Playing as a nameless protagonist
Let’s do a thought experiment. Think of a video game. I’ll give you 10 seconds. OK, now, does that game have a protagonist? Can you name them anything from Dennis to Poopface? Have you ever thought about why that is (or isn’t)? The main character of a video game is one that the player […]
The Hoot interviews President Arthur Levine
On Friday, Oct. 3, The Hoot had an interview with Brandeis University President Arthur Levine, who recently started in the role full-time after serving as interim president from November 2024 until September of this year. The Hoot was able to ask Levine about topics including his recent reorganization of the schools, federal pressure from the […]
The greatest TV show you’ve never watched is British
One might ask, why are you, an 18-year-old American, watching British cable? And that is a great question that can be answered in everyone’s least favorite way: COVID-19. As a little sixth grader, like many others, I was trapped within the four walls of my house for months on end. Unlike the majority of people, […]
Anonymously, The Brandeis Hoot
Earlier this year, Rumesya Ozturk, a Tufts graduate student, was arrested by unidentified federal law enforcement officers outside her apartment. In the months since, federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have increasingly turned to social media and online publications as tools for monitoring and targeting individuals. In response to these developments, The Hoot […]
Brandeis quietly dissolves DEI office
During the last academic year, The Hoot covered Interim President Arthur Levine as he led Brandeis through a transitional period marked by shifting national politics and rising tensions around higher education’s role in advancing diversity. At several campus events, Levine repeated a phrase that came to define his public messaging: “Brandeis was DEI before DEI […]
Michael’s travel guides: Paris, France
Before going to Paris, I was given a lot of warnings. “Paris is overrated. You’re going to be disappointed. You’re going to develop Paris syndrome.” Having returned from Paris, however, I can confidently say that the city met, and even exceeded, my expectations. Is Paris the utopic city we all know from the media? No. […]
How do I know if I’ve orgasmed?
Thank you for writing to SSIS! Generally, orgasms are moments of intense sexual pleasure. Orgasms can be experienced differently by each individual; however, some universal indicators that one has reached orgasm include physical sensations such as increased heart rate and breathing and penile ejaculation, emotional reactions such as feelings of intense pleasure and euphoria and […]
Brandeis rises in FIRE’s free speech rankings, but still earns an F
On Sept. 9, 2025, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released its sixth annual college free speech rankings. The rankings are based on several factors, including the university’s written policies, any free-speech-related controversies that occurred on campus and survey data of college students. In the 2026 annual rankings, Brandeis placed 149th out of […]
Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels and other lies about your body
I have a habit of going to Newbury Street as often as is physically possible; however, something that has always struck me as vaguely upsetting is the constant line around the block to get into Brandy Melville. Brandy Melville is a clothing store famous for only selling one size of clothes, and the size of […]
Sunblighted , Chapter 1
The sun is gone. The stars shine bright. I seek revenge. Fragile cuts of coal line the shelves, marking the warped wood with black scratches. Already grey and flaking, I place them within a circle of Bleakstone and Palewood I collected from the outside. I take a chip of flint and a rusted blade […]
Hoot Recommends: If you could see any artict in concert, who would it be?
This week, The Hoot’s editors were feeling some major FOMO. With the work and stress piling up and music blasting through our headphones along the way, we begin dreaming about a sweet escape. A concert, perhaps? And it’s our dream, so money and time are irrelevant! If you aren’t following, here’s the gist: What is […]
Is “The Life of a Showgirl” really that glamorous?
Everything seems to be working out for Taylor Swift. The global pop sensation released her anticipated 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on Friday, Oct. 3, with lead single “The Fate of Ophelia” being one of her largest debuting songs on Spotify to date. However, the insane amount of streams doesn’t mean this album […]
A.I. is going to kill you, and I am not talking about the environment
Content warning: This article includes discussion of suicide. Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is a buzz word that is thrown around constantly. One cannot go on any digital platform without being pushed towards talking to some chatbot or generating partial or whole images. However, this epidemic is expanding. Brandeis University seems to be rushing to be on […]
A Night on the Water With Twenty One Pilots
I’m back with yet another concert review, and it’s a band readers of our last edition should be fairly familiar with by now. After traveling back home to Maryland for a few days, I trekked up to New York City and met up with some of my friends from Brandeis. We had one goal: on […]
Brandeis ranking continues to drop for third consecutive year
In the 2026 edition of the U.S. News and World Report Best National Colleges Ranking, Brandeis University was ranked as number 69. This ranking puts Brandeis in a four-way tie along with Tulane University of Louisiana, the University of Connecticut and the University of Pittsburgh. The ranking of 69th reflects a drop from 63rd in […]