The Justice, March 5, 2019

the

Justice www.thejustice.org

The Independent Student Newspaper Volume LXXI, Number 18

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, March 5, 2019

Waltham, Mass.

SNOW DAY

PANEL

Profs talk about women’s issues ■ Faculty share their

experiences in the workplace as women in a maledominated field.

By EMILY BLUMENTHAL JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

From sexual harassment to difficulty upholding a work-life balance, female professors face many genderspecific problems in their academic careers. GirlUp Brandeis sought to call attention to these difficulties in its Cupcake Gala on Friday, where students ate cupcakes and listened to a series of panels in which female professors spoke about issues in their fields. The professors’ experiences varied, but all accounts shared a common thread — normalized sexism in academia.

One panel was about general issues related to gender, and students could ask questions about any subject; it was led by Profs. Avital Rodal (BIOL), Jennifer Marusic (PHIL), Melissa Kosinski-Collins (BIOL), Eileen McNamara (JOUR), Maya Eden (ECON) and Alice Kelikian (FTIM).

Maurice Windley ’19 asked about social issues the professors face in academia. Kelikian began by saying that she was a graduate student in the first co-ed class at Princeton University and the first woman in Brandeis’ History department. Despite this, she did not have to fight to be accepted in the department, she

NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice

Members of the Brandeis community spent their day off playing in the snow. According to CBS Boston, over one foot of snow fell Sunday night into Monday morning.

Students discuss campus sustainability practices ■ This year’s Student

Sustainability Leadership Symposium was held at Brandeis.

By GILDA GEIST JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Brandeis and Wellesley College co-hosted this year’s annual Student Sustainability Leadership Symposium on Sunday. Students from colleges all over New England, including Tufts University, the University of Connecticut, Bentley University and Boston University, gathered at Brandeis to discuss and learn more about sustainability issues and practices. The symposium featured presentations given by students and professionals.

Dylan Husted, an alumnus of Babson College and the founder and CEO of SaveOhno, gave a presentation on his competitive online game. In SaveOhno, teams of students compete to see who can perform the greatest number of sustainable actions in real life and earn the most points in the game.

By taking these sustainable actions, students are “saving” Ohno, who represents their future grandchild living in the year 2100. The team with the most points wins cus-

tom embroidered Patagonia fleeces.

Husted described the sustainable actions as an “engagement escalator of activities.” For example, the challenge on the first day of the competition might be to use a refillable water bottle or sign an online petition, while later on in the competition, the challenge might be to attend an environmental studies lecture or volunteer to plant trees.

Students earn points by taking pictures of themselves doing an action and posting them to SaveOhno.

According to Husted, 40,000 actions have been taken at 11 different colleges since it was launched in 2014, including Brandeis.

Brandeis is participating in SaveOhno again this year. The competition began on Sunday and will go until March23, according to a Facebook event created by Sustainable Brandeis. The Brandeis student organizers for SaveOhno are Sabrina Chow ’21 and Sage DeChiara ’21.

Chow gave her own presentation at the symposium, speaking about the Student Union’s Senate Sustainability Committee. According to Chow, the committee is working on banning plastic water bottles from being sold on campus, hosting a meatless Monday in a Brandeis dining hall and other sustainability initiatives.

Chow also discussed the Brandeis

By JEN GELLER

THU LE/the Justice

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

Petition calls for Prof. Day to remain ■ The Brandeis Asian

American Task Force emphasized Prof. Day's importance.

By NATALIA WIATER JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis Asian American Task Force is circulating a petition calling for the creation of a faculty position in Pacific Islander Studies, which would be filled by Prof. Leanne Day (GRALL). Day, a Pacific Islander, is currently finishing her second year of the Florence Levy Kay Fellowship in Asian American Pacific Islander Studies.

The petition is addressed to University President Ron Liebowitz, Dean of Arts and Sciences Dorothy L. Hodgson, Provost Lisa M. Lynch, Trustee Curtis Tearte ’73 and the Board of Trustees Academy Committee. In the span of two days, it gathered signatures from 293 students and faculty, 16 alum-

See SUSTAINABILITY, 7 ☛

 Brandeis’ debate team aims to change the industry standard.

See CUPCAKES, 7 ☛

STUDENT ACTIVISM

Sustainability Fund (BSF), which provides financial support for student-led sustainability initiatives.

BSF’s biggest project was putting LED lights into the Shapiro Campus Center, Chow said. These lights are more environmentally-friendly and made the building brighter, and according to Chow, the project cost $90,000.

The final sustainability group Chow talked about was the Brandeis Sustainability Ambassadors. According to Chow, this student group aims to promote sustainability by advocating for environmental movements on campus, participating in first-year orientation, helping offices become more environmentally conscious.

Meredith Levy ’21, Anna Kate Rattray ’21 and Orly Strobel ’21, leaders of the Brandeis chapter of Planetary Health Alliance, discussed the impact they wanted to make regarding sustainability on campus. They emphasized that an important characteristic of the club was that it is interdisciplinary — they try to appeal to many kinds of students with different majors, minors and interests. Rattray pointed out that as a neuroscience major, sustainability is not a large part of her academic coursework, but Planetary Health Alliance al-

Diversity in Debate

said.

The professors also spoke about balancing their personal and work lives. Kosinski-Collins said that she tries to understand what technology and issues her children are exposed to so she can take them into account when she teaches. “If that’s the world you’re in, then that’s the world I need to be teaching in,” she stated, going on to say that if she continued “to teach the way [she] did when [she] started 12 years ago,” her past teaching style would not be helpful to her current students.

Marusic discussed the challenges of having children while in graduate school and during the early years of professorship, stating, “The years in which you’re in graduate school and the years in which you’re trying to get tenure are usually the years in which you have children, and that’s sort of an extra challenge.” She added that graduate and postdoctoral students face significant “financial burdens,” and often must work the hardest during those stages in their careers. She noted that female professors often do not have adequate maternity leave, telling the audience that Brandeis did not offer paid maternity leave until just 15 years ago.

Another audience member asked if the professors worked differently with other women than they did with their male colleagues. While most said no, some professors stated that there are small differences in

ni, 17 clubs — including the South East Asian Club and the Asian American Students Association — and 125 other concerned parties.

In a March 4 email to the Justice, Hodgson said she only learned of the petition Monday morning.

She also provided a copy of a letter she sent to Olivia Nichols ’20, one of the 10 original petitioners.

In it, she praised Day for her “excellence as a teacher and scholar, and her demonstrated contributions,” and that she is seriously considering the possibility of hiring her and hopes to make a decision early this week. Hodgson explained, however, that resources are currently scarce, and that she has been trying to identify funds “in a time of budget constraint.”

Currently, Brandeis has an East Asian Studies program, and since 2015, the number of Asian American faculty has increased from 31 to 37, according to a Dec. 4, 2018 article in the Justice. In 2016, the

See PETITION, 7 ☛

Much Ado About Nothing

Art on Campus: One Foot Planted

 Hold Thy Peace puts on one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies.

Free Speech Is at Risk in the Classroom

By LUKE LIU

2019 ECAC Champions: Men’s Basketball

THU LE/the Justice

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Submit letters to the editor to letters@thejustice.org

NEWS 3

By MAYA RUBIN-WISH

ARTS 18

By PROF. ALAIN LEMPEREUR

By JEN GELLER

COPYRIGHT 2019 FREE AT BRANDEIS.

FORUM 12 SPORTS 16

2

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019

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NEWS

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS POLICE LOG MEDICAL EMERGENCY February 11—A party in Ridgewood Quad reported flu-like symptoms and was treated by BEMCo staff. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care, and the Area Coordinator on call was notified.

February 11—Brandeis Counseling Center staff reported that a party in Reitman Hall was being served a section 12 document. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. The Area Coordinator on call was notified of the incident.

February 12—A party in Cable Hall reportedly fainted and had regained consciousness by the time responders arrived on the scene. The party signed a refusal for further care.

February 12—After being treated by BEMCo staff, a party in Schwartz Hall experiencing back pain was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital by Cataldo Ambulance for further care. The Area Coordinator on call was notified.

February 12—An unresponsive party in Rosenthal Quad was treated by BEMCo staff after experiencing a seizure.

Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. The Area Coordinator on call was notified.

February 13—BEMCo staff treated a party at Skyline Redsidence Hall for a nosebleed. The party signed a refusal for further care.

February 13—BEMCo staff treated a party at Skyline Residence Hall for a nosebleed. A Cataldo ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. The Area Coordinator on call was notified.

February 13—Brandeis Counseling Center staff called a Cataldo ambulance for a party in Mailman House who was not feeling well, via a section 12 document. The ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. The Area Coordinator on call was notified.

February 13—A party in Brown reported not feeling well. University Police transported the party to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care.

February 16—A party in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center reported a dislocated knee. University Police transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

February 20—A party in the Epstein Buidling was reported to have fallen and have trouble breathing. University Police and a Cataldo Ambulance responded to the scene and the patient was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

February 25—A party in Pearlman Hall was found not feeling well. The party was transported by Cataldo Am-

bulance to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

February 26—BEMCo staff treated a party who was feeling ill in Renfield Hall. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care, and the Area Coordinator on call was notified.

February 28—Brandeis Counseling Center staff requested an ambulance for a community member in the Mailman House. A report was composed.

March 1—BEMCo staff were called regarding a party in Reitman Hall for an alcohol related incident. Cataldo transported the party to a local hospital.

LARCENY February 11—A party reported sneakers missing from their unlocked apartment. University police compiled a report on the incident.

February 13—A party reported that their bicycle was missing from a bike rack near the Lindsey Pool Area. Police compiled a report on the incident.

February 15—A staff member in Goldsmith reported that a laptop delivered to the mail room had not been delivered to their common area mailbox. University police compiled a report regarding the laptop.

February 27—A student reported that their clothes were missing from the Ziv 130 laundry room.

February 27—A student in Renfield Hall reported being the victim of an online phishing scam. University composed a report on the incident.

March 1—University Police compiled a report after a student reported property stolen from the Levin Ballroom.

DISTURBANCE February 15—A group of people on the first floor of Usen Hall were reportedly being loud and shouting at people out of a window. University Police found the scene quiet upon arrival.

February 15—Police responded to a report of a party yelling outside the Charles River apartments. The Area Coordinator on call informed University Police that the event was authorized.

University Police advised attendees to quiet down and remain inside.

February 16—University Police and the Waltham Police Department received multiple phone calls and 911 reports of a fight in progress outside the Charles River Apartments. One caller said that someone was armed with a handgun. The Area Coordinator on call was notified, and police dispersed a crowd of about 200 people. No one on scene was willing to talk about the possible weapon in the area. University Police arrested Aaron Knight for disorderly conduct and transported him to the Waltham Police Station for detention and booking procedures.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS n A News article incorrectly attributed Shoshana Finkel’s ’20 quote as describing the Starr Fellowship. It was corrected to describe the Lurie Institute. (Feb. 12, Page 3) n A News article incorrectly stated that Lian Chen ’19 was the Student Union Secretary when the petition to recall Linfei Yang was written. She was the former secretary at that time. (Feb. 12, Page 6) n A News article about the Water is Life movement was updated to clarify that the speaker was citing an ACLU graphic for one statistic and to clarify that a protestor who was arrested while armed was carrying a gun registered to an FBI informant. (Feb. 12, Page 3) The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Send an email to editor@thejustice.org.

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The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods.

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The Justice Brandeis University Mailstop 214 P.O. Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Phone: (781) 736-3750 The Managing Editor holds office hours on Mondays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

TRESSPASSING February 15—University Police issued a no-trespass warning to a noncommunity member after an incident in the Slosberg Music Center involving music equipment.

SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES February 11—A staff member reported that a black sedan was in the rear of the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, with a party involved in an active Title IX investigation. University Police checked the area, but were unable to find the car. The license plate was recorded, and the car was later found to be registered to a leasing company. Police compiled a report on the incident.

February 12—A party in Goldfarb Library was “screaming” to someone on a cell phone, pacing and appeared upset.

University police discovered that the party was having a disagreement with a family member, and no further action was taken.

February 13—University Police compiled a report on a phishing phone call received by a party in the Brown Social Science Center.

February 15—A party called 911 about an issue involving an Uber driver outside the Faculty Center. University police units interviewed the party, who did not wish to pursue the matter further or to file a police report.

February 16—University Police investigated a report of two males loitering in the North Quad parking lot. Upon arrival, police identified the parties as students smoking cigarettes and have a conversation. No further action was taken.

February 20—University Police investigated the Brandeis Library parking area for a suspicious person with no description given. The area was checked, and the party was not found upon police arrival.

February 23—Staff at Gosman Sports and Convocation Center reported somebody trying to access the complex using someone else’s ID. University Police compiled a report, and after further investigation, it was found that a community member’s friend attempted to use it with the consent of the card holder. The card holder was advised by University Police that this is against University Policy, and the card holder acknowledged this information without incident. No further action by University Police was taken.

LIFE AND DEATH IN INDIA

MEGAN GELLER/the Justice

Prof. Harleen Singh gave a presentation on India’s partition in 1974, which led to over 14 million people being displaced and nearly 80,000 women being raped and killed.

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SEXUAL MISCONDUCT February 21—A party reported a past incident of assault and battery. University compiled a report on the incident investigation.

Justice!

Contact Gabriel Frank at forum@thejustice.org for more information

—Compiled by Sam Stockbridge and Jen Geller

SENATE LOG Grimes discusses student experiences, senators debate 12 new amendments Presidential Task Force

Assistant Dean of Students Stephanie Grimes and Director of Academic Fellowships Meredith Monahan came to the March 4 Senate meeting to discuss University President Ron Liebowitz’s Framework for the Future. Grimes said that members of the Student Learning/ Living Experience task force are “going out into our community to try to hear about your experiences.”

Chapman then brought up complaints about the Orientation process, and Grimes asked senators to elaborate on their experiences. Rosenthal and Skyline Quad Senator Josh Hoffman ’21 stated that many of the events were repetitive and, thus, a waste of time, emphasizing the three events about consent.

East Quad Senator Taylor Fu ’21, who was a Midyear last year, countered that she’d had a positive Orientation experience, as it was very intimate and helped her bond with her class.

Grimes then asked about experiences with residential life. Diaz said that one of the biggest offcampus student Facebook groups is “Brandeis Students Screwed by the Housing Lottery,” going on to say the Department of Community Living does not support off-campus students in finding housing. Vice President Aaron Finkel ’20 added that students living off-campus “feel completely disconnected from the … institution” and have few opportunities

to interact with the on-campus community.

Additionally, Chapman stated, it is unfair for the University to charge high prices for housing when many of the Massell Quad buildings lack basic amenities like hot water or kitchens. Midyear Senator Madeleine Scherff ’22 said that though her constituents love living in the Village, they feel isolated from other firstyear students.

Grimes then asked how the University could do more to encourage students to go to events. Chapman complained about the length of the midterm period, stating that the barrage of tests prevented people from attending events out of fear that they could suffer academically if they did not use that time to study. Hoffman suggested that the University hold events with food on days when Sodexo’s dining hours aren’t ideal for students’ schedules.

Next, Grimes asked how the University could increase community engagement. Chapman said the University needs to be “a little more fun, a little more relaxed, a little less academic about everything.” Class of 2022 Senator Topaz Fragoso suggested that the school have larger events that would bring the school together, and senators cited Springfest, Midnight Buffet and the Library Party as events that, as Monahan said, students would have “[Fear of missing out] about not going to.”

Executive Officer Reports

Finkel announced a “Meet the Union” event on March 22, and stated that attendance was mandatory for senators. Chapman said that the event would be more informative rather than just a casual chat, and wanted senators to “communicate exactly what our government does, and what we can do for [our constituents].”

She emphasized that she wanted to inform students of how they could get involved in the Union.

Committee Chair Reports

Health and Safety Chair Hoffman reported that a number of professors were “refusing to record lectures” or “change lab spaces” for students with accessibility issues.

Sustainability Committee Chair Kent Dinlenc ’19 reported that the committee has proposed adding more water bottle refill stations around campus, and announced that the sale of plastic water bottles will be banned. He added that the committee will distribute water bottles, which can be scanned upon refilling and will allow students to redeem points toward gift cards.

Amendments

The Senate first discussed the Community Senator Amendment, which was proposed last year and would allow anyone from the community to be elected to any unfilled seat if no one from the seat’s constituency ran. Hoffman was strongly in favor of the

idea, stating that there were “too many unfilled seats.” The Senate voted by acclamation to pass the amendment.

The Senate then discussed an amendment to require judiciary attendance at Rules Committee meetings. Village Quad Senator and Rules Committee Chair Jake Rong ’21 explained that the amendment would hold the Judiciary accountable and increase transparency. Ridgewood Quad Senator Leigh Salomon ’19 added that the amendment would keep the Rules Committee in check, as it creates policies by interpreting the laws. The Senate voted by roll call to pass the amendment.

An amendment to enforce attendance at committee meetings, introduced by Salomon, would hold senators accountable if they missed a certain number of committee meetings.

Off-Campus Senator Jacob Diaz ’20 asked why Senators should be disciplined for missing these meetings when they have other clubs to balance, to which Hoffman replied that committees make an effort to meet at times that work for the greatest number of its members, and that Senators should only join committees for which times work for them.

The Senate tabled the amendment until its next meeting.

—Editor’s Note: Kent Dinlenc ’19 and Jake Rong ’21 are Justice staff members.

—Emily Blumenthal

THE JUSTICE

SEX IN THE DARK

●

NEWS

By MAYA RUBIN-WISH JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS: Panelists shone a light on students’ questions and concerns about sexual health and relationships, and sought to educate them positively while sitting in a dark room.

‘Sexperts’ answer student questions in the dark organizations took questions from students who were in the dark — literally and figuratively.

By ECE ESIKARA JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Partnering with Campus Activities Board, the Student Sexuality Information Service held Sex in the Dark on Sunday. The event featured a Q&A panel where ‘sexperts’ from New England answered students’ “anonymous questions about sexual health and relationships,” according to the event description.

The event started at 6 p.m. in Shapiro Campus Center Atrium. There, experts from various organizations answered students’ questions on sexuality. The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health was one of the organizations at the event. Located in Rhode Island, CSPH works on “creating spaces where adults feel free to ask questions without any shame,” according to Alicia Gauvin, the executive director of CSPH. CSPH tours college campuses to present lectures and organizes community events in Rhode Island.

In addition, the organization provides therapy services for individu-

als who want to speak with a professional about any issues related to sexual health or gender. CSPH also provides pre-recorded webinars for people who cannot physically be in their Rhode Island office and for those who want to learn at their own pace.

Good Vibrations, an adult retailer store that also offers various workshops on sexuality in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, and Coolidge Corner in Brookline, MA, answered questions on how adult toys work.

Pleasure Pie, “a small, sex positive activist organization based in Boston, MA,” according to JeanPierre Frost from Pleasure Pie, was also at the event. According to one of their informational zines, Pleasure Pie’s work “centers around ending sexual shame and/or preventing sexual assault” by making alternative sexuality education materials, including zines and other print materials, having sex positive events and offering workshops.

Their events include a discussion group called Sex Positive Boston, and Sex Letters Open Mic, during which people read letters they’ve written to their teenage selves on what they wish they could have known about sex at a young age.

3

Artists explore political impacts on female struggles

discussed the connection between the feminine form and political reality.

■ Experts from sex-positive

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019

CAMPUS EVENT

■ Two Israeli artists

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Planned Parenthood, New England Leather Alliance, Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth, Brandeis Chaplaincy and the Brandeis Health Center were also among the organizations at the event, according to the event’s Facebook page description.

The event continued in the dark in the SCC Theater at 8 p.m.

Students texted their questions anonymously to a number and a moderator from SSIS relayed these questions to the experts. The panel started with the question, “Is it OK that I lie to health professionals about how many sexual partners I have had?” Experts emphasized the importance of being open and honest to healthcare professionals “because the more information we give them, the more they can help.”

The panel then proceeded to discuss tips for dildo sizes and measurements. Questions continued about fetishes and anal sex. Experts encouraged being at peace with fetishes, not making it sound like a deal breaker and having open conversations about fetishes with partners. They also suggested using enemas before anal sex.

Questions that experts did not answer during the panel will be answered via text within 24 hours.

’DEIS MUSIC

The Kniznick Gallery at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute hosted an artist talk for the opening of their new exhibit “One Foot Planted” last Thursday. Artists Meirav Heiman and Ayelet Carmi displayed their artwork on a projector, discussing their separate artistic undertakings and explaining how they ultimately came together to create the exhibit.

The Institute examines the intersection of Jewish studies and gender studies. Every year, artists from around the world submit proposals for exhibits that delve into this. “One Foot Planted,” according to the exhibit’s website, creates “ambitious video works that explore the impact that politics and conflict have on Israeli women in times of crisis. In their work, Israel is redefined as a mythical and postapocalyptic world, which feminine and differently-abled bodies must ritually traverse.” This event was neither artist’s first time addressing these issues.

Carmi, who spoke first, is a classically trained painter living in Herzliya, Israel. She describes herself on her website as a “woman, painter, and Israeli living in explosive reality.” Her work features female heroes, modeled after her personal friends, in mythological worlds, often exploring the physical connection between the feminine form and machinery or nature.

She has explored the realm of performance painting — painting art that will ultimately be painted over directly onto the walls of galleries. This comes in the form of crafting physical manifestations of the contraptions in her paintings to be worn by real women walking around galleries, while the painted versions hang on the walls; and creating large, mobile compositions that can be moved, changed and interacted with.

Carmi’s work makes profound social commentary. In her talk, she discussed a particular set of paintings in which a single, strong brushstroke serves to represent male confidence and decisiveness, while female figures intertwined with natural materials and mechanical parts demonstrate the female tendency not to be satisfied by ‘one stroke.’ The incorporation of a quotation from a Jewish text, roughly translated from Hebrew to mean “a person’s worry,” conveys the message that human time is wasted by a preoccupation with financial gain.

The second of the collaborators,

Heiman, studied photography but considers herself primarily a performance artist, using photography to capture that performance.

According to her website, her work focuses “on the gap between the ideal and the concrete, the virtual and the real, the personal and the anonymous, and undermine the fantasy of the sacred family institution.” She uses grotesque imagery to bring forth the underlying complexities of traditional familial settings. For example, a series of her paintings involves family members positioned acrobatically in unusual ways in typical parts of the home, such as a kitchen or children’s bedroom.

She frequently uses her own body to convey political messages.

In one of her projects, “Split,” she walks around war-torn areas on the border of Israel and sits in a split with her legs splayed out to the side. This position and project, she explained, symbolizes to her the painful relationship between the body and the earth, as well as the struggle to love the land of Israel while recognizing its deep flaws. Like Carmi’s, the theme of the female struggle presents itself in her work. In the “Split” series, Heiman sits with her legs splayed to the side, an imitation of the traditional image of a woman giving birth, further tying in the idea of female pain and its relationship to conflict and the land of Israel.

The two artists described how they began working together. Four years ago, Heiman used Carmi’s daughter as a model for one of her projects, and the two realized that the dynamic between them was unique and powerful, Heiman said.

They did not have an idea at the beginning, but simply the desire to build something together. Ultimately, the themes both Heiman and Carmi explore and the performance tactics they employ blend to create the exhibit in the Kniznick gallery.

Three pieces comprise the exhibit, the biggest of which is titled “The Israel Trail Procession.”

This piece documents on video 50 women, all friends of Carmi and Heiman, walking along the Israel Trail, a 1,000 kilometer hiking trail that runs from the North to the South of Israel, without touching the ground. The parade of walkers appears to travel in a world combining post-apocalyptic and present-day Israel.

During the Q & A portion of the talk, an audience member asked the artists about the significance of having the parade walkers not touch the ground. Carmi responded that the two artists have different interpretations of the concept, but essentially they aimed to bring up the complications that arise in talking about Israeli land and hoped that the work would exist “in the gap between the land of Israel and the people who live there.”

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Brandeis students, including Jordan Mudd ’20, opened for Lady Queen Paradise and Raavi Lucia at the Rose Art Museum for the SCRAMCo Coffeehouse.

Image Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

Join ! m u r o F Send an email to Gabriel Frank at forum@thejustice.org

THE JUSTICE

‘BOB AND BOB’

●

NEWS

By ELLA RUSSELL JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

WEIGHING THE POLICY: Prof. Robert Kuttner (Heller) spoke with his colleague Prof. Robert Tannenwald (Heller) about misconceptions regarding the relationship between gross domestic product and national debt.

Profs discuss GDP, deficit and national growth in U.S.

of interest rates, federal borrowing, fiscal policy and more.

By NANCY ZHAI JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

To improve the state of the national economy, the government must intervene to stop the increase of the national debt, Prof. Robert Tannenwald (Heller) and Prof. Robert Kuttner (Heller) said in a panel on Wednesday, with a Q&A following the dialogue. During their panel, the two discussed the current national debt issue and proposed solutions to lower the budget deficit.

Tannenwald began by debunking common misconceptions of the debtto-gross-domestic-product ratio’s role in the national deficit, asserting that it is essential for governments to establish the role of the national debt and deficit in national productivity. The public is “alarmed” by the “major crisis” posed by the federal debt to the GDP, Tannenwald said. This is due to to the misconception that the increase in federal borrowing causes the federal interest rate to increase, which crowds out private investments from households. Crowding out is the depression or elimination of private sector spending caused by a rise in public sector spending, which accelerates inflation despite the government’s attempt to curb it.

Tannenwald finds this reasoning to be “fundamentally flawed,” as it portrays the debt-GDP ratio as a “cause” of the national deficit rather than a “symptom.” Contending that government intervention should have the goal of reframing “fiscal and monetary policy,” Tannenwald stated that the overarching objectives for governments should be raising “living standards for all Americans” and “redistribut[ing] income and wealth.” In the past three years, the government’s taxation policy has been favoring wealthy individuals at the expense of people in lower income brackets, according to an Apr. 15, 2016 Gallup News poll. Tannenwald also proposed re-regulating federal borrowing to “stop financial leads from

making private profits” while ensuring fair compensation for workers. In the meantime, he would “engage in critical public investments” to stabilize the national economy.

Tannenwald acknowledged that the public often associates debtGDP ratio with financial decline, and challenged the misconception by emphasizing that being fiscally responsible in the long run without exceeding the debt-to-GDP ratio threshold will stabilize the economy even with outstanding debt. At the end of World War II, the debtGDP ratio was 124 percent, but the Federal Reserve sold bonds that “paid real dividends” and boosted real economic production by 50 percent, according to Tannenwald.

According to Congressional Budget Office, the current ratio is 105.4 percent, which is “nowhere near the [90 percent] threshold.” To pay for necessities and public investments, the “[debt-to-GDP] ratio is still prudent if we spend it on the right thing[sic],” Tannenwald said.

Kuttner, who researches globalization and democracy politics, agreed with this remark. “In order to restore confidence in government, we, Democrats, have to be the fiscal grown-ups in the room,” he said. During a financial recession, the government does not normally take the impact on the ordinary household into account because of its authority to spend “countercyclically,” which is the continuation of government spending despite financial downturns, Kuttner said.

During his 2010 State of the Union address, then-President Barack Obama urged the government to consider the implications of the national debt on the ordinary household’s well-being. Obama stated that “families across the country are tucking their belts to make tough [financial] decisions, but the federal government should do the same.”

During the Q&A, students asked the professors questions about how government intervention could aid in increasing public investment and account for the societal effects of the deficit. One student was fascinated by how the application of monetary theory contributes to the historical presence of U.S. productivity growth. Tannenwald responded by explaining the recent

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tax cuts instituted by President Donald Trump, which resulted in the overcompensation of Executive Officers and the undercompensation of unskilled laborers. Two months after the ratification of tax legislation, the Tax Policy Center’s Analysis reported that the top 1 percent earners should expect to receive an average cut of $51,000, while the lowest 20 percent of earners could only see a reduction of $60 this year. Kuttner echoed Tannenwald’s point, expressing his support for public investment.

Despite being subject to the antitrust commission outlined by the Federal Trade Commission, some companies undergoing monopoly buyouts adhere to the practices of the private sector “simply because they don’t know cheaper ways of investment,” Tannenwald explained.

In the private sector, the buyouts do not contribute to the GDP. Thus, he expressed the need of accounting for public sector in “real investment.”

When asked of his opinion on a wealth tax proposed by Democratic presidential nominees, Kuttner raised the problem of the possession of property taxes on real estate. In theory, the property tax is a federal tax but is levied at the local level, which diminishes public confidence in the government’s ability to tax. While levying taxes on wealthy individuals could decrease the wealth gap, this would create a potentially risky situation for those in the next-lowest income bracket.

“We need leadership that can narrate [a] case for change,” Kuttner emphasized.

To conclude the panel, Kuttner discussed the current education funding using local property taxation, which subjects to a very large school-aid program at state level and, as he, “radically, fiscally equalizing.” “More school funding should be provided,” Kuttner said, “but [the current funding] now is on the right track.”

Despite analysing the national debt through different lenses, the duo recommended policymakers be held accountable to be fiscally responsible, increase public investment and be prudent with the national debt to ensure long-term productivity.

Professor Richard Schroeder (ANTH) gave a lecture on Friday about the impact of “green hunting” on the trophy hunting industry. His lecture was the topic of his recent paper, “Moving Targets: The ‘Canned’ Hunting of Captive-bred Lions in South Africa.”

Green hunting, also known as eco-hunting or dart safaris, was pioneered by Zoologist Iain DouglasHamilton in the late 1990s. It is the practice of using tranquilizer darts to temporarily subdue animals for research, instead of killing them outright. Schroeder said this initially appears to be a “win-win-win situation,” giving hunters a nonlethal, ecosystem-preserving, scientificallybeneficial “outlet for their passion.”

He argued, however, that green hunting reframes the hunting industry in a more positive light through “greenwashing” without introducing substantive reform. Douglas-Hamilton introduced the concept of green hunting as an alternative to real hunting but said that “in practice … it’s really just another market niche. It’s another opportunity for hunters to have a unique experience,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder briefly summarized the history of tranquilizer development.

Schroeder called tranquilizer development a “layscience,” developed slowly through experimentation on various animals.

Different animals require varying levels of tranquilizer strength.

An important breakthrough was the creation of M99, a powerful opioid capable of bringing down large game such as elephants. This opioid is fatal for humans, so hunters always have an antidote on hand in case they are accidentally exposed.

Tranquilizers have been important for wildlife conservation missions, allowing for safe transportation of large animals. To illustrate the dramatic nature of animal transportation, Schroeder showed a clip of World Wildlife Fund members transporting a rhinoceros. After shooting the rhino with a tranquilizer dart from the safety of a helicopter, they tied it upside down to

the helicopter and carefully took off with the rhino swinging underneath.

This transportation method was completely safe, and gave the rhinos a chance to thrive on better terrain.

Animal transportation capability was put to use in Operation Noah, which ran from 1958 to 1964. Kariba Dam is situated on the Zambezi River Basin, between Zambia and Zimbabwe. While the dam has been an important source of power for the two countries, the bottleneck of water above the dam created Lake Kariba, which became the largest man-made lake in the world. Before water flooded the Kariba gorge, Operation Noah managed to safely transport thousands of animals through the use of tranquilizer darts.

The dam also led to the displacement of tens of thousands of Tonga people, and perspectives vary on how successful the resettlement programs were. This reveals one of the central problems of both green hunting and hunting in general. Trophy hunting has contributed significantly to the Gross Domestic Product of several countries in Africa, including South Africa. To cater to rich hunters, South Africa has established large safaris that encompass 17 percent of the territory, displacing thousands of black tenant farmers in the process. Schroeder explained that as the trophy hunting is dominated by wealthy Afrikaners, the controversy over trophy hunting is inextricably linked to wider racial and socioeconomic tensions.

Schroeder then transitioned to describing the market of green hunting for trophy hunters. The inspiration for rebranding the image of the hunting industry came from incidents such as that of Cecil the Lion. In 2015, a Minnesota dentist paid tens of thousands of dollars to kill a lion named Cecil, which an Oxford team had been tracking for research purposes. The dentist then posted a trophy shot on social media, drawing widespread condemnation.

According to Schroeder, trophy hunters see green hunting as a way to lessen this condemnation. Hunters see green hunting as an “ennobling experience,” free from the guilt of actually killing animals. It is cheaper than real hunting, and to prevent the tranquilizer dart from getting blown off course, there is a necessity of getting close to the animal before shooting, which provides extra adrenaline for the hunter.

BRIEF Waltham mayor announces her fifth campaign for reelection for 2020 After sixteen years in office, Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy announced on March 1 that she will be running for a fifth term in November 2020, per a March 1 Waltham Wicked Local article.

In 2017, McCarthy had announced that she would not be seeking re-election. She gave no explanation for this, per a July 17, 2017 Wicked Local article, but said she would continue “to work diligently … and finish a multitude of projects” during her final term.

Now, she claims that she is seeking re-election because “no one has stepped forward to lead the city,” per the March 1 article.

In the announcement, McCarthy blamed city council leadership for stalling ongoing city projects and reaffirmed her commitment to finishing them. According to the article, McCarthy is focused on infrastructure projects and

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Prof lectures on sustainable hunting (ANTH) discussed the flaws and merits of ‘green hunting.’

■ They examined the roles

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019

SUSTAINABILITY

■ Prof. Richard Schroeder

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building anew high school, saying she feels it would be “unfair to leave [the Waltham residents] with all this stuff hanging,” especially the new school. McCarthy has been working on creating a new Waltham High School building for a few years, per a Feb. 1 Wicked Local article, and believes it is a worthwhile expense. Now, the school project has a page on her campaign website, making it a key part of her push to continue in office.

This is not the first time McCarthy has flip-flopped on re-election.

During her initial campaign in 2003, she said she would not seek mayorship more than twice, per the July 17 Wicked Local article.

She also claimed to be done before her fourth term, but then defeated Rep. Tom Stanley in 2015, per the same article.

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PETITION: Students demand new AAPI department CONTINUED FROM 1

for Pacific Islander Studies.” Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders make up 0.1 percent of the undergraduate and graduate student population, according to University enrollment data.

Day is integral in maintaining the representation of Pacific Islanders, according to the petitioners. They praise Day for showing “us the importance of recognizing our own histories, and the validity of our place in American society.”

They add that Day’s “deep emotional intelligence” has made her a common moderator and attendee of numerous talks, such as the aforementioned ’DEIS Impact panel.

Signatories believe “Dr. Day will not only improve the establishment of this academic program, but that her retention will be an asset in attracting future students who share Brandeis’ belief in learning and leading,” according to the petition. Additionally, they call on the University to “step up as a leader” and educate the academic world on the history of Pacific Islanders, who have been “excluded from academia for far too long.”

BAATF penned an open letter urging Liebowitz to create such a program and to hire new faculty to lead it. The BAATF petition says that the creation of an additional position that is “focused on issues faced specifically by Pacific Islanders” would “better serve students, and ensure the success of [the Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies program] in the making.”

The petitioners recognized the efforts the University made in hiring Prof. Yuri Doolan (HIST) as a tenure-track assistant professor, but raised concerns about the “great burden” that single-handedly building a program would place on Doolan, who specializes in Asian-American studies.

Though the petitioners wrote that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders “rightly share many commonalities, and often overlap” with each other, they stressed that the University “cannot create an Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies program if [they] do not have the representation

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SUSTAINABILITY: Brandeis and Wellesley students lead conference CONTINUED FROM 1 lowed her to be involved. Also, the student leaders said they are planning an event that is targeted toward Arts and Humanities students called Planetary Health Alliance Panel.

In another student presentation, Jen Harris and Clare Auld-Brokish talked about their efforts as student interns at the Wellesley Sustainability Office to make transportation more sustainable. Because of their suburban campus, it can be hard for Wellesley students and faculty to get around without a car, said Harris and Auld-Brokish. As one possible solution, they started a bikeshare program that allows students to rent bikes for 24 hours at a time for free. Harris and AuldBrokish said they held events on their campus to raise awareness about the program, such as weekend bike trips to the Natick Farmers’ Market.

Next, these students are hoping to get Wellesley staff and faculty to use Miles2Share, an app that encourages carpooling by connecting users who have compatible routes and schedules. According to Harris and Auld-Brokish, not only does the app promote sustainable transportation, it facilitates meeting new people.

University of Connecticut Sustainability Office student interns Mara Tu and Natalie Roach discussed their work trying to make their campus more environmentally friendly. They talked about their ECOCoin initiative, which aims to reduce the number of plastic bags that their bookstore gives out. According to Tu and Roach, cashiers ask customers if they want a bag or an ECOCoin. If the customer selects ECOCoin, they can donate the coin to charity. Each coin equals five cents, so rather than spending five cents on a plastic bag that creates more waste, this money goes to a good cause.

Professionals also gave presentations about their sustainability work. One presenter, Oceans Fellow Kelsey Lamb, talked about the initiatives of the organization she works for, Environment America Research and Policy Center. According to Lamb, Environment America works on issues relating to greenhouse gases, clean water, renewable energy, and more.

Other students who spoke include Elyssa Anneser, Kayla Williams, Aviva Musicus, Rebecca Grekin and Vivian Song. The presentations culminated with a lunch in Sherman Function Hall, a career panel and a networking session.

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CUPCAKE GALA

MEGAN GELLER/the Justice

FEMALE EMPOWERMENT: A faculty panel shared their personal experiences as women in the workplace and in academia. They discussed sexual harassment, maternity leave, stereotypes and other challenges they face.

CUPCAKES: Faculty discuss sexism in the workplace CONTINUED FROM 1 how they need to behave to subvert gender norms. Rodal stated that with her male colleagues, she must think more about her statements, making sure to use “assertive” language instead of phrases like “I think that…” so that she does not “behave in a way that hurts [her] goals.” Kelikian added that personality is extremely important as well, explaining that it is difficult to juggle her more aggressive tactics in dealing with film industry personalities with the hat she needs to wear at the University.

At another panel about sexual harassment, panelists discussed the process of reporting sexual misconduct and the changes brought about by the #MeToo movement. Windley, who also attended the sexual harassment panel, asked about the panelists’ experiences with the University handling sexual harassment. Prof.

Maria Madison (Heller) emphasized the importance of knowing about resources for reporting and helping victims “in the moment.” She said that when a victim comes to you with allegations of sexual harassment against another person, it is vital to “validate any emotions or validate and collect perspectives of what’s happening right then,” because “if you don’t respond, you’re saying that [the sexual harassment is] okay.”

Prof. Emeritus Mary Baine Campbell (ENG) declared that the sexual harassment today is a “relic” of what it was many years ago, and that when she had confided in her colleagues in the past about being sexually harassed, they gave her no advice and believed that she could handle it on her own. Now, she said, her department is “impeccable” compared to its state at the beginning of her tenure

at the University, helped greatly by student activism in recent years. She stated that students and faculty hold offenders accountable in public, but that individually, “people still say the darndest things.”

Addressing the #MeToo era, Prof.

Adrianne Krstansky (THA) said that the recent wave of activism has started a good conversation on calling out bad behavior. She said the expectation used to be that women could “enter these male spaces,” as long as they did not “cause any waves” and acted “meek, humble [and] kind.” With the #MeToo movement, however, people are starting to recognize that these stereotypical expectations “actually [limit] the amount of expression and contributions that women can make, that people of color can make,” she said.

Krstansky also recalled her time as an actress and the unwritten rules that women on sets followed to avoid sexual harassment. She said sexual misconduct was normalized, and that speaking up could “cost you your career.” Krstansky and Campbell acknowledged that it is often extremely difficult to start a conversation about sexual harassment because many men have been socialized to think that certain behaviors are acceptable. For people dealing with sexual harassment, Campbell stated, “it is important to remember that you have a huge store of resilience.”

A third panel focused on gendered expectations in the workplace. Responding to a panelist’s statement that women have been socialized to take more time to react to a question, attendee Ashley Kamal ’22 asserted that women often feel the need to be perfect. “The two or three seconds is … making sure that they’re right and that this opinion that they’re gonna voice is the right one,” she said, add-

ing that she will not say anything if “there’s some sort of doubt that it could be wrong.” Campbell said that allowing women “these extra seconds” will give them a greater ability to speak up, and people will hear voices that they otherwise would not hear.

Violet Fearon ’21 said that women are raised to care about “the ways in which they are liked,” and are more self-conscious, whereas men “seem to not care as much” what other people think of them. Kamal added that women often fear being called pushy or “a bitch.” Prof. Laura Miller (SOC) said that “in most academic fields, you’re really rewarded for being pushy, and so … the women who aren’t pushy … are gonna be invisible.”

The panelists said these gendered expectations are also present in their research. Miller pointed out that many people assume that she does research on gender because she’s a woman. Campbell echoed her statement, saying that many assume she can replace another female professor who’d previously taught about feminism. In addition to teaching, Miller explained, women do the “scut work,” or undesirable administrative tasks, because men have a sense of “learned helplessness” that causes them to feel inept when asked to do these tasks, which she says is not malicious, but is a “burden” and frustration to women.

Aaron Finkel ’20 asked if the professors’ gender held them back during their careers. Prof. Ruth Charney (MATH) replied that her gender never held her back, and that though she did not write as many papers or do as much math because of starting a family and pursuing other hobbies, she would make her same choices “all over again.”

ANDREW BAXTER/the Justice

ECO-FRIENDLY: (Left to right) Orly Strobel ’21, Meredith Levy ’21 and Anna Kate Rattray ’21 started Brandeis' chapter of Planetary Health Alliance this semester. Their goal is to appeal to students in many different fields of study.

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features

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019 ● FEATURES ● THE JUSTICE

just

VERBATIM | MUHAMMAD ALI

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 2010, Canada rejected a proposal to make its national anthem more gender-inclusive.

Snow can fall when it is significantly above freezing.

SPIRITUAL ASYLUM Over February break, Brandeis students and faculty served the Miami community

Photo Courtesy of MATTHEW CARRIKER

WORKING WITH CHILDREN: The two organizations that the group worked with mainly serve immigrant youth.

By HUINING XIA JUSTICE CONTRIBUTOR

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38). While the snowwhite Boston was still shivering from cold, 11 members of the Brandeis community embarked on a journey under the Miami sun. Funded by The Department of Spiritual and Religious Life, Brandeis Chaplains Shrestha Singh and Matthew Carriker led nine Brandeis students and faculty on a February Break Immersion Trip.

On the trip, Brandeis connected with a global organization, Dwell, Discover and Discern to serve the local communities of Little Havana, Overtown, Wynwood and Little Haiti. Miami serves as a microcosm of America as a whole, where diverse cultures and languages all contribute to its charisma as the “Magic City.”

According to Chaplain Matthew, “within a few blocks, you can try Cuban food in Little Havana while listening to conversations in Spanish and take in Haitian music seasoned with Creole in Little Haiti.” Under its diverse cultural context, DOOR Miami facilitates an in-depth discussion about faith and compassion for Brandeisians.

This group brought faith and,

more importantly, love to those in need. As Chaplain Matthew commented in his reflection upon this trip, students were able to “heal, learn, grow and blossom into who they are truly meant to be.”

Two organizations reached out to Brandeis in order to open doors to opportunities for providing quality child care and higher education. These were Redlands Christian Migrant Association and Lotus House, respectively.

RCMA mainly serves to offer opportunities and new possibilities for migrants and their families to seek a better childcare and higher education.

Not only does it strive to provide educational resources that the kids would not have had access to, but it has also dedicated itself to improving the overall quality of life for those immigrant families.

The Lotus House mainly supports women, youth and children, providing them a safe home and better education, empowering women and minority groups to fight for their rights. Working with organizations like these, the group was able to realize the transcending definition of the word “sanctuary:” it’s more than a physical shelter, it’s also a spiritual asylum that harbors the sentiments of those in pain and despair.

For some, this special trip has been truly transformative.

“Before going on this trip my impression of this city included

images from Hollywood films and my friends’ travel stories: palm trees, sunshine, ocean, sandy beaches, luxurious cars and beautiful and rich people,” said Elizaveta Repina, a teaching assistant of Russian language at Brandeis. Her perspective totally shifted when she saw another side of the Magic City. A lot of immigrants still struggle with inequity and are poverty stricken. Some find it hard to fit in the new culture; consequently, they have narrow career choices and can only earn minimal income.

During the trip, the group participated in services such as cleaning, organizing classroom supplies, painting and engaging in designing curriculum and activities for the local students.

They spent a considerable amount of time with children, who attended school in the study centers of RCMA. Chaplain Matthew shared one of his most memorable stories with the Justice: When the group was about to leave Lotus House after volunteering, “one young girl asked if we could come back.

Her sweetness melted all of our hearts.”

The group considers this trip as only a start to a pilgrimage seeking God and the true self.

Reflecting on the experience, Chaplain Matthew concluded by quoting from “The New Colossus”: “Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Photo Courtesy of MATTHEW CARRIKER

BENEATH THE SURFACE: Some group members were suprised to see that communities in Miami were not all tourist locales.

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THE JUSTICE ● FEATURES ● TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019 Photo Illustration by SAMMY PARK

Diversity in debate

A SPECIAL FOCUS: In recent years, Brandeis Academic Debate and Speech Society (BADASS) has focused on recruiting marginalized students.

Brandeis’ debate team aims to challenge the industry standard

By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis Academic Debate and Speech Society embodies its acronym, BADASS, giving club members the power and confidence to defend their own beliefs and question those of others. According to its website, BADASS is “dedicated to providing the students of Brandeis University a place to hone their speaking skills and explore new perspectives, attitudes, and ideas.” BADASS’ mission statement has, in recent years, been the catalyst for the club’s initiative to recruit members from diverse backgrounds.

BADASS member Noam Shurin ’19 had the distinction of making history as the first African American woman to place in the prestigious World Universities Debating Championship in Cape Town, South Africa last year. Shurin and her partner Ravi Simon ’19 have proven to be essential members of the BADASS team. Shurin says that her experience on the team has been fantastic: “Every single week we go to different schools and meet really awesome people, who I’ve become lifelong friends with.” Club president Winnie Qin ’19, former Vice President Shira Rosenberg ’20 and Shurin shared with the Justice areas in which debate is becoming more diverse as an activity and still has room to grow both at Brandeis and throughout the world.

Rosenberg mentioned that debate is improving, as historically it has been primarily a male-dominated activity. She

said that many times it appears that men have better outcomes at competitions because of their low-pitched voices. “That makes them sound more trusting,” Rosenberg pointed out. Often, she said voices get faster and rise in pitch during debate.

She has been described as “shrill.” However, Rosenberg and Shurin mentioned the role of “Equity Officers” who address concerns about prejudice at competitions and have the power to remove people from the competitions who act inappropriately.

This, Rosenberg and Shurin say, is helping the competition’s culture.

Despite the strides made to increase the number of women involved, Qin expressed that the difficulties that international students — especially those who speak English as a second language — face in debate prompted her to run for president to make BADASS more inclusive. She said, “This activity is not ESL [English as a Second

Language] friendly at all. When I was first on the team, at the very beginning there were a fairly good amount of international students, but then when time goes by, they all just quit.” Qin attributed this to the fact that there are not a lot of achieving international students to emulate.

Despite some of the areas where debate is still improving, Rosenberg spoke about how mentors on the team have helped her overcome challenges in this type of competitive environment.

She elaborated that she persevered because there were influential women on the team who helped her to cope with the stress that accompanies debate. When she was vice president of BADASS, Rosenberg helped to recruit and retain marginalized students.

“One of my jobs very specifically was to help with recruitment and retention, of non- ‘white men,’ because we’ve had no problem recruiting or retaining them.

Not that they’re not valuable parts of the team, they just will be there,” Rosenberg explained. She said that Brandeis has overcome the perception that the activity is dominated by white men, with leadership positions going to more women and people of color.

Looking ahead, Shurin, Rosenberg and Qin mentioned increasing the inclusivity of the team, both at Brandeis and in the greater debate world. Shurin commented that, originally, it was assumed that novices who were white men would be the best at debate, yet now the team is becoming more diverse. She said, “We were second place in the country and now we are fifth place in the country and there is massive amounts of more representation.

Does that mean that we are becoming less competitive? No. Does that mean that competition and inclusivity necessarily trade off? Probably not. But these are the questions that the team is moving towards and trying to ask itself.”

Shurin also mentioned that the team and executive board are finding a balance between the fun and competitive aspects of the activity and find it important for students’ mental health to be “encouraging people to practice but also encouraging hangouts and debriefs and check-ins.”

Rosenberg concluded that even with the improvements that need to be made to the activity, this is her third year on the team, and she has been enjoying her experience. She said that the question for the future is, “How can we be better?”

Brandeis Academic Debate and Speech Society tied for seventh place in the 2017–18 season with Georgetown University.

The club boasts that it is “one of the highest ranked teams in the country not to host tryouts” on its website.

Meetings are open to anyone and held twice a week.

Photos By THU LE/the Justice, NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice; Images Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

9

10 TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019 ● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE

Justice

the

Established 1949

Brandeis University

Avraham Penso, Editor in Chief Natalia Wiater, Managing Editor Amber Miles, Senior Editor Jen Geller, Jocelyn Gould, Deputy Editors Nia Lyn, Eliana Padwa, Associate Editors Sam Stockbridge, News Editor Sammy Park, Features Editor Gabriel Frank, Forum Editor, Megan Geller, Sports Editor Maya Zanger-Nadis, Arts Editor Andrew Baxter, Photography Editor Morgan Mayback, Interim Layout Editor Liat Fischer and Devo Meyers, Ads Editors River Hayes, Mia Rubinstein, Acting Copy Editors

EDITORIALS

Brandeis Counseling Center needs more resources The Brandeis Counseling Center, according to its website, “provides counseling for students in times of stress and encourages them to ask for help with their most immediate concerns.”

It has made several important and commendable improvements over the past few months and years and continues to meet student needs as best as possible.

This board has a few suggestions on how to achieve this goal more effectively.

In a Nov. 2017 editorial, this board commended the BCC for meeting the demands of a 90 percent increase of walk-in appointments and 2000 percent increase in after-hours emergencies that year by adding five new staff members. As the number of students seeking services from the BCC continues to rise, the center needs to implement strategies to make accommodating such a large number of students possible. In an interview with the Justice, Brandeis Counseling Center Director Joy Von Steiger expanded upon recent improvements to meet the “substantial increase” of individuals seeking help from the BCC. For example, Von Steiger said that the BCC has been hiring more staff, including a new psychiatrist, two staff therapists and two therapists who act in both staff and community positions. In addition, the BCC is currently interviewing for a per diem therapist who can help during highdemand times. By doing so, the time a student waits to be seen has been reduced to between a week and a week and a half, based on the availability of the person seeking therapy, compared to a threeweek wait last semester. This board also commends the BCC for hiring intern Carmen Lopez-Landaverde, whose goal is to speak to the Brandeis community regarding how to improve the BCC and how it serves the University.

One area that can be streamlined is the process to sign up for an appointment.

Currently, students individually correspond with their therapists via email to find a common time to meet. This can take a very long time, given that email booking relies on quick responses from both therapists and students. It can also be difficult for many students to reach out to others directly about their needs — emailing a therapist can be daunting, and the BCC should account for that. Instead, this board recommends the BCC adopt an automatic booking service. These services list available appointment times and allow students to book a slot simply by clicking on it. Brandeis Academic Services already uses one such service, “You Can Book Me.” In her interview, Von Steiger raised the problem that “savvy” students might book therapy slots and fill blocks for the entire semester. This would limit the number of slots for those newer students who may not know in advance that they will need care. This board suggests setting up a system in which students can only make one appointment with their Brandeis email at a time; that appointment would have to be approved by the therapist.

When therapists spend more time reading vast numbers of schedulingrelated emails, they spend less time actually meeting with students. Students who do not answer emails quickly enough may lose their appointment slots to other students who have a faster response time.

While scheduling appointments should

Inefficient appointment system happen on a first-come-first-serve basis, this is still a complicated system that could be streamlined. If a therapist offers a time to a student, they should hold that slot for 24 hours — or any designated period of time — and clearly state what their policies are regarding scheduling appointments in their initial emails.

This would be an easy fix that could be implemented while the BCC transitions to a booking system to simplify the existing process.

Although the BCC has hired more counselors in the past few years — and this board acknowledges that this is difficult — some students go off campus or to group therapy sessions for their specific needs. Von Steiger said that in order to accommodate the many students who seek therapy sessions, the BCC cannot offer students more than one appointment per week. To accommodate students that need to see a therapist more than once a week, the BCC offers the option of going off campus.

This board appreciates that the BCC helps students find these opportunities, but recommends that with the approval of the administration, the BCC should help to make sure students who go off campus have the means to do so.

Providing additional transportation to the location the individual is referred to can help students financially and make the experience even more positive. Off campus therapists can be in Newton, Cambridge or Boston, according to Von Steiger, so subsidizing commuter rail expenses — which the Student Union already plans to offer for students pursuing internships in Boston, according to Union President Hannah Brown ’19 — is a possibility.

Additionally, group therapy is another noteworthy option provided by the BCC. According to the 2017 editorial, some students had positive experiences with group therapy and the quality of care they were receiving. However, the BCC should continue to monitor the needs of the Brandeis community and re-evaluate the offerings based on those needs. There are currently 22 group sessions offered, but no amount of group sessions can fulfill every student’s need. Therefore, the BCC should consider changing meetings times every semester or so to better accommodate a variety of schedules.

This board also recognizes the BCC’s commitment to providing some additional student support with the introduction of the new community therapist program with counselors who hold regular weekly hours in locations around campus including residence quads such as North and Massell, as well as academic and athletic spaces including Gosman, Heller and the Science Center.

Lastly, the drop in hours of the BCC are 11 a.m to noon. and 3 p.m to 4 p.m., limiting the possibilities for students to seek help in this manner. Offering a wider range of hours would help more students use this service.

While efforts have been made on the part of the BCC in the past few years, this board encourages this important University service to continue to improve.

As more students are seeking the BCC’s help and services, it is important to meet those students’ needs as best as possible.

MARA KHAYTER/the Justice

Views the News on

Following an interview with Venezuela’s de facto dictator Nicolas Maduro, Univision anchor and news host Jorge Ramos and his crew were detained in Caracas. Ramos had questioned Maduro about the lack of democracy and humanitarian famine crisis in Venezuela, in addition to the torture of political prisoners who oppose his regime. When Maduro was shown a video of Venezuelans eating garbage, the interview was promptly cut short. Ramos and his production team were detained, and their equipment was confiscated. Although they were promptly set free, many have seen this action as a direct attempt to stifle the truth and journalism in Venezuela, where citizens are experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises this century. How do you view this detainment in the context of the plight of the Venezuelan people?

Prof. Gordon Fellman Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela.

The United States has invaded these countries, overthrowing democratically elected governments and supporting right wing dictatorships friendly to our fruit companies (Guatemala, e.g.) copper companies (Chile), and more. Our climate change denying government most likely is aiming at access to the vast stores of oil Venezuela controls. While terrible things are happening in Venezuela, there is pressure on Trump from his hawk advisors to invade. The US routinely makes matters much worse for Latin American populations in favor of their elites who work with US corporations to maintain control of resources. As disgusting as Maduro’s treatment of journalists has been, the US should support internal processes of confrontation and politics rather than engaging in the same old disastrous tactics that bring misery to the majority of Latin American people.

Gordon Fellman is a Professor of Sociology specializing in the sociology of empowerment, masculinities, psychoanalytic sociology, and public sociology.

Prof. Kristen Lucken After confronting President Nicolas Maduro over the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, Univision’s anchor Jorge Ramos was detained and his materials confiscated. Ramos chastised the militia, saying, “you can’t treat us like that, we are free press, this is not how you treat the press…” Ramos gambled that international fame and journalistic immunity would protect him against the very hands that have assaulted and economically devastated Venezuela and its people since 2013. While this incident represents a slap in the face of journalistic freedom, in reality, Ramos received a simple hand slap compared to the brutality launched against Venezuela’s own citizens.

Kristen Lucken is a Professor of Sociology and director of the Master’s in Global Studies program at Brandeis

Maya Zanger-Nadis ’21 The quality people tend to appreciate in dictators is strength.

Strength keeps the borders secure and is tough on crime— strength makes people feel safe, although the danger is often concocted by the dictator themselves. Maduro projects strength and is therefore popular with some Venezuelans despite being the cause of their plight. I cannot help but be reminded of Trump, who gets away with just about anything because he projects strength and makes his supporters feel safe. And, like with many situations involving our own fearless leader, I fear that Maduro will get away with his abuse of this news crew, especially since he didn’t even torture or physically harm them. Just as Trump can and will strongarm his way through the U.S. government unscathed, Maduro will come away from this run-in with the media untouched. What is more, people will forget about this just like they forget about Trump’s numerous misdeeds and instances of impropriety.

Maya Zanger-Nadis ’21 is a Linguistics Major and the Arts editor of the Justice

Photos: Gordon Fellman; Kristen Lucken; the Justice

THE JUSTICE ● FORUM ● TUESDAY, MARCH 5 , 2019

Substance trumps style in North Korean nuclear diplomacy Trevor FILSETH

SANITY

After much fanfare, well-publicized negotiation efforts and one of the strangest love stories in modern diplomacy, President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un met earlier this week in Hanoi for a summit on North Korean denuclearization. While all parties present tried to avoid counting the result in negative terms, the summit is widely regarded as a failure; no new agreements were signed, and President Trump walked out after only half a day of deliberation.

Speaking to the press afterwards, he cited irreconcilable differences in what the two sides offered that had made it impossible to come to an agreement.

While we’ll likely never know the full extent of the discussion that took place behind closed doors, Trump stated that the only deal North Korea offered was an end to all sanctions in exchange for the closure of the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, the major nuclear facility that has produced the fissile material for North Korea’s atomic weapons.

This alone would have been unacceptable for three reasons. First, it provided no safeguards for the several dozen nuclear weapons that North Korea already has. If Kim retained ownership of any of these, the inability to make new ones would have been irrelevant.

Second, it would have removed the sanctions that the United States has placed on North Korea for its human rights abuses, of which there are far too many to list here.

Finally, there is actually no guarantee that closing Yongbyon would prevent North Korea from creating more bombs. In a press

conference after the summit’s conclusion, the president hinted at American knowledge of a second, secret uranium enrichment site near Pyongyang which could take over for Yongbyon if it were shut down. Since Trump was obviously unwilling to accept this deal, and the North Koreans were unwilling to deviate from it, there was no point in trying to reach an agreement.

In hindsight, it’s hard to feel that this wasn’t a waste of time for everyone involved.

If both sides came to the negotiating table without having at least a roadmap of where to go, what was the point of flying Trump out to Hanoi for three days? After all, it’s embarrassing to the rest of the world when high-profile negotiations fail, and it can be interpreted as a sign of weakness by American rivals such as Russia and China.

More importantly, our taxpayer dollars financed this trip, to the tune of at least $6 million and possibly more.

Lest we miss the point of this whole encounter, though, it’s important to remember that Trump is at least doing a few things well. The president has disrupted — rightly so, in my opinion — the longstanding policy of the United States never to engage North Korea in meetings between our heads of state.

The idea has been that, by sharing a stage with a North Korean dictator, the United States would grant him legitimacy and good press coverage, neither of which a barbaric despot should have.

It’s hard to debate the morality of this position, but when Barack Obama entered office, the North Koreans had a nuclear weapon that could reach Seoul, and when he left office, they had a nuclear weapon that could reach California.

It might be disconcerting when summits fail, but they are the only way to denuclearization, and we should appreciate the fact that they are being held in the first place.It’s also important not to underestimate the value of developing personal charisma between leaders. As hard a pill as it is to swallow, Trump is likely

STATE OF THE STUDENT UNION

GABRIEL FRANK/the Justice

invaluable in this regard; while previous presidents have scorned Kim for his humanrights record, Trump has heaped praise on him and repeatedly expressed a willingness to negotiate that others suspended. Whether Kim “loves” Trump or sees him as a sucker, a nuclear agreement is clearly much more likely under this administration than under previous ones. Since Kim alone has the power to shut down the North Korean nuclear program, engagement with him on a personal level is the best, if not the only, way forward.

Finally, it’s a credit to Trump that he had the conviction to walk away. No deal is better than a bad deal, and the vision the North Koreans tried to sell us in Hanoi was a bad deal.

The message to take away from all of this is clear. While vitally important, personal charisma between two leaders is no substitute for behind-the-scenes work by policy experts. The specifics

of denuclearization are tremendously complicated; it’s silly to expect either Trump or Kim to understand them, and it’s even sillier to expect the two of them to agree to make a deal and then let the diplomats work out the specifics later. For any agreement to succeed, negotiations need to take place on the working level, and a summit like this should only happen if the two sides have already agreed on an exact text behind closed doors.

The failure in Hanoi was embarrassing and avoidable, but if this administration learns the right lessons from its shortcomings, it could result in a successful meeting that seeds an actual diplomatic agreement down the line.

As in all things, the devil is in the details; groundwork must be laid beforehand to keep such an obvious difference in vision from happening again. Whether that will be the case before the next Trump-Kim meeting is anyone’s guess.

Racial tokenism goes against diversity Nia

LYN

By HANNAH BROWN

PURPOSE

SPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE

My focus this year on the Student Union can be summarized by three key words: transparency, affordability and connectivity.

The Student Union has continued and expanded its transparency efforts. In every Student Union weekly email, we include updates from branch heads and E-Board members as well as the updated Student Union budget. All Student Union members continue to hold office hours, and have even expanded office hours to other locations, including the library and the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium. We moved the Student Union website to an easier-to-edit platform, and provide all documents and updates that are useful to the public on the site.

Additionally, I will meet with anyone who wants to have a conversation, during or outside of office hours. We also sustain intra-Union communication by having all willing branch heads serve on the Student Union Executive Board.

As emphasized in my campaign, affordability is an issue I take seriously.

Through student advocacy, departments around campus, including the library, have lowered fines and introduced programs such as the canned food donations in lieu of payment. Additionally, academic departments have begun encouraging the use of open-source textbooks and LATTE versus other expensive academic platforms, including Sapling and Pearson. With the helpful partnership of Vice President of Campus Operations James Gray and the Hiatt Career Center, the Student Union will also introduce a full commuter rail subsidy for students pursuing internships and educational opportunities in Boston during the academic year. Capitalizing on what we learned about transportation preferences following the spring 2017 Riverside shuttle pilot, this new program aims to capitalize upon our proximity to the Brandeis/Roberts Commuter Rail stop and Boston to increase access to unpaid internships during the year, saving students time and money. The program will begin in Fall 2019. More information will be coming soon on logistics.

Finally, I am working with a team of Student Union members and Student Activities staff to bring club life into the 21st century. We have explored online platforms to better connect and streamline all parts of student life, including clubs, club members, university departments and the Student Union. As the University updates its enterprise system with Workday, we hope to do the same with a reasonably priced and effective software called Presence. If adopted, Presence will greatly improve the club and student life experience at Brandeis, not to mention limit the amount of emails students receive.

We’ve been lucky to have the partnership of many students, faculty and staff on efforts like these, and these projects are just a subset of the areas we on the Student Union have been working on this year. However, no project or initiative can be successful without the input of other students. I encourage you to reach out to me and your class representatives with your ideas and feedback.

Tell us: what else should we work on?

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As of 2016, Brandeis’ undergraduate student body was 5.4 percent African American. While this number is bound to have increased with diversity efforts implemented by the University, to call the campus truly diverse is inaccurate. There have been several instances where, personally, I have been one of few Black students in the room. The same can be said for other students of color at predominantly white universities. This in turn creates stressors for students that impede their learning and overall ability to thrive in the university setting.

In psychology there is a phenomenon known as “stereotype threat” that refers to the psychological threat when one is at risk of adhering to stereotypes about their social group. Experiments conducted on this show that when standardized tests were administered under the guise that Black students perform worse than white students, the Black students actually performed worse. However, when racial disparities were not mentioned, there was no difference in performance levels. This threat of inadequacy and underperforming is always present on college campuses, manifesting itself as the desire to prove one’s worth as a valued member of a community. Therefore, stereotype threat will always be an issue. Even outside of the academic setting, this is a problem that manifests itself in the professional world.

Just as it occurs in school, stereotype threat influences workplace performance. Described in the paper “Stereotype threat and feedback seeking in the workplace,” in positions where intelligence is seen as an important determinant of success, such as a managerial position, minorities are held to higher standards and care more about their performance and ability to overcome certain stereotypes. This stress to not engage in stereotypical behavior can affect work performance and ironically further perpetuate negative stereotypes about work ability.

Similarly, “token status” in a group also leads to stereotype threat — being the sole representative of a racial group reflects not on oneself but on the group of which one is a part. It shows that the company is not dedicated to creating an environment diverse in thought and people but instead is just complicit with homogeneity. The paper states that “the presence of tokens highlights group differences, resulting

in tokens being viewed by others in terms of their identity group memberships.” Every decision made has to be carefully planned to prove that they are actually qualified for their position. Again, the pressure to succeed under the lens of one’s racial or ethnic identity is only detrimental in the long-run.

There is no prestige in being a “token member.”

Yes, it is worthwhile to say that one may have been the first Black CEO or Black professor at a prestigious university, but being the first and only member means that one has had to not only overcome the systematic barriers, but also deal with certain microaggressions in their respective field. An April 25, 2018 CNBC article states that some very common microaggressions that occur are commenting on one’s ability to speak English, using condescending tones, hijacking a conversation or even choosing a seat near a person of color only when there is no other option available. These might not be intentionally offensive, but these subconscious and harmful acts only make it more difficult for a person of color to thrive in an environment where one’s otherness is already made painfully obvious.

As someone entering the workforce soon, most of the positions I have interviewed for are in predominantly white companies. While I’m not uncomfortable, I do feel anxious about my work performance. If I don’t excel in all aspects of the job, will they think it’s due to my inexperience, or the color of my skin? In a position where one is essentially the representative of their entire race, this is something that has to be considered.

How can this be solved? In order to generate a more diverse group of employees, newer hiring strategies need to be implemented. An Oct. 29, 2017 Forbes article details methods of improving diversity; these include removing bias from the hiring process that might only appeal to a specific group of people, employing more diverse interview techniques and expanding the pool of candidates considered for positions. Similar steps can be taken for university admissions. Not all students are good test takers, and allowing students to supplement SAT scores with something like a writing sample — which was an option when I applied to Brandeis — would be a good start. Similarly, recruiting students from more diverse backgrounds can be achieved by implementing more school visits to high schools or an increased presence in college fairs around the nation. These strategies will hopefully improve the breadth of students admitted to private universities like Brandeis and improve racial, socioeconomic and gender identity status on college campuses.

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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Editorial Assistants

Arts: Kent Dinlenc*, Evan Mahnken*, Ella Russell, Mendel

News: Emily Blumenthal, Gilda Geist

Weintraub

Arts: Luke Liu

Photography: Clara Alexander, Zoe Brodsky, Charlie Catino,

Photography: Noah Zeitlin

Sarah Katz, Zach Katz, Yuran Shi

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Production Assistant Features: Kirby Kochanowski Photography: Thu Le

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TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019● FORUM ● THE JUSTICE

FORUM

Bias reporting threatens free speech in colleges

By PROF. ALAIN LEMPEREUR (HELLER) SPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE

Why does our university matter? Here, we ignite our inner fire for knowledge and seek, as free thinkers, “truth even unto its innermost parts.” We desire to exchange, question and argue among ourselves, search and find, contradict each other and move together. This free speech we enjoy within our community fuels every day. Would our enthusiasm not somehow vanish, if we stopped speaking our minds and exchanged fire for fear?

Is the classroom not the most precious place where we can light our inner fire daily? As a member of the faculty, I feel that joy the moment I enter the classroom and salute each student. I love to teach and watch students learn. I enjoy my job above all, when students persevere in their being, and increase their power to become more than who they believed they were. Looking at the students’ smiles in class or hearing their laughter is the supreme reward from a learning space that no evaluation can ever account for. As Bergson grasped, “Nature … warns us by a precise sign that our destination is reached. This sign is joy.”

How does joy come from the classroom fire? It consecrates an open space for dialogue, where ideas, whether adequate or not, are fully torn apart and discussed with a passion for reason. We are all learning, students and professors alike. We seek challenges and overcome them, sometimes. Since immemorial times, this academic space has been a gift of democracy to pursue truth together and find it surreptitiously. The moments of truth remain fugacious, but are fulfilling. Because of this very possibility, we happily reconvene, try again and again, from one class to another, from one cohort or generation to the next. It helps the members of our university strive, both as individuals and as a collective.

Together, we build a fortress that we deem impregnable.

But what if we unintentionally undermined the very foundation of our edifice? What if we started relinquishing free speech? What if, consequently, we insidiously made the whole edifice fragile? What if, then, students and teachers started entering the classroom with less fire and more fear in the belly?

Do our students seriously hold they should not challenge professors in class any longer?

Some invoke a power asymmetry, where students would be afraid of speaking up, for fear of retaliation, for example.

As an undergrad in Brussels over 30 years ago, I was appalled by a teacher justifying the deal the Nazis and the Soviets struck before the Second World War — the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, also known as the Hitler-Stalin Pact. I did not hesitate to speak my mind in class and

publicly contradicted my professor. When I met him a few weeks later, he confessed his argument was weak and that my sense of outrage made him reconsider his thinking. My contradiction did in no way impact my grade negatively. Quite the contrary!

Similarly, as a Harvard Law School graduate student, I remember challenging a professor about a legal brief he assigned to us.

In the next session, he did not retaliate at all, but urged me to fully develop my argument in front of all the students. I received an excellent grade.

So could grade retaliation be partially groundless? Deep down, do pertinent ideas from professors or students not speak for themselves? Years later, when I reflect back on the episodes above, my fears, if any, look absurd and petty. As a student, would someone pretending they fear to develop an argument in class convince you? If students do not rise up right here, when will they ever?

What about professors? If you deserve that title, do not pretend you fear students who challenge you. For sure you enjoy a fair fight, where everyone, in turn, has a chance of prevailing. Students have challenged professors for as long as education has existed.

Teachers enjoy an arena where everybody exchanges their viewpoints. They aspire to groom students who outsmart them. Nietzsche once said: “One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil.” So, as students, go on and fire at your teachers in class, courageously. They love it.

So where could the professors’ new fears originate from? A new tool, called “bias report,” has been established in the university system. Its underlying intention is to mitigate faculty bias. Instead of questioning the professor in class and discussing unpleasant ideas on the spot, students are invited to identify a professor’s isolated sentence and secretively report an alleged bias to the authorities, who become judges of professors’ adequate wording or not. Students, alone or in group, can become “serial reporters.” Instead of focusing on learning, they can dissect a few seconds of speech, take a few words out of context, and put professors and their reputation on trial. A dignified practice, no doubt...

Anonymous reporting in the wrong hands can lead to the worst horrors in history, where authorities, through secret agents, policed the thought. Without tracing it back to the Spanish inquisition or revisiting Arthur Miller’s “Why I Wrote The Crucible” (1996), let us recall the sinister young Red Guards’ abuses during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, or Soviet practice to prevent dissent.

As Sheila Fitzpatrick wrote in “The Practice of Denunciation in Stalinist Russia,”

Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

“denunciation was part of the fabric of life in Russian society for most of the 74 years of the existence of the Soviet Union, and the same was true of Eastern Europe and East Germany under their postwar Communist regimes.”

Though we trust our university authorities to never use anonymous reporting for the wrong ends, our confidence in the zealots who enjoy their new power toy is less obvious.

Strongly resisting its abuse has now become indispensable as a faculty or student. Fighting McCarthyism in her Declaration of Conscience, United States Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine) stood up for the “basic principles of Americanism: the right to criticize, the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest and the right of independent thought.” Today we have to fight a reversed McCarthyism at full speed, before it is too late and asphyxiates productive and meaningful learning.

Except in the worst-case scenarios where whistleblowing is required— such as sexual harassment or discrimination cases, or the use of fighting words— the institutional encouragement of broad anonymous denunciations must stop. It illegally curtails freedom of speech for frivolous reasons and nurtures the worst human instincts in stool pigeons. Anonymous denunciations without safeguards are incompatible with what a

democracy and a university stand for, and lead to harassment and bullying.

“Free speech” is everything but “anonymous denunciation.” The former is transparent; it supposes a dialogue among fearless citizens and allows democracies, including in the classroom, to flourish; it involves a confrontation of ideas and makes everyone responsible for what they say.

The latter is kept secret; it creates suspicion within a society and becomes the favorite instrument for authoritarian and totalitarian regimes to suppress liberties, instigate fear, let some people get away with irresponsible mischiefs, eliminate unwanted people and prohibit dissenting ideas the powerful want to eradicate.

Free speech is the best conduit at our disposal for education, knowledge, philosophies and sciences. It is what universities need most to carry on their mission. A “safe space” requires free speech, and amounts to a “brave space,” where all the protagonists share their reasoning, in full light, where our students raise their hands and express their views with faculty, engage in open conversations, rather than in secretive procedures. Let us continue to enjoy a classroom where freedom of speech is exercised by all, and where the fire in the belly eases the fear.

In choosing a career path, pursue what you enjoy the most Andrew

JACOBSON REALITY CHECK What are some of the biggest misconceptions undergraduate students have about working in the real world? I asked this question to several business professors, to which they frequently responded with things along the lines of, “they’re unprepared for the drudgery,” “unprepared for the difficult feedback,” “unprepared to just put their head down and work.”

From the minute we step onto campus, we’re told to find our passion. We’re told to explore the varied course offerings and discover which subject areas most speak to our skills and interests. That’s what I did. Until declaring my major in philosophy at the end of sophomore year, I took courses in everything from Economics and Psychology to Creative Writing and American Studies. And I ended up as a business minor looking for jobs in finance and consulting.

I appreciated my scrambled-eggs course load. In many ways, the breadth of a liberal arts education is empowering because it creates people who are broadly knowledgeable about how society functions. But I also wonder whether I was a flake — whether I stuck around just long enough to get enough information from each department before waving farewell at the increasing difficulty.

Instead of searching for our passions, maybe we’d better build them ourselves. That’s what Carol Dweck, Paul O’Keefe and Greg Walton argue in a recent paper in Psychological Science. They seek to dismantle the widespread adage that we’ll find what we love if we only search long enough and instead replace it with the more realistic trope that developed passions are the result of lots of investment of time, energy and resources over the long-run. In his 2008 book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell posits a similar theory: that it takes the enormous dedication of ten thousand hours to reach expertise, whether we’re talking about The Beatles practicing in underground German clubs

or Bill Gates coding since high school.

All of this seems to beg the question: Should we go deep or wide? This was the question I posed to Gary Gensler, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “Go deep at the beginning of your career to prove yourself,” he said, “then you can become a generalist.” He exhorted me, and us, to differentiate ourselves early on with subject-matter expertise, then, if we’d like, advise on more general issues.

Of course, developing a passion is hard work. Professor Linda Stoller said she often notices a disconnect between how meaningful students expect their work to be and how much commitment that takes. “It’s rare,” she said, “to find an interesting, empowering, challenging highpaying job where you get to come in at 9 and leave at 5.”

But even if an employee works longer hours, does that guarantee a more satisfying role? I’m not so sure. As Americans deviate from traditional communities — organized religion, social clubs and local organizations — it seems that we are increasingly looking to other areas of our lives for meaning. With the burgeoning of millennial “workaholism,” maybe work is becoming one of those areas. Many of us who have had the privilege of studying at top universities expect more from our livelihood and work experiences than just a paycheck. We expect work to be fulfilling, important and even transcendent. First we called them jobs, then careers, now callings, writes Derek Thompson in a February Atlantic piece.

Are students deluding themselves? Can we realistically expect work to satisfy our hunger for meaning? It’s an interesting question, since for much of history, the very thought would be absurd. Except for the lucky few creative types who fused their imaginative instincts with capitalist demand, the role of work was to pay the bills and buy free time. After a stressful day in the office or factory, people returned home to their spouses and children, where they fulfilled their need for human connection.

But now the question of whether we can expect more from our job matters. A common thread among the advice I garnered from professors is

to be invested in your career over a long-term period of time. In the words of Professor Grace Zimmerman, a frequent misconception is that “junior professionals will be heard and have a say in the strategic choices of a company or division.”

It’s unrealistic to expect to make significant impact early-on, she says.

Just coming out of school, there’s going to be a lot we don’t know. And for most of us non-science majors, much of what we learned at Brandeis won’t translate directly into our careers. “But your academic studies have taught you how to learn quickly,” Professor Zimmerman says. Professor Stoller echoed a similar sentiment: that despite all of our studies, someone who’s been on the job for 10 to 20 years will always be more expert than those of us in entry-level positions.

But that’s not to say our work shouldn’t matter.

Professor William Kahn of the Boston University Questrom School of Business says that work must serve more functions than just a paycheck.

Otherwise we have a utilitarian relationship with our work, in which both the company and employee use each other only to maximize earnings.

Sadly, it may be the case that this is more common than we think. According to a Gallup poll, 87 percent of employees worldwide are not engaged at work. And in his landmark 2003 essay, “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs,” anthropologist David Graeber argued that an enormous percentage of the modern workforce performs what are in essence useless jobs, from corporate lawyers to public health administrators.

Of course, there may be valid financial reasons for performing such jobs. But the degree to which we perform such work for the status alone is concerning. For one, we seem more now than before to align our job title with our identity — just take a cursory scroll through Linkedin profiles.

It’s an attractive idea: to be passionate about what you do. But perhaps it’s too elusive, and has the negative effect of placing too much pressure on students to “find what they love” when, in reality, all that’s important is to be challenged and engaged.

I’m guilty of this myself, opening nearly every

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

one of my cover letters this year with, “My name is Andrew Jacobson and I am passionate about socially-responsible investing” — articulating not only my interest in using money to do good, but also my burning passion.

David Graeber writes, “There is a whole class of salaried professionals that, should you meet them at parties and admit that you do something that might be considered interesting (an anthropologist, for example), will want to avoid even discussing their line of work entirely (one or t’other?) Give them a few drinks, and they will launch into tirades about how pointless and stupid their job really is.” This is revolutionary, and what’s happening is, according to Graeber, an act of “profound psychological violence.”

Another thing is our aversion to adversity.

Older age groups call us the “trophy generation.”

We’re supposedly fragile and coddled, disinclined to challenge and instead drawn to projects of minimal effort with high levels of praise and support. But work will bring difficulties, failure and negative feedback, says Professor Kahn. The key is to persevere and build resilience.

Carol Dweck might add the importance of having a “growth mindset.” As opposed to a “fixed mindset,” which dictates that our intelligence and capabilities are fixed, we must believe not only that growth is possible but attach ourselves to the learning process itself. With such an outlook, mistakes and failures become opportunities for growth.

If there’s anything I’ve learned from the overwhelming job-hunting process, it’s to remain focused on who you are and what you want. If I may offer a celestial metaphor from the Netflix show Shtisel, we see that the planets revolve around the sun. Now what would happen if the sun were to suddenly decide to circulate around the planets? The whole solar system would be thrown to chaos. Similarly, I believe it critical for students searching for jobs to hold their ground — just like the sun — and not lose their intentions amid a galaxy of opportunities.

“The most important thing,” says Professor Kahn, “is to be surrounded by people who will challenge you.”

THE JUSTICE ● SPORTS ● TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019

TENNIS: Judges look to rank well in UAA standings CONTINUED FROM 16 Women’s Team So far this season, the Judges have played six matches and won two of them. The first match of the season against Bates College occurred on Feb. 2. The Judges swept the doubles but did not do as well in singles.

This match was played following Division I guidelines, meaning the three doubles matches counted for only one point each. Brandeis’ lone win of the day came from Michele Lehat ’19, who won in three sets.

Team Member Keren Kromchenko ’19 went to a third set in order to break a tie, which she ultimately lost.

The next game against the Caltech Beavers resulted in an 8–1 win for the Judges. The Judges barely defeated Caltech in the first two doubles matches. Olivia Leavitt ’19 and Ana Hatfield ’22 ended up winning with

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ANTIGRAVITY

a score of 8–6. Khromchenko and Diana Dehterevich ’20 also pulled out a win.

In the third game of the season, the Judges faced and defeated the University of Redlands Bulldogs.

The first two doubles match victories were split by both competitors.

However, in singles, the Judges won the first five matches in straight sets.

On Feb. 23, the Judges fell to the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps intercollegiate team. In doubles, Brandeis picked up its win at #3, where senior Sophia He ’19 and rookie Ana Hatfield ’22 earned an 8–5 victory. Aside from this win, the Judges were defeated by their opponents.

This past Sunday, the Judges defeated Bates College 8–1. The Judges have many more games this season with the opportunity to increase their UAA standings.

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SOARIN: Brandeis' Lawrence Sabir ’21 leaps for the hoop in a game against the University of Rochester on Jan. 18.

MBBALL: Team works hard as season’s end approaches CONTINUED FROM 16 but two more free throws from Sherman brought the score to 46–41. Again pressing for points, Rutgers-Newark scored the next seven game points, putting them ahead at 48–46 with the last two points scored after a foul from the Judges. Rutgers-Newark followed with a foul of their own, and Collin Sawyer ’20 made a three-point shot that put Brandeis ahead for the rest of the game. The Judges’ defense proved to be a force that the ScarletRaiders could not overcome. The final score was 72–60.

Jones led the Judges’ to victory with a total of 17 points. Jones also led with 10 rebounds, and Lawrence Sabir ’21 led with three assists.

Leading up to this game, the Judges beat John Jay College,

Marywood College and Drew University while they worked to reach the finals. The Judges are now 4–0 in ECAC Tournament title games. They also won in 1974, 1992 and 2011, according to ECAC. Additionally, the Judges’ 18 wins in a season are the most that the Judges have seen since 2011, when the team won the ECAC finals, giving them 19 victories. This record shows how far the team has come and how much they improved this season. Under new head coach Jean Bain, the team won 11 more games than last season. The team has worked together and persevered to make this season a success, and there is no limit to what the team will be able to accomplish in the 2019-2020 season.

In an interview with the Justice, Clamage explained, "One thing that myself and everyone else on

the team has been so thankful for is the support we’ve gotten from everyone. Talking to some of the upperclassmen on the team, they told me that this year we’ve been getting some of the best fan turnouts for games that they’ve experienced in their years here. Having a great crowd for all our home games has really made playing at Brandeis special." This season had ups and down's for the Judges, who ended the season this week with a record of 18–11. The team, led by head coach Jean Bain, assistant coaches Patrick Luptowski, Sean Tabb, and L.J. Harrington and captains Corey Sherman '19 and Katye Workman '18, scored a total of 1929 points overall, and 878 points in the conference. Senior Corey Sherman will be missed on next years roster, as he scored an average of 13.8 points per game.

WBBALL: Women conclude their long season with a seven-game losing run CONTINUED FROM 16 changes in the first quarter alone, the Judges persevered, eventually distancing their score from their opponent’s.

The Judges first loss of the new year came on New Year’s Day as they were taken down by Regis College by a score of 57–62, followed by two wins during

the team’s first two games against UAA rivals New York University and Carnegie Mellon University.

The team struggled against the UAA and won only one matchup against the University of Rochester’s Yellowjackets. The UAA brought a challenge for the Judges after their NYU and Carnegie Mellon victories, when the team went on a four-game losing streak against Rochester and

then finished out their season with a seven-game losing streak.

Playing against NYU on Jan. 5, Casanueva showed off an impressive 15 points, making her the team leader. She contributed to the team by leading much of the first half and then maintaining that lead in the second half, outscoring the Violets 16–14 in the third. Casanueva then used that lead to win the game after NYU

outscored them in the fourth 22–20.

The Judges played and fell to NYU on Feb. 23. A similar situation happened with Carnegie Mellon. After the Judges won the first time facing their opponent, they lost the second time on Feb. 8. Once again this occurred with Rochester, defeating them on Jan. 27, then losing to them on Feb.3.

The Judges will enter the 20192020 season with some room for

improvement. As their season comes to a close, it is time to train for next year to become a cohesive unit that can work together to take on more UAA rivals, as the team struggled this year to bring home many wins.

However, the team was able to achieve seven impressive victories of the 24 games played, meaning the team has plenty of potential to succeed in the future.

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JUDGES BY THE NUMBERS

● SPORTS ●

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019

15

SWIM AND DIVE

MEN’S BASKETBALL UAA STANDINGS

Emory Rochester WashU Chicago JUDGES Carnegie Case NYU

UAA Conf.

W L D 11 3 0 10 4 0 10 4 0 8 6 0 7 7 0 6 8 0 2 12 0 2 12 0

TEAM STATS

Points Per Game

Overall W L D Pct. 20 6 0 .769 21 6 0 .778 17 8 0 .680 15 10 0 .600 18 11 0 .621 11 14 0 .440 9 16 0 .360 8 17 0 .320

Corey Sherman ’19 leads the team with 13.8 points per game.

Player PPG Corey Sherman 13.8 Chandler Jones 12.6 Eric D’Aguanno 11.8 Collin Sawyer 10.8

Rebounds Per

Chandler Jones ’21 leads the team with 6.4 rebounds per game.

Player REB/G Chandler Jones 6.4 Latye Workman 5.9 Lawrence Sabir 3.9 Eric D’Aguanno 3.8

EDITOR’S NOTE: Men’s season has concluded

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL UAA STANDINGS UAA Conf.

W L D WashU 13 1 0 Chicago 10 4 0 Emory 10 4 0 Case 7 7 0 NYU 6 8 0 Rochester 4 10 0 Carnegie 3 11 0 JUDGES 3 11 0

TEAM STATS

Points Per Game

Overall W L D Pct. 21 6 0 .778 19 7 0 .731 19 7 0 .731 15 10 0 .600 17 10 0 .630 10 15 0 .400 12 13 0 .480 7 17 0 .292

EDITOR’S NOTE: Women’s season has concluded

Camila Casaneuva ’21 leads the team with 14.8 points per game.

Player Camila Casaneuva Sarah Jaromin Jillian Petrie Shannon Smally

PPG 14.8 9.5 9.0 8.8

Rebounds Per Game Hannah Nicholson ’20 leads the team with 7.2 rebounds per game.

Player REB/G Hannah Nicholson 6.8 Camila Casaneuva 6.0 Sarah Jaromin 5.5 Jillian Petrie 5.4

SWIMMING AND DIVING Results from the meet on Feb. 21.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s) 50-yard Freestyle

SWIMMER TIME Tamir Zitelny 21.19 Marc Ohno-Machado 22.31 Chase Chen 22.38

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s) 50-yard Freestyle

SWIMMER TIME Lauren Howard 25.22 Uajda Musaku 25.53 Sophia Chevez 26.16

EDITOR’S NOTE: Season has concluded

TRACK AND FIELD Results from the UAA Championship on Feb. 23.

TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)

TOP FINISHERS (Women’s)

60 Meter Dash

200 Meter Dash

RUNNER TIME Charlie Regan 7.14 Lorenzo Maddox 7.21 Jacob Ward 7.45

RUNNER TIME Devin Hiltunen 26.39 Anna Touitou 27.43 Kayla Brown 27.76

EDITOR’S NOTE: March 8 at NCAA Championship March 30 at Snowflake Classic

JEN GELLER/Justice File Photo

SINK OR SWIM: Brandeis swimmers dive head-first into their meet against Merrimack College on Jan. 13.

Judges swim out of their 2018–2019 season ■ Judges end their season by claiming a silver medal in NEISDAs.

By ELLIE WHISENANT JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

While the rest of the student body was on February break, the Brandeis women’s and men’s swim and dive teams were hard at work, breaking records and swimming personal bests at both the University Athletic Association Championship at the University of Chicago and the the New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association Championship Championship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Though the Judges had placed eighth at the UAAs just a week before, this result had no effect on morale, as they placed second overall at the NEISDA. At Chicago, Tamir Zitelny ’20 and Daniel Wohl ’21 carried the men’s team, with Zitelny swimming nine personal bests and Wohl walking away with six. Though the team did not perform best overall, Zitelny has reason to celebrate. He swam a qualifying ‘B’ cut of 49.76

seconds for NCAAs, making this his third NCAA qualifying time of his career. He also set three school records, breaking one of his own previous records. On the women’s side, Kylie Herman ’19, Claire Xu ’22 and Gazelle Umbay ’22 were the highest point earners for the team.

The women’s A relay team took eighth in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:40.06 seconds.

Though the Judges did not perform their best, the NEISDA provided them with a second chance.

For the men’s team, Zitelny and Richard Selznick ’21 came in fourth and fifth, respectively, as overall top swimmers, while the team claimed second place.

Zitelny and Selznick each won one silver medal and two golds.

Zitelny swam nine personal bests and claimed second place in the 100-yard freestyle and first in both the 100-yard backstroke and the butterfly. In the 100-yard freestyle, Zitelny took second place with a time of 46.05, just three-hundredths of a second slower than first place.

He set the NEISDA record in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 50.07 seconds. While Zitelny also won the 100-yard butterfly, Brandeis’ Matthew Acremont ’20 swam into second place with a time

just 1.3 seconds slower, making 51 seconds flat his personal best.

Selznick claimed second in the 500-yard freestyle. He also won both the 400-yard individual medley and the mile free with times of 4:09.08 seconds and 16:32.55 seconds, respectively. In the 400-yard individual medley, he was over 4 seconds ahead of second place.

Overall, the men’s team came back with five gold medals and six silvers. The women’s team was also competitive at NEISDA as they came in third place with three gold medals and two silver medals, with rookie Xu laying claim to two of these golds. Xu swam a personal best of 58.03 seconds in the 100yard backstroke, bringing her in at first place, while Brandeis swimmer Audrey Kim ’21 came in second place with a time of 59.76 seconds — also a personal best.

Xu also claimed first in the 50 yard backstroke, winning by more than 1.5 seconds with a time of 26.38 seconds. Though she did not place, Xu dropped an unbelievable 8.5 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle since swimming it in October.

As the season comes to an end, the Judges finish strong with incredible team wins and many personal bests.

PRO SPORTS BRIEF MLB superstars Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado get their contracts signed Major League Baseball has recently been at the top of the sports headlines with massive contracts being signed by three of the sport’s biggest stars: Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. These deals are, in total, worth about $1 billion dollars — a sum unrivaled by any of the other other major American professional sports organizations. In an era of astronomical television deals being signed by just about every team, franchises have more cash to spend on free-agents and contract extensions to retain current players. These television deals have increased revenue for the sport by 257 percent from the period between 1995 to 2013. Whether or not these

contracts are justified is a matter of debate, but what is clear are the new expectations that the market has created, as explained in a 2013 sabr.org.

The first free agent taken off the block was Manny Machado, the elite 26-year-old two-way infielder who signed on Feb. 21 with the San Diego Padres. The deal is for 10 years, with an opt out clause after year five, and worth millions of dollars.

Since entering the major leagues, Machado has proven that he is a one-of-a-kind defender, dishing out show-stopping plays from shortstop, as well as third base seemingly on a daily basis. His hitting skills have also improved year after year, which is exemplified by his jump

from a .267 average in his rookie year to batting .297 last year. He is also now consistently putting up large power numbers, clubbing at least 33 home runs in each of the last four seasons, according to www. baseball-reference.com.

The second deal was not a free agent signing, but rather a contract extension for the Colorado Rockies’ franchise cornerstone Nolan Arenado. The extension was signed on Feb. 27 for a duration of eight years and was worth $260 million.

Arenado is a case of another third baseman who flashes otherworldly defensive skills, consistently positioning himself at the top of highlight reels. He, like Machado, has overcome his low .267 rookie

season, with his annual batting average hovering around .300. At 27-years-old and only just entering his prime, he has become an absolute presence in the middle of the Rockies batting order, making hitting 40 home runs and driving in 125 runs seem routine. Although he is playing half his games in a hitter’s park, these numbers cannot be ignored.

Lastly, perhaps baseball’s most notorious of them all, super-star outfielder Bryce Harper signed the biggest total contract in baseball history worth $ 330 million, edging out Giancarlo Stanton’s recordbreaking contract by $5 million.

His deal will cement him to the Philadelphia Phillies for 13 years

with no possibility for opting out.

He was one of the most hyped players in the history of baseball from a high-school age, which left high expectation to live up to. Although he has not become the best player in the majors, he still puts up incredible slugging numbers and flashes the skills of a true five tool player. It must be admitted, that his batting average can at times be subpar, but his plate discipline, leads him to achieve a high on base percentage. Although there is still much to be desired from Harper, he is undoubtedly committed to beginning a dynasty in Philadelphia, and at 26 years old, his best playing seasons are yet to come.

— Brian Inker

just Sports Page 16

MLB SUPERSTAR CONTRACTS The significance of contracts signed by Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper and Manny Machad, p. 15.

Waltham, Mass.

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

BALLIN

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Men become 2019 ECAC Champions ■ Judges win their fourth

crown in Brandeis University program’s history.

By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis men’s basketball team has concluded their season as Eastern College Athletic Conference champions, winning their fourth crown in the Brandeis University program’s history, according to the Brandeis Athletics website. The Judges finished their season with an impressive record of 18–11 overall and 7–7 in the University Athletic Association.

First Half According to the ECAC, this was the Judges’ first postseason trip since 2011, and they defeated the Rutgers-Newark College Scarlet Raiders by a score of 72–60. During the first half of play, neither team won decisively. There were a total of ten ties and eight lead changes throughout the game. The largest lead of the first half came from senior Corey Sherman when he

made a layup at 14:11, bringing the score to 11–7, still only a four point difference. At halftime, the Judges had a small lead of 31–29, representative of the even match between the teams. In that first half, however, Chandler Jones ’21 put on an impressive performance.

He scored 12 points in the first half and played for all 20 minutes. In addition, he contributed seven rebounds to the first half.

Second Half The second half began similarly to the first with two more ties, but after going behind to the Judges by three points — 34–31 — the Scarlet Raiders scored the game’s next six points. This gave the Raiders their largest lead. While the score was 37–34, the Judges called a time out, after which they scored the game’s next ten points, putting them back in the lead. After Sherman scored four free throws on fouls from Rutgers-Newark, the Judges were up 44–37 with 16:25 left in the game.

Pushing back against the Judges, the Scarlet Raiders scored the game’s next four points,

See MBBALL, 13

☛

TENNIS

Both men’s and women’s teams continue to serve their opponents ■ Men’s and women’s

tennis teams have 5–1 and 3–2 records respectively this season.

By MEGAN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis men’s and women’s tennis teams have many matches ahead of them and many chances to rank well in University Athletic Association Standings. The men, currently posting an overall score of 5–1, have defeated the California Institute of Technology Beavers, Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens, the University of Redlands Bulldogs and the Bryant University Bulldogs. The women, on the other hand, posting 2–2, have defeated the Beavers and the University of Redlands Bulldogs this season.

Men’s Team So far, the men’s team has completed six matches this season and has served many opponents.

The Judges’ first match was on Feb. 18 against the California Institute of Technology Beavers. This season opener’s victory was tightened by the strong doubles matches played by duo Rajan Vohra ’21 and Tyler Ng ’19, scoring 8–6, as well as Jeffrey Chen ’22 and Adam Tzeng ’22, scoring 8–4. The final duo of the day was David Aizenberg ’20 and Anupreeth Coramutla ’21, who defeated their opponents from a 7–4 tie and won the match 8–7. The success of the doubles was critical, as the Judges had been defeated in

ZOE BRODSKY/Justice File Photo

FOCUS: Brandeis’ Maya Burris ’22 attempts a foul shot in the game against University of Rochester on Feb. 3.

four of six singles matches.

Their next match occured on Feb. 19 against Pomona-Pitzer. This match, the Sagehens won two of three doubles. The Judges continued to fight back against their opponents until the end, where the Judges were victorious.

The third match of the season, the Judges crushed the University of Redlands Bulldogs. The Judges won the first three singles matches in straight sets and swept the day’s doubles matches.

The next meet occured Feb. 23 ,when the Judges faced the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps intercollegiate team. The men’s team suffered its first loss of the season with a score of 8–1. The single point of the meet came from the doubles’ match, where the duo Tzeng and Chen pulled out a victory of 8–6.

This past Saturday, the Judges defeated the Bryant University Bulldogs. The team defeated their opponents in four of six doubles matches. Ng and Colt Tegtmeier ’22 ended with their first victory of the season together. In addition, Aizenburg and Coramutla won their match 6–4.

On Sunday, the Judges faced Bates College, a game which ended in victory for the Judges. In doubles, Aizenberg and Coramutla won 8–5 against their opponents. Also in doubles, Tzeng and Tegtmeier won 8–5. The final doubles team, Tzeng and Chen, crushed their opponents, ending with a score of 8–2. The team was also very successful with singles in the matches. Overall, the Judges beat Bates College 7–2.

See TENNIS, 13

☛

Judges’ season comes to an end on Saturday with a 7-game losing streak ■ Women’s Baskeball team

finished their season with a 64–58 loss against NYU.

By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR

The Brandeis Women’s Basketball team has concluded their 2018-2019 season with a final record of 7–17 overall and a 3–11 record in the University Athletic Association. The Judges had an record of 4–9 at home in the Red Auerbach Arena and 3–8 away, according to the Brandeis Athletics website.

The season began on the right foot for the Judges as they defeated Rivier College on Nov. 16 at the Brandeis Invitational with a score of 81–66, with Sarah Jaromin ’19 as the star of the show. With 19 points scored, 11 rebounds and four assists, she led the team to their first victory of the season. The team

led 25–14 after the first quarter, an advantage that helped give the Judges the momentum to win the game. However, the very next day in that invitational, the Judges fell to Western Connecticut State in the Championships with a score of 104– 95. Shannon Smally ’22 was a force to be reckoned with for the Judges, scoring 21 of the team’s overall points and contributing 12 rebounds. This loss put the team even in their overall record.

Following their loss to Western Connecticut State, the team fell to Emmanuel College and Tufts University home and away, respectively, before pulling off another victory against Salem State University on Nov. 27. By a score of 74–61, the team ended a three game losing streak as Camila Casanueva ’21 scored a career-high of 30 points.

Smally again led in rebounds with a total of nine. Kat Puda ’21 also led with five assists. Although the

Vikings scored more points than the Judges in the third quarter, the Judges led at the end of every quarter overall.

In December, the Judges won half of their games. First they conquered Johnson and Wales University by a score of 77–60, with Jaromin leading with a career-high 25 points and 12 assists. However, Amber Graves ’20 led the team with 13 assists. The Judges flew out of the gates in this game, leading after the first quarter 29–17. and maintained their lead at the conclusion of each quarter of the game. This victory was followed by two losses — Babson College with a score of 59–66 and Gordon College 48–57. However, the Judges fought back to overcome Roger Williams 61–41. Junior Hannah Nicholson led with 15 points and Kerry Tanke ’22 with seven rebounds. Graves led with a total of six assists. In a game that included one tie and four lead

See WBBALL, 13

☛

Vol. #18 Vol. LXXI LXX #2

M H

A P A

March12, 5, 2018 September 2017

“Dare to Dream� just

Arts

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Waltham, Mass.

Images: Sarah Katz/the Justice, Natalia Wiater/the Justice, Creative Commons. Design: Andrew Baxter/the Justice.

18

THE TUESDAY, JUSTICE MARCH | ARTS5, | 2019 TUESDAY, I ARTS JANUARY I THE JUSTICE 31, 2017

OSCARS

Photo Illustration by MAYA ZANGER-NADIS, Images Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

Kent’s 2019 scars Recap: SAD!

By KENT DINLENC JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

We did it, everyone. We solved racism. Inverse “Driving Miss Daisy” won best picture, finally giving two Oscars to the man who brought us Cameron Diaz using ejaculate as hair gel in “There’s Something About Mary” and Jeff Daniels violently pooping in “Dumb and Dumber.” Remember its sequel? Remember that Three Stooges movie or that god-awful “Movie 43?”

Because I sure don’t. A movie with solid performances from Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen has convinced baby boomers that we all just need to love each other, and we’re all the same deep down. How broad and lacking in nuance. “Based on a true friendship.” — What a horrible tagline. Judging by the characters’ actual families’ denuncation of “Green Book” as “a symphony of lies,” this tagline isn’t even true!

“Green Book” tirade aside, this article is about the 91st Oscars, which aired on Feb. 24. If you’re here to watch me tear apart this distribution of participation trophies and paychecks to old and elite filmmakers, you’ve come to the right place. I’ll admit it; the first half of the show was good. The hostless ceremony went smoothly, without the obligatory cringe-inducing monologue. Instead, we got a medley of Queen songs, one of many shout-outs to “Bohemian Rhapsody” that almost made me worry it was going to win best picture.

How does a film that has become a meme for poor editing win in that field? So what if the last scene does a near-perfect recreation of Queen’s Live Aid concert? That credit goes to the director, but justifiably nobody wants to acknowledge Bryan Singer’s involvement at the moment. If anything, it validates the film’s wins in the sound categories for Malek’s lip-syncing, even though I would’ve

preferred the recognition be split between “Roma” and “A Quiet Place.”

The film sacrifices the audience’s comfort in exchange for scenes of dialogue with nauseating cuts, so each band member gets equal screen time.

“Black Panther” got as much as it deserved, apart from its best picture nomination. I was glad to see Ludwig Goransson take home the prize for best score, as it was thoroughly researched for months and was a personal favorite among the five nominees. Its wins for costume and production design were a toss-up with “The Favourite,” but were earned and hardly upsets.

Speaking of which, “The Favourite” performed admirably. Though I would’ve strongly preferred it win best picture (I’m looking at you, Farrelly), I was happy with its original screenplay win. It was a close second pick for me after “First Reformed,” but at least my prediction wasn’t all that cynical. Olivia Colman’s win over Glenn Close was a pleasure as

well, since career awards reek of insincerity. They usually overshadow underrated performances and create a vicious cycle. In 2002, for example, Al Pacino won for “Scent of a Woman,” while Denzel Washington in “Malcolm X” was overlooked.

Then Washington got his own award for “Training Day,” giving accolades to a bloated performance of a caricature. Most recently we saw more career wins for Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Revenant” and Gary Oldman for “Darkest Hour.”

But I digress. Close was the shining star in an otherwise dull film, but Colman deserved the award more.

Spike Lee was a big personality that night, too. Apart from the fact that he looked like Waluigi, he took home a well-deserved Oscar for “BlacKkKlansman.” His speech was a little long and a little blunt, but nonetheless important, like his films.

Still, you can’t beat Samuel L. Jackson’s reaction when he announced his longtime friend as the winner.

This year’s ceremony was a solid, entertaining show, but it was still an elitist showcase of the influential nature of well-endowed Oscar campaigns. “Roma” spent as much as $60 million in a marketing campaign to get Cuarón three wins in one night, $45 million more than its actual production budget. That’s more than the gross domestic product of the island nation of Tuvalu.

“Green Book” spent $30 million for its morally questionable director to win two Oscars; as well as its writer/producer Nick Vallelonga, who looks suspiciously like Antonin Scalia come back to life to make sure “RBG” didn’t win Best Documentary. Apart from Mahershala Ali, Don Shirley was absent from the acknowledgements in making this film. Seriously, the entire night the producers didn’t even thank the late jazz musician. If we really want to pat ourselves on the back for being inclusive to diversity, we should do it where it counts.

THEATER REVIEW

Hold Thy Peace takes us back to high school

By LUKE LIU

JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

This weekend, Brandeis’ Hold Thy Peace presented their spring semester play “Much Ado About Nothing,” an adaption of the classic romantic comedy with a twist. Directed

by Olivia Ellson ’21, the play tells the story of Benedick and Beatrice, two merry rivals, discovering their affection toward each other while trying to save the jeopardized relationship between Benedick’s friend Claudio and Beatrice’s sister Hero. This time, however, instead of princes, soldiers and a masquerade ball, the story is set in an American high school, with basketball players and prom.

The performance quality of the show was one of its strong suits. As with many of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies, much of the lay’s humor relies on the dialogue. Not only was the script delivered with almost no mistakes, several performances were quite outstanding, namely Benedick played by Elizabeth Gentile ’20 and Beatrice played by Halley Geringer ’19. The two actresses carried out a considerable amount of the heated conversations in the play. Equally remarkable were Tess Kowalski ’21 and Leanna Ugent ’22 as the police duo Dogberry and Verges respectively, who offered some of the funniest performances.

Throughout the show, deception is used both to sprout and to ruin relationships. Those situations were played out with the help of

the ingenious stage design. In one scene, two characters have a conversation to intentionally “leak” information to Benedick, who’s in hiding. Instead of building large sets and extravagant props, the show had the audience sit on both sides of the stage and used them as cover for Benedick. Besides that, the production really made a big effort to merge the high school element into the story. Whenever Don Pedro, the captain of the basketball team, came onto the stage, the audience heard the sound of dribbling. When Beatrice tries to eavesdrop on a conversation in the gym, she uses the yoga mats as cover. All of those details added a layer of humor that was rather refreshing for those who are familiar with the original story — not an easy feat when dealing with something written by one of the most talented playwrights on record.

While the high school premise does give the show a fresh look, it also creates certain issues with the script, mainly conflicts of tone. Choosing to stay loyal to the original, this adaptation didn’t make many changes to the script, which often stands out when the dialogue doesn’t match the context. It is hard to become deeply invested in the story when someone’s talking about high school student Benedick’s glorious work as a soldier, or when Beatrice asks Benedick to slay his classmate Claudio. While there have been similar adaptations of the same play with a modern twist, most of them keep a relatively similar context to the original

story, such as having Benedick and his friends as a group of navy soldiers in the ’80s. Setting the story in an American high school is a tough task, and it takes more than costumes and pop music for the theme to merge with the script.

At the same time, certain elements of the stage design also diminish the quality of the show. As I mentioned above, certain parts of the play required the actors to move off the center of the stage and into the audience.

While breaking the fourth wall makes it an unique experience for the audiences compared to traditional theater, it also makes it

Photos by THU LE/the Justice

ONE OF MANY STARS: Halley Geringer ’19 as Beatrice is one of the many outstanding performaners in the show.

PRINCE OF BASKETBALL: His second time in the role, Harrison Carter ’22 was cast as royalty in a Shakespeare play.

DECEPTIONS: A recurring theme of the play is the masks people put on in front of the others versus their true selves.

hard for some of the audience to see or hear the performances. In one particular scene, there were performers in front of and behind me, making it very difficult to focus on either.

The volume of the music played during the show could also be too loud at times, especially while characters were having conversations.

All that said, “Much Ado About Nothing” is a hilarious play with great performances and a unique premise. It takes courage and hard work to take risks with such a well-known play, and for that, I applaud the effort put into this production.

THE JUSTICE I ARTS I TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019

19

FILM REVIEW

‘Alita: Battle Angel’ proves a mixed bag

By LUKE LIU

JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS

WASTED TALENT: Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly plays a minor role in the film, as do several other critically-acclaimed actors.

When I went to see “Alita: Battle Angel,” adapted from Yukito Kishiro’s manga series “Gunnm,” written by James Cameron and directed by Robert Rodriguez, I expected nothing but jaw-dropping special effects and thrilling action sequences — and I left the theater satisfied.

Ever since it was announced that the protagonist Alita would be filmed entirely with motion capture technology, many have worried that she would look unnatural among real flesh-and-blood actors.

Indeed, her impossibly large eyes and heart-shaped face would look unnatural in most other contexts.

However, it doesn’t stand out at all in this film’s universe, thanks not only to the performance capture technology, but also to Rodriguez’s superior action direction. In a world full of human beings with mechanic body parts, Alita is the only human-shaped cyborg. The seemingly-fragile and unarmed teenage girl taking apart gigantic cyborgs with weaponized limbs creates a sense of aesthetically appealing violence that is rarely seen in conventional motion pictures today. Known for stylish usage of violence in his restricted-rated

works, I am impressed by the director’s ability to keep utilizing his strength in a PG-13 rated movie.

That said, the flaws of the film stand out as much as the achievements. Compared to the outstanding visual design, the script is mediocre at best. To make the story more suitable to a larger market it was intentionally condensed to include as much information as it can in two hours. However, while the fans of the manga are satisfied with the iconic scenes, the price is that none of the characters have space to grow. At the very beginning, Alita was introduced as a nervous teenage girl with no memory of the world. In a few days, we see a fearless warrior taunting fighters in a bar.

The “coming-of-age” part of the character’s journey was entirely skipped. The whole movie feels like a stage by stage video game, and one just needs to fight an enemy and move on to the next one.

As far as the supporting characters go, the film unfortunately mismatches the performance qualities of the actors and the depth of the characters they portray. Doctor Ido, the father figure played by Christoph Waltz, could have a significant influence on Alita’s growth as a person, yet

the actor is given nothing to work with. Same goes for Jennifer Connelly as master engineer Chiren, and Mahershala Ali as the representative of the sky city Zalem, which makes one wonder why the film needed such a talented cast if all they were given to do was read lines. On the other hand, the male protagonist Hugo, played by Keean Johnson, is an extremely important character in the story.

His inglorious background represents the more realistic side of the cruel world they live in, where the only way to achieve his dream is to step on everyone else’s. However, the unconventional male protagonist turns out to be far less interesting and powerful due to the extremely conventional performances and dialogues.

After the film ended, I went back and read the Battle Angel: Alita manga by Yukito Kishiro. While being very stylish and creative, the original story has a lot of pacing issues and out of place humor.

In a way, the film stays loyal to its origins, both its positives and negatives. While I do wish that the film had exceeded the book like many classic science fiction adaptations do, I had a great time watching “Alita: Battle Angel” and cannot wait to see the sequel in the future.

ROSE ART MUSEUM

SCRAM and BAMCO put on a show

By ELLA RUSSELL JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

On March 1, the Student Committee for the Rose Art Museum and the Brandeis Association for Music and Concert Organizers hosted the SCRAMCo coffeehouse, an event filled with performances from Brandeis students and visiting musicians.

Before the music started, the audience milled around the museum, eat-

ing snacks and enjoying the featured exhibit from artist Howardena Pindell.

The concert was held after normal museum hours, so the audience could explore the Rose without being impeded by the usual crowds of museumgoers.

The music started half an hour into the event. Dim purple lights illuminated the concert room, and the audience sat in a circle around the performers, emphasizing the concert’s cozy informal setting.

Four Brandeis students kicked off the event.

Nia Peace Duncan ’20 and Jordan Mudd ’20 were on vocals, with Mudd also playing guitar. Olivia Nichols ’20 played saxophone and Siwar Mansour ’20 played the violin.

They performed the indie song “Lonely World” by Moses Sumney, along with original blues songs and spoken word poetry.

After the students, the two headliners of the concert performed their original work.

Raavi and the Houseplants (sans her houseplants) came from Arlington, Mass. and Lady Queen Paradise from Providence, R.I.

Both musicians played indie rock style music on vocals and guitar. Raavi sang about mundane, relatable experiences growing up; for example, one piece was about the loneliness she felt when she decided to stay home while her friends all hung out without her. Lady Queen Paradise concluded SCRAMCo coffeehouse with her “slumber rock” tunes.

The music of this concert created a gloomy and peaceful atmosphere, a fitting way to end the last week of February.

Photos by SARAH KATZ/the Justice

SANS HOUSEPLANTS: Raavi and the Houseplants sang about her coming of age experiences.

ACOUSTIC VIBES: Lady Queen Paradise concluded the show with “slam rock.”

SONGS AND POETRY: Olivia Nichols ’20, Siwar Mansour ’20 and Jordan Mudd ’20 performed their original songs and poetry.

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TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019 | ARTS | THE JUSTICE

INTERVIEW

JUSTARTS SPOTLIGHT ON THE ROSE

By ELIANA PADWA JUSTICE EDITOR

I think everyone goes through a phase where they’re a little obsessed with genetics. Briefly, it becomes fascinating that we are all shaped by a code that we cannot see, that we are controlled by instructions we did not give. No one really knows how much their DNA influences them: We’re barraged by articles about generational trauma and genetically-sensitive diets, and then hear all about socialization and environmental influence.

Visiting the Rose Art Museum last week, I was struck by Howardena Pindell’s 2012 “Pindell/DNA,” a piece exploring the role our genetic ancestry plays in self-identity. In the work, watercolor hands overlap, juxtaposed with snippets from a DNA test. Underneath is a photo of Pindell, hands out — accepting the information? Pushing it away?

Pindell looks overwhelmed, and I would be too. She has admitted to being slightly obsessed with her own ancestry, per a Feb. 6, 2018 Artnews article. For her, it is a way of exploring her history. In “Pindell/ DNA,” the text fragments reveal the hundreds of nationalities that each contributed less than one percent to her genes. It is too much information for any one person to know, because what does that really tell you?

Per the drawing’s caption, the strands of information point to the roles that “immigration, colonization, and other social and political factors” have played in Pindell’s family history. She is from Europe, Africa, India and many other places.

Throughout most of world history, people have been reshuffled, pushed around, forcibly reorganized. Even when we see our own lives as stable, many of us can look two or three generations back and find conflict. I find that pattern, echoed back over multiple centuries, nearly devastating.

At the Rose, this piece stood out to me because Pindell’s reaction to the information — slight befuddlement — felt very real. Those in my generation are the first to grow up knowing that our whole genetic code is available through a mail-order kit.

The implication has always been that more knowledge is better, that knowing the exact percentages will tell us something about ourselves.

But I disagree; unlocking my own genetic code would just give me more questions.

STAFF’S Top Ten

ANDREW BAXTER/ the Justice

Top Ten Presidential Candidates

By Yael Hanadari-Levy JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSITANT

The 2020 presidential election is now about a year and a half away, which of course means it’s time to put all our hope behind a single politician and refuse to vote for anyone else no matter what. Here are some potential candidates I’d destroy lifelong friendships over in an ideal world.

1. The ghost of Karl Marx 2. Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton 3. Barack Quincy Obama 4. Alex Chang 5. Martin O’Malley 2.0 6. Amazon, the company 7. Amazon, the rainforest 8. My dog, Tundra 9. Cut out the middleman: make it Putin 10. Some bland white centrist who lost an election in Texas

Olivia Ellson ’21

Photo Courtesy of OLIVIA ELLSON

This week, justArts spoke with Olivia Ellson ’21, who directed “Much Ado About Nothing.”

ELIANA PADWA/the Justice

JustArts: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your experience with theater.

Olivia Ellson: I’m a sophomore this year, majoring in English with a minor in Theatre. I started doing theatre in high school, coming at it mostly from an acting perspective, but over the last couple of years I’ve been moving towards the writing-anddirecting side of things. Earlier this semester, my play “Forecast” was featured in the Undergraduate Theater Collective’s student-written play festival, Quickies, and obviously I directed “Much Ado,” as well.

JA: What made you want to direct “Much Ado About Nothing”?

OE: I love reading, watching and working with Shakespeare in any capacity, and “Much Ado About Nothing” is one of my favorite of his comedies. I was originally drawn to the show because of the love story between Beatrice and Benedick, but I as I read over the play more, I became equally interested in the romantic tragedy of Claudio and Hero, not to mention the outrageous comedy of the Watchmen. It’s been a dream of mine for years to work on a production of it, so I’m very grateful to Hold Thy Peace for giving me this opportunity.

MEGAN GELLER/the Justice

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 10-Down, e.g.

4 21-Across, e.g.

7 55-Across, e.g.

10 41-Down, e.g.

13 Is influential 15 Make excited 17 John Le Carré characters 19 College application submission 20 Make excited 21 4-Across flavor 24 ____ al Ghul (Batman villain) 27 ____ Terrier 29 Title of the most recent “Star Wars Story” 30 Carried 32 Charged particle 33 Animal foot 34 Become a virtuoso at 35 Crazy 36 Drescher of “The Nanny” 38 Protagonist of a story 40 Says yes to 43 California river 45 It happens before surgery 49 Gumshoe 50 One using an adhesive 51 Wear out 52 Color akin to blue 54 Relaxing resort 25 English king of legend 55 7-Across flavor 26 Evil look 56 Certain corps.

28 “Lord of the Rings” creature 58 Nixon defense secretary 30 Do damage to, as a car 61 What this puzzle started as?

31 Make a mistake 67 “Say something funny!”

34 Sends 68 Type of servitude 37 “Notorious” justice’s 69 AOC, for one monogram 70 One may be mortal 39 Chose to take part 71 Patriotic fraternal org.

40 Like some medicine (Abbr.)

72 Neither’s partner 41 10-Across flavor 42 Grow proportionally bigger DOWN 44 Bobby of the “Chicago 1 Greek letter Eight” 2 McKellen of “Lord of the 46 Flair of wrestling Rings” 47 Time period 3 The “e” of i.e.

48 Animal enclosure 4 Sign of life 53 Long-running crime show 5 What Pandora unleashed on 55 Richard of “Stir Crazy” the world 57 Classic console 6 Director Kazan 59 Poisonous snakes 7 Second of April?

60 Swedish furniture chain 8 Quaint lodging 61 Course number?

9 What Paul Revere did for a 62 “Gross, don’t tell me that!” career 63 Rooster’s mate 10 1-Across flavor 64 Author Brown 11 Words after “peek-a-boo” 65 Freudian subject 12 Shakespearean contraction 66 ____ Lingus 14 Remove, in a way 16 Casual greetings 18 Greek restaurant offerings 21 Fireplace residue 22 Nanki-___ (“The Mikado” role) 23 Arafat’s grp.

Crossword Courtesy of EVAN MAHNKEN

JA: One of the premises of your version of the play is having the story set in a school.

Was it difficult to adapt the changes over a classic?

OE: Honestly, no, it wasn’t really all that difficult. One of the reasons Shakespeare is so brilliant, and why his plays have been so popular for so long, is that they are so easily transferable across time and place. When you break down the plot, it’s essentially a story of first love, gossip, slut-shaming and melodrama; there’s nothing more high school than that. Of course, some of the language is a little antiquated, but once you find modern day equivalents, the audience can follow along pretty quick: Soldiers become athletes, a wedding becomes a promposal, etc. Underneath those surface level changes, the action and the emotions of the story stay the same.

JA: “Much Ado About Nothing” is famous for the bickering between characters, and a large part of that is relies heavily on the dialogue, which can be quite demanding for the cast. Has that been a challenge for the production?

OE: One of the biggest challenges of this production was our very short time frame.

From our first rehearsal to opening night, we had only five weeks, even less because February break was stuck in the middle of that, so we ended up having only 19 rehearsals. The amount of fast-paced, wordy dialogue that had to be memorized in that amount of time was definitely difficult, and it’s a testament to the incredible talents and hard work of the cast that we managed to pull it off, and I really cannot thank them enough.

JA: After this show, are there other plays or genres that you would like to work on in the future?

OE: “Much Ado” has been such a whirlwind, I’ve barely had a moment to think about what comes next. I think I want to take a break from Shakespeare for a while and do something more modern next, but I don’t have anything specific in mind.

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

OE: I want to give a little shout-out to everyone in the cast, crew, and Hold Thy Peace. Their support, their passion, and their absolutely fantastic work is what really made “Much Ado” possible.

Solution Courtesy of EVAN MAHNKEN

—Luke Liu