 in doubles to second and third take the lead. singles in three “The match against Case was definitely sets to get within one of tying things a test of who wanted it more,” co-captain up. Sarah Richman ’12 closed things out Emily Weisberger ’10 told The Hoot in in the sixth singles, defeating her Case an e-mail. “I think the girls showed a lot Western opponent 6-3, 6-4 to secure a of fight and a lot of heart when it came 5-3 win for the Judges. down to big points, which led us to a vic“Sarah Richman, clinched another tory against them.” huge win at six singles for us, proving Those first wins did not come eas- how much of an asset she is to our team,” ily, though. In first doubles Rosman Sanai said in an e-mail to The Hoot. and Broderick had to go to a tiebreaker, “We had a gutsy win against Case Westeventually taking the match 9-8. Third ern Reserve,” Lamanna said. “Each match doubles had the same suspense, with co- was pressure packed and our ladies captain Ariana Sanai ’10 and Nina Levine played great to get the win.” ’12 taking the tiebreaker to pull out a 9-8 The Judges moved on to the fifth place win. match that afternoon but were unable to Rosman moved onto first singles where keep their momentum going. They fell with a 6-0, 6-2 victory she became the to the 14th ranked Washington Univerteam’s only double winner of the match. sity of St. Louis Bears 6-1. Rosman and Mackenzie Gallegos ’11 had a two set win Broderick finished out the tournament
with a 2-1 record after an 8-5 win over the Bears in first singles, but that would be the only point Brandeis could claim in the match. “I think on the whole the weekend went well,” Sanai told The Hoot. “Unfortunately we did not improve our seeding, which is disappointing but pulling out that tight win against Case was great because it allowed us to play to our sixth position in the seeding.” “We play in the hardest conference, and every year all the teams continue to get better,” Weisberger explained. “UAA weekend is always our opportunity to step up and play our best tennis, and I think we showed that this weekend.” The women have one dual match left to when they host Trinity College at 11 a.m. Saturday. This will be the final match of their college career for Sanai and Weisberger. The Hoot would like to congratulate them on their careers here at Brandeis and wish them the best of luck in the future. “[The team is] a great group of girls and I wish I could have more years of tennis here at Brandeis to spend with them,” Sanai said. “I will miss them greatly!”
April 23, 2010
The Brandeis Hoot
SPORTS
9
One win, two losses, three postponements for baseball team BY KARA KARTER Staff
Losers of seven straight games, and nine of ten overall, the Brandeis baseball team entered weekend play starved for a win. At long last, the hunger was satiated. Still, even this didn’t go entirely according to plan. With scheduled games against Framingham State and Wheaton College postponed (and no makeup dates yet announced), the Judges took the diamond Sunday against Babson College (20-11). Though the teams were originally slated to play on Brandeis’ home turf, better field conditions at Babson resulted in the game’s relocation to nearby Wellesley. The hosts turned visitors got on the board first, plating a trio of runs in the top of the second. Eric Rosenberg ’11 opened the inning with a single up the middle and reached third base on a base hit from rightfielder John O’Brion ’10. Rosenberg came home on a sac fly from Zach Malis ’12 and, following a walk, two more scored when senior James Likis slapped a two-out double into the right centerfield gap. Babson negated Likis’ double when, in the bottom of the frame, rookie third baseman Chris Kutcher slugged his team leading sixth home run of the season. The drive, which hit a tree in center field, cut Brandeis’ lead to 3-2. The Beavers pulled ahead in the following inning. After errors by Likis and Judges pitcher Drew Brzozowski ’10, a double and single gave Babson a 5-2 advantage. Following the third, Brzozowski settled down in a major way. He allowed only one more hit in the game’s remaining four innings on route to a complete game sixhitter. The effort marked Brzozowski’s third complete game of the season and the sixth of his career. The Brandeis bats weren’t done. With security on the mound, the Judges scored seven times in the game’s final three frames. Most of the damage was done in the top of the seventh. Nick Cortese ’13 singled home a man before a Malis opposite-field smash added three runs to the Judges’ tally. Every Brandeis hitter collected at least one hit in what was a 10-5 road victory. In addition to Malis’ 4-RBI day, Rosenberg batted an impressive 4-for-4 with two runs scored. Cortese, who entered as a pinch-runner in the Brandeis sixth, scored two times. Though the Brandeis-Babson battle was scheduled to be a twin bill, Mother Nature had other ideas. It rained inter-
mittently throughout the opener, but not enough to halt play. In the second contest, a thirty-minute rain delay featuring bits of hail caused the game to be called in the top of the fifth inning. At the time, Brandeis was ahead 5-3. With the score 3-3 after four, and Babson unable to come to the plate in the bottom of the fifth, the affair could not be counted as an official game. The Judges played a home game as scheduled—the team’s first in three weeks—the following Monday versus Amherst College (14-9). For three innings, the Judges and Lord Jeffs traded zeros, with neither team allowing much in the way of base runners. Brandeis struck first in the fourth. Likis, the first batter of the inning, slugged an offering from Amherst pitcher Dylan Joyce over the left-field wall for his first home run of the season. Two batters later, rookie Chris Ferro slapped a double to right. He came home on a twostrike, two-out single from Rosenberg. Amherst got one back in the top of the fifth, scoring a run on an infield hit, a steal, another single and a wild pitch. The inning proved Brandeis starter Dylan Britton’s ’13 only blemish in arguably the best start of his young career. Over the first six innings, Britton allowed only three hits and one run while striking out two and walking one. He left the mound three times after eliminating the side in order. An offensive outburst in the Amherst seventh would make Britton’s ATTEMPT: Dylan Britton ‘10 faces off against an Amhearst hitter in effort for naught, however. After ROOKIE PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot Tuesday’s game. hitting the leadoff man and being yanked in favor of reliever Alex Tynan ’12, Brit- mately lose 4-3 in 11 innings. would soon be evened at three-all. ton could only watch as four Brandeis Both teams scored their initial runs in With extra innings in sight, the Judgrelievers combined to allow Amherst to the fourth inning, but, as the road team, es were surely hoping for a better result score eight runs on seven hits, two walks the Judges did so first. And they did it than the walk-off defeat they suffered to and another hit batsman. without a hit to their credit. Jon Chu ’12 Johnson and Wales six days before. HowThree of the seven hits were doubles, and Ferro led off the inning with a pair of ever, it was not so. including the only multiple RBI hit of the walks. After a groundout moved Chu to After a scoreless tenth, and a one-twoframe, a two-run two-bagger by Alex Co- third, he trotted home on a sacrifice fly three top of the eleventh, Endicott led off burn ’11. Amherst tacked on an insurance from Rosenberg. its half of the inning against Mike Swerdpair—by way of three more doubles—in In the bottom of the frame, Endicott loff ’13 with a walk. After a bunt, adthe eighth, on way to an 11-2 rout. scored twice, the first on a double from vanced runner Colin Sitarz ’12 to second, For the third game in a row, Brandeis senior designated hitter Aaron Santos Joe Kasabuski ’13 hit the game winning saw a striking performance from its and the second on an error at first base single into the left-centerfield gap. starting pitchers. In the wake of gems by Rosenberg. Ferro led Brandeis by batting a perfect from Brzozowski and Britton, John McBrandeis evened the score in the top 3-for-3 with a walk. Chu and Rosenberg Grath ’11 carried on the trend Wednes- of the sixth on a bases loaded walk, and were the other Judges with multi-hit day against Endicott College (22-12). went ahead in the seventh, courtesy of a games, collecting two apiece. The New York native tossed 8.2 innings Chu single to short. With the loss, the Judges now sit at 9-20 of eight hit, three run ball while striking With the Gulls of Endicott mounting on the year. out four in a game the Judges would ulti- a two-out rally in the eighth, the score
Golf team heads into UAA Championships with momentum BY JON OSTROWSKY Staff
The Brandeis golf team finished in third place out of 16 teams at the Worcester State Invitational on Monday in their last match before the UAA League tournament. Charles Sacks ’11 led the Judges, finishing in a tie for seventh place out of 78 athletes, with a score of 76 at fourover-par. Sacks has been the leading golfer for the Judges in each of their four meets this spring. Also near the top was Aaron Cusato ’12, finishing with a six-over-par score of 78 in a tie for 13th place. “It was out best finish in a field that big all year and because the two teams that beat us are powerhouses in the New England golf,” Cusato wrote in an email
to The Hoot. Captain Lee Bloom ’10, placed third for the Judges, finished with a score of 80 at eight-over-par. Scott Beaulac ’12 tied for 38th place with a score of 86. Kyle Mangan ’12 finished two strokes behind Beaulac with a score of 88. “We need to just keep on playing like we are because this is the best golf I have seen played in my four years here,” Bloom wrote in an e-mail to The Hoot. Bloom said he was optimistic about the team’s chances at the UAA tournament, referencing their continually strong play in the regular season. “I think everyone on the team wants to play their best and if everyone plays to their potential we will definitely be in a position [to] come out on top,” Bloom
wrote. The Judges record since the fall has been impressive as well. Monday’s third place finish at the Worcester State Invitational marked their fourth third place finish of the year. The team, led by Head Coach Bill Shipman competed in tournaments throughout September and October before starting up their spring season April 11 at Dartmouth in the Corsair Invitational. The Judges tied for sixth place out of 18 teams in their first contest of the Spring season, and their success has not slowed down. “The biggest challenge so far this season was getting back into tournament mode after a long layoff. The transition back to tournament golf from just practicing is a big adjustment,” Cusato wrote.
Cusato explained that despite overall strong performances on the course, occasional high scores have prevented the team from performing at their best. “I think we need to improve on limiting the damage on our bad holes,” Cusato wrote. “As a team we had a couple of big numbers that hurt our chances on really competing for the title,” he said referring to the Worcester State Invitational. The UAA Championships will be hosted by the University of Rochester and will be held from April 25 to 26 at Locust Hill Country Club. “Our biggest challenge will be UAA’s as I know we will put pressure on ourselves to play well because it is the last tournament of the season and for the foreseeable future of the golf program,” Bloom wrote.
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The Brandeis Hoot 11
‘Spelling Bee’ worthy of buzz
BY SEAN FABERY Editor
There is no rite of passage quite as wholesome and all-American as the spelling bee. Brandeisians got the opportunity to relive their own spelling bee days with Tympanium Euphorium’s presentation of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” a one-act musical comedy that humorously probes the neuroses and dilemmas that plague one group of eager bee contestants. Its Brandeis incarnation, directed by Alex Davidson ’10 and produced by Jackie Feinberg ’10, was unequivocally a success. The musical’s actions take place on a tense afternoon during the annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in a middle school gymnasium. Six middle school contestants have made it to the final round of the spelling bee: perennially neglected Olive Ostrovsky (Zoey Hart ’13), boy scout—and reigning champ—Chip Tolentino (Adam Levine ’11), overachiever Marcy Park (Sara Wiesenfeld ’12), fiercely competitive nerd William Barfée (Paul Gale ’12), politically aware Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere (Julie Stein ’11) and Leaf Coneybear (Jeremy Weinberg ’12), a quirky kid who, having been only second runner-up at his school’s spelling bee, was never meant to compete in the first place. “Putnam County” delivers dose after dose of irreverent humor, gleefully sending up the behind-the-scenes shenanigans one imagines could take place at a bee. Unsurprisingly, most of the characters completely conform to the stereotype of the socially awkward bee contestant, with many of them also being overscheduled by overly enthusiastic stage parents. The musical as a whole treats the bee with mock importance—it becomes almost an “American Idol”-like event. Always supportive moderator Rona Lisa Peretti (Abigail Lisa Clarke ’12) serves as the Paula fig-
ure, while decidedly unstable judge Douglas Panch (Herbie Rosen ’12)—always lacing his definitions with inappropriate comments—fills the Simon role. There’s even a Ryan Seacrest of sorts, though this one has a criminal background: convict Mitch Mahoney (Nick Maletta ’13) fulfills his community service by acting as the bee’s Comfort Counselor, giving contestants hugs and juice boxes after they get knocked out of the competition. “Putnam County” explicitly addresses the seeming irrelevance of spelling bees, as Jesus Christ himself appears to tell one contestant, plagued with doubts about her continued participation, that “this isn’t the kind of thing I care very much about.” The production’s comedy benefited from the incorporation of numerous improvisational elements. Before each performance, four additional contestants were selected from the audience to participate alongside the characters. This gave the production an added element of spontaneity. Additionally, the definitions and example sentences given to the contestants varied from show to show, and most of them were incredibly amusing. For instance, the word “guacamole” was used in the sentence: “guacamole— the Mexican pudding.” As broadly drawn as the show’s characters are, each of them has a kernel of psychological truth and depth to them. Olive dedicates her time to the dictionary simply because her parents are never around, an experience which she shares with the audience in “The I Love You Song.” Leaf simply wants to prove that he is, in fact, a smart kid. Chip finds himself forced out of the competition by his “unfortunate erection.” Perhaps that last bit isn’t as serious as the rest, but the characters clearly possess the insecurity and maladjustedness that plague all adolescents. The show featured an excellent cast without a single weak link. I found it almost
PHOTO BY Ingrid Schulte/The Hoot
SPELLING SUCCESS: In Tympanium Euphorium’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” six students try to put their insecurities aside in order to secure a spot at the national spelling bee.
impossible to select a single standout performance, as every actor so completely inhabited his or her role. One favorite, however, was Weinberg as Leaf, a character whom he consistently imbued with a certain kind of wistful eccentricity. Gale took obvious pleasure in making William, the mean-spirited nerd with a perpetually runny nose, as unlikable as possible. Stein, wearing pigtails and donning an exaggerated lisp, seemed like a genuine, precocious child. In fact, that could be said for everyone in the cast. The success of any musical hinges largely on the presentation of the music itself. Mu-
sic director Mindy Cimini ’12 did a wonderful job bringing the music to life and ensuring that each vocal performance was matched by stunning musical accompaniment. The set, which, at first glance, appeared pretty simple, perfectly captured the archetypical middle school gymnasium. It was decorated in a swath of primary and secondary colors and featured a rickety set of bleachers. As a whole, the production must be commended for bringing such a joyous musical so fully to life. It was easily one of my favorite times at the theater this year.
Klionsky paints the Russian Jewish experience
BY KAYLA DOS SANTOS Editor
Artist Marc Klionsky evokes the Russian Jewish immigrant experience in his expressive portraits. His paintings and etchings depict the hardships and joys he and his generation lived through in the Soviet Union and later the artistic freedom he found in America. Brandeis students had the chance to view his emotional pieces in a variety of perspectives: through the eyes of his grandson, through a historical lens and through artistic critical analysis. The Brandeis-Genesis Institute (BGI) for Russian Jewry’s event displayed the power of art to not only reflect on the past of a people in terms of their personal and collective memory, but also to signify a community’s hope for a bright future. Six portraits from a series titled “Let People Don’t Forget” were displayed in the back of the Rapaporte Treasure Hall for attendees to contemplate: an etching of a weathered man with shadowed eyes against a starry background, a woman cradling a child, a man with a split-skull, among others. Some were done in a simplistic, powerful style, while others were more complicated with swathes of color and a variety of figures. All the portraits, however, were echoes of a past that contained many painful hardships and featured subjects that had the fierce strength to survive them. At the event’s opening BGI fellow Julian Olidort ’11—also Klionsky’s grandson— described some of the trials his grandfather experienced while living in Russia. During
Scott explained that Klionsky would have been condemned if he had painted in the modernist rather than the socialrealist style. His immigration to the United States gave him the liberty to explore other means of expressing himself. She stated that “the overarching theme [of his work] is the transition between intellectual artistic oppression and freedom.” Olidort elaborated on Klionsky’s struggle in the Soviet Union as an artist. “[His] etchings were done illegally under Soviet rule, it’s a given in America—intellectual freedom, but there it wasn’t.” “You create something and it belongs to the State,” Olidort said. “My grandfather broke out of that.” Scott discussed a variety of PHOTO COURTESY OF Julian Olidort Klionsky’s works, particularly REACHING ACROSS THE GAP: Klionsky’s “Never Again” depticts how his paintings alternated the hope he has for future generations of Russian Jews. between a photo-realist style WWII, Klionsky’s village was overwhelmed to a more imaginative style. In the 1970s by Nazis and, as Olidort put it, Klionsky he experimented in the surrealist style in “witnessed the carnage of war firsthand.” what Scott describes as representative of Later he underwent vigorous training at “the freedom of the unconscious mind.” the National Academy of Fine Art in Len- One painting she analyzed was Klionsky’s ingrad, where he developed his skills as an 1975 “Exodus I,” which features a man with artist. In the Soviet Union, though, Klion- a woman springing from his split head—a sky’s artistic talent was stymied by an op- surrealist exploration of the divided self. pressive regime. Division is a theme that has preoccupied Director of Fine Arts Professor Nancy Russian Jews and is prevalent in Klionsky’s
work. In providing the historical context for Klionsky’s art, Chair of the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Professor Antony Polonsky explained the division that separates first generation Russian Jewish immigrants from the current generation of immigrants. “[There] is a culture gap between the people who fought to bring them here and the Jews that came here,” he said. Polonsky compared this gap to the estrangement of two brothers separated by geography, and he suggested that this break could be healed through the love the brothers have for each other. Olidort used Klionsky’s “Never Again” (2001)—a painting that depicts a person raising a rifle defiantly into the air, a crowd of Russian Jews and a youth (a depiction based on Olidort) holding a candle and praying—to describe the connection between the older generation and the new generation. He said, “[This painting] shows that a grandfather’s grandson is his future in this new world … rising from oppression.” Marc Klionsky’s wife Irina also commented on the relationship between generations. In an interview with the Hoot, she stated that “the Jewish heritage, its traditions, is passed from generation to generation. Those who haven’t before are becoming more and more involved in Jewish life.” BGI’s event was an interesting and poignant exploration of a community’s past and future through the medium of art. Klionsky’s portraits allowed attendees to glimpse the former struggles and joys of Russian Jews and to also see Klionsky’s hope for their potential.
12 ARTS, ETC.
The Brandeis Hoot
April 23, 2010
Chatting with filmmaker Chico Colvard BY SEAN FABERY Editor
Director Chico Colvard has received great acclaim for his inaugural film, the documentary “Family Affair,” which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it was acquired by Oprah Winfrey’s new cable network OWN. “Family Affair” documents his family’s coming to terms with the discovery that Colvard’s father had sexually abused his sister, a revelation that shattered his family when he was 10 years old. Colvard will appear at Brandeis on Monday, April 26th, for a Q&A session following a screening of his film at the Wasserman Cinematheque at 7 p.m. Colvard recently discussed his film with Arts, Etc. Arts, Etc.: Why did you decide to make this film? Chico Colvard: I don’t really feel like it was a choice. It wasn’t really possible for me to not make this film. I think that, in a lot of ways, the films I want to continue to make … are the ones that keep you up in the middle of the night. [This was] a personal story, and I think it was really motivated from a place of fear, a fear that, if I didn’t turn back and confront my past, it would haunt me forever … So I created an opportunity to pursue the story through the medium of film. Arts: How did your family react to your decision to turn this into a documentary? CC: Some of them have reacted differently at different stages. Some have consistently supported the project from the early stages to
now. I think in the beginning they didn’t actually know— and I didn’t know—that I was thinking of making this [specific kind of] film. That was somewhat deliberate on my part, [as I wanted] to approach this with a certain kind of openness to the ambiguity of the story and a[n]… openness to allowing the subjects to inform me about what the story was about, as opposed … to [my] imposing hypotheticals to real-life situations. There are some assumptions I could’ve made about issues I address in the film, but how these situations are addressed I didn’t want to have any control over. My sisters were the primary people I was concerned about in how they would respond to the film—that they were safe and that they knew I was telling their story with care and authenticity … I’ve included at the end of the film a sort of split-screen and wide-shot of them watching the film [with] a close-up of each of the sisters… It’s a sort of attempt to eloquently
tionship and betrayal has gone on for so many years unresolved, and the longer it goes unresolved the more complacent and conflicted they feel. I feel honored that this film has given people permission to find the courage to stand up before an audience of 400 to 900 strangers … I don’t know if I could’ve done that [myself] nine years ago.
PHOTO COURTESY OF C-Line Productions
answer the question you asked. They were at Sundance and involved in a couple of the Q&As, and I think it’s been very healing for me and very freeing for me. Therapeutic, but not at the expense of the audience. For my sisters to have their story told has been very empowering for them and transformative. Arts: How do you feel about the success your first film has encountered? CC: You couldn’t ask for a better coming-out party. It’s very humbling and a great thing—a real honor and a real privilege
to be among some of these [other films]. To walk out of Sundance with a broadcast deal from Oprah and to have established some real connections with broadcasters that were interested in the film is … a great entry into a business I’m very passionate about. [The best part has been] how receptive audiences have been to the film and how much it really seems to resonate with them. It hasn’t been so much people saying they were molested as a kid but people saying that they grew up with abusive or neglectful parents and [finding themselves] really connecting with the piece—and how that rela-
Arts: What ideas do you want your audience to walk away from your film with? CC: There are some people with good intentions who would say that the solution to these kind of family crises, whatever they may be—child sexual molestation or alcoholism or a dad who was never home—would advocate that the way to overcome [these issues] is to break the silence and speak up. I say yes and no. I think it has to be on the terms and conditions set by the victim and survivor. Not everyone can live in a light of truth without real consequences. For some people—especially those who are presently enduring whatever their betrayal is—there is a real price that comes with … this kind of disclosure. This is not for everyone, and I respect that. I’m not advocating that everyone come clean and confront their parents. For some people, that might mean getting sent to foster care or being abandoned or being stricken from the will … or no house, no home, no job … For those who feel that they are at a place where they can get the kind of support where they do disclose this type of family crisis, I’d like to think that my film in some way will empower them and give them permission to do that.
‘South Park’ celebrates 200th episode with controversy BY GORDY STILLMAN Staff
“South Park,” a show whose earliest origins stem from a college project of creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, celebrated its 200th episode last week. Topics covered so far this season include sex addiction, banned literature, medicinal marijuana and Facebook. Episode 200 and its followup do not fail to entertain as the denizens of South Park endure a class action lawsuit filed by every celebrity they have ever mocked in the past 199 episodes. Returning targets include Mel Gibson, previously portrayed as certifiably crazy; Rob Reiner, shown to be an over eating activist; and Barbara Streisand or, rather, Mecha Streisand, a mechanical Godzilla-type monster. The episode begins innocuously enough as the children tour a chocolate factory. Stan, a character based on Parker, sees Tom Cruise packaging fudge and calls him a “fudge packer.” Cruise responds with a class action lawsuit, a situation reminiscent of Kanye West’s response to being called a gay fish in the episode “Fish-
sticks,” one of last year’s funniest episodes The town attempts to convince Cruise to drop the lawsuit, and Cruise offers them a compromise: South Park’s residents must convince the prophet Muhammad to come to town. This sparks an intense debate—as one citizen puts it, “if Muhammad comes to town, we all get bombed.” As this seemingly random story unfolds, the episodes’ main theme becomes apparent. Returning to one of the show’s more common topics, the episode becomes a dissertation on how Muhammad is considered the only religious figure that is off-limits when it comes
to comedy. Through the citizens of South Park, the creators debate with Comedy Central about the inherent hypocrisy of marking a topic as taboo. To me, it makes no sense that Muhammad cannot even be displayed, or, in the case of part 2, even mentioned by name—yet it is acceptable that they show Jesus watching porn and Buddha doing drugs. The show’s creators have allegedly received death threats based on the first of the two episodes, in which no likeness of Muhammad was ever shown. I think it is outright lunacy that one religious figure is off-limits. Either they are all off-
counts them at 201), references are made to “The China Problem,” “Mecha Striesand,” and “The Passion of the Jew.” In the first part of story alone, “South Park” has referenced approximately 10 percent of all its previous episodes. Having watched both parts of this story arc, it’s clear to me that PHOTO FROM Internet Source this is an episode that dedicated fans will limits—tantamount to restricting thoroughly enjoy. Occasional fans our free speech—or they are all will likely find the episode good fair game. By making Muham- but miss some of the more subtle mad off-limits, it creates a barrier references. Unfortunately, this within the global community. It is an episode that would likely seems much better to be an equal not be nearly as entertaining for member of the global community someone not already interested in than to be asked to be treated dif- “South Park.” ferently. Additionally, Comedy Central Controversy aside, never before extensively censored the episode, has “South Park” referenced its completely silencing the concludcharacters’ past escapades on such ing moral of the story, which was an immense scale. Classic epi- delivered in a speech given by sodes like “Trapped in the Clos- Kyle, Jesus and Santa. As a result et,” “Fishsticks,” “The Super Best of the combined inaccessibility to Friends,” “Cartoon Wars” and new fans and the damage inflicted “Ginger Kids” are all referenced. by Comedy Central via editing, I With the onslaught of celebrity give this milestone episode four reappearances (the show itself stars out of five.
April 23, 2010
The Brandeis Hoot
ARTS, ETC.
Battling the lobsterbacks at Lexington
BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor
I shuddered when I saw the Red Coats. Though more than 200 years shielded me from physical harm, the mere sight of their lobsterbacks made me shiver as I watched the battle re-enactors march onto the Lexington Battle Green Monday morning. I knew that their muskets were loaded with blanks; that the soldiers were actors and that anyone they “shot” today would miraculously be revived as soon as the battle ended. But all I could think of as they crossed the Green was Paul Revere’s echo telling me “the British are coming, the British are coming.” It was a visceral reaction, and one I had not been expecting. Up until that moment I associated the word “British” more with The Beatles and crumpets than battles and musket balls. I had come to the Green to witness a reenactment, not to experience a 235-year-old fear I had never before harbored. I wasn’t the only one with less than pleasant thoughts for the British regiments. Earlier, as my friends and I waited in the dark for the battle to begin, we came across a man reenacting a colonist for the Lexington Historical Society who wandered around in character giving spectators the
history of the day. His character was a man visiting from Andover to sell apples who happened to witness the battle. Like all characters played by the Historical Society that day, the apple peddler had actually existed, and our re-enactor refused to break from his duty to indulge our questions about event setup or modern-day Lexington. But then we asked him how the re-enactors chose sides. “How do you decide who’s British?” we asked, expecting that they drew straws or alternated between colonists and Red Coats every year. “We don’t,” he said. Every year the Lexington Minute Men import their enemy in the form of troupes of British regiment-specific re-enactors from around the country. While Lexington natives will dress and act as Red Coats for other Historical Society events leading up to April 19, Lexington residents refuse to fight their countrymen. As I watched the reenactment unfold before me, I was reminded of something else our re-enactor friend told me: It wasn’t the British I had momentarily feared. In 1775, there were 13 colonies—not states—making soldiers on both sides of the fight British by nationality. In fact, Paul Revere probably warned that the Red Coats or Regulars were com-
13
ing, not the British. But the myth still lives on, and my fear was a part of it. Just as growing up in America had made me think of Red Coats as “the British”, or “the other,” it also made me cringe at the sight of the uniforms. These weren’t just re-enactors marching toward us, they were tyrants, opponents to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Everyone else felt it too, and this common enemy our culture had created united us as we watched our Founding Fathers retreat. We were at Fenway Park for a Red Sox-Yankees game and everyone was rooting for the home team. The spectators heckled the Regulars when the firefight began and booed as one Red Coat kicked a fallen “injured” patriot. Across the Green I could see through the gun smoke a sign that read, “boil the lobsterbacks.” And then, as soon as the battle started, it was over. We PHOTO BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot were back in the 21st cen- BETTER DEAD THAN RED: Actors reenacted the Battle of Lexington Monday morning. tury, where Britain was our closest ally and battles happened for an early breakfast, we came hind, instead opting to take the in faraway places. upon a regiment of Red Coats. snapshot. As my friends and I walked My friends rushed up to one of After all, it was Patriots’ Day. away from the Green and toward them, asking to pose for a picture Fraternizing with the enemy just our car discussing where to go with the re-enactor. I stayed be- didn’t seem right.
In memory of our youth BY BRET MATTHEW Editor
It was a lonely day at Wendy’s. Not just a slow day, although the place was almost empty. There was a different atmosphere about it. People sat at their booths and tables alone, silently munching on their food with their heads down. Even the cashiers looked glum as they fiddled with their hats and aprons, waiting for customers who never came. The lunch run had been Joe’s idea. It had been a while since I had last seen him, and I was a bit surprised when his name and number showed up on my caller ID. We had only hung out a handful of times in the past two years. But, he was bored, hungry and short on cash. Having little better to do, I couldn’t see much of a reason to say no. He laid waste to his bacon double cheeseburger, small gobs of cheese and sauce and God-knewwhat-else falling onto his tray. Sitting across the table, I picked at my greasy fries, wondering if I should eat them or stick them in his gas tank for the ride home. I realized that I couldn’t even remember the last time I had eaten fast food. I poured some ketchup in a vain attempt to reacquaint myself. It did little good. “How’ve you been?” I asked. “Alright,” he said between mouthfuls. “You?” “I’m doin’ good.” “How’s school?” “It’s good. What’ve you been up
GRAPHIC BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot
to?” “Same. You know, school and stuff.” “Where’ve you been going?” I hadn’t known he was still in school, let alone which one he attended. Joe, for one reason or another, seemed to switch between community college and no college every semester. He told me he was taking video editing classes, although he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do when he finished. He wanted to know more about what I did at school—as far as he was concerned, it was just some big fancy university where I spent most of my time studying. I told him a bit about the school newspaper I wrote for, and how I wanted to become a journalist. He seemed mildly interested, although he didn’t follow the news much and hadn’t read anything I had written. Around us, new customers trickled in, trading places with the
old. Our food slowly diminished. I found myself counting fries. It’s easy to keep track of every bit when you spend most of your time staring at your tray and fiddling with scraps. “We need to hang out more, dude,” he said at last. “Like we used to, you know?” I nodded, even though I knew—and I’m sure he did too— that it probably wasn’t going to happen. It was something we said as a kind of formality. Too much time had passed for us to go back to the way things were when we were younger. It was a simpler time back then. Back when the neighborhood kids would follow us on our adventures into the woods behind our houses. Back when the only thing that mattered was getting through the seemingly endless stretch of trees without getting lost or collecting too many ticks. Back when our parents were kept
in the dark about our forays into forbidden areas. Back when “No Trespassing” signs somehow always managed to blend into the background just beyond our line of sight as we dared landowners to kick us off their property. Back when we could do it all and still have enough time for a few wiffle ball games before being dragged, tired and mosquito-bitten, in for dinner. We took it for granted. I remember sitting on Joe’s back porch one night, overlooking the few pinpricks of light that dotted our small town. He and I were a bit older then, and excited about the coming prospect of driver’s licenses and cars and the new freedoms they would bring. “Someday,” Joe had said, staring at the lights, “we’re going to be able to just drive away.” That was all we wanted to do. And we eventually did, albeit in separate directions.
We grew up. We acquired new interests and became involved in different activities. We met new people and found new groups of friends; met girls, and even dated a couple of them. The neighborhood kids who had once followed us everywhere vanished. The constant harmony of ringing doorbells on warm spring days faded into silence and was replaced by the squeal of loose drive belts. And one day, as if to top it all off, I came home from school to find logging trucks methodically tearing down trees—our trees—to make room for a new housing development. We became two former best friends, reduced to toasting the memory of our youth with large Cokes. Lunch didn’t last long. Maybe an hour later I was hopping out of Joe’s car and heading home, the smell of fast food grease still clinging to my sweatshirt. As I was about to walk inside I heard shouting from the house behind mine—one of the houses that had been put up in place of the nowdestroyed woods. Four young kids were chasing each other around their backyard. Screaming and laughing incoherently, they hid behind the few trees that still stood and jumped out at each other as part of some sort of absurd game. It wasn’t our turn to play in this playground, not anymore. I fished my keys out of my pocket and decided that it was a pretty good day for a drive after all.
14 ARTS, ETC.
The Brandeis Hoot
April 23, 2010
From ballet to Bollywood BY SRI KUEHNLENZ Editor
Cultural connections at a Chinese dinner table BY WEI-HUAN CHEN
Special to the Hoot, Diverse City
I was speaking to my friend, Lucy Lu ’12, during a Chinese Dinner Table meeting when she mentioned something very interesting about her experience as an international student at Brandeis. She said that, prior to coming to the United States, she had a very limited knowledge of global history and politics, and her education in China brought her only one view of the world. Since coming to Brandeis, however, Lucy has taken courses in International and Global Studies and met students from a variety of different countries, an experience she describes as having her “eyes opened.” I love how college can be an eye-opening experience in so many ways. Not enough people realize that one of the best resources at Brandeis lies within the diversity of our own student body. The people I’ve met in our weekly Chinese language gatherings in Upper Usdan, for example, are all interested in China, and most plan to study there in order to better learn the language and culture. Discussion leaders, such as Lucy, were born and raised in China and want to help students improve their Mandarin and their understanding of Chinese culture. All of us, either from China or the United States, want to have our eyes opened to another country’s way of living and thinking. By having these conversations, we see all the similarities and differences between this country and China. Putting two cultures together and comparing them is always interesting because sometimes, there are subtle differences that change how you act in each culture. Speaking with each other at dinner, we realize that everyone has their own story. When my parents came from Taiwan to the United States, they decided that their children would have a culture that was not theirs. My parents are Taiwanese, but I am American and my children will most likely
be American and not Taiwanese. Because of my parents’ decision to move here, my family will always tackle questions concerning cultural identity and cultural preservation. Joanne Qiao ’12, who is an Asian-American like me, told me a fascinating story about how her parents ended up in the United States. Both her mother and father lived during China’s tumultuous period of the Cultural Revolution, when the country underwent mass political, social and economic changes. During that chaotic time of revolution and upheaval, middle and high school graduates like Joanne’s parents were required to work as farmers in the countryside instead of pursuing undergraduate education. However, in 1977, the end of the Cultural Revolution made higher education possible through a highly selective entrance examination. Joanne’s parents were among the few who scored high enough for admittance to a Western university, a result that landed them in Albany, NY, where Joanne was born and raised. The story of her parents working their way from the countryside to the world of academia is, to Joanne, both inspiring and intimidating. She mentioned it being difficult to compete with her parents, a feeling that I think many first-generation AsianAmericans share. But I think another issue Joanne and I both struggle with is that our parents come from a culture that we have never truly come in contact with. Every time we talk about our cultures, we are telling a story that is unique to us. No one has the same exact story of why they are interested in learning about China, or want to learn to speak Chinese. In the end, though, all of us do share something in common, which is the desire to connect with another way of life. Even if it starts with practicing Mandarin in Upper Usdan, it’s a step towards a bigger goal of broadening our world and having our eyes opened.
Reaching your senior year, especially the second semester, is the mid-life crisis of college. After throwing myself into academics and extracurricular activities for the past seven semesters, I began to wind down my commitments at the beginning of this semester and thought of all the other great opportunities I would have loved to have taken advantage of at Brandeis. So, like a panicked 45-year-old, I took up an activity that reminded me of my youthful energy. However, this endeavor did not come in the form of a shiny, red sports car—instead, I signed up to do a Bollywood dance as part of Chak De ‘Deis, Brandeis’ South Asian dance team, for Culture X. I had grown up doing various forms of dance—ballet, tap, hip-hop, jazz—in addition to gymnastics. My first mistake in approaching this dance was assuming the dance skills that I had learned and then dropped in the ninth grade would ease my transition into Bollywood dance. False. I also thought the fact that I’m halfMalaysian would help me pick up some of the South Asian mannerisms. Again, I was wrong. My third assumption was that, since my dance captain is also my roommate, things would go easier for me. Yup, you guessed it—false. The first practice essentially kicked my butt and left me questioning my motor skills in general. I went right when we were supposed to go left; I pointed my toes (partially out of habit from ballet) when a heel was appropriate. A major stumbling block for me was just getting used to the fast pace and trying to keep up with the music. However, the mannerisms also contradict the norm of Western dance with its emphasis on pointed toes and straight lines. Apparently, the hours I spent in ballet class as an eight-year-old would be no help here. Even after countless practices, I still have trouble fanning out my fingers to make a hand gesture representing a lotus flower. As I attempt to stretch and point my fingers in five different directions, I watch the other classically-trained Indian girls in the dance throw up their hands and form the gesture without so much as a second’s hesitation. Bollywood dance has an energy to it that I think few other styles of dance capture. It is at once enlivening and graceful. The music really does make you want to get
GRAPHIC BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot
up and dance, which may explain why so many Bollywood movies involve the characters breaking out into complex dance sequences in the middle of the street. The energy is what bridges the cultural gap and makes this dance so entertaining to watch and (attempt to) do. Even though few people in the audience will understand the meaning of the songs, this dance conveys its message by calling upon every limb in your body. Who knew the flicking of a hand could convey the heartbreak of the singer? As you can imagine, this requires loosening up your body and bending your wrist one way, while your fingers point another—not an easy feat for a girl raised to sit stiffly upright. Learning how to dance, especially a dance of Eastern origin, has done many things to me. I now walk around humming Indian songs and attempting to pronounce lyrics I don’t understand, not to speak of the physical toll bi-weekly practices have had on the soles of my feet. If you’re around this weekend, come check out Culture X. Maybe it will pique your interest and, maybe next year, you’ll be the one channeling Indian superstar Aishwarya Rai on stage.
everyone has the time to pick up the latest books or see the latest films. Our Arts Recommends | Not editors make some recommendations that you can pick up at the nearest library. A tense, tightly-plotted thriller, director Alfred Hitchcock’s experiment in technique and storytelling makes for exciting viewing. Two college graduates murder an acquaintance and stuff him in a trunk before hosting a dinner party with their victim’s family and friends. Their crime isn’t one based on passion but one in order to prove a theory. The pompous killers invite their favorite professor to the party to see if he can discover their crime. Jimmy Stewart’s performance as the professor is one of my favorites. His slow and believable transformation from coldly mocking the shallow party guests to his horror of realizing the monstrous behavior of his former students is fascinating. The film deftly balances dark comedy with more serious themes as an amusing dinner party is ruined by the specter of the victim.—Kayla Dos Santos
Book Pick: “Never Let Me Go”
Movie Pick: “Rope”
Part dystopian Bildungsroman, part gothic romance, Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed novel “Never Let Me Go” provides a compelling take on a genre—science fiction—that often receives little respect. thirty-one-year-old Kathy H. narrates her experience growing up at a secluded private school in the English countryside. As they grow up, Kathy and her classmates gradually discover that they have been raised for a special destiny so inhuman that visitors to the school have difficulty even looking at them. Ishiguro’s simple prose is beautiful, evocative and unsettling, creating a tension beneath Kathy’s placid narration. She rarely tells us exactly what is going on and what she knows—more often than not, the truly shocking revelations are confined to what is unwritten. By the novel’s end, the reader is left with little more than beautiful, poignant hopelessness and a feeling of the enormity of Kathy’s situation.—Sean Fabery
If you’ve only heard Liz Phair’s poppy, romantic comedy soundtrack singles, then you absolutely need to dig up her 1993 debut, “Exile in Guyville,” in which Phair tackles her own alienation in the male-dominated Chicago indie scene, along with a whole host of issues that are both personal and political. Phair is talented enough to rock, interesting enough to destroy all those stereotypes about girls with guitars and has perfected the balance between the grandiose and the intimate on this album. She’s always been a lightning rod for controversy for a few explicit songs, but focusing on the controversy ignores the sheer genius of cuts like “Divorce Song.” With that song, Phair shows off her ability to make narrative compelling, meandering in and out of choruses and verses to relate the best tale of a dissolving relationship next to the Mountain Goats’ “No Children.” —Danielle Gewurz
Music Pick: “Exile in Guyville” PHOTOS FROM Internet Source
EDITORIALS
April 23, 2010
Established 2005 "To acquire wisdom, one must observe." Ariel Wittenberg Editor in Chief Alex Schneider Managing Editor Destiny D. Aquino News Editor Nathan Koskella Deputy News Editor Bret Matthew Impressions Editor Alex Self 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.
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The Brandeis Hoot 15
Ceremony overshadowed by controversy This week Brandeis announced the commencement speaker and the list of honorary degree recipients on their website. Those being honored include a Grammy Award winner, the founder of Partners in Health, the first female chief judge of New York, an internationally renowned Spanish author, a member of the National Security Council and the Israeli Ambassador to the United States. All in all, that is a pretty impressive list. Out of everyone receiving a degree, University President Jehuda Reinharz selects one to deliver the commencement address. This year he selected Ambassador Michael Oren. Oren served as the official spokesman for the Israeli Defense Force during the 2009 Gaza conflict. He has been in the news recently for accusing J Street, a “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace” organization that advocates a two-state solution, of endangering Israel.
Regardless of what you might personally think of his policies, it is impossible to not realize this is an extremely controversial selection. Instead of having a figure to unite the entire senior class in their final moments at Brandeis, the school has chosen a man who has already proven to be a lightning rod for debate. Looking back at the list of options, any of the other honorees would have been a more appropriate choice. Consider for a moment Paul Farmer, one of the founders of Partners in Health. This Boston based non-profit’s mission, according to their website, is to “provide a preferential option for the poor in health care” and strives to “bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them.” Their work brings them to the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, Russia and the United States. Most recently they have been heavily involved in Haiti relief efforts.
Given this campus’ involvement with that mission, Farmer would have been a perfect choice to deliver the commencement address. His work is the perfect demonstration of social justice in action. Consider Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel. He is a 12-time Grammy Award winner and one of the most successful musicians of all time. There is already a Facebook campaign through the group “Paul Simon Should Sing at Graduation 2010” to convince him to sing to the seniors. In little more than a day there are more than 350 members. Any of the others being honored with a degree could deliver an address that would bring together the seniors in their final moments at Brandeis, sending them off on a positive note. Instead the university has chosen a figure who will not only divide those getting their diplomas but will take away from that special moment.
Stop undermining student input Initially, this editorial board was pleased to learn that the administration had asked for student input as part of its decision on how to replace the Kalman and Friedland buildings in the science complex. After all, during the last year, this editorial board has repeatedly called for the Brandeis administration to listen to student voices before making rash decisions. Then we picked our jaws off of the floor, took a step back and reviewed the events of the past year. The familiar feeling that students have no say in university policies quickly returned. The decision to build either a garden or sand volleyball courts–or both– is inane. This university is short on funds, so instead of replacing the torn down buildings with new ones, administrators have settled on a low-key re-
placement. While this is a noble quest, the fact remains that whether students choose volleyball or a garden is inconsequential when one considers the vast majority of decisions which have been decided without a student vote such as academic cuts, the closure (or not) of The Rose Art Museum and the creation of the Justice Brandeis Semester to name a few. By putting the final decision to a vote the administration is throwing us a line. It seeks to quell student anger over a systematic lack of input while simultaneously allowing those same administrators to say, “students chose this solution,” when future generations ask why Brandeis has an overgrown garden or soggy volleyball courts. Call us conspiracy theorists, but we’re not biting.
We realize that not every decision on campus can be put to a student vote, but we maintain that every decision on campus could benefit from focus groups, or surveys–none of which happened in the three major examples listed previously. This vote on the Kalman and Friedland spaces is certainly a step in the right direction and is definitely an example of how decision-making should be done. We are too wary, however, to take it as an indication of how decision-making on campus will be done. We have been watching the administration for too long to be that naïve. If the adminstration wants students to take this vote with anything more than a grain of salt, they must be willing to give us a similar voice on decisions that matter more.
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IMPRESSIONS Irresponsible fees Pricing carbon: $7.50 per semester
16 The Brandeis Hoot
April 23, 2010
SEA Change
BY ALEX SCHNEIDER Editor
On Monday April 26, in the midst of a recession, Brandeis students will vote on an amendment to the Student Union Constitution that would require all students, regardless of financial background, to pay a $7.50 fee to create a sustainability fund with an annual budget of $24,877.50. Instead of setting up a stand in the dining hall or distributing brochures to solicit students for money as would any other club or organization, the amendment’s sponsor, Students for Environmental Action (SEA), has chosen to require that all students support its work. To the members of SEA, supporting this initiative makes sense; after all, they believe that the extra $24,877.50, (a calculation based on current undergraduate student enrollment figures) could help them carry out their mission of supporting environmental work. Having recently lost their bid to become a secured Student Union club, SEA seeks new ways to generate revenue to implement many of its proposed programs. Campus sustainability is a worthy goal, just as reducing hunger, helping the underprivileged, giving blood and rallying for human rights are all positive social initiatives. The trouble is that students prioritize these issues differently. Constitutional amendments mandating fees should not be the way out for clubs looking to fund their projects. As a campus community, we must ensure that all student initiatives have the support to move forward. That’s the purpose of the finance board—to distribute the Student Activities Fee (SAF) to clubs and advocacy groups based on their specific programming and intended contributions to the Brandeis campus. Some ideas are feasible while others are not. The finance board looks at all data and prioritizes projects that deserve support. The finance board, in other words, holds clubs accountable. The proposed sustainability fund would undermine the finance board and would not be accountable to the students who would be forced to fund it. Money from the fund would be available to be used for any number of SEA projects, without any guarantee that students will support the initiatives or that they will be successful. The finance board looks at a club’s past history when determining its allocations; if a club proposed five events but held one, it holds less weight than a more financially stable club. Regardless of management, the sustainability fund would always receive funding in the form of your annual, required $7.50 fee. Some students will argue that the fee does
ILLUSTRATION BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot
not amount to much money. Nevertheless, the precedent set by the fund also raises the possibility of future fees, including fees for any number of popular student campaigns. (Flooding in your residence hall? How about a $7.50 fee to fix that problem.) Instead of fundraising the old-fashioned way or living within their F-board budget, students will begin to rely on institutionalized fees to support their projects, a dynamic that certainly does not reflect the workings of the real world—imagine if the federal government or City Hall proposed a "sustainability fee." And better options exist. Last semester, Brandeis collaborated with a private firm to bring solar panels to campus for no cost to the university, as part of a power purchasing agreement. This commendable initiative cost students nothing but greatly contributed to campus sustainability. The lesson is clear: Sustainability is possible without increasing students’ financial burden.
BY MATTHEW SCHMIDT Special to The Hoot
Have you ever considered how your personal carbon footprint affects the operation of this university? Perhaps you haven’t, but you certainly should. The Brandeis Sustainability Fund (BSF) seeks to address the costs of reducing your carbon footprint through the allocation of money towards student driven initiatives and projects that show demonstrable results in reducing carbon emissions and promoting a more sustainable university. The BSF would be funded through a $7.50 per semester increase in the Student Activity Fee levied upon students and administered by a separate student, faculty and staff run governing board. While the Brandeis Sustainability Fund would be a huge step towards our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, most importantly it would represent an acknowledgment by students of the role they play in
Brandeis’ green house gas emissions. Non-academic student services such as housing, dining and transportation, are responsible for the majority of total Brandeis emissions (conservative estimates attribute between 30 to 40 percent of emissions to these services). By living on campus we create emissions that the university must reduce. As students we must realize our responsibility for university emissions, and understand that these reductions, while often unseen, are not free. Although voluntary, the costs of current emission reductions are substantial, and while the university has committed a large amount of resources in capital and labor to this project, it is inevitable that some costs will be born by students. As with other service fees, such as the Technology Fee and the Health Services Fee, the BSF works to put a price on student services, in this case student emission reductions. Like publicly provided wireless internet, the carbon reductions the university has undertaken cover all undergraduate students equally. While we may not realize it, our personal emissions are being reduced by the university and this fee places a small price on those emissions. While small, only $15 annually per student, the Brandeis Sustainability Fund is a creative and innovative way to harness student fees toward student driven carbon reducing initiatives. The BSF enables students to propose projects that do not fit the larger scale investments being currently undertaken by the university, but still result in tangible emissions reductions. Through the stringent application process, outlined in more detail at seabrandeis.org, student proposals will be vetted to ensure that student funds are appropriately allocated towards projects with tangible goals. The world as a whole is moving towards mandatory carbon pricing. Brandeis University has taken the lead in this initiative by voluntarily reducing our emissions and the BSF is one step in that direction. Rather than just buying carbon offsets with proceeds from the fee, the BSF aims to involve students with their own money and in the process create a more sustainable university. In a few days you will receive an e-mail asking you to vote on the proposed Student Union Constitutional amendments to create the Brandeis Sustainability Fund. While it may not be convenient I urge you to accept responsibility for your impact on this campus and vote yes to create the Brandeis Sustainability Fund. More information can be found at seabrandeis.org
General campus improvements: Make Brandeis more presentable BY GORDY STILLMAN Special to The Hoot
Last week I wrote about some of the questionable “truths” about Brandeis’ self image. Having mentioned housing as one of Brandeis’ deficits, I thought I’d discuss the upcoming improvements to the Charles River Apartments. This is a good thing. Improving housing during summer break when students don’t need to use it is definitely positive. The only possible argument against it is
that these improvements will lead to a rise in housing prices in addition to the already rising costs of tuition. But Brandeis needs to do more to improve dorms. Since Brandeis is already unable to house all students, it is a step in the right direction to make housing that has been known to be undesirable more desirable (even if the improvements are slight). While the Charles River Apartments are still physically isolated from the main campus, at least students are filling the beds rath-
er than the 68 vacancies last fall. Even more beds were empty this semester. The fact that more students are deciding they’d rather live there then search for off-campus housing proves the university is moving towards offering housing that is comparable to off campus options. Additionally, this past Friday students received an e-mail inviting them to vote and provide feedback on a project to heal the landscape as part of the science complex renewal. Options include a set of four sand volleyball
courts, a four-seasons garden and a hybrid that includes two volleyball fields as well as a garden. The volleyball courts would bring an element of recreation to the campus by having a space available for it. While I personally prefer the hybrid, as it provides the best of both worlds, any one of these plans would greatly improve the university. Right now Brandeis has the Great Lawn and Chapels field. With the addition of this space students will have more options of where to study, meet with
friends, or just relax and breathe in the fresh air. Hopefully these trends will continue. The flooding this past spring has certainly shown a handful of buildings could use repairs. While some may need them more than others, I hope that whatever future renovations occur do not interfere with students’ ability to live on-campus. There seems a lesson to be learned from Brandeis’ recent improvement projects. This university is capable of improvement.
April 23, 2010
The Brandeis Hoot
Book of Matthew
IMPRESSIONS
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Borde-nough
Privatizing the final frontier
PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot
Dean's warning BY BRET MATTHEW
BY CHRIS BORDELON Columnist
Editor
Unfortunately, Howard Dean didn’t give us his latest rendition of his famous “Dean Scream” when he spoke April 15. But I’m glad I had the opportunity to hear him deliver an important warning about the coming midterm election. Dean spent a lot of time in his speech talking about youth activism during the 2008 presidential election and the legislative battles that followed. Many of the students present—myself included—were pleased to hear some of the flattering things he said about our generation. He gave us credit for turning out in record numbers to vote. Seventy-four percent of people aged 18-29 voted in 2008, resulting in the second-largest youth turnout in American history. And we have been active in all aspects of the political system, even using the Internet to push political agendas. “We got one million people to walk on the capital,” Dean said. “You got one million people to send e-mails and shut down the Congress computer systems.” He also praised us for our inclusivity. We voted 66 percent in favor of Barack Obama, fulfilling the dream of so many in Dean’s generation who longed to see an African-American president. We have also been at the forefront of the struggle for GLBTQ equality. Polls taken in every state, even in the most conservative areas of the country, show that young people are far more likely than their elders to support same-sex marriage. “Your generation is not socially tolerant or intolerant, you are socially inclusive,” he said. “When Republicans point fingers and they point them at your friend, they’re pointing them at you too and you just wouldn’t stand for it.” But while Dean had great things to say about us, he also encouraged us to be vigilant. “Don’t drop the ball,” he said. “Learn from our generation. We exhausted ourselves, we were lied to, it was dirty, we left and we let other people take our places, and that’s how George Bush got elected.” It’s easy to rally behind an exciting candidate during a historic election. It’s far more difficult to maintain that energy and use it to keep electing candidates years later. This, in effect, is Dean’s warning. What young people have done for this country can easily be erased if too many of us fall into the black hole of voter apathy. Keep in mind that the 2010 midterm elections, which felt so far away on the eve of President Obama’s election, are fast approaching. In November, polls will open for hundreds of local and statewide offices, and most importantly, for congressional seats. The results of this election will determine what kind of Congress the president will face for the remainder of his term. History tells us that the party in power almost always loses seats in the first midterm. Sometimes this is due to frustration with the current government, but it is just as often due to voter apathy on the part of the majority—midterms almost always have much lower turnouts than presidential elections. Only we can stop this trend. Dean was not just trying to compliment us. He was trying to keep us motivated and active so we do not repeat the mistakes of his generation. If we want Barack Obama to succeed, if we want to continue to have a say in our country’s future, then hopefully we will help him spread that message beyond the confines of Levin Ballroom.
On April 15, President Barack Obama traveled to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to tell National Aeronautics and Space Administration employees to begin looking for private sector jobs. He didn’t put it quite that way, but his Republican-style plans for NASA privatization carried that meaning. The president called for adding $6 billion to the NASA budget over the next five years for, as Obama put it, “buying the services of space transportation” from private firms. The space shuttles will fly their last missions later this year. Obama would pay private companies to send astronauts into low-earth orbit—work that has been a central NASA function. This proposal follows Obama’s February announcement of a plan to end the Constellation program. That program, begun under George W. Bush, aims to produce new vehicles to replace the shuttles and to create a Moon base in the 2020s. Constellation never received adequate funding. It is behind schedule. The shuttles’ retirement leaves NASA without vehicles to launch astronauts into low-earth orbit until Constellation produces one. Obama would end Constellation, and delay NASA’s in-house vehicle development by changing the agency’s goal to that of reaching Mars in the 2030s. That would leave private contractors’ vehicles as the only means available (save for hiring space on foreign missions) for NASA to send up astronauts. That would please a few wellconnected, well-heeled people like Elon Musk, who joined Obama in Florida on April 15. Musk is the CEO and founder of SpaceX, which already participates in a small Bush-era NASA
privatization scheme. After making a fortune by selling his stock in Internet start-up companies, Musk put away his keyboard and reached for the government’s udders. He is also CEO of Tesla Motors, which induces rich people to buy its super-expensive electric vehicles by lobbying federal and state governments to hand them tax incentives. SpaceX applies the milk-it principle to the space program. SpaceX already has its snout in the NASA trough. If Musk’s bipartisan political contributions exceeding $220,000 since the 2004 election cycle had anything to say about it, the company would have received government largess no matter who held power. SpaceX and six other contractors already have their hands in NASA’s pocket under various existing spaceflight privatization measures. Obama’s plan will likely make them NASA’s only manned spaceflight options. Reliance on a small and potentially oligopolistic clutch of firms may not mean “more affordable” space missions, as Obama claimed. The contractors are so few and politically influential, and the barriers to entry in the business are so high, that costs may rise. Consider the privatization scheme in which SpaceX and another company participate. A less-noticed item in Obama’s budget asks for $312 million in the next fiscal year for, as NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told a Congressional subcommittee on March 23, “incentivizing NASA’s current commercial cargo program ... to expedite the pace of development ... and improve program robustness.” That’s a charitable way to describe a handout to two well-placed companies seeking more cash to do what that they had already contracted to do. How much more will they extract once they are NASA’s only options?
Obama’s plan adds jobs in Florida (a swing state in presidential elections) while allowing net job losses in Republican-leaning states. That may help Obama in the short-term, but hurt future NASA budgets. And his employment projections are questionable. They are based on a study paid for by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a trade group comprising SpaceX and other companies wanting a turn at the federal teat. Outsourcing its essential functions would strip NASA of talent. Companies would lure away NASA-trained employees with higher, private-sector pay. NASA would become unable to function independently. Its employees would lose morale. Without other high-profile NASA programs, the companies’ poor performance will become apparent. Today, Musk and his ilk can quietly suck up an extra $312 million. When they are at the center of attention, the public won’t tolerate such behavior. Putting off NASA’s big goals and implementing privatization will make it a conduit for diverting public money to politically connected investors. Its budgets will become harder to justify. That would be tragic. Apart from its rare capabilities, what makes NASA special are its noble aims. Few people can go home at night justified in the belief that their employer operates for the benefit of all mankind. NASA employees can. That explains why idealistic people with a scientific bent still aspire to work for NASA, and why so many taxaverse Americans have proudly supported the agency for more than 50 years. If the administration places the interest of private companies’ shareholders between NASA and the shining cause of humanity, the agency will go into eclipse.
18 IMPRESSIONS
The Brandeis Hoot
The Self Shelf
April 23, 2010
Sexcapades
Turning the lights out on tanning "Was it good for you?" Tanning beds should be taxed BY ALEX SELF Columnist
Tanning beds have become a craze in the United States. Young people everywhere are encapsulating themselves in tanning beds in order to improve their appearances. The feasibility of using tanning beds to modify one’s body in order to feel better about one’s appearance is a controversial subject but not the one I intend to tackle here. The physical harms of tanning are egregious enough to warrant government action. In order to understand the harms of tanning, one can look to the nature of tanning itself. It involves pumping ultraviolet radiation into the body in order to make the skin more tanned. Ultraviolet radiation is not the best substance for your body. It is known to cause skin cancer, cataracts, premature aging and suppression of the immune system. There’s a reason you’re supposed to be careful of how long you stay in the sun (the other major source of UV radiation) or wear sun block. Yet tanning beds deliver a concentrated dose of this harmful radiation for the purpose of bettering one’s appearance. This is roughly the equivalent of getting an x-ray everyday to feel better about your health. Additionally, your outer appearance will be the least of your problems when you develop melanoma before the age of thirty. The danger from tanning beds is so high that the International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has added it to the list of carcinogenic products. Tanning can drastically increase one’s chances of developing melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer. The other substances in this category include such well known carcinogens as arsenic and cigarettes. Arguments in favor of tanning beds purport that people don’t use them enough for them to be a carcinogen but the facts would beg to differ. Skin cancer rates, especially in women younger than 30 are on the rise; melanoma is now the leading cause of death for women in their 30s in Britain (skin cancer rates are normally highest in septuagenarians). This has all taken place as tanning bed usage has risen in the country. Considering that awareness of the harms of the sun has led to wider sunscreen use, I would argue that this rise can only be attributed to the wider usage of tanning beds. As if that weren’t enough, some studies have linked tanning with addiction related activities. Thus, tanning could actually be classified as an addiction. I would not go so far as to compare the addictive component of tanning with that of cigarettes, but I would certainly be comfortable arguing that it is indeed addictive. Thus, what we have is a product which is possibly addictive, definitely carcinogenic and which has caused an increase in the skin cancer rates of young people in
countries where it is widely practiced. I fail to see any reason why this shouldn’t be regulated by the government in a similar manner to other eminently hazardous products. The first regulation I believe the government should put upon tanning beds is an age requirement. Currently, any person of any age can walk into or buy a tanning booth. I believe that one should have to be 18 years old in order to use or purchase a tanning bed. Minors are not deemed competent enough to make responsible decisions and are thus much more likely to use tanning beds without understanding the harms involved. An analogous example is cigarettes. The government cannot prohibit these harmful activities but they can at least prevent impressionable youths who cannot fully comprehend the consequences of their actions from taking part in them. Additionally, the government should tax the sale of tanning beds in a similar manner to cigarettes in order to discourage them. As they have been determined to be harmful and possibly addictive, I would argue that a punitive tax is merited. It is basically Econ 101—the higher the tax on the product, the higher the price, and the less people will use it. All in all, I think it is time that the government and the general populace took notice of this dangerous new product. Otherwise it could be lights out for the youth of a generation.
BY SOPHIE RIESE Columnist
What is good sex? Because we all have different wants and needs, is there really a standard? Is there actually such a thing as objectively good sex? I recently discovered that some of the things I take for granted when talking about sex are not what others do. Of course on an inconsequential level, I understood this to be true before; some of the things I want in bed for sex to really be good are not things other people look for, but others seemed well, obvious, to me. Over the course of a few conversations recently, I have found out that I have a number of friends who, while they enjoy sex, have never had an orgasm. Additionally, apparently what I have come to accept as average, in terms of penis size, is, in fact, on the larger side. This leads me to wonder if what my friends think is good would be different for me? There will always be factors such as, attractiveness and emotional connection, which are subjective in every sense. However, “skill” and size were not variables I had considered. Another recent conversation actually got me thinking about this as well. A friend recently confided to me that she and an ex of mine had made out once, and apart from the fact that she was uncomfortable given his and my past, she also did not think he was really a very good kisser. I was intrigued by this, because I think of him as a very good kisser; I realized though that he and I were very connected, and I thought he was a good kisser because we kissed each other in a way we each liked. This type of connection certainly does not happen with everyone, and I have certainly kissed a number of guys with whom I did not enjoy the experience. It can be more difficult to find enjoyable kissing or sex with someone new after being with another person for a long time. Over time you learn about what works for you and your partner, as a pair. When you start something with someone new, everything you know is no longer applicable. Additionally, what your previous partner liked may not be anything even close to what your new partner likes. So then, we return to the original question—is there really such a thing as good sex? Or is there only “it was good for me”? The goal is always orgasm, that release that makes the rest of the world recede, but is there more than just the end point that makes sex good? Certainly, for women—or (perhaps I should not generalize) for me, and some friends I have spoken with—orgasm is not required for sex to be a wonderful, enjoyable, activity. The key to good sex is making sure it feels good, and that it is fun. Sex can only be good so long as it is fun. What was once good sex can go bad when it gets to be a chore, or too serious. Also, let’s be honest: There aren’t too many guys who are willing to put off their own pleasure for yours. This means that there are definitely a large number of women who are enjoying sex a lot, but their guys just are not getting them the extra mile to orgasm. They may love having sex with their partners, but that does not mean that it is totally satisfying. Sad, but true. Speak up, and do not fake it—your guy cannot fix it if he does not know it is broken.
Altered Consciousness
Winning the partisan war: Populism and the parties BY RICK ALTERBAUM Columnist
Early polling suggests that the Democrats are on shaky ground come this November. A reason for this is that this party is losing what I would like to call the populism war. A recurrent theme in American politics on both sides of the political spectrum is populism. However, the left and right diverge in regards to the targets of this sentiment. Liberals stand up for people against the avaricious excesses of corporations and big business. They do not wish to overthrow or severely impinge upon the vitality of capitalism and free markets. However, they recognize the need for equity and fairness in a system in which self-interested actors may look out for themselves at the expense of others less fortunate. Often, additional rules and regulations are the means by which the left achieves these goals. Conservative populists, in contrast, fight against what they perceive as a loss of control over their lives. In times of great economic stress, they seek to preserve whatever they have left, including, perhaps most importantly, the freedom to make their own decisions. They become infuriated by the thought of any individual or entity, whether it is a government agency or a cor-
poration, impeding upon this core existential function. A recent trend, it seems to me, is that the right’s narrative has been able to drown out that of the left. The Tea Party movement, which embodies conservative populism, has, with the assistance of a conflict-driven sensationalist news media, garnered far more attention and exposure than its liberal counterpart. Part of this is due to the fact that the Tea Partiers are a novelty. Liberal populism, and its various manifestations, is a relatively familiar sight that harkens back, in its modern form, to the New Left movement of the late 1960s and 70s. Conversely, grassroots organizing and activism is not generally associated with a party that identifies primarily with the wealthy and well connected, at least until now. But I think the real reason why this is the case is because, quite simply, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are not acting like real populists. Their rhetoric may suggest that they are, but their actions and policies prove otherwise. This, in turn, decreases the enthusiasm and vitality of their base, which has become less willing to fight and campaign for their political representatives. Indeed, how can the Democrats be true populists when their health care reform law
forces millions of additional people into the insurance market? When their financial regulation and cap and trade bills have been watered down significantly by lobbyists and special interests? When President Obama permits new offshore drilling, which provides a massive subsidy for oil companies? When investment banks and hedge funds are posting record profits, in large part due to government assistance, while there is nearly 10 percent unemployment? There are obviously opposing cases for each of these actions and facts. Obama does not desire radical change, he wants to support existing institutions, he is a pragmatic consensus-builder, political structures and rules prevent him from veering too far to the left, etc.
Moderation can be considered a virtue, but it is not always the ideal strategy [...]
What I am suggesting though is that these policies serve to erode the passion of the populist left. Although the members of this group will vote for the Democrats, they may not donate as much, or volunteer on their campaigns, or attend their rallies. And, without an engaged and energetic base, Democrats will suffer at the polls this November. This has created a vacuum of activism, which I believe the Tea Party movement has filled. As a result, we see old white men clad in garments that were fashionable in 1773 holding signs saying, “Don’t Tread On Me” very often on TV. However, individuals with posters bearing slogans like “Change We Can Believe In” are now a rare sight. Moderation can be considered a virtue, but it is not always the ideal strategy for liberals in Congress and the White House. If these political actors can clearly articulate a vision supporting the working class, with policies visibly reflecting it, then perhaps they can regain ground with their core of support. Otherwise, they will linger in the murky center, resulting in few truly active partisans and advocates on either side of the political spectrum who will go out of their way to spread their message, or lack thereof. In short, the Democrats must do more to win the populism war.
April 23, 2010
The Brandeis Hoot
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April 23, 2010
Here comes the SunDeis
BY SEAN FABERY Editor
After almost failing to return this year for its seventh outing, the annual SunDeis Film Festival debuts its slate of films this weekend. Because this year’s festival did not receive its usual funding from Student Activities due to a budget crunch, its future had been in question at the beginning of the semester. However, after receiving a promise of financial assistance from the Film, Television and Interactive Media Program, preparation for the festival commenced. Planning was initially done by a committee primarily consisting of BTV members and film students, though its membership increased throughout the beginning stages. These students, members of Brandeis’ burgeoning film community, were determined to revitalize the festival. “We set our sights high. We wanted to revolutionize the film festival. We wanted to make SunDeis a legacy,” SunDeis committee head Avi Swerdlow ’10 said. “Our goal was to accurately represent the film community on this campus, and I think it’s thriving. In years past, I don’t think we necessarily showcased our best work.” Committee members met one to two times per week in what they described as a intensely collaborative process. “We’ve been aware of the claim that we’re not student-run, and, in response, we’ve been more student-run than ever before,” said Swerdlow. All this work has paid off in their eyes. “I think we’ve raised the caliber of the festival. Having had a chance to look at our submissions, I’d say that the [festival’s quality] is much better in terms of the submissions we did receive,” said Swerdlow. This year’s competition saw an unprecedented number of submissions, with a total of 56 entries having been received. The previous Sundeis’ participation was less than half that. This year’s entries were received from filmmakers as far away as the Czech Republic and Japan. Brandeisian filmmakers also were heavily represented, with 25 entries coming from on-campus filmmakers alone. In order to attract more submissions, the committee utilized Withoutabox, a service which, according to Gdaly Berlin ’10, “connects filmmakers with film festivals around the world” by acting as a kind of online application service. It also allowed the committee to easily keep track of all submissions received. The festival, in addition, sponsored a 48-hour film contest. The only requirement was that participants had to utilize a sequence of dialogue that was provided by the SunDeis committee. The festival received four such submissions. “The fantastic thing is that three out of the four groups were comprised of firsttime filmmakers,” said Swerdlow. “[It shows that] the best way to get started is to just start.” Once submissions were received, the committee allowed students to view the films and recommend them for nominations. “Anybody who didn’t submit a movie could be a reviewer. They just had to show interest,” said Emily Salloway ’13. “The nominees were really selected by Brandeis students.” A minimum of two students were required to view each submission. “We were primarily reacting to concerns
of bias in years past, so [this year] we emphasized procedure and fairness,” said Swerdlow. The festival will present the nominees over the course of four themed evenings, with the first screening having occurred on Thursday night. The festival opened with a screening at the Wasserman Cinematheque of the feature-length film “The Greater Meaning of Water,” which was written and directed by former Olympic cyclist Sky Christopherson. The film centers around a competitive freediver suffering from a chronic lung disease who risks his life to achieve a new world record. The following three nights will feature an array of films that were submitted to the festival, with each night’s screenings featuring around two-and-a-half hours worth of programming. Awards will be given out in 13 categories, which include Best of Brandeis, Best Graduate or Non-Student Film, Best Undergraduate Film Under 10 Minutes and Best Undergraduate Film Over 10 Minutes.
Many of the announced nominees were films by Brandeisian filmmakers, which Berlin and Swerdlow believe are representative of just how strong the on-campus film community has become. “I’d say that we’re on-par with most of the schools I’ve seen and with half the resources,” said Swerdlow. Audiences at the screenings will also be able to select their favorite film. Once the festival ends, audience ballots will be counted and the film with the most votes will receive the Audience Favorite Award. The rest of the winners will be chosen by a panel of five judges, all of whom are wellversed either in filmmaking or film criticism. This year’s judges include Prof. Caren Irr (ENG), Prof. Mark Dellelo (FILM), Boston Phoenix film critic Steve Vineberg, Jon Zimmerman ’07 and Mohammad Kundos ’10. Unlike in years past, six of the 13 categories will give cash prizes to the winners, a move which was made to encourage submissions and also to support filmmaking. “[If someone] shot a film on a $600 bud-
get and we give them $500 [as a prize], that has a very tangible effect [and may even go toward] their next film,” said Swerdlow. Awards will be given out at a ceremony that is to be held on May 1. The festival boasts events with professional filmmakers. These events include a screening of the film “Family Affair” with documentarian Chico Colvard, a panel consisting of Brandeis alumni who work in the film industry and a screening with director Tony Goldwyn. For many, however, the reason to attend SunDeis will continue to be the camaraderie it creates within the campus filmmaking community. “Throughout this process, you get to meet new people with fresh ideas. With all these submissions, we get a chance to share not just with people on-campus but [with a greater audience],” said committee member Leanne Ortbals ’12. “It brings people together with film, and, at the end of the day, we all love film,” she said.
And the nominees for Best of Brandeis are ...
“Annabelle Lee”
In “Pinch Me,” a film by Chris Lavery ‘10 and Avi Swerdlow ‘10, a man named Jon leads a humdrum existence. He spends most of his time sleeping, has a less than enthralling job and an awfully noisy neighbor. Luckily, he has a wonderful girlfriend. There’s only one problem: she disappears every time he wakes up.
“Still Alive”
To call “Annabelle Lee” a trippy movie is putting things lightly. A man named Edgar finds himself entranced by a vision he sees in the woods of a deathly silent woman—the titular Annabelle. When he follows her to a house, he finds four grisly mimes along with her nearby grave. The film—written and directed by Illan Amouyal ‘10, Kelly Frydman ‘11, Angcon Podder ‘10 and Stephen Robinson ‘11—successfully creates a sense of thrilling incoherence with its gothic music video aesthetics.
“Pinch Me” In the world of “Still Alive,” a film by Chris Lavery ’10, Arun Narayanan ’10 and Dan Neal ’10, everything has changed. A catastrophic plague has left everyone frozen in place—save for Boris. Boris glories in his situation, positioning people in provocative positions and using one of his friends as a clothes rack. But soon he realizes that other people might actually be able to move—but only when he’s asleep. The film makes for creepy, suspenseful and unsettling viewing. PHOTOS COURTESY OF SunDeis