The Justice, September 4, 2018

the

Justice www.thejustice.org

The Independent Student Newspaper Volume LXXI, Number 1

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

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

CONVOCATION 2018

Waltham, Mass.

TECHNOLOGY

Potential Wi-Fi issue averted

■ University avoided losing

landline and wireless connectivity for a large portion of campus.

By JOCELYN GOULD JUSTICE EDITOR

YVETTE SEI/the Justice

CONVOCATION: University President Ronald Liebowitz gave new students advice and encouragement as the school year began.

University welcomes Class of 2022 with Convocation ■ Members of the Brandeis community addressed new first-years and incoming transfer students.

By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

The newest members of the Brandeis community have arrived on campus and began their Brandeis journeys on Sunday, Aug. 26. After a full day of moving in and events, the Class of 2022, transfer students and their families gathered on Chapel’s Field for the annual Convocation ceremony.

According to an Aug. 27 BrandeisNOW article, the incoming group of students has 907 first-year students and 30 transfer students.

Core Orientation Committee member Erin Kobiella ’19 began the ceremony by welcoming the new students to campus and introducing the other members of the Orientation Core Committee: Adrian Ashley ’20, Melanie Rush ’20 and Sohaima Khiliji ’20. The group had been planning this year’s orientation for the past 10 months. Kobiella encouraged the students to step out of their comfort zones and to try new activities as they embark on their Brandeis journeys.

Next, Rush introduced University President Ronald Liebowitz, who is entering his third year in the position.

Liebowitz welcomed the new members of the Brandeis community to campus and shared his own

perspectives of the University to the students: “There is a deep loyalty … to the institution on the part of the faculty and staff, and a deep admiration and appreciation for the faculty and staff on the part of Brandeis students and alums.” He described the special connection between students and faculty at Brandeis due to students' love of learning.

Liebowitz also observed how open students, faculty and staff are when engaging in conversation on difficult topics. He described his experiences at discussions about how to improve accessibility on campus for those with disabilities, and detailed an April 2018 town-hall meeting in which the community argued for a more inclusive and fair Brandeis.

Liebowitz then gave the students advice: “Jump in; don’t hold back.”

However, he warned against jumping into too much too soon and spreading oneself too thin. Liebowitz also encouraged the students to have open discussions and debates in order to learn from each other by being open to ideas that challenge how they think.

He also encouraged students to help build the institution and bring fresh ideas and approaches to shape the University in meaningful ways, and concluded his speech by reminding students to look after each other to help create a better Brandeis.

The next speaker, University Provost Lisa Lynch, welcomed students to the Brandeis community, calling it “a family that will challenge you; it will drive you crazy from time to time.” However, she stressed that the Brandeis family will be there

to support students in good and bad times.

“You are an extraordinary group of students, chosen from the largest group of applicants in the history of Brandeis,” she said, adding that students come from all over the world and from different backgrounds, contributing positively to a campus community.

Lynch reminded students to call home and go to Community Advisorled events; to be true to themselves and to be curious; to take a class that they did not expect to take and step out of their comfort zone academically; to be kind and to take care of themselves and their surroundings.

She then addressed the parents in the crowd, telling them to “let go, so [their children] can grow” and advocate for themselves. Lynch also told the parents to still expect the latenight phone calls and to help students navigate the trying moments in their Brandeis experience. She told families to send their students mail and food and to prepare for their students to grow as people.

Khiliji then introduced the Catholic Chaplain in the department of Spiritual and Religious Life, Allison Cornelisse. Cornelisse guided students and their families through a deep breathing exercise after a long day of unpacking and traveling. As they continued to take deep breaths, she said that with all of the change, there is a chance for blessing and much for which to feel thankful. She allowed for a moment of silence to refresh and breathe, and encouraged students to seize the opportunities that the University offers.

A safety feature of the Blue Light emergency pole system on campus alerted the University administration late this summer that a pole near Massell Quad was not functioning. Upon further investigation, it was clear that other technology in the area was not working correctly either.

“The wires were starting to fail,” Vice President for Operations Jim Gray said in an interview with the Justice.

On Aug. 24, Gray and Jim La Creta, the chief information officer, sent a joint email to the University community explaining that “an unexpected failure in the wiring of an underground phone, data and

See WIRES, 7 ☛

COMMUNITY

Univ. chooses new mail center partner

■ Swiss Post Solutions

now handles the University's mail services.

By SAM STOCKBRIDGE JUSTICE EDITOR

Swiss Post Solutions has replaced Xerox as Brandeis’ mail center partner following complaints by students and faculty of lost packages and slow service. SPS assumed control of mail center operations on June 1, after a four-week period during which company representatives oversaw the transition.

The change was spearheaded by Gino Galutera, the University’s Managing Director of Campus Card and Auxiliary Services. Since assuming the position in October 2017, Galutera has managed the University’s partnerships with third parties like Sodexo and Ricoh.

The problems with the Xeroxoperated mail center were apparent from his arrival, Galutera explained in an interview with the Justice. Galutera had his college diplomas shipped to Brandeis from his previous job in Charleston, S.C., but was told that the mail center had lost them.

After looking into other complaints of lost packages and noting the generally “negative perceptions of efficiency” in the Xerox-led mail center, Galutera determined that Xerox was “more used to snail mail” than handling packages. He decided to sever the University’s contract with Xerox and “cut our losses.”

Two partners were considered as possible replacements for Xerox: Ricoh, which currently supplies most of the University’s printers, and SPS, which had not partnered with Brandeis previously. The decision came down to the strengths of the two candidates. “We felt that Ricoh was more specialized for copying,” Galutera said. He said he was impressed by SPS’s use of technology to automate processes that would have been done manually by other partners. Still, the decision to employ SPS was a gamble, he said, because “SPS didn’t have a huge higher- education footprint.”

Among SPS’s changes is the introduction of a kiosk next to the mail center entrance where visitors can swipe their IDs to check if they have packages ready for pick-up. Under Xerox, the only way to check for packages was by

Greek Life

Mission Impossible

BCC introduces new programs

 Find out what members say greek life at Brandeis is actually like.

 The latest film in the Mission Impossible series was a mixed bag.

By CHAIEL SCHAFFEL

By LEIGH SALOMON, EITAN MAGER-GARFIELD

By LUKE LIU

AND VICTOR FELDMAN Photo Courtesy of AEPI

internet cable near the walkway between Hassenfeld Conference Center, Fellows Garden and Shapiro Campus Center” would interfere with “landline phone and data, as well as wireless and hardwired internet operations.”

Hassenfeld Conference Center, the Rose Art Museum, the Pollack Fine Arts Teaching Center, the Faculty Club, the Chapels, and Massell and Rosenthal Quads were all at risk of losing connectivity, according to the email.

“At the beginning of this, I was worried that we might have had a big chunk of campus without wireless for a couple of days,” Gray said.

Fortunately, few of these areas were affected, and those affected only lost service for short periods of time, but the wiring issue threatened to have a massive impact on the first week of instruction.

Explaining the cause of the wiring failure, Gray said that the University’s buildings are

See SPS, 7 ☛

NEWS 5

Donald Trump's Reddit devotees

By EVAN MANKHEN

FORUM 11

Volleyball starts season strong

FEATURES 8-9 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org

Image Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

Make your voice heard!

Submit letters to the editor to letters@thejustice.org

ARTS 19

By ZACH KAUFMAN

COPYRIGHT 2018 FREE AT BRANDEIS.

SPORTS 15

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

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NEWS

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS BRIEF

POLICE LOG

University negotiators and the graduate student union bargaining unit reach a Tentative Agreement After a year of negotiations, a Tentative Agreement has been reached between the chief negotiators of University and the bargaining unit of the Graduate Student Union. The TA, which has not yet been released, will be voted on by the approximately 240 members of the bargaining unit on Sept. 18. It is yet to be ratified by the University, but it is expected to pass both parties’ ratification processes.

In an interview with the Justice, Dominick Knowles, a member of the bargaining unit, described the contract as “a good foundation for people to fight for what they need.”

Though the GSU called for transportation subsidies, mental health care and maternity leave, these issues were not addressed in the TA, according to Knowles, and he elaborated on the issue of maternity leave.

Since the University does not provide maternity leave for its tenured professors, negotiators argued, it could not provide maternity leave to graduate students.

“Mental health [care] was the biggest deal as far as things we had to sacrifice,” Knowles said. The bargaining unit had called for the University to “at the very least” cover co-pays for in-network counseling and therapy.

Recently, the Brandeis Counseling Center expanded its Community Therapist Program, making free therapists available to graduate students in the Brandeis International Business School and in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

The University also created a Labor-Management Committee comprised of select administrators and some members of the graduate student bargaining unit, according to Knowles. The committee will meet on a semi-regular basis and aims to discuss proposed changes to health insurance and provide the graduate student workers with a place to voice their concerns in the future.

While not all of the bargaining unit’s requests have been met in the TA, “As far as compensation goes, it was a huge win,” Knowles said. He explained that the agreement includes a gradual pay raise, which provides the graduate student workers with a 15 to 45 percent increase in their pay. Under the agreement, Knowles himself would receive a 42 percent increase, earning about $1500 more per semester.

The graduate workers had the support of faculty and undergraduates especially that of the Brandeis Labor Coalition, which circulated petitions in favor of the GSU last spring. “I’m really proud of all the work that everyone did,” Knowles said.

The University and the Union will issue a joint statement “very soon,” according to an email to the Justice from Eric Chaslow, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Medical Emergency

August 3—Student requested a Cataldo ambulance for a party feeling weak, faint, vomiting and short of breath at Lemberg.

University Police and Cataldo medics examined the party on scene. The party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital by a Cataldo ambulance for further care.

August 3—A woman had an unknown, possibly allergic, reaction in the Heller School of Social Policy and Management. Cataldo medics and Waltham Fire Department were present on scene.

The party was transported with a signed refusal for further care.

August 8—A medical call was made at Slosberg Music Hall. An ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

August 22—A 70 year-old male

reported chest pains at the Sachar International Center. The Waltham Fire Department and Cataldo medicsresponded; the party was transported to NewtonWellesley Hospital by Cataldo, assisted by the Waltham Fire Department.

August 23—A party fell and rolled her ankle near Gordon.

BEMCo and University Police responded; party was treated and transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

August 23—BEMCo was requested for an 18 year old male experiencing chest pain and difficulty breathing. BEMCo requested a Cataldo ambulance for the party. The Waltham Fire Department arrived on scene shortly before Cataldo. Cataldo transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

August 26—A party reporting migraine symptoms at the Charles River Apartments was treated by BEMCo staff with a signed refusal for further treatment.

August 27—University Police saw a traffic monitor trip and fall in the science lot. The party was treated at scene by BEMCo staff for slight confusion and transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital by Cataldo ambulance.

August 27—A student at the Usdan Student Center requested a blood sugar check from BEMCo after losing her pump. BEMCo assisted the party with signed refusal for further care.

August 27—BEMCo treated a party who struck their head on a television in Sherman. The party refused further care.

August 27—A Sherman em-

MOVE-IN DAY

Board of Trustees puts divestment decision on hold

Image Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

Everyone has a story.

Help us find it.

Join Features Contact Victor Feldman at features@thejustice.org

YVETTE SEI/the Justice

Orientation Leaders and community advisors helped new students move belongings into their rooms last Sunday.

n The Justice has no corrections or clarifications to to report for this week.

The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification.

Email editor@thejustice.org.

Justice

the

www.thejustice.org

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.

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See POLICE LOG, 6 ☛

BRIEF

—Natalia Wiater

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

ployee received treatment for dizziness from BEMCo staff. The staff member refused further care.

August 27—BEMCo treated a party with a foot laceration at Ridgewood B, with a signed refusal for further care.

August 28—University Police and BEMCo responded to a male party at Sherman Dining Hall with an abrasion to his left leg.

The party was treated and evaluated, with a signed refusal for further care.

August 28—BEMCo treated a party with a bee sting at Spingold Theater. The party signed a refusal for further care.

August 28—Two males reporting bee stings at the Shapiro Campus center were treated by BEMCo staff with a signed re-

The Board of Trustees announced that it had not been able to reach a decision on divestment and aims to adopt a new standard for its policy governing investments at its next meeting. Before then, it will review the current general guideline, Brandeis University as a Responsible Investor.

On June 22, University President Ron Liebowitz and Chair of the Board Meyer Koplow announced in an email that the Board hadn’t yet reached a decision on fossil fuel divestment. The email was sent just one day before the expiration of the 60-day period the Board had to reach a decision.

The decision to divest “cannot be made in a vacuum or without consideration of issues related to risk and other consequences,” they wrote, and pointed to the current “dated” standard, which does not sufficiently guide the Board and its fiduciary responsibility to the University.

According to the current guideline, while the University should not ignore ethical implications of investments in certain companies, it is not the University’s primary mission to “influence the conduct of business corporations with regard to the social consequences of their activities.”

If the Board passes a new standard when it convenes from Sept. 26-27, the Board will discuss possible action regarding divestment at its November meeting.

The Board received a statement from Brandeis Climate Justice that called on the Board to create stricter deadlines and called this a pivotal moment that will have consequences for decades to come.

In a February interview with the Justice, Nicholas Warren, the chief investment officer, explained how investment decisions work at Brandeis. The University invests money in large funds owned by approximately 40 independent managers; these funds are selected based on the strategies and performances of managers over time. As a result of its small endowment size, the University has little influence over the managers and the funds it invests in. According to a Fossil Fuel Divestment Factsheet provided by Warren to the Justice, the University endowment was valued at just over one billion dollars as of November 2017.

In the past 10 years, the University has calculated that between 4-10% of its endowment has been invested in fossil fuels, an amount that changes as managers buy and sell stock. The current investment risk of divestment, according to the factsheet, is an opportunity cost of $130 million to $280 million in endowment value 10 years into the future.

—Natalia Wiater

ANNOUNCEMENTS Screening of “To the Ends of the Earth”

Waltham Group Recruitment Night

This award-winning documentary tells the story of our time: Post ‘peak oil’ we depend on “unconventional” fossil fuels like tarsands and fracked gas. The films explains how we got here, what it is doing to our environment, and where we need to go instead. Narrated by academy-awardwinning actress, Emma Thompson. Faculty will be available for discussion following the film.

Today from 7 to 9 p.m. in Wasserman Cinematheque, International Business School.

Interested in volunteering in the local community? If so, come to Waltham Group Recruitment Night and learn more about how to get involved with the largest student organization at Brandeis. Whether you’d like to volunteer with children, the elderly, individuals who are experiencing homelessness, or the environment, the Waltham Group offers a program that caters to your interest.

Thursday, September 6, from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

Untold Stories of the Middle East

The biggest comic blockbuster of the year is back on campus for another run. If you missed it on the big screen before, make sure you catch it at Brandeis.

Saturday, September 8, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. and from 8 to 10:30pm in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater, Shapiro Campus Center.

Join the Crown Center for Middle East Studies for refreshments and a discussion on authoritarianism in Turkey, corruption in Jordan, gender equality in Tunisia, women’s rights movements in the greater Middle East, and reconstructing Syria. Four Crown research fellows will discuss; Shai Feldman, director of the Crown Center, will moderate with Nagmeh Sohrabi, Charles Goodman Professor of Middle East History.

Wednesday, September 5, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Rappaporte Treasure Hall.

Marvel Movie: Black Panther

Trip to Walden Pond

Let a visit to Walden Pond bring you back in time to the mid-1800’s. Experience the connection with nature that inspired Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Enjoy a day of picnicking

(carry in/carry out), walking around the famous pond, and perusing the Visitor Center’s bookstore and gift shop. Also be sure to visit the replica of Thoreau’s single-room cabin.

Get your $5 ticket at Brandeis Tickets in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium! The ticket includes round-trip transportation, a group tour (at 1:15 p.m.), and free time to explore.

Tuesday, September 11, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Bus leaves from T-Lot.

24 Hour Musical

Come see what happens when the Brandeis community comes together to put on a musical in 24 hours! This yearly production is one you don’t want to miss. Tickets are free and will be distributed at 1 p.m.

Sunday, September 16, from 8 to 10:30 p.m. in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater, Shapiro Science Center.

Constitution Day

Celebrate the signing of the US Constitution in 1787 by picking up your free pocket copy of the Constitution and celebrating your rights.

Monday, September 17, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center.

THE JUSTICE

Views from Skyline

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NEWS

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

By MAURICE WINDLEY JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Photos by ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

Skyline, the University’s new residence hall, opened last week to approximately 160 returning students.

After more than a year of construction, the project, consisting of north and south towers and a courtyard, opened for Community Advisors’ orientation week on Aug. 15. According to a press release from the same day, the $38 million project was designed by William Rawn Associates and incorporates Brandeis’ ideals of sustainability into its structure. Solar panels are installed on the roof, and the building uses 40 geothermal wells to control heating and cooling.

The lobby of North Tower showcases the windows and natural light that characterize the new building’s design.

South Tower

North Tower’s common spaces provide study space for students.

Skyline Commons is the largest meeting space in the residence hall.

North Tower

Skyline South Tower contains additional dorms and study rooms. The study rooms are located on the second, third and fourth floors of South Tower; each contains a large table and a TV. The first floor of South Tower has no dorm rooms, but houses a common space and a multi-purpose room — the two largest rooms in the building. Skyline Commons fits around 150 people and serves as a large, standalone meeting space in the new building. The Commons, which is equipped with a lectern and a projector space for presentations, features floor-toceiling glass windows that overlook East Quad. The Commons also contains Skyline’s second full kitchen, and opens out onto a courtyard.

The multi-purpose room contains a circular table and a large TV. The hallway between the multi-purpose room and Skyline Commons also functions as a study space.

Skyline North Tower features four floors of housing and common spaces.

Each floor has its own common space, and the common rooms on the second through fourth floors have leather couches and TVs. The North Tower’s third floor has a large kitchen area in its common room. The kitchen contains induction stovetops, which use a magnetic field instead of gas or an electric coil to create heat, preventing possible injuries caused by conventional stovetops. All appliances in the commons are also Energy Star certified, a voluntary government-certified approval that recognizes the appliances’ energy efficiency.

The view looking out an east-facing window displays the Boston skyline for which the building is named.

ANDREW BAXTER/Justice File Photo

BRIEF Hodgson becomes dean of Arts and Sciences Dorothy L. Hodgson, an internationally known anthropologist, was selected as the new dean of Arts and Sciences last May. She previously served as the senior associate dean for academic affairs at Rutgers University’s School of Graduate Studies.

Hodgson began her term as the dean of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis on Aug. 20, replacing interim dean Susan J. Birren, who will now resume teaching at the University as a professor of neurobiology.

According to a May 29 BrandeisNow article, Hodgson will “oversee undergraduate admissions, the undergraduate and graduate curricula, faculty, staffing, the oversight of academic departments, and other academic matters, including the implementation of recently updated general education requirements.”

In an interview with the Justice, Hodgson shared that she felt Brandeis was a good fit for her. She cited her appreciation for how warm and welcoming everyone has been so far and mentioned that Brandeis is filled with a combination of “brilliant people who are also kind.”

Hodgson has spent time engaging with the incoming firstyear class; during orientation, she walked through their residence halls during move-in day and helped facilitate the new student book forum.

One goal she has in regards to working with student services to improve student life is “to think about how we strengthen the student experience and how we perhaps better develop programs to better integrate curricular and cocurricular activities.”

Specifically, she cited the improvements to be made in how living and learning communities are structured.

She explained that she likes that Brandeis is a “strong liberal arts college that values teaching and learning of students, but set within a world-class research university.” Hodgson looks forward to working with the Brandeis community, saying, “I am a cultural anthropologist by training, and I do best when I get to know people and can build relationships.”

“We are in this together,” she told the first-years.

—Jen Geller

THE JUSTICE NEEDS YOUR HELP: Take a quick survey on the relationship between Brandeis and Waltham!

https://bit.ly/2HupZgG

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Join us for the Crown Center’s annual kickoff event

UNTOLD STORIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST PANEL DISCUSSION WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

JOIN US FOR A CONVERSATION ON TIMELY TOPICS INCLUDING:

4-6 PM

• Can the Syrian state be put back together?

Rapaporte Treasure Hall Goldfarb Library Refreshments will be served.

For more information, visit brandeis.edu/crown

• What are we missing about women’s rights movements in the Middle East?

• Gender equality and democratization: Is Tunisia a success story?

• Corruption and patronage in Jordan and the region

Crown Center for Middle East Studies

• Authoritarianism, police, and policing: Turkey and beyond

THE JUSTICE

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NEWS

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

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ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD HONOREE

BRIEF Updated Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook clarifies language and new policies The 2018-19 edition of the Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook has been updated to reflect changes made during the Department of Student Rights and Community Standards’ annual Rights and Responsibilities revision process.

Most of the revisions focused on clarifying the book’s language, especially regarding the University’s handling of sexual harassment and assault.

The handbook “provides the definitions, structure, and policies for community life on campus,” according to an email sent by Alex Rossett, the interim director of Student Rights and Community Standards. The Rights and Responsibilities Committee and the DSRCS considers revisions to the handbook, according to the DSRCS website. Students were notified of the changes on Aug. 23.

The new edition clarifies the jurisdiction of the R&R handbook, stating that the University staff may respond using the student conduct process that handbook details for “behavior that takes place on University property, at University events, and … occurring off-campus.”

The handbook clarifies that the Rape Crisis Center and the Office of Prevention Services have been replaced by the Prevention, Advocacy, & Resource Center. PARC provides “education, empowerment, and support by professional staff and/or peers, with focus on helping those impacted by sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, or stalking to decide what they want to do next,” per the handbook. All staff are confidential resources.

The handbook was updated to include the new acting Title IX Coordinator, Robin Nelson-

Bailey, who is also the vice president of Human Resources.

The University Actions and Sanctions Section now includes the policy that “any student who is found responsible of sexual misconduct may not be allowed to participate in study abroad for academic credit.”

The new edition of the handbook contains terms and definitions that did not exist in the 2017-18 edition, including sexual contact, sexual intercourse, force, forcible sexual misconduct, domestic violence and dating violence.

Numerous other definitions of terms regarding the topic of sexual assault were clarified.

For example, in the definitions of sexual coercion and sexual exploitation, the word “student” was replaced with “person.”

“Academic Freedom” is defined for the first time in the 2018-19 edition, recognized as “the principles of academic freedom permit topics of all types to be part of courses, lectures, and other academic pursuits.” The definition notes, however, that “these freedoms must be in balance with the rights of others, including the right of individuals not to be subjected to discrimination or harassment.” The definition of academic freedom comes from a previous University policy statement on discrimination and harassment.

The language about the University Appeals Board and the Special Examiner’s Process was altered for clarity. Policies regarding residential life and safety were also clarified, including those regarding candles, appliances, light bulbs and fire alarms.

—Jocelyn Gould

JEN GELLER/the Justice

Actor and Brandeis alum Tony Goldwyn ’82 discussed the role of activism in Hollywood with Prof. Anita Hill (Heller) upon accepting the 2018 Alumni Achievement Award.

COMMUNITY

BCC expands programs, adds new therapy staff ■ The BCC is also training

therapy dogs and changing its insurance and billing procedures.

By CHAIEL SCHAFFEL JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The Brandeis Counseling Center is expanding its services this semester after receiving more funding from the Division of Student Affairs.

New additions include more staff members who will be available for extended hours, more programs and therapy dogs-in-training. The changes, announced in an Aug. 24 email from Vice President of Student Affairs Sheryl Sousa, come in the wake of a forum on mental health hosted by the BCC last spring.

The changes focus on accessibility, first-year mental health and outreach. A new pre-orientation program called Resilience, Information, Skills, and Experiences was offered this fall to incoming first-year students in partnership with Dr. Hannah Snyder (PSYC). The program teaches incoming first-years new skills to “help them thrive in college,” according to the program’s website, and those involved will continue to meet throughout the semester. The program is scheduled to continue in the spring for first-years that wish to stay in RISE and will be available to incoming midyears, according Dr. Joy Von Steiger in an email to the Justice. She said 25 students are in the program this semester.

LIGHT THE NIGHT

Both Massell and North quads will have designated clinician “community therapists” holding dropin hours. The Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, the Gender and Sexuality Center, the Intercultural Center, the Carl J. Shapiro Science Center, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, and the International Business School will also have designated community therapists offering drop in hours as well. The University provided funding for five of these clinicians, according to von Steiger. Dr. Tal Nir will be running a cognitive behavior therapy program to teach students techniques for managing depression and anxiety. Von Steiger said that Brandeis is the only institution with an extensive program of this kind.

The BCC is also hiring two more therapists to work at the Center.

Hours for the BCC were expanded to 8 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, making the Center’s hours 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays. Finally, two therapy dogs-intraining, Lily and Harley, will be acclimated to people in preparation for service and will have their own drop-in hours scheduled for Mondays at 3:30 p.m. in the BCC, according to Von Steiger.

In addition to the new programs and services, the email covered a change in the way insurance will be processed at the BCC. Previously, students were offered between 1 and 12 free sessions at the Center per year, and afterward used their health insurance to continue therapy sessions with the BCC. The

new system eliminates the 12 free sessions, meaning insurance companies will be billed from the first session.

Sousa said in her Aug. 24 email that the new system will help “offset the rising cost of healthcare without putting limits on student services.” She added that the Brandeis Health Center’s similar system for providing student healthcare has proven successful.

According to Dr. Von Steiger, “All copays and deductibles [will be] covered by the University,” and the BCC will not bill students or family. “Most insurance plans will cover services at the BCC, but if a student’s insurance does not cover care at the BCC, we will offer that student free care,” Von Steiger said in the same email.

The director also clarified that if a student’s insurance documentation is typically sent to their family and the student would rather their family not know about their therapy at the BCC, that student can choose to receive free care instead of using their insurance.

Sousa said in her email that the Division of Student Affairs “increased [their] financial investment in the Brandeis Counseling Center,” but it is presently unclear if the BCC will use those funds to pay for students who request free care.

In the past, the Center has waived session limits for survivors of sexual abuse and general trauma. According to their website, the BCC “will not limit students’ care due to session limits, ability to pay, or limited health insurance.”

Have Strong Opinions?

Write an op-ed for the

YVETTE SEI/the Justice

New students gathered at the Light of Reason and listened as current students discussed their Brandeis experiences.

Justice!

Contact Judah Weinerman at forum@thejustice.org for more information

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

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NEWS

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THE JUSTICE

POLICE LOG CONTINUED FROM 2 fusal for further care.

August 28—University Police and DCL responded to reports of an intoxicated party in Rosenthal South. No problems upon arrival.

August 29—A male party fell outside Spingold Theater. When BEMCo arrived on scene the party was alert with neck pain. The patient was transported by Cataldo to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. The area coordinator on call was notified.

August 29—A party at 150 Charles River Road reported a twisted ankle. BEMCo treated the party at the scene, and the party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital by University Police for further care. The area coordinator on call was notified.

August 30—BEMCo treated a party for a sprained finger at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. University Police transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

August 31—A female party dropped a water bottle on her foot. BEMCo treated the party, who refused further care.

August 31—BEMCo responded to a student feeling ill at Stoneman Infirmary. The party was treated on scene and refused further care.

September 2—BEMCo assistance was required for a female with flu-like symptoms at Usen Hall. BEMCo staff arrived on scene, a Cataldo ambulance was requested and the party refused further care with the Cataldo medics.

Disturbance

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July 20—A Waltham resident filed a noise complaint about a small group talking loudly with open windows at Charles River Apartments. The party closed the windows and reduced their volume.

July 19—A student was reported bothering facilities staff for unlocking the party’s apartment.

DCL staff and University Police spoke to the party about lockout policy and procedure. Police compiled a report of the incident.

July 24—A staff member reported a disturbance on the loading dock of the Usdan Student Center. The offending parties were spoken to by police, and a report was compiled of the incident.

July 28—Police responded to a report of a loud party at Charles River Apartments. Upon police arrival, all was quiet.

August 6—Police responded to a noise complaint at Charles River Apartments. Upon police arrival, all was quiet.

August 23—University Police responded to a party shouting and yelling near the East Quad loading dock. The three individuals were dispersed by University Police without incident.

August 30—University Police responded to

complaints of loud talk and smoking outside of Ziv 128. Parties were gone upon police arrival on scene.

September 1—A loud party in the upper area of the Foster Mods was asked to quiet down by University Police.

September 1—A caller filed a noise complaint at Charles River Apartments, but refused to give their name. Police checked the area; all was quiet.

September 1—University Police received two noise complaints for Charles River Apartments.

Upon arrival no, disturbances were observed.

Larceny

July 17—A staff member reported a decorative cover missing from the front of her motor vehicle in Theater Lot. Police compiled a report of the incident.

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Harassment

July 24—Staff members at the Shapiro Campus Center received a harassing email. Police compiled a report of the incident.

August 6—Community members from the Heller School received a harassing voicemail.

Police compiled a report of the incident.

Other

July 21—Police received a call that an intoxicated male was sleeping in the second floor suite of Ziv 127. Upon police arrival, the male student was sleeping and snoring. Police awoke the student, who was not intoxicated. Police took no further action.

July 30—University Police compiled a report on a rope left in Sherman Function Hall. They determined the rope was part of an art project presented by pre-college summer school students.

August 22—University Police retrieved a suspicious package from the card office and compiled a report on the incident. The package was stored in the police evidence room.

August 23—A party was reported trespassing on University property. They were spoken to at the DCL office and transported off campus by University Police.

August 29—University Police responded to reports of a suspicious item covered with a cloth between the SCC and the Hassenfeld Conference Center. It was found to be two bound cinder blocks covered with a tablecloth, apparently being used to secure a tent.

August 31—University Police received a report of a past assault between two Sodexo staff members in Sherman. Police compiled a report on the incident; an investigation is to follow.

—Compiled by Sam Stockbridge

Send an email to Morgan Mayback at layout@thejustice.org

SPORTS PHOTOS COPY FEATURES

JOIN THE JUSTICE! FORUM NEWS ARTS ADS LAYOUT For more information, contact Avraham Penso at editor@thejustice.org.

THE JUSTICE

SPS: Rise of online shopping spurs Univ. mail center changes CONTINUED FROM 1 waiting in line to have a mail center employee consult their system.

The desire to change mail center partners was also spurred by the changing online marketplace, Galutera explained. Whereas students and faculty might have driven to a Target or Walmart for supplies in the past, most now order items on Amazon or eBay and expect to pick them up in 2-3 days. The rising dependence on online shopping has accentuated the need for fast and reliable delivery, with programs such as Blue Apron shipping perishable food items and students increasingly relying on the mail center for medicines that may require refrigeration.

After deciding on SPS, the University replaced six of its eight mail center staff with SPS employees. The two employees who were retained, Angela Palmarozzo and Anthony Sanders, were selected because of their familiarity with

students and faculty. “We wanted to maintain those relationships,” Galutera said.

Otherwise, the new mail center is designed to be a “start from scratch”: the six new SPS employees wear uniforms, new shelving units were purchased, and old, unused equipment was discarded.

The waiting room received a makeover and now features flower bouquets and paintings. The aesthetic overhaul was an effort to “signify there was a change,” according to Galutera.

To accommodate the high volume of packages in the first weeks of the year, the mail center has hired seven temporary employees.

The temporary employees will be on duty through the first week of October. The mail center will also be open until 7 p.m. — two hours later than the rest of the year — through September 7.

The University copy center, which had also been run by Xerox, will now be operated by Ricoh.

●

NEWS

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

7

THIS IS OUR HOUSE

YVETTE SEI/the Justice

Members of Poetic Justice, the Brandeis slam poetry team, performed a medley of their poems at the This Is Our House event on the first night of Orientation.

WIRES: SCC excavation Do you have a will continue for weeks Image Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

nose for news?

Want the scoop?

Contact Jocelyn Gould and Sam Stockbridge at news@thejustice.org

CONTINUED FROM 1 “served by a web of different sorts of lines that provide utilities of various sorts to the buildings.” Steam lines, for example, provide the steam that heats Brandeis buildings, electricity lines provide power, and technology lines provide services such as landline phone and wireless internet connectivity.

The failure was caused by a steam line near the Louis Brandeis statue that runs close to IT cabling.

That line “overheated,” according to Gray, which “caused the conduit that held the voice and data wires to melt. ... The melting started to impact the functionality of the wires in that conduit.”

Workers involved in the repairs are still unsure of what caused the steam line to overheat, but Gray said they think it was either a leak in the line or “the insulation that surrounds the steam lines to keep the heat inside degrading over time.”

After discovering the problem, the University warned the University community via email of the potential impact this wiring issue — and efforts to fix it — would have on campus phone and data services.

“It was obviously fragile and failing,” Gray said of the wiring itself, adding that they thought it was possible “just … digging on the site might cause a loss of connectivity.”

Resolving the issue involved two stages: rerouting data lines so connectivity could continue during excavation, and digging into the ground itself to excavate the site and analyze how to repair both the steam and technology lines.

The rerouting occurred Aug. 2324, when the University ran new technology cables through existing

underground channels, according to Gray. This ensured that potentially affected buildings would be served by different cables before the excavation uprooted the melted lines.

An Aug. 27 update published on BrandeisNOW reported that fencing was in place near the Louis Brandeis statue hill and that digging had begun. The excavated area falls between two manholes — one between the SCC and the Louis Brandeis statue hill and the other on the path between the hill, Sherman Dining Hall, and Rosenthal Quad.

The excavation is concerned not only with the technology cables, but with fixing the steam pipes, which “might involve taking them out and putting new steam pipes in” between the two manholes, Gray said.

As of Aug. 31, Gray expected it would take “at least several weeks” to complete the excavation, and longer if pipes need to be replaced.

This estimate contradicts the Aug. 24 email, which stated repair work would “continue for 2-6 days.”

Although “excavation and repair work will continue … no further service disruptions are expected,” according to an Aug. 31 BrandeisNOW Update.

Gray said there was “almost no interruption of voice and data service” during the rerouting and initial excavation, when large losses of connectivity were most likely to occur. The Rose and Pollack had a “little outage,” and other places may have had “sporadic service” at times, according to Gray, but service was mostly uninterrupted, and residential spaces did not experience any major loss of connectivity.

“Fortunately, the Internet has

Follow

worked perfectly fine in Massell,” Shapiro Hall CA Liat Shapiro said.

Community Advisors and Orientation Leaders were briefed on the situation on Aug. 23 by Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Tim Touchette. “The first thing I thought was, ‘Oh boy, here we are about to welcome the largest class in Brandeis history with ‘Welcome to Brandeis! Your Internet will be available .... soon!’” Shapiro recounted in an email to the Justice.

While the potential severity of this data line issue is clear, Gray does not think it likely that the Class of 2022, or future Brandeis students, will face a similar problem. He stressed the rarity of this confluence of events — namely, not only having a steam line near an IT line, but having a steam line overheat in that specific area — calling it “an outlier, a one-off kind of situation.”

It is uncommon, according to Gray, for steam and IT lines to be close together underground, and even if they are nearby, a leak in the steam line has to occur for there to be an issue. “The steam line and that cable existed happily together for decades before something happened,” Gray said to illustrate his point. “It was the leak, not the presence of the steam line.”

When asked if the University has plans to preemptively locate and change other areas where steam and IT lines run in close proximity, Gray said, “We would not make changes ahead of learning that we had some challenges. But if we learned we had proximity and a steam leak, we would probably try to proactively make a change.”

—Editor’s Note: Liat Shapiro is a News writer for the Justice.

Image Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

Justice!

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@theJustice

8

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018 | THE JUSTICE

just

features

Είναι όλα ελληνικά

PHOTO COURTESY OF ADPhi

HIGH MARKS: ADPhi prides itself on being the most academically focused fraternity at Brandeis.

A guide to Gree

By LEIGH S EITAN MAGER-GARFIELD JUSTICE STAFF WRITERS

As first-year students trek up the hills of the to catch a glimpse of a shirt with colorful Greek letters officially recognize Greek life, and University tour gui culture is a small part of campus life, with only 5 to 10 has stirred up controversy for years, as Greek organiz tors that Greek life has a positive impact on the comm clubs, fraternities and sororities have existed under a lives of many students here. In investigating how thes nity, the Justice reached out to every fraternity and so Alpha Mu and Sigma Delta Tau did not comment by ou element of campus life incoming students may still ha

ADF The Middlesex Chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, often abbreviated to ADPhi, was founded at Brandeis in 2006 and currently has 33 brothers. Known for their academic focus and “professional vibe,” recent ADPhi alumni have gone on to prestigious graduate programs in physics at Harvard and economics at Stanford while others are pursuing exciting careers.

Chapter President Thom D’Angelo ’19 shared in an interview with the Justice that ADPhi’s small size and “collective driven character” contribute to their tight-knit and non-cliquey attitude.

ADPhi is no stranger to philanthropy either, raising money over the years for Literacy Incorporated, the Boston Area

SAEP The Sigma Zeta Chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi, abbreviated to SAEPi, was founded in the fall of 2017 and has 25 sisters. Although it shares three Greek letters with AEPi, SAEPi is not actually affiliated with the fraternity (at Brandeis) and only hopes to offer similar opportunities that AEPi offers to men along with its non-discriminatory view of sisters of

DFE

The Beta Psi Chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon, abbreviated to DPhiE, was founded at Brandeis in 1996 and currently has 60 sisters. Like AEPi, their large size contributes to their wide reach across campus clubs. But there is no epigrammatic phrase to describe the sisters of DPhiE because “there is no typical Deepher,” shared Abby Berkower ’20, the sorority’s Vice President of Academic Affairs, in an interview with the Justice.

Rather, DPhiE sisters “come from

Rape Crisis Center, Stop Soldier Suicide and the Veteran Transition Network.

They have also volunteered at the Greater Boston Food Bank and Plympton Elementary.

One of their favorite fundraisers, Rent-a-Gent, involves the brothers dressing up in suits and offering various favors for donations. “Guys are pretty creative with this event,” said D’Angelo.

“I remember my pledge class even offered to help play April Fool’s jokes on people’s friends.” In another fundraising favorite, they deliver breakfast sandwiches around campus –– “with or without real bacon.”

Asked what he enjoys most about ADPhi, D’Angelo immediately recognized his brothers –– “If that’s not every single fraternity president’s answer, I’m

going to be shocked.” He explained that while many factors contribute to making the ADPhi experience enjoyable, he would not want any part of it without his brothers. “The color green also looks good on me, if I’m being 100 percent real,” he added with a laugh. He also dispelled the misconception that ADPhi is a literary fraternity, explaining that the focus has shifted since the establishment of the first chapter in 1832. Officially termed a social fraternity, they maintain their literary tradition through a “semi-annual, semi-formal event” where the brothers recite literary presentations. D’Angelo chose Allen Iverson’s practice rant at the 2001 MVP press conference for his first recital. “I’m not sure if it resonated with everyone in the room,” he admitted, “but basketball fans

got a good laugh that night.”

D’Angelo believes the relationship fraternities and sororities have with Brandeis is improving but acknowledged that “the administration is cautious about Greek life, which is understandable given its negative reputation.

That being said, I think the campus could benefit greatly from the social currency that Greek life holds.”

He is excited for the new semester because ADPhi recently signed a lease for a new house, putting them closer to campus than they have ever been, proclaiming, “The house is really the hub of every good fraternity.” He also shared his eagerness to double down on charity fundraising this semester since a chapter alumnus recently committed to match however much ADPhi raise.

other faiths.

President Leah Scher ’20 shared in an interview with the Justice that although new sisters do not need to identify with the Jewish faith, “Everything we do is through a Jewish lens. We hold socials and philanthropy and community service events just like every other Greek letter organization, but we have Jewish events and rituals worked into our structure so that Jewish students who want the Greek

experience but don’t want to sacrifice their Jewish identity have a place they’ll feel like they can do both.”

Since its inception last year, SAEPi has nearly tripled in size and looks forward to being chartered this semester.

Like other Greek organizations, SAEPi runs many philanthropic events, raising over $900 in their first year. During one such a cappella fundraiser, SAEPi raised over $500 for Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Scher expressed frustration with the lack of official recognition of Greek life on campus, saying, “The University sees Greek life as doing more harm than good.

They make functioning on campus quite difficult. If I could choose any one thing for Brandeis to change about the way they interact with Greek life, I’d ask them to please make booking rooms on campus easier for us. All we do is hold meetings and events just like any other club!”

all walks of life, and have all different interests,” she said. They are writers, scientists, actors, entrepreneurs, artists and more. Berkower confessed, “It’s super cliché, but I know that I’ve found a community on campus that I can truly be my weirdo self around.” She added, “We have our ‘srat’ moments, but overall I’d say that we’re all chill in our own ways.”

Their individuality extends to their philanthropic work as well. DPhiE sisters support Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the DPhiE Education

Foundation and the American Cancer Society.

Berkower hopes to dispel the misconception that DPhiE, and Greek life in general, consists of cliquey individuals who judge others based on how they look, professing that DPhiE has been “one of my greatest support systems on campus,” and that she can always turn to her sisters to cheer her up or offer advice if she is having a bad day, and cheer her on if she is having a good one.

She believes the lack of official recognition of fraternities and sororities on campus “admittedly has its pros

and cons.” But she described the stigma Greek life holds as “unfortunate,” emphasizing that it is more than just partying.

She is excited for what the new semester holds, revealing that their first event will be a “women’s weekend that will culminate with [them] participating in the Making Strides walk in Boston.”

The sisters of DPhiE are ultimately united, according to Berkower, by their desire to make meaningful connections and join a mutually supportive community, “and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

για μένα (It’s all Greek to me)

ek life on campus

PHOTO COURTESY OF APiPhi

STRONG SISTERHOOD: APiPhi believes their small size makes the relationships between members that much more enduring.

SALOMON, D and VICTOR FELDMAN S AND JUSTICE EDITOR

Brandeis campus, many for the first time, they’re bound s embroidered on the front. Brandeis University does not ides often dodge the question or simply say that Greek 0 percent of students participating. The lack of recognition zations have fought to make the case to school administramunity. Separate from the masses of chartered Brandeis a veil of uncertainty — while substantially influencing the se organizations actually operate and impact the commuorority at Brandeis. Zeta Beta Tau, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma ur press time. This article is designed to shed light on an ave questions about.

AEP

The Lambda Beta Chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, AEPi, was founded at Brandeis in 2012 and currently has 48 brothers. Known for its involvement in many different clubs and majors, fraternity President Matthew Patton shared in an interview with the Justice that AEPi has been actively working with “Campus Activities Board, WBRS, Chabad, Hillel, and more” to create unique events on campus. This was

APF

The Theta Chapter of the Alpha Pi Phi Sorority, often abbreviated to APiPhi, was founded at Brandeis in 2015 and currently has 17 sisters.

Distinctive for their small size and strong sisterhood, the sisters of APiPhi share close bonds with each of their fellow sisters. From studying for finals in the library to dealing with drama to “order[ing] Chinese food and watch[ing] the Winter Olympics” on a Friday night, President Haley Director ’20 expressed in an interview with the Justice that to be a sister of APiPhi is to “have a group of people who are there for you and have your back no matter what.”

Since their founding, APiPhi has been raising money to support the Alzheimer Society of Canada, their official philanthropy. In fall 2017, for example, they participated in Boston’s

KBG

The Chi Chapter of Kappa Beta Gamma, often abbreviated to KBG, holds a reputation as one of the most secretive sororities on campus. The chapter was founded in 2011 and currently has 35 sisters. KBG president Hannah Glock ’19 says the small size of the sorority makes the relation-

embodied both in the annual Chabad purim party that AEPi co-sponsored last year with Kappa Beta Gamma, Delta Phi Epsilon and Sigma Delta Tau and in Springfest, where one of their brother’s bands was chosen to open the event.

Coupled with their affiliation with clubs on campus, AEPi recently reached a new level of philanthropic achievement on campus, raising $3,291 last spring. To achieve this level of fundraising, AEPi hosted several events, including “a chipotle

fundraiser, an online outreach fundraiser, and of course our semesterly ‘Pie a Pi’ where people at Brandeis can donate money to throw pies at members of the chapter,” said Patton.

Patton called his brothers the most enjoyable part of AEPi, commenting, “I love the idea of brotherhood because it promotes values of mutual respect and trust among members, which makes people very open with one another. It’s something that’s hard to come by but has given me a

family in college like no other.” He also dispelled the misconception that all AEPi brothers are Jewish, clarifying that although nationally recognized as a Jewish fraternity, AEPi accepts brothers of all faiths.

Patton looks forward to the many events AEPi has planned and moving toward his ultimate goal for AEPi: “To be a dynamic and positive force on campus, whether that be through parties, fundraising and volunteering, or just being positive members of the Brandeis community overall.”

Walk to End Alzheimer’s, which they plan to repeat this year. They have also participated in Relay for Life, and partner with Brandeis Students to End Alzheimer’s Disease for various charity events.

Director’s favorite part of APiPhi is spending time with her sisters. “I’m in the library all the time. We get a table in the morning, and everyone just rotates in and out, and it’s just really fun seeing who’s in the library,” she said.

She has come to realize that she won’t remember every sisterhood or philanthropy event but will instead cherish the smaller moments with her sisters, such as getting meals with her “little” or being in a dance with her “big.”

She also saught to dispell the misconceptions that APiPhi simply takes sisters rejected from other sororities –– “We love getting to know people, but we don’t take someone just because they didn’t get into Sorority X or Soror-

ity Y. We take them because we think they’d be a good fit for our sisterhood and what we do on campus.” She also resisted the notion that that their founding outside the United States less than 10 years ago makes them a ‘fake’ sorority. Since the first chapter was founded in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in 2009, APiPhi has expanded to 10 chapters, the Theta Chapter giving APiPhi an international presence in the United States for the first time.

Director believes the relationship fraternities and sororities have with Brandeis is improving. For example, the fraternities and sororities partnered with the Campus Activities Board last February for their Sherman Function Ball, and planned and participated in networking events with the Hiatt Career Center last March. She believes this has put them on the right track, commenting, “I think the more that the Brandeis administration sees

that we are involved for good things... [it] will lead to a better relationship with the administration at Brandeis.”

But she acknowledged the long road that remains toward official recognition, adding, “We’re never going to be a big state school with eighteen frats and sixteen sororities that the whole social life revolves around them, but I think what we’re doing now, by partnering with different clubs on campus and increasing our visibility as a united Greek life –– as a unified force –– is definitely helping the inter-Brandeis community.”

She is excited for the new semester because of the prospect of getting a larger pledge class –– their theme for Rush this semester is “Super Sisters” –– and developing closer bonds with her sisters, confessing, “I could not have asked for a better group of women to surround myself with throughout my college career.”

ships between the sisters that much more special.

On their website, KBG claims to value scholarship, although there is no specific GPA requirement mentioned. The website also brags that KBG is the most diverse sorority at Brandeis, with sisters and alumni from Mexico, Columbia, Norway, India, Turkey and Nigeria. The organi-

zation’s main philanthropic endeavor is an annual fundraiser for the largest sporting event for persons with intellectual disabilities, the Special Olympics.

KBG Vice President Natalya Wozab ’20 spoke to the Justice about the organization’s struggle to be recognized. She lamented, “It’s hard not being officially recognized by

Brandeis because it makes it harder to accomplish our goals of reaching out and getting our message to the rest of the campus population. On the other hand, without any help or recognition from Brandeis, we are forced to work that much more to stay organized, advertise Greek life, and support other organizations so that we all have successful processes.”

9

10 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018 ● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE

Justice

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Established 1949

Brandeis University

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

EDITORIALS

Study Abroad mishandled Brandeis in The Hague

Since 2010, Brandeis students have experienced The Hague, a Dutch city that houses the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, through University-led spring and summer study abroad programs. This coming spring, however, students will be unable to participate in the program.

According to an Aug. 6 email to students signed up for the program, Brandeis in The Hague has been suspended because it can no longer accept U.S. Federal Financial Aid due to “administrative errors” between the U.S. Department of Education and Leiden University. The email listed other programs students could apply to, and offered acceptance to the Summer 2019 Brandeis in The Hague.

Until the Aug. 6 email, students had no idea the program might fall through — despite the Office of Study Abroad’s admission in the same email that they had been working on the issue “over the past year.” According to Sam Cohen ‘19, the University had been aware of a potential issue since July 2017.

Worse still, despite Brandeis being aware that the program might be canceled, students applying to The Hague program last spring were instructed by their study abroad advisors not to apply to any other programs — even though students usually apply to multiple programs. “They said, ‘We need you to make sure this is your number one program,’” Cohen told the Justice. Cohen said that he “didn’t really think about a second choice” because the Office of Study Abroad told him he would be able to apply to other programs if he was not accepted to Brandeis in The Hague.

The Office of Study Abroad did not

No warning of cancelation warn students that the program might be canceled.

For Cohen, Brandeis in The Hague was a chance to complete his Politics major and make progress on his International and Global Studies major; classes he had been set to take in The Hague would have fulfilled his remaining requirements.

While the University emailed students a list of replacement spring 2019 programs with application deadlines in September and October, some students may not be able to find an option fulfills the requirements they had been planning to satisfy in The Hague.

Because of the email’s timing, students intending to study in The Hague must now scramble to complete new applications while transitioning into the school year; on top of keeping up with their regular coursework, they must obtain new letters of recommendation and compose essays for their chosen replacement programs.

The Office of Study Abroad could not be reached for comment as of press time.

This board is disappointed by the University’s lack of transparency and foresight regarding Brandeis in The Hague. Knowing for over a year that the program might fall through, the Office of Study Abroad should have ensured that potential participants had backup options; by discouraging students applying to The Hague from applying to any other program, it did the exact opposite. The University should work to make study abroad placement an effective and transparent process, and this board calls upon the University to be more proactive in the future.

Commend BCC’s expansion of mental health services

Responding to persistent student requests for an expansion to hours and resources, the Brandeis Counseling Center announced a number of changes and additions to their services for this upcoming semester. While this board has concerns about how the expanded program might affect future tuition and the cost of the University health care plan, we appreciate the necessary additions made to the BCC. The BCC will remain open until 8 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, greatly increasing available hours for student visits. Previously, many students in need of counseling services were unable to obtain them because the BCC did not offer a feasible appointment time.

By extending its hours, the BCC has both increased the total number of available hours for appointments and enabled more students to fit appointmen into their schedule.

Another positive change is the introduction of drop-in Community Therapists at eight locations around campus. Community Therapists will be available for individual sessions, groups, and workshops. Drop-in sessions will provide an excellent entry point for students unsure if they require regular services. If a Community Therapist feels that a drop-in session is inadequate to fully address a student’s challenges, they will connect them with a full-time therapist.

The BCC should also be commended for increasing its preventive care options through the Cognitive Behavioral

Improving campus resources

Therapy program, which aims to help students manage common mental health challenges — anxiety, depression, academic stress — through the application of CBT. With numerous studies detailing the distressing state of mental health on college campuses, the unique resources available to cognitive behavior specialists at Brandeis is an excellent way to improve the wellbeing of students.

Finally, the BCC will offer weekly access to therapy dogs every Monday at 3:30 p.m.

Animal therapy has a long history of efficacy, and Brandeis has often brought in therapy dogs during finals weeks.

As necessary and promising as these changes are, they will inevitably come at a sizable financial cost. While we hope that the extra funding from the Division of Student Affairs and the increased reliance on billing insurance companies will be enough to cover the cost of improved services, this board is concerned that costs could be eventually passed along to students through an increase in tuition or the cost of the University health care plan.

Raising the cost of the University health care plan could result in more students choosing to use private insurance instead — even if it does not adequately cover physical or mental health services.

Overall, this board is appreciative of the BCC’s responsiveness to the past semester’s mental health forum, and we hope that these positive developments will not be diminished by an additional financial burden on students.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons; Photo illustration by YVETTE SEI/the Justice

Views the News on

On Aug. 6, the New York Times reported that major tech companies took action against conspiracy theory radio show Infowars and its host Alex Jones, removing him from most prominent social media platforms. Companies like Google and Facebook cited Jones’ history of harassment and threatening behavior, particularly his targeting of the parents of children murdered in the Sandy Hook shooting. Opponents of this move claim that this sets a dangerous precedent for free speech on the internet, while advocates hold that giving Jones a platform is a moral failure. Do you think that Jones should have been permitted to retain his social media presence, or were these companies right to remove him?

R Matthews ’19 If Mark Zuckerberg decided today that he didn’t want you on Facebook anymore, he has the power to take you off. Whether that’s wrong or not doesn’t really matter because you made a conscious decision to agree to Facebook’s Terms and Conditions (that you probably didn’t read fully). The question I’d argue that we need to ask is who controls what gets posted and promoted on social media. Spoiler alert, it’s certainly not the user. There are algorithms that figure out what exactly is shown on our newsfeeds and when. So, should it be our decision to decide whether we want to see Alex Jones on our social media feeds? Well, in my opinion, yeah. But is that the case now? No. But behind every social media platform is a person with a motive and their own morals and beliefs. And that bias affects how the platform works and runs.

R Matthews ’19 is a Brandeis Posse Scholar majoring in Computer Science and African and Afro-American Studies.

Alex Friedman ’19 Alex Jones violated the Terms of Service agreements he signed and the websites penalized him. What is broadly worrying here is that the forums in which much of our public speech currently happens are private. It is as if the proverbial town square were owned

by Facebook. Free speech laws don’t apply here because the law hasn’t yet woken up to that reality. Someone could tell me to open a new website where I can say whatever I want, but making such a space, where the polity could see ideas they wouldn’t otherwise, is untenable and still requires that I be steadfast in not regulating it.

Alex Jones’ situation makes us uncomfortable because it wakes us up to the reality that, on one extreme , disgusting and violent people like him have a platform and, on another, we leave what can be loudly said up to corporations or governments.

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

Roland Blanding ’21 I think that corporations are not responsible for upholding freedom of speech in this country, or anywhere else in the world.

They are only driven by the incentive of profits. Social media is not the only way for Mr. Jones to express himself, and whether it was morally right or wrong for these companies to remove him is irrelevant. If anything, removing his accounts only gives him more notoriety, as I would not have known his name had this not happened.

Roland Blanding ’21 is a member of Brandeis Academic Debate and Speech Society and the Men of Color Alliance.

Valerie Janovic ’19 While I believe the right to free speech, especially with regard to controversial statements, should be defended at all costs, the right does not apply to social media platforms like Facebook. As a private company, Facebook has the right to eliminate any material from its platform for any reason it deems fit. Therefore, Facebook had every right to silence dangerous hate-speech from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. However, the ability to selectively censoring an information zone viewed by over 1 billion people sounds like the terrifying plot of a futuristic dystopian novel. If Facebook and Google were countries they would have the third and fourth largest populations, exceeded only by China and India. Social media companies have incredible unregulated power over which information is seen, and where voices are heard. Google can manipulate searches through prompting phrases in the search bar and programming biases into the order of results. In fact, Google currently manipulates your searches through the methods aforementioned. I do not believe that removing Alex Jones from his social media platforms constitutes a violation of free speech, but now that this censoring power has been unleashed, it cannot remain unchecked.

Valerie Janovic ’19 is double majoring in Psychology and Music.

Photos: the Justice;Valerie Janovic

THE JUSTICE ● FORUM ● TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 , 2018

11

Descent into Donaldmania: A look at /r/The_Donald

By EVAN MAHNKEN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I’ve been reading every post on the front page of /r/The_Donald for just over 100 days now. For those who are lucky enough not to know, The_Donald is a subreddit which describes itself as “a never-ending rally dedicated to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.” When Trump was elected, it had around 300,000 subscribers – now it has more than twice as many. It is home to Trump’s most ardent supporters, as anything less than absolute devotion to the president will result in a ban from the moderators. According to The_Donald’s own rules, racism will also warrant a ban, but that didn’t stop user “TheMormanTrump” from posting “Muslim rapefugees raping thousands of kids is a-okay to the Brits” consequencefree. The_Donald is the third-most active subreddit on the site, and has already begun mobilizing its subscribers for the upcoming midterms.

The_Donald stresses that Donald Trump has no flaws. One has to think that mentality will become gospel among Trump’s remaining supporters in 2020. You can only hold your nose for so long before getting used to the stench. When Trump’s supporters write “no flaws,” they mean zero. On the pages of The_Donald, Trump is more infallible than the Pope. He even has a nickname, GEOTUS, short for “God Emperor of the United States.” One highly upvoted comment argued that typos in Trump’s tweets – such as his constant misspelling of the word “counsel” – were intentional ploys to garner more media coverage. When Trump was caught posing as publicist “John Miller,” user “antifauberalles” praised Trump for masterfully “trolling the media.” Even lying isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. “It’s like a kindergartener watching a neurosurgeon work,” wrote BirthRight1776 on Trump’s political strategy, which is often referred to as “4D chess.” For The_Donald users, Trump’s presidency isn’t about Supreme Court picks or tax reform – it’s about him.

Perhaps Trump’s greatest trait, to this group of his most fervent supporters, is the very thing that makes him hated by so many: his indecorousness. The subreddit emulates him in that respect. When a photo of a crying child at the border broke the nation’s heart,

the subreddit sidebar image was changed to a photoshopped version in which Trump stood next to her with an ice cream cone, captioned “Two Scoops!”

Corey Lewandowski’s infamous “womp womp” response to a July 20th CNN story detailing ICE detaining a child with Down syndrome was enshrined as a subreddit flair that users could put next to their username. John McCain’s death was memorialized on the subreddit’s front page with a Ben Garrison political cartoon depicting McCain’s downed fighter jet falling into Hell. Dismissing this as mere trolling ignores what The_Donald really is: a group that knows it is on the wrong side of history but chooses to remain there anyway. A group that likes to play the villain and revels in being hated. A bucket full of crabs that, rather than see themselves elevated, would drag everyone else to the bottom with them.

“

For The_Donald users, Trump’s presidency isn’t about Supreme Court picks or tax reform – it’s about him.

With the mindset that Trump can do no wrong, it’s easy to see why The_Donald is a haven for all stripes of conspiracy theorists.

From the Deep State to the Fake News Media to the Mueller investigation to the tech companies to Democratic obstructionist losers, Trump is thwarted at every turn by forces outside his control, and never by his own error. The narrative of persecution extends to their own lives, where this group can feel as though liberals are to blame for a changing world where they are no longer the insiders. With its unique dialect and homogeneity of thought, The_Donald is the one place they can be insiders. It is a tight-knit, insular community that provides a genuine sense of camaraderie for its subscribers.

So why have I been torturing myself for the past 100 days by delving into The_Donald? I wish I could say it was in preparation to write

JULIANNA SCIONTI/the Justice

this article, but that’s not why. I wish I could say it was an anthropological mission to learn about Trump supporters as an insider in order to bridge the gap, but that isn’t why either.

Nor can I say it was an attempt to break out of my personal echo chamber and see how the other half gets the news. The truth is, it’s like watching a car crash: I shouldn’t, but I just can’t turn away.

Yet, despite my id-driven reason for being there, the media doesn’t pay enough attention to The_Donald. While Donald Trump himself may not browse The_Donald, memes originating from the subreddit make their way to his tweets, such as the infamous CNN wrestling GIF and, more recently, a video of people scoffing at Trump’s chances of being

elected set to dopey music. Talking points from The_Donald also have a way of bubbling up to the surface, such as the canard about white genocide in South Africa, which made it all the way to Tucker Carlson Tonight.

From Fox News, it made it to the president’s Twitter account. But most importantly, Trump’s approval rating among Republicans is in the 90s and the kind of loyalty demanded on the pages of The_Donald is becoming the party’s norm. Republican politicians have begun playing more and more to the fringes.

Although it only accounts for one percent of Trump voters,The_Donald provides a window into where some of the Republican Party already is, and where much of it is likely headed.

Establish financial literacy as part of University requirements Andrew

JACOBSON REALITY CHECK

Welcome to the Class of 2022. Something our new students will notice over their four years at Brandeis is that there are plenty of course requirements here: School of Science, NonWestern and Comparative Studies, Foreign Language, the list goes on. Evidently, these are topic areas that the University deems worthy of study by every student who passes through our halls. The Brandeis website lists their respective justifications―to examine the non-Western world, to understand the language of others, etc. What it doesn’t mention is a basic course in financial literacy.

Of course, the Business program offers courses in financial accounting, managerial accounting and other related subjects. But for Business and non-Business majors alike, there is no single course about how to manage one’s personal finances.

Why is this a problem? Because after graduation, we’re going to suddenly start filing our own taxes, saving for retirement and making educated decisions about our financial trajectories. We’ll have to know whether to invest in stocks or bonds, mutual funds or real estate and, most importantly, understand what each of these terms means.

But let’s dial it back. For the last year, I’ve had about $3,000 sitting in a savings account that I contribute to on a weekly basis. “A penny saved is a penny earned,” my dad would always say, so I listened—even

if it meant one fewer muffin at Einstein’s.

Now, how much have those funds accrued in interest over the past several years?

According to ValuePenguin, the answer is about .06 percent per year on average for savings accounts, or about 60 cents for each $1,000. So I’ve made about $1.80. But that’s without taking inflation into account, which usually averages about 2 percent per year, which means that my $3,000 one year ago is now worth $2,940. In other words, at the end of the year, I’m down about $55. And I thought by saving I was making money?

“

But for Business and nonBusiness majors alike, there is no single course about how to manage one’s finances.

So I spoke further with my dad, who told me about mutual funds, and then about a specific kind of mutual fund called an index fund. He said that these funds allow one to invest in stocks without bearing high amounts of risk.

In other words, mutual funds are diversified stock portfolios. They allow one to buy a tiny part of many different companies in order to take part in their shared price appreciation while minimizing the risk if any singular company is to fail.

Many mutual funds track certain sectors, like information technology firms such as Google, Amazon, Facebook or consumer

discretionary companies — Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, etc. Index funds track certain indexes, like the Dow Jones industrial average or the S&P 500.

But prior to 1976, index funds didn’t exist, as an April 2018 Vanguard report describes.

If someone wanted to invest in stocks, they would have had to either buy individual stocks or shares of a normal mutual fund which, while diversified, would be actively managed by professionals who generally charged high fees.

John Bogle, then 46 years old, had been fired from a position as CEO of Wellington Management when he decided to revolutionize the way people invest. In 1975 he founded The Vanguard Group, an investment management company, and one year later he started the world’s first index fund. Steven Dubner, host of public radio show “Freakonomics Radio,” explains: “The notion was brutally simple: Most stock pickers think they are better than the market — and they aren’t; therefore, investors should just buy the whole market.

And, since you’re not paying the big salaries, and all the other costs that go along with those stock pickers — the fund would be much cheaper to buy.” How much cheaper?

According to The Investment Company Institute, the average expense ratio of an actively managed fund is .84 percent, verses .11 percent for an index fund. Over time, these small numbers make a big difference.

As you can imagine, initially Bogle faced lots of pushback. The egos of Wall Street traders weren’t ready to relinquish what they viewed as their indispensable role in the financial services industry. But slowly, the middle class caught on. In fact, according to Bogle, since the 2008 financial crisis, trillions of dollars have been funneled out of actively managed funds and into index ones, which

are referred to as passive since they merely track market indexes and are traded very rarely, if at all.

How do index funds perform relative to actively managed mutual funds? According to S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, only 15.3 percent of actively managed mutual funds beat their firm’s own index on a given year. And after consulting costs, only two to three percent of funds come out on top of the index, according to a 2010 study published in The Journal of Finance. Beating the index consistently is even more difficult.

Even legendary investor Warren Buffett is a huge fan of index funds. In fact, in 2007 he bet a million dollars that over the next decade, the S&P 500 would outperform a handpicked selection of hedge-fund stocks. In 2017, it was finally revealed: The index had gained an average of 7.1 percent growth each year, compared to his opponent’s mere 2.2 percent growth. Mr. Buffett gave the money to charity.

What does this mean for us as students?

Save early, save often and put whatever you don’t need for the short term in an index fund.

Even if you just save the price of a coffee or lunch each week, the gains compounded over time could be startling. Consider this: If we assume a four percent annual return after inflation, one dollar saved at age 20 would grow to $5.84 when you turn 65. One dollar saved at age 30 turns into $3.95, at 40 to $2.67, and so on. The longer we wait to invest, the dimmer the return yield will be.

In other words, time is our biggest asset.

Starting a brokerage account to begin investing in index funds is easy. Vanguard and Charles Schwab both offer user-friendly platforms, for instance. The best part?

Investing in index funds doesn’t require so much skill or knowledge, just the wherewithal to put it there.

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

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The opinions stated in the editorial(s) under the masthead on the opposing page represent the opinion of a majority of the voting members of the editorial board; all other articles, columns, comics and advertisements do not necessarily. For the Brandeis Talks Back feature on the last page of the newspaper, staff interview four randomly selected students each week and print only those four answers.

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Staff

Copy: Klarissa Hollander, Peri Meyers*, Emily Shen, Sara

News: Will Hodgkinson, Chaiel Schaffel

Fine

Mack Schoenfeld, Liat Shapiro, Maurice Windley, Jinyin

Layout: Winnie Qin, Shinji Rho

Chen

Illustrations: Ben Jarrett, Mara Khayter, Aaron Marks,

Features: Christine Kim, Leigh Salomon, Hannah Shumel,

Julianna Scionti

Sophie Fulara

* denotes a senior staff member.

Forum: Ben Feshbach*, Andrew Jacobson*, Tafara Gava, Somar Hadid, Elias Rosenfeld*, Ravi Simon* Sports: Cahler Fruchtman Arts: Kent Dinlenc*, Mariah Manter, Emily See, Anna Stern, Isabelle Truong, Mendel Weintraub Photography: Ydalia Colon, Lucy Frenkel, Chelsea Madera, Clements Park, Yuran Shi

12

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018 ● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Rethink the use of eyewitness testimony in criminal justice Nia

LYN PURPOSE

In 1999, Richard Jones was falsely convicted of aggravated robbery after a woman’s cellphone was stolen in a parking lot. While there was no actual evidence placing Jones at the scene of the crime, his wrongful identification and subsequent arrest was the result of eyewitness testimony.

Jones was the only person in a lineup who vaguely fit the description and “witnesses were presented with no other option but to choose Jones in the lineups created,” said lawyer Alice Craig, as quoted in an Aug. 30 New York Times article.

According to the Innocence Project, eyewitness misidentification is the greatest cause of wrongful conviction in the United States; many of those convictions have been overturned with DNA testing. People instinctively may want to believe the victims of a crime and the truth of their story.

However, this desire for justice may come at the expense of someone else’s life — false identification can permanently hurt someone.

Jones spent 17 years incarcerated before he was released, and he missed out on raising his daughters, now 19 and 24. However, even the horrible situation Jones was placed in was mild compared to those that were executed without concrete evidence that they committed the crime. The Death Penalty Information Center lists of 15 individuals who were convicted based on spotty evidence or coerced confessions.

Gary Graham’s case is similar to Jones’.

Graham was charged with robbery and murder primarily on the eyewitness testimony of a woman who saw the killer, only briefly, from 30 feet away and through her car’s windshield. Two other eyewitnesses got a clear look at the suspect and denied that Graham was the perpetrator, but they were neither interviewed nor called to testify.

In order to prevent the unjust execution or imprisonment of innocent people, there should be more measures taken to ensure that eyewitness accounts are as accurate as possible.

In the case of Jones, witnesses described the suspect differently with descriptions varying from light-skinned Black man to dark-skinned Hispanic man to tanned white man, according to the same Aug. 30 New York Times article.

Clearly, that eyewitness accounts are not the

most reliable form of identification. Yes, they are useful when first reporting a crime and can help give police an idea of who the suspect might be, but human memory is not perfect and the way that an event is recalled can vary from person to person. Aditionally, implicit biases exist, and these biases may also alter the way an event is perceived or remembered.

A 1975 paper in the Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, “Eyewitness Identification: Effects of suggestion and bias in identification from photographs,” discusses this phenomenon. The paper describes a prior study involving two staged crime scenes and in both cases, 86 percent of witnesses made recall errors and were unable to accurately recall height, weight and age.

Instead, the witnesses relied on published descriptions of suspects rather than what they actually observed. The paper also discusses the other reasons behind misidentification of individuals such as fear of looking foolish, reliance on police authority, stereotypes, social influence and conformity. In order to decrease the number of misidentifications and possible lives ruined, the Innocence Project has compiled a list of reforms that should be undertaken.

These include double-blind administration

“

Human memory is not perfect and the way that an event is recalled can vary from person to person. of a police lineup so that officers cannot make any leading comments, compose a lineup of several individuals that match eyewitness’ description of the perpetrator or instruct the witness that the criminal may or may not be in the lineup — to reduce the amount of pressure on the witness and prevent them from making any hasty decisions.

Additionally, the Innocence Project has pushed for the inclusion of a confidence statement in which the eyewitness discloses the level of confidence that they have in their identification of a suspect.

Currently, 21 states have implemented some of these reforms. The adjustment of lineup composition is particularly interesting because when eyewitnesses were presented with mugshots of both Jones and Ricky Amos — the man believed by many to be the true

MARA KHAYTER/the Justice

perpetrator — witnesses said that they could no longer definitively say that Jones was guilty, according to an Aug. 31 CNN article.

A more reliable form of police identification is DNA testing and while not every crime scene makes that possible, it is much more reliable than eyewitness accounts and prevents the charging of innocents simply for having a doppelganger. Advances in DNA research have come a long way since it was first implemented, and today, biological material only the size of a pinhead is needed to identify a criminal, according to a Jan. 27 article in the New York Post.

If a suspect was not previously convicted of a crime, their DNA will not be in the database and any searches will result in nothing. However, there is more experimental technology that allows police to search for a familial match in the system and build a family tree which helps police try to deduce who is a likely suspect. This, of course, is

flawed and used “only when all reasonable leads have been exhausted,” according to Eric Rosenbaum, chief of DNA prosecution for the Queens District Attorney’s Office. There is also the possibility of using DNA to piece together information about the individual’s appearance, such as hair and eye color, so that police can create a basic image. This is still better than an eyewitness account because it reveals known, definitive characteristics of the suspect rather than what someone thinks they saw.

Richard Jones is only one of a long list of people who have been wrongfully convicted due to improper eyewitness accounts. While this practice does have its place in law enforcement, it is flawed and should not be used as the only basis of identifying possible criminals. Instead, more evidence-based and scientific routes should be explored rather than relying on the memory and supposed truthfulness of strangers.

Brandeis Counseling Center changes are a welcome start Maddox

KAY

GLOBAL WARNING

If the start of classes last week marked a return to Brandeis and not a frantic first-year move-in, you may have noticed a change in the services and messaging Brandeis officials are delivering to students. Specifically, the staff in the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, the Brandeis Counseling Center and the Prevention, Advocacy & Resource Center have all taken a look inward and revamped their offices student-facing programs, with a focus on accessibility and community. In an open forum held this past March, students demanded better communication and shorter appointment wait times at the BCC, as reported in a March 6 article in the Justice.

The BCC recognized the demands of students from diverse backgrounds by publishing its resource guide in several languages, including Mandarin. Brandeis students have been demanding longer hours, more accessible counselors and better recognition and outreach to international students.

As documented in the same March 6 artifcle in the Justice, the BCC could not get to every concern voiced during the forum. Given the volume of student complaints and concerns, the BCC has plenty of items on its agenda.

Are these changes substantial and thoughtful enough to celebrate, or are they facelifts that fail to meet students’ needs?

Addressing students’ day-to-day counseling

needs through community therapy is one of the goals Brandeis Counseling Center Director Joy Von Steiger outlined in the BCC’s first official newsletter in May. Previously isolated to the Mailman House on Lower Campus, the BCC is placing counselors in residential and academic quads this semester in order to remove barriers to access and destigmatize asking for help.

The Justice reported on these “embedded therapists” in March, but the BCC is actively promoting them at events like the Study Abroad Re-Entry Workshop as part of its new strategy this semester.

According to Dr. von Steiger, this change puts counselors where they need to be to mitigate the impact of everyday stressors on students.

“

Some students will require more intensive personal care that falls outside the scope of the BCC. In order to make its community therapy program as effective as possible, the BCC should work to engage peer groups together.

A Feb. 2012 paper in the World Psychiatry Journal analyzed the effectiveness of various aspects of community-based mental health care in the United States and Canada.

One of the conclusions the authors made was that peer support is critical to the success of many mental health outcomes. The BCC has expanded to 22 therapy and support

groups this semester, but only four of those are listed online. Hosting more informal support meetings can drive peer engagement up and fit well within the BCC’s new model but only if the community knows about the events.

However, not everyone feels included.

International students have voiced complaints about a lack of BCC outreach and accessibility, as the Justice noted in a Dec. 10, 2017 article.

Dr. Von Stieger addressed this issue by saying that a commitment to multicultural counseling is a “deeply passionate and necessary aspect,” of the BCC’s work, and they are engaging in ongoing trainings with Dr. Mark Brimhall-Vargas and Dr. Livingstone of the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. While the BCC offers counseling in English, Cantonese, Hebrew, Mandarin and Spanish, according to their website, there is no mention of whether other non-English language counselors will be stationed around campus.

More casual access is in line with the BCC’s stated “shorter term stabilization model,” which Brandeis is shifting toward in order to care for students’ most immediate mental health needs.

The reality is that the short-term stabilization model is more financially solvent for Brandeis than a longer-term program aimed at getting to the roots of an individual’s mental health challenges. In a November 2017 letter to faculty, staff and students, University President Ron Liebowitz acknowledged that Brandeis is “losing net tuition dollars” operating at its current size and complexity.

Liebowitz’s biggest point was that the University’s resources are limited and must be used sparingly. By focusing on addressing immediate concerns and easing students’ daily lives, the BCC is making the most of a limited set of resources and fulfilling its role

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

appropriately by focusing on creating a more positive mental health community on campus.

Rather than trying to be the foundation for a lifelong mental health journey, the BCC now seeks simply to address issues as they occur on campus. Some students will require more intensive personal care that falls outside the scope of the BCC. Previously known as the Rape Crisis Center since opening in 2015, the campus office responsible for sexual assault awareness and response has rebranded as the Prevention, Advocacy & Resource Center, or PARC. According to a March 10, 2015 article in the Justice, the original idea for the RCC was proposed by Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence members.

This change was much-needed and should be welcomed by Brandeis students. By naming the office after the most traumatic experience anyone could face, the RCC limited its perceived use to a set of horrible circumstances and potentially triggered sexual assault survivors.

The name PARC puts an emphasis on education and prevention as the critical first step rather than as a resource to contact in the aftermath. PARC will still offer bystander training to all students, and the curriculum has been updated.

As President Liebowitz emphasized last November, the University’s immediate strategy is to work smarter, not harder, adapting current resources to students’ needs rather than creating new ones.

The changes to the Brandeis Counseling Center and the Prevention, Advocacy & Resource Center are admirable steps to focus a limited set of resources based on students’ needs given the University’s current financial crunch.

There is still room to improve the BCC’s outreach to international students, and time will tell if PARC is able to expand its oncampus presence as a resource for education.

THE JUSTICE

●

SPORTS ● FEBRUARY 14, 2017 10 THE JUSTICE ● SPORTS ● TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

WSOCCER: Team strives to continue its winning ways CONTINUED FROM 16 lifelong relationships, based out of Boston, MA. The program makes a positive impact in the lives of many young children. Many Brandeis athletes will be able to make similar impacts later this season and temporarily add these kids to their rosters to practice and play. Soccer was only the first this season and based on the reaction, it is safe to say it will be a resounding success across the board.

Next Sunday, the women’s soccer team goes head to head with Johnson & Wales University.

They then remain at home to take

13

DRIVE-THRU

on Eastern Connecticut State. The next Saturday, they will open up a three-game road stretch against Babson College. They will remain in the vicinity and take on Tufts University on the road on the Saturday following. Then on Tuesday, the squad will compete against Wellesley College before entering UAA play.

The Women's soccer team also has high expectations for their season as they came off a campaign which brought them to the final four. They will be hoping to bring some attention to the Brandeis soccer program.

CROSS COUNTRY: Runners seeking to MSOCCER: Club will look to go the distance in earn 2nd win on Saturday new season YDALIA COLON/Justice File Photo

FANCY FOOTWORK: Noah Gans '21 masterfully dribbles past his defender against Babson College on Sept 9, 2017.

CONTINUED FROM 16 that they will return to Brunswick Maine to take on Bowdoin College and the rest of the participating schools at the New England Division III Championships.

The last meet of the season will occur in Osh Kosh, Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin-Osh Kosh. The best runners for the Judges will compete with the best runners from across the nations top Division III schools.

With the performances of Irie Gourde ’17 and the Bryson twins last season, the teams have a high bar to surpass. Brandeis running has recieved national recognition due to the efforts of those three runners and the younger members of the squad are eager to leave their own legacy on the program. The running season never ends and many Brandeis atheletes compete in all three seasons. They have been gearing up for the long haul.

CONTINUED FROM 16

game and did not allow too many shots on goal.

into the second half with neither team making progress. However, in the 63rd minute, Andrew Allen was able to break things open with a goal off the assist of Warren. The Judges added an insurance goal 10 minutes later off of the foot of UNC Wilmington transfer Bryant Nardizzi ’20. Brandeis goalkeeper Greg Irwin ’20 played a fantastic game, stopping a career high eight shots en route to his second career shutout. The defense was the story of this game, as the Judges were able to keep Endicott out of scoring terrority for the majority of the

This season is going to be a good one for the Judges as the team has added a strong first-year class, many valuable transfer students and has retained many key pieces from last year's run. The season will also feature a healthy mix of both local and UAA conference plays throughout the season. The team's goal remains the same: to win the Division III championship.

Their hot streak is historic, and all the Judges need is a spark to take that next step and bring some national glory to Waltham.

Looking ahead in the next week, the Judges will host Springfield College tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Following that, they will travel to Wellesley, Mass. to take on Babson College on Saturday at 1 p.m. They will then return to the road to take on Worcester Polytechnic Institute next Tuesday. The men will next compete against the Massachusetts Maritime Academy the following Tuesday. They will then take on Tufts on that Friday followed by Wheaton College the following Tuesday before kicking off UAA conference play. The following game against Case Western Reserve will be their homecoming game.

SOCCER VOLLEYBALL TENNIS TRACK

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SOCCER VOLLEYBALL TENNIS TRACK

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THE JUSTICE

JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

● SPORTS ●

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

15

VOLLEYBALL

MEN’S SOCCER UAA STANDINGS

Emory Rochester Carnegie Chicago JUDGES Case NYU WashU

TEAM STATS Goals

Overall W L D 2 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 2 0

UAA Conf.

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

Andrew Allen ’19 leads the team with two goals.

Pct. Player Goals 1.000 Andrew Allen 2 1.000 Bryant Nardizzi 1 .750 Jake Warren 1 0.750 .500 .500 Assists .500 Michael Burch ’22 is tied for .000 the team lead with one assist.

Player Assists Michael Burch 1 Jake Warren 1

EDITOR’S NOTE: Wednesday vs Springfield Saturday at Babson Sept. 11 at WPI

WOMEN’S SOCCER UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Goals

UAA Conf.

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

Overall W L D 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0

Pct. 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 .750 .500 .500

EDITOR’S NOTE: Saturday vs. Johnson and Wales Sept. 11 at Eastern Conn. St. Sept. 15 at Babson

Katie Hayes ’20 leads the team with two goals.

Player Goals Katie Hayes 2 Daria Bakhtiari 1 Julia Jaffe 1 Mackenzie Smith 1

Assists Makenna Hunt ’22 leads the team with two assists.

Player Assists Makenna Hunt 2 Juliette Carreiro 1 Emma Spector 1 Sasha Sunday 1

VOLLEYBALL UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Kills

Chicago Rochester NYU JUDGES Emory Case Carnegie WashU

UAA Conf.

W L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Overall W L Pct. 4 0 1.000 4 0 1.000 2 0 1.000 3 1 .750 2 1 .667 2 2 .500 1 2 .333 1 2 .333

EDITOR’S NOTE: Friday vs. Maine- Presque Isle Friday vs. Bowdoin College Saturday vs. Gordon College

Emma Bartlet ’20 leads the team with 42 kills.

Player Kills Emma Bartlett 42 Shea Decker-Jacoby 36 Clare Meyers 23 Stephanie Borr 22

Digs Yvette Cho ’19 leads the team with 58 digs.

Player Digs Yvette Cho 58 Kaitlyn Oh 37 Clare Meyers 29 Marlee Nork 25

CROSS COUNTRY Results from the Wellesley College Inivitational on Sept. 1.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

5-Kilometer Run RUNNER TIME Matthew Driben 16:35.0 Josh Lombardo 16:36.6 Simon Powley 17:28.9

5-Kilometer Run RUNNER TIME Emily Bryson 18:11.7 Julia Bryson 18:38.1 Jac Guerra 18:49.1

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sept. 15 at UMass Dartmouth Invitational Sept. 29 at Bowdoin Invitational

YDALIA COLON/Justice File Photo

ATTACK FROM ABOVE: Setter Marrisa Borgert ’19 leaps for the kill against Wellesley College on Aug 31, 2017.

Squad starts season strong with two wins ■ Rookie Stephanie Borr ’22 has been making an immediate impact, recording a career high 13 kills.

By ZACH KAUFMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis volleyball team returned after a long offseason break. The team is evidently highly motivated to win and has had a great start to their season.

The team began by traveling to Claremont, Calif. to open their season at the 2018 Pacific Coast Classic.

Redlands 1, Judges 3 The Judges and the University of Redlands Bulldogs split the first two sets of the day in a very close fashion. However, as the match went on, Brandeis only got stronger, winning each subsequent set by wider and wider margins. The Judges’ dominance in this game comes from the team’s work at the service line, where they delivered 17 aces in the match, compared to only four from University of the Redlands.

The Judges also out-hit the

Bulldogs .224 (a season high) to .192. Emma Bartlett ’20 was the star of the weekend, performing well in games against University of the Redlands and the team of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Rookie Stephanie Borr ’22 led all players with a career-high 13 kills to make an immediate impact for the Judges.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Judges 2

3,

season, the team recorded its first sweep against Mount Aloysius College. The team did not trail at all for the first two sets, making easy work of the Chargers. In the third set, the Judges found themselves down 16-14, but after an 11-3 run were able to seal the set and win. This was another good team win, highlighted by the work of rookies Stephanie Borr ’22 and Kaisa Newberg ’22.

Union College 1, Judges 3

The Judges did not find success against the Athenas, a team comprised of players from three different California colleges: Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College. The Judges found themselves with their backs against the wall early, falling behind two sets to none. However, they would even the score soon enough, rallying to win the next two sets and bring the game to a winner-take-all fifth set. After a close and contentious match where the lead never exceeded two, the Athenas took the fifth set and the match.

Mount Aloysius 0, Judges 3 In their second game of the

After the first two sets, the teams had a split decision, but the Judges were able to win sets three and four to achieve their first win of the new season. The Judges had a fantastic team performance, with four players averaging double digits in digs, two of which were double doubles. Setter Marlee Nork ’19 finished with 42 assists and 11 digs, just two assists shy of her career best. Outside hitter Clare Meyers ’21 led the team, achieving 12 kills and 16 digs.

Looking ahead, the Judges are home for their next three matches, starting with matches against University of Maine at Presque Isle and Bowdoin College next Friday evening.

PRO SPORTS BRIEF The Philadelphia Eagles remain the team to beat as the 2018 NFL season is on the horizon Two days ago marked the last Sunday for quite a while without a National Football League game. Here are my predictions for how this NFL season should play out.

AFC East: The New England Patriots have one of the most dominant dynasties in all of sports, and they are still run by the likes of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick so their fortunes are unlikely to change. The Jets and Bills will also be interesting teams to watch, as we will be able to see the development of rookie quarterbacks Sam Darnold and Josh Allen, respectively.

AFC North: The Pittsburgh Steelers are still this division’s team to beat, with one of the game’s most potent offenses. The Baltimore Ravens have a lot of the pieces for a Super

Bowl run, but it will all come down to the play of longtime quarterback Joe Flacco. After finishing 0-16 last season, the Cleveland Browns made some significant roster changes and hope to begin this season with a renewed sense of purpose behind rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield.

AFC West: As of now, the path to the playoffs in the AFC West runs through the Los Angeles Chargers.

They have one of the most dominant rosters in all of football and an incredibly balanced team. The other three teams in the division are fairly mediocre, especially after the loss of the Oakland Raiders’ Khalil Mack.

AFC South: What was once the dumping ground of the AFC has quickly turned into one of the League’s best divisions. The

Jacksonville Jaguars have made a major turnaround on both sides of the wall and now compete with the best teams in the League. The Texans welcome the return of second year quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was dominant last year before his injury. He will rejoin wide receiver Deandre Hopkins and defensive tackle J.J. Watt to lead a team hoping to take the next step.

NFC East: The defending Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, are the team to beat in the NFL;they did not lose any major pieces. The Dallas Cowboys will return with the dynamic duo of Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott. The Washington Redskins are now led by veteran quarterback Alex Smith, and the New York Giants look for rookie running back Saquon Barkley to

make an impact alongside one of the greats, Odell Beckham Jr. NFC North: The Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers will be locked in a fearsome competition for control over the division. Aaron Rodgers will return after a broken collarbone to lead the pack yet again. Kirk Cousins was a good quarterback on a bad team in the Washington Redskins, and now he has a Super Bowl talent to back him up. The Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears will definitely begin the season playing catch up.

NFC West: The Los Angeles Rams will look to continue their dominant strategies from last season and put together a Super Bowl run. However, an electric offense and a dominant front should not make that too hard.

The San Franscisco 49ers could potentially make some strides if the Seattle Seahawks loses a step or two, and the once dominant Detroit Cardinals seem to have returned to their irrelevancy.

NFC South: Drew Brees and his team, the New Orleans Saints, have the most complete team in the division and will be hard to keep up with. The Atlanta Falcons will still give them a run for their money if Matt Ryan can return to his MVP form from 2016. The Carolina Panthers are a hit or miss team that will try to work out the kinks in their third new offense in three years. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are still very much a work in progress.

— Zach Kaufman

just

Sports

Page 16

NFL SEASON UP SOON Players and fans alike are gearing up for another fiercely competitive NFL season, p. 15.

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

MEN’S SOCCER

FIERY FOCUS

Team splits its first two games ■ The No. 4 ranked Judges

The Brandeis men’s soccer team conducted a very successful campaign that brought them all the way to the Division III final four last year. The team has also made six straight trips to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament, the second-longest streak in Division III. This season, expectations for the team are certainly high, as it begins the season ranked fourth in the nation among Division III schools. The team has started off their season 1-1 after two contests in the North Shore classic.

responded in the 25th minute with a goal of their own off a penalty.

However, less than three minutes later, they had fallen behind 3-1 and would not regain the lead. The Judges would score again when Jake Warren ’20 had a header that ricocheted off the right post.

Despite no more scoring in the game, the Judges dominated second-half ball possession and outshot the Flying Scots 15-3, but they could not outmatch the goalkeeper from Gordon. The team had many opportunities to score late. The would-be equalizer, a header from Brandon Miskin ’19, sailed just wide left. If a few shots had gone differently, this would have been very much a winnable game. It will be these close wins and losses that will define the outcome of the Judges' season, especially as the team begins with UAA play.

Gordon College 3, Judges 2

Endicott College 0, Judges 2

The Judges were upset by the Flying Scots of Gordon College.

Brandeis fell behind early after Gordon scored a goal off of a Brandeis deflection.

Andrew Allen ’19 and the Judges quickly

The Brandeis men’s soccer team won their season opener against Endicott College by a score of 2-0.

The game was deadlocked 0-0 late

have high expectations for this season and are gearing up for a deep playoff run

By ZACH KAUFMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

Waltham, Mass.

See MSOCCER, 13 ☛

CROSS COUNTRY

Teams begin season at Wellesley College ■ The Brandeis Cross

Country teams started off their seasons strong and look to return to dominance.

By MEGAN GELLER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Friday, the men and women’s cross country teams started off what they hope will be a successful season. Both teams are warming up with the hopes of running their way to the NCAA Division III Championships and opened their 2018 season at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass. on Aug. 31.

Both teams started their seasons off strong, competing in the 5-kilometer race. The men’s team ended with three of the topfive finishes. First-year Matthew Driben ’21 won the men's division by 1.6 seconds, with a time of 16:35.0, arriving before 2nd place sophomore Josh Lombardo. The times were very close, Driben running in 16:25.0 and Lombardo in 16:26.6.

Two students from Wentworth Institute of Technology placed in third and fourth place. Rounding out the top five was the Judges’ Simon Powley ’22 with a time of 17:28.9.

After these three runners, the men did not place again until Eric Rosenheim ’21 placed 13th with a time of 18:25.8 and Ben Watson ’20 placed 17th with a time of 19:17.1.

The remaining top finishers were students from Wentworth and Regis College. The Brandeis men’s cross country team ended the meet with an average time of 17:40.

In addition to the men’s strong start, the women’s team had an

amazing meet. Coming in first place was senior Emily Bryson ’19. Bryson won with a 27-second victory and a time of 18:11.7.

In 2nd place for the Judges was Bryson's twin sister, Julia Bryson ’19, who finished in second with a time of 18:38.1. The team’s third finisher was Jac Guerra ‘22. Guerra finished with a time of 18:49.1 and placed fifth in the meet. Two female runners from Wentworth placed in third and fourth place, preventing five consecutive Judges’ crossing the finish line.

Erin Magill ’22 and Andrea Bolduc ’21 rounded out Brandeis’ top five and the meet’s top seven with times of 19:46.1 and 19:58.7, respectively.

Seniors Doyin Ogundiran ’19 and Christine Minor ’19 placed in 11th and 19th place, respectively.

The Brandeis women’s cross country team ended the meet with an average time of 19:02. Other competitors who challenged the Judges were Wentworth and Regis College.

The next meet for the Judges will take place in two weeks on Sept 15th for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Invitational. Following this, they will compete in meets every two months for September, October and November. Two weeks after the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, the team will travel to Bowdoin College for the Bowdoin invitational. Following that, the teams will travel to Connecticut College to compete in the Connecticuit College Invitational.

Two weeks later, they will fly to Chicago to compete with their fellow UAA schools including host University of Chicago. Following

See XC, 13 ☛

NATALIA WIATER/Justice File Photo

KICKIN IT: Haliana Burhans ’18 makes a play down the field against Bridgewater State University on Sept. 5, 2017.

Judges start season with two dominant wins ■ After winning the first game

of the season, the Judges doubled down on the road with a win over Lasell College.

By MEGAN GELLER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Kicking off their season on Saturday Sept. 1, the Brandeis University women’s soccer team is warming up to a successful season. The women have been working hard to make this an amazing season, and they began with two matches. The first was against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Sept.1, and the second was against Lasell College on Sept. 2.

In their first meet of the season, the team won their game against MIT by a score of 3-2. By halftime, the Judges were winning 2-0, starting off the game on a very strong note. The first goal of the game, and also of the season, was scored by Sasha Sunday ’19, in the 12th minute of the game, assisted skillfully by Makenna Hunt ’22. In

the 34th minute, Katie Hayes ’20 scored the fourth goal of her career and the second goal of the game.

Although the Judges were seeming unstoppable in the first half of play, MIT caught up in the second half. After an uneventful overtime period, Brandeis sophomore Mackenzie Smith won the game on the first shot of the second overtime session. In the 104th minute, Smith was able to put the Judges over the edge with a 3-2 victory The very next day, the Brandeis women’s soccer team took home yet another victory over Lasell College. Ending with a score of 4-0, the women’s team scored an impressive two times in each half of the game. After 13 minutes of the game, senior Julia Matson scored her first goal of the season, putting the first point on the scoreboard.

After that, Katie Hayes ‘20 scored for the second straight game and for the second point of this game.

After halftime, midfielder Daria Bakhtiari ’21 brought the score to 3-0. In the end, senior Julia Jaffe

scored in the 65th minute of the game, closing out the scoring that would take place during this game and solidifying the victories for the Justice.

Goalies Sierra Dana ’20 and Victoria Richardson ’21 refused to allow Lasell College to score a single point. This is a positive sign as the Judges go into the rest of their season: both the offense and defense are proving to be forces to be reckoned with.

After the successful game for the team, the women added seven-yearold Annelizabeth Jeanbaptiste, a young girl with sickle cell anemia, via a program called Team IMPACT. The Brandeis’ women's soccer team joins six other Brandeis teams, including men's soccer, baseball, softball and both men's and women's swimming and diving, to work with Team IMPACT. Team IMPACT, based out of Boston, is a nonprofit organization that helps children facing serious illnesses connect with college athletic teams in order to form

See WSOCCER, 13 ☛

Vol. LXXI #1 Vol. LXX #2

September 4, 2018 September 12, 2017

WELCOME just

Arts

Waltham, Mass.

Class of 2022 >>pg. 19

just

Images: Yvette Sei/the Justice. Design: Andrew Baxter/the Justice.

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TUESDAY, THE JUSTICE SEPTEMBER | ARTS4,| 2018 TUESDAY, I ARTS JANUARY I THE JUSTICE 31, 2017

FILM REVIEW

Back to school with Bo Burnham

By JOSH RUBENSTEIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

How do we connect organically in a world dominated by technological barriers? They are everywhere: in the classroom, at the dinner table, and are even guilty of disturbing the tranquil relationship between head and pillow. In his directorial and screenwriting debut “Eighth Grade,” stand-up comedian Bo Burnham explores this question through the eyes of a socially anxious middle schooler, Kayla.

The film chronicles Kayla’s last week in eighth grade, culminating in her graduation. Despite receiving the superlative for “most quiet,” Kayla consistently reaches out to her peers and even makes YouTube videos, giving tips on how to be confident and offering life advice.

I was struck by how the film dealt with Kayla’s journey of growing up and her connection with her own femininity. Growth is awkward, painful and fundamentally part of the human experience. What makes Kayla’s journey so fascinating to today’s audiences is the way technology plays a part in this growth.

Kayla’s perceived quietness is a symptom of the world she inhabits. Technology literally creates a physical barrier between Kayla and her peers. In one scene, she attempts to talk to two popular girls who are both so focused on their phones that Kayla’s words barely register. Kayla compliments one of the girls’ shirts and tries to draw attention to her own, and in return receives nothing but a dazed “huh.”

The film makes a point of calling attention to minute differences in technological exposure based on age. In one scene, Kayla is invited to the mall by a high-schooler, Olivia, whom Kayla is shadowing. One of Olivia’s friends asks Kayla when she “got Snapchat.”

“Fifth grade,” Kayla responds.

“You see, she’s different than us.

Her mind is wired differently,” says the friend. In this moment, technology is not just isolating Kayla’s ability to make initial con-

Image Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

COMEDIAN AND FILMMAKER: Bo Burnham, known for his absurdist comedy performance style, amazed moviegoers with his screenwriting and directing debut. nection, but also influencing the way she is perceived by others.

The valuable relationships in Kayla’s life are those devoid of technology: her single father, who looks out for her and cares about her well being; Olivia, who represents a role model and hope for the future; and Gabe, an equally awkward boy who actually treats Kayla like a whole person instead of objectifying her for her femininity.

The themes of “Eighth Grade”

are consistent with the stand-up comedy of Bo Burnham: isolation, anxiety, self image, personal connection and their correlation with technology and the internet. However, by moving behind the scenes, Burnham is able to tell a completely different story.

Kayla’s journey is empathetically hilarious and painfully relatable.

“Eighth Grade” does not question technology’s role in adolescent development, but for viewers

it is impossible not to identify the damage it can inflict. Technology, by its very nature, is a tool. However, it has morphed from optional to absolutely necessary in almost every aspect of day-to-day life. Watching the scene where Kayla tries to reach out to her peers prompts me to wonder: If all of these kids weren’t glued to their phones, would Kayla even feel socially anxious? Instead of solely worrying about how she’ll be perceived, tech-

nology’s role forces her to question if she will even be seen at all.

Burnham’s film is so special because it takes the experiences and emotions of an eighth-grade girl, a demographic whose stories are quite often trivialized, and takes them seriously. I came away from “Eighth Grade” feeling like a step forward had been taken in the way that the stories of women, at any age, are given the stage and screen time that they deserve.

FILM REVIEW

A summer-y of 2018 summer films

By KENT DINLENC

JUSTICE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

This was a year of box office records.

“Black Panther” became the ninth-highest grossing film of all time with a $1.3 billion take; “Incredibles 2” became the highest non-PG-13 grosser of all time besides a list of box office records in the animation genre; “Avengers: Infinity War” conquered theaters worldwide with a claim on the $2 billion milestone.

Additionally, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” the deep dive into the life of beloved children’s entertainer Fred Rogers, became the top-grossing biographical documentary of all time at $20 million. Average per-screen grosses were also very impressive with the releases of “Eighth Grade,” “Sorry to Bother You,” “BlacKkKlansman,” and the 50th anniversary re-release of “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Let’s begin with the three major comic book movies. I’d say that all were, at minimum, fun times to be had with creative action sequences, well-executed emotional beats, and entertaining stories. “Infinity War” clearly stands out in front of “Deadpool 2” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” It may be that it was a product 10 years in the making, similar to the Harry Potter films, but I found “Infinity War” very satisfying and engaging— so much so that it pulled me out of my superhero fatigue and

made me excited for part two next May. While we’re on the topic of film franchise fatigue, let’s discuss “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Its serviceable technical performance and bland characters aside, it was a movie nobody asked for. Same goes for “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again,” “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” “Ocean’s 8,” and “Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado.”

Other duds included “Tag,” “Skyscraper,” “The Meg,” and “Christopher Robin.”

The only one I deem a success is “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” an entry I believe to be the best in the franchise. Ever since the third, they’ve been increasing in quality. They skillfully mask redundant and predictable characters and plot with thrilling fight choreography, death-defying stunts and exciting editing.

Let’s move on to the independent films.

Some standouts that I saw were “Tully,” “First Reformed,” “Leave No Trace,” “Upgrade” and “Eighth Grade.” “Tully,” the story of a modern mother’s exhausting life in a nuclear-age family, offered a terrific screenplay and performance

by Charlize Theron. It was charming but predictable. “First Reformed” did the same, with Ethan Hawke as the lead and “Taxi Driver” writer Paul Schrader as writer-director. It featured heavy themes relating to guilt and hope in an unjust world. “Leave No Trace” left me speechless with its poignant story of a

man and his daughter forced to re-enter society after living in the woods for most of the daughter’s life. The performances

by Ben Foster and child actor Thomasin McKenzie were heartbreaking; they longed for peace in a disheveled word.

“Upgrade” was a small sci-fi action film that was wildly original and very well executed, considering its budget. If it had just a little more money to hire better actors, this imaginative and tight script could have gotten the final product it deserved.

“Eighth Grade” was a darkly comedic and inventive debut from contemporary comedian Bo Burnham. Breakout child actor Elsie Fisher stole the show with her portrayal of life as an eighth grader living with her father, played by Josh Hamilton.

All of these films impressed audiences because they were all wholly original and made by writer-directors. Their strong performances are correlated with their focus on a singular vision of storytelling.

Sometimes, originality can go too far, which is how I felt about “Sorry to Bother You.” The wildly scattered tone and exhausting pace left a bad taste in my mouth. This film was just an onslaught of weird plots and meta storytelling techniques. Director Boots Riley tried to say too much, leaving nothing to resonate with the audience.

The winners of this summer were “American Animals,” a film based on

four men who attempt an audacious art heist, and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” the aforementioned Mr. Rogers documentary. “American Animals” was a gripping crime drama that used a unique storytelling tool which I will not spoil. The performances were all-around convincing and engaging, especially those of Evan Peters and Ann Dowd. The use of an unreliable narrator and a creative script made for some emotionally complex and structurally distinct scenes. Some may be tough to swallow, but nonetheless are well done.

“Neighbor” brought light, optimism and hope for humanity into an otherwise cold and depressing world. It was refreshing to see a person so deeply and genuinely caring for other people, something we don’t really witness anymore. The life of Mr. Rogers was brought to life by Oscarwinning documentarian Morgan Neville, showing the undying love he had for children and the innocence of wanting the best for our future and our community. It makes one excited for the biopic starring no one better than Tom Hanks as Rogers.

The summer had many lows and quite a few highs. However, I wasn’t as emotionally invested in these movies as I was invested in movies during previous years.

Most were charming, some were fun, but nothing has tugged on my heart strings like “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” has.

19

THE IJUSTICE I ARTS I TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2017 THE JUSTICE ARTS I TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

VISUAL ART

‘More Weight’ surprises and intrigues

By LEAH CHANEN

JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rachel Stern’s exhibition, “More Weight,” points a satin-gloved finger at both the ideal of justice and its subjectivity. While Stern is not a Brandeis alumna, her display at the Kniznick Gallery in Brandeis’ Women’s Studies Research Center perfectly resonates with Brandeis students; it holds justice as a core value and features gavel imagery, both of which permeate Brandeis’ culture. The title, “More Weight,” is taken from the famous last words of Giles Corey during the Salem witch trials, during which he was put to death for refusing to confess to practicing witchcraft.

The exhibit consists of many highly stylized photographic portraits hung on

a wall. The wall is decorated with hands covered in colorful satin gloves filling the space around the portraits. The wall interacts with the photos on a deeper level that elevates the work; the art expands past the frames of the photos and past the viewers’ time in Kniznick Gallery.

These disembodied hands with their accusatory pointing and gavel banging intrigue viewers, especially when the hands are framed as their own full photographs.

Three of the colored hands also hold items: The blue hand holds a sapphire, the gold hand holds golden chains and the white hand holds a small white column. All of these photographs are hung above a blue gavel that the viewers can bang. It feels as

though there is a puzzle to solve in the hands’ interactions with the various portraits.

On the main wall, a red hand points at a small headshot of a woman with a blue ear.

Another red hand holds a gavel pointed at a large portrait of a woman wearing a transparent dress while sewing. Two blue hands point accusatorily at young preteens in their underwear in a lush jungle.

The hands seem to be enacting justice — their version of justice — and shaming the figures in the photos as punishment for their sins. The figures that seem to bear the brunt of this shame are the ones who are naked or hardly covered.

The continuing theme in the exhibit is the colorful satin covering the hands,

printed on the wall, covering most of the models’ bodies and covering the altar in the center of the exhibit. This material and color scheme is reminiscent of a low-budget school play. One can’t help but feel like a witness to a poor excuse for justice enacted by the disembodied hands, in the same way one might have to sit through cringe-worthy high school plays. The injustices of the Salem witch trials are the first injustices that come to mind, but Stern ensures that the audience thinks of any to which they have been witness, waiting for the painful persecution to end instead of playing a part in fixing it. Throughout the exhibit, “More Weight” invites the audience into a heavily weighted discussion on justice.

FILM REVIEW

‘Mission: Impossible - Fallout’ misses the mark

Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

CRUISING: Tom Cruise, star of the “Mission Impossible” films, can be seen here participating in the famous heist from the first movie in the series.

By LUKE LIU

JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When I first saw the trailer for “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” in February, I was thrilled to see that in their sixth installment the franchise had decided to go in a more mature direction. Based on the preview, Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt, once again portrayed by Tom Cruise, must again beat impossible odds to save the world. This time, however, he must defeat not only the villain from the previous film, but also his former allies.

“If the vision can be executed thoroughly,” I thought, “this movie may elevate the Mission: Impossible series from summer blockbusters to the classics.”

Like all the previous works of the

series, “Fallout” maintained topnotch production, especially in the action sequences and set designs.

Once again, Cruise proved that he is not too old to meet the demand of the Mission: Impossible franchise.

The rest of the returning cast didn’t stand out particularly, but they adequately performed their roles in the movie, whether they were Simon Page’s one-liners or Michelle Monaghan’s nostalgic return. Some of the new characters did feel refreshing, especially the White Widow, the mysterious queen of an underground arms dealing business, portrayed by Vanessa Kirby. As the sixth installment of a franchise, it does almost everything that fans would expect it to do.

That is my biggest problem with the film.

After 22 years, the producers know exactly what the audience expects from the film: over-thetop spy equipment disguises and identity swaps, intense chasing scenes, Tom Cruise running to different locations while trying to beat the last-second timer. After two and half hours of non-stop action, nothing came close to surprising me. Structurally, the film’s pacing almost entirely copies “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” which makes it considerably less intense. In the previous two films, creative set designs often stood out. In “Fallout,” the major sets and action sequences are more extravagant than smart.

As a result, Hunt goes from a super agent who has everything under control to a reckless man who is

unrealistically lucky. It may be exciting to see him hanging off the side of a plane as it’s taking off, but one can hardly empathize with someone who crashed his helicopter into another one and survived.

Even more frustrating: The film avoids putting any character in a real conflict. A big difference from the other movies is that for a considerable amount of time, Hunt is forced to work with Agent Walker, portrayed by Henry Cavell. This could have been a great opportunity to explore a whole different side of the character. Were there no one to cover his back, would Hunt still be able to stay true to himself?

Instead, the director gave up on digging into the more human side of Hunt, and went with what had already been done five times in the

previous movies, which is more, and bigger, action scenes. This directly comes at the cost of Henry Cavell’s character, who had the potential to be an unexpected ally or a new influence, going against both the terrorist group and the Impossible Mission Force. Instead, he became another villain who does little other than stand in contrast to the unbeatable protagonist.

“Mission Impossible — Fallout” is a solid action film that will entertain audiences for two and half hours, but I had higher expectations when I walked into the theater. After watching Tom Cruise riding a speeding motorcycle or hanging off a cliff for 22 years, it would have been nice to see him stop running and act like a tired, vulnerable 52-year-old man.

20

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018 | ARTS | THE JUSTICE

INTERVIEW

Brandeis TALKS If you could rename Skyline, what would you name it and why?

Emily Bisno ’19 Photo Courtesy of Emily Bisno

This week, justArts spoke with Emily Bisno ’19, the president of the UTC.

Matthew Bernstein ’22 “Edge of Tomorrow.”

JustArts: What are your responsibilities as UTC president?

Noah Sperber ’22

MARA KHAYTER/the Justice

“Shapiro Skyline.”

CROSSWORD

Pramoda Bapatla ’20 “Castle Part 2, to pay homage to the original Castle.”

Julia Ryan ’19 “I have mixed feelings; I think the name Skyline is way too bougie.

I’ve thought about this extensively, and I think that New Castle would also get a mixed response with the students, because it is replacing the Castle, but it also is not as cool as the Castle. So I just wouldn’t want the responsibility of renaming it.”

—Compiled by Jen Geller/the Justice and photographed by Andrew Baxter/ the Justice.

STAFF’S Top Ten

YVETTE SEI/the Justice

Top Ten Nuts

By Kent Dinlenc

JUSTICE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

I’m nuts for nuts. Here are my favor-uts: 1. Cashews 2. Almonds 3. Donuts 4. Peanuts

ACROSS 1 Zen riddle 5 Carpe _____ 9 What’s owed 13 “______ of Dogs” (Wes Anderson movie) 14 Fizzy desert wine 15 Freshness 17 *One may be elastic 19 Fare for a classic rock station 20 Question of Judas 21 H2O, to a baby 23 Swab’s greeting 24 Info on some inflight entertainment systems 26 Greek marketplace 28 *Van Morrison hit 33 Is human, in a sense 35 What The Clash fought unsuccessfully 36 Creepy 37 Reed in music?

38 Concert souvenirs 41 What’s stored on some swabs 42 Board of directors?

44 Obituary word 45 “Red _____” (Amazon original) 46 *”Ask me when we have more time” 50 “Old MacDonald” refrain 51 Org. formerly headed by Scott Pruitt 52 “Livin’ La _____ Loca” 54 Therefore 57 Musical exercise 61 Amtrak express line 63 Part of a book ... or a hint to the last word in each of the starred clues 65 _____ Seafoods 66 : 67 Something to load into a printer 68 Hard labor 69 Superhero who befriends Groot in “Infinity War” 70 When tripled, “and so on”

27 Poems of praise 28 “Injury” sustained from losing a debate 29 “Uh-uh” 30 “Dallas” name 31 Place to roller skate 32 Valleys 33 Morlocks’ foes 34 One-sided victory 38 “The Winter’s _____” 39 Degree of pixelation, for short 40 Head of France?

43 The so-called “fastest sport in the world” 45 Good skill for a politician 47 Cofit d’____ 48 Eddie Murphy comedy with a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes DOWN 49 Multinational cartel 1 New Zealander 52 Actor Kilmer 2 She-bears, in Spain 53 “Home Invasion” rapper 3 Et _____ 55 Big cut 4 Empty _____ (parents of college 56 Prefix with mom students) 58 Part of the eye 5 Popular dance move 59 Out of batteries 6 Part of eyewitness testimony 60 Humorist Bombeck 7 Sicilian volcano 62 “____ or nothing” 8 Equidistant to point A and 64 Where Seoul and Pyongyang point B are: Abbr.

9 R.A.F. award 10 Blow up 11 Time to wear a hat, perhaps 12 The main characters in “Harry Potter”, e.g.

16 Map feature 18 Musician Puente 22 Get wrinkly 25 Hole-making tools

SUDOKU INSTRUCTIONS: Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each

5. Hazelnuts

row across, each column down

6. Macademia

and each small 9-box square

7. Coconuts

contains all of the numbers

8. Walnuts 9. Pecan 10. Butternut Squash

from one to nine.

Puzzle courtesy of www.sudokuoftheday.com

Emily Bisno: I oversee everything and I make sure that everyone is doing their job and has the assistance that they need. I kind of fill in holes and I help with different projects....

And I book spaces for auditions, plan forum and make sure that everyone is communicating.

JA: Last year, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the UTC. What has been changed in order for things to run smoothly this year?

EB: A lot of steps have been taken.

I’m trying to open lines of communication as much as I can within the UTC.... And obviously, it’s not going to be totally fixed in a year, but I’m hoping to make as much headway as I can. ... We will have E-board members visiting rehearsals more frequently. ...We’re also reinforcing an old rule that the UTC used to have where [at least two of] the director, stage manager and producer… are supposed to be at our weekly forum now. [The propsals process is] going to be a lot more transparent.

CROSSWORD COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN

JA: Should issues arise similar to those we had last year, how would you handle it as president? If there is tension or controversy over the performance of a UTC show, how would you handle that?

EB: At the end of the day, it’s not just my decision — I think that’s really important. I’m trying my best to avoid those situations. For example, when we get a script that we think is controversial, if I don’t think that we are capable of making a call, I will send it to our club supervisor Robby Steinberg and he will give his input. ...

Some plays are meant to start conversation .... It would depend on what the purpose of the play was and why it was put through to voting in the first place.

SOLUTION COURTESY OF EVAN MAHNKEN

JA: What is the most meaningful experience you’ve personally had working on show?

EB: Last fall, I was in “Fefu and her Friends”... and that was a really amazing experience. It was an eight-person all-female cast and our rehearsal/ production staff was also all-female. ...That show kind of revamped my love for theater and for feminism and the kind of messages that you can send through theater.. ...That’s probably one of my all-time favorite plays I’ve been in. ...Another thing that was really cool about that experience was the playwright, Maria Irene Fornes...

There are two women that have been making a documentary about her life and... these women actually came to rehearsal for two days. We got to see some footage from the documentary. ...It was an amazing experience. It was really wonderful.

JA: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

EB: 24 Hour Musical is September 15th and 16th! Auditions start September 4th.