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The Justice, November 3, 2009

Page 1

ARTS PAGE 21

FORUM Divided Jews need guidance 10

ROSE REOPENS

SPORTS Eight inducted to Brandeis Hall of Fame 16 THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

the

OF

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY SINCE 1949

Justice www.theJusticeOnline.com

Volume LXII, Number 10

Waltham, Mass.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

ART REAWAKENED

ADMINISTRATION

Univ criticizes Harper’s article ■ University President

Jehuda Reinharz claimed that the article is biased and factually incorrect. By MIRANDA NEUBAUER JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

The University administration is considering what action to take in response to the article “Voodoo Academics: Brandeis University’s hard lesson in the real economy” published in the November issue of Harper’s Magazine about University capital projects. It allegedly contains factual inaccuracies, is “insulting” to the Brandeis community and is allegedly biased due to a conflict of interests on the part of the article’s author, according to an Oct. 22 e-mail from University President Jehuda Reinharz to faculty. “We recognize that the legal process for slander/defamation is an arduous task and one that is difficult to prove; however, we feel that some affirmative course of action must be taken to protect the

reputation of Brandeis given that this article is likely to have circulation on the Internet far beyond the circulation numbers of Harper’s,” Reinharz wrote. In the Harper’s article, the author, Christopher R. Beha, criticized the University’s multiple capital projects campaigns as unnecessary and stated that they contributed to the University’s financial difficulties. Writing that the University’s campus expansion is “growth for growth’s sake” in order to compete with other institutions, Beha added that “such capital projects have become an essential element in the marketing ritual of college admissions.” Beha also attributed the higher cost of Brandeis’ tuition, compared to those of other schools, to the number of capital projects the school has undertaken. Comparing $11,000 in-state school tuition to $39,000 in Brandeis tuition, he wrote that “what that $28,000 surcharge buys—the financial and social return on a degree from an elite private university—

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

Viewing the permanent collection Attendees at Wednesday night’s Rose Art Museum reopening reception viewed works from the permanent collection by such luminaries as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Roy Lichtenstein, as well as obscure works by contemporary artists. See story, p. 3.

See BEHA, 7 ☛

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Search committee appointed

Board discusses options for closing budget deficits

■ The committee chair is

initially scheduling an organizational meeting within the next 10 days. By NASHRAH RAHMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

Chairman of the Board of Trustees Malcolm Sherman appointed nine trustees and three faculty members to the presidential search committee at last Thursday’s Board meeting. The committee will be chaired by trustee Meyer Koplow ’72, managing partner at Watchtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a business law firm in New York. Trustees on the committee include Allen Alter ’71, senior producer at CBS News; Jack Connors, former chairman of advertising agency Hill, Holiday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc.; D. Ronald Daniel, director of management consulting firm McKinsey &

Company; Stephen B. Kay, former chair of the Brandeis Board of Trustees; Myra Kraft ’64, president of New England Patriots Charitable Foundation; and Barbara Mandel of the Morton and Barbara Mandel Family Foundation. Michael Sandel ’75, professor of government at Harvard University, and Thomas Friedman ’75, foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, will also serve on the committee. Profs. Gregory Petsko (BCHM), Leonard Saxe (NEJS) and Gina Turrigiano (BIOL) are the faculty members of the committee. Faculty Senate Chair Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL) said that the Senate provided the Board with a ranked list of nine faculty members from 20 faculty who were willing to run for the faculty seats on the Committee. “We wanted people on the Committee who knew Brandeis well [and] could speak for the entire University, not just for

their area of expertise, and we also wanted people who are nationally recognized scholars who would be able to help attract candidates and represent the strengths of our scholarly endeavor,” von Mering said. Sherman told the Justice that all faculty candidates were “outstanding.” He said that faculty members were selected to be on the committee based on qualities including “prominence in their field, ability to interview [and] to evaluate potential candidates [and] knowledge and understanding of the University and its vision and goals.” Originally two seats were reserved for faculty on the Committee, but this number was increased after discussions with Sherman, von Mering said. “Well I’m very glad of course that the Board of Trustees listened to our arguments for higher faculty representation. … The faculty

■ Jeffrey Apfel was also

confirmed as the new executive vice president and chief operating officer. By MIRANDA NEUBAUER JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

Trustees focused their discussions on the budget challenges the University will face over the next years and also received updates on the status of the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee’s plans at last Thursday’s meeting, administrators said. The trustees also confirmed former Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Jeffrey Apfel as executive vice president and chief operating officer, replacing Peter French who is retiring after 12 years.

See SEARCH, 7 ☛

Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe said that the trustees were “mainly focused on the deficits we are facing over the next few years and the need to come up plans to deal with that.” Apfel had announced at the beginning of October that the University’s projected deficit for fiscal 2011 had grown to $9 million from $7 million in part due to a slower-than-expected pace in faculty retirements. Last semester, the Board of Trustees endorsed the University’s plan to increase the undergraduate student body by about 12 percent and to reduce the faculty by 10 percent, or about 35 positions, to save $5 million from the Arts and Sciences budget. The CARS plan stipulates that the reduction will take place through retirements or departures. In keep-

See BOARD, 7 ☛

A spiritual journey

Goalie sets two records

Button controversy

■ Beth Bowman ’10 converted to Islam after coming to Brandeis.

■ Women’s soccer goalie Hillary Rosenzweig ’10 broke two Brandeis records last Sunday.

■ Prof. Shula Reinharz (SOC) asked some Rose reopening visitors to remove protest pins.

FEATURES 8 For tips or info call Let your voice be heard! Submit letters to the editor online (781) 736-6397 at www.thejusticeonline.com

INDEX

SPORTS 16 ARTS

17

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 8

OPINION POLICE LOG

11 2

SPORTS COMMENTARY

16 11

NEWS 3 COPYRIGHT 2009 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Call for home delivery.


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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS AP BRIEFS

POLICE LOG

Northeast fishermen rally to protest anti-overfishing measures

Medical Emergency

GLOUCESTER, Mass.—Hundreds of fishermen from the Northeast rallied before the headquarters of federal fishery managers Friday to protest changes intended to prevent overfishing. Speakers addressed the crowd before a display of two fishermen, which was hung by Jane Lubchenco, chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has charge over the fisheries service. “The fishermen around me have found the courage to come together to stand up for our rights,” said Driscoll, 39. “Perhaps it’s time for NOAA to find the courage to sit down and listen.” Rally organizers said fishermen from Maine to Maryland made the trip to Gloucester, the setting for the book and movie The Perfect Storm. The rally comes as fishermen prepare for a switch to a “sector” management system by the May 1 start of the next fishing year. The current system, broadly considered a failure, has tried to stop overfishing by curbing fishing efforts, including steady cuts to fishing days at sea. Some fishermen have as few as 24 a year. Under the new system, fishermen working together in sectors will divide and manage an allotted catch of individual species. The idea is to increase the autonomy of fishermen, allowing them to increase profits but holding them to strict catch limits that will help stocks recover. But some fishermen say the new system is paving the way for smaller boats—the backbone of fishing communities like Gloucester—to be wiped out by turning fish stocks into a tradable commodity that bigger boats will scarf up. They say managers are wrongly giving sectors such paltry catch allocations that many fishermen won’t survive. Fishermen also attacked the science behind the changes, saying it gives an inaccurately bleak picture of the fishery. “Every year they keep adding more and more regulations to us, taking our days at sea away, restricting our access to different parts of the ocean, all on faulty science,” said Chris Kairns, 40, who fishes out of Point Judith, R.I. Pat Kurkul, the Northeast regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the agency’s fishery science is among the world’s best and isn’t what’s causing the industry’s pain. “I think the real issue is that we’ve just been unable to eliminate overfishing,” she said. The government isn’t trying to ruin fishing businesses, she said; it’s trying to save them after decades of overfishing. “We’re working for healthy stocks so you can have a healthy fishing industry,” Kurkul said.

Oct. 27—A female party at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center fell, struck her head and fainted. BEMCo and the Waltham Fire Department responded. The party was treated on-scene and transported by ambulance to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital. Oct. 28—University Police received a call from the State Police in Framingham, Mass. reporting that it had received a call from a student on campus claiming that her roommate was having trouble breathing. State Police also notified the Waltham Police Department. BEMCo and the Waltham Fire Department responded and the party was transported to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. Oct. 28—Staff of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center requested BEMCo for an elderly female

who had suffered a fall. The party was conscious and not in any pain. BEMCo was dispatched to evaluate the party. The party was treated on-scene with a signed refusal for further care. Oct. 28—University Police received a report of a party in the Usdan Student Center who had a lacerated finger. BEMCo treated the party on-scene with a signed refusal for further care. Oct. 28—University Police and BEMCo responded to a report of a student in the Foster Mods who was having trouble breathing. The party was transported to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. Oct. 30—University Police received a call that an intoxicated male party was sick in the men’s restroom in Upper Sherman. University Police and BEMCo responded. The party was treated on-scene and transported to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital. Nov. 1—A party in Ziv Quad

reported an intoxicated female in Ziv 127. When University Police and BEMCo responded the female was in the lobby of Ziv 127. The party was treated on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Larceny Nov. 1—A party in Rosenthal Quad stated that she came out of the bathroom and noticed two men in her room. The party then noticed that her laptop was missing after the two men departed. University Police responded and searched the area for parties matching the descriptions given but didn’t find anyone in the area. University Police took a written statement from the party and will compile a report.

Disturbance Oct. 31—A party on Charles River Road called University Police complaining of loud noise. University Police responded and

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

An article in Forum mispelled the surname of Haym Salomon. His name is Haym Salomon, not Haym Solomon. (Oct. 27, p. 10) The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction 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. Main Line News Forum Features Sports Arts Ads Photos Managing

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Oct. 27—The Waltham Police Department requested the assistance of University Police in locating a suspected shoplifter within the University community. Oct. 30—University Police stopped a man with a replica plastic firearm on the Squire Bridge. The party was identified as a current student. The item was confiscated and no further action was taken by University Police. Oct. 30—Staff at the BrandeisRoberts train station reported seeing a male party exit the train carrying a sword in his backpack and heading towards the University. University Police were dispatched to investigate but were unable to locate the party.

—compiled by Harry Shipps

Administration working to expand on-campus housing

BOSTON—The off-duty security guard who fatally shot a psychiatric patient as the patient stabbed a doctor says he “just did what anybody would have done.” In his first public comments since Tuesday’s shooting, Paul Langone told reporters camped outside his parents’ Reading, Mass. home on Friday he was just trying to get back to a normal life. Langone also said he intends to continue working as a security guard. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said Thursday that preliminary investigation found that Langone was justified in fatally shooting 37-year-old Jay Carciero. Conley said Carciero stabbed Dr. Astrid Desrosiers numerous times before being shot by Langone. Carciero’s family has said they are at a loss to explain his actions and are praying for the doctor’s recovery.

An article in News last week mispelled the surname of a student. The student’s name is Nicholas Hornstein, not Nicholas Horstein. (Oct. 27, p. 7)

Miscellaneous

SENATE LOG

Initial inquiry indicates that Mass General shooting was justified

An article in Forum last week incorrectly referred to an administrative body at Brandeis. Any current sustainability projects fall under the Campus Sustainablity Initiative, spearheaded by the Facilities Services department, not the Office of Sustainability. (Oct. 27, p. 11)

dispersed a small group outside the area.

REBECCA NEY/the Justice

Global Brandeis Dr. Kris Olds, a professor of human geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, delivered the keynote address during the “The Global: New Knowledge Spaces and Places” symposium yesterday.

Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 introduced Rick Sawyer, dean of Student Life. Sawyer spoke about recent projects in Student Life. He spoke about overcrowding on campus and its effect on the student body. He said that the future of the Justice Brandeis Semester and Gateway summer programs are still undecided. Sawyer said that Student Life is in the process of choosing several units at the Charles River Apartments to renovate and absorb into student housing. According to Sawyer, Student Life is working with Capital Projects and Community Living to expand on-campus housing options. Other potential projects include renovation of the Charles River Apartments, the Mods and the Castle. Sawyer said that overcrowding will become an important issue if the University hopes to add 400 undergraduates to its enrollment in the near future. Union Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees Jonathan Kane ’10 reported that the main topics discussed at the Board meeting last week were the University budget, academics, physical facilities and the Rose Art Museum. Hogan reported that the Committee on Endowment Ethics and Responsibility has been formed and will be meeting soon. He also reported that the Constitutional Review Committee plan is in its final stages. Hogan also reported that the Student Union is working to renew the “Take Your Professor to Lunch” project. He also said that the Senate Web site will be redesigned by Thanksgiving. Director of Community Advocacy Jenna Brofsky ’10 reported that due to crowding, an additional BranVan will be provided for a short trial period from 5 to 9 p.m. on Nov. 10, 12, 17 and 19. Senator for North Quad Andrea Ortega ’13 reported that she is trying to renovate the BrandeisNow page to make it more of a resource for students. Senator-at-Large Rami Abdelghafar ’10 reported that there have been complaints from residents of the Charles River Apartments about a suspicious person standing outside the building most nights around 3 a.m. He suggested a renewed campaign for public safety.

—Liz Posner

ANNOUNCEMENTS International and Global Studies and Study Abroad Students who are majoring or minoring in IGS and plan on studying abroad next year can come and hear other IGS majors who have gone abroad talk about their experiences and answer any questions. The new study abroad deadline will also be addressed at the event. Today from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Feldberg Lounge. For more information, e-mail the Office of Study Abroad at abroad@brandeis.edu.

Introduction to careers in the federal government Students interested in working for the federal government can attend this introduction to the benefits of and many opportunities available in federal service. Kim Ainsworth, executive director of the Greater Boston Federal Executive Board, will lead the presentation, followed by a

question-and-answer session. Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. in Schneider G37.

The Challenge of the UN Gaza Report Justice Richard Goldstone, head of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict and chair of the Ethics Center’s Advisory Board, and Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, will discuss assertions that Israel and Palestinian fighters committed war crimes during fighting in the Middle East last winter. The report said there is evidence of war crimes on both sides and that the Israelis made disproportionate use of force. Seating is on a first-come, firstserved basis. Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m in the Levin Ballroom. For more information, e-mail ethics@brandeis.edu.

“What Can I Do With a BA in Sociology?” Students can join a panel of Brandeis

alumni who majored in Sociology to learn about and discuss career options. This event is co-sponsored by the Sociology department, the Sociology undergraduate departmental representatives and the Hiatt Career Center. Thursday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the International Lounge. For more information, e-mail mfisch@ brandeis.edu or rsnider@brandeis.edu.

Abraham Lincoln and the Dred Scott Decision As part of the Library and Technology Services annual Lillian L. Rolde Memorial Lecture Series, John Burt, professor of English and American Literature and director of graduate studies at Brandeis, will speak about Lincoln and the famous civil rights case. The talk will be accompanied by an exhibit of Special Collections material featuring Lincoln. Monday, Nov. 9 from 1 to 2 p.m in Rapaporte Treasure Hall.


THE JUSTICE

ROSE ART MUSEUM

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

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ROSE ART MUSEUM

Krauss Some claim coercion over pins to plan increase in staff ■ Prof. Shula Reinharz

(SOC) said she did not coerce students to remove their “Save the Rose” pins. By ALANA ABRAMSON JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

■ The provost plans to seek

the help of professionals in the art world when recruiting prospective candidates. By ALANA ABRAMSON JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Provost Marty Krauss said in an interview with the Justice that she is currently working on a plan to increase staffing at the Rose in an effort to implement the recommendations in the Committee on the Future of the Rose Art Museum’s final report. “I’m going to have some discussions with various professionals in the art field to get their recommendations about what kinds of people would be the kind of people we would want to recruit,” she said. The CFRAM was formed March 3 by Provost Marty Krauss with the intention of providing recommendations to the administration on the integration of the Rose Art Museum into the educational and cultural mission of the University. The committee released its final report Sept. 22, in which it recommended that the museum remain open as a public art museum while simultaneously increasing its integration into the University. Prof. Jerry Samet (PHIL), the chair of the committee, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he viewed an increase in the museum staff as the committee’s primary recommendation to the administration. “Many of our recommendations in the report cannot be implemented or managed with the current depleted staff,” he explained. The Rose staff currently consists of Roy Dawes, director of museum operations; Valerie Wright, the collection manager; and Karina Sheerin, director of financial control, budgeting and analysis. Michael Rush, the former director of the Rose; Emily Mello, the former director of education; and Jay Knox, the former administrator, are no longer working at the museum. Dawes said in an interview with the Justice that he viewed an increased number of staff as imperative. He particularly stressed the need for a director of education. Krauss also said the Board of Trustees discussed the CFRAM’s final report at their Academic Affairs meeting. Samet wrote in his e-mail to the Justice that he summarized the report during the meeting and stressed the need for the museum’s integration into the University on a larger scale. The Board of Trustees did not pass any resolutions about how to implement the recommendations in the report, said Krauss, but the trustees were extremely optimistic about the report and receptive to the idea of integration. She added that she had also received a message from the Fine Arts department supporting the recommendations in the final report. Stephen Reiner ’61, a trustee and a committee member, wrote in an email to the Justice that the trustees will convene again in the spring but that he does not know yet if the report will be discussed then. “I would say that the overall reaction has been extremely positive,” said Krauss. The meeting in which Samet presented the report occurred in conjunction with the opening of the new exhibition of select works from the Rose’s permanent collection last Wednesday. Krauss said the amount of people at the exhibit’s opening signified the University’s support of the museum.

—Miranda Neubauer and Hannah Kirsch contributed reporting.

Students and faculty members have made claims that Prof. Shula Reinharz (SOC), wife of University President Jehuda Reinharz, requested that people remove their “Save the Rose” buttons at the opening of the Rose exhibit last Wednesday. Emily Leifer ’11, the undergraduate departmental representative for the Fine Arts department, said in an interview with the Justice that she and the other UDRs, Beccah Ulm ’11, Anne Carver ’10, Amy Tsao ’10 and Catherine McConnell ’10, convened prior to the Rose opening. Ulm and Leifer handed out the buttons at the event. Leifer said the UDRs initially wanted to have a petition table at the opening but decided to provide “Save the Rose” pins because the petition would likely incite controversy with the administration. Leifer said she and Ulm were handing out buttons when Reinharz came to the front of the museum with someone else. According to Leifer, Reinharz tried to steer people away from her and Ulm and told them that they were being disruptive. “[Reinharz] said the Rose is saved,” Leifer recalled. She added that Reinharz didn’t give an answer about whether the works are for sale but asked something like, “Do you want this University to fail?” Prof. Mark Auslander (ANTH) was also wearing a “Save the Rose” button and said that the wife of a trustee member asked him to remove it. He declined to provide any names but said she is good friends with Reinharz. Ulm confirmed Leifer’s account and said that Reinharz was “very confrontational with us.” “She came over, and I didn’t know who she was at first, and [she] just kind of touched the box and touched my arm and said, ‘Please don’t hand those out. They’re misleading and detrimental to this event,’” said Ulm. Reinharz said in an interview with the Justice, however, that she asked approximately 10 to 15 students to remove their pins, and five complied. She said she did not think she was being coercive. “If I were being coercive, I probably would have had a better success rate,” she said. Rachel Comstock ’10, who works as a gallery guide at the museum, said that she and Reinharz were greeting guests when Reinharz asked her for her pin. Auslander said that he also ob-

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

REAWAKENING: Fred Hopengarten, a member of the Rose family, wore a “Save the Rose” pin during the museum’s opening. served Reinharz speaking with the students and telling them to remove their pins. “She was forceful. She felt strongly that buttons should not be worn,” he said. Reinharz explained that she believed the buttons were telling people what they should do rather than announcing an opinion or stating what the wearers were doing themselves to benefit the Rose. “They were misleading,” she said. Auslander explained that he donned the pin to support the students who were wearing them but that he was also surprised by the claim that the Rose has been saved, given that the University is currently engaged in a lawsuit to ensure its right to sell paintings. Reinharz said that she discussed selling even one piece of art with a student who said that it would “violate

the integrity of the collection.” Reinharz said this was not completely comprehensible given the varied nature of the collection and noted that selling even one piece of art work might save jobs at the University. “Selling just one piece would also bring as many sanctions against us as selling ten pieces would. ... we would not be able to borrow work from other museums and we would not be able to loan to other museums,” said Roy Dawes, director of museum operations. Valerie Wright, the Rose collection manager, said that she had not actually witnessed Reinharz and the wife of a trustee asking people to remove their pins but that the Museum’s visitor service coordinator subsequently told her that the wife of a trustee had approached her about this matter. Wright also said that, since the open-

ing, approximately five students have come to speak with her to express how they were made to feel uncomfortable. “Our policy is that the buttons are a free speech choice. Students can wear buttons if they want. It’s a free speech issue, so we don’t have a policy on the buttons other than people can do what they want,” said Wright. Auslander also alluded to free speech, explaining that this concept was what made Reinharz’s actions so surprising. “Prof. Reinharz is a senior member of faculty. She is married to the president and serves as assistant to [the] president. I and other faculty watching were deeply surprised she would pressure students not to exercise their free speech rights,” he said.

—Anya Bergman, Hannah Kirsch and Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.

STUDENT UNION

Constitutional Review Committee almost complete ■ The three alumni posts

on the review committee have yet to be filled. By EMILY KRAUS JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

The Constitutional Review Committee, a group composed of students and alumni to evaluate the Student Union Constitution, is in the process of being formed, according to Union Director of Communications Sydney Reuben ’10. Most of the committee members have been selected, but last Friday’s deadline, by which constituencies had to select their representatives for the committee, has been pushed back to give groups more time. Ryan Fanning ’11 will represent the Senate, Jenna Brofsky ’10 the Senate Executive Board and Julia Cohen ’10 the Financial Board. Andrea Fineman ’10 will represent secured media on the committee, Jessie Steinberg ’10 secured nonmedia, Matthew Feinberg ’10 religious organizations, Andrew Litwin ’11 artistic and performance organizations, Benjy Cooper ’11 club sports, Nipun Marwaha ’12 nonsports competition organizations, Kenta Yamamoto ’10 the intercultural community and Tamar Brown ’12 community

advisors. Sahar Massachi ’11 and Alex Schneider ’12 will represent the student body at large. The spots on the committee reserved for three alumni of the School of Arts and Sciences have yet to be filled. According to an e-mail from Reuben, “Many [alumni] have said they’d love to be a resource, but that they live too far away to be a rep.” As a result, it has been difficult to find alumni to serve, she wrote. According to Article 13, Section 1 of the 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 task force shall not be subject to review or oversight by the President, Senate, or Finance Board. Disputes regarding the actions of the task force may be brought before the Union Judiciary,” as stated in Article 13, Section 8 of the Constitution. Reuben said in an interview with the Justice that representatives from the Student Union met with leaders of the represented constituencies to explain the purpose of the Constitutional Review Committee. Those constituencies were then allowed to

choose their representatives to the committee, and members of the Student Union interviewed candidates for the committee. “Everything will be finalized this week,” Reuben said. She said that if any constituencies failed to choose representatives, the Union would appoint students for these groups. “I want to work with the other members of the committee to take a critical look at the constitution, see what’s working [and] what’s not working and try to improve on those areas if we can and try to get as much student input into the process as possible,” said Brofsky about her goals for the committee. Massachi said his goals include “creating a constitution for the Union that is more accountable and democratic and … creating a Union constitution that structures the Union to be more effective.” He continued, “We don’t have a Student Union right now; we have a student government, and I’ve been exploring the idea of actually having a Student Union.” Schneider said that as a member-atlarge, “I am one of the representatives that represents the whole student body instead of a club.” He was selected for the position after filling out an application sent to the student body and was interviewed by mem-

bers of the Senate. Several of the committee members expressed interests in including student input in the review process. “Each month the committee must hold … an open forum that’s open to the public. … I want to reach out to constituents, and I hope that other people on the committee do the same,” said Brofsky. “One thing I’m interested in is using polls and other methods to get student input,” said Schneider. Another one of his goals is to “finish the discussion about the Racial Minority Senator that was started last year at the Union Judiciary. … I think that the Union Judiciary trial last year was not the best way to deal with that issue.” Massachi also discussed the role he envisioned students would have in the Union in the future, saying, “Some of the ideas that have been tossed around are running the Union more like a co-op or more like democratic government. I am really interested in the idea of, whenever something big goes down on campus, … we just call a general meeting, and everyone who shows up has a voice.” Editor’s note: Andrea Fineman is managing editor of the Justice.

—Harry Shipps contributed reporting.


If you have an interest in theater, consider writing for the Arts section of theJustice. the

Justice is looking for writers to both preview and review shows.

E-mail artseditors@yahoo.com for more information.


THE JUSTICE

ATHLETICS

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

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RESEARCH

Sullivan suit in Birthright program examined discovery phase ■ The study explored the

effect of the Taglit-Birthright Israel program on attitudes about Israel and Judaism.

■ In the discovery process,

the parties will exchange information and documents. By LIZ POSNER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

An age-discrimination case submitted by former Brandeis women’s softball coach Mary Sullivan against the University is in the discovery phase, during which legal teams from both sides exchange despositions and documents, according to Sullivan’s attorney Harold Litchen. “During the discovery phase, parties exchange documents and information related to the subject matter of the claim—in this case the employment and termination of Ms. Sullivan,” Steven Locke, from the Office of the General Counsel, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination legal procedure, as published on its Web site, states that the discovery process will also include “interrogatories to parties, subpoenas requiring the production of documents, papers and other tangible things.” Sullivan, who was 54 years old when she lost her job in 2006, has accused the University of firing as a result of age

discrimination. She was replaced by 30year-old Jessica Johnson, who is now in her fourth season at Brandeis. On Aug. 19, Sullivan and Litchen met with Locke and Jean Eddy, vice president of Students and Enrollment, for a conciliation conference at the commisioner’s meeting. The two parties did not reach a settlement during the meeting and agreed to continue legal proceedings. The case will go to trial by the state commission, most likely in the spring of 2010, according to Lichten, but the exact date has not been determined. “The University is confident in its position in this case,” Executive Director of Media and Public Affairs Dennis Nealon told the Justice. “The evidence will show that there has been no discrimination here at all whatsoever, and the decision in her case was based on merit alone,” Nealon said. “I was hoping that Brandeis would try to resolve the matter [during the conciliation conference],” Litchen told the Justice. “It is sort of interesting that Brandeis, which considers itself a liberal school and values social justice, has indicated that it wants to fight to the bitter end.” Lichtin could not be reached for further comment by press time. “I am happy that [my case] is getting more attention,” Sullivan said.

By ERIN DONIGER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The results of the first ever longterm study of the effects of the TaglitBirthright Israel program, which sends young Jewish adults on free 10day trips to Israel, conducted by Prof. Leonard Saxe (Heller), were released last Monday. The study, conducted under the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, examined the effects the program has on attitudes regarding connections to Israel and decisions pertaining to intermarriage and raising children in the Jewish faith. “In general, it wasn’t surprising to see that the program had long-lasting impacts on people. ... The degree in which people made important life choices, particularly about marriage and family based on their Jewish identity, that was surprising,” Saxe said. In its nearly 10 years of existence, Birthright has sent nearly 225,000 young Jewish adults from more than 50 countries to Israel. Data was collected by surveying a sample of U.S.-based Jewish young adults who applied to go on Birthright between 2001 and 2004 through telephone and the Web. The study included applicants who

went on the trip as well as those who did not go. Saxe said that along with his fellow collaborators, he had been gathering the data for his study over the past nine months. Saxe collaborated on the study with his fellow members at the Center: Benjamin Phillips, Theodore Sasson, Shahar Hecht, Michelle Shain, Graham Wright and Charles Kadushin. “Now that the program is about to be 10 years old, we wanted to go back and look at what happened to people who went on the trip ... and how their lives have been affected,” said Saxe.

“

There are people who have some sort of awakening on the trip. DAN LEVINE

Saxe said, “We are interested in how being part of an ethnic, religious pilgrimage affects how people view themselves.” He added, “While not definitive, the results of this study may indicate a substantially higher rate of conversion to Judaism among spouses of participants.” Page 27 of the report states, “Among non-Orthodox Taglit applicants, who were married at the time of the survey, participants were 57 percent

more likely than nonparticipants to be married to a Jew.” “Younger unmarried Taglit participants are 46 percent more likely to view marrying a Jew as ‘very imporSaxe tant.’ Participants were, however, not significantly more likely to date Jews,” according to the report. The study also found that intermarried participants of the program are most likely to consider it important to raise their children as Jews compared to intermarried nonparticipants. Brandeis Coordinator for Israel Engangement Dan Levine said, “There are students for whom the trip is purely just fun, and that’s great. Then there are people who have some sort of awakening on the trip, and that’s great [too].” Levine said, “I have worked with students who have become incredibly involved. They come back and now are going to Hillel or having regular Shabbat dinner on Friday nights with their friends.” Nicole Litvak ’12, who will be going on Birthright in January, said, “People who [choose to] go on Birthright may already be more connected to Judaism than people who don’t go.” Litvak said that participants may already be planning on marrying within their religion and raising their kids in the Jewish faith.

PREPARING FOR GOLDSTONE

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

STARTING DIALOGUE: Director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life Daniel Terris, far left, educated event attendees about the findings of the Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict last Sunday.

Event fosters discussion of Goldstone report before justice’s visit ■ Sunday’s event aimed to

prepare students to attend “The Challenge of the UN Gaza Report,” on Thursday. By HARRY SHIPPS JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Daniel Terris, director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, and Prof. Ilan Troen (NEJS) led a discussion last Sunday about the controversial report by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, which was presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Sept. 29. Sunday’s forum was a pre-event held in the lead-up to Thursday’s event, “The Challenge of the UN Gaza Report,” at which Justice Richard Goldstone, who led the U.N.’s fact-finding mission, will discuss the final report with former Israeli ambassador to the United States Dore Gold.

Attended by around 30 Brandeis students and community members, the open-ended discussion focused on providing a basic understanding of the 600-page U.N. mission’s report and the reasons it has engendered so much controversy in the international community. In an interview with the Justice after the event, Terris said that he thought it was good to have as many opportunities as possible for Brandeis students to explore the issues involved in the Goldstone report. “Having an opportunity in a quiet setting to exchange ideas and exchange information is valuable in itself,” he said. When Goldstone, who has a longstanding relationship with Brandeis and is currently on the advisory board of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, first agreed to head the U.N.’s mission to investigate the state of human rights in the midst of the Gaza conflict, he refused to operate under the original U.N. mandate, Terris said at the event. The original mandate called for an

investigation focused solely on Israel’s actions regarding the conflict in Gaza; Goldstone articulated his desire to investigate human rights violations on both sides of the conflict. Despite this initial ideology, according to Troen, when the final report of the four-member mission was published, Israel took issue with the “astounding” one-sidedness of the report, which details 36 individual incidents of Israeli violations agains the Palestinians. Terris said that he has heard the full range of opinions regarding the report and thinks that the entire spectrum is represented on the Brandeis campus, from those who strongly support Israel and think that the report is “out of line” to those who are “harshly critical of Israel and have a variety of different opinions on the report.” Troen said that the Brandeis community finds itself in a unique situation because, until now, Israel has steadfastly refused to engage Goldstone regarding the report. Thursday night will be the first time that

Goldstone will discuss the report with someone, Dore Gold, who, even if he no longer represents official Israeli policy, has worked in Israeli government and represents an educated and informed Israeli opinion on the matter, Troen said. “I think that students are very curious, want to know and have yet to engage themselves with the massive material, except second- and thirdhand,” said Troen when discussing the importance of Sunday’s discussion in a later interview. “So how does one cope with the mass of contradictory opinions that people bring to this event without having engaged in the material oneself?” Troen asked. When asked why he thought it was important that people who planned on attending the event on Thursday had an understanding of the report and its effects, Troen said, “I think that issues are so complex for everybody because they also reflect on the role America plays in the world, not only just in terms of the Arab-Israeli conflict but how America conducts itself in conflicts where there are

civilians proximate. [The Arab-Israeli conflict] may be the issue that illuminates much else.” Terris said that if people want to get a true sense of the methodology and ideology behind the report they should read some of the report’s observations and conclusions regarding specific instances of human rights violations. He said that these will give a good sense of how the mission went about conducting research and what kind of conclusions it drew based on that research. Asher Bublick ’12 said that he had attended the event on Sunday because “both [Terris and Troen] are known to be well educated on the topic, and … I thought it would be a really good opportunity to learn more about the report and hear the opposing opinions.” “It was a really good format of speaking on the topic because you were able to see both sides and go back and forth,” said Bublick.

— Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.


THE JUSTICE

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Fall of the Wall Wolf Biermann, a singer who became a radical critic of the party dictatorship in East Germany, performed at “The Lives of Others: 20 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall” last Tuesday. German human rights advocate Marianne Birthler also spoke at the event.

BEHA: Reinharz alleges that article is inaccurate cannot be found in a classroom.” Reinharz’s e-mail also states that Beha “openly admitted” that he got the idea for the article from conversations with his aunt, Ann Beha, the founder of an architectural firm that unsuccessfully sought employment by the University in connection with the plans for the new fine arts center in 2004. Reinharz writes that “according to [Vice President of Capital Projects] Dan Feldman’s recollection, Ann Beha made derogatory comments to [Feldman] that implied that Brandeis had demonstrated a lack of judgment and made a poor decision in not hiring her.” Beha said he did not “openly admit” a connection between his choice of article topic and his aunt as stated by Reinharz in the e-mail. “It is simply not true that I admitted such a thing, and I would not have admitted such at thing because it is further not true that my interest in Brandeis stemmed from anything involving my aunt,” Beha said Feldman provided the Justice with copy of an e-mail in which he asked Beha whether he and Ann Beha were related after he recognized the uncommon last name. In an e-mail reply dated Aug. 31, Beha wrote that “I am indeed [related to her]. She is my aunt, and we’re quite close. In fact, some conversations with her led me to be interested in looking into institutional expansions.” Beha emphasized in an interview with the Justice that he believed allegations about the article were unfounded. “I don't mind getting banged around for this at all. I wrote an article that was tough on them,” he said. “But I find it seriously distasteful that [the administration] would bring my aunt into this when she had nothing to do with this whatsoever.” Beha further said that he did not think any allegations of defamation against him would stand. He also said that he had not spoken to his aunt about Brandeis until he was under way with the article and that he was not aware that she had had any professional involvement with the University. “The allegations and inferences in the Presidents [sic] email regarding me and my firm are untrue,” Ann Beha wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. “I’m writing to [Reinharz]

to respond vigorously.” Feldman said that “given that she was quite upset when she was rejected and then was having conversations with her nephew about writing an article about capital projects at Brandeis, you have to at least think that this is problematic.” Senior Vice President of Communications Andrew Gully said in an interview with the Justice that “whether there is formal action taken against [Beha] or what form it would take is still … under discussion.” The current focus, Gully said, is “to make sure that the University has the accurate details out in [the article]”. He said the University has had no contact with Beha since the publication of the article. Reinharz and Thomas Reilly, the University’s outside legal counsel did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

“

I don’t mind getting banged around for this [article] at all. CHRISTOPHER R. BEHA

Reinharz’s e-mail alleges that Beha expressed his interest in writing the article to Feldman at the end of August, but that he subsequently did not conduct interviews with Brandeis administrators. Reinharz wrote that the University next heard about the article at the beginning of September when a fact-checker from Harper’s got in touch with the University to confirm inaccurate figures that had circulated online and in news sources in January. Reinharz’s e-mail states that Beha did not incorporate the corrected figures into his article that former Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Peter French provided during the fact-checking process. Both Reilly and French sent letters to the editors of Harper’s asking for the article to be held or printed with correct information, Reinharz wrote. Feldman also said that the “reporter didn’t take the trouble to reach out to us and try and get accu-

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rate information, learn the facts, understand the basis for all the capital projects here. … None of that entered into the article at all.” However, Beha said that he had used the corrected numbers that French had sent. “Really what [Reinharz is] saying is [that] he doesn’t like the spin I put on some numbers or he thinks I am mischaracterizing some things, but in fact he says there is no fact in the piece that I got wrong. He just doesn’t like the fact pattern, so to speak, and that is his prerogative,” Beha said. Reinharz expressed particular displeasure with Beha’s comments about Brandeis tuition. “Our students year after year talk about the outstanding quality of their educational experiences at Brandeis and the exceptional and world class faculty here. My view is that these more than justify the expense of a Brandeis education,” he wrote. Feldman said in an interview with the Justice that Beha shows no understanding of capital projects plans at Brandeis in the article. Feldman emphasized that capital projects in the past 10 years have been in response to pressing needs on campus for a campus center in a central location, a science center that is able to support research and teaching and more housing for upperclassmen in response to a growing housing shortage. “The quality of the institution had in so many ways outstripped the quality of the facilities” 10 years ago, he said. “All of those [capital projects] are essential; they are consistent with needs identified in the campus master plan.” Feldman said that although the buildings are of a very high quality, “it’s not about just making a show.” “A letter to the editor might not be as emotionally satisfying as a libel lawsuit, but it is a more direct and reliable method for setting the record straight,” Prof. Eileen McNamara (AMST), who teaches a class called “Ethics in Journalism” and is a former reporter for the Boston Globe, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. “Factual errors and distortions, no matter how cavalierly made, constitute shoddy journalism certainly. But libel? Much harder to prove.” —Hannah Kirsch and Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.

are the people who know best what Brandeis really is and who can best articulate the academic strengths of Brandeis,” she said. Sherman added that although University staff is not represented on the committee, “[staff members] certainly will be participants in the interview process.” he said. Koplow said that he is in the process of setting up an organizational meeting that will place within the next 10 days. “The Committee is responsible for managing the search process and ultimately making recommendations to the Board of Trustees,” he said. Saxe said, “It’s a very important task, and I was honored to be selected.” “I am honored to be on this committee, and am enthusiastic and upbeat about the prospect of finding an outstanding president for Brandeis,” wrote Turrigiano in an e-mail to the Justice.

Petsko was out of the country and could not be reached for comment. The Senate is also accepting faculty nominations for a faculty advisory committee that will support the presidential search committee, Von Mering said. The faculty advisory committee will consist of eight faculty members, and the deadline for nominations has not been confirmed as of yet, she said. “Mainly, we want the advisory committee to be involved in all stages of the search, from the drafting the position description to interviewing candidates. Really the idea is for the committee to be involved throughout the search,” von Mering said. A Student Advisory Committee, created last week, will be providing student feedback to the presidential search committee. The roles of the student and faculty advisory committees are still under discussion, Koplow told the Justice in an interview.

BOARD: Trustees evaluate options for closing deficit CONTINUED FROM 1 ing with the CARS recommendations, the University proposed an early retirement plan to faculty last semester. Provost Marty Krauss said trustees received an update “on the discussions [Jaffe] and I have been having with a number of faculty related to their plans for the future so that we can have a better sense of what it will take to achieve the 10-percent reduction in faculty.” She explained that the University has communicated with 43 tenured faculty in Arts and Sciences who will be 72 or older by June 30, 2015 to talk to them about their plans for the future. Interested faculty have until the end of December to decide, Krauss said. Apfel explained that the trustees had not received an official financial update since last May and, therefore, for the first time, discussed the latest projections from early this fall. Apfel said he did not propose any options to close the gap at this meeting. “Our long-term approach to budget balance rests upon the assumptions in the CARS approach,” he said. In the short term, before the balance is reached, “we have to figure out what mixture of onetime and permanent changes are appropriately going to fill that [gap].” He added that the trustees “didn’t give us any hard and fast rules” about how to address the financial gap. Apfel said the University is considering the option of taking a portion of money out of the University’s $70 million in reserves, the portion of the University’s nearly $600 million endowment that is not restricted to a specific use. He explained that reserves would only be part of the solution to ensure that the University still has sufficient savings. “We’ve seen just 8-percent growth [in the endowment this] year to date, which is pretty good because we’re only partly through the year,” Apfel said. “At the moment we’re feeling pretty positive about the endowment coming back, but it fell so far it’s still going to take us several years.” The University is also considering to what extent the University may be able to apply the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act. UPMIFA, enacted by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick Aug. 5, removes previous restrictions on using endowments funds that have decreased below

their original historical value. Apfel said, however, that UPMIFA’s capacity for budget relief was relatively minimal because it still requires institutions to act prudently in making such spending decisions and to consider what the drawbacks there would be on the perpetuity of the endowment. Another factor limiting its effect, he explained, is that it would only apply to the portion of the endowment restricted to specific purposes. With the CARS implementation under way to determine “how we’re going to deal with more students and fewer faculty,” Jaffe sent a memo to department chairs Oct. 22 that asks chairs to submit reports on their progress in implementing CARS suggestions by Dec. 1, in addition to their annual three-year curriculum projections. The reports will be part of an effort to assess whether the University is making progress toward maintaining the curriculum of majors and minors with fewer faculty, Jaffe said. The memo asks chairs to consider how they anticipate coordinating courses that overlap with other departments and to what extent faculty are affiliating with departments outside their own. The memo furthermore asks chairs, ”Do you think that the numeric CARS target for faculty for your department is feasible?” If the chairs do not consider it feasible, the memo asks them to describe how they are coping with reduced resources and “why those measures are inadequate or inapplicable, and what would be lost to students and to the university if you were forced to live with the CARS target.” “I anticipate that some departments are probably going to take advantage of the invitation they were given to say that they think the CARS [faculty] targets for their eventual size are too small, and we’re going to be … evaluating their arguments in order to consider that,” Jaffe said in an interview with the Justice. He added that the Dean’s Curriculum Committee, a group of faculty, students and staff advising him on the CARS implementation, would meet with the School Council Chairs this week to discuss how to respond to departments who consider the targets too small. The CARS faculty targets for departments are not set in stone, he said. DCC member Prof. Richard Parmentier (ANTH) said he had suggested the meeting so “that [the School Council] chairs [would] be brought back into the loop in terms of planning.”


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THE JUSTICE

features

VERBATIM | Rita Mae Brown One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.

ON THIS DAY...

FUN FACT

In 1721, Peter the Great, ruler of Russia, changed his title to emperor.

Apples are more efficient than caffeine at waking you up in the morning.

The quest to find religion MAX BREITSTEIN MATZA/the Justice

ENGAGED IN A PERSONAL PRAYER: Beth Bowman ’10, an Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies major who was raised a Catholic, converted to Islam last December at Brandeis by reciting the shahada.

After a sacred trek, Beth Bowman ’10 converted to Islam By JUSTINE ROOT JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

New York native Beth Bowman ’10 did not turn away from the Middle East after Sept. 11. Instead, she strove to understand it. “There was so much talk on the news constantly about Islam,” Bowman said, “and I knew I was incredibly opposed to us going into Iraq. I remember watching on the news when I was in the ninth grade and just being absolutely disgusted and wishing there was something I could do. It was a combination of those two things that really got me interested in the Middle East and got me thinking about Islam.” Bowman, who was raised a Catholic, continued to delve into Middle Eastern culture both academically and spiritually after coming to Brandeis. An Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies major, Bowman initially experimented with Judaism before turning to Islam. The more Bowman learned about the theology of Islam through classes on subjects like Sufism, the more she began to think to herself, “Yes, I believe this is true.” Although Bowman still considers Judaism and Christianity to be “true” religions, she said she was drawn to Islam because of the definitive answers it gave her. “I guess growing up Catholic, I felt like anytime I asked a question I either wasn’t given a solid answer or I was simply told to rely on faith and nothing else,” Bowman said. “I wanted more solid answers.” Bowman was also intrigued by the Islamic prayer experience. “The way you pray in Islam is a full-body experience,” Bowman said. “The apex of the prayer comes when you're bending down and your head is lower than your heart... [it symbolizes that] you're supposed to elevate your heart rather than your head.” Last fall, Bowman took another step toward a deeper understanding of Islam when she decided that she wanted to fast for Ramadan, the Islamic month of daytime fasting. “I decided I wanted to fast for Ramadan, kind of in solidarity with my Muslim friends and kind of for myself, just to see if I could do it. … It [turned out to be] an amazing fast. [Ramadan] is not just a fast from food, and it’s not just a fast from water—it’s a fast from backbiting,” she said. Bowman said the Muslim community at Brandeis was incredibly receptive to her participation in Ramadan, and she frequently joined its members for Iftar (the meal at which Muslims break the fast) and wor-

MAX BREITSTEIN MATZA/the Justice

FINDING TRUTH THROUGH RELIGION: Bowman describes Islamic prayer as a “full body experience.” shipped with them. Initially, Bowman was hesitant to join her Muslim peers for prayer— “But, I don’t really know what to do!” she told them—but after participating in a multitude of Muslim Student Association-sponsored events, she found that she “felt really at home” in the Islamic world. In December of 2008, Bowman converted to the religion by reciting the shahada, which entails the declaration of one’s belief in the unity of God and in the idea that Muhammad is the prophet of God. “I actually [converted] here at Brandeis, in our MSA suite, and it was absolutely amazing,” Bowman said. “The suite was packed with people; there was just so much support from the community. Everyone was so excited.” Bowman’s spiritual growth has brought challenges as well as joy. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, she witnessed how young adults “are very liable to being affected by [negative labels], especially when there isn’t a conscious effort to combat stereotypes, which there certainly wasn’t after 9/11.” Now, as a young woman practicing Islam, she is affected by those misconceptions that were embedded in some of her peers. “The majority of the American population isn’t really exposed to Muslims other than

what they see on the news, … and even if you [try to show people the parallels between religions like Christianity and Islam], it’s still very hard because there are a lot of concepts that have been misconstrued by the media, and I don’t see that changing anytime in the future,” Bowman said. “And I’ve heard stories from my friends of mine about being harassed for wearing hijab, being called terrorists just because their family is Muslim.” However, Bowman, now the MSA’s treasurer, thinks her conversion is a unique opportunity to educate other people about Islam. When asked how she is generally received when she tells others she is a Muslim, Bowman said that a lot of people are “really interested” in the religion. “I think very few people meet converts to Islam, … so I think it provides people with a good opportunity to ask questions that they may not normally feel comfortable asking someone who was born Muslim,” Bowman said. “And I think my being raised with Christianity also allows them to ask questions like, ‘How does this relate to Christianity? … Can you show me the difference between the two?’” In Bowman’s view, Muslims and spiritual students, in general, are somewhat better understood at Brandeis because of the school’s

religious underpinnings. “At a lot of institutions of higher learning, you’re looked down upon if you’re a theist, like, ‘Well, if you’re logical and intelligent, why would you ever believe in God?’” But the conditions for Brandeis’ Muslims are still far from ideal. For instance, it is difficult for Bowman and other MSA members to share their space and activities with peers on account of the small size of the MSA suite, which is located in the Usdan Student Center. “[The MSA suite] is the space that we have to host our Iftars during Ramadan, … and we try to open those up to the Brandeis community based on the funding that the [Finance] Board gives us, and it is just very hard for us to have a large group of people in [the suite] to come and share in the experience because it’s such a small, cramped space.” “I think a lot of students are intimidated [by the idea of coming] to events that we have. For example, during Ramadan I know that some students would feel uncomfortable coming to the MSA suite to eat with us just because it is our prayer space,” Bowman said. “But … we absolutely love it when students come and are interested in what’s going on with us and what we’re doing, with why we do the things we do. We love those kind of questions because it allows us to clear up misconceptions that may have existed previously. … We want to show them the reality of Islam.” In the meantime, Bowman hopes that Brandeis will continue to cultivate a friendlier environment for Islamic practitioners by educating professors on the existence of Muslim holidays; Bowman recalled having difficulty attending Jumah—a Friday prayer session that requires Muslims to pray in congregation after listening to a short sermon— last semester due to her class schedule. “Luckily, I had a religion class at that time, so I could tell my teacher, ‘Every Friday I’m going to leave 15 minutes early,’ and then I would just wind up sprinting down to Usdan to catch the very end of the sermon and pray,” Bowman remembered. “But it’s just frustrating that there are students who are excluded from [prayer] just because of the way the [class] schedule is set up and [because some professors] aren’t necessarily flexible and won’t let students leave early.” Alissa Cherry ’10, a friend of Bowman’s, saw her through the conversion process. “She’s very dedicated,” Cherry said. “It’s really become a strong part of her life now. I know she was always interested in it and she thought about it for a while, and it was a very heartfelt change.”


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Putting censorship before scholarship

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/ Justice File Photo

STICKING TO SCHOLARSHIP: Prof. Jytte Klausen (POL), author of ‘The Cartoons that Shook the World,’ argued in defense of her controversial book on Oct. 27 at the event “Blasphemy, Censorship and Scholarship.”

A panel of professors discusses Prof Klausen’s recent book By TESS RASER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Upon walking into the International Lounge for the event “Blasphemy, Censorship and Scholarship,” I immediately noticed a table of blue hardcover books to my left. Their covers were blank, except for their title, The Cartoons That Shook the World, and a white thought bubble with Prof. Jytte Klausen’s (POL) name in it. I couldn’t help but think that the blank cover is fitting for the controversial book given the censorship it faced earlier this year. The panel-based discussion with Prof. Klausen, Prof. Joseph Lumbard (NEJS) and Prof. Eileen McNamara (AMST) took place on Tuesday, Oct. 27. The panel focused on the controversy surrounding Klausen’s book as well as Yale University Press’ decision to censor the book. About 40 to 50 students and faculty were in attendance. The book seeks to analyze the violence that surrounded the publication of several controversial cartoons that were published in 2005 by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Poste. The cartoons depicted the Muslim prophet Muhammad in a way that some people found derogatory. For example, one cartoon depicts the prophet Muhammad with a bomb on his head in the shape of a turban. When Klausen brought the book to Yale for publication, they refused to publish the said cartoons for reasons of “security issues,” according to Yale Press Director John Donatich. The censorship was so controversial because the republication of the cartoons was for academic purposes and analysis, not for political or ulterior motives. Charlie Radin, director of communications at Brandeis and a former Boston Globe journalist, has been helping Klausen manage press and public relations surrounding the book. He opened the event by discussing the controversy surrounding the cartoons. He said that while they inspired little protest: “When they were published, virtually

nothing happened.” Klausen described the cartoons’ significance. “The fire started in Denmark, then died out, then jumped to the Middle East and Pakistan, then back to Europe,” she said of the protests that followed the publication of the cartoons. Klausen added that the newspapers played a large role in the outrage, since they kept publishing the cartoons despite the violence they supposedly caused. Klausen said she decided to write The Cartoons That Shook the World because she wanted to know why the cartoons caused such violence. “My methodology was simple. I regarded this as a detective story and I had to follow the leads,” she said. She began by speaking to people on both sides of the situation, such as Muslim leaders and the cartoons’ artists. Klausen pointed out that the cartoons did not affect all Muslims nor did all Danes agree with the paper’s interpretations. “Most Danes just shrugged their shoulders and said, ‘This is a gag. Newspapers are at it again,’” she said. Klausen discussed how the cartoons became celebrities. “[The percentage of people who knew about the cartoons] rose to about 90 percent in Egypt and some countries in the Middle East and in Western Europe,” she said. Many of these people, however, only knew about the cartoons and had not actually seen them. In her book, Klausen argues that the cartoons weren’t the sole factor in creating the outrage. “The aim was [for the complaint about the cartoons to the UN] to create a pushback against American foreign policy,” said Klausen. This means that while the cartoons may have struck a nerve in a large amount of people, they were just a small factor in larger, deeper problems. “I sure wish I could’ve shown [the cartoons] to you,” ended Klausen. Radin mentioned that the cartoons are available on the Internet and asked, “Does [their Internet availability] make Yale’s decision ridiculous?” Radin said that in addition to removing the

controversial cartoons, Yale also decided to delete all depictions of the prophet Muhammad from the book, even though the intent of the book was scholarly. Lumbard analyzed the original situation surrounding the cartoons through the eyes of a Muslim. He called the intent of the cartoons and publication in the newspaper malicious but also said that the Muslim reaction was unjustified and inappropriate. “[The violent reaction] was, in fact, completely contrary to traditional, Islamic teachings,” he said. However, Lumbard suggested that the cartoons are exemplary of how the United States misunderstands the love for Muhammad in Islam. He compared the depiction of Muhammad to an insult to one’s mother. While free speech should be respected, Lumbard said that people should still exhibit decency. Muslims felt that the cartoons were just a small part of the West’s negative view toward Islam. “My hope is that Professor Klausen’s work can be some small step towards moving us toward an actual dialogue,” he said of the United States and Muslim countries. Lumbard said that the protests were unjustified, and in analyzing why they happen, such violence can be avoided. McNamara spoke about the irony of censorship by an academic press. McNamara explained Yale’s decision as stemming from a fear of the potential of violence, not actual threats of violence. However, their decision ignored the message that Klausen sends in the book. “It isn’t the cartoons alone [that led to an outrage]; it was the manipulation and use of those cartoons,” said McNamara. Religious leaders and politicians used the cartoons as a way to stir up controversy in order to further their political causes. Klausen’s goal is to explicate why the protests began from the cartoons and why the cartoons were used for political agenda, McNamara revealed. It is impossible to understand the controversy without looking at the cartoons. McNamara described how one can look online

IMAGE COURTESY OF JYTTE KLAUSEN

LACKING CARTOONS: ‘The Cartoons that Shook the World’ was published by Yale University Press. at the cartoons in one hand and read the book in the other. “That seems folly, doesn’t it?” she asked. “Their actions bring disgrace to Yale University.” McNamara said that it is insulting to think that the public would have acted violently if the cartoons been published in the book. She chided the academic world for not speaking out against this publishing decision. “Where are the professors?” asked McNamara. “This shouldn’t be the only edition of Prof. Klausen’s book that gets published,” she said.


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the Justice Established 1949

Brandeis University

HANNAH L. KIRSCH, Editor in Chief J OANNA SCHORR, Senior Editor ANDREA FINEMAN, Managing Editor ANYA B ERGMAN and SHANA D. LEBOWITZ, Associate Editors NASHRAH RAHMAN, News Editor REBECCA KLEIN, Features Editor REBECCA B LADY, Forum Editor IAN CUTLER, Sports Editor SARAH BAYER, Arts Editor JULIAN AGIN -LIEBES and MAX B REITSTEIN MATZA, Photography Editors B RIAN N. B LUMENTHAL, Layout Editor B RIAN FROMM, Copy Editor B RAD STERN, Advertising Editor

Reinharz mishandled Harper’s University President Jehuda Reinharz recently sent an e-mail to the faculty listserv in response to the November 2009 Harper’s Magazine article “Voodoo Academics: Brandeis University’s hard lesson in the real economy.” In this e-mail, Mr. Reinharz explained the problems he had with the article and claimed that the article’s financial figures were inaccurate or, at times, completely false. Additionally, Mr. Reinharz explained that the article’s author, Christopher R. Beha, was motivated to write an article casting Brandeis’ finances in a negative light because his aunt Ann Beha’s architectural firm was rejected by the University in its bid for a 2004 building project. In response, says the e-mail, Brandeis is considering taking legal action against Harper’s. While this editorial board believes that the University should take action to correct any incorrect facts Harper’s published, we do not believe legal action is the correct choice. While Harper’s Magazine’s descriptions of the University’s economic woes may be exaggerated, there is no denying that Brandeis’ financial status is less than ideal; thus, another lawsuit is the last thing the Brandeis community needs straining its pocketbook. The University is currently playing defendant in two high-profile lawsuits—one involving the Rose Art Museum—and recently reached a settlement on a third involving the demolition of the Kalman Science Building, and we imagine these lawsuits are coming at a hefty cost to the University, win or lose. At a time when Brandeis is looking to cut funding to nearly every one of its departments, Brandeis simply does not have the resources to spend on a lawsuit that Mr. Reinharz admitted in his email “is an arduous task and one that is difficult to prove.” We additionally believe that, whatever the cost, this lawsuit is not one in which the University has a solid basis for success. Mr. Reinharz claimed that Mr. Beha’s article is “rife with factual

Univ should abandon issue inaccuracies and unsupported conclusions.” However, many of these socalled “factual inaccuracies” were simply a matter of interpretation. Mr. Reinharz’s first example is this sentence from the article: “What that $28,000 surcharge buys—the financial and social return on a degree from an elite private university—cannot be found in a classroom.” The president responded that “our students year after year talk about the outstanding quality of their educational experiences at Brandeis and the exceptional and world class faculty here. My view is that these more than justify the expense of a Brandeis education.” This, and several of his other points, are grounds for being upset but not for filing a lawsuit—and especially not for winning one. The University must understand that however upsetting an opinion article may be, it is simply the opinion of the writer as allowed by freedom of speech. We encourage Harper’s Magazine to work with the University to clarify any misleading statements in Mr. Beha’s article, but the courtroom is not the place for the University and the magazine to have such a discussion. Lastly, Mr. Reinharz’s e-mail to faculty was, in our opinion, unprofessional and sent in poor judgment. This email is the first time the public is hearing about the University’s complaints against Harper’s; Mr. Reinharz should have waited until some form of action was decided upon so that he could send a full summary of the magazine’s alleged offenses and the University’s response rather than a lengthy e-mail about why the administration is bothered by Mr. Beha’s article. Mr. Reinharz stated early in his email that “this is in no way a ‘sour grapes’ reaction to an unfavorable story about Brandeis.” Unfortunately, what with the heavy-handed management of the reaction, appearances are to the contrary.

Pres search lacks diverse profs On Oct. 30, University President Jehuda Reinharz announced that Chairman of the Board of Trustee Malcolm Sherman had formed the Presidential Search Committee to find Mr. Reinharz’s successor. Among the twelve committee members are three Brandeis faculty: Profs. Gregory Petsko (BCHM), Gina Turrigiano (BIOL) and Leonard Saxe (Heller). While this editorial board is pleased that the number of faculty members included in the committee has increased from two to three, we still hold some reservations about the faculty members who fill those positions. It is clear why Mr. Saxe, Heller School of Social Policy and Management professor and director of the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Jewish Studies was chosen, an admirable choice at a University so invested in Jewish culture. The appointment of two science professors to the committee, however, raises some questions. We wonder why none of the other major departments that contribute to a Brandeis liberal arts undergraduate education, such as humanities or the

Liberal arts faculty absent arts, are represented on the committee. There was no shortage of applicants to choose from—the Faculty Senate gave a ranked list of nine final choices to Mr. Sherman from which he could choose three. This editorial board encourages the committee, in light of this oversight, to remember that the future University president should be equally committed to all areas of study, not merely the sciences. We also would have hoped to see an administrator who is particularly in touch with students as a member of the committee. Since the Student Advisory Committee is purely advisory, having such an administrator on the committee would ensure students’ immediate representation. This editorial board encourages the committee to maintain an open ear to the student committee and hopes that all of Brandeis’ academic and social interest groups will be considered when choosing the next leader of the University.

A. ELI TUKACHINSKY/the Justice

Scrap plans for chapel; erect a Hillel building By EITAN COOPER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Two weeks ago, I had an Anthropology midterm in the Golding Auditorium. As you may know, compared to most auditoriums, Golding is pretty outdated. The squeaky, wooden seats feel like antiques; the tiny desks just barely have room for a laptop, and they cannot fit a test booklet and an exam side by side (a strange problem that I had to deal with). The room has no windows and is poorly lit. Needless to say, I was happy when the exam was over. But just two days beforehand, the scene had been quite different. It really didn’t matter that the seats were uncomfortable or that there was no room on your table. Because two days beforehand, the Brandeis Orthodox Organization held Jewish prayer services in the very same room (because of scheduling conflicts, the usual International Lounge was unavailable). There was beautiful singing and a very enthusiastic vibe. The once bland room was transformed into something special. The same room that is used for stressful exams was used as a setting for an uplifting experience. This may sound nice. And really, I don’t have a bone to pick with Golding Auditorium. By no fault of its own, the room has simply not been updated. And I am very thankful that people were able to make a meaningful religious service in subpar conditions. But there’s the problem: They shouldn’t have to. For whatever reason, be it because of seating accommodations or scheduling conflicts, the different religious subgroups of Hillel at Brandeis (Reform, Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist) have had to gather in numerous sites on campus throughout the semester. So far this year, Jews of all denominations have prayed in the following places: Berlin Chapel, Sherman Function Hall, the Levin Ballroom, Golding Auditorium, the International Lounge in Usdan, Pearlman lounge, the Hassenfield Conference Center, Castle Commons, and the basement of Shapiro Residence Hall (known as the Beit Midrash or house of study). This dispersion of Jews has an adverse affect on the Jewish community as a whole. Jews from different backgrounds must walk in opposite directions on Friday nights to get to their different locations. What happens is that Jews within each group, to a certain extent, feel as though they belong solely to their group and not to a broader, more inclusive Jewish community. The physical impediments have played a large part in creating communal restrictions. So here’s what I propose for future donors to campus Jewish life: Brandeis should not renovate the 50-year-old Berlin Chapel, as it plans to do. Do not fiddle with the pews or the wooden floor. Instead, tear the whole thing down. In its place, build a brand-new, bigger, grander, fully equipped Hillel building, a place where all of the Jews on campus can gather at once. Because really, it does not matter what your personal practices are. It matters that we have the ability to form a cohesive community. A Hillel building would allow Jews to converge in one place. Different Jews would not have to pray together, but at least we could walk together. We could learn together. And when there is a time when we could all agree, we could join together— whether it is in song, dance or dialogue. Opponents may say that Brandeis is such a “Jewy” (a word that I love) school to begin with. Why do we need to create a communal space for everyone? In other universities, such as the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University, a Hillel building is necessary because of the massive population on campus. If there was no Hillel building at these campuses, Jews would simply not find each other. And at Brandeis—a smaller, tight-knit community—Jews can run into each other literally every minute. Why waste money on a building? But this argument misses the point. You cannot tell people from totally different backgrounds that your strength in numbers and proportions makes it easier to form a unified community. It’s still just as hard. Jewish communities at universities that have Hillel buildings find it easier to break down barriers. One of the criticisms that the Brandeis Jewish community sometimes receives is that it is very sectarian. So even though we can mingle on our walks to class and sit together in Sherman Dining Hall, when it comes time for ritual practice (which makes up a large part of what Jews do together), we must separate. A Hillel building would fix this. How do we pay for such a building? In these financial times it seems unlikely that this building will be built any time soon. It will not be here when we are students. But Brandeis’ donors must know about this great need. Brandeis must raise funds, because we pride ourselves on social justice and pluralism. And that’s exactly what this building would promote.

OP-BOX Quote of the Week “I’m so proud of her, and she saves our butt so many times, so she’s great.” —Taryn Martiniello ’11, a defender for the women’s soccer team, speaking of Hillary Rozensweig ’10, who broke a team record for career victories last Sunday (See Sports, page 16).

Brandeis Talks Back How do you feel about the Rose Art Museum reopening?

DANIEL SHIMANSKY ’12 “I think that it’s a very good thing for the community because we have many students that are passionate about the arts and to have such a great outlet in a close vicinity is a great asset to the community.”

JASON SUGARMAN ’13 “I mean, I’m more of a music guy than an art guy. But I think it’s a great date place—free and local.”

ALLYSON CARTTER ’13 “I’m really psyched.”

SARAH AZARCHI ’10 “I think that it’s a really good idea. There’s Picasso, like, that’s really cool.”


THE JUSTICE

READER COMMENTARY Eco-rep influence benefits campus To the Editor: In light of the article “Despite flaws in programming, Eco-Reps benefit campus,” (Forum, Oct. 27), we as current eco-reps just wanted to let you know what we’re up to. For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been in intensive training and are now armed with knowledge about environmental issues and peer education techniques, and we are ready to dedicate our time fully to engaging the student body. Here are a couple of projects we are working on and welcome you all to join. Green Room: An environmentally friendly certification program aimed at commending those who are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint and encouraging their peers to do the same. We are not only acknowledging current behaviors but also educatingstudents regarding alternative behaviors they may take. Recycling Grades: Brandeis students in particular are responsive to grades! As ecoreps, we wanted to play on that sentiment, and thus we implemented a “recycling grade” program. In just one semester last year, recycling grades in East Quad improved from an average of C to A-, which is quite a significant jump. Recycling grades have been proven to work and get people thinking about what they put in a trash can. While both of these initiatives seem simple, we’ve found that they are effective ways of reaching out to average Brandeis students and making them aware of their simply mundane behaviors and how these behaviors affect the world at large. As always, we welcome questions, comments and concerns and are looking forward to meeting and working with you all. —Aka Kovacikova ’11 and Jenna Brofsky ’10

Hogan missed opportunity for input In response to “Student advisers to presidential committee selected” (News, Oct. 27): While I believe, in strong opposition to last week’s op-ed, that student input on the presidential search is critical and necessary, forming a separate student committee to “advise” the Trustees’ committee will accomplish doodly-squat. Without the power of a vote in the final decision, student opinion on the next president will essentially count for nothing—even if the student committee “take[s] it up a few notches” to make the campus aware of the process and gather opinions. I have heard that Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 spoke to the Board of Trustees about including students on the real search committee but was rebuffed. I appreciate his efforts, but it’s sad and telling that he’s not willing to play hardball on an issue that’s critical to our school’s future. This would have been a perfect opportunity to raise a fuss and mobilize the student body around an issue; the totally symbolic half-measure of a student search committee saps that potential energy and squanders it. —Jon Sussman ’11

Write to us

The Justice welcomes letters to the editor responding to published material. Please submit letters through our Web site at www.thejusticeonline.com. Anonymous submissions cannot be accepted. Letters should not exceed 300 words, and may be edited for space, style, grammar, spelling, libel and clarity, and must relate to material published in the Justice. Letters from off-campus sources should include location. The Justice does not print letters to the editor and op-ed submissions that have been submitted to other publications. Op-ed submissions of general interest to the University community—that do not respond explicitly to articles printed in the Justice—are also welcome and should be limited to 800 words. All submissions are due Friday at 5 p.m.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

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Union Senate’s goals in disarray Hillel

BUECHLER AND SO ON

Some of the Student Union Senate’s latest activities remind me of the title of neurologist Oliver Sacks’ book recounting unusual clinical stories, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and Other Clinical Tales. Though I haven’t actually read the book, the title alone causes me to consider the possibility that we have a Senate that mistook its purpose for that of Students for Environmental Action. And that problem of identity is indicative of an even larger one with the Senate as a whole. The Senate is simply too distracted from its real purpose: to stand up for its students. Currently, several senators are working on projects aimed at benefiting the environment. For example, Senator for the Class of 2012 Nipun Marwaha is trying to put a wind turbine in Sachar woods. That’s a nice idea (and one that the University has unsuccessfully looked into in the past) but also one that has the potential to inconvenience many students, which doesn’t strike me as something the Union should be attempting to do. After all, there aren’t that many places on campus where we can go make a good old bonfire. And wind turbines of all sorts tend to make at least a little bit ofl noise. In addition to being ironic, it’d be rather sad to have that woodsy experience interrupted by a giant machine. Senator for the Class of 2013 Jonah Cohen announced at last week’s Senate meeting that he wants to figure out how to dim the hall lights in dormitory halls during quiet hours. Though achieving this may be difficult because of the circuiting of the certain types of fluorescent bulbs, dimming the lights for a good chunk of the day would probably save the University some cash. But then again, do students really want their hall lights to be dimmed during quiet hours? I’d imagine it to be a potentially disorienting situation and also one that seems to patronizingly imply to us that it’s bedtime. And, folks, get excited. Andrea Ortega ’13, senator for North Quad, and Jenna Rubin, senator for the Class of 2011, are trying to bring Capt. Paul Watson—the Capt. Paul Watson—to campus. Watson is the star of the show Whale Wars, which airs on Animal Planet. He is also, as one might predict from

STACY HANDLER/the Justice

such credentials, an animal rights and environmental activist. Bringing environmentand animal-loving speakers to campus is a great thing. But this should really be something that the appropriate campus groups work toward organizing without being nudged by the Union. I’m not against environmentalism, but I just can’t see how working on projects such as these are within our senators’ job descriptions. I don’t mean to belittle environmentalist endeavors in general, but the Senate shouldn’t be busying itself and its resources with them. Yes, protecting the environment is good for the University in a general sense, but this is the Senate we’re talking about. Its primary goal should be to protect the rights of the students that they represent. The environmental projects need to be left up to the appropriate clubs. Last year, quite the controversy arose when there were some fishy funding activities regarding bringing Bill Ayers to campus. That resulted in a case before the Union Judiciary, and it turned out that the Senate had acted incorrectly. With regard to widespread environmentalist projects, it’s not clear that anyone is misusing power. But it should be. Our senators have a discretionary budget of close to $11,000 to spend on anything that qualifies as a Union project. As the UJ case last year exposed, while it may be somewhat

clear what doesn’t constitute such a project, it’s at best vague to describe what does constitute one. This is a flawed system of resource allocation, and we should be especially troubled by it when we think about how student clubs struggle to attain sufficient operating funds each semester. But the issues with resource allocation go beyond just monetary issues: It’s a matter of time allocation. While senators busy themselves with their pet projects that they’ve managed to loosely wedge under the umbrella of a Union project, they could instead be working on issues that are certainly within their arena of responsibility, such as ensuring that the ever-delayed Student Bill of Rights finally becomes policy. There is a limitless number of positive initiatives of all sorts that could be started on this campus. But as the current environmentally tinted Union projects show, not all such projects need—or should—be completed by the Senate. The Union is beginning the process of revising its constitution. Now is the time to drastically and explicitly limit the ways in which the Senate can spend its funds as well as the actual amount it has to spend. Clubs can spend it better. It’s time to resolve the Senate’s identity crisis. Our senators should get back to protecting our interests and rights rather than wiggling environmental projects into their political résumés.

Space distribution in Mandel Center is actually apropos

Residency requirement is worthy In response to “Seven semesters of residency not necessary” (Forum, Oct. 27): I disagree with the overall opinion and the reasons you list. If someone is bright enough to get into Brandeis and possibly finish in three years, wouldn’t we expect him or her to have enough financial aid for that final year? Furthermore, who can afford to go to Brandeis for six semesters but not seven? This is why we have such generous financial aid programs (from which I also benefited): to make sure these bright students are able to stay here as long as they need to complete their degree. Also, the crux of a liberal arts education is that you must have a broad-based education in a wide range of courses. It is true that some people know they want to be doctors, so what’s the harm if they take a few extra English classes and learn how to write well also, or take more foreign language classes? Since many people don’t find jobs in their field (especially now), it is to their advantage to have a broad base of knowledge and flexibility. This is the advantage that a true liberal arts education gives to you. Lastly, as the cliché goes, college is about more than book learning. Having an extra year to develop personally and socially with your peers before moving on is an advantage. Plus, as a recent graduate now working full-time, what’s the hurry? —Eli Harrington ’09

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Matt

LAWRENCE MODEST PROPOSALS

When news broke that there was controversy surrounding the new Mandel Center for the Humanities, I cannot hide the fact that I was delighted. It must be admitted that, in general, we contentious Brandeisians have more fun with bad news than good news: Someone opposing us gives us something to oppose, and we can revel together in our oppression. That the University was building a new center for the humanities was surely too good to be true; there had to be something suspicious going on. It was at least somewhat suspect that the building was already halfway up, and yet no one had any idea who was moving there. You can imagine my frustration, then, when I read last week’s issue of the Justice and learned a committee of humanities professors had banded together to advise the provost regarding how to fill the building. Everyone in the article seemed optimistic; undoubtedly, something was horribly wrong. Everyone I talked to, though, confirmed the optimism I encountered in the article. Prof. Govind Sreenivasan (HIST) said he thinks “it’s wonderful that a humanities building is being built at Brandeis.” He went on to

The opinions stated in the editorial(s) under the masthead on the opposing page represent the opinion of a majority of the voting members of the editorial board; all other articles, columns, comics and advertisements do not necessarily. For the Brandeis Talks Back feature on the opposite page, staff interview four randomly selected students each week and print only those four answers. The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. Operated, written, produced and published entirely by students, the Justice includes news, features, arts, opinion and sports articles of interest to approximately 3,000 undergraduates, 800 graduate students, 500 faculty and 1,000 administrative staff. In addition, the Justice is mailed weekly to paid subscribers and distributed throughout Waltham, Mass. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods. Advertising deadlines: All insertion orders and advertising copy must be received by the Justice no later than 5 p.m. on the Thursday preceding the date of publication. All advertising copy is subject to approval of the editor in chief and the managing and advertising editors. A publication schedule and rate card is available upon request. Subscription rate: $35 per semester, $50 per year.

Fine Print

explain that “the academy seems to be currently pervaded by a near-exclusive preoccupation with subjects regarded as immediately and instrumentally ‘useful.’ As a commitment to and acknowledgment of the value of broader and more humanistic ways of thinking, the Mandel Center should be a source of pride for the entire Brandeis community.” The faculty did not just approve of an administration; it was supportive of it and actually encouraged it. I had a similarly difficult time finding students who were upset by or skeptical of this plan. At worst, they were indifferent–one student I spoke to lost interest when I said I wasn’t sure if the building was going to have a new café. Some, like Aimée Birnbaum ’10, were openly ecstatic. As a Classical Studies major, she was particularly happy, since her department is currently “scattered throughout [the] Rabb [Graduate Center] and could really use a single building to call home.” More generally, Birnbaum said, “You have no idea how happy and, quite frankly, relieved I am that the humanities are finally being given the same consideration that the sciences have been for years.” As far as I could tell, students and faculty alike were delighted. While reading that same article more closely, I thought I finally found the fatal flaw that would undermine this uncomfortable feeling of good will: The provost wanted to put Environmental Studies in the center. Aha, I thought: Here at last was the Trojan horse, a

The Staff For information on joining the Justice, write to justeditor@ brandeis.edu.

way they could sneak the sciences up the hill and into yet another shiny new building at the expense of humanities departments. When I spoke with Prof. Steven Dowden (GRALL), a leading member on the committee formed to advise the provost, he pointed out that Environmental Studies is currently, and somewhat uncomfortably, housed within American Studies and is focused more on policy and culture than on science. Like many of the departments possibly moving to Mandel, it doesn’t currently have a natural home. This news story seems to go against the conception that our university was betraying its liberal arts roots and becoming the Brandeis Technical Institute—a fear that I, for one, held, and one that can be detected within the above remarks of the professor and the student. As someone who cares very much about the University, its image and the role of the humanities and liberal arts within it, it’s hard to believe there could be much good news these days. The administration is willing to listen to input from the most important source—the humanities faculty—and to implement this important decision based on that input. Pending some last-minute intrigue or shady back-door shenanigans, the University is making a good-faith effort to improve the status of the humanities. We should accept the good news, applaud the administration and the faculty for working together, thank the Mandels for their original donation and hope for things to return to normal—horribly normal—any week now.

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS NEWS: Harry Shipps FORUM: Hillel Buechler SPORTS: Josh Asen ARTS: Amy Melser PHOTOS: Asher Krell, Robyn Spector COPY: Emily Kraus STAFF Senior Writers: Miranda Neubauer, Melissa Siegel Senior Photographer: Rebecca Ney Senior Illustrator: A. Eli Tukachinsky News/Features Staff: Alana Abramson, Erin Doniger, Reina Guerrero, Ruth Orbach, Liz Posner

Forum: Eitan Cooper, David Litvak, Zachary Matusheski, Ethan Mermelstein Arts: Wei-Huan Chen, Marianna Faynshteyn, Morgan Manley, Daniel Orkin, Alex Pagan, Bryan Prywes, Justine Root, Ben Serby, Sujin Shin, Shelly Shore Photography: Genevieve Armstrong, Maegan Bautista, Jaxson Dermer, Nathaniel Freedman, Paula Hoekstra, Shaefali Shandilya Sports: Jeffrey Boxer, Max Goldstein, Jonathan Steinberg Copy: Ariel Adams, Danielle Berger, Jacob Chatinover, Lauren Paris, Joyce Wang Ads: Cody Yudkoff Illustrations: Rishika Assomull, Stacy Handler Layout: Debra Friedmann, Karen Hu, Kathryn Marable, Nan Pang


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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

FORUM CAMPUS CONTROVERSY

Accord speaker his own platform By PARASKA TOLAN SPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE

The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life has invited Richard Goldstone, to discuss his report on the Gaza War on Nov. 5. Goldstone is a former South African Constitutional Court judge. He served as the chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former nation of Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. In 2009, he led an independent fact-finding mission created by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations related to the Gaza War. The mandate of this mission was to look at all parties involved in the 2009 war in Gaza: Israel, Hamas and other armed Palestinian parties. His report, although very controversial in certain factions of Israeli and American politics, is quite critical of all parties concerned. Because of the contentious nature of the report, the Schusterman Center also decided to invite Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. Gold served as an adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his first term in office. Thus, by inviting Gold to debate Goldstone, the center is framing the Nov. 5 discussion as a “balanced debate” between two visions of the Gaza War of January 2009. In no way is Goldstone to be considered antiIsrael in his beliefs or his criticism of the manner in which the Gaza war was organized and executed. However, by inviting Gold to speak after Goldstone, Brandeis is putting Gold in the uncomfortable position of having to defend his views as a Zionist. This is a clear injustice to both parties: to the Palestinian narrative by giving it no representation other than an international lawyer condoning certain acts committed by the Israel Defense Forces and to the Israeli narrative by reducing it to the voice of Gold, who is far to the right of the Israeli political spectrum. This is not the first time that the Brandeis administration and board of trustees have organized such an event. When Jimmy Carter came to speak at Brandeis in 2007, he was immediately followed by Alan Dershowitz. Although the opportunity to hear a variety of different views debated by intellectuals and academics is valuable to the Brandeis community, I wonder why the Brandeis administration will not let a left-wing activist stand on his or her own. When Dan Meridor, Israeli politician, minister and longtime member of the Likud party, came to speak at Brandeis a couple weeks ago, there was no mention of inviting a Palestinian politician to frame the talk in a more “balanced” manner. If Brandeis would like to organize debates rather than have scholars or politicians speak and students respond critically to their remarks on their own, then why not organize a balanced debate with representatives of all sides of the conflict? Although the event could have been novel and thought-provoking, the Schusterman and Ethics Centers have framed it, once again, as a biased, slanted narrative of the Gaza war. I hope the community realizes this and shows the administration that it wishes to hear narratives from all factions involved in the conflict.

Hear both Goldstone and Gold By HANNAH GOLDBERG

JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

What is college if not a marketplace for ideas? College campuses are, in part, venues to learn about conflict and its resolution. If a university is not open-minded, it limits the potential of its students to explore new ideas. For this reason, it is ideal that Dore Gold speak alongside Richard Goldstone. With every new piece of information I take in, I balance it against my already acquired worldly knowledge to determine its factuality, bias and significance. Basically, I don’t accept everything I hear to be truth. As such, everything I have the opportunity to learn can only serve to deepen my well of knowledge about the world. For this reason (along with many others), I believe Brandeis University should take advantage of every speaker it can bring to campus, regardless of whether the speaker is a noble person or has a set of values that aligns with those of the student body or those of Brandeis. Therefore, I could not be more thrilled about Richard Goldstone coming this week. Goldstone is speaking only at Brandeis—that’s huge! While the findings of the Goldstone Report and the United Nation’s work regarding Israel upset me, I greatly anticipate listening to Goldstone. I was living in Jerusalem last year during Operation Cast Lead. Throughout the year, I prided myself on remaining open-minded to new experiences but level-headed enough to retain my liberal beliefs regarding Israeli politics. However, I was surprised by how emotion and reason became so entwined even in my own mind with regard to the operation. There are obvious holes and biases in my knowledge on the topic that I hope to fill in during Goldstone and Gold’s discussion. Goldstone, a South African Jew, did not believe his report would

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

GREAT DEBATE: Students and professors engage in preliminary discussion about issues relevant to the Goldstone event. be interpreted in such a bombastic manner. All topics and debates that concern Israel are fought not only on a rational level, but on a passionate one as well. I commend the University for deciding to host such a controversial figure. In order to have a more balanced event, Gold will be able to refute Goldstone’s findings of war crimes committed by both the Israeli and Palestinian side during Operation Cast Lead, which took place in December 2008 and January 2009. Additionally, Brandeis students and faculty will have the opportunity to keep both sides balanced by asking for clarification on topics raised throughout the discussion. There are many opinions on campus, and it is the obligation of the University to provide support and insight to all students. Though there are many pro-Israel students on campus, there are also many who are more skeptical of Israel’s actions in Operation Cast Lead and who sympathize with the findings of the Goldstone Report. Brandeis University certainly

has a history of controversial speakers. On April 30, 2009, Democracy for America, Students for a Democratic Society and the Brenda Meehan Social Justice in Action Grant, with the help of four other academic departments, brought Bill Ayers, co-founder of the Weather Underground and professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, to speak. Students criticized Brandeis for supporting a terrorist in a situation where a peaceful social activist could have taught the same lesson. However, Ayers had a unique view to offer. Ayers, once a violent social activist, is now a well-respected professor. Brandeis, which is built on the tenants of social activism with a liberal student body, benefited from hearing from an experienced fellow activist. Additionally, Brandeis was deep in controversy in 2007 when there was worry that bringing former President Jimmy Carter to speak would discourage Jewish donors from allocating their money to the school. People criti-

cized Brandeis for welcoming Carter, who had just published his Palestine: Peace not book Apartheid, which received attention for casting a bad light on Israel in order to promote Carter’s views. However, students were only allowed to ask preselected questions, and immediately after Carter concluded defending the points raised in his book, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz was allowed to rebut his argument. Both of these guests ultimately brought great prestige to the University and allowed for a plethora of viewpoints to be accounted for—all of which have a place on our campus. Those who were upset upon hearing that Brandeis would host Goldstone or that Gold would be present in the room to debate him should consider this: The most efficient form of argument involves understanding both sides of the argument. It would therefore be to the advantage of students of all opinions regarding Goldstone to attend his discussion with Gold to see what is said.

Report’s accusations against Israel are unmerited By SARAH GELLER SPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE

In 1945, the United Nations was founded on the principles that the member nations would do everything in their power to preserve and seek peace. While the functions of its organizations are wellintended, serious flaws exist, especially regarding Israel. After Israel’s response to the 12,000-plus rockets shelled into Sderot and the Western Negev over the past nine years, the United Nations Human Rights Council launched an investigation of Israel. Certainly, an investigation is an appropriate response to the combat between Israel and Hamas, and the speculation of war crimes is enough to initiate a report. However, the way the council went about its mission was biased and discreditable. First, Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi of Nigeria is president of the Human Rights Council, while his country simultaneously commits gross human rights abuses. Nigeria’s police unlawfully kill detainees, frequently using torture and other ill-treatments to interrogate suspects (there is no standardized mechanism to prevent such practices) and to extract confessions. Such confessions continue to be used as evidence in court, contrary to international law. Also, authorities consistently fail to exercise due diligence in preventing and addressing sexual violence. Uhomoibhi’s record of terrible human rights abuse

undermines the creditability of the United Nations to launch a mission that questions other countries’ policies on human rights. Moving beyond that little technicality, three other people were involved besides Goldstone: Christine Chinkin of the United Kingdom, Hina Jilani of Pakistan and Desmond Travers of Ireland. Chinkin announced her position stating that Israeli officials were guilty before the investigation began. Even when the committee was aware of her biased views, she still remained a leader in the investigation. I am not quite sure how the United Nations can justify this report and send it to the Security Council. In an issue as sensitive as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the most neutral position must be taken to handle such a situation. Initiating a report in this manner does not pave the path toward peace. Goldstone’s report accuses Israel of committing “war crimes” during its defensive operation last winter against the Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, war crimes are defined as “deportation or forcible transfer of population; imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; torture; persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender; the crime of

apartheid; and other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.” In order to use these examples of war crime as legitimate reasons to try someone, it is critical to remember that this definition can only be applied when civilians are not a justifiable target, as rendered by Trial Chamber II in Kunarac during the Yugoslavia trials. Hamas terrorists launched rockets from schools, hospitals and homes, shielding themselves with babies in their arms and their families surrounding them. Hamas put the people of Gaza in deliberate danger, forcing Israel to choose whether or not to respond to the terrorists. Israel responded and unfortunately, civilians were killed. However, it is imperative to also recognize how Israel responded. The Israel Defense Forces called the people living in the homes they were about to bomb. The IDF sent text messages to warn the people of Gaza of the imminent danger. The IDF also sent leaflets across the Israel-Gaza border to evacuate people and ask them to move away from the terrorists. Israel never had the intention of killing innocent people. British colonel Richard Kemp, an expert in counterinsurgency warfare and commander of British troops in Afghanistan, has said of the Israel-Hamas conflict, “the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of

civilians in a combat zone than any other Army in the history of warfare.” Israel had and still has every right to self-defense. The Goldstone report wrongly equates Israel’s defensive measures to those of the terrorists of Gaza. Rewind to nine years ago when Hamas continually launched thousands of rockets into the completely civillian town of Sderot. Hamas was not aiming to kill Israeli officials, Israeli armed forces or Israeli intelligence systems; Hamas was aiming to kill innocent civilians. Where was the United Nations to intervene and stop this act of inhumanity? The United Nations never issued a report condemning the actions of Hamas the way they did the actions of Israel in the Goldstone report. Only condemning one party of the conflict does not establish a foundation for peace. What building blocks can be built when the facilitator only sympathizes with the issues of one side? There is no morality in war, but there is a right to self-defense. If the United Nations Human Rights Council wants to continue to focus all of its attention on Israel and not the rest of the world, fine, but at least conduct business in a fair manner. Evaluate more than 11 situations, consider the whole picture and ensure that the appropriate people are leading the investigation. The United Nations needs to live up to its fundamentals and issue resolutions that will allow people to live in peace.


THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

VOLLEYBALL

SWIMMING & DIVING

Team dominates at home

Both squads capture multiple top finishes

■ The volleyball team went

3-0 in the Judges Classic last weekend, sweeping two of its three opponents.

■ The men’s swimming

and diving team went 2-0 at Wheaton College last Saturday, while the women’s team went 1-1.

By JEFFREY BOXER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The women’s volleyball team had little problem with the competition last Friday and Saturday, dropping just one set in three wins in the Judges Classic at Brandeis, improving its record to 17-13 (1-6 in University Athletic Association play). Brandeis swept the University of Maine-Machias and Keene State College at the tournament, which also saw Brandeis beat the State University of New York at Oneonta 3-1. The Judges’ were led throughout the tournament by captain and right setter Piera Carfagno ’10, who was named the tournament MVP. It is the second year in a row that Carfagno was named MVP of the tournament. Coach Michelle Kim was pleased with how Carfagno played. “[Carfagno] had a great tournamen,” Kim said in an e-mail to the Justice. “She played a combination of middle hitter and rightside hitter this weekend in an adjusted line-up we’re trying, and she did a great job. She is naturally a middle hitter, so this was an easy adjustment for her.” Carfagno and fellow captain and setter Abby Blasco ’11 were selected to the all-tournament team, as Brandeis was the only school that had more than one representative on the five-player honorary team. The Judges’ most resounding win of the tournament was their opening match last Saturday. The team shut out the University of Maine-Machias in the opening set and outscored them 75-18 overall, winning in straight sets 25-0, 25-12, 25-6. In the first set, the Judges were proficient offensively, as they posted an 80-percent hitting percentage. For the match, Carfagno had a teamleading seven kills and six digs and posted a perfect hitting percentage. After handling Maine-Machias, the Judges faced their toughest challenge of the tournament in SUNY Oneonta. The Judges went ahead by winning the first two sets by a combined six points before dropping the third set by only three points. The team heightened its focus in the fourth set and won by 12 points. The final score of the match was 25-21, 25-23, 22-25, 25-13.

By JONATHAN STEINBERG JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

BIG KILLS: Outside Hitter Paige Blasco ’11 spikes a ball past Keene State College. “The last set against Oneonta was our strongest set against them,” Kim said in her e-mail. “We had the matchup we wanted as far as our blockers against their hitters, and we were very successful being able to sideout quickly and run off several points in each rotation.” Carfagno led the way for the Judges with 12 kills, while outside hitter Paige Blasco ’11 contributed nine kills of her own. Abby Blasco had 33 of the team’s 34 assists. On the defensive side, outside hitter Nicole Smith ’11 had a team-leading four blocked shots. Fellow middle blocker Becca Fischer ’13, along with Smith, had four block assists to fuel the Judges. Last Friday, the Judges hosted Keene State for the second time this season and again won in straight sets by a score of 25-17, 25-12, 25-19. The Judges also defeated Keene State Oct.

10 in straight sets as part of a doubleheader against the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Carfagno and Abby Blasco again led the effort for the Judges last Friday. Carfagno recorded 11 kills and just one error in 17 attempts, while Blasco had 28 assists, nine kills and nine digs. Carfagno also had nine digs in the win. The Judges close out the regular season this weekend at the University Athletic Association Championships in Chicago. The squad is 1-6 in UAA play this season after struggling through two round-robin tournaments earlier this season. “This weekend at UAA’s will be a good tournament for us,” Kim said in her e-mail. “It’ll be important for us to serve aggressively while reducing our errors, ... so that we can run a balanced offense.”

—Josh Asen contributed reporting

Still looking to prove that their sport is alive and well at Brandeis, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams went into their meet against Wheaton College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute last Saturday looking for big wins. The women’s team placed highly in a number of races and went 1-1 in its meet, but it was the men’s squad that took center stage and took the meet by storm as it went 2-0. The men’s team defeated WPI and Wheaton by scores of 154-130 and 173109, respectively. The squad took first-place finishes in 11 of 14 swimming events and finished in the top three in the races it did not win. Four members of the team—James Liu ’10, Marc Eder ’12, Daniel Danon ’13 and Aaron Bennett ’11—played key roles in securing the wins for the team. The four athletes combined for all 10 individual wins, and three of them were part of the first-place 200-yard medley relay team, which included Eder, Danon, Liu and Justin Wellins ’10. Liu continued his impressive stretch of wins, taking first place in three individual events and as a member of the relay team. He won the 200-yard freestyle by more than 2 seconds, the 100-yard freestyle by 0.97 seconds and the 50-yard freestyle, clocking in at 22.01 seconds, inching out sophomore Lee Chiang of WPI by a mere 0.42 seconds. Eder took first in two individual races, as well as in the relay. He won the 100-yard breaststroke by an impressive 5.55 seconds and the 200yard backstroke by 7.41 seconds. Danon won two individual races and the relay as well. He placed first in the 100-yard butterfly and in the 200-yard individual medley, clocking in at 2:5.89, more than 2 seconds over the second-place finisher, Eder. Bennett took first in the 200-yard

13

butterfly, the 500-yard freestyle and the 1,000-yard freestyle, finishing that race at 10:43.46, 2.14 seconds in front of teammate Alex Cemaj ’10. When asked about the meet, Eder mentioned that every swimmer prepares long and hard for any event “Coach [Jim Zotz] trains us for it,” Eder said. “He designs practices that will build up a lot of endurance.” The women’s squad defeated WPI by a score of 167-127 but fell to Wheaton 107-179. The women placed first in four events and earned second place in six other events. Angela Chui ’12 continued her dominating win streak, one that stretches back to last season, taking first place in three individual events. She won the 100-yard backstroke, the 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard individual medley, clocking in at 2:13.86, a wide margin of 23.21 seconds in front of the next finisher, teammate Holly Spicer ’13. Hollis Viray ’10 continued to swim well, placing second in the 100-yard breaststroke, the 200-yard breaststroke and the 1000-yard freestyle, completing the later with a time of 11:22.12, which was 2.44 seconds behind senior Sarah Houlihan of Wheaton. She also took second place as a member of the 200-yard medley relay team. The foursome of Viray, Chui, Siobahn Lyons ’10 and Julia Derk ’12, was less than one second away from winning the race, losing by only 0.97 seconds. Lyons also finished in first place in the 200-yard butterfly, clocking in at 2:21.92, inching out sophomore Taryn Brosnan of Wheaton by a mere 0.005 seconds. Lyons missed out on a second win, losing the 100yard butterfly by 0.92 seconds to Wheaton’s Brosnan. Lyons, the captain of the squad, noted the high number of close races that took place in both the women’s and men’s races. She mentioned that the mentality of a team motivates a swimmer to push the extra inch to win a race. “It’s about your not wanting to let your teammates down,” Lyons said. “You just think about all the time and effort you put into the race and push extra hard.” After a break this upcoming weekend, the men’s and women’s teams will face Babson College on Nov. 11 at Babson College at 6:30 p.m.


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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

SPORTS MEN’S SOCCER

Squad loses and ties UAA games ■ The men’s soccer team

went 0-1-1 at home against the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis last weekend. By JEFFREY BOXER JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

After posting consecutive nonconference wins against Springfield College and Lasell College two weeks ago, the men’s soccer team posted a loss and a draw last week in two hardfought home games against University Athletic Association opponents No. 9 Washington University in St. Louis and No. 7 University of Chicago. After a 1-0 loss to WashU, the Judges played to a scoreless tie against Chicago last Sunday, giving them a 6-9-2 record on the year and a 1-4-1 mark in UAA play. In the game against Chicago, the Judges battled hard against one of the top teams in the UAA. Despite being outshot 19-12, Brandeis had several opportunities to come away with the win. In regulation, defenseman Matt Hohtmann ’11 had the Judges’ best opportunity to score. In the second half, Hohtmann put a header on target off of a corner kick, but Chicago sophomore goalie Chris Guisto barely pushed the shot over the crossbar. The Judges salvaged the draw despite playing down a man for the last 15 minutes of the match as midfielder Kyle Gross ’11 was given a second yellow card in the 95th minute. The Maroons took advantage of the extra man and controlled play much of the second overtime but were unable to knock in the game winner. Brandeis goalkeeper Matt Lynch ’11 made two saves, including a diving kick save that barely pushed the ball outside of the post. Overall, Lynch had 11 saves, a career high for him. The shutout was his third of the year and second in UAA action. Coach Mike Coven noted how important his goalkeeper’s play was in keeping the team in the game over the last few contests. “[Lynch] played very well for us and has really come into his own over the last four games,” Coven said. “The mental aspect of goalkeeping is very important, and he has matured into a great keeper and is playing wonderfully.” Despite playing a man down, forward Corey Bradley ’10 had two shots that just missed the net in the second overtime. “Bradley played very well,” Coven said. “He got two great opportunities in the 18-yard box and pushed one just wide and one just high, but he was

CONTINUED FROM 16

NATHANIEL FREEDMAN/the Justice

BATTLING: Midfielder Kyle Gross ’10 tries to gain possession against a University of Chicago player in last Sunday’s 0-0 draw. really making plays for us tonight.” In the game against WashU, the Judges went up against one of the most talented teams in the conference. In the 13th minute, a Brandeis defender was whistled for a handball in the box. Coven thought the call was questionable as the ball took an awkward bounce at the last second but still resulted in a penalty against the Judges. “[The call] could have gone either way,” Coven said. As a result, WashU senior John

WSOCCER: Judges split conference home games CONTINUED FROM 16 to score her seventh goal of the season. Chicago outshot the Judges 8-4 in the second half but was unable to put any balls into the net. Dallamora warned her team at halftime not to get overconfident even though the team had not given up more than two goals in a game all season. “In soccer, two goals is the kiss of death, so let’s not be complacent, so get out there and play hard,” Dallamora told the team at halftime. The Judges’ win was especially important as the season comes to a close with an NCAA Tournament bid still in the team’s sights. “This win was huge. They were 16th in the country,” Pacheco said. “It just shows to everyone in New England that we deserve to be in NCAAs, and we can beat any team that’s put in front of us.” On Friday night, the Judges out-

XCOUNTRY: Teams not satisfied with UAA results

shot the Bears 15-13 yet still came away with the 2-0 home loss. The Bears scored once in each half, the first coming on a 40-yard blast from sophomore back Natalie Callaghan in the 34th minute and the second by senior midfielder Becca Heymann off a cross in the 72nd minute. Dallamora noted her team’s poise and effort despite the loss against the Bears. “We played a great game against Washington,” Dallamora said. “We played probably one of our best games, [but] it didn’t work out. [The ball] didn’t end up in the back of the net.” The Judges hope to end their regular season on a high note Saturday at home against New York University at 1:30 p.m. NYU is 9-7-1 overall but winless in conference play with a 0-5-1 record against UAA opponents. The Violets are coming off of a 2-1 overtime loss against WashU last Sunday at home.

Hengel knocked the ball past Lynch to put the Bears ahead. From then on, the Judges dominated much of the game. Brandeis outshot WashU 14-12 for the game and also had a 4-2 edge in corner kicks. “We did a lot of things right, we just didn’t score,” Coven said. The Judges’ two best opportunities came in the second half. Both Bradley and midfielder Mike Silberstein ’10 put well-struck shots on goal, but both were corralled by Washington senior keeper John Smelcer. Smelcer finished with two saves on the night. In both contests, the Brandeis

defense allowed the team to stay in contention. The group of Hohtmann, Nick Howard ’11, David McCoy ’12, Ari Silver ’12 and Matt Hauser ’13 helped deflect much of the pressure off of Lynch. “The group has been really playing well for the past few weeks,” Coven said. “They’ve become quite adept at starting counterattacks for us and made a lot of great plays.” The Judges will close out the season Saturday with a home match against rival New York University at 11 a.m.

highest-ranked UAA team entering the meet at No. 26 as well. No. 11 Case Western Reserve University and No. 28 NYU finished ahead of the Judges in second and third places, respectively. Connolly earned an all-UAA second team honor with a time of 24:17.2. She finished 1:30 behind the winner, junior Taryn Surtees from WashU. Connolly was happy with her individual performance, but like Norton she expressed similar disappointment with the overall team standings despite the squad’s improvement from last year’s seventh-place finish. “I’m really proud of my finish, but I mean as a team we didn’t finish as well as we wanted to,” Connolly said. “While I’m excited about my finish, it’s hard to get that excited because we didn’t finish so well.” Connolly’s finish was 40 places higher than her finish last season, and her all-UAA honor was the first a Brandeis women’s runner had earned since Camille StevensRumann ’07 did so in 2006. Other notable finishes for the women included Alyssa Pisarik ’12 who finished in 17th place, right behind Connolly, in 24:22.6. Grayce Selig ’11 finished 20th overall with a time of 24:30.8. Connolly also echoed Norton’s comments on the difficulty of the course. “It was the hardest course we’ve run,” she said. “[It was] much more hilly and muddy than [what] we are used to.” Despite the disappointing team finishes, Norton said the results of this meet were important for the upcoming NCAA Regional Championships Nov. 14. Norton said that the results of the UAA Championships and the Regional Championships are significant in determining the teams’ standings and berths at the NCAA National Championships Nov. 21. “It was a good wake-up call,” Norton said. “It’s a reminder that no matter what level of fitness or training, it doesn’t matter unless you perform on the day of [the meet].”

ATHLETICS: Alumni inducted CONTINUED FROM 16

highest number of points and goals in Brandeis soccer history, with 123 and 50, respectively, focused his acceptance speech on the academic and athletic opportunities to succeed that his family, coaches and teammates provided him. “I am forever grateful for having had the opportunity to come [to Brandeis],” he said. Novaria said that he hopes to provide such opportunities to his own children and other student athletes. Soffer, who earned the Morris Sepinuck Sportsmanship Award during his junior year as a lineman on the Judges’ first football team, highlighted the special nature of Brandeis as an institution, regardless of its small size. Eisenstock also discussed the impact that Brandeis had on him as both a student and an athlete. During his tenure on the basketball team, Eisenstock shot 78 percent from the foul line. He also played all nine positions as a baseball player and participated in the club football program.

“My years at Brandeis were four of the most transformative years of my life,” Eisenstock said in his speech. Richburg, currently a mathematics teacher at Randolph Union High School in Randolph, Vt., ran track and cross country for four years at Brandeis. Richburg was the first female athlete at Brandeis to qualify for the NCAA Track and Field Championships. As the founder of the track program at Randolph Union High School, Richburg said she has continued to pursue the sport that she loves. Curtin, also a runner, finished 15th at the 1983 NCAA Cross Country National Championships and garnered All-American honors as a senior. Curtin, who also ran track and field, holds a Judges record in the 3,000-meter run. Morehouse, the first Brandeis alumnus to ever reach the Olympic Games and earn a medal, captured four University Athletic Association titles and traveled to three NCAA Championships.

He also earned the silver medal as a member of the United States Men’s Fencing team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “So much of what I [accomplished] started here at [Brandeis] with coach [Bill] Shipman,” Morehouse said. Ceriello, the first-ever volleyball inductee, rounded out the acceptance speeches. “My experience at Brandeis is something that I keep very near and dear to me,” said Ceriello, who has tallied the most assists, aces and matches played of Brandeis volleyball players to date. Overall, the eight members of the Brandeis athletic family that returned for the ceremony expressed appreciation for their time spent with the University. Director of Athletics Sheryl Sousa ’90 best summed up the significance of the event and the inductees’ contribution to the University over the years in her opening remarks at the start of the ceremony, saying, “You have truly shown us how to strive for excellence [and] how to be the best at what you do.”


THE JUSTICE

■ The women’s cross country runner had team’s best time at the UAA Championships last Saturday, taking 14th place.

20

career shutouts for women’s soccer goalie Hillary Rosenzweig ’10, a Brandeis record, after the Judges defeated the University of Chicago 2-0 at home last Sunday.

35

career wins for Rosenzweig, a Brandeis record, after the Judges defeated Chicago 2-0 at home last Sunday.

2

consecutive years in which volleyball setter Piera Carfagno ’10 won the Most Valuable Player award at the Judges Classic.

78

out of 80 men’s cross country runners at the University Athletic Association Championships who finished behind Paul Norton ’11. Norton finished in second place.

1

women’s cross country runner, Ally Connolly ’10, who earned second-team All-UAA honors at the UAA Championships last Saturday.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES /the Justice

Championships and will continue to succeed after she graduates. “We’ve been running like crazy, eating right [and] sleeping right. We’ve put in all the work, and we really want to make it to Nationals,” she said. “In my four years, we’ve only gotten

better, and we keep getting better and better,” she added. “It’s been great to see the growth of the team and how far we’ve come. I’m really excited for the future because we have a really young and talented team.” —Max Goldstein

UAA STANDINGS Men’s Soccer

Women’s Soccer

Not including Monday’s games

Not including Monday’s games

UAA Conference WL T Carnegie 5 1 0 Rochester 5 1 0 Chicago 4 1 1 Washington 3 3 0 Emory 2 3 1 New York 1 3 2 JUDGES 1 4 1 Case 0 5 1

UAA Conference W LT Washington 5 0 1 Rochester 5 10 Chicago 3 21 Case 3 30 JUDGES 2 31 Emory 1 32 Carnegie 1 32 New York 0 51

W 14 12 11 9 11 6 6 7

L 2 1 3 6 4 8 9 8

Overall T Pct. 0 .875 2 .867 3 .735 3 .583 1 .719 2 .438 2 .412 3 .472

W 13 12 13 9 8 5 6 9

L 2 3 3 6 6 5 7 7

T 1 2 1 2 3 5 2 1

Overall Pct. .844 .765 .794 .588 .559 .500 .467 .559

TEAM LEADERS MSoccer (points)

WSoccer (points)

Forward Alexander Farr ’12 leads the Judges with 14 points this season.

Forwards Mimi Theodore ’12 and Tiffany Pacheco ’11 lead the team with 20 points this year.

Player Alexander Farr Matt Peabody Corey Bradley Sam Ocel Luke Teece

Player Mimi Theodore Tiffany Pacheco Melissa Gorenkoff Sofia Vallone Two tied with...

Points 14 10 8 6 5

Points 20 20 13 11 5

Volleyball (kills)

Volleyball (digs)

Outside hitter Paige Blasco ’11 leads the Judges with 350 kills.

Outside hitter Paige Blasco ’11 leads the team with 292.

Player Paige Blasco Piera Carfagno Nicole Smith Bridget McAllister Becca Fischer

Player Paige Blasco Abby Blasco Bridget McAllister Piera Carfagno Anna Homitsky

Kills 350 246 186 161 122

Digs 292 281 271 259 258

UPCOMING GAME OF THE WEEK Men’s and women’s soccer vs New York Univ Both soccer teams host New York University Saturday to conclude their seasons.

4

consecutive UAA games in which the men’s soccer team was held scoreless. The squad is 0-3-1 in those games.

15

World Series raises concerns for large-market domination in MLB

Ally Connolly ’10

Judging numbers

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

AP BRIEF

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

A Brandeis women’s cross country runner had not earned all-conference honors at the University Athletic Association Championships since Camille StevensRumann ’07 did in 2006. Ally Connelly ’10 ended that Brandeis drought last Saturday at the UAA Championships in Cleveland, when she earned all-UAA second team honors and was the team’s top finisher with a 14th-place finish out of 81 runners, the best of her career. Connolly concluded the 6-kilometer course with a time of 24 minutes, 17.24 seconds in what she described as the “toughest course” the team had faced this season. In her final season, Connolly has posted some of the best times in her career. Along with her performance at the UAA Championships, Connolly also posted a personal best at the University at Albany Invitational Oct. 17 with 18:43. Connolly was most pleased with her placement last Saturday. “I’m more proud of my finish [last] weekend because we had to face some tough conditions,” she said. “The weather was bad, and the course was tougher than what we’re used to.” Although her times of late have been very strong, it is her leadership qualities that make Connolly stand out, as she has served as the team’s co-captain the last two seasons. “I just have to make sure that as a team member, I lead by example,” she said. “Even when I’m far back and don’t have a great finish, I hope and think that my effort and hard work affects the team.” Connelly is confident that her team has prepared well enough to succeed in the upcoming Regional and National

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Last season, the men’s soccer team’s final game against New York University would determine the squad’s berth in the postseason Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament. This season, with a record well below .500, the annual season finale against NYU has little meaning for the men’s squad but more significance on the

women’s side. The women’s soccer team is 8-6-3 overall after shutting out the University of Chicago last Sunday 2-0. With the win over NYU, the team will go .500 in conference play for the third season in a row and will help the team’s standing in a potential NCAA Tournament bid or in the ECAC tournament.

PHILADELPHIA—Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio thought about the teams in baseball's final four this year—all large-market clubs with high payrolls—and wondered whether there would be room for his franchise anytime soon. “We don’t know if that’s a trend or just an aberration,” he said. “The disparity among the clubs appears to be widening.” Baseball’s four league championship series teams were all among the top nine in opening-day payroll this year, led by the top-spending New York Yankees at $201 million. They were joined by the No. 6 Los Angeles Angels ($114 million), No. 7 Philadelphia ($113 million) and No. 9 Los Angeles Dodgers ($100 million). No room this year for the little guys. “It’s certainly trending in the direction,” Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane said. “The big markets are always going to be there. Whether or not they’re the only ones there I guess remains to be seen.” Just last year, the Tampa Bay Rays won the AL pennant with a $51 million payroll, 28th among the 30 major league clubs. And parity has increased throughout the sport under the 1996 to 2001 and 2002 to 2006 labor contracts along with the current deal, which runs until December 2011. Since the end of the Yankees’ run of four World Series titles in five years, 23 of the 30 major league teams have made the playoffs from 2001 to 2009, with only Baltimore, Kansas City, Texas and Toronto missing out in the American League and Cincinnati, Montreal-Washington and Pittsburgh failing to make it in the National League. Seven teams have won the World Series in the last eight years, with only the Boston Red Sox taking the title twice. Increased revenue sharing has helped the small and middle markets, and the luxury tax has slowed spending by the Yankees to some degree. “We’ve had very good success over the last several years,” said Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball president and chief operating officer. “While it has attracted people’s attention that this year the higher-payroll teams and the higher-revenue teams made the playoffs, it is just one year and not enough to declare a trend.” Among the top 15 spenders as of the start of the season, just four had losing records this year: No. 2 New York Mets (70-92), No. 8 Houston (74-88), No. 12 Chicago White Sox (79-83) and No. 15 Cleveland (65-97). Just five of the bottom 15 finished with winning records: No. 18 Colorado (92-70), No. 22 Texas (87-75), No. 24 Minnesota (87-76), No. 25 Tampa Bay (84-78) and No. 30 Florida (87-75). There’s no concrete correlation between spending and winning. But having lots of bucks helps. “We do not ever in this organization use payroll as an excuse for a lack of performance,” Florida Marlins president David Samson said. “We expect to make the playoffs every year, and our players, when they take the field, don’t get intimidated by other teams’ salaries.” “You still have to win games,” he added. “I don’t really focus on it the way frankly the media does as far as big payroll/small payroll. What we focus on is how teams are composed, the players they have and the way they build themselves and the way they perform.” After CC Sabathia left the Brewers last offseason to sign a $161 million, eight-year contract with the Yankees, Attanasio said maybe it was time for baseball to consider a salary cap. Now, having had nearly a year to examine and reflect, he realizes proposing an absolute ceiling might provoke a confrontation with the players’ union, which struck for 7 1/2 months and wiped out the World Series after owners tried to get one in 1994. “There are better ways to address to competitive balance than salary caps,” he said. “There are other things we can maybe fix before you get into that very difficult conversation.” A consensus has emerged among the major league clubs to propose two major changes to the amateur draft. One would extend it beyond the United States —players outside the 50 states currently are free agents who may sign with any team. Another would be to eliminate negotiations for amateur players and replace them with a fixed slotting system. That could shift money from amateurs to veterans and would decrease the commissions for the advisers who represent top high school, college and international players. All that will be subject to collective bargaining. “In 2002, the players indicated a willingness to talk about an international draft,” said players’ association general counsel Michael Weiner, scheduled to replace Donald Fehr as union head during the offseason. “As far as slotting goes, the players traditionally have been against anything that would limit professionals from bargaining individually.” There could be tinkering with the formulas for revenue sharing and the luxury tax—currently set at 40 percent on the amount of payrolls above a set threshold, using average annual values of 40-man rosters. Management could ask that the tax be a dollar-for-dollar penalty. And there could be changes to the system in which teams losing better free agents receive amateur draft picks as compensation. For losing Sabathia, Milwaukee received the No. 39 pick overall and the Yankees’ secondround selection, No. 73. New York’s top pick, No. 25 overall, went to the Angels as compensation for Mark Teixeira. “The draft was intended to allow the weaker teams to draft the best players and thereby improve competitively,” DuPuy said. “And as long as you’ve got the rest of the world essentially not subject to the draft, or a great portion of the world not subject to the draft, and where you have a system where the best players are not necessarily going to weakest teams, it seems that that is a place that ought to be looked at very hard.” So for now, middle- and large-market teams realize they need to win when they have a group of young players close to the same amount of service time. They try to keep them together and go for titles before they near free agency and the lure of big-market money.


just

Sports

Page 16

BOUNCE BACK The volleyball team won three straight matches at home last week, dropping only one set, p. 13.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Waltham, Mass.

ATHLETICS

CROSS COUNTRY

Eight inducted into Hall of Fame

Connolly ’10 and Norton ’11 top UAA standings

■ The University inducted

eight members into its 13th Hall of Fame class at the Westin Hotel in Waltham last Sunday afternoon. By JULIE GANZ

■ Cross country runners Paul Norton ’11 and Ally Connolly ’10 each earned all-conference honors last Saturday at the conference championships in Cleveland.

SPECIAL TO THE JUSTICE

Newspaper clippings, medals, plaques, photos and two pairs of brightly colored trousers adorned eight tables at the Westin Hotel in Waltham last Sunday, one momento for each of the former athletes inducted into the Brandeis University Joseph M. Linsey Athletic Hall of Fame. The 13th induction ceremony and accompanying brunch were run by the Brandeis University Department of Athletics, and the Friends of Brandeis Athletics commemorated the occasion. The honorees for the Class of 2009 included Arthur “Bud” Collins, a Brandeis tennis coach; Theresa Ceriello ’03, a former member of the volleyball team; Kevin Curtin ’84, a former member of the men’s track and field and cross country teams; Marc Eisenstock ’72, a former member of the baseball and men’s basketball teams; Virginia Lypscon Richburg ’81, a former member of the women’s track and field and cross country teams; Tim Morehouse ’00, a former member of the men’s fencing team; Michael Novaria ’91, a former member of the men’s soccer team; and Donald Soffer ’54, a former member of the football team. Collins, who coached the tennis squad to a 7-0 record in its debut season and a 30-3 record in its first

By MAX GOLDSTEIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

“We switched [Pacheco’s] and [Gorenkoff]’s role, because we weren’t winning the air balls in the middle,” Dallamora said. “I think [Pacheco] did a little better job with that, and then [Gorenkoff] did a great job wing-side of getting [the] ball inline instead of serving balls in.” The move paid off, as the Judges scored two goals later in the first half and held on in the second half for a 2-0 win over their UAA rival. “I was playing outside [midfielder], and [Gorenkoff] was playing [forward], and we switched halfway through the first half,” Pacheco said of the switch. “As a midfielder you go more to defense than to score, but at forward you kind of play more up on the attack, so we switched.” Brandeis got its first goal of the game in the 33rd minute, when Gorenkoff crossed the ball to midfielder Sofia Vallone ’11, who was waiting in front of the net and struck the ball into the bottom lefthand corner. Pacheco was pleased with Gorenkoff’s crosses during the game. “[Gorenkoff] can cross the ball really well from the outside. That’s one of her strong points, and we capitalized on two balls that she crossed,” Pacheco said. The second Judges goal came less than seven minutes later, when Maroons sophomore goalie Emma Gormley misplayed a ball in front of the net, leaving the upper portion of the net open for Pacheco

The Brandeis men’s and women’s cross country teams had mixed outings at last Saturday’s University Athletic Association Championships in Cleveland. In team play, the men’s team was fifth out of eight teams while the women’s team was fourth, but both squads’ individual performances highlighted the event. Paul Norton ’11 finished second out of 80 runners, and co-captain Ally Connolly ’10 was 14th out of 81 runners to each earn all-UAA honors at the event. Defending men’s UAA champion and national champion No. 7 New York University won the men’s race while No. 7 Washington University in St. Louis won the women’s race. The 26th-ranked men’s team was the fourth-ranked UAA squad entering the meet but finished behind unranked WashU, which took fourth place behind No. 12 Emory University and No. 19 Carnegie Mellon University, which tied for second place. Norton finished the 8-kilometer course in 26 minutes, 19.80 seconds, 13 seconds behind the overall winner, NYU senior Zach Maher. Norton’s placement was the best by a Brandeis runner in the UAA Championship in five years, when Dan Crespin ’05 was also the runnerup in 2004. Norton also earned first-team UAA honors for the first time in his career after earning second-team all-conference honors last year with a 15thplace finish. Still, despite his improvement from last year’s race, Norton felt he could have run this race better and cited cramps that hindered his effort. “I was a little disappointed,” he said. “I thought I could win this race, but I just did not perform as well I could have. I had cramping problems midway through the race, so that definitely hurt.” Other notable finishes on the men’s side were Chris Brown ’12, who finished in 19th place with a time of 27:09.8, 50 seconds behind Norton. Marc Boutin ’12, who won rookie of the year honors at last year’s UAA Championships, finished with the 13th-best time of 27:36.01, 11 spots down from last year’s impressive finish. Dan Anastos ’11 also improved his standing from last year’s event, moving up 21 spots with a finish of a 27:39.92 for a 33rd-place finish. Norton said that the team expected to finish better than it did and that the course was particularly difficult because it rained the night before. “It was a pretty disappointing day. We just didn’t perform to our potential,” Norton said. “It poured the day before, so the field was muddy the second you walked onto it. It was a complete slopfest. But you can’t blame it all on the conditions. We just did not handle it as well as the other teams.” The women’s team was the fourth highest-ranked UAA team entering the meet at No. 26 as well. No. 11 Case

See WSOCCER, 14 ☛

See XCOUNTRY, 14 ☛

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MAX BREITSTEIN MATZA/the Justice

HONORED: The eight members of the 13th class of the Brandeis University Athletic Hall of Fame sit as a group last Sunday. three seasons, was the first to speak at the ceremony. Before discussing his tenure at Brandeis, Collins, an International Hall of Fame tennis inductee and storied professional tennis commentator, spoke lightheartedly of his signa-

ture brightly colored trousers. “Somebody asked me, ‘Why do you wear those crazy trousers?’ and I said, ‘For occasions like this; if I spill the food, who would know the difference?’” Collins joked. Collins said he had never

coached prior to his arrival at Brandeis, “But I learned along the way, and the players did the heavy lifting, or at least the heavy hitting.” Novaria, who tallied the third-

See ATHLETICS, 14 ☛

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Rosenzweig ’10 sets two school records ■ Women’s soccer goalie

Hillary Rosenzweig ’10 set the team career records for wins and shutouts against No. 16 University of Chicago last Sunday. By MELISSA SIEGEL JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

As the clock wound down in the women’s soccer team’s game against No. 16 University of Chicago last Sunday, goalie Hillary Rosenzweig ’10 was getting closer to adding two personal milestones to her athletic résumé. The Judges led 2-0 and closed out the victory to give Rosenzweig her 20th career shutout and 35th career victory in net, both of which became new Brandeis records. “I’m so proud of her, and she saves our butt so many times, so she’s great,” defender Taryn Martiniello ’11 said of Rosenzweig. The Judges’ win was their first win against a ranked opponent this season after losing to No. 9 Washington University in St. Louis 2-0 last Friday night. With the home weekend split, the team’s record stands at 8-6-3 overall and 23-1 in the UAA. Rosenzweig passed the all-time wins mark of Natasha Pieciak ’08, who set the record between 2002 and 2004 before leaving the team to join the military after her junior season. Pieciak returned to Brandeis in 2008 to earn her

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

DEFENSE: Forward Tiffany Pacheco ’11 guards the line in a loss against WashU. degree. Rosenzweig’s 20th shutout surpassed the former record of 18 held by Justine McBride’s ’92. Rosenzweig earned the shutout with eight saves, including several diving stops in the first half. “It’s wonderful she set the record,” coach Denise Dallamora said. “It’s been a while since the record was set. She’s done a great

job, an excellent job in her four years. She's had a great four year career.” In the course of last Sunday’s game, Dallamora made a key lineup change to light a fire under the team after it came out “flat” to start the game. Dallamora decided to swap the positions of forwards Tiffany Pacheco ’11 and Melissa Gorenkoff ’10.


just

November 3, 2009

S T R A

Rose’s art left hanging p. 21

Photos: Julian Agin-Liebes and Asher Krell/the Justice. Design: Julian Agin-Liebes, Max Breitstein Matza and Andrea Fineman/the Justice.


18

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

●

THE JUSTICE

POP CULTURE

INSIDE ON CAMPUS

18-21

■ Alex Friedman ’09 19 The alumna designed a set for ‘American Idiot’ at Berkeley Repertory Theater. ■ ‘Asian American Superheroes’ 19 Editors of a book that depicts Asians in nonstereotypical roles talked about their work. ■ ‘Love and Chance’ costumes 20 Deirdre McCabe (GRAD) prepared wardrobes for the play by Brandeis Theater Company.

21 ■ Rose opening Tensions over the fate of the Rose Art Museum were evident at Wednesday’s gala. 21 ■ Cell phone tour Students in an Anthropology class created an interactive tour of the new Rose exhibit.

OFF CAMPUS

22-24

22 ■ Lidya Buzio The Uruguayan artist continues to create ceramic works with a personal touch. 22 ■ Tango Mango The new Mexican restaurant was mediocre. 23 ■ ‘Boondock Saints II’ The Saints returned to Boston in a sequel overreliant on cameos and violence. 23 ■ Pop Muse ‘Lungs’ by Florence & the Machines may turn out to be one of the year’s best albums. ■ Found Footage Festival 23 Coolidge Corner will host the touring festival.

CALENDAR

INTERVIEW by Shelly Shore

You know what Hollywood loves? Babies. There’s been a veritable baby boom recently, which will be very exciting in years to come— Halloween baby costumes and birthday parties, anyone? Model and reality TV host Heidi Klum gave birth on Oct. 9 to daughter Lou Samuel, her third child with husband Seal and her fourth child overall. Lou joins siblings Johan, 2 1/2, Henry, 4, and Leni, 5. Auf wiedersehen, maternity clothes: Knowing Heidi, she’ll be back on the runway in no time at all. Amy Ryan, star of NBC’s hit show The Office, joined in on the baby boom Oct. 15 with the birth of her daughter Georgia Gracie Slovin. Born in New York City, baby Georgia is the first child for Ryan and her fiancé, Eric Slovin, who plan to wed later in the year. Supermodel and G.I. Joe actress Karolina Kurkova welcomed a son this Thursday in New York. Her husband, film producer Archie Drury, confirmed the birth to People magazine early on Nov. 1. The baby boy, named Tobin Jack Drury, is the first child for the couple. Apparently, there’s been a bit of a mini baby boom among Victoria’s Secret models—the birth comes just two weeks after Kurkova celebrated her baby shower with actress Michelle Monaghan and fellow Victoria’s Secret models Alessandra Ambrosio and Adriana Lima (who is also expecting) at Abe & Arthur’s restaurant in New York. Ambrosio, who had a daughter last year, says the Victoria’s Secret models are baby crazy. “It’s just great that we’re all at the same time in our lives. We’re all having babies, we’re thinking about play dates. We’re going shopping for the babies,” she says. “If we have time, we’re together talking about babies!” Mel Gibson’s girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, gave birth to the couple’s first child on Oct. 30.

Judson joins the ‘Chorus’ ■ In an e-mail interview with the

Justice, Julie Judson ’11 talked about working with Greg Storella ’11 to choreograph ‘A Chorus Line,’ which will be staged this weekend by Tympanium Euphorium.

CHRIS PIZZELLO/The Associated Press

PROUD PARENTS: Model Heidi Klum and singer Seal welcomed their fourth child, Lou, this week. Even though the baby arrived early, a rep for the couple told RadarOnline.com that both mother and daughter are doing just fine. The arrival of his newest makes Gibson an OctoDad: he has seven children (six sons and one daughter) with his estranged wife, Robyn. This isn’t the first for Grigorieva, either—she has a 12-year-old son with actor Timothy Alcon. Mazel tov to all the new parents! For the sake of the diaper stores and ob-gyn offices in the New York and Los Angeles areas, let’s hope things calm down for a little while.

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus

‘Gladiator’ Russell Crowe stars in this 2000 Oscar-winning epic as a general of the Roman army who leads a rebellion against the corrupt usurper of the imperial throne, played by Joaquin Phoenix. The Classical Studies department is screening this film as part of its film series. Today from 7 to 10 p.m. in Shiffman 219.

‘Sicko’ At their weekly meeting, Brandeis Democrats will screen Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary Sicko , about the state of America’s health care insurance industry. In the film, Moore examines the obstacles many Americans encounter in paying for medical treatment and compares the system to those of other countries such as the United Kingdom and Cuba. Tomorrow from 8 to 11 p.m. in the South Campus Commons.

‘Sugar Cane Alley’ As part of the French Film Series sponsored by the French department, this film based on a semiautobiographical novel by Joseph Zobel will be screened. The film tells the story of a young boy in colonial Martinique who faces financial pressure and racial prejudice as he attempts to gain an education. Thursday at 7 p.m. in Lown 002.

‘A Chorus Line’ Tympanium Euphorium will stage the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit about dancers competing for parts in a musical. As auditions progress, the dancers’ personalities and struggles are poignantly revealed. Tickets are $3 for Thursday night and $5 for every other night. Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater.

Ben Folds concert The Rockin’ the Suburbs singer will play at Gosman Sports and Convocation Center for Student Events’ fall concert. The opener is Sara Melson, a folk guitarist whose music has been used on MTV’s Exiled and ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy . Tickets are $10 for Brandeis students. Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Shapiro Gym.

WHAT’S ON?

PHOTO COURTESY OF SONY MUSIC

FLASH FOLDS: Student Events is sponsoring a performance by the popular pianist Ben Folds for its fall concert. Folds’ most recent album, ‘Way to Normal,’ was released in September 2008. Band, which describes itself as “equal parts Atom and His Package and Andrew W.K.” Friday from 9 to 11:30 p.m. in Chum’s.

Doors open at 7 p.m.

‘The Ugly Truth’ Student Events has sponsored a screening of this 2009 film starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler in which a woman finds herself falling for her maddeningly chauvinistic co-worker. Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers called the movie “ugly-ass crap,” while a reviewer for the Washington Post found it “legitimately sexy”; come decide for yourself! Thursday through Saturday from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. in the Olin-Sang Auditorium.

Pictureplane with Math the Band and Emperor X Punk, Rock n’ Roll Club brings three bands to Cholmondeley’s this week. Headliner Pictureplane is a Denver-based electronic music artist named Travis Egedy. Supporting act Emperor X is an offbeat oneman electronica band. Electronic influences can also be found in the music of Math the

Around the World in a String Quartet In the latest installment of the Around the World series, Music Profs. Judith Eissenberg, Joshua Gordon, Mary Ruth Ray and Daniel Stepner will focus on Austria, Costa Rica and Hungary as musical inspirations. The program will include Quartet in E Flat, K. 428 by Mozart, Quartet No. 5 by Alejandro Cardona and Quartet No. 4 by Bela Bartok. Tickets for students are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Saturday from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall.

Gourmet Israel Buffet Brandeis Zionist Alliance brings a smorgasbord to campus as a way for students to explore Israeli culture through its cuisine. Monday from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Usdan Student Center.

JustArts: How did you first become involved in choreography? Have you choreographed any other performances at Brandeis? Julie Judson: I’ve known that choreography was a passion of mine since I was ten years old. I saw the musical revue Fosse when it came to my hometown, and fell in love with the movement. I remember sitting through one of the numbers, “Bye Bye Blackbird,” and thinking: Someone made this up? And then immediately after I thought: This is totally what I want to do. ... A Chorus Line is my first big show at Brandeis, but Greg and I did have a blast cochoreographing the 24-Hour Musical, Legally Blonde, a couple of months ago. JA: How much do you draw on a knowledge of previous productions of the musical when choreographing, and how much did you conceive yourself? JJ: A Chorus Line is a classic in the dance world, because it speaks so truly to the daily struggles of dancers. ... And because the show stays true to dance and to show business, we wanted to honor the show. Our goal was to throw in some of the original choreography from the show because of its absolutely iconic nature, but also to put our own flair into it. JA: What other dancers, choreographers, or other influences inspired you when working on this musical? JJ: Our biggest inspirations for this show were the so to speak “trifecta” of dance at the time A Chorus Line first came to Broadway: Michael Bennett (who directed and choreographed the original production), Bob Fosse (my personal favorite), and Jerome Robbins (the genius behind West Side Story and the man who gave Michael Bennett his start). Those three styles created by those men are similar in a lot of ways, because they lend themselves to a very clean, classic style of dance that really focuses on the blend between movement and music. JA: How did the two of you collaborate to plan out the dances? JJ: We normally met up to choreograph for a couple of hours every week or so at the beginning of this process. He and I would just turn on the music and begin to dance around and watch each other, and when one of us liked what the other did, we’d run over, pause the iPod, and try to repeat it back. ... It was so mutual. I think as a male/female team we were able to recognize when I was better to teach a step or when he was, and often times we would give tips based on gender, because generally male dancers are trained differently than female dancers. ... Greg is much better at teaching technique than I am, but I tend to explain stylized movement, such as a popped hip or roll of the shoulder, more clearly than he can. JA: How did working on A Chorus Line compare to your previous experiences? JJ: We knew going into this show that A Chorus Line was going to be a challenge. ... It was clear to everyone in the theater community that we had more than enough acting and singing talent to do the show justice, but there were a lot of confidence issues about whether or not people could dance. ... Our promise to everyone was that we were going to bring those two separated worlds, dance and theater, together during this process, and I think we did that. ... Greg and I vowed that we would stay true to the level of dancing that this show demanded and make it as challenging as we could while still being realistic. I worked with the cast an average of 12 hours a week, and in addition to that Greg and I both held “office hours” that people could sign up for to get more individualized attention on the choreography they struggled with. ... Watching their progress has been more inspiring than I can say. ... working on A Chorus Line has been the greatest challenge of my eighteen-year-long dance career, but also the highlight. —Sarah Bayer

Top 10s for the week ending Nov. 3

Box Office

College Radio

Billboard

WBRS

1. Michael Jackson’s This Is It 2. Paranormal Activity 3. Law Abiding Citizen 4. Couples Retreat 5. Saw VI 6. Where the Wild Things Are 7. The Stepfather 8. Astroboy 9. Amelia 10. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

1. Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk 2. Raveonettes – In and Out of Control 3. Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs 4. Arctic Monkeys – Humbug 5. Islands – Vapours 6. Seawolf – White Water, White Bloom 7. Why? – Eskimo Snow 8. Avett Brothers – I and Love and You 9. Compilation – Everything Goes Wrong 10. Muse – The Resistance

1. Soundtrack – The Twilight Saga: New Moon 2. Tim McGraw – Southern Voice 3. Michael Buble – Crazy Love 4. Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3 5. Miley Cyrus – The Time of Our Lives (EP) 6. The Black-Eyed Peas – The E.N.D 7. Taylor Swift – Fearless 8. Owl City – Ocean Eyes 9. Barbra Streisand – Love Is the Answer 10. Joss Stone – Colour Me Free!

1. Muse – “Guiding Light” 2. MonkeyJunk – “Gutsy” 3. Debbie Davies – “Holdin’ Court” 4. Junior Boys – “Bits & Pieces” 5. Owen – “New Leaves” 6. The Xx – “Crystallized” 7. Soulsavers – “Unbalanced Pieces” 8. Harlem Shakes – “Winter Water” 9. Yo La Tengo – “Periodically Triple or Double” 10. Sean Costello – “You Don’t Know What Love Is”

Album information provided by Billboard Magazine. Box office information provided by Yahoo!Movies. Radio charts provided by CMJ.


THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

19

ON CAMPUS THEATER

EVENT

Alum designs sets out West

‘Superhero’ beats all clichés

■ Alexandra Friedman ’09 pursues

■ ‘Secret Identities’ authors involved

her interest in set design with a job at Berkeley Repertory Theater, where she is currently working on a production of ‘American Idiot,’ based on the Green Day album. Friedman spoke about the perspective she has gained from her professional experiences since graduation during an e-mail interview with justArts. JustArts: While you were at Brandeis, you were a set-building machine, constructing several sets a semester. Is the professional pace any different than the one you picked up in college? How’s the general transition from undergraduate theater to professional theater? Alexandra Friedman: It really all depends upon what theaters you work at in the professional world. At Berkeley Rep[ertory Theater], where I’m interning now, we do about seven shows a season, so each production gets a lot more time, as well as several dedicated professionals in every department working on it, and a much larger budget. This allows us to generally work 8-5 Monday-Friday, although load-ins, strikes, and certain projects do require more intense schedules sometimes. It’s really satisfying to have the time and resources to do the best work we possibly can. It’s also truly delightful to work with people who are really passionate about their work ... and to not have to come home and do homework! At the same time, I have recently been working with some other, smaller theater companies in the Bay Area and many of them have very limited budgets, which makes me realize how lucky we are at Brandeis to have the resources we do for student productions. Working on the sets for some of these companies, my task is to spend as little money as humanly possible—so there’s a lot of creative scrounging and compromising that has to go on. Also, smaller companies have far fewer full-time employees, so many of their members have other jobs during the day and putting on productions is a labor of love. The short answer is that professional theater runs the gamut in its scope and size, and I think the quality of Brandeis undergraduate theater, as far as production values go, lands somewhere in the middle. JA: Could you elaborate as to how you managed to end up in Berkeley, Calif., working on the stage adaptation of Green Day’s American Idiot? AF: I wanted to have a definite place to go after graduation, because free-lancing is so volatile, especially in (I hate to say it) the economic situation we’re in right now, and I know myself well enough to realize that I like having a plan. There are several programs throughout the country that strive to provide a transition from college to the “real world” for those interested in pursuing theater professionally. I applied to a bunch of them for a few different positions and was initially unsure where I most wanted to be, but when I got the offer from Berkeley Rep I realized that the combination of location, quality of work, and program was exactly what I wanted. As for working on American Idiot, it’s been an amazing experience. It is an enormous production, incorporating video, projections, and flying in addition to lights, sets, costumes, and sound—which means a huge amount of overhire on top of the permanent staff. It was definitely overwhelming coming into it, but everyone has been really wonderful, from the design team to the cast to the audience. I am consistently amazed at the stamina of the performers and I am so happy to have been able to be a part of it. I will really miss the show when it’s gone! If you should find yourself in the Bay Area soon, American Idiot is in its final extension, running through November 15. JA: Did you think that this would be something you would be pursuing post-college? AF: I was lucky enough to realize before my senior year of high school that I wanted to pursue scenic design, and I’ve somehow managed to maintain that desire through college and beyond graduation. Even knowing that, nobody was going to tell me exactly what path to follow. I think that in any career in the arts, there are dozens, hundreds of ways to get to doing the work you want to be doing. The most useful and consistent piece of advice I’ve received (and this is specific to theater) is not to go straight into graduate school, but figure out yourself and your concrete goals in the real world, and when you hit a wall, then look into further formal education. JA: Are there any new projects you're working on or will be working on soon? AF: We recently opened Tiny Kushner, which is a collection of five short plays by Tony Kushner. When American Idiot closes, Aurelia’s Oratorio, which is a touring show

students in a discussion about Asian stereotypes prevalent in the media. By SUJIN SHIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

PHOTO COURTESY OF MELLOPIX.COM

BUILT ENVIRONMENT: The cast of ‘American Idiot’ on the set of the play’s production at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Alexandra Friedman ’09 helped to design the set in her capacity as an intern there.

We all have heard it, or at least most of us Asians have heard it: the comments that run along the lines of “Oh, you’re Asian. That’s great, just great. We absolutely love Orientals. Gotta catch ‘em all, right? We, uh, we love Jackie Chan. And uh … oh! We loved Memoirs of a Geisha.” All right. I love Jackie Chan, and I loved Memoirs, too. But what the hell do I have to do with them? In every case though, I just laugh it off. I love a good Asian joke just as much as anyone else. Actually, I’m usually the one making them. But in the back of my mind, I always did notice the lack of a normal Asian hero in American pop culture. It seems that all we have as representatives in the public media are Jackie Chan, the evil Fu Man Chus and Hello Kitty. They wouldn’t even cast an Asian actor to play Goku, the protagonist in the Dragonball: Evolution movie last year. Goku, the most heroic, the most awesome and the most Asian hero ever was played by the very not-Asian Justin Chatwin—he’s from Canada. Canada! When the heck can Asian superheroes get a break? This is where Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology comes in. Jeff Yang, the book’s editor in chief; Keith Chow, its education and outreach editor; and Jerry Ma, the art director, came to Brandeis on Thursday to talk about their new graphic novel that features only Asian protagonists—really awesome Asian protagonists that are not just regurgitations of Bruce Lee. And the turnout at the Hassenfeld Conference Center was a mix of races, albeit with a bit of an Asian majority. It was a relaxed but still engaging atmosphere as the three of them talked about the origins and the goals of their graphic novel. Jeff and Keith were just chatting about the dearth of Asian representation in the media when the idea of creating a comic with solely Asian superheroes as the protagonists came up. Jerry Ma was at a comic book convention when he was approached by Jeff (And yes, apparently you can like comics, love Spiderman, go to conventions and still get girls; Jeff and Keith are both married with kids). They showed sketches of their comics, some PowerPoints on the history of Asians in the American media and some motion comic videos, introduced by the required baritone declaiming with an overly exaggerated affectation. The comic book art itself was surprisingly dramatic and gritty, perfect for some of the intense storylines set in backgrounds of WWII or futuristic dystopias. For some reason, I expected the art to be solely of the “manga” or “anime” variety, of the bug-eyed, pink-haired, squeaky-clean sort. But no, the art of the book is a symbol of its own purpose. It is a combination of both Asian and American influences, a depiction of the tension and struggle that plagues all Asian-American teens at one point in their lives, in a painstakingly worked and realistically interpreted little volume. And though it has heaps of drama worked into the storylines, there is still humor that sneaks its way in there. Have you ever heard of superhero outsourcing? They even had an interactive portion of the conference where they helped the assembly create its own Asian superhero. And at the end, Jerry Ma drew a sketch of the character we created. We came up with a teenage student at Brandeis with impossibly large amounts of charisma who uses it to make promises he can’t keep so he can help others feel better about themselves. To me, it sounds suspiciously like a commentary on the nation’s disillusionment with the rhetoric from Washington. But what do I know? I’m just an Arts writer. The event was sponsored by the Brandeis Asian American Student Association, the International Cultural Center, the Dean’s Office and the American Studies department. The graphic novel can be purchased on Amazon or on the book’s homepage at secretidentities.com.

MICHAL DANIEL/Berkeley Repertory Theater

‘TINY’ STAGE: Friedman has also been working on the set for ‘Tiny Kushner,’ a series of three short plays. that I believe played in Boston, goes into that theater, and next up after Tiny Kushner is Coming Home, a new play by Athol Fugard. Meanwhile, something else I’ve been working on is B-Sides, a production of previously unused sketches by Killing My Lobster, a sketch comedy troupe from San Francisco. JA: Have your impressions or understanding of theater changed since you began working outside Brandeis? Are these new perspectives positive ones? AF: One of the biggest revelations for me has been the aforementioned gap between large and small companies, which is just the way it is—but I have also seen that there are so many theaters out there, and so many opportunities, and so many cities to create theater in. I also realized that I am really interested in producing new work. It’s very exciting putting on shows that were recently

written, and seeing what intrigues contemporary playwrights and how the shows are received. JA: Any advice for people interested in pursuing your line of work? AF: I’d say, first of all, don’t go straight into grad school—see what’s out there in the real world; what interests and fascinates you; what skills you’re lacking; what your strengths are. Programs like Berkeley Rep’s are a great way to transition into the professional world but the main thing, I think, is just to go out and do what you love, and if you should find that you aren’t enjoying something, take what you can learn and move on. Meet people and make connections, because the theater world is tiny and everyone knows one another across the country.

—Marianna Faynshteyn

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice

PICTURE PERFECT: Jeff Yang (right) helps attendees design a superhero cartoon, held by Keith Chow.


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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

THEATER

Readying a wardrobe from the past

AT THE DRAWING BOARD: Costume design student Deirdre McCabe (GRAD) goes over a sketch of a costume designed for Mario, played by Jesse Hinson (GRAD).

Graduate student adds a contemporary touch By ANDREA FINEMAN JUSTICE EDITOR

For Marivaux’s The Game of Love and Chance, the second play by the Brandeis Theater Company this fall, costume design student Deirdre McCabe (GRAD) and the others working on the play faced a dilemma concerning design choices. “We talked a lot about making the show accessible to contemporary audiences, and one of the ways we decided to kind of play on it, have some fun, was with these little pops of modern touches,” McCabe said of the costumes, which contain many features appropriate for an 18th-century French play, but also incorporate bright colors and modern accessories like sunglasses. “Nothing’s quite period—it’s always breaking through into these inter-

esting contemporary elements, which is kind of fun.” McCabe continued, “A lot of the color came out of almost the very first design meeting the group of designers had. We had this picture of a green wall—we kind of always knew that the set was going to end up being this bright green color, so all of the colors of the costumes were designed to pop off that green wall. There’s also a black and white floor, so they also had to pop off that.” The play features largely graduate student actors and designers, although undergraduate actors, Anthony Rios ’11, Viktoria Lange ’13 and Rebecca Miller ’13 have been cast, and Hannah Kaplan ’10 will stage manage. Beginning next Thursday, Nov. 12, the play will run through Nov. 22 in Spingold’s Laurie Theater.

FITTING: McCabe looks on as actress Samantha Richert (GRAD) is fitted for a costume. Richert plays the part of Sylvia, whom McCabe described, saying, “Sylvia is more subdued as a person, so the colors are a little less bright.”

SEAMSTRESSES: McCabe adjusts a costume, below, in the studio in the Spingold Theater Center.

18TH-CENTURY STYLE: McCabe adjusts a jacket for the character of Orgon, above.

Photos by Paula Hoekstra/the Justice

SOME NEW DUDS: Richert tries on a second costume for the character Sylvia. Below, McCabe’s original sketch for the costume’s design.


THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

THE ROSE REOPENS

Students add art insights ■ One anthropology class

has planned a cell phone tour of the Rose’s artwork to engage the community. By SARAH BAYER JUSTICE EDITOR

JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice

FESTIVE FLOCK: Students gather near artwork at the opening of the Rose Art Museum’s new exhibit “The Rose At Brandeis: Works from the Permanent Collection.”

Same name, but Rose less sweet? ■ The art at last week’s

gala provided a dramatic backdrop for tensions over the future of the museum. By AARON ARBITER JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

You almost couldn’t see the elephant in the room. There was already a crowd as I entered the Rose Art Museum Wednesday night for the opening of “The Rose At Brandeis: Works from the Collection.” I dispatched my umbrella praying I would find it again, said hello to the student handing out “Save the Rose” buttons and proceeded inside. When you’ve been to a few art openings, they start to look the same: lots of coiffed women in black couture, shiny lapel pins and name tags, too many pairs of tortoiseshell glasses to count and the requisite tables of white Zinfandel and cheese cubes that were more dressed up than the patrons in attendance. A neat jazz trio filled the museum with music as old friends reconnected and professors mingled with students. Amidst the buzzing crowd and more cordial hand-shaking than a U.N. General Assembly meeting, there was the art. “There” is a bit of an understatement. From the moment I leave the Rose’s shallow foyer I am surrounded by art. There’s René Magritte on my right and Picasso on my left sharing a wall with Georges Braque and a few friends. The paintings wrapped the walls of the upper floor of the Fineberg Gallery and the Foster Gallery and were arranged according to period or movement from Modernism and Social Realism to Pop and Abstract Expressionism. It was a kind of populist approach to displaying the work that seemed appropriate for an opening attended by well over 500 people, according to the staff. As I collected a glass of Turning Leaf, a group of people parted ways just as I was looking up. Behind them, revealed to me as though by the Muses, a stunning Roberto Matta painting with bright neon pink and green in a swirling hurricane of grey, like a great electrical storm was unfolding in front of me. I don’t remember how many shoulders I nudged or how many pardons I uttered; I needed to be closer. This is the power of some of these pieces which will be on display until the end of the academic year. Later on as I talked with some friends, Office of the Arts Director Scott Edmiston approached and asked me my favorite piece. I told

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

BABY’S NIGHT OUT: An eager toddler gets an up-close view of the art on display at the Rose’s gala on Wednesday night. him about the Matta, but Edmiston prefers the social realism of Reginald Marsh. We asked Roy Dawes who, with Adelina Jedrzejczak, curated the showing of over 120 works from the collection. Roy has a soft spot for De Kooning and he eagerly explained some of the artist’s influences before other parties required his attention. Some I spoke with found the orgiastic arrangement of the work on display difficult. At times, the proximity of pieces felt harrowing or rushed. Still others were simply in awe of the vast and impressive works on display, and to be fair, the view of Ana Mendieta’s triptych “Body Tracks” (1989) with Rona Pondick’s “Red Bowl” (1993) in the foreground was surprisingly humorous and thoughtful. To be sure, there were as many diverse opinions about the art on the walls as there were about the status of the museum itself and its collection. The elephant was beginning to rear its head. Early in the evening there was a notable presence of “Save the Rose” buttons, even a T-shirt or two, but for some the message was an unwelcome guest. You can, or have already, read about Prof. Shula

Reinharz (SOC) and the curious case of the “Save the Rose” buttons on p. 3 of the News section. It’s worth noting that in responding to the incident, Reinharz said “The Rose has already been saved.” For some there was a celebratory air to the evening, and Provost Marty Krauss told The Daily News Tribune, “The Rose is saved, that’s the headline for this event.” The view that Wednesday’s opening was the end of just another chapter in the museum’s history was not universally shared. Many await the outcome of a case that will be heard by the Suffolk Probate Court on July 29, a continuation of the Oct. 13 hearing in which a limited injunction was imposed to prevent the sale of works from the collection contributed by the plaintiffs. Some students and faculty chose not to attend the opening at all on principle. Others were simply happy to be part of the spectacle and enjoy the art. For everyone, it seems to come down to the issue of legacy. I went back to the Rose in the morning after the cocktail napkins had been swept up to take a closer look at the wonderfully assembled photography in the lower gallery. It’s always

been a good museum for moments of reflection. The space invites memories and frames them. What we learn from the Rose is that our generation faces an increasing number of difficult decisions whose effects far outweigh the choices made by those who came before us. Regardless of what side of the issue one takes, it is worth remembering that a university does not only exist for the students who attend each year, but for the thousands of students who came before and the many thousands who will come after. In June, the court will attempt to decide some of the legal issues involved, but after Wednesday night’s opening, it is left to us to resolve what kind of a legacy we wish to leave. If there is a lesson to be learned from the evening, it’s that no voice should be left out. Take a cue from the art on the walls: Each piece speaks with its own voice. In the Foster Gallery, the loud condensed colors of Gene Davis’ “Moondog” stand in defiant opposition to Sam Francis’ “White Ring.” Yet there they are, side by side, hopefully for years to come. Will these paintings play a role in the education of students in generations to come? It seems the jury is still out.

Visitors to the Rose Art Museum’s new exhibit can interact with the art on display with the help of a cell phone tour conceived and executed by the students of Prof. Mark Auslander’s (ANTH) “Cross-Cultural Arts and Aesthetics” class. After dialing a number and entering a code for each work of art, guests are treated to the comments of the contributors regarding each artwork. The cell phone tour puts the Rose in good company. “Hundreds of museums, aquariums, and walking tours in cities around the world are now using cell phone-based tours, and we think this technology will become more and more common,” Auslander wrote in an e-mail to justArts. However, his class sought to create commentary that would stand out from the pack. “A lot of the tours just use a single voice that sort of lectures to viewers,” he points out. “At Brandeis we thought we’d try to incorporate as many voices as possible, in as many languages and styles as possible, so that as many people as possible would feel included and represented in the tour.” The project’s creators reflect these many backgrounds, with Prof. Andreas Teuber (PHIL) and the artist Steve Miller contributing their disciplines to the anthropological focus of the class. Additionally, the class was cross-listed in the International and Global Studies major, attracting students such as Daniela Modiano ’11 and Ji Yun Lee ’11 to enroll. Lee, who contributed three commentaries to the tour, said, “I really took to Prof. Teuber’s suggestion that we should try to ask the viewers questions about the paintings—about what they see, what they feel and what they think about it. His recommendations served as a basis for most of my commentaries.” Modiano’s commentary on Roy Lichtenstein’s “Forget It! Forget Me!” envisions two dialogues between the characters that appear in the painting, identified as Lois Lane and Clark Kent, regarding their future as a couple. Lane, voiced by Modiano, asks Kent, voiced by Jonathan Turbin (GRAD), to stop talking about “ethics, humanities and the value of art,” while Kent dreams of escaping to the planet Krypton. In the metacritical second dialogue, the pair spars over whether the Rose’s collection ought to be sold at auction. Modiano, who has never been involved in scriptwriting before, says she went through three or four drafts before settling on her final product. She discarded a version linking Lichtenstein’s painting to the problem of anti-Semitism, which Modiano says she has encountered in her native Greece. In inspiring museum visitors to, as Lee puts it, “use their own imagination and look back on their memories,” the project has sought to make the exhibit accessible to members of other cultures. Two students have recorded segments in both Japanese and English. Auslander’s class is now collaborating with women in the Waltham Family School who are native speakers of Hatian Creole, Spanish, Cantonese and Lao to record commentaries on the artwork in their native languages. This cooperation highlights the importance of the Rose as a center of cultural dialogue. “Our most important goal is to demonstrate that the important works in the Rose’s permanent collection really are vital to the overall academic mission at Brandeis, encouraging interdisciplinary inquiry and the creative play of mind,” says Auslander.

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

OFF CAMPUS ART

Buzio molds personal into pottery ■ Influenced by avant-garde artists at a young age, the Uruguayan artist Lidya Buzio now lives in Greenport, N.Y., where she crafts ceramics that depict her urban environment and other things that matter most to her. By MORGAN MANLEY JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

In our industrialized and globalized economy, it seems that there are far fewer artists today whose art reflects the painstakingly slow and difficult craftsmanship that was necessary for art to be considered as such before post-war art enriched and changed art history. Lidya Buzio’s art, however, is a tribute to older, earthly techniques that have a sensitivity that contemporary art often fails to capture. Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Buzio is an extremely talented artist who has spent years developing her art into what it is today. I had the pleasure of visiting her studio and holding her tenderly painted ceramic vessels. These works almost all contain projecting geometric planes that are made into New York City scenes or Long Island marine landscapes. Since she was a child Buzio seems to have been destined to become an artist. She recalls playing with her brothers at the house of the widow of Joaquin Torres-Garcia, the influential Uruguayan artist. She also posed as a child for the students at El Taller Torres-Garcia, the Montevideo school of constructivist art. It is during this time that she became fascinated with Torres’ sculptures and from an early age drew everything she saw. Around age 16, her fascination with sculpture led to her to José Collell, a ceramist who at the time was developing a low-fire earthenware clay technique that allowed for intricate paintings. It was with him that she learned the technique she still uses today. She remembers the lengthy process of making the clay herself and that Collell made her create simple forms before she was allowed to create anything complex. She says, “It is a very slow process. You have to learn the techniques perfectly.” When first beginning her ceramics, she painted figures on them as the Greeks would have done. Collell, however, would laugh at her as he said, “You can never do as the Greeks

PHOTO COURTESY OF CECILIA DE TORRES, LTD.

CITY CUP: Lidya Buzio’s earthenware dishes often include colorful depictions of urban street scenery. did.” It was then that Buzio reverted to something that had been natural to her since she was a young girl: looking and observing. She told me, “I kept looking, and [my work] is what I see.” In 1972, Buzio immigrated to New York, where she studied painting with the often critical Julio Alpuy, a key artist of El Taller Torres-Garcia. At the time, she continued to work on her ceramics in a tiny SoHo apartment where she rolled her clay on the kitchen table and then placed plywood on the bed where the slabs of clay would wait for her. The dilemma she has had with her work involves selling these vessels. She began, therefore, by creating functional objects such as teapots and cups and saucers. She shared with me that she even ventured to Pottery Barn with a proposition to sell them teapots. She remembers, “I thought I was being really brave doing this but the manager asked how many I could make a month and I said one. He looked at me like I was crazy.” Today, these teapots still manifest themselves in her work and are often too striking to actually fathom using. In fact, it seems that often it is these works which so attract new collectors, as they evoke familial and earthly sentiments. Despite the drawbacks and her small studio, New York in the ’70s and ’80s was filled with many other young artists. Often there were parties where artists would come together to

PHOTO COURTESY OF CECILIA DE TORRES, LTD.

BROWN BUILDING: Buzio’s work reflects her current life in New York as well as her childhood in Uruguay. work, sometimes using materials they were unfamiliar with. It was at one of these parties that the art dealer and ceramics expert Garth Clark discovered Buzio and later decided to represent her. Today, she lives in Greenport, New York, where her studio is divided into stations where she can slowly build her works, step by step. She continues to paint what she sees, which are often now the landscapes of the Greenport harbor. While visiting her, I noticed a pile of canvases that made me laugh so uncontrollably that she gave me one. They were all paintings of her cat, Pepilina, in different contortions with very bright colors and all signed “Harris,” the name of her great-grandmother. These works will never be sold, but rather will be given away, as they are the antithesis of her work and she does not want to be known as

“the woman who draws cats.” To her, these represent what every artist does: taking on challenges and trying new things. These challenges have led her not only to working with wood but also to occasionally creating furniture that showcases her work. Her ceramics are, as one dealer put it, “coveted and acquired … by discerning collectors [and] curators” all over the world. Her work can be found in many collections and museums in the United States, such as the Cecilia de Torres Gallery in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence as well as many notable international collections, including those in Taiwan and London. She also continues to show her work near her home in Greenport, New York.

FOOD

Tango takes second for Mexican food ■ The new Moody Street location of

Mexican food chain Tango Mango may exceed the ubiquitous Chipotle in atmosphere and authenticity, but in terms of fresh, flavorful cuisine it pales in comparison to local staples. By AMY MELSER JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Chipotle enthusiasts, listen up: The burrito shop Tango Mango recently expanded its locations. With an original location in Newton, Mass., the restaurant is now also located at 484 Moody St. in Waltham. The fare is slightly more authentic than Chipotle’s and the restaurant has a more homemade atmosphere, but meal prices at the two restaurants are similar. The cooks in the back make the food and then bring it to the front of the store where customers can view what they are getting through a window. A selection of meat, chicken, beans, rice, lettuce, salsas, guacamole, cheese, etc. can be added at the customer’s discretion. Additionally, the restaurant feels more family-friendly as opposed to a mass-marketed chain. Tango Mango is also clean and, unlike at Chipotle, you do not reek when you leave. The interior design is kitschy but inviting. The server behind the counter asked my friends and me what we wanted to order from the uncomplicated menu written on a chalkboard and immediately took a premade tortilla out of a plastic bag. Would I taste the difference if the tortilla came from a supermarket or was homemade? Maybe not, but at Tango Mango you are not getting homemade tortillas. The bland and chewy burrito casing left much to be desired.

However, Stacey Frish ’12 judges her food by the protein components and said that the chicken is decent. The chicken in my dish was also very lean and had a texture as if it were boiled; that fall-off-the-bone feel is unbeatable. Moreover, I could taste chunks of chicken; I hate when the chicken is chopped into baby food. Yet I felt that there was way too much rice in the burrito and not enough tasty chicken. The portion size of the burrito was generous, but if you factor in the ratio of chicken to rice, it was definitely skewed. An expert on fast Mexican food, California native Alisa Wecker ’12 thought Tango Mango could have been “fresher.” She said the food felt as if it had been sitting too long, and there weren’t enough vibrant flavors. Thus, the salsa was mild and dreary, similar to something from Usdan. However, it had more flavor than the guacamole. Jenny Golster ’12 did not enjoy it with our tortilla chips. It was creamy but not dreamy green mush. The tortilla chips had a nice crunch and weren’t too salty. The condiments were supposed to complement them, but they were better by themselves. The chips sit under a warm lamp and are served in a brown bag, like a Mexican version of the French fry. Overall, we were served boring but filling dishes. When I initially ordered my burrito, the server asked if I like spicy foods and recommended a pork dish. I do not eat pork, nor do I like spicy foods, so I might have missed out on the opportunity to try their best dish. Nonetheless, I ended up getting a bland burrito. There are definitely ways to make tasty dishes without adding hot sauce. Thus, I was disappointed. If only the colorful floral designs on the tables and brightly painted walls were analogous to the food. If you ever want to satisfy Mexican food cravings Tango Mango may do the trick. But if you have time to sit, Taqueria Mexico on Charles Street has more flavor and authenticity and is worth the wait.

AMY MELSER/the Justice

TASTE OF TANGO: An employee at Tango Mango offers up one of the restaurant’s generous meal portions.


THE JUSTICE

‘ALL SAINTS DAY’

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

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FILM

Fest features ‘Found’ laughs ■ Coolidge Corner Theater in

Brookline will host the comedic Found Footage Festival, a touring show of obscure footage compiled by two former Onion employees. By REBECCA BROOKS JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

CHRIS PIZZELLO/The Associated Press

PLAYFUL PLAYERS: From left to right, Sean Patrick Flannery, Clifton Collins, Jr., Billy Connolly and Julie Benz star in director Troy Duffy’s ‘Boondock Saints II.’

‘Saints’ sequel is not worthy ■ ‘Boondock Saints II: All Saints

Day’ depicts writer-director Troy Duffy’s vigilante Irishmen returning to Boston in a meandering, poorly acted sequel blighted by confusing cameos and an unfocused plot. By BRYAN FLATT JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Mix violence, coarse language and a simple, fun but darkly humorous plotline, and you’ve got a great movie. This formula, despite its rarity in theaters, worked for the original Boondock Saints , a movie that I, along with many others, loved. Ten years later, the newly released sequel attempts to recreate the feeling of the original but doesn’t have the same success as the first. Sequels rarely outshine their predecessors, but it seems in all the time between the two, Troy Duffy (the writer and director of both films) has lost confidence—something that resonates clearly on the screen. The simple concept behind B oondock Saints is what made the first movie so interesting. The film followed two religious Irish Catholic men, Connor and Murphy McManus (played by Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus) and their father Il Duce/Poppa M (Billy Connolly) as they

“clean up” Boston’s most infamous criminals. The film ended with a bang and the Saints’ disappearance after they made a very public courtroom appearance. The second film follows the Saints eight years after the end of the original movie. They are back in Ireland, laying low from the Boston scene they were previously so much a part of. When they find out a priest has been killed and the assassin has used their signature of placing pennies over the victim’s eyes, they come out of retirement to murder their way back to finding out who killed the innocent holy man—they don’t consider themselves “Saints” for nothing. Their path reunites them with many old friends from the original film, though the sequel is plagued by the fact that the original came out 10 years prior and seeing these recognizable faces without the original context ruins the ‘aha!’ moment a clever cameo should bring (specifically a very surprising cameo at the very end). As is said during one of these random cameos, “Peace is the enemy of memory,” and the long peace between the movies made the film not as memorable. Wine and movies just don’t age the same way. Where the film runs into most trouble is in Troy Duffy’s script and direction. He appears to never be really sure if he is making a sequel or a stand-alone film with the same set of characters. At some points he appears to be trying to fit in parts of the previous film to the point where certain scenes feel alto-

gether useless. He also seems to be playing around with his filmmaking style for the first half of the film, putting in the same scene multiple times—once at regular speed and once in slow motion right after. The story is very confusing, taking the simple concept from the original that worked so well and throwing in more F words, more characters, multiple storylines and attempted humor instead of letting the lines flow and the dark humor fill itself in. One example of this is the addition of a sidekick, a Mexican man named Romeo (Clifton Collins Jr.). He is supposed to serve as a comedic foil to the Saints, and although he has his lines, the character really struggles to come into his place in the film. The actors themselves are not at fault, as all the lines are delivered with the same great feel as in the first, but I feel that the final product didn’t portray these performances to the extent it could have. The ending did come together and explain everything (such as a seemingly random aside about the father’s backstory that ends up becoming an important plot point). The final scene, as in the first movie, left more to be desired but also a clear opportunity to create yet another film. Who knows: Maybe this film will be the last, or one day 10 years from now The Boondock Saints 3 might be hitting theaters near you. Let’s just hope that after beginner’s luck faded the second time around, the third time will be the charm.

Do you like ’80s babes in bikinis using machine guns, an Elvis impersonator explaining how to keep sideburns glued on or hearing Goldie Hawn creepily talk about teenage pregnancy? Then you should check out the Found Footage Festival. On Friday at 9:30 p.m., the festival will begin in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner Theater. The festival is a live comedy show that features clips from videos found in secondhand stores and garage sales across the country. Hosted by Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, who previously worked with The Onion and Late Show with David Letterman, the event will be full of laughs and ridiculous moments. Pickett and Prueher began the show in the early ’90s after they came across a training video titled “Inside and Outside Custodial Duties” in a McDonalds restroom in Stoughton, Wis. In an interview with The Onion’s A.V. Club, Prueher said the video was “so remarkably dumb in just the right way. I decided that the world needed to see this video. I took it home in my backpack that night and almost immediately showed it to Joe, and we just became obsessed with this tape.” Because they were still in high school at the time, they spent many a Friday night popping the video into the VHS player. Later in the interview, Prueher was asked if there were particular places that had the best videos. Prueher responded, “Goodwill is usually the worst thrift store to find videos. On the other hand, we found that Salvation Armies are great. They don’t screen or sift through their videos at all. They just take them straight from people and put them right on the shelf. We’ve found a lot of our best home movies and training videos and bizarre kung-fu videos at Salvation Armies.” Wanting to share this and other random videos with the world, Pickett and Prueher decided to search the country for more material. In an article in the L.A. Times, Prueher said, “I think the important thing for us is that the films have context. Everybody can get the keyboard cat in their inbox and chuckle and forget about it. But this is footage we have a connection to—we found it. These things would be forgotten if we hadn’t dug them up.” According to the festival’s Web site, www.foundfootagefest.com, the footage had to follow three rules: It must be found on a “physical format,” it cannot be from YouTube and no Richard Simmons videos. Since 2005, the duo has taken the show on the road and has shown the found footage at hundreds of different locations in the United States, Canada and Europe. If you do not have time to make it to the festival, the festival’s Web site shows clips and trailers from a selection of videos that will be featured at the show. The best way to appreciate the compilation of clips, though, is to attend the show. Tickets are $10 in advance but can also be purchased at the door. Those attending must be at least 18 years of age. Grab your friends or find anyone with a sense of humor, and bring them along for a night of hilarious training videos and awkward dating segments. The Found Footage Festival is something not to miss.

MUSIC

Florence & the Machine release is a breath of fresh air Brad

STERN POP MUSE

“Happiness hit her like a train on a track, coming towards her stuck / still no turning back,” Florence Welch whispers above the lulling ukulele of “Dog Days Are Over,” the opening track off of her first full-length release. And before anyone can say much of anything, the ropes have been let loose, the horses are in full gait, and Welch’s wild shouts and yelps lead the raging pack’s charge until there’s no turning back: “Leave all your loving, your loving behind / You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive.” July 6 marked the official U.K. release of Lungs, the aptly titled debut of a fresh, exciting new troupe known as Florence & The Machine, fronted by a witchy chanteuse that coos much sweeter and cries out much louder than the vast landscape of dull, auto-tuned drones currently on the scene. Three months after its initial debut over-

seas—after having already hit the No. 2 spot on the U.K. Album Charts and nabbing a nomination at the prestigious Mercury Awards, Lungs entered onto American shores on Oct. 20. Florence Welch is a voice to be reckoned with, represented within both the she-beast of “Howl” and the lion-hearted girl of “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up).” She tears through octaves and rips into full-throated shouts without ever drawing a breath. She is of her own brand stylistically, although armed with a quirky quivering reminiscent of Kate Bush, the bounding howl of Björk and, perhaps most glaringly, the uncompromising female rockchic edge of legends such as Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane. Luckily for us, the triple-punch production behind this album proves to be rooted in equally diverse sounds: There’s James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco, Paul Epworth of Sam Sparro and Kate Nash fame and U.K. musician Steve Mackey, responsible for tracks off of albums by M.I.A. and Marianne Faithfull. It’s surprising then, that a cast and crew of such diverse sounds could produce an album like Lungs. After all—and let’s prepare for the possible punny outcome here—Lungs is fluid.

It’s an incredibly cohesive production as a whole, sounding like one long session recorded from the dingy confines of a medieval dungeon. If there’s anything that comes to mind in thinking about this album, it’s texture. Each track is carefully constructed from top to bottom with pounding instruments, layered vocals and fiery spirit and emotion. It is, as Florence might say, a beast. While the singles have all been good, the album tracks are arguably even better. “Howl” bursts forth with the kind of animalistic energy you’d expect from a song titled as such, while “Girl With One Eye” merges a confident guitar swagger with vindictive lyricism, a combination so murderous it ought to have Quentin Tarantino giddily jumping up and down like a schoolboy before shoving it into the soundtrack of his next gore-fest. But “Girl With One Eye” isn’t the only song dripping blood from the speakers. In fact, basically every track does: “Kiss With A Fist” morphs the act of domestic abuse into a ballsto-the-wall garage rock ode, “My Boy Builds Coffins” reeks of ill-willed premonitions, and “I’m Not Calling You A Liar” sees an ex-flame in the form of a scorned ghostly apparition.

Even the album’s soaring ballad “Cosmic Love” revels in a kind of Tim Burton-esque embrace of romantic macabre: “A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes / I screamed aloud, as it tore through them, and now it’s left me blind.” In a post on her official Web site discussing the story behind each track off the album, Welch said of “Dog Days Are Over”: “A lot of people have said they think it’s about the Apocalypse. Or freedom. And someone said it was about the recession. But to me it just signifies being free, in that I’d made music in a way I’d never made it before.” At a time when every up-and-coming artist seems to be marketed as the next Depeche Mode-meets-Madonna-meets-Queen (but always end up sounding like Cascada in one way or another), it’s beyond refreshing to hear an artist who couldn’t be further from being considered an imitation act. Florence & The Machine’s Lungs is honest music making, real music made through creative innovation for the new age. Bottom line: Macabre, magical and anything but predictable, Lungs is still the album to beat for 2009, and Florence is an artist to watch for years to come.


24

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

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THE JUSTICE

ARIES (March 21 to April 19) A long-sought workplace change could be happening soon. Consider reworking your ideas and preparing a presentation just in case. A personal relationship takes a new turn. TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Your persuasiveness doesn’t really start to kick in until midweek. By then, you can count on having more supporters in your camp, including some you doubted would ever join you. GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Your workload is still high, but—good news!—you should start to see daylight by the week’s end. Reserve the weekend for fun and games with friends and loved ones. You deserve it. CANCER (June 21 to July 22) Regardless of how frustrating things are, keep that “Crab” under control. A cutting comment you might think is apt right now will leave others hurting for a long time to come. LEO (July 23 to August 22) Be more sensitive to the emotions of loved ones who might feel left out while you’re stalking that new opportunity. Be sure to make it up to them this weekend. A nice surprise could be waiting. VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) The gregarious Virgo rarely has a problem making new friends. But repairing frayed relationships doesn’t come easily. Still, if it’s what you want to do, you’ll find a way. Good luck. LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) A misunderstanding with a partner or spouse needs to be worked out before it turns into something really nasty. Forget about your pride for now and make that first healing move. SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) Communication dominates the week. Work out any misunderstandings with co-workers. Also ACROSS 1. Rhyming tributes 5. — de deux 8. Satiate 12. Mentor 13. Killer whale 14. Possess 15. Hideaway 16. Harry’s successor 17. Terrible fellow? 18. Football team 20. Baseball team 22. Placing first, second or third 26. Jobs in technology? 29. Mound stat 30. Decorate Easter eggs 31. Dorothy’s destination 32. Soar 33. Warmth 34. Acapulco gold? 35. Benicio — Toro 36. Language of Iran 37. Exactly right 40. The Music Man locale 41. Make bubbly 45. Isinglass 47. Back talk 49. Concept 50. Stench 51. Lamb’s mama 52. Pub missile 53. Frogs’ hangout 54. “Mayday!” 55. Messes up DOWN 1. Look lecherously 2. Two-way 3. One of HOMES 4. Last 5. Hunting dogs do it

get back in touch with old friends and those family members you rarely see. SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) As busy as your week is, make time for someone who feels shut out of your life. Your act of kindness could later prove to be more significant than you might have realized. CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) Congratulations. Your busy workweek leads to some very satisfying results. Sports and sporting events are high on your weekend activities aspect. Enjoy them with family and friends. AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Your generosity of spirit reaches out once again to someone who needs reassurance. There might be problems, but keeping that line of communication open eventually pays off. PISCES (February 19 to March 20) You are among the truth-seekers in the universe, so don't be surprised to find yourself caught up in a new pursuit of facts to counter what you believe is an insidious exercise in lying. BORN THIS WEEK: You believe in loyalty and in keeping secrets. All things considered, you would probably make a perfect secret agent.

BRANDEIS

Through the Lens

Solution to last issue’s crossword.

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

Festival of Lights Students celebrate the holiday Diwali, a five-day festival observed by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs. The occasion is traditionally marked

Sudoku

6. Evan Almighty construction 7. Landscapes 8. Pants material 9. Pale purple 10. Eggs 11. Longing 19. Compass dir. 21. “— Little Teapot” 23. Greeting 24. Nestling hawk 25. Himalayan beast 26. “Scat!” 27. Ripped 28. Smiley in an e-mail, e.g.

32. Cows and sows 33. Rural outing 35. Morning moisture 36. Doctor’s due 38. Stockpile 39. Scruffs 42. Hebrew month 43. Yukon, for ex. 44. Corrodes 45. Swab the deck 46. Altar affirmative 48. — Jima

King Crossword Copyright 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.

■ Of particular interest in these troubled economic times, it was British humor columnist Katharine Elizabeth Whitehorn who made the following sage observation: “The easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any.”

■ The fish known as the electric ray can produce a current strong enough to kill an adult human.

■ If you are the parent of a young daughter, you are probably all too familiar with the Japanese export Hello Kitty. A new item has recently been added to the Hello Kitty line, but it is decidedly not for kids: The Super Hello Kitty Jewel doll is on the market for $150,000. To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the character, Sanrio (the maker of Hello Kitty), Swarovski (known for high-end crystals) and Japanese jewelry maker I.K. have created a 4-inch-tall platinum Hello Kitty, and studded the doll with 1,939 pieces of white topaz, 403 pink sapphires, eyes of black spinel and a nose of citrine. The whole thing is topped off

with a one-carat diamond on its hair ribbon. ■ The onion is actually a member of the lily family.

■ The next time you have a little bit of food stuck in your teeth, consider this: More Americans choke on toothpicks than on any other object.

■ In La Paz, Bolivia, you can find one of the most unusual prisons in the world. At San Pedro Prison, inmates have to purchase their cells. Those who are well off financially can buy private cells with bathrooms, television and kitchens. Those who are less lucky must share tiny rooms.

Thought for the Day: “We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach.” —Bertrand Russell

Enter digits from 1 to 9 into each blank space so that every row, column and 3x3 square contains one of each digit.

Sudoku Copyright 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.

by lighting fireworks, eating sweets and dancing—rituals that hold obvious appeal even to those who don’t share the religious faith.


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