The Justice, March 9, 2010

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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Volume LXII, Number 20

Waltham, Mass.

STUDENT UNION

ADMINISTRATION

Constitution committee reports

Reinharz proposes creation of raise pool

■ The Constitutional Review

Committee proposed 11 amendments to the existing Student Union Constitution.

By EMILY KRAUS JUSTICE EDITOR

The Constitutional Review Committee released its report Sunday proposing changes to the structure of the Student Union, club funding and election procedures. The proposals will be voted on by the student body March 18, according to Jessica Steinberg ’10, the committee’s chair.

The report was presented to the Student Union Senate Sunday night, where each of the 11 proposed amendments received at least the 10 votes necessary to put it up for a vote by the student body.

According to Article XIII, Section 1 of the current Student Union Constitution, “Every four years there shall be established an independent Constitutional Review Task Force charged with conducting a full review of all aspects of the Union, including the operation of clubs, Secured Organizations, and Union Government.”

The committee, which which had its first meeting Nov. 14, 2009, has been discussing proposals and holding town hall meetings for students to voice their opinions. The committee is composed of students from various constituencies, such as secured groups, the Senate, community advisors, artistic and performance organizations and religious organizations.

The report proposes a change to what is currently the Student Union Senate, which would be renamed the “Student Union Assembly.”

According to the recommendations, the positions of senators representing residence quads would be eliminated.

The Assembly would be composed of two representatives from each class year, one representative for midyears, one for students in the

Transitional Year Program, a renamed Racial Minority Senator who would represent “historically underrepresented races” and two senators-at-large. The Assembly would function in a similar way to the current Senate, but it would no longer be responsible for matters involving clubs; a Club Support Board would be added to handle those matters.

Regarding the change from the name “Racial Minority Senator” to “Representative for Historically Underrepresented Races,” Steinberg said that the term “racial minority … can often be taken in a negative way, so they wanted to institute a name change to make it a little clearer and also a little bit more modern.”

■ The proposed pool would

enable wage increases for faculty and staff who make under $150,000 per year in base compensation.

CRC proposals

By MIRANDA NEUBAUER JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

☛ See page 6 for a list of proposed changes to the Union Constitution.

Krauss established the Brandeis 2020 Committee in January after the Board of Trustees mandated reductions in the academic commitments of the School of Arts and Sciences to ensure the long-term financial health of the University, a concern Meyer Koplow ’72, chair of the Board’s Budget and Finance Committee, communicated at a special faculty meeting Jan. 20.

In her report addressing the 2020

University President Jehuda Reinharz intends to propose to the Board of Trustees the creation of a “raise pool” for faculty and staff making under $150,000 in base compensation, he announced at Thursday’s special faculty-only meeting, according to a University press release. He will also be proposing a wage freeze for any Brandeis employee earning more than $150,000 in base compensation and the reinstitution of University retirement contributions on July 1.

According to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Apfel, the size of the raise pool still needs to be determined.

“If approved as part of the budget, the salary increase pool would be distributed only to faculty earning less than $150,000 in base compensation over the nine-month academic period and to employees earning less than $150,000 in base compensation over the 12-month calendar year,” the press release states.

“We had a very difficult two years,” Reinharz said in an interview with the Justice. “We are now well on our way to recovering from them, … and I felt that it was very important to recognize the hard work and hardship that everybody has gone through these past two years and to show the appreciation of the University for everything that they have done.”

Apfel wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he expected the wage freeze will apply to about 36 of 51 faculty and staff who earn $150,000 or more.

Those faculty who reach the $150,000 plateau through summer stipends are not included in the freeze.

Vice President for Human Resources Scott Bemis said that

See REPORT, 5 ☛

See RAISE, 6 ☛

According to Kenta Yamamoto ’10, the committee’s representative from the intercultural community, “I think that the reason why people didn’t like it was because of the minority part, and how the position was designated to deal with racial minority issues.”

He went on to say that the term racial minority “has a derogatory notion to it, as opposed to historically underrepresented, because … you could have been underrepresented in the past.”

Also proposed is the formation of a Club Support Board, which would, according to the report, take responsibility for “matters pertaining to Union Accredited Organizations,” including recognizing, chartering, derecognizing and de-chartering clubs.

The Club Support Board would be composed of members from eight club categories such as service, performance and academics and one Union

See CRC, 6 ☛

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

NEW PROPOSALS: Jessica Steinberg ’10, chair of the CRC, discusses the report.

ACADEMICS

Provost Krauss accepts most proposals of 2020 report ■ The Board of Trustees will

consider the proposals approved by Krauss at its meeting on March 24.

By MIRANDA NEUBAUER JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

Provost Marty Krauss has decided to accept all the recommendations for academic changes pro-

posed by the Brandeis 2020 Committee, with a slight modification to a proposal regarding the Anthropology Ph.D. program, according to a campuswide e-mail she sent yesterday. The Board of Trustees will consider those proposals at its March 24 meeting.

Krauss has accepted other proposals to suspend admissions to the Cultural Production Master’s program; suspend admissions to the MFA Program in Theater Design; reorganize the major in Hebrew

Language and Literature and the undergraduate minor in Yiddish and East European Jewish Culture as tracks within Near Eastern and Judaic Studies; reorganize the American Studies department as an interdepartmental program and create a Division of Science. While the Brandeis 2020 Committee recommended fully suspending admissions to the Anthropology Ph.D. program, Krauss recommends that the program continue to allow admissions through the M.A. program.

Musika Rox

Going to the Sweet 16

Pass/Fail Plus

■ B’yachad and Mochila inaugurated an Arab-Israeli cultural showcase.

■ The men’s basketball team advanced to the Sweet 16 and will play Rhode Island College Friday.

■ The Student Union is soliciting student opinions on a new academic initiative.

SPORTS 16

NEWS 3

ARTS 21 For tips or info call Let your voice be heard!

Submit letters to the editor online (781) 736-6397 at www.thejusticeonline.com

INDEX

ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 7

OPINION POLICE LOG

11 2

COMMENTARY

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TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS AP BRIEF

POLICE LOG

Mass. Senate to debate sweeping anti-bullying bill

Medical Emergency

BOSTON—Massachusetts schools would be required to take a tougher stand against classroom bullies if a bill set to be debated by the state Senate this week becomes law.

The bill would prohibit bullying in schools and would also crack down on so-called cyberbullying by banning the use of e-mails, text messages, Internet postings and other electronic means to create a hostile school environment for others.

Administrators would be required to publish an anti-bullying policy and create an anti-bullying curriculum for students. Every adult working in a school would have to report bullying incidents, and principals would have to investigate and take disciplinary action if they determine bullying has occurred.

Rep. Marty Walz, the bill’s author, said the legislation’s goal is to create learning environments where students know they can’t harass one another. A key to that is convincing teachers, staff and other school workers to send the message that bullying won’t be tolerated. ‘‘If we do this right, there should be a dramatic decrease in the amount of bullying in our schools,’’ Walz said.‘‘Schools have to take action to try to prevent it, and when [bullying] happens, take action so things don't spiral out of control.’’

The push for anti-bullying legislation has gained momentum following the recent suicides of students in South Hadley and Springfield who allegedly had been tormented by classmates.

Under the bill, principals would be required to take disciplinary action against bullies and also notify the parents of both the bully and the victim.

Walz said parents are too often unaware that their child is being bullied or bullying others. ‘‘The parents who need to be a part of the solution don’t always know there is a problem,’’ she said.

Supporters of the bill say the intensity of bullying has changed in recent years with the development of new technologies like text messages and e-mails and the explosion of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Victims can no longer flee to their homes to avoid the menace of bullies, anti-bullying advocates say. Instead, bullies can follow their victims into their bedrooms, bombarding them with hurtful messages, encouraging others to gang up on them, and sometimes enjoying the anonymity of the Internet. ‘‘We’ve always had bullying, but it’s taken on a new dimension with this cyberbullying,’’ said Sen. Robert O’Leary, one of the bill’s sponsors in the Senate. “It’s more all-encompassing. You can’t get away from it and it’s so easy to do it anonymously.’’

Derrek Shulman, regional director of the AntiDefamation League, said if Massachusetts approves the bill it would join two dozen other states with strong anti-bullying laws.

The Senate is scheduled to debate the bill Thursday.

If approved, it would move on to the House. Supporters say it could land on Gov. Deval Patrick’s desk by the end of the month.

Patrick has spoken out strongly against bullying in

Mar. 2—University Police received a report of an 18-year-old male complaining of stomach pain in the Village. BEMCo responded, and an ambulance transported the party to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Mar. 3—University Police received a call from a student requesting an evaluation after having fainted earlier in the day.

University Police transported the patient to Health Services for further care.

Mar. 5—University Police received a call of a man with a head injury in Chapels Lot. University Police and BEMCo responded.

BEMCo treated the party onscene with a signed refusal for further care.

Mar. 6—University Police received a call from a party stating that his friend had broken his col-

larbone after falling off a bicycle.

University Police and BEMCo responded. An ambulance transported the party to Beth Israel Hospital for further care.

report on the incident and photographs were taken. University Police will increase patrols of the area, and further security measures will be implemented. (See article, p. 5)

Larceny Mar. 4—University Police received a report from a party claiming her violin was stolen from a locker in Slosberg Recital Hall. University Police compiled a report on the theft.

Mar. 5—University Police received a report that a student’s wallet was stolen from the common area of Village B. University Police compiled a report on the theft.

Vandalism Mar. 5—University Police received a report of vandalism in the Muslim Student Association suite in the Usdan Student Center. University Police compiled a

Traffic Mar. 5—A student was involved in a motor vehicle incident off campus. University Police compiled a report on the incident.

Disturbance Mar. 7—A community advisor for the Foster Mods claimed there were several parties creating loud noise near Mod 14. University Police responded, and Discipline Charges will be filed against the students.

Mar. 4—University Police confiscated marijuana from a stu-

SENATE LOG Constitutional Review Committee presents report

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS An article in Forum misstated a professor’s department. Paola Servino is a member of the Romance Studies department, not the Italian Studies department.

(Mar. 2, p. 14).

A photo of a student in Sports was misrepresented. The photo of Shannan Hassan ’12 was a photo illustration.

(Mar. 2, p. 19) The Senate Log in News misrepresented the status of several Student Union committees. The Social Justice, Outreach, Diversity, Club Support, Ways and Means and Services Committees already exist. (Feb. 9, p. 2)

—Compiled by Alana Abramson

Miscellaneous

An article in News misstated the given name of a professor. The professor’s name is Paola Servino, not Paolo Servino. (Mar. 2, p. 6)

The faculty reactions sidebar in News misstated a professor’s department. Paola Servino is a member of the Romance Studies department, not the German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literature department.

(Mar. 2, p. 6).

dent in Rosenthal Quad. The Community Development Coordinator was present, and University Police compiled a report.

Disciplinary action will follow.

Mar. 6—University Police received a report that a male party was intoxicated and removed from a bus at the University. University Police placed the party into protective custody and transported him to the Waltham Police Department for processing.

Mar. 7—Marijuana was confiscated from an individual in Mod 22. Judicial charges will be filed.

YOSEF SCHAFFEL/the Justice

Campus studs face off Julia Rabkin ’11 and Keriann Shalvoy ’11 accompany Marc Eder ’12 as he performs in the Mr. Brandeis pageant, which took place last Tuesday in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater. Jonah Seligman ’10 won the pageant.

Chair of the Constitutional Review Committee Jessica Steinberg ’10 presented the committee’s report to the Student Union Senate and discussed the 11 proposed amendments with senators. The amendments proposed by the committee include securing Student Sexuality Information Services and Students for Environmental Action and replacing the Union Senate with an Assembly and a Club Support Board.

In her executive report, Director of Executive Affairs Sofya Bronshvayg ’11 said that the State of the Union address will take place March 15 at 5 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center.

Hogan informed the Senate that the Union’s survey on the proposed Pass/Fail Plus option received an 86-percent positive feedback.

Hogan also said that he has been asked by the Board of Trustees to solicit student opinions on the budget cuts that the University can undertake. Hogan said that he will e-mail the student body to learn about student opinions and will then pass on the suggestions to the Board.

The Senate passed five emergency Senate Money Resolutions. The first SMR, proposed by Senator for the Foster Mods Amy Mandel ’10 and Senator for Class of 2011 Jenna Rubin, requested $1,601.10 to increase outreach between the Student Union and the student body. According to Rubin, the money will be used to purchase giveaways such as chip clip magnets that will be used to entice students to attend Union-sponsored events.

Senator for Class of 2013 Ruben Abergel requested $582 for an SMR concerned with raising money for the non-profit organization Coins for Children. Marcela Dodi (TYP) requested a $209 SMR to host a TYP Inspirational Night for the TYP senior class. Another SMR was geared toward supporting the Social Justice Committee’s campuswide campaign to raise money for the organization charity:water. An SMR that requested money to host events in April addressing the conflict in Congo was also passed.

—Nashrah Rahman

ANNOUNCEMENTS The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant corection or clarification.

E-mail justeditor@ brandeis.edu.

theJustice The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods. Editor in chief office hours will be held Friday from 10 a.m. to noon in the Justice office this week. Editor in chief office hours are usually held every Wednesday from 1 to 2 p.m.

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Need a break? Timeout for Education students and faculty The Education program undergraduate representatives are holding a questionand- answer session for anyone interested in the Education program. Today from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Abraham Shapiro Academic Complex.

“Disabilities in Higher Education, 2010” Manju Banerjee, a Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut, and Loring Brinckerhoff, a Ph.D. at Educational Testing Services, will provide updates on the 2008 American Disability Association amendments, current research data on college students with disabilities and the increase in psychiatric disabilities and dual diagnoses. Please RSVP to szingle@brandeis.edu. Wednesday from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the Rapaporte Treasure Hall.

Economic Anthropology Working Group Faculty and graduate students will be

discussing topics related to economic anthropology. For more information contact Prof. Robert Hunt at hunt@brandeis.edu.

Wednesday from 1 to 3 p.m. in Pearlman 202

Study abroad: Brandeis in The Hague info session There will be an information session for students who want to study abroad this summer in The Hague, Netherlands. Students in this program will will explore first-hand how international courts confront a range of global problems. Wednesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Abraham Shapiro Academic Complex 209.

Ariel Beery to speak about Jewish Professionalism Ariel Beery, the CEO of the PresenTense group, a group designed to promote Jewish leadership, will come to meet with the Brandeis University Conservative Organization to talk about Present Tense and Jew-

ish professionalism. Thursday from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Village T.V. Lounge.

Employment workshop for international students Ruth Brigham will provide an information session for F1 visa holders interested in pursuing off-campus employment. For more information contact rbrigham@brandeis.edu. Thursday from 3 to 3:30 p.m. in Kutz 215.

Independent Interdisciplinary Major Deadline Students looking to have their IIM proposal approved this fall semester must submit the complete petition (petition form, proposal, letter of recommendation, and examples from similar programs) to the Office of Academic Services in Usdan 130 no later Monday March 15 at 5 p.m.

THE JUSTICE

MAINTENANCE PROBLEMS

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TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

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ROSE ART MUSEUM

Parker hired as new Rose registrar ■ A search committee will

soon conduct interviews to fill the post of the Rose’s education director.

By NASHRAH RAHMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

AMY BISAILLON/the Justice

COLLAPSED CEILING: Kiernan Bagge ’12 returned to his Usen Castle residence to find that the ceiling of his room had collapsed and damaged his personal belongings.

Castle ceiling collapses after rains ■ Usen Castle resident

Kiernan Bagge ’12 had to vacate his room after his leaking ceiling collapsed.

By ALANA ABRAMSON JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

The Schwartz Residence Hall section of the Usen Castle has been experiencing various maintenance issues, including a leaking ceiling that forced Kiernan Bagge ’12 to vacate his room shortly before a portion of his ceiling collapsed.

Bagge told the Justice that on Feb. 25, he entered his room in Schwartz and discovered that the ceiling was leaking and there was flooding in his room. He said he contacted the Department of Community Living to inquire about a temporary room change and moved into a vacant room in Hassenfeld Residence Hall. When he entered his room in Schwartz on Saturday to move his

belongings, he said that the ceiling had collapsed.

“All of my room was sprayed with debris, cement and rusted metal,” he said, explaining that there was approximately $100 worth of damage to his personal belongings and that he immediately rushed everything to his new room in Hassenfeld.

Jeremy Leiferman, the director of the Department of Community Living, declined to comment.

Mark Collins, the vice president of Campus Operations, said in an interview with the Justice that the damage in Bagge’s room was relatively minimal but that a representative from facilities immediately came to fix the maintenance issues.

“We did everything we could based on the circumstances,” he said.

Collins explained that the weather for the last few weeks has been detrimental to the Castle in the sense that it has produced several leaks in the building, and the Office of Facilities Services has been working to minimize these leaks.

When asked about the possibility of renovating the Castle, Collins said that the recent maintenance issues in the Castle have reinforced the need to improve the building.

“The recent issues have demonstrated the need for maintenance on the Castle,” he said, explaining that while Facilities has done work such as plumbing, masonry fixes and painting, a major renovation needs to occur.

Collins stressed, however, that Facilities had not determined when this renovation would occur, explaining that the renovations on the Charles River Apartments, which are slated to begin in May, are currently the top priority.

“It [this renovation] will occur in the next few years. That is best timeline I can give you,” he said.

Collins emphasized that while renovations are necessary in the Castle, the age of the building would make it a tricky and costly renovation, and Facilities would need to discuss possibilities to “add student residence spaces into the Castle facility.”

Alex Doucette ’12, another resident

of the Schwartz Residence Hall, said that his room had minor water damage as well, but this damage was relatively small compared to the damage to other residents’ rooms.

“My room, [209], has minor water damage on the wall, but nowhere near as bad as [those of] my neighbors,” Doucette wrote, adding that his community adviser’s closet experienced water leakage and the maintenance representative who came to fix these issues said he could easily put his fist through the wall because of the extensive water damage.

Bagge confirmed in an e-mail that he and Doucette’s community advisor is Mayo Hirabayashi ’11. Hirabayashi did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Bagge wrote in a March 7 e-mail to the Justice that he returned to his room in Schwartz on Thursday, March 4 and discovered that the ceiling had begun to be repaired.

“They cleaned up most of the mess and had filled a large garbage can with the rubble,” he wrote.

STUDENT UNION

Union proposes Pass/Fail Plus initiative ■ Currently, classes taken

under the pass/fail option cannot satisfy a general University requirement.

By BRIAN FROMM JUSTICE EDITOR

A new academic initiative called Pass/Fail Plus, which will enable students with a grade of C+ or higher to receive credit for one of the eight general University requirements, has been proposed by the Student Union, according to an e-mail sent last Tuesday to the student body by Union Director of Academic Affairs Danielle Wolfson ’11.

The e-mail contained a link to a survey asking students’ opinions on the proposal, explaining that if approved, the proposal will allow students with a grade of C+ or higher to receive a P on their transcript. If a student were to invoke the Pass/Fail Plus option for a class that satisfies a general university requirement and receive a passing grade below a C+ in that class, explained the survey, that student would receive a P for the class but not fulfill the requirement.

Under the current system, a class used to fulfill any general University requirement may not use a pass/fail option.

The proposed option “allows more academic freedom in the general university requirements for students,” according to Wolfson’s e-mail.

University Registrar Mark Hewitt said in an interview with the Justice that currently the pass/fail system is not widely used at Brandeis and that the number of students electing a pass/fail option is decreasing. In 2003 and 2004, about 700 students chose a pass/fail option per semester, but last semester only 496 did so, and of those only 117 actually covered their grade with a P, explained Hewitt. He said that most of the grades that students had covered were in the B range, “So in some sense, I think the current pass/fail is being used by students to pad their GPAs.” Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that, as of 6 p.m. last night, 689 students had responded to the survey, with 594 in favor of the proposal and 95 opposed, amounting to 86-percent approval.

Wolfson said that she had been working on the Pass/Fail Plus initiative since last semester. She explained that a similar proposal had failed a number of years ago. She added the C+ requirement to address student and faculty concerns with the original proposal, she said. Wolfson said the proposal has some faculty support as well.

However, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he cannot recall such an initiative regarding general University requirements ever being proposed in the past. He wrote that a few years ago, the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee had discussed a “general modification to the

pass/fail system” that would require a grade of C- in order for a student to be permitted to cover the grade with a P. “This proposal had considerable support from faculty but was opposed by students and was ultimately dropped with no action taken,” Jaffe wrote.

Faculty Senate Chair Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL) said in an interview with the Justice, “I think that [Pass/Fail Plus] is a very smart suggestion. I think that students often shy away from courses thinking that they will do poorly, and I think this idea could actually invite students to challenge themselves with more interesting courses.”

Senior Representative to the UCC Michelle Barras ’10 said in an interview with the Justice that she expects to bring the proposal before the UCC for a vote on March 25. If the UCC approves the proposal at the meeting, it will go to the Faculty Senate, which must vote in favor of the proposal in two readings at two different Senate meetings in order for it to pass, Barras said.

“We think students will really benefit if this proposal passes, as some students may opt not to take a class that truly interests them,” Barras wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

Wolfson explained that students’ comments from the survey will be given to Barras for her presentation to the UCC. The survey also served to affirm that the student body supports the initiative, said Wolfson. If he were to have a vote in the student survey, Hewitt said, he probably would

have voted against the proposal. “I would just be concerned that this Pass/Fail Plus option would simply increase students trying to pad their GPAs,” he said.

Regarding the pass/fail system, Hewitt said, “There’s an expectation that students will achieve appropriately across the range of requirements and that, in some cases, a pass would allow students not to work as hard.”

Hogan said in an interview that the proposal has “been received well by faculty [and] staff” and that the results of the survey show that students “overwhelmingly support this initiative.”

“It’s really good that we’re advocating for this, because students will really appreciate it,” he said.

Some students shared their thoughts on the proposed initiative.

Beth Katz ’10 said she wished Pass/Fail Plus had been proposed earlier. “I thought the initiative was a really great idea, and I wish it was going to actually be helpful to me because I’m graduating in May and have already fulfilled all my requirements,” she said.

Mindy Cimini ’12 said, “I think it’s a good idea for people who have their fortes in other areas than [those of] some of these general requirements. … They’re still getting a well-rounded education, but they don’t necessarily have the pressure to maintain a GPA.” —Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.

Kristin Parker, the archivist and records manager at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, has been hired as the new collections manager and registrar for the Rose Art Museum, according to a campuswide email sent last Friday by Provost Marty Krauss.

Valerie Wright, the Rose’s former collections manager and registrar, resigned last December after receiving an offer to serve as registrar of the Art Museum at West Virginia University.

In addition to serving as archivist and records manager at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Parker is also the museum’s collections manager and manager of contemporary art and public programs, Krauss wrote in her e-mail.

Parker will join the staff of the Rose on March 22, Roy Dawes, the current director of operations at the Rose, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

Dawes said in an interview with the Justice that he was primarily in charge of the search process for a new collections manager and registrar. He added that he also consulted Krauss and Director of the Office of the Arts Scott Edmiston about the hire.

Dawes said that about 50 candidates applied for the position and that Parker was selected after successful phone and in-person interviews. “[Parker] has an amazing career at [the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum], and she has a specific interest in contemporary art, which is something that I was looking for, and she has a very clear understanding of kind of the challenges that we here at [the Rose Art Museum] face over the next couple of years and she had some excellent ideas about us moving forward,” Dawes said. “[Parker] is especially interested in the intersection of museums, libraries, and archives, and how museums can use new technologies to become more integrated with these institutions,” Krauss wrote in her campuswide e-mail.

Parker could not be reached for comment by press time. A search committee is still in the process of reviewing applicants for the position of education director at the museum, which was vacated when Emily Mello resigned last June, Krauss wrote.

In addition to Dawes, who is the search committee’s chair, the committee is comprised of Profs.

Nancy Scott (FA), Andreas Teuber (PHIL), Sean Downey (FA), Dirck Roosevelt (ED) and Edmiston.

Dawes said that the committee has received approximately 15 résumés for the position and that search committee members will conduct interviews next week. He added that he hopes to fill the position within six to eight weeks.

Currently Dawes and Director of Financial Control, Budgeting and Analysis Karina Sheerin are the Rose’s only two staff members. Dawes and Sheerin run the museum’s operations with the help of Brian Friedberg (GRAD) and Nikki Rosenberg ’10. Harvard student Paul Richardson M.A. ’10, who served as registration and collections management intern at the Rose last summer, helps with the registrar work, Dawes said.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

5

CAMPUS SAFETY

ACADEMICS

New MSA lounge vandalized

Univ to expand current online graduate programs

■ Director of Ed Callahan

said that the vandalism may constitute as a hate crime if a bias is found towards a specific group of people.

By HARRY SHIPPS JUSTICE EDITOR

The Muslim Student Association suite, located in the Usdan Student Center, was vandalized on March 5, according to an e-mail to members of the association from Neda Eid ’11, a member of the MSA executive board.

According to the e-mail, an individual or individuals attempted to open a painted-over door in Imam Talal Eid’s office, and many of the imam’s “desk materials were touched and unplugged. The lamps in the suite (most of them in the prayer room) were all turned upside down and unplugged.”

Neda Eid added in a later e-mail to the Justice that “most of the permanent damage was to the wall in Imam Eid’s office.” Imam Eid told the Justice that his phone and computer were disconnected and that a valuable Quran was missing from his desk. He also said it was evident that the vandals had not

removed their shoes, a rule members of the MSA had instituted after the recent renovations, before walking “where we pray and all over the place.”

Imam Eid said that he “could not believe it” when he discovered the vandalism. The MSA suite had recently undergone renovation, and Imam Eid said that he first called the contractor to see whether they were doing work in the suite. When the contractor said that no work was being done, Imam Eid contacted the Brandeis Police Department.

When asked what her reaction to the vandalism was, Neda Eid wrote in her e-mail to the Justice that she felt “mostly shock, anger and frustration.

Over winter break, the MSA finally got the university’s OK to begin the renovation of the suite. Its [sic] only been about 2-3weeks [sic] that we’ve been using the new suite. … Thus, it’s a huge disappointment that our open worshipping space has now been a means of immature actions and religious observance disrespect.”

Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said that an investigation into the details and the motives behind the vandalism is currently ongoing. The University Police will “initiate some sporadic checks of the room and check

in with people to make them feel comfortable and make sure that no other incidents were happening,” according to Callahan, but he declined to go into detail about the times or duration of such checks.

Callahan said that anyone found responsible for the crime could be charged with vandalism and that the crime might also constitute a hate crime if there is an apparent bias toward Muslims or another specific group of people.

Neda Eid wrote in her e-mail to the Justice, “No matter what the suspected motivations are, I believe this vandalism should be treated like a hate crime by the Brandeis community and Police department.”

Imam Eid said that he has received a great deal of support from the University Police and from other members of the chaplaincy. Imam Eid suggested that the vandalism could have been motivated by the increased visibility of the Muslim community on campus, specifically a new sign for the Muslim Worship Center in the foyer of the Usdan Student Center.

Neda Eid wrote in her e-mail that a card access system will now be installed in the suite in order to “secure the safety and welcoming atmosphere of our worshipping space on campus.”

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

Social Impact Career Fair Students interacted with over 50 employers at the Hiatt Career Center and the Heller School for Social Policy and Management’s career fair last Tuesday. Employers from fields such as international development and science research were present.

■ The Working Group on

Distance Learning released its report on online education last Tuesday.

By CLARE CHURCHILL-SEDER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The University will focus on expanding its existing graduate distance learning programs and using distance learning to enhance other programs, according to the report released last Tuesday by the Working Group on Distance Learning.

Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Distance Working Group chair Michaele Whelan explained that though distance learning works extremely well in Graduate Professional Studies within the Rabb School of Continuing Studies, it is not something that would easily transfer to undergraduate education. Whelan said that the typical undergraduate lifestyle is not very conducive to online education because distance learning courses require readings and responses to be completed in specific time windows.

The Working Group on Distance Learning was convened in July 2009

by Provost Marty Krauss to discuss the University’s use of online learning tools. The committee consisted of administrators from different schools within the University and was charged to inventory the success of current distance learning programs at Brandeis as well as to research possibilities for expanding such programs.

Working Group on Distance Learning committee member and Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong referred the Justice to Whelan to talk about the report. Krauss also deferred questions to Whelan.

Currently, Graduate Professional Studies within the Rabb School “offers five out of its six ten-course, part-time, graduate professional master’s degree programs entirely online,” according to the report. Whelan said that the GPS online courses are attractive because they are capped at 20 students, which makes them very interactive.

These courses use a slightly modified and enhanced LATTE platform and also use the software Elluminate, which is widely used by schools to provide real-time online interaction among teachers and students, she said.

The Working Group on Distance Learning reported that other instances of distance learning on campus include Webinars or web conferences which are offered through the alumni office, and the use of Elluminate at the Executive Educa-

tion program within the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Elluminate, in this case, is used to provide interaction with remote speakers and is supplemental to a more traditional course setting.

Apart from looking at the presence of online education at Brandeis, the Working Group on Distance Learning also surveyed other universities on their use of distance learning. Whelan said that the Rabb GPS program might consider teaming up with a marketing firm like similar programs at other universities have to bring in participants from a larger geographical radius.

Furthermore, the report says that in thinking about distance learning for the long run, the University would need to invest in increased technological infrastructure and support. The Working Group on Distance Learning said that depending on the scale of new activities, there would need to be four new full-time LTS positions as well as other part-time ones for software and course development in addition to technology support. Other investment considerations described were possible incentives for faculty, salaries of staff to support distance learning, advertisement costs and costs of improved technology. According to Whelan, distance learning “makes money, but not quickly.”

For the time being, the report suggested that an Online Learning Advisory Committee be formed, which would be dedicated to the presence of distance learning on campus. The Division of the Brandeis University Summer School, also within the Rabb School, also has plans to pilot a few courses that would use some distance learning components. According to Whelan, the courses would be hybrids and would be a combination of real classroom time and online learning.

This could also be a model for Justice Brandeis Semester programs at some point.

President Jehuda Reinharz’s Bold Ideas Group will likely include the suggestions of the Working Group on Distance Learning in its final report, Whelan said. According to its Web site, BIG is charged with “the responsibility of developing a set of exciting and innovative initiatives that will help to raise our academic profile nationally and internationally, while simultaneously providing significant new revenue streams.”

Whelan said that a few of these suggestions may include expanding marketing for existing distance learning programs within the Rabb School of Continuing Studies, as well as starting some new combination online and classroom masters programs through the other graduate schools.

REPORT: Krauss concurs with most Brandeis 2020 ideas CONTINUED FROM 1 proposals, Krauss noted that she met with several faculty and students to gather feedback about the proposals. A special faculty-only meeting was held last Thursday to discuss the proposals.

After the meeting, some faculty members told the Justice that representatives from many of the affected areas advocated for the continued existence of the programs.

“I recognize the need for what’s being done, ... and yet at the same time I’m struck by the difficulty of what’s happened on a very immediate level [as a member of the Theater department],” Prof. Eric Hill (THA), a member of the Faculty Senate Council, said after the meeting.

“Everybody made passionate defenses of their cut programs,” Prof.

Thomas Doherty (AMST) said after the meeting. “I think everyone understands the concept of no money. The concept that some of us have difficulty understanding is how these particular measures will actually add to the University’s bottom line.” He pointed out that American Studies faculty believed that the department would not cost the University more money as a department. Doherty noted that Theater Design representatives gave a Powerpoint presentation featuring some studentdesigned work.

Krauss said after the meeting that all

the talks “were extremely well-constructed and well-argued” and noted the “beautiful images” of the Theater Design program’s presentation that “made you excited for the kind of work students do.”

Krauss wrote in her report that she agrees with the Brandeis 2020 Committee’s proposal to suspend admissions of external students to the Anthropology Ph.D. program.

“While the Anthropology doctoral program had some difficulties in the recent past leading to relatively weak time-to-degree and placement data, efforts by the current complement of talented faculty have helped to cultivate a promising group of M.A. and Ph.D. students,” she said.

The department has also brought in significant new revenue to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences through an expanded Master’s program, Krauss wrote. A smaller Ph.D. program open only to students from the M.A. program “will maximize the opportunity to maintain the significant revenue stream of the M.A. program, while reducing the cost of the Ph.D. program and limiting it to those students most likely to excel.” Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe will determine the number of Ph.D. slots, Krauss wrote.

In an interview Monday, Krauss said M.A. students told her that “one of their criteria in looking for [a] master’s program was whether there was a Ph.D.

program at that university and that had we not had a Ph.D. program in Anthropology they probably would not have considered Brandeis.”

Krauss wrote that she made her decision regarding termination of the Cultural Productions program after the graduation of the current students “despite the ardent testimonials received from faculty, current students, and alumni regarding the unique contributions of the program towards interdisciplinarity at Brandeis.” She went on to state that while she understands that this decision may be a loss for Brandeis, “problems regarding mentorship and focus of the program” made it a target of serious review by the committee.

“I have heard the argument that this program produces net revenue for GSAS, and while that is true, I am convinced that the University would have to make additional fiscal commitments in the long run to ensure that this program achieves and maintains a level of excellence that we would expect for any master’s program,” she wrote.

Regarding the theater design program, Krauss wrote that her decision to terminate it after the current students graduate “is based in part on the projected costs of revitalizing and restructuring the M.F.A. Program in Theater Design, as noted in the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee report, as well as in recognition that many University theater arts de-

partments have excellent programs without an M.F.A. program in design.”

She added that she agrees with the recommendation to develop a more robust undergraduate curriculum in the history, performance and design aspects of Theater Arts.

Krauss wrote in her report that the reorganization of the American Studies department will be effective July 1. She said she recognizes that the department agrees to the reduction of four faculty positions mandated by last year’s Curriculum and Academic Restructuring committee proposals and “would like to maintain its departmental status.” She wrote, however, that she agrees “with the Brandeis 2020 proposal that its reorganization as an interdepartmental program solidifies these reductions and secures an opportunity for it to remain a vital University program.”

Krauss also stated that chair of the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department has confirmed that Hebrew and Yiddish will become tracks within the department beginning with the class of 2015. She also accepted the proposals to terminate the Italian Studies major and the Internet Studies minor beginning with the Class of 2015. She added that she had received a plan from the NEJS department to achieve its new faculty target of 22.

The report stated that on Feb. 25 the Graduate School Council approved

merging the Ph.D. program in Biochemistry and the Ph.D. program in Biophysics and Structural Biology to form a single Ph.D. program in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.

The reduction in University-funded Ph.D. slots in the departments of Computer Science and Chemistry will take effect in the 2010 to 2011 academic year, according to the report.

The report states that in accordance with the proposals “the Dean of Arts and Sciences will ensure that standalone GSAS Master’s programs will prepare a three-year plan to achieve benchmarks for enrollment, expenses, revenues and metrics of student success and satisfaction. Programs that do not achieve their benchmarks by 201213 will be phased out.”

Krauss also wrote that the Humanities Council is making plans to increase interdepartmental flexibility and student choice through more resource sharing. She added that she has received a plan from the Council about the possible creation of Mandel Seminars in the Humanities and a master’s program in interdisciplinary humanities.

Krauss told the Justice that she did not expect everyone “to be happy or to be supportive of these decisions, but I hope that they would respect the process and respect the ultimate challenge that we faced, as one that’s not unique to Brandeis.”

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THE JUSTICE

CRC: Proposals up for vote March 18 RAISE: CONTINUED FROM 1 club categories such as service, performance and academics and one Union Executive board member, each of whom would be elected by the student body as a whole.

Other recommendations to the Student Union include changing the election of the Vice President to an internal election within the Assembly instead of a vote of the student body, changing the name of the Union Judiciary to the “Student Judiciary” and the appointment of a Public Defender to argue cases in the Student Judiciary.

The committee also proposed a definition for secured clubs: “those organizations that the student body recognizes as fundamental to the mission of the university.” The report recommended securing Student Sexuality Information Service and Students for Environmental Action.

“FBoard funding allows SSIS to subsidize the costs of safer sex products to make them affordable for college students,” wrote Matt Shear ’11, coordinator of SSIS, in an e-mail to the Justice. He added, “SSIS is integral to Brandeis University. Securing SSIS affirms the importance of community sexual health, and ensures SSIS

remain a vital part of each student's education at Brandeis.”

“Secured funding would enable [SEA] to bring key speakers with innovative messages to further educate the student body ... Secured funding from F-Board would also allow SEA to better publicize a host of current sustainable matters to more effectively target students about the relevancy of these issues to their respective interests,” wrote SEA President Hannah Saltman ’12 in an e-mail to the Justice. Another recommendation would eliminate the current procedure of holding runoff elections days after the primary round in favor of

instant runoff voting. In this new format, students would indicate their first choice for a position and have the option to rank other candidates. After the primary round, the secretary would retabulate votes if no candidate receives a majority of primary votes.

According to Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11, “I’m really excited for the changes to the structure of the Union government. I think it’ll make the Union run much more efficiently.” Steinberg wrote in an email to the Justice that the committee will hold an information session for the student body about the proposed amendments next week.

A summary of proposed constitutional amendments

CONTINUED FROM 1

The Constitutional Review Committee’s full report, released Sunday in an e-mail to the student body, includes 11 proposals. The amendments, summarized below, will be individually voted on by students on March 18.

1. Changes to the structure of student government a. Replacement of “Senate” by “Assembly” and addition of Club Support Board The body currently named the Student Union Senate would become the Student Union Assembly, which would maintain all current powers granted to the Senate except for the power to recognize, charter, de-recognize or decharter clubs. The Union would establish a Club Support Board to deal exclusively with matters pertaining to student organizations, including chartering and de-chartering.

b. Election of the vice president “In order to allow for greater cohesion within the Student Union,” the vice president of the Student Union would be elected internally instead of by a vote of the student body.

c. “Union Judiciary” changed to “Student Judiciary” The change in the constitution’s language emphasizes that the Judiciary is run for and by students. The changes would also grant “students the opportunity to use the Judiciary to resolve conflict with a less formal, mediation resolution process.” The changes state explicitly the criteria on which the Judiciary must make its decisions and advocates the creation of a Public Defender position to represent students in need of legal counsel.

d. Finance Board member and treasurer training The committee advocates changes that ensure the appropriate preparation for members of the Finance Board and the Treasurer. Candidates for the position of Treasurer would need to announce their candidacy four weeks prior to the election to give adequate time for training and “newly elected Finance Board members shall undergo a mandatory two-week training prior to the end of the semester.”

2. Senator for racial minority students and finance board member for racial minority students change in title The title of the senator and Finance Board member representing minorities would be changed from representative of “racial minority students,” to representative of “historically underrepresented races.” Any member of the student body could run for either position, although voting would be limited to the constituency of “historically underrepresented races."

3. Definition of secured organizations The committee recommends defining secured organizations as “those organizations that the student body recognizes as fundamental to the mission of the university.”

4. Securing SSIS The committee recommends that Student Sexuality Information Service be secured because of its 37 years of service and its continued importance in serving the essential needs of the Brandeis community.

5. Securing Students for Environmental Action To demonstrate Brandeis’ commitment to environmental causes, the committee proposes securing SEA, because it “serves all students on campus in the attempt to make us a more sustainable and environmentally conscious University.”

6. Rewording language organizations’ funding

regarding

secured

The current constitution uses the word “baseline” to describe the suggested amount of funding allocated to secured organizations. The new language would replace “baseline”with “benchmark,” suggesting that the Finance Board should consider the figure alloted in the constitution as a guideline instead of a maximum amount of funds to be allocated to any given organization.

7. Increasing funds alloted to BEMCo The committee has proposed increasing the amount of funds that BEMCo can request from the Finance Board from $23,500 to $30,000. While this does not mean that BEMCo will necessarily use this amount every year, it gives the organization the opportunity to request the funds should it require them. A larger budget also gives BEMCo more flexibility in reporting its budget to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which it must do each year as an ambulance corps.

8. Inclusion of Club Sports memorandum The Club Sports program’s funding process was agreed upon three years ago by the Student Union and the Department of Athletics. To make agreement official, the committee suggests incorporating the “Agreement of Understanding” between the two parties into the constitution.

9. Board of Trustees representatives The proposed amendment states that at least two students should be representatives on the Board of Trustees, making it possible for more representatives to be elected should the opportunity arise in the future.

10. Instant runoff voting Rather than vote only for their first-choice candidate, students would rank candidates on a ballot. If a candidate does not receive a majority of votes, there is no second election.

Instead, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and all ballots whose first-ranked candidate was eliminated have their second-place vote counted instead. The process repeats until one candidate has a majority of the vote. According to the report, this is intended to simplify elections, eliminate the problem of low voter turnout for second-round elections and, claims the report, “more accurately represent the will of the student body in elections.”

11. Changes to the constitutional review process These proposed changes to the composition of the Constitutional Review Committee and to the voting process are intended to “make [the review process] run smoother in the future” and include a mandate that in the future, reviews begin earlier in the semester than this year’s review did.

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

SAFE SEX: Sasha Farfel ’10, center, talks with two other members of Student Sexuality Information Service about becoming a secured organization.

Pool will enable wage increase

— compiled by Hannah Kirsch, Emily Kraus and Harry Shipps.

Brandeis has 1,650 faculty and staff employees overall but noted that employees of Aramark and mail room staff are not Brandeis employees.

Bemis also said he did not know any details about Reinharz’s plan.

In previous raise pools, Bemis said, managers in various University departments, including academics and services, would be able to decide the size of an employee’s raise based on performance reviews, using money from a set percentage of the unit’s overall salary budget reserved for raises.

Last year there was no wage increase at all due to the economic constraints faced by the University, Bemis said. Prior to that the average wage increase was about 2 to 4 percent per year.

“I think it’s extremely important to do whatever we can to fund a salary increase for those who would need it most,” he said.

The Board of Trustees approved a plan last May to suspend University contributions to the retirement fund for faculty and staff for one year to save $7.4 million.

Reinharz emphasized “that we made a statement last year that it was a one-year discontinuation, and I made clear a number of times to the faculty that when we said one year … we meant one year.”

Reinharz said the raise and the wage freeze is “an attempt to reward those who make less.”

Noting how faculty, staff and students had been working together to address the financial crisis as a unit, “it was important to make sure that we do whatever we can to bolster the morale of the University,” Reinharz said.

He added that the University was also offering nonmonetary benefits, pointing out that the University has reinstated the “flex time” policy from last summer, whereby employees can choose to take a Monday or a Friday off.

“That’s in order to give people the ability to really use the time with their family,” Reinharz said.

“I am certainly delighted that the president sees the possibility that there is room for faculty and staff salary increase even if it is a modest one,” Faculty Senate Chair Sabine von Mering (GRALL) said.

“I do believe that the reinstitution of the retirement plan is absolutely crucial, especially in light of the fact that we are building our projections for the five coming years on retirements but we cannot expect anyone to choose retirement if the funds have been so dramatically depleted [by the economic crisis or the retirement contribution suspension],” said von Mering.

She called the freeze “definitely a step in the right direction. I am a little disappointed that it’s only coming now and that it is not more dramatic because I really firmly believe that every university devoted to social justice has an obligation ... in this moment in time to really be the first to tackle this issue.”

THE JUSTICE

just

features

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TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

VERBATIM | Voltaire It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.

ON THIS DAY...

FUN FACT

In 1965, the United States landed about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam.

Reptiles are unable to experience dizziness.

By TESS RASER JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

There are bright lights, freshly cut grass painted with crisp white lines and a big stadium. Players decked in shoulder pads and helmets race across the field while screaming fans yell, “Touchdown!”

It is a Saturday afternoon in September 1956 at Brandeis, and you and several friends are watching a Brandeis University football game.

While the Brandeis football program was cancelled in 1960, in its nine-year history, the team played 86 games and had 41 wins, 41 losses and four tied games. A varsity squad was formed in 1951 two years after Brandeis came into existance, with a freshman football program.

According to the Robert D. Farber University Archives, Abram Sachar, the University’s first president, hired Benny Friedman to run the athletic program. A popular figure in the Jewish community because of his athletic achievements, Friedman had been a star quarterback at the University of Michigan before going on to play professional football.

Sachar added varsity football to the athletic program because he wanted Brandeis to be more than a Yeshivatype university. He envisioned a nonsectarian school, and he saw football as the perfect way to demonstrate that. However, the creation of a football program was rather ambitious; none of the members of the Brandeis Board of Trustees had ever experienced varsity athletics, especially not popular football. According to a memo written in 1960 by Sachar, football ended because of financial pressure felt by the institution. The memo said that the per capita cost of fielding varsity football was high in relation to other varsity sports.

“The elimination of varsity football will release resources that will broaden and strengthen intramural and [other forms] of athletic activity,” Sachar’s memo says.

Around campus, there are lots of theories about why the program ended, but the actual reasons are a bit different from popular opinion.

According to the archives, at one time there was a campus rumor that former board member Eleanor Roosevelt wanted to end the program because of the image she thought football players portrayed. Others believed that the team was not good enough to even bother playing.

Mike Uhlberg ’55 and Bill McKenna ’54 were on Brandeis’ football team in its early years. McKenna was a captain of the team and Uhlberg is in the Brandeis Athletic Hall of Fame for football. They both have definite ideas about what happened to Brandeis football.

Uhlberg is now an author of children’s books and Hands of My Father, a memoir about growing up with deaf parents in Brooklyn, and is currently working on a memoir about his time at Brandeis, for which he has done extensive archival research.

McKenna is originally from Salem,

Life on the

gridiron

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT D. FARBER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

HIKE: Football players from the football program, which ended in 1960, practice drills for a game outside Gosman Sports and Convocation Center in 1955.

Alumni reflect on the former football program Mass. After graduating with a degree in physics, he was a draft pick for the Philadelphia Eagles but decided to play professionally in Canada for the Calgary Stampeders so that he could pursue geophysics.

McKenna says that the football program’s ending was devastating, and the decision has plagued him and former fellow teammates since.

According to Uhlberg, in the football program’s beginnings, the Brandeis community enthusiastically supported the football teamby cheering at home games. At home games, Uhlberg says most of Waltham was in attendance in addition to hundreds of Brandeis students.

The team was well-regarded on campus, according to Uhlberg. “Most students thought the [football] program was one of the greatest things about the [athletics] program,” says Uhlberg.

McKenna agrees with Uhlberg but notes that campus reception to the football team was mixed.

“Certain parts of the University welcomed us. Some professors were very warm and open, [and] a good part of the student body was the same way. [However], there were some bad feelings toward us; a bit of snobbery,”

says McKenna.

Still, Uhlberg says that the image of diversity was also only seen in football because that was the only place it existed. “The majority of athletes were non-Jews. I was a commodity,” says Uhlberg. “My [African-American] roommate was also on the team.

The starting team had a couple of African-Americans, a few Irish Catholics, a few Italians and only a couple of Jews.”

Uhlberg says that this was the beautiful thing about the football team. “Part of [Sachar is and the Board’s idea for creating a football team was to use it] as the face to America to establish that Brandeis was nonsectarian and was open to everyone,” he says. “The football team was a true expression of what the school was envisioned as."

In the years after Uhlberg and McKenna graduated, positive feelings toward the football team changed.

“It was a product of the times. It was certain that the [Brandeis] leaders were anti-football,” says McKenna.

In Uhlberg’s opinion, the students were more anti-football than Brandeis leaders. In the latter half of the

decade, Uhlberg claims that students hated everything that had to do with the conventions of the era, like football.

Still, Uhlberg also feels that the original purpose of football as a scheme to introduce a complete, nonsectarian university was accomplished by 1960, and that was Sachar’s reason to end the program.

When the program ended, much of the football community, including Friedman, was unaware that the decision was under consideration.

In fact, when the Board of Trustees voted to drop football, according to Uhlberg, no one knew publicly that the subject was on their agenda. In the end, though, Friedman gave up his fight for football, saying in a memo, “With a small school, high academic requirements and the cost, it was better that we discontinue [football] at this time.”

“I think it was a jealousy thing.

Friedman brought more publicity to this school then Sachar ever did,” says McKenna.

Uhlberg believes the situation draws similarities to the Rose Art Museum controversy that took place last year. However, in the case of the Rose, there was a group of people out-

side of the Brandeis community that stood up to defend the museum.

Uhlberg says that had he and his former teammates been aware of the situation, they, too, would have tried to defend the football program.

“You will see now that the Rose will never be short of money: a treasure.

Football could’ve been that as well,” says Uhlberg.

In the time that football was here, though, McKenna and Uhlberg both agree that it was Brandeis’ golden age.

“If you look at the start of the university, the spirit was built by athletes like football players. I think Sachar made a huge mistake,” says McKenna.

“Every day you woke up at Brandeis [when I was a student] was a new page. [There was] no history. You couldn’t talk about alum. [You could talk about] the football team that could beat the University of New Hampshire. Whoa! You could talk about all these Jewish kids playing football. That’s kind of interesting. If having football was a decision made for purely cynical purposes, by 1960 it had served its purpose. [At one point, though], it was great,” says Uhlberg.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT D. FARBER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

GO JUDGES!: Brandeis student fans cheer on the Brandeis football team at a home game in 1952. The football program was cut from Brandeis athletics in a 1960 decision by then-President Abram Sachar.

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THE JUSTICE

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9

Liberal arts entrepreneurship Brandeis alumni talk about success in the world of business

By ROCKY REICHMAN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Nate Westheimer is a model example of today’s technological entrepreneur. He is the founder of the Web site BricaBox, LLC. He is executive vice president of Product and Technology at a startup company called AnyClip, which runs a Web site that indexes films and allows people to watch videos and search within them for information, scenes and actors that current data cannot find. He is also executive director of the NY Tech Meetup, an organization for tech startups in the New York area. Where did he go to school? Brandeis, Class of 2005.

Although Brandeis is one of the most prestigious liberal arts schools in the country and has only recently launched its own Business major, it is a place where aspiring entrepreneurs can come to not only learn about business but also to discover passions that will fuel later entrepreneurial ventures.

The Brandeis International Business School and its Aspen Center for Entrepreneurship provide courses in entrepreneurship that are available to undergraduate students.

Many Brandeis students have gone on to become entrepreneurs after graduating, but their personal traits all differ. “[Entrepreneurs have] almost every personality characteristic identified,” says Prof. Charles Reed (IBS), co-director of the Aspen Center for Entrepreneurship and former entrepreneur.

Reed was a “global marketing exexecutive,” as he thought of himself back then, and he managed companies and parts of companies.

Westheimer describes entrepreneurs as “people who wake up every morning with a fire in their belly.”

“The people I know all have a burning desire to be excellent,” says Westheimer.

He tells the story of an entrepreneur named Kevin Ryan, who was then CEO of online advertising network DoubleClick and who now runs business incubator AlleyCorp, a firm that helps new business ventures develop into mature, profitable companies. Ryan went on to buy one of the countries he was managing.

Ryan wanted to learn how to play Ping-Pong. To discipline himself to achieve a sense of excellence, this entrepreneur took lessons from a pro until he was not good at it, but excellent at it.

Reed says that passion is an integral part of being an entrepreneur.

“There are so many obstacles that if you don’t have passion, you’re just going to give up,” says Reed.

However, while Westheimer agrees that passion is a good thing, he cautions that passion requires a vetting process where the entrepreneur must play the role of venture capitalist, not visionary.

The difference? A visionary looks at a business venture for factors like its possibilities and creativity; venture capitalists use a more realistic approach and judge the value of a business venture by whether there is a need for it and whether or not it can make money. Westheimer advocates this latter point of view.

According to Westheimer, entrepreneurs must also practice their craft. Westheimer suggests that especially those students interested in tech entrepreneurship should start to “hack,” meaning they need to come up with projects and experiment.

Students can create coded Web sites or use a simplified content management system like Wordpress or Drupal to build their ideas into reality. Students need to scratch that entrepreneurial itch, as Westheimer calls it.

Westheimer himself was very involved in Brandeis Television while at Brandeis. In fact, when he was trying to decide what career field to choose, people suggested film and video based on how much time he spent working at BTV.

Business at Brandeis

PHOTO COURTESY OF BETH GOLDSTEIN

PHOTO COURTESY OF NATE WESTHEIMER

MANSI LUO/the Justice

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARK SHIRMAN

BUSINESS VISIONARIES: Beth Goldstein ’85, Nate Westheimer ’05, Mark Shirman ’79 and Prof. Charles Reed (IBS) (clockwise from top left) believe that their is no uniform personality for an entrepreneur. They believe that entrepreneurs can possess many different personality traits and come from all different places.

At BTV, he helped introduce video streaming and user-generated videos. The club also did a live webcast in December 2004. And this was before the concept of big video-sharing sites like YouTube, Westheimer points out. Now he works at AnyClip, a startup company that advances the way people use and interact with video.

Mark Shirman ’79 is what’s called a serial entrepeneur, or a person that starts several companies, one after another.

He started his first company, Innovative Information Systems, 2 1/2 years ago after getting his M.B.A. from American University. In August 2001 he started another busi-

ness, GlassHouse Technologies, a consulting services company focused on data center operations.

Shirman suggests that students should get used to learning from their mistakes, especially for tech entrepreneurship.

Shirman says the next best thing after learning the technology on your own is to surround yourself with people who have that technical knowledge needed and whose skills will complement your own skills.

Shirman also advises students to become more flexible and resilient because in businesses. Shirman says, aspiring entrepreneurs will face a lot of people saying “no” and will have to build up their resilience

to succeed.

Former IBS professor, CEO of Marketing Edge Consulting Group and author of The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Toolkit Beth Goldstein ’85 also lends her advice on what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

She says that while being an entrepreneur is exciting, it still involves a lot of risk-taking.

“Entrepreneurs need to be good risk-takers,” says Goldstein. Because of this, Goldstein thinks a liberal arts education is important to entrepreneurship. “[Students] need to discover new things, which is why I think a liberal arts education is phenomenal:

because it teaches you how to think.

You learn how to ask really tough questions. That’s how you get good at what you’re doing. And the best entrepreneurs I’ve worked with are really effective at that,” says Goldstein.

Goldstein says the key for students is to learn new things.She says the teachers who gave her the most valuable advice were those who pushed her to think outside the box.

What could it look like instead of what does it look like. Goldstein says that students should not just accept everything they learn as fact, but should learn to think for themselves.

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THE JUSTICE

the Justice Established 1949

Brandeis University

HANNAH L. KIRSCH, Editor in Chief J OANNA SCHORR, Senior Editor B RIAN FROMM, Deputy Editor ANDREA FINEMAN, Managing Editor ANYA B ERGMAN, REBECCA B LADY, SHANA D. LEBOWITZ and MAX B REITSTEIN MATZA Associate Editors NASHRAH RAHMAN and HARRY SHIPPS, News Editors REBECCA KLEIN, Features Editor HILLEL B UECHLER, Acting Forum Editor J OSH ASEN, Sports Editor SARAH BAYER, Arts Editor ASHER KRELL and ROBYN SPECTOR, Acting Photography Editors B RIAN N. B LUMENTHAL, Layout Editor EMILY KRAUS, Acting Copy Editor B RAD STERN, Advertising Editor

Proposals provide improvement Following several months of preparation, the Constitutional Review Committee’s recommended changes for the Student Union Constitution are now ready to be voted on as proposed constitutional amendments. These amendments, though imperfect, are productive steps forward, and we urge all students to vote on these 11 amendments when they are put up for a vote on March 18.

We agree with the committee’s argument that the replacement of the current Student Union Senate with a Student Union Assembly and Club Support Board will “increase the efficiency of student government advocacy.”

The current Union Senate is overpopulated and often ineffective.

Reducing the number of representatives in the body, as well as internally electing the Student Union vice president, will increase productivity and reduce election fatigue without meaningfully compromising student representation.

Additionally, since the vice president’s role is inherently linked to the president’s, the Assembly members should be allowed to choose the person that they think will work best with the president to fill that position. And while we hope that the new Club Support Board will create the intended club cohesion and effectively handle all club-related issues, we urge the Union to keep careful watch on the new entity lest it become an unnecessary body for which the Union would hold elections, further contributing to election disinterest.

The proposed changes to the Union Judiciary, which would become the Student Judiciary, are also positive.

The proposed mediation process before any case goes to trial is certainly within the spirit of the University and will hopefully avert those trials that could be resolved in such a manner.

Additionally, the proposed requirement that the Student Union treasurer and all Finance Board members receive training prior to their taking office is a positive development for those crucial jobs that, in our opinion, require such detailed knowledge in order to achieve success. This change has the potential to prevent the rocky transitions that have occurred between treasurers and F-Boards in the past.

At the time of the Union Judiciary trial concerning the position of senator for racial minority students last spring semester, the student body was promised increased dialogue regarding the nature and merits of the position; we are disappointed that this promise was not followed through leading up to the CRC report.

Additionally, we are concerned with the position’s proposed name change to Representative for Historically Underrepresented Races, as such a name change can easily be seen as rather gratuitous. Students are already ridiculing the new name, bringing negative attention to the position, as evidenced by a number of derisive posts on the Facebook event dedicated to the vote, “Let’s make some changes!”

While it may be imperfect, we are pleased with the proposed definition

Be sure to vote as to what constitutes a secured club.

We also support the securing of Students for Environmental Action and Student Sexuality Information Service, two clubs that play important roles within the University. We further approve of the clarification regarding the language of secured clubs’ funding, though we would have preferred that the committee more closely examine the merits of the original wording rather than change the language of the constitution to reflect a longstanding F-Board practice. And we support funding BEMCo to the most appropriate level, as another amendment proposes.

As mentioned earlier, any system that decreases the number of elections without compromising student representation is a positive improvement.

For that reason, we fully support changing our current elections system to one with instant runoffs, in which voters can rank nominees by preference at the time of the first-round election, thus allowing runoff elections to occur both immediately and automatically.

This type of system is already in place at dozens of prestigious colleges across the United States and could serve us well at this university. This system is not only automatic; it also more accurately presents voters with an outcome that fulfills their wishes better than regular runoff elections would.

Granting the Constitutional Review Committee more time to conduct its mission with more accessible input by its alumni members, as proposed by one amendment, is another constructive proposal. That amendment would additionally streamline the constitutional review process by allowing the committee’s recommendations to become amendment proposals without first being approved by at least 10 senators. This would grant future committees more flexibility with regards to reforming the Student Union, since it would grant the committee greater independence.

We also support the proposed amendment that calls for a possible increase in the number of student representatives to the Board of Trustees.

Increased student representation to the Board—despite the fact that students cannot vote—helps to ensure that those running the University always have the students’ needs directly in mind.

As student representatives to the Board are given two-year terms and thus cannot be replaced after a year of unsatisfactory representation, allowing the students to send more representatives will ensure better representation of student opinion.

The Union Constitution plays a tremendous role in student life at this University. We strongly encourage all students to vote on these proposed constitutional amendments on March 18, no matter their opinions on this page’s recommendations.

We also urge students to submit comments regarding the proposals to the Student Union secretary in order to illustrate and better explain patterns of support for or against specific proposed amendments.

A. ELI TUKACHINSKY/the Justice

Congress, pass DREAM Leah

SMITH IN A WORD

From the Mexico-U.S. border fence to the arrests of 250 illegal Wal-Mart employees in 2003, illegal immigration has taken center stage in American politics for quite some time. While the government has taken steps to quell the influx of illegal immigrants, the more pressing concern should be what we do with undocumented people who are already here. There are many who feel that a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants is neeeded. However, concerns about what effects the legalization some 16 million people might have on the country have prevented any such legislation from being passed.

The proposal of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act in March 2009 has now directed the spotlight on this issue to college campuses across the nation. If passed by Congress, the act would provide a path to legalization for undocumented students of good “moral character” who have completed a high school degree or GED and at least two years of higher education.

I must admit that when I first read about the act, I thought it was a terrible idea. I’ve always been on the fence—no pun intended—about legalizing undocumented immigrants. I understand that people are pushed by terrible circumstances to risk their lives and illegally enter the United States. But I’ve still felt that we shouldn’t reward them for breaking the law.

Yet the more I read about DREAM, the more I have become convinced that this might be the best way to resolve the problems of legalization for undocumented immigrants. The difference with the DREAM Act is that it would provide legalization for many students who were brought unknowingly into the country at a young age. If passed, we wouldn’t be rewarding those who chose to break the law, but we wouldn’t continue to punish those who had little say in the matter, either.

For starters, if the act passed, it would only provide a path to legalization for around four million people, but not all of those eligible would actually achieve legalization. The act provides that an eligible student would be granted conditional status after graduating high school. They would then have to graduate from a two-year community college, complete two years toward a four-year degree or serve two years in the military within six years. It is highly unlikely that all eligible students would achieve one of these requirements in order to gain permanent residence and eventually citizenship.

That said, the economic strains that legalizing the undocumented population would put on the country would be considerably less under the DREAM Act. Adding a couple million people to the legal workforce would not drain available resources the way legalizing all 16 million undocumented people might. The students would have little impact on job availability because most of them would be in school for the first few years. And students eligible for legalization would only be eligible for government loans, not other forms of financial assistance. The government would not be spending a significantly larger amount of money to support these students.

DREAM students could also contribute a great deal to the activist and academic cultures of college campuses. The act is designed to provide legalization only to those that are driven and motivated. Students must have achieved a high level of education and must be proven to have a strong “moral character.” This is slightly ambiguous, although it is likely that testimonies of character will be sought from teachers, deans or other such sources. Furthermore, a large number of the students who would be affected by this act are already known to contribute to campus life. According to a Huffington Post article by Will Perez, an expert on the DREAM Act, over 90 percent of undocumented college students have participated in volunteer work and various forms of activism.

The DREAM Act should also be passed from a moral standpoint because it could provide a degree of stability and independence to students whose futures would otherwise be hazy.

As children of undocumented immigrants, these students are likely in constant fear of separation from their families due to deportation. They furthermore have dreary prospects for future careers no matter how much they succeed in college.

Many of these students were brought into the country at a young age, and although we should not reward their parents for breaking the law, we should also not penalize the children for their parents’ transgressions.

Legalization for undocumented immigrants is a tricky issue, but the DREAM Act could provide at least a partial answer.

For the benefit of college students, and perhaps for the benefit of the country as a whole, the DREAM act should be passed.

OP-BOX Quote of the Week “I think it was a jealousy thing.

Friedman brought more publicity to this school then Sachar ever did.”

—Bill McKenna ’54, former player for the Brandeis football team, referring to football coach Benny Friedman and then-President Abram L. Sachar, explaining why the University’s football team was ultimately disbanded in 1960 (See Features, page 7).

Brandeis Talks Back What amendment proposed by the Constitutional Review Committee do you feel makes the most positive change?

LARISSA LIEBMAN ’10 “I’m graduating this semester, and I don’t feel like the constitution applies to my life all that much anyway.”

AVIVA PAISTE ’13 “I haven’t read it yet.”

RAJESH KULENTHIRARGAN ’12 “None of them do.”

ANDREW MANDELL ’11 “Well, I don’t know about any of them.”

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

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Senior theses should be mandatory for students Eitan

COOPER DOWN TO BUSINESS

A couple of weeks ago, I was privileged enough to accompany my mother to work. It was a very strange experience; I have never seen my mother outside of the context of, well, being my mother. I got to see her office and her co-workers, and I heard her answer the phones. And I saw her college diplomas hanging over her desk.

Out of all the tasks I saw her accomplish, most of them only seemed to require “on-thejob” experience—and had no need for that multithousand-dollar diploma hanging over her desk. Feeling somewhat guilty that my parents were wasting their money on my education, I asked my mom if she actually remembered anything from her undergraduate years. Predictably, her answer was a simple “no.”

This didn’t really surprise me, but it got me thinking: Why are we really here? If most of our careers will not really make use of any of the specific information that we acquire, then what’s the point of all of this? Well, if you ask most people, college is really about learning how to learn. Each major, in its own way, gives a student a unique manner in which to examine the world around him. A History major will never remember the dates and details of a particular event, but he will learn to think like a historian would. In the grand scheme of things—whether we like it or not— our brains simply choose to remember the “macro” concepts and to ignore the “micro” details of a specific discipline. This is an unfortunate reality of the limits of the human mind and an education system that forces us to “cram” and often forget later. This doesn’t bother most of us though, because we know that college isn’t really meant for memorizing.

But the acquisition of information can be an extremely valuable process. It’s something that we really shouldn’t be throwing by the wayside so easily. After all, we spend so much of our time reading textbooks, writing papers and memorizing that it would seem like too much of a waste of time and money if none of the information was important enough to remember. Also, while my mom doesn’t really make use of any of the information she learned in college, that does not mean that it couldn’t be useful. Obscure information about the world never hurt anybody.

So in order for Brandeis students to retain at least something from what they learned while they were here, everyone should be required to write a senior thesis.

I know that right off the bat, when most people read this, they will immediately shudder at the thought and dismiss the idea as ludicrous. Most people do not envy their friends at other universities who have to go through the long process of thesis-writing. Moreover, Brandeis already has a senior thesis option, so why make it mandatory? Under the current system, those students who detest writing papers don’t have to suffer, and those who excel at the process can choose to partake.

Nonetheless, a mandatory senior thesis

STACY HANDLER/the Justice

would benefit every student, regardless of his or her capabilities. For starters, a senior thesis would allow us to retain at least some valuable information when we graduate. Everyone remembers what he wrote his senior thesis about but not what his independent study was about. The monumental writing process, as opposed to simply reading and writing short papers, is more conducive to long-term memory. And since each thesis is chock-full of information, this translates into people remembering the “micro” details of college as opposed to solely the “macro.”

Additionally, it’s your thesis. You can do whatever you want with it. You can choose the topic, the writing style, the research methods and the font. Every single student at Brandeis has some sort of intellectual interest.

Therefore, the thesis-writing process would be anything but boring—you would be in charge of every single aspect of the project. If anything, this would be more exciting than a class

in which a professor determines the agenda.

One might argue that an independent study could accomplish the very same goal. These classes, which are available for upperclassmen to take in most departments, involve a student choosing his own syllabus and assignments. Why, then, should we require a senior thesis? A thesis distinguishes itself from a standard course’s research paper because it involves a vast amount of creative energy. The process of constructing a thesis requires intense thought, discussion and fine-tuning. It involves surveying an entire subject and leaving your own mark. This is something that every college student should be required to at least attempt. For, as cliché as it sounds, the greatest theses may come from the people who never thought they could write one.

Additionally, a senior thesis helps you sum up your college experience. I am not a senior, but I can imagine that it may be difficult to come to terms with the fact that college is end-

ing. Writing a senior thesis allows someone to look back at his four years and try as much as possible to synthesize in one document the various skills he developed as an undergraduate.

I recently came across an article in the Huffington Post that surveyed the various senior theses that different celebrities and politicians wrote. Conan O’Brien (Harvard—B.A. in American History) wrote about the “Literary Progeria in the Works of Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner.” James Franco went a totally different route, “writing an episodic novel set in his hometown of Palo Alto, Calif.”

What was very intriguing about every celebrity’s thesis is that many did not have much to do with their careers. For the most part, what we learn in college does not really affect the job we get. But ultimately, a senior thesis can be a way to look back at our four years in Brandeis and say “Hey, I learned something, and I can remember it.” Isn’t that worth it?

Improve language requirement by reducing number of essential courses

By DAVID FISCH SPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE

Brandeis needs to do away with its current foreign language requirement. Now, I’m not proposing we do away with the entire foreign language requirement; I feel that we should be requiremed to take at least one foreign language class, but that language class should be permitted to be as low as a 10-level.

Let’s face it: Most students who are forced to take a foreign language forget almost everything they learn within a year—at least that’s what happened to me in both languages I’ve taken. If the foreign language requirement was to take just one 10-level language class, then it would be equivalent to all of the other distribution requirements that the University has, which is exactly how it should be.

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Currently, students who don’t want to take them, creating a need for multiple sections of the same class. There is money to be saved by reducing the foreign language requirement, and the University knows it. The recently released final report of the Brandeis 2020 Committee states that the committee “discussed at length the possibility of resource savings” by changing the foreign language requirement. This was a step toward changing the current foreign language requirement, but the University must take further action in that direction.

Brandeis, a school that tries to give everyone an advantage, is putting students who struggle to learn foreign languages at a severe disadvantage. As one of those students, I have trouble memorizing the endless vocabulary and grammar rules. Imagine if the University tried requiring more classes

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from the School of Science—most humanities- and social science-oriented students wouldn’t be very happy about it.

One of the main arguments for the foreign language requirement is stated on the University’s Web site: “The goal of the foreign language requirement … is to prepare students to understand better and to participate in a different culture by developing basic skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) in another language.”

If the point of the foreign language requirement is to prepare students to communicate with a wide variety of people, then why allow students to fulfill the language requirement through the wide variety of dying languages that the University offers? Why not require students to take only commonly spoken languages like Spanish or French? However, if the University were to make the requirement

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only to complete a 10-level course, then they could allow the course to also be about culture instead of only language. That way, a student will come away from the course knowing the fundamentals not only of the language but also of its culture.

Foreign language does not have to be the huge mountain of requirements that it is. The current situation can be corrected by making the requirement that each student just pass the lowest level of any language. This way, the University can save money by having fewer classes of something that many students dread, and students will be able to put their time toward something that they actually enjoy doing. Overall, the University would be saving money and allowing students to choose their classes more freely—and there’s nothing wrong with that.

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TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

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THE JUSTICE

Promote education, not activism Avi

SNYDER VOICE OF REASON

We Brandeisians often pride ourselves on our students’ long history of political activism. From sit-ins and protests in the ’60s and ’70s to activism in Liberal, Conservative, Communist or Zionist groups on campus today, Brandeis students are politically aware. But after some experiences of mine over February break, I’ve begun to wonder whether this type of youthful activism is actually healthy for the political culture of our country.

Over February break, I was lucky enough to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. CPAC is an annual gathering of conservative- and libertarianleaning activists from around the country at which people network, politicians pander and a good time is had by all. Walking around CPAC, though, gives the vague impression of walking around a College Republicans convention: Year after year, the majority of attendees are college students.

Since I’m a good Republican, I had quite a good time at CPAC, but I was profoundly disturbed by several aspects of the conference, especially the behavior of the college students in attendance. Most of the conference involved sitting in a big conference hall listening to people speak.

Participants would walk in and out of the large ballroom constantly; after all, eight hours is a long time to sit and listen to speeches. But I was shocked when I saw which speakers my fellow college students chose to listen to and wildly applaud. They were primarily speakers whose rhetoric was populist, extreme and simplistic.

On the final day of the conference, a panel spoke to the crowd about what a conservative foreign policy ought to be. The lineup on the panel was wonderful: a former official from the Reagan administration; Joanne Herring, who had helped fund Afghani troops in the fight against the Soviet invasion of their country; and Jason Chaffetz, a congressman from Utah.

The level of discourse on the panel was very high, and each member sought to inform the crowd that the business of foreign policy is not simple: It requires prudence, wise judgment and decisions among less-than-ideal options.

The crowd in the room for the panel was small, and the panelists were greeted with credulity and very little applause.

Not long after that panel, right-wing firebrand and pundit Ann Coulter spoke to the convention, and when she spoke, the room was packed to capacity. Throngs of college students came to hear Coulter stoke populist flames and appeal to the most base elements of the

Republican psyche with liberal-bashing one-liners one could practically classify as political pornography.

During the question-and-answer session with Coulter, one college student asked her what she thought of Joanne Herring’s suggestion that assisting Afghani farmers grow chickpeas could help stabilize the country. To this question Coulter replied, “I thought bombs were the solution to our problem in Afghanistan.” The young people in the room responded with thunderous applause.

I don’t tell this story in order to discuss foreign policy in the Middle East or to express my distaste for Ann Coulter. I tell it because I was shocked at how poorly the crowds of young activists like me responded to serious suggestions about how to develop a viable, right-wing foreign policy and how happy they were to hear calls for bomb-dropping to solve our problems.

The issue of young people’s unfortunate tendency to lean toward populism, utopianism and idealism is not limited to the American Right. It exists on both sides of the political spectrum. Just take a look at some of the political advocacy groups here on campus. Although they don’t enjoy the support of a majority of students on campus, Students for a Democratic Society and Democracy for America are two far-left-wing groups who enjoy support on campus out of proportion to what they would enjoy off campus.

SDS and DFA even helped bring the radically left-wing, former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers to campus last year. Whatever one thinks about Ayers, he is clearly a radical who would have a difficult time getting a hearing anywhere but a college campus.

We spend a lot of time and energy in this country trying to encourage young people to vote. Since I started becoming aware of the political process back in 2004, I remember “Rock the Vote” campaigns to make voting seem cool to young people. (We all remember when Sean “Diddy” Combs wore that infamous “Vote or Die” T-shirt). And praise was heaped on then-presidential candidates Senator Barack Obama and Congressman Ron Paul in 2008 for being able to encourage young people to get involved in politics.

I think in light of the penchant for populism and extremism, this may be a flawed way to support our political system. Encouraging youth to get involved in the political process is not an inherently worthy pursuit. If what young people bring to the table are overly simplistic and excessively populist ideas about public policy, then they do damage to the political process at a time when wisdom, sound judgment and nuance are needed to solve the tremendous economic and security problems the country faces at home and abroad.

Instead of promoting campaigns to

RISHIKA ASSOMULL/the Justice

get kids to turn up at political rallies or go to the polls, we as a country ought to promote that kids be educated about the issues. Such an effort could use media like television or YouTube to promote education about the major policy issues this country will have to deal with in the near future. College Democrats and Republicans ought to be more focused on education than activism, and their conferences and events should be adjusted accordingly.

An educated young person won’t simply call for bomb-dropping as the solution to all our problems abroad, nor will he reduce domestic problems to a simple conflict between, say capitalism and socialism or between the reli-

gious right and secular left. The world is a complex place, and promoting educational opportunities geared toward young people would be a great way to curb our bent toward extremism. We also ought to stop praising politicians simply for getting young people to turn out at the polls. The politicians who deserve our praise are those who deal seriously with the issues, not those who can get kids to show up at their rallies.

Perhaps then, as fun as CPAC was, young people should not be encouraged to attend events like it. At CPAC, many speakers come and fan populist flames. They play to young people’s proclivities, confirm what they

already think and justify their simplistic views. Youth involvement in this kind of politics is damaging to our nation’s political climate. Nonpartisan educational events and conferences would be far more beneficial to college-age students than partisan political rallies.

I understand the irony of me, a relatively politically active college student, railing against the involvement of people like me in the political process. But in writing this, I am reminding myself of how I can more positively involve myself in politics, and I hope to transmit my own introspection to this article’s readers.

Appreciate increased acceptance rates Rebecca

KELLOGG SOUND AND FURY

This time of the year is generally a season of levity and relief: Our interminable midterm season is almost over, the temperature may soon decide to rise above 60 degrees for the first time in a long time, and before you know it we will be introduced to the Class of 2014. For most of us, thinking about a new class of Brandeisians only produces feelings of intrigue and excitement: What are these people like, what will they contribute to our community, how soon can I sell my Chemistry textbook to one of them? However, there is one group of people here at Brandeis whose excitement over this new class is likely tinged with anxiety: the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

The cause of this trepidation is our acceptance rate—namely, whether it will continue to rise. Last year, a nationwide decrease in applications (thought to be at least partially influ-

enced by the horrible state of the economy, as liberal arts colleges with smaller endowments were most affected) caused admission rates to increase noticeably at many prestigious institutions of higher learning, this university included. This, in turn, quickly sent Brandeis and many other fine schools into frenzied apologist mode, quickly seeking to assure everyone (especially potential students) that this slightly increased acceptance rate was nothing but an anticipated glitch that would correct itself once the economy abdicated from its reign of destruction. These predictions may very well turn out to be accurate: No one will really know for a few more months. However, in the interim I propose that we should stop all of this fretting over acceptance rates, especially those of us at Brandeis. A higher acceptance rate is not intrinsically evil, and indeed, any concentrated effort to lower Brandeis’ acceptance rate would be in direct opposition to our devotion to social justice.

Last summer, my take on Brandeis’ admission rate was pronouncedly less relaxed. After all, the news of our 8-percent jump in accept-

ances was the first thing that brought me down from my postacceptance euphoria. I have to admit that my first feelings upon reading the report on the 2009 admissions cycle were those of insecurity and dismay: I worried about whether I would have been admitted if the admissions rate hadn’t gone up, about whether my class would be viewed as a dull group, and most of all, about whether my newly minted alma mater would suffer a hit to its reputation from which it could not recover.

Now, however, due to the perspective I have gained since my removal from the college admissions scene, I see that these worries were not only baseless or even foolish—they were selfish. To be sure, it’s not intrinsically selfish to want one’s school to maintain its good reputation.

However, it is selfish to want fewer students to be accepted to a good school just so that school is able to maintain an illusion of exclusivity.

Giving more students easier access to higher education is a positive event that we should always celebrate. This is doubly true for a school like Brandeis: we quite rightly place

a high premium on social justice, which should include giving as many students as possible access to the wonderful education one can receive at Brandeis.

In a world where even untouchable Harvard University has been criticized for using its massive endowment for practically everything except increasing class sizes (and hence, most likely raise its admission rate), I’m proud to attend a school that is consciously seeking to enroll more students and give them the chance to earn a valuable degree.

One other favorable argument for rising acceptance rates is the possibility that a higher acceptance rate could cause any school to be viewed more favorably by the public. This suggestion may seem counterintuitive—after all, oftentimes it seems as if private colleges especially are only able to thrive because of this supposed sheen of exclusivity.

However, universities are often viewed unfavorably by the public largely because of this reputation for isolation and supposed superiority.

The American university is too often thought of as an inaccessible,

impenetrable monolith. Despite the possibility that this stereotype may very well dissuade qualified students from applying, the schools themselves are not helping to disprove this, making concerted efforts to keep acceptance rates as low as possible and perpetrating the myth that a low acceptance rate is a reliable indicator of academic quality.

Indeed, any responsible college should work toward accepting as many students as possible without providing any undue economic or academic strain for the college.

Ideally, this situation benefits both the university as a whole and the individual students: The university provides the student with as many resources as it is able to, and in return the student enriches the university with his or her gifts and talents. Especially at a school like Brandeis, which always has and, I believe, always will continue to attract highly desirable applicants, we should not fear a higher acceptance rate or more students. No matter how many applicants we accept, the Class of 2014 and its successors will continue to bring greatness to our university.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

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SPORTS SOFTBALL

Team sweeps Sunday’s games to start the season ■ The softball team beat

Pittsburgh-Bradford and Rensselaer in Clermont, Fla. Sunday to open the season.

By TREVOR COHEN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The Brandeis softball team, led by coach Jessica Johnson, opened its season and a weeklong Florida road trip with two games on Sunday in Clermont, Fla. Brandeis defeated University of Pittsburgh-Bradford 104 in five innings after defeating Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 7-6 in 10.

Offensive support against PittBradford came from right fielder Brittany Grimm ’12, who scored on each of her three singles. Catcher Stacy Berg ’13, whose first collegiate home run came as a second-inning grand slam, put the Judges ahead to stay.

Second baseman Melisa Cagar ’11 led the game off with a single, reaching second on a throwing error, and coming in to score on a double by left fielder Marianne Specker ’12. Specker was then thrown out trying to score on a Berg single, and Berg scored on a fielder’s choice to put the Judges up by two.

After the Panthers tied the game off of Miller in the bottom of the inning, Brandeis put up four in the top of the second on the Berg grand slam and coasted from there.

In game one on the day, the Judges quickly gained the upper hand, scoring once in each of the first two innings, and again in the fifth, while holding RPI scoreless.

With their backs to the wall, though, the Engineers broke the 3-0 shutout in the bottom of the seventh, scoring three times and sending the

game to extra innings.

The two clubs went blow-for-blow in the next two innings, with Brandeis scoring twice in the top of the eighth and once in the top of the ninth, only to be matched by RPI in the bottom of each of those frames.

Finally, after scoring again in the top of the 10th, the Judges were able to hold the Engineers scoreless in the bottom half to claim the victory.

That type of back-and-forth, said shortstop Chelsea Korp ’10, can be mentally draining for a team.

“That’s probably one of the tougher aspects of a game like that because you think you have it, and then they come back,” said Korp. “We really pulled it together as a team and came through. We, I think in past years, probably would have lost a game that was that close and that tight going into so many innings, but I think it shows a lot of good things on our part that we pulled it out.”

The Judges struck first with a leadoff double from Cagar to open the game. She scored on another two-bagger from Specker. After Brandeis scored again on left fielder Carly Schmand’s ’11 single in the second, Cager came home a second time, leading led off the fifth with a walk, stealing second and scoring on a throwing error by the catcher.

The Engineers then put up 3 runs in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extra innings. After failing to hold leads in the eighth and ninth, Specker scored on a wild pitch in the top of the tenth, and pitcher Caroline Miller ’12 came on in relief of pitcher Emily Vaillette ’10 to set RPI down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning and seal the Judge’s victory.

Before Sunday, the team’s last game came May 10 of last year, when they failed to defend their 2008 Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III New England champi-

onship title, losing 11-1 to Keene State College in the tournament finals. The Judges earned top seed in the ECAC tournament in both the 2008 and ’2009 seasons and have made the trip in each of Johnson’s three seasons as coach.

From last year’s roster, 16 of 19 players are returning, including most of the starters. That is compounded with first-year talent from pitchers Casey Ducinski ’13 and Keliann Kirby ’13, and Berg, whose grand slam in her second collegiate game made her presence known early. These factors, said Korp, makes the team a force to be reckoned with: “I think we look really good,” said Korp. “We gained a lot of talent with the freshman class. We are looking solid on defense. We have pretty much all of our starters returning … and I think we’re hitting better.”

One returning player of note is Cagar, who last year was a first-team All-Region selection by both the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) and the New England Intercollegiate Softball Coaches Association (NEISCA).

Cagar stared every game and led the team in batting average, hits, runs scored and stolen bases and ranked in the top five for University Athletic Association players in each category.

The round robin UAA tournament begins today as the Judges take on Emory University and Washington University in St. Louis. The Altamonte Springs, Florida, tournament continues until Sunday, with Brandeis playing Rochester University and Case Western Reserve University on Thursday, Emory on Friday, WashU and Rochester on Saturday, and Case again on Sunday.

The Judges begin their New England schedule at Brandeis on Wednesday, March 17, taking on Wellesley College.

MBBALL: Team moves on to face Rhode Island College in the Sweet 16 CONTINUED FROM 16 37.4 percent per game, sixth best in Division III. They allowed just 59.0 points per game.

“When you start looking at statistics, you also have to kind of watch who they’ve played. … Their league is not a particularly strong league,” Meehan said. “So although you have to respect the fact that they had good stats defensively, when we watched them on tape we felt we were still going to be able to score.”

On Friday the Judges defeated St. Lawrence University despite not taking the lead until over 10 minutes into the first half.

The Saints led 12-9 when Kriskus was fouled while shooting a 3-pointer and made his free throws to tie the game.

St. Lawrence retook the lead twice before a 3-pointer from guard Kenny Small ’10 tied the game at 17 and a layup from Hollins gave the Judges

the lead for good with 9:33 left in the first half.

The Judges led by as much as 25 in the second half, but in the second game, allowed their opponent to chip away at the lead late, as the Saints eventually got within 12 by the end of the game.

With the Saints triple-teaming Hollins often throughout the night, the defense left Small and Kriskus open for 3-point opportunities.

Kriskus started the game 6-for-6 from the field and finished with a career-high 29 points in just 30 minutes of action.

Small ended up with 16 points, including 4-4 from 3-point range.

And despite all the attention from the St. Lawrence players, Hollins still finished with a solid 12 points and five rebounds.

Many of the women’s basketball players made the trip to see their male counterparts play, which

Meehan and the team appreciated.

“It’s a long distance from school, so to have any sort of fans there is really important to help the guys on,” Meehan said. “The men and women travel together all year, and they support each other, and we’re cheering for them in their games on the road and vice versa.

Meehan also noted how his team supported the women when they were in the NCAA Tournament last year.

“I know last year when the women made their run in the tournament our guys were right there really trying to help any way they could,” Meehan said.

The Judges are next in action Friday night versus Rhode Island College at Williams College.

The winner of that game will then play the winner of the Williams-State University of New York Institute of Technology game Saturday night.

AHEAD OF THE PACK

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

IN FRONT: Anifreed Sinjour ’13 runs at the UAA Championships held at Brandeis.

TRACK: Despite two wins, men and women drop in overall UAA standings CONTINUED FROM 16 strongly in the race. Although Kramer was tripped up early on in the race, he came back and finished third, earning himself AllUAA honors.

The final men’s UAA honors came in the 800-meter race, as Aaron Udel ’10 finished third with a time of 1:56.13.

For the women, Grayce Selig ’11 and Beth Pisarik ’10 finished second and third, respectively in the 1mile race.

Selig finished at 4:56.12, while Pisarik crossed the finish line with a time of 4:59.11.

The two topped the UAA record in the race, and Selig beat her record for the third time this season.

They are the only women to run a sub-5-minute mile in school history.

Despite their impressive performances, Selig and Pisarik lost out to WashU sophomore Liz Phillip, who won the race with a time of 4:55.32.

The women’s other All-UAA performances came in the triple jump,

where Capano earned her second UAA honor by placing third with a jump of 10.89 meters.

Both teams were extremely pleased with their results considering that they are a smaller team compared to other UAA schools such as WashU, Emory and Chicago.

“We were ecstatic about the results,” Norton said. “We’d been last every season indoors and outdoors in the championship since I’d been here. We had no entrants in the hurdles, so that killed [us].

Other teams could pick up points; our team is nowhere near the size of a lot of other teams, so it’s really hard for a lot of us to compete.”

The next competition for those who qualified for the NCAA Championships will be at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. The meet will start Friday and finish Saturday.

Selig is excited for the NCAA Championships, as well as the start of the spring season, “All of us are coming off the [winter] season doing really well,” she said. “I think it’ll carry over [into the spring].”

WBBALL: Chapin ’10, Kendrew ’12 and Strodthoff ’11 named to the All-UAA squads CONTINUED FROM 16 243 steals. Those numbers are good for sixth, eight, sixth and third in Brandeis history, respectively.

In a game versus Carnegie Mellon University Feb. 7, Chapin broke two school records by knocking down seven shots from 3-point range, scoring 36 points in the game.

The senior guard also made history as the first Brandeis player to hit 167 career 3-pointers.

Guard Morgan Kendrew ’12 finished eighth in the conference in 3point shooting percentage with 33.0 percent and 12th in 3-pointers with 29.

Kendrew was Brandeis’ second leading scorer to Chapin.

“Morgan has a lot of talent, and she will be a very scary player that a lot of teams will have to deal with,” said Chapin. “When she gets really focused and knows what she’s doing, she’s a very tough player to guard.”

Brandeis’ third UAA-recognized

player was Strodthoff, who finished fourth in the UAA in rebounds with 140, averaging 7.4 rebounds per game.

Her 91 defensive rebounds allowed her to place fifth in the conference, while her 49 offensive rebounds ranked seventh in the UAA. She led the Judges in blocks with 11. She followed Kendrew in scoring with 158 points.

Strodthoff noted how the team drives her success. “[The team] pushes me every day

in practice and [tries] to make me a better player. … Because of them I was able to get this honor,” Strodthoff said.

With an experienced senior class leaving, Chapin offered advice for the team.

“A lot of younger girls are going to have to step up and provide leadership on and off the court,” said Chapin. “I think Amber and Morgan will provide that leadership on the court, but people are going to need to

be more vocal leaders.”

Chapin continued, noting that leadership provided by Strodthoff and Kendrew could make next year’s team “very successful.”

Strodthoff believes next year’s leadership cannot be predicted.

“I think it will be a completely different atmosphere,” said Strodthoff.

“We’re going to have a whole new wave of freshmen. … Every year is truly different. It could be anyone really.”

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THE JUSTICE

■ The men’s basketball forward

scored a career-high 29 points in the team’s opening round win over St. Lawrence. He also led the Judges in scoring in their win over St. John Fisher.

26

combined point margin of victory for men’s basketball in its two victories in the NCAA Tournament last weekend.

DAVID SHEPPARD-BRICK/Justice File Photo

him right in the hands, right where he wanted it.”

In the game against St. John Fisher College Saturday, which Brandeis won 6652, Kriskus again led the way, this time scoring a team-high 17 points. He shot 6-10 from the field and 3 of 5 from 3-point

range. He also hit two of three free throws.

Kriskus will look to continue his hot shooting this weekend when Brandeis takes on Rhode Island College Friday at Williams College.

—Jeffrey Boxer and Melissa Siegel

29 11

All-University Athletic Association performances by the indoor track and field squads at the UAA Championships last weekend.

13 17

hits recorded by the softball team in a 7-6 extra-inning victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Sunday.

total runs scored by the softball team in its two wins Sunday.

Baseball

INTRAMURAL BRIEF

Softball

Not including Monday’s games

Rochester Washington Emory Case JUDGES Chicago

—Josh Asen

UAA W L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Overall W L 2 0 5 1 7 6 2 5 1 3 0 0

Not including Monday’s games Overall UAA W L W L Washington 0 0 6 0 JUDGES 0 0 2 0 Case 0 0 3 1 Emory 0 0 6 6 Rochester 0 0 1 1 Chicago 0 0 0 0

Baseball (hits)

Baseball (runs batted in)

Catcher Artie Posch ’10 leads the Judges with 9 hits.

Catcher Artie Posch ’10 leads Brandeis with 11 RBIs.

Player Artie Posch Tony Deshler Sean O’Hare John Chu Four tied with...

Player Artie Posch John Chu Tony Deshler John O’Brion Zach Wooley

Hits 9 6 4 4 2

RBI 7 3 3 2 2

MBball (points)

MBball (minutes)

Guard Kenny Small ’10 leads Brandeis with 14.2 points per game (postseason statistics included).

Guard Andre Roberson ’10 leads the team with 34.5 minutes per game (postseason statistics included).

Player Kenny Small Terrell Hollins Vytas Kriskus Andre Roberson Tyrone Hughes

Player Andre Roberson Tyrone Hughes Kenny Small Terrell Hollins Christian Yemga

PPG 14.2 13.6 12.7 10.7 9.1

MPG 34.5 31.9 31.6 28.0 25.0

UPCOMING GAME OF THE WEEK Men’s basketball vs. Rhode Island College Friday Brandeis will face Rhode Island College in the Sweet 16 at Williams College.

21

rebounds, a career-high, recorded by forward Terrell Hollins ’10 in the team’s 6652 win over St. John Fisher College on Saturday.

Men’s basketball forward Terrell Hollins ’10 and guard Kenny Small ’10 were named first-team All-University Athletic Association members for the first time in their careers Wednesday. Both had made the second-team before: Hollins was on the team his sophomore year, while Small was selected last season.

Coach Brian Meehan noted the maturation process that the two have endured over their careers at Brandeis.

“Both guys have done what you would hope players would do,” he said. “They came in as freshmen and realized they had a lot of room for improvement. ... All of their games have grown.”

This year, Hollins averaged 13.6 points per game and 9.9 rebounds per game in the regular season. His scoring average was good for seventh in the conference, while his rebounding was second in the league and 33rd in Division III. “We needed him to step up and give us more time on the floor and dominate more. ... This year he knew that we needed to be a leader and do a lot more. He’s certainly shown shown everybody the ability to just take over games,” Meehan said.

Hollins posted 12 double-doubles on the year and became the third player in Brandeis history to finish with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists.

Small led the Judges with 14.4 ppg, which was the sixth-best total in the UAA. In addition to leading the team in points, Small also finished the regular season with the highest free-throw percentage, which was 84.6 percent. That was good for second in the UAA and 53rd in Division III. Small became the eighth player in Brandeis history to hit 100 3-pointers in his career. He achieved that in the 87-70 victory over Rochester University Feb. 19.

Meehan acknowledged Small’s offensive, as well as defensive, skills.

“Kenny has always been a pretty exciting player who was a good offensive player,” Meehan said. “He has made himself into a very, very good defensive player.”

Guards Andre Roberson ’10 and Tyrone Hughes ’12 were selected as members of the second-team All-UAA squad.

Roberson, who made the second team last year as well, led the squad and was second in the UAA in minutes played in the regular season with 34.7 minutes per game.

Roberson led the team with 3.8 assists per game.

Hughes made an All-UAA team for the first time in his career. He led the team in steals with 1.8 steals per game, which was the fourth-highest total in the UAA.

UAA STANDINGS

TEAM LEADERS points, a career high, scored by forward Vytas Kriskus ’12 in the team’s 76-64 victory over St. Lawrence University on Sunday.

15

Hollins ’10 and Small ’10 named to the first-team All-UAA squad

Vytas Kriskus ’12

Judging numbers

TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

VARSITY BRIEF

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

The Brandeis men’s basketball team advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second time in three years thanks in large part to forward Vytas Kriskus ’12.

Kriskus led the Judges in scoring in the team’s first two tournament games, including a career-high 29 points in 30 minutes in the 76-64 win over St. Lawrence University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday night.

In the first half, Kriskus scored 19 points and was 4-of-5 from 3-point range.

Overall, Kriskus shot 9-14 from the field.

He shot 6-9 from beyond the arc and was perfect on five attempts from the freethrow line. He made six 3-pointers, which was more than the entire St. Lawrence team.

Coach Brian Meehan cited Kriskus’ shooting ability as a main reason for why the Judges defeated the Saints.

“It was kind of a situation where on Friday night St. Lawrence was a team that was going to play a lot of zone, and certainly Vytas’ ability to shoot the ball was going to be key in that game,” Meehan said. “Fortunately, he got in the game and he had his stroke right from the beginning.

While Kriskus delivered the points, Meehan thought the team’s passing worked efficiently.

“You also have to credit the guys who were getting [Kriskus] the ball, and not just getting it to him, but getting it to him in a position where he could shoot it right away,” Meehan said. “They were making really nice, clean passes; they were hitting

●

After defeating St. John Fisher College in the second round and St. Lawrence University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Judges will look to advance past the Sweet 16 Friday when they face Rhode Island College at Williams College.

Three years ago, Brandeis lost to RIC 70-67 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

In the regular season, RIC went 20-7 and 12-2 in Little East Conference play.

They defeated Rutgers University-

Newark 72-60 to start the NCAA Tournament and then upset No. 9 Middlebury College 75-59 at Middlebury.

The RIC squad is led by senior guard Jake Grimes, who leads the team with 14.7 points per game. Junior guard Antoine Gray averages 14.5 ppg, while sophomore forward/guard Mason Choice ranks third with 13.1 ppg.

Both junior forward/center Darius Debnam and junior forward Carl Lee have a team-best 5.9 rebounds per game.

Bo Jingle Jangles and Team Madness win basketball titles The women’s and men’s intramural basketball finals were played at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center on Wednesday, and both of them went down to the wire.

In the women’s intramural basketball final, No. 1 Bo Jingle Jangles took on No. 2 Snookie Snicker Pickles. BJJ jumped out to an early 7-0 lead thanks to Chelsea Korp ’10.

SSP quickly answered with three straight buckets by Londyn Graham ’11.

The teams exchanged baskets for the rest of the half until a late BJJ run gave the team a 19-12 halftime lead. The first 10 minutes of the second half boasted sharp 3-point shooting from BJJ’s Ali Theodore ’12 and Mimi Theodore ’12.

Down 9 points with 10 minutes, 47 seconds left in the game, SSP began to chip away at the lead behind the strong play of Graham Chen ’12 and Dominique Chen ’12. A steal by Omoefe Ogbeide ’12 led to a fast-break bucket by Graham that gave SSP their first lead of the contest.

Quincy Auger ’10 later answered with a key 3-point play to put BJJ up 4 points with just over 2 minutes left. After several missed shots, SSP was forced to foul and Mimi Theodore sank four clutch free throws down the stretch to sustain the lead. When the buzzer sounded, BJJ completed its undefeated season with a 46-39 win.

Graham led all scorers with 23 points. Mimi Theodore led BJJ with 12 points, while Ali Theodore and Korp also reached double figures with 10 apiece.

In the men’s championship game, undefeated No. 1 Apu M. Kout took on No. 2 Team Madness in a contest that needed overtime to be decided.

The two teams exchanged runs early in the game when AMK jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead that was erased minutes later when Madness hit three straight baskets to go up 7-4.

AMK’s Mohsin Fidai ’10 led all scorers with 10 first-half points, but the strong inside play of Napoleon Lherisson ’11 helped Madness take a 21-17 lead into halftime.

Madness quickly extended its lead to eight at the start of the second half, but the long-range shooting of Matt Baron ’10 and Dave Aquilino ’12 helped AMK chip away at the lead and regulation ended with the score tied at 45.

Madness struck first in overtime with a quick bucket from Lherrison. After several scoreless possessions, a free throw by Aquilino brought AMK within 1 point.

Madness then missed the front end of a one-and-one and a jump ball gave possession back to AMK with less than 4 seconds left.

Aquilino dribbled the length of the court, but a contested 3-pointer would not fall as the buzzer sounded.

Madness escaped with a thrilling 47-46 upset victory for its second straight IM Basketball title.

Lherisson finished with a game-high 16 points, while Rashad Baldwin ’10 and University staff member Yves Bruno each scored 10 points.

Aquilino led the way for AMK with 15 points, while Fidai and Baron both finished with 14.

—Compliled by Assistant Director of Athletics Tom Rand and Alex Tynan ’12.

—Editors Note: Quincy Auger ’10 is a staff writer for the Justice.

just

Sports

Page 16

STARTING STRONG The softball team won its first two games of the season in Clermont, Fla. on Sunday, p. 13.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

FLYING HIGH

Waltham, Mass.

TRACK & FIELD

Squads fall in overall standings at UAAs ■ The women finished

fourth and the men came in fifth place at the UAA Championships at Brandeis.

By MAX GOLDSTEIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

In the 3,000-meter race Saturday, Paul Norton ’11 was behind, but in an electrifying finish, he stormed back to win the race for the men’s indoor track and field team. He defeated Washington University in St. Louis junior David Spandorfer by less than a second.

Norton and others impressed at the University Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships at Brandeis last weekend.

The men’s squad finished fifth out of seven teams, while the women placed fourth of seven teams.

WashU won the men’s meet, while University of Chicago was victorious on the women’s side.

Overall, the Judges finished with 11 All-UAA performances and two titles.

Even though neither team finished at the top of the standings, Norton enjoyed having the meet at Brandeis.

“It definitely helped me,” he said.

“I was more relaxed for this meet then I ever had been. I didn’t even feel like I was getting ready for a race. It felt like practice. It helped keep the nerves down, and it was also really nice not to have to travel.”

On the first day of competition, the men and women combined for four All-UAA finishes. The distance medley team consisting of Marc Boutin ’12, Brian Foley ’13, Chris Brown ’12 and Devon Holgate ’11 won Brandeis’

sole title on the day. They finished with a time of 10 minutes, 8.42 seconds.

Holgate won the race in a photofinish, beating New York University junior Matt Turlip by 0.5 seconds.

The team qualified provisionally for next weekend’s NCAA Division III Championship.

The other notable finish was Norton, who placed second in the 5,000-meter run behind Emory University senior Tommy Fyffe, who set a conference record with a time of 14:43.09.

Norton noted the rivalry that exixsts himself and Fyffe, which has gone on for the past few years.

“I came in second last year to the same guy. … [Fyffe] made a huge move 2,000 meters in. I stayed back, and with six laps to go I picked the pace up and tried to catch up but ran out of space,” Norton said. “It was my third time being second, and I’m kind of tired of always finishing second, so it gave me a lot of motivation for the next day.”

The two other All-UAA finishes on the day came from the women’s squad.

Lucia Capano ’11 finished second in the long jump with a distance of 5.31 meters.

Her score was the longest jump until Emory sophomore Lauren Attiah beat her on the final jump.

Emily Owen ’11 qualified provisionally for the NCAA Championships in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:15.92.

On day two both teams fared better, as they combined for seven AllUAA honors and one title.

Norton’s time of 8:37.28 in the 3,000-meter run was the team’s second title for the weekend.

Alex Kramer ’13 also finished

See TRACK, 13 ☛

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

DAVID SHEPPARD-BRICK/Justice File Photo

GOING AHEAD: Guard Tyrone Hughes ’12 leaps in the air in a Jan. 29 home win against Case Western Reserve University.

Judges storm into NCAA Sweet 16 ■ The men’s basketball

team will face Rhode Island College in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

By MELISSA SIEGEL JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

In the 2006 to 2007 season, the men’s basketball team lost in the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament to Rhode Island College 70-67. Three years later, the current team’s crop of seniors, who were all rookies at the time, will hope to avenge that loss in the Sweet 16.

The Judges defeated St. Lawrence University 76-64 Friday night in the first round and host No. 25 St. John Fisher College 66-52 Saturday night in the second round to advance to their second Sweet 16 in the past three seasons. Up next for the

Judges is Rhode Island College, which upset No. 9 Middlebury College in the second round.

Against St. John Fisher, the Judges quickly fell behind 5-0 only to go on a run to take an 8-point lead with 14 minutes, 51 seconds left in the first half.

The highlight of the Brandeis run was a 3-pointer by guard Andre Roberson ’10. It tied the game and gave him 1,000 points for his career, the 28th player in school history to do so.

The Cardinals then went on a run of their own, scoring the game’s next 8 points to even the score at 13.

The game then went back and forth until a layup by forward Terrell Hollins ’10 with 8:46 left in the half gave the Judges the lead for good.

The Judges led 35-27 at the half and extended the lead to as much as 17 with 7:48 left in the game on a 3pointer from forward Vytas Kriskus ’12. St. John Fisher went on

a run at the end of the game to pull within eight at two separate occasions, but the Judges were able to hold on for the win.

Kriskus led all scorers with 17 points as one of four Judges in double figures.

Hollins was just behind him with 16 points to go along with a careerhigh 21 rebounds for his 13th double-double of the season.

Coach Brian Meehan was pleased with how Hollins performed over the weekend, especially against St. John Fisher. “[Hollins] had 21 rebounds yesterday and was just absolutely by far the best player on the court of all four teams,” he said. “He’s playing like a first-team All-American right now, so that can’t be understated.”

The Judges shot 43.7 percent from the floor in the game despite facing a Cardinals team that allowed just

See MBBALL, 13 ☛

Chapin ’10 named the UAA’s player of the year ■ Guard Jessica Chapin ’10

was named University Athletic Asssociation Player of the Year Wednesday.

By QUINCY AUGER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Senior guard Jessica Chapin ’10 was an unstoppable force for the women’s basketball team this season and has the award to show for it.

The University Athletic Association awarded Chapin UAA Women’s Basketball Player of the Year and named her to the 2009 to 2010 first-team All-UAA Wednesday.

Teammates Amber Strodthoff ’11 and Morgan Kendrew ’12 received honorable mentions.

Chapin attributed her success to her team’s support.

“Honestly, I couldn’t do it without my teammates,” she said. “We wouldn’t have been playing [strongly] at the end of the season without them. We play a lot of great teams over the year and it’s a real honor to get this from the UAA. It’s pretty special.”

Chapin led the UAA in scoring with 405 points, an average of 16.9 points per game. She was second in minutes played with 32.0 minutes per game and assist to turnover ratio,

which was 1.6 assists per turnover.

She finished third in 3-pointers with 46.

Chapin was fourth in free-throw percentage with 75.9 percent and steals with 53. She finished sixth with 3.0 assists per game and a 34.8 3-point shooting percentage.

She also finished seventh in defensive rebounds, averaging 4.7 rebounds per game.

Chapin led Brandeis in eight categories: scoring average, points, field goals made, 3-pointers, free throws, assists, defensive rebounds and steals.

In 17 of the 24 season games, Chapin led Brandeis in scoring, and in 10 games she was the leading rebounder.

She turned in four double-doubles during the year.

Strodthoff reflected on Chapin’s oncourt leadership.

“She was just an incredible leader,” Strodthoff said. “In game time situations she was that confident presence, and we felt comfortable with the ball in her hands. We’re really going to miss that next year.”

As her collegiate career comes to a close, Chapin becomes the only player in Brandeis history to rank the top 10 in points, rebounds, assists and steals.

She finishes her career with 1,280 points, 521 rebounds, 262 assists and

See WBBALL, 13 ☛

justARTS

March 9, 2010

Middle Eastern fusion rocks Brandeis p. 19

Photos: Asher Krell/the Justice. Design: Robyn Spector/the Justice.

18

TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

●

THE JUSTICE

POP CULTURE

INSIDE ON CAMPUS

22-25

■ Musika Rox 19 Mochila and B’yachad co-sponsored an ArabIsraeli cultural showcase that was designed to promote peace in the Middle East.

19 ■ Chamber Choir The University Chorus sang and acted ‘Dido and Aeneas’ in a new performance.

21 ■ VOCAL The slam poetry concert featured talented performers and raised money for Haiti relief.

21 ■ NuEra Entertainment Brandeis DJs JV Souffrant ’12, Carl Decoteau ’13 and Johnny Wilson ’12 spin tracks at campus parties as NuEra Entertainment.

OFF CAMPUS

26-28

22 ■ Watch City brews Two experts on beer examine the offerings at Waltham favorite Watch City Brewing Company and find them somewhat lacking.

22 ■ ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Director Tim Burton’s adaptation of the Lewis Carroll novel incorporates new characters and plot elements that overburden the classic story’s beloved nonsensical plot.

27 ■ New Mother India Two people with differing food preferences were equally satisfied at the local restaurant.

■ ‘The Unnamed’ Joshua Ferris’ new novel lacked insight.

CALENDAR

27

INTERVIEW

by Shelly Shore

I hate to break it to you, Hollywood parents, but apparently your kids aren’t yours—they’re everyone’s.

On March 4, Life & Style magazine published an article criticizing Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for their parenting of daughter Shiloh, 3, after an eyewitness reported seeing the tot with a short, boyish haircut and dressed in boys’ clothes. “It's a drastic change,” says the eyewitness. “The last time we’d seen her, her hair was longer and blonder, and she was more girlie. We were surprised Angelina dressed her so much like a little boy.”

The article went on to interview several top stylists—stylists, child-rearing experts, what’s the difference?—about Brangelina’s parenting decisions. “Shiloh is pushing the boundaries of a tomboy look and crossing over to cross-dresser territory,” said Alana Kelen, a fashion stylist at VH1. Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family told Life & Style, “Little girls have never been women before. They need help, they need guidance of what that looks like. It’s important to teach our children that gender distinction is very healthy.”

People, she’s three. Sometimes three-year-olds like to play in clothing that doesn’t quite fit their gender role. According to Brad, this is just the latest of Shiloh’s boyish behavior. “We’ve got to call her John,” he told Oprah Winfrey. He explained that he would start to ask, “Shi, do you want—” and she would interrupt with, “John.

I’m John.” Brad continued, “I’ll say, ‘John, would you like some orange juice?’ And she goes, ‘No!’” Life & Style’s article seems to have stirred up even more controversy than Shiloh’s new ’do.

“The length of Shiloh’s hair or the clothes she wears are really matters for her and her parents to decide; this is a family that is known for their fashion,” Justin Tanis of the National Center for

WBRS waves overwhelmed with Wiegand ■ In an e-mail interview with the

Justice, Neuroscience major JP Wiegand ’11 discusses his many shows on WBRS, which include a science-focused program and one that plays death metal music.

MATT SAYLES/The Associated Press

PARENT TRAP: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were criticized after their daughter wore boys’ clothes.

Transgender Equality told gay and lesbian news magazine The Advocate. “Our society needs healthy, well-rounded children whose interests and tastes are as diverse as the children themselves and are not limited by outdated stereotypes of gender.”

So what do you think, Brandeis? Is Shiloh’s— sorry, John’s—personality affecting her development? Should Brad and Angie break out the frilly dresses and the patent-leather Mary Janes?

Or should gossip mags just butt out of parenting altogether?

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus

ON CAMPUS EVENTS B.O.M.S. This month’s installment of the monthly Brandeis Open Mic Series starts with a onehour poetry workshop followed by an open mic and performance by professional guest poets.

Today from 8 to 11 p.m. in the Castle Commons.

‘Cocktail Time in Cuba’ In partnership with New York City theater company Primary Stages, the Brandeis Theater Company presents a new play from emerging playwright Rogelio Martinez. The play tells the story of Michael, an American journalist who travels to Cuba hoping to interview Fidel Castro. Once in Cuba, he encounters numerous bureaucratic barriers while finding himself increasingly drawn into Cuba’s spellbinding culture.

Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Laurie Theater.

International Women’s Day celebration RECS and Russian Club co-sponsor a Student Variety Show in honor of International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8 in Russia by giving small gifts, compliments and admiration to women. The variety show will include singing, dancing, comedy skits and poetry recitations. Russian food will also be served. The concert will collect funds on behalf of the Adamov Fund, a charity for blind people in Russia.

Tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in the Swig Lounge.

Voices (and Instruments) for Haiti A wide swath of campus groups, including Brandeis Democrats, Brandeis Republicans, Habitat for Humanity, WBRS, B-DEIS Records, Positive Foundations and the Brandeis Haiti Relief Effort, have collaborated to create this Haiti benefit concert. The concert will combine slam poetry and many kinds of musical performance, from folk to rock to R&B. Tomorrow from 8:30 to 10 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

ROBYN SPECTOR/Justice File Photo

EMERGING VOCALISTS: The new a cappella group Ba’note sings Jewish-themed songs in accordance with religious laws of modesty and will perform at Saturday’s Jewish A Cappella Fest.

Liquid Latex 2010 The annual dance showcase that features dancers covered in latex paint returns for another awe-inspiring installment. This year, a portion of the proceeds will be contributed to the relief effort for victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Tickets are $7 per seat or $5 for standing-room only and can be purchased today and tomorrow in lower Usdan.

Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Levin Ballroom.

‘The Vagina Monologues’ 2010 Brandeis students annually perform this popular play by Eve Ensler, a series of sketches exploring how women feel about their genitalia. All proceeds benefit the VDay organization and the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. Tickets are $5 on pre-sale and $7 at the door.

Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater.

‘Dreaming Up Nonsense’ For her senior thesis project in the Theater department, Zohar Fuller ’10 has written and directed a play about her experiences working in the slums of Mumbai, India, where she helped children perform a street play.

Admission is free, but seats are very limited so tickets should be reserved by e-mail with Sara Schiffman at schiffsm@brandeis.edu.

Open dress rehearsal tomorrow at 7:15 p.m., performances Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Spingold Theater Center Rehearsal Room.

4th Annual Jewish A Cappella Fest

Voices of Haiti

Bowl making with Pottery Club

The undergraduate departmental representatives for English and American Literature have sponsored a performance of poetry and prose by Haitian authors. All proceeds go to benefit Haiti earthquake relief.

Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m. in Cholmondeley’s.

Brandeis’ Jewish Fella A Cappella presents an evening of a cappella performances with a Jewish theme. Joining JFA will be Brandeis’ Manginah and Ba’note, as well as visiting groups Kol HaLayla of Rutgers University, Shir Appeal of Tufts University and Varsity Jews from University of Toronto. Tickets are $5 on pre-sale and $7 at the door. Reserve tickets by e-mailing jfa@brandeis.edu.

Saturday from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Sherman Function Hall.

Pottery Club and Habitat for Humanity collaborate for an event at which students are invited to craft bowls out of clay. The bowls will then be used during the Soup Bowl Fundraiser.

Sunday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Castle Commons.

OFF CAMPUS EVENTS ‘The Red Shoes’ Moira Shearer stars as a young ballerina named Victoria who seems headed for superstardom until she falls in love with a charming ballet composer. She struggles to choose between romantic passion and her devotion to her art. This classic film has recently been restored to its original Technicolor vividness.

Friday through Tuesday at 4:15 and 7 p.m;, Saturday at 1:30 p.m; and Friday and Sunday through Tuesday at 9:45 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre, Cambridge.

‘Paradise Lost’ American Repertory Theatre continues its season with a production of the play Paradise Lost, written by Clifford Odets and directed by Daniel Fish. First produced in 1935, the play depicts a family struggling in a failing economy and explores themes of selfinterest and compassion that are still relevant to Americans today. Odets wrote, “It is my hope that when people see Paradise Lost they’re going to be glad they’re alive,” suggesting that this play will provide a meaningful and positive experience to audience members.

Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge.

Parody, Politics and Performativity Artists Tino Sehgal, Claire Fontaine and Tania Bruguera will present at the 2010 Wasserman Forum, examining artistic practices that question and undermine the way traditional institutions present, collect and display artwork.

Saturday at 3 p.m. in Room 123, MIT Ray and Martha Stata Center, 32 Vassar St., Cambridge.

JustArts: What is your show Braindeis about?

JP Wiegand: Braindeis mostly features neuroscience news—I reflect upon some of the findings and critically analyze the studies.

Sometimes I get listener feedback, and sometimes I’ll have a guest or play back an interview with faculty.

JA: What inspired you to create a show about neuroscience?

JPW: Braindeis was my very first show on WBRS and the first day I came in, my plan was to just read and summarize articles on air but when I got there, I started commenting on the methods and results. I added my own predictions of the implications and I realized that there’s a lot of differing opinions on the the future of neuroscience. So I decided to interview [Prof.] Eve Marder (BIOL), ask about her research and ask her opinions on the subject.

I think the last episode, I spoke on the subject of the Singularity, neural implants, and the far-reaching future of not only neuroscience but the accompanying technology. I did so mostly because my brother put it into my head, as he’s working on a brain-machine interface project in the Northeastern grad program, but also because the covers of Time and Scientific American were The Science of Aging and Merging Man and Machine, respectively.

JA: What’s the theme of 60 Minute Hate?

JPW: 60 Minute Hate is a show that my friend Aarish [Sheikh] ’11 and I came up with because I didn’t hear any brutal technical death metal around and he said that no one truly appreciated the old thrash metal bands.

So we decided to combine our interests and create the most brutal metal show. It mixes a lot of old classic bands like Pantera with progressive metal bands like Powerglove and some heavy techdeath like Braindril. We like to cover the spectrum because a lot of people don’t quite realize what versatility the metal scene really has. Along the way we’ve found a few bands that we both really like, such as Korplikaani and Stam1na.

JustArts: Which show is your favorite?

JPW: Funky Liquid is a personal favorite as it features a particular style of techno called drum and bass, but more specifically I focus on a style that was arguably first birthed by Hospital Records. It’s been called liquid funk, diet drum ’n bass, or even junglelite. It’s characterized by a light amen break sampled drum beat, played back at around 180bpm, and is usually accompanied by female vocals and soft melodies. I’m really proud of this show and how it’s progressed in my own music library.

JA: Can you talk about how you came up with your other shows?

JPW: The Seattle Sound, to be honest, I started mostly for selfish reasons—as I’m from Seattle, I’m simply replaying a lot of childhood sounds that really conjure up nonstop nostalgic memories. However, I’m not limiting myself to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains, but I’m digging back to the roots of the movement with Temple of the Dog, U-Men and Malfunkshun.

For some people, it might get repetitive to hear the same 10 artists over and over again, but for me, it was just the environment that I grew up in. Some radio stations back home would even devote three songs per hour to Nirvana, at the bottom of the hour.

And of course there’s Pure & Uncut. That’s simply classic for me, as my hands-down favorite style of music is funk. Not a lot of people have bothered to delve into such an influential genre and it still surprises me when someone doesn’t know who did the song “Give Up the Funk: Tear the Roof off the Sucker.”

JA: Why did you decide to take on so much airtime and so many different kinds of shows?

JPW: Given that music has been such a big part of my life, not only listening to it, but researching it and seeing the growth of music through time, I took on so much time as I’d like to save people the time of hunting down good bands themselves—though I’m far from discouraging it. Not to mention that music has shown itself to be neurologically beneficial.

60 Minute Hate airs Fridays from 6 to 7 p.m., followed by another of Wiegand’s shows, Electroshock Treatment, until 8 p.m.

Braindeis is broadcast from 11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday, followed by Funky Liquid until 1:30 p.m., The Seattle Sound from 1:30 to 3 p.m. and Pure & Uncut from 3 to 6 p.m.

—Andrea Fineman

THE JUSTICE

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ON CAMPUS PERFORMANCE

MUSIC

Cultures unite to call for peace

Chorus branches out with ‘Aeneas’

■ Mochila and B’yachad came together for a new showcase titled Musika Rox, which combined music and dance numbers.

By ALEX DESILVA JUSTICE STAFF WRITER “Build bridges between cultures through music”: Mochila’s mission statement encompasses the driving force behind the Musika Rox event well, though two words should be added at the end of that statement: “and dance.” Musika Rox, combining the words meaning music in Hebrew and dance in Arabic, is a union between B’yachad, Brandeis’ semi-professional Israeli dance troupe, and the aforementioned Mochila, a student-formed Arab jazz fusion band. It all started when B’yachad president Marnina Cowan ’10, dissatisfied with the low turnout at the annual Culture X festival, approached the founder and leader of Mochila, Mohammed Kundos ’10, to put together something that had never been done before at Brandeis: a joint project between an Israeli and a Palestinian group. The months of work toward this event finally paid off Saturday night, when B’yachad, Mochila and other groups took the stage in an amazing and poignant call for peace.

The show kicked off with a performance by B’yachad called “Machol Yonatan” (Dance of Jonathan), a fast-paced dance that featured forceful, drumline-esque music and choreography. This was followed by Mochila’s smooth and relaxed “Blossoming.” After that was a guest performance by another Brandeis dance group, Adagio, which performed “Why I’m Talking To You,” highlighting the universality and the “super normality” of falling in love regardless of culture.

Next was a B’yachad dance, “Shalom V’ahava” (Peace and Love), an upbeat number that actually had the audience clapping along. Mochila was up again after that with “Ghaz’l” (Flirtation), a piece based upon ghazal poetry, a centuries-old form that originated in Arabia. It was at this point that Kundas began playing the oud, which made an appearance in almost every Mochila performance of the night. The pear-shaped stringed instrument produced an original, distinct sound that was one of the most memorable parts of the entire show. This is where the group’s unique “Arab jazz” style was first displayed, and the two forms blended seamlessly to make a single, unified sound.

Music took a back seat for the next part as spoken-word poet Kaamila Mohamed ’11 took the stage to deliver a powerful performance using only words with no music or rhyme. This was followed by “Tutim” (Strawberries), a B’yachad-choreographed open dance with an upbeat electronic soundtrack celebrating the newness of each day and the prospect of leaving past conflicts behind. B’yachad returned after this for “Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu” before segueing back to Mochila. Its song “Eternal Spring” shifted the show’s focus from the Middle East to Colombia, which Kundos has visited. Inspired by the refugees trapped between the government, guerillas and drug dealers, the song reinforced the cross-cultural ideal that Musika Rox embodied. B’yachad came on stage again for “Arim Roshi” (I Will Raise My Head), which was followed by Ibrahim Miari of the Acco Theater Center in Israel, who performed a Sufi Muslim prayer dance that was one of the show’s standout performances. The dance itself was rather simple; it consisted of Miari performing the traditional Sufi whirling meditation, but that didn’t take away from its power. Watching the performance brought a certain sense of calm, as the clockwork movements of Miari’s feet combined with the fluid motion of his robe made him seem entranced,

■ The University Chorus

abandoned its usual concert format in favor of a wellacted interpretation of ‘Dido and Aeneas’ on Sunday.

By SUJIN SHIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

SOLO STRUMMER: Mochila founder Mohammed Kundos ’10 plays the oud with his Arab jazz fusion band during Musika Rox. fully enveloped in the whirling with no outside distractions.

B’yachad then performed the upbeat and modern “Haruach Teshane Et Kivuna” before turning things over to Mochila for the song “Clear Fog.” With that, the two groups joined for the finale, “Arabic Coffee,” where B’yachad accompanied a Mochila song with an original dance. This was the night’s culmination: two distinct cultural groups coming together for a single performance. Here was the entire point of Musika Rox, and both groups conveyed it perfectly; unique music coupled with expert choreography. Two groups working for one goal.

The message of intercultural peace went beyond the performances. The walls of the Levin Ballroom were covered with images of people and organizations that were working for peace between Israel and Palestine.

There was also the chance for some audience participation: Mochila CDs were being sold, and 50 percent of the profits from album sales would support disaster relief in Haiti and Chile, and another portion would go toward Kundos’ project to bring a group of Mochila members to Haiti, the grant for which is currently being processed by the government. Audience members could also contribute designs for a “Culture Quilt” that would be donated to a homeless shelter.

Musika Rox was a display of culture and activism, or “peace through performance.” Though it is unknown whether or not it will be an annual event, it has definitely earned the right to become a Brandeis tradition.

Editor’s note: Justice staff members Wei-Huan Chen and Camille Dolfen participated in Musika Rox.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

DANCING DIVAS: B’yachad members Naomi Kling ’11, Jennie Berger ’12 and Eliana Light ’13 dance during Musika Rox, the group’s semester show.

A common University Chorus concert goes a little something like this: Everyone is dressed in snappy clothes—stock navy dresses for the women, clean white shirt and slacks for the men. The singers stand poised on the risers with their backs straight and their arms all holding their binders at right angles to their bodies. However, this particular production of Dido and Aeneas was slightly different. There was a screen above the heads of the performers showing small film clips with special effects while a string quintet consisting of instruments that date back to the Renaissance era played the music of English composer Henry Purcell. The performance was an interesting combination of modern and classical elements.

The opera is based on the epic poem The Aeneid by Virgil. According to the story, Dido is the griefstricken queen of the land of Carthage. Her assistant, Belinda, suggests that a possible solution to her sadness would be to marry the Trojan prince Aeneas, who Belinda believes is the source of Dido’s sorrow. At first, Dido isn’t open to the idea, but when she sees Aeneas, she is struck by his good looks and charm and agrees to marry him.

Meanwhile, witches plot the destruction of both Dido and Carthage and try to separate Aeneas from her.

They cunningly make Aeneas believe that Jove, also known as Zeus, is forcing him to leave. Aeneas believes the fake order and tells Dido that he must depart. This devastates Dido, and after she angrily orders him to leave, she dies of a broken heart. The opera ends with cupids putting roses on Dido’s chest as she lies in her tomb.

The opera was written in the 17th century, but the University Chorus put a new spin on it. Prof. Jason McStoots (MUS), the production’s stage director, staged Dido not as a queen but as a high-powered businesswoman and Aeneas not as a Trojan prince but as a Navy soldier.

Though the students who played the main roles were not trained actors, they did a decent job. After all, the focus was on their voices, which were marvelous. Mariah Henderson ’12 has a warmth and richness to her timbre that gave a certain melancholic depth to the sorrow-stricken Dido. It was pretty but not light, a great quality to have in a second soprano voice. The other actors in primary roles were also quite fine singers, and the background chorus supported the main performers without overshadowing them. The musical technique was masterful, and the technical aspects of the show went off without a hitch.

The chorus practiced for weeks to prepare for the show. For the last week before the performance, the members put in many extra hours of rehearsal in order to fine-tune the minutiae of the concert. And due to the hard work of the choir, Musical Director Prof. James Oleson (MUS) and McStoots, the modern take on Dido and Aeneas came to life. The choir proved that classic can meet modern in a subtle yet effective way without taking away from either interpretation of the piece.

Photo by Max Breitstein Matza/the Justice

THE JUSTICE

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POETRY

Poets voice perspectives at VOCAL ■ The slam poetry event, which raised funds for Haiti earthquake relief, featured professional and amateur performers of great talent.

By JULIA JERUSALMI JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The atmosphere in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater was buzzing.

Friends were greeting each other loudly from across the rows, Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” was blaring from the speakers, and there was an air of eager excitement in the room as everyone waited for the host to announce the first slam poet of the evening. The “VOCAL: Relieve 2010” poetry slam concert on Sunday night might have felt more like a club than a benefit concert, but that only added to its appeal. “We gonna have some fun tonight!” shouted Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams to the nearly packed auditorium, “We’re gonna get angry, get happy, get upset. We might even cry a little!” Although it sounded like he was making a joke, Adams’ introduction gave an accurate preview of the variety of emotions that were felt during the night. The poets touched on topics ranging from their first loves, first times and first heartbreaks to hip hop, suicide, lost innocence and the irritation of having big boobs.

The first poet to take the stage was Oveous Maximus, and he set the tone for the night beautifully. With speech so rapid I almost felt like I was watching a fast-forwarded tape, Oveous won the crowd over with his lyrics and charisma. He made the crowd laugh by sharing a poem to his girlfriend titled “Letter to my Future Ex-Girlfriend, In Case I Fuck Up,” had the women in the audience snapping their fingers in approval after he read a feministic poem about his mother and caused complete silence and a subsequent standing ovation when he spoke about the suicide of his brother. The duality of emotions shown in Oveous’ performance was a key feature of the evening. Many of the poets continually mixed comedy and tragedy into their routines, and almost all made sure to mention the Empower Through Education Summer Camp, the Haitian relief program started by Brandeis student Shaina Gilbert ’10, to which the proceeds of the night would be going.

As the night went on, different poets—some talented Brandeis students and some professional slammers with years of experience— spoke intimately about their lives.

Having never been to a poetry slam before, I was shocked at the extent to

JESSICA CHRISTIAN/the Justice

EXPRESSIVE ENSEMBLE: VOCAL performers included students and professional poets who won audience approval with their poignant and lighthearted personal stories. which the poets gave us access into their thoughts. Gaining this personal access into a stranger’s feelings was not only incredibly eye-opening, but it was also extremely fun. It was as if the poets were giving us permission to snoop through their diaries. Other memorable performers of the night were Phil Kaye, an adorable guy with a Jimmy Neutron hair cut who made the crowd melt with his sweet and funny tale about losing his virginity; the tattooed Rachel McKibbens, a pink-haired punk rocker who spoke honestly and beautifully about her

daughters; and Regie Cabico, a poet who seamlessly mixed hilarity and tragedy together when speaking about the hardships of growing up gay in a small suburban town.

One of my favorite aspects of the night was the way in which the show incorporated both professional slam poets and Brandeis students. Out of the 11 poets of the night, five were Brandeis students, and they were so great that I kept on having to flip through the playbill to check who was a student and who was a professional. Jordan Hinahara ’12 only performed one poem, a beautiful one

that dealt with anger and heartbreak. Sarah Kass Levy ’12, who has won numerous creative writing awards, read a poem using striking metaphors to compare her body to war. Rachel Parkin ’11 skillfully mixed speech and song to perform a poem in the voice of Billie Holiday, and Jason Henry Simon-Bierenbaum ’11 captivated the crowd with his expressive use of body language and a poem about the horrors of the Titanic. The last student poet of the night was Usman “Y” Hameedi ’12, and he received raucous applause after reading his poem about the

complexity of being a Muslim American after the death of his close friend on 9/11.

Throughout the night, one could hear appreciative murmurs of “Wow,” “Oh, man” and “So true,” not to mention generous finger-snapping (which actually happens at these things! I used to think people only did that on TV). The night ended with thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the crowd; the concert was over, but it won’t easily be forgotten.

MUSIC

Students usher in NuEra of Brandeis partying ■ Three Brandeis students

have conveyed their love of spinning songs into a regular business of providing music for parties on campus.

By AMY MELSER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

If you are at a wildly fun party at Brandeis where the music is blasting and the crowd is dancing, NuEra Entertainment members may be the DJs. The crew, which consists of JV Souffrant ’12, (DJ Vicious, rapper, promoter), Carl Decoteau ’13, (DJ CKD, main promoter) and Johnny Wilson ’12, (DJ Sensation, photographer, promoter), works hard on the weekends to find locations, get its equipment together and ensure the crowd is jumping up and down to its beats. Souffrant explains that a key indicator that people are enjoying the music is when there are a lot of loud screams in the crowd. If there are not, NuEra knows to change the music quickly.

NuEra got its start last year because the members were all close

friends. DJ Esquire (Darryl David ’09) passed down his techniques to the boys of NuEra after he graduated.

However, the members of NuEra have each had affinities for music from a young age. Wilson went to parties in middle school in his hometown of Dorchester, Mass., and instead of dancing with his peers he would watch the DJs spin. Whether he is walking through the Usdan Student Center or riding the T, Wilson is constantly inspired by music.

If he can hear a beat through someone’s headphones, he will eagerly ask what song is playing. Souffrant, an Orlando, Fla., native, recalls being interested in music since the age of seven. He used to get in trouble because instead of doing his homework, he would be writing lyrics.

Since all the members love music so much, they have acquired knowledge of many different genres and incorporate those genres into the techniques they use to get the crowd moving and excited. Souffrant favors the style called “Baltimore Club.” This fusion of hip hop and techno is often called “the best of both worlds.” Souffrant also com-

poses “mash-ups,” which consist of taking an original song, stripping it of its beat (i.e. making it a cappella) and putting it with another song he thinks it will mesh with. “I’m like a chemist; you have to experiment to see if songs will go together,” said Souffrant.Wilson, on the other hand, focuses on his favorite genre of reggaeton while also incorporating trance, techno and house, giving Brandeis parties a club-esque feel.

NuEra is different in that they use tabletop turntables and USB drives instead of turntables without computers. When they spin, their turntables are connected to their iTunes library. Their laptops and electronics pack as much punch as regular turntables.

While none of the members of NuEra is majoring or minoring in music, they take their craft very seriously. They respect each other as DJs, and instead of competing against each other they strive to make each other better. Moreover, they have no problem teaching people about DJing and allowing people to come up and “scratch.” NuEra puts academics first but has high hopes of improving the Brandeis social scene.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

TURNING TABLES: Johnny Wilson ’12 readies his equipment for a party Friday night.

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THE JUSTICE

OFF CAMPUS FOOD

Local brews go against the grain ■ The offerings on tap at Watch City Brewing Company defy their style profiles with mixed results, according to two beer connoisseurs.

By JEREMY KONAR and WILL KALISH JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

For our inaugural beer column, we decided to keep it local. The good news about Watch City Brewing Company, located on the corner of Moody and Pine streets, is that you can drive there from campus in about five minutes and then walk home. On the other hand, the beer isn’t that good. Well, it’s not bad either. Well, we’re not sure.

We walk in around 9 p.m. on a Monday night. There are about four people seated around the bar, swirling drinks and looking at their feet. Between the patrons and the darker-than-necessary ambience, we feel a little depressed, even anxious.

We remedy the situation by ordering two samplers. At $7.95 for four 6ounce glasses, this is really a good deal. Aaron Mateychuk, head brewer at Watch City, keeps a rotating selection of a variety of styles, seasonal or flagship, for all tastes and preferences. All of Watch City’s beers are brewed on-site (you can see some of the brewing vessels at the entrance) and offered on tap and for takeout in half-gallon growlers.

Watch City is a brewpub, but don’t expect the usual range of deep-fried appetizers—the food here is actually exceptional as far as pub fare is concerned (try the lamburger!).

Biking Bob’s Bohemian Pilsner starts off our tasting. Traditionally a light lager with a floral aroma (or nose, since the way to judge this most important quality is to shove your face directly into the glass), this style has been bastardized by American macrobrews: It’s the watery stuff you steal out of fridges in the Mods when you’re thirsty but not sure if you’re at the right party or not.

At 6.2-percent alcohol by volume, Bob runs pretty strong for a Pilsner.

We would have expected, given the use of American Amarillo hops, that the hop aroma would be far more powerful. Upon gleefully sticking our noses in the beer we find it quite

underwhelming. It tastes like putting your foot down where you expect the stairs to be and falling on your face instead. The brewer’s attempts to compensate for the Pilsner’s minimalist style have resulted in an overly sweet brew unbecoming of its style. We grow bored quickly.

Our next taste is Totem Pale Ale, Watch City’s version of an American and British classic. We’re looking for a balance of maltiness and hop aroma that finishes with a good, dry bitterness. We get a beer copper in color and heavy on sweetness. It finished with a lingering bitter aftertaste—not the good kind. It’s a good deal heavier and more filling than the offerings of Sierra Nevada or Bass. Ultimately we would have expected a higher ABV than 4.8 percent for the flavor.

Moving down our row we come to the Belgian Blast Brune. You may have sampled this style out of a bottle of Dogfish Head’s Raison D’Etre.

It ought to have a delicate malt flavor with strong alcohol content, lightly hopped and distinctively spicy. We get a floral nose of cherry and a bit of spice, but mostly sweet malt. It is slightly reminiscent of cough syrup. It’s not so terrible; we just wouldn’t recommend ordering a full snifter. We have a disagreement over the correct pronunciation of “syrup” and then remember that we’re here to work.

Smokey Joe Brown represents the American version of the classic English Brown Ale, most famously exemplified by Newcastle and Pete’s Wicked Ale. Right from the description we’re confused. It boasts cherrywood smoked malt and vanilla bean flavor. Fruity flavors in a brown ale?

We’re intrigued and skeptical. The cherry comes through in both the aroma and taste. It has a bready, yeasty quality typical of English ales. The malt flavor is a bit on the heavy side, which is fine with the 5.6-percent ABV. The cherry and vanilla continue to baffle us. We’re pretty sure we like this beer; we’re just pretty sure it’s not a brown ale.

We discuss identity crises and budget cuts.

Finally, time for a porter. Will says this style emerged from patrons asking for a beer heavier than regular ale but not quite as filling as stout. There is no reason not to believe him. The Chocolate Thunder

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice

BEVY OF BEVERAGES: Watch City Brewing Company offers an assortment of beers that are brewed at its Moody Street location.

Porter boasts 50 pounds of locally made Taza chocolate per every 450 or so gallons. That’s a lot of chocolate, which is very evident from the nose and taste. Unfortunately, the mouthfeel is dry and bitter. Bitter might be fine in pure dark chocolate, but this tastes like unsweetened hot chocolate, which sucks. This beer would benefit from being a robust, sweet stout rather than a bitter

porter, which starts chocolaty and ends nowhere.

We finish our night with a pint of the classic Watch City standby, Hops Explosion India Pale Ale. This is a fine example of the style, and after all the befuddlement of our previous tastings, it’s nice to hold a beer that knows exactly what it is. It boasts a citrusy, herbal hop aroma with a profound, refreshing hop bitterness

and a perfectly balanced malt background. We end our night happily with our IPA and discussion of whether or not Morgan Freeman is a huge joke. Finally, our realization that we’ve had a lot of beer in a short period and need to use a bathroom, coupled with a sudden onslaught of late-’80s pop, ushers us out the door.

Look out for our next report from the Boston Beer Works.

FILM

Gimmicks detract from Burton’s ‘Wonderland’ ■ Tim Burton’s film version

of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ adds new plot elements that strip the tale of some of its magic.

By BRYAN FLATT JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the timeless Lewis Carroll novel about a curious girl named Alice and her magical adventures down the rabbit hole, has been read by millions across the world since its original publication 145 years ago.

The title alone evokes tales of childhood majesty and dreams of a marvelous place called Wonderland inhabited by the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the King and Queen of Hearts and many other beloved characters. Of course, what would a classic novel be without a film adaptation? By 1903, the first cinematic version of the story was released as a silent film. In 1951, Walt Disney Studios immortalized the story in its classic hand-drawn animated rendition, and now, in 2010, the 24th cinematic edition of the story has come to theaters. This version, also released by Walt Disney Studios, is quite different from its 59-

year-old predecessor. Directed by Tim Burton and starring his go-to acting pair of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, a mix of live action and elaborate CGI was used to create Wonderland, or, as it is called in the film, Underland. The story is much more plot-driven and elaborates on the original story and its sequel, creating a clichéd plot out of the random literary nonsense of the novel and previous films.

The film begins with a young girl, Alice, telling her father about her dreams of another world filled with talking animals, blue caterpillars, white rabbits and monsters. She asks her father if she is mad and he responds with a line that resonates throughout the entire film: “You’re mad, Alice, but all the best people are.” Cue to 13 years later, still in the 1800s, and a 19-year-old Alice is at a ball with her mother, about to be proposed to by an uptight suitor. One would assume this would be a monumental moment in this young woman’s life, but she cannot shake visions of a white rabbit in an overcoat running through the brush. This curiosity leads Alice to leave her suitor waiting for an answer so she could follow the rabbit deep down into the rabbit hole, and the story we all know and love begins.

Tim Burton is a very interesting

director. Like him or hate him (and it usually goes one way or the other), it cannot be denied that he is a master of creating majestic worlds of mischief and mayhem. Alice in Wonderland is no different. In the film he has made the cartoonish images originally described and later drawn come to life in a way that draws the viewer into the story. Once we finally make it into Underland, nonstop eyepopping visual effects surround the screen and even in 2-D, their beauty cannot be denied. Details from flowers to fauna, caterpillars smoking hookah and evaporating cats were all elaborately designed and brilliantly executed to make Wonderland a truly 21st-century place to be.

The biggest problem with this film, though, is not its effects but its intent. The zany, random and altogether nonsensical beauty of the story has been lost in an attempt to form a plot out of randomness, using other Lewis Carroll stories to tie it all together. In its attempts to be clever, the film seems to fall short.

There are no witty philosophical lines or very happy unbirthdays from the Mad Hatter but instead a heavily costumed man with wild eyebrows and interesting fashion sense who speaks with an unwelcome Scottish accent half the time.

The plot of the film seems to heav-

ily borrow from other classic clichéd children’s novels like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Wizard of Oz with an older Alice unknowingly returning to Underland according to prophecy 13 years after her original adventure to aid in the fight between the good and pretty White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and the evil, big-headed Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), who is enslaving all the talking animorphous creatures. This parallel felt strange to me because the books on which these ideas were based were written in 1900 and 1950, respectively 40 to 100 years after the source material was written. If you look to the book, and even to Disney’s first film, there was never any attempt at a plotline, just an excellent story of whimsical adventure that could connect with children and adults on very different levels. With visits from the Jabberwocky and references to a frabjous day, the script’s attempt to make order out of multiple Lewis Carroll poems and stories made famous for their nonsense feels plain nonsensical.

It pains me to say that I did not like the film because I feel that would not be true. It is a very simple, fun film that is visually beautiful and wellacted and designed. The film was well-done, and for the 104 minutes

that I sat in the theater only the scenes not set in Underland felt fake and forced (especially the ending, which was particularly groan-worthy). Unfortunately, those scenes framed the entire film, and a bad frame can take away from a marvelous picture.

Alice, played by Mia Wasikowska in her first leading role, was very well-cast playing a girl trying to discover who she is and what she wants with apparent ease. Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter had incredible potential and looked great, but it was given too much of a weighty central role with the job of helping to facilitate and drive action while remaining a comedic fall guy. Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter played their archetypal roles as good and evil, respectively, as well as they could have, and all the rest of the creatures were animated and voiced as I imagined they would have sounded. Specifically, Alan Rickman’s Blue Caterpillar and Tweedledum and Tweedledee were excellent.

Tim Burton did a very good job directing a film that wasn’t as dark as his previous work, but as a man who usually makes nonsense out of order (Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, Big Fish), more zany and crazy could have been added to balance out the unfortunately generic plot.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

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BOOKS

ROMANTIC RESTAURANT

‘Unnamed’ suffers from lack of focus ■ The protagonist of

Joshua Ferris’ novel ‘The Unnamed’ seems out of touch with modern society.

By ANDREA FINEMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice

IDEAL INDIA: The Waltham restaurant New Mother India has a polished ambiance with interesting decorations to promote conversation during a romantic rendezvous.

FOOD

Local eatery great for dates ■ A couple finds that New

Mother India’s menu can satisfy often-incompatible food preferences at prices that are appropriate for a romantic occasion.

By KELSEY GRAB and JASON HENRY SIMON-BIERENBAUM JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

When we entered New Mother India, the first thing we noticed was how empty the place was. At 6 p.m. on a Saturday night, maybe we were early; but still, we felt a bit confused. The soft lighting coupled with the gentle music made for a very calm and open atmosphere that was perfect for a date. The food we were about to eat certainly warranted a full house.

The owner, who introduced himself as Sham, is from India and moved to the U.S. to continue a career as an information technology consultant. As we heard Sham’s story about coming to America, we were surprised to hear he had learned how to cook here in the States. The attention to detail and the complexity of the dishes suggest a lifetime of cooking experience, which explains why Sham says it’s harder to be a chef than an IT consultant. He told us how a dish can be ruined in 30 seconds, whereas a computer script has a perfect beginning and end. The food we ate certainly displayed his attention to detail.

THE MEAL Royal Basket: a combination of aloo naan (kind of like naan filled with a huge grated-potato latke); tava chappati (a thin, soft wheat bread); onion paratha (a multi-layered fry bread filled with onions) and poori (a light, puffy bread that looks like a balloon).

Jason: This was a great omen for the rest of the meal. When I eat Indian food, one of the things I look for is the intricate balance of tex-

tures, flavors and spices. The breads were all flavorful yet allowed the taste of the chutneys to come through. They were light, yet satisfying; softened by the oils but none felt remotely greasy.

Kelsey: The bread was a delicious array of varied textures and tastes for the palette. What stuck out most was the onion paratha—I’m always nervous when there’s onion in bread, but this was exquisite. The onion in the naan was soft but not obtrusive—it added flavor but did not ruin the texture of the bread.

Chicken Pakora: boneless chicken chunks lightly breaded and served in a tangy sauce.

Jason: I don’t eat meat, so while Kelsey ate it, I had more bread.

Kelsey: The tamarind sauce was sweet but not overwhelming, and it complemented the delicate breading on the chicken, which was wellcooked but not greasy to touch. The mango chutney was also a nice partner to the dish.

Tava Chicken: a New Mother India special.

Jason: It looked really good, with a beautiful vibrance of colors. It’s a shame it had chicken in it.

Kelsey: It was sweet, soft and a bit spicy. The orange sauce tasted a bit like a blush style—it had undertones of tomatoes, but they were light and not overbearing. The flavor was not over the top but deserved the title of “special.”

Veggie Coconut Curry: mixed vegetables slow-cooked in coconut curry.

Jason: This is the only dish that disappointed me. It felt like an Indian take on a Thai coconut curry dish with a thicker sauce and garbanzos and pintos replacing tofu or meat. There was nothing “bad” about this; however, as a new dish the owner encouraged us to try, I did not find its caliber near to any of the other amazing dishes.

Kelsey: I was not amazed by this dish, either. Though the lack of tofu did not turn me off, the combination of beans and vegetables did. I think it proved to be unappealing and bland in relation to our other dishes.

Paneer Tikka: a New Mother

India specialty consisting of handmolded balls of paneer (a soft cheese) cooked in a rich, creamy sauce with a mixture of herbs and spices.

Jason: Despite the fact that Indian food has been a favorite of mine since I first ate solid food, this was a wonderful new find. The balls of paneer were so soft, reminiscent in flavor and texture of a thicker ricotta. The way the paneer mixed with the smooth, flavorful sauce made this a highlight of the night.

Kelsey: I had seconds of the paneer. It was a good balance of warmth and spice. The flavor was smooth and not overpowering. The sauce was so good I had it alone with the rice.

Saag Paneer: a very popular Indian dish featuring cubes of homemade paneer in a bed of spinach, ginger, butter and fresh herbs.

Jason: New Mother India had a very distinct saag paneer. The saag, which had been cooking for nearly a full day by the time we had it, was so smooth, and the leaves of spinach and other herbs floated into each other. The chefs showed just how versatile they could be with common ingredients. The paneer in this dish was almost unrecognizable compared to the paneer tikka. It was very firm yet soft, allowing itself to be a canvas for the complexities of the saag.

Kelsey: I admit, the way the dish looked turned me off. The green sauce and strange squares of white cheese were not pretty. I did not enjoy this dish—I felt like it lacked the flavor and spice that the other dishes exhibited.

Baingan Bharta: eggplant baked over an open flame, mashed and seasoned with garlic and spices and then sautéed with onions and peas.

Jason: This was another house specialty that I had never experienced before coming to New Mother India, so I was particularly blown away. Each small bite unleashed new flavors and hues of texture. First I noticed how smooth it was, then the smoked flavor reached out to me. Next, I had a bite with a pea and delighted in the juxtaposition of sensations. This was a

truly satisfying dish that tasted rich yet not overpowering. Of all the dishes, this easily stood out.

Kelsey: This dish was handsdown my favorite. I’m hesitant to order eggplant dishes because eggplant can be a difficult vegetable to cook, but New Mother India certainly understands the food’s intricacies. Sham told us that the three-day process of making this dish without food processors really creates a special tasting experience. The onions were caramelized into the dish, which complemented the curry, ginger and lemon undertones. I will order this dish from now on.

HOW IT WAS AS A DATE Jason: When I go out on a date, I want to do it right and make it special. While this was a bit costly for my budget, it was worth the splurge. The charming staff were all very caring made us feel at home. They were glad to tell us all about how the dishes were made or to share humorous, personal anecdotes, but they also gave plenty of time for us to relax and enjoy each other’s company. The food, music and art were great conversation starters but also allowed natural conversation to flow freely.

Kelsey: I second Jason’s sentiments regarding New Mother India as a date destination. It certainly is not an every-weekend sort of place due to prices, but the food certainly was an indication of the efforts that warrant such expense. This restaurant is a great place to impress a date—if you put some time into learning and understanding the dishes, it is fun and interesting to teach someone else about the culture and food. Even if you do not do prior research, the wait staff here is happy to discuss the menu and the work put into it. For a couple interested in exploring new things or looking for a great dining experience, I certainly recommend New Mother India.

Jason: My only regret? Not saving enough time or appetite for dessert!

Kelsey: When are we going back?

Mankind has long struggled with corporeality. Where does the soul reside? Are mind and body separate entities? I think, therefore I am?

Joshua Ferris only sort of addresses these questions in his grotesque second novel, The Unnamed, which came out at the end of January. The book, which follows a rich New York lawyer afflicted with an incurable, involuntary compulsion to walk in any direction until passing out from exhaustion, seems to be stuck on one brutal theme: It sucks that our bodies are fallible.

Anyone looking for something akin to Ferris’ debut novel, a hilarious and poignant look at office life set in an advertising agency going through seemingly endless layoffs, should make a detour for one of this year’s other “it” books. The novel, beginning in a realist mode in suburban Connecticut and ending in a chaotic, self-destructive narrative pile in some indeterminate American location, is a hellish slog through attorney Tim Farnsworth’s physical and mental decline. With remorseless logic, Ferris follows Farnsworth through years of unexplained walking across the United States and back as Farnsworth loses appendages to frostbite, is preyed upon by criminals and becomes dependent on psychiatric drugs after his torturous journey away from his comfortable life and into an abyss where he begins to argue senselessly with the voice of his physical person.

One might expect that such a fall from grace would allow Farnsworth to make astute observations of American society and human relationships. Not really. He suffers a few awkward interactions with the goodhearted working-class doorman at his law firm; he has some “deep” thoughts about race relations.

Farnsworth’s stereotypical inert guilt at being a rich white person is so bland that I thought perhaps it was intended as a somewhat ironic effort by the author to portray his characters in an objective light, like Emile Zola’s warts-and-all portrayals of characters in his social-commentary novels. I’m not really sure, except that Farnsworth’s and his wife’s vague musings on race are too pointed to be simply character development but not cultivated into any kind of theme or lesson.

All of this criticism doesn’t mention the excruciating experience of actually reading Farnsworth’s devastating battle with himself. Some books are difficult to read, and that’s the point—it wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate to sanitize a realistic portrayal of the horrors of war, for example. However, there doesn’t seem to be any payoff in The Unnamed.

Farnsworth’s disease, which is allegorical (but to what I can’t entirely figure out), is completely unexplained, and yet the book lacks a sense of mystery or absurdity appropriate to modern life. Following the innocent yet unlikeable Farnsworth through the living hell of the last several years (presumably—the narrative breaks down halfway through the novel) of his life feels like a punishment, not a catharsis.

The social commentary and character development that made Ferris’ debut, Then We Came to the End, so great are utterly missing here. That’s partly because with such a plot (and a main character who can’t interact with others for more than a few second at a time), society hardly comes into play. I’m afraid of what’s to come from Joshua Ferris: if he doesn’t get his characters back into the office, who knows what we might be reading next?

24

TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

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THE JUSTICE

TOP of the

ARTS ON VIEW

TRIVIA TIME 1. Who played the lead role in Hello, Dolly! when the play first started on Broadway?

2. What’s the common name of the condition called nasopharyngitis?

3. What is called a “torch” in England would be known in the United States as what?

4. What movie featured the line “Houston, we have a problem”?

5. What pop-rock band had a Grammy-winning song called “If You Leave Me Now”?

6. What inventor was known as “The Wizard of Menlo Park”?

7. Which planet is associated with the astrological sign Gemini?

8. Who choreographed the ballet Rodeo?

9. In our solar system, which planet is between Jupiter and Uranus?

CHARTS Top 10s for the week ending March 9 BOX OFFICE 1. Alice in Wonderland 2. Brooklyn’s Finest 3. Shutter Island 4. Cop Out 5. Avatar 6. The Crazies 7. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief 8. Valentine’s Day 9. Crazy Heart 10. Dear John

WBRS

ASHER KRELL/theJustice

QUACK ATTACK: The ducks are out to swim in Yakus Pond at Massel Quad as warm weather graces the Brandeis campus and the winter blues melt away. Students are shedding their coats and enjoying the heat of the sun even though the weather forecasts predict gloom ahead.

1. Carol Channing 2. A cold 3. A flashlight 4. Apollo 13 5. Chicago 6. Thomas Edison 7. Mercury 8. Agnes de Mille 9. Saturn ANSWERS

CROSSWORD

SHOWTIMES 3/12 - 3/18 Green Zone Fri-Sun 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 9:35 Mon-Thurs 2:30, 5:00, 8:10 The Hurt Locker Fri-Sun 12:40, 3:40, 6:40, 9:30 Mon-Thurs 2:10, 4:50, 7:40 Precious Fri-Sun 4:10, 7:10 Mon-Thurs 2:40, 8:20 Cop Out Fri-Sun 1:10, 9:40 Mon-Thurs 5:10 Shutter Island Fri-Sun 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30 Mon-Thurs 2:00, 4:50, 7:50 The Ghost Writer Fri-Sun 12:50, 3:50, 6:50, 9:40 Mon-Thurs 2:20, 5:00, 8:00 Alice in Wonderland Fri-Sun 1:20, 4:20, 7:20, 9:45 Mon-Thurs 2:50, 5:10, 8:30

The Embassy is located at 18 Pine Street in Waltham

ACROSS 1. Dragnet star 5. Steffi of tennis fame 9. Society newcomer 12. Car bar 13. “Mona —” 14. Buckeyes’ sch.

15. Focus on 17. Miss at a barn dance 18. Spa 19. Terrible 21. Former partner 22. City of India 24. Lion King baddie 27. Geological period 28. Shrek, for one 31. Tin Man’s need 32. — de deux 33. Towel designation 34. Hairless 36. Lamb’s dam 37. Put an end to 38. Insurgent 40. Lindbergh book 41. Pigs 43. Make fizzy 47. Trail behind 48. “Don’t let go!”

51. “That’s 19-Across!”

52. Dumbfounded 53. Diva’s delivery 54. Encountered 55. Trawler gear 56. Glaswegian girl DOWN 1. Cleanse 2. Fair, for short 3. Rorschach figure 4. Improved 5. Smooth-talking 6. Tractor-trailer 7. Blond shade 8. Deadly 9. It may include a pair of aces 10. Isaac’s eldest 11. Wall Street optimist 16. Illumination measure 20. Terse question 22. Speak slowly?

1. Jack Splash – “Disko Labyrinth” 2. The Polyphonic Spree – “We Crawl” 3. Quasi – “Bye Bye Blackbird” 4. The Holmes Brothers – “You’re the Kind of Trouble” 5. Cash Box Kings – “St. Paul Wintertime Blues” 6. Hadag Nachash – “Ma’arbolet Shel Chol” 7. Dinosaur Feathers – “I Ni Sogoma” 8. Happy Birthday – “Pink Strawberry Shake” 9. Surfer Blood – “Swim” 10. Boy Eats Drum Machine – “Hoop + Wire”

COLLEGE RADIO 1. Beach House – Teen Dream 2. Spoon – Transference 3. Hot Chip – One Life Stand 4. Vampire Weekend – Contra 5. Yeasayer – ODD BLOOD 6. Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM 7. Magnetic Fields – Realism 8. Fourtet – There Is Love In You 9. Surfer Blood – Astro Coast 10. Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring

BILLBOARD

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Facility Weep loudly Spy-novel grp.

Fine Duel tool Carnival city Kreskin’s claim Lair Soap opera, e.g.

Borstal Boy author Drenched Poor area of town Carry on Tosses in Taj Mahal city Anything but that Greek vowels Have bills Allow

1. Sade – Soldier of Love 2. Lady Antebellum – Need You Now 3. Johnny Cash – American VI: Ain’t No Grave 4. Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D. 5. Lady Gaga – The Fame 6. Lil Wayne – Rebirth 7. Ke$ha – Animal 8. Susan Boyle – I Dreamed A Dream 9. Taylor Swift – Fearless 10. Justin Bieber – My World (EP) Album information provided by Billboard Magazine. Box office information provided by Yahoo! Movies. Radio charts provided by CMJ.

STAFF PLAYLIST

“Jet Setter”

By ROBYN SPECTOR

Solution to last issue’s crossword.

King Crossword Copyright 2010 King Features Synd., Inc.

STRANGE BUT TRUE It was 18th-century French author and philosopher François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, who made the following sage observation: “It is forbidden to kill; therefore, all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”

It took between 75,000 and 80,000 workers to build the Panama Canal, which links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across the Isthmus of Panama.

Pop star Prince may be best known for his hit “1999.” After playing the song at a New Year’s Eve party in 1999, he vowed he would never perform it again. Seven years later, however, unable to escape its perennial popularity, he started including the song in his performances once again.

When the Barbie doll was first introduced in 1959, it was described in The New York Times as a “crushing

bomb.” So much for early reviews. Since then, more than a billion Barbies have been sold in more than 150 countries. Mattel, the doll’s maker, claims that three Barbies are sold every second.

It was Britain’s Prince Albert who originated the boutonniere. It seems that while they were courting, Queen Victoria offered a small bouquet of flowers to her future husband. Prince Albert used his pocketknife to cut a hole in the lapel of his jacket and put the stems of the bouquet through it.

A form of air conditioning existed as far back as ancient Rome. Wealthy citizens had piping installed in the walls of their homes through which water from an aqueduct would circulate, cooling the interior.

Thought for the Day: “If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play at it, it’s recreation. If you work at it, it’s golf.” —Bob Hope

JUSTICE EDITOR

After 36 flights, six interminable train rides and countless 12hour bus rides in a year of traveling before entering Brandeis, my iPod is always prepared with a list of on-the-go favorites. My tastes in music are fairly eclectic, a combination of alternative legends and underground bands that my brother tells me about, but whatever I choose to listen to is of course dependent on the view outside my window.

THE LIST 1. The Thermals – “Now We Can See” 2. Komeda – “It's Alright, Baby” 3. Zee Avi – “Honey Bee” 4. Electric Owls – “Magic Show” 5. Iron and Wine – “Boy with a Coin” 6. Paolo Nutini – “New Shoes” 7. Mika – “We Are Golden” 8. The Matches – “Wake the Sun” 9. White Rabbits – “Percussion Gun” 10. What Made Milwaukee Famous – “Sultan”