The Brandeis Hoot - 9-11-09 by The Brandeis Hoot

VOL 6, NO. 3

S E P T E M B E R 11 , 2 0 0 9

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

TMI: Guest speakers explore internet’s effect on journalism

THEHOOT.NET

Student advised to leave campus after contracting a probable case of H1N1 BY TRISHNA MITRA Special to The Hoot

At least one Brandeis student is suspected of having the H1N1 virus, more commonly known as swine flu. The student left campus yesterday morning after being “strongly advised” to do so by the university

Health Center after she presented with a high fever and other flu like symptoms, the student said in a phone interview. It is not confirmed that the student, who wished to remain anonymous, is infected with the virus because the Brandeis Health Center is unable to test for the flu.

The student said she was further advised to avoid getting tested elsewhere for the virus because of a backlog in supply of Tamiflu, the drug used to treat H1N1. The university’s response to this student’s potential infection See H1N1, p. 2

Usdan prices raised, in line with national trend BY SEAN FABERY Special to The Hoot

PHOTO BY Andrew Rauner/The Hoot

TMI: Harvard Law Professor Charlie Nesson describes how the internet has impacted copyright law.

BY ROBIN LICHTENSTEIN Staff

Students, professors and experts came together yesterday to explore the effects of modern technologies like facebook and twitter, on democracy, journalism and communication at the Ethic Center’s “TMI: Social Justice in the Age of Facebook” conference yesterday. The validity and ethics of the new digital media was hotly debated throughout the first day of the conference. Jeffrey Scheuer, an Independent Commentator on Media and Democracy, discussed his general distrust of the digital media under the title “Free to be Excellent? The Costs of Being Informed in Digital Age.” The session was moderated by Prof. Maura Jane Farrelly (AMST), Director of the Journalism Program at Brandeis, and also included Ariel Wittenberg ’11 as the student respondent. Scheuer said as a media critic, he considers journalism’s most important function to be its democratic function. But, as someone who is “techno-skeptical from a civic standpoint,” Scheuer noted the dangers that the ease of accessing tools of “citizen journalism” pose, citing in particular the (untrue) rumor spread over the summer via Twitter that Harrison Ford had drowned. “Our tools are only as smart as we are,” said Scheuer.

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His point was met with challenges from the audience when one audience member noted that people tweeting from Iran beat CNN to the headlines about the country’s turbulent election in June. Sheuer countered with an argument of quality control, stating that there are certain limits to citizen journalism. Scheuer favored educating future citizen journalists, though he was skeptical of the sustainability of the current print news business model, “I want to teach kids to be media literate. I want civics to be an SAT test. I want people to understand the news system before they get to college,” he said. He also advocated a non-profit model for media as the answer to all of new media’s woes, a way of creating independent media free of pressure to write the stories that will make money. In stark contrast to Scheuer was Charles Nesson, the William F. Weld Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Founder and Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Nesson is currently representing Joel Tenenbaum, the defendant in one of only two Napster copyright infringement cases to come before a jury. Nesson, in the opening session moderated by Prof. Laura J. Miller (SOC) discussed “Is the Internet a Human Right?” Nesson noted the difference between tangible property and the

See TMI, p. 3

Food prices at the Usdan Café and Boulevard have risen in response to a price analysis conducted over the summer, marking one of several changes to Brandeis dining since regular service resumed last month. Several items have been affected by the change. A 24 oz. soft drink, which would have cost $1.29 last year, now costs $1.39, A plate of pasta from the Boulevard now costs $4.29, a ten cent increase. The prices for pancakes, salads, and pizza have also increased. The increases occurred in the aftermath of a complete price analysis conducted by Aramark, the university’s food provider, which took into account competing prices both in the Waltham area and at nearby universities. “We work[ed] closely with University administration on this subject and [tried] to keep any price increases to a minimum,” Michael Newmark, Director of Dining Services, told The Hoot in an e-mail message. Newmark stressed that the price increases were minimal, and wrote that no price was increased more than 20 cents. Over a hundred items had no cost increase, Newmark wrote. Despite such assurances, some students have voiced displeasure with the increases. “If they raise the prices, they should also give us a higher dollar value for meal equivalency. It’s become harder to use meals without going over the limit and using points,” Ben Henig ’12 said. Newmark pointed to new combo meals available at various stations, none of which surpass the lunch equivalency of $7.10, as a solution to this problem. More items have also been added to the C-Meal program, including additional kosher options. Not all items, however, are included in these combo plans. Newmark also countered the

The upside of Brandeisian style Diverse City, page 8

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

belief that costcutting was behind other changes in Usdan, most notably the decision to transform the staff-run Home Zone into the new Comfort Classics selfserve station. Instead, he said the move was an “operational change” made in order to grant customers “greater flexibility and convenience.” Brandeis is not the only university affected by rising food costs, as schools nationwide have implemented changes in their dining programs. Boston College, like Brandeis, has raised prices on select items. Harvard, on the other hand, has completely eliminated pricier items from its dining halls in the last year.

Tweeting in Usdan, tweeting in the classroom Features, page 12

GRAPHIC BY Andrew Ramirez/The Hoot

Major universities nationwide, including Louisiana State University, have raised prices of meal plans by nearly seven percent, and according to a study conducted by The Economist, global food prices as a whole have increased over 75 percent since 2005.

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September 11, 2009

N E W S

Hogan seeks to reconnect Union with student body BY ALEX SELF

Special to The Hoot

The Student Union has decided to strengthen its ties with the student body this year, after having focused on better connecting students with faculty and university administration last year. The effort includes increasing communication between students and the Union, as well as encouraging more student input in Union affairs. President of the Union Andy Hogan ‘11 said the Union hopes to increase student involvement by starting an “involved student listserv.” The listserv would be an informal way for the Union to poll willing students about the decisions it makes in order to be better connected to the pulse of the university. “The union has been really good at advocacy,” Hogan said, “But there has been a less than desired amount of numbers behind what we say. This is a way to change that.” This year, student involvement is especially important because of the upcoming constitutional review process, during which a student committee looks at the Student Union Constitution and decides what changes to make. The review process happens every four years. Half of the committee will be

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

ANDY’S UNION: Union President Andy Hogan ‘11 meets with Union Treasurer Daniel Acheampong ‘11.

appointed by Hogan, with the other half elected directly by the students, Union Director of Communications Sydney Reuben said. Hogan said he hopes to have the committee set up by mid-October in order to complete the review process before the first week in March. After the committee reviews the constitution, the changed version will be submitted to a student-body-wide vote. Ruben said the Union hopes for “complete student involvement in the revision process.” Despite a stated interest in increasing communication between the Union and the student body, Hogan announced earlier this week that he would not be

interviewed by members of the student press and that the press would have to instead speak to him through his Ruben. Though that policy was revoked last night, Hogan said the shortlived policy was meant to “give me time to adjust to the pressure of being president without the pressure of the press.” “That way I could hit the ground running without getting overwhelmed,” he said. “I don’t see it as having been less connected to the students.” Ariel Wittenberg contributed to this report.

Justice Brandeis Semester (JBS) Meetings The Student Union is sponsoring meetings this coming weeks with professors in the process of designing Justice Brandeis Semester (JBS) programs for their major. At these meetings, the professor, the JBS committee and any intersted students will discuss how the particular JBS would work, and on what issues the JBS program should focus. The JBS programs discussed at these meetings will then be implemented as pilot JBS programs over this coming summer. Friday 9/11 at 2:00-3:00- Computer Science- Professor Tim Hickey Monday 9/14 at 6:00-7:00Environmental Studies + Legal Studies + American Studies- Professor Laura Goldin Thursday 9/17 at 2:00-3:00- Theater Arts- Professor Adrianne Krstansky Thursday 9/24 at 2:00-3:00Anthropology- Professor Elizabeth Ferry

Brandeis student may have contracted H1N1 vide meals and other care for their is consistent with its established sick friends,” Sawyer wrote in the H1N1 Emergency Preparedness e-mail. “We will provide masks policy as outlined by Dean of Stu- and other items from a flu ‘kit’ if dent Life Rick Sawyer in a cam- students decide to stay put,” pus-wide e-mail last week. The e-mail added that CommuSawyer did not respond to re- nity Advisors have been equipped quests for comment concerning with thermometers in order to dethe number of students suspected termine if a student has a fever— of being inone of the sympfected with toms of H1N1. the virus. The remains impor- Community AdHealth Cenvisors have also tant to wash been provided with ter refused to comment on hands and use hand masks and gloves to the subject. help prevent spread Residence of the virus. Sawyer’s e- sanitizer. mail, which halls that report flu Still, Sawyer was sent last wrote, “It remains will receive important to wash Friday, rec- cases o m m e n d s more frequent bath- hands and use hand that students sanitizer,” adding suspected of room and other area “Residence halls having the cleaning.” that report flu cases H1N1 virus receive more - Rick Sawyer will return home frequent bathroom if they live Dean of Student Life and other area within drivcleaning.” ing distance Sawyer also adfor the duravised students to tion of the illness, which is usually get both the H1N1 and regular five to seven days. flu vaccines when they come out, In the event that a student who however, that will not be until latlives in the dorms cannot go home er this month or October. after being infected, Saywer’s email recommends that they “stay Ariel Wittenberg and Danielle put” and not go to class. Gewurz contributed to this report. “Well students may need to proH1N1 (from p. 1)

NEWS

September 11, 2009

Students involved in TMI conference with blogging TMI (from p. 1)

intellectual property of the internet, and said he believes the difference needs to be accounted for in law. He said that people don’t know what is acceptable and what isn’t when it comes to downloading, and stressed that media companies and their lobbyists have taken advantage of that. Taking particular aim at trial by jury, Nesson like Scheuer, also touched upon the civic repercussions of the internet, though Nesson had a different angle, discussing the “Three Strikes” policy that internet service providers (ISPs) have adopted. Once an ISP has been notified three times that someone has been illegally downloading copyrighted material, usually by companies hired by the copyright holders, the user is kicked off the internet by the ISP without any sort of trial or jury verdict. The ability of the internet to aggregate good work was posed in retaliation to copyrighted material on the web. Nesson cited Wikipedia as “the most beautiful example” of this aggregate effort. However it also poses one of the biggest problems Nesson explained. He posed the question, “who owns the work once it escapes the confines of our own individual laptops?” On a similar note, the recent settlement of the Google Books suit made its way into the conversation, as the digital formats of books pose the same problem as the digital formats of music that got Napster into a bind in the late nineties. The Kindle thread was picked up by Tracy Mitrano, Director of IT Policy and Law at Cornell University, whose session was entitled, “Technology is Neither Good nor Bad, Only Thinking Makes it So,” and was moderated by Prof. Andreas Teuber (PHIL), with Daniel Ortner ’10 as the student respondent. Mitrano, talking to the undergraduate portion of her audience claimed that, “copyright is the civil rights issue of your generation.” She noted that the Google Books settlement was a massive win for copyright holders and how US corporations shape technology, particularly when it comes to retrieving lost storage devices, like Kindles. “Amazon doesn’t want to have to find the lost Kindles,” she said. Instead, they profit off the purchase of a new one, and someone else gets their hands on a lost or stolen Kindle, allowing the company to continue to profit from the machine. She noted, “Intellectual property is not like physical property- it is more than thievery and piracy.” Mitrano also ventured into the realm of Facebook and the debate surrounding the advisability of broadcasting your life for all to see. “People are so disinhibited by the technology that they are

showing things about themselves that in the sober light of day is not a good idea,” she said. Ortner touched on one of the biggest problems with Facebook saying, “People should not lose their jobs because of information they posted on Facebook when they were 21 years old.” Mirano did not deny that Facebook and other social networking sites served some civic purpose, citing the “free exercise and right of speech.” “I don’t think for a minute that there is a perfect solution for these problems,” Mitrano said. Even so, she was willing to give the government the opportunity to act for the public good. The event, co-sponsored by Library and Technology Services, The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, and the Student Union, with special thanks to Gen Ed Now and STAND, is running through Friday in Rappaport Treasure Hall. The conference features the the traditional speaker component, with three sessions on Thursday and two on Friday, but also a student challenge. The challenge, which was open to the entire student body, invited students to come and cover the conference and provide a real time exploration of the issues at hand. There was supposed to be a digital media group and a traditional media group, but tellingly, no one volunteered to take on the traditional media component. The students, plugged in at a back table, are spending the conference twittering, streaming and blogging, and allowing participants to comment and tweet along with them using the the hashback (#) feature on twitter. Charles Radin, the Director of Global Operations and Communications and point person on the student challenge project summed up the scene, “They have reinvented the wire service!” Yale Spector ’11, member of the student challenge team explained, “It’s online 10 seconds after the guy says it.” Spector, along with his fellow team members James Fleishmann ’11, Rajiv Ramakrishnan ’10, Ori Applebaum ’11, and Samantha Shokin ’12, will present their work at a final session on Friday at 11 a.m., following Samuel J. Klein, Director of Content at One Laptop per Child, who will discuss, “Does Digital Deepen the Divide?” The session will be moderated by Theodore Johnson, Assistant Professor of Coexistence and Conflict at the Slifka Program at Brandeis and the student respondent will be Danielle Myers ’12 of STAND.

Editor’s Note: Ariel Wittenberg, Daniel Ortner, and Samantha Shokin are members of The Hoot staff.

The Hoot 3

Brandeis Briefs ... SEPTEMBER 11 COMMEMORATIONS. The Brandeis Interfaith Chaplaincy will hold a peace vigil in honor of the eighth anniversary of September 11 today from 12 to 12:30 p.m. in the peace circle. The vigil will be the first of weekly Friday vigils for peace in the Middle East, and seeks to provide an opportunity for members of the community to reflect on the current situations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. The vigils are hosted by Father Walter Cuenin, Chaplain Alex Kern, Imam Talal Eid and Rabbi Elyse Winick, along with the Student Union, Democracy for America and Students for a Democratic Society. HIATT RECRUITING ORIENTATION. The Hiatt Career Center is hosting a “recruiting orientation” on Monday from 12 a.m. to 1 p.m. to help prepare students for the job search process. The orientation will include tips for students to learn about job postings, upcoming employer visits and oncampus interview schedules. DIES BIKES TO KICK OFF ANOTHER YEAR. Deis Bikes will be up and running Tuesday. The program received $2000 for to revamp the program, fix up the bikes, and ensuring safety.

SO U T E E M ? A I D F O ME L N A A I F C A O LIKE S K. BECOME OO FACEB

4 The Hoot

September 11, 2009

E D I TO R I A L 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 Hannah Vickers Sports 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 Samantha Shokin Diverse City Editor Senior Editors Sri Kuehnlenz, Kathleen Fischmann

FOUNDED BY

Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

SUBMISSION POLICIES The Hoot welcomes letters to the editor on subjects that are of interest to the general community. Preference is given to current or former community members. The Hoot reserves the right to edit any submissions for libel, grammar, punctuation, spelling and clarity. The Hoot is under no obligation to print any of the pieces submitted. Letters in print will also appear on-line at www.thehoot.net. The deadline for submitting letters is Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. All letters must be submitted electronically at www. thehoot.net. All letters must be from a valid e-mail address and include contact information for the author. Letters of length greater than 500 words may not be accepted. The opinions, columns, cartoons and advertisements printed in The Hoot do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board. The Hoot is a community student newspaper of Brandeis University. Produced entirely by students, The Hoot serves a readership of 6,000 with in-depth news, relevant commentary, sports and coverage of cultural events. Our mission is to give every community member a voice.

CORRECTIONS

In last week’s issue, Roger Federer was misidentified as Swedish (“Nadal changes do… can he seal the deal?”) He is Swiss.

‘Go home’ is not a real plan

ast Friday, Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer sent out a campus-wide e-mail outlining Brandeis’ H1N1 emergency plan. The crux of the plan was to have students who live in driving distance return home if they became ill and remain there for the duration of their illness. Sawyer’s request that students think about where they might go to wait out the flu is pointless. For many of us, our answer is nowhere. And after having watched Emory University in Atlanta battle an H1N1 outbreak, it is clear that “go home” is not a viable plan. This plan, if it was intended to reassure the student body that all is well, is

impotent. Not only does it fail to provide any real reassurance to students who live oceans away, but it also shifts the burden onto students’ families or roommates to risk illness while caring for someone with the flu. Students who live across the country or across the world, if they cannot find a kindly friend’s family to impose on, will find themselves relegated to university quarantine. Off campus students, though they have access to the university health services, are left out in the cold. Sawyer’s only advice to them is ‘go home,’ and ‘talk to your roommates.’ Though no one would voluntarily choose quarantine in Charles River, the option should be open for students

who do not normally lay their heads in campus housing. Along with offering a less than stellar plan of action, the university has failed to address swine flu rumors. At least one student with a suspected case of H1N1 has already gone home though university and health center officials have refused to confirm this fact. It is understandable that they do not want to create panic but informing students that the university has successfully followed through with its outlined plan would do much to inspire confidence in a community of students whose parents would rather not hear that their children’s campus is gripped by swine flu.

Giving social media its due

esterday marked the beginning of the twoday conference entitled “TMI: Social Justice in the Age of Facebook.” Despite this event succumbing to the regrettably overused “social justice” naming convention that permeates all events on campus, this is just the sort of academic event that truly benefits all members of campus. To begin, it’s great to have a discussion of technology that transcends the more obvious technology will save us or destroy us dichotomy. As

any student who has wasted away in front of a Facebook newsfeed can undoubtedly attest, technology neither saves us nor destroys us. It does something much more profound. It creates a new world for us to live in. Bringing scholars and professionals together from different fields and different institutions and pairing them with the perspectives of young people is an amazing way for our community to engage in a discussion of one the most important influences in our lives. The speakers posed some questions

some of us have tackled already and many others that were new. Perhaps the most exciting component of the conference is the student challenge, which invited students to twitter and blog during the event. Many events on campus are of interest to students, but provide no way for students to contribute in a meaningful fashion. It is only fitting that a conference emphasizing the participatory aspect of this technology is an event that allows for an unprecedented amount of involvement.

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September 11, 2009

IMPRESSIONS

ILLUSTRATION BY Ida Chelengar/The Hoot

The time to act is now: Pass the healthcare bill BY ALEX SELF

Special to The Hoot

Every day’s news begins with another ominous update on the free-falling healthcare reform legislation. After months of furious debates, angry town hall meetings, and more name calling than anyone cares to remember, there is less of a chance for real reform than there was before. The old joke is that Congress is the opposite of progress, but the drama playing out on the national stage is starting to prove it true. The only aspect of reform that the two sides can seem to agree upon is that reform is needed. Both the Democrats and Republicans are culpable for this boondoggle. The Democrats are determined to push through a much needed public option without providing much needed tort reforms while the Republicans seem unwilling to accept any kind of Democratic bill whatsoever. Even when President Obama hinted at taking the public op-

tion out of the bill (thus making it more like symbolism than reform), many Republicans stated flatly that they wouldn’t vote for any bill sponsored by the Democrats. Meanwhile, the Democrats are scrambling to figure out how to soothe their counterparts (by making the bill more irrelevant) while watching themselves be berated by uninformed townspeople on national television. The only winners in this dispute are the undertakers who receive the steady supply of those who couldn’t afford to wait while Congress stews. Forty seven million people live without healthcare, and the number grows every day as more and more suffer the side effects of the recession. What of these, the reluctant victims of the health care system? Why aren’t these the ones whose angry tirades litter local news channels? Every day, they face their own private death panels, and I doubt that their most pressing thoughts are whether the country is trending towards

socialism or not. The main goal of a public option would be to provide a viable option for these poor souls. Nothing short of a public option will fully solve the problem. Even the co-ops that are currently being touted by more moderate Republicans would not necessarily provide care for everyone. A public option would ensure parity. There are those who state that the public option would be a financial burden for generations to come and would result in some sort of rationed healthcare run by the government. However, the current healthcare system is already threatening to collapse from fiscal strain. In the long run, the public option would cut down on costs as it would do away with the costly E.R. visits of the uninsured, and it would eventually replace such costly and poorly run government funded programs as Medicare and Medicaid. Thus, rather than paying more for a lesser product, we would be paying less for a better result. Also,

for those who already have insurance, it will provide something to fall back on. Those who are rejected by insurance companies or who can no longer afford to pay their premiums will finally have somewhere to turn. Meanwhile, contributing greatly to the costs of our healthcare system are doctors who order unnecessary tests in order to protect their livelihoods. One mistake and a doctor could have his entire life destroyed. While it is understandable that a doctor who makes a mistake should be held accountable, it is not right that they should have to forfeit everything. Tort reform is an important issue which is being decidedly left out of any serious reform talks. An untold sum of money could be saved if not for these extraneous tests. While some will say that extra testing can only be good for a patient, many of these tests use radiation. By getting an extra test, one may actually be increasing the likelihood of contracting what they’re being tested

for. Thus, the testing is not only detrimental financially but physically as well. The public option and tort reform are two key ingredients to any successful healthcare bill, yet both now seem to be falling by the wayside. If events keep progressing in their current manner, healthcare reform will be little more than a pyrrhic victory - a placebo for an ever worsening patient. Like a non-binding resolution from the U.N., such toothless healthcare reform would provide only moral support for a very tangible malady. I truly hope that Congress can work out some kind of compromise that actually does address the many issues at hand. However, I fear that this legislation is bound to crash in a hailstorm of media pressure. This is an issue that’s too important to bypass and too dire to succor with a faulty resolution. The time to act is now, lest the future generations curse our indecision from premature deathbeds.

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6 The Hoot

IMPRESSIONS

Book of Matthew

September 11, 2009

To ignore is human, to listen divine

BY BRET MATTHEW Editor

On Tuesday morning, President Obama paid a visit to Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia and delivered a televised address that was broadcast to students all across America. In the address, the president talked about the importance of hard work and responsibility, and how those attributes not only lead to success in school, but also in life. All in all, it was a good speech, one that I think every American student needed to hear. But not everyone agrees with me. In fact, if you were to browse through the media coverage leading up to and during the actual event, you would find that almost every major media outlet decided to label the address as “controversial.” What’s so controversial about a presidential pep talk, you ask? Well, apparently some conservatives saw Obama’s address as a kind of partisan brainwashing of our youth. I wish I were exaggerating, but there are countless stories of parents who refused to allow their children to watch the address, some going as far as keeping them home from school that day. Wavering under this pressure, a few school districts actually declined to show the address to their students, citing vague reasons such as “parental concerns” or “class disruption”—and thereby depriving all of their students of the opportunity to hear the president speak to them. Even some political leaders picked up on this discord. Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, for example, warned that the address would be an attempt by the president to “indoctrinate America’s children to his socialist agenda.” I’m also pretty sure that Rush Limbaugh compared the president to Kim Jong-Il of North Korea. We have a problem. This is not the first time a president has directly addressed American students. President George H. W. Bush encouraged students to work hard and stay away from drugs in 1991, while President Ronald Reagan attacked high taxes and touted the idea of a small federal government in 1988. Nor is it the first time that a presidential address to students has faced opposition. Democrats were not thrilled with Bush and Reagan’s attempts to reach out to students (particularly Reagan’s, which was easily the most politically charged address), although their opposition never achieved the ridiculousness displayed by modern Republicans. The truth is that those of us on opposite sides of the political spectrum are often terrible at listening to each other, even though that is precisely what we must do in order to preserve rational discourse in this country. In order to illustrate this point, allow me to tell a story about something that occurred last spring. Those of you who were at Brandeis should remember when another controversial speaker came to campus to address Brandeis students; a man by the name of William Ayers, former 1960s radical and current professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. One of the many anecdotes that Ayers recounted for us that day also involved a controversial speaker—this time a neoNazi who came to speak at Ayers’ school when he was a student. Although it would have been much easier to simply ignore the event, he and

ILLUSTRATION BY Bret Matthew/The Hoot

several friends decided to go and hear the speaker anyway. They listened patiently and quietly as the neo-Nazi spouted off the typical hateful rhetoric that is to be expected from such people. And then, when it came time for the question and answer period of the event, Ayers said— and I will never forget this—that they all stood up and calmly walked away. “And that was our protest,” he remarked to us. Ironically, as Ayers told us this story, several individuals who viewed him as a terrorist stood outside the auditorium with signs and protested his presence, without actually bothering to hear what he had to say. Which, incidentally, is another reason why this story fits so well. The conservative parents who refused to allow their children to watch Obama speak were equivalent to those protestors. So were the liberal parents who probably did the same thing for Bush and Reagan’s speeches. Their actions were based purely on this preconceived notion that the person they opposed was not

only wrong, but also unworthy of being heard. And so, when they all protested, they protested against their own perceptions rather than the reality of what was being said. We don’t want to be like these people. We want to be like Ayers, who, despite disagreeing with that neo-Nazi on just about everything, respectfully listened to him anyway. And at the end of the day, this allowed Ayers to not only continue to disagree with that man, but to explain exactly why he disagreed, based on what the man said. It is not easy to listen to people who are your political opposites. More often than not their arguments will send your blood pressure soaring through the roof. And it is becoming increasingly clear that, in this age of loud political discourse, so many of us have thrown up our hands and decided that we just don’t want to listen to the other guy. We would rather surround ourselves with like-minded friends and acquaintances who reaffirm our beliefs, rather

than challenge them. But we cannot allow our children to become so close-minded. If we teach them that it is okay to ignore someone who may disagree with them—like the president—then we have effectively taught them that it is okay to ignore anyone who threatens to be more than a yes-man. And that sows the seeds for a dogmatic, ideologically divided society. We must teach our children that it is important to listen to everyone, even those with whom they disagree most strongly. The act of listening does not necessarily beget agreement, but it does beget understanding, and for that reason it is the keystone of a democratic society, in which all points of view can be fairly weighed and judged by the participants. This is a far-reaching dream, to be sure. But hopefully we can begin to make steps in the right direction. Hopefully, the next time a president addresses school children, we can all put drama aside and open our ears.

IMPRESSIONS

September 11, 2009

The Hoot 7

Borde-nough

School children don’t need a lecture; politicians do BY CHRIS BORDELON Columnist

A few weeks ago in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama's public relations staff sat in a circle at the White House, each of them silently conscious of the fact that this sit-down session was making their fancy suits unpresentably wrinkled. With their five dollar coffees at their sides, Lisa Loeb-style glasses perched on their noses, and smiles on their faces, they happily snapped their manicured fingers. One of them, the recipient of this applause, had just had a clever idea. After months of partisan wrangling over adjustments to the health care system, ongoing American involvement in wars, the parlous state of our economy, the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, and other divisive issues, the President could score some easy publicity and good will with a fluff speech to children as they returned to school after Labor Day. His speech would associate the president's seemingly laboratory-engineered image with something high-minded and idealistic. It was just the sort of association his handlers had succeeded at creating in the campaign that got Obama elected, back before the job of being President got in the way. The address would bear no relation to the controversies that had commanded the country's attention, and that was its greatest strength. It would merely call on children to work hard in school. It couldn't offend anybody. It seems highly doubtful that Obama's advisers could have anticipated the response of their Republican counterparts, who assembled in their recently relocated office in the inpatient psychiatric ward of the Bethesda Naval Hospital. One, wearing an American flag pin on what he assumed was the lapel of his straitjacket, expressed ongoing amazement that the Soviets had managed to get Obama, who was widely thought to have orchestrated the September

11, 2001 terrorist attacks, elected President just by having him shave his beard. His colleague, who had been using a foul bodily substance to write “Palin in 2012” all over the walls, concurred. This wall-smearer saw that her amazed friend was becoming agitated, and had heard him complain earlier about warts, a sprained ankle, and a persistent cough. She therefore suggested that his friend approach one of the attending nurses for a dose of Taxcutacyn, a widely prescribed but rarely effective antidepressant that this group of delusional patients believes is the cure for all ills. Trying to decide how to respond to Obama's speech, the Republicans were bitterly divided. They considered cutting their taxes or destroying another predominantly Muslim country. But then one of them brought up a better plan. “At the count of three,” he said, “everybody scream 'Socialist!'” Of course, thought the others, how could they ever have forgotten their old standard? They cheered wildly in celebration, and then began to practice. The attending nurse wrote down what he heard in the patients' charts, adding the observation that all of them were having one of their better days, and seemed to be “getting back to normal.” This may not be a perfect recounting of the events leading to Obama's Tuesday speech to students, or the Republicans' response to it. But it seems to me to be close enough, and that's too close for comfort. As to the president, I want him to concentrate on policy rather than self-presentation. His next campaign is still years in the future. There are plenty of self-help books

and inspirational lecturers out there for the bulk of the population, and there are untold numbers of Mr. T and other, less silly people (not to mention educators and parents) who carry this message to school children. But there's only one President. Rather than empty talk to boost people's self-esteem, Obama needs to focus on the economy, on his health care plans, and on bringing our wars to an end. Improving education is a priority, too, but the way for the President to go about this isn't by telling children that he's “working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment, and computers you need to learn.” Claiming credit is problematic if there's nothing to claim credit for, and if the improvements he spoke of don't materialize in the near future (as they are wont not to do), young people will lose both faith in the government and trust in their president. Money for school improvements originating at the federal level must be pumped with much effort from Congressional wells, and then sent downstream through state and local bureaucracies that can easily divert it from the parched environs that need it most. It would be better to get this current flowing properly before telling people that they can expect a drink. Rather than hog all the air time talking about his hopes and giving rise to false expectations, Obama should begin handing the microphone more often to Democrats in Congress. This almost faceless and nameless group needs to come back from its seemingly permanent vacation and join the argument in favor of those of Obama's plans that are worthy of support.

rying to decide how to respond to Obama’s speech, the Republicans were bitterly divided.

Democrats in Congress don't seem to have grasped that they enjoy big majorities and can actually do something about many of the problems that have festered in America for a decade. Their voice, if they'd only use it, could well be decisive. I'd like to give them a talk like the one Obama gave to the school kids. Can we ensure that Americans have adequate health care? Yes, we can! Can we stop pouring huge sums into endless wars, opt for new defensive strategies that don't require expensive occupations of foreign countries, and get down to the business of reconstructing our economy? Yes, with our big majorities, we can! As for those Republicans who cried “socialist” when Obama made his speech earlier this week, they need to think a little harder before opening their mouths. They'll continue to sound crazy unless and until they begin to behave constructively as an opposition party. When Republicans take pains to call a fluff speech like Obama's “socialist,” it makes one wonder what they think that label means. There are good arguments against several of Obama's bestknown initiatives, but shouting “socialist” isn't one of them. If Republicans think they are ever going to return to power, they ought to send care packages to their current leadership in the Bethesda psych ward, andshould leave them there for an indefinite inpatient stay. The party's current leaders are warmongers who did not adequately manage either the economy or the public fisc and who did not regulate in the public interest. They have almost no redeeming qualities that make it reasonable to think that they might make good leaders in the future. They had their chance and failed; now they're a liability to the G.O.P.'s future electoral hopes. Perhaps students heading back to school were strengthened in their resolve to learn by Obama's insistence that they work hard this year. But it was America's political leaders who needed the lecture.

Hey! You! Are you tired of watching Congressional deadlock? Do you feel like rational discourse is being pulled apart? Or are you just a generally angry person? Then write for The Hoot Impressions! E-mail Bret Matthew at impressions@thehoot.net

12 The Hoot

September 11, 2009

FEATURES

To tweet or not to tweet?

Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Brandeis students and professors sound off on Twitter’s social and educational potential. By Chrissy Callahan, Editor There’s a famous song that goes, “I always feel like somebody’s watching me, and I have no privacy.” Sound familiar? Do you ever get the feeling someone’s following you? Or are you the one doing the trailing? While following people might’ve been frowned upon in the past, in our age of digital media, it’s become perfectly normal – and albeit encouraged – to “cyber stalk” people. Isn’t it ironic? At any given moment you can satisfy your curiosity online and check out what people are doing: It’s 7 a.m. and your best friend is eating breakfast in Usdan. It’s noon and your professor is meeting with a student. It’s 3 p.m. and your roommate is nearly dying of boredom in economics class. In a pre-internet or phone era, you’d have no way of knowing this unless you were with any one of these people, but this is today’s norm. Welcome to the era of Twitter and Facebook, where no detail is too mundane to be broadcast to your cyber audience. Gone are the days of the obligatory “how are you doing?” Instead the Facebook newsfeed and tweets are en vogue. Many people associate social media networks with youth, but adults are proving that they, too, are web savvy and have important stories to share via Twitter. And while it seems like more Brandeis students than professors are on Twitter, the latter is beginning to see its value. Still, it would seem that one fundamental difference exists between students’ and professors’ use of Twitter – their reasons for tweeting. As Brandeis students and professors and outside speakers gathered yesterday and today at the TMI: Social Justice in the Age of Facebook conference to discuss social media in its different forms, some of Brandeis’ top Twitterers speak out to The Hoot about their tweets, revealing the website’s social and educational potential. Students’ cyber social life Like many other things in life, Shannon Ingram’s ’13 decision to get Twitter resulted from a bit of peer pressure. “All my friends had one, so I wanted to see what it was all about,” she says. “It’s just a way that my friends and I keep in touch since we’re all in different places.” Twitter, like its cyber cousin Facebook, offers Ingram and many other college students the chance to share a slice of their life with friends. After all, when life gets tough and your friends are halfway across the country, it’s comforting to get an update, or a tweet, here and there. But Ingram, who goes by the name Ladysaw731 on her Twitter page, is quick to differentiate between her use of Twitter and Facebook: “Facebook I use more to post pictures and to write

long comments. Twitter I just use to update what I’m doing and just [as] a quick reply to a friend because [you’re allowed] only 140 characters, so you can’t do anything too long.” A huge fan of the site, Ingram says she updates her Twitter page “all the time.” Just minutes after being interviewed for this article, Ingram even tweeted the following: “My extensive Twitter use led to me being interviewed for the school newspaper. Highlight of my day. =)” Ingram says her use of Twitter is confined strictly to a sort of social dialogue. “I don’t use it for education at all; it’s definitely social,” she says. But for some other Brandeis students, the use of Twitter isn’t so black and white. Take Sahar Massachi ’11, for example. Massachi started using Twitter two years ago, first as a way to update his Facebook status from his phone, and then as a way to update his parents on his life while away at college. In June 2008, Massachi attended a conference about the intersection of technology and politics which changed the way he used this new social media platform. Participants in the conference were using Twitter to communicate with each other about the conference during the conference, and that was when Massachi started tweeting more often. For Massachi, like most Twitter users, the website serves many functions. Some of Massachi’s tweets update his friends and family on what he’s been up to; some of them provide his followers with links he finds interesting and he admits that, like any red-blooded Twitterer, his tweets occasionally serve as camouflage for self promotion. Although he uses it often, Massachi says he doesn’t let his cyber life interfere with what technology often renders obsolete – human interaction. “It’s not really that big of a deal for me,” he admits. “Twitter has been relentlessly overhyped by, among other things, the media…I’m confused by the amount of attention it’s getting.” While Ingram uses Twitter solely for social interaction, Massachi sees the site as aimed more to professionals in their 20s and 30s, and not so much for his peers around this hilly campus. Twitter’s co-founder and chief executive Evan Williams would agree. Or at least he did, in a recent New York Times article (Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens; Aug. 25, 2009): “Many people use it for professional purposes — keeping connected with industry contacts and following news.” Massachi certainly sees the benefits of Twitter, but he’s also quick to comment on its limitations: “I feel among people our age there’s a growing sort of zeitgeist that all this technology stuff is great, but…it doesn’t replace actual human interaction.“

In other words, Twitter is great, but don’t let it become a substitute for oneon-one time with family and friends. Says Massachi, “It’s a bright day outside, go out and play.” Twitter in the classroom Prof. Mark Auslander (ANTH) first started tweeting after attending a conference on television and cultural studies in Virginia last spring. For a time, he tried to tweet during his classes at Brandeis, summarizing the most important idea every 10 minutes or so. “That was fun because you hear hundreds of thousands of words [a day/ during class], and to get everything down to 140 characters really makes you think [about word choice],” he says. Tweeting may benefit students’ evolving writing skills, Auslander says, and may in fact make them better writers. “When you have to express one idea in 140 characters, there’s no wasting space; you just have to keep cutting down and getting your idea clearer and clearer,” he says. “So I think that’s good for all of us.” Auslander views Twitter primarily as an education outlet, rather than a social platform. “It’s about intellectual engagement; it’s about sharing new [and] exciting ideas in philosophy and art and anthropology,” he says. “I think it’s a wonderful tool for learning.” This year, Auslander plans on getting his students to tweet to illustrate its growing importance in the museum world. “Museums are doing more and more with Twitter…and so we’re going to be experimenting with that as well,” he says. To this end, Auslander says he’s exploring the possibility of helping the Rose Art Museum to use Twitter. His ANTH 184a class is even currently exploring a possible cell phone-based tour with the Rose Art Museum that might include texting and Twitter options. Auslander says he doesn’t get the sense that many other professors at Brandeis are on Twitter. After all, even though it’s been around for a mere three years, it’s still a fairly new phenomenon. But what he does know is that it’s a time for professors across the country to test out the Twitter waters. “I think we’re all just experimenting now,” he says. One person doing just that is Wayne Marshall, who taught at Brandeis from 2007-09 as the Kay Fellow in Music and African and Afro-American Studies and is now at the beginning of a twoyear stay at MIT as a Mellon Fellow. Marshall had been blogging for five years when he finally gave in to Twitter temptation last fall. Because he’d been using another platform to broadcast See TWITTER, p. 13

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

LADYSAW731: Shannon Ingram ‘13, pictured above, tweets at http://twitter.com/Ladysaw731

Brandeis Tweets

Want to read the twitter pages featured in this article? Here are some links: Shannon Ingram http://twitter.com/Ladysaw731 Sahar Massachi http://twitter.com/sayhar Prof. Mark Auslander http://twitter.com/MuseumMark Wayne Marshall http://twitter.com/wayneandwax Brandeis Pages http://twitter.com/BrandeisU (main) http://twitter.com/BrandeisGSAS (GSAS) http://twitter.com/HiattatBrandeis (Hiatt)

September 11, 2009

F E AT U R E S

The Hoot 13

All in the Family: Dr. Howard Sachar and the Jacob Hiatt Institute center for students to study in Israel. Sachar desired to combine lecturebased courses with field trips to explore the “kaleidoscope of cultures” unique to the state of Israel. Through the program, students would have the opportunity to study with faculty from both Brandeis and local Israeli universities, and Brandeis would have a direct connection to Israel. Sachar’s father, and then-president of Brandeis, was receptive to the idea, and with the generosity of Jacob and Frances Hiatt, the Jacob Hiatt Institute was created in 1961. The Hiatts even purchased a facility Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections, Brandeis University for the Institute at 9 ETHIOPIA STREET, JERUSALEM: The Hiatt Institute in Jerusalem marked Brandeis’ first foray into the world of study abroad. 9 Ethiopia St. in Jeskills, Sachar echoes the sentiments of oth- rusalem, only a 10-minute drive from the BY SAM FUCHS Staff er contemporaries in recalling his father as Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In its 22 years of existence, the Hiatt Ina “fearless lecturer” and “spellbinder.” He At first glance one may not realize that recalls both students and non-Jewish fac- stitute in Jerusalem provided over 600 stuDr. Howard Sachar’s connection to the field ulty attending his father’s High Holiday ser- dents from around 150 colleges and universities with the unique opportunity to of modern Jewish history extends beyond mons at the University of Illinois. In addition to his family connection to study in Israel and apply their coursework the 16 books he has published on modern Brandeis through his father, in 1961 Sachar beyond the walls of the classroom. In 1980 Europe and the history of Israel. Professor Emeritus of History and Inter- served as the founding director of Brandeis’ and 1981, the Institute even ran an archeonational Affairs at The George Washington Jacob Hiatt Institute in Jerusalem, one of the logical program in collaboration with the University, Sachar is a highly regarded scholar first study abroad programs in the country. American Schools for Oriental Research. As described in the 1988 publication “From While many current Brandeis students are on Middle Eastern and European history. He has received the National Jewish Book Award most familiar with the Hiatt family for its en- the Beginning: A Picture History of the First twice, testified before the United States House dowment of the university’s career center, the Four Decades of Brandeis University,” The Hiof Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Commit- family also funded the Jacob Hiatt Institute att Institute established a model that was emtee and lectured at training seminars for Unit- in Jerusalem, which allowed students from ulated by Hebrew University in the mid 1960s Brandeis and other universities to study in Is- and by other universities and organizations in ed States diplomats. both the United States and Israel. Upon second glance, though, one sees rael between 1961 and 1983. In 1983 many Hiatt Institute participants Reflecting on the founding of the Instithat Sachar’s family and professional connections help contribute to his living legacy tute, Sachar recalled the period following were saddened when Brandeis announced his post-doctoral studies in Israel: “I was the Institute would close at the end of the and that of Brandeis University. Sachar is the son of the late Dr. Abram so infatuated with the land and the people year. In the Oct. 4, 1983 issue of the Justice, (Abe) Sachar, the founding president of and [I had a personal] resolve to get Jewish then Director of International Programs Faire Goldstein explained the decision: Brandeis. While many of the events that led people closer to it.” At the time, though, Brandeis did not “Today’s students are more familiar with to the founding of Brandeis occurred during Sachar’s childhood, he has many recol- have a junior year study abroad program. Israeli society,” Goldstein said. “[Thus they] lections of his father’s years as a history pro- After gaining renewed popularity in the don’t need to be Americanized anymore. fessor and Hillel director at the University 1950s, study abroad programs had, accord- They can become part of the system.” The article described how “the expansion ing to Sachar, become “recognized features of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “[My father] had a knack for making his- of the academic landscape” by 1961. As he and improvement of Israeli universities” was already living in Israel, Sachar pro- meant that maintaining the program was tory a page turner,” he said. Insisting he’s no match for his father’s posed to his father that Brandeis create a no longer necessary for Brandeis students

to study in Israel. As the Director of the Hiatt Institute between 1961 and 1964, Sachar assisted in shaping a program that connected students with numerous organizations with an interest in Israel. Because of his work with the United States Foreign Service, Sachar helped the Institute receive funding from the United States Department of State in 1965. After Sachar, several Brandeis faculty members served as directors of the Institute. In 1975, during its 15th anniversary year, the Institute was directed by Ernest Stock, a lecturer in the politics department. In 1981, Baruch Levy, a Brandeis Ph.D. graduate and Heller School professor became director of the program. He had previously served as director of the Center for Social Policy and Planning in the Middle East at the Heller School, and had studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Tel Aviv. As the Hiatt Institute evolved, it made an effort to engage local Israelis to direct its programs. The Jacob Hiatt Institute was not only one of the first programs of its kind, but was also recognized as “one of the best foreign study institutes available” in the Oct. 4, 1983 edition of the Justice. In addition to Sachar’s influence on the Institute, many would argue that none of the Institute’s achievements would have been possible without the support of Jacob and Frances Hiatt, a couple with whom Sachar still treasures his relationship, calling them “full of good will,” and “beautiful characters in my life.” Illustrating Jacob Hiatt’s warm nature, Sachar recalled hearing how when Jacob Hiatt learned his old Hebrew teacher had fallen ill, he not only arranged for his former teacher’s hospital treatment, but also took the neighboring room to keep him company. Upon his wife Frances’ passing, Jacob Hiatt endowed a small park in Jerusalem in her memory. In addition to sponsoring a number of programs at Brandeis, Jacob Hiatt served as chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1971 to 1977. While Sachar is no longer a full-time faculty member at The George Washington University, where he taught for 40 years in the Department of History and the Elliott School of International Affairs, his scholarship continues to flourish. He continues to publish numerous books and articles on Modern Jewish history and Israel, He lectures widely at numerous universities and travels to Israel, where his daughter and grandchildren live. Author’s Note: The author wishes to acknowledge Dr. Howard Sachar and the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections for their assistance in the preparation of this article.

Twittering @BrandeisU TWITTER (from p. 12)

his work and personal interests, tweeting wasn’t something Marshall started doing in order to fill a void, but rather an online outlet that seemed to offer him something new. “Twitter seemed like a unique way to share, briefly, things I am thinking about, listening to, reading, doing and eating – usually in that order,” he wrote in an email to The Hoot. Marshall didn’t use Twitter in his class, but he does recognize both the potential and problems it can pose when used as an educational platform. “I think Twitter’s 140 character limit presents some challenges to using it as a teaching tool,” he says. “On the other hand, with the right sort of assignment or approach, its required concision could make for a great writing exercise.” Tweeting 9-5 As if Brandeis employees didn’t already

have enough work to fill their work day, some people might be surprised to learn that several offices around campus are tweeting. Though in the early stages, a number of departments and offices, such as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Hiatt Career Center have created Twitter accounts to share news and resources with students. Brandeis’ Office of Communications seems to be the trendsetter in the social media realm at Brandeis, maintaining active Twitter and Facebook pages. Carrie Simmons, Assistant Director of Integrated Marketing for the Office of Communications, manages the main Brandeis Twitter account. She tweets about Brandeis news and events, and retweets when community members are in the news, to give current, former and future Brandeis students a snapshot of what Brandeis is doing now. Of BrandeisU’s 1,200 followers, Simmons

says students outnumber professors. In addition to students and professors, there are also many Brandeis alumni following their alma mater online. Recently, several alumni answered the call when Simmons asked them to share their favorite Brandeis memories with the Class of 2013 before Orientation. Two alumni even offered to help one Brandeis student with her career plans after Simmons posted a Boston Globe story about the student on Brandeis’ Facebook page. “Twitter and Facebook are helping us build and maintain community relationships,” Simmons says. Though not many professors are on Twitter yet, if the latest Facebook statistics are any indication, it’s likely that we’ll see more professors giving in to Twitter temptation. And according to the New York Times, this past year witnessed a 60 percent increase in the use of social networking websites by adults aged 34 to 54. (Who’s Driving Twit-

ter’s Popularity? Not Teens; Aug. 25, 2009) Twitter translation So what does all this mean? Perhaps you’re one of the students tweeting your responses to the TMI conference now. If you’re reading this online, maybe you have your Twitter or Facebook page opened in another tab. Maybe you’re of the old school crowd who still prefer to read their news in printed form. Whatever the case, you can be sure that things are different now. Twitter is a reality in our world, and many would argue it’s something worth analyzing. Some people may use Twitter to self promote, some may use it to provide educational links to colleagues and some may use it to update loved ones on their daily activities. Whatever the reason for using Twitter, though, one thing is sure: Each twitterer is a bit of each of these wrapped up in one 140 character message.

14 The Hoot

September 11, 2009

SPORTS

Women’s volleyball finishes second at Springfield Invitational BY HANNAH VICKERS Editor

The Brandeis women’s volleyball team has started off the season with a bang, moving up to a 5-1 record including a 3-1 record at the Springfield College Invitational over the weekend which earned them a second place finish. Outside hitter Paige and setter Abby Blasco ’11 were named to the All Tournament team for their outstanding play. In addition they defeated Wellesley on the road Tuesday 3-1. The Judges defeated Roger Williams University Hawks in the opening game of the tournament Friday night in four sets. Brandeis won the first set 25-18, dropped the second 14-25, and came back to win the next two 25-13 and 26-24. Both Paige Blasco and inside hitter Piera Carfagno ’10 recorded a double-double during the game to help the Judges come out on top. Rookie libero Anna Homitsky ’13 topped the defense with 13 digs, followed by Paige who had 12 digs as well as a match-high 17 kills. Carfagno, a co-captain on the squad, had 11 kills and 10 digs. Their match the following morning against Lasell College seemed easy in comparison to the previous night. The Judges took down Lasell in straight sets, 25-11, 25-10, 25-10. Abby Blasco, who shares cocaptain duties with Carfagno, had a double-double with 28 assists and 11 digs while sister Paige had 5 digs and 8 kills. Like the previous night, a rookie was one of the top players. Middle blocker Becca Fischer ’13 put up

11 kills and four blocks. Paige Blasco had her second double-double of the season and tournament later Saturday with 15 kills and 12 digs in their win over Westfield State. As with their game earlier in the day, this win came in straight sets, 25-10, 25-23, 2514. The Judges, undefeated in the tournament, went on to fall in the final game against host Springfield. Springfield won the first set 25-22, but Brandeis fought back to take a 2-1 lead by winning the next two sets 25-20, 25-17. Despite their best efforts, the Judges were not able to hold on and dropped the final two sets 25-23, 15-10. Abby Blasco, like her sister earlier in the day, recorded her second double-double of the tournament with 40 assists and 15 digs. Paige paced the Judges with 19 kills, but was the only Brandeis player to make doubledigits for kills. With the win, Springfield took home the Invitational crown. After a long but successful weekend, the Judges faced the Wellesley College Blue on Tuesday. The same strong play that helped them secure second place at the Invitational also got them the win against Wellesley. The Judges defeated the Blue 3-1, winning the first two sets 25-22 and 25-21, dropping the third 20-25, and picking up the fourth set in an easy 25-13 win. This was the first time Brandeis beat Wellesley in volleyball since 2006. Twins Abby and Paige helped lead the Judges past their local rivals.

PHOTO BY Phil Small/The Hoot

DEFENDING THE COURT: Captain Abby Blasco ‘11 going for a dig in the game against Wellesley this week.

Abby recorded a double-double with 33 assists and 11 digs while Paige had a match-high 18 kills. Carfagno had a team-high 17 digs and 11 kills. Brandeis fought hard for the first set win and were able to get the last three points when Wellesley committed a service error. Bridget McAllister ’10 served four straight points in the second set to help the Judges pull out to an early lead of two sets to none. Although the Blue were able to pull off a win in the third set to hold off the shut out, they couldn’t keep the momentum going into the fourth set. While the set was tied at one point 9-9, the Judges got their act back together and dominated from that point forward, winning on a 16-4 run. The Judges have the Brandeis Invitational this weekend, their home opening tournament. They will face Rhode Island College today at 4 p.m. and Williams College at 8 p.m.. The match-ups for Saturday will be determined by play on Friday.

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

ATTACKING THE BALL: Nicole Smith ‘11 blocking a shot against Wellesley on Tuesday.

Grunting: Desperation or intimidation tactic? BY SARAH BLOMBERG Special to The Hoot

Tennis is considered a mental game. Players are alone or with one partner, and are not allowed to talk with coaches until after the match is over. There is one aspect of the mental game that is often over looked- the grunt. This might be a sign I’ve been watching too much tennis, but I can’t help it if the U.S. Open is on whenever I’m not in class. To some people one grunt is the same as another grunt, but there are definite differences, especially in the women and men’s game. For the women, the grunt is more of an intimidation tactic. It was made popular by Venus and Serena Williams, who apparently were not dominating enough, but then grunted every time the racquet came into contact with the ball. Some people may claim that women grunt in order to use as much power as possible, but I think the intimidation factor makes a much stronger case. Today, it is common to find at least one player grunting in each match;

the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova the most composed players on the tour and are just a few. Maybe they think that their also the most winning player of all time. scream grunts really do enable them to hit He does not need to grunt; he pushes himthe ball harder, but I think they just intimi- self just fine. date their opponents. Today I was watching the women’s quarNow, in the men’s terfinals, and I saw game, the grunt is grunting taken to he grunt was made popular by a whole new level. used in a very difVenus and Serena Williams, Yanina Wickmayer, ferent situation. Instead of intimidation who apparently were not dominat- from Belgium, was it is used more in ing enough, but then grunted every playing Kateryna desperation. When- time the racquet came into contact Bondarenko of ever Rafael Nadal Ukraine. with the ball. or Andy Roddick There was gruntgrunts it is more to ing on both sides motivate themselves for a while, but afthan to affect their ter a while I realopponent. The grunts generally come later ized that these were not normal grunts. in the matches, usually after losing a set or Wickmayer’s grunt sounded like “Woompafter playing a really great set. Men rarely ee,” a sound I did not know was humanly come out and start grunting from the get- possible, and Bondarenko responded with go, but only when they need an extra little a high pitch “Eeh.” It was like watching a something to push themselves that little bit bad sex scene with too little contact and too further. Think about it; have you ever heard much clothing. It was one of those sights Roger Federer grunt? Exactly - he is one of where you could not look away. My friend

was cheering for Bondarenko just so Wickmayer’s grunting would stop, but that was not the case. She beat Bondarenko 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals and will be playing Caroline Woniacki of Denmark who beat the American Cinderella story, Melanie Oudin 6-2, 6-2. In the other semifinal Kim Clijsters, from Belgium, will be playing Serena Williams. Clijsters is on her own comeback run, beating Na Li of China 6-2, 6-4. Williams beat Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-4, 6-3. In the men’s draw Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, beat Fernando Verdascco, of Spain, 7-6 (7-2), 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 to be the first man to advance to the semifinals. Rodger Federer, of Switzerland, beat Robin Soderling, of Sweden, 6-0, 6-3, 6-7 (8-6), 7-6 (8-6) to advance as well. The other two quarterfinals will be played today with Rafael Nadal, of Spain, playing Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, and in the second match Marin Cilic, of Croatia, will play Juan Martin del Porto of Argentina.

SPORTS

September 11, 2009

The Hoot 15

Men’s soccer has tough first weekend, loses one and ties another BY HANNAH VICKERS Editor

The Brandeis men’s soccer team opened their season last weekend in the Adidas Kick-Off Tournament in Norton, MA. Their first match against the Rutgers-Newark Scarlet Raiders ended in a 1-1 tie on Saturday, but the Judges fell 2-0 on Sunday to the Southern Maine Huskies. Coach Coven was not happy with his team’s performance. “It was the first weekend, and we were clearly not comfortable as a team,” said Coach Coven. “[However] our team realizes the mistakes that we committed and I am comfortable that we will learn from them and come out much stronger this coming weekend.” When reflecting on the tournament, captain Adam Guttman ’10 admitted that while the team hadn’t played at their best, it is rare to see top notch performances at the beginning of the season. “It made us realize that we have a lot of work to do,” he told The Hoot. Brandeis took an early lead against the Scarlet Raiders. They scored less than four minutes into the first half and though it might not have been the play they intended, it certainly had the right result. Brandeis’ Lee Russo ’13 took a corner kick that inadvertently found the head of one of the Rutgers-Newark defenders who then directed the ball into his own goal. That was the only goal the Judges would get in the game. “We very rarely play against a team like Rutgers,” said Guttman. “They swarm the ball defensively as a unit, which gave us very little time for distribution and not much time to make smart decisions on the ball.” There would not be any other scoring until nearly the 70th minute of the game when Scarlet Raider Estiven Benitez ’11 finally got a shot past the Brandeis keeper, Matt Lynch ’11. Both teams had to settle for a tie after going into two overtimes. “It actually turned out to be a good result for us because they played Wheaton the following game and tied 0-0,” Guttman said. “Although we didn’t play particularly well against Rutgers it was an important result because they had made a strong post-season run the year

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

GOING FOR THE GOAL: Brandeis midfielder Alex Zenerovitz ‘10 (No. 8, left) passes the ball upfield past Colby Sawyer midfielder Derek Veilleux ‘12 (No. 12, right).

before. They were also very talented individually which provided tough match-ups defensively.” Another aspect of the matchup against Rutgers-Newark was the number of fouls on both sides. The Scarlet Raiders had 15 over the course of the game while Brandeis put up 25, including three yellow cards and one red card to captain Corey Bradley ’10 with five minutes left in the game. Apparently the referees were keeping a close eye on all the games in the tournament this weekend, and, according to Coach Coven, three of the four teams playing this weekend received red cards. “Basically it was a very physical game, which is not necessarily a bad thing,” Guttman told The Hoot. “[The red card] was unfortunate because the referee may not have used his best judgment in issuing the card, but it’s over with and there is nothing we can do about it now. So we move forward.” “I think that we do need to keep our composure on the field better, but it is not something that I

am overly concerned with at this point,” said Coach Coven. Although Brandeis out shot Southern Maine 20-15 in their second game of the weekend, they weren’t able to translate those shots into goals. “We were unable to capitalize on a multitude of opportunities in front of goal,” said Coach Coven. The game remained completely scoreless until the 60th minute when Husky Nick Johnson ’11 made two goals in the span of 2:04. “We didn’t have the consistency that we would have liked to show for 90 minutes,” said Guttman. “[But] for the most part of the game we were the better team, that is creating more scoring opportunities, especially in the latter moments of the game.” In those latter moments, especially the last five minutes or so, the Judges had four opportunities to get on the board but weren’t able to do so. Luke Teece ’12 had a great shot that just bounced off the left post. Brandeis keeper Lynch ended the game with five saves while Husky goalkeeper

Steve May ’10 had seven stops to keep the shutout. Part of what kept Brandeis down was certainly the loss of Bradley. Having received the red card in the previous game, he was unable to play in Sunday’s match against Southern Maine. “[It] was a huge loss and it certainly hurt us offensively,” admitted Coach Coven. Despite the disappointment over how the weekend turned out, Guttman and the rest of the team are staying positive. “That was a tough loss for us, but the only thing you can do with our schedule is move forward and focus on the next game.” The Judges had just about a week to prepare for their next game against Clark University, which will take place this Saturday at Clark at 2 PM. The past three seasons when Brandeis has faced off against Clark they have tied twice and lost once. Clark is also regarded as one of the best teams in New England, especially after their NCAA run last season, so it should be a tough match.

After a week of training hard, the Judges hope for a win this weekend to even out the season to 1-11. “This is a very important game for us to get us back on track and jump start the season,” Coach Coven told The Hoot. With that being said, “we just can’t show up on Saturday and expect to win,” said Guttman. “We have to come out flying and take the game to Clark, use our speed to get behind their defenders and on the other side it is necessary for us to play physical and dictate the tempo.” “We get the opportunity to travel to Clark where they have a beautiful pitch which will make the game flow much better,” Guttman said. “The ball will be moving quickly on the floor which should make for an entertaining game.” The Judges will play their home opener next Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. against WPI and as Coach Coven told The Hoot last week, the best games are those where fans come to support them.

Women’s soccer defeats Nazareth, falls to Babson BY HANNAH VICKERS Editor

The Brandeis women’s soccer team took down Nazareth College at home on Sunday in a 3-1 victory. They moved up to a 2-0 record, but could not get the win on Wednesday’s game against Babson College to maintain their undefeated streak. Babson won the game in a 1-0 shutout. In Saturday’s match against the Nazareth Golden Flyers, the Judges wasted no time getting on the board. In the fifth minute of play Mimi Theodore ’12 got the ball to Tiffany Pacheco ’11 who drove the ball under Nazareth’s diving keeper, Hillary Simon ’11, and into the net for her first goal of the season. Pacheco went on to assist both of Brandeis’ other goals of the game, living up to Coach Dallamora’s promise that Pacheco is a player to keep an eye on this season.

While the Judges dominated most of the first half, Nazareth started to fight back in the last minutes. In the 39th minute of play, they tied the game with a goal by Sarah Baluta ’13, the first of her collegiate career, off an assist by Rachel Piemonte ’11. That would be the only goal the Golden Flyers would get off the Judges. Brandeis came into the second half with a strong offensive push, resulting in the eventual game-winning goal less than two minutes into the half. Pacheco headed the ball to Ali Theodore ’12 who then put it in the back of the net, giving Brandeis a onegoal lead. The final scoring took place in the 60th minute of play when Pacheco added her second assist of the game. She crossed the ball to Sofia Vallone ’11 who made a great head shot past Simon, both securing Brandeis’ lead and becoming the first

player of the 2009 season to record two goals. The Golden Flyers never got another opportunity to score. Goalkeeper Jaclyn Weinstein ’12 earned the win for the Judges after playing the second half, but never had to make a single save. With the loss, Nazareth fell to 1-2. Unfortunately for the Judges the next game did not go quite as smoothly as their last. Brandeis fell to the Babson Beavers 1-0 on Wednesday despite a remarkable effort by goalkeeper Hillary Rosenzweig ’10 who had eight saves over the 90 minute game, tying her second-highest career game total and falling just two shy of her career high. The only goal took place with less than twenty minutes left in the game. Babson’s Patty Plytik ’11 bent a shot just out of reach of Rosenzweig, giving Plytik her fourth goal of the season.

Brandeis missed out on their best scoring opportunity just minutes before on the opposite end of the field when Pacheco ripped a shot from roughly 30 yards out that Beavers’ keeper Sarah Macary ’11 tipped up to the crossbar. Mimi Theodore took the rebound off her head, but Macary was able to catch the shot. “Babson is on grass and we do not practice on that any more,” said Coach Dallamora. “So the game was slower and we did not rise to the occasion.” The women will face Springfield this Saturday, Sept. 12, at noon. The last time the Judges played them Brandeis lost in the second overtime, so they will probably be changing up their game plan a bit according to Coach Dallamora. The Judges will play at home again next Tuesday Sept. 15 at 4 p.m against Bridgewater State.

16 The Hoot

September 11, 2009

WEEKEND Spotlight on Boston

Boston Arts Festival Friday, Sept. 11, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Christopher Colombus Waterfront Park

The Cult

Saturday, Sept. 12, 8.00 p.m. House Of Blues

Experience the variety of arts the Boston offers through a festival featuring the Boston Ballet and Opera Boston amongst many other performances and events.

For only $29.00 - $39.00 go to the House of Blues to see The Cult, a great Heavy Metal Band.

What's going on at Brandeis?

Brandeis Scavenger Hunt Saturday, Sept. 12, 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 .a.m. Shapiro Atrium Come with your friends to the Shapiro Campus Center to have an adventure around campus. Sign up at the Department of Student Activities.

Commemoration of 9/11 Friday, Sept. 11, 12:10 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. Behind Usdan Take a moment to remember September 11th with the Interfaith Chaplaincy and the Student Union.

Unless otherwise noted, photos are from an internet source

Hoot Comic Strips Sleazy

By Matt Kupfer