The Justice, December 11, 2018

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The Independent Student Newspaper Volume LXXI, Number 13

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B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

‘PATIENCE IS OUR JAM’

BRIEF Finkel wins vice presidency by slim majority, Ashley elected treasurer Members of the Brandeis community elected Aaron Finkel ’20 as vice president and Adrian Ashley ’20 as treasurer of the Student Union for the Spring 2019 semester. The Union held a special election yesterday after announcing Vice President Benedikt Reynolds ’19 and Treasurer Jerry Miller ’18 will resign at the end of the semester.

Finkel currently serves as the senator to the class of 2020 and is the chief strategist to the Union’s Executive Board. As vice president, he plans to focus on accountability and productivity within the Union, per his platform. He will also focus on establishing a set of common goals and values for the Senate, and will work to cultivate partnerships with the administration, Finkel told the Justice.

“Nothing has honored me more than the willingness of my fellow students to put their faith in my plan for turning around the Student Union,” he added after the election results were announced.

Finkel beat out a sea of six other candidates: Steven Luo

’21, Guillermo Caballero ’20, Alex Chang ’22, Vidit Dhawan ’19, Aaron Finkel ’20, Richard Kisack Jr. ’21 and Nakul Srinivas ’21. Out of the 1,116 students who participated in the election, Finkel received 40.23 percent of the vote, with Guillermo Caballero ’20 trailing as a close second with 37.19 percent.

Ashley ran unopposed and won 833 votes, or 74.51 percent.

He currently serves as an assistant treasurer and director of programming. As treasurer, he hopes to make the treasury process “more transparent and more straightforward for club leaders,” per his candidate bio.

Ashley also plans to implement a clearer training process for club leaders, create how-to videos for submitting forms and continue holding P-card office hours every day if possible, he told the Justice. “I am really excited about all of the challenges that running the treasury branch poses,” he added.

—Nakul Srinivas is a staff writer for the Justice.

—Natalia Wiater

TECHNOLOGY

Student-developed app debuts to rave reviews ■ The Branda app provides

users with information on laundry machine use, Branvan locations and more.

By LIAT SHAPIRO JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Branda, a mobile application created by Brandeis students for the University community, launched on Thursday. According to the Branda website, it is a “two-sided platform” connecting Brandeis students with essential campus services.

Students can log into the app using their Brandeis email. Users can check the hours of dining facilities, the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center and the library; find major campus events on a calendar; and navigate campus with an integrated Google Map. Other features include the ability to read BrandeisNOW articles, track and reserve the Branvan, and see if dryers and washers are currently in use in their residence halls. Pressing the “Campus Emergency” button brings the Brandeis Public Safety Emergency line on-screen and ready to dial.

The Branda Terms and Conditions state that the Branda Team is “doing [their] best to make sure

that our app is working and helping you, but we provide it as-is and don’t make any promises about anything that it can do.” For example, the laundry machines use the manufacturer's network, making it possible for the Branda laundry tracker to be inaccurate.

The idea for the app began in April 2018, when Benjamin Segal ’20 realized that the inability to find information quickly about campus resources could be solved with a phone application. As Segal said in an interview with the Justice, “It’s okay to complain as long as you take an action.”

Segal called on two friends, Sam Stern ’20 and Anat Kleiman ’20, to begin brainstorming with him.

Eventually, the Branda Team, as they call themselves, expanded to include seven current Brandeis students. Segal, Stern and Kleiman are the app developers, while Reese Farquhar ’22 and Ash Taber ’21 serve as web developers, and Aseem Kumar ’20 and Brandon Musto ’20 act as business coordinators.

In an interview with the Justice, Stern said that having seen many “quality-of-life issues” around campus, he chose to join the team when Segal offered him the chance. He continued, “I know a lot of us in

See APP, 6 ☛

Waltham, Mass.

YVETTE SEI/the Justice

MAKING THEIR VOICES HEARD: Alina Sipp-Alpers ’21, the Brandeis Labor Coalition coordinator, said that the rally outside the Bernstein-Marcus administrative building demonstrated that the librarians “would not back down until they were given a contract.”

After rally, Univ. offers new Librarians’ Union contract ■ Members of the Brandeis

librarians had the students’ support and that they would not back down until they were given a contract,” she wrote. In the same email, SippAlpers described the rally as “a clear example of the people exerting their power, and how much of a difference it makes.”

Sipp-Alpers, who spoke at the rally, told the Justice in an interview on Tuesday that the librarians’ union representative reached out to her for helping to organize the rally with the student group. Sipp-Alpers said she thought the rally would make a difference in the negotiations because “the administration hates to see that students care about this kind of stuff,” she said. “They want students to say that they love social justice, but they don’t want them to say, ‘Okay, but when you do something bad, we’re going to call you out on it.’”

The BLC has worked to support the union in other ways than just helping with the rally, Sipp-Alpers said. She said that they collected over 70 student testimonials discussing how much they appreciate the librarians, as well as letters of support signed by the Brandeis Union of Graduate Student Workers and the Part-Time Faculty Union.

“Brandeis Labor Coalition seeks to just support the unions and the workers on campus in any way that we can,” Sipp-Alpers said in the same interview.

Students not affiliated with the BLC also showed up for the rally, Sipp-Alpers said. “It’s always great to see that it's not just our members

Librarians’ Union ratified their contract with the University on Monday.

By GILDA GEIST JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

After eight months of negotiations, the Brandeis Librarians’ Union voted to ratify their contract with the University on Monday, according to Brandeis Labor Coalition coordinator Alina Sipp-Alpers ’21 in a Monday email to the Justice. The vote came just days after the BLU and BLC held a rally outside of the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Building last Tuesday to advocate for a fair contract. The BLU is represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 888 and has been negotiating with the University since June 2018.

According to Sipp-Alpers, “the only step left is for both sides to officially sign the contract.” In the contract, “the staff got the raises they demanded, and the university agreed to use gender neutral language in the contract for the first time,” she said in the same email.

The librarians’ previous contract was originally set to expire on June 30, but had been repeatedly extended by the University, according to Sipp-Alpers.

Sipp-Alpers said the BLC and the BLU attribute their victory to Tuesday’s rally. “We believe that the university finally understood that the

who care about this,” she added.

Librarian, union steward and member of the negotiating team Aimee Slater said in an interview with the Justice before Monday’s vote that there were only a few remaining points of contention in the negotiation process that they were waiting for before signing the contract. “We have just a few things left that we seem to not be able to come to agreement on,” she said. “I think that to a certain extent the University is sort of hoping to wait us out, but we’re librarians, so patience is our jam.”

Digital Literacy Specialist and BLU Action Team Member Esther Brandon also helped organize Tuesday’s rally. In an interview with the Justice before Monday’s vote, she emphasized that she thought it was important for the University to treat its librarians fairly in the negotiation. “Being in this union and being part of Brandeis is a huge part of my identity, and I love it here … but I want to be treated with dignity and respect when negotiating a contract,” Brandon said.

Slater explained how the University’s emphasis on a campus culture of social justice did not align with the University’s actions before the vote. “We love our students, we love our job, we love Brandeis,” she said, adding, “We just want [the administrators] to practice what they preach.”

Brandeis Director of Media Relations Julie Jette did not reply to a request for comment in time for publication.

Vinyl Tap

The Nutcracker

Alt-right posters discovered in East Quad

 How far has Basement Records come in four years?

 The Brandeis Ballet Club put on its annual holiday production.

By NATALIA WIATER

By VICTOR FELDMAN

By LEAH SAMANTHA CHANEN

NEWS 3

Activists often come from places of privilege

By TAFARA GAVA

FORUM 11

Second straight loss for the women YVETTE SEI/the Justice

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ARTS 18

By JEN GELLER

COPYRIGHT 2018 FREE AT BRANDEIS.

SPORTS 16

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018

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NEWS

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS SATURDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

SENATE LOG

BRIEF Hazmat crews respond to Charles River oil spill, caused by leak from drainage system

Committees reflect on semester’s accomplishments after senators disband Swimming Club, vote for new executive senator Senators reflected on their accomplishments in the final Senate meeting of the semester. The meeting began with a motion to dissolve the Swimming Club. Senator-at-Large Noah Nguyen ’21 explained that last fall, the club went on probationary status and was granted a second probationary term in the spring after failing to meet the requirements for club funding in the first term. The second probationary term ended on Oct. 3, Nguyen said, during which the club again failed to meet the requirements for Student Union funding. The motion to dissolve the club passed unanimously, by a vote of acclamation.

Then Vice President Benedikt Reynolds ’19 reminded senators to vote in Monday’s election for the next vice president and treasurer. He also announced that Executive Senator Andrea Deng ’21 will need to take time off from the Union next semester due to health reasons. In an executive session near the end of the meeting, senators elected Class of 2019 Senator Kent Dinlenc to replace Deng as executive senator for the coming semester.

Senate Services and Outreach Committee Chair Aaron Finkel ’20 said his committee has been successful this semester. In addition to making the Turkey Shuttles the least expensive they have been in the University’s history, the Services and Outreach Committee was able to help start the LimeBike oncampus bike-sharing initiative. He also mentioned shuttles being run between Logan International Airport and the University at the end of winter break.

Senate Dining Committee Chair Leigh Salomon ’19 brought up the committee’s recent meeting that took place to brainstorm menu ideas for the spring semester. He said that students discussed foods they liked for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as dishes from different cultures they would like to incorporate into the menu next semester.

Health and Safety Committee Chair Josh Hoffman ’21 said that he was unhappy with the progress his committee made this semester, partly due to its low membership. He highlighted his difficulties working with the Brandeis Counseling Center and the Student Sexuality Information Service.

Hoffman also said that he asked the Department of Community Living to put up lights in the “pit” between East Quad and the Intercultural Center, but that DCL has not yet responded.

In her report, Massell Quad Senator Kendal Chapman ’22 detailed some logistical information for Union members regarding the Midnight Buffet, which will begin at midnight on Wednesday. Senator-at-Large Richard Kisack, Jr. ’19 added that there will also be a massage day for students this week and reminded students to take care of one another during final exams.

Finkel thanked the Union for all of their work for Midnight Buffet and praised Chapman for her contributions and Dinlenc for his work on the t-shirts.

He closed off by saying that although the Senate faces bumps in the road, those obstacles can be fixed.

—Jen Geller

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS n A News photo caption incorrectly stated that the Family Dinner Night took place in Skyline Commons. The dinner took place in the Intercultural Center. (Dec. 4, Page 2) n A News article incorrectly stated Aaron Finkel ’20 is the executive senator on the Student Union. He is the Chief Strategist on E-Board and Class of 2020 Senator. (December 4, Page 6) n A News article incorrectly spelled a Brandeis archivist’s name Margaret McNeal. The correct spelling is Maggie McNeely. (December 4, Page 3) The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Send an email to editor@thejustice.org.

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ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

Brandeis Hillel hosted a Hanukkah celebration for the Brandeis community, complete with glow sticks, dancing and doughnuts, in the Mandel Atrium on Saturday night.

An oil spill on the Charles River on Wednesday, near Shaw’s Supermarket, brought hazmat crews to the scene. The Waltham Patch reported in a Dec. 6 article that a passerby noticed what appeared to be an oily substance leaking into the river and called 911 at 4:10 p.m. The oil was later determined to have leaked from the drainage system, piping and manholes in Waltham.

Waltham Fire officials erected booms and dikes to contain the leak, the Patch article noted. In less than half an hour, hazmat crews arrived to provide additional assistance.

Waltham officials worked together with contractors and government officials to determine the source of the oil. The Patch quoted Waltham Fire spokesman Lt. Scott Perry as explaining that the hazmat teams “put protective measures in place and from there the [Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection] took over the investigation.” He characterized the process as “a joint effort to figure out where this is coming from.”

A Dec. 6 NBC Boston article announced that Massachusetts DEP officials traced the source to a nearby drainage system where oil was found in piping. On Dec. 7, EcoWatch quoted Charles River Watershed Association Rita Barron Fellow Lisa Kump as explaining that “the oil was contained and there was a hazardous barrel on site.” According to Ed Coletta at the Massachusetts DEP, quoted in this article, oil samples taken from a storm drain system located 0.2 miles upstream from the spill matched the samples from the spillage area.

Environmental contractors used heavy machinery to vacuum roughly 300 gallons of oil and water mixed together, according to the article.

This is not the first time oil has spilled into the Charles River in Waltham. A March 13, 2015 Wicked Local article reported on an incident when 4,000 gallons of cable oil polluted a frozen Charles River.

—Liat Shapiro

POLICE LOG MEDICAL EMERGENCY December 3—BEMCo treated a party who reported abdominal pain in Ridgewood Quad.

The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

December 5—BEMCo treated a party who was experiencing stomach pains in Shapiro Hall and the Area Coordinator on call was notified. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

December 6—BEMCo treated a party with a small laceration on their left ring finger in Stoneman Infirmary and Medical Center. The party signed a refusal for further care.

December 6—BEMCo treated a party with a possible allergic reaction to peanuts in Rosenthal Quad. The party signed a refusal for further care.

December 8—A party report-

ed flu-like symptoms in Usen Hall. BEMCo staff treated the party, and the Area Coordinator on call was notified. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

December 8—BEMCo treated a party with an injured right ankle at Goldfarb Library. University Police transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

December 9—University police received a report of a possible intoxicated party in the Foster Mods. Police checked the area and found two intoxicated male parties. BEMCo staff treated the parties and they were transported by Cataldo Ambulance to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

The Area Coordinator on call was notified, and a Community Standards Report was compiled on the incident.

LARCENY December 3—A party reported their wallet was stolen from their jacket while left within a common area in the Sachar International Center. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

DISTURBANCE December 7—Residents in Ziv 128 lowered their volume after University Police received a report of a loud party.

December 7—University Police received a report of excessive noise around the Charles River Apartments. They advised the residents to quiet down without incident.

MISCELLANEOUS SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES December 4—A staff member in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management received unusual mail items. Uni-

versity Police compiled a report on the incident.

December 5—University Police received reports of flyers placed around East Quad stating that undocumented people should be arrested. All found flyers were removed, and University Police compiled a report on the incident.

December 9—University police recorded a call reporting a possible party walking around the Foster Mods. University Police checked the area and determine the report was unfounded.

VANDALISM December 7—A party reported graffiti by the urinal in the men’s bathroom in the Shapiro Campus Center. University Police told Facilities to remove the the graffiti.

—Compiled by Natalia Wiater

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THE JUSTICE

‘PERMANENT EXHIBITION’

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NEWS

By JOCELYN GOULD JUSTICE EDITOR

ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

THE DIGITAL AGE: Nevet Yitzhak’s exhibit at the Bezalel Academy, “Permanent Exhibition,” is digital, reflecting how the Academy’s collection of artwork has changed to include more modern pieces.

Artist examines past and present of Israeli museum how the Bezalel Academy’s museum collection has developed over time.

By NAKUL SRINIVAS JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The story of exile from and return to a holy land is a timeless theme in Israeli art, but the artistic medium and style of Zionist representations have adapted to a technologically growing world, Israeli artist Nevet Yitzhak explained to the Brandeis community during her talk Thursday. The event was co-sponsored by the University’s Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Many of the audience members were students of the Fine Arts course “Palestinian and Israeli Art, Film and Visual Culture: Intersecting Visions,” taught by Prof. Gannit Ankori (FA), who also attended the event.

Yitzhak teaches classes in photography and videography at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel’s national school of art, which was founded in 1906 by artist Boris Schatz.

Yitzhak is an Israeli artist and has an exhibit in Bezalel’s museum. She started her talk by comparing Bezalel’s artwork at the time of its establishment to Bezalel’s current artwork.

According to Yitzhak, even at the time of its establishment, the style of art in the Academy’s museum was considered “old,” as it was “more 19th century than 20th century.” The mu-

seum displayed Jewish sculptures, Jewish paintings and replicas of Hellenistic sculptures. The artworks Schatz collected and displayed in the museum are “seen today as the beginning of Israeli art,” Yitzhak said.

Yitzhak said Schatz “was against modern art,” which at the time included fauvism, cubism and other types of abstract art. Ankori added that Schatz emphasized what he saw as the “European tradition,” particularly pre-modern and Baroque art, in the art he chose to display and teach his students.

The main goal of the artwork in Bezalel was to “make the bridge between 2000 years ago and today,” according to Yitzhak. Much of the art in the museum is based on Zionism in the 20th century, along with what life was like for Jews in those 2000 years between their exile from and return to the holy land. One exhibit in the museum, The Hall of Tears, represented the suffering Jews underwent in this diaspora, according to Yitzhak. In the middle of the hall, there is a pedestal on top of which a glass box rests, holding a “Torah scroll with Jewish blood on it,” per Yitzhak.

While this art connects Jews to their ancient past, the museum lacks Palestinian and Ottoman art produced during the diaspora, meaning that “different levels” of history have been “deleted,” Yitzhak said. In Bezalel’s early years, Muslims or Christians could not enter the school and museum of Bezalel, she added.

Today, the Bezalel Academy is very different, Yitzhak explained. Both the

form and content of the art in Bezalel today have changed from how it was when the museum was first established. No longer constrained to housing only Baroque art, the museum also holds Yitzhak’s exhibit, “Permanent Exhibition,” which is digital.

In it, large carpets are mounted on walls, and animated images are projected onto them. These depict Biblical stories and passages. One of the artist’s own works, which she showed the audience, read “Jerusalem I will never forget you” in Hebrew. In another piece, she hangs what look like china plates onto a wall. On these plates, the animated heads of Zionist figures are projected. These animated heads are responding angrily to Herzl’s proposal of the Uganda Congress.

This references the historical event in which Herzl proposed that Jews find a home in Uganda, an idea that many Zionists opposed. This debate is depicted in the conversation among various figures projected on the plates.

According to Ankori, Yitzhak’s work “melds East and West.” In another of Yitzhak’s works, she links Zionism to Persian mythology. One Persian story tells of an island ruled by women, in the middle of which lies a tree called the “vak vak” tree.

Instead of fruit, the tree bears heads of animals and people, which talk to each other. She decided to place the heads of Zionism on a digitally-created “vak vak” tree. This kind of incorporation of Eastern stories and modern art styles in Zionist art separates Yitzhak’s art from earlier artworks in the museum.

The Student Union’s Community Emergency and Enhancement Fund announced on Tuesday that it will fund four student projects for the 2018-19 academic year. This year’s projects are the recently launched Branda app, a graphic display for the Shapiro Campus Center, the treadmill desks in the Farber Library and a renovation of the Berlin Chapel.

The fund totals $250,000, with $100,000 designated for funding student projects, according to the Dec. 4 email announcing this year’s projects. The rest of the fund goes toward on-campus emergencies, such as when “a BEMCO car is not working or if the theatre sound system [breaks],” Tal Richtman ’19, a Union representative to CEEF, explained in an email to the Justice.

The Branda app provides students with a hub of information about student life on campus, including dining hall hours and the Branvan and laundry trackers. As Richtman explained, CEEF traditionally funds physical campus improvements but funded the Branda app this year because they “believe in its impact” for the University community. CEEF allocated approximately $21,000 for this project.

Executive Senator Aaron Finkel ’20 proposed the second project, installing an “easy-to-access television” in the Shapiro Campus Center to advertise community events. This is intended to be “a great resource for all students to learn about and participate in events on campus,” and will cost approximately $3,800, per the Dec. 4 email.

Christof Rindlisbacher ’19 suggested the third project, which will install treadmill desks in Farber and is estimated to cost $10,000, per the same email. Rindlisbacher explained that the idea for the project came from student feedback the Brandeis Library received. Students responded positively to the bicycle desks installed a few years ago and “wanted more alternatives: specifically … treadmill desks,” he wrote.

The project will initially purchase two treadmill desks and then decide if up to two more desks should be purchased, Rindlisbacher explained in an email to the Justice. The project will purchase Walkway Commercial Use Treadmill desks, which are designed to be quiet and whose speed is “only suitable for walking,” to avoid disrupting the study space,

he said. Installing the desks, which they hope to accomplish early next semester, will not decrease the amount of traditional study seating in Farber, as the preexisting desks will simply be moved to another area. According to Rindlisbacher, the news desks will be placed next to the study bicycles.

These desks are important because, according to Rindlisbacher, “There’s a lot of research that indicates that sitting for long periods of time is unhealthy, and [that] mild exercise helps people think.”

He also explained that he believes students should have different options for how and where they study, which the bicycle and treadmill desks address.

Finally, Alex Friedman ’19 proposed a project to use an estimated $18,000 to revitalize two spaces in the Berlin Chapel: the Rabbi and Cohen Studies, per the Dec. 4 email.

Friedman explained in an email to the Justice that these spaces “simply weren’t being utilized,” and that renovating them would be a way to “create space without building a new building.” Friedman described the studies as being “dungeon-y,” something the renovation is working to counter by “installing new, efficient, light fixtures, repainting and patching the walls, and replacing the floor and windows downstairs.” Additionally, the project will add board games, white boards and comfortable seating to the spaces, according to the Dec. 4 email.

This renovation is expected to be complete by the end of next semester, per Friedman’s email. They have scheduled most of the “heavylifting” for over the winter break, to minimize the disruption to students, Friedman explained.

Friedman said that this project will create “a blank slate, and I’m so excited to see what our student body chooses to do with it.”

With this renovation, Friedman hopes to recommit the student body to “the ongoing project of building community together” by “[fighting] back against loneliness and social isolation.” He also wants to demonstrate that the community will not allow sacred spaces “to be abused and neglected.” According to Friedman, this CEEF project is part of a larger effort to improve the Berlin Chapel.

With these four projects, the CEEF board approved all the proposals that they received, although Richtman clarified that the board did not necessarily allocate all of the funds that students requested.

The board has been changing its application dates and deadlines to ensure proposers have time to develop their projects fully, and the application will open in mid-March next year, according to Richtman.

BRIEF

Xenophobic posters discovered near East Quad A student found posters bearing alt-right rhetoric and symbols outside of East Quad last Wednesday night and reported them to a Community Advisor, who provided the Justice with a copy of the poster.

The text on the poster read, “Keep America American. Report any and all illegal aliens. They are criminals.”

The poster features the logo of the Patriot Front, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi and anti-immigration group. In their manifesto listed on their website, they claim “our culture and heritage are attacked from all sides.”

Similar Patriot Front posters which the group has posted pictures of on social media include a call to action, phone number and their website. One of the posters found on campus had “NOT WELCOME” written on it with black

marker.

In an email to the Justice, Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said three of the posters have been reported to Public Safety, but University Police have not yet identified who put up the posters. He also clarified that the posters were not authorized. The Department of Community Living must approve all posters that are put up in residence halls, and they can only stay up for a maximum of two weeks.

Only CAs are authorized to hang the posters.

After making an announcement over walkie-talkies, Area Coordinator Josh Adlerman sent out a text to the CAs on call that night notifying them of a flier containing “aggressive and offensive language.”

He directed them to do a full walkthrough of the area in which it was found, and if they found anything,

3

CEEF board announces four community improvement projects

treadmill desks in the library and Berlin Chapel renovations.

■ Nevet Yitzhak explained

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018

STUDENT UNION

■ The projects include

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to “please take a picture, note the location, and follow up with [him] about it. Then remove the posting and destroy it.”

“Unfortunately, such postering by outside groups looking to provoke is not uncommon on college campuses,” Callahan wrote in a Dec. 6 email to the Brandeis community. University Police will be on heightened alert due to the nature of the group associated with the posters, he added.

In a June 28 article, the New York Times reported that “white supremacist groups are increasingly trying to use propaganda like fliers and posters to spread bigoted messages on college campuses.”

The Anti-Defamation League found that 292 incidents of white supremacy propaganda occurred last year.

—Natalia Wiater

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THE JUSTICE

FINDING COMMON GROUND

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NEWS

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Professor shares development of personal faith

discussed how different life experiences changed his relationship to Judaism.

By MAURICE WINDLEY JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

YVETTE SEI/the Justice

FINALS STUDY BREAK: Nathan Inkateshta ’19 created canvas paintings as others made tissue-paper stained-glass art.

Paint night teaches students about Jewish, Islamic art

■ Common Ground hosted

the event at which Prof.

Suleyman Dost (NEJS) and Adina Scheinberg ’21 spoke.

By ECE ESIKARA JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Common Ground hosted a paint night on Thursday for members of the Brandeis community to make and learn about Islamic and Jewish art. Common Ground is a studentrun club whose mission is “to unite Brandeis students for the purpose of understanding Judaism and Islam as complex religions with a lot of similarities and differences.” Its slogan is “together we can help everyone gain better knowledge of two commonly misunderstood religions,” according to their Facebook page.

The paint night was organized for students to relieve finals stress and to explore the similarities and differences in art in the two religious communities. The night started with Amna Ahmed ’19, the co-president of the club, introducing the materials that the participants would use.

Tables in the Usdan Student Center’s International Lounge were divided in half for canvas paintings and tissue-

paper stained-glass art.

After attendants chose their tables, Prof. Suleyman Dost (NEJS) gave a brief talk about art in Islam. He explained that in the past, there were human figures in Islamic art, but it was rare. The Islamic art that we see today is devoid of animal and human figures for the purpose of preventing the deification of these figures.

“It looks like after a while they thought that the best way of representing God and the divinity in general in art would be through geometric images,” he said. He explained that Muslims believe that “art is there to show the word of God and its orderliness. And what is more orderly than mathematics itself? Than geometry itself?”

Because of this view of art, Muslim artists painted roses to symbolize the Prophet Muhammad, according to Dost. He also spoke about how Muslims embraced early Greek philosophy and the geometric and mathematical teachings of Plato and Aristotle to represent art “as the imitation of the order of the universe.”

After Dost’s lecture, Nathan Inkateshta ’19, Common Ground’s other co-president, talked about Jewish art. According to Inkateshta, images were widely used in Jewish art around and after the second temple

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CAMPUS SPEAKER

■ Prof. Barry Shrage (HRNS)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018

period, which “lasted between 530 BCE and 70 CE, when the Second Temple of Jerusalem existed,” but usage of human figures declined throughout the Middle Ages. Additionally, he explained that usage of Hebrew calligraphy was common in Jewish art, just as the usage of Arabic calligraphy was common in Islamic art.

Adina Scheinberg ’21, treasurer of Common Ground, said in an interview with the Justice that the club held a lot of smaller dialogue sessions before, with specific topics “like prayer or religious texts or public expressions of faith.” She added, “I was particularly excited to have this event because it is comparing the cultures of Judaism and Islam and talking about the ways they are similar or different.”

Ahmed explained in an interview with the Justice that the event’s purpose was “to bring people together to connect over something that we value.” She added that she thinks the artwork that the participants created will help people “remember that there have been similarities in art in Judaism and Islam in history, but there are also ways that two art forms are unique in [the] ways that they have been used by both communities to make statements about what their religions are.”

In an effort to ease tensions before finals week, the Department of Religious and Spiritual Life hosted its final multifaith dinner of 2018, inviting Prof. Barry Shrage (HRNS) to speak to members of the Brandeis community about his religious journey and spiritual way of life.

Shrage is a professor of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program, a program dedicated to preparing future generations of Jewish leaders in professional organizations, according to the organization’s online website.

The dinner discussion began with Shrage discussing his emergence into his spiritual journey. This was followed by a question-and-answer session from the audience, through which the members were able to understand more about Shrage’s thoughts regarding maintaining pride in one’s religion and keeping faith.

Shrage asked audience members about their religious affiliation, focusing particularly on agnosticism.

He noted that in a general survey of religious life “40% of people said that they are not sure [if they believe in God].” He believes that questions regarding “what God do you believe in, and what is the nature of that God” are “malleable concepts.”

He connected this dissonance in beliefs to the ideas that Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik explains in his book “Lonely Man of Faith,” where Soloveitchik explains that “the Bible offers two accounts for the origin of man.” He summarized these within the conjecture of two Adams, each one representing different ways of life in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, respectively. One Adam is set by God to become the “creative humankind,” and the second is meant to be “a spiritual seeker” and to learn his own destiny. Shrage used this to acknowledge the idea that God may not be a single entity, which he connected to the uncertainty of agnosticism.

Returning to his own life, Shrage

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explained how he was introduced to Judaism. After growing up in the 1950s and being forced by his parents to go to synagogue, he explained that he could not intentionally skip, as he was Jewish and therefore required to attend. In response, his parents sent him to a Jewish day school to “save” him from his “apostasy,” or abandonment of his religious beliefs.

He shared that his most significant memory of the day school came from “remembering a picture of the spirit of God floating over the water,” which he sees as a “simplistic” representation of the God that created the world.

That image stuck with him as he continued on to Bronx Science High School, a specialized high school within which his faith was challenged. He explained that on his first day of class, his teacher asked how many of the students in class believed in God. A single individual, Marlene, was able to stand strong and declare her faith. Shrage acknowledged that prior to the Six Day War of 1967, the third Arab-Israeli war which resulted in the foundation of the two-state solution involving Israel and Palestine, this act was significant because his friend was the only individual who voiced her beliefs.

He also shared that “in addition to the aftermath of the Six Day War, the Black Power Movement was significant in restoring pride in Jewish people” because “it meant we could all be who we were and be proud of who we were.”

The Black Power Movement was a socio-political movement created to advocate for racial pride, selfsufficiency and equality for African and African Americans. The movement also paved the way for other racial and religious groups, such as Jews, to acknowledge pride in their culture and ways of life. As a crucial part of Shrage’s journey, this movement helped him make peace with the Jewish heritage he connected with, he explained.

Moreover, Shrage explained that after applying for a scholarship that required him to work with the Jewish community, he felt “responsible for the Jewish people and felt closer to the Jewish people.” This reinforced his image of God over the water and further cemented his faith.

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SUSTAINABILITY

Univ. to add more LED lights on campus ■ After successfully installing

LED lights in the SCC, the University set aside new funds for renovating other buildings.

By LIAT SHAPIRO JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Following the success of the Shapiro Campus Center’s lighting efficiency project, the University has dedicated $2.5 million to increase the number of buildings on campus that will receive LED lighting upgrades, according to a Nov. 15 email from Finance and Administration. This new initiative will contribute to the institution’s effort to reduce its carbon footprint and thereby reach a 15% re-

duction over 2015 by 2020, a goal set by the University as part of its 2016 climate action plan.

Over the summer, the University replaced the SCC’s lighting with LED lights. According to a Dec. 6 Marketwatch Article, the University worked with Energy Source, a division of Revolution Lighting Technologies, to implement the SCC lighting efficiency project. This renovation is expected to reduce the University’s annual lighting costs by 78%, according to the MarketWatch article. The article also quoted Energy Source CEO Tim Blanchard saying, “we are proud to work with Brandeis, providing comprehensive ... services and industry expertise to exceed their project goals.”

In an email to the Justice, the University’s Manager of the Sustainability Programs Office Mary Fischer noted that, to date, the University has saved 50,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity with the SCC lighting project, which is the equivalent of “6 average U.S. homes’ electricity-use for one year.”

Noting the success of the SCC program, the University recently allocated funding to do the same retrofitting in other buildings. The first three buildings that will be renovated after the SCC are the Hassenfeld Conference Center, the Goldfarb Library and the Usdan Student Center. These buildings were chosen based on what Fischer described as a “high-level lighting study done of

nearly the entire campus a year ago.”

The study identified target buildings based on cost of updates, current types of lighting and energy savings potential.

According to a Nov. 15 InBrief email from the Office of Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, the International Business School, Carl J. Shapiro Science Center and Village Residence Hall are also included in the list of potential target buildings.

Fischer explained the process of the SCC’s lighting changes. All building-related decisions were based on the previously mentioned lighting study. Then, the University needed to find a firm — Energy

Source — to help with logistics. After collaborating with the contractor to create detailed analysis and designs, building-specific recommendations were identified and drawn. Lastly, the revisions themselves were implemented. The planned renovations will follow this same process.

According to Fischer, the building that will be renovated the soonest is the Hassenfeld Conference Center.

Currently, the University is working on finalizing recommendations.

It is expected that the recommended renovations will be carried out over winter break, per Fischer’s email.

Meanwhile, the University is still in the planning stages for both the Goldfarb Library and the Usdan Student Center’s renovations.

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APP: With Union backing, Branda application thrives CONTINUED FROM 1 the [Computer Science] department want to do something good for our communities, and this app and the issues it addresses are wholly within our power.”

Farquhar had a similar reason for joining the team. He told the Justice, “Even before I came to Brandeis I saw that the Brandeis technology was not at the same level as some other universities.” He explained that he “came to Brandeis inspired to learn how to improve this facet of the University.”

Segal explained that the programmers began developing the user interface in April 2018. The team spent June and July “integrating with Brandeis services and programs.”

Over the summer, the team sent out a survey to determine which issues were most important to the student body. According to Segal, the team “used the survey results, talked oneon-one with students and administrators and assessed the campus climate to decide what to prioritize.”

Stern said the feature that gave the app developers the most problem was integrating “the information coming in live” from the Branvan tracker “with the map data that we

already had to make something that people could use in a meaningful way.”

Both Segal and Stern also emphasized how Profs. Jordan Pollack (COSI) and Antonella DiLillo (COSI) supported the Branda Team.

The Student Union also supported the initiative, as the Community Emergency and Enhancement Fund awarded the team approximately $21,000 for the app, according to the Brandeis University Student Union’s CEEF webpage.

As of Dec. 8, the Google Play Store reports Branda as having a five star rating with over 100 downloads.

The Branda website also includes testimonials. Max Meier ’20 wrote, “Branda is a great way of weaving together the various necessities of a Brandeis student. It allows students to have every aspect of the University’s resources at their fingertips and circumvents all the annoying issues of having to use many different web pages.”

According to Stern, his friend and CEEF Board member Tal Richtman ’19 came up with the name “Branda.” The popular Amazon device “Alexa” served as inspiration. In this way, Branda was born — your personal assistant at Brandeis.

7

DINING

Students, Dining Committee discuss spring 2019 menu JUSTICE EDITOR

Students and Brandeis Dining Services staff met to discuss menus for the resident dining halls for the spring 2019 semester at the final Senate Dining Committee meeting of the semester on Wednesday. According to Operations Director Stan Park, this meeting gave attendees an opportunity to express their wishes regarding menus for the upcoming semester that will be put together over winter break.

Park told the attendees that Sodexo menus follow four-week cycles.

After four weeks, the menus repeat.

When food items run for the first time, Sodexo staff do not know how many customers will take each item.

This way, after the first time food is served, predictions can be made as to how many people are going to eat the food item when it is served again four weeks later.

Menu items can be very popular the first time that they are served, but then there is a drop-off in popularity the next time it is served, according to Park. Students enter with high expectations, which means that the Dining staff have to be very careful, because if students have a bad experience, they may not take that food item again, he added.

Students went through several categories of food items — beginning with breakfast, lunch and dinner — and shared items they like that are currently served and those that they would like to see served in the future. For breakfast, students liked English muffins, hash browns and egg and cheese croissants, among other foods. Suggestions for new items included huevos rancheros and breakfast burritos. Several students expressed their concern of the breakfast cereals served in the dining halls: They want to see a larger variety and some less sugary cereals. One person pointed out that

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ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

By JEN GELLER

YVETTE SEI/the Justice

●

Prof. Barry Shrage (HRNS) discussed Jewish pride and the decline of belief in God at the final multifaith dinner of 2018, hosted by the Department of Religious and Spiritual Life.

the Stein, students and staff discussed the food items they most wanted to see.

Club Cantonese hosted its annual cultural show and charity event, Jook-Sing, which showcased cultural and artistic performances for the Brandeis community on Friday night.

NEWS

‘WHAT GOD DO YOU BELIEVE IN?’

■ At a Wednesday meeting in

JOOK-SING

●

besides the four sugary cereals in the non-kosher section of Sherman Dining Hall, there are few sugary options in the MyZone station and the kosher section.

Regarding the difficulty of knowing whose omelette is ready at the breakfast omelette station, attendees suggested that toothpicks and pieces of paper be used to identify different students’ meals.

In terms of lunch, sweet potato fries were a favorite among the group, along with waffle and curly fries, salmon and sushi. For dinner, students highlighted their support for carving stations, salmon and different types of macaroni and cheese.

Park explained that he considers dinner to be more of a leisure time for students to sit and relax — unlike lunch, when students run between classes.

In an interview with the Justice, Senate Dining Committee Chair Leigh Salomon ’19 said that per students’ previous requests, salmon has been served more this semester.

When lobster and shrimp were suggested by one student, General Manager Andy Allen said that this would not possible, because of the commitment to staying away from pork or shellfish from a kosher standpoint.

The committee also discussed other categories — Mexican, Asian, Italian and Indian. According to Park, these are the four types of foods that, according to his research, are the hottest trends in food right now.

For Mexican food, students shared their desire for empanadas, fajitas and carne asada, among others. For Asian food, which combined Chinese, Japanese and Thai cuisines, participants expressed a desire for foods like General Tso’s chicken, Mongolian beef and pho. Students named chicken parmesan, ravioli and penne alla vodka as desired Italian foods. Indian foods requested included naan bread, chicken tikka masala and samosas.

Park said many students like display cooking, because they can see their food made and the ingredients that go into it. However, he noted that these food items tend to be timeconsuming to make. He cited the

create-your-own pizza bar that was in Lower Usdan in spring 2018. Not including the time it took students to pick their toppings, “the cooking time on that [pizza] was six minutes,” Park said. Dining staff have to weigh if students would rather wait or have display cooking. One student then mentioned that the kosher side had a risotto bar in the past that fulfilled a similar desire.

The bar was self-serving, so students could see and pick out their toppings without taking as much time as other traditional display cooking methods.

Park mentioned that Marketing Specialist Emily Baksa has created a “‘We heard you’ logo” to highlight when “items that students suggest are served in the dining halls in the spring.”

At the end of the meeting, Park passed out papers with the food items set to be on the menu in spring 2018. Items include baked potato, burrito and risotto bars.

In his interview with the Justice, Salomon reflected on the success of this semester and shared his future goals for the committee. “I’m really proud of the communication channels we’ve kept open this semester, particularly on the MyDeis Facebook groups, and I think keeping them open should continue to be the committee’s number one goal moving forward,” he said, explaining that “[the committee] cannot create the change students want to see if they don’t talk to us.” He highlighted the success of this semester, stating that in a survey of the student population, they received 700 responses and student satisfaction with Brandeis dining increased by eight percent since the last time it was issued.

Salomon said that at the request of students, honey mustard is now going to be added in the dining halls.

Also, the MyZone section of Lower Usdan is now locked so that students who did not need those foods will stop stealing from the area and food will not run out as quickly. Salomon explained that now “you have to request to get card access there if you have a dietary restriction.”

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features

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018 ● FEATURES ● THE JUSTICE

just

VERBATIM | JAY-Z I’ve always believed in good music over bad music.

I believe in two sorts of musics. And the lines that separate us, I don’t believe in that.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1967, the Beatles’ record label Apple Records signed its first artist, Grapefruit.

Ariana Grande’s music video for “thank u, next” set a YouTube record with 829,000 simultaneous views.

Facing the music Avi Hirshbein ’19 grapples with his upcoming graduation.

YVETTE SEI/the Justice

STUDENT SOUNDS: Hirshbein founded Basement Records to help student artists reach beyond the Brandeis campus.

By VICTOR FELDMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

Avi Hirshbein ’19 could have pursued his passion for music the old-fashioned way. Upon arriving at Brandeis, he might have honed his musical abilities by taking lessons in the three instruments he taught himself to play: the piano, the guitar and the ukulele. If that had gone well, he could have joined the Brandeis orchestra or a

student ensemble. Instead, realizing the odds of fame and success as a musician were remote, he decided to create his own record label called Basement Records.

Basement Records was founded as a music label designed to help sign student artists and promote their work beyond the Brandeis campus. Four years ago, before Basement Records became a chartered club, Hirshbein told the Justice that he would work with everyone who came to

Photo Courtesy of Avi Hirshbein

PURSUING HIS PASSION: Avi Hirshbein utilized his love for music to create his own record label.

him, and that’s still true. But, he says, “They have to be proactive.They have to meet me halfway. They should ask themselves, ‘Is making music something that’s fun and fulfills me or is it something I can make a career out of?’” Under Hirshbein’s leadership, Basement Records has signed a variety of artists and musical groups, most notably Late Night Thoughts, a band created by Brian Rauch ’19 and Michael Harlow ’19.

Hirshbein considers the label one of his signature accomplishments at Brandeis, but with his graduation nearing, he’s handed over the reins to Bethel Adekogbec ’20.

He sat down for an interview with the Justice to talk about his efforts to contribute to the music scene on campus.

Reclining in a blue armchair in the SCC, he smiled, saying, “It’s been a grueling four years.” He explained that, at first, Basement Records was hard to get off the ground, saying, “Making people believe in your vision is sometimes the hardest part of the job.”

Once Basement Records became a chartered club, Hirshbein had to find a recording studio for the artists he had signed. He said, “The heart of any record label is the recording studio.” So, using funding for Basement Records, he teamed up with Mark Dellelo, the head of Getz Media Lab, to renovate the recording booth in the basement of the library. Today the renovated recording studio—complete with state of the art equipment—can be reserved by anyone at Brandeis, but it also serves as the home base Hirshbein had envisioned for Basement Records.

Last year, when Hirshbein wasn’t working on Basement Records, he was serving as the marketing chair on Campus Activities Board where, once again, he gravitated towards music. On CAB, he created Brandeis Entertainment for Aspiring Musicians, a digital talent search whereby the artist with the most votes is given an opportunity to open at SpringFest.

Last year, the winning artist was Late Night Thoughts. Impressed, Hirshbein quickly signed Late Night Thoughts and became their manager. He said, “It just felt like a home run.” In the spring of last year, Late Night Thoughts released an EP on Spotify titled “Moonlit Memories,” which

has garnered over half a million listens on the platform and helped the band secure performances in Boston and Cambridge.

Hirshbein plans to continue managing Late Night Thoughts once he graduates.

Last summer, Hirshbein worked for Warner Music in New York City, which led him to serve as the college representative for the company his junior year. “I’ve met so many people there who could potentially be mentors for me,” he said. While he’s not sure what lies in store for him after graduation, the success of Late Night Thoughts will impact whether he decides to work for a major record label, many of which are located in LA. “The band is making waves, and it’s gonna be hard to balance those two things. I’m not going all in on Late Night Thoughts just to drop them once I graduate.” Hirshbein alluded to some singles the band plans release soon as well as his plans to help them innovate.

“Good songwriting is not enough,” he said; “you have to stand out from the rest.”

Hirshbein is acutely aware that he’s diving into a uniquely cut-throat industry and that any criticism he has received at Brandeis will pale in comparison to what the so-called ‘outside world’ has in store of him. But, he says he feels confident, because his time working for Warner Music as well as running Basement Records has prepared him for the next step.

He has used the lessons from his business courses at Brandeis and applied them to his budding music career, buying books on music business to read outside of class.

“There have been a lot of times over the years where I’ve had to do it all on my own and build the brand of Basement Records.

There have been a lot of people who said negative things about the label, but I’m very proud and at least we accomplished something.” However, he admitted that the success of the label can be unnerving at times. “I suffer from imposter syndrome,” he said, explaining that sometimes he feels his success is undeserved. Ultimately, Hirshbein knows he can’t let his anxieties get in the way of “following [his] gut.”

Wherever his career takes him, Hirshbein wants to be a manager of a music label. He sees the job as, “the most dynamic and entrepreneurial endeavor.

It’s having a company where the product always changes and that’s exciting.”

THE JUSTICE ● FEATURES ● TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018

Photos by SAMMY PARK/the Justice SAMMY PARK/the BUSTLING LIBRARY: The two libraries onJustice campus LANGUAGE BARRIER: Philadelphia Sphas,preparare almost at fullThe capacity with students a team in ‘Thefinal Firstexams.

Basket’, sport ingdiscussed for next week’s Hebrew lettering on their uniforms.

The final(s) frontier

Students share their different study techniques

By SAMMY PARK JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

When Alex Chang ’22 studies, he is usually gulping down a black coffee in the Quiet Study Area, colloquially known as ‘the Dungeon’ around campus, while listening to Metallica. The Dungeon is where students are careful to be as quiet as possible, with some even monitoring the noise of their typing, so as to not disturb the silent environment.

Two levels up from the Dungeon is a more rambunctious crowd. In Farber Library, the classic Starbucks sounds of brewing coffee and blenders can clearly be heard above a mixture of school-related and recreationally-centered dialogue. These drastically different study environments signal the variation in how students best study.

As a Computer Science major, Chang says his studying usually happens right before his exams. And although he says it stresses him out “a little,” his usual studying technique is cramming.

In contrast to Chang’s technique of studying shortly before exams is sophomore Pallavi Goel’s method of comprehensive re-

view. First, Goel makes a study schedule.

Following her deadlines, which she makes sure are realistic, she then goes through all of her notes. Sometimes she even rewrites important sections by hand.

“I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on how to manage finals season well, but I definitely feel like I know how to manage my time better and have developed better study skills,” Goel, a potential Health: Science, Society, and Policy major, said. “During finals season, I have to prioritize [studying] over social events because [finals season] is a super important and a grade determining time for me. Overall, I think I am facing less stress than I did both finals seasons freshman year.”

Another HSSP student, Talia Gerard ’20, splits her study time between the libraries and the Shapiro Campus Center. “I like studying in the TV Lounge because there are less distractions than in the library. In the weekends, I like it especially because there is coffee nearby,” she said.

In addition to coffee, the junior usually snacks on an assortment of vegetables while listening to one of Spotify’s calming playlists while she studies. She starts the pro-

cess of studying by rereading chapters from readings her professors assigned. However, her method of rereading texts is not always her primary study tool. “Some classes are more based off of the lectures, so I focus on understanding and reviewing that material.”

During finals season, it is not uncommon to see laptops open in the dining halls, with students trying to maximize their study time. Many students like Gerard and Chang study while listening to a variety of music.

However, Gloria Kebudi ’19, studying Business, says she cannot study with music.

She is often in the Dungeon long before any of her final exams, studying purposefully in advance. “Start early to study. I learned this pretty late but once you start to study early there is less stress and more time to be social during finals week,” Kebudi advised.

Because of the extreme silence that the Dungeon demands of its occupants, Kebudi intentionally chooses snacks that are quiet.

“I never can eat loud stuff because of the places I study in, so usually I go for Rolos, Sour Patches and Smarties,” she said. She treats herself during finals studying by

drinking milk with her Rolos, a chocolate candy with caramel.

Chang and Kebudi frequent the Dungeon to study while Gerard prefers the SCC, but Robbie Lewin ’22 says that his favorite study environment is his dorm room, where he listens to everything from classical musicians like Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to folkrock bands like The Lumineers. When asked if he is stressed out for his first round of college finals, Lewin replied, “Absolutely!”

Despite the emphasis on studying that dominates the discourse of how to prepare for finals, Goel says that a good night’s rest is crucial for a successful finals cycle. If she has a final in the morning, Goel tries to get to bed earlier than normal. Regardless of the time of her exam, Foel aims for at least five hours of sleep.

Similarly, Kebudi believes that seven to eight hours of sleep is an important step in her finals regimen.

From vegetables to Rolos with milk, students’ favorite study snacks vary as much as their preferred study environments. And with finals week quickly approaching, the campus is filled to the brim with studying students.

9

10 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018 ● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE

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Avraham Penso, Editor in Chief Natalia Wiater, Managing Editor Amber Miles, Senior Editor Jen Geller, Deputy Editor Zach Kaufman, Nia Lyn and Morgan Mayback, Associate Editors Jocelyn Gould and Sam Stockbridge, News Editors Victor Feldman, Features Editor Judah Weinerman, Forum Editor, Megan Geller, Acting Sports Editor Maya Zanger-Nadis, Arts Editor Yvette Sei and Andrew Baxter, Photography Editors Shinji Rho, Layout Editor Liat Fischer and Devo Meyers, Ads Editors Eliana Padwa and Lily Swartz, Copy Editors

EDITORIALS

Final exam period needs to be more accomodating Final exams are always a stressful time for college students, as it never seems like there is enough time to adequately prepare. This semester, finals begin on Dec. 13 and classes end on Dec. 11, giving students only one day to prepare for exams. This is worse than the fall 2017 semester, when classes ended on Dec. 8 and finals began on Dec. 12. Even though there was only one official “study day,” students still had time during the weekend between classes ending and final exams to study.

Now, students who have an assignment or final paper due right before the scheduled start of the final examination period have no real opportunity to dedicate their time solely toward preparing for their final assessment. Other schools, such as Yale University, have a week-long study period.

Similarly, Columbia University and Cornell University both have four days dedicated to studying, something that has been consistent throughout past academic years. Anything is better than the one day that Brandeis offers. This board suggests that the University give students at least four days — which can include weekends — to study, so students have time to properly prepare for their finals.

In order to make this change feasible, the academic year would have to begin earlier; for example, the first day of the semester could be on a Monday rather than a Wednesday or Thursday. This would not only accommodate the desire for a study week but also make up for the number of educational days missed at the beginning of the semester due to holidays. Some professors fail to properly account for the holidays and use the syllabus from the prior year.

Can’t postpone assignments However, this inadequate preparation leads to missed class days. This leaves the professor with two options: they can either reschedule lectures at a later date or just not teach the material at all.

Whichever option is chosen, students are at a disadvantage. If the school year were to start earlier, professors would have all of the time needed to complete their curriculum, and students would actually have the time needed to study or finalize papers or projects. Additionally, this would eliminate the need to try and fit as much material as possible into the last week of classes.

Another issue with the structure of final exams is the disregard for humanities students. Students who have three exams in a 24-hour period have the ability to reschedule an exam; however, there is no such support for those who might have three lengthy papers due in one day.

Both take a significant amount of time to prepare for and require special attention.

This board suggests that the University extend the same accommodations to the humanities, because papers often have their own set of complications and can be equally stressful as exams.

While this board acknowledges that additional days in a semester might pose a small increase in costs for the University — for housing and meals in particular — the potential benefits to student health far outweigh the minuscule cost increase. If the University truly cares about student health as it claimsy to, considering a longer study period would be a true demonstration of the proclaimed concern.

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Views the News on

The United States continues to mourn the passing of the 41st President of the United States, George H.W. Bush. President Bush was known for his service to the country, including roles as the U.S. envoy to China, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Vice President of the United States under Ronald Reagan. How do you think President Bush will be remembered?

Violet Fearon ’21 I think the worst time to assess a President’s legacy is right after they die. We all have a natural impulse to be kind and respect their grieving family that works against viewing history in an objective way. With that said, I think President H.W. Bush’s legacy will ultimately be morally gray. He fought bravely in WWII, had an enormous dedication to public service and raised taxes when necessary, even though it was politically unpopular. But he also ran incredibly racist campaign ads and failed to meaningfully address the AIDS crisis. While H.W. Bush was far from perfect, at the very least he was an experienced statesman who respected the gravitas of his office. The contrast with our current administration is a testament to fundamental changes in both the Republican party, and our political norms in general.

Violet Fearon ’21 is a staff writer for the Justice.

Trevor Filseth ’20

President Bush will be remembered as a capable statesman who dedicated his entire life to public service. For four years, he presided over a kinder, gentler nation than the one we have today; indeed, it can be said that he was the last president whose character was never attacked by the opposing party. His single-term presidency was among the most eventful in recent history. During it, the fall of the Berlin Wall led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The American-led liberation of Kuwait in 1991 is as close to a morally black-and-white situation as we’re ever likely to see in the modern world. And while he lost in 1992, his economic policies, particularly his strong and consistent support for NAFTA, laid the groundwork for a decade of economic growth. Bush’s legacy was far from perfect, but it deserves to be respected and celebrated nonetheless, and I believe it will be carefully examined in the years ahead.

Branda app is a step in the right direction On Dec. 4, a group of seven Brandeis students released the Branda app, a mobile application that “connects the students of Brandeis with essential campus services,” according to the app’s website. Its features include quick access to BrandeisNOW articles and the campus events calendar, a Branvan tracker, a laundry tracker, a campus map and an updated list of which dining locations are open at any given moment.

The release of the app is part of the Community Enhancement and Emergency Fund, which is managed by the Student Union. $100,000 of its $250,000 fund is dedicated to student-led initiatives that enhance the Brandeis community, according to its website. This is a valuable program for students, by students, and we commend the Union for continuing to support it. Additionally, this board appreciates the extended efforts of the undergraduates — Benjamin Segal ’20, Sam Stern ’20, Anat Kleiman ’20, Reese Farquhar ’22, Ash Tabe ’21, Aseem Kumar ’20 and Brandon Musto ’20 — involved in the development of the Branda app.

The news, hours, calendar and map features work well, and it is useful to have them all in one convenient mobile application. However, as Branda’s website explains, it is “a two-sided platform,” accessible to two or more different kinds of users (e.g. students, Facilities and Branvan drivers) and its two-sided aspects have generated mixed reviews. The laundry tracker, designed to display a list of available machines and the remaining time for the machines in use, is often inaccurate. Branda’s creators cannot be

More reliable and convenient faulted for this because they get their data from LaundryView, a source subject to the whims of the card swipe machines.

The shuttle tracker has a similar issue.

Although it is arguably better than Rider, if van drivers fail to activate their GPS systems, they will not be visible on Branda’s map, nor anyone else’s. What Branda’s developers can do, however, is include the Joseph’s Shuttle tracker, which is a widely-used service by students.

The app does have a number of user interface glitches, including an issue with the News tab; the slideshow does not make it clear which page the user is on because the indicator disappears. In spite of the problems, the app has and does everything its website (www.branda.app) claims and it is generally user-friendly and helpful. Branda also allows students to contact emergency services, as well as Facilities Services. Students can even snap a photograph of the broken object for Facilities Services and attach it to a work order via the app.

While the Branda app does include many useful features, there are additional features that we would like to see incorporated into the app. Branda could provide dining hall menus, weather information, WhoCash and points balances, emergency alerts, and University updates, to name a few. Many of these functions require their own apps, such as the Sodexo “Bite” app for dining hall menus. It would be far more convenient to include all of this information in the same app.

Trevor Filseth ’20 is a staff writer for the Justice.

Alex Friedman ’19 I have come to bury Bush, not to praise him. I know he’ll be remembered for his last words being “I love you” and happening to be President when the Soviet Union collapsed. I wish he would be remembered for his war crimes against the Iraqis, for his White House making jokes about gay people as they died of AIDS on the lawn in the tens of thousands, about how he ran a racist smear campaign to win his Presidential term, about how he abandoned a woman’s right to choose when Reagan asked him to run, how he backed down from fighting Reagan’s disastrous supplyside economics, which he had called “voodoo,” when it was politically expedient, how he pardoned every person involved in Iran-Contra, how he imprisoned 10,000 Haitian refugees in Guantanamo Bay. He may have died at 94, but the true tragedy is all the people who didn’t get to live that long because of him.

Alex Friedman ’19 is a double major in Politics and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, with a minor in Business.

Shoshana Finkel ’20

For a man so often memorialized as a big-picture strategizer when it came to foreign policy, George H. W. Bush made a substantial impact on the day-to-day lives of many Americans.

This is because of a civil rights law that he brought into fruition as President, and one that is so often taken for granted by new generations of Americans: The Americans with Disabilities Act. Before the ADA, businesses were able to turn away customers and employees with disabilities, institutions of higher learning could deny admission to students simply because their bodies or minds were different from the norm. Houses of worship, movie theaters, and museums didn’t need to build ramps or elevators if they didn’t feel like accommodating the 20% of the population with disabilities. President Bush Sr., along with other politicians from both sides of the aisle who cared about the quality of life and civil engagement of disabled citizens helped make accessibility the law of the land.

Shoshana Finkel is president of Brandeis Ba’note and the event director of the Brandeis Community Farm.

Photos: Violet Fearon; the Justice

THE JUSTICE ● FORUM ● TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11 , 2018

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Activists misunderstand the groups they’re fighting for

By TAFARA GAVA JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Present-day sociologists and internet activists are socio-economically divorced from the groups whose rights they claim to champion. Today, a lot of protests and activist movements are led by the Internet and privileged college graduates who use terms like ‘agency’ and ‘equity’, words that their professors and peers understand, but alas, not those minorities whose rights they fight for.

A lot of sociological scholarship is bleeding into the mainstream culture, and contemporary activists are using academic jargon to fight vague and ill-defined antagonists. An example of one of their popular terms is ‘White-Savior Complex.’ What is ironic here is how their term describes their relationship with the minorities they purportedly advocate for. African American journalist and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates has extended the term to ‘White-Savior Industrial Complex.’ He reasons that these activists, with the use of abstract language and sociological and linguistic theories, aren’t giving due diligence to the people they are fighting for. They aren’t acknowledging how the minority groups they’re advocating for often don’t have the ‘privilege’ to comprehend, let alone join their protests.

Peggy McIntosh, a women’s studies scholar at Wellesley College, coined the term ‘privilege.’

Privilege, the idea that some people benefit from unearned and largely unacknowledged benefits, is an idea that has definitely permeated popular consciousness.

It was one of McIntosh’s principal ideas in her treatise ‘White and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work In Women’s Studies.’ The beauty of McIntosh’s work is how it presents a very complex and abstract sociological theory with language that even high school and college students can comprehend.

The same noble intent is apparent in Charles Darwin’s 1859 work ‘The Origin of Species by the Means of Natural Selection.’ Darwin and McIntosh are specimens of ‘privileged’ writers whose works, despite their density and complexity, seek to communicate to an audience as wide as possible.

The idea for McIntosh, in particular, is to let people attest to their own personal experiences.

She quotes Adrienne Rich, a National Book Award-winning poet, the beginning of women’s studies, ‘Nobody told us we had to study our lives, [or] make our lives our study.’ McIntosh reads Reich’s line as a call to empowering minority groups. Her ultimate vision is for minorities

to hold up their own protest banners. She wants minorities like African Americans to be conscious and critical of the widespread effects of America’s history of slavery and segregation.

McIntosh, in a 2014 New Yorker interview with Joshua Rothman, speaks of personal testimony as the greatest form of protest. “The key thing is to let people testify to their own experience. Then they’ll stop fighting with each other,” she notes.

Here, her argument is that conflicting sides share their sides of the story with each other. A lot of emphasis is put on the phrase ‘testify to your own experience.’ McIntosh is asking everybody to reflect and relate how oppressive systems have affected their lives. This idea highlights a key element missing from today’s protests: the importance of the voices of those we are fighting for.

It is, therefore, condescending that some activists insist on speaking on behalf of minorities. Their reasoning is that minorities often feel ‘unsafe’ or ‘threatened’, and thus it is the activists’ prerogative as the ‘privileged’ to speak up for those who cannot. This rationale rests on a very problematic assumption: That minority groups are so paralyzed by fear they can’t speak for themselves. History teaches us otherwise. We need not look further than Boston’s old shipyards to recall the Boston Tea Party of 1773. The colonists were oppressed by the British Crown, and were asked to pay exorbitant taxes to a government that represented their needs poorly.

The demonstrators took matters into their own hands and wrecked one of the British East India Company’s ships, bringing about the American Revolution, the United States’ successful bout for independence.

In March 2017, National Book Award-winning novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie garnered much criticism from contemporary activists for her comments on the nature of a transgender woman’s experience of gender. In her reply to the backlash, she stated that the real reason why the public was outraged over her statement was because she hadn’t used the vocabulary that contemporary activists insist be used in these dialogues about race, gender, and sexuality.

“Had I said, ‘a cis woman is a cis woman, and a trans woman is a trans woman’, I don’t think I would get all the crap that I’m getting, but that’s actually really what I was saying. “But because ‘cis’ is not a part of my vocabulary – it just isn’t – it really becomes about language and the reason I find that troubling is to insist that you have to speak in a certain way and use certain expressions, otherwise we cannot have a

NIA LYN/the Justice

conversation, can close up debate. And if we can’t have conversations, we can’t have progress.”

The ‘language-orthodoxy’ that has gripped America’s left is based on the Sapir-Whorf theory, a theory developed by German anthropologists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf. They held the belief that the structure of a language affects its speaker’s worldview. Simply put: language determines thought. Therefore, contemporary activists reason that changing the way we speak about race, gender, and sexuality will ultimately result in change for the better, especially in regard to how these topics are conceived.

But this theory comes with a lot of shortfalls.

Firstly, Sapir and Whorf never did actually propose their hypothesis to the linguistics community. Decades later, in the late 1980s, a new school of linguists extensively examined the Sapir-Whorf theory.

The bulk of their findings indicated that language does influence some, but not all thought. Another reason to dismantle Liberal Speak is that it is a very pernicious form of fascism. It forces people to hold certain opinions which they may not entirely agree with. Liberal Speak narrows human vocabulary by offering a set of approved words that citizens can only use:

‘visually impaired’ instead of ‘blind,’ ‘vertically challenged’ instead of ‘short,’ ‘person of color’ instead of ‘black.’ The intention is indeed a noble one, as it seeks to address history’s wrongs.

However, wiping away the complete derogatory context of words that are used so ubiquitously may not be an effective way of resolving history’s traumas and wrongs.

We should look to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement as inspiration for how to better conduct protests. Ordinary citizens, such as Rosa Parks of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, made the world conscious of America’s segregationist policies through action, not through esoteric theories. Leaders as accomplished and intelligent as Martin Luther King Jr. knew this.

The ‘I Have A Dream’ speech is a paragon of what minorities can achieve should they receive the platform to advocate for themselves.

Dr. King’s speech still resonates today. His prose is simple but retains its emotional power.

Contemporary activists should study Dr. King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, and they should note that it is interested in neither sociological theories nor abstruse academic jargon. Moreover, they should note that it puts the people it is advocating for at the forefront.

Demagoguery has invaded the Student Union’s political scene

By KENT DINLENC JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Judging by the current state of affairs in Washington, it is safe to say that decorum in politics is dead. Whether you support the Trump administration or not, we can all agree that there are unwritten rules regarding the demeanor of a sitting president that have been disregarded entirely. We have just passed the second anniversary of Trump’s win this November, yet it feels like Americans have been trapped in his media circus for decades.

Admit it: we have all aged significantly. In order to keep men like Trump in check, we must venture forward in an orderly manner.

Some may despise bureaucracy, but it is a necessary cog in the machine of democracy.

This makes Trump the outlier in an otherwise civilized society.

As young adults transitioning into the workforce, we must embody this ideal of maintaining respect and restraint. There is no place in this world for any more aggressive antagonism. Trump’s callous behavior, rather than his ideas, have seeped into the Student Union. International Student Senator Linfei Yang’s ’20 campaign reflects a willingness to resort to a resourceful, persistent, and ultimately passive-aggressive obstructionism.

Would you consider his vice-presidential campaign, one plagued with weird imagery and lies, professional? Would you consider a man who vindictively waves fake “SUbranded” slippers in Senate meetings as a response to E-board asking him to wear shoes in the office professional? Would you describe a man with the additional Brandeis emails “piano@brandeis.edu” and “shit@brandeis. edu” as professional?

In the MyDeis 2019 and 2020 Facebook

groups, where Yang has somehow usurped admin privileges under the noses of over 1400 members each, he pushes his agenda. Whether it’s about the Rose Art Museum via The Hoot or preaching transparency that already exists in the Union, controversy follows him with every post. If the public gets too smart and publicly criticizes his decisions, he will disable the their ability to comment, as he has already done for his Hoot article.

He paints himself as the victim of vitriol when he is clearly the one instigating the conflict. With online responses like “thank u, next” and “yeah I’m literally Trump,” who can take what Yang says seriously anymore?

However, Yang is not the only evidence of populism and the toxic political environment in Washington creeping into campus. Class of 2022 Senator Alex Chang comes to mind as a worthy mentee. He seems to take after Yang, evident in Senate meetings and when both collaborated infamously on Chang’s piano initiative. I choose not to believe that someone is so naïve as to think they can behave with such persistently invasive in public on their own while being relatively new to this institution. It is unfortunate that Chang’s enthusiasm and potential in the Union is being so negatively affected.

Much like Trump’s administration, by controlling the narrative surrounding the senate’s Student Money Resolution, Yang and Chang were able to garner an image of stability and control of the situation with an onslaught of online posts and mass emails, when in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

Using these tactics and boasting a petition of 30 signatures out of a possible 900 first-years (merely 3%) that has since been coincidentally

deleted, they were able to purchase pianos to no one’s overwhelming demand.

Then came their vice-presidential campaigns. Using the image of “bullied senators trying to make a difference,” they were able to exploit the sympathy of others to get support. I’m disappointed in the community for thinking that valid criticism is the same thing as bullying. We live in a society that relies on debate and the discussion of ideas. We need to be able to criticize and refute what we do not agree with. Don’t worry about being a “bully” if you’re embarrassed by a ridiculous initiative.

“

It is unfortunate that Chang’s enthusiasm and potential in the Union is being so negatively affected.

Let’s return to the vice-presidential campaign for a minute. It clearly proved that populism is spreading to the public just as much as it is spreading to the individual. As I observe the race for vice president of the Student Union, I can’t help but draw some distinct parallels.

By the time this article gets published, we will know who won the election. But for now, didn’t this remind you of 2016? The two

clear front runners are Guillermo Caballero and Aaron Finkel. The former champions a fresh perspective for the government despite never having attended a single Student Union meeting, Senate or committee, while the latter is immensely experienced.

It was Finkel’s election to lose. I talked to people voting for Caballero and it seemed that a lot of his support was simply that “he isn’t Aaron Finkel.” Doesn’t this sound familiar?

Supporters want more representation in the Senate for marginalized voices, yet only 5 of the 21 senators this semester are white.

The Senate has an international student senator as well as two racial minority senators, one of whom runs the Social Justice and Diversity Committee. If Caballero wanted to put his valuable perspective to good use, he should have run for a senatorial position, not campaign to run the Senate as a whole with little Student Union experience.

Now, I’m not equating Caballero to Trump in any way ideologically. They could not be more different people. But, in this election, he fits the populist-shaped hole. And I’m not saying Finkel is the perfect candidate either.

He needs to prove himself as a strong leader with a backbone.

I know a lot of people don’t really care about the Student Union and feel that we don’t do that much, but we are a resource. We can enact change when people speak up because we offer direct communication with the administration, discounted transportation, and assistance with project ideas to improve campus life. We need to be aware that the toxic political climate has permeated our community, and make sure it won’t cloud our judgment enough to normalize it after we graduate.

The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018 ● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Having more options does not lead to happiness in every situation Andrew

JACOBSON REALITY CHECK

Apparently, the United States is experiencing a “sex recession.” This month’s cover story for The Atlantic documents how and why Americans are having less sex than ever before, and seeks to answer how this phenomenon could be possible.

In our liberal era, with access to potential sex partners easier than ever thanks to apps like Tinder, with taboos around sexual promiscuity falling and access to pregnancy and STDpreventing devices rising, how could it be that we’re actually spending less time in the bedroom?

The article cites many potential answers, from hookup culture to surging anxiety rates. What I want to talk about is one factor in particular that I believe is one of the most consequential: choice overload.

There are people who are so daunted by all the options, the author writes, that “they don’t make it off the couch.” In her interviews, “some people used the term paradox of choice; others referred to option paralysis (a term popularized by Black Mirror); still others invoked FOBO (“fear of a better option”).”

If technology has ushered anything into our lives, it’s more options — of things to buy, friends to text, partners to love. A recent Vox article discusses how this so-called option paralysis has driven not only indecision, but flakiness. The author writes, “None of my closest friendships were forged solely because we had so much in common or it was convenient. It was because we prioritized each other. When we had options — and there are always, always options — we chose each other more often than we didn’t.”

The notion of jettisoning constraints is appealing in America because it is part and parcel of freedom, and arguably nothing is more American than the pursuit of freedom. In a sense, commitments inhibit freedom. They prevent us from choosing other options. And what happens when we doubt that choice? We “flake” and move on. Is this true freedom, moving from one option to another? Or could it be that freedom actually does not entail navigating the endless varieties of cereal in the supermarket, or everlasting pages of every Amazon search?

Famously, there are two conceptions of freedom: positive and negative. The former constitutes a “freedom to” do what one pleases, and former is a “freedom from” external restraints or obligations. What our abundance of choices in America presents today is certainly the former: We can choose whatever we like. This, in theory, should prompt us to be more effective in choosing the option that best satisfies our needs and wants.

But of course, this is not always the case. People become overwhelmed by too many options. Until

HARRISON PAEK /the Justice

the 1990s, many psychologists held the view that more choice is a good thing, and has a positive correlation with happiness: The more choices, the more control and satisfaction people feel they have. In one experiment, scientists brought two sets of toddlers into a room. One set was given one toy, another set given several toys. The group given several toys demonstrated higher levels of engagement and satisfaction.

This was common wisdom in the field until Sheena Iyengar of Columbia University discovered that if you offer an exorbitant number of toys to the children — an entire room-full — they become totally disinterested and just stare out the window. What became known as “the paradox of choice” turned out not to not really be a paradox at all, just a bell curve.

In short, Iyengar found that “a larger choice set generates more interest; the smaller choice set generates more action,” according to Steven Dubner, host of the Freakonomics Podcast, in a Nov. 28 episode.

Iyengar replicated this type of experiment with Mark Lepper in 2000 in what became the famous “jam study.” In an upscale California supermarket, store employees set up a jamtasting display with 24 flavors. Anyone who tried a jam received a $1-off coupon to be redeemed on any flavor. On a different day, store customers saw the same stand, except with only six flavors.

What the psychologists discovered was that the larger display generated more tastings but the smaller one generated more sales.

These studies and others also show that those people who do make choices among larger sets experience less satisfaction than those who choose from a smaller array of options. A 2006 Harvard Business Review article tried to clarify the thorny relationship we have with choice as follows: “There is diminishing marginal utility in having alternatives; each new option subtracts a little from the feeling of well-being, until the marginal benefits of added choice level off.”

This notion is radical not only because it threatens to undermine our ability to choose lifepartners, but also the very viability of the free market.

The most fundamental assumption of the free market is that more choice, more trade, more specialization makes everyone better off, if only because each of our unique desires can be satisfied. If choice is, in fact, more accurately represented by a bell curve than a diagonal line up to the right, then customer-facing marketers better take notice.

One grocery store, Trader Joe’s, has a deep understanding of this phenomenon. While the average supermarket contains nearly 35,000 individual items, TJ’s carries only about 3,000 depending on the location. And their heeding of

customer psychology has paid off — Trader Joe’s has the highest sales per square foot of retail space in the supermarket industry by an impressive margin. According to Freakonomics’ Nov. 28 podcast on the chain, “A 2012 analysis estimated that Trader Joe’s sells just over $2,000 of groceries per square foot.” Whole Foods’ number totalled about $1,200, and Walmart was $600.

This extreme idea — keeping options limited in the era of gigantic supermarkets — has been a key ingredient in Trader Joe’s success.

So where do we go from here? We know what the world has to offer. We know that our access is abundant. And yet many of us are still unhappy, primarily, I think, because we don’t know what we want. Should we close our eyes, pick only the items closest to us on the shelf? I don’t think that will leave us feeling any more fulfilled.

What we can do — knowing that unlimited choice actually does limit us — is be mindful of our own brand and know exactly it is that we want. Often, I find that we know more about ourselves than we let on. So let us take the bounty of options we have as an opportunity — not to try what everyone else is trying but to step back momentarily into the silence, forget the 72 varieties of ice-cream and five-million career options, and design exactly the life it is that we want. It might just be the change we never knew we needed.

The left has yet to find its voice in the world of radio talk Judah

WEINERMAN CHATTERBOX

Shocking news: President Donald Trump gets made fun of in the media a lot. Crazy, right? Not like this is anything new, considering Trump’s been a pop culture punching bag for over three decades. If the concept of making fun of Trump on late-night TV was a person, it’d have three kids and two divorces by now.

Now that he’s president of the United States, we’ve got wall-to-wall media coverage dedicated to various refutations of his administration and his equally abhorrent partners on Capitol Hill.

While conservatives have enjoyed a monopoly on AM talk radio screamfests since Rush Limbaugh’s halcyon days in the Clinton ’90s, the newfangled format of podcasting proved to be a perfect match for the liberal outrage industry.

Among the ranks of West Wing-quoting liberal media resistors, few have the audience or clout of Pod Save America, the “no-bullshit” podcast that bills itself as “A political podcast for people not yet ready to give up or go insane.”

Pod Save America is the second podcasting child of ex-Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor. Having previously hosted the lamely-titled Keepin’ it 1600 for Bill Simmons’ The Ringer throughout the 2016 election cycle, Favreau and company used their newfound media clout among the #Resistance set to their advantage. After their beloved Hillary Clinton lost the election in stunning fashion to Trump, the hosts of Keepin’ It 1600 launched Crooked Media in Jan. 2017 in order to podcast

full-time. While the Crooked Media empire has since sprawled out, Pod Save America very much remains its crown jewel. Since its debut, Pod Save America has not left iTunes’ top 20 podcasts, and has racked up over two million dedicated subscribers, or as they call them, “Friends of the Pod,” per a Nov. 2017 New York Times article.

Based off the success of the show, Crooked Media has done several live podcasting tours.

Furthermore, the show’s guests are a real “who’s who” of the Democratic Party. Pod Save can boast Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Chris Murphy, Hillary Clinton and their old boss Barack Obama as “Friends of the Pod.” During the 2018 midterm cycle, almost any Democratic candidate looking for national exposure made an appearance on the show.

How does this spearpoint of Democratic resistance to the unmitigated awfulness of the Trump administration operate?

For all the hullabaloo, Crooked Media podcasts are almost painfully declawed. On the policy front, Pod Save America largely offers the same solutions as its ideological North Star Obama did during his eight years in office, many of which largely failed to generate any enthusiasm or longlasting change.

Favreau in particular has come out against nearly every single serious progressive proposal, stating his opposition to single-payer health care, the Green New Deal, a $15 minimum wage and prison reform. No one in the Crooked orbit is making any real suggestions for change, but instead simply whining about the unfairness of Republicans and their attached media lapdogs.

Speaking of Republican media lapdogs, right now is not a good time for Crooked. In recent weeks, we’ve seen a whole set of troubling revelations surrounding Tim Miller, Crooked Media’s resident Never Trumper and “Good Republican.” While Miller’s presence was always proof that the Pod Save boys couldn’t resist the

nonsensical “both sides” rhetoric that makes CNN unwatchable, they clearly should have conducted a more thorough background check on him.

Remember that hugely anti-Semitic Facebook operation where, as reported on Nov. 14 by the New York Times, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg hired a Republican ops firm to connect any criticism of the company and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to George Soros, and that of general right-wing canards about the “Jewish media?” Yeah, Miller was the head of that whole operation, and lied through his teeth about his connection to it. Nothing screams leader of the voice of progressive America quite like having one of your hosts be a corporate operative perfectly happy to team up with Nazis to save face for the rich, right?

For some perspective on the Crooked Media crowd, one only needs to look at a different leftwing comedy podcast that rose to prominence with Trump’s ascent, Chapo Trap House.

Compared to the White House bonafides of the Crooked Crowd, Chapo emerged from the strange corner of the internet known as “Weird Twitter,” where its founding hosts Will Menaker, Felix Biederman and Matt Christman had carved out a delightfully off-kilter niche for themselves.

Compare straight-laced Pod Save episode titles like “Every state is a swing state,” and “They’re coming for your health care,” to Chapo’s ironypoisoned “Condom Depot Presents: Fighting in the Age Of Horniness,” and “RIP Krauthammer 40K,” and you’ll get a sense of their respective tones.

Pod Save utilizes anecdotes about Obama kissing babies or that time that Hillary said something slightly brisk to Leon Panetta to highlight the rare moments of levity in politics, while Chapo does riffs on how Bill Clinton and Alan Dershowitz were in the flight logs of Jeffrey Epstein’s private sex crimes plane and why

The opinions expressed on this page are those of each article’s respective author and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Justice.

YouTube white nationalists are deathly afraid of soy and female video game characters to point out how idiotic and strange politics often are.

While Pod Save would have you believe that the goodness of the American political system is being corrupted by the Republican Party and its allies, Chapo would tell you that America’s neoliberal capitalist system is inherently dehumanizing and flawed.

In the Chapo playbook, neoliberal Democrats like the Clintons and Joe Biden are only superficially preferable to Republicans. The Chapo hosts instead offer a brand of democratic socialism closer in line to Jeremy Corbyn and Rosa Luxemburg than anything Obama ever did in office.

If you’d believe the Chapo hosts, Trump isn’t some unique blight on the American populace, but an unskilled moron who just so happens to enable the worst excesses of an already shamelessly genocidal and unhinged Republican Party. As Biederman once put it, Trump is just “a fat, orange baby rolling downhill in a barrel,” and might actually be the overall least evil member of his administration by the sole virtue of his boundless incompetence.

Chapo Trap House is just the most prominent antidote to the tedious neoliberalism of the Crooked Media universe. There’s plenty of great podcasts for those trying to save face in the Trump Hellworld, from Citations Needed, to Struggle Session, or even Slate’s Political Gabfest for some more centered fare.

If you really can’t stand Favreau and Lovett, there’s always Pod Damn America, a clever title that references Obama’s condemnation of his own pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and his overall failure to effectively use his mandate to impose real change on a deeply flawed country. At the end of the day, Pod Save America is selfimportant and wildly ineffectual, but the hosts are not bad people; they’re just bad podcasters.

THE JUSTICE ● SPORTS ● TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018

FENCING: Judges have six out of ten meets left CONTINUED FROM 16 a score of 23–4. The team’s record dropped to 6-6 this season.

In an interview with Dakota Levy ’20, Levy told the Justice, “The whole team has already improved so much from the start of the season, and if we continue putting in the hard work, I am sure that we will achieve great results in our conference.” Looking ahead, the Judges will face talented competition, but by working together, they will continue to unite as a team to reach for their goals.

In an interview with captain Joanne Carminucci, she stated,

13

DOWN THE COURT

"We're all here to push ourselves as athletes and to work hard, and we're hoping that shows throughout the season. We'd love to see good results in our conference, where we've historically done very well." Carminucci also told the Justice, "I've been really impressed with the dedication and work everyone has put in so far, and it definitely showed at Smith College last month. Just being completely present and enthusiastic at practices breeds a strong work ethic and helps everyone grow as fencers, and that really comes through in competition."

The fencing team looks forward to many more sucessful matches and invitationals this season.

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YURAN SHI/Justice File Photo

DRIBBLE AND SCORE: Camila Casanueva '21 faces the defensive player in the game against Johnson & Wales on Nov. 1.

WBBALL: Team continues to work hard this season CONTINUED FROM 16 the score at 57 and then Puda tied the score again, rather quickly, at 59. However, despite the Judges’ best efforts, a three-point shot by Spellacy and four more points from Babson junior Katherine Tamulionis captured the win for the Beavers 66–59. This game improved the Beavers to 3–2 overall. The Judges moved on to take on Gordon College on Saturday.

Gordon 57, Judges 48 The Judges lost their second game in a row to Gordon College

in an away game on Saturday.

Casanueva led the game in terms of points, rebounds and assists with 11, nine and six, respectively. The Judges fell to 3–5 for the season, and the Fighting Scots improved to 3–7. The Judges started out strong and led 21–14 after just one quarter, but the Scots blew past the Judges in the second quarter. Gordon College outscored the Judges in this quarter alone 18–5, and the Judges trailed the rest of the game.

In terms of three-point scoring, the Judges were very far behind the Scots. The Judges only made three of the 24 attempts of threepoint shots, coming out to a total of

12.5 percent. In contrast, the Scots scored 13 out of their 35 attempts at three-point shots, coming out to a total of 37.1 percent.

In addition to Casanueva, other players did contribute to the Judge’s score. Sarah Jaromin ’19 and Ellery Riccio ’19 each scored nine points, contributes to the Judge’s total score. Amber Graves ’20 scored 10 points, just one point off of Casanueva, the leader.

The Judges will end the semester with one more game on Dec. 11 against Roger Williams University.

Whether the team till continue on this losing streak or not remains to be seen.

MBBALL: Loss of five-game winning streak following this week’s intense game CONTINUED FROM 16 eight straight points in the first half after the Cardinals had built a 23–11 lead. The Judges fought back and took the lead 49–47 at 10:35 as Jones hit a three-pointer. A see-saw battle ensued as Wesleyan’s Jordon James tied the game at 49–49, followed by a score from Workman, giving the Judges a 51–49 lead as the game was becoming a nailbiter. Wesleyan’s Antoine Walker finally hit a three-pointer, giving

the Cardinals a lead at 8:47 that they would not relinquish, despite a valiant four-point possession in which Workman hit one of two from the foul-line, then sunk three after the Jones snagged the rebound on the missed second foul shot.

Scoring leaders were Jones (18 points), Sawyer (15 points) and Workman (12 points). Jones and Workman led with six rebounds.

Jones and Sabir led with five assists with Sherman adding four.

The Judges will travel to Emerson college on Tuesday, Dec. 11. After

break, they will host Bowdoin College on Dec. 30. In the new year, the Judges will begin facing their University Athletic Association opponents, per the Brandeis Athletics website.

This season the team has a total of eight games totaling 556 points averaging 69.5 points per game. In addition, the Judges have made 8.4 three-point shots per game, compared to an average of 22.9 attempts per game. As well, the team has a total of 34.1 rebounds per game with a margin of negative two.

They have averaged 5.1 steals per game and 2.8 blocks per game. The home attendance this season has reached 1300 fans with an average of 325 per game on average.

The team is coached by the 11th Brandeis men's basketball head coach Jean Bain. Bain coached Colombia University two seasons prior to coaching Brandeis University. In addition, Bain graduated from Northeastern University in 2002 after being captain of the basketball team for his junior and senior years.

In addition to Bain, the Judges benifit from three assistant coaches: Sean Tabb, Patrick Luptowski and L.J. Harrington. Tabb is in his fifth season as a Brandeis coach, after graduating from the University of Hartford. Luptowski is in his third year as a Brandeis coach, after graduating from Saint Anslem College in 2011. Harrington is in his first year as a Brandeis coach, after graduating from Northeastern University in 1990. All the coaches have past experience in basketball and hope to help the team succeed.

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THE JUSTICE

JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

● SPORTS ●

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018

15

SWIM AND DIVE

MEN’S BASKETBALL UAA STANDINGS

Rochester JUDGES Case Emory Chicago WashU NYU Carnegie

UAA Conf.

W L D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

TEAM STATS

Points Per Game

Overall W L D Pct. 9 0 0 1.000 6 2 0 .750 6 2 0 .750 6 2 0 .750 5 3 0 .625 5 3 0 .625 3 5 0 .375 3 6 0 .333

Corey Sherman ’19 leads the team with 14.8 points per game.

Player PPG Corey Sherman 14.8 Chandler Jones 13.9 Eric D’Aguanno 12.1 Collin Sawyer 11.6

Rebounds Per

Latye Workman ’18 leads the team with 7.3 rebounds per game.

Player REB/G Latye Workman 7.3 Chandler Jones 7.0 Corey Sherman 3.9 Eric D’Aguanno 2.8

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dec. 11 at Emerson College Dec. 30 vs. Bowdoin College Jan. 5 vs. New York University

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL UAA STANDINGS UAA Conf.

W L D Chicago 0 0 0 Carnegie 0 0 0 Case 0 0 0 Emory 0 0 0 NYU 0 0 0 WashU 0 0 0 JUDGES 0 0 0 Rochester 0 0 0

TEAM STATS

Points Per Game

Overall W L D Pct. 7 1 0 1.000 6 1 0 .857 6 2 0 .800 4 2 0 .714 4 2 0 .600 4 2 0 .600 4 3 1 .500 3 4 0 .200

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dec. 8 at Gordon College.

Dec. 11 vs. Roger Williams University.

Camila Casaneuva ’21 leads the team with 17.2 points per game.

Player Camila Casaneuva Sarah Jaromin Jillian Petrie Shannon Smally

PPG 17.2 15.3 9.0 8.8

Rebounds Per Game Sarah Jaromin ’19 leads the team with 7.7 rebounds per game.

Player REB/G Sarah Jaromin 7.7 Camila Casaneuva 7.0 Amber Graves 6.2 Jillian Petrie 5.4

SWIMMING AND DIVING Results from WPI Gompei Invitational on Dec. 2.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s) 200-yard Freestyle

SWIMMER TIME Daniel Wohl 1:41.98 Marcelo Ohno-Machado 1:47.82 Matthew Acremont 1:48.68

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s) 200-yard Freestyle

SWIMMER TIME Kylie Herman 1:59.40 Gazelle Umbay 2:05.16 Abbie Etzweiler 2:05.35

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jan. 13 vs. Marine Maritime Jan. 19 vs. Keene State College

YURAN SHI/Justice File Photo

SUPERIOR SWIMMERS: Swimmers prepare to take off in a backstroke relay in a meet against Bentley University on Nov. 16.

Colby College drowns Judges in home meet

■ The Judges just keep swimming in their meet against competitor Colby College.

By MEGAN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

TRACK AND FIELD Results from the UMass Boston Invitiational on Dec. 1.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

60 Meter Dash

60 Meter Dash

RUNNER TIME Reagan Charlie 7.18 Jacob Ward 7.33 Lorenzo Maddox 7.38

RUNNER TIME Kanya Brown 8.30 Kayla Kurkland-Davis 8.46 Anna Touitou 8.58

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jan. 12 at Reggie Poyau Invitational Jan. 18 at Wheaton Invitational

The Brandeis men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were both defeated by Colby College in their last meet of the season. With a 192–109 loss, the men’s team fell to 2–5 on the season. A 217–77 defeat dropped the women’s team to an overall record to 2–7. Despite the tough loss suffered by both teams, each team had some swimmers that shined individually and put up dominating performances.

Men’s Team Daniel Wohl ’21 has put on impressive performance after impressive performance all season long, and this meet was no exception.

He was a triple winner, with all of his victories coming in freestyle events.

In the 50-yard, he touched the edge just one-tenth of a second faster than his runner-up from Colby, winning

in an impressive 22.22 seconds. In the 100-yard, his margin of victory was even greater, winning the race by just over a second in 48.72 seconds. In the 200-yard, his time of 1:44.71 was good enough for the win, coming in half a second faster than the second place finisher. The only other individual winner for the men’s team was Tamir Zitelny ’20. He won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of only 52.02 seconds. This time was almost two seconds faster than the top performer from Colby College. He also finished in second place in the 100-yard backstroke; his time of 54.62 seconds was not enough to claim him another victory, but he still earned the Judges some much-needed points. Justin Weissberg ’20 had a noteworthy performance, as well, during this meet. He raced in the enduranceoriented 1000-yard freestyle and was able to finish the race in 10:57.

This was the first meet in which Weissberg broke the 11-minute mark for that particular race. The men’s team was also victorious in the 200yard freestyle relay. The dependable team of Marcelo Ohno-Machado ’21,

Matthew Acemont ’20, Chase Chen ’21 and Zitelny finished the race in just 1:29.41. This time was just enough to top the team from Colby, setting them up for the win by just 0.42 seconds.

Women’s Team Claire Xu ’22 has consistently been among the top performers for the women’s team, making her a large part of the team’s success this season.

During this meet, she picked up the only win of the day for the women’s team. Her time of 102:20 was just enough for her to capture the 100yard backstroke, beating the time of her closest opponent by a slim 0.92 seconds. Natalia Wozab ’20 was the runner-up in two races. In the 200yard breaststroke, she completed the race in 2:37.12, just behind her opponent from Colby. She placed second in the 200-yard individual medley as well.

This concludes the swimming and diving team’s action for this semester. After finals and winter break, the team will return with a home meet against Maine Maritime Academy on Jan. 13.

PRO SPORTS BRIEF Seattle Mariners and New York Mets complete a trade after missing out on last seasons playoffs The Seattle Mariners and New York Mets have recently finalized a blockbuster trade, encompassing the two very different tracks each team is on.

The Mets believe they still have an opportunity to win now, whereas the Mariners are cutting costs and focusing on the future. The Mets division, the National League East, is proving to be one of the most exciting and rapidly improving league in baseball, with all teams, besides for the Marlins, looking to compete for top spot. This trade will dramatically change the look of the Mets roster, with Robinson Cano taking over second base and being placed in the middle of the lineup, and Edwin Diaz becoming the everyday closer.

Recently, the Philadelphia Phillies have traded for shortstop Jean Segura, and the Nationals have signed starting pitcher Patrick Corbin to counter the Mets’ activities. The Mets general

manager has made it clear that there will be more moves on the horizon, saying, “We did not make this move to have this be the last move... We want to bolster the team, improve our production next season and add more players around this.” To add to the competitive nature of the offseason moves for National League East, Fred Wilpon, owner of the Mets, admitted he made the trade for Diaz partially to block him from going to the rival, Phillies. This flurry of moves is good for the division and the sport as a whole, bringing excitement back to New York and other large markets.

In this trade, the Mets only received two players — as well as cash considerations from the Mariners. However, as mentioned before, these two players fill a void and made the club better from day one. Diaz just won the Mariano Rivera award for best reliever in

baseball. This comes as no surprise, as he tied the record for second most saves in a season with 57. Luckily for the Mets, he comes to New York cheaply, having just made $571,000 in 2018. He isn’t eligible for arbitration until 2020 and won’t be eligible for free agency until after the 2022 season.

He seems to have bought into the the win-now attitude as he stated, “to Mets fans, we came here to win and try to reach the World Series and get that ring.” The second player, Cano, Was a star in NY, playing for the Yankees for 8 years before leaving for Seattle. At age 36, he has five years, $120 million remaining on the 10-year, $240 million contract he signed with Seattle in December 2013. At that time, the current Mets general manager, Brodie van Wagenen, served as his agent, along with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. On his move back to New York, Cano gushed, “I’m more

than happy — I would say blessed — to be able to wear this uniform ... also happy to be back in New York. I just can’t wait for the season to get started.”

Although Cano brings production and experience to this team, there is cloud surrounding him after he served an 80 game suspension last season. He tested positive for Furosemide, a diuretic that can be used to mask performanceenhancing drugs. However, he claimed that the substance was given to him by a licensed doctor from the Dominican Republic, which was a convincing enough story for the Mets front office.

The Mariners received outfielder Jay Bruce, reliever Anthony Swarzak and prospects Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn and Gerson Bautista. This move comes after a series of other trades that have dismantled their roster in order to shave payroll and collect talent for the years to come. The Mariners general

manager, Jerry Dipoto, asserted, “this trade bolsters our player development system with the additions of Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn, while also providing immediate impact to our major league club in Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarzak and Gerson Bautista.” He continued, “We view Kelenic as a true 5-tool player with a very high ceiling.

Dunn is another former first-round draft pick, who we think has a bright future on our pitching staff. Bruce and Swarzak both bring proven production in the field and a veteran presence in our clubhouse. Bautista has demonstrated an impressive high-velocity pitch mix.” It is clear that there is some rationale to the Mariners’ recent decision-making, but fans are probably not going to be happy with the product on the field for the next few years.

– Brian Inker

just Sports Page 16

A BLOCKBUSTER TRADE Seattle Mariners and New York Mets both miss the playoffs and partake in an intense trade, p. 15.

Waltham, Mass.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MOVE THAT BALL

Team loses two games in a row ■ Judges establish a two

game losing streak following their games against Babson College and Gordon College.

By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis women’s basketball team is now in the midst of a two-game losing streak following their most recent loss against Gordon College, as they continue their 2018-19 season. The Judges now sit with an overall record of 3–5 and have yet to play any conference games against University Athletic Association rivals. The Judges continue to press forward despite having only eight healthy players on their roster, according to the Brandeis Athletics website, proving a hurdle for the team.

Babson 66, Judges 59 In a tight match against Babson College that took place on Dec. 3, the Judges dropped to a 3–4 overall record. During the game, Kat Puda ’21 led the Judges in points with a total of 17 scored, according to the Brandeis Athletics website. Puda

also led in rebounds per game, with a total of seven, and Camila Casanueva ’21 led the team with five assists. The Judges were not behind the whole game, though.

Casanueva made five three-point shots, and the first four put the Judges ahead 14–8 about half way through the first quarter. With 4:59 to go in the second quarter, Babson tied the score at 24–24. However, heading into halftime, the Judges were ahead and the score was 34– 29.

However, right out of the gate in the second half, the Beavers proved to be a strong force. They scored three out of their first four possessions of the third quarter, but the score was tied at 39 points with 7:13 left in the third quarter.

With 5:06 left in the quarter, the Beavers pulled ahead in their first lead since the beginning of the game. After a 9–2 run from Brandeis, putting the Judges ahead, Babson had their own 7–0 run and recaptured the lead with a score of 51–50. Puda put the Judges ahead with a score of 51–53 after a three-point shot with only 7:15 left in the game, but with 6:12 left of play, the Beavers tied

See WBBALL, 13

☛

FENCING

Judges continue to foil their opponents this season ■ Team looks forward to seven tournaments this season, with three meets already completed.

By MEGAN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

This season, the fencing team has had many fierce competitors, and the Judges have held their own against them all. So far, the team has been to the Northeast All-Collegiate Invitational in Northampton, Massachusetts, the Northeast Conference Meet in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Brandeis Invitational. The team has led a successful season and conquered many of their opponents.

Fall Collegiate Invitational The Fall Collegiate Invitational started off the Judges’ season. In this meet, captains Ian Quin ’20, and Joanne Carminucci ’19 defended their previously earned titles. Back on Oct. 28, Quin had successfully defended his foil title at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference Fall Invitational. Quin was among the ten undefeated fencers in the competition. In the men’s foil, Tristan Barca-Hall ’21 placed sixth overall, and David Hui ’22 ranked ninth in the meet. The next Brandeis competitors to place included Jared Sugarman ’21, who placed 13th in the meet, followed

by Sam Chestna ’20 at 19th, Ryan Tsai ’22 at 22nd and Trevor Filseth ’20 at 29th, out of a total of 79 competitors.

On the women’s side, Carminucci acquired the fourth seed in the direct elimination

NATALIA WIATER/The Justice

GET AIR: Brandeis Chandler Jones ’21 prepares to make a basket in the game against Wesleyan University on Saturday.

tournament after being 5–0 with only four touches in the preliminary rounds. The Judges had one more foil medalist, Jessica Gets ’20, in third. The rest of the Judges followed with Renee Pite ’19 in seventh place, Hannah Mui ’22 in 11th place and Wendy Mao ’21 in 31st place.

Northeast Fencing Conference On Saturday Nov. 17, the men foiled their opponents in the Northeast Fencing Conference. In the epee division, Chris Armstrong ’20 led the team with a total of 10–3. In addition, Armstrong obtained an impressive winning record in four out of five of his matches. Additionally, Holtman won all eight of his matches of the day, giving him the top winning percentage of the team. Just behind him was Lin, with a record of 6–0. Both Charlie Catino ’20 and Leon Rotenstein ’19 went 7–1. The foil was led by Quin who went 6–3, followed by Filseth and Sugarman, both of whom posted five total wins.

Brandeis Invitational In this home meet, the Judges finished the day with defeat. The men’s team ended with a score of 2–3 for the day, causing their record to drop to 7–3, overall.

On the other hand, the women’s team ended with a 0–5 record for the day, losing all five of their matches. The Judges lost to Saint John's University by a score of 20– 7, Cornell University by a score of 18–9, Yale University by a score of 18–9, University of Incarnate Word by a score of 16–11 and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill by

See FENCING, 13

☛

Judges fall to Wesleyan University, dropping record to six wins, two losses ■ After an intense game on Saturday, the team lost to Wesleyan University.

By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

So far this season, the men's basketball team has faced many fierce competators and looks forward to many more. Some previous matchups against the Judges include the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, which resulted in a win for the Judges, Suffolk College, a loss for the Judges and four victories against Bates College, Lasell College, Salem State University, Babson College and Becker College. This Saturday, the Judges ended their streak after a loss to Wesleyan University. The Judges look forward to 14 more games between now and the end of February.

Becker College The Judges’ record has improved to an impressive 5–1 out of all non-conference games this season as of Thursday night, when they traveled to meet the Becker College Hawks. According to the Brandeis Athletics website, the Judges dominated the Hawks from start to finish, never trailing behind the Hawks, and built a 20-point lead early in the second half to finish with an overwhelming 74–52 victory.

The Judges came focused.

Collin Sawyer ’20 began things with a three-pointer. His efforts with two more three-pointers, plus two straight baskets by Eric D’Aguanno, contributed to an early 19–8 lead, and the Judges never looked back. Latye Workman ’18 jumped early in the second half of the game, leading the Judges to a 20-point lead on the

way to a final score of 74–52.

Scoring leaders were Sawyer (18 points), Chandler Jones ’21 (15 points) and D’Aguanno (14 points). Workman added nine points, with Lawrence Sabir ’21 and Corey Sherman ’19 adding eight points each. Workman and Jones led in assists, with five each, and Sherman had four assists. Workman dominated the boards with three offensive and six defensive rebounds. The game was a great win as every member of the team saw action and contributed with points, assists or rebounds.

Wesleyan University The Judges had a tough loss against the Cardinals at home.

The Cardinals led the entire first half on the way to a 38–34 halftime lead. The Judges demonstrated grit and determination, scoring

See MBBALL, 13

☛

Vol. LXXI #13

December 11, 2018

The Nutcracker

>>pg. 19

just S T R A

Waltham, Mass.

Images: CREATIVE COMMONS, Jen Geller/the Justice. Design: Yvette Sei/the Justice.

18

TUESDAY, THE JUSTICE DECEMBER | ARTS 11,| 2018 TUESDAY, I ARTS JANUARY I THE JUSTICE 31, 2017

COMEDY REVIEW

Boris shares the Kitchen with friends

By KENT DINLENC JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Boris’ Kitchen held its annual Fall Fest two weeks ago at the Shapiro Campus Center, hosting four different sketch comedy groups from neighboring universities. They did two shows that weekend, one on Friday one on Saturday. I attended Friday’s, where Boris’ Kitchen shared Act One with Emerson College’s Jimmy’s Traveling All-Stars and Boston University’s The Callbacks. That following Saturday, they invited Skidmore’s Sketchies and Tufts’ “The Institute.” The sketches in Act Two were all written by Boris’ Kitchen members, with Perry Letourneau ’20 and Anderson Stinson ’21 serving as co-directors this year.

Jimmy’s Traveling All-Stars approached the stage first. Their opening sketch ended with a mediocre punchline, though their jokes picked up with a charming skit featuring two friends at a party whose personalities were stuck in the 1940s. Their references were witty and fun, despite inaccuracies here and there. That sketch, as well as one about a couple of old people with a new Google Home, went

over best with the audience, while the others were middling at best.

Clearly the performers of the former sketch are the best in the troupe, as they played the senior citizens in the latter as well. The two elderly people seemed innocent at first with their perplexity over the device when addressing it with “Hey, Googoo” rather than “OK Google;” but the old man’s increasingly preposterous and devious requests turned the repeated phrase into a hilarious punchline. The gag left the audience in stitches with each utterance, making the bit one of the funniest in the show, from the line “sharpen my knives for me” to “when does the ambassador’s plane land?”

Then the Callbacks emerged, ready to meet the high bar that had been set. However, similar to Emerson, Boston University’s Callbacks had a poor start. The audience had neither the patience nor the enthusiasm to listen to a recording of Alvin and the Chipmunks’ Christmas song. The joke was overdrawn and unredeemed by the uncreative punchline: they were killed by exterminators with the wrong address.

Of their four sketches, the last

Photos by ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

TOO MANY COOKS: Boris’ Kitchen players cower in fear as their companion points a gun at them.

two helped them stick the landing despite being the least funny troupe of the evening. The first of their two good sketches took place at a restaurant with two cousins having dinner.

While having a serious conversation, the persistent waiter interrupted them at the most inappropriate moments. The ensuing barrage of restaurant staff and offerings of bread were amusing. The second was a satirical look at the perception of the control room of a military force in film. The commanding officer of a sci-fi invasion had to run around the room with each utterance of “Sir, you should come take a look at this,” the clichéd way to exposit information on screen.

The skit got a lot of laughs from the audience but was only marginally

funnier than the previous sketch.

After the intermission, Boris’ Kitchen took the stage. Unlike BU and Emerson, Brandeis had a much stronger introduction with “Santa’s Wishes,” a sketch written by Aaron Stone ’21 about children wishing for abnormal things for Christmas. Sarah Sharpe ’20 played a great straight man, as a mall Santa, lending an ear to the children’s odd requests for their parents to get divorced or their dead grandmother to stop haunting them.

The best part of the show was the entrance of the “scissor goblin.”

Usually in the writer’s room for Boris’ Kitchen, Evan Mahnken ’19 was the show’s ringer who played the namesake creature. His third and final entrance in this recurring role was the funniest in “2 Leggy Boys,” written by Dane Leoniak ’20 and Letourneau. Another good sketch was Leoniak’s “Friends,” a sketch about one Black friend of a trio who watches the namesake NBC show for the first time. However, he finds out the show is brainwashing fodder for a still-alive President Nixon.

From this critic’s eyes, it seems that the veterans of Boris’ Kitchen

SANTA’S LIST: Perry Letourneau ’19 solemnly sits on Sarah Sharpe ’20 and asks her for outrageous gifts.

are getting all of the best roles. Of course, they can do whatever they feel will keep the show funny, but it leaves very little room for the newbies. This doesn’t in any way diminish their comedic talent. Letourneau, Leoniak, Claudia Davis ’19 and Alan Omori ’20 are all incredibly funny onstage, but they’re all one can compliment in these shows anymore. Peirce Robinson ’22, the breakout performer of the “Old Shit Show” in October, was criminally underused in last month’s Fall Fest.

Even when it came to the scissor goblin, Boris’ Kitchen would rather give the role to a veteran writer rather than a first-year cast member. Funny as their show was, Boris’ Kitchen doesn’t take any risks with relying on their fresh blood. This is more troubling when you realize that a lot of the roles can be gender-swapped, but rarely are. Almost all of the funniest parts are given to the three male veterans, leaving even Davis in the dust sometimes. They can gender swap Santa but not a goblin? If the best roles are always given to the same comedians, the others won’t grow as performers and BK’s legacy will diminish.

CHRISTMAS WISHES: Claudia Davis ’19 asks Santa for Christmas gifts as elf Anderson Stinson ’21 looks on quizzically.

THEATER REVIEW

Hold Thy Peace ushers in the holidays the Justice

TALIA WIATER/

Photos by NA

By BRIANNA CUMMINGS JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

William Shakespeare wrote “Twelfth Night” for the Christmas season. So, even though Hold Thy Peace normally produces a show in October, it only made sense to put on a performance in early December to entertain students before they drown in papers and finals. In HTP’s abridged “Twelfth Night,” twins Viola and Sebastian are separated during a shipwreck. Believing that her brother has perished, Viola arrives in the foreign town of Illyria takes on the identity of a pageboy named Cesario to work for the duke Orsino, who is in love with a countess Olivia. However, Olivia does not return these feelings and finds herself attracted to Cesario.

The majority of the play is about the love triangle between Viola/Cesario, Olivia and Orsino.

Standout performances came from Eliana Weiss ’21 as Viola, Daniel Souza ’19 as Orsino, Alex Wu ’19 as Malvolio and Rachael Greene ’20 as Olivia. Weiss did a phenomenal job playing Viola /Cesario — one felt secondhand stress watching Viola realize that Olivia, the woman her master (Souza) was attempting to woo, was in love with her alter ego Cesario. One scene in which Olivia tries to seduce Cesario was especially hilarious, as Greene turned Olivia’s love sickness and cluelessness into the comedic highlight of the show. As for Wu, she had a fantastic stage presence; whenever she sauntered onto the scene, all eyes were on her. Malvolio’s stoicism came through beautifully, as well as his unabashed giddiness upon mistakenly realizing that Olivia had feelings for him.

STUPOR: Sir Andrew (Eli Esrig ’19) and Sir Toby (Ryan Sands ’19) lie on the ground in a drunken haze.

The Merrick Theater was an ideal location for this show because the brightness added to the cheerfulness of the play. The Merrick also has a lot of open space and the director definitely took advantage of that. The director of “Twelfth Night,” Gabe Walker ’19, did a great job. In his Director’s Note, he wrote that he chose “Twelfth Night” for its relatable characters and the fact that it was “genuinely funny.” For comedic effect, actors jumped around, rolled on the floor and ran across the room. Sir Toby (Ryan Rands ’19), Sir Andrew (Eli Esrig ’19) and Feste’s (Sophia Massidda ’20) performances involved the most slapstick. From the beginning of the play, Massidda showed off her musical talent and she continued to do so throughout the night, singing songs and strumming her guitar. Massidda designed the show’s eye-popping costumes. The choice of color for each character enhanced their performance: black for the melancholy characters of Oliva, Malvolio and Maria (Caitlin CraneMoscowitz), a mixture of bright colors for the comedic characters (Feste, Toby and Andrew) and purple for the twins (Viola and Sebastian).

Another subplot in the play was Sebastian (Seth Wulf ’21) trying to get by post-shipwreck with his friend Antonio (Lauren Komer ’20). Komer and Wulf had great chemistry together, and when all the characters united in the end, the audience felt moved by the genuine reunion of the loved ones.

The show ended as it began, with Massidda singing. However, this time she was joined by the rest of the cast before they took a bow and tossed rose petals in the air. Overall, Twelfth Night was a hilarious and memorable way to cheer students up for the Yuletide season.

volio Wu ’19 as Mal ALVOLIO: Alex a as t, es qu re r MARVELOUS M ivia’s ring at he Ol n ia st ba Se gives traction. token of her at

MOURNING: At th e play’s outset, Olivia (Rachel Greene ’20) is in perpetual mourn ing for her late brother.

SONG AND DANCE: Sophia Massida ’20, playing Feste, delighted theater-goers with both original and covered music.

THE JUSTICE I ARTS I TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018

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DANCE

‘Nutcracker’ dances toward inclusivity

By LEAH SAMANTHA CHANEN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The impression of ballet I had from years of dance classes was that of an exclusive, cold and uncaring environment. It was a culture that constantly told me, “You’re too fat to do real ballet,” “White girls are just naturally built better for ballet,” and “One bad injury and you might as well throw away your leotards.” Perfection was all that mattered. One noticeable mistake was as bad as not knowing the entire combination.

Brandeis Ballet Club clearly did not ascribe to any of these archaic ballet practices that exclude dancers based on weight, height, experience, race and ability. I was first struck by the racial diversity in Friday’s performance of “The Nutcracker.” In the many ballets I have seen, there usually isn’t a single non-white dancer, but this small 17-dancer ensemble featured performers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. What is more, they found a way to include every dancer so that each got their opportunity to shine, even if they were brand-new to the group or to ballet in general. The Ballet Club found a way to feature new dancers without putting less-experienced dancers in a position in which they might embarrass themselves. That fine line is hard to balance, but they did an excellent job.

By having multiple dancers play the lead roles in different scenes, the directors ensured that many dancers would get featured appropriately. The costuming was so well-done, flattering to every dancer, and so clear that there was never a question of which character a dancer was portraying. The Snow Queen, Hannah Borgida ’21, wore a beautiful tutu and crown that looked amazing with her skilled choreography and the Rat Queen, Hannah DeRoche ’19, got an edgy look with a studded leather jacket.

The lead role, Clara, was played by Molly Cady ’21, Polina Potochevska ’20, Liza Korot-

Photos by JEN GELLER/the Justice

PERENNIAL DUET: Emma Belkin ’21 as Clara and Eleanor Lavin ’22 as Dewdrop take center stage during the Waltz of the Flowers. kova ’19 and finally Emma Belkin ’21. Cady excelled in every piece of choreography, acting, and was the most perfect fit for the role.

Potochevska was also featured in many other large roles and skillfully performed in all of them. Despite her seemingly flawless technique, Korotkova seemed incredibly nervous in her many featured roles. She had a slight hiccup during the Russian Dancers combination and finally cracked a smile which seemed to loosen her up for the rest of the piece. I enjoyed watching her dance the rest of the ballet. Belkin was probably the best actress among the Claras and was perfect for the ending. All four dancers did an amazing job and brought something unique to the role.

Brandeis Ballet Club has gone from seven to 17 dancers in the last three years of producing this full-length ballet, led by co-presidents DeRoche, Potochevska and Korotkova. While I enjoy the traditional ballet, they modernized the piece by using some of the original music and some dubstep remix covers of the traditional Tchaikovsky music. While I wasn’t a

ACRO-RAT-IC: Ballerina Hannah DeRoche ’19 shows off her impressive core strength as the Rat Queen in The Battle Scene.

UNIQUE SNOWFLAKES: Dancers Liza Korotkova ’19 and Hannah Borgida ’21 (Clara and the Snow Queen) gracefully perform the Waltz of the Snowflakes. fan of the choice to include modernized music, the adjusted choreography worked really well with dubstep and the dancers in that number.

A huge step in the right direction for diversity and accessibility within ballet was the inclusion of other dance groups. In the Land of the Sweets, when our heroine, Clara, would usually run into groups of candy from China, Spain and Arabia, she ran into Platinum Step Team, Ballroom Formation Team, Toxic Majorette Dance Line and Hooked on Tap. It was a really cute idea that just lacked a bit of contextualization. Toxic’s routine was amazing, as it blended music from Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy into their style of music, which brought us back to the ballet. Otherwise, it was a bit confusing and felt unnecessary if you didn’t know the original ballet. There were immense tech issues with the sound that became physically painful at one point. They had recorded a voice-over telling the story of the ballet that was so horribly recorded, the small

child next to me kept saying he wanted to leave.

But the most inclusive aspect of the piece was Meredith Roberts ’21, who stepped on stage in the first scene as Drosselmeyer. She had suffered an injury that forced her to use a crutch and knee brace. She said that the presidents of the club had first asked her if she would still like to be involved in the show after her injury, and modified choreography to ensure she could still be featured. This really set the stage for what this group set out for: inclusivity. The group may have sacrificed tight, complex choreography, but they made sure to include everyone who wanted to be there and still put on an amazing piece, showcasing everyone in their own way.

This felt like a small family of supportive dancers coming together to perform a beautiful piece instead of the cold, harsh, cattiness so often associated with ballet. Brandeis Ballet Club proved their commitment to diversity and inclusivity during their rendition of “The Nutcracker.”

CULTURE

Club Cantonese reclaims ‘Jook-Sing’

By ELLA RUSSELL JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

On Friday night in The Levin Ballroom in Usdan Student Center, Club Cantonese presented their second annual cultural show. The theme this year was Jook-Sing, which is a derogatory Cantonese term for people of Chinese descent born in the West. The term is derived from the word for bamboo, using its hollowness and compartmentalized nature to suggest that foreign-born Chinese people are empty of traditional Eastern values, but are not quite Western either. Club Cantonese chose this theme to challenge

the derogatory nature of Jook-Sing, choosing to take pride in their dual heritage rather than be ashamed of it.

Annie Wong ’22 and Michael Leung ’21 emceed the event. They performed a bit where they were on their way to visit their fictional aunt.

On the way, they would introduce the upcoming acts by pretending to spot the performers approaching the stage. Unfortunately, the emcees did not always speak very clearly, so it was hard to hear what they were saying. When you could hear them, the banter did not always land and it sometimes felt stilted and forced.

Despite the emcees, the performances in this show were generYVETTE SEI/the Justice

PRETTY IN PINK: Dance Revelasian, a Boston-based semiprofessinal dance company, came to Brandeis to perform at Jook-Sing.

ally very good. The flute player who opened the show was impressive, and the dances were entertaining. Dance Revelasian stood out with their beautiful choreography, flowery costumes and excellent lighting design.

Another highlight of the show was the introduction video, a hilarious mess. The members of the club split into groups and attempted to make egg tarts, competing to inherit the “Da Bao Bakery.” Incidentally, Da Bao is a Cantonese phrase used when one wishes to take the rest of a meal to go at a restaurant, and literally translates to “hit bread.” “We wanted to think of a good punny name for a bakery in the plot of our story,” remarked e-board member Adam Lamper ’19.

Initially, each group was a spectacular failure, putting in salt instead of sugar, cracking eggs onto the kitchen counter and scooping them into the bowl with their hands, ordering a single egg tart from a nearby Chinese restaurant and forgetting to remove it from its plastic wrapping. In the end, when the judges threatened to give the bakery to The Brandeis Chinese Cultural Connection, the club banded together to create an excellent egg tart.

The last event of the show was the one everyone had been waiting for. Jeffrey Chang, a Youtuber/ singer from Canada, was coming to Brandeis to give his first live performance. Unfortunately, he was unable to be at Brandeis in person because he was stopped by the border patrol on the way down from Canada, so he Skyped in for his performance.

Club Cantonese expected that he would just host a Q&A session, since

YVETTE SEI/the Justice

PHILANTHROPIC VALUES: The show’s goal was to raise money for the non-profit Quincy Asian Recources Inc., an organization that improves the social, cultural and economic lives of Asian Americans in Quincy and the surrounding area.

singing on Skype could easily become a catastrophe. However, since the connection was surprisingly good, Chang sang a few songs, including Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” Justin Bieber’s “Cold Water” and his own song “Don’t Let Go.” The beauty of his voice was undeniable, though it would probably have been better in person. Chang clearly agreed, declaring to the audience, “Oh I wish I could just look at you in the eyes.”

In between his songs, Chang told us about his journey as a Youtuber/ musician. After fellow Canadian Justin Bieber became popular through Youtube videos, Chang was inspired to make videos about his life, attaining a moderate level of fame as a result. However, just last year, he

decided to pursue his decade-long dream of being a singer, and since then has made many videos showcasing his singing ability. Chang was very charming and open with us, admitting that he got emotional before the Skype call because he would not be able to perform live and telling us that he was thinking of making a Youtube video out of this experience.

Chinese food — including the Club Cantonese signature egg tarts — closed out the evening. It is undeniable that this show had some mishaps: people flubbing their lines, not speaking clearly and running around with microphones. However, parts of the show, like Chang’s performance, shone through the mishaps, creating an enjoyable evening for all.

20

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018 | ARTS | THE JUSTICE

INTERVIEW

Brandeis TALKS What would you like to be asked by BrandeisTALKS?

Gabe Walker ’19

ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

This week, justArts spoke with Gabe Walker ’19, who directed Hold Thy Peace’s “Twelfth Night.”

Alissa Fagin ’20 “What improvements should be made for Brandeis dining?”

JustArts: Why don’t you tell me a little bit about your experience directing?

Gabe Walker: This is the sixth show I’ve directed at Brandeis. [I] started my sophomore [year] when I directed “Urinetown” through the UTC, and I’ve done a bunch of very different projects since then.

MEGAN GELLER/the Justice

Hannah Jacobson ’22 “Things about what’s going on in school, how people feel about stuff that’s going on.”

Leah Timpson ’22 “Just something about our lives at Brandeis or how we’re experiencing the Brandeis Culture.”

Zihao Wang ’20 “How’s Brandeis helping international students to find jobs?”

—Compiled and photographed by Thu Le/the Justice.

STAFF’S Top Ten

ANDREW BAXTER/ the Justice

Top 10 Kanye West Songs

By Mia Rubinstein

JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSITANT

I miss the old Kanye.

1. Through the Wire

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Diabolical 5 Fig. on a dog-tag 13 Type of pad 14 Transporting via trolley 15 Waterway in London 17 “Entourage” character 18 Time period 19 22, for Shaq’s feet 20 Promise 22 “Therefore...”

25 Put forward 28 Church parts 30 Reb’s foe 32 Jot down 33 Negatives 35 They’re often caught at night?

37 “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” character 38 What this puzzle does, despite Egon Spengler’s warning 43 Org. replaced by the N.R.C. 44 Type of test 45 Boat propeller that’s not a propeller 46 ______ spell (get off one’s feet) 48 Like much fast food 50 Way to find treasure buried at sea 54 Bouillon brand name 56 Tragic king 58 Icon that looks like a floppy disc 59 ___ Men (“Who Let the Dogs Out” band) 61 _____ pal 63 Music genre 64 Waterway in the U.S.A. 69 Spooky feeling 70 “Fooled ya!”

71 Walkman insert 72 Poverty DOWN 1 Law school class 2 Peace sign 3 Memo header 4 Waterway in France 5 Sault-____-Marie 6 Screw up 7 “Darn it!”

8 Reply to “can you dig it?”

9 Waterway in South America 10 Citrus drink 11 Compass dir.

12 Hardcore rappers, in slang 13 Bra part 16 “Your mileage may _____” 17 Org. that puts out the DSM 21 Sawbucks 23 Graceful grazer 24 Bucks 26 Celebrity couple 27 Golf accessories 29 Just ok 31 Fad diet, for short 34 Houston player, informally 36 Mex. ladies 38 Wine container 39 Stagecoach driver’s holding

GW: We would sit for two, three, four hours just pulling apart each and every word. … When you’re doing all of that nitty gritty work and you finally get to just sit back and watch it on a stage watch your actors do something … in a way that you never would have expected ,… suddenly the whole thing becomes clearer. I don’t think there’s one individual thing, but [rather] watching each of my actors go through those kinds of discoveries. … Those four hours of work lent themselves to maybe fifteen seconds of stage time, but to see those results is always really satisfying as a director.

JA: What led to the decision to have a choreographed dance at the beginning of the play?

Crossword Courtesy of EVAN MAHNKEN

40 Spooky months 41 Bow down to 42 God of love 47 Friend of D’Artagnan 49 Barks like a chihuahua 51 Went out for awhile?

52 Skirt around 53 Sales guy 55 Waterway in Germany 57 Sticky stuff 60 “I’d hate to break up ______” 62 Waterway in Egypt 64 P.I., old-style 65 “Isn’t ___ bit like you and me?” (Beatles lyric) 66 Air travel option until ‘03 67 Expert finish?

68 Food thrown at a clown

Solution Courtesy of EVAN MAHNKEN

SUDOKU INSTRUCTIONS: Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

3. Ultralight Beam 4. I Wonder 5. Bound 2 6. Champion 7. We Don’t Care 8. Gone

10. Stronger

GW: First of all, I think it’s always nice, especially when you’re doing Shakespeare, which is something that a lot of audience members … might not be very used to … It was a nice way of setting them in the world of the play before it actually began. Also, I love visual pieces and choreography and the idea of getting to start the tempo of the piece with this bang — this big dance number. I think it lent a lot of energy to the beginning of my play… It also helped establish the rules of the world. … To see how the actors were entering and exiting … gave the audience a sense of how I would be using that space during each scene.

JA: How — if at all— is directing a Shakespeare play different from directing another straight play?

2. All Falls Down

9. School Spirit

JA: What was the most rewarding aspect of the process?

Solution to last issue’s sudoku

Puzzle courtesy of www.sudokuoftheday.com

GW: Again, with Shakespeare, you’re forced to do so much more text work … in addition to [understanding] intentions and breaking it up rhythmically into units. You kind of have to act as a translator for your actors, too. … Also, scansion is a big part of it. … Finding the stressed and the unstressed beats and working within iambic pentameter, … and making sure that the poetry is all coming across. At the end of the day, if you’re not interested in working with … old text and making it comprehensible [to] a modern audience, why are you doing this? … That being said, I think it’s a really good exercise in directing newer plays because there’s no reason why you shouldn’t also be doing all of that digging into newer plays. … You need to be doing all of that intention work, to still be breaking it up into units, understanding why they say [what] they do, just so you can really get into what the playwright is intending.

JA: Is there anything else you would like to add?

GW: Thank you to my cast and prod staff for making it such a wonderful experience. Directing Shakespeare can be an utter nightmare if you don’t have people who are willing to go on that journey with you and be a workhorse. … There’s only so much work we can actually do in rehearsals and if actors aren’t working … outside of the room, then you’re not going to get it all done. Fortunately, they all did. I owe a lot of the smoothness of the process and the success of the show to them.

—Maya Zanger-Nadis