The Justice, August 25 2015 by The Justice

ARTS Page 23

FORUM Cecil the lion distracts media 12 SPORTS Volleyball looks strong for play at home 15 The Independent Student Newspaper

the

'FUN HOME' of

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

Justice

Volume LXVIII, Number 1

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Administration

TAKING LEADERSHIP

Rights and Responsibilities policies altered

■ The new edition includes

changes in the Special Examiner's Process and in the medical amnesty procedure. By max moran JUSTICE EDITOR

The 2015 to 2016 Rights and Responsibilities handbook was released to the community on Aug. 22 in an email from Director of Student Rights and Community Standards Kerry Guerard. The new edition contains several notable changes from last year’s

handbook, including changes in medical amnesty procedure, the Special Examiner’s Process and the Peer Review Process, which is now referred to as the Student Conduct Process. The medical amnesty policy is intended to protect students who seek emergency medical attention for themselves or others from being penalized for violations of the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. For instance, if a student calls BEMCo to help a friend who is drunk when they are themselves intoxicated, neither will be penal-

See RIGHTS, 7 ☛

Student lIFE

University pilots online training initiative ■ The online training is

in compliance with the national Sexual Violence Elimination Act. By Hannah wulkan JUSTICE EDITOR

The University began an online training initiative this month in order to comply with the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act to educate the student body on issues surrounding sexual assault. Returning students received an email with a link to the program, which is run through the online service Get Inclusive, on August 18th. The program, which takes about 20 minutes to complete, covers subjects including sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, stalking and consent. “Because the requirements are stringent and we need to demonstrate that we've reached all of our students, we're offering this online training as an introduction for everyone,” wrote Sexual Assault Services and Prevention Specialist Sheila McMahon in an email to the Justice. The Campus SaVE Act was

passed in 2013, adding additional regulations to the preexisting Clery Act under Title IX. The law requires colleges and universities to provide programming for students and employees addressing issues of sexual violence. The school must provide primary prevention and awareness programs, bystander intervention training, information on risk reduction and abusive behavior and ongoing prevention and awareness programs. The Get Inclusive training program combines videos, surveys, readings and activities to teach about sexual assault and related issues. It has several sections, including a survey at the beginning asking questions about students’ opinions on issues of sexual assault and harassment, and then ending with the same survey to measure the change in opinion after completing the program. The training was also very careful with definitions, staying away from terminology along the gender binary as much as possible. It opened with a blurb explaining, “We have tried our best to limit the use of gendered pronouns but you may still encounter a few places

See SaVE 7 ☛

MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: Interim President Lynch speaks to incoming first-years and transfer students at the 2015 convocation.

aDMINISTRATION

Lynch assumes office

■ During her interim

presidency, Lynch says she hopes to increase diversity and inclusion on campus. By Max moran JUSTICE EDITOR

Lisa Lynch began her term as interim president on Wednesday, July 1, taking over from former University president Frederick Lawrence, who officially stepped down on June 30. Lynch served as the University’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs last year and will return to these roles after her term as interim president. She is also the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy. Lynch said in an email to the University, “I approach the opportunity of being interim president with great excitement and humility. We all agree that this is not a time to stand still, and I know that with your help and support we will continue to move forward to advance the vitality and dynamism of Brandeis University." History at Heller School Lynch began her time at Brandeis in 2008 as dean of the Heller School, having previously served on the Tufts University faculty and working as a chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor from 1997 through 1999, according to her biography on the University’s website. She viewed the

position at Heller School as a way to “put all of the different components of my life all together,” Lynch said in an interview with the Justice, citing her work as a labor economist and her work with policy on a national and international scale. Lynch said that her primary goals coming in to Heller were to oversee its growth and to further engage with the undergraduate programs at Brandeis. “I think there’s over a thousand undergraduates a year that are taught by Heller faculty. You have a doubling of the graduate program at Heller, new degree programs added while I was there,” Lynch told the Justice. In addition to focusing on Heller’s growth, Lynch explained that another primary focus of her time as Dean was addressing issues of diversity and inclusion. She set up a diversity steering committee for the first time at Heller in 2011. “In my opinion, no academic institution can claim to be excellent if it does not advance and successfully have a diverse community and a community that is one that is truly inclusive,” Lynch explained. “And that was my focus at Heller, that was my focus as provost in my seven months of being provost, and it will continue to be my focus as interim president.” Diversity and inclusion Lynch said that a main focus of her interim presidency would be issues of diversity and inclusion, and that the presidential search committee would not hire a new president who is not

committed to these ideals. She made two announcements regarding diversity and inclusion, mentioning a summit for young AfricanAmerican men from the Home for Little Wanderers philanthropy organization and the creation of a new vice president for Diversity and Inclusion. The Home for Little Wanderers is the largest private child welfare organization in Massachusetts and includes services such as adoption, foster care, special education and clinical and family support. Its current president, Joan Wallace-Benjamin, earned her Ph.D at the Heller School and is now a member of the Board of Overseers. Lynch contacted WallaceBenjamin after receiving an end-ofthe-year letter from her reacting to the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in which Wallace-Benjamin described “what she has had to say to her sons in terms of how they need to be aware of their circumstances, and how people are reacting to them, and how oppressive that is,” according to Lynch. Lynch asked Wallace-Benjamin if “there’s something that we can do” to help young men of color in care, “because that is an incredibly vulnerable group.” The Summit will invite “probably a hundred young men, ages 12 to 18, of color” to campus for “a day of empowerment,” according to Lynch. Undergraduate and graduate students are writing programming for the event in conjunction with staff from the Home for Little Wanderers.

See LYNCH, 7 ☛

A Wrongful Conviction:

Over the ball

Renovations

 After 21 years in prison, Angel Echavarria was found to be wrongfully convicted this spring with the help of the Schuster Institute.

 The number 7 men's soccer team targets a postseason bid on the strength of the return of key starters this year.

 The University renovated parts of Sherman Dining Hall and the Shapiro Campus Center.

FEATURES 8

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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 9

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

News 4

TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS BRIEF

POLICE LOG

Cohen Center study reports high levels of anti-semitism and anti-Israel sentiment on many campuses in California and Canada

Medical Emergency

In late July, the fellows of the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis published the latest in a series of studies regarding attendees on the Birthright-Taglit trip to Israel. The center first began conducting the studies in 2000. The trip, which is open to Jewish young adults ages 18 to 24, is intended to “strengthen Jewish identity, Jewish communities and solidarity with Israel by providing a 10-day trip to Israel for young Jewish people,” according to the program’s website. The study, which was conducted in late April and early May of 2015, polled 3,199 North American young adults who were signed up for the trip but who had not yet gone on the program. Researchers gathered data on these individuals’ perceptions of anti-Semitism and hostility towards Israel in their campus environments. The authors of the study, among whom were Profs. Leonard Saxe (HRNS) and Theodore Sasson (SOC) and research associates Graham Wright and Shahar Hecht, wrote in the study that the ultimate goal of the research was to explore “the extent to which criticism toward Israel evolves into antisemitism and how respondents’ views about Israel affect their experience and perceptions of the problem.” In order to define anti-Semitism, the respondents were asked to react to a variety of beliefs, determining whether they were anti-Semitic or not. According to the results, approximately 90 percent of respondents believed that calling Jews living in the United States “not American” was anti-Semitic, while 78 percent of respondents believed that opposing Israel’s right to exist was inherently antiSemitic. The study found that Canadian universities, universities in the California state system and, to a lesser extent, large land grant schools in the Midwest tended to report higher levels of hostility toward Jews and Israel. Instances of public events that can be understood as hostile have been steadily increasing since what the study references as last summer’s “IsraelHamas war” Many studies, including those done by the Israel Campus Coalition, have found an increase in both pro- and anti-Israel events on campuses. The study also found that “nearly three-quarters of the respondents reported being exposed to at least one of these six antisemitic statements at least occasionally in the last year.” These statements included “Jews have too much power in America” and “the Holocaust is a myth or has been exaggerated.” Significantly, it was also found that, unlike antiIsrael sentiment, anti-Semitic sentiment was found at relatively the same rates on all campuses studied. One of the overarching goals of the study was to determine how closely linked anti-Semitic statements are to the prevalence of anti-Israel sentiment on campus. The study makes the point that studies like this one are meant to help determine to what degree resources need to be dedicated to Israel education and Israel advocacy on North American campuses. According to the Cohen Center, the study is meant to inform and guide responses to anti-Israel sentiment, the goal being to help inform the public about the nature and extent of hostility towards Israel and anti-Semitism on campuses.

Jun. 13—A party in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center reported experiencing a diabetic reaction. The party was transported to Newton Wellesley Hospital by Cataldo ambulance for further care. Jul 28—A caller reported a party in Massell Quad was suffering from an anxiety attack. University Police notified Cataldo ambulance, who transported the party to Newton Wellesley Hospital for further care. Aug. 21—University Police received a report of a party in North Quad who had a minor abrasion on their foot. The officer issued a BandAid for a minor injury. Aug. 22—A party in East Quad reported having a toe injury. Police and BEMCo staff responded and treated the party on the scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Larceny

May 19—Police received a re-

port that a Brandeis banner was stolen from the main entrance and they compiled a report on the incident. May 26—A caller in the Edison Lecks building reported the larceny of lab equipment. University Police compiled a report on the incident. Aug. 21—Police compiled a report of books that were removed without permission from a common area in the Sachar International Center.

Drugs

Jun 30—Police received a report of someone smoking contraband substances outside of the Charles River Apartments. Police checked the area and were unable to locate anyone.

Trespassing

Jun 6—Police on patrol in the Shapiro Campus Center reported they encountered a former student in the second floor computer room. The party had prior restrictions on access to Univer-

sity grounds and was escorted off campus by police. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

Disturbance

Aug 14—Police received a report of loud music playing near the Lown building. University Police checked the area but could not find the source of the music.

Traffic

Jun. 15—A staff member reported hit and run damage to a parked car in the Science Lot. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

Other

May 17—An usher at a minicommencement in Schwartz Hall reported that two families were involved in a dispute. They reported that at the time of calling the families were not engaged in dispute, however, as a faculty member had previously intervened. Police received a report that

ILLUMINATING CONNECTIONS

Search committee begins reviewing candidates for new University president

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Email editor@ thejustice.org.

Justice

the

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The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods. Editor News Forum Features Sports Arts Ads Photos Managing Copy Layout

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The Justice Brandeis University Mailstop 214 P.O. Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Phone: (781) 736-3750

—compiled by Avi Gold

BRIEF

—Morgan Brill

n A photo caption implied that the Intercultural Center was itself a club. The ICC is an umbrella organization for multiple clubs, but is not a club itself. The ICC programming board is made up of student leaders in ICC-affiliated clubs.

the dispute involved family members who refused to sit with one another and were present as the matter resolved itself. Jun. 9—A construction worker in the Sherman Dining Hall tripped a smoke alarm with too much dust in the air. Police notified an electrician. Jun. 23—Police received a report of people on the roof of the Bassine Science Building. An officer checked the rooftop and found all to be in order with nobody in the area. Jul. 19—A police dispatcher observed on a CCTV monitor a white van driving and making loops in the Theater Parking Lot. University Police stopped the vehicle and identified the driver as a student learning how to drive. University Police took no further action. Aug 11—A party in the Usdan Student Center reported harassment via telephone. Police compiled a report on the incident.

GRACE KWON/the Justice

Students admire the colorful centerpiece during “Light up the Night,” the lighting ceremony at the Rose Art Museum’s “Light of Reason” sculpture on Sunday night.

The presidential search committee has begun reviewing candidates for the next University president, according to an Aug. 20 email sent to the community by Larry Kanarek, the chair of the committee. Interviews began in August and will continue throughout the fall. According to Kanarek’s email, the candidates come from a wide range of experiences, including current academic deans, scholars who have administrative experience, and “a few nontraditional candidates who have had multi-sectoral careers.” In an email to the Justice, Kanarek stated that the search committee is staying closely on schedule but added that “we have always said that the search would take as long it takes to find the right person. That is still true.” The committee hopes to be completed by Summer 2016, according to the University website. A job description was posted on the University’s website in May, stating that the next president must be “a results-oriented visionary ... an academic champion ... a relationship builder” and “a community leader.” The president, the description said, must “demonstrate enjoyment and gain energy” from meeting with philanthropic donors, have a record of academic or alternative accomplishments, maintain a partnership with the Jewish community while still making all welcome on campus and bring diverse perspectives to the campus. According to the description, Brandeis defines itself by three paradoxes: “A small liberal arts college and also a national research university ... Jewish-sponsored yet prizing diversity” and “ambitious within the confines of limited resources.” The search for the next president comes after former University President Frederick Lawrence announced his resignation in February. Trustees, faculty and students are all represented on the committee. —Max Moran

ANNOUNCEMENTS Undergraduate Orientation: A Call for Change Explore the complexities of recent international events, from the Black Lives Matter Movement to violence faced by minority communities each day. Then attend a debrief session hosted by incredible professors from across the Brandeis community. Today from 12:45 to 4:30 p.m. in the Hassenfeld Conference Center.

Undergraduate Orientation: This Is Our House

At Brandeis, there is a tight-knit community in which everyone is welcome to contribute their own verses. Join Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams to celebrate Brandeis and agree to help each other to become part of the colorful fabric that holds the University together. Tonight from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Spingold Theater Center.

Intercultural Center Mixer

Check out Brandeis’ “Home of Mutual

Learning.” Meet new people, learn about the Intercultural Center, its clubs and organizations and take a tour of the center. There will be snacks, prizes and more. Wednesday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Intercultural Center Swig Lounge.

Undergraduate Orientation: New Student Forum

Come hear Michael Ondaatje, author of “Anil’s Ghost,” speak to the incoming class about his book. Time will be reserved for questions for Mr. Ondaatje, so be sure to have at least one question prepared. Wednesday from 8 to 10 p.m. in the SpingoldTheater Center

Global Prints Poster Sale

Find the perfect poster to decorate a dorm room and make it feel like home. Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

Brandeis Community Dinner Join the Brandeis students, faculty and staff for a delicious community dinner. Meet new people and learn what the Brandeis community means to everyone. Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. on the Great Lawn.

Oneg Shabbat with Interim President Lynch

The first Oneg Shabbat Program of the 20152016 school year will feature Interim President Lisa Lynch as its special guest. The oneg will begin after Hillel’s first weeekly Shabbat Dinner. Friday from 8:30 to 10 p.m. in the Sherman Function Hall and Lurias.

Activities Fair

Want to get involved on campus? Start here. With a multitude of clubs and organizations in attendance ready to answer questions, this is a one-stop shop for extracurricular involvement on campus. Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. on the Great Lawn.

THE JUSTICE

placed Brandeis at the top of its inaugural community service engagement list. By Max Moran JUSTICE Editor MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice

WARM WELCOME: The orientation leaders cheer as the convocation for first-years and transfer students commenced on Sunday.

Class of 2019 welcomed with convocation ceremony Orientation Core Committee gave new students advice and encouragement. By Abby Patkin JUSTICE Editor

The Shapiro Gymnasium in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center filled with noise and energy on Sunday as incoming firstyears, transfer students and their families gathered for the 2015 Convocation ceremony. The central theme for orientation was “Share Stories; Make Connections.” “We hope that you will share your story and create your own connections every day that you are here— with friends, faculty and staff,” a pamphlet handed to attendees at the door read. Rabbi Elyse Winick ’86, the University’s Jewish Chaplain, offered the opening remarks, reading three passages from the Bible, the Qur’an and the Hindu Veda linked together with the phrase “in the beginning.” She also told of meeting her husband at Brandeis during her senior year, which she dubbed a “Brandeis story.” “For some of you, this is the next chapter in a Brandeis story—offspring of alumni or staff. For others, the Brandeis chapter in your story is just beginning,” she told the audience. “Welcome to your story. May it be long and fascinating and filled with blessing, and we thank you for the privilege of helping to fill in those pages.” The Orientation Core Committee,

Brandeis named top school in nation for community service ■ The Princeton Review

which consisted of students Annie Abrams ’17, Danielle Frankel ’17, Dennis Hermida-Gonzalez ’17 and Gwen Fraser ’17, then took to the podium to extend their greetings and discuss the planning that went into the orientation week. Abrams discussed the orientation theme, explaining how it demonstrates “the essence of Brandeis itself.” She also touched on the significance of orientation week. “This week, with the help of our amazing orientation leaders and various staff and faculty from all over campus, we will learn about social justice [and] academics … and have the time of our lives at amazing social events,” she said. “But most importantly, we will learn what it means to be a Brandeis student.” “We want each of you to know that each and every one of you have joined a family that will never let you down. A family that goes beyond the call of duty to make you feel safe, wanted, needed and, most of all, loved,” Hermida-Gonzalez added. Next, Interim University President Lisa Lynch addressed the audience, welcoming new students and offering advice to them and their families. “Feeling a little nervous and excited? Don’t worry, everyone else in this gym is too,” she said. “As you share your stories, be true to yourself and be real.” “Now, maybe [people will] tell you that college is the best four years of your life, … [but] I also hope that Brandeis is not the best four years of your life, rather that during your time at Brandeis you take advantage of the people and resources here so that af-

TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015

Student life

SHARING STORIES

■ Administrators and the

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ter graduation you are set on a path to a life most fulfilling,” Lynch told the new students. Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel then addressed the audience, telling the new students that they have “amazing potential” and have entered into a community set apart by its diversity and vast opportunities. “You will be tempted to do everything … but let me remind you that you don’t have to do everything,” Flagel said. He also quoted from Tuesdays with Morrie, a book written by Brandeis alum Mitch Albom ’79: “Devote yourself to loving others. Devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. Feel passionate … and take responsibility for each other. If we only learn those lessons the world will be so much a better place.” Flagel stressed the significance of the students’ connection to the University, stating, “You will only be students here for four years, but you will be Brandeis alumni for the rest of your lives.” He wrapped up his remarks by quoting Curious George author Margret Rey, who taught creative writing at Brandeis: “‘Now don’t get into trouble.’ And George promised to be good. But it is easy for little monkeys to forget.” “So seek to be the change you want to see in the world. … With great power comes great responsibility,” he said. “And on a personal level, while it may be easy for little monkeys to forget, please don’t get into trouble.”

On Aug. 3, Brandeis University was named the top college in the nation for “Students Most Engaged in Community Service” in a list by the Princeton Review. This was the first time the company has put out a list on this topic. Brandeis placed first among 380 colleges and universities that participated in the rankings. The rankings were based on student responses to the question “How engaged are you in community service?” according to Jeanne Krier, a publicist for Princeton Review Books, in an email to the Justice. An average of 358 students per campus respond to the survey, though the number of students who respond “varies widely from school to school,” according to Krier. The survey is based on a fivepoint Likert scale, in which respondents answer each question with a ranking on a scale of five different options. The most recent edition of the survey, for example, asks respondents whether they Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Agree or Strongly Agree with the given statement, “Students are committed to Community Service.” The list appears in the Princeton Review’s 2016 edition of “The Best 380 Colleges” which went on sale on Aug. 4. Brandeis also placed 20th on the list of “Most Liberal Students” and 16th on the list of “LGBTQ-Friendly.” The lists only show results for the top 20 schools in each category. In an email to the Justice, Director of the Department of Community Service Lucas Malo wrote that “the sustainable growth that we have made over the years is inspiring and fuels our work and best practices as Brandeis partners with both local and global organizations.” One of the most recent service projects in which Brandeis students were heavily involved, according to Malo, was the Oct. 2014 completion of the Prospect Hill Community Center. Working alongside Bentley

University and several nonprofit organizations, Brandeis students helped purchase and renovate a 5,000 square-foot community center in Waltham’s largest low-income housing community, according to an Oct. 2013 Justice article. Students organized bake sales and other small-scale fundraisers, removed trash, installed a computer lab and built a playground, among other projects, according to Malo. The center now provides 5 days of after-school programming. Community Service Specialist Brian Quigley wrote in an email to the Justice that the Department of Community Service partnered for the first time this summer with the Gateway Scholars Program, a program for incoming students who are non-native English speakers to practice oral and written communication. According to Quigley, the partnership was designed “to encourage incoming international students to get involved with community service early in their Brandeis career.” More than 50 Gateway Scholars removed trash and invasive species from the banks of the Charles River and visited a local retirement home, according to Quigley. Last semester, as part of a project for SOC 199b: Senior Sociology Capstone Seminar: Sociology and the World, Kelsey Segaloff ’15, Caitlin Buegeler ’15 and Sarah Eagle ’15 conducted a survey asking parents whose children participate in Waltham Group programs about their perceptions of the Waltham Group, according to Malo. The survey results showed that 98 percent of parents found Brandeis students polite and respectful, while 96 percent described them as prepared, 89 percent described them as leaders, and 83 percent described them as inspiring, according to Malo. Malo wrote to the Justice that he hopes to see “higher participation in reflections opportunities for students, an increased number of guest speakers and trainings for students, and an increased participation in the Commitment to Service Award Program.” Quigley added in a separate email that “students go out into the community, meet amazing people, and learn new perspectives, and I would love to see this knowledge serve as the foundation for discussions on campus that challenge students’ ways of thinking.”

Faculty

Williams crowdsources the Charleston syllabus

■ Williams began gathering

teaching materials after the Charleston shootings. By Max Moran JUSTICE Editor

Earlier this summer, Dr. Chad Williams (AAAS), along with Professor Kidada Williams of Wayne State University crowdsourced a list of texts called the #CharlestonSyllabus in response to a recent mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. The readings are meant to “provide valuable information about the history of racial violence in this country and contextualize the history of race relations in South Carolina and the United States in general,” according to the African American Intellectual History Society, where the full list is being compiled. Works can be suggested through Twitter using the #CharlestonSyllabus. In an interview with the Justice, Williams called on professors from across the University’s educational programs to deeply engage with the issues of race relations and racial violence in the United States within their own fields of study, saying that it was a conversation which cannot fall on the African and Afro-American Studies department alone. He also suggested that faculty, students and alumni might try

creating a Brandeis-specific version of the Charleston Syllabus which would deal with issues and questions raised by the event that specifically speak to the Brandeis community. Williams, who is the chair of AAAS, told the Justice in an interview that he hopes the syllabus will be used as “a resource for scholars and educators to teach about the content of the Charleston Massacre.” He wants readers to use it as “an opportunity to educate themselves, but also to contribute to the broader communal dialogue.” Williams wrote in an article for the AAIHS that he “awoke to a nightmare” on June 18, after learning that nine black men and women had been shot and killed during a bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church the previous night. Upon later learning that the alleged shooter, Dylan Roof, was a white supremacist, Williams writes, he “began to immediately situate Charleston in the long history of white racial terrorism inflicted upon black people from Reconstruction to the present, encompassing assassinations of black community leaders, lynching in [the] name of defending white womanhood and attacks on African American churches.” Williams writes that he did not feel “confident” in the discourse emerging from the event over the following days, such as “vapid calls for renewing the

‘conversation on race,’ a soothing focus on black forgiveness and ill-informed discussions about the Confederate flag. ... It became painfully evident that the vast majority of people lacked the necessary historical awareness to engage in serious dialogue about Charleston, much less subject themselves to critical introspection.” Williams told the Justice that he felt the discourse was specifically lacking understanding of “the long history of racial violence and racial terrorism inflicted on African Americans since Reconstruction, the historical significance of the black church through the 19th century, and also the Confederate flag, which has been the focus of much of the media coverage.” Recalling the #FergusonSyllabus— a collection of research articles and books which was generated on Twitter after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.—Williams tweeted on June 21 that he was “tired of having one-sided conversations. We need people to read a book and educate themselves. #CharlestonSyllabus” He also contacted Marcia Chatelain, the Georgetown University professor who started the Ferguson Syllabus. Williams told the Justice that “she deserves all the credit for inspiring me and all the other scholars who are working on this project” and added that it is important for readers “to look

at the two [the Charleston and Ferguson syllabi] in conjunction with each other.” As of this writing, there are over 375 works on the AAIHS webpage that are part of the Charleston Syllabus. These include general historical overviews of African-American history and political struggles, as well as op-eds and editorials reacting to the shooting and discourse around it. There are also historical and critical readings on South Carolina’s history of slavery and race relations, including a subsection on Charleston specifically; on slavery, including subsections on the U.S. South, the U.S. North and the Atlantic world; on the Civil War and the Confederate Flag; on the post-Reconstruction period and the Jim Crow era, including subsections on racial violence, white racial identity and white supremacy; on race and religion and on the civil rights and black power era. Additionally, the syllabus features sections on African-American creative writers, poets and filmmakers, including Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, Danielle Evans, Ntozake Shange, Langston Hughes, Robert Hayden, Spike Lee and Zora Neale Hurston. There is also a section of works for young readers, and a collection of primary source documents from figures such as Absalom Jones, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Martin Luther King Jr.

and Malcolm X. When asked how he thought educators should begin conversations with students about the Charleston shooting, Williams said that educators need to recognize that students “are deeply affected” by these events, adding that educators “can’t simply divorce what happened in society at large, and especially in incidents as historically significant as what happened in Charleston, from what we do in the classroom.” Williams said he saw this event as an opportunity for Brandeis specifically to “embrace our responsibility to talk about the significance of this event and the realities of racism and white supremacy.” He is not aware of any Brandeis students who have contributed works to the syllabus, but again noted the large volume of submissions and encouraged Brandeisians to contribute. Williams added that “what happened in Charleston isn’t going to simply disappear in the next news cycle. We are going to continue to wrestle with this as the trial takes place, as we learn more about what happened that horrific day. The wounds and trauma are going to be with [students], students are going to be bringing those experiences and memories back with them, so we [Brandeis professors] need to be prepared to recognize that and respond to it as well.”

TUESDAY, August 25, 2015

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THE JUSTICE

Administration

NEW DIGS

Mary Fischer named as new sustainability manager ■ Fischer will work to help

MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice

CAMPUS UPDATES: The renovations include changes to the Sherman Dining Hall seating and service areas, pictured above.

University unveils new campus renovations ■ The construction

expanded the bookstore and other areas on campus. By Avi Gold JUSTICE editor

Renovations to both the Sherman Dining Hall and Einstein Bros. Bagels were completed over the summer, opening on time for new student move-in on Aug. 21. The redesign of both locations was first announced in a campus-wide email last March and confirmed by former University President Frederick Lawrence in a March 30 email to the student body. Sherman Dining Hall was fully renovated between May and August, with new seating arrangements and serving stations on both the kosher and non-kosher sides of the dining hall. “Sherman was a very dated facility. Changes will allow us to serve the students more efficiently, have a bit more flexibility in menu offerings and in general, provide a much more pleasant environment for the commu-

nity to enjoy,” Sodexo General Manager Steve Canario told the Justice via email. Executive Director for Integrated Media Bill Schaller wrote that the renovations to Sherman have “resulted in a space that is more aesthetically pleasing and significantly more functional.” The renovations will also expand the dining hall’s seating capacity, as well as add an outdoor seating area outside the Stein, though those adjustments will not be completed until late October, according to Schaller. Lawrence’s email also announced plans to build a deck outside Sherman and adjacent to the Stein on the upper level of the dining hall, though it has yet to be completed. Canario noted that progress on the deck is advancing and should be completed with the expanded seating. Canario wrote that construction is still being completed on “punch-list items, finishing cosmetic work over the next couple of weeks.” Einstein’s, located in the Shap-

iro Campus Center, saw significant change, rotating the serving area 90 degrees to face the interior of the SCC’s Atrium. In addition to the layout change, the facility also expanded its menu, now offering egg sandwiches, hot and cold deli sandwiches, soups and salads, in addition to bagels. The restaurant also now offers an expanded menu of available beverages. The renovations to Einstein’s were part of a larger renovation to the SCC, which included an update of the University bookstore. The bookstore was expanded over the summer to include a new facade, and the Einstein’s seating area in the SCC Atrium has bookstore items available for purchase. “The new facility [and] layout has allowed us to expand the menu, more in line with what you would see in a full ‘on the street’ store,” Canario wrote. —Hannah Wulkan contributed reporting.

reduce the University’s carbon footprint. By hannah Wulkan JUSTICE Editor

Mary Fischer began as the new manager of sustainability programs on July 6, according to an email from Vice President of Campus Operations James Gray sent on that day. This position is a new addition on campus. Lea Lupkin, a consultant from the company GreenerInc, served as a sustainability programs coordinator last year but only as a consultant instead of as a Brandeis employee, Gray explained in an email to the Justice. “I believe a serious sustainability effort requires a full time staff person focused on the effort,” Gray wrote. Fischer’s overall goal in this position is to reduce the University’s carbon footprint “which includes promoting more efficient use of energy and natural resources and lessening the waste we produce,” Gray wrote. “We’re then going to set aggressive targets for the University for reducing our consumption of fossil fuels,” Interim University President Lisa Lynch said in a separate July 1 interview with the Justice. “We cannot be let off the hook ourselves with respect to our own consumption and actions. This is a university which has a longstanding legacy of activism. Well, I’d like to see us act right now on this campus.” One of Fischer’s first tasks on campus will be to implement the electricity demand response program, Gray explained in an email to the Justice.

“This program is focused on reducing the amount of electricity we use on campus during the hottest summer days, which is when the most carbon-intensive electricity is online,” Gray wrote. Fischer explained this further, writing that her first order of business on campus will be to address energy usage on campus and that she plans to complete a carbon inventory and investigate ways to reduce the University’s carbon footprint. “Our goal is to gather a cross-campus group of interested faculty, students and staff to help build priorities going forward,” she said in an email to the Justice. Fischer wrote in an email to the Justice that the University has already taken many steps towards becoming a more sustainable campus, such as installing low-flow toilets in many locations on campus and building a rooftop community garden, but she also noted that there are always ways to improve. Fischer’s qualifications include serving for five years as life-cycle sustainability manager at Stonyfield Farm, an organic food company. She also worked as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for five years before that, according to Gray’s email to the community. Fischer has a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Dayton. —Avi Gold and Max Moran contributed reporting.

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THE JUSTICE

Faculty

Ellenson chosen to run Schusterman Center ■ Rabbi David Ellenson

became the acting director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies on July 1. By Max Moran JUSTICE Editor

Rabbi David Ellenson became the acting director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies on July 1. He will also serve as a visiting professor in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department. Ellenson this year succeeds Prof. Ilan Troen ’63 (NEJS), who directed the Schusterman Center since it was founded in 2007. Though Troen has become the new president of the Association for Israel Studies, a group for social science and humanities scholars who study Israel, Ellenson stated in an email to the Justice that he does not believe Troen’s retirement from the Schusterman Center is linked to this new position. Troen will continue on as a professor at Brandeis. Ellenson served as the president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion from 2002 to 2013 and was its chancellor in 2014. HUC-JIR is a seminary and graduate school for the Reform movement and is the oldest and largest Jewish seminary in the United States, according to its website. In an email to the Justice, Ellenson said that he had reached an agreement with former University President Frederick Lawrence to join the Schusterman Center and the NEJS department before he retired from HUC-JIR, but he had not known that he would be nominated for the position of acting director. Though he was initially hesitant to accept the role, he was persuaded after conversations with then Provost Lisa Lynch, Troen and Lynn Schusterman, the chair of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation which supports the center and HUC-JIR. Ellenson later decided that “service as Director provided me with a unique opportunity to contribute to the field by helping Brandeis maintain the superb quality and depth of programs and areas that Professor Troen had established,” according to the email. Ellenson stated that he has a close relationship with Troen and that he will “draw upon his [Troen’s] wisdom, experience, and knowledge during the forthcoming year.” Ellenson told the Justice that

he had “always been attracted to Brandeis and its tradition of academic excellence in Jewish and Israel Studies.” Ellenson also stated that he had “the utmost Ellenson respect” for President Emeritus Jehuda Reinharz both as “a model of intellectual excellence” and as a university president. Several of his friends and colleagues already taught at Brandeis. In a Feb. 6, 2014 article in the Jewish Journal, Steven Windmueller—the Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk emeritus professor of Jewish communal service at HUC-JIR—said that during his time as president of HUC-JIR, Ellenson was “not a numbers-cruncher” and that “everything was built around his warm, friendly style.” Ellenson avoided closing any of HUC-JIR’s four campuses in New York, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Jerusalem throughout the 2008 financial crisis, despite the college’s $10 million deficit at the time. Under Ellenson, HUC-JIR was able to balance its budget through a combined reduction of expenses and increase in revenue, according to his biography on HUC-JIR’s website. According to an April 18, 2009 Los Angeles Times article, HUC-JIR’s board of governors were considering closing at least two campuses to make up the deficit. Ellenson also created a system of “electronic classrooms” to unite HUC-JIR’s campuses, according to the Journal article. Ellenson will teach NEJS 156a: Modern Questions, Jewish Answers: Modern Jewish Response Literature; and NEJS 166b: Who is a Jew? Jewish Status and Identity in Israel and America. Lynch said in a June 22 BrandeisNOW article that “David Ellenson is a distinguished scholar of Jewish religious thought, ethics, and modern Jewish history whose research on modern Judaism has focused on the complexity of the permeable boundary between tradition and modernity.” Ellenson told the Justice in an email that he has been “very gratified by the extremely warm welcome so many persons at Brandeis have given me these past weeks. This is a wonderful university, I am so pleased that I can now be an integral part of its traditions.”

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TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015

technology

New University policy investigates conflict mineral use on campus

■ Brandeis will ask

technology companies to report their use of minerals from the DRC. By Max Moran JUSTICE editor

The University will review reports from its technology providers on their use of conflict minerals under a new policy that was released to the public on Thursday, May 21 by the Enough Project, a nongovernmental organization. Brandeis is the 19th school worldwide to join the Enough Project’s Conflict Free Campus Initiative, a project that asks universities to avoid purchasing electronics from companies that use conflict minerals. Conflict minerals include gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten. They are used in many consumer electronics including cell phones and laptops. They are considered “conflict” minerals when they are mined in a conflict-ridden area, most notably the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and are shipped or smuggled out of the country by militia groups who use the money to fund ongoing civil conflicts. According to the Enough Project, the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most deadly conflict since World War II and the area has the highest rates of sexual violence on earth. The University’s policy is aimed at “certifying the transparency of mineral supply chains from conflict zones” rather than boycotting conflict minerals entirely according to the University’s policy, because boycotts “may not always be feasible, and since boycotting can have adverse secondary effects, such as reducing employment for those living in conflict zones and encouraging smuggling,” according to the policy. It is published on the Enough Project’s website. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, a 2010 financial reform law, publicly traded technology companies are required to audit their supply chains for conflict minerals. The University’s policy will mainly involve re-

viewing the reports put out by companies in compliance with this act. Companies which do not distribute reports on their use of conflict minerals will be asked by Director of Strategic Procurement John Storti to work with assurance services groups, such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, to come into compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act. Former University President Frederick Lawrence approved the policy on May 14, according to a May 19 Justice article. STAND and the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative, two student groups, first approached Procurement services to find out if the University had a policy opposing conflict minerals in Spring 2014, according to a Nov. 11 Justice article. They pitched a potential policy to Vice Provost, Chief Information Officer and University Librarian John Unsworth that October. That policy included requests that the University phase out the use of conflict mineral-containing electronics over time. Unsworth called the policy “practical” in the Nov. 11 article but also voiced concerns about asking small vendors to remove their conflict materials, purchasing more expensive products to avoid conflict minerals and vagueness as to whether the policy applied to cloud services whose servers the University may not own. According to a Jan. 13 Justice article, STAND and CFCI spoke to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee on Dec. 3, 2014, which resulted in changes to the proposal. Gina Gkoulgkountina ’14, the northeast campus organizer for the Enough Project, told the Justice in January that the new policy was “mostly about educating people ... and to start phasing out ... products from irresponsible places.” She added that the policy was “not saying ‘throw out all the old electronics and focus on conflict-free,’ because that would be really hard and devastating for the economy here and in the Congo.” According to comments from then Provost Lisa Lynch in an article by the Enough Project, the committee which approved the University’s

new policy voted for it unanimously. In an email to the Justice, Lynch explained that the committee was made up of herself; Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel; Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Manos; Senior Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Marianne Cwalina and Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff and Chief Legal Officer David Bunis. In an email to the Justice, Annie Callaway, the senior advocacy associate at the Enough Project, called the Brandeis policy “one of the strongest of the 19 that have passed worldwide, because it includes a mechanism for communicating directly with companies to inquire about their conflict-free sourcing practices (or lack thereof.)” She said that the Enough Project “provided input and guidance on how to create an effective policy” but that it will not be involved with developing any new infrastructures as a result of the policy. She added that she has “complete faith that the ConflictFree Campus Initiative team at Brandeis is committed to finding workable and durable methods for fully upholding the conflict-free policy.” Gkoulgkountina told the Enough Project that “after 3 years working to pass a conflict-free procurement resolution, I am proud to see Brandeis joining the growing community of schools actively supporting peace in Congo.” Many of the technology companies from which the University currently purchases were among the best-ranked companies in the Enough Project’s Company Rankings on Conflict Minerals in 2012, the most recent year in which the group conducted this study. Intel committed to developing conflictfree microprocessors in 2014 and hopes to have its entire supply chain conflict-free by 2016, according to a Sept. 3 2014 Fast Company article. 135 of Apple’s 225 smelting plants were audited last year to verify that they do not use conflict minerals, according to a Feb. 11 Wall Street Journal article.

Faculty

Troen hopes to “continually expand membership” as president of the Association for Israel Studies ■ Prof. Ilan Troen ’63 (NEJS)

was recently elected to lead the group, which focuses on the study of Israel. By Abby Patkin JUSTICE editor

On June 3, Prof. Ilan Troen ’63 (NEJS) began his term as the president of the Association for Israel Studies, an international scholarly community dedicated to the study of Israel. Troen is the fourth president of the association and the first from Brandeis. According to its website, the association is an “international scholarly society devoted to the academic and professional study of Israel. The Association’s membership is composed of scholars from all disciplines in the social sciences and many in the humanities.” The association now has approximately 600 members, according to Troen. “The fascination with Israel is really wide, so the first thing the

association does is to facilitate conversations and exchanges of ideas and scholarship between the very diverse group of people who are engaged in the study of Israel,” Troen said in a phone Troen interview with the Justice. “There’s a wide spectrum of people who are interested in Israel, and their association with Israel drives these great forums for their interests.” Troen said that the Association engages international scholars through annual conferences and a journal, the Israel Studies Review, which is available in libraries worldwide. Troen stated in the interview that one of the larger goals for his presidency is to “continually expand membership,” which he noted has historically been largely American and Israeli but in recent years has spread across Europe, Asia and Latin America. “Israel studies is a subject of

worldwide interest, and the goal is to reach out to those people abroad, wherever they happen to be, and to make the institution one of their academic homes,” Troen said. “So the issues are large, the interest is large and the population of people engaged in it is expanding by enormous leaps.” Troen added that he plans to bring scholarly contacts he connects with through his work as president to Brandeis to lecture and engage in discussions. “I expect that being president will only enhance that kind of travel and my involvement [abroad], but I will lead my classes, I will be prompt and I will return the papers on time,” he said. “I also have a good number of doctoral students, and I will service them,” he added. “I think that these kinds of contacts will only enhance what I do as a teacher in the classroom.” Troen also stated that “Israel studies as a field of study in the university began at Brandeis University” with the first courses on Israel taught by the late Prof. Benjamin Halpern (NEJS), whose students in-

cluded President Emeritus, Jehuda Reinharz Ph.D. ’72. “This University has traditionally had programs that—whether they were called Israel studies or not—actually dealt with that area, and the early scholars in America who actually studied Israel were very often Brandeis graduates,” Troen added in a later email to the Justice. “There are also chairs in Hebrew Literature and a strong tradition of teaching Zionism, contemporary Jewish History and Middle Eastern Studies which are essential to a proper understanding of Israeli history,” “In addition, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies is the first such center dedicated to the comprehensive teaching and research of Israel. It is also the largest and leading such center.” Troen went on to note that he and his vice president, Dr. Donna Robinson Divine ’63, also a Brandeis graduate, both “discovered” the field of Israel studies as undergraduates at the University. “That [type of experience] is really true for many people. It’s been

true for years, and I think it’s evermore true now,” he added. “So it’s not incidental that a member of the Brandeis faculty was asked to be the president of this organization. This is a place that people have looked to and continue to look to, from the period of Ben Halpern and Jehuda Reinharz to the present.” Troen is the University’s Karl, Harry and Helen Stoll Professor of Israel Studies. According to a June 17 BrandeisNOW article, Troen was formerly the director of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute and Archives and was the dean of the faculty of humanities and social sciences at Ben-Gurion University. He has also served as the director of the Schusterman Center since its foundation in 2007 and is the founding director of the Brandeis Summer Institute for Israel Studies, which was established in 2004. Though he will be on sabbatical in the fall semester, Troen will be teaching two courses in the winter: a survey course on Israeli history—NEJS 145—and “Conflict and Consensus in Israeli history and society”—NEJS 185.

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TUESDAY, August 25, 2015

RIGHTS: Sexual

MAKING CONNECTIONS

assault protocol changes in 2015 R&R handbook MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice

MEETING NEW PEOPLE: First-years sit and talk with their orientation leader during the first full day of orientation.

LYNCH: Presidency will focus on sustainability

CONTINUED FROM 1

The VP for Diversity and Inclusion will be “either a vice president or a vice provost” whose roles and responsibilities are still being determined, according to Lynch. The position came out of a recommendation from the Provost Steering Committee on Diversity. Lynch told the Justice that she is analyzing similar administrative roles at other colleges and universities, and that the position will likely entail “pull[ing] all of the Title IX activities [together] and hav[ing] those individuals reporting directly for, say, a vice president for diversity and inclusion who might then be reporting directly to the president.” Under this model, administrators such as Sexual Assault Services and Prevention Specialist Sheila McMahon would report directly to the VP for diversity and inclusion. Lynch added, “the best thing to do is to have a vice president who’s reporting directly to the president to be doing this. Because this [sexual assault] is an issue that is not just in the provost purview. This is across the University.” Lynch noted that she plans to reexamine the University’s reporting structure for survivors of sexual assault and determine if changes need to be made. Campus Sustainability Lynch told the Justice that the other main goal of her interim presidency would be to improve sustainability on campus. “I want to focus on direct actions that we can undertake today on this campus to reduce our impact on climate change,” she said in an interview with the Justice, explaining that the first thing she wants to do is a campus-wide audit “to understand our current consumption of fossil fuels and then to set aggressive targets for the University for reduction in our consumption of fossil fuels.”

Regarding the campus movement toward divestment from fossil fuel companies in the University’s portfolio, Lynch told the Justice that she’d like to hold a forum on the pros and cons of divestment, including speakers and events similar to those held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in April. A proponent of the movement to divest from apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and '80s, Lynch said that she feels fossil fuel divestment differs, with the key difference being that “I can directly impact today my contribution to greenhouse gases. When I was involved as a student and as a faculty member in the campaigns to get companies to divest from South Africa, I could [participate in the divestment movement] but there wasn’t something I could do right at that moment that would have had an impact. So that’s for me first and foremost, it’s direct action of what we’re doing on this campus.” Lynch has no direct control over the University’s portfolio as interim president, because it is managed by the Board of Trustees. Faculty Issues Lynch has also been vocal about her commitment to issues such as faculty retention and salary gaps. At the faculty meeting on March 19 she suggested using some of the funds from the $32 million sale of the Brandeis House in New York towards these issues. Lynch told the Justice that she has been working to address salary gaps between associate and full professors on campus, and will continue to give out teaching and research innovation awards. This will include awards for professors who integrate new technology into their teaching styles and develop new classes across departments, according to Lynch. She will also continue funding early-stage

research projects for professors seeking funding for new research projects. Regarding adjunct faculty unionization, Lynch told the Justice, “I completely support the right of our employees to make that decision about whether or not they want a union to be representing them.” Citing her own work as a labor economist, Lynch said that she's looked “at the positive impact of unions on employment outcomes” but added that "I want to make sure that people feel if it comes to the point where they’re voting for a union to represent them on campus, that they feel they are fully informed of what that unionization will or won't do with respect to the issues that are of most importance to them on campus.” Regarding fundraising, Lynch noted that she will only be interim president “for six to 12 months” and said she can “work with our development staff to shepherd and keep moving forward various initiatives that are already underway.” The Year Ahead Lynch will have no direct input on the presidential search process during her time as interim president, but she expects to meet with the finalists selected by the search committee before a final decision is made. Lynch will be the first University president who is not a practicing Jew. In her email to the community, she wrote, "I came to Brandeis because of its rich history as a Jewish-founded nonsectarian university open to all and because of its core values: deep intellectual inquiry, rigorous discussion and debate, and a commitment to thinking about others before self in order to repair the world." Read the full transcript of the interview with Lynch on the Justice's website.

SaVE: University uses online Get Inclusive program to train students CONTINUED FROM 1 where we failed. We hope that you can forgive us and not let this distract you from the underlying message that it takes an entire community to uphold norms and promote bystander intervention. "This is not a ‘he’ vs. ‘she’ discussion ... It is an ‘us’ discussion.” The program also defined certain words that are used in the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, such as harassment, stalking and “non-consensual intercourse,” among others. It went on to educate on topics such as bystander intervention, empathy for victims and risk reduction. McMahon wrote that this program

was selected over other options on the market because it was customizable to Brandeis-specific content and the company respected concerns regarding gender-binary language. Get Inclusive was also chosen because it provides a report on the data from the program, as well as students’ experience with the training. McMahon wrote that this is important because “we will carefully review responses from our students about the training; the feedback will help us shape the content and scope of future training offerings.” She also wrote that students who do not complete the online training will receive a follow-up invitation from her to participate in other trainings on

campus, such as bystander training, workshops on consent and healthy relationships and sexual assault prevention and alcohol awareness workshops. McMahon explained that because the training is online, it is distinct from traditional bystander education. “The online training only presents an overview of the topic, and while it does provide written reflection opportunities, it doesn't provide the in-person bystander skill-building that we do in the peer-led bystander education program.” However, she wrote, “We're currently in the process of recruiting and training new student leaders to become bystander trainers.”

CONTINUED FROM 1 ized. Under the 2014-2015 edition, the policy stated that students “may be expected to meet with staff from the [Dean of Students] Office,” but that the policy was “intended to empower students to seek help if they or others are experiencing signs of physiological or psychological distress.” The new handbook states that students will be protected from Rights and Responsibilities violations, but on the condition that students subsequently comply with “any recommended educational intervention and/or behavioral assessment.” Students who do not comply with these recommendations will be held accountable for any violations of the handbook related to the incident and may have additional charges filed against them by the Department of Student Rights and Community Standards. In an email to the Justice, Guerard wrote that “fear of repercussions from the conduct process should not deter a student from calling for medical assistance for themselves or a friend when it is needed.” According to Guerard, these “follow-up conversations” will most likely be held either in the Dean of Students Office or with the Alcohol and Other Drugs Counselor. Another addition states that the medical amnesty policy does not protect students who repeatedly violate Rights and Responsibilities and that the University “reserves the right to initiate conduct action on a case-by-case basis, regardless of the manner in which the incident was reported. Additionally, the University reserves the right to adjudicate any case in which the violations are considered especially egregious.” The Special Examiner’s Process, which is the University’s means of adjudicating sexual assault, has also seen several significant changes. The Director of Student Rights and Community Standards no longer determines whether a case should enter the Special Examiner’s process and does not conduct preliminary interviews with the accuser and accused, who are now referred to as the complainant and the respondent. Instead, a Case Manager is assigned by the Chief Student Affairs Officer. The Case Manager gathers preliminary information about the case and explains the process to the complainant and respondent. The Dean of Students also does not render the final ruling in a case. While the Dean of Students’ Office still determines any preliminary sanctions to be put in place while the investigation is ongoing, an Outcomes Administrator, selected by the CSAO, gives the final decision on the case. Guerard wrote in an email to the Justice that “in many cases, [administrators involved in the process] will be ... from the Dean of Students Office, but the updated language allows for the assignment of the appropriate administrative unit or person to the appropriate task regardless of their department within Students and Enrollment.” Finally, new language states that the Special Examiner is required to be “an attorney, law enforcement professional, or other professional with extensive legal training in sexual misconduct.” This person must also have prior experience investigating sexual misconduct cases on college cam-

puses and is selected by the CSAO after being screened by the Title IX Investigator/Compliance Officer. The Special Examiner investigates the case and files a report on the facts of the case, the credibility of the witnesses and the Special Examiner’s opinion on whether the handbook was violated. Section three of the new handbook includes language stating that the University will investigate all cases of sexual misconduct either formally through the SEP, or informally. The decision to pursue the Special Examiner’s Process is made by the Title IX Investigator/Compliance Officer, with input from the Title IX Coordinator and the complainant. New language in the section on “Capacity to Consent” states that “the question of what the respondent should have known” is based on what a person who is “sober and exercising good judgment would have known about the condition of the complainant.” The Student Conduct Process, which is how the University adjudicates violations of Rights and Responsibilities besides sexual misconduct, now follows a lower standard of proof. Formerly, a student would be found guilty of a violation if there was “clear and convincing evidence,” meaning that it had to be much more likely than not that the student committed a violation of the handbook, if not completely guaranteed. Now, a student can be found responsible if there is “a preponderance of the evidence,” meaning that it is only necessary to prove that it’s more likely than not that the student is responsible. According to Guerard, the change was made “to provide a consistent standard in both processes (Student Conduct Process and Special Examiner’s Process) and reflects best practice.” The new Student Conduct Process also includes a list of student rights during the process. These include the rights to a copy of the handbook, a fair process, to be presumed not responsible until decided otherwise, to speak on one’s own behalf and to be accompanied by an Advisor. Other changes to the Rights and Responsibilities handbook include a new requirement that any student hosting a guest on campus be with that guest at all times. Professors may now require students to use the website turnitin. com, which checks papers for plagiarism. Students also cannot drop a course in which they are suspected of academic cheating. New language in section 5.11 states that the smell of marijuana can be considered grounds for a violation of campus drug policy, but only in conjunction with other evidence. Empty alcohol bottles which are used for decoration will now be confiscated, along with any items that violate safety restrictions, such as flammable gas, ceiling decorations and air conditioning units. Finally, Area Coordinators—the new term for Community Development Coordinators—now have the power to reassign housing along with the director of the Department of Community Living. Formerly, this power was held by the director of DCL along with the Dean of Students. Printed copies of the handbook will be released in mid-September, according to the email.

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, August 25, 2015

TUESDAY, August 25, 2015 | THE JUSTICE

just

features

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PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE LOVETT

FAMILIAR FRIENDS: Angel Echavarria meets with the founding director, Florence Graves, at his first visit to Brandeis they day after he was freed.

Bringing justice through journalism The Schuster Institute exonerated Angel Echavarria, after a wrongful conviction case and 21 years in prison By Brianna Majsiak and Lauren Pagan JUSTICE editor and contributing writer

Many would argue that the world of journalism has drastically changed course, leaving traditional avenues of reporting and investigaton in the dust. With its nose to the grindstone, the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism here at Brandeis University would beg to differ. Combining the long-lost tradition of hard-hitting, investigative journalism with a legal approach to issues such as human rights, the abuse of government and corporate power, gender issues, environmental issues and wrongful convictions, the Schuster Institute blazes forward, not only garnering readers but impacting and changing local, national and international policies. This past spring, the Institute achieved social justice through investigative journalism. Echavarria and Graves In 1996, Echavarria was wrongfully convicted of a murder in Lynn, Mass. Echavarria was given a life sentence without parole for a crime that he always maintained he did not commit. This case is one of several that The

Schuster Institute has been actively pursuing. The Institute, located on the second level of the Goldfarb Library, was established in 2004 by Founding Director Florence Graves. It serves as an independent reporting organization with the mission of investigating human rights and social justice issues. Graves, a longtime investigative reporter in Washington D.C. who investigated sexual misconduct by members of Congress on Capitol Hill for the Washington Post, among other stories, launched the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism while working for the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis. After hearing about The Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University, she was inspired to create a similar project using journalistic techniques to investigate potential wrongful conviction cases. “I was reading about some of their work and a light bulb went off. I cannot understand the extent to which such a large number of people were likely imprisoned and wrongfully convicted. I did not understand until I saw their work why [investigative] journalism in particular is needed or can be especially useful … in helping bring some of those cases forward,” Graves said in an interview with the Justice.

Taking the Case In fact, the Echavarria case was recommended to the Institute before it was formally opened in 2005 by the New England Innocence Project (NEIP). NEIP is an independent public charity that works to exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA evidence. Brandeis alumnus Neil D. Raphael ’98, who was affiliated with NEIP at the time, read in the Brandeis Reporter that the University was considering developing an innocence project. Rafael then contacted the Institute and asked if they would be interested in looking at some of the cases that NEIP was unable to take. “At the time the New England Innocence Project did cases in which it was clear that there was DNA which had never been tested and that probably could be tested and determine innocence or guilt. Those are the DNA cases that eventually [became] exonerations [and] that made it clear that many other people, where there was no DNA left, might also have been wrongly convicted,” Graves explained. “In all of the DNA cases, exoneration cases, there were other significant things that had gone wrong in the case[s].” Graves was inspired to look into

PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDSAY MARKEL

A MONSTER MEAL: Echavarria enjoys a lobster dinner at the Porthole Restaurant in Lynn Mass, his first meal after his release.

these potential wrongful conviction cases because the NEIP had decided not to. This is when the NEIP sent Angel Echavarria’s case to the Schuster Institute, along with another possible wrongful conviction case that is currently being worked on. “It was ‘wow.’ If we ever wondered if this was a good thing to do, that was the sign, that was the message we needed,” Graves said. Details of the Case Echavarria had already been incarcerated for nearly 12 years at the time the Schuster Institute picked up his case. He was arrested in 1994 for a murder in Lynn, Mass. and convicted in 1996. His conviction was based on the eyewitness testimony of the victim’s brother, which was later found in the evidentiary hearing to be highly flawed. According to the Schuster Institute’s website, the eyewitness described the assailant of the crime in Echavarria’s case as a 20-year-old, clean-shaven male with a Puerto Rican accent and a “stocky” or “chunky” build. Echavarria was a 27-year-old Dominican who weighed 135 pounds, was 5’10 and had a full mustache during the time of his arrest, which was only several days after the crime. The Institute closely investigated the eye-witness testimony. “One of the first things we researched was finding linguistic experts and [we found that] people who are Puerto Rican and Dominican can tell the difference in accents. It’s like telling the difference between my Texas accent and a New England accent,” Graves strongly emphasized. Anne Driscoll, the senior reporter for the Schuster Institute, worked on Echavarria’s case along with many others through the Brandeis Justice Law Project—one of several social justice projects at the Institute. In an interview with the Justice, Driscoll described the eyewitness as having difficulties “with concepts such as time, height, weight, distance, what day of the week it was, what town he was in…” “We realized early on that there was something very wrong with his case, the way that he had been convicted. We would read the case and say ‘how was he ever convicted?’ Then it was hard also [because] a jury had agreed that he was guilty based on what we could see was very, very flawed testimony,” Graves said.

In addition to flawed witness testimony, the Institute found numerous wrongdoings and inconsistencies throughout the process of Echavarria’s case. For instance, Judge David A. Lowy, Echavarria’s presiding judge, based his decision to permit a motion for a new trial on the ineffectiveness of Echavarria’s trial attorney, Charles H. Robson. Early on in their investigation, the Institute found evidence that the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers contacted Robson regarding ethical complaints. These complaints were ongoing even before Robson became Echavarria’s attorney and were not acted on until after Echavarria’s conviction.

HEALING TOGETHER: Echavarria visits the Light of Reason exhibit with four of his five children, Eliot, Ishannis, Katherine and Elvis. PHOTO COURTESY OF TATE HERBERT

“All of those things that happened are just not what the American justice system is about. Based on the evidence here [in Echavarria’s case] you could indict a freakin’ ham sandwich; like, this is absurd. How did this guy even get caught up in this?” Eckley questioned. “So, that’s really kind of what struck me when I was first involved with this case; that there was a miscarriage of justice, regardless of whether or not this guy was guilty; we know now that he wasn’t, but I just believe really strongly in the procedural safeguards that we have in place, and in this case, they were kind of thrown out the window.” Although Markel did not work for the Institute as a student researcher, she did, however, return to the University upon graduating to work for the Institute. Markel worked from 2008 to 2012 for the Institute as a researcher and eventually became Assistant Director. Recently receiving her Juris Doctorate from Berkley Law, Markel credits her work at the Institute for inspiring her to pursue a career as a public defender. “I didn’t necessarily want to be a lawyer when I was an undergrad. It wasn’t until working on his case and the other cases really that put me in that direction—seeing these outrageous injustices that happen everyday was just like, ‘I need to be doing this for the rest of my life.’ So that led me in this direction for sure, and for a million reasons I’m happy that I worked on his [Echavarria’s] case, and that’s one of them,” Markel explained. Exoneration The monumental moment for Echavarria, his family and friends and the countless individuals who worked extensively on this case occurred on May 18, 2015 when Echavarria was released from prison, and then again on June 15 when the Essex County District Attorney announced that Angel Echavarria was exonerated of all charges. Although Echavarria is now a free man, he still faces many hurdles resulting from his 21 years in prison. Since his imprisonment, his 5 children—of which, all of whom were under 6 years of age at the time of his conviction—have grown into young adults. His mother died while he was in prison, and he just recently met his youngest child, his 22-year-old

daughter, for the first time since he had been arrested. Supporters of Echavarria’s have established donation sites and trending hashtags like #TeamAngel to help him assimilate into a very different world. “As of today, Angel has gotten absolutely nothing from the State of Massachusetts to compensate him for the injustice that he suffered. So he is going to be submitting an application for compensation for his 21 years of wrongful incarceration … The problem is that it could take up to a year, so in the meantime we’re trying to raise emergency funds for the one year period that it might take to get that compensation,” Markel said. Although she is about to embark on her own career as a public defender in New Orleans, Markel still remains close to Echavarria. “I’ve been trying to get the fundraising page out there … Something that’s really cool is that a bunch of my law school classmates pitched in and we got him a phone with international capabilities, so he has an iPhone—so it’s been awesome helping him get in touch with his family back in the Dominican [Republic], in New York and Pennsylvania.” “You know, it’s hard, because he was out of society for 21 years. There are so many things that he doesn’t understand yet. He’s been doing an awesome job—he’s really positive and he’s not overly frustrated. He kind of slowly chips away at the obstacles in his way so he can re-enter life again, and the fundraising piece is just something that we’re trying to do to make that transition a little easier for him,” Markel said. Graves also commented on the current hardships Echavarria faces and her close bond with him, as well as on his strong and positive spirit. “He’s relieved, but I will say it is very very difficult for someone to rebuild their life after having been in prison that long. He would stay in his own cell because he didn’t want to be around all of those criminals. You know, it’s a violent place, prison, so he spent most of his time reading and watching TV and reading the bible and playing things like Checkers and Scrabble. One time he called me and said, ‘ask me the names of all of the capitals of all of the states,’ and I started throwing out all of these states that I was sure he wouldn’t know, and he did! Part of his time he was studying geography and memorizing them. Every Sunday night. I would always make sure I was home Sunday night. We couldn’t call him—he had to call us,” Graves recalls laughing.

Student Involvement A hallmark of the Institute is its history hiring paid student research assistants from the Brandeis community. In addition to student research assistants, the Institute maintains professional employees and volunteers with a wide range of expertise. The Institute strives to pair student research assistants with professionals in order to inspire and give them an opportunity to do in-depth realworld research. “What I knew is that if students are involved in something that was this personal and yet had large implications policy-wise, I felt that they could be inspired, to doing more public interest work, (2) students who see up close the type of abuses of power in the criminal justice process that we see in these cases … would be able to see just how the system can sometimes purposely but sometimes not purposely create systems within organizations that are creating abuse without attempting to …. and how that affects individual lives … that they would be reminded of that, no matter what they’re doing in the future,” Graves highlighted. Liz Eckley ’10 and Lindsay Markel ’08 are two alums who made true on Graves’ prediction and established close bonds with Echavarria through their work on his case. Eckley worked for the Institute as a student research assistant throughout her junior and senior year. Eckley returned to the Institute from 2012 to 2014 to work as the Assistant Director for the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. Eckley recalls her work on Echavarria’s case in an interview with the Justice.

See PAGE 9 ☛

A FREE MAN: Echavarria exits court overcome with joy with his cousin [left] and his evidentiary hearing trial attorney [right]. PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDSAY MARKEL

PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDSAY MARKEL

EMOTIONAL MOMENT: Upon his release, Echavarria hugs student journalists who worked on his case with the Institute.

10 TUESDAY, august 25, 2015 ● THE JUSTICE

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EDITORIALS

Reevaluate changes to medical amnesty policy In an Aug. 22 email to the student body, Kerry Guerard, Director of Student Rights and Community Standards, sent students a revised edition of the Rights and Responsibilities handbook for the 2015 to 2016 academic year. The new edition includes changes to the University’s Medical Amnesty Policy which is intended to encourage students to seek medical help for themselves or their friends in instances of drug and alcohol abuse without facing reprisals from the University. Previously, students who sought medical amnesty may have been called to the Dean of Students office for a conversation. However, the revised policy now state that students who receive amnesty “for themselves or others” will not be subject to charges provided that they comply “in all respects with any recommended educational intervention and/ or behavioral assessment.” The policy states that failure to comply with any of these requirements could result in charges being filed with the Department of Rights and Community Standards which was not part of the previous handbook. The University also reserves the right to bring up charges against a student who “repeatedly violate[s] Rights & Responsibilities” or if the violations are considered “especially egregious.” This editorial board believes that these revisions to the policy do not provide amnesty, and we urge the University to prioritize student health and safety. This update comes at a pertinent time for first-years. Excessive use of alcohol and drugs may require students to seek medical attention for themselves or someone else, especially for new students, who may not have come in contact with drugs or alcohol in the past. In fact, an article in the Brandeis Hoot, pub-

Clarify vague language lished on Sept. 12, 2014, cited an uptick in alcohol-related incidents reported for the first full week of school—rising to 36 percent of the total medical emergencies. The language of the revised policy is unclear. Phrases such as “case-by-case basis,” “repeated violations” and “especially egregious” are vague and leave too much room for interpretation. A phrase like “especially egregious,” for instance, could describe a student drinking to excess one night, or serious drug use, yet both could be subject to disciplinary action under this vague clause. It seems to this board that issuing punishments to students, especially without clearly defined terms, is not amnesty at all. This board believes that these changes to Rights & Responsibilities will dissuade students from calling for medical assistance from BEMCo when they really need it. Rights & Responsibilities 2014 to 2015 states that the purpose of the Medical Amnesty Policy was to “empower students to seek help,” while the new policy notably does not include this clause. The University should ensure that students get the emergency medical assistance they need and make additional resources accessible to them. If the University chooses to implement the revisions to this policy, it needs to make sure the student body understands everything it entails—understanding what actions pair with what repercussions. This editorial board believes that the University’s newly revised medical amnesty policy comes with too many terms and conditions that threaten student safety, leading us to conclude that the revisions to this policy must be reconsidered.

Applaud Prof. Williams’ #CharlestonSyllabus Following the tragic shooting in Charleston this summer, Prof. Chad Williams (AAAS) crowdsourced a collection of written resources about the tragedy and the context of racialized violence and oppression in American history. The full collection, called the #CharlestonSyllabus, can be found online. There are 375 works on the African American Intellectual History Society’s website—the host for the syllabus—that have been published in various media, spanning from op-Eds reacting to the Charleston shooting to critical readings about historical racial violence and discrimination. This board applauds Professor Williams for his initiative on such an important issue and its wide success on social media. The #CharlestonSyllabus generated a free and accessible resource for understanding an emotionally charged and complicated subject in a deeper and broader way. It also took this dialogue out of individual academic spheres and into the public at large. We hope the success of the #CharlestonSyllabus encourages other professors to follow in Williams’ footsteps. Given the complex nature of current events in an interconnected world, social media allows a new opportunity to start critical conversations interpreting these issues and for anyone with internet access to be included in that

Encourage accessibility conversation. Here at Brandeis, we are fortunate to have top-rate and nationally recognized professors with in-depth knowledge in a wide field of subjects. We as a board urge these professors to share their knowledge and perspectives contextualizing the news, especially controversial news stories or major events. Experts in the International Business School and International and Global Studies department can guide readers to a clearer understanding of the Chinese stock market collapse, and English and Film Studies professors can gather pieces that reflect on relevant, recurring themes in the latest cultural sensations. As journalists scramble to report the newest facts and information during a major breaking story, we rely on scholars to take the flood of information and form sense out of it. This board encourages other professors to consider creating their own crowdsourced syllabi, be they on topics of the sciences, the arts, the humanities or whatever their specialty may be. We hope the #CharlestonSyllabus and other crowdsourced syllabi like it will pave the way to educating the general public on important issues or major current events.

MORGAN BRILL/the Justiice

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On Sunday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government attacked the rebel-held town of Douma--a suburb outside of Damascus--killing around 100 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Between January and June 2015, Assad’s government carried out 60 attacks in the region killing 500, according to Amnesty International. On July 27, Turkey and the United States agreed on establishing a “safe area” for civilians on its border with northern Syria. The area would be policed by Syrian moderates to prevent attacks by the Assad government and Islamic State fighters. However, United Nations humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien expressed concern on August 17, urging states who support the safe area to “accept responsibility” for civilian protection. The UN safe zone of Srebrenica was infiltrated by Serbian nationalists in 1995, allowing 8,373 innocent boys and men to be slaughtered. Do you support an establishment of a safe area, and what do you suggest the international community should do to thwart war crimes in Syria?

Lubayed Aljundi HS ’15 Last week it was the second anniversary of the chemical attack on Easter Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus. More than 1,400 civilians have died, mostly women and children. The U.N. Security Council failed to produce a resolution to protect Syrians. To understand the regime’s goal of such tremendous atrocities, it is better to look beyond the direct military purposes. The regime’s famous slogan, from the early beginning of the peaceful uprising, is “Al-assad or we will burn the country.” The real threat to the regime is to let the people build their own civic administration in liberated areas to produce an alternative governance module to harsh totalitarian regime. The regime aims not to kill rebels and civilians in liberated areas but to kill life itself and to force people to choose between coming back to the government-control area, leaving the country, or simply die. A safe area, or no-fly-zone, will give Syrians the chance to start building up their livelihood. Depriving Al-assad of his air force superiority will force the regime to negotiate a political settlement. Lubayed Aljundi HS ’15 is an MA Candidate in Coexistence and Conflict and Sustainable International Development at the Heller School. He is from Syria.

Connor Wahrman ’17 The question is whether this area will become a “safe zone” for Syrian refugees or merely a ‘buffer zone’ for Turkey. A safe zone would call for not only air and ground protection but also extensive investment in local infrastructure, which would require U.N. cooperation. Also, the goal of the zone would be to provide a safe haven for refugees and non-military groups while the fighting goes on elsewhere. Turkey, however, seems to want to use the area and the rebels affiliated with it as a base of operations against both ISIL and the Assad regime. This “mission creep” would not only make the area a prime target for Assad’s forces in an uneasy parallel with Srebrenica, but it would also empower “moderate rebels” who may act in Turkish interests against Kurdish-held areas. To avoid this, the U.S. must clarify its goals and secure the resources necessary to complete them. Connor Wahrman ’17 is the editor-in-chief of Brandeis International Journal.

Amina Fahmy ’17 It is easy to want to support the “safe zone.” In theory, it creates a potential haven for millions, while weakening ISIL and the Syrian regime. However, as the facts stand, I do not support its creation. The proposal’s biggest flaw is the dependency on Syrian moderate fighters. Though I believe that moderate Syrian rebels do exist, the U.S. has not found success in identifying and training them. In fact, a Pentagon program designed to do so has only managed to vet and train 60 fighters. Entrusting the safe zone to an unreliable military force could potentially result in catastrophe for Syrian civilians at the hands of either ISIL or the Syrian regime. I believe it is the responsibility of the international community to relieve the Syrian people of both a government and extremist forces that, together, have taken over their country. In order to be successful, a more substantial effort is necessary. Amina Fahmy ’17 is a undergraduate departmental representative for the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies department and the international law and human rights coordinator for Brandeis Amnesty International.

David Alpert ’16 I support the establishment of a safe area. However, I fear the regions surrounding Syria are less enthusiastic about the idea. If the safe area does not receive enough support from the surrounding regions, then the safe area would simply be vulnerable to violence from Assad’s government. With that being said, I do not have a solution to the conflict, though I suggest that the U.N. and the international community provide incentive for the surrounding countries to support the safe zone. If the international community can support the regions surrounding the safe zone, there may be an opportunity to protect hundreds (and even thousands) of civilians in the future. David Alpert ’16 is the treasurer of Brandeis STAND, the student-led movement to end mass atrocities.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, August 25, 2015

Condemn government incompetence in EPA chemical spill Mark GIMELSTEIN

GIVE ME LIBERTY

Government…what’s it good for? Turns out, not much. The latest evidence supporting that notion is the disaster caused by the Environmental Protection Agency. In early August, the EPA, the supreme protectors of the environment that they are, single-handedly jeopardized the life of an entire river and the networks to which it connects. Working on the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo., the EPA let 3 million gallons of toxic water seep into the Animas River, which is part of the Colorado River System. This has adversely affected Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. What was the EPA doing meddling with the mine to start? In the Gold King Mine, there were “problematic concentrations of zinc, copper, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese and aluminum [that were] choking off the Upper Animas River’s ecosystem” according to the Colorado-based Durango Herald. Now, the EPA can rest easy knowing there’s another “problematic” situation in need of solving. What was it that President Obama used to say about Republicans again? That they want “dirtier air” and “dirtier water”? Last I checked, “wanting” is better than “actively causing.” This disaster has serious ramifications for the businesses, underwater ecosystem and communities living near the Animas River that now have to deal with the sad fact that yet another unaccountable, inept government agency has failed them. This is the same agency that arrogantly sues businesses left and right, receiving over “$1.5 billion in criminal fines and restitution” and over “$3 billion in court-ordered environmental projects to benefit communities” in fiscal year 2013, according to the National Review, for environmental incidents that many times paled in comparison to the havoc they’ve wreaked. This is the same agency that, four years ago, threatened to fine the Gold King Mine’s owner John Hennis $35,000 a day unless he gave the agency access to his mine. However, unlike a business, no one will be fired by President Obama for such a monstrous mess. And thanks to our lapdog mainstream media, no one will even ask the president why he does nothing. This isn’t the only incident of severe government negligence and incompetence. Other “protectors” also commit egregious mistakes that have ruined lives and led to many preventable deaths. Take the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Nobly fighting for consumer

DREW SHENEMAN/ MCT Campus-Tribune

protection—and having some past success at keeping bad, harmful products off the market—the FDA has also been at the center of awful decisions and an excruciatingly drawn-out process that have severely hurt many Americans. When new, revolutionary drugs are created, they have to go through an extensive, arduous clinical trial period in order to be approved for general use—on average 10 years. Most of the time, they’re flatly rejected. But even the one in 10 drugs that are approved still have to face testing phase after agonizing testing phase, delay after brutal delay, regulation after burdensome regulation and many years of being in bureaucratic limbo to finally get to the people who sorely need them. One of those drugs was the beta-blocker, which protects the heart from secondary heart attacks. In the mid-1970s, it was put on an approval moratorium by the FDA after concerns with the drug arose during one of its testing phases, even though the drug was already in wide use in Europe. George Mason University economist Walter Williams writes that “finally, in 1981, [the] FDA approved the first such drug, boasting that it might save up to 17,000 lives per year. That meant as many as 100,000 people might have died from secondary heart attacks waiting for FDA approval.” Another drug—interleukin-2, which is used to treat advanced kidney cancer, took more than 3 years to approve, according to Williams. “By the time the FDA approved the drug” he writes. “It was available in nine European countries.” Sam Kazman, who wrote “Drug Approvals and Delays” and whose work Dr. Williams cites, estimates that the delays of in-

terleukin-2 approval contributed to 3,000 premature deaths. There are more tragic FDA stories like these, and even more federal government mess-ups that no one wants to talk about. Perhaps the most egregious and unjustifiable story again involves the execrable EPA and the insecticide DDT. In the mid-20th century, after DDT was created by Swiss chemist Paul Muller in the late 1930s and the American military began spraying it in World War II war zones to prevent malaria and typhus, the use of the insecticide proliferated around the world. And the results were astounding. By 1965, the National Academy of Sciences proclaimed that “in a little more than two decades, DDT has prevented 500 million deaths that would otherwise have been inevitable.” But in 1972, with an America still fixated on Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring which propounded the idea that there would be severe, catastrophic environmental degradation because of pesticides, the EPA chose to ban DDT. This occurred even after multiple hearings and the EPA’s own administrative judge confirmed DDT’s safety. This, in turn, precipitated a massive scaling back of DDT use around the world through the United Nations. Liberal environmentalists still celebrate this ban as a huge victory for “environmental justice.” Yet sadly, the ideological rigidity of liberals and the US government agencies like the EPA in which many of them work—which prompted the rise of the global anti-DDT movement—has resulted in calamity for millions of lives around the world. Over half a million people die each year from

malaria and many more become infected. The most vulnerable are children under the age of five. There’s tragedy all around the world. With such awful results, how do liberals get away with advocating for increasing the power of the federal government nowadays? In a report by the Hill, President Obama’s EPA single-handedly reinterpreted what constitutes creeks, ponds and wetlands in the Clean Water Act in order to expand the government’s reach into commerce, desperately trying to blow the tires out of already-struggling small businesses. Obama’s EPA is also lawlessly, illegally writing its own laws like the Clean Power Plan, which seeks to pound even more regulations on energy companies, which will skyrocket electricity bills, wreaking havoc on people—especially the poor —yet again. And we’re supposed to buy this “protection” scam from federal government with such an abysmal track record? The EPA, FDA and other federal agencies need to be fundamentally restructured or delinked from the federal government, giving individual states the power to choose what to regulate and to what extent. And in general, Americans need to start waking up to the fact that the hundreds of thousands of pages of regulations on the books aren’t there to protect us. They’re there to justify the existence of these agencies and their employees. They’re there to bully people into complying with nosey, big government interventionism which stands in the way of making all our lives better. Let’s not kid ourselves—government is embarrassingly, and sometimes dangerously incompetent. Instead of empowering government, let’s try empowering people for a change.

Utilize LGBTQ successes to encourage other social movements Catherine

ROSCH cynical idealist

Shortly after I finished my study abroad in Ireland, the country became the first to legalize same-sex marriage by popular referendum, and the government passed the most liberal gender identity law in the European Union. At the same time, if one went into the women’s washrooms on University College Dublin’s campus and knew where to look, there were illicit notes and instructions on how to get unregulated, unsafe and illegal abortion pills. Or, walking in the busy student center, it was easy enough to overhear a girl whispering to a friend about how to get a cheap ticket to Liverpool for an abortion, but to not forget to withdraw enough cash in pounds to pay for the procedure. Yes, while Ireland has rapidly advanced in terms of LGTBQ equality and support, abortion—for nearly every case, even if the mother’s life is at risk—remains illegal. This conundrum reminds me of my mother, a second-wave feminist whose main interest has to do with reproductive rights, such as protecting Roe v. Wade. Actually, it reminds me of her Twitter feed on the day the Supreme Court

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legalized same-sex marriage as a fundamental, constitutional right. She had retweeted the celebratory comments, the breaking news articles and my incredibly unfunny joke about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg voguing up and down the court in celebration. But there was one Tweet in particular that caught my eye. In response to a “what’s next” Tweet to point out how eighteen states have no discrimination protections for real or perceived LGBTQ people, my mother had responded with “Um, women having control of their own body?”

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Every time one group makes strides, it should empower other groups, not lead to further divisions. This rubbed me the wrong way. Don’t get me wrong; as an ardent, pro-choice feminist who spent the summer interning for Planned Parenthood, I think a woman’s right to choose and have access to safe and affordable reproductive and sexual health is a pressing issue. But, at the same time, I felt uncomfortable with framing it

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in opposition to such a milestone for the LGBTQ community. After all, it isn’t like that every time one minority group makes a stride forward, every other underprivileged or oppressed group loses ground. Every time one group makes strides, it should empower other groups, not lead to further divisions. I believe that approaching civil rights in this manner, that responding to a positive major court case or new law with “yes, but what about.” is a harmful way to approach political and social equality. Look at it this way a lot of these issues, be they LGBTQ rights and protections, women’s “issues” (a term that I personally hate and could write a whole op-ed about) or ending police violence in minority communities, go beyond just the one group they affect. First off, intersectionalism exists. People are made up of more than one identity. You can have a woman who is in a long-term, same-sex relationship who benefits from the Supreme Court ruling but is hurt by the Hobby Lobby ruling which allowed for religious owners of corporations to refuse to pay for insurance plans that covered contraceptives. Or maybe there is a young black family that benefits from paid sick-time and parental leave policies but is still hurt by stop-and-frisk laws and entrenched poverty in the city they live in. People are multi-faceted and often are affected by more than one policy decision. Secondly, when members of one marginalized community try to pit themselves against anoth-

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er minority, such as by reacting to a major gay rights victory with a complaint about how the Supreme Court rules against women, they are comparing two issues that, while related, are not being discussed at the same time or in the same manner, and that really doesn’t help anyone. Rather, it gives the impression that people have to identify with a single group and cannot have identities that are diverse and might even be in conflict with each other, such as someone who identifies as LGBTQ but might also be part of an ethnic or religious group that objects to equal rights for sexual and gender minorities. This is harmful because it paints movements in broad brushes and ignores the nuance that makes each of us different. Look at the new movie coming out about Stonewall riots, for example. By making the film about a fictional white, cisgender man, the filmmakers erased the black, transgender sex worker who led the movement and, as a result, simplified the history of gay rights to one of middle-class whiteness. As a young progressive who cares passionately about many social movements, I’m not ever going to be satisfied. I see the Supreme Court extend 14th Amendment protections to the LGBTQ community while limiting a woman’s right to basic health care. It can be frustrating to watch one issue you care about make leaps and bounds forward, while another stalls in the dust. However, pitting these different issues against each other is simply not the solution.

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Rachel Shaw, Arianna Unger Features: Rose Gittell, Mira McMahon Forum: Dor Cohen, Aaron Dvorkin, Mark Gimelstein, Kahlil Oppenheimer, Kat Semerau Sports: Elan Kane, Daniel Kanovich, Dan Rozel, Colin Warnes Arts: Ilana Kruger, Linda Maleh, Anna Stern, Vanessa Alamo Photography: Tommy Gao, Leslie Kamel, Amanda Nguyen, Abigail Rothstein, Heather Schiller Copy: Annie Fortnow, Yael Jaffe, Rebecca Shi Sabrina Sung

TUESDAY, August 25, 2015

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Focus attention on international human rights issues Jessica

goldstein uBUNTU

I don’t understand why everyone was so upset about the death of Cecil. Okay, let me rephrase that: I don’t understand why everyone was blindly upset about the death of Cecil. Now before this goes too far too fast, I must simply express my undying love for gentle creaure—a love so strong that I became an “ethical vegan”— a person who abstains from consuming or using animal products for any purpose—three years ago. This decision seemed completely natural after deciding to become a vegetarian at age 11. However, the lion’s character is up for debate. In fact, an August 1 New York Times Op-ed by Goodwell Nzou, a native Zimbabwean, speaks to quite the contrary about our friendly, beloved and neighborly lion Cecil. In Zimbabwe, the lion isn’t spoken of as a friend, but rather something to fear. The loathing is so much so that when Goodwell heard the news of a lion’s death, “the village boy inside me [him] instinctively cheered: One lion fewer to menance families like mine.” Without hesitation, though, I can say that for a moment I sided with staunch animal rights’ activist Ingrid Newkirk, president of People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals who lamented “Hunting is a coward’s pastime. If, has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the park with food so as to shoot him on private property, because shooting him in the park would have been illegal, he needs to be extradited, charged, and preferably, hanged.” Well, aside from that little part about the death penalty, I believed that it was important to bring this issue to light. But the mainstream media churned up more and more stories about Cecil the lion, I became disenchanted with the movement all together. The inequality and malice that fills our world is unbelievable. However, a flash of the news would make you think for a moment that the hunting of animals is among the very worst of our problems. When we focus so much on the death of a lion in a country that even many intelligent Americans fail to locate on a map, we are hindering our ability to concentrate on greater world

problems. President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi violated his country’s constitution to give himself a shot at the third term of a presidency. Now we are all hoping desperately that the country doesn’t descend into ethnic violence again, as the president was sworn in for his third term on Aug. 20. South Sudan is victim to not only the massive displacement and death encouraged by another war but also to the feckless leadership of two individuals who once spoke so proudly of the country’s independence—an indepenence that separated it from the pernicious leadership in President Omar al-Bashir’s Sudan. Now, South Sudan is nothing more than an identical twin to its violent neighbor as peace talks once again are stalled by the president, who requested an additional 15 days to decide on whether or not to sign the Intergovernmental Auhority on Government peace agreement that would end the civil war. In Sudan, the genocidal dictator Omar alBashir continues to commit terrible atrocities in Darfur and has expanded these atrocities into other regions of the country’s regions— Blue Nile and South Kordofan. In 2003, as a method of counterinsurgency to attacks on the government by rebel groups—the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army—the government launched the Darfur genocide. According to United to End Genocide, some 300,000 have been killed, and three million more have been displaced.

“

A flash of the news would make you think hunting of animals is among the very worst of our problems. Bashir’s crimes have expanded to southern Sudan in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile region where the government is attempting to use a similar method to weed out the influence of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army-North, a rebel group—now South Sudan’s army—that fought alongside the Southerners in the war between Sudan and present-day South Sudan.

GRACE KWON/the Justice

There are issues around the world that require our attention. No, they are not just in Africa, as I will be among the first to point out. The successes individual countries on the continent have obtained span from Rwanda’s astounding economic success to South Africa’s significant technological advances. However, in order to fully understand the world in which we live, we sometimes need to take a look beyond the story happens to splash across the television screen. A president violated his country’s constitution in order to take hold of a third term. Political leaders of the world’s newest independent state have forced their crowning achievement into civil war in order to stay in or vie for power. The only sitting head-of-state wanted for the

crime of genocide by the International Criminal Court remains at large, and he has since expanded his campaign of violence. All of our cries did little to help the lions of the southern African country of Zimbabwe largely because the Zimbabwean people have seen past the “innocent lion” facade. There is an old African proverb that reads, “Until the lion learns to speak, tales of hunting will always be told by the hunter.” Okay, please, let’s not take that too literally. While we have spent so many hours waiting for the impossible—waiting for Simba to speak—the real voice of the lions have been silenced. We need the people of Burundi, Sudan and South Sudan to tell their stories. The lion needs to be heard.

Criticize Obama’s flawed promotion of US-Iran nuclear deal Dor

COHEN eLEPHANT IN THE ROOM Ever since the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was announced between the P5+1 countries and Iran on July 14, President Barack Obama has faced stiff opposition to the deal that he hopes will constitute his foreign policy legacy. As such, it is understandable that he tries, arms swinging, to reassure the American people and Congress that the deal curbs the Iranian nuclear threat. Yet the president, in his efforts to sway public opinion for the deal, has resorted to making controversial ad hominem statements that indirectly bring up memories of old stereotypes, ignoring and denying explicit flaws in the deal and labeling all skeptics of the deal as warmongers. His rhetoric has divided the country across lines of “pro-war” and “anti-war,” and “Democratic” and “Republican” and they have made acceptable the denunciation of critical debate regarding the deal’s merits and legitimate criticisms—such as the JCPOA’s weak inspections regime, sunset provisions and cash flow for Iran-sponsored terrorism, consequences that can only serve to harm the United States in the future through exacerbating the culture of political polarization that already exists in the country. President Obama claims his opponents are all partisans, warmongers and even collaborators with Iranian hardliners, as reported by Politico. In a speech at American University on August 5, Obama declared that “many of the same people who argued for the war in Iraq are now making the case against the Iran nuclear deal.” The president has consistently used the Iraq War comparison to rally support for his policies—thereby implying that people who oppose his positions desire war and to lead the United States astray. The “many people” the president referenced are widely assumed to be a reference to the American Israel Pub-

lic Affairs Committee, the organization leading the fight against the president’s deal as well as other Jewish groups that have come out in opposition to the deal, such as the American Jewish Committee and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Yet the president’s claim is false—AIPAC took no position on and did not lobby in support of the Iraq war, and it desires a more effective Iran deal, not military action. Furthermore, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), another opponent of the deal, noted in an August 18 speech that he was one of the minority that did not vote for the Iraq War. Ironically enough, Joe Biden, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton did vote in support of the Iraq War in 2002. Thus, the architect of the deal, Secretary of State John Kerry, voted for it, not simply a potential portion of those who oppose the JCPOA.

“

If the JCPOA is as exceptional as Obama says it is, he should gain support highlighting its merits Moreover, the president’s statement implies that members of the Jewish community who oppose the deal are pushing for warfare or placing ties to Israel over the interests of the United States, language that could end up “fueling and legitimizing anti-Semitic stereotypes out there that Jews are warmongers,” according to former Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman. The president has also made known that almost none of the concerns about the deal stand up to scrutiny. According to Obama, “The bottom line is if Iran cheats, we can catch them, and we will.” The fact that inspectors may not get access to undeclared facilities for at least 24 days is apparently a non-issue, because nuclear material “isn’t something you hide in the closet.

It leaves traces for years.” This is despite testimonies by the former head of safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency Olli Heinonen and former nuclear physicist David Albright that the deal’s inspections regime is frighteningly weak. Legitimate improvements that can be made to the inspections regime include demanding the anytime, anywhere clause that was originally stated to be the administration’s position (although this was later denied), as well as unfettered access to Iran’s secret military sites. As John Hannah, a senior counselor at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted in an op-ed in Foreign Policy, “You’d hope that this president, in particular, so conscious of the lessons of Iraq, might be a bit more tempered in his judgements about our capabilities to know in real-time everything that’s happening in the dead of night in the darkest corners of a ruthless dictatorship that’s made lying and deception about its nuclear program a way of life for at least two decades.” Faulty American intelligence led the Bush administration to believe that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, which led the United States into a costly war. Yet President Obama apparently believes our intelligence on Iran’s nuclear work will be completely accurate and timely. Moreover, the president’s continued refusal to acknowledge the profound challenges posed by the deal’s 15-year sunset provisions, namely, that after eight to 15 years the bulk of the deal’s provisions expire and Iran will be able to develop a nuclear weapon at will and with substantially more funds, is dishonest. The provisions preclude his claim that the deal “permanently” solves the Iranian nuclear crisis and takes away all pathways to an Iranian nuclear weapon. In fact, the agreement carves out a path to Iranian bomb; to obtain a nuclear weapon Iran will simply need to exercise patience. President Obama vowed that international economic sanctions will “snap back” into place as punishment for any Iranian transgressions. Yet this, too, is unlikely, at best; as a result of the JCPOA and the removal of sanctions on Iran, there will be a massive influx of cash, investment, trade and technol-

ogy flowing into Iran over the next 15 years, worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Does President Obama truly believe that in 15 years countries such as China and Russia will agree to reinstate their sanctions on the Iranian government and undo the successful business of the previous decade? Further, even if sanctions were reinstated, Iran would be within a few weeks’ length of obtaining nuclear weaponry, according to an article in Israel’s Arutz Sheva. Sanctions would no longer be effective at that point. Additionally, President Obama’s sanctions argument is highly illogical. He stated in his August 5 speech that the only alternative to the JCPOA is war because sanctions will not deter the Iranians. Yet, as political commentator Charles Krauthammer has noted, “If sanctions don’t work, how can you argue that the Iranians will now be deterred from cheating by the threat of . . . sanctions? Snapback sanctions, mind you, that will inevitably be weaker and more loophole-ridden than the existing ones.” The fact is that this deal does contain crucial flaws. The deal won’t prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons threshold state. Fifteen years from now, Iran will still possess an industrial-size nuclear infrastructure, and by Obama’s own admission, the capacity to break out at will. In exchange for a mechanism to only constrain Iran’s nuclear weapons pretensions, we are giving Iranians billions in sanctions relief legitimizing a repressive regime and solidifying its hold on power (not, as some have suggested, creating potential for moderation). We are also alienating key allies in the region, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, among others, as noted in a recent Wall Street Journal article, and paving the way for Iran’s expansionist policies in the Middle East. President Obama’s denial of these flaws is highly unfortunate, and it’s not befitting the manner of the leader of the free world. His rhetoric seeks to shut down honest debate, not encourage it, and to silence skeptics instead of persuading them. If the JCPOA is as exceptional as Obama says it is, he should gain support for the deal by highlighting its merits, not attacking its opponents. The country deserves better than what it has received from its Commander in Chief.

THE JUSTICE

MSOCCER: Men take undefeated record at home to new season CONTINUED FROM 16 Brandeis completed last season with a perfect 10-0 record on Gordon Field, including wins over Wheaton, Tufts and Emory University during the campaign. The Judges will go on the road to the No. 23 Emory Eagles on Nov. 1 and will have the opportunity to avenge losses to Rochester University and the University of Chicago during UAA play. The Judges will square off with the No. 18 University of Chicago on Oct. 16 and see October out with a game at the No. 20 Rochester Yellowjackets on Oct. 30. Schedule aside, the biggest question mark entering the season for the Judges will be who starts in net behind the defense. Graffy started all 23 games last season and recorded a 19-3-1 record, including 15 shutouts of the opposition.

He logged nearly 2,100 of the 2,130 minutes last year, with the final half hour seen out by goalkeeper Ben Woodhouse ’18. Woodhouse played the final 15 minutes of a 4-0 victory over Clark University and the last 20 of a 3-0 win over Massachusetts Maritime a month later, recording two saves in the process. The Judges should look for another successful season returning the core of a squad that made it to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last year. With some questions surrounding how to replace graduates and a schedule that does not afford stretches of easy games, the squad will have the chance to prove themselves as one of the top teams in the country from the moment the season begins. The men will open their season at home versus Bridgewater State University on Sept. 1, with kickoff scheduled at 7 p.m.

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August 25, 2015

MIDFIELD TUSSLE

MIHIR KHANNA/Justice File Photo

POSESSION BATTLE: Forward Samantha Schwartz ’18 (left) wins possesion from a Lesley College defender in a 1-0 win last Sept.

WSOCCER: Squad looks to XC: Judges to race improve 7-2-1 home record against top regional opponents at meets CONTINUED FROM 16 outdoor season. Whitaker is the Judges’ best bet to qualify for the NCAA Championships after earning a bid to last year’s race via the AllNew England Honors she earned at the New England Division III

Regionals last November. At the meet she ran 18th overall, turning in a time of 22:30 to help give the squad 13th place out of 57 overall teams. Both squads will open their seasons at the Roger Williams Invitational on Sept. 5 before traveling to the UMass Dartmouth Invitational two weeks later.

CONTINUED FROM 16

improving, there’s much buzz surrounding this year’s team. And for all of those soccer junkies eager for a thrill, there is no shortage of high-stakes games this coming season for the squad. Several of the many key matches stand out, as the Judges look to take the upper hand in inter-city competition as well as avenge some bitter losses from last season. To kick off the year, the Judges look to reclaim the fields of Boston, seeking revenge over the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology after last year’s season-opening loss. The two are slated to yet again open the season against each other, with the match taking place at MIT on Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. Another compelling matchup for the Judges comes at the end of September, as they are set for a showdown with long-time regional rival Tufts University. The two square off on the Judges’ home turf, and the battle is sure to attract a raucous crowd. The squad will hope to benefit from home-field advantage in 13 games this season. The Judges also seek to reclaim the

upper hand against No. 7 Carnegie Mellon University and Rochester University after both teams dealt the Judges defeats in the 2014 season. Ranked 25th in Division III entering the season, the squad will also face University Athletic Association rivals No. 11 University of Chicago on Oct. 16 and No. 22 Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 18. Finally, to close the season, the Judges yet again face New York University at the beginning of November, only this time they play host in the matchup. If all goes well, this game will have big implications for the impending NCAA Tournament.

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jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

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Tuesday, August 25, 2015

VOLLEYBALL

Men’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Goals

2014-2015 Statistics Chicago JUDGES Emory Rochester Carnegie Case NYU WashU

UAA Conf. W L D 5 0 2 5 2 0 3 3 1 3 3 1 2 2 3 2 3 2 2 5 0 1 5 1

Overall W L D 11 5 2 17 2 0 13 3 2 9 5 3 8 5 3 8 6 4 11 6 0 8 7 2

Pct. .667 .895 .778 .618 .594 .556 .647 .529

Tyler Savonen ’15 led the team with nine goals. Player Goals Tyler Savonen 9 Michael Soboff 7 Zach Vieira 6 Josh Ocel 4

Assists Josh Ocel ’17 led the team with nine assists. Player Assists Josh Ocel 9 Evan Jastremski 3 Foti Andreo 2 Mike Lynch 2

EDITOR’S NOTE: The squad will open its season versus Bridgewater State University on Sept. 1.

WOMen’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS

2014-2015 Statistics

Goals

Carnegie Chicago NYU Emory WashU JUDGES Rochester Case

UAA Conf. W L D 5 2 0 4 2 1 3 2 2 2 1 4 3 3 1 2 3 2 2 4 1 1 5 1

Overall W L D 14 2 0 13 4 1 11 5 2 11 1 6 13 3 2 12 4 2 8 6 4 8 7 3

Pct. .875 .750 .667 .778 .778 .722 .444 .528

EDITOR’S NOTE: The team will begin its season at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology on Sept. 1.

Sapir Edalati ’15 led the team with nine goals. Player Goals Sapir Edalati 9 Samantha Schwartz 9 Cidney Moscovitch 4 Melissa Darling 2

Assists Holly Szafran ’16 led the team with seven assists. Player Assists Holly Szafran 7 Sapir Edalati 7 Samantha Schwartz 3

VOLLEYBALL UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Kills

2014-2015 Statistics UAA Conf. Overall W L W L Pct. WashU 7 1 33 5 .868 Emory 6 1 34 3 .919 Carnegie 5 2 22 11 .667 Chicago 4 3 26 12 .684 Case 4 3 18 12 .600 NYU 3 5 20 18 .526 Rochester 1 6 17 19 .472 JUDGES 0 9 7 24 .226

EDITOR’S NOTE: The squad will open the season versus Babson on Sept. 1, taking place at Colby-Sawyer College.

Maddie Engeler ’16 led the team with 199 kills. Player Kills Maddie Engeler 199 Jessie Moore 193 Liz Hood 113 Summer Koop 112

Digs Elsie Bernaiche ’15 led the team with 504 digs. Player Digs Elsie Bernaiche 504 Shemira Pennyman 219 Julie Kim 205 Liz Hood 99

cross cOuntry Results from the NCAA Division III New England Regional last Nov.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

8-Kilometer Run RUNNER TIME Jarrett Harrigan 26:32.9 Quinton Hoey 26:45.1 Ryan Stender 26:49.0 Mitchell Hutton 26:55.7

6-Kilometer Run RUNNER TIME Kelsey Whitaker 22:30.0 Maddie Dolins 23:15.2 Lydia McCaleb 23:46.1 Ashley Piccirillo-Horan 24:46.1

EDITOR’S NOTE: The teams will begin their seasons at the Roger Williams University Invitational on Sept. 5.

MIHIR KHANNA/Justice File Photo

AIRBORNE SHOT: Lia Goldberg ’18 serves during a game against the United States Coast Guard Acadamey last September.

Squad begins new year against regional teams ■ The Judges will host the Brandeis Invitational on Sept. 4 and 5, their first big test of the year. By elan kane JUSTICE staff writer

The women’s volleyball squad heads into the 2015 season looking to improve on its 7-24 record in 2014. The Judges open their season on Sept. 1, playing away matches against Babson College and ColbySawyer College. They return home to host the Brandeis Invitational on Sept. 4. Last season, though the team started off with a 1-1 record, they quickly fell to under .500, losing their next five matches. However the team responded well to the adversity, and, following a loss against Trinity, won four of their next five matches, sporting a 5-7 overall record. After defeating Simmons College in five sets, the team lost 13 straight matches, with seven of those losses coming against University Athletic Association conference opponents. The Judges finished the season admirably, though, winning two of their final five matches to end the season 7-24. In 31 matches last season,

the Judges averaged 8.58 kills per set, 8.08 assists per set, 13.61 digs per set and 1 block per set. One of the strengths for the Judges this season could be team chemistry. In all, the Judges return eight players from last year’s squad. Last season the Judges were led by libero Elsie Bernaiche ’15, who tallied 504 digs and 43 assists, as well as outside hitter Liz Hood ’15, who notched 115.5 points. While both Bernaiche and Hood have since graduated, outside hitter Jessie Moore ’18, who tallied 193 kills and 231 points, and middle blocker Summer Koop ’16, who collected 112 kills and 128 points, both return to lead the team. Setter Julie Kim ’18, middle blocker Jessica Kaufman ’17 and setter Maddie Engeler ’16 also return this season. Kim collected 654 assists—the most assists on the team by a large margin. The next highest contributor in that category had just 105. Engeler, meanwhile, had a team-high 248.5 points last season, averaging 2.3 points per set. Though Brandeis only won seven matches last season, five of their victories came at home. That trend could bode well for the Judges this season, as six of their first nine matches will be played at Brandeis. The first true test for the Judges will be at the Brandeis Invitational, set to take place Sept. 4 to Sept. 5,

and will feature matches against Johnson and Wales University, Wellesley College, Endicott College and University of Southern Maine. Last year, the Judges went winless at the tournament, but if the squad can manage to take at least one victory from the tournament this year, it could set the tone for a more successful season in the win column. The next test for Brandeis will be at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Invitational from Sept. 11 to Sept. 12. There, the Judges will play home matches against Cabrini College and Colby College and away matches against Edgemont and Springfield College. If the Judges can win at least half of their 14 September non-conference matches, they will be in great shape heading into October. One area that the team will be looking to improve on is their conference play. Brandeis went 0-7 last year against UAA teams. The Judges will have seven conference matches in October, the first coming Oct. 3 against Carnegie Mellon University. This stretch of conference matches will be crucial for the Judges as they look to improve upon last year’s October performances. It was during this stretch last season that the Judges began to fall. The season starts off Sept. 1 against Babson College.

PRO SPORTS BRIEF St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals pace the pack in race for Major League Baseball pennants As the Major League Baseball season stretches into its final month, one fact remains abundantly clear: the state of Missouri is ahead of the curve. The St. Louis Cardinals currently lead the National League, while the Kansas City Royals sit atop the American League. Both teams have used a combination of strong starting pitching to complement powerful lineups. The Cardinals have been led by shortstop Jhonny Peralta, who has a batting average of .280 to go along with 16 home runs and 56 runs batted in. The Cardinals have a quartet of pitchers—John Lackey, Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez and Lance Lynn—who all have an earned run average of under three.

The Royals have been spotty with their pitching at times this season, but the team looked to alleviate that hole by acquiring top starting pitcher Jonny Cueto from the Cincinnati Reds at the July 31 trading deadline. Since being traded to the Royals, Cueto has won all four of his starts to go along with a 1.80 ERA. The Royals batters have been led for most of the season by first baseman Eric Hosmer and outfielder Lorenzo Cain. Hosmer and Cain are batting .318 and .313, respectively, to go along with 71 and 52 RBIs. The Royals have had the luxury of playing in a weak AL Central that has no other teams over .500. Contrast that with the Cardinals, who play in an NL Central that has

the top three records in the entire national league with the Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs. The Cubs, in particular, have exceeded expectations on the backs of their young core, including rookie third baseman Kris Bryant and fellow rookie catcher Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber has batted .310 for Chicago, while Bryant has added 66 RBIs. In addition to the team’s firstyear players, the Cubs roster also includes young stars such as first baseman Anthony Rizzo, second baseman Adison Russell and shortstop Starling Castro. Rizzo has been the star of the team, batting .295 with 23 home runs and 70 RBIs. The surprise team in the National League thus far has been the New

York Mets. The Mets came into the season with high goals for their pitching staff, and low ones for their hitters. Led by star pitchers Jacob DeGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard, the Mets have one of the league’s best ERAs. DeGrom has been the ace of the staff, striking out 158 batters while compiling the National League’s second lowest ERA with 1.98. The bullpen has been able to complement the starting pitching with an anchor in the form of closer Jeurys Familia, who has 33 saves on the season. Newly acquired setup man Tyler Clippard has four holds, with an ERA of 2.61. The Mets’ season really took off at the trading deadline when they

acquired Clippard, third baseman Juan Uribe, second baseman Kelly Johnson and outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. The Mets have been on a tear since then, starting from a few games out of first place in the NL East to now sitting 4.5 games ahead of the Washington Nationals. The Nationals have fallen hard from their spot as the presumptive World Series favorites to open the season. With a highly touted starting rotation and a dangerous lineup, the Nationals started the season as the dominant team many deemed them to be. As their injuries began to pick up in the middle of the season, so did the losses, and the team has yet to improve since. —Noah Hessdorf

just

Sports

Page 16

AIMING HIGH The women’s volleyball team will look to improve upon a year that saw them go 5-4 in games at home, p. 15.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Women’s soccer

CONFIDENT STRIDES

Squad aims for return to NCAAs

■ The team will open

its campaign at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Sept. 1. By Gabriel goldstein JUSTICE contributing WRITER

The women’s soccer squad saw their 2014 season come to a close in heartbreaking fashion, bowing out in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament and leaving the Judges with a final record of 145-2. Despite the crushing defeat suffered at the hands of Misericordia University, the Judges’ season proved to be historically great, as they finished with the sixth-best record in school history. It was a season that marked gradual improvement by the women’s program, a growth they look forward to continuing in the 2015 season. One of many reasons to believe that this year’s women’s squad will build on its high momentum is the fact that seven seniors hung it up following last season.

Waltham, Mass.

Despite the importance of each graduated senior, there is much to be said about holding together a team’s core players. With the vast majority of players returning, in addition to a new crop of incoming recruits, the Judges look to further improve the stifling defense that led them to the NCAA Tournament last season. In 20 games in 2014, the Judges shut out opposing teams 11 times, setting a new school record for fewest goals allowed (11) along the way. In fact, the two goals allowed in their season ending defeat to Misericordia qualified as just the third time all season that the Judges’ defense allowed more than one goal in a match. In addition to their stellar play on the field, the Judges finished the season playing before consistently stellar crowds. The success certianly served as a point of attraction for the student body, and the fans can look forward to witnessing more victories in this coming season. With school spirit high, a strong returning core and a stifling defense that appears to be continuously

See WSOCCER, 13 ☛

cross country

Teams hope to run well during outdoor season

■ Kelsey Whitaker ’16

and Grady Ward '16 will lead the squads during the outdoor season. By Avi gold JUSTICE editor

The men and women’s cross country team will look for continued improvement among lowerclassmen and strong performances by seniors in the upcoming outdoor season, one which focused on individual results during last year’s campaign. Led by Kelsey Whitaker ’16 and Grady Ward ’16, the squads will square off in at least six outdoor races, beginning with the Roger Williams University Invitational on Sept. 5 and ending with the University Athletic Association Championships on Oct. 31. Whitaker has qualified for the NCAA Championships in each of her three collegiate seasons, while Ward captained the men's squad last year. The women’s squad lost senior captain Kristi Pisarik ’15 but will return the rest of the squad. The squad will return key competitors in the junior class, including Maddie Dolins ’17, Kate Farrell ’17, Lydia McCaleb ’17 and Ashley Piccirillo-Horan ’17. The women took second place overall at Keene State Invitational last year, anchored by Dolins's title-winning run. Dolins covered the five-kilometer course in 18 minutes, 46 seconds, more than 10 seconds ahead of the second-place Whikater. The Judges also saw McCaleb turn in a top-15 time at the meet, stopping the timer at 19:44. One week prior, the Judges took fifth out of 38 teams in the UMass

Dartmouth Invitational, led by Dolins’s fourth-place finish of 18:03. Whitaker set a career-best 18:52 at the race, managing to secure a top25 finish in the process. The squad will return to UMass Dartmouth on Sept. 19, their second race of the season. The men’s squad graduated two key competitors in Greg Bray ’15 and Jarret Harrigan ’15—arguably the side’s top runner during the indoor season—but return a strong sophomore class with Liam Garvey ’18, Mitchell Hutton ’18 and Ryan Stender ’18. The squad took two wins during the outdoor season last year and earned third place at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Invitational last September, a result they can match at this year’s race on Sept. 19. The men will also return to the Keene State College Invitational on Oct. 3 after taking the top spot at the meet. Harrigan and Stender took the top two spots at the Keene State Invitational last year, turning in times of 26:33 and 26:34, respectively, in the five-mile race. The squad will also have a chance to improve on its eighthplace finish from the Connecticut College Invitational in midOctober, the final tune-up before hosting the UAA Championships the following weekend. The squad will also send runners to the Codfish Bowl Invitational on Sept. 26 in downtown Boston, hosted by the University of Massachusetts Boston. Brandeis will host the 2015 edition of the University Athletic Association Championships on Oct. 31, welcoming conference runners to Franklin Park in Boston to determine who will be crowned UAA Champions for the

See XC, 13 ☛

MORGAN BRILL/Justice File Photo

BURST OF SPEED: Midfielder Josh Ocel ’17 (right) sprints away from a Tufts University defender during the team's 2-0 win last Sept.

Judges look for success with strong core players

■ The men will lean on

starters Josh Ocel ’17 and Conor Lanahan ’16 in a bid to return to the postseason. By AVI GOLD JUSTICE editor

The men’s soccer team will enter the 2015 to 2016 campaign on the heels of one of its most successful seasons ever. Armed with the nation’s thirdbest defense—one that surrendered only nine goals in 2,130 minutes played—the Judges earned an atlarge bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament and advanced past regional powerhouse Amherst University before falling to the State University of New York at Oneonta in the Elite Eight. The squad—which begins the year at No. 7 in the first National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll—graduated three key players in May: forward Tyler Savonen ’15, the University Athletic Association Player of the Year, midfielder Michael Soboff ’15

and goalkeeper Joe Graffy ’15. Without those key pieces, the squad will turn to midfielders Josh Ocel ’17 and Jake Picard ’16 to lead an offense that led the UAA in shots, assists and goals. The squad will also rely heavily on a defensive back four led by D3Soccer.com’s defender of the year Conor Lanahan ’16 to anchor what should be another top defense. The squad also returns key players in Robbie Lynch ’16 and Kyle Robinson ’17 to help the defensive corps. The Judges will once again posses one of the fastest teams in the UAA along the wings with the return of midfielders Evan Jastremski ’17, Zach Vieira ’17 and forward Chris Bradley ’16. The team should also see increased roles of second-year midfielders Brandon Miskin ’18, Christian Hernandez ’18 and Patrick Flahive ’18. One year removed from a 19-3-1 record, the team will face a gauntlet in the first month of the schedule, with contests against three top-25 sides before UAA games begin in early October. Brandeis will travel to Trinity

University in Texas on Sept. 5 to take on the No. 6 Tigers. The Tigers scored 85 goals in 26 games last year, ranking third in DIII in scoring offense and 25th in defense. Following the Trinity contest the team will be faced with three games in five days, including a Sept. 12 rivalry game with Babson College. The Judges will face their biggest test of the season on Sept. 26 when they travel to the defending national champion, the Tufts University Jumbos. The Jumbos, ranked No. 1 in DIII, fell to the Judges in last year’s meeting on Gordon Field but will have the advantage by playing at home this year. The squad will also face the No. 22 Wheaton College Lyons on Sept. 29 as a final tune-up before UAA play begins the following weekend. Brandeis will benefit from four consecutive home games during the stretch of UAA games, including two out-of-conference games—welcoming Massachusetts Maritime College, the University of Chicago, the Washington University in St. Louis and Lassell College to Gordon Field.

See MSOCCER, 13 ☛

JustArts Volume LXVIII, Number 1

Your weekly guide to arts, movies, music and everything cultural at Brandeis and beyond

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Waltham, Mass.

Year In RevIew

»20-21

Interview Column—justArts speaks with Robert P.D. Duff, the newly appointed Brandeis Choral Conductor » 18

‘Something Rotten!’

Broadway’s new musical comedy hit presents a pair of writers struggling to compete with Shakespeare in his

INSIDE

prime during the Renaissance » 20

Pop Culture

Take a look at pop culture highlights of the moment, from ‘Scream Queens’ to ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ » 18

Songs of the Summer Justice editors pick their favorite songs of the summer, including “Worth It”

by Fifth Harmony and “Golden Boy” by Nadav Guedj » 23

justARTS

TUESDAY, August 25, 2015 | THE JUSTIce

CALENDAR

INTERVIEW

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus this summer

ON-CAMPUS EVENTS

‘Undergraduate Theater Collective Mixer’

Learn about all the Undergraduate Theater Collective has to offer while meeting other Brandeis students excited about theater. The mixer is in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater on Aug. 28 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Light snacks will be served. This event is sponsored by the Undergraduate Theater Collective. This event is free and open to all Brandeis students.

‘Patriotism & Propaganda: Poster Art in WWI America’

This exhibit, courtesy of the University Archives & Special Collections, marks the centenary of World War I through photos and posters. The works, which include propaganda posters from both the first and second World War, showcase the artistic efforts behind enticing Americans into supporting and even enlisting in the wars. The collection is on view on the second level of the Goldfarb Library and is sponsored by the University Archives & Special Collection. The works will be on view weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m until Dec. 18.

Robert P.D. Duff

Duff discusses role as new Choral Conductor COURTESY OF ROBERT P.D. DUFF

This week justArts spoke with Robert P.D. Duff, who has been appointed as the Choral Conductor at Brandeisal . Duff will oversee the vocal program, teach conducting, and lead two choral ensembles as part of the Department of Music. He also will continue to serve as the Artistic and Musical Director at the Handel Society at Dartmouth College.

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS ‘Arlene Shechet: All At Once’

This exhibit chronicles the career of Arlene Shechet. It features over 150 objects that demonstrate the evolution of her craft over the past 20 years. Shechet’s work is unique in its experimental approach to sculpture; Shechet finds inspiration in materials’ natural forms and the way different materials can change states. Shechet often works with plaster, ceramic, paper pulp and glass, warping and molding them as they become solid. Arlene Shechet: All at Once is curated by Jenelle Porter, Mannion Family Senior Curator at the ICA. The exhibit will be on view at the West Gallery at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston until Sept. 7. Tickets are available at buy.icaboston.org.5 but free for students with a Brandeis ID.

justArts: What sparked your initial interest in choral music and in being a conductor?

Robert P.D. Duff: I began singing in school and church choruses at the age of eight. From that time, I have been intrigued by the sculpting of sound, and the relationships built through ensemble music making.

JA: What kind of pieces do you plan on conducting at Brandeis?

Duff: I believe it is important to expose Brandeis students to master works of the entire choral canon over the course of their four years at Brandeis. To that end, I plan on programming works that range from the 6th century through choral music written by living composers. This season will include music from the Renaissance, plus works by Mozart, Bloch, Fauré, Beethoven and Fine. I am very passionate about new music, and will give the New England premiere of Into the Blue by Philadelphian composer Andrea Clearfield, and will premiere a work by one of the Brandeis students in the spring.

JA: Do you have a favorite choral course that you plan on teaching?

Duff: I will be teaching Conducting each spring. Within the course, the student will develop the art of critical listening, and learn methods of achieving and sculpting the ideal sound which they conceive from a work.

JA: How do you think leading two choral ensembles at Brandeis and overseeing the vocal program will compare to other choral endeavors you’ve done in the past?

Duff: The faculty position at Brandeis offers me the opportunity to work holistically on the development of the human voice. It is my hope that the offerings will be accessed by students interested in pursuing their musical talents to be used in choral, a capella or worship ensembles.

JA: What do you hope your students will take away from their time in your choral ensembles and classes?

Duff: I hope the students, through exposure to a diverse repertoire, gain both a literacy and appreciation of music, and are able to make music relevant to the world in which they live. . —Jaime Gropper

‘Architectural Allusions’

Architectural Allusions is an interactive exhibit of scupltures and nature hosted by the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. The exhibit was one of the museum’s first themed outdoor exhibitions. It combines comissioned works with pieces on longterm loan to the museum and explores how artists make sculptures in the age of modern architecture. Architectural Allusions features sculputres made from concrete, granite, glass and other materials. The exhibition showcases work by Stephanie Cardon, Dan Graham, Esther Kläs, Sol LeWitt, Monika Sosnowska, Kenneth Snelson and Oscar Tuazon. The exhibit will be on view through May 2016 at the Decordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln. Student tickets are $10 and are available for purchase at the museum.

‘Waitress’

Based on a book by Jessie Nelson, Waitress is a play that follows Jenna, a waitress and piemaker, as she tries to escape her small town and loveless marriage. The play’s cast and crew are well-known: Grammy-nominated singer Sara Bareilles wrote the show’s music and lyrics, Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller plays its central character, and experienced director (Pippin, Finding Neverland) Diane Paulus oversees the show. The musical portrays Jenna’s life in an uplifting way, and it focuses on Jenna’s long and winding pursuit of happiness. Waitress celebrates friendship and motherhood, emphasizing the courage it takes to follow dreams one has put aside. The show will run until Sept. 27 at the Loeb Drama Center in Boston. Tickets are sold out, but standing room tickets are available in person starting at 12 p.m. on show days from A.R.T. Ticket Services

‘Kinky Boots’

Broadway comes to Boston in this production of Kinky Boots. The well-known play features Lindsay Nicole Chambers as Lauren, Joe Coots as Don, Craig Waletzko as George and Grace Stockdale as Nicola. The show follows a shoe factory employee who works to revive his business and succeeds

with the help of an unexpected friend. The play was inspired by a true story and owes its Tony-winning score to pop singer Cyndi Lauper. The show earned another Tony Award for Jerry Mitchell’s choreography. In total, the Broadway production has six Tonys to its name, including Best Musical. The show’s run ends this Sunday, Aug. 30. Tickets start at around $50 and are available on Ticketmaster.com or through broadway. boston.com.

‘MFA: Made in the Americas—The New World Discovers Asia’

After the “discovery” of Spain in 1492, Americans began to trade with the country and took an interest in its arts and culture. This interest continues in and is elaborated by Made in the Americas—The New World Discovers Asia. The exhibit explores the impact of Asia on art in Colonial America. Made in the Americas features almost 100 of the most interesting artifacts made in the colonies. These artifacts demonstrate how art evolved in these places in the 17th through 19th centuries. The exhibit will be on view through Feb. 15 in Gallery 184 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

‘Popular Artist Series: Eddie Izzard at Tanglewood’

Eddie Izzard is a stand-up comedian, actor and writer. His stand-up routines focus on surreal humour and physical comedy, often involving monologues, rambling and pantomime. Izzard won a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program in 2000 for his comedy television special “Dress to Kill.” Izzard will join the lineup at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, for a performance in the Koussevitzky Music Shed. This event will take place on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Koussevitzky Music Shed in Lenox. Izzard will perform as part of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Popular Artists Series. Tickets for indoor seats to Mr. Izzard’s standup set start at $54 and are available at bso.org.

Pop Culture n !

By Ilana Kruger

Now that school is back in full swing and I’m back at the pop culture game, I thought it would be fitting to start with a look at the new shows coming to a screen near you this fall. That being said, with two reboots, a spinoff and a show based on a 2002 Tom Cruise movie, some of these fall shows aren’t actually that new. NBC will premiere its “event series” Heroes Reborn, a continuation of its fourseason science fiction drama Heroes on Sept. 24. Rebooting its own show that only ended in 2010 might seem like a risky move, but NBC seems willing to take the chance. The thirteen-episode miniseries will feature several actors reprising their roles from the original show, including Jack Coleman, Masi Oka and Christine Rose, as well as new characters. Like the original, the reboot will focus on a group of ordinary individuals with special abilities. ABC is also joining the reboot game on Sept. 22 with The Muppets. The characters will star in their own TV show for the first time since Muppets Tonight in the 1990’s, which itself was a continuation of the original Muppet Show that aired from 1976 to 1981. That’s right, it’s a reboot of a reboot. The new show will feature familiar characters, such as Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, as they film their own fictional talk show Late Night with Miss Piggy. All of the Muppets’ crazy antics and exciting guest stars on the new show are sure to hook a new generation of Muppet fans. For The Walking Dead fans that need even more of a zombie fix, AMC has the new spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, which premiered last week on Aug. 23. Both shows are based on Robert Kirkman’s comics, and Fear the Walking Dead brings the original show’s trademark guts and gore to a new setting: Los Angeles. Fear is set before the events of the original show, at the onset of the zombie plague. With its many similarities to its predecessor, Fear will appeal to fans of The Walking Dead franchise and help the

CREATIVE COMMONS

HIGH SCHOOL HORROR: Scream Queens, with its all-star cast, premieres on Fox on Sep. 22 network capitalize even more on one of its most successful shows. Minority Report, based on Steven Spielberg’s film of the same name, will premiere on Fox on Sept. 21. While the TV version will not include the film’s original star, Tom Cruise, it will bring viewers back into the captivating science-fiction world that Spielberg created. Minority Report is set in 2065, fifteen years after the movie, in Washington D.C. It will center around Stark Sands as Dash, who has the ability to predict crimes. Fox will premiere its new show Scream Queens on Sept. 22. The horrorcomedy has an all-star cast, including

Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin and Ariana Grande. The show, a mix between Mean Girls and American Horror Story, focuses on a series of murders at a college campus that occur twenty years after a potentially related previous crime. Between its star-studded cast and its wellknown creators—the same team behind the network’s previous mega-hit Glee— Scream Queens has a lot going for it. As one of the few truly original new programs on this list, Scream Queens is poised to be this fall’s breakout hit. While the rest are relatively unoriginal, fans of every genre still have something to look forward to with so many popular franchises expanding.

ARTS COVER IMAGES: The Justice and Creative Commons DESIGN: Michelle Banayan

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, August 25, 2015

class preview

Preview of Fall Arts Courses

“JAPN 135A: Screening National Images: Japanese Film and Anime in Global Context”

“JAPN 135A: Screening National Images: Japanese Film and Anime in Global Context” is a course that spans many disciplines. Taught by Prof. Joshua Frydman (JAPN), the course is cross-listed in several departments including English, Music, Film, Television and Interactive Studies and East Asian Studies. The course provides an introduction to the major directors in Japanese postwar cinema. It will focus on specific areas of Japanese film, such as medium, adaptation and narrative. In order to ensure accessibility, all of the films and readings for the course are in English. The course is only offered every three years.

Cosplay is the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book or video game, especially one from anime or manga. This practice was recently featured in a Buzzfeed video by The Try Guys, who cosplayed for their first time in order to learn about the practice. Cosplay’s appearance on Buzzfeed, a popular news and entertainment website, demonstrates how the community interested in Japanese anime and manga has gained popularity in recent years. Now, Brandeis students will have the opportunity to study anime, along with other kind of postwar Japanese films and tv.

—Brooke Granovsky

PHOTO COURTESY OF NANCY SCOTT

IMPRESSIONISM IN ART: Prof. Nancy Scott will teach “FA 155A:

Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context” this fall. The course will explore the proponents and opponents of the Impressionist movement.

“FA 155A: Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context” One of the best known artists of all time was Claude Monet, a 19th century impressionist painter. Monet was known for promoting the Impressionist movement’s aesthetic over the course of his artistic career. Although Monet helped popularize Impressionism, he was certainly not the only artist to shape this iconic painting style. This semester, the Fine Arts department’s course “FA 155A: Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context,” explores the impres-

PHOTO COURTESEY OF CAREN IRR

ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING: Prof. Caren Irr will teach “ENG 28A: Contemporary Environmental Writing” this fall. Topics range from climate fiction to the apocalypse. “ENG 28A: Contemporary Environmental Writing” The end of the world has long been a common theme in religion, literature and the media. Religious texts address the subject with a serious tone, warning of a final judgment day. Seth Rogen and James Franco tackled the theme with comedy in their movie “This Is The End,” and the theme’s dramatic qualities were emphasized in “World War Z.” Yet climate change, a phenomenon that sometimes promises apocalyptic qualities, rarely receives such a prominent media portrayal. Students troubled by this subject’s omis-

sionist style’s evolution and its relationship to societal change. Taught by Prof. Nancy Scott, “FA 155A: Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context” will look at the socio-cultural implications of a movement that attempted to shed many of paintings’ well-established conventions. The course will focus on major artists of the mid-1800s, including Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Pissarro, Morisot and Cassatt. Perhaps reflective of the course’s graduate level, students will not only study the movement’s proponents but also its detractors. FA 155A will examine Impressionism indirectly

sion will have a chance to use literature to study the environment and its changes in “ENG 28A: Contemporary Environmental Writing.” Under Prof. Caren Irr (ENG), “ENG 28A: Contemporary Environmental Writing” tackles literary responses to changes in the natural environment. The course focuses on environmental phenomena and pieces of literature from the past few decades. The literature will span several genres, including dystopia, thriller, climate fiction, natural history, exploration narrative and realist exposé. The course is offered every fourth year.

by learning about the academics and artists that opposed the style in order to better understand its place in culture. The course will also detail the narrative of the movement’s disillusion. FA 155A should be suited for students ready to take a critical perspective of one of art’s most influential painting styles. The course is offered once every three years, but if you don’t have a chance to enroll, you can always check out the Museum of Fine Arts’ extensive (and exquisite) Monet exhibition and take a glimpse of the movement’s most famous works.

—Brooke Granovsky

MUSIC INDUSTRY: Michele Zaccagnini will teach “MUS61A: Introduction to the Music Business” this fall. The course will cover the financial and legal aspects of the music industry. PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHELE ZACCAGNINI

—Brooke Granovsky

BRIEF Rose Art Museum It seems like any lingering questions about the Rose Art Museum’s place on campus have finally faded into the past. Over the summer, the museum received accolades from two major news publications. One was from media juggernaut the New York Times, and the other came from Architectural Digest. The Times reviewed the Rose’s Pretty Raw: After and Around Helen Frankenthaler, and Architectural Digest placed the museum on its list of the United States’ best university art museums. A Times article titled “Review: ‘Pretty Raw’ Recounts Helen Frankenthaler’s Influence on the Art World,” published online on June 3 by Roberta Smith, lauded the museum’s bold spring exhibit. Pretty Raw: After and Around Helen Frankenthaler showcases Frankenthaler’s work and explores the themes of control, masculinity, femininity, humor and everyday life. The exhibit was on

view last semester in the on view in the Lois Foster Gallery. Smith noted the significance of Siegel’s decision to surround Frankenthaler’s work with other artists’ related efforts, of whom about half were women. Smith explained that this choice helped the exhibit “[approach] postwar art from a new, implicitly revisionist perspective that expands it beyond the usual male suspects.” Siegel continued to focus on the exhibit’s feminist theme, writing that “another through-line [in the exhibit] is feminist thought and its aesthetic ramifications, especially in painting, with “the feminine” as both a stereotype to be shattered and an artistic potential to be explored.” In addition to its positive write-up in the Times, the museum was also praised by Architectural Digest in an article titled “The Best University Art Museums in America.” —Brooke Granovsky

“MUS61A: Introduction to the Music Business” One general festival pass to the Coachella 2016 music festival is $375. A three-day general admission pass to next month’s Boston Calling music festival is $175. Floor seats for Taylor Swift’s concert later tonight in Los Angeles cost $650 via a scalping website. Prices like these make it easier to remember that, in addition to its messages of peace and love, music is a business enterprise at its core. Television shows like “Empire” and “Entourage” and movies like One Direction’s documentary concert film “This Is Us” (2014)

have explored the behind-thescenes side of the music industry. Now, Brandeis students will have a chance to explore this part of the music sphere thanks to “MUS61A: Introduction to the Music Business,” an analysis-based course from the Music department. Prof. Michele Zaccagnini’s (MUS) “MUS61A: Introduction to the Music Business” examines how artists and managers harness their combined talents to create art that provides a steady stream of income. The course will help students understand the inner workings of the music industry, its revenue streams and its system of pay-

ments. The course will also cover the legal aspect of the industry, analyzing how the laws surrounding intellectual property and copyright regulations affect the music sphere. Aspiring artists and music managers alike are sure to benefit from studying how they can plan for financial success. Concertgoers will hopefully come away with an understanding of why concert tickets can be so expensive. If not, they can take comfort in the fact that Brandeis’ spring music festival, Springfest, is always free. The course is offered every third year.

—Brooke Granovsky

TUESDAY, August 25, 2015 | THE JUSTICE

Theater

‘Hamilton’ modernizes American History By Brooke Granovsky justice EDITOR

There are few, if any, places where the name of a founding father prompts a crowd to rush to its feet. When Lin-Manuel Miranda’s character entered the stage at the Richard Rogers Theater in New York City, Broadway became one of those places. Following his entrance, the other characters noticed Miranda’s character and asked, “What’s your name, man?” Miranda replied, “Alexander Hamilton,” and the show took a quick pause as the audience roared. Directed by Thomas Kail, Hamilton, a musical new to Broadway but steeped in history, opened on Aug. 6 after generating almost unheardof levels of interest during its preview and off-Broadway phases. Even President Obama, the First Lady and their children attended one of the last preview showings to watch this energized historical retelling. Hamilton follows Alexander Hamilton’s life, from his birth in the Caribbean (then called the British West Indies) to his marriage and affairs with different Schuyler sisters to his role in shaping American government. The musical draws from the biography Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow. Despite its traditional subject matter, the show stretches Broadway conventions in several ways that add to its draw. The musical includes its genre’s requisite ensemble numbers and reprises, but most, if not all of the show’s songs

have strong hip-hop and jazz undertones. Many of the show’s monologues were delivered in a slow-rap style reminiscent of slam poetry, if slam poetry were accompanied by a talented orchestra. One of the most overt rap references is “Duel Commandments, ” a song that focuses on the etiquette of dueling that riffs from the Notorious B.I.G.’s “The Ten Crack Commandments” for dealing drugs. “What’d I Miss?” is the show’s most jazz-inspired number, complete with jazz choreography and flashy lights that set the stage for Thomas Jefferson (played by rapper Daveed Diggs) as he questions what’s happened in America since he left for Paris. As a Canadian watching a musical about American history, some of the plot points that came as a shock to me were likely less shocking to the New York audience. One of Hamilton’s frequent refrains, cloaked in dramatic irony, is “I am not throwing away my shot.” Hamilton uses the line to defend his ambition, his assertiveness and his devotion to publishing essays with impossible speed, as if he were running out of time. The irony in Hamilton’s signature line became clear at the end when Hamilton refuses to fire at his rival, Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom, Jr.) and literally throws away his shot by firing into the air instead. One of the most interesting aspects of the show is its time spent delving into this emblematic figure in history—Alexander Hamilton— on a personal level. Hamilton raps

in “Stay Alive” that he imagines death so much it feels like a memory” and seems concerned with running out of time before he can make his mark on America and accomplish an impossibly long list of goals. He parallels his personal journey with America’s in “My Shot,” rapping, “I’m just like my country / I’m young, scrappy and hungry / And I’m not throwing away my shot.” The people around Hamilton recognize his genius and ambition, simultaneously envying and questioning these characteristics. Burr’s songs focus on comparing himself to Hamilton; in “The Room Where It Happens,” Burr questions how he could be Hamilton’s intellectual equal yet still be excluded from political decisions while Hamilton manages to be indispensable to the growing country. In “The Schuyler Sisters,” the main women in Hamilton’s life— Angelica (Renee Goldsberry), Eliza (Phillipa Soo) and Peggy Schuyler (Jasmine Jones)—sing of “looking for a mind at work” and immediately recognize Hamilton as a man with such a mind. Angelica cautions Hamilton against the dangers of his ambition in “Satisfied,” remarking correctly that he will never be satisfied in his personal or professional life. Although he plays a more minor character, Jonathan Groff’s King of England is a welcome addition to the musical’s comedic side. One of the funniest moments arises from the contrast between the show’s hip-hop inspired songs

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MCTCampus

HAMILTON TAKES THE STAGE: The new original musical Hamilton is currently showing in the Richard Rogers Theater on Broadway and delves into Hamilton’s personal life. and the British-rock-esque sound that accompanies King George III onstage. In “You’ll Be Back” King George sings a witty and catchy ballad comparing his unruly colonies with ex-lovers. He croons that “When push / Comes to shove / I will send a fully armed battalion / To remind you [America] of my love.” Notably, Groff is the musical’s only white actor. In a Feb. 9 interview with the New Yorker titled “All About The Hamiltons,” the theater’s artistic director Oskar Eustis explained that this casting choice reflected the larger idea of connecting more Americans with American history. By elevating street vernacular to verse and per-

THEater

forming it onstage, and by casting men and women of color, Hamilton presents its actors and its audience with a more equal chance to lay claim to their country’s past. If Miranda’s goal was to make Hamilton relatable to a broader audience, he certainly succeeded from my perspective. Rap fans and musical theater fans alike can take interest in the show’s music. History buffs will find no shortage of character analysis in the show’s retelling of Hamilton’s life. Even everyday audience members and the occasional Canadian should have no problem losing themselves amid the musical’s expertly portrayed and completely enthralling story.

NOT SO ROTTEN: Something Rotten! brings the Renassiance to life in a new original musical comedy. The show focuses on a pair of writers competing against Shakespeare in his prime. PHOTO COURTESY OF MCTCampus

‘Something Rotten!’ revamps Shakespeare By JAIME GROPPER justice Editor

In the world of theater, Shakespeare and musicals are not usually associated with each other. However, Something Rotten!, a new musical comedy that opened this spring in the St. James Theater on Broadway, has challenged this notion. Directed by Casey Nicholow, the mind behind several other Broadway musical comedy hit, such as The Book of Mormon, Something Rotten! has an absurdly silly, over-the-top feel to it. The show creatively inserts elements of the Renaissance, including Shakespeare’s popularity, sexism and wardrobe choices such as codpieces and doublets, into a laugh-out-loud musical. Something Rotten! focuses on the Bottom brothers (one of the countless Shakespearean puns and jokes scattered throughout the show), who are writers living in Shakespeare’s shadow who desperately need to produce a new theatrical

hit. Nick Bottom’s (Brian D’arcy James) determination to be better than Shakespeare leads him to a soothsayer, a type of psychic, who tells him that the new big thing will be musicals and that Shakespeare’s next big hit will be “Omelette.” While Nick is caught up in the chaos of creating a show about breakfast that is also the world’s first musical, he, unlike Shakespeare, ignores the masterpiece his brother creates. Nick’s visit to the soothsayer, and his eventual production that is inspired by the soothsayer’s predictions, are memorable and vibrant odes to both musicals and their fans. Brad Oscar plays the eccentric yet endearing Soothsayer called Nostradamus—the cousin of the famous Nostradamus. In the number “A Musical,” Nostradamus explains to Nick all of the unique qualities of musicals, such as sung words that could have been spoken, elaborate dance breaks and synchronized tap dancing. Musical pride is blatantly stated in the lyrics, from “A

Musical”—“nothing’s as amazing as a musical.” An added layer of humor comes from the cast cleverly breaking the fourth wall by acting out the components of a musical as they are described. There are numerous musical theater references in Nick’s musical within a musical. Using Nostradamus’ visions, Nick creates a hilariously disjointed show that draws on key elements from musicals such as The Lion King, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Sound of Music. A compelling draw of the show is observing Shakespeare as a modern-day celebrity rather than as one of the great playwrights of history. Christian Borle won the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of a vain yet lovable Shakespeare. Borle makes his dramatic entrance on a raised platform as a literal rockstar singing famous lines from his plays and sonnets to a roaring and fainting crowd. Although Shakespeare is most definitely con-

ceited and expects praise for every word that he speaks, he also garners a sense of respect and empathy. During “It’s Hard to be the Bard,” he sings of the burden of being so famous, of having such great expectations placed upon him and of the difficulties of the writing process. As Shakespeare says, “[I’ve got] fortune and fame everyone knows my name / I just can’t help it, it’s still frickin hard.” It is fascinating to watch a version of Shakespeare who is in the middle of his career and is struggling with writers block that will eventually end in some of his more famous works, such as Hamlet. Something Rotten! provides an interesting take on how other writers during this era may have felt about having to compete against Shakespeare in his prime. Nick, as a representation of a typical writer, establishes his feelings towards Shakespeare early on with his song “God, I Hate Shakespeare.” The spirited feud is a major thread of

the show and the production uses inventive ways to display their grudges. During the song “Bottom’s Gonna Be on Top,” Shakespeare and Nick argue by hurling insults consisting of well-written prose at each other, accompanied by tap dance. The show stays somewhat historically accurate. Nick’s wife Bea (Heidi Blickenstaff) illustrates the time period’s gender roles when she tries to help their financial situation by dressing up as a man to get a better-paying job. Nigel Bottom (John Cariani) falls in love with the daughter of a Puritan and has to fight to be with her because of her Puritan values. When Nick is given advice to write a song in his musical about what he knows, he comes up with a lively song about the plague called “Black Death.” While it may not have been completely historically accurate to have Shakespeare narcissistically singing his plays to throngs of screaming crowds, Something Rotten! is certainly a fun depiction of the Renaissance.

TUESDAY, August 25, 2015 | THE JUSTICE

Course Preview

Q&A with Gina Pugliese

ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Pablo Delano will be teaching his first course at Brandeis, FA 18A: Digital Documentary Photography this fall.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PABLO DELANO

By Brooke Granovsky justice EDITOR

In “ENG 32B: The Black Transnational Romance,” students will have the opportunity to read and discuss titles like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Americanah” (2013) and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” (2015), among others. The one-time only course, new for fall 2015, will explore black diaspora fiction from the 20th and 21st centuries. Graduate student and Ph.D candidate Gina Pugliese will conduct the course this semester. Pugliese received special permission from the University to teach the course and share what she has learned over the course of her own research. Pugliese elaborated on some of the course’s goals and subject matter in an interview over email with justArts, transcribed below.

Q&A with Pablo Delano By Brooke Granovsky justice Editor

justArts: What sparked your initial interest in literature and black diaspora fiction? Gina Pugliese: There isn’t one particular moment, event or book that is responsible for my interest in literature and black diaspora fiction. My interests grew over time as I continued to read and think about aesthetics, politics, race and culture and as I have had the chance to work with incredibly intelligent and enthusiastic people in the field. As an undergraduate, I never planned on or anticipated becoming an English major, but when I was finally forced to declare my major I realized that most of the classes I had taken were English classes. I inadvertently gravitated towards a subject matter that enraptured me and found a methodology for analyzing it that made sense to me. When I began my graduate studies I had the opportunity to spend more time thinking deeply about the ideas that so engaged me as a younger student—ideas that necessitate the time and resources to do deep thinking. Some of these ideas and questions, which will be taken up in the class I’m teaching, include: how notions of race, gender and sexuality intersect, are socially constructed and perceived throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and how they affect narrative form. What does “diaspora” really mean if people in the black diaspora don’t share a distinct homeland and culture? What truly unites a community and informs one’s sense of identity within that community? How are ideas about nationalism, culture and ethnicity defended and repudiated in black diaspora fictions? What does freedom mean and how is it imagined in the post-slavery, postcolonial world? What kinds of desires for thriving black life and community are articulated in these fictions despite enduring racist ideologies that make it difficult to imagine a future that doesn’t reproduce the past? JA: What inspired you to create this course, and why did you feel that its subject matter in particular was important? GP: Currently I am writing my dissertation on the 20th-century black transnational romance. I don’t want to only lecture about the ideas I’ve been developing in my project, though. I’m looking forward to learning from my students, finding out what draws their attention and interests, what critical questions they want to pose and develop and to expand my own research and understandings of the subject as a result. I think the general topics of this course—race, gender and the black diaspora—are important to any of us who think about how ideas of global modernity emerged and developed. Who and what is considered modern and why? How has the spread of global capitalism affected people’s lives and their sense of self and community? Who is included in prevailing understandings of the making of civilizations, nations, citizens, cultures and intellectual history? How do our understandings of

PHOTO COURTESY OF GINA PUGLIESE

ENGLISH CLASS: Gina Pugliese will be teaching her new class ENG 32B: The

Black Transnational Romance this fall. The class is a one-time offering at Brandeis. these things change if we consider how persistent worldviews about racial difference have greatly influenced our ability to make sense of the world around us? The subject matter of this course also couldn’t be more relevant at this historical moment. In this country we’ve had a distressingly eventful summer of police brutality against black men and women that continues to fuel ubiquitous protest and anger. These events and the responses to them make it nearly impossible to ignore the fear and vulnerability afflicting those whose bodies are legibly “black.” We have also seen a flourishing of black cultural production in response to recent and highly publicized injustices including Janelle Monae’s protest song “Hell You Talmbout” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book Between the World and Me (which we will read in my course). Recent works that don’t directly reference or pre-date Trayvon Martin’s death and the protests that sprung up in response to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO—Claudia Rankine’s booklength poetic meditation on race, Citizen, and Kehinde Wiley’s portraits of contemporary black people, which were on exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum this past year, come to mind—also forcefully affirm the value of black lives and address the way black subjects, communities and families are perceived and portrayed in our current culture. Understandings about race, aesthetics and politics of course exceed national boundaries too, and this course doesn’t just focus on African Americans and black people who find themselves in the U.S. We will also think about the mobility of black bodies, moving through and across various national boundaries, perceiving themselves and their communities differently depending on their geographical, social and historical positions. JA: Do you have a favorite topic that the course covers? GP: While the class advertises the idea of “romance” in its title, the books I’ve chosen have less to do with love affairs and erotica (although these elements are indeed present) and more to do with the concept of futurity—the question of how the future of black community or diaspora is desired and imagined. I’m very interested in the various ways the novels we read desire a world that is not yet here, a world that is rid of what W.E.B. Du Bois called “the problem of the color

line” or what we might think about as the material effects that the belief in racial difference has in the world.

“FA 18A: Digital Documentary Photography,” a new course this semester, combines Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS) with Fine Arts, documentation and personal expression. The 15-person course has been full since August registration opened, and it will be Prof. Pablo Delano’s (FA) first course at Brandeis. JustArts asked Delano to elaborate on this onetime course in an interview over email, transcribed below. justArts: What sparked your initial interest in photography and fine arts?

GP: This will be the first veritable literature class I teach. In the past I’ve taught 3 sections of UWS, but the structure and scope of those courses, focused primarily on learning and practicing university-level writing, critical thinking and reading, are very different from an English class, which offers students the chance to practice literary analysis while also diving more deeply into the content of the course.

Prof. Pablo Delano: Probably being immersed in the arts from the moment I was born. My parents were both artists who worked in a large variety of media. Growing up in Puerto Rico, I was surrounded by my parents’ work, and also their social circle which consisted of painters, printmakers, film-makers, poets, novelists, journalists, choreographers, dancers, musicians, etc. As a kid, the only things I really enjoyed doing were art and science, but I couldn’t handle the math part of science – especially the simplest stuff, like arithmetic! So I got involved with art.

JA: How do you feel your course’s subject matter interacts with the other English courses offered this semester?

JA:What inspired you to create this course, and why did you feel that its subject matter in particular was important?

GP: I think my class offers an important examination of global black literature. While we have courses being offered about African American and Southern literature that meditate on issues of race and gender in the U.S., and while we have classes that examine global literatures influenced by colonial histories (all very interesting and important classes, I might add!), my course is interested in thinking about the intersections of African American and postcolonial studies as we try to make sense of who or what is imagined as united in the black diaspora, why such unification and global community remains important to imagine, and how the attempt to articulate such a diaspora influences narrative form.

PB: I think with any good university teacher, the research or creative work you do is enriched by your teaching and conversely your teaching is enriched by your (in my case) creative work. For a long time now my creative practice has involved a process that could generally be described as documentary. This refers to a specific type of photography that is motivated less by the need for self-expression or by a fascination with a particular art material or process than by an intense interest in some aspect of the real world. Rather than teach just general photography courses, which I still do and still enjoy, I wanted to create a course where I could draw on my specific experiences with documentary photography in order to help students visually narrate and share the story of a place, or a phenomenon, or a person or a community they find meaningful or compelling.

JA: How does the course compare to other English courses that you’ve taught in the past?

JA: Do you have a favorite piece of literature? If so, what is it? GP: This is a hard question to answer! I deeply love all of the novels that I am teaching in this course but perhaps my favorite is Claude McKay’s Banana Bottom. In general, I am fascinated by McKay’s poetry and prose—fiction and nonfiction. Recently an unknown manuscript of one of McKay’s unpublished novels was discovered in the archives of Columbia University—it is a satirical portrait of life in Harlem before World War II, and I can’t wait until it is published so I can read it! JA: What do you hope your students will take away from the course? GP: A keen desire to read more books in this genre of literature.

JA: Can you explain the process behind creating a one-time course? PB: Well, I’m a visiting professor at Brandeis for one year, and this is a course that I’ve developed at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, where I am an ongoing faculty member of the Studio Arts Program and the Department of Fine Arts. So I did not specifically create the class to be offered one time. The course has evolved over the last few years. Of course, I’ve had to adapt to the facilities at Brandeis. I’m very excited to be teaching in Farber 101A, which promises to be a fantastic facility. Also, I will be offering a similar version of this class in the Spring, so students

should contact me if interested – especially if they already have ideas about stories they’d like to tell through pictures. JA: Do you have a favorite topic that the course covers? PB: The course introduces the work of many documentary photographers in order to give students some context for the pictures they will actually be taking themselves for the class. I really enjoy presenting the work of young photographers who are doing wonderful photo essays and finding success while still in their 20s, even their early 20s, because students can identify with others so close in age. It’s energizing and encouraging. JA: What do you hope your students will take away from the course? PB: I could answer that question in many ways. Proficiency with digital cameras and technique would be at the very bottom of the list because, really, anyone can teach themselves photo technique from the thousands of books and websites out there. Far more important is that students take away a heightened sense of visual literacy; that they learn how to deconstruct images, decipher their meanings and interpret visual metaphor. Those analytical capabilities then infuse students’ intuitions and instincts as they set about to express their own ideas in pictures. That’s a tall order and it doesn’t happen right away, but it can and does happen. Finally, and maybe the most important concept that students can take away from the course is to learn to have respect for everything they frame in the camera’s viewfinder. JA: How does the course compare to other fine arts work that you’ve done in the past? PB: This course is more involved with social realities outside of the traditional studio setting in which most studio arts courses are taught. You do your work not in the fixed environment of the studio but on the streets, or in places or spaces that you may not always control or quite understand. So there is a different, though sometimes overlapping skill set involved. You need to learn how to navigate in new ways, but the course addresses that. Also, at Brandeis my visiting professor appointment is not in the Department of Fine Arts (thought the course is a FA course), but in LALS (Latin American and Latino Studies). That’s because of my extensive photography in Latino and Caribbean communities. Naturally, I’ll collaborate with Fine Arts, but coming from a LALS perspective. JA: How do you feel your course’s subject matter interacts with the other Fine Arts courses offered this semester? PB: All courses that deal with solving problems in visual terms reinforce each other. While not a prerequisite for my course, courses in any studio discipline can be enormously useful to any aspiring photographer.

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TUESDAY, August 25 2015 | THE JUSTICE

Music

Editors’ Picks: Song of the Summer Justice editors write about their favorite summer songs “Worth It”

“2 Heads”

CREATIVE COMMONS

“Golden Boy”

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“Worse Things Than Love”

CREATIVE COMMONS

OLIVIA POBIEL/Justice File Photo

By Brooke Granovsky

By Morgan Brill

By Michelle Banayan justice editor

By Grace Kwon

justice editor

My playlists only get updated during the summer. Riding in the car with the windows down is the only time when I genuinely feel a need to switch up my music. Lately, I have been listening to a relatively new song by Coleman Hell called “2 Heads.” The single, which dropped April 27, is part of his forthcoming full-length debut album Srry Bout last Nite. “2 Heads,” true to the rest of Coleman Hell’s music, does not fit neatly into any specific genre. Rather, his music easily fits into a variety of genres, including hip-hop, electronic, funk, folk and house. The strong base in this newest single creates a solid beat that was constantly stuck in my head during the summer. Hell is part of the Sideways Collective, a group that also includes La+ch, Michah and Shan Vincent de Paul. Together they work on everything from songwriting and production to design and videos, which helps to promote each other’s work. The members of Sideways Collective are clearly influenced by one another, and this collaboration seems to help their newer singles. The lyrics, “If only I could live forever, if only I could hold you longer,” definitely seem more poignant with the end of summer fast approaching. The song, however, with its rapid dance beat and surprisingly fitting banjo, will probably stick around on my playlist for a while.

Just like every summer has a story, every summer has a song. For me, that song came all the way from singer Nadav Guedj in Israel. “Golden Boy,” my head-rocking, fist-popping summer anthem, was originally sung by Guedj as a finalist for the Eurovision Contest 2015, a contest similar to “American Idol.” Although Guedj did not win, his tune was not quick to escape summer playlists all around the world. Being of Middle Eastern descent myself, I am no stranger to the region’s catchy and danceable melodies. Guedj’s “Golden Boy,” however, stands out. Written in English, with strong Middle Eastern undertones, this song has extended far beyond the Hebrew-speaking parameters of Israel to be understood by people worldwide. It’s not difficult to relate to Guedj’s lyrics. The 16-year-old singer, tired of the heartache young love brings, just wants to “ease [his] pain / dancing on the floor.” Guedj breaks into chorus, singing about how he’s “a golden boy / Come here to enjoy,” and finishes off with an invitation to show all his listeners Tel Aviv, Israel—one of Israel’s most vibrant cities. As I ease into the school year, I do not see “Golden Boy” leaving my playlist. Even though the summer is ending and I can no longer belt the song in my car, there’s never a wrong time to channel my inner golden boy and dance the woes of academia away.

With roots in Boston—Tufts University to be specific—Timeflies was first brought to my attention when it performed at Brandeis for Fall Fest my sophomore year. I discovered their latest single, “Worse Things Than Love,” earlier this summer while looking up one of the band’s older songs, “All the Way.” The song was released on Jun. 23 as the lead single off the band’s soon-to-be-released album Just for Fun, and is just as catchy as all of the previous songs and covers released by Timeflies. The group has a wide range of styles—from R&B to Hip-Hop to Rap—but this pop hit was my summer love. The upbeat pop tune is fun to dance around to with your friends and easy enough listen to when you are relaxing in the sun. It’s a song about summer love and longing— lead singer Cal Shapiro urges a girl to take a chance with him. “Take a chance with me tonight, I know you feel it, so do I,” he sings. The song reflects the struggles of many young men trying to find love. It’s “Summer Lovin”—updated for 2015. With how easy the song is to listen to and how relatable it is to youth struggling to find romance during the summer, there’s no wonder it’s on Spotify’s Top Pop Hits Playlist.

justice editor

Each year, artists compete to have one of their songs crowned the official “Song of the Summer.” This year, in my opinion, there was no decisive winner of this prestigious title. Instead, individual artists and bands climbed the charts and slowly started winning over America’s hearts and airwaves. The first all-girl group to have a top 15 hit since the Pussycat Dolls, Fifth Harmony rose to prominence over the summer. Their single “Worth It” reached 12th on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts and captivated America with its infectious melody. “Worth It,” released March 3, is a rhythmic crossover hit combining pop, EDM and upbeat R&B styles. The repeated phrase “worth it” appears 35 times in the song, supporting the idea that the band is worthy of their audience’s time and attention. Fifth Harmony first gained popularity on the second season of The X Factor USA. The group consists of five singers, Ally Hernandez, Normani Kordei, Lauren Jauregui, Camila Cabello and Dinah Hansen, who all started as soloists on the reality show before forming their band. After the band placed third on The X Factor, Fifth Harmony signed with Simon Cowell’s label Syco Music and released their debut album, Reflections, in February.

justice editor

Theater

Memoir gets a rebirth on the Broadway stage By Emily Wishingrad A STORY IN CAPTIONS: Adapted from Alison Bechdel’s grahic novel of the same name, Fun Home tells the story of the author’s childhood—focusing on her sexual awakening and her mixed relationship with her father. CREATIVE COMMONS

justice editor

Around this time four years ago, author Alison Bechdel was speaking to a room of incoming first-years about the orientation reading for that year, Fun Home (2006). Today, those first-years are college graduates, and Bechdel’s graphic novel has been translated into a musical and set on the Broadway stage, in the process garnering five Tony Awards. Fun Home is an autobiographical memoir about the first 19 years of Bechdel’s life, told through comics and captions. The graphic novel follows the cartoonist through her difficult childhood and sexual awakening during her first year of college. Bechdel’s complex relationship with her father (Michael Cerveris) is at the forefront of the story. This relationship becomes more complex when Alison comes out, and, at around the same time, learns that her father is gay as well. So the musical is not your typical song-anddance repertoire. But the cast, directed by Sam Gold, does it with grace and sincerity. The musical incorporates the idea of comics by using the adult Bechdel (Beth Malone)—as she was writing the graphic novel—as a guide for the audience. Malone narrates the story through verbal captions, introducing each one by saying, “caption.” Adult Alison takes the audience through place and time, switching between different moments in Alison’s childhood. During the play, three different Alisons take the stage, each representing a different period in her life: pre-teen Alison (Sydney Lucas) collegiate Alison (Emily Skeggs) and adult Alison (Malone). The changes between moments in Alison’s life are seamless–due in part to the interchangeable set pieces, which lift up and down out of the stage floor, and the blocking, in which actors seem to fade in and out of scenes as if they were memories. Twenty-seven songs make up the soundtrack to the show, a large number for a short play—the show clocks in at an hour and 40 minutes. Not all of the numbers are thoroughly satisfying, and a few would be better expressed in dialogue. There

were a few songs that were home runs— “Come to the Fun Home,” “Ring of Keys,” the opening number and the finale are among the tunes that are melodically stimulating and catchy while substantial in their subject matter. The opening number, “It All Comes Back” and the finale, “Flying Away” mirror each other. In the beginnings of both, a pleading Alison calls her father to “play airplane” with her—a game where she lays flat atop her father’s raised feet as he lies on the floor. But it is in the finale that her plea’s full meaning becomes clear. “Daddy, hey daddy, come here. I need you,” Lucas sings in “Flying Away,” ending her song with the line “listen to me.” The songs and Lucas’ request encapsulate the fraught relationship with her father that defines Alison’s childhood and young adult life. In “Come to the Fun Home,” young Alison (Lucas), along with her two younger brothers, Christian (Oscar Williams) and John (Zell Steele Morrow), practices an advertisement for their father’s funeral home. Lucas, Williams and Morrow imbue the song with the perfect combination of humor and irony. They advertise “smelling salts for if you’re queasy” and “ this is called an aneurysm hook”—lines that makes it clear just how strange it is that these children are living amid death and mourning in their everyday lives. The star of the number is Morrow, whose dramatic flare while singing his heart out atop a coffin is adorable yet humorously bizarre. It is always incredible when you see young children in musical theater—children who not only act but can also sing. The child actors in Fun Home were especially impressive, given the gravity of the content they were dealing with. Even 11-year-old Lucas seems to realize the weight of her role. “Roles don’t come this deep,” she said in a New York Times interview on Feb.19. By the end of the show, moments across space and time came together to create a full picture of Alison and the first 19 years of her life. Fun Home proves that trueto-life and incredibly profound stories can be brought to life on the bright and flashy Broadway stage.

TUESDAY, August 25, 2015 | THE JUSTICE

TOPof the

PHOTOS CORNER

Brandeis TALKS

CHARTS for the week ending August 23 BOX OFFICE

Quote of the week “Seek to be the change you want to see in the world. … With great power comes great responsibility. And on a personal level, while it may be easy for little monkeys to forget, please don’t get into trouble.”

1. Straight Outta Compton 2. Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation 3. Sinister 2 4. Hitman: Agent 47 5. The Man From U.N.C.L.E 6. American Ultra 7. The Gift 8. Ant-Man 9. Minions 10. Fantastic Four

—-- Andrew Flagel, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment. (News pg. 3 )

What was an essential thing you had to have in your dorm room?

NYT BESTSELLERS

GRACE KWON/the Justice

NIGHT LIGHTS: This photo was taken by Grace Kwon ’16 on Sunday, Aug. 13 at the “Light up the Night” event during freshmen orientation. Incoming firstyear students filled mason jars with artificial lights.

Tanisha Jemmott ’19

“I had to bring a storage bin because I like eating a lot of snacks, and I know I’m going to be too lazy to go to the dining hall.”

Jacob Rodger ’19

“My fridge, definitely, to keep cold soda for energy in the morning. I don’t like coffee.”

Joshua Alvarado ’19 “My electric guitar because I just have to keep playing no matter where I am.”

Talya Shatzky ’19 A deck of cards for breaking the ice and being able to play something with friends. It’s not a one-on-one type of thing; you can play with so many other people.”

Featuring creative photos from our staff This feature showcases our photographers’ work capturing small moments around campus

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Scale on which diamond is assigned a “10” 5 Owl’s question? 8 “Music __ charms ...” 12 The Sego Lily is its state flower 13 Map out 15 Nymph rejected by Narcissus 16 Actress Elisabeth 17 Deck opening 18 Work on jerky 19 WWII aircraft carrier plane 21 Iowa native 23 Tax-sheltered nest egg 25 Hippy dance 28 1963 Newman film 29 Ousted Iranian 33 Arctic “snowshoe” critters 34 Quizzical sounds 35 Bears owner/coach who won eight NFL titles in four different decades 37 Singer Piaf 38 Soup base 39 Luxury craft 40 Quiet “Quiet!” 43 “Ulysses” actor Milo 44 Quaint pronoun 45 “Isn’t __ bit like you and me?”: Beatles lyric 46 Solvers’ cries 47 Tremulous glow 50 Except 54 Beeline 59 “Hava Nagila” dance 60 Different 62 Worker welfare org. 63 Progress slowly 26 “Vega$” actor 64 Organ with chambers 27 Mythical river of forgetfulness 65 Son of Odin 30 Grating 66 Sinister chuckles 31 “Hello, wahine!” 67 “Revenge is __ 32 Can’t stand best served cold” 33 “You, there!” 68 Seven: Pref. 36 Doo-wop syllable 40 Went from first to second, say DOWN 41 Jeans bottom 1 Soft stuff 42 Pounds 2 Will-wisp link 48 Ado 3 Truck 49 Mars neighbor 4 Poet Silverstein 50 __ Tzu 5 Words said with a double take 51 Fine-tune 6 Fez, e.g. 52 B’way seating 7 Corsage flowers area 8 “Consarn it!” 53 Sounds from the 9 Motrin target stands 10 Those folks 55 Shakespearean 11 Suffragette Julia Ward __ verb 13 Former Labor secretary Elaine 56 1975 Wimbledon 14 Where she blows winner 20 Vehicle safety measure 57 Hit the mall Solution to last issue’s crossword 22 Jug band percussion instrument 58 Antlered deer 24 “Say what?” Crossword Copyright 2014 Tribune News Service, 61 Ginza greeting 25 Tackled

iTUNES

1.The Weeknd—“Can’t Feel My Face” 2. R. City feat. Adam Levine— “Locked Away” 3. Rachel Platten—“Fight Song’ 4. Silentó—“Watch Me (Whip / Nae Nae)” 5. Omi—“Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix Radio Edit Beautiful Life)”

BILLBOARD

1. Luke Bryan—Kill The Lights 2. Dr. Dre—Compton 3. Various Artists—NOW 55 4. tobyMac—This is Not A Test 5. Tayor Swift—1989 6. Ed Sheeran—X 7. Future—DS2 8. Soundtrack—Descendents 9. Sam Hunt—Montevallo 10. Drake— If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late Top of the Charts information provided by Fandango, the New York Times, Billboard. com and Apple.com.

STAFF’S Top Ten

Senior To-Do List By Grace Kwon and HANNAH WULKAN justice EDITORS

Inc.

SUDOKU

Leah Sherin ’19 “I brought my guitar because I love playing guitar and it’s a great way to meet people. It’s fun to sit around and play.” Solution to last issue’s sudoku

Nonfiction 1. Plunder and Deceit—Mark R. Levin 2. Between the World and Me—TaNehisi Coates 3. You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)—Felicia Day 4. The Wright Brothers—David McCullough 5. Modern Romance—Aziz Ansari with Eric Klinenberg

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 Michelle Banayan/the Justice.

Fiction 1. Go Set a Watchman—Harper Lee 2. The Girl on the Train—Paula Hawkins 3. All the Light We Cannot See— Anthony Doerr 4. Alert—James Petterson and Michael Ledwidge 5. Silver Linings—Debbie Macomer

Entering our senior year at Brandeis, we want to make the most of our final days here. What better way to do it than by checking off the things on your bucket list with your friends? Around campus and in the Boston area there are so many fun activities to squeeze in before graduation day. Here are a few things that we will do this year. 1. Go to a Red Sox game at Fenway park 2. Go to a concert at House of Blues in Boston 3. Cheer on the Judges at each type of sports game 4. Spend a day at the New England Aquarium 5. Ride a mechanical bull 6. Take in the art at the Museum of Fine Arts 7. Get a paper hat at Dick’s Last Resort 8. Sample food from every restaurant at Quincy Market 9. Walk the Freedom Trail 10. Graduate and get a job!!