Michael’s guide to wasting time on the internet

The academic year is ramping up again, with more tests, quizzes, papers and projects looming menacingly over the horizon. But never fear! There are literally endless opportunities for you to procrastinate, wasting precious time that you could have spent studying for that horrifying midterm. There are always going to be far more interesting–if less productive–ways […]

Wrongful death lawsuit filed against Brandeis and three of its police officers

Content warning: This article mentions the death of a Brandeis community member. Reader discretion is advised. On Oct. 31 at 10:32 a.m., a “wrongful death lawsuit” concerning “Eli T. Stuart, a 20-year-old student who died in December 2023” was filed in the Superior Court in Middlesex County. This lawsuit named Brandeis University, former Brandeis Police […]

Megalopolis is the greatest bad movie of the year.

Warning: contains full spoilers for “Megalopolis.” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” is certainly a movie that exists.  It’s hard to figure out where to start when describing this bizarre failure of a film. It genuinely is. Francis Ford Coppola may have actually lost his mind during the more than 30 years (!!!) it took for this […]

‘Minecraft Parkour Civilization’ is the shonen anime I never knew I needed

Every once in a while, you stumble across a piece of media that you never knew existed; an undiscovered masterpiece of fiction. Last year, this happened when I watched Dune: Part One for the first time, instantly became obsessed with Dune and read all six books (not that all of these were particularly good books, […]

President Ron Liebowitz announces resignation

On the morning of Sept. 25, 2024, Ronald D. Liebowitz formally announced his resignation as the President of Brandeis University, a post he had held since 2015. The resignation, reported on by national media outlets such as the New York Times and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, comes after a year dogged by controversy surrounding campus […]

BETA Magazine: The new publication for Brandeis student entrepreneurs 

Recently, Brandon King ‘26 and Chris Dech ‘26, two members of the Brandeis Entrepeneurship and Tech Association (BETA), sat down with The Hoot to discuss their newly launched publication, BETA Magazine. King and Dech are the two co-chairs of the magazine, which began publication at the end of the Spring 2024 semester. According to King, […]

New dining changes for 2024-2025 year

Plate of food

Brandeis Hospitality has announced on its webpage several changes to available campus dining options for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year. The page states, “We’ve listened to your feedback and have been working throughout the summer to improve the campus dining experience this fall.” Firstly, Brandeis Hospitality has announced the return of Friday Chef Takeovers, both […]

President Liebowitz welcomes students to start of 2024-2025 academic year

On Aug 14th, Brandeis President Ron Liebowitz sent out an email to the Brandeis community, welcoming them to the start of the 2024-2025 school year. In the email, Liebowitz listed out several updates on activities that had occurred over the previous summer and also some important updates regarding the future of the school year. “I […]

‘Kaiji’ review: Let’s go gambling!!!!!!!!!

We all know that 99% of gamblers quit before they win a million dollars. In a similar vein, a large number of anime fans have missed out on the two season adaptation of Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s manga “Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji,” which is a shame. I am currently midway through the second season and so far, I […]

Baseball: Nine-game losing streak broken with win against Dean

Since the last publication of The Hoot, the Brandeis Judges baseball team has played 10 games against Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Endicott, New York University (NYU) and Dean College. Brandeis lost all of these games with the notable exception of a 11-3 victory against Dean, on the day before press time. From April 5-7, […]

Brandeis student costs to increase by 4.25% under new budget

On April 18, Brandeis President Ron Liebowitz sent out an email to the Brandeis community, detailing the results of the April Board of Trustees meeting. In this email, Liebowitz revealed that student tuition, room and board will be raised for the 2025 fiscal year. According to Liebowitz, the current forecasts for the 2024 fiscal year […]

Administration publishes report on 11/10 protest and university response

On April 9, Stew Uretsky, Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance and Carol Fierke, Provost, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs sent out an email to the Brandeis community, announcing that “independent investigators from the law firm of Hirsch Roberts Weinstein” had finished a report on the events of Nov. 10, 2023. On that […]

Men’s tennis falls, women’s tennis wins twice

Since the last publication of The Hoot, the Judges men’s tennis team has played and lost against Skidmore, while the women’s team played against Wesleyan, Springfield and Trinity, losing at Wesleyan and winning 9-0 against the other two. On March 23, the men’s team played against Skidmore in Saratoga Springs, NY. Doubles started out well […]

Brandeis baseball team on five-game losing streak

Since last publication, the Brandeis baseball team has played five games against Wheaton, Lasell, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Nichols. The Judges have lost all five games. On March 22, the Judges traveled to Norton, MA to play against Wheaton. Pitcher Mark Maestri (GRAD) had an amazing performance, allowing just five hits throughout eight innings, […]

‘Dune: Part 2’ review: Let’s Dune it 2 it

Warning: contains slight spoilers for “Dune: Part 2.” Yep, you probably saw this coming. “Dune: Part 2” is sheer genius. What more can I say? After Denis Villeneuve’s phenomenal success adapting the first half of Frank Herbert’s novel to the big screen, it was basically a given that he would direct an equally impressive sequel. […]

Men’s and women’s tennis suffer disappointing start to spring season

Since the last publication of The Hoot, the Brandeis men’s tennis team faced off against Bryant, Bentley, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Caltech and Redlands, tying against Bentley and falling to everyone else. The women’s tennis team beat Whittier and Caltech, but fell to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Redlands and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.    On Feb. 3, Brandeis faced […]

Board of Trustees discuss important issues affecting Brandeis

On Feb. 21st, Brandeis President Ron Liebowitz sent an email to Brandeis students, faculty and staff to report on the events of the most recent Board of Trustees meetings. These meetings took place virtually on Jan. 29 and 30, although some board committees had been meeting earlier throughout the month of Janurary. In the email, […]

Reviewing and ranking all of Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’ novels

(Warning: contains minor spoilers for the “Dune” novels) I will admit, I was very, very late to the “Dune” hype. I had never seen the 2021 movie until this Thanksgiving break, thinking that it was overhyped; way too complicated and incomprehensible for anyone except the most obsessive of sci-fi nerds. However, as soon as I […]