B R A N D E I S U N I V E R S I T Y ' S C O M M U N I T Y N E W S P A P E R T H E H O O T . N E TN O V E M B E R 7 , 2 0 0 8

INSIDE: THIS WEEKEND PG 16COMICS PG 16

VOL 5, NO. 10

CASTLE: THEN AND NOW PG 6QUANTUM OF SOLACE PG 8

SEA CHANGE PG 2BOOK OF MATTHEW PG 4

Brandeisians, past and present, lend their efforts to Decision 2008Brandeis alum fired by Penn. GOP

Students canvass for Obama in NH

The political career of Brandeis alumna Bryan Rudnick ‘00, who was recently fired by the Pennsyl-vanian Republican Party for al-legedly drafting an e-mail liken-ing a vote for now president-elect Barack Obama to events that led up to the Holocaust, can be traced back to when he brought NRA president Charleston Heston to campus in March of 2000.

According to an Oct. 25 article by Ron Todt of the Associated Press, Rudnick’s e-mail was sent to an estimated 75,000 Jewish voters in Pennsylvania and told them that “Jewish Americans

BY ARIEL WITTENBERGEditor

BY ALISON CHANNONEditor

With victory on their minds, Brandeis students worked to add four electoral college votes to the Obama column by turning neigh-boring swing state New Hamp-shire blue.

Beginning in September, mem-bers of the Brandeis Democrats and Democracy for America, as well as students unaffiliated with either club, canvassed in the town of Raymond, NH.

For canvassing purposes, the Democrats and DFA wanted to adopt one specific town in New Hampshire, Paul said.

Adopting a town “enables us to

Chum’s seeks funding for renovationsPHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

BY ELI SEDRANSKStaff

Chum’s, the well-known Bran-deis coffeehouse, is seeking uni-versity funding to fix the rapidly worsening state of disrepair that has recently plagued the Castle-bound coffee shop. General Man-ager Nirja Parekh ’09 hopes that renovations might take place as early as winter break.

According to Parekh, Chum’s has been in a declining state since she began working there in 2006. The main problems include the floors, old windows, immobile furniture, and kitchen equip-ment. The goal is to “streamline [the business] to have more en-ergy to retain the Chum’s vibe,” explained Parekh, who has seen Chum’s transformation from an ill-used club coffeehouse venue into a thriving business.

“Chum’s schedule is really full,”

she explained, stating that there has been a strong increase in stu-dent presence.

While the turnout has been im-pressive, with the coffee shop of-ten full to bursting on any given night, Parekh mentioned that “it’s really run-down…we’re kind of making ends meet.”

She further explained, “students forget that it’s an entity that needs to be sustained through funding.” Aside from employee paychecks, all money put into Chum’s comes directly from Chum’s.

Parekh said that oftentimes food sales go directly into restocking the food stores, with no excess money to spare. “Our budget is rollover profit from last year,” Parekh added.

While Chum’s has not received funding from the university in the past, last semester, students were able to vote to use Student Activi-

ties Fee rollover money to reno-vate Chum’s. However, students voted to use that money to reno-vate the weight room in Gosman.

Senior Vice President for Stu-dents and Enrollment Jean Eddy, who has been working with Parekh and the Chum’s staff on gaining funds through Facilities, explained that “at the time when the student government asked what [the students would] spend $100,000 on there was more money in the treasury [than ex-pected].” Eddy hoped that some extra money would be allocated to repairing Chum’s.

The bulk of the money, had Chum’s received the SAF rollover money, would have gone into new floors and windows, which are both in bad disrepair. Eddy explained, “people have been fo-

go back and see what our impact is,” Brandeis Democrats Cam-paign Coordinator Justin Backal-Balik ’10 said.

As it would turn out Vice-President of the Brandeis Demo-crats Jason Paul ’09, a seasoned canvasser, had a friend working for the Obama campaign in New Hampshire, Hollie Gilman. “She was the right organizer for this campus,” Paul said. Gilman could not be reached by time of print due to campaign obligations.

The Democrats and DFA, with the help of Gilman, organized nine canvassing days for Brandeis

See CHUMS p. 11

cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008. Many of our ances-tors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake. Let’s not make a similar one this year!”

As a conservative student in the late 90’s, Rudnick began his time at Brandeis by founding Freedom Magazine as a forum for conser-vatives on campus because “of an abundance of hypocritically lib-eral views on campus,” Rudnick wrote in an opinion piece in the third issue of the magazine.

The February 1998 piece was

See CANVASS p. 12

See GOP p. 13

Union’s Social Justice Committee to address campus accessibility

BY CHRISSY CALLAHANEditor

When Supreetha Gubbala ’12 broke her ankle earlier this year, hobbling around campus taught her something possibly more im-portant than what she was learn-ing in her classes.

“I realized that it’s almost im-possible to get around Brandeis when you’re disabled,” she said.

And that was only for a tempo-rary period of time. So Gubbala, Student Union Senator for the class of 2012, came up with the idea to address the problem.

Gubbala and members of the Student Union’s Social Justice Committee have decided to ad-dress accessibility problems facing students with physical disabilities as one of the committee’s three main initiatives for the 2008-2009 academic year. The committee’s

other two initiatives concern the Know Your Rights campaign and the rights of Transitional Year Program students. The commit-tee, formed by Ben Brandzel ’03, serves as the Student Union’s out-let to address issues pertaining to social justice.

The three initiatives deal with issues that are “unethical at Bran-deis, which go against our ideals of social justice,” Gubbala said. “When we’re talking about dis-ability quality it’s not something that you think would be an in-equality at Brandeis…considering we’re such a school that’s focused on social justice.”

Many issues face students with physical disabilities at Brandeis. Those students can only live on one floor of first-year residence halls, cannot live in North Quad,

See ACCESSIBILITY p. 11

Panelists reflect on Obama’s significanceBY ALEX SCHNEIDER

Editor

At an event last night co-spon-sored by the Student Union and the Office of Communications, faculty panelists commented on the significance of Tuesday’s elec-tion of Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

The panel, which was moder-ated by National Public Radio defense commentator Guy Raz ’96, included Prof. Peniel Joseph (AAAS), Prof. John Ballantine Jr. (IBS), Prof. Mingus Mapps (AAAS), and Prof. Jill Greenlee (POL).

In his opening remarks, Raz put the panel into perspective, calling this election “probably the most historic election in America’s 232 years.”

He went on to note that al-though when he was a student at Brandeis, President Bill Clinton’s

See OBAMA p. 13

PHOTO BY Napolean Lherisson/The Hoot

THE MORNING AFTER: Prof. Joseph considers the meaning of an Obama presidency.

2 The Hoot November 7, 2008

E D I T O R I A L

Established 2005"To acquire wisdom, one must observe."

FOUNDED BYLeslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

Sri Kuehnlenz Editor in ChiefKathleen Fischman Editor in Chief

Alison Channon News EditorBret Matthew Impressions Editor

Ben Sacks Features EditorChrissy Callahan Features Editor

Kayla Dos Santos Backpage EditorAlex Schneider Layout EditorDanielle Gewurz Copy Editor

Jamie Fleishman Advertising EditorAriel Wittenberg Design Editor

Max Shay Technology OfficerNapoleon Lherisson Photography Editor

Leon Markovitz Business EditorVanessa Kerr Business Editor

SUBMISSION POLICIES

The Hoot welcomes letters to the edi-tor on subjects that are of interest to the general community. Preference is given to current or former community members. The Hoot reserves the right to edit any submissions for libel, grammar, punc-tuation, spelling and clarity. The Hoot is under no obligation to print any of the pieces submitted. Letters in print will also appear on-line at www.thehoot.net.

The deadline for submitting letters is Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. All letters must be submitted electronically to editor@thehoot.net. All letters must be from a

valid email address and include contact information for the author. Letters of length greater than 500 words may not be accepted.

The opinions, columns, cartoons and advertisements printed in The Hoot do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.

The Hoot is a community student news-paper of Brandeis University. Produced entirely by students, The Hoot serves a readership of 6,000 with in-depth news, relevant commentary, sports and cover-age of cultural events. Our mission is to give every community member a voice.

E-mail: editor@thehoot.net

Don’t let Chum’s go to the sharks

SEA Change

Senior EditorsJordan Rothman, Zachary Aronow

CORRECTIONS: In the Oct. 31 article, “Patrick speaks to Brandeis...” Israel’s Consul General was listed as Nadav Tenir. His actual name is Nadav Tamir. In the Oct. 31 article, “Journalism prof. discusses book on Paxil investigation,” the misappropriation of state funds by Brown’s psychoiatry depart-ment was described as being connected to the department’s clinical trial of Paxil. In fact, these were two separate issues. In addition, the FDA did not pay Brown University to do a clinical trial on Paxil. GlaxosmithKline, the maker of Paxil, was the sponsor of the study. While Bass wrote about the misappropriation of DMH funds for The Boston Globe, she was unable to pin down Howard’s allegations about the Paxil trial until much later, after the New York State Attorney General’s office sued GlaxosmithKlineIn the Oct. 31 article, “ Beyond Israel: Jewish students explore the four corners of the world and themselves,” Jules Levenson ‘10 was said to be studying Toldeo, Spain. He actually studied abroad in Madrid.

Letters to the Editor: To the Editor:

Over the past few years, Bran-deis University’s Dining Services has made noteworthy improve-ments: from bio-degradable trash liners, to increased veg-etarian and vegan options, to the commitment to working with students on campus to cre-ate change. As Michael New-mark’s letter to the Editor (Oct. 24 in The Hoot) stated, many of the changes have been made through working with students and administrators alike.

The Coalition for Food Ser-vices Reform aims to bring is-sues to light and open a dialogue with Dining Services and the administration to reform Din-ing Services on campus. Thus far, the Coalition has been mis-represented and misunderstood to be a group attacking Dining Services.

This is simply untrue. The Coalition only exists to repre-sent the desires of students on campus regarding sustainability, labor, and financial issues. For this reason, the Coalition is co-sponsoring an open forum with the Student Union on Monday, November 10 at 8pm in Pearl-man Lounge to ensure that the all students, not just special in-terests, are represented in the Coalition’s Recommendations to Dining Services.

The recommendations com-piled by the Coalition represent the input of individual students along with input from several

student organizations. After compiling a list of student griev-ances and recommendations, Coalition extensively researched the policies of comparable uni-versities.

After finding out that Brandeis is far behind some universities such as Yale and Brown, and be-low the level of other universities such as Williams College and Mount Holyoke in terms of sus-tainability, the list of recommen-dations was adjusted to reflect this trend in higher education. Dining Services is a formative part of any university commu-nity, and the Coalition seeks to ensure that Dining Services at Brandeis reflect the values of the community.

The Coalition does not mean to undermine or replace the Student Union’s Dining Services Committee in any way. Con-trarily, the Coalition is working closely with the committee to represent students’ interests and opinions. The difference between the two groups lies in the group’s ultimate goals.

The Coalition wishes to reform Dining Services’ general policies (such as purchasing guidelines) while the Dining Services Com-mittee will continually address student requests on the every-day function of Dining Services (such as hours of operation). The Coalition and the Committee want to ensure that students can rely on Dining Services to pro-vide goods and services in the most socially and environmen-

tally responsible way possible. By listening to the recommen-

dations of the Brandeis commu-nity, Dining Services will make significant steps towards being an even more sustainable, student-oriented, community-building feature of campus life. We rec-ognize that some of the recom-mendations we are making are currently being addressed.

In this case, we have left the grievance in the list in order to ensure that the list is comprehen-sive as well as to bring attention to the need for increased com-munication between students and Dining Services. Dining Services is already doing great things, but they do not mean anything if the students are un-aware.

This is the ultimate wish of the Coalition: honest communica-tion between Dining Services and the rest of the Brandeis com-munity. We are not demanding that the University “go green” nor make unreasonable changes, but rather requesting Dining Services adhere to a set of prin-ciples valued by the whole com-munity when making decisions.

In this vein, I encourage every member of the Brandeis commu-nity to read and evaluate the list of recommendations available at http://brandeisdiningservicesreform.blogspot.com/

- Danielle Hollenbeck-Pringle ‘10Coalition Steering Committee

Chair

Ten percent. Yup, just 10%.Brandeis University recy-

cles 10% of its waste. When I first heard that statistic, I was shocked. Brandeis, a college of 3000+ students who are sup-posedly passionate about so-cial issues only manage to give 10% of our efforts to the best way out there of decreasing our strain on finite resources?

First off, I apologize for the “eco-guilt” coming from the hippy SEA kid, but this is lit-tle ridiculous. If you actively choose to throw your plastic bottle in the garbage, I know this column won’t change your mind. But that isn’t really my goal. This is for all the peo-ple—and I include myself—that didn’t know it was possi-ble to recycle milk cartons? Or sometimes forget to throw our newspapers into the blue and green bins? Shit happens, we forget, or we weren’t informed – so here’s to hoping the Bran-

Yet another boring column on recycling? deis community doesn’t have to feel guilty.

Here is Brandeis Recycling 101 on what you can and can-not recycle:

RECYCLE: Paper and Card-board: pizza boxes WITHOUT food residue, computer/copy paper, newspapers/magazines, junk mail, catalogs/phone books, books, all types of card-board

RECYCLE: Plastic, Glass and Metal: plastic numbered 1-7 (look at bottom of container for the symbol), glass bottles, containers, etc, metal caps and lids, clean aluminum foil, laun-dry detergent jugs, juice boxes, milk cartons and aseptic pack-aging

NO, TRASH IT: To-Go con-tainers, mirrors, styrofoa, chi-na plates or cups, light bulbs, plastic shopping bags (but you can recycle them at super-markets…bring them to Han-nafords), pizza boxes WITH food residue, tissues/napkins, paper cups/plates, carbon pa-

per, foam peanuts, food wasteWHERE TO BRING OTH-

ER RECYCLABLES:Inkjet Cartridges: Mail-

room.Cell phones: Mailroom.Batteries: Mailroom OR the

science stockroom-- Kalman Room 9

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Science stockroom-- Kalman Room 9

Furniture: Did you know we have a “Used Furniture” listserv? If you want to get rid of furniture, contact Liz Clark (lclark@brandeis.edu) and she’ll advertise on the listserv for you.

Remember, we now have single stream recycling so you can dump everything in your same bin!

My eleven year old sister just wrote an essay about how if “you take just 15 minutes out of your day to recycle, it would really make a difference.” If a fifth grader gets it, we Brande-sians should, too.

BY SUSAN PAYKINSpecial to The Hoot

Due to a worsening state of disrepair, Chum’s Coffeehouse is seeking university funding for the first time in its history.

Anyone who has heard of Chum’s legendary connec-tion to the popular TV show Friends cannot help but be a little disappointed when they walk into the space to dis-cover a worn-down carpet, faded furniture and shoddy appliances. Both students and the University would ben-efit from preserving a place like Chum’s. Student orga-nizations rely on the coffeehouse to serve as a venue for club-sponsored events, while the University would attract prospective students with a place that evokes memories of what one can achieve at Brandeis.

Because of its intimate student connections—being student-run and featuring mostly student entertainment/functions— Chum’s is a symbol of the Brandeis stu-dents who have passed through this quaint coffeehouse and gone on to do great things post-graduation. Sitting in Chum’s and contemplating Brandeis’ famed alumni, or watching a student performance, it seems that the venue should better reflect its impressive history and outstand-ing showcase of talent.

However, in the interim, as students and administrators work together to secure funding for Chum’s, a tempo-rary solution may be to draw upon the driving force of Chum’s—the student body. Since the coffeehouse is in-tended to be a place for students, let them make it their own by giving them the opportunity to contribute to the renovation effort. Students cannot be expected to replace windows or flooring, but they may be willing to donate a piece of furniture or an appliance decorated in their style to a place that has come to symbolize the individuality of Brandeis students. The visual display of an array of objects that students can relate to will inject new life and energy into Chum’s.

However, the basic maintenance necessary to sustain-ing Chum’s will require University funds. One possible danger in this is that a financial contribution from the University will be accompanied by an administrative in-fluence. While students and administrators collaborate successfully on multiple fronts, Chum’s has historically been a place for students. You won’t see a Union-admin-istration roundtable there anytime soon. Thus, in seeking University funding, Chum’s must be careful to preserve the coffeehouse’s student-influenced atmosphere.

November 7, 2008 The Hoot 3

I M P R E S S I O N S

For years my American pass-port has remained hidden at the bottom of a drawer. “Sure I was American,” I told my French friends, “but that’s just a nation-ality. Not an identity.” American citizenship was associated only with embarrassment and un-popularity: President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, freedom fries…

At 2am Wednesday morn-ing, my friend Marion called me from France. It was 7am her time and Paris was in an uproar. French people woke up to break-ing news: America had elected a black president. Marion was in tears. I could hear the streets of Paris in the background; “Obama, Obama” and “Oui on peux!” She told me she envied me for be-ing American. This morning, President-elect Barack Hussein Obama was on the front page of every single French newspaper; “Obama is the incarnation of the American Dream”, “Obama President; an American revolu-tion?” and “Obamania stronger in France than in the USA.”

Tuesday night, just before Obama’s acceptance speech, I re-cited the pledge of allegiance for the first time in my entire life. During high school, on Fridays at 11am when our class senator announced the pledge of alle-giance over the speakerphones, I always remained firmly seated. Although I could sense the dis-approving looks from my peers and professors, I refused to be loyal to a country whose politics were fundamentally in opposi-tion to my values and ideals. But yesterday this country was mine at last. Yesterday I stood up with Americans around the world, and pledged loyalty to my country, tears streaming down my face. Yesterday I was proud to be an American.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow I will bear this message with me back to Europe, and be living proof that the real America is no longer the conservative white Christian na-tion supporting John McCain, but rather a buoyant, youthful, color-ful country that chose change. To-morrow I will carry my passport with a smile in the corner of my mouth and a skip in my stride and I will not be ashamed again.

The results came in to a roar at the Shapiro Campus Center: Barack Obama will be the next president of these United States of America. People scream, hug, and generally lose their minds…or at least that’s how I saw it in my mind. I happened to be on a couch with friends, slowly nodding my head. Just a little bit different set-ting, but the point got across.

I happen to be an Obama sup-porter, like many other Brandeis students. We all felt that we could effect a change in government, and boy were we right. But you know, this isn’t even about who won and who lost. This is about how we got here.

Sixty-four percent of voting-age America voted this time around. That’s almost a 10 percent em-pirical increase on the 2004 elec-tion, and a 20 percent increase on 2006’s elections. Somehow the nation turned from an apathetic, let-the-politicians-do-what-they-want bunch into a driven force of voters, each determined to make a difference.

I can’t help but be impressed by these numbers, and Brandeis is a perfect example. How many times were you asked if you had voted already? How often were you the one asking? Chances are the an-swer to both is “almost too many times.” I mean, a friend asked me if I’d voted, and I replied “I voted absentee a couple weeks ago.” His reply? “Why not vote here too?” Now while I’d love to, I suppose the government wouldn’t enjoy my little piece of voter fraud.

Still, isn’t that the great thing about Brandeis, that we are all constantly pushing for bigger

and better involvement in school, community, politics, etc.? I al-most feel bad for not going out to knock on doors with my Brandeis Democrat friends. They cared, just like you and I cared, and we all showed it, proving that caring can win elections.

But again, this is not about the winners and losers, because in all honesty, we are all winners. We showed what caring about a country can create. Senator Mc-Cain explained in his conces-sion speech that caring about our country is paramount, and stated that after Election Day we are all (well, at Brandeis, mostly) Ameri-cans and supporters who will do all we can to secure our bright futures. McCain even silenced his own supporters who sought to de-ride Senator, now president-elect Obama. This shows the change that has already occurred due to the presidential race, and I think we are better off for it.

If McCain had won the election, I would still have all these things to say, as we are progressing as a country and as citizens. But more importantly, I just want to thank you, Brandeis, for your commit-ment to the ideals of freedom and individuals being strong together. Democrat, Republican, Green, Independent, or whatever else, you chose not just to voice your opinions, but to work to convince others that they are better off do-ing so as well. So again, thank you. You helped show that an “apathetic” generation can make itself heard, and you certainly helped many believe in the beauty of democracy again. And for that, they and I are forever grateful.

Thank you.

On Tuesday night the Repub-licans were handed a crushing defeat in the House, the Senate, and in the presidential race. Pres-ident-elect Obama now heads to the White House with approxi-mately a 56 to 44 majority in the Senate and approximately a 258 to 177 majority in the House of Representatives. The Republicans lost Senate seats in the Republi-can strongholds of Virginia and North Carolina while Indiana sided with Barack Obama in the Presidential race. Finally, there are no longer any Republicans in New England. It looks like the Re-publicans are on the run for now, having to deal with an unpopular president and receiving, unjustifi-ably, the blame for a recessionary economy. However, all is not lost for the Republicans and Tuesday night had a few victories for the right.

The first victory for the Re-publicans, if you can even call it that, is that the Democrats seem to have fallen short of a sixty seat filibuster proof Senate majority. Now this is not guaranteed con-sidering that there are four Senate seats unaccounted for, however, three of the seats in question look to favor the Republicans. The first is the Senate seat in Minnesota, which is between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. While the vote is too close to call and there will be a recount, right now Coleman has a lead over Franken if only by a hair. If the vote count was accu-rate then Coleman will walk away with the Senate seat. The second seat that is unaccounted for is the Georgia Senate seat currently fought over by Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin. While Chambliss did win the plurality of votes, he did not win a majority, which will lead to a mandatory run-off vote to determine who will win the seat. However, Chambliss had a

good lead over Martin and Mar-tin is going to need a considerable amount of the third party candi-dates vote in order to overcome the vote gap. Finally, Senator Ste-vens pulled an upset with his vic-tory despite his recent conviction. Unfortunately for him, Stevens can not serve his time in the Sen-ate and his time in Prison so there will more than likely be a special election for his seat. It is unclear whether the people of Alaska elected Stevens because he is a Republican or because he brings home the pork. However, if a con-victed felon can receive the Alas-kan Senate seat, then another Re-publican will have a good chance at taking the seat as well. So while none of these seats are sealed up for the Republicans, it does look like the drive for sixty Senate seats by the Democrats will fall short. However, the real victory for con-servatives came from several im-portant ballot measures in several states.

In California, Florida, and Ari-zona, voters approved amend-ments to define marriage as the union between one man and one woman and Arkansas approved an initiative to ban gays from adopt-ing. The passage of these measures shows that social conservatism is not dead and that conservatives can still benefit from these social issues. The irony in all of this is that Barack Obama’s registration of large numbers of new black vot-ers may have actually been what pushed the gay marriage bans over the top. In the CNN exit polls, Af-rican Americans supported Cali-fornia and Florida’s gay marriage bans by approximately 70% to 30%. So in essence, conservatives can actually thank Barack Obama for his assistance in pushing these bans through. It will be interest-ing to see how this plays out in Obama’s presidency. It is possible that gays could see less progress for their issues under an Obama administration than there was

during Bush’s administration. In fact, it is likely that Barack Obama has actually pushed the gay rights movement backwards, even if it was not intentional. Obama could lose support among the gay popu-lation or black population if the Republicans push this issue hard enough, which would greatly aid the Republicans in 2012 and even possibly in 2010. A second ballot measure victory for con-servatives came from Nebraska’s amendment to end affirmative action. Barack Obama’s election as president does not mean that racism no longer exists, however, it does mean that we can start to phase out affirmative action. Ba-rack Obama has even mentioned that he supports socio-economic based affirmative action as op-posed to racial affirmative action. While this is not perfect, it is a step in the right direction. Hope-fully with the election of the first black president, affirmative action will be on its way out.

While this election was by far means a loss for Republicans, all was not lost. The Democrats do not appear to have gained a fili-buster proof majority and some important conservative initiatives passed with flying colors. On top of this, it appears that a wedge is-sue has opened up that could be used to weaken Obama’s prospects in 2012, if the Republicans exploit that wedge effectively. Finally, Re-publican’s can rest easy knowing that the Democrats have large ex-pectations to fulfill and this time they cannot blame their failures on the Republicans. It does not seem likely that the Democrats will be able to hold on to such large leads for a very long time and the Re-publicans should start gearing up to make gains in 2010. The ball is now in the court of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi and how they perform for the next two years will largely define whether or not their strong majority can hold.

It's not over yet: A view from the right No longer ashamed

Thank you for voting

For the first time in your life, are you proud of your country?

Do you hate me for writing that?

Write to The Hoot Impressions by e-mailing Bret Matthew at

bmatthew@brandeis.edu

BY PARASKA TOLANSpecial to The Hoot

BY ELI SEDRANSKStaff-

BY SCOTT ROTHSTEINColumnist

4 The Hoot I M P R E S S I O N S November 7, 2008

The Hoot accepts submissions to the Impressions section on any topic of consequence to any member of the campus community. Our mission is to give every community member a voice. The views expressed

in the Impressions section do not necessarily reflect the views of The Hoot's editorial board.

After the furor over the mistreat-ment of professor Donald Hindley (POL) last year, featuring student strikes outside of Bernstein Mar-cus, and the freezing of all Faculty Senate Buisness for the semester, the lack of resolution or follow up this semester has been striking. We could be lulled into thinking that because Hindley continues to teach without restraint and the faculty senate is back to business, that the matter is closed. Howev-er, in real-ity the mat-ter is like a festering w o u n d d r a i n i n g the vigor and light from the name of Br and e i s , and, if re-newed pub-lic attention is any indi-cation, one that is about to explode.

According to an ad placed by the Foundation For Individual Rights In Education in this years’ US News and World Report, Brandeis is one of the “worst of the worst” in regards to liberty on campus. The World Net Daily and Jew-ish World Review declared that Brandeis University dishonors its name (September 24, 2008) and The Providence Journal featured an Editorial entitled Brandeis Shames Itself (October 25, 2008). You are fooling yourself if you don’t believe that this adverse at-tention and these articles have not significantly soured our institu-tion's ability to raise money from our alumni base, attract talented and bright new students and find our faculty willing to stand up for basic rights.

How many bright college bound students look at the ad featured in U.S News and World Report and immediately cross Brandeis from their list of poten-tial schools? I know I would have. How many fascinating, informa-tive but slightly controversial words have been dropped from lectures? How many professors have become more cautious and failed therefore to be involved in the planning of thrilling and ex-citing campus events? The impact of these things is a slow, dripping corrosion of the Academic Excel-lence and Commitment to Social Action pillars of our university.

What makes this whole situa-tion worse is that it could easily still be fixed. All that is necessary is a small admission on the ad-ministrations part that they over reacted. An acknowledgement that in their admirable desire to protect students they overstepped their bounds and reacted far too harshly to legitimate classroom expression. Moreover, that in their haste to do so they compro-mised the process put in place to

ensure that professors would not unfairly be subjected to punish-ment without due process. Even a small admission of these flaws with a sincere and contrite atti-tude rather than one of egotistical self-importance would go a long way to healing the wounds that their actions inflicted.

What else is clear is that until the administration does this, students and faculty will never truly feel secure on campus. It is admirable that the Student Union has taken an intense interest informing

s t u d e n t s of their rights, but how secure can we be that these rights will be granted to us when they are needed if the pro-cess was so c o m p r o -mised in the Hind-

ley case? While in general it seems that Director of Student Develop-ment and Conduct Erika Lamarre does an excellent job of balancing students rights and procedure (something that I can myself at-test to), there have been several accusations that proper procedure was compromised, most recently in the case of Mamoon Darwish (Former TYP). And moreover, there is no guarantee that an order from a higher placed individual in the University could not cause the whole sets of procedures to come tumbling down as they did in the Hindley case.

What we saw at Brandeis in the Hindley case is essentially the equivalent of the Bush adminis-tration's policy of placing detain-ees in Guantanamo Bay and then after the fact creating a justifica-tion and a rationale for its over exertion of power. What makes it worse in the case of Brandeis is that there is no judicial check over administrative action. More-over, the administration is not re-liant on the students or faculty for its support as the president is to American people. Instead, trust-ees, who seemed more concerned when a controversial former president came to speak at Bran-deis than when the rights of free speech of the faculty are trampled upon, who seem to completely support the administration in ev-ery decision are the sole sources of accountability.

Unfortunately, all words of stu-dent and faculty protest have gone unheard. It is equally unlikely that the words I write will have any impact on this process or ad-ministration. Yet I am cautiously hopeful that continuous attention brought to the matter by donors and the media, both campus and external, may one day lead to a new era on our campus in which openness, accountability and proper procedure rule.

When we were young puzzles came in a box. We had a picture of what the puzzle would look like as-sembled and all of the pieces were inside, waiting. Contemporary puzzles aren’t so simple; we don’t always know what the picture will look like, or where to find the pieces. At this moment you may be putting together the long-term puzzle of what to do this summer, after graduation and beyond. You have the joy and responsibility to reflect on your val-ues, skills and inter-ests, to ex-plore your career ideas t h r o u g h n e t w o r k -ing, shad-owing, in-te r nsh ip s and work, and to con-nect your self-knowledge and experiences to future opportunities.

This past summer Zohar Fuller interned at Cornerstone The-ater Company in Los Angeles. Cornerstone describes itself as “a multi-ethnic, ensemble-based theater company. Cornerstone builds bridges between and with-in diverse communities.” This experience, ideal for her Inde-pendent Interdisciplinary Major of Theater and Social Change, was not what she expected. As an Assistant Stage Manager, Zohar learned that stage management was not the best match for her. Instead she discovered that she had learned “how to create art that is transformative in a healing and not just entertaining way,” an important piece of her puzzle. When asked how she would ad-

vise others regarding internships she wrote, “All I can advise you to do is go in with an inquisitive and all absorbing mind. Ask ques-tions. Experience the most you can.” Zohar plans on returning to Cornerstone Theater Company, or a similar theater company in the future, to explore roles more suited to her skills and interests.

Gal Zilberberg, hoping to learn more about the medical field, in-terned at the Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel, a facility dedicated to treating residents of

all Middle E a s t e r n c ou nt r i e s , regard less of race, re-ligion or national ori-gin. As an E duc at ion Department intern, Gal’s role changed from week to week. She had hoped

to learn how a hospital is man-aged, if the environment would be a good fit, and how people of different religions could come together in a hospital setting. In this experience Gal reflected that she, “developed skills that will be engraved in me forever,” and “I can also say that I am more com-fortable with my decision for my future career.” Zohar’s and Gal’s puzzle pieces are coming togeth-er.

As you move through your four years at Brandeis, the Hiatt Career Center can help you throughout each step in your career develop-ment process:

• First Years: Reflect, Explore and Connect with your dreams, interests, strengths and goals.

• Sophomores: Reflect, Explore and Connect with majors, alum-

ni, possible career fields, shadow-ing and internships.

• Juniors: Reflect, Explore and Connect with internships, em-ployer events, alumni, CIC, ca-reer and graduate school fairs and your network.

• Seniors: Reflect, Explore and Connect with alumni, employ-ers, graduate and law schools, your network, alternative post-graduate opportunities and your future!

For additional information by class year, please visit Hiatt’s four-year timeline at http://www.bran-deis.edu/hiatt/students/choosing/

Find the pieces to your puzzle and put them together to create a meaningful professional future.

Some Upcoming Events:Adnexus "Partnership to Help

Advance Biologics" presented by Eric Furfine (PhD, Brandeis '88) Senior VP, Research and Pre-clinical Development 11/11 10am Sherman

Ogilvy & Mather and the Ad-vertising Educational Foundation "How to start a career in (global) advertising and marketing" 11/11 2pm Hiatt Career Center

Math For America info session to provide interested students with information on opportuni-ties to teach math. 11/11 6pm Hi-att Career Center

My Experience from Brandeis to Doctors Without Borders : Come hear Marc Levin, M.D. '94, speak about his two recent mis-sions with Doctors Without Bor-ders. 11/12 6pm Rapaporte Trea-sure Hall

Senior Sunday : Join the staff of Hiatt for an afternoon of fun and informative workshops on career decision making, the graduate school application process, and how to tackle your first post-graduate job search. 11/16 1-5pm Schwartz

Finding the pieces to your puzzle on the path to career success

The Hindley case: Not over yet

How many fascinating, informative but slightly controversial words have been dropped from lectures?

At this moment you may be putting together the long-term puzzle of what to do this summer, after graduation and beyond.

The Hiatt Corner

BY DANIEL ORTNERSpecial to The Hoot

BY ANNELISE PARHAMSpecial to The Hoot

ILLUSTRATION BY Alex Doucette/The Hoot

November 7, 2008 I M P R E S S I O N S The Hoot 5

I remember when I was a left wing environmentalist. For an entire year I professed to be a member of the Green party and served on my town’s environ-mental commission. I did ev-erything that I possibly could to reduce my personal waste, and even read Ralph Nader’s books. Now, I have recanted the fool-ishness of my old ways. I still question the probability that global warming exists, and no longer follow many of my pre-viously “green” practices.

I could spend volumes dis-cussing why I made this change, and why I no longer abide by environmentalists principles, but I’d like to focus this piece rather on my sentiments con-cerning recycling. Recycling has become one of the trendiest movements on our campus and in fact around the world. People are guilted into abiding by its complicated procedures, and urged to purchase the crappy goods comprised from recycled materials. Worst of all many follow these guidelines blindly without even questioning the reasoning behind it. I’d like to take a crack at recycling and expose some of the imbecilic characteristics of this flawed system.

I remember when a proposal to put a recycling bin in every dorm room came in front of the Finance Board while I was still a member of that body. I don’t think there was ever an issue in my two terms as a member of that group that ever welled up more passion and fury than that one allocation. I had hated the fact that this proposal would require me to keep a recycling bin in my room, as it would be added to the RCR and made a chargeable offense if it was not there at the end of the year. I despised having to de facto participate in this atrocious process and told my colleagues that I would rather use the bin as a chamber pot than for its

intended purpose. Unfortunately, after the longest debate we had all year (about 10 minutes) in a 4-2 de-cision, the allocation passed. I left the room that night with fury run-ning through my veins, once again seeing the propaganda of the recy-cling movement.

Recycling, first of all, is an un-proven method for helping the envi-ronment for two main reasons. One is that it requires large amounts of energy to transport these products to recycling facilities. Each plant is only able to process a few grades of plastic, for instance, and these plac-es could be located far away.

In addition, recycling is not ef-fective because most of the things that are eventually transported are not recycled, but are rather thrown out. I once heard that 60 percent of things thrown into recycling bins are trashed, making the process extremely ineffective indeed. Fur-thermore, the products made from these recycled goods often exhibit less quality than the original prod-uct. All in all, the process stands to promote one positive benefit; mak-ing recyclers feel good about their supposed contribution toward de-fending the environment.

And some people are supercil-ious indeed. When I go to Usdan and use paper containers someone once said to me “using a lot of pa-per eh?” Stay out of my business! If Usdan gave me the same amount of food with regular plates, or if I had the time to stay, I would use other means to eat my meal.

Judging people for their habits is not only stupid, but is wrong. Peo-ple have no right to audibly com-ment about my usage just as I had no right to say to that person “us-ing a lot of gel, eh?” Furthermore, recycling promotes a false sense of security about environmental ac-tion. Deluded recyclers think that they are on the front lines of the en-vironmental battlefield by recycling when they are in fact wrong and commit a number of other derogat-ing activities. These same people use the elevator in the Shapiro Campus Center, smoke cigarettes (among other things!), and don’t live a truly green life.

In all honesty, I’m probably the greenest of anyone. I never use elevators, wear my clothes more than once, and wake up early. Seriously, if you "green fanatics" cared that much about the envi-ronment, maybe you should stop partying and staying up late.

Do you have anay idea how wasteful you are? Damn them all for judging me, I bet my frugal non-lazy lifestyle is helping the environment far more than their hypocrisy.

With this said, many may be-lieve me to be against President Reinharz’s new policy banning bottled water on campus. Sorry to disappoint, but I think that this idea is one of the best and agree-able measures that I have ever heard!

Drinking bottled water is not only wasteful, but it is stupid. Free water is easily available all around us in the form of water fountains. In addition, reusable plastic con-tainers are trendy and effective. President Reinharz’s plan can actually work as it doesn’t put its faith in an inefficient method. It rather cuts the problem at the bud. Lessening our use of bottled water will decrease our waste and hardly change people’s lifestyles for the worst.

Recanting my earlier views, I no longer support many recycling policies. They not only curtail my liberties, but are ineffective and only foster a false sense of secu-rity. I do, however, like President Reinharz’s new policy and think it is a step in the right direction to-ward reducing waste and helping the environment in a meaningful way.

So I have railed against the myth that is recycling and know that people will call me un-Green for it.

So be it, I never cared much for the color, and green in this in-stance only seems indicative of the money wasted by following these ineffectual environmental poli-cies. It could also represent how sick I get when I am subjected to recycling propaganda.

On November 4, 2008, the vot-ers made their voices heard. Ba-rack Hussein Obama is now Pres-ident-Elect of the United States.

This day marked the end of the longest presidential campaign in American history, an extraordi-nary campaign that involved a woman, an African-American, a former POW, and many other distinguished members of both political parties.

Obama supporters, you know only too well how long and diffi-cult this journey has been. Some of you have been a part of it since the very beginning, February 10, 2007, when Obama formally an-nounced his candidacy in front of the Old State Capital in Spring-field, Illinois. Some of you joined after hearing him speak dur-ing the early p r i m a r y season, or after Sena-tor Clinton ended her own cam-paign, or even after the Democratic National Con-vention.

You made millions of small do-nations. You knocked on doors. You held signs. You wrote exten-sively, plastering both print media and the Internet with words of support. You voted.

Because of your help, Barack Obama did not have to wage a legal battle in order to win an election that was “too close to call”. Instead, he received about 7 million popular votes and 200 electoral votes more than Senator McCain. As far as Presidential elections go, that is a comfortable margin of victory.

On top of this, Democrats in-creased their majorities in both houses of Congress. In the Sen-ate, the Democrats gained six (not including the currently un-decided Senate elections in Min-nesota, Georgia, and Alaska). In the House of Representatives, the Democrats picked up 18 (also not including a few elections that have not been finalized yet).

So for all of you out there who have been waiting eight years, if not more, for progressive change in this country, this is our chance. We have Democratic leadership across the board. Feels pretty good, doesn’t it?

Okay. Well that’s it for the feel-good column.

Unfortunately, many aspects of this election did not work out very well for Progressives. For

one, we failed to pick up the full 60 Senator, Lieberman-free, fili-buster-proof majority in the Sen-ate; something that we’re going to wish we had when the Republi-cans begin to fight us tooth-and-nail.

But what disturbs me more are the results to many of the bal-lot initiatives that were voted on Tuesday. Allow me to list some of them:

In Arizona and Florida, ballot initiatives were passed that will amend their state constitutions, defining “marriage” as a union between a man and a woman and prohibiting the states from recog-nizing same-sex marriages per-formed in other states. In Califor-nia, a similar initiative passed that will overturn the recent California

S u p r e m e Court deci-sion ruling that allowed s a m e - s e x marriage.

A r k a n -sas, a state that already p r o h i b i t s s a m e - s e x m ar r i a ge , went a step further in

taking away the rights from ho-mosexuals. An initiative was passed that will prohibit unmar-ried couples who live together from adopting or being foster parents.

This is but a glimpse of the Reli-gious Right without a majority in the Federal government. They will continue to rely on state influence in order to convince Americans that it is okay to deny a small seg-ment of our population the rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We have certainly not changed this country if their fiery sermons still garnish overwhelm-ing support.

In writing this, I do not mean to ruin the jubilant mood among my fellow Obama supporters. I too have spent the past couple of days walking around with a smile on my face, and I know I’m not alone.

But we cannot afford to be com-placent. We cannot sit back and assume that with Obama as presi-dent, everyone will come together and everything will be okay. The Religious Right is still strong, and it still dominates the Republican Party. They will work hard to fight us at every turn, and if we care for even one second about the future of the American people, we will work hard as well.

So stay alert and stay informed. We have at least two years of Democratic control of the gov-ernment. Let’s not waste it.

Election Reality Check:Want change?

Stay focused and don’t get lazy

Going green makes me blue!

One Tall VoiceBook of Matthew

Obama supporters, you know only too well how long and difficult this journey has been.

BY BRET MATTHEWEditor

BY JORDAN ROTHMANEditor

ILLUSTRATION BY Alex Doucette/The Hoot

F E A T U R E S6 The Hoot November 7, 2008

BY SAM FUCHSStaff

From classroom to common room

Writing an article about the history of the Usen Castle is a bit daunting consider-ing its many uses and modifications over the past 80 years. In a 1997 publication called “Building a Campus: An Architec-tural Celebration of Brandeis University's 50th Anniversary,” editor and Brandeis professor Gerald S. Bernstein described the castle as “less archaeological than the-atrical” with a “whimsical ambiance that could have served as a stage set for a Hol-lywood adventure movie.”

One can understand a lot about the cas-tle’s oddities by examining the building’s function when it was first constructed. Be-ginning in 1928, Dr. John Hall Smith, the founder and director of Middlesex Uni-versity (a medical and veterinary college) led the design of a structure that would serve as the major academic center for the school. In “Building a Campus,” Bernstein suggests that while the Castle’s appearance is similar to the Cavendish castle in Ire-land, its design was a combination of sev-eral historic castle layouts as well.

Amy D. Feinstein ’98 chronicled the many uses of the castle in a senior thesis titled Unlocking Doors to the Past and Fu-ture: An Architectural and Social Explora-tion of the Irving and Edyth Usen Castle in 1998 within the Department of American Studies. Her work compiles materials from the Brandeis Archives as well as interviews and oral histories to provide a detailed de-scription of the Castle’s many uses.

While many at Brandeis are used to the Castle as solely a residence hall, one only needs to glance at an old map of the castle to see how each section was used. A-Tower (the square tower with the flagpole on a high turret) housed administrative offices on its higher portion as well as pharmacol-ogy labs and physics labs.

Within the lower section, Feinstein writes, the first floor served as a medical library and the second floor housed lab spaces. The main entry was through the large wooden doors that can be seen adja-cent to the castle parking area.

Each floor of B-Tower (the "Chums tower") was a lecture hall that could house 110 students and was built complete with a teaching platform for presentations. The ceiling of every floor was originally like that of Chums, however in the process of renovations the top four floors were plas-tered over. The fifth floor served as a dark room “Penthouse Theatre” and had a slide projector for special presentations.

C-Tower had laboratories for histol-ogy, pathology and bacteriology. D-Tower (where castle commons is located) was the anatomy and physiology building with dis-section rooms on the first floor and physi-ology laboratories on the second floor. Several photos have survived that show the castle commons filled with microscope stations. Visible in the photographs are quite a few female medical students, which was common at Middlesex but unlike most medical schools of the time.

In the area near the kitchen in Castle Commons there was a washroom, tele-phone area and the Dean's Office. The Dean's office was adjacent to the currently inaccessible spiral staircase that leads to the courtyard.

Directly adjacent to the physiology lab (castle commons) were a few small labo-

ratories and offices, which connected to the chemistry laboratories in the front section of E-Tower. The back section of E-Tower (castle suites area) was known as the “premedical building” and con-tained lecture rooms.

The structure completing the loop is the old reading room, currently used for facilities storage. It served as a library annex and had a row of study carrels ad-jacent to the small courtyard windows. The building includes a mosaic ceiling, which is still visible, and contains ran-dom designs and symbols along with a portrait of Smith.

The two entry archways connected the Reading Room (labeled as section F on its doors) to D-Tower on one end and A-Tower on the other. The original layout conveniently allowed one to reach any section of the castle without stepping outside.

Schwartz Hall was added to house a student locker room, a trophy room and an additional lavatory. The Northern side (the side of Schwartz Hall closer to Usdan) had 500 lockers. Adjacent to it was a trophy room, the bay window of which can be seen above the entrance to the Schwartz Hall lounge.

The current laundry room and pottery studio was originally used as refrigeration facilities. The small machine room adja-cent to B-Tower housed men and women’s restrooms (or “lavatories,” as written on the building plan).

As construction began during the De-pression, Smith used secondhand building materials as it was all Middlesex could af-ford (an early form of environmental sus-tainability). As the Baker House, part of an old farm adjacent to campus, had been lost to fire, Smith limited the use of wood in the Castle’s construction.

As a result the handrails throughout the castle’s stairwells were made of poured concrete. Smith hired local residents to aid in construction and provided them room and board as well. The hinges for the doors were custom-designed and patented; there is even a sample of one in a folder adjacent to old photographs.

After the initial acquisition of the cam-pus by Brandeis, renovations began to con-

vert the castle into offices and dormitories. In addition to Middlesex’s financial diffi-culties, Smith had passed away in 1946 and the castle had not been well maintained. The Locker Room building was the first to be renovated as a women’s dormitory and was renamed “Founders Hall.”

In total, Bernstein writes, 48,000 square feet of the castle was converted to women’s housing. Other sections of the castle be-came men’s dormitories, as described in an early postcard of Brandeis that identifies A-Tower as “a portion of the men’s dormi-tories.”

Several random aspects of the Castle are interesting to note. The Castle Overlook, currently the location of the old Brandeis University bell, had an additional lower tier with a stairway that led to the sidewalk be-low.

The left-side wall has a visible gap filled in with cinderblocks, and if one looks at the ground one can still see the remains of the stonewalls. While construction for the cas-

tle was complete by 1941, it is possible that the addition of a third tier was considered in subsequent years.

The myths of secret passageways and tunnels have some basis in fact. Bernstein writes that Smith did construct several steam tunnels throughout the campus, but they were likely meant primarily for main-tenance purposes.

Archie Riskin, an architect hired by Bran-deis to survey the castle, reported sliding panels and secret rooms. Bernstein points out that with all of the renovations “there is no question [that] other inaccessible spaces have been created.”

A symbol of Brandeis, the Castle is a structure that has been absorbed into many aspects of Brandeis culture, not to mention its influence on other parts of campus.

With so many stories and bits of infor-mation it can be hard to separate fact from fiction, but in a broader sense that only adds to the Castle’s charm and reaffirms its status as a defining aspect of Brandeis.

A history of one of campus' most prominent landmarks

BEHIND CASTLE WALLS: Top: Floor plan of Middlesex Castle; Bottom: Middlesex students at work in the physiology lab in the 1930s or 1940s, currently the Castle Commons. Middlesex had a relatively large number of female students, which was unique for medical schools of its time.

IMAGES COURTESY OF Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections, Brandeis University

November 7, 2008 F E AT U R E S The Hoot 7

The face versus the facebookBY JODI ELKIN

Staff

So you’ve never met Suzy Smith in person, but in addition to her first and last name, you can list at least five of her friends and the fact that she’s in a relationship with some boy who goes to Princ-eton. You know she listens to Pink Floyd, and she loves to read books by Suzanne Supplee. You’ve casu-ally viewed her most recent video and you’ve seen enough recent pictures to be able to point her out in a crowd. Then one day you see her walking around campus.

Do you say hi? Start a conversa-tion, maybe? What if she’s totally weird and not nearly as cool as her choice in movies made her sound? Would she have no idea who you are and be to-tally freaked out that you’re even talking to her? Or have you posted enough of your own pictures to make your-self distinguishable as well?

Let’s face it- Facebook has es-sentially revolutionized the way people all around the world communicate. It has become a method of keeping in touch and meeting new people. So many of us are guilty of “friending” people we barely even know because we know we’ll be attending school with them in the near future or that we have a mutual friend or two.

Writing letters phased out years ago when e-mails were intro-duced, and even phone calls are

less common now that you can leave your message right on your friend’s wall with the click of a button. Sure, it may be a little less personal, but who really has time to keep up with 600 plus friends anymore?

Plenty of current Brandeis freshmen took advantage of Fa-cebook opportunities as soon as they got their acceptance letters. Alex Powell '12 was one of them. After joining Facebook’s Brandeis network and a group made for the class of 2012, he started friend-ing people, though he claims that he had no basis for choos-ing to friend certain people over others. He even went so far as to

friend people’s friends, with the thought in mind that he may be friends with them in the near future.

“I would say now [that] I know most of

the people I friended,” explained Powell. “I would say hi to most of them. Besides, most of them are either on my floor or in sports with me.”

Maxie Hirschler '12 also friend-ed athletes, or other people she thought “had similar interests as her.” Looking back at her list of Brandeis friends whose faces she clicked on before her first month here, she admitted, “most of them I would say hi to, but the major-ity I wouldn’t. I didn’t delete any-one though; that would be mean.” Hirschler thinks meeting some-one on Facebook is definitely different than meeting someone

in person, but it’s more comfort-able to know faces and to have had a few conversations with people before entering a completely new place.

“I didn’t want to get here and not know anyone,” she added.

Hirschler’s roommate, Caroline Miller '12, explained that the two girls became closer through Face-book, which was their reason for requesting each other as room-mates. “But we had met each other once before in person,” Miller said.

Sophie Weiner '12 decided who-she thought she might want to be friends with based on similar in-terests, especially in music. How-ever, since coming to Brandeis, she has deleted everyone on her list that she doesn’t currently talk to in person. She doesn’t regret friending random people, though; in fact, according to Weiner, “I met one person on Facebook who I’m still good friends with. We like the same music, so we go to concerts together and stuff.”

On the other hand, people like Darlene Zephyrine '12 and Leah Carnow '12 think the whole “meeting-people-on-Facebook” concept is just plain weird. “Peo-ple from Brandeis friended me [over the summer], and I accepted them. But I never talked to them,” Zephyrine stated.

Carnow questioned why people would request to be friends with other people, and then not talk to them. “I don’t know Facebook manners,” she admitted. “Are you allowed to ignore friend requests from people you don’t know, but might run into later?”

Adina Weissman '12 doesn’t

that they don’t even know. So how many people will say hi to Suzy Smith and how many will delete her from their friends by the first week of school? “If I met her in person, Facebook would allow me to keep in touch with her,” La-mia Harper ‘12 said. “Otherwise, random Facebook friends are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.”

think so: “I accepted people who friended me. What if I had reject-ed the person who lives across the hall from me? But I didn’t actually have conversations with people; no, no.”

Since coming to Brandeis, many new students have filled their lists of friends with faces they have seen in person, which brushes any awkwardness aside. But still, so many students have “friends”

Faculty Club: A higher level of dining for students

Did you know that students are allowed to eat at the Faculty Club? I didn’t, but it’s true. Wedged between Sherman and Shapiro Campus Center, The Faculty Club is open to everyone for lunch be-tween 11:30 am and 2 p.m. on weekdays. Intrigued, I grabbed a couple of friends and we were off to the finest dining establishment that Brandeis has to offer.

Once inside, the first thing one notices is that this place looks like a real restaurant. Not in an IHOP or Applebee’s kind of way, like the Stein, but a place you wouldn’t be embarrassed to bring a potential lover on a first date. Every table is carefully draped with a pristine white tablecloth, and the silver-ware has been tucked into a fold-ed napkin with ruffles on the side. The chairs have all been tucked in for appearance, and the buffet food has been ornamentally ar-ranged to appear as appetizing as possible, presented literally on a silver platter.

We were promptly directed to sit at a table of our choice, which meant that we had our pick of the entire restaurant, minus two occupied tables on the sides. No sooner had we sat down than our waitress, Marge, came and poured

each of us a full glass of ice water. What would we have? Nothing from the menus apparently - on Fridays there are no menus, and patrons have a choice between a salad bar, which costs $7.95, and a full course meal, including soup, salad, multiple entrees and a wide selection of desserts, all for $12.50. Unfortunately meals from the meal plan are not accepted, but for those with an abundance of points, go for the full meal. It’s worth it.

A full meal began with chicken soup that day, followed by full access to the salad bar. Egg rolls were then in order, along with rice, Chinese noodles, asparagus, chicken and beef, noodle salad and much, much more. Two of the four of us were vegetarian, and none felt that a wider selec-tion was in order. Everything is buffet style, all you can eat, come as you please.

For those who opt not to go for a full meal, the salad bar is quite plentiful. It has many of the same offerings as the salad bar in Sher-man. Among the selection were all of the makings of a salad, in-cluding lettuce, hard boiled eggs, applesauce, yogurt, a variety of fruits such as pineapple and can-taloupe and more.

Even though much of the food

is similar to that served in Usdan or Sherman, the food sparkles of quality that neither of those plac-es offer. “It’s definitely a step up,” noted Steven Sasmor ‘10, who par-took in almost every single tray at the buffet table. The green beans are the same as those in Sherman, yet not. They’re cooked correctly, ours were perfectly seasoned with just the right amount of peppers and walnuts, and they seemed to crunch more consistently. No sog-

gy ones. I wish that there had been op-

tions available from the menu that day, because some of them sounded positively delicious, such as the Pesto Chicken Focaccia and the Baked Haddock Florentine.

Bring a few dollars for the tip, as tips cannot be paid with points. We had no reservations leaving a few dollars for Marge- she was so helpful. She must have asked seven times if we needed refills for

our water, and she even kept the salad bar open a few minutes later just for us, since we had not quite finished by 2 p.m. She also com-plimented us as being the “nicest students” that had ever come in. Perhaps she says that to all of us, but she sure sounded genuine.

So if you have had enough with the lack of variety at Usdan, or want to feel more upscale than Sherman, check out the Faculty Club. And say hi to Marge.

BY BEN SACKSEditor

PHOTO BY Ben Sacks/The Hoot

IMAGE BY Max Shay/The Hoot

FINE DINING: Try the Faculty Club, which offers a high caliber buffet at a decent price, as an alternative to Sherman.

Let's face it- Facebook has essentially revolutionized the way people all around the world communicate.

12 The Hoot November 7, 2008

N E W S

The faculty voted almost unani-mously to pass a proposal for a major in Film and Visual Media Studies be-ginning next academic year at Thurs-day’s faculty meeting. The proposal passed the Undergraduate Curricu-lum Committee two weeks ago.

Chair of the Film Studies depart-ment Prof. Alice Kelikian (HIST) pre-sented the major to the faculty as a method to “raise our national profile for recruitment” especially in times of economic crisis.

Kelikian explained that “we have the resources at hand to get going im-mediately.” She added that given the number of actors and directors who will visit Brandeis during the month of November – 16 including Kate Beckinsale – “Brandeis has the best cinematic program in the country.”

Prof. Steven Burg (POL), who serves as chair of a committee on admissions, commented, “this is an addition to the curriculum for which we are ready.” He continued, “admissions staff will be able to very effectively use this to…sell Brandeis [to prospective students].”

--Alison Channon

Film major passedstudents. “Pretty much up until Monday and Tuesday, we were knocking on all the doors in town trying to swing their vote,” DFA Campus Coordinator Phil Lacombe ’10 said.

Approximately 50 Brandeis students spent election day in New Hampshire, Backal-Balik said.

Overall, Paul stated, Brandeis sent more students to New Hampshire than both Northeastern and Boston University. He added, “our effort [in New Hampshire] was in many ways the best of any university [in Massachusetts].”

The town of Raymond, Lacombe ex-plained “is typically very conservative.” He added, “Republican culture there is pretty strong…usually that part of the state is ig-nored.”

Raymond, population 10,000, is “usually not very swing-able for Democrats,” La-combe continued.

As such, the Obama campaign in Ray-mond did not expect to win the town, Paul said. Rather, they hoped to close the mar-gin between red and blue.

The Obama campaign in Raymond hoped to garner 2,320 votes to help them carry the state, Paul explained. They exceeded their goal, receiving 2,623 votes. John Mc-Cain won the town by 160 votes whereas four years ago, Bush won Raymond by 507 votes.

Through grassroots canvassing, “we got the number of votes we needed to win the state in the town,” Paul said.

“All of us know Raymond so well,” said DFA Campus Coordinator and New Hamp-shire native Liza Behrendt ’11. “There’s such a range of people,” she said. Knocking on neighboring doors might yield entirely different responses, she added.

While Behrendt was chased off of one man’s lawn as he shouted “about black lib-eration ideology,” other “people really ap-preciated that we came all the way up there,” Behrendt remarked. “People really opened up to me,” she continued, “I had people tell me the most personal stories.”

“Most people were pretty friendly,” Back-al-Balik commented. One man whose door he knocked on offered Backal-Balik sug-gestions for an Obama campaign ad. “It

Student canvassers sway voters in New HampshireCANVASS (from p. 1)

PHOTO BY Ariel Wittenberg/The Hoot

NOVEMBER 4TH: Brandeis students get out the vote in conservative Raymond, NH on election day.

was funny that he thought we had that kind of influence,” he said.

Like Behrendt, other canvassers experi-enced negative reactions from residents. “The worst was when we would get attacked with things that really aren’t true,” Lacombe commented.

“I argued with a guy for 30 minutes about taxes,” Paul added, “it’s frustrating.”

Some interactions surprised the canvass-ers. Lacombe spoke to one pro-life woman who cited abortion as her most important is-

sue. “One thing I pointed to is when Obama met with [Saddleback Church Pastor] Rick Warren [and said,] ‘I don’t have the moral authority to address that issue – it’s between a woman and God,’” he described.

“I could tell she had an open mind,” La-combe posited, “I hope I got her vote.”

For the apathetic, “Brandeis kids had the passion to inspire them to want to vote,” Behrendt remarked. “It was really cool to see how on an individual basis you could change people.”

Are you intrepid?

Do you think the Student Union is

fascinating?

Contact Alison Channon at

achannon@brandeis.edu to write for The Hoot!

Former Canadian Judge offers thoughts on international justice

BY KATHLEEN FISCHMANEditor

Former UN High Commissioner for Hu-man Rights Louise Arbour spoke about education, ethics, and governance for an international judiciary Thursday night in the International Lounge in a public talk co-sponsored by the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life and the Legal Studies Department

Described by Director of the Ethics Cen-ter Daniel Terris as a “visible champion of human rights,” Arbour has also served as Supreme Court Justice of Canada and Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

The talk was the keynote address of the North American Judicial Colloquium, which is being held at Brandeis from Nov. 6 to 8. The colloquium aims to bring together and foster dialogue between national and international judges, and participants in-clude U.S. and Canadian judges as well as judges from international courts.

To begin her speech, Arbour stressed, “my reflections tonight are anchored in my time spent as an academic,” adding that it is most important to recognize that in the

realm of international judiciary, “there is no pre-existing, universal and superior view-point.”

Arbour’s speech focused on the problems of the judiciary model, which remains rela-tively static. According to Arbour, “interna-tional and national judges would be well-advised to create an international judiciary system” in contrast to the current “hybrid that reflects some but not all political sys-tems.”

She explained, “we have yet to develop a truly indigenous international criminal law system unanchored in any particular legal system and unsupported by any particular state.”

Arbour also lamented that little attention is given to judicial independence, and called for a “truly and totally unique and self-standing judiciary” that is “totally owned by the judges.” She stressed the importance of self-government, self-education, and self-dependence, adding, “a transparent system of self-government is the cornerstone of real independence.”

The speech was meant to leave the audi-ence “with a lot more questions than an-swers,” Arbour said.

“I really admire all that Louise Arbour has done throughout her lifetime thus far, I think her work is really making a difference within the scheme of global justice,” said Becky Sniderman ’10, a Sociology and Phi-losophy double major and Social Justice and Social Policy minor. “I thought it was very

interesting how she has applied her back-ground in criminal law and prosecution to her UN and global work. I personally was inspired by her description of her work as I have slightly similar, if still undetermined, pursuits within my own life.”

PHOTO BY Max Shay/The Hoot

November 7, 2008 N E W S The Hoot 13

Like what you read?

Visit us online at www.thehoot.net to listen to audio and

check out our archives!

entitled “On this side...pulled from the left: liberal media as Big Brother at Brandeis.”

In the piece, Rudnick explains how he was not allowed to be published as a freshman in either the Justice or the Brandeisian, another publication on campus in 1998, because his piece, which discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “lacked integrity”—something he took to mean that the piece was too conservative.

“There was definitely a bias against conservatives on cam-pus,” Rudnick said in a phone interview with The Hoot Monday night. “It starts with the admin-istration and drills down to the faculty and students.”

Freedom Magazine appears in online lists of campus organiza-tions until the 2002-2003 aca-demic year.

Rudnick did not specify a cause for the magazine’s end, saying, “there wasn’t an interest in do-ing it anymore I guess;” however Hoot founder Igor Pedan ’05 said that the magazine was shut down for “violat-ing sev-eral school rules.”

A l m o s t all nine is-sues of the magazine, which can be found in the Brandeis archives, contained ad-vertisements from the National Rifle Association.

In March of 2000, seven months after the last issue of Freedom Magazine was published, Rud-nick, who founded the club Stu-dents for the Second Amend-ment on campus, invited NRA president Charleston Heston to campus.

While Rudnick declined to comment on Heston’s visit during his interview with The Hoot, say-ing that “it’s a long story,” the visit erupted in controversy when, ac-cording to a letter Rudnick wrote to the newspaper Massachusetts News, “On March 8th at a 3:15 p.m. meeting with myself, Mi-chael Regunberg, Chris Clark, Stephanie Ruark and Roman Cermak, the Acting Director of Public Safety, Ed Callahan, re-quested Mr. Heston’s blood type. Again on March 10th, a student organizer of the event was called by Mr. Callahan to follow up as to whether or not we had inquired as to Mr. Heston’s blood type be-cause it would need to be on re-serve at the Waltham-Deaconess Hospital as a precaution.”

In the letter Rudnick also claims that the administration tried to censor Heston by requiring Free-dom Magazine and Students for the Second Amendment to pay for one of the two metal detectors at the event along with an addi-tional $6,000 dollars for security costs.

In response to the allegations, Director of the Office of Commu-nications Dennis Nealson wrote to the same newspaper that “there

Alum started political career with Charleton Heston speech on campusGOP (from p. 1)

has never been any discussion or mention from anyone in the ad-ministration regarding ‘blood.’”

Nealson also wrote that Bran-deis “welcomes the visit of Mr. Heston.”

Coverage of Heston’s visit r e a c h e d f u r t h e r than Mas-s a c h u -setts’s me-dia and was the subject of a segment on Com-edy Cen-

tral’s Daily Show with Jon Stew-art entitled “Heston Tension” on March 28, 2000.

In the segment, which can still be viewed online, footage of the Brandeis campus is showed with Rudnick speaking in the back-ground.

After Heston’s visit, Rudnick’s political career took off. In May of 2000, around the same time that he graduated, Rudnick founded The Massachusetts Citizens Alli-ance with fellow Freedom Maga-zine founder Jim Coutre.

The organization was respon-sible for bringing the Defense of Marriage Act to a state referen-dum in 2004, after three years of work, according to an article by Karen Crummy in the Boston Herald.

The Act would define marriage as a union between “one man and one woman” and would ban same-sex marriage and its legal equivalent, as well as block do-mestic partners from receiving various benefits.

In the article, Crummy writes that Rudnick maintained that the amendment, which ultimately failed, was “not against homosex-uals but…instead about strength-ening marriage.”

An editorial on MassNews.com dated March 22, 2002, corrobo-rated that Rudnick’s then budding political career began with bring-ing Heston to Brandeis two years earlier.

“The students had to fight the politically correct establishment at Brandeis. It wanted to curtail their Freedom of Speech,” reads the editorial. “Therefore, it wasn’t

a surprise when the two said they could bring the same enthusi-asm to a Ballot Initiative so that the voters would be the ones to decide whether the state should make drastic changes in the insti-tution of marriage.”

“All of the political pundits said they couldn’t do it,” the ar-ticle stated. “But these two young men didn’t know the meaning of the words, ‘could not.’ They knew only youthful enthusiasm.”

Rudnick originally gained sup-port for the Amendment from fellow Brandeis alumna and State Representative John Rogers ’87. By March 2002, however, Rogers had withdrawn his support after “much discussion and debate was created,” his Legislative Liaison Bill Rennie said in an interview with Justice reporter Emily Hy-man in April of 2002.

Currently, Rudnick is the founder and CEO of the Alliance Strategies Group, a strategic plan-ning, communications and devel-opment firm based in Boca Raton, FL.

He was employed by the Penn-sylvania GOP as a strategic plan-ner until this October, when he allegedly sent the e-mail warning “fellow Jewish voters” of the risk of a second holocaust if they voted for then senator Barack Obama.

In Todt’s article about Rudnick’s termination, Rudnick claims that he “had authorization from party officials” to send the e-mail; how-ever Michael Barely, communica-tions director for the Pennsylva-nia GOP, told the Associated Press that that was not the case.

Rudnick refused to comment on the e-mail in his interview with The Hoot; however, he did say, “a lot of my business is online and includes writing persuasive e-mails.”

Now that the election is over and Barack Obama has been elected President, Rudnick told The Hoot that he’s looking forward to the next election cycle.

While he is not sure of exactly what his future work will entail, it will include “helping candidates and organizations that want to in-fluence public policy.”

And, he said, the candidates will “all be conservative.”

SCREENSHOT/Comedycentral.com

THE DAILY RUDNICK: Bryan Rudnick ‘00 was featured on The Daily Show in a piece titled “Heston Tension” after he invited National Rifle Association President Charleton Heston to speak on campus.

inauguration was a “transforma-tional moment,” this election was “incomparable…simply by virtue of what [Obama] managed to ac-complish.”

On that note, Joseph began the discussion by describing Obama’s election as “a culmination of an almost 150 year history,” which, he said, began with the ratifica-tion of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments. Still, while minorities were able to at-tain elected office, the “era of Klan violence,” “domestic terrorism,” and the Plessy vs. Ferguson rul-ing forced African Americans out of such jobs, with the last African American leader leaving office in 1901. At that point, the North Carolina legislature passed a “res-olution of joy.”

To Joseph, Obama’s election “represents the evolution of Black politics,” representing the begin-ning of a time when “there is a chance for Black politicians to win.”

Ballantine spoke next, calling Tuesday “an incredible election.” As an economist, he focused his talk on issues relating to the economy, noting that Obama rep-resents a change from the supply-side economic theories touted by President Ronald Reagan. He explained, though, that the chal-lenges that Obama has to face to meet his goals are enormous, con-sidering that a “brutal” recession has set in and may get worse.

Nevertheless, Ballantine noted that, in his opinion, “Obama has shown a level of leadership [and] maturity” needed to deal with these economic issues.

The third speaker, Mapps, crunched numbers for the audi-ence to help explain the signifi-cance of the election. In the pri-mary election, Mapps showed that African American voters over-whelmingly supported Obama (even considering, as he noted, that the pundits had questioned if Obama was “black enough” to win over such voters). He also showed that white women supported Hil-lary Clinton, Hispanic voters sup-ported Clinton, and white men were mixed in their support of Clinton and Obama.

Then, in the general election,

Professors consider 2008 presidential elections resultsOBAMA (from p. 1) African Americans again sup-

ported Obama (by a landslide), white women and white men were mixed in their support of Senators John McCain and Obama, and Hispanics voted overwhelmingly for Obama.

Mapps explained the signifi-cance, both positive and negative, of these statistics. This showed that while voters did not vote based on race (but more so, based on gen-der), voters still organized along racial lines. To Mapps, this fact re-mains “one of the critical puzzles of this campaign.”

Finally, Greenlee addressed the lessons of this election in terms of age and gender. Also presenting data to backup her points, Green-lee showed that Sarah Palin failed to affect the female vote, and that in this election, just as in most since 1980, a majority of women supported the Democratic ticket.

As to age, Greenlee demon-strated that the youth vote rose by 2.2 million people since the last election, calling that rise “a pretty good increase.” She also pointed out that 66% of young people sup-ported Obama as opposed to 31% who supported McCain, repre-senting a historic 35 point gap in the young vote. The youth vote, her data showed, had not been split as much in the last election, where there was a 9 point gap. (In fact, the largest gap she reported was 19 points, which occurred in the elections of Reagan and Clin-ton).

Greenlee explained this outcome by citing the fact that Obama “was a young guy,” and “he was a cool guy.” “He represents a lot of change and a lot of energy, that appeals to young people,” she said.

At the end of the conversation, Raz, along with other audience members, asked questions of the panelists. One question asked whether Obama could have won had President George Bush not been in office, which elicited inter-est in the audience. Joseph said, “I disagree with that notion,” arguing that Obama represented less of a candidate of ‘last resort,’ and more of a “positive affirmation” in a dif-ferent set of political values.

“Is this going to last?” he asked. “We are going to have to wait and see.”

While Rudnick is not sure of exactly what his future work will entail, it will include “helping candidates and organizations that want to influence public policy.” And, he said, the candidates will “all be conservative.”

S P O R T S

This past Tuesday, the people of the United States of America voted for change and went with Barack Obama as President. The day before, Joe Dumars and the staff of the Detroit Pistons voted to shake up their core by trad-ing team leader and point guard Chauncey Billups to the Denver Nuggets for Allen Iverson. The move was called change for the sake of change, but it might be a move that undermines Detroit’s entire season.

NBA teams tend to gel during training camps and form chemistry in addition to coming together with an offensive and defensive game plan. When a trade happens mid-sea-son, it results in new players having to adjust to the system. Many teams in history have gone through struggles as a part of this and tend not to adjust completely until the next season’s training camp. What makes this move worse for Detroit is that this move comes just one week into the new NBA season. Detroit must spend an entire season without having bonded.

Just ask Miami and Phoenix about the difficulties. Last year they swapped Shawn Marion for Shaquille O’Neal in February, two very different players that changed the style of play for each team. Miami was slightly worse af-ter the trade. Phoenix on the other hand dropped from w i n n i n g 71% of their games pre- trade to 62% of their games post-trade. In the strong west, this d r o p p e d them out of serious c o n t e n - tion for the top spots in the confer-ence.

It is likely that this trade will cause similar problems for Detroit. The four-man core of Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace has been together since the middle of the 2004 season. Detroit plays a team oriented game. Billups was considered the glue that made it work, distributing the ball evenly. Iverson is anything but a pure point guard. He is undersized and is primarily

a scorer who gets his assists off of his drives to the basket. It is extremely questionable how the output of Hamilton, Prince, and Wallace will be affected by having a shoot-first point guard instead of Billups. It calls for a complete re-vamping of Detroit’s offensive scheme. With a new head coach in Michael Curry, one questions how Detroit can easily adapt and remain a winner in an eastern conference that while weak, has several very strong rising teams.

14 The Hoot November 7, 2008

S P O R T S

By ZACHARY ARONOWEditor

Women’s Soccer to finish season at NYU

The Brandeis Judges wrapped their regular season home finale forcing a 0-0 draw against visiting Carnegie Mellon. Tartan’s goal keeper Anya Rosen knocked aside seven shots in 110 minutes of ac-tion, including two shots on goal each from Tiffany Pacheco ’12 and Izabella Miranda ’12. Jaclyn Weinstein ’12 made her second straight start in net in place of regular netminder Hillary Rosezweig ’10 and acquitted herself well with six saves in ninety minutes of action be-fore having to leave the match following a collision. Fellow rookie Elyse Phillips ’12 had two saves in the double overtime to preserve the tie.

Brandeis wraps up their season on the road at New York Universi-ty. The Violets are currently 2-4 in UAA play have recently dropped their last two matches to Carnegie Mellon and Emory. Players to watch for from NYU are the attacking duo of Sarah Pillemer and Filiz Kipcakli, both lead the team with 19 points and have only one goal between them, fizzling out those forwards will be key to the Judges earning another double digit win total on the season.

The Judges will lean back on their defense which has largely been the strength of the team as they lead the UAA with nine shut outs this year. A strong game by Tiffany Pacheco ’12 would greatly help the cause as the team’s leader in goals and points hasn’t touched the scorer’s sheet since notching a goal and an assist in a 5-1 against Smith back in September.

A solid year for the Denise Dallamora’s squad and hopefully tak-ing one on the road will help make that solid year slightly sweeter to the taste as 2008 draws to a close and a new year dawns ever closer.

BELOW: Brandeis University’s Tiffany Pacheco (No. 10, left) dribbles between the legs of Carnegie Mellon’s Eleonore Valencia (No. 15, right), in the second half of their game Sunday.

Alanna Torre (No. 24, right) goes up for a header against Carnegie Mellon’s Korinne Mills (No. 25, left), in the first half of their game on Saturday.

BELOW: Izabella Miranda (No. 9, center) dribbles down the field for Brandeis university in the first half.

Carnegie Mellon’s Abigail Coffin (No. 19, center) collides with Brandeis University’s goalkeeper, Jaclyn Weinstein (No. 00, right), at the end of regulation. Weinstein (here) blocked the potentially game winning shot, but was forced to leave the game, afterwards, with a head injury.

Detroit Pistons Basketball changes lineup in trade for Nugget Allen IversonBy JOSH GELLER

Staff

What makes this move worse for Detroit is that this move comes just one week into the new NBA season. Like America?

Write for Hoot Sports!e-mail

zaronow@brandeis.edu

PHOTOS BY Max Shay/The Hoot

November 7, 2008 S P O R T S The Hoot 15

Like watching the Red Sox lose?...or win?Join Hoot Sports!

email zaronow@brandeis.edu

TEAM LATEST SCORES NEXT GAMEMSoccer October 28 v. Lassell W 1-0 October 31 v. Emory 7:00 pm

November 2 v. Carnegie Mellon 1:30 pmNovember 8 at New York University 1:30 pm

WSoccer October 27 v. Roger Williams L 0-1 October 31 v. Emory 5:00 pmNovember 2 v. Carnegie Mellon 11:00 amNovember 8 at New York University 11:00 am

Volleyball October 24 v. Wellesley at Hall of Fame Tournament L 0-3 October 31 v. Baruch 7:00 pmOctober 25 v. Bowdoin College at Hall of Fame Tournament W 3-0 v. Williams at Hall of Fame Tournament L 1-3

November 1 v. Geneseo State 12:00 pm v. Moravian 2:00 pm

X-Country November 1 at UAA Championships in Atlanta, GA

MSwimming October 25 at Keene St. L 122-172 November 1 at WPI 4:30 pmWSwimming October 25 at Keene St. W 174-125 November 1 at WPI 4:30 pm

The Deis Board

It has been a trying season for Coach Mike Coven’s squad. A promising 5-1 start to the season has long since been a distant memory as a seven game winless streak essentially dashed all hopes of an NCAA postseason bid and the season finale comes on the heels of a two game losing streak; extended by 1-2 loss in their home finale to Carnegie Mellon.

The game was a one-sided wallop as the Tartans peppered rookie Sean O’Hare with 23 shots but O’Hare’s career best 11 saves kept the Judges alive. Unfortunately, there was only so much he could do as UAA sea-son leading point scorer and goal-getter Ricky Griffin opened the scoring at the 41st minute and notched the game winner at the 58-minute mark.

Ben Premo ’09 provided the lone tally for the Judges, his 10th goal of the season leaves him two points shy of being the fifth Brandeis player to achieve 100 career points

and needs four points to secure fourth all time in order to supplant Sheldon Stewart’s ’06 101. Alexander Farr ’12 helped set up the assist for his 10th point of the season. Brandeis finished the regular season with a home record of 6-4-1.

The Judges will look to finish the regu-lar season with a winning record and per-haps squeeze their way into an ECAC bid as they wrap up the season at New York University. This is a favorable match-up as the hometown Violets have yet to notch a win in conference play and are a meager 1-5-1 at home this season. One of the few bright spots this year for NYU is Branden Neal who leads the team with 7 goals and 14 points.

A winnable matchup upcoming for the Judges but which squad will Coach Coven preside before the Brandeis and NYU faith-ful? The competitive club who can fight the good fight against a nationally ranked club? Or the team that will slip slide their way into a losing regular season record?

Linsey Pool may have finally croaked it’s last dimly lit chlorinated days as the hub of Brandeis swimming but the season must go on and indeed it did without a hitch es-pecially since the next home match wasn’t scheduled until January.

The Judges enjoyed a strong Saturday at Worcester as the men outpaced WPI 157-137 and the women held off the hosts 147-137.

The women’s squad enjoyed wins in nine individuals events and two relay victories. Angela Chui ’12 added three more wins to her blazing rookie year as she was the first to reach the wall in the 50 yard freestyle and 100 and 200 yard breast-stroke. Leah Lipka ’09 topped the competition in the 100 and 200 yard backstroke and rookie Julia Derk rounded out the multiple winners win-ning the 200 yard freestyle and individual medley. Hollis Viray ’10 won the 200 yard butterfly while Rachael Sawicki ’10 claimed the 100 yard freestyle.

The Judges also dominated the 400 yard medley relay as the Derk, Dana Simms ’12,

Siobhan Lyons ’10 and Sawicki team fin-ished seven seconds ahead of the “B” relay team.

The men had an easier make of the com-petition thanks to the strong performance gained from their juniors and seniors. James Liu ’10 won three events on the day taking the 50 and 100 yard freestyle as well as 100 yard butterfly.

Marc Eder ’12 enjoyed his first multi-win day of his collegiate career with victories in the 100 and 200 yard breaststroke. The

clinching point for the squad came in the re-lay event as the team of Justin Wellens ’10, Jesse Hirschman ’10, Michael Rubin ’09, and Bobby Morse ’09 finished 2.16 seconds ahead of WPI’s closest challenger. Bran-deis also won the 400 yard medley relay near

the beginning of the events thanks to the team of Wellins, Eder, Aaron Bennett ’10, and Liu.

With the win though without a home, Brandeis will be conducting their practices at Bentley and/or Regis. Their next meet is the Alumni Meet on November 8.

Brandeis cross country took on their di-visional foes back at the beginning of the month in Georgia and for the most part managed to keep with the pack.

Men’s cross country earned 4th place with 102 points as five Brandeis runners finished in the top 25. Paul Norton ’11 fin-ished in 15th place, just shy of All-UAA status but good enough to lead the Judges with a time of 26:24.14. Marc Boutin ’12 had his best race of his rookie year, fin-ishing 19th overall, two seconds ahead of 21st place finisher Kerwin Vega ’11. Chris Brown ’12 and Zach Schwartz ’11 finished out the top 25 finishers with 23rd and 24th

place finishes respectively.Women’s cross country did not enjoy

similar success as the men’s squad did as they settled for 7th place out of the eight squads present. Alyssa Pisarik ’12 had the lone top 25 finish for Judges, finishing 22nd overall with a time of 22:55:14. Kate Warwick had the second highest finish for Brandeis, coming in 36th in the meet.

With the conference competition wrapped up, both squads get to enjoy some leisure until the New England Division III Championships at Williamstown, Massa-chusetts on November 15. Both sides will be gunning for their best as a strong per-formance next Saturday could mean a trip to the NCAA championships.

By ZACHARY ARONOWEditor

Brandeis swimmers swamp WPI

TEAM LATEST SCORES NEXT GAMEMSoccer October 31 v. Emory L 0-2 November 8 at NYU 11:00 am

November 2 v. Carnegie Mellon L 1-2WSoccer October 31 v. Emory L 1-3 November 8 at NYU 1:30 pm

November 2 v. Carnegie Mellon T 0-0Volleyball November 7 v. Emory at Washington University 12:30 pm

v. Chicago at Washington University 3:30 pmNovember 8 v. Rochester at Washington University 11:30 am

November 1 v. Geneseo State 12:00 pm v. Moravian 2:00 pm

X-Country November 1 Men at UAA Championships 4th out of 8 teams Women at UAA Championships 7th out of 8 teams

Swimming and Diving

November 1 Men at WPI W 157-137 Women at WPI W 148-137

November 8 at Alumni Meet 3:30 pm

November 13 at Babson 6:30 pmSailing November 1 at Underdog Trophy 12th out of 12 teams November 8 at Narragansett Bay Open -- Salve Regina 9:30 am

at No Ringer Invite – MIT 9:30 amNovember 9 at Crews Regatta -- MIT 9:30 am

The ‘Deis Board

By ZACHARY ARONOWEditor

By ZACHARY ARONOWEditor

Men’s Soccer: The search for mediocrity

MXCountry 4 of 8, WXCountry 7 of 8

The women’s squad enjoyed wins in nine individuals events and two relay victories.

Brandeis sports blitzThe closure of Linsey Pool is an abso-

lute shame. Not that it was a great facility or that closing it was a bad idea, it wasn’t but that it has come to this. The pool was dimly lit, the hours of operation were nev-er convenient (for me anyway), required walking across a gym while games were going on and then having to guess which staircase led to the narrow locker rooms. And I swear to god the water never looked right. Well now after many years of quick fixes, Linsey Pool is out of commission, possibly permanently.

It is quite frankly a shame that is has taken the possibility of one million dol-lars in repairs to actually look into a long

term plan regarding the pool because for too long, certain parts of the athletic center have been allowed to degrade into substandard shape. It took a student bal-lot measure (by bare majority) to finally launch a badly renovation of the weight room which quite frankly has all the charm of a Chernobyl spa. The real losers in this though are the swim team. There are some good swimmers on there but unfortunately, they now have to practice at odd hours and wave bye bye to the concept of home field, I mean home pool advantage. I wish the best of look to the swimming squad.

- Zachary Aronow

Men and women’s soccer wrap their seasons on the road at New York Univer-sity on November 8 and once again, both teams are striving to reach mediocrity. The women’s team has been decent this year. Steller defense once again being a hallmark of Coach Dallamora’s group but men’s soccer this year has been disappoint-ing to say the least. There is no other way around it, the men’s soccer team needs to beat NYU, the only other UAA team in a sorrier state than the Judges and that’s just to avoid another year of picking up no wins against UAA opponents.

The season had started out with such promise too. The Judges jumped to a 6-1 record and then proceeded to go through nearly a month before picking up their next win. The Coach Coven’s squad comes to play, they can surprise. The Judges were able to force draws against top opponents

in Case Western Reserve and Chicago and of course I still remember two years ago when the Judges upset Babson in the ECAC playoffs and went on to claim the championship. With talented players like Ben Premo ’09 and Patrick Metelus ’10, the Judges should be and they are capable of greater than unwatchable mediocrity.

Turn around is possible. One only needs to look at the basketball program and re-member that it was not that long ago that Brandeis basketball was a UAA after-thought. Obviously though, it’s on Coach Coven and for that matter, Coach Dallam-ora to either find the players that fit their schemes or change their schemes to fit the players and in turn raise Brandeis soccer to the caliber of competition that should be expected in the UAA.

- Zachary Aronow

A blonde follows her heart and her ambitions at Harvard Law School. Don't miss out on this unlikely musical! With songs like "Omigod You Guys" and a number that asks the question "Is he gay or European?" this is not an experience you can afford to ignore.

W E E K E N D F U N16 The Hoot November 7, 2008

Spotlight on BostonFriday to Sunday, Nov. 7-9539 Washington St., Boston

What's going on at Brandeis?King Lear: Friday to Sunday Nov. 7-9

Shapiro Campus Center It's free. It's Shakespeare. What other reasons do you need to go see this Hold Thy Peace produc-tion? Power struggles, backstabbing, and murder! What a perfect way to spend an evening.

Legally Blonde:

www.bostonoperahouse.com

Floppsie By Grace Alloy-Relihan

Go Global Chic:Friday, Nov. 7, 2008, 4 p.m. Shapiro Campus Center AtriumLove fashion? Then you should stop by the atrium to watch this Interna-tional fashion show. As you watch, drink free cider, and just relax.

COMICStripsSleazy By Matt Kupfer

Acrobats: Friday, Nov. 7, 2008, 8 p.m.106 Boylston St., Boston

At the Colonial Theater, Shangri-La Chinese Acrobats will perform. Death defying, dazzling, and dramatic--you will be sure to be amazed. Get your tickets an hour before the show and pay only $25.

www.bostonscolonialtheatre.com

Will it Blend? Dance:Saturday, Nov. 8, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. ICC Lounge, Swig Center

Battle of the Bands:Sunday, Nov. 2, 1 to 4 p.m. Recital Hall, SlosbergCampus bands compete for the right to claim that they're the best Bran-deis can offer. Seven bands will take part. Rock out and then vote for the one you liked the most!

Insert Comic Here By Anthony Scibelli

Dance into morning! At the Mixed Heritage Club's 2nd Annual dance, music will be provided by Boston Sound Choice. There will also be free refreshments.