The Brandeis Hoot - 3-6-09

VOL 5, NO. 20

MARCH 6, 2009

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

THEHOOT.NET

Faculty approve business major proposal

Union Judiciary to hear Ayers case Saturday

Proposed curriculum to integrate business and liberal arts

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG

Editor

Editor

Part III of IV in a series on Academic restructuring The faculty voted to approve the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering (CARS) committee’s business major proposal yesterday, officially approving a major that has long been considered.

In order to become a reality, the Business major proposal will have to be passed by the university’s Board of Trustees, however, it has the support of university President Jehuda Reinharz, and Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe.

If the major is instituted, it would mark the addition of a program of study which many have viewed as in conflict with liberal arts.

Prof. Ben Gomes-Casseres (IBS), who chairs the CARS subcommittee which developed the Business major, said that the passing of this proposal marks a change in See BUSINESS, p. 3

PHOTO BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot

BUSINESS Members of the faculty vote in favor of creating a business major yesterday. If approved by the Board of Trustees on March 25, the creation of the major would mark a change in the university’s attitude toward the field of buisness.

Endowment drops another 5 percent

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG

Editor

See ENDOWMENT, p. 3

IN THIS ISSUE:

See UJ, p. 2

Senate cuts back on midnight buffet spending following student complaints

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG

The university’s endowment has dropped 30 percent, university President Jehuda Reinharz announced at yesterday’s faculty meeting. The figure is worse than the 25 percent figure that university administrators had projected earlier in the semester.

Reinharz made the announcement in an effort to encourage faculty members to vote in favor of the proposed Justice Brandeis Semester and new Business major at a faculty meeting yesterday.

Both proposals were put before the faculty as ways to attract more students to the university, thereby increasing tuition revenue to help offset the university’s projected $80 million operating budget over the next five years.

“Of course, the endowment can get worse,” Reinharz said. “We need to use our creative minds to think out of the box to figure out how we can fix this. We need to take concrete action, beginning with the proposals the [Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee] has given us today.”

Reinharz also said that the university does have some “breath-

Student Union Senator for the Class of 2009 Eric Alterman has filed a complaint with the Union Judiciary (UJ) against class of 2011 senators Lev Hirshhorn and Alex Melman.

The complaint is in reaction to the a Senate Money Resolution (SMR) passed by the Union Senate Sunday to help Democracy for America and Students for a Democratic Society bring former Weatherman Bill Ayers to campus.

The Senate voted to pay $900 out of Ayers’ $2,500 speaking fee, the rest of which will be paid by the two clubs and the History and Peace and Coexistence departments.

This action allegedly violated Article IX, Section 1 of the Student Union Bylaws, which says that “all Senate Money Resolutions must be used for student government projects and/or operation.”

The UJ scheduled the hearing for tomorrow at 4 p.m., at which time each side will

Editor

The Student Union Services committee decided to cut spending on this semester’s midnight buffet after students became outraged upon hearing that the committee had planned to spend approximately $5,000 of the Union’s remaining $8,500 budget on the buffet.

Traditionally, the Union hosts a buffet full of free food and entertainment on the last day of classes every semester.

In recent semesters, the buffet has cost the senate between $4,000 and $5,000; however, Senator for the Class of 2012 Akash Vadilia, who chairs the services committee told The Hoot that the committee is planning on cutting spending down to under $3,000 in response to student opinion.

“We talked it over and we decided to cut down on the food, décor and entertainment,” he said of the buffet, which was to have a circus theme featuring jugglers, clowns and balloon animal artists.

“There has been a loss of interest. The student body doesn’t want this to be as extravagant as it has been in the past,” he said.

Kalynn Cook ’11 was, for the large part, responsible for this cut

back in spending.

Cook said she was attending Sunday’s senate meeting when she heard a senator mention the cost of the buffet while debating whether or not to pay $900 to help bring weatherman Bill Ayers to campus.

“It was just ridiculous,” she said.

“Clubs have had cuts across the board this semester, and we’re spending thousands of dollars on clowns? I couldn’t help but laugh.”

Cook is a member of Student Sexuality Information Service, which only received 60 percent of their requested budget this semester, forcing them to cut back on condom distribution.

“I think the buffet should be canceled altogether,” she said.

“Clubs are a greater asset to the campus than free food during finals. Just because the midnight buffet is tradition, doesn’t mean we should continue doing it.”

Cook mobilized students to talk to their senators by e-mailing the Brandeis Budget Cut Coalition listserv, which resulted in the buffet’s cutback.

The $2,000 cut from the midnight buffet budget will remain in the Senate discretionary funds to be given out through other Senate Money Resolutions, Union Treasurer Max Wallach ‘09 explained

Runner explores human psyche

Mock Trial argues its way into the spotlight

Diverse City, page 8

Features, page 13

in an e-mail message.

According to Wallach, the Finance Board allocated $437,548 to 121 chartered clubs and eight secured clubs this year. The total Student Union government budget this semester is $26,000, and the Union has a fixed annual budget of $52,000.

The Finance Board’s budget comes from the Student Activities Fee (SAF) that students pay as part of their tuition.

Traditionally, the fee for a given year has been one percent of tuition, however, this year’s SAF has been capped at one percent of tuition for the 2007-2008 academic year.

Last year the student voted to amend the Union constitution to place the cap in an effort to eliminate Finance Board rollover funds, which, up until last semester, the Finance Board was still able to use in allocating money to clubs.

“The final rollover funds were spent last semester, meaning the F-board was operating on a limited budget this semester,” Wallach wrote, saying that from now on, the Finance Board will only be able to use new SAF income to fund clubs.

“This semester is a more accurate representation of the amount of money that will be available to clubs in the future,” he wrote.

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Off the Beaten Path: Arrow Street Crepes Brandeis Watch: Faculty meeting overview Talking Notes: Interview with band Boatcar

2 The Hoot

March 6, 2009

N E W S

Provost Krauss creates Rose Committee

Union Judiciary to hear SMR case Saturday afternoon UJ (from p. 1)

PHOTO BY Natasha Rubin /The Hoot

FATE OF THE ROSE: Annie Chiorazzi ‘11 views an exhibit in the Rose Art Museum last month with her friends.

BY ARIEL WITTENBERG Editor

University Provost Marty Krauss announced that she is establishing a new committee to “help chart the future” of the Rose Art Museum in an e-mail to the Brandeis community Tuesday.

The committee, which will be an extension of the Faculty Senate’s Rose Committee, will be comprised of faculty, students, alumni, a member of the Rose Museum staff, a member of the Rose Board of Overseers and a member of the university’s Board of Trustees.

Krauss told The Hoot in a phone interview that while any decision to sell or keep art is solely the decision of the Board of Trustees, the committee will be charged with proposing ideas of how to better integrate the rest of the museum into the university.

“Even if we sell some pieces, we will still have the building, and we will still have a lot of art,” she said. “The question now is what

kinds of programs we can do at The Rose that relate to the university.”

“No one has said to the committee that The Rose as it currently exists needs to change,” she continued. “We’re trying to take a deep breath and look at how we can best use The Rose in the future.”

President Jehuda Reinharz initially announced that the Board of Trustees had voted to close the Rose on Jan. 26. Later, Reinharz said that the Board of Trustees had actually voted for the authorization of the closing of the Rose in the event that the university’s administration deemed it financially necessary; however, the clarification came after two weeks of community outrage at the unilateral nature of the decision.

Krauss said that the formation of the Faculty Senate’s committee and university committee is a result of “the vigorous reaction to the decision [to authorize the closing of the Rose].”

“We decided to slow down,” she said. “We broadly constituted a committee that could advise the university on the types of options we have for The Rose.”

She added that because of the importance of the decision, the university administration felt that they needed to know “the level of support from the Board [of Trustees] before we brought it to students.”

“If [the trustees] had rejected it, nothing would have happened,” she said.

Student representative to the committee Catherine McConnell ’10, who is a studio arts major, said that she believes “something like this should have been formed earlier.”

“It took a lot of negative reactions for them to get to this point,” she said. “It’s about the difference between a process done in a committee and one done behind closed doors.”

At yesterday’s faculty meeting, President Reinharz apologized

for the “negative media attention that ensued after the wrongly handled announcement about The Rose.”

Reinharz also noted that until the new Rose committee makes a recommendation for the fate of the museum, it will remain open.

He also said he expects a recommendation from the committee by the end of the semester.

At the meeting, Prof. Thomas King (ENG) responded to Reinharz saying that; “you’re asking us to do so many things to help the university in its time of trouble.

Before I do that, I need to know that we will not be misrepresented in the upcoming Rose decision as we have in the past.”

Reinharz responded saying that the committee would ensure community representation in any new recommendation for the Museuem.

Representatives from the Rose Art Museum did not respond to requests for comment before print time.

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present evidence as to whether or not bringing Bill Ayers to campus qualifies as a “student government project,” Union Judiciary Chief Justice Rachel Graham Kagan ’09 explained in an interview.

There is no precedent in this case, although Kagan said that the UJ’s records of past cases is incomplete.

Alterman said that although he realizes that “there is a potential gray area” around whether DFA members and Union senators Melman and Hirshhorn were acting as senators or club leaders when they brought the resolution to the Senate, “the importance of the bylaw is to save what little money we have left for the Senate.”

“We wouldn’t take money from DFA’s budget,” he said, “they shouldn’t be allowed to take from ours.”

The Student Union has a remaining budget of $8,500 for this semester—if one subtracts the costs of the Midnight Buffet and now the cost to bring Ayers to campus, the Union is looking at an operating budget of somewhere between $1,300 and $3,000 for the rest of the semester.

“The SMRs are not an emergency relief fund for clubs, that’s what the Finance Board is for,” Alterman said.

The original proposal for an SMR to help Democracy for America and Students for a Democratic Society pay for a club event highlights how the university’s economic problems have reached the Student Union this semester, resulting in the Finance Board allocating less money to clubs across the board.

Student Union Treasurer Max Wallach ’09 told The Hoot in an e-mail that the Finance Board has been “operating on a limited budget” this year because it had spent all of its rollover funds last semester.

“This semester’s budget is a more accurate representation of the amount of money that will be available to clubs in the future,” he wrote.

Hirshhorn refused to comment about whether or not he acted as a club member or as a senator; however he did tell The Hoot “I have no issue with the bylaw,” and that “I believe I acted legally.”

Hirshhorn has organized speaker events with SMRs as recently as last semester when he brought members of the Waltham Police to campus to speak about students’ search and seizure rights.

In that case, Hirshhorn was working as a member of the Senate’s Social justice committee and in conjunction with the Advocates—a campus club of which Hirshhorn is not a member.

NEWS

March 6, 2009

The Hoot 3

Union creates Admissions Task Force to improve outreach

BY SARAH GILSON Staff

In an effort to enhance connections between the Brandeis and the non-Brandeis world, the Student Union created the Admissions Task Force. The Task Force will be comprised of 7 to 9 active Brandeis students who will work to promote the various benefits of the school and expose the unknown treasures of campus life . Co-chair Jamie Fleishman ‘11 said that the Task Force will serve as a “bridge” between admissions and the Brandeis student body.

CARS – the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering Committee – was established this year, in light of the country’s progressively dismal economic state.

One of its subcommittees is Admissions and Recruiting. Members of the Admissions and Recruiting subcommittee then came together to create the Task Force.

Fleishman, Sofya Bronshvayg ‘11, and Union President Jason Gray ‘10 brainstormed and sought people out who would fit as Task Force members. They also solicited help from people for suggestions of suitable potential Task Force members.

Next year, there will be a formalized application process to be on the Task Force.

“These ideas about how Brandeis students could become more involved in admissions were ideas that had been floating around in my mind since when I applied for the CARS subcommittee. Once I was accepted to the committee, I fleshed out these ideas with the other subcommittee members and then worked closely with Jason Gray, Sofya Bronshvayg and Gil Villanueva to create the Task Force,” said Fleishman.

“The Student Union Task Force on Admissions is a new initiative to help connect current Brandeis Students to prospective students. The idea behind the task force is that current students are the best resource to prospective students. Since prospective students may be concerned with the reputation of Brandeis, the task force provides a way for current students to help admissions and to recruit the best possible candidates to maintain Brandeis’ competitiveness,” Bronshvayg explained.

The Admissions Executive Task Force’s primary short term goal is to establish

connections between current students and prospective or admitted students. Also, the Task Force is working with the communications department on a “Why Brandeis” video to be posted on Youtube. Another short term goal is to integrate more student-influenced material on the admissions website. The Task Force will also help plan various events and recruit volunteers for Admitted Students Day on Apr. 7. Further, the Task Force plans on emailing club leaders to request submission of pictures and videos that will be used in a slideshow for the admitted student open house. It is “vitally important to have the general student population involved in admissions,” Fleishman commented.

Though all of the goals of the Task Force will not be executed this year, there are plans to have either current students or faculty contact every newly admitted student.

First, though, the Task Force will comprise a list of students who could make up the Student Ambassador program.

This is the primary long term goal of the Task Force. The Ambassador Program will launch a network of students who will contact admitted and prospective students and provide information about Brandeis that is difficult to discover without inside knowledge. As Fleishman put it, “the program encourages prospective students to…get a feeling for the atmosphere of the student body.”

Fleishman felt passionately that the potential students who actually get the chance to visit Brandeis are much more likely to matriculate. His hope is that with the Task Force, there will be a heightened awareness and more talk of what Brandeis has to offer.

In that same vein, Fleishman said that one of his hopes for the Task Force will be to encourage current Brandeis students to return to their high schools and give information about Brandeis. He hopes that this positive word-of-mouth trend will motivate more students to attend Brandeis and increase awareness of the university.

“Every time I give a tour I get a renewed passion for Brandeis. I just want people to share that in that feeling.”

Editor’s Note: Jamie Fleishman is a contributor to The Hoot.

Additional budget cuts on the horizon to compensate for deficit ENDOWMENT (from p. 1)

ing room” before it begins to feel the full impact of the decreased endowment because of the university’s emergency fund, which was created in the mid-1990’s. The fund should last the university until 2010, giving the university roughly two years to balance the budget.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe told the faculty that without passing the CARS proposals, “there is nothing else of this size that is permanent enough to contribute to closing the [budget] gap.”

Both CARS proposals were passed by the faculty at the meeting yesterday, and will go before the Board of Trustees on Mar. 25.

If the proposals are passed, and bring in the projected revenue, the university must still cut $10 million in order to balance the budget by 2014, Faculty Budget Committee Chair Prof. Peter Conrad (SOC) told the faculty yesterday.

“That’s assuming that the market is beginning to recover by 2011,” Conrad said.

“That’s no slam dunk.”

Other options for closing the gap include: raising tuition by 5.5 percent, cutting 91 faculty members, cutting 120 staff,

reducing faculty benefits, reducing faculty salary, taking out more loans, doubling fundraising and selling university assets (which could include art from the Rose Art Museum).

“All of these options are either difficult or impossible to implement or would not work quickly enough,” Conrad said.

Reinharz said that he has been talking with potential donors in an effort to reduce the deficit, but that not only are many donors simply unable to contribute to the university due to their own economic woes, but it is also exceptionally difficult to convince donors to donate to the endowment.

Instead, Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement Nancy Winship is focusing the Department of Development and Alumni Relations gift-soliciting efforts on paying for financial aid.

Reinharz urged faculty members to not panic about the university’s financial woes, reminding them that, “Brandeis was founded on daring faith. This is a challenge, but it is not an insurmountable obstacle.”

PHOTO BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot

SERIOUS BUSINESS: Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe highlights aspects of the business major curriculum at a faculty meeting Thursday afternoon.

Business major curriculum to include liberal arts elements BUSINESS (from p. 1)

how the university thinks of liberal arts.

“Liberal arts now is just as much about how we teach a subject as it is about the subject we are teaching,” he said, adding that the new business major would involve “liberal arts aspects. It would be about critical thinking on a broad view of material.”

The business major, if passed, will contain two tracks, “Business and society” and “Business administration.” GomesCasseres said that regardless of which track future business majors choose, the major will focus on business’ role in society.

“Understanding business is very much like understanding government,” he said.

“Government is about how power is allocated, business is about how resources are allocated. Either way, it is about how the people with the resources and the power relate to society.”

The possible creation of the business major comes in response to the university’s need to increase student enrollment by 100 students per year over the next four years in an effort to use tuition to alleviate the university’s current budget crisis.

Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy told members of the faculty at a meeting yesterday that the business major will help to increase applications, which in turn will allow the university admit more students without decreasing the “quality of the Brandeis student body.”

According to the business major proposal, 17 percent of college applicants nation wide are interested in pursuing a major in business; however, less than five percent of Brandeis applicants express similar interests.

Eddy told the faculty that adding a business major would help admissions tap into that applicant pool.

Still, she said, Brandeis’ business pro-

gram will be unique and attract students “who are interested in business and all other sorts of education,” adding that the way Brandeis’ business major will be constructed will make it easy for students to double major.

In the past there have been concerns that adding a business major to the Brandeis curriculum would attract “the wrong type of student”—or students uninterested in social justice and solely focused on making money. These concerns were echoed in the most recent round of debate around the business major.

Gomes-Casseres, however, disagrees with these concerns, saying that adding a business major will not attract students who “want pure business,” and that students who are uninterested in a liberal arts education would apply to pre-professional schools like Babson or Bentley.

“This program is not set up for a student who only wants to learn accounting,” he said. “This is a program to help students figure out if they like business and want to pursue it, and just to learn about business even if they go into other fields.”

Gomes-Casseres used the university’s namesake Justice Louis D. Brandeis—a staunch trust-busting advocate—as an example for how knowledge of business could help students interested in other fields.

While some have opposed the business major, calling it a pre-professional major, Gomez Casseres said that the university has other academic programs, such as Health: Science, Society and Policy, that prepare students for life after Brandeis.

“The goal of the major is to produce students who are engaged in the world and understand businesses role in it,” he said.

“No one will come out of this looking like a corporate servant,” he said.

4 The Hoot

March 6, 2009

E D I TO R I A L

A

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

Alison Channon Editor in Chief Ariel Wittenberg News Editor Bret Matthew Impressions Editor Chrissy Callahan Features Editor Kayla Dos Santos Backpage Editor Alex Schneider Layout Editor Jodi Elkin Layout Editor Max Shay Photography Editor Leon Markovitz Business Editor Vanessa Kerr Business Editor Danielle Gewurz Copy Editor Max Price Diverse City Editor Senior Editors Jordan Rothman, Zachary Aronow

FOUNDED BY

Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

A major business opportunity

t yesterday’s faculty meeting, the faculty voted to support the creation of a business major at Brandeis. The Board of Trustees will make the final decision later this month. The faculty voted correctly, and it is our hope that the Trustees follow suit.

Certainly, there has been concern about the creation of a business major. Many have wondered if such a major will attract the ‘wrong’ type of students. However, the proposed business major should not be discounted simply because of the word business.

And while liberal arts colleges and universities have traditionally shunned business curricula, it makes little sense to reject the proposed major simply on the grounds of tradition.

The Brandeis business major is not a typical business major. It will include a focus on the intersection between business and the context in which it operates. The business major has been custom designed to fit Brandeis and the liberal arts.

Moreover, to assert that this will change the character of our university is unfounded, particularly because there are already

Abuses of power have no place in the Senate

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.

T

omorrow, in its first case of the semester, the Union Judiciary will consider the constitutionality of using a Senate Money Resolution to finance a club event.

Class of 2009 Senator Eric Alterman filed the case after Class of 2011 Senators and Democracy for America club members Alex Melman and Lev Hirshhorn proposed that the Union Senate pass an SMR to help DFA and Students for a Democratic Society bring former Weatherman and Sarah Palin favorite Bill Ayers to campus. The $900 SMR would help DFA and SDS pay Ayers’ $2,500 speaker fee.

Whether the Ayers SMR violates the

Union constitution is for the Union Judiciary to decide. However, constitutional or not, the recently passed SMR sets a concerning precedent about the privileges of elected office on this campus.

Melman and Hirshhorn sought out an SMR after DFA and SDS did not receive sufficient monies from the Finance Board to bring Ayers themselves. And the clubs are certainly not alone in their financial predicament. Clubs across the board received less money this semester than in semesters past. There is no doubt that the entire campus is hurting.

Even so, the Union’s budget should not be seen as a supplement to the monies allo-

Letters to the Editor Student Union must reverse Ayers Senate Money Resolution decision Dear Editor, Part nine of section one of article nine in the Student Union bylaws states, “All Senate Money Resolutions must be used for Student Union Government projects and/or operations.” This past Sunday, the Student Union Senate voted to pass a Senate Money Resolution to provide $900 of funding for a project to bring Bill Ayers and Robert H. King to Brandeis. While the morality of this resolution is debatable, the legality of it is undeniable; the Senate was not legally allowed to allocate this money. The bylaw states that Senate money resolutions are only for Student Union Government projects, operations,

or both; bringing Bill Ayers to campus to speak is neither, it is a club project.

In the spring of 2009, Democracy for America made a funding request to pay for speaking fees and traveling costs to get Bill Ayers to speak on campus.

In their resolution, it is stated, “…we would like to bring noted activist, former leader of SDS and the Weather Underground, and Professor of Education at University of Illinois: Chicago to campus. This is our highestprofile event for the semester.”

In this request, it is clear that Democracy for America is taking ownership of this event, not the Student Union Government.

Democracy for America is saying that this event will be their

highest-profile event of the semester, their highest-profile event. By taking ownership of the event, Democracy for America disqualifies the Bill Ayers event from receiving funds from a Senate Money Resolution.

The Student Union should take immediate action to reverse their decision to fund the Bill Ayers event. Whether or not the Senators feel Bill Ayers should come to Brandeis to speak, the bylaws are clear in that the Student Union cannot fund the event through a Senate Money Resolution.

Scott Rothstein ’11

Reinharz’s plan for the Rose Art Museum is a ‘criminal scam’ Dear Editor, The Rose [Art Museum] is financially self-sufficient - it does not need a ‘Donor’ to cover the operating cost.

To the Jewish community, the ‘transition’ of the Rose is a another criminal scam by Reinharz and his thieves to gain control

plenty of students on campus who study economics and wish to enter the financial sector after graduation. The students who will supposedly debase our liberal arts mission are already here.

Furthermore, the business major offers a tremendous opportunity not just for recruitment, but for social change. We have experienced in the last six months how unethical and dishonest business practices can destabilize a university, and a nation.

Now more than ever, we need to combine business with ethics. A liberal arts focused business major could do just that.

from the Founders and Board of Overseers - and ‘sell’ certain works of art sought after by their friends.

Maintaining the INDEPENDENCE of the ROSE ART MUSEUM is critical.

-As long as Reinharz remains as president, the Brandeis reputation will more closely follow

that of its famous graduate Jack Abramoff. Clearly, they are cut from the same cloth.

Dennis J. Solomon, MIT (son of the Brandeis founding volunteers)

cated by the Finance Board. F-board exists so that clubs have equal access to funding.

Finance Board members are elected to allocate monies. Union senators are not.

In that regard, it is particularly troubling that the two individuals who proposed the SMR are at once DFA club members and Union senators.

Undoubtedly they have more influence as voting members of the Senate to influence a decision in their club’s favor. Clearly, this represents a conflict of interest. Using one’s elected position to garner special privileges is wrong. Two Senators who ran on the platform of social justice and transparency should know better.

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March 6, 2009

IMPRESSIONS

The Hoot 5

Borde-nough

Relaying for Life: Obama still thinking checkmate What's your reason?

BY CHRIS BORDELON Columnist

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

BY NADINE CHANNAOUI Special to The Hoot

I was sitting by Massell pond on an oddly warm April evening when I received a call from Brian, one of my best friends and an unfaltering Mets fan, Frank Sinatra guru, and a life-long baseball player. He asked if I had time to talk, a question that had always prefaced our “heartto-hearts.” However none of our previous conversations could have prepared me for the news that, unbeknownst to us, would change our lives forever: he had cancer.

At the time, I didn’t quite understand the significant weight of his words. I figured that he would have a rough couple of months ahead of him and would be pretty tired and bald.

Nonetheless, he was a 20-yearold athlete with a strong build and lots of energy, so I thought, after a few rounds of chemo, he’d be back to regular ole “Tiger” and doing his oh-so-unique happy dance.

During the summer recess, when I was at home and able to spend time with Brian, my prediction seemed pretty accurate. We partook in low-key activities like movie-nights and drives around our hometown in upstate New York, and while I recall feeling mildly uncomfortable visiting him in the hospital during chemo sessions, we were able to carry on with our typical conversations and laughs.

By mid-July, the cancer was gone and Brian was off of treatment, and by the time I went back to Brandeis, he had a full head of hair and was back to his beloved baseball practices.

Just when everything appeared to be shaping up, I found out that Brian’s cancer had come back and had metastasized, presenting a condition that would require additional and more rigorous treatment than he had experienced over the summer.

I

I remained hopeful and tried to share this hope with Brian as much as possible through cards, phone calls, and unconditional support. Each time I went home, I’d spend time with him, and with each visit he appeared to get slightly thinner, paler, and more tired.

By winter recess, plans were made for a bone marrow transplant. Again, I envisioned a tough process of treatment, but thought that if he could just endure the strenuous transplant, everything would be all right.

In early March, my hopes were unfortunately left unmet when Brian lost his battle to cancer. I was lucky enough to be with him during his last few days in the hospital, and am truly honored to have known such a wonderful person.

I Relay because of Brian, and because I know that my story is not unique. There are millions of people – young and old – diagnosed with cancer, which in turn means that there are millions more mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, partners, grandchildren, and friends who are enduring challenges similar to my own.

Last year, I was the Team Development co-chair for the firstever Relay For Life at Brandeis.

I went on to become co-founder and co-president of Colleges Against Cancer. This year, I have resumed my positions, which have provided me with an outlet to cope and an opportunity to actively join the fight against cancer so that one day, no one will have to bear the pain of losing a loved one to the horrible disease.

Now you know my reason to Relay, what’s yours? Please join Relay For Life of Brandeis University by visiting: www.relayforlife.org/brandeisuniversity

Relay because of Brian, and because I know that my story is not unique.

The most important rule in chess is associated with the only word that chess reliably contributes to everyone’s vocabulary – checkmate. A player wins if the other player’s king is threatened and escape is impossible.

Chess metaphors are understandably often used in discussions of war. But the rules of chess and war are very different – especially that checkmate rule.

In war, even if there is a king to threaten, threatening him may not mean victory. Killing him might just lead to his replacement; trashing his country might draw in its friends; destroying his army and slaughtering his people might leave behind ideas that will bring new recruits to his cause.

Leaders play a role in choosing what objectives will be required for victory, and by choosing wisely, they can help bring victory into sight if not into grasp. But leaders don’t control these objectives fully. Some objectives may be unavoidable, and not a matter of choice. Other objectives might change during the course of the war, sometimes beyond a leader’s control or even outside of his awareness. And, God knows, leaders can choose objectives unwisely. With everything reduced to black and white, with only 64 squares to consider, and with the opponent’s king in plain view, checkmate looks easily obtainable compared with victory in war – whatever victory means.

But that doesn’t stop people, or presidents, from thinking that the checkmate rule, or something like it, applies in war as it does in chess. President Bush routinely behaved as though war had a checkmate rule. Almost eight years ago, he declared a worldwide “war on terror.” The precise objectives in this war and even the precise opponents were unknown and unknowable at the time, and remain so in large part. But even without any way of defining victory, the United States has continued to spend money and lives in the name of this war, and America’s military and even society has been retooled to fight it. It is as though throwing people and money into this “war” and casting other defense priorities and civil liberties aside were themselves the criteria for victory.

Again, almost six years ago, Bush gleefully tipped over the Iraqi government’s ‘king’ and declared that the US had “prevailed” in Iraq in front of a famous sign that read “Mission Accomplished.” But fighting in Iraq has continued, as has the pattern of massive spending without a sense of what victory would entail that has characterized the War on Terror. Bush’s “surge,” his policy of heightened troop deployments and spending in Iraq (which even today has left both the size of the Iraq deployment and US allocations for Iraq higher than they would otherwise have been), is now credited by some with what

PHOTO from internet source

is said to be the “progress” witnessed in Iraq. But the surge failed to identify objectives the attainment of which would make for American victory in Iraq. Absent objectives, claims of progress seem dubious.

Rather than progress, I suspect that the surge will one day be remembered as a crude violation of the public trust, in which the president borrowed a fortune to temporarily bury the Iraq mess in a pile of money to try to make his administration’s and his party’s house appear as orderly as possible. This expensive green carpet, or Oriental rug, if you will, in light of the Chinese bond purchases that financed it, cannot forever conceal what was swept beneath it.

Neither in Iraq nor Afghanistan, nor in the supposedly wider War on Terror, did the Bush administration ever clearly articulate what victory meant, even as they continued to throw blood and treasure at it. The words of the late diplomat George Kennan, spoken in response to a question asked at Senate hearings in 1966 about the possibility of US victory in the then-escalating war in Vietnam, could have answered a similar query in our own time about victory in our current wars: Kennan did “not know what the word ‘win’” meant in “these circumstances.”

Nor did Bush ever appear to consider the other option open to him: standing up and walking away from the table. Hard as it is for some people to imagine, there is no requirement that every American war end in something called victory – especially when the alternative is not something called defeat. Indeed, America has not prevailed in all its wars.

Vietnam is an example. That war was a painful experience for those who lived through it, and a grave sin against those who did not.

But the important thing was that, with or without victory, the war did end.

Where would our country be if there had not been sufficient political will to end the war and to overcome the sentiments of hawks like Lyndon Johnson’s Secretary of State Dean Rusk? In language that has continued to resonate among those for whom honor perversely requires killing, Rusk continued to insist even after leaving office that to abandon

the US mission in Vietnam was to sheepishly “cut and run.” There is no telling how many lives and opportunities were saved by America’s belated departure.

Does President Obama believe in a checkmate rule? Would he ever walk away from the table?

My heart tells me that it’s still too early to tell, but alas, I think that Obama will continue to play at war and will use an only slightly amended version of Bush’s rulebook. The changes he’s making are not in the section of the rules about winning the game. Instead, he’s tinkering with the parts about game pieces and where to put them on the board. It will take a year and a half to make the switch, but eventually only 50,000 troops will be stationed in Iraq. They’ll be called “support” troops rather than “combat” troops. “And under the Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government,” as the President said on Feb. 27, “I intend to remove all US troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.”

By focusing on Iraq, Obama’s speech convinced much of the public that he plans to leave Iraq.

He has succeeded, as Bush never could, in making Americans hopeful. But his focus misled the public. Obama downplayed the fact that his removal of troops from Iraq is part of a reshuffling of those troops that will send yetundisclosed numbers of them to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he noted benignly that America would be “refocusing” its efforts.

Recent Russian revelations that Obama sought a deal swapping American ABM systems in Europe for Russian help in isolating Iran diplomatically give rise to the scary thought that Obama might actually make good on Bush’s old threats to expand US military operations to include Iran – threats that Obama renewed to little fanfare in his Feb. 27 speech, when he spoke of a “strategy to use all elements of American power to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.”

But perhaps Obama, for all this talk, would consider leaving this awful game behind. His changes in the designation of the troops and his reference to the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq seemed to many to suggest that he wanted to withdraw from Iraq, victory or no. But troops can be See BUSH'S RULES, p. 7

6 The Hoot

IMPRESSIONS

Book of Matthew

Even more panic in the Red States: Limbaugh and the Fairness Doctrine

March 6, 2009

Sad times for journalism

BY BRET MATTHEW Editor

Heard about the Fairness Doctrine controversy lately?

Rush Limbaugh, conservative political commentator and “intellectual leader” (read: really loud voice) of the Republican Party, wants you to think that the Fairness Doctrine is coming back. On Election Day, after hearing Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) appear on Fox News to offer a defense of the Doctrine, he warned that the Democrats “are going to do everything they can” to ensure its return.

Thanks to Rush’s audience— which is about as large as his own enormous waistline (14 million listeners per week as of the end of 2008)—his claim spread rapidly in the days that followed. It was featured on countless conservative blogs, as well as on Fox News itself.

But before I get ahead of myself, I should provide some quick background information.

For those of you who haven’t quite brushed up on your media history, the term “Fairness Doctrine” refers to an old FCC policy that regulated radio and television broadcasts. Established in 1949, the Doctrine had two major components. First, it required all licensed broadcasters to spend some time discussing “matters of public interest.”

Second, it required those broadcasters to air “contrasting views” of each issue.

For nearly 40 years, broadcasters complied with these simple regulations. Then, the Reagan administration’s wave of deregulation hit hard. In 1985, the FCC, led by chairman Mark Fowler, released a report stating that the Fairness Doctrine was no longer working as intended. Two years later, the FCC stopped enforcement of the Doctrine altogether. From that point on, broadcasters were free to fill their airtime with whatever they wanted.

It’s an arrangement that Rush—who created "The Rush Limbaugh Show" in 1988— has used to his advantage. His unchecked conservative bias gained him quite the cult following among his own party (80% of his listeners identify as conservative), and he has been credited with assisting many Republicans win their Congressional victories in 1994.

He has fought tooth and nail to keep things that way. Several times in the years that followed

If

PHOTO from internet source

BY AARON UDEL Staff

PHOTO from internet source

the Doctrine’s demise, Congress attempted to reinstate it. Rush met each one of these attempts with stiff resistance, most notably in 1993, when he declared, “I, Rush Limbaugh, the poster boy of free speech, am being gang muzzled.” Not surprisingly, all of Congress’s attempts failed.

Which brings us back to his Election Day remarks. I have to give Rush some credit; he’s no flipflopper on this issue.

He’s never wavered in his opposition.

However, consistency is not the issue here.

Honesty is.

And despite Rush’s claims, he has not been honest with his listeners.

Sure, there are some Democrats like Senator Schumer who would like to see the Doctrine back in full force. But that is irrelevant. If the hopes and desires of certain Democrats were all that mattered on Capitol Hill, we would have had the Doctrine back 20 years ago.

The fact of the matter is, President Obama, the leader of the Democratic Party, is opposed to the Doctrine, and because of this, Democrats in Congress have initiated no legislation calling for its return. The general consensus among party members is that they have more important issues to tackle.

If you think this whole thing is getting a bit ridiculous, you would be right. But the story isn’t finished. Apparently, de-

you think this whole thing is getting a bit ridiculous, you would be right.

spite his delusional appearance, there is a method to Rush’s madness after all.

On Feb. 26, a small amendment was added to the DC voting rights bill that was passed by the Senate. The Senator responsible was Dick Durbin (D-IL); the amendment’s purpose: “to encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership, and to ensure that the public airwaves are used in the public interest.”

This amendment, I should point out, is not the same as the Fairness Doctrine. It won’t give the government the power to regulate content and to silence free speech. It will, however, allow the government to regulate the companies that own the airwaves, and to break up conglomerates that prevent smaller broadcasters from having their voices heard.

This is why Rush never stopped whining about the non-existent Doctrine, even after it became clear that the new Obama administration wasn’t interested in it. He is afraid (with good reason) that the government might try to break up the conglomerate that pays him his exorbitant, multi-million dollar salary. And so, for the sake of his pocketbook, he will continue to falsely portray necessary government action as something odious, something that will take away our basic rights. It’s the only way he can think of to rally the public onto his side.

Lies, deceit, and fear, all in the name of money… yes, this is the Rush Limbaugh we all know.

But to be fair, a guy’s gotta eat.

Especially Rush.

The Hoot accepts submissions to the Impressions section on any topic of consequence to any member of the campus community. Our mission is to give every community member a voice. The views expressed in the Impressions section do not necessarily reflect the views of The Hoot's editorial board.

Newspapers across the country are suffering. The combination of an ailing economy and the presence of the internet has resulted in drastically reduced revenues, and has forced many papers to close.

The Rocky Mountain News in Denver is one of the latest and most well known newspapers to shut down due to financial trouble. The Rocky published its final edition on Feb. 27, after the company that owned the paper made the decision to close it. Not surprisingly, the closing of the Rocky has caused a stir among Denver residents. The paper was just shy of reaching its 150th anniversary, making it the oldest in Colorado.

The sad truth is that print newspapers can’t compete with internet sites that offer news at little or no cost. I don’t condemn technology or dispute that the internet provides many useful and unique services. Nevertheless, I believe the world has lost, and continues to lose, something valuable during the digital age: personal communication.

Today, instead of sending letters, we send e-mails. Instead of sitting down and reading a favorite newspaper, we are more likely to view one on the web. Instead of clipping out our favorite story, we bookmark the webpage on which we find it. Call me old-fashioned, but I like retrieving the local paper from the doorstep at home, or picking one up at the Shapiro Campus Center on my way to class. I like the feeling of the newsprint in my hands, flipping through pages to follow a story, and the ink that rubs onto my fingertips in the process.

Print newspapers are more closely connected with their readers than online news sites. At least for now, most online newspapers (if it makes sense to call them that) are free. By contrast, print newspapers require a subscription or must be purchased at a newsstand. Subscribing to a newspaper is a matter of loyalty.

When a person subscribes to a paper they place their trust in it. In exchange for money, you receive your own copies. Internet sites are different. Instead of purchasing a copy of your own, you get news for free from a website that thousands of people may be viewing at the same time. It simply isn’t the same.

Perhaps all of this doesn’t bother you. Perhaps you think that news on the internet is just as good as news on paper. To some degree you are right, but there is still cause for concern. First of

all, even newspapers with both print and online components are in danger. The Rocky Mountain News had a highly professional, regularly updated website. (In fact, it’s still up. I encourage you to take a look.) Even with the revenue brought in by online advertising, clearly, having a professional online news site is no guarantee of success.

My second concern is that readers searching the internet for news may turn to unreliable, subjective sources. Anyone can make a website and be a reporter. In the age of the internet, the line between factual news and personal opinion is not always observed. Online news stories are often followed by hundreds of comments from readers. Blogs and podcasts infuse news with someone’s feelings about events. These more interactive, less objective “news” features are troublesome. Faux journalism can never stand as a substitute for the real thing.

Finally, online newspapers may sacrifice quality in order to be the first to break a story. Speedy communication is very important, but it could come at the expense of the kind of in-depth reporting that we expect from our news sources. Just think about what happens on major television news networks when they report a story as it is unfolding. They repeat the same three or four facts over and over without revealing any new details. When the news anchor, who is supposed to be informing us, doesn’t understand the images that are projected on the TV screen, the news coverage is not very helpful. Online news sites may face the same problem if speed, not accuracy, is their aim.

Given all these concerns, it is reasonable to ask if there is a way to salvage print journalism. Sadly, I don’t think so. The internet is here to stay and the poor economy is forcing newspapers either to adapt or to shut down. Expect more closings in the months and years ahead.

It is the hope of everyone involved with a newspaper that their contributions mean something to the paper’s readers. A newspaper writer seeks to inform, inspire, and affect other people. When a newspaper closes, its staff may feel as if they are no longer wanted or needed. Keep this in mind: You may not miss a newspaper until it’s gone, but you’ll probably miss it. The loss of print newspapers isn’t the end of the world or even the end of the news, but it is the end of a particular kind of news.

We should all be concerned about the industry’s future.

IMPRESSIONS

March 6, 2009

A woman needs a man...

BY EMILY MASKAS Staff

As was bound to happen, Taylor Swift and I have had a falling out. Do not get me wrong, the small country portion of my soul still enjoys her music, but the rest of me is starting to have a huge problem with her attitude, most specifically how she relates to men. Taylor likes to pine for men who are unavailable or uninterested (Teardrops on my Guitar), she likes chaotic or obsessive relationships (The Way I Loved You), and it takes every ounce of courage for her not to get back together with a guy who has cheated on and hurt her (White Horse). I could cite more, but I am trying not to sound crazy.

Seeing these Facebook bumper stickers that say things like “Taylor Swift sings songs about my life,” presumably for tweens, gets me really worried (until she writes “Strangely Oedipal Redneck Pedophile Stoner,” I do not feel that they really apply to my life). This unhealthy, yet far too common, view of male/female relationships is being passed to the next generation. Of course the same thing happened with "Sex and the City" when we were young and had our minds melded by Carrie Bradshaw and her love of old men with health problems, failed marriages, and commitment issues. I think it is time that this relationship pathology is stopped.

To move onto less frivolous things, think about Rihanna and Chris Brown. Everything is going great, they perform together, get matching tattoos (um, the first sign of an unhealthy relationship BTW) and then BAM (sorry), he is arrested for physically assaulting her. She went to the hospital and he was investigated for attempted murder. Without reading Perez Hilton, can you tell me what happens next? They are back together, with all of their male friends defending that decision.

So, flanking the Women’s Liberation Movement, the "Vagina Monologues," the pill, equal work for equal pay, and the Rabbit, is this sort of omnipresent conception of women’s masochism. I do not mean masochism as it is usually used, in terms of the sexual paraphernalia, which is not a problem as long as it is consensual (the safe word is “narwhal”). Here, I am using the term as it was used in the DSMIII, but not in the DSM-IV, the DSM-IV-TR and probably not in the DSM-V in 2012, to classify the misguided concept of “SelfDefeating Personality Disorder” (SDPD).

SDPD was the attempt of male psychiatrists to understand women without having to do any work or even attempt to fix their problems. They said that certain women choose to suffer, in menial jobs, tragic abusive relationships, or just generally unfulfilling lives, simply because they like to suffer and unconsciously make choices that allow them to do so. A woman will not divorce her abusive husband, not because her family will likely side

with the man, her children will be hurt, and she will most likely be left in a difficult financial position; no, it is because, deep down, she is asking to be hurt.

I would really like to know how the men reviewing DSM criteria allowed such rapist-like reasoning into their book. Oh and also, if she does leave him, she will just go find another abusive man because she cannot help her suppressed longings, so what’s the point? I really love listening to "Loveline" with Dr. Drew, but it always angers me when he says such things to women seeking help on how to find a half-decent man; he then usually goes on to suggest therapy which is fine, but you cannot blame failed relationships on one party’s possible display of no-longer-validated symptoms.

You and I both know that such thinking is wrong. Clearly, masochism is a social rather than mental disorder, although it cannot hurt for women who feel that they keep getting hurt to go to therapy. Women are taught from an early age that quiet selfsacrifice is the correct mode of behavior, that being alone for any length of time is the worst possible state of being, and that a woman’s first priority is her man’s happiness (look at Cosmopolitan). Such themes are combined with the overarching Christian concept that self-denial, suffering, and guilt are the roads to purity. Rihanna probably felt that she provoked Chris Brown to hit her (maybe by being pregnant, if the rumors are true) and that taking him back was what any good woman would do.

I am just really sick of seeing this supposed affliction permeate so many facets of culture marketed to women. Even a beacon of feminism like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" plays into this idea (in an extreme manner), with Buffy pining forever for Angel even though he literally loses his soul and tries to kill her after they sleep together, and falling in love with Spike who attempted many times to kill and rape her.

So yes, SPDP is no longer an official condition, but it is still an omnipresent myth that women like to suffer and love those who make them suffer.

I guess my overarching message, in time for Vagina Week, is “Do not be Rihanna.” Instead, be more attuned to the stupid message lying hidden in catchy country-pop, and be empowered; buck the societal reinforcement of SDPD (you don’t have to stop being a sexy masochist though, if that’s what you enjoy). I don’t like hearing my friends say that they don’t want to be alone because not having a man makes them feel ugly and I don’t like people feeling smothered by relationships, wondering if they can take care of themselves, deciding to stay together because it is easier than venturing out alone. I am trying hard not to be bitter about all this, but come on, ladies, you have been being really lame lately. Maybe I’ll just go watch some Manswers and feel better about my gender.

The Hoot 7

One Tall Voice

Escape from pointless social conventions

BY JORDAN ROTHMAN Editor

I absolutely, positively, hate social niceties. If there is one thing that I detest most about our modern society, it is the fact that we have to delude ourselves with the presentation of norms, dedicated to presenting ourselves as courteous and pleasant. But these devices only turn us into disingenuous automatons, because we are masking our true selves in order to promote the ideals advanced by our society. I hate rubbing elbows, asking superficial questions, and making small talk in order to get by at a social event. I hate stopping to chat with people I hardly know, or seeing someone utilize an affair for their own selfish gain.

I hope, in this article, to launch my protests against this facet of our modern society and perhaps empower you to go out there and brashly and sincerely take on the world.

Social niceties come in all shapes and sizes, as they emerge everywhere in our modern lives.

Sometimes it comes with asking, “how are you?” when you actually don’t give a crap and just want to get along with your day. At other times it entails shaking a hand, smiling, and being congenial in front of individuals, even though you may not even like the people with whom you are talking. What you are really doing is being totally insincere and disingenuous. You aren’t portraying your true emotions, but are just fronting what you believe society wants you to present. A person coerced by this societal pressure is nothing more than a mindless dolt, conforming to the wishes of the grand collective. I understand that these niceties are social grease, a way in which we can all be congenial to each other. But something about it seems too insincere, and I must say that I am disgusted by those who seem more interested in presenting themselves as pleasant rather than depicting their true feelings.

I also do not like many social engagements, especially those that involve having what I consider to be “formal” conversations.

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

What is really upsetting about these encounters is that they seem to be nothing more than an “egobattleground,” a place where people try to talk as much as they can, mostly about themselves. Really, I believe that most people perceive these engagements as a game. In this maniacal competition people get points for talking the most and get double the amount if they are able to inject themselves into the conversation. Now, I have already conveyed my sympathies with Objectivist tenets, and think there is nothing wrong with putting your self at the center of your endeavors in life. But this does not include mindlessly rambling about your personal exploits so much that others neither care about nor really want to hear.

I also hate the phoniness that comes with superficial conversations at these gatherings. “Ice,” for instance, needs to be broken if meeting someone new, and it seems that one is having the identical conversation with a countless number of other guests. Now, I have been told that I have “the gift of gab,” but that doesn’t mean I don’t detest the phoniness I am forced to convey.

What is extremely interesting is that my imminent graduation is making me adhere less and less to these petty social constructions. I

know that I will not see many of the people I interact with daily ever again, and this has affected the way I act. If I don’t like someone, and they inquire about my opinion of them, I’ll straight out tell them my negative sentiments.

If I truly adore someone, I’ll likewise freely convey my beliefs. I am becoming less and less phony, and people have looked down upon me for my brutish “tell-itlike-it-is” attitude. Yet, for the first time in my life I am acting sincerely and it is quite heartening to finally become the person I have always wanted to be.

This article (and I guess many of the pieces I have written for the Hoot) probably portrays me as a true misanthrope, a cynic turned sour after years of “people-watching.” Yet, I do like a lot of people and take pleasure at many of the social engagements that I attend.

It’s those formal, unnatural gatherings that really repulse me, as I know that most individuals there are putting on airs and not conveying their true selves. I want to make you more aware of the phoniness, more conscious of the social constructions under which we operate. I invite you to break through these social conventions and sincerely convey the person that you truly are.

Will Obama copy Bush's rules?

CHECKMATE (from p. 5)

called combat troops, or support troops, or the Boy Scouts of America – the fact is that the ongoing presence of 50,000 of them in Iraq is inconsistent with the limited role that Obama wanted the country to believe that he had in mind.

Obama has not articulated clear objectives for the troops he is leaving behind. They are condemned to continue fighting Bush’s war, in which victory is impossible because no one knows what it means.

In fact, it looks as though Obama wants to pursue victory at less expense. It is simply the opposite of Bush’s surge – an effort to do more with less, dictated more by changed economic cir-

cumstances than by any particular goals.

And Obama’s statement of his intention to remove all American troops from Iraq by the end of 2011 needs to be read in the context of his reference to the Status of Forces agreement (SOFA), as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made clear at a less publicized talk the evening after Obama’s speech.

SOFAs are treaties governing the presence of one state’s troops on another state’s soil.

They expire (and are replaced) frequently.

Obama expressed his intent to remove the troops as a function of the current Status of Forces Agreement. Gates was asked by an eager journalist whether “that [was] what [Obama] meant, everybody is out

by 2011, no matter what?” Gates replied only that “it is in keeping with the SOFA”-- with “what we are operating under now.”

His strongly qualified remarks vouched for the truth of Obama’s statement only “in the absence of [a new SOFA] agreement, in the absence of any negotiation for such an agreement.”

Gates and Obama apparently contemplate a longer US presence in Iraq and a bigger presence in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and possibly Iran, than Americans seem to imagine.

They have still set no meaningful criteria for victory, and they will not leave the game. They’ve still got a copy of Bush’s rules.

They’re still thinking checkmate.

12 The Hoot

March 6, 2009

FEATURES

Countdown to commencement: The not-so-bleak future The class of ’09 considers finding jobs in a tough economy

BY ROBIN LICHTENSTEIN Staff

We’ve seen it in the cutbacks at school. We’ve seen it in the statistics on the number of people losing their jobs every week. The hurting economy is all around us, but we have not yet been subject to the full force of what President Obama has called “the worst economic crisis since the great depression.”

College has provided a shield of sorts, but for the class of 2009, life in the bubble is coming to a close, and fast.

The life of a second semester senior is always fraught with anxiety. Their choices usually amount to something like this: graduate school, a post-baccalaureate program, service programs like the Peace Corps or a real job. Between the mountains of applications, the interviews and cost, even in the best of years, all of these options and the stress can be unbearable.

Add an uncertain economy and the fact that the unemployment rate is the highest it’s been (7.6 percent as of January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) since 1984, and the future probably looks bleak to a senior on the verge of stepping off into the real world.

Perhaps looking at the scariest job market are those seniors who had planned on entering the finance sector, Wall Street in particular. In her Feb. 20, 2009 Boston.com article, Ellen Goodman wrote that “An outsized number of students raised on liberal arts educations and wrapped in ivy ended up taking their degrees to Wall Street with the goal of becoming masters of the universe.”

That is, many people pursued hard-earned degrees in economics, business and similarly business-orientated majors in the hopes of coming into a comfortable salary, perhaps at the expense of pursuing a career in a field they would enjoy more. However, Goodman also quotes a friend of hers saying that in this economy “It’s not as easy to sell out even if you wanted to.”

In fact, according to Goodman, the option to explore employment opportunities that are traditionally not as competitive or as high paying is a bright spot in the gloom of the job market.

Joe DuPont, Esq., Director of Brandeis’ Hiatt Career Center, touched on the same silver lining in an e-mail to The Hoot.

Dupont addressed the tension students often feel between taking the high paying job and the one that they might enjoy: “There are many students traditionally who feel torn to take the higher paying job as opposed to the job they are truly passionate about. Ideally, we would work with them to find [the job] that matches both criteria. In this market, however, the ideal for many students is to get a job. We can’t really argue with

that, but we try to encourage them to think very thoughtfully about whether they will be happy in the role they take.”

But how much has this news – the good and the bad – really changed peoples’ plans?

Hiatt has been working hard to prove that all hope is not lost with the implementation of various new programming such as the brown bag lunch series, where representatives from different job sectors come in and share experiences and information over lunch, in addition to career fairs and the like. Hiatt has seen a 20 percent increase in counseling appointments since last year, though they would like to attribute part of that increase to increased visibility with programs like World of Work (WOW) funds awarded to students taking full time, non-paid, summer internships.

“There is no silver bullet,” DuPont wrote. “You should be fully engaged in a wide range of strategies to counter what is going in the economy.”

DuPont’s advice is particularly important in light of a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers that found that despite data from the fall that suggested hiring would be flat for the class of 2009, new data suggest otherwise. In their monthly bulletin, NACE announced that, “Respondents to [the] Job Outlook 2009 Spring Update survey now expect to hire nearly 22 percent fewer graduates from this year’s class than they hired from the Class of 2008, ending a string of positive college hiring reports dating back to 2004.”

Jeremy Botwinick ’09 plans on moving to New York City in hopes of finding a job there. He said the economy has not changed his plans, though he has felt “increased stress regarding the job search because there are less jobs out there and more people trying to get them.”

Fellow senior Gideon Katsh, an economics major, said in an e-mail that he had always planned on finding a full time job upon graduation. Katsh wrote, “I planned on finding a job and working for a few years before grad school, and I’m sticking to it. Implementing my plans hasn’t been affected by the economy and job market.”

Katsh wrote, however, that the same couldn’t necessarily be said of some of his friends who majored in economics: “A couple friends of mine who are econ majors have switched paths and are now looking at law school or work at law firms.”

Hiatt recently conducted a three-year trend analysis of where students go after graduation which showed that approximately 60 percent of seniors go straight to a full time job or service program, like Botwinick and Katsh plan on doing.

The same Hiatt trend analysis

PHOTO BY Barbara Stark/The Hoot

EMPLOYED: Brandeis students meet and greet employers at a Hiatt Career Center sponsored career fair Thursday.

showed that approximately 34 percent of students go on to graduate school. Thomas Broussard, Ph.D. ‘06, Assistant Dean, Admissions, Recruitment and Career Services at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, has watched what the economy has done to graduate school applications. He said people need to ask themselves, “How do I end up at [where I want to be] in 10 or 20 years from now?”

One senior, who wished to remain anonymous, asked herself that very question. “My long term goal is going to require a lot more schooling,” she said, but her plans have not been affected by the economy.

Her plan is to do a pre-med, post-baccalaureate program, and then move on to medical school, and her plans have not been altered in light of the recent economic conditions. “Earning money would be especially nice at times like these…but I can’t ultimately get the job I want without getting the next few years of school out of the way,” she said Another senior, Michael Schwartz, is also set on graduate school, but while his plan of earning a master’s degree in either international development or medieval history has not changed, his graduate school strategy has.

He has watched his spending meticulously, cutting back on outings and sticking to his meal plan in attempt to ready himself for pending graduate school tuition.

Schwartz applied to 16 schools.

“I applied to a lot more than I would have [in a better economy] to make sure I would get in somewhere,” he said.

He also noted that several of his applications asked for rather extensive financial information. After talking with friends, Schwartz realized that the amount of information he has to submit was more than applications have asked for in

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

LOOKING AHEAD: Charlie Gandelman ‘09 speaks with National Collegiate Volunteers Co-president Noah Kaplan ‘09 about internship possibilities.

the past.

Schwartz is not wrong in expecting steeper competition.

Overall, Heller has seen a 15 percent increase in applications, with an almost 100 percent increase in applications to their MBA program. Heller, like Hiatt, does not attribute the increase wholly to the economy, but rather to a new, more aggressive, marketing campaign. Broussard noted that applications to graduate school tend to be counter cyclical to the economy. In a recession of this magnitude, however, even that relationship gets thrown off balance. “Hiding out” for two years is

not long enough—waiting out the economy becomes the new challenge.

But though there may be many challenges out there, DuPont has a bit of helpful advice for seniors, and all students, looking to make the best of the situation: “If I had one last piece of advice it would be [to] use all the resources at this great institution and your friends, family, etc., to develop a job search plan that is tailored specifically to your interests. We at Hiatt can help you create the roadmap to do that regardless of your class status.

When you are ready, we are here to help.”

F E AT U R E S

March 6, 2009

The Hoot 13

Brandeis Mock Trial Association appeals to the judges

BY SHIKCHHA SRIVASTAVA Special to The Hoot

After a season of unprecedented success, the Brandeis University Mock Trial Association will head to Easton, Pennsylvania next week to participate in an Opening Round Championship Site tournament.

Finishing in the top six teams in Easton will allow the Brandeis team to compete in the National Championship Tournament in Iowa.

Last year was the first year Brandeis qualified two teams to the National Championship Tournament.

“Every year, we’re getting more and more successful,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick ’09, vice president of the Brandeis Mock Trial Association. “We’re making a name for ourselves on the national circuit.”

Reichlin-Melnick explained that during a competition, usually a two-day affair, there are a total of four rounds. Each round consists of three attorneys and three witnesses from one team arguing against the attorneys and witnesses of another team. Two judges score the round, grading each performance on a scale of one to ten on a scoring ballot.

The team with the most points at the end of the round wins that judge’s ballot. Over a tournament, a team has a chance to win up to eight ballots; the number of ballots won determines if that team places in the top teams at the tournament.

Brandeis earned the right to send two teams to Easton based on its performance at regional competitions. Brandeis qualified one team each at Yale University’s regional and at Roger Williams University’s regional by finishing in the top eight at both tournaments.

Mock trial team members also won several individual awards at regionals. Julia Simon-Mishel ’09, Rachel Graham Kagan ’09, and Matthew Kipnis ’11 all won awards for their performance as attorneys. Liz Macedo ’10, Michelle Faits ’10, and Brian Boyd ’12 won witness awards.

The regional competitions followed a season of invitationals. Invitational tournaments are held at universities in the region – one was held at Brandeis in the fall. This semester, Brandeis placed at least one team at every invitational it attended, and racked up nearly thirty individual awards for its members. Brandeis also won its very first tournament, at Yale University’s invitational, this fall.

“The hardest thing about mock trial is the subjectivity,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “Some judges might love what you’re doing while others hate it.”

Reichlin-Melnick originally showed interest in mock trial when he started competing during his freshman year of high school. With eight years of experience, he considers law school as an option after completing his undergraduate degree at Brandeis.For him, being a part of Brandeis Mock Trial plays into his interest in law. “It really helps. It teaches you public speaking and confidence. It’s a great experience being in a courtroom.”

Hannelore Sklar ’10, captain of one of the qualifying mock trial teams, agreed. Like Reichlin-Melnick, Sklar had experience with mock trial in high school and plans to pursue a career in law after graduating from Brandeis.

“It’s more exhilarating than nerve-racking,” Sklar said. “It shakes people some-

PHOTO COURTESY OF Michelle Faits

TEAM HUDDLE: Team A captain Rachel Graham Kagan ‘09 convenes with her team during Regional competition at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

The team placed second and won a bid to compete for a spot at the National Championship tournament. Kagan and co-captain Julia Simon-Mishel ‘09 each won individual attorney awards.

times - not expecting what happens next.”

A part of the team’s excitement comes from the case that it has to argue during competitions.

The American Mock Trial Association writes and compiles the case to be used all year. The case includes witness testimony as well as evidence, and a copy of the relevant laws to be used in trial. This year’s civil case involves a gubernatorial candidate who sued an entertainment news network after it accused the candidate of murder. The victim’s death was ruled a suicide by the police.

Members of a mock trial team will play either the role of an attorney or witness.

“Being the witness and the attorney are both PHOTO COURTESY OF Michelle Faits equally fun,” Reichlin- PENCIL PUSHING: Brandeis Mock Trial member Jess Schaengold ‘11 fills out ballots at Roger Williams University in preparation Melnick said. “The wit- for competition. ness is more of an actor and the attorney off of experience and who is best for the many complete weekends to this club that team in terms of working with people. Cap- it’s really nice to feel like that’s paid off. My tries to uses the witness as bait.” team, and really the club as a whole, became Due to the unpredictability of a trial, tains are like good teachers,” she said. like a family. You’re just so glad when anyKagan herself competed in six tournaReichlin-Melnick said preparation is tricky. one succeeds.” ments this year: Iowa’s Marcus Pohlmann “There [are] a lot of variables involved, The Brandeis Mock Trial team is just one Invitational, Brandeis, Harvard, Yale, Corso you never know what the other team of this university’s seven competitive teams nell, and the regional tournament at Roger will do,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “You could with open doors to anyone interested.

Williams. spend so much time preparing for someTry-outs are held during the fall. ReichlinShe said sharing the success with her thing that might not even come up during Melnick said the mock trial team is looking teammates is gratifying. the trial.” for new students to join regardless of their “It feels kind of like a whirlwind in terms According to Rachel Graham Kagan ’09, academic interests.

“There’s no one type of of how successful we’ve been, but at the secretary of Brandeis Mock Trial and cappersonality [required for mock trial]. We same time I also think we really deserve it, ” tain of one of the qualifying teams, each have out-going people, shy people, science Kagan said.

“We’ve worked so hard, given team is led by a captain who best suits the people and liberal arts people. ” up so many hours of [the] week, and so team’s needs. “[Captains are chosen] based

Write for the features section!!!

E-mail features@thehoot.net

14 The Hoot

March 6, 2009

SPORTS Womens Basketball team ends regular season play with a loss

BY HANNAH VICKERS Staff

PHOTO BYMax Shay /The Hoot

BBALL: Steve DeLuca (GRAD) tips off against Washington University at home last month.

In with a win: Brandeis beats NYU, makes NCAA tournament

BY ZACHARY ARONOW Editor

The season had begun with a very disappointing loss; it ended with a convincing victory on the road.

Kevin Olson ’09 made five three pointers and cemented his status as the number one three point shooter in the NCAA as he helped the Judges overcome a shaky first half to stake the 63-44 win at New York University. The win was Brandeis’ fifth straight and not only did they close out the season with second place in the University Athletic Association conference (UAA) but they were awarded an at-large Pool C bid in the NCAA tournament.

“We needed to win,” Brandeis head coach Brian Meehan reflected in his office. “I thought we played poorly in the first half but certainly in the second half, we played much better. Getting a win like that and not having to bring it down all the way to the final minutes; it was nice when we’re able to get everybody in the game.”

The game started slow for the Judges but with the score knotted at 24 with about three minutes left in the first half, Brandeis responded with an 8-0 run including five straight from Terrell Hollins ’10 to give the Judges the 32-24 half time lead. NYU cut the deficit to seven nearly half way through the second half but they had no answer for Olson who nailed three three’s over the next four minutes and helped the Judges rise to a 17 point lead. Brandeis never saw their lead fall below 13 and walked out of the Jerome Coles Sports Center with the 19 point win.

Olson led all scorers with 21 points on 7-8 shooting, going 5-6 in his three point attempts. Kenny Small ’10 had the next highest total, knocking in 14 points while Steve DeLuca (GRAD) finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 13 points and

9 rebounds. Although he couldn’t find his shooting touch, missing all five shots, point guard Andre Roberson ’10 sparked the scoreboard with 10 assists.

On the losing side of the ledger, the Violets were led by John Mish who finished the last game of his career with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Fellow senior Bill Morrisey was the next highest with eight points. Overall, the Violets were hamstrung by poor shooting thanks in part to an aggressive Brandeis defense. The Judges out shot NYU 44 percent to 37 percent and swamped them behind the three point line, making 10 of 19.

The Violets by contrast finished with only three made out of 16 attempts, an 18 percent clip. Brandeis also made all but one free throw while limiting the hosts to only 11 trips to the charity stripe.

After all the initial struggles, slow starts and line up shuffling, the Judges enter the NCAA’s two degrees above blazing and will look to extend their season all the way to Salem. They first have to make their way out of Franklin and Marshall where they will face their first opponent, Scranton at 7 pm tonight. A well balanced team with four players averaging double digits in points; it is not a gimme match by any stretch of the imagination.

As Coach Meehan explained, “they’re big, and they score a lot of points so I expect it to be a difficult game and we have to play our best defense of the season...It’ll be just a matter of us staying disciplined and sticking with the game plan.”

Joining the Judges on the road will be the head coach of the men’s soccer program, Mike Coven who placement was made necessary due to a flu bug that has already afflicted four players and Coach Meehan himself. Whoever survives Friday’s opener faces the winner of the Franklin and Marshall – Wesley match up on March 7.

The Brandeis women’s basketball team fell short against the New York University Violets in New York on Sunday in the last game of the regular season, ending their four game winning streak. In the end NYU outscored the Judges for a 62-49 UAA victory. With the loss Brandeis ended their season with a 17-7 record overall, 7-7 in the UAA while NYU ended at 21-4 and 10-4 in UAA play.

The Judges started off the game strong.

Helped along with two buckets each by Lauren Orlando ’09 and Cassidy Dadaos ’09 Brandeis scored 10 of the first 12 points in the first five minutes. They held onto the lead, pulling as far away as 25-12 off a three pointer by Jessica Chapin ’10 with 5:48 left in the first half. At that point, however, NYU began chipping away at the deficit and, after scoring the last 11 points, cut the Judges lead to only two points at 25-23 at the break.

Unfortunately for Brandeis, NYU continued their offensive momentum into the second half and scored the first nine points. After back-to-back lay ups by NYU forward Jessica McEntee ’09, the Violets held a 32-25 lead with 17:04 left in the game and would not give up the lead from that point forward. The Judges made several attempts to close the gap, coming within three points of tying the game a few times. The first came off a lay up by

Chapin, which made it a 42-39 game with just over nine minutes left. The Violets had again pushed the lead back up, this time to 50-41, when Brandeis went on a six-point run and with 3:37 to go Amber Strodthoff ’11 hit a jumper that made it a 50-47 game.

Despite these hard fought runs, the Judges couldn’t keep going and NYU ended the game by scoring 12 of the last 14 points for the 62-49 win.

NYU held Brandeis to a season-low 49 points for the second time, the first being a 61-49 victory over the Judges here at Brandeis on January 17. In spite of the unusually low score, Brandeis did have two players reach double figures. Chapin had a double-double in the game with 12 points and a career-high 17 rebounds as well as three steals and two assists. Diana Cincotta ’11 scored 10 points, including a trifecta and making 3-of-4 from the line. The Violets were paced by McEntee who achieved double-double status in the first half with an impressive 13 points and 10 rebounds before adding an additional 14 points and seven rebounds in the second. Both teams received berths in the NCAA Tournament, which begins this weekend, and will host their respective games. NYU will face off against Salve Regina and the winner of that matchup will play the winner of the Mary Washington/Stevens game. Brandeis will take on Western Connecticut Friday night at 7 P.M. after Mount St. Mary plays Brockport State at 5 P.M. The winners will face each other Saturday afternoon at 5 P.M.

The Deis Board TEAM

LATEST SCORES

NEXT GAME

Men’s Basketball

February 28 at NYU W 63-44

March 6 v. Scranton at Franklin & Marshall 6:00 pm

17-8, 10-4

March 7 (if they win) v. Franklin & Marshall/ Wesley TBD Women’s Basketball 17-7, 7-7

February 28 at NYU L 62-49

March 6 v. Western Connecticut 7:00 pm March 7 (if they win) v. Mount St. Mary/Brockport State

Swimming and Diving

March 1 at ECAC Championships @ Cambridge, Mass.

(Harvard) MSwimming 16th of 23 teams WSwimming 13th of 26 teams

Track and Field

February 27-28 at Open New England Championships @ Boston, Mass.

MTrack 28th of 33 teams WTrack T28th of 32 teams

March 6-7 UAA Championships at NYU 12:00 p.m.

Fencing

February 28 v. IFA Championships MFencing 6th of 12 teams WFencing 6th of 12 teams

March 8 NCAA Regional Championships at Cambridge, Mass.

(MIT)

March 6, 2009

Familiar territory but new playing field

BY HANNAH VICKERS Staff

This week the Brandeis women’s basketball team received an at-large berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament for the fourth year in a row.

While this would have been exciting enough, they were also selected for the first time to host the first round of play, with Western Connecticut State University, Mount St. Mary’s College, and Brockport State University all making their way to Waltham this weekend.

Brandeis will face off against the Western Connecticut Colonials in round one on Friday night at 7 P.M. Western Connecticut finished the regular season with a record of 21-5, 12-2 in the Little East Conference (LEC), which put them in second in their conference.

At the conclusion of the regular season the Judges had a 17-7 overall record, went 7-7 in the UAA, and were also being ranked third in the Northeast Regional Rankings. Another interesting point in this years tournament is that no conference had more teams qualify than the UAA: Washington University (the conference champions), Rochester University, New York University, and Brandeis University. In addition all four UAA teams earned the right to host the first round.

Despite their seven losses this season, the difficult strength of schedule the Judges faced helped them qualify for the at-large berth. They also boast the second-highest opponent’s winning percentage in Division III. Brandeis also has a 6-5 record against NCAA qualifiers with non-conference victories over Babson, Bowdoin, Emmanuel, Tufts, and Widener, splitting the season against Rochester, and losing twice to both Wash U. and NYU. The Judges are paced by Jessica Chapin ’10, who leads them in scoring (14.1 points per game, 3rd in the UAA), rebounding (6.7 rebounds per game, 6th in the UAA), assists (3.2 assists per game, 6th in the UAA), and steals (3.0 steals per game, 2nd in the UAA). These stats make her one of only three players in the UAA to be in the top 10 in all four categories. In addition Chapin was a second-team All-UAA selection last year. Lauren Orlando ’09 is the second highest scorer with 9.5 points per game.

While these two players may stand out, the entire team is a force to be reckoned with. Brandeis topped the UAA in freethrow shooting (74 percent) and threepointers per game (5.8).

Given how solid the Judges are shooting from the line, they will really have to push themselves in the tournament

SPORTS

to get those easy points, something they failed to do in their most recent game against NYU. Another problem the team occasionally runs into is losing an early lead. The Judges have a tendency to jump out to an early lead just a few minutes into a game, and while they have been excellent on building that against numerous opponents, they have also lost their footing and haven’t been able to recover. The key will be getting into a comfortable rhythm and taking advantage of steal and rebound situations. At the same time these are problems any team can run into and, given Brandeis’ ability to explode right out of the gate, they have a great chance of taking that early lead and holding onto it for the rest of the game.

Western Connecticut is one of three LEC teams in the tournament, the others being Southern Maine and Eastern Connecticut. The Colonials are 3-4 against other teams in the NCAA this year after losing two games to Eastern Connecticut and going 1-2 against Southern Maine in their own conference, and dropping a game against Bowdoin but beating Widener in the Brandeis Tip-Off Tournament back on Nov. 22-23.

One of the biggest strengths of this team is their powerful defense and offense, as well as having seven different players with at least 10 starts this season and five who score on average between 7.8 to 9.5 points per game. One of the strongest players on the team is center Melissa Teel ’11 who averages 7.8 points per game, leads the team with 7.5 rebounds per game (the 4th best in the LEC), as well as a league-best 2.9 blocked shots per game, 13th best in the entire Divistion. In terms of scoring they are led by Stacey Roberts ’09 with 9.5 points per game. In addition to being ranked second in the league and in the top 20 in the country in field-goal percentage defense (33 percent), Western Connecticut also leads the LEC in assists (15.2 assists per game), blocked shots (5.9 blocks per game), and threepointers per game (7.0). As a point of comparison, Brandeis averages 15.6 assists per game, 2.5 blocked shots, and 5.8 three-pointers per game. When Brandeis faces off against them this Friday they will need to keep in mind the power of this defense, especially given the difference in average blocked shots.

The first game on Friday will be at 5 P.M. between Brockport State University (19-9) and Mount St. Mary’s College (23-4). Tip off for the Judges vs. Colonials will be at 7 P.M. and the winners of the first-round games will meet Saturday night at 5 P.M. Best of luck girls!

BY ZACHARY ARONOW Editor

With their fourth straight entrance into the NCAA’s, the Judges look to surpass last year’s high water mark of an elite appearance. Their first obstacle to that goal comes courtesy of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania (and site of a certain fictional paper company) – the University of Scranton Royals.

As assistant coach Eric McCoy described this squad, “they like to get up and down a little bit, they shoot tons of threes.” A high powered offense that dominated most of the statistical categories of the Landmark Conference: first in scoring offense, scoring defense, scoring margin, field goal percentage and free throw percentage. Their biggest strengths though are outside shoot-

The Hoot 15

Keys to the game

BY ZACHARY ARONOW Editor

At times, watching the Brandeis Judges is a lot like watching the Sally Field character, Sybill. You don’t know which team you’re going to see on any given day. Even Coach Meehan is unsure of what kind of team will be taking the court for him tonight and in this tournament run.

“Well I scratch my head a lot more with this group,” Meehan said when asked to compare this squad to the other squads that went to the playoffs, “so I’m not really sure but time will tell. With this team you just have to wait and after every game, that’s when you find out what they were willing to bring on a certain night. Last year’s team was pretty good, this year’s team we’ll have to wait and see.”

A Colin Powell endorsement of strength, it certainly ain’t.

As of late they have been playing akin to a well-oiled machine, running the fast break, being borderline unstoppable from the three point arc, and doing a good job not to let the game get away from them.

However there have been quite a number of times when the team was two vowels short of clue. At their lowest point during their beginning struggles, they saw a double digit lead evaporate into an embarrassing home loss to Framingham State.

The ugly side to the team also made a brief reappearance when they traveled to Chicago and Washington University. Although the team was short handed against Washington due to internal team disputes, it was the Chicago loss that stung even more. Dropping it 90-81 as they proved unable to stop the three and only five days removed from demolishing the Maroons at Brandeis by 31.

However, the Judges were able to regroup, respond, and win when they needed to.

Backs against the wall, they stood strong in probably the toughest division in Division III hoops and clawed their way to a second place finish.

With the talent and the inconsistencies in mind, here is my list of keys that need to happen for Brandeis to win this game.

1. STOP THE THREE A glaring weakness at the beginning of the season was the Judges’ inability to guard the three. Although they were able to clamp down and improve as the season went along, they took a step back in the aforementioned loss to Chicago. The Maroons finished the Feb. 6 win, converting 17-26 of their three point attempts. That is a 65.4 percent success rate. The Judges didn’t win then against Chicago and they are certainly not going to advance if they trot out a similar performance against the seventh best three point shooting team in division III. Brandeis finished the season with one of the worst three point defenses, ranked 318th in DIII allowing opponents to shoot from

A look at the Scranton Royals

ing, their 41.2 percent three point field goal percentage is seventh best in NCAA and interior defense with an NCAA fourth best average of 5.9 blocked shots per game.

Their offense is a balanced attack featuring four double digit scorers. Leading the squad is guard Zach Ashworth averaging 13.9 points per game. Ashworth also leads the team in assists with 3.6 per game. Not far behind is Paul Biagoli with 13.2 points and is someone to watch inside with five rebounds per game. Ryan Fitzpatrick averages 12.4 points per game and his 52.9 success rate from the three point arc is second only to Kevin Olson. Rounding out the list is Luke Hawk putting up 11.4 points per game.

Another player to watch is Luke’s older brother Paul, while not necessarily lighting up the score board, averaging 6.5 points per

game, his home comfort is found right by the glass, scooping up an average of 5.4 rebounds. He also leads the team in blocked shots, swatting away 3.2 attempts per game.

This season, Scranton finished with 21 wins and went 11-3 in conference play.

Their last game saw them bounce back from losing a double digit lead, thanks to a “legendary” performance from Ashworth.

Ashworth finished 26 points on 9-11 shooting to help the Royals take the division title from Susquehanna in overtime 80-75 and earned a Pool B bid. It had been their second straight game to go into overtime, needing the extra frame to advance past Catholic back on February 25 71-64.

Although the offensive numbers are impressive, there are more than enough weaknesses for the Judges to exploit. First, Scranton has struggled on the road, finishing 6-5

downtown at a 36.3 percent clip. Coach Meehan however expressed confidence that his team was up to the defensive task at hand. “I think we’ve really done a good job defensively the last third of the season and we expect it to continue.”

The player in particular that needs to be held in check is Ryan Fitzpatrick, the second best three point gunner in DIII, shooting at a 52.9 percent clip.

2. MAKE THE THREE As pointed out before, Scranton has the seventh best three point shooting squad but take a guess who is number one from long range? The answer is Brandeis, who finished the season making it from long range 45.4 percent of the time. This stat is particularly pumped up by Kevin Olson ’09 who could easily be mistaken for “Terminator” when he spots up for the three. He is also just as deadly, making nearly 60 percent of them.

It was clutch long range shooting from Joe Coppens that helped spark or slam the door on many a comeback opportunity. Getting Olson open looks and on fire opens up the lanes and in turn, means more easy baskets.

Aside from Olson, Steve DeLuca (GRAD) and Kenny Small ’10 have also proven to be sharp from long range. DeLuca and Small have each made over 40 percent of their three point attempts this season. Their success from long range is also vital in several respects, forcing Scranton to worry about someone other than Olson going for long range but as with Olson, drawing them outside to set up the easy play inside.

3. AVOID FOUL TROUBLE Brandeis’s most physical players down low are Terrell Hollins ’10 and Christian Yemga ’11. When they are on track, they are physical, lock-down defenders who lock down the low post. Hollins and Yemga were second and third on the team in rebounds (behind DeLuca) averaging 6.0 and 3.1 boards per game. Although neither player has been a starter lately, their success ensures that Coach Meehan can keep Magee fresh and avoid having to throw rookies like Vytas Kriskus ’12 to the wolves. Especially considering the flu bag that is apparently going around on the team, Coach Meehan needs every body he can get and can ill afford losing more depth due to undisciplined fouls.

4. TEA AND VITAMIN C This isn’t necessarily a basketball tip, just encouragement and advice on how to cope with a flu bug. Of course, as stated above, depth is vital and playoff time extends no mercy to the ill. It’s one and done so if Brandeis can’t get a healthy group against Scranton, they will need to play above and beyond what they originally could because there is no tomorrow. This is one and done.

Now that we’ve gotten the keys to the game aside, all that is left to do now is explore the Amish Country. And hopefully, I will be writing another one of these for next week.

away from their home confines. Scranton will have the benefit of closer proximity for their fans but Brandeis has a better record of performing in hostile environments, finishing 8-4 on the road.

Another stat to consider is strength of schedule. Nearly every opponent Brandeis has faced this year is in the tournament and according to d3hoops.com, Brandeis had the 11th toughest schedule in Division III hoops. By contrast, Scranton’s schedule was rated 203rd and needed an extension two games in a row to even make it to the big dance.

Nonetheless, expect to see a tight match as lots of threes will likely be hurled and expect to see some physicality break out as one side will look to outmuscle the other in order to get that coveted pass to Salem, Virginia.

16

The Hoot

March 6, 2009

W E E K E N D Spotlight on Boston

Earth, Wind & Fire:

Historical Reenactment:

Saturday, Mar. 7, 8:15 p.m.

136 Mass. Ave., Boston Berklee students breathe new life into these 1970s jazz and R&B tunes. Special guest Philip Bailey, original band member, will join in the fun. $30/ticket general admission.

Are you a history buff ? Then, you don't want to miss out on this 2-day event on the Boston Massacre. Featuring dramatic interpretations of speeches from the time period, a trial, and a reenactment of the event.

Friday to Saturday, Mar. 6-7 206 Washington St., Boston

www.berklee.edu/events

www.bostonhistory.org

Photo courtesy of event website.

What's going on at Brandeis?

65 Roses:

Vagina Monologues: Friday to Saturday, Mar. 6-7, 8 p.m.

Shapiro Campus Theater The monologues are back and better than ever! Don't miss out on: "My Angry Vagina," "Because He Liked to Look at It," and much more. Buy your Photo courtesy of event website. tickets in advance. $5/ticket.

Hans Hofman:

Ongoing until Friday, Mar. 13 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., Upper Usdan Contribute to a good cause. Buy a rose to support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Some children who have this illness mispronounce it and say "65 Roses." $2/rose or $5/3 roses. If you would like to learn more about Cystic Fibrosis, go to:

Photo courtesy of Dan Shirley.

http://www.cff.org/

Playback Theatre:

Saturday, Mar. 7, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Rose Art Museum

Sunday, Mar. 8, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Schwartz Auditorium

Experience abstract art from the 1950sin this museum exhibit. Director of the Rose and the exhibition curator will lead a tour. Free for all Brandeis students.

Photo courtesy of event website.

Like to act? Want to learn? Shelia Donio will teach a playback theater, improv, workshop. Bring friends!

Food will be provided.

Insert Comic Here

Comic Strips Sleazy

Unless otherwise noted, photos are from Google images.

By Matt Kupfer

Floppsie

laughingwarlock

By Anthony Scibelli

By Ian Price

By Grace Alloy-Relihan