ARTS Page 19
SPORTS Table Tennis makes big waves 16
‘GUYS AND DOLLS’
FORUM Chastise review's poor reporting 11 The Independent Student Newspaper
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Justice
Volume LXVIII, Number 24
www.thejustice.org
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
ADVANCING ACADEMIA
Administration
Talk centers on Chief Diversity Officer criteria ■ Students discussed what
they would like to see in the ideal CDO candidate. By HANNAH WULKAN JUSTICE editor
AMANDA NGUYEN/the Justice
MINDFUL DISCUSSION: Danni Tang '19 (L), Julie Ruiz '17 (C) and Anthony Liu '19 (R) discuss the course, which will be taught by Patrick Chung, a scholar on Asian American Studies and new adjunct faculty hire in the American Studies Department.
Town hall discusses Asian American Studies course ■ BAATF hosted a panel on
the new course, "The Asian American Experience," and the topics it will cover. By MAX MORAN JUSTICE editor
The Brandeis Asian American Task Force held a town hall forum on Monday night to discuss the American Studies Program’s revived course titled “The Asian American Experience” being offered next semester. About 20 students attended to ask questions about the course and the activist organization. BAATF demanded that the University create an Asian-American Studies program last December in a letter to senior administrators and through a protest outside the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center. In response, the University formed a Faculty-Student Committee on Asian American Pacific Islander Studies. Reviving “The Asian American Experience” is the first action the University has taken toward establishing an AAPI
program. “The whole course is about AsianAmerican history, just an overview since the mid-nineteenth century to now,” Danni Tang ’19 explained at the round-table. Tang is a member of the Faculty-Student Committee. “The whole reason we have this initiative and this course and this minor is because we [Asian-Americans] don’t get to learn about our history in this country.” As of Monday night, the class has capped out at 30 students. “It’s kind of an experiment right now, to see how many people are interested in taking the course,” Tang explained and encouraged interested students who did not get in the course to contact BAATF. Patrick Chung, a new adjunct faculty hire, will teach the course. A course description written by Chung that was read at the event said the course “explore[s] the hidden history of Asians in the United States, starting from the American Revolution to the present. By highlighting the role taken by Asia and Asian-Americans in U.S. History, this course can test the commonly held assumption that Asian-American history is at the margins of
American history. In other words, what we think we know about American history changes dramatically when we put Asians at the center of key historical moments, like the Civil War and World War II.” The course also fills the Oral Communication distribution requirement, according to Tang. At the moment, Chung is only hired to teach for the upcoming semester, according to BAATF. He is currently a History graduate student at Brown University with a specialization in Asian American history, Korean history, and U.S.South Korea relations. Professor Sarah Lamb (ANTH), a member of the Faculty-Student Committee, told the Justice in an email that Chung “already has several publications and is known to be an excellent, dynamic instructor.” While the committee members at the BAATF meeting on Monday had not themselves met Chung, they said that other students on the committee had, and they felt he would be a great professor. While the committee is still working to create a full AAPI program, according to Lamb, there are
See BAATF, 7 ☛
As part of the early process of hiring a Chief Diversity Officer — a senior administrator to oversee all matters of diversity at the University — the consulting firm in charge of finding candidates for the role held a student discussion on Monday night about how they would like to see the role develop. This discussion was part of two days of discussions to help the firm understand what type of candidate would be best for Brandeis. The event opened with remarks from Interim Provost Irving Epstein, who explained, “What this is about is to allow you the opportunity to convey your thoughts, hopes, wishes about the new Chief Diversity Offi-
cer, what sort of person we should be looking for, what you hope that person will accomplish, what you think the challenges for a person in that position might be.” He explained that he was simply introducing the event and would then leave the room, so as to allow for unrestricted conversation. Members of the search firm, Witt/ Kieffer, then introduced themselves and explained their process. Oliver Tomlin, a senior partner at Witt/Kieffer explained that he understands the Chief Diversity Officer need, as he is a founding member of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, a growing organization with a mission “[t]o lead higher education toward inclusive excellence through institutional transformation,” according to its website. Charlene Aguilar of Witt/Kieffer said that she has worked in higher education for much of her career and has also worked as a college coun-
See CDO, 7 ☛
STUDENT UNION
Fourteen elected in 2nd round of elections ■ Nine Student Union
Senate seats and five Judiciary seats were filled in the election on Tuesday. By ABBY PATKIN JUSTICE Editor
14 seats were filled in the second round of Student Union elections on April 4, according to an April 5 email from Student Union Secretary Shuying Liu ’16. Current North Quad Senator Hannah Brown ’19 and current Class of 2019 Senator Kate Kesselman ’19 won the two Class of 2019 Senator seats, with Brown garnering 142 votes (77 percent of the vote) and Kesselman winning 129 votes (70 percent), according to a document provided to the Justice
by Liu. 24 voters chose the “abstain” option, while seven other wrote in alternative candidates, including performance artist and politician Vermin Supreme. In an email to the Justice, Kesselman wrote that she plans to continue the work she has done in organizing the Midnight Buffet and Turkey Shuttles and forming a good working relationship with Sodexo. “I plan on continuing to work with Sodexo to make the dinning [sic] halls the best they can be and to have more special event meals over the course of next year. I also hope to continue the tradition of Turkey Shuttles and Midnight Buffett [sic] and make them as convenient, entertaining and enjoyable as possible,” she wrote, adding that she hope to make the Allocations Board “work toward
See SU, 7 ☛
Davis Projects for Peace
Team Huddle
’DeisTalks
Brontë Velez ’16 created plantable books that she will bring to Ecuador this summer.
The men's tennis team took 9-0 sweep against Vassar College over the weekend.
Students and scholars covered a variety of topics at the annual TED Talks-style event.
FEATURES 9 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org
Waltham, Mass.
Let your voice be heard! Submit letters to the editor online at www.thejustice.org
INDEX
SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS
17 13
EDITORIAL FEATURES
10 OPINION 8 POLICE LOG
10 2
News 3 COPYRIGHT 2016 FREE AT BRANDEIS.
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TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016
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news
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the justice
NEWS BRIEF
POLICE LOG
Senators discuss potential Union Judiciary amendment and grant Midnight Buffet Senate Money Request in weekly meeting The Senate convened for its weekly meeting on Sunday to recognize a club, pass a Senate Money Request for the Midnight Buffet and discuss amendment changes with the Union Judiciary. After a brief roll call, the meeting began with a presentation from two representatives from Volunteers Around the World, a club seeking recognition from the Union. The student representatives stated that the purpose of the club is to bring dental health programs and art outreach programs to countries around the world. The club would also raise money to give Brandeis students the opportunity to visit these countries and participate in the art and dentistry programs. After a brief debate regarding the cost of the club’s excursions, the Senate voted unanimously to recognize the club. In Executive Officer Reports, Student Union Vice President David Herbstritt ’17 noted that he just put out applications for the Executive Board for next year. Executive Senator Paul Sindberg ’18 discussed his recent meeting with the E-Board, in which they discussed ways to empower the Senate and improve contact with constituents. Sindberg said they also discussed publicizing next year’s housing and dining rates as soon as possible and updating the calendar for the new Allocations Board funding system. In Committee Chair Reports, Sindberg, as the chair of the Services and Outreach Committee, discussed the upcoming Midnight Buffet, which he said is progressing, though the committee is still negotiating with food vendors. North Quad Senator Hannah Brown ’19, the chair of the Senate Dining Committee, announced that a new microwave is being brought to the Einstein Brothers’ Bagels area soon, also noting the recent creation of the Brandeis Dining Instagram account, which has been posting photos of special foods to enhance student outreach. Lastly, Class of 2017 Senator Matt Smetana ’17, the chair of the Senate Sustainability Committee, discussed the progress of the committee’s climate change video series, stating that Dean of Students Jamele Adams will be filmed for the series sometime this week. Next, the Senate voted on the Resolution on Policy from the President’s Task Force on Sustainability, which they had discussed the previous week. There were two abstentions, but all who voted did so unanimously in favor of the resolution. The Senate also voted on a Senate Money Request for the Midnight Buffet, which Sindberg noted had a lower cost than in previous years. All voted unanimously in favor of the SMR. Finally, two members of the Union Judiciary discussed proposed amendments for the Judiciary constitution, which would further define the role of the Judiciary in relation to the rest of the Union, also clarifying the need to maintain communication between the Judiciary and the rest of the Union, the need to define the role of a public defender in the case of a trial and the ability to make some cases confidential if protection is requested, rather than open to the public. There were no individual senator reports or comments during the open forum session, and the Senate adjourned for the night.
Medical Emergency
Apr. 4—University Police received a request for an ambulance transport from the Psychological Counseling Center for a party with depression. The party was transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital for care. Apr. 6—University Police received a request for an ambulance transport from the PCC. Police assisted Cataldo Ambulance with the transport and brought the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. Apr. 6—Police received a report of a party in the Shiffman Humanities Center who had fallen off their crutches. BEMCo staff treated the party on the scene with a signed refusal for further care. Apr. 7—A report stated a party in the Heller School with neck pains and a history of seizures may go into a seizure. The party was transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital for care. Apr. 8—A caller from Sherman reported their friend had a possible sprained ankle from playing basketball. BEMCo staff treated the party on the scene with a
signed refusal for further care. Apr. 8—Police received a report of two Tufts University students who injured themselves playing soccer on Gordon Field. One Tufts student was hit in the face by a soccer ball and lost a tooth, while the other had an injury to their hand. The two were transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. Apr. 9—Police received a report from North Quad of a party with stomach pains. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. Apr. 10—Police received a report of a party in the Village Quad who was feeling ill. The party was treated on scene with a signed refusal for further care.
Larceny
Apr. 7—Police received a report from a party in Sherman Dining Hall who reported their bag was taken while left unattended. Police compiled a report, and a check of the closed-circuit television footage of the common area was unhelpful, since the theft was out of camera view.
Drugs
Apr. 4—The Area Coordinator in East Quad found drug contraband. Police confiscated the contraband and compiled a report on the incident. The Area Coordinator handled a Community Standards Report on the incident. Apr. 7—A caller from Ziv Quad reported a strong smell of marijuana coming from the floor below their apartment. The Area Coordinator was notified to check the situation.
Vandalism
Apr. 6—A party from the Shapiro Campus Center reported vandalism in the women’s bathroom. Police on the scene reported there were just indiscriminate pen marks inside one of the bathroom stalls. Custodial staff was notified for a clean up with no permanent damage. Police took no further action on the matter.
Disturbance
SPRING HAS SPRUNG
Justice
the
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Apr. 9—A party on Loop Road was discovered by Police on patrol to be standing on top of a University vehicle. The party was intoxicated from alcohol consumption and was placed under protective custody due to their incapacitated state. Police identified the party as a student and transported them to the Waltham Police Department for booking and detention. Police compiled a report on the incident and a Community Standards Report. The Area Coordinator on Call was notified of the incident. — Compiled by Avi Gold.
BRIEF
Grad residents to pay repair costs after coins used to prop doors open
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Email editor@ thejustice.org.
Other
Apr. 9—Police received a report about a party in East Quad
—Rachel Sharer
n An Arts review of “The Wiz” incorrectly stated that four dancers personified the twister, when there were only two dancers. The same review also incorrectly implied that Executive Costume Designer Ana-Sofia Meneses ’16 was principally responsible for the show’s costume design. Meneses oversaw the costuming but did not design the costumes. Additionally, the review incorrectly stated that the set was designed by Sivan Ertel ‘18 and Harry Furer ’17. Ertel and Furer constructed the set, but it was designed principally by Chinyere Brown ’17 (April 5, page 18).
who opened their residential door and urinated in their room and the hallway common area. Police responded and identified the party as an intoxicated student. Police filed a report on the incident and opened a Community Standards Report. Apr. 10—Loud music was reported in the area of the Charles River Apartments. Police checked the area and found all quiet upon arrival.
YUE SHEN/the Justice
Students play games and lead activities during Harumatsuri, the annual Japanese Spring Festival. The event, which took place at the Intercultural Center, was hosted by the Japanese Students Association.
The University will be billing residents in the Charles River Apartments collectively for repair costs associated with doors propped open with coins, according to an email sent to residents from Dayshawn Simmons, the Area Coordinator for Charles River Apartments and the Foster Mods. “The cost associated to have a locksmith come down to Charles River to remove coins from the doors is no longer appropriate for Brandeis to allow this to continue,” Simmons wrote in his email, which went out on Monday. “Additionally, propping doors to residence halls in any form presents a security risk to the community. In conducting health and safety inspections recently, the CA staff and I noticed that many of you do not lock your suite doors. Having the swipe card doors propped and not locking your suite doors presents a serious security risk for our community that we all have a responsibility in addressing.” The technique of using a coin to prop a door open involves sliding a coin into the door hinge to prevent it from closing completely. Simmons’ email stated that there have been 58 work orders for propped doors to date, though he noted “that number does not include the coins the CA staff and police officers remove on their own on a nightly basis to ensure the security of the Charles River buildings.” As to why all Charles River residents will be billed collectively, Simmons wrote, “this is an issue that occurs in each of the four buildings in Charles River. While the CA staff and I share the frustration this may bring to some of you, the Department of Community Living, alongside Brandeis Police and Facilities Management, have a responsibility of ensuring the safety and security of our residence halls.” Students in Ziv 127 were previously collectively billed $23 per student when fire panels and electric door systems were damaged in October, according to a Dec. 8 Justice article. Simmons did not respond to requests for comment as of press time. —Abby Patkin
ANNOUNCEMENTS Heschel and the Civil Rights Movement
Join us for a lecture exploring the role of Rabbi Heschel in the Civil Rights movement. Heschel joined Dr. King in the Selma March and was a major moral voice in 1960s America on both Civil Rights and Vietnam. His most recent book, Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Sources of Wonder, published by University of Toronto Press, will be released in March. Today from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Mandel Reading Room.
Boston Strong Blood Drive
The Third Annual Boston Strong Blood Drive is the Waltham Group’s largest drive of the year and commemorates the resilience of Boston following the Boston Marathon bombings. There will be a silent auction (gift certificates from Whole Foods, baskets from Trader Joe’s) and free food from local restaurants (Baan Thai, Chateau, Santa Banta) for all
those who donate or volunteer. Tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Sherman Function Hall.
“The Rope” and the Trials of Iraq
Please join us for an event to mark the publication of the new book by Kanan Makiya and to celebrate his work as the Sylvia K. Hassenfeld Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University. “The Rope” is a gritty and unflinching novel about Iraq in the wake of the 2003 American invasion, as seen through the eyes of a Shi’ite militiaman whose participation in the execution of Saddam Hussein changes his life in ways he could never have anticipated. Tomorrow from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Rapaporte Treasure Hall.
Archie’s Betty
The documentarian, Gerald Peary, a devoted Archie fan, searches for the real-life people behind the characters in Archie Comics, the
influential teen comic strip still popular almost 75 years after its creation. Were Archie, Betty, Veronica, Moose and Jughead based on actual students who Bob Montana, the original Archie cartoonist, had gone to high school with in the 1930s in the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts? Is the person who inspired blonde Betty still alive? Tomorrow from 5 to 7 p.m. in Mandel G12.
Profiles in Courage
How did American television portray the decision of President Woodrow Wilson, half a century earlier, to nominate Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court? Join Profs. Thomas Doherty (AMST), Stephen Whitfield (AMST) and Daniel Breen (LGLS) for a screening of the Feb. 14, 1965 episode of “Profiles in Courage” that depicted the nomination of Louis D. Brandeis by President Wilson. A Q&A discussion will follow. Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Golding Judaica Center Auditorium.
the justice
CAMPUS SPEAKER
campus as part of the Brandeis Anthropology Research Seminar series. By ABBY PATKIN JUSTICE EDITOR
Belief in the potential of the younger generation causes the previous generation to shirk everything they know about financial reason and take on massive amounts of student loan debts, argued New York University professor Caitlin Zaloom in a lecture on Friday. The lecture, titled “American Oikos: Finance, Family, and the Student Loan Crisis,” was held as the eighth annual Robert Hunt Lecture in Economic Anthropology. Zaloom, whose works include “Out of the Pits: Traders and Technology from Chicago to London,” described her work as focusing on the “relationship between U.S. households and the financial industry through the lens of student debt.” Toward the beginning of the lecture, she told a story about a former student of hers who had come to her in tears because she was offered a high-paying job that she feared she would be forced to take — even though its primary responsibilities conflicted with her personal beliefs — for the sole reason that she needed it to pay off her student loan debts. This fate is not uncommon, Zaloom explained. Average debt per borrower in 2015 was $35,000, with 71 percent of students graduating from fouryear colleges having some amount of student loan debt. The system of student loans is unique in its societal impact due to the repercussions it can have on a student’s career choices and abilities to buy a car, purchase a home or even marry, she argued. These effects, in turn, impact the entire community’s economy via automotive sales and the housing industry, among other things. Additionally, student loans are something of a misnomer, as the responsibility to pay the loans back can often fall not only on the student but on the student’s family as well, Zaloom added. She told the group that approximately 17 percent of parents take out loans for their children, averaging out to about $31,000 in loans per student. Often, she said, these loans will be the second-largest financial investment a family will make, outside of their home mortgage. She then touched briefly on historical trends of financialization, which she said could be looked at in two categories: the expansion of industry — the economic boom in United States over the last century — and the rise of the culture of finance for the individual — the notion of self-focused spending for things like education or personal commodities. These two changes, she argued, have “turned
culture into a reflection of its own logics [through] expansion of calculative ethos.” She added that there is a long tradition of Americans thinking of family units as the foundation of society, yet financialization places emphasis on individuality. Moreover, she continued, “financial economy monetizes intergenerational commitments,” meaning that an individual’s dedication to their child or parent is put into terms of their willingness or ability to pay for education or old-age care. Approaching the topic from an anthropological perspective, Zaloom briefly examined the history of the home economy, going as far back as the ancient Greeks, whose term “oikonomia” is the basis for “economy.” The Greeks, she explained, viewed household management as an important task, with the household operating for the purpose of cultivating its members. To oversee the organization of a household, Zaloom added, was to be virtuous. Transitioning back toward examining the current student loan debt issue, Zaloom explained that loans like the federal PLUS Loan allow parents to take out debt in their names for the purpose of paying for their child’s education. She explained that throughout her interviews with parents who had taken on such debt, one theme came up over and over again: the parents’ belief that their child was full of potential. This potential — the child’s ability to realize their skills and passions via higher education — proved more valuable to parents than their child’s potential as a wage earner for the family, she explained. This emphasis on potential, Zaloom argued, makes getting students into the right college and the right atmosphere for development crucial, thereby leading discussion away from the economic realities of which school is actually affordable. “The bonds of love and obligation [make families] ignore the constraints of the purse strings,” she said. A question-and-answer session followed the lecture. Prof. Sarah Lamb (ANTH) asked about the language the parents used in the interviews to talk about their motives for taking out student loans. Zaloom explained that the interviews ended up focusing almost exclusively on the idea of students’ potential, though she noted that many parents were initially reluctant to talk to her due to societal stigma against talking about money. She added later in the question-andanswer section that this lack of openness on finances made for an interesting dynamic between students and parents, as many students were unaware of their parents’ incomes and debts, despite the fact that these figures were directly impacting them.
news
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TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016
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KEEPING BUSY
Scholar lectures on anthropology of student loans ■ Zaloom spoke on
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MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice
THE BRUSH-OFF: Anna Kaufman ’10 addressed the meaning of the word “busy” in everyday life during her talk last Tuesday.
Speakers come together to educate in ’DeisTalks ■ The TED Talks-style event
shed light on a variety of topics, bringing together many speakers. By SPENCER TAFT JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Last Tuesday saw the arrival of ’DeisTalks, a TED Talks-style discussion on various topics with speakers from both within the University community and outside of it. The event, hosted by the Education for Students by Students Board, sought to shed light on different topics, such as anxiety and the myth of the “model minority” which are not often discussed in public discourse. The talks began with Kat Semerau ’17, who discussed the flaws in the gender binary and its tendency to pigeonhole people into certain behaviors. She drew upon examples from her own life, such as the marketing of Luna bars toward women, which she said led her male friends to believe they could not enjoy them as well. “The gender binary arises out of fear,” she said at the beginning of her presentation. “We must overcome our fear of being on the ‘other’ side of the gender dichotomy.” Next came Mom’s Choice Awardwinning children’s author and cognitive therapist Leanne Matlow, who gave her talk about coping with anxiety and the importance of teaching children the difference between basic everyday “functional” anxiety and the harmful chronic “dysfunctional” anxiety. Emphasizing coping with anxiety as a “life skill,” she took the opportunity to talk about her personal experience with loss and how that brought about anxiety within herself,
which inspired her to begin writing for children in the first place. “It is a choice to cope. It’s often difficult, but never impossible, to be resilient,” she urged the audience. Then, Lilian Wang ’18 took the stage, centering her talk around the myth of the “model minority” and how Asian-Americans, having “ostensibly received high levels of success” relative to other minority groups, are negatively impacted by the model minority myth, arguing that it pits different racial and ethnic groups against each other and masks the struggles of some groups, such as Pacific Islanders, behind the overall success of other Asian groups, since all Asian American groups are often erroneously lumped together. In order to fix this, Wang proposed a system of “three A’s”: awareness, attitude and advocate, saying that, “Even though, as individuals, our impact may seem small, we can bring change.” Next up was Michelle Oberman ’17, who is studying to be a veterinarian. Her talk was on the importance of expanding the term “social justice” to include animal rights. Citing the works of animal rights activist Richard D. Ryder among others, Oberman made the point that on a fundamental level, humans have no reason to treat animals as poorly as they do in factory farms and other such practices, especially when they have renounced similar practices committed against humans via the institution of slavery. “We need to recognize the limits of our social justice narrative,” Oberman said. “Unlike humans, no matter their intelligence or sentience, animals do not have the capacity to speak out for proper treatment.” Jared Swezey-Gleason ’16 was next to address the audience, giving his talk on how breaking down the barrier
between science and subjective experience can help inform the pursuit of knowledge. “If we can break down the walls between ourselves and our subjective experience,” Swezey-Gleason argued. “We can see the walls between our experiences.” Alumna Anna Kaufman ’10 took the podium next, focusing on the word “busy” and how referring to oneself as “busy” sells short the impact of what an individual chooses to do with their time, given that “busy” is a generalized term used to brush aside opportunities under the guise of having vague things to do, as opposed to valuing everything they spend their time on as an individual experience. “My challenge to you,” Kaufman told the audience, “is to choose who you spend time with. Decide where you go and take control of the aspects of your life.” Daniela Dimitrova ’16, an international student from Bulgaria, closed the event with a discussion on the values of an interdisciplinary liberal arts education. Citing her own frequent changes in major, Dimitrova stressed the opportunities afforded by taking classes outside of one’s comfort zone. “The first piece of advice I got in college was to not be afraid to skip the occasional class,” Dimitrova said at the beginning of her piece, quickly clarifying, “and when you skip class, don’t sleep in or just be lazy; go to a lecture or an event.” Toward the end of her talk, she stated, “I am just advocating for taking the leap and choosing what you do with your time.” Overall, ’DeisTalks had a heavy emphasis on personal liberty and choice, and through the voices of its speakers, it showed the power of personal choice on a wide variety of topics. —Editor’s Note: Kat Semerau ’17 is a columnist for the Justice.
MAKING A CHANGE
Interested in journalism? Tired of wondering what’s going on? Want to be the first to know the facts? Be a reporter for theJustice!
Contact Abby Patkin at news@thejustice.org for more information
AMANDA NGUYEN/the Justice
Interim University President Lisa Lynch and Matt Smetana ’17 discuss climate change at “Reducing Our Carbon Footprint: Our Mission, Our Responsibility” on Thursday.
summer
seton hall
COPY
Do you enjoy museums, music, theater or movies? Try Something New This Summer Experience Seton Hall Come on over to our campus, or meet us online.
Write for Arts!
Earn credits toward your degree, or explore a new interest.
Visit our bustling downtown, and when school is out, grab a train to the shore or NYC.
It’s all happening at The Hall this summer.
www.shu.edu/summer16
Contact Lizzie Grossman at arts@thejustice.org
THE JUSTICE
LATIN@
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By ABBY PATKIN JUSTICE EDITOR
AARON BIRNBAUM/the Justice
MT Dávila lectures on the large Latino population within the Christian church during, “Promise and Challenges of Latin@ Christianity in the United States” on Wednesday.
BRIEF Melissa Woolsey hired as assistant director for student rights and community standards, will take over Student Conduct Board
COLLECTIVE GUILT
TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016
Woolsey went on to write that the Student Conduct Board “allows our students moving through the process [of alleged University policy violation] to have choices on how they would like to have their case heard. Additionally, it allows a space for our own Brandeis students to hold each other accountable to the high standards that have been set at this institution.” “I am most excited to immerse myself in the culture of a new and unique university community,” Woolsey shared. “Brandeis students have such a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, interests and affiliations; it is truly exciting to be able to work with such an exceptional student body.” —Rachel Moore
The Board of Trustees has voted to award Prof. Jonathan Sarna (NEJS) ’75 M.A. ’75 the title of University Professor — the highest distinction that can be given to a professor, according to the University’s website. There are currently only three other University Professors: Profs. David Hackett Fischer (HIST), Anita Hill (HS) and Steve Goldstein (BCBP) ’78. The title is “awarded to Brandeis faculty members of surpassing eminence whose work cuts across disciplinary boundaries,” according to the University’s website. “It was obviously a great honor,” Sarna — who has been with the University since 1990 — said in a phone interview with the Justice. “I’ve received hundreds of messages on Facebook and email, … [and] I did not expect that this honor would be a way of reconnecting with so many people, but that too has been very gratifying.” “Jonathan Sarna embodies the highest ideals of scholarship through his groundbreaking research, inspired teaching and public engagement. He is truly deserving of this honor,” Interim University President Lisa Lynch said of Sarna, according to an April 8 BrandeisNOW article. In his interview with the Justice, Sarna reflected on his time at the University, explaining that the highlights of his career at the University span from professional to scholarly to teaching achievements, noting that nurturing students and helping them reach their own milestones has proven especially fulfilling. In terms of his work as one of the leading scholars of American Jewish history, Sarna said, “Books are a bit like your children, and each
one is born. … ‘American Judaism’ was one I’d always wanted to write. Its publication was really exciting, and the response to it was also a great thrill, … but each book is exciting in its own way.” His Sarna “American Judaism: A History” received an outpouring of praise, winning the Jewish Book Council’s Jewish Book of the Year Award in 2004. While he is scheduled to take a sabbatical next year, he said he is considering adding some new courses when he comes back. n particular, he said he hopes to teach a course on American Judaism and capitalism, which he said would show how the world of business and the free market affect American Jewish life. He added that he has also considered teaching a course on the Soviet Jewry Movement, in which he played a small role. A course on this movement would be especially important, he said, because the significance of the movement has not yet been fully understood in undergraduate academia, and it was one of the most important human rights campaigns of the post war era. Sarna, the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History also chairs the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at the University, according to his faculty profile. He also serves as the president of the Association for Jewish Studies and the Chief Historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History. He graduated summa cum laude from the University in 1975 with highest honors in Judaic Studies and History. Per tradition, Sarna will deliver a University Professor lecture to the community, though the date has yet to be announced as of press time, according to the BrandeisNOW article.
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WENLI BAO/the Justice
Prof. John Burt (ENG) speaks on the notion of “collective” guilt in Lincoln’s second inaugural in a lecture on Tuesday.
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Prof. Jonathan Sarna (NEJS) made Univ. Professor only four current University Professors — the highest title for professors.
Assistant … working within their Dean of Students Office, in the Office of Student Conduct.” Woolsey is currently completing her Masters in Higher Education Administration at BC and will graduate next month. Regarding her aspirations for her newfound place at Brandeis, Woolsey hopes to “have meaningful conversations that develop into supportive relationships with students” as “another person of support for the student body.” For the Student Conduct Board in particular, she aims to “help [the board members] to achieve their own personal goals” and to “get to know [her] students on the conduct board, in order to be able to understand and tailor their conduct board experience.”
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FACULTY
■ Sarna was named one of
Melissa Woolsey — who has been named the assistant director for student rights and community standards — will helm the University’s Student Conduct Board. Woolsey wrote in an email to the Justice that she first “began to feel very passionate about Student Affairs” at her alma mater, Adrian College, where she worked as an Admissions Counselor. As an undergraduate, Woolsey studied Psychology and Criminal Justice while playing for the varsity soccer team and acting as the president of the Psi Chi honor society. From Adrian College — which is located in her home state of Michigan — Woolsey traveled to Boston College. There, she wrote, she “accepted a position as a Graduate
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Recently-admitted prospective students get a taste of Brandeis through some of the many activities on Admitted Students day, which took place on Sunday morning.
BAATF: Committee looking into Theresa Kay Fellow as second meeting approaches several current Brandeis faculty members “keen on contributing courses and other support to the new program,” but she believes the program will need at least one more full-time professor “whose central expertise is Asian American Studies.” Lamb said the committee hopes to make this hire, and added that the current course’s high enrollment “certainly supports the BAATF’s argument that students at Brandeis want and need more courses in Asian American studies.” Student members of the committee said on Monday night that the committee is looking into finding a Theresa Kay Fellow — a postdoctoral student on a two-year appointment — but must find two departments in the existing structure for
the Fellow to be involved in. The Fellow would focus on Asian-American studies within those departments. This may be discussed at the committee’s upcoming second meeting. Chung, who could not be reached by press time, will be the third professor to teach “The Asian American Experience.” According to American Studies chair Prof. Thomas Doherty (AMST) in an email to the Justice, the founder of American Studies at the University — Thomas Fuchs — taught the first course on the Asian American Experience in the 1980s. The University hired an assistant professor to carry on the class when Fuchs retired, but when she left the University “five or six years ago,” the University did not replace the position despite repeated requests by the American Studies depart-
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CDO: Students discuss hopes for incoming administrator
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ment, according to Doherty. He described the field as “vital to an understanding of American culture.” Doherty wrote that he consulted with “several local experts in the field” when searching for a professor for the course and said Chung’s name was “first on the list.” Chung also met with some committee members and students “as a courtesy,” according to Doherty. He wrote that American Studies is “delighted to be offering the course and we hope Mr. Chung’s hiring signals a renewed commitment to the field of Asian American studies on the part of the administration.” Julie Ruiz ’17, BAATF’s vice president, said on Monday that BAATF hopes to work toward establishing an Asian-American Studies Center and diversifying faculty in the future.
selor, visiting Brandeis multiple times throughout the years. Finally, Christine Pendleton explained that the job of Witt/Kieffer would be to develop a leadership profile detailing the desired characteristics that she and her colleagues learn from these discussion sessions. They then would sell candidates on the job using the profile they compile as a baseline job description to base their search on. Later in the discussion, Tomlin added that they would not only accept applications but that they would actively search people out who they believe would be good in the position, whether they are already employed or not. He said that the “usual suspects” already hold similar positions at other universities or are consultants on diversity but that there are always applications from all over the map. After Witt/Kieffer compiles all of the applications and sorts them based on which candidates they think would be best for the job, the applications will be passed on to the search committee, made up of four faculty members, four staff members and four students (two undergraduate, two graduate), and they will narrow the applications down. Once there are three or four final candidates, they will come to campus to meet with students, faculty and staff for their input. Finally, incoming University President Ronald Liebowitz will make the final decision — with input from the rest of the University community — by the end of July, explained Epstein. While it is unclear exactly what the duties of this position will be, Epstein wrote in an email to the Justice, “In general, we see this individual as the focal point of a wide range of campus-wide efforts to enhance diversity, inclusion and equity at Brandeis, including strategic planning for future initiatives. Since the CDO will report directly to the president, these issues will have a prominent voice in discussions at the highest levels of the university.” This is the same position that was referred to earlier in the year during Ford Hall 2015 discussions as “Senior Vice President for Diversity,” according to Epstein’s email to the Justice. Students then raised concerns that the presence of the Justice at the event would inhibit free conversation and prevent students from speaking openly. Epstein, along with several
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students and a member of Witt/Kiefer, urged the Justice to leave and then declared that this reporter would only be present as a student and not a reporter. The Justice chose to remain at this event due to the fact that it was open to the entire University community and that the University had given no indication before the event that it was closed to press. Epstein wrote in an email to the Justice, “After my initial remarks, I left the event, stating that I wanted students to feel free to express themselves candidly without concerns that their comments would be monitored by the administration and that all comments would be confidential. The search firm made the same point about confidentiality.” He added, “Soon after, I received a message that several students had expressed concerns that a reporter was present and that her presence would inhibit their ability to speak freely to the representatives of the search firm. I therefore returned to the meeting and had a conversation with Hannah, during which I told her of the students' concerns and also told her that while she was free to attend as a student, she needed to limit her reporting to a general characterization of the meeting and not report specific remarks or individual students' names, unless they chose to speak with her after the meeting.” After the process was explained, Epstein left the event, and it opened up to a general discussion about what students hope to see the CDO accomplish and what qualifications they hope the candidates have. One of the primary student concerns was that the CDO represent the diversity of the students, both in his or her academic and cultural background. One student voiced concern that the administration is primarily made up of white, Jewish men and that this position should not necessarily fit that mold. Another student hope voiced by several attendees was that the incoming CDO be willing to interrogate the subject of diversity at all levels, from the administration down through student groups and everything in between. Students explained that this also needs to be addressed within the classroom and in University pedagogy, as well as that diversity of ideas and perspectives need to be included in and accepted in curriculums and in classroom discussions.
SU: Class of 2018 marks highest turnout in election CONTINUED FROM 1 becoming more organized and fair by trying to make policies clearer and by having more face to face contact with clubs, so that clubs feel that Aboard is more approachable and helpful.” In the race for the two Class of 2018 Senator seats, Christian Nunez ’18 and current Village Quad Senator Abhishek Kulkarni ’18 edged out Zhiqing (Gloria) Zheng ’18 with 204 (74 percent) and 87 votes (32 percent), respectively. Nunez previously ran for the Student Union presidency, losing in a narrow election to current Student Union Vice President David Herbstritt ’17. Current Ziv Quad Senator Gwenyth Fraser ’17 and current Class of 2017 Senator Ryan Tracy ’17 were elected Class of 2017 Senators, with Fraser winning 135 votes (69 percent) and Tracy garnering 92 votes (47 percent) over opponent Brittany Finney’s ’17 74 votes. For the two Senator at Large seats, Shaquan McDowell ’18 and current Class of 2019 Senator Na-
than Greess ’19 edged out opponents Ethan Seletsky ’17 and Ben Margolin ’17, with 425 (54 percent) and 294 votes (38 percent), respectively. In an email to the Justice, McDowell wrote that his decision to run “stems from a desire to create a more cohesive community, where this idea of ‘social justice’ that Brandeis constantly markets itself on, actually finds a place to flourish. We've arrived at a time where , in the mist [sic] of recent social movements, our community stands at an integral moment in our progression. … I've always has [sic] a passion for creating a world where we as people can actually sit down, converse, and come to consensus as to what we need to do.” He added that he hopes to create spaces where “those of conflicting stances can engage in discussion, without condemnation, in order to arrive at a place of understanding,” and that his ultimate goal is to advocate on behalf of the student body. “As expected, I have a commitment to ending racial injustice, promotion of gender equality, and
my passion for making the voices of youth heard and it is true that each of these will play an integral role in my advocacy in the union. … It is important that we emphasize and restructure how our union is operating and connecting with our student body. Without this, none of what we are trying to accomplish, is a possibility,” he added, citing a need for greater communication and transparency of Student Union and University operations. Lian Chen ’19 won the race for Racial Minority Senator with 224 votes, or 77 percent of the vote. In an interview with the Justice, Chen stated that she decided to run because she wanted to serve the student body and “listen to their voices.” She added that she had initially wanted to run for office in the fall but wished to get a better sense of the community before acting as a representative. Looking ahead toward next year, Chen noted that she wishes to focus on reaching out to the community and giving a voice to minorities and
other underserved groups. “I like the feeling that everyone is equal and friendly in this [campus] atmosphere,” she said, adding that she would like to better incorporate minority voices in the Student Union. “There are some voices [that are] not really reached.” She said that she hopes to make student resources more widely available through the Internet, also explaining, “I just want people to come to me and be comfortable and we can make this community an even warmer place.” Finally, for the five open Student Union Judiciary Associate Justice seats, Lilly Hecht ’18, Becky Israel ’17, Eric Danowski ’18, Stephanie Sjoblom ’17 and Brooke Granovsky ’18 won. Hecht won 414 votes, Israel won 327, 371 votes went to Danowski, Sjoblom got 366 and Granovsky won 390 votes. In an email to the Justice, Granovsky wrote that her goals for next year focus primarily on outreach and judicial protocol. On her wish to connect with the student body, she wrote: “An organization
that mitigates club disputes is only useful if the clubs in question know the organization exists. I want to publicize the Judiciary's office hours, and reach out to club leaders, to expand the Brandeis community's engagement with the Union's Judicial branch.” She added that she believes it is important to “clarify what qualifies as a conflict of interest, and in what situations/through what process members of the branch should recuse themselves.” “I plan to use my term to ensure that the Judiciary stays true to the Union's constitution in all its rulings, and that it holds the Union and the University's clubs to this same standard,” she concluded. The class of 2018 had the largest voter turnout by a margin of 86 voters, with 290 members of the class of 2018 voting, as compared to the class of 2017’s 204 voters, the class of 2019’s 195 voters and the class of 2016’s 145 voters. —Brooke Granovsky '18 is a staff writer in the Arts section.
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features
TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016 ● Features ● The Justice
just
VERBATIM | MOTHER TERESA I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
ON THIS DAY…
FUN FACT
In 1872, Jesse James robbed a bank in Kentucky of $1,500, killing one man in the process.
A group of owls is called a parliament. The term was adopted from C.S. Lewis’ book descriptions.
The art from war Filmmaker Serge de Sampigny premiered his World War I documentary Verdun By SAGIE TVIZER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Last Wednesday, many gathered in the Wasserman Cinematheque, where the History department and the Film, Television and Interactive Media program co-hosted the North-American film premiere of “Verdun, They Won’t Pass.” The film is a historical documentary created by Serge de Sampigny, a French filmmaker who has written and produced three historical documentaries previously. Prof. Paul Jankowski (HIST), whose work deals primarily with the history of modern war, was the contributing historian for the documentary. Both he and Sampigny attended the documentary screening and answered questions posed by the audience afterward. The 10-month long Battle of Verdun, on which the documentary is focused, was fought between Germany and France during World War I. In 2016, the battle will reach its 100-year anniversary. Between the two armies, approximately 300,000 soldiers died during this engagement. The battle itself took place near the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France. German forces, commanded by General Erich von Falkenhayn, sought to utilize their strong artillery and strategic positioning to draw French forces into hostilities designed to exhaust their resources and armed forces. De Sampigny distinguished this anniversary from the 50th anniversary on the basis of an entirely different political word climate. “In 1966, when people commemorated the 50th birthday, the French had something else in mind. They were thinking about reconciliation with Germany [after World War II]. … we are very good friends with Germany now,” he said during the presentation. Much of Jankowski’s work deals with the history of modern war. Jankowski describes his approach to
historical research as an attempt to account for as many historical factors as possible by utilizing sources from and methods of traditional, cultural and social history, with the aim of contextualizing war. “Traditional military history studied outcomes. Why did Napoleon lose at Waterloo? What explains this? … I think there’s a place for that. More recently, history has become a study of much more … What does it say about the societies that waged these battles? What does it say about the mental universe of the soldiers on the field? What does it say about the diplomacy? What does it say about the ways of thinking? In other words, the history of war is now a history of the societies and minds that fought it,” Jankowski explained to the audience. In an interview with the Justice, Sampigny spoke about the absurdity of the battle and the struggle of historians to understand how and why the battle occurred. “Nowadays, it seems to all of us … absurd, such bloodshed. But, the soldiers one century ago accepted the fight. The question for me was: why?” As such, the documentary, just as Jankowski’s book (‘Verdun: The Longest Battle of the Greatest War’) focuses on the ‘myth of Verdun.’ Sampigny described the myth as the notion “that the French, all together equal before death, fought in Verdun to protect the fatherland which was very threatened and that they would be united in this.” Sampigny described the necessity of studying this battle in particular: “From the French point of view, we have to get rid of this myth and try to consider the battle by itself.” Jankowski added, “It’s also important in French memory because it is a defensive battle. The French didn’t start this battle; the Germans did. The French didn’t start this war; the Germans did.” Sampigny explained the difficulties of producing this documentary. He noted that the film needed to strike a delicate balance between being “critical and indulgent.” Sampigny clarified that the battle has taken
on the connotation of being purely irrational and hellish in the eyes of the general public due to the lack of knowledge regarding the battle’s intricacies. While he sought to explain the French motives in extending the battle to the extent they did, he was careful not to romanticize such efforts in the film. The French fought to defend Verdun, which was seen as lacking in any strategic importance outside of any symbolism. Sampigny explained further that he struggled “to find films, … [as] cinema was very new in 1916. … My solution was to film that field like it is nowadays. And the other thing was to find some cinema films which were filmed 10 years after the war with actors who were former soldiers most of the time and were filmed precisely on this battlefield.” After the screening, one audience member inquired about the possibility of a strategic necessity in defending Verdun. Jankowski quickly responded that there was a minimal chance that German forces would have been able to or desired to advance past Verdun. Jankowski dispelled a common misinterpretation of the new scholarly works on the Battle of Verdun and delivered a thoughtprovoking message: “What we call the myth is not meant to be a pejorative term. … These things arise naturally. It’s not a matter of conscious lying or fabrication or propaganda. It’s entirely understandable. Historians have an obligation to say, ‘Yes; here’s the legend; now let’s look at what actually happened.’” Some of the lessons to be learned from lengthy World War I battles are shrouded in military strategy and a lack of access to resources. As such, the efforts of individuals like Paul Jankowski and Serge de Sampigny can help these historical lessons to be accessed. Sampigny concluded his interview with the Justice with one such reflection: “Even if we can’t imagine [the battle] because it is so mad, it can very quickly happen.”
PHOTOS BY AVITAL SIMONE/the Justice
SPEAKING OF HISTORY: Prof. Paul Jankowski (HIST), the contributing historian to the film, spoke to the crowded Wasserman Cinematheque.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL JANKOWSKI
HISTORICAL FILMMAKER: Serge de Sampigny explains the significance of the Battle of Verdun in World War I.
the justice ● Features ● TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016
FROM THE GROUND UP: Brontë Velez ’16 was first inspired to create plantable books by a project she completed for her class Art of the Visual Narrative. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION DAISY CHEN/the Justice
Growing Narratives Brontë Velez ’16 will travel to Ecuador this summer with her plantable books By JAIME KAISER JUSTICE EDITOR
Each student in her class was asked to produce a sculpture made from a book. In a spurt of inspiration, Brontë Velez ’16 decided to cut a hole through her book’s pages and fill it with soil and a dead bouquet of flowers. She reached out to Harry Pickering, an artist-friend from Vassar College whom she met while studying in Prague that day. “I texted him and said, ‘Yo, we should make some plantable books,’” Velez explained in an interview with the Justice. That class assignment spawned a project Velez will head this summer. From the end of June to August, Velez will be in Quito, Ecuador on a $10,000 grant awarded by the Davis Project for Peace Initiative. She will carry out a project titled SeluSemilla to curate a collective narrative of indigenous, Kichwa-speaking communities. The stories will be penned in biodegradable books that are planted in the earth and contain tree seeds in their pages. The Davis grant program was created on the 100th birthday of Kathryn W. Davis, a lifelong internationalist and philanthropist, and aims to fund projects that are “building blocks for a sustainable peace.” “SeluSemilla” is a combination of the words Selu, the Tsalagi word for maize, and Semilla, the Spanish word for seed. Selu is also the name of the harvest goddess who plants her heart in the ground in order to sustain her community, according to Cherokee mythology. Velez is an Atlanta Posse Scholar and came to Brandeis with the intention of immersing herself in a world of art and peacebuilding. But when she started enrolling in Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies classes, she realized that she fundamentally disagreed with some of their core concepts: one she specifically opposed was reconciliation. “Most of the ideas around reconciliation involve asking oppressed groups to forgive oppressors in ways that I feel re-inflict and reify trauma. I started to think that it’s
not their job to forgive, that maybe there are other methods of healing,” she said. This caused Velez to create an interdisciplinary major called “The Arts, Identity and Community Building,” but the rigorously reflective Velez now questions the phrasing of her major and says she might change it in applications. Nevertheless, the major led her to take a wide breadth of courses. “It’s a kind of conglomeration of several different arts. The identity portion is centered in the African diaspora … learning from the most marginalized groups as a method for all of our freedom,” she said. The class in which Velez was enrolled that inspired her project was Prof. Cameron Anderson’s (THA) Art of the Visual Narrative. The dead book-bouquet was intended as an elegy to the unfinished work of Phillis Wheatley, an 18th-century African-American poet and slave who was forced to stand in from of a panel of mostly white men at Faneuil Hall to prove that her poetry was hers. “Her life ended with a lot of unfinished poetry, because when she was freed from her masters, she couldn’t get her work published, and she died alone. And I started to think, … what if a book could be planted and kind of finished. Like if all this unfinished work could be finished in the earth,” said Velez. The community where Velez’s project will take root this summer has an interesting linguistic situation. The oldest generation speaks the native Kichwa language. Their children speak both Kichwa and Spanish, as does the next generation, though they strongly prefer Spanish. Most of the youngest generation speaks only Spanish. With that in mind, the project will consist of a series of intergenerational storytelling workshops centered on the theme of past, present and future. “I have no ownership over this concept,” Velez stressed. She characterized herself as a facilitator and also said that her role in the storymaking aspect of the project will be akin to the job of an editor or curator. She also stressed a lack
of ownership over both the concept of plantable books and the collective stories of the people in Ecuador. After the stories have been written, designed, bound by hand and then planted, an online portal will map where individual books are buried and offer a digital space for people to share stories. In an attempt to be sensitive to any potential environmental degradation the project might create, Velez intends to consult the experts. She’s already been in touch with the environmental department at the University of San Francisco, Quito about this. “I’m collaborating to make sure we’re doing the research to say, ‘What are most reforestation organizations trying to plant? What are the specific community needs?’” Velez explained. Velez intends to market the biodegradable books to missionary organizations and other volunteer groups coming to Ecuador on reforestation projects. By planting one of these books, “they are considering the people who have been killed, whose knowledge has been erased,” she said. “They’re not just plants.” SeluSemilla has clear aims to capitalize on the particular knowledge and skills of indigenous populations while challenging conventional, western, white notions. Velez recognizes that many in these Ecuadoran communities are already farmers, for example. “These people know how to work with the land,’ Velez said. “I’m interested in sacred economies and gift economies that can exist outside of our traditional concept of economy.” Velez views the project as a way to offer particular skillsets to communities that are being asked to institutionalize their traditions. “People are interested in modernity,” she explained. “Yes, they want to maintain their traditions, but they also want to learn how to use computers, design and I’m so into that.” After this summer, Velez will continue her work with peacebuilding and the environment as one of twelve participants of a Spiritual Ecology Youth Fellowship while based in Atlanta.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BRONTË VELEZ
ART AND ACTIVISM: Velez created her own interdisciplinary major focused on art in building identity and community. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION DAISY CHEN/the Justice
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10 TUESDAY, April 12, 2016 ● forum ● THE JUSTICE
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Max Moran, Editor in Chief Avi Gold, Managing Editor Carmi Rothberg and Hannah Wulkan, Deputy Editors Michelle Banayan, Jessica Goldstein, Noah Hessdorf, Jaime Kaiser, Mihir Khanna, Grace Kwon, Rebecca Lantner, Brianna Majsiak, Catherine Rosch and Rachel Sharer, Associate Editors Abby Patkin, News Editor, Kirby Kochanowski, Features Editor Amber Miles, Forum Editor, Jerry Miller, Sports Editor, Lizzie Grossman, Acting Arts Editor Abby Grinberg and Amanda Nguyen, Acting Photography Editors Mira Mellman, Acting Layout Editor, Emily Wishingrad, Online Editor Sabrina Sung, Copy Editor, Talia Zapinsky, Advertising Editor
EDITORIALS
Increase gender-inclusive bathrooms on campus In May 2012, the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life ran an “Ethical Inquiry” on gendered restrooms and the University’s policy toward making restrooms more inclusive. At the time that the piece was written, the University allowed students to vote on whether dorm restrooms would be gender-neutral or not. This was the first prominent mention of gender-inclusive restrooms in either dorms or public spaces at Brandeis. As of this academic year, explicitly genderinclusive bathrooms are available to firstyear students for the first time — although in the past, floors could vote to make bathrooms gender-inclusive — and there are 20 explicitly gender-inclusive bathrooms and eight gendered but single-access restrooms on campus, according to the Gender and Sexual Diversity Center’s website. Currently, a gender-inclusive bathroom is being constructed in the Goldfarb Library. The University predicts the project will be completed by the end of the school year. However, while significant progress has been made since the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life’s 2012 piece, there is still work to do. Currently, many major public campus buildings, including the Sherman Function Hall, the Mandel Center for the Humanities and the Carl & Ruth Shapiro Admissions Center, lack gender-inclusive restrooms. Additionally, there is only one gender-inclusive shower facility in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. There are no existing plans to build gender-inclusive facilities in any of these locations — according to an email to the Justice from Michael McGarry, the associate director of design and construction at the University — nor are there any plans to convert single-occupancy gendered bathrooms into single-occupancy genderinclusive bathrooms. This board acknowledges that it takes time and money to build single-occupancy
Provide sufficient facilities gender-inclusive bathrooms, the current model that the University uses. We also acknowledge that expanding gender-inclusive bathrooms takes more than simply changing signage. According to McGarry, “The plumbing code requires a certain number of male and female fixtures in a building based on occupancy. A bathroom cannot be converted to gender inclusive if it reduces the number of male and female fixtures in the building to below the minimum required.” Gendered bathrooms that are single-occupancy cannot just have their sign changed to be gender-inclusive, and each change needs to be made on a case-by-case basis so that the plumbing code is still met. However, that does not mean that the University should not strive to correct this problem. We encourage the University to continue to expand available gender-inclusive spaces and facilities in major campus buildings, in all housing quads and in all academic buildings. While transgender and non-binary students are a minority at the University, they still deserve the basic right of easily accessible restrooms in all public buildings and dormitories on campus. They should not have to wait to access restrooms in certain buildings simply because those restrooms are not slated to be renovated in the near future. Additionally, transgender and nonbinary students are not the only ones who could benefit from increased single-occupancy gender-inclusive restrooms. Visitors with small children, those who may have limited mobility and students who simply want some privacy all could use and enjoy increased singleoccupancy facilities around campus. It is the University’s responsibility to continue to expand access to gender-inclusive restrooms and to make sure that all students, regardless of their gender, are able to access the facilities that they need.
Appreciate benefits of annual ’DeisTalks Last Tuesday, the University held its annual ’DeisTalks event, in which students share personal stories and discuss topics of interest in a panel modeled after the popular TED Talks. Topics at this year’s ’DeisTalks included differentiating types of anxiety, the “model minority” and animal rights. This board applauds the ’DeisTalks organizers for continuing to push this creative and intellectually stimulating event to new heights and hopes the University community looks to ’DeisTalks as an example of productive and thoughtful event design. As a University, Brandeis seeks to push students and faculty alike toward intellectual discovery and innovation through research, self-reflection, critical discourse and field work. For students, this primarily takes the form of classwork, which, by necessity, limits intellectual pursuits to the key topics and focuses of the class. There is nothing wrong with this; indeed, without focused tutelage on a given theme which a professor is an expert in, students cannot develop the intellectual abilities to create original ideas. But for students truly generating their own research, criticism or intellectual conceits, there can be few venues within the University proper to share this work and receive the criticism and praise which each push that work to greater heights. The extracurricular world at Brandeis must thus satisfy this need, and here is
Recognize student efforts where ’DeisTalks truly shines. ’DeisTalks open forum has, in the past, included talks on topics ranging from gender bias in orchestral conducting to focusing education through peak experiences to artistry in video games. Moreover, students, professors and speakers unaffiliated with the University all participate in ’DeisTalks, allowing the usual power imbalance between faculty and students to be bent, just this once, so both parties could benefit from and enjoy presenting alongside each other as equals. ’DeisTalks explore concepts and areas of academia not addressed in the University’s core academic departments and programs, allowing participants to discuss areas of interest and attendees to consider whether these topics warrant further research and teaching at Brandeis. It is, in other words, an annual event from which all benefit. Students and faculty can speak about their passions, attendees can broaden their horizons and administrators can potentially see what is missing from the University’s current academic structure. We encourage community members who may not have considered ’DeisTalks before to attend next year’s presentation and to continue investing time and energy in growing this worthwhile cause so it can achieve its full potential.
GRACE KWON/the Justice
Views the News on
Last Tuesday morning from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., Israeli forces conducted a raid at the Abu Dis campus of Al-Quds University. Focusing on the Dean of Students office, the Faculty of Islamic Studies and the students activity center, soldiers destroyed property and seized Hamas propaganda, according to an April 5 Ma’an News Agency article. During the two-hour period, soldiers kept campus security guards locked in one room. Israeli forces explain the raid with claims that al-Quds contributes to the incitement of terrorism through its links to Hamas and history of honoring martyrs who killed Israeli civilians. What do you think of the raid?
Iona Feldman ’17 Palestinians who live under Israeli military occupation experience many severe obstacles to living in freedom and dignity in their own homeland. The occupying army needs no serious justification to perform such violent raids whatever it wishes; in this case, the excuse of threatening political literature proved enough. Students from all across Palestine continue to experience numerous infringements on their right to education, ranging from prevention of access to technologies and chemicals for students of science and engineering to the ever-present checkpoints that prevent them from even getting to school. Brandeis students would be in uproar if they had such daily restrictions to their own education; why should Palestinian students deserve any less? Every people has a right to live in freedom and dignity, and I hope folks understand why people would organize against a regime that has denied this to the Palestinians for decades. Iona Feldman ’17 is a member of Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine.
Noam Cohen ’16 Al-Quds University has a disturbing recent history of glorifying terrorists who have attacked Israelis and has active Hamas-affiliated student groups on campus. This is deeply troubling and surely illegal. To understand the serious nature of these grievances, try to imagine a terrorist-affiliated club operating freely at a university in an area under American rule. Unfortunately, the recent Israel Defense Forces raid also demonstrates that Israeli law is not applied equally in the West Bank. This, too, is troubling. I understand the motivation behind such raids, but I question their efficacy. I imagine that the alleged inappropriate behavior of the Israeli military will only strengthen public support for violent resistance among al-Quds student, thus making the raid counterproductive. If the IDF deems such missions to be of value beyond intimidation, I suggest they conduct them in a more discrete and less degrading manner in the future. Noam Cohen ’16 is a board member of Brandeis Visions for Israel in an Evolving World. He is also a Near Eastern and Judaic Studies major and Undergraduate Departmental Representative.
Barry Sasson ’16 When trying to understand the raid that took place, one must realize that Hamas is a globally recognized terrorist organization whose stated goal is the destruction of the State of Israel. With countless suicide bombings and thousands of rockets fired by Hamas, which have caused destruction and casualties all over Israel, the Israeli security establishment has every right to protect its citizens and ensure that Hamas is unsuccessful in its attempts to carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis. The raid occurred because Al-Quds University, which has a history of incitement — including the anti-Semitic, fascist-style rallies that disrupted the Brandeis-alQuds partnership — witnessed a number of its students affiliated with Hamas incite others to commit terrorism. While it was unfortunate that students unconnected to this Hamas network experienced the raid, Israel had to intervene. Failing to do so would have facilitated terrorism and subsequently increased the violence endured by both sides. Barry Sasson ’16 was a campus engagement coordinator for the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Ron Gadot ’18 The events that took place at the Abu Dis campus of Al-Quds University last week are upsetting. It is upsetting to me as a student who attends university that soldiers must go into campus grounds, leaving collateral damage in their wake. It becomes less upsetting, however, when I realize the purpose of these operations. Recent Jewish Telegraphic Agency statistics show that Palestinian terrorist attacks dropped 26 percent in the month of March and are at their lowest levels since July of 2015. The recent plummet in violent and indiscriminate attacks against Israeli citizens coincides with targeted operations such as this one carried out within Palestinian society — a society where student wings of terrorist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad seek to indoctrinate the minds and passions of young Palestinian men and women. By seizing materials of terror incitement, the Israel Defense Forces are effectively aiming to free the minds of Palestinian university students from terrorist ideology and propaganda while, ideally, preventing future attacks against innocents. Unfortunately, for the time being, this is a necessary step towards creating a just and peaceful society for all. Ron Gadot ’18 is the president of Judges for Israel and a member of Common Ground.
THE JUSTICE ● fORUM ● TUESDAY, April 12, 2016
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Criticize microaggressions in Justice review of ‘The Wiz’ By NYAH MACKLIN sPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE
Last Tuesday, the Justice published a review of “The Wiz” which deeply hurt and upset many in our Brandeis community, and those reactions were expressed in comments online, through social media and through personal discourse. It is important to state that the responses to the article are not attacks on the writer of the review but rather attacks on racist and oppressive systems in which Black folk must operate. I am aware that many students were angry with the writer, but we must all understand that the anger is rooted in a system that continually erases and oppresses Black bodies on this campus. We are sure the writer had no intentions to inflict harm. However, that does not — and will never — negate the fact that harm has been done. Not everyone can see why many students were furious over the review written for “The Wiz” — especially when corrections to the article itself are infused into the original article thereby leaving the reader with no sense of how the original article left our students both deeply hurt and enraged. However, the first edition was what circulated like wildfire and is the version about which many communities were in uproar. Here is some context for the uproar: It is all too common that the labor of Black folk goes uncredited — and even actively erased. In the article, some of those Black folk included Asia Hollinger ’18 and Keturah Danielle Walker ’18, who personified the twister scene; Queen White ’16, Amanda Anderson ’17, Consuelo Pereira-Lazo ’19, Deborah V. Fataki ’19, Carmen Landaverde ’19 and Justus Davis ’19, who conducted the costume design; and Chinyere Brown ’17, Brandon Ferrier ’18 and — again — Davis, who designed the set with the aid of the entire cast. Most of the people who did the labor in “The Wiz” were Black folk, and yet again, specifically in a prominent campus publication — a publication that easily crafts the narrative around the things it reviews or reports on — the labor these Black folk had tirelessly put into the show was erased. This is unacceptable and speaks to the larger issue in our society. By erasing one’s work, you
erase their narrative and therefore further erase their existence. Black folk are already trying to piece together our existence and our right to live in a nation that does not want us — a nation that wants us to salute to the American flag, which will not salute to us; a nation that will not value us and will not even be invested in keeping us alive like it does others. Black folk are living as ghosts in this nation where death and erasure haunts us every single day. We are clinging onto humanity, and this nation is cutting the ties. This article was another cut at that tie, another brush across the page erasing the very folk that built that page. We can all see that there is a stark racial divide on this campus in many facets. We try to forge connections by bringing groups together with programs like Brandeis Bridges, which is a great first step. However, there are still lines that separate us. As Viola Davis — the first African-American to win an Emmy in her category — put in her 2015 acceptance speech, citing abolitionist, former slave and revolutionary Harriet Tubman, “In my mind I see a line, and over that line I see green fields, and lovely flowers, and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line. But I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line.” This line does not exist only for Viola Davis in the Emmys. It exists everywhere — and especially here at Brandeis. This is why Black folk carving out a space for Black theater is so vital. This is why “The Wiz” was so vital. “The Wiz” carved out a space where Blackness could not exist before, especially at a Predominantly White Institution. It carved out a safe space where Blackness did not have to be explained, tokenized, romanticized, marginalized or oppressed. “The Wiz” was necessary for our mental health and healing, especially after fighting for racial justice in Ford Hall 2015. To live as a Black person is to constantly have violence inflicted upon your body, mind and soul. In the words of James Baldwin, “to be a Negro and to be relatively conscious in America is to be in a rage almost all of the time.” I am not saying writing a negative re-
view is not okay. Negative reviews are always accepted. But how does one contend with a negative review that uses language to demean Black theater and Black bodies in a way that is only perceptible to Black folk? Some of the language used in the article included stating that the actors mumbled their lines and did not enunciate their words.“Why can’t you enunciate your words?” they say. To which we reply, “This is how I speak; I don’t know what you want from me!” To enunciate is defined by the MerriamWebster Dictionary as “to pronounce words or parts of words clearly.” However, clear speech to one group is not necessarily clear speech to another. And this nuance is key! We have to understand that “not enunciating” or “mumbling” is often associated with the Black vernacular in general — or specifically how Black folk from the South speak. Therefore, critiquing a Black person’s ability to enunciate adds to the historical devaluing of the Black vernacular, which results in the further oppression, exclusion and problematic correcting of our speech. This is just one example. Not everyone is going to understand why this was a hit to the Black community, because they do not exist at our particular intersection, so violence enacted against us is not necessarily tangible for those who do not live with it. And that is okay. However, sometimes we must take a step back and understand that we will not all understand everything. So whose job is it to teach? Well, I am attempting to do it now, but this is not a labor that I should have to do constantly. Having to “explain” Blackness is tiring work. It should not be up to those who are oppressed to speak up against said oppression. So what do we as a larger community do? Everyone has good intentions, but good intentions are never enough. As a university, and even as a student body, we focus more on the intentions of the person in a role of power than the harm done by their actions and words. Ford Hall 2015 and the Brandeis Asian American Task Force were pressing our administration — filled with folks with good intentions who still
committed microaggressions, made racist comments against Black and brown folk and created systems that privilege the privileged and oppressed the marginalized — to realize the harm they had caused even with their good intentions. Good intentions are not enough. We must come together, put our bodies on the line and be open to critiquing ourselves and our places in society so that we can be honest about the ways in which we consciously — or more often unconsciously — harm each other. The uproar we saw from the Brandeis community online was a number of students fed up with systems that perpetuate injustice. Rather than simply defend the system, how about we critique ourselves? Why are they angry? Why am I angry? Is there something I do not understand about the entire situation? How can we be in better communication with different groups on campus? This article could have been strengthened had the Justice sat with the directors or members of the cast and interviewed them before publishing the first edition of the article. Then the facts would have been correct. There also would have been a better understanding of the significance of this particular piece of theater — and Black theater on this campus in general. Further, an interview would have produced a review that did not seem like it was bashing the production and the folks involved but instead constructively critiqued the production in a way that did not have this racialized component to it as well. Change is slow. Freedom work is hard work. Let us all be invested in becoming more free. But becoming more free means listening before we speak. It means opening up spaces for conversation before we can even try to listen. It means being invested in making those spaces inclusive before they are open. It means critiquing yourself and understanding your place and your privilege in an effort to decenter yourself and your narrative — allowing others to be the center, which helps your space become more inclusive. Let’s do the work. —Nyah Macklin ’16 is the president of the undergraduate Student Union.
Urge reform of unfair standardized tests in college admission process By Maddox kay JUSTICE contributing WRITER
When was the last time you wrote a full sentence in cursive? If you answer, “On the SAT,” then you’re not alone. In many ways, the current crop of standardized tests are ineffective, outmoded and irrelevant. In concept, a standardized test is an efficient and egalitarian means of evaluation. However, in practice, college admissions exams have proven to be anything but. The SAT and the ACT exam reward cultural knowledge and repetitive practice, which often equate to being white and being wealthy. In order to take advantage of the opportunities standardized testing offers, we must make sure standardized tests measure what they are supposed to: academic achievement, independent of all else, across as level of a playing field as possible. We might be the final generation to do the cursive scribble, as the future of testing is anything but certain. Elite schools across the country, such as Wake Forest University, Bowdoin College and New York University, have gone testoptional. Brandeis made this move for the 2014 admissions season, according to a July 24, 2013 piece by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. As fewer schools require applicants to take admissions exams, standardized testmakers are widening their audience from the college admissions market to high school students at large. These writers remarket the SAT and ACT as tests intended to measure the efficacy of high school curricula, according to an April 5 New York Times article. The main criticism levied against standardized tests is that they are unfair. In the case of the SAT, this objection is justified. In 2003, the Harvard Educational Review published a study which found racial bias against black test takers in the SAT. In 2010, researchers — also of the Harvard Educational Review — repeated a similar study and came to the same conclusion. These researchers found that the test made references and used language which favored white culture. For example, some questions on the SAT assumed knowledge of white pop culture or history and were difficult to answer without this assumed “common knowledge.” Thus, black students might score lower, not because of inferior intelligence or test preparation, but rather because they do not enjoy white privilege. This presence of racial bias, intentional or not, under-
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mines the egalitarian premise of standardized testing. These controversial findings damaged public opinion of the SAT and of standardized tests in general. While the ACT has not been as widely criticized as the SAT, it has racial bias issues of its own. In 2007, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing found that when other factors — such as grades and family income — were equal, white students scored higher on the ACT than any other racial group. Also, Asian Americans took more academic classes on average than any other racial group, but white students still scored higher on average. The Center attributes some discrepancies to the use of colloquialisms and idiomatic language, such as “ball and chain” to describe a spouse and “straight from the horse’s mouth” to refer to information directly from the source. This language favors students who grew up speaking English, and, just like on the SAT, makes the exam a test of both American cultural knowledge and academic achievement, rather than just the latter as it should be. Current standardized tests are also biased by socioeconomic class. As Alfie Kohn, author of “The Case Against Standardized Testing,” argued in an April 6 letter to the New York Times, scores on today’s college entrance exams often reflect students’ economic status. One reason for this correlation is that wealthier families can afford to hire private tutors or sign their children up for test preparation classes where they learn specialized tips for standardized test taking and they practice with old SAT and ACT questions. In addition, students who work to help support their families — as many students from lowerincome families must — have less free time to prepare for large exams. These factors combine to create a gap in preparedness that widens alongside the socioeconomic divide. Test anxiety is also an issue for many and contributes to unfairness in standardized testing. A Feb. 10, 2013 Washington Post article on how to curb test anxiety pegged up to 20 percent of students as suffering from severe test anxiety. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, the leading causes of test anxiety are fear of failure and lack of preparation. The effects of test anxiety on actual performance are hard to measure, but it adds extra stress to the experience of standardized testing for many. Since test anxiety does not affect everyone equally, it is a contributing factor to un-
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The opinions stated in the editorial(s) under the masthead on the opposing page represent the opinion of a majority of the voting members of the editorial board; all other articles, columns, comics and advertisements do not necessarily. For the Brandeis Talks Back feature on the last page of the newspaper, staff interview four randomly selected students each week and print only those four answers. The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. Operated, written, produced and published entirely by students, the Justice includes news, features, arts, opinion and sports articles of interest to approximately 3,500 undergraduates, 900 graduate students, 500 faculty and 1,000 administrative staff. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods. Advertising deadlines: All insertion orders and advertising copy must be received by the Justice no later than 5 p.m. on the Thursday preceding the date of publication. All advertising copy is subject to approval of the editor in chief and the managing and advertising editors.
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fairness, especially in large exams like the SAT and ACT. The standardized test is not a lost cause, and we should not eliminate them from the admissions portfolio as Kohn and others suggest. At the core, admissions exams still represent an objective and a potential for an egalitarian measure of achievement. Unlike grade point averages, which are affected by hundreds of variables and are measured differently by different schools, measuring standardized test scores is inherently simple and universal. There can be no favoritism; the Scantron does not care if you are black, white, rich or poor, where a teacher might. Likewise, an underprivileged, inner-city student does not have access to the same extracurricular opportunities as a wealthy, suburban one. Even if they did, they would not have the resources to employ private coaches or tutors to push him forward. Is it fair to judge students’ worthiness off of extracurriculars alone? Call me when every high school has an equestrian team. In order to realize the potential that standardized tests have as a part of the admissions portfolio, we must level the playing field so that they better reflect the abilities of the students who
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take them. State-sponsored free tutoring for a college entrance exam would go a long way to pushing it toward its egalitarian potential. Students would be able to devote time to the same material, and the uniformity of the test would keep the state cost of tutors low and their impact high. I am not naive enough to think that this would completely level the playing field, but it would be a step in the right direction. Students who have to work to support their families would still be at a disadvantage in terms of free time for studying. Also, similar to the public-defender system, state-paid tutors would be overworked and generally less high-brow than private ones. As anyone who’s ever been represented by the state in court could tell you, though, it is a lot better to have someone on your side than to go it alone. We must have independent organizations carefully examine test questions and test them on control groups for racial bias in any form. The purpose of a standardized college entrance exam is to measure academic performance universally and equally. If we reach a point where the Scantron truly does not care who a student is, then this egalitarian measurement will once again deserve a spot in application folders across America. If not, the future of cursive is doomed.
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TUESDAY, April 12, 2016 ● forum ● THE JUSTICE
FORUM
Reject devastating effects of Indiana’s pro-life legislation Catherine
Rosch Cynical Idealist
On March 28, a Facebook page, Periods for Pence, began a calling campaign to Indiana governor Mike Pence. In some ways, Periods for Pence, or P4P, as they like to call themselves on their page, is like any other organized lobbying campaign; members call in with specific messaging in the hopes of influencing state legislation. However, what makes P4P interesting is the content of their calls. The callers — the vast majority of whom are women — call Pence’s office to keep him up-to-date on their periods and then post a transcript of their calls on the Facebook page. Some of the transcripts are absolutely hilarious; there are colorful descriptions of what their blood clots look like and play-by-play updates about just how terrible menstrual cramps can be. One on March 31 is especially amusing as it describes the phone operator’s response as “strangely horrified and chipper at the same time.” However, the reason for this movement is hardly a laughing matter. Two days before P4P was created, Pence signed H.B. 1337, one of the harshest antiabortion laws in the country — but one that was largely ignored until after the fact, as it did not try to defund Planned Parenthood outright. What it did instead is so bad that, according to a March 15 Slate article, radically pro-life Republicans like state senators Sean Eberhart and Sharon Negele actually voted against it because it was too extreme. This “everything and the kitchen sink” legislation has every popular anti-choice policy in it — and then some. Indiana already has some of the strictest “admitting privilege” laws in the country, laws which do nothing to actually protect women’s health and can often be physically harmful to pregnant women. The new legislation now requires admitting privileges to be renewed every single year in writing and would require the hospitals they partner with to publicly announce that partnership. The legislation also tries to combat a problem that does not exist, as it bans fetal tissue research; never mind the fact that even before the controversial Center for Medical Progress videos were leaked, not a single abortion clinic in Indiana participated in any sort of fetal tissue research, according to a July 30 Indystar article. So why are women calling about their periods? H.B. 1337 includes unprecedented requirements about disposing of fetal remains.
JESSICA GOLDSTEIN/the Justice
Most medical providers tend to consider fetal remains before 20 weeks of gestation as medical waste and treat them as such, according to a March 26 Vox article. Under the new legislation, “a miscarried or aborted fetus must be interred or cremated by a facility having possession of the remains,” regardless of how far along in the pregnancy someone might be. Under this absurd law, a pregnant person who miscarries at home eight weeks into the pregnancy, when a miscarriage can easily be confused with a heavy flow, would be required to keep all the blood and tissue and have it examined at a hospital before it is cremated or buried. That is the reason P4P took off. According to the American Pregnancy Association, about half of all miscarriages happen shortly after the fertilized egg implants and often can occur when a woman is already expecting her period. Under Indiana law, these P4P supporters are just being good citizens; they are checking in with their governor to make sure they do not break the law and improperly dispose of what could either be a zygote or just uterine lining and blood. This requirement, as well as two other parts of H.B. 1337, have a darker side. H.B. 1337 in-
cludes language that bans abortion based on a fetus’s race, gender or certain types of disabilities and genetic disorders. On the surface, this seems benign enough; of course, people should not terminate a pregnancy because their child is not the gender they want or because the child is not “perfect.” However, these bans are next to impossible to enforce and often target marginalized groups. For example, the Guttmacher Institute, in a March 1 brief, found that these types of bans often are based on racist stereotypes about how Asians are more likely to abort female fetuses and can stigmatize Asian-American women who are trying to seek medical care. Horrible as this racially coded ban is, the language about disabilities is even worse. While H.B. 1337 does not ban abortions in the cases of lethal fetal anomaly, the law says the anomaly has to be severe enough that if the child were born, it would die within three months after birth. However, it is impossible for doctors to predict if many severe fetal anomalies, like microcephaly, would cause death within that three-month window. So, if a woman is pregnant with a child who is so severely disabled that it would not be able to live past its first birthday, she would still have to carry it to
term if its defect is not severe enough that it would die within three months. And, to add insult to injury, H.B. 1337 also requires women whose fetuses have severe birth defects and who choose to end their pregnancy to learn about perinatal hospice services, a form of counseling for women who do choose to carry babies with lethal anomalies to term. This requirement implicitly tells women who choose to end a pregnancy because of severe birth defects that their choice is less valid and they are “worse” than women who carry nonviable pregnancies to term. The P4P page is largely funny, but scroll through all of the comments long enough and you will find a heart-wrenching story about a wanted pregnancy that miscarried or the difficult decision to end a pregnancy when it was clear that the child would not be able to survive outside of the womb. These are the women whom H.B. 1337 harms the most, women who lose or have to end a wanted pregnancy and then are forced to jump through hoops and pay for expensive services like burial or cremation and certain counselling that they do not want or need. H.B. 1337 is just another example of legislators, especially male legislators, trying to regulate women’s bodies with disastrous consequences.
Condemn lack of justice for victims of J. Dennis Hastert Amber
Miles anonymous kraken
J. Dennis Hastert, the speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007, could face up to six months in prison after his upcoming sentencing, scheduled for April 27, according to an April 8 New York Times article — but not for last year’s sexual abuse allegations. Rather, Hastert faces charges of covering up said abuse through paying a victim for his silence from 2010 to 2014 and lying to law enforcement when confronted about the money. The case has remained relatively quiet since Hastert’s stroke last November, but on Friday, federal prosecutors finally provided the details of Hastert’s abuse of not one but four boys during his time as a teacher and wrestling coach decades ago in Yorkville, Ill., according to the same New York Times article. Largely, the revelation of Hastert’s sordid past has sparked surprise more than disgust or outrage. “Anyone who knows Denny is shocked and confused by the recent news,” Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) commented when the allegations first emerged, as quoted in a May 29, 2015 Los Angeles Times article. Others, like officials at Hastert’s alma mater Wheaton College, have exalted Hastert’s “distinguished public service record” — as if somehow that cancels out the harm of traumatizing four children. According to the same New York Times
article, an assistant U.S. Attorney, Steven A. Block, went as far as urging the sentencing judge to “balance the positive nature of defendant’s public service with the need to avoid a public perception that the powerful are treated differently than ordinary citizens when facing sentencing for a serious crime.” Never mind justice for the survivors — the important thing here, of course, is ensuring that the public believes Hastert receives no special treatment, even though that is exactly what Block advocates for here. The same Los Angeles Times article quotes an unnamed law enforcement official as claiming that, because the abuse occurred so long ago, “it has nothing to do with public corruption or a corruption scandal. Or his time in office.” First, this statement disregards concerns that Hastert’s clear moral depravity may have affected his time as a top official in the national government, but let’s put that aside for now in favor of something more concrete: money. Hastert paid a victim large sums of money shortly after his reign as House speaker concluded. As such, he presumably earned this money, at least in part, during his political career — because the 3.5 million dollars he reportedly promised the victim certainly did not come from savings of his teacher’s salary. Essentially, in this way, taxpayers helped contribute to the bribe which hushed up a sexual abuse survivor — but sure, it has nothing to do with his time in office. Apparently, to the media and his peers, Hastert’s later political career matters more than the career that endangered the boys in the first place. This troubling defense of Hastert, a public figure, by other public figures brings to mind concerns of corruption. After all, how can his maximum predicted
punishment for abusing four boys be only six months in prison? In reality, a miniscule six-month stint in prison is consistent with federal guidelines for illegally structuring bank withdrawals, according to the same New York Times article, and that is the crime to which Hastert plead guilty in October of last year. The lack of sexual abuse charges, too, cannot be explained by any public corruption but rather by a flaw in the justice system. Prosecutors cannot charge Hastert with a crime in which there is “no ambiguity” regarding his guilt, according to the same New York Times article, because of the statute of limitations. In Illinois, the statute of limitations for felony sexual assault or abuse of a minor requires that prosecutors must charge the perpetrator within 20 years of the victim turning 18.
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As such, the good of this legal institution seems unclear, and only the harm remains. As Hastert allegedly abused the four boys during their time in high school in the 1960s and 1970s, the statute of limitations would have run out around 2000 at the latest, 14 years before Hastert was even caught. This inability to enact justice is an expected frustration in the justice system, and lawyers treat it as a necessary evil, claiming
that the purpose of a statute of limitations is to ensure any evidence or witnesses used to convict are fresh and trustworthy. On the surface, that seems reasonable, but a closer examination of the technicalities of statutes of limitations reveals their arbitrary nature. No set time window after which evidence supposedly goes bad exists. As such, it varies from state to state and crime to crime. For example, according to a March 5, 2012 explanation of Illinois sex crimes by Illinois lawyer Sami Azhari, the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony in the charge of criminal sexual abuse involves the age difference between the victim and perpetrator, so presumably there are no discrepancies in the type of evidence between the two charges. Despite this, there is still a 10-year disparity in their respective statutes of limitations. Worse, the clock stops if the perpetrator leaves the state, and it restarts when and if they return, further illustrating the irrelevance of the time involved. The numbers chosen for statutes of limitations have no scientific basis for when evidence is no longer admissible and no psychological basis for when witness testimony is no longer reliable. They are just numbers. Another argument in support of statutes of limitations involves the Sixth Amendment, specifically the right to a speedy trial, but that argument falls flat. Statutes of limitations refer to the time before one is charged with a crime, so they have nothing to do with the speed of the trial itself. As such, the good of this legal institution seems unclear, and only the harm remains. Because of an arbitrary legal timeline, the abuser of at least four boys will likely walk free after serving six months or less, and the survivors get no justice.
THE JUSTICE ● SPORTS ● TUESDAY, April 12, 2016
BASEBALL: Squad falls in straight games
DEFENSIVE WALL
CONTINUED FROM 16 squad piled on two more runs in the fourth to keep Brandeis at bay. The Judges found some life in the top of the fifth, rallying to score four quick runs, but they nevertheless could not dig themselves out of the steep hole they found themselves in after their slow start. Tufts senior shortstop Matt Moser led the way for the Jumbos, finishing the game with two doubles and two RBIs. Sophomore infielder Tommy O’Hara added two RBIs of his own for Tufts. Starting pitcher Sam Miller ’16 took the loss for the Judges, giving up five runs on a whopping nine hits, dropping his season mark to 2-4. The loss dropped the Judges to 8-12-1 on the season, while the Jumbos’ victory brought the squad to 11-3 record. Tufts 10, Judges 2 In their first game of weekend play, the Judges showed few signs
JOYCE YU/the Justice
SERVE AND VOLLEY: Danny Lubarsky ’16 lunges with full extension to volley a ball in a match against Vassar College this past Saturday.
TENNIS: Women nearly sweep weekend doubles CONTINUED FROM 16 to take on Babson College at 3 p.m on the road. The Judges cleanly beat Babson last year, 6-3, to begin a six-game winning streak. The Judges hope to do the same this year and bolster their 6-6 record. Men’s Squad The Judges’ six-game winning streak came to an end against Boston College on Saturday. In doubles play, the Judges tallied one point. In the first matchup, the duo of Jeff Cherkin ’17 and Michael Arguello ’17 lost 6-1.Danny Lubarsky ’16 and Jackson Kogan ’19 won the second
match 7-6, but Eric Goldberg ’18 and Brian Granoff ’17 dropped the third match 7-6. In singles play Ryan Bunis ’17 lost the No. 1 matchup 6-2, 6-2 and Granoff lost the No. 2 matchup 6-4, 6-4. Arguello notched a win for the Judges in the third matchup though, defeating his opponent 6-7, 7-6, 6-3. In the No. 3 matchup, Tyler Ng ’19 lost 6-0, 6-3, and in the No. 4 matchup Kogan lost 6-2, 6-2. Cherkin lost the fifth matchup in straight sets for the Judges 6-1, 6-3. Earlier in the day, Brandeis defeated Vassar handily. In doubles, Cherkin and Arguello won the first matchup 8-3. Lubarsky and Kogan took the second matchup 8-5 and
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Goldberg and Granoff won their matchup 8-2. In singles play, Bunis won the first matchup 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 and Granoff won the second match 6-2, 6-1. Arguello won the third match 6-1, 6-2, Ng won the fourth match 6-1, 6-1 and Kogan won the fifth match 6-0, 6-0. Cherkin finished the sweep of Vassar by easily winning the sixth match 6-2, 6-2. The men return to action tomorrow when they travel to take on Tufts University at 4 p.m. Last season, the Judges handily beat Tufts, 6-3, en route to a 9-11 record. So far ,the Judges hold a solid 8-4 record on the season and will look to improve upon that tomorrow.
of life against the Tufts University Jumbos, suffering an embarrassing eight-run loss. The game was relatively uneventful until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Tufts generated three runs. The Jumbos followed up in the sixth with a whopping six runs, putting the game well out of reach for the Judges and sealing a win. The Jumbos were led by Moser and O’Hara, who combined for five of Tufts’ ten runs. While their strong offensive output helped the squad cruise to victory, it was starting pitcher, junior Tim Superko who stole the show. Superko gave up just four hits and two runs to 26 batters faced on the afternoon, notching his second victory of theregular season. The loss dropped the Judges to 8-11-1 on the year, while Tufts’ victory brought the team to 10-3 in regular-season play. The squad will return to action on Thursday when they host Daniel Webster College.
CLUB SPORTS: Team attempts to increase competitive atmosphere CONTINUED FROM 16 efforts and continue to train during the long offseason. The Judges will need to rely on their number-three player, Lan Ngo ’16, to aid their efforts to dominate the league and exercise their skill. While the higher-level players tend to come with a more serious demeanor, the club carries a light atmosphere, with many beginners playing for recreational purposes. The team management hopes to create a more serious environment and, so too, a more committed team. With the team’s small budget, players are often stranded, waiting for one of the two tables to open up. This lag time lends to the laid back approach of the club, some-
thing that can be mitigated with the installment of more tables and a larger room. The team previously practiced in the Gosman Athletic Center, but were recently relegated to the Linsey room. Despite the continuing growth of the club and the recent success, the management has had trouble garnering financial support from the university. Balls, tables and coaching fees are crucial to the training necessities of the team and could pose a problem if the squad falls short of these requirements. As the season comes to a close, the team will look to continue their ascent towards the top of the division and train vigorously throughout the offseason to attain their goal of the number one spot.
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Sports ● Tuesday, APRIL 12, 2016
15
TRACK AND FIELD
jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS baseball TEAM STATS
UAA STANDINGS
Runs Batted In
Not including Monday’s games. UAA Conference W L WashU 6 2 Emory 5 3 Case 5 3 Rochester 4 4 NYU 2 6 JUDGES 2 6 Chicago 0 0
W 20 27 16 10 10 8 9
Overall L Pct. 11 .645 7 .794 12 .571 8 .556 13 .435 14 .348 8 .529
UPCOMING GAMES: Thursday vs. Daniel Webster Saturday vs. NYU (DH) Sunday vs. NYU *DH= Double Header
Greg Heineman ’16 leads the team with 19 RBIs. Player RBI Greg Heineman 19 Connor Doyle 15 Ryan Healy 12 Rob Trenk 10
Strikeouts Sam Miller ’16 leads all pitchers with 25 strikeouts. Player Ks Sam Miller 25 Ryan Pocock 19 Bradley Bousque 17 Liam Coughlin 16
SOFTBALL UAA STANDINGS
TEAM STATS
Not including Monday’s games.
Runs Batted In
UAA Conference W L Emory 10 0 WashU 6 4 JUDGES 6 4 NYU 4 6 Case 2 8 Rochester 2 8 Chicago 0 0
W 32 26 11 10 14 9 11
Overall L Pct. 4 .889 8 .765 10 .524 12 .455 16 .467 15 .375 4 .733
Madison Sullivan ’16 leads the squad with 20 RBIs. Player RBI Madison Sullivan 20 Madison Hunter 15 Keri Lehtonen 13 Marissa DeLaurentis 9
Strikeouts Sadie-Rose Apfel ’18 leads all pitchers with 28 strikeouts. Player Ks Sadie-Rose Apfel 28 Melissa Soleimani 26 Sarah Petrides 3
UPCOMING GAMES: Today vs. Babson Sunday vs. Colby (DH) *DH = Double Header
track & Field Results from the Amherst College Spring Fling.
TOP PERFORMERS (Men’s)
TOP PERFORMERS (Women’s)
1500-Meter Run
1500-Meter Run
RUNNER TIME Grady Ward 4:06.33 Matthew Doran 4:13.70 Russell Santos 4:15.24
RUNNER TIME Emily Bryson 4:44.88 Maggie Hensel 4:53.78 Kyra Shreeve 5:02.87
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTSPIX.COM
HEAD OVER HEELS: Mark Franklin ’17 contorts his body and flips backward at the Reggie Poyau Invitational at home on Jan. 16.
Track teams manage smooth times at meet
■ Tove Freeman ’16 finished in second place in the 800-meter run with a commendable time of 2:20.95. By AVI GOLD
UPCOMING MEETS:
Justice Editor
The men and women’s track and field team traveled to Amherst College for the Amherst Spring Fling, using a number of strong races to grab fourth and seventh places overall for the men and women’s sides, respectively. The men took fourth place out of nine teams, scoring 68 points in the process, while the women finished seventh of nine teams with 46.5 points.
Friday at the Connecticut College Silfen Invitational Saturday at the Connecticut College Silfen Invitational Sunday at WashU
TENNIS Updated season results.
TOP PERFORMERS (Men’s)
TOP PERFORMERS (Women’s)
MEN’S SINGLES Brian Granoff
RECORD 11-3
WOMEN’S SINGLES Keren Khromchenko
RECORD 9-5
MEN’S DOUBLES Arguello/Cherkin
RECORD 5-4
WOMEN’S DOUBLES Cohen/Leavitt
RECORD 4-7
UPCOMING MEETS: Women, Today at Babson Men Tomorrow at Tufts Men Friday at Bowdoin
Women’s squad (seventh place, 46.5 points) The women’s team picked up a pair of wins and a handful of top10 finishes en route to scoring 46.5 points during the event, led by a strong day from Haliana Burhans ’18. Burhans took the top spot in the 400-meter dash, running to a time of 59.26 seconds, and grabbed third place in the 200-meter dash in 26.64 seconds. Her time in the 200-meter dash was .34 seconds out of second place and just over a second off the
top spot. The Judges also had success in the distance runs, led by a top finish from Emily Bryson ’19 in the 1,500-meter run. Bryson covered the course in 4:44.88, a step faster than her seed time. Maggie Hensel ’16 finished the race in ninth place in 4:53.78, while Kyra Shreeve ’18 was 17th out of the 47 competitors, crossing the line in 5:02.87. Tove Freeman ’16 continued the strong day for the distance runners with a second-place finish in the 800-meter run, stopping the timer at 2:20.95. Julia Bryson ’19 ran to a thirdplace finish in the 5,000-meter run in 18:19.67, just .26 seconds out of second place. Her time was also less than a minute behind the winner. The Judges also got a third-place finish from the 4x400-meter relay, running to a combined time of 4:20.74 in the relay. Men’s squad (fourth place, 68 points) Mitchell Hutton ’18 led the way for the men’s team by winning the 5,000-meter run in 15:12.95. Liam Garvey ’18 took sixth place in the race in 15:38.93. The Judges had a strong day in the field events, winning a pair of
events and earning a number of top-10 finishes as well. Evan Scott ’16 won the high jump by jumping to a height of 2.01 meters, while Mark Franklin ’17 grabbed fourth place with a height of 1.79 meters. Adam Berger ’16 was fifth in the long jump, totaling a distance of 6.23 meters, and second in the triple jump, with a combined distance of 12.58 meters. Kevin Trotman ’16 took seventh place in the discus throw with a distance of 37.38 meters, while Grote took 10th with a total distance of 33.26 meters. The Judges got a second-place finish from the 4x100 meter relay, as the quartet of Michael Kroker ’19, Henry McDonald ’19, Adam Berger ’16 and Regan Charie ’17 ran to a time of 43.99 seconds. Quinton Hoey ’17 ran to the runner-up position in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:47.87 Grady Ward ’16 took 12th in the 1,500-meter run in 4:06.33, while Adam Beckwith ’16 grabbed ninth in the 200-meter dash in 24.00 seconds. Charie came in fifth in the 100-meter dash, clocking in at 11.32. The Judges will race again at the Connecticut College Silfen Invitational this weekend.
pro sports BRIEF National Basketball Association offers surprising results outside of predictable high-profile teams As the NBA season comes to a close, a look around the league offers a few interesting observations. While the top teams in the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder were expected to be successful, there are many surprises up and down in the standings. In the Eastern Conference, the teams trailing the Cavaliers have had extremely strong seasons. Both the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics were projected to be strong teams in the East but have outplayed those expectations. The Raptors have played exceptionally well, sitting only half a game behind the Thunder for the league’s fourth-best record. They have been led by a duo of All-Stars in point guard Kyle Lowry and shooting guard DeMar DeRozan. The team has set a
new franchise record for victories and is poised for their first ever conference finals appearance. The Celtics are also in contention to make the Eastern Conference final as they continue to see the results of a successful rebuilding cycle. It was only three seasons ago that Boston shipped out its two aging stars in shooting guard Paul Pierce and center Kevin Garnett in return for multiple draft picks. The Celtics have used those selections, and a collection of others expertly gathered by general manager Danny Ainge, to form an impressive young nucleus that has put the team 14 games over .500. Led by All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas, the team has rallied around Head Coach Brad Stevens and is capable of playing with any of the top competitors in the NBA. The Western conference has its own
slew of teams beating out early season projections. The Portland Trail Blazers have proved all the pundits wrong by becoming the fifth seed in the conference. Viewed as a team with only one good player, in star guard Damian Lilliard, the Trail Blazers have put together a complete lineup. Along with Lilliard who has played at an MVP level, shooting guard CJ McCollum has been one of the most improved players in the league. Role players power forward Mason Plumlee and center Meyers Leonard have also recorded productive years. Also excelling in the West are the Memphis Grizzlies, who have endured hardship after hardship this season. The Grizzlies are the No. 6 seed in the conference, even while setting an NBA record for most players used in one season. It has been without its two
best players, center Marc Gasol and point guard Mike Conley, for much of the season and have lost time from key players such as power forward Zach Randolph and shooting guard Tony Allen. Memphis has withstood the lengthy injury report and is headed to the postseason with a resolute veteran roster that includes such old-timers such as Vince Carter. The 2015 to 2016 season has seen its fair share of disappointing teams as well. Both the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks were expected to compete for middle of the pack positions in the Eastern Conference. The Bulls were mentioned by experts as one of the only teams capable of sticking with the Cavaliers due to their deep roster of shooting guard Jimmy Butler, point guard Derrick Rose, center Pau Gasol and power for-
ward Joakim Noah. Chicago has fallen totally flat, sitting at a .500 record and on the outside quietly looking into the playoff picture. In his first season as head coach, Fred Hoiberg has been unable to hold the team together and fulfill its lofty projections. The Bucks as well have taken a significant step back. After a season in which it made the playoffs in head coach Jason Kidd’s first year, the Bucks kept thier core players in the offseason and added big man center Greg Monroe. The Bucks have completely fallen apart this year and currently sit 15 games under .500. With the playoff picture clear at this juncture of the season, April, May and June are seemingly poised to be as exciting and enjoyable as ever.
— Noah Hessdorf
just
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OFF TO THE RACES The men and women’s track and field team snagged solid finishes at the Amherst Spring Fling, p. 15.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Waltham, Mass.
Tennis
KNUCKLE GRIP
Women win by large margins in two straight events ■ Emily Eska ’16 and Maya
Vasser ’16 finished off doubles play with an 8-1 win against Bates. By ELAN KANE JUSTICE staff writer
The men and women’s tennis team continued their winning ways this past week. Though the No. 32 men’s team lost to Boston College on Saturday 5-2, they defeated Vassar College 9-0 on the same day. The No. 31 women’s team, meanwhile, defeated Bates College 6-3 on Sunday and Wheaton College 8-1 on Friday. The men’s record now stands at a solid 8-4 overall, while the women’s team improves to an even 6-6 overall on the season. Women’s Squad Brandeis won two of the three doubles matches against Bates on Sunday. Haley Cohen ’18 and Olivia Leavitt ’19 lost the first match 8-1. Sophia He ’19 and Charlotte Aaron ’18 won their match 8-5, though. Emily Eska ’16 and Maya Vasser ’16 finished off doubles play with a win 8-1. In singles play, Cohen lost the first match 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, but Leavitt won the second match 6-2, 6-3. Keren Khromchenko ’19 lost the third match 6-4, 6-2, but the Judges were
able to win the next three matches. Eska won the fourth match 6-3, 6-0, Vasser won the fifth match 6-4, 6-0 and Michele Lehat ’19 won the sixth match 6-3, 6-1. The Judges took control in doubles play on Friday versus Wheaton, winning all three matchups on the indoor courts in Gosman Athletic Center. The pair of Cohen and Leavitt went undefeated in their match, winning 8-0. In the second spot, He and Aaron won 8-2. In the third matchup, Vasser and Sarita Biswas ’16 won 8-1 in Biswas’ first game action since March 12. Brandeis dominated singles play as well. Leavitt won the No. 1 matchup, defeating her opponent 6-1, 6-1. In the No. 2 matchup, Eska won 6-0, 6-1. Lehat won the No. 3 matchup 6-1, 6-1 but Ariana Ishaq ’19 lost the No. 4 matchup 6-3, 0-6, 10-3. In her first match since Feb. 17, Hannah Marion ’16 took the No. 5 matchup 6-1, 6-0. Biswas notched another victory for Brandeis, defeating her opponent 6-0, 6-0 in the No. 6 matchup. The two wins improve the Judges' record to 6-6 on the season and give the team a three-game win streak, the first of which came against St. Lawerence University last Sunday. The Judges return to action this Tuesday, April 12 when they travel
See TENNIS, 13 ☛
Club sports
MICHELLE BANAYAN/Justice File Photo
PACKING DIRT: Infielder Rob Trenk ’16 cranked back for full power in a loss against Rhode Island College at home on Mar. 31.
Judges’ offense falters after week-long hiatus ■ Catcher Connor Doyle
The Brandeis men’s baseball team had a rough go of it this past weekend, dropping all four of its games against Tufts University and Bowdoin College. The squad has struggled to win games all season, and this weekend proved no different. The Judges fell in their two doubleheaders, resulting in an 0-4 performance, with one game against Eastern Connecticut State University being postponed until later notice.
Judges gave up three runs to Bowdoin in the bottom of the second, followed by a four-run third inning that blew the game wide open. Bowdoin, led by junior shortstop Sean Mullaney and junior third baseman Evan Dumont-LaPointe, never looked back, tacking on three more runs in the sixth that put the game far out of reach for the Judges. Mullaney and Dumont-LaPointe led the Polar Bears’ balanced offensive attack, combining for six of Bowdoin’s 10 RBIs. The Judges were led by catcher Connor Doyle ’16, who finished the game with three RBIs. Despite Doyle’s best efforts, the Judges were unable to muster up enough runs to keep the Bowdoin offense at bay. The loss drops the Judges to 8-141, while the victory brings Bowdoin to 12-7 on the season.
Bowdoin 10, Judges 5 Despite jumping out to a big lead early on, the Judges were unable to hold off Bowdoin in their second game of a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon. After scoring a quick four runs in the first inning, the
Bowdoin 2, Judges 1 In their first game of Sunday play, the Judges fell in a close matchup to the Polar Bears. In what turned into a pitchers’ duel, the Judges were unable to hold onto a late one run lead, giving up the go-ahead run in the
’16 led the Judges with three RBIs in a disappointing loss to Bowdoin College. By GABRIEL GOLDSTEIN Justice staff writer
bottom of the sixth inning. Despite only giving up two hits and one earned run, starting pitcher Liam Coughlin ’17 took the loss for the Judges. In his loss, Coughlin threw a complete-game two-hitter, but the Judges failed to give him the run support he needed to capitalize on his strong outing on the mound. Bowdoin sophomore Richard Arms carried the Polar Bears through five innings, giving up just one run on five total hits. Sophomore Kyle Stanley ended up notching the victory for the Polar Bears, pitching two shutout innings to solidify the squad’s victory over Brandeis. The loss dropped the Judges to 8-13-1 on the season, while the victory brought the Polar Bears to 11-7 in regular season play. Tufts 5, Judges 4 In their second game of a Saturday doubleheader against Tufts University, the Judges’ late rally fell short, resulting in bitter defeat at the hands of the Jumbos. After Tufts jumped out to a quick three-run lead in the bottom of the first inning, the
See BASEBALL, 13 ☛
Table Tennis squad continues fast ascent ■ Duong Nguyen ’17 earned
a tough third-round berth for the Judges in the NCTTA Regional tournament. By JERRY MILLER JUSTICE EDITOR
Every Tuesday, the table tennis club members storm the Linsey Multipurpose Room in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center to practice and refine their skills in preparation for their matches. Coach Vincent Liung critiques and molds nine regular players while advising and guiding the remaining 20 beginner-level attendees. For two hours, the team battles it out in a room barely big enough to fit 29 players, let alone the two tables they need for actual play. Shoved into this cramped room, the team prepares for the two Lower New England National College Table Tennis Association Divisional tournaments. Both men and women are invited to join the league and compete, ranging from first years to faculty players. While singles and doubles play are encouraged, most of the Judges’ matches fall into the singles category due to a lack of serious competition. The grueling season spans nearly the entire year, with the first tournament held in October and the second falling in late January. Top competitors from this round, such as Brandeis’ top player and
vice president of the club Duong Nguyen ’17, advanced to the highlyregarded regional tournament held in late February. President Ricardo Aguyo ’17 commented on the surprisingly exhausting pace of the game, saying, “You have to be on the balls of your feet … jump and run and, … use more of your body and put all that force onto the ball.” This past year, the Judges were able to place third in the February tournament, beating powerhouses University of Massachusetts Amherst and Boston University. The Judges ultimately fell to the top two teams in the division, Brown University and the University of Connecticut. The team garnered a disappointing one win combined against the two teams, a feat that, although deflating, is extremely tough to beat. The team set a record this year, making the regional tournament for the second year in a row. This year, the squad sent Nguyen to compete against the top table tennis players in the U.S. and Canada. Nguyen made it to the championship round, which consists of the top 32 players in the tournament. The Judges are looking to ramp up their program and send more quality players to the regional tournament next year. With the loss of their number two player, Li Xinyue ’16, the team will need to expand their recruitment
See CLUB SPORTS, 13 ☛
ARTS
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Vol. LXVIII #24 April 12, 2016
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Images: Michelle Banayan/the Justice, Creative Commons. Design: Abby Grinberg/the Justice and Amanda Nguyen/the Justice
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THE JUSTICE | Arts i TUESDAY, April 12, 2016
comedy
Stand-up comedian sparks laughs among audience By Catherine Rosch justice editor
WENLI BAO/the Justice
STAND-UP HUMOR: H. Jon Benjamin shares humorous insights and comments about everyday life.
Watch any popular animated television show marketed to adults and, odds are, you’ve heard the vocal stylings of H. Jon Benjamin. Currently the star of FX’s “Archer” and Fox’s “Bob Burgers” as both titular characters, he’s also appeared on “Family Guy,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and most recently, “Master of None.” While Benjamin is most known for his work in the studio, he is also a hilarious stand-up comedian, as he showed a crowded Sherman Function Hall full of Brandeis students on Tuesday night. As soon as he came on the stage, Benjamin made it clear that he had done his research on Brandeis; in fact, as he would tell the audience, he applied to Brandeis when he was young but did not get in. Instead of introducing himself, Benjamin opened a bottle of grape juice and began pouring it out for the crowd with a prayer or he tried to. Once he realized the bottle would not open, he gave up, asking the crowd “too Jewish?” with a knowing smile. He also pointed out the absurdity of how the University can unhelpfully try to help with pronunciation. Apparently, in his dressing room, someone had helpfully put up a poster that said “Welcome to Brandeis” with the word “dice” in parenthesis underneath. Benjamin wanted to know if “the Dice” was a nickname for Brandeis, joking “Brandeis University. The Dice. Let it roll,” to laughter and cheers. Something that Benjamin did that really seemed to please the crowd was how he gave out odd gifts to the crowd. For instance, at one point in the show, Benjamin threw pairs of socks from a large bag into the crowd. Students eagerly screamed and jumped up to get a pair. Encouraged by the enthusiasm, Benjamin put the bag on the ground so more people
could get them. Students swarmed the bag, and things quickly got out of control. When he saw a student crushed between the crowd and the edge of the stage, Benjamin put an end to the madness by grabbing the bag, declaring “I feel like that’s how riots start.” A few minutes later, Benjamin had another give-away, but this one had a story. As he explained, there is an old-fashioned sex toy store in his neighborhood — “a real neighborhood dildo shop; there’s not many left.” Apparently, this sex toy store sells a device called the Accommodator, a facial harness contraption that attaches a sex toy at the wearer’s chin. Benjamin showed a short video sketch he did about the awkwardness of the Accommodator and threw the device into the crowd once the video was done. One routine that the crowd went nuts for was when Benjamin read aloud a text conversation between his nine-year-old son Judah and one of Judah’s best friends, Cody. The text messages simply involved the two boys bickering, trying to use slang and talking about girls and basketball. However, it was Benjamin’s perfect timing and deadpan delivery that made the moment so funny. In one part of the exchange, Judah texted Cody “sup” and “hello” repeatedly before finally asking, “You there?” Benjamin increasingly sped up the time between each “sup” and “hello,” implying how desperate and annoying Judah must have seemed in the moment. Later, when Cody and Judah were arguing about whether or not a girl in their class was cute, Cody claimed the girl in question looked like Kate Upton. Judah replied with “Kate Shut Upton,” something that made even Benjamin laugh. After Benjamin finished his set, Eugene Mirman, Benjamin’s co-star on “Bob’s Burgers” as the voice of Gene Belcher, did some stand-up as well, although his stand-up focused more on using funny examples and
lists rather than telling specific stories. In one part of his routine, Mirman talked about how he accidentally got put on a Christian email service after signing up for a dating website as a joke. Part of the email service included an “ask the pastor” function, something that Mirman heartily abused, emailing a series of inane and escalating questions that ended with “I’ve been listening to jazz. Am I still a virgin?” After that segment, Mirman continued the same style but with a different premise. He shared how he always sees weird and funny signs in bathrooms and decided to make his own laminated signs to put up in public spaces. Each example became increasingly absurd, but the funniest by far was “divorce is not an option,” which he put in a church bathroom. Like Benjamin, Mirman utilized a sound system and video screen, but he also brought along many props to use. For example, Mirman wanted to demonstrate the things he could do with Amazon Echo, an AI service similar to Siri on iPhones. He got the echo to read off a series of funny lists and say funny things, but it started malfunctioning. Mirman tried to reset it by telling it to play a rock song. The Echo agreed and paused the song when asked, but a few minutes later, resumed the song out of nowhere. The crowd howled with laughter and danced along as Mirman struggled to turn it off. Finally, he shrugged and said, “That’s how you know what artificial intelligence is. It’s a robot that’s like ‘no, let’s keep rocking.’” Mirman and Benjamin were both very funny, albeit in different ways. Where Mirman was wacky and loud, Benjamin was a bit darker. Although the event was advertised primarily around Benjamin, both comedians performed for about the same length of time, leading to confusion in the audience, which had expected Mirman to open for Benjamin. Despite this, both stand-up shows were hilarious, and the audience left the room still giggling.
dance
Israeli dance group holds annual performance By linda maleh justice Staff writer
B’yachad, Brandeis’ Israeli folk dance troupe, held its annual show in Levin Ballroom on Thursday. The title of this year’s show was “Rikudiat B’yachad.” Choreographer Lianne Gross ’16 said in an interview with the Justice, “Rikudiat means ‘dances of,’ but it’s kind of a made up word. It comes from [the Hebrew word] ‘rikudia,’ which camps and Hebrew schools use to mean ‘celebration of dance,’ and we just conjugated it to make it grammatically correct with the name ‘B’yachad.’” “B’yachad” is the Hebrew word for together. Putting that together, the title of this year’s show can be loosely translated to mean “a celebration of dancing together.” This really typifies Israeli folk dance — a kind of dance that focuses not on a single dancer but on the group as a whole. There were nine performances throughout the night. Six of these were B’yachad, with three by other dance groups. One was done by Besamim, a visiting Israeli folk dance troupe, one by FAUJ, an allmale Bhangra army from Boston and the third by the Brandeis Ballet Company. The six B’yachad performances ranged from fun and energetic to slower and more melodic. The first dance, choreographed by Gross, featured B’yachad’s entire troupe. It was a lively dance to start off
the show. It was done to a song called, “Tziltzelei Pa’amonim” and, according to the program, was “a variation on the classic Yemenite style of Israeli dance, focusing heavily on rhythm and traditional steps.” As a contrast, one of the slowest and most melodic dances of the evening was performed to a song called “Mima’amakim” and was choreographed by Dani Davidoff ’19. In the program, Davidoff wrote, “while Mi Ma’amakim (Out of the Depths) is a little slow, it is beautiful and has always been one of my favorites. Therefore I aimed to mesh lyrical and Israeli dance styles to match the mood of the song.” FAUJ, despite a late start, had one of the most well received performances of the night. It was the longest dance of the evening and done to a medley of songs, most of which were extremely energetic and so, had fast dance numbers to match. The dancers also used a couple of props in the performance. They used a sort of wooden accordion that matched the beat of the music when they slapped it open and shut. They also used canes at one point, though these had a less obvious use. The loud and colorful costumes completed the lively performance. The Brandeis Ballet Company’s performance, choreographed by Brooke Granovsky ’18, somehow managed to be simultaneously graceful and edgy. According to the program, it aimed to blend “elements
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF B’YACHAD
EVERYBODY SMILE: The whole B’yachad group poses for a picture after the show. of hip-hop, ballet and modern dance.” The event was emceed by Emily Farbman ’18 and Dani Nurick ’16. The pair started off a little stiff, simply introducing each performance, but they loosened up over the course of the night, joking, reading fun facts about some of the choreographers and even, at one point, reading a note to Gross written by some of Gross’ friends in the audience who wanted
to cheer her on. There were Israeli snacks at the event, including chocolate cow bars, pita chips and hummus, Bamba and Israeli jellybeans. The last performance of the night was a collaboration between B’yachad and Boston University’s Israeli folk dance troupe, Kalaniot. Choreographed by Gross and Boston University student Amalia Safer, the
number included all the members of each group, creating the largest performance of the night. It was a fun dance to finish up the event, and according to the program, “represents how people from different walks of life can create something wonderful as one unified group.” —Editor’s Note: Brooke Granovsky is a staff writer for the Justice’s art section.
THE JUSTICE i arts i TUESDAY, April 12, 2016
19
Theater
HTG’s ‘Guys and Dolls’ wows audience
MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice
DAINTY DANCING: The Hotbox Girls dance as an ensemble to “A Bushel and a Peck.” The Hotbox Girls dance throughout the show.
By lizzie grossman justice editor
The lights in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater go off. The sound of the orchestra playing “A Bushel and a Peck” resonates throughout the theater. Jessica Plante ’16 walks onto the stage, “drunkenly” falls over and lies down while other characters walk on. Within the next few minutes, the entire cast has made its way across the stage, from the crapshooters wearing suspenders and hats to the Mission members docked head to toe in red. This was the opening of Hillel Theater Group’s production of the Broadway Musical “Guys and
Frank Loesser, takes place in New York City in the late 1930s. Nathan Detroit, in this production played by Bryan McNamara ’19, runs an illegal “crap game” but has trouble finding a place to host the game due to the strict laws enforced by Lieutenant Brannigan (Sarah Salinger-Mullen ’19). The only place he can find to hold the game is the Biltmore Garage, for which he must pay a $1,000 deposit. Unable to afford this fee, he makes a bet with gambler Sky Masterson (Gabe Walker ’19) that Sky must convince a woman, whom he terms a “doll,” to accompany him to dinner in Havana, Cuba. Agreeing on the bet, Sky chooses the head of the Savea-Soul mission, Sergeant Sarah
MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice
PSYCHOSOMATIC SHOCK: Miss Adelaide (Leah Sherin ’19) realizes that her longterm cold is due to Nathan’s hesitation to marry her. Dolls.” Directed by Rafi Diamond ’18, the show was held from Thursday through Sunday and attracted a large audience, from the Brandeis community to families of cast members, all eager to see the three months of hard work the cast members had put into the production. “Guys and Dolls,” written by
Brown (Jessie Eichinger ’17), and enters the mission, declaring that he has committed a sin and wants to be saved. Meanwhile, Miss Adelaide (Leah Sherin ’19), Nathan’s fiancée of 14 years, loses interest in Nathan when she finds out that he is still running the crap game. The story revolves around Sky and Nathan both trying to win over their
respective “dolls.” The casting of the lead roles was absolutely phenomenal. Sherin completely stole the show with her portrayal of Adelaide. Her imitation of a New York accent was perfect, and she brought Adelaide’s personality to life every time she was on stage. She especially shone during her solo musical number “Adelaide’s Lament,” in which she sings about the cold she has had for many years with the realization, gained from reading a book on psychosomatic illness, that it is most likely due to Nathan’s longtime delay in marrying her. Her impeccable accent, genuine emotions and added coughs and sniffles to the song made it by far one of the most memorable numbers of the show. Another notable star of the show was Eichinger, with her portrayal of Sarah. Eichinger brought a sweet and lovable personality to her character, fulfilling her role as a Sergeant extremely well. In addition, she possessed an absolutely beautiful singing voice. Eichinger and Walker demonstrated amazing chemistry on stage, from their long-lasting kisses to their melodious harmonies. One of my favorite parts in the show was at the end of their duet number “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” in which the audience could hear their voices at the same time. Eichinger’s dainty and high-pitched voice combined with Walker’s voice, which was low and dramatic, provided an amazing and memorable contrast, both emphasizing the differences of the actors’ voices while also weaving their roles together as a couple. Another standout was Saadiah McIntosh ’17 with his depiction of gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson. McIntosh definitely made his character memorable, contributing an amazing singing voice and charming sense of humor, making himself stand out every time he appeared on stage. All of the musical numbers were good, but my personal favorite was “Sit Down, You’re Rockin the Boat,” which took place in the mission toward the end of the show. The number incorporated the entire cast and was led by the very talented McIntosh. Besides the fun, upbeat nature of the song and the collaboration of the whole cast, what made the number extremely impressive was the dancing, courtesy of choreographer Mikah Atkind ’16. The choreography
consisted of cast members standing up from and sitting down on their chairs in complex patterns — for example, during the chorus, in which “Sit down, sit down you’re rocking the boat” is repeated, cast members sat down row by row during the chanting of “sit down.” Despite the fact that the 30 cast members were all performing at once, the choreography was unbelievably coordinated and perfectly complemented the song.
all. Macsai-Goren’s transformation of her traditional male role into a female was wonderful—she made it hard for me to picture Abernathy ever having been a male role. Despite a few imperfections, mostly involving production aspects, the cast was unquestionably outstanding, and their performances made the small errors barely even noticeable. “Guys and Dolls” was overall an absolutely fantastic production.
MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice
CUBA KISS: Sarah (Jessie Eichinger ’17) and Sky (Gabe Walker ’19) prepare for a kiss at the end of their night in Havana. There were definitely some aspects of HTG’s production “Guys and Dolls” that may have presented some challenges for the cast and crew. For one, the cast was fairly small for an open-cast musical, and with the abundance of lead roles, this resulted in very small ensembles. In addition, there were only five male actors — which required female actors to play male characters like Benny Southstreet (Sarah Ackerman ’17) and Big Jule (Laura Goemann ’19). Arvide Abernathy (Ruby Macsai-Goren ’18), traditionally a male role, was actually turned into a female role for this production. However, I loved how the smaller-than-usual cast offered nearly every member, including ensemble members, a chance to shine, and the lack of males did not hinder the show at
With the amazing acting and singing by the actors, I felt like I could have been watching a real live Broadway performance. Although the show was much longer than most, clocking in at around three hours, almost every second of it was absolutely delightful to watch. As Diamond says in his Director’s Note, “The Beauty of old school musical comedies, like Guys and Dolls is that they make a deal with the audience. It promises to deliver great music, clever lines and a wedding, all the audience has to deliver is a hearty laugh.”
—Editor’s note: Anna Stern ’18, who was both the music director for the show and played a Hotbox girl, is a writer for the Justice.
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TUESDAY, April 12, 2016 | Arts | THE JUSTIce
Brandeis TALKS
INTERVIEW
What do you wish prospective students knew that Brandeis doesn’t tell them?
Rafi Diamond ’18 AMANDA NGU/the Justice
Anisha Karim ’17 “I would say to not be stubborn and go to people for help when you have questions for anything, because, you know, I didn’t do that my freshman year, or sophomore year, or junior year.”
ILLUSTRATION BY ALI SANTANA/the Justice.
Elijah Harrison ’18 “Admissions definitely has this idea of Brandeis as an extremely open and free sharing space, but where I contrast with that is that ideas can be shared within a certain limit. There are social pressures that ideas have to conform in a way, and you have to be a certain type of revolution. Basically, if you don’t agree with the form of revolution that’s put forth, the free thought that’s put forth, then your free thought (even though it is your own), is not welcome.”
Liora Zhrebker ’17
“Admissions tells prospective students that there are always things to do here, and I feel like that’s true, but I think that it’s sometimes a little too busy, and I find myself and other students having the trouble of finding quiet space and quiet time and seeing that as a positive thing.”
Tom Rossetti ’18 “The obvious thing is the food sucks, but really, though, what I would have liked to have known is that whenever they bring students through here, they always make it seem happy-go-lucky, but there are tough times at Brandeis. But it also is a great place, and you meet great people, and even though I found it to be super stressful, it’s totally worth it. If I had to make the decision to come here again, I would.”
CROSSWORD
ACROSS 1 Device used by many Youtube stars 7 Network for cinephiles (abbr.) 10 Leer at 14 Recite 15 “The Way”, in some schools of thought 16 Certain dos 17 Game in which aces are very important 18 A hunger strike that goes on for weeks? 20 Hail, as a cab 22 Jack _____ 23 In the 1931 Frankenstein movie, he was named Fritz 26 Abbr. on some tickets 28 “_____ lift?” 31 Nattering negativist, according to Agnew 33 Begins to take off, perhaps 36 _______Tap 38 “Croods” character voiced by Emma Stone 39 Quick respite 40 Watered-down Guiness? storefronts 44 Conned 19 “Oh, ____ you come with me... and 47 Fire (Fr.) take my hand...” 48 Netflix exclusive starring 21 Animated character whose name is Wagner Moura 52 Make a big fuss about nothing a Soviet spy org. 23 ____ and outs 56 Sidled (down) 24 Clothing department store 57 Microscopic hairs 25 With 66-Down and 75-Across, 58 Computer whose voice was character introduced in 1977 provided by Douglas Rain 27 Lead-in to an example, in an essay 60 Caesar and Meier 29 It was cracked in 1953, so to speak 61 Child, to Macbeth 30 Cleopatra’s bane 64 A bite to eat 66 An office production of Cats? 32 “You’re off your rocker!” 34 Wager 69 Corrida girls 35 Stratford-_____-Avon 73 “I cannot tell ____” 37 Hasbro game 74 First word in every Sponge41 PBS funder bob episode 42 Abu Dhabi locale, for short 75 See 25-Down 43 Making a mess of, as a hotel room 76 Close to 77 Org. said by many to infringe 44 Ad ____ 45 Video file ender on privacy rights 46 Fits of lunacy 78 Gets 2 under par 49 Lead-in to New York or Miami 50 Reference book, for short DOWN 51 Sixties org. 1 Sharpness of mind 53 One who makes a 34-Down 2 Suffix associated with Buck54 Sound one might make when ill minster Fuller 3 College sports network (abbr.) 55 Word after spray or sun 59 Philosopher known as the “Father 4 What do to with one’s fears of Liberalism” 5 Protagonist of a book by 62 _____ Bator Michael Ondaatje 63 Features exaggerated in 6 Flat-topped desert hills charicatures of Obama 7 Scores, for short 65 Type of butter 8 Golden _____ 66 See 25-Down 9 Othello, for example 67 Corrida cheer 10 Counteract 68 Yes vote 11 Begin to fray, as nerves 70 Rank held by Sanders 12 _____ Alamos 71 Actor Vigoda 13 Abbr. after a date on many 72 Type of sib
CROSSWORD COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN
SOLUTION COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN
This week, justArts spoke with Rafi Diamond ’18, who directed the open-cast musical “Guys and Dolls.” justArts: How was your experience directing a show for the first time? Rafi Diamond: It was a lot of work — more work than I could possibly put into words. But it was also more fun than I could possibly imagine — more fulfilling than I could say. JA: What other theater have you done at Brandeis? RD: At Brandeis, I assistant-directed “Legally Blonde” last year, the opencast musical, and I have done some work in the department, and I’m on the e-board for Hillel Theater Group. JA: What was your favorite part of directing the show? RD: My favorite part was seeing the cast pull together and producing such an amazing production. It was such a relief and so fulfilling to see them do such a great job. But the entire process, I was with nice people, doing the thing I love, so I enjoyed the whole process. JA: What was the biggest challenge in directing the show? RD: The biggest challenge was definitely all the uncertainties that come with directing an open-cast musical — from not knowing what the show is going to be because of the struggle with rights to not knowing who’s going to show up to auditions to people dropping the show to not knowing how talented the cast is going to be. JA: Why did you direct the show? RD: I love the open-cast musical; I love that it lets people — who do know how great they are and don’t know how great they are — become better together. I love that it’s in its byline to be inclusive and to care about other people. I think just as important as producing a high-quality production is caring for one another and creating a show in an environment that is loving. JA: What is your favorite scene in the show? RD: I have to say that I love the song “Sue Me.” I love that it gets both funny and sad and angry and relaxed, and it has all of the different elements, and our stars are just so good. JA: What do you hope that the audience got out of watching the show? RD: I hope the audience laughed; I hope the audience saw that these are people occupying a world similar to our own who are going to break out in song. And I hope that they enjoyed that, and they saw not everyone is what you think of them at face value, and that you can just enjoy the good things that people have to offer. -—Lizzie Grossmam
STAFF’S Top Ten
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.
—Compiled and photographed by Amanda Nguyen/the Justice.
Solution to last issue’s sudoku
Sudoku Copyright 2014 Tribune News Service, Inc.
Indie Video Games By MAX MORAN justice EDITOR
Though many of these games have earned many millions of dollars, they were all developed by tiny staffs. They’re all great pieces of art and show creative innovations on classic game tropes. Here’s a list of great video games made on shoestring budgets. 1. “Undertale” 2. “Cave Story” 3. “Shovel Knight” 4. “The Stanley Parable” (2011 version) 5. “Psychonauts” 6. “Dear Esther” 7. “Braid” 8. “Papers, Please” 9. “Super Meat Boy” 10. “Nidhogg”