Volume 10Number 20

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass. November 1, 2013www.thebrandeishoot.com

Furniture recycling ‘not perfect’

By Dana TrismenEditor

Despite numerous anonymous comments and tips on the inap-propriate disposal of furniture at Brandeis, administration members insist that the job they are doing is adequate.

“We do not profess perfection, but a genuine effort is made,” said Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins. “We make an effort to maximize the life of those products by redistributing them, donating where we can, but some items will be disposed of because that is the right thing to do.”

Brandeis constantly undergoes renovations, including the major undertakings this past year in East Quad, Charles River apartments and the Shapiro Campus Center. Depart-ments also undergo furniture chang-es, updating offices and classrooms and disposing of antiquated desks and file cabinets. Brandeis insists they do whatever they can to recycle furniture appropriately.

“My experience at Brandeis has been that there is generally a reuse within the department for a lot of fur-nishings. Their ‘old’ may not be as old

as the one next door to them. Even-tually I think what is really usable in our environment and within the de-partment is used within that depart-ment. We keep a stainless or metal steel dumpster behind Epstein, and anything that is recyclable goes in that dumpster,” said Collins.

Collins described where each piece of furniture went when Brandeis re-furnished the Charles River apart-ments. Most large furniture was given to a company called the International Recycling Network, who sorted through the inventory and took out useful items. Usable materials such as mattresses were sent to Haiti. All of the bureaus from the dorms were sent to a local charity called My Brother’s Keeper.

In East Quad, the bed frames were taken apart and put into the dumpster by Epstein. The other furniture was considered unusable anywhere else, as it was composed of wall units made to fit a certain area.

“Let me be clear: Are we perfect? Probably not, but we make an effort to maximize the life of those products by redistributing them, donating where we can,” Collins stated again.

See REUSE, page 3

‘Almost, Maine’ tugs on heart strings

Love. Serendipity. First kisses. It sounds a lot like a cliché roman-tic movie, but in “Almost, Maine,”

these components were anything but cheesy. “Almost, Maine” is a play written by John Cariani and is set in a little fictional town of Al-most. Consisting of nine refreshing vignettes about love and heartbreak,

By Michelle KimStaff

See MAINE, page 9

Resignation trend continues with Mark Collins

By Victoria AronsonEditor

Mark Collins, senior vice president for administration, will officially be leaving his position at Brandeis Uni-versity after a period of service dat-ing from 1987. Collins is the last in a string of recent resignations of top university administrators, including Rick Sawyer, former dean of student life, and Mark Spencer, former dean of admissions.

It was stated that Ellen de Graffen-reid, senior vice president of com-munications, would be present at the interview conducted between Collins and The Hoot.

When asked to explain the reasons for his sudden departure from the university, Collins stated he was leav-ing “to explore other opportunities.” No further elaboration as to the spe-cific circumstances behind his immi-nent departure was provided.

Collins stated, in a series of quotes prepared for the interview with Graffenreid present, “I believe firmly that students are the life and blood of the campus, and they should continue to be involved in the discernment of Brandeis for the next years.”

Originally hired as a purchasing manager in 1987, Collins has served the roles of director of materials man-

See COLLINS, page 2

agement, director of university ser-vices, associate vice president for uni-versity services, and vice president of campus operations before being promoted to senior vice president of administration in 2010.

In an email to the Brandeis Com-munity, Steve Manos, senior vice president and chief operating officer, stated “Mark has been a tireless advo-cate for making Brandeis a more at-tractive campus and for modernizing our facilities. His number one goal was to contribute to making Brandeis a safe and comfortable environment for our Brandeis community of fac-ulty, students, staff, neighbors and visitors.”

Despite his own accomplishments, Collins expressed immense gratitude to his staff members, stating, “Those of us in leadership positions are as good as our staff. I am grateful to all of them individually and collectively.”

Collins further stressed his per-sonal expectation to “strive for 100 percent level of service,” although he noted the tendency to be unable to do so in the operations areas.

In his series of prepared quotes, Collins stated, “I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing, but I hope it is in

photo by michelle kim/the hootalmost, maine Brandeis Ensemble Theater is showing “Almost, Maine” this weekend in the SCC Theater, a collection of nine stories of love and comedy.

Gittler Prize winner discusses academic work

On Tuesday, Patricia Hill Collins ’69, Ph.D. ’84, author, distinguished professor and scholar was awarded the fifth Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize for her exemplary academic work dedicated to racial, ethnic and religious relations.

Collins has authored seven books, served as the 100th president of the American Sociological Organization and is currently a sociology professor at the University of Maryland, Col-lege Park. Her career and scholarship have all been dedicated to social jus-tice and understanding the intersec-tional relationship of race, class and gender.

The Gittler award, aside from its overall prestige, includes a $25,000 cash prize and a medal. Provost Steve Goldstein ’78, M.A. ’78, M.D., Ph.D., FAAP awarded Collins the prize and medal after she led a pub-lic lecture titled “With My Mind Set on Freedom: Black Feminism, In-tersectionality and Social Justice” in Rapaporte Treasure Hall on Tuesday. This lecture was the conclusion of Collins’ two-day visit. She called this her “two-day pedagogical project” in which, in addition to her lecture, she met separately with undergradu-ate youth activists, graduate students and faculty to discuss social justice and intersectionality and their roles in her career.

The ceremony was opened by Pro-vost Goldstein, who explained the Gittler award and its importance. He

then introduced former Brandeis so-ciology professor—and supervisor to Collins during her graduate studies at Brandeis—George Ross, to formally introduce Collins. In his introduc-tion, Ross remarked fondly upon his former mentee, stating that supervis-ing Collins seemed like no work at all and that this award is is perfectly tailored to her.

During her talk, Collins first thanked the awards committee and Brandeis for her receipt of the award, reminiscing on her time at Brandeis. She recalled her experience at 17, moving from Philadelphia to North Quad, receiving cheers from the audience, and credited Brandeis as

See GITTLER, page 3

By Jess LindeStaff

the play pulled in the audience and latched on to all of our hearts (ex-cuse the cheesiness—this produc-

photo by jingru wang/the hoot

patricia collins Awarded the fifth Gittler Prize, Collins gave a lecture Tuesday about social justice in the context of racial, ethnic and religions relations.

Inside this issue:News: Dr. Dean Martin presents Holocaust book Arts, Etc.: Arcade Fire album matches past workOpinion: Can double majors take the crush?Sports: Women’s volleyball trumped at Lasell

Hamlet at CHum’sPhenomenal display of talent lights up Chum’s in a recent coffehouse presentation.arts, etC.: Page 8

soCCer resultsThe team played a competitive match as UMass Boston outshot Brandeis by only one attemptsports: Page 4

Page 3Page 7Page 13 Page 4

news2 The Brandeis Hoot November 1, 2013

Entrepreneur Club approaches business with humor

The trials and successes of start-ing a business often make for good comedic material. On Wednesday night, the Brandeis Entrepreneurship Club and the improv comedy group To Be Announced (TBA) co-spon-sored a business-themed comedy night called “Laughing At Success” held at Chum’s Coffeehouse.

At the event, three student en-

trepreneurs shared their stories and made light of the challenges they have faced in developing their products.

Asaf Meir ’14 mentioned his prod-uct, a motion sensor program called IntuMusic, which plays customized music based on the ways people are dancing at a party, as a way to “control and create music at the same time.”

Another service was a 3D printing business created by Sebastian Wells ’16, who makes customized cases for cell phones. Event attendees had the chance to win one of Wells’ cases as a

raffle prize. Yuval Galor ’15 also spoke about

his experience creating an iPhone application called Linesaver, which helps people find less crowded restau-rants and bars. Galor received a grant from the 3-Day Startup program at the Brandeis International Business School, then launched the app.

Galor shared his insights on the en-trepreneurship process. “An idea is a hypothesis that you have to test in the real world,” he said.

TBA performed after each stu-

dent’s monologue, basing its skits on each person’s story. In one sketch, the group invented a fictional product and made a compelling advertising pitch for it, all in fewer than five min-utes.

Business and comedy were a natu-ral combination for Nathan Feldman ’14, president of the Entrepreneur Club. “Not many people may real-ize, but improv and entrepreneur-ship have a lot in common. They both heavily rely on teamwork, creativity and an ability to pivot with an idea on

the spot,” Feldman said. “Another reason why we chose to

hold an event incorporating com-edy and entrepreneurship is to set a standard for future events. As a newly chartered club, we felt it is important to be as creative and innovative with our events as entrepreneurs are with their businesses,” Feldman added.

This was the first event hosted by the Entrepreneur Club after just be-coming chartered this year. They hold meetings every week.

By Rachel HirschhautEditor

Affordable Care Act changes at Brandeis projected to be modest

As the implementation of the Af-fordable Care Act looms, prudent Brandeis students are wondering exactly how the new regulations will affect them. Despite the best efforts of the federal government, the direc-tion of national healthcare remains muddled by hype and hyperbole. What, for instance, will be the effect of the Affordable Care Act on the cost of insurance? How will the Act change student interface between insurance and healthcare providers? Understanding the answers to these questions is key for students hoping to obtain high-value health coverage.

Diana Denning, nurse manager at the Health Center, spoke with The Hoot about these questions and other changes students might face in the coming months and years.

The good news for students of uni-versities in Massachusetts is that the quality of their coverage is already so highly regulated that state standards often exceed those put forth by new federal regulations. At Brandeis, stu-dents are required to confirm that they have insurance which matches or exceeds a minimum threshold of coverage determined by the univer-sity—standards which sometimes go beyond even the state’s comparatively rigorous standards.

This year, the Brandeis Under-graduate Plan, the health insurance plan available to students, included a zero deductible, zero coinsurance in network and only modest co-pays for emergency visits which are some-

times waived with correct documen-tation, as well as other favorable attri-butes. Because Brandeis students are already required to have strong cov-erage, they are unlikely to encounter additional costs incurred from new minimum insurance requirements imposed by the Affordable Care Act.

There are, however, other sources of increased costs. Some healthcare analysts have projected that insur-ance premiums are likely to increase for healthy, young individuals such as college students, since the Afford-able Care Act broadens risk pools to include higher risk constituencies such as people with pre-existing con-ditions. While the validity of this ar-gument is as of yet unclear, there are certain provisions in the Affordable Care Act which ensure that college students will be immune to potential cost increases which result from the restructuring of risk pools.

While many students purchase their insurance independently of the university, in which case they are exposed to increased costs due to diluted risk pools, all students have the option to purchase an insurance product through Brandeis. Students who purchase the school’s insurance are packaged together and presented to insurance companies as a single unit. These companies then bid to offer coverage to the entire universi-ty-insured population at the lowest acceptable price. All students under this plan have the same standardized coverage, which meets or exceeds the minimum coverage required to at-tend Brandeis. They will thus all pay the same rate, regardless of their in-dividual health risks and coverage

preferences. Plans offered through universities

under the Affordable Care Act have special permission to form risk pools consisting exclusively of students. In other words, members of a univer-sity insurance plan will only pool risk with a demographic which is likely to be young and healthy. Bargain-hunting students might even con-sider switching from their own health plans, which do not have such favor-able risk pooling exceptions.

Students for whom health care can make a college education unafford-able are likely to be shielded from premium increases for two reasons. First, both the Brandeis and the Mas-sachusetts standards of care already match many of the standards of care presented by the Affordable Care Act. Second, insurance companies are empowered to make special low-cost risk pools for students.

Faculty may also rest assured that their plans and coverage through the university are not likely to be adverse-ly affected as a result of the Affordable Care Act. Like student care, because the standard of insurance which the university and the state provides to its staff is set to a high bar, it is likely that the university’s health care costs will be contained compared to orga-nizations with lower standards. We speculate that the Affordable Care Act will only have a negligible effect on internal university expenses.

While some constituencies may be seeing big changes in their future health care interactions, many in the Brandeis Community are probably going to see only negligible changes in the foreseeable future.

By Lassor FeasleyEditor

a place as great as Brandeis and with a community of students, faculty and staff that I’ve had the honor of work-ing with.”

When asked what legacy he would like to leave behind, Collins replied

he would like to be remembered as “a good and decent person who did a good job at Brandeis. I leave behind a group of people whom I will miss greatly.”

Collins will officially be leaving the Brandeis community on Dec. 31, 2013. He stated, “It’s been a great run, and I will miss Brandeis greatly.”

Collins to leave in January

photo by dana levine/the hoot

COLLINS, from page 1

November 1, 2013 The Brandeis Hoot NEWS 3

Boston bans MIT parties

Boston officials have indefinitely banned large events and parties at Massachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy (MIT) Greek houses and living groups in the city. Boston’s Inspec-tional Services Department surveyed nine residences used by MIT students and found a number of infractions. The department stated that it cannot guarantee the safety of these build-ings if there are more occupants on the site than are legally allowed to live there.

MIT’s Panhellenic Association, Interfraternity Council and Associa-tion of Independent Living Groups received an email from university of-ficials with the news last week. MIT is working with students and Boston to remedy the situation.

“So please, let’s not test them on this to find out. We know this is a chal-lenge, but we need to work through it together, not fight it,” the email said.

MIT fraternities have been a part of the school for more than a cen-tury and boast an impressive group of alumni. The independent living groups are similar to the Greek soci-eties but are not affiliated with a larger organization. College Prowler main-tains that 50 percent of males and 27 percent of females are a member of a Greek organization at MIT.

Those who fail to comply with the rules may jeopardize their dormitory license and force officials to take fur-ther action against fraternities, soror-ities and independent living groups throughout Boston. The university is imposing a temporary restriction on their residences in Cambridge and Brookline of three times the legal oc-cupancy limit. MIT officials are work-ing to find methods to host currently planned events that would comply with the ban.

“MIT is well aware of the hardship this will pose for our Boston-based organizations, and it intends to do everything it reasonably can to help mitigate the impact on our organi-

zations’ social programs and general operations while working with us to resolve the underlying safety issues,” the email went on.

Although the MIT campus is lo-cated across the Charles River in the city of Cambridge, a majority of the school’s Greek and independent liv-ing group facilities are in the Ken-more and Back Bay neighborhoods of Boston. The Huffington Post reported that the ruling will likely affect 19 of the 27 fraternities, three of the six sororities and two of the six indepen-dent living groups.

This change takes place nearly a month after an MIT student fell four stories while jumping on an improp-erly placed Plexiglas skylight at the Phi Sigma Kappa house at 487 Com-monwealth Avenue in Kenmore. The unnamed student was taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital with minimal injuries. The fraternity was subsequently issued several citations including illegally knocking down walls, constructing an unsafe and il-legal roof deck and not installing rails or protection on the roof, as reported by NECN.

The school’s senior associate dean for residential life and dining has stated that the building concerns are not based on a particular incident, al-though the inspection that preceded the ruling was prompted by the afore-mentioned incident. MIT’s Associa-tion of Independent Living’s building safety facilitator collected the infor-mation that was then presented to Boston officials. The inspection called for each property to “provide infor-mation justifying its current posted assembly occupancy figure,” accord-ing to The Tech. City officials are con-sidering making the ban permanent.

Occupancy reports for all appli-cable homes will need to be submit-ted and approved by the Inspectional Services Department before the ban is lifted. The required 39 reviews will likely not be completed until Decem-ber, at which point an additional few weeks will be necessary to look over the reports.

By Charlie RomanowStaff

College NotebookDean presents multi-volume encyclopedia on Holocaust

Last Tuesday, the Brandeis Center for German and European Studies welcomed Dr. Martin Dean of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). Introduced by Professor Sabine von Mering, Dean discussed the second volume in the USHMM’s massive “Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos” publication. Dean is the volume editor of the proj-ect.

The series, the fifth and sixth vol-umes of which Dean is currently working on, has been in the works for almost 15 years and will eventu-ally encompass at least seven vol-umes. The first two volumes of the encyclopedia are currently available for purchase. Dean discussed the second volume of the project, titled “Ghettos in German-Occupied East-ern Europe,” in front of an audience consisting primarily of off-campus guests.

The lecture, accompanied by a cre-ative PowerPoint presentation, be-gan with an overview of the project itself before going into detail about the second volume. Though this in-troduction took up a majority of the event, it was necessary given the size of the subject. The encyclopedias not only contain massive amounts of in-formation on camps and ghettos that existed during World War II, but also thousands of pages of supplementary information including photos, jour-nalistic articles, memoirs, maps and interviews. According to Dean, much of the information came from unique sources, such as formerly classified information caches in the former So-viet Union.

“The principle discovery of “The Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghet-tos” has been the huge number of the previously unknown camps and

ghettos built by the Nazis,” said Dean, going so far as to call the network a “universe.” In specific reference to the second volume of the “Encyclopedia,” Dean said he had been amazed by multiple discoveries, including “the sheer amount of people, we’re talk-ing in the tens of thousands, that were moved very quickly through these places.”

Since camps and ghettos were cre-ated and destroyed so quickly, there could be over 50 built in a single area, with at least 30 existing at one time. One of these areas included Russia, which at one point during the early years of the war saw around 40 camps and ghettos being built. Perhaps most shocking was the level of complicity in the building of these camps by lo-cals in countries such as Austria and Poland. Both of these countries were known for extreme anti-Semitism during the War; however the sec-ond volume of the “Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos” cites documents

that show a much higher level in lo-cal volunteerism than previously re-ported.

Dean said that he hoped the final project would be a tool for both pro-fessional and personal research. “I want [the encyclopedia] to be a way that people can find out deep infor-mation about their family that they may not have otherwise been able to find,” Dean said.

By Jess LindeStaff

Professor Ann Koloski-Ostrow, associate professor and chair of the department of classical stud-ies, reports that she was recently informed of a new policy about furniture disposal. “Brandeis is no longer willing to store old furniture, so when members of a department or program wish to replace their old furniture or re-move pieces from individual of-fices because a desk or chair is no longer needed, the department or program must make the arrange-ments themselves for a mover to come to take that furniture away, to have it moved to another place on campus, and to bear the ex-pense of the move,” she said in an email to The Hoot.

“We seem to get our money’s worth out of furniture,” stated Collins, saying that often depart-ments will donate the furniture to another location on campus, a model the classics department followed.

Koloski-Ostrow states she would be disappointed to find out that Brandeis was improperly

disposing furniture. “I would be very sad to learn that Brandeis is throwing out old furniture with no opportunity for others to take it somewhere else on cam-pus or to give it to institutions that might need it in Waltham or elsewhere in the Boston area,” she said.

“Probably,” said Collins, when asked if the university could in-crease its recycling and proper disposal of large items such as furniture and computers. “We are always looking to where we can add to our sustainability ef-forts.”

Collins again emphasized Brandeis’ habit of reusing furni-ture in other places, such as the couches from the Shapiro Cam-pus Center, which migrated to Chums. Brandeis pays for uphol-stering, so the furniture looks dif-ferent now, new and more mod-ern. This maneuver also saves money.

“I don’t want to portray the picture that we are perfect and no pieces escape this cycle,” said Col-lins, when discussing Brandeis’ efforts to recycle and reuse fur-niture.

REUSE, from page 1

Univ. furniture difficult to re-purpose

shaping her into the person and so-ciologist she is today. Most notably, she said, “Brandeis empowered me to claim the life of the mind.”

Collins then began her formal lec-ture which consisted of three main parts, focusing on defining intersec-tionality, black feminism, social jus-tice and intergenerational conversa-tions. Collins spoke about the word intersectionality defined as the view-point from which people experience oppression in varying configurations and degrees of intensity because of cross-cutting identities that run along lines of class, race, sexual orienta-tion, ethnicity and religion. Collins discussed the difficulty in referencing the desire to make the term accessible and understandable to all while not taking away the theory’s meaning.

She then showed a video clip of “Ella’s Song” by Sweet Honey in the Rock, using the lyrics “we who be-

lieve in freedom cannot rest” to pro-vide an underlying theme of calling people to action to fight for social jus-tice and equality regarding issues of intersectionality that shaped the rest of her talk. She also used the video to exemplify her argument that works of artistic expression should be used to help educate and empower people about issues of social justice. The vid-eo was well-received by all attendees. Rose Wallace ’16 said, “I think what she said about using the arts, critical education and community engage-ment to create social change and ‘re-claim humanity’ really rings true.”

During her talk, Collins discussed the recent Trayvon Martin contro-versy and how this issue highlights the concept that power relations pro-duce social justice inequities in this country. She applauded all those who wore hoodies in support of Martin in wake of the trial, and instructed all that “social justice demands internal vigilance” and that it requires activists

to “overcome fatigue from struggling so long.”

In her discussion of black femi-nism and social justice, Collins con-tinued to work off of the frame pro-vided by “Ella’s Song” and its call for action, discussing the work of two women—Ella Baker, whom the song is about, and Reverend Dr. Pauli Mur-ray, an African civil rights activist, women’s rights activist, lawyer, author and former Brandeis American stud-ies professor—and their instrumental work in empowering and inspiring people to act.

In the final part of her lecture, Collins discussed intergenerational conversations, stressing the need for imagination and acceptance of re-sponsibility among activists today. She referenced the importance of youth taking on currently unsolved issues of social justice in a coop-erative manner so that they do not launch an “intergenerational warfare” against their elders and predecessors for the problems that exist today.

The Gittler award ceremony and talk concluded with a question and answer session with the audience in which students, faculty and Provost Goldstein participated. Collins re-sponded to all with candor and hu-mor, replying to Provost Goldstein’s question of how to make Brandeis a vibrant and revolutionary institution while staying in business, saying that “You can’t” and that “revolutionary and institution are oxymorons.”

GITTLER, from page 1

Gittler prize winner discusses conversations among generations

photos by shanlai shangguan/the hoot

photo by jingru wang/the hoot

sports4 The Brandeis Hoot November 1, 2013

By Charlie RomanowStaff

The men’s soccer team won their last non-conference match of the sea-son on Monday in Newton against Mount Ida College. The 1-0 shutout was the Judges’ last away game of the regular season. This was the Mus-tangs’ last home match of the season, celebrating their six graduating se-niors prior to the game.

The match’s lone goal came in the 76th minute. Michael Soboff ’15 passed to Zach Vieria ’17 at the edge of the box and ran toward the goal for a return pass to knock in his fifth goal of the season. Soboff had four other shot attempts during the game. This marked Vieria’s second assist of the season. Despite the perceived lack of offense exhibited by the final score, the Judges dominated throughout the game. Brandeis outshot their op-ponents 19 to 3 overall. The Judges managed nine shots on goal while the Mustangs could only muster one. The victors also won the battle for corner kicks seven to one.

Mount Ida’s Tim Gil had a late free kick opportunity to tie the game but the ball sailed over the crossbar. Teammate Joe Casey had five of his seven saves in the second half while Judge Joe Graffy ’15 had only one opportunity to make a stop. Tyler Savonen ’15 and Sam Ocel ’14 each had offensive chances, attempting two and three shots on goal respectively.

Mount Ida left at 8-6-3 overall and 5-2-2 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference. Their final match of the season is on Sunday against Norwich University, who stand tied for second in the conference.

Brandeis begins a three-game homestand this weekend against conference foes Washington Univer-sity, University of Chicago and New York University. The Judges are 12-4 overall, but only 1-3 in the UAA. They are second to last in the confer-ence, ahead of NYU. They are ranked third in New England according to the NCAA, behind Amherst College and Williams College. D3soccer.com ranked them at 22nd in the nation before the shutout against Mount Ida.

Women’s soccer loses in Boston

Judges snap eight-game losing streak against Lasell

Men’s soccer returns home on

high note

photo by matt brondoli/the hoot

By Dani ChasinEditor

After going 0-3 at the Hall of Fame Invitational, the Brandeis women’s volleyball team broke an eight-game losing streak against Lasell College. The Judges fell to Tufts, Trinity and the host Smith at the invitational. On Tuesday, the Judges managed to defeat Lasell in a closely contested 3-1 match to improve their overall record to 10-20.

In the first match of the invitation-al, the Judges faced Tufts, whom they faced earlier in the season in a close 3-2 match that gave the Jumbos the win. In their second matchup, how-ever, the Judges fell to the Jumbos 3-0, producing scores of 25-17, 25-14 and 25-17 for each period. Outside hitter Liz Hood ’15 led the Judges with eight kills and outside hitter Si-Si Hensley ’14 had six digs.

The second game of the tourna-ment against Trinity saw a close second set where the Judges almost overcame the Bantams, but the op-ponent held out for all three sets. The set scores for the 3-0 match were 18-25, 23-25 and 15-25. Hensley led the Judges with a double-double, nailing 10 kills and 18 digs. Defen-sive specialist Amaris Brown ’16 also

reached double digits with 14 digs for the game.

The Judges had their closest game against the Smith Pioneers. Losing the first set 15-25, Brandeis almost made a comeback in the second set, which ended with a tight 24-26 score in the Pioneers’ favor. The Judges only winning set for the entire tournament came in the third period when they beat the Pioneers 25-19. However, the Pioneers managed to recover in the fourth set and went 25-16 to bring the final score to 3-1.

Hood put on a strong performance for the Judges, securing a double-double with 17 kills, one block and 18 digs. Brown led the team in digs with a career-high 28 in total, while rookie outside hitter Rachel Dye ’17 set a career-high with 19 digs for the match. Hensley also recorded 18 digs against the Pioneers.

After the three losses over the weekend, the Judges faced Lasell on Tuesday in an away game. The Judges secured their 3-1 win against the La-sers by scores of 25-23, 25-17, 22-25 and 25-18. With the loss, the Lasers drop their record to 16-12 while the Judges earned their 10th win of the season.

At one point, the first set was tied 21-21, and then Hood took over, nail-

ing four kills in the last six points of the set. The Lasers had a quick start on the Judges in the second set, go-ing 7-2, but the Judges soon recov-ered to even the score at 12-12 and then score 10 of the next 12 points to break free for a 25-17 score. In the third set, the Lasers had another lead over the Judges at 19-10, and man-aged to hold off the Brandeis team for the remainder of the period, winning 25-22 and going into the fourth with a score of 2-1. In the fourth set, the Judges maintained a strong lead over the Lasers, holding them off at 13-8 and finishing the period with a score of 25-18.

The top performers for the Judges were Hood, who had a match-high 13 kills, and Hensley, who added 9 kills. Dye and middle blocker Carly Gutner Davis ’15 each nailed seven kills for the game. Brown recorded a match-high 25 digs, while setter Yael Ein-horn ’14 led the Judges with 34 assists and three blocks.

With the win against Lasell, the Judges will strive to continue their streak for the five remaining games of their season. All five matches will be played on their home court in the Gosman Athletic Center where they will be in the seventh seed at the up-coming UAA championships.

By Charlie RomanowStaff

The women’s soccer team lost last week in a close double-overtime match to UMass Boston. The Bea-cons’ first goal came off of the foot of Sam Cristoforo via an Amanda Pug-liese corner kick 33 minutes into the game. This was Cristoforo’s first goal of the season. Brandeis went into the second half scoreless but were able to tie it up in the 70th minute off of an unassisted 30-yard kick from Sapir Edalati ’15. This was Edalati’s eighth goal of the season. The teams played through the first overtime without any goals. The winning shot came on Tayla Andrews’ 13th goal of the sea-son from an assisting midfield lead pass from Cristoforo. Andrews made it past multiple defenders to win the game with less than two minutes left.

The team played a competitive match as UMass Boston outshot Brandeis by only one attempt, and Michelle Savuto ’15 led the game with nine saves. Kristen Spain earned the win with eight saves. The second half saw Brandeis take 14 shots, much more than either team attempted in any single period. They had trouble getting attempts when

it counted the most, though, only at-tempting two shots in overtime, one of which was on-goal. The Beacons committed eight fouls in the first half but were able to stabilize their play in the coming periods.

The Judges headed home on a three-game losing streak as they end the season against conference oppo-nents Washington University, Uni-versity of Chicago and New York University. They are 9-5-1 overall and 1-2-1 in the UAA. Brandeis ranks in the middle of the conference and will have to fight to move ahead against number one-ranked Washington University and Chicago who stand ahead of them in the UAA.

UMass Boston defeated Bridgewa-ter State University a few days after outplaying Brandeis and are 14-4 overall and 5-1 in the Little East Con-ference. Brandeis’ final game of the season will be played this weekend at home against Rhode Island College.

this week in photosNovember 1, 2013 The Brandeis Hoot 5

Fall Fest

Carnival and petting zoo

photos by jingru wang and anni long/the hoot

on the farm Students relax during midterms with tiny farm animals at the petting zoo, holding bunnies, ducklings, and chicks while feeding a miniature horse, baby alpaca, goats and a young pig.

Professor shares illustrious vocal careerBy Victoria Aronson

Editor

From performing before entire villages to singing in the intimate, galley kitchens of France, adjunct professor Nancy Armstrong (THA) led an exciting career before joining the Brandeis community in 1996. She shares her singing expertise and enriching experiences by mentoring students aspiring to careers in per-formance arts.

Unable to trace a singular moment in which she realized singing was her calling, Armstrong explained, “I always sang when I was a little kid riding a bicycle. A piano teacher who lived next door always heard me singing on my bike.” It was only when

she was a junior in college, however, that it dawned on her to transition from her piano studies to singing.

Obtaining a bachelor’s of science from the University of Vermont in music education, Armstrong went on to pursue a master’s degree in music from Smith College. Despite her ex-tensive travels, Armstrong confessed she was not always so sure about her future as a singer. “I always thought I would be a music teacher. I wasn’t sure that performing was going to make it,” she said.

Equipped with her master’s degree for practicality, Armstrong went on to lead the romantic life of an artist, per-forming and travelling across Europe with oratories and symphonies. She recalled her most memorable per-formances, from singing at Carnegie Hall to venues in Paris, France.

In particular, she described sing-ing “Summertime” in a small kitchen in Southern France for a local chef, drinking champagne and eating for hours. “I’m flirtatious enough and love to sing that it wouldn’t be a big deal for me to walk into a kitchen and sing for the chefs. This happened all the time in little villages in southern France!” she explained. As a soloist, she garnered attention, singing in both English and French.

While travelling through the schools of Normandy, France, she re-called singing with children clustered around her feet in an intimate setting, an experience she described as simply wonderful. Deeply impacted by such experiences, she said, “The joy that music gives, something about sing-ing, the human voice, everyone just loves. Things like that I never forget.”

Glamorous though this may seem,

Armstrong revealed the struggles of self-employment and the combina-tion of passion and resilience nec-essary to thrive in her field. She ex-plained that her position at Brandeis University emerged as her career began changing, as concerts became less frequent while she became in-creasingly engaged in using her ex-pertise to teach others. In her role as a professor of theater arts, she mentors both undergraduate and graduate students.

Several of Armstrong’s former stu-dents have already blazed paths in the performance industry, among them Jeffrey Calloway MFA ’00, who will starred in the role of Delray in the Broadway musical “Memphis.” She stresses the importance of building a classical foundation and mastering the rudiments of singing within the classroom.

Acknowledging the intimidating nature of pursuing a career in the fine arts, Armstrong encourages her students “to be focused and self dis-ciplined, organized, positive because you’re going to be turned down a lot and you’re gonna audition a lot. You want to feel like you have something in your back pocket while you’re fol-lowing your passion and not to not give up.”

Clearly passionate, Armstrong stated, “I say to my students to make every audition a little performance, make them see your goal because these people don’t know you.”

In regard to the future, Armstrong recently received a five-year reap-pointment at Brandeis University, where she will continue to serve as a professor of theater arts. She current-ly dabbles in Russian, as she might perform in an upcoming concert.

‘Once Upon a Time’ launches slow moving season

By Dana TrismenEditor

For a show that has drawn over 12 million viewers for one episode, the ABC fairy tale series “Once Upon a Time” seems to be losing momen-tum. Season three premiered to only 8.5 million viewers on Oct. 10. “Once Upon a Time” has showcased heroes fighting dragons, dark magic consuming loving fathers and ogres stomping over small towns in Maine. In comparison, season three seems tame. But true fans of the show will not stop watching—because we wait with bated breath to see what hap-pens to our beloved characters.

So far, season three largely takes place in Neverland. The true genius of “Once Upon a Time” rests in its ability to take well known fairy tale characters and transform them into something new and interesting, while still retaining the core values of the original characters. In “Once Upon a Time,” Peter Pan is terrifying. He is the demon of Neverland, controlling who can leave, since every character becomes his prisoner once they enter his harsh land. Season two presented Peter Pan as a menace, a possible rapist of little boys. Season three il-luminates him as a mastermind, a character who is able to outwit and outplay even the most powerful char-acters, such as the “Dark One,” Rum-pelstiltskin.

While watching Peter Pan plot his evil schemes is entertaining, the main problem with season three thus far is that all our favorite characters are stuck in one place. Seasons one and two had characters present in both the enchanted forest (where the fairy tale characters lived) and Story-brooke, Maine (the real world, where at first, their true identities were hid-den by a spell). The show would often flash back and forth between the past and the present and between both worlds. While season three also does

this to an extent, the plotline seems mainly concerned with one thing: finding Henry, who has been taken prisoner by Peter Pan.

Henry is the child of Emma Swan, a woman known as the “Savior,” who broke the curse for all the fairy tale characters in season one. This makes Henry the grandson of Snow White and Prince Charming. He is also the adopted son of the Evil Queen, and the grandson of Rumpelstiltskin. While all these familial relationships may be confusing, the end result is that all the main characters are in Neverland, desperately trying to save Henry due to their blood ties.

As it stands, Henry is probably not going to be saved any time soon. The various characters bumble around in the forests of Neverland, getting poi-soned by accident and fighting with each other. The previous seasons of “Once Upon a Time” featured mul-tiple plot lines running concurrently. The mistake writers made with sea-son three was expecting one main quest to entertain viewers for an en-tire season.

While this season may not be as strong, the characters are as vibrant as ever. A particular standout this sea-son is Captain Hook, played by Co-lin O’Donoghue. Hook is brooding, snarky and a surprising help to the other characters because he previous-ly lived in Neverland. While labeled as a villain in season two, audiences feel compassion for Hook as we learn more about his history on his home turf. With a bottle of rum constantly in his hand and a sly smile on his lips, O’Donoghue pulls off the role very well. His chemistry with Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) is believable, and he puts true emotion into his fantasti-cal lines.

If the “Once Upon a Time” charac-ters can seize Henry and travel back into their alternate worlds, the show will retain its popularity and prestige. But if they take too long, audiences may lose interest—and perhaps turn to the “Once Upon a Time” spinoff, “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.”

villians The villians are perhaps the most interesting characters in the show, especially Hook. photos from internet source

new characters New fairy tale characters such as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell join “Once Upon a Time” for season three.

arts, etc.6 The Brandeis Hoot November 1, 2013

November 1, 2013 The Brandeis Hoot ARTS, ETC. 7

New Arcade Fire album marks a style changeBy Andrew Elmers

Staff

Coming off of their Grammy-award winning album “The Suburbs,” Arcade Fire released their latest ef-fort this past Monday. A double al-bum, “Reflektor” marks a bit of a style change for the band. Produced by former LCD Soundsystem front-man James Murphy, the overall genre of the album is not the standard in-die rock as past Arcade Fire records have been. Instead, it uses more syn-thesizers and takes on an art rock and techno feel.

Using a vast array of viral market-ing, such as hiring graffiti artists to tag the album’s logo in different cities and playing secret shows as “The Re-flektors,” the Canadian alt-rock band built a tremendous amount of hype for a record announced less than two months prior. And it did not disap-point.

Starting with the title track that had been previously released as a single, “Reflektor” picks up where “The Suburbs” left off musically, but pro-gresses into a more modern realm. Regine Chassagne’s French vocals in the verse really distinguish this track, as do her harmonies with lead Win Butler. Following are “We Exist” and “Flashbulb Eyes,” two songs that pro-vide an unneeded change of pace this early in the album. “We Exist” relies heavily on a repetitive bass line and could be too catchy for its own good. “Flashbulb Eyes” is a short track that shows the diversity of a band like Ar-cade Fire, highlighting a xylophone or some other form of percussion during the chorus, but is a forgettable tune.

The highlight of the first disc is “Here Comes the Night Time,” a Vampire Weekend-esque song that shows how much Haitian rara mu-sic influenced this venture. It starts off with incredibly quick percussion, but suddenly slows down into a fan-tastic groove that is impossible to sit still through. Changes in the tempo,

the guitar riff during the chorus, and the loud, spectacular Carnival finish should put this song up for some lofty recognition.

The next three tracks are com-pletely different from each other mu-sically and take time to build on the listener. “Normal Person” is a true rocker, with a bluesy verse that builds into a screeching chorus that reminds you of The Black Keys. “You Already Know” is just a simple, jangly guitar pop song that is an easy listen. “Joan of Arc” is another rock song, which has more of a pop chorus that is only memorable for Chassagne’s vocals in the chorus.

The second disc is, by leaps and bounds, better than the first, as it has a more defined sound instead of the disjointed styles of the first disc. Continuing an Arcade Fire tradition of using the same title multiple times on an album, “Here Comes the Night Time II” is a slow, measured, beauti-ful song that begins with a deep cello that builds into a synth organ. Butler provides very wispy, cold vocals for a track perfect for Halloween and crisp autumn nights. Much like “The Suburbs, continued” from their last album, it is a bare, stripped-down perspective of a previous song. Fol-lowing are the two songs that play off on the lyrical theme of the al-bum—a retelling of the 1959 French film “Black Orpheus.” “Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)” leads off with a very drawn out, purposed bass line backed by rhythmic percussion. The sort of sing-along chorus reminds of an Oasis song in some ways. “It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus)” begins with a shout of a guitar riff that presents a very industrial groove and includes a verse that features the same guitar effect from Muse’s “Madness.” The chorus presents a drastic change in the tone of the song, becoming quiet with a harmonious, desperate vocals from Butler.

“Porno” is incredibly infectious. The verse gives a double scoop of synthesizers with finger snaps and a remarkably measured groove for a bass line. The chorus calls for com-

parisons to a Kate Bush tune with a great rhyme scheme that just flows out of the vocalist’s mouth. The lyrics display terrific emotion throughout the track—certainly one of the best on the album. A track that had been re-leased with a video, but not as a single, before the album had been put out of-ficially was “Afterlife,” which is just a vintage Arcade Fire song in its truest definition. It enters the mind with fun, almost parade-style percussion, but conflicts with the dark imagery of death and failed relationships backed by just drums and bass on the verse. It all builds up to a chorus featuring synths and guitars that create one of those classic soundscapes that Arcade Fire is known for, and echoing the re-frain, “My love is gone. Where did it

go?” This track will present a fantastic live performance in the future.

“Afterlife” syncs up to the begin-ning of “Supersymmetry,” a slower, synth driven-song that really closes out the album well. The harmonies of Butler and Chassagne, husband and wife, turn a nice song into a beautiful song. And it all builds into a fantas-tic finish with a string section over-laid on the synthesizers that creates smooth, relaxing tones.

“Reflektor” might be a bit too am-bitious in places, certainly on the first disc. Tracks like “We Exist” and “Joan of Arc” feel a bit out of place musi-cally on this album, and the market-ing campaign might not have been needed after the huge success of “The Suburbs.” The overall lyrical theme of

the record is not that accessible in the first few listens, much less transparent than that which was found on “The Suburbs.” The story is there to follow, but it will take some time thoroughly studying the lyrics book and intently listening to decipher the full meaning.

However, at its peaks, some of the best music can be found. The genre change proves how versatile Arcade Fire is. They can transform from a rock-based band to an electronic group in less than an album. The fun-damental musical talent of the band is evident throughout the album, and they are really good at putting to-gether an entire album. It is extremely tough to follow-up a Grammy award-winning album, but “Reflektor” comes awfully close.

arcade fire The band is known for writing emotional lyrics. photo from internet source

Thom Smith creates unique electronic music

Though I am a fan of electronic music, I often find myself very frus-trated with how much of it sounds the same. I honestly cannot tell the difference between all the dudes in wifebeaters who play dubstep on MTV or the foreign guys in masks that just want to rip off Daft Punk. As a result, I have taken to exploring the internet in search of quality techno and electronic dance music (EDM), and while I am not always successful, some of my discoveries and intro-ductions have provided me with new favorite artists.

With his new EP “Back to Out-land,” independent composer Thom Smith (also known as beatmaker Opin) has quickly integrated himself into that list. While I am not very familiar with his music, the songs I heard on his site (opin.bandcamp.com) really stuck with me. There’s a creativity to the layers upon layers of funky sounds in each song that isn’t trying to make quick cash off of clubs, but really expresses a unique musical vision.

By Jess LindeStaff

“Back to Outland,” a more ex-

perimental and ambient piece than Smith’s previous work as Opin, does exactly that. Opening with the one-two punch “Shadows of the Past” and “High Pressure,” the tone is imme-diately set as a real experience with heavy undertones and psychedelic sounds. “Forest Lullaby” continues this but adds a slow, natural drumbeat to great atmospheric effect. “Living in the Wild” reminds me of the Austra-lian outback with its animalistic roars and didgeridoo-like bass notes.

“Sharp Edges,” is an overpowering

blast of electronica that made me feel like I was in Videodrome or Cube, in a very good way. “Elemental Focus” and “End of Time” are both crazy and unnerving in the best sense, and both remind me of Flying Lotus with a Pink Floyd twist. Overall, “Back to Outland” is a really cool and really good piece of work, and one that feels electric in a way that no other elec-tronic artist has given me. It’s out on Smith’s bandcamp on Oct. 11, and if you don’t pick it up, you’ll be missing out on great work by a very talented upcoming artist.

“ ”There’s a creativity to the layers upon layers of funky sounds in each song that...really expresses a unique musical vision

8 ARTS, ETC. The Brandeis Hoot November 1, 2013

Photo challenge showcases Brandeis prideBy Dana Trismen

Editor

Ten days and multiple forms of so-cial media resulted in over 500 tweets from Brandeisians who were eager to share their school pride, commu-nity and favorite places on campus. On Oct. 21, Brandeis launched the #Brandeis 10-Day Challenge, Photo-A-Day, which encouraged all students to take photos according to different themes and share them on social me-dia. The challenge ended Thursday.

“The photo challenge is so much more than showcasing creativity on campus. The posts and tweets breathe life into what people hear and see about the Brandeis community and experience. The messages and photos offer perspective to those consider-ing Brandeis for college and recon-nect alumni and even students who are currently abroad back to campus,” said Monika Bach Schroeder, assistant director of marketing and communi-cations at Hiatt Career Center. It was Schroeder’s idea to create this photo contest.

“These 10 days have been an op-portunity for each member of the Brandeis community (no matter how near or far) to share with others, re-connect, show Brandeis pride and be reminded of all of the experiences that we share and love here,” Schro-eder said.

Schroeder states that her idea arose because late October is a season of many Brandeis festivities, from Fall Fest to the Athletic Homecoming, and she thought the photo challenge would fit in perfectly. She had also witnessed similar social media cam-paigns taking place at other schools.

“This seemed like the perfect op-portunity to try something new, given

photo courtesy arielle kellerrecycle Brandeisians show off school spirit and environmental passion in photos submitted to the contest.

family away from home In another photo contest entry, the Brandeis girls soccer team said they consider each other family.

photo courtesy alyssa fenenbock

that we had never done anything like this at Brandeis, and create some ex-citing buzz around campus. However, there have been many departments and staff who were instrumental in making it such a success, including Social Media Specialist in the Office of Communications Allison Morse,” Schroeder said.

Each day of the challenge featured a “phrase of the day,” from “shake hands with Louis” to “family” to “favorite spot on campus.” Students took these prompts in different directions. Some painted their nails the Brandeis colors, others took photos with their alumni legacy family, and some climbed up onto the Louis statue.

Schroeder has only heard positive reactions after implementing the chal-lenge. “I’ve heard great things! I think students and staff have enjoyed see-ing how each person and department has really put their own spin on each prompt/day. I also think that students and staff/faculty are really proud of what’s happening around campus, and this was a fun and engaging way to share their Brandeis pride,” she said.

Faculty such as Andrew Flagel, se-nior vice president of students and en-rollment, have also gotten involved in the challenge, actively tweeting pho-tos. Students posted their photos on both Twitter and Facebook.

Part of the draw to students may be the prizes. Each day, a winner received a small prize, and people who posted a photo each day became eligible for the grand prize. This gift was described as the “Brandeis bundle” and included a 32 GB iPad with a Retina display.

For a school where few people head outdoors to watch sporting events or wear Brandeis colors, the photo chal-lenge has given Brandeisians the op-portunity to do something rarely seen: express true school spirit.

“ ”The posts and tweets breathe life into what people hear and see about the Brandeis community.

Monika Bach Schroeder

Chum’s show brings clapping , stomping and hilarityBy Michelle Kim

Staff

One of this week’s many coffee houses was presented at Chum’s by the cast of “Hamlet.” Fortunately for the coffee house planners, the sheer talent presented that night made up for the lack of punctuality.

So Unique performed first, and (lit-erally) kicked off the night with series of clapping and stomping. Although it was not an a cappella performance, the strong beats created a song of their own. Gradually, the complex-ity of the step dancing increased; more groups of dancers joined, creat-ing syncopation and alternate beats. Much of the crowd consisted of sup-portive friends and a mom, all of whom cheered and screamed loudly. I was very impressed by the intricacy and unity of their movements and sounds. The group is indeed unique. They are talented and were well-re-hearsed.

After a whirlwind of stomping and clapping, So Unique stepped off the stage to make room for four of the leading members of the campus’ sketch comedy group Boris’ Kitch-

en, one of Brandeis’ most renowned comedy troupes. Prior to their cof-fee house performance, I had heard many people rave about how good they are. However, Tuesday night was a disappointment; the jokes were not as funny as they could have been. However, there were a few moments when Boris’ Kitchen hit the right notes. Although this show did not live up to its hype, I can see why they are so beloved on campus.

Following Boris’ Kitchen was Bad Grammar, an improv group. I felt that Bad Grammar’s performance was much more lively than Boris’ Kitchen’s. By including the crowd, Bad Grammar was able to liven up the audience. Their first performance was about a girl named Liz, who is late to work and is interrogated by her boss. The audience had to choose two reasons why Liz was late—we decided she got stuck in quicksand or she got cut in half by a man in a suit of armor. Using these reasons, Bad Grammar improvised a skit where a very sarcas-tic Liz had to fabricate a story that ex-plained her tardiness. Bad Grammar did a spectacular job of keeping the audience on their toes by executing short but funny skits.

However, there was one joke that truly missed the mark. At one point, each Bad Grammar member had to say, “I like my men/women like I like my homework,” and then finish off the sentence with some kind of pun or clever ending. One performer said, “I like my women like I like my home-work...at home doing work.” I inter-preted this as a reference to the belief that women should stay at home and carry out domestic jobs. Myself, and many other females in the room were not too happy to hear this. Albeit, it was said under high pressure during

an improv performance, but it was still disappointing to hear something like this, especially at Brandeis.

Feminist thoughts aside, I thought that Bad Grammar was probably one of the best acts of the night. After their act, the cast of “Hamlet” sampled their play by performing a short se-lection of scenes. The majority of the cast spoke with an American accent, which was a bit unexpected because I’ve always imagined Shakespeare plays to be performed in a British ac-cent. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes, which effectively enticed

many in the audience, including my-self, to want to watch the full produc-tion of “Hamlet,” which will be per-formed in the SCC Theater from Nov. 7 through 10. After a few charming, well-done scenes and a skull (acci-dentally) thrown off stage, it became clear to me that this year’s production of “Hamlet” is going to be fantastic.

The night ended with a few more improv performances from the likes of False Advertising, who were also very funny but only did one very long game. Brandeis is clearly full of tal-ented artists.

photo by morgan dashko/the hootso unique step team

November 1, 2013 The Brandeis Hoot ARTS, ETC. 9

‘Almost, Maine:’ a sweet romantic comedy

tion is adorable.) The crowd consisted of just 11

loved-up couples, two camera-clad reporters, and five excited parents. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the audience had a significant other with them. Cliché, but still cute. The play is the perfect show to see with someone you care about. Although the opening night crowd was small, a large turnout is expected over the weekend.

One aspect of the play that I en-joyed was the multiplicity of char-acters played by each actor. Emily Duggan ’15 played Sandrine, Gayle Marci, and Wife; Rachel Liff ’16 was Ginette, Villian, and Hope; Ryan Millis ’15 was Jimmy, Chad, and Dave; Jamie Semel was Glory, Mar-valyn, and Rhonda; Joseph Tian-iaow was East, Lendall, Randy, and Daniel; Yuval Yossefy ’17 was Pete,

Steve, and Phil. Although this cast-ing was somewhat confusing be-cause it was difficult to follow who was who, it was a clever way of mak-ing all of the actors and actresses endearing to the audience. By put-ting them on stage multiple times, the members of the audience grew to love each and every single actor or actress. They had the opportu-nity to show different sides of them-selves with each new performance, giving the audience a full picture of the talent in the cast.

Each couple’s story was either heart-wrenching or heart-warming. When a couple ended up together, they had a love so beautiful, so ex-traordinary, that the audience could not help but feel touched.. What was so special about all of these situa-tions was that everything that oc-curs in the play happens to realistic characters—whether it be between two strangers, a pair of best friends, or a married couple. The romances are believable, and this makes them

all the more poignant. At the end of each scene, I felt two things: the desire to know what happens later, and the excitement of knowing that I would watch another fascinat-ing love story in a mere few sec-onds.

However, not each couple was fortunate enough to find everlast-ing love. A few fell out of love. These characters caused viewers to remember the cruel side of some romances: the breakup. Although no tears were shed, it was still sad to be reminded that sometimes love doesn’t always last or end the way people wish it would.

“Almost, Maine” is by far one of the best plays I have seen at Brandeis. This play is understand-able, and viewers can easily relate it to their personal experiences. It’s quaint, charming, sweet, and most of all, too short. What made it so likeable was its ability to show people the beauty of New England. From the bundled up characters to

the fake snow on the stage, every part of the play made the audience feel as if they themselves were out-side witnessing every vignette in real life.

Everyone was hooked within the first few minutes of the play. On stage, married couples reminisced the early days of their romance; new ones fawned over their bud-ding love. The play is set up so that the audience is always on the edge of their seats, constantly guessing what will happen.

At one point of the play, Glory states, “I felt like my heart would

break. And that’s exactly what hap-pened.” Sorry Glory, but by the end of the show, all of the audience’s hearts had been won over.

Three local activists and scholars gave their thoughts on race and gen-der in the election Tuesday night, in a forum moderated by Professor Anita Hill (HS) and sponsored by the Afri-can and Afro-American Studies de-partment. The panel, the first of two forums preceding the election next month, was held in Boston’s South End and widely attended by members of the Brandeis and Greater Boston community.

photos by michelle kim/the hoot

MAINE, from page 1

eDitoriaLs10 The Brandeis Hoot November 1, 2013

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An interesting theme has come to characterize the 2013-2014 school year. Many familiar faces

in Brandeis Administration, some with decades of past experience on this campus, are disappearing. A procession of the most seasoned education profes-sionals Brandeis has to offer have turned in their resignations. Common to all of these departures is the air of mystery which has obscured their circum-stances. Students may only speculate that political differences between newly recruited talent and more established figures have resulted in the suspiciously timed departures of administrative tal-ent.

So far, Dean of Student Life Rick Saw-yer, a Brandeis veteran of 32 years, Dean

of Admissions Mark Spencer, who had over two decades of admissions experi-ence, and now, Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins, with 26 years of Brandeis experience under his belt, have thrown in the towel. Over a half-century worth of talent has exited this campus in less than six months.

As is common in resignations, we are often told that private reasons informed the ultimate decisions of these individu-als to leave. But when these “private” decisions may have been incited by administrative conflicts concerning the fundamental direction of the university, students deserve to know what is going on behind closed doors. Students and their families make massive sacrifices, in both time and money, to attend this

university. We need to be certain that in-ternal turbulence does not pose a threat to that investment.

Further, all three of these individuals were valued members of the Brandeis community, with deep roots and student relationships. If for no other reason, stu-dents and members of the community deserve closure which can only come from understanding the circumstances which led to the events of the past semester.

There now exists a deficit of commu-nication between administrators and the rest of the Brandeis community. We hope that the university will take appro-priate action to rectify the situation.

Univ. needs to communicate on recent spate of resignations

Letter to the Editor

In The Hoot last week, Naomi So-man wrote a very important story on the importance of Brandeis retaining its Jewish connections (“Reflections on secularization at Brandeis,” Oct. 25). While Brandeis is a non-sectarian uni-versity, its origins in the tradition of the Jewish faith is what makes it special. As a Roman Catholic priest and chaplain, I think this is key for our university. If

we lose that aspect of our history we will lose a lot. The University is very open to all religions and to those who pro-fess no faith. We have a varied group of chaplains including Muslim, Christian, Jewish and now a Hindu advisor. This speaks to the changing demographics of our University and to the many students from other countries. This diversity is very special but we must never forget

where we came from. As Naomi said, “Judaism is part of Brandeis’s past, pres-ent and future, and that is something we should embrace.” I endorse that view enthusiastically.

Reverend Walter Cuenin, Catholic Chaplain and Coordinator of the Inter-faith Chaplaincy

this week in photosNovember 1, 2013 The Brandeis Hoot 11

photo by katie chin/the hootvariety show At the Fall Fest Variety Show, various student groups performed, including Taiwanese Student Association, Juggling Club, Belly Dance Ensemble, Adagio and Top Score.

opinion12 The Brandeis Hoot November 1, 2013

What promises dose the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook offer students?

University reserves broad latitude in defining and interpreting standards of behavior, and in construing these policies and procedures,” the hand-book states.

What this sentence essentially says is that in addition to writing the rules, the administration can “interpret” them, too. To the eyes of a lay-reader, its looks like someone playing Mo-nopoly against the banker. However, a closer look reveals a more nu-anced reality. More often than not, this clause is applied to soften the disciplinary aspect of the handbook. However, this does not mean that the language is harmless.

Rights and Responsibilities should not be a political document. It is possible for this clause to be used as

an evasive maneuver to protect the university in the event that a student attempts to hold it accountable for violating the promises it makes in the Handbook.

Again, perhaps I am paranoid, but I believe such assumptions have precedent. In the Massachusetts Su-preme Judicial Court case of Schaer v. Brandeis, a student accused the university of failing to provide the handbook-mandated “summary re-port” of his disciplinary hearing be-fore he was expelled. The court found that Brandeis had not violated Rights and Responsibilities because the uni-versity had not specified exactly what a “summary report” was.

I think we ought to reconsider some of the language in the Stu-

dent Handbook, as well as how that language is adopted. Although the Brandeis Student Handbook is not unlike other universities’ in that it is drafted without student consensus, I feel that we would be a stronger uni-versity if it were. Some administrators acknowledge that most students are unaware of their rights until they vio-late their responsibilities. Perhaps this is because of the passive role students are allowed in its authorship. In order to ensure institutional stability, we have to start looking inward. We bill ourselves as a “social justice univer-sity,” looking out and trying to apply ourselves to make the world a more equitable place, but are we strong enough to point that high-powered perception at ourselves?

By Lassor Feasley & Andrew Elmers

Editor

Ah, the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook. That gleaming beacon of student expectations that governs the behavior of all Brandeis enrollees. This is our constitution, the fabric of our rights as students and the frame-work of our punitive justice system should they be violated. While not a legal document per se, judges at both the state and federal level have held universities liable to fulfill the promises made in their student hand-books. It is the single most significant contract with which students may advocate for themselves in the face of on-campus injustice.

In the curation of this document, administrators are given a fantastic opportunity. Although the handbook is written by administrators who do consider feedback, unlike most con-stitutions, it was not conceived by a body representing the constituency it governs. This fact, however, gives administrators the mandate to freely strive to match the ideals set forth in more significant constitutions, and even to exceed them.

Today, I examine the introduction to the Handbook. From other consti-tutions, we might expect a preamble to state the purpose of the document, the interests its authors represent and a broad outline of the spirit which educated its authorship.

The first three paragraphs do delve into the document’s purpose. “To es-tablish certain standards of personal conduct,” “to give all students a gen-eral notice of community standards” and to ensure “the safety and freedom to teach and learn” and “the safety and health of persons in the commu-nity,” among others.

Now we get into territory that is not quite as clear cut. Whose inter-ests does this document represent? Interestingly, there is only a vaguely worded mention of to whom “Rights and Responsibilities” applies. How-ever, the administrators who enforce it insist it only applies to students. Certainly we may assume that Rights and Responsibilities was written for the good of the student body to

whom it applies. But it also mentions interests whose behavior is not gov-erned by the document. Specifically “the vibrant University Community” mentioned in the first sentence of the Introduction.

This concerns me. Here we have a document that exists to maintain the integrity of the Brandeis com-munity but which only imposes re-strictions on a narrow constituency in that community. Although they enjoy the benefits of its restrictions, Brandeis staff, professors and even the administrators who wrote the document are immune to its regula-tions. I asked an administrator if any equivalent document governed the actions of non-student members of the Brandeis Community. I was told, “Human Resources and supervisory relationships oversee faculty and staff conduct.” This worries me. If hierar-chical supervisory relationships gov-ern staff conduct, who supervises the supervisors?

Of course, so long as the supervi-sors and administrators are, on the whole, reasonable people, as I believe they are, there is no reason to worry. But can we trust that all administra-tors and supervisors will always be reasonable? Maybe I am being alarm-ist and paranoid, but I believe that these things must be considered in order to ensure the sustained func-tion of an institution.

In many ways, the structure of Brandeis governance appears to be analogous to the structure of the gov-ernance of a democratic republic. We have a president, a vice president, a board meant to check and balance their power and a Student Conduct Process which has many parallels to a courtroom. We are constantly re-minded that Brandeis is a “social jus-tice” university. But a close reading of the actual mechanics of power distri-bution at Brandeis reveals attributes that betray that promise.

This leads to what is, to me, the most interesting aspect of the Intro-duction, and possibly of the entire document. Rather than affirming the binding language contained within the Handbook, the last line of the in-troduction makes it absolutely clear that its contract is subject to the dis-cretion of the administration. “The

graphic by jun zhao/the hoot

Students can be more receptive to interracial dating

By Marlharrissa LagardereSpecial to the Hoot

I was in kindergarten when I first met an interracial couple. My family had just moved into a large residen-tial community in a suburban area of Georgia. The neighborhood was large but very homey, and consisted of a variation of ranch and colonial homes with large yards. It was a very family-friendly environment with a mixture of young couples, middle-aged cou-ples (like my parents), elderly couples and many children.

One of our neighbors was an elder-

ly black couple whose children had already graduated high school and were off working and in college, while our other neighbors were a young black and Asian couple who had two toddlers, one daughter and one son. Prior to moving to this neighbor-hood, we had lived in a minority-based apartment complex, mostly consisting of black and Hispanic fam-ilies and whenever we weren’t home, we were socializing in the Haitian, Seventh Day Adventist community.

I had never seen or met a married couple that was not of the same race;

all I mainly saw were white, black or Hispanic couples. But I had never seen them mixed together. I did not actually figure out this couple was in-terracial until I was a little older and finally had a deeper understanding of interracial couples. I believe this was the flame that would light my attrac-tion to other races.

13 years later, I now reside in a suburban area of Massachusetts and attend a small, liberal arts university. I look around and see many faces of different ethnic backgrounds and many social groups with people of different races. I would describe my-self as a hopeless romantic and a lib-eral lover, meaning that I love across all races, and I would say that I do see many other liberal lovers around me.

With a campus population of just under 4,000 students and a 25 per-cent minority rate, there would ap-pear to be plenty of potential lovers to go around. Considering the diverse demographics of Brandeis minorities, one would think that initiating an in-terracial relationship would be easy. Personally, I have not found this to be the case.

Even though I am still years away from walking down the aisle, a recent

Facebook survey referenced in the Huffington Post revealed that about a quarter of married Facebook us-ers met their spouse in college. But now on the flip side, I have to look at the nation’s statistic of 0.3 percent of white men married to black women and have to begin reconsidering my chances of nailing a white man.

Within my circle of African Ameri-can female friends, most of them said they are liberal lovers, like myself, and wouldn’t mind dating a white man, but none said they had a preference for white men. Four of my close girl-friends are currently dating African American men, another is dating a Latino and black man and another is dating a black and Indian man. Out of this same demographic, three have dated white men in the past and all but one out of the three claimed they would date another white man. Within my own family, my sister has dated a white woman and my brother has been interested in white women but never dated one, similar to my-self. Reflecting on my dating history, I have always been attracted to white men, but have yet to actually date a white man. This could be due to at-tending a predominantly black and

Hispanic high school, a predomi-nantly Pacific-Asian church and liv-ing in predominantly black suburb.

There are stigmas associated to a black woman desiring a white male partner. Commonly, these women are described as wanting to be white or interested in their money. De-grading stereotypes also follow white men who seek a black, female part-ner, such as having a fetish or having “jungle fever.”

Even as times are progressing and there is an increase of Americans ap-proving of interracial marriages, there is still a disparity among white and black couples getting married. Televi-sion shows (i.e. “Scandal” and “Par-enthood”) help advocate interracial couples by depicting black females in relationships with white men and more importantly, these are educated and independent black women paired with equally educated and strong-willed white men. These television shows assist a little bit on the topic of interracial dating and how it is pos-sible for black females to have a white partner, but the harsh and degrading stigmas that follow these couples will continue to hinder them from walk-ing down the aisle.

photo from internet source

November 1, 2013 The Brandeis Hoot OPINION 13

Do double majors have enough time to focus?By Debra EdelmanSpecial to the Hoot

I do not think that what I am about to say will come as a surprise: Brandeis students like variety. This often comes in the form of schedule overload, with students taking on a multitude of academic and extracur-ricular pursuits. Given this taste for ambition, I also do not think that it comes as a surprise to anyone that there is a popular trend for Brandei-sians to take on two, or even three, majors. Among the class of 2013, 47 percent held double majors, up from 39 percent among the class of 2012. Brandeis allows its students to take on up to three majors and up to three minors, with many students obvious-ly taking advantage of this flexibility.

A recent graduate, who double ma-jored in linguistics and Islamic stud-ies, shared with me how she felt her double major enhanced her academic experience.

“[Both of my majors] had the com-mon element of the language, and I liked the ability to get into two differ-ent areas that both interested me, and to figure out where they did comple-ment each other.”

One of the main benefits of double majoring is that students can cre-ate an academic profile and course selection that is more personalized and more tailored to a student’s spe-cific interests. Double majors can also help broaden the application of a single major, as is the case with the student quoted above. She was able to apply her study of linguistics to her study of Arabic, and vice versa.

However, not all schools share the same academic philosophy as Brandeis. For example, at Princ-eton, a student’s academic program is limited to the “rule of eight and twelve,” which states that students must declare exactly one major, and in that major, students must take at least eight courses in that depart-ment, but no more than twelve. This ensures that students develop mas-tery in their chosen subject, but also

makes sure that they have ample time to explore other areas of interest. At Princeton, all students of the lib-eral arts and sciences are required to complete a thesis during their senior year, marking the culmination of this focused route of study. A thesis proj-ect is a year-long research and writing project during which a student works

to answer a question of interest.Kate Smith, a current senior at

Princeton majoring in history, shared with me her thoughts on the single major and thesis curriculum at Princ-eton: “I like that you can only have one major because the thesis is the culmination of your work at Princ-eton,” she told me candidly.

“Having a single major allows stu-dents to devote a significant portion of their academic energy into com-pleting a well-focused thesis in a single department. Writing the thesis becomes the academic focus of a stu-dent’s senior year.”

While students at Brandeis have the opportunity to participate in a

departmental honors program in or-der to complete a senior thesis, many students do not take advantage of this opportunity during their senior year. Even in the most popular depart-ments, thesis writers are often limited to a small group of particularly devot-ed and enthusiastic students.

My question is this: Are Brandeis students taking on such a broad aca-demic curricula that finding a con-crete focus for a thesis during their senior year becomes too challenging? Or does being able to develop knowl-edge in a variety of subjects take pri-ority over developing a single unified project? This, of course, leaves out the possibility that students could write a senior thesis that combines two or even three majors, and therefore uti-lize faculty and resources from mul-tiple departments; this, however, is often considered to be a much more daunting task than writing a thesis in one department.

While I do not think that Brandeis should more heavily restrict the num-ber of majors and minors that a stu-dent can take on, I do believe that students should look at their options with more discerning eyes. The old mantras of “quality over quantity,” or “more isn’t always better” apply here. Having multiple, complementing ac-ademic interests is undoubtedly posi-tive, but with that being said, I do not think that students should double, or even triple major just for the sake of having multiple degrees. There is something to be said for focusing and completely delving into one subject area. That is not to say that students cannot take courses in other subjects, but that one’s academic focus should center on a single subject.

With that said, I also feel that what makes Brandeis unique is its ability to foster creativity, passion and indi-viduality in a variety of ways. To hold students back from pursuing their wildest multitude of majors would probably contradict the very philoso-phy that makes Brandeis different from other universities.

photo from internet source

photo from internet source

14 OPINION The Brandeis Hoot November 1, 2013

Lack of options promote unhealthy life choicesBy Andrew Elmers

Staff

College students are usually ste-reotyped as having an unhealthy re-lationship with caffeinated beverages. This relationship is created due to the fact that students have a lot of work to do, stay up late and thus, need a lot of caffeine. All valid points, and there are plenty of places to get coffee around campus, if you choose to do so. But there is even more caffeine be-ing thrown in our faces—in the form of sugary, bubbly soft drinks.

Sodas seem to make up a major-ity of the options in both Usdan and Sherman for students to add to their meals. This is a problem, because as you probably already know, soda is bad. It is bad for your teeth, bad for your body and bad for your mind. Now, it would not be so bad if these selections were kept in the corners, out of sight and out of mind. But the soda machines are right in your face whenever you start to look for some-thing to drink. There are even two machines that have about 50 different sodas—just sodas—with up to 1,000 flavor varieties. On top of that, there are no actual water fountains in some dorms, so you have to go to the bath-room to get unfiltered, room-temper-ature water. It is incredible how easy it is to get a soda at this school.

The administration has a degree of implicit control over student lifestyle decisions. I question whether it is wise to exert this control by bombard-ing students with a prevalence of sug-ary soft drinks at every turn. Launch-ing a campaign to promote better drinking options would be a start to a wiser path. They could try to do the responsible thing for our futures and try to instill a healthy lifestyle into the student body. A student body, if it does not drink too much soda and has a healthy lifestyle, can live longer and donate more. Yet, universities idly sit by and let students rot their teeth and get fat, even inviting Coca-Cola to advertize their soft drinks on our campus.

There are easy ways to get this to change. Sodexo has been vocal about running a transparent food service that tries its best to listen to the stu-dents. If enough folks really want to see more choices—perhaps flavored,

filtered waters and unsweetened iced teas—their demands should be met. There are some students interested in getting water fountains in places where there are currently none. All of that depends on how apathetic or not the student body chooses to be on this issue, if anyone even chooses to make this an issue.

Certainly we could use more op-tions and healthier choices. Even a large water cooler would do the trick. The soda fountains are always in the most visible spots, and have the larg-est displays. In order to get more people to drink less soda, not only does the volume of the product need to change, but so does the marketing.

Getting the soda machines to be less visible throughout the din-ing halls could prove to be more of a challenge. It seems pretty obvious that Coca-Cola has a monopoly on Brandeis, with Coke products on the shelves and in the fountains. And no one is trying to hide this fact, as is evident with the abundance of pa-

photo from internet source

per cups with Coke labels. There was even some sort of Coke advertising campaign outside of Usdan a while back. Conjecture would lead one to think that Coke is trying very hard to get students addicted to their product through vast amounts of advertising, both subliminal and direct. If you are at school and only drink, say, Diet Coke, you are a thousand times more likely to continue drinking Diet Coke outside of campus.

However, even if there is a majority of soft drinks throughout this cam-pus, the choice is still ultimately unto us to make the right decision. Water is readily available at the soda fountains, you just have to look for it. And no one else is to blame if we rot out our teeth after drinking 10 Dr. Pepper’s a day during September of our first year just because it is there. Brandeis stu-dents tend to pride themselves on be-ing independent thinkers and should be able to see through the blatant promotion of soft drinks to choose a healthier option, regardless of wheth-er it is easy to find.

It would be nice to not be com-pletely bombarded with Coca-Cola cups and advertising. It would be nice to be shown by the wonderful folks at Sodexo all the different ways to nour-ish our bodies through water, juice, tea, coffee and soda in moderation. It would be nice if it were easier, and cheaper, to just grab a bottle of water instead of heading over to the soda fountain. Yet, things do not always work out that way, and we have no control over some things.

At least some of us are free-thinkig individuals, who care about what we put in our bodies, but not everyone can see past the gross Coca-Cola propaganda smearing these hallowed walls.

graphic by jun zhao/the hoot

November 1, 2013 The Brandeis Hoot OPINION 15

Affiliation and the workforce: a quantitative approach

In the past several weeks, a heated debate has emerged centered around whether or not participating in Greek life is likely to make you rich, power-ful and otherwise successful in your professional endeavors.

One constituency argues that many of the stigmas associated with Greek life, such as hazing and obsession with popularity and body image, betray the values that lead to lucrative and fulfill-ing occupations. They cite various ini-tiation procedures encountered both at Brandeis and other schools.

Greek life is quick to respond that the student-run organizational struc-ture of their organizations is a model of future corporate environments they are likely to encounter. They further cite various figures in national politics and business who themselves were participants in Greek life.

The problem with both of these ar-guments is that they are terrible.

As a member of a Greek organiza-tion on this campus, I feel that Greek life fills a social deficit that is highly present, albeit inconspicuous, at Brandeis. There are many students who lack any form of community on this campus, who spend their Friday nights holed up in their dorm rooms watching movies and wiling away the hours online rather than seeking out community and companionship.

It is the nature of social groups that they be, to some extent, exclusive. The strongest recognized groups on this campus are also the most heteroge-neous. Look at the theater buffs, the athletes and the members of the vari-ous cultural associations on campus.

All of these organizations provide a powerful platform on which stu-dents create lasting social bonds. All of them are also exclusive to the ex-tent that only a narrow constituency would feel comfortable taking advan-tage of the social resources they offer.

To me, it is apparent that many students fall through the cracks and are never sufficiently engaged with the social platforms presented at Brandeis. The presence of Greek life on campus is, in part, a reflection of Brandeis’ failure to provide sufficient opportunities for social engagement to all students.

Which brings me to my point: Greek letter organizations, at least all the ones in Waltham, are first and foremost social organizations. They do not exist to make their members rich or famous or successful. Nothing irks me more than a student who says he wants to join a fraternity for busi-ness connections. It is counter to the spirit of Greek life. To me, whether or not Greek organizations somehow endow their members with business oriented proclivities is a moot point. However, for some reason, framing the conversation in these terms has seemed to resonate on this campus.

So be it. But if we are going to have this debate, let’s be smart about it. In-voking the name of public figures who took part in Greek life or recalling fraternity and sorority chapters ac-cused of hazing hardly moves the con-versation forward. We might as well be hurling rotten vegetables at each other. There exist sociological stud-ies that might actually constructively move this conversation forward.

To distill the question down to terms that can be statistically con-firmed: when, compared to unaffili-ated undergraduates at American col-leges and universities, do Greek life participants enjoy higher incomes? This is a difficult question to answer, and I could not find any reliable stud-ies that tracked the income of a statis-tically significant number of Greek-affiliated undergraduates over time.

Many universities, however, have taken it upon themselves to compile much less resource-intensive studies. Rather than looking at a student’s po-tential future earnings, many schools have instead looked back at the family income of their student bodies. Princ-eton, University of Iowa, Knox Col-lege, University of Memphis and ev-ery other institution I could find that gathered these numbers reached the same result. In every case, these stud-ies found that students from families with higher incomes were more likely to participate in Greek life.

How do we explain this? The most obvious answer is that Greek life pres-ents dues, which price out students from lower income families. Many Greek organizations also place a pre-mium on legacy status, meaning that students from families of high edu-

cational attainment are more likely to get a bid. Most importantly, in my opinion, Greek participation is an ac-quired taste, for which members of certain monied sects of our society have a particularly strong appetite.

So to answer the original ques-tion, yes, on average at a national level, Greeks are probably going to be wealthier than unaffiliated students. I have not seen convincing evidence, however, that joining Greek life will increase your odds of attaining a high income. But, a higher family income both increases your chances of join-ing Greek life and your chances of at-taining a higher personal income.

Already I can hear the roar of pitch-fork-wielding Greeks responding to this article: “But Brandeis Greek life is different!” And they are right. Dues at Greek organizations at Brandeis are lower than probably any other resi-dential university, and they are often waived for members who can’t afford them. Greek life at Brandeis is rela-tively new, so it is not likely to favor legacies (yet). I would even say that the character of the Greek commu-nity on this campus reflects a culture that is less exclusive and less obsessed with body image, wealth and reckless behavior than we might typically see at organizations at more conventional universities.

And they should try and preserve that. But you can’t say “Brandeis is dif-ferent,” while simultaneously point-ing at Condoleezza Rice as evidence that Greek life at Brandeis is likely to improve workforce outcomes. Propo-nents of both arguments need to con-textualize their arguments to reflect the realities of Greek life at Brandeis.

By Naomi SomanStaff

The amount of grade inflation in the past decade has risen tremendously, especially in liberal arts schools. Ac-cording to a database constructed by Stuart Rojstaczer at GradeInflation.com, the average GPA in colleges across the country has risen from a 2.93 to a 3.11, and in private universi-ties from a 3.03 to a 3.3. The percent-age of As that professors award has risen from 15 percent in 1940 to above 40 percent in 2008.

Brandeis professors are quite re-luctant to give out low grades. Is this a problem with Brandeis, or just the way the education system has changed over the years?

Inflating grades does not do anyone any favors when students in graduate school realize that they are not ready to compete with the others. Grade inflation is not uniform across the board, so even though two students may have a 4.0, these grades mean drastically different things.

While Brandeis is one of the top schools in the nation, different schools have different grading rubrics. A more selective school does not necessarily signify lower grade inflations. In fact, many Ivy League schools are notori-ous for pumping up student grades. Since there is no national standard, it’s very hard to make comparisons be-tween a good student and a mediocre student. The truth is that there are a lot of students with poor grades who know how to think, write, study and argue. Grades are not the best way to differentiate among applicants to graduate school and jobs, anyway. Of-ten, these candidates must distinguish themselves through extracurricular

leadership experience and academic pursuit or passion.

By forgetting about numbers and theories and instead just observing students here at Brandeis, grade in-flation does not seem to be making too much of an impact. Though it slightly depends on the class, there’s no reason why all students can’t get As if they deserve them. Humanities students can all earn As on an essay

What to make of grade inflation at Brandeis

because the professor compares the performance to the expected standard of proficiency measured by the assign-ment’s criteria. If they all fulfill those criteria, then they deserve As. While science classes often have a curve, if students know the material, they will earn good grades regardless.

From what I see, Brandeis students try very hard. My classes are full of students asking questions, participat-

ing in discussions and studying in the library at all hours of the day and night, especially during finals week. While many may put off assignments until the last minute, students and adults everywhere do the exact same thing.

Students who care about getting good grades put in the effort, and those who do not will suffer the con-sequences. Although many claim that

grade inflation causes students to study less because they feel they do not have to try hard to get an A, I do not think that students at Brandeis can do so little work that they coast without studying at all. I do not know anyone who does not spend their days and evenings reading, writing, filling out lab reports or working on some other assignment.

The system is set up so that students can get by on less effort, but grades are not the whole picture. High-achieving students are motivated not by grades alone but by intellectual pursuit and passion for the subject. While grades are necessary to fill the gap where pas-sion will not inspire students to do well on their own, passion is still an important force in and of itself. Most classes boast professor office hours, optional readings and class discus-sions which strongly encourage or require participation. If students want to actually learn the subject, then they will put in the effort to do so. Grade inflation is part of the system; it just means students have to put in the ex-tra effort if they want to go far.

There will always be plenty of stu-dents who coast by on the minimum amount of effort and receive a medio-cre grade, but inflation does not make a good student a better student. There is no trick—it’s based on self-motiva-tion. Even if it is easier to get a higher grade, professors are not stupid; they know a smart student when they see one, and that student will go as far as many Brandeis students do. Students have passion for their chosen endeav-ors, and if that passion holds true, it will translate to success because the effort they put forth will prove worth-while, regardless of grades.

By Lassor FeasleyEditor

photo from internet source

graphic by jun zhao/the hoot

this week in photosNovember 1, 2013 The Brandeis Hoot 11

photo by anni long/the hoot

Happy Halloween!