Volume 9Number 22

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass. October 12, 2012www.thebrandeishoot.com

At faculty insistence, administration to make public more specific committee reports

University releases new framework for strategic plan

October reserved for month-long

community inputBy Zach Reid

Editor

Provost Steve Goldstein released the preliminary framework for Brandeis’ strategic plan on Wednesday, high-lighting the university’s commitments to social justice, global connections and selective academic excellence in new focus areas.

“This proposed framework reshapes our practices in profound ways, guid-ing us toward the fulfillment of our founding vision while addressing to-day’s unique challenges,” Goldstein wrote in the framework’s cover letter. “It provides mechanisms to helps us make hard choices about investment, con-solidation and redirection of resources over the coming years—choices neces-sary to advance our premier standing

while establishing a sustainable finan-cial structure for the university.”

The framework itself, which is now available on the university’s website, is a 14-page “rough draft” of how the next five years of the strategic plan will be en-acted. It gives readers a broad overview of how Brandeis will attempt to ensure that various improvement initiatives around campus are possible, rather than specify each initiative individually.

Some aspects of the framework will affect different areas and members of the community more so than others; one area that could definitively impact Brandeis students is the addition of five new educational programs. These pro-grams include Biomedicine and Global Health, Engineering, Integrated Arts, Legal and Ethical Studies and World Issues Forum. Each of theses programs are described in the framework as be-ing designed to bridge a gap between schools, and are emphasized as being interdisciplinary.

The Integrated Arts program, which according to the framework would

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments challenging affirmative action on Wednesday in the case of Fisher v. the University of Texas at Austin.

In Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003, the Court—under Justice Sandra Day O’Connor—upheld 5-4 the Univer-sity of Michigan Law School’s use of limited racial preference, ruling that race could be a factor in admissions, although not the sole determining factor.

In March, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew

Students, professors and commu-nity members discussed the past, present and future of

Zionism in the modern world during a forum in the international lounge Thursday evening. The event was co-sponsored by four on-cam-pus Jewish organizations—BIPAC, J Street U, bView and Hillel—and featured commentary by student leaders, experts and members of the audience.

The event was heavily attended,

Supreme Court hears oral arguments in affirmative action case

By Connor NovyEditor

By Nathan Murphy NeedleStaff

Flagel said that no matter what the court decides, Brandeis will not have to make drastic changes to its admis-sions standards.

Because Brandeis receives federal funding, there are mandates from the court that could affect its behavior.

“Unlike University of Michigan and some others,” Flagel said in a March interview, “where it’s a very overt ef-fort to fill a certain number of req-uisite slots with a certain number of students from different backgrounds, that’s not been the case [at Brandeis].”

“It would be impossible for me to say that race is not a factor, but it’s also a bit of a misleading concept to say that race is a direct factor, because

and began with leaders of the spon-soring organizations discussing the current state of Zionism. Chen Arad and Gil Zamir ’15, co-founders of Brandeis Visions for Israel in an Evolving World (bView), noted the lack of discussion about Zionism in today’s society. “We need to rediscov-er something the Zionist movement has lost—the ability to argue with each other,” Zamir said. He also noted that the meeting was not simply a dis-cussion of Zionist history, but rather an opportunity to brainstorm as a group and define the future of Zion-ism, and to produce the “next brilliant

See SCOTUS, page 3

See ISRAEL, page 3

See FRAMEWORK, page 3

By Nathan KoskellaEditor

After the new strategic plan’s pre-liminary framework was presented at the October faculty meeting Thurs-day, where several professors criti-cized its generality, President Fred Lawrence retook the floor and an-

nounced that a larger amount of in-formation would be made public than originally intended.

At the beginning of the forum, Provost Steve Goldstein had stressed broad principles rather than specific tactics. But by the end of a meeting where faculty repeatedly asked for more information, Lawrence decided

that there need be no reason to keep the individual reports of the Strate-gic Planning Steering Committee’s smaller task forces private, as the pro-vost and task forces had planned.

“Transparency is the hallmark of our administration and so in fact, if it

See STRATEGIC PLAN, page 3

strategic plan Provost Steve Goldstein answered questions from faculty at Thursday’s meeting.

in reality what we do is evaluate ap-plicants very comprehensively and holistically,” he added.

While few believe that the Grutter case will be reversed, some, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor, suspect that it may become inert by the court’s new ruling, which is set to come out this June.

Sotomayor told Fisher’s lawyer about the current legal precedent set in 2003, “You’re trying to gut it.”

The plaintiff must prove that the University of Texas differs in its meth-ods from that of Michigan’s or other universities’ that abide by current

movement” for Jews in Israel. Viktoria Bedo ’15, president of J

Street U, also discussed her life as a socially liberal Jew in Hungary. “My Zionist identity has always been tied up with my Jewish identity,” she said. Bedo reflected on her own struggles with nationalism in her home coun-try. “On the streets of Budapest, na-tionalism meant anti-Semitism,” Bedo said. “Having a sense of being Hungarian was for skinheads.” While she recognized the need for a strong

Student clubs host forum on Zionism

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

photo by alex patch/the hootspike The Judges took down Emerson 3-0 in a home game on Wednesday.

Inside this issue:News: Senate considers reform; votes forthcomingFeatures: Peace Corps inspires conservationSports: Men’s soccer stretches unbeaten streakEditorials: Strategic plan poses key questionsOpinion: The importance of Big BirdArts, Etc.: Into the Woods astounds at opening

Men’s soccerBrandeis Men’s soccer continues undefeated streak to 17 games dating back to last year.

sports: Page 10

Into the woods opensBrandeis’ Free Play Cooperative performance draws audience to outdoor venue

Arts, etc.: Page 9

Page 4 Page 5Page 10Page 12Page 14Page 9

News2 The Brandeis Hoot October 12, 2012

College Briefs

The Waltham Police Department has identified the driver of the Sept. 16 hit-and-run accident as Eric Romero, 23, of Belmont. Romero was charged with leaving the scene of the accident with personal in-jury after hitting Zach Pollard, 18, a student at Bentley University.

Pollard received a broken shoulder and a concussion from the accident. Waltham police officers were able to track down Romero by the broken side mirror on his car as a result of the accident. Pollard is still recover-ing from his injuries at home.

Source: CBS Waltham

Authorities in Monroe, New York alleged that Alexandra Kogut, 18, a first-year at the State University of New York College at Brockport was beaten to death in her dorm room on Oct. 1 by her boyfriend, Clay-ton Whittemore, 21. Kogut was discovered in her dorm room after her mother contacted authorities, concerned that she couldn’t reach

her daughter. Whittemore admitted to state troopers that he intention-ally killed Kogut upon his arrest near Syracuse on Saturday but did not mention a motive. Whittemore later pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. Whittemore is being held in jail without bond.

Source: KWTX News 10 Texas

The University of Texas (UT) at Austin instituted a new policy this fall that is designed to encourage students to graduate within four years. A randomly selected group of 200 current first-years have been offered a significant portion of money by UT-Austin to help pay off their most expensive loans if the selected students make a cer-tain amount of progress toward their degrees within a designated

time frame. UT-Austin is administer-ing the pilot program under pressure from the State of Texas. The state is concerned with the increased num-ber of student loans and decreased university completion rates. If the pi-lot program is successful, UT-Austin financial aid officials hope to expand this opportunity to 3,200 students per year.

Source: Houston Chronicle

The Boston University police discovered a body in the Charles River near the BU boathouse early Monday morning. Shortly after the discovery was made, the medi-cal examiner determined that the body was of a 62-year-old white male and that his body entered the water within the past two days. The medical examiner and authorities have also confirmed that the body did not show any signs of foul play. The medical examiner is currently determining whether the man was intoxicated or homeless.

The body of Jonathan Dailey, a graduate student at Boston Archi-

tectural College, was discovered in the Charles River Tuesday morning. Dailey was reported missing Oct. 5 and had been missing since Oct. 2. According to authorities, Dailey’s body was found bound to chains and weighted down by a cinder block. The body was eventually identified as Dailey by his dental records. Investi-gators have yet to determine whether or not Dailey was a victim of foul play, or whether or not there was another cause of death, such as suicide. This was the second body found in the Charles River in two days.

Source: The Boston Globe

Gerald and Lily Chow of Hong Kong are suing Boston-area educa-tion consultant, Mark Zimny and his company, for promising to get their two sons into Harvard Uni-versity in exchange for more than $2 million in advisory fees as well as for posing as a Harvard profes-sor. Zimny first approached the Chows at their eldest son’s high school graduation ceremony in 2007, offering his services and con-nections to help get both sons into New England boarding schools and Ivy League colleges. Zimny eventu-

ally asked for a $1 million retainer for each child, which the Chows paid so that Zimny could make a donation to Harvard on their behalf. Since it is common for families not familiar with the U.S. college admission pro-cess to seek professional guidance, there is a growing market of college advising companies that can take ad-vantage of unassuming families eager for success. According to The Boston Globe, both Chow sons eventually went to Ivy league schools but did not attend Harvard.

Source: ABC News

Hong Kong family sues after sons rejected by Harvard

Two bodies discovered in Charles River

UT Austin launches new financial aid pilot program

College first-year killed by boyfriend at SUNY

Hit and run driver who injured Bentley student identified

BC student selected as first ever UN youth observer

Brooke Loughrin, a junior at Bos-ton College in the Presidential Schol-ars Program has been selected as the first ever United States Youth Observ-er at the United Nations. Loughrin is originally from Seattle, Wash. and has spent extensive time abroad in India, Senegal, Iran, Turkey, Nicaragua and Tajikistan.

According to the UNA-USA, the youth observer position is sponsored by the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA), and was highly sought after, with over 730 ap-plications received before Loughrin was selected. Loughrin will serve as the U.S. Youth Observer at the U.N. for one year and will be representing the voices of U.S. “youth” between the ages of 18 and 25 by attending meet-ings, traveling and speaking to UNA-USA Chapters around the country, and by blogging and tweeting about her experiences at the UN.

“I have only been at it for two weeks,” Loughrin began. “On Sept. 21 they called me and said, Can you leave for New York City in three hours? We have selected you as the first ever U.N. Youth Delegate.”

“I spent that first week in New York City, which is the most important week of the year. There were a lot of interesting events at the U.N., and it was very overwhelming,” Loughrin said.

He met with the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, and with all the Assistant Secretaries, too, advis-ing them on how youth can be more involved in the decision making pro-cess of the U.S. and the U.N.

“Strangely enough, I found out about the position on Facebook,” Loughrin explained. “I applied on a whim that day. It was a simple ap-plication, I wrote an essay on an issue area that mattered to me and how I thought the U.N. should address it. I wrote about living in southern India during high school, and how I found the biggest barrier for girls not going to school was that they had to spend four to five hours a day looking for clean drinking water. Water issues impact so many development issues, like education.”

Loughrin continued to say that this past week, she was in Washing-ton, D.C. with the other U.N. Youth

Delegates from around the world. While the U.N. Youth Delegate posi-tion is a pilot program in the U.S., the position has existed in Norway for 30 years, whereas the youth of Kenya have been lobbying the Kenyan gov-ernment for a U.N. Youth Delegate program and only this year were suc-cessful at achieving their goal. “Thirty other countries have youth delegates,” Loughrin added. “Most of them speak three or four languages, and have been selected over a year ago for the position, so they have already done a lot of work.”

According to Loughrin, a large part of the U.N. Youth Delegate posi-tion entails working closely with the 30 other Youth Delegates. During Loughrin’s first week in New York City, she and the other Youth Del-egates got to know one another, and tried to learn about each other’s in-terests regarding U.N. issue areas. The U.N. Youth Delegates currently have a Google group, a Facebook group and a Twitter feed. They are required to make speeches, work for resolutions and often like Loughrin, be full-time students as well.

As a full-time student at Boston College, Loughrin majors in Political Science and Islamic Civilizations and Societies. “I’m back at school now, but I’m going back to the U.N. next weekend for a few days,” Loughrin said. “There is a lot of travel back and forth to New York City. I am also go-ing to Washington, D.C. for a week in December, to go to the State Depart-ment, and I will travel around the country to talk to Model United Na-

tion groups and school groups.”Since starting her position, the

U.N. event that stood out most dra-matically to Loughrin was a Sept. 27 event with the presidents of Afghani-stan, Pakistan and Nigeria and the Secretary General of the U.N. to dis-cuss a united end to polio. Loughrin explained how fascinating it was to watch a conversation between the presidents of these countries discuss how to end polio and the ways po-lio could spread beyond the borders of these countries if the U.N. doesn’t focus on them. “One of the biggest problems to polio eradication has been extremist groups. They say that people who come to give polio vac-cines are Western agents, and try to stop it. It’s awful that they’re trying to prevent kids from having access to polio vaccines, but it shows how hard it is to work in militarized environ-ments when you can’t operate an an-ti-polio campaign. It was nice to see everyone so committed to the issue,” Loughrin said.

As a U.N. Youth Delegate, Loughrin says that her faith in the U.N. is rein-vigorated, and that she is a huge ad-vocate for the U.N. “This made the U.N. seem real to me,” Loughrin said. “When we think about the U.N. we think about the most controversial issues. But there are so many other parts of the U.N. that work on issues like education and global health.”

“Sometimes the U.N. isn’t very transparent. Youth should know the U.N. is for us, too. Half of the world’s population is under 30. They need their voices heard,” she added.

By Debby BrodskyEditor

photo by keith bedford/insider images for united nations foundation

By Debby BrodskyEditor

Recent string of armed robberies shocks BU community

By Brian TabakinEditor

A series of armed robberies around the Boston University campus has shaken the community, increased safety concerns and aroused suspi-cion. Late Thursday evening, one of the suspects, accompanied by his at-torney, turned himself into Brookline police.

Recent BU graduate Liz Green

told The Globe earlier this week that she now walks together with her boy-friend Eric Hwang whenever pos-sible, according to the Globe.

First-year Talia Glickman-Simon and Danielle Barney, both told the Globe that they were considering ap-plying for a license for pepper spray to protect themselves at night.

Senior Keith West said, “People are definitely concerned with the re-sponse by the BU and Brookline po-lice.” Initially the only response was

to “increase unmarked police cars in the area.”

He added that they have since done more, putting out a $10,000 reward and releasing surveillance videos out to the major media outlets.

Authorities believe that at least two of the robberies were committed by the same people who are considered to be extremely dangerous.

BU police chief Thomas Robbins spoke to The Globe this week about the alarming nature of the crimes.

“We do have crime that is certainly consistent with a large city, but noth-ing to this extent in terms of pattern: the short period of time, the armed robberies,” he said.

Since the reward and surveillance videos were made public, West claims, “Everyone is feeling a bit better.” But a new problem has arisen, “students are racially profiling now,” he added.

photo from internet source

October 12, 2012 The Brandeis Hoot NEWS 3

Lawrence to release strategic plan task force reportsSTRATEGIC PLAN, from page 1

transparency At Thursday’s faculty meeting, President Fred Lawrence said he would release strategic plan committee reports.

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

rulings. The challenging lawyers assert that the University of Texas’ concept of “critical mass” differs lit-tle in practice from a quota system.

The ethical debate on affirmative action continues in the Supreme Court, as it has for more than three decades. Chief Justice John Roberts questioned the “logical endpoint” of affirmative action. “When will I know that you’ve reached a critical mass?” Roberts asked.

Roberts, as well as Justices An-tonin Scalia and Samuel Alito ex-pressed reservation toward Univer-sity of Texas’ urging for diversity, even in small classroom settings.

During the arguments, Justice Stephen Breyer expressed concern about the large-scale implications for so many colleges that come with revisiting the Grutter deci-sion.

“There are several thousand admissions officers in the United States—several thousand universi-ties—and what is it we’re going to say here that wasn’t already said in Grutter that isn’t going to take hun-dreds or thousands of these people and have Federal judges dictating the policy of admission of all these universities?” Breyer asked.

SCOTUS, from page 1

Court hears arugments in

Fisher

is going to be more of a problem not to make it available earlier, we’ll make them available earlier,” Lawrence said.

But Lawrence said he expected that doing so would be likely to prompt a “relentless drive toward the tactical,” a stream of responses that would not be in the broad, strategic terms and principles on which the administra-tion had intended to focus.

He relented, he said because “when in doubt, transparency is always bet-ter … our namesake after all, said that sunlight is the best disinfectant,” quoting Justice Brandeis in a Supreme Court free speech case. “There are no secrets we are trying to hide from you.”

Biology professor James Haber was the first to speak at the planned dis-cussion and immediately called the summarized outline of the plan, la-beled the preliminary framework, too “generic.”

“It has so little detail that I have a difficult time understanding its as-sumptions and direction,” Haber said. “I can’t make very substantive com-ments” without such specifics.

“My suspicion is that every one of those task forces drew up a very de-

tailed discussion, which we ought to see; that is to say, I think you ought to share with us those reports,” Haber said.

After other faculty members ex-pressed similar frustration, these are the additional releases Lawrence said the administration would now make. The task forces include benchmark-ing, academic innovations, flexible education through technology, stra-tegic planning finances, integrated arts, faculty, scholarship and research, learning communities and student experience, global, alumni and com-munity building, facilities and cam-pus evolution and strategic planning development.

Professor Joe Reimer (ED) said that the discussed framework possessed “such generality it eludes all sorts of questions of what we mean by social justice.” He added that “nothing in the document excites me, or gives me an illustrative example how discovery education would operate at Brandeis.” The framework had sought to illus-trate that discovery at Brandeis was a product of the much-repeated fact that Brandeis has characteristics of both a liberal arts college and also a research university.

Other faculty had various concerns, ranging from little mention of “the

arts” in the framework to the ques-tion of the university’s Jewish identity.

Reimer commented that, “The question of what this university’s rela-tionship is with its roots in the Jewish community is not addressed at all.”

The strategic plan, on its first page, does mention a “mission—to honor our Jewish roots, which instruct us

to repair the world.” In the three agreed-upon principles with which it concludes, the Steering Committee commits to “honor its Jewish roots and commitment to pluralism, access and diversity.”

Lawrence, when he concluded the meeting, tried to reinvigorate the fac-ulty with higher expectations.

“I’ll give you,” he said, “not a pre-diction but a promise: what comes out in January will be inspiring. It will include within 10 years what we com-mit to do.”

The strategic plan, Lawrence said, was about finding things for Brandeis to value that would leave people to be “proud they are part of that school.”

ISRAEL, from page 1

BU professor and club leaders speak on panel about Zionism

“[link] creative and performing arts to the sciences, humanities, social sciences and professions on campus and around the globe” was met with praise at the first of a series of feedback sessions on Thursday, as the discussion at one table focused on the gap between arts and the sciences for a portion of time.

In an email sent on Wednesday to the Brandeis community Goldstein wrote that the framework “seeks to en-sure that Brandeis University remains a clear first choice for exceptional stu-dents, faculty and staff.”

The framework itself repeatedly em-phasizes the ways in which the plan would help put Brandeis’ financial re-sources to work and improve the pro-cess of their usage, as well as what they can provide for Brandeis. It also men-tions its commitment to financial sta-bility, a topic that remains contentious among students given last year’s unfa-vorable tuition hikes.

President Fred Lawrence addressed this at the first of a series of feedback sessions on Thursday morning in Rapa-porte Treasure Hall, saying that the cap-ital campaign will be a significant part of the framework and plan. “We rely on the support of our alumni network, generous donors and others,” Lawrence said. He also said that this campaign is something we need to discuss in order to deal with, rather than from which to

shy away.Goldstein also commented on this

at the feedback session when he stated, “we will have to make choices” about which programs we will focus more heavily on than others. “This is scary, and this should be scary,” he said.

While it may seem like a good idea to simply accept more students and thus increase the total tuition revenue Brandeis receives, Lawrence stated his opposition to this at the meeting. When speaking about Brandeis’ graduate pro-gram, he said, “I would not sell three times the tuition to three times as many graduate students as we currently have.” He then explained that Brandeis’ small size is part of what makes it so special, and cited that Brandeis’ unique status as such a small research university allows each student access to a very high-qual-ity education.

He also stressed that the plan was to be a “living plan,” or one that would be able to adapt to different circumstances as it is enacted. Goldstein told the audi-ence, “We need to remember Brandeis’ roots” as the plan is fine-tuned and shaped, “while also being able to adapt for the future.”

At the feedback session, Lawrence discussed the ways in which the frame-work would help to guide initiatives around Brandeis in the next five years. The framework “can give us a focus and a sense of where we want to be,” he said, as well as help the community “get the full power and value out of our lives.”

The remaining feedback sessions will

be held between Friday and Wednes-day. All members of the Brandeis community will have the chance to speak with individuals who have been involved in the various task forces that have shaped individual parts of the plan at the sessions.

Following these sessions, there will be additional meetings and opportuni-ties for different community members

to continue to voice their input on the framework and make sure that each aspect is tailored for Brandeis, until a full version of the plan will be voted on in a Jan. 23 Board of Trustees meeting. This meeting will represent the plan’s ultimate approval or rejection, and will largely determine the direction in which Brandeis will move during the coming decade.

Univ hosts forums in response to strategic plan

Jewish identity, Bedo also sympa-thized with minorities, such as Arab Jews affected by Zionism. “I can re-ally empathize with being a minority in a country full of nationalism.”

The event proceeded with a pas-sionate word from Ryan Yuffe ’15, president of BIPAC, who talked about early Zionist thinker Theodor Herzl, and problems that Zionism faces in a modern world. “Herzl’s Zionism is not ours,” Yuffe said. “Zi-

onism started against the backdrop of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. While our Israel is strong … our gen-eration has been inundated with facts, speakers and propaganda … we have lost sight of the past, and have no real vision for the future.”

The second part of the night con-sisted of a panel discussion on the history of the Zionist movement by three local experts. Michael Zank, professor of Religous Studies at Bos-ton University, and Rachel Fish, As-sociate Director of the Schusterman Center, discussed 20th century Zion-ist thinkers and their contributions to

the movement. Professor Ilan Troen (NEJS) followed, speaking about David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister. After the panel, audi-ence members broke off into discus-sion groups led by the panelists and student leaders, and spoke of their own experiences with Zionism and Jewish identity.

Niri Halperin ’15 has spent her whole life around fellow Zionists, but admitted to not knowing much about the movement. “My entire fam-ily is in Israel, so I’ve been exposed to Zionism since birth,” Halperin said. “My mom’s family left Iraq due to the

strong wave of anti-Semitism, while my dad left Ukraine right before the Holocaust.”

Halperin noted that she has some-times struggled with justifying Israeli nationalism, but hopes to learn more about her Jewish identity. “We need to find a way to hold together a Jewish state, but preferably one that doesn’t exclude or alienate others. The Jewish people have been faced with so much violence and bloodshed, so hopefully we can strive for a peaceful solution while remembering our past and maintaining our identity.”

FRAMEWORK, from page 1

photo by maya himmelfarb/the hoot

photo from internet source

4 NEWS The Brandeis Hoot October 12, 2012

Union considers new senate position and club reforms

Proposed creation of a 567 SenatorStudent Union President Todd

Kirkland ’13 announced his inten-tion to propose the creation of a 567 quad senator at next week’s meeting. Under the current system, 567 and the Charles River Apartments share a senator.

Kirkland explained the reasoning behind the proposed change.

“Typically the person that gets elected from the Charles River/567 spot is in Charles River and Charles River constituents are typically ju-niors and seniors whereas 567 is sole-ly sophomores.”

On the topic of whether the 30 residents of 567 South Street should have their own Senator, Kirkland added “TYP [Transitional Year Pro-gram] only has [about] 20 members but they are still a year program and [rightfully] get represented.”

Kirkland also announced an E-board initiative to work on improv-ing school pride and spirit with the creation of an “Owl Day” (official name is yet to be determined). “It would be nice to have some sort of day held annually in the spring, most likely on a Friday, where we have a campus-wide celebration … celebrat-ing Brandeis,” he said.

Kirkland commented that school spirit frequently provokes reactions, such as the Celebrate Brandeis event, which was held on the same day that

the Westboro Baptist Church pro-tested on South Street in 2010, or the Today Show contest last month.

“After the Today Show event, we saw a lot of students come out with pride but it was as a reaction. We do have a lot of student events that oc-cur on this campus, usually held on the weekend, and there’s usually not a university commitment behind them,” he said.

While Brandeis hosts many cul-tural events like Mela, or Liquid La-tex and annual traditions showing pride in specific subjects, Kirkland said it “doesn’t necessarily translate to the university as a whole. Why can’t we take that spirit and apply it to Brandeis as a whole?”

While Owl Day may not be able to happen this spring, it would be ideal to lay the groundwork for an annual event starting next year—the goal of which would be to host it on a Friday.

Club recognition reformsAnother change to be voted on at

the next Senate meeting is to amend the Senate Bylaws and make the club creation process less wordy and as Ex-ecutive Senator Ricky Rosen ’14 put it “more clear and concise.” Currently, clubs seeking either recognition or chartering can come to the Senate at the same time.

Under the newly proposed reform, clubs seeking recognition would ad-dress the Senate on the first Sunday of the month and clubs seeking a chartering meeting would address the Senate on the third Sunday of the

month. “Recognition and chartering are

already separate in terms of the votes required by the Senate [recognition is a majority vote while chartering needs 2/3 support], so we want to simply hold the votes on different days,” Rosen said.

Additionally, under the new sys-tem clubs would need 100 signatures in order to become recognized, with no further signatures before becom-ing chartered. Once recognized, clubs would have to hold an organizational meeting, effectively displaying the club’s stability, in order to seek char-tering. Under the old system, clubs needed signatures for recognition, even more for chartering, and the process largely overlapped.

Success of Union Radio ShowUnder the new Brandeis Student

Union launch pad, members from different branches of the Union will broadcast each week from 12 to 1 p.m. on Thursdays to discuss proj-ects. Rosen also mentioned that, “As the show advances, we’d like to bring on administrators who can answer students’ questions.”

In Kirkland’s words, “It’s another great avenue of communication … It gets Student Union members talk-ing.” Kirkland also hopes to be able to record the program so that students who have class during the one-hour show will be able to listen at their own convenience.

Part of the show encourages stu-dent involvement. For example, stu-

dents can tweet their questions (with the hashtag #DeisLaunchPad), which will be answered during the show. One such question mentioned at the senate meeting was the topic of Satur-day dining hours.

Kirkland commented, “If you look by and large at the hours, Saturday

By Gordy StillmanEditor

By Debby BrodskyStaff

As Fall Fest at Brandeis begins this Thursday with a flurry of activity, it is not only families, students and professors on campus who feel the excitement of this weekend each year. The hotel community in Waltham and surrounding towns is also high-ly aware of the arrival of relatives to Brandeis each October, marked by a consistent and steep rise in hotel room rates.

“Right now hotels are in their busy seasons,” a front desk manager at Embassy Suites in Waltham said. She

went on to say that, “September and October are our busy months, and ev-ery time we have a higher occupancy rate the room prices are a little higher. This weekend, room prices start at $140 a night for Brandeis families.”

Embassy Suites in Waltham of-fers the lowest room prices per night out of the hotels recommended by Brandeis’ Fall Fest website.

For families searching for more reasonable hotel room rates, there are several factors to consider for next year’s Fall Fest hotel reservations. The closer a hotel is to Boston, the likelier it is that its rates will be more expen-sive. The Boston Marriott in Newton has raised its room rate considerably this weekend, from an average $145 to $249 plus a nightly parking fee. The

Boston Marriott in Newton did, how-ever, offer a discounted university rate to those who booked early. Hotels in towns just east of Waltham, such as Natick, Framingham and Brookline offer impressive shopping malls, and a variety of highly rated restaurants at a lower cost.

Waltham does have a large ho-tel market that offers a wide variety of hotel options to parents visiting students at Brandeis and neighbor-ing universities alike. Smaller, more boutique hotels like Crescent Suites Hotel in Waltham boast comfort and are in the middle of the price range of ‘express’ hotels, including the Holi-day Inn Express of Waltham, priding themselves on utility and lower rates. The nightly rates at the Holiday Inn

Express begin at a low $99.Each year, Brandeis displays an

online list of local hotels that offer discounted room rates for reserva-tions that are made well in advance. Of the hotels, Crescent Suites Hotel takes into consideration the amount of money that parents and relatives of Brandeis students are already paying for tuition, and tries to offer afford-able prices.

“For Brandeis University we would not raise room rates, because we understand that the people making reservations are college students and parents who don’t need to pay more than they already are,” a front desk manager at Crescent Suites Hotel said. “Our owner built this hotel af-ter traveling a lot, so he tries to make

Crescent Suites a home away from home for our guests. Although we are only 30 rooms, we try to add that per-sonal touch,” she said.

Some parents plan ahead by several years.

“We take many things into consid-eration. For instance, the Brandeis graduation room rate is a similar price to the room price for this week-end. We are already booking well in advance for graduation. I spoke with a woman already looking at 2017 grad-uation room rates. Parents stay with us when students move in, and often make arrangements to stay for every Fall Fest weekend for the coming four years,” she added. The Crescent Suites Hotel offers a Brandeis University Fall Fest rate of $165 per night.

Author Michael Nava presents ‘The City of Palaces’By Ari Kalfus

Staff

Attorney and writer Michael Nava read excerpts from two of his books Thursday afternoon in a Shiffman classroom, showcasing his upcoming novel, “The City of Palaces.”

Nava is most famous for his seven-book mystery series following the cases of gay lawyer Henry Rios.

“Henry is gay because, well, I’m gay, and that is what I know,” Nava said to an attentive audience. His first book in the Rios series, “The Little Death,” was rejected by 13 publish-ers before finally accepted by a small Boston publishing company. Nava, however, was never anxious or wor-ried that his book would not sell. “I had a real job as a lawyer, so I didn’t take it too seriously,” Nava said.

“The City of Palaces,” a historical rather than a mystery novel, presents new challenges to Nava as a writer. The Rios series is written in the first person, through the eyes of adult,

Henry Rios. “The City of Palaces,” on the other hand, is a third person story told through the eyes of a child. “I haven’t been a child for a very long time,” Nava said with a laugh.

He states that the most challeng-ing element of “The City of Palaces” was imagining prepubescent sexual-ity and how that would be portrayed. Nava decided that he would develop it as a desire to be physically near the other person. The portion of his novel that Nava read was the main charac-ter, a nine-year old boy named Jose, realizing he was in love with an older boy named David.

Nava’s novel is written eloquently and with great style. He illustrates Jose’s realization of love through watching David play the piano. Jose notices a softness in David’s face while he plays, and notes, “he had never imagined one could love an ac-tivity as much as one could love an-other person.” At that moment, Jose began to understand that he not only enjoyed David’s presence but that

he needed David to be around him; it was a physical desire unknown to him. Nava also interspersed Spanish words throughout the novel to re-mind the reader that the characters are speaking Spanish. To make his novel more realistic, he formats the English text in Spanish syntax, which is much more formal. “I’ve done this to remind readers that my characters are living in the 1990s, not in 2012,” Nava said. It was technical challenges like this that induced Nava to spend 15 years writing “The City of Palaces.”

More than a decade after “The Little Death” was published, Nava’s writing is now beginning to attract critical attention. Nava is praised for doing something new with the mystery genre: exploring the current societal issues with sexuality and eth-nicity. Nava, however, is done with mystery novels. “The format [of mys-tery novels] is too restrictive,” Nava said.

Then he lightened up the audience with a joke, “Now I’m a historical au-

thor, moving from one grave to an-other.” “The City of Palaces” is Nava’s first plunge into the historical novel genre. The book is set in the last years of the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship in Mexico City, right before the Mexican Revolution.

Nava also read an excerpt from the fifth book of his Rios series, “Death of Friends.” The novel begins with an earthquake that startles Rios awake. “I imagined for a moment that I could hear the earth roaring before I real-ized it was the beating of my heart,” Nava read in a strong, confident voice. Nava admitted that the earth-quake scene came from his own expe-rience in the 1994 Northridge earth-quake that struck his home in Los Angeles. “Who the writers are, where they come from, definitely impacts what they write,” Nava said.

After both readings, Nava opened the floor for discussion. Many of the questions presented by the students dealt with Nava’s writing process. Nava admitted that writing mysteries

was simple; he merely began with his ending, the “whodunit,” and worked backward until the beginning. The “City of Palaces” presented much more developmental problems that Nava had to tackle. He began with a general idea of who his main charac-ters were and developed them into so-phisticated, three-dimensional beings while writing the novel. Nava would add a secondary character whenever a scene demanded it, and the story fleshed itself out under his fingers.

The publication of “The City of Palaces” is eagerly awaited by both critics and fans of the series, includ-ing Professor Lucia Reyes de Deu (HISP), who won a copy of a book in the Rios series in a raffle at the end of the event.

The event was sponsored by His-panic Studies with the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, Romance Studies, American Studies, Creative Writing, Latin American and Latino Studies, Women’s and Gender Stud-ies, ¡AHORA! and Triskelion.

Local hotels increase prices for Fall Fest weekend

nights is very limited. After 7 p.m. you have two hours of the Stein, nothing from 9 to 10 p.m. except for the C-Store, and then from 10-3 you have Ollie’s. While we can’t necessari-ly create more hours, we want to look at hours that maybe can be shifted to expand Saturday night options.”

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

featuresOctober 12, 2012 The Brandeis Hoot 5

Sixty-four years ago univ celebrated foundingBy Emily Beker

Staff

This past week marked the 64th anniversary of Brandeis University’s founding. When originally founded on Oct. 7, 1948, President Abram Sa-char delivered a speech at Symphony Hall in Boston, accepting his position of office at the newly founded univer-sity. In his speech, Sachar focused on the birth of Brandeis, with its “pro-cession, which includes delegation from hundreds of distinguished cen-ters of learning was a thrilling sight, in it’s color, it’s pageantry, it’s symbol-ism.”

Sachar did not appear to be anx-ious about the challenge of creating what is today a renowned institution. Rather, he said in his speech, “Fortu-nately there is so much goodwill for the success of Brandeis University, so much loyal cooperation, that there are few fears and few misgivings as we go forward.” Formed in the same year that the Israeli state came into being, the process was both historic and exciting.

Sachar went on to state, “This is the first corporate responsibility of the Jewish people for the maintenance and development of a great non-sec-tarian institution of higher learning.” Sachar mentioned the importance in the timing of Brandeis University and the importance for the founding as a group of people.

He believed, “The timing of this pioneering effort is significant and demonstrates the strength upon which we all rely. Emerging from the most tragic era of a history laden with sorrow, the Jewish people dem-

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

onstrate it’s extraordinary vitality by demonstrating no moratorium on creative effort.”

The traditions that Sachar outlined in his acceptance speech are still in place, if not even more amplified to-day, 64 years later. The first guideline that Sacher outlined was, “This will be an institution of quality where the integrity of learning, of research, of writing, of teaching will never be

compromised.” Sachar states in the first guideline

the importance of having a wide va-riety of subjects offered at a univer-sity. He stated his second vision for Brandeis with, “This will be a school of the spirit—a school in which the temper and climate of the mind will take precedence over the acquisition of skill and the development of facile talent.”

Sachar’s third vision for Brandeis stated, “This will be an institution where opportunity is offered to all, regardless of race or color. Neither a student body nor faculty must ever be chosen on the basis of population proportions or genetic or ethnic or economic distribution.”

Sixty-four years ago, Sachar wrote in his speech about his vision of what Brandeis would eventually be: “An

institution which is built on such principles—on the integrity of learn-ing and research, on the passion for service, on the right of equal opportu-nity—only such an institution will be worthy of the intellectual and spiritu-al mantle of Louis Dembitz Brandeis whose name it is to bear.”

As the anniversary of the university passes, Brandeis continues to build off of the foundation of its forbearers.

Alum builds on Peace Corps experience in conservation biology careerBy Alec Siegel

Special to the Hoot

In a remote village along the Bay of Antongil in Madagascar, a small clus-ter of local children excitedly follow an American woman’s trail.

To onlooker Dan Perlman, Associ-ate Provost and Professor of Biology at Brandeis, their smiling faces say it all. “We’d walk through the town, and a cloud of children would run after her calling out her name wherever we went,” Perlman said.

These children, along with their parents and the entire village they come from, have accomplished won-derful things in collaboration with Rachel Kramer ’05.

Kramer has been engrossed in a very global experience from an early age. Her father was a diplomat, caus-ing Kramer to bounce from an el-ementary school in Tunisia to a high school in Russia, and finally landing at Brandeis to study conservation ecology and anthropology. The Mala-gasy children whose faces were brim-ming with admiration for Kramer, spawned from her contributions to their community. She was there as a representative of the Unites States Peace Corps in the environmental sector.

The Peace Corps, established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, sends participants all around the globe to better promote the American values of peace and friendship.

The Peace Corps mission statement is to, “Help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women,” as well as “Helping promote a better under-standing of Americans on the part of the peoples served,” and vice versa.

A recent graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Stud-ies, she continues to make strides toward solving some of Earth’s most dire environmental issues. She cur-rently lives in Washington, D.C. and works for TRAFFIC, a joint program of WWF and IUCN, which aims to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals does not threaten the conser-vation of nature.

As a representative of the Peace Corps partnered with the Wild-life Conservation Society, Kramer helped conduct lemur and indig-enous tree species inventories with local research aides. She helped open a library in the Andapa Basin region, taught a women’s farming coopera-tive new rice cultivation techniques, and organized a workshop for village women interested in learning how to tailor clothes, which led to an increase in their incomes.

“While I was in Madagascar I had four funded community develop-ment grants which were working on a range of projects that had been iden-tified by the communities I was serv-ing as priorities,” Kramer said. These community developments resonated throughout entire villages, as Kramer and her Peace Corps compatriots established building blocks that she hopes will expand for future Mala-gasy generations.

Dan Perlman, or to Kramer, Pro-fessor Perlman, was her academic advisor as well as professor for five courses that spanned her four years at Brandeis. His course, Conservation Biology as well as his tutelage, helped Kramer decide to take a path toward ecological preservation and environ-mental protection.

“What helped orient me was having

a really strong mentor in Dan Perl-man,” Kramer said.

She also credits her study abroad experience with the School for Field Studies in the Turks and Caicos Is-lands, and her summer interning at the State Department while at Brandeis as experiences that helped cement her future endeavors.

“While I was at Brandeis, having the flexibility to do a field experience and a policy experience was instru-mental,” Kramer said.

Kramer notes that her passion for the bettering of the environment and the world’s ecosystems stems from her experience as a child in the For-eign Service.

“I grew up in West Africa and North Africa for very important years of my life,” Kramer said. “Growing up in developing countries, you develop a knack for abhorring waste and a sense for the importance of social jus-tice and environmental justice.”

This knack for understanding the importance of social and environ-mental justice helped lead Kramer to Brandeis.

Perlman, the current Associate Professor of Biology, received a Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biol-ogy and is Associate Provost for As-sessment and Innovation in Student Learning at Brandeis, gushes with pride when speaking about Kramer.

Perlman cultivated his relation-ship with Kramer since he first no-ticed something special about her in his “Humans and the Environment” course.

“[Rachel] is in some ways a very typical Brandeis student, and in some ways an exceptional one,” Perlman said. “Typical in that she throws her-self wholeheartedly into whatever

she’s doing, and she also wants to change the world and make it better.”

Perlman says that what separates Kramer from her peers and what has seeped into every aspect of her post-Brandeis career is “the range of talents and energy she brings to anything she does.”

Kramer and Perlman continue to work together and keep in touch to this day. Perlman visited Kramer about a year and a half into her time in Madagascar, and he was amazed at the breadth of her work, and the ad-miration she received from the locals because of it.

“She was beloved by so many peo-ple there,” Perlman said. “Kids, adults,

it was extraordinary the impact she had. I’ve always been impressed by her, but seeing what she could do in a couple of years was amazing.”

The most impressive aspect of Kramer’s achievements to Perlman is that Kramer has been so humble through it all and she “just wants to make a difference.”

As the sun begins to set on the na-tional parks and small villages dotting the landscape of Madagascar, animals and local villagers alike now share a strong connection with a Brandeis graduate.

With the help of Kramer, and those like her, the spreading of peace cross-es imagined borders.

photo from internet source

6 FEATURES The Brandeis Hoot October 12, 2012

Rabbi Zirkind promotes Sherman as a ‘home away from home’By Dana Trismen

Editor

A common sight in and around Sherman Dining Hall, Rabbi Chayim Zirkind truly believes that Sherman is a place where students can feel at home. Zirkind’s occupation seems fitting for him. While he did not al-ways know that he wanted to become a rabbi, he was always conscious of his interest in the religious field.

“I always did like the concept of working with food in addition to eat-ing it,” he said. “I liked to work with it, so it was a great combination. I work with the food and keep an eye out that the food is kosher and that everything that is used is kosher.”

A full time employee at Sherman, Zirkind maintains the kosher-only section, providing those with reli-gious and dietary needs full access to the nourishment they need.

From Brooklyn, New York, Zirkind described his journey to his current occupation. Even while at school to become a rabbi, Zirkind was never far away from involvement with food. “I used to spend my evenings koshering homes, and that’s when I found that it was something I wanted to continue

doing on a larger scale, to keep homes or establishments kosher.”

In describing what makes food kosher, Zirkind comments on the common misconception that people believe that a rabbi constantly blesses kosher food.

“The only time you make a bless-ing regarding food is when one has an obligation to thank God for the food, that is the only blessing associated with being kosher. That doesn’t make the food kosher, it is just a thank you to God for giving you the food,” Zir-kind said.

He does believe that this prayer be-fore eating is important, explaining, “The idea of a blessing is, in order to benefit from anything in the world we are taught that we have to thank God for it.” While Zirkind may not be blessing the food in Sherman, he still has an important duty.

“Here I make sure that all the products used are kosher and that they have proper kosher symbols on them,” Zirkind said. He also ex-plained that Sherman doesn’t utilize every single food with a kosher mark on it, Zirkind chooses the reputable ones that are recognized nationally.

In order for meat to be considered

kosher, it must have been killed in accordance with Jewish law. Zirkind described this as an “instant kill,” created to put the animal in the least amount of pain possible.

“You are supposed to treat animals with kindness, like before you eat your meal make sure your animals are fed, animals are recognized as some-thing to respect and they also have the right to roam the world.”

People who are certified to slaugh-ter animals in this correct manner go through special training and hold re-spected positions in their communi-ties. While Zirkind’s own father held this occupation, Zirkind explained, “I couldn’t kill a cockroach, by nature, I could eat a steak, but I am the kind of person who makes a short stop if a squirrel even thinks about cross-ing the street.” In order to maintain involvement in the production of ko-sher food, it seemed natural that Zir-kind would oversee kosher materials after they had already been processed.

A long time Brandeis employee, Zirkind believes that the university setting has enriched his life. “I love getting to know and respect other people for their views on religion, life, politics and simple day-to-day things.

I think people who work at a univer-sity learn so much from their educa-tional surroundings.” He also believes that Brandeis is extremely open to embracing different religions, citing Sherman’s tendency to invite people of all religions to Friday Shabbat din-ners. “Even if you are not Jewish, you are more than welcome to come and enjoy a Shabbat meal, even if you just wanted to have the experience.”

Zirkind also emphasized the im-portance of Sherman’s existence as a dining hall on campus. He comments on the excellence of the staff, and how they behave more like a family. “We share responsibility and the goal is to make the experience for everyone that comes in here so that they feel at home,” he explained. He also com-mented on Sherman’s all-you-can-eat policy, and how it encourages relax-ation and bonding between students.

“I think people feel more comfort-able here, and they find this is where they would rather sit to do home-work. In other places you find your-self getting hungry again. A student could come in and really feel at home, come in, relax, kick back, grab a cup of coffee, stay as long as you want, no-body is going to kick you out,” he said.

He explained how eating kosher is always an option, even for those who are not Jewish. He boasts not only the quality of the food in the kosher sec-tion, but the skills and knowledge of the staff. “We do a great job pulling off a quality meal and the staff really know the kosher laws, they know it as if it was their religion.” Enjoy-ing coffee while sitting at the booths in Sherman, Zirkind embodies the homey and laid-back atmosphere of Sherman.

Zirkind himself enjoys the presence of students, and strives to make them feel at home at all times. “I look at the students as my kids, therefore I want them to have the best. Even if it is a non-kosher kid, I want to make sure him or her has a meal. I will do the most I can do to accommodate them.”

As time passes and Zirkind re-mains at Brandeis, he said it only deepens his bond toward the students who frequent Sherman. “The longer I’m here I feel more like a parent to the kids, and nobody should ever feel homesick. There are people here who really do care about them, and would give the shirt off their back to make sure they are warm and comfortable,” he said.

Shared passion of basketball and music inspires student rappers By Victoria Aronson

Editor

Having always possessed a love for music, Ishmael Kalilou ’15 an-ticipates his upcoming performance alongside peers Youri Dascy and Connor Arnold at Chums later this month. Despite the fact that it will be his first live performance rapping to an audience, Kalilou is not plagued by nerves, but rather looks forward to the event with a blend of excitement and confidence.

The event, which is being held on Oct. 26 to promote Flight School Clothing, an emerging line devel-oped by student Shami Berry, will feature musical performances by stu-dents such as Kalilou.

Tracing the development of their musical collaboration, Kalilou ex-plained that Dascy and Arnold would often rap freestyle, recalling the day when they had asked him to spon-taneously join. Describing the mo-ment, he said, “It just took off from there. We liked to freestyle; we just decided to go with it and start mak-ing songs.”

As a collaborative process, Kalilou, Dascy and Arnold search the internet for beats before crafting their lyrics. Although initially they would gather together to write the lyrics, due to the diverse nature of their living condi-tions this year, they oftentimes each write a section of the song indepen-dently before merging their work. This unique writing process bears the inevitable potential for issues to arise, for the verses must be able to com-bine into a single cohesive song.

Kalilou, however, revealed that the process yields success the majority of the time, since the messages associat-ed with the lyrics tend to be relevant to one another.

Describing the inspiration behind his lyrics, Kalilou expressed the de-sire to incorporate humor into his work. While identifying Kanye West and Jay Z as his favorite artists, he ex-plained that his primary motivation is to “have the fans and the public liking the music, laughing at it and enjoying it.”

Referencing their style musically, Kalilou commented on the explicit nature of their lyrics.

“The music is explicit, but it’s all in good fun. We’re not trying to offend

anyone,” he said.He continued to describe their ca-

pacity for incorporating diverse styles into their music, having produced songs ranging from R&B to hip hop to slow songs. Commenting on this ability, he stated, “We are all so ver-satile; we can deliver in many ways.”

Beyond their musical collabora-tion, the bond between Kalilou, Dascy and Arnold transcends their interaction on stage. As members of the basketball team here at Brandeis, Kalilou explains that their identity as teammates has enforced their close bond. Describing the nature of their

friendship, Kalilou reveals, “We are all ridiculously funny individuals. If you spent the day with us, you’d be laughing the whole time.” Possessing a sense of humor that can be traced in their lyrics as well, Kalilou declared, “We are the life of the party.”

Although the date of their first

performance is approaching, Kalilou remains unperturbed. Explaining his lack of nerves, Kalilou states, “We know most of the kids at Brandeis,” asserting, “We are excited and ready to go.” He reveals that the group has selected four or five songs to perform at Chums.

photo courtesy of ish kalilou

arts, etc.October 12, 2012 The Brandeis Hoot 7

No One and the Somebodies proves that rock runs in families

Professors analyze the art of Carl Van Vechten

By Brittany JoyceSpecial to the Hoot

By Max RandhahnStaff

Saturday’s Chums concert brought an impressive variety of musical genres to the coffeehouse, which was made even greater because two of the bands shared members. Though at-tendance was weak due to late public-ity, the performers had a strong and free-spirited presence. First on the bill was Big Mess, filling in for Turbo-sleaze, due to internal conflicts.

Based in Lowell, Mass., Big Mess has only released a self-titled debut album and an EP, “Split w/ S’eance,” but what Nicholas Wiedeman and Egersheim lack in discography they make up with noise. Big Mess’ style is heavily rooted in the sludge metal of the South, but with a strange bluesy feel to it. The songs are loud, angry and instrumental, plodding along to the tune of “everything sucks and I’m going to punch something now.”

The band members kept audience interaction to a minimum, speak-ing up exactly once to point out the merchandise table near the door. Their unwillingness to speak might have been due to bassist Josh Tracy’s recent departure from the band. The replacement bassist performed com-petently, but lacked Tracy’s showman-ship: The musician was known to per-form bare-chested and in a surgeon’s mask, which would have given Big Mess’ set a little more punch. Regard-less, Big Mess performed well, despite their apparent inner turmoil.

Cave Cricket took the stage right after Big Mess. Brothers Steve and Kevin Yankou joined Kira Sassano in invoking the audience’s inner power. The trio of Brooklynites released their

first album, “Use Your Hands,” this past July, and it manages to be both a political impetus as well as a journey of self-discovery. Cave Cricket’s folk styles complement the environmen-tally conscious lyrics well, with the Yankou brothers manning percussion and a cello, while Sassano plays the accordion or ukulele and belts lyrics of empowerment.

Between Sassano’s soulful alto and the Yankous’ sustainment of quaint and evocative melodies, Cave Cricket comes across as the quintessential coffeehouse band, equally enjoyable both live and through recording. De-

spite the sparse crowd in Chums, the band interacted wonderfully with its small number of listeners. The trio was witty and charming, with a pre-ponderance toward Will Smith jokes that may or may not have been the fault of the audience.

For the final three songs, Sassano brought out a trumpet case full of per-cussion instruments and bid the au-dience use them. Soon the entire cof-feehouse was shaking whatever they had picked up from the pile—broken tambourines, small wooden boxes full of pebbles, New Year’s noisemak-ers—and the concert became an in-

teractive jam session. Needless to say, Cave Cricket left to riotous applause.

And then the stage was set for No One And The Somebodies (NOATS). All four of the Yankou siblings com-prise the band’s members, and they have wonderful synergy. There is no time for sibling rivalry in such an out-fit—the music must get made. It helps that all four find playing and compos-ing cathartic, and the brothers get along extremely well; the energy they produce on stage is tremendous, and they bring it everywhere from diners to basements.

NOATS’ music is goofy and irrev-

erent, but somehow loud and angry at the same time. If you can think of a word and append “punk” to it, chanc-es are it is a good approximation of what the Yankous sound like. While at times NOATS gives the impression of a bunch of yahoos on stage letting their guitars feedback, there is great musical talent in their instrumenta-tion. Each member seems to be on the verge of destroying his instrument at any given moment, while Steve and Kevin hoarsely yell into the micro-phones.

The Yankous do not shy away from unorthodox performances, either. Kevin played his bass with an electric toothbrush for two songs, and NO-ATS played one of the most unusual percussive instruments Chums has ever seen—a sheet of metal siding that Steve stood upon and bludgeoned with a pair of screwdrivers. With all the power that NOATS brings, it is no surprise that the crowd in Chums filled up nicely in time for their set.

The larger audience was blown away by the band’s irreverent, spastic sound, and danced and cheered more for their set than for any of the other bands. It helps that the Yankous can banter with some degree of compe-tence, making up crowd interactions on the fly, and though a dangerous move, it also gives the brothers a down-to-earth feel. It’s a pity that so few people attended in total, as the bands held their acts together and made for a wonderful evening. In that spirit, WBRS will be bringing Make It Up, Snowmine and DIIV to Chums this Saturday at 9 p.m. If nothing else, DIIV’s unique brand of surf rock makes this upcoming concert worth attending.

no one and the somebodies Pictured above, the band preformed at Chums last Saturday alongside Big Mess and Cave Cricket.

photo from internet source

Brandeis’ Close Looking series kicked off this Wednesday in the Ra-paporte Treasure Hall with a look at the work of Carl Van Vechten, an art-ist with a diverse career that included photography. While the program started a half an hour late, the discus-sion, led by Professors Nancy Scott (FA) and Faith Smith (AAAS) quickly began and finished within the allotted time. It featured just a few of the 1,600 pieces of Van Vechten’s work owned by the University Archives Special Collections.

Smith and Scott talked about both the aesthetic qualities of the pieces,

as well as Van Vechten’s personal his-tory as both an artist and a patron to the arts. Van Vechten dealt mainly in portraiture, capturing some of the most prominent artists, writers and entertainers of his day. Portraits that were featured included those of Frida Kahlo, W.E.B DuBois, Salvador Dali and Zora Neal Hurston. Starting in the 1930s, Van Vechten began to pho-tograph figures in the art community, mainly in New York. In particular, he focused on the African American community, both in his controversial and harshly criticized novel about Harlem-life in 1926, and in his choic-es of subjects when he moved on to photography.

Scott characterized Van Vechten’s goal in photography as a way to cap-

ture everyone who was essential to art in New York City at the time. Be-fore he began his work in portraits in 1932, Van Vechten was a novelist and a successful music critic. He ap-proached photography as an ama-teur, never showcased his work, and did not take photographs for profit. He simply captured his friends—and both Scott and Smith agree that it was a mark of importance to an art-ist if they could count Van Vechten as a friend. Indeed, having been photo-graphed by him was a marker that the person could be taken seriously as an artist.

Though he took photographs mainly for himself and his friends, Scott showed that Van Vechten’s works do not lack aesthetic appeal.

He featured people in a variety of poses and backdrops, often featuring strong geometric patterns. Scott says that the portraits of Van Vechten’s friends have heavily influenced how they are remembered today by much of the public, giving him a lasting in-fluence on how artists of his era are perceived. For example, his portrait of Zora Neal Hurston is featured on her books today.

Smith led the second half of the presentation by discussing Van Vech-ten’s significance in putting forth rep-resentations of the African American community. She says that he was a patron of African American art in a time when imitating that culture was in vogue, putting the authenticity of his intentions in question. His por-

traits show a staged version of African Americans, allowing him to manipu-late stereotypes. At the same time, he was caught in the middle of an era full of conflicting ideas of how to break with the old ways.

Scott maintained, however, that rather than trying to manipulate the image of the African American artist, he was trying to promote it as it was. Throughout his careers as music crit-ic, novelist and photographer, he was interested in the documentation of the world around him for generations to come. This is why he bequeathed over 1,600 of his photographs to the university upon his death in 1964, and why he helped fellow artists like Georgia O’Keefe set up exhibitions at other universities.

His work as an archivist later in life was just an extension of his work as an art patron. Smith says that he balanced the role of friend and pa-tron. For example, one of his famous friends, Langston Hughes, sent him poetry to edit and review; Van Vech-ten responded by using his leverage with Alfred Knopf to get the poems published. On other occasions, he acted more as a friend by helping Zora Neal Hurston through dark times; because of this, she dedicated her novel “Tell My Horse” to him.

Van Vechten was a man who be-friended some of the most talented people of his time. He not only helped them as a patron, but as a friend, of-ten giving artists their first mark of distinction by photographing them. While Smith showed that his authen-ticity can be viewed as contentious, Scott showed that his legacy is one of an advocate for the arts and as a pre-server of African American art cul-ture of the first half of the twentieth century.

van vechten Last Wednesday at the Rappaporte Treasure Hall, professors Nancy Scott and Faith Smith led an analytical discussion of the artists work. photo by shota adamia/the hoot

8 ARTS, ETC. The Brandeis Hoot October 12, 2012

‘Or,’ shows that love can abound, even in classical Europe

In the Shapiro Campus Center Theater on Thursday, Brandeis Play-ers began their weekend-long run of “Or,” a play by Liz Duffy Adams. The Brandeis Players are a member of the Undergraduate Theater Collective (UTC), the umbrella organization that helps to organize a large portion of Brandeis’ undergraduate theater. “Or,” was the second play directed by Justy Kosek ’14, who directed “Wait-ing for Godot” last fall. Yoni Bron-stein ’13 produced “Or,” and Saka Adler ’16 stage-managed the produc-tion. The play will perform at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Set in the 1660s, “Or,” tells the story of Aphra Behn (Anneke Reich ’13), the first female playwright who is also a former spy for Great Britain. While in debtor’s prison during the play’s first scene, Aphra gains the sponsor-ship of King Charles II (Alex Karel ’14) for her theatrical career, and thanks to his infatuation with her, pays her debts to have her released. The majority of the play, however, occurs some time in the future, as Aphra is now living in a fairly upper-class house in London along with her servant Maria (Maya Grant ’13). Within a single, chaotic night, she must try to balance secret rendezvous with both Charles and another lover, the actress Nell (Corrie Legg ’13). She also needs to finish writing a play for the eccentric Lady Davenant (Chris-topher Knight ’14), as well as contend with the appearance of William Scott (Andrew Prentice ’13), a former lover and colleague from her time as a spy.

The characterizations in “Or,” were stellar, and gave the audience reason to feel as if they were truly in the room with the characters, watching the chaos unfold. From Charles’ carefree, whimsical attitude to Aphra’s passion for both of her lovers, there was rarely a dull and boring moment. William’s dark, grim outlook on life also pro-vided contrast to the others’ relatively happy attitudes, and provided yet an-other level of depth for “Or.” Maria’s infrequent appearances also provided some comic relief from the serious as-pects of the show; her illustrations of how she had followed Aphra through “stinking swamps, stinking jungles, stinking prisons” and other hor-

rible places elicited laughter from the largely silent audience.

A minimalist set and technical ap-proach also add to the appeal of “Or,” by giving the show another way to focus more on its characters rather than technical flair and pizzazz. The set was well constructed, consisting only of a jail cell and the living room of Aphra’s London home. Lighting in the play was kept to a minimum, mainly signifying a scene change or Aphra’s monologue at the play’s beginning. The audio of the play was comprised mostly of the actor’s voices, including a couple of song tracks played in between scenes and at curtain call. Despite being held in the SCC Theater, the performance felt like it was in a black box, and the size of the room was quickly forgotten as the play progressed.

One of the greatest aspects of “Or,” is its willingness to tackle extremely hot-button topics head-on, and treat them as if they were ordinary as-pects of life. When Aphra’s life as a spy comes back to haunt her via William, for example, the audience is introduced to a side of Aphra that deals with treason, murder and even war crimes. These are topics that she clearly has trouble dealing with, al-

though she insists that she has put them behind her. Her cavalier atti-tudes toward sex and love also rep-resent beliefs that were almost non-existent in the 1660s, and yet still have trouble being accepted today (think the “free love” beliefs of the late 1960s). These views are mirrored in Nell, who is portrayed as someone who couldn’t care less, cursing and yelling sexual innuendos with wild abandon that is often seen in middle school locker rooms. Her utter ac-ceptance of a “to each his/her own policy” helps to keep “Or,” from being hung up on its acceptance of sexual and romantic freedom, and instead keeps the play lively and entertaining during its 90-minute length.

Overall, “Or,” allows audiences to see the story of Aphra, and her quest to find her identity among her various lovers and her careers as a spy and a playwright. Whether it’s the rhyming lines that abound in the script, the noticeable absence of sexual tension in many scenes or the drunken con-fusion of William as to why every-one has disappeared, “Or,” keeps the audience’s attention for its entirety. Brandeis Players’ latest production is definitely worth seeing before the weekend is over.

photos by maya himmelfarb/the hoot‘or,’ Actors amaze with each scene, displaying great variety and skill.

By Zach ReidEditor

October 12, 2012 The Brandeis Hoot ARTS, ETC. 9

Blending humanity with fairytale, ‘Into the Woods’ enthralls

“Into the Woods,” directed at Brandeis by Jessie Field ’13 and put on by the Free Play Cooperative, presents a twisted set of fairytales and takes them to conclusions far beyond where they began. The musical asks, in nearly three hours of song, the question really begged of fables: What happens after “happily ever after?” In the land of fairytales, where answers are simple, the obvious answer is sim-ply nothing. But “Into the Woods” is set in a place that more closely resem-bles our world, where actions have vast consequences and “happily ever after” is not nearly as simple as we would have it be.

The musical tells the story of a bak-er and his wife, cursed to be childless, in their search to break the curse. The adventure leads them to cross paths with Little Red Riding Hood (Aliza Sotsky ’15), who with a threaten-ingly sexual wolf (Zach Smith ’15), an indecisive Cinderella (Sarah Hines ’15), Jack of Beanstalk fame (Jeffrey Lowenstein ’15), a lost and confused Rapunzel (Alison Thvedt ’15), and the various other characters who populate their respective stories. The mixed cast eventually comes togeth-er, after facing great tragedy, to join against a near-insurmountable foe after they had come to believe that their happy endings were achieved

and secure.The most notable and interest-

ing production decision of “Into the Woods” was to take it out of the conventional venues of theater and literally stage the play in the woods, guiding the audience away from the familiarity of Spingold Theater and into Sachar Woods. This creative stag-ing choice grants “Into the Woods” a distinct way of standing out from the crowd of shows at Brandeis. Though rather cold, the effect of immersion in the set—with the audience in the forest along with the cast—paid off, bringing the story out of the set and creating a far more immersive experi-ence, shivers included.

Though the set was minimal, rely-ing on the woods around, what was built (a small platform, bits added to trees to allow for climbing, and a tower that was primarily occupied by Alison Thvedt ’15 as Rapunzel) was very effectively used, as the vari-ous storylines intersected and parted ways across the set.

Clearly, “Into the Woods” was care-fully and skillfully cast. With impres-sive vocals and effective acting, the cast did all they could to keep a frigid audience attentive, as they likely froze themselves. In both song and act-ing, Jaime Perutz ’13 was particularly amazing as the Baker’s Wife, exhibit-ing supreme control over her features as she performed. Also of great note was Zach Smith’s ’15 performance as

both the Wolf with whom Little Red Riding Hood tangles and Cinderella’s prince. The sexual undertones (and, well, overtones) of both roles effec-tively balanced darkness and humor. In complement, Aliza Sotsky ’15 as Little Red Riding Hood, brought an exploratory, adventurous and child-ish spin to her role. Sotsky’s Little Red was almost ageless, balancing between the innocence of a child and the darkness of a girl who faces both hardship and adventure over the course of the show. Meanwhile, Sarah Hines ’15 brought a true sense of fai-rytale fancy to her role as Cinderella, with a high, delicate voice that proved absolutely perfect for the part.

Though well-planned and per-formed over all, there were issues in production that were unfortunately, likely inherent in the unconventional setting of the show. Lighting, which came from a single source by the au-dience, was one apparent issue in the show: at times the play felt shrouded in darkness. Sound proved similarly limited. At times, actors were very hard to hear, their voices swallowed by the woods around. While not all actors faced this issue, it was a signifi-cant enough difficulty so as to be of note, and a greater level of projection from the actors may have helped ne-gate the difficulty.

Despite these flaws in production, “Into the Woods” was clearly a well-rehearsed and impressively-designed show. The effort put into creating the fairytale setting paid off, with no stone left unturned in creating ap-propriately styled costuming. It may, perhaps, have been wiser to plan an outdoor show for a warmer part of the year, but in some ways the act of sitting out in the cold added to the ex-perience, bringing audience members decidedly into this land of fairytale.

Ultimately, while “Into the Woods” is a tale of fantasy, it tackles very hu-man questions. “Into the Woods” is personal, challenging audiences to question the simplicity of fairytales, bringing them into the context of real life. It asks people to question how it is that they deal with the conse-quences of their actions, challenges one to consider the way one treats the people they love, and explores the way humans behave in a time of cri-sis, just when they thought “happily ever after” had been achieved. “Into the Woods,” which faces a unique set of problems brought by its unique set, is ultimately a successful production.

By Juliette MartinEditor

‘into the woods’ Creatively set in Sachar Woods, ‘Into the Woods’ provides a new spin to classic fairytales. photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

sPOrts10 The Brandeis Hoot October 12, 2012

Men’s soccer continues to roll with 2-0 win over CaseBy Brian Tabakin

Editor

The men’s soccer team extended their unbeaten streak to 17 games with a 2-0 victory over Case West-ern this past Saturday. With the win, the Judges improve to 11-0-1 (1-0-1 UAA). The Judges have not lost a game since Oct. 28 of last year.

In a slow-paced first half, neither the Case Western Spartans nor the Judges were able to score. The Judges outshot the Spartans 8-4 with a 2-1 advantage in shots on goal.

Harold Salinas ’14 attributed the slow pace to the matchup.

“It took us a little while to get going into top gear, but we did better in the second half,” Salinas said. “At times, we slowed it down to keep control of the game once we were in the lead.”

Sam Ocel ’13 elaborated, “We al-ways try to play our game and dictate the pace. It really depends on how the game is going. Sometimes we need to slow the game down and keep the ball. Other times we go right at the team.”

Case Western had their best scor-ing chance of the day early in the sec-ond half when senior Rene Silva re-leased a rocket toward goal; however, keeper Blake Minchoff ’13 made the save to keep the Spartans off of the scoreboard.

As they have done many times this season, the Judges used a counter-offensive after Minchoff ’s save in or-der to gain momentum. After Min-choff cleared the ball, Foti Andreo ’15 played a through ball to Tyler Savonen ’15. Savonen gained possession of the ball and then sent a perfectly placed

cross to Ocel who deposited the ball past the Spartans’ keeper to put the Judges on the scoreboard. The goal was Ocel’s fifth of the season and his team-leading, fourth game-winner.

Ocel commented, “I wouldn’t say that a [great defensive play] is igniting our offense, but the team definitely feeds off the energy that is created by a big save from Blake or a great tackle by Joe [Eisenbies ’13].”

After Ocel’s goal, the Spartans tried to re-seize the momentum with a flur-ry of offensive pressure. They nearly succeeded as they came dangerously close to tying the game at 1-1 in the 60th minute.

Minchoff was out of position in the goal when sophomore Patrick O’Day took advantage of his momentary lapse and fired a shot at the open end of the goal. With Minchoff unable to recover in time to make a play on the ball, defender Joe Eisenbies ’13 made a sensational play to clear the ball out of the box and preserve the Brandeis lead.

Eisenbies’ defensive play once again swung the momentum in favor of the Judges. The Judges then counterat-tacked and maintained consistent pressure on the Spartans’ defense. This renewed attack paid off for the Judges in the 72nd minute when they added a key insurance goal to pad their lead, 2-0.

Midfielder Tudor Livadaru ’14 started off the play with his agile foot-work, sidestepping his defender along the goal line.

He played the ball across the goal-mouth, where it found Steve Salazar ’14 who then tapped the ball into the net for the first goal of his collegiate career.

With the extra goal, the Judges took their defense to the next level for the closing 18 minutes of the game, allow-ing Case just one shot in the match.

A positive development for the Judges this season is the improve-ment of the younger players.

Livadaru has made a goal and an assist in his past two games while Salazar contributed with a goal in the game against Case.

Ocel iterated, “It’s great to see. The two of them have been working very hard this year and it has shown when they have stepped onto the field.”

The game was the Judges’ sixth shutout of the season. Minchoff con-

tinues to excel this season in goal, al-lowing one goal or less in 10 out of the 12 games.

The Judges held Case to just two shots on goal during the entire match. Salinas commented, “We got a shut-out the previous game and we were looking to keep it clean in the back. Everyone did their part to shut them down.”

With the success the Judges have had this season, players emphasized that it is important to keep their focus on each game.

“One of the things we learned after not making the tournament last year is the importance of every individual

game,” Salinas said. “That’s been a theme this year to take each game one at a time and not look ahead to any-thing else.”

The Judges will take their dominat-ing defensive play to Chicago on Fri-day and Washington University in St. Louis on Sunday as they embark on a weekend road trip against two top UAA competitors.

Ocel agreed with Salinas comment-ing, “We are just focusing one game at a time. Chicago is all that is on our mind.”

Their next home game will be on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot

No. 22 women’s soccer continues to excel; improves to 10-1-1By Evan Goldstein

Staff

During the women’s soccer team game last Thursday against Babson, the Judges showed a dominating performance, winning 4-1. In their second game against Case Western on Saturday, the slow play ended in a draw for both sides. The match was defined by stellar goalkeeping and an up-and-down pace that exploded into scoring chances for both sides. Over-all, the Judges dominated the game in terms of possession, corners and scoring chances.

The Babson match was filled with plentiful scoring and the Judges’ con-sistent defense. Offensively, Melissa Darling stated, “Our forwards did a really good job that game, they did so much in terms of possession and get-ting the ball toward the goal.”

Main strikers Holly Szafran ’16 and Dara Spital ’15, always part of that forward presence, each added a goal to their high totals for the season, five and nine respectively. It was Sapir Edalati ’15, however, that played great soccer upfront for the Judges. She ac-counted for two of the goals scored and is now third in goals scored for Brandeis with four, right behind Szaf-ran.

Szafran’s goal was an early blow to Babson, as it was scored in the fifth minute. The goal was set by Spital who, seeing Szafran move into the box, volleyed the ball right over the defenders to which Szafran, with a fine touch, headed the ball slightly over the keeper in the back of the net.

Szafran would return the favor given to her by Spital’s beautiful vol-ley by assisting Spital’s goal in the 51st minute. The score read 3-0 Brandeis

at this point but the Judges kept press-ing, including the ever-aggressive Szafran. She played a cross right to Spital who one-timed it to make the score 4-0.

Edalati’s second goal was also as-sisted on a cross by Szafran, finding herself an important part of the of-fensive machine. Edalati only needed a light touch to guide Szafran’s gift across the goalline.

The goal, which occurred in the 24th minute, made the score 3-0 Brandeis, a large gap to overcome, even in the 24th minute.

Edalati’s first goal was actually as-sisted by Spital, who, like Szafran, found herself embroiled in much of the action. She assisted the first two goals and scored the last. For Edalati’s goal, Spital had a long throw-in into the box to which Edalati positioned a carefully timed strike for her fourth of the season.

The goal scored against Brandeis was the result of a free kick from 25 yards out that was saved easily by keeper Michelle Savuto ’15, but which then bobbled during possession.

The ball flew out right into the box a few yards from the goal line, and Babson quickly responded, pushing the rebound into the back of the net.

Emmy Eddy ’15 described the Judges’ performance aptly, “We played really well, we controlled the whole game, it should’ve been 4-0.”

The Judges had 26 shots with 12 on goal while Babson had 12 shots and seven on goal. The Judges also had eight corners compared to one for Babson. This dominance had a pres-ence in the match against Case but the scoreboard was vastly different.

The match against Case that began on Saturday morning included a first

half that had equal possession and scoring chances for both teams. Dar-ling added that the first half “was re-ally equal, there was not lot of move-ment, neither team was controlling.” This theme would continue into the second half.

Brandeis, however, controlled the last half of the match. The match was different in that both teams began to see more chances near the goal, es-pecially the Judges. Spital had a high total of eight shots throughout the

match, producing most of them in the second half. Szafran also had a couple, missing just one shot due to the tip of Megan Romelfanger, the Case keeper.

Romelfanger was a key reason why the Judges could not get on the scoresheet. She made nine saves against a tough Brandeis front line.

Nonetheless, the Judges’ two-keeper tandem of Francine Kofinas ’13 and Michelle Savuto ’15 was the main reason that Case could not get

on the scoresheet. Savuto even had a save in the 58th minute, reminiscent of Romelfanger’s, tipping the ball just over the crossbar to keep Brandeis in the clear.

Overall, the draw does not dimin-ish the Judges’ momentum for a post-season berth; their 10-1-1 record is the best Brandeis has had since 2004.

The Judges, however, have two key upcoming matches at Chicago on Friday and Washington University in St. Louis on Sunday.

photo by shota adamia/the hoot

October 12, 2012 The Brandeis Hoot SPORTS 11

Siegel and Krems reach finals of ‘A’ flight doubles at Wallach InviteBy Gordy Stillman

Editor

Last weekend the men’s tennis team competed in its final event for the fall season, the James Wallach Invi-tational tournament hosted by Bates College.

Highlights of the doubles events included performances by the Judg-es pairs in the ‘A’ flight. The pair of Alec Siegel ’15 and Mitch Krems ’16 reached the finals of the ‘A’ flight.

Top-seeded captains Josh Jordan ’13 and Steven Milo ’13 also compet-ed in the flight, but lost in the quar-terfinals.

For Krems and Siegel, reaching the finals was something special.

“Advancing to the ‘A’ flight in dou-bles was a ton of fun,” Siegel said. “It was a great feeling knowing that my partner and I could compete with some of the best doubles teams in New England, if not the country.”

While the doubles events were un-derway, “We had the majority of our team there cheering us on and it felt great to put on a show for them and our coaches,” Siegel added.

Jordan and Milo started strong, winning their first match 8-6. In the second round of doubles, they faced a surprising upset at the hands of duo Casey Grindon and Noah Bragg from Bowdoin.

The Judges were not the only team to face an upset. After defeating the pair of Jugal Marfatia and Jordan

Kemp from Trinity College 9-7, Siegel and Krems knocked out the fourth-seeded pair of Oliver Loutsenko and Danny Knight from Skidmore.

After defeating Skidmore, they faced Peter Heidrich and Chris Frost from Middlebury—a pair that had just defeated the second-seed Kyle Wostencroft and Doug Caplan from Bowdoin.

With a 9-8 victory over the pair from Middlebury, Siegel and Krems advanced to the finals of the ‘A’ flight, facing the third-seed, Matt Bettles and Pierre Planche from Bates.

Both Siegel and Krems listed the same qualities of their pairing as fac-tors in their success.

“We both have all-court games and play an aggressive style of doubles,”

Women’s tennis team rolls over Simmons in 9-0 sweepBy Gordy Stillman

Editor

The women’s tennis team swept Simmons College 9-0 on Monday in their last dual match of the fall sea-son. With the sweep, the Judges im-proved to 1-1 this fall, rebounding after their 9-0 loss to Tufts last month.

Playing without team captain Faith Broderick ’13 at No. 2, All-American Carley Cooke ’15 led the charge for the Judges, earning a 6-2, 6-0 win in her No. 1 singles match. Cooke also won her doubles match with Allyson Bernstein ’14, 8-4.

In the other doubles action, Simone Vandroff ’15 paired with Maya Vasser ’16 and earned an 8-5 win at No. 2.

In the third match, Roberta Berg-stein ’14 and Dylan Schlesinger ’15 completed the doubles action with an 8-4 victory.

Vandroff and Vassar, in the second

and third spots respectively, both won their matches.

Rounding out the competition were three debuts at singles this sea-son, Alexa Katz ’14, Sarita Biswas ’16 and Emily Eska ’16 at the four, five and six spots.

In the fourth match, Katz domi-nated with a 6-0, 6-2 decision. Biswas and Eska also finished the day strong with 6-3, 6-3 wins. Each player won her match in straight sets.

Broderick attributed the success of Monday’s performance to the team’s depth.

“The match against Simmons was very successful for us. We were able to incorporate as many of our team members into the overall 9-0 victory,” she said, adding that the first win “will only motivate us to train hard in the offseason and get ready for the main spring season.”

Discussing the fall season as a

whole, Broderick explained, “its main job is to get us on track and focused for the spring. The fall season can also help us maintain and work toward a national ranking as a team and indi-vidually. It improves our record and

allows us to play tournaments and dual matches that we wouldn’t have time to play in the spring season.”

The Judges compete in their final event of the fall season this weekend at the New England Women’s Inter-

collegiate Tennis Tournament.“In the past we have found a lot of

success at NEWITTS. I expect noth-ing less than having our five teams go deep into each of the tournament flights,” Broderick said.

photo courtesy of brandeis athletics

The women’s cross country team at-tended the Open New England Tour-nament this weekend, placing 27th out of 37 teams and 6th within the Division III competition.

Individually, Victoria Sanford ’15 had the best time for the Judges at 18:50.4. She placed 89th out of the to-

Men and women’s cross country continue to improveBy Evan Goldstein and Brian Tabakin

Staff and Editor

Krems said.Siegel added that in addition to the

aggressive mindset, “We understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses pretty well.”

While the pair from Bates won the match 8-2, the strong showing at the end of the fall season is an uplifting preview for the spring season.

Siegel commented, “Luck is always a factor but I’d like to think we played a level of tennis that we are certainly capable of. We [have] established a name for ourselves as a force in dou-bles for sure,” Siegel said.

Krems added, “Overall the team has demonstrated great potential this fall and will hopefully carry through to the spring season.”

As exciting as the doubles com-

petition was, the team struggled in singles.

One member of the Judges’ squad advanced past the first round of sin-gles: Evan Berner ’14 won his first match in the ‘D’ flight against Jesse Butler from Bates in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.

In the second round, however, Pe-ter Davis of Bowdoin defeated Berner in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.

With the end of the Wallach Invita-tional, the men’s tennis team does not face competition until February when its spring season begins.

While doubles enters the hiatus strong, Siegel summarized, “Singles wise, we have a lot to improve on, but I can’t wait for the spring season to build on a solid fall.”

Volleyball rebounds with 3-0 sweep of EmersonBy Nathan Koskella

Editor

The women’s volleyball team won their second straight match this week, beating the visiting

Emerson College Lions in three straight sets on Wednesday, 25-17, 25-18, 25-23. The win brings the Judges record to 13-7. The team is now ranked 12th in New England.

Wednesday night saw Liz Hood ’15 and Lauren Berens ’13 each with dou-ble-digit kills, 13 and 10 respectively; Berens contributed to their successful night with two service aces.

The other star of the match versus Emerson was Yael Einhorn ’14, who contributed 32 assists and three aces. On her serve, the Judges earned six points in a row in the first set to take the early advantage.

After winning the second set, the Judges had little trouble until the third, which would prove to be the

end. While the team opened up sev-eral 3-point-or-more leads, the visit-ing Emerson responded with three points in a row to bring on a 21-21 tied set. After two errors committed by Lions, the Judges finished the set for the 3-0 shutout with two of Hood’s recorded kills.

The Judges’ record at 13-7 already puts them above their win record of last year, with only nine wins and 21 losses.

Coach Michelle Kim, who is in her ninth year as head coach, said that the already positive shift is attributable to two factors.

“First, we got some good new play-ers,” Kim said, mentioning Maddie Engeler, a first-year who plays middle blocker.

“And some of our experienced players have improved, and are play-ing positions that are even better for them,” Kim said. Engeler’s addition frees up Berens to play what the coach called a great position for her: right

blocker. So, Kim said, both factors are working toward the team’s already su-perior win-loss ratio.

Friday is the travel day to Carnegie Mellon for the Judges’ next test, the second of two round robin tourna-ments against conference rivals this weekend. The Judges have not won against UAA rivals, which include several nationally-ranked teams, since 2010.

On Saturday the Judges will play New York University and No. 12 Chi-cago, and face No. 6 Emory Univer-sity Sunday morning, before finally competing against the hosting Carn-egie Mellon Tartans.

“This weekend is going to be a chal-lenge,” Kim said. “We have a shot, it depends on how we play, especially since Emory and Chicago are nation-ally ranked.”

But she added that “Our two wins are a confidence boost for us and it should help us at Carnegie Mellon. We beat Wheaton, who we had not

played in a long time, and Emerson we played last year and they beat us.” The coach said that the clear differ-ence between last year and the out-come against Emerson this year was enough for the “good shot” that the

team has at the round-robin play. One of the schools not nationally ranked is the host school itself, adding only a different layer of difficulty.

Simply put, “All of our conference opponents are tough,” Kim said.

tal 251 runners at the meet, finishing 20th among runners from Division III. Second place among the Judges belonged to Ali Kirsch ’15, with the time of 19:03.06, finishing in 107th place among all runners.

The junior-dominated meet for the Judges did not stop there, however, as a third junior, Amelia Lundkvist ’15 finished with the third best time for the Judges.

Lundkvist had a 19:27.46 mark which qualified for the 146th spot out

of 251 runners.Younger Brandeis runners have al-

ready started to show talent at meets. Rookie runners Kelsey Whitaker ’16 and Maggie Hensel ’16 finished with very respectable times.

Whitaker finished with a 19:39.10 mark and 160th place out of all run-ners. Hansel finished in 176th place with a 19:51.01 mark.

On the men’s side, the Judges fin-ished in 29th place out of 39 teams, placing ninth among Division III

teams.Captain Alex Kramer ’13 led the

Judges with a time of 25:33.66 on the eight-kilometer course.

His time placed him in 51st place out of 261 runners and in 12th place among Division III racers.

Co-captain Mik Kern ’13 came in second among all Judges with a time of 26:18.04, which is good for 143rd place.

Taylor Dundas ’14 and Greg Bray ’15 finished in 185th and 186th place

respectively with times of 26:54.89 and 24:55.22, while Michael Rosen-bach ’15 was the last Brandeis runner to place, finishing in 195th place with a time of 27:03.29.

With a total of 760 points, the Judg-es beat Division I opponent Rhode Island College by one point.

Both the men and women’s sqauds will look to build on their perfor-mances when they travel to Roches-ter, New York on Saturday, Oct. 27 for the UAA championships.

photo by alex patch/the hoot

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Volume 9 • Issue 22the brandeis hoot • brandeis university

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An article on senior artists in the Sept. 21 print issue and online incorrectly attributed an inspirational quote of Eleanor Roosevelt’s to artist Tess Sucoff. The statement was made by artist Sara Weininger.

Senior EditorsIngrid Schulte

Suzanna Yu

Business EditorGordy Stillman

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editOrials12 The Brandeis Hoot October 12, 2012

The preliminary framework for the strategic plan released this week presents a wealth of generalities

and a dearth of specifics. As expected in any outline, it focuses on ideas and goals concerning policies and initiatives. Faculty stressed their desire to review specifics of the plan on Thursday, and we hope that the upcoming breakout sessions will help produce a version of the plan that explains not only where we want to go as a university, but how we expect to get there.

The framework does, however, out-line two essential questions to answer in the coming months.

“Brandeis will build national and international recognition and a com-pelling case for the University as a first choice for students, faculty and staff committed to making a difference in the world. To do this we will: Share the Brandeis story widely, making a com-pelling case for distinctiveness through a comprehensive communications, mar-keting and recruitment plan,” according to the framework.

We could not agree more with the need for Brandeis to aim high and set expectations that distinguish it from other schools. But telling our story is not only about communications and marketing strategy. It is about our values and university identity. In order to tell our story, this community needs to spend more time answering questions

about the role we seek regarding Jewish roots and Jewish sponsorship, and the message of which we seek to convey publicly.

The framework makes an honest effort to address this question, citing the Strategic Planning committee’s principle that “Brandeis will honor its Jewish roots and commitment to pluralism, access and diversity.” Facilitating more student, faculty and alumni feedback on this question will be crucial in the com-ing months.

Establishing Brandeis as a school committed to social justice is a wonder-ful core value. But it is not, on its own, a distinguishing factor. It is a start, but needs to become more specific over the coming months.

In addition, Provost Steve Goldstein recognized another pivotal goal for the plan in his cover letter this week—uni-verstiy financial stability.

“It provides mechanisms to help us make hard choices about investment, consolidation and redirection of re-sources over the coming years—choices necessary to advance our premier standing while establishing a sustainable financial structure for the university,” he wrote.

Listed under the university’s com-mitment to financial stability on page nine of the framework is the principle to “maintain our historic commitment to affordability and access, while mak-

ing certain that are commitments are supported in a financially sustainable manner.”

Contrary to what some admin-istrators may think, last year’s tuition increase has not been forgotten by students and families struggling to pay tuition bills.

This editorial board remembers vividly when Fred Lawrence articulated clearly during his first interview that access to higher education through student financial aid and scholarship was his top priority as president. We ex-pect, that whatever surveys, workshops, consultants or frameworks may find, it should remain his top priority.

There is much to be excited about in the framework—new ideas for online programs, global connections with Israel and India and academic focus areas, ranging from biomedicine and global health to engineering to legal and ethical studies. But many of these new ideas put into practice will be costly. We hope that financial stability, and specifically tuition costs will be addressed seriously in the final version of the plan.

What this community expects, sur-rounding questions of Jewish identity and financial accessibility is not only ideas, but also concrete proposals for ways to answer the most difficult of questions. This week’s framework is a step, but we eagerly anticipate the details to be released later this year.

In framework, questions for community to answer

OPiNiONOctober 12, 2012 The Brandeis Hoot 13

By Aliya NealySpecial to the Hoot

Learn to take relationship hints

The exact title of Samuel L. Jack-son’s now widely-seen viral video in support of Barack Obama’s re-election, is not to be printed in this family-friendly community newspa-per. But “Wake the F*ck Up,” which presents the actor’s endorsement of Obama’s Democrats largely by virtue of a furious slamming of Romney and the Republican Party, provides an example for which candidate one should cast their vote. What Jack-son (and the Democratic super PAC that underwrote the spot) wants is to reach the particular voting bloc of America’s youth. Always the most underperforming age group in terms of turnout, the real message of ads like this one is that young people can not only swing our national elections, but that they should.

No voters will on average have more of their lives affected by the policies yet to be enacted than young voters: We can reasonably expect to remain alive the longest. But voter participation in my age bracket, what the Census Bureau categorizes at 18-24, does not even consist of half of us.

It was pretty close in 2008, when young people around the nation flocked in record-breaking numbers to support Obama. But that 48.5 per-cent is higher than the average, and considerably higher than the elec-tion that preceded it, featuring two non-incumbent presidents: In the extremely controversial 2000 elec-tion, youth turnout was below 40 percent. If young people voted at the rate of citizens aged 30 and older, which is consistently—even before 2008—about two in every three, any discrepancy between the popular and electoral vote count would have been

By Nathan KoskellaEditor

Vote early in your life

obliterated, and the national fiasco avoided.

Now, that stat is true if a lot of things happened: if the 30-plus voted at the seven-tenths that it holds; if more voters did not vote for spurious third-parties, et cetera. But elections are about more than producing a fully credible winner. Meaningful decisive-ness requires a candidate who can honestly claim to represent at least a majority of the electorate. No can-didate has ever achieved this among young people. And it is young people who ought to voice the biggest say in our nation’s future, not the least.

The national issues of this 2012

election, from taxation to health care to military policy, concern all Americans, but especially the youth. Obama’s stimulus program was fi-nanced almost exclusively through deficit spending, and it is the upcom-ing generations who will have to de-cide how much or even whether to pay down the debt. Mitt Romney’s proposed changes to Social Security and Medicare, while preserving the status quo for current and soon-to-be retirees, drastically alters the social contract for laborers who are about to enter the workforce. And it is not the middle-aged titans of industry and diplomacy that fight battles,

rather it is a far-too-large number of young Americans whose lives are cut short waging “our” wars.

And young people have even more to offer the discourse, with entire is-sue planks that are not even being talked about by baby-boomer can-didates, senators and bureaucrats, or even the aging, armchair pundits of legacy media. Climate change has played a virtually nonexistent role in the current campaign, and the bold-est measures to support the planet are completely off the table. Young people support gay rights by com-manding margins: In today’s youth-driven institutions like some profes-

sional sports and nearly all college campuses it’s virtually a non-issue. And the present immigration and de-portation policies largely affect new citizens who are the youngest, having been here in America and on Earth the least amount of time.

Those are just three prominent ex-amples. Absolutely no national politi-cian entertains scores of others: What are we to do with emerging tech-nologies? Soon human genes will be almost entirely mapped out, robotic machines will be able to outwork all of our laboring output and new gad-gets will throw all of our expectations of privacy high into the air. And these technology laws, from patents to vir-tual policing, are being written by great-grandfathers. Obama and Rom-ney may know how to make deft use of email and Twitter, but do Supreme Court justices and decades-long-serving House committee chairmen?

Astute readers between the lines may have picked up that this 21-year-old supports the reelection of the president. But if America’s youth would like to return to the America that Mitt Romney likes to discuss with our older, more powerful fel-low citizens, they should make that known as well.

But you don’t have to be a liberal to be a democrat, and yes, I intentionally wrote lowercase d, in order to want a place where voters actually decide the direction of their society, for good or ill. And my peers and I vote too little to be worthy of the benefits that de-mocracy provides; it has to change.

We matter and have more poten-tial interest than any other group. Last-minute confession: I didn’t have enough time to vote two years ago, and I never cast my vote for Martha Coakley in her doomed race against Scott Brown. I’m not going to make the same mistake ever again.

I recently decided to watch a ro-mantic comedy that would preach to the logical side of my romantic self. I chose “He’s Just Not That Into You.” I figured it would bring me back to re-ality by showing me that sometimes things don’t work out. This movie, however, only reinforced the unreal-istic ideas that most romantic com-edies present.

“He’s Just Not That Into You” is adorable. Naturally my heart was singing at the end because (spoiler alert) each woman ends up with the guy she wants, or free from the guy she doesn’t need. But life isn’t always like that, especially in college. Some-times you don’t end up with the per-son you want and sometimes we can’t let go of the person that is emotion-ally toxic for us.

Though this movie didn’t help me achieve the emotional nirvana my soul was searching for, it left me with much to think about. The most important being that if a guy is really into you, he’ll do pretty much what-ever it takes to show you.

Truth is, we should all determine our expectations regarding what we consider to be a genuine and sin-cere expression of interest. While at Brandeis I’ve noticed several differ-ent situations in which people pursu-ing relationships get stuck in one of two ways: In one, when it comes to pursuing a relationship, people have

unrealistic expectations of what is means to do “whatever it takes.” Or in another situation, a girl or guy finds someone he or she is interested in, who expresses only slight interest in him or her. This allows them to meet a lower set of expectations.

As a self-proclaimed sap, I know that sometimes I allow the romantic movies that I repeatedly watch in-

form me of how the guys in my life should act. But despite my occasional desire to have someone kiss me pas-sionately in the rain, or read me a deep love poem in a smoky nightclub, I usually have pretty reasonable ideas of what I expect someone to do when they express a genuine interest.

Everyone has different ideas of what it means to do “whatever it

takes” to show a sincere interest in someone. If you have someone show-ing genuine interest in you and you feel that what they’re doing is lack-ing slightly, maybe you need to put in work to bridge the gap between what you’re getting and what you want.

Sometimes, if you want to be asked on a date, you have to be willing to ask. Or you have to be willing to have

graphic by steven wong/the hoot

graphic by linjie xu/the hoot

an uncomfortable, but important, conversation with your person of in-terest. If you have these conversations or work to bridge the gap between your expectations, and they still put in little effort, it might be a situation with which you need to forget. This is because they might not be ready to accept what you’re willing to give or give what you want to receive.

Weekly Kos

14 OPINION The Brandeis Hoot October 12, 2012

The importance of Big Bird

Before last week, I hadn’t thought about Big Bird in a long time. In fact, PBS only recently reclaimed its spot in my consciousness when I needed to get my dose of English drama with Downton Abbey this past summer.

There are many reasons why we should continue to value government funded television stations and pro-grams. One only needs to look at TLC to understand why it is that Republi-can Presidential candidate Mitt Rom-ney’s flippant remark at the Presiden-tial debate last week about eliminating the funding for PBS is problematic.

On Monday, Buzzfeed published a quick photo-filled article about the origins of TLC. Apparently, TLC was funded in 1972 through a joint project between the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and NASA. It was created to be a channel that provided instructional and informa-tional television shows in an effort to provide real education via television. When the channel was privatized in 1980, it continued to focus on educa-tional content; however, the 90s saw a big shift in the selection of programs that TLC chose to broadcast.

Shows like Ready Set Learn and PaleoWorld became extinct as Trad-ing Spaces became the new hit show. TLC’s broadcasting of meaningful content has only dwindled further with the onset of shows like “Honey BooBoo Child” and “Hoarders.” These frightening shows exploit those in our community who are odd, or suffer from a disorder or a rare medical con-dition. This exploitation is epitomized with the TLC show “Abbey and Brit-tany,” which follows the lives of con-joined twins. I am not claiming that the privatization of TV includes the degradation of content, but it is clear that there is a correlation between the absence of government funded TV and shows like “My Strange Addic-

By Zoë KronovetEditor

Why I donate bloodBy Pete Wein

Staff

The blood drive has just ended in our Brandeis community. Thank you to all of the people who were able to donate blood and save a few lives. I would like to preface this article by mentioning that I have been unable

tion.” As college students who rely on TV

to fill the time between classes or relax after a difficult day, we should recog-nize the important role that govern-ment sponsored television plays in our lives. Most of our generation grew up with Oscar, Cookie Monster and Big Bird. Whether we knew it or not, we were reliant on the government to help fund the TV show that taught us our 1-2-3s and the importance of sharing. And although Mitt Romney didn’t pick Arthur to single out in the debate, PBS is also the home of our favorite animal friends who love to read.

I may have aged out of PBS pro-gramming in the late 90s, but it is home to many shows that appeal to a wide demographic, not just “PBS Kids.” PBS has so many shows, in fact, that due to the sheer number of them, I wasn’t able to count them all when I looked at the PBS website. I will freely admit to leaving PBS behind as I grew up. As I aged I associated PBS with childhood and didn’t continue to sup-port the channel with my viewership. After looking into the TV shows that PBS runs, I may have made a hasty mistake in discontinuing my viewer-ship. Yes, there are the educational programs that I absolutely would not watch, such as “Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State” and “Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War.” But PBS also has expositions on favorite American musicians and actors like Eartha Kitt and Bob Dylan. Most no-tably, PBS hosted Julia Child’s famous cooking show.

On its website, PBS unashamedly refers to itself as “America’s largest classroom, the nation’s largest stage for the arts and a trusted window to the world.” With that image in mind, in a day and age in which public school funding is being cut, thus cre-ating larger classes for teachers and less individualized attention, it is hard to understand why Mitt Romney (or anyone) would fail to see the impor-

tance of allowing a channel that in its mission statement proclaims that its “educational media helps prepare children for success in school and opens up the world to them in an age-appropriate way.”

According to A.C. Nielson Com-pany, a global marketing research firm, 99 percent of households in America possess at least one TV. In an average American household, the TV is on for approximately six hours and 45 minutes a day. Even more

horrifying is that this research discov-ered that “the average child will watch 800 murders on TV before finishing elementary school.” If PBS is turned on for even an hour or two during this time, not only would that house-hold receive knowledgeable content, but they would perhaps prevent the children in that home from seeing the gratuitous violence that fills our tele-vision sets today.

There are many reasons why we should support PBS. As we grow

older, graduate from Brandeis, pur-sue other degrees or possibly get married and have children, don’t we want our children and grandchildren to be exposed to the same impactful programs that we saw when we were children? With the amount of time that Americans spend watching TV, we should embrace and support the channel that provides us with educa-tional programming—not cut fund-ing in a misguided and futile attempt to balance the budget.

to donate blood for the last couple of years. Between the various places I’ve visited and my weight, I am not usu-ally able to give blood. When I am, eligible to donate, I attempt to give blood but then proceed to either pass out or not have enough fluid in my system or enough blood to donate. In other words, I’ve tried but only suc-ceeded a few times. I would award

myself an A plus for intention but a C minus for execution.

That fact, of course, does not limit my respect for anyone willing to get pricked to donate blood. Considering what it is that giving blood does for the community, a little pinch on your arm and a bruise for a day are nothing in comparison.

What does giving blood do for the

community? Statistics reinforce the positive outcomes that giving blood creates. One bag of blood you donate will, on average, save three peoples’ lives. To say the least, this is a pretty incredible feat of medicine. Doc-tors are so efficient with modern technology that they can use one of your pints to save three people. This of course neglects serious injuries and traumas, since they usually need much more blood. But even if your blood is only a portion of the blood needed to save someone, it is still an enormous contribution.

But donating blood is more than just numbers and averages. When you donate blood, you perform an act that most people are unaware of: you are consciously consenting to give some of your life to those who are in greater need. And that is an important dis-tinction to make, something that money or influence can never truly replicate.

If you are unable to donate blood but are able to donate money to the Red Cross, that is still incredible. But money is not the same as your blood, the substance that quite literally keeps you going. Roughly three months after donating, your blood will re-generate back to normal levels. Your money, assuming you have a job, also regenerates—but you can live without that money with no problem. With-out blood, you will die in nearly every case.

There is, of course, the flip side of the coin. Not to sound paranoid, but you have no idea when you will need blood in the future. Knowing that so many people are willing to give a bit

of themselves in order for you to live, in the event that you do need it, re-veals the character of those people.

When people donate blood on a large scale, it shows the character of not only the people but the commu-nity as a whole. Being a part of a com-munity that is very active with blood donations means that these people are willing to give some of their lives to help those who need it. Consider-ing that this is not a mutually exclu-sive feeling, a community that gives in this respect probably also gives back in other ways.

At Brandeis, for example, we have many students, staff and fac-ulty who donate blood. But we also have so many other community service groups at Brandeis, and not just through the Waltham Group. A community that donates blood is the community that donates time to oth-er social issues.

If you are unable to donate blood for whatever reason, you shouldn’t feel bad or morally wrong. As a per-son who can’t donate all that fre-quently, I know that it’s not because I don’t want to, rather that the Red Cross doesn’t want bad blood or to cause me any injury.

Even if the reason is that you can’t stand needles, you can help in so many other ways. You can even vol-unteer at the Brandeis Blood Drive; you may not be giving blood, but you are donating something just as spe-cial to you, your time.

Blood drives are one of the most refined ways for you to show who you are and make a difference for some-one you may never meet.

graphic by sindhura sonnathi/the hoot

photo from internet source

graphic bydiane somlo/the hoot

October 12, 2012 The Brandeis Hoot OPINION 15

By Alex SelfStaff

Like many Americans, I found my-self watching the presidential debates last Thursday. It had been years since I had actually sat down to watch a political debate, and after watching I could only hope it would be a longer time until the next. The number of times a candidate actually addressed a question was far and few in between. Actual clash between the two candi-dates was minimal enough at times to make one wonder whether they were aware of each other’s presence.

Meanwhile, moderator Jim Lehrer seemed more lifeless than Big Bird in a Romney administration. Regardless of your opinions on the debate, Truth was the real loser in that contest. Both candidates seemed to handle the facts as loosely as they handled the mod-erator. Yet, in a system in which we are told that “you can usually judge the winner of a debate by muting the sound and watching body language,” this is not all that surprising. What incentive does one have to tell the truth if one can gain far more by ly-ing? Better to be confident than hon-est, appears to be the maxim of our political system.

That is why I have a small proposal to help our political system garner a little more honesty so that the Ameri-can people can make a more informed decision on Election Day: The pres-ence of a fact checker during a debate that would literally let viewers know when a candidate was lying. To avoid getting bogged down in details, I’m going to presume that we can have a system where when a candidate mis-speaks vaguely (for example, if he says he plans to cut the deficit by $5 rather than $4.99) that this will be denoted somehow separately from outright perversions of the facts. Admittedly this takes a leap of faith but I believe that modern technology could figure it out. This proposal, if implemented, would have a myriad of benefits.

The first main benefit to this system would be an increase in truth in the political system, for several reasons. First and most obviously, candidates would have a much larger incentive to tell the truth. In the status quo, a candidate can lie through an entire debate and still be seen as the “win-ner.” Even if a fact check afterward

Protecting the truth in presidential debatesThe Self Shelf

Comparing the candidates’ education policiesBy Jennifer Spencer

Staff

It is paramount that we should vote with knowledge of the educational stances of the presidential candidates. The presidential debates and negative ads make it easy to get caught in the emotion involved in politics, to look at the rhetoric, but not actual policies of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama and what they imply. In order to look beyond the rhetoric one must look carefully at the meaning of certain words and their implications.

With all of us registering to vote and getting out to the polls in less than a month, it is our responsibility to be aware of all issues, particularly the ones that will directly affect us and other students. Students should have an even greater critical eye than the average citizen on the candidates’ policy for education reforms, the past actions of the presidential can-didates and how they plan to imple-ment these policies over the next four

proves that he was telling more lies than a snake oil salesman offering discounts, it is too little and too late to offset the political bump he gets for winning the debate. In my system, a candidate who lied would not be able to score political points. A candidate appearing to win a debate when the audience is aware that he has been telling numerous lies throughout seems rather unlikely. At worst, this still provides for more accountability than the status quo.

Another reason that this system would produce more truth in debates is that candidates would go out of their way to avoid lying in order to avoid being called out by the system during the debate. This is especially preferable to the status quo insofar as the only way someone can call out a lie during debates now is by level-ing the charge and hoping somebody cares. My system is preferable because instead of “he said, she said,” we get the definite determination that some-

thing is or is not a lie. As a result of this effect, candidates are likely to make sure to weed out any potential lies during debate preparation. Thus, the very chances of a lie being uttered are minimized.

Finally, even if candidates still lie, an audience who knows that the state-ment is a lie will most likely disregard the statement. Therefore, even if lies take place with my proposal, they will be less harmful in terms of perpetuat-ing falsehoods.

The second main benefit of this change would be the effects upon the American political system. The rea-son we value truth so much in our political system is because we want voters to be able to make a rational decision to vote for whoever best rep-resents their interests in the election. The key to making a rational deci-sion is to have the relevant informa-tion about the alternatives one must choose between.

Lies, which undermine the accu-

racy of the portrayal of candidates, therefore meaningfully harm the abil-ity of people to make a rational deci-sion. For example, let us say that Big Bird and Kermit are running for pres-ident (we will use that example while we still have it). Let us say that Big Bird is pro-life but lies during a debate and states he is pro-choice. When vot-ers go to the ballot box, they are oper-ating on inaccurate information and therefore are making a meaningfully worse decision in regard to choosing someone to represent their interests.

Thus, by allotting for more truth in elections, the United States gains an electoral system that better represents the views of its people. Additionally, more truth in elections would lessen voter apathy. In the status quo, many people do not trust politicians. This mistrust parlays itself into a lack of voter engagement and ultimately vot-er turnout. By having more truth in debates, we can at least somewhat en-gage these people more substantively

than we are currently. The final ben-efit that my proposal would obtain is the increasing relevance of political debates. Today, debates are labeled as unique forums where the candidates can debate their political platforms, but that does not meaningfully take place when politicians can willfully disavow their platforms to score po-litical points. With the implementa-tion of my system, debates would actually represent meaningful clashes of ideology and policy proposals, not simply an attempt to make up what-ever is necessary to win the point at hand.

Debates should not be all about who has the best posture or who looks the most engaged—it should be about whose policies and stances people believe to be the best for the country. By implementing a proposal where politicians have to defend the ideals they stand for, we get a better debate and a better political system as a whole.

years. We are a part of the educational system and it is unquestionable that these educational policies will con-tinue to not only influence us current students, but also past and future stu-dents.

Despite the importance of educa-tion and the value placed on it within our nation, there is not much talk from either candidate as to the spe-cific course of actions they plan to take once elected. It takes some re-search to investigate the candidates’ stances because it does not seem to be on the forefront of their platforms. In the current economy, the student debt rate has reached a trillion dol-lars. More and more students and parents are taking out loans that they cannot afford. As students we know and hope that change will take place and make the education system more affordable, especially for middle-class families. Earlier in the campaign, people were outraged when Mitt Romney stated that students should just “borrow money from your par-ents” to afford schools. The idea is to make college affordable for everyone,

not push your parents into loans that they can’t pay off.

Looking at the current president’s work on higher education, his policy reveals work toward making college more affordable. President Obama won approval from Congress for a $10,000 college tax credit over four years and increases in Pell Grants and other financial aid. The New York Times states that these credits would extend a tax credit currently set to expire in January and give indi-viduals and families a tax break of up to $10,000 over four years of college. The New York Times goes on to state that Obama would also push a pro-posal that would link some federal aid to colleges’ success in curbing tu-ition increases. Obama understands that college expenses are high, but his initiatives are specific goals that work toward helping us. He doesn’t want to cut current student’s loans, but rather work with Congress to create more sources of money for students.

Obama stated that, “If Congress allows the interest rate on student loans to double, they will be failing a

generation of Americans who cannot afford to be in debt for the rest of their lives.” Obama is not narrowing down the percentage of the population that does and does not receive aid. He is simply stating the role that the fed-eral government and private institu-tions should provide to students who want to attend their schools. It is a general message of affordability and sustainability of the college system in hopes for a brighter future.

Mitt Romney, the Republican can-didate, has a differing view. Accord-ing to The Huffington Post, Romney argues that increases in federal stu-dent aid encourage tuition to go up, too. He wants federal government to be less involved in higher education. Romney wants to see more involve-ment with the private sector through private lenders returning to the fed-eral student loan program. This could be beneficial since it seems that the federal government has not been providing enough money to support schools and students. Full analysis of Romney’s plans, however, proves troubling.

What’s worrisome with Romney’s plan is that it would make it more difficult for middle-class families to pay for college education. While in the most recent debate Romney stated that he would not cut college funds, his policies suggest otherwise. According to The New York Times, Mr. Romney would work to make financial aid available for students who “need it most.” While this may sound appealing, Mitt Romney’s defi-nition of middle class is not like that of the average American. He consid-ers middle class between $200-250k. In actuality, a lot of what we consider to be the middle class would be hurt by his policies. The “need it most” of Romney’s plan isn’t applicable to many of us middle-class students that are struggling with college prices.

Regardless of whether you vote for Obama or Romney it is incredibly vi-tal, as students, to continue looking up current educational policies and plans, comparing what is said in de-bates to what is written down in their policies, and taking an active role as a voter.

graphic by sarah sue landau/the hoot

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